fore the king, he came forth, says Mr. Fox, like | and, as a mark of favour, three hundred and a new player on the stage: his upper garment eighty of the congregation were made denizens was a long scarlet chymere down to the foot, of England. The preamble to the patent sets and under that a white linen rochet that covered forth that the German Church made profession all his shoulders, and a four-square cap on his of pure and uncorrupted religion, and was inhead; but he took it patiently, for the public structed in truly Christian and apostolical opinprofit of the Church. After this, Hooper re- ions and rites. In the patent which incorpotired to his diocess, and preached sometimes rates them there is the following clause: "Item. two or three times a day, to crowds of people We command, and peremptorily enjoin our lordthat hungered for the word of life: he was im- mayor, aldermen, and magistrates of the city partial and zealous in the faithful discharge of of London, and their successors, with all archevery branch of his episcopal character, even bishops, bishops, justices of the peace, and all beyond his strength, and was himself a pattern officers and ministers whatsoever, that they perof what he taught to others. mit the said superintendent and ministers to enjoy and exercise their own proper rites and ceremonies, and their own proper and peculiar ecclesiastical discipline, though differing from the rites and ceremonies used in our kingdom, without impediment, let, or disturbance; any law, proclamation, or injunction heretofore published to the contrary notwithstanding."

of life and manners. He was in high esteem with the great Erasmus, who says that he, though an old man, had profited much by his conversation. And Peter Martyr calls him his most learned patron. But he did not please the ruling prelates, because he took part with Hooper, and wrote against the popish garments, and for the posture of sitting rather than kneel

In the king's letter to the archbishop, Hooper is said to be a divine of great knowledge, deep judgment, and long study, both in the Scriptures and profane learning, as also a person of good discretion, ready utterance, and of an honest life; but all these qualifications must be buried in silence and a prison, at a time when there was a famine of the Word, rather than the above- John a Lasco was a Polander of noble birth; mentioned uniformity in dress be dispensed with. and, according to the words of the patent, a Most of the reforming clergy were with Hoop-man very famous for learning, and for integrity er in this controversy; several that had submitted to the habits in the late reign laid them aside in this, as the Bishops Latimer and Coverdale, Dr. Taylor, Philpot, Bradford, and others, who laid down their lives for the Protestant faith.† In some ordinations, Cranmer and Ridley dispensed with the habits; for Mr. Thomas Sampson, parson of Bread-street, London, afterward one of the heads of the Puritans, and success-ing at the Lord's Supper.‡ ively Dean of Chichester and Christ Church, in a letter to Secretary Cecil, writes, "That at his ordination by Cranmer and Ridley, he excepted against the apparel, and was, nevertheless, permitted and admitted." If they had not done so on some occasions, there would not have been clergymen to support the Reformation. Bishop Burnet says they saw their error, and designed to procure an act to abolish the popish garments; but whether this were so or not, it is certain that in the next reign they repented their conduct; for when Ridley was in prison he wrote a letter to Hooper, in which he calls him "his dear brother and fellow-elder in Christ," and desires a mutual forgiveness and reconciliation. And when he and Cranmer came to be degraded, they smiled at the ridiculous attire with which they were clothed, and declared they had long since laid aside all regards to that pageantry.

1551. Upon the translation of Ridley to the see of London, Dr. Poynet was declared Bishop of Rochester, and Coverdale, coadjutor to Veysey, Bishop of Exeter. The see of Winchester had been two years as good as vacant by the long imprisonment of Gardiner, who had been confined all this time without being brought to a trial: the bishop complained of this to the council, who thereupon issued out a commission to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Ely, and Lincoln, with Secretary Petre, Judge Hales, two civilians, and two Masters in Chancery, to proceed against him for contempt. It was objected to him, that he refused to preach concerning the king's power while under age; that he had been negligent in obeying the king's injunctions, and was so obstinate that he would not ask the king mercy. It was the declared opinion of the popish cler-gy at this time, that the king's laws were to be This behaviour of the bishops towards the obeyed, but not the orders of his council; and, king's natural-born subjects was the more ex- therefore, that all things should remain as the traordinary, because a latitude was allowed to late king left them, till the present king, now a foreign Protestants to worship God after the child, came of age. This the rebels in Devon manner of their country, without any regard to pleaded, as well as the Lady Mary and others. the popish vestments; for this year a church of For the same opinion Gardiner was deprived of German refugees was established at St. Aus- his bishopic, April 18th,◊ upon which he appealed tin's in London, and erected into a corporation to the king when at age; and so his process endunder the direction of John a Lasco, superin-ed, and he was sent back to the Tower, where tendent of all the foreign churches in London, with whom were joined four other ministers;

* Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 173. + Pierce's Vind., p. 31-33.

Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 192. Bishop Maddox maintained that the habits put on those Reformers were the popish habits, which was the ground of their dislike. Mr. Neal, in his Review, controverts the truth, and exposes the futility, of this distinction.-ED.

he lay till Queen Mary discharged him. Nothing can be said in vindication of this severity but this, that both he and Bonner had taken out

* Burnet's Hist. Ref., in Records, vol. ii., No. 51, + Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 239.

About the end of December, 1550, after many cavils in the state, Bishop Burnet informs us that an act passed for the king's general pardon, wherein the Anabaptists were excepted.-Crosby, vol. i., p. 50. Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 191.

* Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 210.

Bishop Maddox objected to this representation, and said it was confuted by Archbishop Wake, who had examined the matter fully. Mr. Neal rests the vindication of his state of it on the authority of Bishop Burnet, supported by the remark of Mr. Collyer, who says, ""Tis pretty plain they were passed by some members of convocation only, delegated by both houses, as appears by the very title, articles, &c., agreed upon in the synod of London, by the bishops and certain other learned men."-Eccles. Hist., vol. ii., p. 325. Neal's Review.-ED.

An alteration in the twenty-eighth article is not noticed by Mr. Neal, in the place to which he refers. The last clause of the article was laid down in these words: "The custom of the Church for baptizing young children is both to be commended, and by all means to be retained in the Church." This clause was left out of Queen Elizabeth's articles. It seems by this, however, observes Crosby, "that the first Reformers did not found the practice of infant baptism upon Scripture, but took it only as a commendable custom, that had been used in the Christian Church, and, therefore, ought to be retained."-Hist. Eng. Bapt., vol. i., p. 54, 55. But what shall we think of, rather, how should we lament the bigotry and illiberality of those times, when men were harassed and put to death for declining a religious practice, which they who enjoined it did not pretend to enforce on the authority of Scripture, but only as a custom of the churches: a plea which would have equally justified all those other religious ceremonies which they themselves, notwithstanding this sanction, rejected! -ED.

The act requires "all persons, after the feast of |tion of the riches of the kingdom was in the Allhallows next, to come to common prayer ev-hands of the Church, they should have made an ery Sunday and holyday, under pain of the cen- ample provision for the maintenance of the sures of the Church. All archbishops and bish- clergy, and the endowment of smaller livings, ops are required to endeavour the due execution before they had enriched their friends and fam-of this act; and whereas divers doubts had been ilies. raised about the service-book, it is said the king and Parliament had now caused it to be perused, explained, and made more perfect." The new -service-book was to take place in all churches after the feast of All Saints, under the same penalties that had been enacted to the former book three years before.*

Nor were the lives of many who were zealous for the Reformation free from scandal: the courtiers and great men indulged themselves in a dissolute and licentious life, and the clergy were not without their blemishes. Some that embraced the Reformation were far from adorning their profession, but rather disposed the people to return to their old superstitions: never

among them, who preached and prayed fervently against the corruptions of the times, and were an example to their flocks, by the strictness and severity of their lives and manners, but their numbers were small in comparison to the many that were otherwise, turning the doctrines of

By another act of this session, the marriages of the clergy, if performed according to the ser-theless, there were many great and shining lights vice-book, were declared good and valid, and their children inheritable according to law; and by another, the bishopric of Westminster was suppressed, and reunited to the see of London. Dr. Heath, bishop of Worcester, and Day of Chichester, were both deprived this year [1553], with Tonstal, bishop of Durham, whose bishop-grace into lasciviousness.* ric was designed to be divided into two; but the act never took effect.

One of the last things the king set his hand to was a royal visitation, in order to examine what plate, jewels, and other furniture were in the churches. The visiters were to leave in every church one or two chalices of silver, with linen for the communion-table and for surplices, but to bring in the best of the church furniture into the king's treasury, and to sell the linen copes, altar-cloths, &c., and give the money to the poor. The pretence was, the calling in the superfluous plate that lay in churches more for pomp than use. Some have called this by no better name than sacrilege, or church theft, and it really was no better. But it ought to be remembered, the young king was now languishing under a consumption, and near his end.

