far tAe fat^ndag if a. Ce^ip. m^t^Sfht^'''

j • Y^]LE«¥]MH¥IEI^Sflir¥«

HISTORY OF THE PURITAIS

PILGRIM FATHERS.

THE PURITANS IN ENGLAND,
BY EEV. W. H. STOWELL,
PBOFESSOR OF THEOLO&Y, EOTHEBHAM COLLECIE.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS,
BY D. WILSON, F. S. A. SCOT.,
AUTHOB OP CROMWELL AND TEE PEOTECTOKATE, ETC., ETC.

CINCINNATI:
MOORE, WILSTACH, KEYS & CO.
26 WEST FOTJETH STREET.
1856.

PREFACE.

This yolume is intended to compress, within narrow limits,
ihe story of the English Puritans, by weaving into the
*s6ue of the general narrative some hiographioal details re-
epecting the men who bore that name. The -writer has
spared no pains in consulting the best authorities on both
sides of the gi-eat controversy of which Puritanism was the
result. He can conscientiously present the history to the
pubhc as authentic ; and he hopes it will not be condemned
Hy any intelligent and candid reader as wanting in fairness
towards the opponents of the Puritans. If tkere is less of
the tone of an advocate and admirer than in some other
worts of the same description, he has only to say, that he
nas described the Puritans as they have appeared to his
o-wn mind in reading their writings and those of their con-
t«!Ciporaries ; that he has felt no anjdety about gratifying
tne spirit of party ; and that he has long been convinced o
the folly, as well as the injustice, of loading the men of am
nrijicinlea, in any age, with excessive praise. The time hais
come, by general consent, for doing justice to the memory
of the Enghsh Puritans. Let justice suffice. Their doings
belong to our national history, their writings to our national
literature ; and we claim the inheritance of then- principles,
not for a particular religious community, but for the English
people. They were not heroes ; but they were plain, good,
religious men ; though not without their mistakes and their
fa.i.A« Sfet they were the living witnesses of great truths,
¦Ii ^leat social principles, and of great religious doctrines in
fliitical and stimng times. They were more nearly related

xii PBBFAOE.
to the Refurmers than to any of the modern churches.
They were Chiirch of England men : not Dissenters. They
were advocates for the establishment of Christianity, and of
their own -views of Christianity, by law.
Our notions of the Puritans -will be regulated by our no
tions of the Reformers. It is sho-jvn, in the following pages,
that Puritanism was the natural, inevitable fruit of the Re
formation. Henry VHI. was the remote author of the
Bartholomew Act. Baxter was the true representative of
Cranmer ; and the ejected clergy of the reign of Charles II.
were the spiritual successors of the martyrs of Smithfield in
the rei^n cf Mary. It belongs not to Enghsh history to
trace the priixiples of the Puritans through the records of
other lands ; otherwise, it would be easy to prove their
identity with those of the earhest churches, even up to the
beg-inning of the Christian era.
The men did not invent the principles. They received
them from tlie revelation of God, as they understood that
revelation, and as they beUeved it. What they did in reh-
gion, they did from a conviction that they were doing what
they were bound to do, and what they had a right to do.
Whether they were right or -mrong in their opinions, their
enemies were wrong in treating them as they did. Their
whole history is a lesson to men, and a lesson to ' rulers of
men, whether in churches or in states. It teaches every
man to think for himself in rehgion, and to act according to
his o-wn conscience. It teaches rulers of men that con
science is beyond their province; that they can neither
coerce it nor bribe it ; that to neglect or punish men for
being conscientious, is to oppose the strongest instmct of
human nature, and to fight agamst God ; that freedom is
the only safeguard of thrones and constitutions ; and that
rehgion, left alone by human governments, is the purest and
the strongest element of freedom.

The history of the Puritans is a hvely comment on the
essential chai-acter of the religion of saints and martyrs.
Not for cold creeds, nor for empty forms, but for spiritual
truths working in renewed hearts, did the best men of for
mer times live and die.
The strength of the Puritans lay in the depths of their
theology; and the pith of their theology was their sub
jective consciousness — their heartfelt beHef — of the truths
which the Apostles preached by the Holy Ghost sent down
from heaven. It is vain to look for men like the Puritans,
without the belief with which the Puritans laid hold of reli
gion, and without laying hold of religion with the same
clear-sighted and earnest grasp. Happy -vriU the reader of
this little book be, if, in this high and noble sense, he is a
follower of the men whose history is now before him ; and
so will the writer be doubly rewarded for his pleasant task.
ROTHERHAM COLLEGE,
Mar 1849.
*** The -writer has to apologize for some trifling errors in tha
marginal references, ocuasioned by hia being obliged, by severe ill
ness, to leave the correction of one or two sheets to other bands.
W. H. S.

NEW yOLUME.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH NONCONFORMISTS.
"WITH
FAREWELL SERMONS OF THE EIJECTED MINISTERS.

The history of the English Nonconformists, comprised in tha
present volume, is brought to a close at the consummation
of treachery and intolerance perpetrated by the Restoration
government, not because therein is to. be found the extinc
tion of Puritanism, but because it marks the close of all

XIV PREPACS,
hope of mutual concession and compromise among the Pri
testant churches of England. It was the final ejection t
Puritanism from the religious establishment ; which, though
moulded to suit the views of it.s first royal patrons, never
theless owed all that really distinguished it as a Protestant
church to men whose opinions far more closely coincided
¦»^th the ejected Puritans, than with the High Churchmen
-who withstood their reasonable demands.
Prom Charles's Act of Uniformity is to be dated the
founding of numerous Protestant congregations in Englan-I.
Thenceforth they took their stand as a body altogether
independent of the Church which had so openly concurred
in the breach of faith, and the contempt of all the roy.il
promises which had been made to thera. The annals of
this later era of Puritanism form too important a branch of
the history of Nonconformity to be discussed in a closing
chapter. It is intended in a future volume to extend to
them the same justice which has been attempted in this
volume to be rendered to the Fathers of Puritanism in Eng
land. The later Nonconformists merit such, no less than
the earher Puritans, as men whose learning, piety, and
worth, have converted an old name of reproach into one of
honourable distinction, which EngUshmen are proud to aC'
knowledge as the title of their Christian ancestry.
89, PATEKNOSIkK EoW, LoNDOH,
Ma; 1849.

CONTENTS.

BOOK FIRST.
THB ENBLISH BEF0KMEH3 THE PKECDKSORS OF THE PUKITASg.

CHAPTER r. r«(r.
iMTBODUOnON— BlOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES ... ... ... If

BOOK SECOND.
EISE OF THE PUEITANS UHDER THE TmiOM.

CHAPTER t
KiSE OB THE PdBITANS IS THE ReIGN OP HeNBT -VllL ... 4&
CHAPTER II.
Rise of the Pheitahs in the Reign of Ed-waed Yh ... ... 79
CHAPTER III.
Rise OF THE PtraiTANS IN the Reign OF Masx ... ... ... 90
Section 1. — Character of Mary ... ... ... 90
2. — Protestant ExiJes ... ... ... ... 91
8.— Puritans at Home ... ... ... 105
... 4.— Cardinal Pole ... ... ... ... 119
CHAPTER rV.
Rise of the Fdeitans in the Reiqn of Elizabeth ... ... 114
Section 1.— The First Period.— Puritanism under Elizabeth 114
2.— The Second Period of the Pm-itans nnder Elizabeth 146
.. 8.— The Separatists ... ... ... •.. 186
... 4.— The Puritans in Parliament ... ... 202
6. — The Bishops and Puritans ... ... ... 207
... 6.— The Statesmen and the Puritans .. ... 217
.. 7.— Tho Queen and the Puritans .. .» ... S20

via CONTBITT*.
BOOK THIRD,
THE PBOSKESS OP THE PUEITAKS TOTDEB THE STOAKTS.

CHAPTEK I. rtgt
fsOGEBss OP THE Pueitaxs IN the Reign OF James I. ... ... 222
Section L— Hopes of the Puritans ... ... ... ... 222
... 2.— The Hampton Court Conference ... ... 223
„. a— Flight of Nonconformists ... ... ... 233
... 4— The King and the Puritans ... ... 244
CHAPTER n.
Struggles op the Pctutaks in the Reign op Chables I. ... 249
Section L— Sufferings of the Puritans ... ... ... 249
2.— The Long Parliament ... ... ... ... 269
3.— The Westminster Assembly ... .. 267
4. — Overthrow of the Monarchy ... ... ... 282
CHAPTER UL
HisTOET OF THE Pubitans DUEisG THE Commonwealth ... 284
CHAPTER IV.
Tbb Pdeiians cnbeb the Pboiecioeate of Ceohwkli, ... ... 289
Section L— The Sects ... ... ... ... 295
2.— The Sequestered Clergy ... ... ... 802
CHAPTEE Y.
Thi Ytstahs ik the Reign op Chables U. ... ... ... 821
Section L— Pnritan Negotiations witt the Eng ... sa
2.— The Savoy Conference ... ... ... ... 836
... a — The Act of Unifonnity, 1662 ... „. 830

fflSTORY OF THE PURITANS IN ENGLAJSD,
nNDEB THE BEIGKS OF THE
TflDOES AND STUARTS.
BOOK I.
THE ENGUSH REFORMERS— THE PRECURSORS OF THE PUEITANS.

OHAFTEK I.— IKTKODIJOTIOH.

The PtTRiTAHS occupy too large a space in the publio book l

affairs of England, dui-ing the two most eventful centuries
of her history, to require any apology for attempting to bring
the men and their proceedings before the pubHc on avow
edly catholic principles. Not only the ecclesiastical, but
the political, annals and institutions of this country, are
most intimately concerned in such an inquiry. It is by
resistance to oppression, by struggles for the removal of
grievances, by manly controversy, and by strenuous action or
patient suffering for truth and freedom, that England has
slowly risen to her present rank among the nations ; and he
is but an unenhghtened patriot, andanarrow-minded church
man, who has not traced the steps of that advancement.
The materials of a history of the English Puritans are
immeasurably more copious than any person could imagine,
whose attention has not been specially directed to them.
They are scattered through all our general histories, both
Catholic and Protestant. Q?hey abound in separate memoirs
of statesmen and ecclesiastics of all parties ; in collections of
pamphlets J in prefiices and notes to controversial works ; in

CHAP. 1

CHAP. L

13 IKTSODCOTIoy.
BOOK L various -\vritiugs on la-sv, literatui-e, and govemment ; in the
dispatches of ambassadors, and letters of private persons;
and in large collections of manuscripts, laid up in public
lihrai-ies, or preserved by the pious industrj- of individuab,
¦^A-hiise connexions, or -whose tastes, have prompted peculiar
interest in such studies.
The gi-eater part of the vrorks -svhich have formally nar-
The Chirac- rated the hves, or discussed the opinions or cliaracters, of
*m WstraSs t^^ Puritans, are naturaUy tinged %vith party views, and
of the Puri- -with party vie^vs of more descriptions than one : since politi-
^°^ cal, no less than religious, sentiments and interests are in
volved in such statements and discussions. For this there
is one remedy. It is but feir to read -what has been -written
on all sides. To do this -with calmness and impartiality,
though confessedly difficult, is not impossible. It has been
done by men -svhose hereditarj' or conventional prejudices
are in opposite directions. The habit of so doing is one of
the advantages -which have sprung from the disputes of for
mer genei-ations, and from the broader ^'ie^vs and more
independent modes of thinMng, -which have accompanied
the progress of society in kno-wledge, virtue, and social free
dom. It is not noTv necessaiy that a man should be a bigot
before he can discern the fiiults of the Puritans, or that he
should be one of their followers, in order to appreciate their
abilities, their leaming, and their piety. Without blind
partisanship on either one side or the other, it is in the
power of sensible readers to conclude, on the e-vidence of
fects, ivhether, on the -svhole, the Pm-itans -were right or
¦wrong ; and — -n-hether they are considered as ha-ving been.
right or wrong — it must he -worth every man's -while to
know, as far as he can, -what sort of men they -were ; how
they lived and died ; and what lasting effects, for good or
evil, or both, they have left behind them.
To present ordinary readers of all parties -with a faithful
3'ui*^^ account of the Puritans, drawn from divers sources, and con
fined within moderate limits, is the design of the present
volume. It may not be amiss to say, that, under the denomination
Puritans, are included numbers of leamed and good men,
-who never separated, and never desired to separate, fi-om the
Estabhshed Church of England ; as well as large numbers,

IKTRODUCTION. 19
believed to have been equally learned and good, who were BOOK 1
separated, by authority, from that church, for persisting in char I
certain scruples : to both of which classes are to be added
not a few, who objected to the constitution and discipline
with which all the others were conscientiously satisfied.
The designation Puritans, was at first a term of re- origin ot
proach. It was the re-yival of an ancient nickname, and was ^.^f™
intended to mark those to whom it was applied, as preteiiders
to greater pui-ity of religious worship than that which was
fixed by the majority in the convocation of 1662. The ridi
cule associated -with the name in modem times is founded,
partly, on the feet that much precision and austerity were
exhibited by many of the Puritans ; but, still more, on the
misrepresentations which have been pei-petuated by the
prejudices of the ignorant. The only principle in which all
the English Puritans agreed, was theu- Protestantism. Dif
fering in one or more points of doctrinal belief, church
govemment, and modes of worship ; on the relation of the
church to the state ; on tolerating or suppressing popery ;
and on many questions of public policy ; they were uni
formly decided in their rejection of the authority of the
Church of Rome.
The position of the Puritans of England can be but im- Theforerun
perfectly understood, if their history is not viewed in con- Puritons.
nection with the general state of Europe at the time when
they arose. It was the beginning of Modem History in
England, the da-wn of a new era to Europe, when "all those
events happened, and all those revolutions began, that have
produced so vast a change in the manners, customs, and
interests, of particular nations, and in the whole policy,
ecclesiastical and civil, of these parts of the world."* There
were causes at work in Europe generally, and particularly
in England, which must not be overlooked, if we are to un
derstand this part of our history. The dispersion of leamed
men, and the increased attention to books, which followed
the destmction of the Eastem Empire by the Turks at the
taking of Constantinople, prepai-ed the way for the in
vention of printing, the use of the compass, the discovery of
America, the decline of feudal institutions, the increasing
•Bolingbro)ie-a Letters oil the Study and 0se of History Letter VL

20 ISIKODCCTIOX.
BOOK L wealth, inteUigence, and importance of the middle classes,
OHAP. L and the beginning of the S-wiss and German refoiinations in
rehgion. In England, the spirit of Wickliffe and the Lollards
was never entirely extinguished ; for, however obscure their
followers, history affords continual e-pidence of their inquisi
tive and resisting spirit. The English people were steadily
rising to a participation in the political power and freedom
which had, aforetime, been the pri-rilege of the barons. The
hterature and language of the country were making rapid
advances. — There were many considerations leading to changes
in the church. The aggressions of the popes were resented by
the people, conscious of their growing power ; while their ra
pacity awoke the hatred of the clergy. The -rices of the clergy
themselves had called forth the stinging rebukes of Dr. Colet,
the dean of St. Paul's, some years before the appearance of
Luther, as a reformer, at Wittemberg. A calm, devout, and
patient protest against the corruptions of religion had been
gathering strength in the bosom of English society. The
popular poetry of Chaucer and his imitators had familiai-ized
the people with the grosser feults of priests and "pardoners."
The elegant and varied leaming of Erasmus — ^who resided
much in England, and who taught at both the universities,
and gained the friendship of Henry VIII. and of the
best and most leamed men in the nation — had diffused a
thoughtful spirit among the higher ranks. These things
were independent of Luther ; yet they prepared for the ac
ceptance and popularity of his -writings in this country.
AU the leading events of Europe bore upon the reformation
of rehgion ; and the same tendency is obvious in the most
important movements of the national mind in England.
Nor should the fact be lost sight o^ that the Fathers of the
English reformation mostly held opinions, and indulged in
language, not less strong than those for which the Puritans
were afterwards condemned.
A brief sketch of the Fathers of the English Church mil
"^ll^i^ ^l"^ ^°^ ^ *e Puritans may be fairly regarded as men of
Church. the same order, embracing the same principles, and walkmg
in the same steps.
Ill ^o^'s "Acts and Monuments'' Wiliiam Tikdal is
^^ spoken of as a man "who, for his notable pains and travail
may wsU be called the Apostle of England in this our latter

CHAP.L

INTRODUCTION. 21
age, as he was a special organ of the Lord appointed, and as BOOK L
God's mattock, to shake the inwai-d roots and foundations of
the Pope's proud Prelacy."
Born in the borders of North Wales, he distinguished him
self in early youth by Ms general learning, especially his
knowledge of the scriptures, as well as by his unspotted life.
Leaving Oxfoi-d, he made his abode for a time at Cambridge.
Ha-ring become private tutor in the family of Sir John
Walsh, of Little Sodbury Manor, in Gloucestersliire, he ex
cited so much attention and opposition by his disputes with
learned doctors and churchmen round about, that he was
brought before the chancellor of the diocese, who " rated him
as though he had been a dog." Harassed by the ignorant
priests of Gloucestershu-e, he sought rest first in London,
aftei-wards at Hamburg, and then at Cologne, where he de
voted himself to the translation of the scriptures into his
mother-tongue. He brought out the New Testament in
1526, wliich was followed by the five books of Moses, -with
"sundi-y most leamed and godly prologues." He risited
Saxony, where he had conferences -with Luther and other
leamed men, but took up his abode chiefly at Antwei-p. In
a voyage to Hamburg for the purpose of printing his trans
lation of the Pentateuch, he was ship-wrecked on the coast
of Holland, and lost all his books, -writings, and copies. But
he persevered ; and, with the help of Miles Coverdale, went
a second time through the labour of translation. The pre
lates of the realm procm-ed a proclamation from the King,
prohibiting the use of his translation of the New Testament,
¦with other works, both by him and by other writers. In
the year 1627, Warham, Archbishop of Canterbui-y, spent
a large sum of money, and in-rited other bishops to follow
his example, in buying up these Testaments to bum
them.* StUl they found their way, concealed in various
kinds of merchandise, into both England and Scotland. For
seven years Tindal eluded the attempts of his enemies to
seize his person. At length, in 1635, he was betrayed by
Gabriel Donne, a monk from Stratford Abbey, and by a man
of the name of Philips, employed by the EngUsh bishops ;
he was apprehended in the Emperor's name at Antwerp, and
• Tonsttti, Bisliop of London, and Sir Thomas More, hought up nearly the
whole impression, and burned them at St Paul's Cross.

22 ISTEODXrCTIOS.
BOOK L conveyed to the prison of VUford near Brussels. Abandoned
P^^ j^ in his solitude, both by the Lord Cromwell and by Orajimer,
he had one Mend, Thomas Poyntz, an English merchant in
¦nndai-s con- Antwerp, who, for trying to save him, was himself thro-wn
andSSS^- ™*^ prison at Brussels. After many disputations and ex-
dom. aminations, Tindal was condemned as a heretic, by virtue of
a decree of the Emperor mcade at Augsburg; and, shortly
after, he was brought to the place of execution, where, he
was led to a stake: there, with fervent zeal, and loud voice,
he cried, "Lord ! open the eyes of the King of England !" and
then, first, he was with an halter strangled, and afterwards
consumed with fire, in the year 1536.*
The works of Tindal, with those of Frith, and those of
The imtings Bames, dated 1573, were printed imder the sanction of Ed
ward VI.,by John Daye, London. Among these is a "Pathway
into the Holy Scripture, madeby WUliam Tindal." Itcontains
a luminous explanation of the terms — the Old Testament;
the New Testament ; the Law; the Gospel; Moses; Christ;
Natm-e ; Faith ; Grace ; Working and Believing ; Deeds and
Faith: it is, in feet, a body of scriptural theology, expressed
¦with great force and fulness of illustration. The conclusion
is in the following strain. " These things, I say, to know,
is to have aU the scriptures unlocked and opened before
thee, so that if thon wilt go iu and read, thou canst not but
understand. And ia these things to be ignorant, is to have
all the scriptures locked up, so that the more thou readest
it, the blinder thou art; and the more-contrariety thou find-
est in it, and the more tangled art thou therein, and canst
nowhere through. For if thou add a gloss in one place, in
another it wiU not serve. And therefore, because we be
never taught the profession of our baptism, we remain al
ways unlearned, as well the spirituality, for all their great
clergy and high stools (as we say) as the lay people. And
now because the lay and unlearned people are taught. these
first principles of our profession, therefore they read the
Scripture and understand and delight therein. And our
great pillars of holy church— which have nailed a vail of
felse glosses on Moses' fiice, to comipt the true undei-stand-
i!^? °^i ^^ ""^ ilonnments of Hie Christian Martj-rs. For the most com:
geteand interesting account of Tindal, see the Annals of the EnRlish Bible.
By Omstopher Anderson. Two vols. 8to, Pickering, London, 1845:

INTRODUCTION. 23
ing of his law — cannot come in, and therefore bark, and say boob L
— the Scripture maketh heretics, and it is not possible for char i.
them (the people) to understand it in English, because they
themselves do not, in Latin. And, of pure maUce that they
cannot have their will, they slay their brethren for their
faith they have in our Sa-riour, and therevrith shoAV then-
bloody wolfish tyranny, and what they be ¦within, and whose
disciples. Herewith, reader, be committed unto the grace
of our Saviour Jesus, unto whom, and God our Father,
through him, be praise for ever and ev6r; amen."
In a preface to the New Testament, in 1534, he says, Tindal's Now
" As concei-ning all I have translated, or otherwise -written, I Testament
beseech all men to read it ; for that purpose I wrote it,even
to bring them to the knowledge of the Scripture, and^ as far
as the Scripture approveth it, so far to allow it, and, if in
any place the word of God disallow it, there to refuse it, as
I do before our Sariour Christ, and his congregation."
In -vindicating the doctrines of the reformers from the AnswertoSir
objections of Sir Thomas More, in his " Dialogue," he says Mora°^
of the reformer, " ' Thou art a strong heretic, and worthy to
be burnt ;' and then he is excommunicated out of the church.
If the Uttle flock fear not that bay, then they (their enemies)
go straight to the King ; — ' An it like your Grace, perilous
people and seditious, and even enough to destroy your realm,
if ye see not to them betimes, they are so obstinate and
tough, that they will not be converted, and rebellious against
God and the ordinances of his holy church ; and how much
more shaU they be so against your Grace, if they increase
and gi-ow to a multitude ? They will peiwert all, and surely
make new laws, and either subdue your Grace unto them,
or rise against you ;' and then goeth a part of the little flock
to pot, and the rest scatter. Thus hath it ever been, and
shall ever be : let no man, therefore, deceive himself."* His
writings, in addition to his translations and prolog-ues, are
not very numerous ; but they breathe the same sentiments
as those of the Puritans in later times.
John Fkith, the bosom friend of Tindal, became ac- john Frith.
quainted with him, and received the gospel from him at
Cambridge, where he became, as Fox expresses it, " an ex
quisitely learned man." He was the -chief of the great
• History of the Reformatioa. See Burnet, 1. 187-8.

24 IKTRODUCTION.
BOOKL scholars chosen by Wolsey to adom his coU^e (Christ's
g£^ I Church) at Oxford. Being imprisoned on a charge of heresy,
but released on condition of not passing above ten miles out of
Oxford, he took alarm on hearing of the indignities inflicted
on Dalaber and Garret, two of his fellow-sufferers, and made
his escape beyond theseas. Two years after this voluntary ban
ishment, he retumed, at the in-vitationofthePriorof Beading.
" Being at Reading, it happened that he was there taken
for a vagabond, and brought to examination, where the
simple man, who could not craftUy enough colour himself,
was set in the stocks. Where, after he had sat a long time,
and was Eilmost pined with hunger, and would not for aU
that declare what he was ; at the last, he desired that the
schoolmaster of the town might be brought to him, who at
that time was Leonard Cox, a man very well leamed. As
soon as he came to him. Frith, by and by, began in the
Latin tongue to bewail his captirity. The schoolmaster, by
and by, being overcome -with his eloquence, did not only
take pity and compassion upon him, but also began to love
and embrace such au exceUent -wit and disposition, unlooked
for in such an estate and misery. Afterward, they, confer
ring together upon many things, as touching the univer
sities, schools, and tongues, fell from the Latin into the
Greek; wherein Frith did so inflame the love of the school
master toward him, that he brought him into a marvellous
admiration, especially when the schoolmaster heard him so
promptly, by heart., rehearse Homer's verses out of his first
book of Iliads. Whereupon the schoolmaster went^ with
all speed, unto the magistrates, gi-ievously complaining of
the injury which they did shew unto so excellent and inno
cent a young man. This Frith, thi-ough the help of the
schoolmaster, was freely released out of the stocks, and set
at Hberty -without punishment.'*
Frith did not continue long in safety. He was eagerly
pursued by the chancellor. Sir Thomas More. After many
narrow escapes, he was imprisoned iu the Tower of London,
where he maintained long conflicts -ivith the bishops, and
especially -vrith the chancellor. Having incautiously in
trusted a friend -with a copy of a paper he had dra-wn up on
the doctrine of the Eucharist, he was summoned before
• Fox's Acts and Ikroniiment&

INTBODUOTION. 25
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, Stokely, Bishop of book i
London, and other leamed men, appointed commissioners to chap I
examine him, at Croydon. The gentleman who conducted
him from the Tower to Croydon, whUe rowing in a ferry
towards Lambeth, tried to persuade Frith not to " stand
stiff" to his opinion ; and devised a scheme with the arch
bishop's porter, who accompanied them, for his escape ; but
Frith refused, saying, " Do you think I am afraid to declare
my opinion to the bishops of England on a manifest truth ?
I should run from my God, and from the testimony of liis
holy word, worthy then of a thousand hells ! And, there
fore, I most heartUy thank you both for your good wills
towards me, beseeching you to bring me where I was to be
brought ; for, else, wiU I go thither alone."
After his examination before the commissioners, he was Condemna-
confined in the Bishop of London's consistory (" the butch- tyrdom of
er's stall," as Fox calls it.) Sentence was passed against liim. ^^jf "*
The Bishop of Loudon committed him to the Mayor and
sheriffs of London, on the 4th of July 1533. He was
burnt to death at Smithfield, together with Andrew He-wit.
Dr. Cole, a parson in London, openly admonished all the
people that they should in no -wise pray for them, no more
than they would for a dog ; at which words. Frith, smUing,
desired the Lord to forgive them. Their words did not a
little move the people unto anger; and not without good
cause. Frith left behind him some admirable treatises. (1.) S?"^**
'¦' AMirror or Glass to know Thyself:" in which he shows that
" all goodness cometh of God, and aU e-vil of ourselves ; that
the gifts we receive fi-om God are rather a charge than a
pleasure; that no flesh should rejoice, hut rather fear and
tremble, for the gifts that he receiveth." (2.) " A Mirror, or
Looking Glass, wherein you may behold- the Sacrament of
Baptism described by me, John Frith." In this treatise he
exposes the prevailing errors of those who put confidence in
the outward sign ; showing that it " doth neither give us the
Spirit of God, nor yet grace, that is the fevour of God," — " If
thou be baptized a thousand times with water, and have no
faith, it avaUeth thee no more towards God than it doth a
goose, when she ducketh herself under the water."
He next confutes the error of those -who " so strongly
2

BOOK L
CHAP I

Answer to
Kastal and
Sir Thomaj
More.

26 IKTKODnCTION.
Stick unto the weak ceremonies." Speaking of the apostoKc
baptism, he says, " There will no man deny, but that that
baptism was as full and as good as ours, and yet was there
neither font nor holy water, candle, cream, oU, salt, good-
fathei' or goodmother."
(3.) In answer to Rastal and Sir Thomas More, he pub
lished a " Book of Purgatory," wherein he unfolds the scrip
ture doctrines of good works, of the efficacy of the death of
Christ, and of hell. (4.) A beautiful letter, in the tme spirit
of the apostles, " To the faithful Followers of Christ's Gos
pel," whUe he was prisoner in the Tower of London, "for
the word of God, a.d. 1532." (5.) He translated a work
called " The Revelation of Antichrist," in 1529, to which he
added au Antithesis, "wherein are compared the Acts oi
Christ and the Pope," — a most vigorous composition, con
trasting Christ and the Pope in seventy-seven particulars.
He concludes thus:— "There are infinite other things in
which he contradicteth Chi-ist, insomuch that, if it be dUi-
gently examined, I think there is no word that Christ
spake, but the other hath taught, or made a law, against it.
Howbeit, to avoid tediousness, we shall leave them unto your
own judgment, for they are soon searched out and copied.
Judge, Chi-istian reader, all these things with a simple eye:
be not partially addicted to the one nor to the other, but
judge them by the Scripture; and acknowledge that to be
ti-ue which God's word doth allo-n-, avoiding all other doc
trine ; for it springeth of Satan. Be not ashamed to confess
Christ (and to take him for thy head) before these raven
ous wolves ; for then shall he confess thee again before his
Father, and the angels in heaven. Then shalt thou be in
heritor with Jesus Christ, and the faithful Son uf thy Father
which is in heaven, to whom be all glory eternally. Amen !"
On the Sacra- (6.) Several works on the Sacrament, some of them in con-
'"^'' tvoversy \rith Sir Thomas ^Moie. In these he presents the
Scripture doctrine with remai-kable clearness and force, and
vindicates the cliaracter of some of the Reformers from the
aspersions cast upon them by Sir Thomas More. - Luther,"
he says, " is not the prick that I run at : (an allusion to the
tournament) but the Scripture of God. I do neither a£5rm
nor deny any thing because Luther so said, but because the
Scrintm-es of God do so conclude and determine. I take not

\'indi cation
of the KefoT-
mers.

INTBODUCTION. 27
tiuther for such an author that I think he cannot err ; but book, l
I think that verily he both may err, and doth err, in certain chap! I
points, although not such as concern salvation and damna
tion, for in these (blessed be God) all those whom ye call
heretics do agree right well. The soul ye cannot bind nor
burn ; but God may bless where you curse ; and curse where
you bless." In reply to the Chancellor's insinuation, that
some of the Reformers had died by the judgments of God,
he says, after refuting the false principle, "therefore me
thinketh that this man is too malapert, so bluntly to enter
into God's judgment, and give sentence in that matter, be
fore he be called to counsel."
In the same work he draws out a comparison between
the Paschal Lamb and the Christian Supper, in twelve par
ticulars, which no Christian of the present day can read
without instruction and edification.
Robert Barnes, D.D. was boi-n near Lynn, in Norfolk. Eobert
In his early youth he was associated with the Aug-ustine ¦^''™*'' ^-^
mendicant friars. At Cambridge he was the companion of
Bishop Bale, a learned and zealous reformer, author of
" Scriptorum lUustrium Britannicorum," and other works,
to'be hereafter noticed. After studying some years at Lou-
vain, Bai-nes returned to England, and became Prior of the Becomes
Augustines in Cambridge. With the help of Thomas Parnel, AugusUnra
whom he had brought with him from Louvain, he promoted at Cam-
sound leaming, then openly read Paul's epistles in the " ^^'
house, and made " divers good divines." He became famous
as a reader, disputer, and preacher, and was converted to
spfritual religion by Bilney and other Reformers. He was
accused of heresy for his first sermon at St. Edward's church. Accused of
belonging to Trinity College, Cambridge, by two Fellows of heresy.
King's Hall. A house near St. John's College, called the
White Horse, but nicknamed Qerma^ny by their enemies,
became the resort of the " godly learned in Christ," from
several halls and colleges, who flocked'together to enjoy the
instructions of Dr. Barnes. He was again accused before
the Vice-chancellor. He was urged to recant, but refused.
A pulpit warfare was kept up for some months between the
conflicting parties. Suddenly a sergeant-at-arms arrested Arrested in
Dr. Barnes openly in the Convocation House, and a hasty aon hou»*
search was made for the works of Luther and other German

28

INTKOITTCTION.

CHAP I.

Interview
with Cardi
nal Wolsey.

Escapes to
Antwerp.

Ketams as
Ambassador
of the King
of Dcnmarlt.

Reformers. Dr. Bames was taken to London, where he had
a long intei-riew -with Cardinal Wolsey, displaying the pomp
and pride of Wolsey in strong contrast -with the meek and
dignified bearing of Barnes.
On a set day, the church of St. Paul's being crowded, the
cardinal sat enthroned in purple, on a scaffold on the top of
the stairs, surrounded by six-and-thirty abbots, mitred pri
ors, and bishops ; and his chaplains and spiritual doctors, in
gowns of damask and satin. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester,
preached against Luther and Dr. Bames from a new pulpit,
like-wise erected on the top of the stairs. Having humbled
liimself before this proud prelate, Bames became a prisoner
in the Fleet, and afterwards at Austin Friars. From thence
he was removed to the Austin Friars at Northampton, to be
burnt. However, he escaped from his enemies to Antwerp,
and thence into Germany, where he obtained much favour
from the Reformers, and from the Protestant princes of
Saxony and Denmark. The King of Denmark sent him as
one of his ambassadors to Henry VIII. Afterwards, Henry
Sent bv Hen- ^^^^- ^^^^ ^im as his ambassador to the Duke of Cleves,
ry -VLii. to to treat for the marriage of the Lady Anne. But when Ste-
cieves. phen Gardiner came from France, where he had been on
an embassy to the King, the fece of alfeirs was soon changed.
Bames, ^rith Garret, Curate in Honey Lane, London, and
Jerome, Vicar of Stepney, were apprehended at the insti
gation of Gardiner, and examined before the King at Hamp
ton Court. Gardiner preached a violent sermon against
the Reformers at Paul's Cross, which was vehemently an
swered, in the same place, by Bames, three Sundays after.
Gardiner complained to the King of Bames' mde personal
attack upon himself, " a bishop and prelate of this realm."
The King called Bames to his closet, where he severely re-
Committed ^^^""^ ^™- ^^'"' '°°S controversies between Gardiner
to the Tower ami Barnes, as well pubhc as private, the latter was com
mitted to the Tower, where he continued fi-om Easter till
the end of July 1541. Two days after the death of Lord
Cromwell, a process against Barnes, GaiTet, and Jerome
ensued in the King's Council in Pariiament, and, without
any public hearing, or knowledge of the gi-ounds of theur
condemnation, they were led from the Tower to Smithfield
to be bumed.

Appreliend- ed by order
of Gardiner.

INTRODCOTIOH. 29
While at the stake, Barnes delivered a calm protest against book L
the injustice of his sentence, and a noble declaration of his ckj!p i
Christian belief; after wliich he asked the sheriff — "Have His protest at
ye any ai-tiole against me for the which I am condemned f the staite.
The sheriff answered, " No." " Then," said he, "is there
here any man that knoweth wherefore I die, or that by my
preaching hath taken any error? Let them now speak,
and I vrill make my answer." There was no reply. " Then,"
said Bames, " I am condemned by the law to die ; and, as I
understand, by an act of parliament ; but wherefore I cannot
tell, but belike for heresy ; for we are Uke to bum. But
they that have been the occasion of it, I pray God forgive
them, as I would be forgiven myself. And Dr. Stephen,
(Gardiner) Bishop of Winchester, that now is, if he have
sought or -wrought this my death, either by word or deed, I
pray God foi-give him as heartily, as freely, as charitably,
and without feigning, as ever Christ forgave them that put
him to death." Then he exhorted the people to pray for
"the King's grace," and to obey him -with aU humility;
and he sent sundry messages to the King and to others, by
the sheriff. "Then," says Fox, "desired he all men to
forgive him, and if he had said any evil at any time unad-
¦risedly, whereby he had offended any man, or given any
occasion of evil, that they would forgive it him, and amend
that eril they took of him, and to bear him witness that he
detested and abhorred all evU opinions and doctrines against
the Word of God, and that he died in the faith of Jesus
Christ, by whom he doubted not but to be saved. And
with these words he desired them all to pray for him ; and
then he tumed him about, and put off his clothes, making
- him ready for the fire, patiently there to take liis death. Tlio martyr-
And so, after prayer made by him and his two fellow-martyrs, Baraos,
wherein most effectually they desired the Lord Jesus to be j^"^
their comfort and consolation in their afiliction, and to
establish them -with perfect faith, constancy, and patience,
through the Holy Ghost, they, taking themselves by the
hands, and kissing one another, quietly and humbly offered
themselves to the hands of their tormentors ; and so took
their death both christianly and constantly, -vrith such
patience as might well testify the goodness of their cause,
and quiet of their conscience." *
• Foi -8 Acts and Monuments of Chrlstiaii Martyrs.

30

introduction.

LanncelotRidley.

BOOKL The works wliich Bames left behind him are: — Two
CHAP^ L Treatises on Justification, and on Free Will, in which the
doctrines of the Reformation are maintained from Scripture,
and copiously iUustrated from the -writings of Ambrose,
Augustine, and others of the Fathei-s; the Lives of the
Popes ; the Judgment of the Doctors ; and the heads of his
o-wn Discourses, in Latin ; and a considerable number of
shorter pieces in English.
There were two reformei-s of the name of Ridley, de
scended from an ancient knightly femUy of that name, stUl
flourishing in Northumberland.
Launcelot Ridley was educated at King's HaU, Cam
bridge, and made doctor in dirinity in 1540. He is praised
as a man skilled in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues.
He was promoted by Ai-chbishop Ci-anmer to be one of the
six preachers in Canterbury Cathedral. Under the reign of
Maiy, he was ejected from his living, because he was married.
I can find no record of his later years, some saying that he
hved in concealment, others, that he recanted during that
troublous time. Bishop Bale speaks of him thus : — " The
commentaries which the rirtuous, leamed man. Master
Launcelot Ridley, made upon Saint Paul's Epistle to the
Ephesians, for the true erudition of his Christian brethren,
hath my Lord Bonner here also condemned for heresy.
But what the cause is 1 cannot tell, unless it be for ad
vancing the gospel as the thing whereby we are made righte
ous witliout either decree or ceremony; or else for ad
monishing us to beware of men's traditions and doctrines,
lest we should by them tmst in any other thing than Christ-
and lest we should, for their glittering gains, refuse the
spiritual armour against the devil and his members, which
HJi-rcTits. Paul hath there presented unto us." He published, be
sides the commentary on the Ephesians, commentaries on
Joshua, Matthew, Colossians, second Thessalonians, second
and third epistles of John, and on Jude ; also, " The Tliirteen
Abuses of the JMass," and a treatise on the - :Mai-riage of
Priests." The commentaries on Ephesians and PhUippians
were first published in 1540, and re-pubhshed fi-om an ori
ginal copy in the Univei-suy Library of Cambridge, together
vrith an extract from his exposition upon Jude. AU these
exposiUons display the deep insight mto the spirit cf the

introduction. 31
New Testament, and the warmth of holy feeling, which BOOK I
characterize the best writers of that age. They are brief, chap! l
terse, and plain; and they do not occupy altogether much
more space than the contents of the present volume.
Hugh Latimer, the " worthy champion, and old prac- Hugh Latl-
tised soldier of Christ," was the only son of Hugh Latimer, ^'"^'
a substantial yeoman of Thh-kisson, in Leicestershire So
rapid was liis progress in leaming, at the county schools,
that, at the age of fourteen, he was sent to the University
of Cambridge. None could excel him in attachment to
school-divinity, in liis superstition, or in the bitterness with
which he opposed the Reformers and then- doctrines. Thomas
Bilney was the happy means of his conversion. He
soon discovered his zeal for evangelical ti-uth, in his private
instructions to the learned, and in his preaching to the people.
His famous sermons on " The Cards," full of popular and
pungent attacks on the prevaiUng superstitions, provoked Provokes the
the opposition of Buckingham, prior of the Dominicans, in "lie Dominl-
sermons on " The Dice," intended to show the inexpediency '^™ !""<"-•
of haring the Scriptures in English. Latimer heard the
friar. The fr-iar, in return, sat in front of Latimer, under
neath the pulpit, amidst a great crowd of towns-people, and
scholars of the University, to hear his answer. After re
futing the friar's objections to the vulgar people haring
the Scriptures in the -vulgar tongue, he proceeded to illus
trate the figm-ative plirases of the Scriptm-e, by the usage
of all languages, and, looking to-s\'ard the friar, he said,
" As, for example, when they paint a fox preaching out
of a friar's cowl, none is so mad as to take this to be a fox
that preacheth, but know well enough the meaning of the
matter, which is to paint out unto us what hypocrisy, craft,
and subtle dissimulation lieth hid many times in these
friars' cowls, willing us thereby to beware of them."
Another monk, a grey fr-iar, named Doctor Wenelus, a
native of Holland, railed against Latimer, as a mad and
brainless man. Many other fi-iars and doctors swarmed in
thefr opposition. Dr. West, Bishop of El.v, preached against
him, at Barnwell Abbey, forbidding his preaching any more ^.'i'™'^^* ^^
in the chm-ches of the University. But Dr. Barnes, already but hcensed
mentioned, hcensed him to preach in his chiu-ch, at Austin i>r''BMTlei^
Friars. For three years, Latimer still continued at Cam-

32

intboductioit.

-BOOKX
CHAP. L

Sermon he-
fore the King.

Dr. Redman'!
Letter.

Latimer-|Reply.

Cited before
Cardinal
¦Wolsey.

Favoured by
Cromwell, And promot
ed to be
Bishop of
Woioain.

bridge, the bishop himself being compelled to acknowledge
hia admiration of his talents. During this time, BUney -was
his constant companion, in study, in walking, in visiting the
prisoners, and in other works of charity. In one of their
visits to the prison, they found a woman accused of mnrde-r-
ing her own child, which she plainly and steadfestly denied.
Latimer and Bilney believed, on careful inquiry, that the
woman was innocent. Soon after, Latimer was preaching
before the King, Henry VIII., at Windsor. The King in
vited Latimer to talk femUiarly with him after the sermon,
when the preacher took the opportunity of laying open this
case, and he retumed to Cambridge with a royal pardon in
big hand.
The gro-wing fiime and success of Latimer called forth a
letter, in Latin, from Dr. Redman, a mUd and liberal man,
but addicted to the old superstition. He exhorted Latimer
not to prefer his o-wn judgment in matters of religion and
controversy, before so many leamed men, and the whole
CathoUc Church. To this letter Latimer calmly replied :
" Reverend Master Redman, it is even enough for me, that
Christ's sheep hear no man's voice hut Christ's ; as for you,
yon have no voice of Christ against me ; whereas, for my
part, I have a heart that is ready to hearken to any voice of
Christ that you can bring me. Thus, fere you well, and
trouble me no more, fi^m the talking with the Lord my
God." At the end of three years, Latimer was cited, by some
members of the University, before Cardinal Wolsey, for
heresy, and commanded to subscribe such articles as they
presented to him. Not long after his retum to Cambridge,
he obtained the favour of the King, by means of Dr. Butts,
the King's physician, and remained some time at court ; but, -
bf ing weary of that way of life, he retumed to a benefice at
West-Kingston, in Wiltshire, where he laboured so zealously,
that he was soon called before Warham, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and Stokesly, Bishop of London, in 1531. He
was saved from the mahce of his persecutors by the influ
ence of Lord Cromwell with the King. He was promoted
to be Bishop of Worcester, which office he discharged vrith
great faithfulness and energy for several years, untU the
coming of thb six articles ; when, to preserve the quiet of

^NTllODUOTION. 33
S good conscience, he resigned his episcopal charge. It was book l
not long before he visited London, for tlie remedy of a serious riiTp i
hurt, occasioned hy the full of a ti-ee, which had well-nigh
killed him. The bishops cast him into the Tower; where Imprisoned
he remained u prisoner till the accession of Edward VI. """'°™'-'
During the brief reign of tliat prince, the good old iiiau,
above seventy-six years of age, was indefatigable in his
studies and in his preaching.
Queen Mary had scarcely been proclaimed, when Lati- Accession of
mer was summoned, from the neighbourhood of Coventry, to
London. As he passed through Smithfield he men-ily said,
" Smithfield has long groaned for me." For a long time he
was kept in close confinement in the Tower. One day, the
lieutenant's man cnming in, the aged bisliop, nearly dead of
cold, being \rithout fire in the frost of winter, pleasantly
bade the man tell his master, that, if he did not look betterto
him, perchance he would deceive him. Wlien the lieutenant
heard this, he came to him, and charged hira Avith these
words. " Yea, Master Lieutenant," he reidied, '' so I said :
for you look, I think, that I should burn; but, except you
let me have some fire, I am like(ly) to deceive your expec
tations, for I am like(ly) here to starve with cold."
From the Tower he was sent to Oxford, where he was Condemned
condemned to die. His conferences with the Bishop of ^j Oxford.'^"
Lincoln are given at length by Fox. They are cliiefly
remarkable for his firm adherence to the Scriptures. The
place of his execution was the ditch opposite Baliol College,
on the north side of the town. He sufifered along wiUi
Bishop Ridley, of whom we shall presently speak.
The works of Latimer are numerous, consisting cluefly of Latimer's
sermons. Twelve of these sermons are reprinted entire,
with copious extracts from others, in " The Fathers of the
English Church," published in 1802. A much larger col
lection of his sermons, together with liis letters, and his
Protestation to the Queen's (Jommissioners at Oxford, in
1564, was published in a series of the British Reformers, by
the Rehgious Tract Society, some years ago. The close of
the Protestation bespeaks the conscious majesty of a martyr's
spirit : " Thus have I answered your conclusions, as I will
stand unto, with God's help, unto the frre. And, after this,
I am able to declare to the majesty of God, by his invaluable
2*

34

INTBOBUCTIOS*

BOOKL
OHAP. L

Dr Xicholas
EitUcv.

Appointed Chaplain to
Archbishop Craumer.

Master of
Pembroke College,Cambridge

Appointed Bishop of
London by
Ed-ward \l.

Con ferences
between P.iil
ley and U^.U
nttr

Vrord, that I die for the truth ; for, I assm-e you, if I could
gi-ant (jdeld) to the Queen's proceedings, and endure by the
Word o'f God, I would rather live than die ; b-at, seeing they
are dit-ectly against God's 'Word, I -will obey God more than
man, and so — embi-ace the stake."
Dk. Nicholas Ridley, coiisin to Launcelot Ridley, was
bom at Willemontswick, in Northumberland. Ha-ving com
pleted his early education in Newca«tle-on-Tyne, he entered
Pembroke HaU, Cambridge, at the time when Luther's
attack on Indulgences was beginning to excite general
attention throughout Europe. Besides acquiring the usual
learning at Cambridge, he studied some time in the univer
sities of Paris and Louvain.
A few years after his return, he was appointed by Arch
bishop Cranmer to be one of his cliaplains ; and, in the year
after, he obtained the vicarage of Heme, in Kent. There his
preaching was so popular, that the people for mUes round
flocked to hear him. " The Six Articles " called from him a
pubhc testimony against them, though, being a single man,
and stUl cUnging to the doctrine of transubstantiation, he
did not suffer the penalties of the act. Besides his ricai-age
of Hei-ne, he held the mastei-ship of Pembroke College, Cam
bridge, and a prebend in Canterbury Cathedral. During the
leisure months of his residence at Heme, he studied, mora
fully than he had done before, the book of Bertram and other
controversies respecting transubstantiation; he conferred -with
Cranmer, who, like liimself, was feeling his way ; he investi
gated the Scriptures; he read the remains of the earhest
Christian Fathers ; and he embraced the views of the English
Reformers, by whose arguments and sufferings he was deeply
impressed. At the accession of Edward, we find him preach
ing at Court ; and, in a short time, he became Bishop of Ro
chester, and then of London, where he supei-seded Bounen
The death of the young King, which transferred the throne
to Mary, restored Bonner to his bishopric ; while Ridley was
committed to the Tower, along v>-ith Lr.timer, Cranmer, and
Bradford. Dr. Ridley has left on record an interesting conversation
between himself and Mr. Secretary Bourn and others, -whUe
. he was a pi-isoner in the Tower. The "Conferences" between
Ridley and Latimer are of the deepest interest, not only as

INTRODUCTION. 36
embodying the judgments of these leamed and able men, but BOOK L
as exhibiting the principal grounds on which they were con- cHAPI.
tent rather to die than sacrifice what they believed to be the
truth. Ridley's Lamentation for the Change of Religion in
England, gives the most serious view that can be taken of
the contrast between the reig-ns of Edward and of Mary.
His account of the treatment he received from the commis
sioners at Oxford is an affecting illustration of the overbearing
folly of persecutoi-s iu all times. His "Farewells" are among
the noblest specimens of pathetic eloquence in any language.
His Lettei-s are rich in all the graces of a highly cultivated
intellect, a gentle courtesy, and a lofty and glowing piety.
For eighteen months he was closely confined in the Tower, imprisoned
During his dreary imprisonment, most of his books were " "'^ Towe».
taken fi-om him, and he was denied the use of pen and paper;
but cutting lead fi-om his prison -windows, he wrote on the
margin of the few books he had.-* The detaUs of his mar
tyrdom are faithfully given by Fox. We cannot too often
repeat the dying words of Latimer' to his brother martyr, at
whose feet a lighted fagot was at that moment cast : — " Be of
good comfort, Master Ridley, and^fa^/ the man : we shall this
day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I ti-ust
shall never be put out."t
Thomas Cbanmer was born at Alsacton in Nottingham- cranmcr
shire, July 2, 1489. His father, Thomas Cranmer, Esq.,
belonged to an ancient family that came to England with
William the Conqueror. The bishop's youth was spent under
the tuition of a i-ude parish clerk, from whom he leai-ned
httle ; and under the training of his father, who accustomed
him to hunting and hawking. He lost his father while he
was a boy. His mother sent him, at fourteen years of age. Sent to Cam
bridge.
* Gilpin's Life of Ridley.
t Mr. Neale rebates tliat " the very same day, Gardiner, their great perse
cutor, vas struck with the illness of which he died ; it was a suppression of
urine, which held him in great agonies till the twelfth of November, when he
expired. He would not sit do^vn to dinner till he had received the news from
Oxford of the bui'ning of the two bishops, which was not till four of the clock
in the afternoon ; and while he was at dinner he was seized with the distemper
tliat put an end to his life."— Hist. Pur. voZ. i. p. fj^.
This statement is apparently founded on that of Fox. I find by comparing
Burnet, (it 3aO,) Heylln. (Hist, Ref. Q. Mary, vol. vii. p. 55.) Godwin, (De Praes.
Aug..) Collier, (ii. .'S.sii ) Lingard, (Note D,) that the story must be inaccurate.
Godwin says fliat " Gardiner died of gout" He appeared twice in tlie House of
Lords after the 19tli. The old Duke of Norfolk, who, according to Foi's infor
mant, was kept ^vaiting by Gardiner for his dinner on the 16th of October, was
baried on the 2d ot October, in the previous year.

36 IKTEODirOTION.
BOOK L to Cambridge, where he spent his time, till he -was twenty-
ciU L two, in the usual scholastic studies of the place, which h»
then abandoned for the reading of Faber, Erasmus, and other
good Latin authors, in which he persevered for four or fiv»
years, until the stir made by the German Reformers induced
him to study the Scriptures, and the best theological -n-rit-
ings. Whiie master of arts, and fellow of Jesus College,
Marries. he married; but, his wife dying next year, the master and
fellows of his coUege restored him to his fellowship. At
thirty-four he became doctor of divinity. He refused to be
one of the fellows in Wolsey's CoUege at Oxford. Soon after
Offered a fei- he obtained his doctorate he was appointed one of the Cam-
Ca^Si*'^ bridge examiners of candidates for degrees, in which office
Wolsey. he made enemies among the friars by his rigid attention to
the Scriptures : "it being a shame for a professor of divinity
to be unskilled in the book wherein the knowledge of God,
and the grounds of di-vinity, lay."-*
Cranmer's introduction to King Henry VIII. was occa-
iBtrodncedto sioned by the opinion he gave to Fox and Gardiner respecting
^^ ' the King's marriage with Catharine of Aragon, when he met
them at Jlr. Cressie's in Waltham Abbey — namely, that this
was a question, not for courts and la-wyers, but one to be
settled by dirines, out of the Scriptures. T^vo days after this
interview, the bishops mentioned to the King, who was then
at Greenwich, -n-hat Cranmer had said. The King sent for
Cranmer, commanded him to put his thoughts in -writing, and
committed him to the famUy of Sir Thomas Boleyn,one of the
most leamed of the English nobles, a favourer of leamed men,
and father of the lady who became Henry's second Queen.
" That she became a favourer, and. as much as she durst, a
promoter of the purer rehgion, must, I think, in a great
measure, be oning thereto. "f
By Ci-anmer's zeal and success in bringing the TTniversity
^m^tht °^ Cambridge to the Kmg's side, m the great question be-
King. tween his Majesty and the Pope, he commended himself to
the nobility and to the Kmg.J Being now the great court
divine, he replied to Pole's book against the divorce of
Catharine ; and he -svent, for the King, mto France, Italy, and
Germany. During liis abode in Germany, he became intimate
* Str>-pe-s Cranmer. p. 4. t Ih. p. 7
} LordHertert'sUfeofHenry-^'in., p. 3-5.

INTRODUOTIOH. 37
-with Osiander, the eminent dirine of Niiremberg, and mar- BOOK I.
ried his niece, whom, however, he was obliged to send back, f,,77^ ,
secretly, to her German friends, in 1639, the severe time of
" the Six Articles." WhUe Cranmer was absent on his
embassy, Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, died. The
King commanded Cranmer to hasten home. On his return,
he was made Archbishop of Canterbury. In this high sta- Is made
tion he enjoyed, in conjunction with other bishops, the ^cmta:-'
entire confidence of the King. He pronounced the sentence ^'^¦
of Catharine's divorce. He performed, or accorduig to Lord
Herbert, " assisted at," the King's marriage to Anne Boleyu.
He performed the ceremonies of that queen's coronation.
He christened her daughter Elizabeth, and became her god
father. The papal buUs for the consecration of Cranmer, one to Papal BnlU.
the King, and sundry others to Cranmer himself, were the
last instruments of that kind received in England during
Henry's reign. The Archbishop surrendered these bulls to
the King ; desiring to acknowledge the King, not the Pope,
as the giver of the ecclesiastical dignity. As he was re
quired to take an oath of fidelity to the Pope, which he re
garded as inconsistent vrith his allegiance to his sovereign,
and -with his duty to God, he made a protestation, suggested His Protest
to him by the canonists and casuists, that " he took the oath
as a matter of form, rather than of obUgation ; and that he
intended not to bind himself to do anything contrary to the
laws of God, the King's prerogatives, or the commonwealth
and statutes of the kingdom ; nor to tie himself up from
speaking his mind freely in matters relating to the reforma
tion of rehgion, the govemment of the Church of England,
and the prerogative of the crown ; and that, according to
this interpretation and meaning only, would he take the
oath, and not othei-^ise." * By this protest. Bishop Burnet
observes " if he did not wholly save his integrity, yet it was
plain he intended no cheat, but to act fairly and above
board."t Mr. Hallam calls this "a disingenuous shift," HaUam's re-
1 . '// m, . . 1 1 1 . marks on the
and remarks upon it : The question is, whether, having protest
obtained the bulls from Rome, on an express stipulation
that he should take a :;ertain oath, he had a rie-ht to offer a
* Strype's Appendix to Life of Cranmer, No. V.
t Burnet's History of the Reformation, Book IL p. 129.

BOOK I.

T\\e Pope-s
siii.rL-inflcviibiilishfil.

88 INTKOBCCTION.
limitation, not explanatorj-, but utterly inconsistent -ivith it.
We are sure that Cranmer's views and intentions, which he
CHAP. L ^^^ ^^^^ carried into effect, were hreconcileable with any
sort of obedience ; and if, under all the circumstances, his
conduct were justifiable, there would be an end of aU pro
missory obligation whatever." *
In the disputes in Parliament respecting the Pope's
supremacy, it was mainly through the ai-guments of Cran
mer that the Parhament consented to its abohtion. The
King's supremacy being settled in the next session of Par
hament, 1534, the Archbishop thought this a meet time
to restore the true doctrine of Christ, accoi-ding to the
Word of God and the primitive chm-ch. He induced the
Ti.eConvoca- Convocation to petition the King that the Scriptures should
[ion petition be translated into the -siilgar tongue by some honest and
i.uiorof'tiiT leamed men, to be nominated by the King, and to be de-
Scripturea. liyered unto the people according to their leaming. He
hke^vise obtained the signatures of the clergj- to an instru
ment for abolishing the Pope's supremacy, and for acknow
ledging that of the King. He was, also, actively engaged in
administering the oath of the succession, (substituting Queen
Anne for Queen Catharine, and their heirs, respectively,)
which aU persons were required by Parhament to swear,
npon pain of treason. — It was for refusing this oath, or rather
the preamble, that Bishop Fisher and Sir Tliomas More were
condemned and executed. In the Cotton Library there is a
Letter to letter from Cranmer to Lord CromweU, urging that Fisher
Sh'alfof ""^ ^^^ ^^"'"^ should be permitted to take the oath %rithout the
lisherand preamble. The King, however, was too much imtated in
a point that touched him so sorely as the divorce of Catha
rine; and the Bishop, "almost the only inflexibly honest
churchman of that age," and the ChanceUor, " whose name
can ask no epithet," lost their heads.t
The measures pursued by Cranmer for bettering the state
Religious of rehgion in the nation were various. He expounded
Beform. throughout his diocese the reasons for abolishing the supre
macy of the Pope. He resolved on a visitation of the bishops
and cathedrals. On sending adrice of his intention to
Gardiner, of Winchester, that Bishop stoutly refused. The
example was foUoAved by Stokesly, Bishop of London. This
» Const. Hist L 106. f Hallam.

INTRODUCTION. 39
•ame Stokesly was one of the ten learned men appointed book I.
D3' Cranmer to translate the New Testament. On the day p.TTjJj
fixed for the return of their parts to Lambeth, Stokesly's
part, which was " The Acts of the Apostles," was wanting. The transla
The Archbishop dispatched his secretary to Fulham for the 5iew "iVsta-
book. He returned for answer: — " 1 marvel what my Lord ment.
of Canterbury meaneth, that thus abuseth the people, in Disiiop
g-iving them liberty to read the Scriptures, which doth Refusal
nothing else but infect them with heresy. 1 have bestowed
never an hour upon my portion, nor never will ; and there
fore my Lord shall have this book again, for I will never be
guilty of bringing the simple people into error." When
Cranmer received this answer, he said : — " /marvel that my
Lord of London is so froward, that he will not do as other
men do."*
The visiting and suppressing of monasteries was en
couraged by Cranmer, in the hope that, besides putting an
end to much superstition and wickedness, the revenues
might be appropriated to the support of additional bishop
rics and new seats of learning.t
The articles of religion, derised, as Lord Herbert says, by
the King, and recommended to the convocation by Lord
Cromwell, bear evident traces of Cranmer's pen. These
articles are given at length by Bishop Burnet, in his
" History of the Reformation," and by Puller, in his Church
History. We find, indeed, many popish errors here, mixed
with evangelical truths, " which," says Strype, " must either
be attributed to the defectiveness of our prelates' knowledge,
as yet, in true religion, or being the principles and opinions
of the King, or both. Let not any be offended herewith ;
but let him rather take notice what a great deal of gospel
doctrine here came to light ; and not only so, but was owned
and propounded by authority, to be believed and practised.
The sun of truth was novj but rising and breaking through
the thick mists of that idolatry, superstition, and ignorance,
that had so long prevailed in this nation, and the rest of the
world, and was not yet attained to its mei-idian brightness."X
Within four years of Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn,
* Strype's Life of Cranmer, B. XI.
t Stiype's Life of Cranmer, Book I. c. 8. Suppression of the Monasteriea.
t Life of Cranmer, chap. 4.

40

IS'TRODTJCTION.

BOOK I.
CHAP. L

The Institu
tion of a
ChristianMall.

the mother of Queen Elizabeth, the King's jealousy— com
brned with his disai.pointment in not haring a uiale heir,
and his attachment for Lady Jane Seymour— brought hei- to
Divorce of the block. Though Cranmer had been strongly attached to
Annciioieyn. the Queen and hcrfamily, from the time of liis introduction to
her by his royal master, and though he had derived gi-eat aid
from her influence -srith the King in the work of reformation,
he could not save her life. He ^A-rote, as strongly a^ he dui-st,
on her behalf; but he was required, by the Kind's authority,
and the Queen's o-wn (extorted) confession, to pronounce a
divorce by due order and process of law.
In the foUo-wing year, he v.-as joined by Lord Cromwell
and other friends in obtaining from the King a commission,
consisting of himself, Gardiner, Stokesly, Latimer, Fox, and
other bishops, for drawing up a book, entitled " The godly
and pious Institution of a Christian !Man," altered, two
years after, into " A necessary Doctrine and Erudition of
any Christian Man." It was generally called the Bishops'
book, or the King's book, and was issued by authority of
Parliament. It was published in 1543, with some alterations,
but retaining the doctrine of the corporal presence in the
sacrament. The most interesting act of Cranmer's hfe was the pre
sentation of the Bible in the English tongue, set forth by
the King's most gracious Ucense. " It was wondei-ful to see
-with what joy this book of God was received, not only
among the leameder sort, and those that were noted for
lovers of the Reformation, but generally all England over
among aU the vulgar and common people ; and with v.-hat
greediness God's Word was read, and what resort to pla<;ej
where the reading of it was. Everybody who could, bought
the book, or busUy read it, or got others to read it to them,
if they could not themselves ; and divers more elderlj- people
leamed to read on purpose. And even little boys flocked,
among the rest, to hear portions of the Holy Scripture read.
One WiUiam Maldon,happeningto be in the company of John
Fox, in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and
Fox being very inquisitive after those that suffered for reli
gion in the former times, asked him if he knew anj t.iat
were persecuted for the g.jspel of Christ, that he mig'ht add
to his Book of Martyrs ; he told liim one that was whipped

The EugUsh
Bible.

INTEODUOTION. 41
wrote out all the circumstances, — namely, that when the BOOK L
King had allowed the Bible to be set forth to be read in all dJ^ j
oluii-ehes; immediately several poor men in the town of
Chelmsford in Essex, where his father lived, and he was boi-n, liie popular
l«iught the New Testament, and, on Sundays, sat reading of it th"scrip-°
in tbe tower end of the church ; many would flock about them tiires.
til bear their rending, and he among the rest, being then
Imt fifteen years old, came every Sunday to hear the glad
and sweet tidings of the gospel. But his father observing
it, once fetched him angrily away, and would have him say
the Latin matins with him, wliich gi-ieved him much. And
as he returned at other times to hear the Scripture read,
his father still would fetch him away. This put liim upon
the thought of learning to read English, that so he might
read the New Testament himself; which, when he had by
diligence effected, he and his father's apprentice bought the
New Testament, joining then- stocks together; and, to con
ceal it, laid it under the bed-straw, and read it at convenient
times. One night, his father being asleep, he and his
mother chanced to discourse concerning the cracifix, and
kneeling down to it, and knocking on the breast, as they
used, and holding up the hands to it when it came by in
procession. This he told his mother was plain idolatry,
and against the commandment of God, where he saith,
' Thon shalt not make any graven image, nor bow douin to it,
nor loorship it.'' His mother, enraged at him for this, said,
' W ilt thou not woi-ship the cross that was about thee when
thou wert christened, and must be laid on thee when thou
art dead?' In this heat the mother and son departed, and
went to their beds. The sum of this evening's conference
she presently repeats to her husband, which he, impatient
to hear, and boiling in fury against his son for denying
worship to be due to the cross, arose up forthwith, and goes
into his son's chamber, and, like a mad zealot, taking him
by the hair of his head, pulled him out of bed, and whipped Intolerance.
him unmercifully. And when the young man bore his
beating, as he related, with a kind of joy, considering it was
for Christ's sake, and shed not a tear, his father, seeing
that, was more enraged, and ran down, and fetched an hal
ter, and put it about his neck, saying he would hang him.
At length, with much entreaty of the mother and brother,

42

IXl'RODUCTION.

BOOKLCHAP. L

Cranmer's Intolerance.

John NlcIiol.
son's appre
hension.

Brought to
Trial before
the King.

he left him almost dead.' I extract this out of the original
relation of the person himself, wrote at Newington, near
London, where he afterwards dwelt : which relation he gave
to John Fox."-*
In the same year in which this Bible was given to the
people, Cranmer was unhappily, and we must say disgrace
fully, concerned in the death of John Nicholsuii. tbe fiiend
of Tindal and Frith, who took the name of Lambert to
avoid the persecutions of the bishops. He had been minister
to the English embassy at Antwerp, but dismissed, by order
of Sir Thomas More, because of his adoption of the riews
of Bilney and the Reformers. On his return to England,
he was apprehended bj- the officers of Warham, Archbishop
of Canterbury, but set at liberty on Cranmer's accession to
that dignity. He kept a school in London under his
assumed name of Lambert. Hearing Dr. Tajdor, aftervrards
Bishop of Lincoln, preach on behalf of the corporal presence
of Christ in the sacrament, he came to him, declared bis
dissent fi-om the doctrine, and drew up his objections in ten
arguments. This paper Taylor showed to Dr. Bames, of
whose martyrdom we have given an account. Barnes, who
held the Lutheran doctrine of the sacrament, accompanied
Taylor, \rith the paper, to Cranmer and Latimer. Nicholson
was brought before these bishops, who endeavom-ed to per
suade him to retract what he had \vritten. But he appealed
to the King. The King, urged by Gardiner, and not sorry
to show off his thenlogical leai-ning, and his zeal as the head
of the English Church, summoned his bishops and nobles,
the judges, the King's counsel, to assemble in Westminster
hall, where scaffolds were erected for the assembly, and an
incredible concourse of spectators.
By the King's order, Sampson, (not Day, as Fox says, for
he was not then a bishop,t) Bishop of Chichester, was com
manded to open the trial.J The Bishop of Chichester
declared that they were assembled, not to dispute any point
of faith, but to confute and condemn this man's heresv.
The King then commanded Nicholson to declare his opinion
of the sacrament ; when he began by acknowledging his

• Strype-s Life of Cranmer, chap. XVIL
t Strj-pe-s Life of Cranmer, B. L c 17
J Burnet, i. 262. Collier, ii. 151.

INTRODDOTION. 43
Majesty's goodaess, and praising his great judgment and BOOKL
leaming ; the King interrupted him, telling him, in Latin, CHAP. I.
that he came not there to hear his own praises, and bade
him proceed to the question. The prisoner, being daunted
by his interruption and the stern look with which it was
given, was then asked by the King : — " Is Christ's body in
the sacrament or not 1 " Nicholson answered in the words
of Augustine, " It is his body in a certain manner." The
King then bade him answer plainly, whether it was Christ's
body or not : so he answered, " It is not his body." The
King urged him with the words of Scripture, ¦' Tliis is my
body," and commanded Cranmer to confute his opinion.
The archbishop confined his reply to the reftitation of
Nicholson's argument — that a body cannot be in two places
at once. Tonstal, Bishop of Durham, argued from the
omnipotence of God. Stokesly, Bishop of London, intro
duced the fallacy of comparing transubstantiation to the
change of water into vapour, while moisture — the accident —
remains. Thus, by the stern looks of the King,-* the im
posing character of the audience, the belaboui-ing of the
bishops, one after another, this "meek confessor of Christ" t
was run down hke a stag by hunters, and wearied, rather
that confuted ; and rictory was declared on the King's side
by the general applause of the assembly. At the close of
this long debate the King asked him if he was satisfied, and
whether he was resolved to live or die. " I commit my
soul to God," said the reformer, " and submit my body to
the King's clemency." The King told him : " If you do not
recant, you must die ; for I will be no patron of heretics." Condemned
The -Lord CromweU read the sentence, declaring him to be °* °' ^
an incorrigible heretic, and condemned him to be bumed.
Let it not be suj-.posed that Cromwell merely acted as a
courtier, who would not dispute the commands of a prince
so arbitrary and resolute as Henry. The foUovring letter
shows that he read the sentence without regret. The letter
was written Nov. 28, 1538, to Sfr Thomas Wyat, Henry's
ambassador in Germany.
" The King's Majesty, for the reverence of the holy sacra^ Letter of
ment of the altar, did sit openly in liis hall, and there pre-
-* Dr. Lingard gives a somewhat different account of the King's demeanour.
t Stiype's Cranmer, p. 49.

44

INTRODUCTION.

