!-•' YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You may not reproduce this digitized copy ofthe book for any purpose other than for scholarship, research, educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy (or modified or partial versions of it) for commercial purposes. THE HISTORY THE EARLY PURITANS PROM THE REFORMATION TO THE OPENING OP THE CIVIL WAR IN 1642. J. B. MARSDEN, M.A. SECOND EDITION. LONDON : PUBLISHED BY HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. r-ATERXOSTEU ROW. T. HATCHARD. 187, PICCADILLY. M.DCCC.LI1I. Mdk33 Misi ADVERTISEMENT. The following pages are intended to form a work complete within itself. Should life and leisure be afforded to the author, he hopes, at no distant period, to publish a second volume upon the history of the later puritans, from the opening of the civil war to the close of the seventeenth century. Many events of great mterest in the political, and in the religious history of England, are passed over in this volume, with a slight reference or with none. This needs no apology. It was not the author's intention to write a history of England, or even of the church of England. The former task lay far away from his studies, his tastes, and his sacred duties; the latter has been done so lately, and so well, by others, that his chief anxiety has been to avoid the ground from which the harvest has been gathered. The stream of puritan history runs deep and clear. The facts are well authenticated, and they are recorded by tho historians of each party with a singular agreement. With all their faults, religious writers have shewn a regard for truth, in the rela tion of facts, from which secular historians might vet learn some useful lessons. The author has not vi ADVERTISEMENT. felt it necessary to encumber his pages, and to dis tract the reader's attention, with a reference to every volume he has consulted, or a confirmation of every fact he has mentioned,— a practice whicli modern writers of history seem to have carried to excess. Still he has endeavoured to indicate the sources of his information upon important, still more upon disputable, points : and the candid reader, whether friend or foe, will be at no loss to track his path, confirm his statements, or convict him (if he has unconsciously erred) of incorrectness. In conclusion, the author contributes this volume to the cause of christian charity, of moderation, and of peace. May, 1850. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. In issuing a second edition the author feels that he should be ungrateful were he not to acknowledge the candour with which his endeavours to place the history of the puritans in a juster light, have been received by men of almost every party. A second volume, on the history of the later puritans down to 1662, which he has lately pub lished (and which has been received with equal kindness), completes his undertaking. December. 1852. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. 1547-1558. Page Introduction. Discontent of some reformers. Causes of it .... 1 The puritans arise 3 Their history important ; but written hitherto with prejudice on both sides 4 The reformation in England originated with the sovereign ; abroad with the people. Effects of this on our church, and on other churches 6 Bishop Hooper one of the first puritans. His dislike of the vest ments. History of the controversy. Opinions of Martyr and Bucer on the subject 9 Other circumstances keep alive the controversy. Foreigners in England 13 The English reformers flee to Zurich, &c 15 Influence of English and foreign reformers on each other 16' The vestiarian controversy 19 Objections alleged against the surplice, &c 21 Answers made to the objections 25 Elizabeth in favour of the vestments 29 The bishops submit to her wishes 31 CHAPTER II. 1558—1568. Out of the vestiarian controversy other questions arise 34 The service-book objected to. Accession of English protestants at Frankfort 35 Their form of worship — aud failure 36* Vill CONTENTS. Pago Elizabeth becomes severe 3.) Act of uniformity 4 A convocation 44 Its proceedings **o Irregularities in the church repressed ; many eminent ministers suspended 4o Coverdale silenced 48 Sampson, dean of Christchurch, Humphrey, Lever, and others silenced 49 Foxe disgraced 50 Great irritation on hoth sides follows 52 Some puritans secede 55 Their extravagant demands 57 And the evil consequences 60 CHAPTER III. 1565—1575. A presbyterian church formed at Wandsworth in Surrey 62 Other presbyteries formed in other places 63 The high court of commission established 64 Its character and arbitrary proceedings 64 Still puritanism increases, especially in the university of Cambridge 68 And Thomas Cartwright becomes its leader 71 His proceedings at Cambridge 72 Grindal and Whitgift oppose him 73 Cartwright expelled, his conduct blameable 75 His demands unreasonable 77 Still Whitgift's severity was impolitic and wrong 79 Field and Wilcox publish their admonition to the parliament, &c. 82 Which Whitgift answers 82 Cartwright replies to Whitgift 83 Whitgift rejoins and Cartwright again answers him ; remarks on this famous controversy 84 Neither party was perfectly consistent 92 And each party should have yielded something 93 The reformers on the continent looked on with sorrow 94 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER IV. 1575-1583. Pago The great leaders of the reformation now rapidly disappear 98 Moral and religious state of England at this time deplorable 99 Many of the clergy papists in disguise, and few able ministers .... 100 But the queen discouraged preaching 102 The puritans institute prophecyings 104 Character of these meetings 105 Confession of faith adopted in them 107 They were open to some objections, but might have been made useful 108 Grindal the primate sanctions them, as did ten other bishops .... 109 They are opposed 110 And finally suppressed 113 Griudal remonstrates with the queen 113 Is suspended in consequence, and dies soon after 120 His character 121 Disastrous results of the queen's policy in this affair 123 CHAPTER V. 1583. Whitgift succeeds to the primacy ; his character severe 12,5 The queen adopts a severe policy towards the puritans 12(i Her conduct how fur to be justified 128 Instances of her severity ; two anabaptists burnt ; several Romish priests executed. Birchett barbarously put to death, and many puritans imprisoned 131 Whitgift's articles issued requiring strict conformity 134 A remarkable petition from the magistrates of Suffolk 136 The family of love 138 Their character anil doctrines 138 They are severely punished 140 The biownists 141 This anabaptists 144 All these treated with disgraceful severity. Sufferings of Coppin, Tlmfker, and others 146 X CONTENTS. PiiUO Execution of Barrow and Greenwood 148 Persecution of various puritans 149 Church writers have not expressed a becoming indignation at these enormities 151 CHAPTER VI. 1583—1593. A new commission issued with frightful powers 153 The distressed puritans appeal to the privy council, who remonstrate with the primate 157 The archbishop defends himself, and Cecil, Lord Burghley, replies to him 159 Whitgift again defends himself; and Cecil closes the correspondence on his part 1 62 But Whitgift rejoins 164 A conference between the bishops and puritans produces no good results 165 A refractory spirit exists, which Aylmer and Whitgift endeavour to repress by harsh measures 166 Sufferings of Knight and Eusebius Paget 168 Sufferings and sketch of the life of Cartwright 172 He is requested to answer the Rhemish translation 175 Publishes his defence of the English translation, &c, which Whit gift suppresses 176 His troubles continue ; his imprisonment and happy death 178 Sufferings of Smith, Udal, and Penry 181 CHAPTER VII. 1583—1593. The puritans meanwhile find advocates in parliament 190 Peter Wentworth takes up their cause 192 The house of commons present an address to the upper house on their behalf 193 Their demands upon tbe whole were reasonable 194 Discussion thereon, in the house of lords 195 Six articles of reform drawn up by the archbishop, but not carried into effect 196 The puritans again address the house of commons. Their petition 197 CONTENTS. Xl Page Which the queen resents 199 They make a last effort, which the queen again resents 200 A reaction against the puritans 201 Caused in part by the Mar-prelate pamphlets 202 The authors of these tracts unknown : were they written by the Jesuits? 204 The affair of Coppinger and Hacket 208 Another act for conformity, severe and impolitic 211 CHAPTER VIII. 1593-1595. No differences on doctrine had yet existed 213 Statement of controversies which have since arisen, but in which the early puritans took no part 214 Origin of the first disagreement ; Calvinism denounced at Cambridge 217 Whitgift draws up nine articles, the Lambeth articles, and com mands that they shall be received and taught in the university 218 The step was ill advised ; the queen suppresses the articles ; but the agitation has never entirely ceased 219 (1.) The nature ofthe sacraments had not yet been controverted ; puritans and prelatists held precisely the same views with re gard to them 222 As did also the foreign churches 225 (2.) The authority of the Christian ministry not a subject hitherto in dispute -27 Bancroft's sermon first opens the question 22S The episcopalian controversy. Views of the reformers and of Hooker " 229 Bancroft's theory discountenanced 230 (3.) Presbyterian orders had hitherto been allowed in the church of England ; case of Whittingham, dean of Durham 231 And of Travers 233 Act ofthe thirteenth of Elizabeth recognises the validity of foreign orders 234 Remarks upon the subject 235 (,1.) The endowment of religion by tbe state not hitherto a subject of disagreement 236 Both parties were still intolerant 237 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. 1595—1602. Pago State of religious parties at the close of the reign of queen Eliza beth 239 Puritanism declines 240 And the surplice controversy 240 Many puritans conform 24 1 Hooker's " polity" one great cause of this 242 Literature of the puritans of this period 243 Their manners 244 Their habits. Observance of the Lord's-day 245 Dr. Bound publishes his book on the sabbath, which gives rise to the Sabbatarian controversy 246 Whitgift opposes him 247 Relative piety of the two parties 248 The prospect on the whole was gloomy ; piety decays on both sides 249 CHAPTER X. 1602. Accession of James : his weak character 252 Both parties wait anxiously 253 Whitgift and the puritans each endeavour to obtain a declaration from the king in their favour 254 The puritans present tbe Millenary petition ; its tone moderate . . 255 Its contents 256 Other petitions, some of them violent 259 Tbe Hampton Court conference called 260 Its first day's proceedings 261 Its second day's proceedings 266 Demands of the puritans 266 Continued 269 The king browbeats the puritans. His disgraceful conduct 271 The third day's proceedings ; the puritans silenced and disheartened 273 The result variously stated 275 CONTENTS. Xlll Page The puritans have always spoken of it with contempt 276 Death of Whitgift ; his character 277 Contrasted with Cartwright's 278 A convocation assembled 2/9 It issues the constitutions and canons of the church of England . . 279 Their spirit hard and rigorous ; but many of them long obsolete and the rest still_'useful 281 Rudd, bishop of St. David's, opposes them in convocation 282 A concession to the puritans 283 A proclamation commanding strict conformity. Sufferings of Maunsel, Ladd, and Fuller 283 And of Arthur Hildersham 285 Their conduct demands our sympathy, but not always our approval 289 CHAPTER XI. 1610—1620. The puritans begin to think of leaving England 292 The Huguenots had led the way to America 293 John Robinson and his congregations of brownists at Leyden resolved to emigrate to America 294 And hire two vessels, the Mayflower and Speedwell. The pilgrim fathers 295 They leave Leyden, and their pastor 296 Robinson's parting advice 29/ They sail from Southampton 29S And arrive in America 299 Their settlement and sufferings 300 Their good conduct and piety 302 Estimated differently by the Americans and ourselves 305 A stern disposition appears 306 War with the Pequod Indians 307 They massacre 600 of the Indians 309 Remarks upon this 309 They become intolerant 311 And expel the Browns 312 Roger Williams : his character and principles : he is banished .... 313 Whitgift's severe conduct, bow far justifiable 314 XIV CONTENTS. Pag.' Their intolerance increases 315 They persecute the quakers. Ann Burden whipped 319 Mary Dyer banished. She returns; is condemned to death. Exe cution of two quakers, and reprieve of Mary Dyer 320 Her second trial. Mary Dyer is executed 323 William Leddra hanged 324 Reflections 327 Roger Williams founds tbe state of Rhode Island 329 Success ofthe pilgrim fathers as religious colonists considered .... 330 Slavery in America : how far tbe pilgrim fathers sanctioned it . . 332 CHAPTER XII. 1618—1625. The puritan cause assumes a new character 335 Further decay of piety 336 The calvinistic controversy arises 339 The synod of Dort. Deputies sent from England 340 Character of this famous synod 341 The controversy reaches home 343 All seriousness now treated with indiscriminate contempt. The book of sports issued 345 Several causes increase the apprehension of all sincere protestants 348 For instance, the favour shewn to the papists 353 And the king's interference with the Scotch church 358 The growth of arminianism another cause for anxiety. John Good win, his arminianism 359 Arminianism of Laud 363 Growth of ritualism a third cause of anxiety 366 Growth of the new principles 369 Severities inflicted by the Laudians. Sherfield, recorder of Saruni 370 Laud the founder of a new theology 372 Death of James : his character , . 373 CHAPTER XIII. 1625—1640. Laud's influence increases with Charles 1st, the court, and aristo cracy. The doctrinal puritans 376 Causes of the sudden growth of the Laudian principles 378 CONTENTS. XV Page True piety continues to decline 381 The Laudian party is consolidated 383 Archbishop Abbott is degraded 384 Williams, bishop of Lincoln and lord keeper, disgraced and fined. Osbaldeston punished 385 Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, another victim 388 And Hall, bishop of Exeter — character and writings. He suffers from all parties 390 Lecturers silenced : feoffees for the purchase of advowsons punished 393 Strictness in observing the Lord's-day punished .395 Affairs of Scotland "increase the anxiety of the puritans 396 So does Charles's arbitrary conduct 398 Forbearatice of his subjects ; and especially the puritans 406 CHAPTER XIV. 1640-1642. The history of tho early puritans draws to a close 409 Condition of England in 1640 410 A parliament called and hastily dissolved 410 The convocation of 1640 414 It enacts new canons 417 Imposes the etcetera oath ; its conduct unwise 418 The final crisis. The long parliament meet in November -42(1 Laud and Strafford impeached; violent measures follow 425 The democratic puritans increase in power 42<> Bishop Hall's description of them in 1625, and again in 1641 .... 428 The church puritans ; frenzy of the populace 430 Complaints against Cozens, dean of Durham, and Wren, bishop of Ely 432 The moderate party in the house of commons 434 The bishops and the puritan clergy insulted in the streets J 437 A last effort made to conciliate, by tbe house of lords. It failed . . 439 The church of England overthrown. The war begins 442 Composition of parties. The church puritans were neuter 442 The puritans, with this exception, joined the parliament 444 Reasons of their conduct ; aud how far justified 445 Their faults were great 449 Their enthusiasm 449 XVI CONTENTS. Pa;.-.- Their method of applying the old testament 451 Their doctrine of impressions A.'ib Both sides take up arms with too little reluctance 456 What were the views of wise and thoughtful men who sided with the parliament when the church of England fell ? 4', J Conclusion IV) THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY PURITANS. CHAPTER I. A.D. 1547—1558. The reformation was scarcely accomplished in chapter England when a large party began loudly to ex- '. press its discontent. Great as the change was, it EDWARD seemed to many of the reformers still imperfect, a.d. 1547. and they were anxious to give it a new impulse, and to extend it further. The chains in which the English church had been fettered for a thousand years were broken ; and now the task remained to model it anew, yet so as to retain the visible unity which it had worn beneath the papacy. But here the difficulties were great. For the same resolute and dauntless spirit which had carried the nation through its conflict with Rome, re- appeared under another form. It distrusted all interference in spi ritual affairs, and seemed ready to abjure all autho rity, as though to acknowledge a superior had only been to submit to another and a meaner usurpation. Moro intent upon the end to be attained than cnutjious in the means emploved, it would have 0 B THE HISTORY OF chapter hazarded one reformation in order to have brought T- about another ; and risked the vast advantages edw. vi. airea(jy secured, for the sake of further changes of ' inferior moment, if not of questionable utility. To a great extent this was the legitimate conse quence of the reformation, and its further and in evitable development. Great changes, especially if sudden, generally leave their authors dissatisfied: for anticipation outruns fulfilment, and more has been expected than can possibly be achieved. And the wisest reforms, since they provide no security against the prejudices and ignorance of the multi tude while at the same time they inflame their passions, are often bitterly decried by those who were most clamorous to effect them. Reformers in all ages complain of this ingratitude. They are blamed for failures which were unavoidable; the imperfections of their toil and labour are magnified ; the real worth oftheir services in the cause of truth is undervalued. Their difficulties meet with no sympathy : it is only their infirmities that are viewed with stern justice and without abatement. And yet, upon the other hand, it seems unreason able that the ardent love of truth and the spirit of inquiry, once quickened into life, should consent to stay its progress whenever the first leaders of the movement announce a difficulty, or decline a fresh encounter. The leader who blames his followers for rashness may himself have been overtaken with incapacity. In such circumstances wisdom lies no doubt between a servile acquiescence and a hot and precipitate daring. These opposite vices are, in their consequences, alike unfavourable to the best THE EARLY PURITANS. 3 interests of man. The one crushes the spirit : the chapter other blinds the judgment. The former extinguishes I- the desire of improvement ; the latter too often EDW- VI renders all progress impossible. The perfection so eagerly sought may be visionary and unattainable, and the time lost in the pursuit of it may be fatal to other and more important, because more reason able, projects of advancement. Thus, the reformation was yet in progress when the Puritans sprang at once into a vigorous ex istence. Under this name was very soon comprised all those, however differing amongst themselves, who sought for further change in the forms and dis cipline ofthe English church. The name itself con fers no dishonour, though borne with impatience, and often resented as a grievous wrong. It was applied in scorn : but age and use have made it venerable. No clear account of the origin of this now famous title has been handed down. It seems to imply that if the professions of those to whom it was first given were high, their lives at least were consistent, and their morals pure. The name oc curs soon after the accession of queen Elizabeth, though it was not much in use for ten years after wards. It then became the title of a party which, for upwards of a century, exercised in England an influence, whether for good or evil, such as no other party, civil or religious, has obtained at any period of our history. And this influence, though weak ened, still survives. Of this we have at least one painful and conclusive proof. Men still approach the history of the puritans on both sides, with vio lence and prejudice ; and it is only a living principle b 2 EDW. VI A.D. 1547 i TBE HISTORY OE chapter that can call up these strong passions. We do not - war in earnest with the dead. The memory of things which have no existence but in history pro vokes no real animosity. The eager conflict indi cates the presence of a real foe. Except by the writers (a large class unhappily) who treat religion with indifference, scarcely an attempt has been made to present the history of the puritans to their countrymen with impartial fair ness. Their own partisans have defended them with warmth, but without discrimination ; and they have been assailed with all the rancour of civil and religious hatred : an impartial history has scarcely been essayed, still less accomplished. And yet, op pressed as it has been with grievous slanders on the one hand, and with adulation scarcely less injurious to a lasting reputation on the other, the name sur vives. Wherever the religion, the language, or the free spirit of our country has forced its way, the puritans of old have some memorial. They have moulded the character and shaped the laws of other lands, and tinged with their devouter shades un numbered congregations of christian worshippers, even where no allegiance is professed or willing homage done to their peculiarities. It is a party that has numbered in its ranks many of the best, and not a few of the greatest, men that England has enrolled upon her history. Amongst the puri tans were found, together with a crowd of our greatest divines and a multitude of learned men, many of our most profound lawyers, some of our most able statesmen, of our most renowned soldiers, and (strangely out of place as they may seem) not EDW. VI. A.D. 1647. THE EARLY PURITANS. 5 a few of our greatest orators and poets. Smith and chapter Owen, Baxter and Howe, were their ministers, and — preached amongst them. Cecil revered and defended them while he lived ; so did the illustrious Bacon ; and the unfortunate Essex sought his consolations from them when he came to die. They were the men whom Cromwell dreaded and deceived, and amongst whom Lord Brooke and Hampden fought and perished. Milton owned allegiance to their principles, and lent them a pen still immortal though steeped in gall. Of wealth and wit and patriotism they had at least their fair proportion. They boasted, not- without reason, that the first college, in cither university, founded by a protestant, was the magnificent donation of their own sir Walter Mildmay at Cambridge; dedicated, not to legendary saints or superstitious fears, but to the divine Immanuel ; and built, not for the promotion of a stupid superstition, but in the pious hope that the gospel of the Son of God might never want an advocate while its foundation should endure. They were our own countrymen ; and their history is, in its glories or its darker shades, in truth our own. During the period of which we shall attempt to write, they were members of the church of England. They were anxious for improvement, sometimes fretful for change, but they revered the great prin ciple of an established church, and did not entertain a thought of separating from its communion. Some of them would have moulded it anew ; but few or none of them desired its overthrow. It shall be our aim in the following pages to do justice both to these men and to their opponents : (5 THE HISTORY OE chapter to write a faithful record of the virtues of the puri- _± tans and of their faults ; to shew how much we owe edw. vi. to the one, and how much we suffer from the other ; a.d. 1547. tQ degcribe their wrongs with respect and sympathy, and yet to display in its turn their own intolerance. It is an enterprise not without its perils : even now the historian has need of caution when he plants his foot amidst the ashes of a departed age. Its fires yet smoulder, and its passions are not extinguished. Yet the pursuit of truth is pleasant, whatever dan gers we encounter by the way ; and in the study of the virtues and sufferings of our forefathers, nay in the dispassionate review of their weaknesses and faults, we shall meet with our reward. Nor must we forget that by these men, whatever their infir mities, the foundations of our English liberties were fastened and secured. We enjoy the fruits for which they toiled ; and warned by their misfortunes, we may escape the rocks on which they perished. The reformation in England originated with the monarch and was transmitted to the people through the regular forms of the constitution. Upon the continent and in Scotland the order was reversed. With the exception of a few of the minor German states, in which the reigning princes led the move ment they were unable to control, the reformation was begun by the people, and carried into effect against the will of the higher civil authorities, or without their assistance. The character of this vast revolution, both at home and abroad, partook of the circumstances of its origin, and in each case still retains the visible impression of its peculiar parent- THE EARLY PURITANS. 7 age. In England, the reformed religion imme- chapter diately assumed the outward symbols of a monar- *' chical institution and the church, represented by its EDW- y1 higher clergy, again, as before the reformation, took its place in the constitution, without exciting jea lousy in the crown, or stimulating those passions which the possession of a new and formidable power invariably creates amongst the people. The spirit of the institution was naturally tinged by the same circumstances. It was a matter of course, in a reformation of which a succession of sovereigns were the first promoters, that episcopacy should be retained, and not less so that a certain degree of magnificence and splendour should invest the na tional church, and display itself both in the dignities of its hierarchy and in the ceremonial of its public worship : and thus the church of England assumed, and has ever since retained, a more exact gradation of spiritual dignities, and a more stately mode of worship, than tho reformed churches of other lands. Upon the continent the higher clergy, following the general example of tho civil powers, stood aloof, or met tho reformation with fierce hostility. Scarcely a churchman of rank joined with it. Princes and prelates viewed it at first with equal scorn, and afterwards, as they learned something of the vast and awful power it wielded, with equal hatred. Thus the reformation in Germany, Erance, and Switzerland was a popular, and sometimes a ple beian, movement. To a certain extent the case was similar in Scotland ; except that the barons and chief estates of the kingdom being already arrayed against the sovereign, the management of the refor- S THE HISTORY OF chapter mation fell into their hands : and the struggle be- — - tween the new and the old opinions became political, TZ'J1' and was embittered with another element of civil A.D. 1547. strife. Thus the reformation in the foreign churches, originating among the common people and the in ferior clergy, took a democratic form. They became presbyterian in their government, and simple even to excess in their modes of worship. Eor the one they pleaded necessity ; for the other the sanction of primitive antiquity, and the tenor of the new testament. None of them at first rejected episco pacy as unlawful. Calvin and others have recorded their concurrent sense of its importance ; though in effect they considered themselves at liberty, under the circumstances in which they were placed, to reconstruct the reformed churches upon another model. Eor the simplicity of their forms of worship they made no apology; differing in this, though without personal animosities or any feeling of un kindness, from the great reformers of the church of England. In fact, the closest friendship existed between the leaders of the reformation throughout the whole of Europe. Their cause, their dangers and triumphs, and their great foe the papacy, were every where the same ; and it would be difficult to say whether the warmth of their affection for each other or their hatred of papal superstition, their catholic spirit or their righteous and unsparing zeal, were the master passion of their breasts. Amongst the first who introduced into England the controversy which soon afterwards ripened into puritanism, was a name no less revered than that of I. EDW. VI. AJ). 1550. THE EARLY PURITANS. 9 the martyr-bishop Hooper.* He had lived some chapter time abroad, and was the friend of Bullinger and Gualter, the two leaders of the protestant cause in Germany and Switzerland. Returning home inthe days of Edward the Sixth, his piety and talents were at once appreciated, and he was nominated, in the spring of 1550, to the see of Gloucester. But his conscience was embarrassed ; and in his person a contest began which has never since been stilled. He demurred first to the oath of supremacy, and secondly to the robes in which the episcopal inves titure usually took place ; and he wrote to the king an earnest request that he might be allowed either to decline the bishoprick, or to be admitted to it without the usual oath and ceremonial. His objec tion, so far as the oath was involved, seems to have been easily removed. The obnoxious passage, in which he was required to swear " by God, by the saints, and by the holy gospels," was at once altered by the king's own hand, in the presence of the council, when Hooper's protest against the impiety of a solemn appeal to the departed saints was placed before him. But the greater difficulty still remained. Hooper would by no means consent to wear the vestments. He refused to be consecrated in the dress which had been worn by the bishops of the church of Rome, and which he regarded as a badge of antichrist. Cranmer was then archbishop of Canterbury, and Ridley bishop of London; and they endeavoured to convince him that his scruples * Burnet, Hist, of the Reformation, part iii. book iv. Strype's Memo rials of Crapmer, vol. ii. ch. 17, § 212. Foxe's Martyrs. 10 THE HISTORY. OE chapter were unfounded. But their persuasions and argu- *¦ ments failed ; and the three illustrious men gave a edw. vi. short triumph to the enemies of the reformation by a contention not free from human weakness. The council, in the king's name, requested Cranmer to give way and proceed with Hooper's consecration ; but Cranmer refused to do so ; not thinking, says his biographer, that even such a mandate was a sufficient authority for the breach of an existing law.* Still he does not appear to have been insen sible of Hooper's worth, far less influenced by any private dislike or jealousy. His conduct claims our respect, as that of a man who, in arbitrary times, revered the authority of the law, and held it to be superior to the mere commands of the sovereign. The professorships of divinity at Oxford and Cam bridge were then filled by two eminent foreigners, Peter Martyr and Bucer, whom the archbishop, by the king's command, had invited to those posts of distinguished honour, and, in those changeful times, of equal danger. He desired each of them to write to Hooper on the subject of the vestments, sup posing that the judgment of those who were esteemed in their own churches abroad as leaders of the reformation, would have great weight. Mean while Hooper continued to inveigh in his sermons, and often with some asperity, against the vestments. The privy council, in consequence, confined him to his own house : but his ardent spirit disdained to be silent. His zeaLwas not always tempered with discretion. H^could not preach upon the deca- * Strype's Memorials of Cranmer, book ii. c. 17- THE EARLY PURITANS. 11 logue, for he was still permitted to preach in Lon- chapter don, without referring to the forbidden subject. r Amongst other flagrant violations ofthe Lord's- day edw. vi. he introduces the teaching of false doctrine. " Eur- AD' 1661' ther," he exclaims, " to augment the ceremonies of the church and bring in a new Judaism and Aaron- ical rites, is against this commandment. As the bishops have used the matter, there be more cere monies in the church of Christ than were in the church of the Jews." He even published an answer to his opponents which he called a confession of faith. This seems to have been regarded as an act of great contumacy. By order of the privy council he was now silenced, and imprisoned in the Eleet. The letters of Bucer and Martyr upon the sub ject are still extant ; and it is interesting at this distance of time to observe how these men regarded the infant controversy. Bucer thought that the garments might be retained in obedience to the law of the land, but not as parts of the law of Moses : to the pure all things were pure ; and upon this principle the apostles had complied with the Jews in many things. The garments were in themselves indifferent ; they had been used by the ancient fathers before popery began. He wished they were removed by legal authority, but he argued fully for tho use of them till then. He implores Hooper for the sake of the church of Christ to dismiss his scruples, and to accept an office of such vast im portance to which he was so especially called by tho voice of his sovereign and the necessities of * Sermons on tbe Decalogue, pubhshed 1550. 12 THE HISTORY OE chapter the English church. Martyr was in communica- '• tion with Bucer, and approved of what he wrote. edw. vi. « Hooper's affair," he writes to Bucer, " has assumed a character of which the best and most pious must disapprove. I grieve, I deeply grieve, that such things should happen amongst the professors of the gospel. Though at this time forbidden to preach, and under confinement, he seems as if he could not rest : he has just published his confession of faith, which has exasperated many ; he complains of the privy council, and perhaps, though this is not my concern, of us too. May God give a happy issue to these inauspicious beginnings." In the same strain he wrote to Hooper, imploring him to yield ; " and yet," he adds, "when I consider the superstition and contention the vestments have occasioned, I could wish they were abandoned."* Bishop Burnet has remarked that Cranmer and his friends habi tually deferred to the judgment of Peter Martyr to a degree which almost amounted to submissiveness. It was not likely that Hooper should feel indisposed to admit his weight as an umpire. But whatever our decision may be upon the question at issue, no man who now reads the correspondence will lightly condemn Hooper for fickleness of purpose, if, swayed by such advisers, he consented to use the vestments in the ceremonial of his consecration, and to preach in them, once at least, before the court ; for it seems uncertain whether he ever wore them afterwards. Thus he exchanged his prison for a bishoprick. His friends were overjoyed. Peter Martyr, who * Strype's Mem. Cranmer, ii. 17- § 213. Burnet, Hist. Reform, iii. partii. p. 245. THE EARLY PURITANS. 13 waited at Oxford to receive him on his progress to chapter his diocese in the west, had written to Bullinger on - — the first news of his appointment, expressing the Yv\Zl' happiness he felt in common with all good men at so great a triumph to the cause ofthe reformation.* On the 8th March, 1551, he was consecrated bishop of that cathedral in sight of which four years afterwards he died a martyr. Ridley, in whose diocese he had been so harshly used, was brought, and almost at the same time, to the same fiery ordeal. They were each of them prisoners for the truth's sake, when Ridley wrote in terms of the deepest affection and respect to assure his "most dear brother and venerable fellow-elder in Christ," that, however they might have differed upon trifling matters (through sagacity, as he modestly says, in Hooper, and too much simplicity in himself), he loved him with his whole heart, and hoped to share his triumphs in eternal bliss. t It was a touching message which the one of these devoted men sent to the other when death in its most dreadful form was near, though disfigured in the quaint language of their times : " We have been two in white : let us be one in red." 'The " chimere and rochet " now appeared to both of them in ano ther light. So the greatest contentions of good men dwindle on the approach of death. This affair of bishop Hooper made a deep impres- * Aliquos episcopos habemus, non pessimos, inter quos est uti signifer Cantuarensis. Deinde cooptatus est in eorum album, Hooperus magna porrd bonorum omnium letitia. Martyr to Bullinger, 1 June 1550, in Burnet's Collection. f Letters of bishop Ridley. Parker Soe. cd. p. 355. A.D. 1552. 14 THE HISTORY OF chapter sion. His elevated position, his popular eloquence, *• his dauntless courage, and above all his glorious edw.vt. martyrdom, embalmed his memory, and riveted his opinions in the hearts of the reformers. Other circumstances occurred to keep alive the controversy which had now unhappily arisen. Several congre gations of German protestants, fleeing from conti nental persecution, had found an asylum in Eng land. One of the principal of these was settled in London under the pastoral care of John Alasco, a man of great repute, the friend and patron of Eras mus ; while another was placed by the patriotic wisdom of the duke of Somerset, the protector during the king's minority, at Glastonbury, upon the lands of the famous monastery then recently dissolved. Here they introduced their peculiar craft. They were cloth-workers ; and from them the kingdom derived one of its greatest manufac tures ; and the western counties of England, after three centuries, acknowledge with gratitude that the boundless fields of enterprise and wealth they still cultivate were first pointed out by a persecuted band of Elemish refugees. But at that period the strangers met with little sympathy. The neigh bourhood was one ofthe last strongholds of popery; and the common people were taught to insult and thwart the strange society of men whose language was unknown, whose religion was abhorred, and whose industry was not appreciated; but who profanely tenanted the lands so long held sacred, and which a hoary superstition connected in every mind with Joseph of Arimathea, the reputed apostle of the western country. The effect, however, of these THE EARLY PURITANS. 15 various colonists upon the religious parties in chapter England, though at length considerable, was not L immediately apparent. mary But a change was again at hand. Mary sue- A D- 1553- ceeded to the throne, and the antient superstitions were restored. The influence of the foreigners in matters of religion, however imperceptible, must have been already such as to excite suspicion ; for they were commanded to leave the kingdom with out delay. Nor did they retire alone. A furious burst of persecution drove with them a thousand of our countrymen, who possessed the means of thus providing for their safety, who wanted the iron nerve which God bestows on those he calls to mar tyrdom, or who felt that to remain at home was to incur a needless hazard, since, for the present, nothing could be dono. The Low countries, the free cities of the Rhine, and Switzerland, were now filled in turn with the English wanderers. Frank fort, Basle, Zurich, and Geneva were the towns of their chief resort ; for there the doctrines of the reformation had taken the strongest hold, and there its most eminent professors dwelt. Thus, in 1553, a conference of eminent divines, mingled with a crowd of learned and pious men of secular pursuits, assembled, without design, to which tho annals of the church afford no precedent, and in some respects no parallel. They were men of various nations but intent upon a common ob ject, tho greatest that has ever occupied the ener gies of man. To vanquish the great antichrist, and restore the religion of Christ to the myriads from whom it had been so long withheld : to make pro- MARY. A.D. 1553, 16 THE HISTORY OF chapter vision for its continued establishment among the nations of Europe, and for its preservation from decay by any future corruptions ; to continue the fight with popery, now that the tide of battle was rolling fearfully against them, with that assurance of success which nothing could warrant except (what they largely possessed) faith in the written word of God, and a masculine hold upon its pro phetic intimations of the certain fall of antichrist ; such was the burden of their thoughts and the sub ject of their frequent conferences as they met during several successive years in social intercourse. And . the men were equal to their task. They were scholars of high attainments ; and the differences of race and language were insignificant in an age when Latin was the vernacular tongue of educated men. The Zurich letters* still remain to testify that, in classical taste as well as in theology, the monkish puerilities had been marvellously dissipated from the minds of men who one and all were tutored in their youth under monkish discipline. Nor was scholarship their only boast. They were men of great and diversified experience; of practical ha bits ; of energy and zeal ; and above all of fervent and exalted piety. Here were to be found the firm and gentle Jewel, the future apologist and bishop of the church of England, and the resolute Knox the reformer of the north. Here too were Grindal, Sandys, and Pilkington ; besides Parkhurst, and Humphrey, and Wittingham, and others scarcely * First published in part by Bishop Burnet in his Hist. Reformation, and now at large by the Parker Society, in 2 vols. I. MARY. A.D. 1553. THE EARLY PURITANS. 17 less renowned as the champions ofthe English refor- chapter mation. And with these there was a host of names . scarcely, if at all, inferior: — Coverdale, ever honoured by those who reverence the bible ; Nowel, the future dean of St. Paul's, whose catechism, approved in convocation and sanctioned by the church of Eng land, it would be needless to mention and pre sumptuous to applaud ; and Eoxe, whose plaintive and authentic story of the martyrs will be read, while time shall last, with indignation or with tears. In short, besides five bishops and an equal number of deans, the character of those who fled may be surmised from the fact, that no less than fifty were doctors in divinity of English universities. And of the laity, including noblemen merchants and arti ficers, who had less to fear, the number was about a thousand. Mingled with these were the leaders of the continental reformation. The English refugees had constant intercourse with Calvin (a name as much honoured then as it has been since depreciated in England), with Gualter, and with Peter Martyr and Alasco, whom tho refluent surge of persecution had beaten back upon their native shores ; and above all with Henry Bullinger. Of the last the historical fate is singular and affecting. Scarcely known in England in the nineteenth century, he was the sponsor of the English reformation. Jewel and Parkhurst, and Cox and Horn and Pilkington, who became bishops— and Sandys and Grindal, archbishops — of the church of England ; not to men tion John Eoxo and Wiburne, Richard Hilles (a London merchant) and Humphrey and Sampson, worthies of our church in its first days, were amongst c 18 THE HTSTORY OF -hapter the affectionate, it might be said the reverential, correspondents of this great man. They address mary. ^im with every title of respect ; as their father and their counsellor. The tidings of his death draw forth a burst of tenderness, and they console each other with the assurance that his fame shall be immortal And those who read in his still extant letters, and in his more elaborate writings, the record of his wisdom, are at no loss to comprehend the secret of their re spect and reverence, however they may be perplexed to understand the oblivion of his name — a name that once promised, at least in the reformed churches, honour and immortality. But such men are satisfied to receive their honours in a better world. The results of this great congress of wise and thoughtful men were such as universal experience would teach us to expect ; continued diversities on those points on which they previously differed, and greater steadfastness on those upon which they were all along agreed. Their detestation of the papacy, and their views of evangelical truth, were confirmed ; for on these points few differences, if any, had crept in; and their mutual conferences served to strengthen each other in the common quarrel and in the com mon faith. On points of church government it was different. The fusion of parties produced no per fect coalescence. Each adhered to his national forms of worship in preference to the rest ; or if some occasionally went over to the episcopal party, their place was filled by deserters to the presbyterian camp. The relative strength of the two infant parties, the episcopal and presbyterian, was not immediately changed. What was gained was an equal advantage A.D. 1553— jS. THE EARLY PURITANS. 19 to both sides, — on both sides an increase of mutual chapter confidence and christian love. On the death of Mary L our English exiles returned home, bringing nothing mary. back with them, as a quaint and not unfriendly chronicler has said, but much learning and some ex perience.* Still it is likely that they were swayed unconsciously by the manners of the German churches. On their return to England, the contrast between the splendour of the English ceremonial and the simplicity of that abroad would be the more striking. Their opponents never ceased to attribute much of the discontent that followed to the Genevan exile. " They were for the most part Zwinglian- gospellers at their going hence, " says a furious writer, " and became the great promoters of the puritan faction at their coming home."t The puri tans themselves were never unwilling to own their obligations to the German reformers, still however founding their scruples rather upon what they con ceived to be the absence of scriptural simplicity than upon tho practice of other churches. But the ques tion of the habits, or as it has since been termed the vestiarian controversy, was unsettled; and it now began to wear an anxious if not a threatening aspect ; and other difficulties already lowered upon tho horizon, even in this the early morning of the English reformation. This dispute with regard to the vestments to be worn by the ministers of Christ when discharging their official duties, lay at the root of many other • Fuller, Church Hist. vol. ii. book viii. t Ileylyn, Hist. Reformation, part ii. p. 5!». C 2 20 THE HISTORY OF chapter controversies, and was the source from which they r sprung. The controversy was a vital one ; and few mary. questions in the history of the christian church are 1553-58. more deserving of a calm dispassionate consideration. It can appear insignificant to none but those who are unable to comprehend that the colours of a regiment are to be surrendered only with the life of the soldier who proudly bears them into Dattle ; that they are symbols, insignificant in them selves it may be, but in their meaning most impor tant. But in the great conflicts in which mankind unhappily engage some visible sign is always found to express and represent the sentiment or principle most cherished or most abhorred. These are often arbitrary. The white and red roses of the houses of York and Lancaster were purely so ; though ranged beneath them England poured out for half a century its noblest blood. But the vestments, at the time of the reformation, were not admitted, at least by one of the contending parties, to be merely conven tional ; they were supposed to represent principles of which, it was said, they formed an integral and inseparable part. — But it is necessary to pause and consider the arguments on each side as they were stated at first by the respective pleaders. During the reigns of Edward vt. and Mary, and the first years of Elizabeth, the controversy was managed with great ability, and generally with temper and forbearance ; but as the first leaders of the reforma tion disappeared, it fell into the hands of other dis putants, and was conducted in a very different spirit. In this important quarrel, which was carried on for ten years after the accession of Elizabeth, with un- A.D. 1559. THE EARLY PURITANS. 21 remitting zeal on both sides, the principal argu- chapter ments were thus expressed : — l' It was urged by the dissatisfied party that the im- ^LIZ position of the vestments was an infringement of their christian liberty. They were called under the gospel to worship God in spirit and in truth : and no outward forms or splendours could contribute in any measure to assist the devout mind in a service so spiritual and exalted. On the contrary, the ten dency of these official garments was to distract the worshipper, and to debase his devotions by an ad mixture of those sentiments which are allowed no place in spiritual things : namely, the awe inspired by official pomp and the admiration of outward grandeur. The church had ever maintained or lost its purity just as it had resisted or allowed the allurements of external splendour. It was only safe in its simplicity ; and such was its inward glory, that any attempts to decorate could but in fact de grade it. Men had been too long tho dupes of arti fice and superstition ; and it became a reformation which professed nothing less than to restore to tho churches of Christendom the liberties of which they had been so long deprived, as well as the truths which a vile imposture had perverted or concealed, boldly to lay aside the stratagems of superstition, and to rest its influence upon the naked force of truth. Besides, the vestments against which they were now contending had a Jewish origin, and belonged not to the christian ministry, but to the priesthood of tho house of Aaron. To introduce them into the church of Christ was to pervert their 22 THE HISTORY OF chapter They were a part of the divinely appointed consti- '¦ tution of the Jewish church ; and had passed away eliz. together with the rest of its figurative and mystic ceremonial. If they were not retained as symbols, they were merely childish, and unworthy of the dignity of christian worship. If their symbolic character was admitted, then the priesthood of the clergy, one of the many corruptions of the papacy, was involved. A sacrificing priest must wear a Hnen ephod. If the sacrificial vestments were now retained, the sacrifice of the mass itself would pro bably but too soon return. As a safeguard against popery, no less than as a guarantee for the continued purity of evangelical doctrine in the reformed church, they protested against the use of garments which were at once so unnecessary and, as it seemed to them, so full of danger. It was a further objection, and one that appealed not only to divines and controversialists, but to the feelings of the common people, that the vestments were identified with all the superstitions of popery. They were looked upon as the badge of antichrist ; and they who wore them were regarded with sus picion as men either indifferent to the cause of the reformation, or not yet sufficiently enlightened as to the danger, and indeed the sinfulness, of approach ing the most distant confines of a system which ought to be avoided with alarm and horror. In similar robes the "massing priests" had performed their idolatrous services. Thus arrayed the papal bishops had denounced the reformation from their superstitious altars. Into these hated garments the martyrs had been thurst, in order that being again A.D. 1558. THE EARLY PURITANS. 23 stripped of them, and thus degraded from the priest- chapter hood, they might, as laymen, perish in flames kindled L by the secular power. Nor was it forgotten that if ELIZ- Hooper refused to wear them at his consecration, Cranmer and Latimer, and Taylor of Hadleigh, had expressed their contempt of them, in their last mo ments. Thus the detestation of the habits, as popish relics, became a popular cry and passion : and it broke out from time to time in rudeness and acts of violence. And admitting the vestments to be in themselves indifferent, it was contended by the clergy who opposed their introduction, that under present cir cumstances they were still unlawful. Eor having been once consecrated to idolatry, they had received ataint which, like tho leprosy of Naaman, must cleave to them for ever. Some of their hearers amongst the common people still thought their ministrations invalid, or not acceptable to God, unless performed in popish apparel : some mysterious virtue was still supposed by the superstitious to be connected with them ; and this, said they, being a prevailing opi nion, wo apprehend that it is highly necessary to disabuse tho people. And lastly they urged that one concession would only be the prelude to fresh demands : an argument upon which the weaker party is apt, it is true, to place too much reliance, and one upon which it is always sensitive. " If we arc bound to wear popish apparel when commanded, we may be obliged to have shaven crowns, and to use oil, and cream, and spittle, and all the rest of tho papistical additions to the ordinances of Christ." ELIZ. A.D. 1558 24 THE HISTORY OF chapter Such were their objections, and thus they were ex- — pressed. These arguments received, no doubt, additional weight and confirmation from the fact that of all the reformed churches, the church of England was the only one which had retained the vestments. Other churches had abandoned them. Something then was due to the judgment of other churches, especially when their decision was unanimous. Something, too, was due to the great principle of godly union ; an agreement in externals ought to prevail amongst all the reformed without exception. Shall the body of Christ, it was inquired, be rent in the garments of his own ministers ? Shall the divisions of true christians, upon such a point, afford a triumph to the enemies of the gospel and of the reformation ? Eor the sake of peace let the English church abandon a peculiarity which many of its own members submit to with impatience, and which all other churches have rejected with disdain. Were it nothing else than a concession to weak consciences and perverse men, ill-informed, still it ought to be made ; except it could be shewn that concession was absolutely sinful. And when every reformed church in Europe had rejected them, it would scarcely be contended that they were essen tial to the purity of the faith. The apostolic pre cept ought to decide the question. In things in different the weaker party must be allowed the triumph. However painful it might be, still it was a duty in the rulers of the church to " suffer all things for the elect's sake ;" to give up the most A.D. 1558. THE EARLY PURITANS. 25 harmless indulgences if they caused the feet of the chapter lame to stumble, or cast a stone of offence in the *• way of the meanest of Christ's disciples. eliz Such were the arguments of those who objected to the use of the vestments. They were urged with the utmost sincerity ; and, it is not too much to .say, they were listened to with profound respect. During the troublous days of queen Mary the con troversy had been carried on, around the fires of the martyrs and in the strange homes of the self- banished exiles. But there was at present little or no bitterness displayed. Happily for mankind the reign of Mary was brief. When her sister Elizabeth succeeded to the crown, some concessions were eagerly looked for ; but none were made. It was natural that a minority who now began to think themselves oppressed should urge their cause with warmth ; and by no means surprising that a popu lar question should be advocated sometimes with clamour and impatience. For this the leaders of the church made, during the first period of the con troversy, a generous allowance. They viewed with deep concern a division in the English church, which might end in a secession from it. Why then did they not give way ? — why not abandon the vestments, and quench the growing discord ? Why not at once adopt the fashions of the continental churches ? It is due to some of the greatest men that England has nourished to listen dispassionately to their reply. Every christian church contains within itself the principles of self-government. If it be not only an independent but a national church, the right of self- 26 THE HISTORY OF chapter control is one that it cannot part with without dis- *- loyalty. It may receive advice, but it must not sub- eliz. mit to foreign interference. The church of England a.d. 1558. kag retaine(j the vestments in the exercise of its undoubted right to decree rights and ceremonies for its own use, guarding itself only against the introduction of any thing contrary to God's word. The vestments are decent and becoming, and in themselves indifferent. And in matters of order and church discipline, it is surely a maxim of cau tion to introduce no unnecessary changes : for these unsettle the minds of the multitude ; turn them aside from what is really edifying ; and excite them to the desire of still fresh experiments. Besides, the example of the primitive church, long before the rise of popery, favours some distinctive habits in those who discharge a public function. Saint John himself, as the historian Eusebius relates, wore a petalon, which some translate a mitre, some a plate, or coronal of gold; but all acknowledge that it was a badge of dignity which belonged to him as bishop of Ephesus. The catechumens in the earliest ages were clothed in white when they presented themselves for baptism, a modest sign of the purity they now professed. Even their pagan forefathers, the citizens of Rome, had used a white robe in the same manner when they were candi dates (the word itself being expressive of the fact) for public offices. The surplice was used in the church of Christ long before the introduction of popery : and is retained by us, they said, together with some other forms, not for superstition but only for distinction ; that order and decency may A. D. 1558. THE EARLY PURITANS. 27 be preserved in the ministry of the word and sa- chapter craments. "And neither good pastors nor pious l__ laymen," they affirmed, " are offended at these eliz. things."* With regard to the charge of returning to the usage of the Jewish church and restoring the gar ments proper to its priesthood, it was surely enough, they thought, to remind their opponents that every document they had uttered was at variance with the supposition that they regarded the ministry of Jesus Christ as a succession of the Jewish priesthood, or desired to see it invested, or degraded rather, with sacrificial robes. They now protested against such a perversion of their senti ments. The christian church acknowledged only one priest, in the person of its Lord. From this doctrine they had never swerved. It was for this they fought ; for this they had suffered. Indeed, there was at present no difference amongst the reformed churches upon this cardinal truth. With ono consent they dismissed the fiction of a priest hood as inconsistent with the scheme of redemption perfected in tho one offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was rather with a view to the probable consequences than the present evil of the vest ments, that the dispute under this head of objec tion, was carried On by the opposing party. And the argument on the episcopal side was briefly this, that the vestments could mislead none who cared to listen to the doctrinal teaching of the English churcb. * So Grindal, Purkliurst, Snmhs, and even lMkitigton and Jewel, in the Zurich Correspondence . chapter I. A. D. 1558. 28 THE HISTORY OF Still less could they reasonably be charged with any disposition to popery. What church had been eliz. so much and so long in deadly conflict with the man of sin ? What church had given so many, and those such illustrious, pledges of the depth of its hatred of the great antichrist ? Nobles and gentry, bishops and archbishops, the laity and the clergy, men, women, and children, had yielded themselves a ready sacrifice to his fury in prisons and at the stake : not accepting deliverance, when deliverance was thrust upon them on the sole condition of admitting a real presence in the mass. They felt, and may well be forgiven if they expressed, some indignation when, because they retained a surplice, they were charged with a return to popery. If these reasons were not sufficient, another yet remained. The reformation was itself in jeopardy in England from the continued agitation of these unfortunate, and as the episcopal party maintained, these insignificant, disputes. During the short reign of king Edward the controversy arose, and might then perhaps have been set at rest by mutual concessions ; but his early death put a stop to the progress of the reformation. During the reign of Mary it was evident that nothing could be done; for the reformed church was broken up and scat tered. And now that Elizabeth held the sceptre, fresh difficulties crowded in. The queen, as a sove reign and a woman, was equally tender of her mother's honour and of her own legitimacy. The Romish party were powerful and restless ; and numbers of the gentry as well as the nobility, and not a few of the clergy, were supposed to yield but THE EARLY PURITANS. 29 a hollow consent to the principles of the reforma- chapter tion. The ascendancy of the Romish party would *" have been fatal to the queen's happiness, if not to ELIZ- her throne. For the pope had already taken his position, denied her legitimacy, and denounced her claims. She was deeply attached to the reforma tion when she began her reign. And when she kissed the bible presented to her at Paul's cross on the day of her magnificent procession through Lon don, and then pressed it to her heart, it is probable that no bosom in that vast enthusiastic crowd beat with more fervent loyalty to the protestant cause. It was with difficulty she could be prevailed upon to assume the title of head of the church. This, she said, belonged not to a sovereign, still less to a woman, but to Christ. It has been urged, indeed, that a lingering reverence for tbe papal claim of universal supremacy had some share in this unwill ingness. Every thing, however, portended a happy settlement of past differences. Sound doctrine was rapidly diffused. " The true religion of Christ is settled among us : the gospel is not bound, but is freely and faithfully preached. As to other matters there is not much cause for anxiety. There is some little dispute about using or not using the popish habits : but God will put an end to these things also." So wrote bishop Sandys of Worcester, even in January 156G, when the controversy had now reached its height. But the queen was extremely anxious that no needless offence should be given to the Romish party ; and the removal of the surplice would, she feared, afford a pretext for some new outrage. Ifit 30 THE HISTORY OF chapter were a thing not sinful in itself, as not only her own L divines, but those of Germany and Switzerland, in- eliz. formed her, then it became a question of state policy, not simply of religious controversy. The continued use of a thing indifferent in a religious sense, but important in its political bearings, must be deter mined not by the clergy but by the sovereign. II therefore the reformation were not injured, policy was in favour of the vestments. This seemed a reasonable conclusion, even upon the view ofthe question taken by the foreign reformers. Adverse as they were to the use of the surplice, they coun selled the English clergy by no means to refuse it, since the progress of the reformation seemed to depend on their compliance. The question then, as soon as it ceased to be one of conscience, became one of convenience and expediency, and of that ex pediency the queen and her council must judge. The foreign reformers themselves acted on this principle : for they admitted episcopacy to be scrip tural, and in itself desirable ; and yet established presbyterian churches on the ground of expediency. She had not sat long upon the throne when other influences produced a painful impression on her mind. The puritans preached before her coarsely and with the rudest warmth. " She is in the habit of listening with the greatest patience," says bishop Cox, her former preceptor, "to bitter and suffi ciently cutting discourses."* There is unhappily no reason to think that the bishop in a courtly mood overdrew the picture. It is a fact often re peated by the leaders of the reformation, " that the * Zurich Letters. Cox to Gaulter. i. 234, A.D 1558. THE EARLY PURITANS. 31 queen was irritated, the minds of the nobility alien- chapter ated, the diseased and weak debilitated,"* by the r violent declamations with which the pulpit rang. ™*f- One preacher! informed her majesty that she had begun her reign with the meekness of a lamb — but she was now an untamed heifer. Olim tanquam ovis, nunc autem inclomita juvenca. The vestments in short were now unhappily re garded as badges not only of canonical obedience but of loyalty to the queen herself. To abandon them, or to join in the inconsiderate zeal which assailed what was by law established, would be in effect to abandon the ministry : " and then, verily," said the prelates,! "we shall have a papistical, or a Lutherano-papistical, ministry, or none at all." They complain that " an ungovernable zeal for dis cord" was abroad ; and it seemed to threaten danger to both church and state. It was to save England from these calamities — to save the reformation from the indiscretion of its friends, as they had saved it once from the fury of its enemies — that they decided on the course from which they never swerved. But was tbe danger real, or were their fears groundless ? We have perhaps at this distance of time no answer more reasonable than an appeal to their private characters. They were not crafty politicians, but a body of christian ministers of calm wisdom, of tried courage, of dauntless resolution. The fears and ap prehensions of such men are never to be treated with disdain : thoro must have been some grounds for alarm. They submitted from necessity, not from * Ibid. t Dering. The story is related by all the puritan writers. X Grindal nnil Horn to Bullinger. Zurich Letters, i. 175. I. ELIZ. A.D. 1558. 32 THE HISTORY OF chapter choice. The bishops of London and Winchester "protest and solemnly make oath," in a letter they jointly addressed to Bullinger and Gaulter, " that the dissension was not caused by any fault of theirs, and that it was not owing to them that vestments of this kind had not altogether been done away with."* Jewel expresses himself if possible more strongly : " They are the relics ofthe Amorites ; that cannot be denied." And yet he speaks ofthe contest as a trifling matter that " somewhat disturbs weak minds."f " The sum of our controversy," say they, " is this. We hold that the ministers of the church of England may adopt without impiety the dis tinction of habits now prescribed by public autho rity : especially when it is proposed to them as a matter of indifference, and when the use of the habits is enjoined only for the sake of order and due obedience to the laws." In short, they brought the matter to this issue : " We are brought into such straits, that since we cannot do what we would, shall we not do, in the Lord, what we can ?"| Calmly viewed, the whole question hinges upon this : when men cannot do what they would, shall they do what they can ; or, rigidly adhering to an abstract notion of that which in itself is best, shall they abandon their posts, and risk the consequences ? The fathers of the church of England were at length unanimous " to do what they could ;" they adopted the vestments themselves, and, though with very different degrees of rigour, enforced them on their * Grindal and Horn to Bullinger. Zurich Letters, i. 175. t Jewel to Bullinger. Zurich Letters, i. 147. X Grindal and Horn to Bullinger, i. 175. I have used throughout the admirable translation of the Zurich Letters by Dr. Hastings Robinson. THE EARLY PURITANS. 33 clergy. They hoped the ferment would soon subside ; chapter but ages have passed, and the controversy is not yet '. decided. So little do the wisest men foresee the ^LIfc A. D. 1668. consequences of all their actions. And so difficult is it to appease the quarrels on which all parties at first enter with too much alacrity 1 H 3t THE HISTORY OF CHAPTER II. a.d. 1558—1568. chapter A great question is not long in agitation without "• invoking its tributary discords. Consequences not EhV/- at first suspected are found to hang upon it. What appeared to be a single point of difference, is found to be no more than one amongst many others, all of which insist upon their right to swell the general clamour. The contest begins with facts ; but it soon spreads itself among the principles of which those facts were only the exponents. Thus a great controversy, like a great battle, is seldom de cided upon the ground previously marked out. The conflict widens on all sides, and the confusion at length becomes universal. The question of the vestments was very soon fol lowed up with other questions equally irritating. From dislike to the habits the progress was easy to a dislike of the service-book ; and that of king Edward was by no means free from superstition. All forms of prayer fell under a suspicion of popery. So that the revisal of the prayer-book, on the accession of Elizabeth, gave little satisfaction to those, already a considerable party, who had begun to think all forms unlawful. Others again, ignorant ELIZ. A.D. 1558. THE EARLY PURITANS. 35 of the difficulties with which the bishops were con- chapter tending, and smarting, it must be owned, from their "' unreasonable severity, began to associate prelacy with popery. In a short time the former was loaded with the same obloquy which, ten years before, had fallen upon the latter ; and bishops were denounced with as much vehemence as the pope himself. Thus fresh wounds were opened from day to day, and at last they became incurable. Thus there were from the first, dissenters from the English church of the reformation. Their story must be briefly told, though in fact they were disowned by the puritans ; nor did they seek to be reckoned their associates, regarding both prelatists and puritans as equally inconsistent, or, on spiritual matters, ignorant and dark. The first actual secession took place abroad in 1554. The English residents at Frankfort* entered into an agreement with a congregation of French protestants, in whose church they were allowed to assemble as their place of worship, binding them selves not only to subscribe to the French confession of faith, which evangelical christians of almost every name might safely do, but further, not to make re sponses after the minister, nor to use the litany or surplice ; and (a condition of no less importance) not to quarrel about ceremonies. Their church dis cipline seems to have been rather independent than presbyterian. They looked upon themselves as, under God himself, the source and fountain of ecclesiastical power. They proceeded to choose their own minister * Hist, of the Troubles at Frankfort. Neal, Hist, of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 8(i, et seq. i) 2 ELIZ. A.D. 1558 36 THE HISTORY OF chapter and deacons, and to invite their brethren dispersed "' through the neighbouring cities, to join a commu nity where, they said, God's word was faithfully preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and scripture discipline enforced. Their public service was conducted thus : it began with extemporaneous prayer ; a hymn was sung; the minister then prayed a second time and more at large, concluding with the Lord's prayer. Then followed another psalm, and a sermon if a preacher were present; or otherwise the recital of a confession of faith. The congregation was then dismissed with the apostolic benediction. This form of worship has been retained, with a few variations, and is still used, by almost every class of nonconformists in England. The objections to it are obvious. It leaves too much to the piety, and too much to the discretion, of the minister. Such is human nature, even in its best estate, that the fervour of the most devout is often cold, and the zeal of the most ardent is often languid. And when ever this occurs, the whole congregation suffer from their minister's weakness. On the other hand, it must be admitted that such a mode of worship, if conducted by ministers equally eminent for talents and for piety, is not without its advantages. It excites a more ready sympathy in the hearer : it is capable of a more frequent and graceful accommo dation to passing events, and to the ever varying circumstances, the joys, trials, and temptations, of the flock ; and since it is easier to speak than to read in a manner at once devout and natural, it often has an air of more reality. And these are no mean advantages. Perhaps the perfection of a ritu- ELIZ. A.D. 1558. THE EARLY PURITANS. 37 alistic church would be found between a liturgy chapter rigidly enforced in some of its greater services, and "• the free use of unpremeditated acts of worship in those of a more social character. The experiment, however, was not successful. The English divines at Strasburgh, Zurich, and Basle declined, in succession, the invitations of the newly formed congregation. They next applied to Knox ; and he with two assistants became their pastor. But difficulties arose amongst themselves ; for many of them were attached to the English forms ; and even the fervour and eloquence of Knox himself, the fiery meteor of the north, did not convince them of the superior value of extemporary worship. These it seems were the majority : they elected Dr. Cox, who had been tutor to Edward vi., their minister ; and Knox found himself displaced, and was required by the government to leave the city. He retired to Geneva, and immediately gathered another congregation amongst the English exiles. But the death of Mary, which happened in the fol lowing year, again broke up his flock, and their pastor was now free to return to his native land, where a greater work required his presence. Mean time, however, Cox resigned his pastoral care at Fraidcfort, and removed elsewhere ; and the congre gation again quarrelled and divided. The magis trates were obliged to interfere ; for the heat and scandal occasioned by a handful of strangers became, they said, intolerable. Once more the minority left tho city ; the congregation soon afterwards dis persed ; and thus the affair ended. The crowds of foroigncrs who hastened to England on the accession 38 THE HISTORY OF chapter of Elizabeth, or who had lived amongst us since the "• days of Edward vi., brought with them similar ELIZ- quarrels, and tempers still more ungovernable. A.D. 1558 1 . r. . D ¦ iy • 1 They were chiefly artisans ; persons ot interior edu cation and lower rank than the English exiles, and their conduct is to be judged with more forbearance. Four thousand of them settled in Norwich; and John Alasco returned with his flock, a company of about three hundred, to London. The latter was sometimes troublesome, but the artificers at Norwich set no bounds to their contentious violence. There were several congregations, and each, with its minister at its head, was in bitter warfare with the rest. The value of episcopacy, and the reasonable ness of a secular head in the national church, might be learned from the unhappy differences of these foreigners. Each church was a rival republic ; and when they had nothing to fear from without they turned their arms against each other. Parkhurst was then bishop of Norwich, and within a few years of their settlement in England, in a letter to their countryman Bullinger, he describes their quarrel as implacable. "The whole congregation," he says, " is nearly broken up. The English, I allow, were somewhat troublesome in Germany ; but if you com pare them with these men, they were quietness itself."* But these troubles passed over, and left no serious consequences. They were, however, the harbingers of greater and more lasting conflicts, in which the interests of the church of England were more im mediately concerned. * Aug. 10, 1571. A. D. 1559. THE EARLY PURITANS. 39 The puritans were the extreme party of the re- chapter formation ; and they naturally looked forward to the "¦ accession of Elizabeth with sanguine hope. During ELIZ her intolerant sister's reign, she had suffered much in common with themselves. They had fled from England, or remained at home at the peril of their lives ; but she too had been a prisoner in fear and constant apprehension. Her attachment to tho re formation was not doubted ; it was supposed indeed to be in Mary's sight her one great delinquency ; and she was regarded as a fellow-sufferer for con science sake. They expected to find in her a patron and a friend ; and deep and bitter was their disap pointment. However tbe conduct of the prelates may be justified that of the queen admits of less excuse. It committed her to a course of policy which embarrassed her through life, led her into many acts of injustice and not a few of cruelty, and continues to this day to be the greatest blot on her otherwise glorious reign. Contrary to her usual policy, she placed herself in opposition to a large body of her own subjects ; and they, with all their faults, wcro loyal and sound at heart. It was piti ful to see, as years passed on, the mistress of an empiro setting herself in stern displeasure against scrupulous consciences. Foreigners could not un derstand why she who was the champion of the principles of tho reformation wherever they shewed themselves abroad, should be so nervously sensitive to their most trifling excesses in England. It is beyond dispute that she owed much of her reputa tion in civil affairs to the singular wisdom of her privy council. Had she in the first instance de- ELIZ. A. D. 1559 40 THE HISTORY OF chapter ferred with equal grace to her spiritual advisers — ^ had she not set at nought the wishes of such men as Jewel, Grindal, Horn, and Parker, the history of the puritans would have been written, if written at all, more to her advantage. Her accession afforded an opportunity, such as rarely presents itself, for an oblivion of the past, and a firm union for the fu ture. Unhappily the golden opportunity was lost. Scarcely an attempt was made to conciliate preju dice or to disarm suspicion. At present no venera ble usage gave to the obnoxious forms and vest ments its mysterious sanctions. A great revolution had just occurred. The church of England must be remodelled. The question of its services and vest ments came beneath review of necessity ; and it might have been decided, even had the queen yielded up her wishes, without exposing her to the humilia tion of defeat. At no subsequent period could this state of things return. The question would soon involve the disgrace of one of the contending parties; for those who are compelled by acts of force, or arbitrary laws, to give up the usages which have become habitual in matters of religion, will always feel themselves insulted and aggrieved. The act of uniformity, which passed in the first year of Elizabeth, may be considered as the point of time at which the battle was at length joined, and each of the two parties, the puritans and pre- latists, assumed its definite position. The act em braced two vital questions : the revisal of the prayer- book, and the compliance hereafter to be rendered to the forms and ceremonies. With regard to the book of common prayer, it remained in substance THE EARLY PURITANS. 41 the second of two prayer-books issued by king chapter Edward, namely, that of 1552. The few alterations IL in it did not relieve the puritans, nor were thev ELIZ' -L "A.D. 1559. meant to do so. With regard to the vestments, they felt themselves injured afresh ; for they were compelled by a rubric in the revised book to retain " all such ornaments of the church and ministers as were in use in the second of king Edward," the year in which his first imperfect prayer-book was put forth, abounding as it did with the traces of superstition: whereas the second prayer-book of 1552 insisted only on the use of the surplice. This was much to be deplored; not because the difference was important between a surplice and a cope, but because it shewed an unyielding temper. Still it was for a time uncertain how far conformity would be rigidly enforced. On the side of the puritans there was a disposition to receive the prayer-book as a general directory for public wor ship, guiding but not absolutely restraining them. So far they were disposed to yield ; but if it were to be in every point literally enforced, they held that in some of its details it was inconvenient and oppressive, and in others superstitious. As its enactments were successively urged upon them, their discontent increased. Each attempt to re duce them to an uniform submission only provoked a fresh resistance. The peace of the church of England was sacrificed to this demand of rigid uni formity. In. the works of nature, it was argued, variety is found to be consistent with unity of pur pose, and at the same time productive of the highest beauty. Iu religion too there may be real unity 42 THE HISTORY OF chapter beneath outward variety. Why should not one — — — congregation stand, another sit, another kneel, at ELIZ- the administration of the Eucharist, without divi- A. D. 1559. ' sion, seeing that Scripture has enforced no one pos ture ? Why should not one minister officiate in a gown, another in a surplice ? A variety of hoods provokes no quarrel. The church of Rome itself can accommodate a hundred different tastes with as many official habits, and sanction all of them. Why should a reformed church be more precise and more unbending ? But such arguments were silenced; mutual exasperations followed; and the puritans discovered fresh grievances as the contest was prolonged. When at last they drew up a formal statement of their principles, and made in turn their own demands, the prospect of a recon ciliation was more remote than ever. At this early period a few concessions would have satisfied them, or placed them so clearly in the wrong that their cause would have been undermined and lost. Twenty years later their terms were unreasonable ; they were such as men offer who are sure of suc cess, or abandoned to despair. But for this vio lence the queen and her advisers are to a great extent responsible. Gentleness had not been tried ; the puritans were goaded to desperation, and as their power increased they began to demand con cessions which it was impossible to grant, in a temper which it was impossible to pass unnoticed. They too, in their turn, forced upon their oppo nents the alternative of conquest or submission; and if vanquished, it was not likely in those rugged times that they should be treated with much for- ELIZ. A.D. 1559. THE EARLY PURITANS. 43 bearance. A deeper spirit of piety would have pro- chapter duced more forbearance on both sides ; but it is ' one of the painful lessons of this whole history, that men may be much in earnest in defending the cause of religion and of God, and at the same time display an evident want of the ordinary virtues of meekness and forbearance. The act of uniformity was passed in May, and came into effect on the 24th of June 1559, though not without a protest from Heath, archbishop of York. It not only enacted a rigorous conformity in the conduct of divine worship and in the habits worn by the minister, but further empowered the queen, by the advice of the commissioners or me tropolitan, to ordain and publish at her pleasure further rites or ceremonies, with no other limita tion than these words convey ; — " as may be most for God's glory, the edifying of his church, and the duo reverence of Christ's holy mysteries and sacra-; ments." The rigorous pressing of this act, says] the great chronicler of puritanism, was the occasion of all the mischiefs that befcl the church for above eighty years.* It is certain that every disposition was shewn to enforce the law, and that too little allowance was made for the scruples of a large body of dissentients, numbering amongst them, as they did, not a few of the brightest ornaments ofthe church. The evils which it was meant to remedy were no doubt both real and extensive; but the measure was violent. And it fared with it accord ing to the disastrous law which ever governs such * Neal, i. p. 110. 44 THE HISTORY OF chapter proceedings ; what was conceived with rashness was "' carried into effect with obstinate severity. eliz. ^ convocation of the church was opened at St. 1559-62. Paul's on the 13th day of January 1562, in the third year ofthe reign of Elizabeth. The articles ofthe church were then agreed upon, although they did not become law till nine years afterwards : and the rites and ceremonies of the church came again under consideration. The state of parties, and their relative strength, at this important crisis, is clearly shewn by the re cords of this assembly. Bishop Sandys (afterwards archbishop of York) proposed that private baptism, and baptism by women, should be discontinued ; that the use of the cross in baptism should be disallowed as need less and superstitious ; and that commissioners should be appointed to reform the ecclesiastical laws. Another paper was presented to the house, con taining the following demands : that the psalms should be sung distinctly by the whole congrega tion, and that organs be disused : that ministers only should baptize, and that without the sign of the cross : that at the ministration of the Lord's supper the posture of kneeling should be left in different : that the use of copes and surplices be abolished, so that all ministers should use " a grave and comely side garment," or preaching gown : and that they should not be compelled to wear such caps and gowns as the Romish clergy : that the punishment of those who did not in all things con form to the public instructions about ceremonies THE EARLY PURITANS. 45 should be mitigated : and lastly that saints' days chapter and festivals in honour of a creature should either "• be abolished, or observed without superstition ; so eliz. that after a morning service on a festival all men might resume their daily pursuits. This overture bore thirty-three signatures, includ ing those of five deans, the provost of Eton, twelve archdeacons, and fourteen proctors or representa tives. But it was not approved. Another motion followed immediately. It was to this effect. That all Sundays, and the feasts which commemorate the events of the Saviour's life, be kept holy, and that all other holydays be abolished : that in all parish churches the minister in common prayer should turn his face towards the people, and there read the service distinctly, so that the people may hear and be edified : that the cross in baptism be omitted : that kneeling at the sacra ment of the Lord's supper be left to the discretion of the minister, "forasmuch as divers communi cants are not able to kneel for age and sickness, and others kneel and knock superstitiously : that organs should be removed : and that it should suffice if the minister wore the surplice once, pro vided that no minister say service or minister but in a comely garment or habit.* Unhappily these\ moderate proposals were once more rejected.! Of the members of convocation present there was a majority ; the numbers being forty-three in favour of the resolutions, and thirty-five against them. * Strype, Annals, p. 337. Burnet, Ref. iii. p. 444. Neal, i. p. 143. t Heylyn, Hist. Reformation, ii. p. 391. Eec. Soe. edit. He however praises the moderation of the convocation. A.D. 1562. 46 THE HISTORY OF chapter The name of Nowel, dean of St. Paul's, the prolo- "• cutor, or speaker of the convocation, appears in eliz. favour of this as well as ofthe previous motion. His reputation, which even then was great, has suffered no decay. His catechism (though in part compiled from that of Calvin*), sanctioned by convocation, and commended by cotemporary prelates to the daily study of the clergy, places him high amongst the divines of England and the defenders of its church. But the proxies turned the scale, though by the narrow majority of a single vote — the vote of one, it was remarked, who was not present during the discussion. From so trivial a cause arose momentous consequences. Never was a cast ing vote of more grave importance. Parker, now archbishop of Canterbury, pushed his slender triumph to the utmost. On his part no pains were spared to produce an exact obedience : and the disorders which prevailed in the church afforded a man not indisposed to wield despotic power frequent occasions to interfere. A paper was laid before the queen which describes the various irregularities which at once provoked his severities and eluded his authority. They were such as to demand a remedy, had that remedy been applied with judgment. But they were not vital : they touched no doctrine ; they approached the * A reverend and learned friend has called my attention to this state ment, tbe correctness of which he questions. In many points no doubt Nowel's catechism differs from Calvin's, and the latinity is far more clas sical. The reformers at home and abroad had so perfect a sympathy with each other on all great questions of doctrine and church discipline, that an agreement may very possibly be casual which seems at first to indicate that the one had availed himself of the labours of the other. — Note to second edition. THE EARLY PURITANS. 47 confines of no heresy. And since gentleness was chapter never tried, it is impossible to deny that gentleness ¦ — might have availed where force was foiled. Some J^f^. perform the divine service,* so runs the document, in the chancel ; some in the body of the church, some in a seat, some in a pulpit with their faces to the people; some keep to the order of the book, some intermix psalms in metre, some say with a surplice, and some without one. The form and position of the communion-table was a frequent scandal. In some places the table stands in the body of the church, in some places it stands altar- wise, in others in the middle of the chancel placed north and south : in some places the table is joined, in others it stands upon tressels : sometimes covered with a cloth, in other a naked board. The adminis tration of the Lord's supper was no less irregular. Some administer the communion with surplice and cap ; some with surplice alone ; others with none. Some with unleavened bread (the lingering remains of popery), and some with leavened. Some receive kneeling, others standing, others sitting. Baptism was variously administered. Some baptize in a font ; some in a bason. Some sign with the sign of the cross ; others sign not. And the habits of the ministers were as motley as their conduct. 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 scho lar's clothes, some in others. The queen upon this issued a letter to the two archbishops directing * Strype, Life of Parker, p. 152. ELIZ. A.'D. 1564 48 THE HISTORY OF chapter them to confer with the ecclesiastical commission ; to inquire what diversities existed among the clergy in doctrine, rites, and ceremonies; and to take effectual methods to reduce them to an exact order and uniformity. So far as external rites and cere monies were concerned, uniformity was at once secured by the stern command that none hereafter be admitted to any ecclesiastical preferment who were not well disposed, and would not formally comply with the common order.* The ejection of many good men immediately followed. One of the first sufferers was Miles Coverdale, bishop of Exeter in the reign of Edward vi. On the accession of Mary he was imprisoned, and escaped the flames only through the intercession of the king of Denmark, to whose territories he fled. Return ing at Elizabeth's accession he assisted at the con secration of archbishop Parker ; but as he disliked the ceremonies and habits, his bishoprick was not restored : and the venerable translator of the bible was suffered to fall into neglect and poverty. When old and poor he was presented by Grindal bishop of London with the small living of St. Magnus near London-bridge. He had scarcely held his preferment two years, when he was driven from his parish by the stringent demand of a rigorous conformity, with which he could not comply. He died soon after in 1567, at the age of eighty-one :f vast crowds at tended his funeral at St. Bartholomew's near the Exchange ; from whence, with almost equal reve rence, his bones were lately carried (the church * Neal, vol. i. p. 147. t Strype, Ann. p. 405. ELIZ.' A.D. 1565. THE EARLY PURITANS. 49 being taken down) by a posterity not more sensible chapter of his illustrious worth than ashamed of the bar- "• barous and worse than useless severity which brought his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Sampson, dean of Christchurch, was one of the proscribed ; he was somewhat rash and headstrong, but upon the whole a man of whom Grindal and Horn attest* that his learning was equal to his piety. Of the former few traces exist ; of the latter an affecting evidence appears in his own letter to Peter Martyr, on declining the see of Norwich. His friend Parkhurst, on his own refusal, had been elevated to the post of honour, and thus the danger of an im proper person obtaining the see was, as he remarks} well provided against. " To God Almighty," he exclaims, " be the praise." Then, after a modest allusion to " his own unfitness, which he had well considered," — " I scarcely know how to be suffi ciently thankful to the Lord God. Do you, my father, praise him, and do not cease to pray for me." But it was now thought necessary to deprive him of his deanery for the old offence. He disliked the habits. And yet of the moderation of the party he led (and of which Lawrence Humphrey and Lover were chieftains likewise), it is to be noted, that the ultra-puritans regarded them as semi-papists, and would not permit their followers to attend their preaching. These proceedings greatly distressed the friends of the reformation abroad. Bullinger espe cially wrote in the language of earnest expostulation, on behalf of Gaulter and himself, addressing his * To Hullitiper and Gaulter, February <>. 1567. E 50 THE HISTORY OF ..after letter to bishops Horn, Grindal, and Parkhurst, with a request that it might be communicated to Jewel, A.D. 1566 k"?_rr Sandys, and Pilkington. The letter is short, but full of deep feeling. "We exhort you, reverend sirs, and very dear brethren, to have respect to faith ful ministers and learned men. They have their own feelings : whence the apostle has instructed us to bear one another's burdens. Your authority can effect much with her most serene highness the queen. Prevail on her majesty to grant that these worthy brethren may be reconciled and restored. . . . Fare well, reverend sirs, and may the Lord bless both you and your labours, .... again and again farewell."* At the same time the Scotch ministers remonstrated on behalf of " divers of their dearest brethren in England, who are deprived and forbidden to preach" on account of the vestments. Their letter contains some sharp expressions about the " Romish rags," the " vain trifles," and the "dregs of the Romish beast." Still they deplore, they say, the vehemence with which the dispute was carried on on both sides, and entreat the bishops and pastors to whom they write to shew more forbearance, f The church in Scotland was now assuming its presbyterian form, and it is honourable to the Scottish clergy that, surrounded as they were with danger and perplexity, they had sympathy, if nothing more, for their brethren in England. The church of England could ill spare such men at any time. Nor were these the only victims. The venerable John Foxe shared in Coverdale's disgrace. * Zurich Letters, i. p. 356. t The letter is printed by Neal, Appendix, vol. i. II. ELIZ. A.D. 1566. THE EARLY PURITANS. 51 He too had narrowly escaped the flames by a volun- chapter tary exile. But he lived to return. He placed the church of England under greater obligations than any writer of his age, and had his recompence in an old age of poverty and shame.