WHITGIFT, Abp. Cant. rated. This instance of severity, as commonly happens, rather irritated than intimidated the Puritan clergy, aware of their numbers, their popularity, and their powerful friends, but above all sustained by their own sincerity and earnestness. Parker had taken his resolution to proceed in the vigorous course he had begun. He obtained from the queen a proclamation, peremptorily requiring conformity in the use of the clerical vestments and other matters of discipline. The London ministers, summoned before himself and their bishop Grindal, who did not very willingly co-operate with his metropolitan, were called upon for a promise to comply with the legal ceremonies, which thirty-seven out of ninety-eight refused to make. They were in consequence suspended from their ministry, and their livings put in sequestration. But these unfortunately, as was the case in all this reign, were the most conspicuous, both for their general character and for their talent in preaching. "Whatever deviations from uniformity existed within the pale of the Anglican Church, no attempt had hitherto been made to form separate assemblies; nor could it be deemed necessary, while so much indulgence had been conceded to the scrupulous clergy. But they were now reduced to determine whether the imposition of those rites they disliked would justify, or render necessary, an abandonment of their ministry. The bishops of that school had so far overcome their repugnance, as not only to observe the ceremonies of the Church, but, in some instances, to employ compulsion towards others. A more unexceptionable, because more disinterested judgment, was pronounced by some of the Swiss reformers to whom our own paid great respect-Beza, Gualter, and Bullinger; who while they regretted the continuance of a few superfluous rites, and still more the severity used towards good men, dissuaded their friends from deserting their vocation on that account. Several of the most respectable opponents of the cere monies were equally adverse to any open schism. But the animosities springing from heated zeal, and the smart of what seemed oppression, would not suffer the English Puritans generally to acquiesce in such temperate counsels. They began to form separate conventicles in London, not ostentatiously indeed, but of course without the possibility of eluding notice. It was doubtless worthy of much consideration, whether an established Church-government could wink at the systematic disregard of its discipline by those who were subject to its jurisdiction and partook of its revenues. And yet there were many important considerations derived from the posture of religion and of the state, which might induce cool-headed men to doubt the expediency of too much straitening the reins. But there are few, I trust, who can hesitate to admit that the Puritan clergy, after being excluded from their benefices, might still claim from a just government a peaceable toleration of their particular worship. This it was vain to expect from the queen's arbitrary spirit, the imperious humour of Parker, and that total disregard of the rights of conscience which was common to all parties in the sixteenth century. The first instance of actual punishment inflicted on Protestant Dissenters was in June, 1567, when a company of more than one hundred were seized during their religious exercises at Plummer's-hall, which they had hired on pretence of a wedding, and fourteen or fifteen of them were sent to prison. They behaved on their examination with a rudeness as well as self-sufficiency, that had already begun to characterize the Puritan faction. But this cannot excuse the fatal error of molesting men for the exercise of their own religion. "These coercive proceedings of the archbishop were feebly seconded, or directly thwarted, by most leading men both in Church and State. Grindal and Sandys, successively bishops of London and archbishops of York, were naturally reckoned at this time somewhat favourable to the nonconforming ministers, whose scruples they had partaken. Parkhurst and Pilkington, bishops of Norwich and Durham, were openly on their side. They had still more effectual support in the queen's council. The earl of Leicester, who possessed more power than any one to sway her wavering and capricious temper, the earls of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Warwick, regarded as the steadiest Protestants among the aristocracy, the wise and grave lord-keeper Bacon, the sagacious Walsingham, the experienced Sadler, the zealous Knollys, considered these objects of Parker's severity, either as demanding a purer worship than had been established in the Church, or at least as worthy by their virtues and services of more indulgent treatment. BETH. Cecil himself, though on intimate terms with the archbishop, and concurring generally ELIZAin his measures, was not far removed from the latter way of thinking, if his natural caution and extreme dread at this juncture of losing the queen's favour had permitted him more unequivocally to express it. Those whose judgment did not incline