rising generation, and to convince them practically that the dress was an indifferent point, (for many of the nonconformists were at first weak brethren, and were often rendered turbulent merely Brownists, who denied the queen's supremacy in any but civil matters. He, therefore, who could raise a scruple in the mind of an individual, as to the legitimacy of a ceremony, raised a spirit of insubordination in the breast in which by severity;) had strictness of subscripit was implanted; and among the various opinions which prevailed, and the elements of discord which were thus diffused throughout the kingdom, it was the public danger alone which kept the nation united. Sermons tended to foster these sentiments of free investigation, and Elizabeth, who clearly saw their tendency, instead of trying to direct them to useful objects, and to disseminate real Christianity, endeavoured to curtail the frequency of them, if not to suppress them altogether. Now had the laws against nonconformity been made much more easy with regard to those who were already in orders, and possessed of preferment; had the better sort of nonconformists been treated with lenity, and had the government shut its eyes to their failings; had all interrogatories ex officio mero been disused, which served but to imbody the nonconformists; had every means been exerted to instruct the tion been required from all who took possession of benefices, and the same sort of laxity allowed, which now prevails with regard to dress; had the government and the bishops exerted their first energies in reforming undoubted abuses, it is probable that nonconformity would not have been so closely connected with revolutionary principles and the assertion of civil rights; and that in the subsequent struggle, the church might have helped to support the throne, instead of proving the readiest point through which the sovereign could be attacked. As it was, Elizabeth supported the church by her energy and talents, and circumstances enabled her to triumph over the rising spirits of freedom in the country; but in the hands of James and Charles, the abuses real and imaginary, which existed in the church, contributed greatly to overthrow the monarchy. CHAPTER X. FROM WHITGIFT'S APPOINTMENT, 1593, TO THE END OF THE REIGN. 450. Whitgift, archbishop; he requires subscription to the "Three Articles." 451. Treatment of the puritans; opposition to the bishops. 452. Objects of the puritans. 453. Law framed against the queen of Scots. 454. Hooker and Travers. 455. Death of Mary queen of Scots. 456. Attempts at innovation; convocation. 457. Armada; conduct of the Roman Catholics. 458. Conduct of the puritans. 459. Treatment of them. 460. Question of episcopacy. 461. Treatment of the libellers. 462. Roman Catholics. 463, 464. Origin of the Lambeth Articles. 465. Greater peace in the church. 466. Change of opinion in certain puritans. 467. Character of Elizabeth. 468. Her treatment of the puritans and Roman Catholics. 469. Religious, but arbitrary. 470. Death of Elizabeth. 471. State of the church. amining how the regulations affecting recusancy and nonconformity were ob served, and addressed a circular letter to his brethren the bishops, directing them to take care that the articles' concerning these matters, on which they had agreed, should be duly enforced. 4 These are printed in Strype, and contain in the sixth section the three Articles in the thirtysixth canon, to which Whitgift required subscription. (Whitgift, i. 229.) They had the sanction of the bishops and of the queen; but the legality of requiring subscription to them may still be doubted. See this part of the question discussed in Neal's Puritans, i. 320. mission. In his own diocese, he began at once a congregation, among whom any stran very rigid inquiry into the state of the ger might be present. And Burleigh, clergy, and strictly enjoined subscrip- who was the sound friend of the church, tion to the three articles, which now though not an admirer of all ecclesiasstand in the thirty-sixth canon. From tical proceedings, characterizes these the subordinate officers, who were de- articles as "so curiously penned, so full puted to carry on this investigation,' of branches and circumstances, as I the ministers of Kent addressed them- think the inquisitors of Spain used not selves to the archbishop in person, who, so many questions to comprehend and having spent two or three days in en- to trap their preyes." He strongly deavouring to convince them, proceeded advises a more charitable method of to the suspension of such as persisted treatment, and while he disputes not in their noncompliance, while they on the legality of what was done, he subtheir part appealed to the council. The joins, omnia licent, yet, omnia non exsame step was also adopted by certain pediunt. As to the wisdom and proministers in Suffolk, who were placed priety of allowing the church to remain under the same circumstances, and in as it was by law established, the