I lliiiiiliiijiiilii I! I lifllllf! |^^n^^''^''K H;|j,:;Miijuiii!iiiiiii|ilii}ii|iiji!iiiiuiiij}ii ^ ^%);'^ 111 ^i^^'^'.w'"^ Si< nJi / \ 1 i I 111" F jj{iU«Mi UIMII!: ; Ur, fn : ''II . ..hJlfMK iilii ^& ^f- ^ <''.[! wmm rf ^ii' iUSiUi. ! .iiiiiiiiiiinini ililliliiiiiMJMilill HiHiiHiHiiiiiJiilHiJlfiliJliijjiHjiiinijiiiilii;; 1 1 II I iiiiiiijiuiiriiiiii i Itllllll llllil PJUKSHSTCkN TC 7" 1 1 1 • BX 9333 .N42 1848 Neal, Daniel, 1678-1743. The history of the Puritans, or, Protestant ^ Thr J«»liii .>!. Krebs L>oiiati«»n. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/historyofpuritan011848neal '\ ?r^-.-s . SJS&BJSfSD,A STBBLi^ . 37® HEW WSOSIC^ o m'.rWo THE HISTORY OF THE PURITANS, OR PROTESTANT NONCONFORMISTS; FROM THE REFORMATION IN 1517, TO THE REVOLUTION IN 1688; COMPRISING ^11 Account of thrir H^vintipltn; THEIR ATTEMPTS FOR A FARTHER REFORMATION IN THE CHURCH ; THEIR SUFFERIM08 ; AND THE LIVES AND CHARACTERS OF THEIR MOST CONSIDERABLE DIVINES. BY DANIEL N E A L, M.A. REPRINTED yROM THE TEXT OF DR. TOULMIn's EDITION : WITH HIS LIFE OF THE AUTHOR AND ACCOUNT OF HIS WRITINGS. REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES BY JOHN 0. CHOULES, M.A, ^&itfi nine Portraits on ^teeU IN TWO VOLUMES. V O L. I. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET. 1848 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, By Harper & Brothers, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New- York- ;7 PREFACE. A THOUGHTFUL man is not only convinced that God has created this world, he is as deeply persuaded that God has a Church in it j that he planted it here, and waters and nourishes it, and exerts in its favour a heavenly influence. In Revelation we are furnished with a lively emblem of the Church, " a bush burning with fire, and not consumed." — Exodus, iii., 2. The Church has not, however, sustained the conflict in her own strength, but because the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of the covenant, has been in the bush, " either to slack the fire, or to strengthen the bush, and make it incombustible." The history of the Church is a record of sufiering and affliction j she has ever had the cross in her experience j and all who have followed Christ and his apostles have received the Word in much affliction. — 1 Thessalonians, i., 4. The persecutions of God's people were great under the pagan emperors ; but still the Church has suffered more from Rome papal than Rome pagan. That idolatrous and apostate communion may truly be said to be drunk with the blood of the saints. We talk, and write, and preach about the reformation from popery, and seem almost to imagine that the beast is destroyed ; we for- get too commonly the partial character of the Reformation, the imperfect views of the early champions for truth, and the grasp which popery retained in England through the unsanctified alliance of the Church and State. Very few are thoroughly informed as to the events connected with the strug- gles for truth in the reigns of the Tudor family. The reformation of Henry the Eighth and the Sixth Edward was certainly a glorious achievement, but can never be regarded as a complete triumph, a perfect work. It was effected by those who only saw men as trees walking, and who just felt that all around them were men still blinder than themselves. Satan, when he cannot destroy a good thing, is content to mar it. Elizabeth was a Protestant but in name j her religion was papistical ; all her sympathies were with external pomp and showy ceremony; she regarded religion as a mere matter of state policy, and the Church as an affair to be governed by her will, expressed by parliamentary statutes. To Christ's sceptre she never bowed — the supremacy of his laws she never recognised — of Christ's headship in the government of the Church she never dreamed. A haughty princess and a proud and persecuting prelacy fash- ioned the Church as it suited their taste and purpose, and they have handed it down to us with so many alterations and additions, that the fishermen of Galilee and the early disciples of Jesus would be unable to recognise it as the " kingdom not of this world." The power and excellence of the Gospel are never seen to greater advantage than in the days of persecution. It is true that God's children are like stars Ti PREFACE. that shine brightest in the darkest skies ; like the chamomile, which, the more it is trodden down, the faster it spreads and grows. The glories of Christian- ity in England are to be traced in the sufferings of confessors and martyrs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries j and it was under the influence of Christian principles, imbibed at this very period, that the Mayflower brought over the band of Pilgrims to Plymouth. Afflictions and religious persecutions have for a long period been unknown to the happy citizens of these United States, and we have strangely forgotten the times that tried the souls of our fathers. There is a resurrection in the land at the present time of feelings and prin- ciples which were once generally prevalent, and which so eminently distin- guished our English ancestry. Now, after a long period of carelessness and in- attention to the history of Protestant Nonconformity, the descendants of the Pilgrims have been compelled to fall back upon the history and faith of their fathers, in consequence of the pressing impertinence with which the claims of popery, prelacy, and priestcraft have been urged upon them and their children. God has been building up Zion in all our borders for two hundred years, ma- king our land the praise of the nations ; he has granted the quickening influ- ence of his Spirit to the ministrations of thousands of all religious names, who have published the deathless love of his adorable Son; and yet a comparative handful of our fellow-Christians gravely deny that our solemn gatherings make Christian churches ; that our pastors and teachers have any authority to speak in His name who has so unequivocally blessed them in their labour; and as for Zion's chief and holiest feast, that they stigmatize as " the blasphemous mock- ery of a lay sacrament." We have again to fight the battle for all that we hold dear ; but we enter the contest cheered by the undying renown of the names which illustrate the early history of the struggles for religious freedom. It is as fitting and proper for an American to forget or scorn the names of Lexing- ton and Bunker Hill, Trenton and Princeton, Hancock and Adams, Washing- ton and Jefferson, as for a New-Englander to be unaffected by the utterance of Smithfield, Lambeth Palace, and the ever-honoured names of Rogers and Rid- ley, Hooper, Lawrence, Latimer, and their fellow-martyrs. We should never forget that the prison, the scaffold, and the stake were stages in the march of civil and religious liberty which our forefathers had to travel, in order that we might attain our present freedom. It is quite clear, that in the United States there is a general attention direct- ed to the subject of Church History, partly arising from the almost total apa- thy which has so long existed, and in a considerable degree owing to the ex- traordinary movement in the Church of England by that party who regard their amputation from Rome as original sin and ac);ual transgression. I have long wished to see Neal's admirable History of the Puritans in the hands not only of the ministry and students, but all private reading Christians, a growing class in this country ; but its very expensive price has been an insuperable bar- rier to general circulation. Consultation with many of our most influential clergy of all denominations interested has induced me to prepare an edition which shall not only be so cheap as to admit of general use, but shall imbody the valuable information which has been garnered up by the writers of the last century. Since Neal finished his work we have had the writings of Towgood PREFACE. ^ and Toulmin, Wilson and Palmer, Brooks and Conder, Fletcher and Orme and especially the admirable contributions of Drs. Vaughan and Price. The works alluded to, and very many others, have been faithfully and laboriously con- sulted in order to enrich this edition. It may have soine errors in typography which have escaped my notice, but I can assure the reader that it is the most perfect edition extant, and that I have made scores of corrections from the la- test London edition. Not an iota has been altered in the original text of Neal, and every edition of the immortal work has been carefully collated and com- pared. To the Congregational, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist ministry of the land, I beheve these volumes will be welcome, and if our pastors are faithful to their high trust, they will see that they are placed in the hands and houses of their people : should this be the case, we may defy the machinations of Rome, and laugh at the absurdity oi apostolical succession. I anticipate the happiest results from the wide circulation of this History. It will create an interest in favour of the venerable sufferers in behalf of truth. We shall see that the persecuting party, who had also enjoyed a partial escape from anti-Christian despotism, secured their political ascendency only by acci- dental causes j and we shall see " that in these circumstances, the same con- victions and feelings which had led all the friends of the Reformation to resist the papal tyranny of Rome, determined the consistent advocates of that refor- mation to oppose the Protestant tyranny of the Tudors and the Stuarts. They were anxious to attain a greater degree of simplicity and purity in the admin- istration and ritual of the Reformed Church. When, at a subsequent period, an Act of Uniformity was passed, it was not for the sake of vestments and forms that the successors of the Puritans withheld their acquiescence, but because in the principles which led to their adoption by legislative arrangements there was no recognition of personal and social rights ; no accordance with the lib- erty of the Christian dispensation ; no allowance for weak and tender con» sciences ; no desire for a liberal and enlarged comprehension ; but a system of arbitrary and capricious enactments, independent both of personal and rep- resentative consent, and supported by a usurpation of authority which directly impugned the great principles of the Reformation, and invaded the prerogative of Him who is our ' only Master and Lord !' Not finding a sufficient code for the regulation of their ecclesiastical system in the New Testament, they added an apocryphal book of Leviticus to its canon, and claimed for this appendage of human origin implicit faith and unresisting obedience." Thus originated Non- conformity. Before our children remove their religious connexions, and, en- amoured with a show of pomp and circumstance, embrace a religion which may cause its professor to be greeted in the high places — before they leave the old paths of God's Word, alone sufficient for man's faith, guidance, and sal- vation— before they barter their birthright for a mess of pottage — let us place in their hands this chronicle of the glorious days of the suffering Churches, and let them know that they are the sons of the men " of whom the world was not wor^ thy," and whose sufferings for conscience' sake are here monumentally re- corded. JOHN OVERTON CHOULES. August 12, 1843. PREFACE TO VOLUME I. OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION The design of the following work is to preserve the memory of those great and good men among the Reformers who lost their preferments in the Church for attempt- ing a farther reformation of its discipline and ceremonies, and to account for the rise and progress of that separation from the national establishment which subsists to this day. To set this in a proper light, it was necessary to look back upon the sad state of religion before the Reformation, and to consider the motives that induced King Henry VIII. to break with the pope, and to declare the Church of England an independent body, of which himself, under Christ, was the supreme head upon earth. This was a bold attempt, at a time when all the powers of the earth were against him, and could not have succeeded without an overruling direction of Divine Providence. But as for any real amendment of the doctrines or superstitions of popery, any far- ther than was necessary to secure his own supremacy, and those vast revenues of the Church which he had grasped into his hands, whatever his majesty might design, he had not the honour to accomplish. The Reformation made a quick progress in the short reign of King Edward VI., who had been educated under Protestant tutors, and was himself a prodigious genius for his age ; he settled the doctrines of the Church, and intended a reformation of its government and laws ; but his noble designs were obstructed by some temporizing bishops, who, having complied with the impositions of King Henry VIII., were will- ing to bring others under the same yoke ; and to keep up an alliance under the Church of Rome, lest they should lose the uninterrupted succession of their charac- ters from the apostles. The controversy that gave rise to the separation began in this reign, on occasion of Bishop Hooper's refusing to be consecrated in the popish habits. This may seem an unreasonable scruple in the opinion of some people, but was certainly an affair of great consequence to the Reformation, when the habits were the known badges of popery ; and when the administrations of the priests were thought to receive their validity from the consecrated vestments, as I am afraid many, both of the clergy and common people, are too inclinable to apprehend at this day. Had the Reformers fixed upon other decent garments, as badges of the episcopal or priestly office, which had no relation to the superstitions of popery, this controversy had been prevented. But the same regard to the old religion was had in revising the liturgy, and translating it into the English language ; the Reformers, instead of framing a new one in the language of Holy Scripture, had recourse to the offices of the Church of Rome, leaving out such prayers and passages as were offisnsive, and adding certain responses to engage the attention of the common people, who, till this time, had no concern in the public devotions of the Church, as being uttered in an unknown tongue. This was thought a very considerable advance, and as much as the times would bear, but was not designed for the last standard of the English reformation ; however, the immature death of young King Edward put an end to all farther progress. Upon the accession of Queen Mary, popery revived by the supremacy's being lodged in a single hand, and, within the compass of little more than a year, became a second time the established religion of the Church of England j the statutes of King Edward were repealed, and the penal laws against heretices were put in execu- tion against the Reformers ; many of whom, after a long imprisonment, and cruel trials of mockings and scourgings, made a noble confession of their faith before many Vol. I.— B X PREFACE. witnesses, and sealed it with their blood. Great numbers fled into banishment, and were entertained by the reformed States of Germany, Switzerland, and Geneva, with great humanity ; the magistrates enfranchising them, and appointing churches for their public worship. But here began the fatal division :* some of the exiles were for keeping to the liturgy of King Edward as the religion of their country, while others, considering that those laws were repealed, apprehended themselves at full liberty ; and having no prospect of returning home, they resolved to shake off the remains of antichrist, and to copy after the purer forms of those churches among whom they lived. Accordingly, the congregation at Frankfort, by the desire of the magistrates, began upon the Geneva model, with an additional prayer for the afflicted state of the Church of England at that time ; but when Dr. Cox, afterward Bishop of Ely, came with a new detachment from England, he interrupted the public service by answering aloud after the minister, which occasioned such a disturbance and di- vision as could never be healed. Mr. Knox and Mr. Whittingham, with one half of the congregation, being obliged to remove to Geneva, Dr. Cox and his friends kept possession of the church at Frankfort, till there arose such quarrels and conten- tions among themselves as made them a reproach to the strangers among whom they lived. Thus the separation began. When the exiles, upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth, returned to England, each party were for advancing the Reformation according to their own standard. The queen, with those that had weathered the storm at home, were only for resto- ring King Edward's liturgy ; but the majority of the exiles were for the worship and discipline of the foreign churches, and refused to comply with the old establishment, declaiming loudly against the popish habits and ceremonies. The new bishops, most of whom had been their companions abroad, endeavoured to soften them for the present, declaring they would use all their interests at court to make them easy in a little time. The queen also connived at their nonconformity till her gov- ernment was settled, but then declared roundly that she had fixed her standard, and would have all her subjects conform to it ; upon which the bishops stiffened in their behaviour, explained away their promises, and became too severe against their dis- senting brethren. In the year 1564, their lordships began to show their authority, by urging the clergy of their several dioceses to subscribe the liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline of the Church ; when those that refused were first called Puritans, a name of re- proach derived from the Cathari, or Puritani, of the third century after Christ, but proper enough to express their desires of a more pure form of worship and discipline in the Church. When the doctrines of Arminius took place in the latter end of the reign of James I., those that adhered to Calvin's explication of the five disputed points were called Doctrinal Puritans ; and at length, says Mr. Fuller,t the name was improved to stigmatize all those who endeavoured in their devotions to accom- pany the minister with a pure heart, and who were remarkably holy in their conver- sations. A Puritan, therefore, was a man of severe morals, a Calvinist in doctrine, and a Nonconformist to the ceremonies and discipline of the Church, though they did not totally separate from it. The queen, having conceived a strong aversion to these people, pointed all her artillery against them ; for, besides the ordinary courts of the bishops, her majesty erected a new tribunal, called the Court of High Commission, which suspended and deprived men of their livings, not by the verdict of twelve men upon oath, but by the sovereign determination of three commissioners of her majesty's own nomination, founded, not upon the statute laws of the realm, but upon the bottomless deep of the canon law ; and instead of producing witnesses in open court to prove the charge, they assumed a power of administering an oath ex officio, whereby the prisoner was obliged to answer all questions the court should put to him, though never so prejudi- cial to his own defence ; if he refused to swear, he was imprisoned for contempt ; and if he took the oath, he was convicted upon his own confession. * Fatal division ; i. e., on account of the animosities it created, and the miseries in which it involved very many persons and families ; but in another view, it was a happy division, for it hath been essentially ser- viceable to civil as well as religious liberty, and, like other evils, been productive of many important good efifects; as the author himself points out, p. xi.— Ed. + Church History, b. ix., p. 76, and d. x., p. 100. PREFACE. ad The reader will meet with many examples of the high proceedings of this court in the course of this history ; of their sending their pursuivants to bring ministers out of the country, and keeping them in town at excessive charges ; of their interroga- tories upon oath, which were almost equal to the Spanish Inquisition ; of their exam- inations and long imprisonments of ministers without bail, or bringing them to a trial ; and all this not for insufficiency, or immorality, or neglect of their cures, but for not wearing a white surplice, for not baptizing with the sign of the cross, or not subscri- bing to certain articles that had no foundation in law. A fourth part of all the preachers in England were under suspension from one or other of these courts, at a time when not one beneficed clergyman in six was capable of composing a sermon. The edge of all those laws that were made against popish recusants, who were con- tinually plotting against the queen, was turned agamst Protestant Nonconformists ; nay, in many cases, they had not the benefit of the law, for, as Lord Clarendon* rightly observes. Queen Elizabeth carried her prerogative as high as in the worst times of King Charles I. " They who look back upon the council-books of those times," says his lordship, " and upon the acts of the Star Chamber then, shall find as high instances of power and sovereignty upon the liberty and property of the subject as can be since given. But the art, order, and gravity of those proceedings (where short, severe, constant rules, were set, and smartly pursued, and the party felt only the weight of the judgment, not the passion of his judges) made them less taken no- tice of, and so less grievous to the public, though as intolerable to the person." These severities, instead of reconciling the Puritans to the Church, drove them far- ther from it ; for men do not care to be beat from their principles by the artillery of canons, injunctions, and penal laws ; nor can they be in love with a church that uses such methods of conversion. A great deal of ill blood was bred in the nation by these proceedings ; the bishops lost their esteem with the people, and the num- ber of Puritans was not really lessened, though they lay concealed, till in the next age they got the power into their hands and shook off the yoke. The reputation of the Church of England has been very much advanced of late years by the suspension of the penal laws, and the legal indulgence granted to Protestant dissenters. Long experience has taught us that uniformity in doctrine and worship enforced by penal laws is not the way to the Church's peace ; that there may be a separation from a true church without schism, and schism within a church without separation ; that the indulgence granted by law to Protestant Non- conformists, which has now subsisted above forty years, has not been prejudicial to Church or State, but rather advantageous to both ; for the revenues of the Established Church have not been lessened ; a number of poor have been maintained by the Dis- senters, which must otherwise have come to the parish ; the separation has kept up an emulation among the clergy, quickened them to their pastoral duty, and been a check upon their moral behaviour ; and I will venture to say, whenever the separate assembhes of Protestant Nonconformists shall cease, and all men be obliged to wor- ship at their parish churches, that ignorance and laziness will prevail among the clergy ; and that the laity in many parts of the country will degenerate into supersti- tion, profaneness, and downright atheism. With regard to the state, it ought to be remembered that the Protestant Dissenters have always stood by the laws and Consti- tution of their country ; that they joined heartily in the glorious revolution of King William and Queen Mary, and suffered for their steady adherence to the Protestant succession in the illustrious house of his present majesty, when great numbers that called themselves churchmen were looking another way ; for this, the Schism Bill and other hardships were put upon them, and not for their religious differences with the Church ; for if they would have joined the administration at that time, it is well known they might have made much better terms for themselves ; but as long as there is a Protestant Dissenter in England, there will be a friend of liberty and our present happy Constitution. Instead, therefore, of crushing them, or comprehending them within the Church, it must be the interest of all true lovers of their country, even upon political views, to ease their complaints, and to support and courtenance their Christian liberty. * Vol. i., p. 72, 8vo. Tii PREFACE. For, though the Church of England is as free from persecuting principles as any es- tablishment in Europe, yet still there are some grievances remaining, which wise and good men of all parties wish might be reviewed ; not to mention the subscriptions which affect the clergy, there is the act of the twenty-fifth of King Charles 11. for preventing dangers arising from popish recusants, commonly called the Test Act, " which obliges, under very severe penalties, all persons [of the laity] bearing any office or place of trust or profit (besides taking the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribing a declaration against transubstantiation) to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the usage of the Church of England, in some parish church, on a Lord's Day, immediately after Divine service and sermon, and to deliver a certificate of having so received it, under the hands of the respective ministers and church-wardens, proved by two credible witnesses upon oath, to be recorded in court." It appears by the title of this act, and by the disposition of the Parliament at that time, that it was not designed against Protestant Nonconformists ; but the Dissent- ers in the house generously came into it, to save the nation from popery ; for when the court, in order to throw out the bill, put them upon moving for a clause to except their friends, Mr. Love, who had already declared against the dispensing power, stood up, and desired that the nation might first be secured against popery, by pass- ing the bill without any amendment, and that then, if the house pleased, some re- gard might be had to Protestant Dissenters ; in which, says Mr. Echard, he was sec- onded by most of his party.* The bill was voted accordingly, and another brought in for the ease of his majesty's Protestant dissenting subjects, which passed the Commons, but before it could get through the Lords, the king came to the house and prorogued the Parliament. Thus the Protestant Nonconformists, out of their abun- dant zeal for the Protestant religion, shackled themselves, and were left upon a level with popish recusants. It was necessary to secure the nation against popery at that time, when the pre- sumptive heir of the crown was of that religion ; but whether it ought not to have been done by a civil rather than by a religious test, I leave with the reader. The obliging all persons in places of civil trust to receive the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper, seems to be a hardship upon those gentlemen whose manner of life loudly declares their unfitness for so sacred a solemnity, and who would not run the hazard of eating and drinking unworthily, but that they satisfy themselves with throwing off the guilt upon the imposers. Great Britain must not expect an army of saints, nor is the time yet come when all ner officers shall be peace, and her ex- actors righteousness. It is no less a hardship upon a great body of his majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, who are qualified to serve their king and country in all offices of civil trust, and' would perform their duty with all cheerfulness, did they not scruple to receive the sacramem after the usage of the Church of England, or to prostitute a sacred and religious institution as a qualification for a civil employment. I can see no inconvenience either to Church or State, if his majesty, as the common father of his people, should have the service of all his subjects who are willing to swear allegiance to his royal person and government ; to renounce all foreign juris- diction, and to give all reasonable security not to disturb the Church of England, or any of their fellow-subjects, in the peaceable enjoyment of their religious or civil rights and properties. Besides, the removing this grievance would do honour to the Church of England itself, by obviating the charge of imposition, and by relieving the clergy from a part of their work, which has given some of thetn very great uneasi- ness ; but I am chieffy concerned for the honour of religion and public virtue, which are wounded hereby in the house of their friends. If, therefore, as some conceive, the sacramental test be a national blemish, I humbly conceive, with all due submis- sion, the removal of it would be a public blessing. The Protestant Nonconformists observe with pleasure the right reverend fathers of the Church owning the cause of religious liberty, " that private judgment ought to be formed upon examination, and that religion is a free and unforced thing." And we sincerely join with the Lord-bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the preface to his excellent Vindication of the Miracles of our Blessed Saviour,! " in congratulating * Echard's Church History, ad ann. 1672-3. t Pre!., p. viiL PREFACE xiii our country on the enjoyment of their civil and ecclesiastical liberties within their just and reasonable bounds, as the most valuable blessings," though we are not fully satisfied with the reasonableness of those bounds his lordship has fixed. God forbid that any among us should be patrons of open profaneness, irreligion, scurrility, or ill-manners to the established rehgion of the nation; much less that we should countenance any who blasphemously revile the founder of it, or who deride what- soever is sacred ! No ; we have a fervent zeal for the honour of our Lord and Mas- ter, and are desirous to " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints" with all sorts of spiritual weapons ; but we do not yet see a necessity of stopping the mouths of the adversaries of our holy religion with fines and imprisonments, even though, to their own infamy and shame, they treat it with indecency : let scan- dal and ill-manners be punished as they deserve, but let not men be terrified from speaking out their doubts, or proposing their objections against the Gospel revelation, which we are sure will bear a thorough examination ; and though the late ungener- ous attacks upon the miracles of our blessed Saviour may have had an ill influence upon the giddy and unthinking youth of the age, they have given occasion to the publishing such a number of incomparable defences of Christianity as have confirmed the faith of many, and must satisfy the minds of all reasonable inquirers after truth. Nor do we think it right to fix the boundaries of religious liberty upon the degree of people's differing from the national establishment, because enthusiasts or Jews have an equal right with Christians to worship God in their own way ; to defend their own peculiar doctrines, and to enjoy the public protection as long as they keep the peace, and maintain no principles manifestly inconsistent with the safety of the government they live under. But his lordship apprehends he has a chain of demonstrable propositions to main- tain his boundaries: he observes,! "1. That the true ends of government cannot subsist without religion, no reasonable man will dispute it. 2. That open impiety, or a public opposition made to, and an avowed contempt of the established religion, which is a considerable part of the Constitution, do greatly promote the disturbance of the public peace, and naturally tend to the subversion of the whole Constitution." It is here supposed that one particular religion must be incorporated into the Consti- tution, which is not necessary to the ends of government ; for religion and civil gov- ernment are distinct things, and stand upon a separate basis. Religion in general is the support of civil government, and it is the office of the civil magistrate to protect all his dutiful and loyal subjects in the free exercise of their religion ; but to incor- porate one particular religion into the Constitution, so as to make it part of the com- mon law, and to conclude from thence that the Constitution, having a right to pre- serve itself, may make laws for the punishment of those that publicly oppose any one brapch of it, is to put an effectual stop to the progress of the Reformation through- out the whole Christian world : for by this reasoning our first reformers must be con- demned ; and if a subject of France, or the ecclesiastical states, should at this time write against the usurped power of the pope, or expose the absurdities of transub- stantiation, adoration of the host, worshipping of images, &c., it would be laudable for the legislative powers of those countries to send the writer to the galleys, or shut him up in a dungeon, as a disturber of the public peace, because popery is supported by law, and is a very considerable part of their constitution. But to support the government's right to enact penal laws against those that opposed the established religion, his lordship is pleased to refer us to the edicts of the first Christian emperors out of the Codex Theodosianus, composed in the fifth century, which acquaints us with the sentiments of that and the preceding age, but says nothing of the doctrine of Scripture, or of the practice of the Church for three hun- dred years before the empire became Christian. His lordship then subjoins sundry passages out of a sermon of Archbishop Tillotson, whom he justly ranks among the greatest of the moderns. But it ought to be remembered, that this sermon was preached at court in the year 1680, when the nation was in imminent danger from the Popish Plot. His lordship should also have acquainted his readers with the arch- bishop's cautious introduction, which is this : " I cannot think (till I be better in- » Pref. p. ix., I. xiT PREFACE. formed, which I am always ready to be) that any pretence of conscience warrants any man that cannot work miracles to draw men off from the established religion of a nation, nor openly to make proselytes to his own religion, in contempt of the magis- trate and the law, though he is never so sure he is in the right."* This proposition, though pointed at the popish missionaries in England at that time, is not only incon- sistent with the Protestant Reformation (as I observed before), but must effectually prevent the propagating of Christianity among the idolatrous nations of the Eastern and Western Indies, without a new power of working miracles, which we have no ground to expect ; and I may venture to assure his lordship and the world that the good archbishop lived to see his mistake, and could name the learned person to "whom he frankly confessed it after some hours' conversation upon the subject.! But human authorities are of little weight in points of reason and speculation. It was from this mistaken principle that the government pressed so hard upon those Puritans whose history is now before the reader, in which he will observe how the transferring the supremacy from the pope to the king united the Church and State into one body under one head, insomuch that writing against the Church was construed by the judges in Westminster Hall a seditious libelling the queen's government, and was punished with exorbitant fines, imprisonment, and death. He ■will observe, farther, the rise and progress of the penal laws ; the extent of the regal supremacy in those times ; the deplorable ignorance of the clergy ; with the oppo- site principles of our church-reformers, and of the Puritans, which I have set in a true light, and have pursued the controversy as an historian in its several branches, to the end of the long reign of Queen Elizabeth ; to all which I have added some short remarks of my own, which the reader will receive according to their evidence. And because the principles of the Scotch Reformers were much the same with those of the English Puritans, and the imposing a liturgy and bishops upon them gave rise to a confusion of the next age, I have inserted a short account of their re- ligious establishment, and have enlivened the whole with the lives and characters of the principal Puritans of those times. A history of this kind was long expected from the late reverend and learned Dr. John Evans, who had for some years been collecting materials for this purpose, and had he lived to perfect his design, would have done it to much greater advantage ; but I have seen none of his papers, and am informed that there is but a very small matter capable of being put in order for the press. Upon his decease, I- found it necessary to undertake this province, to bring the history forward to those times when the Puritans had the power in their own hands ; in examining into which, I have spent my leisure hours for some years ; but the publishing those collections will depend, under God, upon the continuance of my health, and the acceptance this meets with in the world. I am not so vain as to expect to escape the censures of critics, nor the reproaches of angry men, who, while they do nothing themselves, take pleasure in exposing the labours of others in pamphlets and newspapers ; but as I shall be always thankful to any that will convince me of my mistakes in a friendly manner, the others may be secure of enjoying the satisfaction of their satirical remarks without any disturbance from me. I have endeavoured to acquaint myself thoroughly with the times of which I write ; and as I have no expectations from any party of Christians, I am under no tempta- tion to disguise their conduct. I have cited my authorities in the margin, and flatter ♦ Abp. Tillotson's Works, vol. i., fol., p. 320, 321. + The learned person to whom Mr. Neal refers, I conceive, was Mr. Howe : the purport of the conver- sation he had with the bishop, on the proposition contained in his sermon, was given to the pubUc by Dr. Calamy, in his Memoirs of Mr. Howe, p. 75, 76. The fact was, that the bishop was sent for, out of his turn, to preach before the king, on account of the sickness of another gentleman, and had prepared his discourse in great haste, and impressed with the general fears of popery : the sentiment above quoted from it was the occasion of its being published from the press. For the king having slept most part of the time while the sermon was delivered, a certain nobleman, when it was over, said to him, " 'Tis pity your maj- esty slept, for we have had the rarest piece of Hobbism that ever you heard in your Ufa." "Odsfish, he shall print it, then," replied the king. When it came from the press, the author sent a copy, as a present, to Mr. Howe, who freely expostulated with Dr. Tillotson on this passage, first in a long letter, and then in a conversation which the doctor desired on the subject, at the end of which he fell to weeping freely, and said " that this was the most unhappy thing that had of a long time befallen him." PREFACE. ^^ myself that I have had the opportunity of bringing many things to light relating to the suffermgs of the Puritans, and the state of the Reformation in those times, which have hitherto been unknown to the world, chiefly by the assistance of a large manu- script collection of papers, faithfully transcribed from their originals in the University of Cambridge, by a person of character employed for that purpose, and crenerously communicated to me by my ingenious and learned friend. Dr. Benjamin Grosvenor ; for which I take this opportunity of returning him my own and the thanks of the public. Among the ecclesiastical historians of these times, Mr. Fuller, Bishop Bur- net, and Mr. Strype, are the chief; the last of whom has searched into the records of the English Reformation more than any man of the age ; Dr. Heylin and Collyer are of more suspected authority, not so much for their party principles, as because the former never gives us his vouchers, and yet the latter follows him blindly in all things. Upon the whole, I have endeavoured to keep in view the honesty and gravity of an historian, and have said nothing with a design to exasperate or widen the difter- ences among Christians ; for, as 1 am a sincere admirer of the doctrines of the New Testament, I would have an equal regard to its most excellent precepts, of which these are some of the capital, that " we love one another ; that we forgive ofl'ences ; that we bear one another's infirmities, and even bless them that curse us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us." If this spirit and temper were more prevalent, the lives of Christians would throw a bright lustre upon the truth and excellence of their Divine faith, and convince the atheists and infidels of the age, more than all their arguments can do without it. I would earnestly recommend this temper to the Protestant Nonconformists of the present age, together with a holy emulation of each other in undissembled piety and sanctity of life, that while they are reading the heavy and grievous suff'erings of their ancestors from ecclesiastical commissions, spiritual courts, and penal laws, for con- science' sake, they may be excited to an humble adoration of Divine Providence, which has delivered them so far from the yoke of oppression ; to a detestation of all persecuting principles ; and to a loyal and dutiful behaviour to the best of kings, un- der whose mild and just government they are secure of their civil and religious lib- erties. And may Protestants of all persuasions improve in the knowledge and love of the truth, and in sentiments of Christian charity and forbearance towards each other, that, being at peace among themselves, they may with greater success bend their united forces against the common enemy of Christianity ! , _, „. , Daniel Neal. London, Feb. Ut, 1731-3. ADVERTISEMENT TO VOLUME I. OF DR. TOULMIN'S EDITION. More than half a century has elapsed since the work now again offered to the public made its first appearance. The author gave it a second edition in 4to. In 1755 it was printed at Dublin, on the plan of the first impression, in four volumes octavo. The English editions have for a number of years been scarce, and copies of the work, as it has been justly held in estimation by dissenters, have borne a high price. Foreigners also have referred to it as a book of authority, aflTording the most ample information on that part of the English history which it comprehends.* A republication of it will, on these accounts, it is supposed, be acceptable to the friends of religious liberty. Several circumstances concur to render it, at this time, peculiarly seasonable. The Protestant Dissenters, by their repeated applications to Parliament, have attracted notice and excited an inquiry into their principles and history. The odium and obloquy of which they have recently become the objects are a call upon them to appeal to both,in their own justification. Their history, while it brings up to painful review scenes of spiritual tyranny and oppression, connects itself with the rise and progress of religious liberty, and necessarily brings forward many important and interesting transactions which are not to be met with in the gen- eral histories of our country, because not falling within the province of the authors to detail. The editor has been induced, by these considerations, to comply with a proposal to revise Mr. Neal's work. In doing this, he has taken no other liberty with the original text than to cast into notes some papers and lists of names, which appeared to him too much to interrupt the narrative. This alteration in the form of it prom- ises to render it more pleasing to the eye, and more agreeable to the perusal. He has, where he could procure the works quoted, which he has been able to do in most instances, examined and corrected the references, and so ascertained the fairness and accuracy of the authorities. He has reviewed the animadversions of Bishops Maddox and Warburton, and Dr. Grey, and given the result of his scrutiny in notes ; by which the credit of the author is eventually established. He has not suppressed strictures of his own, where he conceived there was occasion for them. It has been his aim, in conducting this work through the press, to support the character of the diligent, accurate, and impartial editor. How far he has done this he must leave to the candid to determine. Whatever inaccuracies or mistakes the eye of criticism may discover, he is con- fident that they cannot essentially affect the execution of the design, any more than the veracity of the author. The remark, which Mr. Neal advanced as a plea in his own defence, against the censure of Bishop Maddox, will apply with force, the edi- tor conceives, to his own case, as in the first instance it had great weight. " The commission of errors in writing any history of times past," says the ingenious Mr. Wharton, in his letter to Mr. Strype, " being altogether unavoidable, ought not to de- tract from the credit of the history or the merits of the historian, unless it be ac- companied with immoderate ostentation or unhandsome reflections on the errors of others."! The editor has only farther to solicit any communications which may tend to im- prove this impression of Neal's History, or to furnish materials for the continuation of the History of the Protestant Dissenters from the Revolution, with which period Mr. Neal's design closes, to the piresent times, as he has it in contemplation, if Providence favour him with life and health, to prepare such a work for the press. Taunton, 13th June, 1793. * Mosheim, Dictionnaire de Heresies, and Wendebom. t Mr. Wharton discovered as many errors in Mr. Strype's single volume of Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer as filled three sheets ; yet Mr. Strype's collections were justly entitled to the commendations of posterity, as a work of great utility and authority.— See Neal's Review, p. 6. 8vo. MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF MR. DANIEL NEAL, A.M.* Mr. Daniel Neal was bom in the city of Loudon, on the 14th of December, 1678. "When he was very young, his parents were removed by death, and left him, their only surviving child, in the hands of a maternal uncle, whose care of his health and educa- tion was faithful and affectionate, and was often mentioned by his nephew with grati- tude. He received his classical education at Merchant Tailors' School, to which he was sent when he was seven or eight years of age, and where he stayed till he was head scholar. In this youthful period he gave a proof of the serious and conscientious prin- ciples by which he was governed ; for, an exhibition to St. John's College in Oxford being offered to him, out of a foundation belonging to that school, he declined it, and chose an education for the ministry among the Protestant Dissenters. About the year 1696 or 1697 he removed from this seminary to a dissenting acade- my, under the direction of the Reverend Thomas Rowe, under whose tuition several eminent characters were, in part, formed.f To this gentleman Dr. Watts addressed his animated ode, called " Free Philosophy," which may, in this view, be considered as an honourable testimonial to the candid and liberal spirit with which Mr. Rowe con- ducted the studies of his pupils. Mr. Neal's thirst after knowledge was not to be satisfied by the limited advantages of one seminary, but prompted him to seek farther improvement in foreign universi- ties. Having spent three years with Mr. Rowe, he removed to Holland, where he prosecuted his studies for two years, under the celebrated Professors D'Uries, Greevius, and Burman, at Utrecht ; and then one year at Leyden. About the middle or latter end of 1703 he returned to England, in company with Mr. Martin TomkinsJ and Mr. (afterward the eminent Dr.) Lardner, and soon after appear- ed in the pulpit. * This narrative is drawn up chiefly from the memoir of Mr. Neal's life in the funeral sermon by Dr. Jen- Tiings. and a MS. account of him and his works by his son, Nathaniel Neal, Esq., communicated by his grandson, Daniel Lister, Esq., of Hackney. f Among others, Dr. Watts, Dr. Hort, afterward Archbishop of Tuam, Mr. Hughes the poet, Dr. John jEvans, Mr. Grove, and Dr. Jeremiah Hunt. t This gentleman was settled with a dissenting congregation at Stoke Newington. In the year 1718, Mr. Asty, the pastor of a congregation in Ropemaker's Alley, Moorfields, on making an exchange with Mr. Tomkins for one Lord's day, thought fit to alarm his people with the danger of pernicious errors and dam- nable heresies creeping in among the Dissenters ; and particularly referred to errors concerning the doc- trine of Christ's deity. Mr. Tomkins, to counteract the ill tendency of this discourse, and of the censures it conveyed, preached the succeeding Lord's day from John, xx., 21-23, on the power of Christ to settle the terms of salvation. The inference which he deduced from the discussion of his subject was, "that no man on earth, nor body of men, no, nor all the angels in heaven, have power to make anything necessary to salvation but what Christ hath made so." In the conclusion of his discourse, he applied this general principle as a test by which to decide on the importance of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, and of the deity of Christ. Here he entered into a particular survey of the various passages in the historical and epis- tolary books of the New Testament connected with this point, and gave at large his reasons why he did not apprehend the orthodox notion concerning the deity of Christ to be a fundamental doctrine of Christi- anity. This sermon, though the preacher neither denied nor intimated any doubt of the truth of the orthodox doctrine, gave much disgust, and made a great noise. The minds of his people were irritated, and every attempt which Mr. Tomkins used to calm them and restore harmony proving unsuccessful, he resigned his pastoral connexion, after ten years' services among them. Prejudice rose so high against him, that he was afterward denied the communion of the church, in which he had been many years before ; when, on being disengaged from stated ministerial functions, he desired to return to it. Mr. Tomkins did not again settle as the pastor of a congregation, but did not wholly lay aside the char- acter, or drop the studies, of the Christian minister ; for he occasionally preached, and published several val- Bable theological tracts. The first, about the year 1723, was " A Sober Appeal to a Turk or an Indian con- cerning the plain sense of Scripture, relating to the Trinity : being an answer to Dr. I. Watts's late book, enti- tled ' The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity ; or, Father, Son, and Spirit, three Persons and one God, asserted and proved by plain evidence of Scripture, without the aid and encumbrance of human schemes.' " This piece was drawn up in terms of decency and respect, and in the language of friendship towards that excel- lent and eminent person, to whose tract it was a reply ; and the whole was written in an exemplary strain of moderation and candour. In the year 1748 it came to a second edition: to which were added, 1. Ke- .marks on Dr. Watts's three citations relating to the doctrine of the Trinity, published in 1724. 2. A sober Vol. L— C XTiii MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF It was not long before his furniture and abilities attracted notice ; and, in the next year, he was chosen assistant to Dr. John Singleton,* in the service of an Independent congregation in Aldersgate-street ; and, on the doctor's death, in 1706, he was elected their pastor. In this relation he continued for thirty-six years, till about five months before his decease. When he accepted the pastoral office, the church, though some persons of considerable fortune and character belonged to it, was very small as to numbers ; but such acceptance did his ministry meet with, that the place of worship became, in a few years, too strait to accommodate the numbers that desired to attend on Mr. Neal's preaching, which obliged them to remove to a larger house, in Jewin- street. He fulfilled the duties of his character with attention and diligence : statedly preach- ing twice every Lord's day, till the three or four last years of his life, and usually de- votnig two or three afternoons in a week to visiting his people. He pursued his stud- ies with so close an application as to reserve little or no time for exercise ; though he was assiduous m his preparations for the pulpit, he gave liimself some scope in his lit- erary pursuits, and particularly indulged in the study of history, to which his natural genius strongly led him. " He still," observes Dr. Jennings, " kept his character and profession in view as a Christian divine and minister."! The first fruits of his literary labours appeared in 1720, under the title of " The His- tory of New-England : being an impartial account of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country, with a new accurate map thereof: to which is added an appendix, con- taining their present charter, their ecclesiastical discipline, and their municipal laws," in two volumes 8vo. This work contains an entertaining and instructive narrative of the first planting of the Gospel in a foreign heathen land ; and, besides exhibiting the rise of a new commonwealth, struggling in its infant state with a thousand difficul- ties, and triumphing over them all, it includes biographical memoirs of the principal persons in Church and State. It was well received in New-England ; and the next year their university honoured the author with the degree of master of arts, the high- est academical title they had power to confer. In the same year there came from Mr. Neal's pen, " A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Fran- cis Hare, Dean of Worcester, occasioned by his reflections on the Dissenters, in his late visitation-sermon and postscript," Svo.J In 1721, he published " The Christian's Duty and Interest in a time of public danger, from Ezekiel, ix., 4. A sermon preached at the Rev. Mr. Jennings's meeting-place ia Wapping, on Friday, October 27, being a time of solemn prayer on account of the plague. "nf>^r ftrtu an Ori^inaL. WA^Z'^hwij) '%i\Ki%%, h.m MR. DANIEL NEAL. xxv " To the Church of Christ meeting in Jewin-street, London. " My dear Brethren, and beloved in the Lord, " God, in his all-wise providence, having seen meet for some time to disable me in a great measure from serving- you in the Gospel of his Son, and therein to deprive me of one of the greatest satisfactions of my life, I have been waiting upon him in the use of means for a considerable time, as I thought it my duty to do. But, not having found such a restoration as might enable me to do stated service, it is my duty to acquiesce in his will ; and, having looked up to him for direction, I think it best, for your sakes, to surrender my office of a pastor among you. " Upon this occasion it becomes me to make my humblest acknowledgments to the blessed God for that measure of usefulness he has honoured me with in the course of my labours among you ; and I render you all my unfeigned thanks for the many affec- tionate instances of your regard towards me. " May the Spirit of God direct you in the choice of a wise and able pastor, who may have your spiritual and everlasting welfare at heart. And, for that end, beware of a spirit of division ; be ready to condescend to each other's infirmities ; keep together in the way of your duty, and in waiting upon God for his direction and blessing ; remem- ber, this is the distinguishing mark of the disciples of Christ, ' that they love one an- other.' Finally, my brethren, farewell ! Be of good comfort, and of one mind ; live in peace ; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. '' I am your aifectionate well-wisher and obedient, humble servant, " Daniel Neal."* From the first attack of his long illness, it appears he had serious apprehensions how it would terminate ; and a letter written from Bath, in April, 1739, to a worthy friend,! shows the excellent state of his mind under those view^.. " My greatest concern," he says, " is to have rational and solid expectations of a future happiness. I would not be mistaken, nor build on the sand, but would impress my mind with a firm belief of the certainty of the future woi'ld, and live in a practical preparation for it. I rely very much on the rational notions we have of the moral perfections of God, not only as a just, but a benevolent and merciful Being, who knows our frame, and will make all reasonable allowances for our imperfections and follies in life ; and not only so, but, upon repentance and faith in Christ, will pardon our past sins, though never so many or great. " In aid of the imperfection of our rational notions, I am very thankful for the glori- ous truths of Gospel revelation, which are an additional superstructure on the other: for, though we can believe nothing contrary to our reason, we have a great many ex- cellent and comfortable discoveries built upon and superadded to it. Upon this double foundation would I build all my expectations, with an humble and awful reverence of the majesty of the great Judge of all the earth, and a fiducial reliance on the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. In this frame of mind, I desire to fear God, and keep his commandments." In all his sensible intervals, during his last illness, he enjoyed an uncommon seren- ity of mind, and behaved becoming a Christian and a minister.^ This peaceful state of mind and comfortable hope he possessed to the last.i^ About a month before his death, he appeared to his fellow-worshippers, at the Lord's Supper, with an air so extraordinarily serious and heavenly as made some present say, " He looked as if he were not long for this world." The preceding particulars and his writings will, in part, enable the reader to form for * From the MS. account. t This friend was Dr. Henry Miles, an eminent Dissenting minister at Tooting, in Surrey, and a respect- able member of the Royal Society, who died February 10, 1763, in the sixty -fifth year of his age. He was a native of Stroud, in Gloucestershire. His knowledge in natural history, botany, and experimental philos- ophy, for which he had a remarkable taste, occasioned liis being elected a member of the Royal Society in 1743, in the transactions of which appear several papers from his pen ; and Dr. Birch, in the preface to his fine edition of Mr. Boyle's works, handsomely says, that the conduct and improvement of that edition were chiefly to be ascribed to the great labour, judgment, and sagacity of the learned Mr. Miles, and that to him the puplic owed considerable additions never before pubhshed. Besides this, he could never be prevailed upon to publish more than a single sermon, preached at the Old Jewry, on occasion of a public charity, in 1738. He was a hard student. His preparations for the pulpit cost liim incessant labour ; and, for a course of thirty years, he constantly rose, two days in the week, at two or three o'clock in the morning, to com- pose his sermons. He lived like an excellent Christian and minister : his behaviour was on all occasions that of a gentleman ; the simplicity of his spirit and manners was very remarkable ; his conversation in- structive and entertaining ; his countenance was always open, mild, and amiable ; and his carriage so con- descending and courteous, even to his inferiors, as plainly discovered a most humane and benevolent heart. He was the friend of Dr. Laidner and Dr. Doddridge ; and, in the correspondence of the latter, published by the Rev. Mr. Stedman, there are several of his letters. See also Dr. Furneaux's Funeral Sermon for Dr. Miles. % Letters to and from Dr. Doddridge, 1790, p, 358. ^ Dr. Jennings's Funeral Sermon, and the MS. account. Vol I.— D CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Page Editorial Preface v Preface to Vol. I. of the Original Edition . ii Advertisement to Vol. I. of Dr. Toulmin's Edi- tion xvi Memoir of the Author xvii PART I. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. TO THE DEATH OF QOEEN ELIZ- ABETH, A.D. 1509-1602. CHAPTER I, Reign of Henry the Eighth, A.D. 1509-1547 . 29 CHAPTER n. Reign of King Edward the Sixth, A.D. 1547-1553 43 CHAPTER m. Reign of Queen Mary, A.D. 1553-1559 'CHAPTER IV. From the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign to the separation of the Protestant Noncon- formists, A.D. 1558-156G .... CHAPTER V. From the separation of the Protestant Noncon- formists to the death of Archbishop Parker, A.D. 1566-1575 \ . CHAPTER VI. From the death of Archbishop Parker to the death of Archbishop Grindal, A.D. 1575-1585 CHAPTER VII. From the death of Archbishop Grindal to the Spanish invasion in 1588 .... CHAPTER VIII. From the Spanish invasion to the death of Queen Elizabeth, A.D. 1588-1602 57 71 106 139 156 188 Pjreface to Vol. II. of the Original Edition Advertisement to Vol. II. of Dr. Toulmin's Edi- tion pArt II. 219 225 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS FROM THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR IN THE YEAR 1642. CHAPTER 1. From the death of Queen Elizabeth to the death of Archbishop Bancroft, A.D. 1603-1610 227 CHAPTER H. From the death of Archbishop Bancroft to the death of King James I., A.D. 1610-1625 Stat 256 CHAPTER HI. From the death of King James I. to the dis- solution of the third Parliament of King Charles I. in the year 1628 .... 278 CHAPTER IV. From the dissolution of the third Parliament of King Charles I. to the death of Archbishop Abbot, A.D, 1628-1633 297 CH.A.PTER V. From the death of Archbishop Abbot to the beginning of the commotions in Scotland in the year 1637 310 CHAPTER VI. From the beginning of the commotions in Scot- land to the Long Parliament in the year 1640 334 CHAPTER VII. The character of the Long ParUament.— Their arguments against the late convocation and canons.— Impeachment of Dr. William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury. — Votes of the House of Commons against the promoters of the late innovations 350 CHAPTER VIII. The antiquity of liturgies, and of the episco- pal order, debated between Bishop Hall and Smectymnuus. — Petitions for and against the hierarchy.— Root and branch petition. — The ministers' petition for reformation. — Speeches upon the petition. — Proceedings against papists 363 CHAPTER IX. From the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford to the recess of the Parliament upon the king's progress into Scotland, A.D. 1640^1 374 CHAPTER X. From the reassembling of the Parliament to the king's leaving his palace of Whitehall, January 10, 1641-2 395 CHAPTER XI. From the king's leaving V^Tiitehall to the be- ginning of the civil war, A.D. 1642 . . 409 CHAPTER Xn. The state of the Church of England.— Reli- gious character of both parties.— Summary of the ground of the civil war . . . 423 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. CHAPTER I. REIGN OF HENRY VIII. King William the Conqueror, having got pos- session of the crown of England by the assist- ance of the See of Rome, and King John hav- ing afterward sold it in his wars with the bar- ons, the rights and privileges of the English clergy were delivered up into the hands of the pope, who taxed them at his pleasure, and in process of time drained the kingdom of immense treasures ; for, besides all his other dues, arising from annates, first-fruits, Peter-pence, &c., he extorted large sums of money from the clergy for their preferments in the Church. He ad- vanced foreigners to the richest bishoprics, who never resided in their diocesses, nor so much as set foot upon English ground, but sent for all their profits to a foreign country ; nay, so cov- etous was his holiness, that, before livings be- came void, he sold them provisionally among his Italians, insomuch that neither the king nor the clergy had anything to dispose of, but every- thing was bargained for beforehand at Rome. This awakened the resentments of the Legisla- ture, who, in the twenty-fifth year of Edward ni., passed an act, called the stafute of provi- sors, to establish " that the king and other lords shall present unto benefices of their own, or their ancestors' foundation, and not the Bishop of Rome." This act enacted " that all forestall- ing of benefices to foreigners shall cease ; and that the free elections, presentments, and colla- tions of benefices, shall stand in right of the crown, or of any of his majesty's subjects, as they had formerly enjoyed them, notwithstand- ing any provisions from Rome." But still the power of the court of Rome ran very high, for they brought all the trials of titles to advowsons into their own courts beyond sea ; and though by the seventh of Richard H. the power of nomination to benefices, without the king's license, was taken from them, they still claimed the benefit of confirmations, of translations of bishops, and of excommunica- tions ; the Archbishops of Canterbury and York might still, by virtue of bulls from Rome, as- semble the clergy of their several provinces, at what time and place they thought fit, without leave obtained from the crown ; and all the can- ons and constitutions concluded upon in those synods were binding, without any farther ratifi- cation from the king ; so that the power of the Church was independent of the civil govern- ment. This being represented to the Parlia- ment of the sixteenth of Richard H., they pass- ed the statute commonly called prcemumre, by ■which it was enacted, " that if any did purchase translations to benefices, processes, sentences of excommunication, bulls, or any other instru- ments from the court of Rome, against the king or his crown ; or whoever brought them into England, or did receive or execute them, they were declared to be out of the king's protection, and should forfeit their goods and chattels to the king, and should be attached by their bodies, if they may be found, and brought before the king and council to answer to the cases aforesaid ; or that process should be made against them, by ■pramunirc facias, in manner as it is ordained in other statutes of provisors ; and other which do sue in any other court in derogation of the regality of the king."* From this time the arch- bishops called no more convocations by their sole authority, but by license from the king ; their synods being formed by writ or precept from the crown, directed to the archbishops, to as- semble their clergy, in order to consult upon such affairs as his majesty should lay before them. But still their canons were binding, though con- firmed by no authority but their own, till the act of submission of the clergy took place. About this time flourished the famous John WicklifTe, the morning-star of the Reformation. He was born at WicklifTe, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, t about the year 1324, and was edu- * Fuller's Church History-, book iv., p. 145-148. t See the very valuable Life of WicklifTe, pubUsh- ed by the Rev. Mr. Lewis, of Margate, which begins thus : " John de WicklifTe was born, very probably, about the year 1324, in the parish of WicklifTe, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, and was first admitted com- moner of Queen's College, Oxford, then newly found- ed by Robert Egglesfield, S.T.B.,but was soon after removed to Merton College, where he was first pro- bationer and afterward fellow. He was advanced to the professor's chair, 1372. It appears by this inge- nious writer, as well as by the Catalogus Testium, that WicklifTe was for 'rejecting all human rites, and new shadows or traditions in religion ; and with regard to the identity nf the order of bishops and priests in the apostolic age,' he is very positive. Unum au- dacter assero, one thing I boldly assert, that in the primitive Church, or in the time of the Apostle Paul, two orders of clergy were thought sufficient, viz., priest and deacon ; and I do also say, that in the time of Pa.\l[,fuit idem presbyter atque episcoptis, a priest and a bishop were one " and the same : for in those times the distinct orders of pope, cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, officials, and deans were not invented." Mr. Neal's review of the first volume of the Histo- ry of the Puritans, subjoined to the quarto edition of this history, vol. i., p. 890.— En. To Mr. Neal's account of WicklifTe's sentiments, it may be added, that he advanced some tenets which not only symbolize with, but directly led to, the pe- culiar opinions of those who, called Baptists, have in subsequent ages formed a large body of dissenters, viz., " that wise men leave that as impertinent which is not plainly expressed in Scripture ; that those are fools and presumptuous which affirm such infants not to be saved which die without baptism ; that bap- tism doth not confer, but only signify grace, which was given before. He also denied that all sins are abolished in baptism ; and asserted that children may be saved without baptism ; and that the baptism of water profiteth not, without the baptism of the Spir 30 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. cated in Queen's College, Oxford, where he was divinity professor, and afterward pastor of Lut- terworth in Leicestershire. He flourished in the latter end of the reign of King Edward III. and the beginning of Richard II., about one hundred and thirty years before the Reformation of Luther. The'University gave this testimonial of him af- ter his death : " That, from his youtli to the time of his death, his conversation was so praisewor- tliy, that there was never any spot or suspicion noised of him; that in his reading and preach- ing he behaved like a stout and valiant champion of the faith ; and that he had written in logic, philosophy, divinity, morality, and the specula- tive arts, without an equal." While he was di- vinity professor at Oxford, he published certain conclusions — against transubstantiation and against the infallibility of the pope; that the Church of Rome was not the head of all other churches ; nor had St. Peter the power of the keys any more than the rest of the apostles ; that the New Testament, or Gospel, is a per- fect rule of life and manners, and ought to be read by the people.* He maintained, farther, most of those points by which the Puritans were afterward distinguished ; as, that in the sacra- ment of orders there ought to be but two de- grees, presbyters or bishops and deacons ; that all human traditions are superfluous and sinful ; that we must practise and teach only the laws of Christ ; that mystical and significant cere- monies in religious worship are unlawful ; and that to restrain men to a prescribed form of prayer is contrary to the liberty granted them by God. These, with some other of Wickliffe's doctrines against the temporal grandeur of the prelates and their usurped authority, were sent to Rome and condemned by Pope Gregory XL, in a consistory of twenty-tliree cardinals, in the year 1378. But the pope dying soon after, put a stop to the process. Urban, his successor, wrote to young King Richard II. and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the University of Oxford, to put a stop to the progress of Wickliflism; accordingly, Wickliffe was cited before the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his brethren, the prelates, several times, but was always dismissed, either by the interest of the citizens of London, or the powerful interposi- tion of some great lords at court, or some other uncommon providence, which terrified the bish- ops from passing a peremptory sentence against him for a considerable time ; but at length his new doctrines, as they were called, were con- demned, in a convocation of bishops, doctors, and bachelors, held at London by the command- ment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1382, and he was deprived of his professorship, his books and writings were ordered to be burned and himself to be imprisoned; but he kept out of the way, and in the time of his retirement wrote a confession of his faith to the pope, in which he declares himself willing to maintain his opinions at Rome, if God had not otherwise visited him with sickness and other infirmities : but it was well for this good man that there were two anti- popes at this time at war with each other, one at Rome, and the other at Avignon. In Eng- land, also, there was a minority, which was fa- it."— Fuller's Church History, b. iv., p. 130. Trialo- gus, lib. iv., cap. i. — Ed. * Fox's Martyrol. Pierce's Vindicat., p. 4, 5. vourable to Wickliffe, insomuch that he ven- tured out of his retirement, and returned to hia parish at Lutterworth, where he quietly depart- ed this life, in the year 1384. This Wickliffe was a wonderful man for the times in which he lived, which were overspread with the thickest darkness of anti-Christian idolatry; he was the first that translated the New Testament into English ; but the art of printing not being then found out, it hardly escaped the inquisition of the prelates ; at least, it was very scarce when Tyndal translated it a second time in 1526. He preached and published the very same doctrines for substance that afterward obtained at the Ref- ormation ; he wrote near two hundred volumes, all which were called in, condemned, and order- ed to be burned, together with his bones, by the Council of Constance, in the year 1425, forty- one years after his death ; but his doctrine re- mained, and the number of his disciples, who were distinguished by the name of Lollards, in- creased after his decease,* which gave occasion to the making sundry other severe laws against heretics. The clergy made their advantage of the con- tentions between the houses of York and Lan- caster ; both parties courting their assistance, which they did not fail to make use of for the support of the Catholic faith, as they called it, and the advancement of their spiritual tyranny over the consciences of men. In the primitive times there were no capital proceedings against heretics, the weapons of the Church being only spiritual ; but when it was found that ecclesi- astical censures were not sufficient to keep men in a blind subjection to the pope, a decree was obtained in the fourth Council of Lateran, A.D. 1215, "that all heretics should be delivered over to the civil magistrate to be burned." Here was the spring of that anti-Christian tyr- anny and oppression of the consciences of men which has since been attended with a sea of Christian blood : the papists learned it from the heathen emperors, and the most zealous Prot- estants of all nations have taken it up from them. Conscience cannot be convinced by fines and imprisonments, or by fire and fagot ; all attempts of this kind serve only to make men hypocrites, and are deservedly branded with the name of persecution. There was no occasion for putting these sanguinary laws ia execution among us till the latter end of the fourteenth century; but when the Lollards, or followers of Wickliffe, threatened the papal pow- er, the clergy brought this Italian drug from Rome, and planted it in the Church of England. In the fifth year of Richard II., it was enacted " that all that preached without license against the Catholic faith, or against the laws of the land, should be arrested, and kept in prison till they justified themselves according to the law and reason of Holy Church. Their commitment was to be by writ from the chancellor, who was to issue forth commissions to the sheriffs and other the king's ministers, after the bishops had * Knighton, a canon of Leicester and a contempo- rary of Wickliffe, tells us that in the year 1382 " their number very much increased, and that, starting Uke saplings from the root of a tree, they were multiplied, and filled every place within the compass of the land."— i)r. Vaughan's Life of Wickliffe, vol. ii., p 154» 2d edition. — C. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 31 returned the names of the delinquents into the Court of Chancery. When Richard II. was deposed, and the crown usurped by Henry IV., in order to gain the good- will of the clergy, it was farther en- acted, in the second year of his reign, " that if any person were suspected of heresy, the ordi- nary might detain them in prison till they were canonically purged, or did abjure their errors; provided, always, that the proceedings against them were publicly and judicially ended within three months. If they were convicted, the dio- cesan, or his commissary, might imprison and fine theoi at discretion. Those that refused to abjure their error, or, after abjuration, relapsed, were to be delivered over to the secular power, and the mayors, sheriffs, or bailiffs, were to be present, if required, when the bishop, or his commissary, passed sentence, and after sen- tence they were to receive them, and in some high place burn them to death before the peo- ple." By this law the king's subjects were put from under his protection, and left to the mercy of the bishops in their spiritual courts, and might, upon suspicion of heresy, be imprisoned and put to death, without presentment or trial by jury, as is the practice in all other criminal cases. In the beginning of the reign of Henry V., who was a martial prince, a new law passed against the Lollards or Wickliffites,* "that they should forfeit all the lands they had in fee-sim- ple, and all their goods and chattels to the king. All state officers, at their entrance into office, were sworn to use their best endeavours to dis- cover them, and to assist the ordinaries in prosecuting and convicting them." I find no mention, in any of these acts, of a writ or war- rant from the king, de hczretico comburcndo ; the sheriff might proceed to the burning of heretics without it ; but it seems the king's learned counsel advised him to issue out a writ of this kind to the sheriff, by which his majesty took them, in some sort, under his protection again ; but it was not as yet necessary by law, nor are there any of them to be found in the rolls before the reign of King Henry VIII. By virtue of these statutes, the clergy, accord- * It marks the profaneness, as well as cruelty of the act here quoted by Mr. Neal, that it was not di- rected merely against the avowed followers of Wick- liffe, as such, but against the perusal of the Scrip- tures in English : for it enacted, " that whatsoever they were that should read the Scriptures in the mother tongue (which was then called Wideue's learning), they should forfeit land, catel, lif, and godes, for theyr heyres forever, and so be condemp- ned for heretykes to God, enemies to the crowne, and most arrant traitors to the lande." — Emhjn's Complete Collection of Stale Trials, p. 48, as quoted in Dr. Flemming's Palladium, p. 30, iiote. So great an alarm did the doctrine of Wickliffe rai.se, and so high did the fear of its spread rise, that by the statute of 5 Rich. II. and 2 Hen. IV., c. 15, it was enacted, as part of the sheriff's oath, "that he should seek to redress all errors and heresies, com- monly called Lollards." And it is a striking instance of the permanent footing which error and absurdity, and even iniquity gain, when once estabhshed by law, that this clause was preserved in the oath long after the Reformation, even to the first of Charles I., when Sir Edward Coke, on being appointed sheriff of the county of Buckingham, objected to it, and ever since it has been left out.— TAe Complete Sheriff, p. 17.— Ed. ^ ■" « ing to the genius of the popish religion, exer- cised numberless cruelties upon the people. If any man denied them any degree of respect, or any of those profits they pretended was their due, he was immediately suspected of heresy, imprisoned, and, it may be, put to death ; of which some hundreds of examples are upon record.* Thus stood the laws with respect to religion, when King Henry VIII., second son of King Henry VII., came to the crown ; he was bora in the year 1491, and bred a scholar: he under- stood the purity of the Latin tongue, and was well acquainted with school divinity. No sort of flattery pleased him better than to have his wisdom and learning commended. In the be- ginning he was a most obedient son of the pa- pacy, and employed his talents in writing against Luther in defence of the seven sacraments of the Church. This book was magnified by the clergy as the most learned performance of the age ; and upon presenting it to the pope, his holiness conferred upon the King of England, and his successors, the glorious title of de- fender OF THE F.iiTH ;t It was voted in full consistory, and signed by twenty-seven cardi- nals, in the year 1531.t At the same time, Cardinal Wolsey, the king's favourite, exercised a sovereign power over the whole clergy and people of England in spiritual matters : he was made legate in the year 1519, and accepted of a bull from the pope, contrary to the statute of prcemunire, empowering him to su- perintend and correct what he thought amiss in both the provinces of Canterbury and York, and to appoint all officers in the spiritual * Thus, in the reign of Edward IV., John Keyser was committed to jail, by Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, on the suspicion of heresy, because, having been excommunicated, he said " that, not- withstanding the archbishop or his commissary had excommunicated him, yet before God he was not excommunicated, for his corn yielded as well as his neighbours.' " Thus, also, in the reign of Henry VII., Hillary Warner was arrested on the charge of heresy, because he said " that he was not bound to pay tithes to the curate of the parish where he lived." Coke's Institutes, 3 inst., p. 42, quoted in a treatise on heresy as cognizable in the spiritual courts, p. 22, 23.— Ed. t Mr. Fox observes, that though "this book car- ried the king's name in the title, it was another who ministered the notion and framed the style. But, whoever had the labour of the book, the king had the thanks and the reward." — Acts and Monuments of Martyrs, vol. ii., p. 57. It has been said that the jester at the court, seeing Henry overcome with joy, asked the reason ; and when told that it was because his holiness had conferred upon him this new title, he replied, "My good Harry, let me and thee defend each other, and let the faith alone to defend itself." " If this was uttered as a serious joke," says a writer, " the fool was, undoubtedly, the wisest man of the two."— C. X " The extravagant praises which he received for this performance," observes Dr. Warner, "meeting with so much pride and conceitedness in his nature, made him from this time impatient of all" contradic- tions on reUgioiis subjects, and to set up himself for the standard of truth, by which his people were to regulate their belief." — Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 228. We are surprised, in the event, to see this prince, who was now " the pride of popery, become its scourge." Such are the fluctuations in human characters and affairs, and so unsearchable are the ways of Providence ! — Ed. 32 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. •courts.* The king also granted him a full pow- er of disposing of all ecclesiastical benefices in the gift of the crown ; with a visitatorial power over monasteries, colleges, and all his clergy, exempt or not exempt. By virtue of these vast powers a new court of justce was erected, called the legate's court, the jurisdiction where- of extended to all actions relating to conscience, and numberless rapines and extortions were committed by it under colour of reforming men's manners ; all which his majesty connived at, out of zeal to the Church. But at length, the king, being weary of his Queen Katharine, after he had lived with her almost twenty years, or being troubled in con- science because he had married his brother's wife, and the legitimacy of his daughter had been caUed in question by some foreign princes, lie first separated from her bed, and then mo- ved the pope for a divorce ; but the court of Rome having held his majesty in suspense for two or three years for fear of offending the em- peror the queen's nephew, the impatient king, by the advice of Dr. Cranmer, appealed to the principal universities of Europe, and desired their opinions upon these two questions : 1. " Whether it was agreeable to the law of God for a man to marry his brother's wife 1 2. " Whether the pope could dispense with the law of God?" All the universities, and most of the learned men of Europe, both Lutherans and papists, ex- cept those at Rome, declared for the negative of the two questions. The king laid their de- terminations before the Parliament and convo- cation, who agreed with the foreign universi- ties. In the convocation of English clergy, two hundred and fifty-three were for the divorce, and but nineteen against it. Sundry learned books were written for and against the lawful- ness of the marriage ; one party being encour- aged by the king, and the other by the pope and emperor. The pope cited the king to Rome, but his majesty ordered the Earl of Wiltshire to protest against the citation, as contrary to the prerogative of his crown ; and sent a letter signed by the cardinal, the Archbishop of Can- terbury, four bishops, two dukes, two marquis- es, thirteen earls, two viscounts, twenty-three barons, twenty-two abbots, and eleven common- ers, exhorting his holiness to confirm the judg- ment of the learned men, and of the universi- ties of Europe, by annulling his marriage, or else he should be obliged to take other meas- ures. The pope in his answer, after having ac- knowledged his majesty's favours, told him that the queen's appeal and avocation of the cause to Rome must be granted. The king seeing himself abused, and that the affair of his mar- riage, which had been already determined by the most learned men in Europe, and had been argued before the legates Campegio and Wol- sey, must commence again, began to suspect Wolsey's sincerity ; upon which his majesty sent for the seals from him, and soon after com- manded his attorney-general to put in an in- formation against him in the King's Bench, be- cause that, notwithstanding the statute of Rich- ard II. against procuring bulls from Rome un- der the pains of a prcEmunire, he had received * Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. i., p. 8. bulls for his legatine power, which for many years he had executed. The cardinal pleaded ignorance of the statute, and submitted to the king's mercy ; upon which he was declared to be out of the king's protection, to have forfeited his goods and chattels, and that his person might be seized. The haughty cardinal, not knowing how to bear his disgrace, soon after fell sick and died, declaring that if he had ser- ved God as well as he had done his prince, he would not have given him over in his gray hairs. But the king, not satisfied with his resent- ments against the cardinal, resolved to be re- venged on the pope himself, and accordingly. September 19th, a week before the cardinal's death, he published a proclamation forbidding all persons to purchase anything from Rome under the severest penalties, and resolved to annex the ecclesiastical supremacy to his own crown for the future. It was easy to foresee that the clergy would startle at the king's assu- ming to himself the pope's supremacy ; but his majesty had them at his mercy, for they having acknowledged Cardinal Wolsey's legatine pow- er, and submitted to his jurisdiction, his majes- ty caused an indictment to be preferred against them in Westminster Hall, and obtained judg- ment upon the statute of pramunire, whereby the whole body of the clergy were declared to be out of the king's protection, and to have forfeit- ed all their goods and chattels. In this condition they were glad to submit upon the best terms they could get, but the king would not pardon them but upon these two conditions : (1.) That the two provinces of Canterbury and York should pay into the ex- chequer £1 18,840, a vast sum of money in those times. (2.) That they should yield his majesty the title of sole and supreme head of the Church of England, next and immediately under Christ. The former they readily complied with, and promised for the future never to assemble in convocation but by the king's writ ; nor to make or execute any canons or constitutions without his majesty's license ; but to acknowl- edge a layman to be supreme head of an eccle- siastical body, was such an absurdity, in their opinion, and so inconsistent with their alle- giance to the pope, that they could not yield to it without an additional clause, as far as is agreeable to the laws of Christ. The king ac- cepted it with the clause for the present, hut a year or two after obtained the confirmation of it in Parliament and convocation without the clause. The substance of the act of supremacy* is as follows : " Albeit the king's majesty justly and rightfully is, and ought to be, supreme head of the Church of England, and is so recognised by the clergy of this realm in their convocations ; yet, nevertheless, for confirmation and corrobo- ration thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion within this realm of England, &c., be it enacted by the authority of this pres- ent Parliament, that the king, our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England ; and shall have and enjoy, annexed * 26 Henry VIII., cap. i. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 33 and united to the imperial crown of this reahn, as well as the title and style thereof, as all lion- ours, dignities, immunities, profits, and com- modities, to the said dignity of supreme head of the said Church belonging and appertaining; and that our sovereign lord, his heirs and suc- cessors kings of this realm, shall have 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, redressed, corrected, restrained, or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty God, and increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conversation of peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm ; any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescription, or anything or things to the contrary notwith- standing." Here was the rise of the Reformation. The whole power of reforming heresies and errors in doctrine and worship was transferred from the pope to the king, without any regard to the rights of synods or councils of the clergy, and Without a reserve of liberty to such consciences as could not comply with the public standard. This was undoubtedly a change for the better, but is far from being consonant to Scripture or reason. The Parliament had already forbid all appeals to the court of Rome, in causes testamentary, matrimonial, and in all disputes concerning di- vorces, tithes, oblations, &c., under penalty of a prccmunire* and were now voting away an- nates and first-fruits; and providing " that, in case the pope denied his bulls for electing or consecrating bishops, it should be done without them by the archbishop of the province ; that an archl)ishop might be consecrated by any two bishops whom the king should appoint ; and be- ing so consecrated, should enjoy all the rights of his see, any law or custom to the contrary not- withstanding." All which acts passed both hous- es without any considerable opposition. Tiius, while the pope stood trifling about a contested marriage, the king and Parliament took away all his profits, revenues, and authority in the Church of England. His majesty having now waited six years for a determination of his marriage from the court of Rome, and being now himself head of the Church of England, commanded Dr. Cranmer, lately consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury,! to call a court of canonists and divines, and pro- ceed to judgment. Accordingly, his grace sum- moned Queen Katharine to appear at Dunstable, near the place where she resided, in person or * 24 Henry VIII., cap. xu. t Cranmer's elevation look place in 1533. " He appears to have accepted the distinction with reluc- tance, and the best friends of his reputation must re- gard his compliance with some degree of regret. He was destitute of that fortitude and determination of mind which so high a station required. He was timid and vacillating; honest in his purposes, but irreso- lute in his conduct. In a private station, or in a calmer age, he would have maintained an irreproach- ahle character ; but at present he needs all the syiii- l)a(hy which his martyrdom inspires to retain for him a high place in the respect of impartial men." — Dr. Price's History of Nonconformity, vol. i., p. 8. — C. Vol. I.— E by proxy, on the 20th of May, 1533, but her ma- jesty refused to appear, adhering to her appeal to the court of Rome : upon which the archbishop, by advice of the court, declared her conlumax, and on the 23d of the same month pronounced the king's marriage with her null and void, as being contrary to the laws of God. Soon after which his majesty married Anne BuUen, and procured an act of Parliament for settling the crown upon the heirs of her body, which all his subjects were obliged to swear to. There was a remarkable appearance of Di- vine Providence in this atfiiir ; for the French king had prevailed with the King of England to refer his cause once more to the court of Rome, upon assurances given that the po[)e should de- cide it in his majesty's favour within a limited time ; the pope consented, and fixed a time for the return of the king's answer, but the courier not arriving upon the very day, the Imperialists, who dreaded an alliance between the pope and the King of England, persuaded his holiness to give sentence against him ; and accordingly, March 23d, the marriage was declared good, and the king was required to take his wife again, otherwise the censures of the Church were to be denounced against him.* Two days after this the courier arrived from England with the king's submission under his hand in due form, but it was then too late, it being hardly decent for the infallible chair to revoke its decrees in so short a time. Such was the crisis of the Reformation ! The pope having decided against the king, his majesty determined to take away all his profits and authority over the Church of England at once : accordingly, a bill was brought into the Parliament then sitting, and passed without any protestation, by which it is enacted " that all payments made to the apostolic chamber, and all provisions, bulls, or dispensations, should from thenceforth cease; and that all dispensa- tions or licenses, for things not contrary to the law of God, should be granted within the king- dom, under the seals of the two archbishops in their several provinces. The pope was to have no farther concern in the nomination or confirm- ation of bishops, which were appointed to be chosen by congt d'elire from the crown, as at present. Peter's-pence and all procurations from Rome were abolished. Moreover, all religious houses, exempt or not exempt, were to be sub- ject to the archbishops' visitation, except some monasteries and abbeys which were to be sub- ject to the king."t Most of the bishops voted against this bill, but all but one set their hands to It after it was passed, according to the cus- tom of those times. Thus the Church of Eng- land became independent of the pope, and all foreign jurisdiction. Complaints being daily made of the severe proceedings of the ecclesiastical courts against heretics, the Parliament took this matter into consideration, and repealed the act of the second of Henry IV., above mentioned, but left the stat- utes of Richard II. and Henry V in full force, with this qualification, that heretics should be proceeded against upon presentments by two witnesses at least ; that they should be brought to answer in open court ; and if thry were found * Burnet's Hist. Kef., vol. i., p. 135. t 25 Henry VIII., cap. xx., xxi. 34 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. guilty, and would not abjure, or were relapsed, they should be adjudged to death,' the king's writ de hctrelko combnrendo being first obtained.* By this act the ecclesiastical courts were lim- ited, heretics being now to be tried according to the forms of law, as in other cases. Towards the latter end of this session, the clergy, assembled in convocation, sent up their submission to the king to be passed in Parlia- ment, which was done accordingly : the con- tents were, " that the clergy acknowledged all convocations ought to be assembled by the king's writ ; and promised in verba sacerdolii, that they would never make nor execute any new canons or constitutions without the royal assent ; and since many canons had been re- ceived that were found prejudicial to the king's prerogative, contrary to the laws of the land, and heavy to the subjects, that, therefore, there should be a committee of thirty-two persons, sixteen of the two houses of Parliament and as many of the clergy, to be named by the king, who should have full power to revise the old canons, and to abrogate, confirm, or alter them, as they found expedient, the king's assent being obtained." This submission was confirmed by Parlia- ment; and by the same act all appeals to Rome were again condemned. If any parties found themselves aggrieved in the archbishops' courts, an appeal might be made to the king in the Court of Chancery, and the lord-chancellor was to grant a commission under the great seal for a hearing before delegates, whose determination should be final. All exempted abbots were also to appeal to the king ; and the act concluded with a proviso "that, till such correction of the canons was made, all those which were then received should remain in force, except such as were contrary to the laws and customs of the realm, or were to the damage or hurt of the king's prerogative." Upon the proviso of this act all the proceedings of the commons and other spiritual courts are founded ; for the can- ons not being corrected to this day, the old ones are in force, with the exceptions above men- tioned ; and this proviso is probably the reason why the canons were not corrected in the fol- lowing reigns, for now it lies in the breast of the judges to declare what canons are contrary to the laws or rights of the crown, which is more for the king's prerogative than to make a collection of ecclesiastical laws which should be fixed and immovable. Before the Parliament broke up they gave the annates or first-fruits of benefices, and the yearly revenue of the tenth part of all livings, which had been taken from the pope last year, to the king. This displeased the clergy, who were in hopes of being freed from that burden ; but they were mistaken, for by the thirty-second of Henry VIII., cap. xlv, a court of record is ordered to be erected, called the court of the first-fruits and tenths, for the levying and gov- ernment of the said first-fruits forever. The session being ended, commissioners were sent over the kingdom to administer the oath of succession to all his majesty's subjects, accord- ing to a late act of Parliament, by which it appears that, besides renewing their allegi- * 25 Henry VIII., cap. xiv. ance to the king, and acknowledging him to be the head of the Church, they declared, upon oath, " the lawfulness of his marri.ige with Queen Anne, and that they would he true to the issue begotten in it. That the Bishop of Rome had no more power than any other bish- op in his own diocess ; that they would submit to all the king's laws, notwithstanding the pope's censures ; that in their prayers they would pray first for the king as supreme head of the Church of England ; then for the queen [Anne], then for the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the other ranks of the clergy." Only Fish- er, bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, lord-chancellor, refused to take the oath, for which they afterward lost their lives. The separation of the Church of England from Rome contrii)uted something towards the reformation of its doctrines, though the body of the inferior clergy were as stiff for their old opinions as ever, being countenanced and sup- ported by the Duke of Norfolk, by the Lord- chancellor More, by Gardiner, bishop of Win- chester, and Fisher of Rochester; but some of the nobility and bishops were for a farther reformation : among these were the new queen, Lord Cromwell, afterward Earl of Essex, Dr. Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Shaxton, bishop of Salisbury, and Latimer of Worcester. As these were more or less in favour with the king, the reformation of religion went forward or backv/ard throughout the whole course of his reign. The progress of the Reformation in Germa- ny, by the preaching of Luther, Melancthon, and others, with the number of books that were published in those parts, some of which were translated into English, revived learning, and raised people's curiosity to look into the stato of religion here at home. One of the first books that was published was the translation of the New Testament by Tyndal, printed at Antv^erp, 1526.* The next was the Supplication of the * Of this edition, which consisted of fifteen hun- dred copies, only one is supposed to exist; that copy is preserved in the library of the Baptist Col- lege, Bristol, England. The scarceness of this edi- tion is easily accounted for : " The book that had the greatest authority and influence was Tindal's translation of the New Testament, of which tha bishops made great complaints, and said it was full of errors. But Tonstal, then Bishop of London, be- ing a man of invincible moderation, would do no- body any hurt, yet endeavoured, as he could, to get their books into his hands ; so, being at Antwerp in the year 1529, he sent for one Packington, an Eng- hsh merchant there, and desired him to see how many New Testaments of Tindal's translation he might have for money. Packington, who was a se- cret favourer of Tindal, told him what the bishop proposed. Tindal was very glad of it; for, being convinced of some faults in his work, he was design- ing a new and more correct edition ; but he was poor, and the former impression not being sold off, he could not go about it ; so he gave Packington all the copies that lay in his hands, for which the bishop paid the price, and brought them over, and burned them publicly in Cheapside. This had such a hate- ful appearance in it, being generally called a burning of the Word of God, that people from thence coiiclu-- ded there must be a visible contrariety between that book and the doctrines of those who so handled it ; by which both their prejudice against the clergy, and their desire of reading the New Testament, were in- creased. So that next year, when the second edition HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 35 Beggars, by Simon Frith of Gray's Inn, 1529. It was levelled against the begging friars, and complains that the common poor were ready to starve, because the alms of the people were in- tercepted by great companies of lusty, idle fri- ars, Avho were able to work, and were a burden to the commonwealth. More and Fisher an- swered the book, endeavouring to move the people's passions by representing the supplica- tions of the souls in purgatory which were re- lieved by the masses of these friars. But the strength of their arguments lay in the sword of the magistrate, which was now in their hands ; for while these gentlemen were in power the clergy made sad havoc among those people who were seeking after Christian knowledge ; some were cited into the bishops' courts for teach- ing their children the Lord's Prayer in Eng- lish ; some for reading forbidden books ; some for speaking against the vices of the clergy ; some for not coming to confession and the sac- rament ; and some for not observing the Church fasts ; most of whom, through fear of death, did penance and were dismissed ; but several of the clergy refusing to abjure, or after abjuration falling into a relapse, suffered death. Among these were the Rev. Mr. Hitton, curate of Maidstone, burned in Smithfield, 1530 ; the Rev. Mr. Bilney, burned at Norwich, 1531 ; Mr. Byfield, a monk of St. Edmondsbury ; James Bainham, Knt. of the Temple ; besides two men 'andawoman,atYork. In theyear 1533,Mr. John Frith,* an excellent scholar of the University of Cambridge, was burned in Smithfield, with one Hevvet, a poor apprentice, for denying the corpo- real presence of Christ in the sacrament ; but upon the rupture between the king and the pope, and the repeal of the actofKing Henry IV. against heretics, the wings of the clergy were clipped, and a stop put to their cruelties for a time. None were more adverse to the Reformation than the monks and friars : these spoke openly against the king's proceedings, exciting the peo- ple to rebellion, and endeavouring to embroil his affairs with foreign princes; the king, there- fore, resolved to humble them, and for this pur- pose appointed a general visitation of the mon- asteries, the management of which was com- mitted to the Lord Cromwell, with the title of visiter-general, who appointed other commis- sioners under him, and gave them injunctions and articles of inquiry. Upon this, several ab- bots and priors, to prevent a scrutiny into their conduct, voluntarily surrendered their houses vvas timshed, many were brought over, and Coiistan- tine (a coadjutor of Tindal) being taken in England, the lord-chancellor, in a private examination, prom- ised him that no hurt should be done him if he would reveal who encouraged and supported him at An- twerp ; which he accepted of, and told that the great- est encouragement they had was from the Bishop of London, who had bought up half the impression. This made all that heard of it laugh heartily, though more judicious persons discerned the great temper of that learned bishop in it." — Burnet's Reform., i., 260.— C. * Mr. Frith wrote a tract, published with his other works, London, 1573, entitled " A Declaration of Baptism." Sir James Bainham seems, from his examination before the Bishop of London, Dec. 15, 1531, to have been an opposer of mfanl baptism. — Crosby's Hist, of the English Baptists, vol. i., p. 31. Fox's Martyrs, vol. ii., p. 227, 241, 256, 445.— C. into the king's hands ; others, upon examination, appeared guilty of the greatest frauds and im- positions on the simplicity of the people : many of their pretended relics were exposed and de- stroyed, as the Virgin Mary's milk, showed in eight places ; the coals that roasted St. Law- rence ; and an angel with one wing that brought over the bead of the spear that pierced our Sav- iour's side ; the rood of grace, which was so contrived, that the eyes and lips might move upon occasion ; with many others. The images of a great many pretended saints were taken down and burned, and all the rich offerings made at their shrines were seized for the crown, which brought an immense treasure into the exchequer. Upon the report of the visiters, the Parliament consented to the suppression of the lesser mon- asteries under £200 a year value, and gave them to the king to the number of three hundred and seventy-six. Their rents amounted to about £32,000 per annum : their plate, jewels, and furniture, to about £100,000.* The churdres and cloisters were for the most part pulled down, and the lead, and bells, and other materials, sold. A new court, called the Court of Augmentations of the King's Revenue,! was erected, to receive the rents and to dispose of the lands, and bring the profits into the exchequer. Every religious person that was turned out of his cell had 45s. given him in money, of which number there were about ten thousand ; and every governor had a pension. But to ease the government of this charge, the monks and friars were put into benefices as fast as they became vacant ; by which means it came to pass that the body of the inferior clergy were disguised papists and enemies to the Reformation. The lesser religious houses being dissolved, the rest followed in a few years : for in the years 1537 and 1539, the greater abbeys and monas- teries were broken up, or surrendered to the crown, to prevent an inquiry into their lives and manners. This raised a great clamour among the people, the monks and friars going up and down the country like beggars, clamouring at the injustice of the suppression. The king, to quiet them, gave back fifteen abbeys and six- teen nunneries for perpetual alms ; but several of the abbots being convicted of plots and con- spiracies against his government, his majesty resumed his grants after two years, and obtained an act of Parliament, whereby he was empow- ered to erect sundry new cathedral churches and bishoprics, and to endow them out of the prof- its of the religious houses. The king intended, says Bishop Burnet, to convert £18,000 a year into a revenue for eighteen bishoprics and ca- thedrals ; but of them he only erected six, viz., the bishoprics of Westminster, Chester, Peter- borough, Oxford, Gloucester, and Bristol. This was the chief of what his majesty did for reli- gion, which was but a small return of the im- mense sums that fell into his hands : for the clear rents of all the suppressed houses were cast up at £131,607 6.5. 4rf. per annum, as they were then rated, but were at least ten times as much in value. Most of the abbey lands were given away among the courtiers, or sold at easy rates to the gentry, to engage them by interest against the resumption of them to the Church. «■ Burnet's Hist. Ret'., vol. i., p. 223. t 27 Henry VHI., cap. xxvii., xxviii. 36 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. In the year 1545, the Parliament gave the king the chantries, colleges, free chapels, liospitals, fraternities, and guilds, with their manors and estates. Seventy manors and parks were alien- ated from the archbishopric of York, and twelve from Canterbury, and confirmed to the crown. How easily might this king, with his immense revenues, have put an end to the being of Par- liaments ! The translation of the New Testament by Tyndal, already mentioned, had a wonderful spread among the people ; though the bishops condemned it, and proceeded with the utmost severity against those that read it. They com- plained of It to the king ; upon which his majes- ty called it in by proclamation in the month of June, 1530, and promised that a more correct translation should be published : but it was im- possible to stop the curiosity of the people so long ; for, though the bishops bought up and bujned all they could meet with, the Testament was reprinted abroad, and sent over to mer- chants at London, who dispersed the copies privately among their acquaintance and friends. At length, it was moved in convocation that the whole Bible should be translated into Eng- lish, and set up in churches ; but most of the old clergy were against it They said this "would lay the foundation of innumerable here- sies, as it had done in Germany ; and that the people were not proper judges of the sense of Scripture : to which it was replied, that the Scriptures were written at first in the vulgar tongue ; tiiat our Saviour commanded his hear- ers to search the Scriptures ; and that it was necessary people should do so now, that they might be satisfied that the alterations the king had made in religion were not contrary to the Word of God. These arguments prevailed with the majority to consent that a petition should be presented to the king, that his majesty would please to give order about it. But- the old bishops were too much disincli- jied to move in it. The Reformers, therefore, were forced to have recourse to Mr. Tyndal's Bible, which had been printed at Hamburg, 1532, and reprinted three or four years after by Grafton and Whitchurch. The translators were Tyndal, assisted by Miles Coverdale, and Mr. John Rogers, the protomartyr : the Apocrypha was done by Rogers, and some marginal notes were inserted to the whole, which gave offence, and occasioned that Bible to be prohibited. But Archbishop Craniner, having now reviewed and corrected it, left out the prologue and notes, and added a preface of his own ; and because Tyndal was now put to death for a heretic, his name was laid aside, and it was called Thomas Matthew's Bible, and by some Cranmer's Bible ; though it was no more than Tyndal's transla- tion corrected.* This Bible was allowed by au- thority, and eagerly read by all sorts of people. * "Craniner began with the New Testament, an English copy ot which he divided into eight or ten parts, and sent to the most learned men of his day for their correclion. These were returned to Lambeth at the aniiointed time, with the exception of the Acts of the .\|)oslles, which had been intrusted to Stokes- ley, bisho|) of London, who wrote to Cranmer, 'I marvel what my Lord of Canterbury meaneth, that he thus abuseth the people, m giving thein Uberty to read the Scriptures, which doth nothing else but The fall of Queen Anne Bullcn, mother of Queen Elizabeth, was a great prejudice to the Reformation. She was a virtuous and pious lady, but airy and indiscreet in her behaviour : the jiopish party hated her for her religion ; and having awakened the king's jeajousy, put him upon a nice observance of her carriage, by which she quickly fell under his majesty's displeasure, who ordered her to be sent to the Tower, May 1. On the 15th of the same month she was tried by her peers for incontinence, for a pre- contract of marriage, and for conspiring the king's death ; and though there was little or no evidence, the lords found her guilty, for fear of offending the king ; and four days after she was beheaded within the Tower, protesting her inno- cence to the last. Soon after her execution the king called a Parliament to set aside the succes- sion of the Lady Elizabeth, her daughter, which was done, and the king was empowered to nomi- nate his successor by his last will and testament ; so that both his majesty's daughters were now declared illegitimate ; but the king having power to settle the succession as he pleased, in case of failure of male heirs, they were still in hopes, and quietly submitted to their father's pleasure. Complaint being sent to court of the diversity of doctrines delivered in pulpits, the king sent a circular letter to all the bishops, July 12 [1535], forbidding all preaching till Michaelmas; by which time certain articles of religion, most catholic, should be set forth. The king himself framed the articles, and sent them into convo- cation, where they were agreed to by both hous- es. An abstract of them will show the stale of the Reformation at this time. 1. " All preachers were to instruct the people to believe the whole Bible, and the three creeds, viz., the Apostles', the Nicene, and Athanasian, and to interpret all things according to them. 2. " That baptism was a sacrament instituted by Christ ; that it was necessary to salvation ; that infants were to be baptized for the pardon of original sin ; and that the opinions of the Anabaptists and Pelagians were detestable her- esies. [.\nd that those of ripe age, who desired baptism, must join with it repentance and con- trition for their sins, with a firm belief of the articles of the faith ] 3. " That penance, that is, contrition, confes- sion, and amendment of life, with works of char- infect them with heresy. I have bestowed never an hour upon my portion, nor ever will. And there- fore my lord shall have this book again, for I will never be guilty of bringing the simple people into error.'* So perverted were the views of the dignitaries of the Church, and so determined the opposition whicti Cranmer encountered in his labours tor its reforma- tion. His personal sense of the value of the Scrip- tures, and deep conviction of their importance, led him to persevere in his design, and secured his ulti- mate success." — Dr. Price's Hist, of No>ico?iformily, vol. 1., p. 49.— C. * Wlien Cnuiiner exjiressed his surprise at the conduct of Stukesley, wu are tuld that Mr. Thuuias Lawney. who stood by, reaiarked, ■' I can tell your grace why njy Lord of Loudon will uot bestow any laljour or pains this way. Your grace knoweth well that his portion is a piece of the New Testament ; but he, being persuaded that Christ had bequeathed bun nothing in his Testament, thought it mere mailness to bestow any labour or pains where no gain was to l)e gotten. And, besides this, it is the Acts of the Ajkis- tles, which were simple, poor fellows, and therefore my Lord of London disdained to have to do with aiiy of them." — Strt/pe's Cranmer, vol. i., p. 48, 49, 59, 82 — C HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 3T ity, was necessary to salvation ; to which must be added, faith in the mercy of God, that he ■will justify and pardon us, not for the worthi- ness of any merit or work done by us, but for the only merits of the blood and passion of Jesus Christ ; nevertheless, that a confession to a priest was necessary, if it might be had ; and that the absolution of a priest was the same as if it were spoken by God himself, according to our Saviour's words. That auricular confession was of use for the comfort of men's consciences. And though we are justified only by the satis- faction of Christ, yet the people were to be in- structed in the necessity of good works. 4. " That in the sacrament of the altar, under the form of bread and wine, there was, truly and substantially, the same body of Christ that was born of the Virgin. 5. " That justification signified the remission of sins, and a perfect renovation of nature in Christ. 6. "Concerning images : that the use of them was warranted in Scripture ; that they served to stir uj) devotion ; and that it was meet they should stand in churches ; but the people were to be taught that, in kneeling or worshipping be- fore them, they were not to do it to the image, but to God. 7. " Concerning honouring of saints, they were to be instructed not to expect those favours from them which are to be obtained only from God, but they were to honour them, to praise God for them, and to imitate their virtues. 8. " For praying to saints : that it was good to pray to them to pray for us and with us. 9. " Of ceremonies. The people were to be taught that they were good and lawful, having mystical significations in them ; such were the vestments in the worship of God, sprinkling holy water to put us in mind of our baptism and the blood of Christ ; giving holy bread, in sign of our union to Christ ; bearing candles on Can- dlemas day, in remembrance of Christ, the spirit- ual light ; giving ashes on Ash Wednesday, to put us in mind of penance and our mortality ; bearing palms on Palm Sunday, to show our desire to receive Christ into our hearts as he entered into Jerusalem ; creeping to the cross on Good Friday, and kissing it, in memory of his death ; with the setting up of the sepulchre on that day, the hallowing the font, and other exorcisms and benedictions. Lastly. " As to purgatory, they were to de- clare it good and charitable to pray for souls de- parted ; but since the place they were in, and the pains they suffered, were uncertain by Scrip- ture, they ought to remit them to God's mercy. Therefore, all abuses of this doctrine were to be put away, and the people disengaged from believing that the pope's pardons, or masses said in certain places, or belbre certain images, could deliver souls out of purgatory." These articles were signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, seventeen bishops, forty abbots and priors, and fifty archdeacons and proctors of the lower house of convocation : they were published by the king's autiiority, with a preface in his name requirmg all his subjects to accept them, which would encourage him to take far- ther pains for the honour of God and the wel- fare of his people. One sees here the dawn of the Reformation ; the Scriptures and the an- cient creeds are made the standards of faith without the tradition of the Church or decrees of the pope; the doctrine of justification by faith is well stated ; four of the seven sacraments are passed over, and purgatory is left doubtful. But transubstantiation, auricular confession, the worshipping of images and saints, still remained. The court of Rome were not idle spectators of these proceedings ; they threatened the king, and spirited up the clergy to rebellion ; and when all hopes of accommodation were at aa end, the pope pronounced sentence of excom- munication against the whole kingdom, depri- ving his majesty of his crown and dignity, for- bidding his subjects to obey him, and ail foreign princes to correspond with him ; all his leagues with them were dissolved, and his own clergy were commanded to depart the kingdom, and his nobility to rise in arms against him. The king, laying hold of this opportunity, called a Parliament, and obtained an act requiring all his subjects, under the pains of treason, to swear that the king was supreme head of the Church of England ; and to strike terror into the popish party, three priors and a monk of the Carthu- sian order were executed as traitors for refu- sing the oath, and for saying that the king was not supreme head under Christ of the Church of England ; but the two greatest sacrifices were John Fisher, bishop of Pvochester, and Sir Thom- as More, late lord-chancellor of England, who were both beheaded last year, within a fortnight of each other. This quieted the people for a time, but soon after there was an insurrection in Lincolnshire of twenty thousand men, head- ed by a churchman and directed by a monk ; but upon a proclamation of pardon, they dis- persed themselves : the same year there was another more formidable in the North, but after some time the rebels were defeated by the Duke of Norfolk, and the heads of them executed, among whom were divers abbots and priests. These commotions incensed the king against the religious houses, as nurseries of sedition, and made him resolve to suppress them all. In the mean time, his majesty went on boldly against the Church of Rome, and published cer- tain injunctions by his own authority, to regu- late the behaviour of the clergy. This was the first act of pure supremacy done by the king, for in all that went before he had the concur- rence of the convocation. The injunctions were to this purpose. 1. " That the clergy should twice every quar- ter publish to the people that the Bishop of Rome's usurped power had no foundation in Scripture, but that the king's supremacy was according to the laws of God. 2, 3. " They were to publish the late articles of faith set forth by the king, and likewise the king's proclamation for the abrogation of cer- tain holydays in harvest-time. 4. " They were to dissuade the people from making pilgrimages to saints, and to exhort them to stay at home and mind their families, and keep God's commandments. 5. " They were to exhort them to teach their children the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and Ten Commandments, in English.* * "And every incumbent was to explain these, one article a day, until the people were instructed in them."— Maddox's Vindic, p. 2U9.— Ed. 38 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 6. " They were to take care that the sacra- ments were reverently administered in their parishes. 7. " That the clergy do not frequent taverns and alehouses, nor sit long at games, but give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and a ' good life. 8. " Every beneficed person of £20 a year that did not reside, was to pay the fortieth part of his benefice to the poor. 9. " Every incumbent of £100 a year to main- tain one scholar at the university ; and so many hundreds a year so many scholars. 10. " The fifth pait of the profits of livings to be given to the repair of the vicarage house, if it be in decay." Thus the very same opinions, for which the followers of WicklifTe and Luther had been burned a few years before, were enjoined by the king's authority. This year a very remarkable book was print- ed by Batchelor, the king's printer, cum privile- gio, called " The Institution of a Christian Man." It was called the " Bishop's Book," because it was composed by sundry bishops, as Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Stokeley of London, Gardiner of Winchester, Sampson of Chiches- ter, Reps of Norwich, Goodrick of Ely, Latimer of Worcester, Shaxton of Salisbury, Fox of Hereford, Barlow of St. David's, and some other divines. It is divided into several chap- ters, and contains an explanation of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Seven Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the Ave Maria. Justifica- tion, and Purgatory. " The book maintains the local descent of Christ into hell, and that all ar- ticles of faith are to be interpreted according to Scripture and the first four general councils. It defends the seven sacraments, and under the sacrament of the altar, affirms that the body of Christ that suffered on the cross is substantial- ly present under the form of bread and wine. It maintains but two orders of the clergy, and avers that no one bishop has authority over another according to the Word of God. The invocation of saints is restrained to interces- sion, forasmuch as they have it not in their own power to bestow any blessings upon us. It maintains that no church should be conse- crated to any being but God. It gives liberty to work on saints' days, especially in harvest- time. It maintains the doctrine of passive obe- dience. In the article of justification, it says we are justified only by the merits and satisfac- tion of Christ, and that no good works on our part can procure the Divine favour or prevail for our justification."* This book was recommended and subscribed by the two archbishops, nineteen bishops, and the lower house of convocation, among whom were Gardiner, Bonner, and others, who put their brethren to death for these doctrines m the reign of Queen Mary ; but the reason of their present compliance might be, because all their hopes from the succession of the Prin- cess Mary were now defeated. Queen Jane be- ing brought to bed of a son October the 12th, 1538, who was baptized Edward, and succeeded his father. The translation of the Bible, already mention- * Strype's Mem. of Cranmer, p. 51. ed. was this year printed and published. Crom- well procured the king's warrant for all his maj- esty's subjects to read it without control ; and, by his injunctions, commanded one to be set up publicly in all the churches in England, that the people might read it. His majesty farther en- joined the clergy to preach the necessity of faith and repentance, and against trusting in pilgrimages and other men's works ; to order such images as had been abused to superstition to be taken down, and to tell the people that praying to them was no less than idolatry ; but still, transubstantiation, the seven sacra- ments, the communion in one kind only, pur- gatory, auricular confession, praying for the dead, the celibacy of the clergy, sprinkling of holy water, invocation of saints, some mtiages in churches, Mith most of the superstitious rites and ceremonies of the popish church, were re tained. Here his majesty made a stand ; for aftei this the Reformation fluctuated, and, upon the whole, went rather backward than forward ; which was owing to several causes, as (1.) To the unhappy death of the queen in childbed, who had possession of the king's heart, and was a promoter of the Reformation. (2.) To the king's disagreement with the Protestant princes of Germany, who would not put him at the head of their league, because he would not abandon the doctrine of transubstantiation and permit the communion in both kinds. (3.' To the king's displeasure against the arch- bishop and the other bishops of the new learn- ing, because he could not prevail with them to give consent in Parliament that the king should appropriate all the suppressed monasteries to his own use. (4.) To his majesty's unhappy mar- riage with the Lady Anne of Cleves, a Protest- ant ; which was promoted by the Reformers, and proved the ruin of the Lord Cromwell, who was at that time the bulwark of the Reformation. (5.) To the artifice and abject submission of Gardiner, Bonner, and other popish bishops, who, by flattering the king's imperious temper, and complying with his dictates, prejudiced him against the reformed. And, lastly, To his maj- esty's growing infirmities, which made him so peevish and positive that it was dangerous to advise to anything that was not known to be agreeable to his sovereign will and pleasure. The king began to discover his zeal against the Sacramentaries [and Anabaptists*] (as those were called who denied the corporeal presence of Christ in the eucharist), by prohib- iting the importing of all foreign books, or * In the articles of rehgion set forth in 1536, the sect of Anabaptists is mentioned and condemned. Fourteen Hollanders, accused of holding their opin- ions, were put to death in 1535, and ten saved them- selves by recantation. In 1428, there were in the diocess of Norwich one hundred and twenty who held that infants were sufficiently baptized if their parents were baptized before them ; that Christian people be sufficiently baptized in the blood of Christ, and need no water; and that the sacrament of baptism used in the Church by water is but a light matter, and of small effect. Three of these persons were burned alive. Long before this, it was a charge laid against the Lollards that they held these opin ions, and would not baptize their new-born children. —See Fox as quoted by Crosby, vol. i., p. 24, 40, 41 —Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 39 printing any portions of Scripture till they had been examined by himself and council, or by the bishop of the diocess ; by punishing all that denied the old rites, and by forbidding all to argue against the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, on pain of deatb. For breaking this last order, he condenmed to the flames this very year that faithful witness to the truth, John Lambert, who had been minister of the English congregation at Antwerp, and after- ward taught school in London ; but hearing Dr. Taylor preach concerning the real presence, he offered him a paper of reasons against it : Taylor carried the paper to Cranmer, who was then a Lutheran, and endeavoured to make him retract ; but Lambert, unhappily, appealed to the king, who, after a kind of mock trial in Westminster Hall, in presence of the bishops, nobility, and judges, passed sentence of death upon lum, condemning him to be burned as an incorrigible heretic. Cranmer was appointed to dispute against him, and Cromwell to read the sentence. He was soon after executed m Smithfield in a most barbarous manner; "nis last words in the flames were, "INone but Christ ! None but Christ !"* The Parliament that met next spring disserv- ed the Reformation, and brought religion back to the standard in which it continued to the King's death, by the act [31 Hen. VHL, cap. xiv] sommonly known by the name of the bloody statute, or the statute of the six articles : it was entitled. An act for abolishing Diversity of Opin- ions in certain Articles concerning Christian Heligion. The six articles were these :t 1. " That in the sacrament of the altar, after the consecration, there remains no substance of bread and wine, hut under these forms the nat- ural body and blood of Christ are present. 2. " That communion in both kinds is not ne- cessary to salvation to all persons by tiie law of God, but that both the flesh and blood of Christ are together in each of the kinds. 3. " That priests may not marry by the law of God. 4. " That vows of chastity ought to be observ- ed by the law of God. 5. " That private masses ought to be contin- ued, which, as it is agreeable to God's law, so men receive great benefit by them. 6. "That auricular confession is expedient and necessary, and ought to be retained in the Church." It was farther enacted, that if any did speak, preach, or write against the first article, they should be judged heretics, and be burned with- out any abjuration, and forfeit their real and personal estate to the king. Those who preach- ed, or obstinately disputed against the other ar- ticles, were to suffer death as felons, without * Lambert having heard Dr. Taylor preach on the presence of Christ in the sacrament, he sought an interview with him. and stated his objections to the received doctrine, which he afterward committed to writing. Taylor showed this paper to Dr. Barnes, a Lutheran, and they reported the matter to Cranmer, who summoned Lambert into the archiepiscopal court. It is deserving of notice that Cranmer, Tay- lor, and Barnes, the chief agents in Lambert's death, were themselves brought to the stake as heretics ! — Dr. Price's Hist, of Nuncon., vol. i., p. 49, 50. — C. t Cranmer alone had the courage to oppose the passing these articles.— W. benefit of clergy ; and those who, either in word or writing, declared against them, were to be prisoners during the king's pleasure, and to for- feit their goods and chattels for the first offence, and for the second to suffer death. All ecclesi- astical incumbents were to read this act in their churches once a quarter. As soon as the six articles took place, Shax- ton, bishop of Salisbury, and Latimer of Wor- cester, resigned their bishoprics, and being pre- sented for speaking against the act, they were imprisoned. Latimer continued a prisoner to the king's death, but Shaxton, being threatened with the fire, turned apostate, and proved a cruel persecutor of the Protestants in Queen Mary's reign. Commissions were issued oirt to the archbishops, bishops, and -their commissaries, to hold a sessions quarterly, or oftener, and to pro- ceed upon presentments by a jury according to law ; which they did most severely, insomuch that in a very little time five hundred persons were put in prison, and involved in the guilt of the statute ; but Cranmer and Cromwell obtain- ed their pardon, which mortified the popish cler- gy to such a degree, that they proceeded no far- ther till Cromwell fell. Another very remarkable act of Parliament, passed this session, w"as concerning obedience to the king's proclamations. It enacts, that the king, with advice of his council, may set forth proclamations with pains and penalties, which shall be obeyed as fully as an act of Parliament, provided they be not contrary to the laws and customs in being, and do not extend so far as that the subject shoidd suffer in estate, liberty, or person. An act of attainder was also passed against sixteen persons, some for denying the supremacy, and others without any particular crime mentioned ; none of them were brought to a trial, nor is there any mention in the rec- ords of any witnesses examined.* There never had been an example of such arbitrary proceed- ings before in England ; yet this precedent was followed by several others in the course-of this reign. By another statute, it was enacted that the councillors of the king's successor, if he were under age, might set forth proclamations in his name, which were to be obeyed in the same manner with those set forth by the king him- self I mention this, because upon this act was founded the validity of all the changes of reli- gion in the minority of Edward Vl.f Next year [1540] happened the fall of Lord Cromwell, one of the great pillars of the Refor- mation. He had been lately constituted the king's vicegerent in ecclesiastical affairs, and made a speech in Parliament, April 12th, under that character. On the 14th of April the king created him Earl of Essex, and Knight of the Garter ; but within two months he was arrested at the council-table for high treason, and sent to the Tower, and on the 28th of July was behead- ed by virtue of a bill of attainder, without being * Burnet's Hist. Rcf, vol. i., p. 263. t In this year sixteen men and fifteen women were banished for opposing infant baptism . they went to Delft, in Holland, ami were there prosecuted and put to death as Anabaptists ; the men being beheaded, and the women drowned. Among other injunctions issued out in 1539, was one against those who em- braced tFie opinions, or possessed books containing the opinions, of Sacramentarians and Anabaptists. — Crosbi/, b. i., p. 42. — Ed. 40 HlSTORi' OF THE PURITANS. brought to a trial, or once allowed to speak for himself. He was accused of executing certain orders and directions, for which lie had very probably the king's warrant, and, therefore, was not admitted to make answer. But the true cause of his fall* was the share he had in the king's marriage with the Lady Anne of Cleves, ■whom his majesty took an aversion to as soon as he saw her, and was, therefore, determined to show his resentments against the promoters of it ; but his majesty soon after lamented the loss of his honest and faithful servant when it ■was too late. Two days after the death of Cromwell there was a very odd execution of Protestants and papists at the same time and place. The Prot- estants were Dr. Barnes, Mr. Gerrard, and Mr. Jerome, all clergymen and Lutherans ; they were sent to the Tower for offensive sermons preach- ed at the Spittle in the Easter week, and were attainted of heresy by the Parliament without being brought to a hearing. Four papists, viz., Gregory Buttolph, Adam Damplin, Edmund Brindhojme, and Clement Philpot, were by the same act attainted for denying the king's suprem- acy, and adhering to the IBishop of Home. The Protestants -A^ere burned, and the papists hang- ed : the former cleared themselves of heresy by rehearsing the articles of their faith at the stake, and died with great devotion and piety ; and the latter, though grieved to be drawn in the same hurdle with them they accounted heretics, de- clared their hearty forgiveness of all their ene- mies. About this time [1543] was published a very remarkable treaties, called A Necessary Erudi- tion for a Christian Man. It was drawn up by a committee of bishops and divines, and was af- * Dr. Maddox remarks on this statement of the cause of Cromwell's fall, that it is expressly contra- dicted by Bishop Burnet, who, speaking of the king's creating' him Earl of Essex, upon his marriage with Anne of Cleves, adds, "This shows that the true causes of Cromwell's fall must be founded in some other thing than his making up the king's marriage, who had never thus raised his title if he had intend- ed so soon to pull him down." — Hist. Ref., vol. i., p. 275. In reply to this, Mr. Neal says, " Let the reader judge : his (i. e.. Bishop Burnet's) words are these : ' An unfortunate marriage, to which he advised the king, not proving acceptable, and he being unwilling to destroy what himself had brought about, was the occasion of his disgrace and destruction.' — Vol. iii., p. 172. If his lordship has contradicted this in any other place (which I apprehend he has not), he must an- swer for it himself" It may be observed, that these two passages stand in a very voluminous work, at a great distance from one another, so that the apparent inconsistency might escape the bishop's notice ; while his remark in the first can have little force, when ap|ilied to the con- duct of a prince so capricious and fluctuating in his attachments as was Henry VIII., ;ind who soon grew disgusted with his queen. It is with no propriety that Mr. Meal's accuracy and fidehty are, in this instance, impeached : it justifies his representation, that nearly the same is given by Fuller in his Church History, b. v., p. 231. " Match-makers," says he, "bet'vvixt pri- vate persons seldom find great love for their pains ; betwixt princes, often fall into danger, as here it proved in the Lord Cromwell, the grand contriver of the king's marriage with Anne of Cleves." The cause of Cromwell's disgrace is more fully and judiciously investigated by Dr. Warner, in his Eccle- siastical History, vol. ii., p. 197, 198. — Ed. terward read and approved by the iDrds sniritual and temporal, and the lower house of Parlia- ment. A great part of it was corrected by the king's own hand, and the whole was published by liis order, with a preface in the name of King Henry VIIL, dedicated to all liis faithful sut^ jects. It was called the King's Book, and was designed for a standard of Christian belief.* The reader, therefore, will judge by the abstract below, of the sentiments of our first Reformers in sundry points of doctrine and discipline,! * Burnet's Hist. Ref , vol. i., p. 286. t It begins with a description of Faith, " of which (says the book) there are two acceptations. (1 .) It is sometimes taken for ' a belief or persuasion wrought by God in men's hearts, whereby they assent and take for true all the words and sayings of God re- vealed in Scripture.' This faith, it it proceeds no far- ther, is but a dead faith. (2.) Faith is sometimes considered in conjunction with hope and charity, and so it signifies ' a sure confidence and hope to obtain whatsoever God has promised for Christ's sake, and is accompanied with a hearty love to God, and obe- dience to his commands.' This is a lively and effect- ual faith, and is the perfect faith of a Christian. It is by this faith that we are justified, as it is joined with hope and charity, and includes an obedience to the whole doctrine and religion of Christ. But whether there be any special particular knowledge, whereby men may be certain and assured that they are among the predestinate, which shall to the end persevere in t^eir calling, we cannot find either ia the Scriptures or doctors ; the promises of God being conditional, so that, though his promise stands, we may fail of the blessing for want of fulfilling our ob- ligation." After the chapter of Faith follows an excellent par- aphrase on the twelve articles of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria, or the salutation of the angel to the blessed Virgin, and the Ten Commandments ; and here the second commandment is shortened, the words ' for I the Lord thy God,' &c., being left out, and only those that go before set down. Images are said to be profitable to stir up the mind to emulation, though we may not give them godly honour ; never- theless, censing and kneeling before them is allowed. Invocation of saints as intercessors is declared law- ful ; and the fourth commandment only ceremonial, and obliging the Jews. Then follows an article of Free-will, which is de- scribed, " 'A certain power of the will joined with reason, whereby a reasonable creature, without con- straint in things of reason, discerneth and willeth good and evil ; but it willeth not that that is accept- able to God unless it be holpen with grace, but that, which is ill it willeth of itself Our wills were per- fect in the state of innocence, but are much impaired by the fall of Adam ; the high powers of reason and freedom of will being wounded and corrupted, and all men thereby brought into such blindness and in- firmity that they cannot avoid sin except they are made free by special grace, that is, by the supernat- ural working of the Holy Ghost. The light of rea- son is unable to conceive the things that appertain to eternal life, though there remains a sufficient freedom, of will in things pertaining to the present life. 'With- out me,' says the Scripture, 'you can do nothing;' therefore, when men feel that, notwithstanding their diligence, they are not able to do that which they de- sire, thev ought with a steadfast faith and devotion to ask of him, who gave the beginning, that he would vouchsafe to perform it. But preachers are to fake care so to moderate themselves, that they neither so preach the crace of God as to take away free-will, and make God the author of sin, nor so extol free- will as to injure the grace of God." In the article of Justification, it asserts, " that all th^ posterity of Adam are born in original sin, atsd are hereby guilty of everlasting death and damnation; but that God sent his own Son, being naturally Goiftf HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 41 which then constituted the established doctrine of the Church of England ; for by the statute of 33 Hen. VIII., cap xxvi., it is enacted " that all decrees and ordinances which shall be made to take our nature and redeem us, which he could not have done but by virtue of the union of his two natures." It then speaks of a twofold justiHcalion: the tirst is upon our believing, and is obtained by re- pentance and a lively faith in the passion and merits of our blessed Saviour, and joining therewuh a full purpose to amend our lives for the future. The sec- ond, or final justification at death, or the last judg- ment, impbes, farther, the exercise of all Christian graces, and the foilowinff the motions of the Spirit of God in doing good works, which will be considered and recompensed in the day of judgment. When the Scripture speaks of justification by faith without mentioning any other grace, it must not be under- stood of a naked faith, but of a lively, operative faith, as before described, and refers to our first justifica- tion thus we are justified by free grace ; and, what- ever share good works may have in our final justifi- cation, they cannot derogate from the grace of God, because all our good works come of the free mercy and grace of God, and are done by his assistance ; so that all boasting is excluded." This leads to the article of Good Works, '' which are said to be absolutely necessary to salvat'on ; but they are not outward corporeal works, but inward spiritual works ; as the love and fear of God, patience, humility, &c. Nor are they superstitious works of men's invention ; nor only moral works done by the power of reason, and the natural will of man, without faith in Christ ; which, though they are good in kind, do not merit everlasting life ; but such outward and inward good works as are done by faith in Christ, out of love to God, and in obedience to his commands, and which cannot be performed by man's power without Divine assistance. Now these are of two sorts : (1.) Such as are done by persons already justified; and these, though imperfect, are accepted for Christ's sake, and are meritorious towards the attaining ever- lasting life. (2.) Other works are of an inferior sort, as fasting, alms-deeds, and other fruits of penance, which are of no avail without faith. But, after all, justification and remission of sins is the free gift of the grace of God ; and it does not derogate from that grace to ascribe the dignity to good works above mentioned, because all our good works come of the grace of God." The chapter of Prayer for Souls Departed leaves the matter in suspense : " It is good and charitable to do it ; but because it is not known what condition departed souls are in, we ought only to recommend them to the mercy of God." In the chapter of the Sacraments, "all the seven sacraments are maintained, and in particular the cor- poreal presence of Christ in the eucharist." In the sacrament of Orders, the book maintains no real distinction between bishops and priests ; it says that " St. Pa\il consecrated and ordered bishops by imposition of hands ; but that there is no certain rule prescribed in Scripture for the nomination, election, or presentation of them ; this is left to the positive laws of every country. That the office of the said ministers is to preach the word, to minister the sac- raments, to bind and loose, to excommunicate those that vvill not be reformed, and to pray for the univer- sal Church; but that they may not execute their of- fice without license from the civil magistrate. The sacraments do not receive efficacy or strength from the ministration of the priest or bishop, but from God ; the said ministers being only officers, to administer wiih their hands those corporeal things by which God gives grace, agreeably to St. Ambrose, who writes thus: 'The priest lays his hands upon us, but it is God that gives grace ; the priest lays on us his be- seeching hands, but God bles.seth us with his mighty hand.' " Concerning the order of Deacons, the book says, Vol. I.— F and ordained by the archbishops, bishops, and doctors, and shall be published with the king's advice and confirmation, by his letters patent, in and upon the matters of Christian faith, and lawful rights and ceremonies, shall be in every point thereof believed, obeyed, and performed, to all intents and purposes, upon the pains there- in comprised ; provided nothing be ordained con- trary to the laws of the realm." How near the book above mentioned comes to the qualifica- tions of this statute, is obvious to the reader. It is no less evident that by the same act the king was in a manner invested with the infalli- bility of the pope, and had the consciences and faith of his people at his absolute disposal. By this abstract of the erudition of a Chris- tian man,* it appears, farther, that our reformers " Their office in the primitive Church was partly to minister meat and drink, and other necessaries, to the poor, and partly to minister to the bishops and priests. Then follows this remarkable passage : ' Of these two orders only, that is to say, priests and deacons, Scripture maketh express mention, and how they were conferred of the apostles by prayer and imposi- tion of hands ; but the primitive Church afterward appointed inferior degrees, as sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists, &c. ; but lest, peradventure, it might be thought by some that such authorities, powers, and jurisdictions, as patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and metropolitans now have, or heretofore at any time have had, justly and lawfully over other bishops, were given them by God in Holy Scripture, we think it expedient and necessary that all men should be ad- vertised and taught, that all such lawful power and authority of any one bishop over another, were and be given them by the consent, ordinances, and posi- tive laws of mm otiti/, and not by any ordinance of God in Holy Scripture ; and all such power and au- thority which any bishop has used over another, which have not been given him by such consent and ordi- nance of men, are in very deed no lawful power, but plain usurpation and tyranny." To the view which Mr. Neal has given of the doc- trinal sentiments contained in this piece, which was also called the bishop's book, it is proper to add the idea it gave of the duty of subjects to their prince. Its commentary on the fifth commandment runs thus : " Subjects be bound not to withdraw their fealty, truth, love, and obedience towards their prince, for any cause, whatsoever it be." In the exposition of the sixth commandment, the same principles of pas- sive obedience and nonresistance are inculcated, and it is asserted " that God hath assigned no judges over princes in this world, but will have the judgment of them reserved to himself" — Ed. Though the Institution of a Christian Man is a book now disused, the same sentiments, connected with the idea of the jure divino of kings, still run through the homilies, the articles, the canons, and the rubric of the Church of England, and have been again and again sanctioned by the resolutions and orders of our convocations. Bishop Blake, on his deathbed, sol- emnly professed " that the religion of the Church of England had taught him the doctrine of nonresist- ance and passive obedience, and that he took it to be the distinguishing character of that church."— High-Church Politics, p. 75, 89, and the note in the last page. — Ed. It is not easy to say what sincere or complete alli- ance there can be between the Church and State, when the dogmas of the former are in such glaring repugnance to the constitution of the latter; when the former educates slaves, the latter freemen ; when the former sanctions the tyranny of kings, the latter is founded in the rights of the people. In this re- spect, surely, the Church needs a reform. — Ed. * Dr. Warner observes, on this performance, that there were so many absurdities of the old religion still retained, so much metaphysical jargon about the 42 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. built pretty much upon the plan of St. Austin, with relation to the doctrines of justification and grace. The sacraments and ceremonies are so contrived as to be consistent with the six arti- cles established by Parliament. But with re- gard to discipline, Cranuier and his brethren were for being directed wholly by the civil magistrate, which has since been disting-nish- ed by the name of Erastianisin. Accordingly, they took out commissions to hold their bishop- rics during the king's pleasure, and to exercise Iheir jurisdiction by his authority only. But notwithstanding this reformation of doc- trine, the old popish forms of worship were continued till this year [1544], when a faint at- tempt was made to reform them. A form of procession was published in English, by the king's authority, entitled An Exhortation to Prayer, thought meet by His Majesty and his Clergy to be read to the People ; also a Litany, with Suffrages to be said or sung in the Time of the Processions. In the litany they invocate the blessed Virgin, the angels, archangels, and all holy orders of blessed spirits ; all holy patri- archs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and all the blessed company of heaven, to pray for them. The rest of the litany is in a manner the very same as now in use, only a few more collects were placed at the end, with some psalms, and a paraphrase on the I>ord's Prayer. The preface is an exhortation to the duty of prayer, and says that it is convenient, and very acceptable to God, to use private pray- er in our mother-tongue, that, by understanding what we ask,* we may more earnestly and fer- vently desire the same. The hand of Cranmer was, no doubt, in this performance, but it was little regarded, though a mandate was sent to Bonner, bishop of London, to publish it.t But Cranmer's power was now very much weakened ; he strove against the stream, and could accomplish nothing farther, except a small mitigation of the rigorous prosecution of the six articles ; for by the thirty-fifth of Henry VIII., cap. v., it is enacted "that persons shall not be convicted upon this statute but by the oaths of twelve men ; that the prosecution shall be within a year ; and that, if any one preaches against the six articles, he shall be informed against within forty days." This rendered the prosecution more difficult ; and yet, after all, several were burned at this time for denying the doctrine of transubstantiation, as Mrs. Anne Askew, Mr. Belenian, Adams, Lascels, and oth- ers. The books of Tyndal, Frith, Joy, Barnes, and other Protestants, were ordered to be burn- ed ; and the importation of all foreign books re- lating to religion was forbid, without special li- cense from the king. Upon the whole, the Reformation went very much backimrd the three or four last years of the king's life, as appears by the statute of 35 merit of good works, about the essential parts and consequences of faith, about free-will and grace, that this book, instead of promoting the Reformation, visi- bly put it back. — Ecdes. Hist., vol. ii., p. 205. This work was reprinted by Bishop Lloyd, in 1825, under the title of Formularies of Faith put forth by au- thority in the reign of Henry VIII. — C. * Burnet's Hist. Eef., vol. i., p. 331, and the Rec- ords, b. iii.. No. 28. + Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. in., p. 164. Henry VIII., cap. i., which leads the people back into the darkest parts of popery. It says "that recourse must be had to the Catholic and apostolic Cliurch for the decision of controver- sies ; and therefore all books of the Old and New Testament in English, being of Tyndal's false translation, or comprising any matter of Christian religion, articles of faith, or Holy Scripture, contrary to the doctrine set forth by the king [in the six articles], 1540, or to be set forth by the king, shall be abolished. No per- son shall sing or rhyme contrary to the said doctrine. No person shall retain any English books or writings against the holy and blessed sacrament of the altar, or other books abolished by the king's proclamation. There shall be no annotations or preambles in Bibles or New Tes- taments in English. The Bible shall not be read in English in any church. No woman, or artif- icers, apprentices, journeymen, serving-men, husbandmen, or labourers, shall read the New Testament in English. Nothing shall be taught or maintained contrary to the king's instruc- tions. If any spiritual person shall be convicted of preaching or maintaining anything contrary to the king's instructions already made, or here- after to be made, he shall for the first offence recent, for the second bear a fagot, and for the tlurd be burned. Here is popery and spiritual slavery in its full extent. Indeed, the pope is discharged of his jurisdiction and authority, but a like authority is vested in the king. His majesty's instruc- tions are as binding as the pope's canons, and upon as severe penalties. He is absolute lord of the consciences of his subjects. No bishop or spiritual person may preach any doctrine but what he approves, nor do any act of govern- ment in the Church but by his special commis- sion. This seems to have been given his maj- esty by the act of supremacy, and is farther confirmed by one of the last statutes of his reign [37 Henry VIII., cap. xvii], which declares that " archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical persons, have no manner of juris- diction ecclesiastical, but by, under, and from his royal majesty ; and that his majesty is the only supreme head of the Church of England and Ireland ; to whom, by Holy Scripture, all authority and power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of causes ecclesiastical, and to correct all manner of heresies, errors, vices, and sins whatsoever, and to all such persons as his majesty shall appoint there- unto." This was carrying the regal power to the ut- most length. Here is no reserve of privilege for convocations, councils, or colleges of bish- ops ; the king may ask their advice, or call them in to his aid and assistance, but his majesty has not only a negative voice upon their proceed- ings, but may himself, by his letters patent, pub- lish injunctions in matters of religion, for cor- recting all errors in doctrine and worsliip. His proclamations have the force of a law, and all his subjects are obliged to believe, obey, and profess according to them, under the highest penalties.* * " When the religion of a people is made to depend on the pleasure of their rulers, it is necessarily sub- jected to a thousand infusions foreign from its nature. The kingly or magisterial office is essentially poiiti- HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 43 Thus matters stood when this great and ab- solute monarch died of an nicer in his leg, being so corpulent that he was forced to be let up and down stairs with an engine. The humour in his leg made him so peevish, that scarce any- body durst speak to him of the atTairs of his kingdom or ot another life. He signed his will December 30, 1516, and died January 28th fol- lowing, in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, and the fifty-sixtli of his age. He ought to be ranked (says Bishop Burnet) among the ill prin- ces, but not among the worst.* cal. Its power may be wielded by an irreligious, im- moral, or profane man ; a despiser of Christianity, or a blasphemer of God. What, therefore, can be more monstrous than to attach to such an ollice a control- ling power over the faith and worship of the Church ; to constitute its occupant the supreme head of that body, which is represented as a congregation of faith- ful men ( The Christian faith addresses men individ- ually, soliciting an cvaimnalion of its character, and demanding an intelligent and hearty obedience. But where the pleasure ot a king is permitted to regulate the faith of a nation, authority is substituted lor rea- son, and the promptings of fear supplant the percep- tions of evidence, and the conlidmg attachment of an enlightened piety. This is the radical delect of the English Reformation. The people were prohibited from proceeding farther than the king authorized. They were to believe as he taught, anil to worship as he enjoined. Suspending their own reason, e.\lin- guishing the light divine within them, they were to follow their monarch, licentious and bloodthirsty as he was, in all matters pertaining to the moral gov- ernment and eternal welfare of their souls." — Dr. Price s Hist. Nonconformity, vol. i., p. (J3, 64. — C. * " The policy of the king continued to vacillate to the close of his hie, which happened on the 2bth of January, lo47. Of his character little need be said. In early life, his personal qualities were brilliant and imposing, and the contrast he furnished to his pru- dent and parsimonious father attached an unwonted degree of popularity to the commencement of his xeign. But his temper grew capricious, and his dis- position cruel, as he advanced in years. Casting aside the tenderness of his youth, he became fero- cious and bloodthirsty , the indiscriminate persecu- tor of all parties, according as his humour or policy might suggest. His claim to our attention is tound- ed on the religious revolution heetfected. The part he acted in this great change invested him with a false glory, which has misled the judgment and per- verted the sympathies of his countrymen. His inti mate connexion with the first movements of ecclesi- astical reform has obtained him credit for religious principles of which he was wholly destitute. The adulatory style in which he was addressed by the contending religionists of his day has been mistaken for the sober e-vpressions of truth; and his name, in consequence, has passed current as a reformer of re- ligion, a purifier of the temple of God. A veil has thus been cast over the enormities of his life, which has preserved him from the execration to which he is so justly obnoxious. The motives by which he was actuated, in his separation from the papacy, were anything but religious. The divorce which he caused Cranmer to pronounce in 1533, as it was designed to make way for his own gratitication, so it precipitated him into a course of measures, from the s[)iritual bearings of which his heart was utterly estranged. He sought only the satisfaction of his own evil pas- sions. The man who could profane with blood the sanctuary of domestic joys ; who could win, with flattering speech, the confiding attachment of the female heart, and then consign the beautiful form, in whose best atfections he was enshrined, to the block ; who could raise talent from obscurity, avail himself of its services, and then, with brutal indifterence, re- ward them with a public execution, retained so little CHAPTER II. EEIGM OF KING EDWARD VI. The sole right and authority of reforming the Church of England were now vested in the crown ; and, by the Act of Succession, in the king's council, if he were under age. This waa preferable to a foreign jurisdiction ; but it can hardly be proved that either the king or his council have a right to judge for the whole na- tion, and impose upon the people what religion they think best, without their consent. The reformation of the Church of England was be- gun and carried on by the king, assisted by Archbishop Cranmer and a few select divines. The clergy in convocation did not move in it but as they were directed and overawed by their superiors ; nor did they consent till they were modelled to the designs of the court. Our learned historian. Bishop Burnet,* en- deavours to justify this conduct, by putting the following question, " What must be done when the major part of a church is, according to the conscience of the supreme civil magistrate, in an error, and the lesser part is in the right 1" In answer to this question, his lordship ob- serves, that " there is no promise in Scripture that the majority of pastors shall be in the right ; on the contrary, it is certain that truth, separate from interest, has few votaries. Now, as it is not reasonable that the smaller part should depart from their sentiments because opposed by the majority, whose interests led them to oppose the Reformation, therefore they might take sanctuary in the authority of the prince and the law." But is there any prom- ise in Scripture that the king or prince shall lie always in the right ! or is it reasonable that the majority should depart from their sen- timents in religion because the prince, with the minority, are of another mind 1 If we ask what authority Christian princes have to bind the consciences of their subjects, by penal laws, to worship God after their maimer, his lordship answers. This was practised in the Jewish state. But it ought to be remembered that the Jewish state was a theocracy ; that God himself was their king, and their chief magistrates only his vicegerents or deputies ; that the laws of Moses were the laws of God ; and the penalties annexed to them as much of Divine appointment as the laws themselves. It is therefore absurd to make the special com- mission of the Jewish magistrates a model for the rights of Christian princes. But his lord- ship adds, " It is the first law in Justinian's code, made by the Emperor Theodosius, that all should everywhere, under severe pain, follow that faith that was received by Damasius, bish- op of Rome, and Peter of Alexandria. And why might not the king and laws of England give the like authority to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York!" I answer. Because Theodosius's law was an unreasonable usur- pation upon the right of conscience. If the Apos- tle Paul, who was an inspired person, had not dominion over the faith of the churches, how came the Roman emperor, or other Christia& of the image of humanity, as to be infinitely removed from the spirit and temper of Christ." — Doct. Price's Hist. Nonconformity, vol. i., p. 60, 61. — C. * Hist. Ref , vol. ii., in preface. 44 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. princes, by such a jurisdiction, which has no foundation in the law of nature or in the New Testament I His lordship goes on, " It is not to be ima- gined how any changes in religion can be made by sovereign princes, unless an authority be lodged with tlieai of giving tlie sanction of a law to the sounder, tluuigh llie lesser part, of a church ; for as princes and lawgivers are not tied to an implicit obedience to clergymen, but are left to the freedom of their own discerning, so they must have a power to choose what side to be of, where things are much inquired into." And why have not the clergy and the common people the same power 1 why must they be tied to an implicit faith in their princes and law- givers 1 Is there any promise in tiie Word of God that princes and lawgivers shall be infalli- ble, and always judge riglit which is the sound- er, though the lesser part of a church ? " If," as his lordship adds, "the major part of synods can- not be supposed to be in matters of faith so as- sisted from Heaven that the lesser part must necessarily acquiesce in their decrees, or that the civil powers must always make laws accord- ing to their votes, especially when interest does visibly turn the scale," how can the prince or civil magistrate depend upon such assistance! Can we be sure that interest or prejudice will never turn the scale with him ; or that he has a better acquaintance with the truths of the Gospel than his clergy or people 1 It is highly reasonable that the prince should choose for himself what side he will be of, when things are much inquired into ; but then let the clergy and people have the same liberty, and neither the major nor minor part impose upon the other, as long as they entertain no principles incon- sistent with the safety of the government. "When the Christian belief had not the support of law, every bishop taught his own flock the best he could, and gave his neighbours such an account of his faith, at or soon after his conse- cration, as satisfied them ; and so," says his lordship, " they maintained the unity of the Church." And why might it not be so stilH Is not this better, upon all accounts, than to force people to profess what they cannot believe, or to propagate religion with the swcjrJ, as was too much the case with our Reformers 1 If the penal laws had been taken away, and the points in controversy between Protestants and papists had been left to a free and open debate, while the civil magistrate had stood by and only kept the peace, the Reformation would certainly have taken place in due time, and proceeded m a much more unexceptionable manner than it did. To return to the history. King Edward VI. came to the crown at the age of nine years and four months; a prince for learning and piety, for acquaintance with the world, and applica- tion to business, llie very wonder of his age. His f'aiher, by his last will and testament, named sixteen persons executors of liis will, and re- gents of the kingdom, till his son should be eighteen years of age: out of these, the Earl of Hertford, the king's uncle, was chosen protector of the king's realms, and governor of his per- son. Besides these, twelve were added as a privy council, to be assisting to them. Among the regents, some were for tlie old religion, and others for the new ; but it soon appeared that the Reformers had the ascendant, the young king having been educated in their principles by his tutor. Dr. Cox, and the new protector, his uncle, being on the same side. Tlie major- ity of the bishops and inferior clergy were on the side of popery, hut the government was in the hands of the Reformers, who began imme- diately to relax the rigours of the late reign.* The persecution upon the six articles was stop- ped ; the prison doors w-ere set open ; and sev- eral who had been forced to quit the kingdom for their religion, returned home, as. Miles Coverdale, afterward Bishop of Exeter; John Hooper, afterward Bishop of Gloucester ; John Rogers, tlie protomartyr ; and many others, who were preferred to considerable benefices in the Church. The reforming divines, being deliver- ed from their too awful subjection to the late king, began to open against the abuses of po- pery. Dr. Ridley and others preached vehement- ly against images in churches, and inflamed the people, so that in many places they outrun the law, and pulled them down without authority. Some preached against the lawfulness of soul- masses and obits ; though the late king, by his last will and testament, had left a large sum of money to have them continued at Windsor, where he was buried, and for a frequent distri- bution of alms for the repose of his soul, and its deliverance out of purgatory ; but this charity was soon after converted to other uses. The popish clergy were alarmed at these things, and insisted strongly that till the king, their su- preme head, was of age, religion should continue in the state in which King Henry left it. But the Reformers averred that the king's authority was the same while he was a minor as when he was of age ; and that they had heard the late king declare his resolution to turn the mass into a communion if he had lived a little longer, upon which they thought it their duty to pro- ceed. After the solemnity of the king's coronation, the regents appointed a royal visitation, and commanded the clergy to preach nowhere but in their parish churches without license, till the visitation was over. The kingdom was di- vided into six circuits, two gentlemen, a civil- ian, a divine, and a register, being appointed for each. The divines were by their preaching to instruct the peojile in the doctrines of the Ref- ormation, and to bring them off from their old superstitions. The visitation began in the month of August ; six of the gravest divines and most popular preachers attended it : their names were Dr. Ridley, Dr Madew, Mr. Briggs, Cottisford, Joseph, and Farrar. A book of homilies, t or sermons, upon the chief points of the Christian faitlijt drawn up chiefly by Archbishop Cranmer, * The heads of the two parties were these : For the Ueformation — King Edward, duke of Somerset, protector ; Dr. Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury ; Dr. Holgate, archbishop of York ; Sir W. Paget, sec- retary of state ; Lord-viscount Lisle, lord-admiral ; Dr. Holbeach, bishop of Lincoln ; Dr. Goodrick, bish- op of Ely ; Dr. Latimer, bishop of Worcester ; Dr. Ridley, elect of Rochester. For the old religion — • Princess Mary ; Wriothesiey, earl of Southampton, lord chancellor ; Dr. Tonstaf bishop of Durham ; Dr. Gardiner, bishop of VVinchester ; Dr. Bonner, bishop of London. t Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. if, p. 27. i The book consisted of twelve discourses, on the HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 45 was printed, and ordered to be left with every parish priest, to supply the delect of preaching-, which tew of the clergy at that time were capa- ble of performing. (Jranmer communicated it to Gardiner, and would fain have gained his ap- probation of It ; but he was so mllumed at being left out of the king's will, that he t;ons(fenlly op- posed all inuovatioii till the king should be of age. AV'ith these homilies the visiters were to de- liver sundry injunctions from the king, to the number of thirty-six.* The bishops were enjoined to see the articles put in execution, and to preach themselves four times a year, unless they had a reasonable ex- following arguments: 1. Concerning the use of the Scriptures. 2. Of the misery of inaakind by sin. 3. Of their salvation by Christ. 4. Of a true and lively faith. 5. Of good works. 6. Of Christian love and charity. 7. Against swearing and perjury. 8. Against apostacy. 9. Against the fear of death. 10. An ex- hortation to obedience. U. Against whoredom and adultery. 12. Against strife and conlention about matters of religion. These titles of the homilies are taken verbatim from Bishop Burnet. — Neat's Review. * The chief were, 1. "'I'hat all ecclesiastical persons observe the laws relating to the king's supremacy. 2. " That they preach unce a quarter against pil- grimages and praying to images, and exhort to works of faith and charity. 3. " That images abused with pilgrimages and of- ferings be taken down ; that no wax candles or ta- pers be burned before them ; but only two lights upon the high altar before the sacrament shall remain still, to signify that Christ is the light of the world." The limitation in this article giving occasion to great heats among the people, some affirming their images had been so abused, and others not, the coun- cil sent orders to see them ail taken down. 4. "That when there is no sermon, the Paternos- ter, the Creed, and Ten Commaiulaients, shall be re- cited out of the pulpit to the parishioners. 5. " That within three months every church be provided with a Bible; and, wiihiii twelve months, with Erasmus's Paraphrase on the New Testament. 9. "That they examine such who come to confes- sion, whether they can recite the Paternoster, Creed, and Ten Commandments m English, before they re- ceive the sacrament of the altar, else they ought not to come to God's board. 21. "That ill time of high ma«is the Epistle and Gospel shall be read in English ; and that one chap- ter in the New Testament be read at matins, and one in the Old at even-song. 23. " No processions shall be used about churches or churchyards ; but immediately before high mass the litany shall be said or sung m English; and all ringing of bells (save one) utterly forborne. 24. " That the holydays, at the lirsl beginning god- ly instituted and ordained, be wholly given to God, in hearing the Word of God read and taught ; in private and public prayers, in acknowledging their ort'ences to God, and promising amendment ; in reconciling themselves to their neighbours, receiving the com- munion, visiting the sick, &c. Only it shall be law- ful m time of harvest to labour upon holy and festival days, in order to save that thing which God hath sent; and that scrupulosity to abstain from working on those days does grievously oHi'nd (Jod. 28. " That they take away all shrines, coverings of shrines, tables, candlesticks, trindills, or rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and other monninents of feigned miracles, so that no memory of them remain in walls or windows ; exhorting the people to do the like in their several hou.ses." The rest of the articles related to the advancement of learning, to the encouragement of preachhig, and correcting some very gross abuses. cuse. They were to give orders to none but such as were able to preach, and to recall I heir licenses from others. The injunctions were to be observed under the pains of excommunica- tion, serpiestration, or deprivation. In bidding of their prayers, they were to re- member the king, their supreme head, the queen dowager, the king's two sisters, the lord- protector, and the council ; the nobility, the clergy, and the commons, of this realm. The custom of bidding prayer, which is still in use in the Church, is a relic of popery. Bishop Bur- net* has preserved the form, as it was in use be- fore the Reformat ion, which was this : After the preacher had named and opened his text, he called on the people to go to their prayers, tell- ing them what they were to pray for. " Ye shall pray," says he, " for the king, for the pope, for the Holy Catholic Church," &c. After which all the people said their beads in a general si- lence, and the minister kneeled down likewise and said his : they were to say a Paternoster, Ave Maria, Deus misereatur nostri, Domine salvum fac regem, Gloria Patri, &c., and then the sermon proceeded. How sadly this bidding of prayer has been abused of late by some di- vines, to the entire omission of the duty itself, is too well known to need a remark ! Most of the bishops complied with the in- junctions, except Bonner of London, and Gar- diner of Winchester. Bonner offered a reserve, but that not being accepted, he made an abso- lute submission ; nevertheless, he was sent for siniie time to the Fleet for contempt. Gardiner having protested against the injunctions and homilies as contrary to the law of God, was sent also to the Fleet, where he continued till after the Parliament was over, and was then released by a general act of grace. The Parliament that met November the 9th made several alterations in favour of the Refor- mation. They repealed all laws that made any- thing treason but what was specified in the act of 25 Edward HI., and two of the statutes against Lollardies. They repealed the statute of the SIX articles, with the acts that followed in explanation of it ; all laws in the late reign declaring anything felony that was not so de- clared before ; together with the act that made the king's proclamation of equal authority with an act of Parliament. Besides the repeal of these laws, sundry new ones were enacted,! as "that the sacramenlof the Lord's Supjier should be administered in both kinds," agreeably to Christ's first institution, and the practice of the Church for five hundred years : and that all private masses should be put down : an act concerning the admission of bishops into their sees ; which sets forth that the manner of choosing bishops by a conge d'elire, being hut the shadow of an election, all bishops, here- after, shall be appointed by the king's letters patent only, and shall continue the exercise of their jurisdiction during their natural life, if they behave well.l One of the first pa- tents with this clause is that of Dr. Barlow, bishop of Bath and Wells,*;) bearing date Feb- ruary 3, in the second year of the king's reign ; * Hist. Ref , vol. ii., p. 30, and Collection of Rec- ords, b. i., No. 8. t 1 Edw. VI., cap. i. { 1 Edw. VI., cap. ii., *ic'>, as of the most enemies of the Gospell." — Fd. 64 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Cranmer suffered. He had been degraded by the Bishops Thirlby and Bonner on I'ebruary 14th. Bonner insulted him in an indecent manner, but Thirlby melted into tears. After this, by much persuasion, and in hopes of life, he set his hand to a paper, in which he renoun- ced the errors of Luther and Zuinglius, and ac- knowledged his belief of the corporeal presence, the pope's supremacy, purgatory, and invoca- tion of saints, &c. This was qiuckly published to the world, with great triumph among the pa- pists, and grief to the Reformers. But the un- merciful queen was still resolved to have his life, and accordingly sent down a writ for his execution : she could never forgive the share he had in her mother's divorce, and in driving the pope's authority out of England. Cranmer, suspecting the design, prepared a true confes- sion of his faith, and carried it in his bosom to St. Mary's Church on the day of his martyrdom, "where he was raised on an eminence, that he might be seen by the people and bear his own funeral sermon. Never was a more awful and melancholy spectacle ; an archbishop, once the second man in the kingdom, now clothed in rags, and a gazing-stock to the world ! Cole, the preacher, magnified his conversion as the immediate hand of God, and assured him of a great many masses to be said for his soul. Af- ter sermon he desired Cranmer to declare his own faith, which he did with tears, declaring his belief in the Holy Scriptures and the Apos- tles' Creed, and then came to that which he said troubled his conscience more than anything he had done in his life, and that was his sub- scribing the above-mentioned paper, out of fear of death and love of life ; and, therefore, when he came to the fire, he was resolved that hand that signed it should burn first. The assembly was all in confusion at this disappointment ; and the broken-hearied archbishop, shedding abundance of tears, was led immediately to the stake, and, being tied to it, he stretched out his right hand to the flame, never moving it, but once to wipe his face, till it dropped off. He often cried out, "That unworthy hand !"* which ■was consumed before the fire reached his body. His last -"v^ords were, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He died in the sixty-seventh year of his agp and twenty-third of his archbishopric, and vas succeeded by Cardinal Pole. * " The language of Cranmer," remarks one of the most philosophical and candid of historians, " speaks his sincerity, and demonstrates that the love of truth still prevailed in his inmost heart. It gushed forth at the sight of death, full of healing power, which engendered a purifying and ennobling penitence, and restored the mind to its own esteem after a departure from the onward path of sincerity. Courage survived a public avowal of dishonour, the " hardest test to which that virtue can be exposed ; and if he once fatally failed in fortitude, he in his last moments atoned for his failure by a magnanimity equal to his transgression. Let those who require unbending virtue in the most tempestuous limes condemn the amiable and faulty primate ; others, who are not so certain of their own steadiness, will consider his fate as, perhaps, the most memorable example in history of a sovil which, though debased, is not depraved, by an act of weakness, and preserv- ed a heroic courage alter the forfeiture of honour, its natural spur, and, in general, its inseparable com- panion."— Mackintoshes England, vol. ii., p. 327, Lon- don edition. — C. It is not within the compass of my design to write a martyrology of these times, nor to fol- low Bishop li-iniier and his brethren through the rivers of Protestant blood which they spilt. The whole year 15.50 was one continued perse- cution, in which popery triumphed in all its false and bloody colours. Bonner, not content to burn heretics singly, sent them by companies to the flames. Such as were suspected of her- esy were examined upon the articles of the cor- poreal presence of Christ in the sacrament, au- ricular confession, and the mass ; and if they did not make satisfactory answers, they were, without any farther proofs, condemned to the fire. Women were not spared, nor infants in the womb. In the Isle of Guernsey, a woman with child being ordered to the fire, was deliv- ered in the flames, and the infant being taken from her, was ordered by the magistrates to be thrown back into the fire. At length the butch- erly work growing too much for the hands that were employed in it, the queen erected an ex- traordinary tribunal for trying of heresy, like the Spanish Inquisition, consisting of thirty-one commissioners, most of them laymen ; and in the month of June, 1555, she issued out a proc- lamation that such as received heretical books should be immediately put to death by martial law. She forbid prayers to be made for the sufferers, or even to say God bless them : so far did her fiery zeal transport her.* Upon the whole, the number of them that suffered death for the Reformed religion in this reign were no less than two hundred and seventy-seven per- sons,! of whom were five bishops, twenty-one clergymen, eight gentlemen, eighty-four trades- men, one hundred husbandmen, labourers, and servants, fifty-five women, and four children. Besides these, there were fifty-four more under prosecution, seven of whom were whipped, and sixteen perished in prison : the rest, who were making themselves ready for the fire, were de- livered by the merciful interposure of Divine Providence in the queen's death. In a book corrected, if not written, by Lord Burleigh in Queen Elizabeth's time, entitled the Executions for Treason, it is said four hundred persons suffered publicly in Queen Mary's reign, besides those who were secretly murdered in prison ; of these, twenty were bishops and dig- nified clergymen ; sixty were women, of whom some were big with child ; and one was deliv- ered of a child in the fire, which was burned; and above forty men-children. t I might add, these merciless papists carried their fury against the reformed beyond the grave ; for they caused the bones of Fagius and Bucer to be dug out of their graves, and having ridiculously cited them by their commissioners to appear, and give an ac- count of their faith, they caused them to be burn- ed for nonappearance. Is it possible, after such * Clarke's Martyr., p. 506. t Bishop ]\laddox observes, that Bishop Burnet reckons the number of sufferers to be two hundred and eighty-four. But Mr. Strype has preserved {Me- morials, vol. iii., p. 291, Appendix) an exact catalogue of the numbers, the places, and the times of execu- tion. The general siuns are as follows : /'1555 — 71 '\ Total, two hundred and eighty- J 155G — 89 1, eight, besides those that dyed \ 1557— f of famyne in sondry prisons. Aimo< U558— 40j —Vindication, p. 313'— Ed. X Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 264. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 65 d relation of things, for any Protestant to be in I of which was for predestination, and against love with iiigli coiDinissions, witli oaths ex ojpau, and laws to deprive men of their hves, liberties, knd estates, for matters of mere conscience ! And yet these very Reformers, when the power returned into tlieir hands, were too mucli incli- ned to tliese engines of cruelty. The controversy about predestination* and free-will appeared first among the Reformers at this time. Some that were in the King's Bench prison for the profession of the Gospel, denied the doctrines of absolute predestination and ori- ginal sin. They were men of strict and holy lives, but warm for their opinions, and unquiet in their behaviour. Mr. Bradford had frequent conferences with them, and gained over some to his own persuasion. The names of their teachers were, Harry Hart, Trew, and Abing- don; they ran their notions as high as the mod- ern Arminians, or as Pelagius himself, despising learning, and utterly rejecting the authorities of the fathers. Bradford was apprehensive that they would do a great deal of mischief in the Church, and therefore, in concert with Bishop Ferrar, Taylor, and Philpot, he wrote to Cran- mer, Ridley, and Latimer, at Oxford, to talwo houses and passed into a law,* being hardly ;qual to that which was set out by King Ed- vard, and confirmed by Parliament in the fifth jear of his reign. For whereas in that liturgy * Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. ii., p. 390. Strype's Ann., p. b3. all the garments were laid aside except the sur- plice, the queen now returned to King Edward's first book, where copes and other garments were ordered to be used. The title of the act is, an act for the uniform- ity of connnou prayer aiul service in the Church, and administration of the sacraments. It was brought into the House of Commons April 18, and was read a third time .\pril 20. It passed the House of Lords April 28, and took place Irom the 24th of" June, L5.59. Heath, archbishop of York,* made an elegant speech against it, in which, among other things, he observes, very justly, that an act of this consequence ought to have had the consent of the clergy in convoca- tion before it passed into a law. " Not only the orthodox, but even the Arian emperors," says- he, " ordered that points of faith should be ex- amined in councils ; and Gallio, by the light of nature, knew that a civil judge ought not to meddle with matters of religion." But he was overruled, the act of supremacy, which passed the house the very next day, having vested this power in the crown. t This statute lying open to common view at the beginning of the Com- mon Prayer Book, it is not worth while to trans- cribe it in this place. I shall only take notice of one clause, by which all ecclesiastical juris- diction was again delivered up to the crown : " The queen is hereby empowered, with the ad- vice of her commissioners or metropolitan, to ordain and publish such farther ceremonies and rites as may be for the advancement of God's glory and edifying his Church, and the rev- erence of Christ's holy mysteries and sacra- ments." And had it not been for this clause of a reserve of power to make what alterations her majesty thought fit, she told Archbishop Par- ker that she would not have passed the act. Upon this fatal rock of uniformity in things merely indifferent, in the opinion of the impo- sers, was the peace of the Church of England split. The pretence was decency and order ; but it seems a little odd that uniformity should be necessary to the decent worship of God, when in most other things there is a greater beauty in variety. It is not necessary to a de- cent dress that men's clothes should be always of the same colour and fashion ; nor would there be any indecorum or disorder if in one congregation the sacrament should be adminis- tered kneeling, in another sitting, and in a third standing; or if in one and the same congrega- tion the minister were at liberty to read prayers either in a black gown or a surplice, supposing the garments to be indifferent, which the ma- kers of this law admitted, though the Puritans denied. The rigorous pressing of this act was the occasion of all the mischiefs that befell the Church for above eighty years. What good end could it answer to press men's bodies into the public service without convincing their minds 1 If there must be one established foria * Mr. Strype says there is so much learning, and snch strokes therein, that we need not doubt but that it is his.— Arm. Ref., vol. i., p. 73. The speech itself is in his appendix 'to vol. i.. No. 6. This prelate was always honourably esteemed by the queen, and some- times had the honour of a visit from her. He lived discreetly in his own house, till by very age he de- parted this liier— Annals, vol. 1., p. 143. — Ed. t D'Ew's Journal, p. 39. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 77 of worship, there should certainly have been an indulgence for tender consciences. When there was a difference in the Church of the Romans about eating flesh and observing festivals, the apostle did not pinch them with an act of uni- formity, but allowed a latiiude, Rom., Xl\^, 5: " Let not him that eateth judge him that eateth not : but let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Why dost thou judge thy broth- er ! or, why dost thou set at naught thy broth- er! For we must all stand before the judg- ment-seat of Christ." Had our Reformers fol- lowed this apostolical precedent, tlie Church of England would have made a more glorious figure in the Protestant world than it did by this compulsive act of uniformity.* * " The Act of Uniformity, like its kindred statutes, was fenced round with penalties. He who ventured to address his Maker in other language than that ot the Book of Common Prayer, was liable to the loss of goods and chattels for the first offence, to twelve months' imprisonment for the second, and to contine- ment during life for the third. How strange it is that men bearing the Chrfstian name should be so impious as to prescribe to the Deity the only form of supplication he shall receive ! 1'his is one of those species of infatuation, the folly of which would amuse, if its impiety did not prohibit the indulgence of levi- ty. The statute in question affected both the Protest- ants and Catholics, and was peculiarly oftensive to such of the former as had imbibed an attachment to a simpler ritual, and a purer form of polity, than was established in England. It prohibited the slightest deviation from the prescribed order of public worship, and obviously assumed a principle which would go far to discredit and condemn the Reformation itself If Elizabeth, by virtue of her oflice as queen, pos- sessed the rigjit of determining the form of public worship, that right belonged equally to her sister Maiy, and the fathers of the English Church were, consequently, wrong in refusing her obedience. But if it be alleged that the right of the former so to legis- late was founded on the correctness of her creed, by whom, it may be asked, was this correctness to be determined ? By Elizaijeth herself, or by her sub- jects '. if the fonner, why is not the same admission to be made in favour of Mary? and if the latter, where is the justice of visiting with punishment such as deemed her creed unscriptural, and her laws per- nicious? Among the innumerable follies to which men have been addicted, none is more egregious or absurd than is exhibited in the end which this statute contemplated. Were it attainable, it would be un- worthy of pursuit, for it is wholly apart from reli- gion; and, if compassed, it might exist with the greatest security where the spirit of religion is not found. To whatever extent it has been accomplish- ed by human legislation, it. has involved the corrup- tion of Christianity, and a inost unnatural and perni- cious imprisonment of the human mind. What con- ceivable benefit would flow from the same mode of worship being enforced in eve-y Christian assembly throughout England ? But the folly of the attempt to secure uniformity of religious worship is apparent in its hopelessness. It has not, it will not, it cannot succeed. So long as religious principle endures, or the human mind retains the power of thought and the faculty of research, all enactments of this kind must be futile. They constitute an 'innatural coer- cion of man's intellect ; and if they apfjear to succeed for a season, their ultimate defeat is thereby ren- dered more signal. Uniformity in the modes of reli- gion has usually been sought at the expense of its living spirit. They have been mistaken for religion itself; and the energy and zeal which ought to have been expended on the conversion of an apostate world have, consequently, lieen employed in the estab- lishment of rites with which religion has but little if y connexion. There is not an established sect in Sad were the consequences of these two laws both to the papists and Puritans. The papists, in convocation, made a stand for the old reli- gion ; and, in iheir sixth session, agreed upon the following articles, to be presented to the Parliament lor disburdening their consciences. 1. "That in the sacrainent of the altar the natural body of Christ is really present, by vir- tue of the words of consecration pronounced by the priest. 2. " That after the consecration there re- mains not the substance of bread and wine, nor any other substance but God-man. 3. " That in the mass the true body of Christ is offered as a propitiatory sacrifice for the liv- ing and the dead. 4. "That the supreme power of feeding and ruling the Church is in St. Peter and his suc- cessors. 5. " That the authority of determining mat- ters of faith and discipline belongs only to the pastors of the Church, and not to laymen." These ai tides or resolutions were presented to the lord-keeper by their prolocutor Dr. Harps- field, but his lordship gave them no answer; nor did the convocation move any farther in matters of religion, it being apparent that they were against the Reformation. As soon as the session was ended, the oath of supremacy was tendered to the bishops, who all refused it, except Dr. Kitchen, bishop of Landaff, to the number of fourteen ; the rest of the sees being vacant. Of the deprived bishops three retired beyond sea, viz., Dr. Pate, bishop of Worcester, Scot of Chester, and Goldwell of St. Asaph ; Heath, archbishop of York, was suffered to live at his own house, where the queen went sometimes to visit him ; Tonstai and Thirieby, bishops of Durham and Ely, resi- ded at I.ambetii, in the house of Archbishop Parker, with freedom and ease ; the rest wert suffered to go at large upon their parole ; only "Conner, bishop of London, White of Winchester, and Watson of Lincoln, whose hands had been deeply stained with the blood of the Protestants in the late reign, were made close prisoners ; but they had a sufficient maintenance from the queen. Most of the monks returned to a secu- lar life ; but the nuns went beyond sea, as did all others who had a mind to live where they might have a free exercise of their religion. Several of the reformed exiles were offered bishoprics, but refused them, on account of the habits and ceremonies, &,c., as Mr. Whitehead, Mr. Bernard Gilpin, old father Miles Coverdale, Mr. Knox, Mr. Thomas Sampson, and others. Many who accepted did it with trembling, from the necessity of the times, and in hopes by their Christendom which does not furnish confirmation of these remarks ; and we shall frequently have occa- sion to observe the evidence of their truth which the history of our own hierarchy supplies. 'Theartiticial religion of creeds and rituals withers and dies in the hands of the most artful priests, and the most abso- lute and prosperous monarchs ; while the artless practice of piety and virtue lives with the poor through successive generations. Penal statutes to suppress it resemble penal statutes to cleanse the world of violets; fashion may lianish them from the burgomaster's garden, but the heavens will unite to nonrisQ them under the shade of the nettle or at the foot of an oak.' " — Rnbinson's Eccl. Researches, p. 186. Dr. Price, vol. i., p. 140.— C. "8 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. interest with the queen to obtain an amenthnent in the constitution of the Church ; among these were Gnnilal, Parkhurst, Sandys, Pilkington, anil others. The sees were left vacant for some time, to see if any of the old bishops would conform ; but neither time nor anything else could move them ; at length, after twelve months, Dr. Mat- the\v j'arker was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth, by some of the bishops that had been deprived in the late reign, for not one of the present bishops would officiate. This, with some other accidents, gave rise to the story of his being consecrated at the Nag's Head tavern in Cheapside, a fable that has been sufficiently confuted by our church histo- rians ;* the persons concerned in the conse- cration were Barlow and Scory, bishops elect of Chichester and Hereford ; Miles Coverdale, the deprived bishop of Exeter, and Hodgkins, suffragan of Bedford ; the two former appeared in their chimere and surplice, but the two latter ■wore long gowns open at the arms, with a fall- ing cape on the shoulders ; the ceremony was performed in a plain manner, without gloves or sandals, ring or slippers, mitre or pall, or even without any of the Aaronical garments, only by imposition of hands and prayer. Strange! that the archbishop should be satisfied with this in his own case, and yet be so zealous to impose the popish garments upon his brethren. But still it has been doubted whether Par- ker's consecration was perfectly canonical. 1st. Because the persons engaged in it had been legally deprived in the late reign, and were nut yet restored. To which it was answered, that having been once consecrated, the episcopal character remained in them, and therefore they miglit convey it ; though Coverdale and Hodg- kins never exercised it after this time. 2dly. Because the consecration ought by law to have been directed according to the statute of the twenty-fifth of Henry YUL, and not ac- cording to the form of King Edward's Ordinal for ordaining and consecrating bishops, inas- much as that book had been set aside in the late reign, and was not yet restored by Parlia- ment. These objections being frequently thrown in the way of the new bishops by the papists, made them uneasy ; they began to doubt of the valid- ity of their consecrations, or at least of their le- gal title to their bishoprics. The affair was at length brought before Parliament, and to silence all future clamours, Parker's consecration, and those of bis brethren, were confirmed by the two houses, about seven years after they had filled their chairs. The archbishop was installed December 17, 1559, soon after which he consecrated several of his brethren, whom the queen had appointed to the vacant sees, as Grindal to the bishopric of London, Horn to Winchester, and Pilkington to Durham, &.c. Thus the Reformation was * Life of Parker, p. 38, CO, CI. Voltaire, though he knew, or, as a liberal writer observes, should have known, that this story was refuted even by the Puri- tans themselves, lias yet related it as a fact. It was a calumny, to which the custom of the new-ordained bishops furnishing a grand dinner or entertainment gave rise. — Wendeborn's View of England, vol. ii., p. 300 —Ed. restored, and the Church of England settled on its present basis. The new bishops being poor, made but a mean figure in comparison of their predecessors : they were unacquainted with courts and equipages, and numerous attend- ants ; but as they grew rich, they quickly rose in their deportfnent, and assumed a lordly su- periority over their brethren. The hierarchy being now at its standard, it « may not be improper to set before the reader in one view the principles upon which it stands ; with the different sentiments of the Puritans, by which he will discover the reasons why the Reformation proceeded no farther : 1. The court-reformers apprehended that every prince had authority to correct all abuses of doctrine and worship within his own territories. From this principle, the Parliament submitted the consciences and religion of the whole na- tion to the disposal of the king ; and in case of a minority, to his council ; so that tlie king was sole reformer, and might, by commissioners of his own appointment, declare and remove, all manner of errors, heresies, &c., and model the doctrine and discipline of the Church as he pleased, provided his injunctions did not ex- pressly contradict the statute law of the land. Thus the Reformation took place in sundry material points in the reigns of King Edward VL and Queen Elizabeth, before it had the sanction of Parliament or convocation ; and though Queen Mary disallowed of the suprema- cy, she made use of it to restore the old reli- gion, before the laws for abolishing it were re- pealed. Hence, also, they indulged the foreign Protestants with the liberty of their separate discipline, which they denied to their own coun- trymen. The Puritans disowned all foreign authority and jurisdiction over the Church as much as their brethren, but could not adnjit of that ex- tensive power which the crown claimed by the supremacy, apprehending it unreasonable that the religion of a whole nation should be at the disposal of a single lay person ; for let the apos- tle's rule, " that all things be done decently and in order," mean what it will, it was not direct- ed to the prince or civil magistrate. However, they took the oath, with the queen's explication in her injunctions, as only restoring her majes- ty to the ancient and natural rights of sovereign princes over their subjects. 2. It was admitted by the court-reformers that the Church of Rome was a true church, though corrupt in some points of doctrine and government ; that aM her ministrations were valid, and that the pope was a true Bishop of Rome, though not of the universal Church. It was thought necessary to maintain this, for the support of the character of our bishops, who could not otherwise derive their succession from the apostles. But the Puritans affirmed the pope to be an- tichrist, the Church of Rome to be no true church, and all her ministrations to be super- stitious and idolatrous ; they renounced her communion, and durst not risk the validity of their ordinations upon an uninterrupted line of succession from the apostles through their hands. 3. It was agreed by all that the Holy Scrip- tures were a perfect rule of faith ; but the bish- HISTORY OF THE PURFTANS. 79 ops and court-reformers did not allow them a standard of discipline or chuicli government, but affiimed that our Saviour and his apostles left It to the discretion of the civil magistrate, in those places where Christianity sliould ob- tain, to accommodate the government of the Church to the policy of the state. But the Puritans apprehended the Holy Scrip- tures to be a standard of church discipline, as well as doctrine ; at least, that nothing should be imposed as necessary but wliat vvas express- ly contained in, or derived from them by neces- sary consequence. And if it should be proved that all things necessary to the well govern- ment of the Church could not be deduced from Holy Scripture, they maintained that the dis- cretionary power was not vested in the civil magistrate, but in the spiritual officers of the Church. 4. The court-reformers maintained that the practice of the primitive Church for the first four or five centuries vvas a proper standard of church government and discipline, and in some respects better than that of the apostles, which, according to them, was only accommodated to the infant state of the Church while it was un- der persecution, whereas theirs was suited to the grandeur of a national establishment. There- lore they only pared otf the later corruptions of the papacy, from the time the pope usurped the title of universal bishop, and left those standing which they could trace a little higher, such as archbishops, metropolitans, archdeacons, suf- fragans, rural deans, &c., which were not known ill the apostolic age, or those immediately fol- lowing. Whereas the Puritans were for keeping close to the Scriptures in the main principles of church government, and for admitting no church officers or ordinances but such as are appointed therein. They apprehended that the form of government ordained by the apostles was aristocratical, according to the constitution of the Jewish sanhedrim, and vvas designed as a pattern for the churches in after ages, not to be departed from in any of its main principles ; and, therefore, they paid no regard to the cus- toms of the papacy, or the practices of the ear- lier ages of Christianity, any farther than they corresponded with the Scriptures. ft. Our Reformers maintained that things in- different in their own nature, which are neither commanded nor forbidden in the Holy Scrip- tures, such as rites, ceremonies, habits, &c., might be settled, determined, and made neces- sary by the command of the civil magistrate ; and that in such cases it was the indispensable duty of all subjects to observe them. But the Puritans insisted that those things which Christ had left indifferent ought not to be made necessary by any human laws, but that we are to stand fast in the liberty where- with Christ has made us free ; and farther, that such rites and ceremonies as had been abused to idolatry, and manifestly tended to lead men back to popery and superstition, were no longer indifferent, but to be rejected as unlawful. 6. Both parties agreed too well in asserting the necessiiy of a uuilormity of public wo shij), and of using the sword of tlie magistrate for the support and defence of their respective princi- ples, which they made an ill use of in their turns whenever they could grasp the power into their hands. The standard of uniformity, according to the bishops, was the queen's supremacy and the laws of the land ; according to the Puritans, the decrees of provincial and national synods allowed and enforced by the civil magistrate ; but neither party were for admitting that liberty of conscience and freedom of profession which is every man's right, as far as is consistent with the peace of the civil government he lives under. The principle upon which the bishops justi- fied their severities against the Puritans, in this and the following reigns, was the subjects' ob- ligation to obey the laws of their country in all things indifferent, which are neither command- ed nor forbidden by the laws of God. And the excellent Archbishop Tdlotson, in one of his sermons, represents the dissenters as a humor- ous and perverse set of people, in not complying with the service and ceremonies of the Church, for no other reason, says he, but because their superiors require them. But if this were true, it IS a justifiable reason for their dissent, sup- posing the magistrate requires that which is not within the bounds of his commission. Christ, say the Nonconformists, is the sole law- giver of his Church, and has enjoined all things necessary to be observed in it to the end of the world ; therefore, where he has indulged a liberty to his followers, it is as much their duty to maintain it as to observe any other of his precepts. If the civil magistrate should, by a stretch of the prerogative, dispense with the laws of his country, or enjoin new ones, ac- cording to his arbitrary will and pleasure, with- out consent of Parliament, would it deserve the brand of humour or perverseness to refuse obedience, if it were for no other reason, but be- cause we will not submit to an arbitrary dis- pensing power 1 Besides, if the magistrate has a power to impose things indifferent, and make tiiem necessary in the service of God, he may dress up religion in any sh^pe, and, instead of one ceremony, may load it with a hundred. To return to the history. The Reformatioa being thus settled, the queen gave out commis- sions for a general visitation, and published a body of injunctions, consisting of fifty-three articles, commanding her loving subjects obe- diently to receive, and truly to observe and keep th<3m, according to their offices, degrees, and .states. They are almost the same with, those of King Edward. I shall, therefore, only- give the reader an abstract of such as we may have occasion to refer to hereafter. Article 1 . " All ecclesiastical persons shall see that the act of supremacy be duly observed, and shall preach four times a year against yielding obedience to any foreign jurisdiction. 2. They shall not set forth or extol the dignity of any images, relics, of mirafcles, but shall declare the abuses of the same, and that all grace is from God. 3. Parsons shall preach once every month upon works of faith, mercy, and charity, com- manded by God ; and shall inform the people that works of man's devising, such as pilgrim- ages, setting up of candles, praying upon beads, &c., are offensive to God. 4. Parsons having cure of souls shall preach in person once a quarter at least, or else read one of the homilies prescribed by the queen to be read every Sua- 80 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. day in the churches where there is no sermon. 6. Every holjtlay, when there is no sermon, they shall recite from the pulpit the Paternos- ter, Creed, and Ten Commandments. 6. With- in three months every paiisli shall provide a Bible, and within twelve months Erasmus's Paraphrase upon the Gospels in English, and set tliem up in their several churches. 7. The clergy shaU not haunt ale-houses or taverns, or spend their time idly at dice, cards, tables, or any other unlawful game. 8. None shall be admitted to preach in churches without license from the queen or her visiters, or from the archbishop or bishop of the diocess. 16. All parsons under the degree of M.A. shall buy for their own use the New Testament in Latin and English, with paraphrases, within three months after this visitation. 17. They shall learn out of the Scriptures some comfortable sentences for the sick. 18. There shall be no popish processions ; nor shall any persons walk about the church, or depart out of it, while the priest is reading the Scriptures. 19. Never- theless, the perambulation of parishes or pro- cessions with the curates shall continue, who shall make a suitable exhortation. 20. Holy- days shall be strictly observed, except in har- vest-time, after Divine service. 21. Curates may not admit to the holy communion persons that live openly in sin without repentance, or that are at variance with their neighbours, till they are reconciled. 22. Curates, &,c., shall teach the people not obstinately to violate the laudable ceremonies of the Church. 23. Also, they shall take away, utterly extinguish, and •destroy all shrines, coverings of shrines; all tables, candlesticks, trindals, and rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and su- perstition, so that there remain no memory of the same in walls, glass windows, or else- where, within their churches and houses ; pre- serving, nevertheless, or repairing, both the ■walls and glass windows ; and they shall ex- hort all their parisftioners to do the like in their several houses. 28. Due reverence shall be paid to the ministers of the Gospel. 29. No priest or deacon shall marry without allowajice of the bishop of his diocess, and two justices of the peace ; nor without consent of the parents of the woman (if she have any), or others that are nearest of kin, upon penalty of being inca- pable of holding any ecclesiastical promotion, or ministering in the Word and sacraments. Nor shall bishops marry without allowance of their metropolitan, and such commissioners as the queen shall appoint. 30. All archbishops and bishops, and all that preach and administer the sacraments, or that shall be admitted into any ecclesiastical vocation, or into either of the universities, shall wear such garments and square caps as were worn in the latter end of the reign of King Edward VI. 33. No person shall absent from his parish church, and resort to another, but upon an extraordinary occasion. 34. No innholders or public-houses shall sell meat or drink in the time of Divine service. 35. None shall keep in their houses any abused images, tables, pictures, paintings, and monu- ments of feigned miracles. 36. No man shall disturb the minister in his sermon, nor mock or make a jest of him. 37. No man, woman, or child shall be otherwise busied in time of Divine service, but shall give due attendance to what is read and preached. 40. No person shall teach school but such as are allowed by the ordinary. 41. Schoolmasters shall exhort their children to love and reverence the true religion now allowed by authority. 42. They shall teach their scholars certain sentences of Scripture tending to godliness. 43. None shall be admitted to any spiritual cure that are ut- terly unlearned. 44. The parson or curate of the parish shall instruct the children of his parish for half an hour before evening prayer on every holyday and second Sunday in the year, in the catechism, and shall teach them the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten Command- ments. 45. All the ordinaries shall exhibit to the visiters a copy of the book containing the causes why any have been imprisoned, famish- ed, or put to death for religion in the late reign. 46. Overseers in every parish shall see that all the parishioners duly resort to church, and shall present defaulters to the ordinary. 47. Church- wardens shall deliver to the queen's visiters an inventory of all their church furniture, as vest- ments, copes, plate, books, and especially of grayles, couchers, legends, processionals, man- uals, hymnals, portuesses, and such like,apper- taining to the Church. 48. The litany and pray- ers shall be read weekly, on Wednesdays and Fridays. 49. Singing-men shall be continued and maintained in collegiate churches, and there shall be a modest and distinct song so used in all parts of the common prayers in the Church, that the same may be as plainly under- stood as if it were read without singing ; and yet, nevertheless, for the comforting such aa delight in music, it may be permitted that, in the beginning or end of the common prayer, there may be sung a hymn, or such-like song, in the best sort of melody and music that may be conveniently devised, having respect that the sentences of the hymn may be understood and perceived. 50. There shall be no vain and contentious disputes in matters of religion ; nor the use of opprobrious words, as papist, pa- pistical, heretic, schismatic, or sacramentary. Offenders to be remitted to the ordinary. 51. No book or pamphlet shall be printed or made pubhc without license from the queen, or six of her privy council, or her ecclesiastical commis- sioners, or from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishop of London, the chancel- lors of both universities, the bishop being or- dinary, and the archdeacon also of the place, where any such book shall be printed, or two of them, whereof the ordinary to be always one : the names of the licensers to be printed at the end. Ancient and profane authors are except- ed. 52. In time of reading the litany, and all other collects and common prayer, all the peo- ple shall devoutly kneel ; and when the name of Jesus shall be in any lesson, sermon, or otherways pronounced in the church, due rev- erence shall be made of all persons with low- ness of courtesy, and uncovering the heads of the men, as has been heretofore accustomed." These injunctions were to be read in the churches once every quarter of a year. An appendix was added, containing one form of bidding prayer ; and an order relating to ta- bles in churches, which enjoins " that no altar HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 81 be taken down but by oversight of the curate and church-wardens, or one of tluem at least, wherein no riotous or disorderly manner shall oe'used ; and that the holy table in every church be decently made, and set in the place where the altar stood, and there to stand covered, sa- ving when the sacrament is to be administered ; at which time it shall be so placed within the chancel, as thereby the minister may be more conveniently heard of the communicants, and the communicants also more conveniently, and in more numbers, communicate with the said minister ; and after the communion done, the holy table shall be placed where it stood before." The penalties for disobeying these injunc- tions were, suspension, deprivations, sequestra- tion of fruits and benefices, excommunication, and such other corrections as to those who have ecclesiastical jurisdiction under her majesty should seem meet. The major part of the visiters were laymen, any two of whom were empowered to examine into the true state of all churches ; to suspend or deprive such clergymen as were unworthy, and to put others in their places ;* to proceed against the obstinate by imprisonment, church censures, or any other legal methods. They were to reserve pensions for such as quitted their benefices by resignation ; to examine into the condition of all that were imprisoned on the account of religion, and to discharge them ; and to restore all such to their benefices who had been unlawfully deprived in the late times. This was the first high commission, which was issued about midsummer, 1559. It gave otTence to many, that the queen should give lay-visiters authority to proceed by ecclesiasti- cal censures ; but this was no more than is fre- quently done by lay-chancellors in the ecclesi- astical courts. t It was much more unjustifia- ble for the commissioners to go beyond the cen- sures of the Church, by fines, imprisonments, and inquisitory oaths, to the ruin of some hun- dreds of families, without the authority of that statute which gave them being, or any other. Mr. Strype assures us that the visiters took effectual care to have all the instruments and utensils of idolatry and superstition demolished and destroyed out of the churches where God's pure service was to be performed ; such as roods, i. e., images of Christ upon the cross, with Mary and John standing by ; also images of tutelary saints of the churches that were dedicated to them, popish books, altars, and the like. But it does not appear that either the second or twenty^third article of injunctions empowered them absolutely to remove all images out of churches ; the queen herself was as yet unde- termined in that matter.? Bishop Jewel, in his letter to Peter Martyr, February 4th, 1560, says there was to be a conference about the lawful- ness of images in churches the day following, be- tween Parker and Cox, who were for them, and himself and Grindal, who were against them ; and if they prevail, says he, I will be no longer a bishop.^ However, it is certain that the visit- ers commanded the prebendaries and archdea- » Hist. Ref., vol. ii., p. 400. 1 This, Dr. Warner observes, was justifying one absse by another. — Ed. J Hist. Ref, vol. iii., p. 290. 4 Pierce's Vind., p. 38. Vol.. I.— L con of London to see that the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's be purged and freed from all and singular images, idols, and altars ; and in the place of the altars, to provide a decent table for the ordinary celebration of the Lord's Supper ; and, accordingly, the roods and high altar were taken away.* The populace was on the side of the Refor- mation,! having been provoked with the cruel- ties of the late times : great numbers attended the commissioners, and brought into Cheapside, Paul's Churchyard, and Smithfield, the roods and crucifixes that were taken down, and in some places the vestments of the priests, copes, surplices, alter-cloths, books, banners, sepul- chres, and burned them to ashes, as it were, to make atonement for the blood of the martyrs which had been shed there. Nay, they went farther, and in their furious zeal broke the paint- ed glass windows, rased out some ancient in- scriptions, and spoiled those monuments of the dead that had any ensigns of popery upon them. " The divines of this time," says Mr. Strype, " could have been content to have been without all relics and ceremonies of the Romish Church, that there might not be the least compliance with popish devotions." And it had not been the worse for the Church of England if their successors had been of the same mind. But the queen disliked these proceedings :t she had a crucifix, with the blessed Virgin and St. John, still in her chapel ; and when Sandys, bishop of Worcester, spoke to her against it, she threatened to deprive him. The crucifix was after some time removed, but replaced in 1570. To put some stop to these proceedings, her majesty issued out a proclamation, dated September 19th, in the second year of her reign, prohibiting " the defacing or breaking any par- cel of any monument, tomb, or grave, or other inscription, in memory of any person deceased, or breaking any images of kings, princes, or no- bles, &c., set up only in memory of them to posterity, and not for any religious honour ; or the defacing or breaking any images in glass windows in any churches, without consent of the ordinary." It was with great difficulty, and not without a sort of protestation from the bish- ops, that her majesty consented to have so many monuments of idolatry as are mentioned * Strype's Ann., vol. i., p. 175. t The following anecdotes mark the strong dispo- sition of the people' towards a reformation, and are pleasing specimens of the skill and ingenuity with which Queen Elizabeth knew how to suit herself to their wishes. On her releasing the prisoners, con- fined in the former reign on account of reUgion, one Rainsford told the queen that he had a petition to present to her, in behalf of other prisoners, called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. She readily re- plied that she must first consult the prisoners them- selves, and learn of them whether they desired that liberty which he had asked for them. At the time of her coronation, from one of the principal arches through which she was conducted, a boy personating Truth was let down, and presented her with a Bible. She received it on her knees, kissed it, and placing it in her bosom, said, " she preferred that above all other presents that were on that day made her." — History of Knotvledge in the New Annual Register for 1789, p. 4 ; and Burnet's History of the Reformation, abridged, 8vo, p. 344. — Ed. t Hist. Ref , vol. iii., p. 291. Life of Parker, p. 46, 310. Strype's Annals, vol. i., p. 175, 176. 83 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. in her twenty-third injunction removed out of churches ; but she would not part with her altar, or her crucifix, nor with lighted candles, out of her own chapel. The gentlemen and singing children appeared there in their surplices, and the priests in their copes : the altar was fur- nished with rich plate, and two gilt candlesticks, with lighted candles, and a massy crucifix of silver in the midst : the service was sung, not only with the sound of organs, but with the ar- tificial music of coronets, sackbuts, &c., on sol- emn festivals. The ceremonies observed by the knights of the garter in their adoration towards the altar, which had been abolished by King Ed- vv'ard, and revived by Queen Mary, were retain- ed. In short, the service performed in the queen's chapel, and in sundry cathedrals, was so splendid and showy, that foreigners could not distinguish it from the Roman, except that it was performed in the English tongue. By this method, most of the popish laity were de- ceived into conformity, and came regularly to Church for nine or ten years, till the pope, being out of all hopes of an accommodation, forbid them, by excommunicating the queen, and lay- ing the whole kingdom under an interdict. When the visiters had gone through the king- dom, and made their report of the obedience given her majesty's laws and injunctions, it ap- peared that not above two hundred and forty- three clergymen had quitted their livings, viz., fourteen bishops, and three bishops elect ; one abbot, four priors, one abbess, twelve deans, fourteen archdeacons, sixty canons or preben- daries, one hundred beneficed clergy, fifteen heads of colleges in Oxford and Cambridge ; to which may be added about twenty doctors in several faculties. In one of the volumes in the Cotton library, the number is one hundred and ninety-two ; D'Ew's Journal mentions but one hundred and seventy-seven ; Bishop Burnet one hundred and ninety.-nine ; but Camden and Car- dinal Allen reckon as above. Most of the infe- rior beneficed clergy kept their places, as they had done through all the changes of the three last reigns,* and, without all question, if the * " The number of clergy who lost their preferments by refusing this oatli was much smaller than might have been expected. Strype gives the following hst, ibid., 106. Bishops H Deans 13 Archdeacons 14 Heads of colleges 15 Prebendaries 50 Rectors of churches . . . .80 Abbots, Priors, and Abbesses, . . 6 In all, 392 Burnet makes the number of deans 12, and of arch- deacons the same. In the other items of this list he agrees with Strype. — Burnetts Reform., vol. ii., 620. Collier makes the whole number to be about 250. — JUcclcs. Hist., vol. ii., 431. The compliance of the Catholic clergy on this occasion shows the futility of tests, however cautiously worded, as a means of se- curing uniformity of doctrine. They may drive the conscientious from the service of the sanctuary, but will never eject the formahst and hypocrite. Ifow much more noble and Christian-like was the conduct of the Nonconformists under Charles the Second, two thousand of whom resigned their livings rather than burden tneir conscience by an unprincipled sub- scription I It was remarlied with equal truth and wisdom by Bishop Shipley, in the debate on the Dis- queen had died, and the old religion had beea restored, they would have turned again ; but tho bishops and some of the dignified clergy having sworn to the supremacy under King Henry, and renounced it again under Queen Mary, they thought it might reflect a dishonour upon theii character to change again, and therefore they resolved to hold together, and by their weight endeavour to distress the Reformation. Upon so great an alteration of religion the number of recusants out of nine thousand four hundred parochial benefices was inconsiderable ; and yet it was impossible to find Protestants of a toler- able capacity to supply the vacancies, because many of the stricter sort, who had been exiles for religion, could not come up to the terms of conformity and the queen's injunctions.* It may seem strange that, amid all this con- cern for the new form of worship, no notice should be taken of the doctrinal articles which. King Edward had published for avoiding diversi- ties of opinions, though her majesty might have enjoined them, by virtue of her supremacy un- der the great seal, as well as her brother ; but the bishops durst not venture them into convo- cation, because the majority were for the old religion, and the queen was not very fond of her brother's doctrines. To supply this defect for the present, the bishops drew up a declaration of their faith, t which all churchmen were obliged to read publicly at their entrance upon their cures. These were the terms of ministerial conform- ity at this time : the oath of supremacy, com- pliance with the act of uniformity, and this deo laration of faith. There was no dispute among the Reformers about the first and last of these qualifications, but they differed upon the second ; many of the learned exiles and others refusing to accept of livings in the Church according to the act of uniformity and the queen's injunc- tions. If the popish habits and ceremonies had been left indifferent, or other decent ones ap- pointed in their room, the seeds of division had been prevented ; but as the case stood, it was next to a miracle that the Reformation had not fallen back into the hands of the papists ; and if some of the Puritans had not complied fur the present, in hopes of the removal of these grieir- ances in more settled times, this would have been the sad consequence, for it was impossi- ble, with all the assistance they could get from both universities, to fill up the parochial vacan- cies with men of learning and character. Many churches were disfurnished for a considerable time, and not a few mechanics, altogether as unlearned as the most remarkable of those that were ejected, were preferred to dignities and livings, who, being disregarded by the people, brought great discredit on the Reformation, while others of the first rank for learning, piety, and usefulness in their functions, were laid by in silence. There was little or no preaching senters' Relief Bill, in 1779, ' I am not afraid of those tender and scrupulous consciences who are over cau- tious of professing and beheving too much ; if they are sincerely in the wrong, I forgive their errors, and respect their integrity. The men 1 am afraid of are the men whobebeve everything, who subscribe every- thing, and who vote for everything.' "—Pari. History — C. * Strype's Ann., vol. i., p. 72, 73. t See this declaration, Appendix No. I. I HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. all over the country ; the Bishop of Bangor writes that " he had but two preachers in all his diocess."* It was enough if the parson could read the service, and sometimes a homily. The bishops were sensible of the calamity ; but in- stead of opening the door a little wider, to let in some of the more conscientious and zealous Reformers, they admitted the meanest and most illiterate who would come up to the terms of the laws, and published a second book of homilies for their farther assistance. It is hard to say, at this distance of time, how far the bishops were to blame for their servile and abject compliance with the queen ; yet one is ready to think that those who had drunk so deep of the cup of persecution, and had seen the dreadful effects of it in the fiery trial of their brethren the martyrs, should have insisted as one man upon a latitude for their conscientious brethren in points of indifference ; whereas their zeal ran in a quite different channel ; for when the spiritual sword was put into their hands, they were too forward in brandishing it over the heads of others, and even to outrun the laws, by suspending, depriving, fining, and im- prisoning men of true learning and piety, popu- lar preachers declared enemies of popery and superstition, and of the same faith with them- selves, who were fearful of a sinful compliance with things that had been abused to idolatry. All the exiles were now come home, except a few of the Puritan stamp that stayed at Geneva to finish their translation of the Bible, begun in •he late reign. The persons concerned in it were ■vliles Coverdale, Christ. Goodman, John Knox, nt. Gibbs, Thomas Sampson, William Cole, of -pus Christi College, Oxon, and William Whit- ham : they compared Tyndal's old English .e first with the Hebrew, and then with the I modern translations ; they divided the chap- ■\^rs into verses, which the former translators uctd not done ; they added some figures, maps, aud tables, and published the whole in 1560, at Geneva, in quarto, printed by Rowland Harle, with a dedication to the queen, and an epistle to the reader, dated April 10th, which are left out in the later editions, because they touched some- what severely upon certain ceremonies retained in the Church of England, which they excited her majesty to remove, as having a popish as- pect ; and because the translators had published marginal notes, some of which were thought to affect the queen's prerogative, and to allow the subject to resist wicked and tyrannical kings ; therefore, when the proprietors petitioned the secretary of state for reprinting it in England for public use, in the year 1565, it was refused, and the impression stopped, till after the death of the archbishop, in the year 1576. t The au- thor of the Troubles at Frankfort, published in the year .1575, complains that " if the Geneva Bible be such as no enemy of God can justly find fault with, then may men marvel that such a work, being so profitable, should find so small favour as not to be printed again."J The ex- ceptionable notes were on Exodus, xv., 19, where disobedience to kings is allowed ; 2 Chron., xix., 16, where Asa is censured for stopping short at the deposing of his mother, and not executing her; Rev., ix., 3, where the locusts that come * MS., p. 886. t Life of Parker, p. 200. t Hickman against Heylin, p. 179. 