them towards the Puritan notions, respected the scruples of men in whom the reformed religion could so implicitly confide. They had regard also to the condition of the Church. The far greater part of its benefices were supplied by Conformists of very doubtful sincerity, who would resume their mass-books with more alacrity than they had cast them aside. Such a deficiency of Protestant clergy had been experienced at the queen's accession, that for several years it was a common practice to appoint laymen, usually mechanics, to read the service in vacant churches. These were not always wholly illiterate; or if they were, it was no more than might be said of the popish clergy, the vast majority of whom were destitute of all useful knowledge, and could read little Latin. Of the two universities, Oxford had become so strongly attached to the Romish side during the late reign, that, after the desertion or expulsion of the most zealous of that party had almost emptied several colleges, it still for many years abounded with adherents to the old religion. But at Cambridge, which had been equally popish at the queen's accession, the opposite faction soon acquired the ascendant. The younger students, imbibing ardently the new creed of ecclesiastical liberty and excited by Puritan sermons, began to throw off their surplices, and to commit other breaches of discipline, from which it might be inferred that the generation to come would not be less apt for innovation than the present. "The first period in the history of puritanism includes the time from the queen's accession to 1570, during which the retention of superstitious ceremonies in the Church had been the sole avowed ground of complaint. But when these obnoxious rites came to be enforced with unsparing rigour, and even those who voluntarily renounced the temporal advantages of the establishment were hunted from their private conventicles, they began to consider the national system of ecclesiastical regimen as itself in fault, and to transfer to the institution of episcopacy that dislike they felt for some of the prelates. The ostensible founder of this new school (though probably its tenets were by no means new to many of the sect) was Thomas Cartwright, the lady Margaret's professor of divinity at Cambridge. He began about 1570 to inculcate the unlawfulness of any form of church-government, except what the apostles had instituted, namely, the Presbyterian. A deserved reputation for virtue, learning, and acuteness, an ardent zeal, an inflexible self-confidence, a vigorous, rude, and arrogant style, marked him as the formidable leader of a religious faction. In 1572 he published his celebrated Admonition to the Parliament,' calling on that assembly to reform the various abuses subsisting in the Church. In this treatise, such a hardy spirit of innovation was displayed, and schemes of ecclesiastical policy so novel and extraordinary were developed, that it made a most important epoch in the contest, and rendered its termination far more improbable. The hour for liberal concessions had been suffered to pass away; the archbishop's intolerant temper had taught men to question the authority that oppressed them, till the battle was no longer to be fought for a tippet and a surplice, but for the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy, interwoven as it was with the temporal constitution of England. "It had been the first measure adopted in throwing off the yoke of Rome to invest the sovereign with an absolute control over the Anglican Church; so that no part of its coercive discipline could be exercised but by his authority, nor any laws enacted for its governance without his sanction. This supremacy, indeed, both Henry VIII. and Edward VI. had carried so far, that the bishops were reduced almost to the rank of temporal officers, taking out commissions to rule their dioceses during the king's pleasure; and Cranmer had prostrated at the feet of Henry those spiritual functions, which have usually been reckoned inherent in the order of clergy. Elizabeth took some pains to soften and almost explain away her supremacy, in order to conciliate the Catholics; while, by means of the High Commission-court, established by statute in the first year of her reign, she was practically asserting it with no little despotism. . But the avowed opponents of this prerogative were hitherto chiefly those who looked to Rome for an WHIT Abp. Cant. other head of their Church. The disciples of Cartwright now learned to claim an "The strength of the Protestant party had been derived, both in Germany and in England, far less from their superiority in argument, however decisive this might be, than from that desire which all classes, and especially the higher, had long experienced to emancipate themselves from the thraldom of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. For it is ever found, that men do not so much as give a hearing to novel systems in religion, till they have imbibed, from some cause or other, a secret distaste to that in which they have been educated. It was therefore rather