r [ •V r> \ J if* At * 5£ r? T0W. 8? ¦ * jr. * i/-j. &;*€&? #¦ ., V . *c£g$$xvr * 3 — that is his name, sir — learned his lessons well." After a little silence and a little murmuring to himself in English, the stranger said: "I certainly have heard the name in England, but further my memory faileth me. Just as I was leaving for my travels, four years ago, there were foreign Protestants there petitioning the king for privileges of domicile, religion, and handicraft, which he granted. As soon as Queen Mary was acknowledged, they were all ordered to leave the kingdom.3 I think he must ' Robertson's Charles V., 183. 3 Fox, IH. 40. Strype's Cran- 2 Neal, I. 145. mer. Neal. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 63 have been one of their ministers. I must see this Master Valeran, mine host. But the day waneth, and we are all weary. So I will rest the night; and in the morning, wilt help me find him ? " " With all my heart ; with all my heart. And now go to your friends and be happy. I must put the women to work and the turnspit, — the lazy loons ! We must all eat, sir ; and in this country, it is very needful." The warm-hearted old man bustled away, to make preparations for the refreshment of his guests ; and the stranger went to cheer his companions with his good tidings. While yet the controversy with Hooper was in progress, the Privy Council, true to the gradually progressive policy1 of the king and Cranmer, had made one important change. The dogma of a fresh propitiatory sacrifice of the real body and blood of Christ in each solemnization of the Lord's Supper was implied and sustained by the presence of altars, from which the sacrament was served; for the reception and completion of a sacrifice is the dis tinctive purpose of an altar. This the English Re formers had perceived; and therefore, to wean the people from the notion of the corporal presence, and to turn them to the right use of the ordinance, it had been ordered that the altars in the churches should be removed, and that tables should be used in their stead. Other innovations had followed. The Liturgy had been again revised, and so improved as to disavow the bodily presence in the sacrament, 1 Burnet, H. 97. 64 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Ch. IV. and also any adoration of it in the act of kneeling when it was administered. It also omitted the doc trine of Purgatory, which in the first Liturgy had been implied by prayers for departed souls ; and it forbade the use of all copes and massing-vestments by the clergy. In the first and last of these changes the influence of Hooper's reasonings is apparent. Sundry other rites and ceremonies had been dropped ; and a Confession of Faith, in forty-two articles, — since reduced to thirty-nine, — had been framed, and had received the royal sanction. The bishoprics, too, had been generally filled with those friendly to the Reformation.1 To these innovations a great part of the nobility,2 and many of the chief gentry in the House of Com mons, were opposed, being Romanists in heart. The ordinary clergy generally, and some of the bishops, were averse to most of them. But a regard to their private estates — which would have been confiscated by opposition — prevailed with the disaffected no bility and gentry ; and the punishment of Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, induced the clergy to compliance.3 The Reformers, to use their own words, "had gone as far as they could in reforming the Church, considering the times they lived in." Both Cran mer and the king wished, and intended, a further reformation, — a still nearer approach to apostolical 1 Fox, H. 699, 700. Stow, 604, Burnet, H. 121, 252, 253, 264, 271. 608. Heylin's Ref, 95, 107, 108, Neal, I. 54. Hallam, 59-62. 121. Heylin's Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 5. 2 Strype's Memorials, IV. 69. Collier, V. 420. Strype's Cranmer, s Heylin's Ref, 48. Rapin, H. 272; Memorials, IV. 21,24. Rapin, 11,21. Burnet, H. 112. Hallam, H. 21. Carte, HI. 255, 268, 269. 62. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 65 simplicity in worship, — should circumstances permit. They did not live to perfect their plan ; but had, to the last, avoided all abrupt and unnecessary violence to old prejudices, still seeking " to prepare the people by httle and little, that they might with more ease and less opposition admit the total alteration in the face of the Church which was intended."1 Edward had deceased at Greenwich on the 6th of July, 1553 ;2 and Queen Mary had no sooner made her triumphal entrance to the Tower of Lon don, in August, than she gave signs of severity towards those of the Reformed rehgion. In a few weeks, she had ordered the prompt departure of all foreign Protestants, and had given such other in dications of her bloody policy, that hundreds of English — clergymen, noblemen, tradesmen, and common people — hastened to escape for their lives. The exiles had taken refuge in Strasburg, Zurich, Embden, and other places where the Reformed religion was established; but the company whom we have introduced were the first English-born who had taken shelter in Frankfort.3 1 Heylin's Ref, 34, 57. Carte, IH. but fall back entirely upon the 221. Burnet, H. 97. Neal, I. 55, same original authority, — the only 56. Hume, H. 463. one which is full and reliable, mi- 2 Cecil's Journal ; Murdin, 745. nute, documentary, and dispassion- 3 The sketches of the disturban- ate. From it I derive all the par- ces at Frankfort, which are given ticulars of those " Troubles," which by Strype, Collier, Pierce, and I have given in these two chapters ; others, are all derived from a book making references only to points commonly referred to under the not readily discoverable in the title of " The Troubles at Frank- " Discours " itself. Its true title is fort." Therefore, in my own ac- " A Brieff Discours off the troubles count, in this chapter and the next, begonne at Franckford in Germany I make no citations of the writers Anno Domini 1554. Abowte the mentioned, except in a few cases ; Booke off common prayer and Cere- vol. i. 9 66 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Ch. IV. Fritz Hansen was evidently trying hard, not only to minister to the necessities of his guests, but to make them feel that they had found a home. He and his good wife made as much commotion in kitchen and lodging-rooms, were as loud and impor tant towards their servants, as though they had been entertaining the family and retinue of a prince. It was not enough that the strangers were pressed with a bountiful meal; Fritz insisted that they should join his family circle ; and leaving them there to while away the twilight of a mild summer evening by telling about their country, and enjoying the sympathy and wonder of their hostess and her gossips, he went away, he said, to the duties of his calling. But the evening had not far advanced1 when he broke in upon their quiet talk with a companion who wore a plain, scholar-like habit; and turning his bright face to the guest with whom he had before conversed, and rubbing his hands with an air of intense glee, he said abruptly, " My good sir, I have found you Master Valeran Polan ; and, Master Valeran, this is — is — this is Master — " " Whittingham," said the Englishman, extending his hand eagerly to the clergyman. monies," &c, &c. It was first England Historical and Genealogi- printed in 1575 ; reprinted in 1642 ; cal Register, V. 314, it is positively again, in the Phoenix, in 1707-8; ascribed to him, but without rca- and yet again, and from the origi- sons given. McCrie's reasoning is nal black-letter edition of 1575, by plausible ; perhaps satisfactory. John Petheram, London, 1846, a As a part of Puritan history, copy of which edition is before me. the " Discours" is of great value; In the Introduction to it is quoted but its value would be essentially an argument by Professor McCrie increased by exegetical and histor- of Edinburgh, to show that the writ- ical notes by some competent and er of the " Discours " was probably painstaking editor. Whittingham himself. In the New 1 Discours, p. 5. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 67 " This is very, very kind," continued Whittingham. " Master Valeran, I thank you ; we all thank you." "Master Whittingham is welcome, — welcome, — welcome," said the minister in English, and with a hearty grasp of the hand and a face beaming with benevolence. " The good Lord hath been kind in sending you to my friend Fritz." Master Valeran Polan looked inquiringly at the new faces before him, which Master William Whitting ham interpreting, he introduced him to his friends, — Master Edmond Sutton, Master William Williams, Master Thomas Wood, and " their companies," as the chronicler phrases it.1 Although personally un known to them, his name, as a worthy pastor of one of the refugee churches, was familiar to all but Whittingham, whose travels had almost exactly coincided with Valeran's residence in England. To avoid persecution under Charles V. in Strasburg, he had taken refuge in Glastenbury, in Somerset shire, in 1550 ;2 and to avoid the like under Mary, he had taken second refuge in Frankfort, in the autumn of 1553. In each instance, like a good shepherd, he had taken his flock with him.3 Great was the joy of the new-comers to meet, in a strange city, one who spake their own language, and whom they could trust for counsel and friendly service. After congratulating them with true heartiness upon their safe arrival, Master Valeran inquired, " How did you get from England ? You could not come by passport of French people or of German people under color of being their servants ; for the 1 Discours, p. 5. s McCrie, 98, note. 2 Ante, pp. 48, 49, note. 68 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Cn. IV. French and the Germans did all come last year. Why do you laugh?" he added, seeing smiles and significant looks around the circle. "Do I speak bad English?" "No, no, good sir," answered Master Sutton. "We were laughing at Master Whittingham. He got us out of England. We were thinking how he did it." " Did he do it laughably ? " "It was in this way," answered Master Sutton. " While we were stopping at Dover, our host would fain have us before the Mayor, to say who we were, and why we woidd cross the sea. This put us in great trouble, for doubtless it would have ended in our going to prison. Therefore we tried much to be rid of it. Whereupon the man insisted, and became angered. Master Whittingham, being will ing to talk about anything else, pointeth him to a noble dog which lay there, and saith, 'Mine host, you have here a very fair greyhound.' 'Ay, ay,' saith he, 'a very fair greyhound indeed. He be of the queen's kind.' Whereat Master Whittingham did look very stern and fierce, and saith, 'Go to, sirrah ! Do you dare to speak foul words of her Majesty ! ' At which our host, much amazed, said he had spoken no foul words. 'Marry! but you did,' saith our friend, ' and you shall answer for it. At a pretty pass be things in Dover, an a paltry inn-keeper may speak treason against our gracious queen and go unwhipt!' Whereat he, becoming exceeding pale, exclaimeth, ' Treason ! God knoweth I speak no treason ! ' ' Nay, but you did ; and my friends here be witnesses. In good sooth, my con- Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 69 science biddeth me to your Mayor to report your speech. I warrant me he will sift your traitor heart. My company shall keep you while I do mine errand.' Upon which words the poor craven trembleth much, and saith very humbly, ' Good sir, pray tell — ' ' Nay, nay,' saith Master Whittingham, choking off his words, 'peace with your traitor tongue ! ' ' But good sir, kind sir, dear sir,' saith the other, for he was growing very worshipful, ' tell me, I pray, what treason ? ' ' What treason ! what treason! Enow to hang you, — to say that our sacred queen be of the dog kind ! No good subject will hear such words and hold his peace.' Whereat our poor host was in terrible fright; and Master Whittingham did scare him much more withal, until he was fain to spare us the Mayor, an we would spare him. And so we settled our quar rel. That is the way, good sir, we got out of Eng land."1 Master Valeran now laughed too ; and then spake of annoyances which he and his church had en countered upon leaving England, and also of their good home in Frankfort. "My good friends," he then said, " I have told you of myself and of my people. Tell now, what Valeran Polan can do for you." "We have little with us," said Master Whitting ham. "We could not bring our fortunes." He himself, to preserve his religion and conscience, had .left behind an estate of eleven hundred pounds sterling a year ; a great estate in those times.2 " We 1 N. Eng. Hist, and Gen. Register, 2 Toid. ; and 1 Mass. Hist. Soci- V. 150. ety's Collections, V. 206. 70 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Ch. IV. must earn our daily bread and worship God. An you can help us to these, you will do us great favor." "With my biggest heart I shall try. What can be done first for the daily bread? I see Master Whittingham is one scholar. The printers of Frank fort will be glad to give work to you of reading their Latin and their Greek. Then you can say the French tongue and the German tongue, which will be great help. The Lord will provide for Master Whittingham; that is plain. And Master Williams and Master Sutton and Master Wood, and all, can find something to do in the like business, or some other ; for sure all the good people of Frankfort will be proud to help the English people of the Lord. Shall they not do kindness to them as much as the good people do in Strasburg and other towns? If the Lord please, they shall do more. Do not trouble about the daily bread." "We are quite as anxious," said Master Whitting ham, "to secure the privilege of Christian wor ship." " Sure ! sure ! " responded Master Valeran. " I have large thought for the worship. Now you see, my friend, this Frankfort is a free city. The magis trates make what laws and do what things they please ; only they must not offend the Emperor. So I did go to Master John Glawberge, — he is one of the chief senators, — and I ask him to let such of my people as come with me out of England for the Gospel have a place to worship God. Then he did move the magistrates, and they did give me a httle church ; and many who did come from Glas- Ch. IV.] ' THE MARIAN EXILES. 71 tenbury do worship there.1 So you see, you have place and permit ready for you, for the preaching and the praying and the sacraments." "But your congregation are not English," said Master Sutton. "There be no English here but you. They be all Frenchmen who did live in Glastenbury, — my people." "Then your worship is in the French tongue," said Master Sutton, despondingly. "God be praised," added Master Wood, "that he hath moved the hearts of the magistrates to show the French such favor. But only few of us under stand the language ; and there will be many more coming here anon from England who also do not understand it." " It is bad ! " said Master Valeran, sadly ; " it is very bad. Why did I not think of that ? " This led to a conversation upon the question whether a like privilege might be obtained for the English, — a question much embarrassed by the well- known political and religious jealousies of the Em peror.2 Master Valeran looked very grave, and shook his head doubtingly. In this perplexity, the com pany parted with their kind friend, who bade them good night, saying, "Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? and why art thou disquiet in me ? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him. He is the health of my countenance and my God." The next day, — having taken leave of their gen erous host and hostess, for quiet quarters in the house of " one Adrian, a citizen there," — they were 1 Discours, 5. a McCrie, 98. 72 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Ch. IV. visited again by Valeran Polan, accompanied by Mas ter Morellio and Master Castallio ; the first a minister, and the last an elder, in the French church, " both of them godly and learned men." Upon consultation with these, it was determined in the first place to petition the magistrates that an unmolested residence in Frankfort might be assured for the English just arrived, and for all others of their countrymen who might come thither for the same cause. To this request, a favorable answer was returned on the third day after it was presented ; which encouraged the exiles next to seek the great object of their wishes. This they did forthwith; and through the aid of Castallio and Morellio, — "who during their lives showed themselves fathers to all Englishmen," — and of Master John Glawberge, before mentioned, the Senate were pleased, on the 14th of July, to grant them the use, but at different hours, of the same building granted to the French; with liberty there to preach and administer the sacraments, and to conduct the other ordinary religious exercises in their own language. The only condition of this grant was, that the English should not differ from the French in doctrine or ceremonies, and should first subscribe the same confession of faith; or, at least, should not differ in either respect any further than should, by the others, be freely allowed and agreed upon. This condition was "a prudent pre caution dictated by the political circumstances of the city," x and was thankfully complied with by the petitioners, and by others who had arrived, in the mean time, direct from England. The whole body 1 McCrie, 98. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 73 then agreed upon an order of religious services, in which they were to follow chiefly the second service- book of King Edward ; omitting, however, the use of the surplice, the general supplication or htany, all responses after the minister, and " sundry things touching the ministration of the sacraments"; all which were "by common consent omitted as super stitious and superfluous," and because they "would seem more than strange in those reformed churches" with whom their lot was cast. "It was further agreed upon, that the minister, in place of the Eng lish confession, should use another, both of more effect, and also framed according to the state and time." These changes from the English forms were made with perfect harmony; a brief form of dis cipline was drawn up, a subscription to which was required of ah as a condition of church-membership ; a minister and deacons were elected to serve the congregation for the present; and, on the 29th of the month, they entered their church, and to their great joy commenced public worship, having two sermons on that day. The desire of Edward VI., of Cranmer, and 6f Ridley, to attain to simpler and yet simpler forms of worship and discipline 1 was the desire of many others ; and had been cherished to the time of the king's death by those who were now refugees at Frankfort.2 This was doubtless one reason for the religious changes there made. But another, and the chief one, was imperative. The conditions imposed by the magistrates were reasonable, and left the 1 Pierce, 44. Neal, I. 55, 56. 2 Heylin's Ref, 92 ; Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 5. vol. r. 10 74 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Cn. IV. strangers no alternative, unless they should seek another home, — a fact not to be overlooked for a moment hi examining the "Troubles at Frankfort." The exiles had some peculiar reasons for rejoicing and thanksgiving which deserve our notice. First, that even in a Protestant country they had found a place of refuge. " The enmity, at that day, between Calvinists and Lutherans, was as fierce as that be tween Reformers and Catholics."1 The Lutheran churches held in abhorrence all who denied the dogma of " the corporal presence " ; and even avowed, that, rather than tolerate such heretics, they would turn back again to the Church of Rome.2 So far did they carry their hate, as to deny the common charities of humanity to those who held, on this point, with Zwingle and Calvin, Peter Martyr and the Reformers of England. When, therefore, Rogers and Cranmer, Ridley and others, had suffered for Christ at the stake, they were but " the Devil's martyrs " in the Lutheran vocabulary ; 3 and when others fled for life to the Continent, they were driven like dogs, with abuse and insidt, from every port and town and hearthstone where the disciples of Luther prevailed. Thus it was a matter of pecu liar rejoicing that they found any places of refuge ; that the disciples of Zwingle and Calvin — as at Strasburg, Frankfort, Embden, Basil, Doesburge, Zurich, Arrow, and Geneva — received them with more than kindness, and granted them liberty of 1 Motley's Dutch Republic, n. 69. cos esse martyres diaboli." Melanc- 2 Heyl. Presb., Bk. I. Sec. 1. thon apud Heylin, 250; Lingard, 8 " Vociferantem martyres Angli- VH. 206, note. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 75 religious worship. Geneva even allowed them to "adopt the form of worship which pleased them best." a Again, the exiles were many; and many were poor. It was land to receive them in their distress and poverty ; but it was generous, noble, — that more considerate and delicate kindness of giving them opportunities to minister, at least in part, to their own wants by their own labors. While some devoted themselves to study, others made their time available by teaching schools, by writing books, by overseeing and correcting the press.2 Nor were they forgotten by men of heart and substance at home. Money was liberally contributed and sent to them from London and other towns in England ; until Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who had his spies at every man's elbow, discovered it, and " swore so to stop their supplies, that for very hunger they should eat their own nails, and then feed on their fingers' ends."3 He could cut off supplies from England; but not the flowing of other fountains. Where the banished sojourned, God had people ; and God's people there had gold, and gave it. Princes, and others of wealth and estate, sent benevolences to these needy ones; and the senators of Zurich, in particular, opened their treasury for them.4 1 Strype's Cranmer, 353, 354. 2 Strype's Cranmer, 354. Ful- Collier, VI. 645, note ; from which ler, Bk. VHI. p. 36. it appears, to his immortal honor, 3 Strype's Memorials, V. 403. that the gentle Melancthon warmly i Strype's Cranmer, 360 ; Grin- condemned this uncharitable treat- dal, 89 ; Annals, LH. 349. Fuller ment and these indecent reproaches. Bk. VHI. pp. 35, 36. Grindal to See also Mosheim, IV. 376, note. Cecil, Jan. 1563-4, in Wright's Neal, I. 66. Hallam, 105. McCrie, Elizabeth, I. 163. 98,note. Hist.andGen.Reg.,V.311. 76 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Cn. IV For their rehgious immunities, the English refu gees at Frankfort were distinguished; for "the like benefit could nowhere else as yet be obtained." Moreover, they Avere of one mind ; their commodi ties of living were more, and their charges less, than they had found elsewhere ; and not a man of the magistrates or common people of the city but met them daily Avith kind faces, kind hearts, and kind deeds. Thus situated, they took thought for their breth ren in Strasburg, Zurich, and other places, and wrote to them on the 2d of August, stating these particu lars of their condition, and inviting them with great earnestness and affection to come and dwell with them. They urged Avith emphasis, and as their chief persuasive, that " no greater treasure or sweeter comfort could be desired by a Christian man, than to have a church wherein he may serve God in purity of faith and integrity of life ; which, where we Avould" — in England — "we could not there obtain it"; and reminding them "that, before, we have reasoned together in hope to obtain a church free from all dregs of superstitious cere monies." They also wrote, on the 24th of September, to Master John Knox at Geneva, to Master James Haddon at Strasburg, and to Master Thomas Lever at Zurich, whom they had elected for their ministers ; the burden of the letters being, "We do desire you and also require 1 you in the name of God not to deny us nor to refuse these our requests to preach unto us the most lively Word of God." 1 Beseech. Ch. IV] THE MARIAN EXILES. 77 John Knox was hoav in the ripeness of his days, being forty-eight years of age. He had been one of the six chaplains in ordinary to King Edward, and, like Hooper, had been charged with the duty of itinerant preaching.1 Of course, he had enjoyed the personal favor of the young sovereign. It was through his influence that, in the second correction of the Book of Common Prayer, the notion of " the corporal presence " had been completely excluded. He had been offered a benefice in London,2 and also a bishopric.3 The former he declined, "not will ing to be bound," by taking upon him a fixed charge, " to use King Edward's Book entire " ; and the latter, "as having something in it in common with Antichrist." For several years he had held, and openly avowed, that no mortal man could be head of the Church ; that there were no true bishops but such as themselves preached the Gospel; that the clergy ought not to hold civil places, titles, and dignities; that in religion, especially in the acts of worship, men are not at liberty to adopt their own inventions, but are bound to regulate themselves by the Scriptures ; and that the sacraments ought to be administered exactly according to the institu tion and example of Christ. Of course, he objected to many of the ceremonies of the Church of Eng land ; to the " theatrical dress, the mimical gestures, and the vain repetitions" of her religious service. When asked before the Privy Council, " if kneeling at the Lord's table were not indifferent? " he replied: " Christ's action was most perfect, and in it no such 1 McCrie, 66. 3 Fuller's Abel Redivivus, 320. 2 Strype's Memorials, IV. 72. Strype's Parker, 366. 78 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Ch. IV. posture was used. It is most safe to follow his example. Kneeling is an addition and invention of men."1 After long reasoning with him respecting the points on which he dissented from the estabhshed order of the Church, he was told, " that he was not. called before the Council that they might involve him in any trouble, though they were sorry that he should not agree with the common order." To which he replied, " that he was sorry that the common order should be contrary to Christ's institution." Where upon " with some gentle speeches," he was dis missed.2 Yet, notwithstanding his objections to the cere monies of the English Church, he could conscien tiously officiate therein, for he never submitted to the unlimited use of the liturgy, an absolute con formity to it not being then pressed upon ministers. With these sentiments, he had left England soon after King Edward's death, and arrived in Switzer land about the end of March, 1554. He was reluc tant to leave Geneva ; but, being persuaded by Calvin, he consented, and came to Frankfort on the 16th of November, in obedience to the call of the English refugees.3 " Why are ye sae sad ? " he asked, as he observed with surprise the troubled countenances of Sutton, Whittingham, and others who came to welcome him on his arrival. 1 Knox's rule, rigidly followed, ture the first supper was adminis- would have compelled him to have tered and received. insisted upon a reclining posture for 2 Strype's Memorials, IV. 73. communicants; because in that pos- " Pierce, 36. McCrie, 66-76,94,99. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 79 " The Lord hath seen fit to try our faith sorely," answered Master Whittingham. " The sun hath shone brightly upon us, and just as we begin to sing, ' The lines are fallen to us in pleasant places,' He covereth our sky with clouds." "'His strength is in the clouds,' 0 ye o' little faith ! " answered Master Knox, with energy. " They are his messengers o' gude ; and Avhin they ha' un burdened thimsels, the air is purged, the earth is refreshed, the leaf and the flower laugh i' the sunlight, the birds sing, and the heart o' man is made glad. Dinna ye ken that it is his strength whilk is in the clouds ? Natheless, the puir fleeced sheep canna haud frae tremblin' whin the rain pelt- eth, the mair an it be cauld. But tell me, my fleeced anes, Avhat be the clouds ? " "Dissensions," answered Master Whittingham. " Dis-sen-sions ! " exclaimed Master Knox sharply. " About our order of worship." " I was advised that ye were o' ane mind touching the order o' worship." " We were," replied Master Whittingham, " and with one mind and heart we have invited our brethren hither. About ten days agone cometh Master Richard Chambers from Zurich with letters from the brethren there, in which they say — as they did also in a letter received before — that they will join us here an we stand pledged upon our consciences to use the same order of service con cerning religion which was in England last set forth by King Edward ; and that they are fully determined to admit and use no other." "Alack!" exclaimed Master Knox, "a sair, sair 80 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Ch. IV. thing to invent ceremonies to adorn God's Avorship withal, and then impose their minding.1 Na gude can come o' it a'. It can ainly mak the godly differ. Are these differences Avi' the brethren o' Zurich the clouds o' whilk ye spak?" " It Avere sad enough," replied Whittingham, " an there Avere no others. The dissensions are among ourselves, Master Knox; and have been soAvn by these letters from Zurich.2 Before they came, we Avere of one mind, and happy. Now, some are for our present order; some, for the order of King Edward's Book." "Ha' ye heard frae Strasburg?" " Once ; and a very strange letter, for it did not in any point answer ours. It only signified that they had undertaken to appoint a superintendent8 for us, of Avhich we wrote nothing.4 We had fully determined to have our church served by two or three proper ministers of our otun choosing, and of equal authority. We do not Avish a chief superin tendent; and should Ave, he would be elected by ourselves." 1 McCrie, 53. number whom they might choose, 2 McCrie, 99, 100. to take the oversight of them." 3 The title of " Bishop " was very But the " general letter," as given generally disused in common speech in the " Discours," contains no sem- during the reign of Edward VI., blance of such a request. Ou the and that of " Superintendent " sub- contrary, it was afterward a matter stituted in its place. Strype's Me- of complaint, that the Strasburg morials, IV. 141, 142. McCrie, 408. brethren had attempted such a * Neal has made a mistake on thing. Compare " Discours," pp. this point. His words are : " The 13, 14. The error of Neal is im- congregation at Frankfort sent let- portant only as it hides the fact that ters to these places on the 2d of the Frankfort Church were acting August, 1554, beseeching the Eng- upon anti-prelatic, and even con- lish divines to send some of their gregational, principles. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 81 " An ye tak not to having lords ower God's heri tage, and them nane o' the kirk's election, ye do weel. Hath Master Chambers gane ? " "Yesterday; and with our answer." "And what ha' ye writ?" " That we desire to follow King Edward's Book as far as God's Word will allow; but as for the cere monies, they are not to be used, because some of them can in no wise be tolerated by our consciences, because all are unprofitable, and because, being in a strange commonwealth, we cannot be suffered to put them in use ; and better it were they should never be practised, than the subversion of our church should be hazarded by using them." "Weel, weel, brethren," said Master Knox, when the conversation had been protracted, and he had heard all their griefs thoughtfully, "let us wait on the Lord sae mickle as concerneth happenings ; but we munna put aff duties whilk be plain and o' the day, ane o' whilk is — peace. I canna bide conten tion amang brethren. It be a sair evil, and munna be permitted. I will wark amang ye in the name o' the Lord in the whilk ye ha' sent for me, and my first prayer maun be that ye be o' ane mind. I say nae mair noo about the folk o' Zurich ; but will tak tent o' their epistle in secret. An ye hae anither Avord frae Strasburg, mayhap light will shine where it be unco dark noo." So they broke up their council, and Master Knox betook himself with all the ardor of his soul to preaching the Word and reuniting his flock. On the 29th of November "oure little congrega tion " — which, however, had been increased by new- VOL. I. 11 82 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Ch. IV. comers from England — were assembled to consider a letter from their brethren at Strasburg, instigated by those at Zurich.1 Its bearers, Avho had arrived the day before, were Master Chambers and Master Edmund Grindal ; the latter now thirty-five years of age. He had been educated at Cambridge; was a preacher of great repute in the days of King Edward ; had been one of his chaplains ; 2 and two years before — young as he then was — had been offered a bishopric, but had been prevented from entering upon it by the king's illness and death. He had now begun to dislike the garments enjoined upon the clergy by the Church, and also many of her ceremonies.3 After the blessing of the Divine Spirit had been invoked, the letter from Strasburg was read; the chief point of which was, that the last service-book of King Edward should be adopted at Frankfort, as far as might be done. It urged, that " any deviation from that Book would seem to condemn its authors, then suffering and in peril of life for it in England; that such deviation would also give occasion to the Papists to accuse their doctrine of imperfection, and them of fickleness; and that it would cause the godly to doubt the truth, whereof before they were persuaded." " Brethren ! " said Master Grindal, when the read ing of the letter was concluded, " Master Chambers and myself have come, in the spirit of Christian fellowship, to pray the magistrates to grant the English a separate house of worship; but chiefly, 1 McCrie, 100. » Neal, I. 155. 2 Strype's Grindal, 7. Cn. IV.} TILE MARIAN EXILES. 83 to pray them and you that the full order of religious service may be practised here as set forth by our late sovereign lord the king." "Wad ye ha' us tak the hail Buke?" inquired Master Knox, "wi' the ceremonies it commandeth, while the gude folk o' Frankfort amang wha' we dwell canna brook them?" " No, Master Knox," replied Grindal, " we do not wish to insist upon such ceremonies and things as the country cannot bear. We will be content that such be omitted, provided only that we may use the Book in its substance and effect." " What do you mean, Master Grindal, by the sub stance of the Book?" asked Master Whittingham. "Ay," said Master Knox, "what do ye mean preceesly? Master Whittingham putteth the hail matter in a hazle-shell." Master Grindal, after consulting a moment with Master Chambers, replied: "We appear, brethren, as spokesmen for others. We are not commissioned to enter upon a discussion to which an answer to the question would lead. There are three questions which we would have the congregation answer, an it pleaseth them : first, what parts of the Book will ye admit? second, can you procure a place of wor ship for the English by themselves ? and third, can we be assured of a quiet residence if we come hither?"1 After some little deliberation, it was replied, that so much of the Book would be admitted as they could prove to stand with God's Word, and as the magistrates would permit; that as for a separate 1 Strype's Grindal, 10. ^4 THE MARIAN EXILES. [Cn. IV. place of worship, there were political reasons Avhy the magistrates could not move in the matter at present ; and that assurance had from the first been given of the freedom of the city to all Englishmen who might desire it. After some further colloquy, the people separated to give time for the drafting of an answer to the letter from Strasburg. " I confess," said Grindal to Knox when they were alone, " that I have scruples about some parts of the Book of Prayer, about some of the ceremonies, and about the vestments of the clergy. Yet their re jection seemeth to touch the honor of those who established them." " Dinna ye ken," replied Master Knox, " that our gracious sovereign hissel did allow his clergy to step aside frae the letter o' the Buke when their con sciences could na agree wi' it ? Dinna ye ken, that I mysel gat na rebuke frae his Majesty, wha ken'd weel that I did na and wad na use many parts o' it? Certes, his Highness did na think that I dis- respekit him ! " " It is true," said Grindal, thoughtfully. " An he did na think that I disrespekit him in sae doing then, why should ither folk think I disrespect him in sae doing now ? Na, na, Master Grindal, ye knaAV weel that he did na his sel' think the Buke perfect, and sae the Buke itsel confesseth.1 He did mak changes i' his lifetime. He wad hae made mair, an the gude God had sparit his life.2 And ithers wha were zealous for the reformation, and did mend 1 Neal, I. 56, and note. 2 McCrie, 410. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 85 the Buke as it noAV standeth, were o' the same mind and the same purpose wi' his Majesty.1 The Arch bishop his sel' did gang sae far i' the matter, that he drawit up Avi' his ain hand a Buke o' Prayer whilk be reportit an hundred times mair perfect than this whilk we noAV ha', but whilk he could na mak to be used, he being matched Avi' ither clergy sae corrupt wi' Popish notions, and having ither enemies besides.2 Cranmer and Ridley baith did intend to get ane act o' Parliament to blaAV awa the Popish garments frae the clergy. Were they now in our case, amang those wha tak offence at the garments and cere- monies, I mak nae doubt they wad e'en clo the like whilk we ha' done."3 " But consider, Master Knox," said Grindal, " what effect our departure from the order of King Ed ward's Book will have upon those who are now undergoing persecution in England." "We differ naething frae them i' doctrine; and verily nane o' those godly folk Avill stand to the 1 Discours, p. 34, last paragraph such by the discontented at Frank- of letter to Calvin. fort ; whereas it was really the re- 2 The following passage occurs port of one of Cox's side, and he in Pierce's " Vindication," p. 13 : reported it upon his own knowl- " I see no reason to question the edge." This is important, although truth of what is related in the his- no authority is given for the con- tory of the Troubles at Frankfort, eluding statement. I think it can- that Cranmer, Bishop of Canter- not rest upon anything in the bury, had drawn up a Book of Discours; for, if I have read cor- Prayer a hundred times more per- rectly its somewhat blind language feet than this we now have ; that on page 50, the writer traces it no the same could not take place for further than to Bullinger. Did that he was matched with such a he receive it from " one of Cox's wicked clergy and convocation, side " ? AVhich passage Strype speaks of, " Discours, 21. McCrie, 78, 79, as pretended to be the words of 408, 410. Pierce, 44. Bullinger, and handed about as 86 THE MARIAN EXILES. [C«- IV. death in defence o' ceremonies Avhich, as the Buke specifieth, upon just cause may be altered. An they demur to come hither where they may ha' sae great privilege, — an they demur, I say, ainly because o' the braking o' a ceremony, they maun be slenderly taught Avhat be the first principles o' the Gospel o' Christ." 1 "I repeat it, Master Knox, that I have doubts about some things enjoined by the Book. Yet I am accustomed to respect it, and cannot easily turn aside from it." " I ken Aveel that you desire to do the will o' your Master wha is in heaven; and doubt not he Avill mak you to understand his Avill in gude time. I wad na lm' you do that aboot whilk you doubt. You maun follow your conscience while it saith, ' Stick to the Buke.' The ceremonies, and laughable fooleries, and comical dresses,2 winna hurt your ain sel', — I say naething o' some weak brother being led into sin by them, — but John Knox canna use them, wi' his conscience, an he would; and would na, for their silliness, an he could." "What you have now said will be the substance of your answer to our letter, I suppose." "Na, na; I be na prelate to lord it ower God's heritage. But it will be the answer, an Avhat I ha' said agreeth Avi' the minds o' the congregation. And ane thing mair will be the answer, — that an the brethren o' Strasburg tak a journey hither for to establish the ceremonies, it will be mair to their ain charges than to any general gude; for we will practise the Buke ainly sae far as God's Word doth 1 Discours, 25. 2 McCrie, 409. Ch. IV.] THE MARIAN EXILES. 87 assure it, and the state of the country doth per mit." x What Knox had said to Grindal did agree with the minds of the congregation ; and was the sub stance of the answer which they sent to Strasburg four days afterwards. Such too, for the most part, had been their letter of the 1st of November to those at Zurich. 1 Discours, 25, 26. CHAPTER V. THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. Calvin on the English Book. — Advises mutual Yielding. — Strifes.— Agreement. — Dr. Cox arrives. — Disturbs the Worship. — The Pulpit usurped, and the Congregation taunted. — Knox rebukes the Pro ceeding, AND JUSTIFIES HIMSELF. COX AND HIS PARTY ADMITTED TO vote. — They adopt the English Book. — The Magistrates enforce the French Order. — Knox charged with Treason. — He is advised to leave. — His Departure. — The English Liturgy brought in by Artifice. — The original Congregation disperse to other Cities. 1554, 1555. The unhappy differences in the congregation, oc casioned by the letters from Zurich, were increased by the mission from Strasburg. About the 20th of December, hopeless of union with the brethren of those cities, and anxious for harmony, the congrega tion sought " to conclude upon some certain order by common consent," and without delay ; their pre vious order, it would seem, having been only pro visional. At length it was agreed that the order of worship used by the church of Geneva, of which John Calvin was minister, should take place, " as an order most godly and fartherest off from supersti tion." They therefore requested Master Knox to put it into practice, and to administer the sacrament according to it. Although he approved of it, yet, because he would do nothing which might tend to widen and continue a discreditable variance Avith their other brethren, he would not consent to use Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 89 it until they had been consulted.1 Nor would he administer the sacrament according to the Book of England, because, he said, " there were things in that communion service having no warrant in the Bible, and which had also long been superstitiously and wickedly abused in the Mass of the Romish Church." He therefore requested, if he might not be permitted to officiate according to his own conscience, that some other one might do it, and he would only preach; but that, if neither might be granted, he might be released from his charge. To the latter, however, the congregation would by no means con sent. In the mean time, the number of English refugees had increased; some of whom took no small pains to undo the existing order of things, and to bring in place the full use of the English service. In this state of affairs Knox and Whittingham requested Calvin's opinion of the English Book, at the same time sending him a large " description " of it ; for it was hoped that the counsel of one in so high repute, as a learned, discreet, and godly man, and "whose advice had been gratefully received and acknowl edged by Cranmer"2 and his associates, might con duce to unanimity. In his reply, dated January 20th, 1554-5, Calvin said that he saw in the English Liturgy "many tolerable foolishnesses," — " things unapt, but suffer- able," would be a more generous translation of " tolerabiles ineptias," — a phrase at which English writers have taken great offence. But he added : " By these words I mean, that there is not that purity 1 McCrie, 100, and note. 2 Pierce, 26. vol. i. 12 90 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. or perfection Avhich was to be desired ; which imper fections, though they could not at first be remedied, were to be borne with for a time in regard that no manifest impiety was contained in them. It was therefore so far lawful to begin with such beggarly rudiments, that the learned, grave, and godly minis ters of Christ might be thereby encouraged for pro ceeding further in setting out somewhat which might prove more pure and perfect," — the very policy of Cranmer and his co-workers. " If true religion had flourished till this time in England, it had been ne cessary that many things in that Book should have been omitted, and others altered to the better. But now that all such principles are out of force, and that you were to constitute a church in another place, and that you were at liberty to compose such a form of worship which might be useful to the Church, and more conducive to edification than the other did, I know not what to think of those who are so much dehghted in the dregs of Popery A new model is much different from an alteration," — or, as in the translation in " the Discours," " This new order" (which you propose) "far differeth from a change." The substance of his advice was: "As I would not have you too stiff and peremptory, if the infirmity of some men suffer them not to come up unto your own desires ; so I must needs admonish others, not to be too much pleased with their wants and ignorances." In other words, he disliked the Liturgy, but would advise each party to yield some thing of their preferences. This letter we quote somewhat largely, that it may here appear how far removed Calvin was, in this Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 91 instance at least, from austere bigotry and intol erance.1 At first, this letter so far quieted the congregation,2 that another modification of their order of worship was canvassed. But while it was liked by many, it was stoutly resisted by others. Disagreement grew to contention ; contention, to crimination. " New- fangledness " ; " singularity " ; " stirrers of contention and unquietness," — were freely charged upon those who sought for greater simplicity in their ritual. The aspect of affairs became alarming. At this crisis, Master Gilby, startled by such un- christlike wranglings, threw himself upon his knees before them, and besought them with " godly grief" and with tears to reform their judgments ; to protest solemnly that, in this matter, they would not seek the gratification of their own preferences, but God's glory only. " Such," said he, " I am verily persuaded that we, who are so sore charged, are ready to do. In God's holy name, hear me, brethren. Peace, peace, brethren, cost what it may!" Then, stretching his arm upward, as if appealing to Heaven, he added, with the impressive energy of sincerity: "Gladly would I have this right hand stricken off, could the sacrifice bring us to a godly unity ! " The appeal was felt. The wrangling was hushed. The spirit of strife took flight. The Spirit of God prevailed. Shame crept from one to another; and then, grief; and then, penitence. Their hearts 1 I have adopted the translation think easier to be understood than of this letter as given in Heylin's that in the Discours. History ofthe Presbyterians, Bk. I. 2 McCrie, 101. Sec. 17. It is bad English, but I 92 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. warmed, melted, blended. They heard the voice of the Master. The opinions of parties Avere not changed, — the moment had nothing to do with opinions, — but their tempers were ; and they Avere in the right state to receive opinions. Knox, Lever, Parry, and Whitting ham Avere directed " to devise some order, if it might be, to end all strife and contention." As soon as this committee met for conference, Master Knox said, Avith true Christian magnanimity : " I perceive that no end o' contention is to be hoped for unless there be some relenting. For the sake o' quiet, I Avill e'en do my part. I Avill gie my opinion wi' a' honesty o' heart ; Iioav i' my ain judgment may be maist for the edification o' this puir flock. An ye like it not, I will cease, and commit the hail matter to be ordered by ye as ye will answer to Christ Jesus at the last day." After sufficient conference, an order was agreed upon. The party Avho Avished for a more simple form suffered the others to select from King Edward's Book those things for which they were most urgent, as of chief importance ; and to these some other things were added which the position of that particular church seemed to require. This was done upon the condition — to which the congregation agreed — that the order of service thus arranged should continue, without alteration, at least until the last day of April following, when, if any new matter of difference should have arisen, it should be referred to Calvin, Musculus, Martyr, Bullinger, and Viret, and by them be determined. The compact was then put in writ- ing. "Moreover, thanks Avere given to God Avith Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 93 great joy, and common prayers were made, for that men thought that day to be the end of discord." The Lord's Supper, Avhich had been neglected three months, Avas administered as a seal of their agree ment; in Avhich good Master Valeran participated with great joy. This important adjustment was made on the 6th of February, 1554-5. On the 12th of March, a company of stranger Englishmen arrived at the inn of Fritz Hansen. When they had refreshed themselves at his generous board, one of them asked him, somewhat querrdously, whether he had or had not sent for Master Whitting ham and Master Knox. Being answered in the affirmative, the querist turned to one of his com panions, saying in English, "You can manage this German language better than I, Doctor Horn. Will you please catechize the man?" Upon which, Doctor Horn, addressing Fritz, asked, " You know our countrymen in Frankfort ? " "Yes, sir; and proud to say it." "No doubt, no doubt. Englishmen are an honor to any city. But we are told that our countrymen here have not been peaceable among themselves in religious matters." " 0, sir ! that's all over now. It was only for a little while. To-morrow — let me see ! This is the twelfth day of March. Yes — to-morrow will be five weeks since they came to a happy agreement." "Humph! An agreement to be half one thing and half another; half English and half Genevan, — was it not?" 94 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Cu. V. Fritz, wondering not a little at such a way of speaking about Christian harmony, replied, "They have a Liturgy, good sir." "But not like the English." "I am told that some of it is like the English, and some of it not." "So we have heard. But have they continued this neAV way up to this time ? " " Yes, sir ; and under the new way, they live very quietly and happily." " Enough ; if our countrymen for whom we have sent ever come, show them in." It was as Fritz had said. The five weeks since the 6th of February had passed peacefully and hap pily with the English church, under the modified Liturgy agreed upon. The good people of Frank fort, seeing them once more walking in love and worshipping in unity, had almost forgotten the by gone strifes; while the exiles themselves had fol lowed their secular pursuits without distraction, and their worship without bitterness. They had indeed to regret that all their fellow-exiles should not be united in one home and one church ; and especially, that any should stand aloof merely through a rigid reverence for forms, whose civil and ecclesiastical authority had come to an end, whose stability and perfection even their authors had never pretended, and which were displeasing to the Reformed churches among Avhom the exiles had taken refuge. This re gret, however, had not intermeddled with their joy. The company who had just taken possession of Fritz Hansen's hostel were Doctor Richard Cox, Tutor, Almoner, and Privy Councillor of the late Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 95 King Edward,1 Doctor Robert Horn, lately resid ing at Zurich, and "others of great note and qual ity."2 Cox was one of several whom they of Strasburg had officiously proposed to take over sight and charge of the church at Frankfort; and Horn had signed the letter of the 13th of October from Zurich, avoAving a " full determination to admit and use no other order than the last taken in the Church of England." They were soon greeted by the principal members of the English church, and welcomed with honest cordiality. When Doctor Cox announced that he and his companions had come to abide there, Master Whittingham replied with sincerity: "We thank God! Would that all our countrymen who are beyond the paw of the tigress and the spite of the Lutheran were one family, in one tabernacle, and at one altar!" "We do our part, you see, to forward your prayer," replied Doctor Horn. "And now, good sir, we would fain find better commodity of lodging than this hostel, an we may. An your better ac quaintance with Frankfort may serve us in this, we shaU be beholden for your kindness." " We do remember our own needs when we came hither," replied Master Whittingham ; " and how the kind words and good offices of Master Valeran and Master Morellio were like cold water to our fainting spirits. God forbid that we fail in the like to you. An there be Christian hearts in Frankfort, ye shall have entertainment and every brotherly service, anon." 1 Fox, H. 653. Biog. Britan. 2 Heyl. Presb., Bk. VT. Sec. 6. 96 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Cn. V. The offer was as gladly accepted as it was heart ily made ; and all hospitality and kindness were im mediately extended to the new-comers.1 When the order of religious service Avas spoken of, and their hopes expressed that some further return to that of King EdAvard's Book might be attained, they were told unequivocally that the present order could not be changed until the last of April, without breach of a promise which had been established by invoca tion of God's name ; that the holy sacrament had been received as the sure token or seal of the present agreement; and that therefore it would be a sort of sacrilege to change. It was, moreover, frankly stated, that any further adoption of the English Book Avould be offensive to the honest consciences of the church, and Avould hazard the good-will of the citizens and the favor of the magistrates.2 " So, Ave find all things just as we expected, Doc tor Cox," said Doctor Horn, so soon as they were by themselves again. "What with their conscience, as they call it, their seal of agreement, and the magistrates, we are like to have enow to look after in putting down this upstart new-fangledness." " Mark me ! " replied Doctor Cox, with vehemence, "we have come for the very purpose of putting it doAvn;3 and it shall be done. I put not my hand 1 Pierce, 36. Biog. Britan., Article Cox. I can- 2 There is no record that these not help it, that Heylin contradicts statements were formally made to his statement (Bk. I. Sec. 18), that Dr. Cox and his party ; but, under Cox was " brought thither by the the circumstances of the church, it noise of so great a schism," by say- cannot for a moment be supposed, ing (Bk. VI. Sec. 6) that Cox that he was not knowing of them and Horn " found all things contrary before the doings of the next day. to their expectations." What had 8 Heyl. Presb., Bk. I. Sec. 18. been done at Frankfort had not Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 97 to the plough and look back. I have come to repair this broken Avail ; and, if need be, will copy Nehe- miah, Avith his troAvel in one hand and his sword in the other. To the wind with agreements and pledges and consciences, an they go in anything to deface the worthy ordinances and laws of our sovereign lord, King Edward, of most famous mem ory. An I fad in one way, I will invoke another." " But they are so confiding and brotherly," ob jected Doctor Horn, " it will seem like treachery to do violence to their arranging." " Say rather, their dferanging. An Master Knox's conscience turn holy things upside down, and my conscience bid me put them to rights again, pray who should yield? Must I stay reformation, for sooth, because another maketh naughty pledge in God's name and on the sacrament ? Must I be squeamish on the score of common courtesy and common hospitality ? We will try whether will prevad with Englishmen, — the Primer of a vulgar Scot, or the Liturgy of a king ; so mean a fellow as John Knox,1 or the friend and Councillor of Edward the Sixth. We will try it — an the heavens fall, Doctor Horn — at to-morrow morning's prayers." They did try it ; and the first " response " in prayer from their lips — like a discord in soothing music — been done in a corner. Every quieting the church." Of course movement there was well known he meant to do it as he did. by all the exiles elsewhere, and had (Strype's Memorials, V. 410.) In produced no small excitement. Be- this supposititious dialogue, I have sides, we have a letter from Grindal simply aimed to exhibit the object to Ridley, dated May, 1555, in and spirit of Dr. Cox and his asso- which he says expressly, that " Mas- ciates, so deplorably demonstrated ter Cox and others met there " ¦ — at in every step of their proceedings. Frankfort — "for the purpose of -well- 1 Heyl. Presb., Bk. I. Sec. 18. VOL. I. 13 98 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. wrought consternation and grief. The spirit of de votion fell, like a clipped bird. The form of prayer proceeded ; but, to the last "Amen," not a prayer had gone up to God, — nothing but amazement, a sense of wrong, and exultation for a successful plot. Of course there were complaint and commotion. The elders rebuked their guests for so rude a violation of order in a brotherhood by whom they had just been welcomed, and in unsuspecting faith. It was of no avad. The others only retorted, that the dishonor of their country's ritual merited dishonor ; that they would do as they had done in England; that they would have the face of an English church. This was on the 13th of the month, — Tuesday or Wednesday. It does not appear that the precis ians attempted any other outrage during the week; but by some crafty measures, not on record, the pulpit on Sunday forenoon was occupied — abrupt ly, and without the previous consent of the congre gation proper — by a preacher of Cox's party, who read the Litany of King Edward's Book, to which Doctor Cox and his friends gave the responses. Not content with this, the minister in his sermon uttered many taunting and bitter speeches against the past doings and present order of the congregation. Wounded and excited by so barefaced an assault, several of the church urged Master Knox, whose turn it was to preach in the afternoon, to clear them of the defamation.1 This he did; protesting in a spirited manner against the impiety and indecency of renewing differences which had just been recon- 1 For these several particulars, compare pp. 39 and 48 of the Dis- Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 99 cded; "which thing," he said, "became not the proudest of them to have attempted." He added, " that nothing could be righteously imposed upon a Christian congregation, but what had warrant from the Word of God; that in the English Book Avere many things superstitious and impure, which he would not consent should be adopted there ; that if any men Avould go about to burden that free con gregation Avith them, he would not fail upon proper occasion to Avithstand him." Doctor Cox — thinking it proper that a church should be publicly whipped by their guests, and improper that the church should protest — sharply assaded their minister so soon as he had left the pulpit ; particularly for impugning King Edward's Book. " I canna be fashed wi' vain disputings," said the shrewd Scot. "It were muckle pains for meagre gains. Naithless, I wad propound some sma' matter to be reflected aboot. King Edward o' blessed mem ory did set forth twa Bukes ; ane o' whdk was put thegither under Doctor Cox's counselling and advice.1 But it provit sae lame and unperfect, that his Majesty was malcontent, and wad hae a better. Sae also was Doctor Cox his sel' ; wha writ to Master Bullinger when Master Hooper was in trouble about the vest ments, that it had need o' unco tinkering, ' for that a' things i' the church ought to be pure and simple, far removit frae the pomps and elements o' the warld,' 2 — an opinion mair true than whilk the Doctor never spakit. Weel ; anent the auld Buke — whilk 1 Neal, I. 46. Pierce, 36. 2 Strype's Parker, 99. Pierce, 39. McCrie, 409. 100 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. were not abune tAva or three years in gettin' decrepit — anent the auld Buke the gude king's craftsmen, ane o' wham was the same learned Doctor,1 did frame a new ane. This neAV ane ha' met wi' a warse mishap than the ither, whflk cam to a natural death, and whilk the Parliament puttit i' the grave wi' a show o' respect ; for by special act it ha' been con demned wi' shame to no funeral, like ane untimely birth. Twa Bukes — twa Parliaments — twa deaths. Noav, wi' Avhat face Doctor Cox can order me to the use o' a Buke whdk the present law o' his ain country hae branded and forbid to be used, I canna comprehend. Nay, mair; I marvel to hear orders how to pray frae him wha hath twice failed to make a Buke o' Prayers that wad live. We hae a Buke here, Doctor, whilk be alive; while your ain, i' the eye o' the English law, be dead. Noav John Knox, being ane simple man o' his sel', and misdoubting your authority, submitteth his ain puir judgment to the better judgment o' King Solomon, wha writ that a living dog be better than a dead lion." But playful irony availed no more with Doctor Cox, than grave rebuke from the pulpit. He had flung a firebrand upon combustibles, and he would fan it. Many words passed to and fro, but with no other result than to fix upon Tuesday to canvass this new-blown variance. But on Tuesday, the purpose to insure respect for the violated order of worship was forestalled. Upon the very threshold of their deliberations, it was moved to admit Doctor Cox and his party to vote upon all questions. " Are they not Christians ? " it 1 Strype's Memorials, IV. 20. Cn. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 101 Avas urged. " Are they not of the same country 1 Are they not in the same exile ? of the same nation al communion ? of the same doctrine ? Why bar them from the full privileges of Christ's English family in Frankfort ? " " Suppose all these things true," it Avas replied, "they hold another mind on the question before us. First settle the question; then, the admission. Again, they should first comply with the condition, to which Ave have all submitted, to subscribe our discipline. And yet again, we doubt that they are of the same doctrine, and do suspect some of them, at least, of Popery ; of having been at Mass at home ; ay, of having their names now subscribed to wicked and blasphemous articles, not sparing this well-grounded suspicion of the very minister Avho brake our order on Sunday and chastised us in his sermon." 1 " For these considerations and such like," says the chronicle, " the congregation withstood the admission of Doctor Cox and his company." At last Master Knox gave his voice. "Thraw open the door ; thraw open the door ! An there be Papist hypocrite amang them, the sin be on his ain head. We hae gied them the honest shake o' the hand, the kiss o' charity, the gude faith o' brethren. We hae brakkit wi' them our crust, and shared Avi' them our cup, our hames, our chambers, and our sanctuary. Let us gie them a' ! Let them ne'er gang awa saying, ' We came i' the name o' Christ, i' the name o' Mither Church, i' the name o' England, and when we knockit at the wicket o' the privy congre gation, they bad us begane!' I ken weel their 1 Compare pp. 39, 48 of the Discours. 102 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V hankerings. They ken Aveel our mislikings. An we gie them a' we hae to gie, — an Ave gie them the anely thing Ave hae not gied, — they canna look us i' the face, and lift up the heel anent the simple way whflk we hae elected to worship God, — the way to whilk we hae tied the strings o' our hearts. They canna be sae cruel to brak doon our Bethel and mak it a Baca. The street-stanes o' Frankfort wad cry out ! " Master Knox's " intretie " and influence prevafled with so many as, joined to the proposers of the measure, made a majority. The new company were admitted ; and were enough, Avith those of the original congregation who favored the Liturgy, to control the whole. The axe was then struck at the root of the tree. Doctor Cox forthwith procured a vote which "forbade Knox to meddle anye more in that congregation. Thus was he put-owt by those which he brought in." " What now ! at odds again ! " said Master John Glawberge, the next day, when Master Whittingham broke these doings to him, — " at odds again ! " " Good sir ! we are a chaos, at best. My heart misgiveth me that Ave are worse. There be dl spirit on both parts. Wherefore I fear lest mayhap, when another is set up to preach this day in Master Knox's stead, — which they intend to do, — it be so ill taken that we come to shameful disturbance. Therefore, lest there should be happening of such, I have thought good to make you privy to our state." " Right, Master Whittingham ! A pious hell would be a bad example to the people of Frankfort ; who Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 103 have been bred to the notion — poor simple souls ! — that a church should be something like heaven. Go your Avay, Master Whittingham ! You shall have no sermon at all, this day. I shall give such commandment, and shall take other measures to end your Avranglings." The good Senator did his best. He immediately ordered a conference of the two parties by a com mittee of each; Cox and Lever for the one side, Whittingham and Knox for the other, with Master Valeran — at whose house they met — for their mod erator and scribe ; the magistrate conjuring them to devise some good order upon which they could agree, and conxmanding them to report the same to him. But "You shall" and "You sha' n't," "I will" and "I won't," from Doctor Cox, broke up the confer ence.1 The aggrieved party then sent a memorial to the Senate, complaining of the violation of their cove nant and liberty; urging, Avith prophetic accuracy, that, if this was connived at or suffered by the mag istrates, the controversy would be perpetuated in England; and petitioning that they would decree an arbitration of the whole matter by the referees named in the agreement of the 6th of February. This brought Master Glawberge before the con gregation on the next day, — the 22d. "Adopt the doctrine and ceremonies of the French church," said he, " or quit the city. Consult together ; take your choice ; and give me your answer before you dis perse." Driven to this extremity, Doctor Cox announced 1 Page 40 ofthe Discours, and page 11 ofthe Introduction. 104 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. to the congregation that he had discovered a Liturgy besides the English one which Avas orthodox and sufferable! "I have read the French order," said he, " and consider it good and godly in all points. I move its adoption." Whereupon the whole congregation gave consent ; which Avas immediately reported, by a committee, to Master Glawberge, who Avas in waiting. Cox, one of the committee, Avas all smiles, deference, and repent ance. " We confess, Master Glawberge," said he, "that our behavior hath been ill. We pray for giveness ; and that you continue to shoAV us your accustomed favor and goodness." This the magistrate gently and lovingly promised ; fancying, good man, — for Doctor Cox had thrown dust in his eyes, — that the troublesome disturbance was over. Not so. The Coxian party were as resolute to establish the English Liturgy as before. Their bland assent to the French order was a feint to cover their purpose ; a the greatest obstacle to which was — - the reputation and influence of Master John Knox. In those days, kings and queens were very sen sitive; very jealous of their authority, — so jealous as to fancy a spectre on every bush, — or treason in a thousand cases where was no treason at all. A word, a look, a bit of mystery, would excite suspicion. To be suspected was to be a traitor; and then hanging or beheading came with little ado, — per chance with none. Of course, a death-warrant trod close on the heels of a, plausible accusation. The two 1 Discours, p. 49. Compare McCrie, 104. Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 105 might almost be said to enter a man's door together ; and to walk out with him to the scaffold in a twink ling. We may imagine, therefore, the fright of Master Whittingham before the magistrates, on the morning after Master Glawberge's visit at the Eng lish chapel. "Master John Knox is a minister in your con gregation : what manner of man is he ? " "In troth, a learned, wise, grave, godly, sirs." " Ay ! say you so ? " " Verdy, your worships ; and of my knowledge." " So say not some of your countrymen. You speak upon knoAvledge ? " " The knowledge of years." "WeU, Aved, Master Whittingham, we have held the like mind ourselves. Nevertheless, we may not shut our ears to contrary complaints. Here is a book, sir," — passing it into his hands. " It hath been brought to us by certain of your countrymen. You see it is in the English tongue. Translate to us the title-page ; — we see Master Knox's name there." "'An Admonition of Christians concerning the Present Troubles of England.' It is, sirs, a sermon preached by Master Knox in Buckinghamshire, a county of England, in the beginning of Queen Mary's reign." " In England ! How came it here ? " " It seemeth they who produced it to your wor ships should best know." " It is a novel thing for magistrates in Germany to sit in judgment on a discourse spoken in England. Howbeit, here it is ; and we cannot dismiss it. Your countrymen of whom we just spake have accused VOL. I. 14 106 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. Master Knox before us, and in nine separate arti cles, of high treason against the Emperor. A serious charge, worthy sh, which by our aUegiance and our office we are bound to examine. They say this book doth contain proofs of it, in certain places which they have marked. We do not understand the English tongue enough to judge with certainty whether those passages are proofs or not. We com mand you, therefore, to take the book to your house, and to bring to us, at one of the clock this afternoon, a translation of them in Latin. And Ave also charge you, on your perd, that you do therein convey the true and perfect sense of the English words. We repeat it, sir : fad not, at your peril, to give the true and perfect sense." Poor Whittingham! The book weighed in his hand like a millstone ; for he perceived at a glance that there was treason enough in it, according to the construction of imperial courts. What with his sense of Knox's jeopardy, and his horror at so atrocious a conspiracy " to despatch him out of the way," because the complainants "were offended at his sermon," v and " for no other end than that they might with more ease attain the thing which they so greeddy sought, — the use of the English Book," 2 — he went his way in great distress. Besides, there was his own ddemma, — either to become himself, in the eye of the law, an accomplice in treason if he refused his task, or, if he complied, to become a party in the bloody plot against a guiltless brother. "What shall I do?" he asked in great conflict of mind ; " what shall I do, Master Knox ? " 1 Introduction to Discours, p. 11. 2 Discours, p. 44. Ch V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. XQfl " Your duty ; i' fair, clerkly letters and honest Latin, at one o' the clock preceesly. Dinna greet Idee a wee bairn, or an aidd wife ! Tak to the writing, man ! " " But they are terrible words ; these most of all," — and he read : " ' 0 England, England, if thou wdt obstinately return into Egypt, that is, if thou contract marriage, confederacy, or league with such princes as do maintain and advance idolatry, such as the Emperor, (Avho is no less enemy to Christ than was Nero,) if for the pleasure and friendship (I say) of such princes thou return to thine old abominations before used under Papistry: then as suredly (0 England) thou shalt be plagued and brought to desolation by the means of those whose favor thou seekest, and by whom thou art procured to fall from Christ and serve Antichrist.' An these words come to judgment, Master Knox, your life be not worth a straw." " Sae do I count it, i' the wark o' Him wha gied his life for John Knox and a' the household o' faith ; and sae I tauld Master Isaack o' Kent threatening this same thing." " Master Isaack ! and threatened this ! When ? Where ? " " Nay, not this thing preceesly. But I ken, now, he meant it. It was when you and I, and Doctor Cox, and Master Lever, did confer at Master Valeran's house at command o' Master Glawberge. Master Isaack cometh to my house, and moveth me privily to cool my earnestness anent the English Buke. To the whdk I did mak answer, that my misliking wad na cool nor keep sdence. Anon, he did assay to M)8 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Cn. V. wheedle wi' fair speech, promising favor and profit an I wad relent. After Avhdk, seeing he could na bribe, he did fa' to muckle threatening. Thereupon I makkit answer, that I Avad Avish my name to perish, an by that means God's Buke and God's glory might anely be seekit and prevail. Whereat he did gang awa i' muckle Avrath'; Avhdk Avas na the had mat ter." "Make a clean breast, Master Knox, of this strange affair, I beseech you," said Whittingham in amazement. "I Avould fain knoAV the Avhole." " By counsel o' certain priests, some plot Avas put thegither to cast me into prison ; and, understanding it, he did declare that he ken'd Aveel I could na escape it. This maun be the plot ; and he is mine accuser, — he and Master Parry." "What priests?" " Doctor Cox, — not able to endure a baffle fra' sae mean a fellow as mysel,1 — Doctor Bale, Master Tur ner, and Master Jewell.2 They did bethink themsels, I ween, o' the cry o' the auld Pharisees, — 'This man be not Caesar's friend'; and sae they accuse me o' treason; albeit they love the Emperor na mair than the auld double-faced Jews loved Caesar."3 "Horrible ! " exclaimed Master Whittingham. "But why have you not made this known?" "You are the first to tell me they ha' done it. I ken'd anely a plot o' some kind, and wha were the advisers, and wha wad do the wark. I did na think they wad ha heart to do sic things ; sae I held my peace." 1 Heyl. Presb., Bk. I. Sec. 18. 3 Introduction to Discours, pp. 2 Strype's Memorials, V. 406. 11,12. Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. \§Q "You did wrong. You ought to take care for your safety." "I dinna ken; I dinna ken. While I was na sure what thing they Avad do, nor sure they wad do anything, I Avad na expose their wicked schem- ings. It Avad ha' been a needless reproach to the name o' Christ.1 Noav, man, put John Knox's words to Latin. Write and gang awa'." "You had better go aAvay yourself," exclaimed Whittingham, catching suddenly at Knox's words. "Nay, John Knox wdl na rin frae barkin' dogs. The interpretation thereof wad be, ' Cowardly and gudty ' ; baith o' whilk be false." "WiU you walk into the hon's den?" "I am i' the hand o' the Lord. Let Him do wi' me as he please." When Whittingham presented his translation,2 the magistrates directed that Knox should desist from preaching, untd their further pleasure ; in which he quietly acquiesced. He attended worship, however, the next day. But no sooner did his accusers see him there, than they left the congregation, declaring vehemently that they would not stay where he was.3 When the services were concluded, Whittingham and Williams were summoned before the magistrates, and informed that the enemies of Master Knox had just shown such impatience for his swift prosecution, that there was reason to fear they would transfer 1 Introduction to Discours, pp. s McCrie, 105, note, cites Calder- 11, 12. wood MS., I. 255. 2 Discours, 44. Ao THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. the complaint to the Emperor's Council, then at Augsburg ; that, should such a step be taken, Mas ter Knox must be dehvered up either to the Coun cd or to Queen Mary,1 Avith small chance of life ; and that the magistrates revolted at being concerned in a proceeding so " bloody, cruel, and outrageous." They therefore privdy requested Williams and Whit tingham to urge Master Knox's voluntary and quiet 2 departure from their jurisdiction. This, although privately and kindly done, was equivalent to an order Avhich ought to be obeyed ; and to an honor able discharge, by which he was willing to profit. On the evening of the 25th, about fifty of his devoted friends gathered at his house, when he comforted them by preaching of the future bless ings secured for his people by the death and resur rection of their Lord. The next day he took his departure for Geneva, accompanied a few mdes by some of his friends, who there took leave of him, " committing him to the Lorde with great heavinesse off harte and plentie off teares." 3 " My good brother ! " said Master Valeran at part ing, "put in your heart one mite of charity for Doctor Cox. It will work like as the woman's httle leaven in her mess of meal. You know he did love King Edward much, for he did teach him when a little boy-prince. What wonder if he say in his much fond love, 'My dear king, when he bid good by for heaven, did not need the Book for praying there, so he did leave it for a memory of himself So Doctor Cox love it much for King Edward's sake. 1 McCrie, 106. " Discours, 45. McCrie, 121,125. 2 Ibid. Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. HI " But that is not all. Think of the owl to whom the eagle did promise not to eat her children. She did teU him that he would know them to be of her by their pretty faces and sweet voices. Well, one day he did find them. They did look so ugly and screech so, that he did say, ' Sure these are not her children,' and ate them aU up. It was a mistake of the mother ; and she did mistake because she was the mother. Just so men fathers and men mothers do mistake of their chddren. Now that which makes us think too much of the child of the body, makes us think too much of the chdd of the brain. What is it ? It is one law of Nature, — to the owl, to the woman, to the man, to you, to the Doctor. Now the Book is hi some sort a child of his brain, for he did help make it. What wonder, then, if he make so big mistake, poor father man, as the mother owl did make ? What wonder if he blame the hon est Scot eagle ? Good by ! God be with you ! " 1 Thus, although neither his imprisonment nor his blood was on their hands, the partisans of the Eng- 1 I have here brought to view, in them! I know there be white which I oun-ht to do, what I con- teeth in the blackest Black-moor; ceive to have been a secret spring and a black bill in the whitest Swan. of the wrong conduct of a good Worst men have something to be man; and the only apology of which commended; best men, something his case admits. in them to be condemned. Only to There is a choice aphorism of Ful- insist on men's faults, to render ler's, pregnant with instruction and them odious, is no ingenious " — sic beautiful in spirit, which I cannot — " employment. God, We know, help transcribing here, because it is so useth his fan, that he keepeth in point : " AVhat a monster might the corn, but driveth away the chaff. be made out of the best beauties in But who is he that winnoweth so as the world, if a limner should leave to throw away the good grain, and what is lovely, and only collect into retain the chaff only ? " — Eccles. one picture what he findeth amiss History, Bk. X. pp. 27, 28. 112 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. lish Liturgy were rid of Master Knox. They had the field clear for intrigue, and plied certain secret practices with so much art as to entangle Master Glawberge himself in their tods. Much to his astonishment, he found himself committed — by the pledges of a kinsman Avho acted as his proxy, and "whom Doctor Cox and the rest had won unto them" — to "unsay" his order for the French ser vice, and to permit them the use of the English Book. They who Avere aggrieved by these proceed ings assayed "to join themselves to some other church " ; to prevent which, Doctor Cox obtained the interference of the civil authority. They remained, however, for a Avhde, and expostulated Avith the others. But finding it in vain, and that, by means of " scoffs and taunts," their condition was becoming intolerable, they took their departure ; some for Basil and some for Geneva. David Whitehead was then chosen pastor of the church remaining ; 1 who soon fell into long and sad dissensions, which resulted in another rupture.2 1 Fuller, Bk. "VTII. p. 31. Crie, 104, refers to Calderwood a " Upon his return to Geneva, MS., I. 254. Knox committed to writing a narra- AVhat a strange representation of tive of the causes of his retiring this affair is that given by Burnet from Frankfort. This he intended (H. 528) ! "Dr. Cox, being to publish in his own defence ; but, a man of great reputation, procured on mature deliberation, resolved to an order from the Senate that the suppress it, and to leave his own English forms should only be used character to suffer, rather than ex- in their church Knox, be- pose his brethren and the common ing a man of hot temper, engaged cause. His narrative was pre- in this matter very warmly; and served by Calderwood. It contains got his friend Calvin to write some- the names of the persons who ac- what sharply of some things in the cused him to the Senate of Frank- English service. This made Knox fort, and of their advisers." — Mc- and his party leave Frankfort and Ch. V.l THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. H3 We have thus passed in review the opening acts of a long and eventful drama, — the first conten tion, and the first breach, in the English Reformed Church; giving to our recitation the more minute ness, because each incident and change of scene sheds its own separate light upon the aims and principles of the actors. In some strong points, the affair with Hooper and that at Frankfort Avere alike. Hooper objected to a robe ; Knox, to a book. The scaffold was planned for Hooper; and the scaffold for Knox. Hooper was forbidden to serve God without a bishopric ; Knox and his friends, to worship God without a liturgy. But here the paraUel ends. Cranmer pleaded the law of the realm ; Cox had no law to plead. Cranmer was inclined to yield ; Cox scorned concession. Cranmer was entangled in a broil ; Cox took a journey to make one. Cranmer and his bish ops contended in open field ; Cox and his clique were go to Geneva. Knox had also edit., 242) : " Knox held and pub- written indecently of the Emperor, lished some dangerous principles which obliged the Senate of Frank- about government, which were so fort to require him to be gone out disliked by the chief of the English of their bounds." One does not divines there, as Cox, Bale, Turner like to trust himself in making com- of Windsor, Jewell, and others, that ment on such a statement. I am they thought it fit, and that for inclined to think, however, that their own security, to disown him Burnet may have been innocent of publicly, not only by discharging intentional misrepresentation ; for him from the ministry, but also by his works show that he was not a making open complaint against him man remarkably profound or clear- to the magistrates. And so Mr. headed ; whereas the '' Discours " Isaack and Parry brought in writ- is, perhaps, of all narrative composi- ing several passages," &c. And tions in the English language, the this Strype writes after referring most difficult to be understood. to the book entitled " The Trou- Let us also hear " honest Master bles at Frankfort," and in the face Strype" (Memorials, V. 406, folio of it! VOL. I. 15 114 THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. [Ch. V. sly and perfidious. Hooper was assailed where he owed allegiance ; Knox and his church, where they owed none. In the former case, there Avas harshness to an individual ; in the latter, wrong to a peaceful and thriving community. The former was but one among thousands, — natural, under the mixed au thority of Church and State ; the latter, a grievous fact, Avithout authority, perhaps without precedent. Thus rapidly and ominously did the genius of civd ecclesiasticism tuifold itself during the little span of time from the death of Edward to the martyrdom of Cranmer. We say, " ominously " ; for at that time it might have been fairly asked, If men in exde, in poverty, under God's rod of discipline, would do unbidden and ruthless battle for a ritual abrogated whde yet in the greenness of its youth, what might they not do, should that ritual regain the sanction of law, and grow to a muscular manhood? If, under such cir cumstances of depression, they could make onslaught upon brethren, and drive them from their refuge, their livelihood, and their altar, what might not they and their disciples do, at home, in fulness of bread, in towers of strength, on the wave of pros perity, backed by law, and stimulated by monarchs who would not brook dissent? There is a graver, harder question. What, besides the union of Church and State, has driven dissen tients in the Church of England to the wall ? The plea in Hooper's case was, that the ritual was law. The plea after the Church's restoration was, that the ritual was law. But at Frankfort where it was not law, at Frankfort when it was nowhere law, Ch. V.] THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 115 the pretext did not exist. There has been, there fore, some moving spring against dissentients back of law, and for which it has served as a screen. What was it? But to return. Both the controversies which we have narrated were about ceremonials. Both were about canons which assume the Testament of Christ to be as little, as symbolic, as precise, as rigid in its requisitions, as the Leviticus of Moses; whose en forcement, based on sad ignorance of human nature, and committed to despotic hands, has wrought more convulsions and eliminated more political truths than any other one measure of secular despotism. We shall see something of this as we trace the operation of the Enghsh Liturgy when reinstated as law ; but only something, for we propose to follow it no further than concerns the Anglo-Saxon settle ments of the New World. CHAPTER VI. ACCESSION, AND FIRST PARLIAMENT, OF ELIZABETH. The Death of Mary. — Elizabeth proclaimed. — Her Address to toe Council. — Her first Cabinet. — Her Person. — Her public Courtesies. The Funeral Sermon. — Indications of a Change of Religion. — Parliament assemble. — The Lord Keeper's Speech. — Speaker ofthe Commons elected ; "disabled"; "allowed." — Position of the Crown. ¦ — The Commons petition the Queen to marry. — Her Answer. — The Act of Supremacy. — The Act of Uniformity. 