We have now seen the length of King Edward's reformation. It was an adventurous undertaking for a few bishops and privy-councillors to change the religion of a nation only by the advantage of the supremacy of a minor, without the consent of the people in Parliament or convocation, and under the eye of a presumptive heir, who was a declared enemy of all their proceedings, as was the case in the former part of this reign. We have taken notice of the mistaken principles of the Reformers in making use of the civil power to force men to conformity, and of their stretching the laws to reach at those whom they could not fairly come at any other way. But, notwithstanding these and some other blemishes, they were great and good men, and valiant in the cause of truth, as appears by their sealing it with their blood. They made as quick advances, perhaps, in restoring religion towards its primitive simplicity as the circumstances of the time would admit; and it is evident they designed to go farther, and not make this the last standard of the Reformation. Indeed, Queen Elizabeth thought her brother had gone too far, by stripping religion of too many ornaments, and, therefore, when she came to the crown, she was hardly persuaded to restore it to the condition in which he left it. King James I., King Charles I., Archbishop Laud, and all their admirers, instead of removing farther from the superstitious pomps of the Church of Rome, have been for returning back to them, and have appealed to the settlement of Queen Elizabeth as the purest standard.†

It must, however, be confessed, that in the course of this as well as the last reign, there was a very great alienation of church-lands : the chantry-lands were sold among the laity, some of whom held five or six prebendaries or canonries, while the clergy themselves were in want. Bishop Latimer complains, in one of his sermons, "that the revenues of the Church were seized by the rich laity, and that the incumbent was only a proprietor in title; that many benefices were let out to farm by secular men, or given to their servants as a consideration for keeping their hounds, hawks, and horses; and that the poor clergy were reduced to such short allowance that they were forced to go to service, to turn clerks of the kitchen, surveyors, receivers," &c. And Camden complains "that avarice and sacrilege had strangely the ascendant at this time; that estates formerly settled for the support of religion and the poor were ridiculed as superstitious endowments, first miscalled and then plundered." The bishops were too easy in parting with the lands and manors belonging to their bishoprics, and the courtiers were too eager in grasping at everything they could lay their hands upon.† If the revenues of the Church had been abused to † It is evident to the careful student of history, superstition, they might have been converted to that the Reformation in England produced its happiother religious uses; or if too great a propor-est effects in the days of Edward; that the Church

* Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. ii., p. 190.

+ Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 218.

But the Reformers themselves were of another mind, as appears by the sermons of Latimer, Hooper, Bradford, and others; by the letters of Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer, and John a Lasco, who, in his book De Ordinatione Ecclesiarum Peregrinarum in Anglia, dedicated to Sigismund, king of Poland, 1555, says "that King Edward desired that the rites and cere

*Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 290.

of England has never been so pure as soon after its transition from popery; and that its subsequent alterations have ever been in favour of Romanism.-C.

Voet., Eccl. Pol., lib. ii., cap. vi., part i., p. 421.

monies used under popery should be purged out | their clergy often together, and inspect them: closely; and that a provincial synod should meet twice a year, when a secular man, in the king's name, should be appointed to observe their proceedings.

Cranmer was of the same mind. He disliked the present way of governing the Church by convocations as they are now formed, in which deans, archdeacons, and cathedrals have an interest far superior in number to those elected to represent the clergy. These, says Bishop Burnet,* can in no sort pretend to be more than a part of our civil constitution. They have no foundation in Scripture, nor any warrant from the first ages of the Church; but did arise from the model set forth by Charles the Great, and formed according to the feudal law, by which a right of giving subsidies was vested in all who were possessed of such tenures as qualified them to contribute towards the support of the state. Nor was Cranmer satisfied with the liturgy, though it had been twice reformed, if we may give credit to the learned Bullinger, who told the exiles at Frankfort "that the archbish