* It would be no ex aggeration to affirm that his immortal work, the acts and monuments of protestant martyrs and confessors, has done for three hundred years more and better service in our conflicts with the papacy than the countless volumes of all other writers, great as their worth may be. Nor were his writings undervalued even then; they were often chained up in the chancel of the parish church by the side of the homilies and the English bible, (where some of them may still be seen) that all might learn the ground of the secession from popery as well as the doctrines of the true faith : bishops and archdeacons were in structed to place a copy in the great chamber of their houses, taking care that it should be accessible to thei)' guests and to their household and domestic servants : thus the book of martyrs stood amongst the high authentic records of our church while its venerable author yet lived. f Perhaps no historian since the revival of letters has gaiued a popularity * Fuller, Ch. Hist. ii. p. I7.r>- f The Liber Canonorum, issued 1571 by archbishop Parker, commands the churchwardens to provide only a lnrge bible, a book of public prayers, and tbe homilies. Erasmus's commentary bad been already ordered. All archbishops and bishops, however, within the province of Canterbury, are required to place in the balls oftheir houses or in the great chamber, so that even the guests and servants of the house may freely peruse it, the whole book of niarh is ; plcuara illam historiam qua; inscribitur Monu- mrntu Mitiiyritm. Each archdeacon is also instructed, amongst other books, especially to have in his possession the book of martyrs : et libros alios ct nomiuatim eos qui inscribuntur Mnnumenta Marturum. Liber Canonorum, printed by John Day, Loudon, 1571- E 2 A.D. 1566. 52 THE HISTORY OF hapter so sudden and yet so extensive and so enduring. "' Elizabeth herself, it is said, held him in high esteem, eliz. an(j Sp0ke of him with affection as " her father Foxe." Still his offence was unpardonable. He " scrupled the habits," — a significant expression then com mon — and was reduced to poverty. In his old age he complains even ofthe want of clothes. At length he was presented to a small prebend in the cathe dral church of Salisbury, in possession of which he died. Whenever extreme counsels are adopted, one sure j consequence is that not only the timid but the aged, ; that is the wise and thoughtful, retire from the scene of tumult. It was thus with the fathers of the reformation as the conflict with the puritans in creased. They were amazed to find in their old age, that with the children ofthe reformation and amongst their own countrymen, lay their greatest trials. Assailed by popery on the one hand and by the ultra-puritans upon the other, and obliged to defend from the pulpit ceremonies to which he was known to be averse, Jewel declares that he would gladly have resigned his mitre, and retired once more a willing exile to lay his bones in a foreign land. Other bishops express in confidential letters the same distress. They were ready to abandon all, they said, but the gospel for the sake of peace. Amongst the great body ofthe puritans, a similar change took place. New men appeared upon the stage, the advocates of principles hitherto scarcely known in England. The infection spread ; a spirit violent and discontented, "a zeal for discord," seized the multitude. They no longer asked for a A.D. 1566. THE EARLY PURITANS. 53 comprehension, or sought for toleration. Their de- chapter mands extended to an ecclesiastical revolution, and "' that of the most sweeping character. ELIZ- The violence of some of the early puritans, adopt ing a view of the subject most favourable to them selves, is to be thus explained. Just escaped from the iron grasp of popery, they had yet to discover the terms and true conditions under which freedom can be enjoyed. If tyranny has its dungeons, even liberty has her cautions and restraints. Freedom is not licentiousness, nor independence the right of in cessant outrage upon institutions which the majority respect. But these familiar lessons they had yet to learn ; for experience alone teaches them, and expe rience they had none. Their triumphs and virtues were their own : their excesses they shared in com mon with every party, civil or religious, who, after long oppression, rise upon a sudden to the possession, or even the prospect, of unbounded power. However just the occasion of it may have been, every great revolution in the history of mankind repeats the warning that excess and violence, and the madness of the people, will, for a time, succeed to the forced repose of despotism, as tho thunderstorm follows the deep silence in which all nature had mourned the oppression of intolerable heat. The severity ofthe church party finds its excuse in the same considera tions. It was taken by surprise. Its leaders were wise and learned, and the page of history was fami liar to them ; but they had overlooked this impor tant lesson, and were unprepared for the crisis when it arrived ; as, in one form or other, arrive it must. They were alarmed ; and no severity equals that of A.D. 1566. 51 THE HISTORY OF chapter men who are themselves afraid. And they are en- "• titled to the benefit of this further consideration ; ELIZ they had been brought up in a school of hardship : and suffering engenders impatience. The doctrines of the church of Rome they had repudiated : its intolerant spirit neither they nor their opponents had yet unlearned. Under the common name of puritans were com prised, at this time, all those, except the Romish party, who were dissatisfied with the state of things in the church recently established. Thus the most discordant principles were ranged together under the same banner ; for it is the misfortune of a new party that its boundaries are not yet defined, and that agreement upon a few leading points is received with too much readiness as a test of general fidelity. In time, however, this motley host, by successive desertions, fell away, and dissolved itself ; and puri- tanism became the title of one section only, but still the most numerous and powerful, of the body of which it had previously been composed. The seceding minorities became at length dissenters from the church. The puritans, properly so called, remained in communion with it till the unhappy days of Charles i. and archbishop Laud. It is necessary to bear these distinctions in mind, not less for the sake of truth, than that the history of the puritans may be clearly understood. It is not by any means the history of English dissent, with which it has been generally confounded ; although it is true that the origin of our early non-conformity is closely con nected with it, and will frequently demand at tention. ELIZ. A.D. 1500. THE EARLY PURITANS. 55 The extravagance displayed by some who still chapter bore the name of puritans, almost defies exaggera- "' tion. Every form of church government, and every distortion of christian doctrine, had for a while its boisterous advocates. Some would have rejected all those orders in the ministry which had been known in the church of Rome, as well as their names or titles. It was enough that Rome had her bishops, priests, and deacons — the names and offices were to be for ever abolished in the church of Christ. Others were for the demolition of all parish churches, not to mention abbey churches and cathedrals ; for they had been polluted with idols and were unclean ; and no lustrations could purge them from defile ment. Many passed through enthusiasm to un belief and atheism, or back again to the church of Rome. Others rejected all authority — save only what was self-imposed and of their own creating. Ofthe more sober of this extreme class of puri tans, various congregations were formed from time to time and upon different models. In the year 1508 four or five ministers openly separated in London, and became the pastors of a considerable flock. They assembled stealthily at first in private houses, in the fields, in ships upon the river. They administered the sacraments, ordained elders and ministers, and excommunicated delinquents of their own body. The queen in vain threatened them with tho loss of the freedom ofthe city, a penalty amount ing to civil excommunication in those days, for the first offence, and severer punishment afterwards unless they returned to their parish churches. They still assembled, and gaining courage with the in- CHAPTER A. D. 1568. 56 THE HISTORY OF crease of their numbers, they hired the Plumbers' ™ Hall. Here the sheriff surprised a body of a hun- ELiz. ^rer\} an(i carried them to prison. The next day they were brought before the lord mayor, Grindal bishop of London, the dean of Westminster, and others. A long and angry discussion took place in the court. Grindal spoke with kindness, and the lord mayor endeavoured to conciliate. " You go," said one of the prisoners to the bishop (habited) " like a mass priest." " You see me wear a cope or a surplice," answered Grindal, gently, "at Paul's. I had rather minister without these things, but for order's sake and obedience to the prince." " Your garments are accursed," was the reply of Nickson, another ofthe party. " Good people," said the lord mayor, " I cannot talk learnedly with you, but I will persuade you the best I can. The queen hath not established these things for any holiness' sake, but only for civil order and comeliness ; as aldermen are known by their tippets, and judges by their gowns." " Even so, my lord," answered Nickson, " as the alderman is known by his gown and tippet, so by this apparel, that these men do now wear, were the papist mass priests known from other men." Their service was conducted after the Genevan usage ; and they presented the book which had been drawn up by the English exiles to the bishop, declaring that they were ready to do pen ance at St. Paul's cross if he, or the commissioners who sat with him, could prove that it contained anything contrary to the word of God. Grindal admitted that in that respect the Geneva book was "not to be reproved," and he took occasion to THE EARLY PURITANS. 57 ask the prisoners in return, whether they would chapter submit themselves to the judgment of Bullinger, of "' Beza, or even of the whole church of Geneva. This ELIZ- A.D. 1568. they refused to do. " They reverenced the learned in Geneva and in other places, but did not build their religion and faith upon them." One of them exclaimed, that he thought both prince and people ought to obey the word of God. To this the bishop assented, with the reservation, that in things indif ferent, which God had neither forbidden nor com manded, princes had authority in the church to order and command. But this was in fact the question at issue, and several of the prisoners cried out, " Prove that. Where find you that?" The business ended with the committal of a considerable number of both men and women to Bridewell. Here they lay a year and upwards glorying in their cause ; and diffusing their principles among those who now viewed them with the reverence due to martyrs and confessors by means of circular letters, which they addressed in apostolic form " to all tho brethren that believed in Christ." At length they were released, — twenty- four men and seven women, — through the bishop's intercession, by an order from the lords in council. As a punishment or as a caution this act of despo tism, for it was a rigour beyond the law, was equally impolitic* The demands of the extreme puritans are thus summed up by Sandys, bishop of London, in a letter addressed to Bullinger, about this time, in which he expresses deep concern at the growing violence of * Strype's Life of Grindal, p. 135. ELIZ. A.D. 1668 58 THE HISTORY OF chapter the party, and great apprehension of the conse- '- — quences.* " New orators," he says, " are rising up from among us ; foolish young men who despise autho rity and admit of no superior. They are seeking the complete overthrow and uprooting of the whole of our ecclesiastical polity ; and striving to shape out for us I know not what new platform of a church. That you may be better acquainted with the whole matter, accept this summary of the question at issue, reduced under certain heads. I. The civil magistrate has no authority in eccle siastical matters. He is only a member ofthe church; the government of which ought to be committed to the clergy. n. The Church of Christ admits of no other government than that by presbyteries : viz., by the minister, elders, and deacon. in. The names and authority of archbishops, archdeacons, deans, chancellors, commissaries, and other titles and dignities of the like kind, should be altogether removed from the church of Christ. iv. Each parish should have its own presbytery. v. The choice of ministers of necessity belongs to the people. vi. The goods, possessions, lands, revenues, titles, honours, authorities, and all other things relating either to bishops or cathedrals, and which now of right belong to them, should be taken away forth with and for ever. vn. No one should be allowed to preach who is * Zurich Letters, i. p. 294. THE EARLY PURITANS. 59 not a pastor of some congregation ; and he ought chapter to preach to his own flock exclusively, and no where - — else. EEIZ- A.D. 1568. viii. The infants of papists are not to be bap tized. ix. The judicial laws of Moses are binding upon christian princes, and they ought not in the slightest degree to depart from them." This concise statement, which we have chosen for its brevity, agrees with various documents and manifestoes issued from time to time by the ultra- puritans themselves, and may be received as a vera cious record of their intentions. Whatever might be the merits of the presbyterian form of church government, it is evident that it could have been introduced at this time into En;?- land only through tho direful process of a revolu tion, attended probably with civil war. The pres byterian church was not to be supplementary to tho episcopal. It was to sweep it from the nation, and to erect itself upon its ruins. The scheme was, to overthrow the church which then existed in the land, and to supplant it with another: for the puritans, even those of the most extreme opinions, clung to the principle of an established church with as much devotion, and far more unanimity, than they adhered to the model of a presbyterian one. On the latter point there were already many shades of dilFercnce ; on the former there were none. In thus asserting the claims of presbyterianism, not merely as a system to bo tolerated, but to be established and made national, they placed themselves in an 60 THE HISTORY OF chapter attitude of defiance to the law ; and they invoked — the hostility both of laity and clergy, whose rights ELIZ- and property they proposed to treat with so little respect. Patrons of livings, and corporate bodies, were of course alarmed ; and their hostility was soon inveterate. It was now a mixed question, partly religious, but in many of its bearings secular and political. Thus it came to pass — and very much, it must be admitted, from their own extra vagance — that the puritans were regarded in the court of Elizabeth, not as men of scrupulous minds, but as a party ill affected to the state. And in fact the triumph of their principles was at length fatal to the constitution, as, in its recoil, it was fatal to themselves. The misfortune was that the whole body of the puritans was involved in the disgrace which belonged only to a few. Under one name all were included ; Foxe and Nickson, Jewel and his revilers ; although they had nothing else in common than a dislike to a few ceremonies of the church. The last article, in which the judicial laws of Moses are maintained to bind christian princes, was pregnant with vast and perilous results. As a theological dogma it was utterly untenable by a party who held, and justly gloried in, the evangeli cal doctrines of the new testament. But it took deep root in the minds of the puritans ; and when for a time they seized the reins of government in the succeeding century, they applied it with terrible effect. In peaceful times it was a dry question of theology — a discussion for divines and casuists: THE EARLY PURITANS. 61 but in civil war it was the shrill clang of a trum- ' chapter pet which summoned armies of enthusiasts to the . work of unrelenting slaughter. It was this mis-ij ii. ELIZ. A.D. 1568. taken notion which sanctified crime and made re venge appear a christian virtue. 62 THE HISTORY OF CHAPTER III. a. d. 1565—1575. chapter In 1572 a presbyterian church was formed, and in- a meeting-house erected, at Wandsworth in Surrey.* eliz. Field, the lecturer of Wandsworth, was its first ' minister ; and several names of consideration with the puritans, including those of Travers and Wilcox, were amongst its founders. The step was a decisive, and under all the circumstances, a daring one. The court resided in the adjoining parish of Richmond, and would not fail to regard the proceeding with indignation ; while the river Thames, on the banks of which Wandsworth stands, and which was at that time the highway of communication even for the higher classes of society, brought it under the immediate observation of the metropolis. The bishop of London gave information to the govern ment, and the queen issued a proclamation enjoin ing compliance with the act of uniformity. The conventicle — for by this obnoxious term such as semblages were now designated — was immediately suppressed ; though after a while it re-appeared ; and in a retired court-yard in this suburban village * Xeal, vol. i. p. 237. ELIZ. A.D. 1572. THE EARLY PURITANS. 63 there yet stands a meeting-house, the representative chapter of the modest structure which once gave note to IIL England that a division had taken place among her sons which, alas, was never to be healed. Other presbyteries were formed in other parts of the kingdom ; and numerous secret meetings were held besides in private houses, which gave more alarm to the government, or at least a stronger pretext for severity. The Romish party who still thronged the court did not lose their opportunity. They insinuated into the ear of the queen that these troubles were merely the legitimate fruits of the reformation, and such as they had all along fore seen. Even moderate men began to express anxiety. And to meet the danger the high court of commis sion was put in motion. This tribunal, which proved so disastrous both to church and state, had been created by a clause in tho act of supremacy in the first year of Elizabeth. It empowered the queen and her successors, by their letters patent under the great seal, to autho rize, whenever they thought fit, and for as long a period as they pleased, a commission of persons, lay or clerical, to exercise all manner of jurisdiction under the queen and her successors in spiritual things; namely, "to order, visit, reform, and re dress, all heresies, errors, schisms, abuses, con tempts, oilenccs, and enormities whatsoever." The only limitations were, that the commissioners must bo born subjects of the realm, and that in the exer cise oftheir functions they should have no power to determine anything to be heresy but what had been adjudged to be so by the authority of the canonical 61 THE HISTORY OF iiapter scripture, or by the first four general councils, or any of them, or by any other general council, ELIZ- wherein the same was declared heresy by the ex- AD' 1572' • i -mi press and plain words of canonical scripture. These were ample powers, and capable of being used with terrible effect. But another clause extended their jurisdiction to the restraint of heresies not yet de fined, possibly not yet in existence ; — namely, such as parliament with the consent of the convocation might hereafter in their wisdom place in the dark catalogue of spiritual felonies. Of this commission, as of its twin sister the star chamber, it is difficult to determine whether it inflicted more suffering on the puritans or more infamy on their opponents. One of its first acts was the violent suppression of the presbyterian meeting at Wandsworth. Its subsequent labours were of the same character. It always proceeded upon the principle that the conscience might be, and ought to be, coerced by the dread of punish ment ; that the inner man would yield its inde pendence to the tyranny of pain and torture : a suicidal principle in any state into which the first gleam of light has once penetrated ; and fatal to all integrity in the subject, because it places him in the alternative of slave or rebel. It implies condi tions under which rational government can as little exist as christian liberty or integrity of mind and conduct. An Italian brought up in dread ofthe inquisition, may be an honest papist ; but his ho nesty has not been tried ; he has never dared to think and to inquire : it is the honesty of ignorance, if not of fear. The opinions of such a man are of A. U. 1572. THE EARLY PURITANS. . 65 no importance. It is impossible to say that if he chapter were not a papist he would not be an atheist. He IIT- is a son of the church because he is unenquiring eliz and a slave. Such is the conformity that severity can effect. And yet the high court of commission was not looked upon at first with the indignation it deserved ; nor were its ill consequences foreseen. The limits assigned to its power point out the in tention of its authors ; and had it been possible to confine its operation within them, it would have presented nothing more obnoxious than many other legislative enactments of the same age. It would have been inquisitorial and arbitrary, but not more so than the spirit of the times allowed. Many statutes of the sixteenth century might be pro duced, which are drawn up in the same spirit: and by comparison with these it would seem that no inten tional injustice or oppression was designed. The laws affecting the labouring classes, for example, were both arbitrary and horribly severe. They were liable to be dragged forth even at the caprice of a constable and subjected as " rogues and vagabonds" to a punishment which we should now consider too monstrous to be inflicted under any circumstances. Refusing to work for " such wages as were com monly given" constituted an offence which exposed the culprit to branding, whipping, slavery, trans portation, and death.* Carelessness in the state ment of principles, severity in punishing all offences alike, and a pedantic accuracy in unimportant de tails, was tho characteristic of an age just bursting into the first life of free institutions. But alter • See Statutes ofthe .".th. 1-lth, and 3!>th Klizabeth. F 66 THE HISTORY OF chapter these admissions the painful truth remains un- — — — touched : the high court of commission aimed, ELIZ' whether with design or otherwise, a deadly wound A.D. 1572. D ^ upon our civil and religious liberties ; and while it existed it was equally inconsistent with both. It was impossible that a body of commissioners so chosen, and armed with despotic power, should long be restrained within the proposed limits — the precincts of holy scripture or the wider range of the first four general councils. If the appeal were to scripture, who must decide the meaning of a doubt ful text but themselves ? if to one or all of the councils, who but they must challenge the true construction of its decrees ? and with regard to heresy when the scriptures and the councils had been consulted, and still a doubt remained (as in the breast of one of the two parties, the judges or the accused, it must always remain), who but the court itself was to determine the nature and boun daries of the crime ? Heresy is the denial, not of the authority of any particular church, but of the truth on which the catholic church is built, and upon which salvation depends. Yet, in the judg ment of the church party and of not a few of the puritans, anabaptists were heretics of the worst kind, and those who denied the necessity or validity of infant baptism, how ever orthodox on other points, are constantly classed by writers of this period with donatists, infidels, and atheists; while, in return, deadly superstition — something worse, if possible, than heresy itself — is charged by the anabaptists against the church and prelates. Both sides, then, appealed to holy scripture, and both admitted that THE EARLY PURITANS. 67 the first four councils threw but little light upon a chapter controversy which was indeed of a much later date. In- It was therefore impossible that the anabaptist EL,Z could acquiesce in the justice of the court ; for the meaning of the text of scripture on which he was condemned, was the very point at issue. If the high commission could indeed convince him that its interpretation was right, he ceased to be an anabaptist ; if it failed in this, he could only regard himself as a martyr. And were the voice of the councils ever so explicit, still the spirit of reveren tial confidence in God's word, which the reformation had diffused, had already brought their authority into question even with the learned. " General councils," so taught the episcopal divines in their own article of the church, recently set forth, " may err and have erred." How preposterous then to appeal to their decisions as final on a question affecting the conscience nay the life of a fellow- citizen ; and the more so as their aid would chiefly be invoked when the voice of holy scripture was felt to be insufficient ! Besides, when controver sialists are inflamed with passion, it is ever to be dreaded that each side will deal in these bitter ex aggerations. And thus the lesser fault of schism is, by the opposing party, magnified into heresy ; and those whose worst crime is ignorance or obstinacy are punished as heretics with unreasonable severity. To these objections the high commission was open from the first ; and as if no means were to be neglected of bringing its proceedings into discredit, it made itself infamous by the mode in which its judicial examinations were conducted. Delinquents f 2 ELIZ. A.D. 1572 68 THE HISTORY OF hapter were put upon their oath, and then compelled to _[!!__ criminate themselves. Numbers suffered thus; convicted solely upon their own extorted evidence. Others refused to take the oath ; but these again were punished for contempt. From the meshes of this detestable inquisition there was no escape. Notwithstanding these severities, or perhaps in no small degree as their consequence, puritanism continued to increase ; for the persecution which does not exterminate a religious party never fails | to strengthen it. And while the cause was gaining i strength in London, it was taking firm root in the | great seats of learning. The universities had not I yet forgotten the lessons or the example of their ; great professors Bucer and Peter Martyr. But it ' was at Cambridge that their principles made the greatest progress. Here the surplice question was revived, and the university was distracted. A uni versity is a mimic state ; and plunging into the discussion of great questions it seldom fails, with more learning, to bring less practical good sense and temper to the consideration of them ; for the field is too narrow, and the vehemence too much compressed. Oxford in the previous century had been convulsed with metaphysical tumults. Nomi nalists and realists contended at first with syllo gisms then with blows and bloodshed; and Cam bridge was now to be scarcely less disturbed, though, on a question it must be owned, of far greater moment. St. John's college was at that time the most flourishing in the university, and it was warmly attached to the principles of the refor mation. On the accession of queen Mary, the THE EARLY PURITANS. 69 master and twenty-four fellows, with several scho- chapter lars, resigned, rather than conform to the renovated in. superstitions. On the accession of Elizabeth, Dr. E"z Pilkington was chosen master, and soon afterwards 1565-7.- he was raised to the bishopric of Durham. His works testify at once to his detestation of Romish superstitions and to his wisdom and piety : in his will he desires to be buried " with as few popish ceremonies as may be, or vain cost." He had been one of the exiles at Zurich and Geneva, and on his return to England assisted in the revision of the book of common prayer ; and when a solemn com memoration was held at Cambridge in memory of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius, to obliterate the indignities offered to their remains, which had been dug up and burnt in the reign of Mary, he pro nounced the funeral oration. His latest biographer sums up his character in few but weighty words : " A zealous protestant, bishop Pilkington possessed in an eminent degree that rare judgment and mode ration which arc the characteristics of our carly English reformers." * It was in this college that a resolute opposition first appeared against the imposition of the vest ments. In the absence of the master Dr. Long- worth, Dr. Pilkington's successor, the students and fellows to tho number of three hundred laid aside their hoods and surplices. In Trinity college the oxamplc was followed with but three exceptions ; and tho smaller colleges were preparing to act in tho same manner, when a violent storm arose, and Cecil, the queen's secretary, admonished them in no * l'rol'. Scholclield: Life prclixcil to Pilkiu^tou's Works, P. S. ed. 70 THE HISTORY OF chapter gentle terms to resume the discarded habits. Cecil in. a was then chancellor of the university. euz. The university remonstrated. A letter was ad- 1565-75. dressed to Cecil by the heads of houses and pro fessors, imploring him to intercede with the queen. It is dated November 26, 1565. " A report," say they, " has reached us that, for the future, all scholars of this university will be forced to return to the old popish habits. This is daily mentioned to us by a great multitude of pious and learned men, who affirm in their consciences that they think every ornament of this kind is unlawful ; and, if the in tended proclamation is enforced, they will be brought into the greatest danger. Lest our university should be forsaken, we think it is one of our first duties to acquaint you with this condition of ourselves and of our brethren. And by these letters we most humbly beg, as well from your wisdom as from your credit and favour with the queen's majesty, that you would intercede with her to withhold a proclamation of this kind. For, as far as we can see, there can be no danger or inconvenience in exempting us from this burden : but, on the contrary, we very much fear that it will prove a hindrance to the preaching of the gospel and to learning."* This letter was signed, amongst others, by the masters of Trinity and St. John's ; by Hutton, master of Pembroke hall and afterwards archbishop of York ; and, which more concerns the reader who would trace the conduct and motives of the chief actors in the story, by John Whitgift, then Lady * Strype, Life of Parker, Appendix. III. ELIZ. A.D. THE EARLY PURITANS. 71 Margaret professor of divinity, soon afterwards chapter successively master of Pembroke hall and Trinity college, and at length, on the death of archbishop Grindal, his successor to the see of Canterbury. 1555-75 A spirit so anxious and dissatisfied and yet so powerful, was not likely long to want a leader. It soon found one in all respects equal to the task ; a man whose name belongs to history ; and to whose importance in the events which we are about to re late, an equal testimony is given in the unbounded eulogy of his admirers, and the less pardonable rancour of his foes. Thomas Cartwright,* of whom we speak, is one of the few men whose life and per sonal character still interest posterity after a lapse of nearly three hundred years, and angry writers have not yet ceased by turns to defend and assail Iiis memory. The heroes in Homer did not contend more fiercely for tho dead body of Patroclus than the authors of each succeeding age, themselves the representatives of great principles and powerful parties, have fought for the reputation of this great puritan divine. Cartwright was a scholar of St. John's, diligent and successful ; when tho accession of queen Mary and the apprehension of coming danger dispersed that learned and heartily protestant body, ho retired into obscurity and entered upon the study of tho law. On the death of Mary he returned to St. John's. Dr. Pilkington, the new master, esteemed him highly, and promoted his advance ment ; for which an amusing old writer reviles him * The facts of Cartwright's life are chiefly taken from Brooke's Life of Ctirtwrijrlil : from the opinions of this writer I find remoii to differ on ninny points ; the facts arc collected, on the whole, with care. A.D. ljtj.3 THE HISTORY OF a zealous puritan out of whose school proceeded Cartwright and others." But the master of St. ELIZ- John's was not peculiar in his regards. The year after his re-admission he was chosen fellow, and so rapidly did his reputation grow that in three years he removed to the recent, but already magnificent, foundation of Trinity college, the princely rival of St. John's, and here he was at once elected a senior fellow. The young queen had paid a visit to the univer sity in 1564, where she was entertained in the morn ing with scholastic exercises, at night with comedies and plays. The most learned men were selected to dispute before her in the schools ; and Cartwright was chosen to sustain a leading part. The queen took leave of the university in a latin speech. She ap proved of all the disputants, but most of Dr. Preston, who is said to have been a man of elegance and taste, while Cartwright is described as unhewn and awkward. It would be an amusing, were it not a painful, instance of the asperity of Cartwright's opponents, that to this trivial circumstance (and yet one so natural to a young and accomplished lady) they have ascribed, without pretending further evi dence, his estrangement for the remainder of his life from the church party. He became a puritan to avenge himself on doctor Preston. In 1569, Cartwright was chosen Lady Margaret professor of divinity, and gave lectures on the Acts of the apostles. They created the greatest interest, and were listened to with admiration : when he preached at St. Mary's church the windows were removed for tbe sake of the crowds who were com- A.D. 15135 — 75. THE EARLY PURITANS. 73 peeled to stand without. The university of Cam- chapter bridge must have been strangely unlike itself, if ni" suc>> a reputation could be made, much less sus- ELIZ- tained, by one who possessed none but superficial acquirements. The taste of the age was it is true theological. Divinity was a science in which all en deavoured to excel ; among courtiers and gentlemen it was an accomplishment ; with divines a profes sion ; at the bar a collateral branch of law. This may explain the extent and enthusiasm of Cart wright's triumph ; but it suggests too the difficulty of achieving it. His sentiments as a puritan were not concealed in his divinity lectures and sermons. The opposi tion which he must have foreseen, even if he did not court it, soon arose ; and Whitgift was his earliest antagonist. What Cartwright preached before the university on one Sunday Whitgift, from the same pulpit, refuted on the next. Each of them is said to have been listened to with vast applause ; if so, wc can easily infer the tumult and insubordination which prevailed at Cambridge ; and the uneasiness of those in power. Whitgift had now abandoned bis early principles ; which, as we have seen, leaned in favour of tho puritans. This has been an un pardonable crimo with some historians. But those who are not satisfied that history should always be tho drudgo of faction, will not be displeased with the suggestion that voung men of ardent minds are oo » o not to be too harshly dealt with if they live to re pudiate some of the sentiments with which they first entered upon public life. Through a long career Whitgift was consistent afterwards; and we III. ELIZ. A.D. 1565—75. 74 THE HISTORY OF chapter find no difficulty in admitting that, in such times, he may have had what appeared to him, at least, sufficient reasons to justify his conduct. It is true, that his course led to high preferment, and Cart wright's to a life of suffering ; a difference which compels us to give our sympathy in Cartwright's favour, but not our judgment; unless indeed it could be shewn that Whitgift was influenced by dishonourable motives. Archbishop Grindal too appears amongst his opponents. He was for deal ing with " this unhappy faction," he says, "with all expedition, as people fanatical and incurable." Whether this scheme for their recovery were wise or not, it was not wanting in decision. " In my opinion, under your lordships' correction," writing to the lords of the council, " it were not amiss that six of the most desperate of them should be sent to the common gaol at Cambridge ; and six likewise to Oxford, and some others of them to other gaols, as to your wisdoms shall be thought expedient " !* We remark with pain, in reviewing these events, the facility with which men who espoused a fresh party were always ready to turn their keenest wea pons upon that from which they had just withdrawn. It seems as if no sense of shame existed ; or as if the remembrance of the past was obliterated with every change of principle. But it was still a bar barous age ; and the restraints of civilized life were but imperfectly acknowledged. It is strange that Whitgift and Grindal should have behaved with severity to Cartwright, since they themselves had deeply shared in his early scruples, and to a recent * Remains, p. 319. P. S. ed. III. ELIZ. A.D. THE EARLY PURITANS. 75 period had been his associates in disgrace. But chapter they were not singular. We have seen that Cran mer and Ridley had consented to Hooper's imprison ment, upon a difference so trifling that they were 1060-75. prepared on his release to admit him forthwith to a share in the episcopate itself. Lord Bacon, at a still later period, coarsely reviled his benefactor the earl of Essex at the tribunal before which he was vainly pleading for his life. Such was the habit of the times. The delicacy of feeling which belongs to a refined state of society, and a lofty standard of pri vate morals, was then, and long afterward, almost unknown. Archbishop Grindal applied to Cecil, as chancellor of the university, to exert himself that Cartwright should either be silenced or expelled. The matter was laid before the vice-chancellor and the heads of houses, and the immediate consequence was the refusal of his doctor's degree ; then his suspension from the professorship of divinity. The chancellor seems to have behaved with great moderation. Having considered tho affair, he says, with much "deliberation and meekness," his conclusion was that Cartwright, "not from arrogance or any ill design," but as "the reader ofthe scriptures, had given notes, by way of comparison, between the orders of tho ministry and the times of the apostles, and the present times of this church of England." He therefore thought it sufficient to prohibit him from reading on those "nice questions," and he also wrote to him a kind letter of caution and advice. Cartwright, however, was deprived of his profes sorship, and forbidden to preach in the university, III. ELIZ. A. D. 1565—75 7 b THE HISTORY OF hapter through the influence of Dr. Whitgift, now vice- chancellor.* And against this proceeding, severe as it was, there is little to object, except the un seemly haste and superfluous bitterness displayed by Whitgift and his friends. They have been severely blamed, f because, without appealing to the autho rity of the scriptures, they thought it sufficient to assert that Cartwright's doctrines were contrary to the religion established by public authority, and on that account alone to demand a recantation of them. Had the university been nothing more than an open arena of political and theological controversialists, where all comers were at equal liberty to maintain their sentiments, their conduct would indeed have been unjust. But this was not the case. And in what country could such a community exist with safety ; or what could such a university become even in quiet times, except a school of uproar and sedi tion ? The nation had determined upon a certain ecclesiastical constitution, with respect to which the duties of the universities, and more especially those of their theological professors, were perfectly well defined. They were to educate the youth of Eng land in accordance with its laws, — its fundamental constitution, — both in church and state. However imperfect the church established by law might be, and however wise and perfect Cartwright's project of reformation, it was still impossible that any cor porate society which was not already quivering on the verge of revolution, or profoundly wanting in self-respect, could tolerate a professor who lectured upon the duty of overthrowing the church whose * Paul's Life of Whitgift, p. 16. f Brooke's Cartwright, passim. A.D. 156.5— 7i THE EARLY PURITANS. 77 sons and members he had undertaken to instruct, chapter What church, what party, not utterly indifferent ni- to all truth and all fixed opinions, has ever tolerated ELIZ such a proceeding ? Cartwright, if dissatisfied, should have at once retired, and challenged other hearers than his pupils, and upon some other tilting- ground than the fenced enclosures of a university. If there was a want of forbearance in his opponents, we must admit in this instance the want of high integrity in Cartwright. His sentiments, committed to writing by himself, and submitted to the university in his own defence, included the following propositions. That the names and functions of archbishops and archdeacons ought to be abolished. That the existing ministers of the church, namely, bishops, priests, and deacons, ought to be reduced to the apostolical institution, (mean ing that bishops, as a third order in the church, should be abolished,) and that presbyters only should remain to preach tho word of God, and to pray ; and deacons to be employed in taking care of the poor. That every church ought to be governed by its own ministers and presbyters. That no man ought to solicit, or be a candidate for, the ministry. And that ministers ought to be openly and fairly chosen by the people. " To effect this reformation," ho concludes, " every one ought to labour in his calling ; the magistrate by his authority, the mi nister by the word, and all by their prayers."* But how was this reformation, granting that it were one, to be accomplished ? His opponents were no less in earnest than himself. They be- * Sec Strype's Whitgift. Appendix. 78 THE HISTORY OF iiapter lieved that episcopacy was ordained of Christ or his apostles ; that of all the forms of church govern- ni. eliz. ment it was ft^ wiSest and the best. They had 1565-75. suffered much to bring about the reformation now so decried ; nor was it likely they would abandon without a determined struggle a cause so dear to them for the sake of a mere experiment ; for the presbyterian churches established at Geneva and elsewhere were of too recent a growth to claim the respect which is due to long enduring and well tried institutions. A church upon Cartwright's model was a novelty ; and all of his opponents thought no doubt the scheme impracticable, while not a few of them, viewing it as unscriptural and wrong, would have passed through another perse cution such as that from which they had escaped, rather than submit to it. For this was the alter native, submission or resistance. Cartwright and his friends asked, not for the toleration of their opinions but for their endowment ; not that they might be permitted to hold them unmolested, but that they might throw down the existing church in order to make room for and to establish them. A presbyterian church, occupying the place of the present establishment, and appropriating to itself its funds and dignities, — this was the meaning of Cartwright's propositions. It is true that he re pelled with the indignation, and no doubt with the sincerity, of one much aggrieved, the charge of intending to bring about by force the reformation he was planning: but to his opponents this ap peared to be an inevitable consequence ; a conse quence at least only to be avoided by their own A.D. 1565—75. THE EARLY PURITANS. 79 unconditional submission. And there were those chapter among them, inconsiderable neither for their num- m- bers nor for their moderation and piety, who would ELIZ have decided that the episcopal church was cheaply defended at the cost, if necessary, of their lives, and at all the hazards of a civil war. It may seem severe to charge Cartwright and his party with consequences which, in their judgment, would either not arise at all, or only from the igno rance and obstinacy of their antagonists. But such apologies, though specious and plausible, must al ways fail to have the slightest weight with tho opposite party. They who set themselves to the subversion of principles which others cling to as to life itself must be prepared to take their full share of responsibility in the terrible collisions which will certainly ensue. Still Whitgift's severity was impolitic and quite unworthy of his christian character, even after making a large allowance for the barbarism of the times. He threw tho sympathies of pious men, in cluding the chancellor Cecil lord Burghley himself, and the great earl of Leicester, warmly into Cart wright's favour, ne contributed to force a large party into desperation ; and he made Cartwright its martyr and its hero. On the pretext that Cartwright had not taken priest's orders, he charged him with perjury, and procured the forfeiture of his fellowship; which, according to the statutes of his college, required that he should be in holy orders. Cartwright, who was in fact in deacon's orders, maintained that he had complied with the spirit, if not with the very 80 THE HISTORY OF chapter letter, of the statutes, of which the meaning was no In' more than this ; that the senior fellowships should eliz. jje held by spiritual men for the guidance of the 1565-75. college, to the exclusion of the other professions, law and physic ; and that as reader of divinity and a preacher in the university, he had fulfilled the conditions with accurate fidelity. There appears no ground whatever to charge him with the revolt ing crime of perjury. But even this was not suffi cient ; he was soon afterwards expelled. In a letter addressed to the chancellor, dated 17 October 1571, he mentions his expulsion, first from the college and then from the university ; and implores very hum bly that the affair may be reheard. " I would write," he says, " a full account of the matter, but I am afraid of perplexity. I would rather state the affair in your presence, which would enable me to be more brief and distinct. Behold a new and cruel device of the most unjust of men, who omit nothing to consummate my wretchedness ; since both water and fire are forbidden me. They seem to want no thing but a sack that they may destroy me Hke a matricide. I hear also that I am accused of sedi tious and schismatic practices ; O baseness !" Cart wright went abroad, where he was received with the greatest attention by the leaders of the re formed churches; but at the solicitation of his friends, among whom were Foxe, and the learned Fulke, now as well as himself and for a similar cause deprived of his fellowship, but afterwards master of Pembroke hall, he returned to England. His reputation was yet untarnished. Cecil, as lord treasurer, solicited his opinions upon an affair of THE EARLY PURITANS. 81 state in a manner which shews that he was not chapter regarded as a time server. The queen contemplated IIL marriage with the duke of Anjou, a roman catho- ELIZ' lie ; and the lord treasurer himself was thought to 15&5-75. favour the match. The question he proposed was this, " Whether it was lawful for one professing the gospel to marry a papist ?" Cartwright's answer was explicit. " I am fully persuaded for my part that it is directly forbidden in scripture." Happily for the nation the marriage was broken off. The remainder of Cartwright's life is interwoven with the ecclesiastical history ofthe times. It pre sents us with the records of a man of high attain ments, fervent zeal, and unwearied resolution, de voting himself to suffering and disgrace, in the long endeavour to achieve, as he believed, a second and a better reformation. Such examples deserve to be recorded for the reverence of future ages ; and hap pily the time has appeared when we no longer he sitate to acknowledge exalted worth, though in alliance with principles and opinions wc condemn : and such respect at least is due to the memory of Cartwright. Tho year 1572 was memorable in the history of the puritans, not only for the opening of presby terian churches at Wandsworth and elsewhere, but for a formal controversy in which both parties sought, in ell'cct, tho decision of the public upon a question which mere force had not been able to determine. Many severities had been exercised, many of the puritan ministers had been degraded, silenced, and imprisoned. The church party and their opponents had alike become stern and un- G 82 THE HISTORY OF chapter forgiving. Despairing, as they said, of reforma- IIT tion beginning elsewhere, two of the puritan ELIZ- leaders, Field and Wilcocks, published "An ad- 1565-75. monition to the parliament for the reformation of church discipline." Beza had addressed to the earl of Leicester, the friend and patron of the puritan cause, a letter, in which he urged the necessity of a further reformation in England, and of more for bearance to the discontented party. Gaulter had written to bishop Parker in the same spirit. These letters were printed with the admonition, and con tributed not a little to its marked effect : Gaulter and Beza, however, complaining of the use thus made of their opinions. The petition itself ex posed the splendours of the hierarchy, and the proceedings of the bishops ; and prayed that a church might be established by law more con sonant with God's word ; that is, upon the pres byterian model. It was presented to the house hy its authors, Field and Wilcocks ; a proceeding for which they were immediately committed to New gate ; where their sufferings gave a fresh impulse to their cause. They were visited by the leaders of the party, amongst whom occur the names of Fulke, Humphrey, Wyburn, and Cartwright ; and although every effort was made to suppress the pamphlet, three or four editions were published in as many years.* Whitgift was summoned by the voice of the church party to answer the admonition, and he is said to have been assisted by archbishop Parker and * Strype's life of Parker, 413. The ' admonition' has been frequently but erroneously attributed to Cartwright himself. Brooke's Cartwright, p. 97. A.D. 1572. THE EARLY PURITANS. 83 other eminent divines. His opponents still admit chapter that his method was fair and unexceptionable ; and IIL his admirers then claimed for his work much higher ELIZ- praise, as an unanswerable defence of the reformed church of England. Its merits are great no doubt; and it would probably still have been a popular treatise upon the subjects it discusses, notwith standing its many antiquated allusions and per sonal asperities, had not Hooker soon afterwards won for himself an immortal reputation as the sole champion of our English church ; casting into the shade whatever had been done before him, and leav ing nothing to be accomplished on this arena by those who should come after. Yet Hooker appears to have been himself indebted to this famous con troversy for something of his method, and for many of his arguments. Cartwright now came forward in reply, and brav ing the certain penalty that must follow, published "A second admonition to the parliament." It opened with an address to his readers, in which he says, " Wc have cast our accounts, who bend ourselves to deal in these matters, not only to abide hard words, but also hard and sharp dealings for our labour ; and yet," he adds, " we shall think our labour well bestowed, if by God's grace we attain but to give some light of that reformation of religion which is grounded on God's word, and to have somewhat opened the deformities of our English reformation, which highly displeaseth God." He then proceeds to state and defend at large the puritan demands, — or rather the demands of those of the puritans who had now decided in G2 III. eliz. A.D. 84 THE HISTORY OF chapter favour of an entirely new platform of church go vernment. Whitgift replied to Cartwright, and Cartwright 1572-75. again answered Whitgift ; while a host of inferior writers took up the question on both sides ; and swelled the tide of battle, and increased the uproar, without adding materially to the force engaged. Thus arose a controversy which, while it lasted, occupied the attention and absorbed the sympathies of all the reformed churches ; and which has ever since been referred to as containing within itself the germ of almost every important argument which either party has been able to advance. We interrupt our narrative for a time, that we may attend to this remarkable discussion. The demands of the admonition, as it was after wards defended and explained by Cartwright and others, resolve themselves into two great heads. The first of these concerns the constitution of a church. The second relates to the abuses then existing inthe church of England. On the latter point, large concessions might have been made without abandoning any one principle of the least importance. And if so, they ought to have been made at once, — cheerfully and without hesitation, — were it only on the principle of yielding things indifferent to the scruples of weak consciences ; an apostolic principle, and of the greatest moment, though for the most part held in great contempt in religious controversy. The cross in baptism, and the ring in marriage, once parted with, would scarcely have been regretted, and very soon for gotten. The use of organs was not essential to A.D. 1572- THE EARLY PURITANS. 85 public worship ; nor choral chanting ; nor were chapter square caps and surplices. All these were griev- IIL ous to the puritans. But the wrong done to them,. eliz- and the mistake committed, lay in this : not that! the church party retained these peculiarities, but; that it insisted on them, and chained them on the necks of others. A compromise ought to have been! attempted. It would in all probability have suc ceeded perfectly ; for such is human nature that indulgences which are no longer denied arc seldom asked for ; and had the ceremonies so fiercely con tested been left as things indifferent, uniformity would have crept on by slow degrees ; or a mutual forbearance (in things indifferent a greater bless ing oftentimes than uniformity itself) would have healed tho division and produced, if not uniformity, at least a real unity, at last. For instance, the anabaptists of modern days, the legitimate succes sors of tho extreme section of the puritans, neither reject an organ nor hold chanting to be superstitious: and in every class of modern dissenters there is a perceptible tendency to revert again to those sober and now well-tested forms of the church of Eng land, against which their puritan ancestors would never have contended so much in the spirit of mar tyrs, bad it not been that they were threatened with a martyr's fate. Nor were their demands altogether unreasonable. The abuses then prevailing iu the church were such as to shock, if they do not amuse, by their extrava gance. Pluralities may have admitted of some ex cuse ; for able ministers were but few in number ; and vacant benefices were better disposed of, it might be contended, by placing several in the hands of one 86 THE HISTORY OE chapter able person, than either by leaving them void, or bestowing them upon the incompetent. Whitgift in. A.D. 1572 eliz. Was rector of Feversham, master of Trinity college, prebend of Ely, and dean of Lincoln. And his case was not a solitary one : other favoured individuals were loaded with preferment. This, however jus tified, was an evil precedent, and productive of unhappy consequences. But what defence can be offered for the splendours of the hierarchy P In an age of state and pageantry, archbishop Parker ex hibited a model of almost regal magnificence. Whit gift, shortly afterwards raised to the primacy on the death of Grindal, surpassed even Parker in stateli- ness. It is recorded of him by one of his biographers that he travelled with a retinue of a hundred servants, including forty gentlemen in chains of gold. And that nothing might be wanting, he kept " a good armoury for the exercise of military disci pline, and a fair stable of horses;" insomuch that he was able at all times to equip both horse and foot, and frequently mustered a hundred of the former and fifty of the latter, " his own servants, trained and mounted."* No wonder that prelacy, with its pomp and pride, was the favourite mark for the keen shafts of the puritans ! But the admonition and its defenders had wider views, and aimed at something far beyond the amendment of the existing institutions. They re peated their demands for a national church fashioned after the presbyterian model. This, they affirmed, and only this, was agreeable to scripture and the will of heaven, and nothing less could satisfy them. * Paul's Whitgift, pp. 97. 105. A D. 1572- 7c THE EARLY PURITANS. 87 They demanded a national church, endowed chapter with tithes and ecclesiastical emoluments ; for this, m' they said, was in accordance with the will of God as ELIZ expressed in the law of Moses : yet they rejected the spiritual headship of the sovereign, although it prevailed in the Jewish church, because, they affirmed, it was inconsistent with the new testament. They assumed it as an unquestionable truth that the con stitution of the christian church was traced out and the duties of its several officers assigned in scripture, with as much, if not more, clearness than the in structions for building the tabernacle, and regu lating the daily service of the temple. If the jew had an exact directory from God in all that con cerned his mode of worship, much more the chris tian ; the christian dispensation was in this, as in all points, clearer than the Jewish. From whence it fol lowed that to introduce an office into the church, unknown in scripture, was a grievous sin. It was only to be compared to the effrontery of Uzzah, who touched tho ark and died. The assault of tho extreme puritans fell heavily on archbishops and high dignitaries ; for whatever were their weaknesses the want of candour or of courago was not one of them. " In the tabernacle," says Cartwright, "tho church is expressly set forth. As the temple was nearer the time of Christ (than the tabernacle), so it is a more lively expression of the church of God than now is." He then proceeds to shew that both in the one and in the other every thing was done as God prescribed; and he adds, witlTsamislic indignation, " Is it likely that he who appointed not only the tabernacle and the temple, but their ornaments, would not only neglect the 88 THE HISTORY OF chapter ornaments of the church, but that without which it m' cannot long stand ? Shall we conclude that he who eliz. remembered the bars there, hath forgotten the A.D. ° 1572-75. pillars here ? Or he who there remembered the pins, here forgot the master builders ? Should he there remember the besoms, and here forget arch bishops, if any had been needful ? Could he there make mention of the snuffers to purge the lights, and here pass by the lights themselves ?"* This is the clue to the whole argument ; which descends into all the details of church government, and condemns whatever has not the express sanction of scripture. Whatever is not written is erroneous. Upon the other hand, the acts of the early church in the new testament, are not less binding upon other christian churches, in matters of discipline, than its teaching in matters of doctrine. If it be heresy to pervert the doctrines of the bible, it is popery and gross impiety, he contends, to add anything to its precedents of church government and discipline : for this is to charge its author with having given an imperfect revelation. The theory is plausible : its evident simplicity, and the reverence which it seems to pay to the word of God, will always commend it to many admirers. It has never ceased to be urged, from time to time, upon the attention of the christian church ; though it has seldom found in after years an advocate to be compared with Cartwright ; whose mingled wit and wisdom, whose vehement declamation and logical precision, and whose nervous style and manly courage, the expression of a profound sincerity, will * Cartwright's Reply, 82, &c. A.D. 1572—75. THE EARLY PURI1ANS. 89 ever give his .writings, apart from all other con- chapter siderations, a distinguished place in the literature nI- of his country. Cartwright was the Hooker of non- elitz- conformity : his equal in acuteness, though not in penetration ; in eloquence, though not in learning his superior : his inferior perhaps only in that pro found dexterity and skill in argument which, mingled with an awful reverence for truth, scorns or dreads to take advantage of an adversary's weakness. For in these high polemic virtues Eooker is without an equal. Whitgift replied in a tone equally disdainful (for the meekness of christian polemics, was sorely wronged on both sides), but with a depth of learning and of patient thought which was a greater tribute to Cartwright's prowess than the loudest acclama tions of his own party. It was evident that the re formation was put upon its trial, and that its friends were conscious of the greatness of the crisis. All the warmth of enthusiasm, all the energy of hope or of despair, was on the side ofthe assailants. To retain an empire kindles less excitement than to storm a battery. The prelates, if courtiers and men of this world, could only wish for peace; if saints and men of apostolic holiness and zeal, they could still have no other ambition. They had accomplished a re formation tho greatest, and, as the results have shewn, tho most abiding the church has ever seen : if slothful, it was reasonable they should wish to enjoy its fruits; if zealous for God, to dispense its blessings. But it was difficult to revive in their favour, the popular zeal. They had now to control, and not to stimulate, the ardour of the multitude : to repress the desire of change and inculcate submis- III. eliz. A.D. 1572—75 90 THE HISTORY OF chapter sion. And this task, always difficult, is doubly so _ in the hands of those who have been once known as the leaders in a popular movement. They seem in consistent as soon as they become practical. When they no longer innovate, they are charged with a desertion of their principles. Whitgift, however, asserted a principle which, if true, was destined to unfold a degree of liberty far beyond the aspirations of the most zealous puritan. He maintained the right of christian churches to determine their own forms of government.* His statements, if pushed to an extreme, would seem to warrant the conclusion that he thought that church government was in itself a thing indifferent ; that it was a wise and cautious step to consult the scrip tures, and to adhere to the examples of the ancient church, but that no absolute command required even this degree of deference, whether to the scriptures or to the fathers of the church. It was enough for him that an office was useful ; it was not necessary that it should be scriptural. He regarded the end ofthe institution, namely a good and useful government, as the only consideration of primary importance; and he thought that true wisdom led us to seek for this, not in a servile imitation of what existed at Corinth or Philippi in the days of St. Paul ; nor in the usages of the African church in the days of Cyprian: but in a judicious adaptation of the pre cedents contained in scripture and in the fathers, to the wants of an English church in the sixteenth century. He replies to Cartwright's attack upon the office * Whitgift's Answer to a certain libel entituled An admonition to the Parliament, l.i7'2, and " Defence of the Answer, &c." 1574. THE EARLY PURITANS. 91 of an archbishop thus. " It is manifest," he says, chapter and a more liberal foundation could not possibly be IH' laid, " that Christ hath left the government of his ELIZ 5 , ° A.D. church, touching the external policy, to the ordering 1572-75. of men who have to make orders and laws for the same, as time, place, and persons require ; so that nothing be done contrary to his word. We make not an archbishop necessary to salvation, but pro fitable to the government of the church, and there fore consonant to the word of God." Again : " We are well assured that Christ in his word hath fully and plainly comprehended all things necessary to faith and good life, yet hath he committed certain orders of ceremonies and kind of government to the disposition of his church ; the general rules given in his word being generally observed ; and nothing being dono contrary to his will and command ment." The utility of an office, then, justified its intro duction, and Whitgift was not anxious, indeed he thought it impossible, to go higher. Christ willed the government of his church in willing its ex istence ; for without government, social or corpo rate, existence is impossible. He had laid down no precise law, like that of the old testament, by which one uniform, unbending, government could be framed. The church, therefore, was at liberty to make its own choice ; the honour of God being its solo aim, and to do " nothing contrary to his word," its single limitation. "What," he adds, "if the name of an archbishop was not in St. Paul's time ? doth it therefore follow that the thing signified by the name was not in his time ? The authority and 111. ELIZ. A.D. 92 THE HISTORY OF chapter thing whereof the archbishop hath his name was in Paul's time ; therefore the name is lawful ; and if it had not been in his time, yet were both the name 1572-75. anci office lawful, because it pertains to the external policy and government of the church."* It belongs to a treatise of ecclesiastical polity to determine the merits of this great and anxious question. We must be contented to remark, that Cartwright failed by an overstatement of his pre mises, while Whitgift was in practice inconsistent with his own conclusions. Few intelligent non-conformists would now choose to embarras themselves with Cartwright's bold assertion, that the new testament contains the exact delineation of a christian church. Nor would they affirm that the precise admeasurements and other minute directions which were given to Moses for the construction of the tabernacle, and the order ing of its ritual, find a counterpart in the confessedly few and general precedents to be gathered from the new testament, on the subject of church polity. The history of three centuries has brought, at last, some healing lessons of moderation with it. Amongst the jews no schism found a place : so clear and com prehensive their instructions that no room was left for differences of judgment. And when the ten tribes revolted, they were soon compelled to reject some portions of the law, in order to conceal the schismatic character of their rival temple. But no community of christians has yet presumed to claim, as exhibited in its own practice, the precise institu tions of a new testament church, perfect and un- * Defence of Answer, 301—470. THE EARLY PURITANS. 93 altered, without calling up a host of opponents eager chapter to deny its claims and challenge its proofs. And IIL every such body has been in turn compelled to decline ELIZ- the contest, or to abandon something of its high 1572-75. pretensions and confess that the utmost it has been able to accomplish is but a feeble imitation of the primitive examples of the new testament ; an adap tation but not a transcript. It is a question, which the learning and ability displayed on both sides has not entirely set at rest in the minds of many sincere and intelligent chris tians, whether the new testament bishop was merely a presiding presbyter, primus inter pares, or a mi nister of a superior order, and of a higher rank. Cartwright would have revolutionized the church of England upon this single point. All ministers were equal. Every church was independent. The right of choosing ministers lay exclusively with the con gregation. These were first principles, to be main tained at whatever cost. Whitgift, on the other hand, and the powerful party whom he represented, were unreasonably tenacious. Their own argument condemns their conduct. The weapons which wound their reputation most, were sharpened by themselves. For if the constitution of a church were, to so great an extent, committed to their own discretion ; if no sin, no dis respect to scripture, were involved in making those alterations from time to time which fitted it for usefulness ; adapting it to altered times and circum stances ; why did they resist all change ? Why did they oppose a stern and iron front to the demands of their own brethren — not of a few 94 THE HISTORY OF chapter capricious minds, unstable and self-willed, but of 111 hundreds of good men, — of learning scarcely in- eliz. ferior to their own, and in zeal and piety not a 1572-75. whit behind them ? Because some of Cartwright's demands were unreasonable, why should every pu ritan be treated with contempt ? With regard to many of the points at issue, they pleaded, not con science, but mere convenience. Of that convenience why should not their brethren be sometimes allowed to judge ? Why crush a large and earnest minority ? — Their numbers, with their acknowledged zeal and piety, proved that some deep grievance did really exist ; beneath a surface too much ruffled, it is true, with tumultuous discontent. The great reformers of the continent looked on with sorrow. Gaulter, writing to bishop Cox in August, 1573,* severely condemns the behaviour of Cartwright and his party. " You ask me to reply to those nine articles, f by the insisting upon which they give you so much trouble. But if these are the only matters in dispute between you, they are scarcely deserving in my opinion that any divine should be occupied in the refutation of them ; they savour of nothing but a longing after innovation, and I wish they were not sprinkled with something of the bitterness of envy and blind emulation." He expresses both surprise and regret at their aversion to the names and offices of bishops and archbishops. " The name of bishop they cannot but know was in use in the time of the apostles, and always too re tained in the churches in after times : we know, too, that archbishops existed of old under the name of * Zurich Letters, vol. ii. p. 225. f For which see pp. 58, 59. THE EARLY PURITANS. 95 patriarchs. And if in later times they have occa- chapter sioned so much offence, by reason of their tyranny m' and ambition, that these titles are not without rea- ELIZ . A. D. son become odious to the godly, I do not yet see 1572-75. what is to hinder that on the removal of the abuse those persons may still be bishops, and be called such, who being placed over a certain number of churches have the management of such things as pertain to the purity of religion and doctrine." Upon all of the other points the presbyterian leader either qualifies the assertions or entirely dissents from the principles of the English puritans. But the fidelity with which he writes upon the subject of the op pressions of the high prelatic party, is equally honourable to himself and the venerable correspon dent who encouraged such plainness of speech : — " I cannot dissemble, upon this subject, that there are found every where out of England pious and excellent men, yea, even some ofthe nobility, who blame many things in the manners and pomp of your bishops. And those who have lately come over from England (as I understand by the letters of my friends) have complained that many harsh proceedings have been adopted there against godly and learned ministers of tho word, who heretofore preached Christ not without some excellent fruit, but who now, with the connivance, yea, even with the concurrence of the bishops, are thrust into prison upon the most trifling grounds, and almost without an indictment, or at least such an one as is recognised by law. Whether there be any truth in this report concerning you, I do not know ; we certainly promise ourselves better things of you all. But if any thing of this kind 96 THE HISTORY OF chapter should take place, I would again entreat you to con- IX1, sider how cautious you should be, lest, in opposition ELIZ- to the precept of St. Peter,* you exercise dominion 1572-75. over the clergy, or be of the number of those who cruelly beat their fellow-servants. You will forgive me, reverend father, this freedom of speech, for which I have no other motive but that I love you, yea, re vere and respect you, and am most anxious at the same time for the honour of your reputation and for the English churches." There is one consideration which, had it occurred to either party, would have abated something of its warmth by placing the subjects of contention in a far less important light. We mean the tendency of all institutions to mould themselves in practice, so as to accord with the genius and disposition of those amongst whom they flourish. An exact transcript of the primitive churches ofthe new testament, were it possible to be revived, in London for example or New York, would grievously disappoint the expec tations of its ardent votaries. Names and offices would remain as they were from the beginning, and probably the likeness would be traced in nothing else. The national character could not fail to act with irregular and unequal force upon the different parts of an ancient and foreign institution ; and long before it had begun to perform its work with ease, it would in fact have been remodelled. Had the puritans remained within the national church they would have possessed a vast and salutary influence. Had their zeal and united energies been wisely directed, not to the attainment of doubtful and speculative * 1 Pet. v. 3. THE EARLY PURITANS. 97 theories, but to the diffusion of piety, the earthly chapter splendours of the hierarchy which withstood their — arguments, would soon have confessed their presence. ELIZ- Worldly-minded prelates would have been compelled, 1572-75. in self-defence, to assume a modest bearing ; and needless pomp would have been discountenanced. The middle classes, the bulk of every parish, though not formally admitted to elect their pastors, would, if educated in christian piety, have exercised a whole some restraint upon the rights of patrons. Without the name or authority of rulers, they must have soon possessed a power, which the most imperious are compelled to respect : the power of public opi nion, rightly directed and temperately expressed. The democratic disposition would have worked well and safely in the presence of a legitimate controlling authority. On the other hand, a wise episcopate, though somewhat reduced, and liable to be always checked when its pretensions were unreasonable, would have experienced no real danger ; and, after a time, its learning, calmness, and high position, re mote from clamour and transient excitement, would have led all but the restless and visionary to confess its worth. The church of England might then have borne a closer resemblance to her civil constitution ; where the various elements meet, not in ceaseless conflict, but in well blended proportions and in joint control, and therefore in harmonious and successful action. 98 THE HISTORY OF CHAPTER IV. a.d. 1575—1583. ni after The great leaders of the reformation were now & IV ELIZ. A.D. 1575. .hastening from the scene, and their places were filled in succession by other men who were often strangers alike to their sufferings, their simplicity, and their triumphs. A single year, 1575, proved fatal to Parkhurst bishop of Norwich, Pilkington bishop of Durham, Matthew Parker archbishop of Canterbury, and Bullinger the great reformer of Zurich. Peter Martyr, and the wise and saintly Jewel bishop of Salisbury, had already entered into a world of peace. Bishop Home soon followed, with many others. Thus the cause of the reforma tion, and of the church of England, was transmitted to another generation. Grindal succeeded Parker in the primacy, and if any argument were wanting to convince the ultra-puritans that an archbishop might exhibit the loftiest virtues, and discharge with exemplary wisdom, zeal, and meekness the most painful duties of the ministry, they had for nine years a conclusive one in the life and example of archbishop Grindal. But the current of the times drove hard against him. He was thwarted ELIZ. A.D. 1575. THE EARLY PURITANS. 99 and borne down by an imperious sovereign, whose chapter piety had now visibly waned before the splendours, n' the adulation, and the unbounded power which few women ever coveted more passionately, and none perhaps ever so abundantly possessed. The English reformation had reached its zenith. From this time new men and new principles begin to appear, and the relative position of puritans and churchmen insensibly alters ; and two questions appear in the distance which are by and by to absorb the whole attention of either party ; though to this period, the one in our church had no existence, and the other had gained but little notice. The first of these embraced those great points of christian doc trine which afterwards assumed the form of the Calvinistic and Arminian controversy, including tho nature of the sacraments and the method of justification. Tho other was the political question ; already opened in fact, though incidentally, by Cartwright and his party ; namely, the rights of a sovereign in matters of religion, and those of a christian church in civil government. Into these two channels the overflowing waters of strife soon found their way ; and along them they have never ceased to flow. The state of England in regard to moral and reli gious culture ^as at this time deplorable. When we read of the thousands who assembled at Paul's cross to listen to the stirring eloquence of Latimer, or of tho five thousand voices at the same place, rising like the sound of many waters, in one tune ful psalm of praise ; we arc apt to infer the exist ence of an amount of scriptural zeal and knowledge n 2 ELIZ. A.D. 1575 100 THE HISTORY OF chapter in other parts of the kingdom, painfully at variance — with the real facts of history. The number of the Romish clergy who had re signed their preferments at the reformation, appears almost incredibly small. Including bishops, abbots, heads of colleges, and other dignitaries, as well as the beneficed clergy, no writer can muster up two hundred and fifty : bishop Burnet reduces them to one hundred and ninety-nine ; and D'Ewes's jour nal, a still better authority, to one hundred and seventy-seven, — a number altogether insignificant when distributed among the ten thousand parishes of England and Wales. It would be something more than charity to suppose that such numbers of the Bomish clergy accommodated themselves at once to a change so great and sudden without vio lence to their consciences ; or, which is more pro bable, without an utter scorn and a contemptuous disregard of all religious principle. From such in cumbents the reforming bishops had little to expect. To restrain their popish sympathies, and to insist upon a few decent observances — such as public prayers in English, and the reading of the scrip tures — was probably all they could attempt ; and without a just severity, even this was often more than they could accomplish. The christian ministry in Bomish countries is not an object of ambition. The priests and friars of Italy are chiefly drawn from the lower ranks of life; and this is still more visible in remoter nations, where the great prizes of their church are fewer, and out of sight. A slavish life, busied with a succes sion of fretful observances, has no attractions. The IV. ELIZ. A.D. 1575. THE EARLY PURITANS. 101 wise and good recoil from it. But a low and igno- chapter rant ministry had so long prevailed that it gave but httle offence ; and this is to be borne in mind when we read ofthe meanness of those from amongst whom the ministry of the church of England was at first replenished. When archbishop Parker made the primary visitation of his diocese, some of the bene ficed clergy were mechanics, others Romish priests disguised. Many churches were closed. A sermon was not to be heard in some places within a distance of twenty miles. To read, or at least so to read as to be intelligible and impressive, was a rare accom plishment. A homily was not read for months to gether in many parishes. Even in London many churches were closed for want of ministers ; and in the country it was not easy to provide a minister competent to baptize infants and inter the dead.* Bishop Sandys of Worcester, preaching before the queen, tells her majesty (with a solemn intimation that " their blood will be required at somebody's hands,") that many of her people, especially in the north, were perishing for lack of knowledge. " Many there are," he said, " that hear not a sermon in seven years ; I might say in seventeen." The bishop of Bangor had but two preachers in all his diocese. In Cornwall there was not a single minister, says Neal, the historian of the puritans, capable of preaching a sermon. The universities afforded little assistance. In 1503 the university of Oxford had but three preachers ; and these were chief men amongst the puritans ; Humphrey, Kingsmill, and Sampson. *• Neal, vol. i. ch. iv. p. 137-8, nn« eh. vi. l'S7, from a manuscript, he says, in his possession. Sec too Strype, Life of Parker, p. 224, &e. 102 THE HISTORY OF chapter There was yet no succession of young men in the ' universities who had been piously brought up in the ELIZ protestant faith. This evil had been foreseen by Latimer and the fathers of the reformation, and was indeed amongst their chief anxieties. The in discriminate plunder of church property which still continued in the reign of Edward vi. was one great cause. The rapacity of those who should have been the church's guardians is frequently denounced in the sermons of the reformers. Ridley deplored the lack of "yeomen's sons" as candidates for the mi nistry. But they did not live to carry into effect those measures of redress on which they were earn estly intent, and which might have prevented the dishonour of the reformation, and the calamities of a future generation. Thus, the want of endowments hindered many ; the terms of subscription, and the rigid conformity enforced with needless severity, was a still greater obstacle to many more who might have adorned the ministerial office. Not only schoolmasters and law clerks, but others of a much inferior class, serving men, traders, and mechanics, scarcely possessing the first rudiments of learning, were admitted into holy orders. They wanted the only qualifications which can render such a ministry useful, or even tolerable ; fervent piety and self-denying zeal. They merely debased the ministry without extending its efficiency. This was a state of things which the queen re garded without much uneasiness. Preaching at least seemed to her a sort of spiritual luxury which she was always at liberty to withhold. This was the dogma of the Burnish church ; and it was one of ELIZ. 1575. THE EARLY PURITANS. 103 several points in which the bias of her mind appear- chapter ed from time to time in a lingering fondness for the religion of her fathers. In the first year of her reign ae all preaching was forbidden for a time. The un settled state of men's minds ; the uncertainty and contradictoriness of the doctrines taught in the same place, and from the same pulpit ; the necessity of proceeding with caution ; above all, the mischievous introduction of state affairs into these popular ha rangues, threatening the safety of the country and the stability of her throne ; these were reasons which may for a short time have justified even so violent a measure. But it was evidently one to which no christian church could long patiently submit. Preaching is the ordinance of Christ himself : it is the great commission which he gave his ministers, — to go into all the world and preach tho gospel to every creature. Tho reformers well knew where their strength lay. Bishop Latimer had, at an early period of the reformation, turned the tide of popular feeling against tho Romish bishops, those " unpreach- ing prelates ;" — holding up their incapacity in the pulpit to tho derision of those thronging multitudes who now first learned, from the great father of English eloquence, how powerful an engine the preaching of God's word Avas to become hencefor ward. But Elizabeth had no Latimer to guide or with dauntless courage to reprove her. Her dislike of preaching continued to increase. One or two preachers in a diocese, she said, were quite enough. Let a homily be read, and the young catechised. The craving for sermons was by no means to be en couraged. Unhappily her notions obtained a mis- 101 THE HISTORY OF chapter chievous currency, and continued to infect the church Iv' of England long after she had ceased to wield a ELIZ- sceptre. A.D. 1575. At once to meet the necessity of the times and to " make full proof of their ministry," by exercising it in the most effective manner, the puritans instituted their famous prophecyings. The word must be un derstood as it is used by St. Paul in the new testa ment ; to prophesy, being synonymous with, to preach. It was in this sense only that they used it to designate the character of their assemblies ; a re mark which, obvious as it is, has often been over looked, to the serious hurt of the puritan cause and character. Hence they have been described as idle fanatics, who gravely assembled at stated seasons to compound a prophecy, or denounce future woes upon individuals whom they happened to dislike. Of these prophecyings one of the first and most considerable was formed at Northampton.* It had the approbation of the bishop ; and was of sufficient local importance to ask, and to secure, the sanction of the mayor of the town, and the co-operation of the county magistrates. The laws of the association were drawn up with care under three heads : the first contained an outline of the discipline which those who joined in the undertaking imposed upon themselves ; the second regulated the method of pro ceeding in their public meetings ; the third was a short confession of their faith. The code of discipline, if reasonable allowance be made for the circumstances of the party and the manners of the age, presents none of those austere * Neal, i. p. 215. THE EARLY PURITANS. 105 features which are generally supposed to have chapter marked the habits of the puritans. It is true " the IV' playing of organs in the choir " is denounced, and EL1Z singing (or choral chanting) is to " be put down ;" and Calvin's catechism is appointed for the exami nation of the young on the Sunday evenings, to be followed up with a catechetical lecture for an hour on the same thesis ; — but beyond these peculiarities there is little in the " rules for discipline " enacted by the Northampton puritans, to which an earnest christian of any scriptural church would refuse his consent; and much which, if carried into effect, would contribute, even now, to the spiritual welfare of our towns and parishes. Sunday was not to be profaned by walking abroad, or sitting idly in the streets, in the time of divine service ; nor by " ex cessive ringing of bells ;" and the carrying of the bell before corpses in the street, and bidding prayers for tho dead, which had been in use within two years, wcro now forbidden. After hearing morning prayer, and singing a psalm in their own parish churches, tho peoplo were to resort to the chief church to hear the sermon, except on those rare occasions when there was a sermon in their own. Once in each quarter of a year there was a general communion in each parish, together with a sermon. And pre vious to these, the minister and wardens undertook to go from house to house to take the names of the communicants and examine into their lives. After the communion, the minister visited every house to learn who had not received the communion, and the reason of his absence. The day ofthe adinmistration of the eucharist was one of more than usual solem- A.D. 1575. 106 THE HISTORY OE chapter nity. It was celebrated twice in each parish church ; IY- first at five in the morning, with a sermon of an eliz. hour, the service concluding at eight: this was par ticularly designed for servants : and again from nine to twelve for masters and dames. The manner of the administration was according to the order ofthe queen's book, saving that the people being in their confession upon their knees, shall rise up from their pews and so pass to the communion table, where they shall receive the sacrament in companies, and then return to their pews, the minister reading in the pulpit. The communion table stood in the middle aisle in the body of the church, according to the directions of the service book, having three mi nisters, 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. Every Tues day and Thursday a lecture was held from nine to ten in the morning ; and on holidays, a sermon was delivered after morning prayer. Their prophecyings were conducted in imitation, they maintained, of the primitive church, and in close compliance with the apostolic rule : " ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all be comforted." (1 Cor. xiv. 31.) The congregation being assembled, the first minister began with prayer, and explained a text of scripture. He was to confute foolish interpretations, and make practi cal reflections : but was especially charged not to run out into commonplace remarks ; he was to conclude with prayer, and within three quarters of an hour. He was followed by another minister, who ELIZ. A.D. 1575. THE EARLY PURITANS. 107 might add what he thought deficient, or explain chapter what had been left obscure ; but he was forbidden lli to repeat what had been said already, or to oppose his predecessor, unless he had spoken contrary to the scriptures. He again was followed by a third, who spoke under the same conditions as the second ; and neither of them was to exceed a quarter ofan hour. A presiding moderator always concluded the exercise, which lasted from nine to eleven o'clock. There was here a close resemblance, it must be owned, with St. Paul's directions to the Corinthian church : "let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge." The whole proceeding was conducted with great solemnity : if any person caused interruption or disorder, the president (say their orders) shall command him, in the name of the eternal God, to be silent ; and after the exercise he shall be reprimanded. When the public meeting had closed, the clergy remained in conference on the subjects which had been discussed. The next preacher was appointed, and his text assigned. These prophecyings were occasional, and do not seem to have interfered with the regular services of the Lord's- day. Nor docs it indeed appear that they were held upon the Sunday. Thoir confession of faith is a remarkable document, comprehensive, clear, and forcible, and is entitled to a place in the pages of their history. It was sub scribed by each member, and was to this effect :* — That tbey believed the word of God, contained in the old and new testament, to be a perfect rule of faith and manners ; that it ought to be read and * Nenl, i. ch. v. -M(i. 108 THE HISTORY OF chapter known by all people ; and that the authority of it Iv- exceeds all authority, not of the pope only but of eliz. the church also ; and of councils, fathers, men and A.D. 1575. angels. — They condemned, as a tyrannous yoke, what soever men have set up of their own invention, to make articles of faith, and the binding men's con sciences by their laws and institutes. In sum, all those manners and fashions of serving God which men have brought in without the authority of the word for the warrant thereof, though recommended by custom, by unwritten traditions, or any other names whatsoever : of which sort are the pope's su premacy, purgatory, transubstantiation, man's me rits, free-will, justification by works, praying in an unknown tongue, and distinction of meats, apparel, and days, and briefly all the ceremonies, and whole order of papistry, which they call the hierarchy; which are a devilish confusion established as it were in despite of God, and to the reproach of religion. — And they content themselves with the simpli city of this pure word of God and doctrine thereof, a summary of which is in the apostles' creed, re solving to try, examine, and judge all other doctrines whatsoever by this pure word, as by a certain rule and perfect touchstone. And to this word of God they submit themselves and all their doings ; will ing and ready to be judged, reformed or further instructed thereby in all points of religion. A slender acquaintance with ecclesiastical history, or with human nature, might suffice to conduct us at once to the conclusion that the prophecyings would certainly be popular and might possibly be ELIZ. A.D. 157 THE EARLY PURITANS. 109 mischievous. But a deeper thought and a larger chapter wisdom is required before we are in a condition to — decide as to the course which ought to have been taken by the rulers of the church with respect to them. The future character of the church of Eng land was the real question at issue. Should the re formed church of England expand itself, and gene rously — or rashly it might be — cast itself on the affections of the people, and adapt itself to the grow ing passion for religious teaching ; a passion which it might hope to lead, and which it was equally wicked and insane to attempt to quench ? This was one alternative. On the other hand, should it risk all hazards, resist every innovation, and subdue by authority rather than conciliate by gentleness and love ? In a word, should the church be made more popular or more imperious ? If the puritans were \ such as their enemies have represented them, the * former course was dangerous ; if they were such as they represent themselves, the latter was tyrannical and cruel. To a party bent on mischief the slightest concession is too great. To zealous allies, sincere1 although irregular, the greatest concessions are sometimes tho truest wisdom, as well as the most ordinary justice. The exercises, or prophecyings, as they were in differently called, spread through the kingdom with great rapidity. Many of the bishops encouraged them. Grindal, now primate, gave them all the sanction of his venerable name and more venerable office. In ten dioceses the bishops undertook to guide, and in due time stepped forward to defend, them. Their effects both on the laity and clergy were ELIZ. A.D. 1575. 