1558-9. Mary had worn the crown of England five years and five months.1 In that brief time, she had dis graced her government by losing the key to France, which had hung at the royal girdle more than two hundred years ; she had exhausted her treasury and extorted enormous loans from her subjects ; she had doated on her husband, and been stung in her soul by his coldness; she had made herself ridiculous by public thanks to God for a visionary heir; had been lampooned for her creduhty ; had sunk under disappointment, peevishness, marital neglect, and disease ; and now lay moaning upon her bed with " Calais in her heart," 2 knowing that her husband 1 Cecil, in Murdin, 747. said) that she tooke some thought 2 Just before her death, " hir for the king's majestie hir husband, councell seeing hir sighing, and de- which was gone from hir. In deed sirous to know the cause, to the end (said she) that maie be one cause, they might minister the more readie but that is not the greatest wound consolation vnto hir, feared (as they that pearseth mine oppressed mind: Ch. VI] THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. 117 had no intent to return, that she was hated of her subjects, that she was about to die.1 Nor was this all of melancholy which had marked her reign. Nearly three hundred Protestants, fifty- five of Avhom were of her own sex, had been burned alive for their religion ; and about a hundred more had been put to death, on the same account, by im prisonment, torture, and starvation.2 In view of her approaching decease, Mary sent the foUowing message, by two of her Councd, to her sister Elizabeth : " My sickness lieth sore upon me, and hath brought me to the gates of death. It is my intent to bequeath to you my crown. In con sideration of so great a favor, pledge me that you wiU make no change in the Privy Councd, and none in religion, and that you will honorably cancel my debts." " TeU the queen," rephed Elizabeth, " that I am very sorry to hear of her Highness's malady; but that there is no reason why I should thank her for her intention to give me the crown of this kingdom. She hath neither the power of bestowing it upon me, nor can I lawfuUy be deprived of it, since it is my peculiar and hereditary right. With respect to but what that was, she would not (said she) but when I am dead and expresse to them. Albeit afterward opened, you shall find Calis lie- she opened the matter more plain- ing in my hart." — Holingshed, IV. he to mistresse Rise and mistresse 137. Clarentius (if it be true that they 1 Hume, H. 534, 546, 560. told me, which heard it of mistresse 2 Fox, HI. 760. Cecil's Journal ; Rise hirselfe), who then being most Murdin, 746, 747. Burleigh's " Ex- familiar with hir, and most bold ecution of Justice," in Harleian about hir, told hir that they feared Miscellany, H. 131. Harl. Misc., I. she tooke thought for king Philips 209. D'Ewes, 1. Rapin, n. 48, departing from hir. Not that onelie note. 118 THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. the Councd, I think myself as much at liberty to choose my counseUors as was she to choose her own. As to religion, I promise thus much, that I wdl not change it, provided only it can be proved by the Word of God, Avhich shaU be the only foundation and rule of my religion. And when, lastly, she requireth the payment of her debts, she seemeth to me to require nothing more than what is just ; and I wiU take care that they shaU be paid, as far as may he in my power." 1 Mary's last Parliament assembled on the 5th of November, 1558.2 About nine o'clock in the fore noon of the 17th,3 the Lords received information that the queen had died at an early hour of the morning.4 They immediately sent a message to the Commons requiring their immediate attendance in the Upper House, to receive a communication of great importance.5 Upon their appearance, the Lord Chancellor Heath — who was also Archbishop of York — announced to them the death of the queen. " But God of his mercy," said he, " hath preserved to us the Lady Elizabeth, whose title to the crown none can, none ought to doubt. Inasmuch, therefore, as you, knights, citizens, and burgesses of the House of Commons, have been elected to represent the com mon people of the realm, you can in no wise better discharge your trust, than by joining the prelates and peers here assembled in publishing the next successor to the crown. And inasmuch as the Lords 1 Zurich Letters, No. LH. p. 4 ; 4 " 3 or 4 o'clock," Holingshed, Sandys to Bullinger, Dec. 20, 1 558. IV. 1 3 7. " Between 5 and 6 o'clock," 2 Echard, 768. Holingshed, IV. 121, 759. 3 Ibid., 787. 6 Hayward, 3. Camden, 11. Ch. VI.] THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. 119 spiritual and temporal have with one mind and voice so determined, we have desired your presence, that with joint consent the Lady Elizabeth may by us be forthwith proclaimed Queen." Instantly upon these words, it " was cried and re-cried from aU sides," " God save the Queen Elizabeth ! God save the Queen! Long may she reign, — happdy and long ! " x As the death of a sovereign dissolved a Parlia ment,2 — and this continued to be the case until 1696, — the Lords and Commons immediately dis persed, and before noon s proclaimed Elizabeth, from the palace at Westminster and afterwards from the Cross in Cheapside, " Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and Defendrix of the Faith." The people shouted as had the Parliament, but with a heartier joy ; for the prelates, the nobility, and most of the Commons were only loyal Cathohcs, while the people were mostly Protestants, terror-stricken by the late atrocities, and hoping for common humanity under a princess reputed to be of their own religion. None but the priests mourned.4 A deputation of the Council was immediately sent to Hatfield, where the princess Elizabeth — long under restraint and espionage — had quietly applied herself to reading and study.5 " My lords," said she, after listening to their congratulatory address, "the law of nature moveth me to sorrow for my sister. The burden that is fallen upon me maketh me amazed 6 ; 1 Holingshed, IV. 155. Echard, Camden, 12. Stow's Preface. War- 787. ner, H. 405. Burnet, H. 578. Lin- 5 Holingshed, ib. Echard, 786. gard, VII. 250. 3 HoUngshed, ib. 6 Echard, 785, 788. * Echard, 787. Hayward, 3. 6 Perplexed. 120 THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. and yet, considering I am God's creature, ordained to obey his appointment, I will thereto yield, re quiring from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance of his grace to be the minister of his heavenly wiU hi this office now committed to me. And, as I am but one body, naturaUy considered, — though by his permission a body pol itic to govern, — so I shall require you all, my lords, — chiefly you of the nobility, every one in his degree and power, — to be assistant to me ; that I with my riding, and you with your service, may make a good account to Almighty God, and leave some comfort to our posterity in earth. I mean to direct aU mine actions by good advice and counsel ; and therefore, at this present, considering that divers of you be of the ancient nobdity, having your be ginning and estates of my progenitors, kings of this realm, and thereby ought in honor to have the more natural care for the maintaining of my estate and this commonwealth," — and that " some others have been of long experience in governance, and enabled, by my father of noble memory, my brother, and my late sister, to bear office," — and that "the rest of you being upon special trust for your service considered and rewarded, — my meaning is to require of you aU, nothing more but faithful hearts in such service as from time to time shaU be in your powers towards the preservation of me and this common wealth. And for counsel and advice, I shall accept you of my nobdity, and such other of you the rest, as in consultation I shall think meet, and shortly appoint ; to the which, also, with their advice, I wdl join to their aid, and for the ease of their burden, Ch. VI.] THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. 121 others meet for my service. And they which I shall not appoint, let them not think the same for any disability in them, but for that I consider a multitude doth make rather disorder and confusion than good counsel ; and of my good wdl you shaU not doubt, using yourselves as appertaineth to good and loving subjects." a Elizabeth had already received an advisory note from Sir WiUiam Cecil, who had been her brother Edward's Secretary of State, in which he had proposed that prudential policy in the selection of her Council which is intimated in the above address, and which she immediately adopted.2 Her sister's Council were nominally Catholics ; a very few of them, really so ; the rest had veered in their religion as the wind from the Court had set.3 Elizabeth retained them aU for a while,4 though she soon reduced their number to eleven,5 adding eight who were known Protestants. One of these was Cecd, " an exceed ing wise man, and as good as many,"6 Avhom she also made immediately 7 her Secretary of State ; another, Sir Nicholas Bacon, whom she created Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, under which title he had 1 Nugse Antiquce, I. 67. have been spoken to the Lords in It is intimated, in Harrington's general at the Charter House, where Nugae AntiquEe, that this address she stayed " many dayes," says was delivered in the House of Stow. Lords after the assembling of Par- 2 Lloyd, 473. Burnet, H. 277. liament in January. But there is Lingard, VH. 251. evidence in the address itself that 3 Burnet, II. 581. Hallam, 72. it was uttered by the queen before l Hayward, 11, 12. Naunton, the appointment of her Privy Coun- 189. Echard, 789. cil, which was very soon after her ac- 6 Zurich Letters, p. 5, note. cession. I may be in error in stating 6 Camden, 13. Warner, II. 406. that it was uttered to the deputation 7 Naunton, 195. Strype's Annals, of Queen Mary's Council. It may I. 8. vol. i. 16 122 THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. also the honor and authority of Chancedor of Eng land.1 Elizabeth was now in the first blush of woman hood, — just entered upon her twenty-sixth year. Her complexion and hair were light ; her forehead large and fair; her eyes lively and of a pleasing expression, though short-sighted ; her nose, some what aqudine ; her face, wanting in the regularities of complete beauty, yet oval and perfectly fair, and her countenance so bright as covered smaller de fects ; her stature, taU ; her figure, slender, erect, and symmetrical. To these favors, nature — or rather her own princely spirit — had superadded the crown ing charm of a serene, majestic grace in all her movements. In everything she said or did, this majestic air inspired awe rather than love ; yet she cotdd assume a fascinating manner which few could resist; and her greatness and sweetness were so blended, that aU admired her.2 1 Camden, 235. Echard, 790. my private will, you will give me D'Ewes, 70 bis. that counsel that you think best: Cecil was sworn of the Privy and if you shall know anything to Council on the 20th. (Strype's An- be declared to me of secrecy, you nals, I., Introd. p. 8.) The queen's shall show it to myself only, and charge to him upon that occasion — assure yourself I will not fail to keep probably the form of injunction to taciturnity therein. And therefore each Councillor as he took his oath herewith I charge you." — Nugse — was in these words : — Antiquse, I. 68. " I give you this charge, that you Whatever other counsellors may shall be of my Privy Council, and have done, most scrupulously and content yourself to take pains for literally did Cecil observe this charge. me and my realm. This judgment 2 Hayward, 7, who says, "of stat- I have of you, that you will not be ure mean "; i. e. of medium stature. corrupted with any manner of gift, Naunton, 183. Fuller's Holy State, and that you will be faithful to the 318. Echard, 788. state, and that, without respect of Ch. VI.] THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. 123 With such personal attractions, and with the ad vantage of a Protestant reputation, notwithstanding her profession of Bomanism during the tyranny of her sister, it is no Avonder that she was hailed with enthusiasm by a people but yesterday trembhng and in sackcloth under a reign of terror. Nor was this aU. Whde royal in all her port, she was affable ; whde stately, she could stoop ; whde moving in queenly pomp, she could smile ; whde heralded by trumpets and thronged by a gorgeous nobdity, she could hear a poor man's prayer, cherish his modest gift, return his greeting, and thank him for his loyalty and love. Of her power thus to win the hearts of the populace, she gave ample proof in her progress from Hatfield to the Charter House on the 23d of the month, the sixth day after her sis ter's decease ; l and again, from the Charter House to the Tower ; and afterwards, from the Tower to West minster. By her eyes, by her courtesies, by her smdes, by her speech, by her benedictions, by her condescending kindnesses, she proclaimed to the understanding of the meanest of the thousands who shouted acclamation, that she was not so much their queen as their protectress, that they were not so much her subjects as her people, her charge, her famdy. And as she gave demonstration upon dem onstration of this, "thereupon the people again 1 Lodge, I. 301, Letter of the field ; stating it to have been the Lords of the Council. Historical 19th, instead of the 23d. Strype, in writers do not agree about the dates his Annals, has it right ; and gives of the queen's movements previous also the letter referred to in the to her coronation. Burnet, Echard, text ; a paper of paramount au- Speed, Rapin, are all wrong about thority. the time of her departure from Hat- 124 THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. redoubled the testimonies of their joys." a To the man who had been her jader, and Avho had been so not without harshness, she iioav gaA7e but a pleasant jest. She received with courtesy the bishops under whose administration she had suffered, and who had counseUed against her life. Through these succes sive progresses, she frowned but once. It was upon Bonner, the Bishop of London, who had sent so many Protestants to the stake, and had gloated over their torments. His associates, she permitted to kiss her hand; but she turned in horror from him, as from one who was stained with innocent blood.2 As she entered the Tower, on the 28th of Novem ber,3 she paused ; and turning to her attendants, said impressively : " Some have fallen from being princes of this land, to be prisoners in this place ; I am raised from being prisoner in this place, to be prince of this land. That dejection was a work of God's jus tice ; this advancement is a work of his mercy. As they were to yield patience for the one, so I must bear myself towards God thankful, and toward men merciful and beneficial, for the other." 4 On the thirteenth day of December,5 Elizabeth attended the funeral service of her sister in Westmin ster Abbey; where "a black sermon" was preached by White, Bishop of Winchester. It was the eulogy of a Cathohc queen by a Cathode priest ambitious of martyrdom. After lauding her high parentage, her bountiful disposition, her great gravity, her rare 1 Hayward, 6, 7, 16-18. Ho- 3 Cecil, in Murdin, 74 7. Speed, 857. lingshed, IV. 159, 175. Echard, 4 Hayward, 11. 791- 'Holingshed, IV. 158. Hayward, 2 Echard, 788. Burnet, H. 579. 12. Cecil, in Murdin, 747. Ch. VI.] THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. 125 devotion, — for she kneeled so much in prayer, he said, that her knees were caUoused, — her justice, her clemency, her grievous but patient death, he was overcome by weeping. At length he recovered, saying : " Queen Mary hath left a sister to succeed her, also a lady of great worth, whom we are now bound to obey, for a living dog is better than a dead lion; and I hope she shall reign well and prosperously over us. But stiU I must say, with my text, ' I praised the dead more than the living ' ; for certain it is that Mary chose the better part." At the close of the services, the queen, justly irritated by his pubhc insolence — although, happily, his sermon was in Latin — ordered his arrest, and confined him to his house a month, which was to the assembling of Parliament;1 but, true to her present policy of lenity, she punished the currish prelate only by depriving him, in a few months, of his office, and disappointing him of the crown of martyrdom.2 The first decided indication of the queen's pur poses regarding religion was given on Christmas day. Every preparation had been made for observ ing the festival according to the usages of the Romish Church. At the time of the morning ser vice she repaired to her great closet, — adjoining her chapel, — Avith her nobles and ladies, as was cus tomary at such high feasts, where she perceived a bishop preparing himself to say Mass after the old form. She remained until the Gospel was done, and when aU looked for her to have offered accord- 1 Burnet, H. 586. Church, in Nugse Antique, H. 84. 2 Harrington's Brief View of the Zurich Letters, p. 16, and note 2. 126 THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. ing to the old fashion, she suddenly rose ; and, taking her nobles Avith her, returned from the closet and the Mass to her privy chamber; a significant act, " which was strange unto divers." 1 The Protestants, presuming upon her intentions, began, first in private houses and then in churches, to preach the doctrines of the Reformation, and to use the service-book of King Edward. The Romish priests retorted with sharpness. Thus many wran gling discourses began to be put forth from the pul pits, before large and excited audiences. To prevent these contentions, the queen, by proclamation on the 27th of December,2 forbade all preaching, and aU other religious service except the Romish, untd a Form of Religion should be determined by Parlia ment ; for " earnest as she was in the cause of true religion, and desirous as she was of a thorough change as early as possible, she could not be induced to effect such change without the sanction of law; lest the matter should seem to have been accom plished, not so much by the judgment of discreet men, as in compliance with the impulse of a furious multitude."3 The only Romish rite which she inhibited was the elevation of the host, or sacra mental bread ; at the same time ordering that the Gospels, the Epistles, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments should be recited in the English, instead of the Latin language.4 '• Fitzwilliam to More, Dec. 26th, s Zurich Letters, No. XLTL ; 1558 ; in Ellis, 2d Series, Vol.H. p. Jewel to P. Martyr. 262. « Echard, 790. Camden, 16, 17. 2 Cecil, in Murdin, 747. Hay- Hayward, 13. Collier, VI. 200. ward, 5. Camden, 16, 31. Speed, Burnet, H. 585. Strype's An- 857. Strype's Annals, I. 59. nals, I. 59, 60, 77. Hume, H. 566, Ch. VI.] THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. 127 The day on which this proclamation was made, Thomas Parrys was committed to ward for permit ting a religious assembly in Worcester House, which was in his charge.1 Yet, in " open private houses," Protestant worship, Avith preaching the Gospel and ministering of the Lord's Supper, was maintained, by connivance of the magistrates and even of the queen herself.2 During the reign of Queen Mary, a single Protestant congregation had secretly sus tained the preaching and ordinances of the Gospel, choosing their ministers and deacons ; though often dispersed by their persecutors, and many of them burned at the stake.3 Immediately upon Elizabeth's accession, this congregation appeared openly, but in private houses, — as just stated, — and were unmo lested. " Numbers flocked to them " ; and they whom the terrors of persecution had caused to con form to Popery, returned to the flock whence they had strayed, confessing and asking forgiveness. "Nothing could be more delightful," wrote an eye witness, "than the mutual tears of aU parties; on the one side, lamenting their sins ; and on the other, congratulating them on their reconciliation and renewed communion in Christ Jesus." Not only were these assembhes thus maintained in the houses of London citizens contrary to the statutes in force, and whde " Masses were being cel ebrated with the whole authority of law and of proclamation," but even in some churches — prob- 567. Neal, I. 71, and note. Lin- a Zurich Letters, No. XXIX.; gard, 255, 256, note. also No. CXXX.; George Withers 1 Strype's Annals, I. 59. to Frederick HI., Elector Pala- 1 Zurich Letters, No. XXIX. ; tine. Lever to Bullinger. 128 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Cn. VI. ably rural parishes — the Gospel Avas preached to large and eager assemblies, whose " many tears bore witness that the preaching of the Gospel is more effectual to true repentance than anything that the whole Avorld can either imagine or approve." This preaching was furnished at the request of the people, and mostly, if not entirely, by the exiles Avho had returned from Germany. These men "considered that the silence imposed" — by the queen's procla mation — " for a long and uncertain period, was not agreeable to the command of Paul to preach the word of God in season and out of season." x On the 15th of January, 1558-9,2 the queen was crowned; and on the 25th, her first Parliament assembled,3 having been prorogued from the 23d. In the House of Lords her Majesty, clad in her imperial robes, took her seat in the chair of state ; and the bishops and temporal lords took their re spective places, arrayed in their Parliamentary robes, — mantles, hoods, and surcoats of crimson or scarlet velvet, and furred with meniver. The knights, citi zens, and burgesses of the House of Commons, hav ing been notified that the queen and her lords were in readiness to receive them, forthwith made their appearance without the bar at the lower end of the house. The Lord Keeper, Sh Nicholas Bacon, im mediately left his position a little behind the cloth of state, — his proper seat, which was front of the throne, he never occupied when her Majesty was present, — and conferred privately' with the queen 1 Zurich Letters, No. VHL, Jewel 2 Cecil, in Murdin, 747. Hay- to P. Martyr; No. XXIX., Lever ward, 18. to Bullinger. 3 D 'Ewes, 3) 9. Ch. VI] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 129 for a few moments. He then resumed his position, and there opened the Parliament by declaring, in her Majesty's name and behalf, her reasons for sum moning their attendance. They Avere called, he said, to make proper laAvs for a uniform Order of Religion; to reform evils in the civd order of the realm ; and to devise remedies for losses and decays which had happened of late to the imperial crown. He exhorted them, in pursuing the first business, "to fly from aU manner of contentions, reasonings, and disputations, and from all sophistical, captious, and frivolous arguments and quiddities, meeter for ostentation of wit than consultation of weighty matters, comelier for scholars than counseUors, more beseeming for schools than for parliament-houses; that no opprobrious words — as schismatic, heretic, Papist, and such like names — be used; that they should avoid anything which might breed idolatry or superstition on the one hand, or irreligion on the other " ; that in pursuing the second business, " they should consider whether any laws should be repealed, and whether any were too severe or too sharp, or too soft and too gentle." Then, whde thanking God for a princess " that is not, nor ever meaneth to be, so wedded to her own will, that, for satisfaction thereof, she would give just occasion to her people of any inward grudge, — a princess to whom no worldly thing under the sun is so dear as the hearty love and good-wdl of her nobles and subjects," — he deplored "the loss of Calais, of the crown revenues, of munition and artdlery, the in credible sum of moneys owing by the state, and the biting interest of the debt " ; he spake of the VOL. I. 17 130 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Cii. VI. " new increased charge for the continual maintenance of the navy, the strongest wall of defence that can be against the enemies ofthe island" ; from all which he argued the necessity of a subsidy. "Yet," he added, "her Majesty's AviU and pleasure is, that nothing shall be demanded or required of her loving subjects, but that which they, of their own free wills and liberalities, be well contented, readdy and gladly, frankly and freely to offer." He concluded his address by directing the members of the Com mons to repair to their House, there " to select one both grave and discreet, who, after being by them presented to her Highness, and that presentation by her admitted, should then occupy the office and room of their common mouth and speaker " between her Majesty and themselves.1 The Commons then retired to their own chamber, where they remained for some time in sdence, or conversing one with another in undertones, as if in doubt what manner of proceeding to adopt. In truth, they were only waiting for a nomination of Speaker from some one intrusted with the queen's mind ; 2 and Mr. Treasurer of the queen's household, John Mason, was only waiting for a sufficient apol ogy, by the length of the silence, to save appear ances. At length he rose in his place uncovered, saying, that " the queen's command for the election of a Speaker claimed their immediate attention; that, finding others silent, he thought it his duty to expedite business by venturing upon a nomina- tion; that he woidd therefore commend to their choice Sir Thomas Gargrave, Knight, one of the 1 D'Ewes, 10 - 14. 2 Hallam, 150, note. Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 131 Honorable Council in the north parts, a worthy mem ber of the House, and learned in the laws of the realm ; that he did not intend by this commendation to debar others from uttering their free opinions, and nominating any other one whom they might think better qualified; that he would therefore desire them to make known their opinions." Where upon, with one consent and voice, the House did aUow and approve of Mr. Treasurer's nomination, and elected the said Sir Thomas Gargrave to be their Prolocutor, or Speaker. Sh Thomas, like others in similar situations, was modest; and although, doubtless, he had had suffi cient warning, he was much confused by the pro pounding of so great an honor and so unexpected. At length he stood up uncovered, and, in all humdity, " disabled himself," as was the phrase of the day. In other words, he declared " that he was unfurnished with that experience and those other qualities which were requisite for the undertaking and undergoing of so great a charge ; that therefore he felt con strained humbly to request the House to proceed to the election of some other more able and worthy member." But the House persisting, and calling upon him to take his place, and he being so overcome with a sense of his unworthiness that he had no heart to do so, Mr. Treasurer and Mr. ComptroUer of her Majes ty's household did kindly go to his aid ; and, taking him each by an arm, led him to the chair, where having sat awhile covered, he rallied, rose, uncov ered, returned thanks, and promised to do his best.1 1 D'Ewes, 40. 132 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Cn. VI. On Saturday, the 28th, her Majesty and her Lords being present in the Upper House and arrayed in then several Parliamentary robes,1 the Commons, having been notified thereof, repaired thither about one o'clock in the afternoon, their Speaker elect being led up to the rail or bar at the lower end of the House by two of the most honorable personages of the Commons. After making three reverences to her Majesty, he again " disabled himself," aUeging that "there were many of the Lower House more worthy the honor and more sufficient for the charge ; and humbly advising her Majesty to discharge him and to order a new election." But Sir Nicholas Bacon, by her Majesty's commandment, returned answer, " that the discernment of his ability or dis ability pertained not to him, but to her ; that in the very speech by which he had disabled himself, he had proved his ability; that therefore she would by no means excuse him, but did hereby ratify and confirm his election." Whereupon Sir Thomas did humbly submit to undergo the charge and sendee thus imposed upon him, and then preferred to her Majesty four petitions: — "First, desiring liberty of access for the House of Commons to her Majesty's presence upon aU necessary and urgent occasions. Second, that if he should unwillingly miscarry in the discharge of his office, he might be pardoned. Third, that the House might have liberty and free dom of speech. Fourth, that they and their attend ants might be exempted from all manner of arrests and suits during the continuance of the Parliament." To these petitions the Lord Keeper rephed : " Her 1 D'Ewes, 41. Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 133 Highness is right Avell contented to grant them unto you. Marry, Avith these conditions and cautions : — First, that your access be void of importunity and for matters needful and in time convenient. For the second, that your ddigence and carefulness, Mr. Speaker, be such that the defaults in that part be as rare as may be ; whereof her Majesty doubteth little. For the third, her Highness is right well contented; but so as they be neither unmindful or uncareful of their duties, reverence, and obedience to their sovereign. For the last, that none seek the privdege for the only defrauding of creditors, or for the maintenance of injuries and wrongs." The Speaker, being thus aUowed, returned with the Com mons to their chamber, with the Sergeant of the House bearing the mace before him; whereupon her Majesty and the Lords also rose and departed.1 Such, in all particulars, was the routine of forms by which every new Parliament was organized ; and they are here noted, not only because they have some intrinsic historical interest, but also, and chiefly, for the better understanding of some things to be hereafter stated. Before introducing an important petition which the House of Commons presented to the queen, another matter claims attention ; both as explanatory of the petition itself, and as the only key to some of the most important events of this reign, — to the behavior of queen, Lords, and Commons, Churchmen, Puritans, and Papists. We refer to the succession 1 D'Ewes, 15-17. 134 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VL of the croAvn. Elizabeth's right — Avhich for various pohtic reasons was admitted by this Parliament with out discussion or demurrer1 — Avas based upon the wdl of her father, Henry VHI., and the virtue of his connection with her mother, Anne Boleyn ; both of which had been technically legalized by the eccle siastical and civil authorities of the realm. The verity of marriage in this case, and, of course, the legality of the wdl so far as Elizabeth's succession was concerned, both hinged upon the legitimacy or illegitimacy of Henry's previous connection with Catharine of Aragon, his brother Arthur's widow; she being yet living when Henry took Anne as his wife. For the marriage Avith a brother's widow — counted incestuous — the Pope's special dispensation had been obtained soon after Henry, at the age of seventeen years, came to the throne. Elizabeth and her Parliament held, that Catha rine, being the widow of Arthur, could not become Henry's lawful wife, — the dispensation of the Pope to the contrary notwithstanding; that, consequent ly, Henry's marriage with Anne was true and law ful, her daughter Elizabeth incorrupt, and the will of Henry touching Elizabeth's succession valid. The Catholics held, that Catharine was Henry's lawful Avife, although his brother's widow ; that she was such by virtue of the Pope's dispensation ; that, the Pope having never annulled this marriage, that of Anne was untrue, and its fruit dlegitimate and incapable of inheriting the crown.2 Besides all this, Queen Mary's Parliament had 1 1 Eliz., Cap. HI. D'Ewes, 19, 2 Rapin, H. 50. 47 bis, 49. Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 135 declared the marriage with Catharine to have been lawful, and never to have been dissolved but by death ; and this by a Law yet unrepealed.1 If the reasoning of Elizabeth and her Parliament was sound, she was the lawful possessor of the throne. If that of the Catholics was right, the throne should have been filled by Mary Queen of Scots, in virtue of her descent from Henry VII. and his daughter Margaret, the wife of James IV. of Scotland. This Catholic view of the case must be kept in mind, as the ground of many acts of Parlia ment in future years, and as the occasion of many plots against Elizabeth, both at home and abroad. Indeed, at this very time " the king of France did labor tooth and nail at Rome, that Mary Queen of Scots might be pronounced lawful Queen of Eng land."2 This queen, now married to the heir-apparent to the throne of France, although, at the command of her husband and his father, she quartered the arms of England with the arms of Scotland upon her household equipage, and in public instruments used the style of " Queen of Scotland, England, and Ireland," 3 did not herself urge that Elizabeth was a usurper. But she did justly claim — nor was her claim controverted — that she was next heir to the English throne, should Ehzabeth, without heir of her body, decease. Mary of Scotland was a thorough Cathohc ; and nothing was a matter of so much apprehension to the present Parliament as the possibility that another 1 Rapin, H. 50. Hume, H. 519. 3 Camden, 33. 2 Camden, 15, 33. 136 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. devotee of Rome should succeed to the English throne. To provide against this possibility, they were anxious for their queen's marriage, that, by becoming a mother, she might cut off Mary's claim for ever. Commoners and statesmen alike exclaimed bitterly: "This delay of ripe time for marriage doth imperil the loss of the realm; for without posterity of her Highness, tvhat hope is left unto us ? " 1 The Commons had hardly composed themselves to business, Avhen, on the 4th of February, many arguments were urged by different members, that the Queen's Majesty should be petitioned, and in form, to dispose herself to marriage.2 The subject was again before them on the 6th, when a commit tee, consisting of the Speaker, all the Privy Council, and thirty other members of the House, were ap pointed " to petition her Majesty touching her mar riage." 3 The temporal Lords did not join with them ; not because they did not accord with them, but lest any one of them should seem to be moved therein by a hope of his own elevation as consort- royal.4 The queen, having been first requested5 "that they might have access to her presence to move a matter unto her which they esteemed of great importance for the general state of all the realm," granted their request ; and a time was set for audience.6 This set day does not appear upon rec ord ; but it must have been before the 10th of the month, for on that day the committee reported to the House her Majesty's answer.7 1 Haynes, 212; Chaloner to Cecil. 5 Toid. 2 D'Ewes, 44. Speed, 858. • Hayward, 30. 3 D'Ewes, 45. 7 D'Ewes, 46. Hayward says : 4 Camden, 25. " The Commons were brought be- Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 137 Upon the day appointed, her Majesty took her seat in royal state in the great gallery of her palace of WhitehaU;1 when the Speaker of the House, having " some few selected men " — the rest of the Committee — "with him,"2 addressed her, in sub stance as foUows. He said, that " it was the single, the only, the all-comprehending prayer of all Eng lishmen, that the happiness received by her gracious government might be perpetuated to the nation unto aU eternity; that this could not be, — her Majesty being mortal, — except, by marriage, she should bring forth children, heirs of their mother's virtues and empire";3 "that thus only could the dangers be prevented which would ensue to the state upon her death, and those also which in the mean time did threaten herself; and that, thereby, as AveU the fears of her faithful subjects and friends, as the ambitious hopes of her enemies, should clean be cut off." 4 "After a sweet graced sdence, with a princely countenance and voice, and with a gesture somewhat quick, but not violent,"5 the queen returned the foUowing characteristic answer. "In a matter most unpleasing, most pleasing to fore her," when the petition was petition. It is impossible to recon- preferred ; D'Ewes, that on the 10th cile the two. Camden is explicit, " the Speaker declared the Queen's saying, " the Speaker, with some Majesty's answer to the message, few selected men," appeared before which was read to the House by the queen. Mr. Mason," the treasurer of the x Hayward, 31. Holingshed, IV. queen's household, — a report not 178. consistent with the presence of the 2 Camden, 25. whole House when the answer was s Ibid., 26. pronounced, which Hayward says 4 Hayward, 31. was done in immediate reply to the 6 Ibid. VOL. i. 18 138 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Cii. VI. me are the good zeal and loving care you seem to have as weU towards me as to the Commonwealth ; for which, as I have good cause, so do I give you aU my hearty thanks. " Concerning marriage, Avhich ye so earnestly move me to, I have been long since persuaded that I was sent into the Avorld by God to think and do those things chiefly Avhich may tend to his glory; and sith I first had this consideration, I happily chose this kind of life in which I yet live. From Avhich if either offered marriages of most potent princes, or the danger of death intended against me, would have removed me, I had long agone enjoyed the honor of a husband. These things have I thought upon when I was a private person. But now that the public care of governing the kingdom is laid upon me, to draw upon me also the cares of mar riage, may seem a point of inconsiderate folly. "Yea, to satisfy you, I have already joined my self in marriage to a husband, namely, the king dom of England. And behold — which I marvel ye have forgotten — the pledge of this my wed lock," — drawing from her finger her coronation ring. " And do not," she added, after a pause, — " do not upbraid me with miserable lack of children ; for every one of you, and as many as are Englishmen, are children and kinsmen to me, of whom if God deprive me not, — which may he forefend ! — I can not, without injury, be counted barren. " For the manner of your petition, I like it well, and take it in good part ; because it is simple, and containeth no limitation of place or person. If it had been otherwise ; if you had taken upon you to Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 139 confine, or rather to bind, my choice, to draw my love to your liking, to frame my affection according to your fantasies, — I must have misldted it very much, and thought it in you a very great presump tion, — for a guerdon constrained, and a gift freely given, can never agree together. " Nevertheless, if any of you be in suspect that, if it please God to inchne my heart to another kind of life, I shall determine anything which may be prejudicial to the Commonwealth by choosing a husband that wdl not have as great care of the same as myself, — put that jealousy clean out of your heads; for upon whomsoever my choice shaU fall, my wiU and best endeavor shall not fail that he shaU be as careful for you as myself, who wdl never spare to spend my life as a loving mother for the preservation and prosperity of the realm. " And " — she added, in words so beautifully child- hke towards God, and so prophetically descriptive of the ultimate issues, as to claim our special remem brance — " and albeit it shall please God that I stdl persevere in a virgin's state, yet you must not fear but he wdl so work in my heart and in your wisdom, that provision shaU be made, in fitting time, whereby the realm shall not remain destitute of an heir who may be a fit governor, and, peradventure, more ben eficial than such offspring as might come of me, considering that the issue of the best princes many times groweth out of kind and becometh ungracious. The dangers which you fear are neither so certain nor of such a nature, but you may repose yourselves upon the providence of God and the good provisions of the state. Wits curious in casting things to come 140 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. are often hurtful ; for that the affairs of this world are subject to so many accidents, that seldom doth that happen which the AAdsdom of men doth seem to foresee. " As for me, it shah be sufficient that, Avhen I let my last breath, a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having lived and reigned so many years, died a virgin.1 "And here I end, and take your coming in very good part, and again give hearty thanks to you all ; yet more for your zeal and good meaning than for the matter of your suit." 2 It is difficult to understand how this answer, which was a denial of the petitioners, or Avhich at best only admitted the remote possibility of compliance, could have given satisfaction; unless it were merely for the condescending grace and womanly tenderness with which it was interspersed. Nevertheless, when reported by the committee on the 10th of February, it seems to have been " to the contentation of the House." 3 This reaUy serious matter being thus disposed of for the present, we find the Parliament engrossed with the momentous and delicate business of settling the religion of the state. Their doings it is necessary to state with some minuteness ; for constant refer- 1 Echard, 792. preserved by one annalist, but omit- 2 The version of the queen's an- ted by the others, and to avoid swer given in the text, I have that obscurity and involution which framed by a careful collation of are particularly perplexing in Graf- those given by Hayward, Camden, ton's memoriter report as given by and D'Ewes, which essentially agree. D'Ewes and Holingshed. My object has been to retain some 3 D'Ewes, 46. sentences and phrases which are Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 141 ence must be had to them in describing the reasons, the nature, and the progress of the religious strifes and oppressions which ensued. An act was passed, entitled " An Act restoring to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction over the State ecclesiastical and spiritual, and abolishing aU foreign Power repugnant to the same." a It is commonly called "The Act of Supremacy." In this act, the sovereign Avas not styled Supreme Head of the Church, but Supreme Governor.2 Elizabeth consents ed to the latter title, but objected to the former;3 aUeging that it "imported too great a power, and came too near that authority which Christ only had over the Church." 4 This was a religious reason. There was also, doubtless, an unpublished political reason, — the same which prevaded for certain "alter ations and additions " to the Reformed Liturgy, — that the title of Supreme Head would have been peculiarly offensive to her Catholic subjects.5 " So whdst their ears were favored in her waiving the word, their souls were deceived with the same sense under another expression." 6 By this act — besides what is clearly set forth in the title — the queen was empowered to nominate all bishops in the old way of conge, d'elire, as by act of Parliament 25 Henry Vin. ; 7 to control the ecclesi astical state and persons by juridical visitation ; to reform, order, and correct aU manner of heresies, 1 1 Eliz. Cap. I. 6 Collier, VI. 226. Burnet, H. 2 Sec. IX. 597. 3 Zurich Letters, No. XVHI. ; 6 Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 53. Parkhurst to Bullinger. T See ante, p. 31, note 3. Also 4 Burnet, H. 583. Zurich Let- Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 53. Carte, LH. ters, No. XX. ; Jewel to Bullinger. 215. Burnet, II. 596. 142 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. schisms, offences, contempts, and enormities in the Church.1 To effect this, she Avas further authorized to dele gate these powers of visitation and correction, by her letters patent, to such commissioners as she might select, whenever, and for so long a time, as she might please;2 the same poAvers Avhich Henry VIII. had intrusted to a single delegate, or vicegerent.3 AU persons holding benefice or office under the crown — Avhether lay or ecclesiastic — Avere required to take an oath, called the Oath of Supremacy,4 avow ing "the queen to be the, only supreme governor within the realm, as AveU in aU spiritual or ecclesias tical causes and things as temporal " ; and renouncing all like jurisdiction of any foreign prince or prelate ; 5 and for such persons to refuse the oath was to for feit promotion, benefice, or office.6 The same oath was also to be required in future, as a condition of receiving any benefice, ministry, or 1 1 Eliz. Cap. I . Sec. VHI. realm ; and therefore I do utterly 2 roid. renounce and forsake all foreign 3 Stow, 636. Rapin, H. 54. jurisdictions, powers, superiorities, 4 The entire oath was in form as and authorities, and do promise, follows : — that from henceforth I shall bear " I, A. B., do utterly testify and faith and true allegiance to the declare in my conscience, That Queen's Highness, her heirs and the Queen's Highness is the only lawful successors, and to my power supreme governor of this realm, shall assist and defend all jurisdic- and of all other her Highness' do- tions, preheminences, privileges, and minions and countries, as well in all authorities granted or belonging to spiritual or ecclesiastical things or the Queen's Highness, her heirs and causes, as temporal ; and that no successors, or united and annexed foreign prince, person, prelate, state, to the imperial crown of this realm. or potentate hath or ought to have So help me God, and the contents any jurisdiction, power, superiority, of this book." or preheminence, or authority ec- 6 1 Eliz. Cap. I. Sec. IX. clesiastical or spiritual within this " Tbid. Sec. X. Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 143 other office, lay or ecclesiastical ; 1 and as a condition of taking orders, and of being promoted to any degree of learning.2 Any one affirming the authority within the realm of any foreign power, spiritual or ecclesiastical, and any abettor of him so affirming, for the first offence was to forfeit all goods and chattels real and per sonal ; but, if not worth £ 20, to forfeit what he was worth, and to be imprisoned a year ; for the second offence, to incur the penalties of a praemunire ; for the third, to incur the fearfid penalties of high treason.3 Another act was entitled, "An Act for the Uni formity of Common Prayer and Divine Service in the Church, and the Administration of the Sacra ments." 4 By this act, the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments set forth 5 and 6 Edward VI. was revived, with some " alterations and additions " ; 5 and any parson, vicar, or minister, who should refuse to use it, or who should in any religious service — others being present — use any other than the rites and forms therein set down, or who should preach, declare, or speak anything in derogation of the Book, or of any part thereof, should, for the first offence, forfeit the profit of all his spiritual benefices or promotions for a year, and be imprisoned six months without bad or main prise ; 6 for the second offence, he should be impris- 1 1 Eliz. Cap. I. Sec. X. 4 1 Eliz. Cap. H. 2 Ibid. Sec. XH. 5 Ibid. Sec. I. 3 Ibid. Sec. XIV. ' Hallam is far from stating this 144 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Cu. VI. oned a year, and be deprived of all his spiritual promotions ; for the third offence, he should be deprived and imprisoned during life.1 Ministers so offending, but not beneficed, Avere to be imprisoned a year for the first offence ; and for life, for- the second offence.2 Should any person whatsoever — meaning persons not in orders — defame the Book of Common Prayer, or procure any minister to minister any sacrament, or to say any " open prayer," — defined by the stat ute to be " prayer for others to come unto, or hear," — in any other than the prescribed form, for the first offence he should forfeit a hundred marks ; for the second, four hundred marks ; for the third, all goods and chattels, and be imprisoned for life.3 Persons neglecting, Avithout lawful or reasonable excuse, to come to their parish churches on Sundays and other days ordained to be kept as holy days, Avere to forfeit, for each offence, twelve pence.4 The ornaments of the Church, and of the ministers thereof, were to be as by authority of Parliament in the second year of Edward VI.5 The queen was empowered, with the advice of her commissioners, or of her metropolitan, — that is, without any further concurrence of the Parhament, or even of the Convocation of the Clergy, — to penalty correctly. He says that it beneficed and for those not bene- was " forfeiting goods and chattels," ficed. Hallam, p. 74. — nothing else. The penalty for 1 1 Eliz. Cap. H. Sec. H. the second offence, he states to be 2 Ibid. Sec. n. only imprisonment for a year ; 3 Toid. Sec. HI. whereas " deprivation " is added in 4 Md. Sec DU. the statute. Nor does he notice the 6 Toid. Sec. XIII. difference of penalty for ministers Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 145 ordain further ceremonies or rites indefinitely} Upon this provision she peremptorily insisted ; and, with out it, would not have passed the act.2 Such was the Supremacy. Such was Uniformity. Such were the pains and penalties by which their claims were to be enforced. Such were the terrors under AAdiich every man was commanded to worship God, irrespective of his conscience, irrespective of the Bible, irrespective of his understanding of the Bible. It Avill be our task, so far as may be, to trace the operation and fruits of these laws and their penalties through the sixteenth century at least. A righteous judgment of those who thus converted things trivial into things momentous, who, of men's inventions, instituted so grievous a bondage, and enacted penalties so tremendous, cannot be formed unless we estimate — which we cannot fully do — the emasculating influence of old traditions even upon the strongest minds. Nor, indeed, unless we can estimate the comphcated and critical relations of the crown of England to other crowns, to a rehgion writhing under a fresh and deadly wound, and to the religion which itself had chosen as its tower of defence. Whde we scan the rigid and exacting policy of Elizabeth and her truly sagacious ministers, we cannot help comparing it, in our secret thoughts, with the ripe freedom of our own age and country, and, perhaps, wondering at the Protestant despotism of the past. It may be well to wonder. It may be well to deplore. But, if we are inclining further, it 1 R>id. Sec. XLH. 3 Heylin's Ref., 316. Warner, H. 417. VOL. I. 19 146 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. [Ch. VI. may be stdl better to weigh the words of the Gen- tiles' Apostle : " Who maketh thee to differ from another? and Avhat hast thou that thou didst not receive? Noav if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glorj', as if thou hadst not received it?" "Where is boasting, then? It is excluded." The acts did not pass without great opposition.1 In the Upper House, the nine spiritual lords who Avere present — five were absent — dissented from the bill for the Supremacy ; as also did the Abbot of Westminster. It was opposed by only one of the temporal lords,2 Anthony Brown, the Viscount Mon tague, who " sharply urged that it was a dishonor to England so soon to revolt from the Apostolic See ; adding, that for his part, by authority of the estate of England, he had tendered obedience to the Bishop of Rome, and the same he could not but perform." In conclusion, he earnestly exhorted and besought the peers to remain steadfast in their spiritual aUe- giance.3 The bill for Uniformity met with greater opposi tion ; the nine prelates and also nine temporal peers dissenting. The latter were the Marquess of Win chester, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Viscount Mon tague, the Lords Morley, Stafford, Dudley, Wharton, Rich, and North.4 1 Echard, 793. Hayward, 26. was carried by a majority of three." 2 Camden and Burnet say, too, — (Lingard, ATI. 261.) Stow says in Montague and the Earl of Shrews- his preface, very vaguely, " In this bury. The bill for the Supremacy Parliament the major part ex- was carried in the House of Lords ceeded the minor but in six voices." by three voices only, says Butler, 3 D'Ewes, 28. Camden, 19. But- I. 283. "The bill in favor of the ler, H. 11. new book of common prayer .... 4 D'Ewes, 28. Ch. VI.] THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH. 147 In the House of Commons, the first bill introduced for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown, was long disputed and argued, and finally " dashed " ; after which a new one was framed and passed, — " the far major part with joint mind giving their voices and assent." a The bid for Uniformity passed with equal strength, and, apparently, Avithout special opposition ; 2 except from Doctor John Story, " a civilian of some note, Avho had been Professor of Civil Law in Oxford under Henry VIII., and the chief instrument of Bonner's butcheries under Queen Mary." 3 To one or both of these bills he made a bold and insolent opposition ; boasting, as Avas " more meet to speak with the voice of a beast than of a man," of his own particular barbarities to Queen Mary's victims even when chained to the stake ; lamenting only that he had done no more ; and declaring that, had his counsels been foUowed, instead of lopping off the httle twigs of heresy in the last reign, The Root would have been plucked up.4 Soon after, he fled to Antwerp, and there served the infamous Duke of Alva as a spy. 1 D'Ewes, 47, 49, 55. Camden, * Mackintosh, 369. 19. 4 Hayward, 25. Holingshed, IV. 2 D'Ewes, 54. 177. CHAPTER VII. THE REFORMATION RESTORED. The Supremacy. — Protestant Worship revived. — Commissioners em powered. — Bishops deposed. — Old Theatricals. — Bartholomew's Fair. — The Purging of the Churches. — The Night Festival. — The Courtier in his Chamber. 1559. Henry VIH disclaimed all right "of administer ing the sacraments and the like spirituals." 1 When first assuming the Supremacy, he made show of only the right of nominating bishops. His nomination, hoAvever, was imperative, and, in its effects, as if final ; because the deans and chapters were exposed to the severest penalties if they did not elect the nominee.2 Afterwards, the election of bishops was withdrawn from the deans and chapters, as being a useless and unmeaning form.3 By the Act 1 Ed ward VI. Chap. II., it was enacted that for the future no conge d'elire should be granted, nor any election made by dean and chapter; but that the archbish opric or the bishopric should be conferred by the king's nomination in his letters patent.4 " He might appoint divines of various ranks to preach the Gos pel and to administer the sacraments. It was un necessary that there should be any imposition of 1 Carte, ILL 108, 109. 3 Collier, V. 227. ° Ibid., 215. i Ibid., 228. Ch. VII.] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 149 hands. The king — such was the opinion of Cran mer, given in plain words — might, in virtue of authority from God, make a priest; and the priest so made needed no ordination whatever." 1 In 1552, a bishop's patent ran, " so long as he shall behave himself well " ; which meant, so long as the sover eign might think well of his behaving. Thus, the bishop might be deposed, as well as created, by a mere act of the king's wdl.2 Soon after her Parliament was dissolved, on the 8th of May, 1559, Queen Elizabeth became aware of a popular rumor, that, by the Act of Supremacy, she had power to administer divine service in the church. To correct an idea so unseemly to her sex, so preju dicial to her popularity, and which might impede the taking of the Oath of Supremacy, she inserted in her public injunctions to her commissioners a chapter entitled "An Admonition to Simple Men deceived by Malicious." In this she said that " she claimed no other authority than had been claimed and used by King Henry VIII. and King Edward VI.; which is, and was of ancient time, due to the impe rial crown of the realm ; that is, under God, to have the sovereignty and rule over aU manner of persons born within these her realms, of what estate, either ecclesiastical or temporal, soever they be, so as no other foreign power shall or ought to have any superiority over them. And if any person that hath conceived any other sense of the form of the Oath of Supremacy should accept the same with this interpretation, her Majesty would accept such as her good and obedient subjects."3 1 Macaulay, I. 52. " Rapin, n. 24. 3 Sparrow, 83. 150 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Ch. VII. There was ambiguity — probably designed — in substituting the word '-persons" in this declaration for the Avords " causes and things " in the Oath ; for while the new Avord seemed, in its application to the Church, to designate simply its functionaries, it truly embraced all ecclesiastical " causes and things " to them appertaining, and which could have no existence Avithout persons. The greater included the less. As the statute had limited her power in the election of bishops to that of nominating in the old Avay of conge d'elire, Elizabeth, by this jjroclamation, really disclaimed nothing but the right to exercise the spiritual functions of an ecclesiastic. It still remained, that not an office could be filled in the Church but by her authority and consent ; that by her will and word alone she could depose from any spiritual office ; that no Convocation of the Clergy could assemble but by her order, continue beyond her pleasure, or make canons without her assent;1 that the ornaments of the Church, the apparel of the clergy, and the ceremonies of worship — with the slightest possible check — were under her con trol ; that not a doctrine might be taught which she disapproved; that throughout the kingdom not a sermon might be preached when she should forbid.2 The ecclesiastical supremacy of Ehzabeth was a monopoly of ecclesiastical authority, papistical, ul tra-apostolical,3 despotic. Witness her own words: " The full power, authority, jurisdiction, and suprem acy in Church causes, which heretofore the Popes 1 Neal, I. 74. Macaulay, L 54. s Collier, VH. 41. 5 Neal, I. 73. * Ch. VII.] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 151 usurped and took to themselves, is united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm." 1 This was but a branch of her royal prerogative ; and this prerogative she always regarded as " the chiefest floAver in her garden, and the principal and head pearl in her crown and diadem."2 It will appear as Ave proceed, hoAV she uniformly resented the least deviation from the laws of worship, whether prescribed by Parliament or by her own injunctions ; how she met as a personal outrage the least approach to intermeddling with religious matters, when not initiated and authorized by herself.3 By her con struction, every ecclesiastic and every layman in the Church OAved to her orders the same unquestioning, unhesitating, and exact obedience which, in the army, every officer and every private owed to the orders of his general.4 In the thirty-fifth year of her reign, Morrice, an Attorney of the Duchy of Lan caster, presented a bill in the House of Commons for retrenching the ecclesiastical courts. It was the touch of a profane hand upon the ark of the Lord. A dungeon till he died was the penalty of his sin.5 " One matter toucheth me so near that I may not overskip," said she in her speech, when closing the Parhament in March, 1584-5. " God hath made me the Overlooker of the Church. If any schisms or errors heretical are suffered therein, which you my lords of the clergy do not amend, I mind to depose you. Look you, therefore, well to your charges." 6 1 Strype's AVhitgift, 260. 4 Collier, VI. 584, note. 2 D'Ewes, 547. Speech to Par- * Heylin's Ref., Introduct. Col- liament in 1597. Her, VH. 163, who omits, however, 3 Heylin's Presb., Bk. VH. Sec. Morrice's tragical end. 37. Hallam, 77, 105. ' Stow, 702. Strype's Whitgift, 207. 152 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Ch. VH. " Proud prelate ! " she Avrote to Doctor Cox, who demurred at an encroachment upon his land which she had seen fit to allow, — " Proud prelate ! You know what you Avere before I made you Avhat you are. If you do not immediately comply Avith my request, by God ! I AviU unfrock you. Elizabeth." x On the 24th of June 2 the Act of Uniformity took effect. Mass was abohshed, and the English liturgy established. About the same time, her Majesty appointed her commissioners, as by statute provided, to regulate ecclesiastical affairs throughout the king dom; to purge the churches from the insignia of Popery ; to inquire into the vices of the people ; to note and correct the doctrines, the apparel, and the behavior of the clergy, particularly in the tap-room and at gambling-tables ; to discharge any who were imprisoned on account of their religion ; to restore to their benefices such as had been unlawfully ejected from them in the late reign, and to enforce certain injunctions 3 which she published touching religious matters. Any two of the commissioners were em powered to punish delinquents by ecclesiastical " and such other correction as " to them " shall be seen convenient " ; 4 to deprive unworthy ministers ; and 1 " There are so many versions - Strype's Annals, I. 200. Cam- of this pithy letter that its authen- den, 31. 1 Eliz. Cap. H. Sec. H., ticity becomes doubtful. No bet- "from and after the feast of the ter authority has been found than nativity of St. John Baptist." Hol- 'The Gentleman's Magazine,' Vol. ingshed, by mistake, says 14th of LXXIX. Pt. I. p. 136, where it is May (IV. 184). printed from the ' Registry of Ely.' " s Sparrow, 67-82. — Life of Hatton, p. 36, note. The 4 l"bid., 86. version in the text is as in Hallam, 134, note. Ch. VII.] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 153 to restore to their benefices such as had been unlaw- fudy deprived in the late reign.1 In the beginning of July, they commenced their duties 2 by tendering the Oath of Supremacy to the clergy. The year before, a malignant epidemic had swept the kingdom of nearly half the bishops and a great number of the parochial clergy.3 Only fif teen bishops remained ; all of Avhom, except Doctor Kitchin, the Bishop of Landaff, refused the oath, Avere consequently deprived of their bishoprics, and three of them — obnoxious for their cruelty during Mary's reign — were committed to close prison.4 ClerkenweU Green was a famous place for merry doings. That old church and those old elms had witnessed rare and roistering pastimes years and years before Queen Elizabeth was born, or bluff Harry, her sire. Many a gallant and many a merry maid, now churchyard dust, had exchanged looks, and whispers, and true-love tokens, at the fairs of ClerkenweU; and so had lords and ladies, princes and princesses, — dust now, as weU as humbler lovers. Many a parish clerk of London in bygone years had piously turned stage-player there once a twelve month; playing whole histories out of the Bible, with divers artistic emendations and the Devil for merry-andrew ; revivifying Samson and Deldah, Da vid and Goliah, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. 1 Holingshed, IV. 185. Carte, 3 Heyl. Ref., 286 ; Presb., Bk. VI. HI. 373. Warner, H. 421. Heyl. Sec. 14. Burnet, H. 612. Strype's Ref, 188 - 306 passim. Burnet, H. Memorials, VI. 156, 157. 619. Neal, I. 81. 4 Holingshed, IV. 184. Heyl. 2 Strype's Annals, I. 105, 202. Ref., 286. Stow, 639, 670. Strype's Grindal, 24. • VOL. I. 20 154 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Ch. VH. Compared with the actors of the nineteenth centu- ry, they of the fourteenth were Anakim. At their entertainments, the reign of a single king Avas but a tit-bit; and the playing of a single day, but a whetter of the appetite. They used to play out generations after generations for a play of two or three days long ; and Avith kings and queens to hear them, too, and to hear them through. Witness the record of their doings in July, 1390. That was a smaU play, though ; for nineteen years after, at Skinner's WeU, hard by, they played a play eight days long, to rapt hearers, noble and ignoble, in which they dramatized the whole history of the world from the creation to the year of grace 1409.1 Players were players in those days. Many a Popish priest, too, — untd forbidden by royal proclama tion in 1549, — had turned player, to caricature the Reformation and bring it into contempt with the people.2 ClerkenweU Green was stdl the place of places for shows and fun, for love-making and money-mak ing, in Queen Elizabeth's day. No one could re member when Bartholomew's fair did not begin there on St. Bartholomew's day; and no one could remember Avhen the doings on the fair's first day — archery, vaulting, Avrestling, morris-dancing, and bear-baiting — were not witnessed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, by lords and by ladies, and by the ambassadors from foreign courts. It Avas, therefore, but a matter of course, that these dignitaries were there when the fair opened 1 Stew's Survey of London, 18, 144. 2 Fuller, Bk. VH. p. 390. Ch. VII.] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 155 on the 24th of August, 1559.1 Handsome galleries, whence they could have fidl view of all that passed, and Avhich were hung with wreaths and festoons of flowers mingled with evergreens, had been erected for them against the church wall; whde the respectable commoners were provided with rude forms conveniently arranged just beneath the gal leries. Merry-andrews and mercers, jugglers, Jews, and jockeys, lackeys, light-o'-hearts, and leal lovers, bull-dogs, bears, and braAvny yeomen, had been busy as bees three hours or more, when, just as a maimed wrestler was borne bleeding from the ground, trade and merriment were arrested by the long blast of a bugle, and aU eyes turned toward the centre of the green. One man stood there alone, plainly dressed in smock and hose, a dagger in his girdle, a sprig of holly in his cap, a burning torch in his hand, and a pde of bdlets and furze fagots by his side. As the bugler wound his last note, the great door of the church, before which had just gathered a party of horsemen, was thrown open, and gave passage to some forty or fifty well-dressed burghers, each laden with the spoils of Popery stripped from the church and from neighboring chapels, shrines, and convents. As they made their appearance and moved under escort of the cavaliers, — all wearing badges of living green, — the whole multitude gave a pealing shout of welcome. The torch-bearer lighted the pile ; and whde the queen's commis sioners and they who bore the trophies were pass ing the short intervening space, it had come to 1 Camden, 21. Holingshed, IV. 185. Strype's Grindal, Bk. I. ch. 3. 156 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Ch. VH. blaze and crackle merrdy. As each burgher reached the fire, he cast his burden beside it, '¦ the people looking on Avith great AAronder" and glee. The executioner, if Ave may so call him, during this performance Avent through a A^ariety of pantomime, expressive of disgust, horror, contempt, and hate, for the objects thrown at his feet. It was a mot ley pile, and, for a burnt-offering, a strange one ; — tables, shrine-coverings, trindals, rolls of wax, saints big and little, fragments of altars, Popish books, sur plices, and copes, banners, altar-cloths, rood-cloths, and crucifixes. The solitary official now commenced his task, taking the several objects from the pile and throwing them one by one upon the flames, with the same variety of grimaces and contortions with which he had received them. At each immolation the people shouted ; but they seemed to have a special antipathy to the Roods, — images of Christ on the cross with Mary and John standing by, — for when ever one of these was thrown upon the fire, their shouts were redoubled and prolonged. Such was the first burning of Popish relics by the queen's commissioners, in obedience to the twenty-third article of- her injunctions ; " making atonement, as it Avere, for the many holy men and holy women that Avere not long before roasted to death there." During the whole, "such were the shoutings and applause of the vulgar sort, as if it had been the sacking of some hostde city." 1 During the hour of this bloodless revenge upon a priesthood so lately officiating at human sacri fices, — this revenge so keenly rehshed by an out- 1 Hayward, 28. Strype's Grindal, 25 ; Annals, I. 260. Ch. VII.] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 157 raged people, — let us turn our attention to the brilliant assemblage in the galleries. Among them Avas one remarkable for his handsome person, his majestic mien, and his graceful manners.1 He seemed to be about twenty-five years of age. He Avas looking at the burning Avith a listless air, strik ingly in contrast Avith that of his companions. A massiA^e plume bent from his cap of embroidered velvet, to Avhich it was buttoned by a single mag nificent diamond. Upon his shoulders, and also fastened by a brilliant, hung loosely a riding-cloak of silk tissue, — evidently more for ornament than use, and by no means concealing the rich dress becoming a courtier. He wore at his side a light sword and a diminutive dagger. During the whole morning he had been overwhelmed with attentions by those around him. The ladies were rivals for his notice; and not one of them had addressed him without the reward of a smile so expressive, and words so delicately flattering, as to raise com motion at her heart. But now, as if wearied with gaUantry, he had risen from his seat, and was lean ing carelessly against the rear of the gallery, or, more strictly speaking, the waU of the church. Sud denly his eye turned from that which was engross ing all others ; and after looking briefly but intently at some object which had attracted his attention, he glided a step or two toward the open window which served as a door to the gallery, where stood a man evidently of the gentry, though in unpre tending attire. The latter instantly, and somewhat obsequiously advanced. 1 Hume, IH. 13. 158 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Ch. VH. " Varney ! " whispered the courtier, " my heart yearneth toward one here." Master Varney bowed, and turned a vivid look of inquiry toward the coterie of ladies. " Nay, nay, my brave goshawk ! " said the other, "the quarry is not there. Turn thine eye out of door, man. Dost see yon booth with the tapster's lure swinging over it, — a pine bush?" "Yes, my lord." " It were fit, I ween, that some devout man, like Richard Varney, Gentleman, did stand in the way over against it, to warn the simple and unwary to beware butt and pottle-pot " ; — and he looked with a mock gravity at his esquire. " Alack, alack, my lord ! Bashfulness, — bashful- ness ! It be my foot's fetter, my hand's gyve, my tongue's palsy, my fortune's bane, my ambition's nightmare, — saving only in your lordship's service, wherein, methinks, I be nor cripple nor laggard." " Now out upon thee, for one of nature's contradic tions ! a mute babbler ! a bashful braggart ! Thou wouldst be a godsend to a showman at a groat a sight. But lo ! nor thine eloquence nor mine is needful yonder. For this present, Varney, we be forestalled. The two in gown and cap in the yew's shade are more valiant exhorters than we, an I be not at fault. To my thinking, they must have the odor of sanctity, for they wear the true aspect of Gospellers.1 Now, Sir Diffidence, thou canst surely 1 " These men " — Zwinglians or pellers, for making their new doc- Calvinists — " are called in Bishop trine such a necessary part of our Hooper's Preface to the Ten Com- Saviour's Gospel, as if men could mandments by the name of Gos- not possibly be saved without it. Ch. VII] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 159 devise some cunning shift to find them out ; who, — whence, — and so forth. I tell thee my heart yearn- eth towards them; most towards the ancient one, in whose face methinks I see something not unfamil iar. An he be a Gospeller, it concerneth me to know it, for he hath no less the look of a man of stamp and mould, than of years and godliness. Mark his form, — wan and slender, albeit straight as a wood man's shaft ! And what a brow ! Threescore years and ten there ; but there be manhood yet. By my halidom ! I would salute such an one in nomine Domini ! Hasten, good Varney ! " The esquire performed his errand with alacrity; but, for modesty's sake, by proxy. His report, how ever, was cut short almost at the first word, for the gaUant lord was appealed to at the instant in a hot dispute between a court beau and a court beUe, whether the crossing of two lines on the palm of her beautiful hand did betoken her of the Romish re ligion or no. Before this grave question could be settled, the burning upon the green was over; the people were resuming their pastimes ; and the com pany in the gaUeries were in all the bustle of departure. Their cavalcade, briUiant with beauty and rich array, was soon in motion, and took leave — the ladies mounted upon side-saddles — amid the huzzas of the rustic multitude.1 But rank must pay its These doctrines they began to prop- Hist, of the Presbyterians, Bk. VI. agate in the reign of King Edward ; Sec. 9. but never were so busy at it as ' There is a paragraph in Hume when they lived at Geneva, or which may properly be noticed in came newly thence." — Heylin's this connection. He says : " About 160 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Ch. VII. penalties ; and they were constrained, as they came home through Cheapside, to afford their presence at two other " great fires in the street," — one against Ironmonger Lane, and the other against Mercer's 1580, the use of coaches was intro duced by the Earl of Arundel. Before that time, the queen, on public occasions, rode behind her chamberlain." (A"ol. HI. 265, Ap pendix HI.) This in its connection seems to ignore the use of side saddles. Stow tells us that riding upon side-saddles was introduced by Richard H. upon occasion of his marriage in 1382. (Survey of Lon don, 132.) D'Ewes says (p. 59) that the queen went to the Parlia ment-House in 1562-3, "on horse back, a little behind the Lord Cham berlain '' ; an expression without the ambiguity of that of Hume. Nine years before 1580, the queen rode to Parliament in her coach. (D'Ewes, 136.) I have another object in here citing Hume. That "the use of coaches was introduced by the Earl of Arundel about 1580," is not only an error, but I think it appears how Anderson, singularly enough, fell into it. (Hume refers to Anderson for his authority ; and Anderson indeed says so.) The Earl of Arun del died in 1580, at the advanced age of sixty-nine years. Camden records his death, under that date, in his text, on page 256 ; where, in the margin, are the words, " The death of the Earl of Arundel, who first brought the use of coaches into England." Anderson has prob ably mistaken a marginal note which points backward as stating a fact of 1580 ; and Hume has followed him too trustfully. Lingard misreads Camden's note in the same strange way ; and, what is more singular, recognizes it as a note (Vol. VH. 305, note). Stow, who lived in Elizabeth's day, and to whom Hume often refers, says: "In the year 1564, Guilliam Boonen, a Dutchman, be came the queen's coachman, and was the first that brought the use of coaches into England." (Annals, 867, 868.) Probably Arundel in troduced both the Dutchman and the coach. The chariot, or whirlicote, was a different vehicle ; used both by Elizabeth (Strype's Annals, I. 408, 409, folio edit. 273) and by her sister Mary (Strype's Memorials, V. 498, 508, folio edit. 304). It was an ancient carriage. (Stow's Survey, 131, 132.) Elizabeth probably went to her first Parliament in her barge, though I find no record of it ; to the second, in 1562-3, on horseback, as above stated. The Parliament of 1566 was the same as that of 1562-3. Of course, it resumed busi ness without the attendance of the queen in person. The first time, therefore, that she opened a Parlia ment after 1564, she went to the House " in the ancient accustomed and most honorable passage,'' and in her coach. (D'Ewes, 136.) It is singular that Hume should have Ch. VII] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 161 Chapel, — " wherein were thrown a great number of roods Avith the images of John and Mary, and the resemblances of divers other saints." 1 But St. Bartholomew's festival did not end with the day. Nor did the light ; for no sooner had the sun gone down, than the city was bright with a thousand fires. Lighted at irregular intervals along the streets, throwing a flickering glare here, casting deep shadoAvs there, shooting up wavy pdlars of smoke, which slowly rose, expanded, and commingled tiU they became a canopy, they created an exciting picture of wild and animated contrasts. Yet the chief interest of the scene was beneath ; in the vast- ness, the surging, the perpetual voice, of that stream of human life which eddied along the streets. I am not sure that there was not something there which the Eye to whom darkness and hght are both alike smded upon and blessed. There was good cheer there, of meats and drinks, upon the scores of tables which encircled every fire ; but I do not mean that. There was cordial greeting there between neighbor and neighbor at ordinary times nexl>door strangers ; but I do not mean that. There was large-hearted generosity there, which met every passer-by, known or unknown, gentle or simple, in gay clothing or hi rags, full or famishing, and led him with heart and overlooked, or rather by implication fog or mist of tobacco." (Knight's contradicted, a fact which D'Ewes London, I. 25.) In 1601, Nov. 7, has conspicuously noticed. a bill was brought into the House Some time after the coach came of Lords to restrain the excessive into use, for some reason there arose use of coaches ; was read the second a prejudice against it ; and the time, and rejected. (D'Ewes, 602.) question was raised, " whether the 1 Holingshed, IV. 185. Strype's Devil brought tobacco into England Annals, I. 254. Strype's Grindal, in a coach, or brought a coach in a 25. vol. i. 21 162 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Ch. VII. courtesy to feUowship at its own board of repast, teU- ing him to sit there and be merry, to eat there and praise God ; but I do not mean that. There was a larger, nobler mission going on ; for here and there you might have seen two men at bitter feud sought out and brought together by mediators, Avho in quired and reasoned and explained and pleaded, and would not cease importunity, or restrain tears, until the two had embraced, sat doAvn to eat and drink together, exchanged forgiveness, and parted cove nant friends, — redeemed from a bitter curse. It was this mission of reconciliation — a mission carried on that night through the length and breadth of the city, a mission in the hkeness and spirit of that which made angels sing at Bethlehem — which I think God did smde upon there, and after reward in heaven. Such were the customs long, long ago in good Old England, on the close of festival days.1 The night was far spent. The people had dis persed. The poor had gone to bed not hungry ; and men who had woke at strife were sleeping at peace. But Lord Robert Dudley — in his princely chamber with its tapestry of Flanders, its Moorish carpet of arabesque designs, its blaze of light, and its delicate perfume of burning od — kept vigd. He was the young son of the Duke of Northumberland (first the Earl of Warwick) beheaded for his attempt to place 1 The street fire was the central ing, the scholars of the day coined pointofthe <70odwill,&ene-volence, — the word 5on-fire ; or, as they wrote of which at-one-ment was the chief it, bo-ne-6re, — from the French bon, form, — which characterized these or the Latin bonus. See Stow's festivals. To express fully its mean- Survey, 159. Ch. VH.] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 163 Lady Jane Grey upon the throne. Dudley, attainted for his complicity in the same treason, had been restored to rank and fortune by Mary in 1557.1 Upon presenting himself at the Court of Elizabeth, he had been received with marked favor, and with such unmistakable indications of admiration as to excite in him the most aspiring and intoxicating ambition.2 The virgin monarch seemed as though she would have welcomed him to the nuptial vow if she could. But there was a wife, — young, lovely, trusting, — his only seeming barrier to the proudest station in the realm. We wiU not say that at this time the damning purpose of her murder was formed ; but it was forming, for the thought of her as the obstacle, and yet the innocent and loving obstacle, to his ambition, was sometimes maddening. When alone, as now, he would walk to and fro, and think, , and think, — thoughts lashing passions to a tempest, and passion bestirring thought, — until the conflict became fearful suffering. The scorpion can sting itself — to death. At one moment, Amy would be imaged in his mind's eye, with her pure love, her sweet smde, her childlike trust, her artless beauty, her transparent heart ; and then, the magnificent daugh ter of Henry, luring him to her side, her station, and her power. He was a caged eagle, eying his mate on the wing aloft, clutching and biting his chain, chafing against his bars, and cursing the memory of his folly and the hour of his captivity. With neither God nor man for a confidant; with neither God nor man nor principle for counsellor; nay, with God and humanity and honor and conscience 1 Burnet, H. 562. 2 Lingard, VII. 305. 164 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Cn. VII. doing battle with him, — it Avas terrible to be alone and think. But he would. He had been so now, for hours; for hours he had thought; for hours he had breasted this strife. He could no longer bear it. Snatching from his toilet a small silver bell, he rang it nervously, wiped the perspiration from his brow, and resumed his walk. " Zounds ! the knave sleepeth ! " he exclaimed after a few moments. Then, striding to the door and opening it, " Ho there, Varney ! " " Pardon, my lord ! " stammered the confused chamberlain as he entered with a low reverence. " Overmuch wine, hey ? " " Upon my word, nay, my lord. But Nature wiU have her dues." " I Avould rest," said Dudley, tartly ; and, throwing himself upon a chair of crimson velvet, without fur ther word he submitted himself to the offices of the gentleman-dependent who had followed his fortunes for years. But hardly had his hose been loosened when he said, " Hold, Varney ; a cup of Theologi- cum.1 An thou hast some gentle drug to provoke sleep, add it to the draught. Court cares gender thoughts; and thoughts, wakefulness." The gentleman of the chamber was in the act of closing the heavy curtains of the bed, when his lord, 1 " The stronger the wine is, the drinke nor be serued of the worst, more it is desired, by means whereof or such as was anie waies mingled in old time the best was called or brued by the vintner: naie, the Theologicum, bicause it was had merchant would have thought that from the cleargie and religious men, his soule should have gone straight- vnto whose houses manie of the waie to the diuell if he should have laitie would often send for bottels serued them with other than the filled with the same, being sure that best." — Harrison, 281, 282, in Vol. they" — theclergy — " wouldneither I. of Holingshed. Ch. VH.] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 105 rising from the pilloAV, exclaimed, " Varney ! me- thinks I gave shrewd guess at ClerkenweU to-day ! One of the most noted, godly, long-headed of the whole college of clergy! A bishop to boot, — or hath been, Avhich is aU the same. I marvel that I remembered not one I saw often in my noble father's day. But I have a purpose for which I would know him now. I would win his ear, and withal his good faith, an I may. Bestir thy wits for our acquaint anceship, for he cometh not to the court, and I wordd our meeting should seem a happening ; a thing by cha — providence ; that is the Genevan phrase. What think you?" "An you ask mine honest thought, my lord, it seemeth a matter which needeth not the bestirring of any one's Avits. Summon him; he cometh. Go to him; he appeareth." " Nay ; an I seem to seek him, he may suspect a purpose, and be chary of his thoughts. I would probe the man. An he seem one of fit stuff, I may use him, — make him an ally offensive and defensive. Hey, Varney ? " " Probe him, my lord ! you had best, lest you run your barge upon the rocks. Probe him ! you may do it with the nine hundred and ninety-nine thou sandth of the least of all things. There be nothing in him to probe." " Now fie upon thee for a simpleton, Varney ! an thou be not talking in riddles. Beshrew thee, man, what meanest thou?" "My lord, I mean that he is as open-hearted and guileless as a child, and therefore unsuspicious. The best coin with him is straightforwardness. As for 166 THE REFORMATION RESTORED. [Ch. VIL the other matter, offensive he Avill not be, defensive he cannot be." " He is a knowing old man, you told me so your self; and since I find who he is, I know well what he is." "He is all you say, my lord. Besides, he hath lived under no less than five sovereigns of England, counting our gracious Mistress Elizabeth, whom HeaA^en long preserve and bless ! " " Amen ! " " He is skilled in the sacred tongues ; hath trans lated the Avhole Bible ; hath been a bishop ; hath been in prison ; hath been in exile ; hath been in many kingdoms ; hath been in royal courts. Were I the Lord Robert Dudley, the admiration of all this should allow me no rest until I did stand on his threshold and crave the honor — and the favor — and so forth." " Which for one of my station to do, woidd be translated, 'He hath some end of policy to com pass ' ; the very verity Avhich I would he should not read." " Nay, nay, my lord ; but natural it would seem, and commendable. Age expecteth deference from youth, and hath a right to it from the greatest, maugre whatever pertaineth to it of humbleness or poverty. Besides, courtesy from the Lord Dudley wovdd not seem strange to him. He hath received it often enough, I trow, from lords and dukes and kings and queens. " Varney ! I know thee for a shrewd fellow ; and so wdl weigh thy counsel. But now I would fain sleep. Another draught wdl soothe me like a lul laby." Ch. ATI.] THE REFORMATION RESTORED. 167 He quaffed the wine, and dropped upon the pillow. The curtains Avere closed, and Varney was retiring, when Dudley called, " Heigh-ho ! " "My lord?" " My Lord North hath converted me." 1 The gentleman boAved from habit, though screened by the curtains of the bed. " Dost not comprehend, sirrah ? " " Marry ! it exceedeth mine understanding how the Lord Robert Dudley could need conversion." " Dolt ! Be not Papistry heresy ? Hath not the new Church lands and revenues more than is meet? The Lord Dudley, thy master, is a GospeUer ! " " May the Gospel sink into my lord's heart ! " said the chamberlain with a shrug. " Ladies of the court wiU be saved from sighing, and husbands from wearing horns." " Hist, fellow ! I tell thee I be a Gospeller, now ; and thou must help me to act my calling. Find out what it is these Genevans would make a stir about. Something about the Book, I know ; something about phylacteries, I trow." "Yes, my lord." " Hold ! you must glean for me a pretty list of — of Gospel words — and — and — things." His voice fell to a murmur ; and sleep came to stdl his inward strife. 1 Lloyd, 520. CHAPTER VIII. THE ESTABLISHMENT. Paul's Cross.— Father Coverdale.— David Whitehead.— Sunday Traffic — The Changes in the Liturgy. — Sir Francis Knollys. — Robert, Lord Dudley. — The Queen's Tenderness for Papacy. — Her Reasons for it. — Her Dislike of the Frankfort Exiles, how excited. — "Semper Ea- dem." — The Dislike of the Vestments, and of the Supremacy. — The Position of Kkollys and Dudley. — The New Hierarchy. — The " Old Priests." — Scarcity of Clergy. 1559. Nearly in the centre of St. Paul's churchyard stood a unique structure, long used as the nucleus of pubhc assembhes, — a stone platform of moderate dimensions, elevated sufficiently for the purposes of harangue, and innocent of all adornment. It was accessible by stone steps, and surmounted by a pul pit of timber in the form of a cross and covered with lead. Around this venerable structure many a crowd had been gathered, from time immemorial ; now inflamed by words of sedition, and again by appeals to loyalty; now listening to a panegyric, and again to a philippic; now, to the publishing of a law, and again to the administering of an oath ; now, to a wheedling demagogue, and now to the voice of prayer. If a frolicsome girl had scared people, by pre tending to have Satan in her, and by acting as if she had, and was detected, they made her stand here on a Sunday before the preacher, and own that Ch. VHI.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 169 she did it for fun, and say that she was sorry, and wanted to be forgiven and to be prayed for. In Protestant times, if a Romish priest, to escape pun ishment, would abjure his heresy, they made him do it here, after having stood before the preacher all the sermon-time with a fagot on his back. Such Avere some of the uses of Paul's Cross, — so called. But it had ever been chiefly appropriated by the clergy. It had stood there at least three hundred years, — " the most noted and solemn place in the nation for the gravest divines and the greatest scholars to preach at." Wickliff had preached from it ; and so had his persecutors. So had Brad wardine and Tyndal ; the bloody Bonner, and his yoke-feUow Gardiner ; and Rogers, and Hooper, and Cranmer, — aU of whom Bonner and Gardiner had burned at the stake. It was at last completely destroyed in 1643, by order of Parliament. As soon as the Protestant religion was restored by Queen Elizabeth, the most eminent Protestant divines were appointed to occupy this pulpit on Sundays, where they preached to immense assem blies, including the dignitaries of Church and city, the queen and her nobles.1 The usual services had just been concluded there on the 12th of November, 1559. The preacher,2 a venerable man of seventy-two years, was well known, not only for his piety and learning, but for his in tegrity and fortitude during a long life of vicissitude, 1 Stow's Annals, 678. Stow'sSur- Neal, 1.455. Leigh's View of Lon- vey, 123, 124, note, Thorn's Lon- don. don edit. 1842. Strype's Grindal, z Strype's Grindal, 27. Strype's 26, 27. Strype's Annals, I. 300. Annals, I. 200. VOL. I. 22 170 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VIII. perd, and hardship. Many high in office and rank had therefore gathered to hear him. As soon as he had uttered the last words of the service, the whole congregation joined in a song of praise to God. Six thousand voices, "of old and young, of both sexes," SAvelling in harmony and fervent in their praise, — how grand the chorus ! " It sadly annoyed the Mass-priests and — the Devil."1 When the peo ple had mostly dispersed, the venerable preacher descended from the pulpit. He wore no surplice; only a long black gown over a plain black suit. His face Avas by no means classic ; rather rough than otherwise, as if by long and harsh exposure ; and his iron-gray hair lay in scant and Aviry tufts. But there was such a light of peacefulness and benevolence about his lips, beaming in his clear blue eye, and softening every homely feature, that one could not help being drawn toward him, lovingly and trustfully. Yet with aU his look of mildness, he had that also of decision, firmness, and courage, which repelled all idea of his being moved to anything which might conflict either with his reason or his conscience. Though he had not the strong, confident movement of vigorous life, yet he descended with a step betray ing no infirmity. He was met On the ground by a man somewhat past the prime of life, wearing the square cap and the gown of the clergy, who said, saluting him with marked deference, " May God long spare thee, good father, to preach the words of truth and soberness." The old man returned his salutation with a bright smile, which faded, however, into a look of placid 1 Zurich Letters, No. XLV. ; Jewel to P. Martyr. Ch. Vni.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 171 gravity as he heard the Avords. He did not at once reply ; and when he did, he said quietly, " As the Lord willeth. It is not for Myles Coverdale to eschew or to covet a greater length of days. Whde I live, an the Lord please, I would preach his Word. Albeit I misdoubt, Master Whitehead, lest my mouth be closed before my days." As he spake the last words, he looked at his com panion keenly. They were just without the four chains which compassed the churchyard ; a and here their routes diverged. But Master Whitehead, read ing the meaning of Father Coverdale's look, checked his step as he was about to turn, saying, " Would I might have thine ear, good father, touching the matters thy words point at ! Prithee ! let me to thine house." "With all my heart; albeit the place be not tempting." "It is only Father Coverdale I want." "Come then." But instead of proceeding, the venerable man, at that moment having turned his eye toward the churchyard, stood stdl, and exclaimed in tones of indignation and grief: "0 Mammon! Mammon! thou hast ever shown a spite to poor old Myles, and hast grudged him thy meanest dole. But now thou hast come to grudging him his trade, — persuad ing men ! and dost beat him at it too ! See, Master Whitehead ! The Devil travelleth in the preacher's wake, scattering tares where I did just cast God's seed ! A lawyer ; notaries, I trow, — the knaves with inkhorn and tablets ; a Jew ; and there come scores 1 Strype's Grindal, 57. 172 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VHI. of simpletons, with purses and dags in girdle, to buy and to seU, to gain and to lose, to cheat and be cheated. Now they wdl walk and talk and courtesy and smde ; anon, hear and tell news ; then to business and payment of moneys, and sealing of bonds, and such like ; and, last, to quarrelling and fighting, and mayhap to rioting and letting blood ! AU on ground consecrated to God's wor ship and the resurrection ! x Master Whitehead ! an you have influence with her Majesty, as men say, beseech her stop this profanation, — it is all abroad in the kingdom. She doth straitly reform religion ; prick her to reforming vice. Come," hastdy leaning upon Whitehead's arm, " let us away." So saying, he turned towards his temporary home. As their discourse concerned only the churchyard scene, Ave leave them to their walk ; merely observ ing, that mercantile gatherings after the Sunday service, and often attended by "divers outrageous and unseemly behaviors, as well within and near the cathedral church of St. Paul as in divers other churches in the realm,2 were not uncommon, even to the use of deadly weapons ; nor did the majesty of the crown interfere for their suppression untfl two years afterwards. Myles Coverdale — from respect to his age and character commonly called Father Coverdale — had translated the whole Bible in the reign of Henry VIII., and had been a cherished intimate of Thomas CromweU, the king's vicar-general; but about 1540 he had been obhged to seek safety in exile. He had 1 Strype's Grindal, 56, 209. 2 Queen's Proclamation, Oct. 30, Strype's Annals, I. 390. 1561. Cn. VIII.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 173 been one of the chaplains of EdAvard VI.; and Bishop of Exeter, from 1551 to 1553, when he was deposed and imprisoned by Mary, avIio Avith difficulty Avas persuaded by the king of Denmark to deny him the honors of the stake, which she commuted for banishment. Of course he had remained in exde until Elizabeth came to the throne, at which time he Avas at Geneva. The news of that event brought him speedily to England.1 ' In his youth Myles Coverdale entered the monastery of the Au gustine s at Cambridge. In 1514, at the age of twenty-six years, he was admitted to orders. He was one of the many young men of the University who nocked around Doc tor Robert Barnes, the prior of the convent, and hailed him as " the restorer of letters" when, as a mere scholar, he lectured upon Terence and Cicero, or poured forth his classic eloquence over the letters of Saint Paul. With still greater eagerness did the young monk drink in the words of the same elegant and ardent master, when afterwards, with new vision and new eloquence, he opened the spiritual treasures of the Gospel. Biiney and Latimer and Stafford also had a share in the training of his mind and the moulding of his heart, when the several Colleges of the University were in a fer ment over the Greek Testament of Erasmus, and timid students held " gospel-meetings " by stealth at the sign of the White Horse. (Strype's Parker, 6.) And after wards, in 1526, when manor-house and convent-cell, shop and cottage, were thronged with persons study ing Tyndal's English Testament, wondering at its clearness, its eth ics, and its glad tidings, — when the Universities began to be counted pest-houses of heresy because they too harbored Tyndal's book, — Cov erdale shared in the general en thusiasm, and sat with new-born gladness at the feet of his prior. And when, soon after, Barnes was swooped up by the minions of Wol sey, and heard from the lips of the despotic Cardinal, " You must be burned," Coverdale was one of three disciples who followed him on his mournful journey, and stayed him in his days of trial. After this, he abandoned his convent, and went about as a missionary, preaching an evangelical reformation. We have no trace of him from 1528 to 1535, except that during the greater part of the year 1529 he was assisting Tyndal at Hamburg in translating a part of the Old Testament. (Bagster's Memorials of Coverdale, 23.) As he published his own translation of the entire Bible in October, 1535, — the first edition of the whole Bible in Eng lish ever printed, — he was doubtless engrossed during the interval, and in seclusion, by this task. Where 174 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Cn. VLH. David Whitehead, a distinguished scholar and divine, was also an exile during Mary's reign, and resided at Frankfort. He has already been inciden tally mentioned, as ministering to the English church in that city, before the arrival of Knox. He appears to haAO been afterwards its pastor. It is probable that his acquaintance with Coverdale had commenced this Bible was printed is uncertain. In 1537, two other editions of it were published by James Nycolson, a bookseller in Southwark. In the same year appeared the Bible which bears the name of Thomas Matthewe, but which was really edited by John Rogers. Of this, all to the end of the Chron icles, the book of Jonah, and the New Testament, were Tyndal's ; the rest, Coverdale's. (Compare Hal lam, 57, and note.) This edition was a private speculation of Graf ton, who printed it ; and was " set forth with the king's most gracious license." (Compare Heyl. Ref, 9, 20. Carte, HI. 128, 129. Holing shed, IV. 732. Stow, 553, 554, 575. Rapin, I. 483, 804 - 832, passim.) In 1538, Coverdale was in Paris with Grafton, and under the direc tion of Cromwell, Lord of the Privy Seal and Henry's vicegerent, edit ing another edition of the Bible ;• but the Inquisition scenting the work, he was obliged to flee. He managed, however, to save his types and most of the edition, which was completed and published the next year in London. It seems to have been what is called Cranmer's Bi ble. (Compare Hallam, 57, note.) About 1540 he went to Germany, where he struggled eight years against poverty. During this exile he married Elizabeth Macheson, a woman of Scotch descent. When Edward came to the throne, he was invited — by Cran mer, doubtless — to return ; which he did early in 1549, for a letter of his to Calvin, dated March, 1548, — i. e. 1548-9, — says, "On my re turn to England, having been in vited thither after an exile of eight years." In 1550 he brought out a new edition of his Bible at Zurich, which was reissued in London in 1553, and again in 1562 (Strype's Parker, 207), and yet again in 1566. (Ibid., 240, misnumbered 232.) He was appointed one of the king's chaplains, and almoner to the dowager Queen Catharine ; and on the 30th of August, 1551, was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, be ing " habited in surplice and cope." (Strype's Cranmer, 271. ) Queen Mary deposed and im prisoned him in 1553, and would have sent him to tho stake but for McBee, who had married a sister of Coverdale's wife. This man, chap lain to King Frederick of Denmark, procured his Majesty's intercession by letter in Coverdale's behalf. This being unsuccessful, his Majesty Ch. Vni.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 175 at the court of Henry VIH., Avhile Whitehead was officiating as chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn; and that it had been renewed at Frankfort or Geneva. Since his return, he had so won the esteem of Elizabeth, as a zealous and able champion of the Reformed religion, that she had offered him the Archbishopric of Canterbury; which, however, from conscientious scruples, he had declined.1 wrote a second time ; upon which Mary reluctantly liberated her pris oner, on condition, however, that he should abjure the realm. He was thereupon sent to Denmark. (Fox, LH. 182, 183. Fuller's Worthies, ILL 411, 412. Brook, I. 125.) He was afterwards in Geneva, engaged with Goodman, Knox, Gibbs, Sampson, Cole, Oxon, and Whittingham in translating and publishing the Bible. This edition was not completed until 1560, when it was published at Geneva, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. It is the version known as " the Geneva Bible " ; sometimes wag gishly called " the Breeches Bible," because of its rendering of Gen. iii. 7. It was the first English edition in which the chapters were divided into verses. Its marginal notes were thought to reflect upon the queen's supremacy; and there fore it was denied a publication in England. The author ofthe "Dis cours" — published, it will be re membered, in 1575 — says, "Men maie maruelle that suche a worke (beinge so profitable) shulde finde so small fauor as not to be printed againe.'' But the next year it was printed in England ; and again, in 1579 ; and in 1616 had passed through about thirty editions ; most ly by the queen's and the king's printers. Other editions were issued at Geneva, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam. (Neal, I. 83. Home's Introduction, H. 244. Strype's Parker, 207.) When Elizabeth came to the throne, Coverdale was still at Ge neva, and the news of that event brought him immediately to Eng land, where he preached on differ ent occasions at Paul's Cross. (Strype's Annals, I. 300, 407.) Further particulars about him will be found hereafter in the text. The chief materials of this note, where reference is not made to other authorities, I gather from the Bio graphia Britannica ; "The Remains of Coverdale,'' published by the Parker Society; and D'Aubigne's History ofthe Reformation, Vol. V. Hallam (57, note) says that the accounts of the early editions of the English Bible, as given by Burnet, Collier, Strype, and others, are erroneous or defective; and that the most complete enumeration is in Cotton's list of editions, 1821. 1 Fuller's Worthies, H. 19. In troduction to the Discours, p. vii. Strype's Parker, 35. Pierce, 46. Neal, I. 119. 176 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VIII. He was pained at the indications of poverty Avhich he saw in the apartment of his venerable friend. The furniture Avas of oak Avrought in the simplest manner, and barely sufficed the purposes of neces sity ; and upon nothing there could the visitor look with satisfaction, but a few choice books bestowed upon the shelves of a rude oaken press. Suppress ing his emotions at Avhat he saAv, he immediately opened the purpose of his visit. " As touching that you said, good father, of the closing of your lips, it is burdenous to my soul. We did think it blithe sunshiny weather which God had sent us in the sweet looks of our sovereign mistress, and lo ! our sky is already overcast. I take it grievously." "In good sooth, so do I. We have reason. Pa pistry by itself be better than mingle-mangle, — Papistry naked, than Papistry cloaked. To my eye, there be strange contradiction in things present. Her Majesty's Councd half Popish, half Protestant; the Book of Common Prayer reformed Pope-wise, yet her Majesty Head of the Church ; Master White head himself helping to mar the Liturgy, yet hating the marring; Master Whitehead to her Majesty's seeming Papistical enough to be her metropolitan, yet so much of a Gospeller as to refuse ! All this bewddereth simple Myles Coverdale." There was a tinge of bitterness in these words, which grieved Master Whitehead; but he mddly replied, " I cannot be sponsor for her Majesty, good father. But concerning myself there is no reason for bewilderment. In sooth I was of those who were ordered to the re\dewing of King Edward's Ch. VIII.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 177 Liturgy. By her Majesty's commands, our doings were in private and at the lodgings of Sir Thomas Smith, joined with us for Ids knowledge of civil law.1 We Avere not her Majesty's advisers ; but under her strait behest, which Avas, to purge the Liturgy of all which might give scandal or offence to the Papists.2 Certes ! what were we to do but obey ? In the king's litany stood the prayer to be delivered from the tyranny and detestable enormities of the Bishop of Rome. The Papists would never gulp that ; so it must be stricken out.3 Then there was the commun ion service; in the first Liturgy of the king, 'the body of our Lord Jesus Christ,' — 'the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,' — which agreeth with the doc trine of the corporal presence; in the second Lit urgy, ' Take, eat this in remembrance] &c, which ex- cludeth the doctrine. We were constrained by com mandment to join the two as it now readeth, lest, under color of rejecting the carnal, it should seem to deny the real presence. So that now it readeth as to give not matter of scandal to Papists.4 For the same reason, nolens volens, we must strike out the rubric which declared kneeling at the sacrament no adoring of the bread and wine.5 AU this, sorely to my grief. Prithee ! good father, what can the chisel 1 Strype's Grindal, 23. Strype's and Pilkington, — exiles, and newly Life of Smith, 226. Neal, I. 76. come home." — Strype's Annals, I. "The men named for drawing 75. up a platform of religion were Bill, 2 Warner, H. 416. Neal, I. 76. Parker, May, — ¦ all under King Ed- 'Warner, H. 417. Heylin's ward heads of the University of Ref, 283. Cambridge, but deprived under * Echard, 789. Queen Mary, and remaining ob- 6 Heylin's Ref, 283. Warner, scurely in England during her H. 416. Burnet, H. 606, 607. reign ; Cox, Whitehead, Grindal, vol. i. 23 178 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VLU. do, save to cut as the hand and maUet do guide it?" "Didst protest? Didst show thy mind and con science ? Didst plead ? " " Ay ; protested on my conscience. For pleading there was no place." " God be thanked, brother ! that thou art scatheless of blame. Yet why should her Majesty seek to make thee her Primate of Canterbury ? " "I did withstand the Popish bishops Avith some show of skid, which did suit her humor. Howbeit, she wisteth not, mayhap, of my contrariness to these changes, and that I did refuse on the score of con science ; for I did excuse myself by saying only, that I could live plentifuUy on the Gospel without any preferment ; and so, by God's grace, I wdl do. " 1 "Alack! alack! that her Majesty undoeth the work of our good young king! It be a sad thing to order us back to copes and such hke things from 1 Neal, I. 75, 119. Brook, I. 173. had so great an esteem for him, that This archbishopric was also offered she offered him the archbishopric to Doctor Nicholas Wotton, who of Canterbury, but he refused; as refused it. (Holingshed, IV. 760. also the mastership of the Savoy Lodge, I. 337, note. Walton's Hospital, — affirming that he could Lives of Wotton, etc., p. 104.) live plentifully on the preaching of "In the time of Henry VHI., the Gospel without either. It is Whitehead was chaplain to Anne doubtful, therefore, whether he had Boleyn. He was one of four who any spiritualities of note conferred were nominated to the king by upon him, he being much delighted Cranmer to be a bishop in Ireland, in travelling to and fro to preach He had a hand in the third the Word of God in those places edition of the English Liturgy, in where he thought it was wanting. 1559. He was one of the dispu- He lived single, and was therefore tants in that year against the Ro- better esteemed by the queen. He man Catholic bishops. So that in died in 1571." — Wood's Athenae, L his discourses, showing himself a 396. deep divine, the queen thereupon Ch. VIII.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 179 which he delivered us ; 1 knowing, as she doth, that our best clergy — JeAvel, Grindal, and others, even Horn and Cox 2 — count them relics of the Amo rites. It be a sad thing to order the sacramental bread round like a wafer ; and the Lord's table against the waU hke an altar; and obeisance at the name of Jesus ; 3 and the observance of the old festivals with their eves.4 My heart greatly misgiveth me, lest these be only the first steps backward to the embrace of the Romish harlot." Thus did these good men deplore the changes in rehgion, so different from those they had hoped for when it was announced to them beyond the seas, "that the Lorde began to shewe mercy vnto Eng- lande in remouinge Queene Mary be deathe." 5 They 1 Strype's Annals, I. 122. 8 Hallam says (p. 107) that all the most eminent Churchmen were in favor of leaving off the surplice and what are called the Popish ceremonies, except Parker and Cox. Strype says (Annals, I. 264) that uCox with others labored all that he could, upon his first re turn, against receiving into the Church the Papistical habits, and that all the ceremonies should be clean laid aside." Even Parker professed " that he was not over- fond of cap and surplice, wafer bread and such like." (Strype's Parker, 227, and Appendix, p. 185.) By turning to pp. 33, 67, 69, 208, 243, and 275 of the Zurich Letters, the reader will find the strongest evidence of the aversion of Queen Elizabeth's bishops to " the scenic apparatus of divine worship," " the fooleries," "the ceremonies and maskings," "the theatrical habits," "the relics of the Amorites," — these are bishop Jewel's words, — which pertained to the established service ; and of the earnest man ner in which they strove " with the queen and Parliament" to have them removed. 3 " The Puritans maintained that all the names of God and Christ were to be held in equal reverence ; and therefore it was beside all rea son to bow the knee, or uncover the head, only at the name of Jesus." They objected to the Church festi vals or holy days, and particularly to those appointed in commemora tion of saints, because they had no foundation in Scripture or in the usages of the primitive Church. (Neal, I. 106, 107.) 1 Heylin's Ref., 188, 283. 6 Discours, 186. 180 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Cu. VIH were one in their griefs and anxieties, and one in the purpose to make no approaches, in the exercise of then sacred functions, to the superstitions of Rome ; and particularly never to adopt " the relics of the Amorites." While in the full fervor of such dis course, to the astonishment of both, Sir Francis KnoUys Avas ushered into their presence, in company Avith the Lord Robert Dudley. Sir Francis Knollys Avas descended from a younger sister of Queen Anne Boleyn; and, of course, was near of kin to Queen Elizabeth,1 Avho had instaUed him as one of her Privy Council. He had been one of the exiles at Frankfort during the troubles there ; and, sympathizing Avith Whittingham and Knox, had been driven thence to Geneva by the intrigues of Cox and his partisans. At Geneva he had been intimate with Calvin, Beza, and their disciples, and had returned to England "a professed Genevian."2 Consequently, he was far from being a stranger either to Whitehead or Coverdale ; who, well know ing his religious sympathies, gave him a cordial welcome. 1 Camden (p. 88), Fuller (in his Francis himself puts this relation- Worthies, HI. 16), Birch (I. 8), ship by blood beyond doubt. In a and Lodge (I. 311), speak of Knol- letter to Whitgift, he speaks of him- lys's alliance to the queen as being self as " bound to be careful of her only through his wife, Catharine Majesty's safety by the Cary, the queen's cousin-german and strong bands of Nature." (Strype's daughter to Lord Cary of Hunsdon. Whitgift, Appendix, Bk. HI. No. Heylin also (Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 1 9) VHI.) Strype says, " cousin to the states this connection. But there queen." (Ibid., p. 156.) See also was also a nearer one — of blood. Wright, I. 272, note. (Heylin's Presb., Bk. I. Sec. 19.) 2 Lodge, I. 311. Heylin's Presb., Lloyd says, " The Knollyses were of Bk. I. Sec. 19; Bk. VI. Sec. 19; the same blood with her Majesty." Bk. VHI. Sec. 21. (State Worthies, 618.) But Sir Ch. VHL] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 181 That the attention of the' people might not be attracted, the visitors had come without that retinue which custom appended to their out-of-door move ments ; and for the same reason, their apparel was shorn of its ordinary splendor. Still, with only the appointments of unpretending cavaliers, — gay colors, rich fabrics, plumes, and weapons, — they figured strangely in that rude apartment, with its scant and homely furnishings, and beside men in the humblest sad-apparel of the Church. Dudley was profuse in his expressions of respect; yet with such delicacy of port and phrase as precluded offence, and with such honesty, for the moment, as barred suspicion. Face to face with hoary age and artless piety, the elegant and godless courtier yielded to their influ ence, and dwindled in his own esteem to a dwarf; his courtesies were measured by the sacred rank of those before him ; his lips refused hypocrisy ; and he was constrained to an openness of discourse of which he had believed himself incapable. Add to this be fitting deportment, his noble mien and princely features, and we cannot wonder that he won at least the momentary confidence of his new acquaintance. We pass over the courtesies of introduction, and the discourse, interesting to each alike, respecting the days of Warwick, Cranmer, and Hooper. This naturally and easdy led to the theme by which Coverdale and Whitehead had been engrossed, and upon which it was the errand of both KnoUys and Dudley to engage ; a theme, however, whose intro duction would not have seemed forced in any circle, being the great topic of the day with all ranks and all parties. 182 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VIII. " My lord," said Coverdale, " the plan of reform in King EdAvard's day was step by step; lest sud den and violent revolution in the Church should stir up rebellion in the State. Thus, the first Lit- urgy only abated someiv/iat the Popish mummeries. When it had been tried aAvhile, it was brought under review and altered to a farther distance than it had before from the rituals of Rome. But though it had much less of Rome than before it had,1 it was the intent of us who were then bishops to purge it yet more, so soon as the people could bear it." "So I have been told." " The next step would have been to procure an act of Parliament for abolishing the habits; and this both Cranmer and Ridley did fully intend,2 and the king himself was about to do it when he died.3 And you know," turning to Sir Francis, " that when it was told in Switzerland that God had pulled down Mary that did persecute, they who had before dis agreed touching the ritual did by letters agree to drop contention, to join hands and hearts together at home against superfluous ceremonials in religion.4 We came home, and lo ! 6 instead of • the further reform which King Edward's bishops did frame, and for which Ave did hope, we are told to go back to the king's first Book, and put on cope and tippet, chimere and what not.6 All these doings tend to Rome, whether her Majesty wotteth of it or no. God grant she have no intent thereto ! " 1 Heyl. Presb., Bk. I. Sec. 16. * Discours, 186-191. McCrie, 152. 2 Pierce, 44. McCrie, 408. 6 Heyl. Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 12. 5 Zurich Letters, No. CXXX. ; Heyl. Ref, 304. Withers to the Elector Palatine. ° 1 Eliz. Cap. H. Sec. Xin. Ch. VIIL] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 183 "Her Majesty wiU never pay Peters-pence," ex claimed Dudley. " She hath the spirit of her royal father, and will never part with her supremacy." " Yet did her royal sire cleave to the superstitions and idolatries of Rome ; and to her heresies, too. Her Majesty and Parliament are moving over the steps of Edward and Cranmer — backward. Will they stop ere they get where Henry and Cromwell were ? Hey, my lord ? " " I do greatly mislike this undoing of reform, and therefore did give my voice against the bdl for Uni formity," 1 returned Dudley. " But touching the danger of her Majesty's relapse to Popish idolatries, consider, good father, she hath ordered aU the gear of idolatry and superstition to be destroyed, — the images of saints, altars, crucifixes, and such like, — which hath already been done. That smacketh not of idolatry, I trow." "Marry! and retaineth the like vain quiddities and dumb idols for her private uses ! Prithee ! what meaneth the Popish rood in her chapel? What meaneth it there, when her singing chddren clap on the surphce, and her priest, the cope ? What meaneth the altar there, garnished with rich vessels of sdver, and huge crucifix of sdver, and burning candles ? 2 What smack these things of, my lord ? They do grieve and alarm the most loyal of her Majesty's subjects." " We mislike it also, reverend sir. Yet methinks her purppse tendeth no further than will suffice to 1 D'Ewes, 28. XXXIX., Sampson to P. Martyr, 2 Zurich Letters, No. XXXTV., Jan., 1559-60. Burnet, HI. 439. Jewel to P. Martyr, Nov., 1559 ; No. Neal, I. 81, 82. 184 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VLB". gratify in her own privacy that Avhich Ave all know she hath inherited from her royal father, — a fond ness for state and magnificence, in her devotions as weU as in her court."1 "Nay, nay," replied Coverdale, gravely. "Thou dost thy devoir stoutly, my lord, like a doughty knight and loyal. For thy right chivalrous heart, I do commend thee. Albeit mine own be old, and worn, and Aveary, in true and right reverent devo tion to our gracious mistress it doth not lag a whit behind fresh youth and princely blood ; nevertheless, Avhde I find Babylonish garments enjoined even upon her clergy who detest them, I do gravely ques tion if her use of Popish gear be only for her own private pleasing." " Methinks, reverend sir," interposed KnoUys, " her Majesty hath proceeded in this wise as far as she will." " Mayhap," replied Coverdale, dryly. " Be it so ; be it so, — which God grant ! " said Master Whitehead. " Yet, Sir Francis, we do harbor misgivings. While Popish superstitions have the broad seal, and while Popish j)omp doth allure and awe the people, wherewithal shall they be restrained from backsliding to Rome ? Know you not that the learnedest among the Papists boast that the face of the nation hath already been set thither; and, withal, by authority?" "By my troth, nay. Who boasteth thus?" " No less a man than that arch-idolater, that prime minister of fire and fagot." " Bonner ? " "Bonner." 1 Echard, 789. Warner, H. 407, 408. Ch. VIII.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 185 "What saith he?" " He heareth Iioav our Parliament hath thought fit to continue some of the Popish superstitions, — 'An they sup of our broth, they will soon eat of our beef,' 1 he roundly exclaimeth, and in huge glee." " Ma foil I do honestly commend him, being myself of the mind that so it would be an the people were left to the natural course of things." "Say you so, too, my lord!" exclaimed Master Coverdale. "In all sincerity, reverend sir," replied Dudley. " Howbeit, the people wdl not be left to the natural course of things. People and Parliament have a mistress ; and my thinking agreeth with that of Sir Francis, that she wdl not let them have the meat ; having gone as far backward as she will." "Your reason, my lord," said Whitehead. "Ay, my lord, — your reason," echoed Coverdale. "A sound opinion hath good cause." " Reverend masters ! let men gossip as they may, and let you honest Genevans quake never so much, about these few Popish rags, — at which I marvel not, you not seeing the reasons therefor, mayhap, — yet, maugre aU, her Majesty is as true a Protestant this day — howbeit not of the same mould — as my Lord Bishop here, who hath ventured even life for the faith." " Nay, lord me no lord ! " protested Coverdale. "My bishopric is over. God grant you be right. Thou givest fair reason for thine opinion. Canst give as good reason for thy reason?" " I wdl try. Ponder, I pray you, the straitened 1 Pierce, 50. VOL. I. 24 186 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VHI. estate of our gracious lady upon her coming to the throne. The Pope had declared her illegitimate, — Avhich meaneth usurper with more than half the world. Thereupon the Queen of Scots putteth in her claim to the croAvn. France on the south, Scot land on the north, at Avar with her Majesty; — all the Catholic powers her open enemies, save only the arrant bigot and graceless mar-faith of Spam, and he secretly so ; J for Throkmorton hath writ her Majesty, 'The king of Spain is but a hoUoAV friend unto you, and so may he do you more harm than an open enemy ' ; 2 — all our bishops and a great part of our commoners religiously unloyal, — the flutter of a rag, a puff of air, might have woke them to rebeUion;3 — what was she to do? Marry! to make peace abroad, — the seeming of which she hath uoav happily attained ; 4 next, to get the good-will of her subjects. But the nation was wonderfully divided in opinions; as well in matters of ecclesiastical government, as in divers points of religion.5 The greatest part of her subjects, Protestants; never theless a great part, Catholics,6 — of course counting her a heretic, a bastard, a usurper. By education and by policy, she was constrained to estabhsh the Protestant religion. But it much behooved her safety to throw a cake to Cerberus, — to pacify and make easy the Papists. For this reason she hath refused the title Head of the Church, and taken only that of Supreme Governess. For this 1 AVright, I. 6. « Strype's Annals, L 30, 37, 2 Forbes, I. 182 ; Throkmorton 283. to the Queen, July 27, 1559. 6 Stow, 635. 3 Rapin, II. 57-59. Warner, H. • Rapin, H. 52, 59 bis. 407. Neal, I. 71. Ch. VIII.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 187 reason, she hath moulded the Liturgy somewhat to the complexion of the Papistical humor, and hath come a step or two closer to the Romish cere monials. For this reason, she retaineth her sister's councdlors ; and, in her own chapel, certain symbols of Romish worship ; and hath ordered copes and other garments for the clergy, — which opportunely faUeth in with her love of display. In fine, she hath discreetly sought to shape the worship of the Church — whde putting her ban upon idolatry — more pass ably with the Romanists, and so to keep them in our communion.1 The wisdom of aU which doth appear ; inasmuch that they be quiet, exciting no sedition, and do generally repair to the churches without doubt or scruple.2 Thus, most worshipful sirs, I conceive that her Majesty's comportment be not from any leaning to superstition and idolatry; is to be scored only to her state-discretion; and maketh naught to the prejudice of her hearty Prot- estancy. Which I humbly lay down for your fair considering." "Bravo, my lord!" exclaimed Father Coverdale. " A most puissant advocate ! An our maiden queen had not presently given thee guerdon of the Garter, thou wouldst now have earned it. My lord, I wdl not gainsay thy conclusion. Nevertheless, doth not your lordship somewhat overshoot ? An these com pliances be lime-twigs to catch Papists, then they be downright Popish. Myles Coverdale wiU none of them. I mind me none the less, that they who sup the broth wdl hanker for the beef." 1 Echard, 789, 793. Warner, H. * Heyl. Ref., 283. Heyl. Presb., 419. Collier, VI. 264, 480. Bur- Bk. VI. Sec. 12. net, H. 582, 583, 606. 188 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VHL " On that score, be at rest, good father. She Avho alloweth them is a Protestant, with a Avoman's Avfll, with queenly power, and Avill heed the spiritual weal of her realm. Be mindful also that she hath advisers whom ye may trust, Avho respect your scruples, and will befriend your party, — Sir Widiam Cecil, than Avhom none hath more her Majesty's ear and confidence ; Sir Francis Knollys, here, Avho hath been school-fellow with Master Coverdale and Mas ter Whitehead under Master Calvin, and Avhom the queen favoreth to a marvel, he being a Avorthy kins man of her Highness ; besides that graceless gaUant, Robert Dudley." "An the Lord Robert Dudley and his compeers plead as well with her Majesty for us poor Genevans, as with us for her Majesty, the Lord of lords bless him ! " said Coverdale, with patriarchal solemnity. The courtier, half unconsciously, responded, " Amen ! " " But odds my life ! " resumed the former, after a slight pause, "how cometh it to pass, that, with all this tenderness for Papists, not one poor crumb of royal favor hath fallen to us Protestants who sue for a purer worship ? " 1 " I' faith, sir, I know not. But Master Knox hath writ somewhat to Master Secretary Cecil, to whom I did hear her Highness swearing roundly and over- loud, one day, about the insolent Scot's letter, and his Blast2 and new-fangleness. I did not understand 1 Collier, VI. 278. Strype's An- Blast of the Trumpet against the nals, I. 192, 194. Monstrous Regiment of Women,'' — 2 Near the close of Queen Mary's i. e. the unnatural government of reign, Knox published " The First women ; a pamphlet provoked by Ch. VIII.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 189 the discourse; but surmise that the Scotsman hath told tales. How now, Sir Francis ! Mayhap you have advisement touching that we speak of." " Certes, I have ! Her Majesty hath been plied with tales. Howbeit, not by Master Knox, but by his old adversary. No sooner doth Doctor Cox hear of Queen Mary's death, than he cometh home boot and spur. Before any of us in Switzerland could arrive, he gaineth the queen's presence and bloweth in her ear, with Da Capo to boot, the whole Blast of Master Knox's Trumpet; whereat her Majesty did fume right hon-like, finding woman's regiment tdted at in open lists as a thing contrary to God and nature. Now Doctor Cox, seeing her Majesty in fit humor, doth rehearse after his own fashion our troubles at Frankfort ; and, with others, did persuade her Majesty's barbarities. Its doc- Cecil.) It was at the hazard of im- trine was, " that the rule of a prisonment, that any one should woman is repugnant to Nature, a even convey a letter from Knox contumely to God, a thing most to the Court of Elizabeth. (Mc- contrarious to his revealed will and Crie, 153, 157. Strype's Annals, I. approved ordinance, and, finally, 178. Forbes's State Papers, I. 90.) the subversion of all equity and Knox threatened two other blasts, justice." but they were never blown ; partly For this, and for his hostility to because the first gave offence to the English Liturgy, the queen had many of his brethren, partly be- such a hatred of him, that the very cause of Mary's death, and partly mention of his name was odious because he was desirous to strength- to her ear. In March, 1559, her en the authority of Elizabeth. (Mc- government refused to let Knox Crie, 143. Lingard, VH., Note H.) pass through England on his way The letter to Cecil alluded to in to Scotland. (McCrie, 153.) Yet the text was dated April 24th, 1559. Throkmorton wrote from Paris, "In In this, without receding from the my opinion, it is greatly necessary, ground he had taken, Knox ac- notwithstanding any difficulty there- knowledged that Elizabeth was a in heretofore made, that Knox have miracle of an exception to the gen- liberty to repair into England, how- eral rule, — a special production of ever short his abode be there." Divine Providence, — expressly ele- (Forbes, I. 167 ; Throkmorton to vated to the government for the 190 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VLH. her Majesty that the sort of men Avho sided with Knox there, and who were with him at Geneva, did hold his doctrine of the monstrous government of women, and were therefore her disloyal subjects.1 ' These be the sort,' said they, ' Avho made such stir in King Edward's day about the episcopal robes, at Avhich time they did outrage all decency and comely order in the Church; and, after, did practise such like books as this to subvert Queen Mary withal; and were wont openly to pray God either to turn her heart or take her life. And,' they added, 'the same sort who behaved thus under King Edward and Queen Mary, wdl so behave under your Majesty, an thou cross their fantasies, right or wrong.' It was brtuted, withal, that they Avho had affected unmeet alterations of the Liturgy were for having manifestation of God's glory, &c. According to Heylin, (Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 13,) he had the ill grace to prescribe to her a " confession," that, " by God's mercy, that was lawful in her which was contrary to God and to nature in all other women " ; on condition of which con fession Knox would acknowledge her authority, but threatening her with God's punishment otherwise ! This representation has the bilious tang which so pervades Heylin's writings as to repel the confidence of his readers. " Knox wrote to Cecil requesting permission to visit England, and en closed a letter to Queen Elizabeth, in which he attempted to apologize for his rude attack upon female gov ernment. There was nothing at which he was more awkward than apologies, condescensions, and civil ities ; and on the present occasion he was placed in a very embarrass ing predicament, as his judgment would not permit him to retract the sentiment which had given offence to the English queen. In his letter to her, he expresses deep distress at having incurred her displeasure, and warm attachment to her gov ernment ; but the grounds on which he advises her to found her title to the crown, and indeed the whole strain in which the letter is writ ten, are such as must have aggra vated, instead of extenuating, his offence in the opinion of that high- minded princess It does not appear that Elizabeth ever saw Knox's letter ; and I have little doubt that it was suppressed by Cecil." — McCrie, 180, 181. 1 Collier, VI. 277, 278. McCrie, 153. Ch. VHL] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 191 a new fashion of Church polity.1 Whereupon her Majesty, when first deliberating of the altering of rehgion, did resolve upon Sir Thomas Smith's coun sel;2 which was to have an eye upon these hot Gos- peUers, and not to heed their whimseys, but rather to give them " an early check," 3 lest, being humored once, they should bawl, like spoiled chddren, to be humored twice, and so without end.4 Thus, to Doctor Cox's grudge and intrigues, reverend sirs, we may set it down that nothing hath been done to favor your wishes, and that you and others have been treated with harshness and disdain." 5 We may imagine, perhaps, although we cannot describe, the grief and indignation with which this revelation was heard by men than whom none more loyal and upright were to be found in the kingdom. With that honesty which belongs to self-respect, integrity, and a high sense of honor, the two clergy men spake freely their resentment of the wrong done to themselves and their brethren, and their detestation of the clandestine and insidious means by which it had been wrought, — expressions, how ever, so tempered with meekness as to excite the admiration of their guests ; and the more, because of the nature of the provocation. "Of a verity," said Master Whitehead, "Doctor Cox hath gained his points, — odium for those who did withstand him at Frankfort, and royal favor for himself. Nevertheless, he is more to be pitied than we." 1 Collier, VI. 199. * Heyl. Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 11. 2 Lloyd, 562. McCrie, 153. 8 Camden, 16. 6 Strype's Annals, I. 178, 181. 192 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VHI. "To be pitied! and he bishop elect!" exclaimed Dudley. " Nay, my lord ; not for being bishop elect, but for being traducer, for being bishop at the price. To be wronged, is not wrong. To wrong, is to be wronged, — self-wronged and pitiably. He standeth on his bishopric ; I, on mine integrity and manhood. A man Avhole — and who is he but a whole Chris tian ? — holdeth higher rank than a mitred man marred, my lord." " Most truly and nobly said, reverend sir," returned Dudley Avith an expressive courtesy, and Avith an inward twinge. " Would I were often thy pupil ! " " We will bear our wrong," said Father Coverdale, " as quietly as we may ; but we must be righted with her Majesty." "It will be difficult," replied Knollys. "Her Ma jesty is very jealous of whatsoever seemeth to touch her queenly authority, and holdeth fast her dislikes. It wdl be hard to convince her that the friends of Knox are the friends of her crown. Every one who hath the smell of Geneva is hateful to her; because there the Scot published his Blast, and there too Goodman a like book on the rights of the Magistrate." 2 " Impossible ! " added Dudley. " And as impossible to change her plan of the ritual. She wdl not a step back from the pattern she hath scored out. Whde the changes in Church order were under dehberation, she did indeed suffer herself to be persuaded in some things against her bent.2 But, the order once fixed, Zurich Letters, No. CXH. ; 2 Burnet, H. 614-616. NeaL L Beza to Bullinger. 87. Hume, H. 572. Ch. VIH.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 193 she will suffer persuasion no more. She hath adopted for her motto, " Semper Eadem ! " and she will cleave to it.1 She knoweth right well, that the greatest part of the most eminent clergy are mislik- ing of Popish superstitions, — bowing at the name of Jesus, the sign of the cross in baptism,2 the old vest ments of the clergy, and such like ; yet she wiU not yield.8 Here is Jewel, bishop elect of Sarum, and Grindal, bishop elect of London; and Sandys, and Horn, fuid Parkhurst; — her Majesty knoweth well their aversion to the apparel, and to some things else that be enjoined. But she regardeth not their wishes, although they have had no dealings with Knox. She hath even rejected, in these matters, the advice and remonstrances of her Council.4 She is of another mind ; and wdl retain things as she hath ordained them. Divines of other corintries have prayed her to aUow some indulgence respecting rites and cere monies ; but she answereth, that it doth not consist with her interest or honor.5 In fine, ' Semper Eadem ' she hath written ; and what she hath writ ten, she hath written." 1 Camden, 32. Fuller, Bk. IX. tism was imperfect ; and it had been p. 174. Echard, 797. Heyl. Presb., unduly reverenced, as a part of the Bk. VTI. Sec. 38. rite, even by some Protestants. 2 Making the sign of the cross, For these reasons, the Puritans although practised by the earlier religiously, and like sensible philos- Christians upon some occasions, is ophers too, objected to the sign in not mentioned as appended to bap- this ordinance. (Burnet, H. 127. tism till about the fifth century. Neal, I. 107.) By the Romanists, it had been 3 Pierce, 46. Hallam, 108. supposed to be efficacious to drive 4 Zurich Letters, No. CXVLU. ; away evil spirits, and to preserve Gualter to Beza. one against dangers. They also 5 Collier, VI. 300. Strype's An- regarded it as imparting a sacra- nals, I. 127, 128. Strype's Grindal, mental virtue, without which bap- 33. vol. i. 25 194 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Cit. VHI. " Different from the maxim in good King Edward's day," exclaimed Coverdale. " Her Majesty assumeth, for sooth, that in Church matters perfection hath been found, — a sort of infalhbility, I trow." " Nay, good father ; she pretendeth not to being infaUible." "Very like it." " Reverend sirs," said Knollys, " his lordship de scribeth truly her Majesty's humor. Touching the dress of the clergy, and the order of public worship, she wiU not change. I pray you, therefore, advise us whether your consciences wdl aUow you to con form to her ordainings, or no." " Doth not the act requiring uniformity of worship empower her to ordain such further ceremonies or changes in religion as she may see fit ; and without concurrence of the Parliament, or of the Convoca tion of the Clergy ? " " Troth, sir ; and a point on Avhich her Majesty was resolute, for unless the act had so provided, she would not have passed it.1 Howbeit the act bindeth her to the advice of her commissioners or of her archbishop." " Marry ! we all know what that meaneth. Advice be a supple courtier, and hath a marvellous aptness for bowing at a queen's beck. In the fifty-second of her injunctions, she hath seen fit to order that we do aU courtesy and uncover at the name of Jesus ; of which I read nothing in the act of Parliament. Prithee ! what next ? An you, Sir Francis — or your lordship — wiU tell us, for surety, what orders are to come, we will consult our Great Oracle and tell 1 Strype's Parker, 309. Warner, H. 417. Ch. VTH.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. I95 you about conscience and conformity. Eftsoons mayhap, we shaU be required to make use of other Papistical additions to the ordinances of Christ, — shaven crowns, od, spittle, cream, salt, and the like."1 "Yet you know, good father, what she hath de creed." " To the tithe of a hair." " Canst conform to such ? It is for your sakes, I ask." "To the garments, to some parts of the ritual, never," said both Coverdale and Whitehead de cidedly. " How of the queen's supremacy ? Can you take the oath?" " In its letter, no," replied Coverdale. " It declar- eth her Majesty to be the only supreme governor of this realm, as weU in aU spiritual and ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal. In aU ciAdl affairs she is supreme governor, of right; but I stoutly maintain that the government of the Church — its doctrine, its discipline, its way of worship — properly belongeth, not to any one person civil or ecclesiasti cal, but to the spiritual officers of the Church in convention assembled ; and they, to decree and im pose nothing other than is expressed in or derived from the Holy Scriptures.2 Therefore, I cannot take the oath in the meaning of its letter. Nevertheless, with her Majesty's explication, whereby in plain words she challengeth only the sovereignty and rule,' under God, of aU manner of persons, — not, as in the 1 Neal, I. 97, note. son to Peter Martyr. Neal, I. 78, 2 Zurich Letters, No. II. ; Samp- 79. 196 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VHI. oath, ' ecclesiastical things or causes,' — so that no foreign power hath any rule over them, and declareth herself AveU pleased to accept of it if taken in that sense, — in that sense, Avhen there be occasion, I can take it." "So say you, Master Whitehead ? " "With aU my heart." " By your favor, my masters, one question more. How far, think you, do those of your brethren of the clergy who wish a further reform in rehgion agree with you touching the oath ? " "AU of them, and entirely, I doubt not," replied Coverdale, promptly. " Which neither do I doubt," added Whitehead.1 "You see, my lord," said Knollys, "that our reverend fathers — hot Gospellers, as the phrase goeth, though they be — bear true aUegiance to her Highness, — they and their brethren. They demur not to the oath. It is e'en as I told you, my lord." "Reverend sirs," said Dudley, Avith a grain of formality in his manner, " I have sought this our conference in part for the resolving of any doubts which perchance might oppress you touching her Majesty's policy and leanings in religion; and partly, that I might best knoAV the true loyalty of men so eminent among those of our Church who are called Genevans. I now declare — and Sir Francis Knollys with me — that we shall strive to favor your cause at court. We cannot hope to gain from her Majesty such laws as you wish, nor even to abate her dislike of your peculiar brotherhood, Avhom Doctor Cox and 1 Neal, I. 78. Lingard, VH., Note E. Ch. VIH.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 197 others have so deeply infamed ; but we may secure sufferance, connivance, freedom from annoyance, for you, where betimes conscience may slack your con formity. We have some small influence at court, and shaU use it — let but the Genevan clergy remain peaceable — for their favoring. Peradventure we may befriend them to some good purpose. Sir Fran cis KnoUys is true Genevan; a zealous opposer of bishops ;l bound to you, therefore in honor and conscience. Of mine own conscience, I make little vaunt ; and none at all of sanctity, devoutness, and things of that sort, in which, however, I pray God I may not lack. My service will be rendered for two reasons ; — first, yourselves ; second, myself; — which, being interpreted, meaneth, — first, respect to your persons and good-wdl to your principles ; and second, a purpose of mine own thrift in name and estate. The greatest good in me is my bond to you; the greatest blemish, friendship for myself. My greatest honor wdl be the furtherance of your interests ; my greatest folly, angling for mine own. I pray you, let the demerit of selfishness be outweighed by the merit of honesty; that so you spurn not mine en deavors, and blush not for my friendship. So fare ye wed."2 Thus, giving opportunity only for the usual cour tesies of parting, the lord and the knight abruptly, but cordiaUy, took their leave. 1 Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 152. Strype's bishoprics and securing to himself Parker, 394. a portion of the spoils; a design 2 Southey has well expressed Dud- which he could hope to accomplish ley's position in relation to ecclesias- by no other means than by the tical parties. " That unprincipled triumph of this levelling faction." — minion favored the Puritans because Book ofthe Church, H. 290. he was desirous of stripping the 198 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VHI. Whatever purpose some of the exiles may have had, at their return, of introducing the Genevan plan of Church government,1 it was now evidently hope less. The forms of worship, the Supremacy, the Prelacy, had been estabhshed by laAV of Parliament ; the old bishops, upon refusing the Oath of Suprem acy, had been deprived of office in July; new bish ops had been elected to supply the vacant sees, and were awaiting the ceremony of consecration. On the 17th of December, before the first tint of morning had appeared, the chapel of the archiepiscopal manor at Lambeth, brdliant with lights, was occupied by a dignified assembly, who were aAvaiting in silence the solemn inauguration of Queen Elizabeth's first Primate. The floor Avas covered with red cloth, and the eastern wall was hung with tapestry. A little in advance of this waU stood a table, also covered with tapestry, and prepared for the service of the holy communion. On the south side from the table were four chairs ; in front of which were footstools of tap estry, on which lay four cushions of crimson velvet. Opposite to these, and on the other side of the table, was a solitary chair, with its footstool and a single cushion. On the 8th of June, the queen had nominated Doctor Matthew Parker to the see of Canterbury, who had been chaplain to her mother, to her father, and to her brother, and had remained secreted in the kingdom during her sister's reign. He had been elected accordingly on the first day of August ; but certain hindrances, growing out of the recent change of rehgion, had prevented further progress in the 1 Heylin's Ref, 304, 305. Heylin's Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 11, 17. Ch. VIII.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 199 matter untd the 6th of December, when a royal command was issued for his consecration.1 After the assembly in the chapel had been for some time in patient expectation, the western door was thrown open, through Avhich entered four persons, each bearing a lighted taper; then, the Archbishop elect, — noAV in his fifty-sixth year, — clad in scarlet robes, and wearing his hood. He was attended by Barlow, late Bishop of Bath, now Bishop elect of Chichester; Scory, late Bishop of Chichester, now Bishop elect of Hereford ; Coverdale, late Bishop of Exeter ; and Hodgskins, suffragan Bishop of Bedford.2 Doctor Parker took the chair on the north side of the chancel, and the four upon the opposite side were occupied by the four bishops. After the read ing of the morning prayers by Master Andrew Pier- son, Doctor Parker's chaplain, a sermon was preached by Doctor Scory. The Archbishop elect and the four bishops then retired to the vestry, whence they soon returned; Parker, Scory, and Hodgskins wearing linen surplices ; Barlow, a sdk cope ; while Coverdale wore a plain black gown, reaching down to his feet. 1 Camden, 29. Holingshed, IV. pleasure of the bishop in whose 761. Echard, 790. Strype's An- diocese he served. (Fuller, Bk. nals, I. 231. Strype's Parker, 1, IX. p. 61. Burnet, I. 257. Mack- 11, 52. Nugse Antiquas, H. 16. intosh, I. 313, note.) Yet the term Burnet, n. 622. Lingard, VH. seems to have been used in different 262, and Note G. senses. Under date of 1562, the 2 A Suffragan Bishop was one who Lord Bishops in the province of had been consecrated to perform Canterbury are styled the Suffra- the spiritual functions of the office gans of Archbishop Parker (Strype's within the see of a Lord Bishop, Parker, 121); and it is stated, un- but having himself no title to a seat der date of 1569, that "hitherto in Parliament. His episcopal ju- Archbishop Parker had declined ta risdietion was limited, and his au- have any suffragans." (Ibid., p. 240, thority might be terminated at the misnumbered p. 232.) 200 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VHI. These aU kneeled upon their cushions before the table while the Gospel was read by Barlow, who a(h\ninistered the Sacrament. Scory, Coverdale, and Hodgskins then conducted Doctor Parker to Barlow, now seated in a chair by the table, saying to him : " Most reverend father in God, Ave present unto you this godly and learned man to be ordained and con secrated an Archbishop." The queen's mandate for the consecration was then read ; the Oath of Suprem acy Avas administered upon the Evangelists; the Litany was sung ; and then the solemn act of conse cration, by the simple form of the laying on of hands with prayer, was performed by the four bishops. Suitable Scriptural exhortations were addressed to the Archbishop, and the communion was adminis tered. The Archbishop and bishops again retired. Returning soon after, he appeared in his episcopal habit, with rochet and other robes, and with a tip pet of fine sable furs about his neck. Barlow and Scory were also clothed in their episcopal habits; but Coverdale and Hodgskins wore only their usual gowns. The Archbishop then confirmed in their offices certain officers of his household, by the deliv ery of a white staff to each ; when he retired by the west door, accompanied by his family, his relatives, and the whole assembly, of whom were Grindal, Bishop elect of London, Cox, Bishop elect of Ely, Sandys, Bishop elect of Worcester, the Register of the Province of Canterbury, the Register of the Prerogative Court, and two pubhc notaries. The proceedings of the occasion were then duly recorded in the Registry of Canterbury.1 1 Camden, 30. Kennett, H. 659, 660. Holingshed, IV. 762. Fuller, Ch. VIII.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 201 Such was the ceremony, and such were the officials, at the consecration of the first Archbishop of the neAvly restored religion ; a consecration the validity of Avhich Avas denied, and the facts of which were be lied by the Romanists in after years, much and long, to the annoyance of the Anglican Church. It was performed by proper functionaries, according to episcopal usage, and according to the Ordinal of King Edward. But there was no delivery of gloves or sandals, ring or slippers, mitre, pall, or crosier; and the Primate used afterwards to say, with self- gratulation, that the solemnity was without spot or stain of Popish superstitions or vain ceremonies.1 On the 20th of the month, the Archbishop con firmed Barlow and Scory, and on the 21st conse crated Grindal, Cox, Meric, and Sandys as bishops of the sees to which they had been respectively elected.2 Other bishoprics — in all sixteen — were filled by the next midsummer.3 The new bishops soon tendered the Oath of Su premacy to the clergy in then dioceses; only one hundred and seventy-seven of whom refused it, although there were in the kingdom nine thousand and four hundred ecclesiastical persons settled in their several promotions.4 Thus most of the inferior Bk. IX p. 61. Heyl. Ref, 292 - give 189 as the number of those 295. Echard, 794. Strype's Par- who refused the oath; Hume, 182 ; ker, 54, 57, 58. Burnet, H. 623. Neal, 244 ; Warner says " not above 1 Strype's Parker, 61. two hundred." Lingard is silent on 2 Strype's Parker, 65. Strype's the point. Grindal, 33. Anthony Kitchin, alias Dunstan, 8 Holingshed, IV. 763. Heyl. Ref, Bishop of Landaff in Wales, was 295. the only one of Queen Mary's 4 D'Ewes, 23. Strype's Annals, bishops who took the oath and L 106. Camden and Echard each thus retained his see. vol. i. 26 202 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VHI. clergy kept then places, as they had done through aU the changes of the last three reigns.1 The Rom ish priests satisfied their consciences by reasoning that it were better policy for themselves and for then religion — and therefore but a pious fraud — to hold their places at the price of perjury, than to yield them to be occupied by heretics ; and that in this they would be justified by the Roman Pon tiff.2 In this, some of them, if not aU, were influ enced also by their faith in certain "fond and fan tastical prophecies." These were secretly circulated by astrologers of their own communion, Avho " prac tised Avith the Devil by Conjurations, Charms, Cast ing of Figures, and other diabolical arts " ; and were to the effect, that the queen would shortly die, and their own religion be re-estabhshed by the coming of the Queen of Scots to the throne.3 Notwithstanding the small proportion Avho were ejected from then cures for refusing the oath, there was a great scarcity of clergy. The Protestant min isters, owing in part to the butcheries under Queen Mary, were far fewer than the vacancies.4 In the next summer the Archbishop " found many churches in his own diocese shut; and in those which were open, not a sermon was to be heard within the compass of twenty miles.5 To supply the vacant churches, even in part, " the bishops were forced " to admit to holy orders tradesmen, mechanics, and others •Neal, I. 82. 9_11; 88, 441, 465. Carte, HI. 2 Camden, 30,31. Lingard, VLL 410. Heyl. Ref, 286, 287, 314, 264. 329. 3 5 Eliz. Cap. XIV. Camden, 4 Heyl. Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 14. 58, 152. Collier, VI. 366. Fuller, Strype's Annals, I. 266. Bk. IX. p. 96. Strype's Annals, L * Neal, I. 85. Ch. VHI.] THE ESTABLISHMENT. 203 whose chief qualifications were knowledge of the Scriptures, sobriety, good rehgion, and skill in read ing. A feAV of these " were preferred to ecclesiastical dignities, prebends, and rich benefices," 1 having been trained in their youth at schools to a tolerable knowledge of Latin, but driven to trades or hus bandry "by the discouragements of the times."2 But most of them were ordained as readers or dea cons to smaU cures, " instead," — says our annalist, with some bitterness, — " instead of Popish Sir Johns Lack-latin, learning, and all honesty ; instead of Doc tor Dicer, Bachelor Bench-whistler, and Master Card- player, the usual sciences of the Popish priests more meet to be tinkers, cobblers, cowherds, yea, bear- wards and swineherds, than ministers in Christ's Church."3 Thus was the Establishment of the English Church reconstructed, with stony rigidity and mathematical preciseness ; her worship fixed to a genuflexion, and her livery to a shoe-latchet ; her inquisitors commis sioned and abroad ; her hierarchy anointed and equipped ; her mistress, mistress of Parliament, Con vocation, and Star-Chamber,4 of dungeon, gibbet, and 1 Camden, 30. of contracts in olden times there 2 Strype's Annals, I. 267. enrolled. (Stow's Survey, 175 and 3 Strype's Grindal, 40. Heyl. note, Lond. 8vo edit. 1842.) This Ref, 287. Strype's Annals, I. 266, court consisted of the Archbishop, TH. 28 7, 429. and other bishops, the Lord Chancel- 4 The Star-Chamber Court was lor or Keeper, the Privy Council, and held in Westminster Hall, in a the Judges, — all of whom were ap- chamber " the roof thereof decked pointed to their offices by the queen, with the likeness of stars gilt " ; and held them during her pleasure. whence its name, — or perhaps from The whole number was " twenty or the word starra or Starrs, the name more.'' Her Majesty, when she 204 THE ESTABLISHMENT. [Ch. VTH. rack ; 1 and her Bible under the crown. The ma chinery was complete, and was now to be put in motion. chose to be present, was sole judge. The others could only advise. In her absence, the determination was by a majority, the Lord Chancellor, or Keeper, having a casting vote. It took cognizance of all sorts of offences, contempts, and disorders, not within the reach of the common law ; nor did it govern itself by any statute law, but fined, imprisoned, banished, or inflicted corporal pun ishment, according to the will of the queen, without limitation. Its de terminations were as binding upon the subject as an act of Parliament. (Strype's Whitgift, 222. AVarner, II. 463. Hume, DJ. 245, Appen dix HI.) 1 Lingard, VHT., Note E. Hal lam, 93. CHAPTER IX. THE KNOUT. The Ornaments of Religion disliked. — The Plague in London. — Grin dal, Bishop of London, offers a Bishopric to Coverdale. — Procures for him the Living of St. Magnus. — Non-conformity. — The Queen orders it to be corrected. the book of advertisements. dlssent- ers called puritans. — tlie book of advertisements confirmed.-— Uniformity tressed. — John Fox. — Clergy suspended. 1563-1566. The wheels of the Establishment moved heavdy. The Protestant clergy — particularly the most emi nent for piety and learning,1 and including every bishop — ¦ disapproved of the ecclesiastical garments, and of those ceremonies which were considered Popish.2 They agreed in then articles of faith, and refused not the Oath of Supremacy with the queen's exphcation. But they were of the opinion of Cal vin, that in matters of religion nothing should be exacted which is not required by the Word of God;3 and were earnest that their worship should be divested of ad the usages peculiar to Rome.4 1 Neal, I. 88, note. Pierce, 44, 46. Church, as such, had had no share 2 Zurich Letters, pp. 243, 275, in establishing the Book of Com- 276, 308. Strype's Parker, 61, 227; mon Prayer. It had been made Annals, I. 264. See ante, p. 179, authoritative by Parliament alone, note 2. without the advice or concurrence s Heylin's Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 3. of the Convocation of the Clergy. Neal, I. 79. Elizabeth's bishops were not then * Strype's Grindal, 28. in office. It should be remembered that the In the Convocation of the Clergy 206 THE KNOUT. [Ch. LX. The nobdity were divided on these matters. Tet, even at Court, there was a strong party secretly against the episcopal garments.1 Among the common people, the aversion to the ceremonies and habits was even greater than that of any of the clergy.2 The shrieks of Mary's vic tims rung yet so terribly in their memories, that Bonner was kept in prison to protect him from the kindred of those whom he had burned.3 The episco pal garments were indelibly associated in their minds with the Church which he had served, and sbared then hatred of its atrocities.4 Nothing but then fear of the queen kept them from tumult. The plague was in London. It had come over with the queen's soldiers from France, and then had broken out in then tents and barracks in Kent. which met in January, 1562-3, the sentiments and wishes of the mem- forty-two Articles of Edward VT. bers been suppressed. This was were revised, reduced as they now partly through dread of a pramunire, stand to thirty-nine, and adopted (Neal, I. 89,) for the queen was without dissension. But they were keenly jealous of her prerogative, not sanctioned by Parliament until and would brook no meddling with nine years after. (Echard, 801. Ful- established law ; and partly in hope ler, Bk. IX. p. 72. Strype's Parker, of quietly effecting a change through 122. 13 Eliz. Cap. XH. Sec. 1.) the more natural channel of the But a proposition to dispense with Parliament. (Neal, I. 92 bis.) episcopal vestments, the sign of the Large numbers of the clergy, not cross in baptism, kneeling at the members of the Convocation, were communion, and other Popish rites, equally desirous of amending the was lost by a single vote, — 58 to 59. rites of the Church. (Ibid., 89.) (Strype's Annals, 1.502-505. Bur- x Strype's Annals, H. 1 29. Neal, net, HI. 455. Warner, n. 430. I. 91, 95. Heylin, Presb., Bk. VI. Neal, I. 88, 89. Hallam, 108.) This Sec. 29. seems like almost a balance of sen- 2 Strype's Parker, 108. timent in regard to these matters. 3 Zurich Letters, No. LI. ; Jewel Yet — although some of the Convo- to P. Martyr. Strype's Grindal, cation doubtless favored Popery — 102. there would have been a majority 4 Strype's Annals, H. 126. Neal, in the affirmative, had not the true I. 95. Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 207 It had made its first appearance in the city on the 2d of August ; and by the 20th of the month, a thousand were dying weekly. And although by the 27th of November the deaths had been reduced to three hundred a week, it was yet, in the latter part of December, doing its swift work where and on Avhom it listed.1 It wrought most along lanes and adoAvn alleys, where Vice kenneUed in foul air and rotting filth ; or in the tap-room, where roister ing youth and blear-eyed old men herded and sang songs. It was terrible — that cry of the stricken when he detected the fatal sign upon his person; terrible — when his frighted fellows fled and left him there, to die ; terrible — when the invisible angel, with people hale and strong, trod softly to a scenic show, and suddenly set his seal there upon this one and that, just as the profane jest of the player and the shout of applause were going up before God together.2 Yet the pestdence smote also the gleeful chdd in the lap of wealth, the man of high blood and courtly pride, the good man and humble. Among the thousands, rich and poor, gay and thoughtful, good and bad, who yet fingered in the city, was one, good, thoughtful, poor, aged. Like his Master, he had no home ; but laid his head wherever it chanced, — sometimes in London, sometimes in its suburbs. Four years before — it was now the year 1563 — he had placed consecrating hands on the head of the queen's first Archbishop. He had been 1 Zurich Letters, p. 188. Ho- the year, 20,136 died in London lingshed, IV. 223, 224. Strype's and the out-parishes. Grindal, 70; Annals, H. 88. Wright, 2 Strype's Grindal, 82. Wright, I. 138 and note, and 152. During 1. 167 ; Grindal to Cecil. 208 THE KNOUT. [Ch. IX. offered his old bishopric of Exeter, but had refused it because of the habits and ceremonies retained in the Church, and Avhich he considered Popish.1 Grin dal, the Bishop of London, had offered him certain " livings," but he had thought it not meet to accept of any one. Probably they were benefices which he could not serve in his simple Gospel way, with out attracting attention and annoyance. Thus he had lived Avithout a " living " ; contented in his lowly poverty, and preaching here and there in churches as he had opportunity. The plague — it had sent a few to heaven — had set an eye on him, thinking him ripe. But he was not quite. He needed a little more of his Father's discipline, — a very little. He had bent, like a bulrush, under the breath of the destroyer ; but he had risen up again, and now, on the twentieth day of December, was sitting pale and wan, the guest of a worthy burgher who had wel comed him for Christ's sake. The Bishop of London sat with him, for he had heard of his sickness, and had come to congratulate him upon his recovery. Grindal was now in the prime and vigor of his life, forty-four years of age ; a kind-hearted man, of a genial spirit, seeking with a single eye the ascen dency of the Gospel over the hearts and lives of the people. To-morrow's sun would close the fourth year of his prelacy ; in which time he had wed tested its burdens. Occasionally a peculiar indenta tion just above the right eyebrow would betray secret perplexity and care; otherwise, his counte nance was open and sunny ; for he had not felt the 1 Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 61. Burnet, H. 611. Holingshed, IV. 423, 424. Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 209 biting lash of the queen's Supremacy — yet. His eye, Avithout being brilliant and piercing, indicated a clear and active mind. His mouth — rather narrow, the lines of his lips deeply cut, waving, and expressive of quiet good-nature — gave him a pleasant look, even Avhen that one brow Avas knotted. The beard was so trained as neither to cover the profile of the lip, nor the lively angle of the mouth ; upon the chin, it was but a short and narrow tuft ; from the cheeks, it was shaven so as to show only upon the line of the jaw downwards Avhere it met beneath the chin, falling thence several inches, and forked artistically at its extremity. This added to the seeming narrowness and length of the entire face; and this face, sur mounted by a forehead of unusual breadth, with the backward head stdl more expansive, rendered " the reverend father in God " a most noticeable person in any assembly. When he had expressed his gratitude that Father Coverdale Avas yet spared to the Church, and that the pestilence was now abating, the Bishop turned the conversation to rehgious affairs; and the spot came upon his brow. " Good father," said he, " this lack of laborers in the Lord's harvest, it is burdenous to my soul. At the beginning we were fain to turn our hands to sundry artificers, and even to some of baser occupa tions, men not brought up to learning, and did admit them to the ministry, looking only that they were fair readers and of good conversation. This his Grace of Canterbury did mislike, and sendeth ad vertisement to forbear ordaining such.1 But marry ! 1 Strype's Parker, 90. Strype's Grindal, 40. vol. i. 27 210 THE KNOUT. [Cn. IX. what could we do? In many town and vdlage churches, not a morsel of preaching or a homdy for months together ; mothers Aveeping over unbap- tized children, and AvidoAVS over unburied husbands ! 'Fore God, we could not consent to heathendom ! We must ordain those who offered, how meanly so ever qualified; and we did.1 All this you remem ber." " In troth I do, my lord ; and sadly." "But such men are no preachers. They can serve only for ministering sacraments and reading homihes. Prithee, good father, Avhat Avere homilies made for, in good King Edward's day ? " " For the like straits as ours, my lord. Had there been men enough Avho could preach, there would have been never a homily devised."2 " Troth. Dost bethink thee how they were rated in his statute ? " "As not to be preferred, but to give place to sermons whensoever they might be had."3 " Which accordeth with my mind and yours, good father. Now we can make a homdy-reader of a Pasquin or a Crispin, but never a preacher. But preaching is the ordinary and ordained means for the reconciling of men to God, and of subjects to their prince ; for obedience proceedeth from con science; conscience is grounded upon the Word of God; and the effect of the Word is wrought by preaching.4 I pray thee, good sir, see an thou canst draw logical conclusion from these my premises." 1 Neal, I. 86. 3 Strype's Grindal, 223. 2 Strype's Grindal, 222 ; Memo- * Ibid., 222. rials, HI. 591. Ch. LX.] THE KNOUT. 