BOOK L
CHAP. L

Martyrdomof John
Nicholson.

sided at the disputation, process, and judgment, of a
miserable heretic sacramentary, who was burned the 20th
November. It was a wonder to see how princely, with how
exceUent gi-avity and inestimable majesty, his Highness ex
ercised there the very office of the head of the Chm-ch ol
England. How benignly his Grace essayed to convert the
miserable man, how strong and manifest reasons his Highness
alleged against him. I wish the princes and potentates ol
Christendom to have had a meet place to have seen it. Un
doubtedly they should have much marvelled at his Majesty's
high wisdom and judgment, and reputed him no otherwise,
after the same, than, in manner, the mirror and light of all
other kings and princes in Christendom. The same was
openly done \rith great solemnity, whereby I doubt not but
some of your friends that have good leisure shall, by their
letters, advertise you of the discourse thereof."-*
The execution of Nicholson took place at Smithfield, in
the most barbarous manner. When his legs and thighs were
burned to the stumps, there not being fire enough to consume
the rest of him, suddenly two of the officers raised up his
body on their halberts, he being yet alive, and crying out,
"None but Christ I None but Christ 1 " then they let him down
into the fire, where he was quickly consumed to ashes.t
Cranmer was still a "strong stickler for the carnal pre
sence" in the sacrament, from his veneration for the ancient
doctors of the Church ; and he never abandoned this opinion
till his conferences with Ridley, already mentioned, in 1546.
The King issued a proclamation, in 1538, against the
marriage of priests : but, that its penalties might not bear
on the archbishop, who, as we have seen, had married the
niece of Osiander, at Nuremberg, they were hmited to such
as kept then- wives operdy, and such as married after the
proclamation without the common consent of his Highness
and his realm.
The King's displeasure vrith Cranmer and the other bishops
of the new leaming, as expressed in the Act of Six Articles,
will come under review in the progress of this history.
Accusation of Grardiner, Bishop of Winchester, Cranmer's implacable enemy,
SeSops'; ^'^^^^ '^y London,— whom Archbishop Parker calls " a stoul
• Harleian Library. Collier's Eccl. Hist, vol. iL p. 182.
J Fox, vol. iL

Celibacy of
tile priests
enforced.

INTRODUCTION. 46
and filthy prebendary of Windsor,"-* got up an accusation BOOK L
against Craumer for violating the Act of the Six Articles, chap. I
The papers being sent to the King, he put them into his
sleeve, and passing one evening in his barge by Lambeth
bridge, the archbishop standing in the stairs to do his duty
to his jMajesty, he called him into the barge to hira, and ac
costing him with these words, " 0 my chaplain, now I know
who is the greatest heretic in Kent," gave him the papers to
read. The King then empowered the Archbishop to sift the
matter. The conspirators were detected, imprisoned, but,
on their confession, pardoned and released.
Cranmer had scarcely escaped tins snai-e when he was Accusations
accused of heresy before the Parliament, and again rescued iiament and
by the King. But he was brought to more imminent peril ^^ Couu-
by a similar accusation fi-om the Privy Council, who prayed
the King that the Archbishop might be committed to the
Tower, and examined. The King could scarcely deny this
prayer; but that same night he summoned Cranmer from
his bed at Lambeth, to attend him at Whitehall, where he
adrised him to demand that his accusers should meet him
face to fece ; " but," added the King, " if they refuse this,
and will needs commit you to the Tower, then appeal you
fr-om them to our person, and give to thera this my ring, by
the which they shall well understand that I have taken
3'our cause into my hand from them."
Next morning by eight o'clock Cranmer was sent for to Henry's la
the Council, and was there insidted by being kept standing '^'*'-*"<*-
outside the door for three quarters of an hour. His secre
tary slipped away to Dr. Butts, the King's physician, and
told him tills. Butts, when he had come and seen it, went
forth-with to the King, saying, " I have seen a strange sight."
" What is that ?" said the King. " Marry I" said he, " my
Lord of Canterbury is become a lacquey, or a serring man,
for, to my certain knowledge, he hath stood among them
this hour almost, at the council-chamber door." " Have
they served my Lord so ?" said the King ; " it is well enough ;
I shall talk with them by and by." When Cranmer was
admitted, he found them bent on sending him to the Tower.
" I am sorry, my Lords, that you drive me to this exigent,"
* In a memorandum written with his own hand in a hook in the Benet
(Corpus Christi) College Library, entitled, Accusatio CramnerL

CHAP. L who, I
hand,

46 i.NiKODrciioN.
BOOKL said Cranmer. " to appeal from you to the Kings ^la^esty,
by thU token, hath resumed this matter into his o-n-n
 i, and dischargeth you thereof," dehvering the King's
ring to them. The Lord Russell swore a gi-eat oath, and
sail, " Did I not tell you, my Lords, what would come of
this matter ? 1 knew' right weU that the King would never
permit my Lord of Canterbury to liave such a blemish as to
be imprisoned, unless it were for hiyh treason." The
Council immediately went to the King's presence. He re
buked them severely. " I would you should understand,"
S-oSr' ^^ V:MiA., '- that I account my Lord of Canterbuiy as faith-
Cranmer. ful a man towards me as ever was prelate in this realm,
and one to whom I am many ways beholden, by the faith
I have in God," laj-ing his hand upon his heart; "and,
therefore, who loveth me weU, ujion that account regard
him." The King departed : aU the Lords of the Council
shook hands -irith the archbishop, "against whom never
more after durst any man spurn, during King Harrj-'s hfe."*
In the last two yeare of Henry's life Gardiner and his
party acquired gro-wing influence at Court, as we may leam
from the lamentations of Bishop Bale. Many Reformers
were put to death.
Notwithstanding this opposing influence, Cranmer laid
himself out for the reform of the canon law, which he foimd
not only wearisome, because of the number and irregularity
of its requfrements, but abounding -with the most extrava
gant operations of the power of the Pope. A collection of
passages of this latter description, wliich Cranmer made, is
printed by Bishop Burnet, from one of Dr. StiUingfieet's
manuscripts.! According to these canonical laws, he who denies the
Canon Law. di\ ine primacy of the Bishop of Rome, is not of the flock of
Christ, and cannot be saved : — the laws of princes, if they
be against the canons and decrees of the Bishop of Rome,
are of no force: — whoever receiveth not these canons and
decrees as the word of Gfld, spoken by the mouth of Peter,
blasphemeth the Holy Gho-t, and shaU have no forgive
ness : — the see of Rome hath neither spot nor wrinkle, and
cannot err : — it is not la%\-ful for any man to dispute the
Pope's pow-er: — ^he is no manslayer who slayeth a man that
• Stryi«-s Life of Cranmer, p. 18L ' Hist Kef P. L p. 257

INTBODUCTION. 47
is excommunicate : — a penitent person can have no remis- BOOK t
sion of sins, but by supplication of the priests. CHAP I
The reform of these laws was brought to what Strype Reform of
calls " that good perfection, that they wanted nothing but JJ^",^^""™
the confirmation of the King;" but the King's days being
ended without that act, the work was left to be finished in
the foUowing reigu.
In the last year of Henry's life Cranmer took the oppor- Cranmer
tunity ot Gardiner's absence, on an embassy to Charles V., Kingfresh'°
Emperor of Germany, to bring the King in remembrance of reforms.
several abuses in religion which had been retained. Though
absent, Gardiner -n-as informed of these proceedings; and, Gardiner in-
by representing to the King that such innovations would ''^''<"'*»-
prevent tlie league which he was sent to form with the
Emperor, prevented their success.
Cranmer did succeed so far as to induce the King to
abolish the use of images, and the practice of creeping to the
cross. The last pubhc act in which Cranmer was concerned with Death-bed o*
Henry, was the drawing up of a form for altering the mass °°^
into a communion. He visited the King on his death-bed,
and found the dying monarch speechless, but not void of
sense ; for he took Cranmer by the hand, which he wrung
hard, in token that he put his trust in God, thi-ough Jesus
Christ, as the archbishop had adrised him.*
On the accession of the young King, Edward VL, Cranmer Edward -VX
petitioned that, his authority as archbishop having ended
vrith the life of Henry, it would please the present King to
commit that power to him again. This petition granted,
Edward was crowned by Cranmer, in Westminster Abbey;
when, instead of a sermon, which had been usual on such
occasions, the archbishop addressed his Majesty in a speech,
preserved in the collections of Archbishop Usher. It ended
with these words : " The Almighty God, of His mercy, let
the light of His countenance shine upon your Majesty, grant
you a prosperous and happy reign, defend you and save you ;
and let your subjects say, Amen. God save the King."
By Cranmer's suggestion the homilies, which had been
laid aside, together with Erasmus's Paraphrase upon the New
** It should be known that the accounts of King Henry's death by different
liistorians are so contradictory, that it is difflcult, perhaps impossible, to get at
tlie exact tTutii.

48

INTRODCCTIO:?.

BOOK L
CHAP. L

Crannier-stoleraUon
and ze-U.

ReligiousRebellions

Continental
Exiles enter
tained.

Testament, were ordered to be read in all churches. He
also obtained tbe repeal of the Sis Articles, and the use of
the communion in both kinds ; and the forbidding of super
stitious processions. He published a catechism for the
young; a confutation of unwritten verities, proving, fiom
Scriptm-e and the ancient fathers, that the Bible is a true,
sound, and perfect doctrine, containing all things necessary
to salvation. He also rectified abuses in the universities,
and gave considerable aid to Ascham, in bringing about a
most desirable improvement in the studies pursued at Cam
bridge. He displayed great mildness towards such of the
clergj' as adhered to the old system ; while he encouraged
earnest and faithful preachers in setting forth the evangelical
doctrine, and confuting the errore and superetitions that
remained among both clei-gy and people.
When a rebellion broke out in Devonshire, Norfolk, Tork-
shii-e, and otiier places, on account of the enclosure of coin-
mons, and the laying aside of the old religion, Cranmer
di-ew up an answer to the articles of tlie insurgents, and
caused sermons to be preached in all the churches, to the
same effect, and also a prayer to be used on tne occasion.
In the same year, Bonner was deprived of his bishopric, for
contempt of the King's order, after a long controversy with
Cranmer, respecting a book which the archbishop had pub
lished. When Somerset, the Protector dm-tng the King's
minority, and his uncle, were brought into trouble, Cranmer
interposed, though in vain, to save him from his enemies.
It was at this time, when the papal party were increasing
in po-n-er,that Cranmer obtained, first fi-om the Privy Council,
and then fi-om Parhament, the Confirmation of the Book of
Common Prayer in English. The archbishop was then en-
tei-taining at his house several eminent foreigners, some of
whom were exiles for religion. Among these were, Bucer,
Peter Martyr. Fagius, and Ochin. Bucer was appointed
dirinity professor, and Fagius professor of Hebrew, at Cam
bridge. Fagius soon died. Bucer distinguished himself by
Ills disputations at Cambridge. To counteract the supei-sti-
tions stUl practised both in London and in the country,
Cranmer encouraged the dispersion of Bale's writings, and
other Protestant books, both English and 'foreign, and the

INTBODUOTION. 49
preaching of sermons against Lent : though, on political BOOK L
grounds, the observance was still kept up. CHAP. I
Further alterations were made in the Prayer-book. Hooper ar-
Hooper was committed to the archbishop's charge, for not '''^^'ed.
wearing the vestments appointed for bishops; and, the
archbishop not succeeding in persuading him to conform, he
was sent to the Fleet. But, afterwards, he partially con
formed, and was consecrated Bishop of Gloucester. In the
same year, Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, after being
sequestered for three months, was deprived of his bishopric,
for having used himself irreverently to the King's Majesty,
and slanderfuUy towards his council,-* From the councU-
book of this year, it appears that the disgrace of Somerset,
and Other changes, emboldened the papal party to publish
libels and ballads against the archbishop, the clergy, the
English Bible and Prayer-book ; and to preach openly against
the Reformation.
The archbishop, while active in opposing these enemies
of the Reformation, encouraged the forming of Dutch,
Italian, Spanish, and French Protestant churches. In Book on the
« T, 1 ir J.T- CI Sacrament,
the foUowing year he published his Book ot the bacra- answered by
ment," which was answered by Gardiner, and vindicated in "^"iner.
a second book by Cranmer. Gardiner rejoined in a second
book, in Latin, under the feigned name of Marcus Antonius
Con^tantius, to which Cranmer was -wi-iting an answer, which
he did not live to finish, in his prison. The state of re
ligion in England at this time may be gathered from the
preface of a w-ork, set forth by Becon, one of Cranmer's
chaplains. " What a number of fals Christians lyve there at this The statn of
present day, unto the exceedynge dishonour of the Christen Becon's'pre.
profession, which with theyr mouth confess that they know *'"'"¦
God, but with theyr dedes they utterly denye Hym, and are
abhominable, disobedient to the Word of God, and utterlye
estranged fi-om al good works I What a swarm of gross
gospellers have we also amongst us, which can prattle of the
gospel very fynely, talk much of the justification of faith,
crake very stoutly of the free remissyon of all theyr syns
* Council-book, quoted in Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 523: 3

50 nrrBODCCTioN.
BOOK L by Christ's blood, avaunce themselves to be of the number
(j£^ j^ of those which are predestinate unto eternal life. But how
for do theyr hfe differ fi-om tme Christianity ! They are
puffed up with al kj-nd of pride ; they swel with al k\-nd of
en-vy, malice, hatred, and enmity against thejT neighbour;
they brenne (bum) with unquenchable lusts of carnal con-
cnpiscense ; they -walow and tumble in al kynd of beastly
pleasures; theyr greedy, covetous effects (affections) are
insatiable ; the enlarging of their lordshipps, the increasing
of theyr substance, the scraping together of thejT worldly
possessions, infynite, and knoweth no end. In ft-ne, all
theyr endeavours tend unto thys end, to shew themselves
ven," ethyncks. (heathens) and utterly estranged fi^m God in
theyr conversation, although in words they otherwise pre
tend. As for theyr alms-dedes, thejT praying, theyr watch
ing, theyr festing, and such other godly exercises of the
spirit, they are utterly banished from these mde and gross
gospeUera. All theyr reUgion consisteth in words and dis-
pntations; in Christen acts and godly dedes, nothing at
all."-* In 1553, Cranmer obtained letters from King Edward, to
secure the subscription of the clergy- to the Book of Articles^
and to require the use of a Latin catechism in schools.
The last thing recorded of Cranmer in Edward's reign,
Qose of Ed- is his refusal to comply with the new settlement of the
wards roign. down on the Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of
Suffolk, and vrife of Lord Guildford Dudley, son of the Duke
of Northumberland. In this refusal he persisted, arguing
strongly against it, tUl the King himself overcame his
reluctance by saying, " I hope you alone wiU not stand out,
and be more repugnant to my wUl than aU the rest of the
councU." After the King's death, he was one of the counseUors of
the unfortunate Queen Jane, who reigned only eleven days,—
his name appearing, -with that of several nobles, to a docu
ment sent to Mary, declaring her illegitimate and unherit-
• Prefiice to the Jewel of Joy, by Thon^as Becon. Becon-s works, in three
volumes folio, wer« published by himself, and dedicated to the archbishops
and bishops of the realm in 1564, the year in which he was deprived of his liv
ing, with other Funtans. by Arciibishop Parker, tlie first Protestani primate in
£Uzabeth-s reign. Str>-pe speaks of Becon as mighty tossed about, as famous
for his great leammg and frequent preaching, and manifold sufferings, undEZ
four snccessivR reigns of reforming mouarclia Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. G02.

INTRODUOTIOir. 51
able, and calling upon her to recognise as sovereign, the °°°^ ^
Lady Queen Jane.* CHAP. I
When Mary ascended the throne it was reported that
Cranmer had offered to say the mass and requiem at the Q„g^^''^° °'
burial of King Edward, before the Queen, and that he had
restored the mass at Canterbury ; wliich report induced liim
to publish a declaration to the contrary. Some copies of
this declaration felling into the hands of certain bishops
who laid it before the Council, Cranmer was called before
the Queen's Commissioners, and severely reprimanded for
sundry parts of that declaration ; and, soon after this, com
mitted to the Tower, partly for the hand he had taken in Cranmer
Lady Jane's succession, and partly for openly justifying the the Tower.
reforming proceedings of the late King. His imprisonment
was soon followed by a general deprivation of the Protestant
bishops and clergy, of whom not a few were cast into prison ;
as Strype quaintly expresses it, " they came into the Mar-
shalsea, thick and threefold, for rehgion, sent thither by
Gardiner." Peter Martyr, who had been allowed to escape
to Germany, gives this account of the state of things in a
letter to Cal-rin : — " Although the infirmity of some betrayed
them, yet great was the constancy of far more than I could
have thought ; so that, I doubt not, England wUl have many-
famous martyrs, if Winchester, (Gardiner) who now does
all, begins to rage according to his vrill." In another letter
to a friend, he says, " I had many scholars in England, stu
dents in divinity not to be ashamed of, whose hai-vest was
almost ripe, whom I have been forced to see, either wander
ing about in uncertain stations, or remaining at home,
unhappily subverted. There are in that kingdom many
holy as weU as learned bishops, that are now in hard
confinement, and soon to be dragged to the extremest
punishments, as if they were robbers. Here is the founda
tion of the gospel, and of a noble church, laid ; and, bj"^ the
labours of some years, the holy buUding had well gone
forward, and, daily, better things were hoped for ; but, unless
God from above come to the succour of it, I think there will
not be a footstep of godUness left at last, as to the outward
profession." t
Gardiner, advanced from being a prisoner in the Tower Gardinercreated Lord
• HeyliD, 168. Nicholas, SO. App. ? P. Martyi-'s Episflea. Chanr«llor.

5S

IKIBOBUOTION.

BOOKLCHAP. L

to be Lord ChanceUor of England, mled both Pariiament
and people.* From the proclamation of pardon at the
Queen's coronation the Protestants were omitted. The
Protestants that were at liberty were urged by Cranmer to
flee fi-om the rising storm of persecution, though he himself
resolved to remain at his post.t Cranmer sued for pardon
of the treason of which he, together with Lady Jane Grey,
Guildford her husband, and others, was accused by Parha
ment, and \rith great difficulty he at last obtained it;
but the Queen, being resolved on his death for the part he
had taken in her mother's divorce, and Gardiner and the
Council being equally bent on his destruction, he was called
Cranmer, before a commission from the convocation at Oxford, along
Sitimer^rt* with Ridley and Latimer, to dispute certain points of reU-
Oiford. gion. The convocation met with all the pomp of the re
stored religion, — the celebration of masses, and processions.
Coming before them, Cranmer gave them great reverence,
and stood with his staff in his hand. They offered him a
stool to sit, but he refused. The prolocutor, Weston, opened
the charges against him, and requiring his answer. Cran-
Cranmor's mer replied to the general question relating to the unity of
reply. ^Yle Church, read the articles over three or four times, and,
being asked whether he would subscribe to them, he an
swered: — "In the form of words in which they are con
ceived, they are all false, and against God's Word, and there
fore I cannot agree in this unity with you. Nevertheless,
if you will give me a copy of the articles, and time to con
sider them, I will by to-morrow send an answer." The
prolocutor granted his request, desiring him to write his
judgment of the articles that night : agreeing wth liim,
that if he dissented from them in any respect, they should
hold a public disputation on them in Latin, and promising
him whatever books he might ask for.
On Monday Cranmer produced his wTitten answer, bringing
with him two notaries, to take notes of what he said. Jewel,
aftenvards Bishop of Salisbury, and Mounton, disputed for
• See Lord Campbeirs Lives of tlie Lord Chancellors, vol. iL
t Strj'pe, {in his Life of Cranmer, 449,) gives a list ot five bishops, five deans,
four archdeacons, and about sixt>' doctors of divinity and preachers, besides
of noblemen, merchants, tradesmen, artificers, and plebeians, many hundreds,
who escaped to Strasburg, Wi.'sel, Embden, Antwei-p, Worms, Frankfort Basle,
Zurich, Geneva, and other places, and "great was the favour that the strangers
showed to ihdrfugiiive gw£t&.^^

iNTKOmroTioK. 63
six hours ; demanded more time for going through all the BOOK U
points in dispute, and also permission to oppose the doc- ciiap! t
trines of the Romanists, as well as respond to their questions ;
but these demands were not complied with. >
Two days after the disputation Cranmer was condemned Condemned
as a heretic. " From this your judgment," he said, when ""' °'° °-
he heard his sentence, " I appeal to the just judgment of
the Almighty, trusting to be present with him in heaven,
for whose presence in the altar I am thus condemned."
In his prison he occupied himself with writing his last reply
to Gardiner on the Sacrament. His archbishopric was
given to Cardinal Pole. Some of the exiles abroad peti
tioned the Queen, reminding her how Cranmer had once
preserved her life in her father's time, by his earnest inter
cessions with the King in her behalf. From his prison
window he saw Ridley and Lathner brought forth to the
stake ; and, looking after them, he devoutly fell upon his
knees, praying to God to strengthen their faith and patience
in that their last, but painful passage. Besides writing, his
time during his confinement in the Bocardo, a city prison of
Oxford, he was much engaged in discourses with learned
men of the opposite persuasion, who laboured to bring him
over to their doctrines.
The Pope's authority being now restored in England, a
commission was sent from Rome for the conviction of Cran
mer. In obedience to the papal decree, Cranmer was
brought out of prison, habited in a plain black gown, and
his badge of doctor of divinity on both shoulders. He ren
dered due honour to the Queen's commissioners, but none
to the representative of the Pope. After answering certain
questions, he was cited to appear at Rome within eighty days. Cited to ap
to make his answer to the Pope in person ; which he said he P^^"^"' °'°*-
was contented to do if the King and Queen would send him.
But he was remanded to prison, and the account of the pro
ceedings was sent to the Pope, who returned his "'letters
executory" to the King and Queen, and to the Bishops of
Ely and London, to degrade and deprive him. At the end
of the eighty days, (he being kept in prison,) he was de
clared a contumacious heretic. On a fixed day, the Pope's
delegates came to Oxford to execute the sentence. They His degrada-
appareled Cranmer in all the garments and ornaments of ""-

64

INTKOBDCTION.

Bonner'striumph.

BOOK L an archbishop ; only, in mockery, every thing -was of canvass^
chap, l and old clouts ; and the crosier was put into his hand. Then
he was, piece by piece, stripped of aU again. When they
began to take away his pall, he asked them, " Which of
you has a pall, to take away my pall? They answered,
acknowledging they were his inferiors as bishops ; but aa
they were tbe Pope's del^ates, they might take away his
pall. While they were thus stripping him of his gar
ments, he told them that it needed not, for that he had
done with this gear long ago." While this was doing,
Bonner made a triumphant speech against the jMor arch
bishop. But when they came to take away his crosier,
he held it fest, and would not deUver it, but puUed
out an appeal from under his left sleeve, under his wrist,
and said, " I appeal unto the next General CouncU ; and
herein I have comprehended my cause, and the form of
it, which I desire may be admitted;" and he piayed divers
times to the standers-by to be witnesses, naming them by
their names.* The Bishop of Ely told him that they were
commissioned to proceed against him " without appeal."
They proceeded in the degradation, at the end of which
Bonner said to him, "You are now no more a lord!" He
had been denied the use of proctors, advocates, and lawyers,
though he was tried for his Ufe. The commissioners had
broken their promise to let him correct his answers to the
sixteen articles they had brought against him. These were
partly his reasons for appealing to a General Council. He
seems also to have been influenced by the example of
Luther in a simUar case. He had further inducements in
the Uct, that he was bound by his oath never to acknowledge
the Pope's authority in this realm ; and, in the conriction
that the Bishop of Rome was not an impartial judge in this
cause, since he was himself the interested party. But,
probably, his principal reason was to gain time, as he was
S'f J?!?? '" ^^^^ *° finish his last reply to Gardiner. After his return
to prison, he wrote two letters to the Queen, in which he
stated his reasons for refusing the Pope's delegate as his
judge, and entered at length into the constitutional question
of the supremacy of the independent kingdom of England,
and into the rehgious objections to the authority of the
• This appeal is given at length by Fox, in his Acts and llonomenta.

the Quc-n

INTE0DI70TI0N. 55
Pope, as opposed to the laws of God. These letters were BOOK L
answered -at some length by Cardinal Pole. CHAP: L
Nothing could bring more credit and strength to the
papal party in England, and indeed throughout Europe, Efforts to
than the recovery of this eminent man to the Church of re°Mitatlon.
Rome. The doctors of the universities plied him with argu
ments, persuasions, kindnesses, flatteries, promises, and
threatenings. They represented to him that the nobles of
England had no ill feehng towards him ; that the Queen
would be glad of his restoration to his former dignity ; or,
if he liked it better, he might retire in quietude to the
enjoyment of a private life. In an evil hour he yielded to He yield*
these tempters and recanted, signing the recantation with
his own hand, attested by witnesses. The recantation was
quickly printed and dispersed. The Queen rejoiced in it ;
but she had made up her mind that he should be bumed.
As soon as Craumer perceived, by the manner of Dr. Cole,
who visited him in prison, what was likely to be his fate,
he prepared a prayer and a declaration of his faith, in
¦writing, to make use of at the proper time. Cranmer's
behariour in St. Mary's church, the manner of his execution,
his thrusting his right hand into the flames, and other par
ticulars of his martyrdom, are universally known by the
popular extracts from Pox's " Acts and Monuments."
Strype has given a touching relation of this tragedy in the
-words of " a certain grave person unknown, but a papist,"
who was an eye and an ear-witness, and related these mat
ters and scenes very justly, in a, letter from Oxford to his
friends.* From this long letter the following extracts may suffice.
After describing Cranmer's previous conduct, and repeating
his prayer, and his exhoi-tation to the people, he then gives
the closing sentences of his address : — " And now, for so His martyr-
much as I am come to the last end of my Ufe, whereupon *°'°'
hangeth all my Ufe passed, and my life to come, either to
live with my Sariour Christ in heaven in joy, or else to be
in pain ever vrith wicked devils in hell ; and I see before
mine eyes presently either heaven ready to receive me, or
heU ready to swaUow me up ; I shall, therefore, declare
• Strype-s Life of Cranmer, B. III. c. 21. Sir James Mackintosh calls this
authentic and picturesque narrative " perhaps the most beautiftil specimen of
ancient English " Hist of England, toL U. 336.

ance.

56 INTBODUCTION.
*'^'- unto you my verj- faith, how I believe, -without colour or
CHAP. L dissimulation, for now is no time to dissemble, -whatsoever
I have written in times past. First, I believe in God the
Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, &c., and
every article of the Catholic feith ; every word and sen
tence taught by our Sariour Christ, his apostles, and pro
phets, in the Old and New Testements. And now I come
to the great tiling that troubleth my cDnscience more than
any other thing that ever I said or did in my life — and that
His repent- is, the setting abroad of -vN-ritings contrary to the truth ;
which here I now renounce and refuse, as things -wi-itten
-with my hand, contrary to the truth which I thought in my
heart, and writ /or fear of death, and to save my life, if it
might be ; and that is aU such bills which I have -written
or subscribed vrith my mine own hand since my degrada
tion, wherein I have \ratten many things untrue. And,
forasmuch as my hand offendeth in writing contrary to my
heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished ; for if I
may come to the fire it may be first bumed ; and as for the
Pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy and antichrist, with
aU his false doctrine." And here being admonished of his
recantation and dissembhng, he said, " Alas, my lord, I
have been a man that aU my Ufe loved plainness, and
never dissembled tUl now against the truth, which I am
most sorry for." He added hereunto, that for the Sacra
ment, he believed as he had taught in his book against the
Bishop of Winchester. And here he was suffered to speak
no more. Coming to the stake with a cheerful countenance
and wiUing mind, he put off his garment in haste, and stood
up in his shu-t : and a bachelor of dirinity, named Ely, of
Brazennose College, laboured to convert hiin to his former
recantation, with the two Spanish friars. But when the
friars saw his constancy, they said in Latin one to another,
" Let us go from him, we ought not to be nigh him, for the
devU is -with him." But the bachelor of divinity was more
earnest with him ; unto whom he answered, that as con-
ceming his recantation, he repented it right sore, because
he knew it was against the truth ; with other words.
Whereupon the Lord WiUiams-* cried : " Make short ! make
• " Lord Williams was considered as the mildest of Princess Elizabeth'!
Jailoia. Oi That stuff must the sterner have been made I"— itacklatoBh.

IHTRODDCTIOB. 67
short. !' Then the bishop took certain of his fiiends by the BOOKL
hand : but the bachelor of divinity refused to take him by chap! I,
the hand, and blamed all others that did so, and said he
was sorry that ever he came in Ins company. And yet
again he required liim to agree to his former recantation.
And the bishop answered, showing his hand, ' This is the
hand that -mote it, and therefore it shall suffer first punish
ment.' Fire being now put to him, he stretched out his Tlie Stake.
right hand, and thrust it into the flame, and held it there a
good space before the fire came to any other part of his
body, where his hand was seen of evei-y man sensibly burn
ing, (he) crying with a loud voice — This hand hath
offended ! As soon as the fire got up, he was very soon
dead, never stirring nor crying all the wliile. His patience
in the torment, his courage in dying — if it had been taken
either for the glory of God, the wealth of his country, or the
testimony of truth, as it was for a pernicious error, and sub
version of true religion — I could worthily have commended
the example, and matched it vrith the fame of any fether
of ancient time : but, seeing that not death, but the cause
and quarrel thereof, commendeth the sufferer, I cannot
but much dispi-aise his obstinate stubbornness and sturdi-
ness in dying, and specially in so evil a cause. Sm-ely
his death much giieved every man. Some pitied to see
his body so tormented with the fire raging upon the sUly car
cass, that counted not of the foUy. Others that passed,
thinking not much of the body, lamented to see him spUl
his soul, wretchedly, without redemption, to be plagued for
ever. His friends soi-rowed for love ; his enemies for pity ;
strangers for a common kind of humanity, whereby we are
bound to one another. Thus have I enforced mysefifor
your sake to discourse this hea\'y narration, contrary to my
mind ; and being more than half weary, I make a short end,
vrishing you a quieter life with less honour, and easier death
with more praise, the 23rd of March. — Yours, J. A."
" AU this," says Strype, " is the testimony of an adver
sary, and therefore we must allow for some of his words ;
but may be the more certain of the archbishop's brave
courage, constancy. Christian and holy behaviom-, being
related by one so affected." His body was not cai-ried to
the grave in state, nor buried as many of his predecessors 3*

.'-.a

INTROBUCTION.

BOOK L
CHAP. I.

Theiuliuenceoi Cranmer
till tlie Enj;
lish Kefbr-
in.ation.

His charac
ter by Rom
ish "wiiters.

By Church
of England
writers.

By Hiuuc.

l:y l!..ll.-iin.

were, in his own cathedral church, nor enclosed in a monu
ment of marble or touchstone. Nor had he any inscription
to set forth his praises to posterity ; no shrine to be visited
by devout pilgi-ims. Cranmer's martyrdom is his monu
ment ; and his name vrill outlast a monument or a
shrine. The reasons for dwelling thus long on the opinions and
public acts and sufferings of Cranmer, will be obvious to
those who bear in mind, that to him, more than to any
other person, are to be ascribed the ingrafting of Protestant
principles in the general mind of England, and the ground
work and outline of the Church established by law in this
country. This is not the place foi- entering on a discussion
of the character, the virtues, and the faiUngs of this great
man. To such as riew him through the medium of some
Roman Catholic -writers, such as Bossuet, Lingard, and
others, he is a monster of impiety, cruelty, deceitfulness,
and heresy. To those on the contrary who know him only
from the pages of Protestant and Chxrrch of England -writers,
especially those near his ov.'n times who are generally fol
lowed in our day, he is a perfect example, except in his
recantation, of whatever can bs looked for in a saint and
martyr. Mr. Charles Butler,-* in liis Memoirs of English
Catholics, has summed up Iiis character -^rith more impar-
tiaUty than most Protestants ; though, as might naturally
be expected, with a leaning which makes him treat unjustly
some of his actions. Hume says of him, " Undoubtedly he
was a man of merit, possessed of leaming and capacity, and
endowed vrith candour, sinceritj'-, and beneficence, and all
those virtues which M^ere fitted to render himself useful
and amiable in society. His moral quahties secured him
universal respect, and the courage of his martyrdom, though
he fell short of the rigid inflexibility observed in many,
made him tbe hero of the Protestant party." t
His severest judges are two distinguished modern writers.
Mr. Hallam darkens his momoi-y with the charges of
voluntarily placing himself in the circumstances of which his
faults were the effects; of a discreditable course of tem
porizing, and of undue compliance \rith the -srill of Henry ;
of -weakness, which he calls " his principal defect ;" and he

* Vii. p. 139,

t History of England, c. 37

INTBODUCTION. 59
expresses his beUef that " had the mahgnity of his enemies BOOK L
been directed rather against his reputation than his life, had cHAP. L
the reluctant apostate been permitted to survive his shame,
a prisoner in the Tower, it must have seemed a more
arduous task to defend the memory of Cranmer ; but his
fame has brightened in the fire that consumed him." On
the other hand he ascribes to the moderation of Cranmer
the middle position of the Church of England between the
Church of Rome and other Protestant chm-ches.*
Mr. T. B. Macaulay declares that, as a statesman, Cran- ByMacauloy.
mer was not a -worse man than Wolsey, Gai-diner, CromweU,
or Somerset ; and he ridicules the idea of placing him in
the noble army of martyrs. He denounces him as a time
serving courtier ; the destroyer of Somerset, the accomplice
of the worthless Dudley, and the seducer of Jane into usur
pation. He speaks of his recantation as " part of a regular
habit," and of his forgiveness of enemies as the virtue of a
class whose only object is self-preservation.+
If this be justice, it is certainly in its severest form : it His modern
indicates that strong desire for retaliating, which fi-equently detractors.
tempts vigorous and capacious minds, when they see that
a great man has been over-praised, and when they feel that
their powers of expression are such as to dazzle and over
whelm his worshippers. Such -writers have not always
marked, -with sufficient distinctness, the difference between
the man as he was, and the reputation which his position
has secured for liim in after times. Nor do they seem to
have duly reflected that no human character formed in an
age of transition from bluidness, ferocity, and despotism, to
the light, tolerance, and freedom of happier times, would
be Ukely to leave less dross behind it in the hot fumace by
which Cranmer had been tested. With aU his weaknesses
and faults, we cannot doubt that he was a sincere Cluistian, ^'? Clirisa-
and that, in the main, he had higher interests at heart than
some of his judges could apprecfete or understand. His ene
mies did not destroy his character when they took his life.
We do not believe that English Chiistians of any denomi
nation can calmly examine his writings, his actions, and
his martyrdom, without concluding that he served that
* Constitutional History of England, vol i. chap. il. p. 107.
t Edinburgh Review, voL L p. 43.

60

itrraoDCCTioK.

BOOK L
CHAP. L
JohnHooper.

Conference with Bishop
Gardiner.

E«ape to
Germany.

Returns to
London.

ElectedBishop of
Gloucester,
and refuses
the vest-
ments.

Master " who knoweth our frame," and who "hath washed
us from oxir sins in his own blood."*
John Hooper, a native of Somersetshire, haring studied
the sciences at Oxford, devoted himself to the reading of the
Scriptures, and earnest prayer. By these practices he
brought upon himself the enmity of Dr. Richard Smith,
reader of divinity at Oxford, and he was obliged to leave
the University, and became stew^ard to Sir Thomas Arundel.
Sfr Thomas introduced him, by letter, to Gardiner, Bishop
of Winchester, who, after conferring with him for four or
five days, sent him back to liis master, -with a strong dislike
to him on account of his religious principles.
Hooper fled from England into France, afterwards re
tumed home, where he was maintained for some time by
" Master Sentlow," until, new troubles arising, he escaped
into Germany, and afterwards to Switzerland, where he en
joyed the friendship of BuUinger. When the " Six Articles"
were rescinded by Edward VI., he took leave of his fiiend
BuUinger, using these remarkable words : — " You shall be
sure, from time to time, to hear of me, and I will write unto
you how it goeth -nith me ; but the last news of all I should
be unable to write, for there," taking BuUinger by the hand,
" where I shall take most pains, there shall you hear of me
to be burnt to ashes, and that shall be the last ne-A'S, wliich
I shall not be able to wiite unto you, but you shall hear of
me." After his return to London he became exceedingly
popular as an earnest, faithful, eloquent, and laborious
preacher, preaching daily, and mostly t\rice a day. When,
by the King's command, he was elected Bishop of Glou
cester, he refused to wear the vestments, and prayed the
King that they might be dispensed with, or that he might
be discharged from the bishopric. The King wrote to the
Archbishop Cranmer, freeing him from all dangers which he
might incur by omitting the usual rites of consecration,
leaving the omission, apparently, to the archbishop's dis
cretion. But the archbishop thought that the King's bare
letters were not sufiicient to secure him against estabhshed
laws.-*- Warwick, afterwards Duke of Northumberland,
partly moved by the King's desire, also wrote to Cranmer,

? Strype's Lifte of Cranmer, Book II. c. 17.

INTROUtrOTIOlf. 61
urging him not to charge Hooper with an oath " burdenous BOOKL
to his conscience." The scruples of Hooper in this busi- cHAP. L
ness, the letters of Bucer, Martyn, Latimer, and Ridley,
and Hooper's own declamations, which Latimer called " un
seasonable and too bitter," his conferences with Ridley and
Cranmer, his appearance before the Council, his imprison
ment in the Fleet, all ended in liis agi'eeing to wear the
offensive habiliments at his consecration, and when he
preached before the King, and in his obtaining the freedom
of laying them aside at other times. Hooper now gave his men?ofUia
strength to the energetic fulfilment of his episcopal duties. Episcopal
in the diocese of Glou3ester, and also in that of Worcester.
In the early part of Mai-y's reign he was called before
Gardiner, Bonner, and other bishops, commissioners ap
pointed by the Queen, who sent liim to the Fleet, where it f^Mt" ""*
appears from his own published report he suffered great
hardships. During his many and tedious examinations,
these bishops treated him with the utmost scom and rude
ness, one calhng him a hypocrite, another abeast, and another
a tjTant. In liis prison he encountered — ^but -with more
firmness — the same kind of flattering attempts on his con
stancy that overcame Ci-anmer. Faihng in these attempts,
his enemies spread a report that he had recanted, to which
he rephed in a letter addressed to his brethren : " This talk
ariseth of this, that the Bishop of London (Bonner) and his Bishop Bon-
chaplain resort unto me. Doubtless, if our brethren were chaplain
as godly as I could wish them, they would think that in ^^'^ ''^™-
ease I did refuse to talk with them, they might have just
reason to say that I were unleai-ned, and durst not speak
with learned men, or else proud, and disdained to speak with
them ; therefore, to avoid just suspicion of both, I have, and
do daily speak with them when they come, not doubting
but that they reported that I am neither proud nor un
learned. And I would wish all men to do as I do in this
point ; for I fear not their arguments, neither is death ter
rible unto me ; — praying you (to) make true report of the
same as occasion shall sei've, and that I am more confirmed
in the truth which I have preached heretofore, by their
coming. I have taught the truth with my tongue and with
my pen heretofore ; and hereafter, shortly, will confirm the
same (by God's grace) with my blood."

62

INTRODUCTION.

BOOKL
CHAP. L
His Condem.
tion and
Martyrdom.

John Brad
ford.

Two days after writing this lettei- Hooper vras condemned,
(with Rogers,) before Gardiner, at whose req^uest Bonner de-
gi-aded him, and deprived him of the order, benefit, and
privilege of the clergy, and then delivered him to the sheriffs
to suffer death. He suffered death by fire, at Gloucester,
His last words were—" Lord Jesus, receive my spfrit I"
His works are : — A Declaration of Christ and of His Office :
a Godly Confession and Protestation of the Christian Faith,
wherein is declared what a Christian Man is bound to Beheve
of God, his King, his Neighbour, and Himself: a Declaration
of the Ten Holy Commandments, collected out of the Scrip
ture Canonical : a Brief and Clear Confession of the Christian
Faith, containing an hundred Articles, according to the order
of the Apostles' Creed: Certain Comfortable Expositions,
-wiitten in the Time of his Imprisonment, on the 23d, 62d,
73d, and 77th Psalms of the Prophet David. It is remark
able, and gi'eatly iUustrates his own character, as well as
that of his opponents, that in his exposition of the
62d Psalm, 4th verse, he says, " The fury of the -wicked
may seem in his o-wn eyes to be stable, firm, and constant ;
but, indeed, there is nothing more trembUng, nor tottering,
as we may see at the present day : as we may mark and see
in the Bishops of Winchester, Gardiner, and also Bonner,
the Bishop of London ; when King Henry VIII. suspected
them both to be favourers of the Pope, the capital enemy of
Christ and his church, Winchester fell into such a trembling
and fear, that with all haste he -wrote his purgation, in a
book named Tme Obedience ; and Bonner sent an epistle
before it, both they crying out agamst the Pope, as against
a tyrant and a false usurper of authority in this realm,
(although they thought nothing less.) Thus we may see
how inconsistent, trembling, and quaking, these tottering,
wicked persecutors of God's Word be. I could declare more
of their rehgion to be of the same condition, but because
these two, and Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, be known openly
to the world by their books to be such, I speak only of
them."-*- JoHN Bbadpoed was born at Manchester. Tbe earlier
part of his Ufe he spent in the service of Sir .Tohn Haning-
• Hooper's Expositions at London, printed by Henry Middleton, 1680!.

iNiRonncTioN. 63
ton, during which period he seems to have studied law in BOOK L
the Inner Temple. From thence he went to Cambridge, cHAP L
where he became master of arts at the end of his first year.
When he had taken his degree, he was made fellow of Pem
broke Hall, and received into deacon's orders by Bishop
Ridley, who gave him a prebend in St. Paul's. Of his
preaching for three years. Fox testifies, that " sharply he
opened and reproved sin ; and sweetly he preached Christ
crucified ; pithily he impugned heresies and errors ; eai-nestly
he persuaded to godly life." He was deprived of his office
and liberty, for saving the life of a Popish preacher, Bourne,
afterwards Bishop of Bath. For a long time he was con- Confined to
fined to Newgate. After his death his son found some *'''"-S'"o-
papers hid in a corner, which contained his own account of
his examinations before Bonner and others, which are
printed in the third volume of Fox's Acts and Monuments.
He was bumed at Smithfield, with a youth named John Bumed at
Leaf, to whom he tumed his head, saying, " Be of good Smitli«eld.
comfort, brother, for we shall have a merry supper with the
Lord this night ; and, embracing the reeds, he said, "Straight
is the way, and narrow is the gate that leadeth to eternal
salvation, and few there be that find it." Many of his
epistles are preserved in Coverdale's Letters of the Martyrs,
and in John Fox's Manuscripts. In the time of his im
prisonment he wrote a series of Meditations, Prayers, and
Exercises. He wrote, likewise, a short and pithy " Defence
of the Holy Election of Predestination of God, gathered out
of the First Chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians ;"
and " a Fruitful Treatise, and full of Heavenly Consolation
against tho Fear of Death." After liis death. Dr. Simpson,
who had been the instrument of his conversion, published His Sermons
several of his sermons on Repentance, the Lord's Supper, P"'>''shed.
&c. In reviewing this brief sketch of the Fathers of the Pro- Summary.
testant Church of England, the question will naturally
arise, — In what respects did these eminent men differ from
the Church of Rome, and on what principle did they take
their stand ? Tindal's great principle was, the divine autho
rity and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures, rejecting on that
ground the authority of the Pope, of fathers, councils,
end kings, in all matters pertaining to religion. Frith's

04 INTRODC-OTIOS.
BOOK I. was the same. So was Barnes' ; so was Latimer's ; so was
CHARL that of both the Bidleys; so was Bradford's. Cranmer,
indeed, in the various changes through which he passed,
appears to have mingled an undue regard for the authority
of the King, and a desire to avoid extremes in conducting
the Reformation, with his reverence for Scripture ; yet it is
clear that in all theological questions the Bible was his
professed standard, and he wrote with the air of one who
regarded every man as having a right to form his own judg
ment of what the Bible teaches, though the spirit of intoler
ance prevaUing in that age amoiig all parties, and of which
he had his full share as a ruler, is manifestly opposed to
the principles in which, as a Christian, he Uved and died.
Had Hooper been more inflexible at the time when he ob
jected to the episcopal vestments, there is no reason for
doubting that he would have been punished, if not with
death, yet by imprisonment for his nonconformity.*
One cannot read of the intercourse of these leamed men
-with the Reformers of Germany and Switzerland, nor ex
amine thefr correspondence with those eminent dirines,
¦without perceiving that the reasons why many of them did
not carry out the Reformation of the Church of England
ferther than they did, were founded in their views of tem
porary expediency, in their imperfect apprehension of the
authority of Christ, or in their fear of the consequences in
which such an enterprise would have involved them.
Without pronouncing any judgment on the soundness of
their policy, the innocency of their errors, or the Christian
courage of their bearing, we may observe, that whatever
good they did, and how deeply soever posterity is indebted
to their writings and their sufferings, there is nothing
• How that matter was adjusted, and with what bitterness the bishops per
secuted that good man, is related by Fox, in his Latin Book of Martyrs, 'fhe
passage I shall translate, because Fox, out of his too great tenderness towards
that party, has left it out of all the English editions. " Thus," says he, " ended
this theological quarrel, in the victory of tlie bishops. Hooper being forced
to recant ; or, to say the least, being constrained to appear once in public at
tired after the manner of the other bishops. Wliich unless he had done there
are those who think tlie bishops would have endeavoured to take away his
life; for his servant told nie, the Duiic of Suffolk sunt such word to Hooper,
who was not himself ignorant of wliat they were doing."— A "Vindication of
the Dissenters, in Answer to Dr. William Nichols' Defence of the Docti-ine
and Discipline of the Chm-ch of England; in Throe Parts, written first in Latin,
and were translated into Englisli, with large Additions, by James Poiree, Lott-
uOQ, 1707.

INTKODUOTIOK.

65

in the principles they established to require that, in the ^^OKJL
present age, we should believe what they beUeved, and CHAP. L
no more; or that we should go as far as they did from
the corrupted system out of which they groped their way,
but no farther. Rich indeed is the inheritance which they
have left ns, of doctrinal theology, of amended publio ser
vices, and of holy constancy in pereecution and in death.
Never, we hope, will their memory cease to glow in the
hearts of Englishmen, nor the gi-and truths they taught
fail to guide our churches. Yet were they not but par-
tiaUy enlightened 1 Were they not fallible men? Did
not they retain, some of them, more Popery than they
liked, from fear ; and others of them, less than they could
have wished, from weakness ? — Certainly it is not from any
of the Reformers of the English Church that this great and
free nation has learned the lesson of toleration, or imbibed
the spirit of freedom. Let them not be blamed for the
imperfections of their natural character, for the darkness
that clouded their light, for that servihty to pohtical
rulers in religion in which they were so trained, that
their loyalty was a feeble superstition rather than a manly
principle. Let the Prorideuce of God be adored in raising
up such men in such an age, and in overruling both
thefr ambition and that of their royal superiors to bring
out slo-wly the accomplishment of His designs. At the
same time, it argues a capital defect in the perception of
what is due to truth and manhood, to conscience and to
God, to exchange the bonds of a Roman Pope for those of Contrast be-
EngUsh monarchs and their bishops; or to mistake the R^mLi'and
model begun by Henry and completed by Elizabeth for Reformed
the perfection of a Christian chm-ch. Whatever perfection
may be honestly claimed for that model, as compared -with
the hierarchy of Rome, or with the platform of Geneva,
and how strongly soever it may be thought to identify
itself with other institutions, the truth of history relating
to it is this : — that it would not have been that for lohich
it is so highly valiied but for the precursors of the PuritaTis,
and ihe Puritans themselves.
Did the Puritans object strongly, harshly, nay, intolcr- Thernritana
antly, to the supremacy of the Pope, and to the doctrines
ftivd ceremonie o' the Roman Church ? So did the English

66 INTKODUOTION.
BOOK L Refoi-mers that preceded them. Did the Puritans passively
CHAP. L resist the authority of both temporal and spiritual rulers ?
So did the Reformers. Did the Puritans disturb the peace
of tho church — attach importance to what other men called
trifles, severely judge their oppressors — stoutly and doggedly
stand up for their own opinions — condemn in word and deed
the licentiousness that surrounded them — embrace and pro
pagate doctrines which lay open to all sorts of objections?
Were they charged with ignorance, sedition, hot-headedness,
spiritual pride, and all manner of immoralities ? Exactly
the same objections, and in the same spirit, were made to
the Reformers by adversaries not less intelligent, nor less
candid, than the adversaries of the Puritans. The only
difference between the men we have described, and the men
to whose history we are coming, is a difference of degree,
not of principles ; and the difference of degree is that
between the dawn and the progress of the same light.
To modern objectors ag-ain.st the Puritans it might be
The differ- said : — Read their history, study their works. They had
the early Re- faults ; but their predecessors had faults, and the same
thTpuritans faults. If those who opened the door were right, they were
not wrong who, entering in at that door, went further
than themselves in the same path. The Roman Catholic
will admit that it is right to maintain his conscientious
views of religion, even though they be offensive to " the
powers that be." There is no ground that can be taken for
Protestantism against Popery, or, to go still higher, for
Christianity against heathen governors, that cannot be
taken in reason, and justly defended, on behalf of the
English Puritans. Even the opponent of all religion must
acknowledge the right of other men to think differently,
and to act according to their own thought, so long as they
break no law of morality, nor act seditiously against a
settled government.
It is to Christians that the Puritans present the peculiar
aspect which belongs to their character. Unhappily, their
The writings writings, with the exception of a few popular treatises, aro
tima. ' but slightly known ; and comparatively few persons, of any
church within these realms, have become competent to
form a just estimate of their character. How could such
an estimate be formed without knowing more of the men

IMTBODUOTiOlf. 67
than what can be gathered from the occasional references BOOK 1
of secular historians, or from those scornful invectives of cHAP. I
their triumphant enemies, which have been repeated a
thousand times by men who did not know, from examina
tion, whether those invectives contained a particle of truth
or honesty ? — It would be unfair not to add, that there may
be prejudices in favour of the Puritans which are no better
founded than prejudices against thera; though there must
be a difference observed between prejudices against the
true, the right, and the good, and prejudices against the
false, the wrong, and the evil. Men ought to be on thefr
guard against mistaking prejudice of any kind for convic
tion. Inquiry establishes some prejudices, while others it
destroys. In all cases affecting the characters of men and
of public institutions, it is the manifest duty of those who
have the opportunity, to become acquainted with facts, Imd
from those fects to draw only just and sober conclusions :
for such as have not the opportunity of doing this, it is
not weU that they should give any positive opinions.

BOOK II.
IRE RISE OF THE PURITANS UNDER TNE TUDORI.

CHAPTEE I.
EEISS O; BEHHT Till.
Section L A.l>, IsaO-lSie.
Fboh the sketch of tl.»e Fathers of the English Reformed book n.
Church which has been given in the First Book, it appears cHAP. L
that the principles of the Puritans were acted on ifng before
this name was applied.
In the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII. TheflrstCon-
the first Convocation of the Reformed Church began its theRetemoJ
sitting, on the 9th of June, when Latimer preached, in Cirarcli.
Latin, from the text : " The children of this world are, in
thefr generation, wiser than the children of light." During
the Convocation, Cromwell, the King's Vicar-general, de
clared, in the' King's name, that it was the King's pleasure
that the rites and ceremonies of the Church should be
reformed by the rules of Scripture, and that nothing was to
be maintained that did not rest on that authority ; for it
was absurd, since that was acknowledged to contain the
laws of religion, that recourse should rather be had to
glosses, or the decrees of popes, than to these.
In Cranmer's speech against Stokesly and the rest of the
anti-reforming party in the Convocation, he argued learn
edly and at full length, on the authority of the Scriptures,
the uncertainty of tradition, and the coiTuptions vriiich the
monks and friars had brought irfto the Christian doctrine.
Fox, Bishop of Hereford, seconded the Archbishop, declaring inguence of
that the world would now be no longer deceived with the '•"> Sorip-
Bophistry which the clergy had formerly used, since the knOTrledged.
hity in all nations were studying the Scriptures in tbe

70

RISE OF THB PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. L

Articles of
Religion set
forth.

Summary of
the Articles.

Penance.

original tongues, as well as in vulgar translations ; so that
it was a vain imagination to expect that they would now be
governed by the arts which had been so effectual in times
of ignorance. — After much consultation and debate, the
Convocation set forth the Articles about Religion. These
Articles are given at length by Fuller, who copied thein
from the Convocation Records ; by Burnet, Collier, and
other church historians. Au abridgment of them is given
by Neale, in his History of the Puritans.-* They were
framed by order of the King, brought into the Upper House
by Cromwell, and signed by the majority of the bishops,
abbots, and friars ; and then by the archdeacons and proctors
of the Lower House.-t- The royal declaration at the head of
these Articles, distinguishes " such as be expressly com
manded by God, and be necessary to our salvation," from
those which " have been of long continuance, for a decent
order, and honest policy, prudently instituted and used in
the church of our realm, and be for that same purpose and
end to be obsei-ved and kept accordingly, although they be
not expressly comman-ded of God, nor necessai-y to our
salvation." The Articles thus set forth include, (1.) The Apostles'
Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, accord
ing to which the Bible is to be interpreted. (2.) Baptism ;
as universally necessary to eternal life, securing remission
of sins and the favour of God, the gift of the Holy Ghost,
purification from sin, adoption into God's family. (3.)
Penance ; a thing so necessary for a man's salvation, that
no man faUing into sin, after baptism, can, without penance,
attain everlasting life : this penance consisting of contri
tion, (-vrith faith in the mercy of God ;) confession to a
priest if it can be had,^the words of the priest in ab
solving to be taken as the very words and voice of God
himself; and the fruits of penance, which are prayer,
fasting, alms-deeds, and good works. " By penance we
not only olitain everlasting life, but we shall deserve re
mission or mitigation of pains and afiiictions in this world."
(4.) The Sacrament of the Altar; wherein, under the
* Second Edition, vol. i. p. 15-17.
t There are two instruments recording the sijjnatures ; one in the State Paper
Office, the other in tlie Cotton Library, British Museum ; the latter, engrossed
on vellum, is beUeved to be the originaj.

REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 71
figure and form of bread and wine, is verily, substantiaUy, BOOK H
and really contained and comprehended, the very self- CHAP. I.
same body and bbnid of our Saviour Jesus Christ which
was born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered upon the cross
for our redemption. (6.) That sinners attain justification
by contrition, and faith, and charity. (6.) That images
were to stand in the churches as memorials, but not to
be worshipped. (7.) That saints were to be honoured grayer to
and prayed to, but not as unto God. (8.) Purgatory:
praying for departed souls is good and charitable; but the
people must not believe that the Pope had power to
deliver souls fi-om purgatory by masses or pardons.
Lord Herbert, in his Life of Henry VIII., blames the
heat and obstinacy of both Catholics and Protestants in
their disputes, since these Articles left so little in which
they did not agi-ee. He remarks that, the Reformers being
the weaker side, suffered most for the.»r stiffness; and
that the barbarities inflicted on the "gospeUers" brought
great odium on the Roman Catholics.-*
The King, apprehending that his proceedings for some Henry vilL
years past would be censured at the council summoned S^lt a
about this time to meet at Mantua, obtained a general General
declaration from the English bishops and clergy, that the
Pope had no right to convene a council without the con
sent of other Christian princes, especially such as had
the supreme government of their subj ects ; and he pub
lished his own protestation against such a council. — The
Articles of Religion were but ill received in the northern
part of the kingdom ; at a meeting of the clergy held at
Pomfret, strong objections to them were agreed upon,
which were supported by the insurgents, until they were
put down by the Duke of Norfolk. The grounds of this
insurrection were so plausible, that, if we may believe
Gardiner's sei-mon before King Phihp and Cardinal Pole,
Henry was only prevented from restoring supremacy' over
the Church to the Pope, by the apprehension that his
doing so might be construed into fear.f
After the suppression of the northern rebellion, the Tlio-Vlsita-
King went forward in the visitation of the monasteries. Monasteriea.
¦* Lord Herbert's Life of King Henry VUl. p. 406.
f Fox. Second edition, p. 14, 70 Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol ii. p. 138.

72

RISE OF THE PURITANS.

BOOK n.
CHAP. L

Printing of
the English
Bible.

Influence of
the suppres-
Blon of the
Monasterieson the Refor-
mution.

In the year of Prince Edward's birth, (1637,) was published
the " Institution of a, Christian Man ;" a kind of royal
standard of theology.
In the following year the Protestant princes of Germany
deputed three learned men to reason with the bishops and
the King of England, on behalf of a further progress in the
reformation of the Church. The address of these ambassa
dors, together with the answer given to them by Henry,
are preserved in the Cottonian Library, in the British
Museum ; and an abridgment of them is printed in Colher's
Ecclesiastical History of England. They show how far
Tunstall, who drew up the reply, — the King, who adopted
it, — and the bishops, who approved of it, — ^were from reject
ing some of the most dangerous doctrines of the Roman
Church. — In his own way, nevertheless, Henry stUl canied
the Reformation forward. He sanctioned the printing and
the reading of the Bible in English. He ordered the clergy
to teach the people their prayers ; to remove images that
had been abused to superstition ; and to omit numerous
ceremonies ; and he put down monasteries, forbad pUgrim-
ages to shrines, and exposed the superstition and impostures
connected with re.hcs : though in aU this there was much to
justify the sarcasm of Bishop Godwin, the annalist of
bishops, " the King was strongly disposed to promote a
reformation that would turn the penny, and furnish the
exchequer." He rifled the tomb and degraded the memoiy
of Thomas a'Becket. — The Pope, roused by these insults,
launched against the heretic-King the long-delayed thunder
of excommunication.
The suppression of the monasteries was a transaction
only remotely connected with the reformation of reUgion,
by weakening the ecclesiastical body in Parliament, and
securing to the reformed rehgion the noble and powerful
families among whom the spoil was divided. The views
which may be taken against it on the score of rehgion,
morality, and public policy, have been pubUcly expressed
by many Roman Catholic, and not a few Protestant writers ;
and nearly all that has been said on the opposite side is
summed up by Mr. HaUam with his usual impartiality.-*
On the 6th of May, 1639, a Committee of the House of
• Con. His. i. 80, 81.

REiON Of nsixRY VIII. 73
Lords was appointed by the King's command, to draw up BOOK n.
articles of agreement in religion. The Committee consisted cH^ ^
of the Lord Cromwell, the two Archbishops, and six bishops ; commlttceof
but the views of CromweU, Cranmer, and the Bishops of ^e Lords <m
Ely and Worcester differing fi-om the other Archbishop, ofagreement
and the other four bishops, eleven days of debate were *" '^'^^'"'
wasted without coming to any conclusion. The Duke of
Norfolk then introduced a series of questions, on which
was based the terrible law of " The Six Articles,"
against which Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, pro
tested. Having passed in the Convocation and both Houses
of Parhament, on the 28th of June it received the signa
ture of the King.
The title of it was, " Au Act rot aboI/IShino biversitt The Lavof
theSisAltl-
OP OPINIONS IN CERTAIN ARTICLES CONCERNING CHRISTIAN ^^
EELiaioN." It is said in the preamble, that the King, " con
sidering the blessed effects of union, and the mischiefs of
discord, since there were many different opinions both
among the clergy and laity, about some points of reUgion,
had caUed this parhament and a synod at the same time,
for removing these differences, where six articles were pro
posed and long debated by the clergy : and the King him
self had come in person to the parliament and council,
and opened many things of high leaming and great know
ledge about them, and that he, with the assent of both
Houses of Parliament, had agreed on the following Articles.
(1.) That in the sacrament of the altar, after the consecration,
there remained no substance of bread and \rine, but, under
these foi-ms, the natural body and blood of Christ were
present. (2.) That communion in both kinds was not
necessary to salvation to all persons by the law of God ;
but that both the flesh and blood of Christ were together
in each of the kinds. (3.) That priests after the order of
priesthood might not marry by the law of God. (4.) That
vows of chastity ought to be observed by the law of God.
(5.) That the use of private masses ought to be continued ;
which, as it was agreeable to God's law, so men received
great benefit by them. (6.) That auricular confession was
expedient and necessary, and ought to be retained ui the
Church. — The parhament thanked the King for the pains
he had taken in these Articles : and enacted, that if any
4

74 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL after the 12 th of July, did speak, preach, or write agaiust
CHAP I ^^^ fi''^*' Article, they were to be judged heretics, and to be
Tbe Buniing ^^nii without any abjuration; and to forfeit their real and
of Heretics, personal estates to the King. And those who, either in
word or -writing, spake against them, were to be prisoners
during the King's pleasure, and forfeit their goods and
chattels to the King, for the first time; and if they offended
SO the second time, they were to suffer as felons. All the
marriages of priests are declared void ; and if any priest
did still keep any such woman, whom he had so married,
and lived familiaily with her as with his wife, he was to be
judged a felon : and if a priest lived carnally with any
other woman, he was upon the first conviction to forfeit
his benefices, goods, and chattels, and be imprisoned during
the King's pleasure, and upon the second conviction was to
suffer as a felon. The women so offending were also
to be punished in the same manner as the priests. And
those who contfemned or abstained from confession or the
sacrament at the accustomed times, for the first offence
were to forfeit their goods and chattels, and be imprisoned ;
and for the second were to be adjudged of felony. And
Commissions for the execution of this Act, commissions were to be
execution of ssued out to all archbishops and bishops, and their chan-
theAct cellors and commissaries, and such others in the several
shires as the King shall name, to hold their sessions quar
terly, or oftener ; and they were to proceed upon present
ments and by a jury. Those commissioners were to swear
that they should execute their commission indifferently,
without favour, affection, corruption, or malice. All eccle
siastical incumbents were to read this Act in their churches
once a quarter. And in the end a proviso was added
concerning vows of chastity ; that they should not oblige
any, except such as had taken them at or above the age
of twenty-one years, or had not been compelled to take
them." ¦*
This " severe and barbarous statute " t was well received
The Recep- by the enemies of the Reformation. It removed from the
statute by King all suspicion of cari-;\'ing his innovations so far as the
ttcHomish Reformers, liot'a iu En-land and on the Continent, had
•Burnet's Histoiy of the Beformatiou, Pt. i. pp. 258, 259. f IJngsrA

REION OP HENBT VIII. 75
hoped. It lessened the resentment awakened by the sup- BOOK n.
pression of the monasteries. It gave strength to the anti- oHARL
reforming party in the state and in the Church, and among
the lai-ge masses in several parts of the country, who were
opposed to the recent changes in religion: for though the
Act bore with severity against friars and nuns, by restrain-
ing them to celibacy after they were dismissed from their
convents, yet as the Protestants were chiefly exposed to
the severitj' of the statute, the misery of adversaries,
according to the usual maxims of party, was regarded by
the adherents to the ancient religion as their own prosperity
and triumph.-*
This surrender of religious liberty to the will of a tyrant The servility
was soon followed by the abandonment of the English con- ^ent°^""^
stitution on the part of Henry's servile parliament, in
making the King's proclamations of equal authority with
laws. Under this system of despotic bigotry, the safety of
the suspected was cast on the reluctance of the people to
inform, or of juries to convict ; but the strong prejudices
against the Reformation, worked on by its public enemies,
and the activity of the commissioners in securing present
ments, brought large numbers under the dreadful penalties
of this bloody statute/or producing aoeeemekt in religion!
Cranmer showed his submission by sending away his wife,
and he was too dear to Henry not to enjoy his protection.
Latimer, further advanced in religion than Cranmer, re
signed his See of Worcester, and Shaxton tliat of Salis
bury : they were both imprisoned for speaking against the
Act. In a short time not fewer than five hundred persons
were declared guilty, and sent to prison.t The diligence
of John Fo:^ has presei-ved the names of a gi-eat number.
The reader is 'perhaps famihar with the minute and
touching stories collected by that patient and faithful
historian. If not, let him turn to the history and suffer
ings of Testwood, Filmer, and others at Windsor; and of
Anne Askew, and her companions in flames, at Smithfield.
We need not relate the fall of Cromwell. Within two Cromwell,
months of the date of his bemg made Eari of Essex and Ea^iofEssex,
Knight of the Garter, he was charged -with high treason,
• Hume, ch. ucdt f CoIUer, ii. 184.

7C RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK n. and, without ever being brought to a trial, executed. He
(j£^ J has been extravagantly praised by the friends of the Re
formation. He fell a victim to the interpretation of the
law which he bad himself obtained from the judges. He
was the too faithful servant of the crimes of Henry.
To secure himself, his party, and the interests of the
Reformation, he brought about the King's marriage with
Anne of Cleves. The King, dissatisfied with this, his
fourth Queen, was easily alienated from the minister who
had persuaded him to marry her, and he sacrificed Crom-
IndiBcrimi- ^vell to his own selfishness and ferocity. Two days after
tion. Cromwell's execution, when Barnes and his two com
panions were burned at Smithfield for heresy, Powel,
Fetherston, and Abel,-* were put to death for owning the
Pope's supremacy, and denying the King's. One of each
was put upon a hurdle ; the Papists were hanged, drawn,
"and quartered; and the other three were burned. "This,"
says Fox, " was an odd spectacle, and looked like fanciful
severity, insomuch that a Frenchman who was there,
being surprised at the conduct of the government, told
his friend in Latin, they had a strange way of managing
in England, for those who are for the Pope are hanged,
and those against him burned."
In the year 1542, Bishop Bonner published his injunc
tions to his clergy, requiring them to observe all the orders
set forth by the King's authority ; to teach the parish
ioners' children to read, taking but moderate rates of those
that are able to pay; not to suffer any plays, games, and
interludes in their churches or chapels ; that no sermon
composed by other men either this two or three hundred
years be made use of, and that, in preaching, they should
explain the gospel or epistle of the day, use the prayers,
sacraments, and ceremonies, avoiding all railing, personalities,
Satyil'. and fabulous relations.t The plays referred to in these
^ injunctions had been used in former times, and were at
that time very popular. They were designed to ridicule
the disorders of the monks and clergy. Although rude
?These are the names given by Fox, vol ii. p. 445. Neale gives four diffe
rent names.
t Bishop Burnet thinlcs they -were imposed on Bonner by an order from the
King.

REIQN OF IIE.NRV VIII. 77
in plan, and coarse in expression, they were encouraged BOOK n.
by the political enemies of the Pope and his Church ; chaFl
while they were seriously condemned by the religious
Reformers as injurious to true religion.-*
The passionate declamations of preaching friars at that
time, led to the adoption of homilies, drawn up by authority,
and to the general practice of writing and reading sermons,
instead of extemporary preaching. Though the use of the
Bible was, soon after this, restrained, Tyndale's translation,
the works of Wickliffe, Barnes, and other Protestants being
prohibited, yet the law of the Six Articles was greatly
mitigated. During the last -three or four years of Henry's reign, the The close of
Reformation was rather checked than promoted ; for though Henry Vlll
the King inflicted severe punishment on the Catholics for
denying his supremacy, and one of his last communications
with Cranmer was an order for abolishing certain supersti
tions, " Henry was as much the pope of England, as the
Pontiff was of Rome ; and Popery, under another head,
stUl triumphed in its most obnoxious forms."t
The enemies of the Protestant reUgion are fond of repre- influence of
senting Henry as the founder of that reUgion in this conn- ^f thelSm^
try ; t and the zealous Protestants in discarding the relation, mation.
are apt to overlook the real obligations of thefr religion to
that monarch. It ought not to be forgotten, that wayward,
imperious, and capricious, as he was, he destroyed the ty
ranny of the Pope in England, thus undermining the foun
dation on which the entire structure of false doctrine and
superstition was raised. He abolished the monasteries, which
the calmest writers on English history regard as a step not
only justifiable in itself, whatever faults there were in the
mode of doing it, but as putting an end to a huge mass of
delusions and crimes, and as gi-eatly securing the orderly
administration of justice. He ordered the translation of the
Scriptures, declared them to be the only rule of faith, and
encouraged the use of them among his subjects.
Whatever he did, he did, not as a Protestant, but as a Ca- ^^^^
¦* Similar representations did much to further the Reformation in Holland.
See Brandt's Histoiy of the Refoi-mation in the Low Countries, voL L p. 128.
¦t Brook's Memoir of Cartwright Introduction, p. 4,
t None more so, though under a veil of seducing fairness, than Dr. Lingnrd,
in his Historj'.

78 RISE OF TBE PURITANS.
BOOK IL tholic. " He was a prince of an undaunted spirit, the mas-
CHAP I *®'* °^ ^^ great a courage as the world had : and the work
required it. He durst not else have grappled with that
mighty adversary in the see of Rome. Finding the Pope
the greatest obstacle to his desires, he first divested him by
degrees of his supremacy ; and finally extinguished his au
thority in the realm of England, without noise or trouble,
to the great admfration and astonishment of the rest of
the Christian world. But, for his own part, he adhered to
his old religion; severely persecuted those who dissented
fi'om it ; and died in that faith and doctrine which he
sucked in with his mother's milk."'-*
His cruel persecutions of those who differed from him in
Persecutions religion were in the spirit of the most eminent lawyers and
VIl™'^ ecclesiastics of his own kingdom, and of the most enhght-
ened of his contemporary sovereigns. Udal, who, after
suffering bitterly for Nonconformity in the reign of Eliza
beth, died of a broken heart in prison, described him as " the
English Hezekiah, deputed and sent to be the destroyer,
not only of all counterfeits in religion, who swarmed among
us like disguised maskers, but also to root up all idolatry
done to dead images of stone." t
The truth is, that three hundred years ago the general tone
of civilized society was more stern than we can well con
ceive of in the present day. After all that has been said,
and truly said, of the licentiousness of Henry, and of his
cruelties to those of his subjects who resisted his religious
measures, " changes so mighty in the opinion of all, and so
beneficial in the judgment of most, have never been achieved
in any country, when so opposed, with so little bloodshed
and indiridual cruelty."t
* Heylin's Ecclesia. Kestaurata, 1661,T*reface.
t Preface to his translation of Erasmus' paraplirase on Luke.
X Turner's History of the Reign of Henry VIIL, vol. IL p. 6«.