110 THE HISTORY OF iapter beneficial. In the former they roused a spirit of IY- enquiry ; in the latter, of biblical research ; in both, of greater knowledge and deeper piety. The exercises were held in general once a month, sometimes once a fortnight. Crowds of the laity attended them, for preaching was rare and the scriptures were in few hands, and the fervent spirit of the reformation had not yet subsided amongst the people. At first lay men were permitted to take a part, but after a while, from some irregularities, this was forbidden and the clergy only ministered. To themselves the advantage was great, for the christian ministry lives and gathers strength in those who exercise it only as it is zea lously put forth in fervent and unceasing action. It is a weapon of the highest polish and keenest edge, but rusts when it is laid aside. Ministers and curates were compelled to study in order to take their part in these public discussions. Commentators were read and expositors consulted. The number of able preachers increased rapidly. " I know," says the archbishop to the queen, in a letter which will come before us, " that where there were not three able preachers, there are now thirty fit to preach at St. Paul's cross ; and forty or fifty besides able to instruct their own cures." And he ascribes the in crease to the introduction of the prophecyings. It was scarcely to be expected that proceedings so novel in the English church should not create opposition. There is always a large class who con tent themselves with the decent formalities of reh gion, and condemn its warmth and fervour as so much enthusiasm; there are the stubborn who admit of no change, and the timid who, with general THE EARLY PURITANS. Ill longings for improvement, condemn every specific chapter attempt at reformation as ill-timed or injudicious. ll: And even the clerical body has never, in any church, ELIZ- been without its slothful members, who shrink from toil, and condemn the zeal of others chiefly because it reflects upon their own incompetence. Nor were the exercises always free from those real inconve niences which are natural to a new attempt when it assumes the character of a popular movement ; for this will ever be the chosen arena of the vainglorious. At some of these meetings, it was said, confusion and disturbances occurred ; some affected to shew their parts, and to confute others who spoke not with equal rhetorical skill. Sometimes heterodox opinions were announced. Ministers who had been silenced for their non-compliance with the established worship introduced themselves, and spoke against the liturgy and hierarchy. Some indulged in politics, some denounced individual persons. Amongst the people religion became a matter of debate and ar gument. Sometimes a layman took upon him to speak, so that the exercises degenerated into fac tions and cabals ; and in consequence a clamour was raised against them, not without some shew of reason. Such are the grave charges alleged by their opponents. Many of these objections, perhaps all of them, were in some measure just. But if so, the question arose whether the good outweighed the evil ; seeing that no institution is without its faults ; and that the magnitude of tho fault is generally in proportion to the greatness of the project. If the puny lichen clings to the bramble, the strangling ivy grapples 112 THE HISTORY OF chapter with the oak. To condemn a new experiment which IY- has promised great results, because the good it does eliz. is not unmixed with evil, — nay because the good is °'° not unmixed with some evils hitherto unknown — the new produce of an untried soil — though one of the most common, is one of the most irrational of human prejudices. The archbishop set himself to redress these irregu larities ; he drew up a body of rules and orders for the reformation of the alleged abuses ; which, if they had been carried into effect, could scarcely have failed to bring the prophecyings into harmony with the church's discipline ; and to have retained the good while guarding against any serious evil. In the first place, the exercises were to be held only in such churches and at such times as the bishop of the diocese should, under his hand and seal, appoint. Then, the archdeacon, or some other grave and learned graduate appointed by the bishop, was to preside and moderate. Further, the bishop was to appoint the subjects to be discussed, and give his licence and permission to the speakers. And, ante omnia, (so runs the document, for this appears to have given most offence,) no lay person was to be suffered to speak in public. If any man speaking in the said exercises should glance openly or covertly against any state or person, public or private, or make any invective against the laws or discipline of the church of England, he was not only to be silenced, but the matter was to be reported to the bishop ; nor could the speaker who had so offended take part in any future prophecying until he had confessed his error, and obtained a new admission and appro- ELIZ. A.D. 157 THE EARLY PURITANS. 113 bation from the bishop. And lastly, the bishops chapter were charged that no deprived or suspended minister should be allowed to speak under any circumstances whatever. But it was to no purpose. The prophecyings were already doomed. " For the queen," says the chroni cler Strype, "liked not of them;" and the judgment of an archbishop, supported by the experience of his ten suffragans, was of little weight against the self- will of an imperious sovereign and the intrigues of her courtiers. The queen resolved that the prophe cyings should be suppressed.* The decision deeply affected the archbishop. Al most the last ofthe reformers, he was, like them, far before his age ; and had that prophetic wisdom with which God endows a few great minds. He saw the whole bearing of the subject ; and marked the consequences, remote but not less disastrous, it would involve — the decay of preaching, the aliena tion of tho laity, the growth of sectaries, and to crown the whole, tho deadening return to formality, and with it the loss of zeal and scriptural piety. His high position entitled him, unasked, to remonstrate. He did not shrink from the hazardous duty. He addressed a letter to the queen, which incurred, it is true, her deep displeasure ; but it has entitled him to tho reverence of all posterity. f The letter, dated December 20, 1576, is prefaced with expressions of deep respect and grateful acknow ledgments of his own personal obligations to her * Queen's Letter to the Bishops for suppressing Prophecyings, &c. Grindnl's Remains, P. S. cd. 1C>7. t (Sandal's Remains, page 37."), for the letter to the queen. I 114 THE HISTORY OF chapter majesty. He then goes on to remind the queen of 1Y- the duties of his office, and that in every age of the eliz. church it had been the privilege of its ministers to speak before kings in the faithful language of exhor tation and reproof; " and so," he says, " to come to the present case, I cannot marvel enough how this strange opinion should once enter your mind that it should be good for the church to have few preachers. Alas ! madam, is the scripture more plain in any one thing, than that the gospel of Christ should be plentifully preached, and that plenty of labourers should be sent into the Lord's harvest, which, being great and large, standeth in need not of few but many workmen ?" This expostulation is sustained with various arguments drawn from scripture, and by an appeal to the queen's own knowledge ofthe good effects of preaching. " If your majesty come to the city of London never so often, what gratulation, what joy, what concourse of people, is there to be seen ! Yea, what acclamations and prayers to God, and other manifest significations of inward and un feigned love, joined with most humble and hearty obedience. Whereof cometh this, madam, but of the continual preaching of God's word in that city, whereby that people hath been plentifully instructed in their duty towards God and your majesty ? On the contrary, what bred the rebellion in the north?" alluding to a recent outbreak in Yorkshire, " was it not papistry, and ignorance of God's word through want of often preaching ? And in the time of that rebellion, were not all men, of all estates, that made profession of the gospel, most ready to offer their lives for your defence ? insomuch that one poor parish A.D. 15715. THE EARLY PURITANS. 115 in Yorkshire, which by continual preaching had chapter been better instructed than the rest (Halifax I mean) IV- was ready to bring three or four thousand able men E™T- into the field to serve you against the said rebels. How can your majesty have a more lively trial and experience of the contrary effects of much preaching and of little or no preaching ? The one working most faithful obedience, and the other most unnatural disobedience and rebellion." He then defends his own conduct and that of his bishops in allowing none to preach but men of piety, learning, and good judgment. " We admit no man to the office that either professeth papistry or puritanism ;" meaning by the latter term, no doubt, the extreme principles of Cartwright and his party. Some wholesome truths follow, which the queen found it hard to digest. .Ho tells her, though always in language ofthe greatest respect, why preaching was so much decried. Because the ago was light and trifling : many had given themselves over, he says, to carnal, vain, dissolute, and lascivious living ; and therefore the preaching of God's word, which to all christian con sciences is sweet and delectable, is to them bitter and grievous. Some, he tells her majesty, there are, who dislike the reformation altogether ; and, by silencing the preachers, would subvert the reforma tion, not in open warfare, but by sapping underneath, non cr/u marte, .sed cui/icufis. So, said he, the popish bishops in your father's time would have had tho English translation of the bible called in as evil translated, and the new translation committed to themselves, whieh they never intended to perform; but God forbid, madam, that you should open your i 2 116 THE HISTORY OF chapter ears to any of these wicked persuasions, or go about 11: to diminish the preaching of Christ's gospel. eliz. « rp^ reading' of homilies," continues the arch- A.D. 1576. ° ' bishop, " hath its use ; but is nothing comparable to the office of preaching. The godly preacher is termed in the gospel that faithful and wise servant who can give to each his portion in due season. He can apply his speech according to the diversity of times, places, and hearers, which cannot be done in homilies. Exhortations, reprehensions, and per suasions are uttered with more affection in sermons than in homilies, and move the hearers more ; be sides homilies were never thought in themselves alone to contain sufficient instruction for the church of England. They were devised by the godly bishops in your brother's time only to supply necessity, and for want of preachers ; they are to give place to ser mons by the statute whenever they may be had." And he reminds the queen that if sacrilege had not been committed the book of homilies had not been wanted. This was a hard blow, but honesty and truth required it. Sacrilege spoiled the livings— the parochial revenues, which had been set apart in purer ages, and before the dawn of popery, for preaching and teaching. First the abbeys, and then the crown seized upon these appropriations; and now, he says, they are dispersed to private men's possession without hope of restitution. "At this day," he proceeds, " for one church able to support a learned preacher, there are at least seven churches unable to do so. If every flock might have a preaching pastor, which is rather to be wished than hoped for, then were reading of homilies altogether un- ELIZ. A. D. 1576. THE EARLY PURITANS. 117 necessary ; but to supply the want of preaching of chapter God's word, which is the food of the soul, growing Iv- from the necessities aforesaid, both in your brother's time and in your time, certain godly homilies have been devised that the people should not be altogether destitute of instruction : for it is an old and a true proverb, better half a loaf than no bread." He then argues at length in behalf of the prophecyings : having fully explained the method in which they were conducted and the pains he had taken to pre vent their abuse, he defends them by the precedents of Samuel at Naioth and Elijah at Jericho in the old testament, and the authority of St. Paul in the new. " That exercise of the church in those days St. Paul calls prophetiam, and the speakers prophetas, terms very odious to some in our day, because they are not rightly understood. For indeed prophet-he, in that and like places of St. Paul, doth not, as it doth sometimes, signify prediction of things to come, whioh gift is not now ordinary in the church of God ; but signifioth there, by consent of the best ancient writers, the interpretation and exposition of the scriptures." He concludes in a manner solemn and touching. " I am forced with all humility, and yet plainly, to profess, that 1 cannot with safe conscience, and with out tho offence of the majesty of God, give my assent to tho suppressing of the said exercises : much less can I send out any injunction for the utter and uni versal subversion of the same. I say with St. Paul, ' I have no power to destroy, but only to edify;' and with the same apostle, ' I can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.' If it be your majesty's ELIZ. A. D. 1570. 118 THE HISTORY OF chapter pleasure, for this or any other cause, to remove me Hi out of this place (viz. his archbishopric), I will with all humility yield thereto, and render again to your majesty what I received from the same. I consider with myself ' that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' I consider also (quoting from Cyprian) ' that he who acts against his con science, is building for hell.' And what should I win if I gained, I will not say a bishopric, but the whole world, and lose mine own soul ?" Finally he implored the queen, in matters eccle siastical, of doctrine and discipline, to consult the bishops and divines of her realm. " For these things," said he, (sheltering himself again under the authority of an ancient father,) " are to be determined not in a palace, but in a church or a synod, in ec clesia, sen- synodo, non in palatio." Her majesty did not disdain to consult the judges on points of law ; he implored her, in matters of religion, to pay the same deference to her bishops. Here again the fathers served him well. " Ambrose had given the like advice to Theodosius," and to the "good empe ror Valentinian," and he quotes his words. He makes this further request, — dealing very plainly with her greatest weakness, — that the queen would be pleased in spiritual things not to pronounce so resolutely and peremptorily, but always to remember that, in the cause of God, the binding decision after all must be the will of God, and not of any earthly prince whatever. " In God's matters all princes ought to bow their sceptres to the Son of God." He bids her to remember that, in her pomp and bravery, she was after all but dust and ashes, — " a ELIZ. A.D. 1576. THE EARLY PURITANS. 119 mortal creature who must soon appear before the chapter awful judgment-seat of the crucified." " Take 1V' heed," — he concludes, with keen and searching penetration, and in a tone which, if it did not hum ble the queen before her God, would, he must fore see, be visited in anger on himself, and make him feel how bitter is the revenge which pride, wounded but not subdued, inflicts, — " take heed that you never once think of declining from God, lest that be verified of you that is written of Joash, who con tinued a prince of good and godly government for many years together ; and afterwards, ' when he was strengthened, his heart was lifted up to his destruc tion, and he neglected the Lord.' You have done many things well, but except ye endure to the end you cannot be blessed. If you turn away from God, then ho will turn away his merciful countenance from you. And what remaineth to be looked for but only a terrible expectation of God's judgments, and heaping up wrath against the day of wrath !" This solemn remonstrance was presented to Eli zabeth by the earl of Leicester, who, together with the lord treasurer Burghley, was much in favour of tho archbishop's views and principles. An ominous silence followed. Eight days afterwards, the arch bishop wrote to lord Burghley to ask the reasons of it, and to give utterance to his anxiety. The reasons were not explained ; but his uncertainty was speedily removed. In short, Grindal was suspended from his office ; his archiepiscopal see was placed under se questration for six months ; and the venerable pre late was confined a prisoner to his own house. This occurred in June 1577. In November he was sum- 120 THE HISTORY OF chapter moned to appear in person before the lords in the Iv- \J star chamber ; and to make his humble submission ELIZ- to the queen. The first command he was unable to A.D. 1576. ,.,-,• i-i -ii • j- comply with, being laid up with an excruciating internal disease; the second he declined, because he had done nothing wrong. His friend lord Burgh ley drew up and submitted to him a message, urging him to make his submission, and suggesting the proper form, but Grindal refused to make use of it; and the utmost that could be extorted from him were general expressions of dutiful respect, coupled with much sorrow that he lay beneath her majesty's displeasure.* The queen would now have deprived him altogether, but the unpopularity of such a measure, and probably that alone, prevented its adoption. A convocation was held at St. Paul's in January 1581, when the clergy at first refused to enter upon any business, or so much as grant a sub sidy (a power which then pertained to them), until the archbishop was released. It was at last agreed that doctor Matthew, dean of Christ church, after wards archbishop of York, should draw up in Latin a petition to her majesty, imploring her to restore the archbishop to the full exercise of his authority. The bishops of the province of Canterbury addressed a letter to her to the same effect. But he never re gained the favour of Elizabeth ; and it is uncertain whether he was restored to the full exercise of his rights and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He was now old and blind, and feeling how little he was permitted to do for the cause he had at heart, he was unwilling to retain the name without the office of a bishop. * Strype's Grindal, p. 348, &c. ELIZ. A.D. 1583. THE EARLY PURITANS. 121 He tendered his resignation, which it is probable chapter Elizabeth would have gladly received had not a '. mightier potentate stepped in and removed him from a world of strife. Grindal died July 6, 1583.* Tho name of Grindal was revered by his contem poraries, — those to whom zeal and apostolic piety were dear. At his death, Spenser embalmed his memory in some of his sweetest verses, and not only the clergy but the great body of the people deeply bewailed his loss. Posterity has done him great injustice. Our popular historians have passed him over with neglect, or spoken only to condemn. He is described as a weak man, whose want of energy laid open the church to the inroads of schis matics ; and these later times, occupied with he roes and idols of their own, have been contented to receive, and to repeat, the ignorant slander. Who ever shall search the annals of the church of Eng land, happily not wanting in such materials, for a list of those bishops who have revived the apostolic character, and displayed in their lives the pastoral graces which St. Paul delineates, will not omit the name of Grindal. That his firmness and courage should be called in question must appear strange to those who bear in mind his contest with the court. Of his wisdom let the reverence of his own age bear witness, and the calamities which his neg lected counsels brought upon another. Of his free dom from violence and the warping influence of faction, the evidence is this,- — that while the cour tiers of Elizabeth reviled him as a puritan, the fol- * 1'uller, Ch. Hist., book is. ch. 10. 122 THE HISTORY OF chapter lowers of Cartwright reviled him as a persecutor. IV' To his piety, his letters, his sermons, above all his eliz. ]i£e kear witness. His love of truth, as in all good A D. 1583. men of high example, was greater than his love of victory. The Zurich letters in a single incident explain his character ; in confidential intercourse with Foxe, he points out a passage in the martyro- logy in which a slight injustice had been done to the arguments of the Bomish party, and desires to have it removed. For many years he was in pos session of a large episcopal revenue. He lived unmarried, but he died poor : for his charities were boundless. But it is enough to say of him, that he was the worthy successor of Cranmer, and that he sustained the part of John the Baptist in the court of queen Elizabeth. He has, it is true, been called the Eli of the English church, but the likeness exists only in his old age, his blindness, and his misfortunes. i It is evident from the archbishop's letter to the queen, that he considered the character of the church of England, as a preaching church, in dan ger. It was not for the prophecyings only that he pertinaciously contended, but for the right of christian bishops to send forth a free, unfettered, ministry, " to teach and to preach" in obedience to our Lord's command. The queen and her courtiers, on the other hand, depreciated the ministry of the word, partly from ignorance of its value, partly from apprehensions of political disquietude, occa sioned by the rashness of a few indiscreet preachers who were ever dabbling in affairs of state, but most of all from that dislike of earnest and spiritual reli- THE EARLY PURITANS. 123 gion which began deeply to mark her court. She chapter gained a disastrous triumph. Preaching was dis- IY- countenanced : it fell into decay. The puritans ELIZ- assiduously cultivated an art which their enemies despised. They seized the rusty weapon, and with it smote their opponents. Both parties suffered ; for the extreme of coldness in the one, produced an artificial fervour in the other, and the sermon undervalued in the cathedral was doated upon in the meeting-house. But inasmuch as the error arising from excess was less injurious than that arising from the contempt of a divine ordinance, the church party suffered most. The dictum of queen Elizabeth, that one or two preachers were sufficient for a county, obtained a mischievous cur rency, and received an almost literal interpretation. Her successor on the throne repeated it in sub stance, and discouraged preaching to the utmost of his powor. We became an unpreaching church. Eloquence, powerful at the senate and the bar, was banished from the pulpit. Then followed the drowsy audience and the deserted pew, and at longth the profound spiritual lethargy of the eigh teenth century. There were great divines, and there were writers of sermons of high and deserved repute ; but preaching as an art, — as the noblest and most legitimate exercise of eloquence, — had departed from amongst us ; and an alienation of the hearts of the common people took place from wbich wc have never yet recovered. With her usual vcrsatilitv Rome began once more to culti- vate what she had formerly denounced. An Eng lishman still reads with a blush, and a foreigner A.D. 1583. 12-1 THE HISTORY OF chapter with exultation, if not with incredulity, the irony IV- with which the accomplished abbe Maury contrasts ELIZ- the great preachers of Lewis xiv. with those of Charles n. But the pulpit had not even then attained its lowest depression. Towards the middle of the last century the dulness of sermons had become a vulgar proverb ; and a polite essayist,* himself a clergyman, describes a good preacher as a kind of antiquated luxury once in great request ; while a popular teacher t of rhetoric complains that a minister of the church of England would not raise his eye or lift his hand to set off the finest compo sition in the world. The dread of enthusiasm was the paralysis of the pulpit. So low had fallen that ordinance of Christ, which had once overthrown the vast empire of idolatry, and long afterwards shaken the papacy in its strongest holds ; which had left deeper traces of its power upon the institutions of nations and the characters of men than all other influences combined. The decay of religion at tended the decay of preaching with equal and melancholy steps ; and the period in which the pulpit was most despised was precisely that in which God was most forgotten. But from any participation in the guilt of this long series of calamities the sacred memory of Grindal at least is free. * Dr. Vicesimus Knox, Essays. (¦ Dr. Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric. THE EARLY PURITANS. 125 eliz. A. D. 158.1. CHAPTER V. a.d. 1583. On the death of archbishop Grindal, Whitgift chapter succeeded to the primacy in September 1583.* He was a man of great learning and of undoubted zeal. But his government was harsh, and his spirit intolerant ; and his principles led him to enforce an uniformity the most exact by measures the most severe. Amiable, it is said, in private life, he used a power that was almost absolute with a severity that was nothing short of despotism ; and the twenty years during which he ruled at Lambeth were years of sorrow to the puritans. Tho queen was always ready to urge her prelates to new acts of severity against those who resisted her authority ; and she found in Whitgift a mind, neither obsequious indeed, nor disposed to flattery, but naturally, as well as from education, prone to demand submission as a duty, and to obtain it by force rather than by forbearance. Thus the primate was a willing agent to the queen, for their views were similar, and their object was the same, — namely by the exercise of punishment to * Paul's Life of Whitgift. p. 37. ELIZ. A. D. 1583. 126 THE HISTORY OF chapter produce conformity ; and thus too the power of Y' the crown, as far as it regarded ecclesiastical affairs, was soon vested almost entirely in the archbishop. Ehzabeth' s secular advisers had some reason to complain ; and in fact we find that Burghley and Walsingham were often driven to remonstrate. They would have checked the archbishop in his severities; but in ecclesiastical matters his power was greater than their own, since he merely carried into effect those principles which the queen espoused not less warmly than himself. The question of the sovereign's right to interfere in matters of religion had not yet been decided in England ; or, perhaps it would be more correct to say, it had not yet been called in question. The great problem, in which the rights of conscience and the rights of law were to adjust their respective boundaries, was not to be solved until another century and two revolutions should have thrown some further light upon it. A nation, like a family, is governed in its infancy by a power which, with reference to itself, is necessarily arbitrary. The patriarchal form of government is not merely the most ancient, but in certain stages of society the best. In fact it is in some cases the only one that is practicable. In process of time a nation, like a family, approaches its maturity, and demands a greater freedom. And this is the crisis of a nation's fate, just as it is of household happiness. If the parent is unyielding, and the children undutiful, misery ensues ; and the house divided against itself is laid prostrate. In an empire, when wealth has increased and civilization spread, there is the same THE EARLY PURITANS. 127 consciousness of power, — the power of self-govern- chapter ment, — and with it the same impatience of restraint. : — The crisis has arrived which requires the utmost EI,IZ' skill and wisdom in those who govern, and no less the forbearance of those who obey. The maxims which were once useful are now found inapplicable on both sides. The restraints which were once necessary have become intolerable. The man can not repose in the cradle of his infancy ; and the monarch accustomed to implicit submission cannot brook the rising spirit of independent familiarity with state affairs ; a spirit, however, which marks the approaching manhood of his people. Nothing can be more unjust than to bring the several actors in the scenes we are describing to the tribunal of what are now termed constitutional principles. Of those principles they were profoundly ignorant. They arose out of the collisions which afterwards ensued, or of which these, in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, were amongst the very first. To scud a puritan to prison on account of his religion, wc should now consider a flagrant act of tyranny, simply as an invasion of the rights of conscience ; and wo should condemn it upon this ground alone. But no puritan thought so in the times of queen Elizabeth. The right of magistrates was unques tioned to punish false doctrine as we punish theft, and if necessary to put heretics to death as wc con vict for felony. No language can be stronger than that which Cartwright himself makes use of. " Ma gistrates," he says, in his reply* to Whitgift's defence ofthe church of England, "ought to en- 1 Heplv.&c. p. 51. ELIZ. A.D. 1.583. 128 THE HISTORY OF chapter force the attendance of atheists and papists on the v- services of the church ; to punish them if they do not profit by the preaching they might hear; to increase the punishment if they gave signs of con tempt ; and if at last they proved utterly impe nitent, to cut them off that they might not corrupt and infect others." Whitgift acted upon the same principle. The fault laid to his charge by his own party was that he pushed it too far and had recourse to it too often ; by the puritans, that he was unjust and a tyrant, not in carrying out the principle, hut simply in applying it to them. The censure which justly belongs to him is that, occupying a station so exalted, he was only upon a level with his age ; that he exhibited an ordinary mind resorting in times of difficulty to ordinary expedients ; that he learned nothing from the wise moderation of men like Cecil and Walsingham and Leicester and Lord Bacon, nothing from the meek example of his pre decessor ; that he was narrow-minded, severe, and obstinate. These, it is true, are heavy charges against a name otherwise venerable and worthy of respect ; but one of the true uses of history is to display the infirmities even of good men, and to shew how pernicious they may be. For it is with men as with principles and with institutions — the corruption of the best things produces the worst consequences. In Ehzabeth the nation placed implicit and un bounded confidence. She was then what in history she still remains, the most popular of English sove reigns. With all her faults, she was the anxious and devoted parent, as well as the lordly mistress, V. ELIZ. A. D. 1583. THE EARLY PURITANS. 129 of the commonwealth. Few of either sex ever pos- chapter sessed in an equal, none perhaps in a higher, degree, that attribute of greatness which not only governs the multitude without an effort, but reduces other minds, in some respects greater than itself, to prompt obedience ; making it a post of honour to be submissive. The consequence was, that her will was law ; her government was patriarchal ; the people revered and loved her as a mother ; and she for her own part expressed the honest feelings of her soul, Avhen, being importuned to marry, she replied that she was already married to the state, and her subjects were her children. In her hands the law itself was tractable. She alone personified the state and represented it. She employed martial law when it pleased her, and sometimes on very trivial occasions, — as, for instance, when the streets of London were overrun with vagabonds. She ut tered a commission, commanding that upon inti mation given by the justices of peace in London, or the neighbouring counties, her provost marshal should take the offending persons, "and according to justice of martial law execute them upon the gallows or gibbet openly." " I suppose," says the historian Hume, in relating this, " it will be difficult to produce another instance of such an act of autho rity in any place nearer than Muscovy." The im portation of the pope's bulls was forbidden under the same penalty of martial law; and more justly, for Pius v. in 1509 by his bull had fulminated an excommunication upon the queen, and released her subjects from their allegiance. But all foreign books and pamphlets were forbidden likewise, and K 130 THE HISTORY OF chapter martial law was still the penalty. Yet it does not Y' appear that the harshness of these proceedings gave eliz. ^e ieas£ (3issatisfaction ; for which it would be diffi- A. 1 1. 1583. cult to assign any other reason than that which is no doubt the true one, — the unlimited confidence reposed by the nation in the judgment and the patriotic intentions of their sovereign. Knox and the presbytery of the northern king dom were always distasteful to the queen, and the proximity of such neighbours added much to her anxiety and probably still more to her impatience. Knox had written a treatise on what he termed the " monstrous regiment of women," in which he maintained a woman's incapacity to govern, and pronounced the nation disgraced that submitted to female domination. His work has been described* as a mere libel, scurrilous and empty ; but in fact it wore a far more formidable character. It argues the question upon the various grounds of scripture, reason, history, and experience. Upon the last head Knox may claim indulgence. The protestant mi nister who wrote against queenly government in Scotland when Mary dishonoured herself, her king dom and her crown, by her shameless wantonness, while at the same time her namesake upon the English throne deluged the land with the blood of martyrs, had some excuse. A nature less stern and resolute than his might have been stirred to ques tion the authority of such mistresses, even if he could not venture to resist their power. The illus trious reigns of our English queens have since led us to regard the argument of Knox with a disdainful * Heylyn, Hist. Ref. book ii. p. 178. ELIZ. A. H. 15S3. THE EARLY PURITANS. 131 smile. We place it amongst the many conceits of chapter a barbarous age. But to Elizabeth it was a vital question. The preachers of the church of Scotland denounced her as an atheist;* the church of Borne dethroned her as a heretic. Insulted and opposed on both sides, she was unhappily driven to extremes. She began to regard the high prelatic party as the only safeguard of her throne, and to visit both puri tans and papists with undiscriminating vengeance. Such considerations are to be borne in mind, when we read of Elizabeth's severity to her puritan sub jects. They were not especial objects of persecution, but simply, in her view, delinquents who set at nought her authority and deserved therefore to be punished. This, alas, did not mitigate the depth of their sorrows, nor ought it to abate our pity and respect. In one point of view it even adds to our sympathy ; for it must have added to their trials to know that they were suffering, not from a vindictive persecution, but from what their own countrymen regarded as the operation of an ordinary law. Before Grindal's death, a terrible earnest had been given in the burning of two Dutch anabaptists at Smithfield. The venerable Foxe was still living, and wrote to the queen imploring that the refor mation might not bo stained with blood : but his entreaties failed, f Several Romish priests were executed soon afterwards, not for popery so much as for their allegiance to a sovereign who had de throned Elizabeth, and offered her kingdom as a lawful prey to catholic princes. A circumstance which occurred in 1573 had given the queen (whose * Sec Spottiswood, Hist, of Ch. of Scotland. t Fuller, iii. b. ix. p. SO/. K 2 132 THE HISTORY OF chapter great infirmity it was to be suspicious) a handle for v severity against the whole body of the puritans. eliz. j3ircriett, a wild enthusiast if not a lunatic, per- A. D.1583. ' x suaded himself that it was lawful to kill those who opposed the truth of the gospel : he rushed into the Strand out of the Temple, where he was a student, and stabbed a person whom he mistook for Hatton afterwards lord keeper ofthe seals, because "he was an enemy of God's word, and a maintainer of papis try." There was some discussion on the question how he ought to be dealt with. Should he be burnt for heresy ; hung as a felon ; or put to death by martial law ? The last alternative was chosen. But the poor wretch was now at least undoubtedly in sane : he killed his keeper with one blow, again intending, he said, to have dispatched Hatton ; and the next day, after his right hand had been struck off, he was hanged in the Strand.* The law in these barbarous times made little or no allowance for mental aberration : it regarded the act while it over looked the motive. It was cruel to put the law in force against the person of a madman, but it was a far greater cruelty to charge a participation in his madness upon the puritans, and to treat them as the instigators of his crime or his insanity. A pro clamation was issued, in which the bishops and magistrates were severely blamed for their conni vance at various schisms which had arisen from the want of uniformity. Should any person dare for the future to contemn the rubric, he was to be at once imprisoned, or the magistrates, and indeed the whole parish, must answer in default for their con- * Neal, i. p. 241. A.D. 10S3. THE EARLY PURITANS. 133 tempt and negligence. Archbishops and bishops, chapter deans and archdeacons, were threatened with her v majesty's high displeasure, and with the still more ELIZ- grievous punishment of deprivation from their dig nities and benefices, if negligent to enforce the orders and rites in the said book prescribed.* Seve ral ministers were soon afterwards deprived. One, who had been chaplain to lord Bacon, and was now the incumbent of St. Clement's in the Strand, was tried at Westminster for his nonconformity. It was proved he had baptized a child without using the sign of the cross, and that in the marriage- service he had omitted the ring. Refusing to sub scribe, he was committed to close confinement, whore he shortly died in poverty and great dis tress. A plot was got up, as it afterwards ap peared by one of the servants of the archbishop, in which it was pretended that the puritans, en couraged by the earl of Leicester, intended to assas sinate both the lord-treasurer and the archbishop. Tho privy council fell into the snare, t and the supposed conspirators were apprehended, amongst whom were three eminent puritan divines. But the evidence was contemptible. They were at once released, and the circumstance would not have deserved our notice, except that it tends to shew the extraordinary panic wlrich prevailed with re gard to the motives and secret practices of the puritan party. Other ministers were silenced; some for trivial causes, others for preaching against the * "A pniihiiniitioii apiinst the despisers or breakers of the orders pre scribed in the book of common prayer." 1 Stnpc'a Parker, p K>l>. 13-1 THE HISTORY OF chapter hierarchy : some because they did not wear the : — surplice ; and others because they endeavoured to a.d 1583 enforce a stricter discipline in the admission of communicants to the Lord's table. That many of them were men scrupulous, and even absurd, in their tenacity for trifles, is certain. One was con fined in the gate-house prison, for asserting that " keeping the queen's birthday as a holiday was to make her an idol ;" and many of their objections were just as frivolous. It would be painful to recount the numerous cases of hardship and oppression — faithfully regis tered and transmitted to posterity by the sufferers and their friends — which now followed. The storm which muttered around the venerable head of Grindal was not likely to spare inferior subjects. But his death introduced a system of intolerance under which puritanism, for a period of twenty years, suffered a persecution which, though neither to be compared with those of pagan nor of papal Rome, was a disgrace to the reign of Elizabeth, and infamous to the memory of those who shared in it. It consigned to poverty, confiscation, im prisonment, and sometimes death, those who, with a piety the most fervent and a loyalty unimpeached, were guilty, as their greatest crime, of a conscience too scrupulous, or a stubborn self-will, bristling (often with very harmless menaces) when treated with contempt and cruelty. Whitgift was scarcely seated in the primacy when the queen issued her commands that he should re store the discipline of the church ;* which she said * Fuller, iii. ix. p. 69; Neal, i. p. 312. V. ELIZ. A. D. 15S). THE EARLY PURITANS. 135 was much decayed through the connivance of some chapter prelates, the obstinacy of the puritans, and the power of some noblemen. The archbishop issued forthwith his instructions to the bishops of his pro vince, generally known as the three articles. The first enjoins upon the clergy an acknowledgment of the queen's supremacy in all causes ecclesiastical as well as civil ; the second demands conformity to the book of common prayer ; and the third an assent to the thirty-nine articles. But besides these condi tions it was enjoined that all preaching, catechizing, and praying, in any private family where strangers were present, should be " utterly extinguished," and that no minister should preach or teach except ho conformed to the whole service and administered tho sacrament four times a year ; and that the habits should be worn. Many of the puritans had hitherto satisfied themselves with a partial or occasional con formity, and the bishops had connived at their irre gularity. This indulgence then was now withdrawn : and the effect was seen in the immediate suspen sion or voluntary retirement of some hundreds of the puritan clergy.* Remonstrances and petitions poured in from themselves and their parishioners. Tho council, the lord treasurer Cecil, the archbishop, and tho queen, were by turns importuned. But no redress was granted. f On the contrary, the storm increased in its severity. The sufferings of the non conforming clergy were very great. From several counties, from tho cities of London and Norwich, ? Neal reckons up -.<•'! in sis counties, from mss. in his possession. besides great number* in Peterborough, Loudon, und other counties." p. -'15. t Ibid. 136 THE HISTORY OF chapter the voice of suspended ministers was heard. Their 1: griefs at least were real, whatever judgment we ELIZ- may form as to their scruples in conforming. In touching language they commend " their poor families," "their distressed consciences," and "the cries of their people who were as sheep having no shepherd," to the compassion of the privy council. And they offer terms of conciliation ; namely, to subscribe the doctrinal articles ofthe church, and the other articles, " so far as they are not repug nant to the word of God." And they promise further, if their subscription be dispensed with, to make no disturbance in the church or separation from it. It was not likely, even if it had been pos sible, that the ruling party would consent to these conditions. Either the bishops or the puritans must give way. The church must be remodelled or the dissatisfied must submit ; and many of their de mands have, to the great majority of their fellow countrymen, both then and ever since, appeared unreasonable. To eject such men in the last resort may have been inevitable : but the severity would have been more wholesome if preceded by some acts of kindness, some earnest and sincere endeavours to promote an accommodation. The persecutions they suffered were such as no obstinacy upon their part can justify, and which errors such as theirs did not deserve. A petition from the magistrates of Suffolk de serves attention. It is a remarkable document, and painfully instructive.* " The laborious ministers of the word," they say, "are marshalled with the * Strype's Annals, iii. i. p. 264. ELIZ. A.D. 1583. THE EARLY PURITANS. 137 worst malefactors, presented, indicted, arraigned, chapter and condemned, for matters, as we presume, of v' very slender moment : some for leaving the holi days unbidden ; some for singing the psalm, Nunc dknittis, (instead of chanting it) ; some for leaving out the cross in baptism, &c. Having recited the grievances of their own party, they proceed thus : — " by law we proceed against all offenders ; we touch none that the law spareth, and spare none that the law toucheth ; we allow not of papists ; of the family of love ; of anabaptists or brownists. No: we punish all these." "And yet," they add, "weare christened with the odious name of puri tans." The magistrates of Suffolk didmot perceive that, in their eagerness to defend themselves, they justified the persecution of which they complained by their own example. " The family of love, ana baptists, brownists, and papists — we punish all these." It would be difficult to say in what re spects some of these seceders were more deserving of punishment than the most harmless ofthe church puritans themselves. When wc read such docu ments we are struck with the inconsistency and cruelty of each party in its turn. Our sympathies rest with neither ; and Ave are almost disposed to look upon their mutual strife and alternate suffer ings, as the spectator looks upon the changing for tunes of a painted battle in a panorama — with curiosity but without emotion. Tbe family of love, the brownists, and the ana baptists were the first seceders from the church of England at home. About this time they begin to occupy a considerable space in history. Their suf- ELIZ. A. D. 15S) 13S THE HISTORY OF chapter ferings, borne with fortitude, and rather coveted Y- than shunned, would alone have made them fa mous : for upon them the brunt of the puritan per secution fell. The family of love is represented by all parties alike in unfavourable, often in revolting, colours. But the portrait is drawn by their enemies, and with every disposition to exaggerate its faults. We find it exceedingly difficult to account for the real or pre tended indignation which their presence everywhere occasioned ; except indeed upon the principle that, inasmuch as they were the smallest and weakest of the sectaries, it was a more easy triumph to chase them from the flock : for such is human depravity, that a reputation for courage is sometimes sought by injuring and insulting those who are least able to resist. To the charge of creating a very unneces sary schism they seem fairly exposed. Beyond this their guilt is very questionable. Their views indeed of christian doctrine are stated with the obscurity in which enthusiasts love to involve themselves ; and it is by no means an easy task to ascertain their real meaning. They were the fathers of that mystic system which Jacob Behmen completed in the fol lowing century, and in which Madame Guyon and others have indulged; a system which, to a devout but uninstructed mind, seems to promise much, but is found worthless upon trial. At first it charms by its apparent profundity. It bewildered for a time the acute understanding of John Wesley ; a circum stance which alone would be sufficient to save it from contempt. Soaring amidst the highest mysteries it becomes dazzled and confounded : the intellect is V. ELIZ. A J) 13S3. THE EARLY PURITANS. 139 confused ; and the reveries of a distempered imagina- chapter tion pass at length for the suggestions of the Holy Ghost. The title assumed — the family of love — af forded a ready topic of abuse. The quaint yet often generous Fuller cannot forbear a passing scoff.* Their founder was Henry Nicholas of Amsterdam ; and again his name suggests a comparison with the Nicolaitanes of old, (Bev. ii.) who " were hated by God," he says, " for their filthiness." But this grave insinuation is utterly without support. It has often been revived, (and in general by ignorant persons of careless, if not licentious, minds,) when ever a christian communion has insisted upon the doctrine of that divine love which God by his Spirit diffuses in the soul, and of that mutual and warm affection which believers owe to one another. " These familists," he adds, " besides many monstrosities they maintained about their communion with God, attenuated all scriptures into allegories ; and under pretence to turn them into spirit, made them empty, airy, nothing." The latter part ofthe charge does not seem to bo ill founded. Their lives were pure, and yet their creed was mystical and their doctrine antinomian, — a strange inconsistency, yet happily of not unfrcquent occurrence : for the conscience may be clear while the understanding is perplexed. Nicholas, their leader, defended their morals and their doctrines from tho press : and as regards the former with success. The familists did not escape the watchful vigilance ofthe privy council. They were summoned before it, and commanded to abjure their "detestable C h. Hist. iii. i.\. A. D. 1583. 110 THE HISTORY OF chapter heresies :" the result ofthe interview is unknown. Y- In the year 1580, a proclamation was issued by the ELIZ- queen against them. It would be difficult to find within so small a compass, in any state paper, so much abuse. They are charged with teaching damn able heresies ; they are said to be crafty and hypo critical ; they allure their followers to esteem them to be more holy and perfect than other men are ; their doctrines are absurd and fanatical; they feign to themselves a monstrous new kind of speech nei ther to be found in scripture nor in antient fathers of the church, by which they move the ignorant and simple people rather to marvel at than understand them ; their books are lewd, heretical, and seditious ; and their sects are dangerous and damnable ; yet to colour their sect withal they name themselves the family of love. Search is to be made for their books ; and those who shall continue to print or distribute them are threatened with imprisonment, and such other bodily punishment as heretics deserve. But the single specific charge is that they hold themselves alone to be elect and saved, and condemn all other churches ; and that they refuse to take an oath be fore the magistrate to their own hurt : " so that by their own confession they cannot be condemned : whereby they are more dangerous in any christian realm." Her majesty is therefore resolved not only to have these heretics severely punished, but "to root them out from further infecting of her realm."* They afterwards suffered from time to time under * " A proclamation against the sectaries of the family of love. Given at our mannour of Richmond in the two and twentieth year of our reign," republished in " Liturgical Tracts." Lumley, London, 1848. THE EARLY PURITANS. 141 the general pretext of holding private conventicles, chapter until they melted away, and were at length absorbed Y- in the larger communities of the nonconformists. eliz. The brownists took their name from Robert Brown, a clergyman of good family, nearly con nected with lord Burghley. He was brought up at Cambridge, where his preaching was much admired by the common people ; but his unchastened zeal led his superiors thus early in his life to presage his future mischievous career. After travelling abroad he returned homo the inveterate opponent of the church of England, and preached for a time at Norwich amongst the German refugees who formed a large proportion of its inhabitants. Endeavouring to proselyte his own countrymen he was imprisoned by tho bishop. At the instance of Burghley he was at length released, and the lord treasurer's kind offices were used to restore his young kinsman to tho affections of a too angry father ; who had re solved to disown his son unless the son renounced his schismatic principles. Brown, who appears to have been chiefly remarkable for carrying through life tho heat and rashness of untamed childhood, could soon boast that ho had been the tenant of two-and-thirty prisons, in some of which he could not see his band at noon-day. Fuller, who had often seen him, describes him as of an imperious nature, ready to take offence on trivial occasions if his opinion was not received as an oracle. Nor was his conduct, remarkable for sanctity. Probably through lord Burghley's influence, he retained his proferment (the parish of Aehurch, in Northamp tonshire,) through life; but his reputation seems to ELIZ. A. D. 1.5S3. 112 THE HISTORY OF chapter have been low. He had in short, says Fuller, a Y- wife with whom for many years he never lived, and a church wherein he never preached. He survived to an extreme old age ; and died without honour in the jail of Northampton, to which he had been com mitted for striking the constable of his parish in a fit of passion, in the year 1630.* Yet this man was a founder of a sect from which the church of England received, for thirty years, the most determined opposition. His followers shared all his enthusiasm without any of his fickle ness. While he professed the utmost abhorrence of episcopacy he retained a valuable preferment in the church he denounced ; and probably became indifferent at length to the cause he had so eagerly espoused. But the brownists, passing by their leader, were the foremost of those who rushed upon danger and courted persecution. They taught that it was sinful in the highest degree to remain in communion with the church ; that it was in truth no part of the true church of Christ, but the church of antichrist and very synagogue of Satan ; that it should be opposed, denounced, and utterly subverted. It was an age in which strong language was seldom far removed from violence. The moderation was almost unknown that teaches disputants to confide the last issue, not to the force of arms but to the strength of arguments. The daring challenge which the brownists offered, was looked upon by the other party as tantamount to an act of sedition if not of treason. Even Cartwright felt compelled, now in the decline of life, to resume his pen ; and while * Fuller, iii. ix. p. 66. THE EARLY PURITANS. 113 Fuller taxed his learning to prove that the brown- chapter ists were but the donatists revived, Cartwright de- v- nounced their presumption in maintaining that the ELTZ church of England was not a living member of the true catholic church of Christ. A singular, and yet in some respects an honourable task ; to combat in old age the excesses of those opinions which it had been the business of his life to propagate ! The assemblies of the church of England, he argued, had Christ for their head and their foundation, though defective, he still thought, in many points of discipline. Still they were true members of the church catholic, and all the foreign churches gave them the right hand of fellowship. It was an awful step he said to excommunicate a single person ; more awful still to excommunicate a congregation ; then, how great the presumption of those who dared to denounce at once the entire national church of England. A vineyard may have lost its fence, or a city its walls, and yet the vineyard may be fruitful and the eity may maintain its rights. Thus Cart wright wrote in his old age ; would that he had written thus in his youth ! Barrow, a leader among the brownists, answered, complaining that Cart wright and his friends were setting themselves against their own disciples; that they were afraid of the consequences of their own principles now courageously asserted and fully carried out. The consistency of Cartwright is a question to this day unsettled ; and one still argued with all the bitter ness of party strife. His moderation, in his later years, has never met with its due reward ; for it should be remembered that he was himself a sufferer 141 THE HISTORY OF chapter when he thus took up his pen on behalf of the Y- church from which he was an outcast.* Yet church- eliz. men vjew ^ig corLCessions with disdain, and dissen- A. D. 1583. . , . . ters are only anxious to explain away his modera tion. But the anabaptists were the most numerous, and for some time by far the most formidable opponents of the churcb. They are said to have existed in England since the early times of the Lollards ; but their chief strength was now derived, and their numbers reinforced, from Germany. While Luther was still living this sect had assumed a formidable and dangerous character. Under the guidance of the enthusiastic Munzer and his associates, the German anabaptists disclaimed the authority of magistrates and laws, demanded for the saints supremacy on earth, and announced a carnal millen nium. They broke out into a ferocious civil war, which was only suppressed after much bloodshed. Among other tenets they held that the baptizing of infants was an invention of the devil ; and they received the title of anabaptists because they insisted on again baptizing all their converts, although in infancy they had once submitted to the rite. But even in Germany all anabaptists were not rebels and fanatics. Many, upon the contrary, were men of zeal and piety. In England they attempted no violence, beyond the solitary acts of here and there a madman whose insanity sought importance by assuming their detested name. Yet the anabaptists are spoken of by all the writers of this period with horror. It seems to have been assumed that an * Brooke's Cartwright, 299—307. V. ELIZ. A.D. 15^'i THE EARLY PURITANS. 115 anabaptist was of course licentious and a rebel. No chapter pains were taken to ascertain the fact : to doubt the validity of infant baptism was to incur forth with the penalties which even then belonged rather to treason than to schism. A body of christians among whom the piety of Hughe3, the learning and zeal of Marshman, and the eloquence of Robert Hall, found in after ages their congenial home, Avas then regarded by all men with aversion, by many with indescribable alarm. Their rude tenacity in maintaining the peculiarities of their creed, and their stern contempt of their adversaries ; a con tempt that often arrayed itself in something of a prophetic garb, while they denounced the vengeance of God upon their opponents, must be allowed their full share of influence in provoking the hostilities of a barbarous and superstitious age. But after every deduction, the sufferings of the anabaptists aro a stain upon the annals of Elizabeth and the fame of our forefathers. Some of the puritan writers complain of the indulgence shewn to papists, and contrast it with their own liard usage. But in truth all the oppo nents ofthe queen were treated with horrible and vindictive severity : many Romish priests were exe cuted with a revolting barbarism ; greater numbers were exiled and imprisoned. Enghsh law, if we do not prostitute the name in applying it to such trans actions, knew little but revenge and cruelty. Tbe political trials of this reign, it has been well ob served by a great living writer, the historian of the English constitution, are, with scarcely an excep tion, disgraceful to humanitv. And all religious 116 THE HISTORY OF hapter offences were then political. Justice, like a bird of prey, was ever on the wing ; and if it stooped or ELIZ. swerved a little from its course, it was to slake its A.D. 1583. ' appetite for blood upon some harmless victim as it passed along in quest of greater prey. Whatever may have been Calvin's share of infamy in the burning of Servetus the Socinian, he does not stand alone. One John Lewes was burnt at Norwich for denying the Godhead of Christ, and other heresies. In the next year John Hilton, a priest, was required to make a solemn abjuration of the same opinions : this he did in the presence of the convocation ; and it is probable that his office alone saved him from the death of Lewes. He did penance standing at St. Paul's cross during the sermon, and bearing the significant faggot on his shoulder. The sufferings of Copping and Thacker, clergymen of Suffolk, opened a persecution which raged for at least ten years. John Copping was a minister at Bury St. Edmunds, a zealous puritan and a brownist : he was imprisoned in 1576 by the bishop of Norwich, and two years afterwards he was brought up for examination. It was proved against him that he held these " false and malicious opi nions :" — that unpreaching ministers are dumb dogs; that whoever keeps saints' days is an idolater ; that the queen, who had sworn to keep God's law and set forth God's glory as appointed in the scriptures, and did not perform it, was perjured. His delin quencies were aggravated by the fact, that for six months he had refused to have his own child bap tized, because, he said, none should baptize his child who did not preach, and that when it was baptized THE EARLY PURITANS. 117 he would have no sponsors. Copping' s refusal to chapter have his child baptized by an unpreaching minister 1: may appear absurd; but wdser men than he, and ELTZ amongst them some of the leaders of the English reformation, held "unpreaching prelates," and of course inferior ministers, in. great contempt. It was even a question whether the administration of the eucharist was lawful without a sermon. No sermon no sacrament, was a doctrine held and taught by not a few of those who at length ranged themselves against the puritans, and defended on the authority of St. Augustine and the fathers. Thus one extreme provoked another. The sacrifice of tho mass was discovered to be a blasphemous fable, and tho sacraments of Christ narrowly escaped suspicion. Copping continued steadfast to his prin ciples ; he was sent back to his prison, and lay there five years longer. Here Th acker joined him ; and the two wero at length indicted, tried, and con demned for spreading certain books seditiously written by Robert Brown. The sedition charged upon Brown's book was this : it subverted the con st itution ofthe established church, and denied the queen's supremacy in matters ecclesiastical. The sentence of death was passed; and they were both hanged at Bury in the month of June, 15S3. l?rown's writings wore first brought out and burnt before I hem to aggravate their sufferings and their crime. Tbey are said to have been men of unble mished and holy lives, and they continued firm in their principles to the last.* After this the brown ists for some years bore the chief brunt of a storm ' Strype's Annals, vol. ii. pp. .'i.'i'J, 5.3.1. I. 2 118 THE HISTORY OF chapter' from which all puritans suffered dreadfully. But — 1: Itheir numbers steadily increased. A congregation eliz. ]}eing discovered in London, fifty-six were im prisoned : they died, says their indignant historian Neal, like rotten sheep. Some of them kept a jrecord of their sufferings and a catalogue of the sufferers, and we transcribe some of its harrow ing revelations : — They relate that Mr. Green wood and Mr. Barrow had been imprisoned thirty weeks in the Clink (an old prison in London) for reading a portion of scripture in a friend's house on the Lord's day, but were removed by a habeas cor pus to the Fleet, where they lay upon an execution of two hundred and sixty pounds a-piece. Henry Thompson and George Collier were committed to the Clink by the bishop of London for hearing Mr. Greenwood read a portion of scripture as above observed ; and had remained prisoners nineteen months without being called to answer. Jerome Studley was sent to the Compter, by his lordship, for refusing to answer interrogatories ; where he remained fifteen months. Christopher Roper was committed close prisoner by the bishop of London. Edward Boys was nineteen months in Bridewell, and afterwards close prisoner in the Clink. John Chamber was committed to the same prison, for hearing Mr. Greenwood read as above, where he died. Roger Jackson was sent close prisoner to Newgate, where he died. George Bright, for com mending a faithful christian under persecution, was committed to Newgate, where he died. Maynard, Roe, and Barrow, three aged widows, were cast into Newgate, by the bishop of London, for hearing Mr. THE EARLY PURITANS. 119 Greenwood read a portion of scripture, and two of chapter them died of the infection of the prison. Quintin T Smvth was committed to Newgate, confined in a ELIZ- ° A.D. 15-3- dungeon, loaded with irons, and his bible taken from him. John Purdye was sent to Bridewell by the archbishop of Canterbury, where he was con fined in a place called Little Ease, and beaten with cudgels, for refusing to attend the service of the parish church. Many others underwent similar barbarous usage.* Their chief leader and martvr Barrow, a gentleman of good family, addressed a supplication to parliament, in which he says : " These bloody men" (the high court of commis sion) will allow us neither meat, drink, fire, lodg ing ; nor suffer any whose heart the Lord would stir up for our rehef to have any access to us. Seventeen or eighteen have perished within these noisome jails within these six years ; some of us had not one penny about us when we were sent to prison, nor anything to procure a maintenance for ourselves and families but our labour : not onlv we ourselves, but our wives 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 barbarous usage of women and children, we are forced to omit lest we be tedious. He concludes with au appeal worthy of a patriot and an English man, in the fearless spirit of St. Paul himself: — " 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 ; * Baker's m> Brook, Lives of tbe Puritans, vol. ii. p. o'J. A.D. 1583. 150 THE HISTORY OF chapter yea, starved to death with hunger and cold, and v' stifled in loathsome dungeons."* The latter part IL1Z of their petition alone was heard. Barrow and Greenwood, with several others, were brought be fore the archbishop of Canterbury and other mem bers of the court of high commission, but they refused to take the oath, that is, to convict them selves upon their own extorted testimony. They wrote to the queen, but the letter was intercepted by the archbishop, of whom they bitterly complain. " For our parts," they conclude, " our lives are not dear unto us so that wre may finish our course with joy. We are always ready, through the grace of God, to be offered up upon the testimony of the faith that we have made." They were then indicted for publishing seditious books and pamphlets, tend ing to the slander of the queen and government. They denied the charge of disloyalty, shewed no regret and sought no mercy : their quarrel, they said, was not with the queen and her government, but with the hierarchy and the church. They were of course convicted. Ballot, one of the number, confessed his fault, and, with two others who were only accessories, was reprieved and sent back to prison, where two of them died; the third was banished. Barrow and Greenwood were condemned to die. They were brought in a cart to Tyburn, in order that the sight of the gallows might terrify them into submission, and alarm their followers : but they saw it unmoved, and were taken back to Newgate. A fortnight afterwards they were car- Neal i. p. 431. Strype's Annals, p. 133. THE EARLY PURITANS. 151 ried a second time to Tyburn, and there hanged, chapter With their last words they prayed for the queen, _1: — expressed a joyful confidence in God, and triumphed A^L^ in the cause for which they died. Dr. Reynolds, himself the leader of the puritans in later times, attended them, and he reported their behaviour to the queen. If they had lived he was persuaded, he said, they would have been two as worthy instru ments for the church of God as any that had been raised up in. that age. The queen relented when repentance was too late. Tyburn itself never wit nessed a more wicked execution, or one more sense less and impolitic. These 'enormities have never been permitted to stand out in English history in all their dark and hideous deformity, and in consequence some lessons of high importance have been lost. Church-writers tread gently, as if they feared the ground would give way beneath them. The] faults of Whitgift and his party they assumo to be the faults of episcopacy and ofthe church of England; at least their cautious dexterity in exculpating the former has had the ill effect of transferring the odium of these infamous proceedings to the latter. Were the church of Eng land infallible andj unchangeable as that of Rome pretends to be, their conduct would have the justi fication of necessity ; at present it contributes only to the injury of the cause they advocate. The per secutions of Whitgift and his party are only connected with modern episcopacy by that process of sentimen tal logic which confounds antiquity with authority, and volunteers to take upon itself the vices and the crimes of its forefathers in proof of its own legitimate A.D. 1.-383. 152 THE HISTORY OF chapter descent. Nonconformists, on the other hand, while v protesting, as well they may, with indignant vehe mence against these atrocities, have blunted the force oftheir remonstrance by the facility with which they excuse the guilty violence of the sectaries during the short period when they held the reins of power in the next century. For the wrriter who takes up his pen to extenuate the faults of one party, or dwells exclusively on the provocations of the other, is a pleader and not a judge, a partisan and not a historian ; and beyond the limits of his party his voice will not be heard, nor ought it to command respect. While the seceders were thus harassed, the church puritans were not permitted to escape. Con formity was rigidly enforced, and for the detection of delinquents new measures were devised. THE EARLY PURITANS. 153 CHAPTER VI. a. d. 1583—1593. In the month of December, 1583, the queen issued chapter a nOw commission at the earnest solicitation of the I1 archbishop.* Forty-four commissioners were named, ELIZ- x J A. D. 1583. of whom twelve were bishops, and the rest chief officers of state. Three of these had power to act ; whereof the archbishop of Canterbury, or one of the bishops mentioned in the commission, was always to be one. Tho jurisdiction of the court extended over the whole kingdom, and its power was enor mous. During the queen's pleasure the high com missioners were authorized to inquire into all he retical opinions, seditious books, false rumours, or slanderous words ; they were to correct, reform, and punish all who wilfully abstained from divine service established by law, all heresies, schisms, et cetera : they were to cite before them, and deprive, such of the clergy as maintained any doctrine contrary to the articles ; and to punish all grievous offences punishable by the ecclesiastical laws ; including amongst graver crimes all outrages, misdemeanours, aud disorders in marriage. So wide the sweep of this terrible tribunal. Its method of proceeding * (Mrjpe's Whitgift, p. 134. Neal ii. p. .iJJ. 154 THE HISTORY OF chapter varied with the necessities of the case. If the VL culprit could not be convicted under " the oath of eliz. twelve good and lawful men," a jury might be dis- a.d. isai. pense(i withj and tke court ^(j power to convict by "witnesses alone." If witnesses were wanting, " all other means and ways you can devise " (such are the terms of the commission) left room for the rack, and "little ease"* and the solitary dungeon, and the oath not less dreaded, ex officio mero. And they had a distinct authority not only " to examine such persons as they suspected, upon their corporal oaths," but to punish those " who refused the oath, by fine or imprisonment, according to their discre tion." Under the grinding pressure of this fright- ful and ponderous machine, which was designed to | crush the puritans, all the liberties of England must j have perished long ago, had it not been swept away with indignation by a fiery parliament of Charles the first. The tribunal, even in the arbitrary times of Elizabeth, was held to be unconstitutional. The oath ex officio, in particular, was viewed with abhor rence. It is contrary, it was argued, not only to the liberties of England, but to the law of nations and the instincts of our nature. It is a universal maxim that no man is bound to accuse himself. No canon, no general council of the church, for the first thousand years of its existence, had resorted to such a measure. Even pagan emperors had blushed to make use of a power which christians now employed against each other ; they had disowned and counter- * This frightful hole is still shewn in the tower. It is a small triangular den or cage cut into the wall and closed with a low door. The prisoner must have sat with his hack bent and his head upon his knees ; and it was utterly impossible to change the posture of a single limb. There appears to have been another at Bridewell, (see p. 149,) as well probably as in other prisons. ELIZ. A.D. 15S1. THE EARLY PURITANS. 155 manded it, when their pro-consuls and inferior ma- chapter gistrates used it against the primitive christians. — The pope and the inquisition admitted it no doubt, but only in cases of heresy, whereas it was now levelled against every paltry misdemeanour. And lastly, it had been formally repealed in tho reign of Henry the eighth, and again declared unlawful by statute in the first year of queen Elizabeth. Such were the objections then made to this ill-omened tribunal ;* and amidst the deepest disapprobation its proceedings began. As a guide to the commissioners, the archbishop drew up twenty-four articles on which clerical de linquents were to be examined upon oath. They were framed with an ingenuity from which no honest puritan could escape ; and, if he refused to answer them, and declined the oath, he was imme diately committed for contempt of the court, and deprived of his benefice. It is related that Brayne, a minister of Cambridge made his appearance before tho archbishop and two of the commissioners at Lambeth, and was suspended for contempt, merely because he insisted upon his right to read over the questions before ho swore to answer them, and to write down his answers with his own hand. Indeed the party to be examined was never made acquainted beforehand with the interrogatories he was to answer, nor was be allowed to retain a copy of his answers, extorted as they often were under the influence or the dread of torture. If the com missioners could not convict him upon his own con fession they examined witnesses ; but it is said they • Fuller, Ch. Hist. iii. ix. ELIZ. A.D. 1584 156 THE HISTORY OF chapter never cleared a prisoner simply upon his own oath. - If they could not reach him by their ordinary juris diction, they altered the form of the court and sat as ecclesiastical commissioners. If no statute reached the case they fell back upon some old ecclesiastical law of which the prisoner most likely had never heard. Of the twenty-four articles the nineteenth may be quoted as a specimen of all the rest. " 19. Item. That within the time aforesaid (that is, for the space of these three years, two years, one year, half a year, three, two, or one month last past) 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 contained, 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, despising, or defacing of some things contained in the said book. Declare what, and the like circumstances thereof, and for what cause or consideration, you have so done."* Several of the articles are interesting from the light they cast upon the state of feeling which then prevailed amongst the puritans with regard to their various difficulties of subscription and conformity. They run thus : — " It is objected against you that you have baptized divers or at least one infant, and have not used the sign of the cross on the forehead. That having been sent unto and required divers times to baptize chil dren, you have neglected and refused, and that the child or children are dead in consequence, unbap- * Neal i. p. 331, for the 24 Articles at large. VI. F.LIZ. A. D. 1584. THE EARLY PURITANS. 157 tized. That you have celebrated matrimony with- chapter out a ring, and have refused to use such words in that behalf as the book appoints, and particularly those words, ' that by matrimony is signified the spiritual marriage and unity betwixt Christ and his church.' That you have omitted and refused to read divers lessons prescribed by the said book, and have either not read any lessons at all or read others in their places. That in the service for the burial of the dead you have used another manner for common prayer, 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 cir cumstances thereof, and for what intent, cause, or consideration you have so done, or refused to do so." A loud and bitter cry was heard from the dis tressed puritans. Despairing of relief from the bishops, they applied to the privy council. Several petitions, addressed to them by the suspended mi nisters of Kent, Suffolk, and other counties, were forwarded to the archbishop by Beal, the clerk of the council ; a proceeding with which the arch bishop was much displeased. He complains to the lord treasurer that Mr. Beal had used intemperate speeches : "He told me, in effect, that I would be the overthrow of this church, and the cause of tu mult." A prophetic message, though delivered in- temperately 1 The privy council themselves then remonstrated with the primate, and they included Aylmer bishop of London in their pointed censure. The remonstrance bears the signature of eight of the privy council, Burghley, Warwick, Howard, Hatton, Leicester, Shrewsbury, Croft, and Walsingham ; ELIZ. A.D. 15S4. 158 THE HISTORV OF chatter some of whom were themselves members of the VL.. court of high commission. They request both their lordships to stay and temper their subalterns, in their hasty proceedings against the ministers. They describe the lamentable state ofthe church in Essex : " a great number," they say, " of zealous and learned preachers are there suspended from their cures, and their places left vacant, or filled with persons neither of learningorgood name." On the other hand, " agreat number of persons notoriously unfit, charged or chargeable with great and erroneous faults, drunken ness, filthiness of life, gamesters at cards and such like, are quietly suffered to remain." They inclose with the letter, a catalogue of the names of sundry persons — that is, first, of persons reported to be learned, zealous, and good preachers, who are deprived and suspended ; secondly, of unfit persons suffered to continue without reprehension or any other proceed ing taken against them ; thirdly, of pluralists not resident. " Against all these sorts of lewd, evil, un profitable, and corrupt members, we hear," say they, "of no inquisition, nor of any kind of proceeding to the reformation of those horrible offences in the church ; but of great diligence, yea and extremity, used against those that are known diligent preach ers ;" and they add, "wc do most earnestly desire your lordships to take some charitable consideration of these causes, that the people of the realm may not be deprived of their pastors, being diligent, learned, and zealous ; though in some point ceremonial they may seem doubtful only in conscience not in wilful ness."* * Fuller iii. ix. p. 36. VI. ELIZ. A.D. 1584. THE EARLY PURITANS. 159 The archbishop answered, * in a firm though chapter somewhat subdued manner, that he believed the information of the privy council would prove un founded and their charges unjust ; that of the de prived ministers in Essex, he personally knew but few; that if scandal could be proved against the conforming clergy they should be punished, though few or none of them had been presented, or com plained of as evil-doers, by the churchwardens, whose duty it was upon oath to make such present ments ; and that upon conference with the bishop of London he would speedily return a more exact answer. While this affair was pending the lord treasurer wrote him on the subject of his twenty- four articles, and in no measured terms. Burghley had " recommended to his grace's favour two minis ters, curates of Cambridgeshire, to be favourably heard." His grace replied, that they were conten tious, seditious, and irregular. Burghley, on their return to him, "charged them sharply;" when they " denied the charges, and asked for a fair trial and fitting punishment." Upon further enquiry the lord treasurer discovered that they had been sub jected, not to a fair and open tribunal, butto the inqui sition of twenty-four articles, and that even of these they were refused a copy. Cecil reminded them that they were " in no danger if they answered to the truth ;" to which they replied, that the questions were so many and so different that they were un willing to answer them " for fear of captious inter pretation." "Upon this," adds the indignant lord treasuror, " I sent for the register who brought me * Fuller iii. ix. p. 3o\ 160 THE HISTORY OF chapter the articles ; which I have read, and find so curi- — ^— ously penned, so full of branches and circumstances, a d"^ *k£tl I think the inquisition of Spain use not so many questions to comprehend and entrap their preys. I know your canonists can defend these with all their particles. But surely, under your grace's correction, this juridical and canonical siftening of poor minis ters is not to edify and reform. And in charity, I think they ought not to answer all these nice points except they were very notorious offenders in papistry or heresy. Now, good my lord, bear with my scrib bling ; I write with testimony of a good conscience. I desire the peace of the church. I desire concord and unity in the exercise of our religion. I fear no sensual and wilful recusant. But I conclude, that, according to my simple judgment, this kind of pro ceeding is too much savouring the Romish inquisition, and is rather a device to seek for offenders than to reform any. It is not charitable to send poor minis ters to your common registrar to answer so many articles at one instant, without a copy of the articles or of their answers."* It is not to be supposed that a man of Whitgift's character would incur these censures unmoved. In a few days he prepared an answer ; and those who would do justice to his motives are bound to listen to his apology. Besides, in this his own defence of his own measures, all that can be said to justify severities under which puritans writhed and from which statesmen recoiled, is summed up with what ever force of argument the case allows. * Fuller iii. ix. 36-55. ELIZ. A. D. 15S4. THE EARLY PURITANS. 161 The archbishop's defence is contained in two letters chapter addressed to the lord treasurer. He complains that — — — the accusations brought against him were general, and could only be answered by a bare denial ; but that if he or his colleagues were charged with par ticular acts of an oppressive or an illegal nature, he doubted not that he could render a reply. His own proceedings against the nonconforming ministers had neither been so vehement, nor so general, as some pretended. Great injury had been done to him in this respect : " if indeed," he says, "any offence be, it is in bearing too much with them, in conse quence of which they troubled the church and with stood their primate." Papists, he said, (in answer to the treasurer's remark that they rejoiced in these severities when they saw them exercised by protes tants upon each other,) were indeed encouraged ; because they saw such persons, who with themselves despised the authorities of the English church, en couraged in their disorderly conduct. " Assure yourself," he adds, " the papists are rather grieved at my proceedings, because they tend to the taking away of their chief argument, that is, that we can not agree amongst ourselves ; and that we are not of tho church because we lack unity." Touching the twenty-four articles, " he cannot but greatly marvel at his lordship's vehement speeches against them. He had caused them to be drawn up accord ing to law by those best learned in the laws ; by men who hated alike the Romish doctrine and the Romish inquisition." He had taken the ordinary course pursued in other courts ; " as," he says, " in the star chamber and other places. And it was the M chapter VI. A.D. 1584. 162 THE HISTORY OF usual one in the court of arches with which he had the best experience." The rules of evidence were ELTZ then ill defined ; and the civil courts set an exam ple of most oppressive and horrible tyranny in their conduct towards the accused. In this same year Throgmorton, a gentleman of Cheshire, was charged, on the evidence of an intercepted letter, with a plot in favour ofthe queen of Scots and against the queen's life. While under the torture of the rack he con fessed his guilt. The confession he soon retracted, but repeated it on an assurance of the queen's par don ; was sent to the scaffold, and there declared, what was probably true, that his admission of guilt was a mere fiction for the purpose of escaping a se cond torture. Yet it is not without surprise that we read the following sentence from the pen of one whose penetration was so acute, and whose sincerity so unquestionable, as that of Whitgift : " and with out offence be it spoken, I think these articles more tolerable and better agreeing with the rules of justice and charity, and less captious, than those in other courts (meaning those in which the accused and the accuser confront each other) ; because there men are often examined at the relation of a private man (that is, on the evidence of an individual,) concerning pri vate crimes et de propria turpitudine ; whereas here, men are only examined oftheir public actions in the public calling and ministry; and because the one toucheth life and the other not. And therefore, I see no cause why our judicial and canonical proceed ings on this point should be misliked." If the arti cles were strained, the fault, he added, was in the judge, not the law; which hitherto had been ad- ELIZ. A. D. 1584. THE EARLY PURITANS. 163 ministered with moderation. With regard to the mi- chapter nisters suspended, most of them were meanly qua- VI- lifted for their offices, open breakers and impugners of the law, young in years, proud in conceit, con tentious in disposition. How could the peace ofthe church, how could unity in religion, be restored, if a few young men should be countenanced against the whole estate of the clergy, persons of the great est account for learning, years, and piety ? In con clusion, he had done nothing which he did not think in his conscience and duty he was bound to do ; and careless ofthe evil tongues ofthe uncharitable or the displeasure of man, he was resolved to persevere. — Such was the substance of the archbishop's defence, which gave little satisfaction to lord Burghley. " Your grace's proceeding," he replies, " I think is, I will not say 'rigorous' or 'captious' (expressions, at which Whitgift had taken offence), but I think it is scant charitable." This is the settled verdict of posterity ; whether Whitgift were sustained by the sanctions of the law or not, his proceedings were " scant charitable ;" and all men now acquiesce in the justice of the remark with which he concludes the correspondence. " I have no leisure to write more, and therefore I av ill end ; for writing will but increase offence ; and I mean not to offend your grace. I am content that your grace and my lord of London, where I hear Brown is " — one of the two Cambridge ministers for whom he had interceded — " uso him as your wisdom shall think meet. If I had known his fault I might be blamed for writing for him : but when by examination only, it is meant m 2 161 THE HISTORY OF chapter to sift him with twenty-four articles, I have cause to ! pity the poor man." * a d'iL Whitgift rejoined without abating anything of his austerity. Articles of enquiry, he contended, were strictly lawful, and had been administered ever since the reformation. The commission ought by no means to be compared with the inquisition, inasmuch as the inquisition punished with death, the commis sioners only with deprivation. He defended the ex amination upon oath by several considerations which have a strange sound to us who are accustomed to revere the purity and the laborious care of our courts of justice. If the puritan clergy were proceeded against only in open court by presentment and wit nesses, then papists, brownists, and the family of love would expect the same indulgence. It was hard to get witnesses against the puritans ; the parishioners favoured them ; few would appear against them ; stiU fewer would present them. Besides, the trouble and expense in sending for witnesses and examining them would be great, the execution of justice would be slow, and meanwhile the sectaries would flourish : and justice after all would be partially administered. He said he had undertaken the defence, and the rights, ofthe church of England ; to appease the sects and schisms therein ; and to reduce all the ministers thereof to uniformity and due obedience. "And herein," he adds, " I intend to be constant, and not to waver with every wind." Whether obstinacy or resolution dictated the sentence, the crowded prisons and the deserted pulpits of England, through many * Fuller iii. ix. 55. THE EARLY PURITANS. 165 a succeeding year of his primacy, proved that it was chapter at least no empty threat. VI- Through the influence chiefly of the earl of EEIZ Leicester, a conference* was held between the arch bishop, assisted by the bishop of Winchester on the one part, and the puritans, represented by Sparke and Travers — afterwards famous in puritan history — on the other. Leicester, Walsingham, and lord Grey, were present as assessors. The conference — if it deserve the name — continued two days, but it produced no important results. The temper of the primate may be gathered from his correspondence ; that of the puritans may be inferred from an anec dote otherwise not of much importance. The arch bishop had no sooner opened the conference, than Dr. Sparke, after a few introductory words, insisted on beginning the proceedings with prayer, and forth with " framed himself to begin to pray." The arch bishop interrupted him, declaring that he should not turn the place into a conventicle. We cannot acquit Sparke of an unbecoming freedom ; and Whitgift probably saw, or suspected, in his conduct, something very different from pure devotion, namely, an effort to assert his pretensions as a presbyter, and to place them on a level with those of an archbishop. But a conference thus begun was not likely to end in any compromise or amicable adjustment. The puritans objected to private baptism, and especially against its administration by women or laymen. This scruple has been often treated as trivial and * Neal gives un account of it (from a manuscript iu his possession), i. p. .'Ill : snd sec in Brooke's Lives ofthe Puritans, art. Tracers : who nlso refers to a MS. register of the proceedings. ELIZ. A.D. 1585. 166 THE HISTORY OF chapter captious, but an important question in theology hes VI' beneath the surface ; viz., " whether children un- baptized perish," and "whether outward baptism saves the child that is baptized?" They objected to sponsors and against the use of the cross in bap tism ; against private communion ; against the read ing ofthe apocrypha and the wearing ofthe surplice; and lastly, against an ineffective ministry, pluralities, and consequent non-residence. The archbishop is said to have defended the apocrypha, denying that any errors are to be found in it. But this statement comes from his opponents, and it is fair to suppose that if not misrepresented he was at least misunder stood.* When the conference closed, each party carried away the opinions or the prejudices they brought with them to the discussion. Travers was a nonconformist to his death ; and Whitgift was still the enemy of the puritans. It produced, says an old writer, no effect on the disputants, little on the auditors, yet as much on all as any judicious person ever expected. The probability is, observes sir James Macintosh upon this occurrence, that the conference ended leaving the convictions of both parties as it found them, or rooted more firmly. Private medita tion may enlighten, — in a public dispute the object is not truth but victory. + A refractory spirit, and much insubordination (to a degree indeed inconsistent with all order and dis cipline) no doubt existed amongst the clergy. How to reduce it to submission, whether by force or by concession, or by a mild and considerate exercise of * Neal iii. p. 339. on the authority of a manuscript in his possession. t Hist, of Eng. in loco. ELIZ. A. D. 15S5. THE EARLY PURITANS. 167 power mingled with forbearance, was the question chapter which ought to have been calmly weighed by the VI- rulers of the church. Unhappily the roughest me thods were adopted, and apparently with little or no regret. The spirit of Aylmer and Whitgift was the vulgar one to which harsh measures present them selves, not as a last but as a first alternative ; and they plunged into them with alacrity. That there were, amongst the puritans, many good and humble men whose conscientious nonconformity was dis tressing to themselves, they refused to believe. It was evident there were turbulent and factious spirits whom no reasonable concessions would appease, — and no party, struggling for its rights and suffering from oppression, is without them, — but such were not the majority. And the great fault of the pri mate and his coadjutors was, that they confounded the evil and the good, and practised a degree of severity upon the best of their opponents, which the worst of them scarcely merited. Aylmer, in his vi sitation this year, suspended, in Essex alone, thirty- eight ministers for refusing to wear the surplice and similar offences. They were men highly esteemed by their parishioners ; and their forced silence was the occasion of deep and mutual distress. An in credible number were thus silenced, or even deprived of their parishes, in various counties.* It is said by puritan writers, that at one period towards the close of this reign, no less than a third ofthe whole bene ficed clergy of England were thus suspended : and to most of them this was a sentence, which, as its lightest evil, involved destitution and penury. The * Neal i. p. -S7. 168 THE HISTORY OF chapter sufferings of so great a number of ministers, men of A1, high character and extraordinary zeal and diligence, eliz. was aione enough to shew that dissatisfaction was A. D. 1585. ° deep and general. If there was danger in per mitting diversities, was there none in repressing them ? Might not a schism arise from the seces sion of the dissatisfied party, which should tear up the church to its foundations ? Were the questions at issue of vital consequence ? And was it not wiser to provide for the effervescence of a well-meaning zeal, however troublesome, within the bosom of the church, than to cast off those fiery energies which might, and probably would, otherwise be arrayed against it ? Above all, ought not christian meekness and moderation to ^e shewn, even to the obstinate, much more to the misguided ? But no weight was given to these considerations. The only choice was between strict conformity, and fines, dungeons, and ejectment. One minister, Mr. Knight, for not wearing the surplice, suffered six months' imprisonment, and was fined a hundred marks.* Another was suspended on the same ac count. " His hungry sheep that had no shepherd," — for so his parishioners described themselves, — addressed a letter to him entreating him to conform ; but he could not do so, he replied, with a safe con science, and was deprived. Amongst a multitude of others scarcely less deplorable, the case of Eusebius Paget, minister of Kilkhampton,+ in the diocese of Exeter, claims attention. When first presented to the living, he had expressly informed his patron and * Neal i. p. 342. f Neal i. p. 349. Brooke's Lives, art. Paget. THE EARLY PURITANS. 169 the bishop that he could not use some rites, nor chapter comply with some directions, in the service book ; VI' still he was inducted. He is described as a learned, EUZ- A. D. 1585. peaceable, and quiet divine, indefatigable in his work, travelling through the neighbouring country, and preaching in dark places the plain principles of re ligion. But he was brought before the high commis sion upon several charges ; some of which, if proved, amount to indiscretion,and not one of them to heresy. He preached, and not without reason, that " the late queen Mary was a wicked woman and a Jezebel." With more questionable zeal and equal courtesy, "he called ministers that don't preach, dumb dogs." Then, he disallowed the use of organs, and taught that holidays were but the traditions of men, which we are not obliged to follow. Another charge was, that he had said the pope might set up the feast of jubilee as well as the feasts of castor and pentecost. His false doctrine consisted merely in having taught that " the sacraments were but dull elements, and did not avail without the word preached;" and that " Christ did not descend into hell both soul and body." The former of these propositions admits, if it do not require, a sound interpretation ; and right or wrong, the opinion prevailed extensively at the period of the reformation. " No man in his senses," exclaims a foreign divine, " will say that the sacra ments may be administered without the word of God ; since unless the word and element go toge ther there will bo no sacrament, as Augustine has taught us long since."