211 "Marry! my lord, I Avill try. Obedience to God and the queen dependeth upon conscience ; the movement of conscience, upon knowledge of the Word ; knowledge of the Word is conveyed by preaching ; ergo, to make men peaceable toward God and the queen, it behooveth to have plenteous preaching." " A good logician, reverend father ! But, as St. Paul saith, hoAV shad they hear without a preacher ? In any one thing, nothing is more plain in the Scriptures, than that the Gospel of Christ should be plentifully preached, — publicly, continually.1 An thou hadst drawn out thy conclusion a httle further, thou hadst spared me the doing it." "Prithee, my lord, whither?" " Until it had reached the conscience of one Myles Coverdale, whdom Bishop of Exeter, who in this time of the Church her straitness cometh not up to the help." "What meaneth your lordship ? When hath Myles Coverdale faded aught to preach the Word ? " "Nay, nay; not failed to preach it, but to take preferment where his preaching might more avail, and more help, perchance, to train others to preach ing. Herein, methinks, he hath not used his ten talents aright. Moreover, thou wert in Christ before any of us bishops, and it is not weU that now in thine old age — and the less weU, sith God hath raised thee as it were from the dead — thou be without stay of living.2 I have therefore come again, and with a plea in each hand, — the necessity of preaching, and the dearth of preaching, to say 5 Strype's Grindal, 222. 2 B>id., 91. 212 THE KNOUT. [Ch. LX. naught of hoAV thy living privately may be laid to the neglect of us bishops, — I have come, I say, to crave thine acceptance of preferment. The Welsh bishopric of Landaff is now void. It hath, in troth, suffered much from spoliations under Kitchin, who has died of late -f but if any competence of living can be made of it, I Avould it Avere thine.2 In good sooth, I have Avritten this very day3 to Master Secretary Cecd, that he would further your preferment to it." In a pleasant but decided tone, Coverdale replied, '•'My lord, I give thee hearty thanks for thy good intent and SAveet kindness. But thou knowest how my conscience is set against even the gear which the Church ordereth for her inferior clergy. How much more, against what she prescribeth for a bishop ! It cannot be, my lord ; it cannot be." " Methinks thy mislikings of the priestly garments cannot overtop mine own. Canst not temper the harmlessness of the dove with the wisdom of the serpent? Prithee, good father, what would have become of the Church, if all the Reformers had re fused her offices because of inconveniences and offences therein? The Reformation would have come to a stand ; nay, Papists would have stood in our places, to the subversion of all true religion.4 1 Strype's Parker, 148. was said, ' A bad Kitchin did for * " Kitchin, alias Dunstan, made ever spoil the good meat ofthe bish- a grievous waste and spoil of a very ops of Landaff.' " — Wood's Athe- wealthy bishopric." (Strype's Me- nse, H. 559 and note, and 796. morials, IV. 174. Fuller's Worthies, 3 " Coverdale's Remains," by the H. 435, 506 ; Church Hist., Bk. IX. Parker Society, p. 531. p. 59.) "Anthony Kitchin, alias 4 Zurich Letters, pp. 243, 275; Dunstan, died Oct. 31, 1563. The Grindal to Bullinger and to Gualter. bishopric of Landaff was much im- Strype's Grindal, 30. poverished by him. Whereupon it Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 213 Thou knowest I had great misgivings about accept ing my bishopric,1 wherein I am required to use garments and ceremonies which be contrarious to the simplicity of the Gospel. But the laws of the Church were made without me. I could not change them. The only question was, Avhile the purity of the Gospel remaineth to us safe and free, would I bear these things, not hi themselves wicked, or give way to wolves and Antichrist, Lutherans and semi- Papists ? 2 Conscience, looking at the peace and safety of rehgion, bade me sacrifice my wish to the law, and wait for fit opportunity to reverse it. I did so. I ought to have done so. I repent not of it.3 The question is the same to-day for you, as then for me. Look you to it, good father, lest in shunning an evd, you let slip or damage a good." " My lord, Peter Martyr did advise to do nothing against thy conscience.4 Sound, wholesome counsel, my lord. Thou didst foUow it; and didst weU. I foUow it too ; albeit there lieth this difference, that my conscience saith it be not right to wear habits that have been consecrated to idolatrous uses, and are the very marks and badges of that rehgion to which I was a bond-slave in my youth.5 But I pray your lordship, teU me, didst strive earnestly against this idolatrous gear?" " Verily, those of us bishops who were exiles, when we returned did strive all we could with the queen and Parliament against receiving the Papistical habits into the Church, and that aU the ceremonies should 1 Strype's Grindal, 28. 3 Strype's Grindal, 28-31, 295. 2 Strype's Parker, 154 ; Grindal, * Ibid., 30. 106. 6 Neal, I. 93. 214 THE KNOUT. [Ch. IX. be clean laid aside. When Ave could not obtain it, Cox, Horn, Sandys, Jewel, Parkhurst, Bentham, and myself consulted what to do, being in doubt Avhether we would enter upon our functions. Upon confer ence, Ave did conclude, with one undivided mind, not to desert our ministry ; and this we did for the reasons I have just now rehearsed.1 I caU God to witness, that it lieth not at our door that these things are not quite taken away."2 '• Dost look for opportunity to change the law, my lord ? " " Honestly, no. Her Majesty is inflexible. Nay, — I grieve to say it, — she hath given signs of hanker ing for more Popish fooleries. Howbeit, his Grace of Canterbury, thank God ! hath stayed her purpose." 8 " My lord, my heart is sore troubled for our gra cious queen. The Lord Robert Dudley did urge to me, that these remainders of Popery are kept by her Highness only to prevent quarrel for diversity of rehgion. It may be so. Albeit, I might ask, what concord hath Christ with Belial? Moreover, another thing oppresseth me. In the second year of her Highness, your lordship did procure search for certain mischievous Anabaptists Avho had their secret conventicles here. Whereupon her Highness issueth proclamation against them ; in the which she also chargeth and commandeth, that no minister or other person make any conventicles or secret assem bling to use any manner of divine service, — save only 1 Strype's Grindal, 106 ; Parker, and Grindal to Bullinger and Gual- 154 ; Annals, I. 175, 264, H. 140. ter. 2 Zurich Letters, No. CXI., Grin- 3 Strype's Parker, 109. Neal, I. dal to Bullinger ; No. CXXI, Horn 87. Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 215 in chambers of sickness or noblemen's oratories, — on pain to be imprisoned without bail or mainprise until the day of jad-dehvery, and then to be punished at the wdl of the justice. Dost remember, my lord ? " 1 "I remember well. It Avas to prevent all pesti lence of heresy." " So be it. But mark you, my lord, it striketh at any manner of religious worship in private houses. There seemeth to me a purpose of her Highness to suppress aU worship of God in families, whether by no Book or by Book ; which is a way to make house holds godless." "I do not believe that were her Majesty's intent," answered Grindal, Avho Avas yet startled and troubled by Coverdale's juxtaposition of things. " Nevertheless, according to the letter of the proc lamation, I may be dragged to prison Avithout bail or mainprise, an I call together the famdy of mine host this night to worship God, — as I certainly shaU do." "I think thee safe, reverend father," replied the Bishop, with a smde, " seeing thou art no Anabaptist. But time urgeth me away, good father. How about Landaff? Have I thy final answer ? " " In sooth, yes, my lord. I will none of the Popish badges. I trow your lordship would not be over much pleased to see Myles Coverdale in a trice whip ped out of a bishopric for non-conformity. Sorry satisfaction to you, and no stay of living to me. Nay, nay, my lord; I have but few days left, and would preach my Master's Gospel in peace. I can find peace only in obscurity." 1 Strype's Grindal, 123. 216 ¦ THE KNOUT. [Ch. LX. " And in penury ? " Ci Better is a dinner of herbs Avhere love is, than a stalled — " "Tush! It is unmeet; it is unmeet. Peradven ture there be found some stay of living in obscurity, where some chance omissions might not Avork to thine annoyance, — something, mayhap, under the wino- of thine own friend and son in God, Edmund Grindal. Wouldst take it ? " " In thine own diocese ? Good, my lord, yes ; Avith all my heart. I like not being mendicant friar. It Avould give me an humble independence ; Avhich, with serving Christ, is all I can ask." "I thank thee, good father. I shall sleep better to-night ; and better stdl Avhen thou art collated to some benefice suiting thy two wishes." " Do me another favor, my lord." " Say it." " Thou hast access to her Majesty, and her esteem. Thou hast a heart as bold towards the lofty as it is gracious to the lowly. Thou canst not jaersuade her Highness to lay down her Supremacy. She would sooner pluck out her right eye. But thou mayest, perchance, on fitting opportunity, reason with her to moderate it. It were for the better thrift of the Church, and the greater honoring of Christ." " I have purpose of that very thing, should there be meet occasion. Thy words quicken it, reverend sh. To my humble thinking, she cloth overstretch her prerogative. I hold it not meet, that in ecclesi astical matters which touch religion, or the doctrine and discipline of the Church, she referreth them not unto the bishops and divines of her realm, according Ch. LX.] THE KNOUT. 217 to the example of godly Christian emperors and princes in all ages. They are, in sooth, things to be judged in the Church or Synod, not in the palace. When her Majesty hath questions of the laws of the realm, she sendeth them to her civil judges to be determined. And in case of Church doctrine or discipline, it is in like manner becoming to refer them to the ecclesiastical judges. Whereby she would procure to herself much quietness of mind, better please God, avoid contentions, and be sure to govern the Church in peace.1 A storm, I fear me, is gathering in that cloud of the Supremacy, albeit now it be no bigger than a woman's hand. Thus, good father, I judge touching her Majesty's Suprem acy. And, if God give me grace and opportunity, I shall teU her so. FareweU." The Bishop's earnestness for Coverdale's behoof soon appeared; for in this month or the next he committed to the venerable man the church and parish of St. Magnus, at the corner of Fish Street,2 near the bridge foot in London ; the living of which amounted to about sixty pounds a year. But " the destruction of the poor is his poverty." Coverdale was utterly unable to pay the first-fruits,3 and it was a maxim with the queen, from which she rarely departed, to remit no claims of her treasury.4 Thus 1 Strype's Grindal, 303. enter upon a living and neglect to 2 Strype's Annals, I. 254. " compound " within a time appoint- 3 The "first-fruits" was the first ed for the payment of his dues, year's income of a benefice, due to or who should fail to pay them. the crown whenever the minister (Harrison in Holingshed, Vol. I. p. should take possession. It was pay- 230.) able in two years. A heavy penal- 4 Camden, 420. Fuller's Wor- ty attached to any one who should thies, H. 508. VOL. i. 28 218 THE KNOUT. [Cn. LX. there was small prospect of his being able to enter upon the benefice. But he Avrote to Archbishop Parker on the 29th of January, 1563-4, pleading that he had been A-iolently ejected from his bishopric in the last reign, that he had received no benefit from it since, that he was now penniless, and not like to five a year, and asking his Grace to join the Bishop of London in moving the queen to remit his first-fruits. In the same letter, he pledged himself, by God's help, to be both faithful and quiet in his vocation. To Secretary Cecd, who had always stood him in good stead in former straits, he also wrote, on the 6th of February : " If — that poor old Myles may be now provided for — it pleaseth thee to obtain this for me, this enough shall be as good as a feast." The result of these applications was a message, about the middle of March, from the Lord Robert Dudley, that the queen had granted his suit; untfl which, it is to be presumed, he did not enter upon his cure.1 The Act of Uniformity had proved a failure. Many Popish priests, upon taking the Oath of Su premacy and subscribing to the Book of Common Prayer, the queen's injunctions, and the doctrines of the Reformed religion, were permitted to retain their cures and livings, although "they did no part of duty towards their miserable flocks,"2 and as much as they dared propagated their own faith among 1 Strype's Parker, 148, 149 ; Grin- 2 Whittingham to Leicester, in dal, 91. Strype's Parker, Appendix, p. 47. Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 219 their parishioners.1 These, and some others, held that religious worship Avas profaned, and religious instruction powerless, without the priestly apparel. By ad such, of course, it was scrupulously worn. But others of the clergy as scrupidously refused it;2 some, Avithout censuring those who complied; others, abhorring the garments as polluting to the ministry, considering them fitter badges of pub lic penance than of God's service. Indeed, some preached against them boldly; denouncing them as " conjuring garments of Popery," " sibbe to the sarke of Herctdes that made him tear his OAvn bowels asunder." 3 This feehng, and this disregard of laAV, were par ticularly prevalent in London ; and extended, not to the clerical garments alone, but to religious cere monies.4 Some exercised their ministry in one way, some in another; every deviator, according to his own like or dislike. Indeed, some who tvore the clerical garments disliked them, — as Pdkington, 1 Strype's Annals, I. 264 ; Parker, ther. In one case, with the wafer ; 77, 91. in another, with common bread. 2 Collier, VI. 394. Carte, HI. 420. Communicants received in differ- 3 Strype's Parker, 151, 156 ; ent postures, kneeling, standing, sit- Grindal, 107 ; Annals, I. 520. Ful- ting. ler, Bk. IX. p. 76. Wright, I. 169, Some baptized with surplice and Bishop Berkeley to Cecil. the sign of the cross ; some, without 4 Strype's Parker, 151 ; Grindal, either; some, in a square cap ; some, 96, 97; Annals, II. 129. in a round cap; some, in a button Some read the service in the pulpit, cap ; some, in a hat. some in the church ; some with the There were also other deviations surplice, some without. Some kept from the prescribed forms. See the to the order of the Book; some report of "disorders," as found deviated at pleasure. among Cecil's MSS., dated Feb. At the communion, some admin- 24, 1564-5, in Strype's Life of istered with surplice and cap ; some, Parker, 152. with surplice only ; some, with nei- 220 THE KNOUT. [Ch. IX Bishop of Durham,1 and Grindal, Bishop of London, who aAwved, even to men standing before him on arraignment in his OAvn Court of Commission, that "he Avould rather minister without cope and surplice, but for order sake and obedience to the queen." In short, there Avas no uniformity.2 HoAvever the presence of the plague may have interfered Avith the correction of these diversities,3 there Avere other and more essential impediments. The bishops themselves Avere in the Avay. They had pledged themselves not to press their clergy in these things ; but rather, to seek their removal, in which they had failed ; and although in their Convocation of 1562-3 they had passed canons to correct non conformity, most of them stdl connived at it, as far as they could with safety.4 Even the queen's com missioners had a great aversion to such habits and ceremonies as were considered Popish.5 The Puritan clergy were willing to be distin- 1 Strype's Parker, 155. culiar "notes," or insignia, of an 2 Strype's Grindal, 118. Heylin's idolatrous, Antichristian religion. Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 1 7. And so they were. 3 Strype's Grindal, 96. The reasons in support of these 4 Strype's Parker, 154, 155, 156 ; objections have been shown in our Appendix, XXIV., Queen's Letter, recitation of Hooper's plea before 6 Strype's Parker, 99. the king and Council. The objections urged by Hooper AVhittingham, in his letter to Lei- against the prelatical vestments only, cester in 1564, expresses in strong were now urged against all the gar- but truthful language the utter ments required of the clergy, wheth- abhorrence in which the habits er in their public ministrations or in were held by many ; " chiefly," says their ordinary life ; and also against Strype, (Annals, II. 125,) " such as certain ceremonies required in min- had lived in the churches abroad, istering the AVord and the Sacra- where they were not used." Whit- ments. The sum of these objec- tingham's words are : " Poor policy ! tions was, — the things required are to deck the spouse of Christ with the " remainders of Popery," — the pe- ornaments of the Babylonish strum- Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 221 guished by their apparel from the common people. They only prayed to be also distinguished by their apparel from the Popish priests.1 Whittingham, the Dean of Durham, in his earnest pleading with the Earl of Leicester, Avrites : " We refuse not to wear such apparel as shall be thought to the godly and prudent magistrates most decent to our vocation, and to discern us from men of other caUings, so that ive may ever keep ourselves pure from the defiled robes of Antichrist." 2 They maintained, that though in them selves the garments were neither good nor bad, and were not referred to in the Bible, yet to use them, associated as they had been and still were with a false and idolatrous religion, was a grievous wrong to the true Church. First. Because " to use the outward show and manner of the wicked, is to approve their false doctrine. God forbid that we, by wearing the Popish attire," — it was Popish as weU as academical, — " as a thing but indifferent, should seem thereby to con sent to their blasphemies and heresies." 3 " They were in the same case," said the Dean of Durham, "as a certain Christian soldier was, in the days of pet, or force true preachers to be stated by referring to Strype's An- like in outward show to Christ's nals, II. 125, 163-168; Strype's enemies." (Strype's Parker, Ap- Parker, 171; Neal, I. 96, note, and pendix, XXVTI.) 99, note ; and to the letters of Grindal and others argued, as Bishop Pilkington and AVhitting- did Hooper's opponents, that these ham, in Strype's Parker, Appendix, things were neither commanded nor Nos. XXV. and XXVn. forbidden in Scripture, and there- 1 Pilkington, Bishop of Durham, fore might be, and were, made ob- to Leicester ; Strype's Parker, Ap- ligatory by civil statute. (Grindal pendix, p. 40. in court; Strype's Grindal, 117.) 2 Ibid., 46. The reader will find the Puritan 3 Strype's Parker, Appendix, p. positions and arguments more fully 44 ; Whittingham to Leicester. 222 THE KNOUT. [Cn. LX. Paganism, who would not wear a garland, as did his fellows, lest he should seem to consent Avith idola ters, and so bring true rehgion into doubt. Many of his fedow-Christians disapproved, that, for so small a trifle, he would hazard the Emperor's favor, and so his own life. They said, ' It was not against the Scrip tures.' But Terkdlian justified him, saymg, 'that if it could be said that wearing the garland was lawful because it was not forbidden in Scripture, it could be retorted, that it was not lawful because it Avas not commanded."1 Second. Because the use of these garments would help to reconcile " simple Christians " to idolatry, and help to confirm Papists.2 " The prebendaries in the cathedrals," said they, — and they kneAV what they affirmed, — " and the parish priests in other churches, retaining the outward habits and inward feeling of Popery, so fascinate the ears and eyes of the multi tude, that they are unable to believe but that either the Popish doctrine is retained, or at least that it will shortly be restored." 3 " The Lord's men in the ship of Christ ought not to creep so near the flats and rocks, as to put their whole charge in danger of perishing by falling on them." 4 " If we compel the godly to conform themselves to the Papists, I fear greatly lest ive fall to Papism" wrote Whittingham.5 Third. Because the prince has no right to infringe upon Christian liberty. " None can caU this Christian liberty, where a yoke is laid on the disciple's neck, 1 Strype's Parker, Appendix, p. 3 Zurich Letters, No. LHL ; Lever 44 ; Whittingham to Leicester. to Bullinger. 2 Strype's Annals, H. 164 (fol. i Strype's Annals, H. 165. edit. I. 485). 6 Strype's Parker, Append., p. 46. Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 223 where the conscience is clogged, true preachers threatened, the course of God's Word stayed, the congregations spoded of godly and learned pastors, and the sacraments brought under subjection of idolatrous and superstitious vestments." 1 " The prince has no right thus to yoke Christian men. He has no right to enjoin things in themselves indif ferent, when the circumstances of the times render their use hurtful ; and none to forbid things in them selves indifferent, when the circumstances of the times make their use necessary to the edification of the Church." 2 In either case, he woidd " not only manifestly infringe upon Christian liberty, but would cause the whole religion of Christ to be esteemed no other thing than the pleasure of princes."3 In other words, compulsion in religious matters is beyond the prerogative of the magistrate. Commandment herein is a tyranny. Thus were initiated the grand questions, — What are the rights of the prince ? what, the rights of the subject ? In the latter part of the year 1564 there was "a common report that great offence was taken " — at Court — " with some of the ministers, for not using such apparel as the rest," 4 and " that a decree was either passed or at hand to compel the wearing of the old Popish apparel, or the loss of livings and deposition from the ministry."5 This report was 1 Strype's Parker, Appendix, p. * Pilkington to Leicester, " Oct. 44 ; Whittingham to Leicester. 25, 1564." 2 Strype's Annals, H. 166. 6 Whittingham to Leicester, 3 Ibid. « 1564." 224 THE KNOUT. [Ch. IX. received with great apprehension, and regarded as " the mahce of Satan, to raise great trouble in trifles, where he could not overthrow the greatest matters"; " to thrust from their ministry, for so small things, many Avho Avere ready to leave it and their livings, rather than be like Popish teachers in apparel or behavior ; and thus to leave many places destitute of preachers."1 Such Avere the opinions of a con forming bishop. Efforts Avere accordingly made, by letters of appeal, and by making personal influence at Court, to forestall and baffle the movement.2 The rumors were not without foundation. On the 2id., 215. His narrative (I. 98) belongs to the c Md., 217. 238 THE KNOUT. [Cu. IX how seriously the governess of the Church had taken up the hbel which Doctor Cox had whispered. So bitterly did they feel it, that they repented of having returned from exde to their native home ! 1 But they acquiesced in God's appointment, and Avent their ways to earn bread. Some became printers, some went to teaching chddren, some to trade, some to husbandry ; some became private chaplains to the gentry. But " many " of London and of other dio ceses Avho had large famdies were reduced to beg gary.2 Among the suspended was Whitehead; though, like some others, he "Avould not obey suspension," but preached the Word wherever he had opportunity. He Avas under the shadow of the queen's special favor, who esteemed hhn as a man of parts ; ,but more, as a clergyman unmarried.3 Whittingham was another; though he afterwards subscribed, and was restored to his deanery of Durham. He was always a lukewarm conformist at best, and justified his compliance only by Calvin's judgment, — "that for external matters one might not neglect and leave the ministry."4 "Poor old Myles," also, was com- peUed to rehnquish his humble benefice. But he too continued to preach where he could, being con nived at through respect and policy, as were Fox, Sampson, Lever, and a few others.5 The Puritans were in sore trouble ; — ministers de- 1 McCrie, 154. * Strype's Grindal, 98, 99; Par- * Strype'sParker,215-217; Grin- ker, 157. dal, 99; Annals,H.162, 169. Neal, 5 Strype's Parker, 223, 243 ; Grin- 102. dal, 116. 3 Strype's Grindal, 98 ; Parker, 226. Brook, I. 173 its. Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 239 prived of livelihood, the laity of the preaching of the Word. As the commissioners had anticipated,1 many of the churches were shut up for Avant of ministers. Six hundred persons came to a single church in London, on Palm Simday, to receive the communion, but the doors Avere shut, there being no one to officiate. A scanty deputation of chaplains AA'as sent by the bishops to meet the emergency ; but they Avere far from being enough, and ministered in the offensive garments and with every offensive rite. The people were greatly hicensed. Some church wardens would not provide surplices, or wafer bread, for the sacrament. Others eAren ojmosed and dis turbed the chaplains. The Archbishop had told the queen, "that these precise folks woidd offer their goods, and their bodies to prison, rather than relent" ; and her Highness had then wdled him to imprison them. " All these misdemeanors," he now com plained to Cecd, " created him work and trouble enough. He had been talking with preachers and charging them to silence, and sitting in commission, and sending to prison ; and this he had done all the week," — it Avas early in Aprd, — " till he was fully tired. He marvelled that the burden of London — another man's charge — should be laid on his neck, as it was, by the remissness of the Bishop of London. But an ox," he added, " can draw no more than he can. I win only shame, vilely reported as I am." On the 28th of Aprd, he had become discouraged. " To have the Order go forward, I utterly despair as of myself; and therefore must sit still, as I have now done, always waiting the Queen's Majesty's 1 Strype's Parker, 215. 240 THE KNOUT. [Ch. IX. toleration, or else further aid. Mr. Secretary, can it be thought that I alone, having sun and moon against me, can compass this difficulty?" And hereupon he made stop of his proceedings.1 But what were the Puritan laity to do ? Their ministers Avere silenced, their churches closed. They abhorred the Popish garments even more than did the clergy.2 Some of them, indeed, Avent to the churches Avhich were open, lingering at the doors until the prayer before the sermon. Some Avent noAvhere, belieAdng it wrong to countenance, by their presence, the use of the offensive garments and ceremonies. Others flocked after Father Coverdale, who now, for the people's need, preached the more constantly, — now here, now there, — and Avithout the habits, being suffered to do so unmolested.3 This they continued to do for seA^en or eight Aveeks after their ministers were suspended ; coming to him every Saturday to inquire where he should preach the next day. But this gave offence, it being feared that disturbances Avould grow from the crowds which were draAAm by a preacher so popular. He there fore told his friends, that he would no longer give them information of his preaching. He was willing to suffer ; but wished no quarrel with his superiors. Sampson and Lever also, who both "preached in London, being dispensed with, though they wore not the habits," pursued the same prudential and inoffensiA'e course. All these ministers found stead fast protectors in Leicester, KnoUys, and Cecil, who 1 Strype's Parker, 224 -22 7; Grin- s Strype's Parker, 241, 242; Grin dal, 105. Neal, I. 102. dal, 116. 2 Strype's Parker, 108. Ch. IX.] THE KNOUT. 241 were often thwarting the proceedings of the com missioners.1 The Puritans were baffled, — shut out by their consciences from worship as it was enjoined, and by the law from worship which they approved. Again the question arose, yet more seriously, What were they to do? 1 Strype's Parker, 219, 241, 242; Grindal, 116. Neal, I. 103, 104. Brook, I. 25, 127. 31 CHAPTER X. THE EARL OF LEICESTER. Leicester's Position at Court. —His Wife murdered. — His "Religious Style or Phrase " shown in his Interview with Dr. Ciiaderton. — Whitehead and the Bishop of Durham intercede with him for Tol eration, AND AGAINST COMPULSION. SEPARATE WORSHIP IN PROSPECT. — Leicester and Lady Sheffield. 1566. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Avas without a rival in the kingdom. Nature had endowed him nobly ; — Avith a figure tall, stately, and of perfect proportions ; with features of rare manly beauty ; a forehead remarkable for its height and volume ; and a countenance bearing a marvellous expression of sweetness.1 Besides aU this, he had the easy, grace ful manners and winning speech of a finished cour tier. By these advantages of person and address, rather than by his quahties of mind, he had won the admiration of the virgin queen, at his first introduc tion to her court, if not before.2 She had at once avowed him as her principal favorite ; and in a short time had elevated him to an earldom. Nor did he lack the advantages of wealth. The noble castle and manor of Kendworth, and prodigious grants of estates and monopolies, were substantial tokens of his mistress's favor.3 For a long time, he controUed, 1 Naunton, in the Phoenix, I. 192. 8 Birch, I. 6. Lingard, VTH. 304. Echard, 804. 3 Sidney State Papers, I. 44, 45. Ch. X.] THE EARL OP LEICESTER. 243 through his influence with her Majesty, all elections to offices of trust and to titles of honor. " The Court Avas at his devotion, and half the Council at his back."1 Accordingly, he was courted by the rest of the nobility ; and hundreds sought to secure his good-will and offices by lavish and costly gifts. Even Sir William Cecil, the queen's Secretary of State, her confidential counseUor,2 the main stay of her pohcy, the chief pdlar of her throne, as weU as others Avhom she most esteemed and trusted, courted his favor, almost in terms of servility, because they would secure or retain hers.3 Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, an open-hearted, high-spirited soldier, could not brook the craft and counsels of Leicester;4 and the two maintained an open quarrel at Court, and went about with their retainers armed, — in dady danger of bloody strife, — until her Majesty effected an outward reconcdia- tion.5 Sussex appears to have been the only one who dared to confront the favorite. The star of Leicester held the ascendant, and he came to be called " The Heart of the Court," — so well was it known that everything there was controlled by his influence, and must yield to his ambition, or policy.6 Yet even " my lord of Leicester was not absolute 1 Lloyd, 519-521. Echard, 804. siderata Curiosa, Vol. I. Ch. XI. p. 2 A biographer of Cecil, Lord 22.) Burleigh, who was an intimate in s' See a remarkable letter of Cecil hisfamily, says : " The Queen never to Dudley, accompanying a new resolving anie Cause of Estate with- year's gift, in Peck's Desiderata out his Counsel! ; nor seldome passed Curiosa, Bk. IV. p. 50. anie private Suit, or Grant, from 4 Lodge, I. 368. herself, that was not first referred E Lloyd, 492. Camden, 79. Naun- to his Consideration; and had his ton in the Phoenix, I. 194. Approbation before it passed." (De- 6 Lloyd, 519. 244 THE EARL OF LEICESTER. [Cu. X. in her grace " ; for though in her closet and at her Councd-table none more persuasive than he, " she held a dormant table in her oavii princely breast," — particularly Avhen first settling her government ; and there were measures of policy Avhich she considered essential to her supremacy, from Avhich neither he, nor the combined Council, could move her.1 With this exception, they often swayed, or tempered, or at least retarded, her severer resolutions Avhich they liked not; and no one more or oftener than he. Their rule Avas — her Avdl ; and Avhen they could not mould, they Avere fain to obey it. Thus, although they some times managed to annoy the ecclesiastical commis sioners, it is by no means to be supposed that all their orders Avere approved by those Avho signed them. We say Leicester had wondrous natural graces, personal accomplishments, honors, influence, wealth, — it Avas even wealth sufficient for his style of liv ing, the magnificence of which was exceeded by few, if any, in the realm. Yet in this year 1566 no one in the splendid Court of Elizabeth was less to be envied than he. Not that he had begun to totter on his high station, or feel the capriciousness of royal humor. The queen stdl showed herself so amorous toAvards him, that at home and abroad strange things were said of them, — which we shall notice on a future page ; things which she afterwards publicly declared to be " devilish libels, which none but a devd himself could dream to be true " ; such things, that she might have seemed more womanly had she stood proudly and sdently upon her woman hood, or even upon the legal fiction that " the Crown 1 Naunton, 190. Ch. X.] THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 245 covers all defects," than she did to add that, of her " oavii knoAvledge," some of them were false.1 The Lord Robert had cherished the thought which her Majesty's deportment had suggested. It had grown to a foul and ripe purpose against the con fiding Avife whom, in his eighteenth he had &— year, sworn to love and cherish. On the 8th of Septem ber, 1560, she had been murdered by his order.2 At 1 Desiderata Curiosa, Bk. IV. p. 46 ; Order of Council respecting the book called " Leicester's Com monwealth,'' and respecting " sev eral libels published against the queen." Also Lingard, VHI. 306. 2 AVood's Athense, 1. 476. Queen Elizabeth was born on the 7th of September, 1533. (Burnet, I. 212, 219. Hume, H. 352.) On the same day was born Robert Dudley, the third son ofthe Earl of Warwick, — afterwards the Earl of North umberland. (Camden, 45. Sidney State Papers, I. 44.) On the 4th of June, 1550, — in accordance with his father's policy of early mar riages for his children, — he was pub licly married to Amy, daughter of Sir John Robsart. (King Edward's Journal, under that date.) At the time of his marriage, he was, therefore, nearly eighteen years of age. As stated in the text, the murder of his wife was perpetrated on the night ofthe 8th of September, 1560, fifteen years before the queen's visit to Kenilworth castle, — which Sir Walter Scott, with very large poetic license, makes first in the order of time, — two years before that cas tle and manor were obtained by Dudley from the queen, and less than two years after her accession to the throne. AVhen ho had fully resolved upon his crime, — to which he had been craftily stimulated by Sir Richard A'arney, — Dudley persuaded his wife, upon some plausible pretexts, to repose for a while at the manor- house of Cumnor, in Berkshire, then occupied by his steward, Anthony Forster. She soon perceived that she was in custody, and saw shad owy and fitful signs of her doom. A prisoner and in the power of ruffians, it may be imagined what hourly torments she must have suf fered, when the sound of a footfall, or the moaning of the wind, must have roused her nervous apprehen sion. Add to this the conviction of her husband's perfidy and hatred, and we have the ingredients of her cup. Varney was the superintendent and master-spirit of the plot. Fol lowing his lord's instructions, he sought to take her off by poison ; a mode of execution to which Dud ley became addicted. (Strype's Grindal, 225. Naunton, in the Phoenix, I. 193.) These attempts were baffled by the unhappy lady's watchful apprehensions. The vil lains who had her in charge then sent for Dr. Walter Bailey, Profes- 246 THE EARL OF LEICESTER. [Ch. X. the time of his intervieAv Avith Coverdale and White head, ten months before this deed, he had begun the foolish attempt to delude his conscience by a show of religious zeal ; and after the deed, it was only by " carrying his pretences to piety very high," and by sor of Physic at Oxford, assuring him that her ladyship was laboring under some subtle malady which produced a strange depression of spirits ; and requesting him to ad vise her to some potion which they would bring from Oxford, — design ing to substitute their own. But the physician became aware of their purpose, — partly through theirmys- serious behavior, and partly perhaps through some significant hint from the patient. lie refused ; and went away with the conviction that she would soon fall a victim to her keep ers. For this, Dudley vowed ven geance, which the Doctor narrowly escaped. The impatient husband next ordered her to be despatched by brute force. The more plausi bly to accomplish this, she was as signed to another apartment, in which was a private postern-door, close by the bed's head, opening upon a dangerous staircase. AVhen the time arrived for the execution, the servants of the household were ordered away to a place three miles distant ; Varney retaining one of his own men and Forster to do the work. During the night, they stifled or strangled their victim, broke her neck, mangled her head, and flung her down the stairway, that her death might seem to have been ac cidental ; and it was so given out by A^arney and his accomplices. Yet the fall, to which were attributed the bruising of her head and the breaking of her neck, did not hurt the hood found upon her corpse ! The circumstances of this lady's death were so strange, and so strong ly indicative of malicious violence, that suspicion, which amounted al most to conviction, was instantly aroused in the minds of the country people. So strong and lively was this impression, ' ' that the chaplain, in her funeral sermon at Oxford, meaning to say, ' this poor lady so pitifully killed,' stumbled on the unhappy phrase, ' so pitifully mur dered ' ; which made a strange im pression upon the hearers." (Os borne, 87, note.) The report of this strange death of the wife of the man who, as all believed, aspired to the royal hand, and of whom all thought the queen enamored, spread far and near ; and the unfortunate chaplain's words were adopted by all but her Majes ty. They were not only current in England, but maliciously so in the French court. (Hardwicke Papers, I. 121 ; Throckmorton to Cecil.) At home, there was " such a muttering of the death,'' that Thomas Lever, a Puritan clergyman of sufficient character and influence to have dissuaded the queen from assuming the title of Supreme Head, (Brook, I. 219,) felt constrained, before the month of September had passed, to write the following letter : — Ch. X.] THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 247 intoxicating daUiance with his royal mistress, that he could maintain the port of an honest man, or stifle the voice within. The queen had received his wooings weU ; and, almost immediately after the murder of Amy, had stimulated him with the hope, " The Grace of God be unto your honors, with my humble com mendations and hearty thanks in Christ ; for that it hath pleased God to place you in authority with wis dom and wills to advance his glory, the Queen's Majesty's godly honor, and the peaceable wealth of this realm; and that also I am well assured of your favorable minds towards me, to take in writing ac cording to, my meaning, faithfully, reverently, and lovingly : Therefore am I moved and boldened by writ ing to signify unto you, that here in these parts seemeth unto me to be a grievous and dangerous suspicion and muttering of the death of her which was the wife of my Lord Robert Dudley. And now my de sire and trust is, that the rather by your godly, discreet device and dili gence, through the Queen's Majes ty's authority, earnest searching and trying out of the truth, with due punishment if any be found guilty in this matter, may be openly known. For if no search nor inquire be made and known, the displeasure of God, the dishonor of the queen, and the danger of the whole realm, is to be feared ; and by due inquiry, and justice openly known, surely God shall be well pleased, and served, the Queen's Majesty worthily com mended, and her loving subjects comfortably quieted. The Lord God guide you by his grace, in this and all other your godly travails, as he knoweth to be most expedient in Christ. Scriblet at Coventre, the 17th of September, by your faith fully in Christ, Thomas Lever. "Unto the right honorable Sir Francis Knoils and Sir William Cecil, Knights, and to either of them be these dd." (Haynes, 362.) One objection made by Cecil, six years afterwards, to the marriage of the queen and Leicester was, "that he is infamed by the death of his wife " (Haynes, 444) ; and a note of his printed in the first volume of the Hatfield Papers takes notice of it as affording just ground for scandal. (Hardwicke Papers, I. 122, note.) Aubrey states, that the Lady Amy " was buried in great haste, before an inquest was held." It would seem, however, that Lever's letter availed to an inquest after, — prob ably a superficial one, conducted under Leicester's influence. So I judge, from the following testimony. In November, when Jones held his private interview with the queen, — mentioned in note 3, on the follow ing page, — she told him that the matter of tho Lady Amy's death " had been tried in the country, and been found to be contrary to that which was reported"; adding, "that the Lord Robert was at court at the time, and none of his at the attempt [sic] at his wife's house, 248 THE EARL OF LEICESTER. [Cir. X. if not with the promise, of marriage ; 1 had admitted him to disreputable intimacy Avi thin her OAvn palace;2 and afterwards created him Earl of Leicester. This last distinction Avas professedly conferred on purpose to qualify him for marriage Avith Mary of Scotland ; but, as eArery one believed, for marriage with herself.3 and that it fell out as should neither touch his honesty nor her honor." (Hardwicke Papers, 1.165 ; Jones to Throckmorton.) " Amy Robsart, the first wife of Robert, Earl of Leicester, was first buried in Cumnor church ; was taken up ¦ and reburied in the church of St. Mary the Arirgin, at Oxford." (AVood's Athenaa, I. 476.) It must have been at this second solemnity that the chaplain's blunder occurred. Except where I have given other references, the particulars of this note are gathered from the state ment of John Aubrey, Esq., as given in the Biographia Britannica, Arti cle " Robert Dudley,'- note D. The inquisitive reader will find the state ments of " Leicester's Common wealth," respecting this affair, in the Harleian Miscellany, IV. 547- 554, and in Osborne's Traditional Memoirs, p. 87. 1 Lingard, VHI. 39, note; 305, note. 2 Ibid., 425, note. 3 On the 11th of January, 1558-9, the queen made the Lord Robert Dudley her Master of Horse ; on the 4th of June, 1559, Knight of the most noble Order of the Gar ter ; on the 28th of September, 1 5 64, Baron of Denbigh ; and on the 29th, Earl of Leicester. (Sidney, State Papers, I. 44, 45. Birch, I. 6. Cecil's Journal, in Murdin, 756.) Her deportment towards him was of such a nature as to excite a gen eral expectation of their marriage. On the 28th of October, 1560, Throckmorton wrote from Paris in a fever of apprehension, " conjur ing " Cecil, for the honor of their country, their queen, and their re ligion, to do all in his power to hin der that marriage." (Hardwicke Papers, I. 121.) And again, on the 17th of November: "They take it for truth and certain," — at the French court, • — " that her Ma jesty will marry the Lord Robert Dudley." (Ibid. 145, 146.) So seriously did he regard this matter, and so well founded did he consider " the brim bruits touching this mar riage," that he despatched his Sec retary, R. J. Jones, from the Court of France to the Court at Green wich, to remonstrate with her Ma jesty herself upon the subject. In the latter part of November, Jones wrote to Throckmorton, that " it was the general expectation at court that my Lord Robert shall run away with the hare and have the queen " ; that on the 27th he had spoken with her Majesty, who received his words with maiden embarrassment, some times laughing, sometimes turning herself aside and covering her face with her hands. She confessed, however, that she knew of the re ports, and said nothing to imply that Ch. X.] THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 249 She maintained the same dalliance with him still; and he, the same " inclination to further God's cause. » 1 About the middle of June, 1566, the queen, wearied by mditary displays, bull-baitings, and bear-baitings, they were not justifiable. The Sec retary added, that since this inter view, her Majesty had evidently been troubled and perplexed upon the subject ; and that there seemed less prospect of the marriage taking place, although her favors to the Lord Robert had not abated. (Md., 165-168.) In May next, Cecil wrote to Throckmorton, " that he could see no certain disposition in her Ma jesty to any marriage," (Ibid., 172,) and again in June, 1565, to Sir Thomas Smith, " that Leicester sure ly perceived his own cause " — as the queen's suitor — " not sperable " (Ellis, 2d Series, n. 297) ; and yet again to Smith, in October, 1565 : " To tell you truly, I think the Queen's Majesty's favor to my Lord of Leicester be not so manifest as it was to move men to think that she will marry with him; and yet his Lordship hath favor sufficient, as I hear him say, to his good satisfac tion." (AVright, I. 209.) Notwith standing her fluctuating humors, her Majesty's partiality to the Earl con tinued to be such and so marked, that in April, 1566, we find Ce cil occupied in drawing up for mal reasons against their marriage. (Haynes, 444.) Thus it will be perceived that, at the time of the occurrences men tioned in the text, Leicester still cherished hope of wedding his royal mistress. Lingard says that he did not abandon it until 1568. (A/.LU. 39, note.) Nor were these expectations, which extended beyond the pre cincts of the Court, (Haynes, 364, 365,) grounded only upon the jeal ousies of courtiers, or upon her Majesty's amorous familiarities and other demonstrations. She seems to have had a real womanly attachment for this "terrestrial Lucifer." (Os borne, 42.) She avowed it. She did so in a letter which Cecil wrote under her dictation. (Haynes, 420.) She did so with her own lips to Sir James Melvil. In each case, however, she declared, that for his admirable qual ities she loved him " as her brother and best friend"; yet to Melvil adding, that "she herself would have married him, had she ever minded to have taken a husband." (Melvil's Memoirs, 93.) She even affected a passionate attachment to the Earl's picture." (Ibid., 97.) These declarations may, to be sure, be charged to the score of political chicane ; and in part, undoubtedly, they should be. The following paper, however, has another com plexion. It is an acknowledgment vol. r. Strype's Parker, Appendix, XXV. p. 40. 32 250 THE EARL OF LEICESTER. [Ch. X had removed her court from Whitehall to Green wich ; and after dinner on the next day had sought repose in her private apartment. Her courtiers, thus relieved from ceremonious attendance, sought recrea tion, — each one as suited his humor. The Earl of Leicester, always as much distinguished for the splen- of a splendid reception given to the favorite by the Earl of Shrewsbury and his Countess ; was " in her owne blessyd hand writing," (Lodge, H. 156, Shrewsbury to the Queen,) and is dated, it should be observed, in 1577. " Elizabeth : Our very good cousin. Being given to understand from our cousin of Leicester, how honorably he was lately re ceived by you our cousin and the Countess, we should do him great wrong (holding him in that place of favor we do) in case we should not let you understand in how thankful sort we accept the same at both your hands, not as done unto him, but unto our own self: reputing him as another ourself. And therefore you may assure your self, that we, taking upon us the debt, not as his, but our own, will take care accordingly to discharge in such honorable sort, as so well deserving creditors as ye are shall never have cause to think ye have met with an unthankful debtor AVhereof ye may make full account to your comfort when time shall serve. Given under our signet, at our manor of Greenwich, the 25th day of June, 1577, and in the 19th year of our reign." (LodHouse after dinner, and met her in her private apartment. Neither Norfolk, Leicester, 1 D'Israeli, 170. the last clause of her censure gives The entire burden upon the minds no clew to the reason of her aversion of the Commons and of their con- to marriage. It could not have had stituents was The Succession ; and reference to anything but what was — so far as appears from the Jour- agitated in the Commons, — the suc- nals — this was the only theme of cession ; and is to be understood in their debates until the 22d (com- the same sense as her words to the pare D'Ewes, 125 with 130, also Lords of the Council on the 12th: Hume, IH. 24, 25), when the busi- " I will not be buried while I am ness ofthe queen's marriage (through living, as my sister was." the influence of her ministers there, The reader will find the reason by herself instructed to that effect — for this note on p. 169 of D'Israeli, Hallam, 148) was " colorably add- where he says : " Urging her to ed, that the motion touching sue- marriage, she said, was asking noth- cession might be less distasteful to ing less than wishing her to dig her her Majesty." On the 19th, when own grave," &c. That she uttered she censured their doings as in the these words on Saturday the 19th text, the Commons were not debat- appears from p. 1 70 of D'Israeli. ing at all the subject of hermarriage; 2 D'Ewes, 125. nor had they done so. Therefore s Ibid., 101, 125. 288 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. [Cn. XL nor Pembroke was of this deputation;1 for they had offended her Majesty by advising that Parlia ment, Avithout her concurrence, should designate her successor ; and had therefore been forbidden her presence.2 As soon as her attendants had re tired, the venerable Lord Treasurer, the Marquess of Winchester, now ninety-two years of age,3 announced the errand of the Lords. "The Commons," he said, "had required them to unite in soliciting her Majesty to appoint a successor; the necessity of contingent dangers to the kingdom compelled the Lords to urge the point; her royal predecessors had been accustomed to make such provision long beforehand ; the Commons were so resolved to settle this matter before subsidy or any thing else, that the time of the Parliament was frittered away in trivial discussions ; and, in the name of all he supplicated her Majesty to declare her Avill on this point, or at once to end the Parliament." " My lords," said she, " do what you will. As for myself, I shaU do nothing but according to my pleasure. All the resolutions which you may make can have no force without my consent and authority. Besides, Avhat you desire is an affair of much too great importance to be declared to a knot of hare- brains. I Avill take counsel with men who under stand justice and the laws, as I am deliberating to do. I wdl choose half a dozen of the most able I 1 D'Ewes, 101. list in D'Ewes. Cecil, in his Jour- 2 Cecil's Journal, under date of nal, does not mention Norfolk — only Oct. 27,inMurdin, 762. Camden,83. Pembroke and Leicester — as being The account given in D'Israeli excluded from the queen's presence- states that Norfolk was present and chamber. spoke. But his name is not on the 8 Holingshed, IV. 317. Ch. XI.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. 289 can find in my kingdom for consultation ; and, after having heard their advice, I wdl then discover to you my will." On this she dismissed them in great anger.1 Without entering upon the detads of transactions between the Lords and the Commons, it is necessary only to state, that neither House desisted from its purpose ; and that a joint committee was appointed to urge the queen both to marriage and the appoint ment of a successor. It was agreed that this should be done chiefly in the name of the Lords, inasmuch as the Commons had done the same by themselves in the fifth year of the queen.2 The sentiments of the two Houses were accord ingly laid before her Majesty — at what precise time is uncertain — by the Lord Keeper Bacon. Her answer was given to a special deputation of thirty of the Lords and thirty of the Commons, se lected at her command. They waited upon her in the afternoon of the 5th of November,3 at her palace of Whitehall. Among this deputation, we find the names of Norfolk, Leicester, and Pembroke.4 The next day, her answer was reported to the Commons by Sir Edward Eogers and Sir WiUiam Cecil, to this effect : " That the Queen's Majesty's Highness, by God's grace, would marry, and would have it there fore believed ; and touching limitation for succession, the perds were so great to her person, some of which she had felt in her sister's time, that time wdl 1 D'Israeli, 170. * D'Ewes, 103, 104 bis, and 127. 2 D'Ewes, 104, 127. Camden, 85. 3 Cecil's Journal (Murdin, 762) says the 14th of November. VOL. I. 37 290 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. [Ch. XI. not yet suffer to treat of it." The journalist adds, significantly, " Whereupon, all the House teas silent." Two days afterwards, hoAvever, — that is, on the 8th of November, — the subject was again opened by a motion from Mr. Lambert, which he supported by " a learned oration," that the House " do press fur ther their former suit touching the declaration of a successor." Her Majesty, hearing of this, and fear ing a fresh agitation of this subject, sent her com mands the next day to the House, by Sir Francis Knollys, "that they should no further proceed in their suit, but satisfy themselves with her promise of marriage ; and that she did expressly inhibit the fur ther discussion of this business." This was on Sat urday.1 So arbitrary a command woke resistance ; and on Monday, the 11th, at nine o'clock in the morning, as soon as the Clerk had opened the House by reading prayer, Mr. Paul Wentworth sprung a question, new on the floor of that House, — " whether the queen's command and inhibition, that they should no longer dispute the matter of succession, were not against the liberties and privileges of the House ? " The idea was caught up, — the Puritan idea, which every late transaction in the Parliament>House and in the Palace had tended to elicit, — and the indigna tion of the deputies broke forth. The imperiousness of the queen was equaUed by the resentment of her Commons. How far the particular point of Went- worth's great question was discussed is unknown; but a more liberal illustration of Parliamentary liberty and privilege was never given; never was 1 D'Ewes, 128. Ch. XI.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. 291 the prerogative of the citizen more tenaciously seized upon, or more roundly asserted. The mem bers began " tumultuously to twit the authority of the queen " ; and declarations the most starthng, and hitherto on that floor unparalleled both for boldness and for doctrine, were given forth by different voices for five successive hours.1 The substance, only, of these declarations is left on record, and was as fol lows : — " The impregnable fort of princes, their only prop and pdlar, is — the love of their subjects. To secure this love, they must provide for the well-being of their realms ; not for the term of their own hves only, but for time after their death. This provis ion cannot be made unless a successor be certainly known. The queen is bound to designate her suc cessor. By not doing so, she doth provoke God's wrath, and alienate her people. If she regard God's and her people's favor, let her do her duty, else she shall no more be reckoned a nurse, a mother, but a step-mother; nay, a parricide of the country which God hath given her to foster. It shall be reckoned to her infamy, that she would rather that England, which now breatheth with her breath, should die when she dies than survive her. " No princes have ever stood in fear of their suc cessors, but such as have been hated of their people, and cowards, and timorous women. The prince who is intrenched in the people's heart, never need, fear a successor."2 Out of doors, moreover, the Commons defamed Cecd with scandalous slanders, as a corrupt counsel- 1 D'Ewes, 128. 2 Camden, 83. Echard, 8.07. 292 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. [Cu. XI. lor in this matter; and cursed Huick, the queen's physician, as a dissuader of her Majesty from mar riage.1 The debates were terminated only by the lateness of the hour. The next morning, Avhen the Commons assembled, at their usual hour of nine, they had no Speaker. The queen had him at Whitehall. She kept him there until after ten o'clock, shoAving him what a royal Avoman's wrath was when roused from its lair by houndings like those of yesterday. At length he appeared in his place, whence he announced, that " it was her Highness' special command to the House, — although she had sent the like before,'' — that there should be no further talk there touching the declara tion of a successor; and that, if any one was not satisfied, but had further reasons, he should come before the Privy Councd and show them." 2 But the House, with unprecedented daring and firmness, set the royal command at defiance ; for — although nothing further of their debates appears upon record — they " did, notwithstanding these several inhibitions and restrictions, further prosecute the same matter, plainly and singly, until the 25th of the month."3 1 Cecil, in Murdin, 762. Cam- for an assertion of so much impor- den, 83. tance. The second is, if the Com- 2 D'Ewes, 128. mons did not continue to agitate l~bid., 130. the subject of the succession, if they I have two reasons for the asser- obeyed the queen's order by silence tion that the Commons were not thereupon during fourteen succes- silenced by the royal command sive days, from the 12th to the 24th through Mr. Speaker Onslow. The inclusive, there seems to have been first is, the explicit assertion of no occasion for the very remarkable D'Ewes which is quoted in the text; proceeding ofthe queen in revok- although, it must be confessed, it is ing her prohibition on the 25th. very singular that he gives no data I find that Mr. Hallam (p. 148) Cn. XL] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. 293 This position of affairs was serious. The spirit, even the passions, of the Commons were roused ; the dignity, the authority of the crown, were in danger of being compromised. At this point, had the latter ventured upon another provocation, or had not soothed the manhood which it had stung, it is impossible to say what would have ensued. But Elizabeth wisely receded. On Monday, the 25th, she sent again for Onslow. He returned from White- had to the ParliamentrHouse with a message from her Majesty, that she did take back her two former prohibitions against freedom of speech ; " a revoca tion which was taken of all most joyfully, with hearty thanks for the same." They talked no more of the succession. From the moment they had been told to hush, where they felt they had a right to talk, they had been talking that they might preserve their right, — talking because they were forbidden. The withdrawal of the commandment, was the with drawal of the cause. This gone, they ceased of course ; and the contest was over. They were the sons of men.1 Elizabeth had been convinced, and probably by ministers who understood human mature better than she did, — and here Cecd's sagacity is indicated, — that the contest was hazardous ; and that her own yielding, while yet it could be as an act of grace, would both save the dignity of the crown and end the quarrel. It did ; and that one of her temper and her notions of the royal prerogative should have seems to have considered the de- it, he says, " more, probably, hav- bates continued until the queen's ing passed than we know at present." revocation, when, in accounting for 1 D'Ewes, 130. 294 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. [Ch. XI. done so, is sufficient evidence that the crisis was im perative. The progress of the subsidy grant is not traceable in the Journal ; but it appears that a third payment — a greater than was usual — had been offered by the Estates on condition that her Majesty would designate a successor ; x or rather, to induce her to do so ; 2 and that in consideration that the expecta tion was not met,3 she remitted the extraordinary payment, saying, with happy courtesy, that " money in her subjects' coffers was as good as in her own." 4 At the close of the Parliament, — January 2d, 1566-7, — after the customary address to the throne by the Speaker of the Commons, and the Lord Keeper's reply in her name, — in which he censured them for proceedings against good laws and for ques tioning her Majesty's prerogative,5 the queen, inno vating upon the usual course, spake herself as fol lows : — " My Lords, and others the Commons of this as sembly, I have a few Avords further to speak to you, although I have not been used, nor love, to do it in such open assemblies. But whereas princes' words do enter more deeply into men's ears and minds, take these things from our mouth. I, that am a lover of simple truth, have ever thought you likewise to be ingenuous lovers of the same. But I have been deceived ; for in this Parliament Dissimulation hath walked up and down, masked under Liberty and Suc cession. Some of you have thought that liberty to 1 Camden, 85, 86. 3 D'Ewes, 131. Hallam, 81, note, 149. 2 Cecil, in Murdin, 762. D'Ewes, 4 D'Ewes, 115. Camden, 86. 131. 5 D'Ewes, 115. Ch. XL] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. 295 dispute of the succession, and of the establishment of the same, is absolutely to be granted or denied. Had we granted it, these men had had their desire, and had triumphed over us. Had we denied it, they thought to have moved what foreign enemy never could, — the hatred of my Commons. But they began to pierce the vessel before the wine was fined ; their wisdom was unseasonable, and their counsels over-hasty ; nor did they foresee the event, which is, that we have easily perceived Avho incline towards. us and who are adverse to us. Your whole House may be divided into four sorts ; — plotters ; actors, persuading by smooth words ; consenters, seduced by those smooth words ; and the mutes, astonished at such audacity, who are the most excusable. " But do ye think that we neglect your security as to the succession ? or that we have a will to infringe your liberty ? No. It was never my meaning ; but to stay you before you fell into the ditch. Every thing hath his fit season. Ye may, peradventure, have after us a wiser prince; but a more loving, never. " For our part, whether we may see such a Par liament again, we know not; but for you, beware lest ye provoke your prince's patience, as ye have now done mine. Nevertheless, — not to make a Lent of Christmas, — the most part may assure yourselves that ye depart in your prince's grace." 1 The Lord Keeper then dissolved the Parliament. Elizabeth unquestionably considered the right of succession to be in Mary of Scotland. To her, whde 1 D'Ewes, 116, and Camden, 89, collated. 296 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. [Ch. XI. a widow, she had already signified that her marriage with some approved English nobleman might open a way for a declaration in her favor ; that " such a declaration would be hasted forward according to Mary's good behavior, and applying herself to follow Elizabeth's pleasure and advice in her marriage " ! 1 It had also " been secretly thought of in the English cabinet, that Mary should surrender unto Elizabeth and to heirs of her body aU manner of claim; in consideration of which, the Scottish queen's interest should be acknowledged in default of heirs of the body of Queen Elizabeth."2 In May, 1564, John Hales had been committed to prison for writing a book against the Queen of Scots' title to the crown 3 ; and now, immediately after the dissolution of Parlia ment, upon Mary's complaint that a lawyer in Lin coln's Inn had questioned her right, Elizabeth, to appease the public mind by an intimation of her own opinion, imprisoned him in the Tower.4 The reasons for her unwillingness to declare her succes sor she had signified in part to the Lords of Council as stated above. But as her declaration, if made, would doubtless have been in Mary's favor, she also had fears — of a politico-religious kind — that a con firmation of her title now would facilitate, if not suggest, some attempt to place the Catholic princess in possession.5 This gives a clew to the meaning of several obscure expressions in her address to the Parliament. We are bound to suppose that her fears 1 Melvil, 82, 95. Echard, 805. < Cecil, in Murdin, 762. Cam- 1 Hardwicke Papers, I. 174; Ce- den, 89. cil to Throckmorton, in 1561. s Melvil, 94 ; Elizabeth to Mel- 8 Strype's Annals, n. 117, 121. vii. Hallam, 81. Ch. XL] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. 297 were not groundless ; and, if so, she is to be jus tified for her inflexible refusal to avow her suc cessor.1 The Commons, however, were not fired by her refusal so much as by her imperious orders against the right of debate ; and it is this fact only which invests their behavior with interest to the student of Puritan history, — the initiating upon that floor the same questions, "What are the rights of the prince?" "What are the rights of the subject?" which had been originated in a humbler sphere ; the same questions, — only with a broader, a political apphcation ; the same leaven in another measure of meal. There wdl be occasion to observe its working here after. It may be as appropriate in this connection as elsewhere to dweU a moment upon Queen Elizabeth's persistence in a life of cehbacy. Perhaps the desirableness of her marriage, as the means of providing an undisputed and acceptable heir to her throne, cannot be more succinctly brought to view than by the following scrap of a dialogue between the Queen Dowager of France and Sir Thomas Smith, as reported by himself. " ' Jesu ! ' saith she, ' and doth not your mistress see that she shall be always in danger untd she marry? That once done, and in some good house, 1 The embarrassments attending the Queen of Scots, are set forth the declaration of Elizabeth's sue- at large, and with admirable clear- cessor, whether she and her Parlia- ness by Hume. (HI. 7, 8. Chap. ment should decide for or against XXXIX.) See also Hallam, 81. vol. i. 38 298 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. [Cu. XI. who shaU dare attempt anything against her?' ' Madam,' quoth I, ' I think if she were once mar ried, aU in England that had any traitorous hearts would be discouraged: for one tree alone may soon be cut down, but when there be tAvo or three together, it is longer a-doing, and one shall watch for the other ; but if she had a chdd, then all these bold and troublesome titles of the Scotch queen, or other that make such gaping for her death, wdl be clean choked up.' " 1 The danger of the queen's life, and the danger to her kingdom should her life fail by assassination or otherwise, are both indicated here ; and on these grounds her people and her ministers were intensely anxious for her marriage. Nor is it to be supposed that Elizabeth herself did not both understand and appreciate these reasons ; and although she seems to have been apathetic, to a degree which distressed and almost irritated her Council, in reference to plots against her life, yet she was by no means indifferent to the good of her people. In woman, the craving for something to love is peculiarly an instinct, — a special provision for those relations of life which are designed peculiarly for herself. Where, by any chance, these relations do not spring up, the instinct cannot be so easdy sup pressed, or so easdy appeased by substitutes, as the meaner one in men. It is ever feehng after some thing human on which to repose, and for something human to cherish. It was, therefore, with a signifi cance which none but a true woman can comprehend, that Elizabeth called England her husband, and Eng- 1 Digges, 167; Smith to Burleigh, 1571-2. Ch. XL] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. 299 lishmen her chddren. Much as she courted the people, this language was not the mere rhetoric of a court, or the clap-trap of a demagogue. With her, it was truth. It expressed, as no other language could have done, the nature of those sentiments which, as a woman-prince and unwived, she cherished towards her realm and her people. Here were en twined those womanly affections whose appropriate objects she lacked. In the foUowing charge to her Council and Judges, "as one reporteth who saith he heard it with his own ears," the woman spake as truly as the queen. "Have a care over my people. You have my place. Do you that which I ought to do. They are my people. Every man oppresseth them, and spoileth them without mercy. They cannot revenge their quarrel, nor help themselves. See unto them; see unto them, for they are my charge. I charge you, even as God hath charged me. I care not for myself; my life is not dear to me ; my care is for my people. I pray God, whosoever succeed me be as careful as I am. They which might know what cares I bear would not think I took any great joy in wearing the crown." " Could a mother," adds the chronicler, " speak more tenderly for her infant, than this good queen speaketh for her people ? " 1 In 1581, Sir Edward Stafford was sent envoy to France, chiefly to observe the behavior of the French towards the Low Countries, of which the sovereignty had just been offered to the Duke of Anjou, for whose marriage with Ehzabeth a negotiation was 1 Holingshed, IV. 253. 300 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. [Ch. XI. then in process. Who but a true woman could have written thus ? " 0 Stafford ! I think not myself well used, and so tell Monsieur, that I am made a stranger to my self, which he must be if this matter take place. In my name show him how impertinent it is for this season, to bring to the ears of our people so ungrate ful news. God forbid that the banes 1 of our nuptial feast should be savored with the sauce of our sub jects' wealth ! 0, what may they think of me, that for any glory of my own would procure the ruin of my land ! Hitherto they have thought me no fool : let me not hve the longer the worse My mortal foe can noways wish me a greater loss than England's hate ; neither should death be less welcome unto me than such mishap betide me. You see how nearly this matter Avringeth me, use it accordingly. Eather wdl I never meddle with marriage, than have such a bad covenant added to my part. ShaU it ever be found true, that Queen Elizabeth hath solemnized the perpetual harm of England under the glorious title of marriage with Francis, heir of France ? No, no ; it shaU never be I hope I shall not live to that hour In haste, your sovereign, Elizabeth." 2 The simple solemnity of her charge and the ner vous pathos of her letter betoken sincerity. Such is not the style of the cabinet, but of nature, of heart, of self-sacrificing affection. But when this charge was uttered and this letter penned, no one thing was so ominous of "the perpetual harm of England" as her lack of an heir of her body. Yet she rejected 1 The banns. 2 Wright, H. 151. Ch. XI.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1566. 301 suitor after suitor, and went through the term of her virdity, " a barren stock." Such conduct, in such a sovereign, under such circumstances, can be ac counted for only upon the supposition of some in surmountable impediment to marriage, some organic defect which assured her loss of life in giving life, — of such a nature that she could not disclose it to her ministers, — and which, had it been known, would have demonstrated the very absurdity of calumnies which Ave shaU notice hereafter. This conclusion is confirmed by the probability that Huick was " a dis- suader of her marriage " ; and affectingly so, by that bitter wad of hers when reporting to her ladies that Mary was a mother.1 1 Bayle, in his Notes L and T, only good sense to be extorted from under the article " Elizabeth," can- his quotation from the Abbot Siri is, vasses this matter a la Franfais ; that the Abbot was simply silly, and with which I will not offend my sillily simple. readers. One word of it only. The CHAPTEE XII. THE FIRST SEPARATION. The Question of Separate Worship opened. — Restraint upon the Press. — Separation discussed. — Resolved upon.— Conventicles. — The Queen incensed. — The Congregation in the Hall of the Plumbers ar rested. — The Examination. — Religious Liberty claimed. — Prisoners sent to Bridewell. — The Church Establishment shaped to win the Catholics. — Objections to such a Platform. — Expulsion of Non conformists from the Offices of the Church justifiable — eccle siastically. — Punishment for preaching justifiable — legally. — Folly of Ecclesiastical Precisianism and Compulsion. — The Right to make Laws involves the Right to punish. — The Dogma of " Church and State." 1566-1567. The Puritans had sought for toleration. They had phed aU then influence, and set in motion aU their friends at Court,1 that the letter of the law's penalty might not be urged upon them, — that they might not be compeUed to use vestments and cere monies which they regarded as symbols and abet tors of a false religion. They had faded. The queen had roused her primate to enforce uniformity; the primate, in his turn, had called upon the queen for help ; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had been at work ; and the non-conforming clergy, by scores, had been forbidden to preach, and ejected from then livings. For " seven or eight weeks " after the last citation 1 Strype's Parker, 229. Ch. XIL] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 303 and discipline of ministers, in March, 1565-6,1 they and their people had contented themselves with going hither and yon to hear such preachers as Coverdale, Sampson, and Lever. But when this re source faded them, or became precarious, — as men tioned at the close of our ninth chapter, — they had begun, as Pilkington stated to Leicester, to talk about worshipping by themselves, and in a manner consonant with then own ideas of Gospel simplicity. This term of " seven or eight weeks " shows that this device must have been propounded about the 10th of May. They had also had recourse to the press ; and set forth books in justification of their opinions and be havior.2 These books " were written with so much confidence and sharpness, that the Archbishop and the state thought fit to have them considered and an swered." 3 But the Commissioners were not content with rejoinders from the press. They "thought it not convenient, by any means, that the queen's in junctions and other laws and ordinances, made for the regular and uniform worship of God, should be thus openly impugned." They had therefore moved the Councd for a decree from the Star-Chamber, pro hibiting such publications ; and accordingly, on the 29th of June, such a decree had been published, and with the signatures of some whose policy, if not sympathy, was averse to such measures.4 It forbade, under very severe penalties, the publishing, the sale, and every part of the manufacturing, of any book 1 Strype's Parker, 241, 242 ; Grin- 3 Strype's Parker, 220. dal, 116. * Ibid., 221, 222. 2 Strype's Parker, 220, 221 ; An nals, H. 162-169. 304 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XII. against the force and meaning of any orders set forth, or to be set forth, touching religious worship ; and authorized search for any such books in all sus pected places. It also required bonds of every book seller, printer, and binder to heed the prohibitions or to meet the forfeitures. It does not appear at what precise time it was definitely resolved to establish separate religious assemblies, but it must have been before the month of August ; x and it was probably soon after, and has tened by, this decree. A letter of BuUinger, about the lawfulness of wearing the habits, which Grindal had published in Latin and in English, had had great influence. Some of the clergy, who had resolved to leave the ministry rather than to comply in this thing, Avere induced by the reasonings of the Helve tian doctor to change their minds ; and many of the common people to abandon all thoughts of separa tion.2 But there were others who could not consent to use or to countenance the Popish ceremonies of the Church, and especiaUy the habits, which, being con stantly before the eyes of the people, were the most harmful in their influence. These men, having been baffled in their devices to hear Coverdale and other " ministers who would not obey their suspensions," had held solemn consultations about " the lawfulness and necessity of separating from the Established Church " ; and had at last dehberately resolved to do so. They had hesitated awhde whether to use 1 Strype's Grindal, 105. linger and Gualter, Feb., 1566-7. 2 Zurich Letters, No. CXI., Grin- Strype's Parker, 229; Grindal, 105, dal to Bullinger, Aug., 1566 ; No. 106. CXXL, Grindal and Horn to Bui- Ch. XH.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 305 in their worship "as much of the Common Prayer and service of the Church as was not offensive " ; or, instead thereof, " the book framed at Geneva for the congregation of the English exdes there, which was mostly taken out of the Genevan form." After free debate, the latter had been chosen as most consonant to the Holy Scriptures. From this time they had continued to worship by themselves ; meeting in private houses, barns, and sometimes in the woods, or other secluded spots in the neighboring country, where they had prayers, sermons, and the ministra tion of the sacraments.1 But these proceedings could not long remain concealed. The bishops heard of them, and were startled. To reach the yet unknown offenders, an earnest remonstrance and exhortation, supposed to have been Avritten by Cox or Jewel, was issued anon ymously from the press.2 The queen, highly in censed by so bold a departure from the order of her Church, and so flagrant a slight upon her suprem acy and laws, immediately issued letters to her Eccle siastical Commissioners, and to the Bishop of Lon don in particular, commanding them to discover the offenders and to reclaim them to their parish church es, by gentle means if possible ; and if these failed, to assure them, that they should be deprived of the freedom of the city for their first punishment, and for the next, abide other penalties.3 This order of the queen, being designed and used only for the Commissioners, was not known to those 1 Strype's Parker, 241 ; Grindal, 2 Strype's Parker, 220. 114. Camden, 192. Collier, VI. "Ibid., 242; Grindal, 115. 443. Carte, ILL 495. Neal I. 104. vol. i. 39 306 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Cn. XII. whom it threatened; and, had it been, would not, probably, have turned them from a course so de liberately and seriously adopted. They continued their assembhes Avith as much caution and secrecy as possible. In the mean time, the bdls introduced to Parliament, " touching reformation of matters of re ligion and church government," had faded.1 For nearly a year, these separatists appear to have met only in the suburbs of London. But at length, growing more bold, they ventured to do so within the city itself2; and on the 19th of June, 1567, occupied the had in Anchor Lane 3 belonging to the Company of the Plumbers. It had been hired by them for the day, of the woman who had it in charge, under pretence of a wedding. About a hundred were assembled. The clergymen present Avere Christopher Coleman, John Benson, Thomas EoAvland, and Eobert Hawkins, all of whom "had been beneficed" within the diocese of London, but were now deprived.4 The sudden appearance of sheriffs at their door arrested their worship, and threw them into consternation. Thirty-one of them — twenty-four men and seven women5 — were seized and hurried to the Compter prison. The next day, two of the ministers, Eowland and 1 D'Ewes, 185. Strype's Parker, 242), says, " fourteen or fifteen were 220. sent to prison " ; yet in his Life of 2 Brook, I. 29. Grindal (p. 136), apparently refer- Stow's Survey, 442. ring to the same company, he gives Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 81 ; who adds the number discharged as twenty- to these, as a clergyman, the name four men and seven women. Neal of AVilliam AATiite. But he was a says, -'most of them," i. e. ofthehun- layman. Neal, I. 104, 109, note, dred, " were committed to custody." Brook, I. 145, note L, 147. So says Brook. Yet both give the 6 Strype, in his Life of Parker (p. number discharged only thirty -one. Ch. Xn.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 307 Hawkins, and four of the laymen, Smith, Nixson, White, and Ireland, were brought before Grindal, Bishop of London, Goodman, Dean of Westminster ; Dr. Archdeacon Watts, Sir Eoger Martin, Lord Mayor of London, and their associates, — all the queen's Commissioners. They were immediately put upon examination, on the charge of meeting for prayer, preaching, and the sacraments, contrary to the act of Parliament, and of withdrawing from their parish churches. At the opening of their examinar tion, the Bishop showed them the queen's letter,1 and reproved them for the deceit they had practised to get possession of the HaU. To this it was replied, that they did so to save the wonran harmless who let it to them. Grindal told them plainly, that, what- ever their object, it was lying; and that they had hereby put the woman to great blame, and exposed her to the loss of her office, which was against the rule of charity.2 " Have you not the Gospel truly preached in the Church established by law ? " he continued. " Have we not the sacraments duly administered, and good order preserved ? albeit, in ceremonies that be indif ferent, which the prince hath a right to order, we fol low not some other of the Eeformed churches. What say you, Smith? you seem to be the ancientest." "My lord, we thank God for the Eeformation. What we desire is only, that all may be according to the Word of God.3 As long as we could have 1 It is from this fact only that I 2 Strype's Parker, 242 ; Grindal, have inferred, as stated above, that 115. the queen's letter was unknown to 3 Strype's Grindal, 115. them, and had not been made public. 308 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XII. the Word preached freely, and the sacrament admin istered Avithout the preferring of idolatrous gear about it, Ave never assembled in private houses. But when it came to this point, that all our preachers were displaced by your laAv that Avould not subscribe to the apparel and laAv, so that Ave could hear none of them in any church by the space of seven or eight Aveeks, except Father Coverdale,1 avIio at length durst not make knoAvn unto us Avhere he preached, and Avhen Ave Avere troubled in your courts from day to day for not coming to our parish churches,2 we resolved to meet privately together."3 " This is no answer," replied the Bishop. " This is no sufficient reason for not going to church, as ye are required to do." " Would your Lordship have us go backward in religion ? Yet I had as lief go to Mass, as to some churches; ay, my lord, as lief to Mass as to my own parish church, for the minister be a very Papist." 4 " And I," said Nixson, " know one that persecuted God's saints in Queen Mary's time, and brought them before Bonner ; and yet now he is a minister allowed of in the Church, though he hath never made recantation." 5 Others of* the prisoners said the same of other ministers. Indeed it was but too true, that the bishops, or rather the law, by which the bishops were guided, while ejecting Protestant preachers, aUowed Popish priests in the ministry, on the single 1 Strype's Grindal, 116. * Brook, I. 135. 2 Brook, I. 135. * Strype's Annals, I. 264. ' Strype's Grindal, 116. Ch. XII. | THE FIRST SEPARATION. 