83 out of the smoke are said to be heretics, false teachers, worldly, subtle prelates, with monks friars, cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bish- ops, doctors, bachelors, and masters. But not- withstanding these and some other exceptiona- ble passages in the notes, the Geneva Bible was reprinted in the years 1576 and 1579, and was in such repute that some, who had been curious to search into the number of its editions, say that by the queen's own printers it was printed above thirty times. However, for a present sup- ply, Tyndal and Coverdale's translation, printed in the reign of King Henry VIII., was revised and published for the use of the Church of England till the bishops should pubhsh a more correct one, which they had now undertaken. Together with the exiles, the Dutch and Ger- man Protestants, who, in the reign of King Ed- ward VI., had the church in Austin Friars as- signed them for a place of worship, returned to England with John a Lasco, a Polonian, their superintendent. They petitioned the queen to restore them to their church and privileges, which her majesty declined for some time, be- cause she would not admit of a stranger to be superintendent of a church within her oishop's diocess. To take off this objection, Alasco re- signed, and the people chose Grindal, bishop of London, their superintendent; and then the queen confirmed their charter, which they still enjoy, though they never chose another su- perintendent after him. The French Protest- ants were also restored to their church in Threadneedle-street, which they yet enjoy. The Reformation took place this year in Scotland, by the preaching of Mr. John Knox, a bold and courageous Scotch divine, who shun- ned no danger, nor feared the face of any man in the cause of religion. He had been a preach- er in England in King Edward's time, then an exile at Frankfort, and at last one of the minis- ters of the English congregation at Geneva, from whence he arrived at Edinburgh, May 2d, 1559, being forty-five years of age, and settled at Perth, but was a sort of evangelist over the whole kingdom. He maintained this position, that if kings and princes refused to reform reli- gion, inferior magistrates and the people, being directed and instructed in the truth by their preachers, may lawfully reform within their own bounds themselves ; and if all, or the far greater part, be enlightened by the truth, they may make a public reformation. Upon this principle the Scots Reformers humbly petition- ed the queen-dowager, regent for her daughter [Mary], now in France, for liberty to assemble publicly or privately for prayer, for reading and explaining the Holy Scriptures, and administer- ing the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper in the vulgar tongue ; and the latter in both kinds, according to Christ's institution. This reasonable petition not being admitted certain noblemen and barons formed an associ- ation, resolving to venture their lives and for- tunes in this cause ; and they encouraged as many of the curates of the parishes within their districts as were willing to read the prayers and lessons in English, but not to expound tip Scriptures till God should dispose the queen to grant them liberty. This being executed at Perth and the neighbouring parts without dis- turbance, the association spread, and was sign- 84 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. ed by great numbers, even in the capital city of Edinburgh. Upon this they presented another petition, representing to the regent the unsea- sonableness of her rigour against ilie Protest- ants, considering their numbers ; but slie was deaf to all moderate councils. At the meeting of the Parliament the congregation, or heads of the association, presented the regent with sun- dry articles relating to liberty of conscience, to lay before the house, which she suppressed, and would not suffer to be debated ; whereupon they drew up the- following protestation, and desired it might be recorded ; " That since they could not procure a reformation, agreeable to the Word of God, from the government, that it might be lawful for them to follow the dictates of their consciences. That none that joined with them in the profession of the true faith should be liable to any civil penalties, or incur any damages for so doing. They protest that if any tumults arise on the score of religion, the imputation ought not to lie upon them who now humbly entreat for a regular remedy ; and that in all other things they will be most loyal sub- jects." The regent acquainted the court of France with the situation of affairs, and receiv- ed an order to suffer no other religion but the Roman Catholic to be professed, with a promise of large supplies offerees to support her. Upon this she summoned the magistrates of Perth, and the Reformed ministers, to appear before her at Stirling, with a design to have them ban- ished by a solemn decree. The ministers ap- peared accordingly, being attended by vast crowds of people armed and prepared to defend them, agreeably to the custom of Scotland, which allowed criminals to come to their trials attended with their relations and friends. The regent, astonished at the sight, prayed John Areskin to persuade the multitude to retire, and gave her parole that nothing should be decreed against the ministers ; but they were no sooner gone quietly home than she condemned them for non-appearance. This news being brought to Perth, the burgh- ers, encouraged by great numbers of the nobil- ity and neighbouring gentry, formed an army of seven thousand men, under the command of the Earl of Glencairne, for the defence of their min- isters against the regent, who was marching with an army of French and Scots to drive them out of their country ; but being informed of the preparation of the burghers, she consented to a treaty, by which it was agreed that she should he received with honour into the city, and be suffered to lodge in it some days, provi- ded she would promise to make no alteration in religion, but refer all to the Parliament ; the Scots forces on both sides to be dismissed ; but the reformed had no sooner disbanded their army, and opened their gates to the regent, than she broke all the articles, set up the mass, and left a garrison of French in the town, resolving to make it a place of arms. Upon this notori- ous breach of treaty, as well as the regent's declaration that promises were not to be kept with heretics, the congregations of Fife, Perth, Dundee, Angus, Mearns, and Montrose raised a little army, and signed an engagement to as- sist each other in maintaining the Reformation with their lives and fortunes. Mr. Knox en- couraged them by his sermons ; and the popu- lace being warmed, pulled down altars and im- ages, plundered the monasteries, and dismantled the churches of their superstitious ornaments. The regent marched against them at the head of two thousand Frencli, and two thousand Scots in French pay ; but being afraid to ven- ture a battle, she retreated to Dunbar, and the confederates made themselves masters of Perth, Scone, Stirling, and Lilhgow. At length a truce was concluded, by which the ministers of the congregation had liberty to preach in the pulpits of Edinburgh for the present ; but the regent, having soon after received large recruits from France, repossessed herself of Leith, and order- ed it to be fortified and stored with all necessa- ry provisions ; the confederates desired her to demolish the works, alleging it to be a viola- tion of the truce ; but she commanded them upon their allegiance to be quiet and lay down their arms ; and marching directly to Edinburgh, she obliged them to desert the city and retire to Stirling, whither the French troops followed them, and dispersed them into the mountains. In this low condition they published a procla- mation, discharging the regent other authority, and threatening to treat as enemies all that obeyed her orders ; but not being able to stand their ground, they threw themselves into the arms of Queen Elizabeth, who, being sensible of the danger of the Protestant religion, and of her own crown, if Scotland should become en- tirely popish, under the government of a queen of France, who claimed the crown of England, entered into an alliance to support the confed- erate Protestants in their religion and civil lib- erties, and signed the treaty at Berwick, Feb- ruary 27, 1560. Among other articles of this treaty, it was stipulated that the queen should send forces into Scotland, to continue there till Scotland was re- stored to its liberties and privileges, and the French driven out of the kingdom. According- ly, her majesty sent an army of seven thousand foot and twelve hundred horse, which joined the confederate army of like force.* This army was afterward re-enforced by a large detachment from the northern marches, under the command of the Duke of Norfolk ; after which they took the city of Leith, and obliged the queen-regent to shut herself up in the castle of Edinburgh, where she died June 10th. The French offered to restore Calais, if the queen would recall her forces from Scotland ; but she refused. At length, the troubles of France requiring all their forces at home, plenipotentiaries were sent into Scotland to treat with Elizabeth about with- drawing the French forces out of that kingdom, and restoring the Scots to their parliamentary government. The treaty was concluded the be- ginning of August, whereby a general amnesty was granted ; the English and French forces were to withdraw in two months, and a parlia ment to be called with all convenient speed, to settle the affairs of religion and the kingdom ; but Francis and Mary refused to ratify it. Before the Parliament met Francis died, and left Mary Queen of Scots a young widow. The late treaty not being ratified, the Parliament had no direct authority from the crown, but assem- bled by virtue of the late treaty, and received * Rapin, vol. viii., p. 271. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 85 the following petitions from the barons and gen- tlemen concerning religion : 1. " That the doctrines of the Roman Church should be suppressed by act of Parliament, in those exceptionable points therein mentioned. 2. "That the discipline of the ancient Church be revived. 3. " That the pope's usurped authority be dis- charged." All which was voted, and the ministers were desired to draw up a confession of faith, which they expressed in twenty-five articles, agreeable to the sentiments of Calvin and the foreign Re- formers. The confession, being read in Parlia- ment, was carried but with three dissenting voi- ces, the popish prelates offering nothing in de- fence of their religion. By another act the pope's authority was abol- ished, and reading mass was made punishable, for the first offence, with loss of goods ; for the second, banishment ; and for the third, death. This was carrying matters too far; for to judge men to death for matters of mere conscience that do not affect the government, is not to be justified. "To affirm that we are in the right and others in the wrong," says Mr. Collyer,* " is foreign to the point ; for every one that suf- fers for religion thinks himself in the right, and therefore ought not to be destroyed for his sin- cerity, for the prejudices of education, or the want of a better understanding, unless his opin- ions have mutiny and treason in them, and shake the foundations of civil society." Upon the breaking up of the Parliament a commission was directed to Mr. Knox, WiUock, Spotiswood, and some other divines, to draw up a scheme of discipline for the Church, which they did pretty much upon the Geneva plan, only admitting superintendents in the room of bishops, and rejecting imposition of hands in the ordination of ministers, because that mira- cles were ceased, which they apprehended to ac- company that ceremony. Their words are these :t " Other ceremonies than the public ap- probation of the people, and declaration of the chief minister, that the person there presented is appointed to serve the Church, we cannot ap- prove ; for albeit the apostles used imposition of hands, yet, seeing the miracle is ceased, the using of the ceremony we judge not necessary." They also appointed ten or twelve superintendents to plant and erect kirks, and to appoint ministers in such counties as should be committed to their care, where there were none already. But then they add, these men must not live like idle bish- ops, but must preach themselves twice or thrice a week, and visit their districts every three or four months, to inspect the lives and behaviour of the parochial ministers, to redress grievan- ces, or bring them before an assembly of the kirk. The superintendents were to be chosen by the ministers and elders of the several prov- inces, and to be deprived by them for misbeha- viour. The assemblies of the kirk were divided into classical, provincial, and national, in which last the dernier resort of all kirk-jurisdiction was lodged. When this plan of discipline was laid before the estates, it was referred to farther consider- ation, and had not a parliamentary sanction, as * Collyer's Eccl. Hist., p. 468. t First Book of Discipline, p. 31. the Reformers expected. But after the recess of the Parliament, several noblemen, barons, and chief gentlemen of the nation met together, at the mstance of Mr. Knox, and signed it, re- solvmg to abide by the new discipline till it should be confirmed or altered by Parliament. From this time the old hierarchical government was disused, and the kirk was governed by gen- eral, provincial, and classical assemblies, with superintendents, though there was no law for it till some years after. To return to England. The popish bishops behaved rudely towards the queen and her new bishops : they admonished her majesty by letter to return to the religion of her ancestors, and threatened her with the censures of the Church in case she refused. This not prevailing, Pope Pius IV. himself exhorted her by letter, dated May 5, 1570, to reject evil counsellors, and obey his fatherly admonitions, assuring her that, if she would return to the bosom of the Church, he would receive her with the like affectionate love as the father in the Gospel received his son. Parpalio, the nuncio that was sent with this letter, offered, in the pope's name, to con- firm the English liturgy, to allow of the sacra- ment in both kinds, and to disannul the sen- tence against her mother's marriage ; but the queen would not part with her supremacy.* Another nuncio, the Abbot Martmegues, was sent this summer with other proposals, but was stopped in Flanders, and forbid to set foot in the realm. The emperor, and other Roman Catholic princes, interceded with the queen to grant her subjects of their religion churches to officiate in after their own manner, and to keep up a separate communion ; but her majesty was too politic to trust them, upon which they en- tered upon more desperate measures, as will be seen hereafter. f Archbishop Parker visited his diocess this summer, and found it in a deplorable condition, the major part of the beneficed clergy being either mechanics or mass-priests in disguise ; many churches were shut up, and in those that were open, not a sermon was to be heard in some counties within the compass of twenty miles ; the people perished for lack of knowl- edge, while men who were capable of instruct- ing them were kept out of the Church, or, at least, denied all preferment in it. But the queen was not so much concerned for this as for maintaining her supremacy ; his grace, therefore, by lier order, drew up a form of sub- scription to be made by all that held any ec- clesiastical preferment,! wherein they acknowl- edge and confess " that the restoring the su- premacy to the crown, and the abolishing all foreign power, as well as the administration of the sacraments according to the Book of Com- mon Prayer and the queen's injunctions, is agreeable to the Word of God and the practice of the primitive Church." Which most that favoured the Reformation, as well as great numbers of time-serving priests, complied with; but some refused, and were deprived. * Foxes and Firebrands, part iii., p. 15, 18. " Elizabeth," as Dr. Warner expresses it, " was not to be won with either threats or entreaties to part with her supremacy, of which she was as fond as the king her father." — Ed. t Stiype's Ann., p. 408. * X Life of Parker, p. 77. 86 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. The next thing the archbishop undertook v/as settling the calendar, and the order of les- sons to be read throughout the year, which his grace, as one of the ecclesiastical commission- ers, procured letters under the great seal to re- form.* Before this time it was left to the dis- cretion of the minister to change the chapters to be read in course for some others that were more for edification ; and even after this new regulation the bishops recommended it ; for in the preface to the second book of homilies, pub- lished in the year 1564, there is a serious ad- monition to all ministers ecclesiastical to be diligent and faithful in their high functions, in which, among others, is this remarkable instruc- tion to the curates or ministers.! " If one or other chapter of the Old Testament falls in or- der to be read on Sundays or holydays, it shall be well done to spend your time to consider well of some other chapter in the New Testa- ment of more edification, for which it may be changed. By this your prudence and diligence in your office will appear, so that your people may have cause to glorify God for you, and be the readier to embrace your labours." If this indulgence had been continued, one consider- able difficulty to the Puritans had been remo- ved, viz., their obligation to read the Apocrypha lessons ; and surely there could be no great danger in this, when the minister was confined within the canon of Scripture. But this liberty was not long permitted, though, the admonition being never legally re- versed, Archbishop Abbot was of opinion that it was in force in his time, and ought to have been allowed the clergy throughout the course of this reign, t His words are these, in his book entitled " Hill's Reasons Unmasked," p. 317 : " It is not only permitted to the minister, but recommended to him, if wisely and quietly he do read canonical Scripture where the Apocry- pha, upon good judgment, seemeth not so fit ; or any chapter of the canonical may be con- ceived not to have in it so much edification be- fore the simple as some other parts of the same canonical Scriptures may be thought to have." But the governing bishops were of another mind : they would trust nothing to the discretion of the minister, nor vary a tittle from the act of uniformity. Hitherto there were few or no peculiar les- sons for holydays and particular Sundays, but the chapters of the Old and New Testaments were read in course, without any interruption or variation ; so it is in the Common Prayer Book of 1549, fol.ij In the second edition of that book, under King Edward VI., there were proper lessons for some few holydays, but none for Sundays ; but now there was a table of proper lessons for the whole year, thus entitled, " Proper lessons to be read for the first lesson, both at morning and evening prayer, on the Sundays throughout the year ; and for some also the second lessons." It begins with the Sundays of Advent, and appoints Isa., i., for mat- ins, and Isa., ii., for even-song. There is anoth- er table for proper lessons on holydays, begin- ning with St. Andrew ; and a third table for proper psalms on certain days, as Christmas, Easter, Ascension Whitsunday, &c. At the * M.S. penes me, p. 88. f Life of Parker, p. 84. t Strype's Ann., p. fl7. 6 Life of Parker, p. 83. end of tliis Common Prayer Book, printed by Jug and Cawood, 1560, were certain prayers lor private and family use, which in the later edi- tions are either shortened or left out. Mr. Strype cannot account for this conduct, but says it was great pity that the people were disfurnished of those assistances they so much wanted ; but the design seems to have been to confine all de- votion to the Church, and to give no liberty to clergy or laity, even in their closets or families, to vary from the public forms. An admonition was pul)lished at the same time, and set up in all churches, forbidding all parsons under the degree of master of arts to preach or expound the Scriptures, or to innovate or alter anything, or use any other rite but only what is set forth by authority ; these were only to read the hom- ilies.* And whereas, by reason of the scarcity of jninisters, the bishops had admitted into the ministry sundry artificers and others, not brought up to learning, and some that were of base oc- cupation, it was now desired that no more tradesmen should be ordained till the convoca- tion met and took some better order in this affiiir. But it was impossible to comply with this ad- monition ; for so many churches in country towns and villages were vacant, that in some places there w^as no preaching, noi so much as reading a homily, for many months together. In sundry parishes it was hard to find persons to baptize, or bury the dead ; the bishops, there- fore, were obliged to admit of pluralists, non- residents, civilians, and to ordain such as offer- ed themselves, how meanly soever they were qualified, while others, who had some scruples about conformity, stood by unprovided for ; the learned and industrious Mr. John Fox, the mar tyrologist, was of this number, for in a letter to his friend Dr. Humphreys, lately chosen President of Magdalen College, Oxon, he writes thus : " I still wear the same clotheg, and re main in the same sordid condition that Englanc received me in when I first came home out of Germany, nor do I change my degree or ordei which is that of the Mendicants ; or, if you will of the friars-preachers." Thus pleasantly did this grave and learned divine reproach the in- gratitude of the times. The Puritans complaineu of these hardships to the queen, but there was no remedy. The two universities could give little or no assistance to the Reformers ; for the professors and tutors, being of the popish religion, had train- ed up the youth in their own principles for the last six or seven years. Some of the heads of colleges were displaced this summer, and Prot- estants put in their room ; but it was a long time before they could supply the necessities of the Church. There were only three Protestant preachers in the University of Oxford in the year 1563, and they were all Puritans, viz.. Dr. Humphreys, Mr. Kingsmill, and Mr. Sampson ; and though by the next year the clergy were so modelled that the bishops procured a convoca- tion that favoured the Reformation, yet they were such poor scholars that many of them could hardly write their names. Indeed, the Reformation went heavily on. The queen could scarcely be persuaded to part with images, nor consent to the marriage of the SnCxfeofParkeiTpToa HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 87 clergy ; for she commanded that no head or member of any collegiate or cathedral church should bring a wife or any other woman within the precincts of it, to abide in the same, on pain of forfeiture of all ecclesiastical promotions :* and her majesty would have absolutely forbid the marriage of all her clergy, if Secretary Ce- cil had not briskly interposed. She repented that she had made any married men bishops, and told the archbishop, in anger, that she in- tended to publish other injunctions, which his grace understood to be in favour of popery ; upon which the archbishop wrote to the secre- tary that he was sorry the queen's mind was so turned, but in such a case he should tliinlc it his duty to obey God rather than man. Upon the "Whole, the queen was so far from improvmg her brother's reformation, that she often repented she had gone so far.t Her majesty's second Parliament met the 12th of January, 1562, in which a remarkable act was passed, for assurance of the queen's royal power over all states and subjects within her dominions. It was a confirmation of the act of supremacy. " All persons that by wri- ting, printing, preaching, or teaching, maintain- ed the pope's authority within this realm, incur- red a praemunire for the first offence, and the sec- ond was high treason. The oath of supremacy "was to be taken by all in holy orders, by all graduates in the universities, lawyers, school- masters, and all other officers of any court whatsoever; and by all knights, citizens, and burgesses, in Parliament. "J But the archbish- op, by the queen's order, wrote to the bishops not to tender the oath but in case of necessity, and never to press it a second time without his special direction ; so that none of the popish bishops or divines were burdened with it except Bonner and one or two more. The convocation was opened at St. Paul's the day after the meeting of the Parliament. Mr. Day, provost of Eton, preached the sermon, and -Alexander Nowel, dean of St. Paul's, was chosen prolocutor. Her majesty having direct- ed letters of license to review the doctrine and discipline of the Church, they began witii the doctrine, and reduced the forty- two articles of King Edward VI. to the number of thirty-nine, as at present, the following articles being omit- ted : Article 39. The resurrection of the dead is not passed already. Art. 40. The souls of men deceased do neither perish with their bod- ies nor sleep idly. Art. 41. Of the Millenarians. Art. 42. All men not to be saved at last. Some of the other articles underwent a new division, two being joined into one, and in other parts one is divided into two ; but there is no remark- able variation in the doctrine.^ » Life of Parker, p. 107, 109. t Of this Dr. Warner gives the following instances : "When the Dean of St. Paul's, in a sermon at court, spoke with some dislike of the sign of the cross, her majesty called albud to liim from her closet, com- manding him to desist from that ungodly digression, and to return to his text. Y\.t another time, when one of her chaplains preached a sermon on Good Friday in defence of the real presence, which, without guess- ing at her sentiments, he would scarce have ventured on, she openly gave him thanks for his pains and pi- ety.— Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 427. — Ed. X Life of Pi 'ier, p. 126. 6 The eigl article of Edward VI. had a clause It has been warmly disputed whether the first clause of the twentieth article, " The Church has power to decree rites and ceremo- nies, and authority in controversies of faith," was a part of the article which passed the syn- od, and was afterward confirmed by Parliament in the year 1571. It is certain that it is not among King Edward's articles ; nor is it in that original manuscript of the articles sub- scribed by both houses of convocation with their own hands, still preserved in Bene't Col- lege library among the rest of Archbishop Par- ker's papers. The records of this convocation were burned in the fire of London, so that there is no appealing to them ; but Archbishop Laud says that he sent to the public records in his office, and the notary returned him the twenti- eth article with the clause ; and that afterward he found the book of articles subscribed by the lower house of convocation in 1571, with the clause. Heylin says that he consulted the rec- ords of convocation, and that the contested clause was in the book ; and yet Fuller, a much fairer writer, who had the liberty of perusing the same records, declares that he could not decide the controversy.* The fact is this : the statute of 1571 expressly confirms English articles comprised in an imprinted book, enti- tled " Articles, whereupon it was agreed by the archbishops and bishops of both provinces, and the whole clergy in the convocation holden at London in the year 1562, according to the com- putation of the Church of England ; for the avoiding diversity of opinions, and for the es- tablishing of consent touching true religion : put forth by the queen's authority." Now there were only two editions of the articles in Eng- lish before this time, both which have the same numerical title witli that transcribed in the statute, and both, says my author, want the clause of the Church's power. But Mr. Strype, in his life of Archbishop Parker, says that the clause is to be found in two printed copies of 1563, which I believe very few have seen.f However, till the original MS. above mentioned can be set aside, which is carefully marked as imputing to the Anabaptists as the Pelagians, the opinion that original sin consisted in following of Adam : in this revisal of the articles the part of the clause charging the Anabaptists with that opinion was left out. That article concerning baptism stated also the grounds of administering that rite to infants in this manner : " The custom of the Church for baptizing young children is both to be commended, and by all means to be retained in the Church." It seems, by this, that the first Reformers did not found the practice of infant baptism upon Scripture ; but took it only as a commendable custom that had been used in the Christian Church, and, therefore, ought to be retained. — Crosby^s History of the English Bap- tists, vol. i., p. 51. — Ed. * Church History, b. ix., p. 74. t The celebrated Mr. Anthony Collins discussed the question concerning the genuineness of this clause, in several publications ; and professed to de- monstrate that it was not a part of the articles agreed on by the convocations of 1562 and 1571. His first pamphlet was entitled. Priestcraft in Perfection. Its appearance gave a general alarm to the clergy ; and a variety of pamphlets, sermons, and larger works, in reply to it, issued forth from the press. The two principal of which Mr. Colhns answered in 1724, in " An Historical and Critical Essay on the Thirty- nine Articles of the Church of England." — See Brit- ish Biography, vol. ix., p. 275, 278, &c. — Ed. 88 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. to the number of pages, and the number of lines and articles in each page, it seems more proba- ble that the clause was some way or other sur- reptitiously inserted by those who were friends of the Church's power, than struck out by the Puritans, as Laud and his followers have pub- lished to the world ; for it is hard to suppose that a foul copy, as this is pretended to be, should be so carefully marked and subscribed by every member of the synod with their own hands, and yet not be perfect ; but it is not im- probable that the notary or registrar, who tran- scribed the articles into the convocation-book, with the names of them that subscribed, might, by direction of his superiors, privately insert it ; and so it might appear in the records of 1571, though it was not in the original draught. The controversy is of no great moment to the present clergy, because it is certain the clause was a part of the article confirmed by Parliament at the restoration of King Charles II., 1662 ; though how far it was consistent with the act of supremacy, which lodged the ultimate power of determining matters of faith and discipline in the crown, I must leave with the reader. The synod itself seemed to be ap- prehensive of the danger of a praemunire, and, therefore, after their names these words were cautiously added : " Ista subscriptio facta est ab omnibus sub hac protestatione, quod nihil statuunt in praejudicium cujusquam senatus consulti, sed tantum supplicem libellum peti- tiones suas continentem humiliter offerunt : i. e , " This subscription is made by all, with this pro- testation, that they determine nothing in preju- dice of any act of Parliament, but only offer this little book to the queen or Parliament, contain- ing their requests and petitions." The articles were concluded, and the sub- scription finished, in the chapter-house of St. Paul's, January 31, 1562, in the ninth session of convocation.* All the bishops subscribed except Gloucester and Rochester, who, I believe, were absent. Of the lower house there were upward of a hundred hands ; but, whatever their learning was, many of them wrote so ill that it was hard to read their names. Among the subscribers are several of the learned exiles, who were dissatisfied with the constitution ; as the Reverend Mr. Beseley, Watts, Cole, Mul- lyns, Sampson, Pullan, Spencer, Wisdom, Now- el, Heton, Beaumont, Pedder, Lever, Pownal, Wilson, Croley, and others. But the articles did not pass into a law, and become a part of the establishment, till nine years after, though some of the more rigid bishops of the ecclesias- tical commission insisted upon subscription from this time. The next considerable affair that came under debate was the rites and ceremonies of the Church ; and here, first. Bishop Sandys brought in a paper of advice to move her majesty, " That private baptism, and baptism by wom- en, may be taken out of the Common Prayer Book, That the cross in baptism may be dis- allowed, as needless and superstitious. That commissioners may be appointed to reform the ecclesiastical laws." Another paper was presented to the house with the following requests, signed by thirty- tiiree names. * Strype's Annals, p. 329. " That the psalms may be sung distinctiy by the whole congregation, and that organs may be laid aside. That none may baptize but ministers, and that they may leave off the siga of the cross. That at the ministration of the communion the posture of kneeling may be left indifferent. That the use of copes and surplices may be taken away ; so that all ministers in. their ministry use a grave, comely, and sad gar- ment, as they commonly do in preaching. That ministers be not compelled to wear such gowns and caps as the enemies of Christ's Gospel have chosen to be the special array of their priest- hood. That the words in the thirty-third arti- cle, concerning the punishment of those who do not in all things conform to the public order about ceremonies, may be mitigated. That ali the saints' days, festivals, and holydays, bear- ing the name of a creature, may be abrogated ; or at least a commemoration only of them re- served by sermons, homilies, or common prayer, for the better instructing the people in history; and that after service men may go to work." I have subjoined the names of the subscribers to this paper, that the reader may take notice what considerable persons they were for learn- ing and ability, as well as numbers, that desired a farther reformation in the Church.* This paper not being approved, another w^as brought into the lower house February 13, coa- taining the following articles to be approved or rejected.! " That all Sundays in the year, and principal feasts of Christ, be kept holydays, and that all other holydays be abrogated. That in all parish churches the minister, in the common prayer, turn his face towards the people, and there read distinctly the service appointed, that the people may hear and be edified. That in baptism thd cross may be omitted, as tending to supersti- tion. Forasmuch as divers communicants are * Alexander Newel, dean of St. Paul's and prolo- cutor. Sampson, dean of Christ Church, Oxon. Lawrence Nowel, dean of Litchfield. Ellis, dean of Hereford. Day, provost of Eton. Dodds, dean of Exon. MuUms, archdeacon of London. Pullan, archdeacon of Colchester. Lever, archdeacon of Coventry. Bemont, archdeacon of Huntingdon. Spencer, archdeacon of Chichester. Croley, archdeacon of Hereford. Heton, archdeacon of Gloucester. Rogers, archdeacon of St. Asaph. Kemp, archdeacon of St. Alban's. Prat, archdeaconof St. David's. Longland, archdeacon of Bucks. Watts, archdeacon of Middlesex. Calfhil, Walker, Saul, Wiburne, Savage, W. Bonner, Avys, Wilson, Nevynson, Tremayne, Renyger, Roberts, Reeve, Hills, >§ Ph t Strype's Annals, p. 337. ('Church of Oxon. Clergy of Suffolk. Dean and chapter of Gloucester. Church of Rochester. Clergy of Gloucester. Church of Somerset. Church of Wigorn. '^ Church of Wigorn, Worcester. Clergy of Canterbury. Clergy of Exeter. Dean and chapter of Winton. Clergy of Norwich. Dean and chapter of Westminster. ^ Clergy of Oxon. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 89 not able to kneel for age and sickness at the sacrament, and others kneel and knock super- stitiously, that therefore the order of kneehng may be left to the discretion of the ordinary. That it be sufficient for the minister, in time of saying Divine service and ministering of the sacraments (once), to wear a surplice ; and that no minister say service or minister the sacra- ments but in a comely garment or habit. That the use of organs be removed." These propositions were the subject of warm debates ; some approving and others rejecting them. In conclusion, the house being divided, it appeared, upon the scrutiny, that the majority of those present were for approving them, forty- three against thirty-five ; but when the proxies were counted, the scale was turned ; those who were for the propositions being fifty-eight, and those against them fifty-nine ; so that by the majority of one single voice, and that not a per- son present to hear the debates but a proxy,* it * " The authenticity ofthe first part of the twentieth article, which affirms that 'the Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controver- sies of faith,' has been impugned on grounds which, to say the least, are entitled to respect. The charge of interpolation was first advanced by Burton, during the reign of Charles the First. In a letter to the tem- poral lords of the privy council, he says, ' The prel- ates, to justify their proceedings, have forged a new article of religion, brought from Rome (which gives them full power to alter the doctrine and discipline of our Church at a blow), and have foisted it into the twentieth article of our Church. And this is in the last edition of the Articles, 1628, in affront of his majes- ty's declaration before them. The clause forged is this: The Church (that is, the bishops, as they ex- pound it) hath power to decree, &c. Tliis clause is a forgery, fit to be examined and deeply censured in the Star Chamber. For it is not to be found in the Latin or English Articles of Edward the Sixth, or of Queen Elizabeth, ratified by Parliament. And if to forge a will or writing be censurable in the Star Chamber, which is but a wrong to a private man, how much more the forgery of an article of religion, to wrong the whole Church, and overturn rehgion, which concerns all our souls V Laud denied the charge, al- leging that the Puritans had been guilty of publishing mutilated editions of the Articles, in which the con- tested clause was omitted. ' I do openly here,' he said in his speech in the Star Chamber, 'charge upon that pure sect this foul corruption of falsifying the Articles of the Church of England. Let them take it off' as they can.' Tliis controversy was revived, in the beginning of the last century, by Mr. Anthony Collins, in a pubhcation entitled Priestcraft in Per- fection. He attacked the authenticity of the con- tested clause with much ingenuity and force of evi- dence. Several answers appeared, the principal of which were, A Vindication of the Church of England from the Assertions of Priestcraft in Perfcctinn, &c., pubhshed in 1710; and. An Essay on the Thirty-nine Articles, by Dr. Bennet, in 1715. Collins replied to these, as well as to Collier and others, in An Histori- cal and Critical Essay on the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, published in 1724 : wherein he undertakes to demonstrate that the clause. The Church has power, &c., is not a part of the Articles, as they were established by act of Parliament in the thirteenth of Ehzabeth, or agreed on by the convo- cations of 15C2 and 1571. It is not easy to form a decided opinion on the question. Fuller, with his usual honesty, acknowledges the difficulty, and ab- stains from giving judgment. ' Whether,' he says, 'the bishops were faulty in their addition, or their opposites in their subtraction, I leave to more cunnino' state arithmeticians to decide.' Neal inclines to the view of Collins, but speaks with hesitation ; while Vol. I.— M was determined to make no alteration in the ceremonies, nor any abatement of the present establishment.* I mention these names, not to detract from the merit of those who appeared for the present establishment, for many of them would have voted for the alterations, had they not been awed by their superiors, or afraid of a praemu- nire ; whereas, if the contrary vote had prevail- ed, it was only to address the queen or Parlia- ment to alter the service-book in those particu- lars ; but I mention them to show that the voice of half the clergy in convocation, and of no less numbers out of it, were for amendments, or, at least, a latitude in the observation of the rites and ceremonies of the Church. Indeed, it was very unkind that, when such consider- able abatements had been made in favour of the Roman Catholics, nothing should be in- dulged to those of the same faith, and who had suffered in the same cause with themselves, especially when the controversy was about points which one party apprehended to be sin- ful, and the other acknowledged to be indiffer- ent. Sundry other papers and petitions were drawn up by the lower house of convocation in favour of a farther reformation, but nothing passed into a law. Strype and Collier maintain the opposite. — Fuller^s Ch. Hist., vol. ix., 73. Neat's Puritans, vol. i., 147. Strype's Parker, vol. ii., 54. Collier's Eccl. Hist.,\ol. U., 486."— C. * The names of the forty-three that approved the above articles were. Dean Nowel, prolocutor, St. Paul's. Mr. Archdeacon Lever, Coventry. Dean Pedder, Wigorniensis. Mr. Archdeacon Watts, Middlesex. Dean Nowel, of Litchfield. Mr. Archdeacon Spencer, Cicestrensis. Mr. Besely, proct. cler., Cant. Mr. Nevynson, proct. cler.. Cant. Mr. Bower, proct. cler., Somers. Mr. Ebden, proct. cler., Wint. Mr. Archdeacon Longland, Bucks. Mr. Lancaster, thesaurar., Sarum. Mr. Archdeacan Weston, Lewensis. Mr. Archdeacon Wisdom, Eliensis. Mr. Saul, proct. dec. cap., Glouc. Mr. Walker, proct., Suffolk. Mr. Becon. Mr. Proctor, proct. cler., Sussex. Mr. Cocerel, proct. cler., Surrey. Mr. Archdeacon Tod, Bedf Mr. Archdeacon Croley, Hereford. Mr. Soreby, proct. cler., Cicest. Mr. Bradbndge, cancellar., Cicest. Mr. Hills, proct. cler., Oxon. Mr. Savage, proct. cler., Glouc. Mr. Archdeacon Pullan, Colchest. Mr. Wilson, proct., Wigom. Mr. Burton. Mr. Archdeacon Bemont, Huntingd Mr. Wiburne, proct. eccl., Roff. Mr. Day, prov., Eton. Mr. Reeve, proc. dec. cap., Westm. Mr. Roberts, proct. cler., Norw. . Mr. Calfhil, proct. cler.. Loud, and Oxon. Mr. Godwin, proct. cler., Line. Mr. Archdeacon Prat, St. David's. ]\Ir. Tremayn, proct. cler., Exon. Mr. Archdeacon Heton, Glouc. Mr. Archdeacon Kemp, St. Alban's. Mr. Avj's, proct. eccl, Wigom. Mr. Renyger, proct. dec. cap., Wint. Mr. Dean Elis, Hereford. Mr. Dean Sampson, Oxon. 90 HISTORY OF THE PURITANSi The Church having carried their point* against the Puritans in convocation, we arc now to see what use they made of their victory. The plague being in London and several parts of the country this summer, put a little stop to their zeal for uniformity at present ; some were indulged, but none preferred that scrupled the habits. In proof of this, we may produce the examples of two of the worthiest and most learned divines of the age : one was Father Miles Coverdale, formerly bishop of Exeter, who, with Tyndal and Rogers, first trans- lated the Bible into English after WicklifTe. This prelate was born in Yorkshire, bred at Cambridge, and proceeded doctor in divinity in the University of Tubing. Returning to Eng- land in the reign of King Edward, he was made Bishop of Exeter, 1551. t Upon the accession of Queen Mary he was imprisoned, and narrow- ly escaped the fire ; but by the intercession of the King of Denmark was sent over into that country, and coming back at her death, assisted at the consecration of Queen Elizabeth's first Archbishop of Canterbury ; yet, because he ^ould not comply with the ceremonies and hab- its, he was neglected, and had no preferment. This, reverend man, says Mr. Strype.t being now old and poor, Grindal, bishop of London, gave him the small living of St. Magnus, at the Bridge Foot, where he preached quietly about two 3 ears ; but not coming up to the conformity required, he was persecuted thence, and obliged to relinquish his parish a little before his death, V7hich happened May 20, 1567, at the age of <;ighty-one.^ He was a celebrated preacher, admired and followed by all the Puritans ; but the Act of Uniformity brought down his rever- end hairs with sorrow to the grave. He was buried in St. Bartholomew's, behind the Ex- change, and was attended to his grave with vast crowds of people. The other was that venerable man, Mr. John Fox, the martyrologist, a grave, learned, and painful divine, and exile for religion, who em- ployed his time abroad in writing the acts and monuments of that Church which would hardly receive him into her bosom, and in collecting materials relati»ng to the martyrdom of those * " I conceive," says one of the most accurate and impartial of historians, " the Church of England par- ty, that is, the party adverse to any species of ecclesias- tical change, to have been the least numerous of the three (Catholic, Church of England, Puritan) during this reign; still excepting, as J have said, the neu- trals, who commonly make a numerical majority, and are counted along with the dominant religion. The Puritans, or, at least, those who rather favoured them, had a majority among the Protestant gentry in the queen's days. It is agreed on all hands, and is quite manifest, that they predominated in the House of Commons. But that house was composed, as it has ever been, of the principal landed proprietors, and as much represented the general wish of the community, when it demanded a farther reform in religious matters, as on any other subjects. One would imagine, by the manner in which some ex- press themselves, that the discontented were a small taction, who, by some unaccountable means, in de- spite of the government and the nation, formed a majority of all parliaments under Elizabeth and her two successors." — Hallam's Const, Hist. ,i.,257. Such is the representation of Bishop Maddox in his ani- madversions on Neal, p. 37, &c. — C. t Fuller's Worthies, b. iii., p. 198. i Ann., p. 405. ^ Life of Parker, p. 149. that suffered for religion in the reigns of King Henry VIH. and Queen Mary ; all which he published, first in Latin for the benefit of for- eigners, and then in English for the service of his own country, in the year 1561. No book ever gave such a mortal wound to popery as this ; it was dedicated to the queen, and was in such high reputation, that it was ordered to be set up in the churches, where it raised in the people an invincible horror and detestation of that religion which had shed so much innocent blood. Queen Elizabeth had a particular es- teem for Mr. Fox, but this excellent and labo- rious divine, though reduced to very great pov- erty and want, had no preferment in the Church because he scrupled the habits, till at length, by the intercession of some great friend, he ob- tained a prebend in the.Church of Sarum, which he made a shift to hold till his death, though not without some disturbance from the bishops.* The parochial clergy, both in city and coun- try, had an aversion to the habits ; they wore them sometimes in obedience to the law, but more frequently administered without them ; for which some were cited into the spiritual courts, and admonished, the bishops not having yet as- sumed the courage of proceeding to suspension and deprivation. At length the matter was laid before Jhe queen, as appears by a paper found among Secretary Cecil's MSS., dated February 24, 1564, which acquaints her majesty, that "some perform Divine service and prayers in the chancel, others in the body of the Church ; some in a seat made in the church ; some in a pulpit with their faces to the people ; some keep pre- cisely to the order of the book, some intermix psalms in metre ; some say with a surplice, and others without one. " The table stands in the body of the church in some places, in others it stands in the chan- cel ; in some places the table stands altarwise, distant from the wall a yard ; in others in the middle of the chancel, north and south ; in some places the table is joined, in others it stands upon tressels ; in some the table has a carpet, in others none. " Some administer the communion with sur- plice and cap ; some with surplice alone ;t others with none ; some with chalice, others with a communion-cup, others with a common cup; some with unleavened bread, and some with leavened. " Some receive kneeling, others standing, oth- ers sitting ; some baptize in a font, some 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." Her majesty was highly displeased with this report, and especially that her laws were so lit- tle regarded ; she therefore directed a letter te the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, dated January 26th, " to confer with the bishops of the ecclesiastical commission, and to inquire what * Strype's Annals, vol. i., p. 130. Bishop War- burton says that he was also installed in the third prebend of Durham, October 14, 1572, but held it not long ; Bellamy succeeding to the same stall Octo- ber 31, ISTi.— Supplement to Warburtoyi's Works, p. 456. — Ed. t Life of Parker, p. 149. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 91 diversities there were among the clergy in doc- trine, rites, and ceremonies, and to take effectual lEethods that an exact order and uniformity be maintained in all external rites and ceremonies, as by law and good usages are provided for ; and that none hereafter be admitted to any ecclesi- astical preferment but who is well disposed to common order, and shall formally promise to comply with it."* To give countenance to this severity, it was reported that some of the warm- er Puritans had turned the habits into ridicule, and given unhandsome language to those that wore them, which, according to Mr. Strype, was the occasion of their being pressed after- ward with so much rigour ; but whatever gave occasion to tlie persecutiou that followed, or whoever was at the head of it, supposing the in- sinuation to be just, it was very hard that so great a number of useful ministers, who neither censured their brethren, nor abused their indul- gence by an unmannerly behaviour, should be turned out of their benefices for the indiscretion of a few. The bishops, in their letters to the foreign divines, had promised not to urge their brethren in these things, and, when opportunity served, to seek reformation of them ; but now they took themselves to be released from their promises, and set at liberty by tbe queen's ex- press command to the contrary ; their meaning being, that they would not do it with their own accord, without direction from above. The Puritans and their friends, foreseeing the storm, did what they could to avert it. Pilking- ton, bishop of Durham, wrote to the Earl of Lei- cester, October 25th, to use his interest with the queen in their behalf He said " that com- pulsion should not be used in things of liberty. He prayed the earl to consider how all reformed countries had cast away popish apparel, with the pope, and yet vVe contend to keep it as a holy relict That many ministers would rather leave their livings than comply ; and the realm had a great scarcity of teachers, many places being destitute of any. That it would give incurable offence to foreign Protestants ; and since we have forsaken popery as wicked, I do not see," says the bishop, " how their apparel can become saints and pi^ofessors of the Gospel." Whitting- ham, dean of Durham, wrote to the same pur- pose. He dreaded the consequence of imposing that as necessary which at best was only indif- ferent, and, in the opinion of many wise and learned men, superstitious. " If the apparel which the clergy wear at present," says he, " seems not so modest and grave as their vo- cation requires, or does not sufficiently distin- guish them from men of other callings, they re- fuse not to wear that which shall be thought, by godly magistrates, most decent for these uses, provided they may keep themselves ever pure from the defiled robe of antichrist. Many papists," says he, "enjoy their livings ai^d lib- erty who have not sworn obedience, nor do any part of their duty to their miserable flock. t Alas ! my lord, that such compulsion should be used towards us, and such great lenity towards the papists. Oh ! noble earl, be our patron and stay in this behalf, that we may not lose that liberty that hitherto, by the queen's benignity, * Life of Parker, p. 154. t Life of Parker, p. -1 55, and Appendix, p. 40. t Life of Parker, p. 157, and Appendix, p. 43. we have enjoyed." Other letters were written to the same purpose, and all made what friends they could among the courtiers. The nobility v^'ere divided, and the queen her- self seemed to be at a stand, but the archbishop spirited her forward ; and having received her majesty's letter, authorizing him to proceed, he entered upon the unpleasing work with vigour and resolution. The Bishops Jewel and Horn preached at Paul's Cross to reconcile the people to the habits. Jewel said he did not come to defend them, but to show that they were indif- ferent, and might be complied with. Horn went a little farther, and wished those cut off from the Church that troubled it about white or black garments, round or square caps. The Puritans were not allowed to preach against the habits, but they expostulated with the bishops, and told them that, in their opinions, those ought rather to be cut off which stopped the course of the Gospel, and that grieved and offended their weak brethren, by urging the remnants of antichrist more than God's commandments, and by pun- ishing the refusers of them more extremely than the breakers of God's laws. The archbishop, with the Bishops of London, Ely, Winchester, and Lincoln, framed sundry articles to enforce the habits, which were after- ward published under the title of Advertisements. But when his grace brought them to court, the queen refused to give them her sanction. The archbishop, chafed at the disappointment, said that the court had put him upon framing the Advertisements, and if they would not go on, they had better never have done anything ; nay, if the council would not lend their helping hand against the Nonconformists, as they had done heretofore in Hooper's days, they should only be laughed at for all they had done.* But still the queen was so cold, that, when the Bishop of Ijondon came to court, she spoke not a word to him about the redressing the neglect of con- formity in the city of London, where it was most disregarded. Upon which the archbishop ap- plied to the secretary, desiring another letter from the queen to back their endeavours for conformity, adding, in some heat, "If you rem- edy it not by letter, I will no more strive against the stream, fume or chide who will." But the wearing of popish garments being one of the grand principles of nonconformity, it will be proper to set before the reader the senti- ments of some learned performers upon this controversy, which employed the pens of some of the most judicious divuies of the age. We have related the unfriendly behaviour of the Bishops Cranmer and Ridley towards Hooper, and that those very prelates who once threatened his life for refusing the habits, if we may credit Mr. Fox's Latin edition of the Book of Martyrs, lived to see their mistakes and re- pent;! for when Brooks, bishop of Gloucester, came to Oxford to degrade Bishop Ridley, he refused to put on the surplice, and while they were putting it on him whether he would or no, he vehemently inveighed against the apparel, calling it " foolish, abominable, and too fond for a vice in a play." Bishop Latimer also derided the garments ; * Life of Parker, p. 159. f Fox's Book of Martyrs, vol. iii., p. 500. Strype's Ann., vol. ii., p. 555. 92 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. and Avhen they pulled off his surplice at his deg- radation, " Now," says he, " I can make no more holy water." In the articles against Bishop Farrar, in King Edward's reign, it was objected, article forty- nine, that he had vowed never to wear the cap, but that he came into his cathedral with a long gown and hat, whicii he did not deny, alleging he did it to avoid superstition, and without any offence to the people. When the popish vestments were put upon Dr. Taylor, the martyr, in order to his degrada- tion, he wallced about vvith his hands by his sides, saying, " How say you, my lord, am I not a goodly fool I If I were in Cheapside, would not the boys laugh at these foolish toys and apish trumpery 1" And when the surplice was pulled off, " Now," says he, " I am rid of a fool's coat." When they were pulling the same off from Archbishop Cranmer, he meekly replied, " All this needed not : I myself had done with this gear long ago." Dr. Heylin testifies that John Rogers, the pro- tomartyr, peremptorily refused to wear the hab- its unless the popish priests were enjoined to wear upon their sleeves, by way of distinction, a chalice with a host. The same he asserts con- cerning Philpot, a very eminent martyr ; and concerning one Tyms, a deacon, who was like- wise martyred in Queen Mary's reign. The holy martyr John Bradford, as well as Mr. Sampson and some others, excepted against the habits at their entrance into holy orders, and were ordained without them. Bucer and Peter Martyr, professors of our two famous universities, were both against the hab- its, and refused to wear them. Bucer being asked why he did not wear the square cap, an- swered. Because his head was not square.* And Martyr, in one of his letters after his return home, says, " When T was at Oxford I would never use those white garments in the choir, though I was a canon in the Church ; and I am satisfied in my own reasons for what I did."t In the same letter, Bucer says he would be content to suffer some great pain in his body upon condi- tion that these things were utterly taken away.t And, in such case as we are now [1550], he willeth that in no case they should be received. He adds, in his letter from Cambridge to a friend beyond sea, dated 12th January, 1550, that no foreigner was consulted about the purity of cer- emonies, " De puritate rituum scito hie neminem extraneum de his rebus rogari." And though both he and Peter Martyr thought they might be borne with for a season, yet, in our case, he would not have them suffered to remain. These were the sentiments of our first Re- formers in the reign of King Edward VI. and Queen Mary. Upon restoring the Protestant religion, un- der Queen Elizabeth, the same sentiments con- cerning the habits prevailed among all the Re- formers at first, though they disagreed upon the grand question whether they should desert their ministry rather than comply. Mr. Strype, in his Life of Archbishop Parker, a most cruel persecutor of the Puritans, says * Life of Parker, Appendix, p. 41. t Hist. Ref., p. 65. t Ann. Ref., vol. ii., p. 554, 555. that he was not fond of the cap, the surplice, and the wafer-bread, and such like injunctions, and would have been pleased with a toleration ; that he gloried in having been consecrated with- out the Aaronical garments ; but that his con- cern for his prince's honour made him resolute that her royal will might take place. Dr. Horn, bishop of Winchester, in his letter to Gaulter, says "that the act of Parliament which enjoined the vestments was made before they were in office, so that they had no hand in making it ;* but they had obeyed the law, think- ing the matter to be of indifferent nature ; and they had reason to apprehend that, if they had deserted their stations on that account, their en- emies might have come into their places ;t but he hoped to procure an alteration of the act in the next Parliament, though he believed it would meet with great opposition from the papists." Yet this very bishop, a little after, wished them cut off from the Church that troub- led it about white or black garments. Bishop Jewel calls the vestments " the habits of the stage, the relics of the Amorites, and wishes they may be extirpated to the roots, that all the remnants of former errors, with all the rubbish, and even the dust that yet remained, might be taken away." But, he adds, the queen is fixed ; and so was his lordship soon after, when he refused the learned Dr. Humphreys a benefice within his diocess on this account, and called the Nonconformists men of squeamish, stomachs. t Bishop Pilkington complains " that the dis- putes which began about the vestments were now carried farther, even to the whole consti- tution ; that pious persons lamented this, athe- ists laughed, and the papists blew the coals ; and that the blame of all was cast upon the bishops. He urged .that it might be considered that all Reformed Churches had cast away po- pish apparel with the pope ; that many ministers would rather leave their livings than wear them ; and he was well satisfied that it was not an ap- parel becoming those that profess godliness. I confess," says he, " we suffer many things against our hearts, groaning under them ; but we can- not take them away, though we were ever so much set upon it. We were under authority, and can innovate nothing without the queen ; nor can we alter the laws ; the only thing left to our choice is, whether we will bear these things or break the peace of the Church. "ij Bishop Grindal was a considerable time in suspense whether he should accept a bishopric with the popish vestments. He consulted Pe- ter Martyr on this head, and says that all the bishops that had been beyond the sea had dealt with the queen to let the habits fail ; but she was inflexible. This made them submit to the laws, and wait for a fit opportunity to reverse them. Upon this principle he conformed, and was consecrated ; and in one of his letters he calls God to witness that it did not lie at their (the bishops') door that the habits were not quite taken away. Dr. Sandys, bishop of Worcester, and Park- hurst of Norwich, inveigh severely against the habits, and they, with the rest of the bishops, * Pierce's Vindication, p. 44. t Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 289, 294. Life of Parker, p. 154. t MS., p. 873. ^"Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 316, HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 93 threaten to declaim against them " till they are sent to hell, from whence they came."* San- dys, in one of his letters to Parker, says, " I hope we shall not be forced to use the vest- ments, but that the meaning of the law is, that others, in the mean time, shall not take them away, but that they shall remain for the queen." Dr. Guest, bishop of Rochester, wrote against the ceremonies to Secretary Cecil, and gave it as his opinion " that, having been evil used, and once taken away, they ought not to be used again, because the Galatians were commanded to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, and because we are to abstain from all appearance of evil. The Gospel teaches us to put away needless ceremonies, and to wor- ship God in spirit and truth ; whereas these cer- emonies were no better than the devices of men, and had been abused to idolatry. He declares openly against the cross, against images in churches, and against a variety of garments in the service of God . If a surplice be thought prop- er for one," says his lordship, " it should serve for all Divine offices. The bishop is for the peo- ple's receiving the sacrament into their hands, according to the example of Christ and the primitive Church, and not for putting it into the people's mouths ; and as for the posture, that it should be rather standing than kneeling ; but that this should be left to every one's choice. "t Not one of the first set of bishops after the Ref- ormation approved of the habits, or argued for their continuance from Scripture, antiqxiity, or decency, but submitted to them out of necessity, and to keep the Church in the queen's favour. i How much are the times altered ! our first Reformers never ascribed any holiness or virtue to the vestments, but wished and prayed for their re- moval ;i^ whereas several modern conformists have made them essential to their ministrations, and have represented religion as naked and de- fective without them. But the question that divided the Reformers was the lawfulness of wearing habits that had been consecrated to idolatrous and superstitious uses, and were the very marks and badges of that religion they had renounced. Upon this they consulted the foreign divines, who all agreed in the reasonableness of abolishing the habits, but were divided in their sentiments about the lawfulness of wearing them in the mean time : some were afraid of the return of Lutheranism or popery, if the ministers should desert their stations in the Church ; and others * Bishop Burnet quotes this as concerning the cor- ruptions of the spiritual courts, vol. iu., T. t MS., p. 891. Strype's Annals, vol. i., p. 38. Ap- pendix, No. 14. X Strype's Annals, vol. i., p. 177. 6 Bishop Warburton asks here, " Who ascribes any holiness or virtue to them now, I pray ?" In reply, it is sufficient to observe that Mr. Neal refers to the time when he wrote, about thirty-six years before the bishop's strictures appear to have been penned, and not many years after Dr. Nichols, in his defence of the Church of England, had called ministers' ordina- ry habit profane ; and when Dr. Grey (System of Ec- clesiastical Law, p. 55) had carried the notion of de- cency, in this respect, very high, representing " the Church, as by a prescript form of decent and comely apparel, providing to have its ministers known to the people, and thereby to receive the honour and esti- mation due to the special messengers and ministers of Almighty God." This representation approximates very much to the idea of holiness and virtue.— Ed. apprehended that if they did not reject them at first, they should never obtain their removal af terward. Dr. Humphreys and Sampson, two heads of the Nonconformists, wrote to Zurich the follow- ing reasons against the lawfulness of -wearing the habits : " That they did not think the prescri- bing habits to the clergy merely a civil thing ; nor that the habits now prescribed were decent ; for how can that habit be decent that serves only to dress up the theatrical pomp of popery'? The papists glory in ihis, that these habits were brought in by them, for which they vouch Otho's Constitutions and the Roman Pontifical. They add, that in King Edward's time the surplice was not universally used nor pressed, whereas the copes then taken away are now to be resto- red. This is not to extirpate popery, but to plant it again, and instead of going forward in Refor- mation, to go backward. We do not place re- ligion in habits," say they, "but we oppose them that do [the papists]. Besides, it gives some authority to servitude, to depart from our liber- ty. We hate contention, nor do we desert our churches, and leave them exposed to wolves, but we are driven from them. We leave our brethren to stand and fall to their own master, and desire the same favourable forbearance from them. All that is pretended is, that the habits are not unlawful ; not that they are good and expedient ; but forasmuch as the habits of the clergy are visible marks of their profession, they ought not to be taken from their enemies. The ancient fathers had their habits, but not peculiar to bishops, nor distinct from the laity. The in- stances of St. John and Cyprian are singular. In Tertullian's time the pailium was the com- mon habit of old Christians. Chrysostom speaks of white garments, but with no approbation : he rather finds fault with them ; nor do we condemn things indifferent as unlawful ; but we wish there might be a free synod to settle this mat- ter, in which things may not be carried accord- ing to the minds of one or two persons. The doctrine of our Church is now pure, and why should there be any defect in our worship 1 why should we borrow anything from popery 1 why should we not agree in rites, as well as in doc- trine, with the other Reformed Churches? we have a good opinion of our bishops, and bear with their state and pomp ; we once bore the same cross with them, and preached the same Christ with them; why, then, are we now turned out of our benefices, and some put in prison, only for habits, and publicly defamed?* " But the dispute is not only about a cap and surplice ; there are other grievances which ought to be redressed or dispensed with ; as, 1. Music and organs in Divine worship. 2. The sponsors in baptism, answering in the child's name. 3. The cross in baptism. 4. Kneeling at the sacrament, and the use of unleavened bread. 5. There is also a want of discipline in the Church. 6. The marriage of the clergy is not legitimated, but their children are looked upon by some as bastards. 7. Marriage is not to be performed without a ring. 8. Women are not to be churched without the veil. 9. The court of faculties, pluralities, licenses for non- residence, for eating flesh in Lent, &c., are in- sufferable grievances. 10. Ministers have not * Hist. Ref , vol. iii., p. 311. 94 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. a free liberty to preach without subscribing to the use and approbation of" ail the ceremonies.* And, lastly, the article which explained the man- ner of Christ's presence in the sacrament is ta- ken away." The bishops alleged, in vindication of their compliance with these things, the necessity of the time, the queen's peremptoriness, the in- different nature of the things required, and their fears of the loss of the whole Reformation if they should desert their stations in the Church; promising not to urge them upon their brethren who were dissatisfied, but to endeavour their removal in a proper season. The learned foreigners gave their opinions upon this nice question with caution and reserve. Peter Martyr, in his letter to Grindalt, writes thus : " As to the habits to be used in holy things, since they carry an appearance of the mass, and are merely remainders of popery, it is," says he, " the opinion of the learned BuUin- ger, the chief minister of Zurich, that they are to be refrained from, lest by your example a thing that is scandalous should be confirmed ; but," he adds, " though I have been always against the use of such ornaments, yet I see the present danger, lest you should be put from the office of preaching. There may also be some hopes, that as images and altars are taken away, so also those appearances of the mass may be removed, if you and others, who have taken upon you epis- copacy, labour in it. I am therefore more back- ward to advise you rather to refuse the bishop- ric than to submit to the use of those vestures ; and yet, because I am sensible scandals of this kind are to be avoided, I am more willing to vield to Bullinger's opinion aforesaid." But, af- ter all, he advises him to do nothing against his conscience. Bullinger and Gualter, ministers of Zurich, in their letters to Horn and Grindal, " lament the unhappy breach in the Church of England, and approve of the zeal of those divines who wish to have the house of God purged from all the dregs of popery. They are not pleased with them who first made the laws about habits, nor with those who zealously maintain them. They declare that they acted unwisely, if they were of the reformed side ; but if they were disguised enemies, that they had been laying snares with ill designs. They are therefore absolutely against the imposition of these, and other grievances ; but they think many things of this sort should be submitted to, rather than men should forsake the ministry at this juncture, lest the whole Ref- ormation should be lost ; but that they should press the queen and the nobility to go on and complete the Reformation, so gloriously be- gun."t These divines wrote also to the Earl of Bed- ford, and acquainted him " that they were sorry to hear that not only the vestments, but many other things were retained in the Church, which savoured plainly of popery. They complain of the bishops printing their letter, and that their private opinion about the lawfulness of wearing the habits for the present should be made use of to cast reproaches on persons, for whom they should rather have compassion in their suffer- * Hist. Ref., in Records, p. 335. t Strype's Life of Grindal, p. 29, 30. Ann., vol. i., p. 173. t Hist. Ref, vol. iii., p. 508, MS., p. 889. ings, than study to aggravate them. They pray' his lordship to intercede with the queen and no- bility for their brethren that were then under sufferings, who deserved a very great regard, forasmucli as it had appeared what true zeal they had for religion, since the only thing they desired was, that the Church should be purged from all the dregs of popery. This cause, say they, in general is such, that those who promote it are worthy of the highest dignity. They do, therefore, earnestly pray his lordship at this time to exert himself and employ all the inter- est he has in the queen and nobility, that the Church of England, so happily reformed to the admiration of the whole world, may not be de- filed with the remnants of popery. To retain these things will look like giddiness," say these divines ; " it will offend the weak, and give great scandal to their neighbours in France and Scot- land, who are yet under the cross ; and the very papists will justify their tyrannical impo- sitions by such proceedings."* The divines of Geneva were more perempto- ry in their advices ; for in their letter of Octo- ber 24th, 1564, signed by Theodore Beza, and seventeen of his brethren, they say, " If the case were theirs, they would not receive the ministry upon these conditions if it were prof- fered, much less would they sue for it. As for those who have hitherto complied, if they are obliged not only to wink at manifest abuses, but to approve of those things which ought to he redressed, what thing else can we advise them to, but that they should retire to a private life1 As for the popish habits, those men that are au- thors of their being imposed, do deserve most evil of the Church, and shall verily answer it at the dreadful bar of Christ's judgment." Then they argue very strongly against the habits ; and having advised the ministers not to lay down their ministry presently, for fear of the return of popery, they conclude thus : " Never- theless, if ministers are commanded not only to tolerate these things, but by their subscriptions to allow them as lawful, what else can we advise them to, but that, having witnessed their inno- cence, and tried all other means in the fear of the Lord, they should give over their functions to open wrong 1" They then declare their opin- ions against the cross in baptism ; the validity of baptism by midwives ; the power of the keys being in the hands of lay-chancellors and bish- ops' courts ; and conclude with an exhortation and prayer for unity, and a more perfect refor- mation in the English Church. Though the Reformation in Scotland was not fully established, yet the superintendent minis- ters and commissioners of charges within that realm directed a letter the very first opportunity to their brethren the bishops, and pastors of England, who have renounced the Roman anti- christ, and do profess with them the Lord Je- sus Christ in sincerity. It was dated from Ed- inburgh, December 28th, 1566, and signed by John Spotswood, and nine of his brethren, preachers of Christ Jesus. The letter does not enter into the debate whether the habits are simply indifferent or not, but pleads in a most earnest and pathetic manner for toleration and forbearance, and that the deprived ministers may be restored. " If surplice, corner-cap, and ♦ Hist. Ref, vol. ii., p. 313. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 95 tippet," say they, " have been badges of idola- try, what have the preachers of Christian hber- ty, and the open rebukers of all superstition, to do with the dregs of the Roman beast I Our brethren, that of conscience refuse that unprofit- able apparel, do neither damn yours, nor molest you that use such vain trifles. If ye shall do the like by them, we doubt not but you will therein please God, and comfort the hearts of many." But the whole letter breathes such an excellent spirit, that I cannot forbear recom- mending it to the reader's perusal in the Ap- pendix. It is evident, upon the whole, that it was the unanimous opinion of the foreign divines that the habits ought to be laid aside by authority, and that, in the mean time, they should not be urged upon those that scrupled them ; but they were not so well agreed in the lawfulness of wearing them till they were taken away ; though their fears of the return of popery, if the minis- ters should desert their stations ; their compas- sion to the souls of the people, who were per- ishing for lack of knowledge ; and their hopes that the queen would quickly be prevailed with to remove them, made most of them apprehend they might be dispensed with for the present. The English laity were more averse to the habits than the clergy ; as their hatred of po- pery increased, so did their aversion to the gar- ments. There was a strong party in the very court against them, among whom was the great Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Knollys, vice- chamberlain ; Burleigh, lord- treasurer ; Sir Francis Walsingham, secretary of state ; the Earls of Bedford, Warwick, and others. But the Protestant populace throughout the nation were so inflamed that nothing but an awful sub- jection to authority could have kept them with- in bounds. Great numbers refused to frequent those places of worship where service was min- istered in that dress ; they would not salute such ministers in the streets, nor keep them company ; nay, if we may believe Dr. Whitgift, in his defence against Cartwright, " they spit in their faces, reviled them as they went along, and showed such-like rude behaviour,"* be- cause they took them for papists in disguise, for time-servers, and half-faced Protestants that would be content with the return of that reli- gion whose badge they wore.f There was, in- deed, a warm spirit in the people against every- thing which came from that pretended church, whose garments had been so lately dyed with the blood of their friends and relations. Upon the whole, I leave the reader to determine how far the wisdom and moderation of the queen can be vindicated in imposing these habits on the clergy ; or the bishops be excused for im- prisoning, suspending, and depriving some of the most useful preachers in the kingdom, on account of things which, in their own opinion, were but barely tolerable, but in the judgment of their brethren were absolutely sinful. J * Strype's Annals, vol. i., p. 178, 460, 602. Mem. Cranmer, p. 363. Life of Parker, p. 77. t The grounds on which such a suspicion might rest may be seen in Mr. Neal's Review, m the quar- to edition of his History, vol. i., p. 88], 882. " t Strype attributes the rigorous measures hence- forth adopted to the disturbances and insolent beha- viour of some of the Puritans. Bishop Maddox, in his animadversions on Neal, lays great stress on tliis We have already mentioned the queen's let- ter of January 25th ; in obedience to which, Archbishop Parker wrote to his brethren of the ecclesiastical commission, and in particular to Grindal, bishop of London (there being in that city the greatest number of clergy, and of the best learning, that refused the apparel), to con- sult proper methods to reduce them to an exact uniformity.* After some debate, the commis- sioners agreed upon certain advertisements (as they were called), partly for due order in preach- ing and administering the sacraments, and part- ly for the apparel of persons ecclesiastical.! allegation, and thus endeavours to vindicate the bish- ops from a charge of falsehood and tyranny. A pre- text for persecution has never been wanting, when the governors of the Church or the State have deter- mined on it. Wyatt's insurrection was thus employ- ed in Mary's time ; and the insolence and disloyalty of the Puritans were reiterated at subsequent periods, in vindication of the coercive measures which were adopted. The indiscretions and violence of the Pu- ritans towards the Protestant Church are not to be compared with those of the Reformers towards the Church of Rome ; yet it is customary, with a certain class of writers, to magnify the former and to gloss over and extenuate the latter. The one class of of- fences is represented as justifying the severest meas- ures of a vindictive hierarchy ; the other, as the in- evitable attendants on the earliest movements of re- ligious zeal. Such a procedure betrays more of par- ty-spirit than of the calm decision of an impartial judgment. The same principle holds in both cases, and must be fairly apphed. Both the Reformers and the Puritans frequently mistook an intemperate and contentious spirit for that of the Gospel. The vio- lence and fierceness of human passion were permit- ted, in some cases, to mingle with and debase their religious zeal. To deny this fact is to contradict the page of histoiy. To reg:ret the Reformation on this account is to display an ignorance of human nature, and an utter disregard of the welfare of the Church. That instances of such misconduct did occur among the Puritans, may be freely admitted ; but that they were .so numerous as to call for or to justify the measures which their enemies adopted, neither Stiype nor Maddox has succeeded in proving. The fact is, that Elizabeth's bishops yielded somewhat to the corrupting influences of then- station, and were, therefore, indisposed to fulfil their early promises. When writing to BuUinger, they had pleaded that the obnoxious ceremonies were enjoined by Parlia^ ment before their entrance into it. ' But that, after it was passed, they, being chosen to be bishops, must either content themselves to take their places a? things were, or else leave them to papists or Luther ans. But, in the mean space, they promised not to urge their brethren in those things, and, when oppor tunity should serve, to seek reformation of them.'- - Parker, i., 307. How far they fulfilled this promise, let the records of history tell. Some of them were honestly concerned to do so, but Parker was too in- tolerant to permit it." — Dr. Price's Hist, of Noncon- formity, vol. i., p. 168.— C. * Life of Parker, p. 161 t The articles for preaching declare, " that all licenses granted before March 1st, 1564, shall be void and of none effect ; and that all that shall be thought meet for the ofhce of preaching shall be admitted again, paying no more than fourpence for the writing, parchment, and wax ; and that those who were not approved as preachers, might read the homihes. " In the ministration of the communion in ca- thedrals and collegiate churches, the principal min- isters shall wear a cope with gospeller and epistoler agreeably ; but at all other prayers to be said at the communion-table, they shall wear no copes, but sur- plices only ; deans and prebendaries shall wear a sur- plice with a silk hood in the choir, and when they preach, a hood! 9G HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. By the first of these articles, all preachers thro'ighout the nation were disqualified at once, and by the last, they subscribed, and promised not to preach or expound the Scriptures with- out a license from the bishop, which was not to be obtained without a promise under the hand of an absolute conformity to the ceremonies. Here the commissioners surely broke through the act of submission, by which they were obli- ged never to make or execute any canons or constitutions without the royal assent. But the bishops presumed upon their interest with her majesty ; they knew her mind, though she refused, for pohtical reasons, to ratify their ad- vertisements, telling them that the oath of ca- nonical obedience was sufficient to bind the in- ferior clergy to their duty, without the interpo- sition of the crown. Parker therefore went on, and having cited the Puritan clergy to Lambeth, he admonished some, and threatened others;* butGrindal with- drew, being naturally averse to methods of se- verity, and afraid of a praemunire. His grace took a great deal of pains to gain him over, and by his arguments, says Strype, brought him to a good resolution. He also applied to the council for the queen's and their assistance ; and to the secretary of state, beseeching him to spirit up the Bishop of London to his duty, which was done accordingly. What pains will some men take to draw their brethren into a snare, and force them to be partners in oppression and cru- elty ! Among those that the archbishop cited before him were the Reverend Mr. Thomas Sampson, dean of Christ Church, and Dr. Lawrence Hum- phreys (regius professor of divinity), president " Every minister saying the public prayers, or ad- ministering the sacraments, &c., shall wear a sur- plice with sleeves ; and the parish shall provide a de- cent table standing on a frame for the communion- table ; and the Ten Commandments shall be set on the east wall, over the said table. "All dignitaries in cathedral churches, doctors, bachelors of divinity and law, having ecclesiastical livings, shall wear in their common apparel a broad side-gown with sleeves, straight at the hands, with- out any cuffs or falling capes, and tippets of sarse- net, and a square cap, but no hats, except in their journeying. The inferior clergy are to wear long gowns and caps of the same fashion, except in case of poverty, when they may wear short gowns." To these advertisements certain protestations were annexed, to be made, promised, and subscribed by such as shall hereafter be admitted to any office or cure in the Church. "And here every clergyman subscribed, and promised not to preach or expound the Scriptures without special license of the bishop under his seal, but only to read the homilies ; and likewise to observe, keep, and maintain such order .and uniformity in all external polity, rites, and cere- monies of the Church, as by laws, good usages, and orders are already well provided and established." These advertisements were enjoined the clergy by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Lon- don and Rochester (commissioners in causes eccle- siastical), and by the Bishops of Winchester, Ely, and some others. The preface says, " that they do not prescribe these rules as equivalent with the Word of God, or as of necessity to bind the consciences of the queen's subjects, in their own nature considered ; or as adding any efficacy or holiness to public prayer, or to the sacraments ; but as temporal orders merely ecclesiastical, without any vain superstition, and as lules of decency, distinction, and order for the time." * Life of Parker, p. 161, 216. of Magdalen College, Oxon, men of high renown throughout the nation for learning, piety, and zeal for the Reformation, and exiles for religion in Queen Mary's reign. Upon their appearance, the archbishop urged them with the opinions of Bucer and Peter Martyr ; but the authority of tbese divines not being sufficient to remove their scruples, they were ordered not to depart the city without leave. After long attendance, and many checks from some of the council for their refractoriness, they framed a supplicatory letter in a very elegant but submissive style, and sent it to the archbishop, and the rest of the ecclesiastical commissioners, March 20th, " in which they protest before God, what a bitter grief it was to them that there should be such dissensions about a cap and surplice among persons of the same faith. They allege the au- thorities of St. Austin, Socrates, and Theodo- ret, to show that in their times there was a va- riety of rites and observances,, which break not unity and concord. They beseech the bishops, therefore, if there was any fellowship in Christ, that they would follow the direction of St. Paul about things in their own nature indifferent, ' that every one should be persuaded in his own mind.' Conscience (say they) is a tender thing, and all men cannot look upon the same things as indifferent ; if, therefore, these habits seem so to you, you are not to be condemned by us ; on the other hand, if they do not appear so to us, v/e ought not to be vexed by you. They then appeal to antiquity, to the practice of other Re- formed Churches, and to the consciences of the bishops themselves, and conclude thus : ' Where- fore we most humbly pray that a thing which is the care and pleasure of papists, and which you [the bishops] have no great value for your- selves, and which we refuse, not from any con- tempt of authority, but from an aversion to the common enemy, may not be our snare nor our crime.' "* * In one of their examinations the archbishop put nine questions to them, to which they gave the fol- lowing answers : Quest. 1. "Is the surpUce a thing evil and wicked, or is it indifferent ? Ansvv. " Though the surplice in substance be in- different, yet in the present circumstance it is not, being of the same nature with the vestis peregrina, or the apparel of idolatry, for which God by the prophet threatens to visit. Quest. 2. " If it be not indifferent, for what cause ? Answ. " Because things that have been consecrated to idolatry are not indifferent. Quest. 3. " Whether the ordinary [or bishop] de- testing papistry, may enjoin the surplice to be worn, and enforce his injunction ? Answ. " It may be said to such a one, in Tertul- lian's words, ' Si tu diaboli pompain oderis, quicquid ex ea attigeris, id scias esse idolatriam.' That is, ' If thou hatest the pomp and pageantry of the devil, whatsoever of it thou meddlest with is idolatry.' Which if he believes, he will not enforce the in- junction. Quest. 4. "Whether the cope be a thing indiffer- ent, being prescribed by law for decency and rever- ence, and not in respect of superstition or holiness ? Answ. " Decepcy is not promoted by a cope, which was devised to deface the sacrament. St. Jerome says that the gold ordained by God, for reverence and decency of the Jewish temple, is not to be ad- mitted to beautify the Church of Christ ; and if so, much less copes brought in by papists, and contin- ued in their service as proper ornaments of their religion. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 9T The ecclesiastical commissioners were very much divided in their opinions how to proceed with these men. Some were for answering the reasons given below, and for enforcing the habits, with a protestation that they wished them taken away. Others were for connivance, and others for a compromise ; accordingly, a pacific proposition was drawn up, which Humphreys and Sampson were willing to subscribe with the reserve of the apostle, "All things are law- ful, but all things edify not." But the arch- bishop, who was at the head of the commission, would abate nothing, for on the 29th of April, 1561, he told them peremptorily, in open court, that they should conform to the habits ; that is, to wear the square cap, and no hats, in their long gowns ; to wear the surplice with non- regents' hoods in the choirs, according to an- cient custom ; and to communicate kneeling in Quest. 5. "Wliether anything that is indiiferent: may be enjoined as godly to the use of common prayer and sacraments ? Answ. " If it be merely indifferent, as time, place, and such necessary circumstances of Divine worship, for the which there may be brought a ground out of Scripture, we think it may. Quest. 6. "Whether the civil magistrate may con- stitute by law an abstinence from meats on certain •days? Answ. " Because of abstinence a manifest com- modity ariseth to the commonwealth in policy, if it be sufficiently guarded against superstition, he may appoint it, due regard being had to 'persons and times. ' Quest. 7. " Whether a law may be made for the difference of ministers' apparel from laymen ? Answ. " Whether such prescription to a minister of the Gospel of Christ be lawful may be doubted, because no such thing is decreed in the New Testa- ment ; nor did the primitive Church appoint any such thing, but would rather that ministers should be dis- tinguished from the laity doctrma, noii vestc, by their doctrine, not by their garments. Quest. 8. " Whether ministers going in such ap- parel as the papists used ought to be condemned of any preacher for so doing ? Answ. " We judge no man ; to his own master he stands or falls. Quest. 9. " Whether such preachers ought to be reformed, or restrained, or no? Answ. " Irenaeus will not have brethren restrained from brotherly communion for diversity in cere- monies, provided there be unity of faith and charity ; and it is to be wished that there may be the like char- itable permission among us." To these answers our divines subjoined some other arguments against wearing and enforcing the liabits; as, (1.) Apparel ought to be worn as meat Dught to be eaten ; but, according to St. Paul, meat ©fiered to idols ought not to be eaten ; therefore, po- pish apparel ought not to be worn. (2.) We ought mot to give offence in matters of mere indifference ; therefore, the bishops who are of this opinion ought not to enforce the habits. (3.) Popish garments have many superstitious mystical significations, for wliich purpose they were consecrated by the papists ; •wo ought, therefore, to consecrate them also, or lay them wholly aside. (4.) Our ministrations are sup- posed by some not to be vahd, or acceptable to God, ■unless performed in popish apparel ; and this being a prevaihng opinion, we apprehend it highly necessary to disabuse the people. (5.) Things indifferent ought not to be made necessary, because then they.change their nature, and ^ve lose our Christian liberty. (6.) If we are bound to wear popish apparel when commanded, we may be obliged to have shaven crowns, and to make use of oil, spittle, cream, and all the rest of the papistical additions to the ordi- nances of Christ. — Strype's Ann., vol. i., p. 459. Vol. I— N water-bread, or else they should part with their preferment. To which our divines replied that their consciences could not comply with these injunctions, be the event what it might.* Upon this they were both put under confinement; but the storm fell chiefly upon Sampson, who was detained in prison a considerable time, as a terror to others, and, by special order from the queen, was deprived of his deanery; nor could he ever obtain, after this, any higher pre- ferment in the Church than the government of a poor hospital. t ' Hum.phrey's place was not at the queen's dis- posal ; however, he durst not return to Oxford, even after he had obtained his release out of prison, but retired to one Mrs. Warcup's, in Berkshire, a most devout woman, who had run all hazards for harbouring the persecuted Prot- estants in the late times : from hence he wrote a most excellent letter to the queen, in which he " beseeches her majesty's favour about the habits, forasmuch as she well knew that the controversy was about things in their own na- ture indifferent, and in which liberty of con- science ought not to be restrained. He protests his own and his brethren's loyalty, and then ex- postulates with her majesty why her mercy should be shut against them, when it was open to all others. Did she say she would not yield to subjects 1 Yet she might spare miserable men. Would she not rescind a public act ] Yet she might relax and suspend. Would she not take away a law 1 Yet she might grant a tol- eration. Was it not fit to indulge some men's affections^ Yet it was most fit and equal not to force the minds of men. He therefore ear- nestly beseeched her to consider the majesty of the glorious Gospel, the equity of the cause, the fewness of the labourers, the greatness of the harvest, the multitude of the tares, and the heavi- ness of the punishment." Humphreys made so many friends at court, that at length he obtain- ed a toleration, but had no preferment in the Church till ten or twelve years after, when he was persuaded to wear the habits. t For al- though the Bishop of Winchester presented him to a small living within the diocess of Salisbury, Jewel refused to admit him, and said he was determined to abide by his resolution till he had good assurance of his conformity. The Oxford historianij says Dr. Humphreys was a moderate, conscientious Nonconformist, a great and gen- eral scholar, an able hnguist, a deep divine; and that for his excellence of style, exactness of method, and substance of matter in his wri- tings, he went beyond most of our theologists.il * Life of Parker, p. 185. t Mr. Neal appears not to have known that Mr. Sampson was also appointed a prebendary in St. Paul's Cathedral, and was permitted by the queen to be a theological lecturer in Whittingdon College, m London. And in justice to Archbishop Parker it should be added, that some favour, though it does not appear what, was, on his application, granted to Mr. Sampson by the chapter of Christ Church, and he also strongly sohcited the secretary "that, as the queen's pleasure had been executed upon him for example to the terror of others, it might yet be mollified to the commendation of her clemency."— British Biography, vol. iii., p. 20, note, and p. 22. Warner's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 433. — Ed. X MS. p. 873. Strype's Annals, vol. ii., p. 451. Life of Parker, p. 185. ^ Athen. Ox., p. 242. II " That Dr. Humphreys's want of preferment, till 98 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. As Sampson was thus deprived, so were oth- ers who would not enter into bonds to wear the square cap.* Of this number was George With- ers, a man of good learning, preacher of Bury St. Edmonds, in Suffolk ; but at the pressing in- stances of the people, he sent a letter to the archbishop to let him know he would rather strain his conscience a little than discourage the godly, or let the wicked have their mind. He afterward preached at Cambridge, and press- ed the university to destroy the superstitious paintings in the glass windows, which occa- sioned some disorder ; upon which, not long af- ter, he travelled to Geneva, Zurich, and other places, and after some years returned and be- came parish minister of Danbury, in Essex, sub- mitting to the rites for peace' sake, though he did not approve of them, which was the case of many others. While the case of the Oxford divines was un- der consideration, his grace was consulted how to reduce the London Puritans: he was afraid to press them with the advertisements, because the queen could not be prevailed with to put the seal to them ; he therefore sent them again to the secretary, with a letter to the queen, pray- ing " that if not all, yet at least those articles that related to the apparel might be returned with some authority."!" But the queen was firm to her former resolution : she v/ould give no authority to the advertisements ; but, to sup- port her commissioners, issued a proclamation, peremptorily requiring uniformity in the habits, upon pain of prohibition from preaching and deprivation. Hereupon the archbishop consulted with men learned in the civil law what method to proceed in ; and then concluded, with the consent of the rest of the commissioners, to summons the whole body of pastors and curates within the city of London to appear at Lambeth, and to examine every one of them upon this question. Whether they would promise conformity to the apparel established by law, and testify the same by sub- scription of their hands 1 Those who demurred were immediately to be suspended, and, after three months, deprived of their livings. To pre- pare the way for this general citation, it was thought proper first to summon the Reverend Mr. John Fox, the martyrologist, that the repu- tation of his great piety might give the greater countenance to the proceedings of the commis- sioners ; but when they callecl upon him to sub- 1576, was owing to his Puritanical principles, is evi- dent," says Mr. Neal in his Review, " from the tes- timony of Lord Burleigh and Mr. Strype, whose words are these : ' In the latter end of the year 1576, he (Lord Burleigh) did Humphreys the honour to write to him, hinting that his nonconformity seemed to be the chief impediment of his preferment, the queen, and some other honourable persons at court, considering him as forgetful of his duty in disobeying her injunc- tions. This impediment being surmounted, to what- ever considerations or influence it was owing, he was made Dean of Gloucester, and afterward Dean of Winchester. This last dignity and his professorship, notwithstanding his non-subscribing. Fuller says, he held as long as he lived. But then it appears, by Strype, that the lord-treasurer was his particular friend, and had prevailed with him to wear the hab- its.' " — Maddox''s Vindication, p. 324, 325 ; and NeaVs Review, p. 89d. — En. * Life of Parker, p. 187, 192, 199. t Ibid., p. 212, 214. scribe, he took his Greek Testament out of his pocket, and said, " To this I will subscribe.' And when they offered him the canons he re- fused, saying, " I have nothing in the Church but a prebend in Salisbury, and much good may it do you if you take it from me."* But the commissioners had not courage enough to de- prive a divine of so much merit, who held up the ashes of Smithfield before their eyes.f The 26th of March being the day appointed for the appearance of the London clergy, the archbishop desired the secretary of state, with some of the nobility and queen's council, to countenance the proceedings of the commis- sioners with their presence, but they refused to be concerned in such disagreeable work. When the ministers appeared in court, Mr. Thomas Cole, a clergyman, being placed by the side of the commissioners in priestly apparel, the bish- op's chancellor, from the bench, addressed them in these words: "My masters, and ye minis- ters of London, the councd's pleasure is that strictly ye keep the unity of apparel, like this man who stands here canonically habited with a square cap, a scholar's gown priestlike, a tip- pet, 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." Wlien some of the clergy offered to speak, he interrupted them, and cried, "Peace, peace. Apparitor, call over the churches, and ye masters answer presently, sub pcena contemp- tus."t Great was the anguish and distress of those ministers, who cried out for compassion to themselves and families, saying, " We shall be killed in our souls for this pollution of ours." After much persuasion and many threatenings, sixty-one out of a hundred were prevailed with, to subscribe, and thirty-seven absolutely re- * " Fuller, vol. ix., 70. Heylin's Reform., 164. The remark of the latter writer on Fox's reply is charac- teristic. ' This refractory answer,' he says, ' for it was no better, might well have moved the bishop to proceed against him, as he did against some others who had stood on the same refusal ; but kissing goes by kindness, as the saying is, and so much kindness was shown to him, that he both kept his resolution and his place together ; which, whether it might not do more hurt to the Church than that preferment in the Church did advantage him, I think no wise man will make a question ; for, commonly, the exemption or indemnity of some few particulars confirms the obstinacy of the rest, in hope of being privileged with the like indemnity.' " — C. f " When Dr. Humphreys was chosen President of Magdalen College, in 1561, Fox virrote him a congrat- ulatory letter, couched in a facetious style. ' Why do I trifle thus,' said this estimable man, ' and begin to congratulate you your preferment, who should much rather expostulate the case with you? For come, sir, tell me, why have you thus left us and our flock and order, and gone away? Fugitive, runaway as you are, be you not ashamed? You ought to have taken example of greater constancy by me, who still wear the same clothes, and remain in the same sor- did condition as England received me in when I first came home out of Germany. Nor do I change my degree nor order, which is that of the mendicant, or, if you will, of the friars preachers. And in this order you yourself were, and was like enough to continue an honest companion with us. But now you have forsaken this our order and classts, and mounted I know not whither ; fortunate success, as the proverb is, waiting on you.' " — Strype''s Parker, vol. i., p. 223, 224.— C. t Life of Grindal, p. 98. Strype's Annals, p. 463. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 99 fused ; of which last number, as the archbishop acknowledged, were the best, and some preach- ers.* These were immediately suspended, and put from all manner of ministry, with significa- tion that if they did not conform within three months they were to be deprived. The arch- bishop imagined that their behaviour would have been rough and clamorous, but, contrary to his expectations, it was reasonable, quiet, and modest. The ministers gave in a paper of reasons [see belowj for refusing the apparel. t * Life of Parker, p. 215^ t " Reasons, grounded upon the Scriptures, where- by we are persuaded not to admit the use of the out- ward apparel and ministering garments of the pope's church. " 1st. Our Saviour saith, ' Take heed that you con- temn not one of these little ones ; for he that of- fendeth one of these httle ones that believeth in me, It were good for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.' To offend the little ones in Christ, IS to speak or do anything whereby the simple Chris- tians may take occasion either to like that wliich is evil, or to mislike that which is good. Now for us to admit the use of these things may occasion this mischief; therefore, in consenting to them, we should offend many of these little ones. " Farther, St. Paul saith, ' If any man that is in- firm shall see thee that hast knowledge sitting at meat at the idol's table, will not his conscience be stirred up to eat that which is offered to idols ? and so the weak brother, for whom Christ died, shall perish in thy knowledge ; and in sinning after this sort against the brethren, and wounding their weak consciences, ye do sin against Christ.' — 1 Cor., viii., 10-12. This place proveth, that whatsoever is done by him that has knowledge, or seems to have it, in such sort that he may seem to allow that as good which in itself cannot be other than evil, is an occa- sion for the weak to allow and approve of the thing that is evil, and to mislike that that is good, though the doing of it be indififerent of itself to him that has knowledge. To sit at the idol's table, or to eat things offered to idols, is in him that has knowledge a thing indifferent, for he knows that the idol is nothing, and that every creature of God is good, and to be received with thanksgiving, without asking any questions for conscience' sake. But to do this in presence of him that thinks that none can do so but he must be partaker of idolatry, is to encour- age him to like idolatry, and to mislike the true service of God ; for none can like both. Now the case of eating and drinking, and of wearing apparel, is in this point the same ; for though to wear the outward and ministering garments of the pope's church is in itself indifferent, yet to wear them in presence of the infirm and weak brethren, who do not understand the indifference of them, may occa- sion them to like the pomp of the pope's ministra- tion, which of itself is evil, and to misliiie the simple ministration of Christ, which in itself is good. " 2dly. We may not use anything that is repug- nant to Christian liberty, nor maintain an opinion of hohness where none is ; nor consent to idolatry, nor deny the truth, nor discourage the godly, and en- courage the wicked ; nor destroy the Church of God, vvhich we are bound to edify ; nor show disobedience where God commanded us to obey ; all which we should do, if we should consent to wear the outward and ministering garments of the pope's church, as appear by the following passages of Scripture ; by St. Paul's exhortation, Gal., v., 1, 'Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free :' by the example of Christ, Matth , xv., 2, 3, who would not have his disciples maintain an opinion of holiness which the Pharisees had in washing hands : by the doctrine of St. Paul, 2 Cor., vi., 15, where he teach- eth that there ' can be no agreement between Christ To their declaration, and everything else that was offered, from the danger of the Reforma- and Belial :' by the example of Daniel, chap, vi., who, making his prayer to God contrary to the com- mandment of the king, set open his window towards Jerusalem, lest he might seem to deny his profes- sion, or consent to the wicked : by the example of St. Paul, who rebuked Peter sharply because he did, by his dissimulation, discourage the godly that from among the heathen were converted to Christ, and encourage the superstitious Jews ; and again, by his« doctrine, 2 Cor., xiu., where he teacheth that min- isters have power to edify, but not to destroy. It is farther evident from the examples of the patriarchs and prophets, who, in worshipping God, would not use the rites and ceremonies of the idolatrous ; and, to conclude, from the doctrine and example of Peter and John, Acts, iv., who, refusing to obey the com- mandment of the rulers, in ceasing to preach Christ, said, ' Whether it be right in the sight of God to obey you rather than God, be you yourselves judges.' " 3dly. For a farther proof we may bring the testi- mony and practice of the ancient fathers : " Tertullian, in his book De Corona Militis, com- pares those men to dumb idols who wear anything like the decking of the idols. Again, he saith, ' Si in idoho recumbere alienum est a fide, quid in idoli habitu videri ?' ' If it be a matter of infidetity to sit at the idol's feast, what is it to be seen in the habit or apparel of the idol ?' " St. Austin, in his eighty-sixth epistle to Casula- nus, warneth him not to fast on the same day, lest thereby he might seem to consent with the wicked Manichees. " The fourth CouncU of Toletane [Toledo], canon fifth, to avoid consent with heretics, decreed that in baptism the body of the baptized should be but once dipped. " The great clerk Origen, as Epiphanius writeth, tom. i., b. ii., haeres. 64, because he deUvered palm to those that offered to the image of Serapis, although he openly said, ' Venite accipite non frondes simula- chri sed frondes Christi,' ' Come and receive the boughs, not of the image, but of Christ :' yet was he for this, and such like doings, excommunicated and cast out of the Church, by those martjrrs and confessors that were at Athens. " In the Tripartite History, b. vi., chap, xxx., it is said that the Christian soldiers who, by the subtlety of Julian, were brought to offer incense to the idol, when they perceived their fault, ran forth into the streets, professing the religion of Christ, testifying themselves to be Christians, and confessing that their hands had offended unadvisedly, but that now they were ready to give their whole bodies to the most cruel torments and pains for Christ. " Farther, to prove that wearing the ministering garments of the pope's church is to confirm the opin- ion of the necessity and holiness of the same, and to show consent to idolatry, let it be remembered that the first devisers of them have taught that of neces- sity they must be had ; and have made laws to pun- ish and deprive those that had them not, as appears in the pontifical De Clerico faciendo, that is, of the ordering of a clerk, where the surphce is termed the habit or garment of the holy religion. And Duran- dus, in his third book, entitled Rationale Divinor, calls it the linen garment, which those men that are occupied in any manner at the service of the altar and holy things must wear over their common apparel. " Lindwood, also, in his constitutions for the prov- ince of England, De Habitu Clericali, affirms the ne- cessity of this habit ; so does Ottobonus and others, appointing grievous punishments for those that re- fuse to wear them ; yea, and the pontifical teaches that when a clerk has, by murder or otherwise, de- served to die, he must be degraded, by plucking vio- lently from him those garments, with these words, ' Authoriiate Dei Omnipotentis, Patris, Filii, et Spir- itus Sancti,' &c. ' By the authority of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by our au- 100 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. tion, and the ruin of so many poor families, the commissioners replied it was not their business to argue and debate, but to execute the queen's injunctions. Archbishop Parker seemed pleased with the resolution of his chancellor, and said " that he did not doubt, when the ministers had felt the smart of poverty and want, they would comply, for the wood," says he," is yet green."* He declared, farther, that he was fully bent to go through with the work he had begun ; and the rather, because the queen would have him try with his own authority what he could do for order. This raised his ambition, and put him upon soliciting the secretary of state by letter for his countenance ; in one of which he tells him that "if he was not better backed there would be fewer Winchesters, as is de- sired," referring to Stephen Gardiner, the bloody persecuting Bishop of Winchester in Queen Mary's reign ; " but for my part," says he, " so that my prince may win honour, I will be very gladly the rock of offence ; since ' the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what iiian can do to me ;' nor will I be amused or daunted ; fremat mundus, mat ca:liim."i These were the weap- ons, and this the language, of one whom Mr. Strype calls the mild and gentle archbishop ! thority, we take from thee the habit of the clergy, and we make the naked and bare of the ornaments of religion ; and we do depose, degrade, spoil, and strip thee of thy clergy order, benefice, and privi- lege ; and as one that is unworthy of the profession of a clerk, we bring thee back again into the servi- tude and shame of the secular habit.' "'These things being thus weighed, with the warn- ing that St. Paul giveth, 1 Thess., chap, v., where he commands us to abstain from all appearance of evil, we cannot but think that in using of these things we should beat back those that are coming from su- perstition, and confirm those that are grown in su- perstition, and, consequently, overthrow that which we have been labouring to build, and incur the dan- ger of that horrible curse that our Saviour has pro- nounced, ' Wo to the world because of offences.' " Knowing, therefore, how horrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, by doing that which our consciences (grounded upon the truth of God's Word, and the example and doctrine of an- cient fathers) do tell us were evil done, and to the great discrediting of the truth whereof we profess to be teachers, we have thought good to yield our- selves into the hands of men, to suffer whatsoever God hath appointed us to suffer, for the preferring of the commandments of God and a clear conscience, before the commandments of men ; in complying with which we cannot escape the condemnation of our consciences ; keeping always in memory that horrible saying of John in his First Epistle, ' If our conscience condemn us, God is greater than our con- science ;' and not forgetting the saying of the Psalm- ist, ' It is good to trust in the Lord, and not to trust in man,' Psal. cxviii. ' It is good to trust in the Lord, and not to trust in princes.' And again, Psal. cxlvi., ' Trust not in princes, nor in the children of men, in whom there is no health, whose spirit shall depart out of them, and they shall return to the earth from whence they came, and in that day all their de- vices shall come to naught.' "Not despising men, therefore, but trusting in God only, we seek to serve him with a clear conscience so long as we shall live here, assuring ourselves that those things that we shall sutler for doing so shall be a testimony to the world that great reward is laid up for us in heaven, where we doubt not but to rest forever, with them that have before our days suffered for the like." — MS. penes me, p. 57, &c. * Life of Parker, p. 215. t Life of Parker, p. 219, 220, &c. The Nonconformists had juster thoughts of him ; hp was at the head of all their sufferings, and pushed them forward with unrelenting vig- our. The queen might have been softened ; the secretary of state and courtiers declared they could not keep pace with him ; Grindal relented, and the Bishop of Durham declared he would rather lay down his bishopric than suffer suck proceedings in his diocess. But Parker was above these reproaches, and instead of relaxing, framed such injunctions for the London clergy as had never been heard of in a Protestant king- dom or a free government. The commissioners obliged every clergyman that had cure of souls to swear obedience, 1. To all the queen's in- junctions and letters patent ; 2". To all letters from the lords of the privy council ; 3. To the articles and injunctions of their metropolitan ;* 4. To the articles and mandates of their bishop, archdeacon, chancellors, somners, receivers, &c., and in a word, to be subject to the control of all their superiors with patience. t To gird these injunctions close upon the Puritans, there was appointed in every parish four or eight cen- sors, spies, or jurats, to take cognizance of all offences given or taken. These were under oath enjoined to take particular notice of the conformity of the clergy and of the parishioners, and to give in their presentments when requi- red ; so that it was impossible for an honest Pu- ritan to escape the high commission. By these methods of severity, religion and virtue were discountenanced for the sake of their pretended ornaments ; the consciences of good men were entangled, and the Reformation exposed to the utmost hazard. t Many church- es were shut up in the city of London for want of ministers, to the grief of all good men and the inexpressible pleasure of the papists, who rejoiced to see the Reformers weakening their own hands, by silencing such numbers of the most useful and popular preachers, while the country was in distress for want of them. Bish- op Sandys, in one of his sermons before the queen some years after, tells her majesty " that many of her people, especially in the northern parts, perished for want of saving food. Many there are," says he, "that hear not a sermon ia seven years I might safely say in seventeen : their blood will be required at somebody's hands. "ij But, to make thorough work with the refusers of the habits, the archbishop called in all licen- ses, according to the advertisements, and ap- pointed all preachers throughout his whole prov- ince to take out new ones ; this was to reach those who were neither incumbents nor curates in parishes, but lecturers or occasional preach- ers. All parsons and curates were forbid to suffer any to preach in their churches upon any former licenses given by the archbishop ; and such as took out new licenses bound themselves for the future not to disturb the public estab- lishment, or vary from it. And because some, * Strype's Ann., p. 463. t Dr. Warner calls this an oath of a most extraor- dinary nature under a free government, and adds, "with this unrelenting rigour did the archbishop carry on the severity against the Puritans, and al- most he alone." — Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 435.— Ed. t Life of Parker, p. 224. ^ Life of Parker, p. 198. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. when they had been discharged from their min- istry in one diocess for nonconformity, got a settlement in another, it was now appointed that such curates as came out of other diocess- es should not be allowed to preach without let- ters testimonial from the ordinary where they last served. But those Puritans who could not with a good conscience take out new licenses kept their old ones, and made the best use of them they could.* "They travelled up and down the countries, from church to church, preaching where they could get leave, as if they were apostles," says Bishop Jewel ; and so they were with regard to their poverty, for sil- ver and gold they had none ; but his lordship adds, " And they take money for their labours." An unpardonable crime ! that honest men of a liberal education, that had parted with their liv- ings in the Church for a good conscience, should endeavour, after a very poor manner, to live by the Gospel. There was still one door of entrance in the ministry left open to the Puritans, which the archbishop used all his interest to shut, but could not prevail. It was a privilege granted the Uni- versity of Cambridge, by Pope Alexander VI., to license twelve ministers yearly to preach any- where throughout England without obtaining li- censes from any of the bishops. The bull says that " the chancellor of the university (who was then Fisher, bishop of Rochester) and his suc- cessors, shall license twelve preachers yearly, under the common seal of the university, who shall have liberty to preach, &c., durante vita naturalir The archbishop sent to Secretary Cecil, their chancellor, praying him to set aside this practice : 1. Because the present licenses varied from the original bull, being given out by the vice-chancellor, whereas they ought to be in the name of the chancellor only. 2. Because it was unreasonable to give licenses durante vita naturali, i. e., for life ; whereas they ought to be only quam diu nobis placuerint, and dutn lauda- biliier gcsserint, i. e., during our pleasure, or as long as they behave well.t 3. But that which troubled the archbishop most was the clause which infringed his own and his breth- ren's jurisdiction, that they might preach with- out a license from any of the bishops. And yet this clause is in the letters patent of Queen Elizabeth, granted to the university for this pur- pose ; the words are, " Licentia ordinariorum locorum super hoc minime requisita." This was thought insufferable ; the vice-chancellor, therefore, was sent for to town to defend the privilege of the university, which he did to the satisfaction of the chancellor ; but the archbish- op was so angry that he declared he would not admit any of tlieir licenses without the chancel- lor's name ; nor could he imagine that the vice- chancellor, by his pretended experience and skill in the civil law, could inform his honour of anything that he was not capable of answering. But here his grace met with a disappointment, for -the university retained their privilege, and made use of it to the relief of the Puritans t 101 In the queen's progress this year [15651 her majesty visited the University of Cambridge, and continued there fiVe days, being entertained by the scholars with speeches and disputations On the 3d day of her being there [August 7thl a philosophy act was kept by Thomas Byng of Peter-house, on these two questions : 1. Wlieth- er monarchy be not the best form of government^ 2. Whether frequent alterations of the laws are dangerous ? The opponents were Mr Thomaa Cartwright,fellowofTrinityCollege; Mr Chad- derton, of Queen's ; Mr. Preston and Mr. Clark of King's College ; who performed their parts to the satisfaction of the queen and the whole au- dience ; but it seems Preston pleased her maj- esty best, and was made her scholar, with the settlement of a salary. The divinity questions were, 1. Whether the authority of the Scripture is greater than that of the Church ? 2. Wheth- er the civil magistrate has authority in ecclesi- astical affairs 1 These were the tests of the times. At the close of the disputation the queen made a short and elegant oration in Lat- in, encouraging the scholars to pursue their studies, with a promise of her countenance and protection. But this learned body was soon after thrown into confusion by the controversy of the habits, especially of the surplice. Dr. Longworth, mas- ter of St. John's, being absent from his college, the students of that house came to chapel on a festival day without their hoods and surplices,* to the number of three hundred, and continued to do so for some time, the master at his return making no complaint, nor attempting to recover them to uniformity. In Trinity College allt except three declared against the surplice, and many in other colleges were ready to follow their example. The news of this being sent to court, it was easy to foresee an impending storm : several members of the university wrote to the secretary, humbly beseeching his inter- cession with the queen, that they might not be forced to revive a popish ceremony, which they had laid aside ; assuring him, before God, that nothing bCit reason, and the quiet enjoyment of their consciences, had induced them to do as they had done. But Cecil sent them an angry answer, admonishing them to return quietly to ♦ Life of Grindal, p. 99. Pierce, p. 52. t Life of Parker, p. 193. _ X Bishop Maddox inveighs against them for avail- ing themselves of a bull granted by the pope, whom they affirm to be antichrist, and when they loaded the queen and bishops with heavy accusations as en- couragers of popery. The bishop's reflections are also pointed against our historian for mentioning this conduct without a censure. To which Mr. Neal replies that this grant from Pope Alexander VI., the advantage of which the Puritans enjoyed, had been confirmed to the university by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth herself; a copy of which may be seen in the Appendi.x to Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker, p: 69. Mr. Ncal also properly asks, " Would the Protestants in France have shut up their church- es if the antichristian powers would have given them a license to preach? Nay, would they not have preached without any license at all if they had not been dragooned out of the country ?" He asserts for himself, " If he were a missionaiy, and could spread the Christian faith by virtue of a license from the pope, or the grand seignor, or the Emperor of China, in their dominions, he would not scruple to accept it, but be thankful to the Divjne Providence that had opened such a door." — Appendix to the Re- view.— Ed. * However, they had worn them heioxe.— Bishop Maddox. i By the instigation of T. Cartwright.— /6,,/7-om Strype. 102 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. the habits, as they had used them before. He also wrote to the vice-chancellor, requiring him to call together the heads of the colleges, and let them know that, as they tendered the honour of God, the preservation of Christian unity, the reputation of the university, the favour of the queen, and his own good-vvill to them, they should continue tlie use of the habits. The heads of the colleges being sensible of the risk the university would run of being dis- furnished of students if the habits were pressed, applied again to the'ir Chancellor Cecil to inter-' cede with the queen for a dispensation : one of their letters was signed by the master of Trini- ty College, Dr. Beaumont, who had been an ex- ile ; John Whitgift, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury ; Roger Kelk, master of Magdalen College ; Richard Longworth, master of St. John's ; Matthew Huiton, master of Pembroke Hall, afterward Archbishop of York, and many others. In their letter they acquaint his honour " that a great many persons in the university, of piety and learning, were fully persuaded of the unlawfulness of the habits ; and, therefore, if conformity were urged, they would be forced to desert their stations, and thus the university would be stripped of its ornaments ; they there- fore give it as their humble opinion that indul- gence in this matter would be attended with no inconveniences ; but, on the other hand, they ■were afraid religion and learning would suffer very much by rigour and imposition."* This letter was resented at court, and especially by the ecclesiastical commission ; Longworth, mas- tor of St. John's, was sent for before the com- missioners, and obliged to sign a recantation, and read it publicly in the Church ; the rest made their peace by letters of submission : all the heads of colleges were commanded to assist the vice-chancellor in bringing the scholars to a uniformity in the habits, which, nevertheless, they could not accomplish for many years. Whit- gift, seeing which way the tide of preferment ran, drew his pen in defence of the hierarchy in all its branches, and became a most potent ad- vocate for the habits. But the University of Cambridge was still a sanctuary for the Puri- tans. To return to the Puritan clergy : April 2d, Mr. Crowley, the suspended minister of Cripple- gate, seeing a corpse coming to be buried at his church, attended with clerks in their surplices singing before it, threatened to shut the church doors against them ; but the singing-men resist- ed, resolving to go through with their work, till the alderman's deputy threatened to lay them by the heels for breaking the peace ; upon which they shrunk away, but complained to the arch- bishop, who, sending for Crowley, deprived him of his living, and confined him to his house, for saying he would not suffer the wolf to come to his flock. He also bound the deputy in £100 to be ready when he shall be called for.t This Mr. Crowley was a learned man, and had been an exile in Queen Mary's days, at Frankfort ; he was very diligent in disputing against certain priests in the Tower, and took a great deal of pains to bring them over to their allegiance to the queen, upon the principle of the unlawful- ness of deposing princes upon any pretence * Life of Parker, p. 194. App., p. 69. t Life of Parker, p. 218, 219. whatsoever. He wrote divers learned books, and died a Nonconformist, in the year 1588, and was buried in the Church of Cripplegate. Among the deprived ministers, some betook themselves to the study of physic, and others to secular em- ployments; some went into Scotland, or beyond sea ; others got to be chaplains in gentlemen's families ; but many who had large families were reduced to beggary. Many churches were now shut up, and the people ready to mutiny for want of ministers. Six hundred persons came to a church in London to receive the communion on Palm Sunday, but the doors were shut, there being none to officiate. The cries of the people reached the court ; the secretary wrote to the archbishop to supply the churches, and release the prisoners ; but his grace was inexorable, and had rather the people should have no sermons or sacraments than have them without the sur- plice and cap. He acquainted the secretary in a letter, " that when the queen put him upon what he had done, he told her that these precise folks would offer their goods and bodies to pris- on rather than relent ; and her highness then willed him to imprison them.* He confessed that there were many parishes unserved ; that he underwent many hard speeches, and much resistance from the people, but nothing more than was to be expected. That he had sent his chaplains into the city to serve in some of the grekt parishes, but they could not administer the sacrament, because the officers of the parish had provided neither surplice nor wafer-bread. That on Palm Sunday, one of his chaplains desinging to administer the sacrament to some that desired it, the table was made ready, but while he was reading the chapter of the passion, one of the parishioners drew from the table both the cup and the wafer-bread, because the bread was not common ; and so the people were disappointed, and his chaplain derided. That divers church-wardens would provide nei- ther surplice nor wafer-bread. He acquainted the secretary, farther, that he had talked with several of the new preachers, who were movers of sedition and disorder, that he had command- ed them silence, and had put some into prison. That on Maunday-Thursday he had many of the Bishop of London's parishioners, church-war- dens, and others, before him ; but that he was fully tired, for some ministers would not obey their suspensions, but preached in defiance of them. Some church-wardens vv^ould not provide the cliurch furniture, and others opposed and disturbed those that were sent to officiate in the prescribed apparel. He then calls upon the secretary to spirit up [Grindal], bishop of Lon- don, to his duty ; and assures him that he had spoken to him to no purpose ; that he was younger, and nearer the city, and had vacant priests in his church, who might supply the places of the deprived ministers ; he therefore bewailed that he should be put upon the over- sight of the parishes of London, which was an- other man's charge ; and that the burden should be laid on his neck when other men drew back."* The truth is, Grindal was weary of the unpleasant work, and having a real concern to promote the preaching of the Word of God, he could not act against the ministers other- wise than as he was pushed forward ; and » Life of Parker, p. 228. + Ibid., p. 229 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 103 when the eyes of his superiors were turned another way, he would relax again. When the secretary and archbishop sent to him to provide for his charge and fill up the vacant pulpits, he told them it was impossible, there being no preachers; all he could do was to supply the churches by turns, which was far from stop- ping the murmurs of the people. This was the sad condition of the city of Lon- don, the very bread of life being taken from the people, for the sake of a few trifling cere- monies ;* and if it was thus in the city, how much worse must it be in those distant coun- ties where her majesty's injunctions were ri- gidly executed 1 And yet, with all this rigour, it was not in the power of the queeij. and her bishops to reconcile the clergy and common people to the habits. The queen herself was in earnest, and her archbishop went into the most servile measures to fulfil the commands of his royal mistress ; the high-commission was furi- ous, but the council were backward to counte- nance their proceedings. All applications to the queen and her com- missioners being ineffectual, the suspended min- isters thought it their duty to lay their case be- fore the world ; accordingly, they published a small treatise in this year [1566], in vindication of their conduct, entitled "A Declaration of the Doings of those Ministers of God's Word and Sacraments in the City of London which have refused to wear the upper Apparel and minis- tering Garments of the Pope's Church." In this book they show " that neither the prophets in the Old Testament, nor the apostles in the New, were distinguished by their garments ; that the linen garment was peculiar to the priesthood of Aaron, and had a signification of something to be fulfilled in Christ and his Church. That a distinction of garments in the Christian Church did not generally obtain till long after the rising of antichrist ; for the whole clergy of Ravenna, writing to the Emperor Car- olus Calvus, in the year of our Lord 876, say, We are distinguished from the laity not by our clothes, but by our doctrines ; not by our habits, but our conversation. That the surplice, or white linen garment, came from the Egyptians * " The fact that so large a proportion of the first Reformers, and those confessedly among the most learned, zealous, and devout of their day, were at- tached to the peculiarities of the Puritans, should shame the intemperate and ignorant partisans who refer to them in anger and contempt. In libelling the Puritans, they asperse the men who exerted themselves most dOigently in laying the foundation of their church, and were ever foremost to endure the loss of liberty and life on behalf of a common Protestantism. 'The most eminent churchmen of the day were favourable to the alterations proposed by the Puritans, and were only prevented from seek- ing their introduction into the offices of the Church by the opposition and threats of the queen. Had it not been for her influence, Puritanism would have ■triumphed in the Church, and a purer reformation than was consonant with her views have been, in consequence, effected. ' This arbitrary monarch had a leaning towards Rome in almost everything but the doctrine of papal supremacy. To the real pres- ence she was understood to have no objection ; the celibacy of the clergy she decidedly approved ; the gorgeous rites of the ancient form of worship she ad- mired, and in her own chapel retained.' " — Dr. Price's Hist. Nonconformity, vol. i., p. 163 ; also London Quar- terly, June, 1827, p. 31.— C. into the Jewish Church ; and that Pope Sylves- ter, about the year 320, was the first that ap- pointed the sacrament to be administered in a white linen garment ; giving this reason for it, because the body of Christ was buried in a white linen cloth. They represent how all these garments had been abused to idolatry, sorcery and all kinds of conjurations ; for, say they, the popish priests can perform none of their pre- tended consecrations of holy water, transub- stantiation of the body of Christ, conjurations of the devfl out of places or persons possessed, without a surplice, or an albe, or some hallowed stole. They argue against the habits as an of- fence to weak Christians, an encouragement to ignorant and obstinate papists, and as an affec- tion to return to their communion. That at best they were but human appointments, and came within the apostle's reproof. Col, ii., 20, 22 : ' Why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances, after the commandments and doctrines of men 1 which all are to perish with the using. Touch not, taste not, handle not.' That, supposing the garments were indif- ferent (which they did not grant), yet they ought not to be imposed, because it was an infringe- ment of the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. Lastly, they call in the suflrages of foreign divines, who all condemned the hab- its, though they were not willing to hazard the Reformation in its infancy for them. Even Bishop Ridley, who contended so zealously for the habits, when Dr. Brooks, at his degradation, would have persuaded him to put on the sur- plice with the rest of the massing garments, ab- solutely refused, saying, ' If you put the surplice upon me, it shall be against my will.' And when they forced it upon him, he inveighed against the apparel, as foolish and abominable." At the end of the book is a prayer, in which are these words : "Are not the relics of Romish idolatry stoutly retained ! Are we not bereav- ed of some of our pastors, who by word and example sought to free thy flock from these of- fences ] Ah, good Lord ! these are now by pow- er put down from pastoral care ; they are forbid to feed us ; their voice we cannot hear. This is our great discomfort ; this is the joy and tri- umph of antichrist ; and, which is more heavy, the increase of this misery is of some threaten- ed, of the wicked hoped for, and of us feared, as thy judgments against us for our sins." At the conclusion is the Lord's Prayer and Creed, after this manner : " In thy name, O Christ our Captain, we ask these things, and pray unto thee, 0 Heavenly Father, saying. Our Father," &c. After this, " O Lord, increase our faith, whereof we make confession, I believe in God the_ Father Almighty," &c. And in the end is this sentence : " Arise, O Lord, and let thine enemies be confounded."* Other pamphlets of the same kind were pub- lished in defence of the suspended ministers, which the bishops appointed their chaplains to answer. Mr. Strype is of opinion that the arch- bishop himself published an answer to their dec- laration ; but whoever be the author, he is a man of a bad spirit and abusive language :t the min- isters printed a reply, entitled " An Answer for the time to the examination put in print with tha * Stiype's Annals, p. 555. Pierce, p. 61. t Pierce's Vindication, p. 62. 104 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. author's name, pretending to maintain the ap- parel prescribed, against the declaration of the ministers of London ;" it answers the adversary- paragraph by paragraph, with good temper and judgment. But the bishops printed some new testimonies of foreign divines, without their consent, with a collection of tracts of obedience to the magistrate, and Melancthon's exposition of Rom., xiii., 1., " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers :" from whence they conclude that, because things are barely tolerable, though offensive, dangerous, and, in their own opinions, tc be removed out of the Church as soon as an opportunity shall offer, yet, in the mean time, they may be imposed under the penalties of .sus- pension, deprivation, and imprisonment, from a mistaken interpretation of the apostle's words, " Let every soul be subject to the higher pow- ers." The Puritans replied to all these attempts of their adversaries ; their tracts were eagerly sought after, and had a wide spread among the people ; upon which the commissioners had re- course to their last remedy, which was the far- ther restraint of the press. They complained to the council that, notwithstanding the queen's injunctions, the differences in the Church were kept open by the printing and publishing sedi- tious libels ; and hereupon procured the follow- ing decree of the Star Chamber, viz : 1. " That no person shall print or publish any book against the queen's injunctions, ordinan- ces, or letters patent, set forth or to be set forth, or against the meaning of them.* 2. " That such offenders should forfeit all their books and copies, and suffer three months' imprisonment, and never practise the art of printing any more. 3. " That no person shall sell, bind, or stitch such books, upon pain of twenty shillings for every book. 4. " That all forfeited books should be brought to Stationers' Hall, and half the money forfeited to be reserved for the queen, the rest for the in- former, and the books to be destroyed or made waste-paper. b. " That the wardens of the company may, from time to time, search all suspected places, and open all packs, dry fats, &c., wherein paper or foreign books may be contained ; and enter all warehouses where they have reasonable sus- picion, and seize all books and pamphlets against the queen's ordinances, and bring the offender before the ecclesiastical commissioners. 6. " All stationers, booksellers, and merchants trading in books shall enter into recognisances of reasonable sums of money to observe the premises, or pay the forfeitures." This was signed by eight of the privy council, and by the Bishops of Canterbury and London, with five more of the ecclesiastical commission, and published June 29th, 1566, in the eighth year of the queen's reign. t * Life of Parker, p. 221. t Ibid., p. 222. It is a just remark of a modem writer here, that, without entering into the controversy between the bishops and the Puritans, we may at least venture to affirm that the former did no credit to their cause by this arbitrary restraint of the press. This is an expe- dient utterly incompatible with the very notion of a free state, and, therefore, ever to be detested by the friends of liberty. And it is an expedient which can never be of any service to the cause of truth, what- The Puritans being thus foreclosed, and shut out of the Church by sequestrations, impris- onments, the taking away of their licenses to preach, and the restraint of the press, most of them were at a loss how to behave, being un- willing to separate from the Church where the Word and sacraments were truly administered, though defiled with some popish superstitions ; of the number were Dr. Humphreys, Sampson, Fox the martyrologist. Lever, Whittinghain, Johnson, and others, who continued preaching up and down, as they had opportunity and could be dispensed with for the habits, though they were excluded all parochial preferment. But there were great numbers of the common people who abhorred the habits as much as the ministers, and would not frequent the churches where they were used, thinking it as unlaw- ful to countenance such superstitions with their presence as if they themselves were to put oa the garments. These were distressed where to hear ; some stayed without the church till ser- vice was over, and the minister was entering upon his prayer before sermon ; others flocked after Father Coverdale, who preached without the habits ; but, being turned out of his church at St. Magnus, London Bridge, they were obliged to send to his house on Saturdays to know where they might hear him the next day: the government took umbrage at this, insomucli that the good old man was obliged to tell his friends that he durst not inform them any more of his preaching, for fear of offending his superi- ors. At length, after having waited about eight weeks to see if the queen would have compas- sion on them, several of the deprived ministers had a solemn consultation with their friends, in which, after prayer, and a serious debate about the lawfulness and necessity of separating from the established Church, they came to this agreement : that, since they could not have the Word of God preached, nor the sacraments ad- ministered without idolatrous gear (as they called it), and since there had been a separate congregation in London, and another at Gene- va, in Queen Mary's time, which used a book and order of preaching, administration of sacra- ments, and discipline, that the great Mr. Calvin had approved of, and which was free from the superstitions of the English service; that, there- fore, it was their duty, in their present circum- stances, to break off from the public churches, and to assemble, as they had opportunity, in private houses, or elsewhere, to worship God in a manner that might not offend against the light of their consciences.* Had the use of habits and a few ceremonies been left discretionary, both ministers and people had been easy ; but it was the compelling these things by law, as they told the archbishop, that made them sep- arate. It was debated among them whether they should use as much of the common prayer and service of the Church as was not offensive, or resolve at once, since they were cut off from the Church of England, to set up the purest and best form of worship most consonant to the Holy Scriptures and to the practice of the foreign Reformers ; the latter of these was con- ever it may to error, superstition, and tyranny.— British Biography, vol. hi., p. 25. — C. * Life of Parker, p. 241. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 105 eluded upon, and, accordingly, they laid aside the English liturgy, and made use of the Gene- va service-book. Here was the era or date of the separation, a most unhappy event, says Mr. Strype, where- by " people of the same country, of the same religion, and of the same judgment in doctrine, parted communions ; one part being obliged to go aside into secret houses and chambers, to serve God by themselves, which begat strange- ness between neighbours. Christians, and Prot- estants." And not only strangeness, but un- speakable mischiefs to the nation in this and the following reigns. The breach might easily have been made up at first, but it widened by de- grees ; the passions of the contending parties increased, till the fire, which for some years was burning under ground, broke out into a civil war, and, with unspeakable fury, destroyed the constitution both of Church and State. I leave the reader to judge at whose door the beginnings of these sorrows are to be laid, each party casting the blame on the other. The Conformists charged the deprived ministers with disobedience to the queen, and obstinacy, preciseness, and with breaking the peace of the Church for matters of no consequence to salva- tion. The ministers, on the other hand, thought it cruel usage to be turned out of the Church for things which their adversaries acknowledged to be of mere indifference ; whereas they took it upon their consciences, and were ready to aver, in the most solemn manner, that they deemed them unlawful. They complied as far as they could with the establishment while they were within it, by using as much of the liturgy as was not offensive, and by taking the oath of supremacy ; they were as dutiful subjects to the queen as the bishops, and declared them- selves ready to obey their sovereign in all things lawful ; and when they could not obey, patient- ly to suffer her displeasure. After all this, to impute the behaviour of the Nonconformists to obstinacy and peevishness was very unchari- table.* What could move them to part with their livings, or support them under the loss, but the testimony of a good conscience 1 when they could not but be sensible their noncon- formity would be followed with poverty and disgrace, with the loss of their characters and usefulness in the Church ; and with numberless unforeseen calamities to themselves and fam- ilies, unless it should please God, in his all-wise * " Schism, in fact, is a thing bad in itself, bad in its very nature; separation may be good or bad, ac- cording to circumstances. A schismatic is an epi- thet of criminality ; it indicates the personal charac- ter of the individual, and it describes that character as bad. A separatist is merely a name of circum- stance : in itself it is neither bad nor good ; it indi- cates nothing as to the personal character of the in- dividual, it merely describes his position in relation to others. Schism can exist, as we have seen, where there is no separation, and separation itself is not necessarily schism ; not necessarily so, for while it may be occasioned by crime, it may be occa- sioned by virtue ; it may result, in those who depart from intolerance attempted, or intolerance sustained, from the pride of faction, or the predominance of principle ; attachment to party or attachment to truth. A schismatic, in short, 7nust be a sinner, on whichever side he stands; a separatist ??ia^be'more sinned against than sinning.' "—Dissent not Schism. By the Rev. Thomas Binney. — C. Vol. I.— O providence, to soften the queen's heart in their favour. In Scotland all things were in confusion. The young queen, Mary, after the death of her husband, Francis II., returned into her own country, August 21st, 15G1, npon ill terms with Queen Elizabeth, who could not brook her assuming the arms of England, and putting in her claim to the crown, on the pretence of "her bastardy, which most of the popish powers maintained, because she was born during the life of Queen Katharine, whose marriage had been declared valid by the pope. Elizabeth of- fered her a safe conduct if she would ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, but she chose rather to run all risks than submit. Mary was a bigoted papist, and her juvenile amours and follies soon entangled her government and lost her crown. As soon as she arrived in Scotland, she had the mortification to see the whole nation turned Protestant, and the Reformation established by laws so secure and strict, that only herself was allowed the liberty of mass in her own chapel, and that without pomp or ostentation. The Protestants of Scotland, by the preaching ol Mr. Knox and others, having imbibed the strong- est aversion to popery, were for removing at the greatest distance from its superstitions. The General Assembly petitioned her majesty to ratify the acts of Parliament for abolishing the mass, and for obliging all her subjects to frequent the reformed worship. But she replied that she saw no impiety in the mass, and was determined not to quit the religion in which she was educated, being satisfied it was founded on the Word of God. To which the General As- sembly answered a little coarsely, that Turkism stood upon as good' ground as popery ; and then required her, in the name of the eternal God, to inform herself better, by frequenting sermons and conferring with learned men ; but her majesty gave no heed to their counsels. In the year 1564, the queen married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who was joined with her in the government. By him she was brought to bed of a son, June the 15th, 1566, afterward James I., king of England ; and while she was with child of him she received a fright by her husband's coming into her chamber with his servants and putting to death her tavourite, Da- vid Rizzio, an Italian musician, who was sitting with her at table. Tliis was thought to have such an influence upon the prince that was born of her, that he never loved the sight of a sword. Soon after this the king himself was found murdered in a garden, the house in which the murder was committed being blown up with gunpowder to prevent the discovery. Upon the king's death the Earl of Bothwell became the queen's favourite, and, as soon as he had ob- tained a divorce from his legal wife, she took him into her marriage-bed, to her very great infamy, and the regret of the whole Scots na- tion, who took up arms to revenge the late king's murder, and dissolve the present inces- tuous marriage. When the two armies were ready to engage, Bothwell fled to Dunbar, and the queen, being apprehensive her soldiers would not fight in such an infamous cause, surrender- ed herself to the confederates, who shut her up in the castle of Loch Levin, and obliged her to resign the crown to her young son, under the 106 HISTORY OF TPIE PURITANS. regency of the Earl of Murray. From hence she made her escape into England in the year 1568, where she was detained prisoner by Queen Elizabeth almost eighteen years, and then put to death. Bothweli turned pirate, and being taken by the Danes, was shut up for ten years in a noisome prison in Denmark, till he lost his senses and died mad.* The Earl of Murray being regent of Scotland, convened a parliament and assembly at Edin- burgh, in which the pope's authority was again discharged, and the act of Parliament of the year 1560, for renouncing the jurisdiction of the court of Rome, was confirmed, and all acts pass- ed in former reigns for the support of popish idolatry were annulled. The new confession of faith was ratified, and the Protestant ministers, and those of their communion, declared to be the true and only kirk within that realm. The examination and admission of ministers is de- clared to be only in the power and disposition of the Church, with a saving clause for lay-pa- trons. By another act, the kings at their coro- nation, for the future, are to take an oath to maintain the reformed religion then professed ; and by another, none but such as profess the re- formed religion are capable of being judges or proctors, or of practising in any of the courts of justice, except those who held offices heredita- ry, or for life. The General Assembly declared their approba- tion of the discipline of the Reformed Churches of Geneva and Switzerland ; and for a parity among ministers, in opposition to the claim of the bishops, as a superior order. All Church affairs were managed by provincial, classical, and national assemblies ; but these acts of the General Assembly not being confirmed by Parlia- ment, episcopal government was not legally abol- ished, but tacitly suspended till the king came of age. However, the General Assembly showed their power of the keys at this time, by deposing the Bishop of Orkney for marrying the queen to Bothweli, who was supposed to have murdered the late king, and by making the Countess of Argyle do penance for assisting at the ceremony. CHAPTER V. FROM THE SEPARATION OF THE PROTESTANT NON- CONFORMISTS TO THE DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP PARKER. Though all tne Puritans of these times would have remained within the Church, might they have been indulged in the habits and a few cer- emonies, yet they were far from being satisfied ■with the hierarchy. They had other objections besides those for which they were deprived, which they laboured incessantly throughout the whole course of this reign to remove. I will set them before the reader in one view, that he may form a complete judgment of the whole controversy. First. They complained of the bishops affect- ing to be thought a superior order to presby- ters, and claiming the sole right of ordination, and the use of the keys, or the sole exercise of ecclesiastical discipline. They disliked the tem- * Rapin, p. 357. poral dignities and baronies annexed to their of- fice, and their engaging in secular employments and trusts, as tending to exalt them too much above their brethren, and not so agreeable to their characters as ministers of Christ, nor con- sistent with the due discharge of their spiritual function. Secondly. They excepted to the titles and of- fices of archdeacons, deans, chapters, and oth- er officials belonging to cathedrals, as having no foundation in Scripture or primitive antiquity, but intrenching upon the privileges of the pres- byters of the several diocesses. Thirdly. They complained of the exorbitant power and jurisdiction of the bishops and their chancellors in their spiritual courts, as derived from the canon law of the pope, and not from the Word of God or the statute law of the land. They complained of their fining, imprisoning, de- priving, and putting men to excessive charges for small offences ; and that the highest cen- sures, such as excom-munication and absolution, were in the hands of laymen, and not in the spiritual officers of the Church. Fourthly. They lamented the want of a god- ly discipline, and were uneasy at the promiscu- ous and general access of all persons to the Lord's table. The Church being described in her articles as a congregation of faithful persons, they thought it necessary that a power should be lodged somewhere, to inquire into the quali- fications of such as desired to be of her com- munion. Fifthly. Though they did not dispute the law- fulness of set forms of prayer, provided a due liberty was allowed for prayers of their own composure before and after sermon, yet they disliked some things in the public liturgy estab- lished by law ; as the frequent repetition of the Lord's Prayer ; the interruption of the prayers by the frequent responses of the people, which in some places seem to be little better than vain repetitions, and are practised in no other Prot- estant Church in the world. They excepted to some passages in the offices of marriage and burial, &c., which they very unwillingly complied with ; as, in the office of marriage, " With my body I thee worship ;" and in the office of bu- rial, " In sure and certain hope of the resurrec- tion to eternal life," to be pronounced over the worst of men, unless in a very few excepted ca- ses. Sixthly. They disliked the reading of the apoc- ryphal books in the Church, while some parts of canonical Scripture were omitted ; and though they did not disapprove the homilies, they thought that no man ought to be ordained a minister in the Church who was incapable of preaching and expounding the Scriptures. One of their great complaints, therefore, throughout the course of this reign was, that there were so many dumb ministers, pluraiists, and nonresi- dents ; and that presentations to benefices were in the hands of the queen, bishops, or lay-pa- trons, when they ought to arise from the election of the people. Seventhly. They diapproved of the observa- tion of sundry of the Church festivals or holy- days, as having no foundation in Scripture or primitive antiquity. We have no example, say they, in the Old or New Testament, of any days appointed in commemoration of saints ; to ob- HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 107 serve the fast in Lent of Friday and Saturday, &c.. is unlawful and superstitious, as also buy- ing and selling on the Lord's Day. Eighthly. They disallowed of the Cathedral mode of worship ; of singing their prayers, and of the antiphone, or chanting the psalms by turns, which the ecclesiastical commissioners in King Edward VI. 's time advised the laying aside. Nor did they approve of musical instru- ments, as trumpets, organs, &c., which were not in use in the Church for above twelve hun- dred years after Christ. Ninthly. They scrupled conformity to cer- tain rites and ceremonies which were enjoined by the rubric, or the queen's injunctions ; as, 1. To the sign of the cross in baptism, which is no part of the institution as recorded in Scrip- ture ; and though it was usual for Christians, in the earlier ages, to cross themselves, or make a cross in the air upon some occasions, yet there is no express mention of its being used in bap- tism till about the fifth century. Besides, it hav- ing been abused to superstition by the Church of Rome, and been had in such reverence by some Protestants, that baptism itself has been thought imperfect without it, they apprehend it ought to be laid aside. They also disallowed of baptism by mid wives, or other women, in cases of sickness ; and of the manner of church- ing women, which looked to them too much like the Jewish purification. 2. They excepted to the use of godfathers and godmothers, to the exclusion of parents from being sureties for the education of their own children. If parents were dead, or in a dis- tant country, they were as much for sponsors to undertake for the education of the child as their adversaries ; but when the education of children is by the laws of God and nature in- trusted to parents, who are bound to form them to virtue and piety, they apprehended it very unjustifiable to release them totally from that promise, and deliver up the child to a stranger, as was then the constant practice, and is smce enjoined by the twenty-ninth canon, which says, " No parent shall be urged to be present, nor be admitted to answer as godfather to his own child." In giving names to children, it was their opinion that heathenish names should be avoided, as not so fit for Christians ; and also the names of God and Christ, and angels, and the peculiar offices of the Mediator. They also disliked the godfathers answering in the name of the child, and not in their own. 3. They disapproved the custom of confirming children as soon as they could repeat the Lord's Prayer and their Catechism, by which they had a right to come to the sacrament, without any other qualification ; this might be done by children of five or six years old. They were also dissatisfied with that part of the office where the bishop, laying his hand upon the chil- dren, prays that God would by this sign certify them of his favour and goodness, which seems to impute a sacramental efficacy to the imposi- tion of his hands. 4. They excepted against the injunction of kneeling at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which they apprehended not so agreeable to the example of Christ and his apostles, who gave it to his disciples rather in a posture of feasting than of adoration. Besides, it has no founda- tion in antiquity for many hundred years after Christ; and having since been grossly abused by the papists to idolatry, in their worshipping the host, it ought, say they, to be laid aside ; and if it should be allowed that the posture was indiffijrent, yet it ought not to be imposed and made a necessary term as communion ; nor did they approve of either of the sacraments being administered in private ; no, not in cases of danger. 5. To bowing at the name of Jesus, grounded upon a false interpretation of that passage of Scripture, " At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow ;" as if greater external reverence was required to that name than to the person of our blessed Saviour, under the titles of Lord, Saviour, Christ, Immanuel, &c., and yet upon this mistake was founded the injunction of the queen and the eighteenth canon, which says, " When, in time of Divine service, the name of Jesus shall be mentioned, due and lowly rever- ence shall be done by all persons present." But the Puritans maintained that all the names of God and Christ were to be had in equal rever- ence, and therefore it was beside all reason to bow the knee, or uncover the head, only at the name of Jesus. 6. To the ring in marriage. This they some- times complied with, but wished it altered. It is derived from the papists, who make marriage a sacrament, and the ring a sort of sacred sign or symbol. The words in the liturgy are, " Then shall they again loose their hands, and the man shall give unto the woman a ring, laying the same upon the book ; and the priest, taking the ring, shall deliver it to the man, to put it on the fourth finger of the woman's left hand ; and the man holding the ring there, and taught by the priest, shall say, ' With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow,' in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." They also disallowed the forbidding of marriage at certain times of the year, and then licensing it for money, say they, is more intolerable. Nor is it lawful to grant licenses that some may marry without the knowledge of the congregation, who ought to be acquainted with it, lest there should be any secret lets or hinderances. 7. To the wearing of the surplice, and other ceremonies to be used in Divine service ; con- cerning which the Church says, in the preface to her Liturgy, that though they were devised by men, yet they are reserved for decency, or- der, and edification. And, again, they are apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remem- brance of his duty to God by some notable and special signification, whereby he might be edifi- ed. But the Puritans saw no decency in the vestments ; nay, they thought them a disgrace to the Reformation, and, in the present circum- stances, absolutely unlawful, because they had been defiled with superstition and idolatry, and because many pretended Protestants placed a kind of holiness in them. Besides, the wearing them gave countenance to popery, and looked as if we were fund of being thought a branch of that communion which we had so justly renoun- ced. But, suppose them to be indifferent, they gave great offence to weak minds, and there- fore ought not to be imposed, whea there was 108 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. no foundation for the use of them in Scripture or primitive antiquity. These things, say they, every one should en- deavour to reform in his place : ministers by the Word, magistrates by their authority, according to the Word of God, and the people by prayer. There was no difference in points of doctrine between the Puritans and Conformists :* so that if we add but one article more, we have the chief head of controversy between the Church of England and the Protestant Dissenters at that day ; and this is the natural right that ev- ery man has to judge for himself, and make pro- fession of that religion he apprehends most agreeable to truth, as far as it does not affect the peace and safety of the government he lives under, without being determined by the preju- dices of education, the laws of the civil magis- trate, or the decrees of councils, churches, or synods. t This principle would effectually put an end to all impositions ; and unless it be al- lowed, I am afraid our separation from the Church of Rome can hardly be justified. " The Bible," says Mr. Chillingworth, "and that only, is the religion of Protestants ; and every one, by making use of the helps and assistances that God has put into his hands, must learn and un- derstand it for himself as well as he can." It will appear hereafter what sort of discipline the Puritans would have introduced ; but these "were the objections that hindered their compli- ance with the present establishment, and for which they were content to suffer the loss of all things. Those who remained within the Church became itinerant preachers, lecturers, or chap- lains. The chief leaders of the separation, ac- * This was, undoubtedly, true with respect to the majority ; but this history has furnished different in- stances of objections in point of doctrine. The es- tablished sentiments concerning the Trinity and the person of Christ, though they did not form the grounds of that separation of which our author writes, were yet called in question, and, as we have seen in the note, p. 61, were by no means universally received. But it would not have been surprising if, in that early period of the Reformation, there had been a perfect acquiescence in every doctrinal principle that did not appear to have been peculiar to the sys- tem of popery ; for the progress of the mind and of inquiry is necessarily gradual. The gross corruptions of popery were at first sufficient to occupy and fill the thoughts of the generality. A kind of sacred awe spread itself over questions connected with the char- acter and nature of God and his Christ, which would deter many from a close and free e.xamination of them. And ceremonies and habits, being more ob- vious to the senses, continually coming into use and practice, and being enforced with severity, the ques- tions relative to them more easily engaged attention, were more level to the decision of common under- standings, and became immediately interesting. In this state of things there was little room and less in- clination to push inquiries on matters of speculation. • Ed. t Bishop Warburton is displeased with Mr. Neal lor speaking of the natural right every man has to judge for himself as one of the heads of controversy between the Puritans and Conformists, when, his lordship adds, "his whole history shows that this was a truth unknown to either party." It is true that neither party had clear, full, and extensive views on this point, nor were disposed to grant the conse- quences arising from it. But each in a degree ad- mitted it, and acted upon it. And the Puritans, it ap- pears, by p. 109 of this edition, rested their vindica- tion, in part, upon this principle. — Ed. cording to Mr. Fuller, were the Reverend Mr. Colman, Mr. Button, Mr. Halingham, Mr. Ben- son, Mr. White, Mr. Rowland, and Mr. Hawk- ins, all beneficed within the diocess of London. These had their followers of the laity, who for- sook their parish churches, and assembled with the deprived ministers in woods and private houses, to worship God without the habits and ceremonies of the Church. The queen, being informed of their proceed- ings, sent to her commissioners to take effect- ual measures to keep the laity to their parish churches, and to let them know that, if they fre- quented any separate conventicles, or broke through the ecclesiastical laws, they should for the first offence be deprived of their freedom of the city of London, and, after that, abide what farther punishment she should direct. This was a vast stretch of the prerogative,* there being no law, as yet, to disfranchise any man for not coming to church. But, notwithstanding this threatening mes- sage, they went on with their assemblies, and on the 19th of June, 1567, agreed to have a ser- mon and a communion at Plumbers' Hall, which they hired for that day, under pretence of a wed- ding ; but here the sheriffs of London detected and broke them up, when they were assembled to the number of about one hundred ; most of them were taken into custody, and some sent to the Compter, and next day seven or eight of the chief were brought before the Bishop of London, Dean Goodman, Mr. Archdeacon Watts, and Sir Roger Martin, lord-mayor of London. t The bishop charged them with absenting from their parish churches, and with setting up separate assemblies for prayer and preaching, and minis- tering the sacrament. He told them that by these proceedings they condemned the Church of England, which was well reformed according to the Word of God, and those martyrs who had shed their blood for it. To which one of them replied, in the name of the rest, that they con- demned them not, but only stood for the truth of God's Word. Then the bishop asked the ancientest of them, Mr. John Smith, what he could answer ; who replied " that they thanked God for the Reformation ; that as long as they could hear the Word of God preached without idolatrous gear about it, they never assemWed in private houses ; but when it came to this point, that all their preachers were displaced who would not subscribe to the apparel, so that they could hear none of them in the church, for the space of seven or eight weeks, except Fa- ther Coverdale, they began to consult what to do ; and remembering there had been a congre- gation of Protestants in the city of London in Queen Mary's days, and another of English ex- iles at Geneva, that used a book framed by them there, they resolved to meet privately together and use the said book." And, finally, Mr. Smith offered, in the name of the rest, to yield and do penance at St. Paul's Cross, if the bishop, and the commissioners with him, could reprove that book, or anything else that they held, by the Word of God. The bishop told him they could not reprove the book, but that was no sufficient answer for * Which, adds Dr. Warner, " plainly showed Eliz- abeth to be the true daughter of Henry." t Life of Grindal, p. 242. Life of Parker, p. 342. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 109 his not going to church * To which Mr. Smith replied, that "he would as soon go to mass as to some churches, and particularly to his own parish church, for the minister that officiated there was a very papist." Others said the same of other parish priests. The bishop asked if they accused any of them by name ; upon which one of them presently named Mr. Bedel, who was there present, but the bishop would not inquire into the accusation. The Dean of Westminster, who was one of the ecclesiastical commission, charged them with derogating from the queen's authority of appointing indifferent things in God's worship. To which one of them answered, that " it lay not in the authority of a prince, nor the liberty of a Christian man, to use and defend that which appertained to papistry, idolatry, and the pope's canon law." Another said that "these things were preferred before the Word of God and the ordinances of Christ." The bishop asked them what was preferred : one of them answered boldly, " that which was upon the bish- op's head, and upon his back ; their copes and surplices, and canon laws." Another said " that be thought both prince and people ought to obey the Word of God." To Which the bishop yield- ed, except in things that were indifferent, which God had neither commanded nor forbidden ; in these he asserted that princes had authority to or- der and command. Whereupon several of them cried out, '• Prove that ; where find you thatT' But the bishop would not enter into the debate, alleging the judgment of the learned Bullinger ; to which Mr. Smith replied, that perhaps they could show Bullinger against Bullinger in the affair of the habits. The bishop asked them whether they would be determined by the Church of Geneva. Mr. Smith replied, " that they reverenced the learn- ed in Geneva, and in other places, but did not build their faith and religion upon them." The bishop produced the following passage out of one of Beza's letters against them: "that against the bishops and princes' will they should exer- cise their office, they [the ministers of Geneva] did much the more tremble at it." "Mark," says the bishop, " how the learned Beza trem- bles at your case." Whereupon one of them said they knew the letter well enough, and that it made nothing against them, but rather against the prince and the bishops. ]3eza and his learn- ed brethren trembled at their case in proceeding to such extremities with men as to drive them, against their wills, to that which they did not care to mention. Their words are these : " We hope that her royal majesty, and so many men of dignity and goodness, will endeavour that care may rather be taken of so many pious and learned brethren, that so great an evil should happen, to wit, that the pastors should be forced, against their consciences, to do that which is evil, and so to involve themselves in other men's sins, or to give over ; for we more dread that third thing, viz., to exercise their ministry contrary to the will of her majesty and the bish- ops, for causes which, though we hold our peace, may well enough be understood."! How the bishop could think this was levelled against the Nonconformists is hard to understand. To go on with the examination. One of the ♦ Pierce, p. 42. f Life of Grindal, Records, No. 16. prisoners said, that " before they compelled the ceremonies, so that none might officiate with- out them, all was quiet." Another (viz., Mr. Hawkins) produced a passage out of Melancthon, that "when the opinion of holiness or necessi- ty is put unto things indifferent, they darken the light of the Gospel." The bishop replied "that the ceremonies and habits were not commanded of necessity." To which Hawkins rejoined that they had made them matters of necessity, as many a poor man had felt to his cost, who had been discharged of his living for nonconformity. When the bishop had occasionally observed that he had formerly said mass, but was sorry for it, one of them answered, he went still in the habit of a mass-priest. To which he replied, that he had rather minister without a cope and surplice, but for order's sake and obedience to the queen. When some of the commissioners urged them with the Reformation of King Edward, one said that "they never went so far in his time as to make a law that none should preach or minister without the garments." Sundry other expres- sions of warmth passed on both sides ; at length one of them delivered to Justice Harris their book of order [the Geneva book], and challenged any of the commissioners to disprove it by the Word of God, and they would give over. The bishop said they reproved it not, but they liked not their separate assemblies to trouble the common quiet of the realm against the queen's will. But the others insisted on their superior regards to the Word of God. In conclusion, the prisoners, not yielding to the bishop, were sent to Bride- well, where they, with their brethren and sun- dry women, were kept in durance above a year : at length, their patience and constancy having been sufficiently tried, an order was sent from the lords of the council to release them,* with an admonition to behave themselves better for the future.! Accordingly, twenty-four men and seven women were discharged. J Whether these severities were justifiable by the laws of God or the land, I leave with the reader. There was a spirit of uncommon zeal in these people to suffer all extremities for the cause in which they were engaged. In one of their let- ters, directed to all the brethren that believed in Christ, the writer, who was but a layman, says, " The reason why we will not hear our parish ministers is, because they will not stand forth and defend the Gospel against the leavings of popery, for fear of loss of goods, or punish- ment of body, or danger of imprisonment, or else for fear of men more than God." He then calls up their courage : " Awake, O ye cold and lukewarm preachers, out of sleep ; gird up your- selves with the truth ; come forth and put your necks [to the yoke], and think with Peter that persecution is no strange thing ; for which of the prophets were not persecuted as well as Christ and his apostles ; not for evil doing, but * This was done at the motion and counsel of Bishop Grindal.— Ed. t Grindal's Life, p. 135. X The names of the men were John Smith, John Roper, Robert Tod, Robert Hawkins, James Ireland, William Nickson, Walter Hynkesman, Thomas Row- land, George Waddy, William Turner, John Nashe, James Adderton, William Wight, Thomas Lydiord, Richard Langton, Alexander Lacy, John Leonard, Roger Hawksworth, Robert Sparrow, Richard King, Christopher Colman, John Benson, John Bolton, Rob- ert Gates. 110 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. for preaching God's Word, and for rebuking the world of sin, and for their faith in Jesus Christ ] This is the ordinance of God, and this is the highway to heaven, by corporeal death to eternal life, as Christ saith, John, v. : Let us never fear death, that is killed [conquered] by Christ, but believe in him and live forever. 'There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ.' ' O death! where is thy sting 1 thanks be to God that has given us the victory.' Let us not, then, dissemble, as some do, to save their pigs, but be valiant for the truth. I doubt not but all they who believe the truth, and will obey it, will consider the cause ;* and the Lord, for his Christ's sake, make Ephraim and Manasses to agree, that we may all with one heart and mind unfeignedly seek God's glory, and the edification of his people, that we may live in all godly peace, unity, and concord ! This grant, 0 Lord, for Christ Jesus' sake, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all praise, glory, and honour, forever and ever." Another, in a letter to Bishop Grindal, occa- sioned by his lordship's discourse to the prison- er at his examination before him, December 19, begins thus : " Pleaseth your wisdom, my duty remembered, &c., being grieved at certain words spoken by you, and at your extreme dealing with us of late, I am bold to utter my grief in this manner. You said, if discipline did not tend to peace and unity, it were better refused ; whereas our Saviour Christ commandeth dis- cipline as one part of the Gospel, most necessa- ry for the Church's peace and order ; the apos- tles practised it, and Mr. Calvin and other learn- ed men caU it the sinews of the Church that keep the members together ; and Beza says, where discipline is wanting, there will be a li- centious life and a school of wickedness. Sec- ondly, you seemed to be offended with a late exercise of prayer and fasting, saying that you had not heard of any exercise of this kind with- out public authority ; to which the example of the Ninevites plainly answers, who proclaimed a fast before they acquainted the king with it ; nor did the king blame his subjects for going before him in well-doing, but approved it by do- ing the like. Thirdly, you said you would nev- er ask God mercy for using the apparel,! and should appear before him with a better con- science than we ; whereas you said in a sermon, as many can witness, that you was sorry, for that you knew you should offend many godly consciences by wearing this apparel ; requiring your auditory to have patience for a time, for that you did but use them for a time, to the end you might the sooner abolish them ; and now you displace, banish, persecute, and imprison such as will not wear nor consent thereunto, and, at the same time, say you fear not to ap- pear before God for so doing. But if the Co- rinthians, for eating meat to the offence of their brethren, are said to sin against Clirist, how much more do you, who not only retain the remnants of antichrist, but compel others to do the same 1 Better were it for you to leave your lordly dignity, not given you by Christ, and to suffer affliction for the truth of the Gospel, than, by enjoying thereof, to become a persecutor of your brethren. Consider, I pray ynu, if through- out the whole Scriptures you can find one that * MS., p. 42. t MS., p. 22. was first a persecutor, and after was persecuted for the truth, that ever fell to persecuting again and repented. I desire you, in the bowels of Christ, to consider your own case, who, by your own confession, was once a persecutor, and have since been persecuted, whether displacing, banishing, and imprisoning God's children more straitly than felons, heretics, or traitors, be per- secuting again or no^ They that make the best of it say you buffet your brethren, which, if the master of the house find you so doing, you know your reward. I desire you, therefore, in the bowels of Christ, not to restrain us of the liberty of our consciences, but be a means to enlarge our liberty in the truth and sincerity of the Gospel ; and use your interest that all the remnants of antichrist may be abolished, with every plant that our heavenly Father has not planted. Signed, Yours in the Lord to com- mand, William White, who joineth with you in every speck of truth, but utterly detesteth whole antichrist, head, body, and tail, never to join with you, or any, in the least joint thereof; nor in any ordinance of man, contrary to the Word of God, by his grace unto the Church." But neither the arguments nor sufferings of the Puritans, nor their great and undissembled piety, had an influence upon the commissioners, who had their spies in all suspected places to prevent their religious assemblies ; and gave out strict orders that no clergyman should be per- mitted to preach in any of the pulpits of London without a license from the Archbishop of Can- terbury or the Bishop of London. The persecution of the Protestants in France and the Low Countries was hot and terrible about this time. The King of France broke through all his edicts for the free exercise of the reformed religion ; he banished their minis- ters, and much blood was spilt in their religious wars. In the Netherlands, the Duke d'Alva breathed out nothing but blood and slaughter, putting multitudes to death for religion. This occasioned great numbers to fly into England, which multiplied the Dutch churches in Nor- wich, Colchester, Sandwich, Canterbury, Maid- stone, Southampton, London, Southwark, and elsewhere. The queen, for their encouragement, allowed them the liberty of their own mode of worship, and as they brought their manufactures over with them, they proved very beneficial to the trade and commerce of the nation. Even in England the hearts of all good men were ready to fail, for fear of the return of po- pish idolatry ; the queen being suddenly seized with a severe fit of sickness this summer [1568], which brought her to the very point of death, and the presumptive heir, Mary, late Queen of Scots, being a bigoted papist. The queen, to- gether with her bodily distemper, was under great terror of mind for her sins, and for not discharging the duty of her high station as she ought : she said she had forgotten her God ! to whom she had made many vows, and been un- thankful to him. Prayers were composed, and publicly read in all churches for her msjesty's recovery, in which they petitioned that God would heal her soul, and cure her mind as well as her body. The papists were never more san- guine in their expectations, nor the Reformation in greater danger, than now ; and yet Bride- well and other prisons were full of Puritans, as HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Ill appears by a manuscript letter of Mr. Thomas Lever, now before me, dated December 5, 1568, in which he endeavours to comfort the prison- ers, and declares that, though the popish gar- ments and ceremonies were not unclean in themselves,* yet he was determined for himself, by God's grace, never to wear the square cap and surplice, because they tended neither to de- cency nor edification, but to offence, dissension, and division in the Church of Christ ; nor would he kneel at the communion, because it was a symbolizing with popery, and looked too much like the adoration of the host. But at length it pleased Almigiity God to dissipate for the pres- ent the clouds that hung over the Reformation, by the queen's recovery. This yeart was published the Bible in folio, called the Bishops' Bible, with a preface by Archbishop Parker. It was only Cranmer's translation revised and corrected by several bishops and learned men, whose names may be seen in the Records of Bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation. The design was to set aside the Geneva translation, which had given offence. In the beginning, before the Book of Genesis, is a map of the land of Canaan ; before the New Testament is inserted a map of the places mentioned in the four evangelists, and the journeys of Christ and his apostles. There are various cuts dispersed through the book, and several genealogical and chronological ta- bles with the arms of divers noblemen, partic- ularly those of Cranmer and Parker. There are also some references and marginal notes for the explication of difficult passages. t This was the Bible that was read in the churches till the last translation of King James I. took place. But there was another storm gathering abroad, which threatened the Reformation all over Eu- rope, most of the popish princes having enter- ed into a league to extirpate it out of the world : the principal confederates were, the pope, the emperor, the Kings of Spain, France, and Por- tugal, with the Duke of Savoy, and some lesser princes : their agreement was, to endeavour, by force of arms, to depose all Protestant kings or potentates, and to place Catholics in their room ; and to displace, banish, and condemn to death all well-wishers and assistants of the clergy of Luther and Calvin, while the pope was to thun- der out his anathemas against the Queen of England, to interdict the kingdom, and to ab- solve her subjects from their allegiance. In prosecution of this league, war was already be- gun in France, Holland, and in several parts of Germany, with unheard-of cruelties against the reformed. Under these difficulties, the Protest- ant princes of Germany entered into a league for their common defence, and invited the Queen of England to accede to it. Her majesty sent Sir Henry Killigrew over to the elector palatine with a handsome excuse, and, at the same time, ordered her ambassador in France to offer her mediation between that king and his Protestant subjects ; but the confederacy was not to be broken by treaties ; upon which her majesty, by way of self-defence, and to ward off the storm from her own kingdom, as- sisted the confederate Protestants of France and Holland with men and money. This was * MS., p. 18. t Strype's Ann., vol. i., p. 623. t Strype's Ann., p. 216. the second time the queen had supported them in their religious wars against their natural kings. The foreign popish princes reproached her for it, and her majesty's ministers had much ado to reconcile it to the court doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance. At home the papists were in motion, having vast expectations, from certain prophecies, that the queen should not reign above twelve years: their numbers were formidable ; and such was their latitude, that it was not easy to bring them within the verge of the laws. In Lancashire the Common Prayer Book was laid aside, church- es were shut up, and the mass celebrated open- ly. The queen sent down commissioners of in- quiry, but all they could do was to bind some of the principal gentlemen to their good behav- iour in recognisances of one hundred marks.* Two of the colleges of Oxford, viz.. New Col- lege and Corpus Christi, were so overrun with papists that the Bishop of Winchester, their vis- iter, was forced to break open the gates of the college, and send for the ecclesiastical commis- sion to reduce them to order.t Great numbers of papists harboured in the inns of court, and ia several other places of public resort, expecting, with impatience, the death of the queen, and the succession of the presumptive heir, Mary, late queen of Scotland. Towards the latter end of the year, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, with their friends, to the number of four thousand, broke out into open rebellion ; their pretence was, to restore the popish religion, and deliver the Queen of Scots. In the city of Durham they tore the Bible and Common Prayer Book to pie- ces, and restored the mass in all places wherev- er they came ; but hearing of the advance of the queen's army, under the Earl of Suffolk, they fled northward, and mouldered away, with- out standing a battle ; the Earl of Northumber- land was taken in Scotland, and executed at York, with many of his confederates ; but the Earl of Westmoreland escaped into Flanders, and died in poverty. No sooner was this rebel- lion over, but the Lord Dacres excited another on the" borders of Scotland ; but after a small skirmish with the Governor of Berwick, he was defeated, and fled, and the rabble were pardon- ed. There was a general commotion among the papists in all parts of the kingdom, who would have united their forces if the northern rebels had maintained their ground. To give new life to the Catholic cause, the pope published a bull, excommunicating the queen, and absolving her subjects from their al- legiance. In this bull he calls her majesty a usurper, and a vassal of iniquity ; and having given some instances of her aversion to the Catholic religion, he declares "her a heretic, and an encourager of heretics, and anathemati- zes all that adhere to her. He deprives her of her royal crown and dignity, and absolves all her subjects from all obligations of fidelity and obedience. t He involves all those in the same sentence of excommunication who presume to obey her orders, commands, or laws for the fu- ture, and excites all foreign potentates to take up arms against her." This alarmed the ad- ministration, and put them upon their guard ; * Strype's Ann., p. 541. t Collyer, p. 523. t Grindal's Life, p. 133. 112 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. but it quickly appeared that the pope's thunder- bolts had lost their terror, for the Roman Cath- olic princes not being forward to encourage the Court of Rome's pretended power of excommu- nicating princes, continued their correspondence with the queen ; and her own Roman Catholic subjects remained pretty quiet, though from this time they separated openly from the Church. But the queen took hold of the opportunity to require all justices of peace, and other otficers in commission, throughout all the counties in England, to subscribe their names to an instru- ment, professing their conformity and obedience to the act of uniformity in religion, and for due resorting to their parish churches to hear com- mon prayer. This affected Puritans as well as papists. The gentlemen of the Inns of Court were also cited before the ecclesiastical com- mission, and examined about their resorting to church and receiving the sacrament, of which most of them were very negligent. This raised a clamour, as if the queen intended to ransack into men's consciences ; in answer to which she published a declaration that she had no such intention ; " that she did not inquire into the sentiments of people's mind, but only required an external conformity to the laws ; and that all that came to the Church and observed her injunctions, should be deemed good subjects." So that if men would be hypocrites, her majes- ty would leave them to God ; but if they would not conform, they must suffer the law. When the next Parliament met, they passed a law making it high treason to declare the queen to be a heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper ; to publish or put in use the pope's bulls ; to be reconcded to the Church of Rome, or to receive absolution by them :* the conceal- ing or not discovering offenders against this act is misprision of treason. A protestation was likewise drawn up, to be taken by all repu- ted papists, in these words : " I do profess and confess before God that Queen Elizabeth, my sovereign lady, now reigning in England, is rightfully, and ought to be and continue, queen, and lawfully beareth the imperial crown of these realms, notwithstanding any act or sentence that any pope or bishop has done or given, or can do or give, and that if any pope or other say or judge to the contrary, whether he say it as pope, or howsoever, he erreth and affirmeth, holdeth and teacheth, error." And that the Pu- ritans might not escape without some note of disloyalty, another protestation was drawn up for them -,1 in which they profess before God that " they believe in their consciences that Queen Elizabeth is and ought to be the lawful queen of England, notwithstanding any act or sentence that any church, synod, consistory, or ecclesiastical assembly hath done or given, or can give ; and that if any say or judge the con- trary, in what respect soever he saith it, he er- reth and affirmeth, holdeth and teacheth, error and falsehood." There was no manner of occasion for this last protestation ; for in the midst of these com- motions the Puritans continued the queen's faithful and dutiful subjects, and served her majesty as chaplains m her armies and navy, though they were not admitted into the church- es. One would have thought the formidable * Eliz., cap. i. t Life of Parker, p. 224. conspiracies of the Roman Catholics should have alienated the queen's heart from them, and prevailed with her majesty to yield some- thing for the sake of a firmer union among her^ Protestant subjects ; but instead of this, the edge of the laws that were made against popish recusants was turned against Protestant Non- conformists, which, instead of bringing them into the Church, like all other methods of sever- ity, drove them farther from it. This year [1570] died Mr. Andrew Kingsmill, born in Hampshire, and educated in All-Souls College, Oxon, of which he was elected fellovy in 1558. He had such a strong memory, that he could readily rehearse in the Greek language all St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Gala- tians, and other portions of Scripture, memoriter. He was a most pious and religious person, un dervaluing all worldly profit in comparison of the assurance of his salvation. In the year 1563, there were only three preachers in the university, of whom Kingsmill was one ; but af- ter some time, when conformity was pressed, and Sampson deprived of his deanery, he withdrew from the kingdom, resolving to live in one of the best reformed churches for doctrine and dis- cipline, the better to prepare himself for the ser- vice of the Church ;* accordingly, he lived three years at Geneva ; from thence he removed to Lausanne, where he died this year, in the prime of his days, leaving behind him an excellent pattern of piety, devotion, and all manner of virtue. The rigorous execution of the penal laws made business for the civilians : many were ci- ted into the spiritual courts, and after long at- tendance, and great charges, were suspended or deprived ; the pursuivant, or messenger of the court, was paid by the mile ; the fees were exorbitant, which the prisoner must satisfy be- fore he is discharged ; the method of proceed- ing was dUatory and vexatious, though they seldom called any witnesses to support the charge, but usually tendered the defendant an oath, to answer the interrogatories of the court ; and if he refused the oath, they examined him without it, and convicted him upon his own confession ; if the prisoner was dismissed, he was almost ruined with the costs, and bound in a recognisance to appear again whensoever the court should require him. We shall meet with many sad examples of such proceedings in the latter part of this reign. The honest Puritans made conscience of not denying anything they were charged with if it was true, though they might certainly have put the accusers on proof of the charge : nay, most of them thought them- selves bound to confess the truth, and bear a public testimony to it before the civil magis- trate, though it was made use of to their disad- vantage. + * Wood's Athen. Ox., vol, i., p. 125, 126. t I have an example of this now before me. The Reverend Mr. Axton, minister of Morton Corbet in Leicestershire, was cited into the bishop's court three several times this year, and examined upon the rea- sons of his refusmg the apparel, the cross in baptism, and kneehng at the sacrament, which he debated with the bishop and his officers with a decent free- dom and courage. At the close of the debate the bishop said, Bish. Now, Mr. Axton, I would know of you what you think of the calhng of the bishops of England ? HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 113 The controversy with tne Church, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to the habits, to Axton. I may fall into danger by answering this D ."estion. , Bish. I may compel you to answer upon your oath. Axt. But 1 may choose whether I will answer upon oath or not. I am not bound to bnng myself into danger; but because 1 am persuaded it will redound to God's glory, 1 will speak, be the consequence what it will ; and 1 trust in the Holy Spirit that I shall be wiihng to die in defence of the truth. Bish. Well, what do you think of my calling? Axt. You are not lawfully called to be a bishop, according to the Word of God. Bish. i thought so ; but why ? Axt. For three causes: 1. Because you were not ordained by the consent of the eldership. Bish. But I had the hands of three or four bishops. Axt. But that is not the eldership St. Paul speaks of, Tim., iv., 14. ■,.■,, „r Bish. By what eldership were you ordamed ? Was it by a bisliop ? Axt. I had, indeed, the laying on of the hands of one of the bishops of England, but that was the least part of my calhng. Bish. What calling had you more ? Axt. I having exercised and expounded the Word several tunes in an ordinary assembly of ten minis- ters ; they joined in prayer, and, being required to speak their consciences in the presence of God, de- clared, upon the trial they had of me, that they were persuaded I might become a profitable labourer in the house of God ; after which I received the laymg on of the hands of the bishop. Bish. But you had not the laying on of the hands of those preachers. Axt. No; I had the substance, but I wanted the accident, wherein I beseech the Lord to be merciful to me ; for the laying on of hands, as it is the Word, so it is agreeable with the mighty action of ordaining the ministers of God. Bish. Well, then, your ordination is imperfect as well as mine. What is your second reason ? Axt. Because you are not ordained bishop over any one flock ; nay, you are not a pastor over any one congregation, contrary to 1 Pet., v., 2, " Feed the flock ;" and to Acts, xiv., 23, from whence it is man- ifest that there should be bishops and elders through ■*very congregation. Bish. What is a congregation? Axt. Not a whole diocess, but such a number of people as ordinarily assemble in one place to hear the Word of God. Bish. What if you had a parish six or seven miles long, where many could not come to hear once in a quarter of a year I Axt. I would not be pastor over such a flock. Bish. What is your third reason ? Axt. Because you are not chosen by the people ; Acts, xiv., 23 : " And they ordained elders by elec- tion in every church," ^cipoTovfiaavrcs, " by the lifting tip of hands." B.'s Chanc. How come you to be parson of Mor- ton Corbet ? Axt. I am no parson. Chanc. Are you, then, vicar? Axt. No ; I am no vicar. I abhor those names as antichristian ; I am pastor of the congregation there. Chanc. Are you neither parson nor vicar ? How hold you your living? Axt. I receive these temporal things of the people, because 1, being theur pastor, do minister to them spiritual things. Chanc. If you are neither parson nor vicar, you must reap no profit. Axt. Do you mean good faith in that you say? Chanc. Yea, if you will be neither parson nor vicar, there is good cause why another should. Bish. You must understand that all livings in the 'Church are given to ministers as parsons and vicars. Vol. I.— P the cross in baptism, and kneeling at the Lord's Supper, began now to open into several more and not as pastors and ministers. How were you chosen pastor ? Axt. By the free election of the people and leave of the patron : after I had preached about six weeks by way of probation, I was chosen by one consent of them all, a sermon being preached by one of my brethren, setting forth the mutual duties of pastor and people. Bish. May the bishops of England ordain minis- ters ? Axt. You ought not to do it in the matter ye do ; that is, without the consent of the eldership, without sufficient proof of their qualifications, and without ordaining them to a particular congregation. Bish. Well, Mr. Axton, you must yield somewhat to me, and I will yield somewhat to you ; I will not trouble you for the cross in baptism ; and if you will wear the surplice but sometimes, it shall suffice. Axt. 1 can't consent to wear the surplice : it is against my conscience ; I trust, by the help of God, I shall never put on that sleeve, which is a mark of the beast. Bish. Will you leave your flock for the surplice ? Axt. Nay, will you persecute me from my flock for a surplice '! I love my flock in Jesus Christ, and had rather have my right arm cut off" than be remo- ved from them. Bish. Well, 1 will not deprive you this time. Axt. I beseech you consider what you do in re- moving me from my flock, seeing I am not come in at the window, or by simony, but according to the institution of Jesus Christ. On the 22d of November following Mr. Axton ap- peared again, and was examined touching organs, music in churches, and obedience to the queen's laws, &c. Bish. You, in refusing the surplice, are disloyal to the queen, and show a contempt, of her laws. Axt. You do me great injury in charging me with disloyalty ; and especially when you call me and my brethren traitors, and say that we are more trouble- some subjects than the papists. Bish. 1 say still the papists are afraid to stir, but you are presumptuous, and disquiet the state more than they. Axt. If I, or any that fear God, speak the truth, doth this disquiet the state ? The papists have for twelve years been plotting treason against the queen and the Gospel, and yet this doth not grieve you. But I protest in the presence of God, and of you all, that 1 am a true and faithful subject to her majesty; also I do pray daily both publicly and privately for her majesty's safety, and for her long and prosperous reign, and for the overthrow of all her enemies, and especially the papists. 1 do profess myself an enemy to her enemies, and a friend to her friends ; therefore, if you have any conscience, cease to charge me with disloyalty to my prince. Bish. Inasmuch as you refuse to wear the sur- phce, which she has commanded, you do, in effect, deny her to be supreme governess in all causes, ec- clesiastical and temporal. Axt. I admit her majesty's supremacy so far as, if there be any error m the governors of the Church, she has power to reform it ; but I do not admit her to be an ecclesiastical elder, or church governor. Bish. Yes ; but she is, and hath lull power and au- thority all manner of ways ; indeed, she doth not ad- minister the sacraments and preach, but leaveth those things to us. But if she were a man, as she is a woman, why might she not preach the Word of God as well as we ? Axt. May she, if she were a man, preach the Word of God ? Then she may also administ* the sacra- ments. Bish. This does not follow, for you know Paul preached, and yet did not baptize. Axt. Paul confesses that he did baptize, though he was sent especially to preach. 114 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. considerable branches, by the lectures of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Cartwright, B.D., fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Lady Mar- garet's professor, a courageous man, a popular preacher, a profound scholar, and master of an elegant Latin style ; he was in high esteem in the university, his lectures being frequented by A'ast crowds of scholars ; and when he preach- ed at St. Mary's, they were forced to take down the windows. Beza says of him, that he thought there was not a more learned man under the sun. This divine, in his lectures, disputed against certain blemishes of the English hierar- chy, and particularly against these six, which he subscribed with his own hand.* " The names and functions of archbishops and archdeacons ought to be abolished, as having no foundation in Scripture. The offices of the law- ful ministers of the Church, viz., bishops and deacons, ought to be reduced to the apostolical institution ; the bishops to preach the Word of God and pray, and deacons to take care of the poor. The government of the Church ought not to be intrusted with bishops' chancellors, or the officials of archdeacons ; but every church should be governed by its own minister and presbyters. Ministers ought not to be at large, but every one should have the charge of a cer- tain flock. Nobody should ask, or stand as a candidate, for the ministry. Bishops should not be created by civil authority, but ought to be fairly chosen by the Church." These propositions are said to be untrue, dan- gerous, and tending to the ruin of learning and religion ; they were, therefore, sent to Secreta- ry Cecil, chancellor of the university, who ad- vised the vice-chancellor to silence the author, or oblige him to recant. Cartwright challenged Dr. Whitgift, who preached against him, to a public disputation, which he refused unless he had the queen's license ; and Whitgift offered a Bish. Did not Moses teach the people 1 and yet he was their civil governor. Axt. Moses's calling was extraordinary. Remem- ber the King of Judah, how he would have sacrificed in the temple of God. Take heed how you confound those offices which God has distinguished. Bish. You see how he runneth. Bickley. You speak very confidently and rashly. Bish. This is his arrogant spirit.— MS., p. 55, 56. Thus the dispute broke off, and the good man, not- withstanding all his supplications, was deprived of his living, and driven to seek his bread in another country, though the bishop owned he was a divine cf good learning, a ready memory, and well qualified for the pulpit. One sees here the difficulties the Puritans labour- ed under in their ordinations ; they apprehended the election of the people, and the examination of presby- ters, with the imposition of their hands, necessary to the call of a minister ; but this, if it were done in Eng- land without a bishop, would hardly entitle them to preach in the Church, or give them a legal title to the profits of their livings ; therefore, after they had passed the former trials, they applied to the bishop for the imposition of his hands ; but others, being dis- satisfied with the ordination of a single person not lightly called, as they thought, to the office of a bish- op, went beyond sea, and were ordained by the pres- byteries of foreign churches ; for though the English Puritans had their synods and presbyteries, yet it is remarkable that they never ordained a single person to the ministry. * Strype's Ann., vol. i., p. 628, 629. Life of Par- ker, p. 312. private debate by writing, which the other de clined, as answering no valuable purpose. Other dangerous and seditious propositions, as they were called, were collected out of Cart- wright's lectures, and sent to court by Dr. Whit- gift, to incense the queen and chancellor against him ; as, 1. "In reforming the Church, it is necessary to reduce all things to the apostolical institution. 2. " No man ought to be admitted into tha ministry but who is capable of preaching. 3. " None but such a minister of the Word ought to pray publicly in the Church, or admin- ister the sacraments. 4. " Popish ordinations are not valid. 5. " Only canonical Scripture ought to be read publicly in the Church. 6. " The public liturgy should be so framed that there be no private praying or reading ia the Church, but that all the people attend to tho prayers of the minister. 7. " The care of burying the dead does not belong more to the ministerial office than to tho rest of the Church. 8. " Equal reverence is due to all canonical Scripture, and to all the names of God ; there is, therefore, no reason why the people should stand at the reading of the Gospel, or bow at the name of Jesus. 9. " It is as lawful to sit at the Lord's table as to kneel or stand. 10. " The Lord's Supper ought not to be ad- ministered in private ; nor should baptism be administered by women or lay-persons. 11. " The sign of the cross in baptism is su- perstitious. 12. " It is reasonable and proper that the pa- rent should offer his own child to baptism, ma- king a confession of that faith he intends to ed- ucate it in, without being obliged to answer ia the child's name, I will, I will not, I believe, &c. ; nor ought it to be allowed that women, or persons under age, should be sponsors. 13. "In giving names to children, it is conve- nient to avoid paganism, as well as the names and offices of Christ, angels, &c. 14. " It is papistical to forbid marriages at certain times of the year ; and to give licenses in those times is intolerable. 15. " Private marriages, that is, such as are^ not published before the congregation, are high- ly inconvenient. 16. " The observation of Lent, and fasting on. Fridays and Saturdays, is superstitious. 1 7. " The observation of festivals is unlawful. 18. " Trading, or keeping markets on the Lord's Day, is unlawful. 19. "In ordaining of the ministers, the pro- nouncing those words, ' Receive thou the Holy Ghost,' is both ridiculous and wicked. 20. " Kings and bishops should not be anoint- ed." These were Cartwright's dangerous doctrines, •which he touched occasionally in his lectures, but with no design to create discord, as appears by a testimonial sent to the secretary cf state in his favour, signed by fifteen cons .iderable names in the university, in which they declare that they had heard his lectures, and that " he never touched upon the controversy of the hab- its ; and, though he had advanced some propo- sitions with regard to the ministry, according HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 110 to which he wished things might be regulated, he did it with all imaginable caution and mod- esty."* Other letters were written in his fa- vour, signed by twenty names or upward, of whom some were afterward bishops, but it was resolved to make him an example. Cartwright himself sent an elegant Latin letter to the sec- retary, in which he declares that he wais'ed all occasions of speaking concerning the habits, but owns he had taught that our ministry declined from the ministry of the apostolical Church in some points, according to which he wished it might be modelled ; however, that he did this withall imaginable caution, as ahnost the whole university would witness, ifthey might be allow- ed. He prayed the secretary to hear and judge the cause himself, which was so far from novelty, that it was as venerable for its antiquity as the apostolic age ; but, though the secretary was convinced! that his behaviour was free from ar- rogancy, or an intention to cause trouble, and that only as a public reader in the university he had given notes of the difference between the ministry in the times of the apostles and the present ministry of the Church of England, yet he left him to the mercy of his enemies, who poured upon him all the infamy and disgrace their power would admit. They first denied him his degree of doctor in divinity, then forbade his reading public lectures, and at last deprived him of his fellowship, and expelled him the uni- versity. A short and compendious way of con- futing an adversary ! Mr. Cartwright being now out of all employ- ment, travelled beyond sea, and settled a corre- spondence with the most celebrated divines in the Protestant universities of Europe. While he was abroad he was chosen minister to the English merchants at Antwerp, and afterward at Middleburgh, where he continued two years with little or no profit to himself; and then re- turning to England, being earnestly solicited thereunto by letters from Mr. Deering, Fulk, Wiburne, Pox, and Lever, we shall hear more of the sufferings of this eminent divine for his nonconformity.? This year [1570] Grind al, bishop of London, being translated to York, Sandys, bishop of Worcester, was removed to London ; in his pri- mary visitation, January 10, he charged his cler- gy, I. To keep strictly to the Book of Common Prayer. 2. Not to preach without a license. 3. To wear the apparel, that is, the square cap and scholar's gown, and in Divine service, the surplice. 4. Not to admit any of other parishes to their communion. He also ordered all clerks" tolerations to be called in ; by which it appears that some few of the Nonconformists had been tolerated, or dispensed with hitherto, but now this was at an end.^ However, the Puritans encouraged one another, by conversation and let- ters, to steadfastness in opposition to the cor- ruptions of the Church, and not to fear the re- sentments of their adversaries. There was a spirit in the Parliament, which was convened Aprd 2, 1571, to attempt some- thing in favour of the Puritans, upon whom the bishops bore harder every day than other. Mr. * Strype's Annals, vol. u., p. 2. i Pierce's Vindication, p. 77. i Clarke's Life of Cartwright, p. 18. ^ Strype's Annals, vol. ii., p. 29. Strickland, an ancient gentleman, offered a bill for a farther reformation in the Church, April 6, and introduced it with a speech, proving that the Common Prayer Book, with some supersti- tious remains of popery in the Church, might easily be altered without any danger to religion. He enforced it with a second speech, April 13, upon which the treasurer of the queen's house- hold stood up, and said, " All matters of cere- monies were to be referred to the queen, and for them to meddle with the royal prerogative was not convenient." Her majesty was so displeas- ed with Mr. Strickland's motion, that she sent for him before the council, and forbade him the Parliament House, which alarmed the members, and occasioned so many warm speeches, that she thought fit to restore him on the 20th of April. This was a bold stroke at the freedom of parliaments, and carrying the prerogative to its utmost length. But Mr. Strickland moved, farther, that a confession of faith should be pub- lished and confirmed by Parhament, as it was in other Protestant countries ; and that a commit- tee might be appointed to confer with the bish- ops on his head. The committee drew up cer- tain articles, according to those whicn passed the convocation of 1562, but left out others. The archbishop asked them why they left out the article for homilies, and for the consecrating of bishops, and some others relating to the hie- rarchy. Mr. Peter Wentworth replied, because they had not yet examined how far they were agreeable to the Word of God, having confined , themselves chiefly to doctrines. The archbish- op replied. Surely you will refer yourselves whol- ly to us the bishops in these things ! To which Mr. Wentworth replied, warmly, "No, by the faith I bear to God, we will pass nothing before we understand what it is, for that were but to make you popes. Make you popes who list, for we wdl make you none." So the articles rela- ting to discipline were waived, and an act was passed confirming all the doctrinal articles agreed upon in the synod of 1562. The act is entitled, " For reformation of dis- orders in the ministers of the Church,"* " and enjoins all that have any ecclesiastical livings to declare their assent before the bishop of the dio- cess to all the articles of religion, which only concern the confession of the true faith, and the doctrine of the sacraments, comprised in the book imprinted and entitled 'Articles, where- upon it was agreed by the archbishops and bish- ops, &c., and the whole clergy, in the convoca- tion of 1562, for avoiding diversity of opinions, and for the estabhshing of consent touching true religion,' and to subscribe them ; which was to be testified by the bishop of the diocess, under his seal ; which testimonial he was to read pub- licly with the said articles, as the confession of his faith, in his church on Sunday, in the time of Divine service, or else to be deprived. If any clergyman maintained any doctrine repugnant to the said articles, the bishop might deprive him. None were to be admitted to any benefice with cure except he was a deacon of the age of twenty-three years, and would subscribe and declare his unfeigned assent to the articles above mentioned. Nor might any administer the sac- raments under twenty-four years of age." It appears from the words of this statute, that , — — . — — — -. , , * 13 Eliz., cap. xii. 116 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. those articles of the Church which relate to its discipline were not designed to be the terms of ministerial conformity ; and if the queen and the bishops had governed themselves according- ly, the separation had been stifled in its infancy, for there was hardly a Puritan in England that refused subscription to the doctrinal articles ; if all the thirty-nine articles had been established, there had been no need of the following clause, " Which only concern the confession of the true Christian faith, and the doctrine of the saora- menis." And yet, notwithstanding this act, many that held benefices and ecclesiastical pre- ferments, and that offered to conform to the statute, were deprived in the following part of this reign ; wluch was owing to the bishops' ser- vile compliance with the prerogative, and press- ing subscription to more than the law required.* It deserves farther to be taken notice of, that by a clause in this act, the Parliament admits of ordination by presbyters without a bishop ; which was afterward disallowed by the bishops in this reign, as well as at the restoration of King Charles II., when the Church was depri- ved of great numbers of learned and useful preachers, who scrupled the matter of reordina- tion, as they would at this time, if it had been insisted on. Many of the present clergy had been exiles for religion, and had been ordained abroad, according to the custom of foreign churches, but would not be ordained, any more than those of the popish communion ; therefore, to put an end to all disputes, the statute in- cludes both ; the words are these : " That every person under the degree of a bishop that doth or shall pretend to be a priest or minister of God's Word and sacraments, by reason of any form of institution, consecration, or ordering, than the form set forth in Parliament in the time of the late King Edward VI., or now used in the reign of our most sovereign lady Queen Elizabeth, shall, before Christmas next, declare his assent, and subscribe the articles aforesaid." The meaning of which clause, says Mr. Strype, is undoubtedly to comprehend papists, and like- wise such as received their orders in some of the foreign Reformed Churches, when they were in exile under Queen Mary.f It is probable that the controverted clause of the twentieth article, " The Church has power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith," was not among the articles of 1562, as has been shown under that year ; though it might be (according to Laud and Heylin) inserted in the convocation-book of 1571 ; but what has this to do with the act of Parliament, which refers to a book printed nine years before 1 Besides, it is absurd to charge the Puritans with striking out the clause as Archbishop Laud has done, they having no share in the government of the Church at this time, nor interest to obtain the least abatement m their favour ; nor does it appear that they disapproved the clause under proper regulations : one might rather suppose that the queen should take umbrage at it as an invasion of her prerog- ative, and that, therefore, some zealous church- man, finding the articles defective upon the head of the Church's authority, might insert it pri- vately, to avoid the danger of a praemunire. But, after all, subscription to the doctrinal * Strype's Ann., vol. ii., p. 72. t Ibid., p. 71. articles of the Church only has been reckoned a very great grievance by many pious and learn- ed divines, both in Church and out of it ; for it is next to impossible to frame thirty-six propo- sitions in any human words, to which ten thou- sand clergymen can give their hearty assent and consent. Some that agree to the doctrine itself may dissent from the words and phrases by which it is expressed ; and others that agree to the capital doctrines of Christianity, may have some doubts about the deeper and more abstruse points of speculation. It would be hard to de- prive a man of his living, and shut him out from all usefulness in the Church, because he doubts of the local descent of Christ into hell ; or wheth- er the best actions of men before their con- version have the nature of sins ;* or that every- thing in the three creeds, comtnonly called the. Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian, may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture, and are therefore to be believed and received. t Wise and good men may have dif- ferent sentiments upon the doctrine of the de- crees, which are a depth which no man can fathom. These, and some other things, have galled the consciences of the clergy, and driven them to evasions destructive to morality and the peace of their own minds. Some have sub- scribed them as articles of peace, contrary to the very title, which says they " are for avoid- ing the diversity of opinions." Others have tortured the words to a meaning contrary to the known sense of the compilers. Some sub- scribe them with a secret reserve, as far as they are agreeable to the Word of God ; and so they may subscribe the Council of Trent, or even Mohammed's Alcoran. Others subscribe them, not as doctrines which they believe, but as doc- trines that they will not openly contradict and oppose ; and others, I am informed, put no sense upon the articles at all, but only subscribed them as a test of their obedience to their supe- riors, who require this of them as the legal way to preferment in the Church. How hard must it be for men of learning and probity to submit to these shifts ! when no kinds of subscriptions can be a barrier against ignorant or dishonest minds. Of what advantage is uniformity of profession without an agreement in principles 1 If the fundamental articles of our faith were drawn up in the language of Holy Scripture ; or if those who were appointed to examine into the learning and other qualifications of ministers were to be judges of their orthodox confessions of faith, it would answer a better purpose than subscription to human creeds and articles. Though the Commons were forbid to concern themselves with the discipline of the Church, they ventured to present an address to the queen,t complaining " that, for lack of true dis- cipline in the Church, great numbers are ad- mitted ministers that are infamous in their lives and conversations ; and among those that are of ability, their gifts in many places are use less, by reason of pluralities and non-residency, whereby infinite numbers of your majesty's sub- jects are like to perish foK-lack of knowledge. By means of this, together with the common blaspheming of the Lord's name, the most wick- ed licentiousness of life, the abuse of excommu- nication, the commutation of penance, the great * Art. 13. t Art. 8. % MS., p. 92. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 117 numbers of atheists, schismatics daily springing up, and the increase of papists, the Protestant religion is in imminent danger ; wherefore, in regard first and principally to the glory of God, and next in discharge of our bounden duty to your majesty, besides being moved with pity towards so many thousands of your majesty's subjects, daily in danger of being lost for want of the food of the Word, and true discipline, we, the commons in this present Parliament assembled, are humbly bold to open the griefs, and to seek the salving of the sores of our coun- try, and to beseech your majesty, seeing the same is of so great importance, if the Parlia- ment at this time may not be so long continued as that, by good and godly laws, provision may be made for supply and reformation of these great and grievous wants and abuses, that yet, by such other means as to your majesty's wisdom shall seem meet, a perfect redress of the same may be had ; by which the number of your majesty's faithful subjects will be increased, popery will be destroyed, the glory of God will be promoted, and your majesty's renown will be recommended to all posterity." But the queen broke up the Parliament without taking any notice of the supplication. The convocation which sat with this Parlia- ment assembled April 3d, 1571, when the Rev- erend Mr. Gilbert Alcock presented a supplica- tion to them in behalf of the deprived ministers, praying their interest with the queen for a re- dress of their grievances :* " If a godly minis- ter," says he, " omit but the least ceremony for conscience' sake, he is immediately indicted, deprived, cast into prison, and his goods wasted and destroyed ; he is kept from his wife and chil- dren, and at last excommunicated. We there- fore beseech your fatherhoods to pity our case, and take from us these stumbling-blocks." But the convocation were of another spirit, and, in- stead of removing their burdens, increased them by framing certain new canons of discipline against the Puritans ; as, that the bishops should call in all their licenses for preaching, and give out new ones to those who were best qualified ;t and among the qualifications, they insist, not only upon subscription to the doc- trines of the Church enjoined by Parliament, but upon subscription to the Common Prayer Book and ordinal for the consecration of arch- bishops, bishops, priests, and deacons, as con- taining nothing contrary to the Word of God. And they declare that all such preachers as do not subscribe, or that disturb people's minds with contrary doctrine, shall be excommuni- cated. But as these canons never had the sanction of the broad seal, surely the enforcing them upon the Puritans was a stretch of power hardly to be justified. Bishop Grindal confess- ed they had not the force of a law, and might possibly involve them in a praemunire ; and yet the bishops urged them upon the clergy of their several diocesses. They cancelled all the licen- ses of preachers, and insisted peremptorily on the subscription above mentioned. The complaints of the ministers, under these hardships, reached the ears of the Elector Pal- atine of the Rhine, who was pleased to order the learned Zanchy, professor of divinity in the University of Heidelberg, to write to the Queen MS., p. 92. t Sparrow, p. 223. of England in their behalf, beseeching her maj- esty not to insist upon subscriptions, or upon wearing the habits, which gave such offence to great numbers of the clergy, and was like to make a schism in the Church.* The letter was enclosed to Bishop Grindal, who, when he had read it, would not so much as deliver it to the queen, for fear of disobliging her majesty, whose resolution was to put an end to all distinctions in the Church, by pressing the Act of Uniform- ity. Instead, therefore, of relaxing to the Puri- tans, orders were sent to all church-wardens "not to suffer any to read, pray, preach, or minister the sacraments, in any churches, chap- els, or private places, without a new license from the queen, or the archbishop, or bishop of the diocess, to be dated since May, 1571." The more resolved Puritans were therefore reduced to the necessity of assembling in private, or of laying down their ministry. Though all the bishops were obliged to go into these measures of the court, yet some were so sensible of the want of discipline and of preaching the Word, that they permitted their clergy to enter into associations for the promoting of both. The ministers of the town of Northampton, with the consent and approba- tion of Dr. Scambler, their bishop, the mayor of the town, and the justices of the county, agreed upon the following regulations for wor- ship and discipline :t " That singing and playing of organs in the choir shall be put down, and common prayer read in the body of the church, with a psalm before and after sermon. That every Tues- day and Thursday there shall be a lecture from nine to ten in the morning, in the chief church of the town, beginning with the confession in the Book of Common Prayer, and ending with prayer and a confession of faith. Every Sunday and holyday shall be a sermon after morning prayer, with a psalm before and after. Service shall be ended in every parish church by nine in the morning every Sunday and holydays, to the end that people may resort to the sermon in the chief church, except they have a sermon in their own. None shall walk abroad, or sit idly in the streets, in time of Divine service. The youth shall every Sunday evening be ex- amined in a portion of Calvin's Catechism, which the reader shall expound for an hour. There shall be a general communion once a quarter in every parish, with a sermon. A fort- night before each communion, the minister, with the church-wardens, shall go from house to house, to take the names of the communicants and examine into their lives ; and the party that is not in charity with his neighbour shall be put from the communion. After the com- munion, the minister shall visit every house, to understand who have not received the commu- nion, and why. Every communion-day each parish shall have two communions, one begin- ning at five in the morning, with a sermon of an hour, and ending at eight, for servants ; the other, from nine to twelve, for masters and dames. The manner of the communion shall be according to the order of the queen's book, saving that the people, being in their confes- sion upon their knees, shall rise up from their pews, and so pass to the communion-table, * Strype's Ann., vol. ii., p. 97. t Ibid. 118 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. where they shall receive the sacrament in com- panies, and then return to their pews, the min- ister reading in the pulpit. The communion- table shall stand in the body of the church, ac- cording to the book, at the upper end of the middle aisle, having three ministers, one in the middle to deliver the bread, the other two at each end for the cup, the ministers often calling upon the people to remember the poor. The communion to end with a psalm. Excessive ringing of bells on the Lord's Day is prohibited ; and carrying of the hell before corpses in the streets, and bidding prayers for the dead, which was used till within these two years, is re- strained." Here was a sort of association, or voluntary discipline, introduced, independent of the queen's injunctions or canons of the Church ; this was what the Puritans were contending for, and would gladly have acquiesced in, if it might have been established by a law. Besides these attempts for discipline, the cler- gy, with leave of their bishop, encouraged reli- gious exercises among themselves, for the in- terpretation of some texts of Scripture, one speaking to it orderly after another ; these were called prophesyings from the apostolical direc- tion, 1 Cor., xiv., 31, " Ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all be comfort- ed." They also conferred among themselves touching sound doctrine and good life and man- ners. The regulations or orders for these exercises in Northampton were these : " That every minister, at his first allowance to be of this exercise, shall by subscription de- clare his consent in Christ's true religion with his brethren, and submit to the discipline and order of the same. The names of all the mem- bers shall be written in a table, three of whom shall be concerned at each exercise : the first, beginning and ending with prayer, shall explain his text, and confute foolish interpretations, and then make a practical reflection, but not dilate to a commonplace. Those that speak after may add anything they think the other has omitted tending to explain the text ; but may not repeat what has been said, nor oppose their predecessor, unless he has spoken contrary to the Scriptures. The exercise to continue from nine to eleven ; the first speaker to end in three quarters of an hour, the second and third not to exceed each one quarter of an hour ; one of the moderators always to conclude. After the ex- ercise is over, and the auditors dismissed, the president shall call the learned brethren to him to give him their judgment of the performances, when it shall be lawful for any of the brethren to oppose their objections against them in wri- ting, which shall be answered before the next exercise. If any break orders, the president shall command him, in the name of the eternal God, to be silent ; and after the exercise, he shall be reprimanded. When the exercise is finished, the next speaker shall be appointed, and his text given him." The confession of faith which the members of these prophesyings signed at their admission was to the following purpose : " That they believed the Word of God, con- tained in the Old and New Testament, to be a perfect rule of faith and manners ; that it ought to be read and known by all people ; and that the authority of it exceeds all authority, not of the pope only, but of the Church also, and of coun- cils, fathers, men, and angels. " They condemn, as a tyrannous yoke, what- soever men have set up of their own invention to make articles of faith, and the binding men's consciences by their laws and institutes ; in sum, all those manners and fashions of serving God which men have brought in without the au- thority of the Word for the warrant thereof, tiiough recommended by custom, by unwritten traditions, or any other names whatsoever ; of which sort are the pope's supremacy, purgatory, transubstantiation, man's merits, free-will, justi- fication by works, praying in an unknown tongue, and distinction of meats, apparel, and days, and, briefly, all the ceremonies and whole order of pa- pistry, which they call the hierarchy, which are a devilish confusion, established, as it were, in spite of God, and to the reproach of religion. " And we content ourselves," say they, " with the simplicity of this pure Word of God, and doctrine thereof, a summary of which is in the Apostles' Creed ; resolving to try and examine, and also to judge all other doctrines whatsoev- er by this pure Word, as by a certain rule and perfect touchstone. And to this Word of God we humbly submit ourselves and all our doings, willing and ready to be judged, reformed, or far- ther instructed thereby, in all points of religion." Mr. Strype calls this a well-minded and reli- giously-disposed combination of both bishop, magistrates, and people. It was designed to stir up an emulation in the clergy to study the Scriptures, that they may be more capable of instructing the people in Christian knowledge ; > and though men of loose principles censured it, yet the ecclesiastical commissioners, who had a special letter from the queen to inquire into novelties, and were acquainted with the scheme above mentioned, gave them, as yet, neither check nor disturbance ; but when her majesty was informed that they were nurseries of Puri- tanism, and tended to promote alterations in the government of the Church, she quickly sup- pressed them, as will be seen in its proper place. This year [1571] put a period to the life of the eminent John Jewel, bishop of Salisbury, author of the famous Apology for the Church of England. He was born in Devonshire, 1522, and educated in Christ Church College, Oxon, where he proceeded M.A. 1544. In King Ed- ward's reign he was a zealous promoter of the Reformation ; but, not having the courage of a martyr, he yielded to some things against his conscience in the reign of Queen Mary, for which he asked pardon of God and the Church among the exiles in Germany, where he contin- ued a confessor of the Gospel till Queen Eliza- beth's accession, when he returned home, and was preferred to the Bishopric of Salisbury in 1559. He was one of the most learned men among the Reformers, a Calvinist in doctrine, but for absolute obedience to his sovereign in all things of an indifferent nature, which led him not only to comply with all the queen's in- junctions about the habits when he did not ap- prove them, but to bear hard upon the conscien- ces of his brethren who were not satisfied to comply. He published several treatises in his lifetime, and others were printed after his death ; HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 119 but that which gained him greatest reputation ■was his Apology, which was translated into the foreign languages, and ordered to be chained in all the churches in England.