BEIQN OF EDWARD TI. 79

CHAPTER IL
BE ION OF EDWARD VI.
A. u. 1547—1553.
The greater part of Protestant historians have dwelt with BOOK u.
reverent admiration on the extraordinary talents, learn- CHAP. ll.
ing, and piety of Edward VI. His record of events dur
ing his reign, and many of his letters and other composi
tions, if they are to be regarded as his own compositions,
are indeed remarkable proofs that their admiration is well-
founded.-* But the diligence of less partial writers has
brought to light some features of his character which ren
der it very probable that, if he had grown to maturity, he
would have displayed the severe spirit of the Tudors as
strongly as his father ; and it is clear, from various circum
stances, that his ministers and guardians, as might easily
be supposed, spared no pains to produce the impression of
his almost supernatural judgment and acquirements.
The executors of the late King appointed the Earl of ^,^eSS* "
Hertford, (the young King's uncle by his mother's side,) made Protao-
now the Duke of Somerset, Protector, until the "King at
tained his eighteenth year. The Protector soon became
chief ruler in the kingdom. Freed from the restraints of
a Henry'sabsolutewill, thencwgovei-nment resolved to carry
the reformation of the Church to still greater lengths. Wrio-
thesly. Earl of Southampton, who opposed the Reformation,
was excluded from the Council, and Tunstal, Bishop of Dur
ham, another opponent, was confined almost entirely to his
• Hallam, Con, Hist. p. 91. King Edward-s Journal, Year IL "Icanhardly
avoid doubting whetlier Zdward VI. s journal, published in the second
volume of Buniet, is altogether his own, because it is strange that a boy of
ten years old should write with the precise brevity of a man of business. Yet
it is hard to say how far an intercourse with able men on serious 5ubjec(3,
may force a royal plant of such natural vigour ; and his letters to his young
fl-iend, Bamaby Fitz-Patrick, published by H. Walpole in 1776, are quite un
like the style of a boy. One could wish this journal not to be genuine ; for the
manner in'which he speaksof both his uncles' executions does not show a good
heart Unfortunately, however, there is a letter extant of the King to Fitz-
Patrick, which must be genuine, and is in the same strain. He treated his eistar
Mar}' harshly about her religion, and had, I suspect, too much Tudoi ilooi
in iia veln4"

80 rise op the puritans.
BOOK n. diocese. Cranmer was now the leader of the Refbrmation.
CHjiTn. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, was imprisoned in the
Fleet; and, after preaching an offensive sermon in the
presence of the King and the court, was sent to the Tower.
For a similar offence, Bonner, Bishop of London, was de
prived of his bishopric, and kept in the Marshalsea prison,
during the King's life. After Bonner's deprivation, Gardi
ner, Heath,-* Bishop of Worcester, and Day, Bishop of Chi-
Dlvine origin Chester, shared a similar fate. The Uturgy, in English, was
ttTute^. imprudently ascribed (as the book entitled the "Necessary
Emdition of a Christian Man," had been by Gardiner) to
the aid of the Holy Ghost ; and it was enacted, not only
that ministers should make use of this, and of no other, but
that if any parson, vicar, or spiritual person, shall speak in
derogation of it, he shall for the first offence, forfeit a year's
profit of one of his preferments, \rith six months imprison
ment ; for the second, lose all his preferments, with twelve
month's imprisonment ; and for the third, be imprisoned for
life ; and if any one ridicule the same form of worship, me
nace the minister for using it, or prevail on him to use any
other, he shall, on tbe first conviction, pay a fine of ten
pounds ; on tbe second, of twenty ; and on the third, forfeit
aU his goods and chattels, and be imprisoned for life.t
To this enactment. King Edward refers, in his journal of
his own reign : " A parliament was caUed, -where an Uni
form Order of Prayer was instituted, before made by a num
ber of bishops and learned men gathered together in Wind
sor. There was granted a subsidy, and there was a notable
disputation of the Sacrament in the Parliament House."!t
Besides the setting up of the reformed liturgy, the prin-
Hrst reforms cipal reforming proceedings of this reign were the removal
0 e e gn. ^j. .jgf^gjjjg gf statues, crosses, and altars, from the churches
— ^the disuse of tapers, holy water, and incense — -the sweep
ing away of the worship of the Virgin and the saints — the
abandonment of belief in purgatory, though prayer for de
parted souls was retained — the discontinuance of auricular
confession — the denial of the corporal presence of Christ in
the Lord's Supper ; and the restoration of the right of mar
riage to the clergv'. In the metropolis, and in the larger
« See Lord Campbell-s account of Heath, in his Lives of the Lord Chan
cellors, vol iL
T Btatutea of the Bealm, voL iv. pp. 87, 8. t King Edward's Joninal

KKION or ED-WARD TI. 81
towns, and generally through the eastei-n counties, these book II.
changes were well received ; but the clergy, though gener- chap" II
ally conformable, disliked them ; the higher classes were
adverse to them ; and they were exceedingly unpopular
both in the north of England and in the west. Bishop Burnet
says, " the bulk of the people of England were still pos
sessed with the old superstition to such a degree, that it was
risible they could not be depended on in any matter that
related to the alterations that were made, or were designed
to be made. All endeavours were too weak to overcome the
aversion that the people had to the steps that were made
towai-ds a reformation."-*
The people, thus averse to the changes forced on them Popular sym-
by the govemment, resented the destruction of their images smerstillous
and shrines as an insult ; and the coarse abuse with which usages.
not a few Protestants assailed, what was to them the sacred
mystery of the altar, was not Ukely to efface from their
memory the fact, that many of their rulers had followed
the late King in all his capricious changes, and were now
enriching themselves, by what the Catholics could regard
in no other hght than as the sacrilegious plunder of the
Church. The insurrections in WUts, Sussex, Surrey, Hants,
Berks, Kent, Gloucester, Somerset, Suffolk, Warwick,
Essex, Herts, Leicestershire, Worcestershire, and Rut
land, which were subdued by Sir William Herbert, and
some of the influential gentry and yeomanry ; and those
in Oxford, Norfolk, Cornwall, and Devon, which were
crushed by the foreign troops i-aised to serve in the wars
with Scotland,t were provoked as much by their dis
like to the new forms of religion, as by the distress
brought upon the people by the depreciation of the cur
rency in the preceding reign, the scarcity of employ
ment, and the encroachments of the wealthy on the
waste lands.
The power of the Duke of Somerset, the Protector, was Fateofths
shaken by the outbreaks of popular discontent ; and the s^^eSt
Earl of Warwick, his great rival both in religion and in
pohtics, at length succeeded in bringing him to trial, con
viction of felony, and death. The fete of this ambitious and
• History of the Reformation, vol. Iii pp. 1, 20, 196.
\ See Bnrnet-s Histoiy- of tie Reformation, voL iii. p. 190 4*

82 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOCK IL irresolute statesman was hastened by his haughtiness to-
CHAP. IL -^^ards the other membei-s of the King's Council, who had
raised him above themselves — ^by his opposition to the Roman
Catholics — by his destmction of his brother. Lord Seymour
—and by his exti-avagant private expenditure, at a time
when the govemment was harassed by the want of money
to carry on the wai- vrith Scotland.*
Three years after the setting forth of the English Book
Alteration of of Common Prayer, it was altered at the suggestion of
Book. the foreign di-rines, and their fiiends in England ; and,
in its amended form, received the sanction of the con
vocation. There are two features of the reign of Edward VI.
Ed^d\a' ¦ ^"^'^""^ ^^^ worthy of our serious attention : — the severe
policy. persecution of those whose consciences forbad them to
conform to the national creed and formularies ; and,
the eridence which exists of the desire, both of the
King and some of the leaders of the Reformation, to
depart much further than they did, from the Chm-ch ol
Rome. I. — The Reformation of the Church, resting as it did on
Enforced the supremacy of the crown, had achieved the repeal of the
ormi 5 . Q^Q^g statute of the six articles ; but it had enjoined, imder
most severe penalties, conformity vrith the new articles and
forms, designed to produce uniformity of belief and of wor
ship in the entfre kingdom : which was a part of a scheme
for unitmg aU the Protestants of Europe. WhUe Melanc-
thon adhered to the Augsburg Confession, and Calvin saw
insuperable obstacles to such a general union, it appeared
to Cranmer that the uniformity on which his heart was set
might be secured by the ciril authority in England. Some
of the means employed for this purpose are incapable of
vindication. The treatment of the bishops and clergy who
adhered to the ancient system was unjust, liarsh, and re
pulsive to every honourable feeling. The conduct of the
rulers of the Church towards Ireland calls for the severest
reprehension. WhUe protestmg against worship in an un-
Imown tongue in England, the EngUsh Serrice-Book was
* Somerset House was raised by pulUng down the parish church of St. Mary's,
and three Episcopal mansions, and using the materials of several churches and
religious edifices in the building.— CoIlier'sJkaaesiastical History, vol U p 269.

REIQN OF EDWARD VI. 83
enforced on the Irish people, because there were political BOOK IL
reasons for suppressing the Irish language within what was chap ii
caUed " The English Pale : " an armed force was kept up
to compel the use of the new forms ; and Dowdal, the
Archbishop of Armagh, was visited with the displeasure of
the councU for refusing to comply.-*
The rigid enforcement of the new articles and ceremonies, Persecutions
was the perpetuation of one of the sorest evils of the church ^^ ^'^^^'^
from which they had withdrawn. If it had not been for the
protection of the emperor, who was her cousin, the Princess
Mary would have suffered the same punishment for her
Nonconformity, as the meanest of her fellow-subjects : as it
was, her principal chaplains. Doctors Mallet and Barclay,
were sent to close imprisonment in the Tower. A cruel in
quisition was estabUshed for dealing with heresy. Terrified
by this inquisition, several Unitarians and others recanted.
AU the historians have recorded the case of Joan Boucher,t Joan of Kent.
of Kent. For the foohsh notion that Christ did not take
flesh of the outward man from the Vfrgin, she was declared
to be a heretic, and given up to the secular power. When
Ci-aumer pronounced the sentence of excommunication, she
said to him : " It is a goodly matter to consider your ig
norance 1 It was not long ago that you bumed Anne Askew
for a bit of bread, and yet come yourselves soon afterwards
to beUeve and profess the same doctrme for which you
bumed her. And now, forsooth, you wiU needs burn me
for a piece of flesh ; and in the end you wUl come to believe
this also, when you have read the Scriptures and understand
them." Her life was spared for a year, from the King's
unwillingness to sanction her execution. Cranmer, at
length, overruled the King's objections, and Edward, as he
put his name to the warrant wept, and said to the Arch
bishop : " If I do wrong, it is in submission to your au
thority ; yon shall answer for it to God."t
" This action," says Burnet, " was much censured, as Censured by
being contrary to the clemency of the gospel ; and was used ^"'°*'-
bj- Papists, who said it was plain that the Reformers were
only against bm-ning when they were in fear of it them-
• Leiands' History of Ireland, T. iii. p. 68. .
t In some histories the name given ia Bocher, or Boucher. I apprehend,
from an autograph of the woman lierself^ that the name is Boucher.
t Burnet's History, voL iL p. 112.

84

RISE OE THB PUBITAKB.

BOOK n.
CHAP. n.

An Arian
condemnedto the stake.

Cranmer'shitolerance.

Aim of the
Beformers.

selves. The woman's carriage made her be looked upon as
a frantic person, fitter for bedlam than a stake. People had
generally believed that all the statutes for burning heretics
had been repealed ; but now, when the thing was better
considered, it was found that the burning of heretics was
done by the common law, so that the statutes made about it
were only for making the conviction more easy, and the re
pealing the statutes did not take away that which was
grounded on a writ of common law." ¦*
Two years after the destruction of this unhappy woman,
George Van Pare, a Dutch surgeon, is thus referred to in
King Edward's journal of his own reign : — " April 7. A
certain Arrian (Arian) of the strangers, a Dutch man, being
excommunicated by the congregation of his countrymen,
was after long disputation condemned to the fire." Of this
sufferer Burnet says : " Of this Pare, I find a Popish writer
saying, that he was a man of most wonderful strict hfe, that
he used not to eat above once in two days, and before he did
eat, he would Ue sometime in his devotion prostrate on the
ground.t This excommunicated man denied the dirinity of Christ.
He was summoned before Cranmer, Ridley, May. and Cover-
dale, with whom he had the "long disputation" mentioned
by the King ; he refused to abjure ; Cranmer pronounced
the sentence which delivered him to the justice of the
compter, from whence he went to the flames. The intoler
ant spirit of these proceedings, is surely as opposed to the
Christian religion as any heresy can be ; and these examples
mght not to he forgotten when we consider the persecutions
of the following reign.J
II. — The strong proofa which exist that the Reformers
desired to cari-y the Reformation of the Church of England
much further than they did, now demand attention.
(i.) That such was the state of mind among the Reformers,
' The law for burning heretics was introduced by the bishops, in the reign
of Henry IV., for suppressing the followers of -Wickliffe. It was not abolished
till the year 1679.
t Burnet-s History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 112.
% In Calvin s Letter to the Protector during the reign of Edward Yl., re
specting the proceedings in England, at that time, he mentions two sorts of
troublesome people in this conntry, the fiospellers, and the sticklers for the
old supperstition, ot both which sorts of men he says, " ac merentur, quidem
tum hi tumillL gladio ultore coerieri, quam tibi tradidit dominns : "—These both
deserve to be punislied with that avenging sword which the Lord hath de
livered to thee.— Calvin's Opera. Tom viii. Epistoloe, pi 40.

BEION OF ED-\VABD VI. 86
may be gathered from the fact recoi-ded by Bishop Burnet: book a
'¦ Those steps, in which the Reformation was advaiicing but f^B']lp"^
slowly, occasioned great destructions all over the kingdom ;
while those who adhered to the old practices and doctrines,
preached severely against all innovations, and others as
severely against cM corruptions and abuses. The ill effects
of these contradictory sermons had given occasion to a pro
clamation on the 24th of April, 1560, prohibiting all preach
ing, except by persons licensed by the King, or the Arch
bishop of Canterbury."*
(ii.) Another strong proof of the larger -riews of the Re- Their desire
formers is found in the indulgence and protection given to "' ° "^™ ""¦
exiles from other countries, to adept their own creeds, church
order, and forms of worship, though they differed greatly
from those of the Church of England. The labours of John
Knox, the eminent Scottish Reformer, as a preacher at Ber
wick and Newcastle — his silencing of Bishop Tunstal and the
Roman CathoUc clergy, in the presence of the Council of
the North, at Newcastle — his appointment as one of King
Edward's chaplains, to supply the defects of the clergy in
preaching — his influence with the English Reformers in the
alterations of the Prayer Book, and in drawing up the ar
ticles — the high favour and protection he received from the
council during these labours — ^until Northumberland had
supplanted Somerset as Protector — the renewal of his em
ployment after a severe trial before the council — the mani
fest attachment of the King to his ministry — his appoint
ment to a living, which he declined, and the offer of a
bishopric, which he likewise declined — all these facts are
stated, with the evidence of each, by Dr. M'Crie.f
Besides Knox, who continued to receive his salary as a Foreign Re-
royal chaplain till Edward's death, it is only necessary to England.
mention the services of Peter Martyr, Bucer, Fagus, Tre-
mellius, the eminent Oriental, all of them expressing views
opposed to the existing establishments, which, like Knox,
they regarded as progi-essive ; whose learning and judgment
was greatly relied on throughout this reign : and they urged
a fiirther reformation.
The churches of Dutch, French, German, and Italian Foreign
' Churches.
* History of the Reformation, vol. iii. p. 195
t Life of Knox, vol i Period Third. Fonrth Edition.

86

RISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOKIL
chSTh.

Lasco's allu-
sions to Ed
ward -VL

Hooper-sdis. carding epift-
copal vest
ments.

Ridley's In-
Jonctloni

Protestants, by whom the reformation had been can-ied &r
beyond that of England, were encouraged by Cecil and by
Cranmer. Bishop Biu-net has copied fi-om the roUs the
original letters patent, in Latin, granted by the King to
John A. Lasco and other foreign Protestants, — " freely and
quietly to use their own peculiar ecclesiastical discipline,
notwithstanding they do not agree with the rites and cere-
Tnonies used in our kingdom.'" There is one passage in this
royal document worthy of marked attention : " That there
may be an uncorrupted interpretation of the gospel, and ad/-
ministration of the sacraments, according to the 'Word of
God and apostolical observance by the ministers of the church
of the Germans"
In the dedication of A. Lasco's book, " On the Order of
Foreign Churches in England," he thus addresses Sigis-
mund, King of Poland : " When I was called by that
King, (Edward,) and when certain laws of the country stood
in the way, so that the pubhc rites of dirine worship, used
under Popery, could not immediately be purged out, (which
the King himself desfred ;) and when I was eamest for the
foreign churches, it was' at length his pleasure that the
pubUc rites of the EngUsh churches should be reformed by
degrees, as far as could be got done by the laws of the
country ; but that strangers, who were not strictly bound
to these laws in this matter, should have churches granted
unto them, in which they should freely regulate all things
whoUy according to apostolical doctrine and practice, with
out any regard to the rites of the country, that by this
means the Enghsh churches also might be excited to em
brace apostoUcal purity, by the unanimous consent of all
the estates of the kingdom."-*
The acts of several of the English Reformers show stiU
further, that their object was to recede to a much greater
distance from the old superstition. Hooper's abandonment,
as far as he might, of the episcopal vestments, is a fact of
this description. So, also, is the following item in Bishop
Ridley's injunctions at his visitation of his diocese, in 1550.
" Item : Whereas, in divers places some use the Lord's
board after the form of a table, and some of an altar,
whereby dissention is perceived to arise among the ixa-
* M'Crie'i LUe of Knox, vel. i. p. 395.- Notes.

REIGN OP EDWARD VI. 87
leai-ned ; tlierefore, wishing a godly unity to be observed book il
in all our diocese, and for tliat the form of a table may chTFii
more move and turn the simple from the old superstitious
opinions of the Popish mass, and to the right use of the
Loi-d's Supper, we exliort the cui-ates, churchwardens, and
questmen here present, to erect and set up the Lord's board,
after the form of an honest table, decently covered." *
During the reign of Edward, and even in the first yeai's Absolute
of Elizabeth's, absolute conformity to the liturgy was not ,™"'ed f"4
pressed upon the ministers. " There was a great variety of time.
sentiments among our Reformers on this point : -vvhether
it was fit to retain an external face of things near to what
had been practised in the times of Popery or not. The
doing that made the people come easily into the more real
changes that were made in the doctrines, when they saw
the outward appearances so little altered ; so this method
seemed the safer and the readier way to wean the people
from the fondness they had for a splendid face of things by
that which was still kept up. But, on the other hand, it
was said that this stUl kept up the inclination in the people
to the former practices ; they were by these made to think
that the reformed state of the Church did not differ much
from them, and that they imitated them. There followed
a great diversity in practice, t
Archbishop Parker, (in the beginning of EUzabeth's Archbishop
reign,) administered the Lord's Supper to persons standing, Sitorof m^
in the Cathedral Chm-ch at Canterbury. The Queen's ^ crse usages
commissioners appointed the communion to be received in
that posture at Coventry, in which city the pi-actice con
tinued tiU 1608. t
Dr. Humphrey and Dr. Sampson wrote a joint letter in The surplice
Latin to BuUinger, at Zurich, in which they say, evidently
referring to a fact of public notoriety, " in King Edward's
time, the surplice was not universaUy used, nor pressed
upon the clergy." ||
Bishop Latimer laid aside the episcopal habits. " This Latimer's
Nonconformity.
* Burnet's History of the Reformation. t Burnet, voL ill p. 305.
t Ceitain Demands propounded unto Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury,
1605, p. 45. Removal of imputations laid upon ministers of Devon and Corn-
wali, 1606, p. 51. A Dispute upon the questioB of Kneeling,. 160^ j. 131.
M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 105.
ll A copy of tills letter is preserved in Bui-net's Records, voL iii no. 78.

88 RISE OP THE FURITANa
BOOK IL year," says Strype, (1549) " the Archbishop celebrated a
CHaFil gr^t ordination — ^at this ordination Bishop Ridley also
assisted the Archbishop. At this ordination gi-eat favour
was shown, and connivance to such, who, otherwise being
weU qualified for piety and leaming, scrupled wearing the
habits used by the Popish priests. I met with two famous
men, now ordained, the one was Robert Drakes, who was
deacon to Dr. Taylor, parson of Hadley — the other was
• Thomas Sampson, parson of Bread Street, London, and
successively Dean of Chichester and Christ's Church,
Oxon, who, in a letter of his, written to Secretary Cecil,
in Queen Elizabeth's reign, said that at his ordination,
he excepted against the apparel, and by the Archbishop,
and Bishop Ridley, he was nevertheless permitted and
admitted.-* (iv.) To these Puritanical symptoms we may add the
Edward -VI. 's recorded judgments of the King, and of the leading Re-
ownopmions. f^^^^j^ jjj jjjg reign. In the Cotton Library, British
Museum, (New C. 10.) is a '" Discourse about the Reforma
tion of Many Abuses," written with King Edward's own
hand. After describing the setting forth of the word of
God, and continuing the people in prayer, he adds : — " For
discipline it were very good that it went forth ; . . . but
because those bishops who should execute it, some for
Papistry — some for ignorance — some f.Dr age — some for
thefr ill-name — some for all these — are men unable to
execute discipUne."
Hooper, in a letter to BuUinger, on the 8th February,
•*Pie™"i' 1558, says, "the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of
lish and Con- Rochester, Ely, St. David's, Ijincoln, were sincerely set on
tmai Refoi-m- advancing the purity of doctrine, agreeirig in all things
with the Helvetic churches." +
Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, in a letter to Gaulter,
says, " Oh ! would to God, would to God, once at least,
all the English people would in good earnest propound
to themselves to follow the Church at Zurich, as the
most absolute pattern."*
• A long account of Sampson-s opinions, and of the grounds on which ho
refused the archbishu])ric of Nonvicii. is given by Burnet, voL iii. p. 291 ; and his
Latin letter to Bucer. from Strasburg. is printed in the Records appended to
that volume, no. 62, copied from the original in the Zurich manuacripta.
? Burnet, vol iii. p. 201.
X stiype's Annals of tlie Reformation, vol. ii. pp. 28G-342.

REION or EDWARD VI. 89
Among Dr. Stillingfleet's manuscripts examined by Bishop book it
Bumet, are, " The resolutions of several bishops and divines cjjT^rj
of some questions respecting the Sacraments, by which it
wUl appear with what maturity and ease they proceeded
in the Reformation." The following are portions of an
swers given to these questions by Cranmer.*
" There is no more promise of God that grace is given Cranmer's
in the committing of the ecclesiastical office, than it is Se"sacr™
in the committing of the civil office. In the apostles' ments.
time, when there were no Christian princes, by whose
authority ministers of God's word might be appointed,
nor sins by the sword corrected, there was no remedy
then for the correction of evil, or appointing of ministers,
but only the consent of Christian multitudes among them
selves, by a uniform consent to follow the advice and per
suasion of such pei-sons whom God had most endued with
the Spirit of counsel and -wisdom ; and at that time, for
asmuch as the Christian people had no sword nor governor
amongst them, they were constrained of necessity to take
such curates and priests as they either knew themselves
to be meet thereunto, or else as were commended to them
by others that were so replete with the Spirit of God,
with such knowledge in the profession of Christ, such
wisdom, such conversation and council, that they ought
even of very conscience to give credit to them, and to
accept such as by them were presented ; and so some
times the apostles, and others unto whom God had given
abundantly his Spirit, sent or appointed ministers of God's
woi-d ; sometimes the people did choose such as they thought
meet thereto ; and when any were sent or appointed by
the apostles or others, the people, of their own voluntary
wiU, with thanks did accept them ; not for the superiority,
empire, or dominion, that the apostles had over them to
command, as their princes and mastei-s, but as good people
ready to obey the advice of good counsellors, and to accept
anything that was necessary for their edification and
benefit. " The bishops and priests were at one time, and were not On cleriiai
'- orders
• loey are all given at length by Buinet, voL L Records xxL p. 201 j and by
Collier, vrt. ii Records iliv.

90

RISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK II two things, but with one office,— in the beginning of Christ's
CHAP II religion. . . .
" The people, before Christian princes were, did commonly
elect their bishops and priests. . . .
" In the New Testament he that is appointed to be a
On Bishops, bishop or a priest, needeth no consecration by the Scriptiu'e ;
for election, or appointing thereto, is sufficient.
" It is not against God's law, (that temporal learned men
should teach the word of God,) but, contrary, they ought
indeed so to do, and there be histories that witnesseth that
some Christian princes, and other laymen, unconsecrate,
have done the same. . . ."
In the same document the Bishop of St. David's, my Lord
elect of Westminster, Dr. Cox, Dr. Redman, say that at the
beginning they (bishop and priest) were aU one.
Many other documents of the same character might be
brought forward ; but these may suffice to show that the
Beformei-s of the Church of England were disposed to carry
out the Reformation as far as the Puritans in the next age
would have desired.

CHAPTER III.
REIGN OF MARY.
A.D.ira3— 1W8.

SECTION I. — CHARACTEK OF MARY.

BOOK IL
CHAP. nL
Lingard's defence of
Mary's cru
elty.

" The foulest blot on the character of this Queen is her
long and cruel persecution of the Reformers. The suffer
ings of the victims naturally begat an antipathy to the
woman by whose authority they were inflicted. It is, how
ever, but fafr to recoUect what I have afready noticed, that
the extirpation of erroneous doctrine was inculcated as a
duty by the leaders of every religious party. Mary only
practised what they taught. It was her misfortune, rather
than her fault, that she was not more enlightened than the

REION OF HART. 01
wisest of her contemporaries. With this exception, she BOOK It
has been ranked by the more moaerate of the reformed chap~iii
writers among the best though not the gi-eatest of our
princes." -*
This language of the leai-ned liistorian suggests some
grave considerations to the thoughtful reader. Although
the greater part of the higher classes in England, and pro
bably even the majority of the nation, agreed with Mary in
her religion, the Protestant counties of Norfolk and Suffolk
did most to place her on the throne ; yet they suffered more
than any other part of England during the persecution. It
Ues upon the surface of Mary's history, by whomsoever
written, that her natural character was the reverse of being
amiable. The deep lines that mai-ked her face, and the Mary's phy-
dark piercing eyes that " struck with awe all those on whom °^°^^'
they were fixed," were features not unsuitable to the
gloomy temperament of the narrow-minded bigot — the fierce
dissembler — the obstinate enemy of the EngUsh nation,
who, in a brief reign of five years, stirred up her bishops
to bum to death several hundreds of her subjects for re
Ugion, brought the nation to the brink of ruin by her
unhappy marriage with the King of Spain, and " left none
behind her to lament her loss." +

SECTION II.  PROTESTANT EXILES.
The excessive barbarities of this bad woman and inglo- The effect of
rions Queen, produced some effects which were quite con- ^i^ ° ""'
trary to the expectations of the tyrant, or of her advisers.
Among the Protestants who fled from persecution, it was
natural that those who sympathised most vrith the con
tinental Reformers should seek an asylum among thefr
feUow-beUevers beyond the sea. The Lutherans, with few
exceptions, refused to receive them, because of thefr riews
• Lingard's Histoiy of England, voL vii. p. 242, 2nd ed. 1844.
t Mr. Hallam has administered to Dr. Lingard a rebnlte, which, coining fi-om
so calm a writer, is a thousand times more stinging than the most passionate
invective. "A man of sense should be ashamed of such miserable partiality
tohissect,' (Con. Hist. vol. i. p. 113.) Again: — " lliose who would diminish tills
aversion, and prevent these convulsive symptoms, wUl do better by avoiding
for the future either such panegyrics on Mary and her advisers, or such
insidious extenuation of her persecutions as we have lately read, and which do not
raise a favourable impression of tlieir sincerity in the principles of toleration
to which they profess to have been converted," p. 114.

92

RISE OP THE PVBITANS.

JchnBale,Bishop of
Oasory.

BOOK IL of the sacrament ; but the Reformed, — as the disciples of
CHApTin. Ziiingle, Calrin, and the Swiss Protestants were caUed, —
embraced them with open arms. Among the refugees
were some of the most leamed, devoted, and experienced
of the EngUsh Protestants ; of the most prominent of
these the history requfres that we should give a some
what distinct account.
John Bale, a native of Cove, near Dunwich, in Suffolk,
was led " to the pure fountains of true divinity " at Cam
bridge, by Lord Wentworth. The protection of Lord
Cromwell defended him from the persecutions of the Romish
clergy till the death of that nobleman, when he fled to the
Low Countiies, from whence, at the end of eight years, he
was recalled by King Edward. He was soon promoted to
the bishopric of Ossory, in Ireland. His perUs and suffer
ings there compelled him to escape for his life. His adven
tures, by sea and land, both in England and Holland, are
related by himself in an old book entitled " The Vocacycon
of Joan Bale to the Bishopric of Ossory, in Irelande, his
Persecutions in the same, and finall Delyverance." During
the reign of Mary he continued abroad, residing first at
Basle, and afterwards at Frankfort.
Mtles Coverdale, a Yorkshireman, educated at Tubin
gen, and at Cambridge, is best known by the part he took
in the English translation of the Bible.
The narrative of Bale, first referred to, informs us, that
upon the revival of the Chvuch of England, Coverdale was
one of the first who, together with Dr. Robert Barnes,
taught the purity of the gospel, and dedicated himself wholly
to the service of the reformed religion. For his " signal
leaming in the Scriptures, and for his most approved man-
nei-s," he succeeded Dr. John Harman in the see of Exeter.
He was ejected and thrown into prison after Mary's ac
cession ; but at the earnest intreaty of the King of Den
mark, he was indulged wi.h leave to go into banishment !
During his episcopate at Exeter, which lasted two or three
years, he fully justified the choice and commendation of his
Sovereign by his preaching, and he was not disturbed, though
in common with many divines of the times, he laid aside the
Episcopal vestments.
His first resort was to the court of the King of Denmark,

OovETdole.

REION OF MART. 98
to whom he owed his liberty ; and from thence he passed book n.
into WestphaUa, and then to Burgslber, under the patronage fHAp'iiL
of the Elector of the Rhine, where he continued his pas
toral laboui-s till the death of Mary.
Not the least remarkable man among the Puritan Re
formers who left England at the beginning of the Marian
persecution, was William Tubnbb, M.D., a native of Mor- wmiam Tar.
peth. After gaining high celebrity at Cambridge, by his '"'''' ^'°'
knowledge of medicine as well as of philosophy and divinity,
he devoted himself to the preaching of the gospel in different
parts of the kingdom, until he was banished by Heni-y
VIII. Having risited several parts of Italy and of Germany,
in the time of his banishment, he was promoted in the
Church by Edward VI., and renewed his former habits of
itiuerant preaching, being at the same time both chaplain
and physician to the Protector. Strype says, "he was
greatly befriended by Sir John Cheke, and Sir William
CecU ; he was the first Englishman that compiled a herbal.
He put forth a book in 1555, called A New Book of Spiri
tual Physic for divers Diseases of the Nobility and Oentlemen,
dedicating it to divers of the chief nobility. It consisted of
three parts. In the first he showed who were noblemen
and gentlemen, and how many works and properties belong
unto such, and wherein their office chiefly standeth. In
the second part he showed great diseases were in the nobility
and gentry, which letted them from doing thefr office. In
the third part he specified what the diseases were, as,
namely, the whole palsy, the dropsy, the Romish pox, and
the leprosy ; showing afterwards the remedy against these
diseases. For, being a very facetious man, he deUvered his
reproofa and counsels under witty and pleasant discourse.
He wrote also ' The Hunting of the Romish Fox.' Haring
been formerly abroad, he took up his abode in Germany,
Rome, and finally at Basle, during the reign of Mary." *
Thomas Beoon was one of three ministers sent for by Thomas B^
, m i_ JT * con commit*
Mary's councU, and committed to the Tower, where tor six ted to the
months he endured a miserable imprisonment. To conceal Tower.
himself in these dangerous times, he went by the name of
Theodore BasU, " sktdking about,' as Strype says, tUl he
saved his life by flight. At a much earlier period, indeed,
• MemortalB of Cranmer, b. ii c. 28, b. iii C U.

94

EISE 01' THE PURITANS.

BOOKn.
chapTiil

David¦Whitehead,

he had been forced by Bonner to recant, and to bum his
books, and was obUged to wander as a tutor to private
famihes in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and Leicestershire ;
but afterwards he was promoted by Cranmer, and in the
reign of Edward he was highly esteemed as Professor of
Divinity at Oxford. From the place of his exile, in Ger
many, he viTote an epistle " To certain Godly Brethren in
England," which, we are told by Strype, was '' read by the
brethren in their rehgious meetings, and not without
fruit." *
He continued abroad untU the accession of EUzabeth.
David Whitehead, B.D., " a great Ught of learning, and
a most heavenly professor of divinity of his time," t was one
of four divines mentioned by Cranmer to Mr. Secretary
CecU, as persons worthy and wilUng to fill several vacant
bishoprics in Ireland, for the propagation of the gospel in
that dark region. Of aU the fom- he says he thought
"they, being ordinarily called, for conscience' sake would
not refuse to bestow the talent committed to them where
soever it should please the King's Majesty to appoint
them ; " — and of Whitehead, whom he judged the fittest
of the four, he testifies, " that he was endowed with good
knowledge, special honesty, fervent zeal, and poUte wis
dom." Whitehead, however, was not the person chosen,
but Richard Turner, though he dechned the office, which
devolved on Hugh Goodacre.
Thomas Leaver, B.D.,t is introduced by Strype as " a
Thomas Lea- learned and grave man," who was sent by the head of
St. John's College, Camlaridge, to the Archbishop, to explain
some unpleasant circumstances occasioned by the impru
dent zeal of a young student ; and in the foUowing year
he speaks of Leaver and Hutchinson as " two leamed
feUows of the House," engaged in a controversy, which
made a great noise in the University, respecting the Lord's
Supper. II He was one of the preachers, (the others were

ver, B.D.

• This letter is in tlie collection of his worlts.
f Holland's Heroologia Anglia, p. 195.
i Thomas Leaver is spolten of by Bale (de Scriptoribus Britanleus, cent. ix.
na 86,) as bom in Lancashire, where his family and name still remain at two
well-known villages called Lever. He was a sower t^ virtue* in aU gentieness.
The name, lilce many others of that age, is not always spelled in the same
way, sometimes Lever: his own signature seems to have been Leaver.
0 Strype's Cranmer, p. 163.

ttEIQN OP MART. 96
Latimer, Bradford, and Knox,) of whom Bishop Ridley book n.
said:— "they i-'iped so deeply into the galled backs of the —
great men at court, to have purged them of the filthy ^ ' '
matter festered in their hearts, as insatiable covetousness,
filthy camality, voluptuousness, intolerable pride, and
nngodly loathsomeness, to hear poor men's cases and God's
word, — that they could never abide them above all others." *
While Ridley was in prison, he received a letter from Con-espon-
Grindal, (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury,) then risit- fey°and' ^''''
ing the exUes at Frankfort, in which, among other things, Grindai
he gave him an account of the state of the EngUsh refugees
at Zurich, Strasburg, Friesland, and Frankfort. To this
letter Ridley replied. In one passage of the reply he
says : — " To hear that you and our other brethren do find
in your exUe favour and grace with the magistrates, minis
ters, and citizens at Tigury, (Zurich) Frankfort, and other
places, it doth greatly comfort (I dare say) all here that do
indeed love Christ and his tme word. I ensure you it
warmed my heart to hear you by chance to name some, as
Scory and Cox, &c. Oh ! that it had come in your mind
to have said somewhat also of Cheke, of Turner, of Leaver,
of Sampson, of Chambers ; but I trust in God they be aU
weil."t In the Harleian Collection in the British Museum, there Leaver's
are some interesting papers of Leaver's, highly illustrative p^p^"^*
of the state of the times. %
One or two of these are given by Mr. Brook in the first
volume of his Lives of the Puritans. ||
During Leaver's exile he resided as pastor of the English
Church at Aarau, in the Swiss canton of Aargau, and from
thence he visited BuUinger, Calvin, and other eminent
Protestants in that country, and kept up a correspondence
with his feUow-countrymen suffering imprisonment at home,
or exiled for their reUgious principles.
William Whittinqham, A.M., of whom we shall have -vyiuiam
more to say in the course of this chapter, had not long Whitting.
' ., r, r) 1 ham, A.M.
retumed fi-om his travels through France, Germany, and
Italy, when the storm of Mary's persecution drove him to
Frankfort. • strype's Parlter, p. 211. -t Fox's Acts, voi iii p. 374.
t Harleian CoUection, no. 7028. Bakw's MSS. i| Pp. 314-217.

96

KISB OF THE PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. IlL
Anthony GUby.

Fox. the
martyrolo- gist;

LawrenceHmnptuey,D.D.

Anthonv GilbV is mentioned by Fuller as one of the
" fiery and fiuious" Puritans, because, like some of the best
of the Reformers, he laboured after greater purity, and
because, in his " View of Antichrist, his Lawes ahd Cere
monies in our English Church, Unreformed," he denounced
more boldly than many others the remaining corruptions of
the Church. He was a man of extraordinary learning.
We shall presently hear of him again.
John Fox. The life of this great martyrologist is pre
fixed to his stupendous work, " The Acts and Monuments."
Born at Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1517, he became Fellow
of Magdalene College, Oxford, at an early age, when he
distinguished himself by his poetic taste, and his bigoted
attachment to Popery. At the age of thirty he had read
aU the Fathers, both Greek and Latin, aU the decrees of
council, and the entire body of the scholastic phUosophy
and theology. He was expelled from the university as a
heretic when he was about thirty-eight, for his comageous
profession of the gospel, as taught by the Reformers. After
much tossing about he found a peaceful home in the
family of the Duchess of Richmond, as tutor to the chil
dren of the Earl of Surrey. From this retreat he was
driven by the persecution of Bishop Gardiner to Flanders.
After spending a short time in Frankfort, he settled at
Basle, where he Uved by connecting the press, and where
he formed the plan of his immortal work. — We may
have occasion in our progress to mention Robert Crowley,
A.M., a native of Gloncesteishlre, or (according to Fuller)
of Northamptonshire.* After spending a few years at Ox
ford, he was at the same time a preacher, and a printer and
bookseller in London. At the accession of Mary he was
one of those who fled to Frankfort.
Lawrence Humphrey, D.D., a native of Newport Pag-
nel, received his education at both Cambridge and Oxford,
and was permitted by the head of his college, Magdalene,
Oxford, to go abroad. Anthony Wood, quoting the register
of the acts of the college, says : — " In the opinion of aU,
he was much commended for his life and conversation,
and for the excellency of his leaming and wit ; that he
might freely, for the cause of study, travel into trans-
• Worthiea of England, part iL p. 280.

BEIQN OP MART. 97
marine parts for one year, conditionally that he contain BOOK n.

CHAP.HL

himself from those places that are suspected to be heretical
or favourers of heresy, and tliat also he refi-ain from the
company who are or were authors of heresy or heretical
opinions, &c. Which leave being procured, he went forth
with to Zurich, and associated himself with the English
exiles there that had fled from the nation for rehgion's sake.
After the death of Queen Mary, he returned to his college,
and was restored to his fellowship, haring been expelled
thence because he did not return thereunto, when his time
of leave was expired. . . . From the city of Zurich (re
markable for the preaching and death of Zwinglius) and
the correspondence that he had with Geneva, he brought
back with him on his return into England, so much of the
Calvinian both in doctrine and discipline, that the best
(query, the worst 3) that could be said of him is, that he
was a moderate and conscientious Nonconformist, . . .
Humphrey was a great and general scholar-, an able linguist,
a deep divine ; and for his excellency of style, exactness of
method, and substance of matters in his writings, he went
beyond most of our theologists. An eminent archbishop,*
who knew him well, saith that he, (Dr. Humphrey) had
read more Fathers tlian Campion the Jesuit ever saw, de
voured more than he (Campion) had ever tasted, and that
he had taught more in this university than he (Campion)
either had leamed or heai-d."t Dr. Humphrey was the
writer of a monody, engraved on the tomb of Bishop Tun
stall, in Durham Cathedral.
The intimate friend of Dr. Humphrey, Thomas Samp- ™^™"
SON, D.D., has been mentioned as the means of the martyr d.D
Bradford's conversion ; and as having been ordained by
Cranmer and Ridley, without the clerical vestments. Strype
sa^ s that he married Latimer's niece. He was preacher in
Lord Russell's army in the war with the Scots, in the reign
of Edward VI., and " a noted preacher" J in London. On
the day on which Becon, Bradford, and Veron were sent by
Mary to the Tower, Sampson, who to the great disappoint
ment of the bishops could not be found, escaped to, Stras
burg, " where, wholly applying himself to the study of
• T. Matthew, Archbishop of Yorlc .. . .. ™. .
( AtlientB O-onienses, voL i. pp. 241, 242 t Anthony Wood.

98 RISE op THB PURITANS.
BOOK n dirinity, he was much advanced in the knowledge thereof
CHaFih '^y ^'^ °^^^ associating himself -with the learned Tremel-
lius.* He was intimately acquainted with most of the
leamed exiles, and particularly John Jewel, afterwards the
celebrated Bishop of Salisbury. Bj' the joint advice of
Dr. Sampson, Dr. Edward Sandys and Mr. Richard Cham
bers, Jewel was induced, soon after his anival on the con
tinent, to make a public confession of his sorrow for his
late subscription in favoui- of Popery. Sampson, during his
exUe, was concerned in writing and publishing the Geneva
translation of the Bible." t
AU the ecclesiastical histories of this period refer to the
The Exiles at proceedings of the English exiles at Frankfort, and their
views of those proceedings are manifestly influenced by
their own opinions and attachments. The historical docu
ment relating to them, consulted by aU parties, is, " A
Briefe Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankeford, in
Gei-many, An. Dom. 1554, About the Booke of Common
Prayer, and Ceremonies, and continued by the Englishmen
there, to the end of Queen Mary's reign : in the which
discourse the gentle reader shall see the very originall and
beginning of all the contention that hath been there, and
what was the cause of the same. First pubUshed in the
yeare 1576 ; and now reprinted according to the original copy
verbatim. Humbly presented to the riew and consideration
of the Most Honourable and High Court of Parliament;
and the Reverend Divines of the intended ensuing Assem
bly. 1642." t
From this " Briefe Discourse" we gather the foUowing
fects. Some of the Protestants who fled from the persecution of
Mary, — Edmund Sutton, William WUUams, WUUam Whit-
• Wood says that in 1560 the Queen designed him to be Bisliop of Norwich;
but he altogether refused it, for no other reason, as it was supposed, but that
he was much disaffected to the hierarchy and ceremonies of the Church of England.
Wood. — AthencE Oxonienses, vol. L p. 2380.
f Broolt-s Lives of the Puritans, voL i. p. 376.
% In the library of -frinity College, Cambridge. — This is a remarltably scarce
boolc, — the first edition I have seen. It was reprinted in the second volume of
the Phcenix, or a Revival of Scarce and Valuable Pieces, Nowhere to be Found
but in the Closets of the Curious, 1708. An edition, reprinted from the origi
nal bladt-letter edition of 157-5, with a short introduction, was published in
London in 1846, by Mr. John Pethenham, 71, Chancery Lane. The introduction
seems to identify Whittingham with tlie authotatlip.

KEION OF MARY. 99
tingham, and Thomas Wood, "with their companions," — book n.
repaired to the city of Frankfort-on-Maino, one of the fi-ee c'TiTp'Tn.
cities of Germany, June 27, 1554. On the night of their
arrival, Valeren PuUan, a French minister, came to their
lodging, and told them that he had obtained a church there
for the French Protestants, who had been driven from
Glastonbui-y, in England, To tliis church these EngUsh
exiles could not join themselves, as but few of them under
stood the French language. On the following day, haring
consulted with Monellio, another minister, and CastaUo,
an elder, of the French Church, they obtained permission
from the Magistrates of Frankfort, to have the use of the
French church, on condition that they should subscribe to
the French Confession of Faith. Not being bound so T^e Church
strictly to the order of service as to the doctrinal creed, by the Exaea
it was by general consent agreed that they should worship *' Franifort
without the litany, the responses of tlie English Prayer
Book, and the surpUce, making some changes in the " con
fession," and also adopting some of the usages of the Scot
tish and continental Protestant churches. When they had
constituted this church, and chosen ministers and deacons
to "serve for a time," they -wrote letters to their coun
trymen at Strasbui^, Zurich, and other places on the Con
tinent, urging them to come and share \rith them the
free enjoyment of thefr reUgion at Frankfort. Their bre
thren at Strasburg, supposing that they wanted merely
one or two of thefr number, to take charge of this new
congregation, took steps for that purpose. This, however,
was not what the men at Frankfort desfred. They wished
all the EngUsh exiles to come ; and they had determined
afready to have the church governed by two or three minis
ters of equal authority, after the manner of the best Re
formed churches. The EngUsh Protestants at Zurich, de- The Exiles rt
termined to use no other form of worship than that which
had been ordered in England by Edward VI., sent one of
thefr number, Edward Chambers, to confer with the church
at Frankfort on this subject. The church could not assure
the brethren at Zurich of the full use of the EngUsh
Prayer Book. They had chosen John Knox to be their
minister.-* Chambers retumed to Zurich to persuade his
• Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 84.

100 RISE or THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL friends there to enter into the views of those at Frankfort ;
CHAPm ^^^ shortly after he risited them again, accompanied by
Edmund Grindai, with a letter fi-om the learned men at
Stiasburg containing three questions, which not being
answered to their satisfaction, they declined for the present
the invitation which had been given to them. The church
at Frankfort, desfring to have the communion, were wiUing
to follow the order of the church at Geneva in that serrice.
Knox objected to this, without previous consultation with
thefr brethren at Strasburg, Zurich, and other places. In
the meantime Thomas Leaver, who had been chosen as one
of the ministers of the church at Frankfort, came from
Zurich, and proposed a plan for that office to which the
church could not consent. Knox, Whittingham. and others,
sent in Latin a description of the English Prayer Book to
Calvin at Geneva, "requiring his judgment thereon, and
showing him that some of their countrymen went about
to force them to the same, and would admit no other,
saying that it was an order most absolute, and if ever
they came into their country they would do their best
Calvin's to establish it again." In Calvin's reply he says that iu
judgment of,,_- t»i,i . , 7, ...
the English the Prayer Book there is not the purity that might be
Prayer Book, desfred ; that parts of it are trifling and childish ; that
he advises some of them not to be fierce over them whose
infirmity will not suffice them to ascend a higher step,
and others that they please not themselves too much in
their foolishness, also that by their forwardness they do
not lett (stop) the course of the holy building; last of
all, lest that foolish vainglory steal them away : for what
cause have they to contend, except it be for that they
are ashamed to give place to better things." After much
debating, the humility of Thomas Gilby, and the modesty
of John Knox prevailed, and an order was agreed upon for
a time, " some parte taken forth of the English Booke, and
other things put to, as the state of the church required." *
It was Ukewise agreed that if any dispute should arise it
should be referred to Calvin, Musculus, Martyr, BulUnger,
and Viret. " This day was joyful. Thankes were given
imto God, brotherly reconciUation followed, great familiarity
used, the former grudges seemed to be forgotten. Yea, the
• Knox s History of the Reformation, p. 31.

IIEIGN OP MARY 101
holy communion was upon this happy agreement also ad- book u
ministered."-* The harmony of the church was at length disturbed by ThrEriUh"
Dr. Richard Cox, who came to Frankfort onthe 13th March, Liturgy^ it
1555. Contrary to the order settled in the church, he an- *'™"'''<"*-
swered aloud after the luinister.f The elders admonished
him ; he and his companions said they would do as they
had done in England, and they would have the face of an
English church.t On the Sunday after, one of Cox's com
pany, without the consent or knowledge of the congregation,
ascended the pulpit, and read the Utany, to which Cox and
the rest of his party gave the responses aloud. In the after
noon of the same day, Knox sternly condemned this
riolation of order, which he said, " became not the proudest
of them all to have attempted." When the church met on
the following Tuesday, the admission of Cox and his party
was objected to ; but at Knox's generous, yet scarcely wise,
entreaty, the objections were waived by a majority of the
members, and they were received. When admitted, " Dr.
Gas. forbade Knox to meddle any more in the congregation."
Next day Whittingham laid the case before the magistrate,
through whom they had obtained permission to found the
church, and the magistrate made an arrangement to which
Cox and Leaver on one side, and Knox and Whittingham on
the other, were to agree on some good order, and report to
him. But by Cox's zeal for the mMins, they were prevented
from coming to an agreement. The congregation then ad
dressed a supplication to the magistrates in Latin, explain
ing the cause of their troubles, and requesting that the mat
ter might be referred to the five leamed divines formerly
mentioned. The magistrate before referred to came to the
church, requiringthem to conform to the order of the French
church, that being the original condition of the privUeges
• Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 51.
f Dr. Cox had been almoner to King Edward -VI., chancellor of the univer
sity of Oxford, Dean of Westm-inster, one that had a chief hand in composing
the English liturgy ; whicli made him very impatient of such innovations-
amounting to no less than a total rejection of it, as he found among them. By
his authority and appointment the English litany is first read. Aerius Redo-
vious, p. 240. Dr. Tiezlir forgets to say wAo gave Dr. Cox that autht^ty in the
church at Frankfort.
t Tile Lord gi-ant it to have the face of Christ's Church, (says Knox, in an
account which he drew up of these transactions ;) and therefore I v/ould have
had it agreeable in oi.tward rites and ceremonies with Christian chnictan re-
Jbrmed.— Cald. MS., voL i. p. 249.

102 RISE or TUB PURITANS.
BOOK IL granted to tnem, and declaring that those who refused to
CHApTiil conform to that order, should leave the city. To this Cox,
Leaver, and Wliittingham expressed thefr consent, in the
name of the church. But the peace thus apparently secured
was soon broken by the party of Cox, who accused Knox of
treason against the Emperor, on account of wluch, the Em
peror's council being then at Augsbm-g, the magistrates of
Knox leaves Frankfort deemed it prudent to intimate to Knox privately
Frankfort, ^^j^^^. j^^ ghouls leave their city. Knox took leave of his
friends in a " most comfortable sermon," and the following
moi-ning, many of those who had heard him accompanied
him three or four miles on his way, and '' with great heavi
ness of heart, and plenty of tears, committed him to the
Lord."* After Knox's departure. Cox, tlirough the influence
of a lawyer related to the magistrate by whom the exiles
were at first befriended, gained his object, by obtaining an
order from the magistrates for the use of King Edward's
liturgy, and forcing Whittingham, Fox, Cole, and others
to retire from the church which they had thus planted.
" Not many days after, the oppressed church departed from
Frankfort to Basle and Geneva, some staying at Basle with
Master Fox and another. The rest came to Geneva, where
they were received with great favour and much courtesy
both of the magistrates, ministers, and people. So soon as
they entered their church they chose Knox and Goodman
for their pastors, and Gilby was requested to supply the
room of Fox till Knox returned out of France."
This church " lived in great harmony and love, until the
Churches of storm of persecution in England blew over, at the death of
Frankfort"'^ Queen Mary, while those who remained at Fi-ankfort, as if
to expiate their offence against Knox, continued a prey to
endless contention. Cox and his leamed colleagues haring
accomplished their favourite object, soon left them to com
pose the strife which they had excited, and provided them
selves elsewhere with a less expensive situation for carrying
on their studies."t
* Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 38.
? M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 157. The church which was the scene of
these troubles, is "The White Lady Church,-' originally an hospital or cloister,
dedicated to "the blessed Mary Magdalene,- a.d. 1142, by Vigor, Bishop of
Brandenburg. In 1542, Andrew Cephalius is mentioned as the first evangelical
preacher in the White Lady Cloister. In that year, and again two years after,
Johann Ton Glanburg was one of t^e magistrates deputed to take care of tbiB

REION OP MART. 103
These " troubles at Frankfort " co-ntain the germ of all that book n
afterwards happe^ned between ihe Puritans and ihe Confer- cHAp"nt
mists in England. They show the spirit of the parties whose
contests we shall have to describe in the following chapters Devotion to
of this work. If the conforming party could show so un- ta^Ste^"
bending a devotion to mere ceremonies, while exiles im, a
foreign land, and such an overbearing haughtiness in oppo
sition to the laws of the government which protected them,
what might be expected from them in their own country,
when they were supported by the imperious authority of
the British so-aereign ? These troubles also show that re
markable mixture of firmness viith meekness, and of human
imperfection with a tender conscience, by which the mem
bers of the original English church at Frankfort were pre
pared for the trials that awaited them on thefr return to
thefr own land.
The exUes at Wesel were exposed to trouble, because they The Exiles
differed on some points from the Augustan Confession ; and ^eJhm-.
they would have been banished from the city, but for the Geneva, Ac
interposition of Melancthon. At Zurich they were re
ceived with great hospitality by BuUinger, and they em
ployed themselves in study, -wilting books, teaching, and
superintending the press. At Embden they translated Cran
mer's hook on the sacrament into Latin, and printed it,
with a preface. They also printed other books favouring
the principles of the Reformation, which were distributed
in England. At Geneva, " a club of them " employed
themselves in translating the Bible into English, in which
they were assisted by Calrin and Beza. At Basle, " many
poor scholars made shift to subsist in these hard times," by
their peculiar care and diligence in correcting the press for
the eminent printers of that city. At Strasburg, Jewel,
Poynet, Grindai, Land, Sir John Cheke, Sfr Anthony Cook,
and other knights, gentleman, and di-rines, attended the
martyrs' public readings in dirinity.
" It may be inquired, how these exiles were maintained. Their meani
considering the great numbers of them, and the poverty of tence.
hospital He is the magistrate mentioned as befriending the English exiles,
in the foregoing nan-ative. In the summer of 1847, I had the privilege of
worshipping in the White Lady Church, now used by the Lutherans, as weU
as in the French Church. Xhiring my stay at Frankfort, I had the opportunity
of consulting the Clironicles of Fran^ort, by Lersner, and extracting from it
the information which is here given.

1U4 BISE OP THE PURITAH8.

CHAP, in

BOOK IL many t God stirred up tbe bowels of the abler sort, both
in England, and in the parts where they sojourned, to pity
and relieve them, by very liberal contriliutious conveyed
unto them from time to time. From London, especially,
came often very large allowances ; till Bishop Gardiner,
who had his spies everywhere, got knowledge of it, and by
casting the benefactors into prison, and finding means to
impoverish them, that channel of charity was in a great
measure stopped. After this the senators of Zurich, .^t (he
notice of BuUinger, their superintendent, opened thefr
treasures unto them. Besides, the great ornaments of re
ligion and learning, Melancthon, Calvin, BuUinger, Gual-
tier, Lavater, Gesner, and others, sent them daily most
comfortable letters, and omitted no duty of love and human
ity to them all the time of their banishment. Some
of the princes and persons of wealth and estate sent also
thefr benevolences. Among these was Christopher, Duke
of Wirtemberg, who gave at one time to the exiled English
at Strasburg three or four hundred dollars, besides what he
gave at Frankfort, as Grindai, Bishop of London, signified to
Secretary Cecil in the year 1563, when that prince had
sent a gentleman upon business to the Queen."-*
The noble stand made by the Protestants in this reign
Defaulters was not universal, even among their leaders. Some of them
leadera. " recanted. Jewel, Scory, and Barrow, who were bishops,
recanted ; but they afterwards made a sorrowful confession
in public of their falls. Others continued in the profession
of the Roman faith, among these were Bishops Bird and
Bush ; Harding, the Duke of Suffolk's chaplain ; Tyndal
• strype-s Cranmer, vol. i. p. 519. "If these congregations be compared to
gether, Embden will be found the richest for substance (these the mercliantB
which bear the bag:) Wesel the shortest for c:mtinnance ; .\aran the slender
est for number ; Strasburg of the most quiet temper ; Znricli had the greatest
scholars; and Frankfort had the largest privileges." Fuller. Ch. History 1555.
The same writer, quoting " Humphrey's Lifeof Jewel," mentions the fo low
ing persona as among th ¦ principal contributors to the necessities of the-ex-
iles: "Sir John Cheke; Sir Richard Moiison, of Castredbury in Herttbrdshire ;
Sir Francis Knolleys, afterwards privy-councillor to Queen Elizabeth ; Sir An
thony Cook, father-in-law to Cecil (Lord Burleigh,) and famous for his leamed
daughters; Sir Peter Carew. reno^\Tied for his valour in Ireland, where he died,
anno 1576 ; Sir Thomas Wr^ th, riclily landed at, and nigh Dorance n Middlesex;
Dame Dorothy Stafford, afterwards lady of the bed-chamber to Queen Eliza
beth; Dame Elizabeth Berkeley; Richard Springham, and JohnAbei, mer
chants of London. ... As for Thomas Eaton, a London merchant, but
living in Germany, 'he was." saith mv autho:, ^communis hospes.' the host-
general of all English exiles: thanks (and tliat forced on liim against his will)
being all the a?wt hia guests paid at their departure."

RKIQN OP MART. 105
and C.irtop of Oxford ; Pendleton and West. West was a BOOK IL
clergyman who had been steward to Bishop Ridley. In chapjU.
the Bishop's letter to Grindai at Strasburg, he says that
" his old companion and sometime bed-ofiicer relented, but
that the Loi-d had shortened his days." When Ridley lay
in prison West wrote a letter to the Bishop, beseeching him
to save liis o\vnlife by altering his judgment. The Bishop's
reply, which is singularly dignified, humble, and touching,
concludes ^rith these words : " And because I daresay you
wrote of friendship to me, this strict eamest advertisement,
and I think verily -wishing me to live and not to die ; there
fore bearing you in my heart no less love in God than you
do me in the world, I say to you in verbo Domini, that except
you, and this (which) I say to you, I say to all my friends
and lovei-s in God, except ye confess and maintain to your
power and knowledge things which be grounded upon God's
Word, but will, either for fear or gain of the world, shrink
and play the apostate, indeed you shall die the death. You
understand what I mean. And I beseech you and aU my
tme friends and lovers in God, remember what I say. For
this, pei-adventure may be the last time that ever I shall
write unto you."*
Besides these apostates, there were not a fewf who were
induced by terror, or other worldly consideration, to attend
the mass, arguing on their own behalf, that their bodies
might be there, so long as their spirits did not consent.
Among persons of this description we find special mention
made of Ann Hartefol, who in the reign of Henry had af
forded a refuge to Ann Askew.
SECTION III.  PURITANS AT HOME.
The counties of Norfolk and Suffolk have been already Protestants
mentioned as having done most to place Mary on the throne, "^j^^g^J^J^
yet as suffering more than any other part of England from her
persecutions. The people of these counties haring addressed
an unavailing petition to the Queen, they formed themselves
into separate congregations, which continued to flourish —
their numbers being so great, that the bishops could not put
• Strype's Crarimcr, Appendix, No. Ixxxvt
t Bradford says that " not the tentli person abode in God's «ay& ' >^

106 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL them do-wn. In London there was a private congregation,
fr^j^llX sometimes amounting to more than 200 persons, super
intended by a clergyman of the name of Bentham, in whose
church without a steeple " the officers sent to apprehend
the offenders were so overset that they thought it to no
purpose to seize any single person."-*
Collier says that Bentham was not the only reformed
Congrega- clergyman who had a congregation in London, for, not-
don.' '" vfithstanding Bonner's sanguineous temper, the reformed
bore up bravely against the persecution, and kept on their
religious meetings, though at the utmost hazard. Besides
Bentham, this congregation had had for their minister Mr.
Seamier, who in the next reign w^s made Bishop first of
Peterborough, and then of Norwich, Mr. Augustine Barn-
her, and Mr. Thomas Foule, and Mr. John Rough.
The history of Mr. John Rough is remarkable. He was
Jehu Rough born in Scotland, and while young, being disappointed of
Mar^™'"^'' ^'^ inheritance, he joined the black fi-iai-s in Stirling,
Through the favour of the Earl of Arran, then Regent of
Scotland, he became chaplain to the Archbishop of St. An
drews. During his abode at St. Andrews, and, as would
appear, owing in no small degree to a journey or two which
he made to Rome, he was convinced of the errors of Popery,
and after his change of views, he preached for four years at
Ayr. We afterwards find him at Carlisle, Berwick, and
Newcastle, preaching the gospel ; and in the reign of Ed
ward VI. enjoying a benefice in the neighbourhood of
Hull. When Mary came to the throne, he fled to Norland,
in Friesland, where he gained a livelihood by knitting caps,
hose, and similar articles. Being in want of yarn for his
knitting, he came over to England, where he joined the
secret congregation of Protestants now mentioned. He was
soon chosen to be a minister in this congregation. Roger
Serjeant, a tailor, a false brother, betrayed them, when they
held a meeting at the Saracen's Head, Islington; and Rough,
together with Cuthbert Simpson, the deacon of the church,
and several others, were brought before the Council, and
sent to Newgate. The Council wi-ote a, letter respecting
these men to Bonner, by whom they were rigidly examined.
• T-hls Bentham was Bishop of Lichfield and CJoventry iu Elizabeth's reiEn.
Vox. Heylin, ColUer, vol. ii p. 408.

KEIGN OP MARY. 107
Dr. Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, whose life Rough had saved BOOK n.
in the north not long before, assisted Bonner at this exami- nHAFin
nation, when, recognizing Rough, he said, " This is a most
pernicious heretic, who has done more hurt in the north
than a hundred more of his opinion." " Why, Sir," said
Rough, " is this tho reward I have for saving your life,
when you preached yom- errontous doctrine in the reign of
King Edward VI. ?" He declared that he had been twice at
Rome, and had there seen plainly with his eyes what he had
many times heard before, namely, that the Pope was the
very Antichrist ; for there he saw him carried on some
men's shoulders, and the false-named sacrament borne be
fore him ; yet was there more reverence given to him than
to that which they counted to be their God. When Bonner
heard this, he rose, as though about to rend his garments.
" Hast thou," said he, " been at Rome, and seen oui- holy
father the Pope, and dost thou blaspheme him after this
sort !" Then, flying upon Rough, he plucked off part of Condemned
the good man's beard, and condemned him to be burned to ° ° "™°
death next morning. This event was not unexpected by
the martyr. A short time before, he had witnessed the
burning of Ralph AUerton, Richard Roth, and James and
Margaret Anstoo. On IUs way home, he met a Jlr. Farrar,
a merchant of Halifax, who asked him where he had been.
" I have been," said he, " where I would not for one of
mine eyes but I had been." " Where have you been V
" Forsooth, to learn the way ;'' so he told him he had been at
the burning of Anstoo, where, shortly after, he was bm-ned
himself.-* In his letter to some fiiends written in Newgate, " in Letter to u»
T , . 5, Pi J . i* friends from
haste, on the day of my condemnation, alter a description Newgate.
of his o-wn spiritual conflict and victory, he says — '' The
holy ones have been sealed with the same mark. It is no
time, for the loss of one man in the battle, for the camp to
tum back. Up -with men's hearts. Blow down the daubed
walls of heresy. Let one take the banner, and the other
tbe trumpet. I mean not to make coi-poreal resistance ; but,
pray : ' and ye shall have Elijah's defence, and Elisha's com
pany to fight for you.' The cause is the Lord's. Now, my
brethi-en, I can write no more Time wUl not suffer. And
• F'JX, VOL iii. pp. 722-724.

1C8

BISE OF THB PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP, in,

Cuthbert Simpson.

ray heart with pangs of death is assaulted; but I am at home
with God, — yet alive ! Pray for me, and salute one another
with a holy kiss. The peace of God rest with you aU,
Amen I " Thus, with beautiful Christian humility and
gentleness, he writes to the congregation : — " Yet I have
not done what I should have done ; but my weakness I
doubt not is supplied by the strength of Jesus Christ ; and
your wisdoms and leaming will accept the small talent
which I have distributed unto you (as I trust) as a faithful
steward. And wiiat was undone, impute that to frailty and
ignorance, and with your love cover that which is and vjos
naked in me. God knoweth ye are all tender unto me.
My heart bursteth for the love of you. Ye are not without
the great pastor of your soul, who so loveth you, that if
men were not to be sought out, (as, God be praised ! there
is no want of men,) he would cause stones to be ministers
unto you. Cast your care on that Rock : the wind of
temptation shall not prevail : fast and pray ; for the days
are evil. Look up with your eyes of hope ; for the re
demption is not far off, (but my wickedness hath deserved
that I shall not see it.) And, also, that which is behind of
the blood of our brethren, which shall also be laid under
the altar, shall ci-y for your relief. Time will not suffer
me now to write longer letters. The Spirit of God guide
you " in and out," rising and sitting ; cover you with the
shadow of his wings ; defend you against the tyranny of the
wicked ; and bring you happily to tlie post of eternal fe
licity, where all tears shall be wiped from your eyes, and
you shall always abide with the Lamb ! "
Cuthbert Simpson had laboured hard, as a deacon, in
Rough's congregation, to preserve the little flock from per
secution. In a letter to some friends, he describes his ap
prehension ; his refusal to betray his brethren ; his being
set on an iron rack for three hours ; his having a small
aiTow drawn through his two forefingers closely bound, so
fast that the blood followed, and the arrow brake ; and his
receiving the Pope's curse for bearing witness of the resur
rection of Jesus Christ. Bonner said of him in his consis
tory to the people : — " Ye see this man, w-^hat a personable
man he is ; and furthermore, concerning his patience, I say
unto you, that if he were not an heretic, he is a man of the

BEIQN OP MART. 100
greatest patience, that yet ever came before me ; for I tell book n.
you, he hath been thrice racked, upon one day, in the Tower. cij^J"m.
Also, in my house, he hath felt some sorrow ; and yet I his suffer-
never saw his patience broken." From the Coal House of ""e'-
Bishop Bonner, this Nonconforming deacon thus writes to
his wife : — " .... It is either a correction for our
sins, or a trial of our faith, or to set forth His gloi-y, or for
all together ; and, therefore, must needs be well done : for
there is nothing that cometh to us by fortime, or chance,
but by our heavenly Father's providence. And therefore,
pray unto our heavenly Father, that he -will ever give us
his gi-ace to consider it. Let us give him hearty thanks for
these his fatherly corrections ; for as many as he loveth he
correcteth. And I beseech you, now, be of good cheer ; and
count the cross of Christ greater riches than all the vain
pleasures of England. I do not doubt, (I praise God for it,)
but that you have supped with Christ at his Maunday.-* I
mean, believe in him, for that is the effect ; and then must
you drink of his cup, I mean liis cross, (for that doth the
cup signify unto us.) Take the cup with a good stomach
in the name of God ; and then shall you be sure to have
the good wine, Christ's blood, to thy poor thirsty soul.
And when you have the wine, you must drink it out of this
cup. Learn this, when you come to the Lord's Supper.
Pray continually. In all things give thanks. In the name
of Jesus shall every knee bow. Cuthbert Simpson."
He finished his testimony with Mr. Hugh Fox, and Mr. Burnt at
John Devenish, members of the same church, in the flames *''"'™^"-
of Smithfield.
Among the many Protestants who escaped, sometimes in
a most remarkable way, we must not pass by the " Story"
of Thomas Rose, which is given at great length by Fox.f
" Mr. Rose was a native of Exmouth, in Devonshire, ThomasEosa.
About the time that Latimer began to preach the gospel at
Cambridge, Rose was inveighing against purgatory and
praying to saints and images at Hadleigh, in Suffolk. His
sufferings were very great until he was released at one time
by Audley, the Lord Chancellor ; and at another tune by
• The Thursday before Easter. The maund, or basket, contained the gifts
of the King or Queen, according to ancient custom, on that day.
t Acts and Monuments, vol. iii. p. 783.