309 condition of conformity and subscribing to the doc trine of the Established Church. It Avas notorious, also, that " these perjured hypocrites, bearing two faces under one hood," encouraged their parishioners, as much as they durst, to favor Popery.1 " Troth ! " exclaimed the Dean of Westminster, "they account the service and reformation in the days of good King Edward, of blessed memory, no better than the Mass ! " " Or else," said the Bishop, " they judge all minis ters Popish because they find here and there one so. But," turning to the prisoners, " ye may go to other places, where they minister who will give you none offence." " Do but make inquisition, my lord," replied White, a sturdy citizen of London and a man of fortune,2 " and you shall find a great company of Papists in this very city whom you hold in the ministry, while you thrust out others who are both godly and learned." " Canst accuse any such of false doctrine ? " "Ay, that can I," replied Nixson; "and he one now present in this Court. Let him come forth, an he be not ashamed, and answer to his preaching rank Papistry from the tenth chapter of John's Gospel. There he standeth, my lord," pointing out the man among the by-standers. " Master Bedell is the man. He is one of your Popish ones, my lord." Bedell hung his head at the accusation ; but an swered not a word. The Bishop and the other Com missioners looked upon one another as if perplexed ; 1 Strype's Annals, I. 264, 265. 2 Brook, I. 145, note. 310 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XII. but they took no further notice of the charge.1 The Dean of Westminster diverted attention from a matter so embarrassing. " You seem," said he, " to question both the author ity of the prince in appointing, and the liberty of a Christian man in using, such things in divine wor ship as are indifferent." " Of a truth ye do," added the Bishop ; " and for so doing ye suffer justly." " Not so, my lord," replied Hawkins. " We would not minish aught either of princely authority or of Christian liberty. Howbeit, it doth in no wise belong to princely authority to command, nor to Chris tian liberty to use, nor to either to defend, that which pertaineth to Papistry and idolatry." "Do you ever hear us maintain such things ? " chaUenged the Dean. " We alloAV we do not hear you. Nevertheless, by your doings and by your laws, ye do it. You preach Christ to be a prophet and a priest, but not to be a king. Ye allow not that he reigneth in his Church alone, by the sceptre of his Word ; for, by your rule, the Pope's canon laAv2 and the wiU of the prince must be preferred before — that is to say, must govern — the preaching of the Word and the ministering of ordinances." " Prithee, what is so preferred ? " asked the Bishop. 1 Grindal's Remains (Parker canonist about this time" — 1562 — Soe), 204. Brook, I. 136, note. " wrote a tract for the regulation of 2 '' The canon law seemed yet to the canonists and of the said canon be in some force, which contained law for the queen and this many things in it directly favoring Parliament to take into considera- the Bishop of Rome and his super- tion." — Strype's Annals, I. 532. stitions; and therefore a learned Ch. XH.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 311 " Your laws, your copes, your surplices," ansAvered Nixson ; " for ye suffer none to preach or to adminis ter, except they wear these things, and subscribe a promise to wear them." " Not so ! " exclaimed the Bishop ; " not so ! What say you of Sampson and Lever, — of Fox, and Hum phrey, and Coverdale ? They neither wear the hab its, nor subscribe. Yet do they not preach ? " " Of a truth, they preach, and they preach the truth, my lord," interposed White. "Yet some of them you haA'e deprived ; and your law standeth in force against them all. You suffer them ; but others, though sound in doctrine, you do not suffer. For what cause ye do make this difference, it passeth me to know." " Sampson, Fox, and others, will not preach among such as you, who separate from the Church," retorted the Bishop. "My lord, your doings are the cause why they wiU not." " Neither wdl they join with you" added Hawkins. " One of them told me, that he would rather be torn into an hundred pieces than communicate with you after your forms.1 We neither hold to, nor all^w, anything not contained in God's Word. This is the marrow of our offence. This is the point whence you and we part. If you think that we hold not to that which is true and right, show it to us, and we wdl renounce it." "You are not obedient to the authority of the prince," said the Dean. " Indeed we are," replied White ; " for we resist 1 Strype's Parker, 243. 312 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Cu. XII. not, but suffer Avhat the authority seeth fit to lay on us." " So do thieves," rejoined the Bishop. " What a comparison, my lord ! They, for evil- doing ; Ave, for serving God according to his Word ! " " Both prince and people," said Nixson, " ought to obey the Word of God." " True," replied the Bishop ; " but obedience con sistent of three points. First, that which God com- mandeth may not be left undone. Second, that which God forbiddeth may not be done. Third, that which God hath neither commanded nor forbidden, — indifferent things, — princes have authority to ap point and command." " Let that be proved to us, my lord, if it can." " My lord, where find you that doctrine ? " exclaimed the prisoners. " Of a truth ! " exclaimed the Bishop in amaze ment, "I have talked with many persons touching this matter, yet I never saw any behave themselves so irreverently before magistrates." And he would not debate the point.1 "Pray, my lord," said Smith, "how can those things be indifferent that be abominable ?" " You mean our caps and tippets, which you say came from Eome ? " " Troth, my lord," responded Ireland. " They be long to the Papists ; to the Papists throw them." " You Avould have us use nothing which the Papists have used ? Then, forsooth, we must needs use no churches, seeing the Papists used them," said Dr. Watts. 1 Neal, I. 109. Ch. XII.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 313 '• Christ did cast the buyers and sellers, and their Avares, out of the temple," rejoined White ; " yet Avas not the temple overthrown, for all that." " Moreover," added Hawkins, " churches are neces sary to keep our bodies from the rain; but copes and surplices are superstitious and idolatrous." The Bishop insisted that " things not forbidden of God might be used for the sake of order and obedi ence." To which Hawkins replied, "But not the cere monies of Antichrist, my lord ; to which you have brought the Gospel and its ordinances into bondage, thereby defending idolatry and Papistry." After some desultory conversation about the opin ions and usages of the Church of Geneva, Hawkins remarked, " By your severities, you drive us into a separation against our wills" "My lord," said Nixson, "let us answer to your first question, — whether the Gospel be not truly preached in the Church established." " Say on, Nixson." " We do not refuse your communion and worship, on pretence that you preach not the Word of God ; but because you have tied the ceremonies of Anti christ to your ministry, and set them before it, so that no man may preach or administer the sacraments without them. It is the . compelling these things by law that hath made us separate.1 Before you compelled the ceremonies, all was quiet." At last Sir Eichard Martin said, apparently wearied with this rambling conversation : " Well, good people, I wish you would wisely consider these things, and 1 Strype's Parker, 241. VOL. I. 40 314 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XH. be obedient to the queen's good laws, that so you may five quietly and have liberty. I am sorry that you are troubled; but I am an officer under my prince, therefore blame not me. The queen hath not established these garments and other things, for the sake of any holiness in them ; only for civil order and comeliness, and because she would have minis ters known from other men, as aldermen are known by their tippets, judges by their red gowns, and noblemen's servants by their liveries. Therefore ye wiU do Avell to take heed and obey." " Philip Melancthon hath Avell said," replied Haw kins, " that when the opinion of holiness, or of merit, or of necessity, is put to things in themselves indiffer ent, they ought always to be taken away." " But," said the Bishop, " these things are not com manded as necessary in the Church." " Say you so, my lord ? So be it. But the com mandment maketh them necessary, as many a poor man doth feel." " As you say, my lord," said Nixson, resuming his dialogue with the Lord Mayor, — "as you say that the alderman is known by his tippet, even so have Mass- priests been known from other men by this very apparel which you command. Thus you would com pel us to wear that which meaneth ' Mass-priest.' " " What a great matter you make of it ! " said the Dean of Westminster. "There be good men and good martyrs that did wear these things in King Edward's day," said the Bishop. " Do you condemn them, Nixson ? " " We condemn them not. However, we would go on to a more perfect way. Nevertheless, the best of Ca. XH.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 315 them who maintained the habits did recant for it at their death ; as Eidley, Bishop of London, and Dr. Taylor. Eidley did acknowledge his fault in this thing to Dr. Hooper ; and when the Papists would haA^e put the apparel upon him in order to strip it off, — being the ceremony of deposing him, — he said the dress was abominable" " Many," interposed Hawkins, " were burned in the time of Mary, for standing against Popery as we do now." " I myself have said Mass," observed the Bishop. "I am sorry for it." "Nevertheless," said Ireland, "your lordship stfll goeth dressed like one of the mass-priests." " You see me wear cope and surplice in St. Paul's. I would rather minister unthout them, only for the sake of order, and obedience to my prince." After other conversation had followed, the Dean of Westminster said, " Do we hold heresy ? Do Ave deny any article of faith ? Do we maintain purga tory, or pdgrimage ? No. We hold the reformation that Avas in King Edward's days." " You build much of King Edward's time," replied White. " Yet, though it was the best time of refor mation in the realm, all was confined to one prescript order of service, patched together out of the Popish matins, even-song, and mass-book." " And they of that time never made a law such as now is, that none should preach or minister without the garments," added Nixson.1 1 " This godly king," Edward ATI., he had before left, excepting the " set forth a new form of surplice and kneeling at the Lord's prayers, removed and prohibited all Supper, baptizing by women and the monuments of superstition which demanding of infants a profession of 316 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Cn. XII. " We have a gracious prince, Avho maketh the law," said the Dean of Westminster. "May God preserve her Majesty and Council!" heartily responded the prisoners.1 These parts — and they are only parts — of a con versation so singular under the circumstances, bring distinctly to vieAV some important points both of difference and of agreement between the Church Precisians and the Non-conformists, and also between the Church Precisians and this neAv school of Puri tans. Grindal' s position is clearly defined, — in pri vate judgment and in heart, a Puritan ; in civil pol icy and loyal obedience only, a Precisian ; charitable towards those Avho scrupled the garments, but re volting at the movement of separation. As clearly defined is the jjosition of the offenders ; — in heart, loyal and conscientious; and claiming their rights as "the Lord's freedmen," only when "driven" to the Avail by religious despotism. At the close of the conference, the prisoners Avere exhorted to forbear their religious assemblies ; but it being evident to the Commissioners that they would not do so, they, with the others Avho were arrested Avith them, Avere sent to the Bridewell prison, " at the commandment of the queen." 2 faith. What he retained, however, from " The Remains of Grindal " was left so free, that no one who (Parker Soe), pp. 201-216; inter- objected to them was compelled lo weaving the language of each, and observe them." — Zurich Letters, No. some slight modifications of my CXXX. ; Geo. Withers to the Elec- own, as I have thought necessary tor Palatine. (Strype's AVhitgift, to express truthfully and clearly 196, " Article ATT.") the opinions uttered upon the oc- 1 I derive my sketch of this casion. " examination " — so called — from * Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 81. Cam- Strype's Grindal, and from Brook, den, 107. Strype's Parker 243. Vol. I., Article " Hawkins," and Brook, I. 151. Ch. XII.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 317 Grindal, who respected their conscientiousness, strove to gain them to his views of "order and obedience to the prince." Failing in this, and pitying their sufferings, he interceded for them with Mr. Secretary Cecil ; urging sagaciously, that, were they freely liberated with only a grave admonition, there Avould be more reason to hope for their compliance, than by persisting in the severity of punishment. In consequence of this intercession, the Lords of the Council sent an order of release, dated April 28th, 1568,1 the prisoners being warned, hoAvever, of greater severity, should they repeat then factious and dis orderly behavior.2 Accordingly, they Avere called be fore the Bishop on the 3d of May, and discharged ; having been confined ten and a half months.3 That a few scores of men and women should have associated to worship God apart from the assem blies, and without the forms established by law, is in itself a trifle on the page of history. As an attempt at righteous liberty, it was a seedling which — though it afterwards grew to imposing stature and strength — was sheared down at the moment of its appearing. Instead, therefore, of noting at this point how it took root deeper and better for the operation, or anticipating its revival and development, it is weU to consider the stimu lating influences to which it OAved its origin. 1 Strype's Grindal, 155. twelvemonths'"; and on pp. 154, 155, 2 Ibid. in letters then written, we have the 3 Neal says, " above a year, date of the Council's Order, April Brook, " two years ; discharged 28th, 1568, and the date of release April, 1569." But Strype, in his May 3d, 1568. Life of Grindal, p. 136, says, " about 318 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XII. The Puritans — particularly the more strenuous, who were styled by way of distinction " the hot Puritans" — were stigmatized as foohshly fastidious about trifles. The grounds on which they retorted that these trifles Avere no trifles, have been shoAvn in our sketch of Hooper's argument, and omvard, throuarh this last examination of the offenders of the Plumbers' Hall. In brief, they held, that the sur plice Avas a distinctive badge of a corrupt, false, idol atrous Church ; that its use would be construed, to their soul's hurt, by the Aveak and vacillating, as a tacit approval of her errors ; that kneeling at the sacrament might readily be taken as an act of ado ration implying the real presence and sacrifice of Christ's body; that the like was true of certain other prescribed ceremonies ; and that, therefore, these things — trifles in themselves — became ele vated, by their associations and connections, to the rank of usages grave and dangerous, contrary to the standard of faith, offensive to God, and as in congruous to his worship as any of the rites of Pa ganism. With the mere logic of this reasoning we have now nothing to do. Leaving its analysis to school men and casuists, let us consider simply whether its conclusion was, or was not, sustained by collateral facts. One of the first steps taken by Elizabeth after she Avas proclaimed queen, was the settling of the religion of the state, — under the circumstances a very delicate affair. For this purpose, she consulted only Sh William Cecd and Sh Thomas Smith ; 1 by 1 Lloyd, 562. Ch. XII.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 319 whose advice she selected certain divines, whom she charged to shape, from King Edward's Book of Com mon Prayer, a Platform of Eeligion to be submitted to herself, and, " having her approbation, to be put into the Parliament." The work was to be done, not according to their Christian judgment, — nor was it, — but according to her Majesty's mind. That they might know this fully, they were under the constant "direction" of Sir WiUiam Cecil, her con fidant and oracle in matters of state. That they might construct their work with legal accuracy, Sir Thomas Smith Avas associated with them, being a learned doctor of the civd law.1 This business the queen arranged secretly, Avithout the advice, or even knowledge, of her Privy Council ; and the result was submitted to her review and approbation, some time in the last month of her first Parliament.2 Thus the forms of the Church Establishment were entirely decided upon at " the dormant council-table of her OAvn princely breast " ; and adjusted at her dictation, before it Avas knovfn outside of Sir Thomas's house in Chanon Eow Avhat form of religion would be elected. After its construction by the divines, the new Liturgy was, indeed, laid before three or four noblemen for their perusal ; but this was only " to give it a further reputation."3 It has been already stated,4 that it was her com mand to this committee to conform the Book of Common Prayer as nearly as possible to the dogmas and forms of Popery, without making it positively 1 Strype's Grindal, 22, 23 ; An- s Collier, VI. 199, 200. Camden, nals, I. 75, 76, 119, 120. 16. Strype's Annals, I. 76. 2 Collier, VI. 249. * Chap. VHI. 320 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XII. Papistical. This was mere state policy. Her com mand was, of course, obeyed ; and the Form of Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments — be fore cuUed out of the Popish Mass-Book — was made yet more " passable amongst the Papists." 1 The Act of Uniformity relapsed also ; ordaining " such orna ments of the Church and of the ministers thereof as Avere by authority of Parliament in the second year of King Edward VI." 2 So true was this visible approximation to Popery, that Cecil could after- Avards commend the divine service of the English Church to the Eomish judgment of the French am bassador, for its nearness to that of his OAvn Church. So also said the queen, in her instructions to her oavu ambassador at the French Court.3 Nor Avas this 1 Strype's Annals, III. 293, Ap- "Then I answered" (the French pend. Bk. I. No. XIX. Heyl. Ref, Ambassador), " setting out the near- 283. Heyl. Presb., Bk. I. Sec. 16; ness of ours" (our religious ser- Bk. AT. Sec. 12, 30. vices) "to such as was good and 2 1 Eliz. Cap. H. Sec. XIH. sound in the Roman ; adding, that 3 The documents here referred to we omitted nothing but those which are so remarkable, that I transcribe were impious and doubtful to be so much of them as relates to the against tho Scripture." — Burleigh matter in the text. " If he " — ¦ the to Walsingham, May, 1571. (Digges, Duke of Anjou — "should be our 100.) husband, he should accompany us to "If the form " (the English form) the church; and why he should not "of religion were considered by or may not use our manner of pray- them'' (the French Court), " ers and divine service, certainly we it should be found that there is think no reason can be yielded by nothing in the same contrary to the any that knoweth the same, and Roman religion, differing only, that will compare it to that which the the same is translated out of the Church of Rome doth use ; for in Latin tongue into the English, so as ours, there is no part that hath not whosoever shall use the same ser- been, yea, that is not at this day, vice cannot be accounted without used in the Church of Rome, religion, nor to do anything repug- and if anything be more in ours, the nantto the Roman religion."— From same is part of the Holy Scripture." " A Summary of Answers made by — The Queen to Walsingham, May, the Queen's Majesty to the French 1571. (Digges, 98.) Ambassador and Mr. l'Archant to Ch. XH.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 321 aU ; for so great was the likeness of the two, that the old Popish priests of Queen Mary found nothing in the divine service to offend their scruples, and con tinued still to retain their places by its use, saying that to do so '•' Avas not a thing malum in se " ; 1 and at this very time the Papists, generally, attended the Avorship, and remained in the communion, of the English Church.2 Bonner's sneer, "If they sup of our broth, they Avill soon eat of our beef," has already been cited. Nor Avas the sarcastic taunt of another Papist impertinent, that " the English drove the Pope out of England so hastdy, that they forced him to leave his garments behind him ; and noAV they put them on, and, like so many players acting their parts, they dance in them by way of triumph."3 More over, learned English Papists have justified then own Church and religion, by appealing to the adop tion of their ceremonies by the English Church ; and hence have even argued that Elizabeth herself was in heart a Papist.4 But, more than by all these things, the real fitness of the English ritual to sus tain the heresies and superstitions of Popery is proved by this one fact, — that the counsellors of Pius IV. had advised him, so lately as in 1563 or 1564, to confirm the English Liturgy, with some — probably slight — alterations, upon the single condi tion that the queen should acknowledge its Eomish authority.5 And, though we presume this was known their Message and Request." (Dig 3 Pierce, 50. ges, 113.) 4 Ibid. 1 Butler, I. 310. 6 Strype's Annals, n. 55. 2 D'Ewes, 35. The Queen's Dec A like proposal was reported — laration in the Star-Chamber in but without seeming authority — to 1570; Strype's Annals, H. 371. have been made to Elizabeth by VOL. I. 41 322 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XII. at the time only to the queen and her confidants, it proves just as truly and forcibly, that the analogy between the externals of the two Churches was by no means imaginary. Nor should it be forgotten, that in the English Church these externals, with their tendencies, were sustained and enforced by authority, under circum stances which rendered their influence peculiar, and peculiarly dangerous, for it was in a clay of deplora ble religious ignorance; — when the mass of the people might be easily led astray ; when the old, corrupt rehgion was still venerated by multitudes ; when many others were yet halting between two opinions ; and when Popery Avas vigorously and covertly at work throughout the realm to recover the English Church and to revolutionize the govern ment. In the alembic of the day, vapors became solids ; chaff, poison ; stubble, steel. Such Avere the Puritan's justifying facts. Collec tively, they verify his theoretic scruples, and demon strate the soundness of his objections. They show clearly that he was not moved to remonstrance and dissent by squeamish conceits, or a love of " singu larity," but by an intended, real, outward similitude between his own Church and that of Eome ; a simil itude grateful, because complaisant to the latter, and tending to the corruption and lapse of the former; a similitude which was a conniving at idolatry and Pius IV. in 1560. (Fuller, Bk. IX. would humble himself even to her- p. 69.) Osborne, in his Traditional esy itself, in regard that whatsoever Memoirs, p. 35, states positively that was done to gain souls to Christ, this offer was made. Echard also did become that See." (p. 797.) says that Pius IV. declared: "He Ch. XII.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 323 damnable lies, a snare to the weak, an offence unto God.1 Such facts are bone and flesh and thew to the first argument of the non-conforming Puritan; and this, crossed by the plea that, " Eome being renounced, her symbols became indifferent, and therefore by command of the prince obligatory," was the crossing of the sword Avith the bulrush. However it might satisfy minds less perceptive and sensitive, or more tamely feudal than his own, to the Puritan it was but the shadow of a plea ; and stung by the impli cation of disloyalty, he bounded instinctively for foothold upon the outer verge of Liberty, and re torted with his second argument, — that royalty over topping the Statute-Book of God, was royalty no longer; that loyalty may refuse to follow, but be 1 Perhaps the gravity of the Puri tan objections, at that time, to the episcopal vestments and ceremonies, cannot be more succinctly and per tinently expressed, than in a letter to PaVkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, written in 1571. " If the Turk de cree the ceremonies of Moses and the attire of Aaron, for his own ceremonies and attire, they would be Moses' and Aaron's still. Then no proclamation or law can dis possess Antichrist, the Pope, from his ceremonies and attire. AVhat were his twenty years ago will be his still, though a thousand proclama tions command the contrary In respect of the use, form, fashion, and end whereunto they were and are appointed, they are unlawful, proceeding from Antichrist. What estimate shall the servant get by wearing the badge and cognizance of his master's deadly foe 1 " — Strype's Annals, Appendix, Bk. I. No. XH. So also reasoned Zanchy, in a letter to the queen, in 1571. " Who would endure his enemy's coat of arms in his house, and especially in the most honorable place ? Suppose your Most Serene Majesty were to issue a decree, that every Englishman should lay aside his an cient dress and put on the Turkish robe, ... . who would commend such a decree as a proper one ? Much less is it to be com mended that godly bishops be re quired," &c. — Zurich Letters, No. CLA7LU ; — an elaborate letter, pre senting clearly and with great force the argument against the vestiarian laws. This collection of letters abounds in strong points against those laws, made by different divines of Germany and Switzerland, — points too numerous even for reference. 324 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XH. loyal still ; that there is a field — how long or broad he could not then say — belonging to none but the Christian man and Christ, Avhere the disciple Avas, and of right ought to be, Free, and Avhere no law even of the mightiest monarch could bind him. It is evident, therefore, that the Puritans' refusal to conform had its foundation, not in frivolous or visionary scruples, but in substantial reasons. But the omission of a garment or of a ceremony Avas a breach of order, an ecclesiastical offence, for which ecclesiastical discipline Avas proper. Thus, in the regular course of things, the non-conformist Avas sub jected to a second repelling and impulsive influence, — punishment; the nature and tendency of which are worth a moment's reflection. That every Church has a conventional right to establish its own government, to frame its own rules, to fix its own forms of worship, and to discipline its disorderly members, no one will dispute. If an offender wdl not be reclaimed by remonstrance or censure to a regular observance of its laws, he may justly be disowned and excluded from the brother hood.1 Thus, strictly speaking, the Puritan clergy 1 It may bo objected here — and one a member ofthe English Church. particularly in regard to the laity — Her " conventional" right to disci- that the Church of England, be- pline the ecclesiastical offender was cause not a voluntary association, the same as that of the magistrate lacked a primary element of the to punish the offender against the visible Christian Church; that its state's laws, who became amenable members became such by natural thereto by the same accident of birth, and were sworn to religious birth. To act out the convictions fealty only by assumed proxy, — of conscience or of private judg- godfathers and godmothers. But ment in matters of religion was, in gross as it is to suppose the accident the vocabulary of the day, to act of birth to make one a member of against the safety of her Majesty's the Church of Christ, it did make person and the realm. So wrote Ch. X1L] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 325 Avho Avould not conform to the rules of worship and to the dress enjoined by the Church of England, were, according to all ecclesiastical usage, justly de barred from officiating as ministers of that Church. By her prerogative, the queen might ordain cere monies at Avill ; and though she should have ordained the most oppressive and even absurd, — ¦ which the minister would have had the Christian right to spurn, — still she Avould have had the technical right to de prive him of his office and of his living. But she went further. She forbade the non-con forming clergy to preach the Word or to minister the Sacraments within her realm at all. If they did so, she fined them, — imprisoned them. Had she a right to do this ? According to Christ and common humanity, no. According to the Statute, yes. It was so nominated in the bond. Not only was con formity a condition of office and of its revenue, but the non-conformist was at issue with the crown. Legally, he was a criminal. Legal justice — we do not say, just law — deposed him from all Christian ministry in the Established Church, — and the law knew no other, — and adjudged him to the pains of mulct and a prison. For him, the crown had no grace. He must undo his convictions, or violate an enlight ened conscience, or suffer as it was written by the law. The crown demanded the former. He chose the latter. The crown was justified by the law of the realm ; the culprit, by the Gospel of Christ. At the outset, her Majesty might easily have com posed the differences between the Establishment and the Lords of the Council to Bishop erata Curiosa, Vol. I. Bk. HI. No. Chaderton, May 28, 1581. (Desid- XXXI.) 326 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Cn. XH. the Puritans,1 by yielding what even the most rigid Churchmen granted to be unimportant; for they who refused the ecclesiastical habits required, were willing to Avear such as would distinguish them from the laity, — one reason given for the canonical gar ments, — if they might only "keep clear from the robe of Antichrist." 2 But the moment she put for ward the letter and authority of the law, she so entangled her prerogative with caps and copes, con sciences and common sense, that she must either yield to its dishonor, or do battle in its defence. There is a spot in every human heart which flinches from the touch of authority ; and no one is fit to govern who does not ware it. " Shall " and " shall not," wake up " will not " and " will " ; and the latter go to asleep again — if at all — only when good sense and humanity justify the commandment. Hence, if a law be not thus justified ; if, too, it be burdensome or annoying to the subject; and if, more than aU, it be based only and avowedly upon the whim and wdl of the prince, — it would be passing strange if resistance and disobedience should not foUow. Nay, the surest and stoutest resistance wdl be, not from the sycophantic, the timid, the little- minded, the obtuse, but from the upright, the manly, the clear-sighted ; and if the requisitions of the laAv be puerile and frivolous, as well as burdensome and annoying, so much the more — not so much the less — will they battle it. In such a quarrel, preciseness and littleness pertain, not to him who resents, but to him who commands. And when, superadded to aU 1 Murdin, 262; The Dean of 2 Strype's Parker, 157; Whitting- York to Burleigh. Neal, 1. 104, 105. ham to Leicester. Ch. XH.J THE FIRST SEPARATION. 327 this, some great principle is involved, — as that of conscience or religious liberty, — the more protracted and desperate will be the struggle ; for both are strong, but the prince is weaker than the subject. / It Avas so in this case. The strife was long and \ terrible ; yet Uniformity was never established. The compulsory policy of the queen wrought its natural effects. Nervously jealous for "the chiefest flower in her garden, the head pearl in her diadem," J Avhich she had compromised for the sake of " trifles," — against the Avishes of her prelates and the judg ment of her counsellors,2 — she invoked Severity to sustain Supremacy. She drave men to the waU who had never dreamed of resisting the will of their sovereign, and this forced them to ask in amaze ment, " Is- this the liberty whereAvith Christ maketh free?" Thus, also, she forced them to ask, "Where beginneth the freedom of the Gospel, and where endeth the authority of the prince ? " a question of whose greatness and bearing they had then no con ception, and the last, in policy, which she should have stirred. A petulant, imperious woman smote the flint upon the tempered steel, and the first spark of Liberty was stricken out. For present purposes, it gave light enough to the bewildered inquirers. They saw the sovereign overstepping the bounds of sovereignty and refused obedience. Here a part of them halted, and submitted meekly to punishment, though not to conformity ; while others, bolder and more sturdy, advanced another step, revolted from the school of discipline to which they were sub jected, and parted from the communion in which 1 D'Ewes, 547. 3 Zurich Letters, pp. 263, 264. 328 THE FHiST SEPARATION. [Cn. XH. they had been reared. Despotism defeated itself. In seeking to coerce unity, Elizabeth compelled Sep aration. For this Avere meted out greater severities. Yet neither did these exceed the power claimed by the crown, hoAvever much, at any time, beyond the punishment prescribed by statute, and however re pugnant to sound policy. It is said by an historian, that the queen's threat, in her letter to the Commissioners about the Separatists, " Avas a ATast stretch of the prerogative, there being no law, as yet, to disfranchise a man for not coming to church." x But the royal prerogative of ordaining rites and ceremonies not ordained by statute,2 im plied the prerogative of punishing as not ordained by statute.3 So the queen understood it ; and so under standing it, she delegated to her Commissioners this discretionary poAver of punishing, together Avith the other executive powers of her supremacy. By the very letter of the Act of Uniformity, to say noth ing of the Act of Supremacy, her ecclesiastical law making power Avas vastness itself, — of which expan sion cannot be predicated, — for that power had not even nominal check or limit save " the advice of her Commissioners, or of her metropolitan " ; and neither Commissioner nor metropolitan — Grindal excepted — had any rule of "advice" but her Majesty's will.4 1 Neal, I. 108. rogative in general, especially the 2 1 Eliz. Cap. LL Sec. XIH. Supremacy, was supposed in that 3 Blackstone, IV. 122, 123. age " — Elizabeth's — " to involve * Naunton, (in the Phoenix,) 184. powers which no law, precedent, or Macaulay says truly, (Vol. I. p. reason could limit and determine." 27,) that " the king could not legis- But the supremacy of Elizabeth late without the consent of his Par- was not " supposed," but known, to liament " ; and Hume observes, (Vol. involve indeterminate powers. Nor LH. Chap. XLI. p. 127,) that "Pre- washer law-making prerogative in Ch. XIL] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 329 But law-making power is a myth without the power to enforce by punishment. Therefore the poAver by which, through her commissioners, she would dis franchise or imprison, irrespective of statute penalty, she continued to exercise ; and it was formally de clared by the highest legal authority that the power to imprison for not coming to church — a penalty not in the laAv — Avas contained in the Act of Supremacy, Avhen, thirteen years afterwards, it seems to have been questioned.1 Supremacy, like perfection and infinity, does not admit of degrees. It cannot be "stretched," either in making law by mere procla mation, or in punishing at Avill, — both of which Elizabeth Avas accustomed to do. We have thus noticed the remark just quoted as ecclesiastical matters supposed to on which occasion " the Judges of inhere to the crown, as though she the realm and divers civilians " could legislate therein " without the gave the following opinion. consent of her Parliament." It " By statute anno primo of Eliz- was specially donated by the Act abeth, Commissioners of ecclesiasti- of Supremacy, and it was only cal causes have authority to inflict as a donation that she claimed it. any punishment, by mulct or other- (Strype's Whitgift, 260.) The same wise, which the ecclesiastical law Parliament (Cap n. Sec. XHI.) allows; because all ecclesiastical ju- had "consented," in advance, to risdietion and authority is by the any injunction or injunctions which same statute annexed to the crown ; she might issue with the advice of and, by the same, full power given her Commissioners or metropolitan ; her Majesty to commit the same to thus forearming any transcript of such persons as shall please her." — her will with the full sanction and Desid. Curiosa, Vol. I. Bk. HI. No. force of positive law. This was XHI. very definite limitlessness, — around This opinion was particularly in- whieh no other law, no precedent, tended — as will be seen by con- no reason, could draw a line. suiting the preceding paper, No. 1 In 1580, an exposition was re- XH. — to sanction and justify in quired of the punitive powers of prisonment; pecuniary punishment, the Queen's Commissioners; par- which only the statute prescribed, ticularly with reference to those having proved ineffectual. who refused to come lo church. Up- vol. i. 42 330 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Cu. XH. though it were proper in its application to the case in hand. But it is not. True, disfranchisement was not the described penalty for the offence committed. It is also true, that the punishment inflicted had no more reference than disfranchisement to the statute penalty. But neither threat nor punishment was for "not coming to church." They Avere for using forms of religious worship and ordinances "other than set forth in the Book of Common Prayer." 1 We have seen that but a part of the non-conform ists separated from the communion and worship of the Church, and have said that these Avere the bolder and more sturdy. In justice to both these parties, and indeed in justice to Elizabeth, this difference of behavior requires further notice. It is perhaps impossible for us at this day, and in a country Avhere for generations no relation has been recognized betAveen the Church and the State, to understand Avith what profound veneration that rela tion — or rather, identity — was regarded in the times of which we write. For ages, it had been held as an axiom, that the magistrate was the cus todian, or defender, of the Church ; that the author ity of each was interwoven ; that it was a part of 1 This was the first offence Uniformity, which pi-escribed im- charged upon this party, of de- prisonment for a year. serting their parish churches and ' The lay offenders, by the same adopting other than the established act (Sec. HI.), should have been religious forms ; that is, their first sentenced only to a fine of one hun- arraignment for conventicle worship, dred marks ; or, in default thereof, The clergymen had previously to imprisonment for six months. been deprived for non-conformity. The respondents, however, were Therefore — being " not beneficed " not sentenced upon the statute, — they were obnoxious to the last but upon the queen's special com- clause of Sec. H. of the Act of mandment. Ch. XII.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 331 his office to enforce her laws, so that the subject who varied from these came into collision with the authority of the prince. Nor did an ecclesiastical irregularity cease to be a civd offence when Plenry revolted from Eome ; for he had taken care to sever also the ecclesiastical establishment of his realm, and to make the sovereign of the State sovereign also of the Church. There was only this difference : Avhereas before the CroAvn was subordinate to the Church, iioav the Church was subordinate to the Crown; and thus an ecclesiastical irregularity was not only an offence against the Church and the State, but became a double offence against the sin gle person of the prince. The old idea of the unity of the Church — the whole Church Militant under one organization and a visible head — was still in a modified sense an article of Protestant orthodoxy. The unity itself had been destroyed by the Eeformation. But an attempt had been made to gather the scattered frag ments of Protestantism within a common fold, under a common discipline and common forms of worship. The scheme, though it failed, was still in process of negotiation,1 and the idea was stiU held tenaciously 'About 1560, Calvin wrote to it into consideration, and desired his Archbishop Parker proposing a un- Grace to thank Calvin, and to let ion of all Protestants, and that her him know that they liked his pro- Majesty should summon a General posals. But they directed him fur- Assembly of such wherever dis- ther to state, that the Church of persed ; by which Assembly a form England would still retain her epis- and method of public service and copacy, not as from Pope Gregory Church government might be es- who sent over Augustin the monk, tablished among all the Reformed but from Joseph of Arimathea ; as Churches in England and elsewhere, appeared by Gildas, printed first in Parker laid this communication be- 1525, and so far agreeing to Eleu- fore the Queen's Council who took therius, sometime Bishop of Rome, 332 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Cu. XII. as a doctrine, — practically and of necessity, hoAvever, narroAved down to the limits of each state, and in subjection to each magistracy. This unity Avas yet considered so sacred that, in the eyes of the Avhole Protestant Avorld, communion and Avorship separate from those established by the state had very much the aspect both of a sacrdegious innovation and a civil revolt, — the more, if there were no serious differences of faith. Hence it Avas that Grindal, Bishop of London, Pilkington, Bishop of Durham, Edward Deering, chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, and one of the heads of the Puritans,1 and others, conformed in the use of things to which they were religiously averse. Hence if Avas, that Coverdale and Lever, Humphrey, Sampson, Fox, Whittingham, Whitehead, and others, men of sterling Avorth and strong minds, Avhile re fusing the imposition of "linen and Avoollen, black and white, round and square," did so " with grief" ; comforting themselves, however, Avith the thought, "that it was but an agreeing discord, seeing they all, under Christ their Captain, professed the same Gospel and the same faith."2 Hence it Avas, that, while they could justify the omission of a rite by the plea of conscience, — for it was a negative fault, and at worst but a peccadillo, — they shrunk from eccle siastical separation. Hence it was, that, being just who acknowledged Lucius, King of this Council Queen Elizabeth sent Britain, Christ's vicar within his own her ambassador. But, as might dominions. (Strype's Parker, 69.) have been foreseen, no result was This design was continued at least obtained. (Strype's Annals, IV. so long as 1577, when a Council was 103.) assembled at Frankfort to devise 1 Strype's Parker, 380. means to carry it into effect. To - l"bid., 163. Ch. XII.] THE FIRST SEPARATION. 333 now confirmed in their aversion to such a measure by the counsels of Bullinger, and of Beza, chief min ister of the church at Zurich,1 they not only clave to the communion and worship of the Established Church,2 but would neither preach nor pray with those Avho did not.3 Hence it Avas, that, Avhile Grindal " Avent tenderly " about his official work of bringing peaceable non-conformists to compliance, "was not forward to use extremities," 4 " would not run of him self, nay, would hardly answer the spur, in pressing conformity,"5 he yet "thought himself bound" to use the severer measures of the laAv upon those who brake from the Church ; 6 that Pilkington, though he would have relinquished his bishopric rather than haA^e exercised in his own diocese the severities against mere non-conformists, was himself a strict Churchman ; 7 that Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, so wdling to aUow liberty to the non-conformists as to incur the rebuke of his metropolitan,8 Avas yet so stout an advocate of Church usages as also to incur the pubhc rebuke of the Puritans.9 Hence also it was, that in a few years there sprang up bitter con troversy and upbraiding between the non-conformists who remained in the Church, and the non-conform ists Avho separated.10 1 Strype's Parker, 229, 243; Grin- 5 Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 81. dal, 105. Heyl. Presb., Bk. Yi. 6 Strype's Grindal, 295, 302. Sec. 29, 37. ' Zurich Letters, pp. 262, 264. 2 Strype's Parker, 243; Grindal, Strype's Parker, 219. Neal, I. 100. 114. 8 Strype's Annals, III. 509, 510. 3 Strype's Parker, 243. Collier, " Ibid., and Append., Bk. I. No. VI. 443-445. See above, p. 311. XK Grindal to AVhite, and Hawkins 13 Strype's AAniitgift, 416; Ayl- to Grindal. mer, 112. Hanbury, I. 34, 49- * Strype's Grindal, 97, 105. 61. 334 THE FIRST SEPARATION. [Ch. XII. But while we should well weigh the restraining and depressing influences of old traditions and hoary usages, that we may do justice ahke to those Puritans who halted short of non-conformity, and to those who Avould neither conform nor cross the threshold of separation, Ave must keep the same influences in view in order to appreciate the larger conceptions, stronger convictions, steadier principle, and greater daring, by dint of which alone the separating Puri tans — struggling Avith their affection for their mother Church, and with loyalty untainted — could break from so potent a thraldom, to exalt the supremacy of the Bible above the supremacy of the prince. Here, too, — in the figment of ecclesiastical unity, and in the blending of Church and State, — is to be found the only apology for the queen's severity towards non-conforming Protestants; for non-con formity had the legal complexion of disloyalty, and separation that of schism and revolt. And yet the apology is merely technical, because the Statute of Uniformity Avas but a transcript of her will; and with her sufferance, in her very metropolis, there were separate communions of Protestants who held no manner of conformity to the Liturgy established by laAv.1 1 French, Dutch, and Italian very discipline and worship which Protestant refugees were consti- the Puritans desired. In the next tuted into distinct ecclesiastical es- year they numbered no less than tablishments, by permission of the five thousand in London and its government, under the Genevan dis- suburbs. (Heylin's Presb., Bk. VI. cipline and forms of worship, — the Sec. 19. Strype's Annals, H. 269.) CHAPTER XIII. THE PAPALLNS. The Pope grants Dispensations to preach Heresy. — Papist Priests turn Puritan Preachers. — TnE Papal Council advise the Assignment of the English Crown, a Premium for the Assassination op Elizabeth, and a more extensive License for Hypocrisy and Perjury. — Bull against Heretics generally'. — A new Irruption of Disguised Priests. — One of them executed. — • The Catholics begin to secede. — The Holy League for the Extermination of Protestants. — Seminaries for Missionary Priests. — A Domiciliary Visit to John Stow, the An nalist. — Funeral of Coverdale. — Funeral of Bonner. — Mary, Queen of Scots, imprisoned in England. — The Northern Insurrection. — The Papal Bull of Excommunication against Elizabeth. 1560-1570. The Church of England had become fixed. After sliding back a grade or two whence Edward had advanced her, she had assumed completeness and abjured progression. Not so the Puritans. Doubting that they had " already attained, either were already perfect," they were yet struggling against the meshes of superstition and tradition, and pressing towards the liberty wherewith Christ maketh free. But, as the sword which was drawn against Non conformity was two-handed and two-edged, smiting on the right hand and on the left, — in this direction the Puritan, in that the Papist, — it will hardly be possible to trace the farther advance of Protestant Dissenters without noting the parallel experience of the Papal. "We therefore enter somewhat freely 336 THE PAPALLNS. [Ch. XIII. upon the contemporary history of the English Ro manists ; and shall sometimes pause over a Avrithing Catholic by the wayside, partly that our account of the Puritans may be the more lucid, and partly that we may more truly gage the havoc Avhich per tains by natural consequence to the union of Church and State. The project of Calvin for bringing all Protestant Churches under a common form of worship and government, Avhich he had propounded to the Eng lish cabinet in 1560,1 had pestered the Eoman Pon tiff. The bruit of it had soon reached the Avakeful ears of Pius IV., — just then seated in the Papal chair, — Avho instantly devised a scheme to balk the purpose of his Genevan adversary. This scheme Avas a Avise one ; to sow dissension among the several Protestant communions, thus to confound their coun sels and forestall their concert.2 For this purpose dispensations were granted to certain Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits, to put on the mask of her esy, and go forth among the heretics. It was their special errand, to preach any doctrines contrary to those of the See of St. Peter, and alike contrary to those prevailing where they might chance to be. If among Lutherans, they were to preach the doc trines of Calvin; if among Calvinists, the doctrines of Luther ; if in England, the doctrines of the Ana baptists, of Huss, of Luther, of Calvin, — in short, any Protestant doctrines, however wdd, which would distract the minds of the people, and seduce them from the established communion. The better to disguise themselves, and the better to avert suspicion 1 See ante, p. 331, note. 2 Strype's Parker, 70. Ch. XIII.] THE PAPALINS. 337 in this latter field, they were also allowed to take the oaths required by law, and to take wives ; it being shrewdly argued, that, its English form being heret ical, the marriage was no marriage, but, being in tended for the good of the Church, a venial concu binage only, and no violation of the priestly vow of celibacy.1 This plan of operations was approved by the Coun cd of Trent, Avho immediately sent out corresponding directions, particularly to the Jesuits in Paris.2 Upon the granting of these dispensations, several priests, some of them foreigners, and some of them English refugees, entered upon the mission, came to England, and went about in Puritan guise, to excite odium against the Established Church.3 In 1563, it had been recommended by the Pope's counsellors, in case Elizabeth should not accede to terms of compromise with the Papal See,4 that her realm should be offered by his Holiness to any crowned head who would undertake its conquest; that a pardon shoidd be granted to any cook, brewer, vintner, physician, grocer, chirurgeon, or any other, who would make way with the queen of England, together Avith an absolute remission of sins, a perpet ual annuity, and a seat in the Privy Council of her successor, to the heirs of the assassin ; that priests of any Eomish orders should be licensed to take such oaths as might be required of them in England, they 1 Strype's Annals, I. 341. 3 Strype's Annals, I. 342 ; Par- ! The Council of Trent was the ker, 244. Collier, VI. 463. Carte, twentieth and last General Council IH. 495. of the Church. It was convened 4 See Chap. XH. p. 321, and by Paul HI. in 1545, and continued, note 5. by twenty-five sessions, till 1563. VOL. I. 43 338 THE PAPALLNS. [Cn. XHI. making a mental reservation to serve the Church of Eome whenever opportunity should occur ; and that aU parties of the Eomish faith should be dispensed with to swear to ad heresies in England or elsewhere, — such oaths being taken with intent to advance the Mother Church. Other particulars of minor impor tance were comprised in the advice of the Papal Councd; all of which had been reported to Sh "William Cecil in Aprd, 1564, by Dennum, one of his spies in Italy.1 On the 10th of May, 1566, the new Pope, Pius V., issued a bull of anathema against heretics generaUy, and directed his ecclesiastics everywhere to contrive all manner of devices to confound them. This bull was intended, and understood, to be only a public confirmation of the measures Avhich had been preAU- ously initiated by Pius IV. and the Councd of Trent. Upon its publication, fresh volunteer priests were enrolled, and Ucensed, under its authority, to pursue such secular callings in England as each might fancy for a screen to his ecclesiastical character and min istrations.2 As the result of the several measures above re cited, priests were skulking in disguise through every 1 Strype's Annals, H. 54 - 5 7. pauses over it will recognize a neg- Lingard (A7H. 318, note) says: ative admission ofthe fact. With " This was sent from Venice by one such a besom, how clean of atrocity Dennum, who had gone to Italy as a could the annals of human nature spy, and pretended that he had pro- be made to seem ! cured the information by bribery. Hallam (p. 75, note) says that The absurdity of the tale can be the adoption of such resolutions equalled only by the credulity of against Elizabeth in a consistory those who believe it." A facile and held by Pius IV. " is unlikely, and summary way of disposing of an little in that Pope's character." unpleasant record, and unworthy of But ' a Pope 's a Pope for a' that.' a grave historian. The reader who 2 Strype's Annals, H. 218-220. Ch. XHI.] THE PAPALLNS. 339 county in England ; sometimes officiating at Mass by night in private houses, and sometimes playing the part of Protestant preachers in public.1 Auxiliary hereto, English Catholics abroad published various books against the queen and her government, which they sent over for dispersion by then agents at home.2 The Queen's Council were neither ignorant of these matters, nor asleep. A royal proclamation ordered the dispersers of these " dangerous books " to be sought out and punished ; and many priests and lay Papists had been detected at secret Mass and committed to prison.3 One of the priests who had been moved by the late bull to come into England was "William Blagrave, who operated in York, in the character of a Puritan preacher.4 Some slip of the tongue, or some awkwardness in his heretical voca tion, exciting suspicion that he was other than he professed, he was apprehended; and divers papers caUed "treasonable" being found in his possession, he was condemned to die by the hangman on the 10th of May, 1566. When ascending the ladder, he paused, and said to the Archbishop of York with a sneer : " By the rood, my lord ! the bands of your apostate Church be no more potent than a tow- thread, an a tongue so unapt as mine doth suffice for their breaking ! I have drawn away your silly sheep to herd with the basest sort ; and they whom I have converted into Puritans will hate your Liturgy as much as you hate Eome." 1 Hallam, 78. 66. Strype's Annals, I. 295, 545, 2 Strype's Annals, H. 192, 530. 546. s Haynes, 395. Strype's Grindal, * Strype's Parker, 70. 340 THE PAPALLNS. [Ch. XIII. " Prithee ! " returned his Grace, " avIio be these silly sheep?" "Nay, nay; find you them, my lord, an you be able. I be no betrayer of my penitents. Albeit, they Avill yet return to the bosom of Holy Church." Then, making the sign of the cross and turning his eyes to heaven, he was swung off Thus died the Pope's protomartyr under the reign of Elizabeth.1 Hitherto, the English Catholics had prudently avoided giving offence. "Whenever they had held diArine Avorship after their own forms, they had done so with due precaution of secrecy. Most of them, considering that "there was nothing in the service of the English Church which was repugnant to that of Eome," 2 and that " the Common Prayer contained no positive heterodoxy," 3 had attended, with decent regularity at least, upon the prayers, sermons, and sacraments at their parish churches.4 But now, in the years 1567 and 1568, they began to show symp toms of disaffection. In Lancashire, they proceeded to open contempt of the religious order enjoined, utterly laying aside the Book of Common Prayer, and the estabhshed service, and freely celebrating Mass. So extensive was this defection, that the churches were deserted and shut up;5 and emis saries of the Pope, whom he had specially licensed to exercise episcopal jurisdiction in England,6 were absolving lapsed penitents, and "reconciling them from obedience to the queen."7 There were also 1 Strype's Annals, I. 342, 343. 6 Strype's Annals, H. 253. Collier, VI. 463. Carte, HI. 495. « Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 81. Heyl. 3 Mgges, 113. Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 31. 8 Butler, I. 310. » Burleigh to Faunt ; Birch, H. 94. 4 Heyl. Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 30, " A man was said to be reconciled, 31. Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 97. who, after he had gone to the new Ch. XIII.] the papalins. 341 secret and mysterious gatherings of the Catholics, which boded disturbance, if not rebeUion. So alarm ing were these symptoms, that, in some parts of his diocese, the Bishop of Chester dared not show his person. The Court were disturbed, and sent down a commission to examine and purge the country. Yet, notwithstanding all these acts, so flagrant in the eyes of the queen, and so defiant of her authority, the commissioners Avere so lenient that the Catho lics escaped by simply acknowledging their offences against the Act of Uniformity, and promising to obey the laws,1 — a lenity in strong contrast to the pun ishment for the same transgression meted by royal order to the Protestant offenders of the Hall of the Plumbers. The latter were few and weak and friend less, — severity might crush them at once. The Cath olics were many, and had powerful foreign friends on the move already against the Church and the Crown of England; friends whom lenity might soothe and keep at bay, Avhom harshness might provoke and stir to action. Puritan principles " tended to a popularity." 2 Despotism was the very core of the Catholic faith. Thus, state policy dictated this different treatment, — a policy and a difference distinctly traceable throughout Elizabeth's reign. We say that the English Catholics had foreign friends astir against the Church and Crown of Eng land. These had already put on the harness, and were ready at any fit moment to throw down the gamnV service, returned to the Catholic to the queen, they never gave abso- worship and received absolution.'' — lution." Lingard, VIII. 77, note. 1 Strype's Annals, II. 253, 260. Burleigh's words were, " without * Strype's Parker, [447] false reconciling them from obedience page. 342 THE papalins. [Ch. XHI. let. The principal Catholic princes — the Pope (Pius V.), the Emperor, the king of Spain, and some smaller princes — had secretly bound themselves in league, by solemn oath,1 to extirpate the Protestant religion throughout the world. This league, which had its origin in the Council of Trent,2 and was devised by the Cardinal of Lorraine,3 seems to have been consummated about the year 1564.4 Its prin cipal articles of agreement, which were quickly re ported at "Whitehall by English spies, were, that all Lutheran, Calvinist, and Huguenot princes should be "rooted out," and their crowns given to those whom 1 Harleian Miscellany, I. 160. 2 Life of Hatton, 457. 3 Melvil, 126. * Strype says, (Annals, H. 243,) that in 1567 "the chiefest Popish potentates entered into a secret com bination to destroy the reformed religion utterly.'' But, from what he says on the next page about the French king, he seems to mean, that in 1567 the league had its comple ment of parties filled ; implying that it existed before. I have assigned its formation to 1564, because Sir Christopher Hat- ton (see " Life and Times of Hat- ton," p. 457) declared in the House of Commons, February 22d, 1586-7, that it was projected in the Council of Trent, and because Randolph, in a letter to Cecil dated February, 1565-6, speaks of it as having been then " lately devised," and as hav ing been entered into by " the late Pope," (see AVright, I. 219,) who was Pius IV. Now Pius IV. died in the previous year, December, 1565, and the Council of Trent was dissolved in 1563. The lea 184, 185. » Strype's Annals, HI. 98. 3 Hallam, 117. vol. i. 50 394 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. [Cn. XIV. those for Homdies, for the Consecrating of Bishops, and others hke ? " " Surely, sir," said Wentworth, " because we have been so occupied in other matters, that we have had no time to examine them, Iioav they agree Avith the Word of God." " What ! Surely ye mistook the matter ! Ye will refer yourselves wholly to us bishops there in ? " " No, by the faith I bear to God ! " exclaimed the intrepid man. " We will pass nothing before we understand what it is ; for that Avere to make you popes. Make ye popes who list, for we will not." a On the first day of May, the Commons received a message from the Lords, " that the Queen's Majesty, having been made privy to the Articles of Religion," — the most of which related to matters of faith, the others to the consecration of bishops and priests, to the supremacy, and to the power of the Church to order rites and ceremonies,2 — " liked very well of them, and intended to publish them, and have them executed by the bishops, by direction of her Highness's regal authority of Supremacy of the Church of England ; and not to have the same dealt in Parliament." 3 This occurring so soon after his interview with Wentworth, it seems probable that the Archbishop, disturbed thereby, had suggested 1 D'Ewes, 239, 240. it under its right date in his An- Strype, in his Life of Parker (p. nals. 394), assigns this incident to the 2 Hallam, 117. Parliament of 1572; but places 3 D'Ewes, 180. Ch. XIV] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. 395 this message to the queen as a politic one to avoid collision with the Commons. But notwithstanding, the Commons did proceed upon some of the seven bills ; three of which they afterwards passed and sent to the Lords.1 By reason of the queen's jealousy of her supremacy, particularly excited for the occa sion by some of the hierarchy2 these bills all fell to the ground. Three others, which received the royal sanction, claim our attention. By the first3 it Avas enacted, that whoever should affirm that any other than Elizabeth ought to wear the croAvn, or that the laws did not bind its right and descent, or should publish her to be heretic, schismatic, tyrant, or infidel, should be adjudged guilty of high treason. To affirm by writing or printing, during her life, that any one not designated by Parliament, or not the natural issue of her body, was, or ought to be, her heir or successor, and to aid or abet the pub lishing of such writing or printing, was made pun ishable with a year's imprisonment and the forfeiture of half one's goods, for the first offence ; with the penalties of a praemunire, for the second. With the relation of the Queen of Scots to the croAvn, and the machinations of the Catholics in her behalf, in our eye the cause and object of this law are obvious. In the preamble to the next act,4 it is stated that seditious persons, meaning to reinstate Papacy and to excite rebellion in the realm, had procured bulls or writings from the Pope Avhich purported to ab- 1 D'Ewes, 185. 3 13 Eliz. Cap. I. 2 Ibid., 184. « 13 Eliz. Cap. II. 396 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. [Cn. XIV. solve and reconcile1 those avIio Avould forsake obe dience to the queen, and yield themselves to his usurped authority. Wherefore it Avas enacted, that Avhoever should put in use any such Papal instru ment, or under color thereof should absolve or reconcile any one, or should Avillingly be absolved or reconciled, and AvhoeA'er had obtained, since the queen's first Parliament, or should obtain or publish after the 1st of July following, any such Papal Avriting, and Avhoever should abet and counsel any of all such offences, should be judged guilty of high treason ; that Avhoever should aid, comfort, or main tain such offenders after the said acts or offences, should incur the penalties of a j>roemunire. To conceal for six Aveeks a proffer from any one of any such Popish Avritings, or of absolution or reconcilia tion, should be counted misprision of treason. To bring, deliver, cause to be delivered, and to receive Avith intent to Avear or use, any Agnus Dei,2 crosses, pictures, beads, or such like, consecrated by the Pope or by his authority, should subject one to the penalties of a praemunire. Other sections provided for the exemption of informers from any of these penalties, and for the pardon of penitents.3 1 See ante, p. 340, note 7. secrated it, on the reverse. The 2 " The Agnus Dei is a composi- Church of Rome ascribes many vir- tion of white wax and the powder tues to this sort of relic, and con- of human bones dug out of tho cat- fines the touch of it to persons in acombs, or ancient burial-places of orders." (Harleian Miscellany, H. the Christians at Rome. It is in the 125, note.) It was always " conse- form of an oval medal, with a rep- crated by the Pope on Low Sun- resentation of the Holy Lamb and day.'' (Collier, VI. 495.) Christ Jesus, who is still styled Agnus 3 I have been minute in my ab- Dei, or the Lamb of God, on the one stract of this statute ; and the more side, and the Pope's effigy who con- so, because it is imperfectly present- Cn. XIV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. 397 It will be perceived that this statute declared that to be treason Avhich might be no treason; that it decreed the most savage mode of death which man ever invented upon the Catholic priest, or penitent, hoAvever innocently, in regard to the state, they might observe certain prescript duties of their relig ion ; that, while the queen erected her cross in her oratory, the same symbol worn in all religious sim plicity and purity in the bosom of the peasant maiden doomed her to a dungeon for life ; that even to feed the starving, to clothe the naked, to re lieve the sick, to minister to the dying, Avas ordained, under certain circumstances, a crime. Such was the legislation of men resolute for liberty so far as they had measured it, but ignorant of its true nature and dimensions. It is not to be justified. Yet who would have avoided it Avhere the odor of Rome was as the odor of the Upas, where the ingenuity and strength of Rome were tasked against the common wealth, and where religion and state affairs Avere so identified that no human eye could distinguish the loyal devotee from the sanctimonious traitor? With like fears, with like antipathies, and under like political circumstances, should we? For the retro spective clause of the third section, there is no apology. The bdl containing "the Articles of Religion," which the queen liked, but chose to take care of ed by Hume, Hallam, Neal, and the aiders and abettors of absolution others, who do not bring to view its and reconcilement ; and not bringing most cruel points. Even Lingard to view, that the comforters and mam- has failed to do it justice, mistaking tainers of offenders, after the fact, the penalties of praemunire, instead were involved in a praemunire. of those of treason, as attaching to (Vni. 77.) 398 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. [Cn. XIV. herself, was one of the six bills introduced to the Commons in 1566, and now re-introduced on the 6th or 7th of April.1 The articles Avere those " for sound Christian religion," adopted and printed by the Convocation in 1562-3,-— "The Thirty-Nine Articles." As the queen stopped this bill, the only Parliamentary sanction which was given to these Articles Avas, by implication, in the " Act to reform certain* disorders touching the ministers of the Church." By this act,2 " every person under the degree of bishop, who doth or shall pretend" — claim — " 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 now used, shall declare his assent, and subscribe, to all the articles of religion which only concern the confession of the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the sacraments comprised in a book im printed and intituled ' Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Archbishop and Bishops and the whole Clergy in Convocation, holden at London in the year of our Lord God a thousand five hundred and sixty-two,' &c." To maintain doctrine contrary to the said Articles was made punishable by deprivation of ecclesiastical promotions. Twenty-three years of age, and subscription, were required for admission to any benefice with cure. None, permitted by any dispensation or other wise, should retain any benefice with cure, being under tAventy-one years of age. None should be made minister, or be admitted to 1 D'Ewes, 132, 160, 184. » 13 Eliz. Cap. XII. Ch. XIV.j THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. 399 preach or administer the sacraments, being under twenty-four years of age, nor unless of sound relig ion and honest life, nor unless he be able to answer in Latin according to the said Articles, or have special gift and ability to be a preacher. In these last three sections the truth of Strick land's most startling statements on the 6th of April is confessed, and their influence is apparent. But the first section is of large and peculiar sig nificance. A part of the Articles of Religion — those relating to the rites, ceremonies, order, and policy of the Church — it does not sanction. Again ; the Catholics alone dissented from the articles " which concerned the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the sacraments"; therefore the Puritan clergy were not hereby excluded from the offices and liv ings of the Church, for a subscription to the other articles was not required. " In the Book made in the time of King Edward, a subscription to these other articles seemed to be required." Therefore, this Parlia ment of 1571, "misliking" such subscription, "put it out" by inserting the words, "which only concern the confession of the true Christian faith," &C.1 But there is still another point of more importance. The validity of all forms of ecclesiastical ordination then practised throughout Christendom, whether by bishops, presbyters, or otherwise, is indirectly ad mitted; and this admission — implying, as it does, that neither form was then questioned by any of the parties assenting to the act — is, for that reason, the more significant and emphatic. 1 Strype's Whitgift, 196; and Appendix, Bk. HI. No. XVI. p. 79, "Arti cle First." 400 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. [Ch. XIV. Nor is this important admission to be considered extra-ecclesiastical, because it Avas Parliamentary ; for it had the deliberate assent of the head of the Anglican Church, Avho claimed "the full authority Avhich the Popes had usurped";1 and Avhose Arch bishop, even, had already declared that " this claim to Papal jurisdiction he would by no means dis pute." 2 These last tAvo points of this section Avill claim attention hereafter. When the Commons found themselves precluded, by the action of the crown, from effecting further reformations in religion, they resorted to supplica tion; petitioning her Majesty either to recommit those subjects to her Parliament for proper legislative provision, or to secure the desired ends by some other means. By its faithful disclosure of deplorable facts, this petition left her Majesty Avithout excuse as " Overseer of the Church " ; for it was disregarded and unavailing. " For lack of true discipline in the Church," said this paper, " great numbers are admit- ted to the ministry who are infamous in their hves and conversation. The gifts of those who have any gifts are in many places useless, by reason of plural ities and non-residency. Thus infinite numbers of your Majesty's subjects are like to perish for lack of knowledge. By means of these things, together with the common blaspheming of the Lord's name, the most wicked licentiousness of life, the abuse of excommunication, the commutation of penance, the great number of atheists, schismatics dady springing 1 Strype's AVhitgift, 260. » Collier, VI. 467. Ch. XIV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. 401 up, and the increase of Papists, the Protestant relig ion is in imminent danger. Wherefore, — in regard first and principally to the glory of God, and next in discharge of our bounden duty to your Majesty, besides being moved with pity towards so many thousands of your Majesty's subjects, daily in danger of being lost for want of the food of the Word and true discipline, — We, the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, are humbly bold to open the griefs, and to seek the salving of the sores, of our country; and to beseech your Majesty, — seeing the same is of so great importance, — if the Parliament at this time may not be so long continued as that, by good and godly laws, provision may be made for supply and reformation of these great and grievous wants and abuses, that yet, by such other means as to your Majesty's wisdom shall seem meet, a perfect redress of the same may be had. By such measures, the number of your Majesty's faithful subjects wdl be increased, Popery will be destroyed, the glory of God wdl be promoted, and your Majesty's renown wdl be recommended to aU posterity." x But her Majesty and her Primate were Precisians ; more zealous and painstaking for " a show of wisdom in wiU worship," for " the handwriting of ordinances after the commandments of men," for the exact appliance of " the very ornaments of their religion," than for the preaching of the Gospel, the ability of its ministers, or the suppression of vice. " External matters in religion so employed clergy and laity, that the better and more substantial parts of it were very little regarded." 2 1 Neal, I. 116. ! Strype's Parker, 395. VOL. i. 51 402 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. [Ch. XTV. So does a Levitical ritual, when the occasion for its language is passed, overshadoAV the Gospel which once it eloquently symbolized. So natural is it for a worship muffled by " ornaments " and forms, to dis place that which is in spirit and in truth. So easy is it even for the good, where importance is given to outward ceremonies, to forget or overlook the vital truth, that "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The queen brought the Parliament to a close, by dissolution, on the 29th of May ; not, however, with out an acid reprimand to the Commons. To the Speaker's parting address, Sir Nicholas Bacon replied, " Mr. Speaker, her Majesty hath commanded me to say, that like as the greatest number of them 6f the Lower House have, in the proceedings of this Ses sion, showed themselves modest, discreet, and dutiful, as becometh good and loving subjects, so there be certain of them, although not many in number, who in the proceedings of this Session have showed themselves audacious, arrogant, and presumptuous ; calling her Majesty's grants" — of Bristol patents — "and prerogatives" — as Overseer of the Church — "in question, contrary to their duty and place that they be called unto; and contrary to the express admonition given in her Majesty's name in the begin ning of this Parliament, — which it might very well have become them to have had more regard unto. But her Majesty saith, that, seeing they will thus wilfully forget themselves, they are otherwise to be remembered. And like as her Majesty aUows and much commends the former sort, for the respects Ch. XIV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1571. 403 aforesaid, so doth her Highness utterly disallow and condemn the second sort, for their audacious, arro gant, and presumptuous folly, thus by superfluous speech spending much time in meddling with mat ters neither pertaining to them, nor within the capacity of their understandings." 1 [ y y If they to whom such a taunt was ministered took it meekly, there must have been in their hearts something of the grace of God. 1 D'Ewes, 151. CHAPTER XV. THE PRESBYTERIANS AND THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. A Puritan Petition to the Convocation of 1671 eejected. — New Canons for enforcing uniformity the statute 13 eliz. cap. xii. strained to enforce subscription. order from the queen to enforce exact Uniformity. — Ejected Ministers preach. — Thomas Cartwright op pugns the Constitution of the Anglican Church. — Driven from Cambridge. — Field and Wilcox resolve to petition Parliament.— Parliament assemble, May 8th. — Foreign Plot for Invasion and Rev olution. — Alarm ofthe Nation. — "The Great Cause" of the Queen of Scots. — Elizabeth objects to Proceedings against her in the Degree of Treason. — Both Houses dissent from the Queen The Reasons for the Proceedings of Parliament against Mary. — Eliza beth DESIRES ANOTHER BlLL. — TlIE PARLIAMENT SUDDENLY ADJOURNED by the Queen. — Bills in the Commons for Rites and Ceremonies. — The Queen demands them. — Her Majesty herself the Defender of the Faith. The ministers of the Church who had been beg gared by deprivation pleaded hard for pity and relief before the Convocation of the bishops and clergy, who, as usual, met at the same time with the Parlia ment of 1571. They came in the name of their flocks without pastors, of their wives and children without bread, praying that they might be suffered to preach the Gospel of Christ, without risk of fines and imprisonment; that they might at least have equal chance of livelihood with conforming Papists, who were notorious for vice, and who, under cap, cope, surplice, and side-gown, were whispering to the people in corners, that there was no salvation out of the Church of Rome, and that the new religion was Ch. XV] PRESBYTERIANS AND PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 405 about to fall.1 " The wood was " not " green " now. It began to consume. The cry was in vain. The Convocation were deaf. They passed canons yet more stringent, requiring the precise observance of the Liturgy ; that no minister should preach, or even in a private house read the Common Prayers, Avith out a license.2 It was also ordered, "That every bishop should, before September next, call to him all public preachers that should be in their respec tive dioceses, and require of them their faculties for 1 Strype's Annals, I. 264. Brook, 1.171. The Papists were sanguine in ex pectation of what they called " The Golden Day," predicted hy their as trologers and conjurers, when the queen's power should be ended by her deposition or death, and when their own religion should revive and flourish. (Strype's Parker, 293 ; Annals, IH. 278.) The petition mentioned in the text stated : " Those who observe your ceremonies, though they be idolaters, common swearers, adul terers, or much worse, live without punishment, and have many friends." This statement, and that of Strick land before the Parliament, that known Papists were tolerated in the ministry, were confirmed by a book published about this time by Mr. Northbroke, minister of Rad cliffe in Bristol. None of these public statements appear to have been contradicted. Northbroke said : " Certain ministers, Papists, avow themselves such in their discourses. They subscribe, and observe the order of service, and wear the side- gown, square cap, cope, and sur plice. They run into corners and say to the people, ' Believe not this new doctrine ; it is naught ; it will not last long. Though we use order among them outwardly, our heart and profession is from them, agree ing with the Mother Church of Rome. No, no ; we do not preach, nor yet teach openly. AVe read their new devised Homilies for a color, to satisfy the time for a sea son.' Several now-a-days of the Popish priests," continued North- broke, " are thieves, perjurers, mur derers, — I blush to repeat the rest ; and some are arraigned for it at the bar in Exeter." One of the most scandalous of these was Blackal, — a priest in whose exposure and arrest North- broke was instrumental. He was convicted of affixing the Arch bishop's seal to a counterfeit writ ing, and of having four wives ; in atonement for which he did penance in a white sheet at Paul's Cross on the 6th of August ; and on the 10th, was set in the pillory at Cheapside. A singular proportion between the punishment and the crimes! The sheet was for polygamy ; the pillory for forgery. a Heyl. Presb., Bk. VI. Sec. 41. 406 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. preaching which they hold under authentic seal ; and either to keep them or annul them. And then, making a prudent choice, Avhom he should find, by age, learning, judgment, innocency, modesty, and gravity, fit for so great a function, freely to give new licenses ; yet they first to subscribe the Articles of the Christian Religion approved in Synod, and promise to maintain the doctrine contained in them, as being most agreeable to the truth of God's Word." 1 These canons had ecclesiastical force only, — not the force of law. For this reason, Grindal, now the Archbishop of York, absolutely refused to join in pressing them,2 and Archbishop Parker, to divide from himself the odium of his proceedings, asso ciated therein Horn, Bishop of Winchester, and Cox, Bishop of Ely, — both of Frankfort memory.3 With such Precisians in concert, the prospects of the non conformists were gloomy. Early in June, several of the most prominent min isters about London, who were known to dislike the Statute of Uniformity, were summoned to appear before their ecclesiastical lords at Lambeth;4 there to surrender their licenses, and to qualify themselves for new ones. One was called to a reckoning for a book which he had published in Queen Mary's time ; another was sifted for his opinions, political, theo logical, ceremonial; and so on, and so on; but all were required to subscribe to the Articles of Re ligion.5 1 Sparrow, 225, 226. Strype's 3 Strype's Parker, 330. Parker, 321. Collier, AT. 449. 4 Ibid., 325. 2 Strype's Parker, 322, 330. Neal, 6 Neal, I. 119. Brook, I. 176, 1.117, 119. 193; II. 125. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 407 Hitherto, the bishops with aU their severity had been comparatively sparing in pressing subscription to the Articles of 1562-3 ; and the ministers them selves had been the more resolute in refusing it, or in qualifying it with reservations, — in each case be cause these articles had received no countenance from the Parliament.1 But the Statute 13 Eliz. Cap. Xn. had given a sort of semi-legal authority to the Articles, of which the bishops now took the advan tage, and because of which the Puritans, desirous to avoid disturbance, were the more widing to subscribe. They had no objection to the Confession of Faith and the doctrine of the holy Sacraments ; and to the Book of Common Prayer they would assent, with the simple qualification, " so far forth as is agreeable to the Word of God." Now, to their amazement, they were required to subscribe, to aU the Articles; to those concerning the episcopal government and the pubhc Liturgy, as weU as to the others. They ap pealed to the statute ; to the unequivocal and em phatic Avord, "only." They were told, that even " in the first part of the statute an ambiguity " at tached ; that that potent word was not to be found in the other sections, particularly in the second, which designated " the deprivation of ecclesiastical promo tions" ; that its words, "the said articles," meant, not the said articles of " doctrine," but the said articles, without exception, which were adopted by the Convoca tion of 1562-3.2 Such a construction was worthy 1 Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 102. which the bishops justified their re- 1 Collier, VI. 499. quisition ; but he thus justifies it Collier, to be sure, does not state himself, if I apprehend his meaning. that this was the precise shape in Nor can I doubt that he truly repre- 408 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. of the " trifles " in support of Avhich it Avas extorted. It was of course resisted. " Subscribe the ivhole of the articles," Avas the rejoinder, " and pledge your words to maintain everything therein as altogether agree able to the Word of God;1 or resign quietly, or be deprived." 