* He was a truly pious man, and died in a comfortable frame of mind. Some of his last words were, " I have not so lived that I am ashamed to die ; neither am I afraid to die, for we have a gracious Lord. There is laid up for me a crown of righteous- ness. Christ is my righteousness. Lord, let thy servant depart in peace ;" which he did at Monkton Farley, September 23, 1571, in the fif- tieth year of his age, and lies buried in the mid- dle of the choir of the Cathedral of Salisbury. In the same year died the Rev. Mr. David "Whitehead, a great scholar, and a most excel- lent professor of divinity. He was educated at Oxford, and was chaplain to Queen Anne Bul- len, and one of the four divines nominated by Archbishop Cranmer to bishoprics in Ireland. In the beginning of Queen Mary's reign he went into voluntary exile, and resided at Frankfort, ■where he answered the objections of Dr. Horn concerning Church discipline and worship. Upon his return into England he was chosen one of the disputants against the popish bishops, and showed himself so profound a divine, that the queen, out of her high esteem for him, offered him the archbishopric of Canterbury ; but he refused it from Puritanical principles, and would accept of no preferment in the Church as it then stood : he excused himself to the queen by say- ing he could live plentifully on the Gospel with- out any preferment ; and, accordingly, did so : he went up and down like an apostle, preaching the Word where it was wanted ; and spent his life in celibacy, which gained him the higher es- teem with the queen, who had no great affec- tion for married priests. He died this year, in a good old age,t but in what church or chapel he was buried I know not. Our archbishop was very busy this summer, ■with the Bishops of Winchester and Ely, in har- assing the Puritans ; for which purpose he sum- moned before him the principal clergy of both provinces who were disaffected to the uniform- ity established by law, and acquainted them that, if they intended to continue their ministry, they must take out new licenses, and subscribe the articles, framed according to a new act of Parliament, for reforming certain disorders in ministers ; otherwise they might resign quietly or be deprived. He took in the bishops above mentioned to countenance his proceedings, but Grindal declared he would not be concerned if his grace proceeded to suspension and deprivation : upon which Parker wrote back that " he thought it high time to set about it ; and, however the ■world may judge, he would serve God and his * This book was originally written in Latin, but, for the use of the generality of the people, it was translated into English, with remarkable accuracy, by Anne, Lady Bacon, the second of the four learned daughters of Sir Anthony Coke. Such was the es- teem in which it was held, that there was a design of Its being joined to the thirty-nine articles, and of causing it to be deposited not only in all cathedrals and collegiate churches, but also in private houses. It promoted the Reformation from popery more than any other publication of that period. — The New Annual Register for 1789, History of Knowledge, p. 19.— Ed. ■f Ath. Ox., vol. i.. p. 135, 13Q Pierce's Vindic, p. 45,46 prince, and put her laws in execution ; that Grindal was too timorous, there being no dan- ger of a prajmunire ; that the queen was content the late book of articles (though it had not the broad seal) should be prosecuted ; and in case it should hereafter be repealed, there was no fear of a pragmunire, but only of a fine at her pleasure, which he was persuaded her majesty, out of love to the Church, would not levy: but Grindal being now at York, wisely declined the affair."* In the month of June the archbishop cited the chief Puritans about London to Lambeth, t viz., Messrs. Goodman, Lever, Sampson, Walk- er, Wyburn, Goff, Percival, Deering, Field, Browne, Johnson, and others. These divines, being willing to live peaceably, offered to sub- scribe the articles of religion as far as concern- ed the doctrine and sacraments only, and the Book of Common Prayer as far as it tended to edification, it being acknowledged on all hands that there were some imperfections in it ; but they prayed, with respect to the apparel, that neither party might condemn the other, but that those that wore them, and those that did not, might live in unity and concord. How reason- able soever this was, the archbishop told them peremptorily that they must come up to the queen's injunctions or be deprived. t Goodman was also required to renounce a book that he had written many years ago, when he was an exile, against the government of women, which he refused, and was therefore suspended. Mr. Strype says that he was at length brought to a revocation of it, and signed a protestation be- fore the commissioners at Lambeth, April 23, 1571, concerning his dutiful obedience to the queen's majesty's person and her lawful govern- ment.iji Lever quietly resigned his prebend in the Church of Durham. Browne being domes- tic chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, his patron undertook to screen him ; but the archbishop sent him word that no -place within her majes- ty's dominions was exempt from the jurisdic- tion of the commissioners, and, therefore, if his grace did not forthwith send up his chaplain, they should be forced to use other methods. This was that Robert Browne who afterward gave name to that denomination of dissenters called Brownists ; but his family and relations covered him for the present. Johnson was do- mestic chaplain to the Lord-keeper Bacon, at Gorambury, where he used to preach and ad- minister the sacrament in his family : he had also some place at St. Alban's, and was fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He appeared be- fore the commissioners in July, but, refusing to subscribe to the Book of Common Prayer as agreeable to the Word of God, he was suspend- ed, though he assured them he used the book, and thought, for charity's sake, it might be suf- fered till God should grant a time of more per- fect reformation ; that he would wear the ap- parel, though he judged it neither expedient nor for edification ; and that he was willing to sub- scribe all the doctrinal ai-ticles of the Church, according to the late act of Parliament ; but the commissioners insisting peremptorily upon an absolute subscription, as above, he was sus- pended, and resigned his prebend in the Church * Life of Grindal, p. 160. t MS., p. 117. X Life of Parker, p. 326, 327. ^ An. Ref , vol. ii., p. 95. 120 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. of Norwich ; but. about two years after he fell into farther troubles, Avhich cost him his life. The learned Beza [in 1572] wrote to the bish- ops not to be the instruments of such severities ; and being informed that a Parliament was short- ly to be called, in which a consultation was to be had concerning the establishing of religion, he excited the lord-treasurer to endeavour some reformation of discipline : " For I will not dis- semble," says he, " that not a few complain of divers things wanting in the Church ; and when I say not a few, I do not mean that worst sort whom nothing pleases but what is perfect and absolute in all respects ; but I understand godly men, learned men, and some that are best af- fected to God's Church, and lovers of their na- tion. I look upon the reformation of discipline as of great importance to the peace and welfare of the nation, and the strengthening of the Ref- ormation ; and therefore there is nothing the queen's majesty and her council should sooner think of than this, however great and difficult the work might be, especially since the English nation affords so many divines of prudence, learning, and judgment in these affairs ; if they, together with the bishops, to whom, indeed, espe- cially, but not alone, this care belongs, would de- liberate hereupon, I doubt not but such things would follow whence other nations would take example." Thus did this learned divine intercede for the recovery of discipline and the ease of tender and scrupulous consciences. But this was more than our archbishop thanked him for, says Mr. Strype, after he had taken so much pains in pressing the Act of Uniformity.* The Parliament met May 8, 1572 ; the lord- keeper opened it with a speech, in which he recommended to the houses, in the queen's name, " to see that the laws relating to the discipline and ceremonies of the Church were put in due execution ; and that, if any farther laws were wanting, they should consider'Of them ; and so, says his lordship, gladius gladium juva- bit, the civil sword will support the ecclesiasti- cal, as beforetime has been used."t But the Parliament, seeing the ill use the queen and bishops made of their spiritual power, instead of framing new laws to enforce the ceremonies, ordered two bills to be brought in to regulate them ; in one of which the hardships that the Puritans complained of were redressed. t The bills passed smoothly through the Commons, and were referred to a select committee of both houses, which alarmed the bishops, and gave the queen such offence, that two days after she sent to acquaint the Commons, by their speaker, that it was her pleasure that no bills concerning religion should henceforth be received, unless the same should be first considered and appro- ved by the bishops or clergy in convocation ; and farther, her majesty commanded them to deliver up the two bills last read in the house, touching rights and ceremonies.!^ This was a * Life of Parker, p. 344. ■f Strype's Annals, vol. ii., p. 125. D'Ew's Journal, p. 207. t Life of Parker, p. 394. ^ In the face of this full and positive evidence of the temper and measures of the queen. Bishop Mad- dox talks of the great favour and indulgence shown to the Puritans in the year 1572 ; and refers us to Strype, in his hfe of Whitgift, saying "that they were as gently treated as might be ; no kind of broth- high strain of the prerogative, and a blow at the very root of the freedom of Parliament. Bat the Commons sent her majesty the bills, with a servile request that she would not conceive an ill opinion of the house if she should not approve them.* Her majesty sent them word, within a day or two, that she utterly disliked the bills, and never returned them. This awakened a brave spirit of liberty among some of the mem- bers ; many free speeches were made upon this occasion, and among others, Peter Wentwortb, Esq., stood up and said,t " that it grieved him to see how many ways the liberty of free speech in Parliament had been infringed. Two things," says he, " do great hurt among us : one is a ru- mour that ran about the house when the bill about the rights of the Church was depending : ' Take heed what you do ; the queen liketh not such a matter ; she will be offended with them that prosecute it.' The other is, that some time a message was brought to the house, either com- manding or inhibiting our proceedings." He added, " that it was dangerous always to fol- low a prince's mind, because the prince might favour a cause prejudicial to the honour of Goi and the good of the state. Her majesty has for- bid us to deal in any matter of religion, unless we first receive it from the bishops. This was a doleful message ; there is, then, little hope of reformation. I have heard from old Parliament ^ men, that the banishment of the pope, and the reforming true religion, had its beginning frovn this house, but not from the bishops : few laws for religion had their foundation from them; and I do surely think (before God I speak it) that the bishops were the cause of that doleful message." But for this speech, and another of like nature, Wentworth was sent to the Tower erly persuasion omitted towards them ; and most of them as yet kept their livings, though one or two were displaced." In this connexion he quotes, also, a letter of Fox, the martyrologist, to her majesty, " exalting her in his praises for her regard and gra- cious answer to a petition of certain divines concern- ing the habits." — Vindication, p. 173. This letter, Mr. Neal observes, was written in 1564, several years before that part of her reign wherein she thought fit to inflict severe punishments upon the Dissenters. Besides, whatever weight is due to Mr. Fox's praises, or to Mr. Strype's representation, though the Puri- tans had some intervals of ease, some tokens of royal indulgence and favour, her reign, and their situation, under it, are not surely to be characterized by a few intervals of ease, and by partial indulgences ; but by the spirit of the laws framed against them, and by the great leading measures and the general tenour of her government. The first Christians are generally under- stood to have suffered ten severe persecutions under the Roman emperors : "but it is not to be supposed that persecution was always violent and uninterrupt- ed ; there might be some abatements of those troubles, and some seasons of rest and peace. In the reigns of Adrian and Titus Antoninus, there were some edicts, or rescripts, which were favourable to them, though during those very reigns many Christians still suffered in almost every part of the empire." — Lard- ner's Works, vol. viii., p. 341, 342, 8vo. So as to the period before us, the question is, Did the Puritans enjoy liberty and security under the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; or was their situation the reverse of en- joying these blessings ? If it were the latter (and the particulars of this long detail will show what was the case), then the leading features of her govern- ment were intolerance and persecution. — Ed. * Strype's Annals, vol. ii., p. 127, 128. t Ibid., p. 12. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 121 In the mean time, the late act of the thirteenth of EUzabeth for subscribing the articles was put in execution all over England, together with the queen's injunctions ; and according to Mr. Strype's computation, one hundred clergymen were deprived this year for refusing to sub- scribe.* The University of Cambridge was a nest of Puritans ; many of the graduates were disaffected to the discipline of the Church, as particularly Mr. Browning, Mr. Brown, of Trin- ity College, Mr. Millain, of Christ's, Mr. Charke, of Peterhouse, Mr. Deering, of Christ's College, and several in St. John's College, who, being men of learning, had a great number of follow- ers ; but Dr. Whitgift, the vice-chancellor, watch- ed them narrowly, and kept them under. The Reverend Mr. Charke, in one of his sermons at St. Mary's, had said that " there ought to be a parity among the ministers in the Church ; and that the hierarchical orders of archbishops, pa- triarchs, metropolitans, &-c., were introduced into the Church by Satan." For which he was summoned before the vice-chancellor and heads of colleges, and refusing to recant, was expell- ed the university. Charke wrote a handsome Latin apology to Lord Burleigh, their present chancellor, in which he confesses that it was his opinion that the Church of England might be brought nearer to the apostolic character or likeness ; but that this must not be said either in the pulpit or desk, under the severest penal- ties. The chancellor, knowing him to be a good scholar, and in consideration that he had been hardly dealt with, interceded for him, but to no purpose. Mr. Browning, Mr. Deering, and oth- ers, met with the like usage. Mr. Deering was a man of good learning, and made a chief figure in the university ; he was also reader at St. Paul's, London, and a most popular preacher ; but being an enemy to the superior order of bishops, he fell into the hands of the commis- sioners, and was silenced. The Puritans finding it in vain to hope for a reformation from the queen or bishops, resolved for the future to apply to Parliament, and stand by the Constitution ; for this purpose they made interest among the members, and compiled a treitise, setting forth their chief grievances in one view ; it was drawn up by the Reverend Mr. Field, minister of Aldermary, London, as- sisted by Mr. Wilcox, and was revised by sev- eral of the brethren. It was entitled. An Ad- monition to the Parliament ; with Beza's letter to tie Earl of Leicester, and Gualter's to Bish- op farkhurst for reformation of church disci- pline, annexed. It contains the platform of a chureh ; the manner of electing ministers ; their seveial duties, and their equality in government. It then exposes the corruptions of the hierarchy, and tie proceedings of the bishops, with some severty of language. When Mr. Pearson, the archb^hop's chaplain, taxed the authors with this i\ prison, Mr. Field replied, " This con- cerns me ; the Scriptures of the Old and New Testanent use such vehemency ; we have used gentle words too long, which have done no good ; the wound grows desperate, and wants a corraive ; it is no time to blanch or sew pil- lars unler men's elbows, but God knoweth we meant b touch no man's person, but their pla- ces and abuses." The admonition concludes * StrVpe's Annals, p. 187. Vol. 1— Q with a petition to the houses that a discipline more consonant to the Word of God, and agree- ing with the foreign Reformed churches, may be established by law. The authors themselves, viz., the Reverend Mr. Field and Wilcox, pre- sented it to the house, for which they were sent for into custody, and by the influence of the bish- ops committed to Newgate, October 2, 1572.* Upon this, the book already printed was suflered to go abroad, and had three or four editions within the compass of two years, notwithstand- ing all the endeavours of the bishops to find out the press. t The imprisonment of the two ministers oc- casioned the drawing up a Second Admonition, by Mr. Cartwright,t lately returned from be- yond sea, with an humble petition to the two houses for relief against the subscription requi- red by the ecclesiastical commissioners, which they represent had no foundation in law, but was an act of sovereignty in the crown, and was against the peace of their consciences,, many having lost their places and livings for not complying ; they therefore beseech their honours to take a view of the causes of their non-subscribing, that it might appear they were not disobedient to the Church of God, or to their sovereign ; and they most humbly entreat for the removal and abolishing of such corrup- tions and abuses in the Church as withheld their compliance. "The matters," say they, " contained in the Admonition, how true soever they be, have found small favour ; the persons that are thought to have made it are laid up m no worse prison than Newgate ; the men that set upon them are no worse than bishops ; the name that goeth of them is no better than reb- els ; and great words there are that their dan- ger will yet prove greater. Well, whatsoever is said or done against them, that is not the matter; but the equity of the cause, that is the matter ; and yet this we will say, that the state showeth not itself upright if it suffers them to be molested for that which was spoken only by way of admonition to the Parliament, which was to consider of it and receive or reject it, without farther matter to the authors, except it contained some wilful maintenance of treason or rebellion, which it cannot be proved todo."iJ Two other pamphlets were published on this occasion, one entitled " An Exhortation to the Bishops to deal brotherly with their Brethren." The other, "An Exhortation to the Bishops and Clergy to answer a httle Book that was published last Parliament ; and an Exhortation to other Brethren to judge of it by God's Word, till they saw it answered." The prisoners themselves drew up an elegant Latin apology to the lord-treasurer, Burleigh, in which they confess their writmg the Admo- nition, but that they attempted not to correct or change anything in the hierarchy of them- selves, but referred all to the Parliament, hoping by this means that all differences might be com- posed in a legal way, and the corruptions which * MS., p. 119, 135. t Life of Parker, p. 347. t He was at the head (observes Mr. Neal in his Review) of a new generation of Puritans, of warmer spn-its, who opened the controversy with the Church into other branches, and struck at some of the main principles of the hierarchy. — Ed. i) Pierce's Vindication, p. 85. 122 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. the most learned foreign divines con plained of might be removed, to the preventing a ny schism or separation in the Church.* Plowvwer, the treasurer had not courage to intermed lie with an affair which might embroil him wjth the queen, or, at least, with her ecclesiastical com- missioners, though it was well enough known he had a good will to the cause. But the com- missioners, not content with the severity of the law, sported themselves in an arbitrary man- ner with the miseries of their fellow-creatures ; detained them in prison beyond the time limited by the statute, as appears by their humble sup- plication to the Earl of Leicester, representing " that they had been condemned, according to the Act of Uniformity, to a year's imprisonment, which they had now suffered patiently in the common jail of Newgate, besides four months' close imprisonment before their conviction, which they apprehended to be contrary to law ; that by this means they and their poor wives and children were utterly impoverished ; their health very much impaired by the unwholesome savour of the place and the cold weather ; and that they were likely to suffer yet greater ex- tremities : they therefore humbly beseech his lordship, for the tender mercies of God, and in consideration of their poor wives and children, to be a means to the most honourable privy council, that they may be enlarged ; or, if that could not be obtained, that they might be con- lined in a more wholesome prison." They pre- ferred another petition of the same nature to the lords of the council ; and a third was sent in the names of their wives and children. They also wrote a confession of their faith, dated from Newgate, December 4, 1572, with a pref- ace, in which they complain of the reproaches and calumnies of their adversaries: because (say they) we would have bishops unlorded, ac- cording to God's Word, therefore it is said we seek the overthrow of civil magistrates ; be- cause we say all bishops and ministers are equal, and, therefore, may not exercise their sovereignty over one another, therefore they say, when they have brought this in among the bishops, we shall be for levelling the nobility of the land. Because we find fault with the regi- men of the Church as drawn from the pope, therefore they say we design the ruin of the state. Because we say the ministry must not be a bare reading ministry, but that every min- ister must be learned, able to preach, to refute gainsayers, to comfort, to rebuke, and to do all the duties of a shepherd, a watchman, and a steward, therefore they bear the world in hand that we condemn the reading of the Holy Scriptures in churches. Because we are afraid of joining with the Church in all her rites and ceremonies, therefore we are branded with the odious names of Donatists, Anabap- tists, .iErians, Arians, Hinckfeldians, Puritans," «&c.t The confession itself is orthodox, according to the doctrinal articles of the Church of Eng- land, and must give a general satisfaction to them who read it ; it is written by the authors of the first admonition to the Parliament, to testify their persuasion in the faith, against, the uncharitable surmises of Dr. Whitgift, uttered in his answer to their Admonition, in defence * Strype's Ann., vol. ii., p. 186. f MS., p. 120. both of them&vlves and their fautors, and is subscribed Joha.'xnes Fieldus.f * I have the whois before me, but shall only tran- scribe a few passages relating to the present contro- versy. " We hold and believe that we ought to keep invi- olabiy that kind of government that is left us in the Gospel. That the office of a pastor is to preach the Word and administer the sacraments, and, therefore, that bare readers, or single sayers, are no more fit for pastors than women or children that can read well ; yet we deny not the reading of the Scriptures in all congregations, but this is not a part of the minister's office. " We think it unlawful to withdraw from the Church where the Word is truly preached, the sac- rament sincerely ministered, and true ecclesiastical discipline exercised. We are not for an unspotted Church on earth, and, therefore, though the Church of England has many faults, we would not willingly withdraw from it ; and yet we believe that God's chil- dren, when they are threatened with persecution, and the church doors are shut against them, may draw themselves into private assemblies, sejiarating from cursed idolatry and pestilent popery, though the laws of princes are against it ; and whosoever refuseth to be subject to these congregations sep- arating themselves, resisteth the ordinances of God. " We affirm that the Church of God is a company or congregation of the faithful, called and gathered out of the world by the preaching of the Gospel, uni- ted in the true faith, and resolving to form their lives, government, order, and ceremonies according to the Word of God. " We hold that there ought to be joined to the pastors of the Church, elders and deacons, for the bridling of vices and providing for the poor ; that no pastor ought to usurp dominion over another, nor any church exercise lordship or rule over another. " We believe that the pastor should be chosen by the congregation, and being chosen, should be con- firmed in his vocation by the elders, with public prayer and imposition of hands. " Concerning ceremonies, we hold that they ought to be few, and such as have no show of evil, but manifestly tend to decency and good order. We re- ject, therefore, all the popish ceremonies and apparel. We hold that churches may differ in order and care- monies, and yet keep the unity of the faith; and, therefore, we condemn not other Churches that have ceremonies different from ours. Concerning public worship, we hold that there ought to be places ap- pointed for this purpose, and that there may be a pre- script form of prayer and service in the known tongue, because all have not the gift of prayer, but we \''ould not have it patched out of the pope's portuises; but be the form of prayer never so good, we affirm that ministers may not think themselves discliarged when they have said it over, for they are not sent to say service, but to preach deliverance through Christ : preaching, therefore, mu not be thrust out of doors for reading. Neither oug the minister so to le tied to a prescript form that at all times he rrust be bound of necessity to use it ; for who can craw a form of prayer necessary for all times, and fit for all congregations ? We deny not but it is wdl that there be various manners of prayers, but we must take heed that they be not long and tedious ; where- fore preaching, as it is the chief part of a mnister's office, so all other things must give place to t. " Concerning singing of psalms, we allov of the people's joining with one voice in a plain fune, but not of tossing the psalms from one side to tie other, with the intermingling of organs. "Touching holydavs, we say that religim is tied to no time, nor is one day more holy than another; but because time must be had to hear the Word. of God, and to administer the holy sacrameits, there- fore we keep the Lord's Day as we are conmanded, but without all Jewish superstition. We-hink that those feast-days of Christ, as of his birti, circum- HISTORY OF THE PURITANS, 123 The authors of this confession lay in prison a considerable time, for though the inhabitants of Aldermary, London, presented two suppli- cations for the enlargement of their valuable pastor, and learned and faithful preacher, as they called Mr. Field, and though some great friends interceded for them, they could not ob- tain their release. The archbishop sent his chaplain to conifer with them in prison after they had been there three months, for which they were thankful. The conference began with a suitable prayer, which Mr. Field made, and was carried on with such decency as moved the chaplain's compassion ; but nothing would prevail with the inexorable commissioners to release them till they had suffered the extremity of the law, and paid their fees, though the keep- er gave it under his hand that they were so poor as not to have money to pay for their lodgings or victuals. To return to the Admonition, which consisted of twenty-three chapters, under the following titles : Chap. I. Whether Christ forbiddeth rule or su- periority to ministers. II. Of the authority of the Church in things indifferent. III. Of the election of ministers. IV. Of ministers havingno pastoral charge ; and of ceremonies used in ordering ministers. V. Of the residence of the pastors. VI. Of ministers that cannot preach, and of licenses to preach. VII. Of the apparel of ministers. VIII. Of archbishops, metropolitans, bish- ops, archdeacons, &c. IX. Of the communion-book. X. Ofholydays. XI. What kind of preaching is most effect- ual. XII. Of preaching before the administra- tion of the sacraments. XIII. Of reading the Scriptures. XIV. Of ministering and preaching by dea- cons. XV. Of matters touching the communion. XVI. Of matters touching baptism. cision, passover, resurrection, and ascension, &c., may by Christian liberty be kept, because they are only devoted to Christ, to whom all days and times belong. But days dedicated to saints, with fasts on their eves, we utterly dislike, though we approve of the reverend memory of the saints, as e.^camples to be propounded to the people in sermons ; and of pub- lic and private fasts, as the circumstances of nations or private persons require." The confession concludes with an article concern- ing the office of the civil magistrate : " We hold that Christians may bear offices ; that magistrates may put offenders to death lawfully ; that they may wage war, and require a lawful oath of the subject; that subjects are bound to obey all their just and lawful commands; to pray for them, to give them all honour ; to call them by their lawful titles ; and to be ready with their bodies and goods, lives, and all that they have, to serve them with bodily service ; yea, all these things we must do, though they be infidels, and obtain their dominion either by inherit- ance, by election, by conquest, or otherwise. On the other hand, it is the magistrates' duty to provide for the public peace and quiet of their subjects ; and to set forth Christ's pure religion, by advancing the preaching of the Gospel, and rooting out all super- stition and idolatry."— iWiS., p. 131. XVII. Of seniors, or government by elders. XVIII. Of certain matters concerning dis cipline of the Church. XIX. Of deacons and widows. XX. Of the authority of the civil magistratff in ecclesiastical matters. XXI. Of subscribing the communion-book. XXII. Of cathedral churches. XXIII. Of civil officers in ecclesiastical per sons. These were the chief heads of complaint ; which the Puritans having laid before the world, the bishops thought themselves obliged to an- swer. Dr. John Whitgift, master of Trinity College and vice-chancellor of Cambridge, was appointed to this work, which he performed with great labour and study, and dedicated it to the Church of England. His method was unex- ceptionable, the whole text of the Admonition being set down in paragraphs, and under each paragraph the doctor's answer.* Before it was printed, it was revised and corrected by Arch- bishop Parker, Dr. Cooper, bishop of Lincoln, and Pern, bishop of Ely ; so that in this book, says Mr. Strype, may be seen all the arguments for and against the hierarchy, drawn to the best advantage. Dr. Whitgift's book was answered by Mr. Cartwright, whose performance was called a master-piece in its kind, and had the approbation of great numbers in the University of Cam- bridge, as well as foreign divines. Whitgift re- plied again to Cartwright, and had the thanks of the bishops and the queen, who, as a reward for his excellent and learned pains, made him Dean of Lincoln ; while Cartwright, to avoid the rig- our of the commissioners, was forced to abscond in friends' houses, and at length retire into ban- ishment. But it was impossible for these divines to set- tle the controversy, because they were not agreed upon one and the same standard or rule of judg- ment. Mr. Cartwright maintained that " the Holy Scriptures were not only a standard of doctrine, but of discipline and government ; and that the Church of Christ, in all ages, was to be regulated by them." He was, therefore, for consulting his Bible only, and for reducing all things as near as possible to the apostolical standard. Dr. Whitgift went upon a different principle, and maintained " that, though the Holy Scriptures were a perfect rule of fait^, they were not designed as a standard of church discipline or government ; but that this was changeable, and might be accommodated to the civil government we live under ; that the apos- tolical government was adapted to the Church in its infancy, and under persecution, but was to be eidarged and altered as the Church grew to maturity, and had the civil magistrate on its side." The doctor, therefore, instead of redu- cing the external policy of the Church to Scrip- ture, takes into his standard the first four cen- turies after Christ ; and those customs that he can trace up thither, he thinks proper to be re- tained, because the Church was then in its mature state, and not yet under the power of antichrist. The reader will judge of these principles for himself One is ready to think that the nearer we can come to the apostolical practice the bet- ter, and the less our religion is encumbered with » Life of Whitgift, p.li 124 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. rites and ceremonies ol later invention, tlie more it must resemble the simplicity that is in Christ. If our blessed Saviour had designed that his worship should be set off with pomp and gran- deur, and a multitude of ceremonies, he would have told us so, and, it may be, have settled them, as was done for the Church of the Jews ; but nothing of this appearing, his followers should be cautious of inserting human com- mcindments or traditions into the religion of Christ, lest they cast a reflection upon his kingly office. The dispute between Whitgift and Cartwright was managed with some sharpness ; the latter thought he had reason to complain of the hard- ships himself and his brethren suffered ; and Whitgift having the government on his side, thought he stood upon higher ground, and might assume a superior air. When Cartwright and his friends pleaded for indulgence because they were brethren, the doctor replies, " What signi- fies their being brethren 1 Anabaptists, Arians, and other heretics, would be accounted brethren ; their haughty spirits will not suffer them to see their error ; they deserve as great punishment as papists, because both conspire against the Church. If they are shut up in Newgate, it is a meet reward for their disorderly doings ; for ignorance may not excuse libels against a pri- vate man, much less when they slander the whole Church." How would the doctor have liked this language in the mouth of a papist sixteen years before 1 But this has been the method of warm and zealous disputants ; the knots they cannot untie with their fingers, they would fain ciit asunder with the sword. Thus Dr. Whitgift routed his adversary ; he had already deprived him of his professor's chair, and of his degree of D.D.; and being now Vice- chancellor of Cambridge, he got him expelled from the University upon the following pretence : Mr. Cartwright, being senior fellow of his col- lege, was only in deacon's orders ; the doctor being informed of this, and that the statute re- quiring such to take upon them the order of priesthood might be interpreted to priests' or- ders, concluded he was perjured ;* upon which he summoned the heads of the colleges together, and declared that Mr. Cartwright had broken his oath, and, without any farther admonition, pushed his interest among the masters, to rid the college of a man whose popularity was too great for his ambition, insomuch that he declared he would not establish order in the University while a person of his principles was among them. After this, he wrote to the archbishop, September 21, 1572, and begged his grace to watch at court, that Cartwright might get no advantage against him, for (says he) he is flatly perjured, and it is God's just judgment that he should be so punished, for not being a full min- ister. A very mean and pitiful triumph ! The queen, also, and her commissioners, brandished their swords against Cartwright and his followers. Her majesty, by proclamation, called in the Admonition, commanding all her subjects who had any in their possession to bring them to the bishop of the diocess, and not to sell them, upon pain of imprisonment ; upon which Mr. Stroud, the publisher, brought in thirty-four, and his wife burned the rest that * Life of Whitgift, p. 46. were unsold. This Mr. Stroud was the suspend- ed minister of Cranbrook, an excellent preacher, and universally beloved ; but being reduced ta poverty, he was forced to condescend to the low offices of correcting the press, and of pub- lishing books for a livelihood.* When he ap- peared before the Bishop of London upon this occasion, his lordship reproached him for laying down the ministry, though Parker had actually deprived him, and forbid him to preach six years before. The bishops were no less careful to crush the- favourers of the Admonition; for when Mr. Wake, of Christ Church, had declared in favour of it, in a sermon at St. Paul's Cross, the Bishop of London sent for him next morning into custo- dy; but he made his escape. Mr. Crick, chap- lain to the Bishop of Norwich, having also com- mended the book in a sermon at the same place,, the archbishop sent a special messenger to ap- prehend him ; and though he escaped for the present, he afterward fell into the hands of the commissioners, and was deprived.! The like misfortune befell Dr. Aldrich, an eminent divine and dignitary of the Church, with many others ; notwithstanding which, Dr. Sandys, bishop of London, in his letter to the treasurer, calls for farther help : " The city," says he, " will never be quiet till these authors of sedition, who are now esteemed as gods, as Field, Wilcox, Cart- wright, and others, be far removed from the city ; the people resort to them, as in popery they were wont to run on pilgrimages ; if these idols, who are honoured as saints, were removed from hence, their honour would fall into the dust, and they would be taken for blocks, as they are. A sharp letter from her majesty would cut the courage of these men. Good my lords, for the love you bear to the Church of Christ, resist the tumultuous enterprises of these new-fangled fellows." These were the weapons with which the doctor's answer to the Admonition were en- forced ; so that we may fairly conclude, with Fuller the historian, " that if Cartwright had the better of his adversary in learning, Whitgift had more power to back his arguments ; and by this he not only kept the field, but gained the victory." On the other hand, it is certain vast numbers of the clergy, both in London and the two uni- versities, had a high opinion of Cartwright's writings ; he had many admirers, and, if we may believe his adversaries, wanted not for presents and gratuities : many hands were procured in approbation and commendation of his reply to Whitgift, and some said they would defend it to death. t In short, though Whitgift's writings might be of use to confirm those who had already conformed, they made no converts among the Puritans, hut rather confirmed them in their former sentiments. To pursue this controversy to the end : m the year 1573, Dr. Whitgift published his de- fence against Cartwright's reply,^ in which he states the difference between them thus : " The question is not whether many things mentioned in your platform of discipline were fitly used in the apostles' time, or may now be well used in sui.dry Reformed Churches; this is not denied; * MS., p. 195. + Life of Whitgift, p. 53. Life of Parker, p. 428. ' t Life of Parker, p. 427. 'hich early ensued! It v>fas in his power greatly to have diminished, if not entirely to have prevented them. But the rigidity of Parker's temper aggravated the wound he should have healed, and thus entailed on his successors the necessity of measures whose cru- elty has stamped them with indelible infamy. Mis- trusting the stability of his church, he was perpetu- ally alarmed for its safety, and unscrupulously em- ployed in its support every means which force or fraud could supply. The least deviation from the ordinary routine of religious services awakened his suspicions and fears. The simplest and most fervent piety failed to secure his complacency, unless it were clothed in the habiliments which authority had sanc- tioned, and expressed itself in language borrowed from the offices of his church. That men were ad- vancing in conformity to God, and in benevolence towards their species, failed to interest his mind, if the slightest taint of Puritanism were suspected, or the least irregularity in religious services were known. " Placed in a station of commanding influence, he prostituted his power to the support of the queen's prerogative and the maintenance of ecclesiastical uniformity. To this he sacrificed the higher purposes of his vocation, and set an example of servility in the state, and of despotism in the Church, which Whitgift, Bancroft, and Laud fatally imitated. He had refused submission to the pope, yet he claimed it from others, and enforced the demand with a hard- heartedness which penury and weeping iimocence could not move. Nor can it be justly pleaded in his defence that his course was shaped by the com- mands of the queen and her council. In a few in- stances this might have been the case, but in gen- eral it was otherwise. He was Elizabeth's princi- pal adviser in ecclesiastical afi'airs. She relied on his churchmanship, and found him ever ready to ex- ecute her severest edicts. He rarely, if ever, rnani- fested sorrow when employed as the minister of her wrath; though his joy knew no bounds when he HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 139 Fuller calls him a Parker indeed, careful to keep the fences and shut the gates of discipline against all such night- stealers as would invade the same ; and, indeed, this was his chief excellence. He was a considerable benefactor to Bene't Col- lege, the place of his education, where he or- dered his MS. papers to be deposited, which have been of considerable service to the writers of the English Reformation.* He died of the stone on the 17th of May, 1575, in the seventy- second year of his age, and was interred in Lambeth Chapel the 6th of June following, where his body rested till the end of the civil wars ; when Colonel Scot, having purchased that palace for a mansion-house, took down the monument, and buried the bones, says Mr. Strype.t in a stinking dunghill, where they re- mained till some years after the Restoration, when they were decently reposed near the place where the monument had stood, which was now again erected to his memory.J CHAPTER VI. FROM THE DEATH OF AKCHBISHOP PARKER TO THE DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP GRINDAL. Dr. Edmund Grindal, archbishop of York, succeeded Parker in the see of Canterbury, and was confirmed February 15, 1575-6. He was a divine of moderate principles, and moved no faster in courses of severity against the Puritans than his superiors obliged him, being a friend to their preachings and prophesyings. Sandys was translated from London to York, and Aylmer was advanced to the see of London. This last was one of the exiles, and had been a favourer of Puritanism ; for in his book against Knox, entitled " An Harbour of Faithful Subjects," he was sanctioned by her authority to execute the per- secuting code which he had mainly contributed to form. ' On the review of his whole behaviour,' says Mr. Hallam, 'he must be reckoned, and always has been reckoned, the most severe disciplinarian of Eliz- abeth's first hierarchy, though more violent men came afterward.' Yet it is due to the memory of Parker to observe, that the errors of his administra- tion, serious and criminal as they were, sprung natu- rally out of the system he represented. The Re- formed Church of England was unsound at heart. It had its origin in force ; it was shaped and moulded by human laws, and could only be maintained by the exercise of an authority unsanctioned by the Word of God. It was based on principles subversive of human rights, and could not fail its supporters in measures which reason condemns, and which revela- tion represents as destructive of those graces with which God seeks to embeUish the human soul. His name will be handed down to the latest posterity as a persecutor of the saints of God." — Dr. Price's Hist. Noiicor,/., vol. i., p. 291-3.— C. * It should be added, that literature was indebted to him for editions of our best ancient historians : Matthew of Westminster, Matthew Paris, Thomas Walsingham, and Asser's Life of King Alfred. It should also, says Mr. Granger, be remembered, to his honour, that he was the first founder of the So- ciety of Antiquaries in England. — Ed. t Life of Parker, p. 499. j As a balance to this, the bodies of nineteen or twenty Puritan divines were dug up in Westminster Abbey, and thrown into a pit in the yard : Dr. Trap, Mr. -Marshall, Mr. Strong, &c. See, in Strype, what a pompous funeral Parker had ordered for him- self.—Ed. declaims against the wealth and splendour of the bishops, and spdaks with vehemence against their lordly dignities and civil authority. In the convocation of 1562, when the question about the habits was debated, he withdrew, and would not be concerned in the affair ; but, upon his advancement to the episcopal order, he be- came a new convert, and a cruel persecutor of the Puritans. He was a little man, of a quick spirit, and of no extraordinary character. The Parliament being now sitting, a bill was brought into the House of Lords to mulct such as did not come to church and receive the sacrament, with the payment of certain sums of money, but it was thought proper to drop it for the present. The convocation was busy in framing articles touching the admitting able and fit persons to the ministry, and establishing good order in the Church.* Thirteen of them were published with the queen's license, thouglj they had not the broad seal ; but the other two, for marrying at aU times of the year, and for private baptism by a lawful minister, in cases of necessity, her majesty would not countenance. One of the articles makes void all licenses for preaching, dated before the 8th of February, 1575, but pro- vides that such as should be thought meet for that office should be readmitted without difficulty or charge. This had been practised once and again in Parker's time, ahd was now renewed, that by disqualifying the whole body of the clergy, they might clear the Church of all the Nonconformists at once ; and if all the bishops had been equally severe in renewing their li- censes, the Church would have been destitute of all preaching:, for the body of the conforming clergy were so ignorant and illiterate that many who had cure of souls were incapable of preach- ing, or even of reading to the edification of the hearers ; being obliged by law only to read the service ^nd administer the sacrament in person once in half a year, on forfeiture of five pounds to the poor. The Nonconformist ministers, under the character of curates or lecturers, supplied the defects of these idle drones for a small recom- pense from the incumbent and the voluntary contribution of the parish, and by their warm and affi3Ctionate preaching gained the hearts ot the people ; they resided upon their curacies, and went from house to house visiting their parishioners and instructing their children ; they also inspected their lives and manners, and, according to the apostolical direction, re- proved, rebuked, and exhorted them with all long-suffering and doctrine, as long as they could keep their licenses. Thus most of the Puritan ministers remained as yet within the Church, and their followers attended upon the Word and sacraments in such places where there were sober and orthodox preachers. But still they continued their associations and private assemblies for recovering the dis- cipline of the Church to a more primitive stand- ard ; this was a grievance to the queen and court bishops, who were determined against all innovations of this kind. Strange, that men should confess in their public service every first day of Lent, " that there was a godly dis- ciphne in the primitive Church ; that this dis- * Strype's Life of Grindal, p. 194. 140 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. cipline is not exercised at present in the Church of England, but that it is much to be wished that it were restored," and yet never attempt to restore it, but set themselves with violence and oppression to crush all endeavours that way ! For the reader will observe that this was one chief occasion of the sufferings of the Puritans in the following part of this reign. Some of the ministers of Northampton and Warwickshire, in one of their associated meet- ings, agreed upon certain rules of discipline in their several parishes, but, as soon as they be- gan to practice them, the court took the alarm, and sent letters to the new archbishop to sup- press them.* His grace accordingly sent to the bishops of these diocesses to see things reduced to their former channel, and, if need were, to send for assistance from himself or the ecclesiastical commissioners ; accordingly, Mr. Paget and Mr. Oxenbridge, the two heads of the association, were taken into custody and sent up to London. Some time after there was another assembly at Mr. Knewstub's church, at Cockfield in Suf- folk, where sixty clergymen of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire met together to confer of the Common Prayer Book, and come to some agreement as to what might be tolerated and what was necessary to be refused. They con- sulted also about apparel, holydays, fastings, injunctions, &c.t From thence they adjourned to Cambridge, at the time of the next com- mencement, and from thence to London, where they hoped to be concealed by the general re- sort of the people to Parliament ; in these as- semblies they came to the following conclu- sions, which were drawn up in an elegant Latin style by Mr. Cartwright and Travers, and given to the ministers for their direction in their sev- eral parishes. Concerning Ministers. " Let no man, though he be a university man, offer himself to the ministry ; nor let any man take upon him an uncertain and vague ministry, though it be offered unto him. " But such as are called by some church, let him impart it to the classis or conference of which they are members, or to some greater church assemblies ; and if the called be ap- proved, let them be commended by letters to the bishop, that they may be ordained ministers by him. " Those ceremonies in the Book of Common Prayer which, being taken from popery, are in controversy, ought to be omitted, if it may be done without danger of being put from the min- istry ; but if there be imminent danger of being deprived, then let the matter be communicated to the classis in which that church is, to be de- termined by them. " If subscription to the articles and Book of Conunon Prayer shall be again urged, it is thought that the book of articles may be sub- scribed, according to the stat. 13 Eliz., that is, ' to sucli only as contain the sum of the Chris- tian faith and the doctrine of the sacraments.' But neither the Common Prayer Book nor the rest of the articles may be allowed ; no, though a man should be deprived of his ministry for re- fusing it. * Life of Grindal, p. 215. + Fuller, b. ix., p. 135. Concerning Church-wardens. " It seems that church- wardens and collectors for the poor may be thus turned into elders and deacons. " Let the Church have warning of the time of election, and of the ordinance of the realm, fif- teen days beforehand ; but especially of Christ's ordinance, touching appointing of watchmen and overseers in his Church, who are to take care that no offence or scandal arise in the Church ; and if any such happen, that it be duly abol- ished. Of Collectors for the Poor, or Deacons. " Touching deacons of both sorts, viz., men and women, the Church shall be admonished what is required by the apostle ; and that they are not to choose men of custom or course, or for their riches, but for their faith, zeal, and in- tegi-ity ; and that the Church is to pray, in the mean time, to be so directed that they may choose them that are meet. " Let the names of those that are thus chosen be published by the next Lord's Day, and after that, their duties to the Church and the Church's duty towards them ; then let them be received into their office with the general prayers of the whole Church. Of Classes. " The brethren are to be requested to ordam a distribution of all the churches, according to the rules set down in the synodical discipline, touching classical, provincial, comitial, and as- semblies for the whole kingdom. " The classes are to be required to keep acts of memorable matters, and to deliver them to the comitial assembly, and from thence to the provincial assembly. " They are to deal earnestly with patrons, to present fit men whensoever any Church falls void in their classis. " The comitial assemblies are to be admon- ished to make collections for the relief of the poor, and of scholars, but especially for the re- lief of such ministers as are deprived for not subscribing the articles tendered by the bishops ; also for the relief of Scots ministers, and others ; and for other profitable and necessary uses. " Provincial synods must continually foresee in due time to appoint the keeping of their next provincial synods ; and for the sending of chosen persons with certain instructions to the national synod, to be holden whensoever the Parliament for the kingdom shall be called, at some certain time every year." The design of these conclusions was to intro- duce a reformation into the Church without a separation. The chief debate in their assem- blies was, how far this or the other conclusion might consist with the peace of the Church, and be moulded into a consistency with episco- pacy. They ordained no ministers ; and, though they maintained the choice of the people to be the essential call to the pastoral charge, yet most of them admitted of ordination and induc- tion by the bishop only, as the officer appointed by law, that the minister might bo enabled to demand his legal dues from the parish. In the room of that pacific prelate, Parkhurst, bishop of Norwich, the queen non^inated Dr. Freke, a divine of a quite different spirit, vvho, HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 141 in his primary visitation made, sad havoc among the Puritan ministers. Among others that were suspended in that diocess were Mr. John More, Mr. Richard Crick, Mr. George Leeds, Mr. Thom- as Roberts, and Mr. Richard Dowe, all minis- ters in or near the city of Norwich ; they ad- dressed the queen and council for relief, but were told that her majesty was fully bent to re- move all those that would not be persuaded to conform to established orders. The Reverend Mr. Gawton, minister of Goring in the same diocess, being charged with not wearing the surplice, nor observing the order of the queen's book, he confessed the former, but said that in other things he was conformable, though he did not keep exactly to the rubric* When the bishop charged him with holding divers errors, he answered, " We are here not above half a dozen unconformable ministers in this city [Nor- wich] ; and if you will confer with us by learn- ing, we will yield up our very lives if we are not able to prove the doctrines we hold to be consonant to the Word of God." After his sus- pension he sent his lordship a bold letter, in which he maintained that Christ was the only lawgiver in his Church. " If any king or prince in the world ordain or allow other officers than Christ has allowed, we will," says he, " rather lay down our necks on the block than consent thereunto ; wherefore do not object to us so often the name of our prince, for you use it as a cloak to cover your cursed enterprises. Have you not thrust out those who preached the lively Word faithfully and sincerely ! Have you not plucked out those preachers where God set them in 1 And do you think that this plea will excuse you before the high Judge, ' I did but execute the law!' " Mr. Harvey, another minister of the same city, was cited before the bishop. May 13th, for preaching against the hierarchy of bishops and their ecclesiastical officers ; and at a court held at St. George's Church he was suspended from his ministry, with Mr. Vincent Goodwin and John Mapes. Mr. Rockrey, B.D. of Queen's College, Cam- bridge, a person of great learning and merit, was expelled the university for nonconformity to the habits. t Lord Burleigh, the chancellor, got him restored and dispensed with for a year, at the end of which the master of his college admonished him three times to conform him- self to the custom of the university in the hab- its, which he refusing, was finally discharged, as an example to keep others to their duty. About the same time, Mr. Richard Greenham, minister of Drayton, was suspended,! a man of a most- excellent spirit, who, though he would not subscribe or conform to the habits, avoided speaking of them, that he might not give offence ; and whoever reads his letter to Cox, bishop of Ely, will wonder what sort of men they must be who could bear hard on so peaceable a di- vine. Some time before the death of Archbishop Parker, Mr. Stroud, the suspended minister of Cranbrook, returned to his parish church ; but being represented to the present archbishop as a disturber of the peace, he was forbid to con- tinue his accustomed exercises in the Church, * MS., p. 253. Strype's Annals, p. 448. + MS., p. 285. t Pierce's Vindication, p. 97. and commanded to leave the country ; but the good man was so universally beloved that the whole county of Kent almost signed petitions to the archbishop for his continuance among them. " We know, most reverend father," say they, " that Mr. Stroud has been several times beaten and whipped with the untrue reports of slander- ous tongues, and accused of crimes whereof he has most clearly acquitted himself to the satis- faction of others. Every one of us, for the most part, most gracious lord, hath heard him preach Christ truly, and rebuke sin boldly, and hath seen him hitherto apply to his calling faith- fully, and live among us peaceably ; so that not only by his diligent doctrine our youth has been informed, and ourselves confirmed in true reli- gion and learning, but also by his honest con- versation and example we are daily allured to a Christian life, and the exercises of charity ; and no one of us, reverend father, hath hitherto heard from his own mouth, or by credible rela- tion from others, that he has publicly in his sermons, or privately in conversation, taught unsound doctrine, or opposed the discipline, about which great controversy, alas ! is now maintained ; yea, he has given faithful promise to forbear the handling any questions concern- ing the policy of the Church, and we think in our consciences he has hitherto performed it. In consideration whereof, and that our country may not be deprived of so diligent a labourer in the Lord's harvest ; nor that the enemies of God's truth, the papists, may find matter of joy and comfort ; nor thd man himself, in receiving a kind of condemnation without examination, be thus wounded at the heart and discouraged : we most humbly beseech your grace, for the poor man's sake, for your own sake, and the Lord's sake, either to take judicial knowledge of his cause, to the end he may be confronted with his adversaries ; or else, of your great wisdom and goodness, to restore him to his lib- erty, of preaching the Gospel among us. And we, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c." This petition was signed by nineteen or twen- ty hands ; another was signed by twenty-four ministers ; and a third by George Ely, vicar of Tenderden, and twenty-one parishioners ; Thom- as Bathurst, Sen., minister of Staplehurst, and nine parishioners ; William Walter, of Fritten- den, and fourteen of his parishioners ; Antony Francis, minister of Lamberhurst, and four pa- rishioners ; Alexander Love, minister of Rolen- den, and eighteen parishioners; Christopher Vinebrook, minister of Helcorne, and nine pa- rishioners ; William Vicar, of Tysherst, and ten parishioners ; Matthew Wolton, curate of Ben- eden, and eleven parishioners ; William Cocks, minister of Marden, and thirteen parishioners ; William Hopkinson, minister of Saleherst, and eight parishioners.* Such a reputation had this good man among all who had any taste for true piety and zeal for the Protestant religion! He was a peacea- ble divine, and by the threatening of Aylmer, bishop of London, had been prevailed with to subscribe with some reserve, for the support of a starvmg family ; and yet he was continually molested and vexed in the spiritual courts. Two eminent divines of Puritan principles " * MS., p. 196. ^ 142 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. died this year : one was James Pilkington, B.D., and Bishop of Durham ; he was descended from a considerable family near Bolton in Lanca- shire, and was educated in St. John's College, Cambridge, of which he was master. In the reign of Queen Mary he was an exile, and con- fessor for the Gospel ; upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth he was nominated to the See of Durham, being esteemed a learned man and a profound divine ; but could hardly be prevail- ed with to accept it on account of the habits, to "Which he expressed a very great dislike ; he was always a very great friend and favourer of the Nonconformists, as appears by his letters, and a truly pious and Christian bishop.* He died in peace at his house. Bishop's Auckland, January 23, 1575-6, in the sixty-fifth year of his age ; Dr. Humphreys, and Mr. Fox the martyrologist, adorning his tomb with their fu- neral verses. The other was Mr. Edward Deering, a Non- conformist divine, of whom mention has been made already ; he was born of an ancient and worthy family in Kent, and bred fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge ; a pious and pain- ful preacher, says Fuller, t but disaffected to bishops and ceremonies ; he was a learned man and a fine orator, but in one of his sermons be- fore the queen he took the liberty to say, that when her majesty was under persecution her motto was Tanquam ovis ; but now it might be, Tanquam indomila juvenca, as an untamed heif- cr.J For which he was forbid preaching at court for the future, and lost all his preferments in the Church. ij Archbishop Grindal had endeavoured to regu- late the prophesyings, and cover them from the objections of the court, by enjoining the minis- ters to observe decency and order, by for- bidding them to meddle with politics and church government, and by prohibiting all Noncon- formist ministers and laymen from being speak- ers. The other bishops, also, in their several diocesses, published [in 1577] the following regulations : That the exercises should be only in such churches as the bishop, under his hand and seal, should appoint. That the archdeacon, or some other grave divine appointed and allowed by the bishop, should be moderator. That a list of the names of those that are thought fit to be speakers in course be made and allowed of by the bishop ; and the bishop to appoint such part of Scripture they shall treat of. That those ministers that are judged not fit to speak pubUcly be assigned some other task by the moderator, for the increase of their learn- ing- * Ath. Ox., i., 590. t Fuller, b. ix., p. 109. t Life of Parker, p. 380. <) Strype, in his Life of Parker, says that Deering was disliked of the bishops, because he would tell them of their swearing and covetousness, yet, he adds, that he was given to tell lies. This looks like slander. Dr. Sampson, who knew him well, gives him an exalted character as a man and a Christian, and Granger, in his Biographical History, vol. i., p. 215, observes, " The happy death of this truly religious man was suitable to the purity and integrity of his life." — See Brook's Lives of the Parilans, vol. i., p. 193-211. Strype's Parker, p. 381-420.— C. Ante omnia, that no lay-person be admitted to speak publicly in the exercises. That if any man glance at affairs of state, the moderator shall immediately silence him, and give notice to the bishop. If any man inveighs against the laws con- cerning rites and ceremonies, and discipline es- tablished, he shall immediately be silenced, and not be admitted to speak any more till he has given satisfaction to the auditory, and obtained a new admission and approbation of the bishop. And No suspended or deprived ministers shall be suffered to be speakers, except they shall first conform to the public order and discipline of the Church, by subscription and daily practice. But the queen was resolved to suppress them ; and having sent for the archbishop, told him she was informed that the rites and ceremonies of the Church were not duly observed in these prophesyings ; that persons not lawfully called to be ministers exercised in them ; that the as- semblies themselves were illegal, not being al- lowed by public authority ; that the laity neg- lected their secular affairs by repairing to these meetings, which filled their heads with notions, and might occasion disputes and seditions in the state ; that it was good for the Church to have but few preachers, three or four in a county being sufficient.* She farther declared her dis- like of the number of these exercises, and there- fore commanded~him peremptorily to put them down. Letters of this tenour were sent to all the bishops in England, t * MS., p. 203. t The copy of her majesty's letter to the Bishop of London, with his lordship's order thereupon, being before me, 1 shall impart it to the reader. " Salutem in Christo. " Having received from the queen's majesty letters of strait commandment touching the reformation of certain disorders and innovations within my diocese, the tenour whereof I have inserted, as followeth : '"ELIZABETH. " ' Right Reverend Father in God, '■ ' We greet you well. We hear, to our great grief, that in sundry parts of our realm there are no small number of persons presuming to be preachers and teachers in the Church, though neither lawfully thereunto called, nor yet meet for the same ; who, contrary to our laws established for the public Di- vine service of Almighty God, and the administration of his holy sacraments within this Church of Eng- land, do daily devise, imagine, propound, and put in execution, sundry new rites and forms in the Church, as well by the inordinate preaching, reading, and ministering the sacraments, as by unlawfully pro- curing of assemblies, and great numbers of our peo- ple, out of their ordinary parishes, and from places far distant; and that also of some of our subjects of good .callings (though therein not well advised[), to be hearers of their disputations and new-devised opin- ions upon points of divinity, far unmeet for vulgar people; which manner of ministrations they in some places term prophesyings, and in some other places exerci-ses ; by means of which assemblies, great num- bers of our people, especially of the vulgar sort (meet to be otherwise occupied with some honest labour for their living), are brought to idleness, seduced, and in manners schismatically divided among themselves into variety of dangerous opinions, not only in towns and parishes, but even some families are manifestly thereby encouraged to the violation of our laws, and to the breach of common orders, and not smally to the offence of all our quiet subjects, that desire to live and serve God according to the uniform order? f HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 143 Most of the bishops complied readily with the queen's letter, and put down the prophesyings ; but some did it with reluctance, and purely in obedience to the royal command, as appears by the following letter of the Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry to his archdeacon : " Salutem in Chrislo. "Whereas the queen has been informed of some matters handled and abused in the exer- cise at Coventry, and thereupon hath written to me a strait charge to inhibit the said exercise ; these are therefore to will and require you, and, nevertheless, in her majesty's -name to charge you, to forbear and stay yourselves from that estabhshed in the Church, whereby these [exercises] cannot but be dangerous to be sutiered. Wherefore, considering it should be the duty of bishops, being the principal ordinary officers in the Church of God (as you are one), to see these disorders against the honour of God and the quietness of the Church re- formed, and that by the increase of these, through sufferance, great danger may arise, even to the de- crease of Christian faith, whereof we are by God ap- pointed the defender ; besides the other inconvenien- ces, to the disturbance of our peaceable government. " ' We, therefore, according to the authority which we have, do charge and command you, as bishop ot that diocess, with all manner of diligence to take order throughout your diocess, as well in all places exempt or otherwise, that no manner of public or Divme ser- vice, nor other form of ministration of the holy sacra- ments, or any other rites and ceremonies, be in any sort used intheChurch, but directly according to the order established by our laws : neither that any manner of person be suffered in your diocess to teach, preach, read, or exercise, any function in the Church but such as shall be lawfully approved and licensed, as persons able by their knowledge, and conformable to the ministrations in the rites and ceremonies of this Church of England. And where there shall not be sufficient able persons for learning in any cure to preach and instruct their cures as are requisite, then shall you limit the curates to read the public homi- lies, according to the injunctions heretofore by us given for like cause. " ' And furthermore, considering the great abuses that have been in sundry places of our realm, by rea- son of the aforesaid assemblies called exercises ; and for that these are not, nor have been appointed or warranted by us or our laws, we will and straightly charge you that you do cause the same forthwith to cease, and not to be used ; but if any shall attempt to continue or renew the same, we will you not only to commit them to prison, as maintainers of disor- ders, but also to advertise us or our council of the names and qualities of them, and of their maintain- ers and abettors ; that thereupon, for better example, their punishment may be made more sharp, for their reformation. And in these things we charge you to be so careful and vigilant, as by your negligence (if we shall hear of any person attempting to otiend in the premises without your correction or information to us), we be not forced to make some example in reforming of you according to your deserts. Given under our signet, at our manor of Greenwich, the 7th of May, 1577, and in the nineteenth year of our reign." —MS., p. 283. " Therefore I will and straightly charge you, in her majesty's name, that, immediately upon the re- ceipt hereof, you do diligently and carefully put in execution, in every point, all such things as therein be contained, throughout and in every place within your whole archdeaconry ; so that at my visitation, which, God willing, shall be shortly, sufficieut ac- count may be given of that your doing and diligence in that behalf accordingly. Fail you not so to do, as you will answer the contrary, at your peril. " Your loving brother, " John London." exercise till it shall please God we may either by earnest prayer or humble petition obtain the full use thereof, with her good pleasure and full authority ; and, in the mean time, so to use the heavenly and most comfortable gift of preach- ing, that you may seek and set forth Jesus Christ and his kingdom without contempt and controhnent of the state and laws, under which we ought to live in unity and peace ; which I beseech God grant unto you and me, and all that look for the coming of our Saviour Christ, to whose direction I commit you, this 18th of June, 1577.* " Your loving friend and brother in Christ, " Thomas Gov, and Litchp. " To my very loving friend and brother ia Christ, Thomas Lever, archdeacon of Gov., or, in his absence, to the censors of the ex- ercise there." But our archbishop could not go this length ; he who had complied with all the queen's in- junctions, and with the severities of the eccle- siastical commissioners against the Puritans hitherto, is now distressed in conscience, and constrained to disobey the commands of his royal mistress in an affair of much less conse- quence than others he had formerly complied with. Instead, therefore, of giving directions to his archdeacons to execute the queen's com- mands, he writes a long and earnest letter to her majesty, dated December 10, 1576, to inform her of the necessity and usefulness of preach- ing, and of the subserviency of the exercises to this purpose : " With regard to preaching, nothing is more evident from Scripture," says his grace, " than that it WHS a great blessing to have the Gospel preached, and to have plenty of labourers sent into the Lord's harvest. That this was the or- dinary means of salvation, and that hereby men were taught their duty to God and their civil governors. That, though reading the hom- ilies was good, yet it was not comparable to preaching, which might be suited to the diver- sity of times, places, and hearers, and be de- livered with more efficacy and affection. That homilies were devised only to supply the want of preachers, and were, by the statute of King Edward VI., to give place to sermons whenso- ever they might be had. He hoped, therefore, her majesty would not discountenance an ordi- nance so useful, and of Divine appointment. " For the second point, concerning the exer- cises, he apprehended them profitable to the Church ; and it was not his judgment only, but that of most of the bishops, as London, Winton, Bath and Wells, Litchfield, Gloucester, Lincoln, Chichester, Exon, and St, David's, who had signified to him by letter, that by means of these exercises the clergy were now better versed in the Scripture than heretofore ; that they had made them studious and diligent -. and that no- thing had beat down popery like them. He af- firms that they are legal, forasmuch as, by the canons and constitutions of the Church now in force, every bishop has authority to appoint such exercises, for inferior ministers to increase their knowledge in the Scriptures, as to him shall seem most expedient. "t Towards the close of this letter his grace declares himself * MS., p. 234. t Ibid., p. 245. 144 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. -willing to resign his province, if it should be her majesty's pleasure, and then makes these two requests : "(1.) That your majesty would refer ecclesiastical matters to the bishops and divines of the realm, according to the practice of the first Christian emperors. And (2.) That when your majesty deals in matters of faith and reli- gion, you would not pronounce so peremptorily as you may do in civil matters ; but remember that in God's cause, his will, and not the will of any earthly creature, is to take place. It is the antichristian voice of the pope, ' Sic volo sic jubeo, stet pro ratione voluntas.' " He then puts her in mind that, though she was a great and mighty princess, she was nevertheless a mortal creature, and accountable to God ; and concludes with a declaration, that whereas be- fore there were not three able preachers, now there were thirty fit to preach at Paul's Cross, forty or fifty besides able to instruct their own cures. That therefore he could not, without offence of the majesty of God, send out injunc- tions for suppressing the exercises. The queen was so inflamed with this letter, that she determined to make an example of the honest archbishop, as a terror to the whole bench : she would not suffer her commands to be disputed by the primate of all England, but by an order from the Star Chamber confined him immediately to his house, and sequestered him from his archiepiscopal function for six months. This was a high display of the supremacy, when the head of the Church, being a woman, with- out consulting the bishops or any of the clergy in convocation assembled, shall pronounce so peremptorily in a matter purely respecting reli- gion ; and for noncompliance tie up the hands of her archbishop, who is the first mover under the prince in all ecclesiastical affairs. Before the expiration of the six months, which was in December, Grindal was advised to make his submission, which he did so far as to ac- knowledge the queen's mildness and gentleness in his restraint, and to promise obedience for the future ; but he could not be persuaded to retract his opinion, and confess his sorrow for what was past ; there was, therefore, some talk of depriving him, which being thought too se- vere, his sequestration was still continued till about a year before his death ; however, his grace never recovered the queen's favour. Thus ended the prophesyings, or religious exercises of the clergy, a useful institution for promoting Christian knowledge and piety, at a time when both were at a very low ebb in the nation. The queen put them down for no other reason but chiefly because they enlightened the people's minds in the Scriptures, and encouraged their inquiries after truth ; "her majesty being always of opinion that knowledge and learning in the laity would only endanger their peaceable sub- mission to her absolute will and pleasure. This year put an end to the life of that emi- nent divine, Mr. Thomas Lever, a great favour- ite of Queen Elizabeth till he refused the habits. He was Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, in the reign of King Edward VI., and was reck- oned one of the most eloquent preachers in those times. He had a true zeal for the Protestant religion, and v/as an exile for it all the reign of Queen Mary. Upon Queen Elizabeth's accession he might have had the highest preferment in the Church, but could not accept it upon the terms of subscription and wearing the habits ; he was therefore suspended by the ecclesiastical com- missioners ; till his great name and singular merit, reflecting an odium upon those who had deprived the Church of his labours, and exposed him a second time to poverty and want after his exile, he was at length dispensed with, and made Archdeacon of Coe, and master of Sher- burne Hospital, near Durham, where he spent the remainder of his days in great reputation and usefulness. He was a resolute Nonconform- ist, and wrote letters to encourage the deprived ministers to stand by their principles, and wait patiently for a farther reformation. He was buried in the chapel of his own hospital, hav- ing this plain inscription on a flat marble stone over his grave : '• Thomas Lever, preacher to King Edward VI." Had he lived a little longer he had been persecuted by the new bishop, as his brother Whittingham was ; but God took him away from the evil to come. He died in July, 1577, and was succeeded in the hospital by his brother Ralph Lever.* Mr. Cartwright, upon his return from the Isle of Guernsey, was chosen preacher to one of the English factories at Antwerp : these factories submitted to the discipline of the Dutch Church- es among whom they lived, and their ministers became members of their consistories. While Cartwright was here, many of the English, who were not satisfied with the terms of conformity, or the English manner of giving orders, went over thither, and were ordained by the presby- ters of those churches ; nay, some who had re- ceived deacons' orders in the Church of Eng- land chose to be made full ministers by the for- eign consistories ; among these were Mr. Cart- vn-ight, Tenner, Ashton, and Travers.t Trav- ers was bachelor of divinity in the University of Cambridge before he left England, and was ordained at Antwerp, May 14, 1578. The copy of his testimonials! is to this effect : " Forasmuch as it is just and reasonable that such as are received into the number of the ministers of God's Word should have a testimo- nial of their vocation, we declare that, having called together a synod of twelve ministers of God's Word, and almost the same number of elders, at Antwerp, on May 8th, 1578, our very learned, pious, and excellent brother, the Rev. Dr. Gualter Travers was, by the unanimous votes and ardent desires of all present, received and instituted into the ministry of God's Holy Word, and confirmed according to our accustomed manner, with prayer and imposition of hands ; and the next day after the Sabbath having preached before a full congregation of English, at the request of the ministers, he was acknowl- * Fuller says that " whatever preferments in the Church he pleased courted his acceptance." — Wor thies, part ii., p. 284. Strype denominates him "a man of distinguished eminence for piety, learninj?, and preaching the Gospel." — Sirype's Parker, p. 211. He was the intimate friend of Bernard Gilpin. His spirit as a genuine Reformer rested upon his poster- ity, and I find Henry Lever, his grandson, and Rob- ert Lever, his great-grandson, were among the ejected ministers in 1662. His writings are very valuable, but exceedingly scarce. They are chiefly sermons, and a commentary on the Lord's Prayer. — C. t Strype's Ann., vol. ii., p. 524. t FuUer, b. ix., p. 214. Sn.iyiiveJ hr Giniher ftvn- ,m. L'lwmal. f'Mite^ it ? K £. y -i^ J D >J M 0 V/ £ 'M , D.D . HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. i45 edged and received most affectionately by the whole Church. That Almighty God would pros- per the ministry of this our reverend brother among the English, and attend it with great suc- cess, is our most earnest prayer, through Jesus Christ. Amen. "Given at Antwerp, May 14, 1578, and signed "Joannes Taffinus, V.D.M., " LoGELERIDS ViLERIUS, V.D.M., "Joannes Hocheleus, V.D.M." Pilkington, late bishop of Durham, was suc- ceeded by Dr. Barnes, bishop of Carlisle, a prel- ate of severer principles than his predecessor ; "Who, having in vain attempted to reduce the clergy of his diocess to an absolute conformity, complained to his metropolitan of the lax gov- ernment of his predecessor, and of the numbers of Nonconformists whom he could not reduce to the established orders of the Church. Upon this, Sandys, the new archbishop of York, resolved to visit his whole province, and to begin with Dur- ham, where Dean Whittingham was the principal man under the bishop ; he was a divine of great learning, and of long standing in the Church, but jiot ordained according to the form of the Eng- lish service-book. The accusation against him "was branched out into thirty-five articles and forty-nine interrogatories, the chief whereof was his Geneva ordination.* .The dean, instead of answering the charge, stood by the rights of the Church of Durham, and denied the archbishop's power of visitation, upon which his grace was pleased to excommunicate him ; but Whitting- ham appealed to the queen, who directed a commission to the archbishop, to the lord-presi- dent of the council in the north, and to the Dean of York, to hear and determine the valid- ity of his ordination, and to inquire into the other misdemeanors contained in the articles. The president of the north was a favourer of the Puritans, and Dr. Hutton, dean of York, was of Whittingham's principles, and boldly averred " that the dean was ordained in a better sort than even the archbishop himself;" so that the commission came to nothing. But Sandys, vex- ed at the disappointment, and at the calling in question his right of visitation, obtained another commission directed to himself, the Bishop of Durham, the lord-president, the chancellor of the diocess, and some others whom he could depend upon, to visit the Church of Durham. The chief design was to deprive Whittingham as a layman ; when the dean appeared before the commissioners, he produced a certificate un- der the hands of eight persons, for the manner of his ordination, in these words : " It pleased God, by the suffrages of the whole congregation [at Geneva], orderly to choose Mr. W. Whit- tingham unto the office of preaching the Word of God and ministering the sacraments ; and he was admitted minister, and so published, ■with such other ceremonies as here are used and accustomed."t It was objected, that here ■was no mention of a bishop or superintendent, nor of any external solemnities, nor so much as of imposition of hands. The dean replied, there ■was mention in general of the ceremonies of that church, and he was able to prove his vo- cation to be the same that all the ministers of Cfeneva had ; upon which the lord-president rose up and said that he could not, in con- science, agree to deprive him for that cause only ; for (says he) it will be ill taken by all the godly and learned, both at home and abroad, tiiat we should allow of the •popish massing priests in our ministry, and disallow of ministers made in a Reformed Church ; whereupon the commission was ad^oarned sine die. These proceedings of the archbishop against the dean were invidious, and lost him his esteem both in city and country. The calling his ordination in question was ex- pressly contrary to the statute 13 Eliz., by which, says Mr. Strype, the ordination of foreign Re- formed Churches was declared valid ; and those that had no other orders were made of like ca- pacity with others, to enjoy any place of minis- try within England. But the death of Mr. Whittingham, which happened about six months after, put an end to this and all his other troubles. He was born in the city of Chester, 1524, and educated in Bra- zennose College, Oxon ; he was afterward translated to Christ Church, when it was found- ed by King Henry VIII., being reckoned one of the best scholars in the university ; in the year 1550 he travelled into France, Germany, and Italy, and returned about the latter end of King Edward VI. In the reign of Queen Mary he was with the exiles at Frankfort, and upon the division there, went with part of the congre- gation to Geneva, and became their minister. He had a great share in translating the Geneva Bible, and. the Psalms in metre, as appears by the first letter of his name [W] over many of them. Upon his return home he was preferred to the deanery of Durham, 1563, by the interest of the Earl of Leicester, where he spent the re- mainder of his life. He did good service, says the Oxford historian,* against the popish rebels in the north, and in repelling the Archbishop of York from visiting the Church of Durham ; but he was at best but a lukewarm Conformist, an enemy to the habits, and a promoter of the Ge- neva doctrine and discipline. However, he was a truly pious and religious man, an excel- lent preacher, and an ornament to religion. He died while the cause of his deprivation, for not being ordained according to the rites of the English Church, was depending, June 10, 1579, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.t We have mentioned the Bishop of Norwich's severity in his primary visitation ; his lordship went on still in the same method, not without some marks of unfair designs ;t for the incum- bent of Sprowton being suspected to be of the Family of Love, his lordship deprived him, and immediately begged the living for his son-in- law, Mr. Maplesdon, who was already archdea- con of Suffolk.^ He showed no mercy '.o his suspended clergy, though they offered to sub- scribe as far as the laws of the realm required. At length they petitioned their metropolitan, Grindal, who, though in disgrace, licensed them to preach throughout the whole diocess of Nor- wich, durante bene placito, provided tdey did not preach against the established orders of the ♦ Strype's Annals, vol. ii., p. 481. t Ibid., p. 523. I Vol. I.— T. * Ath. Ox., vol. i., p. 154. t Some of his versions are still used in the Church. Those which are from his pen have W. W. annexed. The 119th Psalm is one of them. — Wood's .A^Aerace, vol. i., p. 62, 36, 153.— C. t Strype's Ann., vol. ii., p. 284. (j MS., p. 28G. 146 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Church, nor move contentions about ceremonies; but still they were deprived of their livings. The Reverend Mr. Lawrence, an admired preacher, and incumbent of a parish in Suffolk, was suspended by the same bishop for not com- plying with the rites and ceremonies of the Church.* Mr. Calthorp, a gentleman of quality in the county, applied to the lord-treasurer in his behalf ; and the treasurer wrote to the bish- op requesting him to take off his sequestration ; but his lordship replied, that what he had done was by virtue of the queen's letter to him, re- quiring him to allow of no ministers but such as were perfectly conformable. Mr. Calthorp replied, and urged the great want the Church had of such good men as Mr. Lawrence, for whose fitness for this work he would undertake the chief gentlemen of credit in the county should certify ; but his sequestration was still continued. The like severities were used in most other diocesses. The Bishop of London! came not behind the chief of his brethren the bishops, in his perse- cuting zeal against the Puritans ; he gave out orders for apparitors and other officers to go from church to church, in time of Divine ser- vice, to observe the conformity of the minister, and to make report to her majesty's commis- sioners. As this prelate had no compassion in his nature, he had little or no regard to the laws of his country, or the cries of the people after the Word of God.t Great was the scarcity of preachers about England at this time ; in the large and populous town of Northampton there was not one, nor had been for a considerable time, though the people applied to the bishop of the diocess by most humble supplication for the bread of life. In the county of Cornwall there were one hun- dred and forty clergymen, not one of which was capable of preaching a sermon, and most of them were pluralists and non-residents. Even the city of London was in a lamentable case, as appears by their petition to the Parliament which met this winter, in which are these words: " May it please you, therefore, for the tender mercies of God, to understand the woful estate of many thousands of souls dwelling in deep darkness, and in the shadow of death, in this famous and populous city of London ; a place, in respect to others, accounted as the morning star, or, rather, as the sun in its brightness, be- cause of the Gospel, supposed to shine gloriously and abundantly in the same ; but being near kicked into, will be found sorely eclipsed and darkened through the dim cloud of unlearned * Strype's Ann., p. 285. t This Bishop Warburton censures as " an untair charg.^i which runs through the History. The ex- acting conformity of the ministry of any church by the go\ernors of that church is no persecution." This is .^ strange sentiment to come from the pen of a Proteb'ant prelate. There was no persecution, then, in ti e reign of Queen Mary. It was no perse- cution whi n the Jewish sanhedrim agreed " that, if any man dii confess that Jesus was the Christ, he should be pi t out of the synagogue." It was no per- secution whtn the ParUament imposed the Scots Covenant. — hn. I He declari'd that he would surely and severely punish those wio would not comply with the Act of 'Uniformity, or " I will he," said he, " in the dust for it."— Slrype.— Ed. ministers, whereof there be no small number. There arc in this city a great number of churches, but the one half of them at the least are utter- ly unfurnished of preaching ministers, and are pestered with candlesticks not of gold, but of clay, unworthy to have the Lord's ligiit set ia them, with watchmen that have no eyes, and clouds tbat have no water ; in the other half, partly by means of non-residents, wiiich are very many, partly through the poverty of many meanly qualified, there is scarcely the tenth maa tbat makes conscience to wait upon his charge, whereby the Lord's Sabbath is ofttimes wholly neglected, and for the most part miserably mangled ; ignorance increaseth, and wickedness comes upon us like an armed man. As sheep, therefore, going astray, we humbly, on our knees, beseech this honourable assembly, in the bowels and blood of Jesus Christ, to become humble suiters to her majesty, that we may have guides; as hungry men bound to abide by our empty rackstaves, we do beg of you to be means that the bread of life may be brought home to us«; that the sower may come into the fallow ground ; that the pipes of water may be brought into our assemblies ; that there may be food and refresh- ing for us, our poor wives, and forlorn children : so shall the Lord have his due honour ; you shall discharge good duty to her majesty ; many languishing souls shall be comforted ; atheism and heresy banished ; her majesty have more faithful subjects, and you more hearty prayers for your prosperity in this life, and full happiness in the life to come, through Jesus Christ our alone Saviour. Amen."* In the supplication of the people of Cornwall, it is said,t " We are above the number of four- score and ten thousand souls, which, for the want of the Word of God, are in extreme mis- ery and ready to perish, and this neither for want of maintenance nor place ; for besides the impropriations in our shire, we allow yearly above £9200, and have one hundred and sixty churches, the greatest part of which are sup- plied by men who are guilty of the grossest sins ; some fornicators, some adulterers, some felons, bearing the marks in their hands for the said offence ; some drunkards, gamesters on the Sabbath-day, &c. We have many non- residents who preach but once a quarter, so that, between meal and meal, the silly sheep may starve. We have some ministers who labour painfully and faithfully in the Lord's hus- bandry ; but these men are not suffered to at- tend their callings, because the mouths of pa- pists, infidels, and filthy livers are open against them, and the ears of those who are called lords over them, are sooner open to their accusations, though it be but for ceremonies, than to the others' answers Nor is it safe for us to go and hear them ; for, though our own fountains are dried up, yet, if we seek for the waters of life elsewhere, we are cited into the spiritual courts, reviled, and threatened with excommunication. Therefore, from far we come, beseeching this honourable house to dispossess these dumb dogs and ravenous wolves, and appoint us faith- ful ministers, who may peaceably preach the Word of God, and not be disquieted by every apparitor, registrar, official, commissioner, chan- cellor, &c., upon every light occasion — ■" * MS., p. 302. t MS., p. 300. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS 147 The ground of this scarcity was no other than the severity of the high-commission, and the narrow terms of conformity. Most of the old incumbents, says Dr. Keltridge,* are disguised papists, fitter to sport with the timbrel and pipe than to take into their hands the book of the Lord ; and yet there was a rising generation of valuable preachers ready for the ministry, if they might have been encouraged ; for in a sup- plication of some of the students at Cambridge to the Parliament about this time, they acknowl- edge that there were plenty of able and well- furnished men among them, but that they could not get into places upon equal conditions ; but unlearned men, nay, the scum of the people, were preferred before them, so that, in this great want of labourers, we (say they) stand idle in the market-place all the day, being urged with subscriptions before the bishops to approve the Romish hierarchy, and all the effects of that government to be agreeable to the Word of God, which with no safety of conscience we can accord unto. They then offer a conference or disputation, as the queen and Parliament shall agree, to put an amicable end to these dif- ferences, that the Church may recover some discipline, that simony and perjury may be ban- ished, and that all that are willing to promote the salvation of souls may be employed ; but the queen and bishops were against it. All the public conversation at this time ran upon the queen's marriage with the Duke of Anjou, a French papist, which was thought to be as good as concluded ; the Protestant part of the nation were displeased with it, and some warm divines expressed their dark apprehen- sions in the pulpit. The Puritans in general made a loud protest against the match, as dread- ing the consequences of a Protestant body being under a popish head. Mr. John Stubbs, a stu- dent of Lincoln's Inn, whose sister Mr. Cart- wright had married, a gentleman of excellent parts, published a treatise this summer, entitled "The Gaping Gulf, wherein England will be swallowed up with the French Marriage ;" wherewith the queen was so incensed that she immediately issued out a proclamation to sup- press the book, and to apprehend the author and printer. At the same time, the lords of the council wrote circular letters to the clergy to remove all surmises about the danger of the Reformation in case the match should take place, assuring them the queen would suffer no alterations in religion by any treaty with the duke, and forbidding them in their sermons or discourses to meddle with such high matters. Mr. Stubbs, the author, Singleton, the printer, and Page, the disperser, of the above-mentioned book, were apprehended, and sentenced to have their right hands cut off, by virtue of a law made in Queen Mary's reign against the authors and dispersers of seditious writings : the printer was pardoned but Mr. Stubbs and Page were brought to a scaffold erected in the market-place at "Westminster, where, with a terrible formality, their right hands were cut off, by driving a cleav- er through the wrist with a mallet ;t but I re- - * Life of Aylmer, p. 32. t"This," says Bishop Warburton, "was infinite- ly more cruel than all the years under Charles I., whether we consider the punishment, the crime, or the man." — Ed. member (says Camden, being present) that, as soon as Stubbs's right hand was cut off, he pulled off his hat with his left, and said with a loud voice, God save the queen, to the amaze- ment of the spectators, who stood silent, either out of horror of the punishment, or pity to the man, or hatred to the match. Mr. Stubbs pro- ved afterward a faithful subject to her majes- ty, and a valiant commander in the wars of Ire- land. At the beginning of the next session of Par- liament, which was January 10, 1580, the Com- mons voted " that as many of their members as conveniently could, should, on the Sunday fort- night, assemble and meet together in the Temple Church, there to* have preaching, and to join to- gether in prayer, with humiliation and fasting, for the assistance of God's Spirit in all their consultations during this Parliament ; and for the preservation of the queen's majesty, and her realms."* The house was so cautious as not to name their preachers, for fear they might be thought Puritanical, but referred it to such of her majesty's privy council as were members of the house. There was nothing in this vote contrary to law or unbecoming the wisdom of Parliament ; but the queen was no sooner ac- quainted with it, than she sent word by Sir Chris- topher Hatton, her vice-chamberlain, that " she did much admire at so great a rashness in that house as to put in execution such an inno- vation, without her privity and pleasure first made known to them." Upon which it was moved by the courtiers that " the house should acknowledge their offence and contempt, and humbly crave forgiveness, with a full purpose to forbear committing the like for the future ;" which was voted accordingly. A mean and ab- ject spirit in the representative body of the na- tion ! Her majesty having forbid her Parliament to appomt times for fasting and prayer, took hold of the opportunity, and gave the like injunctions to her clergy ; some of whom, after the putting down of the prophesyings, had ventured to agree upon days of private fasting and prayer for the queen and Church, and for exhorting the people to repentance and reformation of life, at such times and places where they could obtain a pulpit. All the Puritans, and the more devout part of the conforming clergy, fell in with these appointments : sometimes there was one at Lei- cester ; sometimes at Coventry and at Stamford, and in other places, where six or seven neigh- bouring ministers joined together in these exer- cises ; but as soon as the queen was acquainted with them, she sent a warm message to the archbishop to suppress them, as being set up by private persons, without authority, fn defiance of the laws, and of her prerogative.! Mr. Prowd, the Puritan minister of Burton upon Dunmore, complains, in a melancholy let- ter to Lord Burleigh, of the sad state of religion, by suppressing the exercises ; and by forbidding the meeting of a few ministers and Christians, to pray for the preservation of the Protestant religion, in this dangerous crisis of the queen's marrying with a papist. He doubted whether his lordship dealt so plainly with her majesty as his knowledge of these things required, and * Heylin, p. 287. t HeyUn's Aerius Redivivus, p. 286. 148 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. begs him to interpose. But the queen was de- termined against all prayers except what her- self should appoint. We have already taken notice of the petitions and supplications to Parliament from London, Cornwall, and some other places, for redress of grievances ; but the house was so intimidated by the queen's spirited behaviour, that they durst not interpose, any farther than, in conjunction with some of the bishops, to petition her majesty, as head of the Church, to redress them. The queen promised to take order about it, with all convenient speed ; putting them in mind, at the same time, that all motions for reformation in religion ought to arise from none but herself. But her majesty's sentiments dilfered from the Parliament's ; her greatest grief was the in- crease of Puritans and Nonconformists, and therefore, instead of easing them, she girt the laws closer about them, in order to bring them to an exact conformity. Information being giv- en that some who had livings in the Church, and preached weekly, did not administer the sac- rament to their parishioners in their own persons, her majesty commanded her bishops, in their vis- itations, to inquire after such half-conformists as disjoined one part of their function from the other, and to compel them by ecclesiastical cen- sures to perform the whole at least twice a year. The Puritan ministers being dissatisfied with the promiscuous access of all persons to the communion, and with several passages in the otlice for the Lord's Supper, some of them used to provide a qualified clergyman to administer thi! ordinance in their room ; but this was now made a handle for their ejectment : inquisition was made, and those who, after admonition, would not conform to the queen's pleasure, were &ent for before the commissioners, and deprived. Though the springs of discipline moved but slowly in the diocess of Canterbury, because the metropolitan, who is the first mover in ecclesi- astical causes under the queen, was suspended and in disgrace, yet the sufferings of the Puri- tans were not lessened ; the other bishops, who were in the high commission, doubled their dil- igence ; the Kev. Mr. Nash was in the Mar- shalsea, Mr. Drewet in Newgate, and several others were shut up in the prisons in and about London. Those that were at liberty had nothing to do, for they might not preach in public with- out full conformity ; nor assemble in private to mourn over their own and the nation's sins, with- out the danger of a prison. This exasperated their spirits, and put them upon writing satirical pamphlets* against their adversaries ; in some of which there are severe expressions against the unpreaching clergy, call- ing them (in the language of Scripture) dumb dogs, because they took no pains for the instruc- tion of their parishioners ; the authors glanced at the severity of the laws, at the pride and am- bition of the bishops, at the illegal proceedings of the high commission, and at the unjustifiable rigours of the queen's government ; which her * Bishop Warburton censures Mr. Neal for not speaking in much severer terms of these pamphlets. But he should have adverted to our author's grave censure of them in chap, viii., and have recollected that " the writers on the Church-side came not be- hind their adversaries in buffoonery and ridicule." These were the wreapons of the age. — Ed. majesty being informed of, procured a statute this very Parliament* [1580], by which it is en- acted, that "if any person or persons, forty days after the end of this season, shall devise, or write, or print, or set forth, any manner of book, rhyme, ballad, letter, or writing, containing any false, seditious, or slanderous matter to the def- amation of the queen's majesty, or to the en- couraging, stirring, or moving of any insurrec- tion or rebellion within this realm, or any of the dominions to the same belonging ; or if any per- son or persons shall procure such books, rhymes, or ballads to be written, printed, or published (the said offence not being within the compass of treason, by virtue of any former statute), that then the said offenders, upon sufficient proof by two witnesses, shall suffer death and loss of goods, as in case of felony." This statute was to continue in force only during the life of the present queen ; but within that compass of time, sundry of the Puritans were put to death by vir- tue of it. In the same session of Parliament, another severe law was made, which, like a two-edged sword, cut down both papists and Puritans ; it was entitled An Act to retain the Queen's Sub- jects in their due Obedience:! " by which it is made treason for any priest or Jesuit to seduce any of the queen's subjects from the established to the Romish religion. If any shall reconcile themselves to that religion, they shall be guilty of treason ; and to harbour such above twenty days, is misprision of treason. If any one shall say mass, he shall forfeit two hundred marks, and suffer a year's imprisonment ; and they that are present at hearing mass shall forfeit one hun- dred marks, and a year's imprisonment." But that the act might be more extensive, and com- prehend Protestant Nonconformists as well as papists, it is farther enacted " that all persons that do not come to church or chapel, or other place where common prayer is said, according to the Act of Uniformity, shall forfeit twenty pounds per month to the queen, being thereof lawfully convicted, and suffer imprisonment till paid. Those that are absent for twelve months shall, upon certificate made thereof into the King's Bench, besides their former fine, be bound with two sufficient sureties, in a bond of two hundred pounds, for their good behaviour. Ev- ery schoolmaster that does not come to common prayer shall forfeit ten pounds a month, be dis- abled from teaching school, and suffer a year's imprisonment." This was making merchandise of the souls of men, says a reverend author ■,t for it is a sad case to sell men a license to do that which the receivers of their money conceive to be unlawful. Besides, the fine was unmerci- ful ; by the Act of Uniformity, it was twelve pence a Sunday for not coming to church, but now £20 a month ; so that the meaner people had nothing to expect but to rot in jails, which made the of- ficers unwilling to apprehend them. Thus the queen and her parliament tacked the Puritans to the papists, and subjected them to the same pe- nal laws, as if they had been equal enemies to her person and government, and to the Protest- ant religion. A precedent followed by several parliaments in the succeeding reigns. The convocation did nothing but present an * 23 Eliz., cap. u. t Fuller, b. ix., p. 131. t 23 Ehz., cap. i. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 149 humble petition to the queen to take off the arch- bishop's sequestration, which her majesty was not pleased to grant. This summer, Aylmer, bishop of London, held a visitation of his clergy, at the convocation house of St. Paul's, and obliged them to sub- scribe the following articles ; 1. Exactly to keep to the Book of Common Prayer and sac- raments. 2. To wear the surplice in all their ministrations. 3. Not add or diminish anything in reading Divine service. He then made the following inquiries: 1. Whether all that had cure of souls administered the sacraments in person 1 2. Whether they observed the cere- monies to be used in baptism and marriage ] 3. Whether the youth were catechised 1 4. Whether their ministers read the homilies 1 5. Whether any of them called others that did not preach by ill names, as dumb dogs 1 Those who did not subscribe, and answer the interrog- atories to his lordship's satisfaction, were im- mediately suspended and silenced. But these violent measures, instead of recon- ciling the Puritans to the Chui-ch, drove them farther from it. Men who act upon principles* will not easily be beaten from them with the artillery of canons, injunctions, subscriptions, fines, imprisonments, &,c., much less will they esteem a church that fights with such weapons. Multitudes were by these methods carried off to a total separation, and so far prejudiced as not to allow the Church of England to be a true church, nor her ministers true ministers ; they renounced all communion with her, not only in the prayers and ceremonies, but in hearing the Word and the sacraments. These were the peo- ple called Brownists,t from one Robert Brown, a preacher in the diocess of Norwich, descended of an ancient and honourable family in Rutland- shire, and nearly related to the Lord-treasurer Cecil ; he was educated in Corpus Christi Col- lege, Cambridge, and preached sometimes in Bene't Church, where the vehemence of his de- livery gained him reputation with the people. He was first a schoolmaster, then a lecturer at Islington ; but being a fiery, hotheaded young man, he went about the countries inveighing against the discipline and ceremonies of the Church, and exhorting the people by no means to comply with them. He was first taken no- tice of by the Bishop of Norwich, who com- mitted him to the custody of the sheriff of the county in the year 1580, but, upon acknowledg- ment of his offence, he was released. In the year 1582, he published a book called " The Life and Manners of true Christians ; to which is prefixed a Treatise of Reformation without tar- rying for any ; and of the Wickedness of those Preachers who will not reform themselves and * To do so is highly virtuous and praiseworthy. It is the support of integrity, and constitutes excel- lence of character : yet, in this instance, Bishop War- burton could allow himself to degrade and make a jest of it. " It is just the same," says he, " with men who act upon passion and prejudice, for the poet says truly, " ' Obstinacy's ne'er so stiff" As when 'tis in a wrong beUef ' " — Ed. t With them commenced the third period of Pu- ritanism. The increasing severity of the bishops in- flamed, instead of subduing, the spirits of the Non- conformists, and drove them to a greater distance from the establishment. — Ed. their Charge, because they will tarry till the Magistrate command and compel them." For this he was sent for again into custody, and upon examination confessed himself the author, but denied that he was acquainted with the publication, of the book ; vi^hereupon he was dismissed a second time, at the intercession of the lord-treasurer, and sent home to his father, with whom he continued four years ; after which he travelled up and down the countries in company with his assistant, Richard Harri- son, preaching against bishops, ceremonies, ec- clesiastical courts, ordaining of ministers, &c., for which, as he afterward boasted, he had been committed to thirty-two prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at noonday. At length he gathered a separate congregation of his own prmciples ; but the queen and her bishops watching them narrowly, they were quickly forced to leave the kingdom. Several of his friends embarked with their effects for Holland ; and having obtained leave of the ma- gistrate to worship God in their own way, set- tled at Middleburgh, in Zealand. Here Mr. Brown formed a church according to his own model ; but when this handful of people were delivered from the bishops their oppressors, they crumbled into parties among themselves, insomuch that Brown, being weary of his office, , returned to England in the year 1589, and hav- ing renounced his principles of separation, be- came rector of a church in Northamptonshire : here he lived an idle and dissolute life, accord- ing to Fuller,* far from that Sabbatarian strict- ness that his followers aspired after. He had a wife, with whom he did not live for many years, and a church in which he never preached ; at length, being poor and proud, and very passion- ate, he struck the constable of his parish for de- manding a rate of him ; and being beloved by nobody, the officer summoned him before Sir Roland St. John, a neighbouring justice of peace, who committed him to Northampton jail ; the decrepit old man, not being able to walk, was carried thither upon a feather-bed in a cart, where he fell sick and died, in the year 1630, and in the eighty-first year of his age. The revolt of Mr. Brown broke up his con- gregation at Middleburgh, but was far from de- stroying the seeds of separation that he had sown in several parts of England ; his followers increased, and made a considerable figure to- wards the latter end of this reign ; and because some of his principles were adopted and im- proved by a considerable body of Puritans in the next age, I shall here give an account of them. Tlie Brown ists did not differ from the Church of England in any articles of faith, but were very rigid and narrow in points of discipline. They denied the Church of England to be a true church, and her ministers to be rightly or- dained. They maintained the discipline of the Church of England to be popish and antichris- tian, and all her ordinances and sacraments in- valid. Hence they forbade their people to join with them in prayer, in hearing, or in any part of public worship ; nay, they not only renoun- ced communion with the Church of England, but with all other Reformed churches, except such as should be of their own model. B. X., p. 263. 150 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. They apprehended, according to Scripture, that every church ought to be confined within the hniits of a single congregation, and that the govt rninent should be denrocratical. "Wlien a church was to be gathered, such as desired to be members made a confession of their faith in presence of each other, and signed a cove- nant obliging themselves to walk together in the order of the Gospel, according to certain rules and agreements therein contained. The whole power of admitting and excluding members, with the deciding of all controversies, was in the brotherhood. Their church officers, for preachmg the Word and taking care of the poor, were chosen from among themselves, and separated to their several offices by fasting and prayer and imposition of the hands of some of the brethren. They did not allow the priest- hood to be a distinct order, or to give a man an indelible character ; but, as the vote of the brotherhood made him an officer, and gave him authority to preach and administer the sacra- ments among them, so the same power could discharge him from office, and reduce him to the state of a private member. When the number of communicants was larger than could meet in one place, the church divided, and chose new officers from among themselves as before, living together as sister churches, and giving each other the right hand of fellowship, or the privilege of communion with either. One church might not exercise jurisdiction and authority over another, but each might give the other counsel, advice, or admonition, if they walked disorderly, or aban- doned the capital truths of religion ; and if the offending church did not receive the admonition, the others were to withdraw, and publicly dis- own them as a Church of Christ. The powers of their church officers were confined within the narrow limits of their own society ; the pastor of one church might not administer the sacrament of baptism or the Lord's Supper to any but those of his own communion and their immediate children. They declared against all prescribed forms of prayer. Any lay-brother had the liberty of prophesying, or giving a word of exhortation, in their church assemblies ; and it was usual, after sermon, for some of the members to ask questions, and confer with each other upon the doctrines that had been deliver- ed ; but as for church censures, they were for an entire separation of the ecclesiastical and civil sword. In short, every church or society of Christians meeting in one place was, accord- ing to the Brownists, a body corporate, having full power within itself to admit and exclude members, to choose and ordain officers, and, when the good of the society required it, to depose them, without being accountable to classes, convocations, synods, councils, or any jurisdiction whatsoever. Some of their reasons for withdrawing from the Church are not easily answered ; they al- leged that the laws of the realm and the queen's injunctions had made several unwar- rantable additions to the institutions of Christ. That there were several gross errors in the Church service. That these additions and er- • ors were imposed and made necessary to com- munion. That if persecution for conscience' sake was the mark of a false church, they could not believe the Church of England to be a true one. They apprehend, farther, that the consti- tution of tlie hierarchy was too bad to be mended, that the very pillars of it were rotten, and that the structure must be begun anew. Since, therefore, all Christians are obliged to preserve the ordinances of Christ pure and undefiled, they resolved to lay a new foundation, and keep as near as they could to the primitive pattern, though it were with the hazard of all that was dear to them in the world. This scheme of the Brownists seems to be formed upon the practice of the apostolical churches before the gifts of inspiration and prophecy were ceased, and is therefore hardly practicable in these latter ages, wherein the in- firmities and passions of private persons too often take the place of their gifts and graces. Accordingly, they were involved in frequent quarrels and divisions ; but their chief crime was their uncharitableness, in unchurching the whole Christian world, and breaking of all man- ner of communion in hearing the Word, in pub- lic prayer, and in the administration of the sac- raments, not only with the Church of England, but with all foreign Reformed churches, which, though less pure, ought certainly to be owned as churches of Christ. The heads of the Brownists were, Mr. Brown himself, and his companion Mr. Harrison, to- gether with Mr. Tyler, Copping, Thacker, and others, who were now in prison for spread- ing his books ; the last two being afterward put to death for it. The Bishop of Norwich used them cruelly, and was highly displeased with those that showed them any countenance. When the prisoner above mentioned, with Mr. Handson and some others, complained to the justices, at their quarter-sessions, of their long and illegal imprisonment, their worships were pleased to move the bishops in their favour, with which his lordship was so dissatisfied that he drew up twelve articles of impeachment against the justices themselves, and caused them to be summoned before the queen and council to answer for their misdemeanors.* In the articles they are charged with counte- nancing Copping, Tyler, and other disorderly clergymen. They are accused of contempt of his lordship's jurisdiction, in refusing to admit divers ministers whom he had ordained, be- cause they were ignorant, and could only read ; and for removing one Wood from his living on the same account. Sir Robert Jermin and Sir John Higham, knights, and Robert Ashfield and Thomas Badley, esquires, gentlemen of Suffolk and Norfolk, and of the number of the aforesaid justices, gave in their answer to the bishop's articles in the name of the rest, in which, after asserting their own conformity to the rites and ceremonies of the Church, they very justly tax his lordship with cruelty in keeping men so many years in prison without bringing them to trial, according to law ; and are ashamed that a bishop of the Church of England should be a patron of ignorance and an enemy to the preach- ing the Word of God. Upon this the justices were dismissed. But though the lord-treasurer, Lord North, Sir Robert Jermin, and others, wrote to the bishop that Mr. Handson, who * Strype's Annals, vol. iii., p. 20. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 151 ■was a learned and useful preacher, might have a license granted him, the angry prelate de- clared peremptorily that he never should have one, unless he would acknowledge his fault, and enter into bonds for his good behaviour for the future. While the bishops were driving the Puritans out of the pulpits, the nobility and gentry receiv- ed them into their houses as chaplains and tu- tors to their children, not merely out of com- passion, but from a sense of their real worth and usefulness ; for they were men of undis- sembled piety and devotion ; mighty in the Scrip- tures ; zealous for the Protestant religion ; of exemplary lives ; far remote from the liberties and fashionable vices of the times ; and inde- fatigably diligent in instructing those committed to their care. Here they were covered from their oppressors ; they preached in the family, and catechised the children ; which, without all question, had a considerablejnfluence upon the next generation. The papists were now very active all over the country : swarms of Jesuits came over from the seminaries abroad, in defiance of the law,* and spread their books of devotion and controversy among the common people ; they had their pri- vate conventicles almost in every market-town in England ; in the northern counties they were more numerous than the Protestants. This put the government upon inquiring after the priests ; many of whom were apprehended, and three ■were executed, viz., Edmund Champion, a learn- ed and subtle Jesuit, educated in Cambridge, where he continued till the year 1569, when he travelled to Rome and entered himself into the society of Jesus, 1573. Some years after he came into England, and travelled the countries to propagate the Catholic faith. Being appre- hended, he was put on the rack to discover the gentlemen who harboured him, and afterward was hanged, drawn, and quartered, when he was but forty-one years of age. The other two that suffered with him were Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Bryant. These were executed for an example, but the rest were spared, because the queen's match with the Duke of Anjou was still depending. However, the Protestants in the Netherlands being in distress, the queen as- sisted them with men and money, for which they delivered into her majesty's hands the most important fortresses of their country, which she garrisoned with English. She also sent relief to the French Protestants who were at war with Iheir natural prince, and ordered a collection a]] over England for the relief of the city of €reneva, besieged by the Duke of Savoy : meas- ures which were hardly consistent with her own principles of government ; but, as Rapin observes,! Queen Elizabeth's zeal for the Prot- * Bishop Warburton asks here, " Were the Jes- nits more faulty in acting in defiance of the laws than the Puritans?" and replies. "I think not. They had both the same plea, conscience, and both the same provocation, persecution." This is candid and perti- nent, as far as it applies to the reUgious principles of tfflch: but certainly the spirit and views of these pssrties were very different ; the former was engaged, CEce and again, in plots against the life and govern- ment of the queen ; the loyalty of the other was, not- withstanding all their sulierings, unimpeached. — Ed. t Vol. vLii., p. 475, estant religion was always subordinate to hei private interest. About this time [1582] the queen granted a commission of concealments to some of her hungry courtiers, by which they were empow- ered to inquire into the titles of Church lands and livings ; all forfeitures, concealments, or lands for which the parish could not produce ? legal title, were given to them : the articles ol inquiry seemed to be levelled against the Puri tans, but, through their sides, they must have made sad havoc with the patrimony of the Church.* They were such as these : What right have you to your parsonage 1 How came you into it ! Who ordained you ! and at what age were you ordained! Have you a license'? Were you married under the hands of two jus- tices of the peace ] Do you read the whole ser- vice ! Do you use all the rites, ceremonies, and ornaments appointed by the queen's injunctions ? Have you publicly read the articles, and sub- scribed them? The church- wardens of every parish had also twenty-four interrogatories ad- ministered to them upon oath concerning their parson and their church lands ; all with a de- sign to sequester them into the hands of the queen's gentlemen-pensioners. This awakened the bishops, who fell upon their knees before the queen, and entreated her majesty, if she had any regard for the Church, to supersede the commission ; which she did, though, it is well enough known, the queen had no scruple of conscience about plundering the Church of its revenues. To return to the Puritans. The Rev. Robert Wright, domestic chaplain to the late Lord Rich, of Rochford, in Essex, fell into the hands of the Bishop of London last yeart [1581] ; he was a learned man, and had lived fourteen years in the University of Cambridge ; but being dis- satisfied with episcopal ordination, went over to Antvverp, and was ordained by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery of that place. Upon his return home, Lord Rich took him into his family at Rochford, in the hundreds of Essex, where he preached constantly in his lordship's chapel, and nowhere else, because he could obtain no license from the bishop. He was an admired preacher, and universally beloved by the clergy of the county for his great serious- ness and piety. While his lordship was alive he protected him from danger, but his noble pa- tron was no sooner dead than the Bishop of Lon- don laid hands on him, and confined him in the Gatehouse, for saying that to keep the queen's birthday as a holyday was to make her an idol. When the good man had been shut up from his family and friends several months, he petitioned the bishop to be brought to his trial, or admitted to bail. But all the answer his lordship returned was, that " he deserved to lie in prison seven years." This usage, together with Mr. Wright's open and undisguised honesty and piety, moved the compassion of his keeper, insomuch that, his poor wife being in childbed and distress, he gave him leave, with the private allowance of the secretary of state, to make her a visit at Rochford upon his parole ; but it happened that Dr. Ford, the civilian, meeting him upon the road, acquainted the bishop with his escape, * Strype's Annals, vol. in., p. 114. t Id. ibid., p 123. 152 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. who thereupon fell into a violent passion, and sending immediately for the keeper, demanded to see his prisoner. The keeper pleaded the great compassion of the case ; but the bishop threatened to complain of him to the queen, and have him turned out. Mr. Wright being in- formed of the keeper's danger, returned imme- diately to his prison, and wrote to the lord- treasurer on his behalf " Oh ! my lord," says he, " I most humbly crave your lordship's fa- vour, that I may be delivered from such unpiti- ful minds ; and especially that your lordship will stand a good lord to my keeper, that he may not be discouraged from favouring those that pro- fess true religion." Upon this the keeper was pardoned. But the bishop resolved to take full satisfac- tion of the prisoner : accordingly, he sent for him before the commissioners, and examined him upon articles concerning the Book of Com- mon Prayer ; concerning rites and ceremonies ; concerning prayer for the queen and the Church ; and concerning the established form of ordain- ing ministers. He was charged with preaching Without a license, and with being no better than a mere layman. To which he made the follow- ing answers : " That he thought the Book of Common Prayer, in the main, good and godly, but could not answer for every particular. That as to rites and ceremonies, he thought his re- sorting to churches where they were used was a sufficient proof that he allowed them. That he prayed for the queen, and for all ministers of God's Word, and, consequently, for archbish- ops and bishops, &c. That he was but a pri- vate chaplain, and knew no law that required a license for such a place." But he could not yield himself to be a mere layman, having preached seven years in the university with li- cense ; and since that time having been regu- larly ordained, by the laying on of the hands of the presbyters at Antwerp. The bishop having charged him with saying that the election of ministers ought to be by their flocks, he owned it, and supposed it not to be an error ; and ad- ded, farther, that in his opinion every minister was a bishop, though not a lord-bishop ; and that his lordship of London must be of the same opinion, because, when he rebuked Mr. White for striking one of his parishioners, he alleged that text that a "bishop must be no striker:" which had been impertinent, if Mr. White, be- ing only a minister, had not been a bishop. When his lordship charged him with saying there were no lawful ministers in the Church of England, he replied,* " I will be content to be condemned, if I bring not two hundred wit- nesses for my discharge of this accusation. I do as certainly believe that there are lawful ministers in England as that there is a sun in the sky. In Essex, I can bring twenty godly ministers, all preachers, who will testify that they love me, and have cause to think that I love and reverence them. I preached seven years in the University of Cambridge with ap- probation, and have a testimonial to produce under the hands and seals of the master and fellows of Christ College, being all ministers at that time, of my good behaviour." However, all he could say was to no purpose : the bishop would not allow his orders, and therefore pro- * Strype's Ann., vol. iii. Appendix, No. 23, 24. nounced him a layman, and incapable of holding any living in the Church. The Lord Rich, and divers honourable knights and gentlemen in Essex, had petitioned the Bishop of London for a license, that Mr. Wright might preach publicly in any i)!ace within his diocess ; but his lordship always refused it, be- cause he was no minister, that is, had only beea ordained among the foreign churches. But this was certainly contrary to law ; for the statute 13 Eliz., cap. xii., admits the ministration of those who had only been ordained according to the manner of the Scots, or other foreign church- es ; there were some scores, if not hundreds of them, now in the Church ; and the Archbishop of Canterbury at this very time commanded Dr. Aubrey, his vicar-general, to license Mr. John Morrison, a Scots divine, who had had no other ordination than what he received from a Scots presbytery, to preach over his whole province. The words of the license are as follows : " Sirwe you, the aforesaid John Morrison, about five years past, in the town of Garret, in the county of Lothian, of the kingdom of Scotland, were admitted and ordained to sacred orders and the holy ministry, by the imposition of hands, ac- cording to the laudable form and rite of the Re- formed Church of Scotland ; and since the con- gregation of that county of Lothian is conform- able to the orthodox faith, and sincere religioa now received in this realm of England, and es- tablished by public authority : we, therefore, as much as lies in us, and as by right we may, ap- proving and ratifying the form of your ordina- tion and preferment done in such manner afore- said, grant unto you a license and faculty, with, the consent and express command of the most reverend father in Christ, the Lord Edmund, by the Divine Providence Archbishop of Canterbu- ry, to us signified, that in such orders by you taken, you may and have power in any conve- nient places in and throughout the whole prov- ince of Canterbury, to celebrate Divine offices, to minister the sacraments, &c., as much as ia us lies ; and we may dc jure, and as far as the laws of the kingdom do allow." This license was dated April 6, 1582, and is as full a testi- monial to the validity of presbyterial ordination as can be desired. But the other notion was growing into fashion ; all orders of men are for assuming some peculiar characters and powers to themselves ; the bishop will be a distinct and superior order to presbyters ; and no man must be a minister of Christ but on whom they lay their hands.* The behaviour of the Bishop of London to- wards the Puritans moved the compassion of some of the conforming clergy ; the Rev. Mr. Wilkin, rector of Danbury, in Essex, in a letter to the lord-treasurer, writes thus : " As some might be thought over-earnest about trifles, so. * Here Bishop Warburton remarks, "The Puri- tans were even with them ; and to the jus divimwt of episcopacy, opposed the _;h.s dwiimni of presbytery, which was the making each other antichristian.** His lordship goes into this conclusion too hastily, and applies it without, nay, against authority, to the Puritans : they never required such as had been episcopally ordained to be reordainod ; but, in ihs. height of their power, declared, " We hold ordinatioa by a bishop to be for substance valid, and not to be disclaimed by any that have received it."— See our author, vol. iii. — Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 153 on the other hand, there had been too severe and sharp punishment for the same. Though I myself think reverently of the Book of Common Prayer, yet surely it is a reverence due only to the sacred writings of Holy Scripture to say the authors of them erred in nothing, and to none other books of men, of what learning so- ever. I have seen the letters of the bishops to Bullinger and Gualter, when I was at Zurich in the year 1567, in which they declare that they had no hand in passing the book, and had no other choice but to leave their places to papists or accept them as they were ; but they profess- ed and promised never to urge their brethren to those things ; and also, when opportunity should serve, to seek reformation." How dif- ferent was the practice of these prelates from their former professions ! But not only the clergy, but the whole coun- try also, exclaimed against the bishops for their high proceedings ; the justices of peace of the county of Suffolk were so moved, that, notwith- standing his lordship's late citation of them be- fore the council, they wrote again to their hon- ours, praying them to interpose in behalf of the injuries that were offered to divers godly min- isters. The words of their supplication are worth remembering, because they discover the cruelty of the commissioners, who made no dis- tinction between the vilest of criminals and con- scientious ministers : " The painful ministers of the Word," say they, " are marshalled with the malefactors, presented, indicted, arraigned, and condemned for matters, as we presume, of very slender moment : some for leaving the holydays unbidden ; some for singing the psalm Nunc Dimittis in the morning ; some for turning the questions in baptism concerning faith from the infants to the godfathers, which is but you for thou ; some for leaving out the cross in baptism ; some for leaving out the ring in marriage. A most pitiful thing it is to see the back of the law turned to the adversary [the papists], and the edge with all sharpness laid upon the sound and true-hearted subject.* " We grant order to be the rule of the Spirit of God, and desire uniformity in all the duties of the Church, according to the proportion of faith ; but if these weak ceremonies are so in- different as to be left to the discretion of minis- ters, we think it (under correction) very hard to have them go under so hard handhng, to the utter discredit of their whole ministry and the profession of truth." " We serve her majesty and the country [as magistrates and justices of the peace] according to law ; we reverence the law and lawmaker ; ■when the law speaks, we keep silence ; when it commandeth, we obey. By law we proceed against all offenders ; we touch none that the law spareth, and spare none that the law touch- eth ; we allow not of papists ; of the Family of Love ; of Anabaptists, or Brownists. No, we punish all these, t * Strype's Annals, vol. iii., p. 183, 184. t Bishop Maddox observes the e.xpressions in Strype are stronger. " We allow not of the papists, their subtleties and hypocrisies : we allow not of the Family of Love, an egg of the same nest : we allow not of the Anabaptists and their communion : we al- low not of Brown, the overthrower of Church and commonwealth : we abhor all these ; no, (we) pun- VoL. I. — U " And yet we are christened with the odious name of Puritans ; a term compounded of the heresies above mentioned, which we disclaim. The papists pretend to be pure and immaculate ; the Family of Love connot sin, they being dei- fied (as they say) in God. But we groan under the burden of our sins, and confess them to God, and, at the same time, we labour to keep ourselves and our profession unblameable ; this is our Puritanism ; a name given to such magis- trates, and ministers, and others, that have a strict eye upon their juggling. " We think ourselves bound in duty to unfold these matters to your lordships ; and if you shall please to call us to the truth of them, it is the thing we most desire." This supplication produced a letter from the council to the judges of the assize, command- ing them not to give ear to malicious informers against peaceful and faithful ministers, nor to match them at the bar with rogues, felons, or papists, but to put a difference in the face of the world between those of another faith and they who differ only about ceremonies, and yet dili- gently and soundly preach true religion. The judges were struck with this letter, and the Bishop of London, with his attendants, returned from his visitation full of discontent. Indeed, his lordship had made himself so many enemies^ that he grew weary of his bishopric, and peti- tioned the queen to exchange it for that of Ely, that he might retire and be out of the way ; but her majesty refused his request. Notwithstanding these slight appearances in favour of the Puritans two ministers of the Brownist persuasion were condemned and put to death this summer for nonconformity, viz., Mr. Elias Thacker, hanged at St. Edrnund's- bury, June 4th, and Mr. John Copping two days after, June 6th, 1583. Their indictments were for spreading certain books seditiously penned by Robert Brown against the Book of Common Prayer established by the laws of this realm. The sedition charged upon Brown's book was, that it subverted the constitution of the Church, and acknowledged her majesty's supremacy civilly, but not otherwise, as appears by the report which the judges sent to court, viz.. That the prisoners, instead of acknowledging her majesty's supremacy in all causes, would allow it only in civil.* This the judges took hold of to aggravate their offence to the queen, after they had passed sentence upon them on the late statute of the 23d Eliz. against spread- ing seditious libels, and for refusing the oath of supremacy. Mr. Copping had suffered a long and illegal imprisonment from the bishop of his diocess ; his wife being brought to bed while he was under confinement, he was charged with not suffering his child to be baptized ; to which he answered, that his conscience could not ad- mit it to be done with godfathers and god- mothers, and he could get no preacher to do it without. He was accused, farther, with saying the queen was perjured, because she had sworn to set forth God's glory directly as by the Scriptures are appointed, and did not ; but these were only circumstances to support the grand ish all these." This, we must own with his lord- ship, was not the language of real and consistent, friends to liberty of conscience. — Ed. * Strype's Annals, vol. iii., p. 186. 154 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. charge of sedition in spreading Brown's book. However, it seemed a little hard* to hang men for spreading a seditious book, at a time when the author of that very book [Brown] was par- doned and set at liberty. Both the prisoners died by their principles ; for though Dr. Still, the archbishop's chaplain, and others, travelled and conferred with them, yet at the very hour of their death they remained immovable ; they were both sound in the doctrinal articles of the Church of England, and of unblemished lives. t One Wilsford, a layman, should have suffered Avith them, but upon conference with Secretary Wilson, who told him the queen's supremacy might be understood only of her majesty's civil power over ecclesiastical persons, he took the oath and was discharged. While the bishops were thus harassing hon- est and conscientious ministers for scrupling the ceremonies of the Church, practical religion "was at a very low ebb ; the fashionable vices of the times were, profane swearing, drunkenness, revelling, gaming, and profanation of the .Lord's Day ; yet there was no discipline for these of- fenders, nor do I find any such cited into the spiritual courts, or shut up in prisons. If men came to their parish churches, and approved of the habits and ceremonies, other offences were overlooked, and the court was easy. At Paris Gardens, in Southwark, there were public sports on the Lord's Day for the entertainment of great numbers of people who resorted thither ; but on the I3th of January, being Sunday, it happened that one of the scaffolds, being crowd- ed with people, fell down, by which accident some were killed and a great many wounded. This was thought to be a judgment from heav- en ; for the lord-mayor, in the account he gives of it to the treasurer, says " that it gives great occasion to acknowledge the hand of God for such abuse of the Sabbath day, and moveth me in conscience to give order for redress of such contempt of God's service; adding, that for this purpose he had treated with some justices of peace in Surrey, who expressed a very good zeal, but alleged want of commission, which ho referred to the consideration of his lordship."t But the court paid no regard to such remon- strances, and the queen had her ends in en- couraging the sports, pastimes, and revellings of the people on Sundays and holydays. This year died the fam.ous northern apostle, Mr. Bernard Gilpin, minister of Houghton, in the bishopric of Durham. He was born at Kentmire, in Westmoreland, 1517, of an an- cient and honourable family, and was entered into Queen's College, Oxford, in the year 1.533. * Bishop Warburton imputes it to party and preju- dice in Mr. Neal that he doth not point out the dif- ference in this case, which his lordship states to be the same as between " the dispensers of poison hanged for going on obstinately in mischief, and of him who compounded the poison, but was, on his repentance, pardoned." But no svch distinction ex- isted, and his lordship lost sight of the real state of the case. Brown did not renounce his principles till seven years after he was committed to prison for publishing his hook, and was dismissed, not on his repentance, but at the intercession of the lord-treas- urer. So far from repenting, he went up and down inveighing against bishops, &c., and gathered a sep- arate congregation on his own principles. — See our author, p. 2G8. — Ed. t Strype's Ann., vol. ii., p. 532, 533. % Id. ibid. He continued a papist all the reign of King Henry VIII., but was converted by the lectures of Peter Martyr, in the beginning of the reign of Edward VI.* He was remarkably honest and open to conviction, but did not separate from tiie Romish comnmnion till he was per- suaded the pope was antichrist. CuthbertTon- stal, bishop of Durham, was his uncle by the mother's side, by whose encouragement he travelled to Paris, Louvaine, and other parts, being still for the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, though not for transubstantiation. Returning home in the days of Queen Mary, his uncle placed him fust in the rectory of Essing- ton, and afterward at Houghton, a large parish containing fourteen villages ; here he laboured in the work of the ministry, and was often exposed to danger, but constantly preserved by his uncle. Bishop Tonstal, who was averse to burning men for religion. Miserable and heathenish was the condition of these northern counties at this time with respect to religion ! Mr. Gilpin beheld it with tears of compassion, and resolved, at his own expense, to visit the desolate churches of Northumberland and the parts adjoining, called Riddesdale and Tindale, once every year, to preach the Gospel and dis- tribute to the necessities of the poor, which he continued till his death ; this gained him the veneration of all ranks of people in those parts ; but though he had such a powerful screen as Bishop Tonstal, yet the fame of his doctrine, which was Lutheran, reaching the ears of Bon- ner, he sent for him to London ; the reverend man ordered his servant to prepare him a long shirt, expecting to be burned, but before he came to London Queen Mary died. Upon the acces- sion of Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Gilpin, having a fair estate of his own, erected a grammar- school, and allowed maintenance for a master and usher ; himself choosing out of the school such as he liked best for his own private in- struction. Many learned men, who afterward adorned the Church by their labours and up- rightness of life, were educated by him in his domestic academy. Many gentlemen's sons resorted to him, some of whom were boarded in the town, and others in his own house ; be- sides, he took many poor men's sons under hia care, giving them meat, drink, clothes, and education. In the year 1560 he was offered the bishopric of Carlisle, and was urged to accept it by the Earl of Bedford, Bishop Sandys, and others, with the most powerful motives ; but he desi- red to be excused, and in that resolution re- mained immovable ; his reasons were taken from the largeness of the diocesses, which were too great for the inspection of one person ; for he was so strongly possessed of the duty of bi.shops, and of the charge of souls that was committed to them, that he could never be per- suaded to keep two livings, over both of which * In 1552 Giljnn was appointed to preach before King Edward, at Greenwich, and in his discourse he censured the avarice of the clergy and the corrup- tions of the Church with great freedom. His ad- dress to the king, the clergy, and magistrates, is one of the boldest and most honest remonstrances in bo- half of truth to be found in the annals of the English hierarchy. This sermon, the only one he ever pub- lished, is to be found in Carleton and Gilpin's " Life of Bernard Gilpin." — C. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 155 he could not have a personal inspection, and perform all the offices of a pastor ; he added, farther, that he had so many friends and rela- tives in those parts to gratify or connive at, that he could not continue an honest man and be their bishop. But though Mr. Gilpin would not be a bishop, he supplied the place of one, by preaching, by hospitality, by erecting schools, by taking care of the poor, and providing for destitute churches ; in all which he was coun- tenanced and encouraged by the learned and reverend James Pilkington, then bishop of Durham, by whom he was excused from sub- scriptions, habits, and a strict observance of ceremonies, it being his fixed opinion that no hu- man invention should take place in the Church, instead of a Divine institution. After Bishop Pilkington's death, Dr. Barnes was chosen his successor, who was disgusted at Mr. Gilpin's popularity, and gave him trouble : once, when he was setting out upon his annual visitation to Riddesdale and Tindale, the bishop summoned him to preach before him, which he excused in the handsomest manner he could, and went his progress ; but upon his return he found himself suspended, for contempt, from all ecclesiastical employments. The bishop afterward sent for him again on a sudden, and commanded him to preach, but then he pleaded his suspension, and his not being provided ; the bishop immediately took off his suspension, and would not excuse his preaching, upon which he went into the pul- pit, and discoursed upon the high charge of a Cliristian bishop ; and having exposed the cor- ruptions of the clergy, he boldly addressed him- self to his lordship in these words ; " Let not your lordship say, These crimes have been committed without my knowledge, for whatso- ever you yourself do in person, or suffer through your connivance to be done by others, it is wholly your own ; therefore, in the presence of God, angels, and men, I pronounce your father- hood to be the author of all lliese evils ; and I and this whole congregation wdl be a witness in the day of judgment, that these tbings have come to your ears." All men thought the bishop would have deprived Mr. Gilpin for his freedom as soon as he came out of the pulpit, but, by the good providence of God, it had quite a different effect ; the bishop thanked him for his faithful reproof, and after this suffered him to go on with his annual progress, giving him no farther disturbance. At length, his lean body being quite worn out with labour and travail, and feeling the approaches of death, he commanded the poor to be called together, and took a sol- emn leave of them ; afterward he did the like by his relatives and friends ; then giving him- self up to God, he took his bed about the end of February, and died March 4, 1583, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. He was a heaven- ly man, endued with a large and generous soul, of a tall stature of body, with a Roman nose : his clothes were neat and plain, for he was frugal in his own dress, though very bountiful to others. His doors were always open for the entertainment of strangers. He boarded in his own house twenty-four scholars, most of whom were upon charity. He kept a table for the poor every Lord's Day, from Michaelmas to Easter, and expended £500 for a free school for their children. Upon the whole, he was a pious, devout, and open-hearted divine ; a con- scientious Nonconformist, but against separa- tion. He was accounted a saint by his very enemies, if he had any such, being full of faith and good works ; and was at last put into his grave as a shock of corn fully ripe.* The same year died Edmund Grindal, arch- bishop of Canterbury, born at Copland, in the county of Cumberland, in the year 1519, and educated in Cambridge. He was a famous preacher in King Edward's days, and was nom- inated by him to a bishopric when he was only thirty-three years of age ; but that king dying soon after, he went into exile, and imbibed the principles of a farther reformation than had as yet obtained in England. Upon Queen Eliza- beth's accession he returned to England, and was advanced, first to the See of London, and then to York and Canterbury, though he could hardly persuade himself for some time to wear the habits and comply with the ceremonies of the Church ; nor did he ever heartily approve them, yet thought it better to support the Ref- ormation on that foot than hazard it back into the hands of the papists.! He was of a mild and moderate temper, easy of access, and affa- ble even in his highest exaltation. He is blamed by some for his gentle usage of the Puritans, though he used them worse than he would have done if he had been left to himself About a year or two after his promotion to the See of Canterbury, he lost the queen's favour on the account of the prophesyings, and was suspended for some years, during which time many Puri- tan ministers took shelter in the counties of Kent and Surrey, &c., which made more work for his successor. The good old' archbishop be- ing blind and broken-hearted, the queen took oS. his sequestration about a year before his death, and sent to acquaint him that if he would resign he should have her favour and an honourable pension, which he promised to accept within six months ; but Whitgift, who was designed for his successor, refusing to enter upon the see while Grindal lived, he made a shift to hold it till his death, which happened July 6th, 1583, in the sixty-third year of his age. Camden calls him a religious and grave divine. Hollingshead says he was so studious that his book was his bride, and his study his bridechamber, in which he spent his eyesight, his strength, and his health. He was certainly a learned and vener- able prelate, and had a high esteem for the name and doctrines of Calvin, with whom, and with the German divines, he held a constant corre- spondence. His high stations did not make him proud ; but if we may believe his successor in the See of York, Archbishop Sandys, he must be tainted with avarice (as most of the queen's bishops were), because, within two months after he was translated to Canterbury, he gave to his kinsmen and servants, and sold for round sums of money to himself, six score leases and pat- ents, even then when they were thought not to be good in law.J But, upon the whole, he was one of the best of Queen Elizabeth's bish- * " The worth and labours of this excellent man," it was observed in the New Annual Register for 1789, " have been amply displayed in the present century, by the elegant pen of one of his own name and family."— Ed. t Grindal's Life, p. 295. t Strype's Annals, vol. ult., SuppL, p. 21. ]5G HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. ops. He lies buried in the cliancel of the Church at Croydon, where his effigy is to be seen at length in his doctor's robes, and in a praying posture.* CHAPTER VII. FROM THE DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP GRINDAL TO THE SPANISH INVASION IN 1588. Upon the death of Grindal, Dr. John Whit- gift, bishop of Worcester, was translated to the See of Canterbury, and confirmed September 23d, 1583. He had distinguished himself in the controversy against the Puritans,! and was therefore thought the most proper person to re- duce their numbers. Upon his advancement, the queen charged him " to restore the disci- pline of the Church, and the uniformity estab- lished by law, which (says her majt»sty), througli the connivance of some prelates, the obstinacy of the Puritans, and the power of some noble- men, is run out of square." Accordingly, the very first week his grace published the following articles, and sent them to the bishops of his province, for their direction in the government of their several diocesses : " That all preaching, catechising, and pray- ing, in any private family, where any are pres- ent besides the family, be utterly extinguished. f That none do preach or catechise, except also he will read the whole service, and administer the sacraments four times a year. That all preach- ers, and others in ecclesiastical orders, do at all times wear the habits prescribed. That none be admitted to preach unless he be ordained accord- ing to the manner of the Church of England. That none be admitted to preach, or execute any part of the ecclesiastical function, unless he subscribe the three following articles: 1st, To the queen's supremacy over all persons, and in all causes ecclesiastical and civil within her majesty's do- minions. 2dly, To the Book of Common Prayer, and of the -ordination of priests and deacons, as containing nothing contrary to the Word of God ; and that they will use it in all their public ministrations, and no other. 3dly, To the thirty- nine articles of the Church of England, agreed upon in the synod of 1562, and afterward confirm- * This prelate is the Algrind of Spencer, which is the anagram of his name. The French Protestants were very much indebted to his influence and activi- ty in obtaining for them a settlement in England, in their own method of worship. This was the begin- ning of the Walloon Church, situated in Threadnee- dJe-street, London, which has ever since been ap- propriated to the use of the French nation. — British Biography, vol. iu., p. 161. Granger's Biographical History, vol. ii., p. 204, note, 8vo. — Ed. t " It is seldom good policy," says Mr. Hallam, when referring to Whitgift's elevation, " to confer such em- inent stations in the Church on the gladiators of the- ological controversy; who, from vanity and resent- ment, as well as the course of their studies, will al- ways be prone to exaggerate the importance of the disputes wherein they have been engaged, and to turn whatever authority the laws or the influence of their place may give them against their adversaries. This was fully illustrated by the conduct of Arch- bishop Whitgift, whose elevation the wisest of Eliz- abeth's counsellors had ample reason to regret." — Hallarn's Constitutional Hist., vol. 1., p. 269. — C. t Life of Whitgift, p. 118. ed by Parliament."* And with what severity his grace enforced these articles will be seea presently. It is easy to observe that they were all level- led at the Puritans ; but the most disinterested civil lawyers of these times were of opinion that his grace had no legal authority to impose those, or any other articles, upon the clergy, without the broad seal ; and that all his proceedings upon them were an abuse of the royal preroga- tive, contrary to the laws of the land, and, con- sequently, so many acts of oppression upon the subject. Their reasons were, 1. Because the statute of the twenty-fifth Henry VIII. , chap. 20, expressly prohibits " the whole body of the clergy, or any one of them, to put in use any constitutions or canons already made, or hereafter to be made, except they be made in convocation assembled by the king's writ, his royal assent being also had thereunto, on pain of fine and imprisonment." 2. Because, by the statute of the 1st of Eliz., chap, iii., " all such jurisdictions, privileges, su- periorities, pre-eminences, spiritual or ecclesi- astical power and authority, which hath hereto- fore been, or may lawfully be, executed or used for the visitation of the ecclesiastical state and persons, and for reformation of the same, and of all manner of errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts, and enormities, are forever united to the imperial crown of these realms." Whence it follows that all power is taken from the bish- ops except that of governing their diocesses ac- cording to the laws of the land, or according to any farther injunctions they may receive from the crown under the broad seal. 3. Because some of the archbishop's articles were directly contrary to the statute laws of the realm, which the queen herself has not power to alter or dispense with. By the 13th Eliz., chap, xii., the subscription of the clergy is lim- ited to those articles of the Church which re- late to the doctrines of faith and administration of the sacraments only ; whereas the bishop enjoined them to subscribe the whole thirty- nine. And, by the preamble of the same stat- ute, all ordinations in the times of popery, or after the manner of foreign Reformed Church- es, are admitted to be valid, so that such may enjoy any ecclesiastical preferment in the Church ; but the archbishop says [art. 4th] "that none shall be admitted to preach unless he be ordained according to the manner of the Church of England." Upon these accounts, if the queen had fallen out with him, he might have incurred the guilt of a prajmunire. To these arguments it was replied by his grace's lawyers, 1. That, by the canon law,^ the archbishop has power to make laws for the well-govern- ment of the Church, so far as they do not en- counter the peace of the Church and quietness of the realm. To which it was answered, this might be true in times of popery, but the case was very much altered since the Reformation, because now the archbishops' and bishops' au- thority is derived from the person of the queea only ; for the late Queen Mary having surren- dered back all ecclesiastical jurisdiction into the hands of the pope, the present queen, upon her accession, had no jurisdiction resident ia * MS., p. 429. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. i57 I lier person till the statute of recognisance, 1st of Eiiz., by which the archbishops and bish- ops of this realm, being exempted from the jurisdiction of the pope, are made subject to the queen, to govern her people in ecclesias- tical causes, as her other subjects govern the same (according to their places) in civil caus- es ;* so that the clergy are no more to be called the archbishops' or bishops' children, but the queen's liege people, and are to be governed by them according to the laws, which laws are such canons, constitutions, and synodals pro- vincial, as were in force before the twenty-fifth of Henry VIII., and are not contrary nor repug- nant to the laws and customs of the realm, nor derogatory to her majesty's prerogative royal ; and, therefore, all canons made before the twen- ty-fifth of Henry VIII., giving to the archbish- ops or bishops an unlimited power over the clergy, as derived from the See of Rome, are ut- terly void, such canons being directly against the laws and customs of the realm, which do not admit of any subject executing a law but by authority from the prince ; and they are derog- atory to her majesty's prerogative royal, be- cause hereby some of her subjects might claim an unlimited power over her other subjects, in- dependent of the crown, and, by their private authority, command or forbid what they please. Since, then, the archbishop's articles were framed by his own private authority, they can- not be justified by any of the canons now in force. And as for the peace of the Church and quiet of the realm, they were so far from pro- moting them, that they were like to throw both into confusion. 2. It was said that the queen, as head of the Church, had power to publish articles and in- junctions for reducing the clergy to uniformity, and that the archbishop had the queen's license and consent for what he did. I3ut the queen herself had no authority to publish articles and injunctions in opposition to the laws ; and as for her majesty's permission and consent, it could be no warrant to the archbishop except it had been under the great seal. And if the arch- bishop had no legal authority to command, the clergy were not obliged to obey ; the oath of canonical obedience does not bind in this case, because it is limited to Ileitis ct Jioncstis, things lawful and honest ; whereas the present arti- cles being against law, they were enforced by no legal authority, and were such as the minis- ters could not honestly consent to. Notwithstanding these objections, the arch- bishop, in his primary metropolitical visitation, insisted, peremptorily, that all who enjoyed any ofiice or benefice in the Church should subscribe the three articles above mentioned ; the second of which he knew the Puritans would refuse : accordingly, there were suspended for not sub- scribing— In the county of Norfolk, 64 ministers. " " Suffolk, 60 " " " Sussex, about 30 " " " Essex, 38 «' " " Kent, 19 or 20 « " " Lincolnshire, 21 " In all, 233 * MS., p. 661. All whose names are now before me ; besides great numbers in the diocess of Peterborough, in the city of London, and proportionable in other counties ; some of whom were dignitaries in the Church, and most of them graduates in the university ; of these some were allowed time, but forty-nine were absolutely deprived at once.* Among the suspended ministers his grace showed some particular favour to those of Sus- sex, at the intercession of some great persons ; for after a long dispute and many arguments before himself at Lambeth, he accepted of the subscription of six or seven, with their own ex- plication of the rubrics, and with declaration that their subscription was not to be under- stood in any other sense than as far as the books were agreeable to the Word of God, and to the substance of religion established in the Church of England, and to the analogy of faith ; and that it did not extend to anything not ex- pressed in the said books. t Of all which the archbishop allowed them an authentic copy in writing, dated December 6th, 1583, and ordered his chancellor to send letters to Chichester that the rest of the suspended ministers in that county might be indulged the same favour. Many good and pious men strained their con- sciences on this occasion ; some subscribed the articles with this protestation in open court, " as far as they are agreeable to the Word of God ;" and others demplo secundo, that is, ta- king away the second. Many, upon better con- sideration, repented their subscribing in this manner, and would have rased out their names, but it was not permitted. Some, who were al- lured to subscribe with the promises of favour and better preferment, vi'ere neglected and for- gotten, and troubled in the commissaries' court as much as before. t The court took no notice of their protestations or reserves ; they wanted nothing but their hands, and when they had got them, they were all listed under the same col- ours, and published to the world as absolute subscribers. The body of the inferior clergy wished and prayed for some amendments in the service- book, to make their brethren easy. " I am sure," says a learned divine of these times, " that this good would come of it. (] .) It would please Almighty God. (2.) The learned minis- ters would be more firmly united against the papists. (3.) The good ministers and good subjects, whereof many are now at Weepmg- cross, would be cheered ; and many able stu- dents encouraged to take upon them the minis- try. And (4.) Hereby the papists, and more careless sort of professors, would be more ea- sily won to religion. If any object that excel- lent men were publishers of the Book of Prayer, and that it would be some disgrace to the Church to alter it, I answer, 1st, That though worthy men are to be accounted of, yet their oversights in matters of religion are not to be honoured by subscriptions. 2dly, The reforma- tion of the service-book can be no disgrace to us nor them, for men's second thoughts are wiser than their first ; and the papists, in the late times of Pius V., reformed our Lady's Psal ter. To conclude, if amendments to the book * MS., p. 436. t MS., p. 323, 405. Life of Whitgift, p. 129. j Fanner's Answer to Dr. Bridges, p. 119, 120. 158 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. be inconvenient, it must be either in regard of Protestants or papists ; it cannot be in regard of Protestants, for very great numbers of them pray heartily to God for it. And if it be in re- gard of the papists, we are not to mind them ; for they, whose captains say that we have nei- ther church, nor sacraments, nor ministers, nor queen in England, are not greatly to be regard- ed of us."* But Whitgift was to be influenced by no such arguments ; he was against all alterations in the Liturgy, for this general reason, lest the Church should be thought to have maintained an error : which is surprising to come from the mouth of a Protestant bishop, who had so lately separated from the infallible Church of Rome. His grace's arguments for subscription to his articles are no less remarkable. 1st, If you do not subscribe to the Book of Common Prayer, you do in effect say, there is no true service of God, nor administration of sacraments, in the land. 2dly, If you do not subscribe the Book of Ordination of Priests, &c., then our calling must be unlawful, and we have no true minis- try por church in England. 3dly, If you do not subscribe the Book of the Thirty-nine Articles, you deny true doctrine to be established among us, which is the main note of a true church, t Could an honest man, and a great scholar, be in earnest with this reasoning] Might not the Puritans dislike some things in the service- book, without invalidating the whole 1 Did not his grace know that they offered to subscribe to the use of the service-book, as I'ar as they could apprehend it consonant to trutli, though they could not give it under their hands that there was nothing in it contrary to the Word of God, nor promise to use the whole, with- out the least variation, in their public minis- try! But, according to the archbishop's logic, the Church must be infallible or no church at all. The Liturgy must be perfect in every phrase and sentence, or it is no true service of God ; and every article of the Church must be agreeable to Scripture, or they contain no true doctrine at all. He told the ministers that all who did not subscribe his articles were schis- matics; that they had separated themselves from the Church ; and declared peremptorily that they should be turned out of it. This conduct of the archbishop was exposed in a pamphlet entitled, "The Practice of Prel- ates,"! which says that none ever used good ministers so severely since the Reformation as he ; that his severe proceedings were against the judgment of many of his brethren the bish- ops, and that the devil, the common enemy of mankind, had certainly a hand in it. For who of the ministers, says this writer, have been tumultuous or unpeaceable 1 Have they not striven for peace in their ministry, in their wri- tings, and by their example ; and sought for their discipline only by lawful and dutiful means 1 Why, then, should the archbishop tyr- annise over his fellow-ministers, and starve many thousand souls, by depriving all who re- fuse subscription'? Why should he lay such stress upon popish opinions, and upon a hierar- chy that never obtained till the approach of antichrist ■? » MS., p. 156. t Life of Whitgift, p. 125. + Life of Whitgift, p. 122. Loud were the cries of these poor sufferers and their distressed families to Heaven for mercy, as well as to their superiors on earth ! Their temptations were strong ; for as men, they were moved with compassion for their wives and little ones, and as faithful ministers of Christ, they were desirous to be useful, and to preserve the testimony of a good conscience. Some, through frailty, were overcome and sub- mitted, but most of them cast themselves and families upon the providence of God, having written to the queen, to the archbishop, and to the lords of the council, and, after some time, to the Parliament, for a friendly conference or a public disputation, when, and where, and be- fore whom they pleased, though without suc- cess.* The supplication of the Norfolk ministers to the lords of the council, signed with twenty hands;! the supplication of the Lincolnshire ministers, with twenty-one hands ; the suppli- cation of the Essex ministers, with twenty-seven hands ; the supplication of the Oxfordshire min- isters, with hands ; the supplication of the ministers of Kent, with seventeen hands, are now before me ; besides the supplication of the London ministers, and of those of the diocess of Ely and Cambridgeshire, representing in most moving language their unhappy circum- stances: "We commend," they say, "to your honours' compassion our poor families, but much more do we commend our doubtful, fear- ful, and distressed consciences, together with the cries of our poor people, who are hungering after the Word, and are now as sheep having no shepherd. We have applied to the arch- bishop, but can get no relief; we therefore humbly beg it at your honours' hands. "t They declare their readiness to subscribe the doctri- nal articles of the Church, according to the stat. 13 Eliz., cap. xii., and to the other articles, as far as they are not repugnant to the Word of * In the year 1583 one John Lewis, for denying the deity of Christ, was burned at Norwich. Many of the popish persuasion, under the charge of trea- son, were executed in different places. But, not-. withstanding these severities, "her majesty," says Fuller, " was most merciful unto many popish male- factors wliose lives stood forfeited to the law in the rigour thereof. Seventy, who had been condemned, by one act of grace were pardoned and sent beyond sea." — Church History, b. ix., p. 169, 170. — Ed. t " We dare not yield to these ceremonies," say several of the Norfolk ministers, in a supplication which they presented to the council, " because, so far from edifying and building up the Church, they have rent it asunder, and torn it in pieces, to its great misery and ruin, as God knoweth ; although her majesty be incensed against us, as if we would obey no laws, we take the Lord of heaven and earth to witness that we acknowledge, from the bottom of our hearts, her majesty to be our lawful queen, placed over us by God for our good; and we give God our most humble and hearty thanks for her happy government, and, both in public and private, we constantly pray for her prosperity. We renounce all foreign power, and acknowledge her majesty's supremacy to be lawful and just. We detest all er- ror and heresy. Yet we desire that her majesty will not think us disobedient, seeing we suffer ourselves to be displaced rather than yield to some things re- quired. Our bodies, and goods, and all we have, are in her majesty's hands ; only our souls we re- serve to our God, who alone is able to save us or condemn us." — MS., p. 253. t MS., p. 328, 330, &c. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS; 159 God. And they promise farther, if they may be dispensed with as to subscription, that they will make no disturbance in the Church, nor separate from it. The Kentish ministers, in their supplication to the lords of the council, professed their rev- erence for the established Church,* and their esteem for the Book of Common Prayer, so far as that they saw no necessity of separating from the unity of the Church on that account : that they believed the Word preached, and the sacraments administered according to author- ity, touching the substance, to be lawful. They promised to show themselves obedient to the queen in all causes ecclesiastical and civil ; but then they added, that there were many things that needed reformation, which there- fore they could not honestly set their, hands to.t They conclude with praying for indul- gence, and subscribe themselves their honours' daily and faithful orators, the ministers of Kent suspended from the execution of their ministry. The London ministers applied to the convo- cation, and fifteen of them offered to subscribe to the queen's supremacy, to the use of the Common Prayer Book, and to the doctrinal ar- ticles of the Church, if they might be restored ; but then add, " We dare not say there is nothing in the three books repugnant to the Word of God, tdl we aro otherwise enlightened ; and therefore humbly pray our brethren in convo- cation to be a means to the queen and Parlia- ment that we may not be pressed to an abso- lute subscription, but be suffered to go on in the quiet discharge of the duties of our calling, as we have done heretofore, to the honour of Al- mighty God, and the edification of his Church. We protest, before God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, that if by any means, by doing that which is not wicked, we might continue still our labours in the Gospel, we would gladly and willingly do anything that might procure that blessing, esteeming it more than all the riches in the world ; but if we cannot be suffered to continue in our places and callings, we beseech the Lord to show greater mercy to those by whom this affliction shall be brought upon us, and upon the people committed to our charge, for whom we will not cease to pray, that the good work which the Lord has begun by our la- bours may still be advanced, to that day when the Lord shall give them and us comfort one in another, and in his presence everlasting happi- ness and eternal glory."t This petition was presented to the convocation, in the first sessions of the next Parliament, in the name of the min- isters of London that had refused to subscribe the articles lately enforced upon them ; with an humble request to have their doubts satisfied by conference, or any other way. Among the suspended ministers of London was the learned and virtuous Mr. Barber, who preached four times a week at Bow Church : his parishioners, to the number of one hundred * This has been considered, by Bishop Warbur- ton, as inconsistent with caUing the " established Church an hierarchy, that never obtained till the ap- proach of antichrist." But the charge of inconsist- ency does not lie against the Kentish ministers who speak above, unless it be proved that they were the authors of the pamphlet entitled " The Practice of Prelates," which contains the other sentiments. — Ed. t MS., p. 326. t MS., p. 595, 632. and twenty, signed a petition to the lord- mayor and court of aldermen for his release, but that court could not obtain it.* March 4, 1584, the learned Mr. Field and Mr. Egertoa were suspended. Mr. Field had been often la bonds for nonconformity ; he was minister of Aldermary, and had admitted an assembly of ministers at his house, among whom were some Scots divines, who, being disaffected to the hie- rarchy, the assembly was declared an unlawful conventicle, and Mr. Field was suspended from his ministry for entertaining them ; but the rest were deprived for not subscribing. Many gentlemen of reputation both in city and country appeared for the suspended minis- ters, as well out of regard to their poor families as for the sake of religion, it being impossible to supply so many vacancies as were made in the Church upon this occasion. The gentle- men of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Kent in- terceded with the archbishop, alleging that it was very hard to deal with men so severely for a few rites and ceremonies, when they were neither heretics nor schismatics, and when the country wanted their useful preaching. The parishioners of the several places from whence the ministers were ejected signed petitions to the lord-treasurer, and others of the queen's council, beseeching them, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, that their ministers, being of an upright and holy conversation, and diligent preachers of the Word of God, might be restored, or other- wise (their livings being only of small value) their souls would be in danger of perishing for lack of knowledge.! The inhabitants of Maiden in Essex sent up a complaint to the council, " that since their ministers had been taken from them, for not subscribing to certain articles neither confirmed by the law of God nor of the land, they had none left but such as they could prove unfit for that office, being altogether ignorant, having been either popish priests or shiftless men, thrust in upon the ministry when they knew not else how to live ; men of occupation, serving- men, and the basest of all sorts ; and which is most lamentable, as they are men of no gifts, so they are of no common honesty, but rioters, dicers, drunkards, &c., and of offensive lives. These are the men," say they, "that are support- ed, whose reports and suggestions against others are readily received and admitted ; by reason of which, multitudes of papists, heretics, and other enemies to God and the queen, are in- creased, and we ourselves in danger of being in- sulted. We therefore humbly beseech your honours, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, to be a means of restoring our godly and faithful minis- ters ; so shall we and many thousands of her majesty's subjects continue our daily supplica- tions to Almighty God," &c. The petition of the inhabitants of Norwich,, signed with one hundred and seventy-six hands, and many letters and supplications from the most populous towns in England, to the same purpose, are now before me. But these appeals of the Puritans and their friends did them no service ; for the watchful archbishop, whose eyes were about him, wrote to the council to put them in mind, " that the cause of the Puritans did not lie before them ; that he wondered at the pre- * MS., p. 460, 568, &c. t Ibid., p. 457. 160 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. sumption of the ministers, to bring his doings in question before their lordships; and at their proud spirit, to dare to ofier to dispute before so great a body against the religion established by law, and against a book so painfully penned, and confirmed by the highest authority." He then adds, " that it was not for him to sit in his place, if every curate in his diocess must dispute with him ; nor could he do his duty to the queen, if he might not proceed without interruption ; but if they would help him, he should soon bring them to comply."* As to the gentlemen who petitioned for their ministerst, he told them to their faces that he would not suffer their fac- tious ministers, unless they would subscribe ; that no church ought to suffer its laudable rites to be neglected ; that though the ministers were not heretics, they were schismatics, be- cause they raised a contention in the Church about things not necessary to salvation. And as for lack of preaching, if the gentlemen or parishioners would let him dispose of their liv- ings, he would take care to provide them with able men. Thus this great prelate, who had complied with the popish religion, t and kept his place in the university through all the reign of Queen Mary, was resolved to bear down all opposition, and to display his sovereign power against those whose consciences were not as flexible as'his own. But not content with his episcopal jurisdic- tion, his grace solicited the queen for a new ec- clesiastical commission, and gave her majesty these weighty reasons for it, among others. Because the Puritans continue the ecclesiasti- cal censures. Because the commission may order a search for seditious books, and examine the writers or publishers upon oath, which a bishop cannot. Because the ecclesiastical com- mission can punish by fines, which are very commodious to the government ; or by impris- -onment, which will strike more terror into the Puritans. Because a notorious fault cannot be notoriously punished but by the commission. Because the whole ecclesiastical law is but a carcass without a soul, unless it be quickened by the commission.^ The queen, who was already disposed to methods of severity, easily gave way to the archbishop's arguments, and ordered a new high commission to be prepared, which she put the great seal to, in the month of December, 1583, and the twenty-sixth year of her reign. II * Life of Whitgift, p. 127. \ Strype's Life of Whitgift, p. 4. j Bishop Maddox here censures Mr. Neal, and says that the reverse was true. The fact, from all his bi- ographers, appears to be, that on the expectation of a visitation of the university, in Queen Mary's reign, to suppress heresy, and to oblige such as were qualified to take the first tonsure, Whitgift, foreseeing his dan- ger, and fearing not only an expulsion, but for his life, particularly because he could not comply with this requisition, would have gone abroad ; but Dr. Pearn encouraged and persuaded him to stay, bidding him to keep his own counsel, and not utter his opinion, and engaging to conceal him without incurring any danger to his conscience in this visitation. He con- tinued, therefore, in the college throughout this reign. But it is not to be conceived but that he must have preserved an outward conformity to the pubhc and usual services of the Church. — Ed. ^ Life of Whitgift, p. 134. II There had been five high commissions before The Court of High Commission was so call- ed, because it claimed a larger jurisdiction and this, in most of which the powers of the commission- ers had been enlarged ; but forasmuch as the court was now almost at its height, I will give the reader an abstract of their commission from an attested copy, under the hand and seal of Abraham Hartwell, a notary public, at the special request and command of the archbishop himself, dated January 7th, 1583-4. The preamble recites the act of the first of the queen, commonly called the act for " restoring to the crown the ancient jurisdiction of the state ecclesias- tical and civil, and the abobshing all foreign power repugnant to the same ;" and another of the same year, " for uniformity of aemmon prayer and service of the Church and administration of the sacrament ;" and a third of the fifth of the queen, entitled " An Act of Assurance of the Queen's Powers over all States," &c. ; and a fourth of the thirteenth Ehz., entitled " An Act for reforming certain Disorders touching Ministers of the Church," as the foundation of her ecclesiastical jurisdiction and power. Her majesty then names forty-four commissioners, whereof twelve were bishops ; some were privy-councillors, lawyers, and officers of state, as Sir Francis Knollys, treasu- rer of the household. Sir Francis Walsingham, sec- retary of state, Sir Walter Mildmay, chancellor of the exchequer, Sir Ralph Sadher, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Sir Gilbert Gerard, master of the rolls. Sir Robert Manhood, lord-chief-baron of the exchequer. Sir Owen Hopton, lieutenant of the Tower of London, John Popham, Esq., attorney-gen- eral, Thomas Egerton, Esq., solicitor-general ; the rest were deans, archdeacons, and civilians. Her majesty then proceeds : " We, earnestly minding to have the above-men- tioned laws put in execution, and putting special trust and confidence in your wisdoms and discretions, have authorized and appointed you to be our com- missioners ; and do give full power and authority to you, or any three of you, whereof the Archbishop of Canterbury, or one of the bishops mentioned in the commission, or Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Gilbert Gerard, or some of the civilians, to be one, to inquire from time to time during our pleasure, as well by the oaths of twelve good and lawful men, as also by wit- nesses, and all other means and ways you can de- vise ; of all offences, contempts, misdemeanors, &c., done and committed contrary to the tenour of the said several acts and statutes; and also to inquire of all heretical opinions, seditious books, contempts, conspiracies, false rumours or talks, slanderous words and sayings, &c., contrary to the aforesaid laws, or any others, ordained for the maintenance of religion in this realm, together with their abettors, counsel- lors, or coadjutors. " And farther, we do give full power to you, or any three of you, whereof the Archbishop of Canterbury, or one of the bishops mentioned in the commission, to be one, to hear and determine concerning the premises, and to order, correct, reform, and punish all persons dwelling in places exempt or not exempt, that wilfully and obstinately absent from church, or Divine service established by law, by the censures of the Church, or any other lawful ways and means, by the Act of Uniformity, or any laws ecclesiastical of this realm limited and appointed ; and to take or- der of your discretions, that the penalties and forfeit- ures limited by the said Act of Uniformity against the offenders in that behalf may be duly levied, ac- cording to the forms prescribed in the said act, to the use of us and the poor, upon the goods, lands, and tenements of such offenders, by way of distress, ac- cording to the true meaning and limitation of the statute. " And we do farther empower you, or any three of you, during our pleasure, to visit and reform all errors, heresies, schisms, &c., which may lawfully be reformed or restrained by censures ecclesiastical, deprivation, or otherwise, according to the power HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 161 higher powers than the ordinary courts of the bishops; its jurisdiction extended over the whole kingdom, and was the same, in a manner, with that which had been vested in the single person of Lord Cromwell, vicar-general to Kmg Henry VIII., though now put into commission. The and authority limited and appointed by the laws, or- dinances, and statutes of this realm. " And we do hereby farther empower you, or any three of you, to call before you such persons as have ecclesiastical livings, and to deprive such of them as wdfuUy and advisediy maintain any doctrine contra- iy to such articles of religion of the synod of 1562 which only concern the confession of the true faith and doctrine of the sacraments, and will not revoke the same. " And we do farther empower you, or any three of you, to punish all incests, adulteries, fornications, outrages, misbehaviours, and disorders in marriage ; and ail grievous offences punishable by the ecclesias- tical laws, according to the tenour of the laws in that behalf, and according to your wisdoms, consciences, and discretions, commanding you, or any three of you, to devise all such lawl'ul ways and means for the searching out the premises as by you shall be thought necessary ; and upon due proof thereof had, by confession of the party, or lawful witnesses, or by any other due means, to order and award such pun- ishment, by fine, imprisonment, censures of the Church, or by all or any of the said ways, as to your wisdom and discretions shall appear most meet and convenient. " And farther we do empower you, or any three of you, to call before you all persons suspected of any of the premises, and to proceed against them, as the quality of the offence and suspicion shall require, to examine them on their corporeal oaths, for the better trial and opening of the truth ; and if any persons are obstinate and disobedient, either in not appearing at your command, or not obeying your orders and decrees, then to punish them by excommunication, or other censures ecclesiastical, or by fine, accord- ing to your discretions ; or to commit the said of- fenders to ward, there to remain till he or they shall be by you, or three of you, enlarged or dehvered ; and shall pay such costs and expenses of suit as the cause shall require, and you, in justice, shall think reasonable. " And farther, we give full power and authority to you, or three of you as aforesaid, to command all our sheriffs, justices, and other officers by your letters, to apprehend, or cause to be apprehended, such persons as you shall think meet to be convened before you ; and to take such bond as you shall think fit for their personal appearance ; and in case of re- fusal, to commit them to safe custody, till you shall _give order for their enlargement ; and, farther, to take such securities for their performance of your decrees as you shall think reasonable. And, farther, you shall keep a register of your decrees, and of your fines, and appoint receivers, messengers, and other officers, with such salaries as you shall think fit ; the receiver to certify into the exchequer, every Easter and Michaelmas term, an account of the fines taxed and received, under the hands of three of the commissioners. » " And we do farther empower you, or any six of you, whereof some to be bishops, to examine, alter, review, and amend the statutes of colleges, cathe- drals, grammar-schools, and other public foundations, and to present them to us to be confirmed. "And we do farther empower you to tender the oath of supremacy to all ministers, and others com- pellable by act of Parliament, and to certify the names of such as refuse it into the King's Bench. " And, lastly, we do appoint a seal for your office, having a crown and a rose over it, and the letter E before and R after the same ; and round about the seal these words, ' Sigil. commiss. regiae maj. ad causas ecclesiasticas.' " Vol. I.— X court was erected upon the authority of the acts mentioned in the preamble, and therefore its powers must bo limited by those statutes ; but the counsel for Mr. Cawdrey, whose case was argued before all the judges in Trinity term, 1591, questioned whether the court had any foundation at all in law ; it being doubtful whether the queen could delegate her ecclesias- tical authority, or the commissaries act by vir- tue of such delegation. But admitting the court to be legal, it will ap- pear that both the queen and her commission- ers exceeded the powers granted them by law ; for it was not the intendment of the act of su- premacy to vest any new powers in the crown, but only to restore those which were supposed to be its ancient and natural right. Nor do the acts above recited authorize the queen to dis- pense with the laws of the realm, or act contra- ry to them ; or to set aside the ordinary legal courts of proceeding in other courts of judica- ture, by indictments, witnesses, and a jury of twelve men ; nor do they empower her to levy fines, and inflict what corporeal punishments she pleases upon offenders ; but in all criminal cases, where the precise punishment is not de- termined by the statute, her commissioners were to be directed and governed by the com- mon law of the land. Yet, contrary to the proceedings in other courts, and to the essential freedom of the Eng- lish Constitution, the queen empowered her com- missioners to " inquire into all misdemeanors, not only by the oaths of twelve men, and wit- nesses, but by all other means and ways they could devise ;" that is, by inquisition, by the rack, by torture, or by any ways and means that forty-four sovereign judges should devise. Surely this should have been limited to ways and means warranted by the laws and customs of the realm. Farther, her majesty empowers her " commis- sioners to examine such persons as they sus- pected upon their corporeal oaths, for the better trial and opening of the truth, and to punish those that refused the oath by fine or imprisonment, according to their discretion." This refers to the oath ex officio mere, and was not in the first five commissions. It was said in behalf of this oath, by Dr. Au- brey,* that though it was not warrantable by the letter of the statute of the 1st of Ehzabeth, yet the canon law being in force before the making of that statute, and the commission warranting the commissioners to proceed according to the law ecclesiastical, they might lawfully adminis- ter it according to ancient custom, t To which it was answered, " that such an oath was never allowed by any canon of the Church, or general council, for a thousand years after Christ ; that when it was used against the primitive Chris- tians, the pagan emperors countermanded it ; that it was against the fjope's law in the decre- tals, which admits of such an inquisition only in cases of heresy ; nor was it ever used in Eng- land till the reign of King Henry IV., and then it was enforced as law only by a haughty arch- bishop, without consent of the commons of Eng- land, tdl the 25th of Henry VIII., when it was * And nine others, learned civilians ; and most of them, Strype says, judges in the civil and ecclesias- tical courts.— Ed. t Life of Whitgift, p. 340 i62 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. utterly abrogated. This pretended law was ^gain revived by Queen Mary, but repealed again by the 1st of Queen Elizabeth, and so remain- ed.* Besides, as this purging men by oath has no foundation in the law of the land, it is un- doubtedly contrary to the law of nature and na- tions, where this is a received maxim, Nemo ic- nclur scipsum accusarc : No man is bound to ac- cuse himself The queen, therefore, had no pow- er to authorize her commissioners to set up an inquisition, and administer an oath to the sus- pected person, to answer all questions the court should put to him, and to convict him upon those answers ; or, if they could confront his declara- tions, to punish him as perjured. If any persons disobeyed the orders and de- crees of the court, by not appearing at their sum- mons, &c., the commissioners were empowered to punish them by line or imprisonment, at their discretions. This also was contrary to law, for the body of a subject is to be dealt with, secun- dum legem terra, according to the law of the land, as Magna Cliarta and the law saith. The clerk felon in the bishop's prison is the king's prison- er, and not the bishop's, and therefore by the 1st of Henry VII., cap. iv., "the bishop of the dio- cess is empowered to imprison such priests, or other religious persons within his jurisdiction, as shall by examination, and other lawful proofs requisite by the law of the Church, be convicted of fornication, incest, or any fleshly incontinen- cy, and there to detain them for such time as shall be thought by their discretions convenient, according to the quality of the offence ; and that none of the said archbishops or bishops shall be chargeable with an action of false imprisonment for so doing.t Which plainly implies, that a bishop cannot by law commit a man to prison, e.\ce|)t in the cases above mentioned ; and that in all others, the law remains in force as before. If, then, the queen, by her ecclesiastical commis- sion, could not dispense with the laws of the land, it is evident that the long and arbitrary imprisonments of the Puritan clergy, before they had been legally convicted, and all their confine- ments afterward, beyond the time limited by the statutes, were so many acts of oppression ; and every acting bishop or commissioner was liable to be sued in an action of false imprisonment. The law says no man shall be fined ultra te- 7iemcntum, beyond his estate or ability. But the fines raised by thi? court, in the two next reigns, were so exorbitant, that no man was secure in his property or estate ; though, according to Lord Clarendon, their power of levying fines at all was very doubtful. Some for speaking an un- mannerly word, or writing what the court was pleased to construe a libel, were fined from £500 to £10,000, and perpetual imprisonment ; some had their ears cut off, and their noses slit, after they had been exposed several days m the pillory ; and many families were driven into ban- ishment ; till, in process of time, the court be- came such a general nuisance, that it was dis- solved by Parliament, with a clause that no such court should be erected for the future. Farther, the commission gives no authority to the court to frame articles and oblige the clergy to subscribe them. It empowers them to reform all errors, heresies, and schisms which may * Life of Whitgift, p. 393, 394. t Life of Ayhner, p. 115. lawfully be reformed, according to the power and authority limited and appointed by the laws and statutes of the realm. But there never was a clause in anyof the commissions empowering them to enforce subscription to articles of their own devising.* Therefore, their doing this without a special ratification under the great seal was no doubt a usurpation of the suprem- acy, and brought them within the compass of a prajmunire, according to the statutes of 25 Hen- ry VIII., cap XX., and 1 Eliz., cap. iii. Lastly : Though all spiritual courts (and, con- sequently, high commission) are and ought to be subject to prohibitions from the supreme courts of law, yet the commissioners would seldom or never admit them, and at length terrified the judges from granting them : so that, upon the whole, their proceedings were for the most part contrary to the act of submission of the clergy, contrary to the statute laws of the realm, and no better than a spiritual inquisition. t If a clergyman omitted any of the ceremonies of the Church in his public ministrations, or if a parishioner bore an ill-will to his minister, he might inform the commissioners by letter that he was a suspected person ; upon which a pursuivant or messenger was sent to his house with a citation.! The pursuivant who brought them up had thirty-three shillings and fourpence for forty-one miles, being about nine or ten pence a mile. Upon their appearing before the commissioners, they were committed prisoners to the Clink Prisoa seven weeks before they were called to their trial. When the prisoners were brought to the bar, the court immediately tendered them the oath to answer all questions to the best of their knowledge, by which they were obliged not only to accuse themselves, but frequently to * MS., p. 573. t In this view it was considered by the Lord-treas- urer Burleigh. " According to my simple judgment," says he, in a letter to the archbishop, " this kind of proceeding is too much savouring the Romish inqui- sition, and is rather a device to seek for offenders than reform any." — Fuller''s Church History, b. ix., p. 155. Mr. Hume stigmatizes this court not only as a real inquisition, but attended with all the iniquities, as well as cruelties, inseparable from that horrid tri- bunal.— Ed. t The citation was to the following effect : "We will and command you, and every of you, in her majesty's name, by virtue of her high commission for causes ecclesiastical, to us and others directed, that you, and every of you, do make your personal appearance before us, or others her majesty's com- missioners in that behalf appointed, in the consistory within the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's, London [or at Lambeth], the seventh day next after the sight hereof, if we or other our colleagues shall then hap- pen to sit in commission, or else at our ne.xt sitting there, then next immediately following ; and that af- ter your appearance there made, you, and every of you, shall attend, and not depart without our special license ; willing and commanding you, to whom these our letters shall first be delivered, to show the same, and give intimation and knowledge thereof, to the others nominated upon the endorsement hereof, as you, and every of you, will answer to the contrary at your perils. Given at London, the 16th of May, 1584. John Cant. Gabriel Goodman. John London. Endorsed, To EzeUias Morley, ) Robert Pamnet, and > of Ridgwell in Essex." William Bigge, ) HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 163 bring their relations and friends into trouble. The party to be examined was not to be ac- quainted with the interrogatories beforehand, nor to have a copy of his answers, which were lodged with the secretary of the court, against the day of his trial. If the commissioners could not convict him upon his own confession, then they examined their witnesses, but never clear- ed him upon his own oath. If they could not reach the prisoner by their ordinary jurisdiction as bishops, they would then sit as ecclesiastical commissioners. If they could not convict him upon any statute, then they had recourse to their old obsolete law ecclesiastical ; so that the prisoner seldom knew by what law he was to be tried, or how to prepare for his defence. Sometimes men were obliged to a long attend- ance, and at other times condemned in haste, without any trial. The Rev. Mr. Brayne, a Cambridge minister, being sent for to Lambeth, made his appearance before the archbishop and two other commissioners, on Saturday, in the afternoon, and being commanded to answer the interrogatories of the court upon oath, he re- fused, unless he might first see them, and write down his answers with his own hand, which his grace refusing, immediately gave him his ca- nonical admonitions, once, twice, and thrice, and caused him to be registered for contempt, and suspended.* Let the reader carefully peruse the twenty- four articles themselves, which the archbishop framed for the service of the court, and then judge whether it were possible for an honest man to answer them upon oath without expo- sing himself to the mercy of his adversaries.! * Life of Whitgift, p. 163. I The articles were these that follow : 1. Imprimis. "Objicimus, ponimus, et articulamur, ', e., We object, put, and article to you, that you are ■a deacon or minister, and priest admitted ; declare by whom and what time you were ordered ; and likewise, that your ordering was according to the book in that behalf by the law of this land provided. Et objicimus conjunctim de omni et divisimde quoUbet, i. e., ' And we object to you the whole of this article taken together, and every branch of it separately.' 2. Item. " Objicimus, ponimus, et articulamur. That you deem and judge snch your ordering, admis- sion, and calling into your ministry, to be lawful, and not repugnant to the Word of God. Et objicimus ut supra, i. e., ' And we object as before.' 3. Item. " Objicimus, ponimus, &c. That you have sworn, as well at the time of your ordering as insti- tution, duty and allegiance to the queen's majesty, and canonical obedience to your ordinary and his suc- cessors, and to the metropohtan and his successors, or to some of them. Et objicimus ut supra. 4. Item. " Objicimus, &;c. That by a statute or act of Parliament made in the first year of the queen's majesty that now is, one tirtuous and godly book, entitled The Book of Common Prayer and Ad- ministration of Sacraments, &c., was authorized and established to stand and be from and after the feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist then next ensuing, in full force and effect, according to the said statute, and so yet remaineth. Et obj. ut supra. 5. Item. " Obj., That by the said statute all minis- ters within her majesty's dominions, ever since the said feast, have been, and are bound to say and use, a certain form of morning and evening prayer called m the act matins, even-song, cpJebration of the Lord's Supper, and administration of each of the sacraments ; and all other common and open prayer in such order and form as is mentioned in the same book, and none other, nor otherwise. Et obj. ut supra. When the Lord-treasurer Burleigh had read them over, and seen the execution they liad 6. Item. " Obj., That in the said statute her maj- esty, the lords temporal, and all the commons, in that Parliament assembled, do in God's name earnestly charge and require all the archbishops, bishops, and other ordinaries, that they shall endeavour them- selves, to the uttermost of their knowledge, that the due and true execution of the said act might be had throughout their diocess and charge, as they would answer it before Almighty God. Et obj. ut supra. 7. Item. "Obj. ponimus, &c. That you deem and judge the said whole book to be a godly and a virtu- ous book, agreeable, or at least not repugnant, to the Word of God ; ' if not, we require and command you to declare wherein, and in what points.' Et objici- mus ut supra. 8. Item. " Obj., That for the space of these three years, two years, one year, half a year ; three, two, or one month last past, you have at the time of com- munion, and at all or some other times in your min- istration, used and worn only your ordinary apparel, and not the surplice, as is required. ' Declare how long, how often, and for what cause, consideration, or intent you have so done, or refused so to do.' Et obj. ut supra. 9. Item. " Obj., That within the time aforpsaid you have baptized divers, or at least one infant, and have not used the sign of the cross in the forehead, with the words prescribed to be used in the said Book of Common Prayer. ' Declare how many you have so baptized, and for what cause, consideration, and in- tent.' Et obj. ut supra. 10. Item. " Obj., &c.. That within the time afore- said you have been sent unto, and required divers times, or at least once, to baptize children, or some one child being weak, and have refused, neglected, or at least so long deferred the same, till the child or children died without the sacrament of baptism. ' De- clare whose child, when, and for what considera- tion.' Et obj. ut supra. 11. Item. " Ob]., &c.. That within the time afore- said you have celebrated matrimony otherwise than the book prescribes, and without a ring, and have re- fused at such times to call for the ring, and to use such words in that behalf as the book appoints, and particularly those words, ' that by matrimony is sig- nified the spriritual marriage and unity between Christ and his Church.' ' Declare the circumstan- ces of time, person, and place, and for what cause, intent, and consideration.' Et obj. ut supra. 12. Item. " Obj., &c.. That you have within the time aforesaid neglected, or refused to use, the form of thanksgiving for women, or some one woman af- ter childbirth, according to the said book. ' Declare the like circumstances thereof, and for what intent, cause, or consideration you have so done, or refused so to do.' Et obj. ut supra. 13. Item. " Objicimus, &c.. That you within the time aforesaid baptized divers infants, or at the least one, otherwise and in other manner than the said book prescribeth, and not used the interrogatories to the godfathers and godmothers in the name of the infant, as the said book requireth. ' Declare the like circumstances thereof, or for what cause, intent, or consideration you have so done, or refused so to do.' Ec objicimus ut supra. 14. Item. " We do object, that you have within the time aforesaid used any other form of litany, in divers or some points, from the said book ; or that you have often, or once, wholly refused to use the said litany. ' Declare the like circumstances thereof, or for what cause, intent, or consideration you have so done, or refused so to do.' 15. Item. "We do object, &c.. That you have within the time aforesaid refused and omitted to read divers lessons prescribed by the said book, and have divers times either not read any lessons at all, or read Others in their places. ' Declare the like cir- cumstance thereof, and for what intent, cause, or IG4 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. done upon the clergy, he wrote his grace the following letter : consideration you have so done or refused.' Et obj. ut supra. 16. Item. " Objicimus, That within the time afore- said you have eitlier not used at all, or else used an- other manner of common prayer or service at burial, from that which the said book prescribeth, and have refused there to use these words, We commit earth to earth, in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life. ' Declare the like circumstances there- of, and for what intent, cause, or consideration you have so done or refused so to do.' Et obj. ut supra. 17. Item. "Objicimus, &c.. That within the time aforesaid you have advisedly, and of set purpose, not only omitted and refused to use the aforesaid parts, or some of them, of the said book, but also some other parts of the said Book of Common Pray- er, as being persuaded that in such points it is repug- nant to the Word of God. ' Declare what other parts of the said book you have refused to use, for what intent, cause, or consideration.' Et objic. ut supra. 18. Item. " Objic, &c.. That within the time afore- said you have at the communion, and in other parts of your ministration, advisedly added unto, diminished, and taken from, altered, and transposed, manifoldly at your own pleasure, sundry parts of the said Book of Common Prayer. ' Declare the circumstances of time and place, and for what intent, cause, and con- sideration.' Et obj. ut supra. 19. Item. " Objic, That within the time aforesaid you have advisedly, and of set purpose, preached, taught, declared, set down, or published by writing, public or private speech, matter against the said Book of Common Prayer, or of something therein contain- ed, as being repugnant to the Word of God, or not convenient to be used in the Church ; or something have written or uttered tending to the depraving, de- spising, or defacing of some things contained in the said book. ' Declare what, and the like circumstan- ces thereof, and for what cause or consideration you have so done.' Et objic. ul supra. 20. Item. " Objicimus, &c., That you at this pres- ent do continue all or some of your former opinions against the said book, and have a settled purpose to continue hereafter such additions, diminutions, alter- ations, and transpositions, or some of them, as you heretofore unlawfully have used in your public min- istration; and that you have used private conferen- ces, and assembled, or been present, at conventicles, for the maintenance of their doings herein, and for the animating and encouraging of others to continue in the like disposition in this behalf that you are of ' Declare the like circumstances, and for what intent, cause, and consideration.' Et objic. ut supra. 21. Item. " Objicimus, &c.. That you have been heretofore noted, defamed, presented, or detected publicly, to have been faulty in all and singular the premises, and of every or some of them ; and that you have been divers and sundry times, or once at the least, admonished by your ordinaiy, or other ecclesiastical magistrate, to reform the same, and to observe the form and order of the Book of Common Prayer, which you have refused, or defer to do. ' Declare the like circumstances thereof.' Et objic. ut supra. 22. Item. " That for the testification hereafter of your unity with the Church of England, and your conformity to laws established, you have been re- quired simply and absolutely to subscribe with your hand, (1.) That her majesty, under God, hath, and ought to have, the sovereignty and rule oyer all manner of persons born within her realm, dominions, and countries, of what estate either ecclesiastical or temporal soever they be ; and that none other foreign power, prelate, state, or potentate hath, or ought have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within her maj- esty's said realms, dominions, or countries. (2.) That the Book of Common Prayer, and of ordering bish- " It may please your grace, " I am sorry to trouble you so oft as I do, but I am more troubled myself, not only with many private petitions of sundry ministers, recom- mended for persons of credit and peaceable in their ministry, who are greatly troubled by your grace, and your colleagues in coinmission ; but I am also daily charged by counsellors and pub- lic persons with neglect of my duty, in not stay- ing your grace's vehement proceedings against ministers, whereby papists are greatly encour- aged, and the queen's safety endangered.* I have read over your twenty-four articles, found in a Romish style, of great length and curiosity, to examine all manner of ministers in this time, without distinction of persons, to be executed ex officio mcro. And I find them so curiously penned, so full of branches and circumstances, that I think the Inquisition of Spain used not so many questions to comprehend and to trap their priests. I know your canonists can defend these with all their particles ; but surely, under correction, this judicial and canonical sifting poor ministers is not to edify or reform. And in charity I think they ought not to answer all these nice points, except they were notorious papists or heretics. I write with the testimony of a good conscience. I desire the peace and unity of the Church. I favour no sensual and wilful recusant ; but I conclude, according to my simple judgment, this kind of proceeding is too much savouring of the Romish Inquisition, and is a device rather to seek for offenders than to reform any. It is not charitable to send poor ministers to your common registrar, to answer upon so many articles at one instant, without a copy of the articles or their answers. I pray your grace bear with this one (perchance) fault, that I have willed the ministers not to answer these articles except their consciences may suf- fer them. " July 15, 1584. W. Cecil." This excellent letter was so far from soften- ing the archbishop, that, two days after, he re- turned his lordship a long answer, vindicating his interrogatories, from the practice of the ops, priests, and deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God, and that the same may be lawfully used ; and that you who do subscribe will use the form in the said book prescribed, in public prayer and administration of the sacraments, and none other. (.3.) That you allow the book of articles of religion, agreed upon by the archbishops and bish- ops of both provinces, and the whole clergy in the convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord God 15C2, and set forth by her majesty's au thority ; and do believe all the articles therein con- tained to be agreeable to the Word of God. ' De- clare by whom, and how often, which hitherto you have advisedly refused to perform, and so yet do per sist.' Et objic. ut supra. 23. Item. "That you have taken upon you to preach, read, or expound the Scriptures, as well in public places as in private houses, not being licensed by your ordinary, nor any other magistrate having au- thority by the laws of this land so to license you. ' Declare the like circumstances hereof Et objic. ut supra. 24. Item. " Quod praemissa omnia et singula, &c., i. e., ' That all and singular the premises,.'" &c Could the wit of man invent anything more like an inquisition ! Here are interrogatories enough to entangle all the honest men in the kingdom, and bring them into danger. * Life of Whitgift, b. iv., Rec. No. 4. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 165 Star Chamber, the Court of Marches, and other places.* The treasurer found it was to no pur- pose to contend, and therefore repUed in a short but smart letter, in which he tells him " that * " W'hitgit't rephed to the lord-treasurer, alleging that he had uniformly acquainted him with his pro- ceedings, and had acted on his advice. ' Touching ihe twenty-four articles,' he says, ' which your lord- ship seemeth so much to dislike, as ivritten in a Ro- mish style, smelling of the Romish Inquisition, &C., I cannot but greatly marvel at your lordship's vehe- ment speeches against them (I hope without cause), seeing it is the ordinary course in other courts like- wise ; as in the Star Chamber, the Court of the Marches, and other places. And (without offence be it spoken) I tliink these articles to be more toler- able, and better agreeing with the rule of justice and charity, and less captious, than those in other courts. For my own part,' he adds, ' I neither do nor have done anything in this matter, which I do not think myself in duty and conscience bound to do ; which her majesty hath not with earnest charge com- mitted unto me ; and the which 1 am well able to justify, to be most requisite for this State and Church ; whereof, next to her majesty, though most unworthy, or, at the least, most unhappy, the chief care is committed to me ; which I may not neglect, whatsoever come upon me therefor. I never es- teem the honour of the place (which is to me gravis- simum 07ius), nor the largeness of the revenues (for the which I am not yet one penny the richer), nor any other worldly thing, I thank God, in the respect of the doing of my duty. Neither do I fear the dis- pleasure of man, nor regard the wicked tongues of the uncharitable, which call me tyrant, pope, papist, knave, and lay to my charge things which I never did, nor thought upon.' "The archbishop expresses his deep concern at the lord-treasurer's dissatisfaction with his proceed- ings. ' God knoweth,' he said, 'how desirous I have been, from time to time, to satisfy your lordship in all things, and to have my doings approved by you. For which cause, since my coming to this place, I did nothing of importance without your advice. I have risen up early and sat up late, to write unto you such objections and answers as are used on either side. I have not done the like to any man. And shall I now say that I have lost my labour ? Or shall my just dealing with two of the most disordered min- isters in a whole diocess (the obstinacy and contempt of whom, especially of one of them, yourself would not bear in any subjected to your authority) cause you so to think and speak of my doings and of my- self? No man hving: should have made me believe it. My lord, an old friend is better than a new. And I trust your lordship will not so lightly cast off your old friends for any of these new-fangled and factious sectaries ; whose endeavour is to make division where- soever they come, and separate old and assured friends Your lordship seemeth to burden me with wilfulness, &c. I think you are not so per- suaded of me ; I appeal therein to your own conscience. There is a difference betwixt wilfulness and constan- cy. I have taken upon me the defence of the religion and rites of this church ; the execution of the laws concerning the same ; the appeasing of the sec/s#md schisms therein ; the reducing the ministers tfJereof to uniformity and due obedience. Herein I intend to be constant ; which also my place, my person, my duty, the laws, her majesty, and the goodness of the cause requireth of me ; and wherein your lordship and others (all things considered) ought, as I take it, to assist and help me. It is more than strange that d man in my place, dealing by so good warran- ty as I do, should be so hardly used, and for not yielding be counted wilful. But Vincit qui paiitur, overcomes. And if my friends herein forsake me, I trust God will not, nor her majesty, who have laid the charge on me, and are able to protect me ; upon whom only I will depend.' " — Dr. Price's Hist. Nan- conformity, vol. i., 341-2. — C. I after reading his grace's long answer, he was not satisfied in the point of seeking by exami- nation to have ministers accuse themselves, and then punish them for their own confession; that he would not call his proceedings captious, but they were scarcely charitable ; his grace might therefore deal with his friend Mr. Brayne as he thought fit, but when, by examining him, it was meant only to sift him with twenty-four articles, he had cause to pity the poor man."* The archbishop, being desirous to give satis- faction to the treasurer, sent him two papers of reasons, one to justify the articles, and the other the manner of proceeding ex mero officio. In the former he says, that by the ecclesiastical or canon laws, articles of inquiry may be ad- ministered, and have been ever since the Ref- ormation ; and that they Ought not to be com- pared with the Inquisition, because the Inquisi- tion punished with death, whereas they only punished obstinate offenders with deprivation. t In the latter his lordship gives the following rea- sons, among others, for proceeding ex mero offi- cio : If we proceed only by presentment and witnesses, then papists, Brownists, and family men would expect the like measure. It is hard to get witnesses against the Puritans, because most of the parishioners favour them, and therefore will not present them, nor appear against them. There is great trouble and charge in examining witnesses, and sending for them from distant parts. If archbishops and bishops should be driven to use proofs by witnesses only, the execution of the law would be partial ; their charges in procuring and pro- ducing witnesses would be intolerable ; and they should not be able to make quick despatch enough with the sectaries. These were the arguments of a Protestant archbishop ! I do not wonder that they gave no satisfaction to the wise treasurer ; for surely, all who have any regard for the laws of their country, or the civil and religious rights of mankind, must be ashamed of them. The treasurer having given up the archbish- op, the' lords of the council took the cause in hand, and wrote to his grace and the Bishop of London, in favour of the deprived ministers, September 20th. t In their letter they tell their lorships " that they had heard of sundry com- plaints out of divers counties, of proceedings against a great number of ecclesiastical persons, some parsons, some vicars, some curates, but all preachers ; some deprived, and some sus- pended by their lordships' officers, chancellors, &c., but that they had taken no notice of these things, hoping their lordships would have stay- ed their hasty proceedings, especially against such as did earnestly instruct the people against popery. But now of late, hearing of great num- bers of zealous and learned preachers suspend- ed from their cures in the county of Essex, and that there is no preaching, prayers, or sacra- ments in most of the vacant places ; that in some few of them persons neither of learning nor good name are appointed ; and that in other places of the country great numbers of persons that occupy cures are notoriously unfit ; most for lack of learning ; many chargeable with great and enormous faults, as drunkenness, * Life of Whitgift, p. 160. X lbid.,.p. 166. t Ibid. ]6G HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. filthiness of life, gaming at cards, haunting of aleliouses, &c., against wliom they [the coun- cil] heard of no proceedings, but that they were quietly suffered." To fix this charge home on the bishops, they sent with their letter a cata- logue of names ; one column of learned minis- ters deprived ; a second of unlearned and vi- cious persons continued : " A matter very la- mentable," say they, " for this time !" and a third of pluralists and nonresidents ; " Against these latter we [the council] have heard of no inquisition ; but of great diligence, and extreme usage against those that were known to be dil- igent preachers ; we, therefore, pray your lord- ships to have some charitable consideration of their causes, that people may not be deprived of their diligent, learned, and zealous pastors, for a few points ceremonial, which entangled their consciences." This letter was dated from Oatlands, September 20th, 1584, and signed by Lord Burleigh, the Earls of Warwick, Shrews- bury, and Leicester ; the Lord Charles Howard, Sir James Crofts, Sir Christopher Hatton ; and Sir Francis Walsingham, secretary of state. But this excellent remonstrance had no man- ner of influence upon our archbishop.* After this, Mr. Beale, clerk of the queen's council, a man of great learning and piety, drew up a trea- tise, showing the injustice and unlawfulness of the bishop's proceedings ; and delivered it in man- uscript into the archbishop's own hands, which, together with some freedom of speech, inflamed his grace to that degree, that he complained of him to the queen and council, and used all his interest to have him tried in the Star Chamber, and turned out of his place, t Among his mis- demeanors, drawn up by the archbishop, were these : that he had printed a book against eccle- siastical oaths ; that in the House of Commons he had spoke of ecclesiastical matters, contrary to the queen's command ; that he had defended his book against the practice of the ecclesiasti- cal courts ; that he had disputed against the queen's having authority, by virtue of the stat- ute of the 1st of Elizabeth, to grant power to her ecclesiastical commissioners to imprison whom they please, to impose fines upon offend- ers, and to administer the oath ex officio, say- ing they are within tlie statute of praemunire ; that he had condemned racking for grievous of- fenders, as contrary to law and the liberty of the subject ; and advised those in the marches of Wales that execute torture by virtue of in- structions under her majesty's hands to look to it that their doings are well warranted : but the court would not prosecute upon this charge. All that the Puritans could obtain was a kind of conference between the Archbishop of Can- terbury and the Bishop of Winchester on the one part, and Dr. Sparke and Mr. Travers on the other, in presence of the right honourable the Earl of Leicester, the Lord Grey, and Sir Francis Walsingham. The conference was at Lambeth, concerning things needful to be re- formed in the Book of Common Prayer. The arclibishop opened it with declaring, " that my Lord of Leicester, having requested for his satisfaction to hear what the ministers could reprove, and how their objections were to be answered, he had granted my lord to pro- cure such to come for that purpose as might * Lifeof Wliilgift, p. 143. t Ibidt, p. 212. seem best to his good lordship ; and now I per- ceive," said he, " you are the men, of whom one I never saw or knew before [Dr. Sparke] ; the other I know well. Let us hear what things in the Book of Common Prayer you think ought to be mended : you appear not now judicially before me, nor as called in question by author- ity for these things, but by way of conference ; for which cause it shall be free for you (speak- ing in duty) to charge the book with such mat- ters as you suppose to be blameworthy in it." Dr. Sparke replied, '■' We give most humble and hearty thanks to Almighty God, and to this honourable presence, that after so many years, wherein our cause could never be admitted to an indifferent hearing, it hath pleased God of his gracious goodness so to dispose things, that we have now that equity and favour showed us, that before such honourable personages, as may be a worthy means to her most excellent majesty for reformation of such things as are to be redressed, it is now lawful for us to de- clare with freedom what points ought to be re- viewed and reformed which our endeavour is, because it concerns the service of God, and the satisfaction of such as are in authority ; and for that the good issue depends on the favour of God, I desire, that before we enter any farther, we may first seek for the gracious direction and blessing of God by prayer." At which words, frammg himself to begin to pray, the archbish- op interrupted him, saying he should make no prayers there, nor turn that place into a conven- ticle. Mr. Travers joined with Dr. Sparke, and de- sired that it might be lawful for them to pray before they proceeded any farther ; but the archbishop not yielding thereunto, terming it a conventicle if any such prayer should be offered to be made, my Lord of Leicester and Sir Fran- cis Walsingham desired Dr. Sparke to content himself, seeing they doubted not but that he had prayed already before his coming thither. Dr. Sparke, therefore, omitting to use such pray- er as he had proposed, made a short address to God in very few words, though the archbishop continued to interrupt him all the while. The heads that the ministers insisted upon were, 1st. Putting the apocryphal writings (in which were several errors and false doctrines) upon a level with the Holy Scriptures, by read- ing thern publicly in the Church, while several parts of the canon were utterly omitted. This they said had been forbidden by councils, and particularly that of Laodicea. The archbishop denied any errors to be found in the Apocrypha ; which led the ministers into a long detad of particulars, to the satisfaction (says my author) of the noblemen. 2dly. The second head was upon baptism ; and here they objected against its being done in private. Against its being done by laymen or women. And against the doctrine from whence this practice arises, viz., that children not baptized are in danger of dam- nation ; and that the outward baptism of water saveth the child that is baptized. Against the interrogatories in the name of the child, which Mr. Travers charged with arising from a false principle, viz., that faith was necessary in all persons to be baptized ; he added, that the in- terrogatories crept into the Church but lately, and took their rise from the baptism of those HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 167 that were of age ; from whence, very ignorantly, they were transferred to infants. Against the cross, as a mystical rite and ceremony, and an addition to the sacrament of human invention : here they argued, that though the foreign di- vines did not condemn the use of the cross, yet all agreed it ought to be abolished ; and Beza gives counsel to the ministers, rather to forego their ministry, than subscribe to the allowance of it. After many words upon this head, my Lord of Leicester said it was a pitiful thing that so many of the best ministers, and painful in their preaching, should be deprived for these things. 