110 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK n. the Earl of Sussex ; and in the reign of Edward VI., he
pgjj"jjj held the living of West Ham, near London. As he lost his
living at the King's death, he became the minister of one
of the secret congregations in London. After many narrow
escapes for his life, he, with thirtj'-five others, was betrayed,
at a house in Bow Church Yard. The rest of the party
were committed to prison. Rose was examined by Gardi
ner. From the long reports of this examination, preserved
by Fox, besides two examinations, before Hopkins, Bishop
of Norwich, Sir W. Woodhouse, and others, the following
Hiiexamina- graphic scene between Gardiner and Rose is worthy of re-
"'"'¦ membrance : —
" Rose. — It maketh me to mai-vel, my Lord, that I should
be thus troubled for that which, by the word of God, hath
been established, and by the laws of this realm allowed, and
by your own writing so notably, in your booke de vera obedi-
enta, confirmed.
" Gardiner. — Ah, Sirrah ! hast thou gotten that i
" Rose. — Yea, my Lord, I thank God ; and do confess my
self thereby much confirmed . . . Against the Bishop
of Rome's usurped authority no man hath said further.
And, as I remember, you confess in it, that when this truth
was revealed unto you, you thought the scales to fall from
your eyes.
"Gardiiur. — Thou liest like a varlet. There is no such
thing in my book. But I shall handle thee, and such as
thou art, well enough. 1 have long looked for thee, and at
length have caught thee. I will know who be thy main
tainors, or else I will make thee a foot longer.
" Rose. — My Loi-d, you shall do as much as pleaseth God,
and no more. Yet, the law is in yom- hand. But, I have
Oodiov my maintainer, and none other."
At these words, one of the servants said, " My Lord, I
heard this man preach, by Norwich, at Sir John Robster's
house ; and in his prayer, he desired God to turn Queen
Mary's heart, or else to take her out of the world ; and this
was in King Edward's time.
" R^se. — My Lord, I made no such prayer ; but next
after the King I prayed for her after this sort, saying, ' Ye
shaU pray for my lady Mary's grace, that God wUl vouch
safe to endue her with his Spfrit, that she graciously may

REIGN OP MART. H]
perceive the mysteries contained within his holy laws, and
to render unto hira her heart purified with true faith, and
true loyal obedience to her sovereign lord and king, to the
good example of the inferior subjects.' And this, my Lord,
is already answered in mme own hand-writing to the
Council." Mr. Rose's examination before the Bishop of Norwich is
given in his o-wu words :
" After I was presented by my keeper, the Bishop im
mediately asked me what I was, 1 told him I had been a
minister. "Bishop. — What is this to the pm-pose ? Were ye a friar,
or a priest ?
" Rose. — Friar was I never ; but a priest have I been,
and beneficed by the King's majesty. . . .
" Bishop. — Well you are sent to me to be examined.
What say you ? 'Will you submit yourself to ihe order of
the Church of England^
" Rose. — My Lord, I hope I am not out of the order of
Chrisfs Church in England.
"Bishop). — Well, Father Rose, whatsoever hath been done
in times past, shall not now be called in (question, so that
you now submit yourself ; if ye will be accounted for an
Englishman, ye must submit yourself.
" Rose. — I am an Englishman born ; and do most humbly
require of the Clu-istian congregation of England, to be
counted as a particular membei' of the same, and with all
due reverence submit myself as in the form and manner
following, that whatsoever law or laws shall be set forth in
the same for the establishment of Christ's true religion, and
that according to the faith and doctrine of the holy patri
archs and prophets, Jesus Clirist, and his holy apostles, with
the faithful fathers of Christ's primitive Church, I do not
only hold it and believe in it, but also, most reverently obey
it. At which, my assertion, the Bishop seemed to be greatly
rejoiced, and said, 'Well then, we shall soon be at a point.'"
In another examination by the Bishop of Norwich and
his Chancellor, in the presence of a great part of the city,
the Chancellor said, " You do but feign."
" Rose. — The fault then, shall be in yourself, and not in
me : for if ye burthen me with nothing but Scriptures, and

BOOK n.
CIUP. ITL

112 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK II. the fathers of Christ's primitive Church, then, as I said be-
CHaFiil ^°''®' ^° ^ ^*y again, I shall most gladly obey.
" GhaiiceUor. — Well then, seeing you chaUenge to be a
member of the Church of England, your mother here, for
a trial of obedience provoketh (calleth) you, as mothers are
wont to aUure you, to receive this little gift at her hand.
" Rose. — Forsooth, if she offer it to me as received of God,
my Father, I shall gladly receive it as from the hand of my
true and ghostly mother.
"Chancellor. — What say you to ear confession? Is it
not a law ecclesiastical, and necessary for the Church of
England ?
"Rose. — Some ways it might be permitted, and some
ways not ; and that because it had not its original of God
and his blessed word ; and yet I deny not but that a man
being troubled in his conscience, and resorting to a discreet,
sober, and Christian learned man, for the quieting of his
mind, might well be pei-mitted ; but, to bind a man, under
pain of damnation, once every year to number his sins into
the ears of a filthy, lecherous priest, is not of God, neither
can be approved by his word.
" Bishop. — Ah ! Sirrah ! ye will admit nothing but
Scripture, I see well.
" Rose. — No, truly, my Lord ; I admit nothing but
Scripture for the regiment of the souls. . . .
. . . At his last appearance before the Bishop, after a
long discourse respecting the sacrament, the Bishop ended
with taking him by the hand and saying :
" Father Rose, you may be a worthy instrument in God's -
Church, and we will see to you at our coming home."
After the Bishop's departure to visit liis diocese, Rose lay
HiBescape concealed for a month in a friend's house. He says, "The
Bishop sent for a conjuror to know of him which way I
was gone, and he answered that I was gone over a water,
and in the keeping of a woman. And, in very deed, I was
passed over a small water, and was hid by a blessed and
godly woman, (which lived in a poor cottage.) the space of
thi-ee weeks, till all the great heat was over." He found
Ills way to London, and tied to the continent ; where he
remained till the death of Queen Mary.-*
* Fox. The story of Thomas Rose, yet living, a preacher, at the age of 76
years, in the town of Luton, and county of Bedford.

REIQN OP MART.

113

BOOK IIL

If IV. — CARDINAL POLE.

CHAP. m.

Queen Mary died, aged forty-two, on the 17th November, Death of
1558, during the celebration of mass in her chamber. Her '^'"'™ ^^'
friend and kinsman, Reginald Pole, who had long been con
fined with a fever, survived her only twenty-four hours.
We have not had much occasion, hitherto, to mention this
eminent churchman, though he figures largely in the his- Cardinal
tories of that age. He was a very exemplary person. ^"'^
Nothing could be more regular, and better guarded, than
his conduct. The retiredness of his temper, and his incli
nation for study, did not govern him so far as to make him
unfit for public business. He was of a modest, unpretend
ing beha-viour ; and his good nature made him willing to
overlook the advantages of his birth and station.-* How
ever, the style of his famUy, and his figure on public oc
casions, was not unbecoming his quality. Notwithstanding His charac-
his interest at court, he never solicited the Queen on his '^^'
own behalf. He declined the opportunities of enriching
himself by his legantine character : would neither accept
presents nor suffer his servants to receive any ; and, as for
the surplusage of his revenues, he turned it to charity, and
pious uses. As to the prosecutions of the reformed, the
Cardinal seems to have been overruled in his temper, and
gone off in some measure fi-om those gentle methods he had
formerly recommended. Whether he was overset by the
court of Rome, and gave way, for the Pope's satisfaction, is
somewhat uncertain. But let that be as it will, it is certain
he cannot be excused from being concerned in the persecu
tion. He gave a commission for the trial of Cranmer, Ridley,
and Latimer, at Oxford, and he connived at the cruelties of
Harpsfield, and Thornton, in his o\vn diocese.t
• His mother and the mother of Henry -VIIL were conshia.
t Collier, voL iL p. 406.

114 RISE OP THB PURITANS.

CHAPTER IV.
REION OP ELIZABETH.
A. D. 155S— 1623.
The History of the Puritans during the glorious reign of
BOOK IL this great monarch, naturally divides itself into two unequal
CHAP. TV. portions ; one embracing the first twelve years ; and the
Queen Ehza- other extending through the last twenty-six years of that
''°'^' period. The ground of this division is plain. During the
earlier of these years, the objections of the Puritans were
made against certain forms and ceremonies of the Church of
England ; but during those which followed, an opposition
was raised against the constitution and government of the
Church, which, according to their view, pressed so arbi
trarily on the consciences of men.
SECTION I. — THE FIRST PERIOD.  PURITANISM UNDER
ELIZABETH.
The ecclesiastical proceedings of Elizabeth's govei-nment
may be supposed to be familiar to the readers of ordinary
English history ; yet a general survey of them is necessary
for bringing to light the character of the Puritan leaders.
Joy on her The accession of this Princess, after the terrible persecu
tions of her sister's reign, was hailed by the Reformers with
hopes as natural as they were sanguine. But the same out
ward course of affairs went on as in the preceding- reign.
All innovations in religion were strictly forbidden. To pre
vent disputes, all parties were ordered, by roj-al proclama
tion, to abstain from preaching, and fi-om using any public
prayers but those appointed by the laws, until the meeting
of parUament. The new parliament was in favour of the
Reformation. A public dispute was held in Westminster
Abbey, by the Queen's appointment, between nine Popish,
and nine Protestant divines,* on the use of an unknown
? Those on the Popish side were, ¦\Miite, 'Bishop of Winchester; Bayn,
Bishop of Lictifield; Scott, Bishop of Chester ; Wilson, Bishop ot Lincoln ; Dr
Colo, Dean of St. Paui-s ; Dr. Hai-psfleld, Archdeacon of Canterbm'y ; Dr
Chudsey, Prebendary of St Paul's ; Dr. Langdale, Archdeacon of Lewis.— On

accession.

BEION OP ELIZABETH. 115
tongue, in public worship ; on the power of evei-y church BOOKIL
to choose such ceremonies as were edifying ; and on the chaFiv
sacrifice of the mass. The conference was broken up, on
the first day, by the Popish bishops, when they saw that
the people were against them, on the ground mainly, that
the Catholic Church was already estabUshed. Two of them,
the Bishops of Winchester and of Lincoln, expressed them
selves so strongly against the Queen and the Privy Council,
that they were sent to the Tower.
Ha-ving thus conquered the CathoUc party, the next ob- The over.
ject was to secure uiiifurmity among the Protestants. The catS'""
liturgy of Edward was revised ; and alterations were made party.
to render the service more acceptable to the Papal party.*
Both houses of parliament passed an act of supremacy ; and
one for the Uniformity of Common Prayer, and service in
the Church, and adm in istration of the Sacraments. An act
which the Queen declared to the Archbishop she would not
have sanctioned, but for a clause which reserved to herself
ihe power to make whatever alterations she might approve.
Then arose to power the famous Court of High Com^mis- The Court of
sion, having the authority enjoyed by Cromwell in the mission™'
reign of Henry VIII., " to visit, reform, redress, order, cor
rect and amend all en-ors, heresies, schism's, abuses, con
tempts, offences, and enormities whatsoever." When the
oath of supremacy was tendered to the bishops, vrith the
exception of Kitchen, Bishop of Landaff,+ they all refused
it. Dr. Parker was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop
by some of the bishops who had been ejected during the '"^ ™
reign of Mary ; and the other sees were likewise filled by
Protestant bishops. Injunctions, similar in most respects
to those of King Edward, were issued by the Queen, which
" her lo-ving subjects were truly to observe and keep," under
heavy penalties for disobedience. These arrangements for
externals were soon followed by a declaration of articles of
religion, wliich assumed, in the convocation, the form in
which they now appear in the Book of Common Prayer ;
the Protestant Bide, Dr. Storey, late Bishop of Chichester ; Dr. Cox, late Dean
of Westminster ; Mr. Horn, late Dean of Dm'ham ; Mr. Elmar, late Archdeacon
of Stow; Mr. Whitehead; Mr. Grindai; Mr. Guest; and Mr. Jewel. The
speeches at this conference are given, at great length, by Collier, vol iL liook
vi part 2.
• Colher, vol. iL
t Campdeu calls this bishop '' the calamity of his see. ' Eliz. p. 36.

116

RISE OF THB PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. IV.

Nonconformity.

though subscription to them was not required by law until
nine years after. The bishops, however, used their most
-vigorous efforts to secure subscription from the gi'eat body
of the clergy.
Among the clergy, and indeed, throughout the nation,
there were several parties who refused to subscribe. Pass
ing by the Romanists with simply remarking that out of
9400 clergy, not more than about 240 resigned their Uv-
Ings, we proceed to record the principles of the Puritans,
their conduct, and the consequences to themselves, and to
the nation. The principles of the Puritans were few and
simple. While they took the oath of supremacy as exclud
ing all foreign jurisdiction in this realm, and offered no ob
jection to the doctrines of the Church, they had scruples
respecting the conformity which was required of them io
"outward habits and forms. These forms and habits were
confessedly and purposely retained from the ancient super
stition. They had been laid aside by all the other Reformed
Churches throughout Europe. They had been strongly ob
jected to by most of the Reformers, even by several of those
who were now bishops. It appears by the letters of these
bishops to BuUinger, that they preserved the ancient habits
rather in compliance with the Queen's inclinations than out
of any Uking to them. Jewel, in a letter bearing date the
8th February, 1566, writes that he -wishes the vestments,
together with all the other remnants of Popery, might be
thrown both out of their churches and out of the minds of
the people ; and he laments the Queen's "fixedness to them"
so that she would suffer no change to be made. And in Janu
ary of the same year, Sandys, Bishop of Worcester, writes
to the same purpose : " Disputes are now on foot concern
ing the Popish vestments^ whether they should be used or
not ; but God will put an end to these things." Horn,
Bishop of Winchester, went further : for, in a letter dated
16th July, 1565, he writes of '' the Act Concerning the
Habits" with great regret, and expresses some hopes that
it might be repeated next session of Parliament, if the
Popish party did not hinder it ; and he seems to stand in
doubt, whether he himself should conform to it, or not —
upon which he asks BuUinger's advice. In many other
letters of that age, it is asserted that both Cranmer and

BEISN OP ELIZABETH. 117
Ridley, had intended to procure an act for abolishing the BOOK n.
habits ; that they only defended their lawfulness, not their chapTi-V
fitness ; and, therefore, they blamed private persons that
refused to obey the laws. Grindai, in a letter dated 27tli
August, 1566, writes, that '' all the bishops who had been
beyond sea had, at their return, dealt with the Queen to let
the matter of the habits fall ; but she was so prepossessed that,
though they had all endeavoured io divert her from prosecut
ing thai matter, she continued still inflexible. This had
made them submit to the laws, and to wait for an oppor
tunity to reverse them." Dr. Cox, Bishop of Ely, whose
appeai-ance at Frankfort has been described, in one of his
letters concerning his travels, laments the aversion they
found in paiiiament to all the propositions that were made
for the reformation of abuses. Dr. Sandys, in a letter to
Archbishop Parker says : " How the folks go, I cannot
well tell ; but I assure you mine go soberly, and decently,
as they offered no price of the Queen's injunctions. For, if
I be under the yoke, such as pertain to me shall draw in the
same yoke with me."*
PUkington, Bishop of Durham, thus addressed the Earl of Disputes
Leicester, Chancellor of Oxford : " Consider, I beseech Habits.
your honour, how that all countries, which have reformed
religion, have cast away the Popish apparel with the Pope ;
and yet we who would be taken for the best, contend to keep
it as a holy relic. Mark, also, how many ministers there
be in all countries who are so zealous, not only to forsake
the wicked doctrine of Popery, but ready to leave the
ministrj', and thefr livings, rather than be like the Popish
teachers of such superstitions, either in apparel or behaviour.
This realm has such scarcity, that if so many worthy men
should be cast out of the ministry for such small matters,
many places would be destitute of preachers ; and it would
give an incurable offence to all the favourers of God's truth
in other countries. ShaU we make that so precious which
other Reformed Churches esteem as vUe 1 God forbid !
. . . Though things may be borne with for Christian
liberty's sake, for a time, in hope to wm the weak, yet
when liberty is turned to necessity, it is evil, and no hnger
* Strype's Parker, p. 166.

118

RISE OF THE PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. IV.

Remonstrances of
Heads of
Colleges.

-Wliltting-
ham-s oppo
sition to the
Vestments.

liberty ; and that which was for winning the weak, is be
come the confirming the forward."-*
Some heads of colleges, and persons of character, at
Cambridge, thus addressed Cecil, their chancellor : " A
report has reached us, that, for the future, all the scholars of
this university will be forced to return to the old Popish
habits. This is daily mentioned to us by a great multitude
of pious and learned men, who affirm, in their consciences,
that they think every ornament of this kind is unlawful ;
and, if the intended proclamation is enforced, they will be
brought into the greatest danger. Lest our university
should be forsaken, we thiuk it is one of the first duties to
acquaint you with this condition of ourselves and our
brethren. And by these letters we humbly beg, as well
from your wisdom as from your credit and favour with the
Queen's majesty, that you would intercede -vsith her to
withhold a proclamation of this kind. For, as far as we
can see, there can be no danger or inconvenience in ex
empting us from this burden ; but on the contrary, we
very much fear, that it will prove a hinderance to the
preaching of the gospel and to literature. By your suc
cessful application to this, you will no doubt confer a great
benefit, not only to us, but on the nation at large.t
Nowel, Dean of St. Paul's, granted the lawfulness of the
hahit .- but he moved against the wearing of it, for fear it
might open the way to further abuses ; he moved, also, for
a stronger declaration against superstition ; for a fuller as
sertion of the liberty of the Christian religions, and to put
an end to disputes among brethren, J
WniTTiNOHAM, whom we have formerly seen as a leader
of the church at Frankfort, and who, on his return home,
obtained, through the influence of the Earl of Warwick, the
deanery of Durham from the Queen, wrote a most earnest
letter to the Earl of Leicester, beseeching him to do all he
could to prevent the rigorous enforcement of law respecting
• StrjTie's Parker. Appendix, No. xxv.
t Strype's Parker, Appendix, No. xxv. Siijned by Robert Beaumont,
Roger Kelk, JIatthew Hutton, Ricliard Long, with John Whil'iift. Strype calls
them "hot-headed men," and Archbishop Parker termed them "Catalines."
Of the latter Strype says: "was very ill taken, and Dr. Beaumont was severely
chidden for it— and Wliitgift was fain to make his apology ; and so that busi
ness (howsoever by men well intended) was clashed."— Lifeof VnutKift p. 9.
J Sti-ype's Parker. Collier's Ch. Hia. voL ii. p. 498.

EEIQN OP ELIZABETII. 119
cleric vestments. The letter is given by Strype, in the rook H,
appendix to his life of Parker.* " What agreement," he 
asks, " can the superstitious inventions of men have with ' '
the pure word of God ? What edification can there be,
when the Spirit of God is grieved, the children of God dis
couraged, wicked Papists confirmed" and a door opened for
such Popish traditions and anti-Christian impiety t And
can that be called true Christian liberty, where a yoke is
laid on the necks of the disciples, where the conscience is
clogged with impositions, where faithful preachers are
threatened with deprivation, where the regular dispensation
of the word of God is intei-rupted, where congregations are
robbed of their learned and godly pastors, and where the
holy sacraments are made subject to superstitious and idola
trous vestments ?" After referring to the consent of the
fathers in the notion that agreement with idolatry is per
nicious, and refuting the plea of policy on behalf of the
obnoxious garments, he says : — " If we compel the servants The opinions
of Christ to conform unto the Papists, I greatly fear we ilai^'j,n''tjw
shall retui-n again to Popery. Oui- case very soon will be Vestments.
deplorable, if such compulsion should be used against us,
while so much lenity is used towards the Papists. How
many Papists enjoy their liberty and livingst who have
neither sworn obedience to the Queen's majesty, nor dis
charged their duty to thefr miserable flocks. These men
laugh and triumph to see us treated thus, and are not
ashamed of boasting that they hope the rest of Popery will
soon return.^: My noble Lord, pity the disconsolate churches.
Hear the cries and groans of many thousands of God's poor
children, hungering and thirsting after spiritual food. I
need not appeal to the word of God, to the history of the
* No, xxxvii.
t By the " Act of Assurance," the archbishops and bishops were empowered
to tender the oath of supremacy to their clergy. Archbishop Parker was sen
sible of the severity of the statute, and that the execution of it would draw an
imputation of cruelty upon the bishops. To screen the Papists from suffering,
and the bishops from censure, he wrote to his suffragans, with the knowledge
oftheQueen-s mind, and with the approbation of Secretary Cecil, requesting
them to act with great caution and lenity towards the Popish clergy, so that
none of them, excepting Bonner, had the oaths of supremacy offered to them.
"l-bis is a proof of the " lenity '' which Whittingham contrasts with the harsh
ness shown to the Puritans.
t Strype's Parker, p. 125. STowel's Reproof; Pelyt. MSS., cited by Collier,
Ecc. History, voL iii. pp. 482-484.

120 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK n. primitive Church, to the just judgments of God poured Out
^gjjy, jy upon the nations for lack of true reformation.
" Judge ye betwixt us and our enemies; and if we seek tlic
glory of God alone, the enjoyment of true Christian liberty,
the overthrow of all idolatry and superstition, and to -win
souls to Christ, I beseech your honour to pity our case, and
to use your utmost endeavom'S to secure unto us our
Ubei'ty." The questions most interesting to the Puritans were taken
lioposals of up at the convocation held in St. Paul's in the year 1562.
tim. °™'^" Dr. Sandys, Bishop of Worcester, brought forward a pro
posal for abolishing baptism by women, and the sign of the
cross in baptism ; and also for a committee of bishops and
other leai-ned men, to be appointed by the Queen, to draw
a scheme for church discipline and government.-* A paper,
subscribed by thirty-three members of the Lower House,
besides requiring the disuse of lay-baptism and the sign of
the cross, required the substituting of reading or singing
the psalms for chanting ; kneeling at the Lord's Supper
to be left to the discretion of the ordinary ; the laying
aside of copes and surplices, the same habit to be worn in
the desk and in the pulpit ; the censure on Nonconformity
be made more gentle ; all festivals, except Sundays and
the principal feasts to be abolished ; and the minister to
turn his face to the people in common prayer. The dispute
on these points in the Lower House of convocation was car
ried on with much earnestness by both parties. Some of
the clergy proposed referring the controversy to the Upper
House ; but others protested against any compromise.
When they came to the vote, it appears by Strype's ae-
Count,t that, of the clergy present, forty-three were in fa
vour of the changes thus desired, and thirty-five disapproved
of any alterations ; but as there were only fifteen proxies
for the changes, and twenty-four against them, the un
altered Book of Common Prayer was carried by a majority
of ONE ! " Whether the objections of the Puritanical clergy
are to be deemed narrow and frivolous, or other^vise, it is
^^rtafln- i^'^o'isistent with veracity to dissemble that the Queen
ence of the ALONE was the cause of retaining those observances to which
Qneen. • Pelyt, MS.
t Annals, vol L c. 29. Journal of the Convocation. Burnet, voL iii. Ke-
cords in the Appendix.

REIQN OP ELIZABETH. 121
the great separation from the Anglican establishment is as- book ?.
cribed. Had her influence been withdrawn, sui'iilices and ohap IV
square caps would have lost their steadiest friend, and se
veral other little accomodations to the prevalent dispositions
of Protestants would have taken place. ... I am far
from being convinced that it would not have been practi
cable, by receding a little fi-om that uniformity wliich go
vernors delight to prescribe, to have palliated in a great
measure, if not put an end for a time, to the discontent
that so soon endangered the new establishment. The frivo
lous usages to which so many fi'ivolous objections were
raised, such as the tippet and surplice, the sign of the cross
in baptism, the ring in matrimony, the posture of kneeling
at the communion, might have been left to private discre-,
tion, not possibly, without some inconvenience, but less, as
I conceive, than resulted from rendering- thefr observance
indispensable. Nor should we aUow ourselves to be tumed
aside by the common reply- — that no concessions of this
kind would have ultimately prevented the disunion of the
Church upon more essential differences than these bigotted
ceremonies ; since the science of policy, like that of medi
cine, must content itself -with devising remedies for im
mediate danger, and can, at bp.st, only retard the progress
of that intrinsic decay which seems to be the law of all
things human, and through which, every institution of
man, Uke his earthly frame, must one day crumble into
ruin." -*
The uniformity prescribed by law was by no means covert toler.
carried out in practice. Though the Queen's heart was set Bishops. °
upon it, and Archbishop Parker, the severest of discipUn-
arians, had made up his mind to enforce the law with the
utmost rigiour, the Puritans were enUghtened, determined,
conscientious, and eminently learned men ; they were fa
voured, to a greater or less extent, by all the bishops ;t
they enjoyed the protection of the principal members of Of the Coid^
the Queen's Council — Leicester, Walsingham, the Lord
Keeper Bacon, Bedford, Warwick, Huntingdon, Sadler, and
KnoUys.t * Hallam's Constitutional History, chap. iv.
t strype s Annals, VOL i. p 117 ; Oxford edition, vol 11. p. 641,
isttype's Parker, pp. 156, 226, 388. 6

122

EISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK n,
CHAP. IV.
The agree
ment of
ForeignDivine.^

Resolute op
position of
the Clergy.

The Queen's
supremacy.

They were strong, too, in the concurrence of all the
foreign divines of the Reformation, who, whatever variety
of opinions they might have on the expediency of confor
mity/or a while, strongly denounced the evil of retaining
the badges of the superstition which it had cost them so
much to renounce : ¦* and they had the popular feeling of
prejudice on their side. — " The lay people were gi-owing
into an abhorrence of those who wore the habits enjoined,
and of the sei-vice of God ministered by them. Insomuch
that, soon after, numbers of them refused to come to the
churches to hear sermons, or to keep the ministers in com
pany or to salute them ; nay, as Wliitgift in his Defence
says, ' they spat in their faces, revUed them in the streets,
and showed such like rude behaviour towards them ; and
that only because of their apparel.' " t
Many of the clergy refused to wear these objectionable
habits, assigning, as their reasons, that they were used by
the idolatrous priests of Rome ; — that they defiled and ob
scured the priesthood of Christ ; — that they increased hy
pocrisy, and pride ; — that they were contrary to scripture ;
— and that the enforcement of them was tyranny.
All this dissatisfaction could not be unknown to the
Queen, who, priding herself on her ecclesiastical supremacy
above all the prerogatives of the crown, could iU brook the
opposition of either clergy or laity, of any degree, to her
imperious will. In a letter to Archbishop Parker, dated
Jan. 25, 1564, she sternly condemned the variety and
contentions, which she ascribed to the negligence of the
bishops ; expressed her determination to put down all Non
conformity ; and strictly charged him to use the strongest
measm-es to maintain through the whole realm the order

•"Their opposition in the use of the surplice was much confirmed and
countenanced, as weU by the wTitings as the nraclice of Peter MartjT, who
kept a constant intercourse with Calvin at his being here. For, in his writ
ings, he declared to a ftitnd of his, (who required his judgment in the case)
that such vestments, being in themselves iiidifferent, would make no man
godly or ungodly, cither by forbearance, or the use thereof; but that he
thought it more expedient to the good of the Chm-di, that they and all others
Of that kind should be taken away, when the next convenient opportunity
should present itself; . . . where there is so much contending for mere out
ward matters there is but little care for true religion. And he assures of hun-
self, (in point of practice) that though he was a canon of Christ Churcii, and
dilige: t enough in attending the divine service, as the others did, yet henevel
could be pei-suaded to use that vestment" Derius Bedivivus, p 241
? Stijpe's Annals, voL 1 c 41, p. 460.

REIQN OF ELIZABETH. 123
and uniformity required by law ; urging him to use all BOOK IL
expedition that, hereafter, she might not have occasion to CHAP~IV
use such sharp proceedings as would not be easily borne by
the disobedient. "*
Within two days the active Archbishop communicated Proceedings
her Majesty's orders to the Bishop of London, (Grindai) ins'."i'«<l
charging him to make them known to all the bishops in them.
the province of Canterbury ; and requiring, without delay,
the names of all the clergy who refused compliance. The
Archbishop himself, with the Bishops of London, Ely,
Winchester, Lincoln, and othei-s, sat as ecclesiastical com
missioners at Lambeth. Here several of the Nonconform
ing clergy and members of the universities were summoned
before them. Though they exhorted them to obey the
orders of the Church, and threatened to deprive them of
their livings if they stood out, " this business went on hea
vily among the bishops, in their several dioceses, but espe
cially in London ; those here that opposed the wearing the
habits well knowing that they had the Earl of Leicester,
Sir Francis KnoUys, and some others, their friends at
court and council.' ' t
It is not improbable that the unwillingness displayed by Motives for
some of the leading men in England to press the Queen's ™° ''^ '"'¦
desire for uniformity arose fi-om motives which were inde
pendent of any agi-eement any of them might have in the
opinions, or sympathy with the scruples, of the Puritans.
There was a danger of the government becoming arbitrary, i,
at a time when it was of the highest importance that the
monarch should be popular. In the past history of Eliza
beth, there had not been wanting proofs of a disposition
which rendered her adherence to the Roman system by no
means beyond apprehension. Her consent to the Reformed
rehgion was anything but hearty. During her sister's -nie Queen's
reign she had gone to mass. She had protested to Count '^™^^ **
Feria, Philip's ambassador fi-om Spain, that she acknow
ledged the real presence in the sacrament. She confessed
to the Lord Lumac that she sometimes prayed to the Vir
gin. On her coming to the throne she ordered Sfr Edward
Kame, her sister's ambassador at Rome, to notify her acces-
• strype's Parker, Appendix to Book li, where the entire letter is printei
f Stiype's Annals, voL i. p 462.

124

RISE OP THE PUBITASS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. IV.

The Crucifix
in her cha
pel

The exten
sive adhe
rence to
Puritan
principles.

sion to Pope Paul X. The mass was celebrated publicly at
her coronation, wiien the episcopal robes of Bonner were
boiTOwed to add to the splendour of that ceremony She
had ordered chaniies in the liturgy which were favourable
to the religion of Rome. She always expressed an invin
cible objection to the man-iage of the clei-ofj'. The domestic
use of the Roman ceremonies by pei-sons of rank was
allowed. The nonconforming Catholic bishops were treated
with respectful indulgence. Pope Pius IV. addressed a
letter to the Queen, composed in a gentle and lo-ving style,
"offering to confirm the English liturgj-, to allow the
sacratJent in both kinds, and to disannul the sentence
against the marriage of her mother. Queen Ann Boleyn,
¦with Heni-y VIIL, if she would acknowledge the Papal
authority." ¦* Wealthy Catholics were exempted from the
punishments which the law demanded, by annual payments
to the Queen's revenue.t
For many years, her Majesty persisted, against the
judgment of all the Reformers, and to the great scandal of
the people, in retaining the crucifix in her chapel, even
when crucifixes were broken down, by her own authority,
in all the churches and public places.
The great statesmen of that reign could not but look
with soUcitude on the succession to the throne of England,
in the event of Elizabeth's death. The greater part of the
higher nobility had shown a determination to support the
title of Mary, Queen of Scots.
With such a prospect, it was not likely that these saga
cious rulei-s could wish to depress the stern conscientious
ness of the only class of men on whom they could rel}', for
resisting the probable attempt at the subversion of the
Protestant religion. When it is remembered, as it must be
by most weU-informed persons, that the principles of the
Puritans prevailed among the most thoughtful, religious,
and energetic portions of the EngUsh community, — among
those especiaUy who cared more earnestly than others for
• Strj'pe's Annals, vol. i. p. 228.
t Strj-pe's Annals, vols, iii, and iv. It is not forgotten, in these statements, that
the Catholics were made to suffer for their religion. This is not the place for
proving, what seems undoubted, that, notwithstanding ail that has been said
by Protestant wTitei-s to the contrary, the CathoUcs were persecuted in EUza
beth's ri'ign ; but the Queen lierself was inchned to in iulgence rather than
severity, so far as they were concerned.

R£1G.N OF ELIZABETH. 125
the permanence of tbe Protestant Reformation, — it wiU be BOOK ii
easy to perceive that the questions raised by the Queen's ch'^u^iv
pertinacity went inuch deeper, both into religion and into
national policy, than the enemies of the Puritans have
allowed themselves to fancy. If any evidence of this were
wanting it could be amply drawn from the journals of the
House of Commons, printed by Sir Simonds D'Ewes.
The expressed opinions of the Continental divines were The opinions
ui^ed against the Puritans by their opponents, and they ti^fSn'ti-*^
have been somewhat unfairly represented by party histo- nentai Di-
rians.-* They all entertained views of the subjects in ^""^^'
dispute which were exactly the same with those of the
Puritans up to the point of resigning the ministry in the
established church. Home, Bishop of Winchester, wrote
(as Strype judges, in the name of the other bishops) to
Gualter, a minister of the Church at Zurich, a letter,
dated July 17, 1565. In this letter he says — that the
law for wearing the square cap and the surplice expressly-
declared that they were to be worn without any opinion
of superstition; — that when this law was passed, they
themselves were not bishops ; — that the law being passed
there was no dispensing with its requirements ; — that
they conformed, lest the Papists should enter on their
functions; — that he hoped part of this act would be re
pealed in the next parliament ;¦ — and that if this hope
should be disappointed, it was the opinion of the English
bishops that they ought toabide in their ministerial function.
The answer of Gualter to this letter was in favour of By Gnalter
the Bngliiih clergy wearing the habits rather than give g",., ""
up their ministi-y. At the same time, Gualter and BulUnger
kept up a correspondence with Humphrey and Sampson,
Puritan leaders, on the one hand, and with the bishops on
the other. To the Puritans they wrote privately, exhorting
them not to push their objections to such extremities as
to resign thefr ministry ; and to the bishops, earnestly
entreating them to use their influence -with the Queen
on behalf of their dissenting brethren. There was Uke
wise a letter from BulUnger and Gualter to the Duke of
Bedford, urging him to employ his power in the parliament,
and -with the Queen, in favour of the Nonconformists.
• Mr. Hallam says that Neale has not reported the matter tklthAilly.

126

RISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. IV.

Dr. Hum-
rhiey's re
tum from
exile.

Persuasions to Confor-
mitv.

From a thorough examination of all these letters, I can
not doubt that the Reformers in general were opposed in
thefr judgment to the things imposed on the clergy, and to
the principle upon which they were imposed ; while the
greater part of them did not agree with the Puritans in
carrying the objections so far as to relinquish office in the
establishment rather than comply,-*
Of Dr. Humphrey some mention has been made. On
his return from exile he was restored to his fellowsliip in
Magdalene College, Oxford, and appointed public divinity-
reader in that univei-sity. Mr. Secretary Cecil urged the
Queen to appoint him to one of the vacant bishoprics ; on
which occasion the gi-eatest joy was felt among the most
studious men in Oxford. Though the Queen did not ap
point him to a bishopric, because of his disobedience to her
injunctions, his Nonconformity was connived at ; until, in
February, 1576, he was induced by the persuasion of Cecil
to conform. He was one of those who were cited to appear
before the ecclesiastical commission in 1564. Archbishop
Parker endeavoured to persuade both him and Sampson to
conform, by urging the inconvenience of differences, the
authority of the Queen's letters, and the judgment of
Bucer and of Peter Martyr in favour of compliance. How
ever, they persisted in their objections, Notwithstanding
these objections. Dr. Horn, Bishop of Winchester, presented
Humphrey to a living in the diocese of Salisbury, but Jewel,
the Bishop of that diocese, wrote to the Archbishop that,
" in respect of his (Humphrey's) vain ambition about
apparel, he thought best to make a stay, till he understood
his grace's pleasure ; and that, unless he should otherwise
ad-vise him by his letter, he minded not in any wise to
receive him : adding, that his long sufferance bred great
offence." +
It was during this time that Humphrey joined Sampson
in the coi-respondence with BuUinger which has been re-

*Thc letters here referred to were copied from the manuscript belonging to
the Church at Zurich for the use of Dr. Bumet. The number of letters thus
copied was about tliirty-six. They are printed in Latin among tlie Records
appended to the Supplement to Bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation.
The entire collection is preserved, partly in the archives of the State of Zurich,
and partly ii the City Library. They have been published, with translation!
into Enghsh, by the Parker Society, 1842.
t Strype's Annals, voL L p. 464.

RinlON OF ELIZABETII. 127
ferred to. He also addressed an elegant L.itin letter to the BOOK IL
Queen, iu which he says, '' that her IMajesty well knew chap"iv
that, in iuditt'erent things contended about, it was la^^'ful p^, Hum-
for every man to use them, or not to use them, when it phrey-sietter
might be done without prejudice and offence ; and that the
Uberty of conscience ought not to be restrained ; that,
whatever was reported to her Majesty against them, he
prayed her to remember that saying — Take heed how you
believe; that, as for his own mind, and obedience to her, not
only his word, but his book ' of Nobility,' and that, likewise,
of Cyril's Commentary upon Isaiah, by him translated, — ¦
both of which w-orks he had dedicated to her, — would
amply show it ; and the same might be said truly of his
brethren ; that — since, therefore, what they required was
in itself honest,''while that which was commanded was
dubious, and that they who petitioned were her most loyal
subjects, and ministers, — he asked her, ' Why, 0 Queen,
should the mercy which is wont to be open to all others,
be closed against us 1 You are not wiUing that a prince
should yield to subjects ; but in your clemency you can
spare the -wretched. You do not wish to rescind a public
decree ; yet you can relax, and remit it. You cannot take
away a law ; yet you might grant toleration. It is not
right to give way to men's prejudices ; yet it is most just
not to force men's minds. Therefore, most illustrious
Princess, I do most humbly pray you seriously to consider
the majesty of the glorious gospel, the equity of our
cause, the fewness of labourers, the greatness of the har
vest, the multitude of taxes, the heaviness of the punish
ment." ¦*
In 1580 Dr. Humphrey was made Dean of Winchester,
which was his last preferment.t
When Dr. Sampson retumed home from exile, after the Dr. Sampson
death of Mary, he was informed that there was some in- bishopril
• The original letter is m Baker's MS. Collection, British Museum j it is
printedui Strype's Annals, vol L Appendix, no. 27. ^ ,..,., . . j.
t"At length, after Dr. Humphrey had spent most part of his life in a studi
ous and retired condition, tliough with little comfort of his wife and children,
he departed this mortal life on the calends of February, in 1589, aged sixty-
three, and was buried at the upper end of the inner chapel of Magdalene
CoUege. Soon after was a comely monument set over his grave, m the south
waU; which, when the said chapel was adomed, and paved with marble, was
removed, and set up on the south wall of the outer chapeL' - Woogi Athene,
vuL L pp. 242, 243, second edition.

128 RISE OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL tention of making him a bishop ; but, as he had objections
f,nTp'TV to the restraints on the liberty of preachers, and to the
superstitions indtdged in by the Queen, he opened his mind
to Peter Martyr and BulUnger, requesting their ad-vice.
The result was that he refused the bishopric of Norwich ;
which was accepted by Parkhurst.' — Twenty-two members
of Christ Church, Oxford, applied to Lord Dudley to induce
the Queen to appoint Sampson Dean of that college, urg
ing, that after well considering all the leamed men in the
country, they found none to be compared to him for singular
leaming and great piety, having the praise of all men ; and
that it was very doubtful whether there was a better man,
a greater linguist, a more competent scholar, or a more
profound divine. Among the signatures to this letter were
those of Lawrence Humphrey, the Regius Professor of
Divinity ; James Calfhill, the Subdean ; Thomas Francis,
the Regius Professor of Phj'sic ; Giles Lawrence, Regius
Greek Professor ; and Herbert Westphaling, afterwards
Bishop of Hereford.-*
In 1662, Sampson preached at Paul's Cross, where "he
Sermon at declared the three former Spital Sermons in Easter Week,
as he had done, 1 think, twice before : being appointed
thereunto in regard of his eloquent execution and me
mory. The aforesaid Dean, so often noted before for his
frequent preaching before the Queen, and in other great
and honourable assemblies, preached on the festival of the
Circumcision, being New Year's Day, at St. Paul's, whi
ther the Queen resorted. Here a remarkable passage
happened, and it is recorded in a great man's memorials
who lived in those times." f
The Dean having gotten from a foreigner several fine cuts
The Queen's and pictures representing the stories and passions of the
theplctares saints and martyrs, had placed them against the epistles
of Saints. and gospels of their festivals in a common prayer-book ; and
this book he had caused to be richly bound and laid on the
cushion for the Queen's use in the place where she commonly
sat ; intending it for a New- Year's gift to her Majesty, and
thinking to have pleased her Majesty therewith. But it
had not that effect, but the contrary ; for she considered
• strype's Annals, vol i. p. 474.
t Sir H. Sidney's Memorials, among Arclibi»hop Usher's MSS.

REI(3N OP ELIZAllETU. 129
how this varied from her late injunctions and proclamations BOOK IL
against the superstitious use of images in churches, and for chaF'iv
the taking away all such relics of Popery. When she came
to her palace, she opened the book, and perused it, and saw
the pictures, but frowned and blushed, and then shut it,
(of which several took notice,) and calling the verger, bade
him bring her the old book, wherein she was formerly wont
to read. After sermon, whereas she was wont to get imme
diately on horseback, or into her chariot, she went straight
to the vestry, and applying herself to the Dean, thus she
spake to him :
" Q'ueen. — Mr. Dean, how came it to pass that a new ser- Her chiding
vice-book was placed on my cushion ? Sampson for
" Sampson. — May it please your Majesty, I caused it to be ^" ^.^'^•n
placed there.
'- Queen. — Wherefore did you do so ?
"Sampson. — To present your Majesty with a New-Year's
gift.* " Queen. — You could never present me with a worse.
" Sampson. — Why so. Madam 1
" Queen. — You know I have an aversion to idolatry, to
images, and pictures of this kind.
" Sampson. — Wherein is the idolatry, may it please your
Majesty 1
" Queen. — In the cuts resembling saints and angels ; nay,
grosser absurdities, pictures resembUng the blessed Trinity.
" Sampson. — I meant no harm, nor did I think it would
offend your Majesty, when I intended it for a New- Year's
gift. " Q-ueen. — You must needs be ignorant then. Have you
forgot our proclamation against images, pictures, and
Romish relics and the churches 1 Was it not read in your
deanery ?
"Sampson. It was read. But be your Majesty assured
I meant no harm when I caused the cuts to be bound with
the service-book.
'• Queen. You must needs be very ignorant, to do this
after our prohibition of them.
• It was usual for her Majesty to receive such gifts, of which a register vru

130

RISE OF THE PURITANS.

BOOK n.
CILAP. IV.

Destruction
of Paintings
in Churches.

Proceedingsof Convoca
tion.

" Sampson. It being my ignorance, your Majesty may
the better pardon me.
" Queen. 1 am sorry for it ; yet glad to hear it was
your ignorance rather than your opinion.
"Sampson. Be your Maj esty assured it was my igno
rance. " Queen. If so, Mr. Dean, God grant you his Spirit,
and more wisdom for the future.
" Sampson. Amen, I pray God.
" Queen. I pray, Mr. Dean, how came you by the pic
tures ? who engraved them ?
" Sampson. I know not who engraved them, I bought
them. " Queen. From whom bought you them 1
"Sampson. From a German.
" Queen. It is well it was from a sti-anger ; had it
been any of our subjects, we should have questioned the
matter. Praj' let no more of these mistakes, or of this
kind, be committed within the churches of our realm in
future. " Sampson. There shall not."
This matter occupied all the clergy in and about Lon
don, and the church-wardens of each parish, to search
their churches and chapels, and caused them to wash out
of the walls all paintings that seemed to be Romish and
idolatrous ; and in lieu thereof suitable texts of Scripture
to be written.-*
At the Convocation in 1562, we find Sampson's name,
-ivith those of Nowel, Leaver, and Calfhill, among the
thirty-three signatures to the paper which was rejected,
as we have already seen, by a majority of one. While
the Convocation was discussing the subject of discipline,
the Prolocutor, (Nowel, Dean of St. Paul's,) with Dr.
Sampson and Dr. Day, (Provost of Eton,) presented to
the Upper House a book — Catechism.es Pueroram, — to which
all the members of the Lower House had unanimously

* Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 23. Tills fact has been referred to by some as a
proof of the Queen's sincerity in the work of Reformation, and by others, aa
ntrangely in-econcilable with her persevering in having an altar and an iin.age
in her own chapel. The truth is, that her Majesty was sensitively alive to any
apparent disobedience to her injunctions, while, at the same time, she would
allow no interference with her personal freedom. Both facts illustrAte her
royal determination to have her own w

REION OF ELIZABETH. 131
given their consent. They left the book with their lord- book IL
ships ; but there, uiifortunatelv, it remained, without any —
further notice." ¦*- ' ™^ ^^
Archbishop Parker, with some of the bishops, had drawn
up a book for all ministei-s to subscribe, which, not hav
ing the Queen's sanction, was called ADVERTiSEMENTS.t
The Secretary, Cecil, used his best persuasion to urge Cecil's di,s-
Sampson to conform, telling him that ''he save offence™^™"'""*
,,.,.,,. , , , ,. ° Sampson.
by his disobedience, and that obedience was better than
sacrifice." In a long letter to tbe Secretary, Sampson
gave his reasons for not conforming to the use of the
prescribed apparel, founded on tbe divine prohibitions
against the ceremonies and fashions of idolatry ; — on the
warnings of Christ and of his apostles against the traditions
of the Pharisees ; — on the constitutions of some of the
primitive fathers of the Church, forbidding ceremonies and
feshions devised and used by idolaters and heretics ; — and
on the corrupt statD of the church which prescribed a
"singular form of uniform array to the ministry." — He
contecded that all reformations ought to be framed after
the fii-st pure state. — He -iffirmed that he could give the
Secretary the proof of everything he thus asserted. " These,
he said, were but some of the reasons, not all, that moved
him in this cause to do as he did. That he put not
herein a law to the consciences of other men, whom, in
their standing or falling, he left to the Lord. And so he
desired to be left." J
In 1664 Sampson was deprived of his deanei-y, removed Sampson de
from Oxford, and put in confinement by the ecclesiastical J^n^^yf^
commissioners. " We find the state severe enough," says
a bitter enemy of the Puritans, " against their proceedings,
even to tbe deprivation of Dr. Thomas Sampson, Dean of
Christ Church, to which dignity he had been unhappily
preferred in the first year of the Queen ; and being looked
upon as the head of this faction, was worthily deprived
* Churton-s Life of Nowel, cited by Mr, Brook. Lives of the Puritans, voL
I. p. 378.
i 1 he Advertisements were checked at present by the interposing of the
Earl of Leicester, of KnoUys, and some other courtpatrons of the Dissenters:
however, afterwards, they recovered their flrst title of Ordinances, and were
given in charge at a metropolitical visitation, in the year 1576. Regist. Grindal'B
Life of Arciibishop Parker, p. 160. Collier-s Ecclesiastical History, voL 11 p.
406. J Sti-ype s Annals, vnL i. pp. 474, 47S.

132 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL thereof by the Queen's commissioners. They found, by
CHAP. IV. t'^i^ severity, what they were to trust to, if anything were
practised by them against the liturgy, the doctrine of the
V Church, or the public government." *
After his deprivation at Oxford, Sampson, still persisting
Hlscmtlnued in his Nonconformity, was master of an hospital near Lon-
Nonconfor ^^^^ called Whittington College, where he read a lecture
every term, for the yearly stipend of ten pounds, given him
by the company of clothworkers. ¦ Nine years after bis de
privation, he is referred to by Strype as the master of an
hospital of William de Wigston at Leicester.
In his later years Sampson had an interesting corres-
Hls corres- pondence with his former companion in exile at Strasburg,
P™*?,"?^, , Grindai, now Archbishop of York. In one of these letters,
WithGnndal, ' . ^ ,. i *
Archbishop referring to some kmd expressions of the Archbishop res-
" ""^ - pecting his poverty and his palsy, he expresses himself in
the following touching and dignified language : " I do not
remember that I ever complained of either the one or the
other ; if I did of the former, I was to blame, for I must
have complained before I suffered want. Touching my
lameness, I am so far from complaining, that I humbly
thank God for it. It is the Lord's hand which hath touched
me. He might have smitten or destroj'cd me ; but of his
most rich favour and mercy through Jesus Christ, as a lov
ing father, he hath dealt thus tenderly with me. I bless
and praise his name for it. If he see that my poor labours
will be of any further service in his Church, he -will heal
me ; but if he have determined by this lameness to lead me
to my grave, the Lord give me grace to say with Eli, ' It is
tlie Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.' I shall la
bour as well as I am able, till I drop into the grave. Though
I am in bonds, those bonds are from the Lord, and if it
were put to my choice, I would rather carry them to my
\y grave, than be freed from them, and be cumbered with a
bishopric." t
The last mention of Sampson we can trace in the public
Supplication documents is his addressing in 1584, to Lord Burghley, " a
I^rdTmgh- supplication to be exhibited to our sovereign lady, Queen
ley. Elizabeth, to the honourable lords of her most honourable
• jErius Bedivivus, by Peter Heylin, D.D.. and Chaplain to Charles I. and
Charles IL, Monarchs of Great Britain, Oxford, 1670.
T strype's Memorials of Archbishop Parker, Appendix, p. 878.

IIEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 133
priN'y council, and to the high court of parliament," con- book n.
taining thirty-four articles for the regulation of the Church, qhIFiv
accompanied by two letters, praying his Lordship to attend
to these matters. Out of these articles, Mr. Strype thinks
the Commons drew up their sixteen petitions offered to the
consideration of the Lords, of which an imperfect account
is given in D'Ewe's Journal of Parliaments. The " Sup
plication," is in the name of thousands of poor untaught
people in England, complaining of the scarcity of faith
ful preachers, of the discouragement shown to such
preachers as could not conform to human ceremonies ; of
the unprofitableness of the ceremonies enjoined ; of the
troubles inflicted on the people by the bishops and their
officei-s for resorting to places where their souls might be
edified ; of the spiritual destitution of thousands of par
ishes ; — and praying the Queen, the council, and the
parliament to devise such remedies for their ministers as
shall be thought good and necessary.*
Bale returned, not to Ireland, but to England ; where, Baleretnn
instead of maintaining his episcopal dignity, we find him in ° "^ ™
the comparative obscurity of a prebendary of Canterbui-y
Cathedral. He refused to attend the consecration of Arch
bishop Parker. It seems that during his exile at Frankfort
and Basle, he had embraced the principles of the continental
Reformers, which indisposed him to accept a bishopric.t
His diligence is apparent from his voluminous writings.
His vehement attacks on the power of the Pope procured
him the honour of a place in the Index Expurgatorius, —
* Anthony Wood says: " At length Mr. Sampson, having lived beyond the
age of man, in a perpetual motion, as it were, for the carrying on of the holy
cause, laid down his head and gave up the ghost, on the 9th of April, 1689.
Whereupon his body was buried in the chapel of the hospital of William de
Wigston, before mentioned. Over his grave was a monument soon after fas
tened to the south wall thereof, with an inscription on it, erected by his sons,
John and Nathaniel Sampson.— Wood-s Athenoe Oxoniensis, vol. i, p, 239.
t In the flrst of Queen Elizabeth, about this time (1560) he ended his life,
leaving a scholar's inventory — more books (many of his own making)
than money behind him. His friends say that Bales pen doth zealously con
fute—such as are strangere to liim conceive it doth bitterly inveigli, and his
foes say it doth damnably rail on— Papists and their opinions, though some
thing may he pleaded for his passion. Old age and ill usage ^vlU make a man
angrj'. When young he had seen their superstition ; when old he felt their
oppression. Give losers, therefore, leave to speak, and speakers to be choleric
in such cases. The best is. Bale rails no more on P pists than Papists em
ployed on the Slime subject, on Protestant writers ; and even set one against
the other, whilst the discreet reader of both, paring off the extravagances of
passion on each side, may beneflt himself in quietness from tlieu: loud and
damorons invectives.— Fuller. Church History, bookix. sect. 37-40

134 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL among those of the first class of heretical books, where he
CHAP. IV. ^^ caUed " a most impudent and scurrilous writer against
the see of Rome, the mass, the eucharist ; and one that is
pei-petually breaking out poison — for which it forbids the
reading of his works for ever."*
Mtles Coverdale's bishopric of Exeter was reserved
Myles Cover- for him, after Elizabeth's accession ; yet though he con-
consented to oiBciate at the consecration of Archbishop
Parker, he declined resuming his own dignity, as he con
tinued for some years without any preferment, living pri
vately in London, or the neighbourhood, yet preaching in
many of thechurches. Grindai, Bishop of London, was grieved
to see one who had done so much for the gospel without
the respect due to his age and services. He applied to the
Secretary to have him promoted to the bishopric of Llan-
daff, which the old Puritan refused. Grindai then ap
pointed him to the parish of St. Magnus, near London
Bridge, and obtained from the Queen as a favour, that he
should be exempted from the payment of the first-fruits,
as he had been destitute ever since his former bishopric
was taken from him, having no stipend for ten years, and,
therefore, now unable either to pay the first-fruits, or long
to enjoy the living. " If poor old Myles could be thus pro
vided for," said the aged translator,t " he should think this
enough to be as good as a feast."
The diligent historian of the London parishes has shown
that " old Myles " was not permitted to enjoy this humble
benefice more than two years.J Strype tells us that he
was deprived for Nonconformity, though he continued to
preach to crowded congregations. He died in 1568, at the
age of eighty-one, and was attended by a great multitude to
his bmial in the chancel of St. Bartholo'mew's Church.
Dr. Turner, who had been banished his country, as we
!•¦¦• T"™<"- have seen, for his attachment to the gospel, was restored by
"¦ "^ ¦ EUzabeth to his forfeited deanery of Wells. In 1559 he is
mentioned as preaching at Paul's Cross. "His audience
was very great (perhaps increased by his fame) consisting
• A catalogue of more than eighty works of Bale lias been given, besides his
great work, "The History of Illustrious British Writers." See Biographia
Britannica, Keppe's Edition, voL i. p. 854. Brook's Lives of Ihe Puritans, vol
L p. 113. ^
\ Strype's History of Grindai, p, 91.
t Ecpertorium Ecdesiasticum, New Q urt, vol i. p. 398.

reign of ELIZABETH. 135
both of court, city, and country,"* But when the bishops BOOK IL
were pressing conformity with the prescribed habits on the cii~iv
clergy, he displayed the facetiousness of his humour as well
as the stoutness of his principles. He showed his contempt
fiir the clerical garb by making an adulterer do penance in
a priest's cap, and by caUing the bishops vihite coats and
tippets gentlemen. He refused to wear the surplice, or to
use the Book of Common Prayer. Along with many others. Deprived foi
he was deprived of his living.t Three years after he died, fZl""''"'
and was buried in the chancel of St. Olave's Church, Hart
Street, London.
Thomas Becon is described, after his return from exile, .Summary
as rector of Buckland, in Hertfordshire, rector of Christ in°e^nhioing
Church, Newgate, a prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral, '•"= I'ab'ts
and rector of St. Dioni's Back Church, London. He was
one of the Loinlon clergy deprived by the ecclesiastical
commissioners at Lambeth in 1565, when the Bishop of
London's chancellor said, " My masters and the ministers
of London, the council's pleasure is, that ye strictly keep
the unity of apparel like to this man," pointing to Mr.
Robert Cole, a minister, likewise of the city, who had re
fused the habits awhile and now complied, and stood before
them canonically habited, " as you see him : that is, a
square cap, a scholar's gown priest-like, a tippet ; and in the
church a linen surplice, and inviolably observe the rubric of
the Common Prayer, and the Queen's Majesty's injunctions,
and the book of Convocation. Ye that will presently sub
scribe, wTite Volo, (I will ;) those that will not subscribe,
WTite Nolo, (I refuse.) Be brief ; make no words." And
when some would have spoken, the answer was, " Peace !
peace ! Apparitor, call the churches. Masters, answer
presently, under penalty of contempt, and set your names."
Then the sumner called first the peculiars of Canterbury ;
then some of the Winchester diocese, and lastly the London
ministers. By these resolute doings many of the incum
bents were " mightily surprised." Earl, one of these min- Rash pro
1 • C6£din,C'3 COO
isters, incumbent of St. Mildreds, Bread Street, says m his sequent
jom-nal, quoted in part by Strype, " Men's hearts were thereon.
* Strype's Annals, vol i. p. 134.
t He had revived the strife (Strj-pe says) by a book, -written, copied, and
di^ersed about.

136

rise OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK 11,
CHAP. IV.

tempted and tried. Great was the son-ow of most ministers,
and their mourning, saying. We are killed in the soul of
our souls, for this pollution of ours ; for that we cannot per
form in the singleness of our hearts this our ministry. We
abide in extreme misery — our wives, and our children, by
the proceedings of the bishops who oppose us, and place ig
norant ministers in our places,"-*
Many upon this were sequestered, and afterwards, some
deposed and deprived. " Mr, Becon refused at first, but af
terwards subscribed, and was pi-eferred."t What the pre
ferment was, does not appear. In the following year, he
became a preachej; at Paul's Cross. The prefaces to his col
lected works, .and to his Postells, or plain sermons upon the
gospels, appointed to be read throughout the year, are
dated from Canterbury.
Whitehead, who took so prominent a part in the affairs
Whitehead of the English church at Frankfort, was employed, while
re^sfngthe abroad, in writing lectures and homilies on St. Paul's
Litm-gy. Epistles. After his return home, he was one of the divines
employed in revising the liturgy. The Queen was so much
satisfied with the part he took in the dispute with the
Roman Catholics at the beginning of her reign, that she
proposed to make him Archbishop of Canterbury, which he
declined, according to Fuller,^ " out of his desire of privacy,
though some causelessly s-uspected him of disaffection to
church discipline." He likewise refused the mastership of
the hospital of the Savoy in the Strand, affirming that he
could live plentifully on the preaching of the gospel. "A
rare example of moderation," Fuller says. He delighted in
travelling about to preach the gospel in those places where
he thought it was most needed. His life was spent in celi
bacy, for which Elizabeth highly esteemed him. Fuller
says that she " valued his company for his conscientious
bluntness."!!

• Brook's Lives of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 219, quoted here. Baker's MSS,
Collection, vol. i. p, IS*-
t Strype.
t Worthies of England, vol. li. p. 19. Ed. Nultale, 1840.
Q Lord Bacon relates an anecdote illustrative of this ; Whitehead, a grave
divine, was much esteemed by Queen Elizabeth, but not preferred, because he
was against the government of bishops. He was of a blunt, stoical nature. He
came one day to the Queen, and the Queen happened to say to him, " I like
thee better. Whitehead, because thon livest mimarried," He answered, "In

KEIQN OF ELIZABETH. 137
Fuller calls him a "deep divine," and adds, "his many book n.
books still extant, testify his learning and religion," He cnXFVv-
was one of those deprived by the ecclesiastical commissioners nisdepriva-
for Nonconformity, in 1564. The closing sentence of the tion and
" Briefe Discourse of the Troubles at Frankfort," says : —
" It may here also be noted, that the most ancientest fathers
of this our own country, as Master Coverdale, Master Doc
tor Turner, Master Whitehead, and many others, some dead,
some yet living, from whose mouths and pens the urgersof
these (innovations) received first the light of the gospel,
could never be brought to yield or consent unto such things
as are no.v forced with so great extremity." Wood remarks
of Whitehead, " He was conducted by aeath to the habi
tation prepared for old age in 1571, hut in what church or
chapel buried, I know not."*
Leavek is introduced in the " Briefe Discourse of the Leaver, Jew-
Troubles at Frankfort," as laboming for the peace of the ot'iier°retiOTi-
church there ; and after the death of Mary, when the Eng- ed exiles.
lish church at Geneva addressed their fellow-exiles in
Switzerland, and in Germany, for the purpose of promoting
unity among them. On their return home, we find the
name of Leaver, with those of three other English ministers,
in the church at Aarau, attached to a beautiful acknow
ledgment of the proposals from Geneva.t
When Mr. Leaver returned to England, he shared in the
poor and neglected condition in which Jewel and Fox, and
others of the returned exiles found themselves. Jewel, in
a letter to BulUnger, says, " They were to oppose not only
their old Popish adversaries, but even their late friends, who
had now revolted from them, and were turned against them,
and sided with the adversaries, and did much more stub
bornly resist them than any of their enemies. . . . They
did as much as they could ; but at present they lived after
that sort, as though they were scarce returned from their
banishment. For, to say no worse, their livings and pre
ferments were not yet restored to them."t
At the same time, though Leaver was not restored to hia
.,„«, 'vto.io,., T il-P vou the wrrse for the same cause."- Apothegms, OO
Bati'sWorks, loi!'" P.s'le! Ed. 1838. Mr. Macready caUs this "the best i«
book in the world."*
» AthencB Oxoniensis, vol, l. p. Ll
t Briefe Diaconrse, p. 163, i64.
i Strype's Aaa-J, wL I, Appendix, -v .^

CHAF. rv.

*^ >i'l>ln ov TnE PURITANS.
BOOK IL mastership of St. John's, Cambridge, he was one of the
eminent and learned men who were admitted to the Queen's
presence, and often preached before her. S-.i-ype tells us,
Leaver-sin- that " he had so much of her ear as to dissuade her from
the Queen, taking the title of Supreme Head " In 1561 he was pro
moted by Dr. PUkington, Bishop of Durham, to a prebend
iu his cathedral, and the mastership of Shei-born Hospital,
near the city of Durham.-*
During the time when Archbishop Parker was rigidly
His exertions pressing conformity on the clergy. Leaver wrote to the Earl
of LeicesLer of Leicester a letter, in which he urges that nobleman to
exert himself on behalf of the silenced Puritans, and point
ing out to him the criminality and danger of preferring
ceremonial service to the faithful preaching of the gospel by
duly appointed ministers, whose only offence was conscien
tiously refusing " prescription of men in apparel." While
others were silenced, he appears, from Strype's account,t to
have been still suffered to preach, and also, by another au-
thorityt it is stated, that he retained his prebend in Durham
Cathedral till the year 1567.
Nonconformity was, at that time, punished with im
prisonment as well as deprivation of Uvings in the Church.
In a letter to some of the Puritan prisoners, in Bridewell,
Leaver expresses his own determination, by the grace of
God, never to \vear the square cap and the surplice, nor to
kneel at the communion.
Strype speaks of him as " an eloquent preacher, and a
sincere professor of true religion, and an exile for it under
Queen Mai-y."|, Leaver was not only the neighbour, but
an intimate friend of "the Apostle of the North," Bernard
Gilpin, of Houghton-le-Spring, of whom so many Lnterestina
memoirs have been written.
William Whittingham has been mentioned in the ac
* His name is subscribed (In Lntin) to the articles of the Convocation ft
1562: "Thomas Leverus, Archd. Coven tr., by which it appears that he h«J
become Archdeacon of Coventry.— Strype's Annals, vol. i, p. :J:;S.
t Life of Parker, p. *i83,
j Baker's MSS., vol. i. p. 151,
II The same historian inserts in his Annals (vol. L pp 513, 514,) a letter wliid.
he addressed to Lord Burghley, "On Behalf the Revenues of divers Coliegnt
and Hospitals ; " and he closes his account of him by saying: '-Upon alia',
marble stone in the Chapel of Shcrborn Hospital, near the altar, is thisii-scrip-
Bon: 'Thomas Leaver, preaclier to King Edward Sixth, He died in July
1677.' He was succeeded in that hospital by his brother, Eafe Leaver.'

REION OF ELIZABETH. 139
count of the church at Frankfort. He was descended from BOOK n.
an ancient family in Cheshire, and, on his mother's side, chaF"iv
from the Houghtons, of Houghton Tower, in Lancashire, william
He was born in the city of Chester, about the year 1524. Whitting-
In his sixteenth year he entered Brazennose College, Ox
ford ; five years after he was chosen Fellow of All Souls.
When about twenty-six years old, he obtained leave from
the dean and canons of Christ Church, of which he had be
come one of the senior students, to travel for three years.
After the first year, which he spent chiefly at Orleans, he
visited the principal universities of Germany, and remained
at Geneva until the deatli of Edward Sixth. The persecu
tions can-ied on by Mary drove him to Frankfort. The
conduct of Whittingham at Frankfort has been variously
represented, according to the prejudice of parties ; but the
" Briefe Discourse of the Troubles at Frankfort " being, as
we have observed, the authority from which all parties draw
their information, his conduct has been described exactly as
it is given in that work. We have followed him to Geneva,
and have seen him there employed in the English transla
tion of the Scriptures. We have given some account of his
retum home, of his appointment to the deanery of Durham,
and of his letter to the Earl of Leicester on behalf of the
Puritans. He was one of the clergy ' summoned by Arch
bishop Parker before the ecclesiastical commissioners in
1666, who at first refused, but afterwards subscribed, and
was preferred.-* Five years after, he was again called before
the commissioners, with Sampson, Leaver, and others.
Parker sent to Grindai, now the Archbishop of York, to pro
duce Whittingham and Gilby, who lived in the northern
province, before the ecclesiastical commission at York ; and
it would seem from Strype's account that he must have
conformed.t It is probable, from the leanings of the northern
Archbishop's own mind, that the Dean of Durham was dealt
with at York more gently than he would have been in Lon
don. But on the deatli of Parker, Grindai was translated
to Canterbury ; and Dr. Sandys, who had succeeded him in
che see of London, now became the Archbishop of York.
PUkington, Bishop of Durham being dead, and the vacancy
• Stiype's life of Parker. f Life of (SrindaL p. 170i

140

RISE OF THB PURITANS.

BOOK U.
CHAP. IV.

His excom
munication.

Exhortationto modera
tion by the
Church of
Scotland.

not filled up. Archbishop Sandys resolved to include that
diocese in his primary visitation ; which was prevented by
the refusal of the clergy to receive him. In the following
year Barnes was appointed to succeed PUkington, and the
Archbishop was bent on pursuing his visitation, having
heard of great irregularities in the diocese, especially in the
conduct of Dean Whittingham. The Archbishop excom
municated the Dean : the Dean appealed to the sovereign.
A commission to examine these affttirs was appointed by
her Majesty. From the long account which Strype gives
of the proceedings of this commission we gather, that the
main charge against Whittingham was that he was not
regularly ordained ; that his answer was that he was regu-
larlj' ordained according to the usages of the church in which
he had ministered at Geneva ; that in the opinion of Hutton,
Dean of York, Mr. Whittingham 's ordination was as good
as the Archbishop's own ; and that the Lord President con
sidered there would be a danger of giving grave offence to
the reformed churches abroad, if we should allow of the
Popish massing priests in our ministry, and disallow of the
ministers made in a reformed church. Whittingham's death
released him from the consequences of any decision to which
the commissioners might have come.
The strong proceedings of Archbishop Parker against the
Puritans were not likely to pass unnoticed by the Church
of Scotland, A letter from " the superintendent ministers
and commissioners of charges within the realm of Scotland,"
was addressed " to their brethren the bishops and pastors of
England, who hath renounced the Roman Antichrist, and
do profess with them the Lord Jesus in sincerity," on which
they desire the perpetual increase of the Holy Spirit. De
clining to enter into the controversy respecting the clerical
apparel, they intreat that Christian charity may prevail ;
they remind them " how tender a thing the conscience of a
man is ; " they refer to many thousands both godly and
learned that are persuaded differently from the bishops ;
they call to mind several texts of Scripture, which they
urge on the serious attention of their English brethren ;
they exhort them to walk more circumspectly than tbat for
such vanities the godly should be troubled, for all things
that seem lawful edifv not : thev describe civU authoritie

BEIQN OP ELIZABETH. 141
as not always having the light of God shining before their book il
eyes, but their affections savouring too much of the earth chaFiv
and of worldly wisdom ; and finally, they supplicate " that
our brethren who, among you, refuse the Romish rags, may
find of you, the prelates, such favours as our Head and
Master commands evei-y one of his members to show one to
another, which we supplicate of your gentleness, not only
ifor that ye fear to offend God's majesty, in troubling of your
I brethren for such trifles, but also because ye will not refuse
the humble request of us your brethren and fellow-preachers
of Christ Jesus, in whom, albeit there appear no great
worldly pomp, yet we suppose you will not so far despise
ns, but that ye will esteem us to be of the number of those
that fight against the Roman Antichrist, and travail that
the kingdom of Christ Jesus universally may be maintained
and advanced. The days are evil. Iniquity abounds.
Christian charity (alas) is waxen cold, but therefore, we
ought the more diligently to watch. For the hour is un
certain when the Lord Jesus shall appear, before whom we,
your brethren, and ye, may give an account of our adminis
tration."* It does not appeal' that either the remonstrances of the The ftuitiess-
Puritans themselves, or the interpositions of their fiiends monsh-mw*
in other churches, produced any mitigation of the Arch
bishop's determination to proceed to extremities. The
licenses of the clergy were called in, and they were renewed
to those only who were ready to conform, and this, with
the full conviction, as the Archbishop himself expressed it,
"that these precise folks would offer their goods and bodies
to prison, rather than they would relent."t
The Puritans appealed from the authorities of the church Appeal to
i^^ public opto-
* This letter is dated Edinbro', December 28, 1566, and signed, "Tourlov- wm
ing brethren and fellow-preachers in Christ Jesus, Jno Craig, Da. Lyndesey,
Guil. Giftisouns, J. Spottiswood, Jo. Bow, Bob. Pout, Jo. Wiram, Jacob MailvU,
Jo. Erskin, Mc. SpitaU. These names and dates are given in the copy printed
in the Briefe Discourse about the Troubles at Frankeford. In the copy given
by Strype, (No. 61, appended to the Life of Parker, 1711,) besides one or two
other important variations, the date is 27th of December, 1665, and the signa
ture is John Davidson, for James Nicoloson, writer and clerke of the Church
at Edenborough." .^ . ...
t stiype's Parker, b. iii. c. 12. p. 225. Letters to thesame purport from Beza
to Bishop Grindai, and from Ganchues, Divinity Professor at Heidelberg to
Queen Elizabeth, are given by Strype in his Life of Grindai, (m the Bn^
Discourse,) and in his Annals ; they are commented on with calm dislUte by
strype, with rancour by Heylin, and with warm approbation by Brooke, la
Sis History of Religions Liberty, vol L p. 308.