whose favour some of the magistrates bishops seem to have convinced several of the county had ventured to petition. of the court by two conferences held This produced a sort of remonstrance with the opposite party in the presence from the council, and an answer from of those who entertained doubts on this the archbishop, who was determined to subject: in the latter of these, which proceed with vigour, and to exercise took place at Lambeth in 1585, the the powers of the ecclesiastical com- archbishop during four hours confuted and answered in a most satisfactory § 451. The articles and interrogato- manner their scruples and objections. ries which were issued during the But the steps which he took to enforce spring of 1584 are a strong instance conformity, and unity of opinion, were of the indefinite and tyrannical power not so well received; and this induced then exercised by the governors of the him to comply with the suggestions of church. They were queries ex officio Walsingham, who advised that incummero, proposed to clergymen, whose bents already in possession of their only accuser was common fame, and preferments should not be pressed to who were expected to answer on oath subscribe the three articles, provided questions which involved not only their they gave a written promise that they opinions on matters in which they had, would comply with the use of the Comor might have, conformed, but the very mon Prayer. For that prudent minisfact of their conformity and their future ter could not shut his eyes to the growintentions formed part of the inquiry. ing dislike which the conduct of the Whitgift and the other bishops con- ecclesiastical courts was daily creating tended, that in their proceeding in this towards the bishops and the church; way they were borne out by received an enmity by no means confined to the custom and the usages of other courts, sufferers, or to the lower orders in the and that such steps were necessary, country, but discoverable among many when no information could be procured who were possessed of considerable against nonconforming and popular authority. Lord Leicester was long ministers; but this circumstance, if indeed the fact were so, proved the total abhorrence which the mass of the population must have felt towards ecclesiastical courts, or that such nonconformity could not be very frequent or considerable, when no evidence could be obtained of a fact done in the face of the whole 1 Strype's Whitgift, i. 245. looked up to as the head of the antiepiscopal party, and the archbishop regarded him as a decided opponent of his measures. Mr. Beal, clerk of the council, was earnest too on the subject, and wrote against the examination of delinquents by oath, ex officio mero, and Strype's Whitgift, iii. 106, No. ix. and Fuller, ix. 156. 6 Paul's Whitgift. Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. iv. 343. 7 Strype's Whitgift, i. 431. Paul's Whitgift. Wordsworth's E. B. iv. 350. In the convocation which was held during the end of the last year, and the beginning of this, were promulgated the Articuli pro clero in Synodo Londin. 1584, which contain some judicious regulations with regard to the essentials of ecclesiastical discipline. the use of torture;1 and Sir F. Knowles a diocese or parish was to be subjected on several occasions exhibited so much to the decision of a general or provincial antipathy to the bishops, that the queen synod, to be assembled at stated periods. forbade him to meddle with the ques- The revision of the Common Prayer, of tion. And some of this party, in order to the Ordination Service, as well as of all alarm the bench, and perhaps to share other rites, and ceremonies, was to be in the spoils of the church, tried to pro- referred to the authority of the same mote a commission, (ad melius inquiren- tribunal, and submitted to the approbadum,) to ascertain the real value of ec- tion of the queen. As far as morals clesiastical property; but the exertions were concerned, they sought a severe of the archbishop, and other friends of discipline, and were particularly anxious the establishment, prevented the mea- to curtail the worldly pomp of the epissure from being carried into effect. copal order. They requested the establishment of a new set of ecclesiastical laws, since in the present administration of those which existed several abuses were to be found, particularly with regard to excommunication for contumacy; while the licenses for pluralities, non-residence, and the ordination of clergymen without any ministerial office, were frequently exposed to strong complaints. With regard to many of these points, the laws had done almost all that could be effected by legal enactments, and the bishops were anxious to remedy what was wanting; but it is curious to observe how many of these changes have been gradually and partially introduced. We must omit the introduction of the presbyterian government, in which we are nearly as we were; but the want of any thing of this