* And with regard to Christ's * Gaulter to bishop Cox, August 26, 1573. The passage in Augustine is supposed, by the editor of the Zurich Letters, to be this. Tract. SO in Johann. Acccdit verbum ad elementuni ct fit sacramentum, etiam ipsum tanquani visibile verbum. Letters, second scries, p. 232. P. S. edit. 170 THE HISTORY OF chapter descent into hell — meaning thereby, as no doubt he . did, the place of torment, — no inconsiderable number a DLIi585 °f the Enghsh clergy, with bishop Pearson as their guide, have always strongly inclined to the same opinion. His disloyalty was argued from the single fact that he did not, in his prayers, mention the queen's " supremacy in both estates ;" which is at least an admission that he allowed it in one of them ; he allowed her supremacy as a civil magistrate. — He pleaded in his defence, that when he undertook the charge of his parish, he received a promise from his ordinary that he should not be urged to a com pliance with those ceremonies for neglecting which he was now accused ; " and that although he had omitted some things mentioned in the book, he had introduced no novelties of any kind : his faults were those of omission ; nor did he now refuse to adopt the common prayer book, hereafter, could his scru ples be satisfied. He modestly asked to be permitted to confer either with his own bishop, or with other persons to be named by the commissioners them selves, for the solution of his doubts ; " which," said he, " 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." This was refused ; he was immediately suspended, and preaching afterwards, deprived. The hardship of the case was thought to be increased by the haste with which the commission proceeded, in the first in stance ; and, further, by the fact that he had ob tained from the archbishop a remission, if not a re lease, from the censure of suspension before he had ventured to resume his ministry. This release he believed to be a sufficient warrant for preaching, A.D. 1585. THE EARLY PURITANS. 171 the archbishop himself being the chief commissioner, chapter But the court was stern, and his living was declared VI- vacant and disposed of to another. Having a large ELIZ- fanrily, he set up a school. But the relentless court of high commission pounced once more on their mangled victim, requiring him to take out a licence, and, as a previous condition, to subscribe to the articles. This he declined to do, and was at once re duced to beggary. The great naval commander, sir John Hawkins, was his friend. Erom a letter ad dressed to his patron we quote a few sentences : " I was never present at any separate assembly from the church, but abhorred them. I always resorted to my parish church, and received the sacrament accord ing to the book (that is, in a kneeling posture). I thought it my duty not to forsake the church be cause of some blemishes in it. I am turned out of my living by commandment. I afterwards preached without living or a penny stipend ; and wrhen I was forbid I ceased. I then taught a few children, to get a little bread for myself and mine to cat ; some dis liked this, and wished me to forbear ; which I have done ; and am now to go as an idle rogue and va gabond from door to door to beg my bread." His sufferings, or at least his silence, was prolonged through Whitgift's hfe. It is some consolation to record, that upon the primate's death he was rein stated in the ministry, and presented to the living of St. Agnes in Aldersgate. Kindness accomplished what severity had essayed in vain. A virtuous and godly minister was restored to usefulness and honour, and died in conformity with the church of England. 172 THE HISTORY OF chapter Pages might be filled with similar details : but the YI- protracted sufferings of Cartwright, still the great ELIZ- leader of the party, and possessing all the advantages which superior skill and wisdom in controversy, and the countenance of the great and wealthy, could im part, claim especial notice. Whether they prove more pertinacity in Cartwright, or severity in Whit gift and his associates, is now a stale dispute which we shall make no endeavour to revive. They are events which belong to history ; and the hardships of the master of puritanism may be taken as a speci men, only too correct, of the sufferings of its meaner disciples. If Cartwright was thus harassed, what may have been the unknown sorrows of less cautious or less favoured men ? Upon his expulsion from the university, already noticed, Cartwright retired to the continent.* Eor some time he lived at Antwerp, and presided over the Enghsh congregation there ; while the most dis tinguished scholars of Europe, amongst whom were Beza and Junius, thought themselves honoured by his friendship. Beza had indeed long since spoken of him, in one of his letters, as a young man of the highest promise, and, for his age, probably the greatest scholar in the world. After a while he was invited by the Erench protestants in Guernsey and Jersey to their assistance. He drew up a form of discipline for their use, and established their church on the Genevan model ; but he shortly returned to Antwerp. After an exile of eleven years his health failed ; and his Ufe being in imminent danger, he * Brooke's Life of Cartwright. eliz. \.D. 1585. THE EARLY PURITANS. 173 wrote to the privy council, requesting permission to chapter return home. His friends, Leicester and Burghley, — not only mentioned his name with honour in the house of lords, but interceded with the queen. But their efforts were in vain ; the permission to return was not granted ; when Cartwright, on the advice of his physicians, and resolving to lay his bones at least in his native land, appeared in England. He had no sooner reached his native shores, than Aylmer bishop of London had him apprehended and im prisoned. Happily for Cartwright, Aylmer, in the hurry of his zeal, had forgotten to wait for the queen's permission ; and it was not at all of Eliza beth's temper to suffer these freaks of despotism in her subjects, however much disposed to them herself. Cartwright was released ; and Aylmer endeavoured to propitiate the queen-in a letter to lord Burghley. " I leave it to God and your wisdom," he says, "to consider in what a dangerous place of service I am. But God whom I serve, and in whose hands arc the hearts of princes, can and will turn all to the best, and stir up such honourable friends as you are, to appease her highness's indignation. In the mean time, my good lord, I will vow myself to you, as my chief patron under God and her majesty. And surely you shall find me neither undutiful nor unthankful." Were anything wanting to complete our disgust, it would be the fact that the man who penned this servility had been himself a puritan, and had written against the bishops in a strain of insolent vulgarity.* — " Come off, you bishops ; away with your super- * In his " Arbour for faithful Subjects," published soon after the queen's accession. ELIZ. A.D. 1585. 174 THE HISTORY OF chapter fluities ; yield up your thousands ; be content with YI hundreds; let your portion be priest-like, not prince-like. — Could the bishops ruffle in their robes, keep their great houses, and have their thousands yearly, with all the rest of their super fluity, if the queen were not their bulwark, and took not care of them, while they care not for her ?" Whitgift, though severe, was not vindictive ; and he was probably ashamed of Aylmer's cruelty. It was from the primate Cartwright received his re lease, though not until he had been several months in prison. The interview between the two great leaders seems to have produced a good impression upon each. Cartwright behaved with respect and modesty, and Whitgift for a time was softened into kindness. The earl of Leicester wrote, as Cart wright's friend and patron, 3 letter full of gratitude to Whitgift, and even ventured to ask that he might once more be allowed to preach. This request the archbishop declined to grant without longer trial, and until he should be " better persuaded of his conformity." Leicester, however, had founded an asylum, or hospital, at Warwick, and he appointed Cartwright to the first mastership. Here he resided in peace for some years ; and if the friendship and patronage of a majority of the greatest statesmen of an age so rich in statesmanship were a security against persecution, it might have been reasonably concluded that the remainder of his days would have passed in quietness. Among the friends or patrons of this puritan divine, were the earls of Leicester, Warwick, Bedford, and Huntingdon, lord Bacon, lord Burghley, sir Erancis Knollys, and sir Erancis VI. ELIZ. A. D. THE EARLY PURITANS. 175 Walsingham. A man so honoured must have pos- chapter sessed some rare combination of attractive quahties. His leisure was worthily employed. The Romish party, perceiving with dismay the effect produced by isss-m. the translation of the bible into Enghsh, issued a version of their own. It was a translation of the new testament from the Latin vulgate, but was in fact designed to depreciate the English translation, and to insinuate the corruptions of the church of Rome. It is known to scholars as the Rhemish translation. It was considered among protestants a work of dangerous tendency ; and the rather, on account of the notes and annotations it contained : and the question of Cartwright's high accomplishments, both as a scholar and a divine, is entirely set at rest by the fact that he was solicited to undertake its refu tation. One of his biographers asserts that the queen applied to Beza, requesting him to undertake tho work ; and that he referred her majesty to Cart wright as a much fitter person. It is certain that the earl of Leicester and secretary Walsingham urged him to this important task, and that the latter sent him tho noble present of a hundred pounds towards the purchase of books, with the promise of further assistance were it wanted. The clergy of the city of London and those of Suffolk intreated him to pro ceed ; above all, the university of Cambridge, or, at least, a number of its principal divines, addressed a letter to him filled with expressions of reverence and regard. " Wo are earnest," they say, "most re verend Cartwright, that you should set yourself against the unhallowed designs of mischievous men, 176 THE HISTORY OF chapter either by refuting the whole book, or at least some YL part thereof . . . you see to what an honourable fight eliz. we invjte y0U- Christ's business must be undertaken AD- . 1585-90. against Satan's champions. We stir you up to fight the battles of the Lord where the victory is certain, and the triumph and applause of angels will ensue. Our prayers shall never be wanting to you. Christ without doubt, whose cause is defended, will be present with you. The Lord Jesus must increase your courage and strength, and keep you very long in safety for his church's good. Earewell. Your loving brethren in Christ." The paper bore the signature, amongst others, of Dr. Whitaker, master of St. John's and regius professor, and of Dr. Eulke, master of Pembroke college, whose testimony re ceives a double worth from his profound acquaint ance with this particular controversy. In the year 1583 he had published his own learned " Defence of the English translation of the holy scriptures, in reply to Gregory Martin's slanders." Martin was a reader of divinity in the English college of Rheims, and in the previous year had published what he called, " A discovery of the manifold corruptions of the holy scriptures by the heretics of our days, specially the English sectaries." With a stretch of power seldom exceeded in the most arbitrary times, or under governments the most despotic, Whitgift forbad him to proceed. It is a curious instance, no less of his resolute temper than of his unbounded power, whenever the queen's prejudices coincided with his own. Her ministers of state at this time were strongly in favour of the puritans. Walsingham and Leicester had requested VI. ELIZ. A. D. 90. THE EARLY PURITANS. 177 Cartwright to undertake the refutation, and pro- chapter vided him with money for his expenses. Burghley sanctioned it. Yet Whitgift prevailed, and the mightiest statesmen were foiled; and Walsingham 15i=°- was given to understand that although minister of state he was not minister of religion. Whit gift's motives have been variously construed. He no doubt was apprehensive that puritan notions might be introduced under the cover of a commen tary ; that, professing to aim at Rome, Cartwright might have struck at Lambeth. But the same authority which suppressed the book would have been better directed, if necessary, in controlling its revisal. The affair gave rise to much discussion : some affected to question Cartwright's learning; some commended the archbishop's care, and some blamed his jealousy. The time had not yet come when a sense of justice, forcing its way through all considerations of policy or convenience, should brand the oppressive act with the stamp of mere tyranny. Cartwright afterwards resumed the work, but his death prevented its completion. At length it was published in an imperfect state in the year 1618. "A book," says Euller, " wlrich, notwithstanding the aforesaid defects, is so complete that the Rhemists durst never return the least answer thereunto." But Cartwright's troubles were not over. His preaching at Warwick provoked the hostility of the bishop of Worcester, who summoned him in the con sistory court, and charged him with instilling the peculiarities of Genevan churchmanship. He was permitted, however, to return to "Warwick, where he soon afterwards drew up an able treatise against N VI. ELIZ. A.D. 178 THE HISTORY OF chapter the brownists. Meanwhile his patron the earl of - Leicester died, and in a short time Cartwright was summoned before the court of high commission. lass-go. The charges were of the usual complexion. That he had neglected the rubrics ; that he had established the discipline of foreign churches ; that he had shewn his dislike to the ecclesiastical laws and government ; and in particular, that he had written all or some part of " The book of discipline ;" and that he knew, or had credibly heard, who were the authors of "Martin Mar-prelate." — The book of discipline was a form or directory of presbyterian worship, pub lished abroad a few years previously, but lately translated into English ; and Martin Mar-prelate the title of a series of satirical pamphlets, which caused no little commotion for several years by their lu dicrous and malicious scurrility ; and of which we shall speak hereafter. Whatever Cartwright's share may have been in the former of these productions, his whole character forbids us to suspect him of any connection with the latter ; even had he not denied, as he uniformly did, all knowledge of the authors, or approbation of their pamphlets. Cartwright nobly refused to take the oath ex officio, which might have compelled him to crimi nate his friends as well as to become his own accuser. His committal to the Eleet followed of course. He appealed in vain to the archbishop, the lord chan cellor, and his tried friend lord Burghley. To add to his sufferings, his devoted flock at Warwick were left untaught ; -while the agonizing pains of the gout and stone, increased by his confinement, filled up the measure of his sorrows. After repeated soli- THE EARLY PURITANS. 179 citations, he implored, in a fourth petition to lord chapter Burghley, that he might be imprisoned in the house YL of some friend in or near the city, under proper se- ELIZ curities. One of his children died, and he asked to m5'_00. return home, giving sufficient bail to appear when called for. But his petitions were disregarded. Burghley at length remonstrated with the queen, and was " bold to tell her majesty that he thought the bishops took a very ill and unadvised course." Together with other divines, amongst whom were Dr. Whitaker, Travers, Chadderton, and Knewstubs, the heads of the puritans, he was charged by the commissioners with holding irregular synods, or classes, in London, Cambridge, and other places, with the view of promoting the introduction of pres byterianism. The discipline they endeavoured to introduce was denounced as prejudicial to her ma jesty and the realm in several particulars ; — as for instance, that it proposed the abolition of the rights of patronage, placing in the congregation the election to vacant parishes ; and that in ecclesiastical causes the final appeal was made not to the queen, but to the church assembled in a general synod. And the prisoners were accused of wishing to make the prince himself amenable to censure and excommunication. Still refusing the oath, they were handed over to the star chamber on Whitgift's motion, and were from time to time interrogated before one or other of these tribunals. Eor it is to be observed, that the high commission did not lose its grasp, though it called in the star chamber to its assistance. At length public opinion was aroused ; magistrates peti tioned against tho iniquity of punishing without a N 2 180 THE HISTORY 'OF chapter trial, and of condemning without a hearing ; parlia- Y1, ment was restless, and the privy council angry ; eliz. terms were offered to the prisoners, and rejected 1585- 90. with disdain. A petition to the queen from Cart wright and his fellow-sufferers produced a tardy effect, and at last they were released from prison, — it has been said, at Whitgift's intercession. But even this faint praise appears to be undeserved. A letter from Cartwright, addressed to the lord trea surer, " in dutiful remembrance of so great a benefit," obliges us to confess that to the humanity of the statesman was due an act of justice which the harsh ness of the prelate had denied. Cartwright was now old and hastening to the grave. He returned to his beloved charge at War wick, and, still under a bond for his good behaviour, continued to preach. On the Sunday before his death, as if with something of a prophetic forecast, he preached from Ecclesiastes xii. 7, " Then shall the dust return to the earth, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." His biographer relates that on the Tuesday morning following, he spent two hours prostrate on his knees in humble and importunate prayer ; and that, having finished his devotions, he said that " he had found unutterable comfort and happiness, and that God had given him a glimpse of heaven, before he was called to enter that blessed state." He died within a few hours afterwards, Dec. 27, 1603, aged 68 years. His great antagonist Whitgift expired within three months. They were members and ministers of the same church : upon doctrinal points there was no impor tant difference between them. The one saw the VI. ELIZ. A. D. THE EARLY PURITANS. 181 imperfections of the church of England, the other chapter felt the dangers of innovation. They were attached to the same cause, and alike desirous of establishing a national church in England on protestant founda- 15S5-90. tions ; and had conciliation been attempted, there seems little reason to doubt that Cartwright, with out forsaking his principles, would have been won over to a more submissive spirit, and to a zealous co-operation with men of real piety— and there were many such among his professed opponents. He at tached too much importance to his peculiar opinions of church discipline, and those opinions we conceive were often wrong ; and in the early years of his public life he was not free from the universal vices of his times, — intemperance and personality in con troversy. But as age mellowed and persecution broke down his spirit, a noble love of truth, a gene rous and forgiving temper, a contempt of suffering, and a fervent piety to God, break out with increas ing lustre ; and while learning, eloquence, and high talents, associated with exalted religious principles, and these displayed with consistency through a long life of persecution, shall continue to be revered, the name of Cartwright will be uttered, by good men of every party, with profound respect. No record of the persecutions which the puritans underwent in the reign of Elizabeth can omit the names of Smith, Udal, and Penry. The former, illustrious for his talents ; the other two, for endur ing, with the patience of martyrs, the most dreadful sufferings ; and all alike for a glowing, though some times misdirected, zeal and a sincere piety. Henry VI. ELIZ. A.D. 1585—90. 182 THE HISTORY OF nAFTEK Smith* was a person of good family and well con nected ; but having some scruples, he declined pre ferment, and aspired to nothing higher than the weekly lectureship of St. Clement Danes. On a complaint made by bishop Aylmer, Whitgift sus pended him, and silenced for a while probably the most eloquent preacher in Europe. His contem poraries named him the Chrysostom of England. His church was crowded to excess, and amongst his hearers, persons of the highest rank, and those of the most cultivated and fastidious judgment, were content to stand in the throng of citizens. His ser- monst and treatises were soon to' be found in the hands of every person of taste and piety ; they passed through numberless editions ; some of them were carried abroad and translated into Latin. They were still admired and read at the close of nearly a century, when Euller collected and repubhshed them. Probably the prose writing of this, the richest period of genuine English literature, contains nothing finer than some of his sermons ; and we are disposed to think that no English preacher has since excelled him in the proper attributes of pulpit eloquence. They are free, to an astonishing degree, from the be setting vices of his age — vulgarity and quaintness and affected learning ; and he was one ofthe first of those who, without submitting to the trammels of a pe dantic logic, conveyed, in language nervous, pure, and beautiful, the most convincing arguments in the most lucid order, and made them the ground- * Brooke's Lives, art. Henry Smith. t God's arrow against atheists; Sermons at St. Clement Danes; Six sermons, with prayers, &c. Printed by John Beale, 1621. THE EARLY PURITANS. 183 work of fervent and impassioned addresses to the chapter conscience. The lord treasurer was his friend ; and AI' that he was restored to his lectureship and to the ELIZ- church of England after a brief suspension, we owe, isss-so. among many obligations of a similar kind, to the name of Cecil. Udal* was charged with being the author of a seditious libel, entitled " A demonstration of disci pline," in which the prelates were coarsely handled, in a most unbecoming manner. The passage fixed upon as the ground of the indictment, oc curs in the preface, and is certainly unjust and scandalous. "Who can, without blushing, deny you (the bishops) to be the cause of all ungod liness, &c. You care for nothing but your dig nities, be it to the damnation of your own souls and infinite millions more." Had the punishment due to a libeller been awarded to the author, poste rity would have confirmed the judgment. But his fault sinks into insignificance when compared a\ ith his sufferings ; wc admire his patience, and forget his libel, ne refused to criminate himself before the high commission, where his refusal to swear was em ployed against him as the strongest evidence of his guilt. No proof was given that Udal was the writer of tho whole treatise ; he was generally supposed to have contributed only the preface. His reserve, if this were tho case, was dictated by a lofty generosity. " Mr. Udal," said lord Cobham, one of the commis sioners, " if you be not the author, say so ; and if you be, confess it; you may find favour." "My lord," answered Udal, " I think the author did well, and 1 know he is inquired after to be punished. I * Fuller iii. ix. p. 1. '!.'">. Neal i. p. 3!W. I'dal's Life. Whitgift's do. ELIZ. A.D. 1590. tc 181 THE HISTORY OF chapter think it my duty to hinder the finding of him out, which I cannot do better than thus." " And why so, I pray you," demanded the lord chief justice. Because," said Udal, "if every one that is sus pected do deny it, the author at length must needs be found out." An. intimation was made that his hfe was not in danger if he would take the oath ex officio. " I dare not take it," said Udal. " Then," said the court, " you must go to prison ; and it will go hard with you ; for you must remain there till you be glad to take it." " God's will be done," he exclaimed, " I had rather go to prison Avith a good conscience than be at liberty with an ill one." He was confined a close prisoner in the gate-house for six months, without pen, ink, or paper. He was then carried to the assizes at Croydon, with fetters on his legs, and tried for sedition. In order to prove his guilt and bring him within the statute, the counsel insisted that his threatening the bishops, who were the queen's officers, was tantamount to threatening the queen herself. The prisoner desired permission to explain the passage; insisting that an offence against the bishops could not possibly be construed into sedition against the queen. But his argument was set aside ; and the judge, without entering into the second and third points of the indictment (in the one of which a malicious intent was charged, and in the other, that the matters contained in the hbel were felony under a recent statute), at once directed the jury " that they who spoke agamst the queen's government or officers in causes ecclesiastical, spoke against herself." Udal was of course convicted. A form of recantation was laid before him ; but neither arguments nor threats could induce him to subscribe THE EARLY PURITANS. 185 it with his name. Yet he drew up a qualified sub- chapter mission, acknowledging that as to the book the YL authorship of which was imputed to him, though he KLTZ- ." could not disavow the cause and substance of the doctrine debated in it," yet he " confessed the man ner to be such, in some parts, as, might worthily be blamed ;" and he prayed most humbly her majesty's forgiveness. He was respited to the next assizes, when he was placed at the bar in irons, with the rest of the felons, and condemned to death. He de livered a paper, in which he protested against the sentence on several grounds, any one of which ought to have saved him from so ignominious a fate. It had not been proved, he said, that he was the author of the book in question. The witnesses had not confronted him in open court. He had not been allowed to produce any exculpatory evidence. He was condemned on the evidence contained only in certain papers and reports of depositions. The jury had been directed by the judge to find a verdict solely on the fact whether he was the author of the book ; they had been cautioned from inquiring into the intent of the writer ; whereas, according to the statute, the felony consisted in the malicious intent. The jury too had been wrought upon, partly by the promise that the verdict should not endanger the prisoner's life, and partly by fear ; "as appears from the grief manifested by some of them ever since." " And supposing," he adds, " I were the author of tho book ; let it bo remembered that for substance it contains nothing but what is taught and believed by the reformed churches in Europe : so that, in condemning me, you condemn all such nations and ELIZ. A.D. 1590 1S6 THE HISTORY OF chapter churches as hold the same doctrine. If the punish- Y1- ment be for the manner of writing, this may be thought by some worthy of an admonition, or fine, or some short imprisonment. But death for an error. of such a kind cannot but be extreme cruelty against one who has endeavoured to shew himself a dutiful subject and a faithful minister ofthe gospel." And he concluded his address with this solemn premo nition : " If all this prevail not, yet my Redeemer liveth, to whom I commend myself, and say as Je remiah once said in a case not much unlike mine, 'Behold, I am in your hands to do with me what soever seemeth good unto you ; but know you this, that if you put me to death, you shall bring inno cent 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 who shall be found guilty of it." Whether the court was awed by this appeal, or, which is more probable, by the protest that preceded it, it hesitated to carry the sentence into immediate effect. Elizabeth herself hesitated ; for Udal was a learned man, of blameless life, remarkable for his devotion, and an able preacher. A Hebrew gram mar, which he compiled in prison, attests at once his learning, his diligence, and his composure. He had many friends, and multitudes flocked to visit him. James, king of Scotland, the eager expectant of her throne, wrote a letter of intercession to Eh zabeth on his behalf, earnestly requesting his pardon as a personal favour. The merchants of London entreated that if he must be punished he might at THE EARLY PURITANS. 187 least be banished and not hanged ; and they offered chapter a chaplaincy in the Mediterranean as an asylum for M' him. Meantime, a higher Judge had, in mercy, re- ELIZ- versed the unrighteous sentence, and while his fate was in suspense, Udal died in the Marshalsea prison, worn down with sorrow, at the close of the year 1592. We may believe the historian who tells us, that his friends were glad that he should die in peace, and that the wisest of his foes were well contented that he escaped their vengeance. He was buried at St. George's Southwark, the ministers of London flocking to the funeral and by their presence pro testing against the iniquitous sentence with which a preposterous tyranny had vainly endeavoured to destroy his principles while it cut short his hfe. It was remarked that his grave was near to that of bishop Bonner ; a few feet of earth separated the bodies of two men of principles so far asunder. Time has long since shewn that might is on the side of him who suffers wrong, not of him who inflicts it. The fate of Pcnry was still more barbarous. He was a young Welsh clergyman, of ardent zeal, and possibly but little discretion : and his capacity was of that ordinary mould which seeks for truth at the antipodes of error. Preaching was depreciated by his opponents ; an error which he corrected by assorting that it was the only means of salvation ; that a homily was no preaching, and that mere readers were no ministers. He was committed to prison, but released after a month's confinement ; he then fled to Scotland, where he remained up wards of two years. During his absence he drew up a petition to the queen, which might well have 188 THE HISTORY OF chapter provoked, by its rude and offensive language, a much Y1- gentler monarch. It was seized among his papers : eliz. he was indicted for seditious language and convicted of felony in the court of king's bench upon the mat ter contained in this petition, although it was but a rough outline, and certainly had not in any sense been published. Penry was a brownist, and upon his trial he declaimed with all the vehemence of his party against "those remains of antichrist " of which he was anxious, he said, " to have the world cleared;" namely, the dignitaries ofthe church of England. The petition charges the queen with giving her power to the popish antichrist, the man of sin. Among the princes of this world who had been drawn to oppose the truth of the gospel she must include herself ; "for until you see this, madam," he exclaims, " you see not yourself." " Her govern ment shewed that if she could have ruled without the gospel it was doubtful whether popery would not have been preferred." In the days of her perse cuting sister Mary, the church of Christ flourished quite as well as beneath her sceptre : nay " it is well known that there was then in London, and elsewhere in exile, more flourishing churches than are now tolerated by your authority." But after his convic tion he did not attempt to defend the petition ; it was confused and unfinished, he said, containing the sum of certain objections made by others against her majesty and her government, which he intended at some future period to examine, but he had not so much as looked into them for the last fourteen months. — But he retracted nothing of his principles. " If my blood were an ocean, and every drop were a THE EARLY PURITANS. 189 life to me, I would, by the help of the Lord, give it chapter all in defence of the same." — " Death, I thank God, YI- I fear not. I know that the sting of death is taken ELIZ- away, — life I desire not, if I be guilty of sedition . . . but imprisonments, indictments, arraignments, and death are not weapons to convince the conscience that is grounded on God's word." In vain he asked for a conference ; in vain his wife presented a petition to the lord keeper. The warrant for his execution was signed ; and amongst the signatures, the first, be it said with shame, was Whitgift's. The instru ment was immediately sent to the sheriff ; and the very same day, wliile the prisoner was at dinner, he received his summons to the scaffold. That after noon he was carried in a cart to the gallows and there hung ; without being allowed to address the assembled crowd, as he desired, or to profess his faith towards God or his loyalty to the queen. He was seized, arraigned, condemned, and executed within a month of his return from Scotland. He was but thirty-four years old ; but no sense of shame, no feelings of remorse saddened his persecutors : the zealots of the court party triumphed in their victory. "By his death," exclaims an old writer, "the neck of the fiery nonconformists was broken."* It is more certain that they concealed their grief and nourished their hatred, and that in the next genera tion they took, for this and other enormities, a ter rible revenge. * Wood, Athena; Oxon. i. p. 229; Brooke's Lives ii. p. 65. 190 THE HISTORY OF A.D 1583—92. CHAPTER VII. a.d. 1583—1592. chapter It belongs to the secular historian to relate how YTI' the seeds of English liberty were taking root and eliz. : gathering strength during the long reign of Eliza- ; beth. The house of commons became the constitu- i tional arena on which the strife of political prin ciples was carried on ; and we begin to perceive the existence of those two great parties, the one inclined to prerogative and the support of ancient institu tions, the other to an extension of popular rights, which have survived to our own times unaltered in their essential character ; and upon the equipoise and true balancing of which our national safety seems, under divine providence, in a great measure to depend. Puritanism naturally found its advocates amongst those who were least inclined to acquiesce in the sovereign's claim of absolute authority. The early connection of this party with the puritans, more perhaps than any other cause, contributed to unite them into a compact body, and to impress them, when thus united, with certain features which have never been erased. To the puritans, the country or whig party owes the extraordinary VII. ELIZ. A.D. THE EARLY PURITANS. 191 vigour of its youth, and not a few of the principles chapter of its maturer age. The puritans had already laid their griefs before the parliament. While the events were proceeding im- which have been related in the foregoing chapter, a vigorous struggle was maintained in the house of commons on behalf of the suffering party. We have mentioned that in 1572, Eield and Wilcox, eminent men amongst them, assisted by some others, had drawn up and presented a petition, entitled "An admonition to the parliament ;" to which, by way of appendix, and to shew how far the foreign churches agreed with them, were added the letter which Beza had lately addressed to the earl of Leicester urging ' further reformations, and one from Gaulter to bishop Parkhurst on the same subject. The attempt was rash : in those days it Avas thought seditious and revolutionary ; for the admonition petitioned for a church upon the presbyterian model, and the sub version of episcopacy. Elizabeth considered that whatever concerned the royal prerogative was for bidden ground, and under this description she included every thing that related to religion. Eield and Wilcox were committed to Newgate, indicted under the statute of uniformity, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment.* The admonition was sup pressed by royal proclamation, and parliament was forbidden to proceed in the discussion of such ques tions. On several occasions the queen interfered to controul the debates of the house of commons ; and at length sent for the speaker, and charged him * Neal, i. p. 221; and Trice's History of Nonconformity, i. p. 2.31. 192 THE HISTORY OF chapter sharply " that henceforth no bills concerning reli- VII. ELIZ. A.D. gion should be received into the house of commons, unless the same should be first considered and ap- 1583-92. proved of by the clergy," — that is, by her council and herself, for the conforming clergy now moved only at her bidding. Peter Wentworth was one of the most eloquent members of the house, and he was a puritan. He took up the cause with the mind of a statesman ; and, rising above the particular case under discussion, aimed at nothing less than the establishment of freedom of speech in the com mons house of parliament as the means of rational liberty in England. " There is nothing," he said, I " so necessary for the preservation of the prince and state as free speech ; and without this it is a scorn ! and mockery to call it a parhament house, for in \ truth it is none, but a very school of flattery and (dissimulation, and so a fit place to serve the devil and jhis angels in, and not to glorify God, and benefit the commonwealth." And with a still more hazardous boldness, asserting the supremacy of the law above the sovereign himself, " the king," he continued, j" ought not to be under man but under God and the law ; because the law maketh him a king ; let the king therefore attribute that to the law which the law attributeth to him ; that is, dominion and power. Eor he is not a king whom will, and not the law, doth rule ; and therefore he ought to be under the law." The house interrupted him in alarm ; he was committed to the sergeant's custody, and the next day to prison, "for the violent and wicked words yesterday pronounced by him touching the queen's majesty." Wentworth was not at all sur- THE EARLY PURITANS. 193 prised : he had anticipated the worst and was pre- chapter pared for it. " I have weighed," he said, " whether, AIL in good conscience and the duty of a faithful subject, EL,Z- I might keep myself out of prison, and not to warn 1583-92. my prince from walking in a dangerous course. My conscience said that I could not be a faithful subject if 1 did more respect to avoid my own danger than my prince's danger. I was made bold and went forward, as your honours heard." A month's re flection, or the wiser advice of her ministers, con vinced the queen that her severity was impolitic. Wentworth was released. Constitutional principles must be regarded as having obtained a great tri umph, and the house of commons a position which it has never lost. But happily there amis no rup ture, nor even a coldness, between the commons and herself. " Elizabeth," says an able teacher of modern history, " could always give way in time to render hor concessions a favour. Unlike other arbi trary princes, and unlike chiefly in this particular, she did not think it a mark of political wisdom always to persevere Avhen her authority Avas re sisted. She did not suppose that her subjects, if she yielded to their petitions or complaints, Avould conclude that she did so from fear ; she did not conclude, that if she became more reasonable, they must necessarily become less so.'* A few years afterwards, in 1581, the commons themselves undertook the cause of the puritans. They presented an address to the upper house, con taining sixteen particulars. Six were directed * Professor Smyth, Modern Hist. Leet. xiv., where the reader will also ^ find Weutworth's speech as above. 0 ELIZ A.D. 1584 194 THE HISTORY OF chapter against insufficient ministers, pluralities, and desti- YI1, tute parishes, of which there was said to be a great number, especially in the north of England and in Wales. They proceeded to request that more hberty might be conceded to the consciences of the clergy ; that they might not be troubled for the omission of some rites or portions prescribed in the book of common prayer ; that some common exercises and conferences, such as the suppressed prophecyings, might be permitted; and that the power of the bishops in grave matters might not be deputed to commissaries and officials, but executed by them selves in person : that excommunication should not be inflicted for small matters, especially upon godly and learned preachers, who were neither convicted of open crimes nor apparent errors in doctrine : and they prayed that the court of high commission, ex cept for some notable offence, should no longer have the power of summoning and arraigning the clergy beyond the limits ofthe diocese in which they dwelt.* These, with a single exception, were reasonable demands. How far the clergy might be indulged in a partial conformity, even supposing them sin cerely attached, upon the whole, to the communion of the English church, was then, as it still continues to be, an anxious question. The rude hand of arbi trary power, and the contemptuous spirit of insub ordination, feel no difficulty. Gentler spirits, em- bued with a deeper love of justice, hesitate and pause. If the enactment must be rigidly obeyed, it should be framed so as to sit easily upon a scrupu- * Fuller iii. ix. ; Neal i. vii.; Strype's Whitgift, pp. 160—190. THE EARLY PURITANS. 195 lous conscience, — nay, upon an independent spirit, chapter Otherwise the energy of the christian minister is YI1, lost, to say nothing of his integrity. Again, since EEIZ- every society, whether secular or ecclesiastical, A'D1 forced or voluntary, must be governed by its peculiar laws, which, from the variety of men's minds, will necessarily press with unequal weight upon its various members, and which therefore cannot be alike acceptable to all ; it follows that each member must be content to sacrifice much of his inclination, — nay, it may be,- something of his conscientious principles, of his abstract ideas of Avhat, in particular instances, would be the most fitting and the best, — for the sake of mutual co-operation, and all those other advantages which result from united as opposed to solitary action. Each of the contending parties, the prelates on the one hand and the puri tans on the other, admitted tho force, not of these joint considerations, but merely of one or other of them singly. Neither would admit the truth con tained in what the other party advanced ; and of courso while the prelates insisted only on the duty of submission, and the puritans only on the hard ships of canonical obedience, discussion served but to increase the distance, and aggravate the quarrel. In the house of lords the discussion turned chiefly on tho question of non-residence ; which archbishop Whitgift defended with an argument which, had pluralities been limited to the poorer clergy, would have been triumphant. There were in England, he said, four thousand five hundred benefices not valued at moro than ten, and most of them at less than eight, pounds per annum. How could able pastors, o 2 196 THE HISTORY OF chapter such as the petitioners required, be provided for YI1' such livings ? Moreover, he affirmed, (and the eliz. practical Avisdom of the assembly in which he spoke AD. 1584— 7. A •/ J. would attach its full importance to the observation,) that, whatever Avas pretended to the contrary, Eng land at that very time possessed more able ministers than ever ; " yea, that we had more than all Christ endom besides." The lord Grey admitted the asser tion as to the number of learned ministers, but he attributed their increase not to the bishops but to God. Burghley, the lord treasurer, took a middle course; and would have allowed pluralities, pro vided the livings were near each other ; " at least in the same diocese, and not one in Winchester and another in the north." The archbishop and the clergy were alarmed, and petitioned the queen to interfere, that the proposed bill against pluralities might not pass into a law. The certain consequence, they said, of such a measure would be, the decay of learning, the renewed spoiling of the church, the taking away the set form of prayer in the churches, and in short a return to confusion and barbarism. "Our neighbours' miseries," they add, "might make us fearful." And in truth the confusion then prevailing among the foreign churches was the great argument which induced the moderate and reason able of all parties to submit to grievous inconve nience, as at least preferable to the hazards of a change. The matter, for the present, went no further. The archbishop and clergy, whether dreading the interference of the house of commons, or being con vinced that some reform was wanted, laid before the ELIZ. 1584-7. THE EARLY PURITANS. 197 queen six articles, which fell far short of what the chapter parliament had contemplated, but were probably vn' more suited to the difficulty of their own position, E and the necessities of the times. But they were promoted with but languid zeal ; nor was it till thirteen years afterwards they were carried into effect. In 1597 they were confirmed in convocation, and afterwards in 1603 introduced among the canons of the church. At the close of the session, the speaker ventured to express a firm hope that her majesty would, by strait commandment to her clergy, insist on the removal of such abuses as had crept in by the negligence of the ministers. The queen's answer is by no means complimentary to the ecclesiastical rulers. After censuring the dis satisfied spirit of those who loved to slander the church, she admits that faults and negligences ex isted; "all which," she adds, in the style so pecu liarly her own, " if you, my lords of the clergy, do not amend, I mean to depose you. Look you, there fore, avcII to your charges." Once more the puritans betook themselves to the house of commons. The favour with Avhich it regarded them, and tho influence they possessed in it, shew how strongly their principles had taken root amongst tho burgesses and citizens of England. Eor the lower house Avas now a representative body ; and tho interests, perplexities, and grievances of its constituents began to find an echo within its walls. Early in 1587 the puritans laid a petition before the house, in Avhich once more they set forth their grievances. They complain of pluralities, non-resi dence, a slothful clergy, and a non-preaching and A.D. 1587. 198 THE HISTORY OF chapter tyrannical episcopate. But the same rashness ^"' which had hitherto marred their prospects, and brought discredit even on their best intentions, still attended them. In the present temper of parlia ment, and probably of the queen herself, the redress of real grievances would scarcely have been withheld. We mav venture further, and assert that it could not have been denied, if their own conduct had not silenced their best friends, the men of moderate counsels. On the 27th of February, a member pre sented to the house on their behalf a bill which prayed that all the ecclesiastical laws in force should be annulled ; and that a service book which he then submitted to the house should take the place of the book of common prayer. Bishops and arch- bishops were declared unlawful ; the jurisdiction they possessed was to be vested in an assembly of ministers and elders ; the rights of patronage were abolished ; and, in short, an ecclesiastical revolution was announced.* The puritans crowded around the house of commons, and filled the passages, besieg ing its members for their votes, and its officials for information. The hopes and expectations of the party seem to have been extravagantly raised. Eive hundred clergymen, it is said, approved of the pro posed changes, and declared their approbation by signing the petition, or expressing their consent publicly ; — a fact which has been variously inter preted : some Avriters regard it as a proof of the lenity of the bishops, (notwithstanding the heavy charges brought against them,) that men so dis- * Neal i. p. 377- Strype's Whitgift, i. p. 490. THE EARLY PURITANS. 199 affected were allowed to remain in the bosom of the chapter church ; others, as a proof how needful concession YIL had become, seeing there were so many delinquents eliz. who could no longer be awed into submission. It AD' 16S7' certainly proves the growth of extreme puritanism ; and so far is an evidence that Whitgift's coercive measures had failed. Not uniformity, but a deep ening dislike of episcopacy, however modified, was rapidly diffusing itself. Whatever concession might have done ten years before, its day had passed, and it was powerless now. Indeed it was no longer sought : subversion, not concession, became hence forth the cry of the puritans. The queen resented the introduction of the bill : how indeed could she do otherwise ? " It was pre judicial to the religion established, to the crown, to her government, and her subjects ;" above all, " it was an invasion of her prerogative ;" and several members of the house, who had supported the bill, were committed to the tower. Had it been adopted by the legislature it would have involved church men in the same oppressions Avhich the puritans found to be intolerable. It is strange that neither party seems at present to have conceived the possi bility, or indeed to have understood the meaning, of toleration. Each side thought it could exist only by the destruction of the other. The possibility of an establishment surrounded by dissenting institu tions, independent but not hostile, the peaceful theory of the generous Doddridge and of Dr. Chal mers in later days, had not yet crossed the mind of man ! No such compromise Avas sought or offered.] lt was for victory they strove on both sides : a vie- 200 THE HISTORY OF chapter tory that included the extermination of the van- '- — quished. ELiy a.d. 1592. -^ feeble effort was made once more on behalf of the puritans in 1592.* Two bills were introduced to relieve the consciences of the nonconforming clergy, and to restrain the violence of the court of high commission ; especially the monstrous tyranny which, it seems, it still continued to practise, of depriving those who took the oath ex officio upon their own confessions ; and of imprisoning those who refused it, as obstinate or contumacious. The bill was supported by sir Erancis Knollys, and by Mr. Morrice. The latter held an office in the gift of the crown ; the former was a statesman of the highest reputation ; and both were puritans. But the queen had sufficient power to stop the proceed ings : she sent for sir Edward Coke, the speaker, and commanded him on his allegiance not to read the bill should it be laid before the house. Morrice was seized in the house itself ; dismissed from his office (he was chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster) ; disabled from practising in his profession as a com mon lawyer ; and kept for some years a prisoner in Tutbury castle. Holding a judicial office from the crown, the queen no doubt regarded him strictly as a servant, and punished him as a contumacious one. The house of commons did not resent the double insult offered to them in the person of their speaker and of one oftheir leading members. Circumstances had recently occurred wrhich afforded the queen an excuse for the resumption of arbitrary power, and placed the cause of the puritans at the greatest dis- * Neal i. p. 425. A.D. 1592. THE EARLY PURITANS. 201 advantage. It was but four years since the enthu- chapter siasm of the people had been deeply stirred by the YI1' appearance ofthe armada upon the coasts of England. a eliz; It was now at length evident that the protestant cause and the national independence had been in the greatest jeopardy ; and, besides, the life of the most popular of English sovereigns had been repeat edly threatened by assassins. Popular enthusiasm is always in extremes ; it often passes from one side to another at a single bound. Something of this kind now appears to have taken place. OtherAvise it is hardly possible to reconcile the placidity Avith which the nation looked on, and saw the house of commons insulted, and a vast number of its favourite ministers silenced or imprisoned, with its uneasiness a few years before under circumstances by no means so critical and alarming. The nation thought, no doubt, that a season of repose Avas wanted ; that no factious voice, no difference of opinion, ought to bo heard ; that a firm united front ought to be op posed to the intrigues ofthe papacy and the Jesuits ; and of those foreign poAvers who regarded Avith equal jealousy and Avonder the bursting poAver and greatness of an empire Avhich they had hitherto regarded Avith indifference, often Avith disdain. Two other causes must be added, which go far to explain the reaction that had taken place, and the Avant of sympathy now shewn by the nation at large towards the puritans and their friends in parha ment. One of these was the ill-timed publication of the Martin Mar-prelate pamphlets. Nothing could be moro abusive than their language, or more suspi- A.D. 1588. 202 THE HISTORY OF chapter cious than the time and mode of their appearance. — Iii The year 1588 was signalized by the overthrow of ,E"Lo ^ne armada, and the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. The object of the former was undisguised ; it was the subjugation of the realm to popery and to a foreign power. Whatever may have been the ver dict of history with regard to the latter, it was then universally allowed by the common people, and by all the puritans, that Mary suffered a righteous sen tence, having compassed the death of their own sovereign. Martin Mar-prelate seized the inaus picious moment for the issue of a series of anony mous libels against the queen and bishops, of the most atrocious character. Who or what the writers were, rests, like the authorship of Junius, in pro- foundest mystery. The censorship of the press was in Whitgift's hands ; it is scarcely necessary to add that it was severely exercised. Yet the Martin Mar-prelate tracts scoffed at his threats, denounced his office, and escaped his vigilance. Every modern advocate of the puritans condemns them, as most unworthy of their cause ; and the great puritan leaders, when they first appeared, spoke of them, let it in justice be remembered, with deep dissatis faction. But their influence on the common people was great notwithstanding ; and in consequence they brought down a weight of suspicion and dislike from the ruling powers, which fell heavily upon the whole body of the puritans. Martin Mar-prelate's press was shifted from place to place. Its secrecy, of course, added to its importance ; while the vexation of Whitgift and the court, expressed in fruitless de nunciations and in vindictive punishments, increased THE EARLY PURITANS. 203 its mischievous popularity. A proclamation was chapter issued for the discovery of the authors, which, from '- — whatever cause, is rather remarkable for its mode- A ^"f' ration. The defamatory libels are described " as drawn up in railing sort, and beyond the bounds of all good humanity ; as designed to introduce dan gerous changes in the form of doctrine in public service ; and with a rash and malicious purpose to dissolve the state of the prelacy, being one of three ancient estates of this realm under her highness." All men are forbidden to retain the libels in their possession ; but if witirin a month any person who knew their authors or publishers should discover the same, he was assured that for his former concealment he should not be molested or troubled.* But the libels were still published Avith impunity. The press was tracked from Surrey to more than one parish in North amptonshire; thence to Coventry; from Coventry to Woolston ; from Woolston to Manchester ; where it was seized, in Newton-lane, by the earl of Derby. t The earliest formal struggle upon record in our English history, ofthe press against the government ; and ono in every way instructive ! The triumph of the court party was, after all, equivocal ; for Avhat honour could bo gained by the seizure of a printing- press ? Its mischievous importance had in a great measure been owing to themselves. Libels of this kind, if unnoticed, lose half their power : treated with contempt, they sink into insignificance : and the mischief Avas already done ; for the libels had spread • A proclamation ujrainst certain seditious and schismatical books and libels. London : printed by Darker, 1.">SS. t Fuller iii. i\. p. 100. 204 THE HISTORY OF chapter far and Avide, but the real authors, the guilty parties, : — were never discovered. eliz. j3u^. |0 ^Qgg wh0 are engaged in religious contro- A.D. 1588. ° ° ° versies, or who contend for the removal of abuses in the church of Christ, the Martin Mar-prelate pamphlets convey a solemn lesson. Their insolent and seditious spirit, — terribly visited at the time upon those they were meant to serve, — has been, however unjustly, charged upon the puritans ever since by most oftheir opponents. They have never ceased to be spoken of as conveying the real meaning of their party, and honestly confessing to its secret intentions. The vindictive passions they have eli cited among high churchmen, are only, if at all, in ferior to those to which they once gave expression among ultra-puritans. Martin's forty pamphlets were answered by at least an equal number, scarcely less truculent, or less contemptuous of the christian virtues of forbearance, truth, and charity. They remain in history, on both sides, a melancholy record of the wickedness and folly of approaching religious controversy in a malignant spirit. Granting that the cause be right, what is it else than to fight the battle of the prince of peace Avith weapons snatched out of the armories of hell ? It has however been conjectured that the Mar- prelate pamphlets were Avritten by the Jesuits. In support of this opinion certain probabilities have been alleged, and the presumptive evidence they supply deserves consideration. The secrets of those spiritual conspirators are not often discovered ; and assuming the Jesuits to have been the authors, Ave must be prepared to expect that the proofs of their THE EARLY PURITANS. 205 delinquency should be difficult, if not impossible, chapter The council of Trent, in order to repress the refor- YIT" mation, is said to have secretly advised that Romish p"^, priests should be introduced among the protestant churches, Avho should make it the business of their lives to create confusion. This they Avere to do, by insinuating false doctrines, and introducing, as oc casion offered, forbidden ceremonies. Amongst Lu therans they were to preach up Calvinism, amongst Calvinists they were to be zealous Lutherans. In England their commission, adapting itself to the free and inquisitive spirit of the people, Avas still more liberal. They might even profess themselves anabaptists ; they might espouse whatever doctrines were mostopposed to the holy see, to disarm suspicion. They were to giveamonthly report oftheir adventures and successes ; and lest they themselves should be infected by the rising heresy, emissaries were sent to Avatch their proceedings. Such is the dexterity and the profound secrecy of the Jesuits that it seems impossible a plot of this description should be dis covered, unless betrayed by the agents themselves. But then the question naturally arises, whether even the confessions of such men, trained to systematic falsehood, and sworn to the practice of duplicity, ought to bo received; for it would Avell suit with their design to pretend conversion in order to obtain confidence; and to divulge pretended, in order to conceal real, secrets. HoAvever, there Avas one Samuel Mason, an Englishman, bred a Jesuit in Paris, and a man of learning, avIio pro fessed himself a convert to tho gospel, in Ireland, in the year 1566. His character must have been 206 THE HISTORY OF chapter high, since the lord lieutenant made him his chap- YI1' lain. In his recantation, in the cathedral church of eliz. Dublin, he related the instructions he had received ; A.D. 1588. . namely, to embarrass the reformed faith by manoeuvres such as have been described. About the same time one of the superior emissaries, John Giles, re canted at Gloucester and made a similar avowal. In the same year Blagrave, a Romish priest, was caught and hanged at York for a treasonable correspondence. As he went up the ladder he laughed in the arch bishop's face, and told him scornfully that he had been making converts from the church of England to the sectaries, who would hate the liturgy as much as his grace did Rome.* Two years afterwards Heath, brother of a former archbishop of York, who had been a persecutor in the days of Mary, and her lord high treasurer, was detected on a Jesuit mission. He had been preaching in England, for six years, from place to place, as a poor minister without pre ferment, and passed in general for a puritan. In his lodgings were discovered a licence from the Jesuits, as well as a bull from pope Pius the fourth, authorizing him to preach whatever doctrines the Jesuits should direct, so as to create divisions in the church of England. His detection was curious. He had asked and obtained from the dean, permission to preach in the cathedral of Rochester ; and in his sermon he had introduced some indirect reflections on the prayers of the church of England. This aroused suspicion, or at least dislike ; and as he chanced to drop a letter from his pocket in the pul- * Strype's Annals, vol. i. chap. 19, p. 222. Osborn's hidden works of darkness : or the doings of the Jesuits, p. 82. VII. ELIZ. A.D. 1588. THE EARLY PURITANS. 207 pit, the sexton carried it at once to the bishop. It chapter was found to contain instructions from a well-known Jesuit leader at Madrid, with reference to the con duct of his mission and his own deportment. Heath was examined before the bishop ; and after much prevarication at length avowed himself a Jesuit. He received his sentence from the bishop's court ; and terrible as it was, it was still, according to the prac tice and opinions of the time, less than his crimes de served ; for had he not been the brother of an arch bishop he would no doubt have been hanged or burnt at once. He stood for three days in the pillory at Rochester ; his ears were cut off, his nose slit, and his forehead branded with the letter R ; and he was then condemned to imprisonment for life. He died a few months afterwards, we are told, not with out suspicion of poisoning himself. But Avhatever the reader may think of his morals, he Avill scarcely find it necessary to charge a man who died in'prison under such circumstances Avith the guilt of suicide.* A few such instances occurring from time to time created a general impression that Jesuits abounded in England under the clerical disguise. In the year of the armada, a vast number of popish books and pamphlets, in the style and spirit of Martin Mar- prelate, seditious and insolent, were dispersed on a sudden through the kingdom. Erom these circum stances it has been conjectured, not unreasonably, that tbe Mar-prelate papers Avere also written by the Jesuits, and Avere a part of the great popish con spiracy against the protestant faith and the throne of Elizabeth. But the connecting link is wanting : * Strype's Annals, vol. i. cbap. f.2, p. 522. 208 THE HISTORY OF chapter no Jesuit has been discovered to have been in con- .nection Avith Mar-prelate's itinerant printing-press. VII. ELIZ. We may suppose,too,that the English ultra-puritans, knowing the dangers to which they were exposed, must have been extremely cautious in admitting strangers to their confidence, or even in giving cir culation to their writings. And anxious as the early puritan writers were to relieve themselves from the odium of these libels, it is remarkable that they do not impute them to the Jesuits ; while the reserve of Penry and Udal upon their trials, when challenged with the knowledge of their authors, rather leads us to the conclusion that they knew in what direc tion the writers of the Mar-prelate libels were to be sought for. It is more probable, on the whole, that the Romish agents fomented the violence of the ultra-puritans, than that they were themselves the authors of these memorable pamphlets. Another circumstance which tended greatly, though most unjustly, to discredit the puritan cause, was the insane attempt of a madman and his two associates to subvert the government. Calmly viewed, and at this distance of time, the affair seems utterly unworthy of a place in history ; for history does not record the melancholy aberra tions of the insane : she teaches by example, and from such examples nothing can be learned. Wil liam Hacket* had given evidences of insanity from his youth : he was violent and a fanatic ; he boasted of his intercourse with heaven by visions and reve lations ; and attested his veracity whenever it was * Fuller iii. ix. p. 114. Conspiracy for a pretended reformation, &c. by Richard Cosin, LL.D. . published by authority, 1592. VII. ELIZ. A. D. 1592. THE EARLY PURITANS. 209 questioned, with direful oaths and execrations. He chapter thought himself invulnerable; and challenged any one who pleased, to test his Achillean properties, and wound or kill him. As his disease increased, he successively proclaimed himself the sovereign of Europe, the saviour of the world, and at length the Deity himself. Had not the villanies of Joseph Smith the mormonite, and the frenzy of Joanna Southcote, in our own age, taught us that no pretensions of this nature seem utterly preposterous to a certain class of minds, it would have been inexplicable that even two converts should have been gained by such a leader and to such a cause. Edmund Coppinger, a person of good descent, undertook to be his " pro- phot of mercy;" and Henry Arthington, a York shire gentleman, his " prophet of judgment." They proclaimed from a cart in Cheapside the advent of Racket's reign ; wlrich they said Avas supreme in all things, both spiritual and temporal. The croAvd was great ; but they gained no converts amongst the people, who saw them all three committed to Bride well the next day with perfect indifference : though some feAV even then conceived Bedlam the most proper place for them. Hacket was tried for high treason and hanged, uttering at the last expres sions which would indeed have been horribly blas phemous, had there been the slightest reason to suppose that the unhappy Avretch was conscious of their meaning. Coppinger died in prison the next day ; having, it Avas said, starved himself to death. Arthington confessed his folly and Avas pardoned. It docs not appear that the slightest ill-conse quences folloAved this mad outbreak. The people p ELI A. D. 1592 210 THE HISTORY OF chapter looked on with detestation or with contempt ; nor VI1' was it pretended that the queen's authority had been for an hour impaired, far less endangered. But Hacket and his associates had been smitten with a love of the Geneva discipline, as it now began to be termed ; and amongst other reformations they had resolved upon the destruction of the church of England. It was discovered too, or at least asserted, that Cartwright had corresponded with Coppinger. A letter from Coppinger, it is true, but one of no consequence, was found in Udal's posses sion : but Cartwright proved that he had refused to see him (for he was then himself a prisoner), and that he had warned his friends from the first to be aware of Coppinger as a man in a state of mental derangement. One fact alone is sufficient for his justification : no steps were taken to convict him as an accomplice. Dark suspicions were indeed thrown out ; and Dr. Cosin, the dean of arches, and principal official to Whitgift, wrote a treatise, iu which he insinuated that the conspiracy was en couraged by the party, and that it was a repetition of the outrages of the German anabaptists. Other writers have continued to repeat the slander ; " for," as Euller quaintly observes, "it is the glutinous nature of all assertions to stick where they light." The same historian adds, that the puritans were so hated at court in consequence, that for many months together no favourite durst present a petition to the queen on their behalf. Cosin argues at length against the supposition of the insanity of Hacket and the others, in a strain equally discreditable to his heart and his understanding. Even Hooker, the THE EARLY PURITANS. 211 just and gentle Hooker, was not superior to the chapter general prejudice. In Hacket and Coppinger he TU- sees, not the frenzy of two hopeless madmen, but the EL1Z- ill tendency of the Geneva discipline,* and in their punishment the avenging hand of God. While the government was in this temper, an act was passed which was never knoAvn to confer the shghtest benefit on the church of England, while it has given occasion to its adversaries to load it ever since with the bitterest invectives. It is a mournful instance of panic legislation. Its provisions could not be enforced but at the certain risk of an odium such as no institution could sustain amongst any people who had escaped from a state of barbarism, and were not restrained by martial law or the in stant terrors of the Romish inquisition. Resistance was certain ; and one would gladly think that the law was intended merely as an empty menace. It enacted! that if any person above the age of sixteen years should obstinately refuse to repair to some church or chapel, to hear divine service and common prayer, he should be, on conviction, committed to prison, without bail or mainprize, until he should conform and make public confession of his confor mity in terms prescribed by the statute itself. Re fusing to conform, the delinquent was banished for life; and, returning home without the queen's licence, Avas liable to suffer death as a felon. The same penal ties Avere incurred by a month's absence from church without some lawful cause ; by persuading others to • Hooker, Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to Eecl. Polit. p. 121. Oxf. 1820. t An act to retain the queen's subjects, &c , 35 Eliz. e. 1. Price's Hist. Noncon. 1. p. 405. P 2 ELIZ. A.D. 1592 212 THE HISTORY OF chapter deny or impugn her majesty's power and authority YIL in causes ecclesiastical; or by inducing others to abstain from church, or to be present at conventicles. The law was chiefly aimed against the brownists and romanists. Cartwright, and such as he, Avho still conformed, were not affected by it. But it is a dangerous experiment to goad a restive conscience ; and the act before us was pregnant Avith calamities. It excited opposition in those who had hitherto yielded at least a formal acquiescence. It placed every man in whom the first seeds of dissatisfaction had been sown, upon trial before his own conscience ; and pride, if no higher motive, would compel a ver dict against conformity. There was no room for affection beneath an iron discipline ; no merit in love and allegiance to the church when the absence of it amounted to a felony. Thus earnest and devoted love, warmth of feeling, and the enthusiasm that inspires the noblest cause with life and makes it triumph at last, passed over to the puritans. A cold and military discipline, heartless exact and formal, remained with the party who, unhappily for its highest interests, controlled in this affair the destinies of the church of England. THE EARLY PURITANS. 213 ELIZ. A.D. 1593. CHAPTER VIII. a. d. 1593—1595. Whatever differences hitherto separated the chapter puritans and prelatists doctrinal questions had no place amongst them. It was not till near the close of the reign of Elizabeth that any important points of doctrine were agitated on which, in fact, there did not exist a perfect harmony between the contending parties. And there are other matters, inferior in interest only to the vital doctrines of revelation, on which an unceasing warfare has long raged among the various bodies of English christians, upon which no note of difference had yet been sounded. Whether it be accepted in proof of tenderness of conscience or of mere pertinacity, it is certain that the grounds of the struggle in which the puritans suffered so long, and often so unjustly, were trifling Avhen compared to other grievances which have rent the church of Christ. Of the questions Avhich have arrayed almost every class of dissenters in hostility against the church of England, or still more un happily her own members against each other, those which have since assumed the foreground were yet unknown. With regard to the method of salvation, tho nature of the sacraments, the character of the 214 THE HISTORY OF chapter christian ministry, and the national establishment YI11, of religion, there was no dispute. The controversy, eliz. -^hen {i ha(} raa:ed for fortv Years, was still confined A.D. 1593. a J J ' to the ceremonial of religion, and to the purity not of its doctrines but of its external fabric. Painful disputes have now for a long time existed even amongst reputed orthodox christians upon some doctrines the importance of which it is scarcely pos sible to overstate. A discussion of these points be longs to theology, and not to history ; nor is it pos sible, without a long induction of proofs and argu ments, to do full justice to the points raised, and the questions at issue, on either side. The reader will sufficiently understand the controversy to which we refer when we say that it concerns chiefly the method of a sinner's justification in the sight of God. Whether it is by faith in Jesus Christ alone, or by faith and good Avorks conjoined. The advo cates ofthe former view charge their opponents with dimming the lustre of the gospel, and embarrassing the penitent with conditions which Christ himself has not imposed. They maintain that the principles they so unceasingly condemn, tend to self-righteous ness, are subversive of evangelical obedience, and therefore injurious to man and dishonourable to God. On the other hand, it is asserted that these evangelical principles, if not inconsistent with a high and pure morality, are at least in no degree conducive to it ; that they tend to inflame the ima gination rather than to influence the conduct ; and, in a word, to make religion more an affair of senti ment than practice. The charge brought by the former party against the latter is, that the truths THE EARLY PURITANS. 215 they teach, though important in their place, are not chapter the gospel of Jesus Christ. The latter reply, in Ym- general, with imputing enthusiasm to their oppo- ELIZ- nents. Round these centres other p-reat questions of christian doctrine revolve iL'^neir respective orbits. But the points we have mentioned thus briefly are the pivot, in either case, of a system upon which the rest depend. The doctrine of a divine influence with regard to its necessity and extent ; and that of the depravity of human nature, whether entire or partial, are closely affected, it must be evident, by the manner in which the doc trine of justification is previously determined. In short, a system of theology, with vast and various consequences, depends, by necessary consequence, upon the determination of this one point ; — as Luther perceived when, in words which have be come proverbial, he singled out the doctrine of justification by faith only as the token of a riving or a sinking church. But these controversies had not yet arisen, nor had the opinions of those who oppose the doctrine of justification by faith only; the entire depravity of man by nature ; and the consequent necessity of a conversion or renewal of the soul by the Holy Spirit, (introducing him into a new state, — in which he enjoys the divine favour, and inherits the pro mise of eternal life,) — at this time found expression either amongst the puritans or their adversaries. Indeed their perfect consent upon every doctrinal point stands out in the most striking contrast with their vehement disputes upon almost every ques tion of church policy. Those of the puritans Avho CHAPTER VIII. ELIZ. A.D. 1593. 216 THE HISTORY OF carried matters to the greatest length, and even for- sook^in after times the communion of the church of England>vretained her doctrinal peculiarities, and long insisteoN^nsubscription to her doctrinal articles as a test of of i*^ *oK^_As they slowly retired they carried with them, as a treasure of the highest worth, the substance of her forms and fhe vital principles Avhich pervaded them. Many of them thought that the vehicle was too gross, the form too cumbrous, for the precious truth enshrined in it ; but none of them affected to deny that the doc trines of the church of England were the pure doc trines of the gospel ; nor did they charge her with being, in this sense, an unfaithful witness to the truth of God. Rude and fierce was their assault upon " the pope at Lambeth," yet they did not chal lenge Whitgift himself with unsound doctrine. In their bitterest moments, when they reviled the church of England as the church of antichrist, they applied their censure no further than to what they thought its antichristian practices ; they never charged it with antichristian doctrines. If, as may possibly have been the case, a few expressions drawn from the writings of the most violent or least scru pulous of the puritans, should seem to be inconsis tent with this assertion, they produced no impres sion ; and were unheeded by the great leaders in the controversy. In a summary of the points which went to make up the quarrel, such charges, if such were made, may safely be thrown out of the enu meration as the mere expression of petulance and folly : they left no impression : the poisoned weapon fell harmless to the ground. THE EARLY PURITANS. 217 The system of divinity embraced by the church of chapter England, and indeed by all the reformed churches, YI11, was that which has since been known as moderate ELIZ- Calvinism. But the title is incorrect as regards the church of England ; because, in the first place, her system was not derived through Calvin, nor based on his authority ; and in the second, it differed from the system which he taught in some points of great importance. Had the fathers of the reformed church of England sought for the sanction of a name, it is probable that Bullinger, not Calvin, would have been their leader ; and his Decades, rather than Calvin's Institutes, would have been made their text-book. Eor Bullinger was better known in England, and his fame was high for wis dom amongst us, while the name of Calvin was still obscure. The convocation of 1586 ordered that every minister, under the degree of bachelor of arts or master of arts and not licensed, should provide Bul- linger's Decades in Latin or English, and every week read at least as much as would equal one sermon. In 1585, Aylmer issued the same order to the Lon don clergy ; probably the most learned at that period of the clerical body. The principles of the refor mation and its doctrines were settled and finally determined without reference to Calvin.* Still it Avas most improbable that a Avork of such extra- ordinarv merit as the " Institutions of the Christian Religion" should not make an impression wherever it found its way ; or that it would not soon find its * Even Heylyn, always anxious to exaggerate the evil influences of Cal vinism, repeatedly makes this admission. Hist. Reformat, i. p. 134, &c. ; and Iiitrod. to Laud. sect. 4. 218 THE HISTORY OF chatter way into every protestant university in Europe. It v'"' ; was read both at Oxford and Cambridge, with the eliz. i sanction of the university ; and from this circum- A.D. 1595. ... stance sprung up the first dissentions in the English church upon the doctrines of the christian faith. The controversy arose at Cambridge, where the two professors of divinity were opposed to each other on the doctrines (since then so often perverted into an occasion of strife and discord) of election and final perseverance. An inferior member of the univer sity rashly took up the quarrel in a strain wlrich increased the mischief ; denouncing from the pulpit of St. Mary's, Beza, Calvin, and the foreign re formers by name, and condemning their writings in the mass. He was censured by Whitgift, and quitted the university in disgust. Whitgift, Avith the design of appeasing the dis turbance, drew up the famous Lambeth articles, — Avhich have, unhappily, occasioned greater and more lasting schisms than they were meant to heal. They Avere nine in number; expressed in Latin, and ap proved, though with a certain degree of hesitation, by Hutton archbishop of York, Eletcher bishop of London, Young of Rochester, by Dr. Whitaker of Cambridge, and some other divines. They were pub lished in October 1595, and were as follow :* i. God from eternity has predestinated some per sons to life ; some he has reprobated to death. ii. The moving or efficient cause of predestination to life is not the foreseeing of faith, or of perse verance, or of good works, or of anything which * Fuller iii. c. ix. p. 147 ; Strype's Whitgift, p. 46.3. THE EARLY PURITANS. 219 may exist in the person predestinated, but the will chapter and pleasure of God alone. __ii"i_ iii. Of the predestinated the number is certain ELIZ- f . A.D. 1595. and fore-ordained, it can neither be increased nor diminished. iv. They who are not predestinated to salvation shall necessarily be condemned for their sins. v. True, living, and justifying faith, and the Spirit of God justifying, is not extinguished, does not fail, or vanish in the elect, either finally or totally. vi. A man truly faithful, that is, endued with justifying faith, has the full assurance of faith, of tho remission of his sins, and of his eternal salva tion by Christ. vii. Saving grace, by Avhich they might be saved if they would, is not assigned, communicated, or granted to all men. viii. No one is able to come to Christ unless it be given him, and unless the Father draw him, and all men are not drawn by tho Father, so that they may come to the Son. ix. It is not placed within tho power or will of ovcry man to bo saved. These articles Avere transmitted to Cambridge by the archbishop, Avith an injunction that they should be received by tho university and form the standard of its teaching upon the controverted points. This Avas done, he said, simply to explain the undoubted meaning of the church of England, and not with any intention of imposing new statutes or interpre tations. But tho result proved that his measures had been rashly taken. In tho first place, divines even of the 220 THE HISTORY OF chapter school of Calvin were not prepared to receive with VIIL implicit submission the dogmas enunciated in the eliz. Lambeth articles. These awful and mysterious ques- A D 1595 tions are treated by the great Genevan with a reve rential solemnity which strongly contrasts with the sententious dogmatism of the archbishop. His paper is drawn up in a style of composition much affected by men of clear but narrow minds ; and with a hard ness in its brief and positive assertions such as in general marks a religion wanting, that which is in truth the soul of piety, deep reverence and humi lity. Charity has lost much by these compendious summaries ; in Avhich a decision is given within the compass of a sentence, or the clause of a sentence, upon points on which the wisest and best men are most prone to hesitate; while, in regard to theo logical truth and accuracy, nothing whatever has been gained.* It will always be found, indeed, that something has been pared away from the grandeur of divine truth as revealed in scripture before it * The following passage from the Rev. E. Biekersteth's Christian Stu dent is well deserving of attention. " The leading divines in Queen Eliza beth's reign must be considered as making rather a more distinct and explicit statement of Calvinistic doctrine than their predecessors. Calvin's Institutes were read in the schools by order of convocation. Indeed an ultra-Calvinism, which appears to have been maintained by some, rather than the scriptural divinity of our first reformers, led, as might be expected, to opposing statements in doctrine. . . . There was, however, in the author's view, a serious evil in thus attempting to fathom the unfathom able mind of Jehovah. Where angels probably adore in silent submission, men with too little humility, and with presumptuous curiosity, have either opposed or evaded his plain declaration, or not stopping in the words of scripture, scrutinized the mind and character of the only wise God. How just was bishop Carleton's view of this ! ' In the matter of predestination, I have ever been fearful to meddle : it is one of the greatest and deepest of God's mysteries. We are with reverence to wonder, and with faith and humility to follow that which God has revealed on this point, and there to stay.' " (Bickersteth, p. 235.) THE EARLY PURITANS. 221 could be fitted into the cramped and narrow mould chapte of a human system. Besides, the Lambeth articles : — pronounced with confidence upon several points on A E^95 which the church of England had maintained a pro found silence ; and these were the most difficult and painful in the whole controversy. To go no further, the first article asserts a doctrine neither taught nor implied in the standards of the English church, the doctrine of reprobation. The wise caution of our reformers, in abstaining from dogmatic assertions on this and some other fruitful sources of unprofit able strife, and confining the national creed as much as possible to the essentials of salvation, is alone sufficient to counterbalance all their faults, and to claim for them the highest place in our regards. But it was well for the church, in this instance, that Elizabeth, with her royal prerogative, interfered. She was much displeased, she said, in a letter which Cecil wrote by her command to the archbishop,* that any permission had been given by his grace and his brethren for such points to be disputed; the matter being tender and dangerous to weak, igno rant minds : and she commanded him to suspend his articles, and to put a stop to the discussion of the subject from the pulpit. Under all the circum stances, it was a judicious exercise of the power entrusted to the secular head ofthe church. But such is the carelessness of party writers, that the queen's interference is often represented as the condemnation by authority of calvinistic tenets : whereas she wisely abstained from expressing a judgment upon the truth of the articles, and spoke ' Neal i. p. 45". 222 THE HISTORY OF chapter only of their difficulty ; following in this the mode- YI11, ration of our seventeenth article, on the doctrine of eliz. predestination, — and Ave may add, of Calvin himself, than whom no man has spoken more strongly upon the danger and folly of approaching these discus sions in an unguarded temper, or without the deep est reverence.* Thus the matter for the present was stifled, but the embers smouldered, and broke out from time to time in fierce conflagrations. It happened too, by one of those strange transitions, the result of ob- I scure and complex movements, which wear, in the j eyes of posterity, an appearance of absurd and vio- { lent inconsistency, that within a few years, Whit- | gift's ultra- Calvinism became the heritage of the [ ultra-puritans ; whose successors, in the unceasing | conflicts they waged with the church of England, learned habitually to fall back upon Whitgift's articles, in proof of their own lineal descent from a lofty parentage. And it must certainly be confessed that if he embarrassed the puritans while he lived with needless severities, he has made them some amends by perplexing the church of England ever since with painful controversies. But to this sub ject we shall have occasion to revert hereafter. The nature of the sacraments, another fruitful source of controversy in later times, had not yet dis turbed the church of England. With one accord, it was held that they were signs and seals of grace, and that the reception of the grace conveyed de pended upon their right reception. Between the * Instit. lib. iii. cap. 21. THE EARLY PURITANS. 223 puritans and the highest of the church party there chapter existed upon these points no difference whatever. ^-Hl — The tone and services of the book of common praver ELIZ- . x " A. D. 1595. were objected to, it is true ; but this was not the ground of objection. Kneeling at the eucharist was a grievance, not because the remonstrants were dis satisfied with the teaching of the church of England; as to the qualities remaining after consecration in; the bread and wine ; nor because they disputed as to the nature of the blessings connected with the sacrament ; but simply because they thought tbje posture superstitious, and that it became them to protest against a usage practised in the church <&f Rome, and by her perverted to idolatry. So toq, they objected to the cross in baptism. The sacra^ ment, they said, was complete without it : and they denied the right of any church to add to the Saviour's institutions ; besides that the sign of the cross was in itself an especial offence to them. They disliked the office, and the name, of godfathers and godmo thers. But it was not because they had any scruples as to the pledges made by the sureties on the child's behalf; but because they thought the parents, or natural guardians of the child, the fittest persons to make them. Seceders from the English church in later times have found their greatest grievances in these offices, and in the doctrines they are supposed to inculcate. But here the puritans, down to the close of queen Elizabeth's reign, had raised no com plaints. — Their objections extended no further than to questions of form and manner and of church dis cipline. Indeed the unanimity of the reformed churches 221 THE HISTORY OF chapter throughout Europe, upon the nature of the sacra- . ments, is not a little remarkable. It was one of the adLIi595 grea^ questions ofthe reformation. It was the hinge of the whole controversy with Rome. All the martyrs were examined upon this, many of them on no other, point. The primitive christian in the days of Trajan, might have escaped the sword ofthe executioner, if he would have scattered a few grains of incense upon the next pagan altar. Our English martyrs would have been spared the horrors of the stake, had they been willing to pay a similar respect to the altars of the papacy and to adore the real pre sence in the consecrated bread. And it is monstrous to suppose that a considerable body of men of sense and learning (assuming on their behalf neither in tegrity nor holiness) should have squandered their lives in defence of opinions they had not investigated; or that all their powers had not indeed been fixed, with an energy intense and deep in proportion to their own peril, upon the inquiry on the result of wlrich depended, if nothing else, the alternative of a life of honour or a death of agony and shame. Thus, if there be a theological subject which can properly be said to have been exhausted by the researches of former times, — to have been placed by our fore fathers in such a flood of light that no additional ray has been seen to gleam upon it, — the sacra ments as expounded by the reformers are in that predicament. The obscurity that remains appears to be inherent ; whatever light wisdom and piety and massive learning can shed upon them, seems to have been imparted. It would not be difficult to shew that all the ELIZ. A. D. 1595. THE EARLY PURITANS. 225 foreign churches taught, with scarcely a perceptible chapter shade of difference, the doctrines of our own. The ""' presbyterian church of Scotland expresses herself in language entirely consonant with that ofthe English church, whether in our office for baptism, our arti cles, or our catechism ; and in language of equal strength. " We assuredly believe that by baptism we are engrafted into Christ Jesus, to be made par takers of his justice, by which our sins are covered and remitted : and that also in the supper, rightly used, Christ Jesus is so joined with us that he be cometh the very nourishment and food of our souls. But all this, we say, cometh of true faith, which ap- prehendeth Christ Jesus, who only maketh his sacra ments effectual unto us." Thus she speaks in her confession,* which was first exhibited to, and allowed by, the three estates in parliament, at Edinburgh, in the year 1560 ; again ratified at the same place, and on tho same authority, in 1567 ; and finally subscribed by the king and his household, at Holy- rood house, in 1581. Seventy years aftenvards, when the presbyterian divines assembled at West minster to remodel the church of England, and tu carry out the most fervent aspirations of CartAvright in his younger days, the doctrine of the sacraments Avas still the same. Of baptism they say : " By the right use of this ordinance the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited, and conferred by the Holy Ghost, to such, Avhether of age or infants as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's OAvn will, in his appointed time."f And * Harmony of Protestant Confessions. Hall's Kibtion. f AV'estmin. Confession, ch. 28. Q 226 THE HISTORY OF chapter of the eucharist to the same effect : " Worthy re ceivers, outAvardly partaking of the visible elements ELIZ in this sacrament, do also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporeally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death ; the body and blood of Christ being then not corporeally or carnally in, with, or under the bread and wine, yet as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to the outward senses."* These may be received as the views of the pu ritans themselves ; including that extreme section who would have overthrown episcopacy and estab lished in England a presbyterian or an independent church. For the church of Scotland naturally felt, and indeed formally expressed, a sympathy with the Enghsh puritans : and the Westminster divines, when the puritans properly so called had died out, succeeded in their place. Lord Bacon may be taken as a fair and, all must admit, a competent repre sentative of the church party. Though averse to Whitgift's severity, and, in common with the other courtiers and statesmen of the day, not well pleased to be over-shadowed by the splendours of the hier archy, still he was no puritan ; he thought their scruples needless if not schismatical. He has left on record a confession of his faith which might, for the doctrines it contains, have been written indif ferently by Cartwright or by Whitgift, — by an im prisoned puritan or by the head of the church of England. For its singular force and beauty, it Avell * AVestmin, Confession, ch. 29. ELIZ. A.D. 1595. THE EARLY PURITANS. 227 deserves a place in a religious history of those chapter times. And it will confirm the position we have YI11' endeavoured to establish, that theological differences on points of doctrine had no share in the disputes which then rent the church of England.* The authority of the christian ministry, — the source from whence it is derived, and the channel along which it flows, — has now for a long time been agitated with incessant heat amongst the various classes of religionists in England. It was not, how ever, one of those points upon which the puritans entertained any peculiar sentiments ; or differed from their opponents of the other party. This root of bitterness had not yet sprung up : Avho were, and * " The sufferings and merits of Christ, as they are sufficient to do away the sins of the whole world, so they arc only effectual to those which are regenerate by the Holy Ghost ; who breatheth where he will of free grace ; which grace, as a seed incorruptible, quickeneth the spirit of man, and conceiveth him anew a son of Gm/, and a member of Christ : so that Christ, having man's flesh, and man having Christ's Sjiirit, there is an open passage, and mutual imputation, whereby sin and wrath was conveyed to Christ from man, and merit and life is conveyed to man from Christ : which seed of the Holy Ghost fgureth in us, the image of Christ slain or crucified, through a lively faith, and then reneweth in us the image of God in holiness and charity; though both imperfectly, and in degrees far dif fering, even in God's elect, as well in regard ofthe fire of the Spirit, as of the illumination thereof, which is more or less in a large proportion, as namely, in the Chinch before Christ, which yet, nevertheless, was partaker of one and the same salvation with us, and of one and the same means of salvation with us. The work of the Spirit, though it be not tied to any means in heaven or earth, yet it is ordinarily dispensed by the preaching of the word, the administration of the Sacraments, the covenants of the fathers upon the children, prayer, reading ; the censures ofthe church, the society of the godly, the cross and afflictions, God's benefits, his judg ments upon others, miracles, the contemplation of his creatures; all which, though some be more principal, God useth as the means of vocation and conversion of his elect ; not derogating from his power to call immediately by bis grace and at all hours and moments of the day, that is, of man's life, according to his good pleasure."