2 Thus the edge of a statute, shaped by the Puritans themselves, only to protect their own clergy and to cut off Cathohc heresy, was turned against the witnesses of Gospel truth. On the same grounds were the licenses of all preachers canceUed, and the same subscription re quired. Consequently, great numbers were ejected from their livings ; 3 which, in the phrase of the Pri mate, was " bringing them to some better stowage." 4 It would seem, however, that the arch-Precisian himself Avas conscious of some lameness in his au thority ; for on the 20th of August, he was furnished with the foUowing mandate from the queen. " Elizabeth : — " Most Reverend Father in God, Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved, — We greet you weU We, minding earnestly to have a perfect reformation of ad abuses attempted to deform the uniformity pre scribed by our laws and injunctions, and that none should be suffered to decline, either on the left hand or on the right hand, from the direct line limited by authority of our said laws and injunc tions, do earnestly, by our authority royal, wdl and sents, and meant to represent, their 2 Strype's Parker, 325. process of interpretation, for I can s Strype's Annals, HI. 167 ; Ap- conceive of none other by which their pendix, Bk. I. No. XLL Neal, I. conclusion could have been reached. 117. Brook, I. 32. 1 Collier, VI. 499. * Strype's Parker, 330. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 409 charge you, by all means lawful, to proceed herein as you have begun; and for your assistance we will that you shaU, by authority hereof, and in our name, send for the Bishops of London and Salisbury, and communicate these our letters with them, and strait ly charge them to assist you from time to time, betwixt this month and the month of October, to do all manner of things requisite to reform such abuses as aforementioned, in whomsoever you shaU find them."1 " This letter, so roundly penned, put life and vigor into the Archbishop, in this troublesome busi ness " ; 2 and its directions, as we shaU see, he in tently obeyed. Little had her Majesty learned of human nature. Little had she profited by two experimental lessons, given under her own eye, showing that religious severity defeats its own aims. She had known that, in a single year, thousands had been converted from Papistry to Protestantism by the fires which her sister had kindled at Smithfield.3 And right well she knew, that the Papal anathema against herself had only energized her own opposition and that of her Protestant subjects, and provoked gaUing enact ments against those of them who paid him aUe- giance. Yet she pursued the same policy, sowed the same seed, cherished the same fruit. Many of the non-conformists who were deprived of then livings and licenses came not to repentance, but were the more resolute in their non-conformity. 1 Murdin, 183. Strype's Parker, 2 Strype's Parker, 331. 330. » Strype's Memorials, V. 470, 471. vol. i. 52 410 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. They stdl preached in their own or in other church es, culling from the English Book at discretion, or discarding it for the Book of Geneva, until her Majesty ordered the church-wardens, on their perd, to exclude them from the parish pulpits.1 These extreme measures crowded them beyond the narrow field of visible things, — the vestments of the priest hood, the sign of the cross, and kneeling at the com munion. Very naturally, they began to question the authority of a Church which would thus deal with the sincere foUowers of Christ, — to question whether there was not something wrong in its very consti tution. In 1570, Thomas Cartwright, Professor of Divinity in Cambridge, a profound scholar, of remarkable pul pit eloquence, of high repute for acuteness, judg ment, and virtue, began to discuss, in his lectures at the University, the ecclesiastical policy of the Church. In these lectures, and otherwise, he boldly maintained the foUowing propositions : — 1. That the names and functions of archbishops and archdeacons ought to be abolished. 2. That the offices of the lawful ministers of the Church, viz. bishops and deacons, ought to be re duced to then apostohcal institution;2 bishops to 1 Strype's Parker, 325. It is probable that like questions had 2 As early as 1563, Dr. Turner, been asked, in a private way, be- the Dean of Wells, called in question fore the rigors adopted in 1564-5; the office of bishop as it existed in particularly in the circle of those the English Church. "Who gave who had been conversant with the bishops authority more over me, than Geneva school. But I do not find I over them, either to forbid me such opinions given out in a way preaching, or to deprive me, unless to attract public attention, until they have it from their Holy Father provoked by persecution and pro- the Pope ? " (Strype's Parker, 151.) pounded by Cartwright. Ch. XV] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 411 preach the Word of God and to pray, deacons to be employed in taking care of the poor. 3. That the government of the Church ought not to be entrusted to bishops' chancellors, or the offi cials of archdeacons ; but every church ought to be governed by its own ministers and presbyters. 4. That ministers ought not to be at large ; but every one should have the charge of a particular congregation. 5. That no man ought to solicit, or to stand as a candidate for the ministry. 6. That ministers ought not to be created by the sole authority of the bishop ; 1 but to be openly and fairly chosen by the people.2 In addition to these propositions, other opinions were incidentally expressed in his lectures, some of which were as follows : that in reforming the Church it is necessary to reduce aU things to the apostolic institution; that no man ought to be admitted to the ministry who is not capable of preaching ; that Popish ordinations are not valid ; that only canoni cal Scripture ought to be read in the churches ; that equal reverence is due to all canonical Scripture, and therefore there is no reason why the people should stand only at the reading of the Gospel; that equal reverence is due to ad the names of God, and therefore there is no reason why the people should bow only at the name of Jesus ; that it is as lawful to sit at the Lord's table as to kneel or stand ; that the Lord's Supper ought not to be administered in private, nor baptism, by women or 'Neal has it— "by civil au- 2 Neal, I. 114. Brook, H. 140. thority." 412 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Cu. XV. lay persons ; that the sign of the cross in baptism is superstitious ; that it is reasonable and proper, that a parent should offer his own child in baptism, mak ing a confession of that faith in which he intends to educate it, without being obliged to answer in the child's name, " I wdl," " I Avdl not," " I believe," &c, nor ought it to be adowed that women, or persons under age, should be sponsors ; that the observation of Lent, and fasting on Fridays and Saturdays, is superstitious ; that trading or keeping markets on the Lord's day is unlawful; that in ordaining min isters, the pronouncing of those words, " Receive the Holy Ghost," is ridiculous and wicked.1 We see here, not the opinions of Cartwright only, but, by contrast, the opinions and practices of the Church to which all these statements were in oppo sition. For the maintenance of these " heterodoxies and misrepresentations," as Collier calls them, these " un true, dangerous, and seditious propositions, tending to the ruin of learning and religion," Cartwright was deprived of his lecture and professorship, and ex peUed from the University. Doctor John Whitgift, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, but now Vice- Chancedor of the University, was his chief perse cutor ; and, when he had taken away his means of liveldiood, had the gracelessness to upbraid him with " going up and down, doing no good, and living at other men's tables " ! " That I was not idle," said Cartwright, " he knew well. Whether I was well occupied, or no, let it be judged. I lived, indeed, at other men's tables, having 1 Neal, I. 114. Brook, H. 141. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 413 no house nof wife ; but not without their desire, and with small delight of mine, for fear of evil tongues. And although I were not able to requite it, yet toward some I went about it, instructing their children partly in the principles of religion, partly in other learning." He soon Avent abroad, as others had been obliged to do, to earn that bread which he could not earn in his native land.1 This was an important event in the history of the English Church ; and its issues wdl continually appear, as we pursue our retrospective record. The views of Cartwright, so far at least as they were opposed to the hierarchy, were eagerly embraced by those who were smarting under its rod, and by others who were in jeopardy for non-conformity. Wandsworth was a quiet hamlet, although it was only four miles from London. There might have been eight hundred or a thousand people, great and small, living there in 1571-2 ; some of them dyers ; a few, mechanics ; but most of them farm-tenants on an humble scale. When they returned from the city, where they often went with their produce or wares, they used to wonder how people could live so far off, and in such a noisy place. " Certainly the queen never would, but for the good of her sub jects!" They never had a more exalted idea of her good sense, than when her gay fleet of barges shot by them, as she turned her back upon Lon don to find fresh air, and real life, and the beau ties which God made, at Richmond. They always 1 Neal, I. 115. Brook, H. 141-143. 414 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. knew when she was on her way; for they lived close on the south bank of the river, and could hear "the drums beating and the trumpets sound ing," which told of her progress. Then they would drop their work, and hurry to the water's edge, — the old man with his staff, and the young wife with her nursling babe ; and when the royal barge came opposite, the bell in the church up there on a green knoll Avould ring in ecstasy; and the people, with their heads uncovered, and kerchiefs waving, would shout, " God save the queen ! " so stoutly, so heartily, one would have thought there never was such a queen. But when she leaned forward from beneath her canopy and waved her own scarf in return, and bowed, and smded, "was there ever such a queen?" Their good minister — afterwards minister at Alder- mary Church in London1 — used to stand there with them upon such occasions. No one of them cried, " God save the queen ! " more stoutly or more de voutly than he. Nevertheless, this John Field was a Puritan.2 Like many of his non-conforming breth ren, he had adopted the opinions of Cartwright, and resented the subscription contrary to the intent of the statute, by Avhich the Puritans were persecuted anew. But this did not abate his loyalty. One mdd afternoon about the middle of Aprd, 1572, his good friend, Mr. Thomas Wdcox, had come from London to visit him; and they were sitting together in a rustic arbor of Mr. Field's httle garden, talking heartdy, as brother ministers always do when 1 Compare Neal, I. 121, and 2 Heyl. Presb., Bk. VH. Sec. 3. Brook, I. 322, and Heyl. Presb., Bk. Brook, I. 318 - 324. ATI. Sec. 3. Neal is mistaken. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 415 by themselves. Wilcox was " a learned, zealous, and useful preacher in Honeywell Lane." He was a young man, not more than twenty-three or twenty- four years of age, but in high repute for piety and talent.1 Like Mr. Field, he was married, was a father, and a Puritan. So there were many matters on Avhich they sympathized. They had been con versing for some time about the astounding and arbitrary perversion of the late law of Parliament requiring subscription from certain of the cler gy, when Mr. Wilcox exclaimed with vehemence : "There is no hope from her Majesty. There is no hope from the bishops, or the Convocation. This tyranny will not be minished. Brother! let us re nounce this Antichristian lordship ! Let us establish for ourselves a church order after the apostolical model, and leave the issues with God." " It would be crushed to powder." "Nay; be not faithless, but believing. There be no necessity laid upon us to proclaim our deed. Think you the Church of Galatia, or of Ephesus, Avent to the priests of Diana, or of Jupiter, and told them of their secret assemblies ? " "Prithee, brother! an you frame your purer disci pline, and the bruit of it be not heard, what will it profit ? We escape not the rule of the Church estabhshed, with her bishops and archbishops, her Liturgy and her saints' days. Wherewithal Avill our yoke be lightened ? " "At least, we can have our deacons and our elders; and they chosen by the people, instead of being thrust upon them." 1 Brook, n. 185. 416 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. " And the same not known ? " " We can devise some way." " And when a congregation, having no minister, doth elect one to their own liking, how prefer him to the benefice so as he can claim the living ? " " Let the congregation choose ; let the presbytery examhie and approve. Then is he a minister called according to the rule of the Gospel. After that, let him apply to the Bishop for the imposition of hands. It wiU not mar his calling, whde it qualifieth him in the eye of the law." " And the patron ? " "Let our classes ply their influence with patrons to present to the livings whom the churches elect." "An your elder elect believe, as many do, that the imposition of hands by one not himself rightly caUed to his bishopric hath no virtue, what then 1 " " Let him cross the sea and take ordination in the Reformed churches there. By the same late law which requireth subscription to doctrine, that be counted true ordination, I trow." 1 "Troth! The like be subscribing the Articles which only concern the true Christian faith and the doctrines of the sacraments. Sith they deny that 'only' meaneth 'only,' they need not exceed them selves to say, that ordination save by a lord bishop be no ordination, — maugre the law." " They have already aUowed that the imposition of hands of a presbytery is ordination; because they require not, of those who have received it, the hands of a bishop, but subscription only." Mr. Field mused; and Mr. Wdcox kept sdence 1 Neal, L 114, note. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 417 that he might muse. Several minutes passed thus before Mr. Field replied: "You have an inventive head, of a truth, brother ! Moreover, in the inven tion, there be no lack of fair seeming. Nevertheless, there be one hope of remedy that you have not propounded. Methinks it should be tried first." " Marry ! nominate it. Mine ear itcheth," — with a short ironic laugh. " Parliament." " Doubtful," muttered Wilcox. " Possible. Be not faithless, but beheving ; so you just said to me." " Granted, — possible." " We can make interest among the members." 1 "But the bishops?" " Outvote them." " The queen. To the smallest bdl for reform, an she saith, ' La Roigne s'advisera,' what then ? Your bid proveth a castle in the air." "Be it so. Then we can try if your plan hath substance, or be a phantom. We can do it with a better seeming, and a better conscience, when the last hope by other means hath failed." " How will you move Parliament ? " " I would lay before them a plan for establishing the Church according to the plan of presbytery, as in the primitive Church, — as in the Church of Geneva. I would prove to them how ministers should be chosen, and how deacons; how they should be set apart to their offices ; what be their duties ; and how all elders, each being bishop over his own congrega tion, should be of equal and joint authority in the gov- 1 Neal, I. 121. vol. i. 53 418 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. ernment of the Church at large. I Avould tell them, too, hoAV corrupt is the present government of the Church; how the shepherds that be, keep not the wolf from the fold ; how they care more for the bell on the Avether's neck, or the mark of the cross on the fleece, than for the feeding or housing of the sheep ; how they put the crib so high that the lambs can get no fodder ; and how they scatter and beggar and imprison the under-shepherds who cannot say Shibboleth, or Avho lack gay gear. I would ted them, and prove it withal, that bishops, as they make them to be, are contrary to the Gospel. And, in fine, I would entreat that disciphne more after God's Word, and agreeable to the foreign Reformed churches, may be established by law." 1 " Will you draw up such a paper ? " " With God's help and yours." " Why mine ? " " In sooth, ' two be better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor ; and a threefold cord is not easily broken.' Besides, time presseth. Parliament wdl soon assemble. We have to bestir the members in our behalf; we must draw up our complaint and prayer with painful carefulness; we must have other brethren to revise and approve it." And thus it was agreed. They were to prepare each his part ; they were to meet again, form their separate Avritings into one ; and, if approved by their brethren, to present it to Parliament. Whereupon they parted ; and Wilcox, in a little boat, glided down to London. A new Parliament was assembled on the 8th of ' Neal, I. 121. Brook, I. 319. Ch. XV] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 419 May, 1572. In his opening speech, the Lord Keeper recognized the scarcity and unfitness of the minis ters of the Church ; evds which, he said, it behooved the bishops speeddy, diligently, and carefully to rec tify. He censured the indolence and timidity of ecclesiastical officers in not duly executing discipline. " In consequence of this negligence," he added, " the laudable rites and ceremonies of the Church, the very ornaments of our religion, are iU kept, or at least have lost a great part of their estimation ; and the com mon people in the country universally come seldom to Common Prayer and Divine service." He recom mended a plan for a systematic and vigorous enforce ment of the ecclesiastical laws ; advising, in addition, " that the bishops should devise and exhibit to Parlia ment temporal acts for the amending and reforming of these lacks, that thus the civil sword might sup port the sword ecclesiastic." In regard to affairs strictly civd, he said that the greatest which con cerned them was " the defence against the foreign enemy abroad and his confederates brought up and bred among themselves." x This last point it is ne cessary to explain. From the time when she took refuge in England from her rebellious subjects, Mary, Queen of Scots, had been held as a prisoner of state by her royal kinswoman. As soon as this her true situation be came evident, her name was made the fulcrum on which to rest ad the plots of the religious and politi cal enemies of Elizabeth.2 Of this, she and her ministers were aware ; and, when too late, they had 1 D'Ewes, 192-195. 2 Norris to Cecil ; Haynes, 466. Camden, 179. 420 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND |Cn. XV. heartdy regretted their error in making Mary their captive, and as heartily Avished her out of the realm.1 At length, in 1571, Mary, justly irritated by her pro tracted Avrongs, and despairing of relief at the hands of her captor,2 had assented to a plot for an invasion of England, and for a domestic insurrection in con cert, Avhich had for its object the overturning of the government of Elizabeth and the instating of herself in her room. Ridolpho, the Florentine, was the agent in England of the conspiracy. A leader was needed, however, of noble blood, and of influence among the people, to head the insurrection at home.3 The power, rank, and popularity of the Duke of Norfolk were sufficient recommendations to Ridol pho. Taking advantage of the fact, that this noble man had fallen from the royal favor and confidence, and that he was smarting under the disgrace of a late imprisonment, the foreigner succeeded in entangling him, to some extent at least, in this nefarious scheme, which included an engagement of marriage between the Duke and the Scottish queen.4 Ridolpho then left the kingdom to notify the Pope and the king of Spain that preparations were ripe in England, and to move them to action.5 These two potentates were the chiefs of the conspiracy. "M. Mignet has recently brought to light some remarkable facts. On the 28th of June, 1570, a letter from Pius V. was presented to Philip II. by an agent just arrived from Rome. 'Our dear son, 1 Haynes, 467; Norris to Ce- 3 Ibid., 157. cil. Cabala, 138, 155 ; Cecil to 4 Ibid., 157. Lingard, VIII. 86. Norris. « Lodge, II. 53 ; Burleigh to Camden, 156. Shrewsbury. Camden, 179. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 421 Robert Ridolfi,' says the writer, 'will explain (God wdling) to your Majesty certain matters which con cern not a little the honor of Almighty God We conjure your Majesty to take into serious con sideration the matter which he will lay before you, and to furnish him with all the means your Majesty may judge most proper for its execution.' The Pope's ' dear son,' accordingly, explained to the Duke of Feria, Avho Avas commissioned by Philip to receive his communication, 'that it was proposed to kill Queen Elizabeth ; that the attempt would not be made in London, because it was the seat of her esy, but during one of her journeys ; and that a cer tain James G Avould undertake it.' The same day, the Council met and deliberated on Elizabeth's assassination. Philip declared his Avillingness to un dertake the foul deed recommended by his Holiness ; but, as it would be an expensive business, his minis ters hinted to the nuncio, that the Pope ought to furnish the money." 1 Philip had been provoked by Ehzabeth's seizure of certain ships of his containing treasure ; 2 and Avas further stimulated by his zeal for the Catholic faith. He was also encouraged by the spirituality and the religious houses of his kingdom, who pledged him two millions of ducats for the enterprise ; for four hundred thousand of which the Archbishop of Toledo alone made himself responsible.3 Nor was Pius V. behindhand in the business ; but entered into it with 1 " The details of this affair may 2 Camden, 179. be found in the Historie de Marie 3 Murdin, 221 ; letter from Spain Stuart, by Mignet, Vol. II. p. 159, to Lord Burleigh. &c." — D'Aubigne, V. Preface, pp. vii., viii. 422 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. apostolic zeal, promising Phdip to pawn, if neces sary, all the goods of his see, to its very chalices, cross es, and sacred vestments, to further the enterprise of invasion, — an enterprise so holy, so acceptable to God, so beneficial to the Church and to a world lying in AAickedness.1 The plan was, to operate upon England by a Spanish army from the Netherlands, — four thousand horse and six thousand foot. It was confidently believed that there Avere enough of the queen's disaffected subjects Avho would effect an effi cient rising in ftwor of the invaders the moment they should land at Harwick, the port agreed upon ; and that the queen's parsimony and the effeminacy of her people Avould render her throne an easy prey.2 "Never," said Philip to Cardinal Alexandrino, "never Avas any conspiracy entered into with better advice, nor with greater consent and constancy concealed, which in so long a time was never discovered by any of the conspirators. Forces might in four and twenty hours' time have easily been transported out of the Netherlands, Avhich might at unawares have sur prised the queen and the city of London, restored religion, and established the Queen of Scots on the throne.3 But the conspiracy was discovered in the hour of its ripeness, in the summer of 1571/ to the great consternation of the Privy Council. They were in- 1 The Life of Pius V. by Hierono- 2 Murdin, 222 ; letter to Burleigh. mo Catena, Secretary to Cardinal Camden, 157. Alexandrino, the Pope's " nephew." 3 Hieronomo Catena. Published with " the Privilege " of 4 Digges's " Complete Ambassa- Sixtus V, in 1588. Camden, 180. dor," 107. Harleian Miscellany, Lingard docs not notice this mate- 11.460-462. rial witness. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 423 stantly busied day and night at the Tower in ferret ing it out, by the examination of those Avhom they had seized.1 The queen ordered that certain of the examinates "should find taste of the rack, if fear thereof should not move them to utter knowledge." 2 Norfolk Avas immediately committed to the Tower ; and in January, 1571-2, Was tried for high treason, and unanimously condemned by a jury of his peers.3 Such Avere the transactions which occasioned the Parliament of 1572 ; " chiefly called for consultation and deliberation touching the dangers of her Majesty and the realm by reason of the Scottish queen." i The Avhole nation was in a ferment ; the Catholics apprehensive that the discovery of such a plot would entail greater severities upon the Queen of Scots and upon themselves ; the Protestants alarmed and indignant at such peril to crown, realm, and religion, and convinced that there would be no safety for either so long as Mary should live. These latter opinions swayed the Parliament, and in the House of Commons Avere universal.5 Immediately after the Lord Keeper's opening speech, Bobert Bell, Esq., of the Middle Temple, London, was chosen Speaker of the Commons, — the same Avho was so frighted by the Council in the time of the last Parliament. On Saturday, the 10th, he was "presented, accepted, and allowed." On Monday, the 12th, the very first business day after 1 Lodge, H. 56. Wright, I. 392, 6 " All men now cry out of your note. prisoner," wrote Burleigh, underdate 2 Ellis, 1st Series, H. 261. of September 7, 1572, to the Earl of AVright, I. 392. Hume, HI. 86. Shrewsbury, Mary's keeper. Lodge, 4 D'Ewes, 204, 225. II. 75. 424 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. the organization of Parliament, both Houses entered at once upon " The Great Cause," by appointing, at the queen's commandment, a large joint committee for " deliberation and consultation." Beport of the doina-s of this committee Avas made to the Commons o on the 19th; immediately upon which the House resolved, " That for the safety and preservation of the queen's person and of the realm, proceedings ought to be had against the Scottish queen in the highest degree of treason,1 and that of necessity with 1 The proceedings against the Queen of Scots for treason, and like proceedings against John Story, ap pear oddly when brought into jux taposition. Story has been mentioned (Chap. VI.) as a malignant persecutor un der Mary of England ; as boasting of it in his opposition to the Bill for Uniformity ; and as entering the service of the Duke of Alva. " Like cup, like cover," says Fuller. In his new home, he repudiated his native country, devoting himself to Alva's schemes against England with all the venom of a fanatic and a renegade. The Duke make Eng lish merchandise contraband at Ant werp, and Story was his zealous agent in searching for it. He did this with so much vigor and cruelty, that his person was iuordinately coveted by English merchants, who set a trap to catch him. One Par ker entered the port of Antwerp and suborned men to whisper that there were Bibles and other hereti cal books on board ; a sort of goods for which Story was particularly voracious. No terrier ever rushed upon a haunt of vermin with more eagerness than did Story beneath the deck of the English skipper. The hatches were shut upon him ; and when he next saw sunlight, it was under his native sky at Yar mouth. He was tried and con demned for high treason ; and in June, 1571, executed. On his trial he was charged with having con spired against the life of the queen and for the invasion of her kingdom. The question was, whether, these things being true, he was guilty of treason. Ho denied that he was; and on this ground, — that he was no sworn subject to the queen of England, but to the king of Spain. He was tried and sentenced, on the ground that he was English-born, and that no man can renounce sub jection to his native government. (Digges, 105 ; Burleigh to Walsing ham. Zurich Letters, No. CLV; Horn to Bullinger. Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 84. Camden, 123, 168. Hol ingshed, IV. 260. Fox, III. 1023. Strype's Annals, LH. 1 24 ; Parker, 464. Mackintosh, I. 369.) One would think that, if Story could not shake off allegiance by voluntary expatriation, Mary could Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 425 aU possible speed." This was passed "by the voice of the whole House." 2 On the 21st, this resolve was sent to the Upper House, with request "to Iciioav their lordships' liking " of the same ; to which immediate answer was returned, " that they had themselves re solved in the Great Cause much to the like effect ; and that, for better and more speedy proceeding therein, they did pray immediate conference with the previous committee of the House." The Com mons thereupon directed the committee accordingly.2 The second day after, Mr. Comptroller declared from her Majesty, "that she did thankfully accept the care of the House for her safety ; but that, partly in honor and partly in conscience, it Avas her mind to defer, though not to reject, the determina tion for a biU against the Scottish queen for high treason, and that she liked better with all convenient speed proceeding should be had in a second bill,3 which should be only to disable the Scottish queen for any claim or title to the croAvn."1 The Com mons instantly resolved, " That nevertheless, with one whole voice and consent, they did still rely upon the proceeding for high treason as most necessary ; not acquire allegiance by involun- had done treason, a fortiori she, the tary expatriation ; that if Story, a queen, owed no allegiance to Eng- native-born Englishman, could not land, and therefore had done no transfer fealty to Spain, Mary, a treason. native-born Scotchwoman, could not But as we see in 13 Eliz. Cap. H. have fealty to England thrust upon any act was created treason in those her ; that if Story, by birth a sub- days, as it suited the convenience of ject, could not become a subject the law-makers. elsewhere by oath, Mary, by birth a 1 D'Ewes, 206, 207. sovereign princess, could not become * Ibid., 213. a subject elsewhere without oath. 8 Ibid., 213. If he, the subject, still owed alle- * Ibid., 216. giance to England, and therefore vol. i. 54 426 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. without any liking or aUowance of the other propo sition." This resolve they sent immediately to the Lords, requesting that, if they concurred therein, further conference might be had. The next day — the 24th — the Lords replied, "that they did like weU and approve of the opinion of the Commons, and would join in committees of conference in the afternoon in the Star-Chamber." -1 The result was that on Wednesday — the 28th — these committees waited upon her Majesty, by her appointment, to lay before her " The Reasons for their Opinion touch ing the Great Cause." 2 We have given this very succinct account, that it may appear how ripe for action the Parliament were at their very assembling; and that both Houses were of one mind, of like dihgence, and like zeal. In the Commons there were " sundry speeches " ; but, it Avould seem, no debate, no difference of opin ion. The Cathohc peers, doubtless, dissented from a purpose of blood against the orthodox heir presump tive to the throne ; but, with this exception, the bent of the whole Parliament was for the swift execution. of one on whose account — to say the least — the kingdom Avas in constant peril. The devoted and clear-headed Cecil, — now Lord Burleigh, — in whose mental conflicts self-possession never struck flag to passion, was "overthrown in heart, with no spark almost of good spirits left to nourish health in his body " ; yet not so much for a danger which he was ready to grapple by the beard, as for the temporizing policy of the queen by which he was held in check. "There can be no greater soundness than is in the 1 D'Ewes, 214. * Ibid., 215. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 427 Commons' House," said he, " and no lack appeareth in the Upper House; but in the highest person such sloAvness in the offers of surety," — i. e. the execution of Mary and of Norfolk, — "and such stay in resolution, as it seemeth God is not pleased that the surety shall succeed."1 There can be no doubt that the Puritans were of importance in this House of Commons; for in the next session, in 1575-6, of this same Parliament, — which Avas continued for eleven years,2 — their voice was distinctly heard. Nor can we suppose that they Avere behind the Precisians of the Church in zealous promotion of vital measures against Mary. But to attribute the act which passed against her in both Houses,3 the reasonings by which it was sustained, and the queen's "forbearing to allow it," all solely, or even chiefly, to " their prevalence in the House," and their " intemperance," is both untrue, and in the face of known facts.4 In the prosecution of these 1 Digges, 203; Burleigh to Wal- Testament"; and he insinuates that singham, 21 May 1572. the queen would not accede to the 2 D'Ewes, 226, 277, 310. application, because "she so little 3 Ibid., 204. loved the sect." All this is unfor- 4 I here refer to Hume, IH. 87. tunate. He says, " The Commons made a The use of the " authorities " direct application for the immediate would equally argue a prevalence trial and execution " of Mary. So of Puritanical interest among the they did ; but the application was Lords spiritual and temporal ; for from the Lords and the Commons, — both Houses reasoned alike, and which, as he uses it, alters the case sanctioned the papers presented. entirely. Burleigh's particular posi- But again. The Apocryphal tion he wholly overlooks. He adds, Books of the Old Testament — be- " Nothing could be a stronger cause unknown in the Hebrew lan- proof that the Puritanical interest guage ; because never received into prevailed in the House, than the in- the sacred canon by the Jewish temperate use of authorities derived Church, and therefore never sanc- from Scripture, especially the Old tioned by our Saviour ; and because 428 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Cn. XV. measures, the Precisian of the Church and the Puri tan forgot their differences,, and stood as one man against the milder proposition of the queen. In the Upper House, the bishop joined with the temporal lord, and both seconded the Puritan of the Commons, in " exciting the prince to cruelty and blood, contrary to her merciful inclinations " ; x and if there Avas not literal unanimity among the lords, there were hot unknown in the Christian canon of Scriptures until more than four hun dred years after Christ (Home's Introduction, I. 627, 628) — were not allowed by the Puritans in the time of Elizabeth to be of any authority. They disliked that they should be even read in the churches ; and made it one of their prominent ob jections to the established service, that the reading of them was re quired. A Puritan might quote Aristotle or Cicero to illustrate a principle in law or morals ; but he would no sooner quote " The AVis- dom of Solomon," or " Eeclesiasti- cus," than he would a heathen classic, lo prove a civil or a religious duty. Yet both these apocryphal books are cited as " authorities " in the document to which Hume refers. However, therefore, the Puritanical interest may have prevailed in the Commons, and however the Puritans may have joined in the application, it is clear from the paper itself, that it must have been framed by Church men ; and the sneer of the historian is wasted. Apropos : a word to balance the ridicule so freely bestowed upon the Puritans for their deductions from Old Testament Scriptures. Two instances will suffice.' "Tho pun ishment for high treason," argued Sir Edward Coke, " is warranted by divers examples in Scripture ; tor Joab was drawn, Bithan was hanged, Judas was embowclled " ! (Black- stone, IV. 92, note k.) Anothei notable instance : Mr. Barwick, a clergyman ofthe Established Church, and not a Puritan, proved that God delights in mediocrity thus : " Man was put into the midst of Paradise. A rib was taken out of tho midst of man. The Israelites went through the midst of the lied Sea and of Jordan. Samson put firebrands in the midst, between the foxes' tails. David's men had their garments cut off by the midst. Christ was hanged in the midst, between two thieves" ! (Strype's Annals, Oxford edit., VI. 232 ; folio edit., III. Append. Bk. I. No. XXIV. p. 41.) AVere the Puri tans, who often doubtless misinter preted and misapplied Scripture, sinners and silly above all others V Did they ever equal Coke and Bar wick V The truth is, the principles of hermeneutics, especially in their application to the Holy Scriptures, were very imperfectly understood, in those days, by the learned of all. parties alike. 1 D'Ewes, 211. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 429 zeal and stern resolution no Avhit less than in the Commons. Besides, there was no honester or hotter zealot in the Great Cause than her Majesty's most influential minister. So intense Avas the anxiety of Lord Burleigh, — as stated above, — so watchful and untiring Avas he lest Parhament perchance should divide or flag in furthering Mary's death, that, crip pled and tortured as he was by disease, he would be carried before the queen, that he might argue and persuade ; and to the senate, that he might strength en and inspire.1 It is not Avithin the range of our theme to canvass the prison history of Mary, or to speculate upon her complicity in the plot which, before the Parhament was adjourned, cost Norfolk his head. But it is due to her memory to say, that if she did conspire to overthrow the power which thralled her, and if that overthrow was the only feasible means of her deliv erance, she did but foUow a law of nature which, in 1 Digges, 203 ; Burleigh to Wal- health in my body, being every third singham. day thrown down to the ground, so I think it well to transcribe the as now I am forced to be carried letter of Burleigh, previously quoted into the Parliament-House, and to in part, so far as it illustrates the her Majesty's presence ; and to la- subject-matters in hand. ment it openly is to give more com- " Of our Parliament, there can fort to the adversaries. These are be found no more soundness than is our miseries, and such as I see no in the Commons House, and no lack end thereof; and amongst others, appearing in the Upper House, but shame doth as much trouble me as in the highest person such slowness the rest, that all persons should be- in the offers of surety, and such hold our follies as they may think, stay in resolution, as it seemeth God imputing these lacks and errors to is not pleased that the surety shall some of us that are accounted in- succeed. To lament that secretly ward counsellors, where indeed the I cannot forbear, and thereby with fault is not ; and yet they must be it and such like I am overthrown so suffered, and to be so imputed, in heart, as I have no spark almost for saving the honor of the highest." of good spirits left in me to nourish 430 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Cn. XV. its true meaning, always coincides with that of God. To Avhat Nature teaches, an Apostle could appeal.1 On the other hand, it is due to their memory Avhose history is in hand to state the grounds on which, in common with the other members of this Parliament, and Avith the masses out of Parliament, they justified their proceedings. The case admitted of but two questions. For the real and serious hazards in whioh a wrong policy had involved the government by the imprisonment of the refugee queen, was there any remedy but the axe ? There was none. The answer Avas self- evident; reached Avithout process, and held with out doubt. Was this remedy a righteous one? In other words, had the Queen of Scots forfeited life ? did justice coincide with the exigencies of the state ? The Puritan answered, " Yes." For this answer there were reasons. Be it that they were false ; in his mind they were true. Be it that Mary was innocent of crime ; in his very soul he believed her proven guilty, " found so by the judges of the realm."2 Be it that he was a lame interpreter of Scripture, a jaundiced inspector of facts, a bad reasoner, a dupe to calumny and his own credulity, yet he acted upon the best information he could obtain, — upon his convictions. He was honest. Because of her rehgion, because of her rehgious aUies or sympathizers, because of her relation to the crown, and, we may add, because of the grievous wrongs done to her, Mary had long been a terror to aU the Protestants of England. It was their firm conviction, that "she had sought and wrought, by 1 I Cor. xi. 14. 2 D'Ewes, 215. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 431 all means, to seduce God's people in the realm from true religion ; that she was the only hope of all the adversaries of God throughout aU Europe, and the instrument whereby they trusted to overthrow the Gospel of Christ in all countries," — both of which, it was believed, she and they sought to do by sub verting the governments ; that " she had sought both the disinheriting and the destruction of Elizabeth " ; that " she had heaped up together all the sins of adultery, murder, conspiracy, treason, and blasphemy against God." a Upon these premises, over which in their minds there hung no cloud of doubt, they reasoned from Scripture cited, that " her Majesty must needs offend in conscience before God, if she did not punish so grievous an offender," — " queen or sub ject, stranger or citizen, kin or not kin," — " accord ing to the measure of her offence in the highest degree " ; an offender, too, " whom God's special and remarkable Providence had put into the Queen's Majesty's hands to be punished " ; that " if such an one should escape with smad punishment, there was reason to fear " — as most certainly there was — " that God Avould reserve her as an instrument to put the queen from her royal seat, and to plague the naughty subjects " ; that " to spare one person, being an enemy, a stranger, a professed member of Anti christ, and convicted of so many heinous crimes, with the evident peril of so many thousands of bodies and souls of good and faithful subjects, might justly be termed cruel compassion " ; and that her Majesty "would be in danger of the blood of God's people, if she should not cut off" so great and dan- 1 D'Ewes, 208, 209. 432 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND . [Ch. XV. gerous a sinner. "Therefore" — said the petitioners of both Houses of Parliament in their " Reasons " given, — " as the Queen's Majesty indeed is merciful, so we most humbly desire her that she will open her mercy towards God's people and her good subjects in despatching those enemies " — the Duke of Nor folk is here included — " that seek the confusion of God's cause amongst us and of this noble realm." : In their " Petition," they argued against her Ma jesty's scheme "to proceed only in disabling the Scottish queen for any claim or title to the crown," that "such special disabling would be in effect a special confirmation of a right she should have had " ; meaning, " a special admission that a title had pre viously existed," — and most shrewdly was this said. In proposing this procedure, Elizabeth had by impli cation — but as yet only to her Parliament — ad mitted inadvertently that Mary was in verity the next heir to the crown. They argued further, that " a firebrand once kindled and having matter to Avork upon would hardly be quenched without great haz ard " ; that " hope of gain through Mary would make her partisans bold, more than any penalties ever so terrible would deter them " ; that " she wanted neither wit nor wisdom to escape," nor courage to do it even at the hazard of her life, all of which she had proved when "she adventured herself at Loch Leven " ; 2 that " there were traitors ready 1 D'Ewes, 208-210, passim. more clearly to what utter self- 2 I could not consent to insert in abandonment to vice it was be- the text words which contain a lieved, by all classes of English Prot- scurrilous innuendo. Yet I place estants, this unfortunate princess them here, because perhaps noth- had arrived. " She was told at ing in the records of the time shows Loch Leven, there was no way but Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 433 to do for her liberty, who would adventure deep for a kingdom, because — the service done — the reward would be great"; "and when that day shall come, woe be to all true Christians universally; for upon her do depend the chiefest enemies of religion and of this kingdom!" "Whereby it appeareth" — is the close of the argument — "that the disabling her would be rather for her benefit than her hurt; whereas dealing with her in the first degree ac cording to her deserts" — although "she hath faUen into your hands from the violence of others, and so as a bird followed by a hawk seeketh succor at your Majesty's feet" — "is lawful, safe, necessary, and honorable for your Majesty and all Christen dom besides."1 In reply to these persuasives, her Majesty declared to both Houses, that she did thankfully accept their good-wdl and zeal; that what they recommended was certainly the best and surest for safety; but that, for private reasons, she should for the present suspend, though not reject, the course of proceed ing advised by their memorial. She further desired a second bdl, to embrace the other course of pro ceeding, yet so as it should neither admit nor deny any right of succession to the crown to be or to have been in the Scottish queen.2 To secure this, death with her, if she did not take Journal ; but only to express my her imprisonment quietly, and live understanding of its true meaning. without seeking liberty. Notwith- That the reader may judge for him- standing, she adventured herself self, I give the words from D'Ewes. with a young fellow very dishonor- " Her Majesty, minding in that bill ably to get away in a boat." by any implication or drawing of 1 D'Ewes, 216, 217. words not to have the Scottish " I have here taken, perhaps, a queen eithei* enabled or disabled large liberty with the text of the to or from any manner of title to VOL. I. 55 434 THE PRESBYTERIANS AND [Ch. XV. she would have the biU first drawn by her Coun cd ; and in conclusion, she forbade either House to enter, in the mean time, upon any speeches or argu ments upon the matter. A bid, however, afterwards passed both Houses " against Mary, the daughter and heir of James V., late King of Scots, commonly called the Queen of Scots " ; x but it did not receive the royal sanction. Four days after it Avas sent to the Lords from the Commons, the Parliament was "adjourned" by the queen's command.2 Thus began,3 and thus for the present ended, the Great Cause of the Queen of Scots. Experts, perhaps novices, in casuistry and Scrip tural exegesis may find flaws in the reasonings of the committees in this cause. But it should be remem bered, that these are not chargeable to either one of the dominant religious sects, but to the entire Prot estant mind of England, — misled, doubtless, by libels and forgeries, and certainly hard pressed to decisive measures for national defence. the crown of this realm, or any much as any mention made of the other title to the same whatsoever Queen of Scots in that Parlia- touched at all, willeth that the bill ment." be first drawn by her learned Coun- Unless " to make wnable," be dif- cil," &c. ferent from " to disable," the bill 1 D'Ewes, 204, 221, 224. " against Mary, commonly called the " Ibid., 204. Queen of Scots," was drawn contra- 8 Hallam seems to say on p. 88, ry to the queen's intent ; and not and distinctly says on p. 149, that a by the Council, but by Parliament bill attainting the Queen of Scots in direct disobedience of her com- was introduced into the Parliament mand. Burleigh describes it as " a of 1571. So also say Camden, p. law to make her tmable and unwor- 168, and Rapin, n. 100. This is a thy of succession to the crown." mistake, the source of which is stated (Lingard, A/JLU. 102, note ; quoted by D'Ewes, 207, 212, 215; where it from Digges, 219.) There is no appears, as well as frotn the Journal clew to its purport in D'Ewes, other of 1571 itself, that "there was not so than its title. Ch. XV.] THE PARLIAMENT OF 1572. 435 In the very face of the royal recommendation at the opening of Parhament, that they shoidd enlist the civil sword with the sword ecclesiastic in the service of "the ornaments of religion," the Commons pro posed laws to lighten the ceremonial burdens. They brought in two bids "for Rites and Ceremonies,"1 one of which — to redress the hardships of the Puri tans — was read the third time and referred, on the 20th of May. On the 22d, her Majesty ordered that henceforth no bids concerning religion should be presented or received there, unless first consid ered and hked by the clergy ; and demanded that the bids be sent to her.2 The House sent them, with a humble request, that, if her Majesty hked them not, she would not think dl of the House, or of the per sons who presented them. The next day, Mr. Treas urer reported, that "her Majesty did mislike the first biU, arjd him who brought the same into the House ; that she would have no preacher or minister im peached or indicted, as the preamble of the biU did purport; and that she herself, as Defender of the Faith, would aid and maintain all good Protestants to the discouraging of aU Papists."3 We should be slow to concede that " the submis- siveness of this Parliament," in this instance, "was owing to the queen's vigorous dealings with the last";4 for it was after her dealing with Bell, and dur ing her dealing with Strickland, that the most bold and interesting debates broke forth in that House of Commons, and their most spirited resentment of her breach of privilege. True, the Commons of 1572 1 Strype's Parker, 394. 3 Ibid., 214. 5 D'Ewes, 213. * Hallam, 150. 436 PRESBYTERIANS AND PARLIAMENT OF 1572. [Ch. XV. were not the same ; but we have just seen that they could reject a royal dictation, notAvithstanding the memory of Aigorous dealings in 1571. Besides, the very man, Peter WentAvorth, who revived the cour age of the last House by his indignant retort upon Sir Humphrey Gdbert, was present here in this ; and, although he held his peace, he was not cowed, but aroused and incensed, by the arbitrary interference of the queen. This he proved most memorably in the next session of this same Parliament. It is more reasonable to suppose that the Commons, instead of being overawed by her Majesty's frown, yielded their indignation to the paramount, absorbing interest of " The Great Cause." The Puritan knew when to speak, and when to be sdent. CHAPTER XVI. THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. The First Presbytery. — A Puritan Reply to a Bishop's Defence op the Church. — Field and Wilcox imprisoned. — Their Conference with the Archbishop's Chaplain. — Whitgift's Answer to the Admonition. — Cartwright publishes a Second Admonition, and a Eeply to Whit gift's Answer. — Their Controversy. — The Queen's Proclamation against the Admonition, and Cartwright' s Reply. — The Alarm of the Precisian Prelates. — Subscription enforced throughout the Kingdom. — The Massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day in Paris. — Re joicings at Rome. — Effect of the Massacre in England. — The Con dition of Religion. 1572. Me. Field and Mr. Wdcox did not falter in their plan. They matured their memorial after the gen eral outhne which has been described, submitted it to the revision of several of their dissenting brethren, and presented it themselves to Parliament early in the session. It was entitled " An Admonition to Par liament for Reformation of Church Discipline " ; was printed when presented, and soon passed through four editions, notwithstanding strenuous efforts by authority to suppress it.1 The special umbrage given to the queen by what was designated as " the first bid," affords ground to suppose that it had been framed to further " the Ad- 1 Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 102. Heyl. gift, 27. Neal I. 121. Brook, I. Presb., Bk. ATI. sec. 2. Camden, 319 ; n. 143, 185. 191. Strype's Parker, 347; AVhit- 438 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XAT. monition," and that the latter was in some way con nected with the former. But however this may have been, both bdls and the Admonition were " dashed," when her Majesty prohibited religious discussion; and thus ad hope of rehef from Parliament was at an end. The queen, through her morbid jealousy for her prerogative of the supremacy, had taken another false step ; for her stopping of religious pro ceedings upon this occasion only drove the Puritans from the rule of London to the rule of Geneva. Find ing that books, and petitions, and appeals to Parliar ment, avaded them nothing,1 many of their clergy, with several laymen of consideration, some time in the month of June formed themselves into a presby tery at Wandsworth, that place being retired and convenient of access by land and by water from Lon don.2 " This was the first-born of aU presbyteries in England " ; the nucleus to which a large portion of the London clergy soon attached themselves ; the parent stock whence seed dropped and also took root in neighboring counties. The Precisians were disturbed by the Admonition. One of them, Dr. Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln, preach ing at Paul's Cross on the 27th of June, thought it necessary to counteract its influence by a sermon in 1 Collier, AT. 529. when the presbytery was organized 2 Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 103. Collier, within the term from May 22d, when VT. 529,530. Neal seems to say, the application to Parliament failed, that this presbytery was formed on and the 7th of July, when these men the 20th of November, and mentions were arrested. (See Brook, I. 322.) among its chief members at its for- Eleven elders were chosen ; and mation Field and Wilcox. They their offices and general rules were doubtless were. But these men agreed upon, and inscribed in a were in prison from the 7th of July register, entitled " The Orders of till near the close of 1573. It is Wandsworth." (Fuller, Bk. IX. p. necessary, therefore, to fix the time 103. Neal, I. 126.) Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 439 defence of the Church, its Liturgy and its rites. In answer to this, the Bishop received a private anony mous letter, to the several points of which he com menced noting his answers in the margin, abandon ing the attempt, however, after two notes upon com paratively trifling matters. This letter deserves some notice, as exhibiting some strong points upon which this new school of the Puritans rehed, and as showing the undeniable unfitness of many of the clergy approved, and the undeniable oppressions of the ecclesiastical authorities. In this letter it was charged, that wed qualified preachers were thrust from office by "urging upon them gay gear and Popish abominations " ; that they were imprisoned, suspended, deprived, banished, excommunicated, whde it was notorious that there was a lack of preachers in the kingdom, as the Lord Keeper him self had declared to the Parliament. It was further charged, that, in heu of the godly and capable who might be had, idle men, stupid, ignorant, irreverent, mere readers, lewd men, and Papists, who would bring never a stone to budd the Lord's temple, were thrust upon the congregations for ministers; and that many of these were "gadoping Sir Johns, licensed to preach in two or three cures." In answer to the Bishop's appeal to Ignatius and other Fathers of the Church, and to ancient usages, it was tartly replied, " For us to stand so much upon men's judgment, seeing that every man is a liar, and to ascribe so much unto the time wherein they lived, seeing that the Apostle tells us that the mys tery of iniquity began to work in his days, is a vanity and deluding the simple " ; that the joining of civil 440 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. offices to ecclesiastical functions, as in the case of the bishops of the English Church, was contrary to usage in the Jewish commonwealth, where Moses was God's magistrate, Aaron his priest, and Joshua his cap tain ; that it was a feeble argument for the order of archbishops to say, as the Bishop did in his sermon, "that there were archbishops in the first Nicene Councd, Avhich was three hundred years after Christ, and that therefore the office Avas agreeable to God's Word " ; and moreover, it was added by the writer, " the word arch is not attributed hi the New Testa ment to any officer or minister of God's Church Md- itant. St. Peter cads Christ Arch-shepherd, which shows that whoso takes the same title to himself taketh a name and title by right only Christ's." We see here, to some extent, on what grounds the disciples of Cartwright objected, not merely to the titles, but to the mixed functions, of the Eng lish hierarchy. After upbraiding the ecclesiastical magistrates for keeping godly ministers in prison, for separating them utterly from friends, wives, and children, for driving their families to beggary, because they re fused Popish apparel and spake or wrote against the missals and pontificals of the Church, the writer adds, as if he already foresaw the retribution in kind which in less than a century was to be visited upon the Establishment, "Assure yourself, as you persecute them, so shaU you be persecuted ; as you bring them and theirs to beggary, so you and yours shad be beggared, unless you repent." A meagre sketch of a very long and able letter, — a letter remarkable for its pertinence and pungency, Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 441 and no less so for its almost entire freedom from the offensive language which then degraded much of religious controversy. That the Bishop should have suspended his marginal annotations so soon, is significant.1 On the 7th of July, Mr. Field and Mr. Wdcox were arrested for having presented to Parliament " The Admonition" ; 2 and, after three months passed in prison, they were indicted under the Statute 1 FJiz. Cap. H.,3 and sentenced on the 2d of Octo ber to a year's imprisonment in the common jail of Newgate.4 About the first of September, probably, they wrote a letter of remonstrance to Archbishop Parker, which was dehvered to him by their wives,5 and which so far moved that Primate, that he sent his chaplain to confer with them in Newgate, and to inquire "in what particular instance they could accuse him of injustice and cruelty." The conversa tion was conducted in a Christian spirit by both parties ; being opened, with the cheerful assent of the chaplain, by prayer from Mr. Field for Divine assistance in then interview.6 The prisoners argued, 1 Strype's Annals, HI. 287-303. would have been the forfeiture of 2 Ibid., 275. their livings for one year, and six 8 Brook, I. 320. months' imprisonment. According to * Their sentence shows that they Hallam's representation of the stat- were convicted under Sec. H. of ute (p. 74), they would have been the Act of Uniformity, for " de- sentenced to " forfeit goods and claring anything in derogation or chattels " ; for the section which depraving of the Book of Common prescribes penalties upon ministers Prayer," — the first offence. for deviating from the Liturgy pre- Heylin (Presb., Bk. ATI. Sec. 3) scribes the same penalties for their and Brook (H. 191) call them declaring anything derogatory of beneficed curates. But their sen- the Book of Common Prayer. tence shows that they were only 5 Brook, H. 186. " Lecturers," or preachers. Had 6 Ibid., 187. they been beneficed, their sentence VOL. i. 56 442 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. that where Paul says that God gave to his Church some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, he speaks of extraordinary offices peculiar to that age ; that Avhere he adds, " some pastors and teachers," he speaks of ordinary offices to continue to the end of time, — offices which differ not in authority and dignity, though they may in gifts and graces. They urged also that each minister should have his own charge, and not ordinarily preach out of it ; because every pastor had Avork enough to take proper care of his OAvn flock ; because a wandering ministry wdl be an ignorant one ; and because it is contrary to reason and to Scripture.1 They also pressed this point : that if the Apostles did well in communicating the temporal part of their office to others, — deacons, — so that they might give them selves wholly to prayer and preaching, what shall we judge of those who unite civil functions to their ecclesiastical offices 1 2 The conversation having con tinued in this strain for some time, Mr. Pearson, the chaplain, remarked, " You seem to have written your book in choler against some persons, rather than to promote a reformation of the Church." " I suppose you are displeased with the sharp ness of the language," said Wilcox. " We are wdl- ing to bear the blame of that." " I think it did not proceed from a spirit of love, and charity, and meekness." " That toucheth me," said Field, " and therefore I answer, that we have used gentle words too long ; we perceive that they have done no good. The 1 Brook, H. 187, 188. 2 Ibid., 188. Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 443 wound is become desperate; it therefore needeth a strong corrosive. It is no time to flatter men in their sins. Yet, God knoweth, Ave meant to speak against no man's person, but their places, and existing corruptions." " Wid you then take away all ecclesiastical poli cy ? " inquired Mr. Pearson. " It pleaseth the prince, in policy, to make the ministers lord bishops and archbishops. I confess this cannot be warranted by God's Word; but as the Christian magistrate, in policy, esteemeth it good, and not against God's Word, I doubt whether they may not do it." " We praise God," rephed Mr. Wdcox with earnest ness, " for having made you confess this truth. But we must consider whether the policy concerning ecclesiastical matters, as contained in God's Word, be not all-sufficient and alone to be foUowed. The ministers of Christ may take unto themselves no other titles than those allowed and appointed in God's Word, though the Christian prince make ever so hberal an offer of them." "When in honor they are offered," returned the chaplain, "would you have them wilfully and un- thankfully refuse them?" " They should say," answered Mr. Field, — " ' We cannot labor in this our sacred function so faithfully as the Lord requireth, therefore we most humbly desire your Majesty to lay the charge of civil mat- ters elsewhere ; and let us exercise ourselves in the office of the ministry only.' The names of Lord Bishop and Archbishop belong to Jesus Christ alone, as Lord and King in Zion." " If" rephed Mr. Pearson, " if for religion the prince 444 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. appoint fasts, we ought not to obey ; but if in policy, when victuals are dear, Ave are bound in conscience to obey."1 "As you plead so much for policy," said Mr. Field, " we suffer for opposing the Popish hierarchy, the pohcy of which is directly contrary to that which was used hi the primitive Church." " Must we then in every point foUow the Apostles and the primitive Church ? " " Yes ; unless a better order be found. In matters of government and discipline, the Word of God is our only warrant ; but rites and ceremonies not mentioned in Scripture are to be used or refused, as shall best appear to the edification of the Church." Here the conversation closed.2 The horrors of prison in the days of Elizabeth wdl probably be unknown to us " until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness." We find no detailed description of life and suffering and death within the Gate-House, the Fleet, the Clink, the Marshalsea, Newgate, or Bridewed ; but we glean here and there some things whose aggregate is fearful. We know that these prisons were fided with the most revolting forms of vice, degradation, misery, want, disease, and death; that most of their inmates were the worst of felons, men and women3 who had abandoned themselves, without stint or shame, to the grossest depravity. We know that they were herded, by day at least, in a common apartment ; surrounded by filth ; breath- 1 See infra, Vol. H. Chap. DJ. 3 Stow's Survey, 131 (London 2 Brook, H. 189, 190. edit. 1842). Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 445 ing a putrid air ; some shackled ; some penniless ; half starved ; quarrelsome ; foul-mouthed ; bestial ; in summer, half suffocated ; in winter, half frozen ; and always without discipline ; — pale men and florid ; emaciated men and bloated ; fierce-looking men and dejected ; with staring eyes and bloodshot ; with duU eyes and sunken ; with hands and faces covered with sores ; and all seething in a stench so gross as might almost be felt. Sometimes the jail-fever would come in. Then the sick would rave about their sins, and about death, and about after death ; and curse each other ; and blaspheme ; and, blaspheming, die. And the wed would look on, and sing songs, and jeer, and mock. We shad hereafter exhibit facts to confirm these general statements. It is terrible for any one whom God has made to enjoy the blue heavens, the fields, fresh air, and familiar faces, to be locked up even with strangers of congenial habits, and with the common conven iences of life, week after week, month after month. But to take from his sacramental board twenty-four men and seven women who have imbibed Christ's spirit, — to take two ripe scholars of Oxford, preach ers of the Gospel, their daily converse with things heavenly, from their vocation, their wives and chil dren, — and thrust them into such a kennel, — the terribleness of this can be known only to God and the sufferer. Whether it was precisely the prison lot of the offenders of the Plumbers' Hall, and of Field and Wdcox, we cannot affirm, but we believe it was; for ministers of the Gospel, and women, and young maidens too, were thrust " into dangerous and loath some jads, among the most facinorous and vile per- 446 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. sons," for not praying by the book. Nor was this half their woes. It is not to be supposed, merely because they have left no telltale plaint on record, that it was otherwise with these tAvo petitioners to Parliament. Whatever may have been the detads of their sufferings, they were utterly impoverished in their prison, with not money enough to buy their bread ; they were " in a most loathsome " place ; made sick, emaciated, "by the unwholesome savor and the cold weather."1 Twice they petitioned their friend, the Earl of Leicester, for relief; once then wives and children did the same. They also pleaded with Lord Burleigh, who was well affected to then cause, to procure their liberty. They addressed him in a " Avell-penned letter in Latin," 2 which is stdl extant.3 In this they pleaded justice ; affirming the simple truth, that they had only "urged in their book the reformation of horrid abuses and corrup tions acknowledged by aU the foreign Reformed churches, and by men of eminent learning, to be very foul." i They stated also, that " they had not attempted to correct or change anything of them selves, but only by Parliament, and with the queen's approbation, in a quiet and legal way." 5 But the queen's prerogative had been touched ; the Archbishop Avas already jealous that some prin ciple cankerous to despotism was lurking under this zeal for rehgious reform ; and the Ecclesiastical Com missioners were determined that their power should 1 Neal, I. 122, 123. Brook, I. i Strong language ; but sustained 319,320. by the " Zurich Letters." 2 Strype's Annals, HI. 275. « Strype's Annals,IH. 276. Brook, s Ibid., IV. Append. XIX. I. 319, 320 ; H. 190, 191. Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 447 be felt. Besides, the culprits were brought into greater odium by Doctor John Whitgift, Master of Trinity College and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, who had an old grudge against Cartwright and his principles. He published "An Answer to the Ad monition," revised and corrected before it went to press by Archbishop Parker, and by Cooper, the Bishop of Lincoln ; 1 who, of course, were responsi ble for its statements and reasonings. Whitgift argued that Field and Wdcox were disturbers of good order, and enemies to the state ; 2 that " because they would have bishops unlorded, therefore they would overthrow the civil magistracy ; that they who were seeking an equality of rank among the clergy, would soon be for levelling the rank of the nobdity; and that, because they found fault with the regimen of the Church, therefore they designed the ruin of the state." 3 So in the time of Henry VIII. cried out the Romish priests against those who " wrote books against the pride and luxury of the bishops " ; that " they were men jealous of all authority ; that, if they once got rid of that of the bishops, they would not rest long tdl they had also got rid of that of his Majesty ; that these attacks upon ecclesiastics and the Roman Catholic doctrines were only a prelude to seditious attempts against their sovereign." i All these things bore hard upon the two prisoners, and countervaded their petitions and the good-will of courtiers. We have no account of their liberation ; 1 Strype's Parker, 363. 4 Bagster's Memorials of Cover- * Brook, I. 321. dale, p. 25. 8 Neal, I. 122. 448 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Cn. XVI. but they were kept in the common jail of Newgate twelve months, at least, from the time of their sen tence;1 making fifteen months in all, Avhich Avas stretching the penalty of a very stern statute one fourth part. Mr. CartAvright had returned to England just about the time when the Admonition was published. Upon the imprisonment of its authors, he was induced to publish a second Admonition, which was " more impor tunate and to the same effect "; 2 and " it comes out," says one writer, " with such a flash of lightning, and such claps of thunder, as if heaven and earth were presently to have met together."3 This book was entitled, " A Second Admonition, with an Humble Petition to both Houses of Parliament for Relief against Subscription " ,• urging that, as now required, this sub scription " had no foundation in law, but was an act of sovereignty in the crown." i He also published " A Reply to Whitgift's Answer " ; a pamphlet not only exceedingly applauded by the populace,6 but acknowledged by great numbers in the University of Cambridge, by foreign divines, and even by his own adversaries, to be a masterly performance.6 This led to a controversy.7 Cartwright maintained that the 1 Brooki I. 320; F. and W. to "Defence," in February, 1573-4. Leicester. There must be an error (Strype's Parker, 420.) In 1575, of a year in the date of this letter as Cartwright published the first part given in Brook. of a " Second Reply," in answer * Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 102. to Whitgift's " Defence "; and in 3 Heyl. Presb., Bk. VH. sec. 2. 1577, the second part. (Neal, I. * Neal, I. 121. 125. Brook, H. 143.) Fuller (Bk. 5 Strype's Parker, 420. IX. p. 103) says that Cartwright 6 Strype's Whitgift, 53. Neal, I. kept silence after the publication of 123. Brook, n. 143. Whitgift's "Defence"; but adds 7 In answer to Cartwright's parenthetically, " for aught I can " Reply," AVhitgift published a find." He is mistaken in attributing Ch. XVL] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 449 Bible was the only standard of doctrine, of discipline, and of government," for the Church. Whitgift aA^erred that it was not a standard of Church disci pline and government; that these are changeable, and may be accommodated to the civil government under which we live ; that the apostolical govern ment was for the Church in its infancy and under persecution. And therefore, instead of reducing the external policy of the Church to the simplicity of the both " Admonitions " to Cartwright. So are Strype and others. See Pierce, 83, and Brook, K 143. Field and Wilcox also replied to Whitgift's calumnious charges in his " Answer," by publishing a confes sion of their faith, December 4th, 1572. Some points in this paper ought to be kept in view hereafter, in discriminating between the Pres byterians and the Independents. I therefore transcribe some of them as given by Neal, I. 122, note. (I.) " The Church of a God is a congregation called and gathered out of the world by the preaching of the Gospel, united in the true faith, and resolving to form their lives, government, order, and cere monies according to the Word of God." (2.) " The office of a pastor is, to preach the Word and administer the sacraments ; and therefore bare readers are no more fit for pastors than women or children that can read well." (3.) " There ought to be joined to the pastors of the church, elders and deacons, for the bridling of vices, and providing for the poor." (4.) " The pastor should be chosen by the congregation, and confirmed vol. i. 57 in his vocation by the elders with public prayer and imposition of hands." (5.) " No pastor ought to usurp dominion over another ; nor any church, over another church." (6.) " Ceremonies should be few ; have no show of evil ; but mani festly tend to decency and good order. We reject, therefore, all Popish ceremonies and apparel." (7.) " Churches may differ in or der and ceremonies, and yet keep the unity of the faith. Therefore we condemn not other churches that have ceremonies different from ours." (8.) " There ought to be places appointed for public worship, where may be a prescript form of prayer, and service in the known tongue, because all have not the gift of prayer ; but we would not have it patched out of the Pope's portuises. But be the form of prayer never so good, ministers may not think them selves discharged when they have said it over ; for they are not sent to say service, but to preach deliv erance through Christ. Neither ought the minister to be bound to use a prescript form at all times." (9.) " As preaching is the chief 450 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. Scripture model, he embraced in his standard the opinions and customs of the Fathers in the first four centuries after Christ. It Avas in reference to this ap peal beyond the Bible to the Fathers, that a Romish priest afterwards said to Sir Francis Knollys, — and justly, — that he would require no better books to prove his doctrine of Popery than Whitgift's against Cartwright." 1 On this fundamental point — the standard of ap- part of a minister's office, all other things must give place to it." (10.) " It is unlawful to withdraw from the Church where the Word is truly preached, the sacrament sin cerely administered, and true eccle siastical discipline exercised. We are not for an unspotted Church on earth ; and therefore, though the Church of England has many faults, we would not willingly withdraw from it. Yet God's children, when threatened with persecution, and when the church doors are shut against them, may withdraw into private assemblies, separating from idolatry and Popery, though the laws of princes are against it ; and whoever refuseth to be subject to these congregations, separating them selves, resisteth the ordinances of God." (11.) "Religion is tied to no time, nor is one day more holy than another. But because time must be had to hear the Word of God, and to administer the Holy Sacra ments, therefore we keep the Lord's day as we are commanded, but without all Jewish superstition. Those feast-days of Christ, as of his birth, circumcision, passover, resur rection, ascension, &c, may by Chris tian liberty be kept, because they are only devoted to Christ, to whom all days and times belong. But days dedicated to saints, with fasts on their eves, we utterly dislike, though we approve of the rever end memory of saints, as examples to be propounded to the people in sermons ; and of public and private fasts, as the circumstances of nations or private persons re quire." The earliest intimation which I find of the right of the congregation to elect its own minister, is in an anonymous paper written in 1560, containing hints for some reforma tion of the ministry. It suggests that none should be admitted to the min istry but such as are able to minis ter according to God's Word, and as shall, at the same time, be admitted to a certain place and congrega tion ; that every congregation should give their consent and election, with the patron, unto him that is to be presented ; and that, upon such election and admission into the ministry, and institution unto the benefice, may well follow induc tion. (Strype's Annals, I. 312, 313.) 1 Strype's Whitgift, 265. Ch. XA7L] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 451 peal — was thus opened a controversy which termi nated not with John Whitgift and Thomas Cart wright, but which to this day has kept asunder the rigid Churchman, however evangelical in spiritual matters, and the rigid Dissenter, too timid and dis trustful to anchor his hope and his faith save in the deep counsels of God, — too distrustful to guide his course in religious matters by any other than a Di vine chart. On the common platform of the written Word, they would embrace. With such a work in hand, it was not safe for Mr. Cartwright to live in open day. But while the offi cials of the ecclesiastical commission were on the watch, he had ever a form in which to hide. " Many of the Aldermen of London openly countenanced him " ; and he had admirers and stanch friends there, who gave him welcome and concealment.1 So formidable to the government were his doctrines, that the next year, on the 11th of June, the queen issued a proclamation denouncing " certain books under the title of an Admonition to Parliament, and one other also in defence of said Admonition; the which books did tend to no other "end but to make divisions and dissensions in the opinions of men, and to breed talks and disputes against the common order. Therefore her Highness straitly charged ad men, of what quality or condition they were, who had in custody any of the said books, to bring in the same to the bishop of the diocese, or to one of her Highness's Privy Council, within twenty days after they shad have notice of this proclamation ; and not to suffer any of them, without license or aUowance 1 Strype's Parker, 428 ; Whitgift, 53. 452 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. of the said bishop, upon pain of imprisonment and her Highness's further displeasure."1 But when the twenty days had expired, not a single copy of the Admonition by Field and Wilcox had been brought to the Bishop of London, and but thirty-four copies of the Admonition by Cartwright, although without doubt there Avere thousands dispersed in the city and other parts of the diocese. The copies of Cart- wright's book were brought in by Stroud, the pub lisher, Avho came trembling with them to Bishop Sandys, Avhile his wife stayed at home to burn the rest that Avere unsold.2 Stroud had been an exceUent preacher, but had been deprived and forbidden to preach by Parker. Sandys took his books, but up braided him for laying dotvn the ministry ! Wood cock, the bookseller who sold the first Admonition, paid for his sin in Newgate.3 "Having gained fame by the first wound which those fervent reprehenders " — the Puritans — " re ceived at his hands," Whitgift was rewarded for his chivalry ecclesiastic, first, by being made Dean of Lincoln;4 then, Bishop of Worcester;6 and finady, by being elevated to the See of Canterbury. On the other hand, an order Avas issued against Carfr Avright, December 11, 1573,6 "to all the queen's Majesty's officers, to seize his body and to bring him before her Majesty's Commissioners for his unlawful 1 Strype's Parker, 421,422. brought thirty-four. I have at- 2 Camden, 192. Strype's Parker, tempted to reconcile the two. 422; Whitgift, 53. Neal, I. 124. 8 Strype's Annals, IV. 189 ; Ayl- Strype says : " After the twenty mer, 57. days mentioned in the proclamation, 4 Strype's Parker, 332. there was not one book brought in to 6 Sir George Paule, sec. 39. Neal, the Bishop of London." Neal says, I. 123. on manuscript authority, that Stroud ° Strype's Annals, HI. 418. Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 453 dealings and demeanors in matters touching religion and the estate of this realm " ; and he was obliged again to flee the realm, " little better than a wander ing beggar."1 But the two champions were to meet again. Whitgift had been put to replying to the Admoni tion by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. After haAr- ing tried in vain to stop the book itself, by ordering the Mayor and Aldermen of London to seize the press, — which probably they sheltered, — they had directed the Master of Trinity College to "set on work his very able and learned pen, to hinder the spreading of its seditious principles." 2 A book which declared that "the place, the office, the very name of Archbishop ought to be abolished";3 which struck at his courts and their corruptions.; which struck at his revenues ; which declared that the inordinate in comes of the prelacy were employed only in retain ing idle servants and in luxurious living ; and that such men, whose proper functions were spiritual, ought to be reduced to a condition more private and more suitable to the ministers of Christ;4 — such a book, " in great vogue," too, naturally aroused the jealousy and sensitiveness of the prelates. It was bad enough, the Archbishop thought, when such men as the authors cavilled only at the habits ; but when they struck at the Liturgy, " wherein consisted the chief part of the reformation in this Church," denounced the ecclesiastical policy "whereby it was governed, as Antichristian, and labored that another disciphne 1 Neal, I. 125, 129. Brook, H. 3 Ibid., 313. 146. * Ibid., 422, 424, 425, 437; San- 2 Strype's Parker, 347. dys to Burleigh. 454 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. and order should be set up," and Avithal " were cun ningly encouraged by some persons that pretended otherwise, hoping by quarrels against the calling of bishops to get a share of then revenues," — "all this the Archbishop and his brethren reckoned to tend indeed to the ruin of religion ! Nay, more ; to the rum of learning ; to the spoding of the Church's patrimony; to the confusion of the coun try; to a popular state"!1 When Cartwright and his " busy men " first brewed these matters at Cam bridge, his Grace had then " feared they nourished some monster";2 but now he was confident, since Whitgift had opened his eyes, Avhat the monster was; "that they shot not only at the bishops, but at the Queen's Councd, at the nobility."3 In July, 1573, his mind was clear on the subject; for he wrote to Burleigh, that " how secure soever the no bdity were of these Puritans, and countenanced them against the bishops, they themselves might rue it at last " ; and that " ad these men tended towards was to the overthrow of all honorable quality and the setting up of a popularity," by which "he meant a parity or e quahty in the State, as well as in the Church." 4 " Let the chief authors of this sedition, who are now esteemed as gods, be removed far from the city," wrote Sandys, now Bishop of London, to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh. "If these idols who are hon- 1 Strype's Parker, 355, 422, 433. copy before me, from the true page 2 Ibid., 313. 