3dly. They objected to private com- munion. 4thly. To the apparel ; and here they produced the judgment of Bishop Ridley at his ■degradation, as reported by Mr. Fox, who said it was too bad to be put upon a fool in a play. 5thly. They objected to the bishop's allowing of an insufficient ministry, non-residence, and pluralities.* The conference continued two days, at the close of which, neither party being satisfied, the noblemen requested some favour for the minis- ters. Mr. Strype sayst the ministers were convinced and confirmed; but it is evident he knew not the disputants, nor had seen the de- bate, a copy of which is before me. Travers was a Nonconformist to his death, and Sparke appeared at their head, at the Hampton Court conference, the beginning of the next reign. Nor was the archbishop softened, but rather confirmed in his former resolution. Aylmer, bishop of London, came not behind his metropolitan in acts of severity. Mr. Strype says he was the chief mover in the ecclesiasti- cal commission, and had as high a spirit as the greatest lord in the land. During Grindal's dis- grace, he harassed the London clergy with new interrogatories and articles, three or fgur times a year. He advised the heads of the Universi- ty of Cambridge (with whom he had nothing to do) to call in all their licenses, and expel every man who would not wear the apparel, saying " that the folly that is bound up in the heart of a child is to be expelled with the rod of disci- pline."J * MS., p. 562, &c. t Life of Whitgift, p. 170. t Life of Aylmer, p. 84, 94. In his visitation this summer [1584], he suspended the following clergy- men in Essex, &c. Mr. Whiteing, of Panfield, Messrs. Wyresdale and Gilford, of Maiden, Mr. Hawkdon, vicar of Fryan, Mr. Carve, of Rain, Mr. Tonstal, of Much-Tottam, Mr. Huckle, of Atrop- Kooding, Mr. Piggot, of Tilly, Mr. Cornwal, of Mark- stay, Mr. Negus, of Leigh, Mr. Carew, of Hatfield, Mr. Ward, of Writtle, Mr. Dyke, afterward of St. Alban's, Mr. Rogers, of Weathersfield, Mr. Northey, of Colchester,' Mr. Newman, of Coxall, Mr. Taye, of Peldon, Mr. Parker, of Dedham, Mr. Morley, of Ridswell, Mr. Nix (or Knight), of Hampstead, Mr. Winkfield, of Wicks, Mr. Wilton, of Aldham, Mr. Dent, of South Souberry, Mr. Pain, of Tolberry, Mr. Larking, of Little- Waltham, Mr. Camillus Rusticus, pastor of Tange, Mr. Seredge, of East-Havingfield, Mr. Howel, of Pagelsam, Mr. Chadwick, of Danbu- 17, Mr. Ferrar, of Langham, Mr. Serls, of Lexdon, Mr. Lewis, of St. Peter's, Colchester, Mr. Cock, of St. Giles's, Colchester, Mr. Beaumont, of East- Thorp, Mr. Redridge, of Hutton, Mr. Chaplain, of Hempsted, Mr. Culverwell, of Felsted, Mr. D. Chap- man, preacher at Dedham, and Mr. Knevit, of Mile- End, Colchester ; in all, about thirty-eight. These, says my author, are the painful ministers of Essex, •whom the bishop threatens to deprive for the sur- Mr. Carew, of Hatfield -Peveril, was a zeal ous promoter of the welfare of souls, and mourn- ed over the want of a learned and preaching ministry; he was ordained by the Bishop of Worcester, and licensed by Archbishop Grindal and the Bishop of London himself, who com- mended his preaching ; but being too forward in acquainting his diocesan by letter, that in Essex, within the compass of sixteen miles, there were twenty-two non-residents, thirty in- sufficient ministers, and, at the same time, nineteen preachers silenced for not subscribing ; his lordship, instead of being pleased with the information, sent for Carew before the commis- sioners, and charged him falsely, without the least evidence, with setting up a presbytery, and with contemning ecclesiastical censures. It was alleged against him farther, that he was chosen by the people ; that he had defaced the Book of Common' Prayer, and had put several from the communion, when there was more need to allure them to it, &c. But to make short work, the bishop tendered him the oath ex officio, which Carew refusing, he was com- mitted to the Fleet, and another clergyman sent down to supply his place. Mr. Allen, the pa- tron, in whom the right of presentation was by inheritance, refusing to admit the bishop's read- er, was summoned before his lordship, and com- mitted to prison ; because (as the warrant ex- presses it) he behaved seditiously in withstand- ing the authority of the court : nay, the very sex- ton was reprimanded, and ordered not to meddle with the Church any more ; and because he asked his lordship simply whether his meaning was that he should not come to church any more, he committed him for ridiculous beha- viour. Both Allen and Carew offered bail, which was refused, unless they would admit his lordship's clergyman.* After eight weeks' imprisonment, they appealed to the privy coun- cil and were released ; with which his lordship was so displeased that he sent the council a very angry letter, calling the prisoners knaves, rebels,, rascals, fools, petty gentlemen, precis- ians, &c., and told their honours that if such men were countenanced, he must yield up his authority ; and the bishop never left him till he had hunted him out of the diocess. Mr. Knight suffered six months' imprison- ment for not wearing the apparel, and was fined one hundred marks. ■• Mr. Negus was sus- pended on the same account : twenty-eight of his parishioners, who subscribed themselves his hungry sheep that had no shepherd, signed a letter, beseeching him to conform ; but he pro- tested he could not do it with a good conscience, and so was deprived. The Rev. Mr. Gifford, of Maiden, was a modest man, irreprovable in his life, a great and diligent preacher, says Mr. Strype, and esteem- ed by many of good rank. He had written learn- edly against the Brownists, and by his diligence had wrought a wonderful reformation in the town ; but being informed against for preaching up a limited obedience to the magistrate, he was suspended and imprisoned.! After some time he was brought to his trial, and his accuser fail- plice, saying. We shall be white with him, or he will be black with us.— M^., p. 584, 741. >" Life of Aylmer, p. 122. MS., p. 662, 658. t MS., p. 410, 420. 1G8 HISTORY OF THE PURITAMb. ing in his evidence, he was released. But the Bishop of London setting his spies upon him, he was imprisoned again for nonconformity.* Upon this he applied to the lord-treasurer, who applied to the archbishop in his favour ; but his grace having consulted his brother of London, told his lordship that he was a ringleader of the Nonconformists ; that he himself had received complaints against him, and was determined to bring him befote the high commission. The parishioners of Maiden presented a petition in behalf of their minister, signed with fifty-two hands, whereof two were bailiffs of the town, two justices of the peace, four aldermen, fifteen head burgesses, and the vicar ; but to put an end to all farther application, the archbishop wrote to the treasurer, " that he had rather die, or live in prison all the days of his life, than relax the rigour of his proceedings, by showing favour to one, which might give occasion to others to ex- pect the same, and undo all that he had been doing ;t he therefore beseeches his lordship not to animate this forward people by writing in their favour." Sir Francis Knollys, the queen's kinsman, and treasurer of her chamber, second- ed the treasurer, beseeching his grace to open the mouths of zealous preachers, who were sound in doctrine, though they refused to sub- scribe to any traditions of men, not compellable by law ; but all was to no purpose ; for as Ful- ler observes, t " This was the constant custom of Whitgift : if any lord or lady sued for favour to any Nonconformist, he would profess how glad he was to serve them, and gratify their de- sires, assuring them, for his part, that all possi- ble kindness should be indulged to them, but at the same time he would remit nothing of his rig- our. Thus he never denied any man's desire, and yet never granted it ; pleasing them for the present with general promises, but still kept to his own resolution ; whereupon the nobility, in a little time, ceased making farther applications to him, as knowing them to be ineffectual." Some of the ministers were indicted at the as- sizes,^ for omitting the cross in baptism, and for not wearing the surplice once every month, and at every communion. Most of them were deprived, or, to avoid it, forced to quit their liv- ings and depart the country. Among these was the excellent Mr. Dyke, preacher first at Coggeshall in Essex, and after- ward at St. Alban's in Hertfordshire, whose character was without blemish, and whose prac- tical writings discover him to be a divine of con- siderable learning and piety ; he was suspend- ed, and at last deprived, because he continued a deacon, and did not enter into priest's orders, which (as the bishop supposed) he accounted popish. He also refused to wear the surplice, and troubled his auditory with notions that thwarted the established religion. The parish- ioners, being concerned for the loss of their min- ister, petitioned the Lord Burleigh to intercede for them, setting forth " that they had lived without any ordinary preaching till within these four or five years, by the want of which they were unacquainted with their duty to God, their * Life of Aylmer, p. 111. i- Fuller, b. ix., p. 162. t Fuller, b. ix., p. 218. ^ M. Beaumont of East-Thorp, Mr. Wilton of Aid- ham, Mr. Hawkdon of Fryan, M. Seredge of East- Havingfield. sovereign, and their neighbours ;* but that of late it had pleased the Lord lo visit them with the means of salvation, the ordinary ministry of the Word, in the person of Mr. Dyke, an author- ized minister, who, according to liis functioa, had been painful and profitable, and both in life and doctrine had carried himself peaceably and dutifully among them, so as no man could justly find fault with him, except of malice. There were some, indeed, that could not abide to hear their faults reproved, but through his preaching many had been brought from their ignorance and evil ways to a better life, to be frequent hearers of God's Word, and their servants were in better order than heretofore. " They then give his lordship to understaad that their minister was suspended, and that they were as sheep without a shepherd, exposed to manifold dangers, even to return to their former ignorance and cursed vanities, 'Unt the Lord had spoken it, and therefore it must be true, that where there is no vision the people perish. They therefore pray his lordship, in the bowels of his compassion, to pity them in their present misery, and become a means that they may enjoy their preacher again." Upon this letter. Lord Burleigh wrote to the bishop to restore him, promising that if he troub- led the congregation with innovations any more, he would join with the bishop against him ; but his lordship excused himself, insinuating that he was charged with incontinence ; this occasion- ed a farther inquiry into Dyke's character, which was cleared up by the woman herself that ac- cused him, who confessed her wicked contri- vance, and openly asked him forgiveness. His lordship, therefore, insisted upon his being resto- red, forasmuch as the best clergymen in the world might be thus slandered ; besides, the people of St. Alban's had no teaching, having no curate but an insufficient doting old man. For thi» fa- vour (says the treasurer) I shall thank your lord- ship, and will not solicit you any more, if hereaf- ter he should give just cause of public offence against the orders of the church established. B°ut all that the treasurer could say was ineffect- ual ; the Bishop of London was as inexorable as his grace of Canterbury. The mhabitants of Essex had a vast esteem for their ministers ; they could not part from them without tears ; when they could not pre- vail with the bishop, they applied to the Parlia- ment, and to the lords of the privy council. I have before me two or three petitions from the hundreds of Essex, and -one from the county, signed Ijy Francis Barrington, Esq., at the head of above two hundred gentlemen and tradesmen, housekeepers, complaining, in the strongest terms, that the greatest number of their pres- ent ministers were unlearned, idle, or otherwise of scandalous lives ; and that those i'cw from whom they reaped knowledge and comfort were molested, threatened, and put to silence, for small matters in the common prayer, though thej^were men of godly lives and conversatioas. The bishop was equally severe in other parts of his diocess. The Rev. Mr. Barnaby Beai- son, a city divine of good learning, had been suspended and kept in prison several years, oa pretence of some irregularity in his marriage: the bishop charged him with being married io » Life of Aylmer, p. 303. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. i6!> an afternoon, and in presence of two or three hundred people, by Mr. Field, a Nonconformist ; for this he was committed to the Gate-house, where he had lain ever since the year 1579. At length he applied to the queen and council, and in the state of his case he declares that he had invited only forty persons to the ceremony, and that of them there were only twenty present ; that he was married in a morning, and accord- ing to law ; that when the bishop sent for him and charged him with sedition, he cleared him- self to his satisfaction ; but that after he was gone home he gave private order under his own hand for his being apprehended and sent to the Gate-house ; that he was shut up there in a dun- geon eight days, without knowing the cause of his imprisonment, though Dr. Hammond, and his faithful father Fox, who were both at the ■wedding, and saw the whole proceeding, went to the bishop and assured him that he was with- out wickedness or fault in that way he went about to charge him ; but his lordship would not release him without such bonds for his good behaviour and appearance as the prisoner could Dot procure. " Thus I continue," says Mr. Ben- ison, " separated from my wife before I had been married to her two weeks, to the great trouble of her friends and relations, and to the stagger- ing of the patient obedience of my wife ; for since my imprisonment his lordship has been endeav- ouring to separate us, whom God has joined together in the open presence of his people. Wherefore I most humbly beseech your godly honours, for the everlasting love of God, and for the pity you take upon God's true Protest- ants and his poor people, to be a means that my pitiful cry may be heard, and my just cause with some credit be cleared, to God's honour and her majesty's, whose favour I esteem more than all the bishop's blessings or bitter cursings ; and that, I now being half dead, may recover again to get a poor living with the little learning that God has sent me, to his glory, to the discharging some part of my duty, and to the profit of the land." The council were so moved with Benison's case, that they sent his lordship the following letter : "Whereas Barnaby Benison, minister, has given us to understand the great hinderance he has received by your hard dealing with him, and his long imprisonment, for which if he should bring his action of false imprisonment he should recover damages, which would touch your lord- ship's credit ; we therefore have thought fit to require your lordship to use some consideration towards him, in giving hjm some sum of money to repay the wrong you have done him, and in respect of the hinderance he hath incurred by your hard dealing towards him. Therefore, praying your lordship to deal with the poor man, that he may have occasion to turn his complaint into giving to us a good report of your charita- ble dealing, we bid you heartily farewell. Hamp- ton Court, November 14th, 1584. Signed, Ambrose Warwick, Fr. Bedford, ,Fr. Knollys, Rob. Leicester, Walter Mildmay, Charles Howard, Fr. Walsingham, James Crofts, Wm. Burghley, Chr. Hatton." Bromley, chan. Vol. I.— Y After some time the bishop returned this an- swer : " I beseech your lordships to consider, that it is a rare example thus to press a bishop for his- zealous service to the queen and the peace of the Church, especially the man being found wor- thy to be committed for nonconformity, to say nothing of his contemptuous using of me ; nev- ertheless, since it pleaseth your lordships to re- quire some reasonable sum of money, I pray you to consider my poor estate and great charges otherwise, together with the great vaunt the man will make of his conquest over a bishop. I hope, therefore, your lordships will be fovoura- ble to me, and refer it to myself, either to bestow upon him some small benefice, or otherwise to help him as opportunity offers. Or if this shall not satisfy the man, or content your lordships, leave him to the trial of the law, which I hope will not be so plain with him as he taketh it. Surely, my lords, this and the like must greatly discourage me in this poor service of mine in the commission." What recompense the poor man had for his long imprisonment I cannot find. But he was too wise to go to law with a bishop of the court of high commission, who had but little con- science or honour, and who, notwithstanding his "poor estate and great charges," left behind him about £16,000 in money, an immense sum for those times ! His lordship complained that he was hated like a dog, and commonly styled the oppressor of the children of God ;* that he was in danger of being mobbed in his progress at Maiden, and other places ; w^hich is not strange, considering his mean appearance, being a very little man, and his high and insulting behaviour towards those that were examined by him, attended with ill language and a cruel spirit. This appears in numberless instances. When Mr. Merbury, one of the ministers of Northampton, was brought before him, he spake thus : B. Thou speakest of making ministers ; the Bishop of Peterborough was never more over- seen in his life than when he admitted thee to be a preacher in Northampton. Merbury. liike enough so (in some sense) : 1 pray God these scales may fall from his eyes. B. Thou art a very ass ; thou art mad ; thou courageous ! Nay, thou art impudent ; by my troth, I think he is mad ; he careth for nobody. M. Sir, I take exception at swearing judges ; I praise God I am not mad, but sorry to see you so out of temper. B. Did you ever hear one more impudent 1 M. It is not, I trust, impudence to answer for myself B. Nay, I know thou art courageous ; thou art foolhardy. M. Though I fear not you, I fear the Lord. Recorder of London. Is he learned 1 B. He hath an arrogant spirit: he can scarce construe Cato, I think. M. Sir, you do not punish me because I am unlearned ; howbeit, I understand both the Greek and Latin tongues ; assay me to prove your disgrace. B. Thou takest upon thee to be a preacher, * Life of Aylmer, p. 96. .70 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. very but there is nothing in thee ; thou art a ass, an idiot, and a fool. M. I humbly beseech you, sir, have patience ; ffive this people better example ; I am that I am through the Lord ; I submit the trial of my sufficiency to the judgment of the learned ; but this wandering speech is not logical. There is a great deal more ol the same lan- guage in this examination ; one thing is remark- able° that he insults poor Merbury, because he was for having a minister in every parish. At partint^ he gave him the salutation of an " over- thwart', proud, Puritan knave ;" and sent him to the Marshalsea, though he had been twice in prison before.^ How different was this from the apostolic character of a bishop '. " A bishop," saith St. Paul, " should be blameless, of good behaviour, no brawler, nor striker, nor greedy of filthy lu- cre. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all men, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, that they may recover them out of the snare of the devil." Nay, how different was this bishop from himself before he put on lawn-sleeves ! For in his book entitled " The Harbour for Faithful Subjects," published soon after the queen's ac- cession, are these words: " Come off, ye bishops, away with your superfluities, yield up your thousands ; be content with hundreds, as they be in other Reformed churches, where be as great learned men as you are. Let your portion be priestlike, and not princelike ; let the queen have the rest of your temporalities and other lands, to maintain these wars which you pro- cured, and your mistress left her ; and with the rest to build and found schools throughout the realm ; that every parish may have his preacher, every city his superintendent, to live honestly, and not pompously; which will never be, unless your lands be dispersed and bestowod upon many, which now feedeth and fatteth but one; re- member that Abimelech, when David in his banishment would have dined with him, kept such hospitality that he had no bread in his house to give him but the shew bread. Where was all his superfluity to keep your pretended hospitality 1 For that is the cause you pretend why you must have thousands, as though you were commanded to keep hospitality rather with a thousand than with a hundred. I would our countryman Wickliffe's book, De Ecclesia, were in print ; there should you see that your wnnch- es and cavillations be nothing worth."! When the bishop was put in mind of this passage, her madenoother reply than that of St. Paul, "When I was a child I spake as a child, I thought as a child." The case of those clergymen who were sent for up to Lambeth from the remotest parts of the kingdom was yet harder. Mr. Elliston, vicar of Preston, made seven journeys to Pe- terborough, which was thirty-six miles from his house, and ten to London, within the compass of two years, besides several to Leicester and Northampton, at his own cost and charge; and, after all, was deprived for not subscribing. To whom might be added, Mr. Stephen Turner, Mr. William Fleming of Beccles, Mr. Holden of Biddlestone, and others. * Part of a register, p. 382. Pierce's Vindic.,p. 97. t Life of Aylmer, p. 269. Among these, the case of the Rev. Mr. Eu- sebius Paget, minister of the parish church of Kilkhampton, in the diocess of Exon, was very moving ; this divine, at the time of his presentation, acquainted his patron and ordina- ry that he could not with quietness of conscience use some rites, ceremonies, and orders appoint- ed in the service-book ; who promised, that if he would take the charge of the said cure, he should not be urged to the precise observation of them ; upon which condition he accepted the charge, and was admitted and regularly induct- ed.* Mr. Paget was a lame man, but, in the opinion of Mr" Strype, a learned, peaceable, and quiet divine, who had complied with the cus- toms and devotion of the Church, and was in- defatigable in his work, travelling up and down the neighbouring country, to preach the plain principles of religion ; but Mr. Farmer, curate of Barnstaple, envying his popularity, complain- ed of him to the high commission, because he did not mention in his prayers the queen's su- premacy over both estates ; because he had said that the sacraments were but dumb elements, and did not avail without the Word preached ; because he had preached that Christ did not de- scend into hell both body and soul ; that the pope might set up the feast of jubilee, as well as the feasts of Easter and Pentecost ; that holy days and fasting days were but the traditions of men, which we were not obliged to follow ; that he disallowed the use of organs in Divine service; that he called ministers that do not preach dumb dogs, and those that have two benefices knaves ; that he preached that the late Queen Mary was a detestable woman and a wicked Jezebel. But when Mr. Paget appeared before the com- missioners, January 11th, 1584, he was only ar- ticled according to the common form, lor not observing the Book of Common Prayer, and the rites and ceremonies of the Church. To which he made the following answer : " I do acknowledge that, by the statute of the 1st of Eliz., I am bound to use the said Common Prayer Book in such a manner and form as is prescribed, or else to abide such pains as bylaw- are imposed upon me. " I have not refused to use the said common prayer, or to minister the sacraments in such order as the book appoints, though I have not used all the rites, ceremonies, and orders set forth in the said book : 1. Partly because to my knowledge there is no common prayer book in the Church. 2. Because I am informed that you before whom I stand, and mine ordinary, and the most part of the other bishops and minis- ters, do use greater liberty in omitting and al- tering the said rites, ceremonies, and orders. 3. And especially for that I am not fully resolved in conscience, I may use divers of them. 4. Because, when I took the charge of that church, I was promised by my ordinary that I should not be urged to such ceremonies, which I ara informed he might do by law. " In these things which I have omitted I have done nothing obstinately ; neither have I used any other rite, ceremony, order, form, or man- ner of administration of the sacraments, or opea prayers, than is mentioned in the said book ; al- * MS., p. 582. HISTORY OF (THE PURITANS. 171 though there be some things which I doubt whether I may use or practise. " Wherefore I humbly pray that I may have the liberty allowed by the said book, to have in some convenient time a favourable conference either with mine ordinary, or with some other by you to be assigned ; which I seek not for any desire I have to keep the said living, but only for the better resolution and satisfaction of my own conscience, as God knoweth. Subscribed thus — by me, " Lame Eusebius Paget, minister." This answer not proving satisfactory, he was immediately suspended ; and venturing to preach after his suspension, was deprived ; the principal causes of his deprivation were these two : 1. Omission of part of the public prayers, the cross in baptism, and the surplice. 2. Irregularities incurred by dealing in the ministry after suspension. But in the opinion of the civilians neither of these things could warrant the proceedings of the court :* 1. Because Mr. Paget had not time, nor a conference, as he craved, and as the stat- ute in doubtful matters warrenteth. 2. Because he had not three several admonitions, nor so much as one, to do that in time which the law requires. If this had been done, and upon such respite and admonition he had not conformed, then the law would have deemed him a recu- sant, but not otherwise. 3. If this course had been taken, yet Mr. Paget's omissions had so many favourable circumstances (as tlie parish's not having provided a book, and his ordinary's promising not to urge him with the precise ob- sei'vance of all the ceremonies), that it was hardly consistent with the prudent consideration and charity of a judge to deprive him at once. As to his irregularity, by exercising the minis- try after suspension, the suspension was thought to be void, because it was founded' upon a meth- od not within the cognizance of those who gave sentence ; for the ground was, refusing to sub- scribe to articles tendered by the ecclesiastical commissioners, who had no warrant to offer any such articles at all ; for their authority reaches no farther than to reform and correct facts done contrary to certain statutes expressed in their commission, and contrary to other ecclesiastical laws ; and there was never yet any clause in their commission to offer subscription to articles of their own devising. But suppose the suspen- sion was good, the irregularity was taken away by the queen's pardon long before his depriva- tion. Besides, Mr. Paget did not exercise his ministry after suspension, till he had obtained from the Archbishop of Canterbury a release from that suspension, which, if it was not suffi- cient, it was -apprehended by hitn to be so, the archbishop being chief in the commission ; and all the canonists allow that simplicity, and ig- norant mistaking of things, being void of wilful contempt, is a lawful excuse to discharge irreg- ularity. But the commissioners avowed their own act, and the patron disposed of the living to another. Mr. Paget, having a numerous family, set up a little school, but the arms of the commissioners reached him there ; for, being required to take * MS., p. 572. out a license, they tendered him the articles to subscribe, which he refusing, they shut up his school and sent him a begging. Let us hear his own relation of his case in a letter that he sent to that great sea-officer Sir John Hawkins, who had a high esteem for this good man. "I was never present at any separate assembly from the Church," says he, "but abhorred them. I always resorted to my parish church, and was present at service and preaching ; and received the sacrament according to the book. I thought it my duty not to forsake a church because of some blemishes in it ; but while I have endeav- oured to live in peace, others have prepared themselves for war. I am turned out of my liv- ing by commandment. I afterward preached without living or a penny stipend ; and when I was forbid, I ceased. I then taught a few children, to get a little bread for myself and mine to eat ; some disliked this, and wished me to forbear, which I have done, and am now to go as an idle rogue and vagabond from door to door to beg my bread, though I am able in a lawful calling to get it."* Thus this learned and useful divine was silenced till the death of Whitgift, after which he was instituted to the living of St. Anne within Aldersgate. The Rev. Mr. Walter Travers, B.D., some time fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, al- ready mentioned, came into trouble this year. He had been ordained at Antwerp, and being an admired preacher, a fine gentleman, and of great learning, he became domestic chaplain to Sec- retary Cecil, and lecturer at the Temple. Dr. Alvey the master dying about this time, Travers was recommended to succeed him by the doctor on his deathbed, and by the benchers of the house, in a petition to the treasurer on his be- half; but the archbishop interposed, and de- clared, peremptorily, that unless he would be reordained according to the usage of the Church of England, and subscribe to his articles, he would not admit him. Upon which he was set aside, and Mr. Hooker preferred. Travers con- tinued lecturer about two years longer, and was then deprived of his lectureship, and deposed from the ministry. The treasurer, and others of Travers's friends, advised him for peace' sake to be reordained ; but he replied in a letter to his lordship, that this would be to invalidate his former orders ; and not only so, but as far as in him lay, to invalidate the ordinations of all for- eign churches. " As for myself," says he, " I had a sufficient title to the ministerial office, having been ordained according to God's holy Word, with prayers and impositions of hands, and according to the order of a church of the same faith and profession with the Church of England, as appears by my testimonials." He prayed his lordship to consider, farther, whether his subscribing the articles of religion, which only concern the profession of the Christian faith and doctrine of the sacraments, as agreed upon in the convocation of 1562, which most willingly and with all his heart he assented to according to the statute, did not qualify him for a minister in the Church, as much as if he had been ordained according to the English form. But the archbishop was determined to have a strict eye upon the inns of court, and to bring them to the public standard ; and the rather, in- * Life of Whitgift, p. 377. 172 HISTORY OF THE PUR1TAM& asmuch as some of them pretended to be ex- empted from his jurisdiction ; for though m all other places the sacrament was received in the posture of kneeling, the templcrs received it to this very time sitting. Travers would have in- troduced the posture of standing at the side ol the table, but the benchers insisted upon their privilege, and would receive it in no other pos- ture than sitting.* The archbishop, in order to put an end to this practice, would admit none but a high Conformist, that they might be obli- ged to receive it kneeling, or not at all. The harder the Church pressed upon the Pu- ritans, the more were they disaffected to the national establishment, and the more resolute in their attempts for a reformation of discip ine. There was a book in high esteem among them at this time, entitled DiscipUna eccksicE sacra ex Dei verbo desenpta ; that is, " The Holy Disci- pline of the Church described in the^ord of God " It was drawn up in Latin by Mr. 1 rav- ers and printed at Geneva about the year 1574, but since that time had been diligently reviewed corrected, and perfected by Mr. Cartwright, and other learned ministers, at their synods. It was translated into English this year, with a preface by Mr Cartwright, and designed to be published for more general use ; but as it was printing at Cambridge it was seized at the press ; the arch- bishop advised that all the copies should be burned as factious and seditious, but one was found in Mr. Cartwright's study after his death, and reprinted in the year 1654, under this new title "A Directory of Government anciently contended for, and as far as the iime would suf- fer, practised by the Nonconformists in the Days of Queen Elizabeth, found in the Study ot the most accomplished Divine, Mr. Thomas Cartwright, after his decease, and reserved to be published for such a time as this. Published by authority." It contains the substance of those alterations in discipline which the Pun- tans of these times contended for, and was sub- scribed by the brethren hereafter named, as argeeable to the Word of God, and to be pro- moted by all lawful means, that it may be es- tablished by the authority of the magistrate and of the Church ; and in the mean time to be ob- served, as far as lawfully they may, consistently with the l^ws of the land and peace of the Church I have therefore given it a place in the Appendix, to which I refer the reader.t Another treatise, dispersed privately about this time, against the discipline of the Church, was entitled " An Abstract of certain Acts of Par- liament, andof certain .of her Majesty s Injunc- tions and Canons, &c., printed by H. Denham 1584 " The author's designt was to show that the bishops in their ecclesiastical courts had ex- ceeded their power, and broke through the laws and statutes of the realm ; which was so noto- rious, that the answerer, instead of confuting the abstracter, blames him for exposing their father's nakedness, to the thrusting through of religion, by the sides of the bishops. But who was in fault 1 Shall the liberties and properties of mankind be trampled upon by a despotic power, and the poor sufferers not be allowed to hold up the laws and statutes of the land to their oppressors, because of their great names or religious characters 1 The affairs of the Church were in this fer- ment when the Parliament met November 23d, 1584, in which the Puritans, despairing of all other relief, resolved to make their utmost ef- forts for a farther reformation of church disci- pUne. Fuller says* their agents were soliciting at the door of the House of Commons all day, and making interest in the evening at the cham- bers of Parliament men ; and if the queen would have taken the advice of her two houses, they had been made easy. December 14th, three petitions were offered to the House : one touch- m 3 M QJ .3 *J 0 3- 3 ho C 0} CO 0 C 0 0. ■sjuap'SSj -noo pan 'pi}3 gsuaq 9[qno(x ■sjjptsH inq 'sjaqDcaJJ Ofj 00 1-1 t- to r- • o ijoiqM JO 10 M ox to c\ I- 0 ^ •* o II o a s be il d d. n oa u » u> be ■a T3 S 1 1 1 1^ •sj^qOBaJd T)" (N rH ■■J' t: et r-i rr r-( at n 10 *S9q.ijiiii;^ ^ CO .-1 rH • m • ■ • TT ■^i ■1 • • •§! • § • 3 .S =,: . -- . 0) 0 ^ r:: 0 .§^, = ? • .a • .a •: ? ? 0 >! 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HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 181 It must be uncommon diligence and appli- cation, as well as a very great expense, to col- lect so many names and characters of men ; the exact valuation of so many livings ; the number of nonresident ministers ; of such as had been mass-priests ; and of mechanics and tradesmen : but such was the zeal of these pi- ous men ! The survey of Lincolnshire was signed by the justices of the peace of that coun- ty, and the others are attested by some of the principal clergymen of those parts, and are so particular in all circumstances, as leave little room to doubt of their truth in general, though there may be some few mistakes in characters and numbers : upon the whole, the survey takes notice that, after twenty-eight years' establish- ment of the Church of England, there were only two thousand preachers to serve near ten thousand parish churches, so that there were almost eight thousand parishes without preach- ing ministers.* To this .account agrees that of Mr. Fenner, who lived in these times, and says that a third part of the ministers of England "were covered with a cloud of suspensions ;t that if persons would hear a sermon, they must go in some places five, seven, twelve, yea, in some counties twenty miles, and at the same time be find I2d. a Sabbath for being ab- sent from their own parish church, though it be proved they were hearing a sermon elsewhere, because they had none at home. Nor is it at all strange it should be thus in the country, when the Bishop of London enjoined his clergy in his visitation this very year, 1. That every person should have a Bible in Latin and English. 2. That they should have BuUinger's Decads. 3. That they should have a paper book, and write in it the quantity of a sermon every week. 4. That such as could not preach themselves, should be taxed at four purchased sermons a year. J "What a miserable state of things was this ! when many hundreds of pious and conscientious preachers were excluded the Church, and starv- ing with their families for want of employment. With the supplication and survey above men- tioned, a bill^ was oiFered to the House of Com- * MS., p. 206. t Answer to Dr. Bridges, p. 48. J Life of Aylmer, p. 148. ij Bishop Warburton condemns " the offering of this bill to the house as such a mutinous action in the Puritan ministers," that he wonders a writer of Mr. Neal's " good sense could mention them without censure, much more that he should do it with com- mendation." It is not easy to see where his lordship found Mr. Neal's commendation of this bill ; the edi- tor can discern a bare statement of the proceedings only. And by what law, or by what principle of the constitution, is the offering of a bill and a represent- ation of grievances to the house an act of mutiny ? The bill of the Puritans undoubtedly went to new model the establishment, but only by enlarging the terms of communion ; not by substituting new cere- monies in the room of those which were burdensome to themselves. It went, it is true, to introduce a new discipline, but not to abolish episcopacy. And was not the spiritual jurisdiction then exercised oppres- sive? Were not the proceedings of the bishops arbitrary? If so, how was it "insufferable inso- lence" to seek a parliamentary reform ? It would have been, as his lordship grants, just and reasonable if the Puritans had moved for toleration only. This would have been more consistent in those who sought only their own liberty. But his lordship did not allow for the very ditferent ideas we may have on the measures that should have been pursued, who mons for a farther reformation ; wherein, after a recital of their grievances, they pray that the books hereunto annexed, entitled " A Book of the Form of Common Prayer, &c., and every- thing therein contained, may be from hence- forth authorized and put in use and practice, throughout all her majesty's dominions, any former law, custom, or statute to the contrary, in any wise notwithstanding." The book con- tained prayers before and after sermon, but left a liberty for variation, if it was -thought proper.* The minister was to pray and give thanks in the words there prescribed, or such like. In the Creed it leaves the article of Christ's de- scent into hell more at large. It omits three of the thirty-nine articles, viz., the thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth, and thirty-sixth. It takes the juris- diction of the Church out of the hands of the spiritual courts, and places it in an assembly of ministers and elders in every shire, who shall have power to examine, approve, and present ministers to the several parishes for their elec- tion, and even to depose them, with the con- sent of the bishop, upon their misbehaviour. At the same time a pamphlet was dispersed without dqprs, entitled " A Request of all true Christians to the Honourable House of Parlia- ment." It prays "that every parish church may have its pi'eacher, and every city its super- intendent, to live honestly, but not pompously." And to provide for this it prays " that all cathe- dral churches may be put down, where the ser- vice of God is grievously abused by piping with organs, singing, ringing, and trowling of psalms from one side of the choir to another, with the squeaking of chanting choristers, disguised (as are all the rest) in white surplices ; some in corner caps and filthy copes, imitating the fash- ion and manner of antichrist the pope, that man of sin and child of perdition, with his other rabble of miscreants and shavelings. These unprofitable drones, or, rather, caterpillars of the world, consume yearly, some £2500, some £3000, some more, some less, whereof no profit Cometh to the Church of God. They are the dens of idle, loitering lubbards ; the harbours of time-serving hypocrites, whose prebends and livings belong, some to gentlemen, some to boys, and some to serving-men and others. If the revenues of these houses were applied to augment the maintenance of poor, diligent, preaching parish mmisters, or erecting schools, religion would then nourish in the land."t view these transactions at this distance of time, and many years after a toleration act has passed, from what those had whose minds, in the infancy of a. separation from the Church, felt all the attachments to it produced by education and habit, and were nat- urally averse to a total and final secession from it He considers " the House of Commons in a temper to have passed a bill for toleration." But he forgeta that the success of such a bill, or of any bill, did not depend on the temper of the house, but on the pleas- ure of the queen. Besides, for the first twelve or fourteen years of her majesty's reign the prayer of the petitions presented by the Puritans was, if not for a toleration in a separation from the Church, yet only for a dispensation for the use of the habits and three or four ceremonies, and a redress of a few no- torious abuses. As the queen and bishops continued unyielding, and grew more vigorous, new questions were started, and now burdens were felt, and new demands arose. — See Mr. Neale's Review. — En. * Life of Whitgift, p. 258. f MS., p. 814, 182 Some bold speeches were made in Parliament against the arbitrary proceedings of the bishops, by Mr. Wcntworth and others, for which those members were sent to the Tower ; at which the house was so intimidated that they would not suffer the bill to be read. Besides, the queen sent both for the bill and petition out of the house, and ordered the speaker to acquaint them " that she was already settled in her reli- gion, and would not begin again ; that changes in religion were dangerous ; that it was not reasonable for them to call in question the es- tablished religion, while others were endeav- ouring to overthrow it ; that she had consider- ed the objections, and looked upon them as frivolous ; and that the platform itself was most prejudicial to her crown, and to the peace of her government."* Nay, so incensed was the queen with these attempts of the Puritans, that in drawing up a general pardon to he passed in Parliament, she ordered an exception to be 'made of such as committed any offence against the Act of Uniformity, or were publishers of seditious books or pamphlets. t The convocation, contrary to all custom and usage, continued sitting after the Parliament, and gave the queen a subsidy or benevolence. This precedent Archbishop Laud made us of in the year 1G40 to prove the lawfulness of a con- vocation sitting without a Parliament. All they did farther was to address the queen with an offer to maintain by disputation that the plat- form of the Puritans was absurd in divinity, and dangerous to the state ; which the Nonconform- ists would willingly have debated, but the others icnew the queen and council would not admit it. The press was in the hands of the archbish- op, who took all possible care to stifle the wri- tings of the Puritans, while he gave licenset to Ascanio, an Italian merchant, and bookseller in London, to import what popish books he thought fit, upon this very odd pretence, that the adver- saries' arguments being better known by learn- ed men, might be more easily confuted. (^ But was it not a shorter way to confute them in the high commission "! Or might not the same rea- son have served for licensing the books of the Puritans 1 But his grace seems to have been in no fear of popery, though this very year another assassination -plot was discovered, for which Ballard, a priest, and about twelve or fourteen more, were executed.il Remarkable are the words of this Ballard, who declared, upon examination, to Sir Francis Knollys, treasurer of the queen's household, and a privy counsellor, " that he would desire no better books to prove his doctrine of popery than the archbishop's HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. * Life of Whitgift, p. 259. t Heyl. Aer., p. 269. J This license was not absolute and unlimited, but restrained the importation to a few copies of every such sort of books, and on this condition only, that any of them be not showed or dispersed abroad ; but a de- livery of them was to be made to one of the privy council, or to such only as they or some one of them should judge meet to have the perusal of them. As- canio was obliged to enter into strict bonds to per- form these conditions. This method of licensing popish books was not so inconsistent with the re- straint laid on the liberty of the press, and on the cir- culation of the hooks of the Puritans, as our author represents it, and appears to have conceived of it. — Maddox's Vindication, p. 350. — Ed. § Life of Whitgift, p. 268. |1 Ibid., p. 265. writings against Cartwright, and his injunctions set forth in her majesty's name. That if any men among the Protestants lived virtuously, they were the Puritans, who renounced their ceremonies, and would not be corrupted with pluralities. That unlearned and reading minis- ters were rather a furtherance than a hinderance to the Catholic cause. That though the bishops owned her majesty to be supreme governor in causes ecclesiastical, yet they did not keep their courts in her majesty's name ; and that, though the names and authority of archbishops and bish- ops, &c., were in use in the primitive Church, they forgot that they were then lords or magis- trates of order only, made by the prince, and not lords of absolute power, ruling without appeal." This was written by Mr. Treasurer himself, Oc- tober 15th, 1586, upon which Sir Francis advi- sed in council " that special care should be ta- ken of popish recusants ; and that the absolute authority of private bishops, without appeal, should be restrained ; that they might not con- demn zealous preachers against the pope's su- premacy for refusing to subscribe unlawful arti- cles, nor without the assembly of a synodical council of preachers, forasmuch as the absolute authority of the bishops, and their ambition and covetousness, had a tendency to lead people back to popery." But how much truth soever there was in these observations, the queen and archbishop were not to be convinced. The Puritans being wearied out with repeated applications to their superiors for relief, began to despair, and in one of their assemblies came to this conclusion : that since the magistrate could not be induced to reform the discipline of the Church, by so many petitions and supplica- tions (which we all confess in the liturgy is to be wished), that therefore, after so many years" waiting, it was lawful to act without him, and introduce a reformation in the best manner they could. We have mentioned their private classes in Essex, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, and other parts, in which their book, entitled " The Holy Discipline of the Church, described in the Word of God," being revised, was subscribed by the several members in these words, accord- ing to Mr. Strype, which are something different from the form at the end of the book in the Ap- pendix : " We acknowledge and confess the same, agreeable to God's most holy Word, so far as we are able to judge or discern of it, ex- cepting some few points [which they sent to their reverend brethren in soine assembly of them, for their farther resolution], and we affirm it to be the same which we desire to be estab- lished in this Church, by daily prayer to God, which we profess (as God shall offer opportunity, and gives us to discern it so expedient) by hum- ble suit to her majesty's most honourable privy council and Parliament, and by all other lawful means to farther and advance, so far as the law and peace of the present state of our Church will suffer it, and not to enforce the contrary. We promise to guide ourselves according to it, and follow the directions set down in the chap- ter ' Of the Office of the Ministers of the Word.' We promise to frequent our appointed assem- blies, that is, every six weeks classical confer- ences, every half year provincial assemblies, and general assemblies every year."* * Among those that subscribed or declared their HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 183 Besides the Puritans already mentioned as suffering this year, the learned Dr. John Wal- ward, divinity professor at Oxford, was enjoin- ed a public recantation, and suspended till he had done it, for teaching that the order of the Jewish synagogue and eldership was adopted by Christ and his apostles into the Christian Church, and designed as a perpetual church government.* He was also bound in a recog- nizance of £100 for his good behaviour. Mr. Harsnet, of Pembrolce Hall, was imprisoned at the same time for not wearing the surplice. Mr. Edward Gillibrand, fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge, was forbid preaching, and bound in a recognizance of £100 to revoke his errors in such words as the commissioners should ap- point. His crime was speaiiing against the hie- larchy, and against the swelling titles of arch- bishops and bishops, for which Whitgift told him he deserved not only to be imprisoned and sus- pended, but to be banished the university. Mr. Farrar, minister of Langham in Essex, was charged with rebellion against the ecclesiastical laws, and suspended for not wearing the habits. Bishop Aylmer told himt that except he and his companions would be conformable, in good faith, he and his brethren the bishops would, in one quarter of a year, turn them all out of the Church. September Uth, Mr. Udall, of Kingston-upon- Thames, was suspended and imprisoned for keeping a private fast in his parish. In the month of January, Mr. Wilson, Mr. More, and two other ministers were imprisoned, and obli- ged to give bond for their good behaviour. In the month of May the Rev. Mr. Settle was summoned before the Archbishop of Lambeth, and charged with denying the article, " Of the descent of our Saviour's soul into hell," or the place of the damned. Mr. Settle confessed it was his opinion that Christ did not descend lo- approbation of the Book of Discipline, were the Rev. Messrs. Cartwright, Travers, Dr. Knewstubs, Messrs. Charke, Edgerton, Reynolds, Gardiner, Gifibrd, Bar- ber, Spicer, Greenham, Payne, Fenner, Field, Snape, Johnson, Nichols, Dr. Sparkes, Messrs. Ward, Stone, Warkton, Larke, Fletcher, Lord, Farmer, Rushbrook, Littleton, Oxenbridge, Seyntclere, Standen, Wilcox, Dr. Whitaker, Messrs. Chadderton, Perkins, Allen, Edmunds, Gillibrand, Bradshaw, Harrison, Massie, Hidersham, Dod, Brightman, Cawdrey, Rogers, Udall, Dyke, Wight, Paget, and others to the number of above five hundred, all beneficed in the Church of England, useful preachers, of unspotted lives and characters, and many of them of the University of Cambridge, where they had a strong and powerful interest. Bishop Maddox triumphs in the representation of Mr. Neal, that five hundred who subscribed the holy discipline were all beneficed in the Church, as a proof of the lenity of government. Mr. Neal, in his reply, adds, " that there were more than twice five hundred clergymen who made a shift to keep their places in the Church." But when, at the same time, they were continually exposed to suffer from the rigour of government; when, as Dr. Bridges declared, a third part of the ministers of England were covered with a cloud of suspensions ; when many smarted severely for attempting a reformation, for which they all wish- ed and prayed; when Cartwright, Travers, Field, Johnson, Cawdery, Udall, and other leaders of the Puritans, were suspended, imprisoned, and frequently in trouble, not to say dying under the hand of power, the reader will judge with what propriety his lord- ship exults over our. author. —See Mr. Neal's Review, p. 872, 873.— Ed. * MS., p. 798. t Ibid., p. 800, 805. cally into hell, and that Calvin and Beza were of his mind, which put the archbishop into such a passion that he called him ass, dolt, fool. Mr. Settle said he ought not to rail at him, be- ing a minister of the Gospel. What, said the archbishop, dost thou think much to be called ass and doitl I have called many of thy bet- ters so. True, said Mr. Settle, but the question is, How lawfully you have done so 1 Then said the archbishop, Thou shalt preach no more in my diocess. Mr. Settle answered, I am called to preach the Gospel, and I will not cease to do it. The archbishop replied, with a stern coun- tenance. Neither you nor any one in England shall preach without my leave. He then char- ged Mr. Settle with not observing the order of the service-book ; with not using the cross in baptism ; with disallowing the baptism of mid- wives ; and not using the words in marriage, "With this ring I thee wed." The Dean of Winchester asked him if he had subscribed. Settle answered, Yes, as far as the law requi- red, that is, to the doctrines of faith and the sac- raments, but as touching other rites and cere- monies he neither could nor would. Then said, the archbishop, Thou shalt be subject to the ecclesiastical authority. Mr. Settle replied, I thank God you can use no violence but upon my poor body. So his grace committed him to the Gate-house, there to be kept close prisoner.* Sandys, archbishop of York, was no less ac- tive in his province ; I have many of his exam- inations before me ; he was a severe governor, hasty and passionate ; but it was said in ex- cuse for him and some others, that the civilians by their emissaries and spies turned informers, and then pnshed the bishops forward, to bring business into the spiritual courts. About this time Dr. Bridges, afterward bishop of Oxford, wrote against the Puritans, and main- tained that they were not grievously afflicted, unless it were caused by their own deserts. The doctor was answered by Mr. Fenner, who appealed to the world in these words : " Is it no grievous affliction by suspension to be hung up between hope and despair for a year or two, and, in the mean time, to see the wages of our labour- ers eaten up by loiterers'! Nay, our righteous souls are vexed with seeing and hearing the ig- norance, the profane speeches, and evil exam- ples of those thrust upon our charges, while we ourselves are defamed, reproached, scoffed at, and called seditious and rebellious ; cited, ac- cused, and indicted, and yet no redress to he found. All this we have patiently bore, though we come daily to the congregations to prayers, to baptisms, and to the sacrament, and by our examples and admonitions have kept away many from excesses whereunto rashness of zeal have carried them. And though to such as you, who swarm with deaneries, with double benefices, pensions, advowsons, reversions, &c., these mo- lestations seem light, yet surely, upon every irreligious man's complaint in such things as many times are incredible, to be sent for by pur- suivants, to pay twopence for every mile, to find messengers, to defray our own charges, and this by such as can hardly, with what they have, clothe and feed themselves and their families, it is not only grievous, but, as far as well can be, a very heart-burning. It is grievous to a free- * MS., p. 798. 184 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. man, and to a free minister, for a light cause — as, for an humble supplication to her majesty and the whole Parliament, and to the fathers of the Church — to be shut in close prison, or, upon every trifling complaint, to be brought into a sla- vish subjection to a commissary, so as at his pleasure to be summoned into the spiritual courts, and coming thither, to be sent home again at least with unnecessary expenses, mas- terlike answers, yea, and sometimes with open revilings. We will not justify ourselves," says Mr. Fenner,* "in all things, but acknowledge, that when coming by dozens and scores before the bishop, after half a day's disorderly reason- ing, some not being heard to the full, some rail- ed on and miscalled, none with lenity satisfied, but all suspended from our office because we would not subscribe his last two articles, there might pass from us some infirmities afterward ; this and many other things we are willing to im- pute to ourselves." But, after all, it may be ques- tioned whether the history of former ages can furnish an example of so many severities against divines of one and the same faith, for a few tri- fling ceremonies, or of a more peaceable and Christian behaviour under sufferings. Camden, indeed, complains of their disper- sing pamphlets against the Church and prelates, in a time of common danger, when the nation was in arms against the Spanish invasion ; but these pamphlets were only to show that the danger of the return of popery (which all men were now apprehensive of) arose from stopping the mouths of those ministers who were most zealous against it. It had been easy at this time to have distressed the government and the hierarchy, for the cry of the people was against the bishops ; but the Puritans both here and in Scotland were more afraid of the return of po- pery than their adversaries : those in Scotland entered into an association to assemble in arms at what time and place their king should require, to assist the Queen of England against the Spaniards ; and their brethren in London took the opportunity to petition the queen for the liberty of their preachers.! " That the people might be better instructed in the duties of obe- dience to their civil governors, and not be left a prey to priests and Jesuits, who were no better than traitors to her majesty and the kingdom. They assure her. majesty that the people will give their ministers a good maintenance; that they [the people] will always pray for her maj- esty's safety, and be ready to part with their goods, and pour out their blood like water for her preservation, if they may but have the Gos- pel." But the queen gave them no answer ; the whole Reformation must be hazarded rath- er than the Puritans relieved. After this, they applied to the lord-mayor and court of aldermen, beseeching them to address the queen, to make some better provision for the city ; and to enforce their petition, they laid before them a new survey of the ministry of London, taken this very year, with the names of every parish-priest and curate set down against his living and curacy, which is now be- fore me;t and it appears at the foot of the ac- count that there were, Double-beneficed men within the city . 18 * Answer to Dr. Bridges, p. 45, 46. t MS., p. 838. t Ibid., p. 482. Double-beneficed men without . . .21 Simple preachers (as the survey calls them) 10 Dumb, or unpreaching ministers . . 17 Resident preachers, abiding in London only 19 With the survey they offered divers reasons to prevail with the court to appear for them; as. Because the laws of the realm have provided very well for a learned preaching ministry; whereas by the account above, it appears that many are pluralists and nonresidents, others il- literate, being brought up to trades, and not to learning, and others of no very good character in life : because divers of the principal preach- ers of this land have of late been put to silence: because of the prevailing ignorance and impiety that is among the common people for want of better instruction ; and because we now pay our money and dues to them that do little or nothing for it : but the aldermen were afraid to interpose.* Such was the scarcity of preachers, and the thirst of the people after knowledge, that the suspended ministers of Essex petitioned the Parliament, March 8th, 1587, for some remedy. " Such," .'■ay they, "is the cry of the people to us day and night for the bread of life, that our bowels yearn within us ; and remembering the solemn denunciation of the apostle, ' Wo be to us if we preach not the Gospel,' we begin to think it our duty to preach to our people as we have opportunity, notwithstanding our suspen- sion, and to commit our lives and whole estates to Almighty God, as to a faithful Creator ; and under God to the gracious clemency of the queen, and of this honourable house." Many suspended preachers came out of the countries, and took shelter in the city. But to prevent as much as possible their getting into any of the pulpits of London, the following commissiott was sent to all the ministers and church-ward- ens of the city. " Whereas sundry preachers have lately come into the city of London, and suburbs of the same ; some of them not being ministers, others such as have no sufficient warrant for their . calling, and others such as have been detected in other countries, and have, notwithstanding, in the city taken upon them to preach publicly, to the infamy of their calling; others have ia their preaching rather stirred up the people to innovation than sought the peace of the Church. These are, therefore, in her majesty's name, by virtue of her high commission for causes eccle- siastical to us and others directed, straitly to enjoin, command, and charge all persons, vic- ars, curates, and church-wardens of all church- es in the city of London, and the suburbs there- of, as well in places exempt as not exempt, that they nor any of them do suffer any to preach ia their churches, or to read any lectures, they not being in their own cures, but only sucli whose licenses they shall first have seen and read, and whom they shall find to be licensed thereto, either by the queen's majesty, or by one of the universities of Cambridge or Oxford, or by the Lord-archbishop of Canterbury, or the Bishop of London for the time being, under seal. " And that this may be published and take the better effect, we will that a true copy thereof * MS., p. 839. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 185 shall be taken and delivered to every curate and church- warden of every of the churches afore- said. The 16th day of August, 1587.* (Subscribed) " John Canterbury, " John London, "Val. Dale, " Edward Stanhope, "Rich. Cozin." Under all these discouragements the Puri- tans kept close together, hoping one time or other that Providence would make way for their relief They maintained their classes and as- sociations, wherein they agreed upon certain general rules for their behaviour : one was, that they should endeavour in their preaching and conversation to wipe off the calumny of schism, forasmuch as the brethren communicated with the Church in the Word and sacraments, and in all other things, except their corruptions ; and that they assumed not authority to themselvest of compelling others to observe their decrees. In their provincial synod, held at Warwick, June 4th, 1588, it was agreed that it was not lawful to baptize in private ; nor sufficient for a minister to read homilies in churches ; nor lawful to use the cross in baptism. They agreed, farther, that they were not obliged to rest in the bishop's deprivation, nor to appear in their courts, without a protestation of their unlawful- ness. In another synod it was determined that no man should take upon him a vague or wan- dering ministry ; that they who take upon them a cure of souls should be called by the church ■whom they are to serve, and be approved by the classes or some greater assembly ; and if by them they are found meet, ihey are to be rec- ommended to the bishop for ordination, if it might be obtained without subscribing the Book of Common Prayer. t It was farther agreed how nmch of the common prayer might be law- fully read for the preserving their ministry, and how far they might exercise their discipline ■without the civil magistrate. In another pro- vincial synod about Michaelmas, it was agreed that the oppressions offered to others, and es- pecially to the ministers, by the bishops and their officials in their spiritual courts, should be collected arid registered : if this had been pre- served entire, more of the sufferings of these great and good men would have appeared, and many works of darkness, oppression, and cru- elty would have been brought to light, which now must be concealed till the day of judg- ment. The danger with which the nation was threatened from a foreign invasion gave a little check to the zeal of the bishops against the Pu- ritans for the present ; however, this year Mr. Cawdrey, minister of South Luffingham, was suspended, imprisoned, and deprived by the Bishop of London ;^ he had a wife and seven children, which were cast upon Providence ; but this divine gave his lordship some farther trouble, as will be seen hereafter. Mr. Wilson, who had been suspended some time before, moved for a release in the bishop's court ; but * MS., p. 835. + There was, as Bishop Warburton hints, an im- propriety in disclaiming the use of authority, when, being a small and oppressed party, no authority from the state was invested in them. — Ed. t Life of Whitgift, p. 192. 4 MS., p. 825. Vol. I.— a. a because he refused to subscribe his suspension was continued, and himself treated by the ci- ^ vilians with great inhumanity. Mr. Arthur Hildersham, whom Mr. Fuller represents as a heavenly divine, being at this time fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, was suspended by the commissioners for preaching occasionally before he had taken orders, and obliged to sign the following recantation:* "I confess that I have rashly and indiscreetly ta- ken upon me to preach, not being licensed nor admitted into holy orders, contrary to the orders of the Church of England, contrary to the ex- ample of all antiquity, and contrary to the di- rection of the apostle in the Acts ; whereby I have given great and just offence to many ; and the more, because I have uttered in my sermons certain impertinent and very unfit speeches for the auditory, as moving their minds to discon- tent with the state, rather than tending to god- ly edification ; for which my presumption and indiscretion I am very heartily sorry, and de- sire you to bear witness of this my confession, and acknowledging my said offences." This re- cantation was, by the archbishop's appointment, to be uttered in Trinity Hall Chapel, before Easter. In the mean while, he was suspended from the profits of his fellowship, and stood bound to appear before the commissioners the first court day of Easter term, if he did not be- fore that time recant. Whether Mr. Hildersham recanted I am not certain, but September 14, 1587, he left the university, and settled at Ash- by-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, where he con- tinued a deep sufferer for nonconformity forty- three years, having been suspended and put to silence by the High Commission no less than four times, and continued under that hardship almost twenty years. This year put an end to the life of the famous martyrologist, John Fox, a person of indefatiga- ble labour and industry, and an exile for reli- gion in Queen Mary's days ; he spent all his time abroad in compiling the acts and monu- ments of the Church of England, which were published first in Latin, and afterward, when he returned to his native country, in English, with enlargements ; vast were the pains he took in searching records and collecting materials for this v/ork ; and such was its esteem, that it was ordered to be set up in all the parish church- es in England. Mr. Fox was born at Boston, in Lincolnshire, 1517, educated in Brazen-nose College, Oxon, where he proceeded M.A. in the year 1543. He was afterward tutor to the Duke of Norfolk's children, who, in the days of Queen Mary, conveyed him privately out of the king- dom. He was«, most learned, pious, and judi- cious divine, of a catholic spirit, and against all methods of severity in religion. But he was shamefullv neglected for some years, because he was a' Nonconformist, and refused to sub- scribe the canons and ceremonies ; nor did he get any higher preferment in the Church than a prebend "of Salisbury, though the queen used to call him father, and professed a high venera- tion for him, as, indeed, he deserved. He died in London in the seventieth year of his age, and lies buried in Cripplegate Church, where his monument is still to be seen, against the * Fuller, b. ix., p. 642. 186 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. south wall of the chancel, with a flat marble ' Btone over his remains.* It has been observed, that om- Reformers ad- .aiitted only two orders of church officers to be »f Divine appointment, viz., bishops and dea- cons, a presbyter and bishop, according to them, Being two names for the same office ; but Dr. Bancroft, the archbishop's chaplain, in a ser- mon at Paul's Cross, January 12, 1588, main- tained that the bishops of England were a dis- tinct order from priests, and had superiority over them jure dmno, and directly from God. He affirmed this to be God's own appointment, though not by express words, yet by necessary consequence, and that the denial of it was heresy. The doctor confessed that Aerius had maintained there was no difference between a priest and a bishop ; but that Epiphanius had pronounced his assertion full of folly, and that it had been condemned as heresy by the gener- * Fox's Acts and Monuments of the Martyrs have long been, still remain, and will ever continue, sub- stantial pillars of the Protestant Church ; of mure force than volumes of bare arguments, to withstand the tide of popery ; and, like a Pharos, should be kept kindled in every age, as a warning to all posterity. Strype pronounces the following encomium on this work : " Mr. Fox," says he, " hath done such ex- quisite service to the Protestant cause, in showing, from abundance of ancient books, records, registers, and choice manuscripts, the encroacliments of popes and papalins, and the stout oppositions that were made in all ages and countries by learned and good men against them, especially under King Henry and Queen Mary in England. He hath preserved the me- moirs of those holy men and women, those bishops and divines, together with their histories, acts, sufferings, and death, willingly undergone for the sake of Christ and his Gospel, and for refusing to comply with the popish doctrines and superstitions ; and, as he hath been found most diligent, so most strictly true and faithful in his descriptions." — Strypc's Annals, vol. i., p. 239-241. Mr. Fox enjoyed the Iriendship of Grin- dal, Parkhurst, Pilkington, Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Thomas Gresham, and Queen Elizabeth, and by them could have received any preferment, but he would not subscribe nor conform to the ceremonies. Fuller says, " How learnedly he wrote, how con- stantly he preached, how piously he lived, how cheerfully he died, may be fetched from his life at large, prefaced before his book. One page therein omitted we must here insert, having received it from witnesses beyond exception : In the year 88, •when the Spanish half moon did hope to rule all the motion in our sea's. Master Fox was privately in his chamber at prayers, battering heaven with his impor- tunity in behalf of this sinful nation. And we may justly presume that his devotion was as actually in- strumental to the victory as the wisdom of our ad- miral, valour of his soldiers, skill and industry of his seamen. On a sudden, coming down to his parish, he cried out, They arc gone, they are gone ! which, in- deed, happened in the same instant, as, by exact computation, did afterward appear." — Abel Redivivus, p. 381-2. His epitaph still remains on his tombstone. In memory of John Fox, the most faithful martyrologist of our English Church, a most diligent searcher into historical antiquity, a most strong bulwark and fighter for evangelical truth ; who hath revised the Marian martyrs as so many Phoenixes. from the dust of oblivion, is this monument erected, in grief and affliction, by his eldest son, Samuel Fox. He^ied April 18, A.D. 1588.— C. al council of the Church ; that Martin and his companions had maintained the same opinion ; but that St. Jerome and Calvin had confessed that bishops have had superiority over presby- ters ever since the times of St, Mark the evan- gelist. This was new and strange doctrine to the churchmen of these times. It had been al- ways said that the superiority of the order of bishops above presbyters had, been a politic human appointnienl, for tlie more orderly government of the Church, begun about the third or fourth century ; but Ijancroft was one of the first who, by the archbishop's directions, advanced it into a Divine right.* His sermon gave offence to many of the clergy and to all the friends of the Puritans about the court, who would have brought the preacher into a praemunire for say ing that any subject of this realm hath superi- ority over the persons of the clergy, otherwise than from and by her majesty's authority. But the doctor retorted this argument upon the dis- ciplinarians, and added, that it was no better than a sophism, because the prince's authority may, and very often does, confirm and corrob- orate that which is primarily from the laws of God. Sir Francis Knollys, who had this affair at heart, told the archbishop that Bancroft's as- sertion was contrary to the command of Christ, who condemned all superiority among the apos- tles. " I do not deny," says he, " that bishops may have lordly authority and dignity, provided they claim it not from a higher authority than her majesty's grant. If the bishops are not un- der-governors to her majesty of the clergy, but superior governors over their brethren by God's ordinance [i. e.,jure divino], it will then follow that her majesty is not supreme governor over her clergy." The same gentleman, not relying upon his own judgment, wrote to the learned Dr. Reynolds, of Oxford, for his opinion of Ban- croft's doctrine, which he gave him in a letter now before me.t * Life of Whitgift, p. 292. The first English Re- formers acknowledged only two orders of church of- ficers, bishops and deacons, to be of Divine appoint- ment.— C. t The letter is to this effect : "Though Epiphanius says that Aerius's as- sertion is full of folly, he does not disprove his rea- sons from Scripture ; nay , his arguments are so weak, that even Bellarmine confesses they are not agreea- ble to the text. As for the general consent of the Church, which, the doctor says, condemned Aerius's opinion for heresy, what proof does he bring for it ? It appears (he says) in Epiphanius ; but I say it does not; and the contrary appears by St. Jerome, and sundry others who lived about the same time. I grant that St. Austin, in his book of heresies, ascribes this to Aerius for one ; that he said there ought to be no difference between a priest and a bishop, because this was to condemn the Church's order, and to make a schism therein. But it is a quite different thing to say that, by the Word of God, there is a difference between them, and to say that it is by the order and custom of the Church ; which is all that St. Austin maintains. When Harding the papist alleged these very witnesses to prove the opinion of bishops and priests being of the same order to be heresy, our learned Bishop Jewel cited to the contrary Chrysos- tom, Jerome, Ambrose, and St. Austin himself, and concluded his answer with these words : All these, and other more holy fathers, together with the Apos- tle Paul, for thus saying, by Harding's advice, must be held for heretics. Michael Medina, a man of great account in the Ccuncil of Trent, adds to the foremen- HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 187 We shall meet with this controversy again hereafter. Whitgift said the doctor's sermon had done much good, though he himself rather wished than believed it to be true: it was new tioned testimonies, Theodorus, Primarius, Sedulius, Theophylact, with whom agree QScumenius the Greek scholiast, Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, Gregory, and Gratian ; and after them, how many ? it being once enrolled in the canon law for Catholic doctrine, and thereupon taught by learned men. " Besides, alt that have laboured in reforming the Church for five hundred years have taught that all j)astors, be they entitled bishops or priests, have equal authority and power by God's Word ; as, first, the Wal- denses, next Marsilius Patavinus, then WickliiTe and his scholars, afterward Husse and the Hussites ; and last of all, Luther, Calvin, Brentius, Bullinger, and Musculus. Among ourselves we have bishops, the queen's professors of divinity in our universities, and other learned men consenting herein, as Bradford, Lambert, Jewel, Pilldngton, Humphreys, Fulke, &c. But what do I speak of particular persons ? It is the common judgment of the Reformed churches of Helvetia, Savoy, France, Scotland, Germany, Hungary, Po- land, the Low Countries, and our own. I hope Dr. Bancroft will not say that all these have approved that for sound doctrine which was condemned by the general consent of the whole Church for heresy, in a most flourishing time : I hope he will acknowledge that he was overseen when he avouched the superi- ority which bishops have among us over the clergy to be God's own ordinance. " As for the doctor's saying that St. Jerome, and Calvin from him, confessed that bishops have had the same superiority ever since the time of St. Mark the evangelist, I think him mistaken, because neither Jerome says it, nor does Calvin seem to confess it on his report ; for bishops among us may do sundry oth- er things besides ordaining and laying on of hands, which inferior ministers or priests may not ; where- as, St. Jerome says. What does a bishop except or- dination which a priest does not ? meaning, that in his time, bishops had only that power above priests ; which Chrysostom also witnesses in Homily .xi., on 1 Timothy. Nor had they this privilege alone in all places, for in the Council of Carthage it is said that the priests laid their hands together with the bishops on those who were ordained. And St. Je- rome having proved by Scripture that, in the apos- tle's time, bishops and priests were all one, yet grant- eth that afterward bishops had that peculiar to them- selves somewhere, but nothing else ; so that St. Je- rome does not say, concerning the superiority in question, that bishops have had it ever since St. Mark's time. " Nor does Calvin confess it ; he says that, in old time, ministers chose one out of their company in every city, to whom they gave the title of bishop ; yet the bishop was not above them in honour and dignity, but, as consuls in the Senate, propose mat- ters, ask their opinions, direct others by giving ad- vice, by admonishing, by exhorting, and so guide the whole action, and by their authority see that per- formed which was agreed on by common consent ; the same charge had the bishop in the assembly of ministers ; and having showed from St. Jerome that this was brought in by consent of men, he adds, that it was an ancient order of the Church, even from St. Mark ; from whence it is apparent that the order of the Church he mentions has relation to that above described, in which he affirms, ' that the bishop was not so above the rest in honour as to have rule over them.' It follows, therefore, that Calvin does not so much as seem to confess of St. Jerome's report, that, ever since St. Mark's time, bishops have had a ru- ling superiority over the clergy." Dr. Reynolds, on account of his uncommon skill in Greek and Hebrew, was appointed by James, in 1C04, one of the translators of the Bible. His name is oft- en found iu history spelled Rainolds. — C doctrine at this time. Most of the clergy who approved the superiority of the episcopal order were against the Divine right ; but the bishops in the next age revived the debate, and carried their pretensions so high as to subvert the very foundations upon which they built. The queen having suffered Mary, queen of Scots, to be beheaded at Fotheringay Castle, February, 1587-8, all the Roman Catholic prin- ces were alarmed, and threatened revenge ; among others, the Spaniards hasted their invin- cible armada, to reduce England to the Catholic faith, which had been three years preparing at a prodigious expense : the fleet was well manned, and furnished with strange instruments of tor- ture for the English heretics ; they came through the Channel like so many floating castles, being to take in a land army from the Low Countries ; but partly by storms, and partly by the valour and wise conduct of the queen's admirals and sea captains, the whole fleet was burned and destroyed, so that not a Spaniard set foot upon English ground ; nor was there a ship left entire to carry the news back to Spain. The queen ordered the coasts to be well guarded, and raised a land army, which she animated by appearing at the head of them. A terror was spread through the whole nation by reports of the en- gines of cruelty that were aboard the fleet ; their barbarous usage of the poor Protestants in the Low Countries under the Duke d'Alva was re- membered, as well as their bloody massacres of the poor Indians in America ; but the storm blew over, and, by the blessing of God upon the queen's arms, the nation was soon restored to its former tranquillity. The following winter the queen summoned a Parliament to meet [February 4th, 1588], in or- der to defray the extraordinary expenses of the year, and make some new laws against the pa- pists. The Puritans having expressed their zeal for the queen and the Protestant religion by listing in her army and navy, thought it advisa- ble once more to address the houses for some favour in point of subscription. Upon the de- livery of the petition, one of the members stood up and moved that an inquiry might be made how far the bishops had exceeded the laws in the prosecution of her majesty's Protestant sub- jects. Another moved for reviving the bill against pluralities and nonresidents, which was brought in, and having passed the Commons, was sent up to the Lords. This alarmed the convo- cation, who addressed the queen to protect the Church ; and having flattered her with the title . of a goddess, "Odea certe !" they tell her, "that the passing of the bill will be attended with the decay of learning, and the spoiling of their liv- ings ; that it will take away the set forms of prayer in the Church, and bring in confusion' and barbarism. They put her in mind how dan- gerous innovations are in a settled state ; and add, that all the Reformed churches in Europe cannot compare with England in the number of learned ministers. We therefore," say they,, " not as directors, but as humble remembran- cers, beseech your highness's favourable behold- ing of our present state, and not to suffer the bill against pluralities to pass."* Hereupon the queen forbade the House of Lords to proceed, and sent for those members of the House of * Life of Whitgift, p. 280. 188 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Commons into custody who had dared to break through her orders, of not meddhng with affairs of religion without her special allowance ; which put an end to all expectations of relief for the present. This year died the reverend and learned Mr. Thomas Sampson, of whom mention has been made already ; he was horn about the year 1517, andeducated at Oxford; he afterward studied at the Temple, and was a means of converting the famous martyr John Bradford to the Prot- estant religion ; he took orders from Archbishop Cranmer and Ridley in the year 1549 (who dis- pensed with the habits at his request;, and be- came Rector of Allhallows, Bread -street : he was a famous preacher in the reign of King Ed- ward ; but upon the accession of Queen Mary he fled to Strasburgh,* and was highly esteem- ed by the learned Tremelius. When Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, she offered him the Bishopric of Norwich, which he refused, for no other reason but because he could not con- form to the habits and ceremonies. In the year 1561, he was installed Dean of Christ Church, Oxon ; but soon after, in the year 1564, was deprived by sentence of Archbishop Parker for nonconformity. He afterward Contented him- self with the mastership of an hospital in Lei- cester, where he spent the remainder of his days in peace. He was seized with the dead palsy on one side many years before he died ; but continued preaching and writing to the last, and was in high esteem over all England for his learning, piety, and zeal for the Protestant reli- gion. He died at his hospital, with great tran- quillity and comfort in his nonconformity, the latter end of March or the beginning of April, 1588-9, in the seventy-second year of his age.t Soon after him died the very learned Dr. Lawrence Humphreys, a gi'eat friend and com- panion of Sampson's ; he was born at Newport- Pagnel, in Buckinghamshire, and educated in Magdalen College, Oxon, of which he was per- petual fellow. In the reign of Queen Mary he obtained leave to travel, and continued at Zu- rich till Queen Elizabeth's accession, when he was made queen's professor in divinity ; he was afterward President of Magdalen College, and Dean of Gloucester, which was the highest pre- ferment he could obtain, because he was a Non- conformist from the ceremonies of the Church. The Oxford historian says he was a moderate and conscientious Nonconformist, and stocked his college with a generation of that sort of men that could not be rooted out in many years : he was certainly a strict Calvinist, and a bitter enemy of the papists ; he was a great and gen- eral scholar, an able linguist, and a deeper di- vine than most of his age : he published many learned works, and at length died in his college, in the sixty-third year of his age, 1589, having had the honour to see many of his pupils bish- ops,t while he who was every way their superi- * The particular cause of his leaving the kingdom was a discovery that he was concerned with Ricliard Chambers, a zealous Protestant, in collecting money in the city of London for the use of poor scholars in the universities who had imbibed the reformed doc- trines.— British Biography, vol. iii., p. 20, the note. — Ed. t Wood's Ath. Ox., vol. i., p. 192. i Strype's Ann., voi. i., p. 472 ; vol. ii., p. 451. or was denied preferment for his Puritanical principles. To these we may add the venerable Edwin Sandys, archbishop of York, an excellent and frequent preacher in his younger days, and aa exile for religion in Queen Mary's reign. He was afterward successively Bishop of Worces- ter, London, and York, and a zealous defender of the laws against Nonconformists of all sorts ; when arguments failed, he would earnestly im- plore the secular arm ; though he had no great opinion of the discipline or ceremonies of the Church, as appears by his last will and testa- ment, in which are these remarkable expres- sions : " I am persuaded that the rites and cer- emonies, by political institution appointed in the Church, are not ungodly nor unlawful, but may for order and obedience' sake be used by a good Christian ; but I am now, and ever have been, persuaded that some of these rites and ceremo- nies are not expedient for this church now; but that in the Church reformed, and in all this time of the Gospel, they may better be disused by little and little, than more and more urged."* Such a testimony, from the dying lips of one who had been a severe persecutort of honest men, for things which he always thought had better be disused than urged, deserves to be remembered. He diedt in the month of July, 1588, in the six- ty-ninth year of his age, and was buried in the collegiate church of Southwell, where there is a monument erected to his memory, with his own effigies on the top, and a great number of his children kneeling round the sides of it. CHAPTER VIII. FROM T^E SPANISH INVASION TO THE DEATH OV QUEEN ELIZABETH. While there were any hopes of compromi sing matters between the Church and Puritans the controversy was carried on with some de- cency ; but when all hopes of accommodatioa were at an end, the contending parties loaded each other with the heaviest reproaches. The public printing-presses being shut against the Puritans, some of them purchased a private one, and carried it from one country to another to prevent discovery : it was first set up at Moul- sey in Surrey, near Kingston-on-Thames ; from thence it was conveyed to Fawsley in North- amptonshire ; from thence to Norton, from thence to Coventry, from Coventry to Woolstoa in Warwickshire, and from thence to Manches- ter in Lancashire, where it was discovered. Sundry satirical pamphlets were printed by this press, and dispersed all over the kingdom ; as, * Life of Whitgift, p. 287. t Life of Parker, p. 428, 438. Pierce's Vindica- tion, p. 89. X Bishop Sandys was one of the translators of the Bible in this reign, and the author of a volume of sermons esteemed superior to any of his contempo- raries. The words of his last will, quoted above, agree with his former declaration to Bishop Parker, produced by our author, p. ICO. But his treatment of the Puritans was a contradiction to both, and is one proof, among the several instances furnished by these times, of the influence of preferment and pros- perity in corrupting the human mind or blinding the judgment. For, in the same will, he entered his se- rious protest against the platforms oflered by the Pu- ritans.— See Maddox's Vindication, p. 352. — Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 189 " Martin Mar-Prelate," written, as is suppo- sed, by a club of separatists, for the authors 'were never discovered : it is a violent satire against the hierarchy and all its supporteKS ; it calls the lord-bishops petty antichrists, petty popes, proud prelates, enemies to the Gospel, and most covetous, wretched priests. It says "that the Lord has given many of our bishops over to a reprobate sense, because they wilfully oppose and persecute the truth ; and supposes them to have committed the unpardonable sin, because they have manifested in their public writings, &c., most blasphemous and damnable doctrines." Tire author then addresses him- self to the clergy who had subscribed, and who were for pressing subscription upon others, in such punning language as this : " Right puissant and terrible priests, my clergy masters of the confocation or conspiration house, whether /cA-ers [vicars], paltripolitatis, or others of the holy league of subscription. Right poisoned, perse- cuting, and terrible priests ; my horned masters, your government is antichristian, your cause is desperate, your grounds are ridiculous ; Martin understands all your knavery ; you are intoler- able withstanders of reformation, enemies of the Gospel, and most covetous, wretched, and popish priests," &c.* There are a great many sad truths in the book, but delivered in rude and unbecoming language, and with a bitter, an- gry spirit. The titles of the rest were, " Theses Martinianae ; i. e., certain demon- strative conclusions set down and collected by Martin Mar-Prelate the Great, serving as a manifest and sufficient confutation of all that ever the college of eater-caps, with their whole band of clergy-priests, have or can bring for the defence of their ambitious and antichristian prel- acy. Published by Martin, Junior, 1589, in oc- tavo, and dedicated to John Kankerbury" [i. e., Canterbury]. The author of this tells the bish- ops that he would plant young Martins in every diocess and parish, who should watch the beha- viour of the clergy, that when anything was done amiss it might be made public. " Protestation of Martin Mar- Prelate ; where- in, notwithstanding the surprising of the print- er, he maketh it known to the world that he feareth neither proud priest, antichristian pope, tyrannous prelate, nor godless eater-cap, &,c. Printed 1589." Octavo. " His appellation to the High Court of Parlia- ment from the bad and injurious dealing of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other his col- leagues of the High Commission, &c.t Printed 1589." Octavo. " Dialogue, wherein is plainly laid open the tyrannical dealings of the lords-bishops against God's children. Printed 1589." Quarto. " A Treatise, wherein is manifestly proved that Reformation, and those that sincerely fa- vour the same, are unjustly charged to be ene- mies to her majesty and the state. Printed 1590." Quarto. "Ha' ye any work for the Cooper 1" This was written against Dr. Thomas Cooper, bishop of Winchester, and is said to be printed in Eu- rope, not far from some of the bouncing priests, 1590. * Life of Whitgift, p. 290. + Ath. Oxon., vol., i., p., 259. " Epitome of the First Book of Dr. John Bridges against the Puritans," with this expression in the title-page, " Oh ! read over Dr. John Bridg- es, for it is a worthy work. Printed over sea in Europe, within two furlongs of a bouncing priest, at the cost and charges of Martin Mar- Prelate,' gent., in quarto." "The Cobbler's Book,"* which denies the Church of England to be a true church, and charges her with maintaining idolatry under the name of decency, in the habits, fonts, baptism by women, gang-days, saints' eves, bislioping of children, organs, wafer-cakes, &c. " Ha' ye any more work for the Cooper V- In printing of which the press was discovered and seized, with several pamphlets unfinished ; as, Episto [Episco] Mastix, Paradoxes, Dialogues, Miscellanea, Varice Lectionps, Martin's Dream, The Lives and Doings of English Popes, Itine- rarium or Visitations, Lambethisms. The last two of these were imperfect ; but to complete the Itinerarium, the author threatens to survey all the clergy of England, and note their intolerable pranks ; and for his Lambeth- isms he would have a Martin at Lambeth. Oth- er books were published of the same nature ; as, " A Demonstration of Discipline," " The Counter-poison," &c. The writers on the Church side came not be- hind their adversaries in bulToonery and ridi- cule, as appears by the following pamphlets printed at this time : " Pappe with an hatchet, alias, A fig for my godson ; or. Crack me this nut, that is, a sound box of the ear for the idiot Martin to hold his peace. Written by one that dares call a dog a dog. Imprinted by John Anoke, and are to be sold at the sign of the Crab Tree Cudgel, in Thwack- Coat-Lane, "t " Pasquil's Apology. In the first part whereof he renders a reason of his long silence, and gal- lops the field with the treatise of Reformation. Printed where I was, and where I shall be ready, by the help of God and my muse, to send you a May-game of Martinism. Anno 1593." Quarto. " An Almond for a Parrot ; or. An Alms for Martin Mar-Prelate, &c. By Cuthbert Curry- Knave." Quarto. " The return of the renowned Cavaliero Pas- quil to England, and his meeting with Marforius at London, upon the Royal Exchange, London, 1589, against Martin and Martinism." " A Counter-cuff given to Martin, Junior, by the Pasquil of England, Cavaliero. 1589." 8vo. It is sad when a controversy about serious matters runs these dregs : ridicule and personal reflection may expose an adversary and make him ashamed, but will never convince or recon- cile ; it carries with it a contempt which sticks in the heart, and is hardly ever to be removed, nor do I remember any cause that has been served by such methods. Dr. Bridges answer- ed Martin in a ludicrous style ; but Cooper, bishop of Winchester, did more service by his grave and sober reply, with the assistance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, being mis- erably aspersed, furnished the bishop with re- plies to the particular charges brought against him. The book is entitled "An Advertisement to the People of England," wherein the slan- * Life of Whitgift, p. 296. t Ath. Ox., vi., 280. t Ibid., p. 288. 190 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. ders of Martin Mar- Prelate the libeller are dis- tincily answered. But, after all, it was impos- sible for the bishops to wipe off from them- selves the charge of persecution and violation of the laws. To put a stop to these pamphlets, the queen sent a letter to the archbishop, commanding him to malie diligent inquiry after the printing-press, and issued out her royal proclamation, dated February 13th, 1589, " for the bringing in ail sedi- tious and schismatical books, whether printed or written, to the ordinary, or to one of the privy council, as tending to bring in a monstrous and dangerous innovation of all manner of ec- clesiastical government now in use, and with a rash and malicious purpose to dissolve the state of the prelacy, being one of the three ancient estates of this realpi under her highness, where- of her majesty mindeth to have a reverend re- gard ; she therefore prohibits any of her sub- jects from keeping any books in their custody against the order of the Church, or the rites and ceremonies of it, her majesty being minded to have the laws severely executed against the authors and abetters of them, as soon as they shall be apprehended."* As soon as the printing-press was discovered, his grace wrote to the treasurer to prosecute the persons with whom it was found ; but, like an able politician, wishes it might be done by the lords of the council rather than by the ec- clesiastical commissioners, because they had already suffered for supporting the government, which was wounded through their sides. t Ac- cordingly, Sir Richard Knightly, Sir Wig- ston, who had entertained the press, together with the printer, and Humphrey Newman, the disperser, were deeply lined in the Star Cham- ber, and others were put to death. t The archbishop, being now in his visitation, had framed twenty-two articles of inquiry, upon which the church-wardens of every parish were to be examined upon oath. By these articles they were to swear that their minister was ex- actly conformable to the orders of the Church, or else to impeach him ; and to declare, farther, whether they knew any of their neighbours or fellow-parishioners that were " common swear- ers, drunkards, usurers, witches, conjurers, heretics ; any man that had two wives, or woman that had two husbands ; whether they knew any that went to conventicles or meet- ings for saying prayers in private houses ; any that were of age, and did not receive the sacrament at church three times a year -"^ * Life of Whitgift, in Rec, b. iii., no. 41. t Ibid., p. 314. Fuller, b. ix., p. 194. j Fuller adds. Archbishop Whitgift improved his interest with the queen tdl, though she was at first angry with his solicitations, they were delivered out of prison and eased of their fines. Bishop Maddox censures Mr. Neal for passing this over in silence ; but he himself omits the conslructiou put on this apparently kind conduct of the prelate, '-which, wliile some highly commended, so others," says Ful- ler, " imputed it to the declining of envy, gaining of applause, and remorse of conscience for over-rigor- ous proceedings ; it being no charity to cure the wound he had caused, and solicit the remitting those fines which he had procured to be imposed." Our author proceeds: "Thus impossible is it to please froward spirits, and to make them like the best deed who dislike the doer." — Ed. <) Life of Whitgift, p. 309, 311. with others calculated to dissolve all friendship in country towns, and set a whole diocess in a flame. When Sir Francis Knollys had read the articles, he sent them to the treasurer, calling them by their proper name, " articles of inqui- sition, highly prejudicial to the royal preroga- tive ;" but there was no stopping his grace's career.* Among the divines that suffered death! for the libels above mentioned were the Rev. Mr. Udal, whose case being peculiarly hard, I shall give the reader an abstract of it. He had beea minister of Kingston-upon-Thames, where, having been silenced by the official. Dr. Hone, he lay by for half a year, having no farther pros- pect of usefulness in the Chruch. At length, the people of Newcastle-upon-Tyne wanting a minister, prevailed with the Earl of Huntingdon to send him to them ; when he had been there about a year he was sent for up to London by the Lord Hnnsdon and the lord-chamberlain, in the name of the whole privy council. Mr. Udal set out December 29, 1589, and on the 13th of January, 1590, appeared at Lord Cobham's house before the commissioners, Lord Cobham, Lord Buckhurst, Lord-chief-justice Anderson, Dr. John Young, bishop of Rochester, Mr. For- tescue, Mr. Egerton, the queen's solicitor, Dr. Aubrey, and Dr. Lewin. The bishop began the examination in this manner : Bishop. Have you the allowance of the bishop of the diocess to preach at Newcastle 1 Udal. There was neither bishop of the diocess nor Archbishop of York at that time. Fortescue. By what law, then, did you preach at Newcastle, being silenced at Kingston! Udal. I know no law against it, seeing I was silenced only by the official, whose authority reaches not beyond his archdeaconry. L. C. J. Anderson. You are called to answer concerning certain books thought to be of your writing. Udal. If it be any of Martin's books, I have disowned them a year and a half ago at Lambeth. L. C. J. Anderson. Who was the author of the Demonstration, or the Dialogue 1 Udal. I shall not answer. Anderson. Why will you clear yourself of Martin, and not of these'? Udal. Because I would not be thought to handle the cause of discipline as Martin did; but I think otherwise of the other books, and care not though they should be fathered upon me ; I think the author did well, and, therefore, would not discover him if I knew him, but would hin- der, it all I could. L. C. J. Anderson. Why- dare you not confess if you be the author 1 Udal. I have said I liked of the books, and the matter handled in them; but whether I made them or no I will not answer, for by the law I * Pierce's Vindic, p. 129. t Bishop Warburton is very severe in his censure of Mr. Neal for using this language ; " which," he says, " in common English, means dying by the hand of the executioner ;" whereas Mr. Udal died in pris- on. But when he died quite heart-broken with sor- row and grief through imprisonment and the severe treatment he met with on account of the libels, his death was as much the consequence of Ihe prosecution commenced against him as if it had been inflicted by the executioner. At most there W2s only an inaccuracy in the expression, which it was very unworthy the bishop to censure as " unworthy a candid historian or an honest man."— Ed. There is no attempt at deception in Neal, for he goes on and minutely re- lates his dying daily in the prison. — 0. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. I&l am not obliged to it. Anderson. That is true, if it concerned the loss of your life. [And yet the judges tried and condemned him for his life.] Udal. I pray your lordship, does not the law say, No man shall be put to answer with- out presentment before justices on matters of record, or by due proofs and writ original, &c. 1 (A. 42 Edw. TIL, cap. iii.). Anderson. That is law if it be not repealed. Bishop of Rochester. Pray let me ask you a question concerning your book. But Udal was upon his guard, and said. It is not yet proved to be mine. Mr. Solicitor. I am sorry, Mr. Udal, you will not answer nor take an oath, which by law you ought to do ; but he did not say by what law. Udal. Sir, if I have a liberty by law, there is no reason why I should not challenge it ; show me by what law I am obliged to accuse myself. Dr. Lewin. You have taken the oath heretofore, why should you not take it nowl Udal. I then voluntarily confessed certain things concerning my preach- ing of the points of discipline, which could never have been proved, and when my friends labour- ed to have me restored to my ministry, the archbishop answered there was sufficient mat- ter against me, by my own confession, why I should not be restored ; whereupon I covenant- ed with my own heart never to be my own ac- cuser again. At length the bishop told him his sentence for that time was to be sent to the Gate-house ; take it in his own words. " I was carried to the Gate-house by a messenger, who delivered me with a warrant to be kept close prisoner, and not to be suffered to have pen, ink, or pa- per, or anybody to speak with me. Thus I re- mained half a year, in all which time my wife could not get leave to come to me, saving only that in the hearing of the keeper she might speak to me, and I to her, of such things as she should think meet. All which time my cham- ber-fellows were seminary priests, traitors, and professed papists. At the end of the half year I was removed to the White Lion, in South- wark, and so carried to the assizes at Croy- don."' On the 23d of July, Mr. Udal was brought to Croydon with fetters on his legs, and indicted upon the statute 23 Eliz., cap. ii., before Baron Clarke and Mr. Sergeant Puckering, for wri- ting a wicked, scandalous, and seditious libel, cahed " A Demonstration of Discipline," dedi- cated to the supposed governors of the Church of England,* in which is this passage: "Who can, without blushing, deny you [the bishops] to be the cause of all ungodUnessI forasmuch as your government gives liberty for a man to be anything but a sound Christian ; it is more free in these days to be a papist or a wicked man than what we should be ; I could live twenty years as such in England, and it may be in a bishop's house, and not be molested : so true is it that you care for nothing but the mainte- nance of your dignities, be it to damnation of your souls, and infinite millions more." These are the words of the indictment. To which Mr. Udal pleaded not guilty, and put himself upon the trial of his country. In opening the cause, Mr. Daulton, the queen's counsel, made a long inVective against the new discipline, which * Life of Whitgift, p. 343. he affirmed was not to be found in the Word of God. To whom Udal replied. This being a controversy among learned divines, he thought Mr. Daulton might have suspended his judg- ment, since he had formerly showed some li- king to the cause. Upon which the judge said. Sirrah ! sirrah ! answer to the matter. Mr. Daulton, go on to the proof of the points in the indictment, which were these three : 1. That Udal was the author of the book. 2. That he had a malicious intent in making it. 3. That the matters in the indictment were felony by the statute 23 Eliz., cap. ii. The first point was to prove Udal to be the author of the book ; and here it is observable, that the witnesses were not brought into court, but only their examinations, which the registrar swore to. And, first, Stephen Chatfield's arti- cles were produced, which contained a report of certain papers he had seen in Udal's study. Upon seeing them, he asked whose writings they were. Udal answered, A friend's. Chat- field then desired him to rid his hands of them, for he doubted they concerned the state. He added, that Udal told him another time, that if they put him to silence, he would give the bish- ops such a blow as they had never had. Chat- field was called to witness these things, but ap- peared not. Daulton said he went out of the way on purpose. The judge said, Mr. Udal, you are glad of that. Mr. Udal answered, My lord, I wish heartily he were here ; for as I am sure he could never say anything against me to prove this point, so I am able to prove it to be true that he is very sorry that he ever made any complaint against me, confessing he did it in anger when Martin came first out, and by their suggestions, whom he had proved since to be very bad men. Mr. Uda added, that the book was published before this conversation with Chatfield. The examination of Nicholas Tomkins be- fore the commissioners was next produced. This Tomkins was now beyond sea, but the paper said that Udal had told him he was the author. But Tomkins himself sent word that he would not for a £1000 affirm any more than that he had heard Udal say, that he would not doubt but set his name to the book if he had indifferent judges. And when Udal offered to produce his witnesses, the judge said, that be- cause the witnesses were against the queen's majesty, they could not be heard. The confession of Henry Sharp, of North- ampton, was then read, who, upon oath before the lord-chancellor, had declared that he heard Mr. Penry say that Mr. Udal was the author of the Demonstration. This was the whole evidence of the fact upon which he was convicted, not a single living wit- ness being produced in court ; so that the pris- oner had no opportunity to ask any questions, or refute the evidence. And what methods were used to extort these confessions may easily be imagined from the confessors flying their country, and then testifying their sorrow for what they had said. To prove the sedition, and bring it within the statute, the counsel insisted upon his threaten- ing the bishops, who being the queen's officers, it was constructed a threatening of the queea herself The prisoner desired liberty to explain the passage, and his counsel insisted that aa 192 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. offence against the bishops was not sedition against the queen; but the judge gave it for law, that " they who spake against the queen's government in causes ecclesiastical, or her laws, proceedings, and ecclesiastical officers, defamed the queen herself" Upon this the jury were directed to find him guilty of the fact, and the judges took upon them the point of law, and condemned him as a felon. Mr. Fuller confess- es* that the proof against him was not preg- nant, for it was generally believed he wrote not the book, but only the preface. They might as "well have condemned him without the form of a trial, for the statute was undoubtedly strained beyond the intent of it, to reach his life. He behaved modestly and discreetly at the bar ; and having said as much for himself as must have satisfied any equitable persons, he submit- ted to the judgment of the court. Mr. Udal was convicted in the summer assi- zes, 1590, but did not receive sentence till the Lent assizes ; in the mean time, he was offered his pardon if he would sign the following sub- mission :t " I, John Udal, have been heretofore, by due course of law, convicted of felony, for penning or setting forth a certain book called * The Dem- onstration of Discipline,' wherein false, slan- derous, and seditious matters are contained against her majesty's prerogative royal, her crown and dignity, and against the laws and government ecclesiastical and temporal by law established under her highness, and tending to the erecting a new form of government contrary to her said laws ; all which points I do now per- ceive, by the grace of God, to be very danger- ous to the peace of this realm and church, se- ditious in the commonwealth, and infinitely of- fensive to the queen's most excellent majesty ; so as thereby I, now seeing the grievousness of my offence, do most humbly on my knees, be- fore and in this presence, submit myself to the mercy of her highness, being most sorry that I have so deeply and worthily incurred her majes- ty's indignation against me : promising, if it shall please God to move her royal heart to have compassion on me, a most sorrowful, convicted person, that I will forever hereafter forsake all such undutiful and dangerous courses, and de- mean myself dutifully and peaceably ; for I do acknowledge her laws to be both lawful and godly, and to be obeyed by every subject. Feb- ruary, 1590-1." No arguments or threatenings of the judges could prevail with Udal to sign this submission ; but the day before sentence was to be passed he offered the following, drawn up by himself: " Concerning the book whereof I was by due course of law convicted, by referring myself to the trial of the law, and for that by the verdict of twelve men I am found to be the author of it, for which cause an humble submission is worthily required and offered of me : although I cannot disavow the cause and substance of the doctrine debated in it, which I must needs acknowledge to be holy, and (so far as I con- ceive it) agreeable to the Word of God, yet I confess the manner of writing it is such in some part as may worthily be blamed, and might pro- voke her majesty's just indignation therein. » B. ix., p. 223. t Strype's Ann., vol. ult., p. 26. Whereof the trial of the law imputing to me all such defaults as are in that book, and laying the punishment of the same in the most grievous manner upon me ; as my most humble suit to her most excellent majesty is, that her mercy and gracious pardon may free me from the guilt and offence which the said trial of the law hath cast upon me, and farther of her great clemen- cy to restore me to the comfort of my life and liberty, so do I promise, in all humble submis- sion to God and her majesty, to carry myself in the whole course of my life in such humble and dutiful obedience as shall befit a minister of the Gospel and dutiful subject, fervently and continually praying for a good preservation of her highness's precious life and happy govern- ment, to the honour of God, and comfort of her loyal and dutiful subjects. February 19, 1590-1." Mr. Udal had often, and with great earnest- ness, petitioned his judges for their mediation with the queen : in his letter of November 11th, he says, " I pray you call to mind my tedious state of imprisonment, whereby myself, my wife, and children are reduced to beggary ; pray call to mind by what course this misery is brought upon, me, and .if you find, by due consideration, that I am worthy to receive the punishment from the sentence of upright justice, I pray you to hasten the execution of the same, for it were better for me to die than to live in this case ; but if it appear to your consciences (as I hope it will) that no malice against her majesty can possibly be in me, then do I humbly and heartily desire you to be a means that I may be releas- ed ; then I shall not only forget that hard opin- ion conceived of your courses against me, but pray heartily to God to bury the same, with the rest of your sins, in the grave of his Son Jesus Christ." Mr. Udal wrote again, November 18 and 25, in most humble and dutiful language, but the court would do nothing till he had sign- ed their submission. At the close of the Lent assizes, being called to the bar with the rest of the felons, and asked what he had to say why judgment should not be given against him according to the verdict, he gave in a paper consisting of nine reasons, of which these are the principal : 1. "Because the jury were directed only to find the fact whether I was author of the book ; and were expressly freed by your lordship from inquiring into the intent, without which there is no felony. 2. " The jury were not left to their own con- sciences, but were wrought upon partly by promises, assuring them it should be no farther danger to me, but tend to my good ; and partly by fear, as appears, in that it has been a grief to some of them ever since. 3. " The statute, in the true meaning of it, is thought not to reach my case, there being no- thing in the book spoken of her majesty's per- son but in duty and honour ; I beseech you, therefore, to consider whether the drawing of it from her royal person to the bishops, as being part of her body politic, be not a violent depra- ving and wresting of the statute. 4. " But if the statute be taken as it is urged, the felony must consist in the malicious intent ; wherein I appeal first to God, and then to all men who have known the course of my life. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 193 and to your lordships' own consciences, wheth- er you can find me guilty of any act in all my life that savoured of any malice or malicious intent against her majesty ; of which, if your consciences must clear me before God, I hope you will not proceed to judgment. 5. "By the laws of God, and I trust also by the laws of the land, the witnesses ought to be pro- duced face to face against me ; but I have none such, nor any other things, but papers and re- ports of depositions taken by ecclesiastical com- missioners and others. This kind of evidence is not allowed in case of lands, and therefore much less ought it to be allowed in case of life. 6. " None of the depositions prove me direct- ly to be the author of the book in question ; and the author of the chief testimony is so grieved, that he is ashamed to come where he is known. 7. " Supposing me to be the author of the book, let it be considered that the said book for substance contains nothing but what is taught and believed by the best Reformed churches in Europe, so that in condemning me you condemn all such nations and cliurcdes as hold the same doctrine. If the punishment be for the manner of writing, this may be thought by some worthy of an admonition, or fine, or some short impris- onment ;* but death lor an error of sucii a kind, as terms and words not altogether dutiful of certain bishops, cannot but be extreme cruelty against one that has endeavoured to show him- self a dutiful subject and faithful minister of the Gospel. " If all this prevail not, yet my Redeemer liveth, to whom I commend myself, and say as sometime Jeremiah said in a case not much un- like, ' Behold, I am in your hands to do with me "whatsoever seemeth good unto you ; but know you this, that if you put me to death, you shall bring innocent blood upon your own heads, and upon the land.' As the blood of Abel, so the blood of Udal will cry to God with a loud voice, and the righteous Judge of the land will require it at the hands of all that shall be guilty of it." But nothing would avail unless he would sign the submission the court had drawn up for him ; which his conscience not suffering him to do, sentence of death was passed upon him Feb- ruary 20th, and execution openly awarded ; but next morning the judges, by direction from court, gave private orders to respite it till her majesty's pleasure was farther known. The Dean of St. Paul's and Dr. Andrews were sent to persuade him to sign the submission, which he peremptorily refused. But because the queen had been misinformed of his belief, he sent her majesty a short confession of his faith in these words : " I believe, and have often preached, that the Church of England is a part of the true visible Church, the Word and sacraments being truly dispensed ; for which reason I have communi- cated with it several years at Kingston, and a year at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and do still desire to be a preacher in the same church ; therefore I utterly renounce the schism and separation of the Brownists : I do allow the articles of reli- gion as far as they contain the doctrine of faith and sacraments according to law : I believe the queen's majesty hath, and ought to have, su- preme authority over all persons, in all causes * Steype's Ann., vol. iv., p. 23. Vol. I.— B b ecclesiastical and civil. And if the prince com- mands anything contrary to the Word of God, it is not lawful for subjects to rebel or resist, but with patience and humility to bear the pun- ishment laid upon them: I believe the Church, rightly refornieJ, ought to be governed ecclesi- astically by ministers, assisted by elders, as in the foreign Reformed churches : I believe the censures of the Church ought merely to con- cern the soul, and may not impeach any sub- ject, much less any prince, in liberty of body, goods, dominion, or any earthly privilege ; nor do I believe that a Christian prince ought oth- erwise to be subject to the Church censures than our gracious queen professes herself to be to the preaching of the Word and the adminis- tration of the sacraments."* With this declaration of his faith he sent an hu.mble request, that il her majesty would not graciously be pleased to pardon him, she would change his sentence into banishment, that the land might not be charged with his blood. t King James of Scotland wrote to the queen, re- questing most earnestly that, for the sake of his intercession, Udal might be relieved of his pres- ent strait, promising to do the like for her maj- esty in any matter she should recommend to him. The Turkey merchants also offered to send him as chaplain to one of their factories abroad if he might have his life and liberty ; which Udal consented to, as appears by his let- ter to the lord-treasurer, in which he says, " Lamentable is my case, having been three years in durance, which makes me humbly de- sire your lordship's favour, that I may be re- leased from my imprisonment, the Turkey mer- chants having my consent to go into Syria or Guinea, there to remain two years with their factors, if my lii^erty may be obtained." The writer of Archbishop Whitgift's life says the archbishop yielded to this petition ; that the lord-keeper promised to farther it ; and that the Earl of Essex had a draught of a pardon ready prepared, with this condition annexed, that he should never return without the queen's license ; but her majesty never signed it, and the Tur- key ships going away without him, poor unhap- py Udal died a few months after in the Mar- shalsea prison, quite heart-broken with sorrow and grief, about the end of the year 1592. Mr. Fullert says he was a learned man, and of a blameless life, powerful in prayer, and no less profitable than painful in preaching. He was decently interred in the churchyard of St. George, Southwark, not far from the grave of Bishop Bonner, being honoured with the attend- ance of great numbers of the London ministers, who visited him in prison, and now wept over the remains of a man who, after a long and se- vere trial of his faith and patience, died for the testimony of a good conscience, and stands upon record as a monument of the oppression and cruelty of the government under which he suffered. Though the moderate Puritans publicly dis- owned the libels above mentioned, and con- denmed the spirit with which they were writ- ten, they were nevertheless brought into troub- le for their associations. Among others, the Rev. Mr. Cartwright, the father of the Pu- * Life of Whitgift, p. 376. t Fuller, b. ix., p. 203. t Fuller, b. ix., p. 222. 194 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Titans, and master of the new hospital at War- wick, was suspended by his diocesan, and sum- moned before the hi>;h commissioners, wlio committed him to the Fleet, with his breiliren, Mr. Egerton, Fen, Wright, Farmer, Lord, Snape, King, Rushbrooke, Wiggins, Littleton, Field, Iloyde, Payne, Proudlove, and Jewel. At their first appearance, the commissioners asked them wliere liiey held their associations or as- semblies, and how often ; who were present, and what matters were treated of; who cor- rected or set forth the book of Discipline, and ■who had subscribed or submitted to it ; wheth- er in a Christian monarchy the king is supreme governor of the Church, or whether he is un- der the government of pastors, doctors, and such like ; whether it be lawful for a foreign prince to ordain ceremonies, and make orders for the Church ; whether the ecclesiastical gov- ernment established in England be lawful, and allowed by ihe Word of God ; whether the sac- raments ministered according to the Book of Common Prayer, are godly and rightly minis- tered, &.C. Mr. Cartwright's answer to these interroga- tories was said by the civilians to be sufficient; upon which they exhibited thirty-one articles against him, September 1, 1590, and required him to answer them upon oath.* The first twenty- four articles charge him •with renouncing his episcopal orders, by being xeordained beyond sea, with interrupting the peace, and breaking the orders of the Church since he came home, and with knowing the authors or printers of Martin Mar-Prelate. Art. 25. Charges him with penning, or pro- curing to be penned, the book of Discipline, and with recommending the practice of it. Art. 26. Charges him with being present at sundry pretended synods, classes, or conferen- ces of ministers in divers countries. Art. 27. That at such synods they subscribed the book of Discipline, and promised to govern themselves by it as far as they could. Art. 28. Charges him with setting up partic- ular conferences in several shires, which were to receive the determinations of the General Assembly, and put them in practice. Art. 29, 30, and 31. Mention some rules and orders of their synods ; as, that the members should bring testimonials from their several classes ; that they should subscribe the book of Discipline ; that no books should be printed but by consent ; that they should be subject to the censures of the brethren both for doctrine and life ; and that if any should be sent abroad upon public service at the meeting of Parliament, their charges should be borne, &c. Mr. Cartwright offered to clear himself of some of these articles upon oath, and to give his reasons for not answering the rest ; but if this would not satisfy, he was determined to submit to the punishment the commissioners should award* [which was imprisonment in the Fleet], praying the lord-treasurer to make some provision for the poor people of Warwick, who had no minister. The rest of Cartwright's brethren refusing the oath for the same rea- sons, viz., because they would not accuse tiiem- selves, nor bring their friends into trouble, were * LifeofWhilgift, p. 373. t Ibid., p. 338. committed to divers prisons. But the archbish- op, by advice of the treasurer, was not present at the commitment of his old adversary. On the 13th of May, 1591, they were brought before the Star Chamber,* which was a court made up of certain noblemen, bishops, judges, and counsellors of the queen's nomination, to the number of twenty or thirty, with her maj- esty at their head, who is the sole judge whea present, the other members being only to give their opinion to their sovereign by way of ad- vice, which he [or she] disallows at their pleas- ure ; hut in the absence of the sovereign, the determination is by a majority, the lord-chan- cellor or keeper having a casting vole. The determinations of this court, says Mr. Rush- worth, were not by the verdict of a jury, nor ac- cording to any statute-law of the land, but ac- cording to the king's [or queen's] royal will and pleasure, and yet they were made as binding to the subject as an act of Parliament. In the reign of King Henry VII., the practice of that court was thought to intrench upon the com- mon law, though it seldom did any business ; but in the latter end of this, and during the two next reigns, the court sat constantly, and was so unmerciful in its censures and punish- ments, that the whole nation cried aloud against it as a mark of the vilest slavery. Lord Clar- endon says,t " There were very few persons o^. quality in those times that had not suffered or been perplexed by the weight and fear of its censure and judgments ; for having extended their jurisdiction from riots, perjuries, and the most notorious misdemeanors, to an asserting of all proclamations and orders of state, to the vindicating illegal commissioners and grants of monopolies, no man could hope to be any longer free from the inquisition of that court, than he resolved to submit to those and the like ex- traordinary courses." When Mr. Cartwright and his brethren ap- peared before the court, Mr. Attorney-general inveighed bitterly against them for refusing the oath ; and when Mr. Fuller, counsel for the pris- oners, stood up to answer, he was commanded silence, and told that far less crimes than theirs had been punished with the galleys or perpetual banishment, which latter he thought proper for them, provided it was in some remote place from whence they might not return. J From the Star Chamber they were remitted back to the High Commission, where Bancroft had a long argument with Cartwright about the oath ; from thence they were returned again to the Star Chamber, and a bill was exhibited against them with twenty articles ; in answer to which ihey maintain that their associations were very use- ful, and not forbidden by any law of the realm ; that they exercised no jurisdiction, nor moved any sedition, nor transacted any affairs in them, but with a due regard to their duty to their prince, and to the peace of the Church ; that they had agreed upon some regulations to ren- der their ministry more edifying, but all was voluntary, and in breach of no law ; and as for tlie oath, they refused it, not in contempt of the court, but as contrary to the laws of God and nature. * Life of Whitgift, p. 361. t Hist, of Gr. Rebellion, vol. i., 8vo, p. 68, &c. t Life of Whitgift, p. 360. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 195 But this answer not being satisfactory, they were remanded to prison, where they continued two years without any fartlier process, or being admitted to bail ; in the mean time, King James of Scotland interceded for them, in a letter to the queen, dated June 12, 1591, in which he re- quests her majesty to show favour to Mr. Cart- wright and his brethren, becau.-se of their great learning and faithful travels in the Gospel.* Carlwright himself petitioned fur his liberty,! as being afflicted with excessive pains of the gout and sciatica, which were much increased by lying in a cold prison ; he wrote a most hum- ble and pious letter to the Lady llussel, and another to the lord-treasurer, beseeching them to procure his enlargement with the queen, though it were upon bond, expressing a very great concern that her majesty should be so highly offended with him, since he had printed no books for thirteen years past that could give the least uneasiness ; since he had declared his dislike of Martin Mar-Prelate; and that he never had a finger in any of the books under the name, nor in any other satirical pamphlets ; and far- ther, that in the course of his ministry for five years past at Warwick, he had avoided all con- troversy. Dr. Goad, Dr. Whitaker, and two others of the university, wrote an excellent let- tert to the treasurer in favour of the prisoners, beseeching his lordship tiiat they might not be more hardly dealt with than papists ; but this not prevailing, after six months they petitioned the lords of the council [December 4, 1591] to be enlarged upon bail, and wrote to the treasu- rer to second it, assuring his lordship of their loyalty to the queen, and peaceable behaviour in the Church. " We doubt not," say they, "but your lordship is sensible that a year's im- prisonment and more, which we have suffered, must strike deeper into our healths, considering our education, than a number of years to men of a different occupation. Your lordship knows that many papists who deny the queen's suprem- acy have been enlarged, whereas we have all sworn to it, and, if the government require, are ready to take the oath again." This was signed by Tho. Cartweight, Edward Lord, Hump. Fen, Edmund Snape, Andrew King, Wm. Proudlove, Dan. Wright, Melancthon Jewel. John Payne, They also applied to the archbishop, who re- fused to consent to their enlargement, unless they vvould under their hands declare the Church of England to be a true church, and the whole order of public prayers, &c., consonant to the Word of God, and renounce for the future all their assemblies, classes, and synods, which they declined. These applications proving in- effectual, they resolved at last to address the queen herself, for which purpose they drew up a declaration, containing a full answer to the several charges brought against them.'J It was not till some time after this that Mr. Cartwright was released, II upon promise of his I * Life of Aylmer, p. 321. t Fuller, b. ix., p. 203. t Life of Whitgift, p. 370. 1^ See the Appendix, No. 5. II It should be ob.served here, that Mr. Cartwright was indebted for his liberty to the services of Arch- bishop Whitgift, who had been his old acquaintance quiet and peaceable behaviour, and restored to his hospital in Warwick, where he continued without farther disturbance the rest of his days ; but many of his brethren continued under sus- pension while their families were starvin- pression and cruelty that ever was passed by the representatives of a Protestant nation and * Heyl., Hist. Presb., p. 320. t This, says Dr. Warner, " was the message of a queen to the House of Commons, whose reign affords such subjects of panegyric to those who would be thought patriots and patrons of liberty in the present age." — Ecclesiastical Jiistory, vol iii., p. 464. — Eb. 198 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. a free people. It is entitled " An act for the punishment of persons obstinately refusing to come to church, and persuading others to im- pugn the queen's authority m ecclesiastical causes." It is therein enacted " that if any person above the age of sixteen shall obstinate- ly refuse to repair to some church, chaj)el, or usual place of common prayer, to hear Divine service, for the space of one month, without lawful cause; or shall at any time, forty days after the end of this session, by printing, wri- ting, or express words, go about to persuade any of her majesty's subjects to deny, with- stand, or impugn her majesty's power or au- thority in causes ecclesiastical ; or shall dis- suade tliem from coming to church to hear Di- vine service, or receive the communion accord- ing as the law directs ; or shall be present at any unlawful assembly, conventicle, or meeting, under colour or pretence of any exercise of re- ligion ; that every person so offending, and law- fully convicted, sliall be committed to prison without bail, till they shall conform and yield themselves to come to church, and make the following declaration of tlieir conformity : " ' I, A B, do humbly confess and acknowl- edge that I have grievously offended God in contemning her majesty's godly and lawful government and authority, by absenting myself from church and from hearing Divine service, contrary to the godly laws and statutes of the realm, and in frequenting disorderly and un- lawful conventicles, under pretence and colour of exercise of religion ; and I am heartily sorry for the same, and do acknowledge and testify in my conscience that no other person has, or ought to have, any power or authority over her majesty. And I do promise and protest, with- out any dissimulation or colour of dispensation, that from henceforth I will obey her majesty's statutes and laws in repairing to church and hearing Divine service ; and to my utmost en- deavour will maintain and defend the same.' " But in case the offenders against this stat- ute, being lawfully convicted, shall not submit and sign the declaration within three months, then they sliall abjure the realm, and go into perpetual banishment.* And if they do not depart within the time limited by the quarter sessions or justices of peace, or if they return at any time afterward without the queen's li- cense, they shall suffer death without benefit of clergy." So that, as Lord-chancellor King ob- served at the trial of Dr. Sacheverel, the case of the Nonconformists by this act was worse than that of felons at common law, for these were allowed the benefit of clergy, but the others were not. This statute was levelled against the laity as well as the clergy, and the severe execution of it with that of the 23d of Eliz., in this and the following reigns, t brought * It is remarkable that there is a proviso in this stitute that no popish recusant shall be compelled or bound to abjure by virtue of this act. Such was her majesty's tenderness for the papists while she was crushing Protestant dissenters. — Neal's Review. —Ed. t "These laws are still put in execution, and about three years ago, in Cornwall, a poor fellow, a Dissenter, was libelled in the spiritual court for not attending Divine worship at his parish church on ■ Sunday. He had not taken the oaths required by the Toleration Act ; but it beuig a sufficient defence infinite mischiefs upon the kingdom ; many families being forced into banishment ; some put to death, as in cases of treason ; and others as the authors of seditious pamphlets.* The moderate Puritans made^ siiift to evade the force of this law by coming to church whea common prayer was almost over, and by re- ceiving the sacrament in some churches where it was administered with some latitude; but the weight of it fell upon the separatists, who renounced all communion with the Church in the Word and sacraments as well as in the common prayer and ceremonies ; these were called Brownists or Barrowists, f^i-om one Bar- row, a gentleman of the Temple, who was now at their head. We have given an account of their distinguishing principles in the year 1580, since which time their numbers were prodi- giously increased, though the bi.shops pursued them, and shut them up in prison without bail or troubling themselves to bring them to a trial. Sir Walter Raleigh declared in the Parliament house that they were not less than twenty thou- sand, divided into several congregations in Nor- folk, in Essex, and in the parts about London : there were several considerable men now at their head, as the Reverend Mr. Smith, Mr. Ja- cob, the learned Mr. Ainsworth, the rabbi of his age. and others. The congregation about London, being pretty numerous, formed themselves into a church, Mr. Francis Johnson being chosen pastor by the suffrage of the brotherhood, Mr. Greenhood doc- tor [or teacher], Mr. Bowman and Lee deacons, Mr. Studley and Kinaston elders, all in one day, at the house of Mr. Fox in Nicholas Lane, in the year 1592 ;t seven persons were baptized at the same time without godfathers or godmoth- ers, Mr. Johnson only washing their faces with water, and pronouncing the form, I baptize thee in the name, &c. The Lord's Supper was also administered in this manner : five white loaves being set upon the table, the pastor blessed them by prayer ; after which, having broken the bread, he delivered it to some, and the deacons to the rest, some standing and others sitting about the table, using the words of the apostle, 1 Cor., xi., 24, "Take, eat, this is the body of the Lord Jesus, which was broken for you : this do in remembrance of him." In like manner he gave the cup, using the like words of the apostle, "This cup is the New Testament in to take them at any time during the prosecution, he applied to the magistrates of the county, at their quarter sessions, who illegally refused to administer them ; the consequence was, that he was excommu- nicated. Up(m a representation of the committee in London for taking care of the civil concerns of the Dissenters, the chairman of the sessions acknowl- edged the error of the justices, and the man took the oaths at the ensuing sessions, but it was then too late." — /%/« Church Pulitics, p. 59. — Ed. * Dr. Warner remarks on this statute, " that thus in some measure were renewed the days of Henry VUl., when it was a crime against the state to de- part ever so little from the religion of the sovereign; but in some part of this act she exceeded her father's tyranny. For, absolute as he was, he contented himself with punishing such as opposed the estab- lished religion by some overt act. But by this new statute, the subjects were obliged to make an open prolesslon by a constant attendance on the establish- ed service." — Eccles. History, vol. if, p. 465. — Ed. t Strype's Annals, vol. iv., p. 174. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 199 his blood ; this do yc, as oft as ye drink it, in lemembrance of him." In the close they sung a hymn, ami made a collection for the poor. When any person came first into the church, he made this protestation or promise : that " he "Would walk with them so long as they did walk in the way of the Lord, and as far as might be ■warranted by the Word of God." The congregation being obliged to meet in different places to conceal themselves from the bishop's officers, was at length discovered on a Lord's Day at Islington, in the very same place ■where the Protestant congregation met in Queen Mary's reign ; about fifty-six were taken pris- oners, and sent two by two to the jails about London, where several of their friends iiad been confined for a considerable time. At their examination, they confessed that for some years they had met in the fields in the summer-time at five o'clock in the morning of the Lord's Day, and in the winter at private houses ;* that they continued all day in prayer and expounding the Scriptures ; that they dined together, and after dinner made a collection for their diet, and sent the remainder of the money to their brethren in prison ; that they did not use the Lord's Prayer, apprehending it not to be intended by our blessed Saviour to be used as a form after the sending down of the Spirit at Pentecost. Their adversaries charged them ■with several extravagances about baptism, mar- riage, lay-preaching, &c., from which they vin- dicated themselves in a very solid and judicious leply, showing how far they disowned, and ■with what limitations they acknowledged, the charge, t But the bishops observing no measures with this people, they ventured to lay their case be- fore the lords of the council in an humble peti- tion.t But the privy council dropped the peti- * Stiype's Annals, vol. iii., p. 579. t MS., p. 850. J In this petition they say, that " upon a careful examination of the Holy Scriptures, we find the English hierarchy to be dissonant from Christ's in- stitution, and to be derived from antichrist, being the same the pope left in this land, to which we dare not subject ourselves. We farther find that God has commanded all that believe the Gospel to walk in that holy faith and order which he has appointed in his Church ; wherefore, iu the reverend fear of his name, we have joined ourselves together, and sub- jected our souls and bodies to those laws and ordi- nances ; and have chosen to ourselves such a minis- try of pastor, teacher, elders, and deacons as Christ has given to his Church on earth to the world's end, hoping for the promised assistance of his grace in our attendance upon him ; notwithstanding any pro- hibition of men, or what by men can be done unto us. We are ready to prove our church order to be warranted by the Word of God, allowable by her maj- esty's laws, and noways prejudicial to her sovereign power ; and to disprove the public hierarchy, wor- ship, and government, by such evidence of Scripture as our adversaries shall not be able to withstand ; protesting, if we fail herein, not only willingly to sustain such deserved punishment as shall be inflict- ed upon us, but to become conformable for the fu- ture ; if we overthrow not our adversaries, we will not say if our adversaries overcome us. " But the prelates of this land have for a long time dealt most injuriously, unlawfully, and outrage- ously with us, by the great power and high authori- ty they have gotten in their hands, and usurped above all the public courts, judges, laws, and charters of this land, persecuting, imprisoning, and detahiing at tion, being afraid to move in an affair that lay more immediately before the High Commission, Mr. Smith, one of their ministers, after he had been in prison twelve months, was called before the commissioners, and being asked whether he would go to church, answered, that he should dissemble and play the hypocrite if he should do it to avoid trouble, for he thought it utterly unlawful ; to which one of the com- missioners answered, " Come to church and their pleasure our poor bodies, without any trial, re- lease, or bail ; and hitherto without any cause either for error or crime directly objected. Some of us they have kept in close prison four or five years with miserable usage, as Henry Burrowe and John Green- wood, now in the Fleet; others they have cast into Newgate, and laden with as many irons as they could bear; others into dangerous and loathsome jails, among the most facinorous and vile persons, where it is lamentable to relate how many of these inno- cents have perished within these five years: aged widows, aged men, and young maidens, &c., where, so many as the infection hath spared, lie in woful distress, like to follow their fellows, if speedy redress be not had ; others of us have been grievously beaten, with cudgels in Bridewell, and cast into a place called Little Ease, for refusing to come to their chapel service ; in which prison several have ended their lives ; but upon none of our companions thus committed by them, and dying in their prison, is any search or inquest suffered to pass, as by law in like case is provided. " Their manner of pursuing and apprehending us is with no less violence and outrage ; their pursui- vants, with their assistants, break into our houses at all times of the night, where they break open, ran- sack, and rifle at their pleasure, under pretence of searching for seditious, unlawful books. The hus- bands in the dead of the night they have plucked out of their beds from their wives, and haled them to prison. Some time since their pursuivants, late in the night, entered in the queen's name into an honest citizen's house upon Ludgate Hill, where, after they had at their pleasure searched and ransacked all pla- ces, chests, &c., of the house, they apprehended two of our ministers, Mr. Francis Johnson and John Greenwood, without any warrant at all, both whom, between one and two of the clock after midnight, they with bills and staves led to the counter of Wood- street, taking assurance of Mr. Boys, the master of the house, to bo prisoner in his house till next day; at which time the archbishop, with certain doctors his associates, committed them to close prison, two to the Clink, and the third to the Fleet, where they now remain in distress. Since this they have cast into prison Thomas Settle, Daniel Studley, and Nicholas Lane, taken upon a Lord's Day in our as- sembly, and shut them up in the Gate-house ; others of our friends they are in continual pursuit of; so that there is no safety for them in any one place. "We therefore humbly pray, in the name of God and our sovereign the queen,' that we may have the benefit of the laws, and of the public charter of the land, namely, that we maybe received to bail till we be by order of law convicted of some crime deserv- ing bonds. We plight unto your honours our faith unto God, and our allesiauce to her majestv. that we will not commit anything unworthy the Gospel of Christ, or to the disturbance of the common peace and good order of the land, and that we will be forth- coming at such reasonable warning as your lordships shall command. Oh ! let us not perish before trial and judgment, especially imploring and crying out to you for the same. However, we here take the Lord of heaven and earth, and his angels, together with your own consciences, and all persons in all ages, to whom this our supplication may come, to witness that we have here truly advertised your honours of our case and usage, and have in all humiUty offered oar cause to Christian trial." 200 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. obey the queen's laws, and be a dissembler, be a hypocrite, or a devil, if thou wilt."* Upon his refusal he was remanded to the Clink, and his brethren to the Fleet, where, by order of Mr. Justice Young, one of the commissioners, they were shut up in close rooms, not being al- lowed the liberty of the prison ; here they died like rotten sheep, some of the disease of the prison, some for want, and others of infectious distempers. " These bloody men [the ecclesi- astical commissioners]," says Mr. Barrowe, in his supplication, " will allow us neither meat, drink, lire, lodging, nor suffer any whose hearts the Lord would stir up for our relief to have an access to us, by which means seventeen or eigh- teen have perished in the noisome jails within these six years ;t some of us had not one penny about us when we were sent to prison, nor any- thing to procure a maintenance for ourselves and families but our handy labour and trades, by which means not only we ourselves, but our fam- ilies and children, are undone and starved. Their unbridled slander, their lawless privy searches, their violent breaking open houses, their taking away whatever they think meet, and their bar- barous usage of women, children, &;c., we are forced to omit, lest we be tedious. That which we crave for us all is the liberty to die openly, or live openly in the land of our nativity ; if we deserve death, let us not be closely murdered, yea, starved to death with hunger and cold, and stifled in loathsome dungeons." Among those ■who perished in prison was one Mr. Roger Rip- pon, who, dying in Newgate, his fellow-prison- ers put this inscription upon his coffin : " This is the corpse of Roger Rippon, a ser- vant of Christ, and her majesty's faithful sub- ject ; who is the last of sixteen or seventeen ■which that great enemy of God, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with his high commissioners, have murdered in Newgate within these five years, manifestly for the testimony of Jesus Christ ; his soul is now with the Lord, and his blood cried for speedy vengeance against that great enemy of the saints, and against Mr. Rich- ard Young [a justice of peace in London], who in this, and many the like points, hath abused his power for the upholding of the Romish an- tichrist, prelacy, and priesthood. He died A.D. 1592."t Many copies of this inscription were dispersed among friends, for which some were apprehend- ed and confined. The privy council taking no notice of the above-mentioned supplications, the prisoners in the several jails about London joined in the petition given below to the Lord-treasurer Bur- leigh, to which they subscribed their names. ij * Strype's Ann., vol. ult., p. 134. t Ibid., vol. ult, p. 133. J Ibid., vol. ult., p. 91. ^ " The humble petition of many poor Christians, imprisoned by the Ijishops in sundry prisons in and about London, to the lord-treasurer. " We humbly beseech your honour either to grant us a speedy trial together, or some free Christian conference, or else, m the mean while, that we may be bailed according to law, or else put into Bride- ■well, or some other convenient place where we may be together for our mutual help and comfort ; or, if your honour will not yourself alone grant this our re- quest, that then it may please you to be a mean for our speedy relief, unto the rest of her majesty's most honourable privy counciL Among the names subscribed to this petition is Mr. Henry Barrowe, an ingenious and learn- " The Almighty God, that hath preserved your lordship unto these honourable years in so high ser- vice to our sovereign prince, and to the unspeakable comfort of this whole land, give your honourable heart so tender compassion and careful considera- tion m equity, of the poor afflicted servants of Christ, and that (before the Lord plead against this land for Abel's innocent blood that is shod in the several prisons) your honour may open your mouth for the dumb in the cause of the children of [devoted to] destruction, [that] you may open your mouth and judge righteously, and judge the cause of the alllict- ed ; as the people of Israel, when they went to war, first made peace with God, and removed all occasion whereby his wrath might be incensed, lest he should fight against them in battle. For if this suppression of the truth and oppression of Christ in his members, contrary to all law and justice, be, without restraint, prosecuted by the enemy in the land, then not only the persecuted shall daily cry from under the altar for redress, but God's wrath be so kindled for the shedding the innocent blood of men, even the blood of his own servants (of whom he has said, ' Touch not mine anointed'), that, if Noah, Daniel, and Job should pray for this people, yet should they not de liver them. ''Pleaseth it, then, your lordship to understand, that we, her majesty's loyal, dutiful, and true-heart- ed subjects, to the number of threescore persons and upward, have, contrary to all law and equity, been im prisoned, separated from our trades, wives, children, and families; yea, shut up close prisoners from all comfort, many of us for the space of two years and a half, upon the bishop's sole commandment, in great penury and noisomeness of the prisons ; many ending their lives, never called to trial ; some haled forth to the sessions ; some cast in irons and dungeons ; some in hunger and famine ; all of us debarred from any lawful audience before our honourable governors and magistrates, and from all benefit and help of the laws ; daily defamed and falsely accused by publish- ed pamphlets, by private suggestions, open preach- ing, slanders, and accusations of heresy, sedition, schism, and what not. And, above all, which most utterly touchethour salvation, they keep us from all spiritual comfort and edifying by doctrine, prayer, or mutual conference, &c. " And seeing for our conscience only we are de- prived of all comfort, we most humbly beseech your good lordship that some more mitigate and peacea- ble course might be taken therein, that some free and Christian conference, publicly or privately, be- fore your honour, or before whom it would please you, where our adversaries may not be our judges [might be had] ; that our case, with the reason and proof on both sides, might be recorded by indifferent notaries and faithful witnesses; and if anything be found in us worthy of death or bonds, let us be made an example to all posterity ; if not, we entreat for some compassion to be shown in equity according to law for our relief; [and] that, in the mean time, we may be bailed to do her majesty service, walk in our callings, to provide things needful for ourselves, our poor wives, disconsolate children, and families, lying upon us, or else that we might be prisoners together ill Bridewell, or any other convenient place at your honour's appointment, where we might provide such relief by our diligence and labours as might preserve life, to the comfort both of our souls and bodies." Signed by your supplicants in the following pris ons : In the Gale-house. John Gaulter, John Nicolas, John Barnes, John Crawford, Thomas Conadyne, Thomas Reeve, William Dodshowe, Father Debnam, Edmund Thompson, Thomas Freeman. In the Fleet, Henry Barrowe, HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 201 ed man, but of too warm a spirit, as appears by his book, entitled " A Brief Discovery of False Churches," printed 1590, and reprinted 1707. This gentleman having been several years in prison, sent another supplication to the attorney- general and privy council for a conference with the bishops, or that their ministers might be con- ferred with in their hearing, without taunts or railings, for searching out the truth in love. " If it be objected," says Barrowe, " that none of our side are worthy to be thus disputed with, we think we should prove the contrary, for there are three or four of them in the city of London, and more elsewhere, who have been zealous preachers in the parish assemblies, and are not ig- norant of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, nor otherwise unlearned, and generally confess- ed to be of honest conversation. If this motion takes effect, the controversy will soon end with most of us, for by this means we poor wretches shall perceive whether, as simple souls, we are lead aside, or whether, as the dear children of God, we are first trusted with the view of, and standing up for, the cause of holiness and righte- ousness. But let us not perish secretly in prison, or openly by execution, for want of that help that lies in your power to afford ; when we pro- test, in the sight of God, we do not separate from the establishment out of pride or obstinacy, but from the constraints of conscience." But all these petitions were rejected by the bishops and privy council, for the following rea- sons, if they deserve that name : " Because a disputation had been denied to papists : to call the ministry of the Church of England into question, is to call all other churches into ques- John Greenwood, Daniel Studley, Robert Badkyne, Walter Lane. In Newgate. William Deptford, Widow Borrough, Roger Waterer. Ill Bridewell. William Broomal, James Forrester, Antony Claxton, Nicholas Lee, Joiih Francis, William Forrester, John Clarke, .rohn Fisher, John Bucer, Roger Rippon, Robert Andrews, Richard Skarlet, Luke Hayes, Richard Maltusse, Richard Umberfield, William Fowler, William Burt, William Hutton. In the Clink. Geo.-go Collier, John Sparrow, Edmund Nicholson, Christopher Browne, Thomas Mitchel, Andrew Smith, William Blackborrow, Thomas Lemare, Christopher Raper, Quintin Smith. Vol,. I.— C c In the White Lion. Thomas Legat, Edmund Marsh, Antony Johnes, Cook, Auger. Wood-street Compter. George Snells, Christopher Bowman, Robert Jackson, Rowlet Skipvvith. Poultry Compter. George Kingston, Thomas Eyneworth, Richard Hayward, John Lancaster. In all, fifty-nine. Prisoners deceased : Old uf the Poultry Compter. John Chandler. Out of Wood-street Compter. George Dinghtic. Out of the Clink. Henry Thompson, Jerome Studley. Out of Newgate. Richard Jackson, Widow Mainard, Widow Row, Nicholas Crane, Thomas Stephens. Out of Bridewell. John Pardy. In all, ten. tion, against whom their exceptions extend :* the Church of England has submitted to dispu- tation three times in King Edward's, Queen Mary's, and Queen Elizabeth's time : these men's errors have been condemned by the writings of learned men : it is not reasonable that a religion established by Parliament should be examined by an inferior authority : it is not reasonable to condemn those foreign churches that have ac- knowledged ours for a true church : their prin- cipal errors have been confuted by St. Austin : this will strengthen the hands of the papists : it has been the manner of heretics to require disputations with clamour and importunity: the cause has been already decided by written books, which they may consult : they will not stand to the judgment of the civil magistrate: if the Church should satisfy every sect that riseth, there would be no end of disputations." Thus these pious and conscientious persons, after a long and illegal imprisonment, were abandoned to the severity of an unrighteous law ; some of them being publicly executed as felons, and oth- ers proscribed and sent into banishment. Among the former were Mr. Barrowe, gent., of Gray's Inn, Mr. Greenwood and Pcnry, min- isters ; the first two had been in prison some years, and several times before the commission- ers ; their examinations, written by themselves, are now before me. Barrowe was apprehended at the Clink prison in Southwark, where he went to visit his brother Greenwood ; he was carried immediately to Lambeth, where the archbishop would have examined him upon the oath ex offi- cio, but he refused to take it, or to swear at all upon the Bible ; but, says he, by God's grace I will answer nothing but the truth. So the arch bishop took a paper of interrogatories into his hand, and asked him, 1. "Whether the Lord's Prayer might be used in the Church T' He an- swered, that in his opinion it was rather a sum- mary than a form, and not finding it used by the apostles, he thought it should not be constantly used by us. 2. Whether forms of prayer may be used in the Church? He answered, that none such ought to be imposed. 3. Whether the common prayer he idolatrous or supersti- tious ! He answered, that in his opinion it was so. 4. Whether the sacraments of the Church are true sacraments and seals of the favour of God 1 He answered, he thought, as they were publicly administered, they were not. 5. Wheth- er the laws of the Church are good 1 He an- swered, that many of them were unlawful and antichristian. 6. Whether the Church of Eng- land is a true church 1 He answered, that, as it was now formed, it was not ; yet there are manyexcellent good Christians of it. 7. Wheth- er the queen be supreme governor of the Church, and may make laws for it 1 He answered, that the queen was supreme governor of the Church, but might not make laws other than Christ had left in his Word. 8. Whether a private person may reform if the prince neglects it1 He an- swered, that no private persons might reform the state, but they are to abstain from any un- lawful thing commanded by the prince. 9. Whether every particular church ought to have a presbytery 1 He answered in the affirmative. After this examination he was remanded to & * Strype's Annals, vol. ult., p. 172. 202 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. close prison, and denied a copy of his answers, though he earnestly desired it. His next examination was before the arch- bishop, the lord-chanoellor, h)rd-treasurer. Lord Buckhurst, and the Bishop of London, at White- hall, where lie found twelve of his brethren in the same circumstances with himself, but was not admitted to speak to them. Being called into another room, and kneeling down at the end of the table, the lord-treasurer spoke to him thus : Treasurer. Why are you in prison 1 Barrowe. Upon the statute against recusants. Treasurer. Why will you not go to church 1 Barrowe. Because I think the Church of Eng- land as established bylaw not a church of Christ, nor their manner of worship lawful. After a long debate on this head the treasurer said, You complain of injustice, where have you wrong! Barrowe. In being kept in prison without due trial ; and in the misery we suffer by a close im- prisonment contrary to law. The archbishop said he had matter to call him before him for a heretic. Barrowe replied. That you shall never do ; I may err, but heretic, by the grace of God, I will never be. It being observed that he did not pay such reverence to the Archbishop and Bishop of London as to the temporal lords, the chancellor asked him if he did not know those two men, pointing to the bishops. To which he answered, that he had cause to know them, but did not own them for lord bishops. Being then asked by what name he would call the arch- bishop, he replied that he was a monster, a persecutor, a compound of he knew not what, neither ecclesiastical nor civil, like the second beast spoken of in the Revelations : upon which the archbishop rose out of his place, and with a severe countenance said, My lords, will you suf- fer him 1 So he was plucked off his knees, and carried away. Mr. Greenwood the minister was examined after the same manner before the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Loudon and Win- chester, the lords-chief-justices, the lord-chief- baron, and the master of the rolls : he had in- terrogatories put to him as Barrowe had, but re- fused to swear, and made much the same an- swer with the other. At length, on March 21, 1592, they, together with Saxio Bellot, gent., Daniel Studley, girdler, and Robert Bowlle, fish- monger, were indicted at the sessions-house in the Old Bailey, upon the statute of 23 Eliz., for writing and publishing sundry seditious books and pamphlets, tending to the slander of the queen and government, when they had only written against the Church ; but this was the archbishop's artful contrivance to throw off the odium of their death from himself to the civil magistrate ; for, as the reverend and learned Mr. Hugh Broughton observes, "though Mr. Barrowe and Greenwood were condemned for disturbance of the state, yet this would have been pardoned, and their lives spared, if they would have promised to come to church."* Upon their trial they behaved with constancy and resolution, showing no token of recognition, says the attorney, nor prayer for mercy : they protested their inviolable loyalty to the queen, and obedience to her government ; that they never wrote, nor so much as intended anything, against her highness, but only against the bish- * Broughton's Works, p. 731. ops and the hierarchy of the Church ; which was apparent enough. However, the jury brought them all in guilty.* Bellot desired a conference, and with tears confessing his sor- row for what he had done, was pardoned. Bowlle and Studley being looked upon only as accessories, though they continued firm, decla- ring their unshaken loyalty to the queen, and re- fusing to ask for mercy, were reprieved and sent back to prison; but Barrowe and Greenwood were to be made examples. Sentence of death being passed upon them March 23, sundry di- vines were appointed to persuade them to re- cant ; who not succeeding, they were brought in a cart to Tyburn on the last of March, and exposed under the gallows for some time to the people, to see if the terrors of death would af- fright them ; but remaining constant, they were brought back to Newgate, and on the 6th of April, 1593, carried a second time to Tyburn and executed. At the place of execution they gave such testimonies of their unfeigned piety towards God and loyalty to the queen, praying so earnestly for her long and prosperous reign, that when Dr. Reynolds, who attended them, reported their behaviour to her majesty, she re- pented that she had yielded to their death. They had been in close prison ever since the year 1590, exposed to all the severities of cold, liunger, and nakedness, which Mr. Barrowe rep- resented in a supplication to the queen, already mentioned, concluding with an earnest desire of deliverance from the present miseries, though it were by death ; but the archbishop intercept- ed the paper, and endeavoured to prevent the knowledge of their condition from coming to the queen's ear : upon this, Mr. Barrowe exposed his grace's behaviour towards miserable men, in a letter to one Mr. Fisher, wherein he char- ges him with " abusing the queen's clemency by false informations and suggestions, and with artful disingenuity, in committing so many in- nocent men to Bridewell, the Compter, Newgate, the White Lion, and the Fleet, and then post- ing them to the civil magistrate to take off the clamour of the people from himself He says that he had destined himself and his brother Greenwood to death, and others to be kept ia close prison ; their poor wives and children to be cast out of the city, and their goods to be confiscated. Is not this a Christian bishop 1" says he. " Are these the virtues of him who takes upon him the care and government of all the churches of the land, to tear and devour God's poor sheep, and to rend off the flesh and break their bones, and chop them in pieces as flesh to the caldron It Will he thus instruct and convince gainsayersl Surely he wdl per- suade but lew that fear God to his religion by his dealing and evil. Does he consult his own credit, or the honour of his prince, by this tyr- annous havoc ] For our parts, our lives are not dear to us, so that we may finish our testimony with joy : we are always ready, through God's grace, to be offered up upon the testimony of the faith that we have made." Thus fell these two unhappy gentlemen a sac- rifice to the resentments of an angry prelate. About six weeks after this, the Rev. Mr. Joha Penry, or A p- Henry, a Welsh divine, was exs- * Heyl., Hist. Presb., p. 323. t Life of Wlutgift, p. 416. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 203 cuted for the same crime, in a cruel and inhu- man manner. He was a pious and learned man, well disposed to religion, says Mr. Strype, but mistaken in his principles and hot in his tem- per ; a zealous platformer, and a declared ene- my of the archbishop. He was born in the county of Brecknocii, and educated first at Cam- bridge, and afterward in St. Alban's Hall, Ox- ford, where he became M.A., 1586, and entered into holy orders, being well acquainted with arts and languages. He preached in both universi- ties with applause, and afterward travelling into Wales, was the first, as he said, that preached the Gospel publicly to the Welsh, and sowed the good seed among his countrymen. In the year 1518 he published a " View of such Public Wants and Disorders as are in her Majesty's Country of Wales, with an humble Petition to the High Court of Parliament for their Redress :" where- in is showed not only the necessity of reforming the state of religion among that people, but also the only way in regard of substance to bring that reformation to pass. He also published "An Exhortation to the Governors and People of her Majesty's Country of Wales, to labour earnestly to have the preaching of the Gospel planted among them." Printed in 1588. When Martin Mar-Prelate and the other sa- tirical pamphlets against the bishops were pub- lished, a special warrant was issued from the privy council, 1590, under several of their hands, ■whereof the archbishop's was one, to seize and apprehend Mr. Penry as an enemy of the state, and that all the queen's good subjects should take him so to be. To avoid being taken, he reti- red intoScotland, where he continued till the year 1593. Here he made many observations of things relating to religion, for his own private use, and at length prepared the heads of a petition,* or * The heads of the petition, taken upon him, were as follow : " The last days of your reign are turned rather against Jcsu.s Christ and his Gospel than to the maintenance of the same. " I have great cause and complaint, madam ; nay, the Lord and his Church have cause to complain of your government, because we your subjects, this day, are not permitted to serve our God under your government accordmg to his Word, but arc sold to be bond-slaves, not only to our alfections, to do what we will, so that we keep ourselves within the compass of established civil laws, but also to be ser- vants to the man of sin [the pope] and his ordinances. " It is not the force that we seem to fear that will come upon us (for the Lord may destroy both you for denying, and us for slack seeking, of his will) by strangers : I come unto you with it : if you will hear it, our cause may be eased ; if not, that posterity may know that you have been dealt with, and that this age may know that there is no expectation [hope] to be looked for at your hands. " Among the rest of the princes under the Gospel, that have been drawn to oppose it, you must think yourself to be one ; for until you see this, madam, you see not yourself, and they are but sycophants and flatterers whoever tell you otherwise : your standing is and has been by the Gospel. It is little beholden to you for anything that appears. The practice of your government shows that if you could have ruled without the Gospel, it would have been doubtful whether the Gospel should be established or not : for now that you are established in your throne by the Gospel, you suffer it to reach no farther than the end of your sceptre limitelh unto it. " If we had had Queen Mary's days, I think that we should have had as flourishing a church this day as ever any, for it is well known that there was an address to the queen, to show her majesty the true state of religion, and how ignorant she was of many abuses in the Church of England, especially in the management of ecclesiastical matters ; and likewise to intercede for so much favour that he might, by her authority, have lib- erty to go into Wales, his native country, to preach the Gospel.* With this petition he came then in London, under the burden, and elsewhere in exile, more llourishing churches than any now toler- ated by your authority. " Now, whereas we should have your help both, to join ourselves v^ith the true Church and reject the false, and all the ordinances thereof, we are in your kingdom permitted to do nothing, but account- ed seditious if we affirm either the one or the other of the former points ; and, therefore, madam, you are not so much an adversary to us poor men as unto Christ Jesus and the wealth of his kingdom. " If we cannot have your favour but by omitting our duty to God, we are unworthy of it, and, by God's grace, w'e mean not to purchase it so dear. " But, madam, thus much we must needs say. that in all likelihood, if the days of your sister Queen Mary and her persecution had continued unto this day, that the Church of God in England had been far more flourishing than at this day it is ; for then, madam, the Church of God within this land, and elsewhere, being strangers, enjoyed the ordinances of God's holy Word as far as then they saw. " But since your majesty came unto your crown, we have had whole Christ Jesus, God and man ; but we must serve him only in heart. "And if those days had continued to this time,, and those lights risen therein, which, by the mercy of God, have since shined in England, it is not to be doubted but the Church of England, even in England, had far surpassed all the Reformed churches in the world. "Then, madam, any of our brethren durst not have been seen within the tents of antichrist ; now they are ready to defend them to be the Lord's, and that he has no other tabernacle upon earth but them. Our brethren then durst not temporize in the cause of God, because the Lord himself ruled in his Church, by his own laws, in a good measure ; but now, be- hold ! they may do what they will, for any sword that the Church has to draw against them, if they contain themselves within your laws. "This peace, under these conditions, we cannot enjoy, and therefore, for anything I can see, Queen Mary's days will be set up again, or we must needs temporize. The whole truth we must not speak; the whole truth we must not profess. Your state must have a stroke above the truth of God. " New, madam, your majesty may consider what good the Church of God hath taken at your hands, even outward peace with the absence of Jesus Christ in his ordinance ; otherwise as great troubles are likely to come as ever were in the days of your sister. "As for the council and clergy, if we bring any such suit unto them, we have no other answer but that which Pharaoh gives to the Lord's messengers touching the state of the Church under his govern- ment. " For when any are called for this cause before your council, or the judges of the land, they must take this for granted, once for all, that the upright- ness of their cause will profit them nothing if the law of the land be against them ; for your council and judges have so well profited in religion, that they will not stick to say that they come not to consult whether the matter be with or against the Word or not, but their purpose is to take the penalty of tho transgressions against your laws. "If your council were wise, they would not kindle your wrath against us ; but, madam, if you give ear to their words, no marvail though you have not bet- ter counsellors." * Life of Whitjiift, p. 409. 204 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. from Scotland, resolving to finish and deliver it with his own hand, as lie should find opportu- nity ; but upon his arrival he was seized with his papers at Stepney parish, by the information of the vicar, in the month of May, and arraign- ed, condemned, and executed, hastily, the very same month. It appears by this petition, as well as by his letter sent to the confrregation of Separatists in London, that Mr. Penry was a Brownist. His Book of Observations was also seized, out of which were drawn articles of accusation against him. He was indicted upon the statute of the 23d of Eliz., cap. ii., for seditious words and rumours uttered against the queen's most excellent majesty, tending to the stirring up of rebellion among her subjects, and was convict- ed of felony, May 21, in the King's Bench, be- fore the Lord-chief-justice Popham. He re- ceived sentence of death May 25, and was exe- cuted on the 29th of the same month. It was designed to indict him for the books published in his name, but by the advice of council, Mr. Penry drew up a paper entitled " Mr. Penry's Declaration, May 16, 1593, that he is not in danger of the law for the books published in his name." Here he observes that the statute was not intended again.st such as wrote only against the hierarchy of the Church, for then it must condemn most of the most learned Protestants both at home and abroad ; but relates to such as defame her majesty's royal person, whereas he had always written most dutifully of her person and government, having never encour- aged sedition or insurrection against her maj- esty, but the contrary ; nor had he ever been at any assembly or conventicle where any, un- der or above the number of twelve, were as- sembled with force of arms, or otherwise, to alter anything established by law ; nor was it his opinion that private persons should of their own authority attempt any such thing, for he had always written and spoken to the contrary. But, however, if all this had been true, he ought to have been accused within one month of the crime, upon the oath of two witnesses, and have been indicted within one year, other- wise the statute itself clears him in express v/ords. The court, apprehending this declaration might occasion an argument at law, set aside his printed books, and convicted him upon the petition and private observations above men- tioned, which was still harder, as he represent- ed it himself in the following letter to the lord- treasurer, with a protestation enclosed, imme- diately after his condemnation. "Vouchsafe, I beseech your lordship (right honourable), to read the enclosed writing. My days, I see, are drawing to an end, and I thank God an unde- served end, except the Lord stir up your honour to acquaint her majesty with my guiltless state. " The cause is most lamentable that tlie pri- vate observations of any student, being in a foreign land and wishing well to his prince and country, should bring his life with blood to a violent end, especially seeing they are most private, and so imperfect as they have no cohe- rence at all in them, and in most place carry no true English. * LifeofWhitgift, p. 412. " Though my innocence may stand me in no stead before an earthly tribunal, yet I know that I shall have the reward thereof before the judg- ment-seat of the Great King ; and the merciful Lord, who relieves the widow and fatherless, will reward my desolate orphans and friendless widow that I leave behind me, and even hear their cry, for he is merciful. " Being like to trouble your lordship with no more letters, I do with thankfulness acknowl- edge your honour's favour in receiving the wri tings I have presumed to send to you from time to time ; and in this my last, I protest I have written nothing but the truth from time to time. '• Thus preparing myself, not so much for an unjust verdict, and an undeserved doom in this life, as unto that blessed crown of glory which, of the great mercy of my God, is ready for me in heaven, I humbly betake your lordship unto the hands of the just Lord. May 22, 1593. Your lordship's most humble in the Lord, ".John Peney." In the protestation enclosed in this letter he declared that he wrote his observations in Scot- land ; that they were the sum of certain objec- tions made by people in those parts against her majesty and her government, which he intend- ed to examine, but had not so much as looked into them for fourteen or fifteen months past ; that even in these writings, so imperfect, unfin- ished, and enclosed within his private study, he had shown his dutifulness to the queen, nor had he ever a secret wandering thought of the least disloyalty to her majesty ; " I thank the Lord," says he, " I remember not that that day has passed over my head, since under her govern- ment I came to the knowledge of the truth, wherein I have not commended her estate unto God. Well, I may be indicted and condemned, and end my days as a felon or a traitor against my natural sovereign, but heaven and earth shall not be able to convict me thereof When- soever an end of my days comes (as I look not to live this week to an end), I shall die Queen Elizabeth's most faithful subject, even in the consciences of mine enemies, if they will be be- holders thereof* " I never took myself for a rebuker, much less for a reformer of states and kingdoms ; far was that from me ; yet in the discharge of my con- science, all the world must bear with me if I prefer my testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ before the favour of any creature. An enemy to good order and policy either in this Church or commonwealth was I never. I never did anything in this cause (Lord ! thou art witness) for contention, vainglory, or to draw disciples after me. Great tilings in this life I never sought for ; sufficiency I have had, with great outward trouble, but most content I was with my lot ; and content I am and shall be with my un- timely death, though I leave behind me a friend- less widow and four infants, the eldest of which is not above four years old. I do from my heart forgive all that seek my life ; and if my death can procure any quietness to the Church of God or the State, I shall rejoice. May my prince have many such subjects, but may none of them meet with such a reward ! My earnest request is that her majesty may be acquainted with * Life of Whitgift, in Rec, p. 176. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 205 these things before my death, or at least after my departure. " Subscribed with the heart and hand that never devised or wrote anything to the discredit or defamation of my sovereign Queen Elizabeth : I take it on my death, as I hope to have a hfe after this. By me, John Penrv." It was never known before this time that a minister and a scholar was condemned to death for private papers found in his study ; nor do I remember more than once since that time, in whose case it was given for law, that scriberc est agcre, that to write has been construed an overt act ; but Penry must die, right or wrong ; the archbishop was the first man who signed the warrant for his execution, and after him Puckering and Popham. The warrant was sent immediately to the sheriff, who the very same day erected a gallows at St. Thomas Water- ings ; and while the prisoner was at dinner, sent his officers to bid him make ready, for he must die that afternoon ; accordingly, he was carried in a cart to the place of execution ; when he came thither the sheriff would not suffer him to speak to the people, nor make any profession of his faith towards God, or his loyalty to the queen, but ordered him to be turned off in a hurry about five of the clock in the evening, May 29, 1593, in the thirty- fourth year of his age. The court being struck with this behaviour of the Brownists, began to be ashamed of hang- ing men for sedition against the state, who died with such strong professions of loyalty to the queen and government, and therefore could suf- fer only for the cause of religion. This raised an odium against the bishops and the high com- missioners, who, all men knew, were at the bottom of these proceedings. It is said the queen herself was displeased with them when she heard of the devotion and loyalty of the sufferers. It was therefore resolved to proceed for the future on the late statute of the 31st Eliz., to retain the queen's subjects in their obedience, and instead of putting the Brown- ists to death, to send them into banishment. Upon this statute, Mr. Johnson, pastor of the Brownist Church, was convicted, and all the jails were cleared for the present ; though the commissioners took care within the compass of another year to fdl them again. The papists were distressed by this statute, and that of 23d Eliz., as much as the Brown- ists, though they met with much more favour from the ecclesiastical courts ; the queen either loved or feared them, and would often say she would never ransack their consciences if they would be quiet ; but they were always libelling her majesty, and in continual plots against her government. While the Queen of Scots was alive, they supported her pretensions to the crown, and after her death they maintained in print the title of the Infanta of Spain : they were concerned with the Spaniards in the inva- sion of 1588, which obliged the queen to con- fine some of their chiefs in Wisbeach Castle, and other places of safety, but she was tender •of their lives. In the first eleven years of her reign, not one Roman Catholic was prosecuted capitally for religion ; in the next ten years, when the pope had excommunicated the queen and the whole kingdom, and there had been dangerous rebellions in the north, there were only twelve priests executed, and most of them for matters against the state. In the ten fol- lowing years, when swarms of priests and Jes- uits came over from foreign seminaries to in- vite the Catholics to join with the Spaniards, the laws were girt closer upon them, fifty priests being executed, and fifty-five banished ; but as soon as the danger was over, the laws were re- laxed, and by reason of the ignorance and lazi- ness of the beneficed clergy, the missionaries gained over such numbers of proselytes in the latter end of this reign, as endangered the whole government and Reformation in the be- ginning of the next. The last and finishing hand was put to the Presbyterian discipline in Scotland this year [15.54]. That kingdom had been governed by different factions during the minority of King James, which prevented a full settlement of re- ligion. The General Assembly in the year 1566 had approved of the Geneva discipline ; but the Parliament did not confirm the votes of the assembly, nor formally deprive the bishops of their power, though all church affairs from that time were managed by presbyteries and general assemblies. In the year 1574 they vo- ted the bishops to be only pastors of one par- ish ; and to show their power, they deposed the Bishop of Dunkeld, and delated the Bishop of Glasgow. In the year 1577 they ordained that all bishops be called by their own names, and the next year voted the very name of a bishop a grievance. In the year 1580, the General Assembly, with one voice, declared diocesan episcopacy to be unscriptural and unlawful. The same year, King James with his family, and the whole nation, subscribed a confession of faith, with a solemn league and covenant an- nexed, obliging themselves to maintain and de- fend the Protestant doctrine and the Presbyte- rian government. After this, in the year 1584, the bishops were restored by Parliament to some parts of their ancient dignity,* and it was made treason for any man to procure the innovation or diminution of the power and au- thority of any of the three estates ; but when this act was proclaimed, the ministers protested against it, as not having been agreed to by the Kirk. In the year 1587, things took another turn, and his majesty being at the full age of twenty-one, consented to an act to take away bishops' lands, and annex them to the crown. In the year 1593, it was ordained by the Gener- al Assembly that all that bore office in the Kirk, or should hereafter do so, should subscribe to the Book of Discipline. In the year 1592, all acts of Parliament whatsoever, made by the king's highness or any of his predecessors, in favour of popery or episcopacy, were annulled ; and in particular, the act of May 23, 1-584, " for granting commissions to bishops, or other ec- clesiastical judges, to receive presentations to benefices, and give collation thereupon ;" and it was ordained that for the future " all present- ations to benefices shall be directed to the par- ticular presbyteries, with full power to give col- lation thereupon ; and to order all matters and causes ecclesiastical within their bounds accord- ing to the discipline of the Kirk.t * Heyl., Hist. Presb., p. 231. t Id. ibid., p. 294. 206 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. "Farther, the act ratifies and confirms all former acts of Parliament in favour of kirk dis- cipline, and declares that it shall be lawful for the Kirk and ministers to hold general assem- blies once a year, or ol'tener if necessity require, the king's commissioner being present if his majesty pleases. It ratifies and approves of provincial and synodal assemblies twice a year ^vithin every province; and of presbyteries and particular sessions appointed by the Kirk, with the whole discipline and jurisdiction of the same. Provincial assemblies have power to redress all things omitted or done amiss in the particular assemblies, to depose the office bear- er of the province, and generally they have the power of the particular elderships whereof they are cohected. " The power of presbyteries is declared to consist in keeping the kirks within their bounds in good order ; to inquire after and endeavour to reform vicious persons. It belongs to the elderships to see that the Word of God be duly preached, and the sacraments rightly adminis- tered, and discipline entertained ; they are to cause the ordinances made by the Provincial, National, and General Assemblies, to be put in execution ; to make or abolish constitutions "ivhich concern decent order in their kirks, pro- vided they alter no rules made by the superior assemblies; and communicate their constitu- tions to the Provincial Assembly ; they have power to excommunicate the obstinate after due process. Concerning particular kirks, if they are lavt-fully ruled by sufficient ministers and session, they have power and jurisdiction in their own congregation in matters ecclesias- tical." This act, for the greater solemnity, was con- firmed again in the year 1593, and again this present year 1594, so that from this time to the year 1612 presbytery was undoubtedly the le- gal establishment of the Kirk of Scotland, as it had been, in fact, ever since the Reformation. To return to England. Several champions appeared about this tune for the cause of epis- copacy; as. Dr. Bilson, Bancroft, Bridges, Cos- ins, Soam, and Dr. Adrian Sararia, a Spaniard, but beneficed in the Church of England : this last was answered by Beza ; Bridges was an- swered by Fenner, Cosins by Morrice, and Bil- son by Bradshaw, though the press was shut ■against the Puritans. But the most celebrated performance, and of jrreatest note, was Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, in eight books ; the first four of which were published this year ; the filth in the year 1597, and last three not till many years after his death ; for which reason some have suspect- ed them to be interpolated, though they were deposited in the hands of Archbishop Abbot, from whose copy they were printed, about the beginning of the civil wars.* This is esteemed the most learned defence of the Church of Eng- land, wherein all that would be acquainted with its constitution, says a learned prelate, may see upon what foundation it is built.t Mr. Hooker * Life of Whitgift, p. 421. t The Ecclesiatitica.1 Polity is deeply interesting to the Protestant Noncorifonuist, because it exliibits the utmost that can be advanced in support of the church •system to which he is opposed. "All," says Dr. Price, " that human genius, or the most patient and begun his work while master of the Temple, bu8 meeting with some trouble, and many interrup- tions in that place, the archbishop, at his re- quest, removed him to Boscum, in the diocess of Salisbury, and gave him a minor prebend in that church ; here he finished his first four books ; from thence he was removed to the par- sonage of Bishopsborn, in Kent, about three miles from Canterbury, where he finished his work and his life in the year 1660, and in the forty-seventh year of his age.* The chief principles upon which this learned author proceeds are, " That though the Holy Scriptures are a per- fect standard of doctrine, they are not a rule of discipline or government : nor is the practice of the apostles an invariable rule or law to the Church in succeeding ages, because they acted according to the circumstances of the Church in its infant and persecuted state : neither are the Scriptures a rule of human actions, so far as that whatsoever we do in matters of religion without their express direction or warrant is sin, but many things are left indifterent : the Church is a society like others, invested with powers to make what laws she apprehends rea- sonable, decent, or necessary for her well-being and government, provided they do not interfere with or contradict the laws and commandments of Holy Scripture : where the Scripture is si- lent, human authority may interpose ; we must then have recourse to the reason of things and the rights of society : it follows from hence that the Church is at liberty to appoint ceremonies, and establish order within the limits above mentioned ; and her authority ought to deter- mine what IS fit and convenient : all who are born within the confines of an established church, and are baptized into it, are bound to submit to Its ecclesiastical laws ; they may not disgrace, scrutinizing inquiry into the nature of man and the constitution of human society can effect, is here ac- complished on behalf of the hierarchy. If, therefore, such a work fails to sustain its positions ; if many of its principles are unsound, and its course of argu- mentation is precisely similar to that which popery employs ; if large sections of the work are as conclu- sive against the Protestant faith as against that form of it to which Hooker was opposed, a strong pre- sumption must be awakened that there was a radical unsoundness in the cause he advocated, which no genius could remedy or diligence correct. That such defects do attach to this celebrated performance has been extensively acknowledged, and will be in- creasingly felt, as the true spirit of Protestantism prevails among its professed disciples." " The better parts of the Ecclesiastical Polity," remarks Mr. Hal- lam, "bear a resemblance to the philosophical wri- tings of antiquity, in their defects as well as their excellences. Hooker is often too vague in the use of general terms ; too inconsiderate in the admission of principles ; too apt to acquiesce in the scholastic pseudo-philosophy; and, indeed, hi all received ten- ets. He is comprehensive rather than sagacious, and more fitted to sift the truth from the stores of accumulated learning than to seize it by an original impulse of his own mind. Nor would it be difficult to point out several other subjects, such as religious toleration, as to which he did not emancipate him- self from the trammels of prejudice." — Constitutional History, vol. i., p. 295.— C. * Hooker's production grew out of his dispute with Travers, and his object was to recover the junior members of the Temple from the influence of Trav- ers's ministry. — See WaltorCs Life of Hooker, i., 295. — C. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 207 resile, or reject them at pleasure : the Church is their mother, and has more than a maternal power over them : the positive laws of the Church not being of a moral nature, are muta- ble, and may be changed or reversed by the same powers that made them ; but while they are in force they are to be submitted to, under such penalties as the Church in her wisdom shall direct." The fourth and fifth propositions are the main pillars of Mr. Hooker's fabric, and the founda- tion of all human establishments, viz., " that the Church, like other societies, is invested with power to make laws for its well-being; and that ■where the Scripture is silent, human authority may interpose." All men allow that human societies may form themselves after any model, and make what laws they please for their well- being ; and that the Christian Church has some things in common with all societies as such, as the appointing time and place, and the order of public worship, &c. ; hut it must be remembered that the Christian Church is not a mere volun- tary society, but a community formed and con- stituted by Christ, the sole king and lawgiver of it, who has made sufficient provision for its "well-being to the end of the world. It does not appear in the New Testament tiiat the Church is empowered to mend or alter the constitution of Christ, by creating new offices, or making new laws, though the Christian world has ven- tured upon it. Christ gave his church, proph- ets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the perfecting the saints, and edifying his body ; but the successors of the apostles in the government of the Church, apprehending these not sufficient, have added patriarchs, cardinals, deans, arch- deacons, canons, and other officials. The Church is represented in Scripture as a spiritual body, her ordinances, privileges, and censures being purely such ; but later ages have wrought the civil powers into her constitution, and kept men within her pale by all the terrors of this world, as fines, imprisonments, banishments, fire, and sword. It is the peculiar excellence of the Gos- pel worship to be plain and simple, free from the yoke of Jewish ceremonies ; but the anti- christian powers, thinking this a defect, have loaded it with numberless ceremonies of their own invention ; and though there are laws in Scripture sufficient for the direction of the Church, as constituted by Christ and his apos- tles, they have thought fit to add so many vol- umes of ecclesiastical laws, canons, and injunc- tions, as have confounded, if not subverted, the laws of Christ. Whereas, if men considered the Church as a spiritual body, constituted by Christ its sole lawgiver for spiritual purposes, they would then see that it had no concern with their civil rights, properties, and estates, nor any power to force men to be of its communion, by the pains and penalties of this world. The laws of the New Testament would appear sufficient for the well- being of such a society ; and in cases where there are no particular rules or injunctions, that it is the will of Christ and his apostles there should be liberty and mutual forbearance ; there ■would then be no occasion for Christian courts, as they are called, nor for the interposition of human authority, any father than to keep the peace. Upon the whole, as far as any church is governed by the laws and precepts of the New Testament, so far is it a Church of Christ ; but when it sets up its own by-laws as terms of communion, or works the policy of the civil magistrate into its constitution, it is so far a creature of the state. Mr. Hooker's last two propositions are incon- sistent with the first principles of the Reforma- tion, viz., that all men that are born within the confines of an established church, and are bap- tized into it, are bound to submit to its ecclesi- astical laws under such penalties as the Church in her wisilom shall direct. Must I, then, be ot the religion of the country where I am born"! that is, at Rome a papist, in Saxony a Lutheran, in Scotland a Presbyterian, and in England a diocesan prelatist, and this under such penalties as the Church in her wisdom shall think fit i Must I believe as the Church believes, and sub- mit to her laws right or wrong! Have I no right, as a man and a Christian, to judge and act for myself, as long as I continue a loyal and faithful subject to my prince 1 Surely religious principles and Church cominunion should he the effect of exainination and a deliberate choice, or they lose their name, and degenerate into hypocrisy or atheism. From general principles Mr. Hooker proceeds to vindicate the particular rites and ceremonies of the Church, and to clear them from the ex- ceptions of the Puritans ; which may easily be done when he has proved that the Church has a discretionary power to appoint what cere- monies and establish what order she thinks fit ; he may then vindicate not only the ceremonies of the Church of England, but all those of Rome, for no doubt that church alleges all their ceremonies conducive to her well-being, and not inconsistent with the laws of Christ.* This year died Dr. John Aylmer, bishop of London, whose character has been sufficiently drawn in this history ; he was born in Norfolk, educated in Cambridge, and in Queen Mary's reign an exile for religion ; he was such a little man, that Fullert says, when the searchers were clearing the ship in which he made his escape, the merchant put him into a great wine-butt that had a partition in the middle, so that Mr. Ayl- mer sat enclosed in the hinder part while the searchers drank of the wine which they saw drawn out of the head on the other part ; he was of an active, busy spirit, quick in his lan- guage, and, after his advancement, of a stout and * To Mr. Neal's remarks on the principles of the Ecclesiastical Polity, it may be added, that how just and conclusive soever those principles are in them- selves, they do not, they cannot apply to the vindica- tion of bur religious establishment, till jt be proved that its ceremonies and laws were fixed by the Church. In whatever sense the word church is used, this is not the fact. Whether you understand by it " a congregation of faithful men," or " all eccle- siastical persons," or " an order of men who are set apart by Christianitv, and dedicated to this veiy pur- pose of public instruction," in neither sense were the forms and opinions of our established religion settled by the Church. They originated with royal pleas- ure ; they have changed as the will of our princes hath changed ; they have been settled by acts of Parliaments, formed illegally, corrupted by pensions, and overawed by prerogative, and they constitute part of the statute law of the land. — See my Letters to the Rev. Dr. Sturges, 1782, p. 15-28. -Ed. t Fuller's Worthies, b. ii., p. 548. 208 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. imperious behaviour : in his younger days he was inclined to Puritanism, Imt when he was made a bishop he became a resolute champion of the hierarchy, and a bitter persecutor of his former friends. In his latter days he was very covetous, and a little too lax in his morals ; he usually played at bowls on Sundays in the after- noons, and used such language at his game as justly exposed his character to reproach ; but with all these blemishes, the w riter of his life, Mr. Strype, will have him a learned, pious, and humble bishop. He died at Fulham, June 3, 1594, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.* Aylmer was succeeded by Dr. Fletcher, bish- op of Worcester, who, in his primary visitation, gave out tvventy-seven articles of inquiry to the church-wardens concerning their preachers ; as, whether tliey prayed for the queen as su- preme head over all persons and causes within her dominions, ecclesiastical and temporal ; whether they were learned, or frequented con- venticles, or taught innovations, or commended the new discipline, or spoke in derogation of any part of the common prayer, or did not ad- minister the sacrament in their own persons at certain times of the year, &c. By these, and such like inquiries, the prisons, which had been lately cleared, were filled again ; for by an ac- count sent to the queen from the ecclesiastical commissioners towards the close of this year, it appears that in the Marshalsea, Newgate, the Gate-house, Bridewell, the Fleet, the Compters, the White Lion, and the King's Bench, there were eighty-nine prisoners for religion ; some of them were popish recusants, and the re.st Protestant Nonconformists, of whom twenty- four had been committed by the ecclesiastical commission, and the rest by the council and the bishops' courts. But his lordship's pro- ceedings were quickly interrupted by his falling under her majesty's displeasure, a few months after his translation, for marrying a second wife, which the queen looked upon as indecent in an elderly clergyman ; for this she banished him the court, and commanded the archbishop to suspend him from his bishopric ; but after six months, her majesty being a little pacified, or- dered his suspension to be taken off, though she would never admit him into her presence, which had such an influence upon his great * This prelate had been preceptor to Lady Jane Grey. During his residence in Switzerland he as- sisted John Fox in translating his Marlyrology into Latin. It was usual with him, v\'hen he observed his audience to be inattentive, to take a Hebrew Bi- ble out of his pocket and read them a few verses, and then resume his discourse. It is related, as an instance of his courage, that he had a tooth drawn to encourage the queen to submit to the like opera- tion. But It is more to the honour of his judgment and patriotism that, notwithstanding his rigour and cruelty in ecclesiastical matters, he had and avowed just sentiments concerning the constitution of the English government and the pov^^er of Parliaments, of whom he said, that "if they used their privileges, the king can do nothing without them ; if he do, it is his fault in usurping it, and their folly in permitting it. Wherefore, in my judgment, those that in King Henry's days would not grant him that proclamation should have the force of a statute, were good fathers of the country, and worthy of commendation in de- fending their liberty."- — Strype, as quoted in British Bingraphy, vol. lii., p. 240, 241, and Granger's Biogr. History, vol. i., p. 208, 209. spirit as was thought to hasten his death, which happened the next year, as he was sitting in his chair smoking a pipe of tobacco. The year fol- lowing he was succeeded by Dr. Bancroft, the great adversary of the Puritans. These violent proceedings of the bishops drove great nuinbers of the Brownists into Holland, where their leaders, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Smith, Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. Robinson, .Mr. Jacob, and others, were gone beforehand, and, with the leave of the States, were erecting churches after their own model at Amsterdam, Arnheim, Mid- dleburgh, Leyden, and other places. The church at Amsterdam had like to have been torn in pie- ces at first by intestine divisions, but it after- ward flourished under a succession of pastors for above a hundred years. Mr. Robinson, pas- tor of the church at Leyden, first struck out the Congregational or Independent form of church government, and at length part of this church, transplanting themselves into America, laid the foundation of the noble colony of New-England, as will be seen hereafter. Hitherto the controversy between the Church and Puritans had been chiefly about habits, and ceremonies, and church discipline, but now it began to open upon points of doctrine ; for this year Dr. Bound published his treatise of the Sabbath, wherein he maintains the morality of a seventh part of time for the worship of God ; that Christians are bound to rest on the Lord's Day as much as the Jews on the Mosaical Sab- bath, the commandment of rest being moral and perpetual ; that, therefore, it was not lawful to follow our studies or worldly business on that day, nor to use such recreations and pleasures as were lawful on other days, as shooting, fen- cing, bow'ling, &c. This book had a wonderful spread among the people, and wrought a mighty reformation, so that the Lord's Day, which used to be profaned by interludes. May-games, mor- rice-dances, and other sports and recreations, began to be kept more precisely, especially in corporations. AH the Puritans fell in with this doctrine, and distinguished themselves by spend- ing that part of sacred time in public, family, and private acts of devotion.* But the govern- ing clergy exclaimed against it as a restraint of Christian hberty, as putting an unequal lustre on the Sunday, and tending to eclipse the au- thority of the Church in appointing other festi- vals. Mr. Rogers, author of a commentary oa the Thirty-nine Articles, writes in his preface " that it was the comfort of his soul, and would be to his dying day, that he had been the man and the means that the Sabbatarian errors were brought to the light and knowledge of the state." But I should have thought this clergyman might have had as much comtbrt upon a dying bed if he had spent his zeal in recommending the reli- gious observation of that sacred day. Dr. Bound might carry his doctrine too high if he advan- ced it to a level with the Jewish rigours ; but it was certainly unworthy the character of di- vines to encourage men in shooting, fencing, and other diversions on the Lord's Day, which they are forward enough to give way to with- out the countenance and example of their spir- itual guides. Archbishop Whitgift called in all the copies of Dr. Bound's book by his letters and officers at synods and visitations, and for- * Fuller, b. ix., p. 227^ ' HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 209 bade it to be reprinted ; and the Lord-chief-jus- tice Popham did the same, both of them decla- ring that the Sabbath doctrine agreed neither with the doctrine of our Church nor with the laws and orders of this kingdom ;* that it dis- turbed the peace of the commonwealth and Church, and tended to schism in the one and sedition in the other ; but, notwithstanding all this caution, the book was read privately more than ever. " The more liberty people were of- fered," says Mr. Fuller, " the less they used ; refusing to take the freedom authority tendered them, as being jealous of a design to blow up their civil liberties." The archbishop's head was no sooner laid but Dr. Bound prepared his book for the press a second time, and published it, with large additions, in 1606 ; and such was its reputation, that scarce any comment or cate- chism was published by the stricter divines for many years in which the morality of the Sab- bath was not strongly recommended and urged ; but this controversy will return again in the next reign. All the Protestant divines in the Church, whether Puritans or others, seemed of one mind hitherto about the doctrines of faith ; but now there arose a party, which were first for soften- ing, and then for overthrowing, the received opin- ions about predestination, perseverance, free- will, effectual grace, and the extent of our Sa- viour's redemption. The articles of the Church of England were thought by all men hitherto to favour the explication of Calvin ; but these di- vines would make them stand neuter, and leave a latitude for the subscriber to take either side of the question. All the Puritans, to a man, maintained the articles of the Church to be Cal- vinistical, and inconsistent with any other in- terpretation, and so did far the greatest number of the conforming clergy ; but as the new expli- cations of Arminius grew into repute, the Cal- vinists were reckoned oldfashioned divines,t and at length branded with the character of Doctrinal Puritans. The debate began in the University of Cam- bridge, where one Mr. Barret, fellow of Gon- ■ville and Caius College, in his sermon ad clerum, declared himself against Calvin's doctrine about predestination and falling from grace, reflecting with some sharpness upon that great divine, and advising his hearers not to read him. For this he was summoned before the vice-chancel- lor and heads of colleges, and obliged to retract in St. Mary's Church, according to a form pre- scribed by his superiors, which he read after a manner that showed he did it only to save his place in the University. This was so offensive to the scholars, that forty or fifty graduates of the several colleges signed a petition, dated May 26, 1595, desiring some farther course might be taken with him, that the great names which he had reproached, as P. Martyr, Calvm, Beza, Zanchius, &c., might receive some reparation.t Both parties appealed to the archbishop, who blamed the University for their too-hasty pro- ceedings, and seemed to take part with Barret ; but the heads of colleges, in a second letter, vin- dicated their proceedings, desiring his grace not * LifeofWhitgift.p. 531. + While they, in return, looked on the others as lillle better than novelists.— War««-.— Ed. t Life of Whitgift, p. 437. Vol. I.— D d to encourage such a bold, corrupt, and unlearned young fellow, and insisted on the rights and prerogatives of the University. At length Mr. Barret was sent for to Lambeth, and having been examined before the archbishop and some other divines, they agreed that he had main- tained some errors, and enjoined him in an humble manner to confess his ignorance and mistake, and not to teach ine like doctrines for the future ; but he chose rather to quit the Uni- versity.* This Barret was a conceited youth, who did not treat his superiors with decency : in one of his letters he calls the grave and learn- ed Mr. Perkins, homuncio qiiidam, a little con- temptible fellow : but at last he turned papist. The fire was no sooner kindled than it was ob- served that Barret and his friends were coun- tenanced by the high Conformists and Roman Catholics, and that his adversaries took part with the Puritans, which was like to produce a new division in the Church, t To put an end to these disputes, the heads of the University sent Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Tyn- dal to Lambeth, to consult with the archbishop, and some other learned divines, upon these points ; who at length, November 20, concluded upon the following nine propositions, commonly called the Lambeth Articles, which the scholars in the University were strictly enjoined to con- form their judgments unto, and not to vary from. The articles were as follows : " That God from eternity has predestinated some persons to life and reprobated others to death : the moving or efficient cause of predes- tination to life is not foreseen faith, or good works, or any other commendable quality in the persons predestinated, but the good-will and pleasure of God : the number of the predestinate is fixed, and cannot be lessened or increased : they who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily condemned for their sins : a true, lively, and justifying faith, and the sanc- tifying influence of the Spirit, is not extinguish- ed, nor does it fail, or go off either finally or totally : a justified person has a full assurance and certainty of the remission of his sins, and his everlasting salvation by Christ : saving grace is not communicated to all men ; neither have all men such a measure of Divine assistance, that they may be saved if they will : no person can come to Christ unless it be given him, and unless the Father draw him ; and all men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to Christ : it is not in every one's will and power to be saved." These high propositions were drawn up and consented to by Archbishop Whitgift, Dr. Fletch- er, bishop of London, Dr. Vaughan, elect of Ban- gor, and some others ; they were sent to Dr. Hutton, archbishop of York, and Dr. Young, of Rochester, who subscribed them, only wishing that the word necessarily, in the fourth article, and those words in the seventh article, if they will, might be omitted. The archbishop, in his letter which he sent to the University with the articles, says they are to look upon them not as new laws and decrees, but only as an explica- tion of certain points which they apprehend to be true, and corresponding to the doctrine pro- fessed in the Church of England, and already * Heyl., Hist. Pres., p. 343. , t Hiclunan's Quinq. Hist, against Heyhn, p. 210. | 210 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. established by the laws of the land. But, foras- much as they had not the queen's sanction, he desires they may not become a public act, but used privately and with discretion.* He adds, that her majesty was fully persuaded of the truth of them ; which is strange.'when shepommanded Sir Robert Cecil to signify to the archbishop by letter " that she misliked much that any al- lowance had been given by his grace and his brethren for any such points to be disputed, be- ing a matter tender and dangerous to weak, ig- norant minds ; and thereupon commanded him to suspend the urging them publicly, or suffer- ing them to be debated in the pulpit." The queen's design was to stifle the contro- versy in its birth ; for if she was dissatisfied with the archbishop's private determinations, she was downright angry with Dr. Baro, a French- man, and one of the divinity professors at Cam- bridge, for continuing the debate. She said that, being an alien, and humanely harboured and enfranchised, both himself and family, he ought to have carried himself more quietly and peaceably. His case was this : in his sermon before the University, preached January 12, he asserted " that God created all men according to his own likeness in Adam, and consequently to eternal life, from which he rejects no man but on the account of his sins : that Christ died for all mankind, and was a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, original and actual ; the remedy provided by him being as extensive as the ruins of the fall : that the promises of eternal life made to us in Christ are to be gen- erally and universally taken and understood, be- ing made as much to Judas as to Peter." For these propositions he was summoned before the vice-chancellor and heads of colleges, who ex- amined him by several interrogatories, and com- manded him peremptorily to abstain from those controversies in his lectures and sermons for the future. They acquainted Secretary Cecil by letter with their proceedings, in which they call all doc- trines popish, and say that for fourteen or fif- teen years he has taught in his lectures, and preached in his sermons, divers points of doc- trine contrary to those which have been taught and read over since her majesty's reign, and agreeable to the errors of popery, by which means they fear the whole body of that religion will break in upon them ; they therefore pray his lordship's assistance for the suppressing them. Cambridge, March 8th, 1595.t On the other hand, Baro wrote to the archbish- op to keep him in his place, promising obedience to his grace's commands, and to keep the peace of the University by dropping the controversy in silence. t He also wrote to Secretary Cecil to put a stop to the proceedings of the vice-chan- cellor, which he, together with the archbishop, accomplished ; but the University not being sat- isfied with him, he was obliged next*year to quit his professorship and retire to London, where he died two or three years after, having been Lady Margaret's professor at Cambridge * Life of Whitgift, p. 462, 463. t Signed by Roger G-oad, pro can., R. Some, The. Legge, John Jegon, The. Nevyle, Tho. Preston, Hump. Tyndal, James Montague, Edm. Barrel, Lawr. Chaddenon. X Strype's Annals, vol. ult., p. 230. " about twenty-five years.* He left a large fam- ily behind him, and was buried in St. Olave's, Hart-street, his pall i)eing supported by six doc- tors of divinity, by order from the Bishop of London. The chancellor, in his letter to the University, was very angry because they sifted Baro with interrogatories, "as if," says he, "he was a thief ; this seems done of stomach among you."t How sad, then, was the case of the Puritans ! The divines of Oxford, and, indeed, all the first; Reformers, were in the same sentiments with those of Cambridge about the disputed points; Calvin's Institutions being read publicly in tho schools by appointment of the convocation, though perhaps they might not go the full lengtli of the Lambeth Articles, nor express themselves with the exactness of those who lived afterward, when those doctrines were publicly opposed by Arminius and his followers. The article of our Saviour's local descent into hell began to be questioned at this time. It had been the received doctrine of the Church of England, that the soul of Christ, being separa- ted from his body, descended locally into hell, that he might there triumph over Satan, as be- fore he had over death and sin.t But the learn- ed Mr. Hugh Broughton, the rabbi of his age, whom King James would have courted into Scotland, convinced the world that the word hades, used by the Greek fathers for the place into which Christ went after his crucifixion, did not mean hell, or the place of the damned, but only the state of the dead, or the invisible world. It was farther debated whether Christ under- went in his soul the wrath of God and the pains of hell, and finished all his sufferings upon the cross before he died.^ This was Calvin's sen- timent, and with him agreed all the Puritan di- vines, who preached it in their sermons, and in- serted it in their catechisms. On the other hand. Bishop Bilson, in his sermons at Paul's Cross, maintained that no text of Scripture as- serted the death of Christ's soul, or the pains of the damned, to be requisite in the person of Christ before he could be our ransomer, and the Saviour of the world. || But still he maintained the local descent of Christ into hell, or the ter- ritory of the damned ; and that, by the course of the creed, the article must refer, not to Christ living upon the cross, but to Christ dead ; and that he went thither, not to suffer, but to wrest the keys of hell and death out of the hands of the devil.lT When these sermons were printed, * " Hence," remarks an able writer, " it appears what little latitude was then allowed to the freedom of thinking and debate, on subjects the most innocent, and with regard to doctrines, the truth of which is now generally maintained by the clergy, and especi- ally by those of tiiem who stand the highest in dig- nity, reputation, and learning. We must be sensible how narrow was the spirit, and how confined ihe true theological knowledge of the times, when the dogmas of Calvinism were maintained with such per- tinacity by the governors of the Church, and to call them in question was looked upon as a crime." — History of Knowledge in the New A nnual Register for 1789, p. 9. t Life of Whitgilt, p. 473. X Heyl., Hist. Presb., p. 349. ij Life of Whitgift, p. 482. II Keyl., Hist. Presb., p. 350. 'iF This controversy gave a celebrity, beyond his own time, to the name of Bishop Bilson : he was aa eminent diviire, and the author of some doctrinal and HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Ill they were presently answered by Mr. Henry Ja- cob, a learned Brownist. Bilson, by the queen's command, defended his sermons in a treatise entitled " A Survey of Christ's Sufl'erings," "Which did not appear in the world till lfi04. The controversy was warmly debated in both uni- versities; but when the learned combatants had spent their artillery, it dropped in silence, with- out any determination from authority, though it ■was one of the articles usually objected to the Puritans, for which they were suspended their ministry. [And the rational sentiment, that the "word hades signifies only the state of the dead, or the invisible world, silently and universally took place.] Among other reproaches cast upon their cler- gy, was one, that they deluded the people by claiming a power to exorcise the devil. " Some of their ministers," says Mr. Strype, "pretend- ed to cast out devils, that so the amazed multi- tude, having a great veneration for these exer- cisers of devils, by the power of their prayers and fastings, might the more readily and awful- ly submit to their opinions and ways ; a prac- tice borrowed from the then papists to make their priests revered, and to confirm the laity in their superstitions." One would tiiink here was a plot of some cunning, designing men, to con- iure the people into the belief of discipline ; but * wall vanishes in the peculiar principles of a weak and (as Mr. Strype confesses) honest man, whose name was Darrel, a bachelor of arts and minis- ter of Nottingham. This divine was of opinion, that by the power of prayer the devil might be castout of persons possessed;* and having tried the experiment upon one Darlmg of Burton, a boy of about fourteen years old, with supposed success, and upon some others, he was impor- Juned by one of the ministers, and several in- toabitants of the town of Nottingham, to visit one William Somers, a boy that had such con- clusive agonies as were thought to be preter- natural, inasmuch that when Mr. Darrel had seen them, he concluded, with the rest of the spectators, that he was possessed, and advised his friends to desire the help of godly and learn- ed ministers to endeavour his recovery, but ex- cused himself from being concerned, lest, if the devil should be dispossessed, the common peo- ple should attribute to him some special gift of casting out devils ; but upon a second request fiom tlie mayor of Nottingham, he agreed with Mr. Aldridge and two other ministers, with about one hundred and fifty neighbouring Christians, to set apart a day for fasting and prayer, to en- treat the Lord to cast out Satan, and deliver the young man from his torments ; and after some time, the Lord, they say, was entreated, and they blessed God for the same : this was November, 1597. A few days after, the mayor and some of the aldermen began to suspect that Somers was a cheat ; and to make him confess, they took him from his parents, and committed him to the custody of two men, who with threaten- ings prevailed with him to acknowledge that he practical works, as well as some Latin poems and orations never published. In the reign of James I. he was one of the two final correctors of the English translation of the Bible, for which office his easy and harmonious style particularly qualified him. — History of Knowledge in the New Ammal Register for 1789, p. 17.— Ed. * Life of Whitgift, p. 492, 494, 495. had dissembled and counterfeited all he did. Upon this he was carried before the commis- sion, where at first he owned himself a counter- feit, and then presently denied it again ; but being thoroughly frightened, he fell into fits be- fore the commissioners, which put an end to his examination for the present. After some time, being still in custody, he returned to his confessing, and charged Mr. Darrel with train- ing him up in the art for four years. Upon this, Mr. Darrel was summoned before the commis- sioners, and brought witnesses with him to prove that Somers had declared, in a very solemn manner, that he had not dissembled ; upon which he was dismissed, and the commission dissolv- ed ; but, the affair making a great noise in the country, Mr. Darrel was sent for to Lambeth, and after a long hearing before the archbishop, and others of the High Commission, he was depo- sed from his ministry, and committed close pris- oner to the Gate-house, for being accessory to a vile imposture, where he continued many years. While Mr. Darrel was in the prison, he wrote an apology to show that people in these latter days may be possessed with devils, and that by prayer and fasting the unclean spirit may be cast out. In the end of which he makes this protestation : " If what I am accused of be true (viz., that I have been accessory to a vile im- posture, with a design to impose on mankind), let me be registered to my perpetual infamy, not only for a notorious deceiver, but such a hypocrite as never trod on the earth before ; yea. Lord ! for to thee I convert my speech, who knowest all things, if I have confederated more or less with Somers, Darling, or any of the rest ; if ever I set eye on them before they were pos- sessed, then let me not only be made a laugh- ing-stock and a by-word to all men, but rase my name also out of the Book of Life, and let me have my portion with hypocrites." It has been observed that the bishops had now wisely transferred the prosecution of the Puritans from themselves to the temporal courts, so that, instead of being sunimoned before the High Commission, they were indicted at the as- sizes, and tried at common law; this being thought more advisable, to take off the odium from the Church. Judge Anderson discovered his zeal against them this summer in an extra- ordinary manner, for in his charge to the jury at Lincoln, he told them that the country was infested with Brownists, with disciphnarians and erectors of presbyteries, which he spoke with so much wrath, with so many oaths, and such re- viling language, as offended the gentlemen upon the bench. He called the preachers knaves, saying that they would start up into the pulpit and speak against everybody.* He was for extending the statute of recusancy to such who went at any time to hear sermons from their own parish churches, though they usually at- tended in their places, and heard divine service dutifully. When Lord Clinton, and the deputy- lieutenants and justices of those parts, obtain- ed the bishop's allowance for a day of fasting and prayer at Lowth, upon an extraordinary oc- casion, his lordship urged the jury to find a bill against them, upon the statute of conventicles. Mr. Allen, minister of that parish, being in- dicted by means of a revengeful justice of peace * Strype's Ann., vol. ult., p. 264. 212 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. for not reading all the prayers at once (he using sometimes to omit part of them for the sermon), ■was obhged to hold up his hand at the bar, when Judge Anderson standing up, spoke to him with a fierce countenance, and having insinuated some grievous faults against the man (though he named none), called him oftentimes knave, rebellious knave, with more such opprobrious language, though it was known all over the country that Mr. Allen was a good preacher ; that he had subscribed ; was esteemed by the bishop ; was conformable in his affections ; and behaved upon this occasion with all humility and submission. But his lordship had said in his charge that he would hunt all the Puritans out of his circuit. One thing was remarkable in Mr. Allen's arraignment, that when, upon some point wherein judgment in divinity was required, Mr. Allen referred himself to the bish- op (his ordinary then sitting upon the bench), the judge took him up with marvellous indigna- tion, and said he was both his ordmary and bishop in that place.* Thus the Puritan clergy were put upon a lev- el with rogues and felons, and made to hold up their hands at the bar among the vilest crimi- nals : there was hardly an assize in any county in England, but one or more ministers, through the resentments of some of their parishioners, appeared in this condition, to the disgrace of their order, and the loss of their reputation and usefulness, besides being exposed to the insults of the rude multitude. " But I would to God," says my author, " that they which judge in re- ligious causes, though in the name of civil af- fairs, would either get some more knowledge in religion and God's Word than my Lord Ander- son hath, or call in the assistance of those that have."t Archbishop Whitgift was busy this summer about elections for the ensuing Parliament, which was to meet Oct. 24, 1597. Mr. Strype says, his grace took what care he could to pre- vent such as were disaffected to the constitution of the Church, that is, all Puritans, from com- ing into the House ; but some thought it a little out of character lor an archbishop to appear so publicly in the choice of the people's represent- atives.t The House being thus modelled, did not meddle with the foundations of discipline, or form of public worship ; but several bills were brought in to regulate abuses in spiritual courts, as against licenses to marry without bans, against excessive fees, frivolous citations ex offi- cio, and excommunications for little matters, as twopence or threepence. These and all other bdls of this nature were, according to custom, quashed by a message from the queen, forbid- ding them to touch her prerogative, and assu- ring them that she would take the aforesaid grievances into her princely consideration. Ac- cordingly, her majesty referred these matters to the convocation ; it being her steady maxim, not to proceed in matters of the Church by stat- utes, which the Parliament alone could repeal, but rather by canons, which she could confirm * Strype's Ann., vol. ult., p. 267. t These are not the words of Mr. Strype himself, as they may appear by the manner of qiiofntinn, but are part of a letter " from a person unki .i of the clergy to a person of quaUty" on Jnd .mlerson's proceedings. — Ed. J Life of Wiuia^ii'i p. 508. or dispense With at pleasure. The convocation drew up some regulations upon these and other heads, relating to ecclesiastical courts, which the queen confirmed by her letters patent, Jan- uary 18, in the fortieth year of her reign. They were printed the same year by her authority, and may be seen in Bishop Sparrow's collection of articles, injunctions, &cc. But still the ecclesiastical courts were an in- sufferable grievance : the oppressions which people underwent from the bottomless deep of the canon law put them upon removing their causes into Westminster Hall, by getting prohi- bitions to stay proceedings in the bishops' courts, or in the High Commission. This awakened the archbishop, who, in order to support the civil- ians, drew up certain queries to be considered by the lords and judges of the land touching prohibitions ; of which this was the principal, " that, seeing ecclesiastical authority is as truly vested in the crown as temporal, whether the queen's temporal authority should any more re- strain her ecclesiastical, than her ecclesiastical should her temporal ? And seeing so many and so great personages, with some others, are trust- ed to do her majesty service in her ecclesiasti- cal commission, whether it be convenient that an offender, ready to be censured, should obtain, and publicly throw into court, a prohibition, ta the delay of justice, and to the disgrace and di* paragement of those who serve freely, without all fee therein." The archbishop caused a list to be made of divers cases, wherein the Chris- tian court, as he called it, had been interrupted by the temporal jurisdiction ; and of many causes that had been taken out of the hands of the bish- ops' courts, the High Commission, and the court of delegates ; the former authorized by immedi- ate commission from the queen, and the latter by a special commission upon an appeal to her court of chancery.