sort depends probably more on circumstances, than in any fundamental reason in the constitution of our church establishment. These attempts, however, were at the time rendered fruitless; for Whitgift addressed himself to the queen, urging her to stop all such proceedings, and to rest the discipline of the church on her own supremacy, a step to which her inclinations were always sufficiently disposed. $452. The puritans, during the session of parliament, were very strenuous in the cause of reform on many points in which reformation was undoubtedly wanted. The great object which they kept in view was to establish a preaching ministry, a desire in which they were fully met by the high church party; but their opinions did not coincide as to the means by which this end was to be obtained. They would have applied the sums expended in choral establishments to the payment of preachers, and have transferred all ecclesiastical impropriations to the use of the curates of those places where the corps lay; and would even have laid their hands on lay impropriations, a step in which there was no great probability of their receiving much support from their friends at court. The bishops looked to conformity as the chief remedy for the evils which they deplored, and thought that the keeping up of establishments, in which the higher offices might reward a learned ministry, was most likely to produce the real prosperity of the church. At the same time it was the avowed object of the reformers to introduce much of the presbyterian government; every question arising in 1 Strype's Whitgift, i. 401, &c. 2 Sparrow's Collection, 191. They were almost entirely drawn up by Whitgift himself. as will appear by comparing No. xiv. and xviii. 130, 145, (Strype's Whitgift, iii..) but may be traced back in their origin to the lower house of convocation, in 1580, who presented a draft of a similar bill to the lords. (Strype's Grindal, 587, No. xiv.) 3 Strype's Ann. vi. 278, No. 39. § 453. This parliament was strongly impressed with the idea of resisting the Roman Catholic party, which was at this time not only powerful, but very active in the world. They passed, therefore, two acts, one for the surety of the queen's person, the other against Jesuits and seminary priests. The first of these was levelled against the unfortunate Mary, queen of Scots, whose misfortunes and hard treatment, towards the 4 Strype's Whitgift, i. 391. end of her life, rendered her an object friends of Travers to obtain this situation of pity, rather than of that just reproach for him. He had long been engaged which her early conduct probably in giving the evening lectures there; merited. This law made any conni- but Whitgift, who entertained no good vance at compassing the queen's death, opinion of him, and doubted of his conin any person of whatever description, formity, raised so decided an opposition liable to the pains of treason. As if an to the nomination, that the mastership act of parliament could alter the nature was procured for Hooker, by Sandys, of international law, or divest murder bishop of London. The archbishop, of its atrocity, by giving it the form of a indeed, had been well acquainted with legal trial; as if any law of England Travers, who was formerly fellow of could establish a jurisdiction over an Trinity College, Cambridge, and had independent princess, from which her shown a strong preference for the disown rights had rendered her free. And here it should be remembered, that the voice of the kingdom was full as loud and guilty as the wishes of the queen, and that no persons were more strenuous than the puritans in their endeavours to bring the queen of Scots to the scaffold. The second directed all seminary priests and Jesuits to leave the kingdom on pain of death, and imposed heavy penalties on those who received or aided them. The act, however, was limited to those who refused to take the oath of supremacy.1 Elizabeth also soon afterwards undertook the protection of the Netherlands, and in the next spring sent Leicester to command in Holland against the forces of the Roman Catholics and Spanish party. § 454. In this year a dispute took place, rendered memorable from having been the origin of Hooker's excellent treatise on Ecclesiastical Polity, a work which has tended more perhaps to settle the question of church government than any other which ever appeared. On the death of Father Alvie, master of the Temple, great interest was made by the 1 It should be remembered, that the oath of su premacy at that time did not contain the objection- cipline of Geneva, according to the Б The 3 Walton's Hooker, Wordsw. Ecc. Biog. iv. 245. 644 Disciplina Ecclesiæ sacra ex Dei verbo descripta." This was afterwards translated and published by Cartwright, "A full and plain declaration of Ecclesiastical Discipline," &c. See Index to Strype. "Hooker's Answer to Travers, ý 3, 4. 