142 RISE OF THB PURITANS.
BOOK IL to the judgment of the community. They published, in
CHAPIV 1^^^' ' ^ ^"^^ Discourse against t.he Outward Apparel and
Ministering Garments of the Popish Church."* Strype
speaks of this book as containing the general sense of the
Puritans ; as sent abroad by their common consent in vin
dication of themselves ; as showing the full strength of
their objections against the habiis ; and, therefore, not
unworthy to be read. In the account which he gives of
the contents of the book, he states the following as the
principal objections : " (1.) That the adoption of the habits
appeared to them to be the pulling down rather than the
building up of the Church of Christ, inasmuch as they
grieved the minds of simple Christians on the one hand,
and on the other, confirmed the superstitions and errors of
the Papists, and therefore could not be safely regarded as
indifferent matters. (2.) That these things were additions
to the Word of God. (3.) That the enforcement of these
habits by the civil authority was an infringement of
Christian liberty. (4.) That these habits were unnecessary,
unsuitable, partly .Jewish, pai tly heathenish in their origin,
and the adoption of them was inconsistent with tlie doc
trines of the Reformers." " Fearing, therefore, to lose them
selves with the loss of so many souls besides themselves,
they had chosen to venture the loss of worldly commodities,
rather than to hazard that vvhich no earthly treasure could
buy : trusting that their prince, and others in authority,
would favour their first cause, and not mislike with them
because they feared God more than man, and were more
loath to lose the heavenly kingdom than earthly commo
dities. They hoped that all wise men did see the mark the
earnest solicitors of this matter (i. e. the enforcers of the
habits) did shoot at. They were not, neither were (had
been) at any time, Protestants ; but when time served thera,
they were bloody persecutors ; and, since time failed them,
they hid borne hack as much as lay in them. Should we
think then, that such did seek the advancement of God's
• The running title was, "The Unfolding of the Popish Attire ; '" and the
title which stood on the first page, where the discourse began, was different
from them both, and more particular, viz : '- A Declaration of the Doings ot
those Ministers of God's \Vord and Sacraments in tlie City of London, which
have Refused to Wear the Upper Apparel and Ministering Garments of the
Piipe's Church.-

REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 143
glory in the setting forth of his true religion. No, no ! BOOK II
Their purpose was in them, silly wretches, to deface the chaFi-v.
glcjious gospel of Christ Jesus."* Bookspub-'
Another book, which had been suppressed for some years "''''^'? °" this
in tho hope that the Reformation would be carried further,
was non- published : — "A Pleasant Dialogue betweena Soldier
of Berwick and an English Chaplain.'' Wherein are largely
himdled and laid open such reasons as are brought for
maintenance of Popish traditions in our English Church.
Also, are collected, as in a short table, one hundred and
twenty particular corruptions remaining in the said Church;
with sundry other matters to be known of all persons.
In the following year came forth a book, printed at
Embden : — " The Mind and Exposition of that Excellent
Man, Martin Bucer, upon those words of St. Matthew,
Love to the world because of offences, JNIatt. xviii.. Faithfully
Translated into English by a Faithful Brother, and Certain
Objections and Answers to the same:" to which is ap
pended, " The Judgment of the Reverend Father, Henry
BuUinger, Pastor of the Church at Zurich, in Certain Mat
ters of Religion, being in Controversy in many Countries,
even where the Gospel is taught." Replies by
The opponents of the Puritans, on their part, were not nentso^Uie
idle in the use of the press. They published a thin octavo Puritans.
volume, containing the Judgments of Melancthon, in a
tract, from the epitome of his moral philosophy in obe
dience to magistrates ; and, also, in a discourse on the 13th
chapter of the Epistle to the Rom-ans ; — BuUinger's Letter
to Bishops Home, Grindai, and Parkhurst ; — and the cor
respondence of Bucer with Cranmer, Hooper, and A. Lasco;
and " A Brief and Humble Consideration of the Apparel
now used by the Clergy of England : set out by a Faithful
Servant of God, for the Instruction of the Weak." Strype
ascribes this book to Archbishop Parker, or some other
person by his order. To the same hand he also ascribes
the "Answer to the Book of the London Ministers, an
Examination for the Time, of a Certain Declaration laidy
put in print in the name and defence of certain Ministers
in London, Refusing to wear the Apparel Prescribed by Jhe
Laws and Orders of the Realm." The professed object of
* strype's Amiais, tsI 1. c. il.

144 RISE OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL the writer of this tract is not so much tc examine-* the
CHAP IV. arguments of the ministers, as to show that these ministers
were but a few men ; that most of them were unlearned,
had been brought up in most profane occupations, or puffed
up in an arrogancy of themselves ; that they were, perad-
venture, chargeable with such varieties of assertions as lie
would, at that time, spare to charge them with : praying
God they fell not, at last, to the sect of Anabaptists, or
Libertines ; as some wise and zealous men of their own
friends and patrons feared they made post-haste one day
openly to profess. At the same time he weighs and
examines the grounds and reasons of the ministers dis
tinctly, and, as Strype says, " nervously."t
The book begins with a quotation fi'om Augustine, on
conformity to the usages of the Church, and it ends with
the letters of foreign divines, to which such frequent refer
ence has been made.J
Strype has not mentioned another book : — " An Answer
"An Answer for the Time to the Examination put in Print, Without the
for the
Time." Author's Name, Pretending to Maintain the Apparel Pre
scribed, against the Declaration of the Ministers of London.
Printed 1566." In this book the Archbishop's paragraphs
are distinctly answered, certainly not without nerve. The
writer says : — " We desire the reder to waye this man's
writing with the epistles of Bucer and Martyr, annexid to
the end, and to judg whether the same spirit be in them
both. They bear with the things toUerable for a tyme,
wishing the utter abolishing of them ; — this man defendith
them as good orders, profitable to edifie, and therefore ihete
• The following passage occurs in a letter fi-om Archbishop Parker to his
friend Dr. Haddon, the Queen's ambassador at Bmgcs: — "Tfe may well marvel
of the boldness of these men ecclesiastical advancing themselves so far, to in
sult against the prince, and public authority of the laws, <fcc. And not to be
ashamed to put their fancies in public print. Lamentable it is, that some of
these light heads be much comforted of such, whose authority should be bent
to repress them. The boldne-ss of their books imprinted caused some exami
nation to be set forth, which here I send you to expend. Indeed, all things b6
not so answered as their writing des.;rved, but yet more was considered what
became anch which hath taken in hand to answer, than what they deserved.
And I am deceived if a little be not enough to satisfy wise and learned men in
this controversy. And thus signify to you, that with the assistance of the
Queen's Majesty-s Council we have dispersed a few of the heads of them, some
to the Bishop of Winchester, some to Ely, and some to Norwich, to school them,
or else at the least to have them out of London, till we see cause to restore
them their liberty." — Strype's Parker, b, ii. c. ii. p. 223.
t Annals, ch. 48.
tThe book is copied in Strype't Parker, Appendix, no. ii.

REiair OF ELIZABETH. 145
to be retayncd still. They esteme the resisters as godlie BOOK IL
bretbcrne ; — be condemnith them as schismatikes, bellie- chapTiv
gods, decevers, flatterers, fooles, such as have been unlearn-
edlie brought up in prophan occupations ; puffed up in
arrogancie of themselves ; chargeable to vanities of asser
tions ; of whom it is feared that they make posthast to be
Anabaptists and Libertines ; gone out from us, but belike
never of us ; differing not much from Donatists, shrinking
and refusing ministers of London ; disturbars ; factious
willfuU entanglers, and encomberers of the consciences of
their herers ; girders, nippers, scoffers, biters, snappers at
superioi-s ; having the spirit of irony ; like to Audiani,
smelling of Donatistrie, or of Papistrie, Rogatianes, Cir-
cumcellians, and Pelagians." *
During the sitting of parliament this year (1566) an
uj jnccessful attempt was made to obtain some relief for the
Puritans. Humphrey, then at Oxford, wrote to his friend
John Fox a Latin epistle, commending to his prayers and
soUcitude the propagation of reUgion, and the reformation
of the Church, and urging him to use all means to induce
the rulers in the state and in the Church.t
Instead of relief, the Puritan clergy met only with more Kefiisalofill
determined opposition. The Archbishop, and other eccle
siastical commissioners, deeming it easier to silence than to
answer their objections, recommended several articles to the
Lords of the Pri^y Council, which forced large numbers of
the clergy to leave their churches.
The vacancies occasioned by the suspension of so many
of the most laborious and acceptable of the clergy were not
easily supplied.
In the strong language of Fox, " Covetousness robs and ,?™o° tg^„.
spoUs. Benefices are bought and sold. Priests grow cold ; suit of these
and would they were cold indeed ; but now many are ^^
neither cold nor hot. The pulpits are silenced. Christ's
sheep-fold is fleeced, not fed. The harvest is despised." %
. Some use was made of the evils attending the lack of
• Pierce-s Vindication of Dissenters, p, 62.
t MSS. Fox, XII, The proceedings in parliament respecting the Puritans in
this reign will be considered in a subsequent part of this volume,
X Letter to the Commissioners Ecclesiastical concerning the present Contro
versies in the Church, in Latin MSS. Fox, IL Printed in Strype's Parker,
Appendix, no. 60. 7

146 BISE OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL pastoral service in the churches, to call the attention of the
CHapTiv court to the severities inflicted on the Puritans, some of
whom had been sent to prison. The Secretary wrote to
the Archbishop, requesting him to proceed more gently,
and to continue his care of the churches in London. It is
evident, from some of the Archbishop's letters, that he was
much discouraged by this check. He complains that he
must do all things alone ; that he was not able, and must
refuse, to promise to do what he could not, and was another
man's charge, (the diocese of London ;) he marvelled that
he must be charged to see and judge of all parishes in
London, and the care committed to him only ; as though
the burden should be laid on his neck, and other men draw
backward. All other men must win honour and defence,
and I only shame to be so vilely reported. And yet I am
not weary to bear to do service to God and my prince ; but
an ox can draw no more than he can." *
Strype refers to these letters as showing the inconvenience
which arose from the disobedience of the Puritan party,
and as proving ihe strength of thai party in the Church.
SECOND period OF THE PURITANS UNDER ELIZABETH.
A. D. 1667-1603.
The hinderances offered to the labours of the Puritans,
The Puritans and the grievous sufferings inflicted on them, induced many
frora'^he es- °^ them, in the year 1567, to separate from the established
tablished Churcli, that they might worship God according to their
belief, and without the superstitions enforced on them by
the authority of the Archbishop and of the Queen. On the
19tli of June about 100 persons met at Plummer's Hall.
Information of this meeting being given to the Sl'eriff,
fourteen or fifteen of their number were apprehended by
the Sheriff's oflBcers, and committed to prison in the Compter.
On the following day Smith, Nixon, Ireland, Hawkins,
Rowland, and Morecraft, were examined by Sir Roger Mar
tin, the Lord Mayor, the Bishop of London, (Grindai) the
Dean of Westminster, Dr. Watts, and other commissioners.
The Bishop complained of their disorder in absenting
Continued themselves from their parish churches, and in gathering
opposition. » Strype's Parker, b. ill. c. xU,

IIBION OP ELIZiJBETH. 147
together by themselves to pray, preach, and celebrate tho BOOK II
sacrament. He urged against them the Queen's letter, chapTiV
the reformed state of the Church, and the falsehood of
which they had been guilty in hiring a house for preach
ing under pretence of a wedding.
In reply to the Bishop's reproofs, one of their number,
John Smith, said, " AYe thank God for the Reformation ;
and all we desire is that everything in our worship
may be according to God's word. So long as we might
have the woi-d freely preached, and the sacraments ad
ministered without ' idolatrous gear,' we never assembled
in houses ; but, when we saw all our preachers displaced
for not subscribing to the apparel and tbe law, we began
to consider what we had better do ; and, remembering that
in Queen Mary's days there was a congregation, not only
a church of exiles abroad, but one in tbe city of London,
which used a book differing from the Book of Common
Prayer, we resolved to meet privately and use the same
book. We are willing to give up our meeting and to do
penance at St. Paul's Cross, if the Bishop and the commis
sioners can reprove this book, or anythfrig else that we hold,
by the word of God."
"Bishop. This is no answer for your not going to
church. " Smith. I would as lief go to mass as to some churches ;
such is the parish where I dwell ; the minister who oflSciates
there is a very Papist.
" Bishop. You ought not to find fault with all for a few.
You might go to other places, to hear Humphrey, Sampson,
Leaver, or Coverdale."
The Dean of Westminster told them that they were de
priving the Prince of lawful authority, and destroying
Cluistian Uberty, which does not consist in such scruples
as yours. "Therefore," added the Bishop, "you suffer
justly." "It does not Ue within the authority of the
Prince," said one of the accused party, " and the liberty of
a Christian man, to use and defend that which belongs to
Papistry, and idolatry, and the Pope's canon law. The
will of the Prince, and the Pope's canon law, are preferred
by you to the word and ordinance of Christ." The Bishop
then went into a long explanation of the authority of

148

KISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK II
CHAP. IV.

BuUinger's
opinions.

Melanc- thon's opin-

princes to command in things indifferent, being of a middle
sort, neither commanded nor forbidden by the word of God.
Several of the party cried out " Prove that. Where find
you that ? " The Bishop said, " I have talked with many
men, but I never saw any behave themselves so irreverently
before magistrates." They then urged that the things to
which they objected were not indifferent, but superstitious
and idolatrous.
The Bishop then quoted BuUinger against them. " Per
haps," said Smith, " I could show BuUinger against Bul
Unger in this matter." " I think not," the Bishop replied.
"all reformed churches differ in rites and ceremonies ; and
we agree with all reformed churches in substance of doc
trine." One of the Puritans then said, '- We should follow
the truth, and the best way. You have brought the gospel
and the sacraments into bondage to the ceremonies of anti
christ, and have defended idolatry and Papistry : there is no
ordinance of Christ -with which you have not mingled
your inventions, as, for instance, the godfathers and god
mothers in baptism.' The Bishop urged the practice of
the Church at Geneva ; to which it was replied : — " It is
good to follow the best example, to follow the church of
Geneva as that church follows Christ." They were then
plied with the authority of learned men ; respecting which
they answered : — " We buUd not our faith and religion on
them." When Hawkins produced a passage fi-om Melancthon,
which says, " When the opinion of holiness, or merit, or of
necessity is put unto things indifferent, then they darken
the light of the gospel, and ought by all means to be taken
away,"—" These matters," said the Bishop, " of which you
are disputing, are not commanded of necessity \n the Church."
Hawkins rejoined, " You have made it a matter of necessity,
and that many a poor man feels."
The worthy Bishop felt it no pleasant matter to deal with
these stiu'dy Nonconformists. He seems to have made no
objection to their book, but to have confined his objection to
their meeting in opposition to the Queen's will.*
In a paper entitled, " The Ministers' Reasons," — in the

strype's Grindai, b. I c. xiiL

EBIQN OP ELIZABETH. 149
Maurice Collection, — there is ii statement of the grounds BOOK II
taken by those who noiv refused to conform ; and, in the chap"iv
same Collection there is a letter from William White to "Thelilnis
Bishop Grindai, in which, after referring to the Bishop's tcr-a Rea-
language when the writer had appeared before him as a '°"^'
prisoner, he appeals to him in this strong language ; — '¦ I
desire you, in the bowels of Christ, to consider your own
case, who, by your own confession was once a persecutor,
and have since been persecuted ; whether displacing, banish
ing, and imprisoning God's children more straitly than
felons, heretics, or traitors, be persecuting again or no?
They that make the best of it say you buffet your brethren,
which, if the Master of the house find you so doing, you
know your reward. I desire yon, therefore, in the bowels
of Christ, not to restrain us of the liberty of our consciences,
but be a means to enlarge our liberty in the truth and
sincerity of the gospel, and use yom- interest that all that
remains of antichrist may be abolished, with every plant
that our heavenly Father hath not planted." *
After remaining moi-e than a year in prison, twenty-four Bishop
men and seven women -were discharged on the suggestion meSaHon.
of Bishop Grindai to the Lords of the CouncU. ^ The
Bishop's leniency was the effect of his good disposition, and
of his hope that gentle measures might do more than
severity in bringing those persons to conform. In the
letter from the Council he was required to " let them un
derstand that, if after their enlargement, any of them again
should carry themselves factiously or disorderly they must
expect severe punishment to the example of others ; and
to give them further admonition according as he should
think convenient."
Among the persons thus discharged was Christopher Christopher
Poster, or Coleman, one of their preachers. A long letter
from Coleman to the Queen's Secretary, (Lord BurglUey,)
urged him to promote the refoi-mation in the Church,
which the Puritans believed to be according to the word
of God. The letter is certainly not likely to be quoted
as a proof of the writer's extraordinary leaming, but Stryue
acknowledges that " he intended weU." t
•MS. in Dr. Williams- Library.
t Annals, vol L p S6. It is in reference to this Coleman that Heylin as7>;—

150

RISE OF THE PURITANS.

the Refonn
ed Church.

BOOK II. Not long after the release of these Separatists from prison,
chap. IV the attention of the bishops was seriously engaged by the
Dangers of dangers which threatened the Reformed religion, both on
the Continent and in England. The Prince of Conde had
been overthrown in France. The Admiral Coligni, and his
brother Andelot, had been poisoned by an assassin, at the
instance of Queen Catherine de Medicis. Nowel, the Dean
of St. Paul's, wrote an earnest letter to Grindai, Bishop of
London, by which the Bishop was stirred up to procure
from the Secretary letters to the heads of the Inns of Court,
for the suppression of Popery ; and to take other measures
for the same purpose at Cambridge, and in other parts of
the kingdom. It was resolved in convocation, that the
Articles of ReUgion should be printed, in English as well
as in Latin, and read publicly four times a year in all the
dioceses of the Province of Canterbury. They were fol
lowed by the Book of Canons, according to which — though
they were without the Queen's authority, or that of the
Lower House of Convocation ; and though they had neither
the hearty concurrence of Grindai, nor were regarded with
perfect confidence even by Archbishop Parker himself — the
bishops proceeded, especially in what concerned their clergy,
in their respective dioceses. By one of the articles in this
book, it was required that all the licenses of preachers
should be given up to the bishops before September, 1571.
At the same time, as appears from Strype, a strong protes
tation, on behalf of the Queen's authority, was required to
be signed by all persons suspected of Puritanism.
" Benson, Batten, Hallinghani, Coleman, and others, taking upon them to be of a
more ardent zeal than others in professing the true Reformed religion, resolved
to allow of nothing in God-s public service, (according to the rules laid down by
Calvin and Beza,) but what was found expressly in the Holy Scriptures. And
whether out of a desire of reformation, (which pretence liad gilded many a
rotten post,) or for singularity sake and innovation, they openly questioned
the received discipline of the Church of England, yea condemned the same,
together with the public liturgy, and the calling of bishops, as savouring too
much of the religion of the Church of Uonie; against which they frequently
protested in their pulpits, affirming that it was an impious thing to hold any
corresponde?tce with ttiat Church, and labouring with all diligence to bring the
Church of England to a conforraity in all things with the rules of Geneva,
These, although the Queen commande 1 to be laid by tlie heels, yet it is incre
dible how, upon a sudden, their followers increased in all parts of the king
dom, distinguished from the rest by the name of Puritans, by reason of their
own perverseness, and most obstinate refusal to give ear to more sound
advice. Their numbers much increased on a double account; flrst, by the
negligence of some, and the connivance of other bishops, who should have
looked more narrowly into their proceedings ; and partly, by the secret favour
of some great men in the court, who greedily gaped after the remainder of
the Church's patrimony."— ..firiiB RuUvivm, pp. 287, 348.

REION or ELIZABETH. 151
To put a stop to the meetings of the Puritans in private BOOK IL
houses, the Queen ordered the Archbishop and tlie rest of CHAP~1V.
her ecclesiastical commissioners, to require all churchwardens Tlie Queen's"
not to suffer any to read, pray, preach, or minister anv "-"stratots on
sacraments in any churches, chapels, or private places,
without license from the Queen : the Archbishop, or the
bishop of the diocese, using all diligence in this business at
their peril. The preamble to this order of the ecclesias
tical commission, '' concerning the Puritan ministers," is in
the foUowing words : —
" Whereas, the Queen's Majesty being very careful for Order to the
the good govemment of other realms and dominions in c^^j^o?'
all godly and wholesome religion, agreeable to the word of ers.
God, and being very desirous to have both her laws and
orders well and faithfully observed, and her loving subjects
reposed in godly quiet, concord, and unity, and especially
in matters of religion," &c,*
Notwithstanding the gentle solicitudes of the Queen and
of the ecclesiastical commission, the Separatists continued
to meet for worship. Two of the ministers, Mr. William
Bonham, and Mr. Nicholas Crane, were licensed by Bishop
Grindai to preach, on conditions, which, according to Sti-ype,
they -violated; and they were again put in prison. Among
the sufferers for Nonconformity at this time we find special
mention made of Mr. William Axton, of whose examinations
before Dr. Bentham, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, — on
the use of the surplice, the sign of the cross, the office and
authority of bishops, obedience to the Queen's laws, and
other mattei-s, — are recorded at great length in the Maurice
Manuscripts, presei-ved in Dr. Williams' Library.t So faf^.
were these severities from putting down the Puritans, that \
they had the effect of increasing the number of objections i
to the Church of England. Besides entertaining scruples !
respecting particular ceremonies, the nonconforming party
were now prepared to make a stand against the constitution, j
govemment, and discipline of the Church from which they j ^-'
felt themselves compelled to separate.
It wiU be remembered that, during the reign of Mary, S'ttfcou" nentai Re-
• strype's Parker, Appendix, no, 62, formers.
tThe reader will find them in Brook's Lives of the Puritans, vol. L pp.
lei-iss.

162 BISE OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL many of the Protestant clergy, who had maintained a
-jjjj^jy close con-espondence with the Continental Reformers in
Edward's reign, found shelter from the storm of persecution
in several parts of Germany, and, especially of Switzerland.
Among the great divines of Switzerland, they not only
became more deeply rooted in the doctrinal system which
goes under the name of Calvin, but they likewise beheld
with appprobation the simpler, more popular, and, as they
beheved, more scriptural system of church government
which prevailed in the Swiss churches. On their return
home, some of them, from views of temporary expediency,
— in which many of the Continental divines agreed with
them — conformed to the Episcopal government on which
the Queen insisted. The reluctance of others, however,
had been gathering strength ; and, when they felt the oppres
sive hand of power, that reluctance acquired the force of
an indomitable principle. They desired to induce the
government, and the leaders of the Church, to adopt and
carry out these views ; and when they failed in this, they
resolved at all hazards to act upon them for themselves.
The most eminent of this advanced party was Thomas
OJiomas Cartwbioht, a native of Hertfordshire. At the early age
Cartviilght. p£ fifteen he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, under
the guidance, first, of Dr. Bill, and then of Mr. Thomas
Leaver. His course of laborious studies at Cambridge was
inten-upted by the accession of Mary; when, leaving the
university, he became clerk in the ofiice of a barrister,
where he still pursued, as best he could, his theolo^cal
reading. When Mary was succeeded by Elizabeth, Cart-
wright returned to St. John's CoUege, of which Dr. PU
kington, afterwards Bishop of Durham, had become master.
After enjoying in that college the patronage of Dr. PUking
ton and the instructions of Mr. Dudley Fenner for three
years, he removed to Trinity College, where he was soon
chosen one of the senior fellows. At the time of Eliza
beth's visit to Cambridge, he was chosen, along with
Dr. Chudderton, fellow of Queen's, Dr. Preston, and Mr.
Bartholomew Clerk, both fellows of King's College, as a
disputant in the Philosophy Act, kept by Thomas King, of
Pelu House, by which he won much honour in the royal
presence, as one of the " ripest and most learned men " of

Ki:iO-N OP i;Liz,iiiETH. 153
the university. The Queen is said to have approved of all book U
the disputants.* cii~iv
Mr. Cartwright was chosen Margaret Professor of Divi-
nityt in 1569, two yeare after he had taken his degree of
Bachelor of Divinity. In his public lectures he unfolded His publio
his views of Church order, which were much opposed to 'f^?-
the practice prevailing in England. These views were
taken up by Chapman and by Some. The Chancellor of
the university, Cecil, was moved by Dr. Chudderton, to
suppress them severely by authority, as en-ors which
exposed to hazard the good state, quietness, and governance,
not of Cambridge only, but of the whole Church and realm.
Grindai, also, now Archbishop of York, who had belonged
to the same university, wrote to the Chancellor, complain
ing that the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses " proceed
not so roundly in this case as was requisite ; " expressing
his fear that the youth of Cambridge, by frequenting
Cartwright's lectures in great numbers, were in danger of
being poisoned with a love of contention, and a Uking of
novelty ; and urging that Cartwiight should be sUenced in
schools and pulpits ; that he should not be allowed to pro
ceed doctor of divinity ; and that aU the offenders should
be reduced to conformity or expelled. J On the other hand,
Cart^vlight addressed two Latin letters to the ChanceUor,
and two other letters were written by his friends on his
behalf. Dr. Wliitgift, with whom Cartwright had disputed '-^
the objectionable doctrines, likewise laid before the Chan
cellor the following tenets of Cartwright, which, he said,
would breed mere confusion, if they should take place : —
first, that there ought not to be in the Church of Christ
either archbishops, archdeacons, deans, chanceUors, or any
other whereof mention is not expressly made in scripture ;
— secondly, that the office of the bishop and deacon, as they
were then in the Church of England, was not allowable ;
— thirdly, that there ought to be an equality of all minis
ters, and every one to be cluef in his own cure ; — fourthly,
that ministers ought to be chosen by the people, as they
were in the apostles' time ; fifthly, that none ought to be
• Sti7pe-s Annals, vol i. chap, xxxix.
t A professorship founded by the motlier of ITeniy VIL
i in another letter to Cecil he says, '- My opinion is, as I have written to
you before, that they (the Puritans) are only to be bridled by authority.*
7*

15i RISE OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL a minister unless he have a cure ; — sixthly, that a man
CHAP. IV. must not preach out of his own cure ; — seventhly, that the
order, and calling, and making of ministers, now used in
the Church of England, is extraordinary, and to be altered.
Dr. Whitgift had been recently appointed Vice-Chancellor
of Cambridge. Cartwright, deprived of his professorship,
and of his fellowship in the college, and forbidden to preach
Is deprived or teach in the university, retired to Geneva, where he was
and retires to (.jioggn professor of divinity. Soon after, however, he was
entreated by Leaver, Fox, and other friends, to return to
England, at the time when the nation was agitated by the
question of the Queen's marriage, first with the Duke of
Anjou, and, after the breaking up of that treaty, with the
Duke of Alengon, the brother of the former Prince, — both
zealous Catholics.* The Lord Treasurer Cecil, Lord Burgli-
ley, asked Cartwright's opinion on the question : — "Whe
ther it was lawful for one professing the gospel to marry a
Papist ; " to which Cartwright replied : -f — " My answer Is
very plain ; he may not do it. If we consider how ill a
match it is in itself, and how evil it is, in respect of those
outward forms of idolatry  I am not advised of any
objections that are worthy the answering. As for that
which is commonly said, that they are Christians by com
mon profession, and that they are much better than those
other idolatrous people, and therefore, that it should seem
that they are less dangerous in this matter, — both these
points being the substance of the treaty itself, are suffi
ciently answered. So I, for my part, am fully resolved
that it is dfrectly by the scripture forbidden that any that
professeth reUgion according to the word of God, should
marry with any that professeth the same after the manner
of the Church of Rome, being so corrupt, as in these days
of ours we find it to be."
While this treaty of the Queen's marriage was going on.
Treaty of it "inspired -with the justest alarm her most faithful sub-
theQuecn." j^cts ; " the pulpit rang with the alai-m ; it was kindled and
.spread by the press. Though the Queen's CouncU had
favoured the project, through obsequiousness to her Ma
jesty, and Leicester, Walsingham, and Hutton, had sub-
•Dr. Lingard says the latter was thought to incline to the tenets of Protes*
tantism. "VoL ilL chap. IL p. 96.
fXhe paper is no. ^v., in the Appendix to vol ii. of Strype's Annals

REIQN OP ELIZABETH. 155
scribed a paper relating to the arrangements of the marriage, BOOK n.
yet the ladies of her IMajesty's court prayed her not to chaTiv
sully her Protestant fame by marrying a Popish husband.
Sir Philip Sydney wrote to her a spirited private remon
strance against the marriage.-*
Mr. John Stubbs, of Lincoln's Inn, brother-in-law to stubbs' pam-
Cartwright, and a friend of Spenser the poet, who had not P''''^*'
the privUege of private access to the Queen, roused the
popular mind by a pamphlet, entitled, " The Discovei-y of
the Gaping Gulf whereinto England is likely to be swal
lowed by another French Marriage, if the Lord forbid not
the Banns," &c.
This pamphlet was represented as accusing the Queen's
ministers of ingratitude ; the Queen herself of degenerat
ing from her former virtue ; the French Prince and his
nation of the most odious vices ; and the marriage as
"an impious and sacrilegious union between a daughter
of God and a son of devil." t The Queen vindicated the
French Prince and his favourite minister, in a proclama
tion ; and ordered the pamphlet to be burned by the
common hangman. The Court of the Queen's Bench
condemned the author, publisher, and printer, to have
their light hands cut off, and to be imprisoned during
her Majesty's pleasure. The printer was pardoned. The
author and publisher petitioned for mercy in vain. In
the Market-place of Westminster, Stubbs appeared on the
scaffold, and delivered a speech.^ His right hand was
* Tliis admirable letter is printed from the Cabala in Strype-s Annals, voL
ii- ap, no, xix.
t .Mr. Hallam says, " it is very far from being what some have ignorantly or
unjustly called It, a virulent libel, but written in a sensible manner, and with
unfeigned loyalty and affection towards the Queen." — Con. Hist. Eng. 4to.
vol. i. p. 260.
t" What a grief it is to the body to lose one of his members you all know.
I am come liither to receive my punishment according to the law. I am
soiTy for the loss of my hand, and more sorry to lose it by judgment, but most
of all with her Majesty's indignation and evil opinion, whom I have so highly
displeased. Before I was condemned I might speak for my innocency; but
now my mouth is stopped by judgment, to the which I submit myself, and am
content patiently to endure whatever it pleaseth God, of his secret providence,
tolayupon me, and talvc it justly deserved for my sins; and I pray (Jod it may
be an example to you all, that it being so dangerous to offehd the laws, with
out an evil meaning, as breedeth the loss of a hand, you may use your hands
holily, and pray to God for the long preservation of her Majesty over you;
whom God hath used as an instrument for a long peace and many blessings
over us; and especially for his gospel, whereby she hath made a way for us to
rest and quietness to our consciences. For the French I force not ; but my
greatest giief is, in so many weeks and days of imprisonment, her Majesty-
hath not once thought me worthy of her mercy, which she hath oftentima

156

RISE or THE PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. IV

Persevering
intoleranceof the
govemment

Further ex
position of
Puritan

smitten off by a, butcher's knife and mallet. With his
left hand he waved his cap, crying out, "Long live the
Queen ! " Page, the publisher, after suffering the same
punishment, said firmly — " There Ues the hand of a true
Englishman." " Dalton, a lawyer, and Monson, a judge of the Common
Pleas, questioned the legality of the sentence, which was
founded on some barbarous laws of Queen Mary against
the Protestants. The former was imprisoned ; the latter
retired, or was removed, from the bench." ¦*
After almost a year's imprisonment, Stubbs, with his
left hand, wrote to Lord Burghley, praying him to be
" an honourable and helping hand " to obtain her Ma
jesty's royal heart for his release : his wife at the same
time presented an unsuccessful petition to the Queen for
his discharge.t
In 1572, the noted publication entitled, "An Admoni
tion to ParUament for the Reformation of Church Dis
cipline." was set forth, embodying the Puritan views of
the discipline of the Christian Church ; its character ;
the choice, duties, and equality of ministers ; displaying
the corruptions of the Anglican hierarchy ; exposing the
arbitrary proceedings of bishops ; and praying the parlia
ment to establish by law a church discipline more agree
able to the word of God. — The letters of Beza to the
Earl of Leicester, and Gaulter to Bishop Parkhurst, were
appended to the volume. This famous book was wi'itten
by Mr. John Field, and Mr. Thomas Wilcox, the intimate

extended to divers persons in greater offences. For my hand I esteem it not
so much; for I thinlc I could have saved it, and might do yet; but I will not
have a guiltless heart and an infamous hand. I pray you all to pray with me
that God will strengthen me to endure and abide the pain that I am to suffer;
and grant me this grace, that the loss of my hand do not withdraw any part
of my duty and aifection toward her Majesty, and because, when so many
veins of blood are opened, it is uncertain how they may be stayed, and what
will be the event thereof." The hand ready on the block to be stricken off,
he said often to the people: — "Pray for me now my calamity is at hand." —
Hamneston^s Nugce.
•Macintosh's History of England, vol. iii, p. 280. Dr. Lingard says that
stubbs was condemned by " a good and necessarye law," passed in the first
year of Elizabeth, and refers for his authority to the Statutes of the Realm,
Iv. 866.
t In 1587, this same Stubbs was employed by Burghley in writing a
"¦Vindication of the English Justice," in answer to Cardinal Allen's Defence
of the English Catholics.— Camdm'* Elizabeth, p, 378. Hugoe Antique, chap. 1.
pp. 143-168. Slrr/pe't Annals, -vol. iii, p. 480. Brooie's Life of Cartwris/M, pp.
94,96.

REIQN OP ELIZABETH. 157
friend of Sir Peter Wentworth, the great champion of BOOK ?.
civil and religious liberty in this reign. For presenting chapTiV.
this book to the parliament, the authors were sent to
prison ; and Bishop Aylmer committed a man to prison
for selling it. Strype says that the book had been
printed and reprinted privately, no less than four times,
(in such vogue it was,) notwithstanding all the diligence
of the bishops to suppress it.-*
"The Admonition was followed by thi-ee other treatises,
addressed to Dr. Whitgift. The first was introductory to
the two others. The second was ' An Exhortation to the
Bishops to deal Brotherly with their Brethren.' The third
was ' An Exhortation to the Bishops and Clergy to Answer
a Little Book that came forth in the Last Parliament.' ""h
Having suffered in their health from long confinement in Sutferings of
' a loathsome prison," Mr. Field and Mr. WUcox petitioned ^^^ ™°"'
the Earl of Leicester to obtain for them a less miserable
jaU ; while their wives and children, painfully describing
their sufferings and their poverty, prayed to the same noble
man to use his influence with the Queen for their discharge.
These petitions being disregarded, and their confinement
stUl continuing, — after the time for which they were sen
tenced had expired, — they addressed a humble petition to
the Lords of the Council, as well as one not less humble to
the Earl of Leicester, begging him to forward that to the
council. It was durinsr the imprisonment of the writers^ that Dr. -Whitgift's
Whitgift, Master of Trinity CoUege, Cambridge, was set to the Xdmonl-
work by Archbishop Parker to answer " The Admonition ; " """^
in which answer he charged the authors as disturbers of
good order ; enemies to the state ; and holding many
dangerous heresies. To refute these charges, the prisoners v
in Newgate published, " A Brief Confession of Faith, written
by the Authors of the First Admonrtion to Parliament ; to
testify their persuasion in the Faith ; against the uncharit
able surmises and suspicions of Dr. Whitgift, uttered in his
Answer to the Admonition : In defence both of themselves
• strype's Parker, b. iv. c. ii.
f Brooks Life of Cartwright, p. 98. ., , „. ....
X Sti-ype savs that they were cherished by frequent visits of divers nUnisteri
and preachers that resorted to them, namely, Wighom, Cartwright, Deering,
Humphrey, Leaver, Crowley, Johnson, and Brown. Dr. Fuller also Tisited
them.— -Life of Parker, b. iv. o. 23.

158

RISE OP THB PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. IV

Orocnds of
agreement

and their brethren." In the same month in which this
confession was published. Bishop Parker sent one of his
chaplains, named Pearson, to hold a conference with the
writers, in the presence of their keeper. This conference,
which is long, and very interesting, is printed, from the
manuscript in Dr. WilUams' Library, by Mr. Brook.-*
Dr. Whitgift's answer to the admonition is an acute,
learned, and able performance, grounded mainly on the
Erastiant principle, (held by Parker, and apparently by
Grindai,) that no form of church order is laid down in
Scripture. He grounds this opinion on such arguments as these :
that there is no command in Scripture for the government
of the Church ; that the government in the Apostles' time
cannot now be exercised ; that the word " governments,"
implieth not govemment by elders ; that the Apostolic
V govemment hath hy necessity been altered ; and that the
general opinion of the best writers,— as Musculus, Gaulter,
Calvin, and Beza, — take the same view. He concludes that
the ground taken by the Puritans of his day is " contrary
to the Scriptures, the opinions of learned men, and the law
ful and just authority of Christian princes ; and, therefore,
the building is ruinous and cannot stand."!
It is stated by Strype that Archbishop Parker, as weU as
Cartwright's other learned divines, assisted Whitgift in this elaborate per-
¦*"™^"- formance. Mr. Cart-wright, who had published A Second
Admonition, was chosen by his Puritan brethren to answer
Dr. Whitgift ; this he did, the year after the publication of
the Doctor's answer, in a " Reply to an Answer made by
M. Doctor Whitgift against the Admonition to the Parlia
ment." He discusses the standard of judgment in tliis ques
tion ; the election of ministers ; the officers of churches ;
clerical habits ; bishops and archbishops ; authority of
princes in ecclesiastical matters ; confirmation by a bishop.
* Lives of the Puritans, vol. ii. pp. 185 — 190.
T The term Erastian is derived fi'om Erastna, a German physician in the
siiteenth century. His work, " De Excommunicatione," has been translated
from the Latin by Dr, Lee of Edinburgh. Warburton, in his notes on Neal,
states, on the authority of Selden, that Whitgift pubUshed tliis work anony-
mously in London. The principle is the same with that of Hooker, in hia
"Ecclesiastical Polity," recognising the Church as nothing else than a mem
ber of the general body called the State, and as having, by right no coercive
power, especially the power of excommunication, excepting by the arm of the
Oivil magistrate
% Defence of the Answer to the Admonition, pp. 16, 74.

BEION OP ELIZABETH. 169
The impression produced by this Reply can scarcely be con- BOOK n.
ceived by those who have not studied tbe history of those chaFiv
times. The bishops were alarmed. The Queen was angry.
A proclamation was issued denouncing both the " Admoni
tion " and the " Reply," charging her Majesty's subjects
to keep, and to cause others to keep, the order of divine ser
vice set forth in the Book of Common Prayer, and none
other contrary or repugnant, upon pain of her Majesty's
highest indignation, and of other pains in the act comprised ;
commanding every printer, stationer, bookbinder, merchant,
and all other men who may have the custody of the said
books, to bring the same to the bishop of the diocese, or to
one of her Highness' Privy Council, within twenty days after
he shall have notice of tills proclamation, on pain of im
prisonment and her Highness' further displeasure. '
Of this proclamation, we are assured. Archbishop Parker
was a principal promoter. But so little success attended it,
and so favourably was Cartwright's book received in Lon
don, that, at the expiration of the twenty days, not one
copy was brought to the Bishop of London ; though, as
Strype says, one need not doubt there were some thousands
of them dispersed in the city, and other parts of his diocese ;
and, the bishops thought, that not many were brought to
the Lords of the Council.-*
In the judgment of Archbishop Parker all this tended to
the ruin of reUgion and learning, the spoiling of the patri
mony of the Church, and the overthrow of the state.t
How deadly the Queen's hatred of the Puritanism which TheQueen'g
BO much alarmed the bishops was, may be gathered from puritanbm.
her language to IMalvesier, the French ambassador : " She
would maintain the religion that she was crowned in, and
that she was baptized in ; and would suppress the Papisti
cal religion that it should not grow ; but that she would
root out Puritanism, and the favourers thereof."!]:
The books thus so firmly retained, notwithstanding the
royal proclamation, were casting the seeds of thought and
• Dr. Sandys, Bishop of London, said, in a letter to Lord Burghley, he had
been desired to look into Mr. Cartwright's book, and see what good stuff was
to be found there, but the truth was. he could never obtain it though it was
current among many, — Burgliley MSS. vol xvii. no. 30, in the Lansdowne
Collection. f Strype's Life of Parker, b. Iv. c. 26.
X Malvesier's Letter.?, quoted by Strype. Annals, voL ii. p. 668.

160 RISE OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK II. action into many minds. A strong tide of popular feeling
CHApTiv ^^*^ setting in against the bishops. The Puritan books
were multiplied by secret presses, for which the commis
sioners diligently searched, but in vain. Whitgift's book
was unpopular at Cambridge. At the universities, in Lon
don, and in many parts of the country, some of the best
and ablest men were siding with the Puritans.
Nicholas Brov^n, B.D., and fellow of Trinity College,
Nicholas Cambridge, and a university preacher, was imprisoned for
prisoned^' preaching against the existing state of things, .ind for refus
ing pubUcly to recant. Lord Burghley addressed Dr. Whit
gift, the Vice-Chancellor, on his behalf; but apparently
without any effect.
Dr. John Browning, senior fellow of Trinity College,
Dr.Browning Cambridge, was deprived of his fellowship, and suffered
''' ™ what the Earl of Bedford called "hard dealing;" but
which Strype seems to think he well deserved as a turbu
lent and hot-spirited " noncomplier."
Mr. Edward Deering, B.D., chaplain to the Duke of Kor-
Edward folk, was sUenced, at a time when he was eminent as reader at
lenced. ' St. Paul's, even though the Bishop of London acknowledged
that he could not accuse him of the crimes with which he
had been charged before the Privy CouncU. In a long and
strictly private letter to Lord Burghley, he refers to this
acknowledgment of the Bishop ; and he adds : — " Which
discharge, as I was glad to hear, so would I have been much
gladder, if, upon so free a confession, he would favourably
have restored me to my lecture again. But novy it is that
they know my mind ; and long since they have had me in
suspicion ; therefore they would provide, in time, to take
my lecture from me, lest I should speak anything to offend
them hereafter. This doing, though it be somewhat strange
to punish a man before, lest hereafter he should offend ;
yet I am contented with it, and leave it unto them, that
should be as grieved to see so great a congregation so
dispersed."* The charges brought against Mr. Deering, before the Lords
Charges of the Council, in the Star Chamber, were, mainly, for speak
ing against godfathers, and for prophesying that " Matthew
Parker is the last archbishop that ever sliaU sit in that
• Strype's Annals, vol L c. 3&

KEION OF ELIZABETH. 161
seat." These offences were reported to have been com- BOOKtt
mitted at a public dinner, where he had read a chapter, chap. rv.
Dr. Chadderton and others being present. His letter to the
Lords of the Star Chamber is preserved in the Burghley
manuscripts. " It giieveth me,'" he says, " to see one pretend the person His replj
of Christ, and to speak words of so great vanity. And yet this
is but one man among many whom, if it pleased God, I
would your honours did hear. But because I ara not to
accuse others, but to purge rayself, I leave this, and will
answer to one accusation, which is yet against me, touching
my Lord of Canterbur}'.
" I am charged that I put off my cap, bad them hearken,
and said — Now will I prophesy, ' Matiheto Parker is ihe
last archbishop that ever shall sit in that seat. Mr, Cart
wright should say, Accipio omen.' To this I answer, that I
have confessed what I said ; and here I send it, witnessed
by their hands that heard it. I put off no cap, nor spake
of any prophecy. But Mr. Blage, commending much a book
wliich he was about, of tbe Archbishops of Canterbury's
Lives, I said menily, as before a sick man, in whose chamber
we Avere, that he should do toell to he somewhat long in this
bishop's life; for peradventure he should be the last that
should sit in that place.
" I do not excuse these words ; but leave to your honom-s
to consider the weight of them ; and I beseech God to give
me that grace, that hereafter I may be careful that I may
speak so as Paul saith, that in all my words I may bring
grace to the hearers. Only this I beseech your honours
with favour to remember, that, seeing my private speeches
so long time have been so nairowly watched, if mine open
preaching had been more faulty, it had been moreeasily known.
And thus I have further to trouble your honours ; offering
myself ready in what place soever I may be thought profit
able to the Church of Christ. I beseech the living- God long
to keep you, to his honour and glory, ' and your endless
comfort."-* Before the bishops would consent to restore him to his Required
ministry, they required hira to acknowledge and subscribe ™'>'™pttan.
the following propositions :—
• strype's Annals, vol. IL no. iiviil.

162 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOKIL I. That the Book of Articles agreed upon at the Synod,
CHApTiv 1563, was sound, and according to the word of God.
11. That the Queen's majesty was the chief govemor,
next under Christ, of this Church of England, as well in
ecclesiastical as in civil causes.
III. Tbat in the Book of Common Prayer was nothing
evil, or repugnant to the word of God ; but that it migbt
be well used in this our Church of England.
IV. That the public preaching of the word of God in this
church was sound and sincere ; and the public order in the
ministration of the sacraments was consonant to the word
of God.
To the second of these articles, respecting the Queen's
supremacy, he offered no obj ections. To each of the others
he made separate objections ; and he concluded his answer
by saying : " See, I beseech you, what wrong I sustain, if I
be urged to this subscription. While any law did bind me
to wear cap and surplice, I wore both. When I was at
liberty, surely 1 would not wear them for devotion. I never
persuaded any to refuse them ; nor am I charged with ever
preaching against them. Thus, according to my promise,
I have set down how far I would yield in these articles
which your worship sent me. If I seem curious, or to
stand upon little points, conscience, it should be remembered,
is very tender, and will not yield contrary to its persuasion
of the truth. 1 have sent you these articles, subscribed
with mine own hand, and sealed with my heart, even in
the presence of God, whom I humbly Iieseech, for Christ's
sake, to give peace unto his Church, that her ministers may
rejoice, and her subjects be glad."*
In addition to the four articles to which Deering thus
His answers, replied, there were twenty others, gathered from Cartwright's
book, to all of which he gave free and distinct answers, with
the following preface : — " I humbly beseech your honours
to remember my former protestation, that I never spok,:
against the book (?f prayers ; and in my book, in print, I
have spoken openly for the allowance of it. I resort to
common prayers : and sometimes being requested, I say the
prayers as prescribed. If I be now urged to speak what I
? Str>-pe-s Annals, vol, ii. b. i, c. 23, — Part of a Register, pp. 81 — 88. — Brook's
Lives of tlie Puritans, vol i. pp. 199— liOl.

BEION OF ELIZABETH. 163
think, as before an inquisition — their being no law of God BOOK n.
requiring me to accuse myself, I beseech your honours, let oji^"iy
my answer \vitness my humble duty and obedience rather
than be prejudicial and hurtful to me. This I most humbly
crave, and, under the persuasion .of your favour, I will an
swer boldly, as I am required."
Dr. Sandys, Bishop of London, obtained the removal of Dr. Sandys
Deering's suspension by the Lords of the Council, for which
he incurred the displeasure both of the Lord Treasurer and
of the Queen. Dr. Cox, Bishop of Elj^, remonstrated against
the council, for acting in this manner without the spiritual
authority of ecclesiastics. Even the Bishop of London soon
changed his mind. Through his influence at court, Deering
was finally silenced by a warrant from the Queen.
The year after Deering's removal from his lectureship at
St. Paul's, Dr. Sampson, now too old and afflicted to perform
his duties at Whittington College, made an unsuccessful at
tempt, in a letter to Lord Burghley, to procure the appoint
ment of Deering as his successor.
There is a beautiful account of " The Life and Death of
Edward Deering, who died Anno Christi, 1576," in Fuller's
Abel Redivi-vus.
It was not enough that Cartwright, the great abettor of Farther per-
Puritanism, should suffer deprivation. The Queen deter- cartwright
mined to bring him to trial ; and she gave orders to the
ecclesiastical commissioners to apprehend him. Grindai,
Archbishop of York, wrote to Parker, Archbishop of Lon
don, informing him that Cartwright was lodged in the house
of Mr. Martin, goldsmith in Cheapside. But Cartwright
escaped the vigilance of his pursuers, and found refuge at
Heidelberg.-* Archbishop Parker, perceiving that the Puritan party
could not be put down by mere authority, wrote a letter to
Dr. Whitgift, exhorting and encouraging him to defend his
Answer to the Admonition. Thus encouraged, Whitgift
brought out his " Defence of the Answer to the Admoni
tion, against the Reply of T. C."— a folio volume of more
than eight hundred pages. In this Defence he first reprints
what he had said in his Answer, then he reprints what Cart-
•Strjpe's Parker, b. iv, c. 23.— Wilcox's Letter to Gilby, Baker's MSS,
(University Library, Cambridge,) vol. xxxii. p. 440.

164

RISE OP THB PURITANS

His friend
ship with
foreign di
vines.

BOOK IL vrright had said on that passage in his Reply ; after that,
CHAR IV he examines, and professes to refute, Cartwright's objections.
From his place of exile, in his sickness, and pressed by
heavy labours, Cartwright published " The Second Reply of
Thomas Cartwright, against Master Dr. Whitgift's Second
Answer, touching the Church Discipline, and the rest of the
Second Reply."-*
During his forced absence from England, Mr. Cartwright
enjoyed the friendship of Beza, and of Junius, the fellow-
labourer with Tremellius in the Latin translation of the
Bible, who highly valued him for his piety and learning.
He served the congregations of British merchants as their
minister, both at Middleburg, and at Antwerp. While he
lived at Antwerp he wrote a preface to a work of Travers :
— " A Full and Plain Declaration of Ecclesiastical Disci
pline, out of the Word of God, and of the Declining of the
Church of England from the same."
He was invited by the French Protestants, whom the
English govei-nors of Jersey and Guernsey encouraged in
those islands, to join Mr. Edward Snape, another English
minister, to aid them in drawing up their ecclesiastical dis
cipline. Having completed this service, he retumed to Antwerp.
Cartwright's He married the sister of Mr. John Stubbs, whose bai'barous
sufferings have been mentioned. Strype has preserved a
letter written by Stubbs from Buxton to Mr. Hicks, Lord
Burghley's secretary, in which he says : — " We have no
news here, but that Cartwright hath married my sister; and
if with you, also, it be publicly known, and any mislike mine
act in providing so for my sister, tell him, on ray behalf,
that I contented myself to take a husband for her wbose
livelihood was learning ; who would endue his wife with
wisdom ; and who mii,'ht leave to his children the rich por
tion of godliness by Christian careful education."
? The reader who wishes to understand this famous controversy will find
the substance of it in the " History of Protestant Nonconformity in England,
hy Thomas Price, D.D.," and in the "Memoir of the Life and Writings of
Tliomas Cartwi ight, B.D,, by the Rev, B, Brook." In those works there is a
perfect lelutation of the statement of Fuller, Ik-ylin, Collier, and other his
torians, th.it Cartwright left Whitgift master of tho field, possessed of all the
signs of an absolute victory. The Answer to Cartwright's last Reply was
given, not by -Whitgift, but by Hooker, in his "Ecclesiastical Polity," The
Second lleply was published in London, in 1575, The two Replies were pub
lished in one volume, in London, in 1677. Both these works are in Dr. Wll-
ilama' Library.

REION OF ELIZABBTH. 165
" And if this apology will not defend me, let him not book il
marvel if I, esteeming these things as precious stones, whUe cHAp'rv-
he rather chooseth the worldly commended things, riches,
favour, &c., which I esteem less worth than a barley
corn."* The suffering, but determined, Puritans in England kept Correspon-
up a correspondence with their absent friend at Antwei-p. mT^ng^
One of their letters, which illustrates their spirit, we l^it™s-
copy from one of the manuscripts in Dr. WiUiams'
Library :
" We stand resolved that what we have done conceming
the ceremonies, the cross in baptism, &c., is most agreeable
to the Word of God and the testimony of a good conscience.
By the help of God we wiU labour even in all things to the
utmost of our power, to be found faithful and approved,
before God and men ; and, therefore, we will not betray that
tmth which it hath pleased God in his great goodness
to make known unto us. You will know we do nothing
contentiously : therein we are clear before God and man.
But we wish you to understand that the iniquitous times
in which we live, and the great trials which we, as well as
you, have to endure in the cause of God, and a thousand
such afiiictions shall not — the Lord helping us — make us
shrink from the maintenance of his truth. The same good
opinion we have conceived of you, not doubting that he who
hath hitherto made you a glorious witness of truth wiU stUl
enable you to go forward in the same course. And yet we
think it meet, both on account of our own dulness, and the
evil days come upon us, that we should quicken one another
in so good a cause. We deal thus with you, whom, both for
learning and godliness, we verj- much love and reverence in
the Lord ; and we commit you to God, and the word of his
gi-ace, which is able, and no doubt wiU, in due time, further
build up both you and us to the glory of his name, and our
endless comfort in Christ."t
In the dedication of his Latin HomUies on Ecclesiastes, to
King James, Cartwright makes grateful mention of the hon- Favourably
our which his Majesty had done him in his exile, by offer- the'scottUh
ing him a professorship in the University of St. Andrews. ^™&
* strype's Annals, vol, ii. b. 2. c 10.
t The second part of a Register, in Dr. Williams' Library, p. 896.

166

RISE OF THE PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. rv".

Returns to
England by
advice of his
physicians.

Is cast into
prison.

Returns to
Warwick.

Interdictedrefuting the
IthemisiiNewTestament

During his abode at Antwerp, he was assisted in ministering
to the English congregation by Mr. Dudley Fenner, who had
formerly been his tutor at Cambridge, whom he regarded
with deep veneration and love, and to whose Sacra Theolo-
gia, published at Amsterdam, he prefixed a commendatory
epistle. Mr. Cartwright's constitution had been so shaken by dis
ease, that he was ad-vised by his physicians to try his native
air. Knowing that he could not land in England without
the danger of being apprehended as a promoter of sedition,
he wrote an epistle in elegant Latin to Lord Burghley,
apologizing for himself, giving an account of his beha-viour
while abroad, and praying his Lordship 'to use his influence
¦with the Queen for his safety. He wrote, also, to the Earl
of Leicester, and to the Privy Council. Though the sym
pathy of the House of Lords was appealed to, and his noble
patrons made intercession for him with the Queen, no sooner
did he reach his native shore than he was cast into prison
by Dr. Aylmer, Bishop of London. This unwarranted
stretch of power, however, brought upon the heartless pre
late her Majesty's displeasure, which was conveyed to him
in a dignified rebuke from Lord Burghley. After suffering
imprisonraent for some months, Cartwright was released by
his old adversary Whitgift, now Archbishop of Canterbuiy.
It was to the interposition of Lord Burghley that he owed
his deliverance. Though released from prison, he could not
preach without the Archbishop's license, and this was re
fused. Under the patronage of the Earl of Leicester he re
tired to the mastership of the hospital recently founded by
that nobleman at Warwick. Here he was frp<- from Epis
copal jurisdiction ; and he employed himself in praying with
the brethren of the hospital, catechizing them on the Sun
day ; preaching in the parish church, and, once a week, at
St. Mary's. He also united with his Puritan brethren in
those measures for the further reform of the Church, which
remain to be more fully described.
While living in this retirement Mr. Cartwright was urged
by the solicitations of learned men, and encouraged by the
patronage of both Leicester and Walsingham, to prepare an
elaborate refutation of the Rhemish translation of the New
Testament, which had been lately put forth by the Roman

REIGN op ELIZABETH. 167
Catholics. As soon as Archbishop Whitgift was made ac- BOOK IL
quainted with his design, he forbad the author to proceed in CHAP~IV
it.* " It seems Walsingham was Secretary of State, not of re
ligion, wherein the Archbishop overpowered him. Many
commended his care not to intrust the defence of the doc
trine of England to a few so disaffected to the discipline
thereof. Others blamed his jealousy to deprive the Church
of such learned pains of him whose judgment would so
soUdly, and affections so zealously, confute the public adver
sary. Distasteful passages — shooting at Rome, but glancing
at Canterbury — if any such were found in his book, might
be expunged ; whilst it was a pity so good fruit should be
blasted in the bud, for some bad leaves about it. Dis
heartened hereat, Cartwright desisted, but some years after,
encouraged by an honourable lord, resumed the work ; but,
prevented by death, perfected no further than the fifteenth
chapter of Revelation. Many years lay this worthy work
neglected, and the copy mouse-eaten in part, when the prin
ter excused some defects therein in his edition, which,
though late, at last came forth. Anno 1618. A book
which, not-nitbstanding the foresaid defects, is so complete,
that the Rhemists dui-st never return the least answer
there to."t
The Queen's displeasure with Cartwright encouraged summoned
some of his enemies. He -vvas accused before Dr. Edmund ^^^^''''°'
Freke, who had lately been translated from Rochester to
Worcester, " where he was a zealous assertor of the Church
discipline." J
When summoned before this prelate, Cartwright was
attended by some of the raore liberal of the nobUity, when
his behaviour w-as so calm and prudent, that he was
dismissed without punishment, though Dr. John Longworth,
once a fellow of the same college with him, had spared no
pains to alarm and to provoke him.
Mr. Brook has printed, from previously unpublished do- Cartwright •
cuments, an interesting letter of Cartwright's, illustrating schism.
his views of those who separated from the Church of Bng-
• strype's -Whitgift, pp. 263, 264.
t Fuller's Church History, b. ix. s. vi
X Wood's Athen. Oxon. vol L p. 105.

168 RISE OP THB PURITANS.
BOOK IL land. This letter is addressed to Mrs. Stubbs, whose hus-
vHAP. IV. band, it will be remembered, was Mr. Cartwright's brother
in-law. This lady had joined the sect of the Brownists,
and had sent to her leamed relative a wiitten defence of her
opinions. Mr. Cartwright not only answered this letter,
but also wrote a ¦' Reproof of Certain Schismatical Persons,
in their Doctrine concerning the Hearing and Preaching of
the Word of God," and published in the same strain " An
Answer unto a Letter of Master Harrison's," which was
printed at Middleburgh. All these papers show that Mr.
Cartwright's aim as a Puritan was not to destroy the
Church of England, nor to forsake its ministry, but to ad
just its discipline bv what he believed to be the word of
God. For his conscientious labours on this principle, he was
Summoned charged by Archbishop Whitgift before the Court of High
CourtofHigh Commission with a long list of offences against the order of
Commission, the Church of England, its ministry, ordinances, and forms.
To these charges he was required to give answers on his oath
ex officio.* Mr. Cartwright could not take that oath, though
he was willing to clear himself on his oath, of the charges
Imprisoned which were most criminal. He was imprisoned in the Fleet.
n e ee , r^^^ Lords of the Council addressed the Ai-chbishop and
the Bishop of London, earnestly desiring them to take some
charitable consideration of this and similar causes ; that
" the people of the realm might not be deprived of their
pastors, being diUgent, learned, and zealous though, in some
points ceremonial, they might seem doubtful only in con
science and not of wilfulness." Burghley, the Lord Treasurer,
writing to the Archbishop resjiecting the articles of accusa
tion, says of them, " which 1 find so curiously penned, so
full of branches and circumstances, that 1 think the Inqui
sition of Spain use not so many questions to comprehend
and entrap their preys. I know your canonists can de
fend them with all their articles. But surely, nnder your
grace's correction, this juridical and canonical sifting of
• This oath was made use of in the spiritual courts, whereof the High Com -
mission Court in particular, made a most extravagant and illegal use, forming
a court of inquisition in which all persons were obliged to answer in cases of
bare suspicion, if the commissioners thought proper to proceed against them
ex officio for any supposed ecclesiastical enormitiea When the High Commis-
rton Court was abolished by statute 16, ear. i. e. 11, this oath ex officio was abo-
usned with It.— Blackstonc's Commentaries, b. iii. c 27

KEIG.N OF ELIZABETH. 169
poor ministers is not to edify and reform. And in charity BOOK IX.
I think they ought not to answer to all these nice points, cHAP.IV.
except they were very notorious offenders in Papistry or
heresy  According to my simple judgment, this
kind of proceeding is too much savouring the Romish In
quisition, and is rather a device to seek for offenders than
to reform any."-*
The King of the Scots (James VI.) at the same time wrote Intercession
to his " dearest sister and cousin," Queen Elizabeth, re- "ish'^Kln""''
questing her, for his sake, to " let the Puritan ministers be
relieved of their present strait." Fuller makes his own
quaint remarks on this and the other letters, and adds : —
" One word from Archbishop Whitgift befriended Mr. Cart-
¦wi-ight more than both the letters from the King of Scot
land. This prelate, reflecting on his abilities, and their
ancient acquaintance in Trinity College, and remembering
AS ^n honourable adversarj', they had brandished pens one
against another, and considering that both of them were now
stricken in yeai-s, and some will say, fearing the success in
so tough a conflict, on Mr. - Cartwright's general promise to Dismission of
be quiet, procured his dismission out of the Star Chamber <'*rtwn8''t
and prison wherein he was confined."?
This is not a fair representation. It was not till Mr.
CartvsTight had suffered heavy distress in prison, nor, even
then, was it without long and urgent applications from
persons in high station, that his dismission was procured.
The Archbishop required him to subscribe a most degrading
recantation, which, with his fellow-sufferers, he refused. He
joined with the others in a manly and pathetic appeal to the
Queen. Mr. Brook, who has fully examined all the docu
ments bearing on the subject, some of which he has pub
lished for the first time from manuscripts, concludes the
account of this part of Mr. Cartwright's life in these words :
" Whether this deUverance was an act of ' favour,' or of
justice, the reader will be able to judge ; and how far it
was procured by the efforts of Whitgift will best appear
from other testimony. One author ascribes Mr. Cartwright's
release to the Lords of the Council as a body, and that it
* Fuller's Church History, b. ix. s. 5.
t Ibid. b. ix. s. 6. 3L

170 I'-ISB OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL was their honours' pleasure ' to deliver him from confine-
f^^^lY nient ;' and the other declares that ' Whitgift only gave
his consent to Mr, Cartwright's discharge,' which was un
doubtedly become a matter of expediency, for which no
great degree of praise was due to him."'*'
It is certain, however, that the Lord Treasurer Burghley
Letter to procured for the prisoners their final release from prison :
LOTdBnrgh- ^^ ^,^^ ^^^ ^^ justice, which could not be forgotten, Mr.
Cartwright cherished a deep sense, and presented to his
Lordship his warmest thanks, as expressed in the following
letter :
"RioHT Honourable. "The Persians, according to Xenophon,
punished an unthankful man as a criminal, which sin, if it
were so among heathens, it ought to be of much more evil
report among Christians, taught in a far better school of
thankfulness than they are. But among all others, it
would be of the foulest and blackest note in the ministers
of the word, who, teaching thankfulness to others, and to
God, in being unmindful, receive against themselves a deep
condemnation. Wherefore, having felt of your benevolent
and honourable favour before in prison, and now much
more in some liberty which I now enjoy, I thought it my
part, as soon as I got out of the physician's hands, as out of
a second prison, to testify to your Lordship my dutiful re
membrance of so great a benefit, whereof your Lordship
hath been so singular a means. Which thing having only
touched, lest in desiring and endeavouring some duty, I
should be found troublesome to your Lordship, and inju
rious to others, who, by your honourable travails, enjoy
peace, that which remains I will supply with my daUy
prayers to Almighty God, that, together with long life, he
would daily bless your Lordship with increase of all other
of his heavenly blessings, which, in his infinite -wisdom, he
knoweth best to agree with your honourable calling.
" From Hackney, the 21st May, 1592, your Lordship's
most humbly to command.'"t
• Sutcliffe's Exam., p. 45. Strype's Whitgift, p. 370.
t Lansdowne MSS., vol. xxii. art. 61. Brook's Memoir of Cartwright, pp
414, 415.

REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 171
Though released from prison, Mr. Cartwiight still la- BOOK IL
boured under her Majesty's displeasure. She commanded chap"iv.
the bishops to suspend him. Even when he preached in
the hospital at Warwick, where he was beyond the reach
of episcopal control, ihe people who flocked to hear him
were prosecuted in the spiritual courts.
Several of Mr. Cart-wright's latter years were spent in Cartwright's
Guernsey ; but he died at Warwick, where he laboured, in *^^*'
much affliction, to the last. His final sermon, the Sunday
before he died, was on the subject of death, and it has been
not unfitly denominated " his own funeral sermon." On
Tuesday moi-ning he spent two hours in prayer, and before
his departure, he told his wife that he had enjoyed " un
utterable comfort and happiness, and that God had given
him a glimpse of heaven."
Cartwright has always been regarded as the leader of the
more moderate Puritans ; and we have seen how he suffered
for his labours in bringing about a farther reformation in
the Church. It must be acknowledged that he was far from
those views of toleration which have prevailed in later times.
There are many pasages in his writings which prove that
even if he had succeeded in establishing the discipline in
the Cliurch of England for which he contended, as agreeing
with the word of God, he was not more disposed than any
of his adveraaries, to respect the liberty of conscience, and
to leave reUgious errors to be dealt with merely by religious
means. Sensible as he was of the injustice done to him
self by the restrictions under which he was placed, and by
the punishments he was made to bear, we are not prepared
to say that he would have thought it wrong to inflict simi
lar severities on some at least, of those who differed from him.
He expressly says that " the magistrate ought to enforce His ideas of
the attendance of Papists and Atheists onthe services of the ^™ion.
Church ; to punish them if they did not profit by the
preaching they might hear ; to increase the punishment if
they gave signs of contempt ; and if at last they proved
utterly impenitent, to cut them off, that they might not
corrupt and infect others."-*
Other less distinguished men, avowing the same principles,
shared the same fate. It were but the repetition of a
• Reply to Whitgiffs Defence, p. 6L

172

RISE OP TUB PllRIlANS.

BOOK IL wearisorae tale to particularize the labours and sufferings of
(jHAP.rv. ^-hem all, even though it were practicable.

of the Act of
Uniformity,

In 1 574, the Queen had issued her proclamation, lament-
Enforcement ing the spread of Nonconformity, blaming the bishops and
the magistrates for negligence, requiring the act of
uniformity to be executed with diligence and severity, and
specially charging all persons in ecclesiastical authority to
proceed against all Nonconformists with " celerity and se
verity," on pain of her Majesty's high displeasure for their
negligence, and deprivation from their dignities and bene
fices, and other censures to follow, according to their de
merits,-* I
The proclamation was followed by commissions to the
bishop of each diocese, and other persons in the several
counties. But, as Strype says, " these comraissioners were
not seldom friends to these men ; and the physicians them
selves were sick, as the Bishop of Ely, speaking of these
commissioners, confessed himself to the Archbishop."
Archbishop Parker was deeply grieved, according to
his historian, at the secret favour shown by some at court
to the Puritans ; and he made no scruple of saying that
the encouragement given to the Nonconformists would not
end in the overthrow of the episcopal orders, but would
bring down the nobility of England to the level of the low
est subjects.f In a letter to Burghley, he said, " he knew
the Nonconformists to be cowards, and that if the Privy
Council did not continue to prosecute them, her Majesty's
govemment would be endangered."
A poor maniac of the name of Birchett, of the Middle
Temple, having stabbed Mr. Hawkins, an officer of the
navy, in the Strand, was asked at his examination, if he
knew Mr. Hawkins. He replied that he took him for Mr
Hatton,t captain of the guards, one of her Majesty's privy

Birchett, a
maniac.

* strype's Parker, b. iv. c. 33.

t Ibid, b. iv. c. 24, 33.

X Sir Christopher Hatton was the Queen's lover, distinguished through life
for his vanity, idleness, dissipation, and hypocrisy, and the best dancer of his
age. For many years the reigning favourite of Elizabeth's court, he moved
the commitment of Wentworth to the Tower ; was suspected of the murder
of the Earl of Northumberland ; took a leading part in the trial of Mary, Queen
of Scots, and, in the House of Commons, violently urged her execution. On liis
appointment to the chancellorship, the leaders of the bar were filled with dis
gust and indignation. He was " quite at home when presiding in the Star
Chamber.-' He died of a broken heart, when he saw himself abandoned for

MElQN OP ELIZABETH. 173
chamber, whom the Spirit of God had commanded him to book li.
kill, as an enemy of God's word. When he was threatened Qj^Ap jy
with being bumed as a heretic, he recanted. When the
government were at a loss in what way to punish him, he
killed his keeper with a billet, as he was reading a book in
one of the windows of the Tower. For this raurder he was
fried at the King's Bench, when he confessed the crime,
alleging that the keep«r was Hatton. The next day his
right hand was struck oft' on the spot where he had stabbed
Hawkins, and iramediately after he was hanged on a gibbet,
where his corpse remained three daj-s.
The Queen connected this madman's act with the Puri
tans ; and honest Strype seems wilUng to fall into the
same humour, for he calls Birchett a Puritan ; and deals
in mysterious hints about his having been at Mr. Samp
son's lecture at Whittington College on the morning of the
crime, although he says that ''Birchett had been observed
not long before to have been disturbed in his mind, and
had talked fi'anticly by fits," and he must surely have
known that neither Sampson, nor any of the Puritans, could
possibly have approved of the doings of a poor insane man.*
Yet is it gravely asserted that the accident which befell Increaied
Hawkins made the Queen more j ealous of the Puritans, the Puritan*
and offended with them, and hastened another command
from the court against them. A stringent letter was sent
from the council to each of the bishops, laying on them the
blame of the disorders in the Church, and more than insinu
ating that they and their officers were more attentive to
getting money, and some other purposes, than to their pro
per duties, and by winking and dissembhng at the necessary
orders, rendered these proclamations and strict injunctions
necessary. Though the bishops did not like this letter, they obeyed.
Through all the dioceses, they required aU the ministers
who were suspected of Nonconformity to s'abscribe a decla
ration of their adherence to " the form and doctrine esta
blished in this realm."
younger favourites of the Queen. This profligate had the greatest inflnence
with the Queen, in her resolute persecutions of the Puritans. — See Lives of the
Lord Chancelloi-s, hy John. Lord Campbell, vol IL c. 45 ; Hallam's Con. Hist,
of England, vol i. c. 4.
• Strype's Parker, b. iv. e. 36.