* But, notwithstanding all these efforts of Whitgift and his successor Ban- croft, the number of prohibitions increased every year ; the nobility, gentry, and judges being too wise to subject their estates and liberties to a number of artful civilians, versed in a codex or body of laws of most uncertain authority, and strangers to the common and statute law, with- out the check of a prohibition, when it was no- torious that the canon law had been always, since the Reformation, controlled by the laws and statutes of the realm. Thus the civilians sunk in their business under the two next arch- bishops, till Laud governed the Church, who, ter- rifying the judges from granting prohibitions, the spiritual courts. Star Chamber, council-ta- ble, and high commissioners rode triumphant, fining, imprisoning, and banishing men at their pleasure, till they became as terrible as the Span- ish Inquisition, and brought upon the nation all the confusions and desolations of a civil war. From this time to the queen's death there was a kind of cessation of arms between the Church and Puritans ; the combatants were out of breath, or willing to wait for better times. Some apprehended that the Puritans were van- quished, and their numbers lessened by the se- vere execution of the penal laws ; whereas it wih appear, by a survey in the beginning of the next reign, that the nonconforming clergy were about fifteen hundred. But the true reason was * Life of Whitgift, p. 537. . HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 213 this : the queen was advanced in years, and could not live long in a course of nature, and the next heir to the crown being a Presbyterian, the bishops were cautious of acting against a party for whom his majesty had declared, not knowing what revenge he might take when he was fixed on the throne ; and the Puritans were quiet, in hopes of great matters to be done for them upon the expected change. Notwithstanding all former repulses from court, the queen's last Parliament, which sat in the year 1601, renewed their attacks upon the ec- clesiastical courts, a bill being brought in to ex- amine into bishops' leases, and to disable them from taking fines, another against pluralities and nonresidents, and another against com- missaries and archdeacons' courts. Multitudes of complaints came to the House against the proceedings of the ordinaries ex mero o^cio, with- out due presentments preceding, and against the frequent keeping their courts, so that the church-wardens were sometimes cited to two or three spiritual courts at once ;* complaint was made of their charging the country with quarterly bills ; of the great number of appari- tors and petty summoners, who seized upon people for trifling offences ; of the admission of curates by officials and commissaries, without the bishop's knowledge, and without testimo- nials of their conversation ; of scandalous com- mutations of penance, and divers abuses of the like kind ; but the queen would not suffer the House to debate them, referring them to the archbishop, who wrote to his brethren the bish- ops to endeavour, as much as possible, to reform the above-mentioned grievances, which, says he,t have produced multitudes of complaints in Parliament ; and had they not been prevented by great circumspection, and promise of care- ful reformation, there might perhaps have ensu- ed the taking away of the whole, or most of those courts. " So prudently diligent was the archbishop," says Mr. Strype, "to keep up the ju- risdiction of the bishops' courts, and the wealthy estate of the clergy, by preserving nonresidences to them." There was another bill brought into the House to punish voluntary absence from church ; the forfeiture was to be twelvepence each Sunday, to be levied by distress, by a warrant from a justice of peace ; but the bill was opposed be- cause there was a severe law already against recusants of £20 per month, and because, if this bill should pass, a justice of peace's house would, like a quarter sessions, be crowded with a multitude of informers ; it was likewise against Magna Charta, which entitles every man to be tried by his peers, whereas by this act two witnesses before a justice of peacd were sufficient.f The bill, however, was en- grossed, and being put to the question, the noes carried it by a single voice, upon which the yeas said the speaker was with them, which made the number even. The question was then put whether the speaker had a voice, which be- ing carried in the negative, the bill miscar- ried. The convocation did nothing but give the queen four subsidies, to be collected in four * Life of Whitgift, p. 546, 547. + Ibid., p. 547, 549. X CoUyer's Eccles. Hist., p. 667. years, and receive an exhortation from the arch- bisliop to observe the canons passed in the last convocation. They met October the 18th, and were dissolved, with the Parhament, December the 19th following. This year [1602] died the reverend and learn- ed Mr. William Perkins, born at Marston, in Warwickshire, in the first year of Queen Eliza- beth, and educated in Christ's College, Cam- bridge, of which he was fellow : he was one of the most famous practical writers and preach- ers of his age ; and being a strict Calvinist, he published several treatises in favour of those doctrines, which involved him in a controversy with Arminius, then professor of divinity at Leyden, that continued to his death. He was a Puritan Nonconformist, and a favourer of the discipline, for which he was once or twice brought before the High Commission, but his peaceable behaviour, and great fame in the learned world, procured him a dispensation from the persecutions of his brethren. Mr. Perkins was a little man, and wrote with his left hand, being lame of his right. His works, which were printed in three volumes folio, show him to have been a most pious, holy, and industri- ous divine, considering he lived only forty-four years.* To sum up the state of religion throughout this long reign. It is evident that the Parlia- ment, the people, and great numbers of the in- ferior clergy were for carrying the Reforma- tion farther than the present establishment. The first bishops came into it with this view; they declared against the Popish habits and ceremonies, and prornised to use all their in- terest with the queen for their removal ; but how soon they forgot themselves, when they were warm in their chairs, the foregoing histo- ry has discovered.! Most of the first Reform- ers were of Erastian principles, looking upon the Church as a mere creature of the state ; they gave up everything to the crown, and yielded to the supreme magistrate the absolute direction of the consciences, or, at least, the re- ligious profession, of all his subjects. They ac- knowledged only two orders of Divine institu- tion, viz., bishops or priests, and deacons. They admitted the ordination of foreign churches by mere presbyters till towards the middle of this reign, when their validity began to be disputed and denied. Whitgift was the first who de- fended the hierarchy from the practice of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, when the Ro- man Empire became Christian ; but Bancroft divided off the bishops from the priesthood, and advanced them into a superior order by Divine * Many of his works were translated into Dutch, Spanish, French, and Italian, and are still in esti- mation in Germany. Mr, Orton, who by his mother's side descended in a direct line from Mr. Perkins's elder brother, speaks of him as an excellent writer, clear and judicious, and recommends his works to all ministers, especially young ones, as affording large materials for composition. — Orion's Letters to a Young Clergyman, p. 39, 40.— Ed. t Bishop Warburton informs us, from Selden, de Synedriis, that Erastiis's famous book, De Excom- municatione, was purchased by Whitgift of Erastus's widow, in Germany, and put by him to the press in London, under fictitious names of the place and printer. — Supplemental Volume to Warburton' s Work*, p. 473— Ed. 214 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. right, ^vith the sole power of ordination and the keys of discipline ; so that from this time there were reckoned three orders of clergy in the English hierarchy, viz., bishops, priests, and deacons. Thus the Church advanced in her claims, and removed by degrees to a greater distance from the foreign Protestants. The controversy with the Puritans had only a small beginning, viz., the imposing of the po- pish habits and a few indifferent ceremonies ; but it opened by degrees into a reformation of discipline, which all confessed was wanting ; and at last the doctrinal articles were debated. The queen and the later bishops would not part with a pin out of the hierarchy, nor leave a lat- itude in the most trifling ceremonies, but insist- ed upon an exact uniformity both in doctrine and ceremonies, that all might unite in the pub- lic standard. The Puritans, in their writings and conferences, attempted to show the defects of the establishment from Scripture, and from the earliest ages of the Church ; and what they sufTered for it has been in part related, the sus- pensions and deprivations of this long reign amounting to several thousands ; but when it appeared that nothing would be abated, and that penal laws were multiplied and rigorously exe- cuted, they endeavoured to erect a sort of vol- untary discipline within the Church, for the ease and satisfaction of their own consciences, being unwilling to separate ; till at length the violence of persecution drove some of them into the ex- tremes of Brownism, which divided the Puri- tans, and gave rise to a new controversy con- cerning the necessity of a separation from the Established Church, of which we shall hear more hereafter ; but under all their hardships, their loyalty to the queen was untainted, and their behaviour peaceable ; they addressed the queen, and Parliament, and bishops for relief at sundry times, and remonstrated against the arbitrary proceedings of the spiritual court, making use of no other weapons but prayers and tears, at- tended with Scripture and argument. The chief principles of the Puritans have • been already related : they were no enemies to the name or function of a bishop, provided he was no more than nposanjc, or a stated presi- dent of the college of presbyters in his diocess, and managed the affairs of it with their concur- rence and assistance. They did not object against prescribed forms of prayer, provided a latitude was indulged the minister to alter or vary some expressions, and to make use of a prayer of his own conception before and after sermon : nor had they an aversion to any de- cent and distinct habits for the clergy that were not derived from popery ; but, upon the whole, they were the most resolute Protestants in the nation, zealous Calvinists, warm and affection- ate preachers, and determined enemies to po- pery, and to everything that had a tendency to- wards it. It is not pretended that the Puritans were v/ithout their failings ; no, they were men of like passions and infirmities with their adversa- ries ; and while they endeavoured to avoid one extreme, they might fall into another; their zeal for their platform of discipline would, I fear, have betrayed them into the imposition of it upon others, if it had been established by law. Their notions of the civil and religious rights of mankind were narrow and confused, and de- rived too much from the theocracy of the Jews, which was now at an end. Their behaviour was severe and rigid, far removed from the fashionable freedoms and vices of the age : and possibly they might be too censorious, in not making those distinctions between youth and age, grandeur and mere decency, as the nature and circumstances of things would admit ; but with all their faults, they were the most pious and devout people in the land ; men of prayer, both in secret and public, as well as in their families ; their manner of devotion was fervent and solemn, depending on the assistance of the Divine Spirit, not only to teach them how to pray, but what to pray for as they ought. They had a profound reverence for the holy name of God, and were great enemies not only to pro- fane swearing, but to " foolish talking and jest- ing, which are not convenient ;" they were strict observers of the Christian Sabbath or Lord's Day, spending the whole of it in acts of public and private devotion and charity. It was the .dislinguisliing mark of a Puritan in these tunes, to see him going to church twice a day with his Bible under his arm : and while others were at plays and interludes, at revels, or walk- ing in the fields, or at the diversions of bowling, fencing, &c., on the evening of the Sabbath, these, with their families, were employed in reading the Scriptures, singing psalms, catechi- zing their children, repeating sermons, and pray- er : nor was this only the work of the Lords Day, but they had their hours of family devo- tion on the week days, esteeming it their duty to take care of the souls as well as the bodies of their servants. They were circumspect as to all the excesses of eating, drinking, apparel, and lawful diversions, being frugal in house- keeping, industrious in their particular callings, honest and exact in their dealings, and solicit- ous to give to every one his own. These were the people who were branded with the name of Precisians, Puritans, Schismatics, enemies to God and their country, and throughout the course of this reign underwent cruel mockings, bonds, and imprisonment. Sir Francis Walsingham has given a summa- ry account of the queen's policy towards them, in a letter to Monsieur Cretoy, which I shall transcribe in his own words.* " I find," says Sir Francis, " that the queen's * Mr. Neal,in his Review, observes that Sir Fran- cis wrote this letter as secretary of state and as the queen's servant, endeavouring to vindicate her beha- viour towards Nonconformists to a foreign court ; he must be allowed, therefore, to put the most favoura- ble construction on his royal mistress's conduct, and acquit her in the best manner he is able. It also de- serves to be remarked, that Sir Francis, dying April, 1590, did not see the severities of the last thirteen years of Queen Ehzabeth's reign, which were by much the sharpest and most cruel. — NeaVs Review, 4to edition, p. 875.— Ed. Mr. Hallam says that this letter "is a very able apology for the queen's government, and if the read- er should detect, as he doubtless may, sophistry in reasoning and misstatement in fact, he will ascribe both one and the other to the narrow spirit of the age with respect to civil and religious freedom, or to the circumstances of the writer — an advocate whose sovereign was his client!" — Const. Hist., i., 309. — C. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 215 proceedings, both against papists and Puritans, are grounded upon these two principles;* " The one, that consciences are not to be forced, but to be won, and reduced by force of truth, with the aid of time and use of all good means of instruction and persuasion. " The other, that causes of conscience, when they exceed their bounds, and grow to be mat- ter of faction, lose their nature : and that sov- ereign princes ought distinctly to punish their practices and contempt, though coloured with the pretence of conscience and religion. " According to these principles, her majesty behaved towards the papists with great mild- ness, not liking to make a window into their hearts, except the abundance of them overflow- ed into overt acts of disobedience, in impugn- ing her supremacy. When the pope excom- municated her, she only defended herself against his bulls ; but when she was threatened with an invasion, and the papists were altered from being papists in conscience to being papists in faction, she was then obliged to provide severer laws for the security of her people. " For the other party, which have been offen- sive to the state, though in another degree, and which call themselves Reformers, and we commonly call Puritans, this hath been by the proceeding towards them : a great while, when they inveighed against such abuses in the Church as pluralities, non-residents, and the like, their zeal was not condemned, only their Tiolence was sometimes censured. When they refused the use of some ceremonies and rites as superstitious, they were tolerated with much connivance and gentleness ; yea, when they called in question the superiority of bishops, and pretended to a democracy in the Church, their propositions were considered, and by con- trary writings debated and discussed ; yet all this while it was perceived that their course ■was dangerous and very popular ; as because papistry was odious, therefore it was ever in their mouths, that they sought to purge the Church from the relics of papistry, a thing ac- ceptable to the people, who love ever to run from one extreme to another. " Because multitudes of rogues and poverty was an eyesore, and a dislike to every man, therefore they put into people's heads that, if discipline were planted, there would be no vag- abonds, no beggars, a thing very plausible ; and in like manner they promised the people many of the impossible wonders of their disci- pline ; besides, they opened to the people a way to government by their consistories and pres- byteries, a thing though in consequence no less prejudicial to the liberties of private men than to the sovereignty of princes, yet in first show Tery popular ; nevertheless, this, except it were in some few^that entered into extreme contempt, was borne with, because they pretended in du- tiful manner to make propositions, and to leave it to the providence of God and the authority of the magistrate. " But now, of late years, when there issued from them [some] that affirmed the consent of the magistrate was not to be attended ; when, under pretence of a confession to avoid slander and imputations, they combined themselves by * Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 419, classes and subscriptions ; when they descend- ed into that vile and base means of defacing of the Church by ridiculous pasquils; when they began to make many subjects in doubt to take oaths, which is one of the fundamental parts of justice in this land and in all places ; when they began both to vaunt of their strength, and number of their partisans and followers, and to use comminations, that their cause would pre- vail through uproar and violence, then it ap- peared to be no more zeal, no more conscience, but mere faction and division ; and, therefore, though the state were compelled to hold some- what a harder hand to restrain them than be- fore, yet was it with as great moderation as the peace of the State or Church could permit. Thus her majesty has always observed the two rules before mentioned, in dealing tenderly with consciences, and yet in discovering faction from conscience, and softness from singularity." The false colourings of this letter are easily discerned : it admits that the consciences of men ought not to be forced but when they grow into faction ; that is, to an inconsistency with the peace and safety of the civil government ; and was there anything like this in the petitions, addresses, and submissive behaviour of the Pu- ritans 1 but they did not attend the consent of the magistrate. Let the reader judge by the foregoing history whether they did not attend and apply for it several years ; and if, after all, the consent of the magistrate must be waited for before we follow the dictates of our con- sciences, it is easy to see there would have been no reformation in the Protestant world. But the queen's worst maxim was, that while she pretended not to force the consciences of her subjects, she obliged them, under the se- verest penalties, to come to church, and make an outward profession of that way of worship which they inwardly disallowed. This was to establish hypocrisy by a law, and to force men to deal falsely with God and their own con- sciences in matters of the most solemn impor- tance. Practical religion was during all this reign at a very low ebb, the greatest part of the clergy being barely capable of reading prayers and a homily. In the remoter countries and villages, the people were either papists, or no better than heathens. " If any among the clergy or laity were remarkably pious, strict observers of the Sabbath, and declared enemies of profane- ness and popery," says Mr. Osburn, "they were eitlier real Puritans, or branded with that in- vidious name ; and great numbers of the inferi- or clergy and people, in cities and corporations, were of this number ;" the conforming clergy lost ground ; and the order of bishops, by spend- ing their zeal more about the external forms of worship than in painful preaching and encour- aging practical religion, grew into contempt ; popery gained ground in the country by the diligence of the missionaries, and the ignorance and" laziness of the established clergy, while Puritanism prevailed in cities and corporations: so that, as Archbishop Parker observed, the queen was the only friend of the Church, and supported it by a vigorous execution of the pe- nal laws, and by resolving to admit of no mo- tion for Reformation but what should arise from herself 216 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Thus things continued to the queen's death ; her majesty was grown old and infirm, and un- der a visible decay of natural spirits, some say for the loss of the Earl of Essex, whom she had lately beheaded, but others, from a just indigna- tion to see herself neglected by those who were too ready to worship the rising sun. This threw her into a melancholy state, attended with a drowsiness and heaviness in ail her limbs, which was followed with a loss of appetite, and all the marl\s of an approaching dissolution ; upon this she retired to Richmond ; and having caused her inauguration ring, which was grown into the flesh and become painful, to be filed off, she languished till the 24th of March, and then died, in the seventieth year of her age, and forty-fifth of her reign. Queen Elizabeth was a great and successful princess at home, and the support of the Prot- estant interest abroad while it was in its in- fancy ; for without her assistance neither the Huguenots in France nor the Dutch Reformers could have stood their ground ; she assisted the Protestants of Scotland against their popish queen, and the princes of Germany against the emperor, while at the same time she demanded an absolute submission from her own subjects, and would not tolerate that religion at home which she countenanced and supported abroad. As to her own religion, she affected a middle way between popery and Puritanism, though her majesty was more inclined to the former ; disliking the secular pretensions of the court of Rome over foreign states, though she was in love with the pomp and splendour of their wor- ship ; on the other hand, she approved of the doctrines of the foreign Reformed churches, but thought they had stripi)ed religion too much of its ornaments, and made it look with an un- friendly aspect upon the sovereign power of princes. She understood not the rights of con- science in matters of religion, and is, therefore, justly chargeable with persecuting principles. More sanguinary laws were made in her reign than in any of her predecessors' ; her hands were stained with the blood of papists and Pu- ritans ; the former were executed for denying her supremacy, and the latter for sedition or nonconformity. Her greatest admirers blame her for plundering the Church of its revenues, and for keeping several sees vacant many years together for the sake of their profits ; as the bishoprics of Ely, Oxford, and others, which last was without a bishop for twenty-two years. The queen was devout at prayers, yet seldom or never heard sermons except in Lent, and would often say that two or three preachers in a county were sufficient. She had high notions of the sovereign authority of princes, and of her own absolute supremacy in church affairs ; and being of opinion that methods of severity were lawful to bring her subjects to an outward uni- formity, she countenanced all the engines of persecution, such as spiritual courts. High Com- mission, and Star Chamber, and stretclied her prerogative to support them beyond the laws and against the sense of the nation.* However, notwithstanding all these blemishes. Queen Elizabeth stands upon record as a wise and politic princess, for delivering the kingdom from * Fuller's "Worthies, b. ii., p. 213. the difficulties in which it was involved at her accession ; for preserving the Protestant Ref- ormation against the potent attempts of the pope, the emperor, and the King of Spain abroad, and the Queen of Scots and her popish subjects at home, and for advancing the re- nown of the English nation beyond any of her predecessors. Her majesty held the balance of power in Europe, and was in high esteem with, all foreign princes the greatest part of her reign ; and though her Protestant subjects were divi- ded about church affiiirs, they all discovered a high veneration for her royal person and gov- ernment; on which accounts she was the glory of the age in which she lived, and will be tho admiration of posterity. Considering the complexion of that series of events through which Mr. Neal's History con- ducts the reader, he must be allowed to have drawn the character of Queen Elizabeth with great fairness and candour. A later ecclesias- tical historian, a learned writer of our estab- lishment, has described the leading features of her reign and principles in stronger and bolder terms of reprobation. With Mr. Neal, he has allowed her the merit of " being a wise and pol- itic princess, for delivering the kingdom from the difficulties in which it was involved at her accession, for preserving the Protestant Refor- mation against the potent enemies which at- tempted to destroy it, and for advancing the renown of the English nation beyond any of her predecessors ;" yet he taxes her with many flagrant instances of weakness and misrule ia which her ministers had no share, and which they had neither power nor interest enough to prevent. Having enumerated these, to them, he observes, must be added, " the severity with which she treated her Protestant subjects by her High Commission Court, against law, against liberty, and against the rights of human nature. If these are not," says he, " flagrant instances of weakness and misrule to which her ministers never encouraged, but ofttimes dissuaded her as far as they durst, and which were not owing to sudden starts of passion, but to her own ty- rannical disposition, then all arbitrary power may be defended as just and lawful. The pas- sion of Elizabeth was to preserve her crowa and prerogative ; and every measure which she herself directed, or approved when projected by her ministers, was subservient to these two purposes." To this account "we are to place all the measures which she directed, and she alone, against the disturbers of the uniformity which was established. To her alone it was owing at first, and not to her bishops, that no concession or indulgence was granted to tender consciences. She understood her prerogative, which was as dear to her as her crown and life; but she understood nothingof the rights of con- science in matters of religion, and, like the ab- surd king her father, she would have no opinion in religion acknowledged, at least, but her own. She restored the Reformation, it is true, and, I believe, restored it upon principle ; she was likewise at the head of the Protestant religioa abroad, in assisting those who professed it in ' France and the Netherlands, as well as Scotland, and it was her interest to do so ; but where her interest called upon her to neglect the Reformed religion, she did it without scruple, She differ- HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 217 ed from her sister in this, that she would not part with her supremacy upon any terms ; and, as she had much greater abilities for govern- ing, so she applied herself more to promote the strength and glory of her dominion than Mary did ; but she had as much of the bigot and tyrant in her as her sister, though the ob- ject of that bigotry was prerogative, and not religion."* If facts have any meaning and force, those which we have now reviewed abundantly con- firm this representation of the spirit and princi- ples of Queen Elizabeth. Yet a celebrated mod- ern writer! has resolved her conduct to her Pu- ritan subjects into " her good taste, which gave her a sense of order and decorum, and her sound judgment, which taught her to abhor innova- tions." What ! Can the severest acts of op- pression and cruelty, can a series of arbitrary and unfeeling outrages committed against the property, lives, and rights of men, take shelter under the sanction of good taste and a sound judgment] "Nature and religion reclaim." "If," says an accurate and judicious writer, "it be once laid down as a maxim that a sound judgment will teach a monarch to abhor inno- vations, and if his power be but little subject to control, one does not know to what lengths it might proceed, so as to be extended not only in matters ofchurch government, but likewise, per- haps, against those who would introduce ' en- larged,' or, rather, libertine ' sentiments,' about religion. Such persons, I doubt, would soon give up the wisdom and equity of this maxim concerning innovations, if they were in danger of having the concluding section of the 35th of Elizabeth, cap. i., put in execution against them."t Another writer has thrown the blame of the separation from the Church of England, and of the evils of which it was productive, on the Pu- ritans. " It was more owing to the weakness and want of judgment in the Puritans, who could think such things were sinful about which the Scriptures were wholly silent, and who desired a great majority to give way to the humour of a few, than to the superstition and want of tem- per in the queen and the archbishop, who could press such indifferent rites with that severity, before the minds of men had time to be recon- ciled to them."^ To this representation it may be replied. Was it anything unreasonable that the few should desire the majority not to oppress and bind their consciences in matters about which, it was allowed, the Scriptures were si- lent, and, of course, where Christ had left them free 1 Or could it be deemed weakness and ■want of judgment, that they requested only to be permitted to stand fast in this liberty 1 Need a Protestant divine be reminded that to add to the rehgion of Christ is sinful ; and to enforce these additions, and by severe penalties, is to exercise a forbidden jurisdiction in his Church 1 Can it be deemed weakness and want of judg- ment to see this criminality, and to resist this yoke 1 But if to scruple the use of the habits indicated weakness and want of judgment, yet * Warner's Ecclesiastical History of England, vol. ii., p. 474, 475. t Mr. Hume. t Letters on Mr. Hume's History of Great Britain, printed al Edinburgh, 1756, p. 226. () Warner's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 431. Vol. I.— E e a conscientious adherence to the dictates of their own minds, the integrity which would not allow them to adopt habits or ceremonies that they thought or suspected to be sinful, should not be reproached, but applauded. An apostle would on such an occasion have said, that " Whatev- er is not of laith is sin ;" and " Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." Why should the rejection, or even a hesitation about the use of habits, which had no J)ivine authority, but a popish original, and by the mystical signification atfixed to them led to superstition, be resolved into weakness and want of judgment 1 It argued rather a true discernment, a just estimate of things, and a comprehensive view of the tendency and prog- ress of superstition, when once admitted. The weakness, I should conceive, lay on the other side, where these things were held in such high account, and deemed of such essential im- portance, as to be the ground of the severest laws to enforce the use of them. The cruelty of the imposition aside, the very imposition itself was folly. For a mighty prince, a convocation of the clergy, a bench of bishops, and the Legis- lature of the nation, to give all their attention to support the reputation of the wearing of a hood and a surplice ; to employ all the earnestness of their minds, the weight of their character, and the dignity of their rank, about such little things, this is a ridiculous transaction ; it be- trays the thoughts and passions of a child. But when to this impotence of judgment oppression and tyranny are added, our indignation is raised 1 It is an argument of the rationality and good sense of the general principles by which the Puritans professed to be governed, that " these very principles," as a late writer observes, " were the same which rightly influenced the conduct of the Reformers in other instances ; for example, in their removing the altars out of the churches and setting up tables in the place of them.* Namely, that the retaining altars would serve only to nourish in the people's minds the superstitious opinion of a propitiatory mass, and would administer an occasion of of- fence and division." A like argument in rela- tion to the ancient habits was argued by Bishop Hooper so early as the year 1550 ;t and it was thought of weight in 1562 by one half of the House of Convocation. t The conduct of the Puritans, it appears froiu hence, was wisely adapted to the times in which they lived : in which the habits had a tendency and influence that rendered the contest about them far from being such a frivolous affair as many are now disposed to c6nsider it. For then a mystical signification was affixed to them by the Church of Rome, and there was a pre- vailing notion of their necessity and efficacy ia the administration of the clergy. It is also ev- ident that they gave the queen and her cour- tiers a handle to establish and exercise a despot- ic power : they were tire instruments by which the Court of High Commission endeavoured to rivet on the people the chains of tyranny. The opposition of the Puritans, therefore, may be vindicated on the largest principles. It was a bold and vigorous stand against arbitrary pow- * See our author, p. 56, of this volume. t See the same, p. 103. i Letters on Mr. Hume's History, p. 212, 213. 218 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. er, which justly calls for resistance in its first outset and its most trivial demands, if men •would not give it room to place its foot and erect its banner. It is a pertinent and very sen- sible remark of a great author, " that our ances- tors, the old Puritans, had the same merit in opposing the imposition of the surplice that Hampden had in opposing the levying of ship- money. In neither case was the thing itself objected to so much as the authority that en- joined it, and the danger of the precedent. And it appears to us that the man who is as tena- cious of his religious as he is of his civil liber- ty, will oppose them both with equal firmness."* The reign of Queen Elizabeth affords many instances of the connexion between civil and religious liberty, and furnishes striking docu- ments of her disposition and endeavours to vio- late both. In this view the behaviour of the Puritans was eventually attended with the most important effects. Mr. Hume, who treats their principles as frivolous and their conduct as ri- diculous, has bestowed on them, at the same time, the highest eulogium his pen could well dictate. " So absolute," says he, " was the au- thority of the crown, that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled, and was preserved, by the Puritans alone ; and it was to this sect that the English owe the whole freedom of their Con- stitution."! While it is not asserted that all the Puritans acted upon such enlarged views of things ; while it is granted that the " notions" of numbers, probably of the majority, of them concerning " the civil and religious rights of mankind, were dark and confused ;" yet it should be allowed that some of them, for instance, Fox the mar- tyrologist, acted upon liberal principles ; and all of them felt the oppression of the day, so as, by their own experience of its iniquity and evils, to be instigated to oppose them ; though they did not apply the principles, which were thus generated in the mind, to their full extent. The charge brought against the Puritans for satirical pamphlets, libels, and abusive language, was in some instances well founded, but it by no means, justly, lay against the whole party. " The moderate Puritans publicly disowned the libels for which they were accused, yet they were brought before the Star Chamber. The determinations of this court were not according to any statute law of the land, but according to the queen's will and pleasure ; yet they were * Dr. Priestley's View of the Principles and Con- duct of the Protestant Dissenters, page 66. t Hume's History of England, vol. v., p. 189, 8vo, ed. 1763. as binding upon the subject as an act of Parlia- ment, which the whole nation exclaimed against, as a mark of the vilest slavery."* Such oppression, such violent outrages against the security, the conscience, and the lives of men, were sufficient to irritate their minds, and to provoke them to reviling and abusive lan- guage. Much allowance should be madfe for men who were galled and inflamed by severe sufferings. But, independently of this consid- eration, we should judge of the strain and spirit of their writings, not by the more polite man- ners and liberal spirit of the present age, but by the times in which they lived ; when, on aU subjects, a coarse and rough, and even abusive style, was common from authors of learning and rank. Bishop Aylmer, in a sermon at court, speaking of the fair sex, said, " Women are of two sorts : some of them are wiser, better learn- ed, discreeter, and more constant, than a num- ber of men ; but another and a worse sort of them, and the most part, are fond, foolish, wan- ton flibbergibs, tattlers, triflers, wavering, wit- less, without counsel, feeble, careless, rash, proud, dainty, nice, talebearers, eavesdroppers, rumour-raisers, evil-tongued, worse-minded, arid in every wise doltified with the dregs of the dev- il's dunghill."! If a bishop, when preaching before the queen, could clothe his sentiment in such words, on a subject where this age would study peculiar politeness of style, can we won- der that reviling language should proceed, in the warmth of controversy, from those who were suffering under the rod of oppression 1 The other side, who had not the same provo- cations, did not come behind the most abusive of the Puritan writers in this kind of oratory. In a tract ascribed to Archbishop Parker, the Nonconformists are described and condemned as " schismatics, bellie-gods, deceivers, flatter- ers, fools, such as have been unlearnedlie brought up in profane occupations ; puffed up in arro- gancie of themselves, chargeable to vanities of assertions : of whom it is feared that they make posthaste to be Anabaptists and libertines, gone out from us, but belike never of us ; differing not much from Donatists, shrinking and refusing ministers of London ; disturbers, factious, wilful entanglers, and encumberers of the consciences of their herers, glrdirs, nippers, scoffers, biters, snappers at superiors, havingthe spirit of irony, like to Audiani, smelling of Donatistrie, or of Papistrie, Rogatianes, Circumcellians, and Pe- Iagians."t * Warner's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 463. t British Biography, vol. iii., p. 239. i Pierce's Vindication of the Dissenters, p. 62. PREFACE TO VOL. II. OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION. The favourable acceptance of the first volume of this work has encouraged me to publish a second, which carries the history forward to the beginning of the civil war, when the two Houses of Parliament wrested the spiritual sword out of the hands of the king and bishops, and assumed the supremacy to them- selves. There had been a cessation of controversy for some time before the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Puritans being in hopes, upon the accession of a king that had been educated in their own principles, to obtain an easy redress of their grievances; and certainly no prince ever had so much in his power to compromise the differences of the Church as King James I. at the conference of Hampton Court ; but, being an indolent and vainglorious monarch, he be- came a willing captive to the bishops, who flattered his vanity, and put that maxim into his head, " No bishop, no king." The creatures of the court, in lieu of the vast sums of money they received out of the exchequer, gave him the flattering title of an absolute sovereign, and, to supply his extravagances, broke through the Constitution, and laid the foundation of all the calamities of his son's reign ; while himself, sunk into luxury and ease, became the contempt of all the powers of Europe. If King James had any principles of religion be- sides what he called kingcraft or dissimulation, he changed them with the climate, for from a rigid Calvinist he became a favourer of Arminianism in the latter part of his reign ; from a Protestant of the purest kirk upon earth, a doc- trinal papist ; and from a disgusted Puritan, the most implacable enemy of that people, putting all the springs of the prerogative in motion to drive them out of both kingdoms. But, instead of accomplishing his designs, the number of Puritans increased prodigiously in his reign, which was owing to one or other of these causes. First. To the standing firm by the Constitution and laws of their country, which brought over to them all those gentlemen in the House of Commons, and in the several counties of England, who found it necessary, for the pres- ervation of their properties, to oppose the court, and to insist upon being gov- erned according to law ; these were called State Puritans. Secondly. To their steady adherence to the doctrines of Calvin and the Syn- od of Dort, in the points of predestination and grace, against the modern in- terpretations of Arminius and his followers. The court divines fell in with the latter, and were thought not only to deviate from the principles of the first Reformers, but to attempt a coalition with the Church of Rome ; while most of the country clergy, being stiff in their old opinions (though otherwise well enough affected to the discipline and ceremonies of the Church), were, in a manner, shut out from all preferment, and branded with the name of Doctrinal Puritans. Thirdly. To their pious and severe manner of life, which was at this time very extraordinary. If a man kept the Sabbath and frequented sermons ; if he maintained family religion, and would neither swear, nor be drunk, nor comply with the fashionable vices of the times, he was called a Puritan ; this, by de- grees, procured them the compassion of the sober part of the nation, who be- gan to think it very hard that a number of sober, industrious, and conscientious people should be harassed out of the land for scrupling to comply with a few 220 PREFACE. indifferent ceremonies, which had no relation to the favour of God or the prac- tice of virtue. Fourthly. It has been thought by some that their increase was owing to the mild and gentle government of Archbishop Abbot. While Bancroft lived, the Pu- ritans were used with the utmost rigour ; but Abbot, having a greater concern for the doctrines of the Church than for its ceremonies, relaxed the penal laws, and connived at their proselyting the people to Calvinism. Arminianism was at this time both a Church and State faction ; the divines of this persuasion, apprehending their sentiments not very consistent with the received sense of the Thirty-nine Articles, and being afraid of the censures of a parliament or a convocation, took shelter under the prerogative, and went into all the slavish measures of the court to gain the royal favour, and to secure to their friends the chief preferments in the Church. They persuaded his majesty to stifle the predestinarian controversy, both in the pulpit and press, and would no doubt, in a few years, have got the balance of numbers on their side, if, by grasping at too much, they had not precipitated both Church and State into confusion. It was no advantage to those divines that they were linked with the Roman Catholics, for these being sensible they could not be protected by law, cried up the prerogative, and joined the forces with the court divines, to support the dispensing power ; they declared for the unlimited authority of the sovereign on the one hand, and the absolute obedience of the subject on the other ; so that, though there is no real connexion between Arminianism and popery, the two parties were unhappily combined at this time to destroy the Puritans, and to subvert the Constitution and laws of their country. But if Abbot was too remiss, his successor. Laud, was as much too furious, for in the first year of his government he introduced as many changes as a wise and prudent statesman would have attempted in seven 5* he prevailed with, his majesty to set up the English service at Edinburgh, and laid the founda- tion of the Scotch Liturgy ; he obtained the revival of the Book of Sports ; he turned the communion-tables into altars ; he sent out injunctions which broke up the French and Dutch churches; and procured the repeal of the Irish Arti- cles, and those of England to be received in their place. Such was his rigor- ous persecution of the Puritans, that he would neither suffer them to live peace- ably in the land, nor remove quietly out of it! His grace was also the chief mover in all those unbounded acts of power which were subversive of the rights and liberties of the people ; and while he had the reins in his hands, drove so near the precipices of popery and tyranny, that the hearts of the most resolved Protestants turned against him, and almost all England became Puritan. I am sensible that no part of modern history has been examined with so much critical exactness as that part of the reign of King Charles I. which relates to the rise and progress of the civil war ; here the writers on both sides have blown up their passions into a flame, and, instead of history, have given us lit- tle else but panegyric or satire. I have endeavoured to avoid extremes, and have represented things as they appeared to me, with modesty, and without any personal reflections. The character I have given of the religious princi- ples of the Long Parliament was designedly taken out of the Earl of Claren- don's History of the Grand Rebellion, that it might be without exception: and I am of opinion that the want of due acquaintance with the principles of the two houses with regard to Church discipline has misled our best historians, who have represented some of them as zealous prelatists, and others as cun» ning Presbyterians, Independents, sectaries, &c., whereas, in truth, they had these matters very little at heart. The king was hampered with notions of the Divine right of diocesan episcopacy, but the two houses (excepting the bish- ops) were, almost to a man, of the principles of Erastus, who maintained that Christ and his apostles had prescribed no particular form of discipline for his Church in after ages, but had left the keys in the hands of the civil magistrate, who had the sole power of punishing transgressors, and of appointing such par- * Heylin'a Life of Laud, p. 506. PREFACE. 221 ticular forms of Church government from time to time as were most subservi- ent to the peace and welfare of the commonweahh. Indeed, these were the sentiments of our Church-reformers from Archbishop Cranmer down to Ban- croft. And though the Puritans, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, wrote with great eagerness for the Divine right of their Book of Discipline, their posterity in the next reigns were more cool upon that head, declaring their satisfaction, if the present episcopacy might be reduced to a more primitive standard. This was the substance of the ministers' petition in the year 1641, signed with sev- en hundred hands. And even those who were for root and branch were will- ing to submit to a parliamentary reformation, till the Scots revived the notion of Divine right in the assembly of divines. However, it is certain the two houses had no attachment to Presbytery or Independency, but would have compromised matters with the king upon the episcopal scheme as long as his majesty was in the field ; but when victory had declared on their side, they complied in some measure with their Northern friends, who had assisted them in the war, but would never part with the power of the keys out of their own hands. If the reader will keep this in mind, he will easily account for the sev- eral revolutions of Church government in these unsettled times. It is not to be expected that the most disinterested writer of these affairs should escape the censures of different parties ; I thought I had already suf- ficently expressed my intentions in publishing the History of the Puritans j but because it has been insinuated in a late pamphlet that it looked like a plot against the ecclesiastical constitution,* I think it proper to assure the world, once for all, that what I have written is with no ill spirit or design against the peace of the Church or nation ; that I have no private or party views ; no pa- tron; no associates; nor other prospects of reward than the pleasure of set- ting the English Reformation in a true light, and of beating down some of the fences and enclosures of conscience. Nor can there be any inconvenience in remembering the mistakes of our ancestors, when all the parties concerned are gone off the stage, and their families reconciled by intermarriages ; but it may be of some use and benefit to mankind, by enabling them to avoid those rocks on which their forefathers have split. When I am convinced of any mistakes or unfair representations, I shall not be ashamed to retract them before the world ; but facts are stubborn things, and will not bend to the humours and inclinations of artful and angry men : if these have been disguised or misre- ported, let them be set right in a decent manner, without the mean surmises of plots and confederacies ; and whoever does it shall have mine as well as the thanks of the public. I have no controversy with the present Church of England, which has aban- doned, in a great measure, the persecuting principles of former times ; for though I am not unacquainted with the nature and defects of religious estab- lishments, yet neither my principles nor inclinations will allow me to give them the least disturbance, any farther than they impose upon conscience, or intrench upon the rights of civil society. If the Presbyterians or Independents have been guilty of such practices in their turns, I shall freely bear my testimony against them, and think I may do it with a good grace, since I have always de- clared against restraints upon conscience among all parties of Christians ;f but if men will vindicate the justice and equity of oaths ex officio, and of exorbi- tant fines, imprisonment, and banishment for things in their own nature indif- ferent ; if they will call a relation of the illegal severities of council-tables, star chambers, and high commissions a satire against the present establish- ment, they must use their liberty, as I shall mine, in appearing against eccle- siastical oppression, from what quarter soever it comes. I have freely censured the mistakes of the Puritans in Queen Elizabeth's reign ; nor will I be their advocate any longer than they have Scripture, rea- son, and some degree of good manners on their side. If it shall at any time appear that the body of them lived in contempt of all lawful authority, or bid * Expostulatory Letter, p. 29, 30. t Ibid., p. 12. 222 -PREFACE. defiance to the laws of their country, except in such cases wherein their con- sciences told them it was their duty to obey God rather than man ; if they were guilty of rebellion, sedition, or of abandoning the queen and the Protest- ant religion when it was in danger, let them bear their own reproach ; but as yet I must be of opinion that they were the best friends of the Constitution and liberties of their country; that they were neither unquiet nor restless, un- less against tyranny in the state and oppression upon the conscience ; that they made use of no other weapons, during a course of fourscore years, but prayers to God and petitions to the Legislature for redress of their grievan- ces, it being an article of their belief that absolute submission was due to the supreme magistrate in all things lawful, as will sufficiently appear by their prot- estations in the beginning of the reign of King James I. I have admitted that the Puritans might be too stiff and rigid in their behaviour ; that they were unacquainted with the rights of conscience ; and that their language to their superiors, the bishops, was not always decent and mannerly : oppression maketh wise men mad. But surely the depriving, imprisoning, and putting men to death for these things will not be vindicated in our times. In the preface to the first volume of this history, I mentioned with pleasure the growing sentiments of religious liberty in the Church of England, but com- plained of the burden of subscriptions upon the clergy, and of the corporation and test acts as prejudicial to the cause of religion and virtue among the laity ; for which reasons the Protestant Dissenters throughout England intended to petition for a repeal or amendment of these acts the ensuing session of Par- liament, if they had met with any encouragement from their superiors, or had the least prospect of success. The sacramental test is, no doubt, a distinguish- ing mark of reproach which they have not deserved ; and, I humbly conceive, no very great security to the Church of England, unless it can be supposed that one single act of occasional conformity can take oflf the edge of all their ima- gined aversion to the hierarchy, who worship all the rest of the year among Nonconformists. Nor can the repeal of these acts be of any considerable ad- vantage to the body of Dissenters, because not one in five hundred can expect to reap any private benefit by it to himself or family ; their zeal, therefore, in this cause must arise principally from a regard to the liberties of their coun- try, and a desire of rescuing one of the most sacred rights of Christianity from the profanation to which it is exposed. But it seems this will not be believed till the Dissenters propose some other pledge and security by which the end and intent of the sacramental test may be equally attained; for (says a, late writer*) the Legislature never intended them any share of trust or power in the government ; and he hopes never will, till they see better reasons for it than hath hitherto appeared. Must the Dis- senters, then, furnish the Church with a law to exclude themselves from serving their king and country 1 Let the disagreeable work be undertaken by men that are better skilled in such unequal severities. I will not examine into the intent of the Legislature in this place ; but if Protestant Nonconformists are to have no share of trust or power in the government, why are they chosen into such offices, and subject to fines and penalties for declining them 1 Is it for not serving 1 — this, it seems, is what the Legislature never intended. Is it, then, for not qualifying 1 — surely this is a penalty upon conscience. I would ask the warmest advocate for the sacramental test whether the appointing Protest- ant Dissenters for sheriffs of counties, and obliging them to qualify against their consciences under the penalties of a premunire, without the liberty of serving by a deputy or of commuting by a fine, is consistent with so full a toleration and exemption from penal laws as this writerf says they enjoy 1 It is true, a good government may take no advantage of this power, but in a bad one men must qualify, or their liberties and estates lie at the king's mercy; it seems, therefore, but reasonable (whatever the intent of the Legislature may be), that Protestant Dissenters should be admitted to serve their country with * History of the Test, p. 16, 23, 25. + History of the Test, p. 25. PREFACE. , 223 a good conscience in offices of trust as well as of burden, or be exempted from all pains and penalties for not doing it.* it is now pretty generally agreed, that receiving the holy sacrament merely as a qualification for a place of civil profit or trust is contrary to the ends of its institution, and a snare to the consciences of menjf for though the law is open, and "they who obtain offices in the state know beforehand the conditions of keeping them," yet when the bread of a numerous family depends upon a qualification which a man cannot be satisfie.d to comply with, it is certainly a snare J and though I agree with our author, that "if the minds of such per- sons are wicked, the law does not make them so," yet I am afraid it hardens them, and makes them a great deal worse. How many thousand come to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper with reluctance! and, perhaps, eat and drink judgment to themselves, the guilt of which must be chargeable either upon the imposers or receivers, or upon both. Methinks, therefore, charity to the souls of men, as well as a concern for the purity of our holy religion, should engage all serious Christians to endeavour the removal of this grievance ; and since we are told that the appearing of the Dissenters at this time is unseason- able, and will be ineffectual, I would humbly move our right reverend fathers the bishops not to think it below their high stations and dignities to consider of some expedient to roll away this reproach from the Church and nation, and agree upon some security for the former (if needful) of a civil nature, that may leave room (as King William expresses it in his speech to his first Parliament) for the admission of all Protestants that are able and willing to serve the'ir country. The honour of Christ and the cause of public virtue seem to require it; and forasmuch as the influence of these acts affects great numbers of the laity in a very tender part, I should think it no dishonour for the several cor- porations in England, as well as for the officers of the army, navy, customs, and excise, who are more peculiarly concerned, to join their interests in peti- tioning the Legislature for such relief. And I flatter myself that the wise and temperate behaviour of the Protestant Dissenters in their late general assembly in London, with the dutiful regard that they have always shown to the peace and welfare of his majesty's person, family, and government, will not fail to recommend them to the royal protection and favour ; and that his most excellent majesty, in imitation of his glorious predecessor. King William IIL, will, in a proper time, recommend it to his Parliament to strengthen his administration, by taking off" those restraints which at present disable his Protestant Dissenting subjects from showing their zeal in the service of their king and country. Daniel Neal. London, March C, 1732-3. * It should be mentioned to the honour of Bishop Warburton, who was an advocate for a test, though not a sacramental test, that to this proposal, that " Dissenters should be exempted from all pains and pen- alties for not serving their country in offices of trust," he gave liis hearty assent by adding in the margin, most certainly ! — En. + History of the Test, p. 22. ADVERTISEMENT TO VOL. II. OF DR. TOULMIN'S EDITION. The editor, in revising the first volume of Mr. Neal's " History of the Puri tans," was greatly assisted by the author's " Review of the principal facts ob- jected to in that volume." In the volume which is now presented to the pub- lic, such aid fails him, as it will also in the succeeding ones, since Dr. Grey's " Examination" did not make its appearance till the declining state of Mr. Neal's health prevented his farther vindication of his work. The justice due to Mr. Neal's memory and to truth required the editor to attempt what could have been done by the author himself with much greater advantage than at this distance of time from the first statement of the facts, by one who cannot come at all the authorities on which Mr. Neal spake. He has endeavoured, however, to acquit himself with care and impartiality in the examination of Dr. Grey's animadversions, and is not aware that he has passed over any material strictures, extended through a volume of four hundred pages. Though Dr. Grey's* " Examination" may be now little known or sought af- ter, it received, at its first publication, the thanks of many divines of the first eminence, particularly of Dr. Gibson, then Bishop of London, and of Dr. Sher- lock, then Bishop of Salisbury. The latter prelate, writing to the doctor, said, *' It is happy that Mr. Neal's account appeared when there was one so well versed in the history, and so able to correct the errors and prejudices. The service you have done must be considered as a very important one by all the friends of the constitution of the Church of England."! From the notes in the following pages, the reader will be able to form a judgment whether the encomium bestowed on Dr. Grey's work proceeded from a careful investigation of his remarks, and a comparison of them with Mr. Neal's History and vouchers, or from bias to a cause. In the editor's appre- hensions, the value of Mr. Neal's history and its authorities is, so far as he has proceeded, heightened by the comparison. In his advertisement to the first volume, he made a great mistake in ascri- bing the quarto edition of " The History of the Puritans" to the author himself, who died about twelve years before its appearance. It was given to the public by his worthy son, Mr. Nathaniel Neal, of the Million Bank, and is generally esteemed very correct. There has been pointed out to the editor a slight error of Mr. Neal, vol. i., p. 183, who says that Bishop Jewel was educated in Christ's College, Oxford, whereas, according to Fuller and Wood, he was of Corpus Christi. The editor has been asked, J on what authority, in the biographical account of Mr. Tomkins, subjoined to p. 17 of the "Memoirs of Mr. Neal," he charged Mr. Asty,§ on making an exchange with Mr. Tomkins, one Lord's day, with " alarming the people with the danger of pernicious errors and damnable her- esies creeping in among the Dissenters, and particularly referring to errors concerning the doctrine of Christ's divinity." On examining the matter, he finds that he has used the very words, as well as written on the authority, of Mr. Tomkins, who spoke on the information he * Dr. Zachary Grey was of a Yorkshire family, originally from France; he was rector of Houghton Conquest, in Bedfordshire, and vicar of St. Peter's and St. Giles's parishes in Cambridge, where he usually passed all his winter, and the rest of his time at Ampthill, the neighbouring market-town to his living. He died November 25, 1766, at Ampthill, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, and was buried at Houghton Conquest. He was of a most amiable, sweet, and communicative disposition, most friendly to his acquaint- ance, and never better pleased than when performing acts of friendship and benevolence. His publica- tions were numerous. — A?iecdotes of Bowyer, p. 354. t See Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. .356, note. t By the Rev. Thomas Towle, a dissenting minister of eminence among the Independents, in an inter- view, at which the editor was very politely received, and which took place at Mr. Towle's desire, in con- sequence of a letter written to him by a friend on the subject of the above charge. ^ Mr. Asty was grandson of Mr. Robert Asty, who was ejected from Stratford, in Suffolk. He had good natural parts, and by spiritual gifts, and considerable attainments in literature, was richly furnished for his ministerial province. He was perceived to have drunk very much into the sentiments and spirit of Dr. Owen, who was his favourite author. The amiable traits of his character were a sweetness of temper, an ailectionate sympathy in the afflictions and prosperity of others, a familiarity and condescension of de- portment, and a disposition to cast a mantle over the failings of others, and to ask pardon for his own. He died Jan. 20, 1729-30, aged 57.— Dr. Guyse's funeral sermon for him. Vol. I.— F f 226 ADVERTISEMENT. had received concerning the tenour and strain of Mr. Asty's sermon ; and adds, that Mr. Asty himself afterward acknowledged to him, " that tlie information in o-eneral was true, viz., that he spake of damnable heresies, and applied those texts, 2 Pet., ii., 1 ; Jude, verse 4, or, at least, one, to the new doctrines about the deity of Christ, that were now, as he apprehended, secretly spreading." Mr. Tomkins was also told that Mr. Asty was very warm upon these points j but he subjoins, "I must do Mr. Asty this justice, to acquaint others that he had no particular view to me, or suspicion of me, when he brought down this sermon, among others, to Newington. As he had an apprehension of the dan- ger of those errors, and of the spreading of them at that time, he thought it mitr-ht be seasonable to preach such a sermon anywhere." When another gen- tleman, however, put the matter more closely to him, he could not deny that he had some intimation of a suspicion of Mr. Tomkins. But from the assurance Mr. Asty gave Mr. Tomkins, candour will be ready to conclude that he did not jjreatly credit the intimation. Mr. Towle, who was a successor to Mr. Asty in the pastoral office, could scarcely suppose that he could be guilty of a conduct so remote from the amiable and pacific character he always bore, and from the delineation of it in the funeral sermon for him by Dr. Guyse, who, I find, says of him, "I have with pleasure observed a remarkable tenderness in his spirit, as judging the state of those that differed from him, even in points which he took to be of very great importance." It will be right to add Mr. Tomkins's declaration with respect to Mr. Asty's views : " I never had a thought that he preached his sermon out of any partic- ular personal prejudice against me, but really believed that he did it from a zeal for what he apprehended to be truth necessary to salvation. Though I am persuaded, in my own mind, that this zeal of his in this matter is a mista- ken zeal, I do nevertheless respect him as a Christian and a minister." In the memoirs of Mr. Neal, we mentioned his letter to the Rev. Dr. Francis Hare, dean of Worcester. The editor has lately met with this piece ; it does the author credit, for it is written with ability and temper. He is inclined to give a passage from it, as a specimen of the force of argument it shows, and as going to the foundation of our ecclesiastical establishment. The dean contended for submission to the authority of the rightful govern- ors of the Church, whom he defined to be " an ecclesiastical consistory, of presbyters, with their bishop at their head." Mr. Neal, to show that this defini- tion does not apply to the Church of England, replies : •' Now, taking all this for granted, what an argument have you put into the mouths of the Dissenters to justify their separation from the present establishment !" "For is there anything like this to be found there "? Is the Church of Eng- land governed by a bishop and his presbyters 1 Is not the king the fountain of all ecclesiastical authority 1 And has he not power to make ordinances which shall bind the clergy without their consent, under the penalty of a pre- munire'? Does not his majesty nominate the bishops, summon convocations, and prorogue them at pleasure 1 When the convocations of Canterbury and York are assembled, can they debate upon any subject without the king's li- cense, or make any canons that can bind the people without an act of Parlia- ment 1 The bishops, in their several courts, can determine nothing in a judicial manner about the faith, there lying an appeal from them to the king, who de- cides it by his commissioners in the Court of Delegates. " Now, though this may be a wise and prudent institution, yet it can lay no claim to antiquity, because the civil magistrate was not Christian for three hundred years after our Saviour; and, consequently, the Dissenters, who are for reducing religion to the standard of the Bible, can be under no obligation.^ to conform to it. We have a divine precept to oblige us to do whatsoever Christ and his apostles have commanded us, but I find no passage of Scripture that obliges us to be of the religion of the state we happen to be born in. If there be any such obligation on the English Dissenters, it must arise only from the laws of their country, which can have no influence upon them at present^ those laws having been long since suspended by the Act of Indulgence." PART II. CHAPTER I. FKOM THE DEMISE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP BANCROFT. The royal house of the Stuarts has not been more calamitous to the English Church and na- tion in the male descendants, than successful and glorious in the female. The four kings of this line, while in power, were declared ene- mies of our civil constitution ; tliey governed without law, levied taxes by the prerogative, and endeavoured to put an end to the very being of Parliaments. With regard to religion, the first two were neither sound Protestants nor good Catholics, but were for reconciling the two religions, and meeting the papists half way ; but the last two went over entirely to the Church of Rome, and died professedly in her communion. The female branches of this family being mar- ried among foreign Protestants, were of a dif- ferent stamp, being more inclined to Puritanism than popery; one of them [Mary, eldest daugh- ter of King Charles I.] was mother of the great King William III, the glorious deliverer of these kingdoms from popery and slavery ; and another [Elizabeth, daughter of King James I.] was grandmother of his late majesty King Gfeorge I., in whom the Protestant succession took place, and whose numerous descendants in the person and offspring of his present majesty, are the de- fence and glory of the whole Protestant interest in Europe. King James was thirty-six years of age when he came to the English throne, having reigned in Scotland from his infancy. In the year 1589 he married the Princess Anne, sister to the King of Denmark, by whom he had three children liv- ing at this time : Henry, prince of Wales, who died before he was nineteen years of age [1612]; Elizabeth, married to the elector palatine, 1613 • and Charles, who succeeded his father in his kingdoms. His majesty's behaviour in Scotland raised the expectations and hopes of all parties ; the Puritans relied upon his majesty's educa- tion, upon his subscribing the solemn league and covenant, and upon various solemn repeat- ed declarations ; in particular, one made in the General Assembly at Edinburgh, 1590: when standing with his bonnet off, and his hands hfted up to heaven, " he praised God that he was born in the time of the light of the Gospel, and in ■such a place as to be king of such a church, the sincerest [purest] kirk in the world. The Church of Geneva," says he, " keep Pasche and Yule [Easter and Christmas], what have they for them 1 They have no institution. As for our .^eighbour Kirk of England, their service is an evil-said mass in English; they want nothing of the mass but the liftings. I charge you, my good ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentle- men, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to exhort the people to do the same ; and I, for- sooth, as long as I brook my life, shall maintain the same."* In his speech to the Parliament, 1598, he tells them " that he minded not to bring in papistical or Anglicane bishops."! Nay, upon his leaving Scotland to take possession of the crown of England, he gave public thanks to God m the kirk of Edinburgh, "that he had left both kirk and kingdom in that state which he in- tended not to alter any ways, his subjects living in peace."! But all this was kingcraft, or else his majesty changed his principles with the cli- mate. The Scots ministers did not approach him with the distant submission and reverence of the English bishops, and therefore within nine months after he ascended the throne of England he renounced presbytery, and established it for a maxim, No bishop, no king. So soon did this pious monarch renounce his principles (if he had any), and break through the most solemn vows and obligations ! When the Long Parlia- ment addressed King Charles I. to set up pres- bytery in the room of episcopacy, his majesty objected his coronation oath, in which he had sworn to maintain the clergy in their rights and privileges ; but King James had no such scru- ples of conscience ; for without so much as ask- ing the consent of Parliament, General Assem- bly, or people, he entered upon the most effect- ual measures to subvert the kirk discipline which he had sworn to maintain with hands hfted up to Heaven, at his coronation, and had afterward solemnly subscribed, with his queen and family, in the years 1581 and 1590.(J * Calderwood's Hist, of the Church of Scotland, p. 256. t Ibid., p, 418. James, when settled on the Eng- hsh throne, talked a different language. Dr. Grey quotes different passages to this purport, with a view to invalidate Mr. Neal's authority. The fact is not that Calderwood falsified, and Mr. N. through preju- dice adopted, his representations, but that James was a dissembler, and, when he wrote what Dr. Grey produces from his work, had thrown off the mask he wore in Scotland.— See Harris's Life of James I., p. 25-29.— Ed. t Ibid., p. 473. ^ Bishop Warburton censures Mr. Neal for not giving here the provocation which the king had re- ceived from what he styles " the villanous and ty- rannical usage of the Kirk of Scotland to him." On this censure it may be observed, that had Mr. Neal gone into the detail of the treatment the king had met with from the Scots clergy, besides the long di- gression into which it would have led him, it would not have eventually saved the reputation of the kino- • for Mr. Neal must have related the causes of that behaviour. It arose from their jealousy, and their fears of his disposition to crush them and their reli- gion ; founded on facts delivered to them by tjie Eng- lish ministry, and from his favouring and emplojang known papists. The violation of his solemn reitera- ted declarations, when he became King of England. 228 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. The papists put the king in remembrance that he was born of Roman Catholic parents, and had been baptized according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of Rome ; that his mother, of whom he usually spoke with rever- ence, was a martyr for that church ; and that he himself, upon sundry occasions, had expressed no dislike to her doctrines, though he disallowed of the usurpations of the court of Rome over foreign princes ; that he had called the Church of Rome his mother-church ; and, therefore, they presumed to welcome his majesty into England with a petition for an open toleration.* But the bishops of the Church of England made the earliest apphcation for his majesty's protection and favour. As soon as the queen was dead. Archbishop Whitgift sent Dr. Nevil, dean of Canterbury, express into Scotland, in the name of all the bishops and clergy of Eng- land, to give his majesty assurance of their un- feigned duty and loyalty ; to know what com- mands he had for them with respect to the ecclesiastical courts, and to recommend the Church of England to his countenance and fa- vour, t The king replied that he would uphold the government of the Church as the queen left it ; which comforted the timorous archbishop, who had sometimes spoke with great uneasi- ness of the Scotch mist. Upon his majesty's arrival all parties address- ed him, and among others the Dutch and French churches, and the English Puritans ; to the for- mer his majesty gave this answer : " I need not use many words to declare my good-will to you, who have taken sanctuary here for the sake of religion ; I am sensible you have enriched this kingdom with several arts and manufactures ; and I swear to you, that if any one shall give you disturbance in your churches, upon your application to me, I will revenge your cause ; and though you are none of my proper subjects, I will maintain and cherish you as much as any prince in the world." But the latter, whatever they had reason to expect, met with very differ- ent usage. Notwithstanding all the precautions that were taken to secure the elections of members for the next Parliament, the archbishop wished he might not live to see it, for fear of some altera- tion in the Church ; for the Puritans were pre- paring petitions, and printing pamphlets in their own vindication, though by the archbishop's vigilance, says Mr. Strype,t not a petition or a showed how just were those suspicions, and proved him to have been a dissembler. To these remarks it may be added, What provocation constrained him to give the public thanks and promise, with which he left Scotland ?— See Dr. Harris's Life of James I., p. 25-31, and Burnet's History of his Own Times, vol. i., p. 5, Edinburgh edition in 12mo. — Ed. * That the expectations of the papists were not disappointed, though Dr. Grey controverts Mr. Neal's representation, there is ample proof given by Dr. Harris in his Life of James I., p. 219, 22G. " It is certain," says Dr. Warner, " that he had on several occasions given great room to suspect that he was far from being an enemy to the Roman Catholics. Amid all their hopes," he adds, " each side had their fears ; while James himself had, properly speaking, no other religion than what flowed from a principle which he called kingcraft." — Warner's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 476, 477. — Ed. t Life of Whitgift, p. 559.. j Strype's Ann , vol. ult., p. 187. pamphlet escaped without a speedy and effectu- al answer. While the king was in his progress to Lon- don [April, 1003] the Puritans presented their millenary petition, so called, because it was said to be subscribed by a thousand hands, though there were not more than eight hundred out of twenty-five counties.* It is entitled " The humble Petition of the Ministers of the Church of England, desiring Reformation of certain Ceremonies and Abuses of the Church." The preamble sets forth, " that neither as factious men affecting a popular parity in the Church, nor as schismatics aiming at the dissolution of the state ecclesiastical, but as the faithful min- isters of Christ, and loyal subjects to his maj- esty, they humbly desire the redress of some abuses." And though divers of them had for- merly subscribed to the service-book, some upon protestation, some upon an exposition given, and some with condition, yet now they, to the number of more than a thousand ministers, groaned under the burden of human rites and ceremonies, and with one consent threw them- selves down at his royal feet for relief in the following particulars : 1. In the Church service. "That the cross in baptism, the interrogatories to infants, bap- tism by women, and confirmation, may be ta- ken away ; that the cap and surplice may not be urged ; that examination may go before the communion ; that the ring in marriage may be dispensed with ; that the service may be abridg- ed ; church songs and music moderated to bet- ter edification ; that the Lord's Day may not be profaned, nor the observation of other holydays strictly enjoined; that ministers may not be charged to teach their people to bow at the name of Jesus ; and that none but canonical Scrip- tures be read in the Church." 2. Concerning ministers. "That none may be admitted but able men ; that they be obliged to preach on the Lord's Day ; that such as are not capable of preaching may be removed or obliged to maintain preachers ; that nonresi- dency be not permitted ; that King Edward's statute for the lawfulness of the marriage of the clergy be revived ; and that ministers be not obliged to subscribe, but according to law, to the articles of religion, and the king's suprema- cy only." 3. For Church livings. " That bishops leave their commendams ; that impropriations annex- ed to bishoprics and colleges be given to preach- ing incumbents only; and that lay-impropria- tions be charged with a sixth or seventh part for the maintenance of a preacher." 4. For Church discipline. " That excommu- nication and censures be not in the name of lay- chancellors, &c. ; that men be not excommuni- cated for twelvepenny matters, nor without consent of their pastors ; that regi.strais' places, and others having jurisdiction, do not put them out to farm; that sundry popish canons be re- vised ; that the oath ex officio be more sparingly used ; and licenses for marriages without bans be more sparingly granted." " These things," say they, " we are able to show not to be agreeable to the Word of God, if it shall please your majesty to hear us, or by * Clark's Life of Hildersham, p. 116, annexed to the General Martyrology. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 229 writing to be informed, or by. conference among the learned to be resolved." ' The king met with sundry other petitions of the like nature from most of the counties he passed through ; but the heads of the two uni- versities having taken offence at the millenary petition, for demising away the impropriations annexed to bishoprics and colleges, which, says Fuller, would cut off more than the nipples of the breasts of both universities in point of main- tenance,* expressed their resentment different ways : those of Cambridge passed a grace, June 9th, 1603, "That whosoever in the University should openly oppose by word or writing, or any other way, the doctrine or discipline of the Church of England established by law, or any part thereof, should be suspended ipso facto from any degree already taken, and be disabled from taking any degree for the future." About the same time the University of Oxford pub- lished an answer to the ministers' petition, en- titled " An Answer of the Vice-chancellor, Doc- tors, Proctors, and other Heads of Houses in the University of Oxford, to the Petition of the Min- isters of the Church of England, desiring Ref- ormation ; dedicated to the King, with a Pref- ace to the Archbishop, the Chancellors of both Universities, and the two Secretaries of State. "t The answer shows the high spirit of the Univer- sity ; it reproaches the ministers in very severe language for subscribing and then complaining ; it reflects upon them as factious men, for affect- ing a parity in the Church, and then falls se- verely on the Scots Reformation, which his majesty had so publicly commended before he left that knigdom. It throws an odium upon the petitioners, as being for a limited monarchy, and for subjecting the titles of kings to the ap- probation of the people. It then goes on to vindicate all the grievances complained of, and concludes with beseeching his majesty not to suffer the peace of the state to be disturbed by allowing these men to disturb its polity. "Look upon the Reformed churches abroad," say they : " wheresoever the desire of the petitioners takes place, how ill it suits with the state of mon- archy ; does it become the supereminent au- thority and regal person of a king to subject his sovereign power to the overswaying and all- commanding power of a presbytery ; that his meek and humble clergy should have power to bind their king in chains, and their prince in links of iron 1 that is, to censure him, and, if they see cause, to proceed against him as a ty- rant. That the supreme magistrate should only be a maintainor of their proceedings, but not a commander in them ; these are but petty abridg- ments of the prerogative royal, while the king submits his sceptre to the sceptre of Christ, and licks the dust of the Church's feet." They then commend the present Church government as the great support of the crown, and calculated to promote unlimited subjection, and aver, " that I there are at this day more learned rhen in this land, in this one kingdom, than are to be found among all the ministers of religion in France, Flanders, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Geneva, Scotland, or (to speak in a word) all Europe be- sides. "J Such a vainglorious piece of self-ap- * Fuller's Church History, b. x., p. 23. t Life of Whitgift, p. 567. t Strype's Ann., vol. iv., p. 137. plause is hardly to be met with. They must have a mean opinion of the king's acquaintance with the learned world, to use him in this man- ner, at a time when, though there were some very considerable divines among ourselves, there were as many learned men in the foreign universities as had been known since the Ref- ormation ; witness the Bezas, Scaligers, Ca- saubons, &c., whose works have transmitted their great names down to posterity. And that the divines of Cambridge might not come behind their brethren of Oxford, the heads of that university wrote a letter of thanks to the Oxonians for their answer to the petition, in which " they applaud and commend their weigh- ty arguments, and threaten to battle the Puri- tans with numbers ; for if Saul has his thou- sands (say they), David has his ten thousands. They acquaint them with their decree of June 9, and bid the poor pitiful Puritans [Iwmunciones miserrimi] answer their almost a thousand books in defence of the hierarchy before they pre- tend to dispute before so learned and wise a king."* A mean and pitiful triumph over hon- est and virtuous men, who aimed at nothing more than to bring the discipline of the Church a little nearer the standard of Scripture ! But that his majesty might part with his old friends with some decency, and seem to answer the request of the petitioners, he agreed to have a conference with the two parties at Hampton Court.t for which purpose he published a proc- lamation from Wilton, October 24th, 1603, touching a meeting for the hearing and for the determining things pretended to be amiss in the Church. In which he declares " that he was already persuaded that the constitution of the Church of England was agreeable to God's Word, and near to the condition of the primi- tive Church ; yet because he had received in- formation that some things in it were scanda- lous, and gave offence, he had appointed a meet- ing, to be had before himself and council, of di- vers bishops and other learned men, at which consultation he hoped to be better informed of the state of the Church, and whether there were any such enormities in it ; in the mean time, he commanded all his subjects not to pub- lish anything against the state ecclesiastical, or to gather subscriptions, or make supplications, being resolved to make it appear by their chas- tisement how far such a manner of proceeding was displeasing to him, for he was determined to preserve the ecclesiastical state in such form as he found it established by the law, only to reform such abuses as he should find apparently proved. "t The archbishop and his brethren had been in- defatigable in possessing the king with the ex- cellence of the English hierarchy, as coming near the practice ol the primitive Church, and best suited to a monarchical government ; they represented the Puritans as turbulent and fac- tious, inconsiderable in number, and aiming .at * Dr. Warner, with reason and judgment, supposes that what determined James, more than anything- else, to appoint the Hampton Court Conference, of wliich he would be the moderator, was, that he might give his new subjects a taste of his talents for disputation, of which he was extremely fond and conceited. — Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p. 478. — Ed. t Life of Whitgift, b. iv., c. xxxi., p. 5G8. X Ibid., p. 370. 230 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. confusion both in Churcli and State ; and yet, after all, the old archbishop was doubtful of the event, for in one of his letters to Cecil, after- ward Earl of Shrewsbury, he writes, "Though our humorous and contentious brethren have made many petitions and motions correspond- ent to their natures, yet to my comfort they have not much prevailed. Your lordship, I am sure, does imagine that I have not all this while b»'en idle, nor greatly quiet in mind, for who can promise himself rest among so many vi- pers !"* The place of conference was the drawing- room within the privy-chamber at Hampton Court ; the disputants on both sides were nom- inated by the king. For the Church there were nine bir.hops, and about as many dignitaries, viz., Dr. Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury ; Dr. Bancroft, bishop of London ; Dr. Mathew, bishop of Durham ; Bilson, bishop of Winchester ; Bab- ington, bishop of Worcester ; Rudd, bishop of St. David's; Watson, bishop of Chichester; Rob- inson, bishop of Carlisle ; and Dove, bishop of Peterborough. Dr. Andrews, dean of the chapel ; Overal, dean of St. Paul's ; Barlow, dean of Chester; Bridges, dean of Salisbury; Field, dean of Gloucester ; and King, archdeacon of Notting- ham ; besides the deans of Worcester and Wind- sor. For the Puritans were only four ministers : Dr. John Raynolds, Dr. Thomas Sparks, pro- fessors of divinity in Oxford ; Mr. Chadderton and Mr. •Knewstubs, of Cambridge. The di- vines of the Church appeared in the habits of their respective distinctions ; but those for the Puritans in fur gowns, like the Turkey mer- chants, or the professors in foreign universities. When the king conferred with the bishops, he behaved with softness, and a great regard to their character ; but when the Puritan ministers stood before him, instead of being moderator, he took upon him the place of respondent, and bore them down with his majestic frowns and threat- enings, in the midst of a numerous crowd of courtiers, all the lords of the privy-council be- ing prenset ; while the bishops stood by, and were little more than spectators of the triumph. Tne account of this conference was published at large only by Dr. Barlow, who, being a party, says Fuller,t set a sharp edge on his own, and a blunt one on his adversaries' weapons. Dr. Sparks and Raynolds complained that they were wronged by that relation, i and Dr. Jackson de- clared that Barlow himself repented, upon his deathbed, of the injury he had done the Puritan ministers in his relation of the Hampton Court Conference. iji Mr. Strype has lately published a * Life of Whitgift, Append., b. iv., no. 43. t Ch. Hist., b. X., p. 21. t Pierce, p. 153, 154. (j " The Puritans," Dr. Harris observes, " needed not to have complained so much as they have done of Barlow. If he has not represented their arguments in as just a light, nor related what was done by the ministers as advantageously as truth required, he has abundantly made it up to them by showing that the bishops, their adversaries, were gross flatterers, and had no regard to their sacred characters ; and that their mortal foe James had but a low understanding, and was undeserving of the rank he assumed in the republic of learning. This he has done effectually, and, therefore, whatever was his intention, the Puri- tans should have applauded his performance, and ap- pealed to it for proof of the insufficiency of him who letter of the Bishop of Durham toHutton, arch- bishop of York, which agrees pretty much with Barlow ;* but Mr. Patrick Galloway, a Scotsman, has set things" in a different light ; from all these, and from the king's own letter to Mr. Blake, a Scotsman, we must form the best judg- ment of it that we can. The conference continued three days, viz., January the 14th, 16th, and 18th ; the first was with the bishops and deans alone, January 14th. the Puritan ministers not being present, when the king made a speech in commendation of the hierarchy of the Church of England, and congrat- ulated himself that "he was now come into the promised land ; that he sat among grave and reverend men, and was not a king, as formerly, without state, nor in a place where beardless boys would brave him to his face. He assured them he had not called this assembly for any in- novation, for he acknowledged the government ecclesiastical, as now it is, to have been appro- ved by manifold blessings from God himself ; but because he had received some complaints of disorders, he was willing to remove them i) scandalous, and to take notice of them if but trifling ; that the reason of his consulting them by themselves was to receive satisfaction from them, (1.) About some things in the Common Prayer Book ; (2.) Concerning excommunica- tion in the ecclesiastical courts ; (3.) About pro- viding some well-qualified ministers for Ireland ; that if anything should be found meet to be re- dressed, it might be done without their being confronted by their opponents. "t In the Common Prayer Book his majesty had some scruples about the confirmation of chil- dren, as it imported a confirmation of baptism. But the archbishop on his knees replied, that the Church did not hold baptism imperfect without confirmation. Bancroft said it was of apostoli- cal institution, Heb., iv., 2, where it is called "the doctrine of the laying on of hands." But to satisfy the king, it was agreed that the words examination of children should be added to con- firmation. His majesty excepted to the absolution of the Church, as too nearly resembling the pope's par- don. But the archbishop is said to clear it up to the king's satisfaction ; only to the rubric of the general absolution these words were to be added, for explanation's sake, remission of sins. He farther objected to private baptism, and baptism by women. It had been customary till this time for bishops to license midwives to their office, and to allow their right to baptize in cases of necessity, under the following oath : "I, Eleanor , admitted to the office and occupation of a midwife, will faithfully and dili- gently exercise the said office, according to such cunning and knowledge as God has given me, and that I wUl be ready to help and aid as well poor as rich women, being in labour and travail with chdd, and will always be ready to execute my said onice. Also, I will not permit or suffer that any woman, being in labour or travail, shall name any other to be the father of the child than only he who is the right and true father thereof; and that I will not suffer any other set himself up as a decider of their controversies.'' — Harris's Life of James I., p. 87. — Ed. * Life of Whitgift, Append., b. iv., no. 45. t Fuller, b. x., p. 8, HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 231 body's child to be set, brought, or laid before any woman delivered of child, in the place of her natural child, so far forth as I can know or understand. Also, I will not use any kind of sorcery or incantation in the time of travail of any woman ; and I will not destroy the child born of any woman, nor cut nor pull off the head thereof, or otherwise dismember or hurt the same, or suffer it to be so hurt, &c. Also, that in the ministration of the sacrament of baptism, in the time of necessity, I will use the accus- tomed words of the same sacrament ; that is to say, these words following, or to the like effect, ' I christen thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,' and none other pro- fane words. And that, in baptizing any infant born, and pouring water on the head of the said infant, I will use pure and clean water, and not any rose or damask water, or water made of any confection or mixture. And that I will cer- tify the curate of the parish church of every such baptizing."* Notwithstanding this oath, Whitgift assured the king that baptism by women and lay per- sons was not allowed by the Church. Others said it was a reasonable practice, the minister not being of the essence of the sacrament. But the king not being satisfied, it was referred to consideration whether the word curate, or laio- ful minister, might not be inserted into the ru- bric for private baptism. Concerning excommunication fpr lesser crimes in ecclesiastical courts, it was agreed that the name should be changed, but the same censure retained, or an equivalent thereunto appointed. These were all the alterations that "were agreed upon between the king and bishops in the first day's conference. Mr. Patrick Galloway, who was present at the conference, gives this account of it to the presbytery of Edmburgh : " That on January 12 the king commanded the bishops, as they would answer it to God in conscience, and to himself upon their obedience, to advise among them- selves of the corruptions of the Church in doc- trine, ceremonies, and discipline, who, after consultation, reported that all was well ; but ■when his majesty, with great fervency, brought instances to the contrary, the bishops on their Icnees craved with great earnestness that no- thing might be altered, lest popish recusants, punished by penal statutes for disobedience, and the Puritans, punished by deprivation from their callings and livings for nonconformity, should say they had just cause to insult upon them, as men who had travailed to bind them to that which by their own mouths now was confessed to be erroneous."! Mr. Strype calls this an aspersion, but I am apt to think him mistaken, because Mr. Galloway adds these ■words : " When sundry persons gave out copies of these actions, I myself took occasion, as I was an ear and eye witness, to set them down, and presented them to his majesty, who with his own hand mended some things, and eked out others that I had omitted." It is very cer- tain that Bishop Barlow has cut off and con- cealed all the speeches that his majesty made against the corruptions of the Church and the practices of the prelates, for five hours together. * Strype's Ann., vol. i., p. 537. t Calderwood's Hist. Church of Scotland, p. 474. according to the testimony of J)x. Andrews, dean of the chapel, who said that his majesty did that day wonderfully play the Puritan. The second day's conference was on Monday, January 16lh, when the four ministers were called in, with Mr. Galloway, minister of Perth in Scotland, on the one part, and two bishops and six or eight deans on the other, the rest being secluded. The king being seated in his chair, with his nobles and privy counsellors around him, let them know he was now ready to hear their objections against the establish- ment. Whereupon Dr. Raynolds, in the name of his brethren, humbly requested, 1. That the doctrine of the Church might be preserved pure, according to God's Word. 2. That good pastors might be planted in all churches to preach the same. 3. That the Book of Common Prayer might be fitted to more increase of piety. 4. That church government might be sin- cerely ministered according to God's Word. 1. With regard to the doctrine of the Church, he requested that to those words in the six- teenth article, "We may depart from grace," may be added, neither totally 7ior finally, to make them consistent with the doctrine of predesti- nation in the seventeenth article ; and that (if his majesty pleased) the nine articles of Lam- beth might be inserted. That in the twenty- third article these words, "in the congregation," might be omitted, as implying a liberty for men to preach out of the congregation without a law- ful call. That in the twenty-fifth article the ground for confirmation might be examined : one passage confessing it to be a depraved imi- tation of the apostles, and another grounding it on their example ; besides, that it was too much work for a bishop — Here Bancroft, no longer able to contain him- self, falling upon his knees, begged the king with great earnestness to stop the doctor's mouth, according to an ancient canon that schismatics are not to be heard against their bishops. It is not reasonable, says he, that men who have subscribed to these articles should be allowed to plead against their own act, contrary to the statute 1st Eliz. The king, perceiving the bishop in a heat, said, My lord, you ought not to interrupt the doctor, but either let him proceed or answer what he has object- ed. Upon which he replied, "that as to Dr. Raynolds's first objection, the doctrine of pre- destination was a desperate doctrine, and had made many people libertines, who were apt to say, ' If I shall be saved, I shall be saved :' he therefore desired it might be left at large. That his second objection was trifling, because, by the practice of the Church, none but licensed ministers might preach or administer the sacra- ment. And as to the doctor's third objection, he said that the bishops had their chaplains and curates to examine such as were to be con- firmed ; and that in ancient time, none confirm- ed but bishops." To which Raynolds replied, in the words of St. Jerome, " that it was rather a compliment to the order than from any reason or necessity of the thing." And whereas the bishop had called him a schismatic, he desired his majesty that that imputation might not lie upon him ; which occasioned a great deal of mirth and raillery between the king and his no- 232 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. bles about the unhappy Puritans. In conclusion, the king said he was against increasing the number of articles or stuffing them with theo- logical niceties, because, were they never. so explicit, there will be no preventing contrary opinions. As to confirmation, he thought it not decent to refer the solemnity to a parish priest, and closed his remarks with this maxim, No bishop, no king. After a long interruption the doctor went on, and desired a new catechism ; to which the king consented, provided there might be no curious questions in it, and that our agreement with the Koman Catholics in some points might not be esteemed heterodoxy. He farther desired a new translation of the Bible, to which his majesty agreed, provided it were without marginal notes, saying, that of all tlie translations, the Geneva was the worst, because of the marginal notes, ■which allowed disobedience to kings. The doc- tor complained of the printing and dispersing popish pamphlets, which reflected on Bancroft's character : the king said, " What was done of this kind was by warrant from the court, to nourish the schism between the seculars and Jesuits, which was of great service. Doctor, you are a better collegeman than statesman." To which Raynolds replied, that he did not in- tend such books as were printed in England, but such as were imported from beyond sea ; and this several of the privy council owned to be a grievance. The doctor having prayed that some effectual remedy might be provided against the profanation of the Lord's Day, declared he had no more to add on the first head. 2. With regard to preaching, the doctor com- plained of pluralities in the Church, and pray- ed, that all parishes might be furnished with preaching ministers. Upon which Bancroft fell upon his knees, and petitioned his majesty that all parishes might have a praying ministry ; for preaching is grown so much in fashion, says he, that the service of the Church is neglected. Besides, pulpit harangues are very dangerous ; he therefore humbly moved that the number of homilies might be increased, and that the clergy might be obliged to read them instead of ser- mons, in which many vented their spleen against their superiors. The king asked the plaintiffs their opinion of the bishop's motion ; who replied, that a preaching minister was certainly best and most useful, though they allowed, where preaching could not be had, godly prayers, hom- ilies, and exhortations might do much good. The lord-chancellor [Egerton] said, there were more livings that wanted learned men than learned men living ; let all, therefore, have single coats before others have doublets. Upon which Bancroft replied merrily, But a doublet is good in cold weather. The king put an end to the debate by saying he would consult the bishops upon this head. 3. But the doctor's chief objections were to the service-book and church government. Here he complained of the late subscriptions, by which many were deprived of their ministry who were willing to subscribe to the doctrinal articles of the Church, to the king's supremacy, and to the statutes of the realm. He excepted to the read- ing the Apocrypha ; to the interrogatories in bap- tism, and to the sign of the cross ; to the sur- plice, and other superstitious habits ; to the ring in marriage ; to the churching of women by the name of purification. He urged that most of these things were relics of popery ; that thcj had been abused to idolatry, and therefore ought, like the brazen serpent, to be abolished. Mr. Knewstubs said these rights and ceremonies were at best but indifferent, and therefore doubt- ed whether the power of the Church could biad the conscience without impeaching Christian liberty. Here his majesty interrupted them, and said that he apprehended the surplice to be a very comely garment ; that the cross was as old as Constantine, and must we charge him with po- pery 1 besides, it was no more a significant sign than imposition of hands, which the peti- tioners allowed in ordination ; and as for their other exceptions, they were capable of being understood in a sober sense ; " but as to the power of the Church in things indifferent," says his majesty, " I will not argue that point with, you, but answer as kings in Parliament, Le lioy s'avisera. This is like Mr. John Black, a beard- less boy, who told me, the last conference ia Scotland, that he would hold conformity witli me in doctrine, but that every man as to cere- monies was to be left to his own liberty, but I will have none of that ; I will have one doc- trine, one discipline, one religion in substance and ceremony : never speak more to that point, how far you are bound to obey." 4. Dr. Raynolds was going on to complain of excommunication by lay-chancellors ; but the king having said that he should consult the bishops on that head, the doctor desired that the clergy might have assemblies once in three weeks ; that in rural deaneries they might have the liberty of prophesyings, as in Archbishop Grindal's time ; that those cases which could not be resolved there might be referred to the archdeacon's visitation, and from thence to the diocesan synod, where the bishop with his pres- byters should determine such points as were too difficult for the other meetings. Here the king broke out into a flame, and instead of hear- ing the doctor's reasons, or commanding his bishops to answer them, told the ministers that he found they were aiming at a Scots presby- tery, " which," says he, " agrees with monar- chy as well as God and the devil ; then Jack and Tom, Will and Dick, shall meet, and at their pleasure censure both me and my council Therefore, pray stay one seven years before you demand that of me, and if then you find me pursy and fat, and my windpipe stuffed, I will perhaps hearken to you ; for let that government be up, and I am sure I shall be kept in breath ; but till you find I grow lazy, pray let that alone. I remember how they used the poor lady, ray mother, in Scotland, and me in my minority." Then turning to the bishops, he put his hand to his hat and said, " My lords, I may thank you that these Puritans plead for my supremacy, for if once you are out and they in place, I know what would become of my supremacy, for, No bishop, no king. Well, doctor, have you any- thing else to offer 1 " Dr. Raynolds : " No more, if it please your majesty." Then rising from his chair, the king said, "If this be all your party have to say, I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of this land, or else worse ;" and he was as good as his word. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 233 Thus ended the second day's conference, af- ter four hours' discourse, with a perlect triumph on the side of tlie Church ; the Puritan minis- ters were insulted, ridiculed, and laughed to scorn, without either wit or good manners. One of the council said he now saw that a Pu- ritan was a Protestant frighted out of his wits. Another, that the ministers looked more like Turks than Christians, as appeared hy their habits. Sir Edward Peyton confessed that Dr. Raynolds and his brethren had not freedom of speech ; but finding it to no purpose to reply, they held their peace. On the other hand, the bishops and courtiers flattered the king's wis- dom and learning beyond measure, calling him the Solomon of the age. Bancroft fell upon his knees, and said, " I protest my heart melteth for joy, that Almighty God, of his singular mer- cy, has given us such a king as, since Christ's time, has not been." Chancellor Egerton said " he had never seen the king and priest so fully united in one person."* His majesty was no less satisfied with his own cortduct ; for in his letter to Mr. Blake, a Scotsman, he told him that he had soundly peppered off the Puritans, that they had fled before him, and that their pe- titions had turned him more earnestly against them. " It were no reason," says his majesty, "that those who refuse the airy sign of the cross after baptism, should have their purses stuffed with any more solid and substantial crosses. They fled me so from argument to argument, without ever answering me directly (ut est eorum maris), that I was forced to tell them, that if any of them, when boys, had dis- puted thus in the college, the moderator would have fetched them up, and applied the rod to their buttocks — I have a book of theirs that may convert infidels, but never shall convert me, except by turning me more earnestly against them." This was the language of the Solomon of the age. I leave the reader to judge how much superior the wise monarch was in the knowledge of antiquity, or the art of syllogism, to Dr. Raynolds, who was the oracle of his time for acquaintance with ecclesiastical history, councils, and fathers, and had lived in a college all his days. The third day's conference was on Wednes- day, January 18th, when the bishops and deans were first called into the privy chamber with the civihans, to satisfy the king about the high commission and the oath ex officio, which they might easily do as being principal branches of his prerogative. When the king said he appro- ved of the wisdom of the law in making the oath ex officio, the old archbishop was so trans- ported as to cry out, " Undoubtedly your maj- esty speaks by the special assistance of God's Spirit." A committee of bishops and privy counsellors was then appointed to consider of lessening the charges in the high commisson, and for planting schools, and proper ministers in the kingdom of Ireland, and on the borders of England and Scotland. After which, Dr. Raynolds and his brethren were called in, not to dispute,, but only to hear the few alterations or explanations in the Common Prayer Book * A modern prelate has said, " Sancho Pancha never made a better speech, nor more to the purpose, during his government." — Bishop Warburto?i's Notes on Neal. — Ed. Vol. 1.— G g already mentioned ; which not answering their expectations, Mr. Chadderton fell on his knees, and humbly prayed that the surplice and cross might not be urged on some godly ministers in Lancashire ; and Mr. Knewstubs desired the same favour for some Suffolk ministers ; which the bishops were going to oppose, but the king replied, with a stern countenance, " We have taken pains here to conclude in a resolution for uniformity, and you will undo all by preferring the credit of a few private men to the peace of the Church ; this is the Scots way, but I will have none of this arguing ; therefore let them conform, and that quickly, too, or they shall hear of it; the bishops will give them some time, but if they are of an obstinate and turbulent spirit, I will have them enforced to conform- ity."* Thus ended this mock conference,! for it de- serves no better name, all things being previ- ously concluded between the king and the bish- ops, before the Puritans were brought upon the stage, to he made a spectacle to their enemies, and borne down, not with calm reason and ar- gument, but with the royal authority, I approve or I dissent ; the king making himself both judge and party.J No wonder, therefore, if Dr. Raynolds fell below himself, and lost some part of his esteem with the Puritans, being overawed by the place and company, and the arbitrary dictates of his sovereign opponent. * " In this manner ended this conference ; which," observes Dr. Warner, " convinced the Puritans they were mistaken in depending on the king's protection ; which convinced the king that they were not to be won by a few insignificant concessions ; and which, if it did not convince the privy council and the bish- ops that they had got a Solomon for their king, yet they spoke of him as though it did." — Eccles. Hist., vol. iii., p. 482. "This conference," says another writer, "was but a blind to introduce episcopacy in Scotland ; all the Scotch noblemen then at court being designed to be present, and others, both noblemen and ministers, being called up from Scotland by the king's letter to assist at it." — Dr. Welwood, as quoted by Crosby. Hist, of Engl. Baptists, vol. i., p. 85. — Ed. t " The Hampton Court Conference," says Robert Robinson, of Cambridge, " was a ridiculous farce, a compound of kingcraft and priestcraft. The actors in it forgot nothing but their masks. The Puritans would not be gulled by it, but continued to dissent, and they were right." — Lectures on the Principles of Nonconformity, Works, ii., 221. " In the accounts that we read of this meeting," remarks Mr. Hallam, " we are alternately struck with wonder at the indecent and partial behaviour of the king, and at the abject baseness of the bishops, mixed, accordnig to the customs of servile natures, with insolence towards their opponents. It was easy for a monarch and eighteen churchmen to claim the victory, be the merits of the dispute what they might, over abashed and intimidated adversaries."— Const. Hist., i., 404. — C. t The conclusion of his address to the Puritan ministers, at this conference, as it was a curious spe- cimen of the king's logic, so it was a proof of the in- solent and tyrannical spirit with which he aimed to bear down all opposition. "If," said he, " this be all your party hath to say, I will make them conform themselves, or else 1 will harrie them out of the land, or else do worse, only hang them, that's all." It is very evident, from this, that he trusted more, as it has been observed by a modern writer, to the power of hanging than of convhicing his adversaries. — Secret History of the Court and Reign of Charles II., vol. i.. Introduction, p. 23, the note. — Ed. 234 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. The Puritans refused to be concluded by this conference, for the following reasons : because, 1. "The ministers appointed to speak for them were not of their nomination or choosing, nor of one judgment in the points of controver- sy ; for being desired by their brethren to argue against the corruptions of the Church as simply evil, they replied, tiiey were not so persuaded. Being farther desired to acquaint the king that some of their brethren thought them sinful, they refused that also. Lastly, being desired to give their reasons in writing why they thought the ceremonies only indifferent, or to answer the reasons they had to offer to prove them sinful, they would do neither one nor other. 2. " Because the points in controversy were not thoroughly debated, but nakedly propounded, and some not at all touched. Neither was there any one argument to the purpose pursued and followed. 3. " Because the prelates took the liberty of interrupting at their pleasure those of the other side, insomuch that they were checked for it by the king himself" They objected also to the account of the con- ference by Dean Barlow, as published without the knowledge, advice, or consent of the other side, and therefore deserving no credit ; they said that Dr. Moreton had called some part of it in question, and rectified some speeches fa- thered on the king ; besides, that the prelates only were present at the first day's conference, when the principal matters were determined. "Therefore the Puritan ministers offer (if his majesty will give them leave) in one v/eek's space to deliver his majesty in writing a full answer to any argument or assertion propound- ed in that conference by any prelate ; and in the mean time they do aver them to be most vain and frivolous." If the bishops had been men of moderation, or if the king had discovered any part of that ■wisdom he was flattered with, all parties might have been made easy at this time ; for the bish- ops, in such a crisis, would have complied with anything his majesty had insisted on ; but the king's cowardice, his love of flattery, his high and arbitrary principles, and his mortal hatred of the Puritans, .lost one of the fairest opportu- nities that have ever offered to heal the divis- ions of the Church. On the 5th of March the king published a proclamation, in which he says, " That though the doctrine and discipline of the established Church were unexceptionable, and agreeable to primitive antiquity, nevertheless he had given way to a conference, to hear the exceptions of the Nonconformists, which he had found very slender ; but that some few explanations of pas- sages had been yielded to for their satisfaction ; therefore he now requires and enjoins all his subjects to conform to it, as the only public form established in this realm ; and admonishes them not to expect any farther alterations, for that his resolutions were absolutely settled." The Common Prayer Book was accordingly printed with the amendments, and the procla- mation prefixed. It was a high strain of the prerogative to al- ter a form of worship established by law, mere- ly by a royal proclamation, without consent of Parliament or convocation ; for by the same power that his majesty altered one article ia the liturgy, he might set aside the whole, every sentence being equally established by act of Parliament ; but this wise monarch made no scruple of dispensing with the laws. However, the force of all proclamations determining with the king's life, and there being no subsequent act of Parliament to establish these amend- ments, it was urged very justly in the next reign, that this was not the liturgy of the Church of England established by law, and, consequent- ly, not binding upon the clergy. A fortnight before this conference was held, the learned and reverend Mr. Thomas Cart- wright, one of the chief of the Puritans, and a great sufferer for nonconformity, died. He was born in Hertfordshire, 1535, and entered into St. John's College, Cambridge, 1550, where he be- came a hard student, never sleeping above five hours in a night. During the reign of Queen Mary he left the University, and became a law- yer's clerk ; but upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth he resumed his theological studies, and was chosen fellow of Trinity College in the year 1563. The year following he bore a part in the Philosophy Act before the queen. In the year 1567 he commenced bachelor of divinity, and three years after was chosen Lady Marga- ret's professor. He was so popular a preacher, that when his turn came at St. Mary's, the sex- ton was obliged to take down the windows. But Mr. Cartwright venturing in some of his lectures to show the defects of the discipline of the Church as it then stood, he was questioned for it before the vice-chancellor, denied his doc- tor's degree, and expelled the University, as has been related. He then travelled to Geneva, and afterward became preacher to the English merchants at Antwerp. King James invited him to be professor in his University of St. An- drew's, which he declined. After his return from Antwerp he was often in trouble by sus- pensions, deprivations, and long imprisonment ; at length the great Earl of Leicester, who knew his worth, made him governor of his hospital in Warwick, where he ended his days, December 27, 1603. He was certainly one of the most learned and acute disputants of his age, but very ill used by the governing clergy. He wrote several books, besides his controversy with Archbishop Whitgift, as, his Latin comment on Ecclesiastes, dedicated to King James, in which he thankfully acknowledges his being appointed professor to a Scots university ; his celebrated confutation of the Rhemist translation of the New Testament, to which work he was solicit- ed not only by Sir Francis Walsingham, but by letter under the hands of the principal divines of Cambridge, as, Roger Goad, Wm. Whitaker, Thomas Crooke, John Ireton, Wm. Fulke, John Field, Nicholas Crane, Gibs Seinthe, Richard Gardiner, Wm. Clarke, &c. Such an opinion had these great men of his learning and abili- ties.* He was a person of uncommon industry * Dugdale calls him the standard-bearer of the Pu- ritans, and says he was the first in the Church of England who began to pray extempore before ser- mons. Fuller says "he was most pious and strict in his conversation, a pure Latinist, an accurate Gre- cian, an exact Hebrean, and, in short, an excellent scholar." And yet Churton, in his Life of Nowell, p. 225, casts a slur upon his piety, learning, and good HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 235 and piety, fervent in prayer, a frequent preach- er, and of a meek and humble spirit. In his I old age he was so troubled with the stone and gout by frequent lying in prisons, that he was obliged always to study on his knees. His last sermon was on Eccles., xii., 7: "Then shall the dust return to the earth, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." The Tuesday fol- lowing he was two hours on his knees in pri- vate prayer, and a few hours after quietly re- signed his spirit to God, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in his own hospital. The famous Mr. Dod preached his funeral ser- mon.* Six weeks after died his great antagonist, Dr. John Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, "Who was born at Great Grimsby, in Lincoln- shire, in the year 1530, and educated in Pem- broke Hall, and was fellow of Peter House, Cambridge. He complied with the changes in Queen Mary's reign, though he disapproved of her religion. He commenced doctor of divinity 1569, and was afterward Margaret and queen's professor,! and master of Trinity College. Hav- ing been a celebrated champion for the hierar- chy, the queen advanced him first to the Bish- opric of Worcester, and then to the Archbishop- ric of Canterbury. He was a severe governor of the Church, pressing conformity with the ut- most rigour,t in which her majesty always gave him her countenance and support. He regard- ed neither the entreaties of poor ministers nor the intercessions of courtiers, being steady to sense. He charges Cartwright with saying, in a cor- respondence, " that prayer was, as it were, a bunch of keys, whereby we go to all the treasures and store- houses of the Lord ; his batteries, his pantries, his cellars, his wardrobe." All this, perhaps, did enter into a familiar letter. Well, what if it did? it was just in the taste of the times; but Churton makes everything bad out of these few words. He exclaims, "Does fanaticism extinguish all taste and judgment ? or is it only in minds originally weak that the infection can lit it- self? Which ever way the reader may solve the prob- lem, he will naturally ask, Was this the man that was to improve what had been done by Cranmer and Ridley, by Parker and Nowell, and their coadjutors? to give us a form of worship more pure and edifying, more dignified and devout ?" But, says Brookes, " this eloquent calumniator does not stop here : he felt the poetic flame arise, and therefore immediately asks, " ' Is this the region, this the soil, the clime. That we must change for heaven ? this moumful gloom For that celestial light V We do confess that so much bombast, scurrility, and barefaced misrepresentation were scarcely ever found within so small a compass. The reader will, at the same time, easily perceive that the whole is desio-n- ed to extol the Church of England, if not above per- fection, at least beyond the possibility of amendment, and to blacken the character and disgrace the mem- ory of that man, who was justly esteemed one of the most celebrated divines of the age in which he -lived." — Brookes, Lives of Puritans, vol. i., p. IGl. — C. * Clarke's Lives annexed to his General Martyr- ology, p. 16. t For his sake the salary of Lady Margaret's pro- fessorship was raised from twenty marks to £20. And it is observed to his honour, that this prelate was the great restorer of order and disciphne in the University of Cambridge, when deeply wounded and almost sunk. — Granger's History of England, 8vo, vol. i., p. 206.— Ed. t " Even sometimes it may be," says Dr. Warner, "beyond all other law but that of her majesty's pleasure." — Ed. the laws, and even outgoing them in the cause of uniformity. Mr. Fuller says he would give fair words and good language, but would abate nothing. Sir G. Paul, the author of his life, says that choler was his chief infirmity,* which has sufiiciently appeared by the account already given of the many persecutions, oppressions, and unjustifiable hardships the Puritans suffer- ed under his administration ; notwithstanding which they increased prodigiously, insomuch, that towards the end of his life, his grace grew weary of the invidious employment, and being afraid of King James's first Parliament,! died, as it is said, with grief before it met, desiring rather to give an account of his bishopric to God than exercise it among men. J He had been at court the first Sunday in Lent, and as he was going to the council-chamber to dinner, was seized with the dead palsy on the right side, and with the loss of his speech ; upon which he was carried first to the lord-treasurer's cham- ber, and afterward to Lambeth, where the king visited him on Tuesday, but not being able to converse, lifted up his eyes and hand and said. Pro ecclesia Dei, which were" his last words. He would have written something, but could not hold his pen. His disease increasing, he ex- pired the next day, being the 29th of February, 1603, aged seventy-three, and was buried at Croydon on the 27th of March following, where he has a fair monument, with his effigies at length upon it. He was an hospitable man, and usually travelled with a great retinue ; in the year 1589 he came into Canterbury with a train of five hundred horse, of which one hundred were his own servants. He founded an hos- pital and free school at Croydon, and though he was a cruel persecutor of the Puritans, yet, compared with his successor, Bancroft, he was a valuable prelate. ij Before the meeting of the Parliament the * Life of Whitgift, p. 108. t Fuller's Church History, book x., p. 25. t Stype's words. Dr. Grey .says, are, "Et nunc Domine exaltata est mea anima, quod in eo tempore succubui, quando majlem episcopatus mei reddere rationem, quam inter homines exercere." — Ed. (} The character of Whitgift's administration ap- pears plain in the page of history. It imbodied the worst passions of an intolerant state priest, and stood out in the history of Protestant persecution as wor- thy of special reprobation. It knew no mercy — it ex- ercised no compassion. It had but one object, and that it pursued without compunction or remorse. The most conscientious of the queen's subjects were mingled with the vilest of their race. Whatever was noble in character, elevated in sentiment, or pure and ethereal in devotion, was confounded with the baser elements of society, and proscribed and punished as an offence to God and treason against the state. The legal institutions of the kingdom were convert- ed into means of oppression, and the dark recesses of its prisons resounded at once with the sighs and prayers of 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 government, the unmitigated rigour of which exasperated the spirits and soured the temper of his opponents. Neither can the archbishop be justi- fied on the plea that he acted on the commands of the queen. His servihty 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 concur- rence in every measure of severity and intolerance 236 HISTORY OF THE PUKITANS. king issued out two proclamations, one com- manding all Jesuits and priests in orders to de- part the kingdom [February 22, 1603], wherein he was very careful to let the world know that he did not banish them out of hatred to the Catholic religion, but only for maintaining the pope's temporal power over princes.* The other was against the Puritans, in which there was no indulgence for tender consciences : all must conform, or suffer the extremities of the law.t The king opened the first session of Parlia- ment with a long speech, in which there are many strokes in favour of tyranny and arbitrary power : " his majesty acknowledges the Roman Church to be his mother-church, though defded with some infirmities and corruptions. That his mind was ever free from persecution for matters of conscience, as he hopes those of that religion have proved since his first coming. He pities the laity among them, and would indulge their clergy if they would but renounce the pope's supremacy and his pretended power to dispense with the murder of kings. He wishes that he might be a means of uniting the two re- ligions, for if they would but abandon their late corruptions, he would meet them in the mid- way, as having a great veneration for antiquity in the points of ecclesiastical policy. But then, as to the Puritans or Novelists, who do not dif- fer from us so much in points of religion as in their confused form of policy and purity, those," says he, " are discontented with the present church government ; they are impatient to suffer any superiority, which makes their sect insufferable in any well-governed common- wealth, "t The bishops and their adherents were pleased 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 ot 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 ushercci them into the presence of the King of kings. The Protestant Church of England is deeply steeped in the blood of the saints. The martyrdom it inflicted was less vio- lent, and less calculated to shock the public mind, but it was not a jot less cruel or wicked than that which Bonner and Gardiner practised. — See Dr. Price^s History of Nonconformity, vol. i., p. 471. Con- sult i/fi//om's Constitutional History, vol. i., p. 271. — C. *■ Rapin, vol. ii., p. 163, folio edition. t " The Puritans about this time," says Mrs. Macaulay, "suffered so severe a persecution, that they were driven to offer a petition for relief to the king while he was taking the diversion of hunting. James was something startled at this unexpected in- trusion, and very graciously directed them to depute ten of their members to declare their grievances to the council. These deputies no sooner made their appearance before the council than they were sent to jail, and Sir Francis Hastings, Sir Edward Mon- tague, and Sir Valentine Knightly, under whose pro- tection they had thus acted, were turned out of the lieutenancy of the county and tlie commission of the peace." — Wimmod's Memorials, quoted by Mrs. Mac- aulay, Hist, of England, vol. i., p. 7, note, 8vo. — Ed. I Rapin. vol. ii., p. 165, 166, folio ed. with this speech, because the king seemed re- solved not to indulge the Puritans at any rate ; the Catholics did not like his majesty's distinc- tion between the laics and clerics ; but the Pu- ritans had most reason to complain, to see so much charity expressed towards papists, and so little for themselves.* All Protestants in general heard with concern the king's offer to meet the papists half way. What does he mean? say they ; is there no difference between popery and Protestantism but the pope's author- ity over princes ? Are all other doctrines to be given up 1 Are the religions the same ! And is this the only point upon which we separated from the Church of Rome ^ Thus, unhappily, did this pretended Protestant prince set out with laying the foundation of discontent among all ranks of his people. His majesty made frequent mention in his speech of his hereditary right to the crown, and of his lineal descent ; that he was accountable to none but God ; and that the only difference between a rightful king and a tyrant is, that the one is ordained for preserving the prosperity of his people, the other thinks his kingdom and people are ordained to satisfy his unreasonable appetites.t Farther, his majesty altered the writs for electing members, and took upon him to prescribe what sort of representatives should be elected, not by way of exhortation, but of command, and as indispensable conditions of their being admitted into the House, and which were to be judged of and determined in the Court of Chancery. I He threatened to fine and disfranchise those corporations that did not choose to his mind, and to fine and imprison their representatives if they presumed to sit in the House. When the House of Commons met, he interrupted their examinations of elections^ and commanded the return of Sir Francis Good- win, whose election they had set aside, to be brought before him and his judges. Most of those "who approached the king's person labour- ed to inspire him with the design of making himself absolute, or, rather, to confirm him in that resolution. ij The bishops were of this number ; and from this time there has appeared among the clergy a party of men who have car- ried the obedience of the subject and the author- ity of the crown as high as in the most arbitrary monarchies. But though the court and bishops were so well agreed, the Parliament passed some acts which gave them uneasiness ; as the revival of the statute of Edward VI. which enacts that all processes, citations, judgments, &c., in any ec- clesiastical courts, shall be issued in the king's name, and under the king's seal of arms. The '^ Rapin, vol. ii., p. 167, 168, folio ed. t Ibid., vol. ii., p. 252. Coke, p. 51. i " Tlris," as Dr. Warner well observes, " was directly striking at the privileges of the Commons." —Ed. i) We are told, in' particular, that Cecil assured James, on his coming to the crown, " that he should find his English subjects like asses, on whom he might lay any burden, and should need neither bit nor bridle but their asses' ears." "His rei.gu, how- ever, affords sufficient proof." observes a late writer, " that the king himself was the only ass, and that the English lions were not to be intimidated by his silly braying." — Secret History of the Court and Reign of Charles II., vol. i., Introduction, p. 30, note. — E^. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 237 bishops were said to be asleep when they suffer- ed this clause to pass ; but the Laudean clergy broke through it afterward, as they did through everything else that stood in the way of their sovereignty. It was farther enacted that all leases or grants of Church lands to the king, or his heirs, &c., for more than twenty-one years for the future, should be made void, which put an effectual stop to the alienation of the Church's revenues. The marriages of the cler- gy were also legitimated, by reviving the stat- ute of King Edward VI. for that purpose.* The convocation which sat with the Parlia- ment was very active against the Puritans. The see of Canterbury being vacant, Bancroft, bish- of London, presided, and produced the king's license to make canons. t May 2, 1603, he de- livered a book of canons, of his own preparing, to the lower house for their approbation. About the same time, Mr. Egerton, Fleetwood, Wot- ton, Clark, and other Puritan divines, presented a petition for reformation of the Book of Com- mon Prayer, but instead of receiving it, they admonished them and their adherents to be obedient, and conform before midsummer-day, or else they should undergo the censures of the Church. In the mean time the canons were revising. May 23, there was a debate in the upper house upon the cross in baptism, when Bancroft and some others spoke vehemently for it, but Dr. Rudd, bishop of St. David's, stood up and made the following speech for charity and moderation : " For my part, I acknowledge the antiquity of the use of the cross, as mentioned in Tertul- lian, and after him in St. Cyprian, St. Chrysos- tom, Austin, and others. I also confess the original of the ceremony to have sprung by oc- casion of the pagans, who reproached the an- cient Christians for believing in Christ crucified ; and that in popery it has been superstitiously abused ; and I affirm that it is in the Church of England now admitted and entertained by us, and restored to its ancient integrity, all super- stition abandoned. " Likewise, I wish that, if the king's highness shall persist in imposing it, all would submit to it (as we do) rather than forego the ministry in that behalf. But I greatly fear, by the report which I hear, that very many learned preachers, whose consciences are not in our custody, nor to be disposed of at our devotion, will not easily be drawn thereunto ; of which number, if any shall come in my walk, I desire to be furnished beforehand, by those that be present, with suffi- cient reasons to satisfy them (if it be possible) concerning some points which have been now delivered. " First. Whereas sundry passages of Scrip- ture have been alleged for the cross ; as, ' God forbid that I should rejoice save in the cross of Christ,' and divers others of the like sense ; if any of the adverse opinion fall into my company, and say that these scriptures are figurative, im- plying the death and passion of our Saviour Christ, and that to draw an argument from them to justify the sign of the cross in the fore- head is an insufficient kind of reasoning, and a fallacy, what answer shall I make unto them 1 " Secondly. Whereas I have observed, upon * Heyliu's Hist. Presb., p. 375. t Strype's Annals, vol. iv., p. 396. present relation, that the impungers of this cer emony were heard at large in the conference at Hampton Court, and having objected the exam- ple of Hezekiah, who broke in pieces the brazen serpent, after it had been abused to idolatry, and therefore the sign of the cross (which was not brought into the Church by God's express command, as the brazen serpent was, but was from the beginning a mere invention of men) ought now to be taken away by reason of the superstitious abuse which is sustained in po- pery ; they received answer, That King Hezekiah might have preserved it, abandoning the abuse of it, if it had pleased him, and, consequently, it is in the king's majesty's power to abolish this ceremony, having been abused, or to retain it in manner aforesaid. Hereunto I say, that I was one of the conference, yet I was not at that part of the conference where those that stood for reformation had access to the king's majes- ty's presence, and liberty to speak for them- selves ; for that I, and some other of my breth- ren the bishops, were secluded from that day's assembly ; but I suppose it to be true, as it has formerly been reported, and I for my own par- ticular admit the consequence put down above. Now, because I wish all others abroad as well satisfied herein as ourselves that be here pres- ent, if any of the contrary opinion shall come to me and say that the aforesaid ansvi'er does not satisfy them, because they think there is as great reason now to move them to become peti- tioners to his majesty for abolishing the cross in baptism as there was to move the godly zealous in Hezekiah's time to be petitioners for defacing the brazen serpent, because the church- going papists now among us do superstitiously abuse the one, as the Israelites did the other ; what sound answer shall I make to them for their better satisfaction 1 " Thirdly. Whereas it has been this day al- leged that it is convenient and necessary to preserve the memory of the cross of Christ by this means ; if haply any of the other side shall come to me and say that the memory of the cross of Christ might be sufficiently and more safely preserved by preaching the doctrine of the Gospel, the sum whereof is ' Christ cruci- fied;' which was so lively preached to the Ga- latians, as if his bodily image had been crucified among them ; and yet we know not of any ma- terial or signal cross that was in use in the Church at that time ; I desire to know what satisfaction or answer must be given to them 1 "Moreover, I protest, that all my speeches now are uttered by way of proposition, not by way of opposition, and that they all tend to work pacification in the Church ; for I put great dif- ference between what is lawful and what is ex- pedient, and between them that are schismatical and them that are scrupulous only upon some ceremonies, being otherwise learned, studious, grave, and honest men. " Concerning these last, I suppose, if, upon the urging them to absolute subscription, they should be stiff, and choose rather to forego their livings, and the exercise of their ministry, though I do not justify their doings herein, yet surely their service will be missed at such a time, as need shall require us and them to give the right hand of fellowship one to another, and to go arm in arm against the common adversary. 238 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. " Likewise consider who must be the execu- tioners of their deprivation ; even we ourselves, the bishops, against whom there will be a great clamour of them and their dependants, and many others who are well affected towards them, whereby our persons will be in hazard to be brought into extreme dislike or hatred. "Also remember, that when the Benjamites were all destroyed, saving six hundred, and the men of Israel sware in their fury that none of them would give his daughter to the Benjamites to wife, though they suffered for their just de- serts, yet their brethren afterward lamented and said. There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day ; and they used all their wits, to the utter- most of their policy, to restore that tribe again. " In like sort, if these our brethren aforesaid shall be deprived of their places for the matter premised, I think we should find cause to bend our wits to the utmost extent of our skill to provide some cure of souls for them, that they may exercise their talents. '' Furthermore, if these men, being divers hundreds, should forsake their charges, who, I pray you, should succeed them ? Verily, I know not where to find so many able preachers in this realm unprovided for ; but suppose there were, yet they might more conveniently be set- tled in the seats of unpreaching ministers. But if they are put in the places of these men that are dispossessed, thereupon it will follow, 1 . That the number of preaching ministers will not be multiplied. 2. The Church cannot be so well furnished on a sudden ; for though the new supply may be of learned men from the univer- sities, yet will they not be such ready preachers for a time, nor so experienced in pastoral gov- ernment, nor so well acquainted with the man- ners of the people, nor so discreet in their car- riage, as those who have already spent many years in their ministerial charge. " Besides, forasmuch as in the time of the late Archbishop of Canterbury these things were not so extremely urged, but that many learned preachers enjoyed their liberty condi- tionally, that they did not by word or deed openly disturb the state established, I would know a reason why they should now be so gen- erally and exceedirgly straitly called upon, es- pecially since there is a greater increase of pa- pists lately than heretofore. " To conclude, I wish, that if by petition to the king's majesty there cannot be obtained a quiet remove of the premises, nor yet a tolera- tion for them that are of more staid and temper- ate carriage, yet at least there might be procu- red a mitigation of the penalty."* ■The Bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, and Lincoln, answered the Bishop of St. David's ; but when his lordship would have replied, he was forbid by the president, and submitted ; af- firming, that as nothing Was more dear to him than the peace of the Church, he was determin- ed to use the best means he could to draw oth- * Dr. Grey also gives this speech of Bishop Rudd at length, inserting in brackets some words and claus- es both from Mr. Pierce and Mr. Thomas Baker's MSS., omitted by Mr. JNeal, in order to convict him- self of inaccuracy ; but from the nature of them, it should seem that these omissions proceeded not from negligence, but design, as not essential to Bish- op Rudd's argument. — Ed. ers to unity and conformity with himself, and the rest of his reverend brethren. And thus the debate ended. The Book of Canons found an easy passage through both houses of convocation, and was afterward ratified by the king's letters patent under his great seal ; but not being confirmed by act of Parliament, it has several times been adjudged in the courts of Westminster Hall that they bind on^ly the clergy, the laity not being represented in convocation. The book contains one hundred and forty-one articles, collected out of the injunctions, and other episcopal and synodical acts of the reigns of King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth, and are the same that are now in force. By these we discern the spirit of the Church at this time, and how free- ly she dispensed her anathemas against those who attempted a farther reformation. The can- ons that relate to the Puritans deserve a par- ticular mention, because (however illegally) they suffered severely under them. " Canon 3 says, that whosoever shall affirm that the Church of England by law established is not a true and apostolical church, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored but only by the archbishop, after his repentance and public revocation of his wicked error. " Canon 4. Whosoever shall affirm the form of God's worship in the Church of England es- tablished by law, and contained in the Book of Common Prayer and administration of sacra- ments, is a corrupt, superstitious, and unlawful worship, or contains anything repugnant to Scripture, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, &c. " Canon 5. Whosoever shall affirm, that any of the thirty -nine articles of the Church, agreed upon in the year 1562, for avoiding diversity of opinions, and for establishing consent touching true religion, are in any part superstitious or erroneous, or such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe to, let him be excommu- nicated ipso facto, and not restored, &c. " Canon 6. Whosoever shall affirm, that the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England by law established are wicked, antichristian, superstitious, or such as, being commanded by lawful authority, good men may not with a good conscience approve, use, or, as occasion re- quires, subscribe, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, &c. " Canon 7. Whosoever shall affirm the gov- ernment of the Church of England, by archbish- ops, bishops, deans, and archdeacons, and the rest that bear office in the same, is antichristian, or repugnant to the Word of God, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, &c. " Canon 8. Whosoever shall affirm, that the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops, priests, or deacons, contain anything repugnant to the Word of God ; or that persons so made and consecrated are not lawfully made, or need any other calling or ordination to their divine offices, let him be excommunicated ipso facta, and not restored, &c. " Canon 9. Whosoever shall separate from the communion of the Church of England, as it is approved by the apostles' rules, and combine together in a new brotherhood, accounting those who conform to the doctrines, rites, and HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 229 ceremonies of the Church unmeet for their communion, let him be excommunicated wso facto, and not restored, &c. " Canon 10. Whosoever shall affirm that such ministers as refuse to subscribe to the form and number of God's worship in the Church of England, and their adherents, may truly take to themselves the name of another church not es- tablished by law, and shall publish that their pretended church has groaned under the burden of certain grievances imposed on them by the Church of England, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, &c. "Canon 11. Whosoever shall affirm that there are within this realm other meetings, as- semblies, or congregations, of the king's born subjects, than such as are established by law, ■which may rightly challenge to themselves the name of true and lawful churches, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, &c. " Canon 12. Whosoever shall affirm that it is lawful for any sort of ministers or lay persons to make rules, orders, and constitutions, in caus- es ecclesiastical, without the king's authority, and shall submit to be ruled and governed by them, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, iScc. " Canon 98. We decree and appoint, that af- ter any judge ecclesiastical hath proceeded ju- dicially against obstinate and factious persons, for not observing the rites and ceremonies of the Church, or for contempt of public prayer, no judge ad qucm shall admit or allow of an ap- peal, unless he having first seen the original appeal, the party appellant do first personally promise and vow that he will faithfully keep and observe all the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, as also the prescript form of common prayer ; and do likewise subscribe the three articles formerly by us specified and declared." They who are acquainted with the terrible consequences of an excommunication in the spiritual courts, must be sensible of the new hardships put upon the Puritans by these can- ons : suspensions and deprivations from their livings were not now thought sufficient punish- ments for the sin of nonconformity ; but the Puritans, both clergy and laity, must be turned out of the congregation of the faithful ; they must be rendered incapable of 'suing for their lawful debts ; they must be imprisoned for life by pro- cess out of the civil courts, or until they make satisfaction to the Church ; and when they die, they must be denied Christian burial ; and, so far as lies in the power of the court, be excluded the kingdom of heaven. 0 uncharitableness ! Papists excommunicate Protestants, because, by renouncing the Catholic faith, they apprehended them guilty of heresy ; but for Protestants of the same faith to excommunicate their fellow- Christians and subjects, and deprive them of their liberties, properties, and estates, for a few ceremonies, or because they have not the same veneration for the ecclesiastical constitution with themselves, is hardly to be paralleled. To take notice of a few more of the canons : canon 14 forbids the minister to add to, or leave out, any part of the prayers. Canon 18 enjoins bowing at the name of Jesus. Canons 17, 24, 25, 58, 74, enjoin the wearing the habits in col- leges, cathedrals, &c., as copes, surplices, hpods. Canon 27 forbids giving the sacrament to schis- matics, or to any other but such as kneel, and allow of the rites, ceremonies, and orders of the Church. Canon 28 says that none shall be ad- mitted to the sacrament but in their own parishi Canon 29, That no parent shall be urged to be present, nor be admitted to answer as a godfa- ther for his own child in baptism. Canon 30 declares the sign of the cross to be no part of the substance of the sacrament of baptism, but that the ordinance is perfect without it. Canon 33 prohibits ordination without a presentation, and says, that if any bishop ordain without a title, he shall maintain the person till he be pro- vided with a living. Canons 36 and 37 say that no person shall be ordained, or suffered to preach, or catechise in any place as a lecturer, or oth- erwise, unless he first subscribe the three arti- cles following: 1. That the king's majesty is the supreme head and governor of this realm, as well in all spiritual and ecclesiastical as tem- poral causes. 2. That the Book of Common Prayer, &c., contains nothing contrary to the Word of God, and that he will use it, and none other. 3. That he alloweth the thirty-nine ar- ticles of 1562 to be all and every one of them agreeable to the Word of God. To these he shall subscribe in the following form of words : I, N N, do willingly, and ex animo, subscribe to these three articles above mentioned, and to all things that are contained in them. Canon 38 says, that if any minister, after subscription, shall disuse the ceremonies, he shall be suspended ; then, after a month, be ex- communicated ; and after another month, be de- posed from his ministry. Canon 55 contains the form of bidding prayer before sermon : "Ye shall pray for Christ's holy Catholic Church," &c., the original of which I have accounted for. Canon 82 appoints, " that convenient and de- cent tables shall be provided in all churches for the celebration of the holy communion, and the same tables shall be covered in limes of Divine service with a carpet of silk, or other convenient stuff; and with a fair linen cloth at the time of the administration, as becometh that table, and so stand, saving when the said holy communion is to be administered ; at which time the same shall be placed in so good sort within the church or chancel, as thereby the minister may be more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer and administration ; and the communi- cants also more conveniently, and in more num- bers, may communicate with the said minister ; and a convenient seat shall be made for the minister to read service in." The other canons relate to the particular du- ties of ministers, lecturers, church-wardens, par- ish-clerks ; to the jurisdiction and business of ecclesiastical courts, with their proper officers, as judges ecclesiastical, surrogates, proctors, registrars, apparitors, cStc. The book concludes with denouncing the sentence of excommunica- tion, I. Against such as shall affirm that this synod, thus assembled, is not the true Church of England by representation. 2. Against such as shall affirm that person^ not particularly as- sembled in this synod, either clergy or laity, are not subject to the decrees thereof, as no't having given their voices to them. 3. Against such as shall affirm this sacred synod was a company of such persons as did conspire against godly 240 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. and religious professors of the Gospel, and, therefore, that they and their proceedings ought to be despised and contemned, though ratified and confirmed by the royal supremacy and au- thority. The king, in his ratification of these canons, commands them to be diligently observed and executed, and for the better observation of the same, that every parish minister shall read them over once every year in his church, on a Sun- day or holyday, before Divine service ; and all archbishops, bishops, and others having eccle- siastical jurisdiction, are commanded to see all and every the same put in execution, and not spare to execute the penalties in them severally mentioned on those that wilfully break or neg- lect them. I shall leave the reader to make his own comment on the proceedings of this synod, only observing that, when they had finished their decrees, they were prorogued to January, 1605-6, when, Dr. Overal being prolocutor, they gave the king four subsidies, but did no more church business till the time of their dissolution, in the year 1610. Dr. Bancroft, bishop of London, being trans- lated to the see of Canterbury* [December 1604], ■was succeeded by Vaughan, bishop of Chester, a corpulent man, and of little activity; upon his advancement the Dutch and French ministers "within his diocess presented him with an ad- dress for his protection and favour, wherein they set forth " that their churches were grant- ed them by charter ffom pious King Edward VI., in the year 1550; and that, though they were again dispersed by the Marian persecution, they were restored to their churches and privi- leges by Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1558, from which time they have been in the uninter- rupted possession of them. It appears from our records," say they, " how kind and friendly the pious Grindal was to us ; and what pains the prudent Bishop Sandys took in composing our differences. We promise ourselves the like favour from your lordship, &c., for whom we shall always pray," &c.t Monsieur de la Fon- taine delivered the address, with a short Latin speech, to whom the bishop replied, "I thank * The causes which led to Bancroft's elevation are thus stated by Sir John Harrington : " His maj- «sty had long since understanding of his writing against the Genevesing and Scottising ministers; and 1 hough some imagined he had therein given the king some distaste, yet finding him in the disputations at Hampton Court both learned and stout, he did more and more increase his liking to him ; so that al- though in the common rumour Thoby Matthew was likeliest to have carried it, so learned a man and so assiduous a preacher, qui in concionibus dominatur, as his emulous and bitter enemy wrote of him, yet his majesty, in his learning knowing, and in his wisdom weighing, that this same strict charge, ^pasce oves meos,' feed my sheep, requires as well a pastoral courage of driving in the stray sheep and driving out the infectious, as of feeding the sound, made special choice of the Bishop of London, as a man more ex- ercised in the affairs of the state. I will add also mine own conjecture out of some of his majesty's own speeches, that in respect he was a single man, he supposed him the fitter, according to Queen EUz- abeth's principles of state, upon whose wise founda- tions his majesty doth daily erect more glorious buildings."— iVa»-ffi Antique, vol. ii., p. 25.— C. t Address of the French and Dutch churches to the Bishop of London, Strype's Annals, vol. iv., p. 390. you, most dear brethren, for your kind address ; I am sensible of the merits of John Alasco, Utenhovius, and Edmund Grindal, bishop of London,* superintendents of your churches, and of the rest of my predecessors in this bish- opric, who had reason to take your churches, which are of the same faith with our own, un- der their patronage, which I am also ready to do. I have known your churches twenty-five years to have been beneficial to the kingdom, and serviceable to the Church of England, in which the devil, the author of discord, has kin- dled the fire of dissension, into which I pray you not to pour oil, but to endeavour by your councils and prayers to extinguish. "t Thus the foreign churches enjoyed full peace, while his majesty's own subjects, of the same faith and discipline with them, were harassed out of the kingdom. Bancroft was a divine of a rough temper, a perfect creature of the prerogative, and a de- clared enemy of the religious and civil liberties of his country. He was for advancing the pre- rogative above law, and for enlarging the juris- diction of the spiritual courts, by advising his majesty to take from the courts of Westminster Hail to himself the whole right of granting pro- hibitions ; for this purpose he framed twenty- five grievances of the clergy, which he called ariiculi cleri, and presented them to the king for his approbation ; but the judges having decla- red them to be contrary to law, they were set aside. His grace revived the persecutions of the Puritans by enforcing the strict observance of all the festivals of the Church ; reviving the use of copes, surplices, caps, hoods, &c., according to the first service-book of King Edward, obli- ging the clergy to subscribe over again to the three articles of Whitgift, which by the late canon [No. 36] they were to declare they did willingly, and from the heart. By these meth- ods of severity above three hundred Puritan ministerst were silenced or deprived, some of whom were excommunicated and cast into pris- on, others were forced to leave their native country and livelihood, and go into banishment to preserve their consciences. I say, says Mr. Collyer, to preserve their consciences, for it is a hard thing to bring everybody's understand- ing to a common standard, and to make all honest men of the same mind.^ To countenance and support the archbishop's * Utenhovius and Edmund Grindal, as Dr. Grey observes, are not mentioned in the bishop's answer, though they are in Fontaine's speech. — Ed. t Strype's Annals, vol. v., p. 395. i This account is controverted by Dr. Grey on the authority of HeyUn's Aer. Rediviv., p. 376, who says " that, by the rolls brought in by Bishop Bancroft before his death, it appears that there had been but forty-five deprived on all occasions, which, in a realm containing nine thousand parishes, could be no great matter. But it was that, by the punishment of some of the principals, he struck such a general terror into all the rest, that inconformity grew out of fashion in less time fhan could be easily imagined." — En. Cal- derwood says there were," three hundred," and he is supported bv the author of " A Short Dialogue," 1605, who says " their names amounted, 1st November, 1605, to 270 and upward, yet there were eight bish- oprics whereof it could not yet be learned what had been done in them." — P. 58. — 0. (J Eccles. Hist., p. 687. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 241 proceedings, the king summoned the twelve judges into the Star Chamber, and demanded their judgments upon three questions ; there were present the Bishops of Canterbury and London, and about twelve lords of the privy council. The lord-chancellor opened the assembly with a sharp speech against the Puritans, as disturb- ers of the peace, declaring that the king intend- ed to suppress them by having the laws put in execution ;* and then demanded, in his majesty's name, the opinion of the judges in three things : Q. 1. "'Whether the deprivation of Puritan ministers by the high commissioners, for refu- sing to conform to the ceremonies appointed by the last canons, was lawful 1" The judges replied, " that they had conferred thereof before, and held it to be lawful, because the king had the supreme ecclesiastical power, which he has delegated to the commissioners, "Whereby they have the power of deprivation, by the canon law of the realm, and the statute 1st EUz., which appoints commissioners to be made by the queen, but does not confer any new pow- er, but explain and declare the ancient power ; and therefore they held it clear that the king without Parliament might make orders and con- stitutions for the government of the clergy, and might deprive them if they obeyed not ; and so the commissioners might deprive them, but that the commissioners could not make any new con- stitutions without the king. And the divulging such ordinances by proclamation is a most gra- cious admonition. And forasmuch as they [the Puritans] have refused to obey, they are lawfully deprived by the commissioners ex officio, without libel, et ore terms convocati." Q. 2. " Whether a prohibition be grantable against the commissioners upon the statute of 2 Henry V., if they do not deliver the copy of the libel to the party 1" The judges replied, " that that statute was intended where the ecclesiastical judge proceeds ex officio, et ore tenus." Q. 3. " Whether it be an offence punishable, and what punishment they deserved, who framed petitions, and collected a multitude of hands thereto, to prefer to the king in a public cause, as the Puritans had done, with an mtimation to the king, that if he denied their suit, many thou- sands of his subjects would be discontented !" The judges replied, " that it was an offence finable at discretion, and very near to treason and felony in the punishment, for it tended to the raising sedition, rebellion, and discontent among the people." To which unaccountable lesolution all the lords agreed. t By these determinations the whole body of the clergy are excluded the benefit of the common and statute law ; for the king without Parlia- ment may make what constitutions he pleases : his majesty's high commissioners may proceed upon these constitutions ex officio ; and the sub- ject may not open his complaints to the king, or petition for relief, without being finable at pleas- ure, and coming within danger of treason or felony.} Before the breaking up of the assembly, some of the lords declared that the Puritans had raised a false rumour of the king, as intending to grant a toleration to papists ; which offence the judges conceived to be heinously finable by the rules of common law, either in the King's Bench, or by the king in council ; or now, since the statute of 3 Henry VII., in the Star Chamber. And the lords severally declared that the king was discon- tenied with the said false rumour, and had made but the day before a protestation to them that he never intended it, and that he would spend the last drop of blood in his body before he would do it ; and prayed, that before any of his issue should maintain any otlier religion than what he truly possessed and maintained, God would take them out of the world. The reader will remem- ber this solemn protestation hereafter. After these determinations the archbishop re- sumed fresh courage, and pursued the Puritans without the least compassion. A more grievous persecution of the orthodox faith, says my au- tlior, is not to be met with in any prince's reign. Dr. John Burgess, rector of Sutton Colefield, in one of his letters to King James, says the num- ber of Nonconformists in the counties he men- tions were six or seven hundred, agreeable to the address of the Lincolnshire ministers, here- after mentioned.* The whole clergy of London being summoned to Lambeth, in order to subscribe over again, many absconded, and such numbers refused, that the Church was in danger of being disfur- nished, which awakened the court, who had been told that the Nonconformists were an in- considerable body of men. Upon this surprising appearance, the bishops were obliged to relax the rigour of the canons for a while, and to ac- cept of a promise from some to use the cross and surplice ; from others to use the surplice only ; and from others a verbal promise that they might be used, not obliging themselves to the use of them at ckll ; the design of which was to serve the Church by them at present, till the universities could supply them with new men ; for they had a strict eye upon those seminaries of learning, and would admit no young scholar into orders without an absolute and full sub- scription to all the articles and canons. Bancroft, in a letter to his brethren the bish- ops, dated December 18, 1604, gives the follow- ing directions : " As to such ministers as are not already placed in the Church, the thirty-sixth the king absolute in all ecclesiastical affairs, without any hmitation or redress ; and it was intended, proba- bly, as a step to make him so in the state." — Ed. * The number of nonsubscribers in Oxfordshire, were . . 9 i Staffordshire ... 14 * Crook's Reports, Mich, term, 2 Jac, part ii., p. 37, parag. 13. ■j- The reader is referred to Vaughan's Stuart Dy- nasty, vol. i., p. 139.— C. t " This (as Dr. Warner well observes) was making Vol. I.— H h Dorsetshire .... 17 Nottinghamshire . . 20 Norfolk 28 Hertfordshire ... 17 Surrey 81 Wiltshire .... 31 Sussex 47 Cheshire . • . . . 12 Somersetshire . . 17 Lancashire ... 21 London 30 Warwickshire . . 44 Northamptonshire . 57 Suffolk 71 I Essex _57 In the twenty-four counties above mentioned . 746 From whence it is reasonable to conclude, that in the fifty-two counties of England and Wales, there were more than double the number. Buckinghamshire Leicestershire . Bedfordshire Derbyshire . . . Kent Lincolnshire . . Devon and Cornwall , 33 57 16 20 23 33 51 242 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. and thirty-seventh canons are to be observed ; and none are to be admitted to execute any ec- clesiastical function without subscription. Such as are already placed in the Church are of two sorts : 1. Some promise conformity, but are unwilling to subscribe again. Of these, foras- much as the near affinity between conformity and subscription gives apparent hopes that, be- ing men of sincerity, they will in a short time frame themselves to a more constant course, and subscribe to that again, which by their prac- tice they testify not to be repugnant to the Word of God, your lordship may (an act remaining upon record of such their offer and promise) re- spite their subscription for some short time. 2. Others, in their obstinacy, will yield neither to subscription nor promise of conformity ; these are either stipendiary curates, or stipendiary lec- turers, or men beneficed ; the first two are to be silenced, and the third deprived." He adds, '■that the king's proclamation of July 16, 1604, admonishes them to conform to the Church, and obey the same, or else to dispose of themselves and their families some other way, as being men unfit, for their obstinacy and contempt, to oc- cupy such places ; and besides, they are within the compass of several laws." The Puritans who separated from the Church, or inclined that way, were treated with yet greater rigour. Mr.Maunsel, minister of Yar- mouth, and Mr. Lad, a merchant of that town, were imprisoned by the High Commission, for a supposed conventicle, because that on the Lord's Day, after sermon, they joined with Mr. Jack- ler, their late minister, in repeating the heads of the sermon preached on that day in the church. Mr. Lad was obliged to answer upon oath certain articles without being able to ob- tain a sight of them beforehand, and, after he had answered before the chancellor, was cited up to Lambeth to answer them again before the high commissioners upon a new oath, which he refusing without a sight of his former an- swer, was thrown into prison, where he contin- ued a long time without being admitted to bail. Mr. Maunsei, the minister, was charged farther ■with signing a complaint to the lower house of Parliament, and for refusing the oath ex officio, for which he also was shut up in prison without bail. At length, being brought to the bar upon a writ of habeas corpus, and having prevailed with Nic. Fuller, Esq., a bencher of Gray's Inn, and a learned man in his profession, to be their coun- sel, he moved that the prisoners might be dis- charged, because the high commissioners were not empowered by law to imprison, or to ad- minister the oath ex officio, or to fine any of his majesty's subjects. This was reckoned an un- ptrdonable crime, and, instead of serving his clients, brought the indignation of the commis- sioners upon himself Bancroft told the king that he was the champion of the Nonconform- ists, and ought, therefore, to be made an exam- ple to terrify others from appearing for them ; accordingly, he was shut up in close prison, from whence neither the intercession of his friends r.or his own humble petitions could obtain his release to the day of his death.* This iiigh abuse of Church power obliged many learned ministers and their followers to leave the kingdom and retire to Amsterdam, * Pierce's Vindication, p. 174. Rotterdam, the Hague, Leyden, Utrecht, and other places of the Low Countries, where Eng- lish churches \vere erected after the Presbyteri- an model, and maintained by the States accord- ing to treaty with Queen Elizabeth, as the French and Dutch churches were in England. Besides, the English being yet in possession of the cautionary towns, many went over as chap- lains to regiments, which, together with the merchants that resided in the trading cities, made a considerable body. The reverend and learned Dr. William Ames, one of the most acute controversial writers of his age, settled with the Epglish church at the Hague ; the learned Mr. Robert Parker, a Wiltshire divine, and author of the Ecclesiastical Policy, being disturbed by the High Commission, retired to Amsterdam, and afterward became chaplain to the English regiment at Doesburgh, where he died. The learned Mr. Forbes, a Scots divine, settled with the English church at Rotterdam, as Mr. Pots, Mr. Paget, and others did at Am- sterdam and other places. But the greatest number of those who left their native country for religion were Brown- ists,* or rigid Separatists, of whom Mr. John- son, Ainsworth, Smith, and Robinson were the leaders. Mr. Johnson erected a church at Am- sterdam after the model of the Brownists, hav- ing the learned Mr. Ainsworth for doctor or teacher. These two published to the world a confession of faith of the people called Brown- ists, in the year 1602, not much different in doc- trine from " The Harmony of Confessions," but being men of warm spirits, they fell to pieces about points of disciphne ;t Johnson excomrnu- * These conscientious exiles, driven from their own country by persecution, in.stead of meeting with a hospitable reception or even a quiet refuge in Hol- land, were there " loaded with reproaches, despised, and afflicted by all, and almost consumed with deep poverty." The learned Ainsworth, we are told, lived upon ninepence a week and some boiled roots, and was reduced to the necessity of hiring himself as a porter to a bookseller, who first of all discovered his skill in the Hebrew language, and made it known to his countrymen. The Dutch themselves, just emer- ged from civil and religious oppression, looked with a jealous eye on these suffering refugees. And though the civil power, commonly in every state more friend- ly than the ecclesiastic to toleration, does not appear to have oppressed them ; the clergy would not afford them an opportunity to refute the unfavourable re- ports generally circulated against them on the au- thority of letters from England, nor receive their con- fession of faith, nor give them an audience on some points on which they desired to lay their sentiments before them ; but with a man at their head of no less eminence than James Arminius, judged that they ought to petition the magistrate for leave to hold their assemblies for the worship of God, and inform- ed against them in such a way as might have render- ed them the objects of suspicion. " They seemed evi- dently," it has been remarked, " to have considered them in the same light in which serious and consci- entious dissenters from the religious profession of the majority will ever be viewed, as a set of discontent- ed, factious, and conceited men, with whom it would be safest for them to have no connexion." — Ains- worth's two Treatises on The Communion, of Saints, and An Arrow against Idolatry, printed at Edinburgh, 1789, pref, p. 15-17.— En. t A late writer, who appears to have accurately investigated the history of the Brownists, represents Mr. Neal as incorrect in his account of the debate.si which arose among them. The principal leaders of HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 243 nicated his own father and brother for trifling matters, after having rejected the mediation of the presbytery of Amsterdam. This divided the congregation, insomuch that Mr. Ainsvvorth and half the congregation excommunicated Johnson, who, after some time, returned the same com- phment to Ainsworth. At length the contest grew so hot that Amsterdam could not hold them ; Johnson and his followers removed to Embden, where soon after dying, his congrega- tion dissolved. Nor did Mr. Ainsworth and his followers live long in peace, upon which he left them and retired to Ireland, where he continued some time ; but when the spirits of his people were quieted he returned to Amsterdam, and continued with them to the day of his death. This Mr. Ainsworth was author of an excellent little treatise entitled " An Arrow against Idol- atry," and of a most learned commentary on the five books of Moses, by which he appears to have been a great master of the Oriental languages and of Jewish antiquities. His death was sud- den, and not without suspicion of violence, for it is reported that, having found a diamond of very great value in the streets of Amsterdam, he ad- vertised it in print, and when the owner, who was a Jew, came to demand it, he offered him any this party were the two brothers Francis and George Johnson, Mr. Ainsworth, and Mr. John Smith, who had been a clergyman in England. Three principal subjects of controversy occasioned dissensions in the Brownist churches. The first ground of dissension was the marriage of Francis Johnson with a widow of a taste for living and dress, particularly unsuita- ble to times of persecution : his father and his broth- er opposed this connexion. This occasioned such a difference that the latter proceeded from admonitions and reproofs to bitter revdings and reproaches, and Francis Johnson, his colleague Ainsworth, and the church at length passed a sentence of excommunica- tion against the father and brother. Mr. Neal, it seems, confounds this unhappy controversy with an- other that succeeded to it, but distinct from it, be- tween Francis Johnson and Ainsworth. It turned upon a question of discipline ; the former placing the government of the Church in the eldership alone, the latter in the Church, of which the elders are a part. This dispute was carried to an unchristian height, but, according to Jlr. John Cotton, of New-England, who was the contemporary of Johnson and Ainsworth, and had hved amid the partisans of each side, they did not, as Mr. Neal represents the matter, mutually excommunicate each other, but Ainsworth and his company withdrew, and worshipped by themselves after Johnson and those with him had denied the communion. In the interim of these debates, a schism had taken place in the church, headed by Mr. John Smith, who advanced and maintained opin- ions similar to those afterward espoused by Armini- us ; and besides his sentiments concerning baptism, to which Mr. Neal refers in the ne.xt paragraph, sev- eral singular opinions were ascribed to him ; as, that no translation of the Bible could be properly the Word of God, but the original only was so; that singing set words or verses to God was without any proper authority ; that flight in time of persecution was unlawful ; that the new creature needed not the support of Scriptures and ordinances, but is above them ; that perfection is attainable in this life, &c. There arose against him a whole host of opponents ; Johnson, Robinson, Clifton, Ainsworth, and Jessop. His character as well as his sentiments were attack- ed with a virulence of spirit, and an abusive language that discredit the charges and expose the spirit of the Writer's. — See some account of Mr. Ainsworth, pre- fixed to a new edition of his two treatises, p. 27-12 ; and Crosby's History of EngUfh Baptists, vol. i., p. 3., &c., and p. 265, &c. — Ed. acknowledgment he would desire; but Ains- worth, though poor, would accept of nothing but a conference with some of his rabbles upon the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the Messias, which the other promised, but not hav- ing mterest enough to obtain it, and Ainsworth being resolute, it is thought he was poisoned.* His congregation remained without a pastor for some years after his death, and then chose Mr. Canne, author of the marginal references to the Bible, and sundry other treatises. Mr. Smith was a learned man, and of good abilities, but of an unsettled head, as appears by the preface to one of his books, in which he desires that his last writiiigs may always be ta- ken for his ■present judgment. He was for refi- ning upon the Brownists' scheme, and at last declared for the principles of the Baptists ; upon this he left Amsterdam, and settled with his disciples at Ley ; where, being at a loss for a proper administrator of the ordinance of bap- tism, he plunged himself, and then performed the ceremony upon others, which gained him the name of a Se-Baptist.t He afterward em- * Others say that he obtained this conference, and so confounded the Jews that from pique and mal- ice they in this manner put an end to his life. He died in 1G22 or 1G23, leaving an exemplary character for humility, sobriety, discretion, and unblamable vir- tue.—-See an account prefixed to his two treatises, p. ' 60, 62.— Ed. t This is said on the authority of his opponents only, who, from the acrimony with which they wrote against him, it may be reasonably concluded, might be ready to take up a report against him upon slen- der evidence. His defences of himself and his opin- ions have not been, for many years, to be met with ; but the large quotations from them in the writings of his opponents afforded not the least intimation, either in the way of concession or justification, of his having done such a thing ; the contrary may be rather concluded from them. The first ground of his separation from the Established Church was a dislike of its ceremonies and prescribed forms of prayer ; he afterward doubted concerning the validi- ty of baptism administered in a national church; this paved the way for his rejecting the baptism of infants altogether, and adopting immersion as the true and only meaning of the word baptism. His judgment on doctrinal points underwent similar changes. Hence, Mr. Neal has called him a man "of an unsettled head." This language seems to in- sinuate a reflection on Mr. Smith : whereas it is an honour to any man ; it shows candour, ingenuousness, an openness to conviction, and sincerity, for one to change his sentiments on farther inquiry, and to avow it. A lover of truth, especially who has imbibed in early life the principles of the corrupt establishments of Christianity, will continually find it his duty to recede from his first serltiments. Bishop Tillotson justly commended his friend Dr. Whichcot ; because while it is customary with learned men at a certain age to make their understandings, the doctor was so wise as to be willing to learn to the last; i. e., he was of an unsettled head. — Crosby's History of the English Baptists, vol. i., p. 65, &c. Account of Mr. Ainsworth prefixed to his two treatises, p. 41. — Ed. It .seems that the accusers of Mr. Smith have for- gotten the progressive nature of the changes he under- went. " For a man," he himself remarks, " if a Turk, to become a Jew, if a Jew, to become a papist, if a papist, to become a Protestant, are all commendable changes, though they all befall one and the same person in one year, nay, if it were in one month ; so that not to change religion is evil simply ; and, there- fore, that we should fall from the profession of Puri tanism to Brownism, and from Brownism to true Christian baptism, is not simply evil, or reprovabla 244 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. braced the tenets of Arminius, and published certain conclusions upon those points in the year 1611, which Mr. Robinson answered; but Smith died soon after, and his congregation dissolved. Mr. John Robinson was a Norfolk divine, beneficed about Yarmouth, where being often molested by the bishop's officers, and his friends almost ruined in the ecclesiastical courts, he re- moved to Leyden, and erected a congregation upon the model of the Brownists.* He set out upon the most rigid principles, but by conver- sing with Dr. Ames, and other learned men, he became more moderate ; and though he always maintained the lawfulness and necessity of sep- arating from those Reformed churches among which he lived, yet he did not deny them to be true churches, and admitted their members to occasional communion, allowing his own to join with the Dutch churches in prayer and hearing the Word, but not in the sacraments and discipline, which gained him the character of a semi-separatist ; his words are these:! •' We profess, before God and men, that we agree so entirely with the Reformed Dutch churches in matters of religion, that we are willing to subscribe to all and every one of their articles, as they are set down in ' The Harmo- ny of Confession.' We acknowledge these Re- formed churches for true and genuine : we hold communion with them as far as we can ; those among us that understand the Dutch language frequent their sermons ; and we administer the Lord's Supper to such of their members as are known to us, and desire it occasionally." This Mr. Robinson was the father of the Independ- ents. Mr. Henry Jacob was born in Kent, and edu- cated in St. Mary's Hall, where he took the de- grees in arts, entered into holy orders, and be- came precentor of Christ Church College, and afterward beneficed in his own country at Cher- iton.J He was a person thoroughly versed in theological authors, but withal a most zealous Puritan. He wrote two treatises against Fr. Johnson, the Brownist, in defence of the Church of England's being a true church, printed at Middleburgh, 1599, and afterward published *' Reasons taken out of God's Word, and the best Human Testimonies, proving a Necessity of reforming our Churches of England, &c., 1604."iJ But going to Leyden, and conversing with Mr. Robinson, he embraced his sentiments of dis- cipline and government, and transplanted it into England in the year 1616, as will be seen in its proper place. in itself, except it be proved that we have fallen from true religion." — The Character of the Beast, Epistle to the Reader, p. 1. * Boyle's Dissuasive, p. 177. t " Profitemur coram Deo et hominibus adeo nobis convenire cum ecclesiis reformatis Belgicis in re re- ligionis ut omnibus et singulis earundem ecclesiarum fidei articulis, prout habentur in Harmonia Confes- sionum Fidei, parati sumus subscribers. Ecclesias reformatas pro veris et genuinis habemus, cum iis- dem in sacris Dei communionem profitemur, et quan- tum in nobis est, colimus. Conciones publicas ab illarum pastoribus habitas, ex nostris qui norunt lin- guatn Belgicam frequentant : sacram ccsnam earum membris, si qua forte nostris coetibus intersint nobis cognita, participiamus." t Life of Whitgift, p. 566. ^ Ath. Ox., vol. i., p. 394. This difTerence among the Puritans engaged them in a warm controversy among themselves about the lawfulness and necessity of separating from the Cimrch of England, while the conform- ing clergy stood by as spectators of the combat. Most of the Puritans were for keeping within the pale of the Church, apprehending it to be a true church in its doctrines and sacraments, though defective in discipline, and corrupt in ceremonies ; but being a true church, they thought it not lawful to separate, though they could hardly continue in it with a good con- science. They submitted to suspensions and deprivations ; and when they were driven out of one diocess, took-sanctuary in another, being afraid of incurring the guilt of schism by forming themselves into separate communions. Where- as the Brownists maintained that the Church of England, in its present constitution, was no true Church of Christ, but a limb of antichrist, or at best a mere creature of the state ; that their ministers were not rightly called and or- dained, nor the sacraments duly administered ; or, supposing it to be a true church, yet as it was owned by their adversaries [the conform- ing Puritans] to be a very corrupt one, it must be as lawful to separate from it as for the Church of England to separate from Rome. The conforming Puritans evaded this conse- quence by denying the Church of Rome to be a true church ; nay, they affirmed it to be the very antichrist ; but the argument remained in full force against the bishops, and that part of the clergy who acknowledged the Church of Rome to be a true church. It is certainly as lawful to separate from the corruptions of one church as of another ; and it is necessary to do so, when those corruptions are imposed as terms of communion. Let us hear Archbishop Laud, in his conference with the Jesuit Fisher. " Another church," says his grace, " may separate from Rome, if Rome will separate from Christ ; and so far as it separates from him and the faith, so far may another church separate from it. I grant the Church of Rome to be a true church in essence, though corrupt in manners and doctrine. And cor- ruption of manners, attended with errors in the doctrines of faith, is a just cause for one par- ticular church to separate from another." His grace then adds, with regard to the Church of Rome : " The cause of the separation is yours, for you thrust us from you, because we called for truth and redress of abuses ; for a schism must needs be theirs whose the cause of it is ; the wo runs full out of the mouth of Christ, even against him that gives the offence, not against him that takes it. It was ill done of those, whoever they were, who first made the separation [from Rome] ; I mean not actual, but casual, for, as I said before, the schism is theirs whose the cause of it is ; and he makes the separation who gives the first just cause of it, not he that makes an actual separation upon a just cause preceding." Let the reader care- fully consider these concessions, and then judge how far they will justify the separation of the Brownists, or the Protestant Nonconformists at this day. This year [1605] was famous for the discov- ery of the Gunpowder Plot, which was a contri- vance of the papists to blow up the king and. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 245 the whole royal family, with the chief of the Protestant nobility and gentry, November 5th, the first day of their assembling in Parliament. For this purpose a cellar was hired under the House of Lords, and stored with thirty-six bar- rels of gunpowder, covered over with coals and fagots ; but the plot was discovered the night before, by means of a letter sent to Lord Mont- eagle, advising him to absent himself from the. house, because they were to receive a terrible blow, and not to know who hurt them. Mont- eagle carrying the letter to court, the king or- dered the apartments about the Parliament House to be searched ; the powder was found under the House of Lords, and Guy Faux with a dark lantern in the cellar, waiting to set fire to the train when the king should come to the house the next morning. Faux being appre- hended, confessed the plot, and impeached sev- eral of his accomplices, eight of whom were tried and executed, and among them Garnet, provincial of the English Jesuits, whom the pope afterward canonized. The discovery of this murderous conspiracy was ascribed to the royal penetration ;* but Mr. Osborne,t and others, with great probability, say that the first notice of it came from Henry IV., king of France, who heard of it from the Jes- uits, and that the letter to Monteagle was an artifice of Cecil's, who was acquainted before- hand with the proceedings of the conspirators, and suffered them to go to their full length. Even Heyhn says that the king and his council mined with them, and undermined them, and by so do- ing blew up their whole invention. t But it is agreed on all hands, that if the plot had taken place, it was to have been fathered upon the Puritans ; and, as if the king was in the secret, his majesty, in his speecli to the Parliament November 9th, takes particular care to bring them into reproach ; for, after having cleared the Roman Catholic religion from encouraging such murderous practices, he adds, the cruelty of the Puritans was worthy of fire, that would not allow salvation to any papists. So that, if these unhappy people had been blown up, his majesty thinks they would have had their de- serts. Strange ! that a Puritan should be so much worse than a papist, or deserve to be burn- ed for uncharitableness, when his majesty knew that the papists were so much more criminal in this respect than they, not only denying salva- tion to the Puritans, but to all who are without the pale of their own church. But what was all this to the ploti except it was to turn off the indignation of the people from the papists, whom the king both feared and loved, to the Puritans, who, in a course of forty years' suf- ferings, had never moved the least sedition against the state, but who would not be the ad- vocates or dupes of an unbounded prerogative ! The discovery of this plot occasioned the drawing up the oath of allegiance, or of sub- mission and obedience to the king as a temporal sovereign, independent of any other power upon earth ; which quickly passed both houses, and was appointed to be taken by all the king's sub- jects ; this oath is distinct from the oath of su^ premacy, which obliges the subject to acknowl- edge his majesty to be supreme head of the * Rapin, vol. ii., p. 171. t Osborne, p. 448. X History of Presbytery, p. 378. Church as well as the State, and might there- fore be taken by all such Roman Catholics as did not believe the pope had power to depose kings, and give away their dominions. Ac- cordingly, Blackwell, their superior, and most of the English Catholics, submitted to the oath, though the pope absolutely forbade them on pain of damnation ; which occasioned a new debate, concerning the extent of the pope's power in temporals, between the learned of both religions. Cardinal Bellarmine, under the feigned name of Tortus, wrote against the oath, which gave occasion to King James's Apology to all Chris- tian Princes ; wherein, after clearing himself from the charge of persecuting the papists, he reproaches his holiness with ingratitude, con- sidering the free liberty of religion that he had granted the papists, the honours he had confer- red on them, the free access they had to his per- son at all times, the general jail delivery of all Jesuits and papists convict, and the strict orders he had given his judges not to put the laws in execution against them for the future.* All which was true, while the unhappy Puritans were imprisoned and fined, or forced into ban- ishment. The Parliament, on occasion of this plot, appointed an annual thanksgiving on the 5th of November, and passed another law, obli- ging all persons to come to church under the penalty of twelve pence every Sunday they were absent, unless they gave such reasons as should be satisfactory to a justice of the peace. This, like a two-edged sword, cut down all Separatists, whether Protestants or papists. To return to the Puritans ; the more moderate of whom, being willing to steer a middle course, between a total separation and absolute con- formity, were attacked by some of the bishops with this argument : " All those who wilfully refuse to obey the king in all things indifferent, and to conform themselves to the orders of the Church author- ized by him, not contrary to the Word of God, are schismatics, enemies to the king's suprem- acy and the state, and not to be tolerated in church or commonwealth. " But you do so — " Therefore, you are not to be tolerated in church or commonwealth." The Puritans denied the charge, and returned this argument upon their accusers : " Ail those who freely and willingly perform to the king and state aO obedience, not only in things necessary, but indifferent, commanded by law, and that have been always ready to conform themselves to every order of the Church author- ized by him, not contrary to the Word of God, are free from all schism, friends to the king's supremacy, and to the state, and unworthy in this manner to be molested in church or com- monwealth. " But there are none of us that are deprived or suspended from our ministry, but have been ever ready to do all this ; therefore we are free from schism, friends to the king's supremacy, and most unworthy of such molestation as we sustain." This being the point of difference, the Puri- tans offered a public disputation upon the law- fulness of imposing ceremonies in general ; and in particular upon the surplice, the cross in bap- * King James's Apol, p. 253. 2-16 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. tism, and kneeling at the communion ; but were refused. Upon which, the Lincolnshire minis- ters drew up an apolog)' for those ministers who are troubled for refusing of subscription and conformity, and presented it to the king, Decem- ber 1, 1604, the abridgment of which is now before me, and begins with a declaration of their readiness to subscribe the first of the three arti- cles required by the thirty-sixth canon, concern- ing the king's supremacy ; but to the other two, say they, we cannot subscribe, because we are persuaded that both the Book of Common Prayer, and the other book [of Articles] to be subscribed by this canon (which yet, in some respects, we reverently esteem), contain in them sundry things which are not agreeable, but contrary to, the "Word of God. They object to the Book of Common Prayer, in general. That it appoints that order for read- ing the Holy Scriptures which in many respects is contrary to the Word of God. As, 1. " The greatest part of the canonical Scrip- ture is left out in the public reading ; whereas 'all Scripture is given by inspiration, and is profitable,' &c., and sundry chapters that are, in their opinion, more edifying than some others that are read, are omitted. 2. " It does too much honour to the Apochry- phal writings, commanding many of them to be read for first lessons, and under the name of Holy Scriptures, and in as great a proportion ; for of the canonical chapters of the Old Testa- ment (being in all seven hundred and seventy- nine) are read only five hundred and ninety-two, and of the Apocryphal hooks (being one hundred and seventy-two chapters) are read one hundred and four. This they apprehend to be contrary to the Word of God, forasmuch as the Apocry- phal books contain sundry and manifest errors, divers of which are here produced. 3. 4, 5, 6, 7. " The Book of Common Prayer appoints such a translation of the Holy Scrip- tures to be read in the churches as in some places is absurd, and in others takes from, per- verts, obscures, and falsifies the Word of God ; examples of which are produced with the au- thorities of the most considerable reformers." Their next general objection against sub- scribing the Book of Common Prayer is, be- cause it enjoins the use of such ceremonies as they apprehend contrary to the Word of God. To make good this assertion, they say,* " It is contrary to the Word of God to use (much more to command the use of) such ceremonies in the worship of God as man hath devised, if they be notoriously known to be abused to idol- atry and superstition by the papists, and are of no necessary use in the Church. Here they cite such passages of Scriptrue as command the Jews to abolish all instruments of idolatry, and even to cast away such things as had a good original, when once they are known to have been abused to idolatry; as images, groves, and the brazen serpent, 2 Kings, xviii., 11. They produce, farther, the testimonies of sun- dry fathers, as Eusebius, St. Austin, &c., and of the most considerable moderns, as Calvin, Bucer, Musculus, Peter Martyr, Beza, Zanchy ; Bishop .Jewel, Pilkington, Bilson ; Dr. Hum- phreys, Fulk, Andrews, Sutcliffe, and others, against conformity with idolaters." * Abridgment, p. 17. With regard to the three ceremonies in ques- tion, they allege they have all been abused by the papists to superstition and idolatry. 1. " The surplice* has been thus abused, for it is one of those vestments without which no- thing can be consecrated ; all priests that are present at mass must wear it, and, therefore, the use of it in the Church has been condemn- ed, not only by foreign divines, but by Bishop Hooper, Farrar, Jewel, Pilkington, Rogers, and others among ourselves." 2. " The cross has been also abused to su- perstition and idolatry, to drive away devils, to expel diseases, to break the force of witchcraft, &c. It is one of the images to which the pa- pists give religious adoration. The water in baptism has no spiritual virtue in it without the cross, nor is any one rightly baptized (according to the papists) without it." 3. " Kneeling at the sacrament has been no less abused ; it arose from the notion of the transubstantiation of the elements, and is still used by the papists in the worship of their breaden God ; who admit they would be guilty of idolatry in kneeling before the elements if they did not believe them to be the real body and blood of Christ. This ceremony was not introduced into the Church till antichrist was at its full height ; and there is no action in the whole service that looks so much like idolatry as this." Their second argumentt for the unlawfulness of the ceremonies is taken from their mystical signification, which gives them the nature of a sacrament. Now, no sacrament ought to be of man's devising ; the ceremonies, therefore, be- ing affirmed in the Book of Common Prayer to be significant, are unlawful. Their third argument^ is taken from the un- lawfulness of imposing them as parts of God's worship, which they prove from hence, " That God is the only appointer of his own worship, and condemns all human inventions, -so far forth as they are made parts of it. Now all the ceremonies in question are thus imposed, for Divine service is supposed not to be rightly per- formed without the surplice, nor baptism right- ly administered without the cross, nor the Lord's Supper but to such as kneel ; and, therefore, they are unlawful." Their fourth is taken from hence, That no rites or ecclesiastical orders should be ordained or used but such as are needful and profitable, and for edification ; and, especially, that none shall be ordained or used that cause offence and hinder edificationij (Rom., xvi., 21 ; I Cor., X., 23, 32). " Now the ceremonies in question are neither needful nor profitable, nor do they tend to edification ; but, on the contrary, have given great offence, as appears from hence, that very many of the learned and best experi- enced ministers in the land have chosen rather to suffer any trouble than yield to the use of them ; and we doubt not to affirm that the greatest number of resident, able, and godly ministers in the land at this day do in their consciences dislike them, and judge them need- less and unfit, as appears by the list of non- subscribers already mentioned [p. 44J, besides many more who, though unwilling in some * Abridgment, p. 28. t Ibid., p. 37. t Ibid., p. 31. i) Ibid., p. 45. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 247 etber respects to join in the petition, did pro- fess their hearty desire to have them removed.* And if the rest of the shires be esteemed ac- cording to this proportion, it will easily appear that the greatest number of the resident, preach- ing, and fruitful ministers of the land do dis- like them. This may yet farther appear, by their seldom using them for many years past, and their great unwillingness to yield to the use of them now. If they thought them needful or profitable, why do they neglect them in their public ministry, being commanded by lawful authority 1 Besides, those very bishops that have been most hot in urging the ceremonies have declared that the Church might well be ■without them, and have wished them taken away ; as Archbishop Whitgift, in his defence of the answer to Cartwright's Admonition, p. 259 ; Dr. Chadderton, bishop of Lincoln, in his speech before all the ministers, convened be- fore him at Huntingdon, November 30th, 1604 ; and others in ecclesiastical dignities have spo- Icen vehemently against them as things that do not edify, nor have any tendency to promote decency or order. " With regard to the surplice, they produce the testimonials of the learned Bucer, Peter Martyr, Beza, Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, and others, for the expediency of it, even though they submitted to wear it. Bucer says he could be content to suffer some grievous loss' or pain in his body, upon condition the surplice might be abolished. " The like authorities are brought against the cross, and against kneeling at the communion, the former being a mere invention of man, nei- ther taught by Christ nor his apostles, and the latter being apparently different from the first institution, they receiving it in a table posture ; and it is gross hypocrisy (say they) for us to pretend more holiness, reverence, and devotion, in receiving the sacrament, than the apostles, who received it from the immediate hand and person of Christ himself They (to be sure) had the corporeal presence of Christ, and yet did not kneel ; why, then, should it be enjoined in the Church, when the corporeal presence of Chf ist is withdrawn 1 This has been thought an argument of great force by our chief divines, as Calvin, Bullinger, Beza, Chemnitius, Bishop Pilkington, Willet, and others, who declare strongly for the posture of sitting, or at most standing, at the communion. " Besides, kneeling at the sacrament is of very late antiquity, and was not introduced into the Church till antichrist was in his full height ; the primitive Christians (according to Tertullian) thought it unlawful to kneel at prayer on the Xord's Day ; and the first Council of Nice, Ann. 3Dom. 327, made a solemn decree that none might pray kneeling, but only standing, on the Jjord's Day, because on that day is celebrated the joyful remembrance of our Lord's resurrec- tion. To kneel is a gesture of sorrow and humil- iation ; whereas, he that prays standing shows himself thankful for the obtaining some mercy or favour. So that either the primitive Church used a gesture of greater reverence and humility at the sacrament, which is a feast, and a joyful lemembrance of the death of Christ, than they * Abridgment, p. 52. did at prayer, or else they received it in another posture. Besides, it is said* that the ancient councils commanded that 'no man should kneel down at the communion, fearing it should be an occasion of idolatry.' Mr. Fox,t speaking of the usage of the primitive Church, says they had the communion, not at an altar, but at a plain table of boards, when the whole congregation together did communicate, with reverence and thanksgiving ; not lifting over the priest's head, nor worshipping, nor kneeling, nor knocking their breasts, but either sitting at supper, or standing after supper. Eusebius,t speaking of a man that had been admitted to the communion, says he stood at the table and put forth his hand to receive the holy food. And Bishop Jewel says, that in St. Basil's days [ann. 380] the commu- nion-table was of boards, and so placed that men might stand round it, and that every man was bound by an apostolical tradition to stand upright at the communion. " Besides, the gesture of kneeling is contrary to the very nature of the Lord's Supper, which is ordained to be a banquet and sign of that sweet familiarity that is between the faithful and him, and of that spiritual nourishment we are to receive by feeding on his body and blood by faith ; and in what nation is it thought de- cent to kneel at banquets 1 Where do men eat and drink upon their knees 1 Farther, the dis- position of mind at the Lord's Table is not so much liumility as assurance of faith, and cheer- ful thankfulness for the benefits of Christ's death. For these reasons, and because kneel- ing at the sacrament had an idolatrous original, and has a tendency to lead men into that sin, they think it unlawful, and to be laid aside." The Abridgment concludes with a short ta- ble of sundry other exceptions against the three books whereunto they are required to subscribe, which they purpose to justify and confirm in the same manner as they have done in respect of those contained in this book ; a summary whereof we shall meet with hereafter. The Abridgment was answered by Bishop Moreton and Dr. Burges, who, after having suf- fered himself to be deprived for nonconformity, June 19, 1604, was persuaded by King James to conform, and write in defence of his present conduct against his former arguments. Bishop Moreton endeavoiu's to defend the innocency of the three ceremonies from Scripture, antiquity, the testimony of Protestant divines, and- the practice of the Nonconformists themselves in other cases, and has said as much as can be said in favour of them ; though it is hard to de- fend the imposing them upon those who esteem them unlawful, or who apprehend things indif- ferent ought to be left in the state that Christ left them. Dr. Downham, Sparkes, Covel, Hut- ton, Rogers, and Ball, wrote for the ceremonies ; and w-ere answered by Mr. Bradshaw, Mr. Paul Baynes, Dr. Ames, and others. From the arguments of these divines, it ap- pears that the Puritans were removing to a greater distance from the Church ; for whereas, says Dr. Burges, Mr. Cartwright and his breth- ren wrote sharply against the ceremonies as in- convenient, now they are opposed as absolutely unlawful, neither to be imposed nor used. The * Abridgment, p. 59. t Acts and Mon., p. 19. I Hist. Eccl., lib. vii., cap. viii. 248 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. cruel severities of Bancroft and the high com- missioners were the occasion of this ; for being pushed upon one of these extremes, either to a constant and full conformity, or to lay down their ministry in the Church, many of them, at one of their conferences, came to this conclu- sion, that if they could not enjoy their livings without subscribing over again the three arti- cles above mentioned, and declaring, at the same time, they did it willingly and from their hearts, it was their duty to resign. These were called brethren of the second separation, who were content to join with the Church in her doctrines and sacraments, though they appre- hended it unlawful to declare their hearty ap- probation of the ceremonies ; and if their con- duct was grounded on a conviction that it was their duty as Christians to bear their testimony against all unscriptural impositions in the wor- ship of God, it must deserve the commendation of all impartial and consistent Protestants. No men could go greater lengths lor the sake of peace than they were willing to do : for in their defence of the ministers' reasons for refusal of subscription to the Book of Common Prayer against the cavils of F. Hutton, B.D., Dr. Co- vel, and Dr. Sparkes, published 1607, they be- gin thus : " We protest before the Almighty God, that we acknowledge the churches of Eng- land, as they be established by public authority, to be true visible churches of Christ ; that we desire the continuance of our ministry in them above all earthly things, as that without which our whole life would be wearisome and bitter to us ; that we dislike not a set form of prayer to be used in our churches ; nor do we write with an evil mind to deprave the Book of Com- mon Prayer, Ordination, or Book of Homilies ; but to show our reasons why we cannot sub- scribe to all things contained in them." These extreme proceedings of the bishops strengthened the hands of the Brownists in Holland, who with great advantage declared against the lawfulness of holding communion with the Church of England at that time, not only because it was a corrupt church, but a per- secuting one. On the other hand, the younger divines in the Church, who preached for prefer- ment, painted the Separatists in the most odi- ous colours, as heretics, schismatics, fanatics, precisians, enemies to God and the king, and of unstable minds. The very same language which the papists had used against the first Reformers. To remove these reproaches, and to inform the world of the real principles of the Puritans of these times, the Reverend M. Bradshaw pub- lished a small treatise, entitled " English Puri- tanism, containing the main Opinions of the rigidest Sort of those that went by that Name in the Realm of England," which the learned Dr. Ames translated into Latin for the benefit of foreigners. The reader will learn by the fol- lowing abstract of it the true state of their case, as well as the near affinity between the principles of the ancient and modern Noncon- formists.* * Several things, considered as remarkable by Dr. Grey, are omitted by Mr. Neal. But this doth not impeach Mr. Neal's fairness, as he avowedly lays only an abstract before his readers ; and the passa- ges to which Dr. Grey alludes do not convey senti- CHAPTER I. Concerning Religion in General. 1. "The Puritans hold and maintain the ab- solute perfection of the Holy Scriptures, both as to faith and worship ; and that whatsoenjr is enjoined as a part of Divine service that ca»- not be warranted by the said Scriptures, is on- lawful. 2. " That all inventions of men, especially such as have been abused to idolatry, are to be excluded out of the exercises of religion. 3. " That all outward means instituted to ex- press and set forth the inward worship of God are parts of Divine worship, and ought, there- fore, evidently to be prescribed by the Word of God. 4. "To institute and ordain any mystical rites or ceremonies of religion, and to mingfe the same with the Divine rites and ceremonies of God's ordinance, is gross superstition." CHAPTER II. Concerning the Church. 1. " They hold an maintain that every coa- gregation or assembly of men, ordinarily join- ing together in the true worship of God, is a true visible Church of Christ. 2. " That all such churches are in all ecclesi- astical matters equal, and by the Word of God, ought to have the same officers, administrations, orders, and forms of worship. 3. " That Christ has not subjected any church or congregation to any other superior ecclesias- tical jurisdiction than to that which is withia itself, so that if a whole church or congregation should err in any matters of faith or worship, no other churches or spiritual officers have power to censure or punish them, but are only to counsel and advise them. 4. " That every church ought to have her own spiritual officers and ministers resident with her ; and those such as are enjoined by Christ in the New Testament, and no other. 5. " That every church ought to have liberty to choose their own spiritual officers. 6. " That if particular churches err in this choice, none but the civil magistrate has power to control them, and oblige them to make abet- ter choice. 7. " That ecclesiastical officers or ministers in one church ought not to bear any ecclesiasti- cal office in another ; and they are not to for- sake their calling without just cause,, and such, as may be approved by the congregation : but if the congregation will not hearken to reason, they are then to appeal to the civil magistrate, who is bound to procure them justice. 8. " That a church having chosen its spirit- ual governors, ought to live in all canonical obedience to them, agreeably to the Word of God ; and if any of them be suspended, or un- justy deprived, by other ecclesiastical officers, they are humbly to pray the magistrate to re- store them ; and if theycannot obtain it, they are to own them to be their spiritual guides to the death, though they are rigorously deprived of their ministry and service. 9. " That the laws and orders of the churches warranted by the Word of God are not repug- ments repugnant to the principles exhibited in th*- above abstract. — En. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Bant to civil government, whether monarchical, aristocratical, or deraocratical ; and we renounce all jurisdiction that is repugnant or derogatory to any of these, especially to the monarchy of this kingdom." CHAPTER III. Concerning the Ministers of tJie Word. 1. "They hold that the pastors of particular congregations are the highest spiritual officers in the church, over whom there is no superior pastor by Divine appointment but Jesus Christ. 2. " That there are not by Divine institution, an the Word, any ordinary, national, provincial, or diocesan pastors to whom the pastors of par- ticular churches are to be subject. 3. " That no pastor ought to exercise or ac- cept of any civil jurisdiction or authority, but ought to be wholly employed in spiritual offices and duties to that congregation over which he is set. 4. " That the supreme office of the pastor is to preach the Word publicly to the congrega- tion ; and that the people of God ought not to acknowledge any for their pastors that are not able, by preaching, to interpret and apply the Word of God to them ; and, consequently, all ignorant and mere reading priests are to be re- jected. 5. " That in public worship the pastor only is to be the mouth of the congregation to God in prayer ; and that the people are only to testify their assent by the word Amen. 6. " That the Church has no power to impose upon her pastors or officers any other ceremo- nies or injunctions than what Christ has ap- pointed. 7. "That in every church there should also be a doctor to instruct and catechise the igno- xant in the main principles of religion." , CHAPTER IV. Concerning the Elders. 1. "They hold that by God's ordinance the congregation should choose other officers as as- sistants to the ministers in the government of the church, who are jointly with the ministers to be overseers of the manners and conversa- tion of all the congregation. 2. " That these are to be chosen out of the gravest and most discreet members, who are also of some note in the world, and able, if pos- sible, to maintain themselves." CHAPTER V. Of Church Censures. 1. "They hold that the spiritual keys of the Church are committed to the aforesaid spiritual officers and governors, and to none others. 2. " That by virtue of these keys they are not to examine and make inquisition into the hearts of men, nor molest them upon private suspi- cions or uncertain fame, but to proceed only upon open and notorious crimes. If the ofTend- er be convinced, they ought not to scorn, de- Tide, taunt, and revile him with contumelious language, nor procure proctors to make person- al invectives against him, nor make him give attendance from term to term, and from one court-day to another, of the manner of our ec- clesiastical courts ; but to use him brotherly, and, if possible, to move him to repentance • Vol. I.— 1 1 249 and if he repent, they are not to proceed to cen sure, but to accept his hearty sorrow and con trition as a sufficient satisfaction to the church without imposing any fines, or taking fees, or enjoining any outward mark of shame, as tho white sheet, &c. " But if the offender be obstinate, and show no signs of repentance, and if his crime be fully- proved upon him, and be of such a high nature as to deserve a censure according to the Word of God, then the ecclesiastical officers, with the free consent of the whole congregation (and not otherwise), are first to suspend him from the sacrament, praying for him, at the same time, that God would give him repentance to the ac- knowledgment of his fault ; and if this does not humble him, they are then to. denounce him to be as yet no member of the kingdom of heaven, and of that congregation, and so are to leave him to God and the king. And this is all the ecclesiastical jurisdiction that any spiritual offi- cers are to use against any man for the greatest crime that can be committed. " If the party offending be a civil superior, they are to behave towards him with all that reverence and civil subjection that his honour or high office in the state may require. They are not to presume to convene him before them, but are themselves to go to him in all civil and humble manner, to stand bareheaded, to bow, to give him all his civil titles ; and if it be a su- preme governor or king, to kneel, and in most humble manner to acquaint him with his faults ; and if such or any other offenders will volunta- rily withdraw from the communion, they have no farther concern with them. " They hold the oath ex officio on the imposer's part to be most damnable and tyrannous, against the very law of nature, devised by antichrist, through the inspiration of the devil, to tempt weak Christians to perjure themselves, or be drawn in to reveal to the enemies of Christiani- ty those secret religious acts which, though done for the advancement of the Gospel, may bring on themselves and their dearest friends heavy sentences of condemnation from court." CHAPTER VI. Concerning the Civil Magistrate. 1. "They hold that the civil magistrate ought to have supreme civil* power over all the church- es within his dominions ; but that, as he is a Christian, he ought to be a member of some one of them ; which is not in the least derogatory to his civil supremacy. 2. " That all ecclesiastical officers are pun- ishable by the civil magistrate for the abuse of their ecclesiastical offices ; and much more if they intrude upon the rights and prerogatives of the civil authority. 3. " They hold the pope to be antichrist, be- cause he usurps the supremacy over kings and princes ; and therefore all that defend the popish faith, and that are for tolerating that religion, are secret enemies of the king's supremacy. 4. " That all archbishops, bishops, deans, of- ficials, &c., hold their offices and functions at the king's pleasure, merely jure humano ; and whosoever holdeth that the king may not re- * Dr. Grey says that the word civil is added by Mr. Neal, and that he has omitted, after " dominions," the clause " in all cases whatsoever."— Ed. 250 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. move them, and dispose of them at his pleasure, is an enemy to his supremacy." Let the reader now judge whether there was sufficient ground for the calumny and reproach that were cast upon the Puritans of those times ; but their adversaries having often charged them with denying the supremacy, and with claiming a sort of jurisdiction over the king himself, they published another pamphlet this summer, enti- tled "A Protestation of the King's Supremacy, made in the Name of the afflicted Ministers, and opposed to the shameful Calumniations of the Prelates." To which was annexed an humble petition for liberty of conscience. In their prot- estation, they declare, 1. " We hold and maintain the king's suprem- acy in all causes, and over all persons, civil and ecclesiastical, as it was granted to Queen Eliz- abeth, and explained in the Book of Injunctions ; nor have any of us been unwilling to subscribe and swear to it. We believe it to be the king's natural right without a statute law, and that ttie churches within his dominions would sin dam- nably if they did* not yield it to him. Nay, we believe that the king cannot alienate it from his crown, or transfer it to any spiritual potentates or rulers ; and that it is not tied to his faith or Christianity, but to his very crown : so that if he were an infidel, the supremacy is his due. 2. " We hold that no church officers have power to deprive the king of any branch of his royal prerogative, much less of his supremacy, which is inseparable from him. 3. " That no ecclesiastical officers have pow- er over the bodies, lives, goods, or liberties of any person within the king's dominions. 4. " That the king may make laws for the good ordering of the churches within his domin- ions ; and that the churches ought not to be dis- obedient, unless they apprehend them contrary to the Word of God ; and even in such case they are not to resist, but peaceably to forbear obedience, and submit to the punishment, if mercy cannot be obtained. 5. " That the king only hath power within his dominions to convene synods or general assem- blies of ministers, and by his authority royal to ratify and give life to their canons and consti- tutions, without whose ratification no man can force any subject to yield obedience to the same. 6. " That the king ought not to be subject to the censures of any churches, church officers, or synods, whatsoever ; but only to that church, and those officers of his own court and house- hold with whom he shall voluntarily join in communion, where there can be no fear of un- just usage. 7. " If a king, after he has held communion with a Christian church, should turn apostate, or live in a course of open defiance to the laws of God and religion, the church governors are to give over their spiritual charge and tuition of him, which, by calling from God and the king, they did undertake ; and more than this they may not do, for the king still retains his supreme authority over the churches as entirely, and in as ample a manner, as if he were the most Chris- tian prince in the world. 8. " We refuse no obedience to the king, nor to any of the canons required by the prelates, but such as we are willing to take upon our consciences, and to swear, if required, that we believe contrary to the Word of God. We deny no ecclesiastical jurisdiction to the king but that which Christ has appropriated to himself, who is the sole doctor and legislator of his Church. 9. " We are so far from claiming any suprem- acy to ourselves, that we exclude from ourselves all secular pomp and power, holding it a sin to punish men in their bodies, goods, liberties, or lives, for any merely spiritual offence. 10. " We confine all ecclesiastical jurisdic- tion within one congregation, and that jurisdic- tion is not alone in the ministers, but also in the elders of the church ; and their jurisdiction is merely spiritual. " Therefore all that we crave of his majesty and the state is, that, with his and their permis- sion, it maybe lawful for us to worship God ac- cording to his revealed will ; and that we may not be forced to the observance of any human rites and ceremonies. We are ready to make an open confession of our faith and form of wor- ship, and desire that we may not be obliged to worship God in corners, but that our religious and civil behaviour may be open to the obser- vation and censure of the civd government, to whom we profess all due subjection. So long as it shall please the king and Parliament to maintain the hierarchy or prelacy in this king- dom, v/e are content that they enjoy their state and dignity ; and we will live as brethren among those ministers that acknowledge spiritual hom- age to their spiritual lordships, paying to them all temporal duties of tithes, &c., and joining with them in the service and worship of God, so far as we may without our own particular communicating in those human traditions which we judge unlawful. Only we pray that the prel- ates and their ecclesiastical officers may not be our judges, but that we may both of us stand at the bar of the civil magistrate ; and that if we shall be openly vilified and slandered, it may be lawful for us, without fear of punishment, to jus- tify ourselves to the world ; and then we shall think our lives, and all that we have, too little to spend in the service of our king and country." Though the principles of submission are here laid down with great latitude, and though the practice of the Puritans was agreeable to them, yet their enemies did not fail to charge them with disloyalty, with sedition, and with disturb- ing the peace of the state. Upon which the ministers of Devon and Cornwall published an- other small treatise, entitled " A Removal of certain Imputations laid upon the Ministers," &c., in which they say, p. 21, "Let them [the bishops] sift well our courses since his majesty's happy entrance in among us, and let them name wherein we have done aught that may justly be said ill to become the ministers of Jesus Christ. Have we drawn any sword 1 have we raised any tumult 1 have we used any threats 1 hath the state been put into any lear or hazard through us 1 Manifold disgraces have been cast upon us, and we have endured them ; the liberty of our ministry hath been taken from us, and (though with bleeding hearts) we have sustained it. We have been cast out of our houses, and deprived of our ordinary maintenance, yet have we blown no trumpet of sedition. Tliese things have gone very near us, and yet did we never so much as entertain a thought of violence. The truth is, HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 251 we have petitioned the king and state ; and who hath reason to deny us that liberty 1 we have craved of the prelates to deal with us according to law ; and is not this the common benefit of every subject] we have besought them to con- vince our consciences by Scripture. Alas ! what would they have us to do 1 will they have us content ourselves with this only, that they are bishops, and therefore, for their greatness, ought to be yielded to 1 the weight of episcopal power may oppress us, but cannot convince us."* j It appears from hence, that the Puritans' were the king's faithful subjects ; that they complied to the utmost limit of their consciences ; and that when they could not obey, they were content to suffer. Here are no principles inconsistent with the public safety ; no marks of heresy, impiety, or sedition ; no charges of ignorance or neglect of duty ; how unreasonable, then, must it be to silence and deprive such men ! to shut them up in prison, or send them with their families a beg- ging, while their pulpit-doors were to be shut up, and there was a famine in many parts of the country, not of bread, but of the Word of the Lord ;t yet these honest men were not only per- secuted at home, but restrained from retiring into his majesty's dominions abroad ; for when the ecclesiastical courts had driven them from their habitations and livelihoods, and were still hunting them by their informers from one end of the land to the other, several families crossed the ocean to Virginia, and invited their friends to follow ; but Bancroft, being informed that great numbers were preparing to embark, ob- tained a proclamation prohibiting them to trans- port themselves to Virginia without a special li- cense from the king ; a severity hardly to be paralleled ! nor was it ever imitated in this coun- try except by Archbishop Laud. The isles of Guernsey and Jersey having en- joyed the discipline of the French churches without disturbance all the reign of Queen Eliz- abeth, upon the accession of the present king addressed his majesty for a confirmation of it,t which he was pleased to grant by a letter under the privy seal, in these words : " Whereas we have been given to understand that our dear sister, Queen Elizabeth, did permit and allow, to the isles of Jersey and Guernsey, *■ Episcoporum auctoritas opprimere nos potest, do- cere non potest. — Ed. t Rapin, vol. ii., p. 176, 185, folio edition. j Dr. Grey quotes here Collyer's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 705, in contradiction to Mr. Neal, and to charge the Puritans as " addressing King James with a false suggestion, that the discipline had been allowed by Queen Elizabeth." Dr. Grey's stricture would have been superseded, if he had attended to Mr. Neal's state of the business ; who says only, that " the discipline of the French churches had been en- joyed without disturbance all the reign of Queen Elizabeth," without asserting whether this indulgence were owing to connivance or to an express grant. Heylin, however, says that the " Genevian discipline had been settled by Queen Elizabeth." — Hint, of Presb., p. 395. And Collyer himself owns, that though the queen allowed only one church to adopt the mod- el of Geneva, and enjoined the use of the English lit- urgy in all others, yet it was soon laid aside by all the churches, and the Geneva plan adopted by the decree of synods, held under the countenance of the governors of Guernsey and the neighbouring isles. These authorities fully justify Mr. Neal's representa- tion.— Ed. parcels of the duchy of Normandy, the use of the government of the Reformed churches of the said duchy, whereof they have stood pos- sessed till our coming to the crown ; for this cause, as well as for the edification of the Church, we do will and ordain that our said isles shall quietly enjoy their said liberty in the use of ecclesiastical discipline there now estab- lished, forbidding any one to give them any trouble or impeachment so long as they contain themselves in our obedience. " Given at Hampton Court, August 8th, in the first year of our reign, 1603." But Bancroft, and some of his brethren the bishops, having possessed the king with the ne- cessity of a general uniformity throughout all his dominions, these islands were to be inclu- ded ; accordingly. Sir John Peyton, a zealous churchman, was appointed governor, with se- cret instructions to root out the Geneva disci- pline, and plant the English liturgy and ceremo- nies.* This gentleman, taking advantage of the synod's appointing a minister to a vacant living, according to custom, protested against it as injurious to the king's prerogative, and complained to court that the Jersey ministers had usurped the patronage of the benefices of the island ; that they had admitted men to liv- ings without the form of presentation, which was a loss to the crown in its first-fruits ; that by the connivance or allowance of former gov- ernors, they exercised a kind of arbitrary juris- diction, and therefore prayed that his majesty would settle the English discipline among them.f The Jersey ministers alleged in their own de- fence, that the presentation to livings was a branch of their discipline, and that the payments of first-fruits and tenths had never been de- manded since they were disengaged from the see of Constance. They pleaded his majesty's royal confirmation of their discipline, which was read publicly in a synod of both islands in the year 1605. But this pious king had very little regard to promises, oaths, or charters, when they stood in the way of his arbitrary de- signs ; he ordered, therefore, his ecclesiastical officers to pursue his instructions in the most effectual manner. Accordingly, they took the presentations to vacant livings into their own hands without consulting the presbytery ; they annulled the oath, whereby all ecclesiastical and civil officers were obliged to swear to the main- tenance of their discipline ; and whereas all who received the holy sacrament were requi- red to subscribe to the allowance of the general form of church government in that island, the king's attorney-general and his friends now re- fused it. Their elders, likewise, were cited into the temporal courts, and stripped of their privi- leges ; nor had they much better quarter in the consistory, for the governor and jurats made the decrees of that court ineffectual by reversing them in the Town Hall. Complaint being made to the court of these innovations, the king sent them word that, to avoid all disputes for the future, he was de- termined to revive the office and authority of a dean, and to establish the English Common Prayer Book among them, which he did accord- * Heyl., Hist. Presb., p. 396, and Collyer's Eccles. Hist., p. 705. t Heylin's Hist. Presb., p. 396. 352 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. ingly,* and ordered the Bishop of Winchester, in whose diocess they were, to draw up some canons for the dean's direction in the exercise of his government ; which being done, and con- firmed liy the king, their former privileges were extinguished. Whereupon many left the islands and retired into France and Holland ; however, others made a shift to support their discipline after a manner, in the island of Guernsey, where the episcopal regulations could not take place. Mr. Robert Parker, a Puritan minister al- ready mentioned, published this year a very learned treatise " Of the Cross in Baptism."! But the bishops, instead of answering it, per- suaded the king to issue a proclamation, with an offer of a reward for apprehending him, which obliged him to abscond. A treacherous servant of the family having informed the officers where he had retired, they came and searched the house, but, by the special providence of God, he was preserved, the only room they neglected to search being that in which he was concealed, from whence he heard them quarrelling and swearing at one another, one saying they had not searched that room, and another confidently asserting the contrary, and refusing to suffer it to be searched over again. Had he been taken, he had been cast into prison, where, without doubt, says my author, he must have died. When he got into Holland he would have been chosen minister of the English church at Am- sterdam, but the magistrates being afraid of disobliging King James, he went to Doesburgh, and became minister of that garrison, where he departed this life, 1630. This year died the famous Dr. John Ray- nolds, king's professor in Oxford. He was at first a zealous papist, while his brother William was a Protestant, but, by conference and dispu- tation, the brothers converted each other, Will- iam dying an inveterate papist, and John an eminent Protestant. t He was born in Devon- shire, 1549, and educated in Corpus Christi Col- lege, Oxford, of which he was afterward presi- dent. He was a prodigy for reading, his mem- ory being a living library. Dr. Hall used to say that his memory and reading were near a miracle. He had turned over all writers, pro- fane and ecclesiastical, as councils, fathers, histories, &c. He was a critic in the lan- guages,!