— Works, vol. ii. p. 470. Edit. 1S2(>. Q2 228 THE HISTORY OF chapter who were not, accredited ministers of Jesus Christ, — ^U1, was a point upon which a perfect agreement as yet a DLIi596 existed between them. It was in the year 1589 that Bancroft, then chaplain to Whitgift, but afterwards bishop of London and archbishop of Canterbury, preached a sermon at St. Paul's cross which at once opened a new strife. He maintained in his sermon, that bishops Avere, by the institution of God himself, an order in the christian ministry superior to priests and deacons, and distinct from them ; and that they governed the church and the inferior clergy, jure divino, by a right inherent to their office, and de rived from God alone. The denial of these truths, he said, was heresy.* Episcopalians attach grave importance and high dignity to the office of a bishop. They trace it to the purest ages of the church, and discover, as they conceive, unequivocal tokens of its existence as a separate, and a superior, order in the ministry during the apostolic age itself. And, in general, they believe that our Lord, addressing himself through St. John at Patmos, to the seven angels of the churches that were in Asia, recognised in them the superior claims of the episcopate, and gave to their offices the awful sanction of his own approval. Thus far all episcopalians agree ; and all are willing, in the sense here explained, to admit the apostolic institution and the divine right of the episcopacy ; since the head of the church sanc tioned, if he did not expressly found, it ; and what ever powers it is intrusted with, are derived from his commission. * Strype, Whitgift, p. 292. Neal i. p 389. A. D. 1595. THE EARLY PURITANS. 229 The subject was viewed in this light at the period chapter of the reformation. The antiquity of the office, its YI11' validity and its importance, were questions upon ELIZ- which there was no dispute. Beza and Calvin admit them on behalf of the foreign churches ; who dis pensed with the episcopate, for the most part, with extreme reluctance, and in submission to a neces sity which they could not, or thought they could not, control. And they justified their presbyterian forms of government by the plea, that they did in fact retain the office, if not the name : that a pri mitive bishop was but primus inter pares, the first among his brethren ; endowed with powers which they too virtually possessed as presbyters, but from the exercise of which they voluntarily abstained for tho sake of common order and united action. And this view of the episcopate prevailed extensively in England, not only amongst the puritans, but with many of the prelatic party. Others, regarding episcopacy with still deeper reverence, considered the bishop a superior officer, not only in the rank he held, but in the commission lie sustained. They regarded the tripartite distribu tion of the christian ministry as that Avhich Christ enjoined, and his disciples set on foot and prac tised. They thought it necessary to the perfection of a christian church ; and consequently regarded the foreign churches and the church of Scotland as hastily constructed, and deviating, perhaps rashly, from the ancient practice and the primitive consti tution of a church. But this was the extreme length to which they carried their dissatisfaction. They did not hold episcopacy to be one of the 230 THE HISTORY OF chapter essentials of a church ; but they held it to be one : of the chief ornaments and strongest points of a ELIZ- vvell-constructed one. Their moderation mav be A. D. 1595. » seen in the offices of the English church. If there be "a power peculiar unto bishops," as Hooker speaks, it is unquestionably that of ordaining dea cons and presbyters. Yet the church of England associates presbyters Avith the bishop in the solemn rite of ordaining others by laying on of hands. A signal instance of moderation ; because the practice of primitive antiquity did not necessarily require it. It was the custom of some ancient churches, not by any means of all of them. We can regard it only as a voluntary concession ; a concession that involved, however, no real disparagement of the episcopate- For, as Hooker Avell remarks, there are no examples in the history of the church of Christ in primitive ages, of ordination performed by presbyters alone, without the presence of a bishop ; but there are nu merous examples of ordinations by the bishops only, without the assistance of a presbyter. Still Hooker does not hesitate to admit that there may be some times " very just and sufficient reasons to allow ordi nation without a bishop :" there may be " the exi gencies of necessity," where " the church must needs have some ordained, and neither has, nor possibly can have, a bishop to ordain them." In such a case the ordinary institution of God, he says, " has often given, and may give, place."* Hooker Avrote under the eye of Whitgift, and these moderate sentiments we must suppose were still those of the primate, and * Eccl. Pol. book vii. p. 14. THE EARLY PURITANS. 231 ofthe church of England. But Bancroft's views ex- chapter tended much further. He considered the episcopate Y1IT' as of such importance that no church could exist ELIZ; without it ; no orders were valid which bishops had not conferred : and of course no obedience, no re spect was due to those, however devout or however gifted, who exercised the functions of the christian ministry, unless by their authority. This amounted, in fact, to an attack upon the foundations of all churches that were not episcopal : the inference Avas contained Avithin the premises and the time came when it was avowed. The cautious policy of queen Elizabeth was not likely to embrace new and extreme opinions. Her ministers were too far-sighted not to perceive at once that the blow Avhich Avas meant to stun the puritans would recoil against some of her majesty's best allies in Scotland and abroad. At first the queen Avas rather pleased than otherwise, and checked the zeal of Knollys, Avho called her attention to the probable ill consequences of these novel statements ; but her more cautious advisers seem to have prevailed, and Bancroft's theory ofthe episcopate was suffered to fall into neglect. Whit gift is said to have remarked, that he rather wished than believed it to be true. This Avould be consistent with his character : in which, with a severity Avhich Avas its greatest blot, were mingled an integrity and an honesty of purpose that AArould not stoop to reach their aims by any means Avhich seemed to him un- wortliy of his office and his cause. Hitherto episcopal ordination had not been con sidered as of the essence of the ministerial commis sion ; indeed there are several remarkable instances 232 THE HISTORY OF chapter in which presbyterian ministers were not only bene- Yin ficed in the church of England, but enjoyed its dis- ELIZ tinctions and filled some of its highest posts. The A.D. 1595. ° . X case of Whittingham dean of Durham is well known. He Avas presented to the deanery, soon after Eliza beth's accession, in 1563, having received orders from the reformed church at Geneva, in the presby terian manner. It does not appear that his want of episcopal ordination would have rendered him ob noxious, had it not been for the zeal with which he espoused the puritan opinions upon the subject of the vestments. At length in 1577, Sandys archbishop of York cited him upon several charges, the chief of which was his Genevan ordination. Whittingham however asserted the rights ofthe church of Durham, and challenged the archbishop's power to interfere. He then made his appeal to the queen, who directed a commission to hear and determine the objections alleged against him. The president was Hutton dean of York, who expressed his preference for pres byterian rather than Romish orders in strong lan guage.* "The dean," said he, "was ordained in better sort than even the archbishop himself." Sandys had sufficient influence to obtain another commission, and of this the lord president was a member. When the question of his ordination had been argued, the lord president exclaimed, " I cannot agree to deprive him for that cause alone: this," he said, "would be ill taken by all the godly, both at home and abroad ; that we allow of popish massing priests in our ministry, and disallow of ministers made in a reformed church." Strype's Annals, p. 523. Neal i. p. 285. THE EARLY PURITANS. 233 The commission was again adjourned, and here the chapter business dropped; for the next year the dean of vm' Durham died. ELIZ- A.D. 1592. The range within which ordination was considered valid in the church of England in the age succeeding the reformation, is shewn more strongly in the case of Travers, Hooker's celebrated coadjutor at the Temple. Whittingham had been ordained by the church of Geneva, a national institution, the church of a foreign state with which England was on terms of amity. It is uncertain whether Travers had not received deacon's orders according to the church of England ; (for he had a divinity degree from Cam bridge) but he was a member, from the first, of the presbyterian church at Wandsworth. Going abroad, he was certainly ordained a presbyter at Antwerp, by the synod there in 1578.* Yet we find him asso ciated with Hooker, as preacher at the Temple, in 1592. During this long interval, then, of fourteen years, his presbyterian orders had been allowed. He was also private tutor in the family of the lord trea surer Cecil. When at length silenced by AY 'hitgift, it was objected to him, first, that he Avas not a lawfully ordained minister ofthe church of England; secondly, that ho had preached Avithout a licence ; thirdly, that he had violated discipline and decency, by his public refutation of AAhat Hooker, his superior in the church, had advanced from the same pulpit upon the same day. Had the first ground been felt by his oppo nents to have been impregnable, the other charges would probably have been omitted, and Travers would have been dismissed, no doubt, in a summary * Fuller i. book ix. 126-130. ELIZ. A.D. 159: 231 THE HISTORY OF chapter way. But it would seem that the stress was laid VHI' chiefly on the two latter articles ; and indeed Travers was prepared with an answer to the first, and with an answer which he did not fail to use. An act had passed in the thirteenth year of queen Elizabeth, under which he was securely sheltered. It recognises the validity of foreign orders ; and conveys to us historical evidence that ministers ordained by presbyterian synods were at that time beneficed in the church of England. The anomaly wlrich admits a Romish priest but excludes a pres byter of the Scottish church, did not then exist. It was sufficient that the conforming minister should declare his assent, and subscribe, to the articles of the church of England.* Travers, in his petition to * The following is the clause at length : — "Anno XIII. Regina Elizabetha a.d. 15/0. chapter 12 — An act for the ministers ofthe church to be of sound religion. — That the churches of the queen's majesty's dominions may be served with pastors of sound religion. Be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament, that any person under the degree of a bishop, which doth or shall pretend to be a priest or minister of God's holy word and sacraments, by reason of any other form of institution, consecration, or ordering, than the form set forth by parliament in the time of the late king of most worthy memory, kind Edward the sixth, or now used in the reign of our most gracious sovereign lady, before the feast of the nativity of Christ next following, shall, in the presence of the bishop, or guardian ofthe spiritualities of some one diocese where he hath or shall have eccle siastical living, declare his assent, and subscribe to all articles of religion which only concern the confession ofthe true christian faith, and the doc trine of the sacraments, comprised in a book imprinted, intituled, 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 of our Lord God one thousand five hundred and sixty-two, according to the computation of the church of England, for the avoiding of the diversities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent touching true religion put forth by the queen's authority; and shall bring from such bishop or guardian of spiritualities in writing, under his seal authentick, a testi monial of such assent and subscription ; and openly on some Sunday, iu the time ofthe publick service afore noon, in every church where by reason THE EARLY PURITANS. 235 the privy council, pleads the force of this statute, chapter and declares that many Scottish ministers were then AI"' holding benefices in England beneath its sanction. ELIZ' ° ° A.D. 1595. Attempts have been made to shew, that as the church of England recognised none but episcopal orders, the act of the thirteenth of Elizabeth cannot possibly refer to presbyterian ministers. But how far this assumption is correct, the passage we have cited from Hooker, and the case of dean Whittingham, to go no further, will at once enable the reader to decide. And though silenced at the Temple, Travers was still thought fit for high service in the church. Doctor Loftus, archbishop of Dublin and chancellor of Ireland, invited him to Dublin, and conferred upon him the office of provost of queen Elizabeth's new and royal foundation. This Travers accepted, and as head of Trinity college the Avorld is indebted to him for the education of the illustrious Ussher, archbishop of Armagh. Civil war, the bane of Ire land, at length drove the provost from his post ; the times were against him ; he grew old and poor. Ussher still reverenced his teacher, visited him in person, and offered him presents of money; which, it is said, Avere thankfully declined. These are the facts of history, on which various reflections Avill occur. It is enough for our present purpose to suggest, that, bearing in mind the narrow of any ecclesiastical living he ought to attend, read both tbe said testi monial, and the said articles ; upon pain that every such person which shall not before the said feast do as is above appointed, shall be ipso facto deprived, and all bis ecclesiastical promotions shall be void, as if he then were naturally dead." — The remaining clauses of the act refer to other subjects. ELIZ. A. D. 1595. 236 THE HISTORY OF chapter and often acrimonious temper of the puritans, and — vi^: — of Travers himself, upon all, even the most trivial, matters of church gOArernment, they were treated, in this point at least, with singular generosity. A minister, of powers such as those which Travers possessed — himself ordained by foreigners, and by a church which owned another discipline, — permitted from year to year to advocate in the Temple church an entire change of structure and of polity in the Enghsh branch of the church cathohc, and to do this in contradiction of his superior co-minister, — that superior no less a man than Hooker, — is an in stance of dignified forbearance to which few churches can afford a parallel. It is needless to remark, that whatever motives contributed to this gentle treat ment, neither fear nor indifference (which so often put on the cloak of forbearance) had the slightest share in them. The friendship ofthe lord treasurer may have contributed its influence, however, in be half of Travers. Bancroft's sermon was evidently provoked by the violence of the Mar-prelate libels, and of the ultra- puritans. It Avas one of those acts of retaliation where extravagance on one side is met by violence on the other. But even granting all that Bancroft asserted as to the divine right of episcopacy, the conclusion that the denial of his position was a heresy, was unsupported by scripture and needlessly offensive. But a time was approaching when the guarded moderation of the reformers was no longer to be had in reverence : the more extravagant and exclusive the dogma, the more certain its success. The endowment of rehgion by the state, another A. D. 1595. THE EARLY PURITANS. 237 pregnant source of disagreement in later times, did chapter not hitherto contribute to alienate the affections of Yin" churchmen and puritans. Upon the arguments by ELIZ- which this union is defended or opposed it is un necessary to enlarge ; nor would such a discussion be now appropriate. It is sufficient to observe, that at the close ofthe reign of Elizabeth the controversy had not yet arisen. It was not one of the many. points upon which puritans and prelatists contended with each other. Whether they were right or wrong ; whether they were more enlightened, or more igno rant, than ourselves ; whether their political opinions were too strongly imbued with the theology of the old testament, or ours too careless of the sanctions of tho word of God — still the fact is beyond dispute. Each party held that it would be monstrous and sinful in the state not to endow and sustain the church. That the church should scruple to accept the succours of the state, does not appear to have occurred as amongst the possible difficulties of the most uneasy conscience. And the establishment that cither party had in view was of the most ex clusive character. Prelatists shut out puritans, and puritans prelatists. During Whitgift's reign it was accounted necessary to exclude any but a strict con formist, — it Avas a duty to repel and punish him. How Whitgift's opponents might have acted had they been in power, is scarcely a matter of con jecture. Their children in the next generation seized the reins and guided the chariot of the state. It then appeared that they Avere equally exclusive, equally intolerant with the most violent of their opponents. The national church Avas presbyterian, CHAPTER VIII. ELIZ. A.D. 1595.1 238 THE HISTORY OF and the honest episcopalian was doomed in his turn to suffer all the indignities, the insults, and the injustice which, in their most unhappy days, the puritans themselves had borne. A national church, uncompromising and intolerant, was that for which both parties contended ; and having achieved the victory, each would have excluded the other from its advantages, and punished them for their con tumacy. Toleration, Ave must repeat it, was a word unknown. To us of the present generation, it is, and must ever remain, a problem hard to be resolved, how good men could carry on so long and fierce a warfare, while the questions at issue were, by the confession of each party, of secondary and not of vital importance. If the controversies between the different bodies of christians in our own times are of greater moment, yet they are conducted in a calmer spirit. And if we cannot pride ourselves upon a deeper theology, and a profounder reach of thought than our forefathers, we may at least be grateful for a stronger sense of justice and of human infirmity, and a disposition for mutual charity ; humbler vir tues, it is true, but not without their recompence ! THE EARLY PURITANS. 239 ELIZ. A. I>. 15115 CHAPTER IX. a.d. 1595—1602. Thus stood the two parties at the close of the chapter long reign of queen Elizabeth. No one doctrine of IX' importance, notwithstanding the vehemence of the long protracted strife, had yet mingled its bitterness with the troubled stream ; and it seemed as if the quarrel would have Avorn itself out, and died as it were of mere exhaustion, had not some fresh mate rials been supplied by Avhich it Avas at once pro longed and aggravated. A parent's animosities arc seldom inherited by his children in their ancient bitterness ; and a second generation is unwilling to revive the controversies which otherwise Avould slumber with the ashes of their forefathers. The restlessness of mankind seeks for new objects even in its hatreds and dis likes. Fame must be won in new fields, and not by simply adhering to a venerable cause : the realities of life press too heavily upon most men, its imme diate pursuits are too interesting to all, to alloAV to an historical quarrel more than a traditionary inte rest. When tho first combatants quit the scene for ever, the survivors are secretly disposed either to ELIZ A. D. 15! 210 THE HISTORY OF hapter compromise their differences, or to re-establish their IX" enmity and renew their conflict upon new and wider grounds. The vestiarian controversy was worn out. For thirty years at least, not a line had been written on either side which placed it in a clearer light, or added anything to the considerations in either scale. If the great men of the reformation had not ex hausted the arguments, Whitgift and Cartwright, who followed after, left nothing to be desired. Hooker, great as he was, could pretend to no origi nality in his defence, nor Travers in his assault. The point had been so long and earnestly debated by men in few respects or none inferior to them selves. And the controversy itself had lost its edge. It was only by associating it with other questions, — questions of christian doctrine, and therefore of abiding interest, — that its ephemeral importance could be revived. At the period of the reformation the surplice was associated only with the popish priest and his tawdry superstitions ; at the close of the reign of Ehzabeth, and of half a century, a whole generation had arisen and passed away who had never seen a priest or listened to a mass. The sur plice was associated in the minds of living men with the fathers of the reformation. At Salisbury, Jewrcl the champion of the English church was remem bered to have worn it. The saintly Grindal had ministered in it at Lambeth, and insisted upon it in the university of Cambridge. In the remoter north, Pilkington at Durham, and Sandys at York, had not scrupled to appear in it, and to impose it on their clergy. The hesitation they had felt was ELIZ. A.D. 1595. THE EARLY PURITANS. 211 known only to a few learned men and controver- chapter sialists ; their consent to use the vestments stood in '- — the broad daylight of popular and recent history. The obvious reflection of many a candid mind Avould be that such men had good reasons for their conduct ; that when the alternative lay between a schism and a surplice, the doubt was instantly resolved ; and that, after all, the connexion between the habits and the doctrines ofthe Romish church was, in part at least, imaginary. It was now proved that at least it was not necessary. For a generation of protestant divines had worn them, in whom no Rome-ward tendency, but rather a deepening horror of her crimes, had constantly displayed itself. That a very large proportion of those avIio at first favoured the puritan cause had thus gradually with drawn from it, admits of no doubt. It Avas the case in the queen's council, Avhere, in the early part of her reign, a decided majority were, to a greater or less extent, on the side of the puritans ; but before her death their cause Avas nearly deserted. Nor was there inconsistency in this. AY 'hen new institutions arc founded, Aviso men Avill strive Avith all their might to place them on a footing of theoretical per fection. But after a while, perceiving that their aim cannot be achieved ; or that their vieAvs of per fection were ideal rather than practical ; or that circumstances which they cannot bend, refuse to accommodate themselves to the reception of their favourite theory, they will gladly accept a compro mise. If the institution works icell, they will lend it a vigorous support. If the evils they anticipated do not in fact arise, they will be more ready to R 242 THE HISTORY OF chapter question their own sagacity than to disturb the Ix' harmony of existing institutions. eliz. Thus a large body of Enghsh churchmen began 1595-97. cheerfully to acquiesce in the established church as then administered ; and had it not been for the severities inflicted on the puritans, which produced a natural recoil and a wide-spreading sympathy, their cause would probably (unless some fresh grounds of discontent Avere introduced) have dwin dled in the course of years, and ended in an insig nificant secession. Among the causes wlrich contributed to confirm the established church, and with it the episcopate, in the affections of the people, it is impossible to omit so considerable an event as the publication of Hooker's ecclesiastical polity, of which four books were published in the year 1591, and the fifth in 1597 : the remaining part was published after wards. It is one of those rare productions which, like the book of martyrs, sprung into instant popu larity ; and during a probation of two hundred and fifty years, lias only gathered fresh renown. It dis plays that mighty genius Avhich is fitted for all ages, which is never antiquated, never out of date. As a defence of the church of England, its supremacy has never been disturbed. No serious attempt has since been made by any master mind to invade Hooker's province or to supersede his unchallenged reputa tion. One of the latest editions of his work has been given to the world by the adversaries of the church of England, with notes and comments of their own ; a perfectly fair proceeding, to which churchmen have nothing to object; and at the same THE EARLY PURITANS. 213 time, a tribute to Hooker's weight in the field of chapter argument more flattering than any that churchmen IX' could bestow. A rare and enviable career — to ELIZ- A.D. 1597. defend the church of his country against papists, and to win the admiration of the pope Mmself; against sectarians, and yet to claim their reverence ; and to accomplish this with so much firmness and so little compromise, that churchmen of every school gather their arguments from his profound and thoughtful pages, and are proud to find a shelter for their opinions under the sanction of his venerable name 1 It was not till near the close of this century that the literature, the manners, and the habits of the puritans first begin to appear singular, and to wear a sectarian character. Hitherto their language and their literary compositions are untainted Avith affec tation. They wrote and spoke like other mon. AVith regard to purity of language and of style, Cartwright and Travers are, at least, equal to Hooker, whose power lies rather in majesty of thought than in felicity of expression. In the pulpit TraA ers, preach ing before the same audience, one of the most ac complished in England, carried away the palm of eloquence from his great opponent by the consent of all parties. CartAvright's eloquence had Avon the admiration of Cambridge ; and Henry Smith had preached at St. Clement Danes in rich redundant periods, remarkable alike for force and grace, by universal consent unriA'alled in sacred oratory. The age of pedantry had not yet commenced. The quaintness of the puritans AAras not assumed, their sentences were not curiously involved, their wit Avas r 2 211 THE HISTORY OF chapter not elaborate, their sermons were not studiously j. minced up in tiny fragments, each numbered and ELIZ- duly parcelled beneath its proper head or subdivi- '! sion, with a view not so much to elucidate the sub ject as to display the author's dexterity in his only science — the scholastic logic. All this belonged to a later age. The manners of the puritans were distinguished by their gravity, and among the thoughtless and profane a grave demeanour has ever been a crime. The presence of virtue is always embarrassing to the wicked, and its indications they naturally dis like. No doubt the garb of sanctity is easily as sumed. The weak and hypocritical — the one from nature the other from sheer villany — readily adopt it ; and since keenness in discrimination and a cha ritable disposition in judging others, are unhappily but rare endowments, a sanctimonious hypocrite is in popular estimation the type and standard by which all seriousness is to be measured. We find accordingly that, as the national mind gradually became less devout in England, the gravity of the puritans became the frequent subject of a jest. Towards the conclusion of her reign the example of the court of Elizabeth was decidedly irreligious, and the contagion spread rapidly among the com mon people. A preposterous extravagance in dress and equipage ; a heathenish delight in jousts and tournaments, and public spectacles and plays ; the prevalence of oaths (freely indulged in by the queen herself) ; and to crown the whole, the studied dese cration of the sabbath, mark too plainly the hollow- ness of that religious profession which even men of THE EARLY PURITANS. 245 fashion were still constrained to make. All men of chapter real piety lamented the decay of vital godliness *Jt Hooker, in his preface, deplores it as feelingly as A 1lLIZ;a7 Travers could have done. But the cry once raised, a grave exterior and a virtuous life were regarded as the sure signs of a puritan, that is, of one dis affected to the state. Men who had never entered a conventicle, nor had one misgiving about the cross in baptism, were wickedly driven from the church they loved, by contemptuous treatment or slan derous imputations : to be seen twice at church on Sunday, and to spend the rest of the day in reading the scriptures, was enough to bring upon a Avhole family the disgrace of puritanism. But at present their manners appear to have been, in other respects, the manners of the times. The literature of the age sometimes ridicules their pre- ciseness, but not their rudeness or vulgarity. The domestic friend and chaplain of Leicester was not likely to be ill-bred. The constant associates of Knollys and of sir AValter Mildmay could hardly have been cloAvns. Tho keen eye of Bacon must have rested upon something more hrviting than re ligious cant and a visage that affected sanctity, or he would scarcely have concerned himself with tho doctrines of the puritans. An early puritan comes down to us a distorted caricature, knoAvn only as misrepresented in the next century by profligate wits and unscrupulous enemies. It Avas not till mo desty and virtue Avere discountenanced and irrcligion became a fashion, that the manners of the puritans were noticed for their sinsrularitv. A great advantage was given to the puritans in a controversy Avhich arose upon the observance of the 216 THE HISTORY OF chapter Lord's-day. Greenham, a pious and eloquent mi- IX nister in London, deeply affected by the prevailing eliz. levity, first recalled the nation to its duties, in 1592, a.d. 1597. ^n a D00jc which made a great impression through the whole kingdom, and which Hall, the pious bishop of Norwich, afterwards embalmed in a striking epitaph. Afewyears afterwards, Dr.Boundpublished his "book on the Sabbath;" in which, perhaps, he pushed the matter too far ; and opposing one ex treme fell into another ; so as to rest the obligation of the Lord's-day upon Jewish, more than upon christian, principles. Still he was right upon the whole ; and, when the question was once fairly placed before them, the dullest congregation of the most stupid rustics could not but be struck with the monstrous and indecent inconsistency which every returning Sunday presented : — the fourth command ment was read in the forenoon with every circum stance calculated to inspire the deepest aAve and re verence ; the afternoon was devoted to fencing, and shooting, and bowling ; to May games and morris dances ; the clergyman himself too often a spectator, if not a sharer, of the sports. The parish church was frequently the scene of uproar. The painted harlequin rushed into it foUowed by a crowd of the dissolute and idle, and the instant the service closed one might hear the jingling of his bells and see his company gathering around their leader in their " fools coats " of many a colour. The evil was enormous ; yet it was thought necessary to suppress Bound's treatise : and the natural consequence en sued ; the book flew through successive editions, and its principles were diffused through England. The observance and the sacred obligation of the Lord's- THE EARLY PURITANS. 247 day became immediately a question between the chapter high church party and the puritans ; and must be — — — especially noticed as the first disagreement betwixt A E^bm them upon any point of doctrine. This Sabbatarian question, as it was called, henceforth entered largely | into every controversy ; a rigid or lax observance of the Lord's-day was at length the sign by Avhich, above all others, the tAvo parties were distinguished.' It is difficult to account satisfactorily for the con duct of Whitgift and his party in this affair. They had no traditionary errors to support ; for a strict observance of the Sunday Avas in accordance with the principles and practice of the great reformers whom they professed to represent.* If the puritan advocates of tho sabbath based their conclusions * This, I am aware, has been denied ; but I refer the reader to the fol lowing admirable passage in Becon's catechism. Becon was chaplain to archbishop Cranmer. Works, page 500, P. S. edition. " What it is to keep holy the Sabbath-day. — To keep holy the Sabbath. day is not to cease from bodily labour, that thou shouldst the more licen tiously give thy mind to the wearing of gallant apparel; to banqueting, to idle talk, to vain pastimes, and such other filthy pleasures of the flesh ; but that thou, setting aside all worldly businesses, shouldst the more freely apply thyself to read, hear, and learn the word of God, to pray in the temple with the congregation, to be thankful to God for his benefits, to be present at the ministrations of the holy sacraments, to be partaker of the mysteries of the Lord's body and blood, to give some good thing to the relief of the poor, to visit and comfort the sick, and them that are in prison, and casting away the works of the flesh, wholly to exercise thyself in the fruits of the Spirit." Coverdale, bishop of Exeter, states with admirable clearness the distinc tion between the authority of the decalogue under the christian dispensation, and the disannulling of the Mosaic ordinances. " AVhoso now doth well ponder these ten chapters or commandments, and coinpareth them to the doings and works of the holy patriarchs and old fathers which had no law iu writing, ye shall find that the Lord, now with this his written law, began no new thing, neither might that was not afore in the world." — He in stances this in each ofthe ten commandments. Of the fourth he says, " the Sabbath did not tbe Lord here ordain first, but ou the seventh day of the creation, Gen. iii. The same did the fathers keep aright, no doubt. 248 THE HISTORY OF chapter upon false and Jewish premises, still the conclusions Hi themselves were good, and might have been easily ELIZ- established upon a more evangelical basis. It is 1597-1602. strange, too, that they did not reflect upon the certain and self- proving truth, that a religion winch sits easily upon the careless can possess feAV charms for the devout ; and that the strength of a religious institution depends not so much upon the number of its adherents as upon their zeal. In alienating the strict observers ofthe sabbath, they deprived the church of its most vigorous supporters, and forced them to transfer their sympathies, if not their allegiance, to the puritans. Pride and obsti nacy, and a resolute determination to put down their adversaries, whether right or wrong, may seem un measured charges ; but the truth of history suggests none that are less offensive. On the Sabbatarian question, Whitgift chose rather to forsake his own principles than to permit a victory in a righteous cause to be won by his opponents. Of the relative piety of the puritans and the pre- John vii." He sums up thus : " wherefore, in these commandments, is nothing WTitten or required, that was not also required of the fathers afore the law, and performed through true faith in Christ. The Lord, therefore, began no new thing with his people, when he delivered them the tables of the law. . . As for all the laws and ordinances which were afterwards added to these two tables, they were not joined thereunto as principal laws, but as bye-laws for the declaration and better understanding of the ten chapters or commandments. For the perfect sum of all laws, and the very right rule of godliness, of God's service, of righteousness, of good and evil conversation, are comprehended or read in the ten chapters or com mandments." " The old faith," page 41. P. S. edition. " The old faith," is a translation of Bullinger's " Antiquissima fides et ^era religio." Here, then, we have at once the judgment of two ofthe most eminent divines of the reformation as to the perpetual obligation of the sabbath. Calvin took lower ground, and the pernicious influence of his views upon the sabbath still infects the continental churches. (See Instit. lib. ii. cap. viii. 34.) CHAPTER IX. ELIZ. THE EARLY PURITANS. 219 latic party, at the period of which we speak, it is however by no means easy to form a just opinion. Pure and spiritual religion is seldom to be accu- T.d. rately measured by any visible criterion ; for while 1697-1602- the signs of its absence are always painfully decisive, those of its presence are not to be implicitly relied on. The zeal of the puritans was repressed ; and the fervour of the high church party had visibly begun to wane. But intermediate between the two, there was no doubt a large body well affected to the church, and having little in common with either extreme, who cherished the principles of the refor mation and the bible, and maintained a consistent life of piety. The fervour of the puritans was not unmixed with the alloy of a party spirit, and some times of a rancorous hatred ; nor must it be for gotten that a zeal upon religious matters is not necessarily a zeal for God. The most generous of the opposite party, Cecil himself for instance, charged them Avith a narrow bigotry and a factious temper ; and the suggestion is not uncharitable, that a weaker sect, struggling for poAver agrrinst a avcII- established rival, must profess, even ifit do not feel, a more fervent zeal and a more lofty piety than its adversaries ; and to suppose the puritans entirely free from this, perhaps unconscious, insincerity, is to suppose that they were free from the common infirmities of man. Such abatements must be made. But after all, the preponderance of real piety lay, we suspect, at the close of the reign of queen Elizabeth, amongst those avIio Avere roughly classed as puritans. So much constancy in suffering, a zeal so fervent, do- 250 THE HISTORY OF chapter mestic habits by the confession of their bitterest IX' enemies so pure and blameless, religious duties ELIZ- piously discharged in the face of scorn and the 1597-1602. instant dread of punishment, can in justice be re garded only as the marks of a piety sincere and deeply seated. The gold was not free from dross ; their infirmities, though fewer than their enemies asserted, were greater than they themselves were willing to allow. But their errors lay chiefly with the judgment. The heart of the puritans was right upon the whole ; and hitherto, when most factious, they still believed — after an earnest scrutiny of the scriptures, which, though often misapplied and mis understood, were received as their only guide — that they were contending for the truth, and that they ought to obey God rather than man ; a justifi cation of no value, it is true, when used for the oppression and injury of others, but of unspeakable importance when used to explain the conduct or to sustain the fainting spirits of him who suffers for conscience sake. The prospect, on the whole, was gloomy to those who loved the church, and clung to its institutions in the spirit of the reformation. Much of its " first love" had passed away, and pomp and splendour vainly strove to fill up the void. The courage of the reformers too had disappeared. No honest Lati mer mingling reverence to his sovereign with bold ness in the cause of God, no Jewel meek but firm and faithful, now preached to thronging audiences, or rebuked the sins of royalty in the presence of the queen. The spirit of this world had crept in and quenched the zeal even of those whose principles THE EARLY PURITANS. 251 and doctrines were as yet untainted. The piety of chapter the church of England received a shock in the affair — Hi of Grindal from which it had not recovered. Social ELIZ- A.D. meetings for prayer and praise, and for conference 1597-1602. among the clergy, are almost inseparable from a vigorous piety and an effective ministry ; and these had been discouraged. They were now chiefly to be met with in the chambers ofthe puritans. In short, the tendency was already visible to fanaticism on the one hand and to a dead formality on the other ; while on both sides the catholic spirit of their fore fathers had almost disappeared. Tenacity in im posing and in resisting trifles had in time produced its fruit ; trifles were looked upon as the very essence of true religion. To comply with a harmless form was regarded as fearful sin amongst the rigid puri tans ; to pray extempore and to expound the scrip tures in private houses was a transgression of equal magnitude in the sight of high prelatic churchmen. In such a state of things it was impossible that the power of true piety in men's hearts should not fade and Avithcr, though it was probable enough their clamorous zeal would soon break out into shriller cries, and put on the appearance of a sterner reso lution. And this in fact occurred. Moderation was scouted upon both sides, and the most violent coun sels Avere those alone which now began to obtain a hearing. 252 THE HISTORY OF CHAPTER X. JAMES I. A.D. 1602. CHAPTEB X. a. d 1602. Queen Elizabeth died in the year 1602, and James hastened from Scotland to occupy the vacant throne. His character has been often drawn, and in its stronger features seems at length to be well understood. There was a strange mixture of sagacity and folly ; of sagacity that often wore the appear ance of consummate wisdom, of folly scarcely to be distinguished from that of an idiot. The sceptre passedTrom the Avisest of women to the most ridi culous of men. But James was shrewd and cunning ; he imposed upon the statesmen by whom Elizabeth had consented to be governed, and they stooped, it is evident, to become his willing agents, and were sometimes his dupes. Under a plain exterior, and most unkingly manners, there was a depth of dis guise and artifice which, if we must believe them serious, few or none of his courtiers suspected. They speak of him as a paragon of wisdom : posterity have long since spoken of him with contempt. The king-craft in which he gloried has ceased to claim respect ; and the virtues which can ennoble kings in the eyes of succeeding generations were av anting to his character. JAMES L A.D. 1602. THE EARLY PURITANS. 253 Since the affair of Coppinger and Hacket, and chapter the death of Penry, there had been a truce on both sides. The prelates had ceased to harass, and the puritans to provoke ; for each party waited for the turn of affairs upon the accession of the new sove reign ; and neither of them was able to calculate with perfect confidence upon the course he would pursue. James had been brought up a protestant, a presbyterian ofthe straitest sect, the docile pupil of George Buchanan, the patient hearer of the dis ciples of Knox. Should these early prepossessions last the puritans were safe. They might even hope for the royal countenance in their extreme project of remodelling the church of England after the pres byterian form ; at least their presbyterianism would no longer be a crime. But on the other hand, the prepossessions of youth and the impulses of educa tion cannot always be trusted. It was even pos sible that the king might not be sincere. The iron hand which held his mother's wrist and compelled her abdication — the hand of a fierce, feudal oli garchy — had never quite released the son. AVhile he reigned in Scotland there Avas a power behind the throne far greater than the throne itself; the power of the church and the oligarchs ; of the clergy and the barons ; and they exercised it with little or no disguise. Escaped from this, James might appear in another character ; from one extreme he might rush into another ; nay, he might avenge upon Eng lish puritans the injuries done by Scottish presby terians to his mother, and the insults to himself. Each party Avaited eagerly and anxiously for the result. 254 THE HISTORY OF chapter But this uncertainty was of no long continuance. '¦ — , AVhitgift dispatched his agents to Scotland to assure AADMEieo2.'r'ne king of the devotion of the prelates; and the puritans met him on his way to London with their famous millenary petition, so called because it pro- / fessed to represent the wishes of a thousand clergy men, though, in fact, the names actually subscribed were about eight hundred. To the archbishop's envoy James replied in terms which, could his royal word be trusted, were full of satisfaction. He was anxious to follow the steps of his renowned prede cessor. He would alter nothing, introduce nothing, without the consent and approbation of the bishops. Yet it was not easy to forget the previous conduct and opinions of this now compliant sovereign.. Stand ing in his place before the general assembly of the kirk of Scotland, with head uncovered and hands uplifted to heaven, he had a few years before pro tested that their own presbyterian church was " the purest in the world," and that as to the neighbour ing church of England, " its service was but an evil said mass, in English." Except the adoration of the host, "it wanted nothing ofthe mass itself." This was in 1590, in a speech to his parliament : and eight years afterwards he courteously classed toge ther "the papistical and anglican bishops."* A mind less acute than Whitgift's, and a temper less anxious, might then well entertain some misgivings as to the real intentions of king James. The millenary petitionf must be regarded as the manifesto of the puritans at the opening ofthe seven- * Calderwood's Hist. Ch. of Scotland, pp. 256 and 418 ; Neal ii. p. 14. t Fuller iii. p. 6. THE EARLY PURITANS. 255 teenth century ; and we have no reason to suppose chapter that it does not honestly express their sentiments. — — — James had hitherto appeared as their friend ; he had AA" ^ invited Cartwright to accept a professorship in Scot land ; he had written to Ehzabeth to intercede on his behalf, when he was in the deepest disgrace ; and he had even pleaded for Udal when the court of high commission was in its full insolence of tyranny. He had made obtrusive and uncalled-for professions of his adherence to the puritan cause. If then the English puritans had a doubt as to the course he would pursue, it arose from their knowledge of tho infirmities of his character, not from the indecision of his past conduct, which was entirely favourable to their cause ; and as the prelates hoped, so the petitioners feared, that he would lack the energy to intermeddle with the state of things he found pre vailing in the church of England. — If this view be correct, the millenary petition must be considered to breathe a moderate tone and spirit. The revolu tionary project of remodelling the church of England after tho presbyterian form was uoav abandoned. The petition contained no angry diatribes upon the sinfulness of such officers as deans, canons, archdea cons, and archbishops. It did not renew the stale assertion that episcopacy Avas unscriptural. Those Avho had framed it, had evidently been learning wisdom Avhere wisdom is learned most easily — in silonce, in poverty, in obloquy. They stood in advance of Cartwright, that is, of CartAvright such as he had been when, in the days of his youthful prido and inexperience, he convulsed the university and the church Avith Avild visions of reform; for JAMES I A.D. 1602. 256 THE HISTORY OF chapter Cartwright was now an aged and a temperate man, and on the verge of another world. The petitioners addressed themselves not any longer to the enforce ment of a theory, but to the practical work of achieving a reformation of abuses, or, however, of usages which they considered to be such. It was another crisis in the history ofthe church of England. Another opportunity of conciliation had unexpectedly returned. Never had the demands of the discon tented party been so moderate ; never could they have been conceded with so good a grace. Some of them appear to us, it is true, to deserve a place only amongst those trifling quibbles and conceits, (the more trifling in appearance because enunciated with a profound seriousness,) from which puritanism was never free. But with a few exceptions their demands were reasonable. Many of them have since been wrung by a necessity which they could not resist, from churchmen of succeeding days; some, in a far better spirit, have been cheerfully conceded in our own times, by churchmen as well affected, as learned, and as pious, as the most unyielding of their fore fathers. The grievances of the puritans were set forth under four heads. Eirst, they objected as of old to the cap and surplice, the cross in baptism, and the ring in marriage. Also they desired that in bap tism, the interrogation addressed through the spon sors to the infant should be done away with, or rendered more simple. Confirmation, as superfluous, they prayed might cease. Divers terms, priest, absolution, and some others, ought to be amended ; and the length of the service abridged. Church ELIZ. A.D. 1595. THE EARLY PURITANS. 257 music required reform. The Lord's-day ought to /chapter be better kept, and other holidays urged less strictly, j : — The people should not be charged to bow at the name of Jesus ; a uniformity of doctrine ought to be prescribed, and no popish opinions taught. The canonical scriptures only ought to be read in churches. Communicants should be previously examined, and the communion preceded by a ser mon. And they prayed that baptism hereafter might not be administered by women. These, upon doctrinal points, comprised the whole of their demands. With one exception, had all they asked been conceded, the church of England would still have remained entire ; she would have made no sacrifice of any one principle wlrich she holds to be important. The rite of confirmation, venerable for its high antiquity in the"' church, she could by no means forego : it is the correlative of infant bap tism. If children be received in infancy into the bosom of the church, it is surely necessary that iu riper years they should be solemnly admitted, upon a profession oftheir faith made openly by themselves, into full communion : and that this may be done with due solemnity, the chief minister ofthe church receives them with laying on of hands, and prayer for the gift of the holy Spirit. With Avise and labo rious preparation on the part of the parochial clergy, and an intelligent sense of its importance in the young, the rite of confirmation is a blessing to the church. Nor can avc perceive the superstition of bowing at the name of Jesus. Secondly, the petitioners asked that, for the future, none should be admitted into the ministry but able s JAMES I. A.D. 1602, 258 THE HISTORY OF chapter and sufficient men. That those already ordained who could not preach might either be removed " and some charitable course taken with them for their relief," or else be compelled to maintain, according to their incomes, preachers to supply their lack of service. That non-residence should cease. That king Edward's statute (which had been repealed by Mary, and not re-enacted by Elizabeth,) permitting the clergy to marry, should be revived ; and that no subscription should be demanded from the clergy but what the law required. Under the third head the demands of the peti tioners were not quite so moderate. They required that the bishops should abandon all preferment save their bishoprics, and that other " double bene ficed men " should not be suffered to hold, some two, some three benefices with cure, and some two, three, or four dignities besides. But what followed raised an angry storm from various quarters ; for the petitioners required " that impropriations annexed to the bishoprics and colleges be demised only to the preachers and incumbents for the old rents, while lay impropriations should be charged with a sixth or seventh part of the Avorth to the main tenance of the preaching minister." The lay impro priations (or tithe and glebe lands) were then chiefly held by the descendants of those noble houses amongst whom Henry vni. had so profusely squan dered the church's patrimony ; and they wrere very little disposed to make restitution of even so much as a seventh part of them for the maintenance of a godly ministry. Thus mere selfishness arrayed the statesmen and courtiers against the petitioners ; and X. JAMES I. A.D. 16' ii. THE EARLY PURITANS. 259 still more bitter, and yet at the same time more chapter reasonable, was the displeasure of the universities. They found themselves much aggrieved that, while a seventh part of their ill-gotten spoil was all that the petitioners demanded from the laity, colleges and cathedrals should be severely punished ; being required to demise to their vicars at the old rents without fine and Avithout improvement. It is cer tain that such a measure would long since have re duced the universities to penury ; so much has the value of money diminished while that of land has been constantly increasing. Cambridge immediately resolved that whoever should promote the petition or its principles should, ipso facto, be suspended ; and Oxford followed with a public refutation of the millenary petition. Under the fourth head, the petitioners requested a restoration of church discipline, or at least that enormities might be redressed. Nothing could be more reasonable than their demands. They protest against the wickedness of excommunication " for twelve-penny matters," for trifling debts and fri volous offences. They ask that the oath ex officio, whereby men are forced to accuse themselves, be used moro sparingly ; and they subscribe themselves, in conclusion, his " majesty's most humble servants, the ministers of the gospel, who desire not a disor derly innovation but a due and godly reformation." Many other petitions were presented to the king, Avhich Avere known at the time under the common name of millenary petitions. Some of them were of a Aiolcnt description, and prayed for the extirpa tion of bishops and the introduction of the foreign 260 THE HISTORY OF chapter presbyterianism. These proceeded chiefly from the X. j brownists, whose numbers had noAV considerably in- james i. crease(j an(j between whom and the moderate puri- A. D. 1602. j L ' tans there Avas as intense a war, as between the latter and the highest of the prelatic party. / It Avas resolved to hold a conference, in which the questions at issue should be discussed by the representatives of the two great parties, the pre latists and puritans, in the presence of the king. Nothing could exceed the wisdom of this project ; nothing but the folly displayed in its management, and the insipidity of its whole conclusion. The spectacle would have been indeed august, and worthy of the brightest days of Christendom, and of the purest annals of the church; — a wise and christian king, assisted by his counsellors, sitting from day to day to investigate with calmness and sincerity the causes of uneasiness which had ran kled for half a century among the brotherhood of Christ, the ministers of one communion, the devout members of the same reformed church. But, in fact, the conference widened the breach it should have healed. Whatever advantages of another kind resulted from it, it was, as a conference, a mere pretence. So the puritans affirmed with one voice, and the verdict of their fellow countrymen has at length ratified and confirmed their censure. The history of the Hampton court conference is given* by Dr. Barlow, dean of Chester, Avho was present : it was drawn up at the request of Whitgift and the court : the puritans objected to it at the time, that * The sum and substance of the conference, &c. at Hampton court : by AA'illiam Barlow, D.D. and dean of Chester. Republished inthe Phoenix, 1707. THE EARLY PURITANS. 261 justice was not done to the arguments and speeches chapter of their representatives ; but upon the Avhole its x- general accuracy is admitted. Other accounts were jamesi. published by various writers ; and the importance of the controversy in the eyes of cotemporaries may be collected from the fulness and care Avith which they have handed down its most trifling details. The conference first assembled by proclamation at Hampton court, on Thursday, the 12th of January, 160o ;* the king Avas present Avith most of the lords of the privy council, and on the Saturday following its proceedings actually began. On the one side were the archbishop of Canterbury, eight bishops, seven deans of cathedral churches, and two others. On behalf of the puritans, to contend with this learned phalanx, four puritan ministers had been summoned to appear. Upon the morning of the first day, " all the deans and doctors attending them, my lords the bishops went into the presence chamber," so Avrites Dr. BarloAV ; " there we found, sitting upon a form, Dr. Beynolds, Dr. Sparks, Mr. Knewstubs, and Mr. Chaderton, agents for the mil lenary plaintiffs." The opening was unpromising; for during the first day the puritans Avere not present, being ex pressly excluded by his majesty's commands. Yet in their absence the questions Avere discussed, and in fact decided, on which they Avere most anxious to obtain a hearing. The king opened the pro- * The reader will bear in mind, that the year then began on the 25th of March; bo lhat the events of January, February, and March, belong, ac cording to our reckoning, to the following year. Thus the conference was held, by the present method of computation, in January, 1604. JAMES I. A.D. 1603. 262 THE HISTORY OF chapter ceedings with a speech in which he eulogized the x' memory of his predecessors on the throne, contrast ing his own happier lot Avith theirs ; for whereas they had been compelled to alter every thing, he saw yet no occasion to change or alter any thing. Taking off his hat, he offered his thanksgivings to Almighty God for bringing him into the promised land, where religion was purely professed, where he sat among grave, learned, and reverend men : not as before, elsewhere, a king without state, without honour, without order, where beardless boys would brave him to his face : and he assured them that he had not called the assembly for any innovation ; acknowledging the government ecclesiastical as then existing to have been approved by manifold bless ings from God himself. At the same time corrup tions might insensibly grow up in the best insti tutions ; he had received many complaints ; and if anything should be found to need redress, he wished it to be done, though as quietly as possible, and without any visible alteration (a remark which he several times repeated) and on this account he had called in the bishops by themselves. He then required their advice upon three points — the first and second of which, it is evident, could only be discussed with fairness in the presence of the puri tans. He reduced his questions to several heads ; the first having reference to the book of common prayer; the second to excommunication by eccle siastical courts ; and the third, relating to the church in Ireland. Under the first head the ques tions of confirmation, of private baptism, and abso lution, Avere argued ; under the second, excommu- JAMES I. A. D. 1603. THE EARLY PURITANS. 263 nication was discussed. The king asked for satis- chapter faction on all these points, and with regard to con- x' firmation and absolution he really appears to have felt some difficulty. The word confirmation required, he thought, some explanation : if it implied a con firmation of baptism, as if this sacrament without it were of no validity, then were it blasphemous. Then with regard to absolution, how we used it in our church he knew not ; he had heard it likened to the pope's pardons ; but his majesty's opinion was (and it was thus expressed) that there were two kinds thereof ; the one general, the other particular : as to the first, all prayers and preachings import an absolution ; as to the second, it is to be applied to special parties who have committed a scandal and repenting are absolved : otherwise where there pre cedes not either excommunication or penance there needs no absolution. The archbishop answered, as touching confirmation, that it Avas of high antiquity, having been used in the catholic church ever since the apostles' time ; till that of late some particular churches had unadvisedly rejected it. He said that it was a mere calumny, and most untrue, that the church of England held or taught that Avithout con firmation baptism was imperfect, or that it added anything to the virtue and strength thereof. The bishop of London followed : he proved the antiquity of the practice out of Cyprian and Jerome ; main taining further, that it Avas " an institution apostoli cal in its origin, and one of the particular points of the apostle's catechism set down and named in express words in the epistle to the Hebrews, vi. 2 ; " and so, he said, Mr. Calvin expounded that very 264 THE HISTORY OF chapter place, with an earnest wish for the restitution thereof x' in those reformed churches where it had been james i. abolished. The bishop of Carlisle insisted on the A D. 1603. *¦ same argument, and urged it with gravity and learning. His majesty called for the bible, read the place in Hebrews, and approved the exposition. Next in order was the point of absolution, Avhich the archbishop defended, as used in the church of Eng land, from the charge of superstition. He read the absolution from the communion service, with the previous confession, to the king; affirming that "the minister therein doth nothing else but pronounce an absolution in general." The king wTas satisfied ; but the bishop of London, Avith becoming candour, stepping forward added, " It becometh us to deal plainly with your majesty : there is also in the book another more particular and personal form of abso lution prescribed to be used in the order for the visitation of the sick." This the king requested to see ; and while the dean of the chapel was turning to it, the bishop pursued his argument, citing the confessions of several foreign churches, Augusta, Bohemia, and Saxony, which retain and allow it ; closing once more with an appeal to Calvin, " who not only approved such a general kind of confession and absolution as the church of England uses, but Avithal was very well pleased with those which are private, for so he terms them." The king was satisfied. The said particular absolution in the prayer-book being read, his majesty exceedingly well approved it ; adding, " that it Avas apostolical, and a very good ordinance, in that it was given in the name of Christ to one that desired it, and upon the clearing of his THE EARLY PURITANS. 265 conscience." Barlow's account was drawn up and chapter published by authority ; and hence it would appear : that the form of absolution in the office for the sick JAMES J- A. D. 1603. was held by Whitgift and the prelates of his time, with one consent, to be nothing more than an autho ritative declaration of pardon for sin on the terms prescribed in the gospel ; what was private and par ticular in it, having reference to church censures, under which the penitent was supposed to lie. It was to be applied, as James had expressed it, " to special parties, who having committed a scandal and repented, are absolved ;" and the prelates objected nothing to the inference wlrich he drew ; " that where there precedes not excommunication nor penance there needs no absolution." The day was then spent, and the assembly broke up. " The king," says Barlow, " handled all these points admirably, both for understanding, speech, and judgment." His knowledge of divinity was considerable ; nor was he wanting in dialectic skill. His learning, too, was prompt and various, if not deep. But these con siderations, it is probable, gave little satisfaction to the four puritan divines who Avhiled away the tedious hours upon the form in the antechamber. Nor Avould it add to their content to learn from Dr. Barlow's relation, that his majesty had meanly taken occasion of their absence to profess his dislike of the puritans ever since he Avas ten years old. He had lived among them, he said, profanely using the Avoids of scripture, but he Avas not of them. His royal purpose Avas, if their complaints were just, to remove them ; if frivolous, to cast a sop into Cer- berus's mouth that he might never bark again; 266 THE HISTORY OF chapter but to give factious spirits no occasion hereby of ^ glory or of boasting. aAdIEi603 0n Monday the conference was resumed, and the four plaintiffs were called into the privy-chamber, where they found the bishops of London and Win chester, and all the deans and doctors, present, as well as Patrick Galloway, a minister of Perth, who was allowed to be there as a spectator. After a short speech from James, Dr. Beynolds, on behalf of the puritans, presented four requests : first, that the doctrine of the church might be preserved in purity according to God's word ; secondly, that good pastors might be planted in all churches to preach the same; thirdly, that the church government might be sin cerely ministered according to God's word ; fourthly, that the book of common prayer might be fitted to more increase of piety. Under the first head, it is well for the peace of the church that his suggestions met with no en couragement. Strange as it may seem, he urged the introduction of the nine Lambeth articles into her authoritative formularies. He would have nar rowed the basis of orthodoxy, and compelled the church of England not only to speak (for here lay the danger and the injustice of his proposal), but to speak exclusively, the language of extreme dogmatic Calvinism. AVhereas the sixteenth article declares, that " after we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace," he desired to add the words, "yet neither totally, or finally :" and he prayed to have the Lambeth articles inserted in the book of common prayer, in which the church of England comprehends her discipline and doctrines. The lat- JAMES I. A. D. 1603. THE EARLY PURITANS. 267 ter of these requests he urged a second time upon chapter the following day. Erom this dangerous innovation — ^ — the church of England was preserved, partly by the earnest protestations of the bishop of London, who interrupted Dr. Beynolds with a rudeness which the king reproved. However, his remonstrances pre vailed, and the doctrine of an eternal decree of re probation, launched by the God of mercy agamst individual men yet unborn, was not numbered amongst those to which a faithful son of the church of England must yield his acquiescence, and every minister subscribe his hand. The moment was cri tical. The spiritual head of the church of England had himself drawn up, and endeavoured to impose, the Lambeth articles. The leader of the puritans urged tho adoption of them. Happily moderate views prevailed above the strife of scholastic theolo gians. Probably, too, the church owes much to the calmer counsels of the laymen Avho were present, of the privy council. Nor will the reader hesitate to acknowledge the good hand of God. What a host of worthies would have fled dismayed from the church of England, in every age, had this point been carried ; had the church, upon the most awful of all controversies, enunciated, as one of her terms of com munion, the most aAvful of all possible decisions ! And yet, the puritans cannot Avith justice be charged with the Avhole impolicy of this narrow project ; the archbishop himself, in his previous conduct, had fur nished grounds for the suspicion, that, if he could, he Avould have incorporated the Lambeth articles with tho thirty-nine. How insignificant the scru ples of the surplice and the cross, and how trifling 268 THE HISTORY OF chapter the hardships of subscription, compared with the — - — distress which would have spread far and wide, if james i. ^his decree of eternal reprobation had been once en- A. D. 1603. L rolled among the statutes of the church of England ! Such, however, were the inconsistencies of men, who smarted beneath oppression, and such their conside ration for the consciences of others who differed, if but a hair's breadth, from themselves. Other discussions followed; but the subjects were either of less importance, or had been already deter mined, in the first day's conference, by the king and prelates. Beynolds objected to confirmation, and to private baptism. As to the first, he was con fronted with the testimony of the fathers, and of Eulke and Calvin in later times. Private baptism by women, which had been hitherto allowed, was forbidden ; some alterations, chiefly verbal, were promised in the prayer book ; and, on the com plaint that it was defective, it was agreed that the catechism should be revised, and something added to it on the doctrine of the sacraments. On this point the sense of the reformers wras clearly with the puritan divines. It was never supposed that the knowledge of the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the ten commandments, was a sufficient erudition for christian youth. Various catechisms had been set forth besides ; and especially a compendium of Calvin's catechism, by Nowel, dean of St. Paul's. This had the sanction of the convocation of 156:4 : by the twentieth article of which, schoolmasters were ordered to instruct their pupils in it. It is much to be deplored that when Nowel's was suffered to fall into disuse, some other catechism, more com- THE EARLY PURITANS. 269 prehensive than that we now make use of, and less chapter burdensome to the learner's memory than that of x' Nowel, was not published by authority. Even with "^^3 the additions it received at the Hampton court con ference, the church catechism is far from affording, without laborious explanations, to which many an anxious parent feels himself incompetent, an out line of all saving truth. The comments and ex planations, constantly published from year to year, and the large demand for other catechisms, still prove the necessity there is for something more simple, and at the same time more comprehensive. To the suggestions of Dr. Beynolds, made this day, the church of England owes that inestimable trea sure, the authorized English version of the bible ; and to Beynolds himself a debt of gratitude, not only for urging the work, but for the important share he had in its execution. The profanation of the Lord's-day was deplored by the puritans, and a promise Avhich meant nothing Avas given that the evil should be remedied : for henceforth a devout observance of the sabbath was one of the symbols of a puritan, and the court profaned it as if Avith studied ostentation. The great points of real interest were now to be considered ; but it was evident that no concessions Avere intended. The puritans Avished to have some relief in the matter of subscription. Mr. Knewstubs, who had scarcely spoken hitherto, being a deeply- read divino, Avas chosen by his party to urge their dislike ofthe cross in baptism, and ofthe interro- gatives to the sponsors. He was probably abashed and confused : Dr. Barlow says that his speech was 270 THE HISTORY OF chapter long and perplexed. It is certain the treatment he — received was not such as to re-assure a timid speaker. a.d. 1603. " He said something out of Au'stin, but what it was his majesty plainly confessed he did not understand, and asked the lords what they thought he meant." But when Knewstubs urged, that offence to weak brethren was given by the use ofthe cross, "his majesty," we are told, " answered most acutely, with a question unanswerable; asking them how long they would be weak ? Whether forty-five years was not long enough for them to grow strong? and who they Avere that pretended this weakness ? for we, saith the king, require not sub scription of laics and idiots, but of preachers and ministers. It was not to be doubted, he said, that some of them were strong enough, if not head strong ; however in this case tbey pretended weak ness they thought themselves able to teach him and all the bishops of the land." The jeers and pleasantries of Jeffreys on the judgment-seat, were scarcely more unfeeling. Knewstubs was at length permitted to proceed. He craved permission to propose three queries. Had the church power to institute an external significant sign ? Supposing the church had such power, was it lawful to add one sign where Christ had already ordained another? And, granting that these two questions could be answered in the affirmative, How far was such an ordinance of the church to bind dis satisfied consciences without impeaching their chris tian hberty ? To the first and second questions grave and reasonable answers were given by the prelates ; to the last the king himself made answer. THE EARLY PURITANS. 271 He told him that he would not argue that point chapter with him, but answer him as kings are wont to _ — __ speak in parliament, le roy s'avisera ; adding withal ^' ^ that it smelled very rankly of anabaptism. A beardless boy in Scotland had told him, he said, not long ago, that he would submit to him in doc trine, but that matters of ceremony were to be left in christian liberty to every man, as they received more and more light from the illumination of the Spirit: "Even till they go mad," quoth the king, " with their own light. But I will none of that : I will have one doctrine and one discipline; one religion in substance and in ceremony : and there fore I charge you never more to speak on that point, how far you are bound to obey when the church hath ordained it." And so he asked them, continues the courtly historian of the Hampton court conference, if they had anything more to say !* But his indignation burst all bounds when Dr. Beynolds dared to express the desire, always uni versal amongst the puritans, to have the prophe cyings revised "as the reverend archbishop Grindal and other bishops desired of her late majesty ;" and that the clergy should be allowed to meet in pro vincial constitutions and in synods with the bishops. "At Avhich speech," says Dr. Barlow, " his majesty was somewhat stirred, yet, which was admirable in him, Avithout passion or show thereof, thinking that they aimed at a Scottish presbytery, which, says he, agreeth as well with a monarchy, as God and the devil. Then Jack and Tom, and AA^ill and Dick * Barlow's account. JAMES I A.D. 1603. 272 THE HISTORY OF chapter shall meet, and at their pleasures censure me, and my council, and all our proceedings : then AVill shall stand up and say, it must be thus ; then Dick shall reply and say, nay marry, but we will have it thus : and here I must once reiterate my former speech, le roy s'avisera," &c. The indecency of this disgraceful scene* was not yet at its height ; the king concluded thus. Well, doctor, have you anything else to say ? Dr. Reynolds. No more, if it please your majesty. The king. If this be all your party hath to say, I will make them conform themselves, or else I avlU harry them out of the land, or else do worse. Several modern writers not acquainted with the force of this expressive Scotticism, have by no means done justice to his majesty's gracious inten tions to his puritan subjects. They have made him say that he would hurry them out of his kingdom. Those who have heard a pack of harriers in full cry, will better appreciate the meaning of the royal threat. A threat addressed to the learned Beynolds, a divine of the highest rank ; and to the wise and eloquent Chadderton, the first master of Emmanuel * The bishop of St. Asaph, however, has expressed a very different opinion upon James's behaviour. " During the whole of the conference there is nothing more striking than the superiority of the king himself over both parties ; he not only surpassed them in temper and fairness, but apparently in learning and knowledge of the subject : notwithstanding the insignifi cance of the objections raised, and in some cases their senseless futility, he heard them with patience," &c. (Dr. Short's Hist, of the Ch. of England, xii. 509.) Entertaining the highest respect for the learning and candour of the right rev. author, I am compelled on this subject to arrive at a very opposite conclusion. Elsewhere Dr. Short remarks (xii. 523), and, I think, more correctly, " James might perhaps have proved a good king, if his weakness as a man had not rendered it almost impossible for him to perform the duties of his station." THE EARLY PURITANS. 273 college; — of whose eloquence it is recorded that chapter Avhen, having preached at unusual length to an_ — — — audience in Lancashire, he expressed an intention JAMES *• ' L A. D. 1603. of concluding, the whole congregation arose and with one voice importuned him to proceed ; * and of whose Avisdom it may suffice to say, that sir Walter Mildmay refused to build his college (he was the noble founder of Emmanuel) unless Chadderton would promise to accept the mastership. Sparkes and Knewstubs were also eminent divines. The infirmities of such men must surely have been shaded with some tints at least of piety and virtue. To such meu it was, king James addressed his memorable bravado, " I will harry them out of the land or else do worse :" and this, too, at a con ference in which he had invited or rather com manded them to sustain a part. The third day's conference began ; but by this time the puritans were disheartened, and were little more than passive spectators. The subject of dis cussion was, the court of high commission, and the oath ex officio by which suspected persons Avere com pelled to criminate themselves. Many civilians were present by command, as the question partly con cerned the civil constitution of the state. A name less lordf had the courage to declare that the pro ceedings in that court were like the Spanish inquisi tion ; he Avas answered by the archbishop and the lord chancellor. And then the king himself de fended the court, and especially the oath of compur gation, Avith such wondrous Avisdom, that all the * Fuller, Worthies of England. t Kuller, Ch. Hist. iii. p. 190. T 271 THE HISTORY OF chapter lords, and the rest of the present auditors, stood x- amazed at it. The scene that followed is one of the james i. most humiliating upon the page of English history. " The archbishop of Canterbury said, that undoubt edly his majesty spake by the special assistance of God's spirit." " The bishop of London, on his knees, protested that his heart melted within him, as he doubted not did the hearts of the whole company, with joy, and made haste to acknowledge to Al mighty God his singular mercy in giving us such a king, as since Christ's time the hke he thought had not been seen."* Nor did the bishop of London mistake the feelings of his audience ; for the lords with one voice did yield a very affectionate acclama tion ; and the civilians present confessed that they could not, with many an hour of preparation, have spoken so well and wisely as the king. The years of the primate claim for him the forbearance which is due to decaying faculties, and perhaps a second childishness. The servility of the bishop of London wants this, the only possible, excuse. In the adula tion of the courtiers and the facile admiration of civilians, men learned in the law, Ave see some at least of the latent causes of James's infatuation ; and if so, of those convulsions which brought to the scaffold his equally infatuated son. Weak, and vain, and insolent as James was, he could scarcely keep pace with the homage of his courtiers. He Avas pro bably the most credulous man then alive ; but he could hardly believe in the nauseous flatteries with wdiich this memorable conference closed. * Barlow. THE EARLY PURITANS. 275 The result of the conference was received with chapter various emotions ; with triumph by the high pre- x' latic party, by the puritans with disgust and mere JAMES '• contempt. The part which had been taken in the management of it by the king, the prelates, and the puritans, was summed up in one of those pithy sen tences into which the result of much observation, and the comparison of various opinions, is finally con densed. The king, it was said, was above himself, the bishop of London appeared even with himself, and Dr. Beynolds fell much beneath himself. More commodiously expressed, the verdict of the times is precisely that of posterity. King James prided him self on his theology, and he had sought a field on which to display an accomplishment then much in vogue. The prelates (not all of them, by any means, but those avIio were extreme against the puritans,) had found in the bishop of London a keen advocate and an able expositor. Bancroft was a stern oppo nent. Tho praise awarded to him by the zealots of his party was, that he understood the church excel lently; that at Hampton court he A'ery much sub dued tho unruly spirits of the nonconformists ; and that had ho lived he would quickly have extin- guisbed in England all that fire first kindled from Geneva.* Thus by the concession of their most in- votcrato foes the puritans had been unfairly treated, browbeaten, jeered at, silenced. As Avill ever happen in a defeated party, many of the puritans blamed their advocates. It is true not one of them possessed the resolution of Knox, the fearlessness of Latimer, or even the gentle pertinacity of John • Clarendon, Hist, of great rebellion, hook i. p. S8. Oxford ed. 1712. 276 THE HISTORY OF chapter Eoxe. But they had other qualities which fitted x' _ them for their task : great learning, eloquence, a james 1. birth and education which at least entitled them to A.D. 1603. respect ; and above all, the conviction, deep and strong within them, that their cause was the cause of God, and involved the interests of true religion. But in truth their task was such as none could have accomplished; namely, to extort con cessions from an absolute sovereign, in his own palace, surrounded with courtiers and counsellors no less determined than himself that no concessions should be made. It would have been more pohtic to have declined the unequal contest, and satisfied themselves with a written statement of their griev ances, and a petition for redress. It was within a few weeks of the conference at Hampton court, that Whitgift and Cartwright died ; the two men, the impression of whose character abides with us still, and will probably never be effaced from the religious institutions of our land. The church of England has many features for Avhich it is indebted to Whitgift. The puritans, while they continued to exist, then the nonconformists, and now the dissenters, claim Cartwright as their great founder. Of Whitgift as a man, it is difficult to speak. Most of what is said of him by contempo raries appears now extravagant, whether for good or evil. With a few exceptions, this was the manner of the times. Biography was a caricature. But making allowance for this excess, the character of Whitgift comes down to us as one blemished indeed, and stained with a severity which, however meant, was nothing else than cruelty, but not with- THE EARLY PURITANS. 277 out the marks of greatness and of piety ; greatness chapter and piety, be it understood, such as may co-exist x with a narrow mind and a severe temper. His de- JAMES T 1 A.D. 1603. fence of episcopacy, in reply to Cartwright, assigns him a high place among controversial writers. The patron of Hooker, and the prompter from whose suggestions the " Ecclesiastical polity" arose, must have been shrewd in discerning ability in others, and generous in bringing it to light. Hooker's treatise was meant to supersede his own ; he fore saw his triumph and promoted it. Nor was he des titute of kindness. When Essex was condemned, he pleaded for his life with so much earnestness that he lost, for some time, the favour of the queen, or rather provoked her passion.* As a divine, his powers have never been questioned ; and those Avho were acquainted with him in private life, speak of him with reverence mingled with affection. With a gentler spirit, and a lot cast in happier times, Whitgift might have been one of the bright orna ments of tho English church. Whether, from the prescience which is sometimes granted to a wise old age, and seems to be prophetic, or from that cause less jealousy and fear of coming evil which is more frequent in decaying years, AV nitgift, though he had triumphed at Hampton court, dreaded the opening of parliament, and hoped he might not live to see it. He would rather, he said, render an ac count of his bishopric to God, than continue, among so many troubles, to discharge it upon earth. His last words, twice uttered, were characteristic of the man, — Pro ecclesia Dei. For the church of God ! lie died on the 2Sth of Eebruarv, 1603. * Paul's Whitgift. X. JAMES I. A. D. 1603. 278 THE HISTORY OF chapter Cartwright was amongst the first, and survived to be almost the last of the early puritans. He Avas warmly attached to the church of England, and in his later days, at least, no enemy to episcopacy. But another school arose with whom not amendment, but subversion, was the cry. Into this some of the early puritans were absorbed ; others submitted to a state of things which they did not approve entirely, rather than incur the perils of change, or even the hazards of resistance. The stream of innovation rushed on, while Cartwright seemed to lag behind. His fate was that which often befals a leader of pure conscience, and defective courage or weak judgment. He had raised a tempest which he could not still. He had taught disciples who lived to scorn their master. He had disseminated principles, so his own pupils told him, which condemned his moderation, and made it seem to be mere cowardice. But what ever his failings as the leader of a party, he was eminent as a private christian. No doubt he felt, as years passed over him, and his mind became more deeply seasoned with spiritual affections, that the church was to be improved, not by the renovation of its institutions, not by strife and revolution, but by the grace and spirit of God working in the hearts, and purifying the lives of professing christians. It was the fault of both parties to attach too much im portance to the mechanism of a church, and to expect from it results which mechanism could never yield ; and hence arose on both sides a tenacity, which both sides mistook for zeal in the cause of God. Cart wright seems to have perceived his error, without making any formal retractation of the principles of his early life. His theory of church government might THE EARLY PURITANS. 279 be still the same ; but it no longer occupied the same chapter place in his affections. He died in peace, as we have x' alreadv mentioned, in the asylum provided for him JAMES *¦ A. D. 1603. at Warwick by his generous patron " the good earl of Leicester." Before Whitgift's death, a writ was issued to assemble the convocation. Bancroft succeeded to the primacy, but while it was still vacant he presided as bishop of London over this great synod, which was held in the year 1601.* In this famous convocation the constitutions and canons ecclesiastical by which the church of Eng land is governed were agreed upon. They are one hundred and forty-one in number, and were imme diately published by the king's authority under the great seal of England. But neither then nor ever since, have they received the sanction of parliament, and in consequence they are not binding on the laity, not binding proprio vigore, as Blackstone has ob served, but only so far as they embody other canons which had previously the authority of laws. They bind tho clergy, so far as they may legally be en forced, by virtue oftheir oath of canonical obedience. Few men of any party Avill now be found to justify tho hard and rigorous spirit Avhich several of these enactments breathe. They were no sooner pub lished than some Aviso and moderate men, (so writes the catholic-minded Fuller,) expressed their appre hension that they were too heavy a burden to be long borne; and that it was enough for the episcopal party to have triumphed over their adversaries * It is generally called the synod of KiOJ, because convoked in that vcar; but its actual sittings were held during the year 160-1. 280 THE HISTORY OF chapter without insulting them. If cursing, says a noncon- — f: — formist writer,* could have crushed the puritans, we james i. ghouid have hear(1 0f them no more. Excommu- nication is denounced unsparingly. To deny the church of England to be a true and apostolic church; to say that its worship is superstitious or containeth anything in it that is repugnant to the scriptures ; or that the thirty-nine articles are in any part erroneous ; or that the rites and ceremonies of the church are superstitious, is to subject the offender to excommunication ipso facto. This, too, is the punishment of those who deny the lawful govern ment of archbishops, bishops, deans and chapters, and of those who, seceding from the church, combine themselves into a new brotherhood, and affirm that their meetings or congregations are true and lawful churches. t These, with some other censures of a similar kind, it is needless to add, were intended to complete the discomfiture of the puritans. The dis grace of these barbarous canons belongs to the con vocation in which they passed ; but prejudice, fo mented from time to time by some of her assailants, still lays it to the church of England ; and it must be allowed that some degree of censure fairly belongs to her for permitting the canons to remain so long without revision. But of the obnoxious canons, some are obsolete, and some illegal. The act of toleration has interposed to silence the thunder of excommunication. The obnoxious canons, once so formidable, stand, it is true, on the church's statute book ; but they stand there antiquated and obsolete ; * Price, Hist. Nonconformists, i. p. 476. t Canons agreed on in convocation, &c. 1603. THE EARLY PURITANS. 281 as harmless as the instruments of torture, of the chapter same age, preserved as relics in the Tower. And '. — for nearly two centuries, seceders have been as little JAMES J- « A.D. 1601. in dread of them. The clergy are bound, it is true, to obey their bishops in all things canonical ; but the bishops are not superior to the law. No canon can be enforced, even should the rash attempt be made, which the laws of England have superseded and annulled. The oath of canonical obedience must, of necessity, be thus interpreted ; the clergy bind themselves to obey the canons, only so far as the canons may be legally obeyed. And, Avith these ex ceptions, and thus understood, the canons are, upon the whole, a wise and comprehensive code of eccle siastical discipline, which still suit the circum stances of the church of England ; and they are a guide to the clergy, and to official laymen charged with spiritual functions, where the letter of the law is obsolete, or on points upon which it is nowhere else expressed. But, however harmless these anathemas may be at present, there are few of them Avhich have not dono their work of vengeance in their time. They were not passed unanimously. There was, in the convocation of 1601, one man at least, who stood there with christian meekness, and with a firm yet almost pathetic eloquence, to advocate those princi ples of toleration Avhich in their hearts both prelatists and puritans despised. It was in a discussion upon the cross in baptism, that Budd, the bishop of St. David's, spoke. His words Avere weightier, because he scrupled not the cross himself; "he Avished that if the king's highness should insist upon imposing 282 THE HISTORY OF chapter it, all would submit, rather than forego the ministry — — in that behalf." But he pleaded for concession and james i. forbearance, both upon this and the kindred questions A, D. 1604. ^- of absolute subscription, the surplice, and the cere monies. He foresaAV the evils of a house divided against itself; and foretold the day, (which came even sooner than he looked for it,) when, " for want of their joint labours, some such doleful complaint might arise, as fell out upon an accident of another nature in the book of Judges, where it is said, ' for the divisions of Beuben were great thoughts of heart.' " Who that has sighed over bishop Hall's sufferings, described in his " Hard measure," or felt a burst of indignation as he thought upon the execution of Laud, will not revert to the convocation of 1601, and think too of the prophetic warning of bishop Budd! — " Consider," he said, "who must be the executioners oftheir deprivation ; even we ourselves, the bishops : against whom there will be a great clamour of them and their dependents, and many others well affected to them : whereby our persons shall be in hazard to be brought into great dislike, if not into extreme hatred : whereof what inconve niences may ensue, I leave to your good wisdoms to be considered of." * Yet even Budd did not foresee the full fury of the storm which in these violent pro ceedings the bishops and their party were contribut ing to the utmost to excite. The concessions made by the convocation are con tained in the canon which explains the nature of the cross in baptism, and justifies its use ; a concession which could not satisfy the puritans, inasmuch as it * Neal ii. p. 29. THE EARLY PURITANS. 283 took for granted the very point against which they chapter protested, namely, the right of a church to add a x" ceremony to a sacrament ; and to decide for them JAMES J- " A.D. 1604. that the addition, though allowed to be superfluous, was not superstitious. Still it shewed a conciliat ing spirit ; and was no doubt conceded by the pre- latic party not so much to the clamours of the puritans, as to the moderation of men like the bishop of St. David's. Perhaps, too, the array of excom munications with wlrich, to a modern reader, the fortress seems to bristle on every side, wore a some- Avhat different appearance to an ancient puritan. It would seem that excommunication Avas not ex tended, but retrenched. It is not enforced for "twelvepenny matters." It is not deputed to mer cenaries ; to bishops' officers and laymen, and these too of worthless character perhaps, and mean con dition. Had the canons been but gently pressed they might oven have afforded some relief to the ha rassed puritans. Had they superseded the court of high commission, the boon Avould have been great indeed : but unhappily this Avas not the case. A proclamation Avas issued in 1601 commanding strict conformity ; and the usual consequences fol lowed. Many of the clergy were silenced ; some Avere imprisoned ; their flocks were irritated : the estrangement on both sides Avas grievously increased; and the lawfulness of separating from the church of Engbuid began at length to be generally discussed. Tho number of suspended ministers rises or falls in the relation of the partial historians of these times with their prejudices. Some say that fifteen hun dred or more avci-o ejected ; others, scarcely a tenth 281 THE HISTORY OF chapter part of that number. Maunsel, the minister of x' Yarmouth, and Mr. Ladd, a merchant of that town, james i. are names that have come dowm to us as twro of the A. D. 1604. sufferers in the persecution that ensued. Their case is remarkable. They were summoned before the high commissioners, and Ladd was imprisoned. Maunsel petitioned the house of commons ; and for doing so and for refusing the oath, he was impri soned without bail. Upon a writ of habeas corpus, he was brought before the bar of the house ; and his counsel, a bencher of Grays inn, moved that the prisoners ought to be discharged, on the ground that the high commissioners were not empowered by law to imprison, or to administer the oath ex officio, or even to fine any of his majesty's subjects. This was a bold step ; but neither the nation nor even the house of commons was yet ripe for it. Instead of serving his clients, Nicholas Fuller (for his name deserves to be had in reverence) brought down ruin upon himself. He was imprisoned at the instance of Bancroft, and neither the intercessions of his friends, nor his own most humble petitions, could obtain his release till the day of his death.* Arthur Hildersham was a celebrated divine of high birth and great acquirements. Except in the matter of his nonconformity, his conduct won the respect of all, and he was happy in the veneration and love of his followers. He was descended from the royal house of the Tudors, and was great nephew to cardinal Pole. Elizabeth herself vouchsafed to greet him as her cousin Hfldersham. The history of his sufferings presents no exaggerated picture of * Neal ii. p. 49. A. D. 1604. THE EARLY PURITANS. 285 those of multitudes of less distinguished men. Apart CHAPTER from other considerations, his life has the interest x- which always belongs to the oppressed.