448 onward twelve pages, all desig- 3 Ibid., 355. nated in the copy thus: [ ]. This 4 Ibid., [447]. The brackets distinction will be observed as occa- here denote the duplicate numer- sion requires. Compare supra, p. ical pages, whieh occur in the 341, note 2. Ch. XVI.J THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 455 ored for saints, and greatly enriched by gifts," — be cause they were in penury for their opinions, — " were removed from hence, their honor would fall into the dust. They would be taken for blocks, as they are. Let a commission be sent to the Mayor and Aldermen to search out these matters. For my part, I will do what I can ; not out of regard to mine own office, whereof I be very weary, but in respect of that Church of Christ which is most dear to me. But for .this work I am too weak ; yea, were all of my calhng joined together, we were too weak. Our estimation is little, our authority less. We are be come contemptible in the eyes of the basest sort of people. Therefore do I earnestly beseech your Lord ship and the other lords, to put to your helping hands."1 So thoroughly were these prelates frightened by the foreshadowing of Presbyterianism. It is notice able that it was not a " tendency to the ruin of" the Christian " religion " which the Primate saw in " the discipline labored for " ; and that that " Church of Christ most dear to Sandys, for which he would do what he could," was not the very, the spiritual Church; for they acknowledged Presbytery in Scotland, and Presbytery in Geneva, and Presbytery in France and in Germany, and even Presbytery of foreigners in their own streets, to be of the true Church of Christ. It was the English Church for which they trembled, — the Establishment, — the authority, the lordship, the revenues, the prelacy ; and yet not these only, but — as Whitgift had proclaimed and Parker echoed — the very order of civd government. 1 Strype's Parker, 428. 456 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. Nor was this a mere hue and cry raised for sinister purposes, to excite odium and stimulate severity. But "our Archbishop and tAvo other bishops espe- ciaUy, who stirred more than the rest against the Puritans,"1 Avere honest in sounding this alarm. Scared by the attack upon then own order, then pohtical sagacity was quickened; and, in disobedi ence to governors in things indifferent,2 they scented an insidious principle, — of which the innovators themselves had not yet dreamed, — at war, not in deed with monarchy, but with monarchy as it was. Therefore they said, " that her Highness's sword should be compelled to cut off this stubborn multi tude." 3 Such being their defensive position, and such their pohtical apprehensions, we can easily account for a long train of judicial severities without supposing either the prelacy or the crown to have been moved purely by a love of tyranny or a spirit of malice. Two fabrics were interlaced. The zealot partisans of the structure saw not how the one could be taken down without ruin to the other. It had not entered their conception, that monarchy might be limited, and be monarchy stiU ; nor into that of any, that religion could live with only God for its defence, — that the Church might be independent of the State, and be still the Church. The prayer of the very Admonition was, that its model might le established by law. Herein all parties were agreed. Herein all were wrong. They were gladiators, thrusting in the dark. Guided by effete maxims and rheumy vision, the 1 Strype's Parker, 389. 2 Ibid., 312. 2 Ibid., 313. Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 457 Commissioners pushed their vocation with vigor. They pressed the ecclesiastical garments;1 and, upon the forced construction of the late statute, they de manded subscription to all " the Articles of Religion " all over the kingdom, by which many were deprived of their benefices and ecclesiastical preferments, — not less than one hundred in 1571-2.2 Nor was this all ; for during the same time " great numbers of both sexes all over the realm, who were suspected of religion not agreeable to the state, were committed to close prison";3 while, sometimes at least, a Pa pist transgressor, if discovered, had the free range of prison, and could receive his friends, or was restrained only to a bishop's palace, a courtly bedchamber, and a sumptuous board.4 So httle did the inquisitors look within the cup and platter, so easily were they satisfied with ceremonial innocence where Puritanism was not suspected, that Popish priests who " could swallow the Oath of Supremacy and subscribe the Articles " still passed without censure, and held their livings and preferments ; and Popish agents sped their errands, and found sly encouragement, within the very walls of the palace.5 We say, "where Puritanism was not suspected " ; for where it was, even the cap and surplice, and peaceful submission to the calling of bishops, could not shield from an noyance and persecution.6 On the 30th of August, 1572,7 the people of Lon- 1 Strype's Parker, 324. 6 Strype's Parker, 353, 354, 370. 2 Strype's Annals, IH. 106, 276, " Paid., 380, compared with An- 277. Neal, 1.121. nals, in. 414. 3 Strype's Parker, 354, 355. 7 Taylor's Romantic Biography, ' Strype's Annals, HI. 303. I. 167. VOL. I. 58 458 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. don were startled by a vague rumor of some terrible doings in France. The rumor was of some Avild and lawless slaughter; and soon came despatches, and French refugees penndess, wayworn, haggard, and half frantic with fright, confirming the horrible re port of a wholesale massacre of Protestants. It had been well known that Henry of Navarre was about to wed the princess Margaret of Valois, — that the French king had given out that he was tired of religious wars, and would inaugurate upon this marriage a lasting peace between Huguenot and Papist, — for princes of Germany and the highest no bles of the Enghsh Court had been invited to grace the nuptials. The Huguenots had believed, and had flocked to Paris. The marriage had been solem nized on the 18th ; five days of festivity had fol lowed; when a midnight toll from the bell of St. Germain d'Auxervis gave the signal for treachery, and ten thousand Protestants fell under blade and bullet within the walls of Paris. When the fugitives made their escape for England, "La belle France" was smoking with blood, for the work was not stayed in Paris. Twenty thousand additional victims fell in the provincial towns.1 Great were the rejoicings at Rome. The bearer of the news thither received rich largess from the Cardinal of Lorraine ; the cannon of St. Angelo thun dered applause; Gregory XIII. and his cardinals went "with the greatest devotion" to the Church of St. Mark, where a solemn Mass and Te Deum 1 The whole number has been dred thousand, by others. Camden, rated as low as twenty thousand by 187. Fuller, Bk. IX. pp. 103, 104. some historians, as high as a hun- Neal, I. 127. Hume, HI. 90. Ch. XVL] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 459 were celebrated, special " thanksgiving Avas rendered to God the Creator for this great mercy to his Church, and prayer was offered that he would give grace and virtue to the Most Christian King, his dear son, Charles IX. of France, to pursue so salutary and blessed an enterprise." a His Holiness caused a medal to be struck, in commemoration of " a mercy " so signal, representing the Protestants falling under the sword of an angel from heaven.2 He also issued a bull for a jubilee to be observed, " chiefly for the happy success of the Most Christian King against the heretics."3 The Court of Elizabeth was clad in mourning, and her people were in consternation. They saw in this exploit, not only a new eruption of that deadly spirit which Rome had so long avowed, but the first grand act in that conspiracy of extermi nation which had been devised in the Councd of Trent, and discussed at Bayonne.4 The Lord Treas urer Burleigh acknowledged himself "at his wits' end," and "our Archbishop said that he gave him self over as a man to be carried away with the floods." 5 A like onslaught, it was believed, was intended for England; to begin with the assassina tion of the queen by poison or the dagger.6 The nation was fearfully agitated. They loudly cursed the Pope and his royal confederates ; 7 they publicly insulted the French ambassador and his suite ; 8 and 1 The Pope's bull; Strype's Par- 4 Ibid., 351, 357. Haynes, 471. ker, 351, and Appendix LXVIH. Carte, III. 522. Hume, ELL 91. Lingard is silent as to this docu- Hallam, 87, note. ment. 6 Strype's Parker, 352. 2 Life of Henry IV, by James, " Ibid., 357. I. 337, note (New York, 1847). ' Fenelon's Despatch, Sept. 13th. 3 Strype's Parker, 351. 8 Taylor, I. 169. 460 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. ICh. XVI. the gentry and nobility clamored to be sent in arms against the perfidious French.1 Yet the queen herself was considered strangely apathetic;2 for, though she fortified Portsmouth, put her fleet in order, and established military drills,3 yet "she showed her Popish subjects much favor," and Greg ory's "imps," as his Grace of Canterbury called them, had access to her palace, and Avere slyly en couraged there still.4 True, the Council straitened the condition of the few Papists under arrest for ecclesiastical causes,6 but that was an insignificant measure ; they called for a general census of recu sant Papists, but the Archbishop replied, that it could not be effected, for their name was Legion ; 6 they also made some search for priests, but if any were taken, they found friends at Court, and so escaped.7 While the nation was thus agitated by the double peril of a Catholic conspiracy and a Catholic suc cessor, the queen was seized with sudden and vio lent sickness, on the 15th of October ; s and though of but a day's duration, it excited intense and pro tracted alarm among her subjects, for the peace of the kingdom and the fate of the Reformation hung upon her life.9 1 Hume, HI. 93. ho further notice of this mysterious 2 Strype's Parker, 353. sickness. I therefore assign to a 3 Camden, 189. Carte, LTI. 522. note a topic which I have no incli- 4 Strype's Parker, 352, 353, 354. nation to discuss, and which neces- Ibid., 354. sarily opens the whole subject of Ibid., 355. Elizabeth's equivocal deportment to- 7 Ibid., 359. wards her favorites. 8 Cecil's Journal; Murdin, 773. Strype says (Annals, IH. 319) Wright, I. 445; Sir Thomas Smith that this sickness of the queen "gave to Burleigh. again a mighty disturbance unto her 9 Strype's Annals, IH. 319. subjects." He then quotes, but It would be disingenuous to take without a word of comment the Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 461 At the same time, the religious condition of the realm was deplorable. The royal household was a coverture for epicures and atheists; the bishops and the clergy — with some exceptions — were very remarkable letter of Leicester, which I give below ; and says that her Majesty's illness was " fainting fits " ! Camden says that it was the small-pox. So says Echard. Cecil, in his Journal, says, she " appeared to have the small-pox, but recovered speedily." (Murdin, 773.) Neal — to make sure of the truth — says, " fainting-fits and small-pox." The queen herself pretended to have had symptoms of small-pox. (The Queen to Shrewsbury ; Lodge, H. 79.) No considerate reader will be satisfied with these statements after reading the following letters, — the only ones of the time relating to the affair, which it has been my lot to find, — and perceiving that the sickness was of less than twenty- four hours, and yet excited some kind of popular disturbance. Sir Thomas Smith wrote to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh as follows : "Her Majestie hathe bene very sick this last night, so that my lord of Leicester did watche with her all night. This morning, thanks be to God, she is very well. It was but a soden pang. From Wynde- sor the 15 of October, 1572." — Wright, I. 445 ; from Harleian MS. 6991, 7. We have also the following from Leicester to Walsingham, who was then in Paris. Strype, by mistake, considers it as having been written at the time of the queen's sickness, instead of — at least — seventeen days after. " We have no news here, only her Majesty is in good health ; and though you may hear brutes of the contrary, I assure you it is not as hath been reported. Somewhat her Majesty hath been troubled with a spice or shew of the mother, but in deed not so : the fits that she hath had hath not been above a quarter of an hour, but yet this little hath bred strange brutes here at home. God send her, I beseech him, a long life. So I bid you heartily farewell the — day of November, 1572. Your assured Friend Ro : Leicester." — Digges, 288. This language is obscure; per haps designedly so. Yet it can only be understood as a libel upon the queen's virginity ; for though the writer denies her actual, or com pleted maternity, he avers that rumors of it were abroad, and were fairly occasioned by the peculiar type of her Majesty's illness. If it were not of such a type, it is difficult to suppose a sufficient motive for a villain so wary in his crimes to pen so perilous a lie. If it were of such a type, it is equally difficult to sup pose a sufficient motive for need lessly disclosing - — instead of deny ing — so perilous a secret. To say that this letter tallies with allegations from other sources, and at other times, against Elizabeth's purity, is to say nothing of moment, unless these allegations rest on such evidence as the peculiarities of the case demand. To say how Thomas 462 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Cn. XVI. wasting the patrimonies of the Church, heaping to themselves benefices, and residing aAvay from then cures, and there was "a famine in the land, — the fair virgins and young men fainting for thirst, — Parry and Katherine Ashley testi fied to " odd familiarities " — too gross for repetition here — in which the Lord Admiral Seymour indulged toward Elizabeth in her teens, is only to declare his coarse indecency, and to reveal how the orphan prin cess cowered and wept while under his roof and wardship. Through all the repulsive details of the Ad miral's trial, not a shadow is cast upon her maidenly modesty. (Os borne, 76. Haynes, 96 - 100.) To say, that reports against Eliz abeth's womanly honor were current, after her accession to the throne, in the Courts of France and Spain, is only to say that she had enemies there, and that they shot whither they most might wound. To say that Henry IV., "in a jovial hu mor," declared three things to be in scrutable, — ¦ whether Maurice, the Prince of Orange, who had never fought a battle, were valiant ; what rehgion he himself was of; and whether Queen Elizabeth were a maid or no (Osborne, 76), — is only to say that he could crack a joke as readily against her womanhood as against his own manhood. Many scandalous reports were circulated about her Majesty and the Earl of Leicester; no better proof of whose existence can be given than a memorandum of Cecil, dated April, 1566, containing rea sons against their marriage ; one of which is, " that it will be thought that the slanderous speeches of the queen with the Earl have been true." (Haynes, 444.) Like sayings were current respecting the queen and Hatton. According to Berney's confession to Lord Leicester, writ ten January 29, 1571-2, among the traitorous speeches of a person called Mather was this, — " that ' the queen desireth nothing but to feed her own lewd fantasy, and to cut off such of her nobility as were not perfumed and court-like to please her delicate eye, and place such as were for her turn,' meaning dancers, and meaning you, my Lord of Lei cester, and one Mr. Hatton, whom, he said, ' had more recourse unto her Majesty in her privy chamber than reason would suffer if she were so virtuous and well inclined as some noiseth her ' ; with other such vile words as I am ashamed to speak, much more to write." (Mur din, 203-214. Life of Hatton, 14.) " I am, I think credibly, informed," wrote Archbishop Parker to Bur leigh in September of this year, — 1572, — " that the Mayor of Dover brought up a strange body to be examined, of whom I hear that, be cause your Lordship could have no leisure, ye committed the examina tion to Mr. Sommers " — Clerk of the Council — " and to this Mayor, and he hath it in writing that this villain should utter most shameful words against her Majesty ; viz. that the Earl of Leicester and Mr. Hat ton should be such towards her, as the matter is so horrible, that they Ch. XVI.] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. 463 not a famine for bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." : A great many parishes were without parson, vicar, or curate ; the people Avere neglecting Divine worship, and pro- would not write down the words, but would have uttered them to your Lordship if ye would have been at leisure." (Wright, I. 440.) " But this villain notwithstanding was delivered and sent home, to the rejoicing of his friends." (Strype's Parker, 356.) It is also said, that " the Duke of Anjou alleged the notoriety of Elizabeth's incontinence as his rea son for refusing to marry her," (Life of Hatton, 16,) — which, if true, proves the notoriety, but noth ing more. But the scandal concerning her Majesty did not rest here. It went to the utmost length. In 1570, one Marsham was sen tenced — • according to 1 & 2 Philip and Mary, Cap. HI., revived by 1 Eliz. Cap. AT. — to lose both his ears or pay a fine of a hundred pounds, for saying that " my Lord of Leices ter had two children by the queen." (Lodge, H. 47 ; to the Countess of Shrewsbury. Life of Hatton, 14.) In January, 1572-3, one Blosse was arrested for saying that the queen was married to the Earl of Leices ter about 1564, and had had four children by him. On the question whether his crime could be found treason, no law was found to prose cute him, says Strype. (Annals, HI. 355, 356.) In 1576, the Privy Council ordered the Lord Mayor of Chester to discharge a man con fined in the Northgate for assert ing that Queen Elizabeth had two bastards by the Earl of Leicester. (Chronology in Prichard's Chester Guide, 1851.) About January, 1587-8, there appeared in Madrid a young man calling himself Arthur Dudley, and aged apparently about twenty-seven years, — -born, there fore, about 1560, — who gave out that he was a son of the Earl of Leicester by Queen Elizabeth, and who nar rated how he had been concealed and educated since his secret birth at Hampton Court. The king of Spain, of course, countenanced this man's pretensions, and gave him a pension of six crowns, nearly two pounds sterling a day, with a suit able establishment. (Ellis, 2d Se ries, III. 134, from Harleian MS.) Lingard (Note S, Vol. VHI.) treats the story of this pretender rather solemnly. The haters of Elizabeth's gov ernment and rehgion had motives enough to originate and foster such tales ; which alone is sufficient to account for them. The defamer of whom the Archbishop wrote to Burleigh in 1572, was unquestion ably a partisan of the Popish con spiracy against the English govern ment, as appears from Strype's Par ker, 356 ; and Blosse acknowledged that he received his story from a Popish priest (Strype's Annals, HI. 355). But from whatever source 1 Amos viii. 11-13. 464 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. faning the Lord's day; and the very churches and chapels were fading to decay, and becoming re ceptacles of uncleanness.1 Under all these peculiar circumstances, in what these slanders may have originated, they are supported by no testimony but that of partisan fame, which weighs nothing in comparison with the utter improbability that Queen Elizabeth should have been so de mented by illicit passion as to haz ard for its indulgence her womanly reputation, her popularity, as dear to her as her prerogative, and her life. Of the latter, there would, to be sure, have been no peril, if Sir James Melvil's " conjecture" about her " inability " were correct. (Me moirs, 63.) It cannot be denied, however, that there was other cause for these libels than political and religious hatred. As has been stated, ante, p. 248, regardless of appearances, Elizabeth allowed Leicester such lodgings in her own palace as would naturally give rise to scandal. Her familiari ties with his person were undoubt edly inconsistent with our views of female propriety. A single instance of this is sufficient. Sir James Mel vil, who was present when her Ma jesty created the favorite Baron of Denbigh and Earl of Leicester, in forms us that, while " she herself helped to put on his ceremonial, he sitting on his knees before her with great gravity, she could not refrain from putting her hand in his neck smilingly tickling him, the French ambassador and I standing by." (Memoirs, 94.) In reference to such things, Sir Thomas Chaloner wrote to Cecil, so early as December 6, 1559, that "it became so young a princess to be wary what countenance or familiar demonstration she gave to one more than to another, for it ministered matter to lewd tongues." (Haynes, 212.) Hatton appeared at her court about 1562 ; handsome, tall, grace ful, of elegant manners, and, what particularly pleased the queen, an accomplished dancer. (Life of Hat ton, 4.) When absent from her Court, he was permitted to address her in the language of an ardent and successful lover ; and from the style of his letters it is fair to infer what were the familiarities, or at least the tender courtesies, which passed between them when together. For an example, take the following, written when he was on the Conti nent for his health, in June, 1573: — " In reading your gracious letters .... with my tears I blot them. In thinking of them, I feel so great comfort, that I find cause, as God knoweth, to thank you on my knees. Death had been much more my ad vantage, than to win health and life by so loathsome a pilgrimage. The time of two days hath drawn me further from you than ten, when I return, can lead me towards you. .... No death, no, not hell, no fear of death, shall ever win of me Strype's Parker, 395, 396 ; Burleigh's Memoranda. Ch. XA7L] THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. \4% way were the energies of the Ecclesiastical Com missioners employed ? La providing an antidote to Papistry, a corrective of irreligion, licentiousness, and practical atheism, and nourishment for the Refor mation, by the vigorous preaching of the Gospel? There was, indeed, a special prayer devised for repentance and mercy; another, for deliverance from enemies ; another, with thanksgiving, for the preservation of the queen ; and another, " relating to the apprehension of danger " and to the persecution of foreign Protestants ; a — but instead of laboring for that for which they prayed, instead of bridling immorality and fostering piety, instead of sending out ardent men girded with the sword of the my consent so far to wrong myself again as to be absent from you one day Would God I were with you but for one hour Bear with me, my most dear, sweet lady. Passion overcometh me. I can write no more. Love me, for I love you. God, I beseech thee, witness the same on the behalf of thy poor ser vant. Once again I crave pardon, and so bid your own poor Lidds farewell. 1573, June. Your bond man everlastingly tied, Ch. Hatton." — Life of Hatton, 25, 26. This needs no explanation, except to say that her Majesty had pet names for most of her ministers and favorites. Thus Burleigh was her Spirit; Walsingham, her Moon ; Lady Norris, her Crow ; Hatton, her Lidds, probably because of some pe culiarity in his eyelids, her Mut ton, and her Bell-wether. So they sometimes styled themselves. (Ibid., 126, note, 275.) With these few and meagre state- vox, i. 59 ments, I leave the reader to solve the enigmatical letter of " that terres trial Lucifer, Leicester," (Osborne, 42,) only remarking, — 1. That in the business of railing accusation the Devil could beat Michael, the archangel (Jude, 9); 2. That, in such delicate cases especially, it is easier plausibly to allege a hundred affirmatives, than to prove one neg ative ; and, 3. That the very strong est evidence is necessary to satisfy a candid mind that a woman in Eliz abeth's position, of her masculine character, who as a sovereign had almost imperative inducements to marry, would have refused every offered opportunity of honorable issue, and yet have incurred the double risk of that which would have been infamous. Even licentious ness the most extravagant would have sought, under such circum stances, a conventional screen for its crimes. 1 Strype's Parker, 358. 466 THE ADMONITION TO PARLIAMENT. [Ch. XVI. Spirit, and in the name of "judgment, mercy, and faith," the lord-keepers of souls were toiling for " external matters in rehgion," x and smiting hip and thigh the loyal subjects of the queen, the ripe scholars of the schools, the earnest ministers of Christ. The "seditious" religionists were becoming formi dable. They were worshipping God, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, contrary to the royal de cree ; " reading prayers different from the estab lished order " ; and they were issuing their books plentifully, for the Commissioners could not find their press. These things " gave great grief to the Archbishop and the other good bishops," and great offence to the queen; so that they began to be "pretty brisk upon these men," whom they "knew to be cowards." Being "pretty brisk" meant "prose cuting the Puritans more vigorously than before." 2 1 Strype's Parker, 395. " Boid., 325, 388, 389, 412, 421, 422. CHAPTER XVII. "PRETTY BRISK." (ARCHBISHOP PARKER.) Keasons fob disciplining Puritans, and Reasonings against them. — The Archbishop's Perplexities. — Persecution for Opinions opened. — The new "Fantasies" spread. — Proclamation for enforcing the Act of Uniformity. — New Ecclesiastical Commissions. — The Council rebuke the Bishops for Slackness. — Charge to the Commissioners. — Lord Burleigh's Position. — Tests imposed by the Commissioners. — Minis ters silenced and imprisoned. — "The Physicians themselves sick." 1573. What right have these castle-budders to think? What right to think the structure and discipline of the primitive Church the only model for the British Church, fifteen hundred years gone by ? What right to stick doggedly to the New Testament as the rule of ecclesiastical policy, all written whenas there was no magistrate in the Church, and so no magistrate to Avhom the appointment of the clergy and the reg ulation of worship could appertain ? The earliest Church tdth a prince is the proper model for the pres ent Church with a prince. Therefore, that Church, speaking through its fathers, shoidd be, in such mat ters, our sacred oracle, and theirs.1 The accidental points of ecclesiastical policy are to be framed as they may best agree to that common wealth where the Gospel is received, so they be not 1 Whitgift's argument. 468 "PRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVTI. against the Word of God, but tend to comeliness and edification.1 But these new builders' devices are for a building which hitherto, Ave think, in no Christian nation under kingly rule hath found any foundation upon earth ; but now, and for a princely state, it is framed upon suppositions in the air, fidl of absurdities and impossibilities. It is high time that such naughty opinions should be whipped, for they be most plausi ble to a great number of the people, who labor to live in all liberty, — an unfit thing, bringing confus ion, — and do make them hate the bishops, a thing both uncomely and uncomfortable.2 It is high time for these opinions to be schooled, for the number is grown great of dealers in this action. Some whereof, doubtless, be both honest and learned, though other some be puffed up with vainglory, and have great delight to hear themselves talk. Greater the number of those that favor them ; Avhereof some it seemeth are persuaded that they hold with the Truth, and so in conscience incline unto them. Others, no doubt, are Papists indeed ; and, because they dare not openly promote Popery, egg these men forward secretly to deface the Gospel. Other are atheists, — as Leicester and the like greedy cour tiers, — and set them on only because they them selves gape for the spoil of the clergy, which they hope most easily to bring to pass under color of reformation.3 1 Hutton to Burleigh, Oct. 6, 3 Hutton to Burleigh ; Murdin, 1573 ; Murdin, 264. 261, 262. 3 Parker and Sandys's Circular ; Strype's Parker, 433, 434. Ch. XVH.] "PRETTY BRISK." 469 It is high time for these opinions to be schooled, because, moreover, they be dangerous. These re formers run counter to God's vicegerent, Elizabeth. They would take authority in causes ecclesiastical from the Queen's Majesty, and give it to themselves, with the grave seniory or elders of every parish. Eor by the seniory woidd they have every cause debated Avhen any ariseth in the congregation. If the elders cannot end it, then it is to be debated by the ministers and seniory of parishes adjoining. If these cannot end it, it is to be debated by a national councd. If the national councd cannot, then by a general council of all the Churches Reformed. They make no mention of the queen's authority ; and yet, we warrant ye, could they once get on foot, they would be mighty eager for her authority, and have her draw forth her sword and see that this order of theirs be kept. This she hath to do, and more than this she hath not to do, if we believe some of them.1 Furthermore, whereas we say, that it is a parcel of the queen's authority, in causes ecclesiastical, to ap point bishops and archbishops, and other ministers, either by herself or other wise and learned, and to remove them if they do not their duty, these men would not only have an equality of ministers (the mother of confusion and nurse of contention), but also would deprive the Queen's Highness of this authority, and give it to the people; that every parish should choose their own minister. Which law woidd bring about another hurly-burly, worse than hath been about garments ; for were it put in prac tice in this country, divers parishes would have none 1 Hutton ; in Murdin, 262. 470 "PRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVII. but a Papist ; others would have the best companion at tables, — not the best preacher in the pulpit. And whereas they allege that the Apostles, by voices and lifting up the Iiands of the people, did appoint minis ters in every church, though that were granted (for there are divers opinions), yet doth not that bind the Church but that ministers may be appointed other ways ; for neither were there at that time any mag istrates to Avhose office it did appertain. But now, seeing we have a Christian prince, she, by the advice of the sage Council of the realm, and the counsel of the grave fathers of the Church , can better dis cern whom to place over Christ's flock, than the mul titude, which have commonly many heads, many wits, but not the best judgment.1 In a popular state it is meet the people should rule ; under an oligarchy, the wise and grave mag istrates. But in a kingdom, the people may not bear the sway without doing injury to the prince that representeth the person of God. Therefore, to compel this realm to all the ecclesiastical pohty of Geneva, which is an oligarchy, a state differing from a king dom, or to all the accidental points of pohcy used in the Apostles' time, (when there was no Christian magistrate but great persecution,) is more than can be vouched by the Word of God, and also dangerous to the present state and derogatory to her Majesty's authority. Por as Calvin liketh best of the eccle siastical pohcy which agreeth better to a popular state than to a kingdom, so doth he hold an opinion that the state caUed Aristocratia, or oligarchy, or one mixed of it and of that which is called Politia, 1 Hutton ; in Murdin, 264. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 471 or democracy, doth far excel all other states. But surely, neither by divinity nor philosophy can it be proved but that a kingdom governed by good and godly laws, and by a prince that rideth his subjects as a father doth his own chddren, is the most excellent state of aU commonwealths. This is not to discredit Calvin, who surely was as worthy and as learned a man, and hath profited the Church as much, as ever did any since the Apostles' time ; but to show that he was a man, and that, as he thought not so well of a kingdom as of a popular state, so did he like best of that ecclesiastical pohcy which agreeth better to a popular state than to a kingdom.1 These reformers speak profanely of the prince, saying that she ruleth in the commonwealth only as God's vicegerent, and in the Church of God is only to see that all be ruled of the Lord ; whereas in both she ruleth as vicegerent, so that her ecclesiastical laws — not contrary to the Word of God, but tend ing to edify the Church — may not with safe con science be disobeyed of any subject, for whoso lifteth up the heel against the1 vicegerent doeth it against God. It is a hard kind of doctrine to say, that the prince's laws, though they be good, bind not the con science. True, some things are simply good, some simply evd, and some indifferent ; and things indif ferent do not bind the conscience. Albeit laws may be made of things indifferent, for comeliness in the Church ; and so things indifferent made not indiffer ent, but to be obeyed even for conscience' sake. This kind of laws bindeth not the conscience in such sort as do the moral laws of Moses, whereunto we are 1 Hutton ; in Murdin, 265. 472 "PRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVH. always bound without respect of time and place, or man, or man's law ; but, as the ceremonies of Moses' law, whde they Avere in force, might not be violated Avith a safe conscience, so the good and godly laws of princes, though they be not given from God im mediately, nor equal to God's laws, yet, because they are the lawful commandments of his anointed and vicegerents here on earth, may not be broken without disobedience to God. Wherefore it be much better to say that the good laws of princes bind the conscience, than to say with others the contrary; though by a quiddity in learning it might be de fended.1 Some hold an opinion that the prince ought not to take away, by any positive law, that liberty which God hath given in things indifferent. This opinion doth overthrow many statutes of this realm, Avhere- unto we are to obey, not for that the things them selves do bind the conscience, but because they are estabhshed by lawful authority.2 But these men are marvellously offended that bishops are called Lords and Honorable ; and think that those high titles are usurped against God's Word, because Christ, answering to the contentious ambition of the Apostles, said, "The kings of na tions are lords over them, &c, but ye, not so." But if he be caUed Lord which hath the rule and government over his own house, or which hath the order over any people or flock, as Joseph was caded Lord governing the Egyptians under the king ; if a poor man, letting his ground or house but for five shillings a year, is usually caUed land-Lord, what 1 Hutton ; in Murdin, 263. 2 Hjid. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 473 offence is it if bishops, having lands and lordships, be called Lords ? More marvel is it that men can not abide their being called Honorable. St. Paul seemeth not to be so precise : " Let the elders," saith he, "that rule well, be counted worthy of double honor." Noav if it please the queen so to esteem of bishops, for their learning, knowledge, and virtue, as to take them among her Lords, and count them Honorable, and to place them to counsel in Parlia ment or otherwise, it is not to be thought that any offence is committed against God's blessed Word, so long as the bishops contend not for the same ambitiously, which fault our Saviour reproved in his Apostles. Besides, Aaron was appointed by God with Moses for the government of God's people, and was counted in authority not far under Moses. God commanded that kings, for their better government, should pe ruse the book caded Deuteronomonium, which they should receive of the priests, who were thought to be had in great reverence and authority for that they were the keepers of such mysteries. The prophets, no doubt, were in great authority, and well esteemed with kings and with people. How honorably did Constantine the Great use the godly bishops in the Council of Nice ! How honorably did Theodosius the Emperor use Ambrose ! 1 Such were the opinions which now alarmed the prelates ; and such were the reasonings now brought against them, and on which proceedings against their advocates were grounded. Setting aside that 1 Parker to Burleigh; Strype's Parker, 436. vol. r. 60 474 "PRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVII. in favor of Lord Bishops, these reasonings of the Precisian party are at least respectable, temperate, courteous, and to a degree plausible ; the most so, probably, of any from the pens of Churchmen hi this year. They Avill be noticed with comparative satisfaction and pleasure by every intelligent reader, whatever his ecclesiastical preferences. Yet the statement that the ecclesiastical policy ought to correspond with that of the state, and that touching the prince as God's ecclesiastical vice gerent and lawgiver, however satisfactory and sound they may have seemed to the school to which the writer belonged, could by no means satisfy the Puritan objector, because each was but a begging of the question ; an advancing as axioms two fun damental points in dispute. Nor was the scruple of the conscientious Puritan at all met by the reasoning about things indifferent ; for in his A'iew, the rites, ceremonies, and vestures of the Church had long been changed from indiffer ent to sinful by their association — still existing in the popular mind — with an idolatrous religion. Having been thus changed from their original and intrinsic indifference, the laws enforcing them could not be considered " good and godly," and therefore could not be obligatory upon one who held that counte nancing idolatry was sin in God's eyes, — a breach of those "moral laws of Moses whereunto Ave are all bound, without respect of time and place, or man or man's law." Before the Puritan's cavd, the argument therefore was irrelevant, and fell to the ground. Besides, the Popish garments, he said, have now become themselves very idols indeed; made so by Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 475 being exalted above the Word of God Almighty.1 As for the pohcy of the Established Church, espe cially in its connection Avith the State, the view of the Puritan — a true one — was, that " in the Church of the Traditioners," — so caUed because they now avoAved the traditions of the Church to be its rules of government, — " there is no other discipline than that Avhich hath been maintained by the antichristian Pope of Rome, whereby the Church of God hath al- Avays been afflicted, and is to this day." 2 That the Presbyterian plan for the election of ministers would install Papists and pot-companions in the sacred office, was an objection doubly un fortunate, for it was confessed that " Popish Massing priests were allowed in the ministry" under the system then existing;3 whde, at the same time, there had been, and still was, " lamentable corrup tion of patrons and clerks, parsons ahenating their glebes, forgiving their patrons their tithes, and pay ing sums of money, to get admission into then churches " ; i it had " come to pass that some were for setting boys and serving-men, mere lay-bodies, to bear the names of livings " ; 5 and " the Devd and corrupt patrons took such order, that much of the hope that the land would be replenished with able and learned pastors was cut off, for patrons did not search the universities for a most painful pastor, but posted up and down the country for a most gainful chapman. He that had the 1 Strype's Parker, 435. * Strype's Life of Parker, 98 ; in a Ibid. 1561. 3 Henry, Earl of Huntington, Lord 6 Ibid. 249 ; in 1567. ZurichLet- President of the North, to Burleigh, ters, pp. 247, 271. in 1578 ; Strype's Annals, IV. 174. 476 "PRETTY BRISK." ICh. XVII. biggest purse to pay largely, not he that had the best gifts to preach learnedly, was presented to a benefice." x Moreover, not long after this year, the Lords of Council complained, Avith reason, that " per sons were appointed to ecclesiastical vacancies who had neither learning nor good name; and that un learned curates, chargeable Avith drunkenness, filthy life, gambling, alehousing, were suffered, without apprehension or other proceeding."2 Thus it was unfortunate for the writer to urge that such things would be, under the plan of popular elections. And yet again, under the Establishment, men were mem bers of the Church by natural birth; the Church was the nation, — Papists, rabble, and all; an order of things which the Puritan held in detestation, utterly at variance with his very idea of a Christian Church.3 According to his regime none but mem bers of the Church would have had voice in the election of ministers, and none but those of sound doctrine, sober conversation, and upright lives would have been members of the Church. We have digressed from our course, to note the irrelevancy of the best paper against the Puritans which it has been our fortune to meet. It was our object simply to show in what posture of mind the most temperate and enhghtened Churchmen, at this time, held themselves toward the movement for ec clesiastical reformation. To this point we return. The reasonings above cited deeply affected the 1 Preface to Bullinger's Decades, " Strype's Whitgift, 166. published in England in 1584. See 3 See ante, page 448, note 7 (1), Strype's Whitgift, 186 ; Annals, IV. and Hanbury, I. 40. 146. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 477 Primate of Canterbury; particularly the considera tion — it was his Grace's own — that a five-shilling rental made a man a lord. (What this or the rest of his Avords about lordship had to do with the Puritan objection to joining civil dignities and func tions to the Gospel ministry, it is impossible to say, or to see.) He was " full of perplexities, what would become of the Church and the nation by reason of these innovators," with their fantastical opinions ; and the more because he knew that they were "now framing themselves into more formal separa tion,"1 and that, in some places, the parishes were electing their OAvn ministers.2 As he pondered their seditious opinions, he trembled, " not that he cared either for cap, tippet, surplice, or wafer bread, or any such " ; nor, that he was in fear of being dis placed by the Puritans, for he protested before God he was not. But it was " for the laws established ; for her Majesty's safety, estimation, and gover nance." 3 The mischief now was in opinions. What might they not do in the way of havoc ! Hence it was, that he was "more busy than, peradventure, some thought he needed to be " ; i which Ave shaU soon proceed to show. The ecclesiastical severities of Elizabeth kept pace with her strength. She did not begin to annoy those who scrupled exact conformity, until in 1564 her government had become wed established. Nor did she furnish her arsenal with artdlery expressly 1 Queen's Proclamation, Strype's 3 Ibid., 421 ; Appendix, 185. Parker, 421, 434. * Ibid., 421. 2 Strype's Parker, 436. 478 "PRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVII. fitted to meet the Catholics, or prick the Puritans more vigorously with her sword, untd, in 1569, she had openly demonstrated the folly of insurrection ; nor untd it had become evident to herself — about the same time — that her power, more than that of any English prince had ever been, was respected abroad.1 To quiet certain rumors that it was her intent to make inquisition of men's consciences in matters of religion, her Majesty made public declare tion in 1570, that "she would not allow any of her subjects to be molested, either by examination or inquisition in any matter of faith, as long as they should profess the Christian faith, not gainsaying the authority of the Holy Scriptures or the arti cles of faith contained in the creeds Apostolic and Catholic."2 The particular occasion for that dec laration had passed away. From this point of our narrative we shad have opportunity to judge of its sincerity. The controversy in the Church " was, at the be ginning, but a cap, and a surplice, and a tippet, but now it had grown to bishops and archbishops, and cathedral churches, and the overthrow of the order estabhshed, and (to speak plain) to the Queen's Majesty's authority in causes ecclesiastical. If it had been looked to nine years before, this hurly-burly- had not now happened." 3 In other words, from ceremonials, the difference had now opened in "a matter of faith," or opinion, between parties loth of Avhom " professed the Christian faith, not gainsaying 1 Killegrew to Cecil, 1569 ; Haynes, 516. 2 Haynes, 591, 592. Strype's Annals, H. 371, 372. " Hutton to Burleigh ; Murdin, 262. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 479 the authority of the Holy Scriptures or the creeds Apostolic and Catholic." How Avas it noio about the queen's allowing her subjects to be molested by examination into their opinions ? IIoav was it hence forth? The Puritans offered to give an exposition in public of their ecclesiastical opinions, and there to defend them against the objections of the prelatical party. But the Lord Treasurer would not suffer it, giA'ing a statesman's reason, — that it was not proper to question her Majesty's established laws. Doubt less he knew that logomachy could never settle or mitigate religious differences.1 In the latter part of March, 1573, " divers of the most eminent men among the Puritans " were ar raigned, — some before the Ecclesiastical Commis sioners, some before the Council. " For matter of ceremonies ? for any other external matters apper taining to the Christian religion, as frequentation of Divine service " ? — matters expressly kept open for prosecution by her Majesty's gracious declaration before mentioned. Not at all. It was " by way of examination of their secret opinions in their con sciences for matters of faith " other than " contained in the creeds Apostohc and Catholic," — the annoy ance and wrong from which the declaration, in the very words here quoted, had pledged exemption. It was, to be " examined particularly about Cart- wright's Book, and other matters, relating to the reformation of the Church, boldly contradicted there in"; about "their secret opinions" on the points following. 1 Strype's Parker, 412. 480 "PRETTY BRISK." [Ch. XVII. 1. Whether it be lawful for a private man openly to disprove [disapprove] or condemn in doctrine that thing that is established by public authority, before he hath, by humble supplication, showed the error thereof to the said authority, expressing his name and hand to the same ? x 2. Whether the Book of Service be good and godly, every tittle grounded on the Holy Scripture ? 3. Whether the Book of Articles established by Parliament be agreeable to God's Word or not ? 4. Whether we must of necessity follow the prim itive Church in such things as be used or established, or not? 5. Whether all ministers in the Church of God should be of equal authority, as well concerning their jurisdiction, as administration of the Word and Sacraments ? 2 To undergo this inquisition, Field and Wdcox were summoned from prison. After their examina tion, they were remanded to Newgate, being told by the Council, at the same time, that, " except the queen would pardon them, they should be banished 1 Strype says, that " four sub- by the authors with their own hands, scribed to this question, that ' it was before having " openly disapproved not lawful'; and that hereupon it was or condemned the thing estab- observed that they had all condemn- lished." Presenting it to Parlia- ed Cartwright's Book." (Strype's ment was not openly condemning Parker, 413.) If he understood the Ecclesiastical Establishment, for this remark to have been applied to Parliamentsat with closed doors, and the first Admonition, which he usu- the book, although printed, was not ally, but by mistake, calls " Cart- " suffered to go abroad " until after Wright's Book," he probably misun- its authors had been committed to derstood. The Admonition of Field Newgate. (Brook, I. 319.) "They and Wilcox, although it condemned were taken up and imprisoned for the prelatic order of the Church, offering this seditious book to Parlia- was itself "an humble supplication ment." (Strype's Annals, III. 275.) presented to the public authority" 2 Strype's Parker, 412. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 481 the realm for disliking our Book of Religion " ! Two others Avere told — the same in substance — that " they should be banished also, if they would not agree to our religion "I1 If this threat was not made merely to scare them into orthodoxy, but with serious intent, it shows a decided proclivity on the part of the government to the most despotic meas ures ; for there was no law for such a punishment in such a case. However, the sinners were neither pardoned, nor converted, nor banished.2 Mr. Cartwright was also summoned to be cate chised, but prudently kept himself concealed. Where upon, warrant was issued for his arrest, as has already been stated.3 Of the style in which these examinations were conducted, and of the answers given by the several examinates, Ave have no account. But it is quite enough to know, that in these proceedings men's consciences were sifted upon compulsion, under the frown of civd power. Such was the first step in " the more vigorous prosecution " of the men whom " the queen was resolved to suppress";4 the first act of the English Inquisition ; the first violation of that royal pledge, that none should be molested for their " secret opin ions." The ball once in motion, the Archbishop girded up his loins. In May, he exhorted the Lord Treas urer and the Privy Councd, pathetically, to be val orous against these wdd fantasies about a popular Church ; " otherwise, he feared they should feel a 1 Strype's Parker, 413. 8 Neal, I. 129. 2 Md. * Strype's Parker, 412. vol. i. 61 482 "PRETTY BRISK" [Ch. XVII. Muncer's Commonwealth attempted shortly.1 If the laws of the land be rejected, if the Queen's Majesty's injunctions, if her chapel, if her authority, be so neglected, if our Book of Service be so abominable, and such paradoxes be applauded to, — God send us of his grace ! I fear our wits be infatuated ! " 2 And again in June, when more Puritans Avere before the inquisition in the Star-Chamber, he made an oration about the perds of the Church, the perds of the nation, the perils of the queen, affirming that these " cowards," like stealthy huntsmen, were com passing them about with secret toils. It seems as though this rhetorical effort may have been twin to that in behalf of lord bishops ; for his Grace had misgivings about its efficacy as soon as he returned to Lambeth ¦palace. " Fearing that the zeal of the Councd might cool " notwithstanding, he immediately wrote to the Lord Treasurer, stirring him up to further and stouter proceedings ; to encourage his Lordship to which, he told him, in conclusion, that " he was going to pray to God that all things might prosperously succeed." 3 Sandys, Bishop of London, was his yoke-fellow in this kind of labor ; and in the presence-chamber one day he instigated, or at least hastened, another measure against the Whimsicals, — 1 Muncer was a politico-religious quota for subsistence. Under his fanatic, who appeared in Thuringia direction, the peasants took forcible in 1526 ; one ofthe leaders in "the possession of the cities, deposed the War of the Peasants." His aim magistrates, seized the estates of the was to level the power of the nobil- nobles, and compelled them to wear ity, to level all conventional distinc- garments of like fashion and fabric tions, to abolish property, to place withtheirown. (Robertson's Charles all men in a common rank, and to V, p. 206, New York, 1829.) establish a community of goods from 2 Strype's Parker, 420. which each one should draw his 8 R>id., 421. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 483 the queen's abortive proclamation of the 11th of June, mentioned before, in which she ordered the people to bring in ad copies of the Admonition ; and, moreover, did " straitly charge and command them, on pain of her highest indignation, to keep the order of common prayer, Divine service, and admin istration of the sacraments, according as in the Book of Service they were set forth, and none other con trary or repugnant."1 These prelates were also on the watch to catch any one who might utter a word in favor of "the new seditious fancies." Two or three of the select preachers at Paul's Cross, who commended the ob noxious opinions, had pursuivants after them in a trice, but were out of the way betimes.2 Even the churches of foreigners were watched, and strictly forbidden to receive any Enghsh subject to their feUowship or worship.3 Nor did the zeal of the two bishops end with these measures. Impressed with "the imminent, danger of Cartwright and his party's principles," they established conferences for consultation, — to thwart the endeavors of these underminers of then order, — which conferences were held at Lambeth palace by appointment from time to time according to exigencies, to which other bishops were caded by special missives, and which were "to be kept secret among themselves." i Instant in season and out of season were these bishops. To him who fumes about them, the worst prop- 1 Strype's Parker, 421, 422. s Strype's Parker, 428; Annals, 2 Ibid., 427. Neal, 1. 124. Brook, HT. 421. I. 278 ; H. 70. * Strype's Parker, 434. 484 "PRETTY BRISK." [Ch. XVXT. erty of opinions is, that they are incorporeal, in tangible. One cannot catch them to scotch them, or to lock them up. If the thinker be put in ward, not so the thought. Troublesome as it is, it is vapory, ethereal, volatde; treats fetters and stone Avails as a giant does pasteboard and packthread ; can not be scared by rack or royalty ; scorns what men caU poAver ; and, like a gibing sprite, goes whither soever it hsts, listeth whomsoever it wdl, and multi plies itself indefinitely, without weariness or limit. Thus, in their crusade against opinions, Matthew of Canterbury and Edwin of London were sadly baffled ; " laboring in the very fire, and wearying themselves for very vanity " ; and — to complete their dolor — were berated by their mistress for being lazy. The new opinions had spread. They had grown stout and bold. They were preached and heard. They were printed and read. They were applauded and put in practice. The orders prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, maugre " the queen's high est indignation," were not " kept " ; but were openly broken and despised. New rites were adopted. " New churches were set up." Yet these new church es, — these Genevan Presbyteries, — the watchmen knew of them, but could not find them.1 This would never do. The supreme power must move. " The anointed vicegerent of God " must again interpose. On the 20th of October, therefore, the queen uttered another proclamation. " The Queen's Ma jesty being right sorry to understand that the order of Common Prayer set forth by authority of Parhament is now of late despised and 1 Strype's Parker, [446]. Neal, 1. 126. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 485 spoken against, the cause of which disorders be the negligence of the bishops and other magistrates," &c. — Elizabeth was an expert dema gogue ; always saying, and in her public acts de meaning herself accordingly, " that she could be lieve nothing of her people which parents would not believe of their children " ; 2 that " her state did require her to command what she knew her people would willingly do from their own love to her." "Again, she could put forth such altera tions," in her behavior, — " Avhen obedience was lacking, as left no doubtings whose daughter she was."2 So, in this case, she charged the fault, not upon the disloyalty or depravity of her loving sub jects at large, but upon the negligence of the bishops and magistrates. — 'The proclamation continued : " For speedy remedy whereof, her Majesty straitly chargeth and commandeth " all in authority ecclesiastic and ordinary " to put in execution the Act for the uni formity of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments, with all diligence and sever ity; neither favoring nor dissembhng with one per son nor other who doth neglect, despise, or seek to alter the godly orders and rites set forth in the said book. But if any person shall, by public preaching, writing, or printing, contemn, despise, or dispraise the orders contained in the said book, they shall immediately apprehend him, and cause him to be imprisoned until he hath answered to the law, upon pain that the chief officers being present at any such preaching, and the whole parish, shaU answer for their contempt and neghgence. 1 Camden, 233. 2 Nugse Antiquse, I. 356. 486 "PRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVH. "Likewise if any shad forbear to come to the Common Prayer and receive the Sacraments of the Church, according to the order in the book allowed, upon no just and lawful cause, all such they" — the magistrates ecclesiastical and civil — "shad in- quire of, present, and see punished with more care and ddigence than heretofore hath been done. The which negligence hath been cause why such dis orders have of late now so much and in so many places increased and grown. " And if any persons shad, either in private houses or in public places, make assemblies, and therein use other rites of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments than is prescribed in the said book, or shad maintain in their houses any persons notoriously charged, by books or preachings, to at tempt the alteration of the said orders, they" — the magistrates — "shall see such persons punished with all severity according to the laws of this realm, by pains appointed in the said act. "And because these matters do principally apper tain to the persons ecclesiastical, her Ma jesty giveth a most special and earnest charge to aU such, to have a vigilant eye and care to these things, and to proceed from time to time by ordinary and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, with all celer ity and severity, against all persons who shall offend, upon pain of her Majesty's high displeasure for their negligence, and deprivation from their dignities and benefices, or other censures to follow, according to their demerits."1 Matthew Hutton, Dean of York, in his admirable 1 Sparrow, 169, 170. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 487 letter of the 6th of the month, which we have largely quoted, and Avhich Lord Burleigh had expressly so licited, had closed Avith the following wise and truly Christian counsel : — " If there be things to be amend ed in the Church of England, — as it is hard to have a thing so perfect but it may be amended, — God hath blessed her Majesty above the capacity of her sex Avith singular learning; her Honorable Councd — some especially — are passing wed learned, and the grave fathers of the Church, — so many in number, so zealous in the truth, so well learned in godly learning, — let them gather themselves to gether in the name of Christ; let them consult without affection " — bent of mind ; — " let them talk with the authors of 'The Admonition and Plat form ' ; x let them answer them, and satisfy them, — if it be possible, — by reason of God's Word ; and if there be either defect in the laws, or disorder for want of execution of the laws, let it be reformed by pubhc authority. Only let us not, through bitter and uncharitable contention, hinder the course of the Gospel, give occasion to the enemy to rejoice, and gratify them that gape for the spoil of the clergy." 2 It is refreshing to transcribe such sentiments from the paper of a Churchman of that day. No doubt they were approved by the discreet and high-minded statesman to whom they were offered. But what could he do ? He " was sworn to be a minister of 1 " The Admonition contained that Platform which was there their grievances who presented it, prescribed." — Puller, Bk. IX. p. with a declaration of the only way 102. to redress them, viz. by admitting s Murdin, 265. 488 "PRETTY BRISK." [Ch. XVII. her Majesty's determinations, and not of his own or of others."1 Her Majesty's motto was, " Semper ea dem!' She would not admit any need of amendment in her Church Established; and hence her stern order, by the proclamation, for unsparing severity. Nor was this proclamation aU. Ecclesiastical com missions were issued under the Great Seal to trust worthy persons in the several shires, to execute the proclamation by way of Oyer and Terminer. Of these, the Archbishop and bishops were the chief They were deputed to determine and punish espe- ciaUy aU offences against the orders of the Church.2 Moreover, the proclamation "was backed" by a letter, dated November 7th, from the Council to the bishops, and written by the queen's command. It told them " that it Avas mostly their fault that such diversities, contentions, and unseemly disputations had arisen ; that they and their officers had hereto fore performed their Ausitations and held their courts more — and the more the pity — to get money, or for. some other sinister purposes, than to keep their churches in uniform and godly order; that they were now and hereby required to keep a vigilant eye, to see to it that in no one church there be any deformity, or difference from the prescribed orders, and to punish ad offenders." 3 This letter stung the bishops. It seemed hard, after ad that they had done, that they could not satisfy then mistress ; i that now they, instead of the 1 Cecil to the Queen, 1560 ; s Strype's Parker, 454. Wright, I. 25. * Neal, I. 127, note. " Strype's Parker [447], 457 ; Annals, HI. 384. Ch. XVTI.] "PRETTY BRISK." 489 temporal officers, should be made to shoulder both the drudgery and the odium of prosecutors ; and above all, that they should be charged with covetous ness.1 But there was no alternative ; and they obeyed. To complete the arrangements of the Court, those who had just been put in commission, and " who now Avere about going into then respective counties to execute the laws upon ecclesiastical offenders," 2 were assembled in the Star-Chamber on the 28th of No vember to receive from the Lord Treasurer their final charge. " A number of vicars, curates, preachers, and read ers," said he, "young in years, but over-young in brains, have made sundry alterations, according to their own imaginations and conceits, in the common services of the Church. They have also diffused erroneous opinions, such as make men think the pre scribed orders and rites of the Church burdenous to conscience. This is a matter pernicious to the state of government; a danger which her Majesty, by the charge committed to her by Almighty God, is bound to stay by speedy good means. These corrupt opin ions tend to the violation of laws without offence to conscience. Hence come violent and audacious at tempts, of which her Majesty is daily hearing ; and as you are now to repair to your several counties, she reiterates her earnest intent to reform these dis orders and corruptions, which are brought about both by malpractice and by unsound doctrine. She can not be quiet in her conscience without earnestly pros ecuting the reformation hereof; nor can she think 1 Strype's Parker, 455. 2 Ibid, 456. VOL. i. 62 490 "PRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVII. any of her subjects, especially her ecclesiastical officers, worthy to live under her protection, or anywise to enjoy her favor, who shall directly or indirectly maintain any person to alter, by example or doctrine, the estabhshed orders of the Church. "Her Majesty also wideth that you her Commis sioners, and other justices, in your several places, do use your endeavor that her injunctions, at sev eral times published, for the uniform government and rites of the Church, be observed by all per sons. " And Avhereas these doctrines of alterations or varieties may be thought even by persons of value and note — perchance by some nominated in the commissions — to be not so perdous as her Majesty doth conceive them, but to be merely of the nature of arguments or disputations, and whereas some may think that these innovators have cause to account some rites of the Church not so perfect as might be, her Majesty hath commanded me to make it man ifest that the perds are such, and so great as she judgeth them. " In a family, or in a ship, if the commander and the persons under him fall to such a difference that there be contrariness between his directions and their behavior, what will ensue but beggary in the one case, and shipwreck in the other ? By like dissen sions, kingdoms may be overthrown. And if dis order, if dissension, if contention, may bring these perds in civil causes, what ought not to be greatlier feared in spiritual, — in causes of religion and con science ? Such example hath her Majesty remem> Ch. XVII.J "PRETTY BRISK." 491 bered to me to be uttered." x Here the original, in Lord Burleigh's handwriting, abruptly ends. This Avas all very wed, if it be admitted that the unity and harmony, the vigor, thrift, and existence of Christ's true Church, depend upon a common form of worship, a common government, and a common executive head, for aU the congregations in a civd commonwealth. On these points, the Puritan was as yet all wrong; the Protestant Churchman was equally so ; and the Cathohc was no worse. Each thought his own platform and polity and discipline the true, and to be enforced by the sword of the prince. The Puritan was sincere in saying, that " in the Church, the magistrate was only to see that aU be ruled of the Lord." 2 The Protestant Churchman — but a step farther back — was equally sincere hi say ing that the magistrate had a right, at his own dis cretion, to legislate for the Church, as well as to coerce obedience. Elizabeth was not under the cloud alone. We may therefore concede, at least, sincerity to her opinions, as expressed by the Lord Treasurer to the commissioners. Did she sharply resent disobedience to her ecclesiastical laws ? She was a queen. Was she jealous to an extreme of her ecclesiastical su premacy ? She was human. Did she fondly fancy the policy and ritual of her Church above amendment? She was a woman. However low we may estimate her piety, — using the word in its purest sense,3 — 1 Strype's Parker, 456 - 458. ' what I certainly know to be the fact, 2 Hutton, supra; and Sampson to and assert most confidently, that she Burleigh, Strype's Parker, Appen- is indeed a child of God." — Samp- dix, p. 177 ; and the Admonition as son to Peter Martyr, in 1560 ; Zu- quoted by Neal, I. 74, 75. rich Letters, No. XXXIX. 8 " I can most cordially testify, 492 "PRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVH. Ave exceed warrant if Ave charge her measures upon singular depravity. Burleigh was a strict and honest Churchman. But the reader must not suppose that in this address he spake his oavii sentiments ; that he approved of the queen's rigidity, preciseness, and severity; or that he was blind to the evils which the Puritans sought to reform. Besides, upon another occasion, he con fessed to a leader of the Puritans, that some, and those the most important, of " their motions he liked well ; but that he could not do the good which he would, or which others thought that he could." a His address to the commissioners was "by command," as he repeatedly stated therein. Neither his minis terial words nor acts are to be taken as indices of his own opinions or wishes. He was " sworn to be a minister of her Majesty's determinations, and not of his own." " I do hold, and wdl always," said he in a letter to his son, " this course in such matters as I differ in opinion from her Majesty. As long as I may be allowed to give advice, I Avill not change my opinion by affirming the contrary ; for that were to offend God, to whom I am sworn first. But as a ser vant I will obey her Majesty's commandment, and in no wise oppose or thwart the same ; presuming that, she being God's chief minister here, it shall be God's wdl to have her commandments obeyed, after that I have performed my duty as a counsellor, and shall in my heart Avish her commandments to have such good successes as I am sure she intendeth. You see I am in a mixture of divinity and pohcy, preferring in pohcy her Majesty afore aU others on the earth ; and 1 Strype's Parker, [448], Appendix, p. 177 ; Annals, IH. 395. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 493 in divinity, the King of heaven above all betwixt Alpha and Omega." J About this time some one — whose name does not appear — proposed to the Council, that every minis ter and preacher in the kingdom should be required to give bonds, with good sureties, in the sum of two hundred pounds, to observe to a tittle the Book of Common Prayer, and all existing constitutions, de crees, and orders, and such as might thereafter be set forth ; and that any one refusing to give such bonds should be committed to prison, or be otherwise de prived of his living and forbidden to preach, untd he should submit. The proponent concluded with a consideration which it is difficult to appreciate, that "the surplice and hood on all the ministers when publicly officiating would greatly increase their credit and reverence with the people, and daunt the hearts of the Papists " ! 2 If we wonder at the ascription of so singular a virtue to such things by a Churchman, we cannot wonder that the Puritan abhorred them and said, "These Popish garments are now become very idols indeed." 3 It is gratifying to be able to believe that so mon strous a proposition was not even considered by the Councd.4 1 Burleigh to Cecil, March 23d, statesman. If Mr. Neal supposed 1595-6 ; Wright, H. 457. only that it might have been intro- 2 Strype's Parker, 458, 459. duced by Burleigh al the queen's com- 3 Ibid., 435. mand, he should have said so. But * Mr. Neal's intimation that it had this been the case, the prop- might have been introduced by Lord osition would doubtless have had Burleigh, is hardly generous, and further proceeding, and probably certainly is not sustained by the would have been decreed. character of that noble-minded 494 "PRETTY BRISK." [Ch. XVTI. The Cossacks ecclesiastic dispersed. They scoured the kingdom; swooping up the suspected, and pinking with the lance every one not a Precisian, to the let ter of the law. To try the spirits, whether they were of the faith royal, they vigorously imposed, upon such clergymen as were cited before them for non conformity, two tests " of their otvn devising." x The first was a promise in the form foUowing : " To use the service and Common Prayer Book, and the pub lic form of administration of the sacraments, and no other ; to serve in their cures according to the rites, orders, forms, and ceremonies prescribed ; and here after not to preach or speak anything tending to the derogation of the said Book, or any part thereof, re maining authorized by the laws and statutes of the realm." The other test was a declaration, " That the Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops, and of the ordering of Deacons, set forth in the time of Ed ward VI., doth contain all things necessary for such consecration and ordering, having in it nothing that is either superstitious or ungodly; and therefore that they which be consecrated and ordered according thereto be duly, orderly, and lawfully ordered and consecrated ; and that they " — the subscribers — " do acknowledge their duty and obedience to their ordinary and diocesan, as to a lawful magistrate under the queen's authority, which obedience they do promise according as the laws shall bind them to perform." 2 These forms varied somewhat in the different dio ceses ; but those most commonly used contained also 1 Neal, I. 130. Brook, H. 71. » Neal, I. 130. Ch. XVII.] " PRETTY BRISK." 495 the following clauses, — strange points to be sworn to : "I acknowledge that the public preaching of the Word in the Church of England is sound and sin cere ; that the public order of administering of sacra ments is consonant to the Word of God ; and that in the Book of Common Prayer there is nothing repugnant to the same."1 We shaU have occasion to notice these clauses and the others hereafter. Many . ministers were found too enlightened and conscientious to subscribe to all these points, and to swear to them, — both which they were required to do; especially to swear that the preaching of the clergy universally, and the Book of the Church en tire, were each as good as the Bible. Such men offered to use the book, and no other, and not to preach against it before the next meeting of Parlia ment; but as for the subscription and oath, they resented them as against the laws of God, standing upon their rights as Christians, and, as against the laws of the realm, standing upon their rights as Eng lishmen. On these grounds, they made an appeal to the Archbishop. He rejected it.2 The laity were dealt with in like manner. Those who absented themselves from their parish churches to hear non-conforming ministers, were required to subscribe to the last three points noted above, and to these words in addition: "And whereas I have absented myself from my parish church, and have refused to join with the congregation in public prayer and in receiving the sacrament according to the pubhc order laid down, and my duty in that behalf, I am right sorry for it, and pray that this 1 Neal, I. 130. a Ibid. 496 "FRETTY BRISK." [Cn. XVII. my fault may be pardoned; and do promise, that from henceforth I wdl frequent my parish church, and join with the congregation there, as well in prayer as in the administration of the sacraments, according to such order as by public authority is set down and established."1 Two expedients were contrived to catch this sort of sinners. Spies were stationed in the churches to observe who were ab sentees, and to report them to the courts for prose cution ; and Avhen they were imprisoned, their jailers Avere charged to report the names of their visitors, that they too might be watched, if haply their feet should slide.2 Under the ministry of this commission, many clergymen — learned divines and devoted preachers 3 — were deprived of their livings, merely for not subscribing upon oath the papers quoted above ; for demanding which there was no law} Conscience re ceived no grace at the hands of the Commissioners. The refusers were deprived,5 and forbidden to preach. If their deprivation may be canonically justified on the ground that they who obey not the rules of any Church forfeit its offices and emoluments, not so the forbidding to preach. It was a barring from liveli hood, a decree of beggary to good men, their wives and then children, — to men qualified to preach the Gospel, eager to preach it, needed to preach it. To use the softest word, this was hard. It was harder, 1 Neal, I. 131. diocese of Norwich ; one of whom, a Ibid. he adds, the good old Bishop wrote, roid., I. 129. "was godly and learned, and had * Ibid., I. 130. Brook, H. 71. done much good." He cites Strype's " Mr. Neal says (Vol. 1. 128), that Parker, p. 336. I find that which three hundred non-conforming min- I have here embraced in quotation isters were suspended in the single marks on p. 45 2 of the copy of Strype Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 497 that some of them were committed to prison ; J to " filthy jails, more unwholesome than dunghdls, more stinking than pig-styes " ; 2 sometimes " shut up in close rooms, not being allowed the liberty of the prison, Avhere they died like rotten sheep," 3 and Avhere the fees, added to the cost of prosecution and to the exactions of officers ravenous for gain, half ruined the victims, even if they survived and Avere cleared of accusation. The Puritan, sometimes at least, was presented in the courts out of sheer malice, committed to prison Avithout examination, and re fused a copy of his presentment.4 Thus, whde the Puritans were pleading even in the royal antechamber, that "the untaught people of England might be gathered into sufficient congre gations, and have sufficient and resident pastors, that preaching pastors might be restored, and Gospel-like before me. On the previous page whom gave hope of conforming. it is stated that this man, Moore, Neither, after careful and repeated "stuck at the wearing of the sur- examination, can I find Mr. Neal plice, because, as he said, he should sustained, in this particular, by the be offensive to some. But the Bish- several references which he makes op told him, it were better to offend in the same paragraph. These a few private persons than to offend things throw suspicion upon his God and disobey the prince." Not startling statement of numbers. For a word about Mr. Moore's being these reasons, I must refrain from suspended ; although he probably adopting it, only sorry to implicate was, for he not only " stuck," but Mr. Neal's accuracy. Possibly, how- " refused." ever, he may be justified by some But I refer to this passage in Neal other authority. chiefly because he says that Mr. 1 Brook, I. 36. Moore was one of three hundred in 2 Johnson in jail, to Bishop San- the diocese who were suspended ; a dys, Feb. 1574 ; Brook, I. 180. statement not here sustained by 3 Brook, H. 195 ; under date of Strype, whom he cites as his author- 1592, when the jails were at best no ity. On the contrary, the account better. shows but very few, thirty-three, to 4 Neal, I. 131, note ; 132, note. have been dealt with; some of vol. i. 63 498 "PRETTY BRISK." [Ch. XVII. government instituted," x the Court was more zealous for a coat than for the truth;2 the commissioners Avere sdencing and imprisoning able and godly men ; vacancies Avere supplied by " outlandish " incumbents who could scarcely read ; a sermon in three months, and for the most part not so often, was doled out in heu of tAvo every Sunday ;3 "the Devd and corrupt patrons " were stdl shuffling their cards ; the people were crying out for lack of the Word, wives and chddren for lack of bread ; hirelings and false ac cusers Avere tattling about surplices, conventicles, and Geneva forms, — about who said something against her Majesty's Book of Injunctions, and who against the Book of Common Prayer.4 It was matter of solemn registry whose shop was open on Christmas, and whose shop Avas shut; what aldermen went to church in their scarlets, and what ones would not; Avho ate fish, and who ate flesh.5 Bishops-men, " flat tering to get livings and making the pulpit to be contemned," Avere preaching amain for the civd ex altation of bishops, and lamenting from the pulpit of Paul's Cross, that " Avhereas once a good justice durst not offend a hedge-priest, now every broom-man in Kent Street Avould control them " ; 6 and court preach ers, " Avaiving Christ and him crucified, were crucify ing their brethren, appeaching true men and honest of schism, heresy, and treason, and denouncing some of them by name as wicked men, beasts, and devds." T Some of the commissioners began to loath their 1 Sampson to Burleigh ; Strype's ° Ibid, 452. Parker, Appendix, p. 177. • Strype's Annals, IV. 515, 516. 2 Strype's Parker, 395. Murdin, 271, 272. 3 Neal, I. 130. Brook, H. 72. ' Sampson to Burleigh, ut supra. 4 Strype's Parker, 451, 452, 455. Ch. XVII.] "PRETTY BRISK." 499 work. " The physicians themselves were sick." J Some, however, gloried in their shame ; accosting their examinates with coarse jokes ; railing at them as "Avickedest and most contemptuous"; offending them with profane language ; and making sport of their prospective sufferings, as they remanded them to prison.2 Such was the zeal of the Precisians about trifles. Such were Church and State when "pretty brisk." 1 Strype's Parker, [447], 456; venticle at Plumbers' Hall ; called Cox to Parker. by the Lord Chief Justice, for fun, 2 See the examination of White, " as black as the Devil." (Neal, I. one who had suffered for the con- 131, note. Brook, 1. 145, note.) CHAPTER XVIII. THINKING. Edward Deering, a Conforming Puritan, punished for his Opinions. — Bishop Sandys intercedes for his Restoration. — He is restored; and again silenced. — He is ruT under Inquisition for Words and Thoughts. — His Letter to Burleigh against the Lordship of Bishops. — Dif ferences between Bishops of the Primitive Church and those of the Anglican. —Mr. Deerino's Answer to Charges for AVords spoken. — His Reply to Interrogatories from the Bishops; and to Twenty Articles propounded by the Lords. — Their Anti-despotic Opinions, the true Offence of the Puritans. 1573, 1574. " You have of late sent unrighteous statutes to Cambridge. You were moved, I think, by the information of the Heads there The coun tenance of men is no good warrant of the truth. If it were, Christ had been crucified for his evd doings The Doctors and Heads of Houses have procured you to make these new statutes, to the utter undoing of those who fear God, or to the burdening of their consciences who dare not yield to sin. Therefore I wdl speak my mind. Whatsoever you think, I will discharge a good con science "These Doctors and Heads are either enemies unto God's Gospel, or so faint professors that they do little good in the Church. By one, scarce a Protestant chosen to be Fellow these twelve years; Ch. XVHL] THINKING. 501 by another, such curates kept as flee away over the seas ; another can hardly be brought to re move Popish books and garments.1 Two others have small constancy in their life or religion Dr. Whitgift, whom I have loved, is yet a man, and God hath suffered him to fall into great infirmi ties. So froward a mind against Mr. Cartwright bewrayeth a conscience that is full of sickness It grieveth me, in my very soul, to remember their faults ; and you, if you be happy, seek speed- dy to remedy them. They keep benefices and be non-residents. Whde they are clothed in scarlet, their flocks perish for cold; and whde they fare deliciously, their people are faint with a most miser able hunger. This fault is intolerable, and such as God abhorreth ; and your hands are in the strength ening of it, except you reform it " You that have been brought so easily to hurt God's people, to do pleasure to the Pope, and with so fearful statutes have proceeded to the punish ment of so small offences, now make some good statute that may punish sin. And I beseech you, even in the blood of Jesus Christ that hath sancti fied his people, send down a new statute, that no Master of a House shall have a benefice except he serve it himself. " If I find no credit, the will of the Lord be done, by whose mercy I am known now both at Cam bridge and London, and to some other also in the Court If of any great personages, or men of countenance, you have heard me blamed as a vain man, or full of fancies, I wdl witness this for 1 Compare Strype's Grindal, 142-145. 502 THINKING. [Cn- XVTH. myself in the fear of God, — I have never broken the peace of the Church, neither for cap nor sur plice, for archbishop nor bishop. If those that should be lights of the world do think me fantastical, these are my fancies : — that I have told them of their common swearing by the name of God in vain;1 that I have disliked their covetousness ; that I have complained of Papists that have not once these twelve years received " — the communion ; " that I have said this courtly apparel " — of Church digni taries — "is not meet for such as should be more sober; that I would not use company, of delight, with such as were open persecutors of the Church of God; that it hath grieved me to see a benefice of a great parish given, from a spiritual pastor, to a temporal man; that for a hundred pounds in gold, the bishop Avould give his good-will to grant a lease of a benefice, for a himdred years to come, to a gentleman in the country. If these fancies be odious, I am wed content to bear their reproach. And most heartily I beseech the living Lord to give unto you also pure eyes, that you may see such enormities. I do wish you well, neither for your gold, nor silver, nor for your great authority because you can give me a living ; but because 1 At first, my confidence in Mr. seen a few pages farther on in our Strype led me to adopt his state- narrative, Mr. Deering " loved the ment (Life of Parker, p. 380), that bishops as brethren, and honored Deering here charges the vice of them as elders." He could not have profane swearing upon the bishops, had these sentiments towards per- I now deny it; because, — 1. Mr. sons addicted to " common swearing Deering does not designate bishops, by the name of God in vain." Mr. but only some persons who, from their Strype has inadvertently done Mr. position, " should be lights of the Deering wrong. world " ; and 2. Because, as will be Ch. XVIII.] THINKING. 