^ of a sharp wit and indefatigable indus- try ; his piety and sanctity of life were so emi- nent and conspicuous, that the learned Cracan- thorp used to say, that to name Raynolds was to commend virtue itself He was also pos- sessed of great modesty and humility. In short, says the Oxford historian, nothing can be spo- ken against him but that he was the pillar of Puritanism, and the grand favourer of noncon- formity. At length, after a severe and morti- fied life, he died in his college, May 21, 1607, aged sixty-eight, and was buried with great fu- neral solemnity in St. Mary's Church. || * Collyer, vol. ii., p. 706. Heylin's Hist. Presb., p. 398, 399. t Pierce, p. 171. t Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 477, % p. 24, who tells us that Mr. Baynes, being summoned on a time before the privy council, on pretence of keeping conventicles, and called on to speak for himself, made such an excellent speech, that, in the mid.st of it, a nobleman stood up and said, " He speaks more like an angel than a man, and I dare not stay here to have a hand in any sentence against him.'' Upon which speech he was dismissed, and never heard any more from them. The follow- ing anecdote is related of Mr. Baynes, showing the warmth of his natural temper, with his readiness to receive reproof, and to make a proper use of it. A religious gentleman placed his son under his care and tuition, and Mr. Baynes, entertaining some friends at supper, sent the boy into the town for something which they wanted. The boy stayed longer than was proper. Mr. Baynes reproved him with some sharpness, severely censuring his con- duct. The boy remained silent ; but the next day, when his tutor was calm, he thus addressed him : " My father placed ine under your care not only for the benefit of human learning, but that by your pious counsel and example I might be brought up in the fear of God ; but you, sir, giving way to your passion the last night, gave me a very evil example, such as I have never seen in my father's house." " Sayest thou so?" answered Mr. Baynes: "go to my tailor, and let him buy thee a suit of clothes, and make them for thee, which 1 will pay for, to make thee amends." And it is added, that Mr. Baynes watched more nar- rowly over his own spirit ever after. — Brookes'a Lives, &c., vol. ii., p. 264.— C. 264 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. being in custody, it was easy to foretel their approaching fate. They complained of injus- tice in their summons to the provincial assem- blies, but Trigland says that where the Remon- strants [Arminians] were weakest they were equally regarded with the other party ; but in truth their deputies were angry and dissatis- fied, and in many places absented from their classes, and so yielded up their power into the hands of their adversaries, who condemned their principles and deposed several of their ministers. The National Synod of Dort consisted of thir- ty-eight Dutch and Walloon divines, five pro- fessors of the universities, and twenty-one lay- elders, making together sixty-one persons, of which not above three or four were Remon- strants. Besides these, there were twenty-eight foreign divines, from Great Britain, from the Palatinate, from Hessia, Switzerland, Geneva, Bremen, Embden, Nassau, and Wetteravia ; the French king not admitting his Protestant divines to appear. Next to the States' deputies sat the English divines ; the second place was reserved for the French divines ; the rest sat in the or- der recited. Upon the right and left hand of the chair, next to the lay-deputies, sat the Neth- erland professors of divmity, then the ministers and elders, according to the rank of their prov- inces ; the Walloon churches sitting last. Af- ter the divines, as well domestic as foreign, had produced their credentials, the Rev. Mr. John Bogerman, ofLeewarden, was chosen president, the Rev. Mr. Jacob Roland and Herman Fauke- lius, of Amsterdam and Middleburgh, assessors ; Heinsius was scribe, and the Rev. Mr. Dammon and Festius Hommius, secretaries ; a general fast was then appointed, after which they pro- ceeded to business. The names of the English divines were. Dr. Carlton, bishop of LlandafT; Dr. Hall, dean of Worcester, afterward bishop of Norwich ; Dr. Davenant, afterward bishop of Salisbury ; and Dr. Samuel Ward,' master of Sidney College, Cambridge ;* but Dr. Hall not being able to bear the climate,t Dr. Goad, prebendary of Can- terbury, was appointed in his room. Mr. Balcan- qual, a Scotsman, but no friend to the Kirk, was also commissioned by King James to represent that church. He was taken into consultation, and joined in suffrage with the English divines, so as to make one college ; for the divines of each nation gave only one vote in the synod, as their united sense ; and though Balcanqual did not wear the habits of the English divines, nor sit with them in the synod, having a place by himself as representative of the Scots Kirk, yet, says the Bishop of Llandaff, his apparel was decent, and in all respects he gave much satis- faction. His majesty's instructions to them were, (1.) To agree among themselves about the state of any question, and how far it may be * Fuller's Worthies, p. 159. ■\ Before Bishop Hall left the synod he delivered a Latin sermon before the Assembly, who, by their president and assistants, took a solemn leave of him ; and the deputies of the States dismissed him with honourable rewards, and sent him a rich gold medal, bearmg the portraiture of the synod. Dr. Hall was moderate upon the five points controverted in that synod, as appears by the treatise which he soon alter wrote, and which is among his published works, un- der the title of " Via Media."— HaWs Life in Middle- *on's Biography, vol. iii., p. 355. — C. maintained agreeably to the Scriptures and the doctrine of the Church of England. (2.) To ad- .vise the Dutch ministers not to insist in their sermons upon scholastic points, but to abide bj their former confession of faith, and those of their neighbour Reformed churches. (3.) That tbey should consult the king's honour, the peace of the distracted churches, and behave in all things with gravity and moderation. When all the members of the synod were as- sembled, they took the following oath, in the twenty-third session, each person standing up in his place, and laying his hand upon his liQart: " I promise, before God, whom I believe and worship, as here present, and as the searcher of the reins and heart, that during the whole course of the transactions of this synod, in which there will be made an inquiry into, and judgment and decision of, not only the well-known five points, and all the difficulties resulting from thence, but likewise of all other sorts of doctrine, I will not make use of any kind of human writings, but only of the Word of God, as a sure and infallible rule of faith. Neither will I have any other thing in view throughout this whole discussion but the honour of God, the peace of the Church, and, above all, the preservation of the purity of doc- trine. So help me my Saviour Jesus Christ, whom I ardently beseech to assist me in this my design, by his Holy Spirit."* This was all the oath that was taken, says Bishop Hall, as I hope to be saved. It was therefore an unjust insinuation of Mr. John Goodwin, who, in his "Redemption Redeemed," p. 395, charged them with taking a previous oath to condemn the opposite party on what terms soever. " It grieves my soul," says the bishop, " to see any learned divine raising such imaginary conjectures ; but since I have seen it, I bless my God that I yet live to vindicate them [1651] by this my knowing and clear at- testation, which I am ready to second with the solemnest oath, if required." The synod continued to the 29th of May, in which time there were one hundred and eighty sessions. In the hundred and forty-fifth ses- sion, and 30th of April, the Belgic confession of faith was debated and put to the question, which the English divines agreed to, except the articles relating to the parity of ministers and ecclesi- astical discipline. They said they had carefully examined the said confession, and did not find anything therein, with respect to faith and doc- trine, but what was, in the main, conformable to the Word of God.t They added, that they had likewise considered the Remonstrants' [Ar- minians] exceptions against the said confession, and declared that they were of such a nature as to be capable of being made against all the con- fessions of other Reformed churches. They did not pretend to pass any judgment upon the ar- ticles relating to their church government, but only maintained that their own church govern- ment was founded upon apostolic institution. Mr. John Hales, of Eton, chaplain to the Eng- lish ambassador Carlton, sat among the hearers for some weeks, and having taken minutes of the proceedings, transmitted them twice or thrice a * Brandt, vol. iii., p. G2 ; or the Abridgment of Brandt, 8vo, vol. u., p. 417. t Brandt, vol. iii., p. 288 ; or Abridgment, vol. ii., p. 508, 509. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 205 week to his excellency at the Hague. After his departure, Dr. Balcanqual, the Scots commis- sioner, and Dr. Ames, carried on the correspond- ence. Mr. Hales observes that the Remon- strants behaved on several occasions very im- prudently,* not only in the manner of their de- bates, but in declining the authority of the synod, though summoned by the civil magistrate in the most unexceptionable manner. The live points of difference between the Calvinists and Armin- ians, after a long hearing, were decided in fa- vour of the former. After which the Remon- strant ministers were dismissed the assembly, and banished the country within a limited time, except they submitted to the new confession ; on which occasion some very hard speeches were mutually exchanged, and appeals made to the final tribunal of God. When the opinion of the British divines was read, upon the extent of Christ's redemption, it was observed that they omitted the received distinction between the sufficiency and efficacy of it ; nor did they touch upon the received lim- itation of those passages which, speaking of Christ's dying for the whole world, are usually interpreted of the world of the elect, Dr. Dave- nant and some of his brethren inclining to the doctrine of universal redemption.! In all oth- er points there was a perfect harmony ; and even in this Balcanqual says King James and the Archbishop of Canterbury desired them to comply, though Heylin says their instructions were not to oppose the doctrine of universal re- demption. But Dr. Davenant and Ward were for a middle way between the two extremes : they maintained the certainty of the salvation of the elect, and that offers of pardon were sent not only to all who should believe and repent, but to all who heard the Gospel ; and that grace sufficient to convince and persuade the impeni- tent (so as to lay the blame of their condemna- tion upoti themselves) went along with these offers ; that the redemption of Christ and his merits were applicable to these, and, conse- quently, there was a possibility of their salva- tion. However, they complied with the synod, and declared their confession, in the main, agreeable to the Word of God ; but this gave rise to a report, some years after, that they had deserted the doctrine of the Church of England ; upon which Bishop Hall expressed his concern to Doctor Davenant in these words : " I shall live and 6,16 in suffrage of that Synod of Dort ; and I do confidently avoio that those other opin- ions [of Arrmniiis] cannot stand with the doctrine of the Church of England." To which Bishop Davenant replied in these words : " I know that no man can embrace Arminianism in the doc- trines of predestination and grace, but he must desert the articles agreed upon by the Church of England ; nor in the point of perseverance, but he must vary from the received opinions of our best-approved doctors in the English Church." Yet Heylin has the assurance to say, " that though the Arminian controversy brought some trouble for the present to the churches of Holland, it was of greater advan- tage to the Church of England, whose doctrine in those points had been so overborne by the Calvinists, that it was almost reckoned for a * Hales's Remains, p. 507, 512, 526, 586, 587. t Brandt, p. 526. Vol. I.— L l heresy to be sound and orthodox [i. c, an Armin- ian] according to the Book of Articles established by law in the Church of England." He adds, " that King James did not appear for Calvinism out of judgment, but for reasons of state, and from a personal friendship to Prince Maurice, who had put himself at their head. He there- fore sent such divines as had zeal enough to condemn the Remonstrants, though it was well known that he had disapproved the articles of Lambeth, and the doctrine of predestination ; nor was it a secret what advice he had given Prince Maurice before he put himself at the head of the Calvinists."* When the synod was risen, people spake of it in a very different manner;! the States of Holland were highly satisfied : they gave high rewards to the chief divines,]: and ordered the original records of their proceedings to be pre- served among their archives. The English di- vines expressed full satisfaction in the proceed- ings of the synod. Mr. Baxter says the Chris- tian world, since the days of the apostles, never had an assembly of more excellent divines. The learned Jacobus Capellus, professor of Ley- den, declared that the equity of the fathers of this synod was such, that no instance can be given, since the apostolic age, of any other syn- od in which the heretics were heard with more patience, or which proceeded with a better tem- per or more sanctity. P. du Moulin, Paulus Servita, and the author of the life of Waleus, speaks the same language. But others poured contempt upon the synod, and burlesqued their proceedings in the following lines : Dordrechti synodus, nodus ; chorus integer, aeger; Conventus, ventus, sessio, stramen. Amen. Lewis du Moulin, with all the favourers of the Arminian doctrines, as Heylin, Womack, Brandt, &LC., charge them with partiality and unjustifia- ble severity. Upon the whole, in my judgment, they proceeded with as much discretion and candour as most assemblies, ancient or modern, have done, who have pretended to establish ar- ticles for other men's faith with penal sanctions. I shall take leave of this venerable body with this farther remark, that King James sending over divines to join this assembly was on open acknowledgment of the validity of ordination by mere presbyters ; here being a bishop of the Church of England sitting as a private member in a synod of divines of which a mere presby- ter was the president. In the summer of the year 1617, King James made a progress into Scotland, to advance the episcopal cause in that country ; the Chapel of Edinburgh was adorned after the manner of \Vhitehall, pictures being carried from hence, together with the statues of the twelve apostles, wliich were set up in the church. His majesty treated his Scots subjects with a haughty dis- tance ; telling them, both in the Parliament and General Assembly, " that it was a power innate, a princely special prerogative which Christian kings have, to order and dispose external things * Hist. Presb., p. 381. t Brandt, p. 307, 308 ; or Abridgment, vol. ii., p. 531. X Each divme of the United Provinces received four florins a day. The synod cost ten tons of gold, i. e., a million of florins. — Brandt Abridged, vol. ii., p. 531.— Ed. 2G6 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. in the outward polity of the Church, or as we with our bishops shall think fit ; and, sirs, for your approving or disproving, deceive not your- selves : I M'ill not have my reason opposed." Two acts relating to the Church were passed this session ; one concerning the choice of arch- bishops and bishops, and another for the r.esti- tution of chapters ; but the ministers protesting against both, several of them were suspended and deprived, and others banished, as, the Mel- vins, Mr. Forbes, &c., and as the famous Mr. Calderwood, author of the Altare Damascenum, had been before ; which bool<, when one of the English prelates promised to answer, the king replied, " What will you answer, man 1 There is nothing here than Scripture, reason, and fa- thers."* Next year a convention or assembly was summoned to meet at Perth, August 25, 1618. It consisted of some noblemen, statesmen, bar- ons, and burgesses, chosen on purpose to bear down the ministers ; and with what violence things were carried, God and all indifferent spectators, says my author, are witnesses. In this assembly the court and bishops made a shift to carry the following five articles : 1. That the Holy Sacrament shall be received kneeling. 2. That ministers shall be obliged to admin- ister the sacrament in private houses to the sick, if they desire it. 3. That ministers may baptize children pri- vately at home, in cases of necessity, only cer- tifying it to the congregation the next Lord's Day. 4. That ministers shall bring such children of their parish as can say their catechism, and repeat the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, to the bishops, to confirm and give them their blessing. 5. That the festivals of Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and the Ascension of our Saviour, shall, for the future, be commemorated in the Kirk of Scotland.! The king ordered these articles to be publish- ed at the market-crosses of the several bor- oughs, and the ministers to read them in their pulpits, which the greatest number of the latter refused, there being no penalty except the king's displeasure ; but the vote of the assembly at Perth not being sufficient to establish these ar- ticles into a law, it was resolved to use all the interest of the court to carry them through the Parliament. This was not attempted till the year 1621, when the Parliament meeting on the 1st of June, the ministers had prepared a sup- plication against the five articles, giving reasons why they should not be received or confirmed, and came to Edinburgh in great numbers to * This Bishop Warburton understands as said ironically. — Ed. t " A prince," observes a judicious historian, "must be strangely infatuated and strongly preju- diced to employ his power and influence in establish- ing such matters as these I Let rites and ceremo- nies be deemed ever so decent, who will say they are fit to be imposed by methods of severity and con- straint? Yet, by these ways, these matters were introduced among the Scots, to the disgrace of hu- manity and the eternal blemish of a prince who boasted of his learning, and was forever displaying his abiUties."— Z>r. Harris's Life of James, p. 236, 237. — Ed support it. Upon this, the king's commissioner, by advice of the bishops and council, issued a proclamation, commanding all ministers to de- part out of Edinburgh within twenty hours, ex- cept the settled ministers of the city, and such as should have a license from the bishop. The ministers obeyed, leaving behind them a prot- estation against the articles, and an admo- nition to the members of Parliament not to rat- ify them, as they would answer it in the day of judgment. They alleged that the assembly of Perth was illegal, and that the articles wore against the privileges of the Kirk and the estab- lished laws of the kingdom. This bred a great deal of ill blood, and raised a new persecution throughout the kingdom, many of the Presby- terian ministers being fined, imprisoned, and banished by the High Commission, at a time when, by their interest with the people, it was in their power to have turned their taskmasters out of the kingdom.* Thus far King James proceeded towards the restitution of episcopacy in Scotland, but one thing was still wanting to complete the work, which was a public liturgy or Book of Common Prayer. Several consultations were held upon this head, but the king, being assured it would occasion an insurrection over the whole king- dom, wisely dropped it. leaving that unhappy work to be finished by his son, whose imposing it upon the Kirk, without consent of Parliament or General Assembly, set fire to the discontents of the people, which had been gathering for many years. To return to England. This year the learned Mr. Selden was summoned before the High Commission for publishing his History of Tithes, in which he proves them not to be of Divine, but human appointment ; and, after many threat- enings, was obliged to sign the following recan- tation : " My good lords, " I most humbly acknowledge my error in publishing the History of Tithes, and especially in that I have at all (by showing any interpre- tation of Holy Scriptures, by meddling with councils, fathers, or canons, or by what else so- ever occurs in it) offered any occasion of argu- ment against any right of maintenance, jure di- vino, of the ministers of the Gospel : beseeching your lordships to receive this ingenuous and humble acknowledgment, together with the un- feigned protestation of my grief, for that I have so incurred his majesty and your lordships' dis- pleasure conceived against me in behalf of the Church of England. " January 28, 1618. John Selden." Notwithstanding this submission, Mr. Fuller says it is certain that a fiercer storm never fell upon all parsonage barnst since the Reforraa- * Bishop Warburton is not wilhng to allow them the praise of acting with this caution and temper, " for," he remarks, " soon after they used their inter- est to this purpose, and I believe they began to use it as soon as they got it." The bishop did not con- sider that it is not in human nature, any more than it is consistent with wisdom and moderation, to pro- ceed, though injured and provoked, to extremities at first. That the Scotch Presbyterian ministers should have great interest with the people, was the neces- sary consequence of their being sufferers for the prin- ciples of the Kirk and the nation. — Ed. t Bishop Warburton, because he himself appro- HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 267 tion what was raised by this treatise ; nor did Mr. Selden quicien, says Ar- chy, I will take my cap off from your head, and put it on the King of Spain's.! The Spaniards gave out that the design of the prince's journey was to reconcile himself to the Church of Rome. It is certain the pope wrote to the Bishop of Conchen to lay hold of this opportunity to con- vert him,t and directed a most persuasive let- ter to the prince himself to the same purpose, dated April 20, 1623, which the prince answer- ed June 20, in a very obliging manner, giving the pope the title of the Most Holy Father, and encouraging him to expect that, when he came to the crown, there should be but one religion in his dominions, seeing, says he, that both Cath- •jlics and Protestants believe in one Jesus Christ. He was strongly solicited to change his religion by some of the first quality, and by the most learned priests and Jesuits, who ca- ressed his highness with speeches, dedicated books to him, invited him to their processions, and gave him a view of their most magnifioent churclies and relics ; by which artifices, though he was not converted, he was confirmed in his resolution of attempting a coalition of the two churches ;* for the attempting of which he af- terward lost both his crown and life.f It was happy, after all, that the prince got safe out of the Spanish territories, which, as Spanheim ob- serves, that politic court would not have per- mitted, had they not considered that the Queea of Bohemia, next heir to the crown, was a great- er eneny to popery than her brother. J But, af- ter all, when this memorable treaty of marriage had been upon the carpet seven years, and wanted nothing but celebration, the portion be- ing settled, the pope's dispensation obtained, the marriage articles sworn to on both sides, and the very day of celebration by proxy appointed, it was broke off by the influence of the Duke of Buckingham upon the prince, who ordered the Earl of Bristol not to deliver the proxy till the time limited by the dispensation was expi- red ; the King of Spain, suspecting the design, in order to throw all the blame upon the King * Fuller, b. x., p. 100. i- Rapin, vol. ii., p. 226, the note, folio edit. X Wilson, p. 230 ; Rapin, vol. ii., p. 221, folio edit, * "This," says Bishop Warburton, "is an utter calumny ; a coalition of the two churches was never in the king's thouglits ; happy for him if he had nev- er had worse ; what he aimed at was arbitrary pow- er." It is strange how his lordship could give his pen a license to pass this unjust censure on Mr. Neal, when the conduct of Charles 1. furnished so many proofs of his wishes and endeavours to coalesce with, the Church of Rome. His letter to the pope from Madrid, the articles of the marriage-treaty, to which, he solemnly signed and swore, and the private arti- cles to which he also swore, are witnesses to the truth of Mr. Neal's assertion. If he had not aimed at this, why did he disown the foreign Protestants ? Why did he restrain the press with respect to books written against popery, and license publications in favour of it? Why was popery not only tolerated, but countenanced and favoured ? See the facts to this purpose fully stated in Towgood's " Essay to- wards a true Idea of the Character of Charles 1.," chap. ix. So far did he carry his views and endeav- ours on this business. Whitelocke informs us a scheme was in agitation to set up a new popish hie- rarchy by the bishops in all the counties in England, by the authority of the pope. — Memorials, p. 72. And the Jesuit Franciscus a Clara, the queen's chap- lain, certainly thought things were in a train for such a coalition ; for in one of his publications, he assert- ed, " that if any synod were held non iiUermixtis Pu- ritanis, setting Puritans aside, our articles and their religion would soon be agreed."— Ma^'s History of the Parliament, p. 74. Dr. Grey also aims to contro- vert this passage of Mr. Neal, and with this view re- fers us to Rushworth, Frankland, Hacket, and Bur- ned ; but the quotations he adduces from these wri- ters are not to the point, and prove only, as Mr. Neal allows, that Charles was not converted to popery. — See Dr. Grey's Examination of Neal, vol. ii., p. 71. — Ed. t Rapin, -vol. ii., p. 226, vide note, folio edit. X Dr. Grey '.-ensures Mr. Neal for not quoting Spanheim fairly; and this writer, as Tyndal and Welwood, from whom he borrows the passage, rep- resent his words, dties not, it is true, say that the Queen of Bohemia was a greater enemy to popery than her brother, but only resolves the conduct of the court of Spain into the consideration of her and her children being next heirs to the crown of Eng- land. Mr. Neal, therefore, is to be understood as suggesting the reason why the consideration of her and her children had so much weight with the court of Spain. Few who reflect on the firm attachment of that lady to the Protestant cause will suspect Mr. Neal of mistaking the cause of the Spanish policy. It would have been, however, more accurate in him to have quoted at large the words of Spanheim, and then to have subjoined his own suggestion as ex planatory of them. — Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 275 of England, signed a promise with his own hand, and deUvered it to the ambassador, wherein he obliged himself to cause the Palatinate to be re- stored to the elector palatine, in case the marriage took effect ; but his highness was immovable, and obliged the king to recall his ambassador. From this time the prince and duke seemed to turn Puritans, the latter having taken Dr. John Preston, one of their chief ministers, into his service, to consult him about alienating the dean and chapter lands to the purpose of preach- ing. They also advised the king to convene a Parliament, which his majesty did, and made such a speech to them as one would think im- possible to come from the same lips with the former. " I assure you," says he, speaking of the Spanish match, "on the faith of a Christian king, that it is res Integra presented unto you, and that I stand not bound nor either way en- gaged, but remain free to follow what shall be best advised." His majesty adds, " I can truly say, and will avouch it before the seat of God and angels, that never did king govern with a purer, sincerer, and more uncorrupt heart than I have done, far from ilZ-will and meaning of the least error and imperfection in my reign. It has been talked of my remissness in nfainte- nance of religion, and suspicion of a tolera- tion [of popery] ;* but. as God shall judge me, I never thought nor meant, nor ever in word expressed, anything that savoured of it. I nev- er, in all my treaties, agreed to anything to the overthrow and disannulling of those laws, but had in all a chief regard to the preservation of that truth which I have ever professed." The reader will remember how this agrees with the marriage articles above mentioned, to which the king had sworn. But the Parliament, taking things as the king had represented them, advised his majesty to break off the match, and to declare war for the recovery of the Palatinate ; and, at the same time, petitioned his majesty that all Jesuits and seminary priests might be commanded to depart the realm ; that the laws might be put in execution against popish recusants ; that all such might be removed from court, and ten miles from London. t To which the king made this remarkable answer, which must strike the reader with surprise and wonder : " What reli- gion I am of my books declare ; I wish it may be written in marble, and remain to posterity as a mark upon me, when I shall swerve from my religion ; for he that dissembles with God is not to be trusted with men. I protest before God that my heart hath bled when I have heard of the increase of popery. God is my judge, it hath been such a grief to me, that it hath been as thorns in my eyes and pricks in my sides. It hath been my desire to hinder the growth of popery ; and I could not be an honest man if I had done otherwise. I will order the laws to be put m execution against popish recusants as they were before these treaties, for the laws are still in being, and were never dispensed with by me ; God is my judge, they were never so intended by me." What solemn appeals to Heaven are these against the clearest and most undeniable facts ! * Rapin, vol. h., p. 227, 228, foho edit, t Rapin, vol. h., p. 229, 230, folip edit. ; Rush- v.'orth, p. 141-143. It requires a good degree of charity to believe this prince had either religion or conscience remain- ing. For though he assured his Parliament that his heart bled within him when he heard of the increase of popery, yet this very Parlia- ment presented him with a list of fifty-seven popish lords and knights who were in public offices, none of whom were displaced, while the Puritan ministers were driven out of the king- dom, and hardly a gentleman of that character advanced to the dignity of a justice of peace. The Parliament being prorogued, the king, instead of going heartily into the war, or mar- rying his son to a Protestant princess, entered into a ticaty with Louis XIII., king of France, for bis sister, Henrietta Maria.* Upon this oc- casion the Archbishop of Ambrun was sent into England, who told the king the best way to ac- complish the match for his son was to grant a full toleration to Catholics. The king re- plied, that he intended to grant it, and was will- ing to have an assembly of divines to compro- mise the difference between Protestants and papists, and promised to send a letter to the pope to bring him into the project. In this let- ter, says Monsieur Deageant in his memoirs, the king styles the pope Christ's vicar, and head of the Church universal, and assures him he would declare himself a Catholic as soon as he could provide against the inconveniences of such a declaration ; but whether this was so or not, it is certain he immediately relaxed the penal laws against papists, and permitted Am- brun to administer confirmation to ten thousand Catholics at the door of the French ambassa- dor's house, in the presence of a great con- course of people. In the mean time the treaty of marriage went forward, and was at last sign- ed, November 10, 1624, in the thirty-three pub- lic articles, and three secret ones, wherein the very same or greater advantages were stipula- ted for the Catholics than in those of Madrid ;f but, before the dispensation from the pope could be obtained, his majesty fell sick at Theo- bald's of a tertian ague, which put an end to his life, not without suspicion of poison,J March 27, 1625, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.i) To review the course of this reign. It is ev- ident that both popery and Puritanism increased prodigiously, while the friends of the hierarchy sunk into contempt ; this was owing partly to the spiritual promotions, and partly to the arbi- trary maxims of state that the king had advan- ced. In promoting of bishopy the king discov- ered a greater regard to sucli ;'.s would yield a servile compliance to his absolute commands than to such as would fill their sees with repu- tation, and be an example to the people of reli- gion and Virtue, of which number were Bishop Neile, Buckeridge, Harsnet,|| Laud, &c. The * Rapin, vol. u., p. 231, 232, folio edit. t Ibid., vol. ii., p. 233, 234. X Those who wish to have an enlarged and accu- rate knowledge of the reign of James should con- sult Jesse's Memoirs of the House of Stuart, a very amusing work. — C. ^ Rapin, vol. ii. p. 235 ; Welwood's Memoirs, 9th edit., p. 35 ; and Dr. Harris's Life of James I., p. 237-242. II This prelate. Bishop Warburton says, " was a man of the greatest learning and parts of his tune." This he might be, and yet advanced not on account of his learmng, but because his courtly dispositions 276 HISTORY OF THE ri'RlTANS. fashionable doctrines at court were such as the king had condemned at the Synod of Dort, and which, in the opinion of the old English clergy, were subversive of" the Reformation. The new bishops admitted the Churcli of Rome to be a true church, and the pope the first bishop of Christendom. They declared for the lawfulness of images in churches ; for the real presence ; and that the doctrine of transubstantiation was a school nicety. They pleaded for confession to a priest, for sacerdotal absolution, and the proper merit of good works. They gave up the moral- ity of the Sabbath, and the five distinguishing points of Calvinisin, for which theii predeces- sors had contended. They claimed an aninter- rupted succession of the episcopal character from the apostles through the Church of Ronic, which obliged them to maintain the validity of her ordinations, when they denied the validity of those of the foreign Protestants. Farther, they began to imitate the Church of Rome in her gaudy ceremonies, in the rich furniture of their chapels, and the pomp of their worship. They complimented the Roman Catholic priests with their dignitary titles, and spent all their zeal in studying how to compromise matters with Rome, while they turned their backs upon the old Protestant doctrines of the Reformation, and were remarkably negligent in preaching or instructing the people in Christian knowledge. Things were come to such a pass, that Gonda- mar, tlie Spanish ambassador, wrote to Spain that there never were more hopes of England's conversion, for "there are more prayers," says he, "offered to the Mother than to the Son [of God]."* The priests and Jesuits challenged the established clergy to public disputations ; the Duke of Buckingham's mother being a pa- pist, a conference was held in her presence be- tween Fisher, a Jesuit, on the one part, and Drs. White, Williams, and "Laud, on the other. Each of them disputed with the Jesuit a day before a great concourse of people, but not to the countess's conversion, which was not at all strange, upon their principles. Among other popish books that were published, one was en- titled " A New Gag for the Old Gospel ;" which Dr. Montague, rector of Stamford-Rivers, an- recommended hiin to the royal taste. Fuller speaks of him " as a zealous asserter of ceremonies, using to complain of conformable Puritans." So that the just- ness of his claims to bt considered as a man of eru- dition being admitted, neither the candour nor veraci- ty of the historian for classing him as he does is im- peached by it. Learning and soundness of mind are by no means inseparable. — Ed. * This is not a just or accurate representation of the words. As Rapin relates it, Gondamar, perceiv- ing most addresses for preferment werb made first to the mother of the Marquis of Buckingliam, and by her conveyed to her son, who could deny hbr nothing, among his other witty pranks, wrote merrily in his despatches to Spain, " that never was there more hope of England's conversion to Rome than now ; for ' there are more prayers offered here to the mother than to the son." The words "of God," as Bishop War- burton and Dr. Grey observe, should be erased. It was a mere joke of the Spanish ambassador, speak- ing of court corruption under the terms of rehgion. Mr. Neal, by not referring to his authority, appears to quote it by recollection, and, indeed, to have mistaken the matter. Bishop Warbiirton is, however, very se- vere in his reflections on him, caUing his statement of it " a vile perversion of facts." The reader will de- cide on his lordship's candour here. — Ed. swered in such a manner as gave great ofTencc to the old clergy, yielding up all the points above mentioned, and not only declaring lor Ar- minianism, but making dangerous advances to- wards popery itself The book -occasioning a great noise, Mr. Ward and Yates, two ministers at Ipswich, made a collection of the popish and Arminian tenets it contained, in order to lay them before the next Parliament ; but the au- thor, with the king's leave, took shelter under the royal wing, and prepared for the press his " Apello Cesarem," or a just appeal from two unjust informers ; which While, bishop of Car- lisle, licensed in these words, that " there was nothing contained in the same but what was agreeable to the public faith, doctrine, and dis- cipline established in the Church of England." But before the book was published the king died. These advances of the court divines towards popery made most of the people fall in with the Puritans, who, being constant preachers, and of exemplary lives, wrought them up by their awakening sermons to an abhorrence of every- thing that looked that way.* Many of the no- bility and gentry favoured them. Lady Bowes, afterward Lady Darcy, gave £1000 per annum to maintain preachers in the north, where there were none, and all her preachers were silenced Nonconformists. Almost aU the famous prac- tical writers of this reign, except Bishop An- drews, were Puritans, and sufferers for non- conformity, as Dr. Willet, Mr. Jer, Dyke, Dr. Preston, Sibbs, Byfield, Bolton, Hildersham, Dod, Ball, Whately, and others, whose works have done great service to religion. The char- acter of these divines was the reverse of what the learned Seldent gives of the clergy t of these times in his "History of Tithes," where he taxes them with ignorance and laziness ; and adds, " tliat they had nothing to support their credit but beard, title, and habit ; and that their learning reached no farther than the postils and the polyanthia." Upon the whole, if we may believe Mr. Coke, the Puritan party had gather- ed so much strength, and was in such reputation with the people, that they were more in number than all the other parties in the kingdom put together. * Rothwell, p. 69, annexed to his General Martyr- ology. t In Preface, p. 1, second edition, 1C18. t Bishop Warburton severely censures Mr. Neal for applying the words of Selden as if spoken of the episcopal clergy. " Here," says he, " is another of the historian's arts ; Selden speaks of the Puritan clergy." Not to urge, in reply, that Selden can be understood as speaking of those clergy only to whom his doctrine of tithes would be offensive, who could not be the Puritan clergy, it is fortunate for our au- thor that his interpretation of Selden's words is sanc- tioned by Heylin, who represents Selden's work as the execution of " a plot set on foot to subvert the Church, in the undoing of the clergy. The author," he adds, "was highly magnified, the book held un- answerable, and all the clergy looked on but as pig- mies to that great Goliath." And then, to show that the reproach cast on the clergy was not well found- ed, he appeals to the answers given to Selden by Nettles, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, Dr. Montague, and Archdeacon TiUesly. " By which," says Heylin, " ho found that some of the ignorant and lazy clergy were of as retired studies as himself ; and could not only match, but overmatch him, too, in his philology."* If Mr. Neal misrepresented Selden, so did Heylin.— ifcj/Zm's Hist, of Presb., p. 301.— Ed HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 277 Witli regard to King James himself, it is liard to draw his just character, for no prince was ever so much flattered who so Httle de- served it. He was of a middle stature, not very corpulent, but stuffed out with clothes, which hung so loose, and being quilted, were so thick as to resist a dagger. His counte- nance was homely, and his tongue too big for his mouth, so that he could not speak with de- cency. While he was in Scotland he appeared sober and chaste, and acquired a good degree of learning,* but, upon his accession to the English crown, he threw off the mask, and by degrees gave himself up to luxury and ease, and all kinds of licentiousness. His language was obscene, and his actions very often lewd and indecent. He was a profane swearer, and would often be drunk, and when he came to himself would weep like a child, and say he hoped God would not impute his infirmities to him. He valued himself upon what he called kingcraft, which was nothing else but deep hypocrisy and dissimulation in every character of life, resulting from the excessive timorous- ness of his nature. If we consider him as a king, he never did a great or generous action throughout the course of his reign, t but prosti- tuted the honour of the English nation beyond any of his predecessors. He stood still while the Protestant religion was suppressed in France, in Bohemia, in the Palatinate, and other parts of Germany. He surrendered up the cautionary townsj to the Dutch for less * " His learning," observes Dr. Warner, " was not that of a prince, but a pedant, and made him more fit to take the chair in public schools than to sit on the throne of kings." He was one of those princes " who," as Bishop Shipley expresses it, '• was so un- wise as to write books." The only thing that does him honour as an author is, that Mr. Pope pro- nounced his version of the Psalms the very best in the English language. — Warner's Eccles. Hist., vol. ii., p. 508.— Ed. t To this Dr. Grey opposes his bounty to the Church of Ripon, in Yorkshire, in which he founded a dean and chapter of seven prebendaries, and set- tled £247 per annum of crown-lands for their main- tenance. The doctor also quotes from Fuller, Wil- son, and Laud, warm encomiums of his liberaUty. But it ought to be considered whether a liberahty which did not, as Dr. Warner says, " flow from rea- son or judgment, but from whim, or mere benignity of humours," deserved such praises. Besides, Mr. Neal evidently refers to " such great and generous actions" as advance the interest and prosperity of a kingdom, and add to the national honour. This cannot be said of favours bestowed on parasites and jovial companions, or on a provision made that a few clerical gentlemen may loll in stalls. — Ed. 1 These were the Brill and Flushing, with some other*places of less note ; and Dr. Grey, to screen the reputation of James from Mr. Neal's implied reflec- tion, observes that the Dutch had pawned these towns to Queen Elizabeth for sums of money which she lent them when they were distressed by the Spaniards. The sum borrowed on this security was eight millions of florins, and they were discharo^ed for ten millions seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand florins, though eighteen years' interest was due. In equity and by stipulation, the Dutch had a right, on repaying the money, to reclaim the towns they had mortgaged. This Dr. Grey m\ist be understood as insinuating by setting up the fact of the mortgage in defence of James's character. Yet, in all just estimation, his character must ever suffer by his surrender of these towns. He restored Ihem than a fourth part of the value, and suffered them to dispossess us of our factories in the East Indies. At home, he committed the di- rection of all affairs in Church and State to two or three favourites, and cared not what they did if they gave him no trouble. He broke through all the laws of the land, and was as absolute a tyrant as his want of courage would admit.* He revived the projects of monop- olies, loans, benevolences, &c., to supply his exchequer, which was exhausted by his pro- fuseness towards his favourites, and laid the Ibundation of all the calamities of his son's reign. Upon the whole, though he was flatter- ed by hungry courtiers as the Solomon and phoenix of his age, he was, in the opinion of Bishop Burnet, " the scorn of the age, a mere pedant, without true judgment, courage, or steadiness, his reign being a continued course of mean practices." It is hard to make any judgment of his reli- gion ; for one while he was a Puritan, and then a zealous churchman ; at first a Calvinist and Presbyterian, afterward a Remonstrant or Ar- minian ; and at last a half, if not an entire, doc- trinal papist. Sir Ralph Winwood, in his Me- moirs, says that, as long ago as the year 1596, he sent Mr. Ogilby, a Scots baron, to Spain, to assure his Catholic majesty he was then ready to turn papist, and to propose an alliance with that king and the pope against the Queen of England, but for reasons of state the affair was hushed, t Rapin says he was neither a sound Protestant nor a good Catholic, but had formed a plan of uniting both churches, which must effectually have ruined the Protestant interest, for which, indeed, he never expressed any real concern. But I am rather of opinion that all his religion was his boasted kingcraft. He was certainly the meanest prince that ever sat on the British throne. t England never sunk in its without an equivalent, and without ^'ue advice or consent of Parliament, to raise mou'.y to lavish on his favourites. And by this step he lost the depend- ance those provinces before had on the English crown.— See this matter fully stated in RapMs His- tory, vol. ii,, p. 122, and 191, 192 ; and by Dr. Harris in his Life of James I., p. 162-167. — Ed. * In this "book, entitled •' The True Law of Free Monarchy," he asserted that " the Parliament is no- thing else but the head court of the king and his vassals ; that the laws are but craved by his subjects ; and that, in short, he is above the law." This is a proof that his speculative notions of regal power were, as Mr. Granger expresses it, '' as absolute as those of an Eastern monarch." — Secret History of Charles II., vol. i., Introduc, p. 20., the note. — Ed. t A copy of this infamous letter to Pope Gregory XV., under date September 30, 1662, is to be found in a rare volume by the title of " Cabala, or Myste- ries of State, in Letters of the Great Ministers of King James and Charles ; wherein much of the Pub- hque Manage of Affaires is related. Faithfully col- lected by a Noble hand," London, 1654. — C. t To Mr. Neal's character of James Dr. Grey par- ticularly opposes that drawn of him by the pen of Spotswood, who was preferred by him to the arch- bishopric of St. Andrew's. " In this, Dr. Harris," says Grey, "did not quite so right. For court bish- ops, by some fate or other, from the time of Constan- tine down, at least, to the death of James, and a lit- tle after, have had the characters of flatterers, pane- gyrists, and others of like import, and, therefore, are always to have great abatements made in the ac- counts of their benefactors ; it being well known Zf6 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. reputation, nor was so much exposed to the scorn and ridicule of its neighbours, as in his leign. How willing his majesty was to unite with the papists, the foregoing history has dis- covered ; and yet, in the presence of many lords, and in a very remarkable manner, he made a solemn protestation " that he would spend the last drop of blood in his body before he would do it ; and prayed that before any of his issue should maintain any other religion than his own [the Protestant], that God would take them out of the world." How far this im- precation took place on himself, or any of his posterity, I leave, with Mr. Archdeacon Echard, to the determination of an Omniscient Being.* CHAPTER HI. FROM THE DEATH OF KING JAMES I. TO THE DISSO- LUTION OF THE THIRD PARLIAMENT OF KING 'CHARLES I. IN THE YEAR 1628. Before we enter upon this reign, it will be proper to take a short view of the court, and of the most active ministers under the king for the first fifteen years. King Charles I. came to the crown at the age of twenty-five years, being born at Dum- ferling, in Scotland, in the year 1600, and bap- tized by a Presbyterian minister of that country. In his youth he was of a weakly constitution and stammering speech ; his legs were some- what crooked, and he was suspected (says Mr. Echard) to be of a perverse nature. When his father [King James] came to the English crown, he took him from his Scots tutors and placed him under those who gave him an early aver- sion to that kirk into which he had been bap- tized, + and to those doctrines of Christianity that such fhey endeavour to hand down to posterity under the notion of saints, as they always blacken and deface th^ir adversaries." — Life of James I., p. 246, 247.— Ed. * The reader will be pleased to hear the senti- ments of a learned foreigner on the reign and char- acter of King James. The same bias will not be im- puted to him as to Mr. Neal. " In the year 1625 died James I., the bitterest enemy of the doctrine and discipline of the Puritans, to which he had been in his youth most warmly attached ; the most inflex- ible and ardent friend of the Arminians, in whose ruin and condemnation in Holland he had been sin- gidarly instrumental ; and the most zealous defender of episcopal government, against which he had more than once expressed himself in the strongest terms. He left the Constitution of England, both ecclesias- tical and civil, in a very unsettled and fluctuating state, languishing under intestine disorders of vari- ous kinds." — MosheinCs Ecclesiastical History, trans- lated by Maclaine, second edition, vol. iv., p. 517, 518.— Ed. t The expression here, whether it be Mr. Neal's own or that of any writer of the times, is inaccurate, improper, and proceeds upon a wrong notion of the design of baptism. This rite, resting solely on the authority of Christ, refers not to the peculiar senti- ments of the Church, or the particular party of Chris- tians among whom a person may happen to have it administered to him. It expresseth a profession of Christianity only, and refers exclusively to the au- thority of its Author, acting in the name of God the Father, and having his ministry sealed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The notion of being baptized into the Kirk of Scotland, or into the Church of Eng- which they held in the greatest veneration. As the court of King James leaned towards po- pery* and arbitrary power, so did the prince, especially after his journey into Spain, vidiere he imbibed not only the pernicious maxims of that court, but their reserved and distant beha- viour, t He assured the pope by letter, in order to obtain a dispensation to marry the infanta. land, is entirely repugnant to the reasoning of Paul in 1 Cor., i., who, as Dr. Clarke expresses, " we find was very carefid, was very solicitous, not to give any occasion to have it thought that there was any such thing as the doctrine «f Paul, much less any such thing as the doctrine of the Church of Corinth or Rome, or of any other than Christ only, in whose name only we were baptized." — Clarke's Sermons, vol. iv., p. 95, 8vo.— Ed. (Toulmin). * Dr. Grey controverts this assertion of Mr. Neal, and calls it " groundless ;" with a view to confute it, he quotes Rymer, Clarendon, and Bishop Fleetwood. The first and last authorities go to prove only the king's firm adherence to Protestantism and the Church of England, so far as concerned his own personal profession of religion ; the former alleg:es that the attempt of the court of Spain to convert him to popciy was inefiicient ; the latter is only a pulpit eulogium to the memory of Charles on the 30th of January. The quotation from Lord Clarendon ap- parently proves more than these authorities, for it asserts " that no man was more averse from the Ro- mish Church than he [i. e., King Charles] was." But, to be consistent with himself, his lordship must be understood with a limitation, as speaking of his remoteness from a conformity to popery in his own belief and practice, not of his disposition towards that religion as professed by others. Dr. Harris has produced many proofs that the king was not a pa- pist himself But he has also evinced, by many authorities, that professed papists were favoured, caressed, and preferred at court. The articles of the marriage-treaty, to which he signed and sol- emnly swore, sanctioned the profession of that re- hgion in his kingdom. The clergy, who enjoyed the smiles of the court, preached in favour of the prac- tices and tenets of popery. And popish recusants were not only tolerated, but protected by this prince. —See Harris's Life of Charles I., p. 198 to 204, and from p. 204 to 208. The facts of this nature are also amply stated in " An Essay towards attaining a true Idea of the Character and Reign of King Charles I.," chap. ix. On these grounds Mr. Neal is fully vindicated, for he speaks, it should be observed, not of the king's being a papist, but of his " leaning to- wards popery." But it might be sufficient to quote against Dr. Grey even Lord Clarendon only, who tells us "that the papists were upon the matter ab- solved from the severest parts of the law, and dis- pens^cd with for the gentlest. They were looked upon as good subjects at court, and as good neigh- bour.s in the country, all the restraints and reproach- es of former times being forgotten." His lordship expatiates largely on the favours they received and on the boldness they assumed. —Histori/ of the Rebel- lion, vol. i., p. 148, 8vo, edit, of 1707.— Ed. ^ t In confutation or this assertion, Dr. Grey quotes Rushworth, who says, that at the court of Spain "Prince Charles gained a universal love, and earned it, from first to last, with the greatest affability." The doctor did not observe that his authority was not to the point, for Mr. Neal speaks of Charles's deportment after he had been in Spain, and of his general temper : Rushworth's delineation is confined to his conduct at. court, where he was treated with all imaginable respect, and when the object of his visit would of course animate a youth to good-hu- inour, politeness, and gallantry. IMr. Neal is fully s\inported by many authorities, which the reader in-.iy see collected by Dr. Harris, p. 08-72, and "An Essay towards attaining a true Idea," &c., chap. i. —Ed. I HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 279 ••that he would not marry any mortal whose religion he hated ; he might therefore depend apon it that he would always abstain from such actions as might testify a hatred to the Roman Catholic religion, and would endeavour that all sinister opinions might be taken away; that as we all profess one individual Trinity, we may unanimously grow up into one faith." His majesty began his reign upon most arbitrary principles, and though he had good natural abil- ities, was always under the direction of some favourite, to whose judgment and conduct he was absolutely resigned. Nor was he ever master of so much judgment in politics as to discern his own and the nation's true interest, or to take the advice of those who did. With regard to the Church, he was a punctual ob- server of its ceremonies, and had the highest dislike and prejudice to that part of his sub- jects who were against the ecclesiastical con- stitution, " looking upon them as a very dan- gerous and seditious people, who would, under pretence of conscience, which kept them from submitting to the spiritual jurisdiction, take the first opportunity they could find or make," says Lord Clarendon,* " to withdraw them- selves from his temporal jurisdiction ; and, therefore, his, majesty caused this people [the Puritans] to be watched and provided against with the utmost vigilance." Upon his majesty's accession, and before the solemnity of his father's funeral, he married Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV., and sister of Louis XIII., then king of France. The marriage was solemnized by proxy ; first at Paris, with all the ceremonies of the Romish Church, and afterward at Canterbury, according to the rites of the Church of England ; and the articles being in a manner the same with those already mentioned in the Spanish match. Her majesty arrived at Dover, June 13, 1625, and brought with her a long train of priests and menial servants of the Romish religion ; for whose devotion a chapel was fitted up in the king's house at St. James's. " The queen was an agreeable and beautiful lady, and by degrees," says Lord Clarendon, " obtained a plenitude of power over the king. His majesty had her in perfect adoration, t and would do nothing with- out her, but was inexorable as to everything that he promised her." Bishop Burnet says, *' The queen was a lady of great vivacity, and loved intrigues of all sorts, but was not secret in them as she ought ; she had no manner of judgment, being bad at contrivance, but worse at execution. By the liveliness of her dis- course, she made great impressions upon the king ; so that to the queen's little practice, and the king's own temper, the sequel of all his mis- fortunes was owing." Bishop Kennet adds, "that the king's match with this lady was a greater judgment to the nation than the plague, which then raged in the land ; for, considering the mahgnity of the popish religion, the impe- riousness of the French government, the influ- ence of a stately queen over an afl^ectionate Lusband, and the share she must needs have in "^ Clarendon, vol. i., p. 81. t " Whoever sees her charming portrait at Wind- SQ||" says Mr. Granger, " will cease to admire at her great influence over the king."— The Biographical History of England, vol. ii,, p. 96, 8vo. — Ed. the education of her children [till thirteen years of age], it was then easy to foresee it might prove very fatal to our English prince and peo- ple, and lay in a vengeance to future genera- tions." The queen was a very great bigot to her religion;* her conscience was directed by her confessor, assisted by the pope's nuncio, and a secret cabal of priests and Jesuits. These controlled the queen, and she the king ; so that in effect the nation was governed by popish counsels, till the Long Parliament. The prime minister under the king was G. Villiers, duke of Buckingham, a graceful young gentleman, but very unfit for his high station. He had full possession of the king's heart, in- somuch that his majesty broke measures with all his parliaments for his sake. " Most men," says Lord Clarendon,t " imputed all the calami- ties of the nation to his arbitrary councils ; so that few were displeased at the news of his murder by Felton, in the year 1628, when he was not above tbirty-four years of age." Upon the duke's death. Dr. Wdliam Laud, then Bishop of London, became the chief minis- ter both in Church and State.J He was born at Reading, and educated in St. John's College, Oxford, upon the charitable donation of Mr. White, founder of Merchant Tailors' School. Here he continued till he was fifty years of age. and behaved in such a manner that nobody knew what to think of him. " I would I knew," says the pious Bishop Hall in one of his let- ters, " where to find you : to-day you are with the Romanists, to-morrow with us ; our adver- saries think you ours, and we theirs ; your con- science finds you with both and neither : how long will you halt in this indifierencyl" Dr. Abbot says, " He spent his time in picking quar- rels with the lectures of public readers, and giving advice to the then ISishop of Durham, that he might fill the ears of the king [James I.] with prejudices against honest men, whom he called Puritans. "'5i Heylin confesses it was thought dangerous to keep him company. By the interest of Bishop Williams, he was first advancedll to a Welsh bishopric, and from * As the demand to have the solemnity of the cor- onatioa performed by the bishops of her own religion was refused, and such was her bigotry it would not permit her to join in our church ceremonies, she appeared, therefore, as a spectator only on that occa- sion.— Granger, as before, vol. ii., p. 96, note. — Ed. t Clarendon, vol. i., p. 837. i " As to his preferments in the state," says Dr. Grey, "1 .should be glad to know what they were." Though the doctor, who was ignorant of them, is now out of the reach of a reply, for the information of the reader they shall be mentioned. In 1635 he was put into the great committee of trade ; and on the death of the Earl of Portland, was made one of the commissioners of the treasury and revenue ; " which," says Lord Clarendon, " he had reason to be sorry for, because it engaged him in civil business and matters of si&te."—Histori/ of the Rebellion, vol. i., p. 98, 8vo, 1707. British Biography, vol. iv., p. 269.— Ed. ^ Rushworth, vol. i., p. 444. II To refute this account of the cause of Laud's preferment, Dr. Grey quotes Mr. Wharton. The circumstance in itself is of no importance to the credit or design of Mr. Neal's history. And the pas- sage even admits the fact that Laud owed his prefer- ments to Bishop Williams's solicitations, on the au- thority of Laud's Diary and Bishop Hacket, Will- iams's biographer ; but the drift of Mr. Wharton is to exculpate Laud from the charge of ingratitude to 280 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. thence by degrees to the highest preferments in Church and State. He was a little man, of a quick and rough temper, impatient of contradic- tion even at the council-table, of arbitrary prin- ciples both in Church and State, always inclined to methods of severity, especially against the Puritans ; vastly fond of external pomp and cer- emony in Divine worship ; and though he was not an absolute papist, he was ambitious of being the sovereign patriarch of three king- doms.* Lord-chief-justice Finch was a man of little knowledge in his profession, except it was for making the laws of the land give place to or- ders of council. Mr. Attorney-general Noyt was a man of affected pride and morosity, who valued himself (says Lord ClarendonJ) upon making that to be law which all other men be- lieved not to be so. Indeed, all the judges were of this stamp, who, instead of upholding the law as the defence and security of the sub- jects' privileges, set it aside upon every little occasion, distinguishing between a rule of law and a rule of government : so that those whom they could not convict by statute law were sure to suffer by the rule of government, or a kind of political justice. The judges held their places during the king's pleasure ; and wTien the prerogative was to be stretched in any par- ticular instances. Laud would send for their opinions beforehand, to give the greater sanc- tion to the proceedings of the council and Star Chamber, by whom they were often put in mind, that if they did not do his majesty's business to satisfaction, they would be removed. Upon the whole, they were mercenary men, and (ac- cording to Lord Clarendon) scandalous to their profession. The courts of "Westminster Hall had little to do between the crown and the subject ; all bu- siness of this kind being transferred to the council-table, the Star Chamber, and the Court of High Commission. The council-table was the Legislature of the kingdom, their proclamations and orders being made a rule of government, and the measure of the subject's obedience. Though there was not one single law enacted in twelve years, there were no less than two hundred and fifty proclamations ; every one of which had the force of a law, and bound the subject under the severest penalties. The Lord-keeper Finch, upon a demurrer put into a bill that had no other equity than an order of council, declared upon the bench, that while he was keeper, no man should be so saucy as to dispute those orders, but that the wisdom of that board should always be ground good enough for him to make a decree in Chancery. Judge Berkeley, upon a like occasion, declared that there was a rule of law and a rule of government, that many things that might not be done by the rule of Bishop Williams on this ground ; that the latter, in the service he rendered the former, was not actuated by kindness, but by selfish and interested views. This does not confute, in any degree, Mr. Neal, who says nothing about the motives by which Bishop Williams was governed. — C. * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 99. t Bishop Warbiirton censures Mr. Neal for not informing his reader that Noy was a great lawyer. t Clarendon, vol. i., p. 71, 73, 74. law, might be done by the rule of goverfi- ment :* his lordship added, that no act of Par- liament could bind the king not to command away his subjects' goods and monSy. "The Star Chamber," says Lord Clarendon.t " was in a manner the same court with the com> cil-table, being but the same persons in several rooms : they were both grown into courts of law, to determine right ; and courts of rev- enue, to bring money into the treasury : tlw council-table by proclamations enjoining to the people what was not enjoined by law, and pro- hibiting that which was not prohibited ; and the Star Chamber censuring the breach and disobe- dience to those proclamations, by very' great fines and imprisonment ; so that any disrespect to any acts of state, or to the persons of states- men, was in no time more penal, and those foundations of right by which men valued their security, were never in more danger of heiag destroyed. " The High Commission also had very much overflowed the banks that should have contained it, not only in meddling with things not withia their cognizance, but in extending their sen- tences and judgments beyond that degree that was justifiable, and grew to have so great a contempt of the common law, and the profess sors of it, that prohibitions from the suprerafi courts of law, which have and must have tke superintendency over all the inferior courts, were not only neglected, but the judges were reprehended for granting them, which, withoat perjury, they could not deny. J Besides, from an ecclesiastical court for reformation of mais- ners, it was grown to a court of revenue, and imposed great fines upon those who were cul- pable before them ; sometimes above the de- gree of the offence, had the jurisdiction of fining been unquestionable, which it was not ; which course of fining was much more frequent, and the fines heavier, after the king had granted afl that revenue for the reparation of St. Paul's, which made the grievance greater;" and gave occasion to an unlucky observation, that the church was built with the sins of the people. These commissioners, not content with the bu- siness that was brought before them, sent their commissaries over the whole kingdom to su- perintend the proceedings of the bishops' courts in their several diocesses, which of themselves made sufficient havoc among the Puritans, and were under a general odium for the severe ex- ercise of their power : but if the bishop or his officers were negligent in their citations, or showed any degree of favour to the Puritaa ministers, notice was immediately sent to Lana- beth, and the accused persons were cited be- fore the High Commission, to their utter ruin. They also detained men in prison many months, without bringing them to a trial, or so much as acquainting them with the cause of their cona- mitment. Sir Edward Deering says, that "their proceedings were in some sense worse than the Romish Inquisition, because they do not punish men of their own religion establish- ed by law ; but with us," says he, " how many scores of poor distressed ministers, within a few years, have been suspended, degraded, and excommunicated, though not guilty of a breach * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 74. t Ibid., p. 68, 69. t Ibid., p. 283. EngravecL hy &wiber rrorru an OrwinaL. ^ J1 [}-]©^/7:£, hjm . HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 281 of any established law !" All which was so much the worse, because they knew that the court had no jurisdiction of fining at all; for the House of Commons, in the third and sev- enth of King James I., resolved that the Court of High Commission's fining and imprisoning men for ecclesiastical offences was an intoler- able grievance, oppression, and vexation, not warranted by the statute 1 Eliz., chap. i. And Sir Edward Coke, with the rest of the judges, at a conference with the prelates, in the pres- ence of King James, gave it as their unanimous opinion, that the High Commission could fine in no case, and imprison only in cases of heresy and incontinence of a minister, and that only after conviction, but not by way of process be- fore it, so that the jurisdiction of the court to fine was not only questionable, but null and void. Notwithstanding which, they hunted after their prey with full cry, " and brought in the greatest and most splendid transgressors ; per- sons of honour and great quality," says the no- ble historian, " were every day cited into the High Commission, upon the fame of their in- continency or scandal of life, and very heavy fines were levied upon them, and applied to the repairing of St. Paul's Cathedral." Upon the accession of King Charles to the throne, the Duke of Buckingham threw off the mask, and shook hands with his old friend Dr. Preston, whom he never loved any farther than as a tool to promote his interest among the peo- ple. Laud was his confessor and privy-coun- sellor for the Church, whose first care was to have none but Arminian and anti-Puritanical chaplains about the king : for this purpose, he drew up a small treatise and put it into the duke's hand, proving the Arminian doctrines to be orthodox, and showing, in ten particulars, that the anti-Arminian tenets were no better than doctrinal Puritanism. Agreeably to the scheme, he presented the duke [April 9] with a list of divines for his majesty's chaplains, dis- tinguishing their characters by the two capital letters 0. for orthodox [that is, Arminian], and P. for Puritans [that is, Calvinists]. At the same time, he received orders to consult Bish- op Andrews how to manage, with respect to the five distinguishing points of Calvinism, in the ensuing convocation ; but the wise bishop ad- vised his brother by all means to be quiet, and keep the controversy out of the house : " for," says he, " the truth in this point is not so gen- erally entertained among the clergy ; nor is Archbishop Abbot, nor many of the prelates, so inclinable to it as to venture the deciding it in convocation." It was, therefore, wisely drop- ped, the majority of the Lower House being zealous Calvinists ; and forty-five of them (ac- cording to Dr. Leo, who was one of the num- ber) had made a covenant among themselves to oppose everything that tended towards Pelagi- anism or semi-Pelagianism : but the controversy was warmly debated without doors, till the king put a stop to it by his royal declaration. Popery advanced hand in hand with Armini- anism, and began the disputes between the king and his first Parliament, which met June 16, 1625. -His majesty, towards the close of his speech, having asked their assistance for the recovery of the Palatinate, assured them that, though he had been suspected as to his religion, Vol. L— N n he would let the world see that none shoiAd be more desirous to maintain the religion he pro- fessed than himself. The houses tiianked the king for his most gracious speech, but, before they entered upon other business, joined in a petition against popish recusants, which his majesty promised to examine, and give a satis- factory answer to the particulars. The petition sets forth the causes of the in- crease of popery, with the remedies : the caus- es are, The want of the due execution of the laws against them. The interposing of foreign pow- ers by their ambassadors and agents in their favour. The great concourse of papists to the city, and their frequent conferences and con- venticles there. Their open resort to the chap- els of foreign ambassadors. The education of their children in foreign seminaries. The want of sufficient instruction in the Protestant reli- gion in several places of the country. The li- centious printing of popish books. The em- ployment of men ill affected to the Protestant religion in places of government.* They therefore pray that the youth of the kingdom may be carefully educated under Prot- estant schoolmasters ; which his majesty, in his answer to their petition, promised : That the ancient discipline of the universities may be re- stored ; which his majesty approved : That the preaching of the Word of God may be enlarged ; and that to this purpose the bishops be advised to make use of the labours of such able minis- ters as have been formerly silenced, advising and beseeching them to behave themselves peaceably ; and that pluralities, nonresidences, and commendams may be moderated. Answer. " This his majesty approved, so far as the min- isters would conform to church government. But he apprehends that pluralities, &c., are now so moderated that there is no room for complaint ; and recommends it to the Parlia- ment to take care that every parish allow a competent maintenance for an able minister." That provision might be made against trans- porting children to popish seminaries, and for recalling those that were there. Answ. " To this his majesty agreed." That no popish re- cusant be admitted to come to court but upon special occasion, according to statute 3 Jac. Answ. " This also his majesty promised." That the laws against papists be put in execu- tion, and that a day be fixed for the departure of all Jesuits and seminary-priests out of the kingdom, and that no natural-born subject, nor strange bishops, nor any other by authority from the see of Rome, confer any ecclesiastical or- ders, or exercise any ecclesiastical function, upon your majesty's subjects. Answ. " It shall be so published by proclamation." That your majesty's learned council may have orders to consider of all former grants of recusant lands, that such may be avoided as are avoidable by law. Answ. " It shall be done according as is desired." That your majesty give order to your judges and all officers of justice to see the laws against popish recusants duly execu- ted. Answ. " His inajcsty leaves the laws to their course." That your majesty will remove from places of authority and government all popish recusants. Answ. "His majesty will * Rushworth, p. 183-186. ~ 282 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. give order accordingly." That order be taken for disarming ail popish recusants convict ac- cording to law, and that popish recusants l)c commanded to retire to their houses, and be confined within five miles of home. Answ. "The laws shall be put in execution." Tiiat none of your majesty's natural-born subjects go to hear mass at the houses or chapels of foreign ambassadors. Answ. "The king will give or- der accordingly." That the statute of 1 Eliz., for the payment of twelvepence every Sunday by such as absent from Divine service in the church without a lawful excuse, be put in exe- cution. Answ. "The king promises the pen- alties shall not be dispensed with." That your majesty will extend your princely care to Ire- land, that the like cour.'se may be taken there for establishing the true religion. Answ. " His majesty will do all that a religious king can do in that affair."* It is surprising that the king should make these promises to his Parliament within six months after he had signed his marriage-arti- cles, in which he had agreed to set all Roman Catholics at liberty, and to suffer no search or molestation of them for their religion, and had, in consequence of it, pardoned twenty Romish priests, and (in imitation of his royal father) giv- en orders to his lord-keeper to direct the judg- es and justices of peace all over England " to forbear all manner of proceedings against his Roman Catholic subjects, by information, in- dictment, or otherwise ; it being his royal pleas- ure that there should be a cessation of all and singular pains and penalties whereunto they were liable by any laws, statutes, or ordinances of this realm. "t But, as a judicious writer ob- serves,t it seems to have been a maxim in this and the last reign that no faith is to be kept with parliaments. The papists were apprized of the reasons of state that obliged the king to comply outwardly with what he did not really intend ; and, therefore, though his majesty di- rected a letter to his archbishop [December 15, 1625] to proceed against popish recusants, and a proclamation was published to recall the Eng- lish youths from popish seminaries, little regard was paid to them. The king himself released eleven Romish priests out of prison, by special warrant, the next day ; the titular Bishop of Chalcedon, by letters dated June 1, 1625, ap- pointed a popish vicar-general and archdeacons all over England,^ whose names were published *• Rushworth, p. 173. t The remark of Dr. Warner here is too pertinent and forcible, especially considering from whose pen it comes, to be omitted. " These gracious answers of his majesty," says he, " to the several articles of the petition presented to him by both houses of Parlia- ment, wanted nothing but the performance of the promises which he made, to gain him the love of all his Protestant subjects. But if we may judge by the continual complaints of the Parliament throughout this reign, about these very points on which the king had given this satisfaction, we shall find reason to think that his promises were observed no better than James his father observed his." — Warner's Ecdcs. Hist., vol. ii., p. 513. — Ed. % Rapin. () Fuller tells us that this titular Bishop of Chal- cedon, whose name was Smith, appeared in his pon- tificabilus in Lancashire, with his mitre and crozier. This was an evident proof that the Catholics pre- sumed on the indulgence and connivance, if not the protection, of the court. To show which, the fact iu the year 1613 ;* and when the next Parlia- ment petitioned for the removal of papists from offices of trust, it appeared, by a list annexed to their petition, that there were no less than fifty-nine of the nobility and gentry of that reli- gion then in the commission.! But the king not only connived at the Roman Catholics at home, but, unhappily, contributed to the ruin of the Protestant religion abroad. Car- dinal Richelieu having formed a design to extir- pate the Huguenots of France, by securing all their places of strength, laid siege to Rochelle, a seaport town with a good harbour and a num- ber of ships sufficient for its defence. Richelieu, taking advantage of the king's late match with France, sent to borrow seven or eight ships, to be employed as the King of France should direct, who appointed them to block up the harbour of Rochelle ; but when the honest sail- ors were told where they were going, they declared they would rather be thrown over- board, or hanged upon the top of the masts, than fight against their Protestant brethren. Notwithstanding Admiral Pennington and the French officers used all their rhetoric to per- suade them, they remained inflexible. The ad- miral, therefore, acquainted the king, who sent him a warrant to the following effect : " That he should consign his own ship immediately into the hands of the French admiral, with all her equipage, artillery, &c.,and require the oth- er seven to put themselves into the service of our dear brother the French king ; and in case of backwardness or refusal, we command you to use all forcible means, even to their sink- ing." In pursuance of this warrant, the ships were delivered into the hands of the French, but all the English sailors and officers desert- ed except two. The French, having got the ships and artillery, quickly manned them with sailors of their own religion, and, joining the rest of the French fleet, they blocked up the harbour, destroyed the little fleet of the Ro- chellers, and cut off their communication by sea with their Protestant friends, by which means they were reduced to all the hardships of a most dreadful famine ; and after a long blockade, both by sea and land, were forced to surrender the chief bulwark of the Protestant interest in France into the hands of the papists. To return to the Parliament.' It has been remembered that Mr. Richard Montague, a clergyman, and one of the king's chaplains, pub- lished a book in the year 1623, entitled " A new Gag for an old Goose," in answer to a popish is brought forward by Mr. Neal, whose candour in this matter Dr. Grey impeaches, because he does not inform his reader that the king issued his proclama tion for apprehending this Romish agent. But it seems to have escaped Dr. Grey's attention that a proclamation not issued till the 11th of December. 1628, and not then till drawn from him by a petition of both houses against recusants, can have little weight against the imputation on the king which this fact is alleged to support. — Rushworth's Collec- tions, vol. i., p. 511. — Ed. * Rushworth, p. 158, 159, and Fuller's Church Hist, b. xi., p. 132, 133. t See Rushworth's Collection, vol. i., p. 393, &c. The names of some of these persons, perhaps, were re- turned only on the ground of suspicion, because their wives and children were of the Romish communion, or did not come to church. " Mr. Neal," therefore, according to Dr. Grey, " mistook Rushworth."— Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 283 book, entitled " A Gag for the new Gospel."* The book containing sundry propositions tend- ing to the public disturbance, was complained of in the House of Commons, who, after having examined the author at their bar, referred him to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who dismiss- ed him with an express prohibition to write no more about such matters. But Montague, be- ing encouraged from court, went on and pub- lished •' An Appeal to Ca?sar," designing it for King James ; but he being dead before it was ready, it was dedicated to King Charles, and recommended at first by several court-bishops, who, upon better consideration, artfully with- drew their names from before it, and left Dr. Francis White to appear by himself, as he com- plained publicly. The appeal was calculated to promote Arminianism, to attempt a reconcilia- tion with Rome, and to advance the king's pre- rogative above law. The House appointed a committee to examine into its errors ; after which they voted it to be contrary to the Arti- cles of the Church of England, and bound the author in a recognisance of £2000 for his ap- pearance. Bishop Laud, apprehending this to be an in- vasion of the prerogative, and a dangerous pre- cedent, joined with two other bishops in a let- ter to the Duke of Buckingham, to engage his majesty to take the cause into his own hands : the letter says.t " that the Church of England, "when it was reformed, would not be too busy with school-points of divinity ; now the points for which Mr. Montague is brought into trouble are of this kind : some are the resolved doc- trines of the Church of England, which he is bound to maintain ; and others are fit only for schools, wherein men may abound in their own sense. To make men subscribe school-opin- ions is hard, and was one great fault of the Council of Trent. Besides, disputes about doc- trines in religion ought to be determined in a national synod or convocation, with the king's lincense, and not in Parliament ; if we submit to any other judge, we shall depart from the ordinance of Christ, we shall derogate from the honour of the late king, who saw and approved of all the opinions in that book ; as well as from his present majesty's royal prerogative, who has power and right to take this matter under his own care, and refer it in a right course to church consideration. Some of the opinions which are opposite to Mr. Montague's will prove fatal to the government, if publicly taught and maintained : when they had been concluded upon at Lambeth, Queen Elizabeth caused them to be suppressed, and so they con- tinued, till of late some of them received coun- tenance from the Synod of Dort ; a synod whose conclusions have no authority in this country, and it is to be hoped never will." Signed, Jo. RofTensis, Jo. Oxon, and Gulielmus Menevensis, August 2, 1625. This letter had its effect, and procured Mon- tague his quietus at present. The king decla- red he would bring the cause before the coun- cil, it being a branch of his supremacy to de- termine matters of religion. He expressed his displeasure against the Commons for calling * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 177. t Cabala, p. 105; Rushworth, vol. i., p. 180, 181, or 110, 111, of the edition in 1663. his chaplain to their bar, and for alarming the nation with the danger of popery. But these af- fairs, with the king's assisting at the siege of Rochelle, made such a noise at Oxford, where the Parliament was reassembled because of the plague at London, that the king was obliged to dissolve them [August 12] before they had granted the supplies necessary for carrying on the war. Nor did his majesty pass any act relating to religion, except one, which was soon after suspended by his royal declaration ; it was to prevent unlawful pastimes on the Lord's Day. The preamble sets forth that the holy keeping of the Lord's Day is a principal part of the true service of God : " Therefore it is en- acted that there shall be no assemblies of peo- ple out of their own parishes for any sports or pastimes whatsoever ; nor any bear-baiting, bull-baiting, interludes, common plays, or any other unlawful exercises or pastimes, within their own parishes, on forfeiture of three shill- ings and sixpence for every such offence to the poor." However, this law was never put in execution. Men were reproached and censu- red for too strict an observation of the Lord's Day, but none that I have met with for the profanation of it. His majesty having dismissed his Parliament before they had given him the necessary sup- plies for the war with Spain, resolved to try his credit in borrowing money, by way of loan, of such persons as were best able to lend ; for this purpose gentlemen were taxed at a certain sum, and had promissory letters under the privy seal to be repayed in eighteen months.* With this money the king fitted out a fleet against Spain, which, after it had waited about two months for the Plate fleet, returned without do- ing any action worth remembrance. The ceremony of the king's coronation,! which was not performed till the beginning of February, was another expense which his maj- esty thought fit to provide for by issuing out a proclamation that all such as had £40 a year or more, and were not yet knights, should come and receive the order of knighthood, or com- pound for ii.X This was a new grievance loud- ly complained of in the following Parliaments. The coronation was performed by Archbishop Abbot, assisted by Bishop Laud as Dean of Westminster,"^ who, besides the old regaha which were in his custody, that is, the crown, * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 196, 197. t Senhouse, bishop of Carlisle, who had been his chaplain when Prince of Wales, was selected to preach his coronation sermon. The bishop took for his text Rev., ii., 10, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life," a passage which was considered by the superstitious as far more suit able for his funeral sermon than as adapted to the brilliant occasion on which it was delivered. Charles, contrary to the custom of his ancestors, had select ed a robe of white, instead of purple, as his corona tion dress. There were various portents of ill augu ry which identified themselves with the inaugura tion of the ill-fated monarch. — Court of the Stuarts by Jesse, vol. ii., p. 59, 60. — C. J Rapin, vol. ii., p. 235, 236, folio ed. 1^ Dr. Grey properly corrects Mr. Neal here : Laud officiated in the place of the Dean of Westminster, the Bishop of Lincoln, with whom the king was so displeased, that he would not permit him to perform any part of the coronation service. — Fuller's Church Hist., b. X,, p. 121.— Ed. 284 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. the sceptre, the spurs, &c., of King Edward the Confessor, brought forth an old crucifix, and placed it upon the altar. As soon as the arch- bishop had put the crown upon the king's head, and performed the other usual ceremonies,* his majesty being seated on the throne, ready to receive the homage of the lords, Bisliop Laud came up to him, ami read the following extra- ordinary passage, which is not to be found in former coronations : " Stand, and hold fast from henceforth the place to which you have been heir by the succession of your forefathers, being now delivered to you by the authority of Almighty God, and by the hands of us, and all the bishops and servants of God. And as you see the clergy to come nearer to the altar than others, so remember that in all places conveni- ent you give them greater honour, that the Me- diator of God and man may establish you in the kingly throne, to be a mediator between tlie » clergy and the laity, and that you may reign forever with Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. "t This and sundry other alterations were objected to the archbishop at his trial, which we shall mention hereafter. The king's treasury being exhausted, and the war continuing with Spain, his majesty was obliged to call a new Parliament ; but to avoid the choice of such members as had exclaimed against the Duke of Buckingham, and insisted upon redress of grievances, the court pricked them down for sheriffs, which disqualified them from being rechosen members of Parliament ; of this number were Sir Edward Coke, Sir Rob- ert Philips, and Sir Thomas Wentworth, after- ward Lord Strafford. The houses met Febru- ary 6, 1626, and fell immediately upon grievan- ces. A committee for religion was appointed, of which Mr. Pym was chairman, who examin- ed Mr. Montague's writings, viz., his " Gag," his " Appeal," and his treatise of the " Invoca- tion of the Saints ;" out of which they collected several opinions contrary to the Book of Homi- lies and the Thirty-nine Articles, which they reported to the House ; as, 1. " That he maintained the Church of Rome is, and ever was, a true church, contrary to the sixteenth homily of the Church of England. 2. " That the said Church had ever remain- ed firm upon the same foundation of sacraments and doctrine instituted by God. 3. " That speaking of the doctrines of faith, hope, and charity, he affirmed that none of these are controverted between the papists and Protestants ; but that the controverted pojnts are of a lesser and inferior nature, of whicli a man may be ignorant without any danger of his soul. 4. " That he maintained the use of images, for instruction of the ignorant, and exciting de- votion. 5. " That in his treatise of the ' Invocation of Saints,' he affirmed that some saints have a peculiar patronage, custody, protection, and power (as angels have) over certain persons and countries. * The ceremonial of the coronation is given at length by Fuller, b. xi., p. 121, &c.— Ed. t " The manuscript coronation-book, which the king held in his hand, and which is still in being," says Dr. Grey, " proves that the words were not spoken by Laud, but by the archbishop."— Ed. 6. " That in his ' Appeal ' he maintained that men justified may fall away from grace, and may recover again, but not certainly nor necessarily. 7. " That the said R. Montague has endeav- oured to raise factions among the king's sub- jects, by casting the odious and scandalous name of Puritans upon those who conform to the doctrine and ceremonies of the Church. That he scoffed at preaching, at lectures, and all shows of religion ; and that the design of his book was apparently to reconcile the Church of England with the See of Rome."* In what manner the Commons designed to prosecute this impeachment is uncertain, for Montague was not brought to his defence, the king having intimated again to'the House that their proceeding against him without his leave was displeasing to him ; that as to their hold- ing him to bail, he thought his servants might have the same protection as an ordinary bur- gess, and, therefore, he would take the cause into his own hands ; and soon after dissolved the Parliament.! Though the Arminian controversy was thus wrested out of the hands of the Parliament, it was warmly debated without doors ; Montague was attacked in print by Dr. Carleton, bishop of Chichester ; Dr. Sutcliffe, dean of Exeter ; Dr. Featly, Dr. Goad, Mr. Ward, Burton, Yates, Wotton, Pi^ynne, and Fran. Rouse, Esq., &c. Conferences were appointed to debate the point of the possibility of the elects' falling from grace. t One was at York House, February 11, 1625-6, before the Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Warwick, and other lords ; Dr. Bucke- ridge, bishop of Rochester, and Dr. White, dean of Carlisle, being on one side, and Dr. Moreton, bishop of Coventry, and Dr. Preston, on the other. The success of the dispute is variously related ; but the Earl of Pembroke said that none went from thence Arminians, save those who came thither with the same opinions. Soon after, February 17, there was a second conference in the same place, Dr. White and Mr. Montague on one side, and Dr. Moreton and Preston on the other ;§ Dr. Preston carried it clear at first, by dividing his adversaries, who quickly perceiving their error, united their for- ces, says my author, in a joint opposition to him ; but, upon the whole, these conferences served rather to increase the differences than abate them. The king, therefore, issued out a proclamation, containing very express com- mands not to preach or dispute upon the con- troverted points of Arminianism. It was dated January 24, 1626, and sets forth " that the king will admit of no innovation in the doctrine, dis- * Ru.shvvorth, vol. 1., p. 213-215, t Dr. Grey adds here, "yet the king thought fit to call his book in." The doctor says this on the authority of Rushworth, whose farther account of the proceeding should be laid before the reader. "Ere this proclamation was published," says he, " the books were for the most part vented and out of danger of seizure, and the suiipressing of all wri- ting and preaching in answer thereunto was (it seems by some) the thing mainly intended ; lor the several answers were all suppressed, and divers of the print- ers questioned by the High Commission."— jKasA- ivorih, vol. ii , p. 647. — Ed. t Prynne's Cant. Doom., p. 158, 159; Fuller, b. ix., p. 124. ^ Fuller, b. xi., p. 12a. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 285 cipline, or government of the Church, and, therefore, charges all his subjects, and especi- ally the clergy, not to publish, or maintain in preaching or writing, any new inventions or opinions contrary to the said doctrine and dis- cipline established by law, assuring them that his majesty will proceed against all offenders agahist this order with all that severity their contempt shall deserve, that by the exemplary punishment of a few, others may be warned against falling under the just indignation of their sovereign."* One would have thought this proclamation to be in favour of Calvinism, but the execution of it being in the hands of Laud and the bishops of his party, the edge was turned against the Puritans, and it became, says Rush worth, t the stopping of their mouths, and gave an uncon- trolled liberty to the tongues and pens of the Arminian party. Others were of opinion that Laud and Neile procured this injunction, in or- der to have an opportunity to oppress the Cal- vinists who should venture to break it, while the disobedience of the contrary party should be winked at. The Puritans thought they might still write in defence of the Thirty-nine Arti- cles ; but the press being in the hands of their adversaries, some of their books were suppress- ed, some were castrated, and others that got abroad were called in, J and the authors and publishers questioned in the Star Chamber and High Commission for engaging in a controversy prohibited by the government. By these meth- ods effectual care was taken that the Puritan and Calvinian writers should do their adversa- ries no harm ; Bishop Laud, with two or three of his chaplains, undertaking to judge of truth and error, civility and good manners, for all the wise and great men of the nation ; in doing of which they were so shamefully partial, that learning and industry were discouraged, men of gravity and great experience not being able to persuade themselves to submit their labours to be mangled and torn in pieces by a few younger divines, who were both judges and parlies in the affair. At length, the booksellers being almost ruined, preferred a petition to the next Parliament [1628], complaining that the writings of their best authors were stilled in the press, while the books of their adversaries [pa- pists and Armimans] were published and spread over the whole kingdom. Thus Cheney's " Col- lectiones Theologicsp,," an Arminian and popish performance, was licensed, when the learned Dr. Twisse's answer to Arminius, though writ- ten in liatin, was stopped in the press. II Mr. Montague's book, entitled ' God's Love to Man- kind," was licensed and published, when Dr. Twisse's reply to the same book was suppress- ed. Many affidavits of this kmd were made against Laud at his trial by the most famous Calvinistical writers, as will be seen hereafter. The case was just the same with regard to books against popery ; the queen and the Ro- man Catholics must not be insulted, and, there- fore, all offensive passages, such as calling the pope antichrist, the Church of Rome no true * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 416, Bib. Regia. + Rushworth, p. 417. Rapin, vol. ii., p. 258, folio ed. t Prynne, p. 158, 159. ^ Rushworth, vol. i., p. 667. II Prynne, p. l'66, 167, &c church, and everything tending to expose ima- ges in churches, crucifixes, penance, auricular confession, and popish absolution, must be ex- punged. Sir Edward Deering compares the li- censers of the press to the managers of the in- dex expurgator-ins among the papists, " who clip the tongues of such witnesses whose evidences they do not like ; in like manner," says he, " our licensers suppress the truth, while popish pamphlets fly abroad cum privilegio ; nay, they are so bold as to deface the most learned la- bours of our ancient and best divines. But herein the Roman i7idex is better than ours, that they approve of their own established doctrines ; but our innovators alter our settled doctrines, and superinduce points repugnant and contrary. This I do affirm, and can take upon myself to prove," Terrible were the triumphs of arbitrary pow- er over the liberty and property of the subject, in the intervals between this and the succeed- ing Parliament ; gentlemen of birth and char- acter, who refused to lend what money the council was pleased to assess them, were taken out of their houses and imprisoned at a great distance from their habitations ;* among these were Sir Thomas Wentworth, Sir Walter Earle, Sir John Strangeways, Sir Thomas Grantham, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, John Hampden, Esq., and others ; some were confined in the Fleet, the Marshalsea, the Gate-house, and other prisons about London, as Sir John Elliot, Mr. Selden, &c. Upon the whole, there were imprisoned by order of council nineteen knights, thirteen es- quires, and four gentlemen in the county jails ; three knights, one esquire, and four wealthy citizens in the Fleet, besides great numbers in other places. Those of the lower sort who re- fused to lend were pressed for the army, or had soldiers quartered on them, who, by their insolent behaviour, disturbed the peace of fam- ilies, and committed frequent felonies, burgla- ries, rapines, murders, and other barbarous cruelties, insomuch that the highways were dangerous to travel, and the markets unfre- quented. The king would have borrowed £100,000 of the city of London, but they ex- cused themselves. However, his majesty got a round sum of money from the papists, by is- suing a commission to the Archbishop of York to compound with them for all their forfeitures that had been due for recusancy since the tenth of King James I., or that should be due hereaf- ter. By this fatal policy (says the noble histo- rian) men well affected to the hierarchy, though enemies to arbitrary power, were obliged to side with the Puritans to save the nation, and ena- ble them to oppose the designs of the court. To convince the people that it was their duty to submit to the loan, the clergy were employed to preach up the doctrines of passive obedience and nonresistance, and to prove that the abso- lute submission of subjects to the royal will and pleasure was the doctrine of Holy Scripture;! among those was Dr. Sibthorp, a man of mean parts, but of sordid a.mbition, who, in his ser- mon at the Lent assizes at Northampton, from Romans, xiii., 7, told the people, " that if prin- ces commanded anything which subjects might * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 426, 432, 435, 495. t Ibid., p. 426, 440. 286 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. not perform, because it is against the laws of God or of Nature, or impossible, yet subjects are bound to undergo the punishment, without resisting, or railing, or reviling ; and so to yield a passive obedience where they cannot yield an active one." Dr. Manwaring went farther, in two sermons preached before the king at Oat- lands, and published under the title of " Reli- gion and Allegiance." He says, '"The king is not bound to observe the laws of the realm concerning the subjects' rights and liberties, but that his royal will and pleasure, in imposing taxes without consent of Parliament, doth oblige the subjects' conscience on pain of dam- nation ; and that those who refuse obedience transgress the laws of God, insult the king's supreme authority, and are guilty of impiety, disloyalty, and rebellion. That the authority of both houses of Parliament is not necessary for the raising aids and subsidies, as not suita- ble to the exigencies of the state." These were the doctrines of the court ; " which," says the noble historian, " were very unfit for the place and very scandalous for the persons, who presumed often to determine things out of the verge of their own profession, and in ordine ad spirilualia, gave unto Caesar that which did not belong to him." Sibthorp dedicated his sermon to the king, and carried it to Archbishop Abbot to be li- censed, which the honest old prelate refused, for which he was -suspended from all archiepis- copal functions, and ordered to retire to Can- terbury or Ford, a moorish, unhealthy place, five miles beyond Canterbury. • The sermon was then carried to the Bishop of London, who licensed and recommended it as a sermon learnedly and discreetly preached, agreeable to the ancient doctrine of the primitive Church, both for faith and good manners, and to the es- tablished doctrine of the Church of England. Archbishop Abbot had been out of favour for some time, because he would not give up the laws and liberties of his country, nor treat the great Duke of Buckingham with that servile submission that he expected.* Heylin says the king was displeased with him for being too favourable to the Puritans and too remiss in his government ; and that, for this reason, he seiz- ed his jurisdiction, and put it into hands more disposed to act with severity. Fuller sayst that a commission was granted to five bishops, whereof Laud was one, to suspend hina for cas- ual homicide that he had committed seven years before, and of which he had been cleared by commissioners appointed to examine into the fact in the reign of King James ; besides, his grace had a royal dispensation to shelter him from the canons, and had ever since exercised his jurisdiction without interruption, even to the consecrating of Laud himself to a bishopric. But the commission mentions no cause of his suspension, and only takes notice that the arch- bishop cannot at present, in his own person, at- tend the services which are otherwise proper for his cognizance and jurisdiction. But why could he not attend them"! Because his maj- esty had commanded him to retire, for refu- sing to license Sibthorp's sermon. The blame of this severity fell upon Laud, as if, not having * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 61, 435. CoUyer, p. 742. t Church History, b. xi., p. 127. patience to wait for the reverend old prelate's death, he was desirous to step into the archi- episcopal chair while he was yet alive ; for no sooner was Abbot suspended, than his jurisdic- tion was put into the hands of five bishops by commission, of whom Laud was the chief There was another prelate that gave the court some uneasiness, viz.. Dr. Williams, bish- op of Lincoln, late lord-keeper of the great seal, who, being in disgrace, retired to his diocess, and became very popular among his clergy.* He declared against the loan, and fell in with the Puritans and country party, insomuch that Sir John Lamb and Dr. Sibthorp informed the council that they were grieved to sec the Bish- op of Lincoln give place to unconformable min- isters, when he turned his back upon those who were conformable ; that the Puritans ruled all with him ; and that divers of them in Leices- tershire being convened before the commissa- ries, his lordship would not admit proceedings to be had against them. That they [the com- missaries for the High Commission] had inform- ed the bishop, then at Bugden, of several of the factious Puritans in his diocess who would not come up to the table to receive the communion kneeling ; of their keeping unlawful fasts and meetings ; that one fast held from eight in the morning till nine at night ; and that collections for money were made without authority, upon pretence for the Palatinate ; that, therefore, they had desired leave from, the bishop to pro- ceed against them ex officio; but the bishop re- plied that he would not meddle against the Pu- ritans ; that, for his part, he expected not anoth- er bishopric ; they might complain of them if they would to the council-table, for he was un- der a cloud already. He had the Duke of Buck- ingham for his enemy, and, therefore, would not draw the Puritans upon him, for he was sure they would carry all things at last. Be- sides, he said, the king, in the first year of his reign, had given answer to a petition of the Lower House, at Oxford, in favour of the Puri- tans. It appeared by the information of others, that Lamb and Sibthorp pressed the bishop again to proceed against the Puritans of Leicestershire ; that the bishop then asked them, What sort of people they were, and of what condition 1 To which Sir John Lamb replied, in the presence of Dr. Sibthorp, •' that they see^ned to the world to be such as would not swear, whore, nor be drunk, but vet they would lie, cozen, and de- ceive ; that they would frequently hear two sermons a day, and repeat the same again, too, and afterward pray, and that sometimes they would fast all day long." Then the bishop asked whether the places where those Puritans were did lend money freely upon the collection for the loan. To which Sir John Lamb and Dr. Sibthorp replied that they did. Then said the bishop, No man of discretion can say that that place is a place of Puritans : for my part (said the bishop), I am not satisfied to give way to proceedings against them: at which Sibthorp was much discontented, and said he was troub- led to see that the Church was no better re- garded. This information being transmitted to the council, was sealed up for the present, but was afterward, with some other matters, pro- . » Rushworth, vol. i., p. 424, 425. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.. 287 duced against his lordship in the Star Chamber, as will be seen hereafter. Though the king was at war with Spain, and with the house of Austria, and (if I may be al- lowed to say it) with his own subjects; though he had no money m his exchequer, and was at the greatest loss how to raise any ; yet he suf- fered himself to be prevailed with to enter into a new war with France, under the colour of maintaining the Protestant rehgion in that country, without so much as thinking of ways and means to support it. But when one con- siders the character of this king and his minis- try, it is hard to believe that this could be the real motive of the war, for his majesty and the whole court had a mortal aversion to the French Huguenots.* Buckingham had no religion at all ; Weston and Conway were Catholics ; Laud and Netle thought there loas no salvation for Protestants out of the Church of England ; how, then, can it be supposed that they should make war in defence of a religion for which they had the utmost contempt? Lord Clarendon says the war was owing to Buckingham's disap- pointment in his amours at the French court ;t but it is more likely he advised it to keep up the misunderstandings between the king and his parliaments, by continuing the necessity of raising money by extraordinary methods, upon which his credit and reputation depended. War being declared, the queen's domestics were sent home, and a fleet was fitted out, which made a fruitless descent upon the Isle of Rhee, under the conduct of the Duke of Buckingham, with the loss of five thousand men. This raised a world of complaints and murmurs agamst the duke, and obliged the weak and unhappy king to try the experiment of another Parliament, which was appointed to meet March 17, 1627-8. As soon as this resolution was taken in coun- cil, orders were despatched to all parts of the kingdom to release the gentlemen imprisoned for the loan, to the number of seventy-eight, most of whom were chosen members for the ensuing Parliament. In the mean time, his majesty went on with raising money by excise ; and instead of palliating and softening the mis- takes of liis government, put on an air of high sovereignty, and told his Parliament, that if they did not provide for the necessities of the state, he should use those other means that God had put into his hands, to save that which the folhes of other men would hazard. " Take not this," says his majesty, " as a threatening, for I scorn to threaten my inferiors,} but as an admonition from him, who by nature and duty has most care for your preservation and prosperity. "(J * Rapin, vol. ii., p. 260, foUo ed. t Ibid., vol. i.,p. 38,39. X " Any but equals." — Rv^hworth. Dr. Grey, who gives this correction, quotes other passages from the king's speech with a view to soften Mr. Neal's representation of it; but with httle propriety ; for though he expresses "a hope of being laid under such obligations as would tie him by way of thank- fulness to meet them often," the whole wears the same air of sovereignty as the passage above. It is more in the tone of an angry monarch to his offend- ing subjects, than of a constitutional king of Eng- land to his parliament. — Ed. <^ Rushworth, vol. i., p. 480. The leaders of the popular party were unmoved by this silly tirade. They were aware of the crisis which had arrived. But the Parliament not being awed by this language, began with grievances ; and though they voted five subsidies, they refused to carry the bill through the House till they had obtain- ed the royal assent to their petition of right, which asserted, among others, the following claims contained in Magna Charta : 1. That no freeman shall be detained in pris- on by the king and privy council without the cause of commitment be expressed for which by law he ought to be detained. 2. That a habeas corpus ought not to be de- nied where the law allows it. 3. That no tax, loan, or benevolence shall be imposed without act of Parliament. 4. That no man shall be forejudged of life or limb, or be exiled or destroyed, but by the judg- ment of his peers, according to the laws of the land, or by act of Parliament. The king gave the royal assent to this bill in the most ample manner, which I mention that the reader may remember what regard his maj- esty paid to it in the twelve succeeding years of his reign. In the mean time, the House of Lords* went upon Manwaring's sermons, already mentioned, and passed the following sentence upon the au- thor : " That he be imprisoned during pleasure, and be fined one thousand pounds ; that he make his submission at the bar of the House, and he suspended from his ministry for three years ; that he be disabled forever from preach- ing at court, be incapable of any ecclesiastical or secular preferment, and that his sermons be burned in London and both universities."! Pur- and were admirably qualified to meet it. I beg the reader to examine the character of the leaders of the party ; their intellectual endowments were of the highest order, and their moral standing gave weight and influence to their opinions. Look at Sir Edward Coke, yet regarded as the oracle of English law; John Selden, the most learned man of his time ; Sir John Eliot, one of the purest of patriots; and John Hampden, the glory of the land. Lingard says, the leaders of the country party conducted their pro- ceedings with the most consummate address. They advanced step by step, first resolving to grant a sup- ply, then fixing it at the tempting amount of five subsidies. But no art, no entreaty could prevail on them to pass their resolution in the shape of a bill. It was held out as a lure to the king, it was gradual- ly brought nearer and nearer to his grasp, but they still refused to surrender their hold ; they required, as a previous condition, that he should give his as- sent to those liberties which they claimed as the birthright of Englishmen. — C. * A declaration against Manwaring was presented to the Lords by Pym, supported in one of those lucid and masterly expositions of constitutional law which rendered him so formidable an opponent to the court. "The circumstances of aggravation an- nexed to this case," said Pym, " are these. The first, from the place where those sermons were preached ; the court, the king's own family, where such doctrine was before so well believed that no man needed to be converted, &c. The second was from the consideration of his holy functions : he is a preacher of God's Holy Word, and yet he had en- deavoured to make that, which was the only rule of justice and goodness, to be the warrant for violence and oppression. He is a messenger of peace, but he had endeavoured to sow strife and dissension, not only among private persons, but even between the king and his people, to the disturbance and danger of the whole state." — C. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 601, 612, 613. 288 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. suant to this sentence, Manwaring appeared upon his knees at the har of the House, June 23 [1628], and made ample aclvnowledgment and submission, craving pardon of God, the king, the Parhament, and the whole commonwealth, in words draw-n up hy a committee ; but the Houses were no sooner risen than his fine was remitted and liimself preferred, first to the liv- ing of Stamford-Rivers, with a dispensation to hold St. Giles's-in-the-fields, then to the dean- ery of Worcester, and after some time to the bishopric of St. David's.* Within a month after this [August 22] Mon- tague was promoted to the bishopric of Chi- chester, while he lay under the censure of Par- liament. At his consecration at Bow Church, Mr. Jones, a stationer of London, stood up and excepted against his qualification for a bishop- ric, because the Parliament had voted him in- capable of any preferment in the Church ; but his exceptions were overruled, not being deliv- ered in by a proctor, though Jones averred that he could not prevail with any one to appear for him, though he offered them their fees ; so the consecration proceeded. Sibthorp, the other incendiary, was made prebendary of Peterborough, and rector of Bur- ton-Latimer, in Wiltshire, though the Oxford historiant confesseth he had nothing to recom- mend him but forwardness and servile flattery. While the money bill was going through the House of Lords, the Commons were busy in drawing up a remonstrance of the grievances of the nation, with a petition for redress ; but as soon as the king had obtained his money he came to the House, June 26th, and prorogued the Parliament, first to the 20th of October, and then to the 26th of January. The Commons being disappointed of presenting tlieir remon- strance, dispersed it through the nation, but the king called it in, and after some time pub- lished an answer drawn up by Bishop Laud, as was proved against him at his trial. The remonstrance was dated June 11, and besides the civil grievances of billeting soldiers, &c., complains with regard to religion. 1. Of the great increase of popery by the laws not being put in execution ; by conferring honours and places of command upon papists ; by issuing out commissions to compound for their recusancy, and by permitting mass to be said openly at Denmark House and other places. The answer denies any noted increase of popery, or that there is any cause to fear it. As for compositions, they are for the increase of his majesty's profit, and for returning that into his purse which the connivance of inferior officers might perhaps divert another way. 2. The remonstrance complains of the dis- countenancing orthodox and painful ministers, though conformable and peaceable in their be- haviour, insomuch that they are hardly permit- * in this manner did Charles express his con- tempt for Parliament, and purchase the services of an unprincipled priesthood to his purposes of tyran- ny. And yet there are American citizens who see no flaw in Charles, no blemish in Laud ! We under- stand their position, however, when we find them, like that persecuting prelate, groping about amid the fooleries of popery. To escape from the testi- mony of history, they term it " a tissue of lies!"— C + Athenae Oxon., vol. i., p. 180. ted to lecture where there is no constant preach- ing. That their books are prohibited, whea those of their adversaries are licensed and pub- lished. That the Bishops Neile and Laud are justly suspected of Arminianism and popish er- rors ; and that this being the way to church j)refcrmcnt, many scholars bend the course of their studies to maintain them. The answer denies the distressing or dis- countenancing good preachers, if they be, as tliey are called, good ; but aflirms that it was necessary to prohibit their books, because some whom the remonstrance calls orthodox had as- sumed an insufferable license in printing. That great wrong was done to the two eminent prel- ates mentioned without any proof; for should they or any others attempt innovations of reli- gion, says his majesty, we should quickly take order with them, without staying for the re- monstrance ; and as for church preferments, we will always bestow them as the reward of merit, but, as the preferments are ours, we will be judge, and not be taught by a remon- strance. 3. The remonstrance complains of the growth of Arminianism, as a cunning way to bring in popery. The answer says, this is a great wrong to ourself and government, for our people must not be taught by a parliamentary remonstrance, or any other way, that we are so ignorant of truth, or so careless of the profession of it, that any opinion or faction should thrust itself so fast into our dominions without our knowledge. This is a mere dream, and would make our loyal people believe we are asleep. But the following letter, written at this time by a Jesuit in England to the rector of the college at Brussels, sufficiently supports the Parliament's charge, and shows how Arminian- ism and popery, which have no natural con- nexion, came to be united at this time against the Protestant religion and the liberties of Eng- land. " Let not the damp of astonishment seize upon your ardent and zealous soul," says the Jesuit, " in apprehending the unexpected call- ing of a Parliament ; we [the papists] have not opposed, but rather furthered it. " You must know the council is engaged to assist the king by way of prerogative, in case the Parliament fail. You shall see this Parlia- ment will resemble the pelican, which takes pleasure to dig out with her beak her own bow- els. " The elections have been in such confusion of apparent faction, as that which we were wont to procure with much art and industry, when the Spanish match was in treaty. " We have now many strings to our bow, and have strongly fortified our faction, and have added two bulwarks more ; for when King James lived, he was very violent against Ar- minianism, and interrupted our strong designs in Holland. " Now we have planted that sovereign drug, Arminianism, which we hope will purge the Protestants from their heresy, and it flourishes and bears fruit in due season. " The materials that build up our bulwark are the projectors and beggars of all ranks and qualities ; however, both these factions co-op- HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 289 erate to destroy the Parliament, and to intro- duce a new species and form of government, ■which is oligarchy. " These serve as mediums and instruments to our end, which is the universal Catholic mon- archy ; our foundation must be mutation, and mutation will cause a relaxation. " We proceed now by counsel and mature deliberation, how and when to work upon the duke's [Buckingham's] jealousy and revenge ; and in this we give the honour to those that merit it, which are the church Catholics. " There is another matter of consequence which we must take much into our considera- tion and tender care, which is, to stave off Pu- TJtans, that they hang not in the duke's ears : they are impudent, subtle people, and it is to be feared lest they should negotiate a reconcili- ation between the duke and the Parliament at Oxford and Westminster ; but now we assure ourselves that we have so handled the matter that both the duke and Parliament are irrecon- cilable. " For the better prevention of the Puritans, the Arminians have already locked up the duke's ears, and we have those of our own religion that stand continually at the duke's chamber, to see who goes in and out. We cannot be too circumspect and careful in this regard. I can- not choose but laugh to see how some of our own coat have accoutred themselves ; and it is admirable how in speech and gesture they act the Puritans. The Cambridge scholars, to their ■woful experience, shall see we can act the Puri- tan a little better than they have done the Jes- uits. They have abused our sacred patron in jest, but we will make them smart for it in ear- nest. " But to return to the main fabric, our found- ation is Arminianism; the Arminians and pro- jectors affect mutation ; this we second and en- force by probable arguments. We show how the king may free himself of his ward, and raise a vast revenue without being beholden to his subjects, which is by way of excise. Then our j church Catholics show the means how to settle the excise, which must be by a mercenary army | of foreigners and Germans ; their horse will eat up the country where they come, though they be well paid ; much more if they be not paid. The army is to consist of twenty thousand foot, and two thousand horse ; so that if the country rise upon settling the excise, as probably they will, the army will conquer them, and pay them- selves out of the confiscation. Our design is to work the Protestants as well as the Catho- lics to welcome in a conqueror. We hope to dissolve trade, to hinder the building of ship- ping, and to take away the merchant-ships, that they may not easily light upon the West India fleet," &c. It appears from this letter that Puritanism was the only bulwark of the Constitution, and of the Protestant religion, against the inroads of popery and arbitrary power.* * Here Dr. Grey asks, " Whence does this appear? not from those words in the same letter, which show that the Puritans were the tools which the .lesuits designed to make use of, in order to subvert the con- stitution in the Church and State?" The reply to the doctor is, that the truth of Mr. Neal's remark ap- pears from those paragraphs of the letter in which Vol. I.— O 0 4. To go on with the Parliament's remon strance, v,-hich complains farther of the misera ble condition of Ireland, where the popish reli- gion is openly professed, and their ecclesiasti- cal discipline avowed, monasteries, nunneries, and other religious houses re-edified, and filled with men and women of several orders, even in the city of Dublin itself The answer says that the Protestant religion is not in a worse condition than Queen Eliza- beth left it ; and adds, that it is a disparagement to the king's government to report the building of religious houses in Dublin, and other places, when the king himself had no account of it. But it seems the Parliament knew more of the affairs of Ireland than Bishop Laud ; the agents for that kingdom had represented the Protestant religion in great danger, by the sus- pending all proceedings against the papists ever since the king came to the crown ; by this means they were become so bold, that when Lord Falkland summoned their chiefs to meet at Dublin, 1626, in order to a general contribu- tion for defence of the kingdom against a for- eign invasion, they declared roundly that they would contribute nothing without a toleration, and liberty to build religious houses ; upon which the assembly was dismissed. This awa- kened the Protestant bishops, who met togeth- er and signed the following protestation, No- vember 26, 1626. " The religion of papists is superstitious and idolatrous, and their Church anti-apostolical ; to give them, therefore a toleration is a griev- ous sin, because it makes ourselves accessory to all the abominations of popery,* and to the perdition of those souls that perish thereby ; and because granting a toleration in respect of any money to be given, or contribution to be made are expressed strong apprehensions that impediments and obstructions to the views and schemes it unfolds would arise from the Puritans. Nay, the justness of the remark appears from the words which Dr. Grey produces as refuting it. For, if the Jesuits acted the Puritan, could it be with a smcere desire to ad- vance tire influence of the Puritans, and promote their wishes '. could it be with any other design than to turn against them the confidence into which by this means they insinuated themselves, and to under- mine the Reformation by increasing divisions and fo- menting prejudices against it 1 of this the collection of papers called " Foxes and Firebrands" furnishes evident proofs. Of this two curious letters, given by Dr. Grey from the MS. of Sir Robert Cotton, fur- nish convincing proofs. Yet the doctor again asks, , " Can Mr. Neal, after all, be so weak as to imagine that the Jesuits would have put on the Puritan guise, in order to have ruined the Constitution, had the Pu-, ritans been the only bulwark of the Constitution?" Weak as it might be in Mr. Neal to imagine it, it is a fact, that they did assume the character of the Pu- ritans in order to carry those purposes to which the Puritans were inimical. Dr. Grey, probably, would not have thought this so weak a policy as he repre- sents it, had he recollected what is said of the false teachers in the primitive Church, who " transformed themselves into the apostles of Christ." Had he rec- ollected that it is said of Satan, that "he transform- ed himself into an angel of light," and this to over turn those interests of truth and virtue, of which the former knew that the latter were the bulwark. — Ed. * " From so silly a sophism, so gravely dehvered, I conclude," says Bishop Warburton, " Usher was not that great man he has been represented." — Ed. 290 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. by them, is to set religion to sale, and with it the souls that Christ has redeemed with his "blood ; we therefore beseech the God of truth to make those wiio are in authority, zealous for God's glory, and resolute against all popery, su- perstition, and idolatry." Signed by Archbish- op Usher and eleven of his brethren. But, notwithstanding this protestation, the papists gained their point, and in the fourth year of the king's reign had a toleration granted them in consideration of the sum of £120,000, to he paid in three years* With regard to the building religious houses, it is wonderful that neither the king nor his prime minister should know anything of it, when the Lord-deputy Falkland had this very summer issued out a proclamation with this preamble : " Forasmuch as we cannot but lake notice that the late intermission of the legal proceeding against popish pretended or titular archbishops, bishops, abbots, deans, vicars-gen- eral, and others of that sort, that derive their authority and orders from Rome, hath bred such an extraordinary insolence and presumption in them as that they have dared of late not only to assemble themselves in public places, but also have erected houses and buildings called public oratories, colleges, mass-houses, and con- vents of friars, monks, and nuns, in the eye and open view of the state and elsewhere, and do frequently exercise jurisdiction against his maj- esty's subjects, by authority derived from Rome, and, by colour of teaching schools in their pre- tended monasteries, to train up youth in their superstitious religion, contrary to the laws and ecclesiastical government of this kingdom : we, therefore, will and require them to forbear to exercise their jurisdiction within this kingdom, and to relinquish and break up their convents and religious houses," &c. Could such a proc- lamation be printed and dispersed over the king- dom of Ireland without being known to the English court 1 But farther, to show that Bishop Laud liim- self was not long ignorant of the dangerous in- crease of popery in Ireland, the Bishop of Kil- more and Ardagh, Dr. Bedell, sent him the fol- lowing account soon afterward ; it was dated April 1, 1630. "The popish clergy are more numerous than those of the Church of England ; they have their officials and vicars-general for ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and are so hardy as to excommunicate those who appear at the courts of the Protestant bishops. Almost every parish has a priest of the Romish communion ; masses are sometimes said in churches, and, excepting a few British planters, not amounting * It is to be regretted that Mr. Neal did not refer to his authority for this assertion. Dr. Grey quotes against it CoUyer, vol. ii., p. 739, who says, that the protestation of the bishops ^' prevailed with the gov- ernment to waive the thoughts of a toleration, and pitch upon some other expedients." Thedoctor might have added, from Fuller, that the motion was crushed by the bishops, and chiefly by Bishop Dovvnham's ser- rnon in Dublin, on Luke, i., 47. — Church Hisfurt/, b. xi., p. 128. Though we cannot ascertain the author- ity on which Mr. Neal speaks, the reader will observe that he is not contradicted by Collyer and Fuller, for they speak of the immediate effect of the opposition of the bishops to the toleration of the Irish Catholics, and he writes of a measure adopted in repugnance to it, two years afterward. — Ed. to the tenth part of the people, the rest iare all declared recusants. In each diocess there are about seven or eight of the Reformed clergy well qualified, but these not understanding the language of the natives, cannot perform Divine service, nor converse with their parishioners with advantage, and, consequently, are in no capacity to put a stop to superstition."* Let the reader now judge whether the an- swer to the remonstrance be not very evasive. Could this great statesman be ignorant of so many notorious facts 1 was the growth of Ar- minianism and arbitrary power a dream? was any wrong done to himself, or his brother of Winchester, by saying they countenanced the.se principles 1 was not the increase of popery both in England and Ireland notorious, by suspend- ing the penal laws, ever since the king came to the crown, and granting the papists a toleration for a sum of money 1 where, then, was the pol- icy of lulling the nation asleep, while the ene- my were increasing their numbers, and whet- ting their swords for a general massacre of the Protestants, which they accomplished in Ire- land about twelve years afterward 1 The bishop observes in his diary, that this Parliament laboured his ruin, because they charged him with unsoundnessof opinion ; but his lordship had such an influence over the king as rendered all their attempts fruitless ; for the See of London becoming vacant this * " Here," says Dr. Grey, " we have a long train of mistakes." There are, it is true, several. Dr. Be- dell is called Dr. Beadle, and bishop elect of Kil- more, whereas he had the contiguous sees of Kil- more and Ardagh, and was the actual bishop of both when this letter was written, April 1, 1C30, having- been consecrated 13th September, 1629. These mis- takes are imputed to Mr. Neal, but Dr. Grey should have possessed the candour to have informed his readers that they belong to Mr. Collyer, from ivhom. the whole paragraph is taken. This he could not but have observed, for he immediately refers himself ta Collyer, to blame Mr. Neal for not mentioning a re- mark of that author, viz., that HmImp Bedell's ac- count related to his own two diocesses only. This the reader would of course understand to be the case, and, even with this limitation, it is a proof of the increase of popery in Ireland, though it should not be presumed to be a specimen of the state of things in other diocesses. The bishop's letter was written, as we have said, in April, 1630, and Mr. Neai introduces it as sent aliout that time of which he was writing, i. e., about June, 1628. This is charged against him as an anachronism, but it is a small mis- take, and even a blunder. But in a matter of this nature, where the existing state of things must have been the result of causes that had been some time operating, and shows a settled complexion of men and manners, it may admit a question whether the space of a year and nine months can be deemed an anachronism. The bishop's account certainly indi- cates what had been the growing state of thuigs for many months. Mr. Neal, by quoting Collyer in the above para- graph, has missed the most striking clause in Bishop Bedell's letter. He concudes by saying, "His maj- esj:y is now with the greatest part of this country, as to their hearts and consciences, king, but at the pope's discretion." Though it is not to the design of these notes, the editor is tempted here to give a trait in the character of this prelate's lady, who, it is said, " was singular in many excellent qualities, par- ticularly in a very extraordinary reverence she paid to her husband." — Bishop Burnet's Lfe of Bedell, p. 47, 230.— Eo. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 291 summer, Laud was translated to it July 15 ;* and the Duke of Buckingham being stabbed at Portsmouth by Felton, August 23 following, this ambitious prelate became prime minister in all affairs both of Church and State. One of the bishop's first enterprises, after his translation to London, was to stifle the pre- destinarian controversy, for which purpose he procured the Thirty-nine Articles to be reprint- ed, with the following declaration at the head of them :t By the King. " Being by God's ordinance, and our just ti- tle, defender of the faith, &c., within these do- minions, we hold it agreeable to our kingly of- fice, for the preservation of unity and peace, not to suffer any unnecessary disputations which may nourish faction in the Church or common- wealth ; we, therefore, with the advice of our bishops, declare that the Articles of the Church of England which the clergy generally have subscribed do contain the true doctrine of the Church of England, agreeable to God's Word, vwhich we do therefore ratify and confirm, re- quiring all our loving subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof; and prohibiting the least difference from the said articles. We take comfort in this, that all clergymen within our realm have always most willingly subscribed the Articles, which is an argument that they all agree in the true usual literal meaning of them ; and that in those curious points in which the present differences lie, men of all sorts take the Articles to be for them, which is an argument again, that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established : wherefore we will that all curious search into these things be laid aside, and these disputes be shut up in God's promises, as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scriptures, and the general meaning of the Articles according to them ; and that no man hereafter preach or print to draw the arti- cle aside any way, but shall submit to it, in the plain and full manner thereof, and shall not put his own sense or comment to the meaning of the article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical sense ; that if any public reader in the universities, or any other person, shall affix any new sense to any article, or shall pub- licly read, or hold disputation on either side ; or if any divine in the universities shall preach or print anything either way, they shall be lia- ble to censure in the ecclesiastical commission, and we will see there shall be due execution upon them."t * Bib. Reg., sect, iii.. No. 4; or Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 188. + Mr. Neal does not give the declaration at full length, but has omitted some clauses, and even two •paragraphs ; but in my opinion, without affecting the sense and tenour of it ; though Dr. Grey says, " he has by this altered and curtailed the sense of it, and then charged it with blunders, which are of his own making." — Ed. X This declaration, Dr. Harris observes, has been produced and canvassed in the famous Bangorian and Trinitarian controversies, which engaged the at- tention of the pubhc for a great number of years. —Life of Charles /., p. 183-190. Dr. Blackburn has at large discussed the validity of it, and is disposed to consider James I. as the first publisher of it. He shows that it has been corrupted by the insertion of the word nowj as, " we wdl not endure any varying, Surely there never was such a confused, un- intelligible declaration printed before ; but the Calvinist divines understood the king's inten- tion, and complained in a petition of "the re- straints they were laid under by his majesty's forbidding them to preach the saving doctrines of God's free grace in election and predestina- tion to eternal life, according to the seventeenth article of the Church. That this had brought them under a very uncomfortable dilemma, either of falling under the Divine displeasure, if they did not execute their commission, in de- - daring the whole counsel of God, or of being censured for opposition to his majesty's author- ity, in case they preached the received doctrines ol the Church, and attacked the Pelagian and Arminian heresies boldly published from the pulpit and the press, though censured by King James as arrogant and atheistical ; and those who avow them to be agreeable to the Church of England are called gross liars. Therefore, they humbly entreat that his majesty would be pleased to take the forementioned evils and grievances into his princely consideration, and, as a wise physician, apply such speedy reme- dies as may both cure the present distemper, and preserve the Church and State from those plagues with which their neighbours had not been a little distressed." But this address was stopped in its progress, and never reached the king's ears. In pursuance of his majesty's declaration, all books relating to the Arminian controversy were called in by proclamation and suppressed, and among others, Montague's and Manwar- ing's, which was only a feint to cover a more deadly blow to be reached at the Puritans ; for, at the same time, Montague and Manwaring received the royal pardon, and were preferred to some of the best livings in the kingdom (as has been observed), while the answer to their books, by Dr. Featly, Dr. Goad, Mr. Burton, Ward, Yates, and Rouse, were not only sup- pressed, but the publishers questioned in the Star Chamber. The king put on the same thin disguise with regard to papists ; a proclamation was issued out against priests and Jesuits, and particularly against the Bishop of Chalcedon ; orders were also sent to the Lord-mayor of London to make search after them, and commit them to prison, but, at the same time, his majesty appointed commissioners to compound with them for their recusancy : so that, instead of being suppressed, they became a branch of the revenue, and Sir Richard Weston, a notorious papist, was crea- ted Earl of Portland, and made lord-high- treas- urer of England. When the Parliament met according to pro- rogation, January 20, they began again with grievances of religion ; Oliver Cromwell, Esq., being of the committee, reported to the House the countenance that was given by Dr. Neile, bishop of Winchester, to divines who preached Arminian and popish doctrine ; he mentioned the favours that had been bestowed upon Mon- tague and Manwaring, who had been censured the last sessions of Parliament ; and added. or departing, m the least degree, from the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England now estab- lished ;" a language, he justly observes, inconsistent with the principles of our present constitution. — Con fessional, p. 131-143, 3d edit. — Ed, 292 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. " If this be the way to church preferment, what may we expect 1" Upon debating the king's late declaration, the House voted "that the main end of tliat declaration was to suppress the Puritan party, and to give liberty to the contrary side." Several warm and angry speeches were likewise made against the new ceremonies that began now to be introduced into the Church, as images of saints and angels, crucifixes, altars, lighted candles, &c. Mr. Rouse stood up and said, " I desire it may be considered what new paintings have been laid upon the old face of the whore of Babylon, to make her show more lovely. I de- sire it may be considered how the See of Rome doth eat into our religion, and fret into the very banks and walls of it, the laws and statutes of this realm. I desire we may consider the in- crease of Arminianism an error that makes the grace of God lackey after the will of man. I desire we may look into the belly and bowels of this Trojan horse, to see if there be not men in it ready to open the gates to Romish tyran- ny, for an Arminian is the spawn of a papist, and, if the warmth of favour come upon him, you shall see him turn into one of those frogs that rose out of the bottomless pit ; these men having kindled a fire in our neighbour-country, are now endeavouring to set this kingdom in a flame."* Mr. Pym said, " that, by the articles set forth 1562, by the catechism set forth in King Ed- ward VI.'s days, by the writings of Martin Bu- cer and Peter Martyr, by the constant profes- sions sealed with the blood of many martyrs, as Cranmer, Ridley, and others, by the Thirty- six Articles of Queen Elizabeth, and by the ar- ticles agreed upon at Lambeth, as the doctrine of the Church of England, which King James sent to Dort and to Ireland, it appears evident- ly what is the established religion of the realm. Let us, therefore, show wherein these late opin- ions differ from those truths ; and what men have been since preferred who have professed the contrary heresies ; what pardons they have had for false doctrine ; what prohibiting of books and writings against their doctrine, and permit- ting of such books as have been for them. Let us inquire after the abetters, and after the par- dons granted to them that preach the contrary truth before his majesty. It belongs to parlia- ments to establish true religion and to punish false. We must know what parliaments have done formerly in religion. Our parliaments have confirmed general councils. In the time of King Henry VIII., the Earl of Essex was condemned [by Parliament] for countenancing books of heresy. The convocation is but a pro- vincial synod of Canterbury, and cannot bind the whole kingdom. As for York, it is distant, and cannot bind us or the laws ; and as for the High Commission, it is derived from Parlia- ment."! Sir John Eliot said, " If there be any differ- ence in opinion concerning the interpretation of the Thirty-nine Articles, it is said the bish- ops and clergy in convocation have power to dispute it, and to order which way they please. A slight thing, that the power of religion should be left to these men ! I honour their profcs- * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 657-G68. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 659. sion ; there are among our bishops such as are fit to be made examples for all ages, who shine in virtue, and are firm for religion ; but the contrary faction I like not. I remember a character I have seen in a diary of King Ed- ward VI., where he says of the bishops, that ' some for age, some for ignorance, some for luxury, and some for popery, were unfit for dis- cipline and governincnt.' We see there arc some among our bishops that are not orthodox, nor sound in religion as they should be ; wit- ness the two bishops complained of the last meeting of this Parliament ; should we be in their power, I fear our religion would be over- thrown. Some of these are masters of cere- monies, and labour to introduce new ceremo- nies into the Church. Let us go to the ground of our religion, and lay down a rule on which all others may rest, and then inquire after of- fenders."* Mr. Secretary Cook said, "that the fathers of the Church were asleep ; but, a little to awa- ken their zeal, it is fit," says he, " that they take notice of that hierarchy that is already es- tablished, in competition with their lordships, for they [the papists] have a bishop consecrated by the pope ; this bishop has his subaltern offi- cers of all kinds, as vicars-general, archdeacons, rural deans, apparitors, &c. ; neither are these nominal or titular officers only, but they all ex- ecute their jurisdictions, and make their ordi- nary visitations throughout the kingdom, keep courts, and determine ecclesiastical causes ; and, which is an argument of more conse- quence, they keep ordinary intelligence by their agents in Rome, and hold correspondence with the nuncios and cardinals both at Brussels and France. Neither are the seculars alone grown to this height, but the regulars are more active and dangerous. Even at this time they intend to hold a concurrent assembly with this Parlia- ment." After some other speeches of this kind, the House of Commons entered into the follow- ing vow : " We, the Commons, in Parliament assem- bled, do claim, protest, and avow for truth, the sense of the Articles of Religion which were established by Parliament in the thirteenth year of our late Queen Elizabeth, which, by the pub- lic act of the Church of England, and by the general and current exposition of the writers of our Church, have been delivered unto us. And we reject the sense of the Jesuits and Ar- minians, and all others that differ from us."t Bishop Laud, in his answer to this protesta- tion, has several remarks. " Is there by this act," says his lordship, " any interpretation of the Articles or not 1 If none, to what end is the actl If a sense or interpretation be de- clared, what authority have laymen to make if! for interpretation of an article belongs to them- only that have power to make it." To which * Rushworth, vol. i., p. C60, 661. t "This protestation," Dr. Blackburne remarks, " is equivalent at least to any other resolution of the House. It is found among the most authentic records of Parliament. And whatever force or operation it had the moment it was published, the same it has to this hour ; being never revoked or repealed in any succeeding Parliament, nor containing any one par- ticular which is not in perfect agreement with every part of our present Constitution, civil and reUgious." — Confessional, d. 142. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 293 it might be answered, that the Commons made no new interpretation of the Articles, but avow- ed for truth the current sense of expositors be- fore that time, in opposition to the modern inter- pretation of Jesuits and Arminians. But what authority have laymen to make itl Answer. The same that they had in the 13th of Elizabeth to establish them as the doctrine of the Church of England ; unless we will say, with Mr. CoU- yer, that neither the sense of the Articles, nor the Articles themselves, were established in that Parliament, or in any other.* If so, they are no part of the legal Constitution, and men may subscribe the words without putting any sense upon them at all : an adnyrable way to prevent diversity of opinions in matters of laith ! But his lordship adds, " that it is against the king's declaration, which says, we must take the gen- eral meaning of them, and not draw aside any way, but take them in the literal and grammat- ical sense. "t Has the king, then, a power, with- out convocation or Parliament, to interpret and determine the sense of the Articles for the whole body of the clergy 1 By the general meaning of the Articles, the declaration seems to under- stand no one determined sense at all. Strange ! that so learned and wise a body of clergy and laity, in convocation and Parliament, should establish a number of articles with this title, "For the avoiding of diversity of opinions, and for the establishing of consent touching true re- ligion," without any one determined sense ! The bishop goes on, and excepts against the current sense of expositors, "because they may, and perhaps do, go against the literal sense." Will his lordship, then, abide by the literal and grammatical sense ! No ; but " if an article bear more senses than one, a man may choose what sense his judgment directs him to, provided it be a sense according to the analogy of faith, till the Church determine a [particular] sense ; but it is the wisdom of the Church to require consent to articles in general as much as may be, and not require assent to particulars." His lordship had better have spoken out, and said that it would be the wisdom of the Church to require no subscriptions at all. To what straits are men given to comply with the laws, when their sentiments dilTer from the literal and gram- matical sense of the Articles of the Church ! Mr. Collyer says they have no established sense ; King Charles, in his declaration, that they are to be understood in a general sense, but not to be drawn aside to a particular determined sense ; Bishop Laud thinks that if the words will bear more senses than one, a man may choose what sense his judgment directs him to, provided it be a sense according to the analogy of faith, and all this for avoiding diversity of opinions ! But I am afraid this reasoning is too wonderful for the reader. While the Parliament were expressing their zeal against Arminianism and popery, a new controversy arose, which provoked his majesty to dissolve them, and to resolve to govern with- out parliaments for the future ; for, though the king had so lately signed the petition of right in full Parliament, he went on with levying money by his royal prerogative. A bill was depending in the House to grant his majesty the duties of' * Eccles. Hist., p. 747. t Prynne, Cant. Doom, p. 164. tonnage and poundage ; but before it was pass- ed, the custom-house officers seized the goods of three eminent merchants, viz., Mr. Rolls, Mr. Chambers, and Mr. Vassal, for non-payment. Mr. Chambers was fined £2000, besides the loss of his goods, and suffered six years imprisonment : Mr. RoUs's warehouses were locked up, and him- self taken out of the House of Commons and im- prisoned. This occasioned some warm speeches against the custom-house officers and farmers of the revenues ; but the king took all the blame on himself, and sent the House word, that what the officers had done was by his special direction and command, and that it was not so much their act as his own. This was a new way of covering the unwarrantable proceedings of cor- rupt ministers, and was said to be the advice of the Bishops Laud and Neile ; a contrivance that laid the foundation of his majesty's ruin. It is a maxim in law, that the king can do no wrong, and that all maladministrations are chargeable upon his ministers ; yet now, in order to screen his servants, his majesty will make himself an- swerable for their conduct. So that if the Par- liament will defend their rights and properties, they must charge the king personally, who in - his own opinion was above law, and accounta- ble for his actions to none but God. It was moved in the House that, notwithstanding the king's answer, the officers of the customs should be proceeded against, by separating their inter- ests from the king's ; but when the speaker, Sir John Finch, was desired to put the question, he refused, saying the king had commanded the contrary.* Upon which the House immediately adjourned to January 25, and were then adjourn- ed by the king's order to March 2, when meet- ing again, and requiring the speaker to put the former question, he again refused, and said he had the king's order to adjourn them to March 16 ; but they detained him in the chair, not with- out some tumult and confusion, till they made the following protestation : 1. "Whosoever shall, by favour or counte- nance, seem to extend or introduce popery or Arminianism, shall be reputed a capital enemy of the kingdom. 2. " Whosoever shall advise the levying the subsidies of tonnage and poundage, not being granted by Parliament, shall be reputed a capi- tal enemy. 3. " If any merchant shall voluntarily pay those duties, he shall be reputed a betrayer of the liberties of England, and an enemy to the same."t The next day warrants were directed to Den- zil Hollis, Sir John Eliot,t William Coriton, * Wliitelocke's Memorial, p. 12. Rushworth, voL i., p. 669. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 670. % The subsequent history of Sir John Eliot pos- sesses all the interest of a romance. It is not ex- ceeded, in the developments of high principle and heroic fortitude, by any tale in ancient or modern times. He had evidently contemplated, from 'the commencement of this reign, the probability of such a termination of his patriotic life. He had read the character of Charles from the first, and knew tliat there was neither generosity nor justice in his heart. Laud he had uniformly opposed, as the despoiler of religion and the enemy of his country ; and the pseudo-patriotism of Wentwortli, now a baron of the realm and president of the North, had always been regarded by him with more than suspicion. From 294 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Benjamin Valentine, John Selden, Esqrs., and four more of the principal members of the House, so appear before the council on the morrow : such a monarch, aided by such counsellors, Eliot had nothing to expect. Yet he spurned with virtu- ous indignation the freedom which was proffered him on condition of his tendering an aclinowledg- ment of guilt. He was removed from one apartment of the Tower to another, and the rigour of his im- prisonment was steadily increased. At length his health rapidly declined; but his brutal oppressors, instead of being moved to pity, were solicitous to hasten the deadly nulady which preyed on his frame. His friends were prohibited from visiting him; and though he was sinking in a consumption, and the season was winlery, and his prison damp, he was scarcely allowed the comfort of a fire. Tliis description of Eliot's treatment is fully borne out by the following letter of the dying patriot to his friend John Hampden, bearing the date Dec. 26, 1631. " That I write not to you anything of intelligence will be excused, when I do let you know that I am under a new restraint by warrant from the kmg, for a supposed abuse of liberty in admitting a free resort ofvisitants, and under that colour, holding consulta- tions with my friends. My lodgings are removed, and I am now where candle-light may be suffered, but scarce fire. I hope you will think that this ex- change of places makes not a change of mind. The same protection is still with me, and the same confi- dence ; and these things can have end by Him that gives them being. N one but my servants, hardly my son. may have admittance to me. My friends I must desire, for their own sakes, to forbear coming to the Tower. You among them are chief, and have the first place in this intelligence." — Forsters Eliot, p. 115. Towards the close of 1632, a motion was made to the judges of the King's Bench, that as his physi- cians were of opinion he could never recover from his consumption, unless he breathed purer air, " they could for some certain time grant him his enlarge- ment for the purpose." Richardson, the chief-jus- tice, however, replied, "that although Sir John were brought low in body, yet was he as high and lofty in mind as ever, for he would neither submit to the king nor to the justice of that court." He was, therefore, referred to the monarch ; but, knowing that it was hopeless to petition without a confession of guilt, EUot resumed the occupation with which he had long sought to relieve the dreariness of his pris- on. This was the composition of a philosophical treatise, entitled "The Monarchy of Man," in * which the independence of his mind, and its control over the passions and infirmities of his nature, are exhibited with an admirable combination of philo- sophical acuteness and strong practical sense. Hav- ing concluded this treatise, his health sank rapidly, when the importunity of friends prevailed with him to petition the king. Mr. Forster has given the fol- lowing account of his applications in a letter from Pory to Sir Thomas Puckering : " He first," says the letter-writer, " presented a petition to his majes- ty, by the hand of the lieutenant his keeper, to this effect : ' Sir, your judges have committed me to prison here, in your Tower of London, where, by reason of the quality of the air, I am fallen into a dangerous disease. I humbly beseech your majesty you will command your judges to set me at liberty, that for recovery of my health I may take some fresh air,' &c. Whereunto his majesty's answer was, ' It was not humble enough.' Then Sir John sent an- other petition, by his own son, to the effect follow- ing: ' Sir, I am heartily sorry I have displeased your majesty, and, having so said, do humbly beseech you once again to command your judges to set me at liberty, that when I have recovered my health, I may return back to my prison, there to undergo such punishment as God has allotted unto me,' &c. Upon this the heutenant came and expostulated with him, saymg, It was proper to him, and common to none four of them appeared accordingly, viz., Mr. Hollis, Eliot, Coriton, and Valentine ; who, re- fusing to answer out of Parliament for what else, to do that office of delivering petitions for his prisoners. "And if Sir John, in a third petition, would hum- ble himself to his majesty, in acknowledging his fault, and craving pardon, he would willingly deUver it, and made no doubt but he should obtain his hb- erty. Unto this Sir John's answer was, 'I thank you, sir, for your friendly advice ; but my spirits are grown feeble and faint, which when it shall please God to restore unto their former vigour, I will take it farther into my consideration.; " — Life of John Eliot, 119. ^ The following letter, addressed to Hampden, was probably the last which Eliot wrote. It is too char- acteristic of the man, and of his friend, to be omit- ted. It reveals the secret of their character by disclosing the religious impulse under which they acted. " Besides the acknowledgment of your favour, that have so much compassion on your friend, I have little to return you from him that has nothing wor- thy of your acceptance, but the contestation that 1 have between an ill body and the air, that quarrel and are friends, as the summer winds affect them. I have these three days been abroad, and as often brought in new impressions of the cold ; yet, in body, and strength, and appetite, I find myself bettered by the motion. Cold at first was the occasion of my sickness ; heat and tenderness, by close keeping in my chamber, have since increased my weakness. Air and exercise are thought most proper to repair it. which are the prescriptions of my doctors, though no physic. I thank God, other medicines I now take not but those catholicons, and do hope I shall not need ; as children learn to go, I shall get acquaint- ed with the air ; practice and use will compass it ; and now and then a fall is an instruction for the fu- ture. These varieties He doth try us with, that will have us perfect at all parts ; and, as he gives the trial, he likewise gives the ability that will be neces- sary for the work; he will supply that doth com- mand the labour ; whose delivering from the lion and the bear, has the Phihstines also at the dispensation of his will, and those that trust him, under his pro- tection and defence. O infinite mercy of our Mas- ter, dear friend, how it abounds to us that are unwor thy of his service ! How broken, how imperfect, how perverse and crooked are our ways in obedience to him! How exactly straight is the line of his providences to us, drawn out through all the occur rants and particulars to the whole length and meas- ure of our time ; how fearful is his hand, that has given his Son unto us, and with him hath promised likewise to give us all things, relieving our wants, sanctifying our necessities, preventing our dangers, frepi'ig us from all extremities, and died himself for us ! What can we render? what retribution can we make worthy so great a majesty, worthy such love and favour ? We have nothing but ourselves, who are unworthy above all ; and yet that, as all other things, is his ; for us to offer up that, is but to give him his own, and that in far worse condition than we at first received it, which yet (for infinite is his goodness for the merits of his Son) he is contented to accept. This, dear friend, must be the comfort of his children ; this is the physic we must use in all our sickness and extremities; this is the strength- ening of the weak, the enriching of the poor, the lib- erty of the captive, the health of the diseased, the life of those that die the death of that wicked life, sin ; and this happiness have his saints. The con- templation of this happiness has led me almost be- yond the compass of a letter ; but the haste I use unto my friends, and the affection that does move it, will, I hope, excuse me. Friends should commu nicate their joys ; this, as the greatest, therefore, ' could not but impart unto rny friends, being therein HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 205 was said in the House, were committed close prisoners to tiie Tower. The studies of the rest were ordered to be sealed up, and a proc- lamation issued for apprehending them ; though • the Parliament not being dissolved, they were actually members of the House. On the 10th of March, the king came to the House of Lords, and without sending for the Commons, or pass- ing one single act, dissolved the Parliament, with a very angry speech against the leading members of the Lower House, whom he called vipers, that cast a mist of undutifulness over most of their eyes ; " and as those vipers," says his majesty, " must look for their reward of punishment, so you, my lords, must justly expect from me that favour that a good king oweth to his loving and faithful nobihty."* The undutifulness of the Commons was only their keeping the speaker in the chair after he had signified that the king had adjourned them, which his majesty had no power of doing ; and no king before King James I. pretended to ad- journ Parliaments ; and when he claimed that power, it was complained of as a breach of privilege. It is one thing to prorogue or dis- solve a Parliament, and another to adjourn it, the latter being the act of the House itself, and the consequence of vesting such a power in the crown might be very fatal ; for if the king may adjourn the House in the midst of their debates, or forbid the speaker to put a question when required, it is easy to foresee the whole busi- ness of Parliament must be under his direc- tion.! The members above mentioned were sentenced to be imprisoned during the king's pleasure ; and were accordingly kept under close confinement many years, where Sir John Eliot died a martyr to the liberties of his coun- try.$ Mr. Hollis was fined a thousand marks, moved by the present expectation of your letters, which always have the grace of much intelligence, and are happiness to him that is truly yours, J. E." — Vaughan's Stuart Memorials, 417. Ehot was released from his sufferings and impris- onment on the 27th of November, 1632. His son requested permission to carry his body into Corn- wall, his native county ; but the king replied, with his accustomed want of true nobility of feeling, •' Let Sir John EUot's body be buried in the church of that parish where he died." Such was the end of one of the purest, most enlightened, and devout of English patriots. His character has risen in the es- timation of his countrymen in exact proportion as his actions and the tenour of his life have become known. His fame has survived the slanders which the malevolence of party writers has invented, and is now regarded as the property of the nation, and the honour of his age. His sufferings were not fruit- less, nor was tho triumph of his enemies forgotten. "Faithful and brave hearts," says his biographer, *' were left to remember this ; and the sufferings of Ehot were not undergone in vain. They bore their psut in the heat and burden of the after struggle. His name was one of its watchwords, and it had none more glorious." — Forster's Life of Eliot, 223, and Price^s Nonconformity, vol. ii., p. 44. Mr. Fors- ter has vindicated Eliot from the base charges pre- ferred against him by Echard, the archdeacon, and retailed with such industrious malice by Mr. D'ls- laeli.— Life, p. 2-6. — C. * Rushworth, vol. i., 672. t Rapin, vol. ii., p. 279, foho edit. t " An affecting portrait of this gentleman is now in the possession of Lord Eliot. He is drawn pale, languishing, and emaciated ; but disdaining to make the abject submission required of him by the tyrant, he expired under the excessive rigours of his con- Sir John Eliot £2000, Valentine £500, and Long two thousand marks. Great were the murmurings of the people upon this occasion ; libels were dispersed against the Prime Minister Laud; one of which says, " Laud, look to thyself; be assured thy life is sought. As thou art the fountain of wicked- ness, repent of thy monstrous sins before thou be taken out of this world ; and assure thyself, neither God nor the world can endure such a vile counsellor or whisperer to live."* But to justify these proceedings to the world, his maj- esty published " A Declaration of the Causes of dissolving the last Parliament." The declaration vindicates the king's taking the duties of tonnage and poundage from the examples of some of his predecessors, and as agreeable to his kingly honour. It justifies the silencing the predestinarian controversy, and lays the blame of not executing the laws against papists upon subordinate officers and ministers in the country : " We profess," says his maj- esty, " that as it is our duty, so it shall be our care, to command and direct well ; but it is the part of the others to perform the ministerial of- fice ; and when we have done our office, we shall account ourself, and all charitable men will account us, innocent, both to God and men ; and those that are negligent, we will es- teem culpable, both to God and us." The dec- laration concludes with a profession that " the king will maintain the true religion of the Church of England, without conniving at po- pery or schism ; that he will maintain the rights and liberties of his subjects, provided they do not misuse their liberty, by turning it to licentiousness, wantonly and frowardly re- sisting our lawful and necessary authority ; for we do expect our subjects should yield as much submission to our royal prerogative, and as ready obedience to our authority and command- ments, as has been performed to the greatest of our predecessors. We will not have our ministers terrified by harsh proceedings against t4iem ; for as we expect our ministers should obey us, they shall assure themselves we will protect them."t This declaration not quieting the people, was followed by a proclamation, which put an end to all prospects of recovering the Constitution for the future. The proclamation declares his majesty's royal pleasure " that spreaders of false reports shall be severely punished ; that such as cheerfully go on with their trades shall have all good encouragement ; that he will not overcharge his subjects with any new burdens, but will satisfy himself with the duties received by his royal father, which he neither can nor will dispense with. And whereas, for several ill ends, the calling of another Parliament is di- vulged, his majesty declares that the late abuse having, for the present, driven his majesty un- willingly out of that course, he shall account it finement, leaving the portrait as a legacy and me- mento to his posterity, and to mankind ; who, in the contemplation of such enormities, have reason to rejoice ' When vengeance in the lucid air Lifts her red arm exposed and bare.' " — Belsham's Memoirs of the House of Brunswick Lu- nenburgh, vol. i., p. 185, note. — Ed. * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 672. t Rushworth, vol. u., Appen., p. 3-10. 296 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. presumption for any to prescribe any time to his majesty for parliaments, the calling, con- tinuing, and dissolving of which is always in the king's own power."* Here was aq end of the old English Constitution for twelve years. England was now an absolute monarchy : the king's proclamations and orders of council were the laws of the land ; the ministers of state sported themselves in the most wanton acts of power ; and the religion, laws, and liberties of this country lay prostrate and overwhelmed by an inundation of popery and oppression. This year died the Reverend Dr. John Pres- ton, descended of thej'amily of the Prestons in Lancashire. He was born at Heyford, in North- amptonshire, in the parish of Bugbrook, 1587, and was admitted of King's College, Cambridge, 1604, from whence he was afterward removed to Queen's College, and admitted fellow in the year 1609. t He was an ambitious and aspiring youth, till, having received some religious im- pressions from Mr. Cotton, in a sermon preach- ed by him at St. Mary's Church, he became re- markably serious, and bent all his studies to the service of Christ in the ministry. When the king came to Cambridge, Mr. Preston was appointed to dispute before him : the question was, Whether brutes had reason, or could make syllogisms 1 Mr. Preston maintained the affirmative ; and instanced in a hound, who, coming to a place where three ways meet, smells one way and the other, but not finding the scent, runs down the third with full cry, concluding that the hare, not being gone either of the first two ways, must necessarily be gone the third. The argument had a wonderful ef- fect on the audience, and would have opened a door for Mr. Preston's preferment, had not his inclinations to Puritanism been a bar in the way. He therefore resolved upon an academ- ical life, and took upon him the care of pupils, for which he was qualified beyond most in the University. Many gentlemen's sons were com- mitted to his care, who trained them up in the sentiments of the first Reformers, for he af- fected the very style and language of Calvin. When it came to his turn to be catechist, he went through a whole body of divinity with such general acceptance, that the outward chap- el was usually crowded with strangers before * Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 3. t Clarke's Lil'e of Dr. Preston, annexed to his Gen- eral Martyrology, p. 75. Sir Fulke Greville, after- ward Lord Brook, was such an admirer of Dr. Pres- ton, that he settled fifty pounds a year upon him. Lord Brook was a zealous patriot and an open advo- cate for liberty. On account of the arbitrary meas- ures of Charles I., he determined to seek freedom in New-England ; and he and Lord Say actually de- termined to transport themselves to Massachusetts ; but, upon the meeting of the Long Parliament, and the sudden change of public affairs, they were hin- dered in the project. He was afterward commander in the Parliamentary army, and having reduced War- wickshire, he advanced into Staffordshire, on the festival of St. Chad, to whom the Cathedral of Litch- field is dedicated ; he ordered his men to storm ihe idjoining close, to which Lord Chesterfield had re- vi:ed with a body of the king's forces. But before flis orders could be put in execution, he received a .Tiusket-shot in the eye, of which he instantly ex- pired, in the year 1G43. It was the opinion of the papists that St. Chad directed the bullet. Archbish- op Laud made a particular memorial of this in his diaiy. — Prynne's Breviate of Laud, p. 27. — C. the fellows came in, which created him envy. Ctmiplaint was made to the vice-chancellor of this unusual way of catechising, and that it was not safe to suffer Dr. Preston to be thus adored, unless they had a mind to set up Puritanism and pull down the hierarchy ; it was therefore agreed in the convocation-house that no stran- ger, neither townsman nor scholar, should, upon any pretervce, come to those lectures, which were only designed for the members of the college. There was little preaching in the University at this time, except at St. Mary's, the lectures at Trinity and St. Andrew's being prohibited ; Mr. Preston, therefore, at the request of the townsmen and scholars of other colleges, at- tempted to set up an evening sermon at St. Bo- tolph's, belonging to Queen's College ; but when Dr. Newcomb, commissary to the Bishop of Ely, heard of it, he came to the church and forbade it, commanding that evening prayers only should be read ; there was a vast crowd, and earnest entreaty that Mr. Preston might preach at least for that time ; but the commis- sary was inexorable, and, to prevent farther importunities, went home with his family ; af^ ter he was gone, Mr. Preston was prevailed with to preach, and because much time had been spent in debates, they adventured for once to omit the service, that the scholars might be present at their college prayers. Next day the commissary went to Newmarket, and complain- ed both to the bishop and king ; he represented the danger of the hierarchy, and the progress of nonconformity among the scholars, and as- sured them that Mr. Preston was m such higb esteem, that he would carry all before him if he was not thoroughly dealt with. Being call- ed before his superiors, he gave a plain narra- tive of the fact ; and added, that he had no de- sign to affront the bishop or his commissary. The bishop said the king was informed that he was an enemy to forms of prayer, which Mr. Preston denying, he was ordered to declare his judgment upon that head, in a sermon at SL Botolph's Church, and so was dismissed. Some time after. King James being at New- market, Mr. Preston was appointed to preach before him, which he performed with great ap- plause, having a fluent speech, a commanding voice, and a strong memory, to deliver what he had prepared without the assistance of notes. The king spoke familiarly to him ; and, though his majesty expressed a dislike to some of his Puritan notions, he commended his opposing the Arminians. And the Duke of Buckingham, not knowing what friends he might want among the populace, persuaded the king to admit him one of the prmce's chaplains in ordinary, and to wait two months in the year, which he did. Soon after this he was chosen preacher of Lin- coln's Inn, and, upon the resignation of Dr. Chadderton, master of Emanuel College, in the year 1022, at which time he took his degree of Doctor of Divinity. The doctor was a fine gentleman, a complete courtier, and in high es- teem with the Duke of Buckingham, who thought by his means to ingratiate himself with the Puritans,* whose power was growing ^' " But Preston, who was as great a politician a» the duke," says Mr. Granger, " was not to be over reached."— Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 297 very formidable in Parliament. The duke of- fered him the bishopric of Gloucester, but the doctor refused, and ehose rather the lecture- ship of Trinity Church, which he kept till his death. By his interest in the duke and prince he did considerable service for many silenced ministers; he was in waiting when King James died, and came up with the young king and duke in a close coach to London. But some time after, the duke, having changed measures, and finding that he could neither gain over the Puritans to his arbitrary designs nor separate the doctor from their interests, he resolved to shake hands with his chaplain. The doctor, foreseeing the storm, was content to retire qui- etly to his college, where, it is apprehended, he would have felt some farther effects of the duke's displeasure, if God, in his providence, had not cut him out work of a different nature, which engaged all his thoughts to the time of his death. Dr. Preston lived a single life, being never married ; nor had he any cure of souls. He had a strong constitution, which he wore out in his study and in the pulpit. His distemper was a consumption in the lungs, for which, by the ad- vice of physicians, he changed the air several times ; but the failure of his appetite, with oth- er symptoms of a general decay, prevailed with him at length to leave off all medicine, and re- sign himself to the will of God. And being de- sirous of dying^n his native country, and among his old friends, he retired into Northampton- shire, where he departed this life in a most pi- ous and devout manner,* in the fifty-first year of his age, and was buried in Fawsley Church, old Mr. Dod, minister of the place, preaching his funeral sermon to a numerous auditory, July 20. 1628. Mr. FuUert says, " He was an excellent preacher, a subtle disputant, a great politician ; so that his foes must confess that (if not having too httle of the dove) he had enough of the serpent. Some will not stick to say he had parts sufficient to manage the broad- seal, which was offered him, but the conditions did not please. He might have been the duke's right hand, but his grace finding that he could not bring him nor his party off to his side, he would use him no longer," which shows him to be an honest man. His practical works and sermons were printed by his own order, after his decease. CHAPTER IV. TROM THE DISSOLUTION OF THE THIRD P.^RLI.i- MENT OF KING CHARLES I. TO THE DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP ABBOT. The ancient and legal government of Eng- * As he felt the symptoms of death coming upon him, he said, " I shall not change my company, for I shall still converse with God and saints." A few hours previous to his departure, being told it was the Lord's Day, he said, " A fit day to be sacrificed on ! I have accompanied saints on earth, now I shall ac- company angels in heaven. My dissolution is at hand. Let me go to my home, and to Jesus Christ, who hath bought me with his precious blood." He soon added, " I feel death coming to my heart ; my pain shall now be turned into joy." — Clarke's Lives, p. 113. Echard styles Dr. Preston "the most cele- brated of the Puritans, an exquisite preacher, a no- ble disputant, and a deep politician." — C. t Book xi., p. 131. Vol. I— Pp land, by king, lords, and commons, being nov/ suspended by the royal will and pleasure, his majesty resolved to supply the necessities of the state by such other methods as his council should advise, who gave a loose to their actions, being no longer afraid of a parliamentary inquiry, and above the reach of ordinary justice. Instead of the authority of king and Parliament, all pub- lic affairs were directed by proclamations of the king and council, which had the force of so many laws, and were bound upon the subject under the severest penalties. They levied the duties of tonnage and poundage, and laid what other imposts they thought proper upon mer- chandise, which they let out to farm to private persons ; the number of monopolies was in- credible ; there was no branch of the subject's property that the ministry could dispose of but was bought and sold. They raised above £1,000,000 a year by taxes on soap, salt, can- dles, wine, cards, pins, leather, coals, &c., even to the'sole gathering of rags. Grants were giv- en out for weighing hay and straw within three miles of London, for gauging red-herring-bar- rels and butter-casks, for marking iron and seal- ing lace,* with a great many others, which, be- ing purchased of the crown, must be paid for by the subject. His majesty claimed a right, in ca- ses of necessity (of which necessity himself was the sole judge), to raise money by ship- writs, or royal mandates, directed to the sheriffs of the several counties to levy on the subject the sev- eral sums of money therein demanded, for the maintenance and support of the royal navy. The like was demanded for the royal army, by the name of coat and conduct money, when they were to march, and when they were in quarters the men were billeted upon private houses. Many were put to death by martial law who ought to have been tried by the laws of the land, and oth- ers, by the same martial law, were exempted from the punishment which by law they deserv- ed. Large sums of money were raised by com- missions under the great seal, to compound for depopulations, for nuisances in building be- tween high and low water mark, for pretended encroachments on the forests, &c., besides the exorbitant fines of the Star Chamber and High Commission Court, and the extraordinary proj- ects of loans, benevolence.s, and free gifts. Such was the calamity of the times, that no man could call anything his own longer than the king pleased, or might speak or write against these proceedings without the utmost hazard of his liberty and estate. The Church was governed by the like arbi- trary and illegal methods ; Dr. Laud, bishop of London, being prime minister, pursued his wild scheme of uniting the two Churches of England and Rome,t without the least regard to the * Stevens's Historical Account of all Taxes, p. 183, 184, 2d edit. t Dr. Grey is much displeased with Mr. Neal for this representation of Laud's views; but, without bringing any du'ect evidence to refute it, he appeals to the answer of Fisher, and the testimonies of Sir Ed- ward Deering and Limborch, to show that the arch- bishop was not a papist. This may be admitted, and the proofs of it are also adduced by Dr. Harris [Life of Charles I., p. 207]. yet it will not be so easy to ac- quit Laud of a partiality for the Church, though not the court, of Rome, according to the distinction May makes in his " Parliamentary History." It will not 298 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. rights of conscience, or the laws of the land, and very seldom to the canons of the Church, bearing down all who opposed iiim with unre- lenting severity and rigour. To make way for this union, the churches were not only to be repaired, but ornamented witir pictures, paint- ings, images, altar-pieces, &c., the forms of public worship were to be decorated with a number of pompous rites and ceremonies, in imitation of the Church of Rome, and the Pu- ritans, who were tlie professed enemies of eve- rything tliat looked like popery, were to be suppressed or driven out of the land. To ac- complish the latter, his lordship presented the king with certain considerations for settling the Church, which were soon after published, with some little variation, under the title of " In- structions to the two Arclibishops, concerning certain Orders to be observed and put in exe- cution by the several Bishops." Here his majesty commands them to see that his declaration for silencing the predestinarian controversy be strictly observed ; and that spe- cial care be taken- of the lectures and afternoon sermons, in their several diocesses, concerning which he is pleased to give the following in- structions :* 1. " That in all parishes the afternoon ser- mons be turned into catechising by question and answer, where there is not some great cause to break this ancient and profitable order. 2. " That every lecturer read Divine service before lectures in surplice and hood. 3. " That where there are lectures in market towns, they be read by grave and orthodox di- vines, and that they preach in gowns, and not in cloaks, as too many do use. 4. "Tliat no lecturer be admitted that is not ready and willing to take upon him a living with cure of souls. 5. " That the bishops take order that the ser- mons of the lecturers be observed. 6. " That none under noblemen, and men qualified by lavf, keep a private chaplain. 7. " That care be taken that the prayers and catechisings be frequented, as well as sermons." Of all which his majesty i-equires an account once a year. By virtue of these instructions, the Bishop of London summoned before him all ministers and lecturers in and about the city, and in a solemn speech insisted on their obedience. He also sent letters to his archdeacons, requiring them to send him lists of the several lecturers within their archdeaconries, as well in places exempt as not exempt, with the places where they be so easy to clear him of the charge of symbol- izing with the Church of Rome in its two leading features superstition and intolerance. Under his primacy the Church of England, it is plain, assumed a very popish appearance. " Not only the pomps of ceremonies were daily increased, and innovations of great scandal brought into the Church, but, in point of doctrine, many fair approaches made towards Rome. Even Heylin says, the doctrines are altered in many things ; as, for example, the pope not anti- christ, pictures, free-will, &c. ; the Thirty-nhie Arti- cles seeming impatient, if not ambitious also, of some Catholic sense." — May^s Parliamentary History, p. 22, 23, and Heylin' s Life of Laud, p. 152.— En. * A liberal mind will reprobate these instructions as evading argument, preventing discussion and in- quiry, breathing the spirit of intolerance and perse- cution, and indicating timidity. — Ed. preached, and their quality or degree ; as also the names of such gentlemen who, not being qualified, kept chaplains in their own houses. His lordship required them, farther, to leave a copy of the king's instructions concerning lec- turers with the parson of every parish, and to see that they were duly observed. These lecturers were chiefly Puritans, who. not being satisfied with a full conformity so as to take upon them a cure of souls, only preach- ed in the afternoon, being chosen and maintain- ed by the people. They were strict Calvinists, warm and affectionate preachers, and distin- guished themselves by a religious observance of the Lord's Day, by a bold opposition to po- pery and the new ceremonies, and by an un- common severity of life. Their manner of preaching gave the bishop a distaste to ser- mons, who was already of opinion that they did more harm than good, insomuch that on a fast-day for the plague, then in London, prayers were ordered to be read in all churches, but ftot a sermon to be preached, lest the people should wander from their own parishes. The lectu- rers had very popular talents, and drew great numbers of people after them. Bishop Laud would often say "they were the most danger- ous enemies of the state, because by theii prayers and sermons they awakened the peo- ple's disaffection, and, therefore, must be sup- pressed." Good old Archbishop Abbot was of another spirit, but the reins were taken out of his hands. He had a good opinion of the lecturers, as men who had the Protestant religion at heart, and would fortify their hearers against the return of popery.* When Mr. Palmer, lecturer of St. Aiphage, in Canterbury, was commanded to desist from preaching by the archdeacon, be- cause he drew great numbers of factious peo- ple after him and did not wear the surplice, the archbishop authorized him to continue : the like he did by Mr. Udnay, of Ashford, for which he was complained of as not enforcing the king's instructions, whereby the commission- ers, as they say, were made a scorn to the fac- tious, and the archdeacon's jurisdiction inhibit- ed. But in the diocess of London Bishop Laud proceeded with the utmost severity. Many lecturers were put down, and such as preached against Arminianism, or the new ceremonies, were suspended and silenced ; among whom were the Reverend Mr. John Rogers, of Ded- ham, Mr. Daniel Rogers, of Wethersfield, Mr. Hooker, of Chelmsford, Mr. White, of Kniglits- bridge, Mr. Archer, Mr. William Martin, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Jones, Mr. Dod, Mr. Hildersham, Mr. Ward, Mr. Saunders, Mr. James Gardiner, Mr. Foxley, and many others. The Rev. Mr. Bernard, lecturer of St. Sepul- chre's, London, having used this expression in his prayer^ before sermon, "Lord, open the eyes of the que'en's majesty, that she may see Jesus Christ, whom she has pierced with her infidel- ity, superstition, and idolatry,"! was summon- ed before the High Commission, January 28, and upon his humble submission was dismiss- ed ; but some time after, in his sermon at St. Mary's, in Cambridge, speaking offensive words * Prynne's Introd., p. 94, 361, 373. t Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 32, 140. Prynne, p. 365, 367 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 299 against Arminianism and the new ceremonies, Bishop Laud sent for a copy of his sermon, and having cited him before the High Commission, required him to make an open recantation of what he had said, which his conscience not suf- fering him to, he was suspended from his min- istry, excommunicated, fined £1000, condemn- ed in costs of suit, and committed to New Prison, where he lay several months, being cruelly used, and almost starved for want of necessaries, of which he complained to the bishop in sundry letters, but could get no relief unless he would recant. Mr. Bernard offered to confess his sorrow and penitence for any oversights or unbecoming expressions in his sermons, which could not be accepted, so that in conclusion he was utterly ruined. Mr. Charles Chauncey, minister of Ware, hav- ing said in a sermon " that the preaching of the Gospel would be suppressed, and that there was much atheism, popery, Arminianism, and heresy crept into the Church," was questioned for it in the High Commission, and not dismiss- ed till he had made an open recantation, which we shall meet with hereafter. Mr. Peter Smart, one of the prebendaries of Durham, and minister of that city, was impris- oned by the High Commission of York this summer, for a sermon preached from these words, " I hate all those that love superstitious vanities, but thy law do I love," in which he took occasion to speak against images and pic- tures, and the late pompous innovations. He was confined four months before the commis- sioners exhibited any articles against him, and five more before any proctor was allowed him. From York he was carried up to Lambeth, and from thence back again to York, and at length was deprived of his prebend, degraded, excom- municated, fined £500, and committed close prisoner, where he continued eleven years, till he was set at liberty by the Long Parliament in 1640. He was a person of a grave and rever- end aspect,* but died soon after his release, the severity of a long imprisonment having con- tributed to the impairing his constitution.! * Fuller's Church History, b. ii., p. 173. t " Here the historian," remarks Bishop Warbur- ton, " was much at a loss for his confessor's good qualities, while he is forced to take up with his grave and reverend aspect." It might have screened this passage from his lordship's sneer and sarcasm, that these are the words of Fuller, whose history furnish- ed the whole paragraph, and whose description of Mr. Smart goes into no other particulars. His lord- ship certainly did not wish Nr. Neal to have drawn a character from his own invention ; not to urge that the countenance is the index of the mind. It ap- pears, as Dr. Grey observes, that the proceedings against Smart commenced in the High Commission Court in Durham. — See WoocTs Athenae Oxon., vol. ii., p. 11. The doctor, and Nelson in his Collec- tions, vol. i., p. 518, 519, produce some paragraphs from Smart's sermon to show the strain and spirit of it. There was printed a virulent tract at Durham, 1736, entitled " An Illustration of Mr. Neal's Histo- ly of the Puritans., in the Article of Peter Smart, A.M." It is a detail of the proceedings against Smart, and of subsequent proceedings in Parliament against Dr. Cosins upon the complaint of Smart, whom the author aims to represent in a very unfa- vourable point of view ; but without necessity, as the very persecution of him shows that he must have been very offensive to those who were admirers of the superstitions and ceremonies against which he The king's instructions and the violent meas- ures of the prime minister brought a great deal of business into the spiritual courts ; one or other of the Puritan ministers was every week suspended or deprived, and their families driven to distress ; nor was there any prospect of re- hef, the clouds gathering every day thicker over their heads, and threatening a violent storm This put them upon projecting a farther settle- ment in New-England, where they might be delivered Irom the hands' of their oppressors, and enjoy the free liberty of their consciences ; which gave birth to a second grand colony in North America, commonly known by the name of the Massachusetts Bay. Several persons of quality and substance about the city of London engaging in the design, obtained a charter dated March 4, 1623-9, wherein the gentlemen and merchants therein named, and all who should thereafter join them, were constituted a body corporate and politic, by the name of the Gov- ernor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England. They were empowered to elect their own governor, deputy-governor, and ma- gistrates, and to make such laws as they should think fit for the good of the plantation, not re- pugnant to the laws of England. Free liberty of conscience was likewise granted to all who should settle in those parts, to worship God in their own way.* The new planters being all Puritans, made their application to the Rever- end Mr. Higginson, a silenced minister in Lei- cestershire, and to Mr. Skelton, another silen- ced minister of Lincolnshire, to be their chap- lains, desiring them to engage as many of their friends as were willing to embark with them. The little fleet that went upon this expedition consisted of six sail of transports, from four to twenty guns, with about three hundred and fifty passengers, men, women, and children. They carried with them one hundred and fif- teen head of cattle, as horses, mares, cows, &c., forty-one goats, six pieces of cannon for a fort, with muskets, pikes, drums, colours, and a large quantity of ammunition and provisions. The fleet sailed May 11, 1629, and arrived the 24th of June following, at a place called by the na- tives Neumkeak, but by the new planters Sa- lem, which in the Hebrew language signifies peace. Religion being the chief motive of their retreat- ing into these parts,f that teas settled in the first place. August the 6th being appointed for the solemnity of forming themselves into a religious society, the day was spent in fasting and prayer ; inveighed. He was afterward not only set at liber- ty, but by the order of the Lords, in 1642, was resto- red to his prebend m Durham, and was presented to the Vicarage of Ayclifi' in the same diocess —Nel- son's Collections, vol. ii., p. 406. The Puritans, by whom he was esteemed a protomartyr, it is said, raised £400 a year for him by subscription.— Gmn- ger's History of England, vol. ii., p. 177.— Ed. * This is a mistake : the charter did not once mention hberty of conscience or toleration. — See Gordon's History of the American War, vol. i., p. 19. —Ed. t What a commentary upon this statement does the history of Salem afford ! It is probable that no community on the globe, of the same population, can exhibit a finer harvest resulting from the cultivation of Gospel principles. The churches and the schools of Salem are demonstrations that, as men sow, they shall also reap ! — C. 300 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. and thirty persons who desired to be of the communion, severally, in the presence of the whole congregation, declared their consent to a confession of faith which Mr. Higginson had drawn up, and signed the following covenant with their hands : " We covenant with our Lord, and one an- other. We bind ourselves, in the presence of God, to walk together in all his ways, according as he is pleased to reveal himself to us in his blessed Word of truth, and do profess to walk as follows, through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.* "We avouch the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be his people, in the truth and sim- plicity of our spirits. " We give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Word of his grace, for the teaching, ruling, and sanctifying us in matters of wor- ship and conversation, resolving to reject all canons and constitutions of men in worship. " We promise to walk with our brethren with all watchfulness and tenderness, avoiding jeal- ousies, suspicions, backbitings, censurings, pro- vokings, secret risings of spirit against them ; but in all offences to follow the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to bear and forbear, give and forgive, as he hath taught us. " In public and private we will willingly do nothing to the offence of the Church, but will be willing to take advice for ourselves and ours, as occasion shall be presented. " We will not in the congregation be forward, either to show our own gifts and parts in speak- ing, or scrupling, or in discovering the weak- nesses or failings of our brethren ; but attend an ordinary call thereunto, knowing how much the Lord may be dishonoured, and his Gospel, and the profession of it, slighted by our distem- pers and weaknesses in public. " We bind ourselves to study the advance- ment of the Gospel in all truth and peace, both in regard of those that are within or without, no way slighting our sister churches, but using their counsel as need shall be ; not laying a stumbling-block before any, no, not the Indians, whose good we desire to promote, and so to converse as we may avoid the very appearance of evil. " We do hereby promise to carry ourselves in all lawful obedience to those that are over us in Church and commonwealth, knowing how well-pleasing it wdl be to the Lord, that they should have encouragement in their places by our not grieving their spirits by our irregulari- ties. " We resolve to approve ourselves to the Lord in our particular callings, shunning idle- ness, as the bane of any state ; nor will we deal hardly or oppressingly with any, wherein we are the Lord's stewards. " Promising, also, to the best of our ability, to teach our children and servants the knowl- edge of God, and of his will, that they may serve him also. ■ And all this not by any strength of our own, but by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood we desire may sprinkle this our covenant made in his name." After this, they chose Mr. Skelton their pastor, Mr. Higginson their teacher, and Mr. Houghton their ruling elder, who were separated to their » Neal's History of New-England, p. 126. several offices by the imposition of the hands of some of the brethren appointed by the Church to that service.* The first winter proved a fatal one to the colony, carrying off above one hundred of their company, and among the rest Mr. Houghton, their elder, and Mr. Higginson, their teacher ; the latter of whom, not being capable of undergoing the fatigues of a new set- tlement, fell into a hectic, and died in the forty- third year of his age. Mr. Higginson had been educated in Emanuel College, Cambridge, pro- ceeding M.A., being afterward parson of one of the five churches in Leicester, where he con- tinued for some years, till he was deprived for nonconformity ; but such were his talents for the pulpit, that after his suspension, the town obtained liberty from Bishop Williams to choose him for their lecturer, and maintained him by their voluntary contributions, till Laud, being at the head of the Church affairs, he was arti- cled against in the High Commission, and ex- pected every hour a sentence of perpetual im- prisonment ; this induced him to accept of an invitation to remove to New-England, which cost him his life. Mr. Skelton, the other min- ister, was a Lincolnshire divine, who, being si- lenced for nonconformity, accepted of a like, in- vitation, and died of the hardships of the coun- try, August 2, 1634. From this small beginning is the Massachusetts province grown to the figure it now makes in the American world. Next summer the governor went over with a fresh recruit of two hundred ministers, and others, who were forced out of their native country by the heat of the Laudean persecution. Upon embarcation they left behind them a pa- per, which was soon after published, entitled, " The Humble Request of his Majesty's Loyal Subjects, the Governor and Company lately gone for New-England,to the rest of their Brethren in and of the Church of England, for the obtaining of their Prayers, and removal of Suspicions and Misconstructions of their Intentions." Where- in they entreated the reverend fathers and breth- ren of the Church of England to recommend them to the mercies of God in their constant prayers, as a new church now springing out of their bowels : " for you are not ignorant," say they, "that the Spirit of God stirred up the Apostle Paul to make a continued mention of the Church of Philippi, which was a colony from Rome. Let the same Spirit, we beseech y put you in mind, that are the Lord's rem brancers,'to pray for us without ceasing; i.- - what goodness shall extend to us, in this or any other Christian kindness, we, your brethren in Christ, shall labour to repay in what duty we are or shall be able to perform ; promising, so far as God shall enable us, to give him no rest on your behalf, wishing our heads and hearts may be fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of supplication, through the manifold necessities and tribulations which may not altogether un- expectedly, nor, we hope, unprofitably befall us." When it appeared that the planters could. subsist in their new settlement, great numbers of their friends, with their families, flocked after them every summer. In the succeeding twelve years of Archbishop Laud's administration, Mather's Hist; of New-England, b. iii., p. 74, 76. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 301 there went over about four thousand planters,* who laid the foundation of several little towns and villages up and down the country, carrying over with them, in materials, money, and cat- tle, &c., not less than to the value of £192,000, besides the merchandise intended for traffic with the Indians. Upon the whole, it has been computed that the four settlements of New- England, viz., Plymouth, the Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New-Haven, all which were accomplished before the beginning of the civil wars, drained England of four or five hundred thousand pounds in money (a very great sum in those days) ; and if the persecution of the Puri- tans had continued twelve years longer, it is thought that a fourth part of the riches of the kingdom would have passed out of it through this channel. The chief leaders of the people into these parts were the Puritan ministers, who, being hunted from one diocess to another, at last chose this wilderness for their retreat, which has proved (through the overruling providence of God) a great accession to the strength and commerce of these kingdoms. I have before me a list of seventy-seven divines, who became pastors of sundry little churches and congrega- tions in that country before the year 1640, all of whom were in orders in the Church of Eng- land. The reader will meet with an account of some of them in the course of this history ; and I must say, though they were not all of the first rank for deep and extensive learning, yet they had a better share of it than most of the neighbouring clergy ; and, which is of more consequence, they were men of strict sobriety and virtue ; plain, serious, affectionate preach- ers, exactly conformable in sentiment to the doctrinal articles of the Church of England, and took a great deal of pains to promote Christian knowledge, and a reformation of manners in their several parishes. To return to England. Though Mr. Dave- nant, the learned Bishop of Salisbury, had de- clared for tlie doctrine of universal redemption at the Synod of Dort, he was this year brought into trouble for touching upon the point of pre- destination,! in his Lent sermon before the king, on Romans, vi., 23, " The gift of God is eternal life, through Jfesus Christ our Lord." This was construed as a contempt of the king's injunctions, for which his lordship was two days after summoned before the privy council, where he presented himself upon his knees, and so had continued, for any favour he received from any of his own function then present ; but the temporal lords bade him rise and stand to his defence. The accusation was managed by Dr. Harsnet, archbishop of York ; Laud walk- ing by all the while in silence, without speak- ing a word. Harsnet put him in mind of his obligations to King James ; of the piety of his present majesty's instructions, and then aggra- vated his contempt of them with great vehe- mence and acrimony. Bishop Davenant re- plied, with mddness, that he was sorry that an •established doctrine of the Church should be so distasted ; that he had preached nothing but what was expressly contained in the seven- teenth article, and was ready to justify the truth of it. It was replied that the doctrine was not gainsaid, but the king had commanded these questions should not be debated, and, therefore, his majesty took it more offensively that any should do it in his own hearing. The bishop replied that he never understood that his maj- esty had forbidden the handling any doctrine comprised in the Articles of the Church, but only the raising new questions, or putting a new sense upon them, which he never should do ; that in the king's declaration all the Thir- ty-nine Articles are confirmed, among which the seventeenth, of predestination, is one ; that all ministers are obliged to subscribe to the truth of this article, and to continue in the true profession of that as well as the rest ; the bish- op desired it might be shown wherein he had transgressed his majesty's commands, when he had kept himself within the bounds of the arti- cle, and had moved no new or curious ques- tions. To which it was replied that it was the king's pleasure that, for the peace of the Church, these high questions might be forborne. The bishop then said he was very sorry he under- stood not his majesty's intention, and that for the time to come he would conform to his com- mands.* Upon this he was dismissed without farther trouble, and was after some time admit- ted to kiss the king's hand, who did not fail to remind him that the doctrine of predestination was too big for the people's understanding, and, therefore, he was resolved not to give leave for discussing that controversy in the pulpit. Here- upon the bishop retired, and was never after- ward in favour at court. Soon after, Mr. Madye, lecturer of Christ Church, London, was cited before the High Commission, and [March 10, 1630] was, by act of court, prohibited to preach any more within the diocess of London, because he had disobey- ed the king's declaration, by preaching on pre- destination. Dr. Cornelius Burges, Mr. White, the famous Dr. Prideaux, Mr. Hobbes, of Trin- ity College, and Mr. Cook, of Brazen-nose, with others, suffered on tlie same account. But Dr. Alexander Leighton, a Scots divine, and father of the worthy and celebrated prelate of that name, so highly commended by Bishop Burnet in the " History of his Life and Times," met with severe usage in the Star Chamber, for venturing to write against the hierarchy of the Church. t This divine had published, du- ring the last session of Parliament, an " Appeal to the Parliament ; or, Zion's Plea against Prelacy,"t wherein he speaks not only with * Mather's Hist. N. E., b. i., p. 17, 23. t Fuller, b. xi., p. 138. * Prynne, p. 173,876. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 55-57. i Dr. Harris, who had read by far the greatest part of this piece, says that "it was written with spirit, and more sense and learning than the writers of that stamp usually showed in their productions ;" and adds, " 1 cannot for my life see anything in it de- serving so heavy a censure." — Life of Ckarle.s I., p. 225. His calling the queen " a daughter of Heth," as Mr. Pierce observes, meant no more than that she was a papist. Bishop Tillotson afterward used a not much better expression concerning foreign popish princes, without giving any umbrage, in styling them " the people of these abominations." Such language had much countenance from the taste and spirit of the age. Whitelocke, as well as Heyhn, represents Dr. Leighton as charged with exciting the Parliament to kill all the bishops, and smite them under the fifth rib ; and other writers have repeated 302 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. freedom, but with very great rudeness and in- decency against bishops ; calling them " men of blood," and saying " that we do not read of a greater persecution and higher indignities done towards God's people in any nation than in this, since the death of Queen Elizabeth." He calls the prelacy of the Church " anti-Chris- tian." He declaims vehemently against the canons and ceremonies; and adds, that "the Church has her laws from the Scripture, and that no king may make laws for the house of God." He styles the queen a daughter of Heth, and concludes with saying what a pity it is that so ingenious and tractable a king should be so monstrously abused by the bishops, to the undoing of himself and his subjects. Now, though the warmth of these expressions can no ways be justified, yet let the reader consider whether they bear any proportion to the sen- tence of the court. The cause was tried June 4, 1630. The defendant, in his answer, owned the writing of the book, denying any ill inten- tion, his design being only to lay these things before the next Parliament for their considera- tion. Nevertheless, the court adjudged unan- imously that for this offence " the doctor should be committed to the prison of the Fleet for life, and pay a fine of £10,000 ; that the High Com- mission should degrade him from his ministry ; and that then he should be brought to the pil- lory at Westminster, while the court was sit- ting, and be 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. 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 re- mainder of his life." Bishop Laud pulled off his cap while this merciless sentence was pronouncing, and gave God thanks for it ! Between passing the sentence and execution, the doctor made his escape from prison, but was retaken in Bedfordshire, and brought back to the Fleet. On Friday, November 6, part of the sentence was executed upon him, says Bish- op Laud in his diary, after this manner : " He was severely whipped before he was put in the pillory. 2. Being set in the pillory, he had one of his ears cut off. 3. One side of his nose slit. 4. Branded on the cheek with a redhot iron with the letters S. S. On that day sevennight, his sores upon his back, ear, nose, and face being the accusation ; a circumstance not noticed by Mr. Neal. It appears to be ungrounded, for Mr. Pierce could not find it in the books, but only a call on the Parliament utterly to root out the hierarchy. Nor did it form any one of the articles of information against Dr. Leigh ton in the Star Chamber. — Pierce's Vitidi- cation, p. 177 ; and Rushwnrth, vol. i., p. 55. It great- ly aggravated the injustice and cruelty of the sen- tence passed on him, that his book was printed for the use of the Parliament only, and not in England, but in Holland. The heads were previously sanc- tioned by the approbation of five hundred persons un- der their hands, whereof some were members of Par- liament. And when the Parliament was dissolved he returned, without bringing any copies of it into the land, hut made it his special care to suppress them.— yl T.elter from General Ludlow to Dr. Holling vxnrtk, printed at Amsterdam, 1692, p. 23.— Ed. not yet cured, he was whipped again at the pil- lory in Cheapside, and had the remainder of his sentence executed upon him, by cutting off the other ear, slitting the other side of the nose, and branding the other cheek."* He was then car- ried back to prison, where he continued in close confinement for ten years, till he was released by the Long Parliament.! The doctor was be- tween forty and fifty years of age, of a low stat- ure, a fair complexion, and well known for his learning and other abilities : but his long and close confinement had so impaired his health, that when he was released he could hardly walk, see, or hear. The sufferings of this learn- ed man moved the people's compassion ; and, I believe, the records of the Inquisition can hard- ly furnish an example of equal severity. To make the distance between the Church and the Puritans yet wider, and the terms of con- formity more difl[icult. Bishop Laud introduced sundry pompous innovations in imitation of popery, that had no foundation in the laws of the realm or the canons of the Church. These were enforced both upon clergy and laity, with all the terrors of the High Commission, to the ruin of many families, and the raising very great disturbances in all parts of the kingdom. St. Katherine Creed Church, in the city of London, having been lately repaired, was sus- pended from all Divine service till it was again consecrated ; the formality of which being very extraordinar3^ may give us an idea of the super- stition^f this prelate. On Sunday, January 16, 1630, Bishop Laud came thither about nine in the morning, attended with several of the High Commission, and some civilians. J At his ap- proach to the west door of the church, which was shut and guarded by halberdiers, some, who were appointed for that purpose, cried with a loud voice, " Open, open, ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in ;" and pres- ently, the doors being opened, the bishop, with some doctors and principal men, entered. As soon as they were come within the place, his lordship fell down upon his knees, and with eyes lifted up, and his arms spread abroad, said, " This place is holy; the ground is holy : in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I pronounce it holy." Then walking up the mid- dle aisle towards the chancel, he took up some of the dust, and threw it into the air several times. When he approached near the rail of the communion table, he bowed towards it five or six times, and returning, went round the church with his attendants in procession, saying first the hundredth, and then the nineteenth Psalm, as prescribed by the Roman pontificate. He then read several collects, in one of which he prays God to accept of that beautiful build- ing, and concludes thus : " We consecrate this church, and separate it unto thee as holy ground, not to be profaned any more to common use." In another he prays " that all that should here- after be buried within the circuit of this holy and sacred place may rest in their sepulchres in peace, till Christ's coming to judgment, and may then rise to eternal life and happincss." 303 v/ho received their appeal. Upon this the chancellor complained to the king, and procured the cause to be heard before his majesty at "Woodstock, August 23, when the following sentence was passed upon them : " That Mr. Ford, Thorne, and Hodges be expelled the University ; that both the proctors be deprived of their places for accepting the appeal ; and that Dr. Prideaux, rector of Exeter College, and Dr. Wilkinson, principal of Magdalen Hall, receive a sharp admonition for their misbeha- viour in this business."* Mr. Thorne and Hodges, after a year's deprivation, desiring to be restored, preached a recantation sermon, and read a written submission in the convocation- house on their bended knees, before the doc- tors and regents ;t but Mr. Ford, making no address to be restored, returned to his friends in Devonshire ; and being like to be chosen lecturer or vicar of Plymouth, the inhabitants were required not to choose him, upon pain of his majesty's high displeasure ; and, in case he "was chosen, the Bishop of Exeter was com- manded not to admit him. Mr. Crowder, vicar of Veil, near Nonsuch, was about this time committed close prisoner to Newgate for sixteen weeks, and then depri- ved by the High Commission, without any ar- ticles exhibited against him, or any proof of a crime. It was pretended that matters against him were so foul, that they were not fit to be read in court ; but then they ought to have been certified to him, that he might have had an op- portunity to disprove or confess them, which could not be obtained. Mr. Crowder was a pi- ous man, and preached twice a day, which was an unpardonable crime so near the court. Sundry eminent divines removed to New- England this year ; and, among others, the fa- mous Dr. Eliot, the apostle of the Indians, who, not being allowed to teach school in his native country, retired to America, and spent a long and useful life in converting the natives, and, with indefatigable pains, translated the Bible into the Indian language. t Two very considerable Puritan divines were also removed into the other world by death, viz., Mr. Arthur Hildersham, born at Stech- worth, Cambridgeshire, October 6th, 1363, and educated in Christ's College, Cambridge, of an ancient and honourable family ; his mother, Anne Poole, being niece to the cardinal of that name. His father educated him in the popish religion, and because he would not go to Rome at fourteen or fifteen years of age, disinherited him : but the Earl of Huntingdon, his near kins- man, provided for him, sending him to Cam- bridge, where he proceeded M.A., and entered into holy orders. In the year 1587 he was placed by his honourable kinsman above men- tioned at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, * Rushworth, vol. i., part ii., p. 110. t Prynne, Cant. Doom, p. 175. j For the interesting details connected with the labours of this apostolic minister of Christ, I would refer to his life in my friend Dr. Sparks's admirable series of American Biography, and to a memoir in the 'Lives of Eminent Missionaries, by John Came, Esq." Eliot's Bible is now become exceedingly rare ; few perfect copies are to be met with. A fine copy was sold at the auction of the late Rev. Dr. Thaddeus Mason Harris's library, for thirty-nine dollars, to Mr. Wjnthrop, of Boston. — C. Vol. I.— Q q and inducted into that living soon after.* But here he was silenced for nonconformit)', as in the year 1.590, in the year 1605, and again in the year 1611, under which last suspension he continued many years. In the year 1613 he was enjoined by the High Commission not to preach, or exercise any part of the ministerial function, till he should be restored. In the year 1615 he was committed to the Fleet by the High Commission for refusing the oath ex officio, where he continued three months, and was then released upon bond. In November, 1616, the High Commission proceeded against him, and pronounced him refractory and diso- bedient to the orders, rites, and ceremonies of the Church ; and because he refused to con- form, declared him a schismatic, fined him £3000, excommunicated him, and ordered him to be attached and committed to prison, that he might be degraded of his ministry ; but Mr. Hildersham wisely absconded, and kept out of the way. In the year 1625 he was restored to his living ; but when Laud had the ascend- ant, he was silenced again for not reading Di- vine service in the surplice and hood, and was not restored till a few months before his death. Though he was a Nonconformist in principle, as appears by his last will and testament, yet he was a person of great temper and modera- tion:! he loved and- respected all good men, and opposed the separation of the Brownists, and the semi-separation of Mr. Jacob. His lec- tures on the fifty-first Psalm, and his other print- ed works, as well as the encomiums of Dr. Wil- let and Dr. Preston, show him to have been a most excellent divine : what a pity was it that his usefulness in the Church should be so long interrupted ! He died, March 4, 1631, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, having been minis- ter of Ashby-de-Ia-Zouch, as the times would suffer him, above forty-three years. ]\fr. Robert Bolton was born at Blackburn, in Lancashire, 1572, educated first in Lincoln College, and afterward in Brazennose College, Oxford, of which he was a fellow. Here he became famous for his lectures in moral and natural philosophy, being an excellent Grecian,} and well versed in school divinity, while he continued a profane, wicked man. During his residence at college he contracted an acquaint- ance with one Anderton, a popish priest, who, taking advantage of his mean circumstances, would have persuaded him to reconcile himself to the Church of Rome, and go over to one of the popish seminaries in Flanders. Mr. Bol- ton accepted the motion, and appointed a place of meeting to conclude the affair ; but Ander- ton disappointing him, he returned to the col- lege, and fell under strong convictions for his former misspent life, so that he could neither eat nor sleep, nor enjoy any peace of mind for several months, till at length, by prayer and humiliation, he received comfort. Upon this ■* Clarke's Life of Hildersham, annexed to his General Martyrology, p. 114 t " He dissented not from the Church in any arti- cle of faith, but only about wearing the surphce, bap- tizing wilh the cross, and kneeling at the sacra- ment."— Graiiger^s History of England, vol. i., p. 371, 8vo.— Ed. } The Greek language was so familiar to him, that he could speak it with almost as much facility as his mother tongue. — Ed. 306 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. he resolved to enter upon the ministry, in the thirty-fifih year of this age. About two years after he was presented to the living of Brough- ton, in Northamptonshire, wliere lie continued till his death. He was a nnost awakening and authoritative preacher, having the most strong, masculine, and oratorical style of any of the age in which he lived. He preached twice every Lord's Day, besides catechising. Upon every holyday, and every Friday, before the sacrament, he expounded a chapter : his con- stant course was to pray six times a day, twice in secret, twice with his family, and twice with his wife, besides many days of private hu- miliation that he observed for the Protestant churches in Germany. He was of comely, grave presence, which commanded respect in all companies ; zealous in the cause of religion, and yet so prudent as to escape being called in question all the time he lived in Northampton- shire. At length he was seized with a tertian ague, which, after fifteen weeks, put a period to his valuable and useful life, December 17, 1631, in the sixtieth year of his age. He made a most devout and exemplary end, praying heart- ily for all his friends that came to see him ; bidding them make sure of heaven, and bear in mind what he had formerly told them in his ministry, protesting that what he had preached to them for twenty years was the truth of God, as he should answer it at the tribunal of Christ. He then retired within himself, and said, Hold out faith and patience, your work will speedily be at an end. The Oxford historian* calls him a most religious and learned Puritan, a painful and constant preacher, a person of great zeal towards God, charitable and bountiful, but, above all, an excellent casuist for afflicted con- sciences ; his eloquent and excellent writings will recommend his memory to the latest pos- terity. + About the year 1627 there was a scheme formed by several gentlemen and ministers to promote preaching in the country by setting up lectures in the several market towns of Eng- land, and to defray the expense a sum of money was raised by voluntary contribution for the purchasing such impropriations as were in the hands of the laity, the profits of which were to be parcelled out into salaries of £40 or £50 per annum for the subsistence of their lectu- rers ; the money was deposited in the hands of the following ministers and gentlemen, in trust for the aforesaid purposes, under the name and character of feoffees, viz.. Dr. William Gouge, Dr. Sibbs, Dr. Offspring, and Mr. Davenport, of the clergy ; Ralph Eyre and Simon Brown, Esqrs., of Lincoln's Inn, and C. Sherman, of Gray's Inn, and John White, of the Middle Temple, Esqrs, lawyers; Mr. John Gearing, Mr. Richard Davis, Mr. G. Harwood, and Mr. Francis Bridges, citizens of London. There were at this time three thousand eight hundred * Athenaj Oxen., vol. i., p. 479 ; see also Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 58G. t When he lay at the point of death, one of his friends, taking him by the hfind, asked him if he was not in great i)ain : " Truly, "'said he, " the great- est pain 1 feel is your cold hand," and inslantly ex- jiireil. His book "On Happiness" was the most and forty-five parish churches appropriated to cathedrals, or to colleges, or impropriated as lay fees to private persons, having formerly be- longed to abbeys. The gentlemen above men- tioned dealt only in the latter, and had already bought in thirteen impropriations, which cost between £5000 and £0000. Most people thought this a very laudable design, and wished the feof- fees good success ; but Bishop Laud looked on them with an evil eye, and represented them to the king a& in a conspiracy against the Church, because, instead of restoring the impropriations they purchased to the several livings, they kept them in their own hands for the encouragement of factious and seditious lecturers, who were to depend upon their patrons as being liable to be turned out if they neglected their duty.* He added, farther, that the feoffees preferred chief- ly Nonconformist ministers, and placed them in the most popular market towns, where they did a great deal of mischief to the hierarchy. For these reasons an information was brought against them in the exchequer by Mr. Attorney-general Noy, as an illicit society formed into a body corporate without a grant from the king, for the purchasing rectories, tithes, prebendaries, &c., which were registered in a book, and the profits not employed according to law. The defendants appeared, and in their an- swer declared that they apprehended impro- priations in the hands of laymen, and not em- ployed for the maintenance of preachers, were a damage to the Church ; that the purchas- ing of them for the purposes of religion was a pious work, and not contrary to law, it being notorious that impropriations are frequently bought and sold by private persons ; that the donors of this money gave it for this and such other good uses as the defendants should think meet, and not for the endowment of perpetual vicars ; that they had not converted any of the money to their own use, nor erected themselves into a body corporate ; and that to their knowl- edge they had never presented any to a church, or a place in their disposal, who was not con- f(>rmable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, and approved of. by the or- dinary of the place. But, notwithstanding all they could say, the court was of opinion that their proceedings were contrary to law, and de- creed that their feoffment should be cancelled ; that the impropriations they had purchased should be confiscated to the king, and the feof- fees themselves fined in the Star Chamber ; however, the prosecution was dropped as too in- vidious, it appearing in court, by the receipts and disbursements, that the feoffees were out of pocket already £1000. The odium of this pros- ecution fell upon Laud, whose chancellor told him upon this occasion, that he was miserably censured by the Separatists ; upon which he made this reflection in his diary, " Pray God give me patience, and forgive them." But his lordship had very little patience with those who opposed his proceedings. We have seen his zeal for pictures and paintings in churches, which some of the Puritans ventu- ring to censure in their sermons and writings, wore exposed to the severest punishments: * Fuller's Church History, b. xi., p. 136 Appeal^ p. 13. Prynne, p. 379, 385. Rushvvorth, vol. j., part li., p. ISO. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 307 among these was the Rev. Mr. John Hayden, fected to the- discipline of the Church, he, with of Devonshire, who, being forced to abscond, was apprehended in the diocess of Norwich by Bishop Harsnet, who, after he had taken from him his horse and money, and all his papers, caused him to be shut up in close prison for thirteen weeks,* after which, when the justices would have admitted him to bail at the quarter- sessions, his lordship sent him up to the High Commission, who deprived him of his ministry and orders, and set a fine upon him for preach- ing against decorations and images in churches. In the year 1634, Mr. Hayden venturing to preach occasionally without being restored, was apprehended again, and sent to the Gate-house by Archbishop Laud, and from thence to Bride- well, where he was whipped and kept to hard labour ; here he was confined in a cold, dark dungeon during a whole winter, being chained to a post in the middle of the room, with irons on his hands and feet, havijig no other food but bread and water, and a pad of straw to lie on. Before his release, he was obliged to take an oath, and give bond, that he would preach no more, but depart the kingdom in a month, and not returij. Bishop Harsnet did not live to see the execution of this part of the sentence, t though for his zeal against the Puritans he was promoted to the archbishopric of York, and made a privy-councillor. Some time before his decease he not only persecuted the Noncon- formists, but complained of the conformable Pu- ritans, as he called them, because they complied out of policy and not in judgment. How hard is the case when men shall be punished for not con- forming, and be complained of if they conform ! Queen Elizabeth used to say she would never trouble herself about the consciences of her subjects if they did but outwardly comply with the laws, whereas this prelate would ransack the very heart. Henry Sherfield, Esq., a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and recorder of the city of Sarum, was tried in the' Star Chamber, May 20, \6:32,t for taking down some painted glass out of one of the windows of St. Edmund's Church, in Salis- bury, in which were seven pictures of God the Father in form of a little old man in a blue and red coat, with a pouch by his side : one repre- sents him creating the sun and moon with a pair of compasses, others as working on the business of the six days' creation, and at last he sits in an elbow-chair at rest.ij Many sim- ple people, at their going in and out of church, did reverence to this window (as they say), be- cause the Lord their God was there. This gave such offence to the recorder, who was also a justice of peace, that he moved the parish at a vestry for leave to take it down, and set up a new window of white glass in the place, which was accordingly granted, six justices of the peace being present. Some time after, Mr. Sherfield broke with his staff the pictures of God the Father, in order to new glaze the win- dow, an account of which being transmitted to London, an information was exhibited against him in the Star Chamber, February 8, 1632-3. The information sets forth, "that being evil af- * Usurpation of Prelates, p. 161, 162. t Fuller's Church History, b. xi., p. 144. t Rushworlh, part ii., vol. i., p. 153-156. ^ Prynne's Cant. Doom, p. 102. certain confederates, without consent of the bishops, had defaced and pulled down a fair and costly window in the church, containing the history of the creation, which had stood there some hundred years, and was a great ornament to it, which profane act might give encourage- ment to other schismatical persons to commit the like outrages." Mr. Sherfield, in his defence, says that the Church of St. Edmund's was a lay fee, and ex- empted from the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocess, and the defendant, with the rest of the parishioners, had lawful power to take down the glass ; and that it was agreed by a vestry that the glass should be changed, and the win- dow made new, and that accordingly he took down a quarry or two in a quiet and peaceable manner ; but he avers that the true history of the creation was not contained in that window, but a false and impious one : God the Father was painted like an old man with a blue coat, and a pair of compasses, to signify his compass- ing the heavens and earth. In the fourth day's work there were fowls of the air flying up from God their maker, which should have been the fifth day. In the fifth day's work a naked man is lying upon the earth asleep, with so much of a naked woman as from the knees upward growing out of his side, which should have been the sixth day ; so that the history is false. Farther, this defendant holds it to be impious to make an image or picture of God the Father, which he undertakes to prove from Scripture, from canons and councils, from the mandates and decrees of sundry emperors, from the opin- ions of ancient doctors of the Church, and of our most judicious divines since the Reforma- tion. He adds, that his belief is agreeable to the doctrine. of the Church of England and to the homilies, which say that pictures of God are monuments of superstition, and ought to be de- stroyed ; and to Queen Elizabeth's injunctions, which command that all pictures and monu- ments of idolatry should be removed out of churches, that no memory of them might remain in walls, glass windows, or elsewhere ; which in- junction is confirmed by the canons of the I3th of Elizabeth. Mr. Sherfield concludes his defence with denying that he was disaffected to the discipline of the Church of England, or had en- couraged any to oppose the government of it under the reverend bishops. Though it is hard to make a tolerable reply to this defence, yet Bishop Laud stood up and spake in excuse of the painter, saying, God the Father was called in Scripture the Ancient of Days ; adding, however, that for his own part he did not so well approve of pictures of things invisible ; but be the paintings better or worse, he insisted strongly that Mr. Sherfield had taken them down in contempt of the episcopal authority, for which he moved that he might be fined £1000 and removed from his recorder- ship of the city of Sarum; that he be com mitted close prisoner to the Fleet till he pay his fine, and then be bound to his good beha- viour. To all which the court agreed, except to the fine, which was mitigated to £500. The Reverend Mr, John Workman, lecturer of St. Stephen's Church, Gloucester, in one of his sermons, asserted that pictures or ima<^e3 308 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. were no ornaments to churches ; that it was unlawful to set up images of Christ or saints in our houses, because it tended to idolatry, ac- cording to the homily.