alarming to such as had an acquaintance with ecclesiastical history, and knew the encroachments formerly made by the hierarchy throughout Europe, encroachments perfectly distinguishable from those of the Roman see, to perceive the same pretensions urged, and the same ambition and arrogance at work, which had imposed a yoke on the necks of their fathers. With whatever plausibility it might be maintained that a connexion with temporal magistrates could only corrupt the purity and shackle the liberties of a Christian Church, this argument was not for them to urge, who called on those magistrates to do the Church's bidding, to enforce its decrees, to punish its refractory members; and while they disdained to accept the prince's co-operation as their ally, claimed his service as their minister. The Protestant Dissenters since the revolution, who have pretty unanimously, and, I doubt not, sincerely, declared their averseness to any religious establishment, especially as accompanied with coercive power, even in favour of their own sect, are by no means chargeable with these errors of the early Puritans. But the scope of Cartwright's declaration was not to obtain a toleration for dissent, nor even by abolishing the whole ecclesiastical polity, to place the different professions of religion on an equal footing, but to substitute his own model of government, for the one, exclusive, unappealable standard of obedience, with all the endowments, so far as applicable to its frame, of the present Church, and with all the support to its discipline that the civil power could afford. "We are not, however, to conclude that every one, or even the majority, of those who might be counted on the Puritan side in Elizabeth's reign, would have subscribed to these extravagant sentences of Cartwright, or desired to take away the legal supremacy of the crown. That party acquired strength by the prevailing hatred and dread of popery, and by the disgust which the bishops had been unfortunate enough to excite. If the language which I have quoted from the Puritans breathed a spirit of ecclesiastical usurpation that might one day become dangerous, many were of opinion that a spirit not less mischievous in the present hierarchy, under the mask of the queen's authority, was actually manifesting itself in deeds of oppression. The upper ranks among the laity, setting aside courtiers, and such as took little interest in the dispute, were chiefly divided between those attached to the ancient Church, and those who wished for further alterations in the new. I conceive the Church of England party, that is, the party adverse to any species of ecclesiastical change, to have been the least numerous of the three during this reign; still excepting, as I have said, the neutrals, who commonly make a numerical majority, and are counted along with the dominant religion. But by the act of the fifth of Elizabeth, Roman Catholics were excluded from the house of Commons; or, if some that way affected might occasionally creep into it, yet the terror of penal laws impending over their heads would make them extremely cautious of betraying their sentiments. This contributed with the prevalent tone of public opinion, to throw such a weight into the puritanical scale in the Commons, as it required all the queen's energy to counterbalance." ELIZA- ΑΝ ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. PART II-BOOK VIII. WHIT GIFT, 671. April, K. James 1 and comes into Eng land. UPON the death of queen Elizabeth, king James VI. of ScotAbp. Cant. land was proclaimed in London. And now sir Charles Percy, brother to the earl of Northumberland, and Thomas Somerset, brother to the earl of Worcester, were dispatched by the privy A. D. 1603. council to acquaint his majesty with the queen's decease, and proclaimed, with what had passed for recognizing his right. Upon this news the king prepared for his journey into England, and made a speech to the people at Edinburgh, who parted with him not without regret. He told them, "they should find the effects of his government no less beneficial at a distance than when he continued with them: and since his power was increased, his affections should not grow less." When he came to Berwick, Toby Matthews, bishop of Durham, congratulated his accession to the throne in a sermon. At Burleigh-house, near Stamford, his majesty was acquainted with the death of James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow. This prelate was descended of the house of Balfour in Fife, and consecrated in the year 1552. When the Scotch Reformation began, he quitted the country, and carried away all the manuscripts and records of his see, together with the plate and ornaments of the cathedral. He settled at Paris. Amongst other things of value, conveyed beyond sea by this archbishop, there was a figure of our Saviour in gold, and the twelve Apostles in silver. When the late queen Mary returned from France into Scotland, she gave him a public character, and ordered him to reside at the The death and cha racter of Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow. |