* james i. He was born in 1563. His parents still clung to the ancient worship, and he was brought up in the superstitions of popery, and taught to repeat his prayers in Latin. He was sent to Cambridge, to Christ's college, and was there converted to the pro testant faith. His father was alarmed and angry, and removed him from the university ; resolving to send him to Borne, where he hoped that the youth would be at once reclaimed and promoted. The son refused to go, and the father disinherited and cast him off. Such trials must have frequently occurred when many a house was divided against itself; and the father was set against the son, and the son against the father. These were the conflicts of the reforma tion ; conflicts more bitter than the dungeon and the stake. Young Hildcrsham left the university in sorroAV and in Avant, and Avas met by chance in London by a Mr. Ireton, a clergyman of Cambridge, Avho had known him there, and enquired the reason of his absence. He told the story, and Avhat he suffered for conscicuce sake. His generous friend was moved, and went immediately to the earl of Huntingdon, the lord president ofthe north, to Avhom Hildersham was related. Lord Huntingdon took up his cause, sent him to the university again, and liberally supported him. Through tho influence of lord Burghley he obtained a fellowship at Trinity hall; but within two years he Avas deprived of it by the • Brooke, Lives ofthe Puritans, ii. p. 376. 286 THE HISTORY OF chapter high commission for having preached before he was x- ordained. He appears to have submitted and con- james i. fessed his error ; for we find him soon afterwards a.d.1604. preaching at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, to which he had been invited by his constant friend, lord Huntingdon. In 1590 he married ; the same year found him again before the high commission, who now suspended him from his ministry, and exacted a pledge that he would desist from preaching in any part of England, as the price of his remaining at large. The next year the prohibition was relaxed ; he was now for bidden to preach only on the south of the river Trent. Thus however he was still silenced at Ashby. But owing no doubt to the influence of his high connexions at court, this restraint was soon afterwards removed, and he resumed his ministry. In 1596 he preached an assize sermon at Leicester, which so displeased the judge that he required the jury to indict the preacher ; but they refused. Such was the esteem in which he was held, that it was said no Leicestershire jury would have consented to do so. In 1598 the high commission for the third time attempted to apprehend him ; but whether, says his biographer, he was imprisoned, or concealed himself till the storm was over, we have not been able to learn. He was at the conference at Hamp ton court, and presented a number of petitions to the king on behalf of the puritans. Within two years, in 1605, he was again silenced for nonconfor mity, and remained for upwards of three years under ecclesiastical censure. Still he was permitted occa sionally, by the kindness of the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, to preach in his diocese ; and towards \.D. 1812. THE EARLY PURITANS. 287 the close of the year 1608 he was restored to his chapter ministry at Ashby, by the favour of Dr. Barlow, x' the new bishop of Lincoln. Three years had JAMES '• scarcely passed and he was silenced once more by ieo.> Neile bishop of Lichfield, on a charge Avhich on the very face of it was false and monstrous. He was accused of being connected with one Whiteman, who taught Socinianism at Burton-upon-Trent,— an offence for which he was burnt alive at Lichfield. It was the last instance in which this horrible tor ment was inflicted on the plea of heresy ; for public opinion already began to revolt against it. And yet, after the lapse of another century, one of the greatest of English judges hurried an aged female to the fire on the unproved charge of dealing Avith foul spirits. That the benevolent and virtuous judge Hale should have inflicted this torture on an old woman upon the charge of witchcraft is, per haps, the most solemn lesson upon record how prejudice and superstition may darken the purest reason, and goad it to the most revolting crimes. Hildersham was of course acquitted ; but the episcopal censure was not removed. In 1612 he was once more summoned before the high commis sion, judicially admonished, and again suspended. Whether he was restored or not appears uncertain ; but he probably exercised his ministry by stealth, as the puritans never ceased to do as opportunities offered ; for in 1615 he Avas again before the high commission, and, refusing the oath ex officio, was committed, first to the Fleet, and then to the King's Bench, Avhere he lay some time. Commissioners wero sent doAvn the next year to Ashby, to examine 288 THE HISTORY OF chapter witnesses against him in his own parish : he was — pronounced refractory and disobedient, and a ring- jamesi. iea(jer of schismatics. He was excommunicated, A. D. 1615. - „ fined two thousand pounds, degraded from the ministry, imprisoned, ordered to make a public recantation in terms dictated by the court, and condemned to pay the costs of the judicial suit. Hildersham, who was now at large, concealed him self, and petitioned for a mitigation of the sentence through various channels. At length the matter was compounded by his payment of a " great sum of money ; " and he was discharged from the re mainder of the fine. Two years afterwards he was again in trouble ; a pursuivant broke into his study, and carried away his books, upon what charge does not appear. But in 1625 he obtained a licence from the archbishop himself, to preach within the dioceses of London, Lincoln, and Lichfield, and re turned to his cure at Ashby. It must be recorded, that he immediately began a course of lectures on the 51st psalm, which were published a few years afterwards ; they were in number two hundred and fifty-two. Such was the zeal, and such the minis terial diligence of the puritan leaders. His scruples were not yet removed ; nor was the wrath of the ruling powers exhausted. In 1630, he was again silenced for refusing to make use of the hood and surplice ; but the poAver of the high prelatic party had already begun to wane, and other troubles darkened the horizon. In 1631 he was finally restored, but his race was run, and soon afterwards he died in peace ; and when he was no more, men of various parties vied with each other THE EARLY PURITANS. in his praise. He was, says one, a worthy divine, chapter and a just man.* He was, says another, a great and shining light ofthe puritan party, f He was JA*IC'g1g' justly celebrated, says a third, for his singular learn ing and piety. And Lily, the famous astrologer, who had been a schoolboy at Ashby, closes the many tributes of his eulogists in these words : " He Avas an excellent textuary, of exemplary life, pleasant in discourse, a strong enemy to the brownists, and dissented not from the church of England in any article of faith, but only about wearing the surplice, baptizing with the cross, and kneeling at the sacra ment." Such was the life of a puritan divine in the days of king James the first. While reverence for the good and indignation for the oppressed continues to be felt among men, the puritans of those times Avill Avant neither reverence nor sympathy. As a body, they were men of sincere, and sometimes of exalted, piety ; they were yet well affected to the church of England, in spite of their several topics of incessant protest and declamation, and their aversion to some of her usages. Their patriotism Avas warm, and so too was their loyalty ; and it must be confessed both were sorely tried. But it is not inconsistent to add, that their views were often narrow and their objec tions captious. If it be true that their spirits were sour, this infirmity is the consequence of oppression, wlrich makes even wise men mad, and the disgrace of their misconduct belongs to their opponents as much as to themselves. But the charge from Avhich it is most difficult to relieve them, is that of a * Fuller. f Echard. U CHAPTER X. 290 THE HISTORY OF stubborn perversity. Their consciences were rather diseased than tender. Admitting even that every james i. ! grievance Avas real, and that all they asked should have been conceded, their conduct is not entirely justified. For a grievance may be real without amounting to such a wrong as to justify resistance; and demands may be reasonably made wlrich, if not conceded, ought neither to beget ill-will nor obsti nacy. Granting that the rulers of the church were unwise and intolerant, these are evils which christian men, much more christian ministers, must bear with patience. It might be right to protest at first against the obnoxious ceremonies ; could it be right to embarrass the church for half a century with reiterated and unceasing clamours ? If there was on the one side a most unreasonable severity, on the other there was a pertinacity which ill accorded either with the wisdom of the gospel or its meekness. And meanwhile the common foe was turning their divi sions, with wary zeal and cunning, to his own ad vantage. It was said that, under the garb of puritan ministers, Jesuits introduced themselves and sowed the dragon's teeth which sprung up into the hydras of rebellion and apostacy. The puritans complained to the king that thousands of his subjects had re turned to popery. He answered with a sorry jest, and told them, by way of reprisals, to go and convert an equal number of Spaniards and Italians. But it ought to have occurred to them how far the mischief had been owing to themselves : to their obstruction of the episcopal authority and of the just influence of the established church ; to the mischievous di version of the common people from the great and THE EARLY PURITANS. 291 sanctifying doctrines of personal religion, to dis- chapter cussions (which to the multitude must always be x' unprofitable) upon recondite questions of church james i. government. The faults of the puritans do not strike us, up to this period of their history, as much as those of their adversaries. The intolerance of Whitgift, and the insolent humours of the king, are more palpable and more offensive. And the balance of wrong-doing and of injustice was, beyond a doubt, with the church, or rather with the prelatic and court party. But the puritans were not without a full share of blame ; and had they been more kindly used, history would perhaps have summed up their errors with more severity. r 2 292 THE HISTORY OF CHAPTEB XI. a.d. 1612—1620. chapter The expectations of the puritans, which had been XI- highly raised on the accession of James, were james i. grievously cast down by the conference at Hampton 1612-1620. court, and utterly destroyed by the convocation that followed soon after. One hope alone remained ; the hope of the dejected and forlorn. It was embraced with reluctance, and deep misgivings of heart : but once resolved upon, it was carried into effect with such energy as only men exert who are impelled al ternately by hope and by despair. A new world had lately been discovered. On shores yet unpolluted by superstition, perhaps untrodden by the foot of man, they might find a peaceful asylum, and, free from the dread of dungeons and courts of high com mission, worship God in truth. These were their aspirations ; and at the distance of two centuries, none but the most insensible and stupid can read the story of their enterprise, without something of the awe and reverence which great virtue struggling with great adversity, and so achieving its last- THE EARLY PURITANS. 293 ing triumph, never fails, sooner or later, to com- chapter mand.* "• Such a scheme was not altogether new. The james i. unhappy Huguenots of France had already sought 16i2-i62o. a refuge in the wilds of North America. And so great had been their success in colonizing those dis tant regions, that a patent had been issued, by their friend and patron, Henry iv., giving to De Monts, a calvinist, the sovereignty of a region which stretches from Philadelphia to Montreal. His patent secured freedom of religion for the Huguenots, with other privileges. It even seemed as if a vast em pire would be founded in the west, the protestant colony of France. But whether from the greater energy of the Saxon race, or from causes determined solely by a higher poAver, and uninfluenced by the conduct of his creatures, the colony and the institu tions of De Monts have vanished, Avhile the friend less puritans of England laid the first foundation of a great nation — one of the greatest under heaven : tho representative and offspring of our OAvn. One third of the European population of the vast Ame rican republic of our times, acknoAvledges a puritan origin. AVitkin fifteen years from the sailing of the first timid bark, freighted with these anxious emi grants, there had folloAved four thousand families, consisting of moro than tAventy-one thousand souls. Their descendants, tAvelve years ago, were numbered at four millions. In the states of New York and Ohio, they constitute one half the population. So * For the facts related in this chapter, the authorities are chiefly Mather's Hist. New England ; Bancroft's Hist. United States of America, (Boston. 1S-I0.); Scwell's Hist, of Quakers ; Livcsof Robinson, and others, in Brooke, Neal, &c. 294 THE HISTORY OF chapter astonishing the results of the enterprise we are about XI. JAMES I. A.D. to relate, and so benevolent the purposes of Him who protected their wanderings, and guided their 1612-1620. almost desperate adventures. John Bobinson, the pastor of a congregation of English brownists at Leyden, first suggested the undertaking which was to lead to such important consequences. In an age when the influence of the christian minister was always great, he had a power of influence and control unequalled. In days when men aspersed their opponents with bitterness, and reviled each other without shame or restraint, he passed blameless through life, or was blamed only for his nonconformity. He was one of the first fruits of Immanuel college ; and churchmen, who cannot but regret the loss of such a name from their glorious calendar of great and good men, will feel, perhaps, that his course through life explains, to some extent, the coldness with which the new puri tan foundation was regarded by the rulers of the church. Dr. Chadderton, the master, was a puritan, but moderate, and anxious to conform ; the pupil naturally outwent the teacher, and in a short time resigned his charge in the neighbourhood of Yar mouth, and declared himself a brownist — a dissenter from the church of England. He suffered some years of constant hardship ; and at length — though not without extreme difficulty, watched, and threat ened — contrived, with his hearers, to escape to Hol land. He first attempted to settle at Amsterdam ; but persecution had not yet taught mutual forbear ance even, to the puritans. There was another con gregation of English refugees at Amsterdam, who XI. JAMES I. A.D. THE EARLY PURITANS. 295 differed on some points from the brownists. A quar- chapter rel and a separation followed ; and Bobinson, who was a man of peace, retired to Leyden, in 1608. There he and his flock abode for above ten years, and 1612-1620. won the confidence and respect of the magistrates and citizens. But they felt it was a life of exile. Neither the manners nor the language of the Ger mans pleased them. They began to think of mi grating in a body across the wide, and as yet almost untried, Atlantic. Bobinson gave his influence to the scheme, and under his auspices it was carried into effect. The Greeks of old reverenced with heathenish superstition the ship in which the Argonauts, it Avas fabled, had once sailed to Colchis. The English at this day regard, with a fondness not to be severely blamed, the vessel in which Nelson died. The chil dren of tho puritans, with equal reason, cherish the time-honoured names of tho MayfloAver and the Speedwell. They were the two ships — if ships they could be termed, the one of sixty tons, the other of one hundred and eighty — in Avhich the exiles of Ley den, the pilgrim fathers, embarked upon their voyage. Bobinson's congregation exceeded three hundred ; and as they were unable to provide at once for the transport of the whole number, it was agreed that their pastor should remain for the present at Ley den, with the remainder of the flock, whose future steps should be guided by the reports of the first ad venturers. FeAV events in puritan history are more touching, or more Avorthy of being had in remem brance, than the last parting (for such it proved) of Bobinson, the brownist minister, and his exiled and 296 THE HISTORY OF chapter heroic band of christian emigrants. Before the — — day of embarkation came, the magistrates bore a james i. y0iuntary and honourable testimony to their good 1612-1620. conduct. Several of the Dutch were anxious to go with them, and would have contributed largely to the expenses of the enterprise. But the English character was then, as now, retiring, sensitive, and jealous. They would have no associates who did not speak the English tongue, and obey the English monarch ; — " in a few generations," too, " their own posterity would become Dutch !" So strong their nationality after all their persecutions. When the ship was ready to sail, the whole con gregation met. There was a solemn fast and prayer. Bobinson then addressed them in a farewell speech, "breathing," says a republican historian, " a free dom of opinion, and an independence of authority, such as then were hardly known in the world." Happily the speech is on record, and we know that the exiled pastor of Leyden spoke in a much wiser and much holier strain. He impressed the lessons of piety, not of a vainglorious self-sufficiency or a self- willed independence. " I charge you," said he, " that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ." There wrere few men then alive, who could have given utterance to the sentiment which followed. It bespeaks a wis dom, which few had yet attained. " The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, which are come to a period in religion, and will go, at present, no further than the instruments of their reformation. — Luther and A.D. 1612—1620. THE EARLY PURITANS. 297 Calvin were great and shining lights in their times, chapter yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of xr- God. The lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond james i. what Luther saw : and the calvinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God. I beseech you remember it ; — 'tis an article of your church covenant, — that you shall be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written word of God." The character of the New England puritans would have come down to us free from some dark spots, had the audience comprehended the wisdom of their pastor's admoni tion. In conclusion, he advised them to shake off the name of brownists, — in which it seems they took delight, — as " a mere nickname, Avhich made religion odious." A parting feast was given, at the pastor's house, "where," writes Edward WinsloAv who Avas one ofthe guests, "after tears, we refreshed ourselves with singing of psalms, making joyful melody in our hearts, as well as with the voice : indeed, it was the sweetest melody that ever mine ears heard." Over whelmed as they were Avith tender emotions they had dauntless spirits and a sure confidence in God. The Avhole congregation moved together to Delft Haven, where the emigrants embarked. Prayer Avas again offered by their beloved pastor ; tears in abundance were shed; and they parted in deep silence, "for the abundance of sorroAV." Cheers, and noisy demonstrations, were never much in vogue among the puritans ; but " a volley of small shot, and three pieces of ordnance," announced to those on shore the hearty courage and affectionate adieus of those on board : and so, continues 298 THE HISTORY OF chapter Winslow, " lifting up our hands to one another, and ' our hearts to the Lord, we departed." james i. On the 5th of August, 1620, the two vessels, freighted with the New England colonists, sailed from the Southampton river. Within a few days, the May-flower was found to need repairs, and they put back to Dartmouth. Eight days were lost, and again they sailed. Now the captain of the Speedwell feigned or felt alarm, and insisted on returning to Plymouth. Here the Speedwell was dismissed, and some of the company, disheartened, gave up the enterprise, and went back to London. A hundred souls, men and wives and infants and children, were crowded into the little May-flower, and on the 6th of September, 1620, took their last leave of England. Their feelings, we may believe, were softened towards their native land, and they thought, with a melancholy pride and thankfulness, of her glory and her greatness. One who has left a narrative of a somewhat later voyage of the puri tans, has given us their parting ejaculation, as they lost sight of the land of their fathers. The same words, no doubt, escaped the lips, or swelled unex pressed in the bosoms, of the earlier voyagers on board the adventurous May-flower. " They did not say, Farewell Babylon ! farewell Borne ! But Fare well dear England !"* A voyage of sixty-three days brought them in sight of America. They landed at Cape Cod, where the two great seaport towns of Plymouth and Bos ton were shortly founded, names which to this day attest the grateful patriotism no less than the energy * Mather's Hist. New Eng. b. iii. ch. 1, THE EARLY PURITANS. 299 and hope of the pilgrim fathers. For Plymouth was chapter so named in remembrance of the christian sympathy x1, they had received from the last town in which they JAME9 J J J A.D. 1620. had sought refuge from the perils of the sea in England ; and Boston was a memorial of their early home in Lincolnshire, before intolerance had forced them into the swamps of Holland. In front of the town-hall of Plymouth in New England, there hes a dark rough mass of granite, which is looked upon with reverence by every true son of the greatest republic the world ever saw. On this the pilgrims landed; upon this stone they stepped; upon this rock they took possession of an heritage of bound less extent; here they entered upon a new career, of which, could they have foreseen the consequences, it is a question not easily resolved, whether more of awe and fear, or of gratitude and exultation, would have taken possession of their souls. The stone, hallowed by such associations, has been rolled from its native bed upon the sea- beach and placed, a national monument, touching and appropriate, in the midst of a city, the earliest that can boast the origin, founded by the puritans. The colonists regarded themselves as the loyal subjects of England. They had obtained a patent from tho company of merchants to whom king James had entrusted the planting of New England — for so what are noAV the northern states of the American republic were then entitled. — But their charter proved to be of little value ; and they seem to have experienced at once the perils and the relief of per fect liberty. Even in their little company were some unruly spirits, who, having disdained the yoke JAMES I A.D. 1620. 300 THE HISTORY OF chapter of authority at home, were little disposed to submit XL themselves abroad to the dictatorship of their own brethren. While they were at sea, the majority found it expedient to draw up a declaration of their principles of civil government. To this all the men of the party, forty-one in number, subscribed their hands, and promised all due submission and obe dience ; and John Carver was chosen their president or governor, for the space of one year. The death of Carver occurred within his year of office ; and a successor was chosen by general suffrage. In fact, their civil constitution was a republic, and reminds us of the democracies of ancient Greece, from its extreme simplicity. Every male inhabitant was a member of the legislature ; the governor had but a double vote ; and he was assisted or checked by a council of seven ; the people were frequently con vened on executive as well as judicial questions. And this state of things continued for eighteen years ; a long period for so loose and yet so inflam mable a system. At length the increase of popula tion, and the inevitable confusion of a state in which all by turns obey and govern, and are submissive and supreme, led to the introduction of the repre sentative system. A committee of delegates was sent from each town to a general court : the model of the independent provincial legislatures of the different states of the great American Union. The change was not effected without uneasiness ; nor were the politics of these early settlers always free from agitation and disquiet ; — but the subject be longs to the secular historian. The conduct of the new community was at first THE EARLY PURITANS. 301 well worthy of their cause. They behaved like men chapter who had forsaken home and kindred, not for ambi- — — — tion or for gain, but for conscience and for God. The winter had set in with stern severity on their arrival ; their log huts were not yet erected, and every hour was important. Yet the first sabbath- day was observed with deep solemnity. Pestilence and famine came upon them like an armed man. They arrived in December : in May one half their number lay in the silent grave— silent, but not peace ful ; for the Indians had heard of the coming of " the pale faced men," and began to harass their new settlement. The graves were ploughed over and sown with corn to hide them from the desecration of the savages. Their stores failed : their bread had long since disappeared, or been prudently reserved for seed. For months not a biscuit nor a loaf was seen among them. When they were visited, some time after, by a friendly party of neighbouring colo nists, all the hospitality they could offer Avas a meal of dried shell fish, with " a cup of fair spring water." Yet none repined. AVhen the captain of the May flower, anxious to be gone, spread his sails in the month of May for England, not one of the surviving fifty Avhom the pestilence had spared, repented of the enterprise and sought permission to return. They formed themselves into a church, of course upon the brownist or independent model, and regu lated the conduct of the colony by the principles of scripture. All Avere compelled to Avork at first upon a common stock, like the early christians at Jerusa lem ; not because they adopted the principle of a community of goods, but as a matter of convenience. 302 THE HISTORY OF chapter But after a short trial the system was abandoned, '. — and each family had a plot of ground assigned to it. Crimes were few ; but they were severely punished. The governor's journal records the first offence, and its somewhat curious penalty. " The first offence since our arrival is of John Billington, who first came on board at London, and is this month con- vented before the whole company, for his contempt of the captain's lawful command, with opprobrious speeches, for which he is adjudged to have his neck and heels tied together;" but humbling himself, and craving pardon, the culprit was forgiven. Two men- servants who had carried out, it seems, one of the most preposterous vices of the old world, and intro duced it at New Plymouth, were more severely handled. The governor again relates that a duel with sword and dagger took place, in which both parties received a wound. This mutually-inflicted penalty not being thought sufficient, they too "were adjudged by the whole company to have their head and feet tied together, and so to lie for twenty-four hours without meat and drink." The sentence was immediately enforced ; but such were the torments of the sufferers, or such the tenderness of the puri tans, that within an hour, at their own and their master's humble request, upon promise of better conduct, they were released. What would be the feelings of governor Bradford and the pilgrim fathers, could they know the more than European wicked ness with which some of those who boast a puritan ancestry now fight in single combat with the un erring rifle and the murderous bowie-knife ! The habits of the New England puritans were de- THE EARLY PURITANS. 303 vout, and their active virtues worthy of a lasting chapter eulogy. Their sabbaths were solemnly observed ; XL and they could soon boast a school of prophets of their own, " the New England divines ;" — a school not easily forgotten, had it included no other names than those of Mather, Cotton, Higginson, and Elliot; by the suffrages of every church and the voice of two centuries, Elliot, the prince of missionaries and the apostle of North America. Bobinson, their early guide, did not live to accomplish his ardent wishes ; poverty and its attending hindrances kept him still in Leyden. But his pious counsels folloAved his expatriated flock, and were received with a due respect. The Indians were astonished one day, upon a visit to New Plymouth, with the sabbath stillness that prevailed. Only three days they knew had elapsed since the previous Sunday ; and yet again all was silent except the voice of prayer, or the louder tones of fervid exhortation. It was a fast-day to supplicate for rain. In a feAV days the showers fell, and a long and perilous drought was at an end. The Indians began to fear the God of the pale strangers. Efforts were not Avanting for their con version. They were visited in their native woods by a deputation from the colony, avIio found them open to instruction. " We had with them," reports Winslow, " much profitable conference." The im mediate occasion of the discourse of Avhich he speaks marks the manner of the teachers. The Indians had observed that their guests " did crave a blessing on their meat, and afterwards gave thanks," and asked the meaning of the strange custom. Their Indian interpreter, Hobbamoc, was baptized, and 301 THE HISTORY OF chapter in his death " left some good hopes," they say, XI' "that his soul went to rest." Hearing ofthe sick ness of a neighbouring sachem or chief, medicines and aid were provided ; and his tribe saw with amazement the effect of charms hitherto unknown to them, in the immediate recovery of their head. Their benevolence to their own countrymen was, perhaps, more disinterested. Puritans were not the only, nor indeed the first, Englishmen, who explored New England. Sir Walter Baleigh's report of the fabled gold mines of the west had touched the ambition of many an adventurer. They were for the most part idlers, spendthrifts, and men of care less lives, including some gentlemen and goldsmiths, who thought of nothing but sudden wealth, and " talked of nothing but how to dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, and load gold." A Californian hectic in the seventeenth century ! Such neighbours must have been always unwelcome to a colony of puritans. But a more serious inconvenience arose from one of their own friends. Weston, a merchant of London who had assisted them with funds at Leyden and warmly encouraged their enterprise, no sooner received the first tidings oftheir success than he resolved to establish a rival colony. He freighted two ships at his own cost, in 1622, and commis sioned the emigrants to colonize for his own exclu sive benefit. They were men of another character — rude adventurers ; " they had no aim to do good or' plant rehgion;" some were openly profane; others mean and unfit (as may indeed be supposed of those who would undertake such a mission) for " an honest man's company." Yet they were re- THE EARLY PURITANS. 305 ceived at Plymouth with gravity no doubt, but with chapter substantial kindness. While hesitating where to '¦ — settle they lived upon the hospitable puritans and returned their kindness in acts of daily and nightly depredation, and in "backbitings and revilings." Nothing related of the Plymouth puritans is more deeply to their honour ; nothing affords a more con vincing proof of the wholesome and practical charac ter of their religion. They saAv the graceless intru ders wasting their substance in riot, when they had scarcely bread to eat, and yet continued their gene rosity; and when at length they moved away to the bay of Massachusetts, they were permitted to leave behind their sick and maimed, under tbe care of the surgeon of the colony, who, " by the help of God, recovered them gratis." But AA'cston had once befriended them, and now, Avith true and christian forbearance, his kindness was remembered, his subsequent duplicity forgotten. Such were the virtues of the Ncav England puri tans. Bevered beyond the Atlantic, as the pilgrim fathers, the founders of great cities, and of states renowned through the Avidc Avorld, for Avealth, intel ligence, and liberty, their memory is cherished in England Avith feelings of silent respect rather than of unmixed admiration. For their inconsistencies were almost equal to their A'irtues; and here, Avhile we respect their integrity avo are not blinded to their faults. A persecuted band themselves, they soon learned bitterly to persecute each other. The disciples of liberty, they confined its blessings to themselves. The loud champions of the freedom of conscience, they allowed of no freedom which inter- x 306 THE HISTORY OF chapter fered with their narrow views. Professing a mission xl of gospel holiness, they fulfilled it but in part. When opposed they were revengeful; when irri tated fanatical and cruel. In them, a great experi ment was to be tried under conditions the most favourable to its success ; and it failed in its most important point. The question to be solved was this. How would the puritans, the hunted, perse cuted puritans, behave, were they but once free, , once at liberty to carry their principles into full effect ? The answer was returned from the shores of another world. It was distinct and unequivocal. And it wras this : they were prepared to copy the worst vices of their English persecutors, and, un taught by experience, to imitate their worst mis takes. It is a subject upon which party writers love to expatiate ; but to every christian mind it is ; deeply painful. The severities of Whitgift seemed to be justified, when it was made apparent, on the plains of North America, that they had been in- i flicted upon men who wanted only the opportunity ,' to inflict them again, and to inflict them on each other. The first occasion upon which the stern unchris tian spirit, which at this period disfigured the character of both parties in England, broke out abroad, was within five years of their first arrival. The Indian tribes looked upon them at first with suspicion ; then with kindness as they knew them better ; after a time, when irritated by some of the marauding settlers, whom they naturaUy confounded with the puritans, with vexation and hostile senti ments. Not to relate the various aggravations of THE EARLY PURITANS. 307 the quarrel, war was at last determined on by the chapter whole colony of puritans assembled in open council. — — — The Indians had resolved upon the massacre of the white men ; the white men resolved to massacre the Indians. A small party was enough, as the slaugh ter was to be the work of guile. Nor indeed were the puritans wanting in bravery ; so that captain Standish, with eight companions, were judged to be a sufficient force. They affected a friendly bearing towards the chief conspirators, and lured them into an Indian wigwam. On a signal given the door was closed and the butchery began. Standish him self plunged his knife into the heart of one of the chiefs. The whole party returned in triumph un hurt, carrying with them the head of an Indian warrior, which, with a brutality unknown in Eng land — where traitors, and not enemies, were thus empaled — was fixed upon the fort. The colonists affected to deplore the dreadful necessity. Their pastor still lived at Leyden ; and Avhen they looked for his congratulations he wrote thus in mournful accents :— " How happy a thing had it been if you had converted some, before you had killed any !" A few years passed, and another scene of carnage defiles the history of the pilgrims of America. A settlement had now been made on the banks of the Connecticut. The Indians were alarmed. Tbey saw their fishing-grounds invaded, and began, Avith reason, to dread tho white man's supremacy. No part of New England was more thickly covered with aboriginal inhabitants. One tribe, the Pequods, mustered above seven hundred warriors ; the settlers wero less than two ; and the Pequods shewed a x 2 308 THE HISTORY OF chapter hostile spirit. They entered into an alliance with XI" other tribes, and resolved to sweep the hated intru ders from the ancient territories ofthe Indian family. If there be a justifiable cause of war, it surely must be this, when our country is invaded and our means of existence threatened. That the Indians fell upon their enemies by the most nefarious stratagems, or exposed them, when taken in war, to cruel torments, (though such ferocity is not alleged in this instance,) does not much affect the question. They were savages, and fought white men as they and their forefathers had always fought each other. How then should a community of christian men have dealt with them ? Were they to contend as savages or as civilized men ? — as civilized men, or rather as men who had forsaken a land of civilization for purer abodes of piety and peace ? The Pequod war shews how little their piety could be trusted when their passions were aroused. The staff of office — the marshal's baton — was solemnly delivered to Mason, the leader of the pu ritans, by Hooker their most venerated minister; and the greater part of the night was spent in prayer offered up, at the soldier's request, by another eminent minister, and they set out upon their march. The sabbath occurred two days after wards, and the fierce band halted on their way, and observed it rigidly. After a week's marching, they came, at day-break, on the Indian AvigAvam, and immediately assaulted it. The massacre (so their own chronicler has termed it)* spread from one hut to another; for the Indians were asleep and un- * Bancroft i. p. 401. THE EARLY PURITANS. 309 armed. But the Avork of slaughter was too slow, chapter XI " We must burn them," exclaimed the fanatic chief- . — tain of the puritans ; and he cast the first firebrand to windward among their wigwams. In an instant the encampment was in a blaze. Not a soul escaped. Six hundred Indians, men, women, and children, perished by the steady aim of the marksmen, by the unresisted broadsword, and by the hideous con flagration. Of the English only two had fallen. Within an hour the slaughter was ended ; and when the sun arose serenely in the east, it was the Avitness of the victory of the puritans — and of their endless shame. The work of revenge was not yet accomplished. In a few days a fresh body of troops arrived from Massachusetts, accompanied by their minister AVil- son. The remnants of the proscribed race were noAV hunted down in their hiding-places. Every Avigwani was burned, every settlement broken up, every corn field laid waste. There remained, says their exult ing historian, not a man or a Avoman, not a warrior nor a child, of the Pcquod name. A nation had disappeared from the family of man.* History records many a deed of blood equal in ferocity to this. Of aboriginal inhabitants driven off and slaughtered for the sole crime of bravely defending the t:oil which, by the Iuavs of nature and of God, Avas theirs, Ave may read in some dark pages stained Avith blood, and yet not extend our search beyond tho records of our own times and countrymen. But Ave shall seek in vain for a parallel to the rnas- sacro of the Pequod Indians. It brought out the * Bancroft 1. p. -iO'J. XI. 310 THE HISTORY OF chapte^ worst point in the puritan character, and displayed it in the strongest light. AVhen their passions were once inflamed their religion itself was cruelty. A dark fanatical spirit of revenge took possession, not as in other men, by first expelling every religious and every humane consideration, but what was infinitely more terrible, by calling to its aid every stimulant, every motive, that religion jaundiced and perverted could supply. It is horrible to read, when cities are stormed, of children thrown into the flames, and shrieking women butchered by infuriated men who have burst the restraints of dis cipline. It is a dreadful licence ; and true and gallant soldiers, occur when it may, feel that their profession is disgraced. But this was worse. Here all Avas deliberately calm ; all was sanctioned by religion. It was no outbreak of mere brutality. The fast was kept ; the sabbath was observed ; the staff of office, as a sacred ensign, was consecrated by one christian minister, while another attended upon the marching soldiery, and cheered them in the murderous design with his presence and his prayers. Piety was supposed not to abhor, but to exult in the exploit. This was true fanaticism. God's word and ordinances were made subservient to the greatest crimes. They were rudely forced and violated, and made the ministers of sin. When the assailants, reeking from the slaughter and blackened with the smoke, returned home, they were everywhere received with a pious ovation. God was devoutly praised, because the first prin ciples of justice, nay, the stinted humanities of war, had been outraged, and unresisting savages, with THE EARLY PURITANS. 311 their wives and children, had been ferociously de- chapter stroyed. XI The intolerance with which the puritans had been treated at home might at least have taught them a lesson of forbearance to each other. But it had no such effect. It Avould almost seem as if, true dis ciples in the school of the high commission and star chamber, their ambition was to excel their former tyrants in the art of persecution. They imitated, with a pertinacious accuracy, the bad example of their worst oppressors ; and, Avith far less to excuse them, repeated in America the self-same crimes from Avhich they and their fathers had suffered so much in England. No political considerations of real importance, no ancient prejudices interAVOven with the framework of society, could be pleaded here. Their institutions were new ; and their course AAras hampered by no precedents. Imagi nation cannot suggest a state of thing's more favourable to the easy, safe, and sure development of their views. Had they cherished a catholic spirit, there was nothing to prevent the exercise of the most enlarged beneficence. Their choice was made freely ; and they decided in favour of intolerance ; and their fault Avas aggravated by the consideration that the experiment had been tried, and that they themselves Avere riving witnesses to its folly. The colonies of Plymouth and Boston were formed, as Ave have seen, out of the extreme puritans, the broAvnists ; and it Avas perhaps to be expected, that in them, as the most persecuted sect, the greatest suspicion of new comers and neAV opinions should 312 THE HISTORY OF chapter exist. But the mild counsels of their Leyden pastor X1, seem for a few years to have repressed their natural spirit of intolerance; and the persecution began elsewhere. The spirit of enterprise spread rapidly at home, as the reports of the prosperity of the first puritan colony were confirmed from time to time. A charter Avas granted by Charles I. in 1629, to a new company for colonizing Massachusetts bay. It conferred upon the settlers the rights of Eng lish subjects; but it forbad them to make laws repugnant to the laws of England. Their chief ministers, Cotton, Higginson, and Hooker, were •still, when they left home, ministers ofthe church of England, though puritans. Within a year from the arrival of the colonists, the spirit of persecution had already banished two of their best men. John and Samuel Brown are honourably distin guished as the first professors who suffered for their love to the church of their forefathers. They were both members of the colonial council ; both were reputed to be sincere in their affection for the good ( of the plantation. In short, they were chief men / among the colonists. But they preferred the service of the book of common prayer, and resolved to ad here to it. For this offence they were seized hke criminals, banished the colony, and forced back again with the returning ships to England. The service of the church of England was now, if pos sible, a greater crime in New England than the conventicles of the brownists and anabaptists had been at home inthe days of Whitgift and of Barlow. Imprisonment and banishment across the Atlantic THE EARLY PURITANS. 313 for using the book of common prayer was a device chapter of wbich even the court of high commission might — — — have been justly proud. Cotton was at this time in Boston ; and Cotton was eminent for meekness and gentleness ; yet he saw these vindictive measures without distress, and wrote to his friends in Holland that the order of the churches and the common wealth in New England was such that it brought to his mind the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Boger Williams, a young and ardent minister, arrived in Massachusetts in 1631. The intolerable oppressions of Laud had forced him from England, and he fled to the puritans of the new world for an asylum. The life and sufferings of Williams throw light upon the puritan character, as it now began to show itself, in an aspect altogether new, both at home and abroad. The character of Williams has been handed doAvn to us by puritan writers loaded with reproach. He is described by Neal as a rigid brownist, precise and un charitable ; and of most turbulent and boisterous pas sions. But his Avritings refute the first charge, and his conduct, under circumstances likely to arouse the gentlest spirit, contradicts the second. His offence Avas this. He enunciated, and lived to carry out, the great principle of perfect toleration amongst contending parties by whom it Avas equally abhorred. 1 lis name must be had in everlasting honour, as the first man in these later ages who taught that the civil magistrate may not coerce the conscience : that fines and stripes are not the proper means of restoring even the Avorst heretics to the communion 311 THE HISTORY OF chapter of the church, or of punishing their contumacy. XL As usual with those Avho announce some great truth, ! unknown or bitterly opposed, he was an enthusiast in defending his principles, and carried the applica tion of them to an absurd and mischievous excess. He not only denied the right of the magistrate to punish, but he denied his right to interfere. He maintained, that as to civil government, all religions were alike : that is, he denied the right of a body of christian men to found a state upon christian prin ciples. Jews and Turks, infidels and heretics, were to possess equal rights ; or in other words, to exer cise an equal share of judicial power and civic influence with their christian brethren. Of course, under such conditions, an established religion was impossible. He trusted simply to the force of truth to vindicate her own pretensions. A plausible i theory, no doubt ; but one, the consideration of whose I merits we may be permitted to postpone, until a community shall be found composed exclusively of men who are honestly in quest of truth, and, at the same time, under unerring guidance in the pursuit of it. The church of England had galled the consciences of the extreme puritans with the canon which de nounced excommunication, upon absentees from public worship. The extreme puritans were no sooner in possession of magisterial power, than they themselves renewed the same enactment, and rigor ously enforced it. We, said they, are a colony of christian men: all our settlers must attend upon the worship of God. Against this law Williams protested. He was an ultra-calvinist, and to force THE EARLY PURITANS. 315 men to go through the forms of worship whose souls chapter were dead in sin, was, he said, like shifting a dead XI' man into several changes of apparel. He pleaded the rights of conscience. The magistrates rephed, that no man's conscience could be pleaded in defence of sin, and that such principles subverted all good government. Williams rejoined, that they desired to re-impose " a yoke of soul oppression." The breach widened, and Wilhams was, with much cruelty, banished from the colony. His chief oppo nent was Cotton, himself an exile for conscience sake, and a puritan minister. Williams suffered the greatest hardships on his journey through the snows and storms of a New England winter in search of a secure retreat. For fourteen weeks he had, he says, neither bread nor bed : and often in a stormy night, neither food nor fire, nor a companion to share his sorrow : he wandered without a guide, and found no better shelter than some hollow tree. God opened the heart of a savage chieftain to befriend him : " and the ravens," he relates with gratitude, "fed me in the wilderness." He arrived at length at Buode Island ; and is revered as the founder of a state which still retains the impression of his cha racter and principles in her various institutions. Similar disputes arose with other men of less account than Boger AVilliams, and the result was in each case the same. The men Avho had fled from persecution avowed the principles of intolerance ; and carried them into terrible effect with fanatical violence. In truth, they began to perceive that the church at home Avas by no means to be so severely blamed. The principles of Whitgift and his party 316 THE HISTORY OF chapter were not, after all, either tyrannical or unchristian. XI' They had erred, indeed, and their error was one day to produce the most baneful consequences. But it was not an error in the principles they espoused, but in the unreasonable mode in which they were applied, and the excess to which they were carried ; and to this the puritans were now awakening. What christian parent would not guide his family into habits of devotion ? Who could blame the master of the house if he insisted on a due observance of the Lord's day, and the presence of his children in the house of prayer P But if, as the children grew up to man's estate, they felt, or feigned, some scruples in submitting, it would be preposterous to enforce on men and Avomen the discipline of childhood. The parent may grieve, but he must not punish. He may remonstrate, but he has no longer the right of abso lute control. In every case where trust and preference have a lawful place, he may with perfect justice repose his confidence in those who continue to obey him, and whose principles are in accordance with his own. If he be sincere he must do so. If those who have rejected his authority advance opinions subversive of his own, it cannot be denied that he ought to be allowed the right of silencing the ob jectors, or else of compelling them to withdraAV from the society ; otherwise his authority depends upon the precarious tenure of mere opinion — the opinion of the dissatisfied and discontented. And further still, as one who is himself accountable to God, it is his duty to repress and silence those opinions which palpably dishonour God's great name. These were the principles of Whitgift, and THE EARLY PURITANS. 317 not less of the New England puritans, and they ex- chapter tended them from families to states. They are still XI" the principles of our own constitution, and we have learned to reconcile them with a perfect toleration. Except for blasphemy, no man suffers punishment. Even members of the church of Borne exercise their worship unharmed, dangerous as some of their tenets are to every civil government which does not own allegiance to the pope. The state has out grown its infancy. The conditions by which a patriarchal family was governed are no longer possible. And the alternative now lies, in all free states, not between conformity and toleration, but between toleration and indifference. The state may endoAv a church, but it can no longer punish dissi dents. In the progress of society it has come to this alternative, either to bear with nonconformity, or to make nonconformity impossible by treating all religions and all creeds with equal indifference. In England we adhere to the former choice. The citizens of Bhodc Island determined otherwise ; but there is nothing in their religious history, for two hundred years, that leads us to retrace our steps and follow their example. The condition of religion in England will at least bear a comparison with that of the most favoured ofthe New England states. The intolerance of the colonists was the more dis graceful, because in matters purely rehgious there Avas scarcely a shade of disagreement between their victim and themselves. Williams was a zealous puritan ; and yet he suffered for maintaining that " the doctrine of persecution for causes of con science is contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ." 318 THE HISTORY OF chapter This, like Luther's protestant thesis nailed to the _L doors of a popish cathedral, spread dismay and in dignation. And for this he was an exile from his brethren. His piety Avas sincere, and it displayed itself in his feelings to those by whom he had been wronged. From his banishment in Bhode Island, he wrote of them in these memorable words : " I did ever, from my soul, honour and love them, even when their judgment led them to afflict me." Such a sentiment could only proceed from one who, how ever mistaken upon other points, was a true disciple of Him who was meek and lowly in heart. The spirit of persecution, once inflamed, has too often been quenched in blood. So it was in New England. Williams had many followers, who were made to share his fate — Wheelright, and Aspin wall, and Ann Hutchinson. But the atrocious cruelties which were inflicted upon the quakers a few years afterwards, would appear incredible, if not too well authenticated, and throw into the shade the lighter sorrows of Williams and his party. It is not without an effort, that even now the reader can force himself to believe that the fierce and relentless men who condemned Mary Dyer to the gallows were the children of English puritans, and the champions of their fathers' principles. Quakerism was then young, and its founder, George Fox, was yet alive. It was ardent, and full of enthusiasm ; it believed itself charged with a revelation, spiritual, and immediately from hea ven ; it despised the restraints, and sometimes the decorum, of civilized life. Still its fanaticism, though violent, was harmless and utterly averse to THE EARLY PURITANS. 319 blood. Its first disciples needed, perhaps, some chapter restraint, for the sake of public morals ; but upon — the whole, forbearance and compassion would have been more wholesome than sharper punishments, which, so long as they were persisted in, served only to inflame the disease. On some points, the quakers, with all their excesses, had learned a sobriety and wisdom which, both to high churchmen and puritans, was yet unknown. Anne Burden, a female quaker, went all the way from London to North America to impart the secret to the brownists of Massachusetts ; and she had her recompence ; " she was whipped with twenty stripes." Her crime was unpardonable. She had warned the magistrates of a New England colony, with the authority of one who believed herself a prophet sent from God, of the wickedness of persecution. The punishment, however, failed ; or rather it produced its legitimate effect. A quaker prophetess, it Avas discovered, lost neither caste nor courage in the brutal ordeal of a public flogging. Other measures must be tried. A law was made by wlrich it was decreed, that whosoever should directly or indirectly introduce a quaker into the colony should forfeit a hundred pounds, and lie in prison till the penalty was paid ; whosoever should entertain a quaker should forfeit forty shillings for every hour's concealment, and be committed to prison till the forfeiture was paid. The offending quaker himself was to be dealt with thus : for the first offence, if a male, one of his ears should be cut off, and he be kept at work in the house of correction until the magistrates should think proper to send him out ofthe colony at his own charge : for 320 THE HISTORY OF chapter the second, to lose the other ear, and be kept in the XI • '- — house of correction as aforesaid. But female quakers were held in greater horror, and their punish ment was severer still. The colonial statute runs on in these words : — if a woman, then to be severely whipt and kept as aforesaid, as the male, for the first offence ; and for the second, to be dealt withal as the first, namely to he whipt again, and to lose the other ear : and for the third, he or she to have their tongues bored through with a hot iron, and be kept in the house of correction close at work till they be sent away on their own charge. As the period of imprisonment was unlimited, its duration would of course be measured by the magistrate's caprice. This law was immediately put in force. The quakers were fined, maimed, and banished : but their spirit did not quail ; and their numbers continued to increase. The fury oftheir persecutors now reached its height. By an act of the general court held at Boston on the 20th of October, 1658, quakerism was made a capital offence, in the case of all those who having been once banished should return to the colony. Mary Dyer, a quaker, was expelled from Massa chusetts. She found an asylum in Boger Williams' new colony of Bhode Island, where all sects were tolerated alike. But she believed that she was urged by the Spirit who cannot err to return to Boston. She " felt a call." Only the flippant and profane will scoff at the doctrine, or scorn the words in which it was expressed. It might, for aught we know, be well worthy of God himself, to employ this quaker exile to repeat a long-forgotten message of THE EARLY PURITANS. 321 christian love at Boston, which was to rebuke the chapter sour austerity of their religious pride, and to be re- — — — echoed in after ages, to all the ends of the earth, teaching everywhere, as it passed along, the dignity of suffering for conscience and for God, and the infamy of the oppressor. Substantially, Mary Dyer was, with all her errors, a martyr for the gospel's sake ; and her persecutors were, in that act at least, the enemies of God. Two friends accompanied her, William Bobinson and Marmaduke Stevenson. They had not been many days in Boston before they were seized, im prisoned, arraigned before the governor and ma gistrates, and in short, sentenced to the gallows. "Give ear, ye magistrates," exclaimed Stevenson, as the sentence was pronounced, " and all ye avIio are guilty, for this the Lord hath said concerning you, and will perform his word upon you, that the same day ye put his servants to death, shall the day of your visitation pass over you, and ye shall be for ever cursed." Mary Dyer folded her hands together, and meekly exclaimed, "The will of the Lord be done." The bravado of Stevenson the magistrates might disdain ; but for the meekness of Mary Dyer they had no reply. Her calm submission enraged the governor. "Take her away, marshal," he ex claimed harshly. " I return joyfully to my prison," she said. " You may leave me, marshal, I Avill re turn alone." " I believe you, Mrs. Dyer," replied the marshal, " but I must do as I am commanded." The prisoners Avere brought out to the place of execution. AA'ilson attended the procession : a cir cumstance to be recorded as marking the hearty 322 THE HISTORY OF chapter concurrence of the New England clergy in these XL dreadful scenes. Wilson gloried in his work. On the morning of the execution there had been some discussion with the magistrates as to the way in which the prisoners should be dealt with. " Hang them," exclaimed Wilson, "or else" — and he drew his finger across his throat as if to intimate that assassination in prison might be less troublesome than a public execution. The victims ascended the scaffold, after affectionately embracing one another, and each in turn then bore on exulting testimony to the joy which had taken full possession of their souls. Bobinson called upon the spectators to bear witness that " he died for testifying to the light of Christ." Stevenson's last words were, " This day we shall be at rest with the Lord." Mary Dyer walked between her two companions. " Are you not ashamed to walk thus hand in hand with two young men ?" said the marshal, with unfeeling insolence. " No," said she, " this is to me the hour of the greatest joy I could have in this world. No eye can see, nor ear hear, nor tongue utter, nor heart under stand, the sweet incomes and refreshings of the Spirit of the Lord, which I now feel." The execu tioner proceeded, and her companions died. She continued to stand unmoved, her clothes carefully adjusted, her eyes bandaged, the rope around her neck, and tied to the beam above her. At this instant a reprieve arrived, and she was taken down. She neither shrieked, nor swooned, nor wept. She stood still, and calmly told the agitated crowd, that unless the magistrates would annul their wicked law, she would rather die. She saw, no doubt, that THE EARLY PURITANS. 323 otherwise the scaffold would one day claim her as chapter its prey, and had no desire to return to a life of xr suffering, and face a second death upon the gallows. The bodies of Bobinson and his fellow-martyr were cut down, stripped naked, and thrown into a hole beneath the gallows by the hangman, with something more than his professional brutality. None of their friends were permitted to interfere. Mary Dyer was again banished to Rhode Island, attended by a guard ; and when the guard left her she returned again to Boston. Once more she Avas sentenced to be hanged. The trial was short, and not wanting in simplicity. Governor Endicot again presided. He asked her, in the first place — willing, it is said, to afford an opportunity for evasion to the prisoner — whether she were the same Mary Dyer who had been previously before the court ? " I am the same Mary Dyer." "Then you own yourself a quaker ?" " I own myself to be reproachfully called so." "Then I must repeat the sentence once before pronounced upon you." And he repeated the sen tence. " That is no more than thou saidst before." " But now it is to be executed ; therefore prepare yourself for nine o'clock to-morroAV." Her husband — for though still young and beauti ful, Mary Dyer was a wife and the mother of seve ral children — interceded for her hfe. He had been separated from her while she was in Bhode Island, and was not privy to her return ; indeed he was not a quaker. With the deep pathetic eloquence with which nature alone pleads, he wrote to her iron- y 2 321 THE HISTORY OF chapter hearted judges, and concluded thus — after first — — — acknowledging " her inconsiderate madness " — " I only say this : yourselves are, or have been, or may be, husbands and wives : so am I : yea, to one most dearly beloved. Oh 1 do not deprive me of her, but I pray give her to me once again. Pity me ! I beg it with tears." But his tears flowed in vain. The next day the scaffold was again erected upon Boston common, a mile away from her prison. She was strongly guarded, and before her and behind drums were continually beaten ; for the eloquence of the dying is known to be imperishable. When she had ascended the scaffold, Wilson, the fanatic minister, was again at his post. " 0 Mary Dyer," he cried, " repent, repent." " Nay, man," she answered calmly, in words in which a puritan must have felt a keen rebuke, " I am not now to repent." She was again reproached with her pretended visions. She replied, and her peaceful demeanour seemed almost to explain her meaning, " I have been in pa radise many days." The executioner performed his office ; Mary Dyer was no more ; and the crowd dispersed : but the brand of that day's infamy will never disappear from the annals of Massachusetts, nor from the story of the pilgrim fathers.* The next year William Leddra, who had been for some time a prisoner, was brought up before the same court with his chains and log at his heels. He was told, in few words, that he was found guilty, and * For the facts relating to the persecution ofthe quakers, see Powell « Hist, ofthe Quakers; Bancroft's Hist, of America; and article Mary Dyer, in Nelson's British Library, the writer of which professes to hare had access to fresh materials. XI. THE EARLY PURITANS. 325 that he was to die. " Why," said he, " what evil chapter have I done ?" It was replied that he was convicted . on his own confession, which Avas as good as a thou sand witnesses ; he had owned himself of the princi ples of the quakers that were put to death ; and he had said that they were innocent. Besides, added the court, he Avould not put off his hat in their presence, and he said thee and thou. "Then," said he, " will you put me to death for speaking English, and for not putting off my clothes ? Or is it treason to say thee and thou to a single person ?" But none answered. He appealed to the laAvs of England ; but of this no notice was taken. They endeavoured to persuade him of his error, and to induce him to retract. "Then," he exclaimed, "let every man that meets me say, ' This is the man that hath for saken the God of his salvation !'" The trial Avas proceeding when Wenlock Christison, a quaker under banishment upon pain of death, presented him self before the court. There was something aAvful in his courage ; and the court sat still in silence. At length one of the council summoned courage. "Here is another," he exclaimed, "fetch him up to the bar." "Well," said tho governor, John Endicot, " wast thou not banished upon pain of death ?" To wlrich Wenlock answered, " Yea I was." " AAliat, then, dost thou here ?" "I am come here to warn you that you should shed no more innocent blood ; for the blood that you have shed already cries to the Lord Godfor vengeanceto comeupon you." "Jailor," said the court, " take him away." Simon Broadstreet, a member of tho council, touched for an instant with humanity, addressing himself to Leddra asked him 326 THE HISTORY OF chapter if he were willing to return to England. The quaker XL answered, " I have no business there." "Then," re joined Broadstreet, pointing to the gallows which stood in sight, " you shall go that way." The sen tence was pronounced, and Leddra returned to prison. His hours were numbered ; and he took leave of his friends in a letter which began thus : " Most dear and inwardly beloved ; — the sweet influences of the morning star, like a flood distilling into my innocent habitation, hath so filled me with the joy ofthe Lord in the beauty of holiness, that my spirit is as if it did not inhabit a tabernacle of clay, but is wholly swallowed up in the bosom of eternity, from whence it had its being." The next day William Leddra died beneath the gallows, with a joy such as only martyrs know. A stranger in the crowd made unavailing remonstrances with the marshal. " For the Lord's sake," he exclaimed, " take not this man's life : remember Gamaliel's council to the jews ; be careful that ye be not found fighters against God." Leddra heard him. " Friend," he said, "know that this day I am willing to offer up my life for the witness of Jesus." As the executioner was putting the halter about his neck he was heard to say in a calm and gentle voice, " I commit my righteous cause to thee, O God."* The execution of Greenwood and Barrow is the darkest stain upon the worst days of Whitgift and his policy ; but it seems to lose something of its ¦ atrocity when compared with these more brutal acts of savage outrage. It almost appears, in short, as if great crimes, like great virtues, were recorded * Sewel, p. 277. THE EARLY PURITANS. 327 only that they should be imitated, and, if possible, chapter surpassed. Except intolerance, the puritans of New XI' England had learned nothing from the example of their oppressors. There are those who Avould suppress the record of these crimes ; as there are those who exult in their recital. The former are timid, but the latter are malignant. The one fear for the cause of religion ; but the other triumph in the exposure of an adver sary. Truth has no sympathy with either ; and history, the handmaid and minister of truth, shuns both alike. The true moral is that which the word of God has long ago supplied : the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Forms of church government have no power to change the heart. Man oppressed is proud, sullen, and vindictive ; and when he arrives, as soon or late the oppressed in general arrive, at the power he once dreaded, his nature is unchanged — he is proud and vindictive still. There Avas nothing in the prin ciples of the high church party of AVhitgift and his associates to prevent the exhibition of the grace of God in them, and their attainment of a high degree of christian holiness ; and there was nothing in the principles of the puritans Avhich had sufficient poAver to check the risings of the worst passions of which our nature is capable, or to preserve them from its most extravagant excesses. It must be added, that the NeAV England puritans had nei ther the sanction of English law nor the approba tion of tbe English people. Governor Endicot ex ceeded his powers, and, pronouncing sentence of death upon the quakers, plunged himself in the 328 THE HISTORY OF chapter double guilt of treason and of murder. The law of XI- England knew no such punishment for such offences ; and yet from that law all his authority was derived ; for he acted under a patent granted by the king and parliament. Soon after these executions Christison was placed before the same tribunal, and challenged its authority. " By what law," said he, " will ye put me to death ?" " We have a patent," they answered, " and may make our own." " But," he rejoined, " you cannot make laws contrary to those of England. Your heart is as rotten towards the king as towards God. I demand to be tried by the laws of England, and there is no law there to hang quakers." From shame or fear the council yielded, and his life was spared. — But the puritans at home had, for some time, begun to look with deep concern upon the measures of their New England brethren, and even to remonstrate against their bigotry. The unhappy state of affairs during the primacy of Laud, and the last few years of Charles's power, however disastrous at home, had called a nation into existence in the western world. In spite ofthe efforts, equally tyrannical and impolitic, to prevent their emigration, tens of thousands of the puritans had found their way to their brethren in the New England colonies. Before the long parliament had assembled, and the revolution opened, in 1610, the emigrants who had arrived in one hundred and ninety-eight ships, and with an expenditure of almost a million of dollars in various enterprises, were numbered at twenty-one thousand two hundred. In little more than ten years, fifty towns and villages had been at least marked out and commenced ; he- THE EARLY PURITANS. 329 tween thirty and forty churches had been built ; and chapter the later comers gazed with amazement upon the XL unexpected sight of a wilderness reclaimed from the solitude; and devoutly acknowledged the hand of God in this sudden blaze of prosperity. Already the elements of wealth and power were within their reach, and they had learned their value. They had begun to export furs and timber ; they carried grain to the West Indies, and cured fish. They had attained great excellence in ship-building. Before the year 1613 they had constructed vessels of four hundred tons ; ships such as within the memory of the present generation ranked in the first class of merchant vessels.* Four ofthe newly-erected states formed themselves into a union, — The United Colo nies of New England. These were Massachusetts, Plymouth, Newhaven, and Connecticut. But they excluded the plantations of Providence and Wil liams's settlement of Bhode Island. The people of Bhode Island, a small community, and unable to stand alone, sought the protection of the mother country ; and Boger Williams, Avho was chosen to manage the negociations on their behalf, arrived in London in 1613, when the parliament and the monarchy Avere already in collision. He was received by the house of commons Avith great respect ; and returned to America Avith a free and absolute charter of civil government for Providence and Bhode Island. He arrived once more at Boston, from whence he had been expelled, no longer an exile, but a powerful statesman, secured from harm by letters from the parliament. But as he * Bancroft 1. p. 115. He gives numerous authorities for these facts, otherwise almost incredible. 330 THE HISTORY OF chapter reached his home a greater triumph was prepared: XL the water Avas covered with a fleet of boats ; and it seemed as if all the colony had come forth to wel come their benefactor. Thus Providence and Bhode Island were saved. They long retained their affec tion to the mother country, when the more powerful states had learned to regard it with indifference or dislike. All was now prosperous in New England. The puritan exiles had entered on a boundless career of wealth, and independence, and earthly fame. It has not yet closed : it shews no signs of diminution. But the pilgrim fathers had purer hopes and higher expectations than national prosperity, even the most unbounded, can satisfy. They braved the perils of the sea, not to plant a great republic, but a pure church. What no political visionary, in his wildest moments, ever dreamed, has been accomplished and surpassed. From the pilgrim fathers the republic of America was hereafter to arise. The little Mayflower carried that, compared with which Caesar and his fortunes were insignificant ; — the germ of a vast nation, whose past history fills the mind with wonder, whose possible career hereafter oppresses it with awe. But within a few years the religion of these puritan settlers seems to have beeu reduced to the ordinary standard, if not worn out. Twenty years after the foundations Avere first dug up in either city, we have no reason to suppose that Boston and Plymouth in New Eng land were more religious than Boston and Plymouth in the mother country. Nor did the puritans lay the groundAvork of a religious colony, according to their own vieAVs of religion, with success. It is tbe XI. THE EARLY PURITANS. 331 frequent boast of socinians, that Boston alone con- chapter tains many thousands of their sect ; a greater num ber, it is said, than are to be found in the three kingdoms of Great Britain. This alone, could they have foreseen it, would have oppressed the soul of the pilgrim fathers, and weighed down their hearts under a sense of the deepest sorrow. Already, while Williams was alive, several towns in his new state were filled with strange men of dangerous princi ples. There were anabaptists, and antinomians ; there were fanatics, and infidels in crowds. So that whatever were a man's religious opinions, he might have been sure to meet with congenial spirits in some village in Bhode Island.* From such begin nings, was it possible to anticipate the growth and prevalence of real piety ? While men are prone to evil, and naturaUy averse to God, the spectacle of other men's indifference, or uncertainty, may distract the attention, but it will scarcely tend to deepen serious ness, or to renovate the heart. Could the pilgrim fathers be summoned from their graves, they Avould probably tell us that the results of their enterprise had fallen as much below their hopes in one respect as they had surpassed them in another. Possibly they might think America more prosperous, certainly they would not think America more rehgious, than England in the nineteenth century. They succeeded as colonists ; but as a band of pious men, Avhose chief aim it was to plant the church of God anew, where it should thrive with a vigour and in a purity unknown in England, their attempt has failed. ATe see the result of the experiment : and the feeling of * Bancroft i. p. -4— *i. 332 THE HISTORY OF chapter English christians is one, upon the whole, of disap- XL pointment and regret. The introduction of slavery into America, and the part sustained by the puritans of New England with reference to it, are subjects of importance. Virginia had received a royal charter in 1606 ; seve ral years before the emigration of the puritan colo nists. When they arrived Virginia was already a large and prosperous colony. The Virginian settlers consisted of two rival companies : the first was com posed of noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants, from London ; the second, of knights, gentlemen, and merchants from the west of England ; and into Vir ginia slavery had been already introduced. It began with conditional servitude for a limited period, under indentures, or a covenant. Oppression naturally ensued : white servants became an article of traffic ; criminals and prisoners of war were openly sold in England to be transported ; and in Virginia they were resold again to the highest bidder. During the civil war thousands of the captives taken by the parhamentary forces were thus disposed of. The trade was lucrative; and it was discovered that negroes might be kidnapped from the coast of Africa in vast numbers and at a small expense. Just four months before the arrival of the Mayflower, a Dutch man-of-war had landed twenty negroes for sale in James river in Virginia : and this is the sad epoch of the introduction of negro slavery into the English colonies. For many years the Dutch were princi pally concerned in the slave trade in the market of Virginia. The planters at first felt some repugnance, and taxed the importation of female slaves, in order THE EARLY PURITANS. 333 to check their admission, or to prevent the increase of chapter the race. But use and cupidity soon rendered them XI' indifferent, and slavery became general in Virginia. The conduct of the puritan colonists in the pre sence of such an example and of such temptations was greatly to their honour. In 1615, a ship of Thomas Keyser and James Smith, the latter a mem ber of the church at Boston, first brought upon the colony the guilt of participating in this abominable traffic. They sailed for Guinea " to trade for ne groes ;" but throughout Massachusetts the cry of justice was raised against them as malefactors and murderers. Saltonstall, a member of the supreme court at Boston, denounced the act of steahng negroes "as expressly contrary to the haw of God and the law of the country." The guilty men Avere committed for the offence ; and, after advice from the elders, the representatives of the people, " bear ing witness," as they said, "against the heinous crime of man-stealing," ordered the negroes to be restored at the public charge to their native coun try, with a letter expressing the indignation of the general court at their Avrongs. Such records are honourable to human nature : but the effort Avas fruitless ; and the inconsistency of the hawgivers themselves no doubt provoked the general neglect of these righteous ordinances. Several quakers Avere sold into slavery about the same time by their own direction, and one Avas condemned to hard labour for tAvo years at a wheelbarrow chained to a negro. Such sights; which make the mind familiar with cruelty, prepare it for injustice. The Bhode Island colonists acted for a Avhile in the free and upright 331 THE HISTORY OF chapter spirit of their founder, Boger Williams. The re- XI- presentatives " perceiving the disposition of people in the colony to buy negroes and hold them as slaves for ever," enacted that " no black mankind should, by bond, covenant, or otherwise, be held to perpetual service." " The master at the end of ten years shall set them free, as the manner is with English servants ; and that man that will not let his slave go free, or shall seU him away, that he may be enslaved to others for a longer time, shall forfeit to the colony forty pounds." Forty pounds was nearly twice the value of a negro slave. But as the piety of the pil grim fathers disappeared such scruples fell into con tempt. The law, says the historian of the United States, was not enforced ; but, he adds, the principle lived among the people.* But principles which are permitted to lie barren soon lose their savour ; and when at length required for use are found unser viceable. The New England puritans were unable to resist the example of the slave-holding states around them, and their posterity to a great extent have been content to share in the gain and the dis honour of the vilest traffic in which man can be engaged. * Bancroft, Hist. United States, vol. i. p. 175. THE EARLY PURITANS. 335 A.D. 1618. CHAPTEB XII. a.d. 1618—1625. Towards the conclusion of the reign of James I. chapter the puritan controversy began to wear a new charac : — ter. Hitherto, with all its vehemence, it had been a quarrel on inferior points. Now it became vital. So far, it had intermeddled only with ceremonies and forms, with the accidents and externals of reh gion. Now it descended to the doctrines. The dispute had been, up to this time, hoAV the gospel should be administered. Now it assumed another form, and asked, in what does the gospel consist. We have arrived at the period when the doctrinal puritans, so termed by their opponents, first appear in sight ; and our attention is called to the strange complication of parties and events Avhich brought them into existence. Tho decay of piety is often marked by a htigious disposition ; for those who are dissatisfied with them selves are prone to be suspicious of all around them. The fervour of the reformation cooled : the men of the next generation succeeded to the offices lately held by martyrs and confessors, but not to their zeal and love : and the third generation, with whom we CHAPTER XII. JAMES I. A. D. 1618. 336 THE HISTORY OF now begin to mingle, were pupils of another school, and still more unlike the men of the reformation. Those who are unable to draw such conclusions from their theology, may trace it in their style. The in tense devotion of the reformers communicated itself to all they wrote. They are often coarse, sometimes barbarous, but they are never mean. They are sur rounded by an air of majesty and grandeur ; the majesty of a lofty and entire devotion to their cause, the grandeur of a vehement simplicity. We have to this day no finer specimens of popular eloquence than Latimer's sermons ; we have nothing more deeply pathetic than Bidley's last address to the diocese of London, when he lay under the sentence of death. The dialectics of those times afford no specimens of reasoning more acute than the exami nations ofthe martyrs. Contrast with these the theo logians of the days of James and Charles, and the degeneracy is striking. There is less ofthe earnest ness, and of the composure, of men who are con tending for vital truths of eternal moment. A fierce conflict there is, with its noise and clamour, but the contest seems to be more for victory than for truth ; land the combatants are often men of sordid minds, evidently in pursuit of selfish ends. Without hesi tation, and without uncharitableness, we infer that \ their religion is in fault. The piety ofthe reformers ! raised them above the level of their age. The I wrorldliness of these men has sunk them below the ] level of the reformation. True religion expands and elevates the mind. The taste is improved, for the heart is softened : the intellect is vigorous, for it is employed on lofty contemplations which afford it THE EARLY PURITANS. 337 exercise : even the imagination, while chastened, chapter is brought into wholesome action by the various sub- : — jects of interest which engage the affections. There is ^^eis. something which offends our reason in the supposi tion that a quibbling pedant should be an eminent christian ; that conceits and affectations should defile the pen while the heart is free from vanity and self-conceit. Their literature is heartless, and their divinity wants real life. This is shewn by endless conceits in the one, by affectation and htigiousness in the other ; and in both, by a careful avoidance of what is great and really important, or an incapacity of comprehending it. Now feebleness of mind is not unfrequently accompanied with extraordinary daring. A daring which is not courage, inasmuch as it has no perception either of difficulties or consequences ; — as an infant is not brave when with a smile upon its face it would light up a conflagration. Thus it arose, we conceive, not from the increase of sound learning, nor the deepening influence of true piety, but from causes the reverse of these, that questions in divinity the most awful and difficult, those which require to be treated with the deepest reverence and to be approached with the profoundest wisdom, be gan to take their place in every-day discussions, and to be submitted to the most peremptory decisions. These were the points at issue betAveen the calvinists and arminians. The moderation of our reformers, while it has left us in no uncertainty as to their own opinions, has bequeathed to us general and compre hensive statements to which every sincere and en lightened christian may heartily subscribe. And z A. D. 1618. 338 THE HISTORY OF chapter yet moderation is not precisely the word by which XIL their high virtues should be expressed ; for modera- james i. tion imphes that they resisted some temptation which wras urging them to extremes. But such tempta tions either did not present themselves, or were scarcely felt. They were saved from them by minds well balanced, by the practical character of their owrn piety, by the urgent necessity of the times, above all, by the grace of God. After a while, reh gion becoming less practical was more speculative. Baro and others introduced the controversy into England, and Whitgift's injudicious efforts to ex tinguish it gave vigour to the flames. In a few years nothing was heard of among divines but the calvinistic controversy. The five points — those on which the followers of Arminius and Calvin opposed each other — were defended and attacked with a ve hemence which nothing could justify except the belief, which indeed was firmly entertained on both sides, that men's salvation hinged exclusively upon them ; and with a bitterness not justified even by this consideration, momentous as it is. Whitgift, the stern opponent of the puritans, had taken the highest ground ; he was, in modern language, an ultra-calvinist. And yet, within twenty years, by a change not less sudden than difficult to be explain ed, every trace of Calvinism was banished from the high church party, while it retained more firmly its congenial home amongst the puritans. And thus arose the distinction which divided the puritans themselves into two great parties, the doctrinal and ceremonial : the former well affected to episcopacy and the church of England, but opposed to the new AMES I. A.D. 1618. THE EARLY PURITANS. 339 and fashionable theology ; the latter equally averse chapter to both. XIL The calvinistic controversy first arrived at its £ greatest heat abroad. If England was disturbed, foreign churches were distracted. In the low- countries the supreme government, the states-gene ral, interfered, and in the year 1618 convoked the first and only synod, bearing something of the cha racter of a general council, that has been convened by protestants. It assembled at Dort, and continued its sittings from November till May following. Its business was to decide the questions at issue between the calvinists and arminians ; the latter party were also termed remonstrants. James was requested to send over representatives for the English church ; and he chose four divines — Carlton bishop of Llan- daff, HaU dean of Worcester, afterwards bishop suc cessively of Exeter and Norwich, Davenant after wards bishop of Salisbury, and Dr. AYard of Cam- bridge. They Avere men of learning and moderation, and the choice does honour to a monarch in whom we find but little to commend. First, howrever, they were commanded to repair to the king, and receive his instructions ; they were instructed to inure themselves to the practice of the Latin tongue, that they might express themselves with greater readi ness and facility ; a piece of advice which, addressed by the greatest pedant in England to four of its greatest scholars, provokes a passing smile. AA'ith greater reason they were told to conduct themselves with moderation, and to look principally to the peace of those distracted churches, and to the glory of God; and in discussion to maintain that which was agree- z 2 310 THE HISTORY OF chapter able to the scriptures and to the doctrine of the XI1, church of England ; and they were especially cau- james i. tioned to throw their weight into the scale of ff antie A. D. 1618. ° . b counsels, and to advise their brethren not to insist from the pulpit upon doctrines which were disputable on both sides ; to introduce no innovations ; but to adhere to the same doctrines which had been taught for twenty or thirty years past in their own churches ; and especially to abide by their own confessions, long since published and known unto the world.* A representative was also present from the church of Scotland. The history of this famous synod is told in various ways. Its decisions were in favour of the doctrines termed calvinistic, and the remonstrants were ex pelled from Holland : for neither statesmen nor divines had yet learned, it seems, that simple lesson of common sense, that persecution always carries with it a reversal of its own decrees ; that the men who are unreasonably punished occupy a better position and stand on a loftier eminence than if they had never been condemned. The recoil is always greater than the blow ; for here the law of nature is reversed. The majority were even accused by the other party with having bound themselves by an oath before they entered upon business, to condemn the remonstrants. The charge was first insinuated by John Goodwin, the leader of the evangelical ar- nrinians (an expression we shall have occasion to explain hereafter) in England. Bishop Hall was still riving when, in 1651, Fuller the ecclesiastical historian, laudably anxious to clear up the matter, * Fuller, Church History, book x. p. 275. THE EARLY PURITANS. 311 wrote to him for an explanation ; which was forth- chapter with returned in an indignant denial of the charge. X1L But after all, the accusation of unfairness is not JAMES '• quite disposed of. For Goodwin himself replied to bishop Hall's letter, repeating the substance of the charge ; and the arminians still maintain that the synod was unfairly packed. The states-general, it was said, had convened those only who were of one mind,* and, in accordance with this principle, the Utrecht deputies, being the only arminians admitted, were soon excluded ; after certain ungracious conditions had been propounded for their acceptance, Avhich it was impossible for any honourable men to comply with.f If so, the majority, however upright, Avere mere partisans, and the decisions of such a synod could not possess much weight. The history of the synod of Dort is instructive. It was called under the most favourable circumstances ; it was attended by the wisest men. Baxter thought that since the days of the apostles the christian church had never seen an assembly of more excel lent divines. Jacob Capellus, a German professor of divinity, declared in still more fervent language, that the equity of the fathers of this synod was such that no instance could be given since the apostolic age of any council in which heretics were heard more patiently or the proceedings conducted Avith more sanctity. Peter Du Mouhn, Paulus Servita, and others, speak the same language. The states-gene- * In their Letter to King James (Fuller, book x. p. 28:2), the states- general say, " Ex omnibus idem sentientibus ecclesiis convocavimus," &c. but this docs not necessarily mean more than that they had selected their deputies only from protestant churches. t sce the editor's note in Fuller, book x. p. 2S(i, Nichols's edition. CHAPTER XII. JAMES I. A.D. 1618. 312 THE HISTORY OF ral were highly gratified, and rewarded the chief divines, and amongst them our English representa tives, with silver medals.* But the five points were not to be settled by the synod of Dort. The beaten party protested and lampooned. Arminianism gathered strength from its defeat, sprung at once into a new life, grappled with the church of England, and for more than a century laid her at its feet. The synod, it is true, was unanimous ; for the re monstrants had been dismissed, but their unanimity was confined to themselves. The closing oftheir session was the signal for the triumph of the van quished party ; and never was arminianism more violent or more popular than after the judicial con demnation of its followers in this famous council. Councils may condemn, but their censures are impotent until the people are convinced. If the attempt be made to coerce opinion, the strongest of all human motives come in to strengthen the discontented. Some merit, however, the synod of Dort may claim. " Upon the whole," so writes an author favourable to their views, " they proceeded as well as most assemblies, ancient or modern, who pretend to establish articles of faith for other people with penal sanctions, "f Had the synod of Dort * The medal presented to bishop Hall is now in possession of Emanuel college, Cambridge. On one side is represented the assembly in full conclave, with the inscription assert a religione. On the reverse is a mountain, on the summit a temple to which men are ascending up a very steep path : the four winds, the disturbers of the church, are blow ing violently against the mountain. The inscription is, Erunt ul mons Sion. Medals are in history what proverbs are in common life — the result of much consideration compressed into the smallest possible space. f- Neal, vol. ii. p. 10.3. THE EARLY PURITANS. 313 never sat it would have been as well for the purity chapter of rehgion and much better for its peace. X11' While these discussions engaged attention abroad, JAMES '• A. D it is scarcely to be supposed that the polemic con- i6is^i622. tagion should not infect the church at home. It is said that the pulpits rang with controversy ; and we can believe it ; for where the spirit of true piety dies out, that of disputation forthwith comes in. The anti-puritans describe the sermons of their opponents at this period, as consisting of little else than poli tical invectives and ultra-calvinism. Such state ments are always to be received with caution from an opponent ; and it is to be borne in mind that the puritans, with no less vehemence, charged the high church party with an utter abandonment, not to say contempt, of evangelical truth and of the doctrines of the reformation. That great faults existed on each side, is evident. The puritans had begun too much to confine their vieAvs of saving truth to the peculiar dogmas of high Calvinism ; their opponents, to ritualism and formality. The evil, as regards the puritans, may have been exaggerated : as to their opponents, in some remarkable writings put forth at this time, they answer for themselves. The controversial preaching ofthe puritans became so offensive to the court, that in 1622 directions were issued commanding them to desist ; and it is not likely, even in such times as these, that the civil government would have interfered without a strong pretext. These instructions were injudicious, even if well meant : they were ill received ; nor indeed could it have been otherwise. For they endeavoured 311 ^i THE HISTORY OF chapter to place restraints, which it was impossible to enforce, xn- upon consciences which it was certain must rebel. .tames t. preachers were forbidden to discourse upon matters 1618-1623. in divinity not comprehended in the thirty-nine articles or in some of the homilies. A wide range ; for what is the christian doctrine which an inge nious preacher could not readily deduce from the articles and homilies P But the real intention was more fully displayed in the third article of these instructions, namely, "that no preacher under a bishop or dean presume to preach in any popular auditory on the deep points of predestination, elec tion, and reprobation; or ofthe universality, efficacy, resistibility or irresistibility of God's grace." Fur ther, it was observed with pain that preaching was discouraged. In the afternoon it was all but for bidden. An exposition of the catechism, the creed, and the ten commandments was permitted rather than allowed ; and those preachers were to be " most encouraged and approved of," who cqnfined them selves to the examination of children in their cate chism, which was affirmed to be " the most ancient and laudable custom of the church of England." All parties were forbidden to question the king's authority, or meddle with matters of state, or to fall into bitter invectives or railing speeches against either papists or puritans. The declaration was no sooner published than anxiety and consternation foUowed. The pious thought it a cruel thing " to cut off half the preaching in England at one blow." The king's authority, instead of being everywhere admitted, was everywhere canvassed or denied. The very declaration which was meant to establish his THE EARLY PURITANS. 