503 you have professed the Gospel, are a magistrate in the commonwealth where Christ is truly preached, and do yet noAV sustain much hatred of the enemy. Because you are such a one, I desire your prosperity ; and God will keep me from this great sin, that I shoidd cease to pray for you."1 Thus wrote Edward Deering — one of the " cow ards" — in 1570, to Sir William Cecil, Chancedor of Cambridge. Deering was then Lady Margaret Lecturer in the University, and was in the habit of plain speaking even to the highest dignitaries,2 never mincing words to modify truth when he thought it his duty to speak. In like manner he wrote again to Cecil, when Lord Burleigh, in 1572 ; which his Lordship temperately answered, although the letter seemed to him unreasonably sharp.3 In his sermon before the queen, February 25, 1569, he had had the boldness to say: "If you have sometimes said," — meaning in the days of her sister Mary, — "As a sheep appointed to be slain, take heed you hear not now the prophet as an untamed and unruly heifer." 4 He had been chap- 1 Strype's Parker, Appendix, pp. " They," the non-conformists, " be- 120-122. came so bold, that one told the a Strype's Parker, 380. queen openly in a sermon, ' she was 3 Strype's Annals, HI. 282- like an untamed heifer that would 284. not be ruled by God's people, but 4 Brook, I. 210, who cites the ser- obstructed his discipline.'" — Izaak mon itself. Walton's Life of Hooker ; Hooker's "One preacher informed her Works, I. 37. Majesty, that she had begun her Such are specimens of the very reign with the meekness of a lamb ; essential perversions, given by dif- but she was now an untamed heifer, ferent writers, of the words of Mr. The story is told by all Puritan writ- Deering. They are suggestive, ers." Marsden's Early Puritans, gravely so, to the student of history p. 31. in any of its departments. Brook's 504 THINKING. [Cn. XVIII. lain to the late Duke of Norfolk, with Avhom he had been faithful and equady plain-spoken.1 The letter Avhich we have quoted discloses, not only the character of the writer, but a mournful state of affairs in the Church. The Archbishop of Canterbury considered Mr. Deerino- a man of overmuch heat and overlittle solidity, — in a word, of "too much childishness";2 which opinion we shall hereafter have ojmortunity to weigh. Contrary to the Primate's judgment, the man Avas esteemed a great preacher and a great scholar in London and in Cambridge ; 3 and, in 1572, had been appointed Reader and Preacher at St. Paul's, Avhere he drew immense auditories.4 His Grace did not fad to keep his eye on one who plagued men of countenance about their covet ousness and swearing. His sermons were reported at Lambeth Palace, and spies were set to watch him narroAvly in private, that they might entangle him hi his talk.5 It was not long before he was brought up before the Privy Councd, — between the 18th and the 24th of Aprd, 1573,6 — about the time when others, as Ave have mentioned, were summoned to be sifted of then opinions. But he, to answer not only questions, but charges. He had not violated any laAv of the land. He had not said anything against the queen's supremacy. Although " disaffect ed to bishops and ceremonies," 7 he was peaceable citation of the sermon itself is, there- 6 Strype's Annals, HI. 398. Mur- fore, valuable. din, 272. 1 Brook, I. 194. « « The 3d of April, Tuesday was - Strype's Parker, 380. sevennight " ; a date given in the 3 Ibid. charge. Strype's Parker, 413. » Strype's Annals, HI. 282, 398. 7 Fuller, Bk. IX. p. 109. Brook, I. 194. Ch. XVIII.] THINKING. 505 with regard to both. He had not defamed the Book of Common Prayer ; x but had kept to it, and to the surplice, and to the four-cornered mathematical cap,2 though he hked them not. But the man had been thinldng. Instead of dip ping stale theology and crude maxims out of dead men's tanks, he had been going to living fountains. Instead of lazily and stingily retailing to the thirsty what men had sometime distilled, he had been earnestly and lavishly dispensing fresh and living waters, which he himself had drawn from the Word. There was no act of Parliament against this, but there was danger in it, — to Church and State, to " Hierarchy and Crown. Besides, he had "drawn away many proselytes. Therefore it was thought convenient" soon after he came to London, " to silence him from preaching his lecture any more."3 To effect this, he was charged before the Council with thinking, — with thinking, and telling his thoughts from the pulpit ; for he had been • heard to say things " which were interpreted to reflect upon the magistrate, and tending to the breach of the peace of the Church." 4 One bad thought of his was — bad, for it reflected upon venerable usage — that it was barbarous and unbecoming a Christian country to leave a gibbeted corpse to be flouted by the winds and eaten by unclean birds ; another, that Christ's descent into the world of woe was a superstitious error of the fathers ; another, that the sufferings of Christ were not only of the body, but of the spirit also ; another, 1 Strype's Annals, LH. 415. 3 Strype's Annals, IH. 282. 2 Strype's Parker, 380. ' Ibid., 398. vol. I. 64 506 THINKING. [Ch. XVIII. that behevers in Christ reign with him and have no Lord but him, and so were free from " bondage to trifles," — which Avas thought " to free them from earthly magistrates"; another, that a congregation had a right to elect their own minister, — anti-prelati- cal, certainly; another, that now-a-days gown and cap and tippet were taken as vouchers of honesty and learning and grace, so that, if a man had them, he was thought wed enough for a good minister, though he should never come near his benefice nor preach.1 These opinions were novelties, and therefore sus picious ; they jostled against old notions and usages, and were therefore dangerous. They might bring about a Muncer's Commonwealth, with its anarchy and commiinity of goods. We have no record of what transpired upon Mr. Deering's appearance before the Council, except that for these sayings he was suspended from preaching.2 On the 3d of June, Edwin Sandys, Bishop of Lon don, addressed the following letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh; from which it would appear that he was moved so to write because of the com motion in his diocese which the silencing of a preacher so popular had occasioned. " My singular good Lord : — " Fading into consideration of such speech as passed from Mr. Deering of late before the Lords of the Councd, I evidently see that he upon great sim plicity hath cast himself into great danger. A well- advised man would not have made such an unad- 1 Strype's Parker, 381, 413. 2 Ibid., 413, 426 ; Annals, HI. 398. Ch. XVIII.] thinking. 507 vised offer.1 If it would please your Lordship to procure the consent of the Council, that he might be released thereof, and suffered to read his lecture, so that he only teach sound doctrine, exhort to vir tue and dehort from vice, and touching matters of order and policy meddle not with them, but leave them to the magistrate to whom reformation per- taineth, as I think he would yield thereunto, so in my opinion to deliver him from the other," — the offer, — " and to bring him on to this, your Lordship should do that which is fittest for the present time. It would quiet many minds now set on floughter [set a-flutter ?]. I see more than I say, and feel more than I complain of. Truly, my Lord, these are dan gerous days, full of itching ears, mislying minds, and ready to forget all obedience and duty. I think that a soft plaster is better than a sharp corrosive, to be applied to this sore. Such are the times, if this man be somewhat spared, and yet wed schooled, the others, being manifest offenders, may be dealt withal according to their desert. If your Lordship like thereof, and give me commission to deal with him herein, I would gladly do it, not doubting but that it tendeth to good. Thus I take my leave of your good Lordship, commending the same to the good direction of God's Holy Spirit. From my house at Fulham, 3 June, 1573." 2 1 What offer ? Was it his prom- taken some slight liberties with this ise to give a frank statement of his letter, for the sake of rendering it as views on certain points ? " to set I understand it, I give it also exactly down his mind how far he would as in the copy before me. yield in anything he should be re- « jjy gingUler good Loed, quired?" (Strype's Annals, HI. "Falling unto Consideration of such 415. Brook, I. 201.) Speche as passed from Mr. Deryng of s Murdin, 255, 256. As I have late before the Lordes of the Coun- 508 THINKING. [Ch. XVIII. Soon after the date of this letter, Mr. Deering was again called before the Council, Avho questioned him " concerning his alloAvance of the Book of Common Prayer, and the doctrine of the Thirty-Nine Articles, to be agreeable to the Word of God ; and also con cerning the consecration of archbishops and bishops, and some other articles," J — " dangerous ones taken out of CartAvright's Book." This they did to deter mine the question whether it Avere best to restore him.2 In his answers he let it appear that he thought well of CartAvright's principles, and " very ill " of a prelatical establishment. But notwithstanding this, Bishop Sandys succeeded; and at some time before the 6th of July, the Council took off the suspension, and Avithout advising with the Archbishop or with the Commissioners.3 sayl, I evydently see that he upon grete Simplycitie hath cast himself into grete Danger ; a wel advised man wold not have made such an unadvised Offer ; if it wold please your good Lordship to procure the Consent of the Counsayl, that he might be released therof, and suf fered to reade his Lecture, so that he only teache sounde Doctryne, exhort to Vertue, and dehort from Vice ; and touching maters of Order and Polle- cy, medle not with them, but leave them to the Magistrate, to whom Kef- ormation perteyneth, as I thinke he wold yilde theronto ; so in my Opyn- ion to delyver hym from the other, and to bryng hym on to this, your Lordshippes shuld do that which is fittest for the present Tyme ; yt wold quyet many Myndes nowe set on floughter. I see more than I saye, and feale more than I complayn of. Truly, my Lord, these ar dangerouse Dayes, full of ytching Earys, misly- ing Myndes, and redy to forget all Obedience and Duetye. Ithinkethat a soft Plaster is better than a sharpe Corosyveto be applyed to this Sore; such are the Tymes. Yf this man be somwhat spared, and yet well scoled, the other beyng manifest Offendors maye be delt withall according to ther Desertys. Yf your Lordship lyke therof, and gyve me Commysion to deale with hymherin, I wold gladly do it, not doubting but that it tend- eth to good. Thus I take my Leave of your good Lordship, commending the same to the good Direction of God's Holy Spyryte. From my house at F. 3. Junii, 1573." 1 Strype's Parker, [452]. 2 Ibid., 426. 3 Ibid., 426, 433, [452]. Bishop Sandys signed a letter jointly with Ch. XVIII] THINKING. 509 But although the Bishop of London had "pro cured his restoration," J he soon became so dissatis fied with Mr. Deering's preaching, that he repented himself; and resolved upon the "sharp corrosive" of again sdencing him, however much the people might be "set on floughter."2 He therefore corn- Archbishop Parker, dated July 6 th, complaining of Deering's restoration, and of its having been granted, " our advices never required thereunto.'' (Strype's Parker, 483.) He must have subscribed to this officially only, as a commissioner. 1 Strype's Parker, 428. a Strype immediately precedes his statement that Mr. Deering was " silenced a second time," with the following: "Between Deering and the Bishop of London, after he had procured him to read his lecture again, there happened some contest. For when Deering came to the Bish op to tell him that the Council had by their letters restored him, .... the Bishop desired to see his letters. He answered, they were at home." (Mr. Strype here adds parentheti cally, " Indeed, the Council gave him no letters.") " The Bishop said he would see them, or he should not read; and added, that, except he read more soberly and discreetly than he had done, he would forbid him reading in Paul's. Deering replied, 'If you do forbid me, I think that I shall obey, lest some disordered fellows bid you come off your horse when you shall ride down Cheapside,' — boasting of his popu larity. But the Bishop in some heat answered, ' Your threatenings shall not terrify me. For I will forthwith ride down Cheapside, to try what your disordered scholars will do.' " (Strype's Parker, 428.) This narrative lacks the stamp of probability in every feature. The bullying insolence here ascribed to Mr. Deering utterly conflicts with his character, and the -retort of the Bishop, with his. One would think the talkers school-boys, not grave and bearded divines. Besides, the Bishop's words are all as if he were unwilling that Mr. Deering should be reinstated in his work, and yet his Lordship had just volunteered a special effort to have him reinstated. The whole story is as unaccountable as that Mr. Strype should say "the Council gave him no letters," and yet, five pages be low, give us the written testimony of the Bishop himself 'of " the Coun cil's letter writ to Deering to restore him.'' (Strype's Parker, 433.) I cannot doubt that Mr. Strype throughout this paragraph was mis taken. That " it was Deering's custom lo lie, and commonly noted of him," (Strype's Parker, 434,) needs strong er testimony than the naked asser tion of the annalist or the Bishop. Why, in so grave a case, should Mr. Strype, deviating from his usual custom, omit to give us in his ap pendix that letter of the Lord Treas urer upon the subject ? We might with more plausibility 510 THINKING. [Ch- XVHL plained to the Lord Treasurer and Council, that the Lecturer at Paul's was now preaching against the con stitution of the Church,1 and prayed him to procure the queen's order to forbid Mr. Deering to read his lectures any more. The order was obtained, and Mr. Deering Avas again silenced.2 Further process was then instituted against him before the Lords of Council, for words alleged to have been uttered by him at a public dinner on the 11th of December, 1572. He was charged that he had then spoken against godfathers and godmothers ; that he had said that the Statute of Provision for the poor was incompetent, and that he could provide for them in tAvo ways, — first, by committing them to the rich to be kept, and second, by doing away with such things as superfluous plate then upon the table ; as though he were for " a community of goods." It was further charged against him, that he put off his cap and said, " Now I wdl prophesy, Matthew Parker is the last Archbishop that ever shall sit in that seat." 3 There were also twenty other articles of inquisi tion ministered to him in the Star-Chamber. In these interrogatories, there was not a word about say that " it was Mr. Strype's custom cise of " his former function." — to lie," and then point to his words, (Strype's Parker, 452.) "the Council gave him no let- 3 Strype's Parker, 413; Annals, ters," — disproved by his own record III. 414. below. AVe prefer to say, — and it After examining all Mr. Strype's is all we think, — " Mr. Strype was pages on this subject, I cannot think mistaken." him correct (p. 413) in dating the 1 Strype's Parker, 428. presentation of this last charge in 2 This must have been after the April. I therefore suppose it to 5th of August ; for a letter from the have been first preferred after Mr. Bishop of Ely of that date supposes Deering's second suspension. Mr. Deering to be still in the exer- Ch. XVIII.] THINKING. 51 1 any omission of duty, or any overt act ; not a word about Avhat he had preached, or what he had said in private. They were twenty searching questions about his secret thoughts ; not his thoughts about the sinfulness of man, or salvation by Christ, or justifica tion by faith which hath works, or heaven, or hell ; but his thoughts about the consecration and civd functions of bishops, about every jot and tittle of the Prayer-Book, about the equality of the clergy, about the government, ceremonies, lands, and tithes of the Church, about funeral sermons, and the Communion at marriages, about a prescript form of prayer, about baptizing the chddren of Papists, the faith of infants, plurality of ecclesiastical livings, the queen's eccle siastical and civd authority, and such like things.1 The bishops also required of him to acknowledge and subscribe the four following articles : — 1. That the Book of Articles agreed upon in the Convoca tion of 1562-3 was according to the Word of God. 2. That the queen was chief governor, next under Christ, of the Church of England, as wed in ecclesi astical as in civil causes. 3. That in the Book of Common Prayer there was nothing evil, or repug nant to the Word of God, but that it might be wed used in the Church of England. 4. That the public .preaching of the Word of God in the Established Church was sound and sincere ; and that the pubhc order in the ministration of the sacraments was con sonant to the Word of God.2 Mr. Deering was aware that his opinion respecting the lordship, or civil magistracy, of bishops — al though he had not vaunted it — was "the main 1 Strype's Annals, HI. 415-417. ¦ Ibid. 512 THINKING. fdi. XVIII. thing that created him enemies.1 Therefore, to pre pare the way for his answer in the Star-Chamber,2 he largely expressed his views upon this subject in a letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, on the first of November. After premising that in his very heart he had always honored the magistrate, that in his speech he had never disregarded the peace of the Church, that even the Bishop of London had of late exonerated him of such' a pulpit fault, and that it had been determined to silence him only lest he should speak offensively, — he frankly and plainly declares : — " I am persuaded that the lordship, or civil govern ment of bishops, is utterly unlawful." After stating a Scriptural reason for this opinion, he says : " Let Him, therefore, that is King of kings have the pre- eminency of government. Let Him whose dominion is the kingdom of Heaven have the sword and the sceptre that is not fleshly. Let not a vile Pope, in the name of Christ, erect a new kingdom which Christ never knew, — a kingdom of this world which in the ministry the Gospel hath condemned : which kind of rule hath mingled together heaven and earth in confusion ; so that God's ordinance cannot prevad to dehver the sword into the hand of the magistrate and take the Word into the mouth of the minister. .... The Popish prelacy hath shamed the princes, and sometimes raised up such rebellions as have cost their kings both crown and life. Of these examples, a great many ; but I remember not one archbishop, or lord bishop, that ever saved a country, or brought peace into it The king's minister or pastor 1 Strype's Annals, LH. 400. 2 Ibid., 399. Ch. XVIII.] THINKING. 513 hath his authority equal over king and subject ; but the king's pastor must not execute civil punishment against his prince. Therefore the king's pastor can be no civil magistrate What power, what au thority, Avill you give unto him ? Wdl you set him upon a seat of justice, and put a sword in his hand ? Then bring the prince to plead her cause, — ' Guilty,' or ' Not guilty ' ? Fie upon the Pope, that hath so dishonored God, and made the glory of his judgment sent to be spotted in the countenance of a faint hearted king ! We will be no proctors for such an untimely fruit, that hath made princes bondmen, no bdity thraldom, and himself a tyrant. Let us learn a better lesson from our Saviour, Christ, — Date Ccesari quae sunt Ccesaris, et quae sunt Dei, Deo. The prince alone is the person in the world to whom God hath committed the seat of justice, and they only to execute the duty of it to whom it is committed The minister is appointed for another defence, where horsemen and chariots will do no good. They may hinder the minister, and make him forget his duty : they cannot profit him in his office and function. He must frame the heart, on which you cannot set a crown, and edify the soul, which flesh and blood can not hurt. He sealeth unto the conscience God's mercies, which are sweeter than life, and maketh rich the thoughts with righteousness and peace which shad abide forever. To those that are disobedient, he pronounceth the judgment that maketh the heart afraid; and to the poor in spirit he bringeth com fort which no tongue can express. And to these things, what availeth sword or spear ? God asketh but a tongue that is prepared to speak, and he minis- vol. I. 65 514 THINKING. [Ch. XVIII tereth the power that is invisible. And cursed be the times that have bewitched to set up dumb dogs in so honorable a place. " If this function were supplied with dutiful officers, the sword of the Spirit, which God hath given them, would vanquish Satan, and destroy the power of dark ness, till the knowledge of God were plentiful upon earth, and all the joys of heart were sealed unto men in perfect beauty ; till the eyes did see great happi ness in the face of the heavens, and the ear did hear the sweet harmony of the forgiveness of sins; till the meat tasted of that secret manna, of which he should eat forever, and his drink were pure, of the water of life which proceedeth out of the throne of God and of the Lamb ; till his garments did smed of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and in life did shine the life of immortality. But I wdl not go about to express it in words which the ear cannot hear, nor the tongue speak. I beseech the Lord make you feel the pleasure of it within, till all the world be but dung in respect of Christ. For in Him all honor is a glorious blessing ; and without Him, but a covering of an after woe. And when it shall fall in the dust, his sight of the sorrow that is behind shad make the man to mourn when it is too late. If you wid know this thoroughly and indeed, procure their liberty which will ted you the truth " But now again to our purpose As the minister hath nothing to do with the temporal sword, so much less it becometh him to be called a lord. The reason is plain in Scripture." Here he urges, pertinently and pungently, the vari ous humble appeUatives by which ministers are de- Ch. XVIII.] THINKING. 515 nominated in the New Testament ; and also several texts which are direct to his point. He then pro ceeds : — " These Scriptures that have been adeged are no vain authorities, that are easdy rejected ; nor any dark speeches, that are hardly understood. The words are written by the apostles and prophets ; and they have the strength of the Spirit of God. They shall soimd far and near, and accomplish the work for which they were spoken, though ad the world were in arms against them. In vain we cry, ' The State ! the State ! ' and ' The Commonwealth ! ' when indeed there is no state nor no commonwealth. "For the lordship of a bishop hath ever been a plague-sore in the state of a kingdom, and is at this day a swelling wound, fidl of corruption, in the body of a common wealth And yet, if the state did require it, the voice of the lord must be obeyed, though all the kingdoms in the earth did fall before it. God is not a man, that we may control his honor. He hath made both heaven and earth ; and when he shad appear, all the creatures of the world shall be moved at his presence, and the chddren of men shad throw down their crowns. Let us harden our hearts as the ada mant stone not to hear his counsel, yet when the force of his word shall knit together again our bones and ashes, that they may arise into eternal life, we shad say then, 'Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' .... " And now, to shut up this long discourse, (which yet, I pray God, it doth not make you weary,) let us a little remember the honor of our Archbishop, which is Jesus Christ. He was born of a poor woman, 516 THINKING. [Ch. XVHI. in a strange place, and receiA*ed into an inn, and put forth into a stable, Avrapt in coarse clothes, and laid in a manger; persecuted from his SAvaddling-clothes into strange countries, returning home in fear, and often hiding himself; brought up in the sweat of his broAvs, and the occupation of his father ; mocked with his base parentage, and reproached with the name of beggarly Nazareth ; not one of the nobility knoAvn to favor him, but a poor company which were basely despised. In all his greatest glory he was laughed to scorn ; and the title of his kingdom was set upon a cross of shame. And in this estate doth he not say unto his disciples, 'I have ap pointed you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me ' ? (Luke xxii. 29.) And how can you frame out of this pattern, either pope's monarchy or the bishop's kingdoms ; either a triple crown so far above princes, or a sumptuous mitre so unmeet for Apostles ? " Surely, my Lord, this gear it will not stand. It is a plant which our Father in heaven never planted ; and it will be rooted out. It is of the Pope, and it shad drink of the same cup of confusion ; of which the Pope hath begun unto them. And doubt you not, but it is of the Pope. For besides the plain ness of the Word of God, it is also printed before your eyes, that you might see the truth, though you would not hear it. For where is this Lordship in the greatest honor, but where the Pope's Holi ness is set highest ? Where is it abated, but where the Pope's head is broken ? And where is it rejected, but where the Pope is trodden under feet ? It stand- eth with the Pope ; it reigneth with the Pope ; it Ch. XVHL] THINKING. 517 falleth with the Pope ; it is shamed with the Pope • and is it not of the Pope ? " But now I have to answer many thoughts which very easily Avill rise within you. You will muse first of the state of the primitive Church; and think that Augustine, Ambrose, &c. were ad bishops. To this I answer, that if they were, yet men must not prejudice the Word of God. True it is they were bishops ; but this is as true, they were no lords, neither agreed with our bishops almost in anything, save only names. 1. The bishops and ministers then were one in degree; now they are divers. 2. There were many bishops in one town. Now there is but one in a whole country. 3. No bishop's authority was more than in one city. Now it is in many shires. 4. The bishops then used no bodily punishments. Now they imprison, fine, &c. 5. Those bishops cordd not excommunicate, or absolve, of their own authority ; now they may. 6. Then, without consent, they could make no ministers. Now they do. 7. They could confirm no children in other parishes. They do now in many shires. 8. Then they had no living of the Church, but only in one congregation. Now they have. 9. Then they had neither officials under them, nor commissioners, Aor chancedors. 10. Then they dealt in no civil govern ment, by any established authority. 11. Then they had no right in ahenating any parsonage, to give it in lease. 12. Then they had the Church where they served the cure, even as those whom we call now parish priests, although they were metropoli tans or archbishops. These diversities they are very great; and if your Honor doubt in any of 518 THINKING. [Ch. XVIII. them, Avhen it shad please your Honor, we will re fuse no conference with Avhom you Avill " If you will object against us the bishops of our time, Ave may answer of them favorably, as before. We know their doings. And our hope is of them, as of members of the Church. We love them as breth ren, and honor them as elders. And the Lord grant that we have no cause to call back this praise, and dare not give it them. But this I must needs say, and freely confess, if L were in one of their places, I should not have been so soon persuaded. We are all men, and born in sin. If one speak against our belly, it hath no ears ; or against our back, it hath no eyes. So that we will hardly see or hear a truth. But if the consent of men of our times may help the cause, then I trust it shad help us that ad Beformed Churches are of our side ; and not one of them is governed by a lord bishop You see how bold I have been with your Honor; and I am not ignorant what portion of my life I have committed into your hands. But I have done no more than I would have done to her Majesty her self, if such occasion had been. For I cannot be persuaded to conceal any truth from such a magis trate as feareth God, and hath advanced his Gos pel "And I beseech God, in these grievous times, to make me content with a good conscience ; and enrich your Honor with such grace, that when you shall think upon him in your bed, and remember him in your night-watches, you may remember the nights of the prophet David, and feel his joy, that is, the God of glory. Amen. Primo Novem- Ch. XVIII.] THINKING. 519 Iris, 1573. Your Honor's bounden in the Lord Jesu, even as his oavii, Edward Deering."1 After quoting this entire, Mr. Strype says : " I shall make no reflections upon this letter, but leave the reader to observe the zeal of these men against the constitution of the Church, and to weigh the strength of the argument used against the English episcopa cy." We cheerfully do likewise ; only asking our reader to turn back and compare the counter-argu ment of his Grace of Canterbury. Concerning the words alleged to have been spoken by him at the public dinner, Mr. Deering presented a paper to the Lords of the Star-Chamber, dated No vember 26. In this paper, he utterly denied every charge except the last; and sent testimony to the truth of his denial over the signatures of ear-witnesses. Respecting the last, he answered, that he put off no cap and uttered no prophecy. But he admitted that he said what might have been misunderstood as represented in the charge. To what he did say, he answered, that he would not excuse it, but would submit it to their Honors' judgment. And because it had been represented that he secretly fancied a community of things, he took the opportunity to say, " as before God, that he held such a community to be but a common confusion, tending to the spod of God's people and to the utter shame of all his saints ; and that this suspicion against him was but a color, for they who most accused him did not themselves think him to be an Anabaptist," or a disciple of Muncer.2 1 Strype's Annals, HT. 400-413. Annals, IV. Appendix, 511-516; 2 The paper is entire in Strype's and in Murdin, pp. 269-272. 520 THINKING. [Cn. XVIIL On the 16th of December J he presented his writ ten reply to the interrogatories propounded to him by the bishops. The second he freely acknowledged. Under the first, he excepted, that no man might venture his absolute warrant that the consecrations of bishops prescribed in the Articles of the Convoca tion were equally binding as though a part of the Word of God; or that the Homdies — which men had made — accorded therewith in all things. "As far as I know," was all he could subscribe. Under the third, he excepted, that the name priest implied a Popish sacrifice, and a fresh sacrifice in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ; that to say on each day of Christmas week, "Thou hast given us thy Son this day," was an absurd trifling ; that to pray, " Grant us that which for our unAvorthiness we dare not ask," fights against our faith, which is, that we should come, loldly and without doubting, to the throne of grace, for what God hath promised ; that for these and such other things, he was afraid to vouch every part of the Prayer-Book to be according to the Word of God. Under the fourth article he wrote : " How can I ted that all the preaching in England is sound and sincere, when I hear not all the preachers ? And sometimes those whom I do hear preach neither soundly nor sincerely. But this is the fault of man. In the public order for the administration of the sac raments, there is an order how women may baptize ; and one for questions and crossings in baptism. How can I approve of these against the judgment of ad " — other — "Reformed Churches and learned men? 1 Strype's Annals, III. 415. Ch. XVIII.] THINKING. 521 The sacramental bread, too, in the form of a wafer," — which is required by the injunctions,1 — "some churches cannot tolerate it, and our Parliament hath appointed common bread ; what, then, if I dislike the latter ? Again, this article and the first, contradict each other; this requiring subscription to all the ceremonies, and the Homilies condemning many of the same See, I beseech you, what wrong I sustain, if I be urged to this subscription." 2 We have here a key to the " stubbornness " of the clergy in submitting rather to deprivation than to Commissioners Avho required subscription and oath to the same preposterous assertions propounded to Mr. Deering. Others, through stolidity, or self-inter est, or indolence, or servility, might take the Book of the Church for another Bible ; and her preachers, all, for preachers inspired. But the Puritan would sift before he would warrant ; would never exalt litany or order, homdy or preacher, to a level with God's Word ; would neither swear away his manhood to a queen, nor sell his right to think, for a stipend. Mr. Deering opened his answer to the twenty articles of inquiry, by beseeching the Council to remember that he had never preached against the Book of Common Prayer, but had publicly witnessed his good allowance of it, both by his practice and in his printed book ; and adding also, " that if notwith standing he should be urged now to speak what he thought, whereby he might seem to be called to a form of inquisition, as there was no law by which God had tied him of duty to le his own accuser, so he be sought their Honors to let this his answer rather wit- 1 Strype's Parker, 309, 453. i Brook, I. 199 - 201. VOL. I. 66 522 THTNKLNG. [Ch. XVIII. ness his obedience and humble duty, than be preju dicial to his hurt and hinderance." x In his answers, his sentiments expressed to the bishops were repeated ; and so, in a condensed form, were those contained in his letter of November 1st, to the Lord Treasurer. These, and others avoAved in the same paper, and alike at variance with Church orthodoxy, must have been anything but satisfactory to those ultra-Precisians in Avhose hands, chiefly, the ecclesiastical executive was then vested.2 One par ticular " confession " in this document claims both our special notice and our future remembrance, because it expressed not only his own conviction, but, at this time, that of the Puritans almost without exception. "If," said he, "by the question, 'Avhether there is now any right ministry in the Church of England,' be meant, ' whether there is a right ministration of the doctrine and sacraments,' I humbly confess that 1 Strype's Annals, IH. 417. to the ministry is not right. If, by 2 From this paper, I extract the ' a right ministry,' be meant a right following : — ministration of the doctrine and " If, by 'a right ministry in the sacraments, I humbly confess that Church of England,' be meant such no man ought to separate himself as were set apart, as was Matthias from the Church." — Brook, I. 202. by the eleven to supply the place " So far as I have read, the order of Judas ; or such as are described of God's AVord is, that the choice by Paul, — ' blameless, the husband of pastors and other spiritual officers of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good in any particular church or parish behavior, given to hospitality, apt to hath been by allowance of the pec- teach, not given to wine, no striker, pie. But what is most requisite at not greedy of filthy lucre, but pa- the present time, I leave to those tient, not a brawler, not covetous, whom God hath set in authority." — ruling well their own houses, not Brook, I. 203. novices, but having good report of " An ordinary " — prescript — them which are without, and who do " prayer is very necessary, that it not neglect their gifts,' — then I am may be familiar to the people. But, sure you will confess that the calling as every parish will have its occa-'. required in the Church of England sions and necessities, so it is neces- Ch. XVIII.] THTNIONG. 523 no man ought to separate himself from the Church ¦ a an opinion which, throughout this reign and the next, Avas retained by the Presbyterian Puritans, and kept them in the communion of the Estabhshment notwithstanding all their sufferings. We find no further notice of Mr. Deering's officiat ing as a preacher. In February, 1574-5, Dr. Samp son interceded with the Lord Treasurer that he might be adowed a lecture at Whittington Codege in London, with its smad living of ten pounds a year. But in vain. The Archbishop was relentless, and " utterly refused " the promotion.2 Mr. Deer ing died soon after, June 26, 1576.3 It was this case which we had in view when stat ing in a previous chapter, that where Puritanism was suspected, even the cap, and surplice, and peaceful submission to the calling and authority of bishops, sary that the minister be able to offenders, and to praise well-doers. pray in the congregation according Only this is the difference in the to the necessities of the people." — sovereignty over both. The corn- Brook, I. 204. monwealth cannot be without the "For one man to have many magistrate ; but if all magistrates parsonages, where he cannot pos- fall from the Church, we must still sibly reside, is great wickedness, hold this article : ' I believe in the And seeing Christ hath purchased Catholic Church.' For Christ, and his Church with his own blood, not the Christian magistrate, is the whosoever enjoys several livings life and head of the Church. In considers very little the words of the commonwealth, the prince mak- Paul, — ' Take heed unto all the eth and repealeth laws, as appears flock, over which the Holy Ghost most for the safety of the state, hath made you overseers, to feed the and the benefit of the people. But Church of God.' I therefore humbly in tho Church, there is only One beseech your Honors to have this Lawgiver, even Jesus Christ." carefully reformed." —Brook, 1. 205. — Brook, I. 205, 206. " Princes have full authority over J Brook, I. 202. all ecclesiastical and civil persons, 2 Strype's Parker, 469, 470, 543. and equally over both, to punish 3 Brook, I. 210. 524 THINKING. [Ch. XVIII. could not shield from annoyance and persecution. We have not inspected its particulars too minutely ; for in every step and feature it was a lawless use of might, — a flagrant crime against a man. Edward Deering had a right to think. God gave it him. It was his inalienable property. It was his manhood. Nor prelate nor queen could take it away : nor had prelate or queen a right to touch it. They did. They sinned, — against him, — against his Maker. They did so Avithout a shadow of pretence. The man was a conformist. He had used the garments. He had fodowed the Book. He had honored the magistrate. He had bridled his tongue within the statute. The Commissioners could not even trump up an accusation against him, — as they did soon in another case. The Bishop of London him self had confessed this ; and in presence both of the queen's attorney and her solicitor.1 His persecutors did not even wait to manufacture something per taining to him into sin by a new statute, made on purpose, and with a retrospective clause. Others had been caded to uncover their thoughts; but it was Avhen on arraignment for some act of non-con formity ; but this man was arraigned and scourged for his opinions only, — his unpublished opinions, his suspected opinions, — for his opinions lest he should speak them ! We imprecate the Holy Inquisition of Isabeda and Torquemada. Why not, the Holy Inquisition of Elizabeth and Matthew Parker ? What did that, more than this ? Nothing ; except to rack the body. But which is the greater sacrilege ? Which is the 1 Strype's Annals, IH. 401. Ch. XVIII.J THINKING. 525 more sacred endowment, — the frame-work of bone and muscle, of nerves and blood, or the image of God within it ? What a comment upon that procla mation, that vaunted proclamation of 1570 ! What an abandonment of queenly honor! What an ex position of Church and State ! And yet it was but an opening chapter of that exposition. In the Puritan annals of Elizabeth's reign, — Puri tan in distinction from Cathohc, — perhaps this case stands alone ; the one atrocious instance of pure in quisition, of persistent, brazen persecution, of judg ment Avithout pretence or mercy, for nothing but opinion. But if it has not its fellow, it has its lesson. It shows that it was not merely obstinacy about " trifles " for which the Puritans were obnoxious ; and connivance when trifles were their only sins shows it also. It shows that it was not merely dis regard of statute law for which they were laid on the threshing-floor; and the greater lenity of the pow ers toward Catholic non-conformists shows it also. It shows that it was not the outward act which bestirred persecution; but the inward thought, the anti-despotic rudiment, of which that act was but the index.- It shows how false and unpardonable is the record, that " Queen Elizabeth established no inquisition into men's bosoms." a It shows, too, why her Majesty would only "suppress the Papistical religion so that it should not groiv, but would root out Puritanism and the favorers thereof." 2 Fortunately, the sceptre was but gold ; the Puritan Idea, iron. 1 Hume, HI. 101, Chap. XL. 2 The Queen to Malvesier ; Strype's Annals, IV. 242. CHAPTER XIX. , THE CLOSE OP THE FIRST PRIMACY. A Sick Prisoner. — His Crimes against Precisianism. — His Examination. — A Nice Point canvassed. — Railing vs. Scripture. — The Sick Man remanded to Prison. — Dies from Want and Confinement. — The Pri mate's Severities excite Disgust. — His Vindication of himself. — His Death. 1574, 1575. The Queen's Commissioners Ecclesiastical were as sembled in Westminster Hall, on the 20th of Febru ary, 1573-4, to execute judgment. The Gate-House, near by, was where the Bishop of London kept Christian culprits to await their trial, and whither he sent them again to expiate their crimes, when they had been made " clerks convict " by sentence of court.1 There were several cases, to be disposed of this day, of honest-minded preachers who had fallen into sin. Whde the court was pronouncing sentence upon one of them, another, who had just been brought in from prison, stood eagerly bending over the smad fire in a corner, and spreading out his hands before it, as though it were very grateful. He was pale and thin, with a gaunt, hungry look, and an eye that drooped as if he had resigned himself to suffer. He had been educated at Cambridge, where he was Fedow of King's 1 Stow's Survey, 176. London, 1842. Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 527 College ; and had been chaplain, in 1571, to the Lord Keeper Bacon. He had been suspended from the ministry in that year, for refusing subscription to all the Articles of Religion of the Convocation of 1562-3 ; although he Avas Avdling to subscribe to the doctrines, and used the Book of Common Prayer, and wore the garments prescribed by law.1 In some Avay he had obtained license to preach again, and became minister of St. Clement's Church in London. He had soon given offence, and had been throvfn into the Gate- House, where he had been wasting away under cold and hunger. There had been a great dearth of pro visions during the winter; and, "notwithstanding (thanks be to God !) there had been no want of anie thing to them that wanted not monie,"2 yet Bobert Johnson had "wanted monie." For forty-nine days and nights he had paced his room, and crept to his padet, cold, hungry, sickened by foul air and disgust ing filth. They were now going to find out whether he deserved it, — just as justice treats folks now-a- days. After enduring this four or five weeks, he had contrived means to write to Bishop Sandys, remon strating against such cruelty. It was a pretty sharp letter ; and if he did style his Lordship " superintend ent of Popish corruptions in the diocese of London," — which was not proper, — we must make some al lowance for flesh and blood, when cold and hungry and sick. " We are in danger of our lives," he wrote on the 2d of February, " in these filthy jails, more unwholesome than dunghills, and more stinking than pig-styes. Take heed, therefore, lest you get your name enrolled amongst the number of persecutors. 1 Neal, I. 119. 2 Holingshed, IV. 324. 528 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Ch. XIX. Let not worldly policy prevad more than true divinity. Let not the Commission draw you farther than God's Word will allow. Let not your palace make you forget the temple of Christ. There is persecution enough ; and consider, my Lord, the present persecu tion is among brethren, not only of one nation, but of one profession ; the persecutors and the persecuted believing hi one God, professing one Christ, embracing one religion, receiving one Gospel, communicating in one sacrament, and having one hope of salvation. You say you are our chief pastor; we desire food. You say you are our doctor ; Ave desire to be taught. This is the best way to win us, and the best for you to use. The Fleet, the Gate-House, the White-Lion, the King's Bench, and Newgate, are weak arguments to convince the conscience.1 But such appeals had weighed nothing against the code of " worldly pohcy." They were empty wind in the ear of a Church Precisian. The prisoner had re mained shivering in his cell, and was now brought shivering to the hall of judgment. He had hardly gathered a httle warmth to his skinny hands, when he heard his name called to answer. He coughed as he turned around, — a quick, husky cough ; the eyes, which had drooped, were strangely bright ; there came a flush upon his cheek; and he stood erect while he heard his indictment. Marrying with out the ring; baptizing without making the sign of the cross ; a misdemeanor in administering the sacra ment, — the same done in contempt of the queen and her laws, and against the peace of the realm ; — these were his accusations ! 1 Brook, I. 180, 181. Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 529 " If it please your Honors," moving a step or two in front of the Lord Chief Justice, " may I not sub mit myself, and declare the truth of things as they were done." His Lordship assented. " I stand here indicted on three points. In respect to the contempt, I plead not guilty. To the last of those charges, I ansAver under my protestation, that at no time, in celebrating the Communion, have I omitted any prayer or words of the institution which the book prescribeth. Upon one occasion, the wine faded ; I sent for more ; I dehvered this to the people, using the words appointed for the delivery, but not using the words of the institution, which I had already used at the beginning of the ordinance. These I omit ted ; partly because the words at first delivered were sufficient, — it being an entire action and one Sup per, — and partly because, in the Book of Common Prayer, there is no order appointed to which I could refer the case. " Once or twice, I have omitted to use the ring in solemnizing marriage; but upon reproof from my ordinary, I have corrected this my default. "I have also omitted to make the sign of the cross in baptism, but not of contempt. But seeing that I have aheady suffered seven weeks in prison, with the loss of my place and my living, I beseech you judge impartially whether this be not sufficient for so small a crime." "You were not sent to prison for that," observed one of the Commissioners, "but for your irreverent behavior." " I trust, sir, I did not behave myself more irrev- VOL. I. 67 530 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY [Ch. XIX. erently at the time of my commitment, than I do now. I object to the indictment upon this charge; which is, that in baptism I omitted the prayer, ' We receive this child,' &c. I have never omitted it, though I have omitted the sign of the cross." "These two matters of the cross and the ring are but trifles" said the Bishop of London. "The chief is the consecration of the Sacrament. As it had not the word, it was no sacrament, and so the people were mocked," — a statement which surely savored of popular superstition ; capable of none other meaning than that virtue was imparted to the elements by a form of words. " I do not say," replied Mr. Johnson, that the word is of no force. That it is necessary to the sub stance " — substantiality, reality — " of the Sacra ment, we both agree. But herein is the controversy, — whether it be necessary for the institution to be repeated, seeing it is but one and the same action, and the same communicants as before for whom the words are spoken. If it had not been the same supper, or if the communicants had been changed, it would have been necessary to rehearse the in stitution." " You like yourself very wed," the Bishop replied ; " and you are stubborn and arrogant. I have before heard of your stubborn heart, but now I perceive it. You — unlearned — stand stubbornly against us all ; and so no learning will satisfy you." A singu lar reply, certainly, to a rational statement. " You confess," said the Commissioner who had spoken before, " that when the words of the institu tion were recited, you had no wine." Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 531 " I do not. I had both bread and wine." " But you had not that wine." « No." " Therefore it was not consecrated." " The words before repeated were sufficient." " Then with those words you consecrated all the wine in the tavern," said the Dean of Westminster. " No, sh ; it was the wine that was brought from the tavern to the church, and of a common wine was appointed to be a sacramental wine to repre sent Christ's blood, — and this is consecration." " Why ! then with you the word is of no force ! " " It is not of force to bring any holiness to the Sacrament. I trust you do not think that the word maketh the bread any holier when used in the Sacrament." " Yes," said one of the judges, " it is holy bread." " A holy sacrament," said the Bishop, discreetly. " That I confess," answered Mr. Johnson. " But holiness is in the use and end, not in the substance. Otherwise you make a magical enchantment of it, not a consecration." " If thou wert well served, thou wouldst be used like a magician," — was the only answer to this point. " Whatever your judgment, I stand or fad to my own Lord." " You know not what harm you have done," re monstrated the Bishop of London with solemnity, " by defending an error before this company ; bring ing them so into doubt that they know not which way to take " ; — an indiscreet admission that there was " force " in Mr. Johnson's " words," upon a com mon as well as upon a sacramental occasion. 532 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRLMACY. [Ch. XIX. "My Lord, I defend no error." " Nay," exclaimed the Dean of Westminster, " you maintain a horrible heresy." "• If you Avere well served," said another Commis sioner, following the clew which the Dean had given, "you should fry a fagot" "I pray you, my Lord of London," asked Mr. Johnson, "must consecration be performed before the delivery of the elements, or after ? " " I wdl not answer." " It is only a question ; I pray you answer it." "' Answer it thyself." " It shad be answered," interposed the Dean in cautiously. " The consecration must go before ; for Christ gave a sacrament, which could not be without the word. Consecration, therefore, must go before." " But Christ spake the word after the distribu tion. He first gave the bread, and then said, ' Take, eat ; this is my body.' " "And what then?" "Then, according to what you say, Christ did not consecrate aright." By this citation of Christ's act, the whole charge against the prisoner, of not using the word before distribution, was virtually quashed. But the Dean ralhed, and adroitly neutralized the defence, as men stronger in power than in wits, justice, or Scrip ture always can, when pushed to the wall. " You defend a horrible heresy ; for you reject the word." It is painful to read this record. Ministers of Christ calling a brother minister to a stern reckon ing for a casualty in his ministration ! Dignitaries Cit. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 533 of the Church flinging supercilious insults in the face of sober reasoning! It is painful also to see how God's "most glorious ministration ofthe Spirit" may be wrested to the service of the flesh, — how it may be sullied and emasculated by exalting the ceremonials of worship. " Hunting on the Sabbath is sin," says the Jewish Talmud ; " therefore catch ing a flea on that day is sin, because it is a kind of hunting." Such is Pharisaism, strenuous for forms ! and to such whimsical, yet profane extrav agancies, does ceremonial righteousness tend ! After a httle more dialogue, the Lord Chief Jus tice peremptordy interfered, by saying : " Let us make an end of this. Charge the jury." Upon the testimony of witnesses, of whom some were known Papists, and others had done penance for the foulest crimes, Mr. Johnson was summa rily found gudty, and condemned to a year's im prisonment. His chief offence, be it remembered, was not non-conformity, for there was no pre script for such a case in the book; but an in cident for the propriety or impropriety of which there was no authority whatever. He certainly had not gone contrary, in this affair of the Sacra ment, to 1 Eliz. Cap. H. Sec. H ; nor can I find that he had to any other. Want ! want ! want ! how it shrivels the body, and the spirit ! How it makes the strong man totter, and the stout-hearted whine ! Mate Friendlessness with Want, and how they cling to their victim like vampires, — fix their fangs just where he is most sen sitive, and thence suck up his life by drops ! And when wrong comes too, — unprovoked, thrusting its 534 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Ch. XIX. lancinating sting along every nerve, — with aU upon him at once, how long can a man live? and how much of him wid be left to die, when he dies ? Such a trinity Avill make Stoicism shriek, and writhe, and die before the Stoic. Well, one kind of man is secure against Friendlessness at least; so that, if Want do strip him, and Wrong do stab him, and priest and Levite do avoid and mock him in the day of his calamity, the good Samaritan finds him. In the thoroughfare, where scorn and hunger and blank- faced forgetfulness it is hardest to endure ; in the wdderness, where the wild-flower mocks his pallor, and the singing-bird his grief; in the dungeon, where the rumble of a busy world derides his des olation ; — anywhere, however conditioned, he who cleaveth closer than a brother is his minister. The canker of treachery will eat, and tears flow, and flesh waste, and blood curdle, and the outer man perish. But the inner man is renewed day by day; for to the inner ear there is a present voice, and to the inner eye a present smde. The sufferer has fedow- ship there in his solitude, sympathy in his desola tion, consolation in his sorrow, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. The Christian man suffers and dies under his oppression ; the Christian spirit is ministered to, disrobed, transfigured. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and delivered him out of all his troubles. He went from bis judgment to his prison, his poverty, and his stint ed food. The slight cough became deep and rigid, the filth nauseating, the foul air fouler and more suffocating. He grew paler and weaker. On the Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 535 7th of March, he traced a few lines to the Bishop of London, praying " that he might feel some of his charitable relief to preserve him from dying under this hard usage ; that pity might requite spite, and mercy recompense malice." At the same time, he wrote, or indited, a petition to the Queen and Council. On the 19th, the Council sent the petition to Arch bishop Parker and Bishop Sandys, with a letter from themselves "pressing these prelates to take the case into consideration, and to take such order therein as should appear to be most convenient." It appeared to them most convenient to take no order. After a while — weary weeks, to a sick man in a loathsome jad — the Councd in some way heard of him again, " that he was very sick, and likely to die unless he might enjoy air more open." They therefore wrote again on the 16th of May to the Bishop of London, " commanding him to give order for the poor afflicted man to be baded ; and, upon sureties, to be removed to his own house, to be in ward there." But being lord in the precincts, whether the Council did will it or nill it, Edwin Sandys could do as he chose. Per haps he reasoned from " worldly policy " ; perhaps he wrested " true divinity " ; perhaps he thought that the "stubborn heart," the "horrible heretic," had forfeited mercy; perhaps it was not "conven ient to give order." But whatever his reasonings or his reasons, he was deaf to the order from the Court, and to the cry from the prison. Robert Johnson should have counted the cost! So he was left to the tender mercies of a sordid jader and an empty purse, — to the malaria of filth and the consumption of disease. And now, as life faded, Life brightened. 536 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Ch. XIX. The Comforter invisible gave him inspiring glimpses of the promised rest ; so that he greAV more serene and more cheerful there on his matted straw, tid one day in May he fell asleep.1 I wonder how Rob ert Johnson and Edwin Sandys met — in heaven. About this time — and doubtless not for the first time — her Majesty told Archbishop Parker that "he had supreme government ecclesiastical, and so she committed the chief inspection of the Church to him " ; 2 by Avhich she unquestionably meant, that upon his vigdance devolved chiefly the execution of law upon all ecclesiastical offenders. But, a few months after the events just narrated, he complained, " I may not work against Precisians and Puritans, though the laws be against them ; know one, know ad." He complained, that " he found her Majesty to be almost the only one " — at Court — " who was constant in being offended with Puritans " ; that "his government was cumbered with subtilties " ; that " divers of his brethren, the bishops, had deserted him, — some of whom were working secretly against him " ; that " there was a policy on foot to Avork overthwartly against the queen's rehgion stablished by law and injunction, of which policy he would not be partaker." Under these circumstances ,he began to withdraw from " the business of metropol itan and of chief overseer of the Church," seldom appearing at the Court or even sending letters thith er. The reason of this seems to have been, that " it irked him sorely to see that he could not do that good service " — according to his way of thinking — 1 Brook, I. 176 - 188. Pierce, 83. * Strype's Parker, 542. Ch. XIX] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 537 " for God and the Church that his high place re quired of him " ; or, in his own words, " I toy out my time partly with copying of books, partly in devis ing ordinances for scholars to help the ministry, part ly in genealogies, &c. For I have little help where I thought to haA'e had most. And thus, till Almighty God cometh, I repose myself in patience." x Thus it appears from his own pen, that the severe policy of the chief executive in the Church had not only excited the loud and bitter complaints of the sufferers, but had given disgust to Churchmen, and even to some of the prelates. One of these was probably Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, whom the Archbishop charged with too much lenity, and with dishking his government. "What I am, and what my doings are," said Parkhurst in reply, " cannot be hidden. This I find by good proof, that the rough and austere manner of ruling doth the least good ; and, on the other part, the contrary hath and doth daily reclaim and win divers. And therefore do I choose rather to continue my accustomed and natu ral form and manner, which I know how it hath and doth work, than with others by rigor and extremity to overrule." 2 The overthwarting policy which so sorely hked his Grace, is easdy explained. The Lords of Councd had heard of the death of Johnson. They began to hear of another, and another, and still another, who also fell victims to squalor and disease.3 Petition 1 Strype's Parker, 478, compared this, Brook ought to have given his with Parker's letters to Burleigh, authority ; but he does not. I can- Appendix, Nos. XCV., XCIX. not suppose, however, that he would 2 Strype's Annals, HI. 509. make so serious a statement without 3 Brook, I. 36. In a case like book. VOL. i. 68 538 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Cn. XIX. after petition was laid upon the Council table from others, Avho had long been kept waiting, and who were still Avaiting, for their trials in prison, smitten with sickness, and like to die. Their Lordships, beffinnino- to think, it would seem, that the cries which came up to their chamber might also go up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, remonstrated with his Grace and the Commissioners jointly. They wrote that any lawful proceedings against non-con formists, they Avould countenance and aid ; but that they Avould not be imphcated in such unreasonable imprisonment. At the same time, they desired the Commissioners to dispose of such cases, in future, with decent despatch ; and that two sufferers, in par- ticular, if so sick that they could not remain in prison without inconvenience, should be liberated on bad until they could be tried. This missive was unavading. Again, therefore, they addressed the Commissioners. They also wrote to the Archbishop himself, stating that it was her Majesty's pleasure that Bonham and Standen — the two referred to — should be set free, and without trial.1 For the credit of her Majesty, for the credit of her Councd, for the credit of the Anglican Church and of humanity, Ave rejoice to record this interference. But Avhat shad we say ofthe " unlawful " severities — to use the mildest term — which made it necessary ? What shall we say of the apathy — again to use the mddest word — which made its repetition neces sary? And what shad we think of the Primate who would rather toy away his time than strive that mercy might rejoice against judgment ? Was 1 Brook, I. 176 ; from Baker's MS. Collec, Vol. XXI. p. 384. Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 539 he vindictive, or was he weak ? Is it charity, or is it filial partiality, or is it sectarian blindness, which writes that " his career was distinguished by patience and benignity " ? x But " the most severe disciplinarian of Elizabeth's first hierarchy " 2 has left on record his own vindica tion. It is fair to suppose it the best which could be made; and therefore it should neither be sup pressed nor forgotten. It consists of three points : " 1. The vehement words of the Statute of Uniform ity (before he was placed), by which archbishops and bishops are charged to execute the same, as they would answer before God ; 3 2. that he did enforce a rehgion which he knew in conscience to be good, and which was confirmed by public authority ; and 3. that, in enforcing this religion, he did but do the queen's commandment."4 1 Lodge's Portraits, H. No. 17. London, 1840. It may be true, as this same writer says, that " the raising him without intermediate steps to the exalted dignity which awaited him, was the result of Elizabeth's judgment of his character " ; but it should be re membered, that he was the third to whom she offered the dignity, and the first who would accept it. 2 Hallam, 110, note. s The following is the statute. (1 Eliz. Cap. H. Sec. IV.) " For due execution hereof, the queen's most excellent Majesty, the Lords Temporal, and all the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, do in God's name earnestly require and charge all the archbishops, bishops, and other ordinaries, that they shall endeavor themselves to the uttermost of their knowledges, that the due and true execution hereof may be had throughout their dioceses and charges, as they will answer before God for such evils and plagues wherewith Almighty God may justly punish his people for neglecting this good and whole some law." The Archbishop seems obtusely to have considered this charge to have had the binding nature of an oath, or as something very like it ; instead of being an injunction, or adjuration, so to execute the act that they could answer before God for their behavior, and for just plagues. * Strype's Parker, Appendix, p. 181 ; Parker to Burleigh. 540 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Cu. XIX. We Avill not stop to ask Avhether the Archbishop ever stimulated the queen's choler, or prompted her "commandment," or slighted her interposition for mercy; nor Avhether it Avas the religion Avhich he knew to be good, or the " ornaments " of that rehgion, which he enforced ; nor Avhether he did so " execute the statute as he would answer before God." What is the purport of the plea itself? That he had, of his own free wdl, committed himself, not only as the rigid executive of a statute written and knoAvn, but as the executive of royal commands unwritten and unknown. That, of his own free wdl, he had bound himself, not only to exclude from the offices and emoluments of the Church those Avho should not conform to its rules and uphold its polity, but even to punish them beyond the statute, when the queen's policy might be furthered thereby. That he had pledged himself, not only to sequester and punish, but to punish every Englishman for preaching Christ in England, unless he wore a livery, ministered by a Book, and prayed by rote. To all this Archbishop Parker had deliberately bound himself. Whitehead and Wotton would not.1 We have before spoken of the right of a Church to depose from its offices the violators of its rules ; and of the right of a civd government to punish disobe dience of its laAvs. But under the administration of this Primate, uniformity was enforced, not only by the penalties prescribed by statute, but by arbitrary penalties, and for refusing arbitrary requirements, — written neither in the Act of Uniformity nor in the Act 13 Eliz. Cap. XII. This was going beyond the 1 See ante, p. 178, note 1. Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 541 "vehement words." It was being; overmuch ri°iit- eous, or overmuch Avicked. His Grace of Canterbury devised the scheme, and sustained it, even without the royal sanction.1 Parkhurst and Pilkington, Hut ton and Grindal, — some would not equal, none would go beyond command. In comparison with these men, Dr. Parker was in- tedectuady Aveak. He was weak enough to write that plea for entithng bishops "Lords." He was Aveak enough to plead his mistress's order as decisive / justification of his acts, — weak enough not to see dis honesty in the forced construction of a statute. He was weak enough to think Puritanism agrarianism, and the Puritan a Muncer ; to be bereft of senses by a bugbear plot ; and to fancy himself, as the repre sentative of his order, a chief pdlar of the throne. He was weak enough not to suspect that oppression might make a wise man mad, and force loyalty itself to revolution. And what Avas it but weakness, and the consciousness of weakness, which made him al ways assign to others the championship of the Eccle siastical Establishment, when he should have entered the hsts himself? In all these things we see signs of a weak and misty mind, and in this natural in firmity, rather than in a depraved moral sense, we are content to find the only excuse for his illegal severities. They were terminated by his death, at the age of seventy-two years, on the 7th of May, 1575.2 1 Strype's Parker, 322. have, show that he was far from 2 Holingshed, IV. 327. Strype's being a clear-headed man. These Parker 494. tw0 were written, to be sure, when Archbishop Parker's letters, par- he was sick ; but his biographer as- ticularly the last two which we sures us, that, to the last, " he was 542 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Cn. XIX. With all her faults, the Reformed Church of Eng land has been stouter, nobler, larger-hearted, larger- handed, has nourished more Christ-like men and more Christian colonies, than any other division of the of a vigorous and perfect mind and memory.'' (p. 494.) Sandys com plained to Parker, in a letter dated October, 15G0, " I am often put to a doubtful interpretation by reason of your sundry dark sentences hard to scan forth." (Strype's Parker, Ap pendix, p. 25.) A few instances are sufficient to show how and why he shrunk from effort in the field of religious po1 lemics. AVhen the Bishop of Aqui- la, the Spanish Ambassador at the Court of Elizabeth, " a bold, prag matical man, and a great zealot for the Pope and his rehgion," sent to Dr. Parker through Sir William Cecil, then Secretary of State, a sort of challenge to a private passage- at-arms about religion, the Archbish op declined it, though he offered to substitute, what was not asked, sug gested, or wished, a written con troversy. For thus declining, he pleaded with Cecil, that " what with passing those hard years of Mary's reign in obscurity, without all con ference," i. e. any practice in dis putation, " or such manner of study as might now do me service, and what with my natural vitiosity of overmuch shamefacedness, I am so abashed in myself, that I cannot raise up my heart and stomach to utter in talk with other, which (as I may say) with my pen I can ex press indifferently, without great difficulty. Whereupon this is to re quire " — pray — " you, for all love, to help me to shadow my cow ardice, .... and to decline from me such opportunities, wherein I should work a lack to my promoters and a shame to myself. For the ordering, overseeing, and compassing common matters ecclesiastical, in synod, or out thereof, among mine acquainted familiar brethren, I doubt not but, with God's grace and help of counsel, .... there my stomach will stand by me But if ye drive me out of this course, . ... ye shall drive me utterly out of conceit; and then I can do noth ing." (Strype's Parker, Appendix, p. 199.) Strype is apprehensive that this letter may be construed as "betray ing the Archbishop's weakness" ; but like a good biographer, he thinks it "rather shows his prudence and great modesty." (p. 526.) Why, then, did his Grace withhold his sig nature ; and even close his letter by saying, " I pray you, lay not this aside, but rather burn it, read or unread, at your pleasure " ? (Ap pendix, p. 200.) Cecil did " lay it aside," and here are we, treating it very irreverently, three hundred years after ! But the Archbishop also held back from meeting in his own per son the controversial necessities of that Church of which he was, by office, the proper champion ; not even venturing to use that pen with which he said he could express himself tolerably well, without great difficulty. When Sanders, a Cath- Cn. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 543 Church Militant since the sword of the Spirit was unsheathed against the Man of sin. When she first planted her foot successfully to do battle with her spiritual foes, as solitarily, as sturdily, and as long olic writer, attacked the monarchy and Church of England, and when Lord Burleigh insisted with the Archbishop that the book ought to be answered, his Grace assigned the task to others. (Strype's Parker, 379-383.) He also held back from meeting in like manner even his " acquainted familiar brethren." When the Pu ritans published a book in behalf of their way of discipline, a book which it was necessary to answer, this task also he committed to others. (Toid., 480.) Even when, as he conceived, a grand assault was made upon the very pillars of the Church and of the throne, by the Admonition to Parliament, — when he apprehended that, if it was not counteracted, anarchy would be in the ascendant, — he declined a task by no means derogatory to his high office, and, as we have seen, employed Whitgift's " pen" instead of his own. In these cases, he could not plead the multifarious and pressing duties of his archiepiscopate ; for during the whole term of his office he had large leisure for his favorite pastime of antiquarian researches and writ ings. Strype insists that Parker was a man of " stomach." (p. 524.) Eor no better reasons, that I can find, than these : that he sometimes dis agreed with her Majesty ; that he said "he cared not for the great Earl of Leicester" ; that he said he cared not three points for the Pu ritans' shooting at the bishops," (Strype's Parker, Appendix, 181,) " nor three chips for what Dr. Chad- erton " — Chatterer, he called him — " said about him." (Ibid., 474.) On the other hand, he had that perpet ual, nervous fear of evil which does not belong to minds of a manly order. He was constantly appre hensive that himself and Burleigh, the hierarchy, the nobility, the throne, were in a common peril ; like the petty constable, who fancied every attempt to shake him an at tempt to shake the commonwealth. A sham plot was set on foot, pre tended to be a conspiracy of the Puritans to murder " himself, the Lord Treasurer, and other eminent personages.'' The object seems to have been, to scare his Grace, which was effectually done. In his fright, he wrote to Burleigh, " This horrible conspiracy hath so aston- ied me, that my will, my memory, are quite gone." (Strype's Parker, 465.) The definition of a Puritan, recorded by Sir John Harrington, " a Protestant scared out of his wits," is thus proved to be false. (Nugse An tique, H. 21.) AVith these facts in view, together with his Grace's argument for the lordship of bishops, the reader can measure for himself the intellectual calibre of Archbishop Parker. It is noticeable, that in the publi cations of the Parker Society we have no volume of "Kemains of 544 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Ch. XIX. as her islet sanctuary has with the untiring sea, God placed Matthew Parker at her van. The weak things of the world hath God chosen to confound the things that are mighty; and they are to be honored for their honor, not despised for their weakness, or pecked at for their faults. If, then, for his election of God only, we write his name with respect, but Avrite no praise of the man, do Ave therefore wrong ? Do we sin, in that we scruti nize and unveil his weakness ? Rather, do we not herein magnify the power and grace of Him who chose to sustain, under such a primate, a Church destined to so glorious a history ? Nor shall Ave sin, if Ave doubt Avhether — with the same modicum of endowments, in the same high position, under the same unnatural and perplexing combination of Church and State, under the same mistress, and in the same uncertain twilight — we should have done better. That we ought and might, there can be no question. The close of this prelate's life brings us to a point where we naturally pause, to review the ground over Archbishop Parker," other than rogative of God. By the nature of ordinary letters. things, the power of sovereigns is confined to external government. I cannot refrain from here adding They have no right of punishment what might more fitly have been but over those who disturb the pub- introduced elsewhere, the remark- lie peace, of whieh they are the able words of Theodoric the Ostro- guardians. The most dangerous goth, king of Italy at the close of heresy is that of a sovereign who the fifth century, in a letter to the separates from himself a part of his Emperor Justin, — words so nobly subjects, because they believe not in contrast with the pohcy of Queen according to his belief." Elizabeth: — Milman's note to p. 16, Vol. IH. " To pretend to a dominion over of Gibbon's Decline and Fall (8vo the conscience, is to usurp the pre- edit., New York, 1847). Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 545 which Ave have passed, before entering upon the ex citing and even tragic scenes Avhich are before us. We have noted the small beginning of Puritan ism, and thence have traced its progress and growth until its features Avere well defined, its form de veloped, and its several positions, offensive and de fensive, Avere avowed and recognized. At first but little more than a religious scruple, it soon became a fixed principle, — an uncompromising antagonism to Popery, based upon clear and Scriptural convic tions. This principle, under the pressure of com pulsion, brought into action, not indeed any wed- defined doctrine of natural right, but that latent consciousness of it which spiritual despotism had smothered for centuries, and which so inheres in every man that savage wrong will sometimes rouse it to resistance even in the most abject slave. The religious principle, sustained and stimulated by this awakened instinct, soon expanded into a political one. It went out from the vestry and the chancel to the Parliament-House and the Councd Board; and thus Puritanism became the personification — and the only one — of religious and civil liberty, — of liberty questioning, confronting, withstanding, the lordship of the hierarchy and the wanton despotr ism of the crown. In 1575, it was no longer a whim to be despised, or a naughtiness to be whipped, but a doctrine to be feared, a heresy to be rooted out. The State had girded up its loins and put on its harness to do battle with the Puritan. Had he made all this ado only for the sake of trifles? In 1550, it was charged that he did. It was so charged during Elizabeth's reign. It has VOL. I. 69 546 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Ch. XIX. been so charged without cessation for three hun dred years, untd the eye is tired of reading, and the ear of hearing. We wdl not argue the point. Nor wdl we repeat what we have said about it in a previous chapter. Let us simply look at it with the eye of common sense, and in the light of facts already recited. When the discipline of the Queen's Commissioners became rank ; when then appliances became " sharp corrosives " ; when they overstepped the statutes ; when they demanded a subscription and a promise not authorized by the Act of Uniformity, or by the act to reform disorders touching ministers of the Church, or by any other act, either of heaven above or of the earth beneath ; when they punished, not for non conformity, but for non-subscription, and without authority of Parliament, or queen, or God ; when they ransacked thoughts and scourged opinions; when they required men to take oath that the preaching of the Word in the Church of England was sound and sincere, that her order of administer ing the Sacraments was consonant to the Word of 3d, and that there was nothing repugnant to that ford in her Book of Common Prayer ; — were these tilings trifles ? Can we, with any pretence of reason, cad him a contemptible stickler for trifles, who, in such a case, resented illegal punishment, refused dlegal requisitions, and preferred disobedience to perjury ? " But these things are not in point." Nevertheless, they are facts, — burning, damning, — and not to be forgotten. " They were consequences of obstinacy about trifles." Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 547 Sequences, — granted. " The root of the matter, the beginning of the con tention, Avas about trifles." By no means. Look back. When Elizabeth came to the throne, her political horizon was different from that of her brother Edward. The Papal See Avas ravenous for domination in England. A devotee of Rome Avas next heir to the crown, and Romish princes, Avith fleets and armies, were eager to place it on her head. Under these circumstances, the Cathohc element in Elizabeth's realm was a danger ous one. To conciliate her Catholic subjects, was, therefore, a fundamental maxim of her policy. It was of the first political importance to reduce, as far as possible, the Ausible differences between the Church of England and the Romish. Elizabeth therefore reversed the policy of her brother, which had been to recede by little and little, but stdl to recede, from ad resemblance to Rome. She adopted such " orna ments of religion" as he had ordained by his first book, because those ordained by his second were not Papistical enough. She strove, until she found it impracticable, to fix celibacy upon her clergy, be cause otherwise they would not be Papistical enough.1 She kept the crucifix and other symbols in her pri vate chapel, lest she herself should not seem Papis tical enough. All this complaisance to Rome, all this retaining of Papistical features in the national Church, — the cap, the tippet, the surplice, the sign of the cross, kneeling at the sacramental supper, and a form of administering it which should not contra dict the doctrine ofthe corporal presence, — ad and 1 Strype's Parker, 107, 109, Appendix, No. X ATI. p. 30. 548 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. [Cn. XIX each Avere of vital importance to her policy. Should they be uniformly adopted and sustained throughout the realm, there would be little, if anything, in what ever would strike the eye or the ear of the Cathohc, to offend his prejudices. In other Avords, Elizabeth, far from considering these externals of dress and ceremony trifling, es teemed them of great political importance ; of polit ical importance, because they had religious influence, because they were Romish, consorted with Romish dogmas, gratified Romish habits, and fostered Romish superstition. Hence it was, and hence only, that from the moment she felt her throne to be firm, she be came strenuous that these Papistical features of her Ecclesiastical Establishment should not be suffered to relax, " that none should be suffered to decline, either on the left hand or on the right hand, from the direct line limited by authority of her laws and injunc tions"; and hence it was, that when her religious ordinances were approached, she was ever quick to rouse her prerogative of supremacy, and ever hot, imperious, and choleric in using it. In her eyes, the rites, the ceremonies, the vest ments of her Church had not acquired importance because ordained by law ; but were ordained by law because they had importance, — because they had a specific character and a specific gravity. Upon these two points, then, the queen and the Pu ritan were agreed; viz. that the things ordained had an important influence, and that this influence was Papistical. Each recognized a Papistical likeness — and so did the Papist — in the rites, and in the con stitution also, of the English Church. Each regarded Ch. XIX.] THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PRIMACY. 549 it as of fundamental importance ; the one, to the Crown and Church of England ; the other, to the Crown and Church of Christ. Upon this estimate of cap and surplice did the State covertly rely to jus tify its pertinacity. Upon the same did the Puritan openly rely to justify his. In regard to these mat ters, they differed only as the policy of the world differs from the pohcy of the Gospel. The one was right, religiously ; the other, as the world goes, po litically. In the opinion of each, the things about which they contended were worth contending for ; they were anything under heaven but trifles. The cap was more than woollen. The surplice was more than hnen. The Puritan was fantastical, and a stick ler for trifles, just as much as Queen Elizabeth, and no more. Cading a man a Nazarene does not make him one. He may have been born in Bethlehem. END OP VOL. I. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ^ --'YALE % t BRITISH Hl^-rnoy feRESERV, PROJfiC sjRJPPORTED B) m v»h* »« * >• 4&*' ¦ » • * 3 . 1 A