* For this he was sus- pended by the High Commission, excommuni- cated, and obliged to an open recantation in the court at Lambeth, in the Cathedral of Glouces- ter, and in the Church of St. Michael's ; he was also condemned in costs of suit, and im- prisoned. Mr. Workman was a man of great piety, wisdom, and moderation, and had served the Church of St. Stephen's fifteen years ; in consideration whereof, and of his numerous family, the city of Gloucester had given him an annuity of £20 per annum, under their common seal, a little before his troubles, but for this act of charity the mayor, town-clerk, and several of the aldermen were cited before the High Commission and put to £100 charges, and the annuity was cancelled. After this Mr. Work- man set up a little school, of which Archbishop Laud being informed, inhibited him, as he would answer the contrary at his peril. He then fell upon the practice of physic, which the arch- bishop likewise absolutely forbid ; so that, be- ing deprived of all methods of subsistence, he fell into a melancholy disorder and died. Our bishop was no less watchful over the press than the pulpit, commanding his chap- lains to expunge out of all books that came to be licensed such passages as disallowed of paintings, carvings, drawings, gildings ; erect- ing, bowing, or praying before images and pic- tures, as appeared by the evidence of Dr. Feat- ly and others at his trial. This great prelate would have stretched out his arm not only against the Puritans in Eng- land, but even to reach the factories beyond sea, had it been in his power. The English church at Hamburgh managed their affairs ac- cording to the Geneva discipUne, by elders and deacons. In Holland they conformed to the discipline of the States, and met them in their synods and assemblies with the consent of King James and of his present majesty, till Sec- retary Widebank, at the instance of this prel- ate, offered some proposals to the privy council for their better regulation ;t the proposals con- sisted of ten articles : " 1. That all chaplains of English regiments in the Low Countries shall be exactly conformable to the Church of England. 2. That the merchants residing there shall admit of no minister to preach among them but one qualified as before. 3. That if any one, after his settlement among them, prove a Nonconformist, he shall be discharged in three months. 4. That the Scots factories shall be obliged to the same conformity. 5. That no minister abroad shall speak, preach, or print anything to the disadvantage of the English discipline and ceremonies. 6. That no Con- formist minister shall substitute a Nonconform- ist to preach for him in the factories. 7. That the king's agents shall see the service of the Church of England exactly performed in the factories. The last articles forbid the English ministers in Holland to hold any classical as- semWies, and, especially, not to ordain minis- ters, because by so doing they would maintain * Prynne, p. 107, 109. t Collyer's Eccles. Hist., p. 752, 753. Cant. Doom, p. 389. a standing nursery for Nonconformity and schism." These proposals were despatched to the factories, and the bishop wrote in particular to Delft, that it was his majesty's express command that their ministers should conform themselves in ail things to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, and to all the orders prescribed in the canons, rubric, and liturgy, and that the names of such as were re- fractory should be sent over to him. But it was not possible to succeed in the attempt, be- cause most of the English congregations, being supported by the States, must, by so doing, have run the hazard of losing their mainte- nance and of being dissolved, as was represent- ed to the king by a petition in the name of all the English ministers in the Low Countries. However, though the bishop could not accom- plish his designs abroad, we shall find him liereafter retaliating his disappointment upon the French and Dutch churches at home. His lordship met with better success in Scot- land for the present, as being part of his majes- ty's own dominions. He had possessed the king with vast notions of glory in bringing the Kirk of Scotland to an exact conformity with England ; a work which his father had attempt- ed, but left imperfect. The king readily fell in with the bishop's motion, and determined to run all hazards for accomplishing this important design, having no less veneration for the cere- monies of the Church of England than the bishop himself There had been bishops in Scotland for some years, but they had little more than the name, being subject to an assembly that was purely Presbyterian. To advance their juris- diction, the king had already renewed the High Commission, and aboli.shed all general assem- blies of the Kirk, not one having been held in his reign ; yet still, says the noble historian, there was no form of religion, no liturgy, nor the least appearance of any beauty of holiness. To redress these grievances, as well as to show the Scots nation the pomp and grandeur of the English hierarchy, his majesty resolves upon a progress into his native country to be crowned, and, accordingly, set out from London, May 13, attended by several noblemen and persons of quality, and, among others, by Bishop Laud. June 18 [1633] his majesty was crowned at Edinburgh, the ceremony being managed by the direction of his favourite bishop, who thrust away the Bishop of Glasgow from his place because he appeared without the coat of his order, which, being an embroidered one, he scru- pled to wear, being a moderate churchman.* On the 20th of June the Parliament met, and voted the king a large sum of money. After which his majesty proposed to them two acts relating to religion ; one was concerning his royal prerogative, and the apparel of kirkmen ; the other, a bill for the ratification of former * Rushworth, part ii., vol. i., p. 182. " It was pro- posed that, during the ceremony, the king should be supported on each side by the Archbishops of StAndrew's and Glasgow. The latter prelate being inclined to the tenets of the Puritans, appeared in the procession without his episcopal robes. The high churchman. Laud, actually thrust him from the king's side. ' Are you a churchman,' he said, ' and want the coat of your order ?' " — Jesse's Court Prynne's of the Stuarts, vol. ii., p. 381. See, also, Clarendon, vol. i., p. 81.— C. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 309 acts touching religion. It being the custom in Scotland for kings, Lords, and Commons to sit in one house, when the question was put for the first bill, his majesty took a paper out of his pocket and said, " Gentlemen, I bave all your names here, and I will know who will do me service, and who will not, this day." Never- theless, it was carried in the negative ; thirteen lords, and the majority of the Commons, voting against it. The Lords said they agreed to the act as far as related to his majesty's preroga- tive, but dissented from that part of it which referred to the apparel of kirkmen, fearing that under that cover the surplice might be intro- duced. But his majesty said he would have no distinction, and commanded them to say yes or no to the whole bill. The king marked every man's vote, and upon casting them up the clerk declared it was carried in the affiraiative ; which some of the members denying, his majesty said the clerk's declaration must stand, unless any would go to the bar and accuse him of falsify- ing the record of Parliament, at the peril of his life.* This manner of treating the whole repre- sentative body of the nation disgusted all ranks and orders of his subjects. A writing was im- mediately dispersed abroad, setting forth how grievous it was for a king to overawe and threaten his Parliament in that manner ; and that the same was a breach of privilege; that Parliaments were a mere pageantry if the clerk might declare the votes as he pleased, and no scrutiny allowed. Lord Balraerino, in whose custody this libel was found, was condemned to lose his head for it, but was afterward par- doned. After eight days the Parliament was dissolv- ed, but the king would not look upon the dis- senting lords, or admit them to kiss his hand. The act concerning the apparel of ministers says, that " Whereas it was agreed in the Par- liament of 1606, that what order soever his maj- esty's father, of blessed memory, should pre- scribe for the apparel of kirkmen, and send in writ to his clerk of register, should be a suffi- cient warrant for inserting the same in the books of Parliament, to have the strength of any act thereof ; the present Parliament agrees that the same power shall remain with our sovereign lord that now is, and his successors." The bill touching religion ratifies and approves all acts and statutes made before about the liberty and freedom of the true Kirk of God, and the reli- gion at present professed within this kingdom, and ordains the same to stand in full force as if they were particularly mentioned. The king left his native country July 16, hav- ing lost a great deal of ground in the affections of his people,! by the contempt he poured upon * Rushworth, p. 183. t Dr. Grey confronts Mr. Neal here with a passage from Lord Clarendon, to show that his account of the king's reception in Scotland differs widely from this of our author. " The great civihty of that peo- ple," says his lordsliip, "being so notorious and universal, that they would not appear unconformable to his majesty's wish in any particular." But this quotation has little or no force against Mr. Neal, who is not representing the reception the king met with, but the impression left on the minds of the people by the time of his departure. The king's en- try and coronation. Bishop Burnet says, was man- the Scots clergy, and his high behaviour in fa- vour of the English ceremonies. His majesty was attended throughout his whole progress by Laud, bishop of London, which service his lord- ship was not obliged to, and no doubt would have been excused from, if the design of intro- ducing the English liturgy into Scotland had not been m view.* He preached before the king in the royal chapel at Edinburgh, which scarce any Englishman had ever done before, and insisted principally upon the benefit of the ceremonies of the Church, which he himself observed to the height. It went against him to own the Scots presbyters for ministers of Christ ; taking all occasions to affront their character, which created a high disgust in that nation, and laid the foundation of those resentments that they expressed against him under his sufferings. When the king left Scotland, he erected a new bishopric at Edinburgh ; and, about two months after. Laud, being then newly advanced to the province of Canterbury, framed articles for the reformation of his majesty's royal chapel in that city, which were sent into Scotland un- der his majesty's own hand, with a declaration that they were intended as a pattern for all ca- thedrals, chapels, and parish churches in that kingdom.! The articles appoint, " that prayers be read twice a day in the choir, according to the English liturgy, till some course be taken to make one that may fit the custom and constitu- tion of that church. That all that receive the sacrament in the chapel do it kneeling. That the dean of the chapel always come to church in his whites, and preach in them. That the copes which are consecrated to our use be care- fully kept, and used at the celebration of the sacrament ; and that all his majesty's officers and ministers of state be obliged, at least once a year, to receive the sacrament at the royal chapel, kneeling, for an example to the rest of the, people." Thus were the liberties of the Kirk of Scotland invaded by an English bishop, under the wing of the supremacy, without con- sent of Parliament or General Assembly. The Scots ministers in their pulpits preached against the English hierarchy, and warned the people against surrendering up the liberties of their kuk into the hands of a neigjibouring nation, that was undermining their discipline ; so that aged with such magnificence that all was entertain- ment and show : yet he adds, " that the king left Scotland much discontented." The proceedings on the bill concerning the royal prerogative, &c., show that every proposal from the court was not pleasing. Whitelocke (Memoirs, p. 18) tells us, that though the king was crowned with all show of affection and duty, and gratified many with new honours, yet, be- fore he left Scotland, some began to murmur, and afterward to mutiny ; and he was in some danger passing over Dumfrith. And such, in particular, was the effect of the prosecution of Lord Balmerino on the public mind, that the ruin of the king's affairs in Scotland was in a great measure owing to it. Dr. Grey refers to the preambles to some acts passed in the Scotch Parliament, as proving the high degree of esteem the king was then in among them ; as if an argument were to be drawn from formularies drawn up according to the routine of the occasion, and composed, probably, by a court lawyer : as if such formularies were proof against matter of fact. — Burnet's History of his Own Times, vol. i., 24-31. 12mo.— Ed. * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 81, 82, t Rushworth, part ii., vol, ii., p. 205, 206. 310 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. when the new liturgy came to be introduced about four years after, all the people as one man rose up against it. The king was no sooner returned from Scot- land than Dr. Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, died. He was born at Guilford, in Surrey, 1562, and educated in Baliol College, Oxford, where he was a celebrated preacher. In the year 1597 he proceeded doctor in divinity, and was elected master of University College : two years after he was made Dean of Winchester, and was one of those divines appointed by King James to translate the New Testament into English. In the year 1609 he was consecrated Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry ; from thence he was translated to London, and upon the death of Archbishop Bancroft, to Canterbury, April 9, 1611, having never been rector, vicar, or incumbent in any parish church in England. Lord Clarendon* has lessened the character of this excellent prelate, contrary to almost all other historians, by saying that " he was a man of very morose, manners, and of a very sour as- pect, which in that time was called gravity ; that he neither understood nor regarded the constitution of the Church ; that he knew very little of ancient divinity, but adhered stiffly to the doctrine of Calvin, and did not think so ill of his discipline as he ought to have done ; but if men prudently forbore a public reviling and railing at the hierarchy, let their private prac- tice be as it vv'ould, he would give them no dis- turbance ; that his house was a sanctuary to disaffected persons, and that he licensed their writings, by which means his successor [Laud] had a very difficult task to reduce things to or- der." The Oxford historian, t who was no friend to our archbishop's principles, confesses that he was a pious, grave person, exemplary in his life and conversation, a plausible preacher, and that the many things he has written show him to be a man of parts, learning, and vigi- lance ; an able statesman, and of unwearied study, though overwhelmed with business. FullerJ says he was an excellent preacher, and that his severity towards the clergy was only to prevent their being punished by lay judges to their greater shame. Mr. Coke and Dr. Wel- woodi^ add, that he was a prelate of primi- tive sanctity, who followed the true interests of his country, and of the Reformed churches at home and abroad ; that he was a divine of good learning, great hospitality, and wonderful mod- eration, showing upon all occasions an unwill- ingness to stretch the king's prerogative or the Act of Uniformity beyond what was consistent with law or necessary for the peace of the Church ; this brought him into all his troubles, and has provoked the writers for the preroga- tive to leave a blot upon his memory, which on this account will be reverenced by all true lovers of the Protestant religion and the liber- ties of their country ; and if the court had fol- lowed his wise and prudent counsels, the mis- chiefs that befell the crown and Church some years after his death would have been prevent- ed. We have mentioned his casual homicide in the year 1621, which occasioned his keeping * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 88, 89. t AtherioB Oxon., vol. i., p. 499. t Church History, b. xi., p. 123. ij Welwood's Memoirs, p. 36, edit. 1718. an annual fast as long as he lived, and main- taining the widow. Notwithstanding this mis- fortune, if he would have betrayed the Protest- ant religion and been the dupe of the preroga- tive, he might have continued in high favour with his prince ; but for his steady opposition to the arbitrary measures of Buckingham and Laud, and for not licensing Sibthorp's sermon, he was suspended from his archiepiscopal juris- diction [1628],* whereupon he retired to Croy- don, having no more interest at court, or influ- ence in the government of the Church : here he died in his archiepiscopal palace, August 4, 1633, aged seventy-one, and was buried in Trinity Church, in Guilford, the place of his na- tivity, where he had erected and endowed a hospital for men and women. There is a fine monument over his grave, with his effigies in full proportion, supported by six pillars of the Doric order of black marble, standing on six pedestals of piled books, with a large inscrip- tion thereon to his memory.t CHAPTER V FROM THE DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP ABBOT TO THE BEGINNING OF THE COMMOTIONS IN SCOTLAND, IN THE YEAR 1637. Dr. Laud was now at the pinnacle of prefer- ment, being translated to the see of Canterbury two days after Archbishop Abbot's death. His grace was likewise chancellor of the Universi- ties of Oxford and Dublin, privy-councillor for England and Scotland, first commissioner of the * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 435. t In addition to our author's character of Arch- bishop Abbot, it may be observed that Dr. Warner has entered largely into the description of it, "not only," he says, " in conformity to the rule he pre- scribed to himself in his work, but," he adds, " to rescue the memory of this prelate from the injury done to it by Lord Clarendon, with so notorious a partiality as does no honour to his history." The doctor sums up his view of Archbishop Abbot's char- acter by saying, " that he was a man of good parts and learning as a divine ; that he was a prelate of a very pious, exemplary conversation ; and an arch- bishop who understood the constitution of his coun- try in Church and State, to which he steadfastly ad- hered, without any regard to the favour or the frow lis of princes." The learned translator of Mo- sheim also censures Lord Clarendon's account of this eminent prelate as most unjust and partial, and in a long note ably and judiciously appreciates the archbishop's merit and excellence. It was, he shows, by the zeal and dexterity of Abbot that things were put into such a situation in Scotland as afterward produced the entire establishment of the episcopal order in that nation. It was by the mild and prudent counsels of Abbot, when he was chap- lain to the Lord-high-treasurer Dunbar, that there was passed a famous act of the General Assembly of Scotland, which gave the king the authority of call- ing all general assemblies, and investing the bishops, or their deputies, with various powers of interference and influence over the Scotch ministers. These facts confute the charge of his disregarding the con- stitution of the Church. It deserves to be mention- ed, that this prelate had a considerable hand in the translation of the New Testament now in use. — Mo- shcim'!! Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv., p. 513, and note {{.), 17C8. Warner's Eccles. History, vol. ii., p 522-524. Granger's Biogr. History of England, vol. i., p. 341, 8vo.— Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 311 exchequer, and one of the committee for trade and for the king's revenues : he was also offer- ed a cardinal's cap [August 17], which he de- clined, as he says, because there was some- thing dwelt within him which would not suffer it till Rome was otherwise than it was.* We are now to see how he moved in this high sphere. Lord Clarendon admits '■ that the arch- bishop had all his life eminently opposed Cal- Tin's doctrine, for which reason he was called a papist ; and it may be," says his lordship, " the Puritans found the more severe and rig- orous usage for propagating the calumny. . He also intended that the discipline of the Church should be felt as well as spoken of" The truth of this observation has appeared in part already, and will receive stronger evidence from the seven ensuing years of his government. The archbishop's antipathy to Calvinism, and zeal for the external beauty of the Church, car- Tied him to some very imprudent and unjustifia- ble extremes ; for if the Puritans were too strict in keeping holy the Sabbath, his grace was too lax in his indulgence, by encouraging revels, May-games, and sports on that sacred day. Complaint having been made to the Lord- chief-justice Richardson and Baron Denham, in their western circuit, of great inconveniences arising from revels, church-ales, and clerk-ales, on the Lord's Day, the two judges made an or- der at the assizes for suppressing them, and ap- pointed the clerk to leave copies of the order ■with every parish minister, who was to give a note under his hand to publish it in his church yearly, the first Sunday in February and the two Sundays before Easter. t Upon the return of the circuit, the judges required an account of the execution of their order, and punished some persons for the breach of it ; whereupon the archbishop complained to the king of their in- vading the episcopab jurisdiction, and prevail- ed with his majesty to summon them before the council. When they appeared, Richardson pleaded that the order was made at the request of the justices of the peace, and with the unani- mous consent of the whole bench, and justified it from the following precedents: September- 10, Eliz. 38th, the justices assembled at Bridgewa- ter ordered that no church-ale, clerk-ale, or bid- ale be suffered ; signed by Popham, lord-chief- justice, and ten others. The same order was repeated 1599, and 41st of Eliz., and again at Exeter, 1615, and 13th of Jac, and even in the present king's reign, 1627, with an order for the minister of every parish church to publish it yearly. But notwithstanding all the chief-jus- * Arthur Wilson, in his life of himself, speaks of an interview he had with Dr. Weston, a Catholic, at Bruges, the particulars of which are interesting. "The little Archbishop of Canterbury," he says, "Weston could not endure. I pulled a book out of my pocket, written by the provincial of the Eng- lish friars, which tended to reconcile the Church of England and the Church of Rome. 'I know the man,' said Weston : ' he is one of Canterbury's trencher flies, and eats perpetually at his table ; a creature of his making.' ' Then,' said I, ' you should better approve of my Lord of Canterbury's actions, seeing he tends so much to your way.' ' No,' replied he: ' he is too subtle to be yoked, too am- bitious to have a superior. He will never submit to Rome. He means to frame a motley religion of his own, and be lord of it himself " — Desid. Curiosa, lib- iii., p. 22.— C, t Prynne's Cant. Doom, p. 153. tice could allege, he received a sharp reprimand, and a peremptory injunction to revoke his or- der at the next assizes, which he did in such a manner as lost him his credit at court for the future ; for he then declared to the justices "that he thought he had done God, the king, and his country good service by that good or- der that he and his brother Denham had made for suppressing unruly wakes and revels, but that it had been misreported to his majesty, who had expressly charged him to reverse it ; accordingly," says he, " I do, as much a,s in me lies, reverse it, declaring the same to be null and void, and that all persons may use their recreations at such meetings as before." This reprimand and injunction almost broke the judge's heart, for when he came out of the council-chamber he told the Earl of Dorset, with tears in his eyes, that he had been miser- ably shaken by the archbishop, and was like to be choked with his lawn-sleeves. Laud having thus humbled the judge, and recovered his episcopal authority from neglect, took the affair into his own hand, and wrote to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, October 4 [1663], for fuller information. In his letter he takes notice that there had been of late some noise in Somersetshire about the wakes ; that the judges had prohibited them under pretence of some disorders, by which argument, says he, any- thing that is abused may be quite taken away ; but that his majesty was displeased with Rich- ardson's behaviour at the last two assizes, and especially the last ; being of opinion that the feasts ought to be kept for the recreation of the people, of which he would not have them de- barred under any frivolous pretences, to the gratifying of the humorists, who were very numerous in those parts, and united in crying down the feasts ; his grace, therefore, requires the bishop to give him a speedy account how these feasts had been ordered. Pierce, bishop of Bath and Wells, in answer to this letter, acquaints the archbishop " that the late suppression of the revels was very un- acceptable, and that the restitution of them would be very grateful to the gentry, clergy, and common people ;* for proof of which he had procured the hands of seventy-two of the clergy, in whose parishes these feasts are kept, and he believes that if he had sent for a hun- dred more he should have had the same answer from th'em all ; but these seventy- two," says his lordship, " are like the seventy-two inter- preters that agreed so soon in the translation of the Old Testament in the Greek." He then proceeds to explain the nature of these feasts ; " There are," says he, " in Somersetshire, not only feasts of dedication [or revel days], but also church-ales, clerk-ales, and bid-ales." " The feasts of dedication are in memory of the dedication of the several churches ; those churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity have their feasts on Trinity Sunday ; and so all the feasts are kept upon the Sunday before or after the saint's day to whom the churches are ded- icated, because the people have not leisure to observe them on the week days ; this," says his lordship, " is acceptable to the people, who otherwise go into tippling-houses, or else to conventicles. * Cant. Doom, p. 142. 312 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. " Church-ales are when the people go from afternoon prayers on Sundays, to their lawful sports and pastimes in the churchyard, or in the neighbourhood, in some public-house, where they drink and make merry. By the benevo- lence of the people at these pastimes many poor parishes have cast their bells, and beauti- fied their churches, and raised slocks for the poor, and there had not been observed so much disorder at them as is commonly at fairs or markets. " Clerks-ales [or lesser church-ales] are so called because they were for the better mainte- nance of the parish clerk ; and there is great reason for them," says his lordship, " for in poor parishes, where the wages of the clerk are but small, the people, thinking it unfit that the clerk should duly attend at church and gain by his office, send him in provision, and then come on Sundays and feast with him, by which means he sells more ale, and tastes more of the liberality of the people than their quarterly pay- ment would amount to in many years ; and since these have been put down, many minis- ters have complained to me," says his lordship, " that they are afraid they shall have no parish clerks. " A bid-ale is when a poor man, decayed in his substance, is set up again by the liberal be- nevolence and contribution of his friends at a Sunday's feast." The people were fond of these recreations, and the bishop recommends them as bringing the people more willingly to church ; as tend- ing to civilize them, and to compose differences among them ; and as serving to increase love and unity, forasmuch as they were in the na- ture of feasts of charity, the richer sort keep- ing in a manner open house ; for which, and some other reasons, his lordship thinks them fit to be retained. But the justices of peace were of another mind, and signed an humble petition to the king, in which they declare that these revels had not only introduced a great profanation of the Lord's Day, but riotous tippling, contempt of authority, quarrels, murders, &,c., and were very prejudicial to the peace, plenty, and good government of the country, and, therefore, they pray that they be suppressed. Here we ob- serve the laity petitioning for the religious ob- servation of the Lord's Day, and the bishop, with his clergy, pleading for the profanation of it. To encourage these disorderly assemblies more effectually. Archbishop Laud put the king upon republishing his father's declaration of the year 1618, concerning lawful sports to be used on Sundays after l3ivine service, which was done accordingly, October 18, with this remarkable addition. After a recital of the words of King James's declaration, his majesty adds, " Out of a like pious care for the service of God, and for suppressing of those humours that oppose truth, and for the ease, comfort, and recreation of his majesty's well-deserving people, he doth ratify his blessed father's decla- ration, the rather, because of late, in some of the counties of the kingdom, his majesty finds that, under the pretence of taking away an abuse, there hath been a general forbidding, not only of ordinary meetings, but of the feasts of the dedication of churches, commonly called wakes ; it is therefore his will and pleasure that these feasts, with others, shall be observed, and that all neighbourhood and freedom wittj manlike and lawful exercises be used, and the justices of the peace are commanded not to molest any in their recreations, having first done their duty to God and continued in obedi- ence to his majesty's laws." And he does far ther will "that publication of this his command he made by order from the bishops, through all the parish churches of their several diocesses respectively." - The declaration revived the controversy of the morality of the Sabbath, which had slept for many years ; Mr. Theophilus Bradbourne, a Suf- folk minister, had published, in the year 1628, " A Defence of the most Ancient and Sacred Ordinance of God, the Sabbath Day," and dedi- cated it to the king. But Mr. Fuller* observes, " that the poor man fell into the ambush of the High Commission, whose w^ll-tempered sever- ity so prevailed with him, that he became a. convert, and conformed quietly to the Church of England." Francis White, bishop of Ely, was commanded by the king to confute Brad- bourne ; and alter him appeared Dr. Pockling- ton, with his " Sunday no Sabbath ;" and after him Heylin the archbishop's chaplain, and oth- ers. These divines, instead of softening some rigours in Bradbourne's Sabbatarian strinctness, ran into the contrary extreme, denying all man- ner of Divine right or moral obligation to the observance of the whole or any part of the Lord's Day, making it depend entirely upon ecclesias- tical authority, and to oblige no farther than to the few hours of public service ; and that in the intervals, not only walking (which the Sabbata- rians admitted), but mixed dancing, masks, in- terludes, revels, &c., were lawful and expedienL Instead of convincing the sober part of the nation, it struck them with a kind of horror, to see themselves invited, by the authority of the king and Church, to that which looked so like a contradiction to the command of God. It was certainly out of character for bishops and cler- gymen, who should be the supports of religion, to draw men off from exercises of devotion in their families and closets, by enticing them to public recreations. People are forward enough of themselves to indulge these liberties, and need a check rather than a spur ; but the wis- dom of these times was different. The court had their balls, masquerades, and plays on the Sunday evenings, while the youth of the coun- try were at their morrice-dances. May-games, church and clerk ales, and all such kinds of revelling.! The revival of this declaration was charged upon Archbishop Laud at his trial, but his grace would not admit the charge, though he confess- ed his judgment was in favour of it. It was to be published in all parish churches, either by the minister or any other person, at the discre- tion of the bishop, and therefore the putting this hardship on the clergy was their act and deed; but Laud knew it would distress the Puritans, and purge the Church of a set of men for wiiom he had a perfect aversion. The rea- son given for obliging them to this service was, * Rook xi., p. 144. t Dr. Warner adops these remarks. -Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 313 because the two judges had enjoined the min- isters to read their order against revels in the churches ; and, therefore, it was proper to have it reversed by the same persons and in the same place.* The severe pressing this declaration made sad havoc among the Puritans for seven years. Many poor clergymen strained their consciences in submission to their superiors. Some, after publishing it, immediately read the fourth com- mandment to the people, " Remember the Sab- bath Day to keep it holy;" adding, "This is the law of God ; the other the injunction of man." Some put it upon their curates, while great numbers refused to comply upon any terms whatsoever. Fullert says, " that the arch- bishop's moderation in his own diocess was re- markable, silencing but three, in whom also was a concurrence of other nonconformities ; but that his adversaries imputed it not to his charity, but policy, foxlike, preying farthest from his own den, and instigating other bishops to do more than he would appear in himself." Sir Nath. Brent, his grace's vicar-general, at- tested upon oath at the archbishop's trial, that he gave him a special charge to convene all ministers before him who would not read the Book of Sports on the Lord's Day, and to sus- pend them for it ; and that he gave particular order to suspend the three following Kentish ministers by name, viz., Mr. Player, Mr. Hieron, and Mr. Culmer.J Whereupon he did, against his judgment, suspend them all ab officio et bene- ficio, though the king's declaration, as has been observed, does not oblige the minister to read it, nor authorize the bishops to inflict any pun- ishment on the refusers. When the suspended ministers repaired to Lambeth, and petitioned to be restored, the archbishop told them, if they did not know how to obey, he did not know how to grant their petition. So their suspension continued till the beginning of the commotions in Scotland, to the ruin of their poor families, Mr. Culmer having a wife and seven children to provide for.fj Several clergymen of other diocesses were also silenced, and deprived on the same ac- count ; as^ Mr. Thomas Wilson, of Otham, who being sent for to Lambeth, and asked whether he had read the Book of Sports in his church, answered. No ; whereupon the archbishop re- plied immediately, " I suspend you forever from your office and benefice till you read it ;" and so he continued four years, being cited into the * Fuller's Church History, b. xi., p. 148. t Ibid. t Prynne's Cant. Doom, p. 149. ^ Dr. Grey introduces here a long quotation from Anthony Wood, and refers to a bad character of Mr. Culmer drawn by Mr. Lewis in Dr. Calamy's con- tinuation of ejected ministers, to show what small reason Mr. Neal had to defend him. It should seem, from those authorities, that he was a man of warm and violenf. temper, and some heavy charges are brought against him. But not to say that prejudice appears to have drawn his picture, admitting the truth of everything alleged against him, it is irrele- vant to the vindication of Archbishop Laud, whose severity against Mr. Culmer had not for its object his general deportment, or any immorahty, but his not reading the Book of Sports, i.e., a royal invitation to men to give themselves up to dissipating, riotous, and intemperate diversions on a day sacred to sobri- ety.— See, on Mr. Culmer's character, Palmer's Non- conformist's Memorial, vol. U., p. 77. — Ed. Vol. I.— R r High Commission and articled against for thf same crime. Mr. Wrath and Mr. Erbery were brought up from Wales, Mr. William Jones from Gloucestershire, with divers others, and cen- sured by the High Commission (of which the archbishop was chief) for not reading the dec- laration, and not bowing his body at the blessed name of Jesus, &:c.* To these may be added, Mr. Whitfield, of Ockley, Mr. Garth, of Woversh, Mr. Ward, of Pepper-Harrow, Mr. Farrol, of Purbright, and Mr. Pegges, of Wexford, to whom the archbishop said that he suspended him ex 7iunc. prout ex tunc, in case he did not read the king's declaration for sports on the Sunday se'nnight following. The reverend and learned Mr. Lawrence Snelling, rector of Paul's-Cray, was not only suspended by the High Commission at Lam- beth for four years, but deprived and excommu- nicated, for not reading the declaration, &c.t He pleaded in his own defence the laws of God and of the realm, and the authority of councils and fathers ; he added, that the king's declara- tion did not enjoin ministers to read it, nor au- thorize the bishops or High Commissioners to suspend or punish ministers for not reading it ; that it being merely a civil, not an ecclesiasti- cal declaration enjoined by any canons or au- thority of the Church, no ecclesiastical court could take cognizance of it. All which Mr. Snelling offered to the commissioners in wri- ting, but the archbishop would not admit it, say- ing, in open court, that " whosoever should make such a defence, it should be burned be- fore his face, and he laid by the heels." Upon this he was personally and judicially admonish- ed to read the declaration within three weeks^ which he refusing, was suspended ab officio et heneficio. About four months after he was ju- dicially admonished again, and refusing to com- ply, was excommunicated, and told that unless he conformed before the second day of next term he should be deprived, which was accord- ingly done, and he continued under the sen- tence many years, to his unspeakable damage. " It were endless to go into more particulars ; how many hundred godly ministers in this and other diocesses," says Mr. Prynne,t " have been suspended from their ministry, sequestered, driven from their livings, excommunicated, prosecuted in the High Commission, and for- ced to leave the kingdom for not publishing this declaration, is experimentally known to all men." Dr. Wren, bishop of Norwich, says that great numbers in his diocess had declined it, and were suspended ; that some had since com- plied, but that still there were thirty who per- emptorily refused, and were excommunicated. * Prynne's Cant. Doom, p. 151. t Dr. Grey, to impeach the fairness of Mr. Neal, quotes here Rushworth to show that sentence was passed on Mr. SneUing for omitting to " read the lit- any and wear the surplice, and for not bowing, or making any corporeal obeisance at hearing or read- in,'^ the name of Jesus." It is true, that on these premises also the sentence of deprivation was pass- ed ; but it appears from Rushworth tliat he had been previously suspended ab officio et beneficio, and ex- communicated, solely on the ground of refusing to read the Book of Sports ; and that this offence was the primary cause of the deprivation. — RushwortK's Collections, vol. ii., part h., p. 460, 461. — Ed. J Cant. Doom, p. 153. 314 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. This the bishop thinks a small number, although, if there were as many in other cliocesses, the whole would amount to near eight hundred. To render the Common Prayer Book more unexceptionable to the papists, and more dis- tant from Puritanism, the archbishop made sun- dry alterations* in the later editions, without the sanction of convocation or Parliament. In the collect for the royal family, the Princess Elizabeth and her children were left out,t and these words were expunged, " 0 God, who art the Father of thine elect and of their seed," as tending towards particular election or predesti- nation J In the prayer for the 5th of Novem- ber were these words : " Root out that anti- christian and Babylonish 'sect which say of Je- rusalem, Down with it even to the ground. Cut off those workers of iniquity, whose religion is rebellion, whose faith is faction, whose prac- tice is murdering both soul and body;" which in the last edition are thus changed: "Root out the antichristian and Babylonish sect of them, which say of Jerusalem, Down with it. Cut off those workers of iniquity, who turn reli- gion into rebellion," &c. The design of which alteration was to relieve the papists, and to turn the prayer against the Puritans, upon whom the popish plot was to have been father- [ ed. In the epistle for Palm-Sunday, instead of "m the name of Jesus," as it was heretofore, it is now, according to the last translation, •' at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow." But it was certainly very liigh presumption for a single clergyman, or any number of them, to altar a service-book established by act of Par- liament, and impose those alterations upon the whole body of the clergy. The Puritans always excepted against bow- ing at the name of Jesus ; it appeared to them very superstitious, as if worship was to be paid to a name, or to the name of Jesus, more than to that of Christ or Immanuel. Nevertheless, it was enjoined by the eighteenth canon, and in compliance vyith that injunction our last trans- lators inserted it into their text by rendering kv rCi dvofiari, " in the name of Jesus," as it was before, both in the Bible and Common Prayer Book, '-at the name of Jesus," as it now stands ; however, no penalty was annexed to the neglect of this ceremony, nor did any suf- fer for it, till Bishop Laud was at the head of the Church, who pressed it equally with the rest, and caused above twenty ministers to be lined, censured, and put by their livings, for not bowing at the name of Jesus, or for preaching against it.ij On the 3d of November was debated, be- fore his majesty in council, the question of re- moving the communion-table at St. Gregory's Church, near St. Paul's, from the middle of the chancel to the upper end of it, and placing it there in form of an altar. This being enjoined upon the church-wardens by the dean and chap- * Dr. Grey says that, the archbishop cleared him- self in this particular by informing us [Troubles and Trial, p. 357] " that the alterations were made ei- ther by the king himself, or some other about him, when he was not at court."— Ed. t The Queen of Bohemia, a thorough Protestant, and on whose children the hopes of the nation had rested, till the birth of Charles's son.— 0. t Cant. Doom, p. Ill, 112. ^ Usurpation of Prelates, p. 165. ter of St. Paul's without the consent of tRc pa- rishioners, they opposed it, and appealed to the Court of .A.rches, alleging that tiie Book of Com- mon Prayer, and eighty-second canon, gave liberty to place the communion-table where it might stand with most convenience. His maj- esty being informed of the appeal, and acquaint- ed by the archbishop that it would be a leading case all over England, was pleased to order it to be debated before himself in council, and, af- ter hearing the arguments on both sides, de- clared that the liberty given by the eighty-sec- ond canon was not to be understood so, as if it were to be left to the discretion of the parish, much less to the fancies of a few humorous persons, but to the judgment of the ordinary [or bishop], to whose place it properly belonged to determine these points ; he therefore con- firmed the act of the ordinary, and gave com- mandment that if the parishioners went on with their appeal, the dean of the Arches, who was then attending at the hearing of the cause, should confirm the order of the dean and chap- ter.* This was a sovereign manner of putting an end to a controversy, very agreeable to the archbishop. When the sacrament was administered in parish churches the contimunion-table was usu- ally placed in the middle of the chancel, and the people received round it, or in their several places thereabout ; but now all communion- tables were ordered to be fixed under the east wall of the chancel with the ends north and south in form of an altar ; they were to be rais- ed two or three steps above the floor, and en- compassed with rails. Archbishop Laud order- ed his vicar-general to see this alteration made in all the churches and chapels of his province ; to accomplish which, it was necessary to take down the galleries in some churches, and tore- move ancient monuments. This was resented by some considerable families, and complained of as an injury to the dead, and such an expense to the living as some country parishes could not bear ; yet those who refused to pay the rates imposed by the archbishop for this pur- pose were fined in the spiritual courts contrary to law.t It is almost incredible what a fer- ment the making this alteration at once raised among the common people all over England. Many ministers and church-wardens were ex- communicated, fined, and obliged to do penance, for neglecting the bishop's injunctions. Great numbers refused to come up to the rails and receive the sacrament, for which some were fined, and others excommunicated, to the num- ber of some hundreds, say the committee of the House of Commons at the archbishop's trial. Books were written for and against this new practice, with the same earnestness and con- tention for victory as if the life of religion liad been at stake. Dr. Williams, bishop of Lin- coln, published two treatises against it, one en- titled "A Letter to the Vicar of Grantham:" the other, "The Holy Table, Name, and Thing ;" filled with so much learning, and that learning so closely and solidly applied, says Lord Clarendon, as showed he had sppnt his time in his retirement with his books very profitably. Dr. Heylin, who answered the bish- * Rush worth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 207. t Pryime's Cant. Doom, p. 100, 101. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 3I£ op, argued from the words of Queen Elizabeth's injunctions, 1559 ; from the orders and adver- tisements of 1562 and 1565 ; from the practice of the king's chapels and cathedrals ; and, finally, from the present king's declaration, rec- ommending a confurmity of the parish church- es to their cathedrals. The bishop, and with him all the Puritans, insisted upon the practice of primitive antiquity, and upon the eighty-sec- ond canon of 1603, which says, "We appoint, that the table for the celebration of the holy communion shall be covered with a fair linen cloth at the time of administration, and shall then be placed in so good sort within the church or chancel, as thereby the minister may more conveniently be heard of the communicants in his prayer, and the communicants may more conveniently and in more numbers communi- cate." They urged the rubric in the Common Prayer Book ; that altars in churches were a popish invention, of no greater antiquity in the Christian Church than the sacrifice of the mass ; and insisted strenuously on the discontinuance of them since the. Reformation. But the arch- bishop, being determined to carry his point, prosecuted the affair with unjustifiable rigour over all the kingdom, punishing those who op- posed him, without regard to the laws of the land. This occasioned a sort of schism among the bishops, and a great deal of uncharitable- ness among the inferior clergy ; for those bish- ops who had not been beholden to Laud for their preferments, nor had any farther expect- ation, were very cool in the affair, while the archbishop's creatures, in many places, took upon them to make these alterations by their own authority, without the injunctions or direc- tions of their diocesans, which laid the founda- tion of many lawsuits. Those who opposed the alterations were called Doctrinal Puritans, and the promoters of them Doctrinal Papists. The court-clergy were of the latter sort, and were vehemently suspected of an inclination to popery, because of their superstitious bowing to the altar, not only in time of Divine service, but at their going in and out of church.* This was a practice unknown to the laity of the Church of England before this time, but Archbishop Laud introduced it into the royal chapel at Whitehall, and recommended it to all the cler- gy by his example ; for when he went in and out of chapel, a lane was always made for him to see the altar, and do reverence towards it. All his majesty's chaplains, and even the com- mon people, were enjoined the same practice. In the new body of statutes for the Cathedral of Canterbury, drawn up by his grace, and confirm- ed under the great seal, the dean and prebenda- ries are obliged by oath to bow to the altar at coming in and going out of the church ; which could arise from no principle but a belief of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament or al- tar, or from, a superstitious imitation of the pagans worshipping towards the east.t To make the adoration more significant, the altars in cathedrals were adorned with the most pompous furniture, and all the vessels underwent a solemn consecration. The Cathe- dral of Canterbury was furnished according to * This, too, is now adopted in many of the English churches, and has its imitators in the United States. — C. t Collyer's Ecclesiastical History, p. 762. Bishop Andrew's model, who took it from the Roman Missal, with two candlesticks and ta- pers, a basin for oblations, a cushion for the service-book, a silver-gilt canister for the wa- fers, like a wicker-basket lined with cambric lace, the tonne on a cradle ; a chalice with the image of Christ and the lost sheep, and of the wise men and star, engraven on the sides and on the cover. The chalice was covered with a linen napkin, called the aire, embroidered with coloured silk ; two patins, the tricanale being a round ball with a screw cover, out of which is- sued three pipes for the water of mixture ; a credentia or side-table, with a basin and ewer on napkins, and a towel to wash before the con- secration ; three kneeling stools covered and stuffed, the foot-pace, with three ascents, cov- ered with a Turkey carpet ; three chairs used at ordinations, and the septum or rail with two ascents. Upon some altars was a pot called the incense-pot, and a knife to cut the sacra- mental bread. The consecration of this furniture was after this manner : the archbishop in his cope, at- tended by two chaplains in their surplices, hav- ing bowed several times towards the altar, read a portion of Scripture ; then the vessels to be consecrated were delivered into the hands of the archbishop, who, after he had placed them upon the altar, read a form of prayer desiring God to bless and accept of these vessels, which he severally touched and elevated, offering them up to God, after which they were not to be put to common use. We have seen already the manner of his grace's consecrating the sac- ramental elements at Creed Church ; there was a little more ceremony in cathedrals, where the wafers and wine being first placed with great solemnity on the credentia or side-table, were to be removed from thence by one of the arch- bishop's chaplains, who, as soon as he turns about his face to the altar with the elements in his hands, bows three times, and again when he comes to the foot of it, where he presents them upon his knees, and lays them upon the altar for consecration. How far the bringing these inventions of men into the worship of God is chargeable with superstition, and with a departing from the simplicity of the Christian institution, I leave with the reader ; but surely the imposing them upon others under severe penalties, without the sanction of convocation. Parliament, or royal mandate, was not to be justified. The lecturers, or afternoon preachers, giving his grace some disturbance, notwithstanding the attempts already made to suppress them, the king sent the following injunctions to the bishops of his province :* 1. " That they ordain no clergyman without a presentation to some living. Or, 2. Without a certificate that he is provided of some void church. Or, 3. Without some place in a cathedral or collegiate church. Or, 4. Unless he be a fellow of some college. Or, 5. A master of arts of five years' standing, living at his own charge. Or, 6. Without the intention of the bishop to provide for him."t * Rushworth, vol. ii., part ii., p". 214. t Dr. Grey truly observes, that none of these in- junctions were new, but only an enforcement of the thirty-third canon of 1603. He refers the reader to Bishop Gibson's Codex, p. 162, and might have re- 316 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. By virtue of these injunctions no chaplainship to a nobleman's family, or any invitation to a lecture, could qualify a person for ordination without a living. In the annual account the archbishop gave the king of the state of his province this year, we may observe how much the suppressing of these popular preachers lay upon his mind. "The Bishop of Bath and Wells," says his grace, " has taken a great deal of pains in his late visitations to have all the king's in- structions observed, and particularly he has put down several lecturers in market towns, who were beneficed in other diocesscs, because he found, when they had preached factious ser- mons, they retired without the reach of his jurisdiction. " And whereas his majesty's instructions re- quire that lecturers should turn their afternoon sermons into catechisings, some parsons or vicars object against their being included, be- cause lecturers are only mentioned ; but the bishops will take care to clear their doubts and settle their practice. " The Bishop of Peterborough* had suppress- ed a seditious lecture at Repon, and put down several monthly lectures kept with a fast, and managed by a moderator. He had also sup- pressed a meeting called the running lecture, because the lecturer went from village to vil- lage. " The Bishop of St. Asaph says that his dio- cess is, without exception, abating the increase of Romish recusants in some places, by their superstitious concourse to St. Winifred's Well. "The Bishop of LandafT certifies that he has not one stubborn Nonconformist, or schismat- ical minister, within his diocess, and but two lecturers. " All the bishops declare that they take spe- cial care of that branch of his majesty's instruc- tions relating to Calvinism, or preaching upon the predestinarian points ; and the archbishop prays his majesty that no layman whatsoever, and least of all the companies of the city of London, or corporations, should, under any pre- tence, have power to put in or turn outtany lecturer or other minister." In this account the reader will observe very little complaint of the growth of popery, which we shall see presently was at a prodigious height ; but all the archbishop's artillery is pointed against the Puritan clergy, who were the most determined and resolved Protestants in the nation. Towards the close of this year came on the ferred to his own work, entitled "A System of Eng- lish Ecclesiastical Law," extracted from the Codex, p. 43, 44. But though these injunclions were not formed for the occasion, the application of them at that time was particularly directed against the lec- turers, who were pointed at in ihe king's letter which accompanied the injunctions, as persons " wander- ing up and down to the scandal of iheir calling, and to get a maintenance falling upon such courses as were most unfit for them, both by humouring their auditors and olherways altogether unsufferable." It is easy to perceive what dictated this representation. "By reason of these strict rules," says Rushwortli, "no lecture whatsoever was admitted to be a canon- ical title."— Ed. * It should be of Litchfield and Coventry, says Dr. Grey, from Laud's Trials and Troubles, p. 527. — Ed. famous trial pf William Prynne, Esq., barrister at law, and member of Lincoln's Inn, for his Histriomasti.\,* a book written against plays, masks, dancing, &c. The information sets forth, that though the author knew that the queen and lords of council were frequently pres- ent at those diversions, yet he had railed against these and several others, as Maypoles, Christ- mas keeping, dressing houses with ivy, festi- vals, &c. ; that he had aspersed the queen, and commended factious persons ; which things are of dangerous consequence to the realm and state. t The cause was heard in the Star Cham- ber, February 7, 1633. The counsel for Mr. Prynne were Mr. Atkyns, afterward a judge of the Common Pleas, Mr. Jenkins, Holbourne, Heme, and Lightfoot. For the king was Mr. Attorney-general Noy. The counsel for the defendant pleaded that he had handled the ar- gument of stage-plays in a learned manner, without designing to reflect on his superiors ;i that the book had been licensed according to law ; and that if any passages may be con- strued to reflect on his majesty, or any branch * This book is a thick quarto, containing one thousand and six pages. It abounded with learning, and had some curious quotations, but it was a very tedious and heavy performance ; so that it was not calculated to invite many to read it. This circum- stance exposes the weakness, as the severity of the sentence against him does the wickedness, of those who pursued the author with such barbarity. He was a man of sour and austere principles, of great reading, and most assiduous application to study. It was supposed that, from the time of his arrival at man's estate, he wrote a sheet for every day of his life. " His custom," Mr. Wood informs us, " was, when he studied, to put on a long quilted cap, which came an inch over his eyes, serving as an unbrella to defend them from too much light; and seldom eat ing a dinner, would every three hours or more be maunching a roll of bread, and now and then refresh his exhausted spirits with ale." To this Butler seems to allude in his address to his muse : Thou that with ale or viler liquors Didst inspire Withers, Prynne, and Vicars ; And teach them, though it were in spite Of nature and their stars, to write. His works amounted to forty volumes, folio and quarto. The most valuable, and a very useful per- formance, is his " Collection of Records," in four large volumes. — Harris's Life of Charles I., p. 226, 227. Wood's Athena Oxon., vol. ii., p. 315; and Granger's Biog. Hist., vol. ii., p. 230, 8vo. The prosecution of Mr." Prynne originated with Archbishop Laud, who on a Sunday morning went to Noy, the attorney-gen- eral, with the charges against him. Prynne had in- stigated the resentment of Laud and other prelates by his writings against Arminianism and the juris- diction of the bishops, and by some prohibitions he had moved and got to the High Commission Court. " Tantisne animiscoslestibus ira3." — Whiielocke's^Me- 7noirs, p. 18. A fine copy of Histriomastix is in the library of Yale College.— C. t Rushvvorth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 221. X A passage quoted by Dr. Grey from Lord Cot- tington's speech, at the trial of Mr. Prynne, will af- ford a specimen of the spirit and style of the Histrio- mastix : " Our English ladies," he writes, " shorn and frizzled madams, have lost their modesty ; that the devil is only honoured in dancing ; that they that frequent plays are damned ; and so are all that do not concur with him, in his Opinion, whores, panders, foul, incarnate devils, Judases to their Lord and Mas- ter." But this way of speaking was in the taste of the times; and the speech of Lord Dorset, given above, shows that a nobleman did not come behind liim in severe and foul language — En. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 317 •of his government, he humbly begs pardon. But Mr. Attorney aggravated the charge in very severe language, and pronounced it a malicious and dangerous libel. After a full hearing, he vi^as sentenced to have his book burned by the hands of the common hangman, to be put from the bar, and to be forever incapaiile of his pro- fession, to be turned out of the society of Lin- ■coln's Inn, to be degraded at Oxford, to stand in th'e pillory at Westminster and Gheapside, to lose both his ears, one in each place, to pay a fine of £5000, and to suffer perpetual impris- onment. Remarkable was the speech of the Earl of Dorset on this occasion: "Mr. Prynne," ■says he, " I declare you to be a schism-maker in the Church, a sedition-sower in the common- wealth, a wolf in sheep's clothing ; in a word, omnium malorum nequissimus . I shall fine him £10,000, which is more than he is worth, yet less than he deserves. I will not set him at liberty, no more than a plagued man or mad dog, who, though he can't bite, will foam : he is so far from being a social soul, that he is not a rational soul. He is fit to live in dens with such beasts of prey as wolves and tigers, like himself; therefore I condemn him to perpetual imprison- ment ; and for corporeal punishment I would have him branded in the forehead, slit in the nose, and have his ears chopped off."* A speech more fit for an American savage than an English nobleman ! A few months after. Dr. Bastwick, a physi- cian at Colchester, having published a book en- titled "Elenchus ReligionisPapisticae," with an appendix called " Flagellum Pontificis et Epis- coporum Latialium," which gave offence to the English bishops, because it denied the Divine right of the order of bishops above presbyters, was cited before the High Commission, who dis- carded him from his profession [1634], excom- municated him, fined him £1000, and imprison- ed him till he recanted. t Mr. Burton, B.D., minister of Friday-street, having published two exceptionable sermons, from Prov., xxiv., 21, 22, entitled, "For God and the King," against the late innovations, had his house and study broken open by a sergeant- at-arms, and himself committed close prisoner to the Gate-house, where he was confined sev- eral years. These terrible proceedingsj of the commis- sioners made many conscientious Nonconform- ists retire with their families to Holland and * Rushworth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 233, 240. t Dr. Grey's remark here, as doing credit to him- self, deserves to be quoted: "The severity of the sentence," says the doctor, " I am far from iustifv- ing."— Ed. •■ ^ % " The punishment of these men, who were of three great professions," says Mr. Granger, " was ig- nominious and severe : though they were never ob- jects of esteem, they soon became objects of pity. The indignity and severity of their punishment gave general offence, and they were no longer regarded as criminals, but confessors." While these persecutions were carried on with unrelenting severity, Chowney, a fierce papist, who wrote a book in defence of the popish religion and of the Church of Rome, averring it to be the true Church, was not only not punished, or even questioned for his performance, but was per- mitted to dedicate it to the archbishop, and it was favoured with his patronage. — Granger's Biogr. Hist., vol. ii., p. 192; and Whitelocke's Memoirs, p. 211. — Ed. New-England, for fear of falling into the hands of men whose tender mercies were cruelty.* Among others who went over this year was the reverend and learned Mr. John Cotton, B.D., fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and min- ister of Boston, in Lincolnshire, where he was in such repute that Dr. Preston and others from Cambridge frequently visited him ; he was an admired preacher, and of a most meek and gen- tle disposition ; he became a Nonconformist upon this principle. That no church had power to impose indifferent ceremonies, not command- ed by Christ, on the consciences of men.t He therefore omitted some of the ceremonies, and administered the sacrament to such as de- sired it without kneeling, for which he was in- formed against in the High Commission, and Laud being now at the head of affairs, the Bish- op of Lincoln, his diocesan, could not protect him. Mr. Cotton applied to the Earl of Dorset for his interest with the archbishop, but the earl sent him word that "if he had been guilty of drunkenness, uncleanness, or any such less- er fault, he could have got his pardon ; but the sin of Puritanism and Nonconformity," says his lordship, "is unpardonable, and, therefore, you must fly for your safety." Upon this he travel- led to London in disguise, and took passage for New-England, where he arrived September 3, 1633, and spent the remainder of his days, to the year 1652. Mr. John Davenport, B.D., and vicar of Cole- raan-street, London, resigned his living and re- tired to Holland this summer, 1633. t He had fallen under the resentments of his diocesan, Bishop Laud, for being concerned in the feoff- ments, which, together with some notices he received of being prosecuted for nonconformity, induced him to embark for Amsterdam, where he continued about three years, and then re- turning to England, he shipped himself, with some other families, for New-England, where he began the settlement of New-Haven, in the year 1637. He was a good scholar and an ad- mired preacher, but underwent great hardships in the mfant colony, with whom he continued till about the year 1670, when he died. The Rev. Mr. Thomas Hooker, fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and lecturer of Chelmsford, in Essex, after four years' exer- cise of his ministry, was obliged to lay it down for nonconformity, though twenty-seven con- formable ministers in the neighbourhood sub- scribed a petition to the bishop [Laud], in which they declare that Mr. Hooker was, for doctrine, orthodox ; for life and conversation, honest ; for disposition, peaceable ; and in no wise tur- bulent or factious.*) Notwithstanding which, he was silenced by the spiritual court, 1630, and bound in a recognisance of £50 to appear be- fore the High Commission ; but by the advice of his friends he forfeited his recognisance and fled to Holland ; here he continued about two * Is it any matter of surprise that our pilgrim fa- thers in New-England had " prejudices against epis- copacy," after they witnessed these prelatical pranks from the head of the Church ? Ought not their pos- terity to be alarmed when ministers of the Episco- pal Church, in New-England at the present time, eulogize this tormentor-general ? — C. t Mather's Hist. N. E., b. iii., p. 18, &c. X Ibid., b. iii., p. 52, ^ Ibid., b. iii., p. 60. 318 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. years fellow-labourer with old Mr. Forbes, a Scotsman, at Delft, from whence he was called to assist Dr. Ames at Rotteriiarn, upon whose death he returned to England, and being pur- sued by the bishop's officers from place to place, he embarked this summer for New-England, and settled with his friends upon the banks of the Connecticut River, where he died in the year 1647. He was an awakening preacher, and a considerable practical writer, as appears by his books of Preparation for Christ, Contri- tion, Humiliation, d:c. The reverend and learned Dr. William Ames, educated at Cambridge, under the famous Mr. Perkins, fled from the persecution of Archbish- op Bancroft, and became minister of the Eng- lish church at the Hague, from whence he was invited by the states of Friesland to the divini- ty-chair in the University of Franeker, which he filled with universal reputation for twelve years. He was in the Synod of Dort, and in- formed King James's ambassador at the Hague, from time to time, of the debates of that ven- erable assembly. He wrote several treatises in Latin against the Arminians, which, for their conciseness and perspicuity, were not equalled by any of his time. His other works are Manuductio Logica, Medulla Theologiee, Cases of Conscience, Analysis on the Book of Psalms, Notes on the First and Second Epistles of Peter, and upon the Catechistical Heads. After twelve years Dr. Ames resigned his pro- fessorship, and accepted of an invitation to the English congregation at Rotterdam, the air of Franeker being too sharp for him, he being troubled with such a difficulty of breathing that he concluded every winter would be his last ; besides, he had a desire to be employed in the delightful work of preaching to his own coun- trymen, which he had disused for many years. Upon his removal to Rotterdam he wrote his " Fresh Suit against Ceremonies ;" but his constitution was so shattered that the air of Holland did him no service ; upon which he determined to remove to New-England, but his asthma returning at the beginning of the win- ter before he sailed, put an end to his life at Rotterdam, where he was buried November 14, N.S., 1633. Next spring his wife and children embarked for New-England, and carried with them his valuable library of books, which was a rich treasure to the country at that time. The doctor was a very learned divine, a strict Calvinist in doctrine, and of the persuasion of the Independents, with regard to the subordi- nation and power of classes and synods.* Archbishop Laud, being now cliancellor of the University of Dublin, and having a new vice-chancellor [Wentworth] disposed to serve the purposes of the prerogative, turned his thoughts against the Calvinists of that king- * He filled the divinity-chair with admirable abili- ties. His fame was so great that many came from remote nations to be educated under him. In " An Historical and Critical Account of Hugh Peters," London, 1751, is a quotation from a piece of his in these words : " Learned Amesius breathed his last breath into my bosom, who left his professorship in Friezland to live with me, because of my church's independency at Rotterdam. He was my colleague. and chosen brother to the church, wlere 1 was an unworthy pastor."— Gra/ie'r's History of England, vol. ii., p. 198, 199, 8vo.— Ed. dom, resolving to bring the Church of Ireland to adopt the articles of the Church of England. Archbishop Usher, and some of his brethren, being informed of his design, moved in convo- cation that their own articles, ratified by King James in the year 1615, might be confirmed ; but the motion was rejected, because it was said they were already fortified with all the au- thority the Church could give them, and that a farther confirmation would imply a defect. It was then moved on the other side, that for silencing the popish objections of a disagree- ment among Protestants, a canon should be passed for approving the articles of the Church of England, which was done only with one dissenting voice ; one Calvinist, says Mr. Coll- yer, having looked deeper into the matter than the rest. The canon was in these words : " For the manifestation of our agreement with the Church of England, in the confession of the same Christian faith and doctrine of the sacrament, we do receive and approve the book of articles of religion agreed upon by the archbishops and bishops, &c., in the year 1562, for the avoiding diversity of opinions, and for establishing con- sent touching true religion ; and, therefore, if any hereafter shall affirm that any of these ar- ticles are in any part superstitious or erroneous, or such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe unto, let him he excommunicated."* The Irish bishops thought they had lost no- thing by this canon, because they had saved their own articles, but Laud took advantage of it during the time of his chancellorship ; for hereby the Church of Ireland denounced the sentence of excommunication against all that affirmed any of the Thirty-nine Articles to be superstitious or erroneous, that is, against the whole body of the Puritans ; and Fullert adds, that their own articles, which condemned Ar- minianism, and maintained the morality of the Sabbath, were utterly excluded. This summer the R,everend Mr. Thomas Sheppard,t A.M., fled to New-England. He had been lecturer at Earl's-Coln, in Essex, several years, but when Laud became Bishop of London his lecture was put down, and himself silenced; he then retired into the family of a private gen- tleman, but the bishop's officers following him thither, he travelled into Yorkshire, where Neile, archbishop of that province, commanded him to subscribe or depart the country ; upon this he went to Hedon, in Northumberland, where his labours were prospered to the con- version of some souls, but the Bishop of Dur- ham, by the direction of Archbishop Laud, for- bade his preaching in any part of his diocess, which obliged him to take shipping at Yar- mouth for New-England, where he continued pastor of the church at Cambridge till his death, which happened August 25, 1649, in the forty- fourth year of his age ^ He was a hard stu- dent, exemplary Christian, and an eminent prac- tical writer, as appears by his " Sincere Con- vert," and other practical works that go under his name. II * Bib. Keg., ^ xiii., p. 13. ■\ Church History, b. xi... p. 149. i The family papers give the name Shepard.—C <) Mather's Hist. New-England, b. lii., p. 8G, &c. II When the Anlinomian and Famiiistic errors HISTOK.Y OF THE PURITANS. 319 The Reverend Mr. John Norton went over in the same ship with Mr. Sheppard,* being driven out of Hertfordshire by the severity of the times. He settled at Ipswich, in New-Eng- land, and was afterward removed to Boston, where he died in the year 1665. t Mr. Fuller says he was a divine of no less learning than modesty, as appears sufficiently by his numer- ous writings. His grace of Canterbury, having made some powerful efforts to bring the churches of Scot- land and Ireland to a uniformity with England, resolved, in his metropolitan visitation this sum- mer, to reduce the Dutch and French churches (which were ten in flumber, having between five and six thousand communicants) to the same conformity ; for this purpose he tendered them these three articles of inquiry. 1. " Whether do you use the Dutch or French liturgy 1 2. •' Of how many descents are you since you came into England ! 3. " Do such as are born here in England conform to the English ceremonies'!" The ministers and elders demurred upon these questions, and insisted upon their charter of privileges granted by King Edward VI., and confirmed no less than five times m the reign of King James, and twice by King Charles him- self, by virtue of which they had been exempt from all archiepiscopal and episcopal jurisdic- broke out in Boston and its vicinity, Mr. Shepard, by his exertions, was the happy means of stopping this infectious malady. He was an e.xcellent preach- er, and took great pains in his preparations for the pulpit. He used to say, " God will cur.se that man's labo-us who goes idly up and down all the week, and thei. goes into his study on a Saturday afternoon. God knows that we have not too much time to pray in, and weep in, and get our hearts into a fit frame for the duties of the Sabbath." His most celebrated production is on the " Parable of the Ten Virgins," which contains a rich fund of experimental and prac- tical divinity. Fuller gives Mr. Shepard a place among the learned writers v.'ho were fellows of Emanuel College, Cambridge. His son and grand- son were, in succession, pastors of the church at Charlestown. — C. * Mather's Hist, of New-England, p. 34. t Mr. Norton and Simon Bradstreet, Esq., were sent to England as agents of the colony, on the res- toration of Charles If, with an a'ddress to his majes- ty soliciting the continuance of their privileges. This address contains the following passage : " To enjoy our liberty, and to walk according lo the faith and order of the Gospel, was the caiise of us transplantincr ourselves, with our wives, our little ones, and oul- substance ; choosing the pure Scripture worship, with a good conscience, in this remote wilderness' rather than the pleasures of England, with submis- sion to the impositions of the hierarchy, to which we could not yield without an evil conscience. We are not seditious to the interests of C«sar, nor schismatical in matters of religion. We distinonish between churches and their impurities. We could not live without the pulilic worship of God, but were not allowed to observe it without such a yoke of su- perstition and conformity as we could not consent to with')Ut sin." — ■ Massachuselts Papers, p. 345-371. [ hope the reader will compare this serious statement, at the foot of the throne, with ihefla'^rant misrepre- sejUatinns and dfliberalK perversions of kistnry to be found on pages 337-8-9 of the " Double Witness of the Church," by the Rev. W. I. Kipp, 1843, than which, a more specious yet audacious attack on the large majority of professing Christians in this coun- try^ has never appeared. — C. tion till this time ; yet Laud, without any re- gard to their charter, sent them the two follow- ing injunctions by his vicar-general : 1. "That all that were horn in England of the Dutch and Walloon congregations should repair to their parish churches. 2. " That those who were not natives, but came from abroad, while they remained stran- gers, might use their own discipline as for- merly." In this emergency the Dutch and Walloon churches petitioned for a toleration, and show- ed the inconveniences that would arise from the archbishop's injunctions ; as, that if all their children born in England were taken from their communion, their churches must break up and return home ; for as they came into England for the liberty of their consciences, they would not continue here after it was taken from them.* They desired, therefore, it might be considered what damages would arise to the kingdom by driving away the foreigners with their manu- factures, and discouraging others from settling in their room. The mayor and corporation of Canterbury assured his grace that above twelve hundred of their poor were maintained by the foreigners, and others interceded with the king in their favour ; but his majesty answered, " We must believe our Archbishop of Canterbury," who used their deputies very roughly, calling them a nest of schismatics, and telling them it were better to have no foreign churches than to indulge their nonconformity. In conclusion, he assured them, by a letter dated August 19, 1635, that his majesty was resolved his injunc- tions should be observed, viz., That all their children of the second descent, born in England, should resort to their parish churches ;t " and," says his grace, " I do expect all obedience and conformity from you, and if you refuse, I shall proceed against the natives according to the laws and canons ecclesiastical." Accordingly, some of their churches were interdicted, others shut up and the assemblies dissolved; their ministers being suspended, many of their peo- ple left the kingdom, especially in the diocess of Norwich, where Bishop Wren drove away three thousand manufacturers in wool, cloth, &c., some of whom employed a hundred poor people at work, to the unspeakable damage of the kingdom. As a farther mark of disregard to the foreign Protestants, the king's ambassador in France was forbidden to frequent their religious assem- blies. " It had been customary," says Lord Clarendon, " for the ambassadors employed in any parts where the reformed religion was ex- ercised, to frequent their churches, and to hold correspondence with the most powerful persons of that religion, particularly the English ambas- sadors at Paris constantly frequented the church at Charenton ; but the contrary to this was now- practised, and some advertisements, if not in- structions, given to the ambassador, to forbear any commerce with the men of that religion. * It is said that Richelieu made the following speech on this exacted conformity : " If a king of England, who is a Protestant, will not permit two disciplines in his kingdom, why should a kmg of France, who is a papist, admit two religions ?" — Mrs. Macaulay's History of England, vol. if, p. 145, note, 8vo. — En. t Rushworth, vol. ii., part 11., p. 273. 320 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Lord Scudamore, who was the last ambassador before the beginning of the Long Parliament, instead of going to Charenton, furnished his chapel after the new fashion, with candles upon the altar, &c., and took care to publish, upon all occasions, that the Church of England look- ed not on the Huguenots as a part of their com- munion, which was lilcewise industriously dis- coursed at home. This made a great many for- eign Protestants leave the kingdom, and trans- port themselves into foreign parts." The Church of England by this means lost the esteem of the Keformed churches abroad, who could hardly pity her, when a few years after she sunk down into the deepest distress. To give another instance of the archbishop's disaffection to the foreign Protestants, the Queen of Bohemia, the king's sister, solicited the king, in the most pressing manner, to admit of a pub- lic collection over England for the poor perse- cuted ministers of the Palatinate, who were ban- ished their country for their religion. Accord- ingly, the king granted them a brief to go through the kingdom ; but when it was brought to the archbishop he excepted against the following clause :* " Whose cases are the more to be de- plored, because this extremity has fallen upon them for their sincerity and constancy in the true religion, which we together with them pro- fessed, and which we are all bound in con- science to maintain to the utmost of our powers. Whereas these religious and godly persons, be- ing involved among others their countrymen, might have enjoyed their estates and fortunes, if with other backsliders in the times of trial they would have submitted themselves to the anti-Christian yoke, and have renounced or dis- sembled the profession of their religion." His grace had two exceptions to this passage: 1. The religion of the Palatine churches is affirm- ed to be the same with ours, which he denied, because they were Calvinists, and because their ministers had not episcopal ordination. 2. He objected to the Church of Rome's being called an anti-Christian yoke, because it would then follow that she was in no capacity to convey sacerdotal power in ordinations, and, conse- quently, the benefit of the priesthood, and the force of^ holy ministrations, would be lost in the English Church, forasmuch as she has no or- ders but what she derives from the Church of Rome. Laud having acquainted the king with his exceptions, they were expunged in another draught. But the collection not succeeding in this way, Dr. Sibbes, Gouge, and other divines of the Puritan party, signed a private recom- mendatory letter, desiring their friends to en- large their charity, as to men of the same faith and profession with themselves, and promising to see to the right distribution of the money ; but as soon as Laud heard of it, he cited the divines before the High Commission, and put a stop to the collection. This year [1634] put an end to the life of the Rev. Mr. Hugh Clarke, born at Burton-upon- Trent, 1563, and educated partly at Cambridge and partly at Oxford. He was first minister of Oundle, in Northamptonshire, and then of Woolston, in Warwickshire, from whence he was suspended, and afterward excommunicated for expounding upon the catechism. At length he was indicted for high treason, because he had prayed " that God would forgive the queen [Elizabeth] her sins,"* but was acquitted. He was an awakening preacher, of a warm spirit, and a robust constitution, which he wore out with preaching twice every Lord's Day, and frequently on the week days. His ministry met with great success even to his death, which happened November 6, 1634, in the seventy- second year of his age.t About the same time died the reverend and pious Mr. John Carter, a man that feared God from his youth, and was always employed in acts of devotion and charity. He was born in Kent, 1554, and educated in Clare Hall, Cam- bridge. He was first minister of Bramford, in Suffolk, for thirty-four years, and then rector of Bedstead, in the same county ; and though often in trouble for his nonconformity, he made a shift, by the assistance of friends, to maintain his lib.erty without any sinful compliance. t He was mighty in prayer, frequent and fervent in preaching, and a resolute champion against popery, Arminianism, and the new ceremonies. He lived to a good old age, and died suddenly, as he was lying down to sleep, in the eightieth year of his age, greatly lamented by all who * Gyp. Ang., CoUyer, vol. ii., p. 764, 765. t Here Bishop Warburton censures Mr. Neal as guilty of "an unfair representation." His lordship adds, " that they were the sins of persecuting the holy discipline which he prayed for the remission of ; and that reflecting on her administration was the thing which gave offence." The bishop is certainly right in this construction of Mr. Clarke's prayer ; but there is no occasion, methinks, for tlw charge he brings against Mr. Neal, who does not refer the ex- pression, or insinuate that it was to be referred, to the personal vices of the queen, but rather the con- trary, for he speaks of it as the ground on which Mr. Clarke was indicted for high treason. He might as well suppose that his reader would understand the language as pointing to the oppressions of her gov- ernment, and the severities which the Puritans suf- fered under it. This would have been perfectly clear, had Mr. Neal added from his author, that this prayer, though in modest expressions, was offered up when the persecution of the Nonconformists was becoming hot. — Ed. t Clarke's Lives annexed to his General Martyr- ology, p. 127. He was the father of Rev. Samuel Clarke, of Bennet Fink, the author of the General Martyrology, and the biographer of the Puritans. Almost all we know*of some of the best men of that age we have received from his voluminous biogra- phies. He has great claims on our gratitude. — C. t Mr. Carter's chief trials proceeded from Bishop Wren, who was successively Bishop of Hereford, Norwich, and Ely, a prelate of most intolerant prin- ciples, and too much inclined to the oppressions and superstitions of popery. While he sat in the chair of Norwich, he proceeded, according to Clarendon, " so warmly and passionately against the dissenting congregations, that many left the kingdom,'' to the unspeakable injury of the manufactories of this coun- try. His portrait was published and prefixed to a book entitled " Wren's Anatomy, discovering his no- torious Pranks, &c., printed in the year when Wren ceased to domineer," 1641. In this portrait the bishop is represented sitting at a table, with two la- bels proceeding from his mouth, one of which is in- scribed " Canonical Prayers," the other, " No Af ternoon Sermons." On one side stand several cler- gymen, over whose heads is written " Altar Crin- ging Priests." On the other side, two men in lay hab- its, above whom is this inscription, " Church-war- dens for Articles."— Pryrane's Cant. Doom, p. 531. Clarendon's Hist. , vol. ii. , p. 74. Granger's Biog. Hist. , vol. ii., p. 157.— C. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 321 had a taste for practical religion and undissem- bled piety.* His funeral sermon was preached •jefore a vast concourse of people, from these tvords, " My father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" Conformity to the new ceremonies and the king's injunctions was now pressed with the utmost rigour. Tiie Rev. Mr. Crook, of Brazen- nose College, and Mr. Hobbes, of Trinity Col- lege, Oxford, were enjoined a public recantation for reflecting upon the Arminians. Mr. Samuel Ward, of Ipswich, having preach- ed against the Book of Sports, and bowing at the name of Jesus, added, that the Church of England was ready to ring changes in religion ; and that the Gospel stood a tiptoe, ready to be gone to America ;t for which he was suspended, and enjoined a public recantation. Another underwent the same censure for saying it was suspicious that the night was approaching, be- cause the shadows were so much longer than the body, and ceremonies more enforced than the power of godliness. The Rev. Mr. Chauncey, late minister of Ware, but now of Marston Lawrence, in the diocess of Peterborough, was imprisoned, con- demned in cost of suit, and obliged to read the following recantation for opposing the railing in the communion-table : " Whereas I, Charles Chauncey, clerk, late Vicar of Ware, stand convicted for opposing the setting up a rail round |the communion-ta- ble, and for saying it was an innovation, a snare to men's consciences, a breach of the "second commandment, an addition to God's worship, and that which drove me from the place, I do now, before this honourable court, acknowledge iny great offence, and protest I am ready to de- clare upon oath, that I am now persuaded in my conscience, that kneeling at the communion is a lawful and commendable gesture ; that the rail is a decent and convenient ornament, and that I was much to blame for opposing it ; and do promise from henceforth, never by word or deed to oppose that, or any other laudable rites and ceremonies used in the Church of Eng- land."t After this he was judicially admonished and discharged ; but the recantation went so much against his conscience, that he could enjoy no peace till he had quitted the Church of England, and retired to New-England, where he made an open acknowledgment of his sin. The church-wardens of Beckington, in Som- ersetshire, were excommunicated by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, for refusing to remove the communion-table from the middle of the chancel to the east end, and not pulling down the seats to make room for it. They produced a certifi- cate that their communion-table had stood time out of mind in the midst of the chancel ; that the ground on which it was placed was raised a foot, and enclosed with a decent wainscot bor- der, and that none went within it but the min- ister, and such as he required. This not avail- ing, they appealed to the Arches, and at last to the king ; but their appeal was rejected. After * Ut supra, p. 132. t llushworth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 285. Prynne, p. t Prynne, p. 95, 97, 100. Rushworth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 301, 316. Vol. I.— S s they had remained excommunicated for a year, they were cast into the common jail, where they continued till the year 1637, and were then obli- ged to do public penance in the parish church of Beckington, and two otliers, the shame of which broke their hearts ; one of them declaring upon his death-bed soon after, that the penance and submission, so much against his conscience, had sunk his spirits, and was one principal cause of his death.* In the archbishop's metropolitical visitation this summer, Mr. Lee, one of the prebendaries of Litchfield, was suspended for churching re- fractory women in private, for being averse to the good orders of the Church, and for ordering the bellman to give notice in open market of a sermon. t, Mr. Randal, of Tuddington, near Hampton Court, Middlesex, was suspended for preaching a sermon above an hour long on Sun- day in the afternoon, though it was a farewell sermon to the exercise of catechising. His grace's account of his province this year gives a farther relation of the sufferings of the Puri- tans 4 he acquaints his majesty that the French and Dutch churches had not as yet thoroughly complied with his injunctions. That in the dio- cess of London, Dr. Houghton, rector of Alder- manbury, Mr. Simpson, curate and lecturer of St. Margaret, Fish-street, Mr. John Goodwin, vicar of Coleman-street, and Mr. Viner of St. Lawrence, Old Jewry, had been convened for breach of canons, and had 'submitted ; to whom his grace might have added, Dr. Sibbes, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Gouge, Mr. White, of Dorsetshire, and about twenty more ; some of whom fled into Holland, and others retired into New-Eng- land. The Bishop of Bath and Wells certified that he had not one single lecture in any corpo- ration town, and that all afternoon sermons were turned into catechisings in all parishes. In the diocess of Norwich vwre many Puritans, but that Mr. Ward of Yarmouth was in the High Commission. From the diocess of Laln- dafT, Mr. Wroth and Mr. Erbury, two noted schismatics, were brought before the High Com- mission. And that in the diocess of Glouces- ter were several popular and factious minis- ters. It must be confessed that the zeal of the Pu- ritans was not always well regulated, nor were their ministers so much on their guard in the pulpit or conversation as they ought, consider- ing the number of informers that entered all their churches, that insinuated themselves into all public conversation, and, like so many lo- custs, covered the land. These were so nu- merous and corrupt that the king was obliged to bring them under certain regulations ; for no man was safe in public company, nor even in conversing with his friends and neighbours. Many broke up housekeeping, that they might breathe in a freer air, which the council being informed of, a proclamation was published [July 21, 1635J, forbidding all persons except soldiers, mariners, merchants and their factors, to depart the kingdom without his majesty's license. But, notwithstanding this prohibition, num- bers went to New-England this summer, and among others the Rev. Mr. Peter Bulkley, B.D., * Rushworth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 300. t Prynne, p. 381. i Collyer's Eccles. Hist., vol. ii., p. 763. 322 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. and fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. He was son of Dr. Edward Bulkley, of Bcdlbrd- shire, and succeeded liin> at Woodliill, or Ode!, in that county. Here he continued above twen- ty years, the Bisliop of Lint-oln conniving at his nonconformity : but when Dr. Laud was at the helm of the Churcii, and llie Bishop of Lin- coln in disgrace, Bulkley was silenced i)y the vicar-general. Sir Nathaniel Brent, upon w'hich he sold a very plentiful estate, and transported himself and his effects to New-England, where he died in the year 1658-9, and the seventy- seventh of his age. He was a thundering preacher, and a judicious divine, as appears by his treatise " Of the Covenant," which passed through several editions, and was one of the first books published in that country.* Mr. Richard Mather, educated in Brazen-nose College, O.xon, and minister of Toxteih, near Liverpool, for about fifteen years, a diligent and successful preacher, was suspended for non- conformity in the year 1633, but by the inter- cession of friends, after six months he was re- stored. Next summer, the Archbishop of York sending his visiters into Lancashire, this good man was again suspended by Dr. Cosins, upon an information that he had not worn the sur- plice for fifteen years. After this no interces- sion could obtain the liberty of his ministry ; upon which he took shipping at Bristol, and ar- rived at Boston, in New-England, August 17, 1635. He settled air Dorchester, and continued with his people, a plain and profitable preacher, to the year 1660, when he died. This was the grandfather of the famous Dr. Cotton Mather. In Scotland the fire was kindling apace which in three years' time set both kingdoms in a llame. The restoring episcopacy, by the vio- lent methods already mentioned, did not sit easy upon the people; the new Scots bishops were of Bishop Laud's principles ; they spoke very favourably of popery in their sermons, and cast some invidious reflections on the Reldrm- ers : they declared openly for the doctrines of Arminius, for sports on the Sabbath, and for the liturgy of the English Church, which was ima- gined to be little better than the mass.t This lost them their esteem with the people, who had been trained up in the doctrines and disci- pline of Calvin, and in the strict observation of the Lord's Day. But the king, to support them, cherished them with expressions of the great- est respect and confidence ; he made eleven of them privy-councillors ; the Archbishop of St. Andrew's was lord-chancellor, and the Bishop of Ross was in nomination to be lord-high-treas- urer ; divers of them were of the exchequer, and had engrossed the best secular prefer- ments, which made them the envy of the no- bility and gentry of that nation. The bishops were so sensible of this, that they advised the king not to trust the intended alterations in re- ligion to parliaments or general assemblies, but to introduce them l)y his regal authority. When the king was last in Scotland, it was taken notice of as a great blemish in the Kirk, that it had no liturgy or book of canons. To supply this defect, the king gave orders to the * Rajjin, vol. ii., p. .394, folio edit. Mr. Bulkley made uiidiUons lo Fox's Acts and .Monuments ol the Martyrs.— See vol. iii., p. 861-b()J.— C. t Burnet's Memoirs of D. Hamilton, p. 29, 30. new bishops to prepare draughts of both, and re- mit them to London, to be revised by the Bish- ops Lauil, Juxon,and Wren. The book of canons being first finished, was presented to the king, and by him delivered to Laud and Juxon to ex- amine, alter, and reform at pleasure, and to bring it as near as possible to a conformity with the English canons. The bishops having exe- cuted their commission, and prepared it for press, the king confirmed it under the great seal by letters patent, dated at Greenwich, May 23, 1635. The instrument sets forth, " that his majesty, by his royal and supreme authority in causes ecclesiastical, ralifit^s and confirms the said canons, orders, and constitutions, and all and everything in them contained, and strictly commands all archbishops, bishops, and others exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction, to see them punctually observed." To give the reader a specimen of these can- ons, which were subversive of the whole Scots constitution both in Kirk and State : 1. " The first canon excommunicates all those who affirm the power and prerogative of the king not to be equal with the Jewish kings, that is, absolute and unlimited. 2. " The second excommunicates those who shall aflirm the worship contained in the Book of Common Prayer [which was not yet pub- lished], or the government of the Kirk by arch- bishops, bishops, &c., to be corrupt, supersti- tious, or unlawful. 3. " The third restrains ordinations to the qualuor-icmporay that is, the fiist weeks of March, June, September, and December. 5. " The fifth obliges all presbyters to read, or cause to be read. Divine service, according to the form of the Book of the Scottish Com- mon Prayer, and to conform lo all the offices, parts, and rubrics of it [though not yet pub- lished."] The book decrees farther, " that no assem- bly of the clergy shall be called but by the king. '•That none shall receive the sacrament but upon their knees. '.'That every ecclesiastical persop dying with- out children shall give part of his estate to the Church. " That the clergy shall have no private meet- ings for expounding Scripture. " That no clergyinan shall conceive prayer, but pray (inly by the printed form, to be pre- scribed in the Book of Common Prayer. " That no man shall teach school without a license fn m the bishop ; nor any censures oi the Church be pronounced but by the approba- tion of the bishop. " That no presbyter shall reveal anything ia confession, except his own life should by the concealment be forfeited." After sundry other canons of this nature, as appointing fonts fiir baptism, church ornaments, communion-tables, or altars, &,c., the book de- crees, that no person shall be admitted to holy orders, or to preach, or adininister the sacra- ments, without first subscribing the foremen- lioned canons. This book was no sooner published than the Scots presbyters declared pcrenipiorily against ii ;* the r objections were of two sorts: they disliked the matter of the canons, as inconsist- * Collyer's Eccles. Hist., p. 764. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 323 ent with their kirk government, and severer in Bome particulars than those of the Church of England : they protested also against the man- ner of imposing them, without consent of Par- liament or General Assembly. It was thought intolerable vassalage, by a people who had as- serted the independent power of the Church to convene assemblies of the clergy, and who had maintained that their decrees were binding without the confirmation of the crown, to have the king and a few foreign bishops dictate can- ons to them, without so much as asking their advice and consent. Such a high display of the supremacy could not fail of bemg higiily re- sented by a church that had never yielded it to the king in the latitude in which it had been claimed and exercised in England. Besides, it was very preposterous to publish the book of canons before the Book of Common Prayer, and to require submission and subscription to things that had no existence ; for who could foretel what might be inserted in the Com- mon Prayer Book "? or what kind of service might be imposed upon the Kirk'! This looked too much like pinning the faith of a whole na- tion on the lawn sleeves. To return to England. Towards the end of this year it pleased God to remove out of this world the Reverend Dr. Richard Sibbes, one of the most celebrated preachers of his time. He was born at Sudbury, 1579, and educated in St. John's College, Cambridge, where he went through all the degrees. Having entered into the ministry, he was first chosen lecturer of Trinity Church, in Cambridge, where his min- istry was very successful to the conversion and reformation of his hearers. About the year 1618 he was appointed preacher to the honour- ible society of Gray's Inn, London, in which itation he became so famous, that, besides the lawyers of the house, many of the nobility and gentry frequented his sermons. In the year 1625 he was chosen master of Katiierine Hall, in the University of Cambridge, the government of which he made a shift to continue to his death, though lie was turned out of his fellowship and lecture in the university for nonconformity, and often cited before the High Commission. He was a divine of good learning, thoroughly ac- quainted with the Scriptures, a burning and shining light, and of a most humble and chari- table disposition ; but all these talents could not screen him from the fury of the times. His works*, discover him to have been of a heavenly, evangelical spirit, the comforts of which he enjoyed at his death, which happened the latter end of this summer, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.t To aggrandize the Church yet farther, the archbishop resolved to bring part of the busi- ness of Westminster Hall into the ecclesiastical * Of these, the most noted was his " Bruised Reed," to which, Mr. Baxter tells us, he in a great measure owed his conversion. This circumstance alone, observes Mr. Granger, would have rendered his name memorable. — History of Enirland, vol. ii. p. I 7(i, 8vo. SytvesCer's Life of Baxter, part i., p. 4. This interesting memoir was one of the favour- ite volumes of Coleridge, who always kept it by him. No minister should lose an opportunity to ob- tain this very scarce and valuable work. — C. t Clarke's Lives, annexed to his General Martyr- ology, p. 143. courts. The civilians had boldly and unwar- rantably opposed and protested against prohi- biiions and other proceedings at law, in re- straint of their spiritual courts, and had pro- cured some privileges and orders from the king in favour of the ecclesiastical courts, which had greatly offended the gentlemen of the law. But the archbishop now went a step farther, and prevailed with the king to direct that half the masters in chancery should always be civil lawyers; and to declare that no others, of what condition soever, should serve him as masters of request ; these were more akin to the Church than the common lawyers, their places being in the bishop's disposal (as chancellors, commis- saries, &c.), and, therefore, it was supposed their persons would be so too ; but this was false policy, says the noble historian,* because it disgusted a whole learned profession, who were more capable of disserving the Church in their estates, inheritances, and stewardships, than the Church could hurt them in their prac- tice. Besides, it was wrong in itself; for I have never yet spoken with one clergyman, says his lordship, who hath had experience of both liti- gations, that has not ingenuously confessed, that he had rather, in respect of his trouble, charge, and satisfaction to his understanding, have three suits depending in Westminster Hall than one in the Arches, or any ecclesiastical court. As a farther step towards the sovereign pow- er of the Church, his grace prevailed with the king to allow the bishops to hold their ecclesi- astical courts in their own names, and by their own seals, without the king's letters patent un- der the great seal ; the judges having given it as their opinion that a patent under the great seal was not necessary for examinations, sus- pensions, and other church censures. This was undoubtedly contrary to law, for by the statute 1 Edw. VI., cap ii., it is declared "that all ec- clesiastical jurisdiction is immediately from the crown, and that all persons exercising such ju- risdiction shall have in their seal the king's arms, and shall use no other seal of jurisdic- tion on pain of imprisonment. "t This statute being repealed, ] Maria;, cap. ii., was again re- vived by 1 Jac, cap. xxv., as has been observ- ed.t Hereupon, in the Parliaments of the 3d and 7th of King James I., the bishops were proceeded against, and two of them, in a man- ner, attainted in a premunire by the House of Cominons, for making citations and processes in their own names, and using their own seals, contrary to this statute and to the common law, and in derogation of the prerogative. So that by this concession the king dispensed with the laws, and yielded away the ancient and un- doubted right of his crown, and the bishops were brought under a premunire for exercising spiritual jurisdiction without any special com- mission, patent, or grant from, by, or under his majesty, whereas all jurisdiction of this kind ought to have been exercised in the king's name, and by virtue of his authority only, sig- nified by letters patent under his majesty's seal. The archbishop was no less intent upon en- larging his own jurisdiction, claiming a right to * Clarendon, vol. ii., p. 305, 306. t Rushworth, vol. ii., part li., p. 450. t Usurpation of Prelates, p. 02, 115. ^24 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS visit the two universities /urc melropolitico, which being referred to the king and council, his maj- esty was pleased to give judgment against himself. As chancellor of Oxford, his grace caused a new body of statutes to be drawn up for that university, with a preface, in which are some severe reflections on good King Edward and his government ; it says that the discipline of the university was discomposed and troubled by that king's injunctions and the flattering novelty of the age. It then commends the reign of his sister, the bloody Queen Mary, and says that the discipline of the Church revived and flourished again in her days under Cardinal Pole, when, by the much-desired felicity of those times, an inbred candour supplied the de- fect of statutes.* Was this spoken like a Prot- estant prelate, whose predecessors in the sees of London and Canterbury were burned at Ox- ford by Queen Mary, in a most barbarous man- ner 1 Or, rather, like one who was aiming at the return of those happy times 1 The last and most extravagant stretch of episcopal power that I shall mention was the bishops framing new articles of visitation in their own names, without the king's seal and authority, and administering an oath of inquiry to the church-wardens concerning them.f This was an outrage upon the laws, contrary to the Act of Submission, 25 Hen. VIII., cap. xxv., and even to the twelfth canon of 1603, which says, " that whosoever shall affirm it lawful for any sort of ministers or lay persons to assem- ble together and make rules, orders, and con- stitutions, in causes ecclesiastical, without the king's authority, and shall submit themselves to be ruled and governed by them, let him be excommunicated ;" which includes the framers of the orders as well as those who act under them. The administering an oath to church- wardens, without a royal commission, had no foundation in law, for by the common law no ecclesiastical judge can administer an oath (ex- cept in cases of matrimony and testaments) without letters patent, or a special commission under the great seal. It was also declared con- trary to the laws and statutes of the land, by Sir Edward Coke and the rest of the judges, 3 James, in the case of Mr. Wharton, who, be- ing church-warden of Blackfriars, London, was excommunicated and imprisoned on a capias cxcommunicatum, for refusing to take an oath to present upon visitation articles ; but bringing his habeas corpus, he was discharged by the whole court, both from his imprisonment and excommunication, for this reason, because the oath and articles were against the laws and statutes of this realm, and so might and ought to be refused. Upon the whole, the making the mitre thus independent of the crown, and * An answer to Mr. Neal, it is urged by Dr. Grey, may be supplied from Frankland's Annals of King Charles I., according to whom, what is applied above to Queen Mary's time only, relates to all former times as well as hers, during which the uncertainty of the statutes lasted, and put the university to an in- convenience ; and who asserts that the preface men- tioned by Mr. Neal was written by Dr. Peter Turner, of Merton College, a doctor of civil law. The read- er, however, will probably apprehend that it express- ed the sentiments of Archbishop Laud, and was vir- tually his. — En. t Usurpation of Prelates, p. 229, 240. not subject to a prohibition from the courts of Westminster Hall, was setting up impcnum in impcrio, and going a great way towards re-es- tablishing one of the heaviest grievances of the papacy ; but the bishops presumed upon the fe- licity of the times and the indulgence of the crown, which at another time might have in- volved them in a premunire. The articles of visitation difl^ered in the sev- eral diocesses ; the church- wardens' oath was generally the same, viz. : " You shall swear, that you, and every of you, shall duly consider and diligently inquire of all and every of these articles given you in charge; and that all affection, favour, hope of reward and gain, or fear of displeasure, or mal- ice set aside, you shall present all and every such person that now is, or of late was, within your parish, or hath committed any offence, or made any default mentioned in any of these articles, or which are vehemently suspected, or defamed of any such offence or default, wherein you shall deal uprightly and fully, neither present- ing nor daring to present any contrary to truth, having in this action God before your eyes, with an earnest zeal to maintain truth, and to sup- press vice. So help you God, and the holy con- tents of this book." By virtue of this oath, some, out of conscience, thought themselves obliged to present'their min- isters, their neighbours, and their near rela- tions, not for immorality or neglect of the wor- ship of God, but for omitting some supersti- tious injunctions. Others acted from revenge, having an opportunity put into their hands to ruin their conscientious neighbours. Many church-wardens refused to take the oath, and were imprisoned, and forced to do penance. But, to prevent this for the future, it was de- clared, " that if any man affirmed it was not lawful to lake the oath of a church-warden, or that it was not lawfully administered, or that the oath did not bind, or that the church-ward- ens need not inquire, or, after inquiry, need not answer, or might leave out part of their an- swers,"* such persons should be presented and punished. Several of the bishops published their pri- mary articles of visitation about this time, as the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of Win- chester, and IBath and Wells ; but the most remarkable and curious were Dr. Wren's, bish- op of Norwich, entitled, " Articles to be in- quired of within the Dtocess of Norwich, in the first Visitation of Matthew, Lord-bishop of Nor- wich."! The book contains one hundred and thirty-nine articles, in which are eight hundred and ninety-seven questions, some very insignifi- cant, others highly superstitious, and several impossible to be answered. To give the reader a specimen of them : Have you the book of constitutions or canons ecclesiastical, and a parchment register book, Book of Common Pray- er, and a book of homilies 1 Is your commu- nion-table so placed within the chancel as the canon directs! Doth your minister read the canons once every year 1 Doth he pray for the king with his whole title"! Doth he pray for the archbishops and bishops 1 Doth he observe * Visit. Art., chap, vi., () 9. t Rushworth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 186", 187. Prynne, p. 374. Rapin, vol. ii., p. 289, 290, folio edit. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS 325 all the orders, rites, and ceremonies prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, and adminis- tering the sacrament 1 Doth he receive the sacrament kneehng himself, and administer to none but such as kneel ] Doth he admit to the sacrament any notorious offenders or schismat- ics 1 Do the strangers of other parishes come often, or frequently to your church 1 Doth your minister baptize with the sign of the cross ! Is your minister licensed, and by whoml Doth he wear the surplice while he is reading pray- ers and administering the sacrament 1 Doth he catechise and instruct the youth in the Ten Commandments 1 Doth he solemnize, marriage without the bans 1 Doth he, in Rogation-days, use the perambulation round the parish 1 Doth he every six months denounce in the parish [or publicly declare the names of] all such as per- severe in the sentence of excommunication, not seeking to be absolved 1 Doth he admit any excommunicate persons into the church with- out a certificate of absolution ? Is your minis- ter a favourer of recusants 1 Is he noted to be an incontinent person; a frequenter of taverns, alehouses ; a common gamester, or a player at dicel Hath your minister read the Book of Sports in his church or chapel 1 Doth he read the second service at the communion-table 1 Doth he use conceived prayers before or after sermon 1 With regard to churchyards, are they consecrated 1 Are the graves dug east and west, and the bodies buried with their heads to the west 1 Do your parishioners, at going in and out of the church, do reverence towards the chancel 1 Do they kneel at confession, stand up at the creed, and bow at the glorious name of Jesus 1* &c., with divers articles of the like nature.! The weight of these inquiries fell chiefly upon the Puritans, for within the compass of two years and four months no less than fifty able and pious ministers were suspended, silenced, and otherwise censured, to the ruin of their poor families, for not obeying one or other of these articles ; among whom were the Rev. Mr. John Allen, Mr. John Ward, Mr. William Powell, Mr. John Carter, Mr. Ashe, Mr. William Bridges, Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs, Mr. Greenhill, Mr. Ed- mund Calamy, Mr. Hudson, Peck, Raymond, Green, Mott, Kent, Allen, Scott, Beard, Moth, Manning, Warren, Kirrington, and others, in the diocess of Norwich. In other diocesses were Mr. Jonathan Burre, Mr. William Leigh, Mr. Matthew Brownrigge, Mr. G. Huntley, Vic- ars, Proud, Workman, Crowder, Snelling, &c., some of whom spent their days in silence, oth- ers departed their country into parts beyond sea, and none were released without a promise to conform to the bishops' injunctions cditis et edendis, i. e., already published, or hereafter to be published. ♦ Cant. Doom, p. 96. t One article, which Mr. Neal has omitted, requi- red " that the church-wardens in every parish of his diocess should inquire whether any persons presumed to talk of religion at their tables and in their families." Not to say the gross ignorance which this restraint would cause, it showed the e.xtreme of jealousy and intolerance, was subversive of the influence and en- dearments of domestic life, and converted each pri- vate house into a court of inquisition. — Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy Shaken, 17G8, vol. iii., p. 307,308.— Ed. Bishop Montague, who succeeded Wren in the diocess of Norwich, 1638, imitated his suc- cessor in his visitation-articles ; it being now fashionable for every new bishop to frame sep- arate articles of inquiry for the visitation of his Qwn diocess. Montague pointed his inquiries against the Puritan lecturers, of which he ob- serves three sorts.* " 1. Such as were superinducted into another man's cure ; concerning which he enjoins his visiters to inquire. Whether the lecturer's ser- mons in the afternoons are popular or cate- chistical ! Whether he be admitted with con- sent of the incumbent and bishop 1 Whether he read prayers in his surplice and hood 1 Of what length his sermons are, and upon what subject ! Whether he bids prayer, according to the fifty-fifth canon 1 " 2. The second sort of lecturers are those of combination, when the neighbouring ministers agreed to preach by turns at an adjoining mar- ket town on market days ; inquire who the combiners are, and whether they conform as above 1 " 3. A third sort are running lecturers, when neighbouring Christians agree upon such a day to meet at a certain church in some country town or village, and after sermon and dinner to meet at the house of one of their disciples to repeat, censure, and explain the sermon ; then to discourse of some points proposed at a fore- going meeting by the moderator of the assem- bly, derogatory to the doctrine or discipline of the Church ; and, in conclusion, to appoint an- other place for their next meeting. If you have any such lecturers, present them." Dr. Pierce, bishop of Bath and Wells, sup- pressed all lecturers in market towns, and else- where throughout his diocess, alleging that he saw no such need of preaching now, as was in the apostles' days. He suspended Mi. Deven- ish, minister of Bridgewater, for preaching a lecture in his own church on a market day, which had continued ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth ; and afterward, when he ab- solved him upon his promise to preach it no more, he said to him, " Go thy way, sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee."t His lordship put down all afternoon sermons on Lord's Days, and suspended Mr. Cornish for preaching a funeral sermon in the evening. And whereas some ministers used to explain the questions and answers in the catechism, and make a short prayer before and after, the bishop reproved them sharply for it, saying that was as bad as preaching, and charged them to ask no questions, nor receive any answers but such as were in the Book of Common Prayer ; and for not complying with this injunction, Mr. Barret, rector of Berwick, and some others, were enjoined public penance. The Bishop of Peterborough, and all the new bishops, went in the same track ; and some of them upon this sad principle, That afternoon sermons on Sun- days were an impediment to the revels in the evening. The Church was now in the height of its tri- umphs, and grasped not only at all spiritual ju- risdiction, but at the capital preferments of state. This year Dr. Juxon, bishop of London, was declared Lord-high-treasurer of England, which * Prynne, p. 376. t Ibid., p. 377. 326 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. is the first office of profit and power in the kingdom, and has precedence next to the arch- bisliop. .Iiixon's name had hardly been known at court above two years ;* till then he was no more than a private chaplain to the king, and head of a poor college at Oxford. Besides, no churchman had held this post since the darkest times of popery, in the reign of King Henry VII.; but I.aud valued himself upon this nomina- tion : " Now," says he, in his diary, " if the Church will not hold up themselves, under God, I can do no more."t When the staff of treas- urer was put into the hands of Juxon, Lord Clarendon observes, " that the nobility were in- flamed, and began to look upon the Church as a gulf ready to swallow all the great offices of state, there being other churchmen in view who were ambitious enough to expect the rest. The inferior clergy took advantage of this situ- ation of their affairs, and did not live towards their neighbours of quality, or patrons, with that civility and good manners as they used to do, which disposed others to withdraw their counte- nance and good neighbourhood from them, espe- cially after they were put into the commissions of peace in most counties of England." One of the members of the House of Commons said, *' That the clergy were so exalted that a gentle- man might not come near the tail of their mules ; and that one of them had declared openly, that he hoped to see the day when a clergyman should be as good a man as any upstart Jack gentleman in the kingdom." It is certain the favourable aspect of the coui;t had very much exalted their behaviour, and their new notions had made them conceive themselves an order of men above the rank of the laity, forasmuch as they had the keys of the kingdom of heaven at their »■ Dr. Juxon, having been elected to the See of Hereford before he was consecrated, was translated on the 19th of September, 1633, to that of London. His first preferment was, in 1627, to the Deanery of Worcester ; but his constant connexion with the court was not formed till the lOlh of July, 1632, when he was, at the suit of Archbishop Laud, sworn clerk of his majesty's closet, two yemrs and eight months before he was declared loid-hightreasurer. So that Mr. Neal's expression, that his name had hardly been known at court above two years, at which Dr. Grey carps, does not greatly deviate from the exact fact. The doctor quotes, also, many testimonies to the amiable temper and virtues of Bishop Juxon. But, though they justly reflect honour on his memory, the peisonal virtues of the bishop did not render the in- vesting a clergyman with the high office to which he was exalted a measure more politic in itself, or less obnoxious to the people. And the shorter was the time during which he had been known at court, the fewer opportunities he had enjoyed to display his vir- tues, and the more probable it was that he owed his dignity, not to the excellence of his own character, but to the influence and views of Laud. This cir- cumstance, together with the vast power connected with the office, and the exaltation supposed to be thus given to the clerical order, created jealousy and gave offence. In this light Mr. Neal places the mat- ter, without impeaching the merit of Bishop Juxon. —Ed. t Bishop Warburton's remarks here deserve atten- tion: "Had he been content," says his lordship, " to do nothing, the Church had stood. Suppose him to have been an honest man and sincere, which I think must be granted, it would follow that he knew nothing of the constitution either of civil or religious soci- ety, and was as poor a churchman as he was a politician." -Ed. girdle, and upon their priestly character depend- ed the efficacy of all Gospel institutions. This made some of them remarkably negligent of their cures up and down the country ; others lost the little learning they had acquired at the university, and many became very scandalous in their lives ; thougii Lord-Clarendon* says that there was not one churchman in any degree of favour or acceptance [at court] of a scandalous insufficiency in learning, or of a more scanda- lous condition of life ; but, on the contrary, most of them of confessed eminent parts in knowl- edge, and of virtuous and unblemished lives. Great numbers of the most useful and labo- rious preachers in all parts of the country were buried in silence, and forced to abscond from the fury of the High Commission ; among whom were the famous Mr. John Dod, Mr. Whatley, Cr. Harris, Mr. Capel, and Mr. John Rogers, of Dedham, one of the most awakening preachers of his age, of whom Bishop Brownrigge used to say, " that he did more good with his wild notes than we [the bishops] with our set mu- sic." Yet his great usefulness could not screen him from those suspensions and deprivations which were the portion of the Puritans in these times.t His resolutions about subscribing I will relate in his own words : " If I come fnto trouble for nonconformity, I resolve, by God's assistance, to come away with a clear con- science ; for, though the liberty of my ministry be dear to me, I dare not buy it at such a rate. I am troubled at my former subscription, but I saw men of good gifts, and of good hearts (as I thought), go before me ; and I could not prove that there was anything contrary to the Word of God, though I disliked the ceremonies, and knew them to be unprofitable burdens to the Church of God ; but if I am urged again I will never yield ; it was my weakness before, as I now conceive, which I beseech God to par- don. Written in the year 1627." But after this the good man was overtaken again, and yielded, which almost broke his heart ; he adds, " For this I smarted, 1631. If I had read over this [my former resolution], it may be I had not done what I did." How severe are such trials to a poor inan with a numerous family of chil- dren ! And how sore the distresses of a wound- ed conscience ! Others continued to leave their country, ac- cording to our blessed Saviour's advice. Matt., x., 23, "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." Among these were Mr. Nathaniel Rogers, son of Mr. John Rogers, of Dedham, educated in Emanuel College, Cam- bridge, and settled at Assington in Suffolk, where he continued five years ; but seeing the storm that had driven his neighbours from their an- * Vol. i., p. 77. t Mr. Rogers was a thorough Puritan, but of an humble and peaceable behaviour. He loved all whc loved Christ, and was greatly beloved by them When Laud suppressed his lecture, he said, " Le» them take me, and hang me up by the neck if the> will, but remove those stumbling-blocks out of the- Church." Mr. Giles Firmin, one of the ejected Non • conformists, was converted, when a boy at school, under his ministry. His works are valuable, and the chief that are extant are, The Doctrine of Faith, 1627 ; Exposition on First Epistle of Peter, 1659; A Trea- tise on Love ; and Sixty Memorials of a Godly Life. — C. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 327 chor, and being fearful of his own steadfastness in the hour of temptation, he resigned his living into the hands of his patron, and forsaking the neighbourhood of his father, and all prospects of worldly advantage, cast himself and his fam- ily upon the providence of God, and embarked for New-England, where he* arrived about the middle of November, 1636, and settled with Mr. Norton, at Ipswich, with whom he continued to his death, which happened in the year 1655.* About the same time went over Mr. Lambert Whiteing, M. A., a Lincolnshire divine, who con- tinued it Shirbeck, near Boston, unmolested, till Bishop Williams's disgrace, after which he Avas silenced by the spiritual courts, and forced into New-England, where he arrived with his family this summer, and continued a useful preacher to a little flock at Lynn till the year 1679, when he died, in the eighty-third year of his age. The Star Chamber and High Commission ex- ceeded all the bounds, not only.of law and equi- ty, but even of humanity itself t We have re- lated the sufferings of Mr. Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick, in the year 1633. These gentlemen, being shut up in prison, were supposed to em- ploy their time in writing against the bishops and their spiritual courts ; Bastwick was char- ged with a book, published 1636, entitled "Apolo- gelicus ad praesules Anglicanos ;" and with a pamphlet called "TheNew Litany :" the others, with two anonymous books, one entitled " A Divine Tragedy, containing a Catalogue of God's Judgments against Sabbath Breakers ;" tiie oth- er, "News from Ipswich;" which last was a satire upon the severe proceedings of Dr. Wren, ■bishop of that diocess. For these they were cited a second time into the Star Chamber, by virtue of an information laid against them by the attorney-general, for writing and publishing seditious, schismatical, and libellous books against the hierarchy of the Church, and to the scandal of the government. When the defend- ants had prepared their answers, they could not get counsel to sign them ; upon which they pe- titioned the court to receive them from them- selves, which would not be admitted ; however, Prynne and Bastwick, having no other remedy, left their answers at the ofSce, signed with their own hands, but were nevertheless proceeded against pro confesso. Burton prevailed with Mr. Holt, a bencher of Gray's Inn, to sign his an- swer ; but the court ordered the two chief-jus- tices to expunge what they thought unfit to be brought into court, and they struck out the ■whole answer, except six lines at the beginning, and three or four at the end ; and because Mr. Burton would not acknowledge it thus purged, he was also taken -pro confesso. In Bastwick's answer the prelates are called " invaders of the king's prerogative, contemners and despisers of the Holy Scriptures, advancers of popery, superstition, idolatry, and profane- ness; they are charged with oppressing the king's loyal subjects, and with great cruelty, tyr- * He was an eminently holy man, an admirable preacher, and an incomparable master of the Latin tongue. "I shall do an injury to his memory," says Cotton Mather. " if 1 do not declare that he was one of the greatest men, and one of the best ministers, that ever set his foot on the American shore." — His- tory of New-England, b. ili., p. 106-108.— C. t Rushworth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 380, &c. anny, and injustice." Mr. Prynne's answer re- flected upon the hierarchy, though in more mod- erate and cautious terms. All the defendants offered to maintain their several answers at the peril of their lives ; but the court finding them not filed upon record, would not receive them. The prisoners at the bar cried aloud for justice, and that their answers might be read ; but it was peremptorily denied, and the following sentence passed upon them : that " Mr. Burton be de- prived of his living, and degraded from his min- istry, as Prynne and Bastwick had been from their professions of law and physic ; that each of them be fined £5000 ; that they stand in the pillory at Westminster, and have their ears cut off; and because iMr. Prynne 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., and then all three were to suffer perpetual imprisonment in the remotest prisons of the kingdom." This sentence was executed upon them June 30, 1637, the hangman rather sawing the remainder of Prynne's ears than cutting them off; after which they were sent, under a strong guard, one to the Castle of Launceston, in Cornwall, another to the Castle of Lancaster, and a third to Car- narvon Castle, in Wales ;* but these prisoners not being thought distant enough, they were af- terward removed to the islands of Scilly, Guern- sey, and Jersey, where they were kept without the use of pen, ink, or paper, or the access of friends, till they were released by the Long Parliament. At passing this sentence. Archbishop Laud made a laboured speech to clear himself from the charge of innovations with which the Puri- tans loaded him. He begins with retorting the crime upon the Puritans, who were for set- ting aside the order of bishops, whereas -in all ages since the apostles' time the Church had been governed by bishops, whose calling and order, in his grace's opinion, was by Divine right, the office of lay-elders having never been heard of before Calvin. He then vindicates the particular innovations complained of, as, 1. Bowing towards the altar, or at coming into the church. This, he says, was the practice in Jewish times : Psalm xcv., 6, " 0 come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker ;" and yet the government is so moderate that no man is forced to it, but only religiously called upon. " For my own part," says his grace, "I shall always think myself bound to worship God with my body as well as soul, in what consecrated place soever I come to pray. You, my honoured lords of the Garter, do reverence towards the altar as the greatest place of God's residence upon * The archbishop's revenge, not glutted by the se- vere sentence obtained against Mr. Prynne, pursued those who, at Chester and other |ilaces, as he was carrying to prison, showed him civilities. For, though his keepers were not forbidden to let any visit hini, some were fined £500, some £300, and others £250.^RusImorlh Abridged, vol. ii., p. 295, &c., as quoted in the Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy, vol. iii., p. 272. And the servant of Mr. Prynne was proceeded against in the High Commission, and sent from prison to prison, only for refusing to accuse his master. — Id., p. 273. Neither fidelity nor humanity had merit with this prelate.— Ed. 328 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. earth ; greater than the puli)it, for there is only the Word of God, but upon the altar is his body ; and a greater reverence is due to the body than to the Word of the Lord ; and this is no innovation, for you are bound to it by your order, which is no new thing." His grace proceeds to consider the altera- tions in the collects and prayers, which he says the archbishops and bishops, to whom the or- dering of the fast-book was committed, had power under the king to make, provided nothing was inserted contrary to the doctrine or dis- cipline of the Church of England ; he then jus- tifies the several amendments, and concludes most of his articles with showing that there is no connexion between the charge and the pop- ular clamour raised against him, of an intent to bring in popery. But the several innovations here mentioned being objected to the arch- bishop at his trial, we shall defer our remarks to that place. His grace concludes with a protestation that he had no design to alter the religion estab- lished by law, but that his care to reduce the Church to order, to uphold the external decency of it, and to settle it to the rules of the first Ref- ormation, had brought upon him and his breth- ren all that malicious storm that had lowered so black over their heads. He then thanks the court for their just and honourable censure of these men, and for their defence of the Church ; but because the business had some reference to himself, he forbears to censure them, leaving them to God's mercy and the king's justice. Notwithstanding this plausible speech, which the king ordered to be prmted, the barbarous sentence passed upon these gentlemen moved the compassion of the whole nation. The three learned faculties of law, physic, and divinity took it to heart, as thinking their educations and professions might have secured them from such infamous punishment,* proper enough for the poorest and most mechanic malefactors, who could make no other satisfaction to the public for their offences, but very improper for persons of education, degrees, or quality. Nay, the re- port of this censure, and the smart execution of it, flew into Scotland, and the discourse was there that they must also expect a Star Cham- ber to strengthen the hands of their bishops, as well as a High Commission : " No doubt," says Archbishop Laud, " but there is a concurrence between them and the Puritan party in England, to destroy me in the king's opinion."! Cruel as this sentence was, Dr. Williams, bishop of Lincoln, and the Reverend Mr. Os- baldeston, chief master of Westminster School, met with no less hardship.t The bishop had been Laud's very good friend in persuading King James to advance him to a bishopric ;ij but * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 94. t Rushworth, p. 385. t Clarendon, vol. ii., part ii., p. 81. (j The insight of King James inlo Laud's charac- ter is remarkable, and does credit to the penetration of that monarch. When pressed by Buckingham and Bishop Williams to consent to Laud's advance- ment, "Laud," he said, "is a restless spirit, to be kept back from all places of authority, for he can- not see when matters are well, hut loves to toss and change, and bring things to a reformation floating in his own bram." Phillips tells us, in his Life of Lord- keeper Williams, that the king having been wearied upon the acccession of King Charles he turned upon his benefactor, and got him removed from all his preferments at court; upon which Bish- op Williams retired to his diocess,* and spent his time in reading and the good government of his diocess ; here he became popular, enter- taining the clergy at his table, and discoursing freely about affans of Church and State.! He spoke with some smartness against the new ceremonies, and said once, in conversation, " that the Puritans were the king's best sub- jects, and he was sure would carry all at last ; and that the king had told him that he would treat the Puritans more mildly lor the future." Laud, being informed of this expression, caused an information to be lodged against him in the Star Chamber for revealing the king's secrets; but the charge not being well supported, a new bill was exhibited againist him /or tampering with the king's witnesses, and, though there was very little ground for the charge, his lord- ship was suspended in the High Commission Court from all his offices and benefices ; he was fined £10,000 to the king, £1000 to Sir John Mounson, and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure. The bishop was accordingly sent from the bar to the Tow- er ;t all his rich goods and chattels, to an im- mense value, were plundered and sold to pay the fine ; his library seized, and all his papers and letters examined. Among his papers were found two or three letters, written to him by Mr. Osbaldeston about five years before, ia which were some dark and obscure expres- sions, which the jealous archbishop interpreted against himself and the Lord-treasurer Westoa. Upon the foot of these letters a new bill was exhibited against the bishop for divulging scaa dalous libels against the king's privy council- lors. His lordship replied that he did not re- member his having received the letters, and was sure he had never divulged them, because into a compliance, exclaimed passionately, as he quit- ted the apartment, " Then takehim toyou,but, onmy soul, you will repent it." — Jesse^s Court of the Stuarts, vol. ii., p. 394.— C. * The remarks of Bishop Warburton on the pro- ceedings against Dr. Williams are just, though severe, and, by their impartiality and spirit, do honour to hi« lordship. " This prosecution," says he, " must needs give every one a bad idea of Laud's heart and temper. You might resolve his high acts of power in the state into reverence and gratitude to his master; his tyranny in the Church, to his zeal for and love of what he called religion ; but the outrageous prose- cution of these two men can be resolved into nothins but envi/ and revenge ; and actions like these they were which occasioned all that bitter, but, indeed, just exclamation against the bishops in the speeches of Lord Falkland and Lord Digby." — Ed. t Rushworth, p. 417. i Here he was kept in close imprisonment about four years. During his confinement, in order to de- prive him of his bishopric, he was examined upon a book of articles of twenty-four sheets. Among which were s\ich frivolous charges as these, viz., that he had called a book, entitled "A Coal from the .\llar,'' a pamphlet ; that he had said that all tiesh in Frng- land had corrupted their ways ; that he had wicked ly jested on St. Martin's hood. What must be thought of the temper of those who could think ot depriving a bishop of his see on such grounds ! The. bishop was, however, so wary in his answers, that they could take no advantage against him.— Fuller'$ Church History, b. xi., p. 157.— Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 329- they were still among his private papers ; but, notwithstanding all he could say, he was con- demned in a fine of £8000, £5000 to the king and £3000 to the archbishop, for the nonpay- ment of which he was kept close prisoner in the Tower till the meeting of the Long Parlia- menl. The Rev. Mr. Osbaldeston was charged with plotting with the Bishop of Lincoln to divulge false news, and to breed a difference between the Lord-treasurer Weston and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as long ago as the year 1634.* The information was grounded upon the two letters already mentioned, in which he reports a mis- understanding between the great leviathan and the little urchin. And though the counsel for the defendant absolutely denied any reference to the archbishop, and named the persons meant in the letter, yet " the court fined him £5000 to the king and £5000 to the archbishop, to be deprived of all his spiritual dignities and promo- tions, to be imprisoned during the king's pleas- ure, and to stand in the pillory in the dean's yard before his own school, and have his ears nailed to it." Mr. Osbaldeston being among the crowd in the court when this sentence was pronounced, immediately went home to his study at West- minster School, and, having burned some pa- pers, absconded, leaving a note upon his desk with these words : " If the archbishop inquire after me, tell him I am gone beyond Canterbu- ry." The messengers were soon at his house, and finding this note, sent immediately to the seaports to apprehend him ; but he lay hid in a private house in Drury Lane till the search was over, and then concealed himself till the meet- ing of the Long Parliament ; however, all his goods and chattels were seized and confisca- ted. This Mr. Osbaldeston was M.A. of Christ Church College, Oxford, and Prebendary of Westminster ; he was an admirable master, and had eighty doctors in the two universities that had been his scholars before the year 1640 ;+ he was afterward restored by the Long Parliament ; but when he apprehended they went beyond the bounds of their duty and alle- giance, he laid down his school and favoured the royal cause. Mr. Lilburne, afterward a colonel in the ar- my, for refusing to take an oath to answer all interrogatories concerning his importing and publishing seditious libels, was fined £500, and to be whipped through the streets from the Fleet to the pillory before Westminster Hall gate, April 8, 1638. While he was in the pillo- ry he uttered many bold and passionate speeches against the tyranny of the bishops ; whereupon the Court of Star Chamber, then sitting, order- ed him to be gagged, which was done accord- ingly, and that, when he was carried back to prison, he should be laid alone, with irons on his hands and legs, in the wards of the Fleet, where the basest of the prisoners used to be put, and that no person should be admitted to see him. Here he continued, in a most forlorn and mis- erable condition, till the meeting of the Long Parliament. In the midst of all these dangers the Puritan clergy spoke freely agamst their oppressors. J ' * Rushvvorth, vol, ii., part ii., p. 803-817. t Athenae Oxon., vol. i., p. 833. i Wood's Athenae Oxon., vol. ii., p. 235. Vol. I.— T t Dr. Cornelius Burges, in a Latin sermon before- the clergy of London, preached against the se- verities of the bishops, and, refusing to give his diocesan a copy of his sermon, was put into the High Commission. Mr. M^harton, of Ess^x, preached with the same freedom at Chelmsford, for which, it is said, he made his submission. Several pamphlets were dispersed against the proceedings of the ecclesiastical courts, which the Bishop of London declared he had reason to believe were written or countenanced by the clergy of his own diocess. Many private gen- tlemen in Suffolk mamtained lecturers at their own expense, without consulting the bishop, who complained that they were factious, and did not govern themselves according to the canons ; but, says his lordship [Wren], " What shall I do with such scholars, some in orders and others not, which gentlemen of figure en- tertain in their houses under pretence of teach- ing their children 1 and with those beneficed di- vines who take shelter in the houses of the rich laity, and do not live upon their cures'!"* Here was the Puritans' last retreat ; those who were not willing to go abroad found entertain- ment in gentlemen's families, and from thence annoyed the enemy with their pamphlets. Even the populace, who were not capable of writing, expressed their resentments against the arch- bishop by dispersing libels about the town, in which they threatened his destruction. His grace has entered some of them in his diary. "Wednesday, August 23. My lord-mayor sent me a libel found by the watch at the south gate of St. Paul's, that the devil had left that house to me. " Aug. 25. Another libel was brought me by an officer of the High Commission, fastened to the north gate of St. Paul's, that the govern- ment of the Church of England is a candle in a snuff, going out in a stench. "The same night the lord-mayor sent me another libel, hanged upon the standard in Cheapside, which was my speech in the Star Chamber set in the pillory. " A few days after, another short libel was sent me in verse." Yet none of these things abated his zeal or relaxed his rigour against those who censured his arbitrary proceedings. It was impossible to debate things fairly in public, because the press was absolutely at his grace's disposal, according to a new decree of the Star Chamber, made this summer, which ordains that "no book be printed unless it be first licensed, with all its titles, epistles, and prefaces, by the archbishop, or Bishop of Lon- don for the time being, or by their appointment ; and within the limits of the university, by the chancellor or vice-chancellor, on pain of the printer's being disabled from his profession for the future, and to suffer such other punishment as the High Commission shall think fit. That before any books imported from abroad be sold, a catalogue of them shall be delivered to the archbishop, or Bishop of London, to be perused by themselves or their chaplains. And if there be any schismatical or offensive books, they shall be delivered up to the bishop, or to the High Commission, that the offenders may be punished. It was farther ordained that no per- * Rushworth, p. 467. ~~ 330 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. son shall print beyond sea any English book or books whereof the greatest part is English, whether formerly printed or not ; nor shall any book be reprinted, though formerly licensed, without a new license. And, finally, if any person that is not an allowed printer shall set up a printing-press, he shall be set in the pillo- ry, and be whipped through the streets of Lon- don." These terrible proceedings, instead of serving the interests of the Church or State, awakened the resentments of all ranks and professions of men against those in power : the laity were as uneasy as the clergy, many of whom sold their effects, and removed with their families and trades into Holland or New-England. This alarmed the king and council, who issued out a proclamation, April 30th, 1637, to the following purpose :* " The king being informed that great numbers of his subjects were yearly transport- ed into New-England, with their families and whole estates, that they might be out of the reach of ecclesiastical authority, his majesty therefore commands that his officers of the sev- eral ports should suffer none to pass without license from the commissioners of the planta- tions, and a testimonial from their minister of their conformity to the orders and discipline of the Church." And to bar the ministers, the following order of council was published : "Whereas it is observed that such ministers who are not conformable to the discipline and ceremonies of the Church do frequently trans- port themselves to the plantations, where they take liberty to nourish their factious and schis- matical humours, to the hinderance of the good conformity and unity of the Church, we there- fore expressly command you, in his majesty's name, to sufTer no clergyman to transport him- self without a testimonial from the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London. "+ This was a degree of severity hardly to be paralleled in the Christian world. When the edict of Nantes was revoked, the French king allowed his Protestant subjects a convenient time to dispose of their effects and depart the kingdom ; but our Protestant archbishop will neither let the Puritans live peaceably at home, nor take sanctuary in foreign countries ; a conduct hardly consistent with the laws of humanity, much less with the character of a C/iristian iishop ; but while his grace was running things to these extremities, the people (as has been observed) took a general disgust, and almost all England became Puritan. The bishops and courtiers being not insensi- ble of the number and weight of their enemies among the more resolved Protestants, deter- mined to balance their power by joining the pa- pists ; for which purpose the differences be- tween the two Churches were said to be tri- fling, and the peculiar doctrines of popery printed and preached up as proper to be received by the Church of England. Bishop Montague, speak- ing of the points of faith and morality, affirmed that none of these are controverted between us, but that ''the points in dispute were of a lesser nature, of which a man might be ignorant without any danger of salvation. "t Francis- ens de Clara, an eminent Franciscan friar, pub- lished a book, wherein be endeavoured to a&- commodate the articles of the Church of Eng- land to the sense of the Church of Rome, so that both parties might subscribe them. The book was dedicated to the king, and the friar admitted to an acquaintance with the arch- bishop.* Great stress was laid upon the uninterrupted succession of the epi.scbpal character through the Church of Rome ; for " miserable were we," says Dr. Pocklington, " if he that now sits Arch- bishop of Canterbury could not derive his suc- cession from St. Austin, St. Austin from St. Gregory, and St. Gregory from St. Peter." Dr. Heylin, in his moderate answer to Mr. Burton, has these words : " That my Lord of Canter- bury that now is, is lineally descended from St. Peter in a most fair and constant tenour of suc- cession, you shall easily find if you consult the learned labours of Mason, ' De Ministerio An- glicano.' " Bishop Montague published a treatise, " Of the Invocation of Saints," in which he says that " departed saints have not only a memory, but a more peculiar charge of their friends ; and that some saints have a peculiar patronage, custody, protection, and power, as angels have also, over certain persons and countries by spe- cial deputation ; and that it is not impiety so to believe."! Dr. Cosins says, in one of his ser- mons, that " when our Reformers took away the mass, they marred all religion ; but that the mass was not taken aioay, inasmuch as the real pres- ence of Christ remained still, otherwise it were not a reformed, but a deformed religion.^' And in order to persuade a papist to come to church, he told him that the body of Christ was suhslan- tially and realh/ in the sacramcnt-X This divine printed a collection of private devotions, in im- itation of the Roman Horary. The frontispiece had three capital letters, J. H. S. ; upon these there was a cross encircled with the sun, sup- ported by two angels, with two devout women praying towards it. The book contains the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer divided into seven petitions, the precepts of charity, the sev- en sacraments, the three theological virtues, the eight beatitudes, the seven deadly sins, with forms of prayer for the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, and for the vespers and com- pline, formerly called the canonical hours ; then * Rusbworth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 409. f lb., p. 410. t lb., part i., p. 214. * Grey quotes a passage from the trial of Laud, by which it appears that he denied having given any encouragement to the publication of this book, and had absolutely prohibited its being printed in Eng- land ; that Clara was never with him till the book was ready for the press, nor afterward above twice or thrice at most, when he made great friends to ob- tain the archbishop's sanction to his printing another book, to prove that bishops are by Divine right ; and his request was again refused. For the archbishop replied, "that he did not like the way which the Church of Rome went in the case of episcopacy, would never consent to the printing of any such book here from the pen of a Romanist, and that the bishops of England were able to defend tlieir own cause without calling in the aid of the Church of Rome, and would in due time." — Ed. t Rvishwortb, vol. i., p. 214. % Collyer's Eccles. Hist., p. 742. This divine, of course, is in high esteem with the Oxford Tractari- ans. It is tolerably clear that our Puritan fathers took precisely the same views of truth as those now entertained by the opposers of Puseyism in 1843. — 0. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 331 followed the litany, with prayers for the sacra- ment, in time of sickness, and at the approach of death. This book was Ucenscd by the Bishop of London, and puhliciy sold when the books of the most resolved ProUslatils were suppressed. Mr. Adams, in a sermon at St. Mary's, in Cambridge, asserted the expedience of auricu- lar confession, saying it was as necessary to salvation as meat is to the body.* Others preached up the doctrine of penance, and of au- thoritative priestly absolution from sin. Some maintained the proper merit of good works, in opposition to the received doctrine of justifica- tion by faith alone. Others, that in the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper there was a full and proper sacrifice for sin. Some declared for images, crucifixes, and pictures in churches, for purgatory, and for preserving, reverencing, and even praying to, the relics of saints. The au- thor of the English Pope, printed 1643, says that Sparrow paved the way for auricular con- fession, Watts for penance, Heylin for altar worship, Montague for saint worship, and Laud for the mass. It was a very just observation of a Venitian gentleman, in his travels to England about this time,t " that the universities, bishops, and di- vines of England daily embraced Catholic doc- trines, though they professed ihcm not with open mouth : they held that the Church of Rome was a true church ; that the pope was superior to all bishops ; that to him it pertained to call general councils ; that it was lawful to pray for souls departed ; and that altars ought to be erected in all churches : in sum, they believed all that was taught by the Church of Rome, but not by the court of Rome. ^^ Remarkable are the words of Heylin to the same purpose :% " The greatest part of the controversy between us and the Church of Rome," says he, " not being in fundamentals, or in any essential points of the Christian religion, I cannot otherwise look upon it but as a most Christian and pious work to endeavour an agreement in the superstructure ; as to the lawfulness of it, I could never see any reason produced against it : against the impossi- bility of it, it has been objected that the Church of Rome will yield nothing ; if, therefore, there be an agreement, it must not be their meeting us, but our going to them ; but that all in the Church of Rome are not so stiff, appears from the testimony of the Archbishop of Spalato, who acknowledged that the articles of the Church of England were not heretical, and by the treatise of Franciscus de Clara.^ Now, if, * Rushworth, p. 137. Prynne, p. 195, &c. + May's Hist, of Pari., p. 25. i Fuller's Appeal, part iii., p. 63, 65. ^ His real name was Christopher Davenport. He was the son of an alderman of Coventry, and, with nis brother John, was sent to Merton College, in Oxford, in the year 1613. John became afterward a noted Puritan, and then an Independent. Christo- pher, by the invitation of some Romish priests living in or near Oxford, went to study at Douay in 1616. He afterward spent some time in the University of Salamanca, from whence he returned to Douay, and read first philosophy and then divinity there. At length he became a missionary into England, and a chaplain to Queen Henrietta Maria, under the name of Franciscus a Sancta Clara. Among many learned works of which he was the author, was '' An Expo- sition of the Thirty-nine Articles in the most favour- able Sense." "But," says Bishop Warburton, "it without prejudice to truth, the controversies might be composed, it is most probable that other Protestant churches would have sued to be included in the peace ; if not, the Church of England will lose nothing by it, as being hated by the Calvinists, and not loved by the Luther- ans." This was the ridiculous court scheme which Archbishop Laud used all his interest to accomplish ; and it is no impertinent story to our present purpose, because it is well attested, that a certain countess (whose husband's father the archbishop had married, and thereby brought himself into trouble) having turned papist, was asked by the archbishop the cause of her chan- ging, to whom she replied, it was because she always hated to go in a crowd. Being asked again the reason of that expression, she an- swered, that she perceived his grace and many others were making haste to Rome, and, there- fore, to prevent going in a press, she had gone before them.* It is certain the papists were in high reputa- tion at court; the kingcounted them his best sub- jects, and relaxed his penal laws, on pretence that hereby foreign Catholic princes might be induced to show favour to their subjects of the Reformed religion. Within the compass of four years, seventy-four letters of grace were signed by the king's own hand ; sixty -four priests were dismissed from the Gate-house, and twen-' ty-nine by warrant from the secretary of state, at the instance of the queen, the queen-mother, or some foreign ambassador. Protections were frequently granted, to put a stop to the proceed- ings of the court of justice against them.t I have before me a list of popish recusants, con- victed in the twenty-nine English counties of the southern division, from the first of King Charles to the sixteenth, which amounts to no less than eleven thousand nine hundred and seventyt (as the account was brought into the Long Parliament by Mr. John Pulford, employed in their prosecution by the king himself), all of whom were released and pardoned. And if their numbers were so great in the south, how must they abound in the northern and Welsh counties, where they are computed three to one ! Many of them were promoted to places of the highest honour and trust ; Sir Richard Weston was lord-high-treasurer, Sir Francis Winde- bank secretary of state, Lord Cottington was chancellor of the exchequer, and Mr. Porter of the bedchamber ; besides these, there were Lord Conway, Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir Toby Mathews, Mr. Montague, Jr., the Duchess of Montague, the Countess of Newport, and many others^ all papists, who were in high favcur,^ and had the king and queen's ear whensoever they pleased. The pope had a nuncio in Eng- pleased neither party." The Spanish Inquisition put it into the Index Expurgatorius; and it would have been condemned at Rome had not the king and Archbishop Laud pressed Penzani, the pope's agent at London, to stop the prosecution. He died the 31st of May, 1680. — Warbu7-ton's supplemental volume, p. 483 ; and Wood's Athena Oxon., vol. ii., p. 415, &c.— Ed. * Fuller's Appeal, p. 61. It was the daughter of WiUiam, earl of Devonshire. — Jesse's Court of the Stuarts, vol. ii., p. 385.— C. t Rushworth, vol. ii., part ii., p. 284. j Foxes and Firebrands, part hi., p. 75. \ Coliyer's Eccles. Hist., vol. ii., p. 780. 332 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. land, and the queen an agent at Rome ; Cardi- nal Barberini was made protector of tlie Eng- lisli nation, and a society was erected under the title of "The Congregation for Propagating the Faith."* Richard Smith, tutelar bishop of Chal- cedon, exercised episcopal jurisdiction over the English Catholics by commission from the pope ; he conferred orders, and appeared in Lincoln- shire with his mitre and crosier ;t Seignior Con or Cuna;us, tiie pope's legate, gained over sev- eral of the gentry, and attempted the king him- self by presents of little popish toys and pic- tures, with which his majesty was wonderfully delighted. t The papists had a common purse, r. Grey ; Barwick's Life, p. 32, note (t) ; and Fuller's History of Cambridge, p. 168.— Ed. t Rushworth, part iiiv, vol. i., p. 625. X Dr. Grey would impeach the truth of this detail, and says, that as Mr. Neal " quotes no authority for these particulars, I am willing to believe that they are not all of them true." As for the first particular, I can refer for Mr. Neal to Rapin, vol. u., p. 468, and the matter has been, within these few years, stated and discussed by Mrs. Macaulay, vol. ui., p. 377, 378, 8vo The fact was admitted by the Earl of New- castle himself, and he published a long declaration, partly to vindicate himself on this head, which is preserved in Rushworth, part iii., vol. u., p. 78, &c. Though I am not able to ascertain the authorities on which my author states the other particulars, a let- ter of intelligence of the affairs in Yorkshire, which the ParUament received, and which has been given to the public since Mr. Neal's history appeared, af- fords a general confirmation to his account. It rep- resents that the papists, after the king's proclama- tion for raising his standard, flocked from Ireland, Lancashire, and all parts of Yorkshire, to York ; that there were great rejoicings among them, and a great forwardness to assist the service shown. The cii cumstances represented by our author were not un natural or improbable consequences of such a con- fluence and exultation of the papists. And it appears from this letter that the cavaliers in general were guilty of tumults, outrages, and depradation.— Par- tiamciUary History, vol. xi., p. 335, 381, 405, qicoted by Mrs. Macaulay, vol. iii., f. 343, 344, 8vo.— Ed. 420 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. majesty that, since the war was begun, their arms might be redelivered, that they might be in a capacity to defend his majesty's royal per- son and their own families. To which his maj- esty consented in the following words : " — The laws for disarming recusants being to prevent dangers in a time of peace, but not intended to bar you from the use of arms in time of war for your own safety, or the defence of our person — Our wiU and command, there- fore, is, and we charge and require you upon your allegiance, that with all possible speed you provide sufficient arms for yourselves, your servants, and your tenants, which we authorize and require you to keep and use for the defence of us, yourselves, and your country, against all forces raised against us, under colour of any order or ordinance of Parliament, and we shall use our utmost power to protect you and yours against all injuries and violence.* " Given under our signet at Chester, Septem- ber 27, in the eighteenth year of our reign." Agreeably to this, Mr. George Tempest, a priest, writes to his brother in the king's army, " Our priests at Lancaster are at liberty ; Cath- olic commanders are admitted, and all well enough that way ; God Almighty, as I hope, will better prosper the cause." And another adds, "that there is no prosecution of priest or papist in Northumberland." When the Parliament objected this to his majesty, and named the very officers, he was highly displeased, and in his answer makes use of these solemn expressions : " For that contin- ued dishonest accusation of our inclination to the papists, which the authors of it in their ovi^n consciences know to be most unjust and groundless, we can say no more, and we can do no more, to the satisfaction of the world. — That any priests or Jesuits imprisoned have been released by us out of the jail at Lancaster, or any other jail, is as false as the father of lies can invent. Neither are the persons named in that declaration, to whom commissions are supposed to be granted for places of command in this war, so much as known to us ; nor have they any command, or to our knowledge are present in our army. And it is strange that our oaths and protestations before Almighty God, for the maintenance of the Protestant religion, should be so slighted. — We desire to have our protestations believed by the evidence of our actions."! Surely this solemn appeal to Almighty God was ambiguous and evasive ! or else we must conclude that his majesty was very little acquainted with what was done in his name, and by his commission. It was only five days after this that the mask was thrown off, for his majesty confesses, in his declaration of October 27, that the mahce and fury of his enemies had reduced him to the necessity of accepting the service and affection of any of his good subjects, whatsoever their religion was ; that he did know of some few papists whose eminent abilities in command and conduct had moved him to employ them in his service ; but he assures his good subjects that he would always use his endeavours to suppress their religion, by executing the laws already in force against papists, and in concur- * Rushwortb, vol. ii., part iii., p. 50. t Ibid., p. 31. ring in any other remedies which his two houses should think proper. As the king was reduced to the necessity of accepting the service and affection of the pa- pists, so, on the other hand, the Parliament took all imaginable care to cultivate a good correspondence with the Scots, and to secure that nation in their interests. We have re- membered that the Scots commissioners at London offered their mediation in the begin- ning of the year, which the Parliament accept- ed ; but the king, from his extreme hatred of the Presbyterian discipline, refused, command- ing them to be content with their own settle- ment, and not to meddle in the affairs of an- other nation. But the breach between the king and his two houses growing wider, the council of Scotland sent their chancellor, in the month of May, to renew their offers of a mediation between the two parties, which the king reject- ed as before ;* and the rather, because they still insisted upon the abolishing of episcopacy, which his majesty believed to be of Divine in- stitution, and upon a uniformityof Presbyte- rian government in the two nations ; whereas the majority of both houses, being of Erastian principles, were under no difficulties about a change of discipline, apprehending that the civil magistrate might set up what form of government was most conducive to the good of the state. The Parliament, therefore, treat- ed the chancellor with great respect, and not only accepted the mediation, but wrote to the General Assembly, which was to meet in July, acquainting them with the crisis of their affairs, and desiring their advice and assistance in bringing about such a reformation as was de- sired. To which the Assembly returned an answer, dated August 3, 1642, to the following purpose. "After giving God thanks for the Parlia- ment's desire of a reformation of religion, and expressing their grief that it moves so slowly, they observe, that their commissioners, far from arrogance and presumption, had, with great re- spect and reverence, expressed their desires for unity of religion, that there might be one con- fession of faith, one directory of worship, one public catechism, and one form of church gov- ernment.! The Assembly," say they, " now en- ter upon the labours of the commissioners, being encouraged by the zeal of former times, when their predecessors sent a letter into England against the surplice, tippet, and corner-cap, in the year 1566, and again in the years L'iSa and 1589. They are now farther encouraged by the king's late answer to their commissioners in their treaty for Ireland, wherein his majesty approves of the affection of his subjects of Scotland, in their desires of conformity of church government ; by his majesty's late prac- tice while he was in Scotland, in resorting to their worship, and establishing it by act of Par- liament. They are also encouraged by a letter sent from many reverend brethren of the Church of England, expressing their prayers and en- deavours against everything that shall be prej- udicial to the establishment of the kingdom of Christ. They therefore advise to begin with a uniformity of church government ; for what * Duke of Hamilton's Memoirs, book iii., p. 194. t Rushworth, vol. ii., part iii., p. 387. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 421 hope can there be," say they, " of one confession of faith, one form of worship and catechism, till prelacy be plucked up root and branch, as a plant which God had not planted! Indeed, the Reformed kirks hold their form of govern- ment by presbyters to be jure divino, and per- petual, but prelacy is almost universally held by the prelates themselves to be a human ordi- nance, and may, therefore, be altered or abol- ished, in cases of necessity, without wronging any man's conscience ; for the accomplishing of which they promise their best assistance." In the Parliament's answer to this letter, " they acknowlege the friendship of their breth- ren in Scotland, and express their desires of unity in religion, that in all his majesty's domin- ions there might be but one confession of faith and form of church government ;* and though this is hardly to be expected punctually and ex- actly, yet they hope, since they are guided by the same spirit, they shall be so directed as to cast out everything that is offensive to God, and so far agree with the Scots, and other Re- formed churches, in the substantials of doc- trine, worship, and discipline, that there may be a free communion in all holy exercises and duties of public worship, for the attaining whereof they intend an assembly of godly and learned divines, as soon as they can obtain the royal assent. We have entered into a serious consideration," say they, " what good we have received from the government of bishops, and do perceive it has been the occasion of many in- tolerable burdens and grievances, by their usurp- ing a pre-eminence and power not given them by the Word of God, &c. We find it has also been pernicious to our civil government, inso- much as the bishops have ever been forward to fill the minds of our princes with notions of ar- bitrary power over the lives and liberties of the subject, by their counsels and in their sermons. Upon which accounts, and many others, we do declare, that this government, by archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and other ec- clesiastical officers depending upon the hierar- chy, is evil, and justly offensive and burden- some to the kingdom, a great impediment to reformation, and very prejudicial to the civil government, and that we are resolved the same shall be taken away. And we desire our breth- ren of Scotland to concur with us in petitioning his majesty that we may have an assembly of divines ; and to send some of their own minis- ters to the said assembly, in order to obtain uniformity in church government, that so a more easy passage may be made for settling one con- fession of faith, and directory of public worship, for the three kingdoms." The king, being alarmed with the harmony between the two kingdoms, sent a warm re- monstrance to the Council of Scotland, August 26, the very week he set up his standard at Not- tingham, in which he declares, " That he desired uniformity as much as they, m such a way as he in his conscience thought most serviceable to the true Protestant religion ; but that his two houses of Parliament had nev- er made any proposition to him since their meeting concerning uniformity of church gov- ernment ; so far," says his majesty, " are they Rushworth, vol. ii., part iii., p. 390. from desiring such a thing, that we are confi- dent the most considerable persons, and those who make the fairest pretensions to you of that kind, will not sooner embrace a piesbyterial than you an episcopal.* And truly it seems, notwithstanding whatsoever profession they have made to the contrary, that nothing has been less in their minds than settling the true religion, and reforming such abuses in the Church as possibly may have crept in contrary to the established laws of the land, to which we have been so far from being averse, that we have pressed them to it. And whenever any proposition shall be made to us by them, which we shall conceive may advance the unity of the Protestant religion, according to the Word of God, or establish church government according to the known laws of the kingdom, we shall let the world see that nothing can be more agree- able to us than the advancing so good a work." Here his majesty explains the uniformity he all along intended, and very justly observes, that the Parliament no more believed the Divine institution of presbytery than others did of dio- cesan prelacy ; for though they were content, in order to secure the assistance of the Scots nation, to vote away the power of archbishops and bishops, yet when they had conquered the king, and had nothing to fear from their neigh- bours, they could not be prevailed with to es- tablish the Scots presbytery without reserving the power of the keys to themselves. Lord Clarendon very justly observes, "that the Parliament were sensible they could not carry on the war but by the help of the Scots, which they were not to expect without an al- teration of the government of the Church, to which that nation was violently inclined : but that very much the major part of the members that continued in the Parliament-house were cordially affected to the established government, at least not affected to any other."! But then, to induce them to consent to such an alteration, it was said the Scots would not take up arms without it ; so that they must lose all, and let the king return as a conqueror, or submit to the change. If it should be said this would make a peace with the king impracticable, whose af- fection to the hierarchy all men knew, it was answered, that it was usual in treaties to ask more than was expected to be granted ; and, it might be, that their departing from their propo- sition concerning the Church might prevail with the king to give them the militia. Upon these motives the bill to abolish episcopacy was brought into the House, and passed the Com- mons September 1, and on the 10th of the same month it passed the Lords. The noble histo- rian says that marvellous art and industry were used to obtain it ; that the majority of the Commons was really against it, and that it was very hardly submitted to by the House of Peers. But the writer of the Parliamentary Chronicle, who was then at London, says, the bill passed nulla contradicente, not a negative vote being heard among them all, and that there were bon- fires and ringing of bells for joy all over the city.t The bill was entitled, " An Act for the utter * Duke of Hamilton's Memoirs, b. iv., p. 197. t Clarendon, vol. h., p. 117. X ParUamentary Chronicle, p. 150. 422 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. abolishing and taking away of all archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries," &c. It ordains, that " after the fifth of November, 1643, there shall be no archbishop, bishop, chan- cellor, or commissary of any archbishop or bishop, nor any dean, sub-dean, dean and chap- ter, archdeacon, nor any chancellor, chanter, treasurer, sub-treasurer, succentor, or sacrist, of any cathedral or collegiate church, nor any prebendary, canon, canon-residentiary, petty canon, vicar choral, chorister, old vicars or new vicars, of or within any cathedral or collegiate churches in England or Wales. — That their names, titles, jurisdictions, offices, and func- tions, and the having or using any jurisdiction or power, by reason or colour of any such names and titles, shall cease, determine, and become absolutely void. " That all the manors, lordships, castles, messuages, lands, tenements, rents, and all other possessions and hereditaments whatso- ever, belonging to any archbishopric or bishop- ric, shaU be in the real and actual possession and seisin of the king's majesty, his heirs and successors, to hold and enjoy in as ample a manner as they were held by any archbishop or bishop within two years last past, except im- propriations, parsonages, appropriate tithes, ob- lations, obventions, pensions, portions of tithes, parsonages, vicarages> churches, chapels, ad- vowsons, nominations, collations, rights of pat- ronage and presentation. " That all impropriations, parsonages, titlies. &c., and all otlier hereditaments and posses- sions whatsoever, belonging to any dean, sub- dean and chapter, archdeacon, or any of their officers, be put into the hands of trustees, to pay to all and every archbishop, bishop, dean, sub- dean, archdeacon, and all other officers belong- ing to collegiate and cathedral churches, such yearly stipends and pensions as shall be appoint- ed by Parliament. And they shall dispose of all the aforesaid manors, lands, tithes, appropri- ations, advowsons, &c., for a competent main- tenance for the support of such a number of preaching ministers in every cathedral and col- legiate church as shall be appointed by Parlia- ment ; and for the maintenance of preaching ministers in other places of the country where such maintenance is wanting ; and for such other good uses, to the advancement of religion, piety, and learning, as shall be directed by Par- liament. " Provided, that all revenues and rents as have been, and now ought to be, paid for the maintenance of grammar-schools or scholars, or for the repairing any church, chapel, highway, causeway, bridges, schoolhouse, almshouse, or other charitable uses, payable by any of the per- sons whose offices are taken away by this act, shall be continued. Provided, also, that this act shall not extend to any college, church, corpo- ration, foundation, or house of learning in either of the universities." It may seem strange that the Parliament should abolish the present establishment before they had agreed on another, but the Scots would not decl-are for them till they had done it. Had the two houses been inclined to presbytery (as some have maintained), it would have been easy to have adopted the Scots model at once ; but as the bill for extirpating episcopacy was not to take place tih above a year forward, it is apparent they were willing it should not take place at all, if in that time they could come to an accommodation with the king ; and if the breach should then remain, they proposed to consult with an assembly of divines what form to erect in its stead. Thus the old English hie- rarchy lay prostrate for about eighteen years, although never legally abolished for vi^ant of the royal assent ; and therefore, at the restoration of King Charles II., it took place again, without any new law to restore it ; which the Presby- terians, who were then in the saddle, not under- standing, did not provide against as they might. While the king and Parliament were thus strengthening themselves, and calling in sever- ally all the succours they could get, the scene of the war began to open ; his majesty travelled with a large retinue into several of the northern and western counties, summoning the people together, and in set speeches endeavouring to possess them of the justice of his cause, prom- ising, upon the word of a king, that for the fu- ture he would govern by law. Upon this assu- rance, about forty lords, and several members who had deserted* the House of Commons, sign- ed an engagement to defend his majesty's per- son and prerogative, to support the Protestant religion established by law, and not to submit to any ordinance of Parliament concerning the militia that had not the royal assent; Great numbers listed in his majesty's service, whereby an army was formed, which marched a second time to the siege of Hull. * Bishop Warburton censures Mr. Neal for using the word "deserted," " which," he says, "is a party word, and implies betraying their trust." His lord- ship owns that the conduct of the members, who left the House and retired to the king, was so called by the Parliament ; but an historian's 'adopting, in this case, the term which impeaches their fidelity, he considers " taking for granted the thing in dispute.'' But, with his lordship's leave, his stricture confounds the province of the liistorian with that of the mere chronologist. The former does not merely detail events, but investigates their causes, and represents tlieir connexion and influence. It is not easy to say how he can do this, without forming and expressing a decided opinion on them. That opinion does not bind the reader, nor is the impartiality of the histo- rian violated, if facts are fairly and fully stated. In the case before us, it may be farther urged, that the word "deserted" not only conveyed Mr. Neal's idea of the conduct of the members who left the Parha- ment, but truly represented it. They forsook the seats to which they were elected ; they left the post which was assigned to them ; and they withdrew from the stage of debate and action, to which the king's writ had called, and to which the voice of their constituents had sent them. They were representatives, chosen to act in conjunction with tho other representatives : instead of proceeding on this principle, they formed a separate junto and fac- tion. The first duty of a representative is to fulfil the trust reposed hi him. The word "deserted," says his lordship, is a party word : grant it. Yet the use of it was not inconsistent with the impartiality of the historian : for though it should not give the most favourable idea of the conduct of these mem- bers, it conveys the judgment which the Parliament had of it ; and of the rectitude of this judgment the reader is still left to form his own sentiments. The matter at the time was considered in the most seri- ous light, and greatly alarmed and distressed all who loved the peace of the nation.— See May's Parlia mentary History, p. 58, &c. — Ed. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 423 A week after the king was set down before this fortress, and not before [July 12] the two houses, after long debates, came to this resolu- tion, that an army should be raised for the de- fence of the king and Parliament, that the Earl of Essex should be captain-general, and the Earl of Bedford general of the horse, who were empowered to resist and oppose with force all such whom they should find in arms, putting in execution the kmg's commission of array. The reasons of this resolution arising from the king's extraordinary preparations for war, were pub- lished at the same time ; and in their declara- tion of August 4, they say, " that they would have yielded up everything to the king, could they have been assured that by disarming them- selves they should not have been left naked, while the military sword was in the hands of those evil counsellors who, they had reason to fear, had vowed the destruction of the two hous- es, and, through their sides, of the Protestant religion ; but, being well acquainted with their designs, they apprehend that their duty to God and their country obliges them to hazard every- thing for the maintenance of the true religion, the king's person, honour, and estate, and the hberties of England." On the 9th of August the king proclaimed the Earl of Essex and all his adherents traitors, unless they laid down their arms within six days ; and in another manifesto declared both houses of Parliament guilty of high treason, and forbid all his subjects to yield obedience to them. The Parliament, also, on their part, proclaimed all who adhered to the king in this cause traitors against the Parliament and the kingdom.* August 12, the ling by proclamation commanded all his sub- jects on the north of Trent, and within twenty miles south of it, to appear in arms for the sup- pressing the rebels that were marching against him ; and about the same time issued out an- other proclamation, requiring all men who could bear arms to repair to him at Nottingham, where he intended to set up his standard on Monday, August 22. In the mean time, his majesty gave out new commissions to augment his forces, and marching through Lincoln, took away the arms of the train-bands for the use of his troops. At length, being arrived at the appointed place, he caused his standard to be erected in the open field, on the outside of the castle wall, at Not- tingham, but very few came to attend it ; and the weather proving stormy and tempestuous, it ■was blown down the same evening, and could not be fixed again in two days. Three weeks after this [September 9], the Earl of Essex, the Parliament's general, left London, to put him- self at the head of their army of fifteen thousand men at St. Alban's. The king, with an army of equal strength, marched from Nottingham to Shrewsbury, and having refreshed his forces there for some time, broke up October 12, in or- der to march directly for London ; but the Earl of Essex putting himself in the way, both armies engaged at Edgehill, near Keinton, in "Warwickshire, on Sunday, October 23, the very same day twelvemonth after the breaking out of the Irish massacre ; the battle continued from •Uiyee in the afternoon till night, with almost equal advantage, the number of slain on both ades being about four thousand. Thus the * Rapin, vol. li., p. 457, foho edition. sword was drawn which was drenched in the blood of the inhabitants of this island for sever- al years, to the loss of as many Protestant lives as perished by the insurrection and massacre of Ireland. CHAPTER XII. THE ST.^TE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. THE RELIGIOUS CHAR.iOTER OF BOTH PARTIES, WITH A SUMMARY OF THE GROUNDS OF THE CIVIL WAR. We have already seen the unsettled state of religion upon the king's progress into Scotland, with the complaints of the Royalists for want of decency and uniformity. The hierarchy had for some time been a dead weight, the springs that moved it being stopped by the imprison- ment of the bishops and the check that was given to the spiritual courts ; but now the whole fabric was taken down after a year, though when that was expired no other discipline was erected in its room ; nor was the name, style, and dignity of archbishops and bishops taken away by ordinance of Parliament till Septem- ber 5, 1646, that is, till the war was over, and the king a prisoner. In this interval there was properly no established form of govern- ment, the clergy being permitted to read more or less of the liturgy as they pleased,* and to govern their parishes according to their dis- cretion. The vestments were left indifferent, some wearing them, and others, in imitation of the foreign Protestants, making use of a cloak. February 2, 1642-3, the Commons ordered that the statute of the University of Canobridge, which imposes the use of the surplice upon all students and graduates, should not be pressed, as being against the law and liberty of the sub- ject ; and three days after, they made the same order for the schools of Westminster, Eton, and Winchester. Bishop Kennet says that tithes were denied to those who read common prayer ; and it is as true, that they were with- held from those that did not read it ; for many, taking advantage of the confusion of the times, eased themselves of a burden for which some few pleaded conscience, and others the uncer- tain title of those that claimed them. Though the Parliament and Puritan clergy were averse to cathedral- worship, that is, to a variety of musical instruments, choristers, sing- ing of prayers, anthems, &c., as unsuitable to the solemnity and simplicity of Divine service, yet was it not prohibited ; and though the rev- enues of prebendaries and deans, &c., had been voted useless, and more fit to be applied to the maintenance of preaching ministers, yet the stipends of those who did not take part with the king were not sequestered till the latter end of the year 1645, when it was ordained, " that the deans and prebendaries of Westmin- ster who absented themselves, or were delin- * Here, as Dr. Grey observes, is an inaccuracy. The use of the liturgy was not permitted during the whole of this interval, as appears by Mr. Neal's own account, vol. iii. ; for it was prohibited, and the di- rectory established in its room, previously to the abolition of the episcopal titles and dignity, by ordi- nances of Parliament on the 3d of January, 1644-5, and 23d of August, 1645,— Ed. 424 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. quents, or had not taken tlie covenant, should be suspended from their several offices and places, except Mr. Osbaldcston ;" but the nanaes, titles, and offices of deans and chapters were not abolished till after the king's death, in the year 1649, the Parliament proceeding with some caution as long as there was any pros- pect of an accommodation with the king. In- deed, the beauty of the cathedrals was in some measure defaced about tiiis time, by the ordi- nance for the removing crucifixes, images, pic- tures, and other monuments of superstition, out of churches. Many fine paintings in the win- dows and on the walls were broken and de- stroyed, without a decent repair of the damage. In Lambeth Chapel the organ was taken down [November 25]. The following summer, the paintings, pictures, superstitious ornaments, and images were defaced or removed out of the Cathedrals of Canterbury, Rochester, Chi- chester, Winchester, Worcester, Lincoln, Litch- field, Salisbury, Gloucester, St. Paul's in Lon- don, the Collegiate Church of Westminster, &c. " But," says my author, " I do not find that they then seized the revenues and estates of the cathedrals, but contented themselves with plundering and imprisoning some of the principal members, and dispersing many of the rest ; and several of those places coming after- ward into his majesty's hands, the service did not wholly cease, nor were the doors of those stately fabrics finally closed at that time." Though the discipline of the Church was at an end, there was, nevertheless, an uncommon spirit of devotion among the people in the Par- liament quarters ; the Lord's Day was observed with remarkable strictness, the churches being crowded with numerous and attentive hearers three or four times in the day ; the officers of the peace patrolled the streets and shut up all public-houses ; there was no travelling on the road, or walking in the fields, except in cases of absolute necessity. Religious exercises were set up in private families, as reading the Scrip- tures, family prayer, repeating sermons, and singing of psalms, which was so universal that you might walk through the city of London on the evening of the Lord's Day without seeing an idle person, or hearing anything but the voice of prayer or praise from churches and private houses. As is usual in times of public calamity, so at the breaking out of the civil war, all public di- versions and recreations were laid aside. By an ordinance of September 2, 1642, it was de- clared, that " whereas public sports do not agree with public calamities, nor public stage-plays with the seasons of humiliation, this being an exercise of sad and pious solemnity, the other being spectacles of pleasure too commonly ex- pressing lascivious mirth and levity, it is there- fore ordained that, while these sad causes and set times of humiliation continue, public stage-plays shall cease and be forborne ; in- stead of which are recommended to the people of this land the profitable duties of repentance, and making their peace with God."* * Rushworlh, vol. ii., part iii., p. 1. It is worthy oi notice how decorous and truly respectable are all the public acts of the Parliament, and how little they appear like the productions of enthusiasts or fanat- ics.— C. The set times of humiliation mentioned in the ordinance refers to the monthly fast ap- pointed by the king at the request of the Par- liament [January 8, 1641], on account of the Irish insurrection and massacre, to be observed every last Wednesday in the month as long as the calamities of that nation should require it. But when the king set up his standard at Not- tingham, the two houses, apprehending that England was now to be the seat of war, pub- lished an ordinance for the more strict obser- vation of this fast, in order to implore a Divine blessing upon the consultations of Parliament, and to deprecate the calamities that threatened this nation. All preachers were enjoined to give notice of it from the pulpit the preceding Lord's Day, and to exhort their hearers to a solemn and religious observation of the whole day, by a devout attendance on the service of God in some church or chapel, by abstinence, and by refraining from worldly business and diversions : all public-houses are likewise for- bid to sell any sorts of liquors (except in cases of necessity) till the public exercises and reli- gious duties of the day were ended ; which continued with little or no intermission from nine in the morning till four in the afternoon, during which time the people were at their de- votions, and the ministers engaged in one part or other of Divine worship. But, besides the monthly fast, the opening of the war gave rise to another exercise of prayer and exhortation to repentance for an hour every morning in the week. Most of the citi- zens of London having some near relation or friend in the army of the Earl of Essex, so many bills were sent up to the pulpit every Lord's Day for their preservation, that the mio- ister had neither time to read them nor to rec- ommend their cases to God in prayer ; it was therefore agreed, by some London divines, to separate an hour for this purpose every mora- ing, one half to be spent in prayer, and the other in a suitable exhortation to the people. The Reverend Mr. Case, minister of St. Marj Magdalen, Milk-street, began it in his churcfe at seven in the morning, and when it had con- tinued there a month, it was removed by turoa to other churches at a distance, for the accom- modation of the several parts of the city, and was called the morning exercise. The service was performed by divers ministers, and earnest intercessions were made, in the presence of a numerous and crowded audience, for the wel- fare of the public as well as particular cases. When the heat of the war was over it became a casuistical lecture, and was carried on by the most learned and able divines till the res- toration of King Charles II. Their sermons were afterward published in several volun^es quarto, under the title of the Morning Exer- cises,* each sermon being the resolution of some practical case of conscience. This lec- * These Morning Exercises are now to be procured but rarely ; they consist of seven small quarto vol- 'imes, including a supplemental one, and are in great demand. They are regarded as furnishing one of the best compends of theology in the English lan- guage. No library of any pretensions should be without this admirable work ; and although it is very expensive, it will repay the owner. The unri- valled volume on Popery is about to be republished at Boston. — C. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 425 ture, though in a different form, is continued among the Protestant Dissenters to this day. Some time after, another morning lecture was set up in the abbey-church of Westminster, be- tween the hours of six and eight, for the bene- fit of that part of the town, and especially of the members of Parliament ; it was carried on by Dr. Staunton, Mr. Nye, Marshal, Palmer, Herle, Whitaker, and Hill, all members of the Assembly of Divines. In short, there were lectures and sermons every day in the week in one church or another, which were well at- tended, and with great appearance of zeal and affection. Men were not backward to rise be- fore day, and go to places of worship at a great distance, for the benefit of hearing the Word of God. Such was the devotion of the city of Lon- don and parts adjacent in these dangerous times ! Nor was the reformation of manners less re- markable ; the laws against vice and profane- ness were so strict, and so rigorously put in execution, that wickedness was forced to hide itself in corners. There were no gaming- houses, or houses of pleasure ; no profane swearing, drunkenness, or any kind of debauch- ery, to be seen or heard in the streets. It is commonly said that the religion of these times was no better than hypocrisy and dissimula- tion ; and, without all doubt, there were num- bers of men who made the form of godliness a cloak to dishonesty ; nay, it is probable that hypocrisy, and other secret immoralities, might be the prevailing sins of the age, all open vices being suppressed ; but still I am persuaded that the body of the people were sincerely religious, and, with all their faults, I should rejoice to see, in our days, such an appearance of religion, and all kinds of vice and profaneness so effect- ually discountenanced. If we go from the city to the camp of the Earl of Essex, we shall find no less probity of manners among them, most of his soldiers be- ing men who did not fight so much for pay as for religion and the liberties of their country. Mr. Whitelocke observes,* " that Colonel Crom- well's regiment of horse were most of them freeholders' sons, who engaged in the war upon principles of conscience ; and that, being well armed within by the satisfaction of their con- sciences, and without with good iron arms, they would as one man stand firmly and charge des- perately." The same author! adds, " that Col- onel Wilson, who was heir to an estate of £2000 a year, and was the only son of his fa- ther, put himself at the head of a gallant regi- ment of citizens, who listed themselves in the Parliament's service purely upon conscience ; this," says he, " was the condition of many others also of like quality and fortune in those times, who had such an affection for their reli- gion, and the rights and liberties of their coun- try, that 'pro aris et focis they were willing to undergo any hardships or dangers, and thought no service too much or too great for their coun- try." The most eminent divines served as chaplains to the several regiments ; Dr. Bur- ges and Mr. Marshall were chaplains to the Earl of Essex's regiment ; Dr. Downing to Lord Roberts's ; Mr. Sedgwick to Colonel Hol- lis's ; Dr. Spurstow to Mr. Hampden's ; Mr. Aske to Lord Brooks's, &c. While these con- * Memorials, p. 68. Vol. I.— H h h t Ibid., p. 72. tinued, none of the enthusiastic follies, that were afterward a reproach to the army, discov- ered themselves. There were among them some who afterward joined the sectaries ; some who were mercenaries, and (if we may believe his majesty's declaration after the battle of Edgehill) some who were disguised papists ; but, upon the whole, Lord Clarendon confesses, there ivas an exact discipline in the army ; that they neither plundered nor robbed the country ; all complaints of this kind being redressed in the best manner, and the offenders punished. The Rev. Mr. Baxter, who was himself in the army, gives this account of them :* "The gen- erality of those people throughout England who went by the name of Puritans, Precisians, Pres- byterians, who followed sermons, prayed in their families, read books of devotion, and were strict observers of the Sabbath, being avowed enemies to swearing, drunkenness, and all kinds of profaneness, adhered to the Parlia- ment : with these were mixed some young persons of warm heads and enthusiastic prin- ciples, who laid the foundation of those sects and divisions which afterward spread over the whole nation, and were a disgrace to the cause which the ParUament had espoused. Of the clergy, those who were of the sentiments of Calvin, who were constant preachers of the Word of God themselves, and encouragers of it in others ; who were zealous against popery, and wished for a reformation of the discipline of the Church, were on the Parliament's side. Among these were some of the elder clergy, who were preferred before the rise of Arch- bishop Laud ; all the deprived and silenced ministers, with the whole body of lecturers and warm popular preachers both in town and country ; these drew after them great numbers of the more serious and devout people, who were not capable of judging between the king and Parliament, but followed their spiritual guides from a veneration that they had for their integrity and piety. Many went unto the Par- liament, and filled up their armies afterward, merely because they heard men swear for the common prayer and bishops, and heard others pray that were against them : because they heard the king's soldiers, wath horrid oaths, abuse the name of God, and saw them live in debauchery, while the Parliament soldiers flock- ed to sermons, talked of religion, and prayed and sung psalms together on their guards. And all the sober men that I was acquainted with, who were against the Parliament," says Mr. Baxter, " used to say the king had the better cause, but the Parliament had the better men."t The Puritan [or Parliament] clergy were zealous Calvinists, and having been prohibited for some years from preaching against the Ar- minians, they now pointed all their artillery against them, insisting upon little else in their * Baxter's Life, p. 26, 31, 33, &c., fol. t To the authorities quoted by Mr. Neal, Bishop Warburton opposes that of Oliver Cromwell, who, in his speech to his Parliament, represented the Presby- terian armies of the Parliament as chiefly made up, before the self-denying ordinance, of decayed " serv- ing-men, broken tapsters, and men without any sense of religion ; and that it was his business to inspire that spirit of reUgion into his troops on the reform, to oppose the principle of honour in the king's troops, made up of gentleman." — Ed. 426 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. sermons but the doctrines of predestination, justification by faith alone, salvation by free grace, and the inability of man to do that which is good. The duties of the second table were too much neglected ; from a strong aversion to Ar- minianism, these divines, unhappily, made way for Antinomianism, verging from one extreme to another, till, at length, some of the weaker sort were lost in the wild mazes of enthusias- tic dreams and visions, and others, from false principles, pretended to justify the hidden works of dishonesty. The Assembly of Divines did what they could to put a stop to the growth of these pernicious errors ; but the great scarcity of preachers of a learned education, who took part with the Parliament, left some pulpits in the country empty, and the people to be led aside, in many places, by every bold pretender to inspiration. " The generality of the stricter and more dil- igent sort of preachers," says Mr. Baxter, "join- ed the Parliament, and took shelter in their garrisons ; but they were almost all conforma- ble ministers ; the laws and the bishops having cast out the Nonconformists long enough be- fore, and not left above two in a county : those who made up the Assembly of Divines, and who, through the land, were the honour of the Parliament party, were almost all such as till then had conformed, and took the ceremo- nies to be lawful in cases of necessity, but longed to have that necessity removed." He admits "that the younger and less experienced ministers in the country were against amend- ing the bishops and liturgy, apprehending this was but gilding over their danger ; but that this was not the sense of the Parliament, nor of their principal divines. The matter of bish- ops or no bishops," says he, " was not the main thing, except with the Scots, for thou- sands that wished for good bishops were on the Parliament side. Almost all those afterward called Presbyterians, and all that learned and pious synod at Westminster, except a very few, had been Conformists, and kept up an honour- able esteem for those bishops that they thought religious, as Archbishop Usher, Bishop Dave- nant, Hall, Moreton, &c. These would have been content with an amendment of the hierar- chy, and went into the Parliament because they apprehended the interests of religion and divil liberty were on that side."* But the political principles of these divines gave the greatest disgust to the Royalists ; they encouraged the people to stand by the Parlia- ment, and preached up the lawfulness of de- fending their religion and liberties against the king's evil counsellors. They were for a limit- ed monarchy, agreeable to our present happy Constitution, for which, and for what they ap- prehended the purity of the Protestant religion, they contended, and for nothing more ; but for this they have suffered in their moral charac- ter, and have been left upon record as rebels, traitors, enemies to God and their king, &,c.t His majesty, in one of his declarations, calls , them " ignorant in learning, turbulent and sedi- tious in disposition, scandalous in life, uncon- formable to the laws of the land, libellers, revi- * Baxter's Life, p. 33, 35, 37. t Husband's Collections, p. 514, &c. lers both of Church and State, and preachers of sedition and treason itself" Lord Clarendon says, " that under the notion of reformation, and extirpating popery, they infused seditious inclinations into the hearts of men against the present government of the Church and State ; that when the army was raised they contained themselves within no bounds, and inveighed as freely against the person of the king as they had before against the worse malignants, pro- fanely and blasphemously applying what had been spoken by the prophets against the most wicked and impious kings, to stir up the people against their most gracious sovereign." His lordship adds, " that the Puritan clergy were the chief incendiaries, and had the chief influ- ence in promoting the civil war. The Kirk reformation in Scotland and in this kingdom,'" says his lordship, " was driven on by no men so much as those of their clergy ; and, without doubt, the Archbishop of Canterbury never liad such an influence over the councils at court as Dr. Burges and Mr. Marshal had then on the houses ; nor did all the bishops of Scotland to- gether so much meddle in temporal affairs as Mr. Henderson had done."* Strange ! when the Scots bishops were ad- vanced to the highest posts of honour and civil trust in that kingdom, and when Archbishop Laud had the direction of all public affairs in England for twelve years together. Was not the archbishop at the head of the council-table, the Star Chamber, and the Court of High Com- mission ^ Was not his grace the contriver or promoter of all the monopolies and oppressions that brought on the civil war 1 What could the Puritan clergy do like this 1 Had they any pla- ces of profit or trust under the government, or any commissions in the ecclesiastical courts 1 Did they amass to themselves great riches or large estates ! No ; they renounced all civil power and jurisdiction, as well as lordly titles and dignities, and were, for the most part, con- tent with a very moderate share of the world. If they served the Parliament cause, it was in visiting their parishioners, and by their sermons from the pulpits : here they spent their zeal, praying and preaching as men who were in earnest for what they apprehended the cause of God and their country. But it is easy to remark, that the noble historian observes no measure with the Puritan clergy when they fall in his way. Nor were the Parliament divines the chief incendiaries between the king and people, if we may believe Mr. Baxter, who knew the Puri- tans of those times much better than his lord- ship. " It is not true," says this divine,! " that they stirred up the people to war ; there was hardly one such man in a county, though they disliked the late innovations, and were glad the Parliament were attempting a reformation." They might inveigh too freely in their sermons against the vices of the clergy and the severi- ties of the late times, but in all the first ser- mons that I have read.J for some years after * Vol. 1., p. 302. t Baxter's Life, p. 34. t Dr. Grey, who nnstakes this for the assertion of Baxter instead of Mr. Neal, opposes to it his own re- mark on the fast-sermons between the year 1610 and the death of tire king : from which, he says, he could produce hundreds of instances for the disproof of HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 427 the beginning of the war, I have met with no reflections upon the person of the king, but a rehgious observation of that pohtical maxim. The king can do no wrong. His lordship adds, that " they profanely and blasphemously applied what had been spoken by the prophets against the most wicked and most impious kings, to stir up the people against their most gracious sovereign. If this were really the case, yet the king's divines came not behind them in applying the absolute dominion of the kings of Judah in support of the unbound- ed prerogatives of the kings of England, and in cursing the Parliament, and pronouncing dam- nation upon all who died in their service. I could produce a large catalogue of shocking ex- pressions to this purpose, but I wish such of- fences buried in oblivion, and we ought not to form our judgments of great bodies of men from the excesses of a few. We shall have an opportunity hereafter to compare the learning of the Puritan divines* with the Royalists, when it will appear that there were men of no less eminence for litera- ture with the Parliament than with the king, as the Seldens, the Lightfoots, the Cudvvorths, the Pococks, the Whichcotes, the Arrowsmiths, &c. ; but as to their morals, their very adver- saries will witness for them. Dr. G. Bates, an eminent Royalist, in his Elenchus, gives them this character : " Moribus severis essent, in concionibus vehemenles, precibus etpiis officiis prompti, uno verbo ad caetera boni," i. e., "They were men of severe and strict morals, warm and affectionate preachers, fervent in prayer, ready to all pious offices, and, in a word, other- wise [that is, abating their political principles] good men." And yet, with all their goodness, they were unacquainted with the rights of con- science, and when they got the spiritual sword what is said above. As a specimen, he quotes many passages from sermons of the most popular and lead- ing men of those times. Some of these passages, it appears to me, point strongly at the king, and go to prove that royal personages are amenable for evil conduct. But, besides that they are given detached from their connexion, it is to be considered, that if Mr. Neal had read the same discourses, they would affect liis mind differently from what they did Dr. Grey, who, through all his animadversions, appears to have looked upon Charles as an immaculate prince, and to have been a disciple to the advocates for passive obedience and nonresistance. — Ed. * Mr. Neal is here charged with contradicting what he had said p. 159, where he speaks of " the great scarcity of preachers of a learned education." This is said when Mr. Neal is representing the diffi- culty the Assembly of Divines had to supply the pul- pits through the country. This might be the case when speaking of the kingdom at large, and j'et there might be some of no less eminence for literature than any who sided with the king. Mr. Neal gives the names of such ; but Bishop Warburton will not allow that they were of the Parliament party : " the most that can be said of them is," he adds, " that they sub- mitted to the power." But their acting with the As- sembly of Divines was certainly more than a sub- mission to power — it was taking a lead in the affairs of the Parliament ; this, if the cause had been repug- nant to their principles, they might, and as honest men would, have declined doing, as did Bishop Ush- er, Dr. Holdsworth, and the other Episcopalian di- vines, who were also chosen to attend the assembly, but who stayed away from it, because it was not, in their opinion, a legal convocation. — Ed. into their hands, managed it very little better than their predecessors the bishops.* The clergy who espoused the king's cause were the bench of bishops, the whole body of the cathedral, and the major part of the paro- chial clergy, with the heads and most of the fel- lows of both universities, among whom were men of the first rank for learning, politeness, piety, and probity of manners, as Archbishop Usher, Bishop Hall, Moreton, Westfield, Brown- rigge, Prideaux, Dr. Hammond, Saunderson, &c., who joined the king, not merely for the sake of their preferments, but because they be- lieved the unlawfulness of subjects resisting their sovereign in any case whatsoever. Among the parochial clergy were men of no less name and character. Lord Clarendont says, "that if the sermons of those times preached at court were collected together and published, the world would receive the best bulk of orthodox divin- ity, profound learning, convincing reason, nat- ural, powerful eloquence, and admirable devo- tion, that hath been communicated in any age since the apostles' time." And yet, in the very same page, he adds, " There was sometimes preached there matter very unfit for the place, and scandalous for the persons." I submit this paragraph to the reader's judgment ; for I must confess, that after having read over several of these court-sermons, I have not been able to discover all that learning and persuasive elo- quence which his lordship admires ; nor can much be said for their orthodoxy, if the Thirty- nine Articles be the standard. But whatever decency was observed at court, there was hard- ly a sermon preached by the inferior clergy within the king'^ quarters, wherein the Parlia- ment divines were not severely exposed and ridiculed under the character of Puritans, Pre- cisians, Formalists, Sabbatarians, canting hyp- ocrites, &c. Such was the sharpness of men's spirits on both sides ! Among the country clergy there was great room for complaints, many of them being plu- ralists, nonresidents, ignorant and illiterate, negligent of their cures, seldom or never visit- ing their parishioners, or discharging any more of their function than would barely satisfy the law. They took advantage of the Book of Sports to attend their parishioners to their wakes and revels, by which means many of them became scandalously immoral in their conversations. Even Dr. Walker admits that there were among them men of wicked lives, and such as were a reproach and scandal to their function ; the par- ticulars of which had better have been buried than left upon record. t The common people that filled up the king's army were of the looser sort ; and even the chief officers, as Lord Goring, Granville, Wil- mot, and others, were men of profligate lives, and made a jest of religion; the private senti- nels were soldiers of fortune, and not having their regular pay, lived for the most part upon free plunder. When they took possession of a town, they rifled the houses of all who were called Puritans, and turned their families out ol doors. Mr. Baxter says, "that when he lived at Coventry, after the battle of Edgehill, there * See also the testimony of Wood and others. — C t Vol. i., p. 77. i Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 72. 428 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. were above thirty worthy ministers in that city who had fled thither for refuge from the soldiers and popular fury, as he himself also had done, though they had never meddled in the wars. Among these were the Reverend Mr. Vines, Mr. Anthony Burgess, Mr. Burdal, Mr. Brom- shil, Dr. Bryan, Grew, Craddock, and others. And here," says he, " I must repeat the great cause of the Parliament's strength and of the king's ruin : the debauched rabble, encouraged by the gentry, and seconded by the common soldiers of his army, took all that were called Puritans for their enemies ; so that if any man was noted for a strict and famous preacher, or for a man of a precise and pious life, he was plundered, abused, and put in danger of his life ; if a man prayed in his family, or was heard to repeat a sermon or sing a psalm, they present- ly cried out rebels, roundheads, and all their money and goods proved guilty, however inno- cent they were themselves. Upon my certain knowledge, it was this that iilled the armies and garrisons of the Parliament with sober and pious men. Thousands had no mind to meddle in the wars, but to live peaceably at home, if the rage of the soldiers and drunkards would have suffered them. Some stayed at home till they had been imprisoned ; some till they had been plundered twice or thrice over, and had nothing left ; others were quite tired out with the insolence of their neighbours, with being quartered upon, and put in continual danger of their lives, and so they sought refuge in the Parliament garrisons."* This was so notorious, that at length it came to the king's ear, who, out of mere compassion to his distressed subjects, issued out a procla- mation, bearing date November 25, 1642, for the better government of his army ; the pream- ble of which sets forth, " that his majesty, hav- ing taken into his princely consideration the great misery and ruin of his subjects, by the 'plundering, robbing, and spoiling of their hous- es, and taking from them their money, plate, household-stuff, cattle, and other goods, under pretence of their being disaffected to us and our service, and these unlawful and unjust actions done by divers soldiers of our army, and others sheltering themselves under that title ; his maj- esty, detesting such barbarous proceedings, for- bids his officers and soldiers to make any such seizures for the future without his warrant. And if they go on to plunder and spoil the peo- ple, by taking away their money, plate, house- hold goods, oxen, sheep, or other cattle, or any victuals, corn, hay, or other provisions, going to or from any market, without making satislac- tion, his majesty orders them to be proceeded against by martial law." This was as much as the king could do in his present circumstances ; yet it had very little effect, for his majesty hav- ing neither money nor stores for his army, the officers could maintain no discipline, and were forced to connive at their living at free quarter upon the people. Thus this unhappy nation was miserably har- assed, and thrown into terrible convulsions by an unnatural civil war — the nobility and gentry, with their dependants, being chiefly with the king ; the merchants, tradesmen, substantial * Baxter's Life, p. 44. farmers, and, in general, the middle ranks of people, siding with the Parliament. It is of little consequence to inquire who be- gan this unnatural and bloody war. None will blame them, on whose part it was just and una- voidable, for taking all necessary precautions in their defence, and making use of such advan- tages as Providence put into their hands to de- feat the designs of the enemy, and nothing can excuse the other. His majesty professed before God to his nobles at York, that he had no in- tention to make war upon his Parliament. And in his last speech upon the scaffold, he affirms " that he did not begin a war with the two hous- es of Parliament, but that they began with him upon the point of the militia ; and if anybody will look upon the dates of the commissions," says his majesty, " theirs and mine, they will see clearly that they began these unhappy troub- les, and not I." Yet, with all due submission to so great an authority, were the dates of com- missions for raising the militia the beginning of the war 1 Were not the crown-jewels first pawned in Holland, and arms, ammunition, and artillery sent over to the king at York "? Did not his majesty summon the gentlemen and freeholders to attend him as an extraordinary guard, in his progress in the North, and appear before Hull in a warlike manner, before the rais- ing the militia 1 Were not these warlike prep- arations ? Dr. Welwood says, and I think all impartial judges must allow, that they look very much that way. Mr. Echard is surprised that " the king did not put himself into a posture of defence sooner ;"* but he would have ceased to wonder if he had remembered the words of Lord Clarendon : " The reason why the king did not raise forces sooner was, because he had nei- ther arms nor ammunition, and till these could be procured from Holland, let his provocations and sufferings be what they would, he was to submit and bear it patiently." It was, therefore, no want of will, but mere necessity, that hin- dered the king's appearing in arms sooner than he did. Father Orleans confesses that it was agreed with the queen, in the cabinet-council at Windsor, that while her majesty was negoti- ating in Holland, the king should retire to York, and there make his first levies. He adds, " ihat all mankind believed that his majesty was under- hand preparing for icar, that the sword might cut asunder those knots he had made ivith his pen." In order to excuse the unhappy king, who was sacrificed in the house of his friends, a load of guilt is with great justice laid upon the queen, who had a plenitude of power over his majesty, and could turn him about which way she pleased. Bishop Burnet says, " that by the liveliness of her discourse she made great impressions upon the king ; so that to the queen's want of judg- ment, and the king's own temper, the sequel of all his misfortunes was owing. "t Bishop Ken- net adds, that " the king's match with the lady was a greater judgment upon the nation than the plague which then raged in the land ; and that the influence of a stately queen over an af- fectionate husband proved very fatal both to prince and people, and laid in a vengeance for future generations." The 'queen was a great * Memoirs, p. 64. t History of his Life and Times, vol. i., p. 39, Scotch edition. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 429 bigot to her religion, and was directed by her father confessor to protect the Roman Catho- 5ics, even to the hazard of the king's crown and dignity. Though his majesty usually consulted her in all affairs of state, yet she sometimes presumed to act without him, and to make use of his name without his knowledge. '• It was the queen that made all the great officers of state," says Lord Clarendon : " no preferments were bestowed without her allowance." She was an enemy to Parliaments, and pushed the king upon the most arbitrary and unpopular actions, to raise the English government to a level with the French. It was the queen that countenan- ced the Irish insurrection ; that obliged the king to go to the House of Commons and seize the five members ; and that was at the head of the council at Windsor, in which it was determined to break with the Parliament and prepare for war: "This," says the noble historian, viz., the king's perfect adoration of his queen, his resolution to do nothing without her, " and his being inexorable as to everything he promised her, were the root and cause of all other griev- ances. The two houses often petitioned the king not to admit her majesty into his councils, or to follow her advice in matters of state ; but he was not to be moved from his too servile regards to her dictates, even to the day of his death."* Sundry others of his majesty's privy council had their share in bringing on the calamities of the war, though when it broke out they were either dead, dispersed, or imprisoned ; as the Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Strafford, Arch- bishop Laud, Finch, Windebank, Noy, &c. These had been the most busy actors at the council-table, the Star Chamber, and Court of High Commission, and were at the head of all the monopolies and illegal projects that ensla- ved the nation for above twelve years, and might have done it forever, had they been good husbands of the public treasure, and not brought upon themselves the armed force of a neigh- bouring nation. The politics of these statesmen were very unaccountable, for as long as they could subsist without a parliamentary supply, they went on with their ship-money, court and conduct money, monopolies, and suchlike re- sources of the prerogative ; as soon as the Par- liament sat, these were suspended, in expecta- tion of a supply from the two houses, before they had inquired into the late inroads upon the Constitution ; but when they found this could not be obtained, they broke up the Parliament in disgust, fined and imprisoned the members for their freedom of speech, and returned to their former methods of arbitrary government. Ail King Charles's Parliaments had been thus * " Many passages have been quoted from his letters to his queen, as proofs of his spiritless submission. It was Charles's great misfortune, that he was too easily wrought upon to follow the advice of others, and frequently of persons less gifted than himself. Milton says of him, in his panegyric on Cromwell, ' Whether with his enemies or his friends, in the court or in the camp, he was always in the hands of another ; now of his wife, then of the bishops ; now of the peers, then of the soldiery ; and last, of his en- emies : that for the most part he followed the worser counsels, and almost always of the worser men.' There is as much justice as acrimony in this remark." — Jesse's Court of the Stuarts, vol. ii., p. 69-70. — C. dissolved, even to the present, which would, undoubtedly, have been treated in the same manner, had it not been for the Act of Contin- uation.* On the other hand, a spirit of English liberty had been growing in the nation for some years, and the late oppressions, instead of extinguish- ing it, had only kept it underground, till, having collected more strength, it burst out with the greater violence ; the patriots of the Constitu- tion watched all opportunities to recover it : yet, when they had obtained a Parliament by the interposition of the Scots, they were dis- posed to take a severe revenge upon their late oppressors, and to enter upon too violent meas ures in order to prevent the return of power into those hands that had so shamefully abused it. The five members of the House of Com- mons, and their friends who were concerned in inviting the Scots into England, saw their dan- ger long before the king came to the House to seize them, which put them upon concerting measures not only to restore the Constitution, but to lay farther limitations upon the royal power for a time, that they might not be expo- sed to the mercy of an incensed prince, so soon as he should be delivered from the present Par- liament. It is true, his majesty offered a gen- eral pardon at the breaking up of the session, but these members were afraid to rely upon it, because, as was said, there was no appearance tliat his majesty would govern by law for the future, any more than he had done before. The king, being made sensible of the designs and spirit of the Commons, watched all oppor- tunities to disperse them, and not being able to gain his point, resolved to leave the two houses, and act no longer in concert with them, which was, in effect, to determine their power ; for to what purpose should they sit, if the king will pass none of their bills, and forbid his subjects to obey any of their votes or ordinances till they had received the royal assent 1 It was this that dismembered and broke the Constitu- tion, and reduced the Parliament to this dilem- ma, either to return home, and leave all things in the hands of the king and queen and their late ministry, or to act by themselves, as the guardians of the people, in a time of imminent danger : had they dissolved themselves, or stood still while his majesty had garrisoned the strong fortresses of Portsmouth and Hull, and got pos- session of all the arms, artillery, and ammuni- tion of the kingdom ; had they suffered the fleet to fall into his majesty's hands, and gone on meekly petitioning for the militia, or for his maj- esty's return to his two houses of Parliament, till the queen was returned with foreign recruits, or the Irish at liberty to send his majesty suc- cours, both they and we must, in all probability, * This act has been called " a violent breach of the Constitution of this government :" but the author who has cast this reproach on it also observes, that " if this act had not been obtained, perhaps it would have been impossible to oppose the king's at- tempts with effect." On this ground, the " Act of Continuation" has been called " an act of fidelity of the representatives of the people to their constitu- ents ; an instance of the expedience and righteous- ness of recovering the violated Constitution, by means not strictly justifiable when the times are peaceable, and the curators of government just and upright." — Memoirs of Hollis, vol. ii., p. 591. — Ed. 430 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. have been buried in the ruins of the hberties of our country. The two houses were not insen- sible of the risk they ran in crossing the meas- ures of their sovereign, under whose govern- ment they thought they were to live, and who had counsellors about him who would not fail to put him upon the severest reprisals, as soon as the sword of the kingdom should return into his hands ; but they apprehended that their own and the public safety was at stake ; and that the king was preparing to act against them, by raising extraordinary guards to his person, and sending for arms and ammunition from abroad ; therefore they ventured to make a stand in their own defence, and to perform such acts of sovereignty as were necessary to put it out of the power of the court to make them a sacrifice to the resentments of their enemies. But though in a just and necessary war it is of little moment to inquire who began it, it is, nevertheless, of great consequence to consider on which side the justice of it lies. Let us, therefore, take a short view of the arguments on the king's side, with the Parliament's reply. 1. It was argued by the Royalists, "that all grievances, both real and imaginary, were re- moved by the king's giving up ship-money, by his abolishing the Court of Honour, the Star Chamber, and High Commission, and by his giving up the bishops' votes in Parliament."* The Parliament writers own these to be very important concessions, though far from com- prehending all the real grievances of the na- tion. The queen was still at the head of his majesty's councils, without whose approbation no considerable affairs of government were transacted. None of the authors of the late oppressions had been brought to justice except the Earl of Strafford, and it is more than prob- able, if the Parliament had been dissolved, they would not only have been pardoned, but re- stored to favour. Though bishops were de- prived of their seats in Parliament, yet the de- fects in the public service, of which the Puri- tans complained, were almost untouched, nor were any effectual measures taken to prevent the growth of popery, which threatened the ruin of the Protestant religion. 2. It was argued farther, " that the king had provided against any future oppressions of the subjects by consenting to the act for triennial Parliaments." To this it was replied, that the Triennial Act, in the present situation of the court, was not a sufficient security of our laws and liberties ; for suppose at the end of three years, when the king was in full possession of the regal power, having all the forts and garrisons, arms and ammunition of the kingdom at his disposal, with his old ministry about him, the council should declare that the necessity of his majes- ty's affairs obliged him to dispense with the Triennial Act, what sheriff of a county, or other officer, would venture to put it in execu- tion ! Besides, had not the king, from this very principle, suspended and broke through the laws of the land for twelve years together before the meeting of this Parliament? And did not his majesty yield to the new laws with a manifest reluctance? Did he not affect to call them acts of grace, and not of justice? Clarendon, vol. i., p. 262. Were not some of them extorted from him by such arguments as these: "that his consent to- tliem being forced, they were in themselves in- valid, and might be avoided in better times?" Lord Clarendon says* he had reason to believe this ; and if his lordship believed it, I cannot see how it can reasonably be called in ques- tion. Bishop Burnet is of the same mind, and declares, in the History of his Life and Times, " that his majesty never came into his conces- sions seasonably, nor with a good grace ; all appeared to be e.xtorted from him ; and there were grounds to believe that he intended not to stand to them any longer than he lay under that force that visibly drew them upon him, contrary to his own inclinations." To all which we may may add the words of Father Orleans, the Jesuit, who says, " that all mankind be- lieved at that time that the king did not grant so much but in order to revoke all."t 3. It was said "that the king had seen his mistake, and had since vowed and protested, in the most solemn manner, that for the future he would govern according to law." To this it was replied, that if the petition of right, so solemnly ratified from the throne in presence of both houses of Parliament, was so quickly broke through, what dependance could be had upon the royal promise? For though the king himself might be a prince of virtue and honour, yet his speeches, says Mr. Rapin, were full of ambiguities and secret reserves, that left room for different interpretations ; be- sides, many things were transacted without his knowledge, and, therefore, so long as the queen was at the head of his counsels, they looked upon his royal word only as the promise of a minor, or of a man under superior direction, which was the most favourable interpretation that could be made of the many violations of it in the course of fifteen years. " The queen, who was directed by popish counsels," says Bishop Burnet, " could, by her sovereign power, make tlie king do whatsoever she pleased." 