174 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL Not the clergy only, but the laity, absented themselves in
CHAP. IV large numbers from the parish churches. These EngUsh-
Spread of jjjgjj Jared to think for themselves on the affairs of thefr
mity. o-wn souls ; to read the writings and hear the discourses of
the most leamed and conscientious ministers ; and to as
semble for divine worship in a manner which they believed
to be according to the word of Groi. For such offences they
were brought before bishops and s^ular raagistrates, where
they were tortured with vexatious questions, rudely and
contemptuously reviled, and required, on pain of imprison
ment, to subscribe their names to a paper confessing that
they had absented themselves from the parish church, pray
ing for pardon, and promising to join the congregation in
prayer, and in the use of the sacraraents, according to the
order estabUshed by public authority.*
Archbishop Parker had a copy of a protestation of the
Puritans, " which," he says, " the congregation did severaUy
swear, and after, took the communion, in ratification of
thefr consent."t The protestation itself contains no doc
trine or purpose which any honest man need be ashamed
to avow, or which any government civU or ecclesiastical has
received any right from God to prevent his avowing ; but
there is no evidence beyond that of a manuscript found
among Archbishop Parker's papers, in the library of Sir
WilUam Petyt, keeper of the records and rolls in the Tower,
that any such protestation was signed ; and the Archbishop's
mere declaration can scarcely be accepted as a proof of a
thing so improbable as that it should be confirmed with
an oath, and by the communion.
One of the most remarkable proceedings in the Church
during the reign of EUzabeth was what Strype caUs " a very
commendable reformation,"— the meetings of the most
learned of the ministers for the interpretation of the Scrip
tures. The ffrst of these meetings was held with the ap
probation of the Bishop at Northampton. Afterwards they
were established in most of the dioceses, the moderator of
each meeting being nominated by the bishop.
The Queen heard that these prophesyings, as they were
• These forms of subscription, together with au account of the trial and im
prisonment of several laymen for refusing to subscribe, are preserved in manu
script in Dr. Wmiams' library. ( Strype's Parker, b, v, c, 28

REIQN OP ELIZABETH. 176
called, had been abused by the Puritan party, and she gave BOOK n.
command to Archbishop Parker to send to all the bishops in CHAP. IV.
the province of Canterbury, not to correct the abuses, or to in
quire into them, but to put them down. Dr. Parkhurst,
Bishop of Nor-wich, knowing how advantageous these exercises
had been both to clergj' and laity, vjTote to the Archbishop, in
quiring whether he was to suppress some vain speeches used
in some of these conferences, or generally the whole order
of such exercises. It was, he said, a right thing, necessary,
and one to be continued unless it were abused, as it had not
been, excepting in a few cases, in which the evil had been
easily and promptlj' cured. Grirdal, Bishop of London,
Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Walter Mildmay, and Sir Francis"
KnoUys, hearing of the opposition to the prophesyings,
joined in a letter to the Bishop of Norwich, requiring him
not to hinder them, so long as they were not made occasions
for teaching false doctrine, or disturbing the peace of the
Church. The Archbishop, however, supported by the
Queen's authority, insisted on strict obedience, and the
prophesyings were suppressed throughout that diocese.
Among the earliest dissenters from the doctrines and rites Anabaptlrtk
of the Church of England before the Reformation there ap
pear to have been some who denied the right of infants to
Christian baptism, and consequently the necessity of baptism
to infant salvation. Such were found among the Lollards
and Wickliffites, and among the martyrs of the English
Reformation.-* During the reign of Henry VIII., and for a long time,
the vei'y name Anabaptist was itself a stigma. They were
exempted from every act of grace. They were im
prisoned, banished, bumed to death. In Edward's reign
they were disliked as foreigners, and also, because they
were charged by their enemies with holding dangerous doc
trines ; but it is certain that the denial of infant baptism,
apart from any other reUgious peculiarity, was visited vrith
grievous punishment, as contrary to the religion estabUshed
by law.
From the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, the Antipsedo-
baptists were crueUy treated. Search after search was
• Fox's Acts and Monuments, b. L c. 10. Broadmead Records.

176 RISE DP THB PURIO^ANS.
BOOK IL made for them ; proclamation after proclamation was made
CHApTry-. against them. " Anabaptism," said Whitgift, '' which usu
ally foUoweth the preaching of the gospel, is greatly to be
feared in this Church of England."-*
Of a congregation of Flemish refugees, meeting without
Aldersgate Bars, London, professing these principles, twenty-
seven were imprisoned, four, bearing faggots at Paul's Cross,
recanted, and obtained their release ; eight were banished ;
two, John Wielmaker, or Jan Peters, and Hendrick Ter-
wood were bumed at Smithfield. It was in relation to
these unhappy victims of Protestant and royal persecution,
that Fox addressed his well-known letter to Queen Eliza
beth, begging that " the piles and flames of Smithfield, so
long ago extinguished by your happy government, may not
be revived."
Archbishop Parker was succeeded by Archbishop Grindai
in the see of Canterbury, in 1575. Sandys was translated
to York, and Aylmer to London. In the following year a
new commission came forth from the Queen. Among other
ecclesiastical obj ects, the commissioners -were empowered to
search out, correct, and punish such as wilfully absented
themselves from the church and divine service.
The Puritans had not yet abandoned all hope of induc-
Hopesofthe ing the rulers of the Church to carry on the Reformation
^"^ "'¦ according to their views.
While they continued to labour in the Church, they held
meetings among themselves for this purpose. At one of
these meetings, held by the associated ministers of North
amptonshire and Warwickshire, certain rules of discipline
were adopted for their several parishes, agreeing with that
of the church at Geneva. As soon, however, as they began
to reduce their rules to practice, letters came to Archbishop
Grindai from the Earl of Leicester, fi-om Mr. Secretary
Walsingham, by the Queen's special command, and from
Lord Burghley, giving him the names of Mr. Page and Mr.
Oxenbridge as the leaders in these matters. On the re
ceipt of these letters, the Archbishop wrote to the Bishop
of Peterborough, and to the Bishop of Lichfield and Coven
try, in whose diocese these ministers lived, to see these
• Answer to the Admonition, p. 6 1572.

BEION OP ELIZABETH. 171?
things set right, and, if necess.ii-y, tn seek the assistance of BOOKU,
himself, or the ecclesiastical commissioners. In a few days chap, iv
after the first letter, he wrote ayain, probably in conse
quence of Liird Burghley's information, inquiring into the
character of Page and Oxenbridge, and ordering them to be
sent to him forthwith. As he apprehended that these mi
nisters were supported by influential laymen in those coun
ties, he seems not to have proceeded any farther in the
business, but to have communicated his thoughts privately
to Lord Burghley.*
Dming this year, Dr. Freke, who had succeeded Dr. Park
hurst as Bishop of Nonvich, suspended several ministers in
his diocese for Nonconformity.
Mr. John jMobe, who had been feUow of Christ's CoUege, Mr. John
Cambridge, was a preacher at St. Andrew's Chm-ch, Nor- taies™ con-
vfich, " of great vogue," says Strype, " and very popular in ^'^ '''"¦
tbat city about this time."t This man, npon a sermon Dr.
Pei-n of Cambridge had preached in the Cathedral, tock
upon him the next Sunday to confute the doctrine he had
preached — not so agreeable undoubtedly to some Puritan
principles — and so intended to proceed in a further confu
tation thereof; but the Bishop (Parkhui-st) being informed of
this by one ot the prebendaries, commanded him to desist.J
In 1756, Mr. More, with five other Nonconforming Claim of re-
clei^ymen at Norwich, addressed a humble suppUcation to ^^^^
the Lords of the Conncil,declaring that though they were
ready to yield thefr aU in the sei-vice of the Queen, they
could not submit to the rigorous imposition of the cere
monies by their bishop, as they beUeved that his proceed
ings, if pei-severed in, would bring the most awfiil ruin upon
the Church. Nineteen or twenty exercises of preaching or
catechising had afready been put down.§
It appears from a letter signed by the same ministers in
the same register, that they had been suspended fi-om preach
ing, since they declare thefr readiness to subscribe to aU
those articles which concem the confession of the true
Christian feith, and doctrine of the sacraments according to
the statute, and they acknowledged that even the cerc-
• Strype's Life of (Jrlndal, b. iii. c. vii t l^'S.
i Strype's Annals, voL IL book i. ch. 28.
} Second parte of a Register MS. in Dr. Williams' Libna7, p. 266 8*

178

RISE OP THE PURITANS

Dr. Richard
Crick.

monies, order, and government, are so far tolerable that no
man ought to forsake theministry, or the hearing of the word
and enjoyment of the sacraments, because of his objections
to them.
Dr. Richard Crick, another of these Norwich ministers,
had been chaplain to the late bishop. Three years before,
he had been commended to Sandys, Bishop of London, for
leaming and sobriety, and on that account he had been ap
pointed by him to be one of the preachers at Paul's Cross.
In his sermon there, he inveighed against the ecclesiastical
polity established by law, and mentioned Cartwright's book
as the true platform of the apostolical church, for which the
Bishop of London and Archbishop Parker sent for him ; but
he was conveyed away. The ecclesiastical commissioners
sent for him from Norwich, and deprived him of his lecture-
siiip in the Cathedral.-*
Mr. Richard Gawton had been minister at Snoring, in
Mr. Richard Norfolk, but he had resigned that benefice because he was
Norfolk.' unable to pay fourteen pounds a-year out of his income to
the former incumbent, -who had lost his living through ne
glect, and without any fault of Gawton's. On leaving
Snoring, Mr. Gawton became the curate of a church in Nor
wich. This year (1576) he was called before the Bishop
for refusing to wear the sui-plice, departing from the rubric,
confuting the Bishop's chaplain, and admonishing his pa
rishioners to beware of false doctrine. After a long and
lively examination by the Bishop, he was suspended, appa
rently for five years.t
Mr. R. Hakvet, another minister of Norwich, was cited
before Bishop Freke, for preaching against the episcopal
government. The dean, who pronounced his sentence of sus
pension from the ministry, was complained of by Gawton,
who witnessed the proceedings, as behaving himself not like
a judge, but very intemperately, like a tyrant. Some days
after, he addressed to the Bishop a letter, which the histo
rian calls "a confident ruffling letter, and which," he says,
" was so esteemed by that party, that it was put in print by
them, with several other tracts of the like sort." We can
find no trace of the publication ; but there is a copy of the
• Strj-pe's Parker, b. iv. c. 26-35.
t strype's Annals, vol. ii. b. ii. c 4, Parte of a Register, p. 890.

Mr. R. Har
vey of Nor-
wlch.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 179
letter in the " Parte of a Register," in Dr. Williams' book n.
Library,* chap. iv.
JIr. Lawrence, in Suffolk, the only preacher within a Mr.Lawrence
., J, , ' ., ' , f 1, r ofSuffolk.
circuit of twenty miles, a man spoken of by persons of
quality in the county as of great modesty, unblameable life,
and sound doctrine, was restored to his ministry after his
fii-st suspension ; but he was now again suspended by Bishop
Freke, to the great grief of the most religious men in the
county, and notwithstanding the eamest entreaties of Mr.
Calthorp, an eminent Suffolk gentleman, and of Lord
Burghley. The Bishop's answer to Mr. Cal thorp's letter
shows how much the personal hatred of the Queen towards
the Puritans had to do with these persecutions. He says he
" had not sequestered Mr. Lawrence from preaching by vir
tue of letters of the lords of her Maj esty 's privy council only,
but also by virtue of certain letters from her Majesty, wherein
he was strictly charged to suffer none but such only to
preach as were allowed of into the ministry, and conform
able in all manner of rites and ceremonies established in
the Church of England, and therefore he c^aj-et^ not attempt
to do it. He might not, upon every movement made, tran,s-
gress her Majesty's commandment, although he bore as
good-will to Mr. Lawrence as he or any man within the
county."+ Mk. John Handson, of Bury St. Edmund's, was sus- Mr. John
pended from preaching by the same bishop, notwithstand- Bury Sfc'Ed-
ing Sir Robert Jermyn, Lord North, and Lord Burghley ¦n'™^
had told the Bishop that they knew Mr. Handson's ministiy
to have been very profitable to a great number, that they
who sought to remove him were rather adversaries than
friends to the truth, that for matter of feith and manners,
he was ever held a sound teacher ; that in these indifferent
tilings he never laboured much; and that in consideration of
these things, they entreated the Bishop to let him exercise his
ministry. The Bishop, however, resolutely answered, that
unless Handson would publicly confess his fault, and come
under a bond to follow another course, he would not set
bun free.J Strype adds, " These courses went on at Bury
•Extracts fi-om the letter are printed by Strype, (Aimals, vol ii. b. H.O.
It. ;) and the sulstance of it by Mr. Brook, (Lives of the Puritans, vol. I p. 19L)
t Strype-s Annals, voL il b. il c. 24. X Kid. vol. ui. b. i. c. 2.

180

RISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK n.
CHAP IV.

Mr. John
Wilson's ex
amination.

Mr. Giles
Wiggington'isnUerings.

for some years, the ministers varying from, or altering, the
Common Prayer at their discretion ; disliking the order of
it, and depraving the book ; asserting the Queen's supre
macy to be only in civil matters, not religious ; and some
also holding certain heresies — as that Christ was not God,
&c., and many young ministers of this sort were increasing
in those parts, and all this in a great measure by the favour
of some of the justices, till in the year 1583 they received a
check by sorae severe proceedmgs at the assize at Bury, Sir
Christopher Wray, Lord Chief Justice, being on the bench,
when many were convicted, and some obstinately persisting,
put to death."
We have had occasion to report some of Archbishop
Sandys' rigorous proceedings towards Dean Whittingham in
the northern province. How severely he carried out the
Queen's determination to crush all Nonconformists may be
seen in one or two examples happily preserved from
oblivion. Mr. John Wilson, who had been licensed by this Arch
bishop to preach at Skipton, was brought before his Grace
and the other ecclesiastical commissioners of the province
of York. His examinations, at three several times, at
Bishopsthorpe, are on record. It is impossible to read
them without marking the contrast between the haughti
ness, impatience, and hardness displayed on one side, and
the humility, conscientiousness, and meekness displayed
on the other. The Archbishop called Wilson a man of a
haughty and proud spirit, a, fellow, an arrogant fool, an
arrogant Puritan, a rebel, an enemy to her Majesty, au
underminer of the state. When Mr. Wilson bound him
self to preach no more in the Archbishop's province, he
was released, only to pass through simUar sufferings in the
southern province.*
Mr. Giles Wigginton, M.A., of Cambridge, and Vicar
of Sedburgli, excited the disapprobation of Archbishop
Sandys, as a young man of whom he would not accept as
a preacher in his diocese ; and against whom he oau tioned
Dr. Chadderton, Bishop of Chester, as a dangerous Noncon
formist. He was deprived of his living ; hunted from place
to place; loaded with irons; nearly starved to death in ,,
• MS, Register in Dr. Williams' Library.

REION OP ELIZABETH. 181
prison ; and charged, on ridiculously slender e-vidence, with BOOKlL
sharing in a pretended conspiracy against the government.* cHAp"rv-
The diocese of London was not likely to afford much
peace to Nonconformists under the rule of Bishop Aylmer.
Mr. Robert Wright, who had been tutor at Cambridge Mr. Robert
to the Earl of Leicester, had received Presbyterian ordi- ^'^s'''-
nation at Antwerp ; and, on returning to England, he
enjoyed the protection of Lord Rich, of Rochford in Essex,
in whose chapel he officiated, preaching and administering
the sacrament, though viithout the Bishop's license. Lord
Rich's death exposed the chaplain to the attack of the
Bishop, who committed him to the Gate-house prison on
the frivolous charge of saying, " that to keep the Queen's
birthday as a holiday was to make her an idol ; " of
which the Queen had heard with great anger, and for
which slander the Bishop said he was worthy to he in
prison seven years.f The keeper of the Gate-house, with
the secret consent of the Secretary, allowed Mr. Wright
to go home to see his wife, who was lying-in. WhUe
absent, Mr. Ford, a civUian, saw him go to the house of
Mr. Butler, his wife's brother, and threatened the keeper
that he would complain of him to the Queen ; but Mr.
Wright wrote to Lord Burghley, explaining the affair to
him, and beseeching him "to stand good lord to the
keeper, that he may not be discouraged from favouring
those that profess true religion."
After a long imprisonment he professed his -willingness
to express in -writing his acknowledgment of the ministry
of the Church of England, and of the Book of Common
Prayer. But the Bishop refused to accept his submission
without the approbation of the Queen, and also a bond,
in a large sum, from his fi-iends, that he would never
preach nor act contrary to this engagement.!
Mr. Francis Merburt, a minister at Northampton, was Mr. Francis
examined for Nonconformity by Bishop Aylmer and other eMmSttoa.
commissioners, in the consistory of St. Paul's, London.
This examination, preserved in the " Parte of a Register,"
60 often quoted, displays the Bishop as a ridiculous quib-
* MS. Register. Conspiracy for Pretended Reformation, by R, Cosin, LLJ>.
Mblished by authority, 1592.
t Strj-pe's Annals, b, i. p, 1^3,
t Life of Ayhuer, p. 87. Brook-s Lives of the Puritcms, vol i. p. 289.

182 RISE OP the puritans.
BOOK IL bier, and a rude brawler, calling his -victim — a very ass,
3aAP rv mad, impudent, fool-hardy, scarce able to construe Cato,
an idiot, a fool, a fellow who would have a preacher in
every parish church, an overthwart, proud, Puritan knave.
Mr. Merbury was sent to the Marshalsea, "to cope with
Papists," as the Bishop threatened. How long he re
mained in prison is doubtful ; but he appears afterwards
to have mitigated his opposition to the hierarchy.
Mr. Robert Cawdrey, minister of Luffenham, in Rut-
Case of Mr. landshire, refused to take the oath ex officio, before Bishop
drey. ^^' -A-ylmer and the other comraissioners ; but afterwards he
submitted to a long inquisition, and gave answers in writing
to ten charges brought against him. He was examined
a second and a third time ; and, on his refusal to engage
to wear the surplice, he was committed to prison. After
being suspended for three months he addressed a supplica
tion to Lord Burghley, that he might not, on such arbitrary
grounds, be deprived of the living to which his Lordship
had presented him, and in which he could procure sufflcient
testimony from the magistrates and ministers of the county,
that he had behaved himself unblameably. While the
Bishop was proceeding in his determination to deprive hira.
Lord Burghley, having examined the whole case, sent an
express to the Bishop, to dismiss him without further
trouble. As the Bishop, professing himself to be only one
of the commissioners, still put off the final consideration
of the business, Mr. Cawdrey wrote again to Lord Burghley,
complaining that, notwithstanding his Lordship's message
and letters on his behalf, the Bishop still kept him from
performing the duties which he owed to God and his people,
to his wife and his children, and seemed as though he
meant to wear him out. " Will it therefore please your
good Lordship, even at this time, to use such means to
procure my discharge, as to your godly wisdom shall appear
most proper 1 To you, next under God, I fly for refuge in
this case. I protest I am not obstinate in any one thing,
as He knoweth whom I am most loathe to displease."
Unhappily for Mr. Cawdrey, Lord Burghley was at that
time ill. so that he had no escape from the hands of the
commissioners. His accusation being read, the Bishop
asked him what he had to say against the sentence of

REION OP ELIZABETH. 163
deprivation being pronounced upon him. " So far as my BOOK n.
knowledge and counsel serve," he said, " I cannot see how cHAP IV.
you can deal so hardly with me, for if the rigour of the
law should be extended against me for speaking against the
book, the penalty, as set down in the statute, is only half-
a-year's imprisonment, and the loss of my living to her
Majesty for one whole year ; and the same statute says, it
must be wilfully and obstinately persisted in, which is not
the case with me. Besides, the said trespass is already
remitted by her Majesty's gracious pardon ; therefore you
have no just cause of deprivation."
" If yon will abide," said the Bishop, " by such order as Terms of snb-
I and the other commissioners shall appoint, and wUl j^lfted." ™'
openly recant, in such places as we shall determine, those
blaspliemous speeches which you have uttered against that
holy book, and use it in every point, then we wiU stay our
proceedings." To this proposal Mr. Cawdrey repUed, " / would not do
that for the world."
One of the commissioners, entreating him to submit,
said, " We hear that you live honestly, are weU thought of
in your country, are a good housekeeper, and have a wife
and many children ; therefore take our good advice."
" Both my wife and chUdren," answered Mr. Cawdrey,
"shall go a-begging, rather than I wUl offend God and my
own conscience. And, further, if you can charge me with
any one instance of wickedness of Ufe, or any false doctrine,
during the time I have been in the ministry, or at any
time before, let the sentence of the law be inflicted -with
the utmost severity." "False doctrine !" said the Bishop,
'¦ I will stand to it, that whosoever shall say the book is
vUe and filthy, which hath epistles and gospels, psalms,
and holy prayers in it, I say flatly, he is a heretic, take the
law upon me who wUl."
Having begged in vain for further time, Mr. Cawdrey
said finaly : — " If you can charge me with holding any
point of doctrine which I cannot prove to be true, both by
tbe word of God and the judgment of those leamed writers
whose works you — the high commissioners — have author
ized to be printed and allowed in England, then let me
have no fevour at all."

.184

RISE OP THE PURITANS

BOOK II
CHAP. rv.
Sentence of
deprivation.

The Bishop then pronounced against him the sentence
of deprivation of the ministry in any part of the kingdom.
In addition to this deprivation he was degraded by the
High Commission at Lambeth, for want of learning, as
well as for Nonconformity.
In a letter to Lord Burghley, this injured minister of
the gospel modestly vindicated himself from the charges
brought against him. " As to my leaming, though I have
none to boast of, yet, seeing I have been employed in study,
and have exercised myself in expounding the Scripture,
and in preaching the word of God, almost twenty years, I
hope God hath blessec me with some small measure of
knowledge. I appeal to the people of my charge, and the
good success of my ministry among them, which is a great
comfort to my soul. I desire your Lordship to examine
me upon some portion of Scripture, and I hope you wUl
not find me so uttel-ly void of learning, as to bo wholly
unfit to be exercised in the ministry. Indeed, I acknow
ledge that with respect to my important calUng, and the
abiUty that is requisite to a proper discharge of it, I am
very unfit for the sacred function. Yet it affordetli me
some comfort that God, in mercy, hath so far blessed my
labours that I hope my people know, as well as most, how
to ' render unto Csesar the things which are Caesar's, and
imto God the things which are God's.' And as to the
charge of not using the Book of Common Prayer, I have
always used it, and do still purpose to use it. Only, I
humbly request that I may not be more narrowly searched
into, and more hardly dealt with, than many other minis
ters in England."
Ml'. Cawdrey declined to submit his cause to the fm--
intcrfercnce tiler consideration of the Archbishop of Canterbury and
the Bishop of London. He was persuaded that whUe
these church-rulers countenanced ignorant and idle minis
ters, they were determined to push to the utmost extremity
the law, against all ministers, however pious and laborious,
who could not conscientiously conform. His cause was
taken up by Lord Burghley, and, at his Lordship's sug
gestion, by Mr. James Morrice, a member of the House of
Commons, attorney of the coui-t of wards, in the duchy
of Lancaster. For meddling with this matter, Mr. Mor-

REIQN UP liLtZABETII. 185
rice was deprived of his office in the court of wards, and BOOK H.
of his standing as a barrister, and he was iraprisoned for cHAP. IV.
some yeai-s in Tutbury Castle.*
The legality of the sentence of deprivation, in Mr. Caw-
drey's case, was argued in the Court of Exchequer. The
report of the arguments on both sides, and the decision
of the judges in fevour of the commissioners, was drawn
up by Sir Edward Coke, then the Queen's solicitor-general,
and is generally kno-wn by the name of " Cawdrey's Case."t
This decision left Mr. Cawdrey and his family to starve.t
While the most devoted of the clergy were thus bar- Character of
assed, one half of the churches in London were unfur- i^g clergy.
nished -with preachers ; and, in the other half, not more
than one in ten made conscience of waiting on his charge.
In Northampton there was not one faitlifiil preacher.
Of 160 churches in Cornwall the greatest part were sup-
pUed by men guilty of the gi-ossest immoraUties, unfit to
nreach, pluraUsts, and non-residents.§
The proceedings of the government were stUl carried
on in the spirit of the most rigid coercion. Letters were
sent to all the dioceses, inquiring after persons absenting
themselves from churches ; and especially after school
masters thought to be secret hinderers of the religion
estabUshed by law.
The nation at large can scarcely be supposed to have
sympathized in the arbitrary measures of their rulers.
The ministers who were banished fi-om their pulpits were
received as domestic chaplains and private tutors into the
femilies of the nobility and gentry ; thus they were pro
tected against the fury of their oppressors ; and, by the
leisure and domestic influence they acquired, they had the
opportunity of imbuing not a few of the rising spfrits of
the age with the hatred of tyranny, and the love, at once,
of religious and political freedom.
The justices of the peace in Suffolk addressed a serious
remonstrance to the Lords of the Council ; the Bishop,
weary of the opposition he met with in his diocese,
•Townshend's Account of the Four Last Pariiaments of Elizabeth, p. 60.
D'Ewe's Journal, p. 478.
t Heyhn's Aerius Redivivus, p. 517.
X MS. Register in Dr, WUliams' Library. Strype s Life of Bishop Aylmer,
pp. 129, 146.
5 MS. In Dr. Williams' Library.

1S6 RISE OP THB PURITANS.
BOOK IL prayed to be removed, and he was soon translated to
CHliTin. Worcester. SECTION III. — THE SEPARATISTS.
None of the Puritans had hitherto gone so far as to deny
The Wands- that the Church of England was a true Church of Christ,
worth Pres-; qj. h^^^ jj^ng ^,[^[1 raagistrate had no authority in matters of
by'.ery. religion. But as the harshness of the church-rulers in
creased, many of them were driven to separate fi-om the
established communion, and they privately set up a pres
bytery at Wandsworth, where Sir. Field was lecturer.
This, which was the first Presbyterian church in England,
was not kept so secret as to escape the vigilance of tbe
govemment, though its members contrived to avoid detec
tion, and similar presbyteries were erected in other places.
A Book of Discipline had been drawn up by Mr. Travers,
Book of Dis- ^" Latin, which was revised, and printed at Cambridge, in
cipiiuere- English, with a commendatory epistle by Mr. Cartwright.
subscribed. It was subscribed by not fewer than five hundred ministers,
who agreed to use all proper means for introducing it to
the people. In this book it was proposed that candidates
for ordination should be approved by a classis, or association
of ministers ; that the clergy should proceed in omitting
parts of the liturgy, as far as they might without danger
of deprivation ; that they should subscribe to the articles
relating to the sum of the Christian faith, and the sacra
ments ; but not to the remaining articles, nor to the Book
of Common Prayer ; and tbat other changes should be ob-
sei-ved, so far as was consistent \vith the law of the land,
and the peace of the Church, This book was seized at the
Seized at the P^^^^! ^^"^ the Archbishop ordered all the copies to be burned.
^essand One copy escaped, which was published in 1644, with this
title ; — " A Directory of Church Government, anciently
contended for, and, as far as the time would suffer. Prac
tised by the Nonconformists in the days of Queen Eliza
beth : Found in the Study of the most accomplished
divine, Mr. Thomas Cartwright, after his decease, and
reserved to be published for such a time as this. Published
by Authority," t
* strype's Annals, vol, iii, b. i. c. 16.
t This book is reprinted by Mr. Keal in the Appendix to vol. i of his History
of the Puritaua

REIQN op ELIZABETH. 187
Among the ministers who signed the Book of Discipline BOOK IL
was the eminent sufl'erer John Udal. „ —
Mr. Hume, speaking of the tyrannical statute of Eliza- john Udal
beth, making seditious words against the Queen a capital
offence, says that " a use no less tyrannical, was sometimes
made of it ; " and he draws up from the State Trials, and
from Strype, an account of Udal as one which "seems
singular, even in those arbitrary times."*
The account given by Hume, though superficial, and far
from being accurate, has made the case more generally
known than many of the numerous cases of similar perse
cutions in this reign.
Mr. Udal, of the University of Cambridge, and a minister His suiter
at Kingston, was an early sufiijrer for Nonconformity ; but ^^^
he had been restored to his ministry through the unsought
influence of the Countess of Warwick, and other persons of
high rank. After he signed the Book of Discipline, he
was again driven from his flock ; but he was sent by Lord
Huntingdon, President of the North, to preach at Newcas
tle-upon-Tyne, in the year when the Plague was raging,
(1588.) After labouring there with great success, he was
summoned before the Privy Council, and examined by the
Commissioners as to the authorship of certain books. After
long questioning and answering, the Lord Chief Justice
Anderson, said to the Bishop of Rochester : —
" My Lord of Rochester, I pray you let us make short
work with him. Offer him a book. Will you swear to
answer such things as shall be asked of you in the behalf
of our Sovereign Lady the Queen ? "
Mr. Udal declared his readiness to take the oath of alle
giance ; but he declined swearing to accuse himself or
others. " Then they commanded me to go forth," Mr.
Udal says, " and they consulted for a little space, and called
me again, at which time almost every one of them used
many words to persuade me to confess a truth, saying the
Queen was merciful ; and that, otherwise, it would go
hardly with me. To whom I said, ' My Lords, I know not
that I have offended her Majesty ; when it is proved that
I have, I hope her mercy will not then be too late ; howso
ever it be, I dare not take this oath.' "
• History of England, AppendiK to tbe reign of Elizabeth, c. 44.

188

RISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP.IV

Sent to the
Gate-house
prison.

Tried at
Croydon.

As he persisted, after long debating, in his refusal to take
the oath, the Bishop of Rochester said to him : — " Then
you must go to prison, and it will go hard with you ; for
you must remain there until you be glad to take it."
"God's will be done," answered Udal, " I had rather go to
prison with a good conscience, than io be at liberty with
an iU one." " Your sentence," said the Bishop, " for this
time is — to go to the Gate-house prison, and you are be
holden to my lords there, that they have heard you so
long." " I acknowledge it," replied Udal, " and do humbly
thank their honours for it." " When they were all gone
my Lord Cobham stayed me, to speak to me, who told me
that it might be he and others wished things to be amended
as well as I, but the time served not ; therefore, he wished
not to stand in it. And, — I praying his Lordship's good
favour, — he promised to do for me what he could ; for
which I humbly thanked him. And so, I was carried to
the Gate-house prison by a messenger, who delivered me
with a warrant, to be kept close prisoner, and not be suffered
to have pen, ink, or paper, or any book, or anybody to
speak with me. Then I remained there half a year, during
which time my wife could not get leave to come to me,
saving only that, in the hearing of my keeper, she might
speak to me and I to her, of such things as he should think
meet ; notwithstanding that she made suit to the Commis
sioners, yea, to the body of the Council, for some moi'e
liberty ; all which time my chamber-fellows were emissa
ries, traitors, and Papists. At the end of half a year, I was
removed to the White-Lion Prison, at Southwark, and
carried to the assizes at Croydon, where what was done I
will not mention, seeing there were present such as were
both able and I think wilUng to set down : unto whose
report I refer those who would know the same."
His indictment at Croydon before Baron Clarke, and
Sergeant Puckering, — who afterwards succeeded Hatton as
Lord Chancellor, — was for publishing a slanderous and
infamous libel against the Queen's Majesty, and for changing
some words of the Prayer Book.
Daulton, who acted as prosecutor, said he would prove
that he had a maUcious intent in making this book, that

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 189
he is the author of the book, and that the matter is felony book ii
by the Statute Elizabeth, 23, c. 2. —
Mr. Udal begged to be heard by counsel, but one of the °^^' ^
judges said, " You cannot have it."
Instead of bringing the prisoner and his accusers face
to fece, and heking witnesses on the other side, the evi
dence consisted of the registered examinations of three
men, of whom one, Tomkyn, a printer, was abroad ; Chat-
field, Vicar of Renyston, went out of the way to avoid
appearing on the trial ; and the third swore that he had
been told by Mr. Penry that Udal was the author of the
book." *
The argument for showing that the book,— which was
not proved by legal evidence to be Udal's,— came within
the law against felony, amounted to this ; that as the
bishops were the Queen's servants, to speak or write against
them was to defame the Queen herself !
On such a miserable plea, this learned and blameless Condemned
minister of the gospel was condemned— as a, felon. His "'"''<''<»>•
sentence was delayed, in the expectation that he would
submit. A pardon was offered to him, if he would sign
a paper, which was, in fact, an acknowledgement of the
ci-imes wliich had not been proved against him, and of
which he knew he was innocent. Instead of submitting
to the falsehood and degradation of putting his hand to
such a paper, to which the Dean of St. Paul's, and Dr.
Andrews, vainly endeavoured to persuade him, — he ad
dressed most earnest letters, breathing the humblest loyalty,
and the dignity of a wi-onged spirit, to Sir Walter Raleigh,
to Sergeant Puckering, and to the Queen herself.
At the following assizes in Southwark, when he was
asked at the bar the usual question, if he had any reasons
to show why sentence should not be pronounced against
him, according to the verdict, he deUvered a paper to the
judges. It is so important, so able, so impressive, that
we en-vy not the man who can read it without sympathy
with the confessor, and indignation against the spirit and
the memory of his adversaries.
• These examinations appear to have been talrtff in connexion with an
Inquiry respecting tlie printing-press, and books of Martin Marprelate, of whom
we shall have occasion to speak presently. The examinations are printed by
Stiype, (Annals, vol. iii. app. no. 68.) from the manuscripts of Sergeant Pucker
ing, in the Harleian Collection.

190 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL Yet was it of no avaU. In a letter from Judge Puckering
CHApTiv to Lord Chancellor Hatton, a very cool and business-like
account is given of the matter. Referring to the reasons
above mentioned, the learned sergeant says : — " he spent
an hour with us, debating to and fro ; but no matter
yielded unto for any submission, such as we could like of;
albeit, in that public place we moved him thereunto. We
therefore proceeded, and gave sentence against him, and
commanded openly the execution of all that were adjudged
¦ — ^he being one." The judge concludes his letter thus: —
" At the last, when we charged him that he had written, in '
his petition to her Majest}', that he did submit himself to
such order as it should please her Highness to appoint, and
now, by us, her Highness' justices of assize, to that manner
of submission which we prescribed to him was thought
meet to be required of him for her Highness, he answered,
that those words, in his said petition, he meant only as to
abide her order for life or death, as her Majesty should
appoint, and not otherwise to yield to anything that might
concern him in conscience, in that doctrine which he had
taught, — as by the words before and after the sentence, he
said it might be so understood. But (he) offered, in his
last speech, that the submission which he had made to her
Majesty, and any other submission tbat he had made, he
would perform. Marry, he and we did differ — what was
the manner of the submission he had made by words at
Croydon assize.
" So as, my very good lord, we are not able to get of
him such a submission as was prescribed for him to make,
nor to like effect, we have proceeded as aforesaid, leaving
him now at her Majesty's pleasure. This Sunday morn
ing, the 21st of February, 1690."
Tho letter formerly mentioned, from the King of Scot
land, (Elizabeth's successor, James I. of England,) to the
English Queen, on behalf of Mr. Cartwright, made special
mention of Mr. Udal.
When Mr. Udal heard the sentence of death pronounced
Sentenced to upon him, he said, " God's will be done ! "
Dr. Bancroft, at that time Lord Chancellor Hatton's
chaplain, wrote a letter on the day on which this sen
tence was pronounced to Sergeant Puckering, saying:—

REIO.V OF ELIZ.IBETH. 191
"My Lord's (the Chancellor's) advice is, that if Mr. Udal's BOOK IL
submission do not satisfy you, you should proceed to cHApTlV.
judgment ; but that you should stay his execution, and
forthwith this day write to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain of his
obstinacy, desiring him to inform her Majesty of it, and
to know her pleasure for the execution, whether it shall
be further stayed, &c., and so, in haste I take my leave.
At Ely House, this 20th February, 1590.
" (The following enclosed in the same hand.)
" You must then command the execution. And, after,
defer the same, until her Majesty's pleasure be known."
In his last extremity, as it seemed, Mr. Udal addressed
Lord Burghley, begging that he might be aUowed to
accept the proposal of the company of Turkey merchants,
to go ont to one of their factories.
Strype says that Burghley promised to promote this
scheme ; that Archbishop Whitgift agreed to it ; and that
the Earl of Essex had prepared a draught of his pardon,
on condition that he should not come back to England,
without the Queen's permission. The Queen never signed
the pardon. The ships went out ; and Udal was left to
die in the Marshalsea prison, a, victim to the anxiety of
his mind, and the severity of his confinement.-*
Mr. Hallam says : — " His trial, like most other political Dies tapii-
trials of tbe age, disgraces the name of English justice." *°°-
There were some of the Puritans who went beyond the Bro-iraista.
Presbyterians in their objections to the Established Church.
They were known by the name of Brownists; their leader
Robert Bro-wne, a relative of Lord Burghley, was son of
Anthony Browne, Esq., of Tolethorpe, Rutlandshire. He
received his education at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
where he was much followed as a popular preacher. He
afterwards becarae master of the free school, St. Olaves,
Southwark, and also, chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk.
Having lived among some Dutch emigrants, he retfred -with
others of the same principles which he professed, to Middle
burgh, in Holland, where they formed themselves into a
•Lingard-s History of England, vol xviii. c. vi. Di-. Lingard says that by
degrees he recanted most of his opinions unfavourable to the establishment
This is not according to the evidence. The narrative aa we have given it is
drawn from Strype-s Annals, voL iv. ; Strype-s Life of "Whitgift ; the State
Trials; the MS. in the Harleian Collection in British Museum ; and the M&
Register iu Dr. Williams- Library.

192 RISE OF TUB puritans.
BOOK II church, of v\-hich he was chosen pastor. He there published
CHApT IV. " ^ Book which shev.-eth the Life and Manners of all true
Christians, and how unlike they are to Turks and Papists,
and Heathen folke. Also, the Points and Parts of all
Divinity, that is, of that revealed in the Will and Word of
God, are here declared by their several definitions and dis
tinctions, in order as foUoweth." The book was printed in
parallel columns, containing a hundred and twenty-five
questions and propositions, with a separate column of defi
nitions. Some of the definitions contain simUar views with
those of Cartwright, and other divines of the same school.*
He had not been long at Middleburgh, when dissensions
arose in the church ; and Browne, with several of his fol
lowers retired to Scotland, where he was soon brought into
trouble, from which he was rescued by the authority of the
court. He followed his books to England. At first, he is
represented as disseminating his principles among some
Dutch Anabaptists at Norwich ; and then, with the aid of
a schoolmaster, named Harrison, he is said to have formed
separate churches, and to have scattered his'pamphlets in
most parts of the kingdom. For distributing these pamph-
Two minis- lets, Mr. John Copping, a minister near Bui-y, St. Bd-
b.yman im- munds, and Mr. Ellas Thacker, another minister of the same
hSed'* ""'' Persuasion, and one Thomas Gibson, were kept in prison
five years, and afterwards hanged at Bury : their books, as
msjiy as could be found, being burnt before their faces.
The letter of Sir Christopher Wray, the judge who con
demned these min, to Lord Burghley, says, " the book ac
knowledged her Majesty civilly ; but so was their terms,
and no further. And, though Dr. Stil, (the Archbishop's
chaplain,) and others travailed and conferred with them,
yet they were, at that very time of thefr death, unmoveably
of the same mind."
Browne himself, the writer of the books, for distributing
Browne's wliich, these three men were murdered under the forms of
and deatt. ^^'^j '"'^^ brought before Bishop Freke, and other ecclesiasti
cal commissioners, when he so behaved himself that he was
committed to the custody of the Sheriff of Norwich. He
• This book was preceded or followed by another " Of Reformation without
tarrying for any, and of the wickedness of those Preachers who will not re
form themselves and their charges, because they wiU tarry till the Magistrate
command and compel them."

REION OP ELIZABETH. 193
was ordered by Lord Burghley to come to London, when BOOK IL
Archbishop Whitgift "brought him," says Collier, "to a OHAP.rV.
tolerable compliance with the Chiireh of England."* He
¦was then sent to his father in the country with instruc
tions to use him gently. Here, however, he proved so in
corrigible, that the old gentleman discharged him from his
family. After much rambling about, he was cited by Lind-
sell, Bisliop of Peterborough, to appear before him ; but, on
his refusal, he was solemnly excommunicated. He then
humbled himself before the Bishop ; sued for pardon ; was
restored ; took the charge of a church near Oundle, North
amptonshire ; and he died in Northampton gaol, to which
he Iiad been committed for an assault upon a constable.t
]Mr. Francis Johnson, vi-ho had suffered severely, to- Mr. Francis
gether with Mr. Cuthbert Bainbridge, at Cambridge, was the Broivn-
the pastor of a church adopting the principles of the '^^^ "^ I^"-
Brovvnists, which met in difbirent places, sometimes in
fields, sometimes in private houses, and sometimes in the
dead of night, for fear of the bishop's officers. They were
discovered at Islington, in the same place in which the con
gregation of Protestants formerly mentioned had met dur
ing the reign of Jlary. Fifty-six of thefr- number were ap
prehended, and dispersed among different prisons in and
about London. Jlr. Johnson, theu- pastor, and Mr. John
Greenwood, their teacher, being at the house of Mr. Boys,
an honest citizen on Ludgate Hill, the pursuivants of the
High Commission ransacked the chests of the house ; ap
prehended the ministers without warrant ; and, after mid
night, led them, with bills and staves, to the Compter in
• Ecc Historv, vol. ii, p, 58-2.
t Strj-pe's Annals, vol. ii. Collier-s Ecc. Histoiy, part ii. b. vii. Ephraim
Pagitt-s Heresiograpliy, or a Description of the Heresies, Ac. which have sprung
up iu these later limes
Shakesprarc, who marks all the characteristics of his age with the impress
of his own wonderful genius, shows how deep the hatred of Puritans, and es
pecially of Brownists was, among the loval gentry of Elizabeth. Sir Andrew
Ague-dieek, speiiking of M;ilvolio, says to Sir Toby Belch, " Tell us somethmg
of liim,
Maria. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan.
Sir /liirfrem. Oh : if I thought that, I-d beat liim lilic a dog. _.,,,,
SirToby. -Wliat, for being a Puritan? Thy exquisite reason, dear Knight?
Sir Andrew. I have no exquisite reason for it ; but 1 have reason good
enough.'— Pwei/Wi Night. ActJI. Scene IV. ,„„,„„.
In another part of the same piece, some plan is recommended to this 'ealons
Anti-Puritan to recover Uie good opinion of alady. to winch lierephes : An t
be any way, it must be with valour, for poUcyl hate , I had as lief be a Brovm-
u( as a poUtician,"— .4c( ///, Scene II. g

194 RISE OP THE PURIT.1.\S.
BOOK n. Wood Street, taking assurance of the o-wner of the house to
CHApTiv. remain at home till sent for the following day, when the
Archbishop and his colleagues committed two of them to
the Clink prison, and the tliird to the Fleet, where they re-
Petition the mained in great distress. In the supplication to the Pri-vy
ciL Council, the prisoners, after showing their reasons for break
ing off communion with the Church Established, complain
that the dealing of their adversaries with them is, and has of
long time been, most injurious, outrageous, and unlawful, —
persecuting, imprisoning, detaining at their pleasui-e " our
poor bodies," without any trial, release, or bail permitted ;
yet, and hitherto, without any cause, either for error, or
cause directly objected. They instance Henry Ban'ow,
and John Greenwood, with two others, five years in close
prison, with miserable usage in the Fleet ; others, in New
gate, laden -with as many irons as they could bear ; aged
widows, aged men, young maidens and others, had perished ;
some had been grievously beaten with cudgels at Bridewell,
for refusing to come to their chapel service, in which prison
they ended their lives ; while " upon none of us, thus com
mitted by them, dying in their prison, is any inquest suf
fered to pass, as bylaw in like case is provided." They
complain of their houses being broken into at all hours of
the night, and rifled, under pretence of searching for sedi
tious books ; men plucked out of bed in the deep of the
night, and unjustly haled to prison. They pray, in the
name of God and of the Queen, for the present safety of
their lives, and for the benefit of law, and of the pubUe
charter of the land ; and they take the Lord of heaven and
earth to witness, and his angels, and the consciences of their
lordships, and all persons in all ages, — that they have here
truly set forth their case and usages, and have, in all hu
mility offered their cause to Christian trial.-*-
Mr. Johnson was often examined by the Protestant In
quisition, on which occasions, though he refused the oath
e:n officio, he confessed the leading particulars of his life,
principles, and labours. Strype has published a letter from
Mr. Johnson to Lord Bm-ghley, in which, repudiating the
tei-m Brownist, he states that one of their preachers, who
• strype's Annals, vol iv. No. 62, Baker's 'MS. Harleian Library, Brit
Mus, vol. XV, p. 33,

BEION OP ELIZABETII. 195
had been eleven months in prison, told the commissioner that book il
he marvelled that they should deal with men by imprison- chaptv
ment, and other rigorous measures, in matters of religion
and cimscience, rather than by more Christian and fit pro
ceedings : protesting that he should but dissemble with them
and play the hypocrite, if he should, to please them, or to
avoid trouble, submit to go to church, and to join with the
public ministry of those assemblies as it now standeth, he
being persuaded in his conscience that it was utterly un-
lawfiil. In reply to this the commissioner said to him,
" Come to the church, and obey the Queen's laws, and be
a dissembler, be a hypocrite, or a devil if thou wilt."-*
When Mr Johnson was brought to trial for the alleged
crime of -writing against the church, and the oppression of
the bishops, hefore ihe statute under which he was tried was
made, he was condemned to perpetual banishment. He
sought a home at Amsterdam, as pastor of the church
which had the eminently leamed Ainsworth for its teacher.
Mr. John Greenwood has been mentioned in connection Mr. John
with Mr. Johnson as teacher in the same church. He had
been Lord Rich's chaplain. When he renounced his Epis
copal orders, and adopted the principles of the Brownists,
he became intimately acquainted with Henry Barrow, Esq.,
son of a Norfolk gentleman, who had been his fellow-col
legian at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, who, after
leaving Cambridge, had become a member of the Society
of Gray's Inn, and occasionally appeared at Court. They
were both put in prison for promoting schismatical and se
ditious opinions. When they appeared before the High
Commission, they were most inquisitorially examined, and
committed again to prison. During their imprisonment,
they kept up an active controversy with enemies who tra
duced thefr opinions and characters.
These gentlemen were indicted at the Old BaUey along Trial and saf
with another gentleman of the name of Bellot, Daniel Stud- Greenwood
ley, a gfrdler, and a deacon of a church, and Robert Bowie, »¦>* ""^o"''-
fishmonger, for " -writing and publishing sundi-y seditious
books and pamphlets, tending to the slander of the Queen
and govemment." They protested that they were loyal to
the Queen, and obedient to the govemment, and that they
• strype's Annals, vol iv. App. No. 91, 92.

196 EISE OP THB PURITANS.
BOOK IL never had written, nor intended to write, anything against
CHApTiv. her Highness, but only against the bishops and the esta
blished church. Notwithstanding this protestation, and
their manifest innocence of the crime imputed to them,
the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Bellot, who sorrow
fully confessed what he had done, and Studley and Bowie,
being regarded as but secondary offenders, were sent back
to prison. Bellot and Bowie died in prison some fouryears
after ; Studley was ultimately banished. Mr. Barrow and
Mr. Greenwood were sentenced to death. They remained
firm, after being exposed to the crowd under the gaUows ;
but they were reprieved. A second time they were thus ex
posed; and then hanged. They were attended at their execu
tion by Dr. Reynolds, and by the Earl of Cumberland.
The doctor told her Majesty that he was persuaded if they
had lived they would have been two as worthy instruments
for the church of God as any that had been raised up in
that age. The Earl, when asked by the Queen what end
these men had made, replied, " A very godly end, and
prayed for your Majesty, State, &c."*
The next victim of this relentless persecution, to whom
John Penry. the hand of English history will never cease to point, is
John Penry, or Ap Henry, (son of Henry.) He was, ac
cording to his own account, born in the mountains of Wale.";.
In 1578, he becarae a subsizar of Peter House, Cambridge.
Having taken a degree in Arts, he removed to St. Alban's
Hall, Oxford, where he became Master of Arts in 1586.
About this time he took orders, preached both at Oxford
and at Cambridge, and was esteemed by many a tolerable
scholar, an edifying preacher, and a good man.f
After leaving Oxford, he appears to have lived, partly at
Northampton, and partly in London, where he was mem
ber of the same church as Johnson, Greenwood, and Bar
row. In a few years he was examined by Archbishop
Whitgift, Cooper, Bishop of Winchester, and other High
Commissioners, on a charo-e of pubUshing the opinion that
• The examination of H. BaiTowe, John Greenwood, and John Penry, before
the High Commissioners and Lords ot the Council, with their answers.— Apo
logy or defence of such true Christians as are commonly, hut unjustly called
Brownists, By Henry Ainsworth, 160-1.— Strype's Life of Whitgift.— Strj-pe'a
Annals, vol. iv,— Neale's History of the Puritans, vol. i. c. 8.— Brook's Lives of
the Puritans, vol ii. pp, 23, 44,— Hanbury's Historical Memorials, vol i. c. 3.
t H ood's Athenn Oron., vol 1. No. 395.

HKIG.\- or ELIZABETH. 197
mere readers of homilies were not preachers. For this BOOK IL
"execrable heresy," he was committed to prison, where he cha^fv
remained about a month.
After his release he went into Scotland, where he pur- Arrest and
sued his studies for several years. On his return to Eng- Son,'"""'""
land, where a warrant had been issued for his apprehension
as an enemy to the state, he was informed against by the
Vicar of Stepney, apprehended in that parish, and tried at
the King's Bench, before Lord Chief Justice Popham, and
the rest of the judges. He was convicted of felony under
the statute against uttering seditious words and rumours
against the Queen, &c. Before his public trial, he had un
dergone seven private examinations, and it had been in
tended that he should be indicted on the contents of some
books which had been published in his name ; but when he
had drawn up a paper, proving that he could not be legaUy
convicted on such an indictment, he was convicted on the
contents of some private papers which were found in his
possession. These papers consisted of observations on the
state of the church, and the draft of an address to the
Queen, in which he intended to place before her Majesty
the religious state of the country, and to petition that he
might have her royal authorit}' to go and preach the gos
pel in his native principality. On this evidence he was
condemned to die.
His letter to Lord Burgliley. and a writing enclosed in it
for the satisfaction of her Majesty, are printed by Strype.
They are noble and touching compositions, written by a
man who had no hope for this world, and who was sus
tained by the consciousness of innocence and the prospect
of heaven.
" I am a poor young man," he says, " boi-n and bred in His appeal to
the mountains of Wales. I am the first since the last *'' ^"^°"'
springing of the gospel in this latter age, that publicly la
boured to have the blessed seed thereof sown in those barren
mountains. I have often rejoiced before my God, as He
knoweth, that I had the favour to be born and live under
her Majesty for the promoting of this work 
"... Far be it that either the saving of an earthly life
' — the regard which I in nature ought to have to the deso
late outward state of a poor friendless widow, and four

198

RISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK II. fetherless infents, whereof the eldest is not above four years
CHAP. rv. °^^> which I am to leave behind me — or any other outward
thing, should enforce me by denial of God's ti-uth contrary
to my conscience, to leese [loose or betray] my own soul ;
the Lord, I trust, will never give me over to this sin. Great
things in this life I never sought for, not so much as in
thought ; a mean and base outward state, according to my
mean condition I was content with. Sufficiency I have
had with great outward troubles, but most contented was I
-with my lot, ^nd content lam ; and shall be -with my un
deserved And untimelj' death : beseeching the Lord that it
be not laid to the chai-ge of any creature in this land. For
I do, from my heart, forgive all those that seek my life, as
I desire to be forgiven in the day of strict account, praying
for them as for my o-v^-n soul, that although upon earth we
cannot accord, we may yet meet in heaven, unto our eter
nal comfort and unity, where all controversies shall be at
an end. And if my death can procure any quietness unto
the church of God, and the state of my prince and king
dom, glad am I that I have a life to bestow in this service.
I know not to what better use it could be employed if it
were preserved ; and therefore in this cause I desire not to
spare it.
" Thus have I lived towards the Lord and my prince ;
and by the grace of God, I mean thus to die.
" Many such subjects I wish unto my prince, though no
such reward to any of them. My earnest request is, that
her Majesty may be acquainted with these things before my
death, or, at least, after my departure.
"Subscribed with the heart, and 'with the hand that
never devised or vvTote anything to the discredit or de
famation of my sovereign Queen Elizabeth.
" I take it on my death, as I hope to have a life after
' ' John Pehbt."*
WhUe thus calmly asserting his innocence in the fece of
Address to the World, he addressed a letter " to the distressed and feith-
ful congregation of Christ in London, and all the members
thereof," aflfrming his unmoved persuasion of the tmth of
the principles for which he suffered, encoui'aging them to
• strype's Life of Whitgift, b. iv. App.

his adher.
ents.

REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 199
steadfastness, and exhorting them to pray for him and other BOOK IL
sufferers, and to go as a body, to some other land ; and chapTV.
here he says, " I humbly beseech you, not in any outward
regard as I shall answer before my God, that you would
take my poor and desolate widow, and my mess of father
less and friendless orphans, %vith you into exile, whither
soever you go, and you shall find, I doubt not, that the
blessed promises of my God, made unto me and mine, will
accompany them, and even the whole church for thefr
sakes, for this also is the Lord's promise unto the holy
seed."-* In the prefece to a book of Penry's, published after his
death, it is stated that he was not brought to execution im
mediately, as most persons had expected, but, when they
least looked for it, he was taken while he was at dinner,
and carried secretly to his execution, and hastily bereaved His execn-
of his life, without being suffered to make a declaration of
his faith towards God, or of his allegiance to the Queen,
though he vei'y much desired it.
The death of Penry, and the sufferings of his companions,
were inflicted chiefly in consequence of the publication of
numerous pamphlets against the bishops, several of which
were sig-ned with the assumed name of Martin Marprelate.
Dr. Bridges, Dean of Salisbury, and afterwards Bishop of
Oxford, had published a defence of the government of the
Church of England, in answer to the objections of the Pu
ritans, to which a reply was given in a defence of the godly
ministers against the slanders of Dr. Bridges. Bridges re
pUed ; and the Puritans published a rejoinder.
Dr. Some, master of Peter House, Cambridge, also pub
lished a discourse against Penry, which was answered in a
pamphlet called " Mr. Some Laid Open in his Colours."
A club of Puritans then pubUshed ihe Martin Marprelate Marprelate
pamphlets. These were printed by Waldegrave, who had J'™P'^«'»'
a travelUng press, which had been traced to Moulsey, near
Kingston, Fausely, in Northamptonshfre, Norton, Coventry,
Woolston, in Warwickshire, and was finally seized at
Newton lane, Manchester, in the course of printing " Hay
• Tlie Examination of Henry Barrow, John Greenwood, and John Penry
— Dr. WDliams' Library. Mr. Petheram of Holbom has proposed to reprint
this scarce work in his series of Puritan Discipline Tract!

200 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL any worke for Cooper," which was an answer to " An Ad-
CHApTiv, monition to the people of England," by Dr. Thomas Cooper,
Bishop of Winchester, published in 1689, by Barker, the
Queen's printer, and with the command of Archbishop
Whitgift. These pamphlets are mentioned in most of the histories,
and Mr. Penry is generally identified with Martin Mar
prelate, though the writer of " Hay any work for Cooper,"
now before me, makes the following declaration : " I know
I am disliked of many which are your enemies, that is, of
many which you call Puritans. It is their weakness. I
am threatened to be hanged by you. What though I were
hanged, do you think your cause shall be the better ? For
the day that you hang Martin, assure yourselves there
will twenty Martins spring in any place  Assure
yourselves I will prove Mar-prelate ere I have done with
you. I am alone. No man under heaven is privy, or hath
been privy to my writings against you. I used the advice
of none therein. You have, and do suspect divers, as Master
Paget, Master Wigginston, Master Udal, and Master Penri,
&c. to make Martin. If they cannot clear themselves,
their silliness is pitiful, and they are worthy to bear Mar
tin's punishment."-'^
In the midst of these controversies. Dr. Bancroft, after-
Dr. Ban- wards Bishop of London, and Archbishop of Canterbury,
fence'of^" preached " a very learned and significant " sermon at St.
conformity. Paul's Cross, on the text 1 John iv. 1, " Believe not every
spirit," &c. In this sermon the Doctor painted the Puri
tans in glowing colours, charging them with scurrility, am
bition, and covetousness. He maintained that there was
no trace of the discipline for which the Puritans contended
from the time of the apostles down to Calvin. He repre
sented the danger that must follow if private men should
contest and overrule the constitution of the church which
had been settled by authority. He justified the rigour of
submission to articles by precedents in the church at Ge
neva, and some of the reformed churches in Germany. He
insisted on the excellency of the Common Prayer Book, and
on the indecency, absurdity, and irreverence of extemporary
• " I am the sole depositary of my own secret, and it shall perish with me."
—Junius, Dedication,

liEIUN OP J LIl'.AUi.TlI. 201
woi-ship. In opposition to the Puritans, he maintained the book II,
divine right of bisho))S, as a distinct order, to superintend cHAP~tV
the affairs of the church. Dr. Bancroft also published two
works against the Puritans, — "Survey of the Pretended
Holy DiscipUne," and " Dangerous Positions and Proceed
ings," for tlie pm-pose of showing that, like the Papists,
they denied the prerogative of the civil magistrate in eccle
siastical matters. On this latter subject CoUi'er, the histo
rian of the church, enters into a long disquisition to prove
that this objection has little weight, for the agreement be
tween the Papists and the Puritans in any point of religion,-
does not prove the theory either true or false. On the for
mer subject, the divine right of the bishops. Sir Francis
KnoUys, one of the Privy Council, seriously addressed Lord
Burghley, enclosing to him a paper against this doctrine ;
and expressing his jealousy for the honour and supremacy
of the Queen. But her Majesty was too resolutely bent on
putting down all opposition to her will in religion, to inter
fere with the proceedings or the claims of the bishops, who
were so entirely subservient to that will.
Before we leave these scenes of strife, let us turn aside to Roger Rip.
read an inscription on the coffin of Roger Rippon, a Ban-ow- JSj?*^"
ist, who died in Newgate, 1592. Strype has inserted it in
his Annals vol. iv., no. 90.
" This is the corpse of Roger Rippon, a servant of Christ,
and her Majesty's faithful subject, who is the last of sixteen
or seventeen which that great enemy of God, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, with his High Comraissioners, have mur
dered in Newgate within these five years, manifestly for
the testimony of Jesus Christ. His soul is now with the
Lord, and his blood crieth for speedy vengeance against that
great enemy of the saints, and against Mr. Richard Young,
(a justice of the peace in London,) who in this, and many
the Uke points, hath abused his power for the withholding
of the Romish antichrist, prelacy, and priesthood."
"Many copies of this libel were taken and showed about."
The closing years of EUzabeth's reign, though not farther
stained with blood, witnessed the banishment or voluntary
exUe of raany of her best subjects, who sought upon the
shores of Holland the liberty of conscience which was de
nied to them in their own land. 9*

202 RISE OF THE PURITANS.

BOOK n.
CHAP. IV.

SECTION IV.  PURITANS IN PARLIAMENT.

It does not come within our plan to enter largely into the
general history of England during the time of the Puritans.
Yet we must give a succint view of the parliamentary his
tory of the reign of Elizabeth, so far as the Puritans were
concerned. We gather the following particulars from the
Journal of the House of Commons, published by Sir Si-
mondi d'Ewes.
In 1571, Mr. Strickland, a grave and ancient man, of
Mr. strick- great zeal, stood up and made a long discourse, tending to
torefonuTho *^^ remembrance of God's goodness in giving unto us the
Prayer Book, light of his woi'd, together with the gracious disposition of
her Majesty, by whom, as by his instrument, God had
wrought so great things, and blaming our slackness and
carelessness in not esteeming and following our privileges.
He then spoke, temperately, on the abuses of the church,
and brought in a bill for the reformation of the Common
Prayer, which was read a first time, but never carried.
Another bill was brought in, to take away the licenses
to the^Houso '^^^ dispensations granted by the Archbishop of Canter-
of Commons, bury, which was stopped by the interference of her Majes
ty, who sent a message to the Commons, commanding them
not to interfere with the Christian religion.
In the year 1676, Mr. Peter Wentworth delivered a long
speech in the House of Comraons, in the course of which he
said : " I have heard, from old Parliament men, that the
banishment of the Pope and Popery, and the restoring of
true religion had their beginning from the house, and not
from the bishops, and I have heard that few laws for reli
gion had their foundation from them, and I do surely think
(before God I speak it) that the bishops were the cause of
that doleful message. And I will show you what moveth
me so to think. I was, amongst others, the last parlia
ment, sent to the Bishop of Canterbury for the articles of
religion that then passed this house. He asked us, why we
did put out of the book the articles for the HomUies,
consecrating of bishops, and such like. Surely sir, said I,
because we were so occupied with other matters, that we

REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 203
had no time to examine them how they agreed with the BOOK U
word of God. ' What,' said he, ' surely you mistook the char n
matter. You will refer j'ourselves wholly to us therein.'
' No ! by the faith I bear to God,' said I, ' we wUl pass
nothing before we undei-stand what it is ; for that were to
make you popes. Make you popes who list ; for we
will make you none.' And sure, Mr. Speaker, the speech
seemed to me a pope- like speech, and I fear lest our bishops
do attribute this of the Pope's canons io themselves — the
Pope cannot err ,• for surely, if they didn't, they would re
form things amiss, and not spurn against God's people for
writing therein, as they do. But I can tell them news.
They do but kick against the pricks. For, undoubtedly,
they both have and do err, and God will reveal his tmth,
maugre the hearts of them and all his enemies ; for great
is the truth, and it will prevail. And to say the truth, it
is an error to think that God's spirit is tied only to them ;
for the heavenly spirit saith, ' ffrst seek the kingdom of
God, and the righteousness thereof, and all these things
[meaning temporal] shall be given to you.'
" These words were not spoken to the bishops only, but to
all, and the coraraission, Mr Speaker, that we are called by,
is chiefly to deal in God's cause ; so that our coraraission,
both from God and our prince, is to deal in God's causes.
Therefore the accepting of such messages, and the taking
them in good part, do highly offend God, and is the accep
tation of the breach of the liberties of this honourable
council. For is it not all one thing to say, Sirs, you shall
deal in such matters only, as to say. You shall not deal in
such matters ; and so, as good to have fools and flatterers
in tbe house as men of wisdora, grave judgment, faithful
hearts, and sincere consciences ; for they being taught
what they shall do, can give their consent as well as others."
Before he had fully finished his speech, the house, out of Mr. p. Went-
a reverent regard of her Majesty's honour, stopped his™'^''^™=-
farther proceeding. He was committed to the sergeant's
ward as a prisoner, and examined by committees of the
House of Commons the same day. From a long exami
nation he came off with honour ; for, after being confined
for a month, he was restored " by the Queen's special grace
and favour " to his seat.

204 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
bodk II. A bill for the reformation of the churcli was changed into
CHAP~IV ^ petition to the Queen that she would carry it out, to
which the royal answer was, " that her Majesty would or
der the Bishops to amend what was wrong, and that if they
neglected the order, she would satisfy the nation by virtue
of her authority as the head of the church."
During the parliament which was opened in 1584, the
Proposed re- jjouse of Commons submitted sixteen articles to the con-
the bishops, sideration of the House of Lords ; among the principal of
which were : — that no bishop should ordain a minister
without the concurrence of six presbyters ; that no minis
ter shoiUd be appointed to a parish without previous oppor
tunity being given to the parishioners to inquire whether
his doctrine was sound, and his life unblameable ; that the
bishops should not rigidly enforce the ceremonies of the
church, nor deprive ministers for omitting parts of the ser
vice ; that their lordships would devise some method for
coirecting abuses in the spiritual courts, and that they
would take into consideration the grievances of the High
Commission, especially the oath ex officio.
To these requests of the House of Commons, answers
were given by Archbishop Whitgift, Archbishop Sandys,
and the Bishop of Winchester, in wbich, while some sug
gestions were approved, others, and those the most impor
tant, were rejected.
Her Majesty's speech on the dissolution of parliament
Queen Elira- put a stop to any progress for reformation in the House of
beth's speech Commons, or indeed in the parhament. Her Majesty's
language on this occasion deserves to be recorded, as show
ing the spirit of her government in relation to religion :—
" No prince, herein, I confess, can be surer tied, or faster
bound than I am with the links of your good-will, and can
for that but yield a heart and a head, to seek for ever all
your best ; yet in a matter which toucheth me so near as I
may not overskip — religion, the gi'ound on which all other
matters ought to take root, and being corrupted, may mar
all the tree. And that there be some fault-tinders with the
order of the clergy, which so make a slander to myself and
the church, whose overruler God hath made me, whose
negU.cence cannot be excused, if any schism, or errors here
tical were suffered. Thus much I must say, that some

REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 205
fauhs and negligences may grow, and be as in all other BOOK a
great charges it happeneth ; and what vocation without 1 chap"iv
All which, if you, my lords of the clergy, do not amend, /
mean to depose you. Look ye well, therefore, to your
charges. This may be amended without heedless or open
exclamations. " I am supposed to have many studies, but most, philo-
soplucal : I must yield this to be true, that I suppose there
be few (that be no Professors) have read more. And I
need not tell you that I am not so simple that I understand
not, or so forgetful that I remember not; and yet, amidst my
many volumes, I hope God's book hath not been among my
seldomest lectures (readings ;) in which we find that which in
reason (for my part) we ought to believe ; and, seeing so
great wickedness and gi-eeves in the world, in which we
live but as wayfering pilgrims, we must suppose that God
would never have made us but for a better place, and of
more comfort than we find here. I know no creature that
breatheth whose Ufe standeth in more peril for it than
mine own, who entered not into my state without sight of
the manifold dangers of life and cro-wn, as one that had the
mightiest and greatest to wrestle with. Then it foUoweth,
that I regarded it so much as I left my life behhid.
" And so you see that you wrong me too much, if such
there be as doubt my coldness in that behalf ; for if I were
not persuaded that mine were the true ways of God's -mil,
God forbid that I should live to prescribe it to you.
" Take you heed lest Ecclesiastes say too true : ' they
that fear the hoai-y fi-ost, the snow shall fall upon them.'
I see many over bold with God Almighty, making too many
subtle scannings of his blessed will, as lawyers do with
human testament. The presumption is so great that I wiU
not suffer it, (yet mind I not hereby to animate Romanists,
which, vfhat adversaries they be to mine estate is suffi
ciently knovm) nor tolerate new-fangledness. I mean to
guide them both hy God's holy true rule. In both parts be
perils, and of the latter I must pronounce them dangerous
to a kingly rule, to have every man according to his own
censure, to make a doom of the validity and purity of his
prince's government, with a common veil aril cover of God's
word, whose followers must not be judged hut by private

206

RISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK II
CHAP. rv.

Submissive
proceedingsof the Com
mons.

of all debate
on religion.

men's exposition. God defend you from such a ruler that
so evil will guide you."
In 1586, Mr. Damport offered to the house some conside
rations for due course of proceeding in laws already estab
Ushed, but executed, he said, by some ecclesiastical governor
contrary to the purport of the laws and the mind of the
law-makers, and to the great hurts and grievances of sundry
of her Majesty's good subjects. Having made his motion,
he offered some particulars in writing, which he prayed
might be read, and comraitted to be further considered of,
and dealt in, as this house should think good. But when
Mr. Secretary WoUey rcrainded the house of her Majesty's
prohibition against their dealing -with ecclesiastical causes,
and showed that by so dealing they would incur the charge
of contempt to her Highness, Mr. Damport's paper was
received, but not read, and after some time it was returned
to him by the Speaker. -*
On Tuesday, 27th February, 1592, Mr. Morrice, attorney
of the Court of Wards, offered two bills to the House of
Commons, of which one was against the subscriptions.
Mr. Dalton, Sir John WooUeys, Dr. Lewin, Mr. Henry
Finch, and Sir Robert Cecil, spoke against the bill ; Sir
Francis KnoUys, and Mr. Oliver St. John, in favour of it.
The Speaker obtained leave to examine the bill privately
before he gave an opinion. In the afternoon of the same
day the Speaker was sent for by the Queen, who commanded
him to tell the house that it was not meant, by calling
them together, that they should meddle with matters of
state, or causes ecclesiastical, and that her Majesty wondered
that any should be of so high commandment to attempt a
thing so expressly contrary to that which she had for
bidden. Wherefore with this she was highly offended.
Her Majesty's present charge and express commandment
is — that "no bill touching the said matters of state, or
reformation in causes ecclesiastical, be exhibited ; " " and
upon my allegiance," added the Speaker, "if any such
bUl be exhibited, not to read it."t ¦
In 1597, we find this note in the journal of the House
of Commons :— " Although her Majesty had, formerly, been

• D'Ewe'B Jonmal, p. 438.