315 prerogative in spiritual things, shook it to its foun- chapter dations. The command of Christ was to preach — — — the gospel. St. Paul interprets the command to JAME6 L mean "in season and out of season." Shall the i6iss-i628. king forbid what God enjoins, or has the secular head of the church of England the right to silence licensed preachers of the word, sent forth by Christ himself ? And so of predestination and other deep points. By what right could any man presume to interfere, and forbid the preaching of a portion of God's word ? It was well indeed, that ignorant ministers of mean parts should be cautioned to speak on this, as on every sacred subject, with reverence and modesty ; but it was monstrous that no minis ter " under the degree of a bishop or a dean at the least," should be allowed to preach upon the ques tionable points of doctrine. It amounted, in fact, to a prohibition of all doctrinal preaching, and no doubt was entertained but that it was so designed. How could the faithful minister discharge his conscience, or edify his flock, if he might not preach upon the efficacy of God's grace, one of the forbidden topics ? Man, said the justly discontented puritans, makes that the forbidden fruit which God makes the tree of life. And the prohibition of all but the dignita ries of the church, to preach on the controverted points, excited the bitter scorn which puts on the air of mirth ; as if, said they, all discretion was confined to cathedral men, and they preach best who are least accustomed to preach at all !* In truth, the king had given his pious subjects abundant reasons for distrust. He wished to pro- * Fuller iii. book x. p. 320. 316 THE HISTORY OF chapter mote not moderation but indifference. The vices "lL _ of his court were glaring; his own life was not A.D. 1618—1623. james i. moral ; and the book of sports, just now put forth, threatened not only the religion, but the decency and the morality of England with an overthrow. We do not pause to waste our indignation upon a document which happily finds no defenders. The book of sports comes down to us like some ill-shaped abortion, curious and disgusting, from the dusty shelves on which it has long reposed. Yet it once portended extensive mischief; and we owe it to the firmness of the archbishop that the immediate con sequences were not more disastrous. The king in 1618 paid a visit to his Scottish dominions, and Laud was his attendant : a significant fact, as will be seen hereafter.* In passing through Lancashire the king observed, that the reformation had but imperfectly made its way : numbers of the common people, and many of the higher gentry, adhered to the ancient faith. This is yet the case in Lanca shire. Considerable districts may be found in its remoter parts, where the gentry and their tenants still cling to the Bomish superstition. James persuaded himself that he had penetrated into the causes of their non-conformity, and proceeded forth with to accomplish the reformation of Lancashire. The magistrates, he found, were too precise, and the ministers were too puritanical; so that the people were hindered from Sunday recreations, and the papists were persuaded that no honest mirth or recreation was tolerated in our religion. Full of * Laud, however, did not return with the king through Lancashire, nor did he draw up the Book of Sports. Heylyn's Laud, i. p. 48. THE EARLY PURITANS. 317 his project, the king returned to Greenwich, and chapter there, upon the 11th of May, set forth a declaration — to this effect : — his pleasure was, that after the end JAMES 1- of divine service his good people should not be dis- i618-^kbs. couraged from any lawful recreations. These are carefully recited. They are such as dancing, either of men or women ; archery for men, leaping, vault ing, or any such harmless recreations; nor from having may-games, whitsun-ales, or morris-dances, and setting up of maypoles, or other sports used therewith : provided all were done without impedi ment to divine service. The women, too, had leave to carry rushes* to the church, for its decoration according to their old custom. Unlawful games were prohibited : such were bear and bull baiting, interludes, and bowling. This was the book of sports. The clergy were commanded to publish it in their parish churches. Some had resolved to decline submission, and risk the consequences. Others would have read it with aching hearts, as an act of obedience to the sovereign whom God had set over them. A third party determined, with more questionable honesty, first to read the decla ration, and then to preach against it ; hoping thus to avoid the danger of disobedience on the one hand, and of profaneness on the other. But the • This practice lately prevailed, and probably still prevails, in Lancashire. The rush-bearing is a parochial festival, observed, in general, on the day of the saint to whom the parish church is dedicated. Up to this period our forefathers sat with their hats on at church, lifting them only (ac cording to the " Instructions " of queen Elizabeth, 1559,) at the name of Jesus. For the sake of warmth and cleanliness the church was strewed with straw ; or, in the northern counties, where straw was scarce, with rushes. The rush-bearing might be an innocent custom ; but why should it take place on Sunday ? 318 THE HISTORY OF chapter firmness of Abbott, now archbishop of Canterbury, — — saved for a while the church and country from pro- james i. fanation and disgrace. He was at his country seat 1618-1623. at Croydon, and there he forbad it to be read. His courage awed the king and his foolish advisers, and an order from the court appeared excusing the clergy from compliance. Fifteen years afterwards the book of sports was re-enforced by Charles, under Laud's advice, and the consequences were fatal. The decay of piety towards the close of the reign of James I., that is, when his pernicious example and worthless character had wrought their full effect upon the nation, is an afflicting topic. The lewd ness of his court was such, that those who drew the sword against his son, and brought him to the scaf fold, do not hesitate to contrast the many virtues of king Charles, and the decorum of his courtiers, with the low and infamous debaucheries of the court of James.* Under the name of puritanism, zeal and earnestness in religion were everywhere treated with contempt. Pious churchmen, who had never con cerned themselves with the surplice controversy, and were perfectly indifferent as to the cross in bap tism and the ring in marriage, found themselves compelled, in self-defence, to associate with the only party by whom they were not insulted. Lucy, the wife of colonel Hutchinson, and the eloquent his torian of her husband's virtues, was then a child. She relates with a becoming indignation, how fiercely the storm of insult fell upon her father's household, and upon others who, like him, were men of rank and loyalty, and yet dared to be nobly singular and * Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, p. 84. THE EARLY PURITANS. 319 fear God. However loyal these men were, if they chapter disputed such impositions as the book of sports, XIL they were held to be seditious, and were marked out JAMES L . . A.D. for evil. If a country gentleman discountenanced 1618-1623. vice, he was a puritan, however exactly he conformed. Did he shew favour to men of piety, relieve their Avants, or protect them against oppression, he was a puritan. If, in the county in which he lived, he promoted public virtue or public interests, and dis couraged popery, he was a puritan. Above all, if he had some zeal for God's glory, could endure a ser mon, and permitted serious conversation at his table; neither swearing, nor scoffing, nor sabbath breaking ; nor permitting others to indulge in ribald conversation, he was a puritan ; and if a puritan, then an enemy to the king and to his government, seditious, factious, and, in short, a hypocrite. It Avas well if some neighbouring pulpit did not hold him up to popular scorn, or if as he passed along the village the drunkards did not make their songs at him. For every stage, every table, every puppet- play scoffed at the puritans ; and fiddlers and mimics learned to abuse them, " as finding it the most gain ful way of fooling."* We may admit, for so does Mrs. Hutchinson herself, that amongst the puritans there were wolves in sheep's clothing ; the unprin cipled and ambitious, who there sought the import ance they were denied elsewhere, and seduced their indiscreet hearers into acts of violence either in order to betray them, or out of some private malice and revenge. Others, mere hypocrites, enriched them selves by preying upon the simplicity of the unsus- * Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, p. S2. 350 THE HISTORY OF chapter pecting. Great sums of money, it is said, were thus XIIp pillaged from the puritans on pretence of charitable james i. alms, and then appropriated to their private use hy 1618-1623. various impostors. Their own piety too was now waning. They had not faith enough — these are still the sentiments of our eloquent historian — to disown all who adhered to them for worldly interests. In their low condition they gladly accepted all who would come over. Discipline of course decayed, and confusion followed.* — Richard Baxter, so famous afterwards in nonconformist story, was also in his boyhood at this period, and his youthful recoUections are in painful unison with those of Mrs. Hutchinson. His parents were virtuous and respectable, and lived in strict conformity. Their son Bichard had grown to manhood before he knew what " presbytery or independency was, or ever spoke with a man who seemed to know it." The inhabitants of the village danced round a maypole on the Lord's day ; and his parents, with three or four other families who were shocked with such a profanation, and spent the day in acts of devotion, were reviled as puritans. Of the nonconforming puritans of Cartwright's school few remained ; and of those few scarcely any could be found who troubled themselves with the discussions, once so fiercely agitated, as to the pres byterian or independent forms of government. The puritans whom Baxter knew, with scarcely an exception, rigidly conformed. But they read the scriptures and books of piety and remembered to keep holy the sabbath day. They prayed in their • Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, p- 83. THE EARLY PURITANS. 351 families, and they prayed alone ; some with the aid chapter of a book, and some without one. They would not xri- swear, nor curse, nor take God's name lightly : but james i. in some few places, where they were in sufficient i618_1623. numbers, they met after divine service on the Sunday to repeat the sermon with each other, to sing a psalm, and to join in prayer. And when there was no sermon at home (or probably none from which they derived instruction), they wan dered to other parishes where they could listen to a more efficient minister. This was the extent of their irregularity; and for this they were prose cuted in the ecclesiastical courts, fined and cen sured, if not excommunicated, and severely harassed. The arguments of Cartwright and the brownists had failed to make any lasting impression. The church was not unpopular ; there was no disposi tion to alter its government, its doctrines, or its discipline. There was no party in existence, of the least consideration, who desired a change.* The old presbyterians were dead, and very few succeeded them : there were but one or two of them left in a county: but these violent proceedings accomplished all that the most inveterate brownist could have wished. In the course of a few years the spiritual courts were only thought of with abhorrence, and the bishops were only spoken of as the enemies of real godliness. The sacred office was made to bear the iudignation due to the misconduct of the men Avho dishonoured it ; and a bitter storm of invective and reproach was directed, not merely against a few tyrannical bishops, but unhappily against the * Clarendon, Hist, book i. p. H2. 352 THE HISTORY OF chapter episcopate itself. Some of the bishops (for in these XI1' evil days there were many bright exceptions) james i. thought by severity to stop the growing disaffec- 16I8-1623. tion ; and thus confirmed the opinion, daily gaining strength, that they were the determined foes of all serious and earnest piety — "the captains of the profane."* Such is Baxter's account ofthe state of parties in his youth ; it was written many years afterwards, when his judgment was mature and his prejudices had cooled ; and its general truth we fear cannot be denied. The puritans affirm that at this period all true piety was discountenanced ; and if by true piety be meant the religion of the reformers and the re formation, the charge cannot be disproved. But another school was rising : that wlrich assumed, and has ever since retained, the title of high churchmen. Amongst its founders were men whose piety was both deep and earnest ; but it was not, we conceive, the piety of the reformation ; which from this time began to be represented by those whom their op ponents styled the doctrinal puritans. This body never seceded from the church, and is now repre sented by that section of the church of England termed evangelical. These, however, are points, let the reader be forewarned, upon which great diversity of opinion still exists ; and the subject is to be con sidered calmly. Certain it is, that the fears of a great number of those whom we must consider as amongst the wisest and best of their age, were pain fully aroused. Were their apprehensions needless, * Baxter, True History of Councils, &c, pp. 91—93. Life by himself, (Sylvester's ed.) lib. i. book 1. A.D. 1618—1623. THE EARLY- PURITANS. 353 were their alarms unfounded ? Amongst the causes chapter of their deep misgivings of heart, they reckoned up XI1, the following as the chief : the increase of popery ; james i. the growth of arminianism ; and the introduction of ritualistic worship, together with the undue impor tance attached to it. In each of these they saw a dreaded foe ; in the triad an appalling monster. By one party their apprehensions were regarded as pro phetic ; by another their vaticinations were treated with contempt. And in the great chancery court of free opinion, the question lies yet, to some extent, unsettled; for each turn of our modern church- politics presents the subject in some new light : and our ecclesiastical affairs are still, to a vast extent, beneath the influence of those impulses which they received in the days of James tho first. i. It was the mean ambition of the king to ally his son in marriage, not Avith the protestant princes of Germany, but with the more noble blood of the French or Spanish Bourbons. The later days of his reign were occupied Avith manoeuvres to effect a match with the infanta of Spain ; an affair in Avhich his conduct appeared to the whole of England con temptible and degrading. Charles, the future king, travelled with his tutor Buckingham, on this inaus picious errand, to Madrid : the match Avas broken off; but no wonder that Charles, upon his return, should have lost for ever the confidence of every puritan. The concessions which his father and him self were willing to have made, shewed, if not a secret Avish to restore the papacy in England, at least a profound indifference to the reformed reli gion. One of the public articles of the mtended 2 A 351 THE HISTORY OF chapter marriage provided that the infanta should choose XII. JAMES A nurses for her children, and bring them up in her Es *• own religion till they were ten years old. The term ieis-1623. was afterwards extended to twelve years, and in the match which actually took place with Henrietta Maria, to thirteen years; nor would the children lose their right of succession to the crown, although they became Boman catholics. There were also secret articles sworn to by the king and the prince of Wales ; and the latter, by his oath, engaged him self, if indeed the relation is not incredible, " that as often as the infanta should desire it, he would give ear to divines and others, whom her highness might be pleased to employ, in matters of the Bo man catholic religion; that he would hear them willingly without all difficulties, and laying aside all excuses ! " In short, no facilities should be wanting on his part, for nothing less could be the meaning of these concessions, to facilitate the restoration of popery into England.* The articles, indeed, Avere secret ; but the elation, not to say the insolence, of the papists about the court, Avas sufficient to create alarm. Abbott, his faithful archbishop, addressed a solemn remonstrance to the king, reminding him that he himself had written against those heresies, of which he now seemed to be the patron. With a freedom becoming his high office he besought his * Rushworth, vol. i. pp. 86— 89. Rapin's Hist. p. 543; or in Neal, vol. ii. ch. ii. p. 223. It was afterwards alleged that these articles were in serted to deceive the Pope, and without any intention of observing them. Hume remarks, that the children of Henrietta Maria were actually edu cated under protestant tutors. To an honest mind, however, the apology is as offensive as the secret article itself. See note in Hume, vol. v. ch. 5, p. 104. 4to ed. THE EARLY PURITANS. 355 majesty to consider how hateful his conduct must chapter be to God, and how grievous to his subjects ; and X1L above all, he implored him to reflect lest he drew james i. upon the kingdom in general, and himself in par- 161g_1623. ticular, God's wrath and indignation.* The parlia ment likewise remonstrated, and petitioned, among other requests, that all papists might be removed from the court. The king, with exquisite duplicity, re plied, protesting before God that his heart bled Avhen he heard ofthe increase of popery. " What religion I am of my books declare. I wish it may be written on marble, and remain to posterity as a mark upon me, when I swerve from my religion. "f Yet he told his courtiers in private that what he had Avritten against the pope was not meant " concludingly ;" that when he heaped upon his holiness every con temptuous and hateful epithet, and proved him antichrist, the man of sin, the babylonish harlot, it was but a scholastic exercise : he had meant no more than to shew the papists what an ingenious and learned writer like himself could plausibly advance against them in the way of retaliation ! The effort to make it seem that tho differences between the church of England and the church of Borne had been exaggerated, was made without the least dis guise. That Borne avus Babylon, that the pope Avas antichrist, " that man of sin, the son of perdition," Avas no longer to be maintained. The unanimity of all our reformers, and of every reformed church, in thus expounding prophecy, could not, it is true, be questioned ; nor did the neAV school of divines refute their interpretations. Little Avas published, by * Fuller iii. \. t Rushworth i. p. 1-13. 2a2 356 THE HISTORY OF chapter them, on prophecy, and that little was never held Jl in much esteem. They satisfied themselves with james i. intimating that these expressions wrere chiefly found i6i8-i623. in the private writings of the reformers, and were of course only private men's opinions ; though it was found more difficult to explain away some hard expressions in the book of homilies. The ten dency of all they wrote upon the subject, Avas to prove rather how much truth Borne still re tained, than with how much deadly error she was leavened : their labours were directed to shew in hoAV many points we still agreed, rather than in how many fundamental ones we differed. The controversy was not conducted honestly. Advan tage was taken of the imperfect statements made in the time of Henry viii. and of Edward vi., while the reformation was advancing. These formed the standard of doctrine with the Laudian school ; and to these were forced to bend those later statements made in the reign of queen Elizabeth Avhen the reformation was complete. In this manner they attempted to prove that the holy table was an altar, the supper of the Lord a sacrifice, and the presence of Christ in the sacrament a real presence, the nature of which the church had not determined ; concealing the fact that it had determined at least that it was not the presence of Christ's natural body; and that the martyrs of our church, with scarcely an exception, died in defence of a distinc tion which every pains was taken now to represent as trivial. But in truth the memory of the martyrs had ceased to be had in reverence. The Laudian party held their coroner's inquest on their death THE EARLY PURITANS. 357 (we adopt the language of a contemporary divine*), chapter and found them little better than felons dying in — — — their own blood for a mere formality ; for a ques- JA*E* T tion, de modo, a metaphysical quibble ofthe manner ibm-ibm. of the presence, and of a sacrifice in the sacrament. " Within the narrow scantling of my experimental remembrance," he mournfully complains, " I have observed strange alteration in the world's valuing of those learned men;" he speaks of Bidley, Cran mer, Latimer, and Hooper, and in short the martyrs and reformers of our church. The growth of this indifference deeply distressed all those who refused to attach themselves to the now dominant party, of which Laud^was^becoming the acknowledged head. In justice to Laud himself, it should be noticed, that on some important points he never appears to have embraced all the extreme opinions of his party. It is impossible to read candidly his controversy with Fisher the Jesuit, Avithout per ceiving that he had in his own mind a clear view of some strong line of demarcation between the churches of Borne and England ; and that he felt their differences to be such as to admit of no com promise on our side. On the great doctrine of jus tification too, his views appear to have been more scriptural than those of his party. His dying prayer upon the scaffold might have been uttered, under the same circumstances, by Bidley in the former generation, or by Bichard Baxter in the next. But thus it often is in the race of error ; the pupils out run the master and the guide. In the search of * Fuller, Holy and Profane State, book iv. ch. 11. 358 THE HISTORY OF chapter truth, religious truth at least, such precocious 1 alacrity is rare. james i. James's interference with the affairs ofthe church A.D. 1618^1623. of Scotland, increased the general anxiety. It is said that he had long projected the restoration of episcopacy. In the conference of Hampton court, he took no pains to conceal, or rather he peevishly intruded, his detestation ofthe presbyterian kirk; of which, while king of Scotland, he had been him self a member, and which he had sworn to cherish and protect. He nominated bishops to the thirteen Scotch bishoprics which he had formerly abolished, and in the year 1606 obtained an act from the Scot tish parhament to restore their temporalities, and with these their dignities as lords of parliament. The general assembly, the high court of the kirk of Scotland, protested ; and much discussion followed of importance, which it does not fall within our pro vince to relate. But in effect the king prevailed. Three Scotch divines were consecrated bishops in London, under a commission addressed to the bishops of London, Ely, Bath, and Bochester: these, upon their return to Scotland, consecrated other bishops. This was in 1610. It is said, and subsequent events do not permit us to question it, that they found themselves hated both by ministers and people. Those indeed who most revere episco pacy will most deplore the obloquy and degrada tions to which it was exposed in Scotland by the king's misconduct. The whole proceeding was rash and illegal, and moderate men in England inter preted it as an ill omen. The puritans, who had THE EARLY PURITANS. 359 always been on terms of warm friendship with the chapter kirk, were filled with apprehension. And those who — — — loved episcopacy, were unwilling to see its claims JAMES '• advanced at the cost of the presbyterian church by 1620I1623. law established. ii. The growth of arminianism was another cause of anxiety to the puritans. They wrere now rigid calvinists ; many of their leaders insisted with j peremptory dogmatism upon points on which the I reformers had spoken, if not Vith reserve, withj caution and humility. A reaction of necessity took place ; of necessity, we say, because one extreme in ; these matters has invariably been the parent of! another. We begin to find arminianism, in the fears ' of the puritans, curiously entwined with popery ; ' and in fact the house of commons, a few years after wards, vehemently denounced the two, as the grow ing evil which threatened to overwhelm both liberty and religion. Yet popery has no necessary con nection with arminianism, nor the puritan cause with ultra-calvinism. The church of Borne, em barrassed by the opinions of the greatest of the fathers, has long been in the dilemma of accepting Calvinism or rejecting St. Augustine. The puritans, boasting a perfect emancipation from human sys tems, and relying only on the scriptures, could not reasonably censure those of their own party who might think fit to appeal from Bullinger or Calvin to the purer fountain of the written word. Thus among themselves doctrinal arminianism forced its way. Its apostle in England was John Goodwin, in all other points an ultra-puritan ; one who Avas persecuted by Laud, became a presbyterian, and so 360 THE HISTORY OF chapter passed on in due time to the ranks of the indepen- xn" dents. Of English divines he is still the master- james i. min(j amongst evangelical arminians. John Wesley 1618-1623. in the last century espoused his opinions, and repub lished his works ; which, in force and perspicuity, and freedom from the cumbrous verbiage of the times, are remarkable. Candid auditors at the synod of Dort could not refrain from some regret that two parties, who often differed scarce a hair's breadth from each other on. doctrines essential to salvation, should contend so bitterly on points of metaphy sical divinity. On many of those points, on which Goodwin wrote, and was assailed, with bitterness, the same reflection will arise. Not only the devout reader, but even the acute theologian, is often at a loss to perceive wherein the difference lies about which the angry conflict rages. And when he dis covers it, he is apt to think, that after all it is but a strife of words. Goodwin maintains the great doctrine of justification by faith only, with the em phasis of Luther, and with Hooker's scholastic accu racy ; and yet, upon a question nearly connected with it, he contrived to establish a distinction so subtle as not to be easily explained (in any words, at least, except his own), and yet of such seeming or real importance, that thousands of even illiterate men have contended, and would now contend, for it, should the controversy be revived, as if for the whole substance of salvation. Hooker, echoing the voice of the reformation, and we conceive of holy writ, had spoken of the imputation of the righteous ness of Christ as one of the blessed consequences of our justification. Goodwin, too, maintained that THE EARLY PURITANS. 361 nothing is required of any man for his justification chapter but faith in Christ ; and he admits, to use his own xn- words, — " that this faith shall be as available for his james i. justification, as a perfect righteousness should have 162^11623 been under the first covenant." And yet he denies Hooker's assertion that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the believer. Although he admits that a justified person may be said to be clothed with Christ's righteousness in a sense such as that in which Paul's necessities were said to be supplied by his own hands. " These hands," says he (quoting the apostle's words), " have ministered to my necessities. Yet Paul neither ate his fingers, nor spun the flesh of his hands into clothing ; and yet, was both fed and clothed with them. So may a believer be said to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and yet the righteousness of Christ itself not be his clothing, but only that which procured his clothing to him."* Perhaps the reader, if unacquainted Avith the niceties of theological expression, Avill scarcely perceive a shade of difference between Hooker and GoodAvin ; perhaps he may suspect that if the parties had been obliged to give their meaning in other words, they Avould have found that they taught the same doctrine : the one maintaining that the sinner is accounted righteous before God, by virtue of the Saviour's righteousness imputed to him ; the other, that the sinner is accounted righteous before God by virtue ofthe faith he basin the Saviour's righteous ness ;. this faith, however, being the gift of God himself, and not in any sense a meritorious Avork of man's. Both views are held extensively in the church * Jackson's Life of Goodwin, p. 44. 362 THE HISTORY OF chapter of England, and among other denominations of evan- XJ1, gelical christians. The Wesleyan body adhere exclu- james i. sively to the views of Goodwin, and attach consider- i62o-i623. able importance to the distinction. On other points Goodwin has claims upon our gratitude of a less questionable kind. The cheering doctrine of scrip ture, and ofthe church of England,* that Christ died a sacrifice for all men, without exception, was falling into oblivion ; by many of the puritans it was reso lutely denied. Goodwin may be said to have spent his life in combating the rising error : he several times disputed in public with its advocates in the presence of some thousands of people, and at length published the substance of his speeches ; and, some years afterwards, he assailed the entire system of Calvinism in a larger wrork, which, in the alhterative taste of his age, he entitled, Bedemption Bedeemed. It does not appear, however, notwithstanding all the advocate's eloquence and popularity, that his opinions extended far among the puritans ; nor was he sanctioned by Laud and the high church party. The bishop of London cited Goodwin and his oppo nents, and charged them on both sides to desist from further discussion in the pulpit. And, in a letter to the king, Laud mentions some distractions as having arisen, both among the ministers and the people, in the city of London, " occasioned at first by some over nice curiosities, preached by one Mr. Goodwin, vicar of St. Stephen's, Coleman street, * Nothing can be more explicit than the church catechism ; drawn up, the reader will remember, early in the reign of Elizabeth. " I believe in God the Son, who redeemed me and all mankind, and in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the elect people of God." Redemption extends to all mankind; the sanctifying influence of the Spirit, to all the elect. THE EARLY PURITANS. 363 concerning the imputation of Christ's righteousness chapter in the justification of a sinner." The evil, he adds, xn" had been prevented by convening the parties.* Thus JAMES l- Goodwin was assailed on both sides ; and such ap- 1620-1621. pears to have been his fate through life. But the arminianism of Laud, and of the great party which he led, was of another kind. They did not hold, as Goodwin held, the doctrine of justifica tion by faith alone, but of justification by faith and works conjoined, or, which is virtually the same, by a faith to which good works are prevenient and accessary. It was the other extreme — the rebound from ultra-calvinism. That verged on fataiism : this on the pelagian error that man can restore himself by good works to the favour of God. The one led to antinomianism, teaching men to continue in sin that grace might abound ; the other, to a withering neglect, and in many instances to an ab solute contempt, ofthe doctrines of the gospel ; that is, of the atonement, and of the Avork of the Holy Spirit on the soul. The great error of this party was, and has ever been, that it does not distinguish clearly between faith as tho ground of our accept ance, and faith as the source and parent of good works. They argued, and Avith great truth, that faith without good Avorks and a holy life wras a mere fiction ; they inferred, which was perfectly erro neous, that these good \vorks Avere a part of faitn itself, and therefore necessary, in the same sense as that in which faith itself is necessary, to salvation. Whereas the doctrine ofthe church of England is unquestionably this, that until through faith we are * Goodwin';- Life, p. 30. A.D. 1624. 361 THE HISTORY OF chapter restored to the divine favour, in other words are XI1' justified, good works cannot be performed; but james i. afterwards they follow as the necessary results of a true and lively faith. On the doctrine of the sacra ments this new party began to speak a language long unknown in England. The Lord's supper, they affirmed, was not only a sacrament, but a sacrifice. They carefully insisted that the communion table should be called an altar ; and having obtained this point, they proceeded to make it the foundation of another : we have the wood, said they, and the altar, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering ? Thus they inferred the doctrine of the real presence — the real presence of the natural body of Christ.* With regard to baptism, they taught, in opposition to the reformers both at home and abroad, that it conferred the grace of regeneration upon all who received it alike ; that is, they affirmed that all baptized persons were introduced in baptism into a state of grace and of acceptance ; and if, after baptism, they lived in habitual sin, this was a proof, not that they were unconverted, but that they were relapsed. Here then was a new system of theology ; new at least in England, and to the churches of the refor mation.! Divines of the school of the reformation rejected the new doctrines with alarm, and denounced them from the pulpit ; and hence arose another di- * I quote the arguments, and often the words, of Heylyn in his Intro duction to the Life of Laud ; to which I refer the reader who may not be disposed for more laborious investigation, for a clear and able synopsis of tbe Laudian school of theology drawn up by one of themselves. t For the proof of this assertion, I refer the reader to the Rev. W. Goode's Doctrine of the Church of England as to the Effects of Baptism, &c., where he will find an array of evidence which sets the question at rest. JAMES I. A.D. 1624. THE EARLY PURITANS. 365 vision in the church. Laud's party were in the chapter ascendant, and they fastened on their opponents the xn' charge of doctrinal puritanism ; and thus they suc ceeded in stigmatizing those who were attached to that true and genuine doctrine of the church of England, which, says a learned and competent author, they laboured to eradicate.* One of the first who used these scoffing words, was bishop Mon tagu in controversy with bishop Carlton ; to whom the latter meekly answers : " this is the first time that ever I heard of a puritan doctrine in points dogmatical, and I have lived longer in the church than he hath done. I thought that puritans were only such as were factious against the bishops in the point of pretended discipline ; and so I am sure it hath been understood hitherto in our church." Even our modern historian Hume, little unhappily as he knew of christian doctrine, had the sagacity to perceive that " the doctrinal puritans rigidly de fended the speculative system of the first reformers." f It is a significant fact, that the controversy which has ever since existed among us, now for the first time made its appearance. The construction forced upon the baptismal offices, rendered its phraseology the object of suspicion and dislike. Hitherto, as we have had occasion to remark, the puritans them selves had uttered no complaints on this head. Scrupulous as they Avere, and prone to clamour, the doctrines of our baptismal service had given rise to no scruple and to no remonstrance ; a proof that no construction had hitherto been put upon them differ- * Goode, &c. p. 337. t Hist, of Eng. vii. p. 272. 366 THE HISTORY OF chapter ing in any degree from the received doctrine in other XIL reformed churches, more especially those of Scotland james i. an(j Qeneva . for Up0n these the puritans were ever A D 1624 ' anxious to fall back, and by them to test the purity of the church of England. iii. While pious and thoughtful men were dis tressed by these novelties in doctrine, certain exter nal signs gave significant intimation to the least observant that some great change was contemplated. All at once an extraordinary zeal broke out for the practices which the reformation had, seventy years before, condemned. Bidley and Parker had not been more anxious in their day to root out supersti tions, than the Laudian school was upon restoring them ; and the ingenuity displayed in reconciling its practices with the known injunctions of the church might, in a better cause, have raised a smile; it was the perfection of scholastic quibbling. It was admitted that articles had been issued, for instance, in the first year of Elizabeth, which were still in force ; that they were directed against the supersti tious decorations which popery had introduced into churches and private houses. It would seem, we think, to a candid mind impossible to devise terms more comprehensive than those employed in queen Ehzaheth's injunction. The clergy and others were commanded "to take away, utterly extinct, 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 superstition, so that there remains no memory of the same in walls, glass windows, or elsewhere within their churches THE EARLY PURITANS. 367 or houses."* There are several articles to the same chapter effect ; in one the clergy are instructed to declare in XI1' public the abuse of images, relics, or miracles ; in JAMES l- r ° A.D. 1624. another, to set forth the great threatenings and maledictions of God against works devised by man's fantasies, besides what is enjoined in scripture ; as things tending to idolatry, and superstition, which of all other offences God doth most detest and abhor, t In short, if there be an honest, simple-hearted docu ment in existence, and one which shews the inten tions of the reformers, the " Injunctions " ofthe first year of queen Elizabeth deserves that character. And so thought the puritans, — the church puritans, such men as bishops Hall and Carlton. But their objections, if stated in general terms, were treated Avith contempt ; and if they objected in the words of the "injunctions," the Laudians made answer, that they carried their owrn refutation with them. It was quite manifest, they said, from the words them selves, that it was never the meaning of the queen and her counsellors really to condemn, abolish, and deface all images, but only to remove such pictures of false and feigned miracles as were destitute of truth. Images of Christ himself, and of the pro phets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and other godly fathers, were not included ; the abuse of these only was to be reformed ; the use of them was good and laudable. It would have been AveU to have shewn, in order to make good the argument, that no idola trous worship had ever been paid to true apostles and real martyrs, but only to fictitious ones ; or that * Injunctions, &c. published in 1559, Art 23. f Arts. 2, 3. A.D. 1624. 368 THE HISTORY OF chapter the reformation allowed one kind of superstition, xn- and merely denounced another. The homilies, it is james i. true, were still commanded to be read in churches, |in obedience to these very " injunctions" ; and that !" against peril of idolatry" declared, that images, without any exception, are but " great puppets and babies for old fools ;"* and in language, and with an illustration, which the greater refinement (would that we could say, the greater purity,) of modern days forbids us to repeat, scorns the contemptible conceit that men can gaze upon these incentives to spiritual lewdness without spiritual defilement. With regard, however, to images of Christ and his saints, one passage may be quoted : " no image," says the homily, " can be made of Christ but a lying image ; for Christ is God and man. Seeing therefore that, of the Godhead, which is the most excellent part, no image can be made, it is falsely called the image of Christ ; wherefore images of Christ be not only defects, but also hes : which reason serveth also for images of saints, whose souls, the most exceUent part of them, can by no images be represented or expressed. Wherefore, seeing that religion ought to be founded upon truth, images which cannot be without lies, ought not to be made or put to any use in rehgion, or to be placed in churches or temples, peculiarly appointed to true religion, and the service of God." In this passage the voice of the reforma tion is very clear. The churchmen who adhered to the doctrines of the reformation (doctrinal puritans we must henceforth term them) were at once indig- * Horn. xiv. pt. 3. THE EARLY PURITANS. 369 nant and dismayed to find themselves betrayed by chapter those who were the highest dignitaries of the church, : — and who ought to have been the guardians of its JA\^ h*2l purity, and the expositors, not the corrupters, of its doctrine. The homilies themselves are cited by Heylyn as admitting that images are not forbidden by the new testament ; from which he infers that no offence is committed against the gospel by restor ing them to the churches, if they be used only for history, example, and pure devotion ; and he calls in the sanction of pope Gregory, who terms them, " not unfitly," the laymen's books. The homily had anticipated Heylyn ; — " either they be no books, or if they be, they be false and lying books, the teachers of all errors." These opinions were not suffered to lie inert. Everywhere, so far as the influence of the new party extended, churches were restored and decorated after a fashion long unknown. The communion table was transformed into an altar, or was placed " altar-wise," if carved in wood. It was decorated with costly hangings, and bore its load of massive plate and the two symbolic candlesticks ; and it was again surmounted, as of old, with paintings and stained glass, descriptive of sacred persons or events in ecclesiastical tradition or church history. It had been the goodly custom of the church to boAv at the name of Jesus : now the worshipper wras required to make due and lowdy reverence when he entered into the church ; the place on whieh he stood being, by consecration, made holy ground. It was true, for this neither rule nor rubric could be shewn ; but, in * Hevlvu's Laud, Introd. p. 11. 2 B JAMES I. A. D. 1624 370 THE HISTORY OF chapter the absence of all authority, catholic antiquity was XI1' a formula in the hands of the Laudian school, which justified every innovation, and silenced every objector. Bowing towards the east was introduced and de fended by this sole argument. It was alleged to be the ancient custom. And, in short, whatever rites Avere practised in the church of Borne, and not expressly abohshed at the reformation,* nor dis claimed by any doctrine, law, or canon, were held to be consistent with, if not binding upon, the church of England. As if a thousand canons could, or ought to have been, framed to enumerate and de nounce as many superstitious practices ; or as if the tone, the general purport and intention of a statute, were to be studiously concealed when its application and its uses were considered ! And as if it were not enough that the scruples of the old church party should be treated with contempt, their zeal (if they dared to shew it) on behalf of the reformation was met with insolence and cruelty. The biographer and panegyrist of Laud relates with satisfaction the vengeance he inflicted soon after wards on Sherfield, recorder of Sarum. In one of the windows of his parish church was the story of the creation, expressed in painted glass, in which was a representation of the Deity, " in the shape of an old man." This was one of the abominations expressly forbidden and denounced : it was, as the reformation taught, idolatrous and impious. Sher field, anxious for its removal, laid the matter before the parish vestry ; and the parish vestry removed the superstitious relic, and " set up another window * Heylyn's Laud, Introd. p. 12. XII. JAMES I. A. D. 1625. THE EARLY PURITANS. 371 of plain white glass in the place thereof." Such chapter was Sherfield's crime, as reported by his enemies, and they admit that he believed that he was acting lawfully. The only outrage, if such it was, being, that Sherfield broke the idolatrous effigy in pieces with his staff. But we are at a loss to perceive in what points either Sherfield or the vestry deserve the slightest blame. They obeyed the injunctions of Elizabeth, and they obeyed not with tumult and violence, but in a legal manner. They did not, it is true, consult the archdeacon or the bishop. This might have been courteous, but it was not necessary: for the law of the church was plain ; and the parish wardens were competent to enforce it. Their con duct would have been highly meritorious under the primacy of Parker, and no law had passed to make it otherwise in the days of Laud. But every ex pression of protestantism was now a crime ; and even parish vestries were looked upon with suspicion in high places. " They were but bastard elderships." The elders of the vestry had superseded, so cried the Laudian party, the elders of the conventicle. It Avas resolved to inflict a punishment which should put a stop to such proceedings ; and certainly, could punishments have done it, no more windoAvs, how ever superstitious, had been broken. Sherfield Avas summoned before the star chamber, and there Laud* " did not only aggravate the crime as much as he could, in reference to the dangerous consequences which might follow," but shewed too, Avith a dan gerous casuistry, " how far the use of painted images might be retained in churches." In brief, under * Ilovlvn's Laud, book iii. p. 14f>. 2 b 2 JAMES I. A. D. 1625 372 THE HISTORY OF chapter the pretext that an affront had been dono to the XIL bishop of the diocese; and because, says honest Heylyn, it was looked upon as a great discourage ment to the moderate papists — and, he adds, to some moderate protestants also — Sherfield was deprived of his recordership, fined a thousand pounds, bound to his good behaviour for the time to come, and com pelled to make a public acknowledgment of his offence, both in the parish church and in the cathe dral. It is not necessary to load the memory of Laud and his disciples with reproaches ; nor are we disposed to do so. They displayed, no doubt, sincerity, great earnestness, and, according to their own views, even piety. But their influence was calamitous ; and the darkest days of the church of England were now approaching ; for Avhile her enemies thundered at the gate, her own chieftain betrayed the citadel. The theological system of Laud, whatever place it held with the fathers ofthe western church, was unknown till his time in the reformed church of England. The most able, and the most honest, of his folloAvers in our day, declare that he was the founder of a school which had no existence in England ; none, however, since the reformation. He was himself, they say, the true reformer ofthe English church. The discus sion is foreign to our purpose. The fact thus broadly asserted is capable of abundant proof. Whether for good or evil, Laud was the founder of a new theology. If it were true, its truths had been overlooked or discarded by the divines of the reformation ; if false, it was, so far, a return to those errors against which they contended even unto death. The violent spirit THE EARLY PURITANS. 373 in which he enforced his principles, and their conse- chapter quences, in creating new discontents, and in giving XI1, new life to the worn out and exhausted puritans, JAJIES ]¦ are points to which our attention will henceforth be directed. While affairs were in this condition, James, after a few days' illness, expired near London, on the 27th of March, 1625. His death was unexpected ; for his health was good, and he was but in his fifty- ninth year. The nation was in a suspicious mood and there Avere rumours that he had been poisoned. He was engaged at the time in negociating his son's marriage with the sister of Louis xiii. the French king ; and the papists were expecting great advan tages to their party from the alliance. It does not appear why they should have been thought to wish for his destruction. Popery had always found him compliant, many professions to the contrary, and much bluster, notwithstanding. But the people did not understand his character. Deceived by his noisy protestations, they revered him as the champion of their faith. "I can truly say," exclaimed the king in parliament within twelve months of his death, " and will avouch it before the seat of God and angels, that never king governed with a purer, sincerer, and more uncorrupt heart than I have done. It has been talked, of mv remissness in the maintenance of religion, and I am suspected of a toleration of popery; but as God shall judge me, I never thought nor meant, nor ever in word expressed, anything that saAroured of it." He had sworn, two years before, in the presence of his privy council and the Spanish ambassador, not only to observe the provisions of 371 THE HISTORY OF chapter the Spanish match himself, but to use all his au- xn- thority and influence to have them ratified by his james i. parliament, and to obtain a toleration for Boman A.D. 1625 Catholics throughout his dominions ! But these were secrets of state, of which not only the common people, but even the superior clergy, remained in ignorance. The house of commons was uneasy, not that it suspected James of perfidy, but that it was jealous of the Bourbon match, and anxious for a protestant consort for the future sovereign. And it was displeased to observe, that while the puritan clergy were used with great severity, and the puritan gentry carefully excluded from the commission of the peace and every other post of trust and dignity, papists and high churchmen were sedulously ad vanced. An address was presented, in which the king's attention Avas earnestly directed to this in justice.* Fifty-seven popish lords and knights, said the parliament, surround your throne and fill high offices of state : — but it did not suspect that James himself was purely indifferent to the protestant cause, if not a traitor. The truth was, he had taken up rehgion as a trade : it was in his day an article of merchandise ; and with it he bought crowns and empire and boundless popularity. Of its personal influence he seems to have felt nothing, except when it horribly alarmed him after some low debauch. Protestantism had now done for him all that he required. It had given him the throne of England and the confidence of a too credulous people ; and as it could do no more, popery Avas now welcome to his councils, and, whenever it should be vacant, to his * Rapin, Hist. Eng. p. 567. THE EARLY PURITANS. 375 throne. There is nothing in his conduct which is chapter not of every day's occurrence. Bad men, ignorant xn- of themselves and of the cause they espouse, are james i. ill t • i • A-D- 16'25' forward and clamorous on some religious question ; they gain their purpose, and their religion is for gotten. Saul's armour upon David could not be more cumbrous than the continued profession of piety to a mind indifferent to spiritual things, and immersed in the pursuits of sensuality and ambi tion. 376 THE HISTORY OF xiii. CHAS. I. A.D. 1623. CHAPTEB XIII. a d. 1625—1640. CHAPTEE Charles I. Avas born a Scotchman, and baptized a presbyterian. But beyond this, there was nothing in his life, his circumstances, or his disposition, from wdiich his puritan subjects might gather hope. Five-and-twenty years of age, full of the pride of youth and ancestry, of the most refined taste and lofty manners, inheriting his father's notions of divine right and absolute supremacy, and strongly tinged with the principles of the new theology, he saw in the puritans only the opponents of his will, if not the disturbers of his peace. He regarded them as a dangerous and seditious people, who under pretence of conscience, declining in the first instance his spiritual jurisdiction, would find or make, ere long, some opportunity of withdrawing themselves from his temporal authority ; and he resolved to watch their proceedings with the utmost vigilance.* The puritans were no less distrustful of the king. His residence abroad had infected him, they feared, with arbitrary sentiments ; and they were the friends of liberty. Puritanism stood at the furthest possible remove from popery ; and he was about to marry a * Clarendon, Hist. vol. i. p. 81. I. A.D. 1625. THE EARLY PURITANS. 377 devoted if not an enthusiastic member of the church chapter of Borne. In fact his impatience was such, that the; XIT1, marriage was solemnized by proxy before his father's a™a* body had been carried to the tomb. It could not be known at present how disastrous the union would one day prove. But everything portended evil. She was very beautiful, of great vivacity, and loved intrigue. She was allowed a confessor, a nuncio, and a whole host of priests and Jesuits. It was easy to foresee that the queen would be governed by her spiritual directors, and not at all improbable that Charles himself would be governed by the queen. The worst apprehensions of the protestant party were very soon confirmed. The influence of Laud was considerable during the later years of James, but it rose to a much greater height during the first years of Charles. Buckingham, the favourite and prime minister of Charles, was assassinated in 1626 ; and Laud, to the astonishment of all men of sober minds, became: his successor. This was an instance of infatu ation unequalled even by this unhappy monarch. Laud was a man of obscure birth, of rough manners, and of a temper that spurned control : his education had neither improved his judgment nor enlarged his mind. Perhaps it had materially injured both. A ge neration who remembered Cecil and Walsingham saw with dismay a severe and narrowminded churchman presiding at the council-board, and directing with no hesitating voice the measures of the state. But Laud was nothing daunted. His party was now formed : it had acquired solidity and force ; its aims were clear and well defined ; and its means Avere re- AJJ. 1625. 378 THE HISTORY OF chapter solved upon. The church wras to be re-established xm' upon another basis ; the papists (this household word ¦ Avas noAV discountenanced) were to be conciliated ; and puritanism, at whatever cost, was to be de stroyed and for ever rooted out. A party had sud denly arisen, which had the entire confidence of the court and of the aristocracy, sufficiently powerful to resist and everawe the two archbishops, a majority of the bishops, a vast number of the clergy, almost all the middle classes, and the common people. They declared themselves the church, the true church of England ; and they succeeded in fastening on their opponents every term of ecclesiastical reproach : they were schismatics, genevans, calvinists, — Avorse than all, they were puritans ; a term the meaning of which, by this new apphcation of it, was rendered more than ever vague. But words adroitly used are, with designing men, the instruments of the sleight of hand they practise. They divert attention from themselves, and silence those they cannot answer. Thus church or doctrinal puritan Avas a conve nient phrase for conveying the idea of disaffection to the church, or to the state, or to both at once. A change at once so great and sudden has seldom occurred. Whenever it takes place it must be traced to previous causes, which have passed unnoticed, or of which the tendency was not under stood till their issues were determined. Upon a sudden, new men, and with them new doctrines, or at least new constructions of doctrine, had appear ed. Montagu and Laud were the founders of this school, and they lived to see it hi its full maturity. That their principles should so soon prevail in Eng- THE EARLY PURITANS. 379 land, — that they should supersede the principles of chapter Davenant and Hall, — would, in the last year nf xm- Elizabeth, or sixteen years after, when the synod CUAS I- of Dort was held, have seemed incredible. And yet the causes were even then at work which would probably, perhaps necessarily, produce at no distant period, either a Laudian or an infidel school, and in vest it with a transient popularity. For the latter the nation was not prepared. Infidelity is the vice of the flippant or of the coldly speculative ; and the Enghsh character stands at opposite, and perhaps at equal, extremes from each. The choice then was a relapse into religious pageantry and form ; and this we conceive was the natural consequence — natural, because in accordance with the laws which God has impressed upon us — of the state of feeling which already shewed itself amongst the people, as well as of the character which the theology of the age had assumed. For, in the first place, the piety and earnestness of the two previous generations had passed away. During forty-four years, the reign of Elizabeth had been one of unclouded and increasing splendour. She found England poor, and, in the scale of nations, insignificant, and left it great and powerful. The increase of wealth in her time had been astonishing. And with wealth luxury had diffused its charms. Every class of society down to the meanest, had shared in the general prosperity. The farmer and the yeoman had suc ceeded to the comforts of the ancient gentleman, and, in many an instance, to the feudal hall, now deserted by its owner for a modern and more magnificent residence. The London tradesman was on a footing 380 THE HISTORY OF chapter Avith the London merchant of his youth : the plough - X1"' man, whose father had been little better than a chas. i. siaye living: in a mud hut, with neither a window A. D. 1625. ° ' . nor a chimney, possessed most ofthe conveniences of a cottager of our own times, and hved perhaps in the same tenement which is noAV possessed by his descen dants. But they know httle of mankind, and of the true church of Christ, who need to be informed that long seasons of worldly prosperity are unfavourable to the soul. It is amidst the tempests of persecu tion, and in the dark days of trial, that the church gathers strength. Beneath unclouded sunshine it languishes and faints. The increase of profession is no conclusive proof that piety increases. A reh gious age is not necessarily an age of religion. Pro fessions, indeed, are of themselves of httle value ; they are often assumed to conceal the absence of piety — as knavish men are most forward to proclaim their own integrity. In one sense the reign of James is the most religious part of our history ; for religion was then fashionable. The forms of state, the king's speeches, the debates in parliament, and the current literature, were filled Avith quotations from scripture, and quaint allusions to sacred things; but underneath this promising exterior the current of real piety was shallow, we suspect. It wanted earnestness, depth, sincerity. The king was emi nently a religious man (in the sense in which the term was then applied) but he was an habitual sAA-earer, a drunkard, and a liar. Yet he was com mitted to the grave Avith most unmeasured eulogies. The bishop of Lincoln, in his funeral sermon, com pared him wdth king Solomon, and sheAved that he A. D. 1625. THE EARLY PURITANS. 381 was his equal in every point, his superior in not a chapter few : and he assured his audience, in conclusion, XUI' that their departed monarch was " now reigning CHAS- L gloriously with God in heaven." Bishop Hall fol lowed in a strain of adulation scarcely less offensive. If the best men could stoop to this, we leave the reader to infer the average standard of morality in England ; and how far, in the general practice, virtue and religion were divorced from each other : the one banished Avith disdain ; the other, or rather the phantom which had assumed its form, retained, and pampered, and caressed. The divinity of the times, as we have already said, partook largely of the same heartless cha racter : it was at once artificial and, to a great degree, misdirected. Admiration seemed to be the preacher's highest aim ; and if the structure of words and sentences elaborately complicated deserves applause, it is pre-eminently due to these diAdnes. But it is difficult to believe that such things ever reached the heart ; it is difficult to believe that they Avere seriously meant to reach it They strike us merely as college exercises, delivered at unsea sonable times and places; and the preacher avIio could not display his scholastic niceties in the schools of Cambridge or Oxford, seems to have appeased his vanity by a recitation in the parish church. No man who is much in earnest delivers himself in quibbles and conceits ; but in the strong impassioned Avords of nature, and in them alone. Tastes, it is true, may vary ; but human nature in all ages appears to be very much the same. — Theo logy, too, had taken a most unhappy direction. 382 THE HISTORY OF chapter The endless discussion of the five points of the cal- — - — ' — vinistic and arminian controversy was certain " to a DAi625 mmister strife rather than godly edifying." Far be it from us to encourage the vulgar levity Avhich would speak of these points, or of any one of them, without the deepest reverence. They are truly amongst the deep things of God. Nor do we for a moment doubt that minds, deeply imbued with the spirit of true religion, and these too of the highest order, have dwelt upon them with intense study, and often with intense delight. Indeed, it is from such men that we expect a hearty concurrence in the assertion that a ministry that turns incessantly upon the discussion of these questions is misdirected and abused ; and that its effects will be seen ere long in training up hearers " heady and high-minded." |Yet when the Laudian party first appeared, such discussions appear to have taken almost exclusive possession of our pulpits. It was the natural con sequence of the general heartlessness in rehgion. Under the same circumstances the phenomenon constantly appears. While the minister and his congregation are in a state of healthy piety, such stimulants are not required. When luxury, and sloth, and spiritual indifference arise, speculative questions, which amuse but do not disturb, are the refuge of those who still endeavour to persuade themselves that all is right. But such a state of things cannot last : it is indeed one of the symptoms of decay. And if, at such a juncture, men of fearless minds, self-confident and resolute, assault the exist ing opinions, they find an easy triumph and are astonished at the facility with wlrich the victory THE EARLY PURITANS. 383 is won over opponents who seemed to be invin- chapter cible. ^i^_ Thus the way had been prepared for a new party, CHAS- '¦ and its leaders now appeared. In 1628 Laud was placed in the see of London ; about the same time; Montagu succeeded his opponent, bishop Carlton, at Chichester ; and the Laudian party was consoli-j dated. Its temper was soon apparent : it was per secuting, angry, and exclusive. It meant to brook no rivals, and to suffer no opponents to exist. This \ was the dark unhappy period during which the king's prerogative was violently strained, and made the plea for every outrage. The Laudian party availed themselves of it, if indeed they did not direct it; and they proceeded at once, thus sheltered, to denounce the puritanical bishops, and to assail the spiritual heads of the church themselves. Dr. Toby Matthew was still archbishop of York : but he died in 1628, old and full of years, the last of the reformers ; connected, through marriage Avith his daughter, with bishop Barlow, a confessor in the Marian persecution. He was the speaker of the convocation in the memorable year when it re monstrated Avith queen Elizabeth upon her severity to archbishop Grindal ; he drew up the protest on its behalf; and his principles had never changed. Archbishop Abbott had succeeded Bancroft in the primacy. He was a man of blameless life, learned, vigilant, of exemplary piety, an unwearied student, an able statesman. Such are the admis sions of both parties. His admirers add that he was an excellent divine, an able preacher, and a prelate of primitive sanctity. Yet, hke his great 381 THE HISTORY OF chapter predecessor Grindal, he fell into deep disgrace. _^j Upon a visit to a nobleman Avith whom he had chas. i. iong h^ « a dear and entire friendship," in order to revive his spirits (from which we infer that he was unwell in health), he was invited to witness a chase, and a cross-boAV was put into his hand to shoot one of the deer.* Unhappily it swerved, and his arrow killed the keeper on the spot. His grief wras overwhelming. He retired to Guildford, his native place, and took up his abode in the hospital which he himself had founded. James, who Avith all his faults was not in general unjust, silenced the scruples of those who reminded him that the pri mate Avas now a man of blood, and therefore in capable of the primacy, at once, by extending to him his royal pardon, and a full dispensation. The archbishop resumed his functions but never forgot his griefs. Through the remainder of his life he kept a weekly fast on the day of his calamity. And he maintained the wddow with a very liberal pen sion. The unfortunate occurrence ought to have been forgotten. Good men might have been ex pected to feel a deeper reverence for one thus con stantly oppressed with unavailing sorrow. But Abbott was the friend of those who wrere now decried as puritans, and it was necessary to accom plish his disgrace. In 1627 a commission was issued to five bishops, (ofSvhom Laud, then bishop of Bath and Wells, was one,) to whom his jurisdic tion was transferred. The archbishop meantime was sequestered, and confined to his house in Kent. Fuller asserts that his casual homicide Avas the * Heylyn's Laud, b. ii. p. 56. THE EARLY PURITANS. 385 alleged occasion of his disgrace ;* but Heylynt chapter omits the charge of homicide, and relates that the X1IL — archbishop was suspended because of his leaning to ^J1DA^' the puritans ; — his real offence no doubt, the other being a pretext. It was one of Charles's most in fatuated acts, and it recoiled upon himself. Within two years he was compelled to restore the arch bishop, and to become a suitor for his good offices ; giving him his hand to kiss, and enjoining his pre sence at the council twice a-week. But the interval of his suspension had been employed by the com mission in promoting the interests of the Laudian party ; that is, in harassing the doctrinal puritans, rigidly enforcing the ceremonies, and compelling churchwardens to place the tables altar-wise. Their ablest chronicler writes thus : J "by this breathing time, short as it was, the church recovered strength again ; and the disgrace put upon the man did so disanimate and deject the opposite party, that the balance began visibly to turn on the church's side." Such was the spirit in wlrich they Avrote ; and such the position too at which they aimed. The Laudian party were the church. The archbishop, and all others however dignified by rank or station wdio opposed them, were a mere faction — they were puritans. Tbe archbishop was still suspended when pro ceedings were taken against Williams, bishop of Lincoln, and lord keeper of tbe seals. He too was a divine of the old school, appointed to both his dignities by the late king. It has been usual to * Fuller. t Heylyn's Laud, b. iii. 10S, 125. t Ilevlvii, ut supra. 2 c 386 THE HISTORY OF chapter decry him as a weak man, and a mere babbler. : — Had he been so, his extraordinary rise is somewhat a^ig's unaccountable. James was infirm enough no doubt, and too ready to promote those who flattered him. But happily he was hedged about with wise ad visers ; and it exceeds belief that they should have alloAved him to place a Aveak man in trusts of such importance. The general charge against Williams was his puritanism ; the proofs were distributed under two particulars. First, he refused to dis countenance preaching ; and secondly, he opposed the removal of communion tables, so as to place them altar- wise. We think it alike unnecessary to enter on the accusation and the defence; though both are ponderously wrritten in the records of the times. A colourable charge was added, that being a privy councillor he had betrayed the secrets of the state. But the single fact alleged in evidence does not by any means sustain so grave a, charge. On being urged to punish certain puritans within his diocese, he declined to do so; assigning as one reason for his conduct that the king himself had told him that for the future he meant to treat his puritan subjects with more forbearance. Had the lord keeper alone been made acquainted with the king's intentions, still it was no state secret, but rather a matter wlrich, for the king's honour, ought to be divulged. But the king himself had made the promise openly, in answer to an address from the puritans of Oxford ; and secret there was none. The bishop had merely repeated what was suffi ciently notorious. But he was already in disgrace, and had been called upon to resign the seals. He CHAS. I. A. D. 1628. THE EARLY PURITANS. 387 lived for ten years in retirement at his episcopal chapte house at Buckden, and at length in 1637, on a - charge of subornation of perjury, he was fined eight thousand pounds, suspended, and imprisoned during the king's pleasure.* To this sentence, Laud, now archbishop of Canterbury, consented among the rest ; aggravating the crime in a speech, says his biographer, of almost an hour long. He had been, he said, five times on his knees before the king on the bishop's behalf, but at length he felt bound to consent to the heaviest punishment. In the same year a second fine of eight thousand pounds Avas inflicted on the bishop, upon a different charge ; his servants also wrere fined, as sharers in the crime of subornation of perjury. If the charge Avere just and well proved the punishment was slight — far too slight indeed. Two years afterwards, how ever, the house of commons — the long parliament — who, with all their faults, are never charged Avith having overlooked episcopal delinquencies — peti tioned the king to release the bishop of Lincoln from his long imprisonment, and to restore him to his place in the house of peers. And, to complete the melancholy history Avhich needs no further com ment, the king himself sent for him, loaded him Avith kindness, cancelled the judgments filed against him, and translated him to the archbishopric of York. Amongst his letters, which were seized, were some from a Mr. Osbaldeston, master of West minster school, reflecting upon Laud's character. They Avere unbecoming and impertinent, but scarcely even in those days libellous ; and it Avas not proved * Fuller, b. xi. 2 c 2 388 THE HISTORY OF chapter that the bishop had encouraged his correspondent, XI11, or indeed that he knew the letters were in his pos- «ias.i. session Osbaldeston was fined five thousand pounds to the king,* deprived of his school and living, and condemned to stand in the pillory in the Dean's yard, and to have his ears nailed thereto, in the presence of his scholars. At this very time, it is worthy of mention, such had been his success in tuition, and such the esteem in which he was held, that above four score doctors in the university and the three learned faculties, gratefully acknowledged their obligations to him as their preceptor. t Osbal deston escaped by flight, and one of the first acts of the long parliament was to reverse the iniquitous decision. Each of these victims of oppression lived to give signal proofs of loyalty ; the archbishop of York, calmly maintaining his own and his episcopal brethren's rights, became, ere long, almost as much the object of popular hatred as Laud himself: and Osbaldeston resigned his school, J as the parliament became more violent, and sided with his sovereign, rather than consent to hold it from a revolutionary body. The noble revenge of christian men Avas theirs : to return good for evil ; and, in the instance at least ofthe archbishop, to do well and suffer for it, and take it patiently. Davenant, the learned and exemplary bishop of Salisbury, was another victim. For a sermon, preached in the presence of the king at Whitehall, he wras summoned before the privy council, and charged with " at least a high contempt," for having * Laud, b. iv. p. 63. t Fuller, b. xi. p. 403 ; and Heylyn, b. iv. p. (i3. X Heylyn, b. v. p. 27. CHAS. I. A. D. lf>JO. THE EARLY PURITANS. 389 presumed to meddle with some controverted points chapter of doctrine. When he made his appearance, he was permitted to kneel for some time at the board, where Laud and other bishops were present ; and was only requested to rise at the suggestion of a lay nobleman ; and in other respects he was treated Avith gross indignity. Of his reputation in former times, let it suffice to remind the reader, that he had been one of the English representatives at the synod of Dort. In doctrine he was moderate ; he avus even supposed to lean towards the side of tbe arminians, or remonstrants : he strenuously maintained the doctrine of universal redemption. He has left on record a full account of the proceedings which took place in the presence ofthe king, and before the privy council, as well as an outline of the sermon which gave so much offence. He had asserted that eternal life was the free gift of God (from the text, Bomans vi. 23) through Christ, and not procured or pre- merited by man ; and under one of the heads of his sermon he had " considered eternal life," he says, " with respect to the eternal destination thereof, which avc call election." Davenant, as his admir able writings prove, Avas rather a practical than a controversial divine. He Avas not, in this instance, in the least aware that he had transgressed. Charles, it is true, had repeated his father's declaration ngainst controversial sermons and speculative doc trines ; hut Davenant did not admit that he had preached anything forbidden, curious, or unnecessary, or that he had gone beyond the received doctrine of flu-, church established in the seventeenth article. HoAvever he promised obedience for the future, and XIII. CHAS. I. A.D. 1630 390 THE HISTORY OF chapter the affair ended. Harsnett, now archbishop of York, conducted the prosecution ; and Laud was present with other bishops, walking to and fro, but making no remarks on the proceedings. Such was the treatment which one of the mildest of the doctrinal puritans received from Charles and his advisers.* But the treatment of Hall, bishop successively of Exeter and Norwich, was still more unjust. He too had represented the church of England at the synod of Dort ; but his views were moderate, and he had even published a treatise, which he entitled Via media, Avith a view to reconcile, if possible, the dif ferences on both sides. Nor was his devotion to the church of England questioned : since Laud himself requested him to take up his eloquent pen in defence of episcopacy and the liturgy. He did so, and pro duced his well-known treatise on the subject. Five of the ablest of the presbyterian divines, under a feigned title,! united their learning to furnish a reply. That their answer was deemed insufficient by their own party, we gather from the fact that Milton him self came to their assistance. The greatest men, it has been said, as if to compensate for their supe riority, descend, in some one instance in their lives, to the mediocrity of ordinary natures. So Mdton compounded for his greatness in a pamphlet alto gether unworthy of his adversary, of himself, and of his cause. Bishop Hall was then considered an ele gant writer, he is still admired as a pious and eloquent * Fuller iii. xi. p. 366. t Smectymnuus : formed out of the initials of the names of its authors. Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and AVilliam Spurstowe. CHAS. I. A.D. 1630. THE EARLY PURITANS. 391 one. He is at this day the oldest English prose chapter writer who is really popular. Elder writers, Sydney, xnI" Raleigh, Bacon, and even Milton, are consulted rather than read. Their style has become obsolete, and they are perused with something of a painful effort. But bishop Hall's pious meditations are still a household volume, read by all classes, published in all forms. His graphic pictures of scripture life and manners still delight us ; his deep touches of nature still reach the heart ; his solemn tender ad monitions still affect the conscience. He has had a host of imitators, and some independent followers in the same field, of whom the chief are Bobinson of Leicester, and Henry Blunt of Chelsea ; hut he is, after all, unrivalled — one of the greatest of Enghsh writers, one of the best of English prelates. That such a man should have been disgraced is in famy to those who dishonoured him. He hadmodestly refused the see of Gloucester, but was raised to that of Exeter in 1627. He Avas too important a person to be overlooked, and too sincere a protestant not to be suspected. He entered on his diocese, he tells us, amidst prejudice and suspicion : he was averse to the Laudian school in doctrine and in practice, and was disliked and marked. He soon had intelligence that he was surrounded with spies. Those who sat at the helm of the church vieAved him with great jealousy as one Avho fa\roured the puritans ; his con duct Avas watched, and his proceedings exposed to tho worst construction. Some persons of note — ¦ though not of unblemished reputation — assailed him with obloquy, both in the pulpit and directly at the court. The storm ran high. Three several times, 392 THE HISTORY OF chapter says the venerable man, I was upon my knee to his — XI11' majesty to answer for these great criminations ; and chas. i. kig many contests with "some great lords," the A. D. 1630. J . king's advisers, were too tedious to recite. At length he appealed to the archbishop of Canterbury — a dignity Avhich Laud obtained in 1633 upon the death of Abbott, and told him that, rather than con tinue to be thus slandered and thwarted, he would resign his sacred office and " cast up his rochet." Meanwhile his " wary brethren," that large and Avell-compacted body who in troublous times mistake timidity for caution, and idly think to escape danger by concealment, annoyed him with messages of caution and letters of expostulation. Still he was highly popular, and his popularity was of that kind which comes uncourted, — the spontaneous expression of deep respect purchased by a blameless and con sistent life. Beturning home from parliament he was met upon the road and welcomed by hundreds of the citizens of Exeter. But years passed on, and the storm of popular indignation at last began to terrify the king ; and with a view, no doubt, of attaching one so able to assist him, bishop Hall was translated to Norwich. But " he took the Tower," he tells us, " in the way." The prelate who could not be obsequious to Laud, wras not likely to be awed by the frenzy of a London mob, or the madness of the house of commons. He had subscribed arch bishop Williams's protest against the degrading of the bishops by the house of commons, and with the rest of the bench was immediately impeached, and committed for high treason. The Laudian party was by this time destroyed ; but the troubles of CHAS. 1. A D. 1630. THE EARLY PURITANS. 393 this holy man were not ended.* Ejected from his chapter bishopric, exposed to violence and insult, impove- _ rished and in solitude, bishop Hall lived on through the stormy commonwealth till eighty-two, and died in peace ; an object of more veneration in his last years of poverty than in the midst of all his honours and his usefulness. When he could preach no longer, he became as diligent to hear as he had once been to teach. "How often," says the preacher of his funeral sermon, "have we seen him wralking alone, like old Jacob, with a staff to Bethel, the house of God." Five years before his death he lost her who for eight and forty years had been his dear and beloved companion through many a change. He suffered intensely from the stone, and he suf fered much, no doubt, from the sad state of affairs ; — the monarchy dissolved ; the church overthrown. But ho had a well-spring of happiness Avhich even these griefs could not dry. His last tract wasAvritten on the occasion of his wife's death. Its title is ex pressive : — " Songs in the night ; or cheerfulness in affliction, "t The want of able preachers Avas great ; for the policy of the court had for some time been to dis courage preaching as much as possible. To remedy the evil, tho puritans, Avith great activity, established lectureships both in London and through the country. Private gentlemen retained the lecturers as chaplains in their mansions ; the pious nobility had several, according to their rank, who AArere engaged in a * " Some especialities in bis own life," &c. Hall's Hard Measure, &c. 1 Hughes' Memoir of Hall, p. 66 ; Jones's Life aud Times of Bishop Hall. 394 THE HISTORY OF chapter kind of preaching mission upon their estates, and in = the neighbouring toAvns. Laud regarded these pro- a.dAi63o. ceedings with great uneasiness. The lecturers were looked doAvn upon by the lrigh church party with great contempt ; for they were mostly puritans, and evaded strict conformity. They were neither parsons, nor vicars, nor stipendiary curates. " In fact," says Heylyn, " they were neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring." The king, at Laud's suggestion, issued instructions to the bishops, commanding them to suppress the lecture, if preached in the afternoon, turning it into catechising by question and answer; and in other respects to insist upon strict conformity.* Gentlemen beneath the rank of nobility, if not qualified by law, were forbidden to retain their private chaplains. These proceedings gave great uneasiness. Some of the bishops, Hall among the number, refused to interfere where the lecturers were men of known character and piety, and in his diocese the exceptions, he tells us, were few. The fatuity of Charles's councils became daily apparent. A proclamation Avas issued, and rigidly enforced, to prevent the emigration of the puritans to lands where they might enjoy their religion un disturbed : and yet they were sternly forbidden the exercise of their rehgion at home. A company of feoffees was formed for purchasing impropriations. They erected a kind of corporation amongst them selves, consisting of twelve persons, t clergymen, citizens, and lawyers, who soon collected large sums of money, bought up advowsons, and established lec tureships, especially in corporate and market towns. * Heylvn's Laud, book iii. p. 127. t lb. p. 131. CHAS. I. A.D. 1630. THE EARLY PURITANS. 395 Laud regarded the proceedings as dangerous both to chapter church and state. The attorney-general was com- — xm" manded to prosecute. The feoffees were called into the court of exchequer, the feoffment condemned, the impropriations they had bought confiscated, and the further merits of the cause deferred for a final sentence. But other troubles arose, and the matter appears to have been carried no further. For the present, however, the lectureships were suppressed. Equally irritating, and more criminal, was the conduct of the court, urged forward by the Laudian party, in the revival of the Sabbatarian question. At an assize held at Exeter in 1633, an order was made by the judges, one of whom was the chief baron, and the other a puisne baron of the court of exchequer, for the suppression of Sunday revels in the western circuit. The lord mayor exerted his authority in London to prevent the desecration of the Lord's-day. In such times the most insigni ficant occurrences are important. A woman was prohibited by the lord mayor from selling apples on the Sunday in St. Paul's church-yard. Alas ! he could pretend to no jurisdiction there ; and for that offence he was questioned and reproved by Laud, then bishop of London.* The bitterness and scorn with which a devout observance of the Lord's-day was treated is perfectly incredible. The vilest heresy could not be more unsparingly denounced; of all crimes tho greatest might have been to remember tho sabbath-day to keep it holy. In short, in October 1633, the book of sports was reprinted, and issued anew, with a declaration subjoined by the * Ileylyu's Lnud, book iv. p. 8. 396 THE HISTORY OF chapter king, commanding its publication through all parish xm" churches ; and this was done, it declares, " out of a chas. i. pious care f01, the service of God." The sober part A.D. 1633. 1 l of the nation was struck Avith horror ; vast numbers of the clergy refused to read the hateful document, and were silenced.* Many, more deeply to be pitied, did violence to their consciences, and retained their livings. Some complied with the law, and read the book of sports, and then, immediately afterwards, the fourth commandment ; calling upon the people to compare the two and judge accordingly. An act of tyranny irritates and inflames thousands more than it oppresses. The book of sports was degrading and oppressive to the clergy, who were obhged to read it ; but to the laity, who were only compelled to listen, it was merely insulting and offensive. It proclaimed a licence to sin, but they were not bound to make use of it ; it perverted God's word, but it could not make them accept the perverted interpre tation. But the indignation of the English people was not the less, upon that account ; nor ought it to have been less. The book of sports was an out rage upon the feelings of the nation, and the parlia ment, when at last a parliament was called, expressed their opinion of it significantly. By their command it was burnt ten years afterwards, in May, 1643, by the common hangman in Cheapside, and the sheriffs were ordered to demand that every copy in private hands should be given up to them. The affairs of Scotland contributed to increase the anxiety of the puritans at home. James had at tempted to introduce episcopacy, and Charles was * luller, book xi. anno 1634. THE EARLY PURITANS. 397 now determined, at whatever hazard, to carry the chapter project into effect. The odium of these proceedings XIIL fell chiefly upon Laud, the king's chief adviser. The CHAS I- indignation of the Scottish nation was inconceivable; it contained in fact the germ of a revolution, and of a dreadful civil war. Their animosity was especially roused when they discovered, not only that the in stitutions of Knox and oftheir presbyterian discipline were to be superseded on the mere fiat of the sove reign,— to whom in spiritual things a presbyterian church assigns but a subordinate authority; but further, that while the liturgy to be imposed upon them varied in several material points from that of the church of England, every alteration betrayed a tendency to popery. Other grievances were added. The Scotch nobility complained of the pride and assumption of the Scotch bishops. The meanest of the people were indignant that their church, which claimed to be as free and independent as any church in Christendom, — a sister, not a daughter of the English church, — should be compelled to submit to the dictation of an English bishop. When at length the new service-book was introduced at Edinburgh on the 23rd July, 1637, in the presence of the privy council, the two archbishops of Scotland, several bishops, and the city magistrates, a tumult broke out in the church, which was in effect the opening of a revolution. At first it seemed to be a mere outrage of the mob : the king issued an angry pro clamation ascribing the uproar to " the scum of the city ;"* but a few days after, the whole nation took up the cause, and the enthusiastic cry was heard : — * " The kind's declaration concerning the tumult in Scotland," p. 17- 398 THE HISTORY OF chapter « Qod defend aU those who w]11 defend Qod>g cauge. and God confound the service-book and all the niain- a.d.1638. tainers of it." The bishops barely escaped by flight or by concealment. Then followed, in quick and disastrous succession, the solemn covenant; the abolition of episcopacy in Scotland, with the king's extorted consent ; and soon afterwards, and as the consequence of this reaction, the ruin of the English church, and the entire subversion of epis copacy. The covenant was in substance the same Avhich had been already twice subscribed. It was now sworn to, and subscribed once more with an enthu siasm equal to the danger which threatened the church of Scotland. By the common people it was regarded as a sacred oracle ; and was taken by all wdio wished to have it thought they were not in different to the protestant faith, and to the hberties of Scotland. They bound themselves by this solemn oath, to defend the ancient doctrine and discipline of the kirk, under all the penalties Avhich might befall transgressors in this life and in the life to come ; and under the same awful sanctions, they swore, "by the great name of God," to resist all those " errors and corruptions (namely the late inno vations brought into the kirk) to the utmost of their power, all the days of their lives." The oath was illegal, since the chief magistrate forbad and de nounced it ; but indeed the whole proceeding defied the ordinary forms and usages of civil government.* When, five years afterwards, the parhament, noAV in arms against the king, sought assistance from the * Neal ii. p. 260. CHAS. I. A.D. 1638. THE EARLY PURITANS. 399 Scotch, the latter made it the condition of their co- chapter operation, that the solemn league and covenant, as it was then called, should be embraced in England. To this dictation the parliament submitted, — but not the people of England. And hence resulted the pertinacious though futile endeavour to establish a presbyterian church, when our own episcopacy was overthrown. Charles had not reigned four years when three successive parliaments had been summoned and dis missed. Frequent as they were, he met them only because he wanted money, and he dissolved them because instead of grants and taxes they stunned him with the repetition oftheir grievances. He tried | by various experiments to crush their spirit : be seized their members ; he forbad them, upon several occasions, to proceed with their debates ; he tam pered with the speaker ; and the clerks at the table were afraid to read the resolutions put into their | hands by the obnoxious members. But the resolute spirit grew in strength, and at length expressed itself in the memorable petition of right. It con sists of eleven articles. It declares, that by the con stitution of England no taxes may be levied without the consent of parliament ; no oaths administered by commissioners appointed by the king; no punish ments inflicted except by the courts of justice; no soldiers or mariners quartered on the people without their consent : martial laAv Avithin the kingdom, by which some of his majesty's subjects are declared to have been put to death, is denounced : the commis sions issued by the king Avithout the consent of par liament for the trial, and even the capital punish ment, of his subjects, are declared to be AvhoUy and 400 TOE HISTORY OF chapter directly contrary to the laws and statutes of the XI11' realm. The petition of right was nothing else than chas. i. a recital of the substance of six ancient statutes of A D. 1628. Edward i. and Edward in., and of the Magna Charta. The condition of England must have been deplorable when, in the seventeenth century, the parliament found it necessary to bind the sovereign to these elementary principles of simple justice. The house of lords readily passed the bill, but, with incredible infatuation, Charles, instead of pronouncing the few barbarous words of Norman French which would have converted the bill into a law, thought fit to declare his royal pleasure, " that right be done according to law, and the statutes be put in due execution." The commons remonstrated ; the king sent to tell them " that he would not alter his answer," and that he should dissolve them within a week. They took a curious revenge. Dr. Manwaring had preached a sermon in which he had affirmed the absolute and divine right ofthe sovereign in all things. The king had lately imposed a loan without the con sent of parliament : this Manwaring maintained "the subjects ought to pay, under pain of damnation, and obey the king's will in all things," and by the king's special command the sermon had been printed. He was condemned by the house of lords to fine and imprisonment and to beg their pardon. Another message follows from the king: another remon strance from the house of commons. The king now sends once more a threatening message commanding them instantly to adjourn ; they do so in much dis turbance. The next day the king relents ; and both houses meet again : and they agree to ask, or rather to demand, the royal sanction, in legal form, for the A.D. 1628. THE EARLY PURITANS. 401 bill of rights from their humbled master. The king chapter uttered the talismanic words, Soit droit fait comme xni" il est desird; "which satisfied the commons," says chas. i. one of themselves, " and all good men ; and so that excellent law passed." But the strongest passions of the people were deeply stirred. Within a few days Dr. Lambe, a divine of the court party, was beaten to death in the streets of London ; and in a few weeks the duke of Buckingham, Charles's prime minister, was assassinated at Portsmouth. Fear and indignation and revenge were everywhere. But the king took no warning. In October he prorogued the parliament, with the same contempt of the good opinion of his subjects which he had all along exhi bited. Dr. Manwaring was then pardoned and pre ferred to a good living. Montagu, the enemy of the puritans, was made a bishop. The soldiers were billeted through the country, committing great insolencies. Mr. Vassal!, a merchant of London, was brought before the exchequer court for not paying tonnage and poundage, a tax imposed without the consent of parliament. He pleaded Magna Charta and the hill of rights ; but the barons refused to listen to his counsel, gave judgment against him, and impri soned him. Chambers and Bolls, two other mer chants, were committed for the same offence, — for not paying tonnage and poundage. Chambers had added to his crime by " certain insolent AArords spoken before the privy council, namely, that the merchants were screwed up in England more than they were in Turkey." Bolls was a member of parliament. But their goods were seized to tAvice the value of the assessment. The parliament met once 2 D 402 THE HISTORY OF chapter more in January 1629. The king was now anxious to xin' have their consent to the obnoxious impost ; but be- chas. i., fore they wrould enter upon the question of tonnasre A.D. 1629. J . . . ° and poundage, the state of religion claimed their care. They took into consideration the increase of arminians and papists since their last session, and Pym moved that the house should take a solemn covenant to maintain their religion and rights. They proceeded to other matters, especially the ceremonies introduced by Cosin and other Lau dian divines. Mr. Oliver Cromwell informed them of the countenancing of popery by the bishop of Winchester. * The attorney-general, being asked some questions as to the increase of popery, de clined to answer, and said that he was forbidden by the king. The booksellers petitioned the house, that books against popery were suppressed, and those in favour of popery were licensed. A hot debate ensued upon the seizing of Mr. Bolls' goods, as a breach of privilege. The speaker, when called upon to put the question, refused: he said, "he durst not, for the king had commanded the con trary," and the house adjourned in confusion. The next day the subject was resumed, and the speaker, by the king's command, abruptly adjourned the house. The members rushed to the table and held him in his chair ; others locked the door and laid the keys composedly upon the table. The king sent down the usher of the house of lords with a mes sage ; but in vain he thundered at the door. The commons were debating their last remonstrance. It was, " that whosoever should bring in innovation * Whitelocke. A.D. 1630-1640. THE EARLY PURITANS. 