4. It was farther urged, "that the Parliament had invaded the royal prerogative, and usurped the legislative power, without his majesty's consent, by claiming the militia, and the appro- bation of the chief officers, both civil and mili- tary, and by requiring obedience to their votes and ordinances." This the two houses admitted, and insisted upon it as their right, in cases of necessity and extreme danger, of which necessity and dan- ger they, as the guardians of the nation, and two parts in three of Legislature, were the proper judges : " The question is not," say they, " whether the king be the fountain of jus- tice and protection, or whether the execution of tlie laws belongs primarily to him ? But if the king shall refuse to discharge that duty and trust, and shall desert his Parliament, and, in a manner, abdicate the government, whether there be not a power in the two houses to provide for the safety and peace of the kingdom? or, if there be no Parliament sitting, whether the na- tion does not return to a state of nature, and is not at liberty to provide for its own defence by extraordinary methods?" This seems to have * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 430. t History of his Own Times, vol. i., p. 40, Edin- burgh. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 431 been the case in the late glorious revolution of King William and Queen Mary, when the Constitution being broken, a convention of the nobility and commonalty was summoned with- out the king's writ, to restore the religion and liberties of the people, and place the crown upon another head. 5. The king, on his part, maintained that " there was no danger from him, but that all the danger was from a malignant party in the Parliament, who were subverting the constitu- tion in Church and State. His majesty averred that God and the laws had intrusted him with the guardianship and protection of his people, and that he would take such care of them as he should be capable of answering for it to God." With regard to dangers and fears, the Parlia- ment appealed to the whole world whether there were not just grounds for them, after his maj- esty had violated the petition of right, and at- tempted to break up the present Parliament, by bringing his army to London ; after he had en- tered their house with an armed force to seize five of their members; after he had deserted his Parliament, and resolved to act no longer in concert with them ; after his majesty had be- gun to raise forces under pretence of an extra- ordinary guard to his person, and endeavoured to get the forts and ammunition of the kingdom into his possession, against the time when he should receive supplies from abroad ; after they had seen the dreadful effects of a bloody and unparalleled insurrection and massacre of the Protestants in Ireland, and were continually alarmed with the increase and insolent beha- viour of the papists at home ; and, lastly, after they had found it impracticable, by their most humble petitions and remonstrances, to remove the queen and her cabal of papists from the di- rection of the king's councils ; after all these things (say they), " we must maintain the grounds of our fears to be of that moment, that we cannot discharge the trust and duty which lie upon us, unless we do apply ourselves to the use of those means which God and the laws have put into our hands for the necessary de- fence and safety of the kingdom."* There were certainly strong, and perhaps unreasonable jealousies and apprehensions of * danger on both sides. The king complained that he was driven from Whitehall by popular tumults, where neither his person nor family could remain in safety. He was jealous (as he said) for the laws and liberties of his people, and was apprehensive that his Parliament in- tended to change the Constitution, and wrest the sceptre and sword out of his royal hands. On the other side, the two houses had their fears and distrusts of their own and the public safety ; they were apprehensive that if they put the forts and garrisons, and all the strength of the kingdom, into his majesty's power as soon .as they were dissolved, he, by the influence of his queen and his old counsellors, would return to his maxims of arbitrary government, and never call another Parliament ; that he would take a severe revenge upon those members who had exposed his measures and disgraced his ministers ; and, in a word, that he would break through the late laws, as having been ex- torted from him by force or violence ; but it' was very much in the king's power, even at the treaty of Uxbridge in 1644-5, to have removed these distrusts, and thereby have saved both himself, the Church, and the nation ; for, as the noble historian observes, " the Parliament took none of the points of controversy less to heart, or were less united in anything, than ia what concerned the Church."* i\nd with re- gard to the State, that " many of them were for peace, provided they might have indemnity for what was past, and security for time to come." Why, then, were not this indemnity and secu- rity offered 1 which must necessarily have di- vided the Parliamentarians, and obliged the most rigorous and violent to recede from their high and exorbitant demands, and, by conse- quence, have restored the king to the peacea- ble possession of his throne. Upon the whole, if we believe with the noble historian, and the writers on his side, " that the king was driven by violence from his palace at Whitehall, and could not return with safety ; that all real and imaginary grievances of Church and State were redressed ; and that the king- dom was sufficiently secured from all future in- roads of popery and arbitrary power by the laws in being," then the justice and equity of the war were most certainly with the king. Whereas, if we believe " that the king volunta- rily deserted his Parliament, and that it was owing alone to his majesty's own peremptory resolution that he would not return (as Lord Clarendon admits) ; if by this means the Con- stitution was broken, and the ordinary courts of justice necessarily interrupted ; if there were sundry grievances still to be redressed, and the king resolved to shelter himself under the laws in being, and to make no farther concessions ; if there were just reasons to fear," with Bishop Burnet and Father Orleans, that the king " would abide by the late laws no longer than he was under that force that brought them upon him ;" in a word, "if, in the judgment of the Lords and Commons, the kingdom was in imminent dan- ger of the return of popery and arbitrary power, and his majesty would not condescend so much as to a temporary security for their satisfac- tion," then we must conclude that the cause of the Parliament at the commencement of the war, and for some years after, was not only justifiable, but commendable and glorious ; es- pecially if we believe their own most solemn protestation, t in the presence of Almighty God, to the kingdom and to the world, " that no pri- vate passion or respect, no evil intention to his majesty's person, no designs to the prejudice of his just honour or authority, had engaged them to raise forces, and take up arms against the authors of this war in which the kingdom is inflamed."! * Rapin, p. 468. * Vol. ii., p. 581, 594. t Rushworth, vol. ii., part iii., p. 26. j Bishop Warburlon grants that " Charles was a man. of ill faith ;" from whence arose the question, " Whether he was to be trusted ? Here," he adds, " we must begin to distinguish. It was one thing whether those particulars, who had personally of- fended the king, in the manner by which they ex- torted this amends from him ; and another, whether the public, on all principles of civil government, ought not to have sat down satisfied. I think par- ticulars could not safelv take his word, and that the 432 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. public could not honestly refuse it. You will say, then, the leaders in Parliament were justified in their mistrust. Here, again, we must distinguish. Had they been private men, we shovild not dispute it. But they bore another character ; they were representa- tives of the public, and should, therefore, have acted in that capacity." Some will consider these distinc- tions, set up by his lordship, as savouring more of chicanery than solid reasoning. The simple ques- tion is. Was Charles worthy to be trusted? No! His lordship grants that he was a man of ill faith. How, then, could the representatives of the people nonestly commit the national interest to a man whose duplicity and insincerity had repeatedly de- ceived them, and, in deceiving them, had deceived the public ? If they could not safely take his word for themselves, how could they do it for their con- stituents? In all their negotiations with him, they had been acting, not for themselves only, but for the nation. It was inconsistent with the trust invested in them to sacrifice or risk the national welfare by easy credulity ; a credulity which, in their private concerns, wisdom and prudence would have con- demned. Besides, the insincerity of Charles had been so notorious, they had no ground to suppose that the public would expect or approve of their doing it, to whom the proofs of his insincerity ofiered them- selves immediately, and with all their force. — Ed. I PREFACE TO VOL. III. OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION. No period of civil history has undergone a more critical examination than the last seven years of King Charles L, vi^hich was a scene of such confusion and inconsist- ent management between the king and Parliament, that it is very difficult to discover the motives of action on either side. The king seems to have been directed by se- cret springs from the queen and her council of papists, who were for advancing the prerogative above the laws, and vesting his majesty with such an absolute sovereign- ty as might rival his brother of France, and enable him to establish the Roman Catholic religion in England, or some how or other blend it with the Protestant, This gave rise to the unparalleled severities of the Star Chamber and High Commis- sion, which, after twelve years' triumph over the laws and liberties of the subject, brought on a fierce and bloody war, and after the loss of above a hundred thousand lives, ended in the sacrifice of the king himself, and the subversion of the whole Con- stitution. Though all men had a veneration for the person of the king, his ministers had ren- dered themselves justly obnoxious, not only by setting up a new form of government at home, but by extending their jurisdiction to a neighbouring kingdom, under the government of distinct laws, and inclined to a form of church discipline very differ- ent from the English : this raised such a storm in the north, as distressed his majes- ty's administration, exhausted his treasure, drained all his arbitrary springs of sup- ply, and (after an intermission of twelve years) reduced him to the necessity of re- lorning to the Constitution, and calling a Parliament ; but when the public grievances came to be opened, there appeared such a collection of ill-humours, and so general a distrust between the king and his two Houses, as threatened all the mischief and desolation that followed. Each party laid the blame on the other, and agreed in nothing but in throwing off" the odium of the civil war from themselves. The affairs of the Church had a very considerable influence on the welfare of the State : the Episcopal character was grown into contempt, not from any defect of learning in the bishops, but from their close attachment to the prerogative, and their own insatiable thirst of power, which they strained to the utmost in their spiritual courts, by reviving old and obsolete customs, levying large fines on the people for con- tempt of their canons, and prosecuting good men and zealous Protestants for rites and ceremonies tending to superstition, and not warranted by the laws of the land. The iing supported them to the utmost ; but was obliged, after some time, to give way, first, to an act for abolishing the High Commission, by a clause in which the power of the bishops' spiritual courts was in a manner destroyed ; and, at last, to an act de- priving them of their seats in Parliament. If at this time any methods could have been thought of to restore a mutual confidence between the king and his two Houses, the remaining differences in the Church might easily have been compromised ; but the spirits of men were heated, and as the flames of the civil war grew fiercer, and spread wider, the wounds of the Church were enlarged, till the distress of the Par- liament's affairs obliging them to call in the Scots, with their solemn league and cove- nant, they became incurable. When the king had lost his cause in the field, he put himself at the head of his di- vines, and drew his learned pen in defence of his prerogative and the Church of England ; but his arguments were no more successful than his sword. I have brought llie debates between the king and Mr. Henderson, and between the divines of both sides at the treaties of Uxbridge and Newport upon the head of Episcopacy, into as Barrow a compass as but the Parliament of England sent the Earl of Rutland, Sir Will- iam Armyn, Sir H. Vane, Mr. Hatcher, Mr. Darley, and two divines from Westminster, viz., Mr. Marshal and Mr. Nye, with letters to each of these assemblies, desiring their assist- ance in the war, and the assistance of some of their divines with those at Westminster, to set- tle a uniformity of religion and church govern- ment between the two nations. To enforce these requests, they delivered a letter from the Assembly, " setting forth the deplorable condi- tion of the kingdom of England, which was upon the edge of a most desperate precipice, ready to be swallowed up by Satan and his instru- ments. They represent the cruelty of their enemies against such as fall into their hands, being armed against them not only as men, but as Christians, as Protestants, and as reformers, and that if they should be given up to their rage, they fear it wdl endanger the safety of all the Protestant churches. In a deeper sense of this danger," say they, " than we can express, "we address you in the bowels of Christ for your most fervent prayers and advice, what farther to do for the making our own and the king- dom's peace with God, and for the uniting the Protestant party more firmly, that we may all serve God with one consent, and stand up against antichrist as one man.'"t The commissioners arrived at Edinburgh Au- gust 9, and were favourably received by the Assembly, who proposed, as a preliminary, that the two nations should enter into a perpetual covenant for themselves and their posterity, that all things might be done in God's house according to his will ; and having appointed some of their number to consult with the Eng- lish commissioners about a proper form, they chose delegates for the Westminster Assembly, and unanimously advised the convention of states to assist the Parliament in the war, for the following reasons : 1. " Because they apprehend the war was for religion. 2. Because the Protestant faith was in danger. 3. Gratitude for former assistances at the time of the Scots reformation required a suitable return. 4. Because the Churches of Scotland and England being embarked in one bottom, if one be ruined the other cannot sub- sist. 5. The prospect of uniformity between the two kingdoms in discipline and worship will strengthen the Protestant interest at home and abroad. 6. The present Parliament had been friendly to the Scots, and might be so again. 7. Though the king had so lately estab- lished their religion according to their desires, yet they could not confide in his royal declara- tions, having so often found facta verbis con- trariaVX * Yet these conservators issued out, in the king's name, a proclamation for all persons from sixteen to sixty years old to appear in arms. " At which," says Rushworth, "the king was much incensed." — Dr. Grey. Who will not own that he had great reason to resent his name being used against himself? — Ed. t Rushworth, vol. v., p. 463, 466, 469. t Ibid., p. 472, &c. I The instructions of the commissioners sent ' to the Assembly at Westminster were, to pro- mote the extirpation of popery, prelacy, heresy, schism, skepticism, and idolatry, and to en- deavour a union between the two kingdoms in one confession of faith, one form of church gov- ernment, and one directory of worship. The committee for drawing up the solemn League and Covenant delivered it into the As- sembly August 17, where it was read and high- ly applauded by the ministers and lay-elders, none opposing it except the king's commission- ers ; so that it passed both the Assembly and convention in one day,* and was despatched next morning to Westminster, with a letter to the two houses, wishing that it might be confirmed and solemnly sworn and subscribed in both kingdoms, as the surest and strictest obligation to make them stand and fall together in the cause of religion and liberty. Mr. Marshal and Nye, in the letter to the As- sembly of August 18, assure their brethren the Scots clergy were entirely on the side of the Par- liament in this quarrel against the popish and Episcopal faction; that there were between twenty and thirty of the prime nobility present when the Covenant passed the Convention ; and that even the king's commissioners confessed that in their private capacity they were for it, though as his majesty's commissioners they were bound to oppose it. So that if the English Parliament (say they) comply with the form of this covenant, we are persuaded the whole body of the Scots kingdom will live and die with them, and speedily come to their assistance. When their commissioners arrived at Lon- don, they presented the Covenant to the two houses, who referred it to the Assembly of Di- vines, where it met with some little opposition : Dr. Featly declared hd durst not abjure prelacy absolutely, because he had sworn to obey his bishop in all things lawful and honest, and, therefore, proposed to qualify the second article thus : " I will endeavour the extirpation of po- pery and all antichristian, tyrannical, or inde- pendent prelacy ;" but it was carried against him. Dr. Burgess objected to several articles, and was not without some difficulty persuaded to subscribe after he had been suspended. The prolocutor, Mr. Gataker, and many others, de- clared for primitive episcopacy, or for one sta- ted president, with his presbyters, to govern ev- ery church ; and refused to subscribe till a pa- renthesis was inserted, declaring what sort of prelacy was to be abjured, viz., " [church gov- ernment by archbishops, bishops, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and all other officers depending upon them]."t The Scots, who had been introduced into the Assembly September 15, were for abjuring episcopacy as simply un- * " Wise observers," Bishop Burnet adds, " won- dered to see a matter of that importance carried through upon so little deliberation or debate. It was thought strange to see all their consciences of such a size, so exactly to agree as the several wheels of a clock ; which made all apprehend there was some first mover that directed all those other mo- tions : this, by the one party, was imputed to God's extraordinary providence, but, by others, to the pow- er and policy of the leaders, and the simphcity and fear of the rest." — Memoirs of the Duke of Hamilton, p. 239.— Ed. t Calamy's Abridgment, p. 81. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 465 lawful, but the English divines were generally against it. Bishop Burnet says our commissioners press- ed chiefly for a civil league, but the Scots would have a religious one, to which the English Mere obliged to yield, taking care, at the same time, to leave a door open for a latitude of in- terpretation.* Sir Henry Vane put the word "league" into the title, as thinking that might be broken sooner than a covenant ; and in the first article he inserted that general phrase of reforming "according to the Word of God," by Which the English thought themselves secure from the inroads of presbytery ; but the Scots relied upon the next words, " and according to the practice of the best Reformed churches," in which they were confident their discipline must be included. When Mr. Colman read the Cove- nant before the House of Lords, in order to their subscribing it, he declared, that by prel- acy all sorts of episcopacy was not intended, but only the sort therein described. Thus the •wise men on both sides endeavoured to outwit each other in wording the articles, and with these slight amendments the Covenant passed the Assembly and both houses of Parliament ; and by an order, dated September 21, was printed and published as follows : " A solemn League and Covenant for Reforma- tion and Defence of Religion, the Honour and Happiness of the King, and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. " We, noblemen, barons, knights, gentlemen, citizens, burgesses, ministers of the Gospel, and commons of all sorts, in the kingdoms of Eng- land, Scotland, and Ireland, by the providence of God living under one king, and being of one reformed religion, having before our eyes the glory of God, and the advancement of the king- dom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the honour and happiness of the king's majesty, and his posterity, and the true public liberty, safety, and peace of the kingdoms, wherein every one's private condition is included ; and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots, conspiracies, attempts, and practices of the enemies of God against the true religion, and the professors thereof in all places, espe- cially in these three kingdoms, ever since the reformation of religion ; and how much their rage, power, and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised, whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and king- dom of Ireland, the distressed estate of the Church and kingdom of England, and the dan- gerous estate of the Church and kingdom of Scotland, are present and public testimonies ; we have (now at last), after other means of sup- plication, remonstrance, protestations, and suf- ferings, for the preservation of our lives and our religion from utter ruin and destruction, according to the commendable practice of these kingdoms in former times, and the example of God's people in other nations, after mature de- liberation, resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn league and covenant, wherein we all subscribe, and each one of us for himself, with our hands lifted up to the most high God, do swear, » Duke of Hamilton's Memoirs, p. 237, 240. Vol. I.— N n n I. " That we shall sincerely, really, and con- stantly, through the grace of God, endeavour, in our several places and callings, the preservation of the Reformed religion in the Church of Scot- land, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and gov- ernment, against our common enemies ; the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, dis- cipline, and government, according to the Word of God, and the example of the best Reformed churches ; and we shall endeavour to bring the Church of God in the tliree kingdoms to the neare.'5t conjunction and uniformity in religion, confessing of faith, form of church government, directory for worship, and catechising, that we, and our posterity after us, may, as brethren, live in faith and love, and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us. n. " That we shall in like manner, without re- spect of persons, endeavour the extirpation of popery, prelacy (that is, church government by archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and com- missaries, deans, deans and chapters, archdea- cons, and all other ecclesiastical officers de- pending on that hierarchy), superstition, here- sy, schism, profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, lest we partake in other men's sins, and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues ; and that the Lord may be one, and his name one, in the three kingdoms. III. "We shall, Avith the same reality, sincerity, and constancy, in our several vocations, en- deavour with our estates and lives, mutually to preserve the rights and privileges of the Parlia- ments, and the liberties of the kingdoms, and to preserve the king's majesty's person and au- thority, in the preservation and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdoms, that the world may bear witness with our conscien- ces of our loyalty, and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his msjesty's just power and greatness. IV. " We shall also, with all faithfulness, endeav- our the discovery of all such as have been or shall be incendiaries, malignants, or evil instru- ments, by hindering the reformation of religion, dividing the king from his people, or one of th,e kingdoms from another, or making any factions or parties among the people, contrary to the league and covenant, that they may be brought to public trial, and receive condign punishment, as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve, or the supreme judicatories of both kingdoms respectively, or others having power from them for that effect, shall judge convenient. "And whereas the happiness of a blessed peace between these kingdoms, denied in for- mer times to our progenitors, is, by the good providence of God, granted unto us, and has been lately concluded and settled by both Par- liaments, we shall, each one of us according to our places and interests, endeavour that we 466 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. may remain conjoined in a firm peace and union to all posterity, and that justice may be done on all the wilful opposers thereof, in man- ner expressed in the precedent articles. VI. " We shall also, according to our places and callings, in this common cause of religion, lib- erty, and peace of the kingdom, assist and de- fend all those that enter into this league and covenant, in the maintaining and pursuing there- of; and shall not sufTer ourselves, directly or in- directly, by whatsoevercombination, persuasion, or terror, to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed union and conjunction, whether to make defection to the contrary part, or give ourselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause, which so much concerneth the glory of God, the good of the kingdoms, and hon- our of the king; but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition, and promote the same, according to our power, against all lets and im- pediments whatsoever ; and what we are not able ourselves to suppress or overcome, we shall reveal or make known, that it may be timely prevented or removed. " And because these kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God, and his son Jesus Christ, as is too manif(§st by our present distresses and dangers, the fruits there- of, we profess and declare, before God and the world, our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins, and for the sins of these king- doms ; especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel ; that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof ; and that we have not endeav- oured to receive Christ in our hearts, nor to walk worthy of him in our lives, which are the cause of other sins and transgressions so much abounding among us; and our true and unfeign- ed purpose, desire, and endeavour, for ourselves, and all others under our charge, both in public and private, in all duties we owe to God and man, to amend our lives, end each one to go before another in the example of a real reforma- tion, that the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation, and establish these churches and kingdoms in truth and peace. And this covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God, the searcher of all hearts, with a true intention to perform the same, as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed ; most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end, and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be a deliverance and safety to his people, and en- couragement to the Christian churches, groan- ing under, or in danger of, the yoke of the anti- Christian tyranny, to join with the same or like attestation and covenant, to the glory of God, the enlargement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and the peace and tranquillity of Christian king- doms and commonwealths."* Monday, September 25, 1643, was appointed for subscribing this Covenant, when both hous- es, with the Scots commissioners and Assem- bly of Divines, being met in the Church of St. Margaret's, Westmmster, the Rev. Mr. White, * Rushworth, vol, v., p. 478. of Dorchester, opened the solemnity with prayer ; after him, Mr. Henderson and Mr. Nye spoke ia justification of taking the Covenant from Scrip- ture precedents, and displayed the advantage the Church had received from such sacred com- binations. Mr. Henderson spoke next,* and de- * The four ScoUish divines were, in every respect, distinguished men, and would have been so regarded in any age or country. Alexander Henderson was, however, cheerfully admitted to be, beyond compar- ison, the most eminent. His learning was extensive rather than minute, corresponding to the character of his mind, of which the distinguishing elements were dignity and comprehensiveness. When called to quit the calm seclusion of the country parish where ho had spent so many years, and to come to the rescue of the Church of Scotland in her hour of need, he at once proved himself able to conduct and control the complicated movementsof an awakening' empire. Statesmen sought his counsel ; but, with, equal propriety and disinterestedness, he refused to concern himself with anything beyond what belonged to the Church, although the very reverse has often been asserted by his prelatic calumniators. Though long and incessantly engaged in the most stirring- events of a remarkably momentous period, his ac- tions, his writings, his speeches, are all character- ized by calmness and ease, without the slightest ap- pearance of heat or agitation, resultmg, unquestion- ably, from that aspect of character generally termed greatness of mind but which would, in him, be more properly characterized by describing it as a rare com- bination of intellectual power, moral dignity, and spiritual elevation. It was the condition of a mighty mind, enjoying the peace of God which passeth un- derstanding, a peace which the world had not given,, and could not take away. George Gillespie was one of that peculiar class of men who start, like meteors, into sudden splendour, shine with dazzling brilliancy, then suddenly set be- hind the tomb, leaving their compeers equally to ad- mire and to deplore. When but in his twenty-fifth year, he published a book against what he termed the " English Popish Ceremonies," which Charles and Laud were attempting to force upon the Church of Scotland. This work, though the production of a youth, displayed an amount and accuracy of learn- ing which would have done honour to any man of the most mature years and scholarship. In the As- sembly of Divines, though much the youngest mem- ber there, he proved himself one of the most able and ready debaters, encountering, not only on equal terms, but often with triumphant success, each with his own weapons, the most learned, subtle, and pro- found of his antagonists. He must have been no common man who was ready, on any emergency, to meet, and frequently to foil, by their own acknowl- edgment, such men as Selden, Lightfoot, and Cole- man, in the Erastian controversy, and Goodwin and Nye in their argument for Independency. But the excessive activity of his ardent and energetic mind wore out his frame ; and he returned from his labours in the Westminster Assembly, to see once more the Church and the land of his fathers, and to die. Samuel Rutherford gained, and still holds, an ex- tensive reputation by his religious works; but he was not less eminent, in his own day, as an acute and able controversialist. The characteristics of his mind were clearness of intellect, warmth and ear- nestness of affection, and loftiness and spirituality of devotional feeling. He could and did write vigor- ously against the Independent system, and, at the same time, love and esteem the men who held it. In his celebrated work, "Lex Rex," he not only en tered the regions of constitutional jurists, but even produced a treatise unrivalled yet as an exjiositiou of the true principles of civil and religious liberty. His " Religious Letters" have been long admired by all who could understand and feel what true religion is, though grovellmg and impure minds have striven HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 467 dared that the States of Scotland had resolved to assist the Parliament of England in carrying on the ends and designs of this covenant ; then Mr. Nye read it from the pulpit, with an audible voice, article by article, each person standing uncovered, with his right hand lified up bare to heaven, worshipping the great name of God, and swearing to the performance of it.* Dr. Gouge concluded the solemnity with prayer, after which the House of Commons went up into the chancel, and subscribed their names in one roll of parchment, and the Assembly in another, in both which the Covenant was fairly transcribed. Lord's Day following it was tendered to all per- sons within the bills of mortality, being read in the several churches to their congregations, as above. October 15, it was taken by the House of Lords, after a sermon preached by Dr. Temple, from Nehemiah, x., 29, and an exhortation by Mr. Colman. October 29, it was ordered by the Committee of States in Scotland to be sworn to, and subscribed all over that kingdom, on pen- alty of the confiscation of goods and rents, and such other punishment as his majesty and the Parliament should inflict on the refusers. t All the lords of the council were summoned to sign the Covenant November 2, and those who did not, to appear again the 14th of the same month, under the severest penalties, when some of the king's party, not attending, were declared ene- mies to religion, and to their king and country ; November 18, their goods were ordered to be seized, and their persons apprehended ; upon which they fled into England. Such was the unbounded zeal of that nation ! February 2 following, the Covenant Vvas ordered to be ta- fcen throughout the kingdom of England, by all to blight their reputation by dwelling on occasional 'Jbrms of expression, not necessarily unseemly in the homeliness of phrase used in familiar letters, and conveying nothing offensive according to the lan- guage of the times. His powers of debate were very considerable, being characterized by clearness of dis- tinction in stating his opinions, and a close, syllogis- tic style of reasoning, both the result of his remarka- ble precision of thought. Robert Baillie, sowell known by his "Letters and Journals," was a man of extensive and varied learn- ing, both in languages and in systematic theology. He rarely mingled in debate ; but his sagacity was valuable in deliberation, and his great acquirements, studious habits, and ready use of his pen, rendered him an important member of such an assembly. The singular ease and readiness of Baillie in composition enabled him to maintain what seems like a universal correspondence ; and, at the same time, to present in a vivid, picturesque, and e.xquisitely natural style, the very form and impress of the period in which he lived, and the great events in which he bore a part. And when it was necessary to refute errors by ex- hibiting them in their real aspect, the vast reading and retentive memory of Baillie enabled him to pro- duce what was needed with marvellous rapidity and correctness. Scarcely ever was any man more qual- ified to "catch the manners living as they rise," and, at the same time, to point out with instinctive saga- city what in them was wrong and dangerous. Such were the Scottish commissioners; and it may easily be believed that they acted a very im- portant and influential part in the Westminster As- sembly of Divines. — History of the Westminster Assem- bly of Divines, by Rev. W. M. Hetherington, p. 125-7. — C. * Rushworth, vol. v., p. 475. t Duke of Hamilton's Memoirs, p. 240. persons above the age of eighteen years ; and the Assembly were commanded to draw up an exhortation to dispose people to it, which being approved by both houses, was published, under the title of " An Exhortation to the taking of the solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and De- fence of Religion, the Honour and Happiness of the King, and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and for satisfying such Scruples as may arise in the taking of it ; assented to by the House, and ordered to be printed." " Die Veneris, February 9, 1643. " If the power of religion, or solid reason ; if loyalty to the king, and piety to their native country, or love to themselves, and natural af- fection to their posterity ; if the example of men touched with a deep sense of all these ; or extraordinary success from God thereupon, can awaken an embroiled, bleeding remnant to em- brace the sovereign and only means of their recovery, there can be no doubt but this solemn League and Covenant will find, wheresoever it shall be tendered, a people ready to entertain it with all cheerfulness and duty. "And were it not commended to the king- dom by the concurrent encouragement of the honourable houses of Parliament, the Assembly of Divines, the renowned city of London, multi- tudes of other persons of eminent rank and qual- ity of this nation, and the whole body of Scot- land, who have all willingly sworn and sub- scribed it with rejoicing at the oath, so gra- ciously seconded from heaven already, by blast- ing the counsels, and breaking the power, of the enemy more than ever, yet it goeth forth in its own strength with such convincing evidence of equity, truth, and righteousness, as may raise in all (not wilfully ignorant or miserably seduced) inflamed affections to join with their brethren in this happy bond, for putting an end to the present miseries, and for saving both king and Idngdom from utter ruin, now so strongly and openly laboured by the popish faction, and such as have been bewitched by that viperous and bloody generation."* It then proceeds to answer objections against taking the Covenant ; as, Obj. 1. That it obliges to the extirpation of prelacy, which stands as yet by the known laws of the land. Answ. The life and soul of the hierarchy is al- ready taken away, nothing of jurisdiction re- maining ; and since it is but a human constitu- tion, if it be found a grievance, we may certain- ly endeavour its extirpation in a lawful way. Obj. 2. It is said to be inconsistent with the oath of canonical obedience. Answ. If men have sworn obedience to the laws of the land, may they not endeavour by lawful means the repealing those laws, if they are found inconvenient 1 or if any ministers have taken oaths not warranted by the laws of God and the land, ought they not to repent of them 1 Obj. 3. But the Covenant crosses the oath of supremacy and allegiance. Answ. This is false, for it binds to the pres- * Rushworth, vol. v., p. 475. Husbarid's Collec- tions, p. 424. 468 ervation of the king's person and authority, in the defence of the rehgion and liberties of the kingdom. Obj. 4. But it is done without the king's con- sent. Answ.' So was the protestation of May 5, which went through the whole kingdom, his majesty not excepting against it, though he was then at Whitehall. The same has been done by the united Netherlands under King Philip : and more lately in Scotland, his maj- esty himself declaring, by act of Parliament, that they had done nothing but what became loyal and obedient subjects. Dr. Barwick says* that some persons in the University of Cambridge published an answer to this exhortation, which I have not seen ; but if the reader will look forward to the year 1647, he will find the reasons of the University of Oxford against it, confirmed in convocation, the validity of which he will judge of for him- self. It is certain most of the religious! part of the nation, who apprehended the Protestant religion in danger, and were desirous of redu- cing the hierarchy of the Church, were zealous for the Covenant. Others took it only in obe- dience of the Parliament, being sensible of the distressed circumstances of their afTairs, and that the assistance of the Scots was to be ob- tained on no other terms, t But as it was a test of a mixed nature, and contained some ob- ligations upon conscience, which wise and hon- est men might reasonably scruple, who were otherwise well affected to the Protestant reli- gion and the liberties of their country, the im- posing it as a test can never be justified, though it appears most of the Episcopal di- vines who made the greatest figure in the Church after the Restoration did not refuse it. Together with the Exhortation of the Assem- bly, the following orders<^ and instructions were dispersed over the kingdom : Ordered, " That copies of the Covenant be sent to all commanders-in-chief, and governors of towns, forts, garrisons, and soldiers, that it may be taken by all soldiers under their com- mand. "That copies be sent to the committees of Parliament, in the several counties that are under the power of the Parliament, and that the committees, within six days, disperse the said copies, and cause them to be delivered to the ministers, church-wardens, or constables of the several parishes. " That the several ministers be required to read the Covenant to the people the next Lord's Day after they have prepared the people to take it. " That the committees of Parliament take it themselves within seven days after they have HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. * Life of Barwick, p. 35. t "That is," says Bi.-shop Warburton, "the Pun- tan : for Puritanism and religion are convertible terms with this historian." This evidently appears to be remarked with a sneer, and to impeach the im- partiality of Mr. Neal. But, in answer to the remark, it may be observed, that it is not candid to interpret Mr. Neal's words as if he limited all seriousness of character to the Puritans ; and then the question is, whether the fact was not as Mr. Neal states it '! if it were, his language is irreprehensible. — Ed. % Rapin, vol. xii., p. 133. ^ Husband's Collections, p. 420. received the copies, and then disperse them- selves throughout their counties, so as three or four of them may be together at the several places appointed for the people to lake it. That they summon all the ministers, church ward- ens, constables, and other officers to that place, and after a sermon preached by a minister whom they shall appoint, they shall cause the said minister to tender the Covenant to all such ministers and other officers, to be taken and subscribed in the presence of the com- mittee. "The said ministers are then to be required to tender the Covenant to all the rest of their parishioners next Lord's Day ; and if any min- ister refuse or neglect to appear at the said summons, or refuse to take the said Covenant, the committee shall appoint another minister to do it in his place. " If any minister refuse to take or tender the Covenant, or if any other person refuse to take it after a second tender, upon two Lord's Days, their names shall be returned to the commit- tee, and by them to the House of Commons ; and all persons that absent themselves after no- tice given, shall be returned as refusers." The English in foreign parts were not ex- empted from this test ; directions were sent to Mr. Strickland, the Parliament's agent at the Hague, to tender it to all the English in those countries, and to certify the names of such as refused.* Here the elector-palatine took it, and, after some time, came into England, and condescended to sit in the Assembly of Divines. December 20, 1643, it was ordered by the Lords and Commons, that no person should be capa- ble of being elected a common councilman of the city of London, or so much as a voice in such elections, who has not taken the Cove- nant.t On the 29th of January, 1644, it was ordered by the Commons, that the solemn League and Covenant be, upon every day of fast- ing and public humiliation, publicly read in ev- ery church and congregation within the king- dom ; and every congregation is enjoined to have one fairly printed in a large letter, in a ta- ble fitted to be hung up in a public place of the church or congregation, to be read by the peo- ple. All young ministers were required to take the Covenant at their ordination ; none of the laity were continued in any office of trust, ei- ther civil or military, who refused it. When the war was ended, all the noblemen, knights, gen- tlemen, and officers who had opposed the Par- liament, were obliged to submit to it before they were admitted to composition. Notwith- standing all this severity. Dr. Calamy says, Mr. Baxter kept his people from taking the Cove- nant, as fearing it might be a snare to their consciences ; nay, he prevented its being much taken in the county he lived in, by keeping the ministers from offijring it to their people, ex- cept the city of Worcester, where he had no great interest. t The king could not be unacquainted with these proceedings, for the Covenant lay before the Parliament and Assembly almost a month, during which time his majesty took no public * Whitelocke, p. 79. Parliamentary Chronicle, p. 172. t Husband's Collections, p. 404. X Abridgment, p. 104. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 469 notice of it ; but a fortnight after it had been subscribed by both houses, and by all the cler- gy and laity within the bills of mortality, he is- sued out the following proclamation, dated from Oxford, October 9, in the nineteenth year of his reign. " Bt/ the King " Whereas there is a printed paper, entitled • A solemn League and Covenant for Reforma- tion and Defence of Religion,' &c., pretended to be printed by order of the House of Com- mons, September 21, which Covenant, though it seems to make specious expressions of piety and religion, is in ^ruth nothing else but a trai- torous and seditious combination against us and the established religion and laws of this kingdom, in pursuance of a traitorous design and endeavour to bring in foreign force to in- vade this kingdom ; we do, therefore, straitly charge and command all our loving subjects, of what degree or quality soever, upon their alle- giance, that they presume not to take the said seditious and traitorous Covenant. And we do likewise hereby farther inhibit and forbid all our subjects to impose, administer, or tender the said Covenant, as they, and every one of them, will answer the contrary at their utmost and extremest perils."* His majesty sent the like declaration into Scotland, to which the states of that kingdom paid no farther regard than to send him the reasons of their conduct, with their advice to his majesty to take the Covenant himself. Great complaints have been made, and not without reason, of the execution this test did upon the king's clergy throughout the kingdom. It was a new weapon put into the hands of the committees, which enabled them with more ease and certainty to detect malignant or dis- affected ministers ; for instead of producing a number of witnesses, as had been the method hitherto, they now tendered the Covenant, which the others refusing, gave occasion to the general report that the clergy were turned out of their livings only for refusing the Cove- nant, whereas their sequestration was ground- ed upon other causes ; or, at least, the articles of immorality or disaffection to the Parliament weje almost always joined with it. When the Covenant passed through the Parliament quar- ters, in some towns it was neglected, in others the incumbent avoided it by withdrawing for a few weeks, and getting another to officiate. Some who refused were displaced, and the names of those who absented were returned to the Parliament, but little or nothing came of it. The writer of the life of Bishop Saunderson says that in the associated counties of Cam- bridgeshire, &n., all were ejected who refused the Covenant, that is, all to whom it was ten- dered ; for though it was pressed pretty closely in some places notorious for disaffection, in others that had been quiet it was little regard- ed. The Earl of Manchester had particular in- structions to tender the Covenant to the Cam- bridge scholars, and yet the commissioners im- posed it only upon such who had adhered to the king, or of whose disaffection they had suffi- cient evidence, several who behaved peaceably being permitted to keep their places, who would * Rushworth, vol. v., p. 482. certainly have refused it. It has been observed already, that Mr. Baxter prevented its being much taken in Worcestershire ; and no doubt there were men of moderation and influence who did the same in other counties. Those clergymen who had declared for the king were usually put to the trial ; but reputed Calvinists, of sober lives, who had stood neuter, were fre- quently overlooked ; so that the beneficed cler- gy suffered by the Covenant, rather as parties in the war, than as friends of the hierarchy. However, it being a religious test, the imposing it was, in my opinion, unwarrantable, and a very great hardship, especially as it was for some time a door of entrance into ecclesiastical pref- erments for such young divines as had no con- cern in the war. A test of a civil nature would have answered all the ends of civil government, without shackling the consciences of men, which ought always to be left free, and open to con- viction. But if the Puritan powers bore hard upon the Loyalists in imposing the Covenant, the king's clergy were even with them at the Restoration, when they obliged them publicly to abjure it, or quit their preferments. The necessity of the king's affairs having obliged him to arm the papists, and commission the Duke of Ormond to agree to a cessation of arms with the Irish Catholics, in order to draw off his forces from thence, his majesty fell un- der the suspicion of favouring that religion, es- pecially when it appeared that not only the Protestant soldiers, but the Irish rebels, were transported with them. Mr. Whitelocke* says several of their officers and soldiers came over with the king's army ; that a month or two af- ter, eight hundred native Irish rebels landed at Weymouth, under the Lord Inchequin, and another party at Beaumaris, which committed great spoils, destroying with fire what they could not carry off. Another party landed near Chester, under the Earl of Cork, and fifteen hundred were cast away at sea : these wretch- es brought hither the same savage disposition which they had discovered in their own coun- try ; they plundered an(J killed people in cold blood, observing neither the rules of honour nor the law of arms.t The Scotch forces in the north of Ireland entered into a confedera- cy to stand by each other against the cessa- tion ; the Parliament of England protested against it, and published a declaration inform- ing the world that his majesty had broke through his royal promise, of leaving the Irish * P. 75, 76, 78, 79. Rapin, vol. ii., p. 486, folio. Clarendon, vol. ii., part i., p. 439. t Dr. Grey contrasts this charge against the Irish rebels with instances of the conduct of the Enghsh adherents to the Parliament. He brings forward with this view the murder of Dr. Walter Raleigh, dean of Windsor, by the man to whose custody he was committed ; and of Colonel Bulkley, by Major Cheadle : the perpetrators in each case were acquit ted. The doctor also refers to the petition of the Irish Catholics to the king in 1612, complaining of the violences and cruelties of which they were the objects. It is sufficient to observe, that the cruelty of one party does not exculpate the other. On which- ever side acts of injustice and cruelty are committed, humanity will lament it, and equity will reprobate it. Such is the nature of war, such is the envenomed spirit that irritates civil contests, each party is, gen- erally, very guilty ; and it may not be often easy to ascertain the proportion of guiU. — Ed. 470 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. war to them ; they forbade all masters of ships to bring over any officers or soldiers, on penal- ly of the forfeiture of their vessels, and gave letters of marque to merchants and others, who would fit out ships at their own expense, em- powering them to take to their own profit all such ships and goods as they should meet com- ing over with soldiers or warlike stores for the king. Next year an ordinance was published, that no quarters should be given to any Irish papist taken in arms against the Parliament ; all officers were to except them out of their capitulations, and upon making them prisoners, were immediately to put them to death. This unhappy management of the king alien- ated the alTections of great numbers of his friends who had the Protestant religion at heart ; many who wished well to his person deserted him upon this occasion, and made their peace with the Parliament, as the Earls of Holland, Bedford, Clare, Carlisle, Sir Edward Deering, and others; this last gentleman published the reasons of his conduct to the world, the principal of which were, the Irish cessation, his majesty preferring popish officers to chief places of trust and hon- our, and the language of the Oxford clergy and others that the king should come no other way to his palace but by conquest.* There was certainly a very malignant spirit among those gentlemen at this time, as appears by their form of thanksgiving, or, rather, imprecation, for the taking of Bristol, and the success of the Earl of Newcastle's army in the north : " 0 Lord," say they, " though oar sins cry aloud, hear them not, but look to the righteousness of our cause ; see the seamless coat of thy son torn ; the throne of thine anointed trampled upon ; thy Church invaded by sacrilege, and thy people miserably deceived by lies ; see it, O God, as see it thou dost, and vindicate what thou seest on the heads of those who lead these wretch- es." Many of the Earl of Newcastle's soldiers, in the north; upon news of the Irish cessation, threw down their arms and offered a composi- tion ; and, if we may believe the Parliamentary Chronicle,! this single action lost the king all the northern counties. To put a stop to the clamours of the people, and prevent any farther desertions, his majesty resolved to support his own character as a Protestant, and accordingly made the following protestation in presence of the congregation at Christ Church, Oxford, im- mediately before his receiving the sacrament from the hands of Archbishop Usher : " My Lord, " I espy here many resolved Protestants, who may declare to the world the declaration I do now make. I have, to the utmost of my pow- er, prepared my soul to be a worthy receiver, and may I so receive comfort from the blessed sacrament as I do intend the establishment of the true Reformed Protestant religion, as it stood in its beauty in the happy days of Quoen Elizabeth, without any connivance at pop'jry. I bless God that, in the mid^t of these public distractions, I have still liberty to communicate. And may this sacrament be my damnation if my heart do not join with my lips in this prot- estation."t * Rushworth, vol. v., p. 383. t Part iii., p. 86. t Rushworth, p. 346. Rapin, vol. ii., p. 490, folio. How consonant was this with his majesty's actions, when within a few days he agreed to a cessation with the Irish papists for a year, and a toleration of their religion ! All men knevsr that his majesty not only connived at popery, but indulged it as far as was in his power ; his- torians, therefore, are at a loss to reconcile thia solemn appeal to Heaven with the king's piety and sincerity. The Parliament was so appre- hensive of the consequences of bringing ovei the Irish papists, that, by an order of November 22, they desired the Assembly of Divines to write letters to the foreign churches of Holland, France, and Switzerland, and other places, to inform them of the artifices of his majesty's agents ; of the constant employment of Irish rebels, and other papists, to be governors, com- manders, and soldiers in his armies : of the many evidences of their intentions to introduce popery, to hinder the intended reformation, and. to condemn other Protestant churches as un- sound because not prelatical ; and that the Scots commissioners be desired to join with them. In pursuance of this order, the Assem- bly wrote the following letter, dated November 30, 1643 : "To the Belgic, French, Helvetian, and other Reformed Churches. " Right reverend and dearly beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, " We, the Assembly of Divines, and others, convened by the authority of both houses of Parliament, with the commissioners from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, do heartily salute you in the Lord. We doubt not but the sad reports of the miseries under which the Church and kingdom of England do bleed, and wherevi^ith we are ready to be swallowed up, is long since come to your ears ; and it is probable the same instruments of Satan and Antichrist have, by their emissaries, endeavour- ed to represent us as black as may be among yourselves.* And we sometimes doubt whether we have not been wanting to our own inno- cence, and your satisfaction, in being thus long silent ; but pardon us, dear brethren, if this cup of trembling wherewith our spirits have been filled to amazement, and our wrestling with ex- treme difficulties ever since our meeting, has hindered from that which was our duty ; and give us leave now a little to ease our grief, while we relate the desolation made by the anti- Christian faction, who arc for hindering the work of reformation, and for introducing and cherishing popery ; and are now arrived to that strength, that if the Lord do not speedily help us, we shall be altogether laid waste by them. " How great a hand they [the prelates] have had in the miseries of other Reformed church- cy, in the destruction of the Palatinate, in the loss of Rochelle, are so fully known and felt by you all, that we need not speak anything of them. And we suppose their inveterate hatred against you all is sufficiently manifest, in that multi- tudes of them have refused to acknowledge any of you for churches of Christ because you are not prelatical, and thereby, as they conceive, want a lawful vocation of ministers. Sure we are, that among ourselves, scarce one thing can be thought of which may be supposed an * Rushworth, p. 371. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. argument of their design to advance popery, that has not been attempted. The laws against po- pery have been suspended ; judges forbid to proceed against condemned priests ; Jesuits set free ; houses of superstition in Ireland and Eng- land have been set up, and not discountenanced ; notorious papists harboured about the court and pi'eferred ; many released from legal penalties, and their prosecutors discountenanced ; agents have been sent into Italy, and nuncios from Rome received, 0fhile the most zealous Prot- estants have been persecuted ; many prelates and clergymen have publicly preached, and en- deavoured to leaven the people with all points of popery, except the supremacy, and introdu- ced abundance of corrupt innovations into the worship of God ; for noncompliance with which many have been forced to fly for refuge to the jemote parts of the world. " They imposed upon the kingdom of Scot- land a new popish service-book and canons, to •which when that nation would not submit, they prevaded with his majesty to proclaim them rebels, and raise an army against them, to which all the papists, and those who were popishly af- fected, contributed ; and had not the Lord, by his blessing on the Scots' arms, and by the call- ing of this Parliament, prevented it, the two nations had been imbruing their hands in each other's blood. " But though we hoped, through the goodness of God, and his blessing upon this Parliament, whose hearts were inclined to a more perfect reformation, that our winter had been passed, yet, alas ! we find it to be quite otherwise. We know our sins have deserved all, and if we die and perish, the Lord is righteous ; to his hand we submit, and to him alone we look for healing. The same anti-Christian faction not being dis- couraged by their want of success in Scotland, have stirred up a bloody rebellion in Ireland, wherein above one hundred thousand Protest- ants have been destroyed in one province with- in a few months. They have alienated the heart of his majesty from his Parliament, and pre- vailed with him to withdraw and raise an army, which at first pretended only to be made up of Protestants, but soon after papists were armed by commission from the king ; many great pa- pists were put into places of public command, and the body of all the papists have joined his majesty with all their might; they profess and exercise their religion publicly in several parts of the kingdom, and go up and down plunder- ing, murdering, and spoiling of their goods all such as adhere to the Parliament, and to the cause of religion. Nor has the Parliament been able, by their petitions and remonstrances, to recover his majesty out of their hands, or bring these men to deserved punishment, but the sword rages almost in every corner of this wo- ful land. " And to complete our miseries, they have prevailed with his majesty so far to own the rebels in Ireland, as not only to call them his Roman Catholic subjects now in arms, but to grant them a cessation of arms for a year, and to hold what they had gotten, with liberty to strengthen themselves with men, money, ariips, ammunition, &c., whereby they are enabled not only to destroy the remnant of Protestants in Ireland, but to come over hither (as many of 471' them are already) to act the same butchery upon us. " In the midst of these troublesome times the two houses of Parliament have called this As- sembly, to give them our best counsel for the reformation of the Church, requiring us to make God's Word only our rule, and to endeavour the nearest conformity to the best Reformed churches, and uniformity to all the churches of the three kingdoms. " The Church and kingdom of Scotland have made offer of their humble mediation to the king for a pacification, which being rejected, both nations have entered into a mutual league and covenant ; and the Scots have resolved to join in arms with their brethren in England, for their mutual preservation from the common enemy, and, so far as in them lieth, for the safety of their native king. They have also sent their commissioners hither, for uniformity of religion in the churches of both kingdoms. " And we, their commissioners, do exceed- ingly rejoice to behold the foundation of the house of God, not only in doctrine, but in church government, laid before our eyes in a reverend assembly of so wise, learned, and godly divines. And we find ourselves bound, in all Christian duty, as well as by our late Covenant, to join in representing to the Reformed churches abroad the true condition of affairs here against all mistakes and misinformations. " And now, dear brethren, we beg of you, first, to judge aright of our innocence and in- tegrity in this our just defence ; if our enemies say that we are risen up in rebellion to de- prive the king of his just power and greatness, and to bring anarchy and confusion into the Church of Christ, we doubt not but our solemn Covenant (a copy of which we humbly present you herewith) will sufficiently clear us. Let the righteous Lord judge between us, whom we implore to help us no farther than we cart plead these things in sincerity. " Secondly, That you would sympathize with us as brethren, who suffer in and for the same cause wherein yourselves have been oppressed. " Thirdly, That you would conceive of our condition as your own common cause, which, if it be lost with us, yourselves are not like long to escape, the quarrel being not so much against men's persons as against the power of godliness and the purity of God's Word. The way and manner of your owning us we leave to yourselves, only we importunately crave your fervent prayers, both public and private, that God would bring salvation to us ; that the blessings of truth and peace may rest upon us ; that these three nations may be joined as one stick in the hands of the Lord ; and that we ourselves, contemptible builders, called to re- pair the house of God in a troublesome time, may see the pattern of this house, and com- mend such a platform to our Zerubbabels as may be most agreeable to his sacred Word, nearest in conformity to the best Reformed churches, and to establish uniformity among ourselves ; that all mountains may become plains before them and us, that then all who now see the plummet in our hands, may also behold the top-stone set upon the head of the Lord's house among us, and may help us with shouting to cry, Grace, grace to it. iT2 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. " Thus much we have been commanded to inform you of, reverend brethren (and by you all faithful Christians under your charge), by the honourable House of Commons, in whose name, and in our own, we bid you heartily fare- well in the Lord. " Your most affectionately devoted brethren in Christ, William Twisse, Prolocutor. Cornelius Burges, John White, Assessors. Henry Roborough, Adoniram I3yfield, Scribes. John Maitland, A. Johnston, Alexander Henderson, Samuel Rutherford, Robert Bailie, George Gillespie, Commissioners of the Church of Scotland.^'' The inscription was, " To the reverend and learned Pastors and Elders of the Classes and Churches of the Province of Zealand, our much- honoured Brethren." Letters of the same import were sent to the several churches of the Seven Provinces ; to the churches of Geneva ; the Protestant Can- tons of Switzerland ; the churches of Hesse, Hanau, and Hainault ; and to the Protestant congregation at Paris ; all which were received with respect, and answered by the several classes.* But the churches of Bohemia, Tran- sylvania, Poland, Silesia, and Austria, and other cities and principalities of Germany, were not written to. The answer from the French church at Paris was read in the Assembly the beginning of March ; from Switzerland June 12, 1644 ; and from Genevat at the same time ; from the classes of Amsterdam and Guelder- land June 29 ; and Mr. Whitelocke observes, that the Netherland divines expressed not only their approbation of the proceedings of the Parliament and Assembly touching the Cove- nant, but desired to join with the two kingdoms therein. The king, apprehending himself misrepre- sented to the foreign churches in that part of the Assembly's letter which insinuates a design to introduce popery, and being advised to vin- dicate his character from that imputation, caus- ed a manifesto to be drawn up in Latin and English, to all foreign Protestants, which, though not published till the beginning of next year, may be properly inserted in this place. " Charles, by the special providence of Al- mighty God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to all those who profess the true Reformed Protest- ant religion, of what nation, degree, or con- dition soever they be, to whom this present declaration shall come, greeting. " Whereas we are given to understand that many false rumours and scandalous letters are spread up and down among the Reformed churches in foreign parts by the politic, or, rather, the pernicious industry of some ill-af- fected persons, that we have an inclination to recede from tliat orthodox religion which we were born, baptized, and bred in, and which we have firmly professed and practised throughout * History of the Stuarts, p. 232. t " Diodati, the prince of divinity there," Bishop Warburlon says, " returned a very temperate answer, noway inconsistent with the re-estabhshment of Episcopacy." — Ed. the whole course of our life to this moment ; and that we intend to give way to the introduc- tion and public exercise of popery again into our dominions, which most detestable calumny, being grounded upon no imaginable foundation, hath raised these horrid tumults, and more Ihaa barbarous wars, throughout this flourishing island, under pretence of a kind of reformation which is incompatible with the fundamental laws and government of this kingdom ; we de- sire that the whole Christian^orld should rest assured that we never entertained the least thought to attempt such a thing, or to depart a jot from that holy religion, which, when we re- ceived the crown and sceptre of this kingdom, we took a most solemn sacramental oath to profess and protect. Nor does our constant practice, and daily presence in the exercise of this religion, with so many asseverations at the head of our armies, and the public attestatioa of our batons, with the circumspection used ia the education of our royal offspring, besides divers other undeniable arguments, only de- monstrate this, but also that happy alliance of marriage we contracted between our eldest daughter and the illustrious Prince of Orange most closely confirms the reality of our intea- tions herein ; by which it appears that oar endeavours are, not only to make a professioti thereof in our own dominions, but to strengthea it abroad as much as lieth in our power.* " This most holy religion of the Anglican Church, ordained by so many convocations of learned divines, confirmed by so many acts of Parliament, and strengthened by so many royal proclamations, together with the ecclesiastical discipline and liturgy, which the most eminent Protestant authors, as well as G«5rmans, French, Danes and Swedes, Dutch and Bohemians, do with many eulogies, and not without a kind of envy, approve and applaud in their public wri- tings, particularly in the transactions of the Synod of Dort, wherein (besides others of our divines who were afterward prelates) one of our bishops assisted, to whose dignity all due respect and precedency were given ; this reli- gion, we say, which our royal father, of blessed memory, doth publicly assert in his famous con- fession addressed to all Christian princes, with the hierarchy and liturgy thereof, we solemnly protest, that, by the help of God, we will en- deavour, to our utmost power and last period of our life, to keep entire and inviolable ; and will be careful, according to our duty to heavea and the tenour of our oath at our coronation, that all ecclesiastics, in their several degrees and incumbencies, shall preach and practise. Wherefore we command all our ministers of state beyond the seas, as well ambassadors as residents, agents, and messengers ; and we de- sire all the rest of our loving subjects that so- journ in foreign parts, to communicate and as- sert this our solemn and sincere protestation, when opportunity of time and place shall be of- fered. " Given in our University and city of Oxford, " May 14, 1644." This declaration did the king little service among foreign Protestants, for though it as- sured them his majesty would not turn papist, * Rushworth, vol. v., p. 752. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 473 it convinced them that no alteration in the Eng- lish hierarchy was to be expected. His mar- rying his daughter to the Prince of Orange was, perhaps, the only evidence of his charity for the Dutch reformation ; but his appeal to the edu- cation of his children was trifling, when all the world knew they were under popish instructers, in pursuance of a marriage contract, till twelve or fourteen years of age, and had received im- pressions not to be easily clTaced. His insinu- ating to the foreign churches that their most learned divines preferred the English hierarchy to the government of their own countries, con- vinced them they ought to be more sparing of their compliments for the future to persons who would draw such conclusions from them. As to the Synod of Dort, no precedency was given to the bishop on account of his Episcopal character, but as a baron of the English Parlia- ment.* Nor is there anything in the declara- tion that might encourage the foreign clergy to hope his majesty would own their churches, ministers, or sacraments, or unite with them against the common enemy of the Reformation, any more than before these unhappy troubles began. All the Episcopal divines left the Assembly before the bringing in of the Covenant, except Dr. Featly, who was expelled for holding cor- respondence with Archbishop Usher at Oxford, and for revealing their proceedings, contrary to the express words of the ordinance, which obli- ges them " not to divulge, by printing, or wri- ting, or otherwise, their opinions or advices, touching the matters proposed to them by Par- liament, without the consent of both or either house." The doctor was a learned man, and a Calvinist, upon which account the Assembly paid him a high regard, and indulged him in all his speeches in favour of Episcopacy, and against the Covenant, some of which were af- terward published to the world. They appoint- ed him to answer to a popish pamphlet, called the Safeguard ; and he bore a part in the anno- tations on the Bible, which go under the name of the Assembly. Lord Clarendon says the king sent him a letter forbidding him to sit any longer, but that the doctor excused it in a letter to Archbishop Usher, which, being intercepted, he was committed prisonert to Lord Peter's * Dr. Grey will have it that the contrary was the fact, and quotes Bishop Carleton. But the quota- tion goes to prove no more than that the foreign di- vines at the synod, in their conversations with him, expressed their approbation of the Episcopal govern- ment of the Enghsh Church, and their wishes to have the same order estabhshed among themselves. Jiut Mr. Neal's representation does not seem to be accurate. The case of precedency, according to Brandt, appears to have stood thus: when the synod met, the two commissioners of the States took place near the chimney, on the right hand. The English divines sat on the left. An empty seat was kept for the French. The third place was appointed for the deputies of the Palatinate, aad so on. Ne.xt to the commissioners on the right the professors of divinity took place, and then the ministers and elders of the country, according to the rank of each province. So that the precedency which the English bishop had naturally arose from his rank among the English di- vines ; to whom, in general, was assigned the first seat on the left hand. — History of the Reformation, abridged, vol. if, p. 397. — Ed. t The imprisonment of Dr. Featly, Mr. Baxter ob- VOL. I.— O 0 o house, in Aldersgate-street, as a spy .- the arch- bishop, at the same time, being declared incapa- ble of sitting in the Assembly for the like rea- son. And here was an end of all the public concern the Episcopal party had m the govern ment of the Church till the Restoration. From the time of taking the Covenant, wo may date the entire dissolution of the hierarchy, though it was not as yet abolished by an ordi- nance of Parliament. There were no ecclesi- astical courts, no visitations, no wearing the habits, no regard paid to the canons or cere- monies, or even to the common prayer itself. The Archbishopof Canterbury, by an ordinance of May 16, had been forbid to collate any bene- fices in his gift but to persons nominated by Parliament ; for disobedience to which he was, by another ordinance of June 10, "suspended ah officio et beneficio, and from all archiepiscopal jurisdiction, till he should be acquitted or con- victed of the high treason of which he was im- peached ; and as to such livings, dignities, pro- motions, &c., in the said archbishop's gift or collation, as are, or shall hereafter, become void, institution or induction shall henceforward be given by the archbishop's vicar-general, or any other having authority on his behalf, upon the nomination and recommendation of both houses of Parliament." By this extraordinary method the Rev. Mr. Corbet was inducted into the liv- ing of Chatham, " ratione suspensionis dom. Guil. ArchiepiscopiCant. et sequestrationis tem- poralium archiepiscopatus in manibus supremae curiae Parliamenti, jam existentis," " by reason of the suspension of the Archbishop of Canter- bury, and the sequestration of the temporalities of his archbishopric into the hands of the pres- ent high court of Parliament, the same belong- ing to their gift." But this ordinance was ot no long continuance, for upon the sitting of the Assembly of Divines, church business went through their hands ; the parishes elected their ministers, the Assembly examined and appro- ved of them, and the Parliament confirmed them in their benefices without any regard to the archbishop or his vicar. Thus the Earl of Man- chester filled thte vacant pulpits in the associa- ted counties ; and when Lord Fairfax was au- thorized to supply those in the north, by an or- dinance of February 27, the preamble says, " The houses being credibly informed that many ministers in the county of York were not only of a scandalous life, but, having left their churches and cures, had withdrawn themselves wilfully from the same, and joined such forces as had been raised against the Parliament, and assisted them with men, money, horses, and arms ; therefore it is ordained that Lord Fair- fax be authorized to fill up their places with such learned and godly divines as he shall think fit, with advice of the Assembly."* This created a great deal of business ; for though the Assembly had not a parliamentary authority to ordain, yet the examination and approbation of such clergymen already in orders as petitioned for sequestered livings, being by express order of the two houses referred to serves, "much reflected on the Parliament ; because, whatever the facts were, he was so learned a man, as was sufficient to dishonour those he suffered by." — Baxter's Life and Times, p. 75. — Ed. * Parliamentary Chronicle, part iv., p. 128 474 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. them, they were obliged to choose a select com- Ttnittee for this work ; their names were, Rev. Dr. Gouge. Rev. Mr. Conant. Dr. Stanton. Mr. Cower. Dr. Liglufoot, Mr. Colman. Dr. Smith. Mr. Hill. Dr. Temple. Mr. Corbet. Dr. Tuckiiey. Mr. Gataker. Dr. Hoyle. Mr. Ilerle. Dr. Burgas. Mr. Hall. Dr. Spurstovv Mr. Whitaker. Mr. Ley. Mr. Bathurst. Mr. Reynolds. Mr. Cheynel. The method of examination was this : the names of the ministers who petitioned for liv- ings, or were recommended by either house of Parliament, being published in the Assembly two or three days before the examination, liberty was given in that time to make exceptions to their characters ; if nothing was objected, they were examined by the committee, or any five of them, who reported their qualifications to the House, upon which each candidate received a certificate from the Assembly to the following effect : "According to an order bearing date , from the committee of the House of Commons for plundered ministers, to the committee of di- vines for the examinatian of A. B., concerning his fitness to be admitted to the benefit of the sequestration of the Church of , in the coun- ty of , and so to ofliciate in the cure there- of, these are to certify the said committee of plundered ministers, that, upon examination of the said A. B., and some trial of his gifts and abilities, we conceive him fit to officiate in the cure of , in the county aforesaid. In wit- ness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names." The scribes of the Assembly were ordered to keep a record of all orders and certificates con- cerning ministers recommended to sequestra- tors, and to enter them in a register-book. This continued for about a year, till the new direc- tory and form of church government took place. Towards the latter end of this year died Will- iam Chillingworth, AM., ^hom I mention, not as a Puritan, but as a witness against some of those hardships the present Dissenters complain of; he was born at Oxford, 1602, and educated in Magdalen College, of which he became fellow in June, 1628. He afterward turned Roman Catholic, and went to the Jesuits' College at St. Omer's, where not being thoroughly satis- lied in some of their principles, he returned to England in 1631, and having embraced the reli- gion of the Church of England, published an excellent treatise, entitled "The Religion of Protestants a safe Way to Salvation," for which he was preferred to the chancellorship of the Church of Sarum, and made master of Wyg- ston Hospital, in Leicester. He was inserted in the list with other Loyalists to be created D.D. in the year 1642, but came not thither to receive that honour. It was the general opinion of the times that he was a Socinian, but in his last letter, at the end of his works, he appears an Arian. It is very certain he refused to sub- scribe the Thirty-nine Articles, for some years after his conversion, (1.) Because he did not be- lieve the morality of the fourth commandment. (2.) Because he did not agree to the damnatory clauses in the Athanasiain creed, and, therefore, could not read the common prayer. He objected also to the twentieth article, "of the Church's power to decree rites and ceremonies ;" to the nineteenth article, " that works done before the grace of Christ, &c., are not pleasing to God ;" and, indeed, says the writer of his life, to the articles in general, as an imposition on men's consciences, much like the authority which the Ciuirch of Rome assumes.* Mr. Chillingworth blesses God, that when he had entertained some thoughts of subscription, two unexpected impediments diverted him from it; "for," says he, "I profess since I enter- tained it I never enjoyed quiet, day nor night, till now that I have rid myself of it again ; and I plainly perceive, that if I had swallowed this pill, howsoever gilded over with glosses and reservations, and wrapped up in conserves of good intentions and purposes, yet it would nev- er have agreed nor stayed with me ; but I should have cast it up again, and with it what- soever preferment I should have gained as the wages of unrighteousness ; but now, I thank God, I am resolved that I will never do that while I am living and in health, which I would not do if I was dying ; and this I am sure I would not do, and, therefore, whenever I make such a preposterous choice, I will give you leave to believe that I am out of my wits, or do not believe in God."t Notwithstanding these resolutions, he was prevailed with to subscribe by his godfather. Archbishop Laud, to qualify him for the above-mentioned preferments. How the pill was gilded over, is not certain ; the writer of his life says he subscribed as articles of peace, not of belief Mr. Chillingworth was a quick disputant, and of very high principles, for in one of his sermons before the king he says, that "the most unjust and tyrannical vio- lence of princes may not be rejected ; this be- ing unlawful, even though princes be most im- pious, tyrannical, and idolatrous." But though his political principles were high, he was low enough with regard to the authority of councils, fathers, and convocations in matters of faith : adhering steadfastly to that celebrated declara- tion, " that the Bible alone is the religion of a Protestant." He was an excellent mathemati- cian, and served as engineer in Arundel Castle, in Sussex, in which he was taken prisoner, and when indisposed, had the favour of being lodged in the bishop's house at Chichester, where he died, January 20, 1643-4. It is surprising that Lord Clarendon should say, " The Parliament clergy prosecuted him with all the inhumanity imaginable, so that by their barbarous usage he died within a few days,"t when, as he him- self acknowledged, he wanted for nothing, and ^^ by the interest of Dr. Cheynel, who attended him in his sickness, was courteously used.^ * Chillingworth's Life, p. 273. t Ibid., p. 79. t Ibid., p. 314, 3-25. ^ Dr. Cheynel's kindness extended to the procu ring a commodious lodging for Mr. Chillingworth, to engaging the physician, as his symptoms grew worse, to renew his visits, and to securing for him the rites of burial, which some would have denied him. , Yet he held the opinions of Mr. Chillingworth in the greatest detestation, and treated his name and mem- ory with virulence and asperity, as appears from the above speech at the intcrment'of this great mnn.and by a pamphlet he published, entitled " Chilling- worthi Novissima ; or, the Sickness, PIcresy, Death, HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 475 The doctor would have reasoned him out of some of his principles, but could not prevail, and, therefore, at his interment, after a reflect- ing speech upon his character, threw his book, entitled "The Religion of Protestants a safe Way to Salvation," into the grave, saying, " Get thee gone, thou cursed book, which has seduced so many precious souls ; earth to earth, dust to dust ; get thee into the place of rottenness, that thou mayest rot with thy author, and see cor- ruption." A most unchristian and uncharita- ble imprecation ! Among the considerable statesmen who died this year may be justly reckoned John Hamp- den, Esq., of Buckinghamshire, a gentleman of good extraction, and one of the greatest patri- ots of his age, as appears by his standing trial with the king in the case of ship-money, which raised his reputation to a very great height throughout the kingdom. He was not a man of many words, but a very weighty speaker ; his reputation for integrity universal, and his affections so publicly guided, that no corrupt or private ends could bias them. Pie was, indeed, a very wise man, of great parts and modesty, and possessed of the most absolute spirit of popularity, says Lord Clarendon, I ever knew. He was one of the impeached members of the House of Commons, and, in the beginning of the war, took the command of a regiment, and performed the duty of a colonel on all occasions punctually, being a man of great personal cour- age, not to be tired out by the most laborious, and of parts not to be imposed upon by the most subtle, but because he fought against the court. Lord Clarendon says (if this be not an in- terpolation of the editors) that he had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief-.* which is very unac- and Burial of William Chillingworth," &c., which Bishop Warburton calls " a villanous book ;" and tells us that " Mr. Locke speaks of it in the harshest terms, but not more severely than it deserves." The fact is, as Bishop Hoadley states it, " Dr. Cheynel was a rigid, zealous Presbyterian ; exactly orthodox ; very unwilling that any should be supposed to go to heav- en but in the right way. And this was that one way in which he himself was settled ; and in which he seems to be as sincere, as honest, and charitable as his bigotry and his cramped notions of God's pendi- um could permit him to be." Years after this, Dr. Snape, a clergyman of name in the Church of Eng- land, displayed the like temper and spirit to Dr. Cheynel, in the Bangorian controversy, which I men- tion to introduce Bishop Hoadley's excellent conclu- sion from both these instances of bigotry, namely, " that an intemperate heat scorches up charity in one church as well as in another, and everywhere equal- ly lays waste the most amiable duties of Chris- tianity ; and that men of the most opposite persua- sions, agreeing in the same narrowness of principles and notions of zeal, though differing from one anoth- er in many particulars, even to a degree of mutual destruction, can kindly and lovingly unite in con- demning the best principles of all religion as subtle atheism, or indifference, or infidelity, and in declaring them to be the principles of all irreligion when their several schemes and systems are likely to suffer from them." So the sentiments on toleration, charity, and free inquiry, as they were defended by Chilling- worth and by Hoadley's friend, were condemned by Cheynel and Snape. — Hoadley's Works, vol. ii., p. 622, folio ; and Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, -vol. ii , 1). 466.— Ed. * Oldmixon's History of the Stuarts, p. 227. Dr. Grey endeavours to establish the authenticity countable in one whom his lordship had com- mended as a person not only of cheerfulness and affability, but of extraordinary sobriety and strictness of life. Mr. Hampden was certainly, in all respects, one of the greatest and best men of his age, and the Parliament sustained an ir- reparable loss in his death, which happened June 24, about a week after his shoulder-bone had been broken by a musket-ball, in a skirmish with Prince Rupert's forces in Calgrave Field.* of this passage by a large quotation from the Week- ly Miscellany, by Richard Hooker, of the Temple, Esq. To Mr. Neal's account of Hampden it may be added, that he was born in the year 1594, and died the 24th of June, 1643, leaving ten children behind him. The Parliament, as a testimony of his service to the public, ordered the sum of £5000 to be paid to his assignees out of the excise. Mr. Baxter has placed him with the saints in heaven (Everlasting Rest, p. 82, 83) ; and Lord Cobham with the wor- thies in his elysium at Stow. Under his bust is this inscription : "JOHN HAMPDEN, " Who, with great spirit and consummate abilities, be- gan an opposition to an arbitraiy court, in defence of the liberties of his country ; supported them in Par- liament, and died for them in the field." He argued the case of ship-money with the judges for twelve days together, in the Exchequer Cham- ber ; and " had more reason to triumph," says Mr. Granger, " from his superiority in the argument, than the crown had for its victory in the cause." — Bio- graphical History of England, vol. ii., p. 212, 8vo, and Mrs. Macaulai/s History, 8vo, vol. ili., p. 432, 433, note, in which work the character of this great man is fully delineated. — Ed. * The dying language of Hampden was, " O Lord, save my bleeding country. Have these realms in thy special keeping. Confound and level in the dust those who would rob the people of their liberty and lawful prerogative. Let the king see his error, and turn the hearts of his wicked counsellors from the malice and wickedness of their designs. Lord Jesus, receive my soul!" Again, recurring to his native land, he prayed, " O Lord, save my country ! O Lord, be merciful to — " here his speech failed him, and, falling back on his bed, he expired.— i/orti Nu- gent's Hampden, vol. ii., p. 438. Little need be said respecting the character of John Hampden. It is sufficiently apparent throughout his history, and has uniformly commanded the respect and admiration of impartial men. His fearless resistance of the tyranny of Charles, when that tyranny was both pow- erful and mercdess ; the calm and dignified tone in which he ruled the early deliberations of the Long Parliament ; and the energy and decision with which he sought to bring the struggle to an issue when an appeal to arms was inevitable, all prove him to have been as consummate a statesman as he was an m- llexibly upright man. Even Clarendon, whde en deavouring to injure his reputation, is compelled tc do homage to bis transcendent abilities and surpass ing prudence of address. '■ He was, indeed," remarks the party historian, " a very wise man, and of great parts, and possessed with the most absolute spirit of popularity, and the most absolute faculties to gov- ern the people, of any man I ever knew." To a re- markably equable temper he united a self control and clearness of perception, which rendered him an emi- nently successful parliamentary speaker, while his unspotted integrity and firm adherence to principle constituted him the most formidable opponent of the court. With the eye of a skilful tactician he sur- veyed the forces arrayed against him ; allowed them to expend their strength, to pour forth the vials of their wrath, or to justify themselves behind the pre- cedents of a former age ; and then, when their vic- tory was supposed to be won, and tokens of exulta- tion were displayed, the matchless power of Hamp- den's eloquence was felt. " He had so subtle a way 476 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. John Pym, Esq., member for Tavistock in all the Parliaments of King Charles I., was a man of the greatest experience in parliamenta- ry affairs of any man of his time. He was an admirable speaker, and hy the gravity of his countenance and graceful behaviour, could turn the House which way he pleased ; he was a man of business and for moderate measures, according to Lord Clarendon, till the king im- peached him of high treason. In his private life he was eminent for true piety and exactness of manners ; and though inclined to the Puri- tan party, not averse to the hierarchy with some emendations. He was one of the lay-members of the Assembly of Divines, and at the head of all public business, the fatigue of which wore out his constitution, and put an end to his life, December 8, 1643, in the sixtieth year of his age. The news of no man's death was more welcome to the Royalists than his, who spread a report that he died of the morbus pediculosus ;* to confute which aspersion, his body was expo- sed to public view far many days, and at last interred, in the most honourable manner, in Westminster Abbey. A little before his death, he published his own vindication to the world against the many slanders that went abroad concerning him, wherein " he declares himself a faithful son of the Protestant religion, and of the orthodox doctrme of the Church of Eng- land. He confesses he had been for reforming abuses in the government of the Church, when the bishops, instead of taking care of men's of interrogating, and, under the notion of doubts, in- sinuating his objections, that he infu.sed his own opin- ions nito those from whom he pretended to learn and receive them. And even with tli^ m who were able to preserve themselves from his infusions, and discern- ed those opinions to be fixed in him with which they could not comply, he always left the character of an ingenious and conscientious person." To his profound sagacity as a statesman, and his skill as a parliamentary leader, he added an enlighten- ed patriotism, and the sterling virtues of Christianity. On the whole, it may be pronounced with safety, that English history records no purer or brighter ex- ample of public virtue and of private excellence than was exhibited in the career of John Hampden, Con- sistent from the first, that career was happily termi- nated before its lustre had been dimmed, or its beau- ty impaired by the mists of human passion; and he now shines forth the idol and the pattern of all suc- ceeding worthies. — Dr. Price's History of Noncon- formity, vol. ii., p. 303-4. — C. * Dr. Grey has the candour to discredit this re- port ; and says, from the funeral sermon for Mr. Pym by Mr. Marshal, that it was confuted by the testimo- ny of near a thousand people who saw the corps, and of eight physicians who were present at the opening of the body. Yet the doctor repeats, from Clarendon, the calumnies of those who accused him of raising considerable sums by dishonest practices, of corrupting witnesses, and selling his protection for bribes; though he was exculpated before the tri- bunal of Parliament, vindicated his conduct by his own pen, and left his private fortune at so low an ebb, that the Parliament expended a considerable sum in the payment of his debts ; an evidence sufR- •^ient of itself to confute his enemies. Mr. Pym was •ailed, m early life, Phoshi delicicB, Icpos pmllas. He ivas commonly called "King Pym;" and from his experience in the forms of Parliament, his knowledge rfthe law and Constitution, his powers of argument md elocution, and his known honesty and integrity, le enjoyed an unrivalled authority in the Lower House.— ATrs. Macaulay, vol. iv., p. 92, 94; and Granger's Biographical History, vol. ii., p. 211. — Ed. souls, were banishing their bodies into the most desolate places ; bringing in new canons, Ar- minian and Pelagian errors, and such a number of rites and ceremonies as the people were not able to bear. When since that time they had, as much as in them lay, fomented the civil dif- ferences between the king and his Parliament, abetting and encouraging malignants with large supplies of men and money, and stirring up the people to tumults by their seditious sermons. For these reasons," says he, " I gave my opin- ion for abolishing their functions, which I con- ceive may as well be done as the dissolution of monasteries, monks, and friars was in King Henry the Eighth's time. He concludes with declaring that he was not the author of the present distractions ; with acknowledging the king for his lawful sovereign, but thinks, when he was proscribed for a traitor, merely for the service of his country, no man can blame him for taking care of his own safety, by flying for refuge to the protection of Parliament, who were pleased to make his case their own."* CHAPTER III. THE OXFORD PARLIAMENT. PROGRESS OF THE WAR. VISITATION OP THE UNIVERSITY OF CAM- BRIDGE BY THE EARL OF MANCHESTER. COM- MITTEES FOR PLUNDERED, SEQUESTERED, AND SCANDALOUS MINISTERS. The campaign being ended without any pros- pects of peace, both parties endeavoured to strengthen themselves by new and sovereign acts of power. The Parliament experiencing the want of a great seal, for many purposes, gave orders that one should be made.f They continued to list soldiers, to levy taxes, and to use every method to support their cause,t * John Pym, who died in December of the same year, was cast in a ditferent mould from Hampden. He was more moderate in his ecclesiastical views, and would probably have preferred a reduced epis- copacy, such as Usher advocated, to any other form of church government. But the efforts of the bish- ops to widen the misunderstanding between the king and his Parliament, and their zeal in aiding the arms of the former, induced him to concur in the abolition of their functions. His intimate acquaintance with the forms of par- liamentary procedure, combined with unwearied diligence, extensive researches, matchless skill in the arrangement of public business, and an unspot- ted integrity, secured him great influence in the House. His style of oratory was masculine and nervous, and effected its purpose by a straightfor- wardness and honesty, rather than by any brilliancy of conception or loftiness of intellectual range. " He had a very comely and grave way of expressing him- self," says Clarendon, " with great volubility of words, natural and proper; and understood the tem- per and affections of the kingdom as well as any man ; and had observed the errors and mistakes in government, and knew well how to make them ap- pear greater than they were." — Dr. Price's Hist, of Noncnrifarmity. vol. ii., p. 305, 306. — C. t Rushvvoith, vol. v., p. 560. i " What was all this," says Dr. Grey, "but high treason '?" To confirm his opinion, he refers to Dr. Wood's Institute of the Laws of England, and to the 25th of Edward III., cap. ii., as authorities to show that the acts of Parliament were acts of treason. As if laws formed to preserve the allegiance of the subjects to a lung acting constitutionally, and fulfill- HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 477 which their policy suggested and their necessi- ty urged. On the other hand, the king raised contributions witiiout form of law ;* ordered the removal of the courts of justice from West- minster ; and that he might seem to act in a parliamentary way, summoned the members who had been expelled the houses, and all oth- ers willing to withdraw from the rebellious city of London, to meet him at Oxford, t January 22, 1643-4, which was, in effect, disannulling the act for continuing of the present Parliament. In obedience to the proclamation, there appear- ed forty-nine peers, and one hundred and forty- one of the House of Commons, not reckoning those employed in his majesty's service, or ab- sent with leave. Lord Clarendon sayst the ap- pearance of both houses with the king was su- perior in number, as well as quality, to those at Westminster; which must be a mistake; for though the majority of peers were on that side, Mr. Whitelocke>^ assures us, that upon a call of the House of Commons, the very day the others were to meet at Oxford, there were present two hundred and eighty members, not reckoning one hundred more, who were enga- ged in their service in the several counties. This is a very considerable majority ; though if there had been only forty, the king could not have prorogued or dissolved them without their own consent. However, the Oxford members styled themselves the Parliament, Lord Littleton being speaker for the peers, and Sergeant Evers for the Commons. II Their first step was to satisfy the world they desired peace, such a peace, to use the king's own words,ir " wherein God's true religion may be secured from the danger of popery, sectaries, and innovations : the crown may possess those just prerogatives, which may enable me to gov- ern my people according to law, and the sub- jects be confirmed in those rights which I have granted them in Parliament, to which I shall be ready to add such new graces as I shall find may most conduce to their happiness." They laid an excise upon tobacco, wine, strong wa- ters, ale, cider, grocery and mercery wares, soap, salt, and butcher's meat, and subscribed ing faithfully his part of the political contract, appli- ed to extraordinary emergencies, and to a sovereign who had violated the Constitution. As if laws made to restrain individuals bound the majority of the rep- resentative body of the nation. — See also Rapin, vol. ii., p. 495, folio.— Ed. * " And pray," asks Dr. Grey, " what form of law had the rebels for raising contributions?" That form of law, our readers will probably reply, and that spirit of the Constitution, which invest the rep- resentatives of the people with the power and right of appointing the ta.xes. — Ed. t The impolicy of this step is forcibly, though somevvhat jocularly, represented by Mr. Selden : "The kmg calling his friends from the Parliament," eaid this great man, " because he had use of them at Oxford, is as if a man should have use of a little piece of wood, and he runs down into the cellar, and takes the spigot : in the mean time all the beer runs' about the house : when his friends are absent the king will be lost." — Table- Talk on the Word King. — Ed. t Clarendon's Remains, p. 165. ^ Memoirs, p. 70. II Rushworth, p. 567, 688. Rapin, p. 496, 502, foho. Oldmixon's History of the Stuarts, p. 240. il On another occasion, in his speech to the in- habitants of Somersetshire, July 13, 1644. — Ed. considerable sums of money for support of the war ; they declared the Scots then entering England with an army traitors ; and the Lords and Commons at Westminster, guilty of high treason for inviting them, as well as for coun terfeiting the great seal. On the other hand, the Parliament at Westminster would not ac- knowledge the Oxford members, or receive a message from them under the character of a Parliament, but expelled them their house, ex- cept they returned to their seats within a lim- ited time.* April 16, 1644, the king prorogued his Oxford members to November following, when they fell under his displeasure, for advi- sing to pacific measures at the treaty of Ox- bridge, which was then upon the carpet, and in a fair way of producing an accommodation. This was so disagreeable to the queen and her Roman Catholic counsellors, that they never left off teazing the unhappy king, till he had dismissed them, and broke off the treaty ; an account of which he sent her in the following letter, which seems to breathe an air of too great satisfaction. " Dear heart, " What I told thee last week concerning a good parting with our Lords and Commons here, was on Monday last handsomely perform- ed : now if I do anything unhandsome, or dis- advantageous to myself or friends, in order to a treaty, it will be merely my own fault. Now I promise thee, if the treaty be renewed (which I believe it will not) without some eminent good success on my side, it shall be to my honour and advantage, I being now as well free from the place of base and mutinous motiont (that is to say, our mungrel Parliament here) as of the chief causers, for whom I may justly ex- pect to be children by thee, for having suffered thee to be vexed by them."|: Mr. Whitelocke says this Assembly sat again at Oxford in the year 1645, and voted against the directory, and for the common prayer ; but the king's cause being grown desperate, they soon after shifted for themselves, and made their peace at Westminster, upon the best terms they could obtain. On the 19th of January, 1643-4, the Scots army, consisting of twenty-one thousand meji, under the command of General Leven, crossed the Tweed at Berwick, and entered England. The two houses sent a committee to meet them, which being joined by another of that nation, was called the Committee of both King- doms,^ and were a sort of camp Parliament, to direct the motions of the army, which after some time united with the Lord Fairfax's for- ces, and with those under the command of the Earl of Manchester and Lieutenant-general Cromwell, from the associated counties. The united armies laid siege to the city of York, * Rushworth, vol. v., p. 383. Rapin, vol. ii., p. 497, 506, folio. t " There is no circumstance," observes Bishop Warburton, " that bears harder on the king's con- duct than this It is not to be conceived that these men, who hazarded all to support the king's right, could advise him to anything base in a mutinous manner. I doubt that this is too strong a proof that nothing less than arbitrary government would heart- ily satisfy him."— Ed. | Rapin, p. 512, foho. <^ Rushworth, vol. vi., p. 603. 478 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. which Prince Rupert having relieved, occasion- ed the battle of Marston Moor, wherein the prince was routed, with the loss of three thou- sand men and his whole train of artillery : and thereupon the Marquis of Newcastle, leaving the royal army, embarked with divers lords and gentlemen for Hamburgh, Prince Rupert reti- ring towards Chester, and deserting all the northern garrisons to the mercy of the enemy, which, falling into their hands next summer, concluded the war in those parts. His majesty, however, had better success in the west, where, being strengthened by Prince Maurice, he followed the Earl of Essex, and shut up his army within the narrow parts of Cornwall, so that he could neither engage nor retreat.* Here the king invited the earl to make his peace, but he choosing rather to re- tire in a boat to Plymouth, left his men to the fortune of war. As soon as the general was gone, the horse, under the command of Sir William Balfour, bravely forced their way through the royal quarters by night ; but the foot, under the command of Major-general Skippon, were obliged to surrender their arms, artillery, ammunition, and baggage^ consisting of forty brass cannon, two hundred barrels of powder, match and ball proportionable, seven hundred carriages, and between eight and nine hundred arms, and to swear not to bear arms against the king till they came into Hampshire. This was the greatest disgrace the Parliament's forces underwent in the course of the war, the foot being forced to travel in a naked and starv- ing condition to Portsmouth, where they were supplied with new clothes and arms. And now, again, the king made otTers of such a peace as, he says, he had been labouring for, that is, to be restored to his prerogatives as before the war, but the houses would not submit. Upon the defeat of the Earl of Essex, his majesty resolved to march directly for London, and upon the road issued a proclamation, Sep- tember 30, 1644, requiring all his loving sub- jects to appear in arms, and accompany him in his present expedition.! This gave rise to a combination of men, distinguished by the name of Clubmen, who associated in Worces- tershire and Dorsetshire, agreeing to defend themselves against the orders both of king and Parliament. Their increase was owing to the prodigious ravages of the king's forces in their march. Prince Rupert was a fiery youth, and, with his flying squadrons of horse, burned towns and villages, destroying the countries where he came, -and indulging his soldiers in plunder and blood. In Wales, he drove away the people's cattle, rifled their houses, and spoiled their standing corn. Aged and unarm- ed people were stripped naked, some murdered in cool blood, and others half hanged, and burn- ed, and yet suffered to live, J " Lord Goring, * Rnshworth, vol. v., p. C91, 701, 705, 710. t Rapin, vol. ii., p. 504, folio. X Whitelocke, p. 62, 87, 103. The reference here, in the former editions of Mr. Neal, is to p. 87 of Whitelocke's Memoirs, where all that is said concerning Prince Rupert is, " that he took in Liverpool a garrison of the Parliament's in Lancashire, but they first shipped all their arms, ammunition, and portable goods, and most of the of- ficers and soldiers went on ship-board, while a few made good the fort, which they rendered to the the king's general of the horse, was one of the most finished debauchees of the age, and want- ed nothing but industry to make him as emi- nent and successful in the highest attempts of wickedness as ever any man was. Wilmot, the lieutenant-general, was as great a debau- chee as the other, and had no more regard to his promises, or any rules of honour and integ- rity."* Sir Richard Grenville, who command- ed the army before Plymouth, is represented by the noble historian as having been exceed- ing barbarous and cruel in Ireland, hanging up old men and women of quality, even though they were bed-rid, if he did not find the plunder he expected ; when he came into the west, he exercised all kinds of cruelty, and would some- times make one of the company hang all the rest, contrary to the Jaw of arms, t The licentiousness of the king's soldiers was not inferior to that of their officers : for having no regular pay, they committed rapines and plunders, without distinction of friends or foes ; and were infamous for the most execrable oaths, and all kinds of impiety. " Lord Goring's horse," says the noble historian, " committed horrid outrages and barbarities in Hampshire, and infested the borders of Dorsetshire, Somer- prince upon quarter, yet were all put to the sword." " This, hideed," says Dr. Grey, " was bad enough, but not quite so bad as Mr. Neal has represented it. Not one word of stripping aged and unarmed people na- ked, or murdering people in cold blood, or of half hanging or burning others. A dismal character of Prince Rupert this, indeed, had we not reason to call the truth of it in question." The references which we have now supplied will show that the truth of this character ought not to have been ques- tioned, and that it was drawn from facts stated by Mr. Whitelocke ; from whom we will give another instance of the severity with which Prince Rupert, at the commencement of his military career, pursued his conquests, and of the cruelty of the royal party from the beginning, before mutual provocations had inflamed their passions, or they had been familiarized to scenes of blood. When the prince had taken the magazine of the county, at Cirencester, and one thousand one hundred prisoners, he sent these cap- lives, tied together with cords, almost naked, beaten and driven along like dogs, in triumph to Oxford, where the king and the lords looked on them, and too many smiled at their misery. — Memoirs, p. 64. — Ed. * The reader will be surprised when he is told that Dr. Grey discredits this character of the Lieuten- ant-general Wilmot, though it is given from Lord Clarendon, and opposes to it a narrative of his lord- ship,* in vvhich he relates, that Wilmot, when he was before Marlborough, gave, not only his life, but his liberty, to a spy whom he had apprehended. This Dr. Grey extols as a generous act, when, ac- cording to the statement he himself gives of it from Clarendon, it was to be ascribed to Wilmot's policy and generalship. For, before he dismissed the spy, he ordered his forces to be drawn up before him in the most convenient place, and bid the fellow to look well upon them, and observe, and return to the town and report what he had seen, with a threat to the magistrates if the garrison did not surrender, and a promise of security if it submitted.' The represent- ations which the man made were of some advantage to the views of the royal party. Yet this conduct of Wilmot, which seems to have been a mancEUvrc only, in order to disparage Mr. Neal's delineation of his general character, is pompously represented by Dr. Grey as a singular instance of honour and gener- osity.— Ed. t Clarendon, vol. ii., p. 534. * Clarendon, vol li., p- 537, 555. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 4r9 setshire, and Devon with unheard-of rapines, so that the people, who were well devoted to the king, wished for the accession of any force to redeem them."* They raised vast contrihu- tioris in several counties, without any other pretence but the king's sovereign pleasure. In Cornwall they levied £700 a week ; in Devon- shire £2200 a week, and proportionably in other parts. t As the army marched along the coun- try they seized the farmers' horses, and carried them away without any consideration. At Barnstable they plundered the town and hang- ed the mayor, though it was surrendered upon articles. At Evesham, the king sent the mayor and aldermen prisoners to Oxford. At Wood- house, in Devonshire, they seized fourteen sub- stantial west-country clothiers, who were not in arms, and hanged them, by way of reprisal for some Irish rebels that had been executed according to the ordinance of Parliament. In short, wherever they came they lived at free quarter, and took but everything they could, and, therefore, no wonder the Clubmen united in their own defence. The king thought to have reached London hefore the Parliament could recruit their army, but the two houses sent immediately six thou- sand arms and a train of artillery to Ports- mouth, with new clothing for the Cornish sol- diers. They ordered Sir William Waller and the Earl of Manchester to join them, and de- spatched thither five thousand of the city train- bands, under the command of Sir Jams Har- rington, by which accession they were enabled to face liis majesty's army at Newbury, Octo- ber 27 ; and having forced the town, which the king had fortified, after a smart engagement, they took nine of his cannon and several col- ours ; but, under covert of the night, his maj- esty secured the rest of his artillery in Den- nington Castle, and retreated with his broken army to Oxford. The Parliament generals left a body of troops to block up the castle, being assured it must surrender in the winter for want of provisions, when, on a sudden, a party of the king's horse raised the blockade and car- ried off the artillery to Oxford. This occasion- ed great murmuring at London, and quarrels among the generals, Essex, Manchester, and Cromwell, which ended in the new-modelling of the army, as will be seen under the next year. While the royal army was little better than a company of banditti, or public robbers, the Parliament's were kept under the strictest dis- cipline, and grew up, for the most part, into great diligence and sobriety, which, says Lord Clarendon, begot courage and resolution in them, and notable dexterity in achievements and exercises. I Most of their officers were * Clarendon, vol. it., p. G31. f Ibid,, p. 643. t Clarendon, vol. ii., p. 348. This, Dr. Grey ar- gues, does not agree with what Lord Clarendon says in another place, viz., in his History, vol. ii., p. 46 and 55, and he insinuates that it is ndt true. As if what Mr. Neal advances must be false, even when he quotes Lord Clarendon for his assertions, because it is apparently repugnant to the representations else- where given by his lordship's pen ; as if it were in- cumbent on Mr. Neal to reconcile this noble writer to himself But the veracity of Mr. Neal, and the consistency of Lord Clarendon with himself, would not have been impeached by Dr. Grey had he exam- men of religion ;* their soldiers possessed with a belief that their cause was the cause of God, t and that they fought for the Protestant religion and Magna Charta ; however, there were among them men of dissolute lives, who fought only for pay and plunder : strange complaints being sent up froin Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Sussex, of the disorders of the common soldiers, the Parliament appointed a committee to inquire into the facts, and make examples of the offenders, which put an effectual stop to the growing mischief And as the Parliament was enabled, by the inexhaustible treasure of the city of London, to give their soldiers regu- lar pay, they had them under such strict gov- ernment that they were little or no burden to the towns and villages where they were quar- tered, t Upon the whole, the Parliament affairs were low at the end of this year, and their counsels divided by reason of the length of the war, and the king's were much worse ; for though he had triumphed over the Earl of Essex in Corn- wall, and was master of the open country in the west, he had no accession of real strength, nor had taken any considerable garrisons ; the entrance of the Scots broke his army in the- north, and lost him that part of the kingdom, whereby the Parliament were enabled to draw off their forces to the west ; and the worst cir- cumstance of all was, that his majesty, having exhausted his treasure, had no way of raising a supply, which obliged him to connive at his soldiers' living at free quarter ; his officers, be- ing poor, quarrelled in the royal presence, and carried their resentments to such a height that the king himself could not reconcile them, ined the passage to which Mr. Neal refers ; by which it appears that both the king's and the Parliament's army, at different periods, were of different charac- ters ; and the description which they deserved at one time did not apply to another. The passage which Mr. Neal now quotes referred to a later, and the passage below, to which Dr. Grey directs his reader, refers to a former period. His lordship says, " Those under the king's commanders grew insensibly into all the license, disorder, and impiety with which they had reproached the rebels ; and they into great discipline, diligence, and sobriety." — Ed. * ''Of pretended sanctity," says Dr. Grey, "in which none could e.xceed them. They were praying and preaching when the enemy wa.s at a distance, and literally made long prayers to devour widows' houses." He refers, then, to his own appendix for an instance of their fanatical humour ; but the au- thorities which he here produces relate to the Scot- tish, not the English army. — Ed. t This repre.sentalion. Dr. Grey thinks, is contra- ry to Mr. Neal's character of them in chap, vii., from Mr. Baxter, who says, " that the greatest part of the common soldiers were ignorant men, of little reli- gion." But the doctor neither reverts to the time when this was said, namely, in 1646, after the army had been new-modelled, nor observes what follows in Mr. Baxter, which shows that these ignorant, irre- ligious men were many of them such as had belonged to the royal corps; "abundance of them such," says he., " as had been taken prisoners, or turned out of garrisons under the king, and had been soldiers in his army." — Baxter'' s Life, p. 53. — Ed. X Dr. Grey, to confute these assertions of Mr. Neal, refers to papers which he has given in the ap- pendix to his second volume ; but the complaints brought forward in these papers are made of the Scottish army, and to transactions of the following year, viz., 1645. — Ed. 4S0 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. which had a very ill aspect on the succeeding campaign.* The Parliament generals, also, were censuring each other's conduct in the House, on occasion of the escape of the king's artillery from Bennington Castle. The Earl of Essex's party was charged with a design of protracting the war, in order to an accommo- dation, while others, being weary, were for put- tmg it to a decisive issue. In short, both par- ties were in confusion and distress ; they were divided among themselves, some being for peace, and others for carrying on the war to the last extremity. All property was in a man- ner lost, the farmers paying no rent to their landlords ; nor could any man be secure of what he possessed, except he buried it under ground. The spirits of the contending parties were as much exasperated as ever, and there w-as no seeing the end of their troubles. To return to the Church. The state of the controversy about ecclesiastical discipline was now changed ; for whereas before the entrance of the Scots the Parliament insisted only upon a reformation of the hierarchy, now they were engaged to attempt the total extirpation of it, and to establish another scheme for both king- doms in its room ; though it was a considerable time before this could be perfected. In the mean while, they resolved to purge the Univer- sity of Cambridge, which was the headquarters of their forces, that they might have a succes- sion of clergymen training up in the principles they had espoused. The town of Cambridge was in the interest of the Parliament, but the colleges were so many little garrisons for the king, and sanctua- ries of disaffection ; the university press was at his majesty's disposal, and their sermons filled with invectives against the two houses. Fre- quent quarrels happened between the townsmen and scholars, which would have ended in the ruin of the university, had not the Parliament forbid the offering any violence to the colleges, chapels, libraries, and schools, under severe penalties.! Indeed, the committee enjoined the proper officers of the parish to put in execution the ordinance for destroying the relics of super- stition, whereby the paintings in windows, im- ages of the Deity, and a gl-eat deal of carved work, were demolished ; at which the masters and fellows were so incensed, that when they were ordered to repair the damages, they per- emptorily refused, and were fined 40*. a college, as the ordinance directed. J The heads of the university raised a great clamour at this pretended invasion of their rights, as if the Parliament intended to seize all their revenues, and destroy the very fountains of learning ; whereupon the houses published the following ordinance, January 6, 1643-4, decla- ring " that none of the estates, rents, and reve- nues of the university, or of the colleges and halls respectively, shall be sequestered or seized upon, or in any wise disposed of, by virtue of the ordinance for sequestering the estates, rents, and revenues of delinquents, but shall remain to the university, and the respective halls and colleges, to all intents and purposes as if the said ordinance had not been made ; and the * Clarendon, vol. ii., 389-391. t Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 168. t Ibid., p. Ill ; and Dr. Grey, vol. ii., p. 141. rents and revenues, &c., are ordered to be ap- proved of by the Earl of Manchester, and to be applied to their proper uses as heretofore. But if any of the heads, fellows, scholars, or other officers were convicted of delinquency, the re- ceiver was to pay tiieir dividend into the hands of the committee of sequestrations."* Tills committee was founded upon an ordi- nance of January 22, for regulating the Univer- sity of Cambridge, and for removing scandalous ministers in the seven associated counties : the preamble sets forth, " that the service of the Parliament was retarded, the people's souls starved, by the idle, ill-affected, and scandalous clergy of the University of Cambridge, and the associated counties ; and that many who were willing to give evidence against them, not be- ing able to bear the charges of a journey to London, the Earl of Manchester was therefore empowered to appoint committees in all the as- sociated counties, to consist of ten persons, be- ing deputy-lieutenants, or such as had been nominated to committees by some former ordi- nance of Parliament ; five of these were a quo- rum, and they were empowered to call before them all provosts, masters, and fellows of col- leges, all students and members of the univer- sity, all ministers in any of the counties of the association, all schoolmasters that were scan- dalous in their lives, or ill affected to the Par- liament, or fomenters of this unnatural war, or that shall wilfully refuse obedience to the orders of Parliament, or that have deserted their ordi- nary places of residence, not being employed in the service of the king and Parliament. The said committee was also empowered to send for witnesses, and to examine any complaints against the forementioned delinquents upon oath, and to certify the names of the persons accused to the Earl of Manchester, with charge and proof, who shall have power to eject such as he shall judge unfit for their places ; to se- quester their estates, means, and revenues, and to dispose of them as he shall think fit, and place others in their room, being first approved by the Assembly of Divines sitting at West- minster. He had also power to order the Cov- enant to be administered where he thought fit, and to assign the fifths of sequestered estates for the benefit of their wives and children. "t The ordinance makes no mention of the doc- trine or discipline of the Church, seeming to be levelled only against those who took part with the king in the war. The Earl of Manchester, who was at the head of these sequestrations, was styled, in the life- time of his father. Lord Kimbolton, and was one of the impeached members of the House ot Commons: Lord Clarendon observes,t that "he was of a genteel and generous nature ; that his natural civility and good manners flowed to all men, and that he was never guilty of any rude- ness, even to those whom he was obliged to oppress ; that he longed and heartily wished for the restoration, and never forfeited that grace and favour to which his majesty received him after his return." The earl repaired in person to Cambridge, about the middle of February, with his two chaplains, Mr. Ashe and Mr. Good, and by his warrant of the 24th instant, required * Husband's Collections, p. 409. t Ibid., p. 415 t Clarendon, vol. i., p. 183; vol. ii., p. 211, 212. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 481 the heads of the several colleges and halls to Bend him their statutes, with the names of all their members, and to certify who were present and who absent, with the express time of their discontinuance.* Two days after, the othcers of each college and hall were ordered to give speedy advertisement to the masters, fellows, scholars. &c., to repair to Cambridge by the 10th of March, in order to answer such inquiries as should be made by himself or his commission- ers. But the earl being informed that this no- tice was too short, the time was prolonged to the 3d of April, when the earl summoned Mr. Tunstal and Mr. Palgrave, fellows of Corpus- Christi College, to appear before the commis- sioners at the Bear Inn, in Cambridge, on pen- alty of ejectment. Warrants of the same na- ture were sent to several of the fellows of Caius, St. John's, Queen's, Peterhouse, Sidney, Trinity, Christ's, Magdalen, and Jesus Colleges ; and to Pembroke and Clare Hall ; who, not ap- pearing according to the summons, were, by a warrant of April 8, ejected, to the number of sixty-five. The reasons assigned for their ex- pulsion were, nonresidence, and not returning upon due summons, and several other political misdemeanors. t If the parties ejected return- ed after this, they were required not to continue in the university above three days, on pain of imprisonment, and confiscation of their goods ; their names were put out of the butteries, and the profits of their places reserved for their suc- cessors. Not one fellow or student in Trinity Hall or Katherine Hall was turned out, but all Queen's College was evacuated. The Covenant, which was read March 18, 1644, in the churches and chapels of the town and university, and tendered to the inhabitants and soldiers, was not offered to the whole uni- versity, but only to such of whose disaffection they had sufficient evidence. Archbishop Til- lotson says, the greatest part of the fellows of King's College were cxemi)ted, by the interest of Dr. Whichcote ; and no doubt others who had behaved peaceably obtained the same fa- vour.* Dr. Berwick, author of the Querela Cantabrigiensis, a famous loyalist, mentions an oath of discovery for the university, like that of the oath ex officio; but Mr. Fuller, the historian, about the year 1653, having requested an ac- count of this oath from Mr. Ashe, the earl's chaplain, he returned for answer, that he le- membered no such thing. Mr. Fuller adds, that he is upon just grounds daily confirmed in Lis confidence, that neither the Earlof iManchester, nor any other under him, by his command or consent, enforced such an oath.t The whole number of graduates expelled the university in this and the following years, by the Earl of Manchester and his commissioners, including masters and fellows of colleges, were, according to Dr. Walker, near two hundred, be- sides inferior scholars, which were something more than one half;} for the same author tells us in another place, ^J there were about three hundred and seventy-five fellowships in the several houses of the university ; above one hundred' and fifty kept their places, and far the greatest part of the rest had deserted their sta- tions, and fled to the king. There were six heads of colleges out of sixteen that complied, viz., Dr. Bainbrigge, of Christ's College; Dr. Eden, of Trinity Hall ; Dr. Richard Love, of Ben'et College ; Dr. Brownrigge, of Katherine Hall, ejected in the year 1645 ; Dr. Bachcroft, of Caius College ; and Dr. Rainbow, of Magda- len College. The ten who were ejected by the Earl of Manchester, March 13, or some little time after, with the names of their successors, are contained in the following table : Masters turned out. Dr. John Cosins, from Dr. Thomas Pask, Dr. Benjamin Laney, Dr. Samuel Collins, Dr. Edward Martin, Dr. Richard Stern, Dr. William Beale, Dr. Thomas Comber, Dr. R. Holdsworth, Dr. Samuel Ward, Anno 1645. Dr. Ralph Brownrigge, Colleges. Peter House, Clare Hall, Pembroke Hall, King's College, Queen's College, Jesus College, St. John's College, Trinity Hall, Emanuel College, Sidney College, Succeeded bij Dr. Lazarus Seaman. Dr. Ralph Cudworth. Mr. Richard Vines. Dr. Benjamin Whichcote. Mr. Herb. Palmer. Dr. T. Young. Dr. J. Arrowsmith. Dr. Thomas Hill. Dr. Ant. Tnckney. Dr. Richard Minshull. Dr. W. Spuistow, and afterward Dr, Lightfoot.li It has been objected to the proceedings of the commissioners, that they were not according to the statutes of the university ; to which he re- plied, that the nation was in a state of war ; that these gentlemen were declared enemies to the proceedings of Parliament ; that they instilled into their pupils the unlawfulness of resisting the king upon any pretence whatsoever, and preached upon these subjects to the people. It -was therefore necessary to take the education of the youth out of their hands, which could not be done any other way at present ; but in all future elections they returned to the statutes. It has been said, farther, that it was a great loss to learning, because those who succeeded were not equal to those who were ejected. + * Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 112. + Ibid., p. 131, 160. X Walker's Attempt, p. 114. Vol. I.— P f r Katherine Hall, Had this been true, it is no sufficient reason for keeping them in their places, in a time of war, if they were enemies to the Constitution and liberties of their country. But the best way of determining the question as to their learning is by comparing their respective characters. Dr. Cosins had been sequestered by the Par- liament in the year 1640, for his high principles, and was retired to France, where he continued till the Restoration, and was then preferred to ♦ Introduction to the Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 113. t Appeal, p. 72. X Introduction to the Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 114. (j Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 163. li Dr. Barwick, in the life of his brother, com- plains, that when the most learned men were dis- placed from their professorships, they ''put block- heads, for the most part, and senseless scoundrels in their places)' Let the reader examine this hst, and e.sti mate the justness of this allegation.— jL«/c, p. 32.— L. 482 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. the rich bishopric of Durham : he was a learn- ed n..in, of an open, frank, and generous temper, and well versed in the canons, councils, and fathers.* Dr. Paske lived peaceably and cheerfully un- der the Parliament, and was reinstated in ail nis livings at the Restoration, except the mas- tership of his college, which he quitted to his son. The Querela Cantab, says he was emi- nent for learning ; but 1 do not remember that he has .given any specimens of it to the world, t Dr. Laney was first chaplain to Dr. Neil, and afterward Prebendary of Westminster ; he was one of the lung's divines at the treaty of Ux- bridge, and attended upon King Charles II. in his exile ; after the Restoration he was suc- cessively Bishop of Peterborough, Lincoln, and Ely, and was more favourable to the Noncon- formists than most of his brethren. He has some sermons extant, and a small treatise against Hobbes. Dr. Collins was regius professor, Provost of King's College, and Rector of Fenny-Ditton ; of which last he was deprived by the Earl of Manchester, for his steady adherence to the royal cause. He kept his provostship till the year 1645, and his professorship much longer. He died in the year 1651, and had the reputa- tion of a great scholar, says Dr. Barwick, and his name was famous in foreign universities, though he has transmitted very little down to posterity.^ Dr. Martin was one of Archbishop Laud's chaplains, and one of Mr. White's scandalous ministers ; he was accused not only of prac- tising the late innovations, and of being in the scheme of reconciling the Church of England with Rome, but of stealing wheatsheaves out of the field in harvest, on the Sabbath day, and in laying them to his tithe stock. He was very high in his principles, and was imprisoned for sending the university plate to the king. After his enlargement he retired to France, and at the Restoration was preferred to the deanery of Ely. Lloyd says he was a godly man, and excellently well skilled in the canon, civil, and common law ; but Mr. Prynne gives him a very indifferent character, and Bishop Kennet acknowledges his principles were rigid, and his temper sour.rd Jesus in sincerity, the poor despised churches of God in London send greeting with prayers for their farther increase in the knowledge of Christ Jesus." This Confession is ah admirable compend of sound doctrine, and appeared in 1644. A fac-simile edition is now in the press of W. D. Ticknor & Cc, Bos- ton.—C. 493 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. our hands, that wc may not be chargeable to any, but to give to him that needeth, both friend and enemy, accounting it more excellent to give than to receive. Also we confess that we know but in part : to show us from the Word of God that which we see not, we siiall have cause to be thankful to God and them. But if any man shall impose upon us anything that wc see not to be commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, we should, in his strength, rather em- brace all reproaches and tortures of men ; to be stripped of all our outward comforts, and, if it were possible, to die a thousand deaths, rather than to do anything against the truth of God, or against the light of our own consciences. And if any shall call what we have said heresy, then do we with the apostle acknowledge, that after the way they call heresy so worship we the God of our fathers ; disclaiming all heresies (rightly so called) because they are against Christ ; and in desiring to be steadfast and im- movable, always abounding in obedience to Christ, as knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord." When Dr. Featly had read this confession, he owned they were neither heretics nor schis- matics, but tender-hearted Christians, upon whom, through false suggestions, the hand of authority had fallen heavy while the hierarcliy stood. The advocates of this doctrine were, for the most part, of the meanest of the people ; their preachers were generally illiterate, and went about the country making proselytes of all who would submit to immersion, without a due re- gard to their acquaintance with the principles of religion, or their moral characters. The wri- ters of these times represent them as tinctured with a kind of enthusiastic fury against all that opposed them. Mr. Baxter says,* "There were but few of them that had not been the opposers and troublers of faitliful ministers ; that in this they strengthened the hands of the profane, and that, in general, reproach of ministers, faction, pride, and scandalous practices, were fomented in their way."t But still there were among them some learned, and a great many sober and devout Christians, who disallowed of the im- prudence of their country friends. The two most learned divines that espoused their cause were Mr. Francis Cornwall, M.A., of Emanuel College, and Mr. John Tombes, B.D., educated in the University of Oxford, a person of incom- * Baxter's Life, p. 102, 144. f We refer the reader, for a more full account of the Baptists of this period, to the Supplement in vol. iii., where their history will be given in greater de- tail, and continued without interruption. Suffice it to say here, that Mr. Baxter, great and excellent as he was. had his weaknesses and prejudices, for which much allowance must be made. Severe as is what he says above of the Baptists, he speaks of them, at other times, with more candour and respect. As p. 140 of his Life : " For the Anabaptists themselves (though I have written and said so much against them), as I found most of them were persons of zeal in religion, so many of them were sober, godly peo- ple, and differed from others but in the point of in- fant baptism ; or, at most, in the noints of predesti- nation, and free-will, and persQyeran«>p." It is to be regretted, on the ground of the justice due to this people, anil even to Mr. Baxter, that Mr. Neal should have overlooliod or omitted this testimony, so hon- ourable to both —Ed. {Toulmin). parable parts, well versed in the Greek and Hebrew languages, and a most excellent dispu- tant. He wrote several letters to Mr. Selderi against infant baptism, and published a Latia exercilation upon the same subject, containing several arguments, which he represented to the committee appointed by the Assembly to put a stop to the progress of this opinion. The ex- ercitation being translated into English, brought upon him a whole army of adversaries, among whom were the Reverend Dr. Hammond, Dr. Holmes, Mr. Marshal, Fuller, Geree, Baxter, and others. The people of this persuasion were more exposed to the public resentments, because they would hold communion with none but such as had been dipped. All must pass under this cloud before they could be received into their churches ; and the same narrow spirit prevails too generally among them even at this day.* Besides the above-mentioned writers, the most eminent divines in the City of London, as Mr. Vines, Calamy, and others, preached vigor- ously against these doctrines, which they had a right to do, though it was most unjustifiable to fight them at the same time with the sword of the civil magistrate, t and shut them up in pris- on, as was the case of several in this and the following year, among whom are reckoned the Reverend Mr. Henry Denn, formerly ordained by the Bishop of St. David's, and possessed of the living of Pyeton, in Hertfordshire ; Mr. Coppe, minister in Warwickshire, and some time preacher to the garrison in Comptoa House ; Mr. Hanserd Knollys, who was several times before the committee for preaching Anti- nomianism and Antipcedobaptism ; and being forbid to preach in the public churches, he open- ed a separate meeting in Great St. Helen's, from whence he was quickly dislodged and his followers dispersed. Mr. Andrew Wyke, in the county of Suffolk, was imprisoned on the same account, and Mr. Gates, in Essex, tried ibr his life, in Chelmsford Assizes, for the murder of Anne Martin, because she died a few days after her immersion, of a cold that seized her at that time. Lawrence Clarkson was imprisoned by the committee of Suffolk, and having lain in jail six months, signed a recantation, and was re- leased. The recantation, t as entered in the committee's books, was in these words : * On this opinion the editor would say nothing, though he could say much ; he would refer his read- ers to the Acts of the Apostles. — C t Nothing, it is justly observed by Mr. Crosby, is more evident than that the most distinguished of the Presbyterian divines preached and wrote against tol eration, and were strenuous advocates for the inter- ference of the civil power to suppress what they deemed error. Mr. Baxter always freely avowed that " he abhorred unlimited liberty, or toleration of all." Dr. Lightfoot informed the House of Commons, in a sermon at St. Margaret's, Westminster, that though " he would not go about to determine wheth- er conscience might be bound or not, yet, certainly, the devil in the conscience might be, yea, must ba bound by the civil magistrate." — Crosby's History of the English Baptists, vol. i., p. 176, 178. Robinsoji's History of Baptism, p. 151. — Ed. (Toulmin). t Every instance of a recantation which ecclesi- astical history furnishes moves our pity and excites our indignation ; our pity of the weakness and timid- ity from which it flows, and our indignation at the spirit of intolerance which can demand the sacrifice of principle and integrity. " Mr. Clarkson had uol HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 499, "July 15, 1645. " This day Lawrence Clarkson, formerly com- mitted for an Anabaptist, and for dipping, does now, before the committee, disclaim his errors. And whereas formerly he said he durst not leave his dipping, if he might gain all the committee's estates, now he says that he by the Holy Scrip- tures is convinced that his said opinions were erroneous, and that he will not, nor dares not practice it again, if he might gain all the com- mittee's estates by doing it. And that he makes this recantation not for fear, or to gain his lib- erty, but merely out of a sense of his error, "Wherein he will endeavour to reform others." It must be granted that the imprudent behav- iour of the Baptist lay-preachers, who declaim- ed against human literature and hireling priests, crying down magistracy and a regular ministry, and talking in the most exalted strains of a fifth monarchy, and King Jesus, prejudiced the minds of many sober people against them ; but still the imprisoning men merely on account of reli- gious principles, not inconsistent with the pub- lic peace, nor propagated in a riotous and tu- ' multuous manner, is not to be justified on any pretence whatsoever ; and it was the more in- excusable in this case, because Mr. Baxter admits* that the Presbyterian zeal was in a great measure the occasion of it. Before we leave the Assembly for this year, it will be proper to take notice, that it was hon- oured with the presence of Charles Lewis, elec- tor palatine of the Rhine, eldest son of Fred- eric, &c., king of Bohemia, who married King j James's daughter, and lost his territories by the I fatal battle oT Prague in 1619. The unhap- py Frederic died in 1632, and left behind him six sons and five daughters, among whom were Prince Rupert, Prince Maurice, and the Prin- cess Sophia. The young elector and his moth- er often solicited the English court for assist- ance to recover their dominions, and were as often complimented with empty promises. All the Parliaments of this reign mention with con- cern the calamitous condition of the Queen of Bohemia and her children, and offer to venture their lives and fortunes for the recovery of the Palatinate ; but King Charles I. did not approve aiis sister's principles, who, being a resolved Protestant, had been heard to say, if we may believe L'Estrange, that rather than have her ^on bred up in idolatry at the emperor's court, ihe had rather be his executioner. And Mr. Echard adds,t that the birth of King Charles [[., in the year 1630, gave no great joy to the Puritans, because, as one of them declared, " God had already provided for them in the fam- ily of the Queen of Bohemia, who were bred up in the Protestant religion, while it was uncer- tain what religion King Charles's children would follow, being to be brought up by a mother de- voted to the Church of Rome." When the war broke out between the king and Parliament, the elector's younger brothers, Rupert and Maurice, only been imprisoned six months, but all the inter- cession of his friends, though he had several, could not procure his release. The committee were unre- lenting. Nay, though an order came down, either from a committee of Parhament or the chairman of It, to discharge him, yet they refused to obey it." — Croshy^s History of English Baptists, vol. i., preface, p. \Q.—1£.T}. {Toulmin). * Baxter's Life, p. 103. t History, p. 449. served the king in his army, but the elector himself being in Holland, took the Covenant, and by a letter to the Parliament testified his approbation of the cause in which they were engaged. This summer he made a tour to Eng- land, and was welcomed by a committee of the two houses, who promised him their best ad- vice and assistance ; to whom the prince made the following reply : " I hold myself much obliged to the Parlia- ment for their favours, and my coming is to ex- press in person what I have often done by let- ter, my sincere affections to them, and to take off such jealousies as either the actions of some of my relations, or the ill effects of what my en- emies might by my absence cast upon me. My wishes* are constant for the good, success of the great work you have undertaken, for a thor- ough reformation ; and my desires are to be ruled and governed by your grave counsels. "t The Parliament ordered an apartment to be fitted up for the prince at Whitehall, and voted him £80001: a year for his maintenance, and £10,000 for his royal mother, till he should be restored to his electorate. ath so much complained of, it was according to law, or else they were misled by such prece- dents as were never excepted against ; for in * Laud's Hist., p. 293. t Ibid., p. 287, 292. the canons made in King James's time, there was an oath against simony, and an oath for li- censes for marriages, and an oath forjudges ia ecclesiastical courts, and all these established by no other authority than the late one. As to the vote of both houses, which condemned the canons, since their lordships would not suffer him to debate the justice and equity of it, he could only reply, that all these canons were made in open and full convocations, and are acts of that body, and cannot be ascribed to him, though president of that synod, so by me (says the archbishop) they were not made.* These were the principal evidences produced by the Commons, in maintenance of the first branch of their charge, viz., his grace's endeav- ours to subvert the rights of Parliament, and the fundamental temporal laws of the kingdom. From whence it is easy to observe that, besides the sharpness of the archbishop's temper, there are three capital mistakes which run through this part of his defence. 1. A groundless supposition, that where the law is silent, the prerogative takes place ; and that, in all such cases, a proclamation, or order of council, or a decree of the Star Chamber, &c., is binding upon the subject ; and that disobedi- ence to such proclamations or orders might be punished at discretion. This gave rise to most of the unwarrantable orders by which the sub- ject was insufferably oppressed in the former part of this reign, and to the exorbitant fines that were levied for disobedience, in which the archbishop himself was notoriously active. 2. The false conclusions drawn froni his be- ing but a single member of the council or High Commission, viz., that therefore he was not an- swerable for their votes or orders, even though he had set his hand to them ; because what is carried by a majority is supposed to be the act of the whole body, and not of any particular member.! According to which way of reason- ing, the Constitution might be destroyed, with- out a possibility of punishing the authors. 3. His wilful misconstruction of the mana- gers' reasonings ; as when he replies with an air of satisfaction and triumph, he hopes this or the other particular will not be construed treason, unless it be against a brewhouse or an alder- man, or the like ; though he was told over and over, by the managers for the Commons, that they did not object these things to him as so many treasonable acts, but as proofs and evi- dences of one general charge, which was, a traitorous attempt and endeavour to subvert the fundamental temporal laws, government, and liberties of the realm; and how far they have made good this part of their charge must be left with the reader. The Commons proceeded next to the third general charge, relating to religion, in which our history requires us to be more particular ; and here they aver, " that the archbishop had traitorously endeavoured and practised to alter and subvert God's true religion by law estab- lished in this realm, and, instead thereof, to set up popish superstition and idolatry, and to rec- oncile us to the Church of Rome." This was divided into two branches : 1st. " His introducing and practising certain popish innovations and superstitious ceremo- »■ Laud's History, p. 282. t Ibid., p. 437. 508 nies, not warranted by law, nor agreeable to the practice of the Church of England since the Reformation. 2d]y. "His countenancing and encouraging sundry doctrinal errors in favour of Arminian- ism and [lopery." The managers began with popish innovations and ceremonies, in maintenance of which, they insisted on the following proofs : (1.) "His countenancing the setting up of images in churches, church- windows, and other places of religious worship. That, in his own chapel at Lambeth, he had repaired the popish paintings on the windows, that had been de- stroyed at the Reformation, and made up the history of Christ crucified between two thieves ; of his rising out of the grave ; of his ascension hito heaven ; of the Holy Ghost descending in form of a dove; of Christ raising Lazarus out of the grave; and of God himself raining down manna from heaven ; of God's giving the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai ; of fire descending from heaven at the prayer of Elisha ; of the Holy Ghost overshadowing the Virgin, &c., all taken from the Roman missal, with several su- perstitious mottoes and inscriptions. That he had caused divers crucifixes to be set up in churches over the communion-table, in his chapel at Lambeth, at Whitehall, and at the University at Oxford, of which he was chancel- lor. That in the parish of St. Mary's there was, since his time, erected a statue of the Virgin Mary cut in stone, with a child in her arms, to which divers people bowed aijd did reverence as they went along the streets, which could not be done without his allowance ; nay, so zealous was this prelate," say the managers, " in defence of images, that he procured Mr. Sherfield to be sentenced in the Star Chamber, for defacing a church-window in or near Salis- bury, because there was an image in it of God the'Father; all of which is contrary to the stat- ute of the 3d and 4th of Edward VI., and the in- junctions of Queen Elizabeth, which enjoin all pictures, paintings, images, and other monu- ments of idolatry and superstition to be de- stroyed, so as that there remain no memory of them in walls, gla.ss windows, or elsewhere, within any church or house."* The archbishop answered in general, that crucifixes and images in churches were not .simply unlawful ; that they were in use in Con- stantine's time, and long before, and therefore there could be no popery in them. TertuUian says they had the picture of Christ engraven on their chalice in form of a shepherd carrying home a lost sheep ; and even Mr. Calvin al- lows an historical use of images, Instit., lib. i., cap. xi., sect. xii. " Neque tamen ea supersti- tione teneor ut nullas prorsus imagines ferandas censeam, sed quia sculptura et pictura, Dei dona sunt, purum et legilimum utriusque usum re- quiro." The archbishop appealed likewise to the Homilies, p. 64, 65, for an historical use of images ; but if it sliould be granted, says he, that they are condemned by the homilies, yet certainly one may subscribe to the homilies as containing a godly and wholesome doctrine, ne- cessary for those times, without approving ev- ery passage or sentence, or supposuig it neces- sary for all times. I do not approve of images * Prynne's Cant. Doom, p. 157, 462, &;c. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. of God the Father, though some will justify them from Dan., vii., 22 ; but as for the images of things visible, they are of use, not only for the beautifying and adorning the places of Di- vine worship, but for admonition and instruc-., tion, and can be an oflence to none but such as would have God served slovenly and meanly, under a pretence of avoiding superstition.* As to the particulars, the archbishop allowed his repairing the windows of his chapel at Lam- beth, and making out the history as well as he could, but not from the Roman missal, since he did not know the particulars were in it, but from the fragments of what remained in the windows since the Reformation ; but if they had been originally painted by his order, as in the case of the new chapel of Westminster, he knows no crime in it.t The image of the Vir- gin Mary, in Oxford, was set up by Bishop Owen, and there is no evidence that I counte- nanced the setting it up, nor that any cora-^ plaint was made to me of any abuse of it. J As to Mr. Sheffield's case, one of the witnesses says it was the picture of an old man with a budget by his side, pulling out Adam and Eve ; it is not, therefore, certain that it was the im- age of God the Father ; but if it was, yet Mr. Sherfield ought not to have defaced it but by command of authority, though it had been an idol of Jupiter ; the orders of the vestry, which Mr. Sherfield pleads, being nothing at all with- out the bishop of the diocess.i^i The statute of Edward VI. has nothing to do with images in glass windows ; the words of the statute are, " Any images of stone, timber, alabaster, or earth, graven, carved, or painted, taken out of any church, &c., shall be destroyed." So here is not a word of glass windows, nor images in them. The managers for the Commons replied, that it was notoriously false that the primitive Chris- tians approved of images, for Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Irenaeus, and all the an- cient fathers agree that they had none in their churches. II Lactantius says there can be no religion in a place where any image is. Epi- phanius rent in pieces an irnage painted on cloth, which he found in a church, out of holy indignation. All the ancient councils are against images in churches ; and many godly emperors cast them out after they began to be in use in latter times, as our own homilies expressly de- clare, Peril of Idolatry, part ii., p. 38. As for TertuUian, all that can be proved from him is, that those heretics against whom he wrote had such a chalice, not that the orthodox Chris- tians allowed of it. Calvin only says that he is not so superstitious as to think it alto- gether unlawful to make images of men or beasts for a civil use, because painting is the gift of God. But he affirms, in the very next section, that there were no images in churches for five hundred years after Christ ; and says expressly, that tliey were not in use till the Christian religion was corrupted and depraved. He then adds, that he accounts it unlawful and wicked to paint the image of God, because he has forbidden it. But the homilies are so ex- press that they wonder the archbishop can men- * Laud's Hist., p. 31L Prynne, p. 462, 463, 479. t Prynne, p. 462. % Laud's History, p. 329. § Ibid., p. 434. II Prynne, p. 463-465. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 500 won them without blushing ; as well as his not knowing that the paintings were according to the mass-book, when his own mass-book is marked in those places with his own hand.* The mi- ages in those windows were broken and demol- ished at the Preformation, by virtue of our stat- utes, homilies, and injunctions, and remained as monuments of our indignation against Romish idolatry, till the archbishop repaired them. The managers observed farther, that the archbishop had confessed the particulars of this part of their charge, and had only excused himself as to the University of Oxford, though they con- ceive it impossible he could be ignorant of those innovations, being chancellor and visiter, and having entertained the king, queen, and elector-palatine there for many days. As for Mr. Sherfield's case, they apprehend the author- ity of the vestry was sufficient in a place ex- empt from the jurisdiction of the bishop, as St. Edmund's Church was. And the managers are still of opinion that the statute of Edward VI. extends to images in glass windows ; and that which confirms them in it is, that the injunc- tions of Queen Elizabeth, made in pursuance of this law, extend in direct terms to images in glass windows ; and the practice of those times in defacing them infallibly proves it. (2.) Another popish innovation charged on the archbishop was "his superstitious manner of consecrating chapels, churches, and church- yards ; they instanced in Creed Church, of which the reader has had an account before ; and in St. Giles's in the Fields, which, being fallen to decay, was in part re-edified and fin- ished in Bishop Mountaine's time. Divine ser- vice and administration of sacraments having been performed in it three or four years before his death ; but no sooner was the archbishop translated to the See of London, than he inter- dicted the church, and shut up the doors for several weeks, till he had reconsecrated it, after the manner of Creed Church, to the very great cost and charge of the parish, and contrary to the judgment of Bishop Parker and our first Reformers."t " They objected, farther, his consecrating of altars with all their furniture, as pattens, chali- ces, aUar-cloths, &c., even to the knife that was to cut the sacramental bread ; and his ded- icating the churches to certain saints, together with his promoting annual revels, or feasts of dedication, on the Lord's Day, in several parts of the country, whereby that holyday was profaned, and the people encouraged in super- stition and ignorance." The archbishop answered to the consecra- tion of churches, that the practice was as an- cient as Moses, who consecrated the tabernacle, with all its vessels and ornaments ; that the temple was afterward consecrated by King Solomon ; that as soon as Christian churches began to be built, in the reign of Constantino the Great, they were consecrated, as Eusebius testifies concerning the Church of Tyre, in his Ecclesiastical History, lib. x., cap. iii., and so it has continued down to the present time. Be- vsides, if churches were not consecrated, they would not be holy ; nor does Archbishop Par- ker speak against consecrations in general, but * Peril of Idol., p. 41-43. t Prynne, p. 113,114,497. against popish consecrations, which mine were not, says the archbishop, for I bad them from Bishop Andrews.* As to the manner. of consecrating Creed Church, St. Giles's, &c., his grace confessed that when he came to the church door, that passage in tlie Psalms was read, "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates, even lift them up, ye ever- lasting doors, that the King of glory may come in ;"t that he kneeled and bowed at his entrance into the church, as Moses and Aaron did at the door of the tabernacle ; that he declared the place holy, and made use of a prayer like one in the Roman pontifical ; that afterward he pro- nounced divers curses on such as should pro- fane it, but denied his throwing dust into the air, in which he said the witnesses had for- sworn themselves, for the Roman pontifical does not prescribe throwing dust into the air, but ashes ; and he conceives there is no harm, much less treason, in it.J The practice of giv- ing the names of angels and saints to churches at their dedication, for distinction's sake, and for the honour of their memories, says his grace, has been very ancient, as appears in St. Austin, and divers others of the fathers ; but the dedi- cation, strictly speaking, is only to God ; nor is the observing the annual feasts of dedication less ancient ; the feast of the dedication of the temple was observed in our Saviour's time, and though, no doubt, it was abused by some among the Jews, yet our Saviour honoured it with his presence. Judge Richardson, indeed, had made an order in his circuit for putting down these wakes, but he was obliged to re- voke it by authority ; and, under favour, says the archbishop, I am of opinion that the feasts ought not to be put down for some abuses, any more than all vines ought to be rooted up be- cause some will be drunk with the juice of them.^ The feasts are convenient for keeping up hospitality and good neighbourhood ; nor can there be a more proper time for observing them than on Sundays, after Divine service is ended. And as the consecrating of churches, and dedicating them to God, has been of ancient usage, so has the consecration of altars and their furniture, and such consecrations are ne- cessary, for else the Lord's Table could not be called holy, nor the vessels belonging to it holy, as they usually are ; yea, there is a holiness in the altar which sanctifies the gift, which it could not do, except itself were holy ; if there be no dedication of these things to God, no sep- aration of them from common use, then there can be no such thing as sacrilege, or difference between a holy table and a common one. II And as to the form of consecrating these things, I had them not from the Roman pontifical, but from Bishop Andrews. The managers for the Commons replied, that if the temple was consecrated, it was by the king himself, and not by the high-priest ; and if the tabernacle was consecrated, it was by Moses the civil magistrate, and not by Aaron * Laud's Historv, p. 339, 340. Prynne, p. 115. t The archbishop alleged that this place of Scrip- ture had been anciently used in consecrations, and that it referred not to the bishop, but to the true King of glory.— I>r. Grey.—Ev. t Prynne, p. 498. l) Laud's Hist., p. 269. II Laud's Hist., p. 313- 510 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. the high-priest ; but we read of no other conse- crating the tabernacle and its utensils, but anointing them with oil, for which Moses had an express command ; nor of any other conse- crating the temple, but of Solomon's making an excellent prayer in the outward court, not in the temple itself, and of his hallowing the mid- dle court by offerings and peace-offerings ; and it is observable that the cloud and glory of the Lord filled the temple, so as the priests could not stand to minister before Solomon made his prayer, which some call his consecration. But if it should be allowed that the temple was con- secrated in an extraordinary manner, we have no mention, either in Scripture or Jewish wri- ters, of the consecration of their synagogues, to which our churches properly succeed.* And after all, it is no conclusive way of arguing, to derive a Christian institution from the practice of the Jewish Church, because many of their ordinances were temporary, ceremonial, and abolished by the coming of Christ. From the beginning of Christianity we have no credible authority for consecrating churches for three hundred years. t Eusebius, in his life of Constantine the Great, indeed mentions his consecrating a temple that he built over our Saviour's sepulchre at Jerusalem ; but how 1 with prayers, disputations, preaching, and expo- sition of Scripture, as he expressly defines it, cap. xlv. Here were no processions, no knock- ing at the doors by tlie bishop, crying " Open, ye everlasting doors ;" nor casting dust or ashes into the air, and pronouncing the ground holy ; no reverencing towards the altar, nor a great many other inventions of latter ages : no, these were not known in the Christian Church till the very darkest times of popery ; nay, in those very dark times, we are told by Otho, the pope's legate, in his Ecclesiastical Constitutions, that in the reign of King Henry HI. there were not only divers parish churches, but some cathedrals in England, which had been used for many years, and yet never consecrated by a bishop. But it is plain to a demonstration, that the archbishop's method of consecrating churches is a modern popish invention ; for it is agreed by Gratian, Platina, the centuriators, and oth- ers, that Pope Hyginus, Gelasius, Sylvester, Felix, and Gregory, were the first inventors and promoters of it ; and it is nowhere to be found but in the Roman pontifical, published by com- mand of Pope Clement VIII., De Ecclesiae Ded- icatione, p. 209, 280; for which reasons it was exploded and condemned by our first Reformers, and particularly by Bishop Pilkington, in his comment upon Haggai, chap, i., ver. 7, 8, and Archbishop Parker, who, in his Antiq. Britan., expressly condemns the arclibishop's method of] consecration as popish and superstitious, p. 85 -87.$ ' But the archbishop says, if churches are not consecrated they cannot be holy, whereas many places that were never consecrated are styled holy, as "the most holy place," and the "holy city Jerusalem ;" and our homilies say, that the Church is called holy, not of itself, but because God's people resorting thither are holy, and ex- ercise themselves in holy things ; and it is evi- dent that sanctification, when applied to places. * Prynne, p. 115,499, &c. t Ibid., p. 115-117. t Ibid., p. 501. is nothing else but a separating them from com- mon use to a religious and sacred one, which may be done without the superstitious method above mentioned ; and though the archbishop avers he had not his form of consecration from the Roman pontifical, he acknowledges he had it from Bishop Andrews, who could have it no- where else.* As for consecrating altars, pattens, chalices, altar cloths, and other altar f'urniture, their ori- ginal is no higher than the Roman missal and pon- tifical, in both which there are particular chapters and set forms of prayer for this purpose ; but to imagine that these vessels may not be reputed holy, though separated to a holy use, unless thus consecrated, is without any foundation in rea- son or Scripture, and contrary to the practice of the Church of England, and the opinion of our first Reformers. + To the archbishop's account of feasts of dedi- cation we answer, as before, that an example out of the Jewish law is no rule for the Chris- tian Church. Ezra kept a feast at the dedica- tion of the temple, when it was rebuilt, and of- fered a. great many burnt-offerings (Ezra, vi., 16, 17), but it was not made an annual solem- nity ; for the feastofdedication, mentioned John, X., 22, was not of the dedication of the temple, but of the altars, instituted by Judas Maccabeus, to be kept annually by the space of eight days (I Mace, iv., 56, 59), which being of no Divine institution, but kept only by the superstitious Jews, not by Christ or his apostles (who are only said to be at Jerusalem at that time), can be no precedent for our modern consecra- tions.t Pope Felix and Gregory are the first that de- creed the annual observation of the dedication of churches since our Saviour's time, which were observed in England under the names of wakes or revels, but were the occasion of so much idleness and debauchery, that King Hen- ry VIII., anno 1536, restrained them all to the first Sunday in October, not to b$ kept on any other day ; and afterward, by the statute 5 and 6 Edward VI., cap. iii., of holydays, they were totally abolished. But these feasts being revived again by degrees, in sundry places of this realm, and particularly in Somersetshire, Judge Rich- ardson, when he was on the circuit, at the re- quest of the justices of the peace for the coun- ty, published an order for suppressing them ; but was obliged the next year as publicly to re- voke it, and to declare such recreations to be lawful ; and as a farther punishment on the judge, the archbishop obtained his removal from that circuit. It is very certain that at these revels there were a great many disorders, as drunkenness, quarrelling, fornication, and mur- der; it is therefore very unlikely they sliould an- swer any good purpose, and how fit they were to succeed the public devotions of the Lord's Day, we shall leave to your lordships' consid^ eration. (3 ) The managers charged the archbishop farther " with giving orders to Sir Nath. Brent, his vicar-general, to enjoin the church-wardens of all parish churches within his diocess, that they should remove the cornmunion-table from the middle of the chapel to the upper end, and * Prynne, p. 502. t Ibid., p. 128. t Ibid., p. Go, &c., 4G7, 470. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 511 place it in form of an altar, close to the wall, with the ends north and south, and encompass it with rails, according to the model of cathe- drals. They objected likewise to his furnish- ing the altar in his own chapel, and the king's at Whitehall, with basins, candlesticks, tapers, and other silver vessels, not used in his prede- cessor's time ; and to the crcdentia, or side-table, in conformity to the Roman ceremonial, on which the elements were to be placed on a clean linen cloth before they were brought to the altar to be consecrated ; and to the hang- ing over the altar a piece of arras with a large crucifix."* The archbishop answered, that the placing the communion-table at the east end of the chancel was commanded by Queen Elizabeth's injunctions, which say, that the holy table shall be set in the place where the altar stood, which all who are acquainted v/ith antiquity know was at the east end of the chancel, with the ends north and south, close to the wall, and thus they were usually placed both in this and other churches of Christendom ; the innovation, therefore, was theirs who departed from the injunctions, and not mine, who have kept to them. Besides, altars, both name and thing, were in use in the primitive churches long be- fore popery began ; yea, they are to be found both in the Old and New Testament ; and that there can be no popery in railing them in, I have proved in my speech in the Star Chamber. However, I aver that I gave no orders nor di- rections to Sir Nath. Brent, my vicar-general, neither by letter nor otherwise, to remove or rail in communion-tables in all parish church- es ; and I desire Sir Nath. may be called to testify the truth upon his oath. Sir Nath. be- ing sworn, the archbishop asked him upon his oath, whether he had ever given him such or- ders. To which he replied, " My lords, upon the oath I have taken, I received an express di- rection and command from the archbishop him- self to do what I did of this kind, otherwise I durst never have done it."t The archbishop insisting that he never gave him such orders, and wondering he should be so unworthy as to affirm it upon oath. Sir Nath. produced the fol- lowing letter, under the archbishop's own hand, directed to himself at Maidstone : "Sir, '' I require you to command the communion- table at Maidstone to be placed at the east or upper end of the chancel, and there railed in, and that the communicants there come up to the rail to receive the blessed sacrament ; and the like you are required to do in all churches, and in all other places where you visit metro- politically. "W. Cant." To which the archbishop, being out of coun- tenance, made no other reply but that he had forgot it.J As to the furniture upon the altar, he added, that it was no other than was used in the king's chapel at Whitehall before his time, and was both necessary and decent ; as is likewise the crcdentia, or side-table, the form of which he took from Bishop Andrews's model ; and the piece * Prynne, p. 62, 91, &c. t Laud's Hist., p. 310- t Prynne, p. 8U. of arras that was hung up over the altar in- Passion-week he apprehended was very prop- er for the place apd occasion, such representa- tions being approved by the Lutherans, and even by Calvin himself, as had been already" shown. The managers replied to the antiquity of al- tars, that though the name is often mentioned in Scripture, yet it is never applied to the Lord's Table ; but altars and priests are put in opposi- tion to the Lord's Table and ministers of the New Testament, 1 Cor., ix., 13, 14. Christ himself celebrated the sacrament at a table, not at an altar, and he calls it a supper, not a sac- rifice ; nor can it be pretended by any law or canon of the Church of England, that it is call- ed an altar more than once, stat. 1, Edw. VI., cap. i., which statute was repealed within threS' years, and another made, in which the word altar is changed into table. It is evident from the unanimous suffrage of most of the fathers that lived within three hundred years after Christ, and by our most learned reformers, that for above two hundred and fifty years after Christ, there were no altars in churches, but only tables. Pope Sixtus II. being the first that introduced them ;* and the canons of the popish Council of Aix, 1583, being the only ones that can be produced for railing them in ; one of which prescribes thus, " Unumquodque altare sepiatur omnino septo ferreo, vel lapideo, vel ligneo."t " Let every altar be encompassed with a rail of iron, stone, or wood." The text, Heb., xiii,, 10, "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tab- ernacle," is certainly meant of Christ himself, and not of the altar of wood or stone, as our Protestant writers have proved at large ; agree- ably to which all altars in churches were com- manded to be taken away and removed, as su- perstitious and popish, by public laws and in- junctions at the Reformation, and tables were set up in their stead, which continued till the archbishop was pleased to turn them again into altars. But the archbishop is pleased to maintain that the queen's injunctions prescribe the com- munion-table to be set in the place where the altar stood, and that this was anciently at the east end of the choir ; whereas, we affirm that he is not able to produce one precedent or au- thority in all antiquity for this assertion ; on the contrary, we are able to demonstrate to your lordships, that altars and Lord's tables, among Jews and Christians, stood anciently in the midst of their churches or choirs,t where the people might sit, stand, and go conveniently round them. So it was certainly in the Jewish Church, as every one allows ; and it was so in the Christian Church till the very darkest times of popery, when private masses were introdu- ced.^ Eusebius, Dionysius Areopagita, Chry- sostom, Athanasius, Augustine, &c., affirm that * Prynne, p. 480, 481. t Ibid., p. 62- t Choir or chorus has its denomination from the multitude standing round about the altar [in modu?n corona;] in the form of a ring or circle. In the ancient liturgies they prayed for all those that stood round about the altar. The priest and deac(jns stood round about the altar when they officiated, and so did the bishops when they consecrated it. 1^ Prynne, p. 482, 484. Vide Bishop Williams'a Life, p. 109. 512 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. the table of the Lord stood in the middle of the chancel, so that they might compass it about ; nay, Durandus, a popish writer, informs us, that •when a bishop consecrates a new altar, he must go round about it seven times ; by which it is evident it could not stand against a wall ; but our most eminent writers against popery, as Bucer, Bishop Jewel, Bishop Babington, Bishop Morton, and Archbishop WjJliams, have proved this so evidently, that there is no room to call it in question ; and we are able to produce sev- eral authorities from Venerable Bede, St. Austin, trie first Archbishop of Canterbury, and others, that they stood thus in England in their times. Nor do Queen Elizabeth's injunctions in the least favour the archbishop's practice of fixing the communion-table to the east wall with rails about it, for they order the table to be removed ■when the sacrament is to be distributed, and placed in such sort within the chancel, as where- by the minister may be more conveniently heard of the communicants, and the communicants may more conveniently, and in greater num- bers, communicate with him. Now, if it be to be removed at the time of communion, it is ab- surd to suppose it to be fixed to the wall, and encompassed with rails. Besides, the rubric of the Common Prayer Book, and the eighty-sec- ond canon of 1603, appoint the communion-ta- ble to be placed in the body of the church, where the chancel is too small, or near the middle of the chancel, where it is large enough ; and thus they generally stood in all churches, chapels, and in Lambeth Chapel itself, till the archbish- op's time, which puts the matter out of ques- tion.* And if it be remembered that the say- ing of private masses brought in this situation of altars into the Church of Rome, contrary to all antiquity, the archbishops imitating them in that particular must certainly be a popish inno- ■vation. The furniture upon the altar, which the arch- bishop pleads for, is exactly copied from the Roman pontifical and the popish Council of Aix, and is condemned by our homilies and Queen Elizabeth's injunctions, which censure, con- demn, and abolish, as superstitious, ethnical, and popish, all candlesticks, trindals, rolls of ■wax, and setting up of tapers, as tending to idolatry and superstition, injunct. 2, 23, 25. Therefore, instead of conforming to the chapel at Whitehall, he ought, as dean of that chapel, to have reformed it to our laws, homilies, and injunctions. The like may be said of the credcntia [or side- table], which is taken expressly out of the Ro- man Ceremoniale and Pontifical, and is used among the papists only in their most solemn masses. It was never heard of in any Protest- ant church, or in the Church of England, till the archbishop's time ; and as for the stale pre- text of his having it from Bishop Andrews, if it be true, we are certain that bishop could have it nowhere else but from the Roman missal. t The arras hangings, with the picture of Christ at his last supper, with a crucifix, are no less popish than the former, being enjoined by the Roman Ceremoniale, edit. Par.. 1633, lib. i., cap. xii., p. 69, 70, in these words : " Quod si altare parieti adhsereat, applicari poterit ipsi pa- rieti supra altare pannus aliquis cseteris nobilior * Prynne, p. 467, 481. t Prynne, p. 63, 468. et speciosior, ubi intextae sint D.N. Jesu Christi, aut gloriosae Virginis, vel sanctorum imagines." " If the altar be fixed to the wall, let there be hangings more noble and beautiful than the rest fastened upon the wall over the altar, in which are wrought the images of Christ, the blessed Virgin, or the saints." Besides, these things being condemned by our statutes, homilies, and injunctions, as we have already proved, ought not certainly to have been introduced by a prel- ate, who challenges all that is between heaven and hell justly to tax him in any one particular of favouring popish superstition or idolatry. " Another innovation charged on the arch- bishop was his introducing divers superstitions into Divine worship, as bowing towards the al- tar, bowing at the name of Jesus, enjoining peo- ple to do reverence at their entrance into church, reading the sacred service at the communion- table, standing up at the Gloria Patri* and in- troducing the use of copes and church music. They objected, farther, his repairing old cruci- fixes, his new statutes of the University of Ox- ford, among which some were arbitrary, and others were superstitious : of the former sort are the imposing new oaths ; the statute of banni- tion ; referring some misdemeanors to arbitrary penalties, and obliging students to go to prison on the vice-chancellor's or proctor's command. Of the latter sort, are bowing to the altar, sing- ing the litany, and reading Latin prayers in Lent ; together with the above-mentioned su- perstitions in the manner of Divine worship. "t The archbishop answered, that bowing in Divine worship was practised among the Jews (2 Chron., xxix., 29); and the Psalmist says, " O come, let us worship and bow down ; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker" (Psalm xcv., 6) : that it was usual in Queen Elizabeth's time ; and that the knights of the garter were obliged to this practice by the orders of their chapter. Besides, the altar is the chief place of God's residence on earth, for there it is, " This is my body ;" whereas in the pulpit it is only. This is my word. And shall I bow to men in each house of Parliament, and not bow to God in his house, whither I come to worship him 1 Surely I must worship God and bow to him, though neither altar nor communion-table be in the church. t Bowing at the name of Jesus is prescribed in direct terms by Queen Elizabeth's injunctions, No. 12, and by the eighteenth canon of our Church ; and, though standing up at the Gloria Palri is not prescribed by any canon of the Church, it is nevertheless of great antiquity ; nor is the reading the second service at the communion-table an innovation, it being the constant practice in cathedrals, and warranted by the rubric. The use of copes is prescribed by the twen- ty-fourth canon of 1603, which says, " that in all cathedrals and collegiate churches, the com- * " It is observable," remarks Mrs. Macaulay, " that the most obnoxious of those ceremonies which Laud so childishly insisted on were established at the Restoration, and have been ever since regularly practised in the Church ; and that many of his most offensive measures have been adopted by revolution ministers, such as the nominating clergymen to be justices of jieace, with restraints laid on marriage." —History of England, vol. iv., p. 135, the note.—^n. t Prynne, p. 72, &c. X Laud's Hist., p. 313, 361. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 513 munion shall be administered on principal feast days, sometimes by the bishop, if present, sometimes by the dean, and sometimes by tlie canon or prebendary, the principal minister using a decent cope ;" so tliai here is no inno- vation, any more than in the use of organs, which our Church has generally approved and use of As to the statutes of the University of Ox- ford, it is honour, more than enough for«me, that I have finished and settled them : nor did I anything in them but by the consent of the convocation ; and as to the particulars, there is nothing but what is agreeable to their char- ters, and the ancient custom and usage of the university.* The managers replied, that bowing to the al- tar is popish, superstitious, and idolatrous, be- ing prescribed only by popish canons, and in- troduced on purpose to support the doctrine of transubstantiation, which the archbishop's prac- tice seems very much to countenance, when, at his coming up to the altar to consecrate the bread, he makes three low bows, and at his go- ing away three more, giving this reason for it, *' Quia hoc est corpus meum," " Because this is my body ;" whereas he does not bow to the pulpit, because a greater reverence is due to the body than to the Word of the Lord.t Besides, it has no foundation in antiquity, nor has it been approved by any Protestant writers, except the archbishop's creatures, such as Dr. Heylin, Pocklington, &c., and has been condemned by the best writers, as popish and superstitious. The black book of the knights of the garter, at Windsor, is a sorry precedent for a Protestant archbishop to follow, being made in the darkest limes of popery, viz., in the reign of Henry V. ; and if they bow, Deo ct altari, to God and to his altar, as the archbishop in the Star Chamber is of opinion Christians ought to do, we cannot but think it both popish and idolatrous. His passages of Scripture are nothing to the pur- pose, for kneeling before the Lord our maker has no relation to bowing to the altar; nor is there any canon or injunction of the Church to support the practice. The archbishop confesses that there is nei- ther canon nor injunction for standing up at the Gloria Patri, which must therefore be an inno- vation, and is of no greater antiquity than the office of the mass, for it is derived from the Ordo Ronianus, as appears from the works of Cassander, p. 98. t And, though bowing at the name of Jesus be mentioned in the canons, yet these canons are not binding, not being con- frmed by Parliament,"^ especially since the homilies, the Common Prayer Book, the Arti- cles of Religion, and the Book of Ordination, ■which are the only authentic rules of the Church, make no mention of it ; nor was it ever intro- duced before the time of Pope Gregory X., who first prescribed it ; and from the Councils of Basil, Sennes, and Augusta, it was afterward inserted in the Roman Ceremoniale ; besides, * Laud's History, p. 304. t Prynne, p. 63, 64, 474, 477, 487. t Ibid., p. 64. i) Dr. Grey contends here, that the canons of a convocation duly licensed by the king, when con- firmed by royal authority, are properly the ecclesias- tical laws of the Church of England, and are as binding as the statutes of Parliament. — Ed. Vol. I.— T t t our best Protestant writers have condemned the practice. Reading the second service at the altar, when there is no communion, is contrary to the can- ons of 1571 and 1603, contrary to the queen's injunctions, the homilies, the rubric in the Com- mon Prayer Book, and was never practised in parish churches till of late, though used in some cathedrals, Avhere the rubric enjoins the com- munion to be administered every Sunday in the year, which, being omitted, the second service at the table was left to supply it. The Lord's Table was ordained only to administer the sac- rament, but the Epistle and Gospel, which are the chief parts of the second service, are ap- pointed to be read with the two lessons in the reading pew.* As for copes, neither the Common Prayer Book, nor Book of Ordination, nor homilies con- firmed by Parliament, nor Queen Elizabeth's injunctions in her first year, make any mention of them, though they are evidently derived from the popish wardrobe, and the last Common Prayer Book of King Edward VI. expressly pro- hibits them.t The twenty-fourth canon of 1603 enjoins only the chief minister to wear a cope at the administration of the sacrament, whereas the archbishop prescribed them to be worn by others besides the chief minister, and as well when the sacrament was not adminis- tered as when it was. But, as we observed before, those canons not being confirmed by Parliament, expired with King James, and there can be no warrant- for their present use. Nor is the use of music in churches, or chanting of prayers, of any great antiquity, being first intro- duced by Pope Vitalian, A.D. 666, and encour- aged only by popish prelates. J And though the archbishop pleads that the statutes of Oxford are agreeable to ancient cus- tom and usage, we affirm they contain sundry innovations, not only with regard to the liberty of the subject, but with regard to religion, for Latin prayers were formerly said only on Ash- Wednesdays before the bachelors of arts, whereas now none others are to be said throughout all Lent ; the statute for sjnging in solemn processions was made in time of popery, and renewed in these statutes to keep up the practice of such superstitious perambulations ; and though the archbishop with his wonted as- surance wonders what these things have to do with treason, we apprehend that if they appear so many proofs of a design to subvertij the es- * Prynne, p. 492. t Ibid., p. 64, 479, 480. t Ibid., p. 05. noirs of Hollis, vol. ii., p. 578.— Ed. There are just such prelates at the present moment. hope I shall not be answerable for their unchar- itableness. Sir Henry Mildmay will witness how much I am hated and spoken against at Rome. It does not appear that I forbade min- isters praying for the queen's conversion ; but when I was told the queen was prayed for in a factious and seditious manner, I referred the matter to my visiters, and do acknowledge that Mr. Jones was punished in the High Com- mission on this account.* To the objection of the Church of Rome's being a true church, I confess myself of that opinion, and do still believe that she never erred in fundamentals, for the foundations of the Christian religion are in the articles of the creed, and she denies none of them ; and it would be sad if she should, for "it is through her that the bishops of the Church of England, who have the honour to be capable of deriving their calling from St. Peter, must deduce their succession. "t She is therefore a true church, though not an orthodox one ; our religion and theirs is one in essentials, and people may be saved in either. It has not been proved that I deny the pope to be antichrist, though many learned men have denied it ; nor do I conceive that our homOies affirm it ; and if they did, I do not conceive myself bound to believe- every phrase that is in them. I confess I have often wished a reconcdiation between the Churches of England and Rome in a just and Christian way, and was in hopes in due time to effect it ; but a reconcdiation without truth and piety I never desired. J To the objection of the foreign Protestant churches, I deny that I have endeavoured to sow discord between them, but I have endeav- oured to unite the Calvinists and Lutherans ; nor have I absolutely unchurched them. I say, in- deed, in my book against Fisher, according to St. Jerome, No bishop, no church; and that none but a bishop can ordain, except in cases of inevitable necessity ; and whether that be the case with the foreign churches, the world must judge. ^ The judgment of the Church of England is, that church government by bishops is unalterable, for the preface to the Book of Ordination says, that from the apostle's time there have been three orders of ministers in the Church, bishops, priests, and deacons ; now, if bishops are the apostles' successors, and have continued in the Church above sixteen hundred years, what authority have any Christian states to deprive them of that right which Christ has given them"! As to the French and Dutch churches in this kingdom, I did not question them for their ancient privileges, but for their new encroachments, for it was not the design of the queen [Elizabeth] to harbour them, un- less they conformed to the English liturgy ; now I insisted on this only with respect to those who were of the second descent, and born in England ; and if all such had been obliged to go to their parish churches as they ought, they would not have done the Church of England so much harm as they have since done. II To the fourth objection, I answer that I had only they are inferior to Laud in talent and energy 01 character. — C. * Laud's History, p. 383. t Ibid., p, 392. t Prynne, p. 556. () Laud's Hist., p. 374. Prynne, p. 540. II Ibid., p. 378. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 519 no intimate correspondence with priests or Jes- uits, nor entertained them at my table, know- ing them to be such. I never put my hand to the releasing any priest out of prison, nor have I connived at the liberties they assumed ; the witnesses who pretended to prove this are either mean persons, a*- strongly prejudiced ; and to most of the facts there is but one wit- ness. As to the nuncios from Rome, it was not in my power to hinder their coming, the king having condescended to it, at the earnest request of the queen ; nor had I any particular intimacy with them while they were here ; nor do I remember my checking the pursuivants in doing their duty. But if it could be supposed that I said I will have nothing to do with any priest-catching knaves, I hope the words are not treason ; nor is it any offence not to be a persecutor, or not to give ill language to Jesuits ; and I do affirm that I never persecuted any orthodox ministers or Puritans, though I may have persecuted some for their schisms and misdemeanors.* As to the king's marrying, it is not proved that I had any hand in it, though I acknowledge the Duke of Buckingham did me the honour to make me his confessor. Nor did I conceal the late plot to bring in popery, but discovered it to the king as soon as I had intelligence of it ; for the truth of which I appeal not only to my letters, but to the Earl of Northumberland here present ; who stood up and said he remember- no such thing. The Commons replied to the archbishop's general defence, that he had been fighting with his own shadow, for they never objected those things to him for the purposes which he men- tions ; they never objected his reducing any from popery, but that many were hardened in it by his means. Nor did they object the can- ons or oath to prove him guilty of introducing popery, but to quite different purposes. So that the archbishop in these, and the other par- ticulars above mentioned, has given us a speci- men of his sophistry and Jesuitism, transform- ing his own defence into our charge and evi- dence, and making our objections stand as proofs of a fact which they were not in the least intended to support. t To the particulars they replied, that the titles he had assumed were peculiar to the papacy ; that they were never assumed by any Protest- ant archbishop before himself; nay, that in the times of popery there are hardly any examples of their being given to English bishops, and that it is blasphemy to give the title of holiness in the abstract to any but God himself: the arch- bishop, therefore, ought, in his answers to the letters of the university, to have checked them, whereas he does not so much as mention these exorbitances, nor find tlie least fault with them. And though there be a difference between pa- pal title and papal power, yet certainly his claiming the title of " alterius orbis papa," pope of the other world, is a demonstration that he was grasping at the same power in Great Brit- ain as the pope had in Italy ; and though, for prudent reasons, he refused the cardinal's hat when it was offered, yet when he had made his terms, and accomplished that reconciliation be- tween the two ciiurches that he was contriving, * Laud's Hist., p. 394. t Prynne, p. 543. no doubt he would have had his reward. Sir Henry Mildmay being summoned, at the arch- bishop's request, to give in evidence how much he was hated and spoken against at Rome, swore that when he was at Rome some of the Jesuitical faction spoke against the archbishop, because they apprehended he aimed at too great an ec- clesiastical jurisdiction forhimself; but the sec- ulars commended and applauded him, because of the near approaches he made to their church, and showed himself favourable to their party. The like evidence was given by Mr. Challoner and others.* And whereas the archbishop had said that it was not proved that he, forbid ministers to pray for the queen's conversion, the managers pro- duced Mr. Hugh Radcliffe, of St. Martin's, Lud- gate, who swore that Sir Nathaniel Brent, his vicar-general, at a visitation at Bow Church, gave m charge to the clergy, in his hearing, these words : " Whereas divers of you, in your prayers before sermon, used to pray for the queen's conversion, you are to do so no more, for the queen does not doubt of her conver- sion."! And both before and after, the arch- bishop himself caused Mr. Bernard, Mr Peters, and Mr. Jones, to be prosecuted in the High Commission on this account. t The archbishop having said that he never put his hand to the releasing any priest out of prison, the crianagers produced a warrant under his own i ./d, dated January 31, 1633, for the release of William Walgrave, deposed to be a dangerous, seducing priest, in these words : " These are to will and command you to set at full liberty the person of William Walgrave, formerly committed to your custody, and for your so doing this shall be your sufficient war- rant. W. Cant. R. Ebor." But the archbishop's memory frequently fail- ed him on such occasions. His grace confesses the Church of Rome to be a true church, whereas we aver her to be a false and anti-Christian one, for she has no sure foundation, no true head, no ordinances, sacraments, or worship, no true ministry, nor government of Christ's institution ; she yields no true subjection to Christ's laws, word, or spirit, but is overspread with damnable errors in doctrine, and corruptions in manners and worship, and is therefore defined by our homi- lies to be a false church. Must she not err in fundamentals, when she affirms the Church to be built on Peter, not upon Christ, and resolves our faith into the Churth, and not into the Scriptures ? When she deifies the Virgin Mary and other saints by giving them Divine worship, and obliges us to adore the consecrated bread in the sacrament as the very body and blood of Christ ; when she denies the cup to the laity, obliges people to pray in an unknown tongue, and sets up a new head of the Church instead of Christ, with the keys of the kingdom of heaven at his girdle ! What are these but fundamental errors, which nullify the Church that maintains them ! The religion of the Church of Rome and ours is not one and the same, for theirs is no Christian religion, but a heap of superstition and idolatry ; and his affirming salvation may be * Prynne, p. 413. t Ibid., p. 444. t Ibid., p. 418. 520 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. had in that church is contrary to the opinion of our best Protestant writers, who make her damnable errors the foundation of our separation from her. And though the archbishop maives light of his not believing the pope to be anti- christ, we do aver that our statutes and homi- lies do either in direct or equivalent expressions define him to be antichrist, and particularly in the Subsidy Act, 3 Jac, penned by the convoca- tion. But can anything more fully demonstrate the archbishop's design to reconcile the Church of England with Rome than his own confession 1 He says he has laboured this matter with a faithful and single heart (Reply to Fisher, p. 388), though not to the prejudice of truth and piety. But it must be observed, that the arch- bishop's design was not to bring over the Church of Rome to us, but to carry us over to them ; and what large advances he has made that way appears by his setting up altars, crucifixes, im- ages, and other innovations. What advance has the Church of Rome made towards usi ■why, none at all ; nor is it possible she should, till she lays aside her infallibility. The pretence, therefore, of the Church of Rome's meeting us halfway, was a mere blind to deceive the people of England, till he had carried them wholly over into her territories.* The archbishop has denied his endeavours to sow discord among foreign Protestants, and as- serted his endeavours to reconcile the Luther- ans and Calvinists, though he has produced no evidence of it ; but his late behaviour towards the Scots, on the account of their having no bishops, and to the foreign settlements among ourselves, is a sufficient proof of the contrary. The maxim that he cites from St. Jerome, No bishop, no church, is a plain perverting of his sense, for his words are, " Ubi non est sacer- dos, non est ecclesia ;" but it is well known that, according to St. Jerome, bishops and pres- byters are one and the same in jurisdiction and office, and presbyters have the power of ordina- tion as well as bishops ; and therefore this is a conclusion of the archbishop's framing, which, if it be true, must necessarily unchurch all the foreign Reformed churches, and render all the ordinations of their ministers invalid, which is a sufficient evidence of his enmity to them.t As to the French and Dutch churches, who were settled by Charter in the reign of King Ed- ward VI., Mr. Bulteel's book, of the manifold troubles of those churches by this archbishop's prosecutions, evidently proves that he invaded and diminished their ancient immunities and privileges in all parts ; and that he was so far from being their friend, that they accounted him their greatest enemy. To the fourth objection, relating to the arch- bishop's correspondence with popish priests, we reply, that the archbishop's intimacy with Sir Toby Malh'ew, the most active Jesuit in the kingdom, has been fully proved ; that he was sometimes with him in his barge, sometimes in his coach, sometimes in private with him in his garden, and frequently at his table. J The like has been proved of Sancta Clara, St. Giles Le- ander. Smith, and Price, and we cannot but wonder at his denying that he knew them to be * Prynne, p. 552, &c. t Ibid., p. 541. i Ibid., p. 448, 456, 559, 561. priests, when the evidence of his knowledge of some of them has been produced under his own hand ; and the witnesses for the others were no meaner persons than the lords of the council and the high commissioners(among which was himself), employed to apprehend priests and de- linquents ; from whence we conclude, that all the archbishop's predecessors, since the Refor- mation, had not half the intimacy with popish priests and Jesuits as himself, and his harbour- ing some of them that were native Englishmen is within the statutes of 23 Eliz., cap. i., and 27 Eiiz., cap. ii. It is very certain that the liberty the Jesuits have enjoyed in prison and else- where was owing to his connivance ; and thought the archbishop is so happy as not to remember his checking the officers for their diligence in apprehending popish priests, yet his distinctioa between not persecuting papists and prosecu- ting Puritans, besides the quibble, is an unan- swerable argument of his affection to the one beyond the other.* The managers produced six or eight witness- es to prove the archbishop's discountenancing and threatening such as were active in appre- hending* priests and Jesuits. And though he would wash his hands of the affair of the pope's nuncio residing here in character, and holdin* an intimate correspondence with the court, be- cause himself did not appear in it, yet it is evi- dent that Secretary Wmdebank, who was the archbishop's creature and confidant, held aa avowed correspondence with them. If he had no concern in this affair, should he not, out of regard to the Protestant religion and Church, of England, even to the hazard of his archbish- opric, have made some open protestation, whea Gregorio Panzani resided here in character two years ; Gregory Con, a Scot, for three years and two months ; and, last of all, Count Rosetti, tiJl driven away by the present Parliament It It has been sufficiently proved that the arch- bishop was concerned in the Spanish and Frenciii matches, and in the instructions given to the prince at his going to Spain, to satisfy the pope's nuncio about King James having decla- red the pope to be antichrist ; for the Duke of Buckingham was the prince's director, and him- self acknowledged that he was the duke's con- fessor. And as to the late plot of Habernfield, we have owned, in our evidences, that at first he discovered it to the king, because he imagined it to be a plot of the Puritans ; but when he found the parties engaged in it to be papists, and, among others. Secretary Windebeck and Sir To- by Malhew, his own creatures, hfi then concealed his papers, called it a sham plot, and browbeat the informers, whereas he ought at least to have laid it before the Parliament, that they might have sifted it to the bran. But that it was a real plot, his own Diary, together with our lat- ter discoveries, fully prove ; and his conceal- ment of it we conceive to be a high and trea- sonable offence, tending to subvert the Protest- ant religion, and subject us to the Church of RomeJ Thus, we humbly conceive, we have made a satisfactory reply to all the archbishop's an- swers, and have fully made good the whole of * Prynne, p. 448, 458. J Ibid., p. 564, &c. t Ibid., p. 44C HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 531 our charge, namely, that the archbishop has traitorously endeavoured to destroy our civil liberties, and to introduce tyranny and arbitrary power ; and, secondly, that he has endeavoured to subvert the Protestant religion established by law in these kingdoms, and to subject us to the Church of Rome ; wherefore we do, in the name of all the commons of England, pray judgment against him as a traitor. Before the arciibishop withtlrew from the bar, .he moved the Lords that, considering the length of his trial,* and the distance of time between the several days of hearing, they would allow him a day that he might set before their lord- ships in one view the whole of the Commons' charge, and his defence ; to which they conde- scended, and appointed September 2, which was five weeks from the last day of his trial. f When the archbishop appeared at the bar, he began ■with a moving address, beseeching their lord- ships to consider his calling, his age, his long imprisonment, his sufferings, his patience, and the sequestration of his estate. He then com- plained, (1.) Of the uncertainty and generality of the Commons' charge. (2.) Of the short time that was allowed him for his answer. (3. ) That he had been sifted to the bran, and had his pa- pers taken from him. (4.) That the things he had taken most pains m were for the public good, and done at his own great expense, as the repair of St. Paul's, and the statutes of Oxford. (5.) That many of the witnesses were sectaries and schismatics, whereas, by the canon law, no schismatic should be heard against his bishop. He complained, also, of the number of witnesses produced against him, which were above one hundred and fifty ; whereas the civil law says that the judges should moderate things so as no man should be oppressed with tlie multitude of witnesses. (6.) That he had been charged with passionate and hasty words, which he hopes their lordships will pardon as human frailties. (7.) That other men's actions had been laid to his charge, as those of his chaplains, and the actions of the High Commission and Star Cham- ber, which, he insists, cannot by any law be put upon him, it being a known rule, " Refertur ad universes quod publice fit per majorem partem." He then went over the particular charges above mentioned, and concluded with a request, that when the Commons had replied to the facts, his counsel might be heard as to matters of law. The. Commons replied to the archbishop's speech, September II, and the same day his counsel delivered in these two queries: "(1.) Whether, in all or any of the articles charged against the archbishop, there be contained any treason by the established laws of the kingdom 1 (2.) Whether the impeachment and articles did contain such certainties and particularities as are required by law in cases of treason ']"t The * It had been drawn out through more than three months, and he had been often, when summoned be- fore the Lords, sent back unheard. This had, need- lessly, exposed him to the scorns and revihngs of the people, and to an expense wliich he could ill bear ; for he never appeared but it cost him £6 or £7 per day. His estate and goods had been sequestered ; and it was not until towards the end of his trial, and after repeated solicitations, that the Commons allowed him X200 to support his necessary expenses. — Mac- mday's Hlslory of England, vol. iv., p. 138, note. — Ed. t Laud's History, p. 412, 419. % Ibid., p. 422. Vol. I.— U u u Lords sent down the queries to the Commons, who, after they had referred them to a commit- tee of lawyers, agreed that the archbishop's counsel might be heard to the first query, but not to the second. Accordingly, October II, the archbishop being present at the bar, Mr. Hearn proposed to argue these two general questions :* (I.) " Whether there be, at this day, any oth- er treason than what is enacted by the statute 25 Edward III., cap. ii., or enacted by some other subsequent statute !" (2.) " Whetlier any of the matters, in any of the articles charged against the archbishop, contain any of the treasons declared by that law, or enacted by any subsequent law]" And for the clearing of both these he humbly insisted that an " endeavour to subvert the laws, the Protestant religion, and the rights of Parliament, which are the three general char- ges to which all the particulars alleged against the archbishop may be reduced, is not treason within the statute of 25 Edward HI., nor any other particular statute."! In maintenance of this proposition, he con- tended, first, " That the particulars alleged against the archbishop were not within the let- ter of the statute of the 25th Edward III., and then argued that the statutes of this land ought not to be construed by equity or inference, be- cause they are declarative laws, and were de- signed for the security of the subject in his life, liberty, and estate ; and because since the time of Henry IV. no judgment has been given in Parliament for any treason not expressly con- tained or declared in that or some other stat- ute, but by bill ; from whence it will follow, that the particulars charged against the arch- bishop, being only an endeavour to subvert fun- damental laws, are of so great latitude and un- certainty, that every action not warranted by law may be extended to treason, though there is no particular statute to make it so. If it be replied that the statute of 25 Edward III. takes notice of compassing or imagining, we answer, it confines it to the death of the king ; but an endeavour to subvert the laws of the realm is no determinate crime by the laws of England, but has been esteemed an aggravation of a crime, and has been usually joined as the re- sult of some other offence below treason. "t " The like may be observed to the second charge, of endeavouring to subvert religion ; it is not treason by the letter of any law estab- lished in this kingdom, for the statute of I Ed- ward VI., cap. xii., mak^s it but felony to at- tempt an alteration of religion by force, which is the worst kind of attempt. ij " As to the third charge, of endeavouring to subvert the rights of Parliament. We insist on the same reply that was made under the first head. We aUow that, by the statute of 5 Jac, cap. iv., it is provided that if any man shall put in practice to reconcile any of his majesty's subjects to the Pope or See of Rome, it shall be deemed treason ; but we conceive this does not reach the archbishop, because, (1.) He is char- ged only with an endeavour, whereas in the statute it is putting in practice. (2.) Because the archbishop is charged with reconciling the * Laud's History, p. 423. t Ibid., p. 427. t Ibid., p. 424, 425 i) Ibid., p. 429. 522 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Church of England with the Church of Rome, whereas in the statute it is reconciling any of his majesty's subjects to the See of Home ; now reconciling with may as well be construed a reducing Rome to England, as England to Rome. " Thus," says Mr. Hearn, " we have endeav- oured to make it appear that none of the mat- ters, in any of the articles charged, are treason within the letter of the law ; indeed, the crimes, as they are laid in the charge, are many and great, but their number cannot make them ex- ceed their nature; and if tliey be but crimes and misdemeanors apart, below treason, they cannot be made treason by putting them togeth- er."* These arguments of the archbishop's counsel staggered the House of Lords, nor could the managers for the Commons satisfy them in their reply ; they had no doubts about the truth of the facts, but whether any of them were treason by the laws of the landU this the judges very much questioned, and, therefore, the Lords deferred giving judgment till the Commons thought fit to take another method to obtain it. Various are the accounts of the archbishop's behaviour on his trial ; his friends and admi- rers flatter him beyond measure, and said he perfectly triumphed over his accusers ; and his grace seems to be of the same mind, when he tells us that all men magnified his answer to the House of Commons, but he forbore to set down in what language, because it was high.J Mr. Prynne allows- that " he made as full, as gallant!^ and pithy a defence, and spoke as much for himself, as was possible for the wit of man to invent : and that with so much art, sophis- try, vivacity, oratory, audacity, and confidence, without the least blush, or aclJ Whitelocke, p. 123. II Rushworth, p. 872. "f Dugdale, p. 780. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 531 be always in a public and solemn manner, and very strict rules observed concerning the suffi- ciency and other qualifications of those men ■who shall be received into holy orders ; and the bishops shall not receive any into holy orders without the approbation and consent of the presbyters, or the major part of them. (5.) " That a competent maintenance ^d pro- vision be established, by act of Parliament, to such vicarages as belong to bishops, deans, and chapters, out of the impropriations, and accord- ing to the value of those impropriations of the several parishes. (6.) " That for time to come no man shall be capable of two parsonages or vicarages, with cure of souls. (7.) " That, towards settling the public peace, £100,000 shall be raised by act of Parliament, out of the estates of bishops, deans, and chap- ters, in such manner as shall be thought fit by the king and two houses of Parliament, with- out the alienation of any of the said lands. (8.) "That the jurisdiction in causes testa- mentary, decimal, matrimonial, be settled in such manner as shall seem most convenient by the king and two houses of Parliament. (9.) "That one or more acts of Parliament be passed for regulating of visitations, and against immoderate fees in ecclesiastical courts, and abuses by frivolous excommunication, and all other abuses in the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, in such manner as shall be agreed upon by the king and both houses of Parlia- ment. " And if your lordships shall insist upon any other thing which your lordships shall think ne- cessary for reformation, we shall very willingly apply ourselves to the consideration thereof." But they absolutely refused their consent to the main points, viz., the abolishing Episcopacy, es- tablishing the Directory, confirming the Assem- bly of Divines, and taking the Covenant. Mr. Rapin observes, upon the first of these concessions, that since the penal laws were not to be abolished, but only suspended, it would be in the king's power to take ofT the suspension whensoever he pleased. Upon the third, fourth, and fifth, that they were so rea- sonable and necessary, that it was not for the king's honour to let them be considered as a condescension to promote the peace ; and the remainder, depending upon the joint consent of king and Parliament, after a peace, it would always be in the king's breast to give or with- hold his assent, as he thought fit.* The commissioners for the Parliament repli- ed to these concessions, that they were so many new propositions, wholly different from what they had proposed ; that they contained little or nothing but what they were already in posses- sion of by the laws of the land ; that they were noway satisfactory to their desires, nor consist- ing with that reformation to which both na- tions are obliged by the solemn League and Covenant ; therefore they can give no other answer to them, but insist to desire their lord- ships that the bill may be passed, and their other demands concerning religion granted t The Parliament commissioners, in their last papers, say, that all objections in favour of the * Hi.story, vol. ii., p. 512, 513. t Dugdale, p. 783. present hierarchy, arising from conscience, law, or reason, being fully answered, they must now press for a determinate answer to their proposi- tion concerning religion. The king's commissioners deny that their ob- jections against passing the bill for abolishing Episcopacy have been answered, or that they had received any satisfaction in those particu- lars, and therefore cannot consent to it. The Parliament commissioners add, that after so many days' debate, and their making it appear how great a hinderance Episcopal gov- ernment is and has been to a perfect reforma- tion, and to the growth of religion, and how prejudicial it has been to the state, they hoped their lordships would have been ready to an- swer their expectations.* The king's commissioners replied, "It is evi- dent, and we conceive consented to on all sides, that Episcopacy has continued from the apos- tles' time, by a continued succession, in the Church of Christ, without intermission or in- terruption, and is therefore ^uro divino" The Parliament commissioners answer, "So far were we from consenting that Episcopacy has continued from the apostles' time, by a con- tinued succession, that the contrary was made evident to your lordships, and the unlawfulness of it fully proved. ''t The king's commissioners replied, that they conceived the succession of Episcopacy from the apostles was consented to on all sides, and did not remember that the unlawfulness of it had been asserted and proved.! However, they apprehend all the inconveniences of that government are remedied by the alterations which they had offered. Nor had the Parlia- ment commissioners given them a view in par- ticular of the government they would substitute in place of the present ; if, therefore, the alter- ations proposed do not satisfy, they desire the matter may be suspended till after the disband- ing the armies, and both king and Parliament can agree in calling a National Synod. The above-mentioned concessions would surely have been a sufficient foundation for peace, if they had been made twelve months sooner, before the Scots had been called in with their solemn League and Covenant, and sufficient security had been given for their per- formance ; but the commissioners' hands were now tied, the Parliament apprehending them- selves obliged by the Covenant to abolish the hierarchy ; and yet, if the commissioners could have agreed about the militia, and the punish- ment of evil counsellors, the affair of religion would not, in the opinion of Lord Clarendon, have hindered the success of the treaty ; his words are these : " The Parliament took none of the points of controversy less to heart, or were less united in anything, than in what con- cerned the Church ;() the Scots would have given up everything into the hands of the king for their beloved Presbytery ; but many of the Parliament were for peace, provided they might have indemnity for what was passed, and se^i:- rity for time to come. "II And were not these reasonable requests'! Why, then, did not the commissioners prevail with the king to give * Dufjdale, p. 787. t Ihid., p. 788. t Ibid'., p. 790, 878. ^ Clarendon, vol. ii., p. 581. 11 Ibid., p. 594. 532 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. Ihein security, and divide the Parliament, or put an end lo the war ? The last day of the treaty the Parliament i-ontinued silting till nine of the clock at night, in hopes of hearing something from their com- missioners tiiat might encourage them to pro- long ihe treaty ; but when an express brought word that the king's commissioners would not yield to one of their propositions, they broke up Avithout doing anything in the business. Each party laid the blame upon the other ; tiie king's commissioners complained that the Parliament would not consent to prolong the treaty ;* and the others, that after twenty days' conference not one proposition had been yield- ed. All sober men, and even some of the king's commissioners, were troubled at the event ; but, considering the state of the king's affairs, and his servile attachment to the coun- sels of a popish queen, it was easy to foresee it could not be otherwise. Bishop Burnet, in the History of his Life and Times,! says that Lord Holiis, who was one of the commissioners, told him " that the king's affairs were now at a crisis, for the treaty of Uxbridge gave him an opportunity of making peace with the Parliament, but all was undone by the unhappy success of the Marquis of Mont- rose at this time in Scotland, which being mag- nified to the king far beyond what it really was, prevailed with his majesty to put such limita- tions on his commissioners as made the whole design miscarry." Most of the king's commissioners, who were not excepted out of the Article of Indemnity, were for accommodating matters before they left Uxbridge. The Earl of Southampton rode post from Uxbridge to Oxford, to entreat the king to yield something to the necessity of the times ; several of his council pressed him to it on their knees ; and it is said his majesty was at length prevailed with, and appointed next morning to sign a warrant to that purpose, but that Montrose's romantic letter, of his conquest in Scotland, coming in the mean time, made the unhappy king alter his resolution. J * See a proof of this in Dr. Grey. — Ed. t Vol. i., p. 51, Edinburgh edition. j Dr. Grey attempts to convict .Mr. Neal of false- hood in each part of this paragraph. For the first part, the doctor says, " That, as far as he could learn, there was not so much as the shadow of an au- thority." In reply, it may be observed, that though Mr. Neal has not, as it is to be wished he had, re- ferred to his authority, yet the doctor's assertion is not well supported, for Whitelockc informs us, that '• on the I9lh of February the Earl of Southamp- ton and others of the king's commissioners went from Uxbridge to Oxford, to the king, about the busi- ness of the treaty, to receive some farther directions from his majesty therein." — Memorials, p. 127. As the treaty closed on the 22d, the reader will judge whether .Mr. Neal. speaking of the object and expe- dition of his journey, had not so much as the shadow of an authority. With respect to the latter part of the paragraph concerning Montrose, Dr. Grey will hive it, that Bishop Burnet's authority makes direct- ly asainsl Mr. Neal ; and then he quotes from him as follows: " Montrose wrote to the king that he had gone over the land from Dan to Beersheba, and that he prayed the king to come down in these wonls, Come thou and take the city, lest I take it, and it be called by my name." This letter was written, but never sent, for he was routed, and his papers taken before he had despatched the courier. But there was something more in the affair than this : Lord Clarendon* is of opinion, that if the king had yielded some things to the de- mands of the Parliament relating to religion, the militia, and Ireland, there were still other articles in reserve that would have broken off the trea^ ; in which I cannot but agree with his lordsiiip ; for, not to mention the giving up delinquents to the justice of Parliament, of which himself was one, there had been as yet no debate about the Roman Catholics, whom the Parliament would not tolerate, and the king was determined not to give up, as appears from the correspondence between himself and the queen at this time. In the queen's letter, Jan- uary fi, 1644-5, she desires his majesty " ta have a care of his honour, and not to abandoa those who had served him ; for if you agree upon strictness against Roman Catholics, it will discourage them from serving you ; nor can you expect relief from any Roman Catholic prince. "t In her letter of January 27, she adds, "Above all, have a care not to abandon those who have served you, as well the bishops as the poor Catholics." In answer to which the king writes, January 30, " I desire thee to be confident that I shall never make peace by abandoning my friends." And, February 15, " Be confident that, in making peace, I shall ever show my confidence in adhering to the bishops, and all our friends." March 5, " I give thee power, in my name, to declare to whom thou tbinkest fit, that I will take away all the penal laws against the Roman Catholics in England as soon as God shall make me able to do it, so as by their means I may have so pow- erful assistance as may deserve so great a favour, and enable me to do it."t As for Ire- land, his majesty had already commanded the Duke of Ormond, by his letter of February 27, to make peace with the papists, cost what it would. " If the suspending Poynings's act will do it,"' says he, "and taking away the penal laws, I shall not think it a hard bargain. When the Irish give me that assistance the/ have promised, I will consent to the repeal by law.">^ It appears from hence that the peace which the king seemed so much to desire was an empty sound. The queen was afraid he might be prevailed with to yield too far ; but his maj- esty bids her be confident of the contrary, fi)r " his commissioners would not be disputed from their ground, which was according to the note she remembers, and which he would not alter." When the treaty was ended, he writes thus to the queen, March 13: "Now is come to pass what I foresaw, the fruitless end of this treaty. Now if I do anything unhandsome to myself or my friends, it will he my own fault ; I was afraid of being pressed to make some Of course the doctor means to conclude that the king could not be influenced to obstruct the opera- tion of the treaty by a letter which was never re- ceived. But it escaped Dr. Grey's attention, that the letter which he quotes was written more than a year after the treaty was broken off; and Mr. Neal speaks, on the authority of Bishop Burnet, of an- other letter, or expresses received, while the treaty was pending : so that there is no contradiction in the case. — Ed. * Vol. ii., p. 594 t Rapin, vol. ii., p. 511, 512, folio edition. X Rushworth, vol. v., p. 942, 944, 946, 947. ^ Ibid., p. 978, 979. HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 533 mean- overtures to renew the treaty, but now if it be renewed, it shall be to my honour and ad- vantage."* Such was the queen's ascendant over the king, and his majesty's servile submis- sion to her imperious dictates ;t the fate of three kingdoms was at her disposal ; no place at court or in the army must be disposed of without her approbation ; no peace must be made but upon her terms ; the Oxford mongrel Parliament, as his majesty calls it, must be dismissed with disgrace, because they voted for peace ; the Irish Protestants must be abandon- ed to destruction ; and a civil war permitted to continue its ravages throughout England and Scotland, that a popish religion and arbitrary government might be encouraged and upheld t As a farther demonstration of this melancholy remark, his majesty authorized the Earl of Gla- morgan, by a warrant under his royal signet, dated March 12, 1644, to conclude privately a peace with the Irish papists upon the best terms he could, though they were such as his lieuten- ant, the Duke of Ormond, might not well be seen in, nor his majesty himself think fit to own publicly at present, engaging, upon the word of a king and a Christian, to ratify and perform whatsoever he should grant under his hand and seal, on condition they would send over into Eng- land a body of ten thousand men, under the command of the said earl.ij The date of this * Rapin, vol. ii., p. 512, folio edition. t 'W'e will leave with our readers Bishop Warbur ton's remarks on this reflection of Mr. Neal. " Never was the observation of the king's unhappy attach- ment made in a worse place. His honour required him not to give up his friends ; and his religion, viz., the true principles of Christianity, to take off the penal laws from peaceable papists ; and common humanity called upon him to favour those who had served him at the hazard of their lives and fortunes." It maybe properly added, that religion, in the liberal sense in which his lordship explains the term, re- quired the king to take off the penal laws from peace- able Puritans as well as papists. But in his majes- ty's dictionary the word does not appear to have borne so generous and just a meaning. — Ed. J Clarendon, vol. ii., p. 364. i) Dr. Grey treats this account of the Earl of Gla- morgan's commission as a fine piece of slander, fur- nished by a tribe of Republican writers : and to con- fute it, he produces a letter from the king to the lord- lieutenant and council of Ireland, one from Colonel King, in Ireland, and another from Secretary Nich- olas to the Marquis of Ormond. There is no occa- sion here to enter into a discussion of the question concerning the authority under which the Earl of Glamorgan acted ; for, since Mr. Neal and Dr. Grey wrote, the point has been most carefully and ably in- vestigated by Dr. Birch, in "An Inquiry into the Share which King Charles I. had in the Transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan," published in 1747. And the fact has been put out of all doubt by a letter of that nobleman to the Lord-chancellor Hyde, written a few days after King Charles 11. 's restoration, which has appeared in the Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii., p. 20-203, and has been republished in the second edition of the Biographia Britannica, vol. ii., p. 320, under the life of Dr. Birch. The general fact having been ascertained beyond all contradiction, the ques- tion which offers is, how far the king acted crimi- nally in this transaction. Mrs. Macaulay represents him as violating every principle of honour and con- science. Mr. Hume, on the contrary, speaks of it as a very innocent transaction, in which the king was engaged by the most violent necessity. Dr. Birch considers it with temper, though he appears to think it not easily reconcilable to the idea of a good man, warrant is remarkable, as it was ac a time when his majesty's affairs were far from being des- perate ; when he thought the divisions in the Parliament house would quickly be their ruin, and that he had little more to do than to sit still and be restored upon his own terms, for which reason he was so unyielding at the treaty of Uxbridge ; and yet the earl, by his majesty's commission, granted everything to the Irish, even to the establishing the Roman Catholic religion, and putting it on a level with the Protestant : he gave th«m all the churches and revenues they vvere possessed of since the Re- bellion, and not only exempted them from the jurisdiction of the Protestant clergy, but allow- ed them jurisdiction over their several flocks, so that the Reformed religion in that kingdom was in a manner sold for ten thousand Irish papists, to be transported into England and maintained for three years. Let the reader now judge what prospect there could be of a well-grounded peace by the treaty of Uxbridge ! What security there was for the Protestant religion ! How little ground of reliance on the king's promises ! and, consequently, to whose account the calamities of the war, and the misery and confusions which followed after this period, ought to be placed. The day before the commencement of the treaty of Uxbridge, the members of the House of Commons attended the funeral of Mr. John White, chairman of the grand committee of re- ligion, and publisher of the "Century of Scan- dalous Ministers ;" he was a grave lawyer, says Lord Clarendon, and made a considerable figure in his profession. He had been one of the feoffees for buying in impropriations, for wl>ich he was censured in the Star Chamber. He was repre- sentative in Parliament for the borough of South- wark ; having been a Puritan from his youth, and, in the opinion of Mr. Whitelocke,* an hon- est, learned, and faithful servant of the public, though somewhat severe at the committee for plundered ministers. He died January 29, and was buried in the Temple Church with great funeral solemnity.! a good prince, or a good Protestant. Mr. Walpole has some candid and lively reflections on it : "It re- quires," he observes, "very primitive resignation in a monarch to sacrifice his crown and his life, when persecuted by subjects of his own sect, rather than preserve both by the assistance of others of his sub- jects who differ from him in ceremonials or articles of belief. His fault was not in proposing to bring over the Irish, but in havmg made them necessary to his affairs. Everybody knew that he wanted to do without them all that he could have done with them." — Biographia Britannica, second edition, vol. ii., p. 321, note. — Ed. See Rushworth, vol. vi., p. 239, &c. Rapin, p. 330. Hist. Stuarts, p. 305. « Memorials, p. 122. t Dr. Grey, on the authority of Walker, " charges Mr. White with corrupt practices by the way of bri- bery ; says that Dr. Bruno Ryves called him a for nicating Brownist, and that the author of Persec. Undec. suggests much worse against him ; and, on the testimony of an anonymous author, represents him as dying" distracted, crying out how many cler- gymen, their wives and children, he had undone raving and condemning himself at his dying hou. for his undoing so many guiltless ministers." Such representations carry little weight with them against the testimony of Clarendon and Whitelocke, especi- ally when it is considered that the obnoxious part which Mr. White acted would necessarily create many enemies; some of whom would invent, and 5a4 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. others easily credit, the most reproachful calumnies against him. Dr. Calamy and Mr. Withers, whom Dr. Grey never notices, having sufficiently exposed the partiality and credulity of Dr. Walker to render ills assertions suspicious. And it should not be over- looked, as a strong presumption at least of the purity of Mr. White's character and the integrity of bis pro- ceedings, that he appealed to the public by his Cen- tury of Scandalous Ministers. — Ed. END OP VOL. I. f> \ Date Due W 'I' I ii G>feea»^ 1 Ki£::U.if^^ ^ rvTji^^i^ ^^asss*®'^^'^"**'" ^ ^i«£U«JS / 1 i i i 1 1 f ^ *1 I It "I M ill iiii=';;,.- .1 ' >* ,i\^ h 1 i' BW5044.N33 1848V.1 The history of the Puritans, or Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library liiiiiih lii"'" ;li :4/ i ': ' M 1 J i }, . '^i ..''J ,1 ■ ' .i III 1 1012 00035 8681 i!i!llliiilliiliit}ltliilliliill{iii