3 council. In his Supplication to the year 1586 that the conspiracy of Bacouncil, he tries to vindicate his ordina- bington was discovered, in which the tion, and license to preach, and finds false principles inculcated by Roman fault with the doctrines delivered by Catholic teachers urged on some young, Hooker; and as this document became zealous, and unwary individuals to atpublic, the master was obliged to return tempt the murder of Elizabeth. They an answer, in which he vindicates him- met with their merited fate and were self, and states that Travers was silenced executed, to the number of fourteen; for breaking an order of the Advertise- but their fall implicated the royal priments, which forbade any minister to soner, and the fears and suspicions of answer the errors of other preachers the kingdom conspired to bring Mary except in private, or by sending informa- to her trial and the scaffold. This treattion to the Ecclesiastical Commission. ment of the queen of Scots has been But from the Supplication of Travers, viewed in different lights by the partiand the answers of Whitgift to his argu- sans of opposite sides; but one or two ments, there can be little doubt that his considerations so strongly stamp its chanon-episcopal ordination was one very racter, that however legal it might have decided reason for his suspension. been in England, it can never stand beTravers was never reinstated, but a fore the tribunal of the world. Nothing party was raised against the master; could subject Mary to an English court and it was to convince them that he of justice, but her own injudicious subcommenced his immortal work of the mission to it; and it is a fair question Ecclesiastical Polity. for casuists to decide, how far any act which originated from presumed forces can bind the person who submits to it. At all events, the conditions of the act of Parliament ought to have been complied with," (1 13° Eliz.) and the testimony of her secretaries have been confirmed by their being confronted to her: but few or no criminals, in those happy days, had the advantage of even-handed justice. Her guilt must ever remain problematical; and however this transaction must disgrace the name of Elizabeth, it should not be forgotten that the nation was full as guilty as the queen." The policy, too, of the measure may be questioned, if indeed it can possibly be politic to do wrong. § 455. It was towards the end of the Travers' Supplication to the council, and Hooker's Answer, are printed in the end of the Ecclesiastical Polity. To those who are unacquainted with ecclesiastical law, the treatment of Travers may seem in some degree unjust. He argues that he was in orders because the statute (12, 13 Eliz.) directed, that those who had been ordained by any other rites than those of the church of England should subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles, implying that after that act they were fully entitled to the advantages belonging to other members of the establishment. This applied directly to the Roman Catholic priesthood, and the same law prevails now. But according to the doctrine of an episcopalian church, he who was ordained without the presence of a bishop was never ordained at all: he wants the essence of ordina. tion, the laying on of the hands of the bishop; and this law, therefore, does not apply to him. It is difficult to determine the intention of the original framers of the law. The early practice was proba bly on the side of Travers, (as in the case of § 456. (A. D. 1587.) The firmness of the queen during the last parliament did Whittingham, to which he appeals, and which was much stronger than his own.) (Strype's An- not damp the ardour for innovation; for nals, iv. 167.) The present interpretation of it is on Feb. 27 a bill was brought forward entirely in favour of the archbishop. The words which would have abrogated all eccleare: Every person under the degree of bishop, which doth or shall pretend to be a priest or minis: siastical law, and substituted a new code ter of God's holy word and sacraments, by reason in its place; but during the debate on of any other form of institution, consecration, or the question, whether the book which ordering, than the form set forth by parliament, in the time of the late king of most worthy memory, contained it should be read, the house King Edward VI., or now used in the reign of our adjourned, and several of the more viomost gracious sovereign lady, before the feast of lent members were afterwards comthe nativity of Christ next following, shall in the presence of the bishop or guardian of the spirit-mitted to the Tower by the queen." ualities of some one diocese, where he hath or The book, as appears from the draft shall have ecclesiastical living, declare his assent, of a speech against it, would have left and subscribe to all the articles of religion, which only concern the confession of the true Christian faith, and the doctrines of the sacraments comprised in a book," &c. &c. (13 Eliz. ch. 12.) 1571. 2 Hooker's Answer, § 17. Strype's Whitg. iii. 185, No. 30. |