by degrees; that it was his pleasure that strangers should have churches to perform all things according to apostolical observation only, that by this means the English churches might be excited to embrace apostolical purity with the unanimous consent of the states of the kingdom." He adds, "that the king was at the head of this project, and that Cranmer promoted it, but that some great persons stood in the way." As a farther evidence of this, a passage was left in the preface of one of their service-books to this purpose:* "that they had gone as far as they could in reforming the Church, considering the times they lived in, and hoped they that came after them would, as they might, do more." King Edward, in his Diary,† laments that he could not restore the primitive discipline according to his heart's desire, because several of the bishops, some for age, some for ignorance, some for their ill name, and some out of love to popery, were unwilling to it. And the Church herself, in one of her public offices, laments the want of a godly discipline to this day. Martin Bucer, a German divine, and profes-op had drawn up a book of prayers a hundred sor of divinity in Cambridge, a person in high esteem with the young king, drew up a plan and presented it to his majesty, in which he writes largely of ecclesiastical discipline. The king having read it, set himself to write a gen- The king was of the same sentiments; but eral discourse about reformation, but did not his untimely death, which happened in the sixlive to finish it. Bucer proposed that there teenth year of his age and seventh of his reign, might be a strict discipline, to exclude scanda-put an end to all his noble designs for perfect-lous livers from the sacrament; that the old po-ing the Reformation. He was, indeed, an inpish habits might be laid aside. He did not comparable prince, of most promising expectalike the half office of communion, or second tions, and, in the judgment of the most imparservice, to be said at the altar when there was tial persons, the very phoenix of his age. It no sacrament. He approved not of godfathers was more than whispered that he was poisoned. answering in the child's name so well as in But it is very surprising that a Protestant ditheir own. He presses much the sanctification vine, Heylin, in his History of the Reformaof the Lord's Day, and that there might be tion, should say "that he was ill-principled ; many fastings, but was against the observation that his reign was unfortunate; and that his of Lent. He would have the pastoral function death was not an infelicity to the Church," only restored to what it ought to be; that bishops, because he was apprehensive he would have throwing off all secular cares, should give them-reduced the hierarchy to a more primitive standselves to their spiritual employments. He ad-ard. With good King Edward died all farther vises that coadjutors might be given to some, and a council of presbyters appointed for them all. He would have rural bishops set over twenty or thirty parishes, who should gather

*The following quotation, Mr. Neal, in answer to Bishop Maddox, observes, is transcribed from Mr. Pierce's Vindication, p. 11, where it is to be found verbatim, with his authority; and in Bennett's Memorial of the Reformation, p. 50, Mr. Strype intimates that a farther reformation was intended (Life of Cran., p. 299); and Bishop Burnet adds, that in many of the letters to foreign divines, it is asserted that both Cranmer and Ridley intended to procure an act for abolishing the habits.-ED.

+ King Edward's Remains, num. 2.

times more perfect than that which was then in being; but the same could not take place, for that he was matched with such a wicked clergy and convocation, and other enemies."‡

advances of the Reformation; for the alterations that were made afterward by Queen Eliz abeth hardly came up to his standard.||

* Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 214.
Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 266.
Mem., p. 52.

Bennet's

The troubles at Frankfort, in the Phoenix, vol. ii., p. 82, and Pierce's Vindic., p. 12, 13. Mr. Pierce remarks that this is reported, as is plain to him who⚫ looks into the book itself, not on the testimony of Bullinger, as Strype represents it, but by one of Dr. Cox's party on his own knowledge.-Review.-ED. Pref., p. 4. part vii., p. 141.

"It is praise enough for young Edward," remarks Sir James Mackintosh, "that his gentleness, Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. ii., p. 156. as well as his docility, disposed him not to shed Bucer died in 1551, and was consulted on the re- blood. The fact, however, that the blood of no Roview of the Common Prayer, 1550. But Mr. Neal man Catholic was spilt on account of religion in Edhas introduced his sentiments in this place, because ward's reign, is indisputable. The Protestant Church he was here giving a summary of the changes in of England did not strike the first blow. If this proKing Edward's reign. And in reply to Bishop Mad-ceeded from the virtue of the counsellors of Edward, dox, who, after Bishop Burnet, says that the most material things to which Bucer excepted were corrected afterward, Mr. Neal observes, that they who will be at the pains to read over the abstract of his book, entitled "Of the Kingdom of Christ," in Collyer's Eccles. Hist., vol. ii., p. 296, &c., must be of another mind.-Review.-ED.

we must allow it to outweigh their faults; if it followed from their fortune, they ought to have been envied by their antagonists. Truth and justice require it to be positively pronounced, that Gardiner and Bonner cannot plead the example of Cranmer and Latimer for the bloody persecution which involv. ed in its course the destruction of the Protestant prel-

We may observe, from the history of this reign,

1st. That in matters of faith the first Reformers followed the doctrine of St. Austin in the controverted points of original sin, predestination, justification by faith alone, effectual grace, and good works.

2dly. That they were not satisfied with the present discipline of the Church, though they thought they might submit to it till it should be amended by the authority of the Legislature. 3dly. That they believed but two orders of churchmen in Holy Scripture, viz., bishops and deacons; and, consequently, that bishops and priests were bui different ranks or degrees of the same order.