Hbld, pp. «4-47».

REIQN OP ELIZABETH. 207
exceedingly unwilling and opposite to aU manner of in- BOOK ll,
novations in ecclesiastical govemment, yet, 'understanding chapTiv.
at this parliament of divers gross and great abuses therein,
she had, (on Monday, November 14th,) not only given leave
and liberty to the House of Commons to treat thereof,
but also had encouraged them to proceed in the Refor
mation thereof, by a message brought into the said House
by Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer." ¦*
In this brief review we may observe how entirely the
Commons, the Paiiiament, and the Church of England
were enslaved by the determined resolution of the sove
reign. Though there was a manifest desire for prosecut
ing further reforms in the church, and that desire was
expressed in every form of humble supplication, — in
parliamentary discussion, — in the pulpit, — by the press, —
in prison, — exile, — and death, the single wUl of the Queen
of England suppressed it.

SECTION VI.  THE BISHOPS AND PURITANS.
So many great episcopal names have come before ns
in the history of this reign, that it may be well to offer
a slight portraiture of sorae of the most distinguished. Archbishop
Archbishop Parker was the first Archbishop of Can
terbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, under whose
primacy and influence the reformation of religion was
effected, and the Church of England restored, and estab
hshed upon the principles whereon it stands to this day.t
His deliberation and prudence, — ^his learning, moderation,
and piety, — his thorough knowledge of ecclesiastical affiifrs
in general, and particularly his understanding of the state
of the Church of England from the beginning of the
Reformation, are said to have secured for him the confidence
of Elizabeth's great statesmen — Bacon and Cecil. He bore
through Ufe a high character as a man of exemplary leam
ing, temperance, hospitality, munificence, and piety. Though
naturally bashful, he was rough in his manners, and fearless
in his spirit. By all parties he has been regarded as the
• D'Ewe-s Journal, p. 557.
t strype's Life and Acts of MattliewParkw.

208 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK II, vigorous defender of what he believed to be the interests
CHAP IV °^ *^® church, and " true to the cause of the hierarchy."*
Strype lauds him to the heavens. Collier speaks of his
Different private life as " unexceptionable and exemplary."t Fuller,
wmtag'hi'm '"1 ^ -*-^«l Redivivus, says, " He forebore not frequently
to preach, (as his other important and more public affafrs
permitted,) sometimes in his own cathedral church, and at
other times in the towns and villages abroad, continuing
constant in that painful practice amidst much weakness
and craziness, th? attendants of old age." J
The same writer praises hira for his care and study
in amending the translation of the Bible, and dispersing
it abroad throughout the whole realm." He also says,
in his Church History,§ "the death of Matthew Parker,
Archbishop of Canterbury, May 17, 1575, added much to
thefr increase (Nonconformists.) He was a Parker indeed,
— careful to keep the fences, and shut the gates of discipline
against all such as would invade the same. No wonder,
then, if the tongues and pens of many were whetted
against him, whose complaints are beheld by discreet men
like the exclamations of t.'uantly scholars against thefr
master's severity, correcting them for their faults."
Mr. Neal describes him as " a severe churchman ; of a
rough and uncourtly temper, and of high and arbitrary
principles both in church and state ; a slave to the preroga
tive and the supremacy ; and a bitter enemy to the Puritans,
whom he persecuted to the length of his power, and beyond
the limits of the law. His religion consisted in a servile
obedience to the Queen's injunctions, and in regulating the
public service of the church : but his Grace had too little
regard for public virtue, his entertainments and feastings
being chiefly on the Lord's day, nor do we read among his
episcopal qualities of his diligent preaching or pious exam-
ple."|| Hume speaks of him as " rigid in exacting conformity to
the established worship, and in punishing, by fine or de
privation, all the puritanical clergymen who attempted to
innovate anything on the habits, ceremonies, or litm'gy of
the church." • Lingard's History of England, vol. viii. p. 134.
t Ecc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 549. j P. 6.32.
{ B. Ix, p. 17. II Hist of Pnntans, vol. Lev.

REIGN op ELIZABETH. 2C9
In contradiction to Mr, Neal, Mr, Erasmus Middleton book n.
says :— " among his other episcopal qualities, he was a fre- chapTiV.
quent preacher, and that the Puritans have severely treated
liim."-* Mr. HaUani refers to his " severity," and his haughty
spirit, and says, " on the review of his whole behaviour he
must be reckoned the most severe disciplinarian of Eliza
beth's first liierarchy, though more -violent men came
afterwards. In the copious raeraorials of Strype we find
the Archbishop rather exciting the Queen to rigorous mea
sures against the Puritans, than standing in need of her
admonition."t Archbishop Gkindal differed greatly from his prede- Archbishop
cesser. While Parker remained in England, during the ''™'^^
whole of Mary's reign, Grindai was one of the exiles at
Strasburgh ; and we have seeh the share he took in the
controversies at Fi-ankfort. He was the intimate friend of
Lever, Sampson, Coverdale, Fox, and other leaders of the
Puritans in the Church of England ; and it is raaintained
that, before his elevation to the episcopal office, all the
leanings of his mind were in the same direction. Even
after he became the successor of Bonner in the bishopric of
London, his earUer mode of dealing with his more scrupulous
brethren showed his unwillingness to proceed against them
¦with the hai-shness of Archbishop Parker and the Queen.
As time advanced, however, and the Puritans became
bolder, he abandoned his former method of argument and
persuasion, for the severer logic of the laws. Strype, his
honest biographer, vindicates his memory from the asper
sions of Heylin and Fuller, and from what he calls the
"unjust accusation " of his "slackness in the government
of the church's affairs." " For his zeal and affection to
the state of the reformed Church of England showed itself,
as upon every occasion, so, particularly, in endeavouring to
reclaim those they styled Precisians and Puritans, who,
for some few ceremonies made a breach in Christian com
munion ; for though his spirit, as was mentioned before,
was easy and complaisant, and liked not of rigour, yet when
* Evan. Biography, vol. ii, pp 175, 176. I do not find that Strype mentions
frequent preaching among the Archbishop-s episcopal qualities, which are par
ticularly enumerated.
t Con. Hist. Eng. vol. i, o. 4.

210

RISE OP THB PURITANS.

BOOK IL
CHAP. IV.

His zeal for
the preach
ing of the
gospel

His protest
against the
Queen-s in
terference.

he saw that no other means would bring thera to obedience,
he approved of restraint, especiaUy of the heads of the
faction, whom he styled fanatical and incurable. "-*
Tbe memory of this Archbishop will be revered even by
the most ardent admirers of the Puritans, for his earnest
ness in promoting the deliverance of his church from many
of the remains of ignorance and superstition, and, above
all, for his zeal on behalf of the public and extensive
preaching of the gospel by the clergy. From this motive
he agi-eed with Archbishop Sandys, and other bishops, in
promoting the prophesyings, as the meetings of the clergy
for religious discussions were then called.
The Queen had so great a dislike to these prophesyings,
and also to the number of preachers^ tbat she told the
Archbishop '\i-<Ka.s good for the church to have few preachers;
that thi'ee or four might suffice for a county; that the
reading of the Homilies to the people was enough ; that
he must abridge the number of preachers, and put down
the religious exercises. " The speeches she used to him,"
Strype says, " were somewhat sharp, and she was very reso
lute." The Archbishop looked on these sharp and peremptory
demands as an infringement on his office, and his conscience
forbade him to comply with them. On his return from
court, therefore, he addressed to her Majesty a long letter,
which has been preserved by Lord Burghley, and is printed
in the Appendix to Strype's Life of Grindai. t
It is too long for insertion here.
In regard to her Majesty's objection to the increase of
preachers, he calls it " a strange opinion," and shows that
it is contrary to the Scriptures. In proving that preach
ing promoted loyalty, he refers to London ; and he adds,
¦ — " And in the time of that rebellion, were not all men,
of all estates, that made profession of the gospel, most
ready to offer their lives for your defence 1 Insomuch
that one poor parish in Yorkshire, which by continual
preaching had been better instructed than the rest (Halifax
I mean) was ready to bring three or four thousand able
men into the field to serve you against the rebels." He

• strype's Ufe of Archbishop Grindai, b. li,Ci
1 Ibid, Appendix, No. ii.

REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 211
exposes the motives by which many were swayed in their book n.
dislike of preaching. As to the reading of the Homilies, CHAP. IV.
he shows how inferior it must be to preaching, both in
suitableness to the people's wants, and in power to im
press them. He reminds her Majesty that the Homilies
were designed, by statute, to give place to sermons, when
soever they may be had.
In the second part of the letter he treats of the learned Defence of
exercise and conference amongst the ministers of the church, tyhiga.
Here, he assures her Majesty, that divers of the bishops
agreed with him in thinking that these meetings are
profitable to the church, and expedient to be continued.
He shows that they are authorized by the canons and ^
constitution of the church, and are appointed and regu
lated by the bishops. He proves that they are of great
antiquity, and sanctioned by prophets and apostles ; and
that nothing is so necessai^ in preparing the clergy for
the intei-pretation of the Scriptures to the people. To
the reports made against these exercises to her Majesty,
he opposes the testimony of nine bishops, together -with
his own, on behalf of the great and many advantages
derived from them. " And for my own part, because I
am very well assured both by reasons and arguments taken
out of the Holy Scriptures, and by experience (the most
certain seal of sure knovi'ledge) that the said exercises, for
the interpretation and exposition of the Scriptures, and for
exhortation and comfort drawn out of the same are both
profitable to increase knowledge among the ministers, and
tendeth to the edifying of the hearers, I am forced, — with
aU humUity, and yet plainly ,^to profess that I cannot with
safe conscience, and without the offence of the majesty of
God, give my assent to the suppressing of the said exercises,
much less can I send out any injunction for tbe utter and
universal subvei-.sion of the sarae. I say, with Paul, ' I
have no power to destroy, only to edify ; ' and with the
same apostle, ' I can do nothing against the truth, but for
the tmth.'
" If it be your Majesty's pleasure, for this or any other
cause, to remove me out of this place, I wiU, with all hu
mility, yield thereunto. I consider with myself, that ' it is
a fearful thing to fell into the hands of the Uving God."

212

RISE OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK n.
CHAP.IV.

The Queen's
letter.

SirKobertCotton's re
marks on
these pro-

I consider also, that he who acts against his conscience,
resting upon the la-ivs of God, builds /or AeS. And what
should I win, if I gained — I will not say a bishopric, — but,
the whole world, and lose mine own soul ? "
" Bear with me, I beseech you. Madam, if I chuse, rather
to offend your earthly Majesty, than to offend the heavenly
Majesty of God."
The Queen could write, as well as the Archbishop ; and
she could rule the church without him and against hun.
She resolved that he should be suspended from his office as
Archbishop of Canterbury. She addressed a letter to the
bishops, commanding them, in the highest tone of impeiial
haughtiness, to take order throughout their dioceses, "as
well in places exempt as otherwise," that no mode of con
ducting divine worship be allowed but according to the
orders established by her laws ; that none but ministers
conformable in all things be permitted to read, teach, preach,
or otherwise officiate ; that the cm-ates should be confined
to the reading of the HomiUes ; that any persons attempt
ing to continue or renew the forbidden exercises or prophe
syings should be committed to prison, and be reported to
the Queen or the council for their sharper punishment ;
and this right royal epistle concludes with warning the
bishops, lest by their negligence her Majesty should be
forced to make some example in reforming ihem according
to their deserts. *
The disgrace of the Archbishop, and the injury done by
it to religion is thus referred to by Sir Robert Cotton.
" ¦ • ' In those days there was an emulation between
the c'ergy and the laity, and a strife, whether of them
should show themselves most affectionate to the Gospel.
Ministers haunted the houses of the wortlUest men, where
Jesuits now build their tabernacles, and poor counti'y
churches were frequented with the best of the shfre. The
word of God was precious, prayer and preaching went hand
in hand together, until Archbishop Grindal's disgrace, and
Hadfield's (Hatton perhaps) hard concert of prophesying
brought the flowing of these gSod graces to a still water, "t
The Queen foUowed out her determination by eequester-
• strype's Life of Grindai, Appendix, No. x.
t Ibid, b. ii. c. ix.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 213
ing the Archbishop for six months. At the expiration of book n.
the six months. Lord Burghley m-ged the Archbishop to chap. rK,
acknowledge his fault, and on his refusal to do more than
express his sorrow for having offended her Majesty, his se
questration was continued. There was sorae talk of de
priving him of his office, but fi-om an apprehension of the
discouragement and disgust such an extreme measure
would occasion to all true Protestants, it was determined to
proceed more mildly.
The convocation of 1580 sent a humble petition to the Appeal of the
Queen, in which they bore witness that the Archbishop had on behalf of
led a life fi-ee not onlv of all crime, but even fi-om the sus- Jte -Ar*-
bishop.
picion of a crime ; preserved his reUgion from all not only
corruption of popery, but fi'om schism ; and had suffered
pereecutionfor righteousness' sake — having wandered abroad
in other countries for the sake of the gospel ; therefore they
" most humbly and unanimously beseeched her not only to
lift up the Archbishop, broken and feeble with grief, but to
restore the church to him, and him to the chui'ch, to her
subjects, to his own hrethren, to foreign nations, and, in a
word, to all pious people."
In the latter end of 1582, the Archbishop having become His death.
hopelessly blind, resigned his charge ; and, a few months
later, he died at the age of sixty-three.
The mildness of his temper, the courteousness of his
manners, and the manifest piety of his life, have se
cured for him a gi-ateful memory in the heart of the Eng
Ush nation, which has been deepened hy the firmness with
which he brooked, at last, the displeasure of that monarch
before whom the greatest of her subjects quailed.
Archbishop Whitgipt. This stern churchman con- Archblgiop' Whitgiit.
trasted strongly with his gentle predecessor, His contro
versy with Cartwright secured his promotion to the deanei-y
of Lincoln, and, seven years after, to the bishopric of Wor
cester. He also enjoyed the dignity of vice-president of
the marches of Wales.
At Grindal's decease, he was raised to the primacy, as a
magistrate to whom the Queen could entrust the govern
ment of the chm'ch, in which she was resolved on the most
rigorous enforcement of conformity. On two separate oc
casions, the Queen offered to make him lord chancellor ;

214 RISE OE THE PURITANS.
BOOK IL and, on aU occasions, she stood by him as the determined
csj^^jy adversary of the Puritans, telling him, " that if anything
were amiss, be it upon his soul and conscience to answer it ;
for she had rid her hands, and looked that he should yield
an account, on her behalf, unto Almighty God."-*
He was the intimate friend of Hatton, and, for a long time,
His military of Essex. He kept " for the exercise of mUitary discipline,
a good armoury, and a fair stable of horses, insomuch as he
was able to arm at all points both horse and foot, and divers
times had one hundred foot and fifty horse of his own ser
vants, mustered and trained, for which purpose he enter
tained captains. He had, also, skilful riders, who taught
them to manage their horses, and instructed them in war
like exercises, all whom he rewarded in a Uberal manner."t
He entertained the Queen at one of his houses every
year, and some years twice or thrice. Her Majesty was so
much gi-atified with her entertainment, that she saluted
him, took leave of him as her Black Husbarid, and caUed
his men her servants.
On his first journey to Kent, he rode to Dover, attended
His sump. by more than a hundred of his ovm servants in livery, in-
Mceto^ubl" eluding forty gentlemen m chains of gold. The stateliness
lie. of his appearance on that occasion, and the pomp with which
he showed himself on the following Sunday in the cathedral
of Canterbury, were so great, that a Roman CathoUc from
Rome who was present, declared to Sfr Edward Hobby, that
he never saw a more solemn sight, or heard a more heavenly
sound, unless it were in the Pope's chapel.t
His eulogist acknowledges, that the greatest, or rather
His temper, only &.ult known in him was choler. . . . (which) served
for a whetstone of his courage in just causes." He was the
religious comforter of Elizabeth at her death, and the chief
mourner at her funeral. He crowned King James and his
Queen at Westminster. He ascribed his Majesty's -wisdom
in the Hampton Court conference, to the special inspiration
of God ; and entered as heartily into his royal sister's
hatred of the Puritans, as formerly into that of Elizabeth.
He was struck with palsy in returning from the King's
presence, and died a few days after. His last words, ad-
? sir G. Paiile-s Life of -Whitgift, p 78.
t Sir G. Panle, pp. 97, 98. J Paule, pi 106

REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 215
dressed to the King who visited him on his deathbed, were, book n.
"pro ecclesia Dei, pro ecclesia Dei, (for the church of God, „„— ^
for the church of God.) He had been Archbishop of Can-
terbury twenty years and five months.
His character, so far as the Puritans were concemed, is Different
glossed over by Sir George Paule, who was the comptroller Si'i^i^cter
of his Gi-ace's household. In the abundant raeraorials of
Strype, we see him acting with relentless severity against
some of the best men, the ablest scholars, and the most ac
compUshed preachers of the age, because they had consci
entious scruples against the imposition of ceremonies, which
in his earUer years, and before his advancement in the
church, he had himself looked on with serious appre
hension. Hume says that upon the death of Grindai, the Queen
determined " not to fall into the same error in her next
choice ; and she named Whitgift, a zealous churchman, who
bad already signalised his pen in controversy, and who,
having in vain attempted to convince the Puritans by ar
gument, was now resolved to open their eyes by power, and
by the execution of several statutes. He informed the
Queen, that all the spiritual authority lodged in the pre
lates was insignificant, without the authority of the crown;
and, as there was no ecclesiastical commission at that time
in force, he engaged her to issue a new one, more arbitrary
than any of the forraer, and conveying more unlimited
authority.-* Fuller pi-aises him highly, yet gives sufficient hints
of his artful dissimulation, saying that " his fingers moved
more in church matters than all the hands of all the privy
councillors besides ; and he was content to suffer others to be
believed, (and perchance to beUeve themselves) great actors
in church govemment, whilst he knew he could and did do
all things himself therein. . . . This was the constant cus
tom of Whitgift, if any lord or lady sued to him to show fa-
vourfor theirsakes toNonconformists,hisanswertcthem was
rather respectful to the requester than satisfactory to the re
quest. He would profess how glad he was to serve them
and gratify them in compUance with their desfre, assuring
them, for his part, all possible kindness should be done un-
* Hist of England, chap, xli

216 KISE OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK II. to them ; but, in fine, he would remit nothing of his rigour
CHApTrv. against them."-*
JMr. Neal describes him as a " severe governor of the
church, pressing conformity \vith the utmost rigour, in
which her Majesty always gave him her countenance and
support. He regarded neither the entreaties of poor minis
ters, nor the intercessions of courtiers, being steady to the
laws, and even outgoing them, in the cause of Uniformity.
Though he was a ci-uel persecutor of the Puritans, yet, com
pared -with his successor, Bancroft, he was a valuable
prelate, "t
Dr. Grey opposes to the judgment of Mr. Neale the tes
timonies of Fuller, Hatton, the Archbishop of York, Bishop
Babington, Sir George Paule, Johnston, a Scottish histo
rian, and Arthur Wilson, who styles the Archbishop "a
holy, grave, and pious man."t
Mr. Hallam, who carefully sifted both sides of aU the
questions brought before him, says of Whitgift, "whose
elevation the wisest of EUzabeth's councillors had ample
reason to regret." " In a few months after his promotion, he
gave an indication of the rigour he had determined to adopt,
by promulgating articles for the observance of discipline.
One of these prohibited aU preaching, reading, or catechising
in private houses, whereto any not of the same family
should resort, seeing the same was never permitted as lawful
under any Christian magistrate But that which excited
the loudest complaints, was the subscription to three points
— the Queen's supremacy, the lawfulness of the Common
Prayer and Ordination Service, and the ti-uth of the whole
Thirty-nine Articles, exacted from every minister of the
church  The Archbishop's peremptory requisition
passed, perhaps jusfly, for an illegal stretch of power. Whit
gift relented not a jot of his resolution, and went fer gi-eater
lengths than Parker had ever ventured, or, perhaps, had
desfred to proceed. . . The primate replied (to Lord
Burghley's letter " Against the Inquisition,") by aUeging
reasons in behalf of this mode of examination, but very
frivolous, and such as a man determined to persevere in an
* Cliurch History, b. ix. pp. 56-63.
t Hist, part ii. c. 1.
X Examination of Neal, iL pp. 35-29.

REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 217
unwarrantable course of action may commonly find. . . . BOOKIL
Tbe Archbishop, however, did not stand alone in this im- chapTiV.
practicable endeavour to overcome the stubborn secretaries
by dint of hard usage."*
"He did not disdain to reflect on Cartwright for his poverty,
the consequence of a scrupulous adherence to his principles.
But the controversial writers of every side, in the sixteenth
century, display a want of decency and humanity which
even our anonymous libellers have hardly matched. Whit
gift was not of too much learning, if it be tme, as the edi
tors of the Biogi-aphia Britannica intimate, that he had no
acquaintance with the Greek language. This must seem
strange to those who have an exaggerated notion of the
scholarship of that age."+
SECTION VI. — THE STATESMEN AND THE PURITANS.
Whatever reasons the great statesmen of Elizabeth's
reign had for maintaining the Protestant ascendancy, would
dispose them to look vrith less intolerance than mere church
men on the scruples of the Puritans. Greater public men
than Bacon, Walsingham, and Burghley are not celebrated
in English history ; and the glory of the long and splendid
reign through which Puritanism had to struggle for exis
tence, was owing, in a very high degree to thefr sagacity,
patriotism, and loyalty.
The abiUties of Sir Nicholas Bacon were of the highest SlrNlchcla*
order. His attachment to the Protestant reUgion was shown
in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VL, and he
maintained it during the reign of Mary.
For the fu'st twenty years of Elizabeth's reign, he held
the Great Seal, and had great influence on her Majesty's
councUs. He was the brother-in-law, and intimate friend,
of Cecil, Lord Bm-ghley. He appears to have favoured the
• Hallam's Con. Hist. Eng. c. iv.
t Ibid. In a subsequent note .Mr. Hallam says of Neal's History of the Pu
ritans : — "It wiis answered by Madox, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, in a
vindication of the Chm-ch of England, published anonymously in 1733. Neal
replied with tolerable ruccess ; but Madox's book .is still a useful corrective.
Both, however, -were like most controversialists, prejudiced men — ^loving the
interests of their respective factions better than truth, and not very sci-upu-
lous about misrepresenting an adversary. But Neal had got rid of the intole
rant spirit of the Puritans, wliile Madox labours to justify every act of Whit
gift and Parker," It is but f^ir to remark that Mr. Hallam himself was much
better read on one side than on the othen

218 EISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK n. earlier Puritans, and to have acted as a check on the im-
CHAP. rv. periousness of the Queen, and on the severity of Archbishop
Parker. But, on the whole, he must be regarded as giving
all the weight of his reputation, talents, and influence to
the Queen's disUke of both the civil and religious Uberties
of her subjects.
Hio Ulustrious son. Lord Bacon, says of him, " All the
world voted Sir Nicholas Bacon to be a man, plain, direct,
and constant, without all finesse and doubleness."-* And
he tells many pleasant stories of his wit and humour in his
" Apothegms, "t
Sir Francis Walsingham, to whose integrity and pro-
Sir Fraads found manageraent of secret intelligence, Elizabeth owed
WaMngham. jj^^^jj q£ j^g^ safety, seems to have preserved an even ba
lance between the extreme parties in the church. At an
early period he opposed himself to the rigid enforcement of
the habits objected to by the Puritans ; while, at the same
time, he used his influence with their leaders, to prevent
their separation from the church because of these scruples.
When the breach had become so wide that many of the
Puritans felt themselves obliged to separate for the enjoy
ment of reUgious freedom, Walsingham exerted all his
power in the council to mitigate the harshness of the
bishops. His regard for Cartwright was shown in the en
couragement he gave him to undertake the refutation of
the Rhemish version, at a time when this great Puritan
divine was suffering the displeasure of the Queen, and the
unrelenting opposition of Archbishop Whitgift.
Lord Burghley was the constant defender of the Puri-
Lord BuTgli tans from the severity of the bishops. His father-in-law, Sir
'•y- Anthony Cook, who was also father-in-law to Sir Nicholas
Bacon, was one of the exiles. The Puritans fled to him as
tlieir only human refuge fi-om the storms they had to en
counter. He appointed one of their number, Travers, his
domestic chaplain, and tutor to his son. He interposed in
behalf of such of them as were smarting under the lash of
ecclesiastical tyranny. His letters on their behalf display
the high sense he entertained of their worth, and the dis
pleasure with which he regarded the means employed to
? Certain Observations upon a Libel, &c.— Works, 183S, vol 1.
1 Apothegms, Works, vol, i 25, 27, 3S. 101, 126,

BEION OP ELIZABETH. 219
put them down. He never professed to be addicted to the BOOK IL
Puritans; but in a letter to the Queen, he assigned two rea- chaFiV
sons for thmking that the course of the bishops towards
them was " ill and unadvised :" First— That it lowered the
reputation of the Queen in foreign courts, to see such hard
ships inflicted upon Protestants; and Secondly — That though
the Puritans were too squeamish in their scraples, thefr
catechising and preaching were the most effectual means of
preventing the growth of Popery.*
Lord Bacon defends him against the charge of ruling the
Queen and other ministers, by saying that there never was
a councUlor of so long continuance, that was so appUcable
to her Majesty's princely resolutions ; that he was a most
reUgious and wise moderator in church matters, to have
unity kept, and that he never took the course to unquiet or
offend, no, nor exasperate her Majesty, but to conduct her
mind and mitigate her displeasure.-j-
Mr. Hallam remarks on Burghley, that statesmen who
betray this unfortunate infirmity of clinging too fondly to
power, become the slaves of the princes they serve, and
that from such a disposition we could not expect any de
cided resistance to those measures of severity towards the
Puritans, which fell in so entirely with EUzabeth's temper.!
Though Lord Burghley would never have dreamed of
resistance to the Queen, he sought Mr. Cartwright's judg
ment on the question of her marriage with a Papist ; he
strongly objected to the proceedings of Bishop Aylmer and
of Archbishop Whitgift against the Puritans ; and he re
ceived the suppUcations, and used his inflnence to reUeve
the sufferings, of thefr victims.
The most decided friend of the Puritans in Elizabeth's |'''^'«*KnoUy&
court was Sir Francis Knollvs. He had been himself an
exUe for religion in the reign of Mary. In his place in
ParUament he supported, by his speeches and his vote, the
progress of reformation in the church. In the Privy Coun
cU he opposed the ambition of the bishops. In his letters
to the archbishop, he urged greater freedom for the preach
ers of the gospel. He pressed on Lord Burghley the ab-
sm-dity of the poUtical charges brought against the Puritans,
• Harleian MisceUany, voL vii. p, 68. t Con. Hist e. iv.
X Certain Observations, <fcc. See Miss Wood's Letters of IUustrious Ladies,
vol. ix p. 279.

220 RISE OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK II. and he pointed out to him the danger to her Majesty's
CKaFiv. government from the high pretensions of the bishops.-*
These great statesraen were fettered in their endeavours
to protect the Puritans, not only by the power and activity
of the bishops, but also, and chiefly, by the resolution of
the Queen. SECTION VII. — THE QUEEN AND THE PURITANS.
It has been the almost chivalrous boast of England that
spirit dis- Elizabeth was the -wisest, the most popular, and the most
Se'QueeQ in glorious of our monarchs. The attempt of Mr. Hume to
dealing with disparage her memory for the purpose of exalting her suc
cessors, has, perhaps, done more than the eulogies of her
most servile adulators, to deepen this feeling, and give it
strength. We are not here concerned with her personal
character ; which, whatever it was, must shine in contrast
with that of her immediate successor; nor with the general
policy of her government; but with the principle on which
she acted, and the spirit she displayed, in her conduct to
wards the Puritans.
Her principle was, obviously, that she was the head of
the Church, and that all disobedience to her authority in
reUgion, was treason against her authority in the State. On
this principle she issued her commissions for ecclesiastical
trials ; suppressed all tendency to religious reform in Par-
IX^iament ; appouited bishops who entered into her -views ;
and demanded fi-om all her subjects the most exact con
formity to all the rites and ceremonies of the church.
When, therefore, she found, throughout her whole reign,
that large numbers of the clergy and of the laity objected
to conform, she had recourse to all the powers vested in her
as a monarch, to put these Nonconformists down. An
archbishop who scrupled to carry out her imperious man
dates to the furthest verge of severity was visited with her
high displeasure ; while another, who entered warmly, and
with energy, into her designs, was honoured with the most
striking proofs of her regard
The best apology for her government in relation to the
• sir Robert Maunton's Fragmenta Regalia. Strype's Annals, vol iv. No. It.

RISE OP THE PURITANS. 221
Puritans, was offered by Walsingham, in a letter printed BOOK iL
by Bishop Bm-net, and which is the foundation of all the chap, iv
defences of it which have appeared since. It resolves itself
entfrely into the doctrine, that the practices of all parties
opposed to government are to be punished, even though
they be coloured with the pretence of conscience and re
ligion. It seems to have been forgotten then, as it is still,
that this is a two-edged sword. On these very principles
it was that the early Christians were persecuted by the
Roman government.

BOOK III.
THE PROGRESS OF TNE PURITANS UNDER THE STUARTS.
CHAPTER I,
HIBTOBY OF THB PUKITABS IN THE KEI6H OP JAMES I.
A.i>.le03-16>S.
SECTION I. — HOPES OF THE PUKITAX8.
BOOK IIL There were many reasons why the English Puritans
chap, l should hail the accession of James VI. of Scotland to
the English throne. His recognition as the lawful heir
to that throne was based less on abstract doctrines of right,
than on the tacit consent of the English people.* He had
made strong declarations in Scotland of his adherence to
the Presbj'terian discipline in which he had been educated,
pubUcly avowing his gratitude that he belonged to the
purest church in the world, and his pui-pose to maintain its
principles as long as he lived.t He had, also, subscribed
the Solemn League and Covenant.
Animated by hopes thus founded, the Puritans addressed
Millenary pe- a petition to the new monarch, signed by eight hundred
and twenty-five ministers, from twenty-five counties, in
which — disclaiming all factious aims, or schismatical wishes
— they humbly prayed for the removal of superstitions,
and of sundry abuses which had crept into the church.
SimUar petitions from other counties were likewise pre
sented to the king in his progress towards the south.
The University of Oxford speedily published an answer
to this Millenary Petition, as it is called, dedicated to the
• See this question fully and learnedly argued by Mr. Hallam, Con. Hist c. Tl
t Cmlderwood's True History of the Church of Scotland, p. 266.

BEIQN or JAMES I. 223
Kmg, with a preface addressed to Archbishop Whitgift, book in.
the chancellor of Oxford and Cambridge, and the Secre- chap I.
taries of State.''^
The heads of the University of Cambridge passed a de- Conformity
cree, suspending from any degree already taken, and inca- cambridl*
pacitating for any futui-e degree, any person who should
¦write or speak against the doctrine or discipUne of the
Church of England, by law estabUshed ; and they offered
thanks to the heads of the sister University for their zeal in
this good cause. Privately, the bishops had spared no
pains to win the monarch's favour, and to assure him of
that devotion to his prerogative which they afterwards dis
played. SECTION II. — THE HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE.
The King's answer to The Petition was a proclamation ^* King"*
for a Conference, to determine the matters in dispute.
The place of conference was the interior privy chamber
at Hampton Court. The parties were — Archbishop Whit
gift, Bishops Bancroft, Matthew, Bilson, Babbington, Rudd,
Watson, Robinson, and Dove, together with Dr. Barlow,
Dean of Cliester, the Deans of the chapel-royal of St. Paul's,
Salisbury, Gloucester, Worcester, and Windsor, and the
Archdeacon of Nottingham, on one side : on the other
side. Dr. John Bainolds, Dr. Thomas Sparkes, Professors of
Dirinity in Oxford, and Dr. Chadderton, and Mr. Knew-
Stubs, of Cambridge.
Dr. Bainolds was esteemed as the most leamed man in Puritanlead
England. FuUer gives a remarkable account of his dispute f5f-
with his brother WiUiam Rainolds, in which each con
verted the other — WUUam becoming a Roman CathoUc, and
John a Protestant. t He had distinguished himself at Ox
ford by maintaining the Protestant doctrines against the
challenge of Hart, and against the lectures of Bellarmine.
He had been appointed by Walsingham — whom Wood
charges with a " strong bias towards Puritanism " — divinity
lecturer at Oxford, where his lecture was much thronged
and approved by the young students, and where he made
• strype's Life of Whitgift, p. 567.
t Wood gives another account from Parsons,

224

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.

bookiil it his business to read against the hierarchy, and weaken
chap L the authority of the bishops ; and thus, by the ascendancy
of Walsingham and their chancellor Leicester, "divinity had
a sort of a new face at Oxford, and the first reformation
was reformed away in a great measure."*
"So temperate were his affections," according to the
same author, " that he declined a bishopric offered to him
by Queen Elizabeth." After a most elaborate eulogy on
his reading, memory, -wit, judgment, industry, virtue, pro
bity, integrity, piety, and sanctity of life, he says, " in a
word, nothing can be spoken against him, only that he with
Thomas Sparke were the pillars of Puritanism, and great
favourers of Nonconformity."t
Dr. Sparke had been appointed Archdeacon of Stow by
Dr. Sparke Dr. Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln ; hut he had resigned the
dignity for conscience' sake. He is represented by the Ox
ford historian as a leamed man, a solid divine, well read in
the fathers, and so much esteemed for his profoundness,
gravity, and exemplai'y life and conversation, that the sages
of the University thought it fit, after his death, to have his
picture painted in the school gallery, among the English
divines of note there, between those of Dr. John Spenser
and Dr. Richard Bedes. During Queen EUzabeth's reign he
had -wi-itten a treatise on the succession to the cro-wn of Eng
land, which brought him into trouble; but King James was
so satisfied with what he had done that he gave him his most
gi-acious countenance. Four years after the Conference, he
published " A Brotherly Persuasion to Unity and Unifor
mity in Judgment and Practice, touching the received and
present Ecclesiastical Government, and the Authorized
Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England," which
was answered by Nonconformist writers in the following
year. Dr. Chadderton, of an ancient Roman Catholic family,
Dr. Chadder- at Chatterton, in Lancashfre, was designed by his father for
the law ; and sent, while young, to the Inns of Com-t ; but
at the age of twenty he went to Cambridge. On applying
to his father for some means of maintenance, he, disliking
• Wood's Hist and Antiquity of the University of Oxford, b. I p. 301.
t He was one of the translators of the present authorised version ot the Eng
lish Bible, though he died before that great work was completed.

RKIUN OP JAMES I. 225
liis change of studies, and still more, his change of religion, BOOK HI.
¦' sent him a poke, with a groat in it, to go a-begging withal, ciiAP I
further signifying to him that he was resolved to disinherit
him, which he did."*
He applied so closely to his studies, that within two
years, he became a Fellow of Christ's College, Bachelor of
Divinity, and preacher at Paul's Cross. He was, for sixteen
years, lecturer at St. Cleraent's Church, Cambridge. In
1681 he distinguished himself by his opposition to Peter
Bai'o, a French divine, at that time Mai-garet professor at
Cambridge, who introduced some doctrines which were re
garded by some of the learned as contradicting the Articles
of the Church of England, in a comment on the book of
Jonah, and in a work entitled De Fide. In his Defence,
Chadderton declared to the heads of the University, that
" God was witness, that in these cases, he neither pubUcly nor
privately spake anything either out of a study of contra
diction, or with any mind of speaking evil of any man, but
only publicly to teach the true doctrine of the Church of
England, (of which he professed himself a member, though
the least of all), that had been impugned by a man, how
ever dear to him, especially the sense of the place of Scrip
ture which he took for his text, requiring it."t
His reputation for gravity, learning, and religion, had Mastership of
attracted the notice of Sir Walter Mildmay, Counsellor of college.
State to Queen Elizabeth, Chancellor of the Duchy, and
under Treasm'er of the Exchequer, and the founder of Em
manuel College, Cambridge. He offered to make Mr.
Chaddetton the first Master of the new college, and Sir
Walter overcame his reluctance to accept the offer, by say
ing, " If you will not be the master, I will not be the
founder of it," It was of this college that Queen Elizabeth
said to the founder, " Sir Walter, I hear you have erected
a Prtriian foundation." " No, Madam," he replied, " far
be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your
established laws ; but I have set an acorn, which, when it
becomes an oak, God alone knows what wUl be the fruit
thereof." On which FuUer remarks : " Sure I am at this
day it hath overshadowed all the University — more than a
• Life of Dr. Chadderton ; Appended to Clark's Martyrologle, a.d. 1662.
f Strype's Annals, voL iii. b. L c S. , q*

226

PROGRESS OF THE PURITANS.

Mr. Knew.
stubs.

First day's
Conference,

BOOK in. moiety of all the present masters of colleges being bred
CHAP L therein."* Mr. Knewstubs, the last ofthefour Puritan divines atthe
Hampton Court Conference, was a native of Kirby Stephen,
Westmoreland, a fellow of St. John's, Cambridge, and a
friend of Dr. Chadderton's. While he was the minister of
Cockfield, in Suffolk, he had been joined at his house by
about sixty ministers of that and the adjoining counties of
Norfolk and Cambridge, in conferring on the book of Com
mon Prayer ; and these ministers had all refused to sub
scribe Archbishop Whitgift's three articles; for which they
were suspended fi-om their ministry.t He was one of the
ministers who signed the Book of Discipline, and he la
boured in the midst of much difficulty and opposition, to
extend the reformation in this country.
At fhe first day's conference, the Puritans were detained
in the outer chamber, whUe the King discoursed with the
bishops and deans in the presence of the Lords of the Privy
Council. On the second day, the Prince Henry sat on a stool by
his father, and the Puritans were admitted to the royal
presence, accompanied by Mr. Patrick Gallowaj', minister
of Perth, in Scotland.
The account of the proceedings vary. One was pubUshed
by Dr. Barlow, dean of Chester, in which he omits all that
the King said against the corruptions of the church. Ful
ler says, " Others complain that this conference is partially
set forth only, by Dr. Barlow, Dean of Chester, their pro
fessed adversai-y, to the great disadvantage of their divines.
And when the Israelites go down to the Philistines to
whet all their iron tools, no wonder if they set a sharp
edge on their own, and a blunt one on their enemies' wea
pons." He also says, " The Nonconformists complained
that the King sent for their divines, not to have their
scruples satisfied, but his pleasure propounded ; not that

•Histoi-y of the University of Cambridge, AD. 1686. This same Dr Cliad ¦
dcrton was, as well as Dr. Rainolds, one of the translators of the Bible. Fuller
relates of him, that on a visit to liis friends in Lancashire, after preaching full
two hours, he paused, and said, " I will no longer trespass on your pa'ience."
All the congregation called out " Go on, go on !" when he proceeded mnch
longer, to their great satisfaction.— i^uHer's Worthies.
t Puller's Church History, b. ix., a.d. IS82 —MS. Register.

REIQN OF JAMES I. 227
he might know what they could say, but they what he book Ut
would do in the matter."* CHAP L
Jlr. Patrick Galloway gave an account of this Conference,
corrected by the King, which is printed in " Calderwood's
Tme History of the Cliurch of Scotland." Dr. Montague,
who was present, gives an account of the Confertnce in a
letter to his mother. The King himself likewise narrates
these proceedings in a letter to Mr. Blake, in Scotland, in
which he says, " I peppered them soundly." The Bishop
of Durham, Dr. Matthew, sent a report of what took place
to Dr. Hutton, Archbishop of York.t
The following characteristic description of this famous Account of
Conference is given by Mr. Thomas Carlyle : — " In Janu- gnce." "
ary 1603-4, was held at Hampton Court, a kind of Theo
logical Convention, of intrinsic interest all over England,
and doubtless at Huntingdon too ; now very dimly known,
as the ' Hampton Court Conference.' It was a meeting for
the settlement of sorae dissentient humours in religion —
the Millenary Petition, what we should now call the
' Monster Petition,' for the Uke in number of signatures
was never seen before : signed by near a thousand clergy
men, of piouS; straitened consciences ;— this, and various
other petitions to his Majesty, by persons of pious strait
ened consciences, had been presented, craving relief in some
ceremonial points, which, as they found no warrant for
them in the Bible, they suspected (with a very natural
shudder in that case,) to savour of idol-worship and miraetio
dramaturgy, instead of God-worship, and to be very dan
gerous indeed for a man to have concem with ! Hampton
Court Conference was accordingly summoned. Four world-
famous doctors, from Oxford and Cambridge, represented
the pious, straitened class, now beginning to be generally
conspicuous under the nickname Puritans. The Archbishop,
the Bishop of London, also world-famous men, with a con
siderable resei-ve of other bishops, deans, and dignitaries,
appeared for the Church — by itself — Church. Lord Chancel
lor, the renowned Egerton, and the highest ofiicial persons,
many lords and courtiers, with a tincture of sacred science
— ^in feet the flower of England — appeared as witnesses,
• Fuller's Church History, b. x. A.D. 1686.
t Strype's Life of Whitgift, App. Na £«.

228 PROGRESS OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK IU, with breathless interest. The King himself presided, hav-
CHAP I "^S ^'®^^ ^^^'^ °^ speech, and being very leamed in theology,
which it was not then ridiculous, but glorious for him to be ;
more glorious than the monarchy of what we now call liter
ature would be ; glorious as the faculty of a Goethe hold
ing visibly of heaven — supreme skill in theology then meant
that. To know God, ©cos, the Maker ; to know the divine
laws, and inner harmonies of this universe, must always be
the highest glory for a man ; and not to know them, al
ways the highest disgrace for a man ; however common it
be. " Awful devout Puritanism, decent dignified ceremonial
ism (both always of high moment in this world, but not of
equally high) appeared here, facing one another for the
first time. The demands of the Puritans seem to modern
minds very limited indeed. That there should be a new,
correct translation of the Bible, (gi'anted), and increased zeal
in teaching (omitted.) That 'lay impropriations' (tithes
snatched from the old church by laymen) might be made
to yield a ' seventh part ' of their amount, towards main
taining ministers in dark regions which had none (refused.)
i That the clergy in districts might be allowed to meet to-
Ijgether and strengthen one another's hands, as in old times,
'¦(indignantly refused.) On the whole (if such a thing durst be
hinted at, for the tone is almost inaudibly low and humble,)
That pious straitened preachers, in terror of offending God by
idolatry, and useful to human souls, might not be cast out
of their parishes for genuflections, white surplices, and such
like, but allowed some Christian liberty in extemal things :
These were the claims of the Puritans ; but his Majesty
eloquently scouted them to the winds, applauded by all
bishops and dignitaries, lay and clerical, said, ' If the Puri
tans would not conform, he would " hurry them out of the
country ;" ' and so sent Puritanism and the four doctors
home again, cowed into silence for the present. This was
in January, 1604."-*
Sir John Harrington, who was an eye-witness, reports the
King's behaviour in the Conference, some parts of which no
decent writer would choose to quote. Dr. Wellwood says,
" This conference was but a blind to introduce Episcopacy
• Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, voL ip. 61, 62.

BEIQN OP JAMES I. 229
in Scotland, all the Scotch noblemen then at court being BOOK m.
designed to be present, and others, both noblemen and cHARL
ministers, being called up from Scotland, by the King's
lettei-s, to assist at it."
Rapin calls it a " pretended conference, whose sole end
was, to make the public believe the ministers were con-vinced
and instructed ; that, therefore, it was out of pure obstinacy
that they still separated from the church. Hence it was
natural to infer that to conquer their obstinacy, it was re
quisite to use some severity. And this was what the King
plainly intimated, when he said, ' he would answer for the
bishops that it was not their design iramediately to enforce
obedience ;' and when he afterwards added more clearly,
' that after such a time, they should be dealt with in an
other m'anner.' But this Conference virought not the con
viction of the Puritans ; and all the fmit they realized by
it was to show thera how much they were mistaken in de
pending upon his protection." *
The King had a vehement desire to be thought learned,
and a master in religious controversies. He was wilUng to
mortify the Puritans, fi'om whose party, in Scotland, he was
glad to escape to the obsequious bishops of England.
His conduct on the occasion has been condemned by men ophiion of
of all parties, as tKat of a pedant, a buffoon, and a bigot. Sntootf*
He avowed his maxim to be "no bishop, no king." He
said that "he would have one doctrine and one discipline, '
one religion, in substance and ceremony ; and therefore I
charge you never to speak any more to that point (how far
you are bound to obey), when the church hath ordained it."
Speaking to the lords and the bishops, of the Puritans, he
said, " I will tell you, I have lived among this sort of men
ever since I was ten years old, but I may say of myself, as
Christ said of himself, ' Though I Uved among them, yet,
since I had ability to judge, I was never of them." After
asking Dr. Rainolds whether he had anything farther to ob
ject, and being answered," No;" rising from his chair, as he
was going to his inner chamber, " If this be all," quoth he,
" that they have to say, I shall make them conform them
selves, or I will har^ry them, out of this land, or else do
worse." t
• Rapin's History of England, a. d. 1604.
t Heylin, and some modern writers after him, have substituted hurry tar

230

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.

CHAP L
Conduct of
the clergy.

BOOK nL If it be true, as Dr. Barrow reports, that Bishop Bancroft
on his knee protested that his heart melted -with joy, and
made haste to acknowledge to Almighty God his singular
mercy in giving them such a King, as since Christ's time
the like had not been ; that Archbishop Whitgift said,
'undoubtedly his Majesty spake by the special assistance
of God's spirit ;' that the temporal lords applauded his Ma
jesty's speeches as proceeding from the Spirit of God, and
from an understanding heart ; — what opinion is posterity to
form of these lords and bishops ? There was not one of them
who did not know that this same monarch was a loquacious
pedant, a coward, a beastly drunkard, a profane swearer, of
the filthiest conversation, and most degrading habits ; that
he was a great dissembler, a greater liar ; and, in the judg
ment of the sagacious Sully, the wisest fool in Eurdpe.*
" His measures towards the Nonconformist party had evi
dently been resolved upon before he summoned a few of
their divines to the famous Conference at Hampton Court.
In the accounts that we read of this meeting, we are
alternately struck with wonder at the indecent and partial
behaviour of the King. It was easy for a monarch and
eighteen churchmen to claim the -sdctory, be the merits of
their dispute what they might, over four abashed and
timid adversaries."t
The royal decision of the questions which were settled on
so arbitrary a style at Hampton Court, was announced in a
proclamation, dated March 5, 1604, for uniformity in the
Book of Common Prayer, throughout the realm, in which
proclamation the King declared he would not give way to
any to presume that his judgment should be swayed by the
suggestions of any light spirit, nor admit the inconvenience
of innovation in matters settled by mature deliberation.^
In the first parliament, while he expressed himself gently
towards the Catholics, he speaks of the Puritans as confused,
harry, not knowing or remembering that the King used the Scotch word
ha/rry, (or harrow), to "harry out of house and home." Harry is the word
printed in the original copy of Barlow, p. 85.
• See Osborne's Life of James ; Wildon's Court and Character of King James,
1650; Coke'sDetection— Sully's Memoirs, vol ii. : Sir Edward Peyton's Divine
Catastrophe, or the Kingly Supplement to the Cabala— Family of the House of
Stuarts, 1652 ; Clarendon's History, voL i. ; Wellwood ; Birch ; Kennet's
Complete History of England; Harris-a Historical and Critical Account of the
Life and Writings of King James I. ; Ranmer, vol ii. pp. 259-276.
t Hallam, Con. Hist c vi.
X Strype's Life of Wliitgift, vol IL p. 628, Eymer's Foedera, voL U. p. 666.

Unifonnity
proclaimed.

REIGN OF JAMES I. 231
discontented, impatient, and unsufferable in any well-go- BOOK in
verned commonwealth. -* CHAP. I.
The Convocation, in which Bancroft, bishop of London, The Convo-
presided, adopted the Book of Canons, which were sane- {]", B"ooj!'i,{'*
tioned by the King. These Canons declared that all objec- Canons.
tors to the Book of Common Prayer, the apostolical charac
ter of tbe Church of England, or the ordination of bishops,
and all abettore of churches not belonging to the estabUshed
order, were excommunicated from the church, and aban- '
doned to the wrath of God.T
In consequence of these Canons, and of the orders to the
bishops to enforce them, it has been computed that not
fewer than fifteen hundred ministers were suspended.
Those who separated fi'om the church were treated, as might .,
be expected, with still greater cruelty.
Mr. Richard BlaunseU, a minister, and Mr. Thomas Lud, Proceedings
' against the
a merchant at Yarmouth, were cited before the chancellor Nonconfor-
of the diocese of Norwich, for meeting with Mr. Jackler, ™
their late minister, after publio worship on the Sunday, to
repeat the heads of the sermons which they had heard in
the church. Mr. Lud was compelled to answer certain
questions which he was not permitted to see till after he
had sworn. After appearing a second time before the Chan
cellor, he was summoned before the High Commissioners
at Lambeth, and, on refusing to swear, until he had seea
his former answers, he was sent to prison without the privi
lege of giving bail. Mr. Maunsell was likewise sent to
prison, for refusing to take the oath ex officio, and also on a
charge of signing a petition tothe House of Commons. After
being imprisoned for a year, they appeared at the bar on a
visit of Habeas Corpus. Mr. Nicholas Fuller, their advo
cate, argued that they ought to be dismissed, because the
High Commissioners had no llp,l right to imprison the sub-
ects of the realm. Instead of delivering his clients, this
eminent lawyer brought on himself the vengeance of Arch
bishop Bancroft, and the displeasure of the King ; and he
was cast into prison. Many were his petitions for his en
largement to the King, whom the Archbishop had made
acquainted with the case, representing him to the King a.s
• Parliamentary History, vol L p. 977.
t Sparrow's Collections, pp. 271-334.

232 PROGRESS OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK IIL the champion of Nonconformists so that he Ungered until
CHAP. L he died in prison.*
SECTION III.  FLIGHT OP NONCONFORMISTS.
As many of the Nonconformists as could escape from the
persecutions, fled to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague,
Leyden, Utrecht, and other places in Holland, where there
were English churches. " Archbishop Bancroft," says Rapin,
"never ceased to plague the Puritans, to oblige them to
conform to the Church of England. For that reason great
numbers of these people resolved to go and settle in Vir
ginia, discovered in the late reign by Sir Walter Raleigh.
Accordingly some departed for that country ; but the Arch
bishop seeing many more ready to take the same voyage,
obtained a proclamation, enjoining them not to go without
the King's Ucense. The court was apprehensive this sect
would become in the end too numerous and powerful in
America."t Of those who remained at home, a number of ministers
resigned their livings in the church, and pubUshed their
principles to the world.J
,/ So bitter was the King's hatred of the Puritans, that not
Despotic se-\only the objectors to the church ceremonies, but all honest
Eng' ""^ " "' *PP°"*"*^ of vice were branded 'ivith this title ; and even
all who were not very submissive to the King's orders, but
assertors of the rights and privileges of the people, were
proceeded against, under the same general charge, and with
similar severity, by the Court of High Commission. To
i-epress the fi-ee spirit of the Commons, who were discussing
the severities against the Puritans, and other grievances, the
-King told the Parliament that his own authority was
supreme and absolute ; that for them to meddle with
the main points of government was to lessen his dig
nity, who had been thirty years at the lead in Scotland,
and had now served an apprenticeship of seven years
in England : that he would not havfe, his ancient rights
spoken of as grievances ; and that it was most undutiful for
• Fuller's Church History, b. x, a.d. 1610. Lodge's Illustrations, vol iii. p. 804.
t Hist, of England, a.d, 1608.
X Brad.shaw's EngUsh Puritanism ; containing the Opinions of the most rigid
of those who are called Puritans. 12mo. London, 1G05.

REIGN OP JAMES I. 233
subjects to press their King in matters wherein they are BOOKm
sure to be denied.'*' Having obtained a subsidy fi-om the cHAlFl.
Parliament, he soon dissolved it, determining never to call
another, but to govern his kingdom absolutely, without so
troublesome a yoke.
In 1611, Archbishop Bancroft died. Whatever praise he Archbishop
may receive as a statesman, he was assuredly " most stiff ctaSer!
and stern to press Confomiity ;" t a vehement assertor of the
divine right of bishops to superior government in the church,
and a most obsequious parasite to the arbitrary inclinations
of tbe weakest, yet most despotic, of sovereig-ns. His opi
nions were those which led to power. He crept along that
path by which the patronage of the great rewards the ser-
vUe, and exalts the mean. His subserviency to the King
was paid for by the concession of his people's freedom to the
church. He was opposed by judges, lawyers, and parlia
ments, as earnestly as he was by the Puritans, but with
more success. He made strong and heavy the yoke beneath
which the nation groaned. HeyUn delights to describe how
much more coarsely he handled them (the Puritans) than
his predecessor, how " hard a hand " he kept upon them,
how " by the punishment of sorae few of the principals, he
sti-uck such a general terror into all these, that Nonconfor
mity grew out of fashion in a less time than could be easily
imagined ; and how the beautiful and repaired churches,
the solemn celebration of tbe liturgy by priests, the punc
tual observation of fasts and festivals, the regular appear
ance of surplices and copes, redounded to the glory of the
Church of England."!
* Rymer's Foedera, vol. xvl. p, G94.
t Fuller's Church History, b. x. a.d. 1611.
X Aeriua Redivivus, b. xi. Sir Edward Coke says of this Archbishop: "He
was a man of a rough temper, a stout football player, a zealous assertor of the
rights of the Church of England, or rather a faction ot churchmen, who arro
gated to themselves the title, "—Coke's Detect, p. 60. Osbom gives the follow
ing satires, which show the estimation in which Bancroft was held by some :
"Here lies my lord's grace, at six and at seven.
And if I don't lie, his soul is in heaven ;
I wish, from my heart, itmay be to liis liking.
Since aU the world knows it was never his seeking."

Again:

' Bancroft was for plays.
Lean Lent and holidays.
But now undergoes theh doom ;
Had English ladies store, '
Tet kept open a back door.
To let in tho strumpet of Rome."

234

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK IIL
CHAP. I.
Archbishop

Dr. Bancroft was suc<;eeded in the primacy by Dr.
George Abbott. He had been master of University Col
lege, Oxford ; twice vice-chancellor of the Universitj' ; dean
of Winchester ; and — through the influence of the Earl of
Dunbar — treasurer of Scotland. One of James's early fa
vourites, he had an opportunity of commending himself to
his Majesty, who appointed him in rapid succession Bishop
of Lichfield and Coventry, then of London, and, finally,
Archbishop of Canterbury. He is celebrated by Godwia,
the annalist of the bishops, for his learning, eloquence, diU-
gence in preaching and writing, and judicious concern for
the Protestant religion. About seven years before the
King's decease, the Archbishop had the misfortune to wound
by accident the gamekeeper of Lord Zouch, in Hampshire,
and the unhappy keeper bled to death. This melancholy
event cast a deep gloom over the mind of the Archbishop ;
though the King expressed his entire conviction that he was
without blame, and wrote a letter of consolation to him
with his own hand. His enemies, who hated him for his
Calvinism, and for his refusal to " promote persecution for
the nonsensical trumpery" which Laud afterwards introduced,
procured, in the following reign, a commission, including
Laud and four other bishops to suspend him from his au
thority, on the ground of the casual homicide committed
seven years before, of which he had been cleared by a com
mission atthe time. "The truth is," says Fuller, "the
Archbishop's own stiffness, and avereeness to comply witli
the Court designs, advantaged his adversaries against him,
and made him the more obnoxious to the King's [Charles]
displeasure. But the blame did most light on Bishop Laud.
As if not content to succeed, he endeavoured to supplant
him, who might well have suffered his decayed old age to
have died in honour. What need the felling of the tree
a-falling ? However, a double good accrued hereby to tbe
Archbishop. Fu-st, he became the more beloved of men,
(the country hath constantly a blessuig for those for whom
the court hath a curse ;) and, secondly, he may charitably
be presumed to love God the more whose service he did the
better attend, being freed from the drudgery of the world ;
as that soul which hath the least of Martha hath the most
of Mary therein.'''* • Church History, b. x. A.D. 1627.

REIGN OP JAMES I. 2-^-1
Dr. Wellwood, one of the most impartial of historians, in book ul
tracing the causes of the troubles which came on the coun- chat. i.
try in the reign of Charles, has dra-wn the characters of Ab
bott and his rival : — " There arose in the preceding reign, Abbott and
two opposite parties in the church, which became now, ^'"'*
more than ever, exasperated against each other : the one
headed by Archbishop Abbott, and the other by Bishop
Laud. Abbott was a person of wonderful temper and mo
deration ; and in all his conduct showed an unwillingness
to stretcli the act of Uniformity beyond what was absolutely
necessary for the peace of the church, or the prerogative of
the crown, any farther than conduced to the good of the
state. Being not well turned for a court, though other
wise of considerable learning, and gentile [well-bred] edu
cation, he either could not, or would not, stoop to the
humour of the times, and now and then, by an unseasonable
stiffness, gave occasion to his enemies to represent him as
not well inclined to the prerogative, or too much addicted
to a popular interest, and therefore not fit to be employed in
matters of government. Upon the other hand. Bishop Laud,
as he was a man of great learning, and yet greater ambition,
and natural parts, so he understood nicely the art of pleas
ing a court ; and finding no surer way to raise himself to
the dignities of the church, than by acting a quite contrai-y
part to that of Archbishop Abbott, he went into everything
that seemed to favour the prerogatives of the crown, or en
force an absolute obedience upon the subject."*
It was in the first j'ear of Dr. Abbott's primacy, that the Authorised
present authorised version of the Bible, which was under- Bibia°°
taken at the suggestion of the Puritans in the Hampton
Com't Conference, was published,
It does not belong to this history to relate how actively
King James interposed in the affau'S of the Protestants in
Holland. Yet they may be referred to as pro-ving the zeal
of his Majesty, at that time, for the doctrines of Calvin, in
opposition to those of Arminius.t
In 1612, his Majesty had an opportunity of exhibiting
his theological zeal in his own dominions. Bartholomew
* Memorials of the most Material Transactions in England for the last Hun.
dred Years, preceding the Revolution in 16S8. London, 1710.
t Blandfs Hist of the Low Countries, vol 1. and iii — King James' Workea,
pp. 362-400. — Heyhn's RediviA-us.— Declaration against Vorstiui.

236 PROGRESS OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK in. Legate, an Essex man, skilled in Scripture, of blameless
CHAP L oonversation, and of fluent tongue, being accused of Arian-
ism, his Majesty had frequent conferences with him, hoping
mew Legate fo convert him. On one of these occasions, the King asked
burned. Legate, whether he did not daily pray to Jesus Christ 1
Legate repUed, that he had indeed prayed to Christ in the
days of his ignorance, but not for these last seven years.
His Majesty, in great wrath, spumed at him with his foot,
saying, " Away, base fellow, it shall never be said that one
stayeth in my presence that hath never prayed to our Sa
viour for seven years together." For the opinions which
such an answer indicates, this man had long been imprisoned
in Newgate, and he had continued unmoved by the argu
ments of the bishops, as well as by the wrath of the King.
At length he was pronounced, by a consistory of reverend
bishops, able divines, and leamed lawyers, sitting with Dr.
King, Bishop of London, an obstinate, contumacious, and
incorrigible heretic, and deUvered to the secular power.
The King gave orders, under the privy seal, that this her
etic should be burned to death. Fuller, who relates aU
these particulars, describes the vast conflux of people to see
this man burned to ashes at Smithfield, and the following,
we are sorry to say, is the pious churchman's reflection : —
" And so we leave him ; the first that, for a long time, suf
fered death in that manner, and oh that he might be the
last io deserve it."*
Another example of this " seasonable severity " with
Edward which the same quaint historian says " God may seem well
tramed. °* pleased," occurred only a month after, in the person of
Edward Wightraan, of Burton-on-Trent, who was convicted
before Dr. Neile, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, of an
accumulation of heresies, and publicly burned at Lichfield.
The effect of these horrible executions on the public
mind was such, that the King afterwards preferred that men
should suffer in private, silently wasting their lives away in
prison.
/ The Puritans, who had fled to Holland from the tyranny
of Bancroft, included not a few wiio took a different view
, of the constitution of the Church, and of its relation to the
' State, from that which had hitherto prevailed^ Mr. Roltin-
• Church History, b. a. a.d, 1611. '

REIQN OF JAMES I. 237
son, pastor of the churcli at Leyden, who began with the . book lit
principles of the Brownists, was guided by Dr. Ames, and] cjJXp i
other learned divines, to more moderate opinions ; while he.
admitted, contrary to the Brownists, that the reformed
churches might be regarded, and communed with as true
churches, he still maintained the lawfulness of separating • -
from them. After residing at Leyden twelve years, he
parted with a large proportion of his congregation, —
one hundred and one, — who took their departure to
America. These were the Pilorim Fathers. Fathers ""
Among the disciples of Robinson was Mk. Henrt Jacob, Mr. Henry
a Kentish-man born, " a pereon most excellently well read "''"=°''-
in theological authors, but -withal a most zealous Puritan ;
or, as his son Henry used to say, the first Independent in
England."* On the banishment of the Brownists in 1593, Mr. Jacob
had retired to Holland, but he appears to have returned to
England within three or four years, as he took an active part
in the once fiiraous controversy respecting the " Saviour's de
scent into hell." Heafterwards became the pastor of achurch
at Middleburgh. In 1609 or 1610 he conferred at Leyden
with Mr. Robinson, whose principles of church government
he adopted ; and re-published two treatises, entitled " The
Divine Beginning and Institution of Christ's true, visible,
and maternal Church." and "A Declaration and Opening
of several Points, with a Sound Confirmation of some
others," in the former publication.
In the year 1616 he returned to London ; when, seeing^FlrstCongro-
no prospect of a national reformation in the church, he[f^m,(,ji |„
united with other leading Puritans in forming the first In- England.
dependent or Congregational church in England, of which
he was chosen pastor. The same year he published " A
Protestation or Confession, in the name of certain Christians,
showing how far they agreed with the Church of England,
and wherein they differed ; with the reasons of their dis
sent drawn from Scripture." To which was added, a pe
tition to the King for the toleration of such Christians.
This publication was soon followed by " A Collection of
sound Reasons, showing how necessary it is for aU Chris-
• Wood's Ath. Oxon. vol L No. S47.

238

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.

book hl
CILAP. L

The Book of
Sports.

Opposed by
ArchbishopAbbott and
others.

tians to Walk in all the Ways and Ordinances of God in
Purity and in a Right Way."
After serving this church as pastor for eight years, Mr.
Jacob removed, with the consent of the church, to Vir
ginia; where he died.
In the year 1 618, King James, returning from Scotland,
through Lancashire, found that his subjects were debarred
by some Puritans and precise people from lawful recre
ations on Sundays, after evening prayers ; and, after reach
ing his court, he found that his loyal subjects in other parts
of the kingdom suffered in the same kind, though perhaps,
not in the same degree. In his princely wisdom, therefore,
he published a declaration to all his loving subjects, con
ceming lawful sports to be used at such times. These law
ful sports were, dancing for either men or women ; archery
for men ; leaping, wrestling, or any other such harmless
recreation. May-games — Whitsun-ales — morris-dancing —
May-poles — rush-bearing— bear and bull-baiting — and bowl
ing, were prohibited.
To this declaration was added his Majesty's pleasure that
" the bishop of the diocese take straight order with all the
Puritans within the same, either constraining them to con
form themselves, or to leave the country, according to the
laws of our kingdom, and the canons of our church ; and so
to strike equally on both hands, the contemners of our au
thority, and adversaries of our church." All the persons
who abstained from coming to church or divine service,
were declared " unworthy of any lawful recreation after the
said service." Every person was required to resort to his
own parish church to hear divine service, each parish by
itself ; and to use the said recreation after divine service.
This declaration was ordered to be published through aU
the parishes.-*-
Archbishop Abbott happening to be at Croydon when the
order came to that parish, forbade its being read in the
church. Some of the clergy believing that they could not
read it without being responsible to God for what they be
lieved to be sinful, refused to read it. Others, considering
themselves bound by their obedience to the King's autho
rity, sadly and reluctantly complied. Others again, resolved
« The Book of Sports- Phoenix, vol. iL 172L

REIGN OF JAMES I. 239
to read the declaration, or suffer it to be read, and then to BOOK IBL
preach against it. But, according to Fuller, " no minister char I.
in the county (Lancaster) was enjoined to read the book in
his parish."-*'
Though King James had shown his zeal for CalvinismjEoyai patn>.
in his writings against Vorstius, and in afterwards sendinglniinlans.
dis representatives to the Synod of Dort, Laud, and other \
Arminians, were advanced to the highest stations in the J
jjivirch. As these divines did not find their doctrines
to the Articles, they sheltered themselves under the
(ting's prerogative, which they supported in its most
«xtra\s(cant pretensions ; while all who either stood up
ibr the Joctrines of the Church of England, or contended
Mor the hbei-ties of Englishmen according to the civil con
stitution, were alike hated by the supporters of arbitrary
govemment, and denounced by them as Puritans.t
To repress this Puritan party, or rather all the distinct
parties comprehended in the one contemptuous designation,
preachers against prerogative were silenced, and books writ
ten against it were burned. The doctrine of passive obe- v-
dience was proclaimed in full Convocation at Oxford. The
clergy were fordidden by the King to preach on the deep
points of predestination ; and they were confined, as mnch
as possible, to the catechising of children.
Mr. Knight, a leamed and moderate divine, was irapri- Mr. Knight
soned for preaching what Laud called a " treasonable ser
mon," though his doctrinti was supported by Parens, rector
of the University of Heidelberg, and by the conduct, at
that very time, of the King himself.J
The celebrated Dr. John Preston had won the admiration Dr. John
- irTGStOIL
of King James, by his skill in managing an argument on the
reasoning faculty in brutes, held before his Majesty, when
• Church History, b. x, A,D. 1616.
t There were in this reign State Puritans as well as Church Puritans, whom the
Court took too great care to confound one with another ; and this confliaon
of ideas lias been preserved to this day.— Rapm, James I. 1619. I^rd Cta-:
rendon observes how much these two parties misrepresent each other. Ihe
Puritans endeavoured to persuade the people thatall who held with Arminians
intended to introduce Popery ; and the other side was no less wUImg to have
It thought that all who adhered to the doctrines of Calvin, also adhered to his
dlscipliiie, and sought to diange the government of the church; though, in
truth, the one side was not inclined to Popery, and ' ' very many of the other
were most affectionate to the peace of the ctiurch, and very pious and learned
men."— Hist, of the Rebellion, voL i. p. 72.
X Neal, vol L p. U. c. 2.

240

PROGRESS OP THB PURITANS.

CHAP. I,

Vt. Richard
abbs.

Dr. Andrew
Wlllet

he visited Cambridge ; and, but for his Puritanism, he was
on the high road to preferment. His self-denial in this
respect excited the jealousy of courtiers. When he became
famous as a preacher, his enemies did all in their power to
ruin hira. They accused him of seeking the destruction of
the church. Though the King heard hira preach with
great satisfaction, he declined the recommendation of the
Marquis of HamUton to make him one of the royal chap
lains. His popularity at court at length rose so high, that
it became poUtic in the Duke of Buckingham to persuade
the King to make him chaplain to the Prince of Wales.
The town-lecture at Trinity Church, Cambridge, being
vacant. Dr. Preston — ^who, besides being the Prince's chap
lain, was master of Emanuel, and preacher at Lincoln's
Inn — was generally desired hy the towns-people who sup
ported this lecture. For the sake of this lectureship he
refused the bishopric of Gloucester.*
He was considered the head of the Pmitan party ; and
it may be readily believed that the silenced ministers would
find some advantage in his influence at court.
Dr. Richard Sibbs, well kno-wn as the author of " The
Bi-nised Reed," and " The Soul's Conflict," though a Puri
tan, was much resorted to, not only by leamed men in the
law, but by many noble personages, and of the gentry and
citizens, as preacher at Gray's Inn. At the end of this, or
the beginning of the next reign, he was chosen master of
Catharine Hall, Cambridge. He was a sufferer, both in the
Court of High Commission, and in the Star Chamber, for
Nonconformity.t Dr Andrew Willet, a laborious student, and eminently ji
learned divine, is described by Mr. Neal as a sufferer for
Nonconformity in the reign of James I. He had been
chaplain to Prmce Henry, and had often preached at court.J

* Fuller's Cambridge, sec. ix.
t Prynn'a Canterbury's Doom, published with his Breviate of the Life ot
Archbishop Laud. London, 1654,— The Life of Dr, Sibbs, in Samuel Clarke's
Martyrologle, 1652. Clarke was ejected from St. Bennet-Fink, London, He
had been lecturer, by license from Archbishop Abbot, at Coventry, and chap
lain to the Earl of Warwick. He was the minister of Alcester. After serving
the church forty years he retired into private life, on the passing of the Act
of Uniformity in 1666, and employed himself in revising this and otherworlcs,
and in preparing for publication the Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, the
Marrow of Divinity, Examples, all in folio, besides numerous smaller works.
He died in 1682.— Palmer's Calamy, vol i. p. 97.
t See hie Life and Death iu Abel RediviTus, by Fuller.