403 of religion, popery or arminianism, or should advise chapter the taking of tonnage and poundage not granted by XI11' parliament, or should pay the same, should be ac- CHAS- T counted enemies ofthe kingdom." The king went down to the house of lords a few days after ; and without sending for the commons dissolved the parlia ment. But he saw none of the dangers Avhich already threatened his crown. He affected to chat pleasantly with the lords : it was, he said, merely the sedi tious carriage of some vipers of the lower house that compelled him to dissolve them. From this time England was ruled for nearly twelve years without a parliament. Posterity has divided the infamy and the dis grace of this melancholy interval between Laud and Strafford in nearly equal proportions. But to Laud, as a churchman, the spiritual affairs of the nation were entrusted ; and these interest us when secular politics have long been forgotten. Thus Laud and Charles are remembered as evil doers by thousands, to whom the greater, be cause systematic and unprincipled, delinquencies of Strafford are unknown. Laud had always been consistent : his education, his principles, and his cast of mind were arbitrary. Strafford was brought up in another school : he was a man of birth, a politician, and in former years a patriot. But Laud was in London, and Strafford passed most of his time in Ireland ; so that the counsels of the latter, which were conveyed in his correspondence, were unob served, except by a feAV leading politicians. It would merely fatigue the reader to rehearse the indignities and barbarous punishments inflicted on 2 d 2 404 THE HISTORY OF chapter the puritans during the wretched years of their xm" misgovernment : and these are passages in our chas. i. history which every one has read. The popular re- i63o-ii64o. collection of the star chamber and the court of high commission goes back indeed no farther than the reign of Charles I. These names are odious to us from our childhood, chiefly because Ave know them in connection wdth Prynn, Leighton, Bastwick, and others, and their inhuman punishment in Palace- yard. Prynn, a barrister of Lincoln's inn, had written a treatise, called Histrio-mastix, against plays and players ; in which he maintained that women who acted on the stage were for the most part infamous. Female actors were unknown upon the Greek and Boman theatre. It was a new abomination, and excited amongst the puritans deep disgust. Prynn's book had been licensed by archbishop Abbott's chaplain. Six weeks after wards the queen acted a part in a pastoral in Somer set-house ; and the next day the Laudian prelates laid Prynn's book before the king, insinuating that it must have been written against the queen. Laud's chaplain, Dr. Heylyn, was set to peruse the book and collect the scandalous passages. These Laud himself, now archbishop, carried (and, it was not to be forgotten, on a Sunday morning,) to the attorney-general, instructing him to prosecute the author vigorously. In short Prynn, (and as all men of all parties said,) by Laud's influence, was sen tenced in the star chamber to be imprisoned during his life ; expelled from Lincoln's inn ; disabled from practising the law ; degraded in the university from his degree ; set in the pillory and have his ears cut THE EARLY PURITANS. 405 off; and his book to be burnt by the common hang- chapter man. All which was done with rigorous severity. ^_ Leighton and Bastwick were physicians : they were CHAS- ! charged Avith libelling the bishops. Leighton had jieso-iMo. certainly been scurrilous ; and Bastwick, intending, as he said in his defence, nothing against our bishops, had made but little distinction between their mis deeds and those of the Bomish pontiffs : but his work was substantially a defence of the king's prero gative against the insolent demands of Borne. Both of them were condemned in the star chamber to stand in the pillory and have their ears cut off and their books burnt. In addition, Bastwick was fined a thousand pounds and imprisoned till recan tation. Leighton's nose was slit ; he was burnt in the forehead ; and then he too was imprisoned. Such was the treatment of the leaders of the party ; its inferior members could not fail to see that its ex termination and nothing less could satisfy the court. They must bend before the storm, or resist it at their peril. The amount of suffering inflicted on pious members and clergymen of the church beneath Laud's tyranny was great ; — greater far, Ave suspect, from the few incidental notices which have been handed doAvn to us, than is generally believed. We are speaking not of those violent acts of legal out rage which claim a place in history, but of the petty tyrannies which vex and mortify in private life ; of the secret and malicious influence Avhich thwarts exertion and baffles every prospect of success ; which marks out its victim for the operation of the slow and secret poison under which hopes Avither and re putation is destroyed. Had Laud succeeded, and 406 THE HISTORY OF chapter the court party, the doctrinal puritans would un- — : — : — doubtedly have been expelled the church ; for no chas. i. doctrinai pUritan could have remained in it with a 1630-1610. safe conscience to practise Laud's injunctions, and to read the book of sports. And if from these he had proceeded to bind the doctrinal peculiarities of his school upon their necks, the doctrinal puritans must one and all have instantly been silent. No period of English history reflects more honour upon the English people than these ten dark years when Laud and Strafford governed. Its temper, under the most grievous injuries and the most pro voking insults, was calm and firm and tranquil. It seemed as if no sense of wrong could exasperate, no tyranny provoke it to resistance. Its patience was admirable. Scotland drew the sword in defence of her church and constitution, but England was submissive still. Hampden resisted ship-money, but only by legal means. The business was carried before the courts at Westminster, and he submitted to the decision of the judges. Charles, and his council, still more infatuated than he, believed that the work was done; they thought that England was at last subdued. Great num bers of the puritans fled; and year by year the swamps of Holland and the forests of North America received their contributions. More would have gone had not the court, happily for freedom and the protestant cause, forbidden them and placed an embargo on their ships. Its leaders might other wise have disappeared, and then the people would have been crushed in detail. In this long struggle it should be observed, that on the side of the nation CHAS. I. A.D. THE EARLY PURITANS. 407 not one outrage of importance took place : there /chapter was no rebellion, nor so much as an irregular resist- L ance to the execution of the most arbitrary laws. And yet no one constitutional principle was aban-* lrao-iim doned, no protestant truth was lost. Never was England more truly noble than during the ten years which closed with sixteen hundred and forty. The puritans are entitled to the highest praise, for it was they who restrained and yet animated the people ; and amongst them the doctrinal puritans are perhaps entitled to our highest reverence. Amidst formalists they were spiritual. In times of faction they were peaceable. In an age of violence they were calm and moderate. They scrupled not to wear the surplice, to kneel at the eucharist, or to make the sign of the cross in baptism. Chanting or singing of hymns was alike welcome to them, provided the congregation " made melody in their hearts unto the Lord." They had no suspicions of episcopacy as a relic of antichrist, for not a few of them adorned the episcopal office : they were devout men ; and prayers read from a liturgy, or uttered from the fulness of the heart in unpremeditated words, were prayers to them ; for they were " the pure in heart, to whom all things are pure." They taught the doctrines of the reformation, and in their OAvn lives they revived the spirit of the re formers. Their historical fate is that which gene raUy befalls good men whose lot is cast amongst the violent and factious. They rushed into no extremes ; they set up no popular cry ; they headed no party, and they followed none. When the king wras under an evil influence, they remonstrated; when Laud 408 THE HISTORY OF chapter played the tyrant, they withstood him to the face. xm' — When the house of commons in its turn entered CHa d L uPon its career of violence, they again protested, i63o-i64o. yrere insulted, imprisoned, and ruined. The church itself was overthrown, and the doctrinal puritans disappeared with it. The evangelical principles of the reformation had begun to decline, under Whitgift and Bancroft, into a dry and sapless or thodoxy. Under Abbott, Hall, and Carlton, and a great number of the clergy like-minded with them selves, the true spirit of the reformation was revived ; sound doctrines were taught ; the christian virtues inculcated; and the religion of the bible practised, without enthusiasm and without super stition. These men were the evangelists of their age. But the storm thickened, and the rising tide beat every hour more angrily, and in the darkness and wild confusion that ensued they disappear from sight. They were the true successors of the refor mation. If Laud had attended to their warnings they would have saved the church ; had the parha ment taken heed to the example of their moderation they would have saved the monarchy. They seem to have been raised up, like the prophets of old, to foretell impending ruin, and to leave both factions without excuse. The sin of neglecting such coun sellors was great, and the retribution that followed was appalling lS- THE EARLY PURITANS. 409 CHAPTEB XIV. a.d. 1640—1642. To relate at large the disastrous events which now chapter began to crowd upon each other, belongs to secular XIV- historians, and to those who write the history of the chas. i. church of England. Our own less frequented path lies apart, though not far remote, from either. The puritans, it is true, composed neither the nation nor the church ; but they were a body of men Avhose varying fortunes, whose triumphs and defeats, in fluenced both church and state, and from time to time left traces upon them which are yet indelible. We have arrived at the period at which the history of the early puritans is drawing to a close, and another class, the democratic puritans, appear in sight. They were strange men ; whose progress can be likened only to a tornado Avhich bursts on some devoted land upon a sudden, covers it Avith desola tion, and hurries away. In times of revolution it is only the violent who are heard. The voice must be loud and shrill that SAvells above the roaring of the tempest. We must present the reader with a rapid sketch of the events by which they were lifted into power. XIV. CHAS. I. A. D. 1640. 410 THE HISTORY OF chapter The expedients ofthe king were at last exhausted, the patience and firmness of the nation had worn him out. He could no longer govern without a parliament. With the utmost reluctance a par liament was summoned in April, 1640, and with it, as usual, a convocation. Probably Laud and the king's advisers hoped to check the one of these assemblies by the influence of the other. Their gains in convocation might overbalance the defeats they might possibly encounter in the house of com mons. In convocation Laud would be supreme. Scotland was in open war. Charles had just dis covered that she had sought the assistance of the French king ; and the Scotch army was preparing to march into England, from sheer bravado, unless it were with the hope of creating a diversion against the king amongst his English subjects. Here was enough to inflame the temper of an English par liament, and lead them to forget their own griev ances in resentment against this insult to the nation. Charles thought so; and his council were in high spirits. They expected that the Scotch war would absorb all the passion of the house of com mons ; and had their plans been laid with skill and caution it is probable that their success, and the over throw of the English constitution, might have been complete. But the writs were no sooner issued than the court, to shew that it was not at all afraid, and that parliament was convened by his majesty's mere grace and inclination, not from any motive of neces sity, made it a point of honour to proceed with its most unpopular measures. Ship money was levied wdth the same severity, and the same rigour was CHAS. I. A.D. 1610. THE EARLY PURITANS. 411 used in the ecclesiastical courts.* When the house chapter of commons met, they were told from the throne, in XTV' express terms, that the king did not want their advice, but that he expected a supply for the vindi cation of his honour. If they wTould oblige him in this matter he would give them time enough after wards to represent their grievances, and he would attend to their reasonable requests. The house of commons was chiefly composed of country gentlemen. More sober and dispassionate men could not have been chosen : never was a parliament known with fewer members who brought ill purposes with them.f For nearly twelve years there had now been no par liament, and very few of the members were even acquainted with the usages of a house of commons. They returned to their own chamber and chose a speaker. They met again, and sat some time in silence, and gazed upon each other, " looking who should begin." At length Mr. Pym rose, and in a speech of great length introduced the subject of the national grievances, enumerating all the projects which had been set on foot during the previous years of arbitrary government. His eloquence did not betray him into passion : he spoke with calmness, and ofthe king himself he spoke with the most pro found reverence. An earnest debate followed, in the course of which a member of little note inveighed against ship money as an abomination; but such was the calmness and temper ofthe house, that there was a general call that he should ask pardon at the bar, a penance which he narroAvly escaped. All their debates and their whole behaviour, says lord Clarendon, wrho Avas one of them, were managed • Clarendon, vol. i. b. ii. p. 131. t lb. p. 139. 412 THE HISTORY OF chapter with wonderful order and sobriety. But the king was XIY- impatient, and he prevailed Avith the lords to demand chas. i. a conference with the lower house, and advise them to vote the supplies first, and proceed upon the grievances afterwards. The commons resented this Avith indignation : it Avas a breach of privilege to interfere with their right of imposing taxes on the nation. The lords apologized, but the commons were uoav thoroughly alarmed and irritated. The king, a few days after\Arards, perceiving his mistake, sent a message in writing to the commons : he proposed that they should grant him the supplies he needed on condition that he abandoned his claim to ship money for the future. But this gave no satisfaction : the debates were resumed, though still with mode ration ; not one offensive, not one angry word Avas spoken. A country gentleman, but little known, so far forgot himself as to say, that since the money was wanted for a bishops' war, the bishops ought to pay for it : but the remark fell in silent contempt in the house ; no reply was made or notice taken of it. It was recalled to mind long afterwards, by some who heard it, as the first unheeded notice of an approaching storm. Hampden, the most popu lar man in the house of commons, — the same who had defended the suit in his own name upon the illegality of ship money, — at length proposed that the question should be put whether the house would consent to the proposition made by the king in his message. Mr. Hyde moved an amendment, that the question should be put, in the first instance, simply whether a supply should be granted. If this were affirmed, another question might follow, he said, as to the manner and amount of the proposed A.D. 1640. THE EARLY PURITANS. 413 taxation ; and if the first were lost, the effect would chapter be the same as if Mr. Hampden's motion were XIY' carried. Hampden acted, as it seems, Avith more chas.i. patriotism and more integrity than Hyde. To refuse any supply whatever, was to force the house into direct collision with the king : to decline the propo sition made by the king, as it was contained in his message, was neither unreasonable or uncourteous ; the house might still meet his wishes in some other way. But it is needless to discuss a point on Avhich the precipitation of the king foreclosed discussion. The debate grew warm, and the house adjourned ; but the next morning the king dissolved the parlia ment. The whole nation was oppressed with gloom ; and the next day Charles himself was penitent. He would even have recalled the parliament by a pro clamation, and his courtiers had long told him that proclamations had the force of law, but his legal advisers dissuaded the experiment. And now every thing fell into a frightful chaos. The queen had issued in her own name proclamations inviting the Boman catholics of the north of England to contribute generously, by loan or gift, or otherwise, in aid of the war against Scotland. The illegality of such a proceeding needs no remark : its Aveakness and infatuation are astonishing. It Avas a Avar then of popery against the covenant ; of papists against the Presbyterian church ! Every English puritan made the cause of Scotland secretly his OAvn. The rabble now broke loose. Laud was furiously as sailed by night at Lambeth, and fortified his palace. A vast crowd rushed into St. Paul's, where the court of high commission sat, and broke up in a few minutes that engine of despotism Avhich had been 411 THE HISTORY OF chapter long so formidable. The Scotch meanwhile were xn' advancing into England ; they were met by the aCdAi64o king's forces at NeAvburn : but the royal troops were heartless in the cause, and fled confounded Avhen a few shots wrere fired. The Scotch pressed on to Newcastle, and for the present the king remained at York. According to the usual practice of the English constitution, the writ which dissolves parhament closes the convocation likewise. But the parlia ment had only sat a month when it was hastily dis missed, and the king and Laud were as anxious to retain the convocation as to get rid of the house of commons ; for the former was far more pliant than the latter was, even supposed to be, intractable. In an evil hour the law advisers of the crown were consulted, whether the convocation necessarily ex pired with the parliament, or whether its session might still be continued. Unhappily they met with a single precedent in the reign of Elizabeth, and ad vised the king that the convocation might still, with his permission, continue their deliberations and proceed with fresh business. Thus advised he issued a new writ, and the convocation resumed under the title of a synod. It had already given sufficient proof of its entire devotion to the king. It had imposed upon itself and upon the whole body of the clergy, whom it was supposed to represent, six subsidies of four shillings in the pound for the next six years ; to be collected half-yearly. That is, the clergy of all England were laid under a con tribution of twenty per cent, for six years to come, in order to support the court in its designs against liberty and the puritans at home, and against the THE EARLY PURITANS. 415 presbyterian kirk in Scotland ; or, as the convoca- chapter tion more formally expressed it, " for the support xrv- of his majesty's royal estate, and the effectual fur- chas.i. therance of his most royal and extraordinary designs abroad."* Had money then been all that Charles required, the convocation might have been dissolved. But the design of the court was now by one master stroke to annihilate the puritans. What years of oppression and of policy had failed in, the votes of a convocation could at once accomplish. The church puritans, it is evident, were not represented in the synod. The unanimity of the convocation was perfect : its discussions seldom rose even to the dignity of debate ; for all its members Avere of one mind. When their labours closed they fondly hoped that they had raised an imperishable monu ment ; and they exulted in the reflection, that in its construction no jarring sound, no axe or ham mer, had been heard. t No convocation ever dis played more harmony, it is true ; but the absence of the puritans is suspicious, and suggests a doubt as to the means by which this unanimity was ac complished. Either the convocation did not fairly represent the church, or the church had purged herself of all the puritans. In the lower house not one of them was heard ; in the upper, or bishops' chamber, Hall, Carlton and Davenant sat of course, but only to hear themselves reviled. Turner, a prebendary of St. Paul's, in his opening sermon, from the text, " Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves," took occasion to assert that some bishops, (in order, as he said, "to gain to * Heylyn's Laud, part ii. p. 112. f Heylyn 's Laud, b. iv. p. 123. A. D. 1640. 416 THE HISTORY OF chapter themselves the popular plause of meekness and mild- XIV- ness,") " cast on other bishops the unjust imputa- • tion of rigour and tyranny; and therefore he advised them withal, with equal strictness to urge a univer sal conformity." The puritan bishops proved their meekness by the silence with which they bore the insult. Two canons were passed against popery and socinianism. But a third extended the penalties enforced against popish recusants (penalties which could only be justified, if justified at all, by the most extreme necessity) to all anabaptists, brown ists, sectaries, or other nonconformists. And a fourth extended the canon against socinianism and heretical books, to the authors, printers or pub lishers, of any book or pamphlet against the disci pline of the church of England. The insolence of the papists was such that the convocation found it impossible to pass it by unnoticed. They performed their worship with the utmost pomp at Somerset- house, where the queen held her court ; and Jesuits crowded the Strand in their official costume, when by the laws of England all Jesuits were liable to the halter. They had even compelled the queen herself to walk in penance to Tyburn greatly to the king's displeasure,* and thus shevra the ex tent of their triumph in the person of their pro tectress and their slave. But it was evident that through the sides of popery and socinianism the convocation struck in fact at sectaries and puri tans ; and the canons served no other purpose than * Charles complains bitterly ofthe insult in one of his Jetters found afterwards upon the field at Naseby ; but this was not suspected to be his feeling at the time. (See Naseby papers. Letter to the king of France, July 12, 1624.) CHAS. I. 4..D. 1640. THE EARLY PURITANS. 417 to increase the universal irritation. Six articles (chapter were also passed, which asserted in unqualified terms the divine right of kings and the doctrine of passive obedience. In seeming anticipation of a doubt which was soon to perplex so many wise and loyal hearts, the convocation declared that for subjects to bear arms against the king either offensive or defen sive, upon any pretence whatever, was to resist the powers ordained of God; for the order of kings, they say, is of divine right ; being the ordinance of God himself, founded on the laws of nature and revelation.* This doctrine the clergy were com manded to teach publicly once in each quarter of the year; and if they maintained any contrary position they were to be excommunicated and de prived. In quiet times these propositions might have passed unnoticed. The duty of obedience to civil rulers is unquestionable ; the exact point at which disobedience becomes right, no casuistry will ever determine. In general terms it may be stated thus : it is the point at which the subject's duty to God is plainly and unequivocally in opposition to the com mands of the civil ruler. Under all conceivable circumstances it is right to obey God rather than man. Peremptory decisions like these of the synod of 1640, raise more doubts than they set at rest. In the ferment which then existed the canon could only be mischievous. It exasperated the one party ; the other, the king's adherents, needed no such helps to stimulate their loyalty. But it is we con ceive impossible, at this distance of time, to measure * Canon i. convocation, "published June 30, 1610. 2 E 418 THE HISTORY OF chapter the fuU infatuation of this synod. The schoolboy XIY" story of the senate calmly seated in the capitol chas. i. whiie the Gauls thundered at the gates of Borne, A.D. 1640. loses its romance when we go back in thought two hundred years, and place ourselves in Palace- yard. Here is the general rendezvous : here they tell how Prynne and Bastwick suffered, how they endured, and how they spoke. The Scotch are fighting for their religion, and England is in sus pense ; for her last hope, her parliament, is impe riously dismissed. The nation is breaking loose; custom is not venerable, and law itself is questioned and despised. The streets are full of tumult, and every face is anxious. Yet here, in Westminster abbey, the convocation are assembled. They are binding the strong man in fetters of parchment and waste paper. The court of high commission and the star chamber, the gate-house prison and the pillory, the branding irons and the sheers, have failed ; but the decrees of a clerical junto, upon the duty of the subject and the rights of kings, will no doubt reduce turbulence to submission, and give repose to an agitated land ! The convocation imposed an oath which has ever since occupied a foremost place among puritan griev ances. It is known as the et-cetera oath ; and the clause which gave so much offence was this : " Nor will I ever give my consent to alter the government of this church by archbishops, deans, and archdea cons, et-cetera, as it stands now established, and as by right it now ought to stand." But how much did this et-cetera comprehend ? and to what did it refer ? — to the question of church government by CHAS. I. A. D. 1640. THE EARLY PURITANS. 419 archbishops and bishops merely ? or to tables placed chapter altar-wise, and bowings to the east ? How would it . XIY" . be construed by the star chamber and by the court of high commission ? and how ought it to be con strued in the bosom of every man of conscience and integrity ? These were no trifling questions. They were anxiously discussed in every parish in England, and in every parsonage. For " all such as were then in any ecclesiastical dignity," all clergymen having benefice or cure of souls, were called upon to take the oath ; and the penalty was, suspension for the first refusal, sequestration for the second, and deprivation for the third ; a month's deliberation being granted between each refusal.* The oath was also imposed upon all the members of either university, and upon candidates for holy orders. Of the clergy many absolutely refused to take it. The London clergy, amongst whom occur the names of Goodwin and Calamy, petitioned the privy council for relief. Many denied that the convoca tion, or synod, was a lawful assembly, and spurned it with contempt. Bishop Hall so explained it in his diocese, as he tells us,f (and an et-cetera seems to afford great latitude in the construction of an oath, whether in contracting or expanding it,) as to make it sit lightly on the conscience. But many of the bishops compelled the clergy to take it on their knees ; J a ceremony never required in England but in the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. San derson, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, wrrote to Laud that multitudes of the clergy utterly refused to take * Heylin's Laud, book iv. p. 141. t Jones's Life of Hall, p. Ifi. J Fuller xi. p. 171- 2 E 2 420 THE HISTORY OF chapter the oath, or were brought to submit to it with the — utmost reluctance; and that these were not men chas. i. 0£ ^e preciser gor-t, but such as wdllingly conformed; and that, in short, the peace of the church was in the greatest danger. Laud appears to have been, as usual, obstinate and inflexible ; but happily the king was at York and he at Lambeth ; and milder counsels prevailed. A letter was addressed in the king's name, by the secretary of state, to the arch bishop, on the 30th of September, requiring him to dispense with the oath entirely till another convo cation. Bishop Hall declares that he never tendered the oath to any one minister of his diocese, though he had many expostulatory letters from the arch bishop,* and sundry cautions from his wary brethren. He had explained it for the satisfaction of others who might be called to submit to it, rather than for his own clergy. But the terrible crisis had arrived. The king's necessities, the Scotch invasion, the people's discon tent, the condition of Ireland, where the papists were in open rebellion, the distractions of his council, and now at last their fears, compelled him once more to have recourse to a parliament ; and on the 3rd of November, 1640, the long parliament assembled. We have the assurance of then living witnesses that they were men of pure intentions and of the highest character. Without one exception, or, as others say, with only one, they were members of the church of England : they were not political adventurers, but gentlemen of wealth : it was said their property was such they could have bought up the house of * Fuller xi. p. 171. THE EARLY PURITANS. 421 Lords.* Having chosen a speaker, they proceeded chapter to business on Saturday the 7th. One subject occu- XIY- pied their attention, namely, the " abuses in reli- CHAS- L gion," whieh involved the violation of the laws and liberties of England. " We well know," said one speaker,f "what disturbance has been brought upon the church for petty trifles. How the whole church, the whole kingdom, hath been troubled where to place a metaphor, an altar. We have seen ministers, their wives, children, and families, undone ; against laAv, against conscience, against all bowels of com passion, about not dancing upon Sundays. What do these sort of men think Avill become of them selves, when the master of the house shall come and find them thus beating their fellow-servants ? They have so brought it to pass, that, under the name of puritans, all our religion is branded ; and, under a few hard words against Jesuits, all popery is counte nanced. Whosoever squares his actions by any rule either divine or human, he is a puritan. He that will not do whatsoever other men would have him do, he is a puritan. Whosoever would be governed by the king's laws, he is a puritan. Their great work, their masterpiece, now is, to make all those of this religion to be the suspected party of the king dom. He hath no heart, no head, no soul, that is not moved in his Avhole man to look upon the dis tresses, the miseries ofthe commonwealth." Other names which occupy a place in history, Grimstone, * Clarendon writing on one side, and Baxter on the other, make these statements. Rapin speaks of them as bent on mischief from the first ; but he argues from their conduct afterwards, and not from the facts ofthe case. t Sir B. Rudyard. 422 THE HISTORY OF chapter /Pym and Bagshawe, followed in the same strain.* XIY- It was evident that the house of commons had taken chas. i. the work of reformation into its own hands. There A.D. 1640. . „ . , , . was a consciousness ot power m its tone and man ner, such as it had never in former times displayed. On Monday the house sat all day.f From all the counties of England, and from " clivers others who held themselves oppressed," petitions were poured in, complaining oftheir grievances ; in the fore front of which stood the cruel sentences inflicted by the star chamber, the privy council, and the high com mission court; and the storm this day muttered against the lieutenant of Ireland, lord Strafford, in a few indistinct charges of misconduct. On Tues day the petitions were discussed ; and the sentences of Bastwick, Prynne, and Burton, were reversed. On Wednesday, with closed doors, the house reviewed at length the misconduct ofthe king's ministers; and lord Strafford was sequestered from parliament, committed to prison, and charged with high treason. On Thursday the proceedings of the late convo cation came beneath review : the indignation of the house overflowed : Bagshawe, an eminent lawyer, declared that the bishops and clergy who had taken part in the synod were guilty of a premunire. Lord Digby treated it with contempt : "It was a new synod patched out of an old conventicle." He de claimed with vehemence " against the bottomless perjury of an et-cetera oath." "An oath," he ex claimed, " to be taken in the literal sense ; whereof * Speeches and passages of this great and happy parliament. London. 1641. t An extraordinary occurrence in those days, when parliament generally met at eight in the morning, and rose at noon. A.D. 1640. THE EARLY PURITANS. 423 no two of the makers thereof, that I have heard of, chapter would ever agree in the understanding of ! " The XIV- subject was adjourned, and a committee was ap- chas. i. pointed to collect materials to assist the house in its decision. Yet the commons were at this moment even chivalrous in their loyalty ; and Pym, amidst the applauses of the house, more than once declared that it was their wish that the king of England should be the happiest and the richest of the sove reigns of Christendom. On Friday the house of commons voted him a grant of one hundred thousand pounds for his immediate necessities. The citizens of London were requested to lend this sum at once, that the king might suffer no inconvenience while the act was passing through the usual stages. The citizens sent in a few days to enquire on wbat security the money was to be advanced ; and more than a hundred members rose, each offering his own personal security for a thousand pounds. On the same day on which the grant was made it was noticed that the Boman catholic peers came not to the house of lords : they dreaded the coming storm, and from this time sent their proxies. " Pro jectors," too, unprincipled contractors, ansAvering toj the publicans amongst the jews, were expelled the: house of commons.* The long parliament had now sat} for a single Aveek ; and the whole machinery of des potism was broken up, and its most poAverful agents trembled for their lives. If the patriots of that asn sembly could have possessed the knowledge which posterity has derived, chiefly from their disasters,1. * (D'Ewes's) Diurnall occurrences of both houses in this great and happy parliament. London. 1641. 424 THE HISTORY OF chapter i they would have felt that their own rapid and un- XIY' . hindered triumphs were more alarming to the state chas. i. ^an the outrages of Laud and Strafford. The A. D.1640J ° madness of the people is more to be dreaded than the insolence of tyrants : it leads invariably to a wild anarchy more intolerable than systematic tyranny, and then again to a despotism more unre lenting than that which existed before the strife began. They did not perceive that the constitution had lost its equipoise. The king was, even now, scarcely a third estate ; and the danger, even at this early period, was, not that arbitrary power should be re-established in the hands of Charles, but that changes should press on too fast, and freedom perish from her own excesses. But they did not foresee the mischiefs which threatened from the people; they guarded only against the misconduct of the crown; and the consequence was, that in a few months the populace was struggling with them for the mastery. *They proceeded, however, for the present in the work of reformation ; the work of vengeance followed. The debate was adjourned to the 15th of December, to give time for the report of a committee, who were to collect such materials as might assist the house in its decision. It w*as resolved unani mously, that the clergy assembled in convocation, or synod, or otherwise, have no power to make any constitutions, canons, or acts whatever, to bind either the laity or clergy, without consent of parliament. That the synod or convocation of 1640 was illegal : that its canons and constitutions contained many things contrary to the king's prerogative; to the fundamental laws and statutes of this realm ; to the THE EARLY PURITANS. 425 rights of parliament ; to the property and liberty of chapter the subject; matters tending to sedition, and of XIY- dangerous consequence ; and that the grants or CHAS- J- contributions they had levied on the clergy for the king were illegal. On the 16th of December the first assault was made upon the unhappy Laud, under three heads. First, he was charged with forcing episcopacy on Scotland : secondly, for obtruding upon the Scotch a book of canons ; for establishing a tyrannical power in the person of their prelates over the people ; and for abolishing the kirk of Scot land : and, thirdly, with having introduced the book of common prayer without warrant from the kirk. Of each of these grievances the archbishop was said to be the chief author : they were first presented to the house of lords ; and reported to the lower house at a conference. The door once opened, a furious storm broke in. The archbishop was voted guilty of high treason by the lower house ; and on the 26th of February the impeachment was laid upon the bar of the house of lords in fourteen articles. On the 1st of March, surrounded by a mob which followed him with huzzas and insults until he arrived within the Tower gate, he was carried to the prison from which he came forth, after a long and mournful captivity, to his trial and execution. None of the charges amounted to high treason. He had not compassed the death of the sovereign ; nor had he seriously planned the subversion of the government ; though he had inflicted the deepest injuries on each. The punishment inflicted upon him Avas not justice but revenge. His faults were great, but they are overlooked in comparison with his misfortunes. The 426 THE HISTORY OF chapter spectacle of greatness suffering is more touching, X1Y- and the impression it leaves more lasting, than the chas. i. remembrance of its crimes. Wherever the story of A D 1641 archbishop Laud shall be told, it is not his follies, his bigotry, his arrogance, but his death, that will be had in everlasting remembrance. So violence defeats itself ; and thus the memory of the injured is righteously avenged. When Laud and Strafford were impeached, the spirit which broke out in parhament was caught up out of doors, and the democratic puritans now came full in sight. The policy of Laud is usually blamed as having called them into existence ; and his violent measures, it is true, contributed in no small degree to recruit their numbers and to add to their import ance. But they were already powerful AAdien Laud was an obscure person; and they threatened the state with mischief long before he goaded them into actual rebellion. There are times in the history of nations when the multitude suddenly break loose and every existing institution is threatened with destruction. Such outbursts may generally be traced to grievous oppressions, to a long period of misrule, or to criminal neglect. But sometimes it appears as though a strange delirium were abroad, of which the causes are inexplicable. Those who have least to complain of are the most clamorous ; the people are wearied with repose and jaded with pros perity; the foundations of the earth are out of course, and God's judgments are abroad. James was still upon the throne when the democratic pu ritans excited painful apprehensions. They were men of ungoverned passions, intense fanaticism, and XIV. CHAS. I. A.D. 1641. THE EARLY PURITANS. 427 in general we may add, with few exceptions, pro- chapter foundly ignorant. The symptoms of the terrible . convulsion which shook England to its centre, were even then apparent in this dangerous faction. Fel- ton, who assassinated the duke of Buckingham, had evidently derived his principles and his courage from his intercourse with some of this party. He believed, he said, that he should do God good service if he killed the duke ; and he had been wrought up to this pitch of presumption, he confessed, by hearing some popular preachers in the city. With a knife, which he bought of a cutler for a shilling, he stabbed the prime minister to the heart.* Such an occur rence would both create alarm and justify severity. But the delinquencies of the few were visited on all; and an opportunity was given to silence preachers and to persecute the most harmless sec taries. The movement however was visible in two directions ; it was at once democratic and sectarian. Yet the men of whom it was composed belonged to the lower classes, and these are happily exempted from the worst oppressions which society endures in seasons of misgovernment. It was very seldom that the star chamber condescended to receive its victims from the humble walks of life. Episcopal injustice fell heavily upon rectors and vicars, and sometimes upon churchwardens ; but except through them it seldom reached the congregation, much less the poor. And, with regard to their general pohcy, neither James nor his unfortunate son were tyrants. Eng land beneath their rule, or in despite of their op pression, continued to grow rich and prosperous ; * Clarendon, Hist. vol. i. p. 29. 428 THE HISTORY OF chapter and the people enjoyed more real liberty than XIY' those of any other state in Christendom. Yet their chas. i. discontent increased nearly in the same ratio with A.D. 1641. . ^ . . their prosperity. The sight ot injustice exercised upon their superiors is grateful to slaves, who thus see, as they imagine, their own wrongs avenged. But in free states it produces a contrary effect ; not only because the relation of master and servant is more benign ; but because the servant, hoping to be come a master in his turn, sees injustice to himself foreshadowed in the oppression of his superiors. We allow their force to these considerations ; but the wild frenzy of the democratic puritans in the begin ning of the reign of Charles I. seems, after all, to re quire some further explanation. It shewed itself in religion in a sudden outburst of sectarian fanaticism. Bishop Hall, and it was not his character to be de sponding, in a sermon preached before king James in 1624, takes up his prophetic lamentation. Beferring to the progress of the evil he exclaims : " Unless it can be repressed speedily, we shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah : and it shall be with us as the prophet speaks of proud and glorious Babylon."* But the disease was not of such a kind as to admit of an immediate remedy ; and the plague was not staid, but rather aggravated, by the im potent severities of those in power. The court writers from this period declaim incessantly upon the turbulence of the sectaries ; and even the wisest of them attempt to justify the excesses of the star- chamber, for example, by the insolence which more gentle methods had proved unable to restrain. But * Bishop Hall's AArorks, vol. v. p. 236. THE EARLY PURITANS. 429 the evil continued to increase : and bishop Hall now chapter once more, in the house of lords, called attention XIY' to it, in 1641, with an intimation that the full CHASI- . A.D. 1641. jer was not yet perceived. " Alas ! my lords, I beseech you to consider what it is : that there should be in London and the surburbs no fewer than fourscore congregations of several sectaries, as I have been too credibly informed, instructed by cobblers, tailors, felt-makers, and such like trash ; which are all taught to spit in the face of their mother, the church of England ; and to defy and revile her government. From hence have issued that inundation of base and scurrilous pamphlets, in which papists and prelates, like oxen in a yoke, are still matched together." And, in atone of becoming warmth, he adds : " Give me leave humbly to be seech your lordships to be tenderly sensible of these woful and dangerous conditions of the times. If the government of the church of England be un lawful and unfit, abandon and disclaim it. But if otherwise, uphold and maintain it. Otherwise if these lawless outrages be yet suffered to gather head, who knows where they will end ? My lords, if these men may, with impunity and freedom, thus bear down ecclesiastical authority, it is to be feared they will not rest there ; but will be ready to affront the civil power too. Your lordships know that the Jack Straws, and Cades, and Wat Tylers, of former times, did not more cry down learning than nobility : and those of your lordships that have read the history of the anabaptistical tumults at Munster, will need no other item ; let it be enough to say, that many of these sectaries are of the same profession. Shortly, CHAS. I A.D. 1641. 430 THE HISTORY OF chapter therefore, let me humbly move your lordships to XIY- take these dangers and miseries of this poor church deeply to heart : and upon this occasion, to give orders for the speedy redressing of these horrible insolencies ; and for the stopping of that deluge of libellous invectives wherewith we are thus impetu ously overflown. Which, in all due submission, I humbly present to your lordships' wise and religious consideration."* But the house of lords was now afraid to act alone ; and the house of commons was more disposed to foment the evil than to punish it. Sectarianism spread; each congregation became a focus of turbulence if not of sedition. In general it professed neither allegiance nor affinity to any other sect or church whatever : each stood alone ; the monstrous creation of unnatural times. These assemblies soon became the political clubs of later revolutions. When the presbyterians had overthrown the church, combining for once they overthrew the presbyterians : but their impotence was then dis covered ; their power was merely destructive ; the field was clear before them, but they could establish nothing — they had nothing to propose; and they brought rehgion into a state of the profoundest anarchy. It was thus in fact that the violence of the fanatics, exciting disgust and abhorrence in all reasonable minds, contributed powerfully, as if in atonement for their early excesses, to the restoration both of the church and monarchy. In alliance with the democratic puritans there were undoubtedly not a few men of different princi ples, who united with them against popery and the * Bishop Hall's Works, vol. a. pp. 65, 66. CHAS. I. A.D. 1641. THE EARLY PURITANS. 431 common foe, and were drawn into some of their ex- chapter XIV. cesses. They did not see their error till it was too late. Their fault was great ; but the charge, from which it is impossible to relieve the memory of the Laudian party and the king, is, that they drove them on to madness. Men of saintly minds — bishops Hall and Carlton, and many thousands of their followers — could bear oppression and insult meekly. But the lofty standard of what a christian man will forbear and suffer, is the exception at all times ; most of all in times of revolution. The po litical grievances were sufficient to have provoked resistance in any country, even the most servile, and would undoubtedly have done so ; and the religious hardships and wrongs of the times were even more intolerable. Vast numbers of the laity forsook their pastors, and plunged headlong into the most violent factions ; and of these many had hitherto been members of the church of England. The populace of London was little better than a frenzied mob. Petitions poured into the house of commons demanding the abolition of episcopacy " root and branch." These words, which first occurred in a violent address from the city of London, were made a rallying cry ; and root and branch petitions, with their thousands and tens of thousands of sig natures attached, loaded the tables of both houses. Foremost in the clamour were the apprentices of London, and the city porters : the former prayed that prelacy might be rooted up as antichrist, the others complained that it Avas a burden too heavy for their shoulders. These petitions were received by the house with evident satisfaction ; for as the storm 432 THE HISTORY OF chapter increased the parliament was driven helplessly XIY- before it. Parties were now combined afresh. chas. i. Names long venerated remained, but they were no longer the symbols of the old distinctions. Beligion was the popular grievance; it was up permost in every mind ; and we find all questions, even those which were purely secular and politi cal, strongly flavoured with a religious pretext. The house of commons investigated a number of complaints against the Laudian clergy ; and if the people treated all alike with violence and gross injustice, it cannot be forgotten that some at least were traitors. Cozens, dean of Durham, was ac cused before the house of lords, in twenty-one articles, of superstitious practices.* Besides the usual complaints of placing the table altar-wise, com pelling the congregation to bow to it, and restoring superstitious images in painted glass, he had illu minated the church with three hundred wax candles on candlemas-day in honour of our lady, and placed three score lights upon his altar and around it. A cope, bought from a Jesuit, was used by one ofthe officiating ministers, having upon it a picture em broidered to represent the incomprehensible and invisible trinity. The fifteenth article we give en tire : " that he framed a superstitious ceremony in righting the tapers whieh were placed on the altar, which, for instance, was this ; — a company of boys that belonged to the church, came in at the quire door with torches in their hands lighted, bowing towards the altar at their first entrance, bowing thrice before they lighted their tapers ; having done, * Diurnall occurrences of both houses, &c. p. 52. THE EARLY PURITANS. 433 they withdrew themselves, bowing so oft as before ; chapter not once turning their back-parts towards the altar, XIY- the organs all the time going." Wren, bishop of CIIAS- *• Ely, besides a fine of ten thousand pounds for his share in the convocation, was " declared unworthy and unfit to hold or exercise any office or dignity in the church or commonwealth." Amongst the charges brought against him by a committee of the house of commons, with some that are frivolous and others in which the bishop seems commendable,* are these of a more formidable character : — that within two years he had excommunicated, deprived, or banished fifty godly learned and painful ministers ; that he had practised superstition, consecrating the elements with his back towards the people, bowing to the bread and wine ; then elevating them high above * One ofthe charges was, " that having been gored by a cow, and much hurt, and desiring to be prayed for in the church, the said bishop com manded the prayers to be read used at the churching of women for his deliverance from the cow. And after great debate it was resolved upon the question, and voted, that the said bishop is unfit to hold or exercise any office in the church or commonwealth, and that there should be a message sent to the lords desiring them to join in petitioning his majesty for his removing from court and the king's service." No doubt this affair occasioned vast amusement in the bouse of commons ; but it would have been well for the puritans a few years afterwards bad they committed no greater follies, even in their public prayers. Mutatis mutandis, the service for the churching of women might not be altogether inappropriate ; but it is to be deplored that the church of England has neither made provision for such emergencies nor explicitly entrusted to the clergy the power to conduct a service for themselves. After all, the charge was most likely false. A few weeks afterwards, 20 July, 1641, sir Thomas Widdrington delivered another version, of what was clearly the same story, in the house. "A butcher was gored in the belly with an ox, tbe wound was cured, and the party desired public thanksgiving in the congregation ; the minister, fiuding no form for that purpose, reads the collects for churching of wo men." (Diurnall, &c., p. 295.) Another charge against Wren was, that he had published a book of articles, to which the churchwardens were to be sworn ; they contained eight hundred and ninety-seven questions ! 2 F A.D. 1641. 434 THE HISTORY OF chapter his head that the people might gaze upon them : XIY- besides, he required the churchwardens on oath to chas. i. report, " whether the minister expounded the holy scripture according to the sense of the ancient fathers :" "which question, it is believed," say the committee of the long parliament, " would puzzle the deepest learned churchwarden in England to answer." A bill was brought in, and finally car ried, to degrade the prelates from the peerage and to exclude them from parliament. They now met with cold support from their friends and fierce hos tility from their opponents. " They who hate the bishops," said lord Falkland, " hate them worse than the devil, and those who love them, love them not so weU as their own dinners." Lord Digby was ashamed of the violence of some of his party, though deeply convinced of the necessity of a great reform. Speaking in the house of commons upon one of the root and branch petitions from the city, which bore 15,000 signatures, and had been carried by its sup porters in insolent triumph to the doors of parha ment, he said, after deploring the infatuation of the prelates — " I am confident there is no man of judg ment that will think it fit for a parliament under a monarchy to give countenance to irregular and tumultuous assemblies of people, be it for never so good an end. Besides, there is no man of the least insight into nature or history, but knows the danger when either true or pretended stimulation of con science hath once given a multitude agitation. Con temptible things are alleged in this petition as a motive for the extirpation of bishops. The scandal of the rochet, the lawn sleeves, four-corner cap, the THE EARLY PURITANS. 435 cope, the surplice, the tippet, the hood, the canoni- chapter cal coat, may pass with arguments ofthe same weight. XIY' In a word, I know not whether it be more prepos- CHAS- L 1 L A.D. 1641. terous to infer the extirpation of bishops from such weak arguments ; or to attribute, as they do, to church government all our civil grievances. Not a patent, not a monopoly, not the price of a commo dity, raised, but these men make bishops the cause of it." In the course of a long and eloquent speech he then proceeded, in the true spirit of a statesman, calmly to marshal against each other the dangers which threatened from spiritual tyranny and from the violence of faction ; making no attempt to dis guise the misconduct of the Laudian prelates. " I protest sincerely, Mr. Speaker, I cannot cast mine eye on this petition, nor my thoughts on the prac tices of the churchmen that have governed it of late, but they appear to me as a scourge, employed by God upon us, for the sins of the nation. Indeed I do not think that any people has ever been more provoked than the generality of England, of late years, by the insolence and exorbitance of the pre lates." "But, Mr. Speaker," he proceeded, "when I cast mine eye round upon this great and wise assembly, and find myself a part too, though the most unworthy and inconsiderable, of that senate, from whose dispassionate and equal constitutions present and future times must expect their happi ness or infelicity ; it obliges me to the utmost of my power to divest myself and others of all those dis turbances of judgment which ever arise from great provocations. It is natural for the multitude to fly into extremes ; that seems ever the best to them 2 f 2 A.D. 1641. 436 THE HISTORY OF chapter that is most opposite to the present object of their XIY- hate. Wise counsels, sir, must square their resolu- chas. i. tions by another measure ; what is most just, most honourable, most convenient." A magnificent eulogy upon episcopacy followed ; as a " function deduced through all ages of Christ's church, from the apo stles' times, and continued afterwards by the most venerable and sacred order ecclesiastical; a func tion dignified by the learning and piety of so many fathers of the church, glorified by so many martyr doms in the primitive times, and some since our own blessed reformation." The abuse of an insti tution so venerable afforded not the slightest argu ment for its destruction. A triennial parliament would soon restrain its excesses ; nor " did he be lieve that any other government could be proposed but would in time be subject to as great or greater inconvenience than episcopacy." " If we hearken to those who would quite extirpate episcopacy, I am confident that, instead of every bishop we put down in a diocese, we shall set up a pope in every parish."* He concluded by moving for "a com mittee to investigate all grievances springing from the misgovernment of the church," and, if consis tent with the rules ofthe house, he wished that some able clergyman should be incorporated with it. The wisdom of the moderate party was never more conspicuous than during the session of 1641. Never, perhaps, since the house of commons existed has it displayed more of senatorial wisdom, of lofty patriotism, of masculine eloquence, and last of all, and as the cause of all, of scriptural and * Speeches, &c. of this great and happy parliament. 1641. THE EARLY PURITANS. 437 nervous piety. Yet all was rendered unavailing chapter by the senseless violence of mobs without, and the XIV' selfishness or cowardice of majorities within the CHASI- A. D. 1641. house itself. The crowds were now permitted, if not encou raged, to insult the bishops as they passed along the streets on their way to the house of lords. Some, even of their friends, suggested that it would be but prudent to keep away, at least during the Christmas holidays, while the apprentices and the rabble were idle and at large. But they nobly determined to do their duty ; and, unable to pass through the streets, they went by water in their barges to Westminster; but as they landed, the mob rushed down upon them with a volley of stones and compelled them to retire. They met together, twelve in number — all the bishops who were in London at the time, except Laud and Wren, who were prisoners — and drew up a becoming protest. They declared that they had been deterred by vio lence from the discharge oftheir duty, and protested against all the proceedings of parliament during their compulsory absence "as in themselves null and of none effect." Archbishop Williams of York, the chief offender, with the other bishops, was immediately voted guilty of high treason by the house of commons ; and they were committed to the Tower. The imprudence of this proceeding was much censured, even by the bishops' friends, — a proof of the lawless violence of the times, against which it was an indiscretion even to remon strate. The impeachment was never carried out, nor were they brought to trial; for the object, 438 THE HISTORY OF chapter indeed, was already gained ! Nothing less than XIY- the overthrow of the church of England would chas. i. satisfy a vast number of those who, a A.D. 1641. J few months ago, had sought only for moderate and reasonable reforms. In revolutions this is almost invariably the case ; for a revolution is a fever ; the delirium of a nation's brain ; a judgment that God has sent to punish the pride and selfish ness of rulers, the insubordination of the multitude, or the wickedness of both. Even the puritan clergy were insulted in the streets, and interrupted while they read the prayers. The Laudian party or the Bomish priests were not more obnoxious. The clergy usually wore their canonical habits abroad; and to be seen in a gown and bands, was to be hooted or assailed. Be the cause good or bad it is painful to observe how, when the populace break loose and take the work of reformation into their own hands, they resort to the same excesses. In the days of queen Mary, an over-zealous protes tant, moved with indignation at the idolatrous ser vice of the mass in St. Margaret's, Westminster, struck the officiating priest, and dashed the vessel from his hands ; and paid the forfeit of his rashness at the stake. In the same Saint Margaret's church at Westminster, a similar scene again took place. The house of commons were assembled there, and the officiating minister began the eucharistic service at the communion table; but the congregation began to sing, and the minister was silenced in the uproar. At Saint Saviour's in Southwark, the mob pulled down the rails which surrounded the com munion table. In other places they contented them- A.D. 1642. THE EARLY PURITANS. 439 selves with tearing up the surplice or the prayer chapter book. Multitudes who knew little of prayer, de- XIY" nounced the liturgy as a lifeless form. And those CHAS- r- whose lives proved that they knew neither what they spake nor whereof they affirmed, were ready to declaim against all forms, because they said they quenched the holy Spirit.* A last effort to conciliate was made by the house of lords. On the 21st of March, 1642, they appointed a committee for religion : it consisted of ten bishops and twenty peers ; and they were to call in the assistance of other divines. Laud heard of it in his prison in the Tower, and entered in his journal the following words : " The lay votes will be double to the clergy. This committee will meddle with doc trines as well as ceremonies, and will call some divines to them to consider of the business. Upon the whole, I believe this committee will prove the national synod of England, to the great dishonour of the church. And what else may follow on it God knows." t It does not seem to have occurred to him, that if the church of England had root in the affections ofthe people, the ten earls and ten barons on the committee had no reason for abandoning it ; that if it had not, the only method of reinstating it was, to call in those who had the people's confi dence, not necessarily to take their advice, but to listen to their objections. The house of lords was still warmly attached to episcopacy, though very sensitive of late to some of its abuses ; and the divines called in to assist were the best men of either party. On the one side — or rather, perhaps, • Neal ii. pp. 314. 315. t Laud's Diary, p. 24. CHAS I. A.D. 1642. 440 THE HISTORY OF chapter raised, by the greatness of his mind and the simpli city of his character, above aU party considerations — was Ussher archbishop of Armagh, with the bishops of Durham and Exeter, Dr. Ward, Sanderson, and others. Of the presbyterian party, or those who were so inclined, were White, Marshall, Calamy, and Hill. The conference lasted during six days. First, they took into consideration the recent innovations of doctrine; and it was complained that all the tenets of the council of Trent had, by one or other of the Laudian party, been preached and printed, except those regarding the king's supremacy which the statute had made treasonable : That good works were made to co-operate with faith for justification : That private confession, enumerating particular sins, was inculcated as needful to salvation: That the oblation of the elements in the Lord's supper was (held to be a true sacrifice : That prayers for the dead, monastic vows, and other grievous errors, i were inculcated. Secondly, the committee inquired ! into matters of conformity, and discovered that j candlesticks were placed in parish churches " on the altars so called :" That canopies with curtains, in imitation of the veil before the holy of holies, were drawn around it : That a credentia, or side table, was made use of in the Lord's supper : That a direct prayer was forbidden before the sermon ; and that ministers were forbidden to expound at large the catechism to their parishioners ; from which we infer that the bidding prayer only was allowed in the pulpit, and that no explanations of the catechism were permitted : They objected too, that children, when baptized, were carried to the THE EARLY PUPITANS. 441 altar and there offered up to God. And thirdly, chapter they consulted about the common prayer book : — - — - — whether some legendary saints ought not to be CHASI- a tl ° A. D. 1642. expunged from the calendar, and the apocryphal chapters from the lessons, and whether the rubric ought not to be amended in many particulars.* But the day for conciliation had now passed. Laud and his party, in danger of losing all, would give up nothing. They distrusted the doctrinal puritans as men who intended to betray the church into the hands of her enemies, and they thwarted their efforts. -The democratic party, upon the other hand, now dreaded moderate reforms as men re solved on the destruction of the church, and anxious to aggravate its faults. The committee sat till the middle of May, when, amidst the crash of revolu tionary measures and the approach of civil war, it broke up, and accomplished nothing. Even then it was the opinion of moderate men that the con ference, had it been permitted to continue, might have produced much good ; that it might have saved the church, and rescued the monarchy ; and that the war would still have been averted. It was the last effort. Political disquietudes followed each other in quick succession, and rehgious affairs soon occupied a secondary place. The Irish papists, always turbulent, had broken out into rebellion, and the rebellion had just now been followed by a massacre of the protestants. Scotland was chafed and irritable; and she occupied a proud position; both the king and the parliament at once soliciting her help. The Scotch presbyterians • Fuller, book ii. p. 416. "This I write," he says, " out ofthe private notes of one of the committee." 442 THE HISTORY OF chapter were sanguine that if they sided with the par- XIY" liament a presbyterian church would be established chas. i. in England. But the king knew his southern ad. 1642. sukje(^.s better. "We are confident," he told them, " that the most considerable persons, and those who make the fairest pretensions to you of that kind, will not sooner embrace a presbyterial than you an episcopal church government." In effect, the con stitution of England was suspended both in church and state. In August the king set up his standard, and the civil war began. The bishops had been already excluded from the house of lords. A bill for the entire abolition of episcopacy was brought in September into the house of commons. Within ten days it passed the house of lords. Never was so grave a question decided in those houses with less deliberation. Petitions were presented from more than forty thousand freeholders, magistrates, and men of higher rank, in favour of episcopacy. But the venerable order was extinguished ; the church of England was overthrown, and the obsequies were celebrated with bells, and bonfires, and the exulta tion of a London mob. There were few puritans in the army of king Charles when the war began. The church puritans were men of peace. Whatever their opinions might have been in the abstract as to the lawfulness of an armed resistance, they were extremely reluctant to make the appeal to the sword in this instance. They could not identify themselves with either party. THE EARLY PURITANS. 443 They were neither cavaliers nor roundheads. For chapter Charles it was impossible for them to fight with — XIY" ¦ alacrity. They knew too weU his popish tendencies ; they were too keenly alive to the danger of his un- English principles. For they understood far better than their predecessors the English constitution in church and state ; and were far more competent than any who had gone before them to advance the interests of the one, and yet maintain the indepen dence of the other. Nor, on the other hand, could they join the parliament : for then they must have arrayed themselves against the social order they revered as God's appointment; against a liturgy; against episcopacy ; against the church itself. They seem to have stood aloof, and to have shared the usual fate of those who are neutral in a civil war — plundered by each of the contending parties, pro tected by neither ; and when the scene brightens again, and the mists disperse, they have wasted away, and their place is nowhere to be found. The other puritans were on the side of the parliament. It would be a study of the deepest interest to class, if it were possible, the various and discordant par ties assembled in the popular camp : to investigate their motives, and to dissect their characters. Human nature, in our own land at least, never pre sented such a study ; so difficult, so varied, and, could we succeed in comprehending it, so instructive. There was (for this is the substratum in every revo- tion) a vast mass of floating discontent. There were protestants, who dreaded the return of popery; patriots, who trembled for the liberties of England ; and earnest men of real piety, worn out with insults 444 THE HISTORY OF chapter and persecutions, who believed that they took up XIY' arms in the cause of true rehgion, and therefore in the cause of God. There were enthusiasts, who sighed for a perfection unattainable on earth ; and fanatics, who sought for it by the most unjustifiable means. And mingled with these, no doubt, there were the selfish, who hoped to gain in the general uproar ; and the purely rebellious, who fought for the parliament simply because the parhament fought against the king. The democratic puritans and sectaries were not numerous at first. They chiefly abounded in London and the few large towns, and the parliamentary army was chiefly recruited from the country. And they were of a lower station than that from which the soldiery was drawn. Of all materials from which an army can be framed, the factious populace of a great city is undoubtedly the worst ; and the parhamentary leaders were probably by no means anxious for the services of such men. AU these, however, in different proportions, formed the popular army ; and all take the common name of puritans in history. But it is with those to whom it more properly belongs, the rehgious puri tans, that we are now concerned. What were their motives ? What were those considerations that induced religious men, and these neither few in number nor inconsiderable in rank and fortune, but in truth one half of England, to draw the sword against the king whom they still acknowledged to be their lawful sovereign ? Whether posterity choose to regard them as rebels or patriots, it has the same interest in discovering, if possible, the motives by which they were impelled. THE EARLY PURITANS. 445 Their cause they knew was good ; the only ground chapter for hesitation was, whether the time had come for XIY- its defence in arms. That they sincerely believed the reformed religion to be in the greatest danger, ad mits of no doubt ; and that their fears were too well founded, admits of none. The queen was a papist, and the king was almost at her disposal: in all matters of state her influence was unbounded. The court was even suspected of connivance with the Irish massacre : the accusation is too horrible to be credited, except on the fullest proof; and the evi dence, though strong, is not conclusive. The weak ness of all the king's measures, his uncertainty of purpose and feebleness of action, had however been severely felt by his protestant subjects in Ireland. He had rendered them no timely assistance ; and it is possible that the queen, a bigot to her faith, may have secretly rejoiced. The courtiers displayed none of that depth of sorrow which even decency required. And the suspicion, if not the firm belief, that the court was a party to the massacre, universally pre vailed on the side of the parliament. The favour able eye with which popery was looked upon by the court, and the tendency of the Laudian theology in the English church, added greatly to the universal apprehension. Was it right to take up arms in defence of the protestant faith ? If so, said the puritans, it is right to take up arms" against the king. But while they fought against the king's person, they denied that they fought against the king's authority. They drew a distinction, by no means frivolous or unconstitutional, between Charles 446 THE HISTORY OF chapter Stuart, the king of England, and the same person X1Y- at the head of the royalist army at Nottingham. The king, they argued, was the highest of those constituted powers to whom the subject owes sub mission. But England was not an absolute mo narchy. The parliament was one of the powers to whom a christian and a subject owed submission likewise. The powers that be are ordained of God : but this was true of the parhament no less than of the monarchy, or else the parliament would have been nothing more at any time than an insolent usurpation. The king, it was true, declared in fre quent manifestoes, that the parliament was in rebel lion, and caUed upon his subjects to arm in his defence. But the parliament issued similar procla mations. They declared that the king was acting without their advice, and therefore without consti tutional authority ; that he was in the hands of papists and malignants. They fought in the king's name and on his behalf, they said; though such was his infatuation, or the restraint he suffered, that they were compelled to fight against his person. If it were treason to fight against the king, was it less treason to fight against the parliament ? The fiction they adopted, of carrying on the war in the king's name, could not fail to have its effect with an army which believed that the king was a dupe, if not a prisoner, in the hands of their, and of his own, worst enemies. Thousands believed firmly through the war, that they were fighting, not to overthrow the monarchy, but to restore it ; not to destroy the church, but to purify it. These considerations per plexed many on both sides, and they gave assurance THE EARLY PURITANS. 447 to others. When we attempt to estimate the piety chapter of the puritans who fought against the king, it is XIY' unjust to deny their weight to these considerations. Men in general judge rather by the first appear ance of things, than by calmly sifting the merits of the case and the comparative weight of opposing principles ; to the multitude truth always lies upon the surface ; and to all appearance piety was entirely with the puritans. It was a common saying with the virtuous royalists, that the king had the better cause, but the parliament the better men. The licentiousness of the king's army was deplorable ; his best friends spoke of it with shame, his enemies with indecent triumph. The king's chief officers were men of profligate lives, who made a jest of religion. The private soldiers, whose pay was irregular, lived on plunder, and they chiefly plundered the puritans. But the popular camp resounded, not with oaths and ribaldry, but with the murmurs of devotion or the louder strains of thanksgiving. Frequent preaching and exhortation, the reading of the scriptures, and religious conver sation, filled up the intervals of martial duty. Around the army, property was safe ; and modesty passed by without a blush. The times did not permit neutrality ; and pious men naturally took their side with those by whom piety was respected. Numbers joined the parliament, and rilled up the ranks ofthe army, merely because they saw the appearance of fervour and piety there, and the utter want of it in the royal camp. In time, the clergy who had been oppressed by Laud ; those who dreaded popery and wished for a reformation of discipline ; the 448 THE HISTORY OF chapter deprived and silenced ministers, not a few in num- IY' ber; the lecturers and popular preachers whom Laud had in vain endeavoured to suppress ; all these, compelled to choose their side, attached themselves to the army of the parliament. After the first inde cisive battle at Edge Hill, Baxter tells us that he found at Coventry upwards of thirty ministers who, like himself, had fled for refuge to a parliamentary garrison from the fury, of the royalists ; . though not one of them had yet interfered in the war on either side. They sought protection, and it was to be had Qhly from the parliament and the puritans. This was the great cause of the strength of the par liament, and of the ruin of the king. A debauched rabble, encouraged by his gentry, and seconded by the common soldiers, took all puritans for their enemies and treated them as such ; and every man was a puritan in their eyes who was heard to repeat a sermon, sing a psalm, or pray in his family. Such treatment filled the armies and garrisons of the parliament with sober and pious men. The king deplored these outrages, and issued a procla mation to repress them; but it had very little effect.* These again are considerations which those who would understand and do justice to the puri tans of 1642 will not hastily dismiss. They were of sufficient weight to influence the minds of such men as Howe and Owen, Marshall and Calamy and Baxter. The latter, writing long afterwards, — when age and reflection, and the utter failure of every hope he had entertained when the war began, may be sup posed to have chastened something at least of his * Baxter's own Life, Sylvester's edition, fol. p. 26—44. THE EARLY PURITANS. 449 party zeal — still thought the war had been hie- chapter vitable. He cast a retrospective glance over the XIY' whole field of blood, from Edge Hill and Naseby to the execution of king Charles, and then again through the turbulent protectorate of Cromwell, to the cold and cheerless days of Charles n., when virtue seemed to have expired at last, and he still thought that the war was just, and that his own course had been right in the sight of God. Upon the justice of his opinion men will differ ; but what must have been those times and provocations which could leave a doubt in such a mind as Baxter's ; — a doubt upon such a question" as the alternative of submission to a lawful sovereign, or civil war with all its horrors ? * These are the justifications of the puritans; on the other hand, their faults were great. We speak of them in their religious character, and with refer ence to the particular points on which their conduct was affected by their puritanism. One fault of the party always was a strong tinge of enthusiasm ; by which is meant, not in its perverted sense, that they had too much devotion, but that they were too ready to assume that their own impressions were the voice-' of God. Whatever may have been the case with those who were drawn into the conflict in the man ner we have just described, there was a vast multi tude who entered upon it with very little hesitation or reluctance ; and these were soon sufficiently nu- * Baxter's Holy Commonwealth, pp. 470—480. This work was pub lished in the last year of the commonwealth. On the restoration, a burst of censure fell upon its author, which he bore for ten years, when he sup pressed the work, but without retracting the principles advanced in it. See Ormc's Life of Baxter, 710. 2 G 450 THE HISTORY OF chapter merous and powerful to impress their own character — — — on the parliamentary cause ; and as moulded in their hands, it has, in fact, been handed down to the present times in history. And the accusation of history against them is, that they followed their own will, while they professed to follow the will of God. To those who only recall their frequent seasons set apart for prayer and fasting, and observed with an awful solemnity, this may seem severe. But if we compare the proceedings of the times with the devotions of the parliament, it is too often evident that the former were decided on without much re spect to the latter ; and that in truth God's direction was not sought upon their plans, but his approba tion upon their decisions. Something of this was apparent from the first ; but a few years afterwards a solemn fast was notoriously the signal for an out rage ; a feint to divert attention, just as the assault was about to be made in earnest. Even true religion had already lost much of its sobriety ; and heat and passion were substituted instead of the real life of fervent piety — a decay which, we conceive, was at once a cause and a consequence of the neglect into which the established church, with its calmness and its hturgy, had fallen. Thus the puritans were led on, and entangled first in excesses and then in crimes. The best of them felt that they had been duped, and would gladly have withdrawn. But the storm rushed onward, and they were swept before it. They had given an impulse at first, under which they themselves were to be crushed hereafter. A grievous error had long infected the puritan theology. It had been first avowed in the infancy THE EARLY PURITANS. 451 of the party, and tenaciously cherished ever since, The examples of the old testament in all political affairs were asserted to be those which christian men and christian communities were bound to follow ; the old testament was in all these respects our pattern. The effect of such doctrines, preached with intense fervour in the camp, by one who was both soldier and divine, may be easily conceived. Saul's special commission to slay the Amalekites, and Samuel's judicial hewing of Agag in pieces before the Lord, were enforced as precedents which it was a want of faith not to receive and practise. The outrages on the side of the parliament, though few compared with what civil war has inflicted on other countries, are chiefly due to this fanatical perver sion ; we call it so, because it assumed the inspira tion of him who undertook to copy the example of Saul, or Samuel, or the heroes of the Jewish church, in those particular instances in which their conduct was only justified by the special command of God. The author of life has a right to resume it when or how he will ; his creatures invade his prerogative if they destroy it without his express permission ; and his permission is now given to us not in special instances but in general laws. A great evil followed : rehgious men became more careless of shedding human blood. The spirit that would have fainted (though not in cowardice) after a single fight, and sighed for peace, was now stimulated to an unnatural obduracy; the cause was God's, and the method was of divine appointment. The enemies of Christ, and of his church, were to be treated like the enemies of the Jewish church of old : this was the worst error 2 g 2 CnAPTKR XIV. XIV. 452 THE HISTORY OF chapter of the puritans : eventually it destroyed their piety, their reputation, and their cause. To those who study the errors of mankind for the sake of gathering the lessons of wisdom, or with the still nobler view of erecting new barriers against the return of sins and calamities once endured, this point in puritan theology will afford matter for pro found reflection. The notion that in the events and histories of the old testament the church of Christ must search for its warrants and precedents, was utterly inconsistent with evangelical doctrine. The inconsistency had been exposed, first by Whitgift and then by Hooker; and it was of so gross a nature that, once refuted, obstinacy alone can account for its retention. Indeed, we have no doubt that the sudden decline of puritanism at the close of the reign of queen Elizabeth was owing, not to her unwise severities, but to the growing convic tion that this great puritan stronghold was un tenable. It was held only in a modified form, at all times, by the wiser puritans, who seem to have been satisfied to maintain in general, that as the com mands of God were, in every point and with regard to each particular, whether of church government or national rule, precise and full in the old testa ment, an equal precision and the same kind and degree of minute and special direction, must be ex pected in the new. But even this was a false posi tion, assumed in order to convict the church party of unscriptural superstition in erecting offices not expressly named in the new testament. And when such men as Cartwright forgot their church theories, and addressed themselves to the greater work of THE EARLY PURITANS. 453 preaching Christ to sinners, they unconsciously de- chapter molished their own fortress and laid it waste. When XIY" they spoke, and few ever spoke more effectively, on the spiritual as opposed to the legal covenant, and of the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free as opposed to the covenant of works, they in fact conceded everything. As types and figurations, or as an exhibition of the bondage in which men were held tril Christ appeared, these histories were of the highest price ; but if received as precedents on some points, why not on all ? Why not slay the daily sacrifice if we must needs slay the Amalekite ? The coarsest minds arrive with the least difficulty at remote analogies, and reason for the most part with the least hesitation. The sectaries who broke out at the close of the reign of James, and were now spreading hke locusts over the whole land, held and taught, without any reserve, that the actions recorded in the old testament were recorded for imitation. Perhaps this was not a necessary deduction from the premises of Cartwright and his school ; but at least it was a natural and easy transition ; or rather an extension of the same argument. If precedents for church government were to be raked up from the archives of the Jewish temple, why should not precedents in politics be sought for in the archives of the Jewish state ? The answer that God himself was the great theocrat in the latter case, and that each political action was done by his command, was not conclusive ; because it was just as applicable to the former. For God directed the temple worship, always in the same, often in a much higher, sense than that in which he controlled the affairs of the 454 THE HISTORY OF chapter Jewish state. The fanatic who invoked God's curse — — — upon kings in the words which prophets had made use of against Moab and the children of Edom, or chanted in triumph the song of Moses when the English Pharaoh and his army perished, might have very safely challenged some of the elder puritans of a former age to shew why, upon their own principles, his conduct should be severely blamed. They might prove him rash and rebellious, and so far wrong ; but was the principle itself unchristian ? Had they not themselves adopted it ? They had singled out certain events in Jewish history, which, they main tained, were binding as precedents in civil affairs ; why might he not extend the principle a httle fur ther ? why not make a new selection of his own ? But from whatever fountain the poison had distilled, it infected multitudes. The religion of a great number of those who now bore unworthily the name of puritan, was a strange compound of christian doctrines, frequently distorted, always mixed up with superstition, and engrafted upon Jewish modes of thought and principles of action. The consequence was seen in the production of a hybrid character, which has been perfectly inexpli cable to those who have not traced its parentage ; — many christian virtues flourishing in high perfec tion on the one hand, and with these a dark fero city unworthy of civilized men. The Jewish and the christian element by turns prevailed ; and the puritan, in whom they strangely co-existed, alter nately excites our indignation and commands our highest reverence. Perhaps it was in some measure in consequence THE EARLY PURITANS. 455 of the same error that the doctrine of impressions chapter became popular. It was the same mixture of faith XIY' and Judaism. Prayer was offered devoutly through Jesus Christ and faith professed. But answers to prayer were expected such as the seers and prophets of old times had been wont to receive. The petition was offered upon the terms of the new testament ; the answer was expected after the manner of the old. As enthusiasm increased, the puritans of this school became in one respect little better than the adul terous generation whom our Lord rebukes. They sought, if not a sign from heaven, still some con scious impulse of the nature of a miracle. The sin was the same. Men demanded more than God would give. They in effect declared that his word and Spirit were not sufficient. Their pride must be gratified, each man's with a special revelation : something, the reader will understand, perfectly distinct from that sacred peace which God distri butes to his people, and with which he fills their hearts, while, in prayer and the diligent study of his word, they wait upon him for instruction. Colonel Hutchinson, a man in general calm and passionless, and even cold in temperament, was thus misled. He addressed himself to God in earnest prayer on the subject of the king's trial ; " and finding no check but a confirmation in bis conscience," he signed the fatal sentence.* Cromwell was the victim of the same delusion. It was after a night spent in prayer, which ended, as he believed, in one of these divine impressions, that he consented to the death of Charles. John Howe was then his chaplain, :' Alouoiis of Col. Hutchinson, p. '<-<& lll.U XIV. 456 THE HISTORY OF ter a man of whom none will speak with disrespect who have read a page of his writings, and he had preached in vain before him to expose the lamentable delusion. But it was the stronghold of the puritan soldiery. They sought their examples in the old testament. They marched to the field of battle with awe upon their souls as the executioners of God's vengeance. They believed that they were doing his work ; doing it in the very way which he himself prescribed ; to shew pity was unbelief, to turn back was apostacy from God. These errors prevailed extensively when at length the civil war began ; and they had been silently preparing thousands of religious men to gird on the sword without regret. Neither party seems to have felt a proper reluctance to make the last appeal to arms. Even the reformation of the church after the severest methods would not have prevented it ; for this had now become only one of many subjects of mutual exasperation. In the month of April, 1642, the lords and commons had pubhshed a de claration of their intention to reform the government and discipline of the church, but at the same time they were resolved, they said, to proceed with mode ration.* But in August the power of the house of lords was almost at an end ; the commons had, in fact, usurped the functions of both houses ; and the tone was changed. They were anxious to propitiate the Scotch, and to obtain their assistance in the quarrel with the king. The general assembly urged the parliament to establish an uniformity of church government in the two kingdoms ; meaning to * Neal, vol. ii. p. 441. THE EARLY PURITANS. 457 establish the presbyterian church in England, chapter The house of commons rephed in a manner which XIY' sufficiently shewed that no difficulties would be raised on their part. They had by this time disco vered " that the hierarchy was evil, justly offensive, burdensome to the kingdom, a great impediment to reformation, very prejudicial to the civil govern ment." " In short," they say, " we are resolved that the same shall be taken away." In the same month the war began. Thus, at length, the church of England fell, and for a time the triumph of. the democratic puritans seemed to be complete. The astonishing recovery of the church, and the more astonishing discomfiture of the puritans, remain to be told. They form another history, pregnant with instruction to all men, and with solemn cautions to men of violence and strife. It is a question which will never, now, receive a complete answer, but one so natural that it suggests itself probably to every reader, what were the feel ings, not of incensed fanatics, but of the wise, pious, and thoughtful men who sided with the parliament, when the church of England fell? Had they no deep misgivings ? Did they really believe that the faults of the church outweighed its usefulness ; out weighed it so as to demand its overthrow? Did they really regard the subversion of episcopacy with complacent approbation ? The Scotch asserted, in their letter to the parliament, that the presbyterian disciphne was ordained of God. There was no other scriptural form of church government. Like the pattern of the tabernacle, it had been shewn upon 458 THE HISTORY OF chapter the mount. These assertions had weight at this time _ XIY' with but few even ofthe puritan clergy, but within the doors of parliament they were treated with quiet scorn. Whitelock, Hampden, and Saint John, were not the men to crouch before a presbyterian idol. Selden amused himself, and delighted his hearers, disposing, in a few strokes of careless wit, of these magnificent pretensions. CromweU, already an important man, was solely bent on the destruction of existing evils ; of the future he saw nothing ; and of church government, so that it were not prelatic, he cared nothing. The people of Eng land were not, upon the whole, dissatisfied with the ancient rule of their diocesan bishops ; it was only unpopular where bishops were bad men ; and when the experiment was made, a few years afterwards, it was found impossible to persuade them to accept a presbyterian church. It is probable that the best men on both sides looked on in silent dismay, fore seeing evils they could do nothing to prevent. Even then the church of England was, under God, the leader and mistress of the reformation. What other church had been blessed with so many emi nent ministers, or with successes so amazing ? Where else had been found such an array of learn ing directed to the noblest ends, the glory of God, and the present and eternal welfare of thousands upon thousands ? Even if learning was to be depre ciated, and made no longer of account, could they hope, by the rude overthrow of a church within which were to be found so many wise and holy men, preachers so eloquent, and divines so deep, to pre- THE EARLY PURITANS. 459 pare the ground, strewed with its ruins, for an institution of superior worth and greater usefulness, one more honourable to God and more effective ? It is difficult to believe this of a great number of those (the most discerning and devout, we mean, and therefore least affected by clamour and the love of change,) who certainly looked on in silence, and raised no warning voice. They had before them hving witnesses of violence and tyranny in some of the prelates it is true, but in others of every christian, every ministerial virtue. They must have been forced sometimes to reflect, that an institution which numbered amongst its members archbishop Ussher, bishop Hall, and bishop Carlton, could not he under God's curse. Why did they not attempt to rescue it from violence ? Why array themselves, at least by their silence, against an order in the ministry, and a form of government, which had existed, perhaps from apostolic, certainly from primitive times ? — which had furnished many of its ablest ministers to the church in its brightest periods ; and which had often saved it from deeper superstition, and retrieved it from utter ruin, even in its worst ? But of such memorials, if such existed, few or none remain. Shame or fear, the accidents of time and those of civil war, have led to their destruction. One thing alone is certain ; the great body of the puritans were consenting to the church's overthrow ; and in its ruins they, and their principles, were crushed. Like Samson of old, in more than mortal energy, and in judicial blindness, they were like him in their end : they were the instruments of inflicting upon the episcopal church an awful punishment, CHAPTER XIV. 460 THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY PURITANS. chapter n°t altogether unmerited, but far beyond what her XIV- greatest faults deserved ; but the moment of their triumph was that in which they were smitten with paralysis and the hand of death. FINIS. Printed by C. F. Hodgson, Gough Square, Fleet Street, London. WORKS BY THE REV. J. B. MARSDEN, M.A. The HISTORY of the EARLY PURITANS : from the Reforma- tion to the Opening of the Civil War in 1642, Second Edition. 8vo, 10s. 6<1. cloth. ii. 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