4thly. That they gave the right hand of fellowship to foreign churches, and ministers that had not been ordained by bishops; there being no dispute about reordination in order to any church preferment, till the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign!

imer, in a sermon before the king, reported, on the authority of a credible person, that there were, in one town, five hundred Anabaptists.* The Reformers, in thus proscribing inquiry and reformation beyond their own standard, were not consistent with themselves; for they acknowledged that corruptions had been a thousand years introducing, which could not be all discovered and thrown out at once.t By this. concession they justified the principle, while they punished the conduct of those who, acting upon it, endeavoured to discover and wished to reject more corruption.]-ED.

CHAPTER III.

REIGN OF QUEEN MARY.

It will appear, in the course of this reign, that an absolute supremacy over the conscienIn all which points most of our modern church-ces of men, lodged with a single person, may as men have departed from them.* well be prejudicial as serviceable to true reli

making use of the same power to turn things back into their old channel, till she had restored the grossest and most idolatrous part of popery. This was begun by proclamations and orders of council, till her majesty could procure a parliament that would repeal King Edward's laws for religion, which she quickly found means to accomplish. It is strange, indeed, that when there were but seven or eight peers that opposed the laws made in favour of the Reformation under King Edward, the same House of Lords should almost all turn papists in the reign of Queen Mary; but as to the Commons it is less wonderful, because they are changeable, and the court took care to new-model the magistrates in the cities and corporations before the elections came on, so that not one almost was left that was not a Roman Catholic. Bribery and menaces were made use of in all places; and where they could not carry elections by reason of the superiority of the reformed, the sheriffs made double returns. It is sad when the religion of a nation is under such a direction! But so it will be when the management of religion falls into the hands of a bigoted prince and ministry.

[To Mr. Neal's remarks on the reign of Ed-gion; for if King Henry VIII. and his son, King ward VI. it may be added, that the Reformation Edward VI., reformed some abuses by their was all along conducted in a manner inconsist- supremacy, against the inclinations of the maent with the principles on which it was found-jority of the people, we shall find Queen Mary ed. The principles on which the justification of it rested were, the right of private judgment, and the sufficiency of the Scriptures as a rule of faith. Yet the Reformation was limited to the conceptions and ideas of those who were in power. No liberty was granted to the consciences of dissidents; no discussion of points on which they themselves had not doubts was permitted such as held sentiments different from their model, and pursued their inquiries farther, without consideration of their numbers or their characters, so far from being allowed to propose their opinions, or to hold separate assemblies for religious worship, agreeably to their own views of things, were stigmatized as heretics, and pursued unto death. Besides the instances Mr. Neal mentions, the Anabaptists were excepted out of the king's general pardon, that came out in 1550; they were also burned in divers towns in the kingdom, and met death with singular intrepidity and cheerfulness. Thus inquiry was stifled; and the Reformation was really not the result of a comprehensive view and calm investigation of all the doctrines and practices which had been long established, but the triumph of power in discarding a few articles and practices which more particularly struck the minds of those who were in government. These persons gained, and have exclusively possessed, the honourable title of Reformers, without any respect to, nay, with a contemptuous disregard of, those who saw farther, and, in point of numbers, carried weight. Bishop Latates. The anti-Trinitarian and the Anabaptist, if they had regained power, might, indeed, have urged such a mitigation; but the Roman Catholic had not even the odious excuse of retaliation."-Hist. of England, ii, 271, 319.-C.

Queen Mary was a sad example of the truth of this observation, whose reign was no better than one continued scene of calamity. It is the genuine picture of popery, and should be remembered by all true Protestants with abhorrence; the principles of that religion being such as no man can receive, till he has abjured his senses, renounced the tender compassions of human nature. his understanding and reason, and put off all

King Edward VI. being far gone in a consumption, from a concern for preserving the Reformation, was persuaded to set aside the It is with pleasure that mention is made of the succession of his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, liberal and able essay of Archbishop Whately on the and of the Queen of Scots, the first and last beNature of Christ's Kingdom; this work takes essenti-ing papists, and Elizabeth's blood being tainted ally different ground from that held by the larger part by act of Parliament; and to settle the crown of the English and American Episcopalians.-C. t Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. ii., p. 143. Crosby's History of the English Baptists, vol. i.,

p. 62.

VOL. I.-H

* Crosby's Hist., vol. i., p. 63.
↑ Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. ii., p. 190.
Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. ii., p. 252.