REIGN OF JAMES 1. 241
He is mentioned by Strype in the aifiiirs of Christ's College, book hl
Cambridge, where Puritanism prevailed, among other fei- c£Xp t
lows well known as men of learning, and zealous espousers
of Puritan principles,*
Dr. Robert Bolton, a native of Blackburn, Lancasliire, Dr. Robert
a man of rare powers and scholarship, was one of the pubUo ^o"""-
disputants, on James's visit to Oxford. In 1609 he was
president to the rectory of Broughton, in Northamptonshire.
Puller says, " It pleased God to bring hira to repentance,
but by such a way as the Lord seldom hath, but upon such
strong vessels as he intendeth for strong encounters, and
rare employments ; for the Lord ran upon him as a giant,
taking him by the neck, and shaking him to pieces, as he
did Job, beating him to the ground, as he did Paul, by lay
ing before him the ugly iraage of his sins, which lay so
hea-vy upon him, tliat he roared for anguish of heart ; yea,
it so affrighted him, that he sometimes rose out of his bed
in the night, for very anguish of spirit : and to augment
his spiritual misery, he was assaulted with foul temptations.
This continued for many months ; but God at last gave a
blessed issue, and these grievous pangs in the new birth
produced two admirable effects in him — an invincible courage
in the cause of God, and a singular dexterity in comforting
afflicted spirits." t
" He was one of a thousand for piety and courage, which
were so excellently mixed with wisdom, that they who
imagined mischief against his ministry, were never able.
by all their plottings, to do him any more liurt than only
to show their teeth."
Mb. Arthur Hildersham, grand-nephew to Cardinal Mr. Arthur
Pole, was related tothe Royal family of England, his maternal
great-grandfather being cousin-german to Henry VII., and
his maternal great-grandraother the niece of King Edward
IV. His parents had trained him in the Roman Catholic
religion ; but during his residence at Christ's College, Cam
bridge, he adopted Protestant principles. This change in
duced his father fo remove him from Cambridge, and it was
his intention to send him to Rome ; but. on the son's re
fusal to comply with his father's wish, he was disinherited.
• Annals, vol. iii. b. ii. c. 7. 13.
t The Life «nd Death of Bolton, In Abel Redivivus. 1 1

242 PROGBBSS op THE PURITANS.
BOOK IIL Thus abandoned, he met, in London, Mr. John Ireton of
(j£^ j_ Cambridge, afterwards rector of Kegworth in Leicestershire,
who laid his case before his relative the Earl of Hunting
don, and obtained his support for hira at the University.
By the same noble patron he was sent to be minister of
Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Before he received this living, he had
been deprived of a fellowship, for preaching before he had
received orders ; and he had been suspended from his of
fice by the High Commission. He was one of the petition
ers to King James, on his accession.
In 1605 the Bishop of Lincoln silenced him for Noncon-
Snlferingafbr formity ; but during the three years which followed, the
m°^° °^' Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry allowed hira to preach at
two associations of ministers, one at Ropton, in Derbyshire,
and the other at Burton-upon- Trent, and in other parts of
his diocese ; and on Dr. Barlow's attaining the see of Lin
coln, he was restored to his ministry at Ashby. Three
years after, when Dr. Barlow was succeeded by Dr. Neile,
Mr. HUdersham was charged by that Bishop with being
connected with Wightraan, whose public execution as a
heretic has been mentioned. Though his innocence of this
charge appeared on his trial, and was acknowledged by the
Bishop, his ministry was suspended ; and in 1616 he was
prosecuted in the High Commission Court ¦ and for refusing
to take the oath ex officio, he was sent to the Fleet, and
then to the King's Bench prison, from which he was re
leased only on giving bond to appear when sumraoned. In
the following year he was fined £2000, besides the costs of
the suit ; degraded from the ministry ; flung into prison ;
and ordered to make a public recantation of his errors
as the ringleader of schismatics in his neighbourhood.
Though he succeeded in compromising the business by
the payment of a heavy sum of monej'-, and in a few years
after these troubles was reinstated in his ministry at Ashby,
he was once more silenced for about a year, because he re
fused to read the public service in the hood and surplice.-*
Mr. William Whatelt, minister of Banbury, Oxford-
Mr. wiiiuun shire, was an excellent preacher, a person of good parts,
Whately. ^^jj ygpggj jjj ^j^g original text, both Hebrew and Greek ;
•This account of Mr. HUdersham is abridged from his Life, by Samuel Clarke,
and the account given by Mr. Brook, in his Lives of the Puritans, vol U. pp.
376-388,

BEION OP JAMES I. 243
but, being a Calvinist, and much fiequented by precise and book iii
busy people there, and in the neighbom-hood, for liis too chap. L
frequent preaching, laid such a foundation of faction in that
place, that it will never be easily removed.* He gave of
fence to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the High Com
mission Court by a sermon on marriage ; and by preaching,
with other ministers, a lecture at Stratford-on-Avon.f
Mb. John Ball, after taking his degree of Master of Mr. Johi
Arts at Oxford, was invited into Cheshire, to teach the ^"^^
chUdren of the Lady Cholmondley, where, continuing for
some tirae, " he fell mto the acquaintance of several severe
Puritans, who, working on his affections, brought him over
to them. About that time, having gained a sum of money,
he went to London with some of them, and made shift to be
ordained as a minister there without subscription, by an
Irish bishop. Soon after he removed into Staffordshire,
and became curate of Whitmore, a chapel of ease of Stoke,
where he lived and died a Nonconformist, in a poor house,
a poor habit, with poor maintenance of about twenty pounds
per annum, and in an obscure village, teaching a school
also, all the week, for a ferther supply, deserving as high,
esteem and honour (as a noted Presbyterian % observes) as
ihe best bishop in England, yet looking after no higher
things ; but Uving comfortably and prosperously with these,
&c. The brethren report him to have been an excellent
schoolmaster and schoolman (quahties seldom meeting in
the same person), a painful preacher, and a profitable
writer ; and though somewhat disaffected to ceremonies and
church discipline, yet he confuted such as conceived the
corruption therein ground enough for a separation."§ Ac
cording to Mr. Samuel Clarke, who appended a life of Mr.
HaU to his " Martyrologle," he resided for many years not iu
" a poor house," but in that of Edward Mainwaring, Esq.,
and he was often prosecuted in the spiritual courts, for re
fusing subscription, and meeting conventicles, though he
protested and wrote against separation from the church.
• Wood's Ath. Oxon. voL L No. 717.
t Brook's Lives of the Puritans, vol U. pp. 436-440.
t Richard Baxter, in his book entitled, An Unsavoury -Volume of Mr Jain
Crandon's Anatouiized. London
i Wood's AtlL Oxon. vol L Vo. 733.

244 PROOBESS OP THE lURITAKS.

SECTION IV.  THE KING AND THE PURITANS.
BOOK^ilL The bitter hatred of King James to the English Puritans
CHAP. L was probably occasioned in no small degree by the re
straints which had been put on his arbitrai'y govemment,
TheBaslllcon by the Puritans of Scotland. In his Basilicon Dorori , (or
royal gift) to his son, written for the guidance of Prince
Henry, he speaks of the Puritans with great severity.
Finding afterwards, that these censures were taken as seem
ing " to furnish gi'ounds to men to doubt of his sincerity in
that religion which he had ever constantly professed," he in
serts sorae explanations in an address "to the reader."
In these explanations he says, " What in other parts I speak
of Puritans, it is only of their raoral faults, in that part
where I speak of policj', declaring when they contemn the
law and sovereign authority, what exemplary punishment
they deserve for the same. And now, as to the matter itself,
whereupon this scandal is taken, that I may sufficiently
satisfy all honest men, and by a just apology, raise up a
brazen wall or bulwark against all the darts of the envious,
I will more narrowly rip up the words whereat they seem
to be somewhat stomached.
'¦ First, then, as to the name, Puritans. I ara not igno-
The royal rant that the style thereof doth properly belong only to
apology. tijat yjie sect among the Anabaptists, called the Family of
Love, because they think themselves only pure, and in a
manner without sin ; the only true church, and only wor
thy to be participant of the Sacraments; and all the rest of
the world to be but an abomination in the sight of God. Of
this special sect I principally mean when I speak of Puri
tans ; divers of them, such as Browne, Penry, and others
having at divers times come over into Scotland to sow their
popple amongst us, (and from my heart I wish they had
left no such scholars behind them, who by their fi'uits wUl,
in their own time be manifested.) And, partly indeed, I
gave this style to such brain-sick and heady preachers, their
discipltis and followers as refusing to be called of that sect,
yet participate too much with their humours, in maintain-

REIQN op JAMBS I. 24.')
iHg the above-mentioned errors ; not only agreeing with BOOK lU.
the general rule of all Anabaptists in the contempt of the char L
civil magistrate, and in leaning to their own dreams and
revelations : but particularly with this sect, in accounting
all men profane that swear not to their phantasies ; in mak
ing for every particular question of the policy of the church,
as great commotion as if the article of the Trinity were
caUed in controversy ; in making the Scripture to be ruled
by their conscience, and not their conscience by the Scrip
ture ; and he that denies the least iota of their grounds,
let him beta thee as a heathen ¦man and a publican, not wor
thy to enjoy the benefit of breathing, much less to partici
pate with him of the sacraments ; and before that any of
then- gi-ounds be impugned, let king, people, law, and all,
be trod under foot — such holy wars are to be preferred to
an ungodly peace ; no, in such cases, Christian princes are
not only to be resisted unto, but not to be prayed for, for
prayer must come of faith, and it is revealed to their con
sciences that God will hear no prayer for such a prince.
"Judge then, Christian reader, if I wrong this sort of
people, in giving them the style of tliat sect whose errors
they imitate ; and since they are contented to wear their
Uvery, let them not be ashamed to borrow their name. It
is only of this kind of men that in this book I write so
sharply, and whom I wish my son to punish, if they refuse
to obey the law, and will not cease to stir up a rebellion.
.... But on the other part, I protest, upon mine honour,
I mean it not generally of all preachers, or of others that
like better the single form of worship in our church, than of
the many ceremonies of the Church of England ; that are
persuaded that their bishops smell of a papal supremacy; that
the surplice, the comered cap, and such like are the outward
badges of Popish errors. No ; I am far from being conten
tious in these things, (which, for my own part, I ever es
teemed as indifferent,) as I do equally love and honour the
learned and grave men of either of these opinions. It can
no ways become me to pronounce so lightly a sentence on so
old a controversy. ' '*
It would be easy to fiU a volurae with the judgment of
• l-he Books of the Most High and Mighty Prince James, 4c. Edited by tha
Bishop of Winchester, folio. London, cum privilegio, 1616, pp. 143-141.

246 PROGRESS OP THE PUEITANS.
BOOK in, historical vn-iters on the character of the prince who could
CHAP, L publish such language, and yet act, as he avowedly did,
through the whole course of his reign, towards the most
moderate assertors of one of the opinions in this old contro
versy. Educated as a Protestant, yet naturally sympathizing
Character of with Catholics; a Presbyterian in Scotland, and an Epis-
°™^' ' copalian in England ; a zealous Calvinist at one time, and
a fierce Armenian at another ; always belying his profes
sions, and unscrupulous in breaking his promises ; it was,
perhaps, only consistent with his feeble character, and with
the despotic spirit of his government, that he should be the
enemy of the manly theologians, the true-hearted and con
scientious Englishmen, whom he both feared and hated.
His accession to the English throne was celebrated with
solemn religious processions at Rome. Cardinal Aldobran-
din, nephew of Pope Clement VIII. exhorted the English
Catholics to obey King James, and to pray for him as their
sovereign and natural lord ; and Parry, James's ambassador
in France, who was permitted by his master to live on terms
of intimacy with Bubalis, the Pope's nuncio in that coun
ti'y, responded to the exhortation, with an instruction from
the King, in which he promised to allow peaceful CathoUcs
to live without molestation.*
When the Puritans complained that within a short time,
Inconsisten- 50,000 Englishmen had become proselytes to Catholicism,
gard to Ca- James is said to have replied, " that they might go and
thoUcs. convert the same number of Spaniards and ItaUans." Not
withstanding the banishment of the Jesuits, and the other
public severities which provoked the Gunpowder Plot, the
King acknowledged to a prince of the house of Lon-aine who
visited him, with the knowledge of Pope Paul V., that he
esteemed Augustine above Luther, and St. Bemard more
than Calvin; that he recognized the Church of Rome as the
mother of churches ; and that the Pope was the head of the
mother church.
He showed no repugnance to direct negotiations with
Paul v., for his consent to Prince Charles' marriage with
the Spanish Infanta. In August, 1623, he swore to ai-tioles
* Breve relatione di quanto si fe trattato trata S. S> ed il re &' Inghiltertb
(MS. Rom,) Rante, vol 11. p. 294.

REION OP JAMES I. 247
of that marriage, securing to the Infanta and her suite the BOOK in.
exercise of her religion in a chapel of the palace ; intrusting cttap i
to her the education of all her children ; engaging that no
penal law should apply to those children, or take away their
right of succession, even though they should remain Catho
Ucs; and promising, generally, not to prevent the private
exercise of the Catholic religion, or to impose on CathoUcs
any oath at variance with their faith, but to endeavour to
obtain from Parliaraent the repeal of all laws against them.
The English Catholics began, forthwith, to be treated Toleration «I
after a different fashion ; and the Puritan fanatics, who *'**""'='
were alarmed at the increase of Catholic chapels, and de
claimed against the projected marriage, were severely pun
ished. When Cardinal Richlieu, the French minister, succeeded
in breaking off the Spanish marriage, James had good rea
sons for preferring a French to a Spanish princess for his
son ; and he guaranteed to her nearly the same religious
pri-rileges which he had before promised to the Spaniards.-*
Dionysio Lazari, who spent sorae time in England during
this reign, made a report to the Congregation for the Pro-
pogation of the Faith, at Rome ; in which, pointing out the
means by which the service of the holy Catholic faith might
be advanced in this counti-y, he relies much on the plan of
working on the feai-s and suspicions of the King, who was
timid, and seemed to be indifferent to any religion.t
The spirit of this monarch in his dealings with the Puri- lntoleranc»
tans, Ues upon the sni-fece of the history. He dreaded
them. He was incapable of acting towards them either
with honour or with generosity. Mr. Welsh, a Scottish
minister, who resisted the arbitrai-y measures of the King
to destroy the liberties of the Church of Scotland in 1605,
was sentenced to death, but banished. He spent sixteen
years in France, where he experienced the clemency of the
Catholic King, Louis XIII. After sixteen years' banish
ment, the physicians assured him that his health coidd be
recovered only by retumlng to his native country ; and, in
• Bushworth, vol, i, p, 152.
The Ecclesiastical and Political History of the Popes of Rome, during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By Leopold Banke, Professor in the
University of Berlin j translated by Sarah Austin. -VoL ii. pp. 466.624 : Tffl
ti., appendix, p 209.

248

PROGRESS or THE PURITANS.

Knox's
danghter.

BOOK IIL 1622, he ventured to come to London. The King refused
CHAP I, ^-0 permit him to return to Scotland. Mrs. Welsh havinjt
some relations at court, obtained access to the King, petitioti -
ing him to grant her husband this permission.
" Who was your father 1" said the king.
" Mr. Knox," she replied.
" Knox and Welsh I the devil never made such t
match." " It's right like. Sir ; for we never speired [asked] him."
" How many children did your father leave ? Are the»
lads or lasses ?"
" Three ; all lasses."
" Gnd be thanked !" cried the King, Ufting up both his
hands, "for an they had been three lads, I had never
bruited [enjoyed] ray three kingdoms in peace."
Mrs. Welsh then urged her request that he would give
her husband his native air.
" Give him his native air," repUed the King ; " Give him
the devil !" [a morsel which James had often in his mouth.]
" Give that to your hungry courtiers," said she, offended
at his profaneness. He told her, at last, that if she would
persuade her husband to submit to the bishops, he would
allow hira to return to Scotland. Mrs. Welsh, holdiag her
apron towards the King, replied, in the true spirit of her
father, " Please your Majesty, I'd rather kep [receive] his
head there."*
It is no small testimony in favour of the Puritans, that
ChMacter of they were so bitterly opposed by a monarch whose personal
character was so contemptible ; whose whole life was a con
stant, yet unsuccessful struggle against the judges, the par- j
liament, and the ancient liberties of the subject; whose I
cowardice alone prevented his being a tyrant ; whose court
was the most profligate that ever disgraced a country ; wHbse
reign, according to Burnet, " was a continued course of
mean practices ;" whose name was the scorn of the age in
which he lived ; and whose government tore from the heart
of England the love of a loyal people, and provoked that
quarrel which ended only in the expulsion of his family
from the throne. •M'Crle'9 Life of Knox, vol 11. p. 274.

James'sreign.

REION OP CHARLES I. 249

CHAPTER IL
STRUaGLBS op THB PURITANS IN THB REIGN OP OH ARMS I.
A. ». 1626—1649.
SSOTIQN I.  SUPPEBINGS OP THE PURITANS.
Charles I. spent his boyhood under the instructions of book hl
Mr. Thomas Murray, a favourer of Presbytery ; even as his q^]^ n.
father had been educated by the learned Presbyterian,
Buchanan ; and he was so diligent in his studies, that we
are told. Prince Hem-y, his elder brother, one day placed on
Charles' head the cap of Archbishop Abbot, saying in jest,
" if he was a good boy and minded his book, he would make
Mm some day Archbishop of Canterbury." *
0n his accession, he married Henrietta Maria, daughter CharlMt
of Henry IV. of France, and sister to Louis XIIL, the ^^gg^
reigning monarch of that kingdom. During the life of
Buckingham, Charles and his Queen were perpetually at
vai'iance ; but after the Duke's assassination by Felton, the
Queen acquired the entire ascendant, not in his domestic af
fections only, but also in his government. The personal
character of Charles has been generally allowed to have been
orderly, chaste, sobei-, and religious — so far as regarded the
observation of outward ceremonies ; yet tinged with both
superstition and bigotry.t He had a habit of duplicity.
Numerous examples are given by historians, which show
that he was too apt, in imitation of his father, to consider
his promises as temporary expedients, which, after the ne
cessity for making them had passed away, he was not any
further to regard ; and that, even when he had pawned his
"royal word" to his people, his design was to elude their
expectations. J
• Harris's Life of Charles L, p. 7.
t Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 81. Warwick's Memoln,
327-329. PerineliiefsLifeof King Charles, prefixed to his Majesty's works, p.
62. X Abridgement of Bishop Williams' Lite, p, 143. Hume's History of Eng
land, c.61 Eushworth,voLl.p. 613. Whitelock's Journal, p. 10. Rapin's Hist, cf
England, vol. iL p. 571. Sidney's State Papers, voL ii. p. 66o. King-s Cabinet
Opened, p. 4. 11*

230 PROGRESS OP THB PURITANS.
BOOK m. " But, as in the primitive times, it is observed that the
CHAR IL I'fist emperora were some of them stirred up by Satan to be
the bitterest persecutors of the church, so this King was a
woi-se encroacher upon the civil and spiritual liberties of his
Influence of people by far than his father. He married a Papist, a
the Queen, pj.gjj(.h lady of a haughty spirit, and a great wit and beauty,
to whom he became a most uxorious husband. By this
means the Court was replenished with Papists ; and many,
who hoped to advance themselves by the change, turned to
that religion. All thePapists in the kingdom were favom-ed,
and, by the King's example, matched into the best families.
The Puritans were more than ever discountenanced and
persecuted ; insomuch that many of them chose to abandon
their " native counti-y, and leave their dearest relations, to
retire into any foreign soil or plantation, where they might,
amidst all outward inconveniences, enjoy the fi'ee exercise
of God's worship. Such as could not flee were tormented in
the bishops' courts, fined, whipped, pilloried, imprisoned,
and suftered to enjoy no rest ; so that death was better than
life to them. And notwithstanding their patient sufferance
of all these things, yet was not the King satisfied till ?he
whole land was reduced to perfect slavery. The exariiple
of the French King was propounded to him ; and he thought
himself no monarch so long as his will was confined to tbe
bounds of any law. But knowing that the people of Eng
land were not pliable to an arbitrary rule, he plotted to
subdue them to his yoke by a foreign force ; and, tiU he
could effect it, made no conscience of granting anything to
the people, which he resolved should not oblige him longer
than it served his turn, for he was a prince that had nothing
; of faith or truth, justice or generosity in him. He was the
most obstinate person in his ^elT- will that ever was; and
so bent upon being an absolute, uncontrollable sovereign,
that he was resolved either to be such a king, or none.
J His firm adherence to Prelacy was not for conscience of
The King's Jbue religion more than another, for it was his principle,
i-miacyl"' "/that an honest man may be saved in any profession ; but
|he had a mistaken principle, that kingly government in the
¦ State could not stand without Episcopal government in the
Church ; and, therefore, as the bishops flattered him, with
preaching up his sovereign prerogative, and inveighing

REIGN OF CHARLES I. 251
against the Puritans as factious and disloyal, so he protected BOOK IIL
them in their pomp and pride, and insolent practices, CHAPitt
against all the godly and sobei-'people of the land."-*
His obstinacy in small matters as well as in the great
affiiirs of state and religion, was lamented by the guardians
of his childhood, by his courtiers, by his parUaments, by hia
people, and by historians of all parties.t Bumet represents
him as " much inclined to a middle way between Protes
tants and Papists, by which he lost the one without gaining
the other."+
He sanctioned, without scruple, the Popish and Arminian Opposition to
Innovators in the church, in opposition to the declarations of of thenstlon.
his parliament, and the judgment of the Archbishop ; raising
to the bench of bishops Montague and Mainwarmg ; and
appointing as his chaplain, with a prebend at Peterborough,
and a rectoi-y in Northamptonshire, Sibthorpe — all of whom
had openly published doctrines for which the House of
Comraons deemed them unworthy, and deserving of im
peachment, and incapable of ecclesiastical dignities.§
In opposition to the Protestant spirit of the nation, he S'
encouraged the abettors of the Popish ceremonies and doc
trines in the church, and advanced thera to highest ofiices
in the State. ||
He received, though contrary to the laws of England, Gre-
gorio Panzain, an Italian, and George Cox, a, Scotsman, and
afterwards Count Rosetti, as agents from the see of Rome. "(1
He sacrificed the dignity of his character, the rights of S"**?"^!!-
Englishmen, and the interests of practical religion, to the  — -
enforcement of conformity in external rites, on foreigners
who had settled in England on the faith of religious fi-ee-
dom ; and on natives who had a better right to that freedom
than he had to his throne — exalting the churchmen who
* Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, by his wife. Edinburgh. P. 85.
t Pcriuchief, p. 2. Coke's Deliction. vol, I. p. 211. Strafford's Letters and
Despatches, vol. i, p. 88, Laud's Diary, p. 42.
X Hist of his ov^l -lime, vol. 1, p, 73.
§ EusiiA'orth. vol. i. pp, 169, 634, G36, 649, Heylin's Life of Laud, pp. 158,
155. Collection of Speeches by Sir Edwin Deering. p. 18. Tracts on the
Bangorian and Trinitarian Controversies.
II Hist of theParlianiHits, p, 22. Eushworth, vol. i. p. 210. Heylin's Life of
Laud, p 252. Laud's Diary, p. 47. Clarendon's Hist vol i. p. 210. Heylin's
Life of Laud, p. 252. Land's Diary, p. 47. Clarendon's Hist, vol i. p. 50, TOt
vL p. S60. Stratford's Letters and Despatches, vol, i. p. 381.
If Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 306-308. Strafford's Letters, voL IL pp. 67, 7S
US. Clarendon's Hist vol. i. p. 14S.

252 PROGRESS Ol- THE PURITANS.
BOOK IIL contended for the prerogative to stations of the highest civil
_£^ jj rank and power, and suspending, depriving, excommuni
cating, and barbarously mutilating, the men who had the
conscience or the boldness to utter the words of freedom
in the pulpit, or through the press.*
He had imbibed from his father the most extravagant
notions of his irresponsible and unlimited power as a king ;
and he followed his ignoble example, or rather went far be
yond it, even at the beginning of his reign, in defying and
.--Ihsulting the Parliament of England. +
Against his own judgment, and in violation of his repeated
promises, he abandoned Strafford ; and he consented, when
the Parliament became too strong for him, to abolish the
votes of the bishops in Parliament ; scheming, at the same
time, to bring up the army from the north to overawe the
House of Commons. He caused the leading opponents of
his will in Parliament to be impeached on a charge of high
treason, and he went down to the House, attended by his
guards, to demand the persons of these members.
It was against the royal authority, thus degraded, and
Civil war perverted to the purjjoses of despotism, that the spirit of
.-English freedom roused itself, and burst into a quarrel.
Charles raised the standard of civil war at Nottingham, on
August 28, 1642. After various successes against the Par
liament, he was at length seized by the array, which first
overthrew the Parliaraent, and then, by an authority un
known to the constitution, tried, condemned, and beheaded
the King.
The general state of the Puritans during this reign may
be seen in this short sketch.
It will be further illustrated by considering the constitu
tion and acts of the Court of Star Chamber, which, with the
Court of High Commission, played so conspicuous a part
throughout this period. The Star Chamber {camera stel-
lata) a court of ancient origin, established for the purpose
of checking the barons who resisted the ordinary courts of
law, was so called, either from the Saxon word signifying to
• Laud's Diary, pp. 32, 33, 61. Clarendon's Hist. vol. 1. pp. 98, 99; vol. ii. p.
306. May's Parliamentary History, p, 23. Deering's Speeches, p. 9. Straf
ford's Lettei-8, vol. ii, p. 99,
t Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, p. S6. King Charles's Works, pp. 161, 162,
166, 231. Whitelock's Journal, 12, 13, 14. Rushworth, voL I. 431, 691., pre-
nwe to vol. ii. Clarendon's History, vol. i. p. 67, 68.

SEIGir OF CHARLES I. 263
tteer or govern, or from the chamber being full of windows ; book nt
or, according to Sir Edward Coke, because, haply, the roof onXp"n,
of the chamber was garnished with gilded stars ; or because
of the nature of the crimes adjudged there, (as crimen stel-
lionatus, or cousenage ;) or because certain records kept
there were known by the name of starres."*
As probable a conjecture as any of these is, that it took ConstltntloB
its name from the appearance of the Knights of the Garter, chamber.
with their stars on their robes, the days of their assembling
to give sentence in weighty causes being called " star-days,"
and the place of their meeting the " Star Chamber.'' t The
court consisted of the great officers of the Crown, the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief-
Justice, and some other members of the Privy Council. In
the reigns of Heni'2J''Il. and Henry VIII. the number of the
court was at one time nearly forty; in the reign of Elizabeth,
under thirty ; in the reign of James it was much reduced ;
but in the reign of Charles I. there were sometimes twenty-
six members at important trials. Their j urisdiction extended
legally over riots, peijury, misbehaviour of sheriffs, and
other notorious misdemeanours, but without a jury .J Lord
Clarendon tells us it was extended to " the asserting of all
proclamations and orders of state, to the vindicating of il
legal commissions, and grants of monopolies — holding for
honourable that which it pleased, and for just that which
profited ; and becoming a court of law to determine civil
rights ; and a court of revenue, to enrich the treasury — the
Council-table, by proclamations, enjoining to the people that
which was not enjoined by the laws ; and the Star Chamber
which consisted of the same persons in different rooms,
censuring the breach and disobedience to these proclama- \
tions, by very great fines, imprisonments, and corporal se
verities, (cropping of ears, slitting of noses, branding of
fiices, whipping and gagging.)§ That any disrespect to any
acts of state, or to the persons of statesmen, was, in no time
more penal, and the foundations of right never more in
danger to be destroyed."||
•Blackstonc's Commentaries, vol. iv. b. iv. c 19-33.
t Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 473.
X Commonwealth of England, by Sir Thomas Smith, B.M., ch. &
5 Rush*orth, vol. ii. p. 473;
J History of the RebeUion, b. i, llL

264

progress OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK m.
CHAP.IL

Archbishop Laud.

This odious and oppressive court, together with that of
the High Commission, was abolished by statute in the six
teenth year of Charles's reign, to the general joy of the
whole nation, -*¦ when the monarch was forced to yield to
the Parliament.
In close connection with the Star Chamber, we must no
tice the character and proceedings of Archbishop Laud —
"a fellow of mean extraction, and arrogant pride." "The
irregular and supei-fluous severity with which the Puritan
party visited the political crimes of this prelate in his old
age, has awakened the no small indignation of posterity.
But those who condemn that severity, would be themselves
as unjust to overlook the crimes by which he brought that
punishment upon him. His reputation is owing to the
iUegal, barbarous, and unprovoked sentence passed upon
hira — as little to be palliated as defended — and to the calm,
dignified, and courageous manner in which he met it, where
by all his faults, and follies, and cruelties were forgotten,
and he who, if he had been let alone, would have sunk in
to oblivion, or been remembered only for his bigotry and inr
temperance, is now regarded as a martyr and a saint, \;
Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it.'*t /
The same noble and learned author speaks of Laud, in
other passages, as a " narrow-minded priest, who looked with
so much horror on the Puritans, that he mixed up their
love of freedom with their dislike of Episcopacy,"! and as
" pushing with fresh energy the innovations to bring the
rites of the Church of England as near as possible to those
of Rome ;" " persecuting the Puritans with redoubled zeal ;"
" of his excesses, which Lord Coventry countenanced, though
he sometimes pretended to disapprove of thera ; while
neither in the council, nor in the charaber, did he anything
for ' the law, the constitution, or the public safety.' " t
Laud had remained at St. John's College, Oxford, till he
was fifty years old ; and in 1611, he became president of
that coUege. He is represented by Bishop Hall and Arch
bishop Abbott, as eagerly employed, while at Oxford, in
• Blackstonc's Commentaries.
t Lord Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, voL IL p. 49S.
t Ibid. p. 617. 5 Ibid. p. 624.

REIGN OP CHABLES I, 2fi5
inflaming the prejudices of King James against the Puri- BOOK m.
tans- OUAPTn
Through the patronage of the Earl of Devonshire, and of
Bishop Neile, he had obtained the notice of King James,
who appointed him one of his chaplains, bestowed on him
the deanery of Gloucester, and took him with him to Scot
land to assist him in modelling the church of that country
according to the Churcli of England. His favour
In 1621, he -was consecrated Bishop of St. David's, and in t^iii™""^
the following year he resigned the presidentship of St.
John's College. Bis celebrated conference with Fisher, the
Jesuit, introduced him to a close connection with Bucking
ham, who made him his chaplain or confessor. In four or
five years he became Dean of the chapel-royal, and Bishop
of Bath and Wells.
He becarae a privy councillor, the principal adviser of
Charles, and the intimate associate of Strafford after Buck
ingham's death. By rapid advancements he was raised to
the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford, and at the
death of Abbott, he succeeded that prelate as Archbishop of
Canterbury. " The late Archbishop of Canterbury was no
sooner dead, but one of their party (Papists) came to Laud,
whom they looked upon as his successor, seriously tendered
to him the offer of a cardinal's cap, and avowed ability to
perform it ; to whom he presently returned this answer, —
That somewhat dwelt within him, which would not suffer
him to accept the offer, till Rome was other than ii was; and
this being said, he went immediately to his Majesty, ac
quainting him both with the man and with his message, to
gether with the answer which he made unto it. The Uke,
also, did he, when the same offer was reinforced a fortnight
after, upon which refusal the tempter left him, and not only
for that time, but for ever after."-*
Lord Clarendon speaks of Laud as a little man, quick,
and rough of temper, impatient of contradiction, and arbi.
trary.t Historians ascribe to his vengeance the disgraceful trial
of Bishop Williams, who had been his patron ; % and most
* Laud's Diary, pp. 49, 388,
t Heylin's Life of Laud, p, 262. Lingard, b. ix, p. 318.
t Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. ii. p. 460. "About this thne,
he (Williams) was instrumental in the promotion of a man who afterwards

256

PROGRESS or THE PURITANS.

BOOK IIL
CHAP IL

liestoration of the aban
doned forms,
and intole
rance of th**.
Church.

Dr. Edward
Leighton.

of the severities of the Star-Chamber are laid to his
account. His grand object was to bring about a conformity
of modes of worship in England, Ireland, Scotland, and the
English congregations throughout the world ; and in pur
suance of this scheme, he insisted that the members of the
French and Dutch churches; founded, as we have formerly
seen, by letters patent from Edward VL, should repair to
the English parish churches ; by which means he molested
these foreign Protestants for years, and forced many of them
to flee from the kingdom.-*
The English churches were adorned with altar-pieces,
pictures, images, crucifixes ; the most imposing forms were
introduced into the publio worship ; the doctrines of the
Beformers were everywhere discouraged, or opposed ; the
lectures of the Protestant clergymen were abolished ; and
the feoffees, or trustees of a society for purchasing lay im
propriations for the support of such lectures, were fined in
the Star Chamber.+ The freedom of the press vras destroyed,
and the most arbitrary and cruel sufl'eiings were inflicted
on such as dared to express tlieir disapprobation of their pro
ceedings. Everything showed that the King had given up to
Laud the government of the church, and that Laud resolved
through the church, to enslave the nation to the King.
All English histories make mention of the case of Dr.
Edward Leighton, father of the well-known Archbishop
Leighton, and of that Sir Elisha Leighton, who was loved
and trusted by Charles II. according to Bumet, " because he
was a very vicious man."+
Dr. Leighton addressed an " Appeal to the Parliament,"
tui-ued out to be his greatest enemy. Buckingham avished to appoint Laud
one of the King's cliaplains, whom lie found very useful on several occasions,
to the bishopric of St, David's; but most unexpectedly James demurred, on
account of some trouble caused to him by the ultra high Cliurch principles of
this divine, in attempting to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland, The lord-
keeper, Williams, seeking to remove these sft-uples, the King said to him, ' I
perceive whose messenger you are— Stenny h^th set you on. The plain truth
is, I keep Laud back from all place of rank and authority, because I find he
hath a restless spirit, and cannot see when matters are well, but loves to toss
and change, and to bring thin;:c3 to a pitch of reformation floating in his own
brain. I speak not at random : lie hath made himself known to me to be
such a one.' The lord- keeper allowed that this was a great fault, whichmight
malte Laud be likened to Caius Gracchus, but undertook that it should be
cured in time to come. ' Then take him,' said the King, ' but on my lonl
you will repent if.' "
• Heylin's Life of Laud, pp, 276-278. Bushworth, vol. ii. p. 273.
t Warner's Ecclesiastical History, b. xiv. p. 521.
t History of his own Times, vol L p. 224,

REIGN OP CHARLES I. 267
consisting of ten propositions against the prelates, exnorting book HL
them to tell the King of the evils to the church and state CHAP[ IL
which were occasioned by the hierarchy ; to encourage
magistrates and ministers to call a free council to deter
mine the question of their authority, and if a council can
not be had, to join in humiliation and prayer before God ;
to take away the bishops' revenues ; and to continue a Par
liament till the tenets of the hierarchy be tried by the laws
of God and of the land.
In this " Appeal," the writer shows a large acquaintance Dr. Leigh-
with the laws and history of England, profound theological '""'^ ^^^"^
and ecclesiastical learning, a close and forcible logic, a spirit
of devoted loyalty to the King, and an earnest concern for
the honour of religion, and for the liberties of the nation.
His language is not stronger than Bancroft's against the Pres
byterians, or that of any of the Protestant writers of his
time against the Roman Catholics. As to his freedom of
speech, he says to the Parliament, '' we hope yofir honours
will impute it to the present danger ; for who will not cry,
if he can do no more, when his mother is like to be mur-
thered before his eyes ;" and to the "well-affectioned reader"
he says : " Though in regard of our danger we have used
freedom of speech, we neither hate their persons, nor envy
their pomp, but we wish their conversion, and safety of the
State."-—" Labour hard, by prayer and practice, that God
may have his honour, the King his right, and the enemies
of both their desert, and the Lord will dwell among us."*
For this book the writer was seized, by a warrant from
the High Commission, when coming out of Blackfriars'
Church, on the 17th of February, 1629, and dragged to the
house of Bishop Laud. Without any examination, he was
sent to^NewgaJe, there put in irons, and kept in a loath-
some_glacej^ exposed to the rain and snow for fifteen weeks,
without receiving a copy of his indictment, and not allowed
to be visited by his wife or any of his friends.
When he was brought into the Star Chamber, Laud de- E">°f*'t i"*"
, , .... the star
Bired the court to inflict on him the highest punishment in chamber
their power. The lord keeper, Coventry, pronounced the
sentence, in which all concurred — to be degraded from holy
•The prevailing opinions respecting this book (which Mr. Hallamsayshe
never saw) are drawn from the representations of Heylin.

258 PROGRESS op THB PURITANS.
book m. orders by the High Commissioners, then fined £lO,000, and
CHAp!^ il eondemned to perpetual imprisonment, after having his ears
cut, his nose slit, his face branded, his body scourged, and
in that plight to stand in a pillory, first in Palace-yard, and
afterwards at Cheapside.
Mr. Ludlow, who gives an account of these proceedings,
relates, that a knight who was present in the court, moved
one of the lords about the dreadfulness of this judgment,
opening to the prelates a gap to inflict such disgraceful pun
ishments upon men of quality ; to whom that lord replied,
it was only in ierrorem; that he would not have any one to
think that the sentence would be executed.
As soon as the sentence was passed, we are told Laud
Horrible cru- pulled off his Cap, and, holding up his hands, gave thanks to
ed on him."^'^ ^'"^' '*^^° ^^^ given him the victory over his enemies. He
took good care that the sentence should be executed.
Though Leighton escaped from prison, he was apprehended
in Bedfordshire, and brought back. On two separate occa
sions, with a week's interval, his ears were cut off, his nose
was slit, his face was branded with burning irons, he was
tied to a stake, and whipped " with a terrible cord to that
cruel degree," that he himself, writing the history ten years
after, afiirmed that every lash brought away the flesh, and
that he should feel it to his dying day. For nearly two
hours he stood, amid frost and snow, in the pillory ; from
whence he was carried back by water to the Fleet. There
he remained until delivered by the ParUament ten years
after.* Mr. Henry Burton, M.A., a native of Birdsal, or Birstal,
Mr. Henry in Yorkshire, was educated at St. John's College, Oxford.t
Burton. tt. i- , , a } '
Ills hrst employment was m the family of Lord Carey, of
Lepington, afterwards Earl of Monmouth, whose lady (the
daughter of Sir Hugh Trevanion, of Corriheigh, iu Corn-
wal) was governess to King Charles in his infancy. Through
Lord Carey's influence, Mr. Burton was appointed clerk to
the closet to Prince Henry ; and after that prince's death,
to Prince Charles. When Prince Charles went to Spain on
the affair of his marriage with the Infanta, Mr. Burton was
• Epitome ; or Brief Discovery, by Leighton— 1646. Eushworth, vol il. p.
66. Howel's state Trials, vol iii. p. 883.
t Though Fuller says—" He rather took a snack than made a meal. In any
nniversity."

REIQN OP CHARLES I. 269
appointed to attend him ; but after part of his goc-ds were BOOK IU
shipped, the appointment was set aside. When Charles as- chaF II
cended the thione, Mr. Burton was suspended from his office
of clerk to the closet, by Dr. Neile, Bishop of Durham, who
had held the same office under King James. Lord Claren
don represents Mr. Burton as disgusted with the affront
thus put upon him, and as expressing his resentment on all
occasions, particularly by railing against the bishops.*
Anthony Wood says, he was removed from the new King'o Reasons fcr
semce, "for his pragmaticalness and impudence, in demon- sjon^"'''"'"
strating, by a letter which he presented to the said King,
April 23, 1625, how Popisbly affected were Dr. NeUe, and
Dr. Laud, his continual attendants." t
In 1G24, he published a cmious work on " Simony," and
in 1631, a treatise on " The Law and the Gospel Reconciled,
with a special bearing on the divine obligation of the Fourth
Commandment." On the 5thof November, 1636, he preached
in his own church two sermons in which he charged the
bishops with dangerous plots to change the orthodox reli
gion established in England, and to bring Romish supersti
tion in their room ; and blamed them for several innova
tions in divine worship, which he specified. For these ser
mons he was cited before Dr. Duck, one of the ecclesiastical
commissioners. The commissioner tendered to Mr. Burton
the oath ex officio. Instead of taking the oath, he appealed
to the King. Notwithstanding this appeal, he was soon
after suspended, during his absence, from his office, and de
prived of his benefice, by a special High Commission Court.
He hid himself in his house, and published his sermon, with
an apology, justifying his appeal to the King.
Onthe night of February 6, 1637, the sergeant-at-ai-ms. Imprisoned
, , , , .«. , 1 re I ^ in tho Fleet
accompanied by the sherifi and other ofiicers, broke open
his doors, ransacked his study, and in the Bishop of London's
name, carried him to a constable's house for the night, and
on the next day he was conveyed to the Fleet, by order of
the Privy Council, and confined there for several weeks.
He wrote in the Fleet three appeals— one " To his Majesty;"
one " To the Judges ;" and another to " The True-hearted
NobiUty." Mrs. Burton, the writer's wife, was committed
• Hist, of the EebeUlon, vol 1 p. 210.
t Ath. Oxon. vol

260 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
KOOK IIL to prison, for presenting copies other husband's sermons and
CHApTii appeals to some of the Lords.*
For these epistles, and for the sermons, he was prosecuted
in the Star Chamber as a malicious libeller. After a course
of most illegal and iniquitous proceedings, he was fined
£6000, deprived of his benefice, degraded from his ministry,
and university degrees, set in the pillory in Palace-yard,
Westminster, where both his ears were cut off; and he was
ordered to close imprisonment for life in Lancaster Castle,
where he was denied the use of pen, ink, and paper, and not
permitted to see his wife, or any other person except his
jailer. As Mr. Burton stood in the pillory in the Palace-yard,
Westminster, he made a long, though interrupted speech.
His parishioners petitioned for his liberty ; but the gentle
men who presented it were committed to prison for their
pains. When confined in Lancaster Castle, great crowds resorted
to the place ; so that he found means to get some of his
papers dispersed in L mdon ; in consequence of which he was
removed fiom thence to Cornet Castle, in Guernsey, where
he remained for three years. In 1640 he was released by
the Parliament, and entered London in triumph. He was
restored to his living ; but he afterwards joined the Inde-
pendents.T One of Mr. Burton's fellow-sufferers was Mr. William
Mr. William Prtnne, of Lincoln's Inn, a voluminous and useful writer
^"'"^ of books on law. In 1632, he published a large and
heavy book against the stage, entitled " Histrio-Mastix,"
[The Player's Scourge] in which he represented the acting
of popular or private plays as infamous and unlawftil, ant
players as persons who were wortliy of the whipping-post ;
adding that among the Greeks and Romans, female actors
were notorious impudent and prostituted strumpets. The
book was published with the license of Dr. Goad, Arch
bishop Abbot's chaplain. About six weeks after the publi
cation of this book, the Queen acted a part in a pastorale at
Somerset House. Archbishop Laud, and some other pre-
* A New Discovery, p. 14. Burton's Narrative of his own Life, 1643.
t An answer to Burton's sennons was published by Heylin, in 1637. I'nl-
ler's Church History, b. xL Rushworth, vol. 1. Clarendon, voL L Strafloid'i
Papers, vol iL p. 57.

REIGN OP OHARIiBS I. 261
lates, whom Prynne had vexed by some treatises against book in
Arminianism, and against the jurisdiction of bishops, showed chaFii
his book against plays to the King, stating that the author
had written expressly against the Queen. Mr, Peter Hey
lin was ordered by Laud to read the book, and make ex
tracts of the objectionable passages. When the extracts
were completed, the Archbishop directed Mr. Noy, the at
torney-general, to prosecute the author in the Star Cham
ber. By a disgraceful trick, he was deprived of the power
of legaUy answering the charges brought against hira, and
the court fined him £6000, expelled him from the
University of Oxford, and from Lincoln's Inn, and de
graded him from his profession as a barrister. One ear was
cut off as he stood in the pillory at Westminster, and the
other ear was cut off in Cheapside, where he again stood in
the piUory, while his volumes were burned under his nose.-*
Four years after these sufferings, he was brought into the SecondpioM-
same court, for some pamphlets which he published against ™"°°'
Laud, and some other prelates, by whom he had been thus
injured. On this second occasion, he was once more fined
£5000, lost his ears — which were now hacked off to the
very stumps, was branded on both cheeks with the letters
S. L. (seditious or schismatic libeller), and was imprisoned
for life in Carnarvon Castle.
In the year 1636, Dr. Bastwick, a physician at Colchester, Dr.Bastirtdt
published some pamphlets reflecting on the bishops, for
which in the Court of High Commission, he was excom
municated from the church, suspended from practice as a
physician, and fined £l000, which was afterwards increased
to £5000, with the costs of the suit. He was also required
to make a recantation, and condemned to prison, first for
two years, and then for life. He likewise suffered the loss
of his ears, and stood with Burton and Prynne in the
pillory. The speeches of these sufferers produced a deep im
pression on the public. " What say you to it," said
Laud in a letter to Lord Strafford, " that Prynne and
his feUows should be suffered to talk what they please while
they stood in the pillory, and win acclamations from the
* Mr. Gurrard, in a letter to Lord Strafford, adds, that Mr. Prynne " got Mb
ears sewed on, and that they grew again to liishead." Strafford's Letters, voL

262

PROGRESS op THB PURITANS.

BOOKm. CH-U- IL

Lette.t's to
Strafford.

Emigrationof the Puri
tans

people, and have notes taken of what they said, and th
notes spread in written copies about the city ; and t!
when they went out of town to their several imprisonmei
there were thousands suffered to be in the way to take th
leave, and God knows what else  Once again }
return to Prynne and his fellows, and obsei-ve most righ
that these men do but begin with the Church, that tl
might after have freer access to the State ; and I would
God other men were of your lordship's opinion, or, if tl
be so already, I would they had some of your zeal, too,
timely prevention ; but for that we are all too secure, a
will not believe there is any foul weather towards us. ]
in what sort these men were suffered in the pillory, andh
they were attended out of the city, I have already writti
and since, I hear Prynne was very much welcomed, be
at Coventry and at West Chester, as he passed towards C
narvon."* Mr. Gurrard, writing to the same noble lord, says ;
" M'Ingram, sub-warden of the Fleet, told the King tl
there were no less than 100,000 persons gathered togetl
to see Burton pass by, betwixt Smithfield and Brown's H
which is two miles bej'ond Highgate. His wife went alo
in a coach, having much money thrown to her as she pass
along. . . . Complaint hath been made to the Lords
the Council of a sheriff at West Chester, who, when Pryn
passed that way through Chester to Carnarvon Castle, 1
with others, met him, brought him into town, feasted a
defrayed him ; besides, this sheriff gave hira a suit of coai
hangings to furnish his chamber at Carnarvon Castle ; otl
presents were offered to him, money and other things, b
he refused them. This sheriff is sent up for by a pi
suivant."t The sufferings inflicted on the Puritans induced lar
numbers of thera to eraigrate to BloUand, and to Amerii
The theological opinions of Laud, who was chosen cha
cellor of Oxford in 1630, gave occasion to new disturbanc
at Oxford, on grounds that were sometimes, though n
always, nor perhaps generally, quite distinct from the
which had hitherto distinguishtd the Puritans from t
opposite party in the church. From this time forwai
• str ifford'a Papers, voL il p. 99. t Ibid. vol. ii. I

BEIQN OP CHARLES I. 263
consequently, there was an additional reason in the minds "OOK nt
of the Puritans, for objecting to the hierarchy, and a new ciiaFu
excuse on the part of that hierarchy for oppressing the Pu
ritans. Many clergymen were expelled from the univer
sities, and deprived of their ecclesiastical livings, for their
maintenance of what they believed to be the doctrines of
their own church, and what were certainly the doctrines of
the reformers and their successors, down to the days of
Whitgift.-* The question of Sabbatical observance had been moved in Qn.^s'i™' re-
the days of Elizabeth, when a long controversy arose upon Sabbath.
it.+ The Book of Sports, in the previous reign, had thrown
difficulties and hindrances in the way of the Puritan party.
The controversy was now revived. The Puritans disliked
the word Sunday as the designation of the Lord's day, pre
ferring to call it the Sabbath ; and they regarded all business,
and especially all recreations and amusements, on that day,
as a -violation of the law of God. Another party, disliking
the woi'd Sabbath, as savouring of Judaism, confined the
reUgious observance of the day to the hours employed in
public worship ; and they held it to be lawful, and desirable,
that after the hours of service, dances, masks, balls, and
plays should be encouraged.
Between these two parties there seems to have been a
third, who had no objection to the term Sabbath, or the
word Sunday, but preferred " The Lord's Day," as the de
signation of the weekly day of rest and public worship; and,
without forbidding strictly all recreation on that day, stiU
objected to the indulgence claimed by the court party, as
inconsistent with the sacred duties of the day.
The day was spent, as in other places, so in Somersetshire, Proceedings
in a way which the gentry of the country perceived to be 5iii,g_
highly injurious to the morals of the people ; and they per
suaded the judges of the western circuit to make a strict order
for suppressing the Sunday wakes and revels. This act of
the judges was complained of by Archbishop Laud, as an
interference with ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; and he procured
a commission to Bishop Pierce and other divines, to inquire
* See the proof of his statement in Arcluleacon Hare's " .Mission of the Com.
forter," vol. ii., and in Macuulay's History of England, vol. i.
t Fuller's Clmvch Hist.b. ix. Strype's Annals, iii. U96. Strype's Whl»
gift. Price's Hi- tory of Nonconformity, rol 1. p. 432.

264

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.

BOOK IIL
CHAP. 11.

Clianges ef
fected in
pnbUe opin
ion.

into the manner of publishing the order, and into the con
duct of Sir Thomas Richardson, Lord-Chief-Justice, one of
the judges concerned in this business. The Chief-Justicfl
renewed the order at the following assizes, and he punished
several persons for neglecting it. When Sir Thomas re
tumed to London, Archbishop Laud sent for him, command
ing him to revoke the order, as he would answer for it at
his peril — for such was his Majesty's pleasure. The judge
pleaded that the order had been given at the request of the
justices of the peace in the county, and with the consent of
the whole bench, founded on ancient precedents; but in vain;
for in the assize which next followed, he had the mortifi
cation of reversing the order. " The justices of the peace,"
says Fuller, " in Somersetshire, who in birth, brains, spirit,
and estate, were inferior to no county in England, drew up
a humble petition to his Majesty, for the suppressing of the
aforesaid unlawful assemblies, concurring with the Lord-
Chief-Justice therein, sending it up by the hand of the cus-
tos rotulorum, to deUver it to the Earl of Pembroke, Lord-
Lieutenant of their county, to present it to his Majesty."-*
This was not the only petition ; nor were all the petitions
on the same side. The King issued his declaration, that the
feasts and wakes should be observed ; and ordered the jus
tices of the peace in their several divisions to look to it that
all disorders there be prevented and punished, and that "aU
neighbourhood and freedom, -with manlike and lawful exer
cises, be used." It was, further, his Majesty's will, that
this command be published by order from the bishops,
through all the parish churches of their respective dioceses.t
The opposition to the doctrines and spirit of the earliest
reformers, which had now become the principle of the go
vemment, both in the state and in the church, was working,
beneath the surface, a great change in the minds of the most
devout and thoughtful Englishmen ; and the lovers of re
ligion and the advocates of freedom were preparing to make
common cause against the common enemy.
The disturbances in Scotland, occasioned by the forced in
troduction of the government and ceremonies of the English
Church, ripened into war. The discontent was deep and

• Church History, b. xi.
t Phoenix, vol. il., tract preftxed.

Puller-s Church History, b. xi. pp. 83-44.

BEIQN OP CHARLES I. 265
jjenoi-al throughout England, when the Long Parliament bookiil
assembled in 1640. CHaFil
SECTION ir.  THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
It belongs to the department of civil history to narrate
the proceedings of this memorable assembly. One of its
earliest acts was the appointment of a committee, by which
many of the clergy, who had been sequestered for Non
conformity, were restored. Another committee prosecuted
the bishops and othtr eminent churchmen who had been
most active in pressing conformity ; while at the same time
they proceeded to censure and remove such of the lower
clei-gy as were proved to be " scandalous ministers."
Leighton, Burton, Prynne, and Bastwick, were recaUed
from their prisons, and their oppressors were punished.
The Courts of High Commission and of the Star Chamber
were abolished.
The opinions and spirit of the Scottish Presbyterians jj^^j ^^
were spreading through the country and the Parliament. Branch Pe
Petitions were extensively signed, some for the limitation
of the power of the bishops, and others from thousands of
clergymen as well as laymen, for the abolition of the office.
This was the famous Root and Branch Petition.
The opposition to the bishops went so far, that, even in
the House of Lords, a bill for excluding churchmen from the
Privy Council and the magistracy, was supported by a
weighty minority ; and its rejection led, in the House of
Commons, to a bill for the exclusion of the bishops from
Parliament, in which the Lords concurred, and which re
ceived the King's assent.
Among the terms submitted by the Parliaraent to the
King for a negotiation, before the civil war, was one
which required that the liturgy of the church should be
revised. In the great rebellion or civil war, it was not so much The religions
the political as the religious grievances of the nation, that the civil war
gathered adherents to the. Parliament. It was Protest
antism, watching with jealousy the tendencies towards
the hated system of Rome, and clinging to the Bible, and
to pnritv of relieious worship and discipline, that animated 12

£66 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK III. a portion of the peerage, and the higher gentry, with the
CHAPr II. great masses of the town population, the merchants, traders,
and substantial freeholders of England, together with the
most leamed and pious of the clei-gy, in resisting the sove
reign and the bishops. The Protestant massacre in Ire
land was known to have been countenanced by Charles and
his Queen. It was seen that the crisis of English liberties
had arrived, and that the forms of the constitution must
give way to its essential spirit. There were many lovers
of monarchy, of peace, and of the church, who satisfied
themselves, on deliberate reflection, that tho parliamentary
side was, upon the whole, the side of right, and of national
fi-eedom. To these were added many more, sober, earnest,
religious men, who felt that the truth, which was dearer
to them than even liberty, could be secured as an inheri
tance for their children only by the triumph of the laws ol
England. The friends of morality and decency also, alarmed
at the general spread of licentiousness, were compelled to
join the standard of the Parliament.
As the breach between the King and the Parliament
Terms of the went so far as an appeal to the sword, this history has no
tweSscot- f^^'*^^'" connection with it. When the Scots were sum-
land and nioned to the aid of Parliaraent, they, having procured the
^ ^ abolition of Episcopacy, and bound themselves in a solemn
covenant to maintain the Presbyterial discipline, made the
establishment of that discipline in England one of the terms
of their agreement with the English commissioners sent
down to Scotland, for joining in the war against the King's
army. On the 12th of June, 1643, the Parliament passed
an ordinance " for the calling of an assembly of leamed and
godly di-vines and others, to settle the government and Ut
urgy of the Churcli of England, and for vindicating and
clearing the doctrines of the said church fi-ora false asper
sions and interpretations, but not giving them any juris
diction, power, or ecclesiastical authority whatever."
It was ordered by the Paiiiament that the knights and
burgesses should appoint' divines from the several counties
to constitute this assembly, to the number of a hundred and
twenty. The Episcopal clergy for the most part refused to
attend, as the King issued a proclamation, declaring that
the acts of this assembly ought not to be received by his

EEIGN OP CHARLES I.. 267
subjects ; and thi-eatening to proceed against the divines book in.
composing it, with the utmost severity of the law. chapTu
SECTION III.  THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
The Assembly of Di-vines, including thirty lay assessors, Lay mem
and a hundred and twenty divines, was held in Westminster westmiMtet
Abbey, on the 1st July, 1643. Dr. William Twisse of Assembly.
Newbury was appointed prolocutor or president of the As
sembly. The lay assessors included ten peers, the Earls of
Northumberland, Bedford, Pembroke, Salisbury, Holland,
Manchester, with Lords Say and Seal, Codway, Wharton,
and Howard of Esrick. The commoners associated with
these peers were John Selden, Francis Rous, Edmund Pri-
deaux. Sir Henry Vane, Sir Henry Vane, jun., John Glyme,
(recorder of London), John White, Bulstrode Whitelock,
Humphrey Salway, Oliver St. John, Sir Benjamin Redwark,
John Pym, Sir John Clotworthy, Sir Thomas Bannington,
William Wheeler, WilUam Pien'epont, Sir John Evelyn,
John Maynard, Mr. Sergeant Wilde, Mr. Young, and Sir
Matthew Hale.
There were also, as lay assessors from Scotland, Lord Scottish
Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, the Earl of Lothian, and ™°™ "*
Johnston, Lord Warriston. The ministers from Scotland
were Messrs. Henderson, GiUespie, Rutherford, and Bailie.
Of the hundred and twenty divines summoned, sixty-nine
assembled ; but others were added fi-om time to time.
Only a few of the Episcopal divines attended ; and even
those who came -withdrew after a while, assigning as their
reason for -withdra-wing, that the Assembly was forbidden
by the King's proclamation ; that they were not chosen by
the clergy, and therefore could not represent them ; that
the clergy and laity were mixed together ; and that their
apparent design was to pull dovm the hierarchy.
The Assembly was opened by a sermon by Dr. Twisse,
on John xiv. 18, in Henry VII.'s chapel, both houses of
Parliament being present.
On the arrival of the commissioners from Scotland, the The Soiemr
covenant, now " the Solemn League and Covenant," which covenaT''
was referred by the houses of ParUament to the Assembly, adopted.
became the subject of considerable debate, and was adopted.

268 progress op the puritans.
BOOK IIL after some explanation on the subject of prelacy. This
CHApTil document was shortly afterwards subscribed by the Assem
bly, and by both Houses of Parliainent, each man standing
uncovered, with his right hand lifted up bare to heaven,
worshipping the great name of God, and swearing to the per
formance of it. It was ordered by the Comraittee of States
in Scotland to be sworn to, under the severest penalties, by
the Lords of the Council, and by the whole kingdom. In
the following February, it was ordered to be sworn to by all
persons in England above the age of eighteen. If any mi
nister refused to take the covenant, or to tender it to his
parishioners, he was reported to the House of Commons;
and none who refused to take it were allowed to be com
mon council men of the city of London, or even to vote in
the election to that office. Young ministers were required
to take it at their ordination ; and none of the laity who
refused were entrusted with any civic or miUtary place.
Against all this the King issued his proclamation ; but
the States of Scotland replied by sending him the reasons
of their conduct, and advising his Majesty to take the co
venant himself.-*
Letters were sent from the Assembly to the Protestant
Transmitted churches in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and France, un-
nentaii "" ' folding to them the state of the three kingdoms, sending
churches. them a copy of the Covenant, and calling for their sympa
thy. These letters were followed by a counter appeal to
these foreign churches from the King.
After the secession of the Episcopalians, the Assembly
Final com- was composed of three distinct parties — Presbyterians,
the Assam- Erastians, and Independents. The majority were Presby-
•>'?-• terians, advocates for the establishment of the presbyterial
form of church order, as a. Divine institution. The chief
favourers of this party in the House of Comraons, vvere
Denyell, HoUis, Glynne, Sir William Waller, Sir Philip
Stapleton, Sir John Clotworthy, Sir Benjamin Rudyard,
Sergeant Maynard, Colonel Massie, and Colonel Harley.
Their leaders in the Asserably were Twisse, Calamy, Whyte,
Palmer, and Marshall.
• -Whitelock's Memorials. Heylin seems to think that, as the preface and
conclusion of this ordinance contained 666 words, it was "the number of the
beast." Life of Laud, p. 611

BEIQN OP GHAKLES I. 269
The Erastians were those who considered that the form book m.
of church government was not appointed in Scripture, but chapTil
was a matter left entirely to the magistracy, with whom Different
alone resided the power to inflict punishraent for any of- ^°?S ""*
J. mt I . , , parties
fences. The most eminent men among the laity, as Selden,
Whitelock, and Oliver St. John, were of the party. The
Independents were a very small party, opposing the esta
bUshment of a presbyterial government, and maintaining
that every particular congregation of Christians has an en
tire and complete jurisdiction over its members, to be ex
ercised by the elders of the congregation within itself. This
party consisted of the following rainisters : Goodwin, Simp
son, Nye, Burroughes, Bridge, Greenhill, and Carter.
Besides these parties, there were others, as Gatakar, Bur
gess, and Arrowsmith, who preferred a Umited Episcopacy,
such as that which Archbishop Usher proposed, and for
which Baxter had declared his partiality.
The Assembly adopted Mr. Rous' version of the Psalms, Directory tat
and drew up a Directory for Public Worship, instead of that fjJSpf ° ^"^
in the Book of Common Prayer. The Directory was sanc
tioned by the Parliament, and enforced by heavy fines, to
gether with the prohibition of the Common Prayer in
churches, chapels, or private families. The King issued a
proclamation against the use of this Directory.
When the Assembly came to the Form of Discipline and
Government for the Church of England, they were thrown
into a debate which lasted thirty days, and which entu'«ly
broke their strength.
The Presbyterians and Independents agreed that mere
was a form of church government laid down by divine in
stitution in the New Testament, but the Erastian party ob
jected to this.
The Erastians agreed with the Presbyterians, that their
form of government was one which it was proper for the
magistrate to establish ; but they denied the divine right of
presbytery, in which denial they were joined by the Inde
pendents, who held their own scheme of church order to be
of divine appointment. It was at length determined by a
large majority in the Assembly, that the presbyterial form
of govemment was of divine appointraent.
In the House of Commons, the clause of the diinne right

270

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.

Debate on
Toleration,

BOOK IIL of the presbyterial government was rejected, though the
CIIAR II, Common Council and the city ministers petitioned on its
behalf. The Parliament also reserved to itself, contrary to
the views of the Presbyterians, the final authority, or the
power of the keys, in ecclesiastical offences.
After a long discussion between the Presbyterians and
the Independents, on the question of tolerating churches
that dissented from the presbyterial model, each party came
to its own conclusion in the Assembly. The majority
declared against the toleration ; but no sanction was given
to this decision by the ParUament.
The prospect of toleration for all sects was viewed with
alarm by the city clergy; the Scottish Parliament demanded
from the English Parliaraent tbe civil sanction to what the
Assembly advised, declaring that as they were bound to
this by the covenant, they would maintain it with their
lives ; and an eager controversy was kept up, both in the
pulpit and through the press, in which the advocates on
both sides put forth all their strength.
The Paiiiament remained firm in refusing to grant the
opponents of toleration the power to enforce their own prin
ciples by tbe sword. After the Independents had with
drawn from the Assembly, the scheme of presbyterial go-
vei'nment for the kingdom of England was dra^vn up. It
was carried into effect in London and in Lancashire ; in
other parts of the kingdom it went no farther than county
associations for church business, without any legal authority
or jurisdiction.
In the year 1646 the Paiiiament abolished the offices and
Abolition of titles of archbishops and bishops throughout England and
wSiop.'' ° Wales, and appropriated their revenues to the charges of
the war, with the exception of the tithes and other offer
ings, which were set apart for the maintenance of preaching
ministers. During the same year, the Assembly completed the Con
fession of Faith. The Paiiiament agreed in the doctrinal
part of the Confession, but rejected those relating to disci
pline.* The Larger Catechism, for exposition in the pulpit, and
• The fourth paragraph of chapter xx., and chapters xxx and xxxl. Even
the doctrinal articles, it should be remembered, were approved of by majori
ties, not by tho whole Assembly or the whole Parliament.

REIGN OF CHARLES I. 271
the Shorter Catechism, for the instruction of chUdren, which BOOK lit
did not contain the articles on church government, were cmSTlt
likewise prepared by the Assembly, and printed by authority
of Parliament. Having accomplished these objects — the Directory for
Worship, the Confession of Faith, the Form of Church Go
vemment and Discipline, and a Public Catechism — the
Scottish Commissioners returned home.
The Assembly was not formally dissolved by the Par
liament, but the business of the Presbyterian churcli was
carried on in the meetings of the London clergy, and in the
provincial assemblies.
The controversy respecting toleration was stUl carried
on at a tedious length.
The best use which can now be made of the controvei-sy
is, to acknowledge the imperfect views of parties in that
age; and to rejoice that there is no body of English Chris
tians in the present day that would subscribe to the intol
erant principles so zealously contended for, by so raany
learned and good men in the seventeenth centui-y.
Of the leaders in this remarkable assembly, the reader
may foi-ra a judgment from the following sketches of the
most noted of them.
Dr. Twisse, the president of the assembly, was of German Leadersof the
origin ; his gi-andfether being the first of the family in ^sseSly^''
England. He was bom at Speenhamlands, in the parish of j)^_ Twlasa
Speen, near Newbury, Berkshire, where his father was a
substantial clothier. After displaying much promise at
Winchester College, he became a fellow of New College,
Oxford. For sixteen years he devoted himself to the study of
theology, and when he took orders, he became a frequent
and diligent preacher, noted for his subtile wit, exact judg
ment, exemplary life and conversation, and for all the
qualities that became his office.
When he took his degree of doctor in divinity, he went
to Boheraia, as chaplain of Princess Elizabeth, daughter of
King James, and the consort of the Prince Palatine. On
his return from Bohemia he exchanged his college living
at Newton Longville for that of Newbury. " His plain
preaching" according to Wood, " was good, his soUd dispu-

272 PROGRESS OP THE PURTANS.
BOOK m. tations were accounted by sorae better, and his pious way
CHAP. IL of living by others, (especially the Puritans) best of all ;
Yet sorae of New College, who knew the man well, have
often said in my hearing, that he was always hot-headed
and restless. The most learned men, even those of his ad
verse narty, did confess that there was nothing extant, more
accurate, exact, and full, touching the arminian controver
sies, than what was written by this, our author, Twisse.
He, also, if any one, (as those of his persuasion say) hath
so cleared and vindicated the cause frora the objected ab
surdities and calumnies of his adversaries, as that out of his
labours, not only the learned, but also those that are best
versed in controversies, may find enough whereby to dis
entangle themselves from the snares of opposites. The
truth is, there's none almost that have written against ar
minianism since the publishing anything of our author, but
have raade very honourable mention of him, and have ac
knowledged him to be the mightiest man in those contro
versies that his age hath produced. Besides Newbury, he
was offered several preferments, as the rectory of Benefield,
in Northamptonshire, a prebendship in the Church ol
Winchester, the wardenship of Wykeham's College there,
and a, professor's place at Francker, in Frisland. But the
three last were absolutely refused ; and the first he would
not accept unless he could obtain liberty of his Majesty (in
whose gift Newbury was, and is) to have also an able man
to succeed him there. Besides, also, upon conference with
Dr, Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, ordinary of that place,
the King was so well satisfied concerning Twisse, that he was
unwiUing to let him go from Newbury. In tbe beginning
of the civil war, begun by the Presbyterians in 1641-42, he
sided with them, was chosen one of the Asserably of Divines,
and, at length, prolocutor of them. Among whom, speak
ing but little, some interpreted it to his modesty, as those of
his persuasion say, as alwayspreferring penning before speak
ing; and others to the decay of his intellectuals. But polemi
cal divinity was his faculty, and in that he was accounted
excellent. While he was prolocutor he was one of the
lecturers in St. Andrew's Church, in Hoiborn, near London,
which was given to him for his losses he sustained at New-

UEIGN OP CHARLES I. 273
bui-}', being forced thence, as his brethren said, by the royal BOOK IU
party. CHAP. It
.... After he had lived seventy-one years, he departed
this mortal life in Hoiborn, in 1645, and was buried the
24th July, the same year, in the Collegiate Church of St.
Peter, within the city of Westminster.-*
Mr. Robert Bailie, one of the Scottish Commissioners in
the Assembly, calls him " doubtless the most able disputer
in England." " The man, as the -world knows, is very
leamed in the questions he has studied, and very good, be
loved of all, and highly esteemed ; but merely bookish, and
not much, as it seems, acquaint with conceived prayer,
and, among the unfittest of all the company for any actions ;
so, after the prayer, he sits mute. It was the canny con
veyance of these who guide most matters for their own in
terest, to plant such a man, of purpose, in the chair.' t
Mb. Jeremiah Burroughes, " full of sweetness and Mr.Jeremiah
modesty," was one of the able men, of whom Mr. Bailie ""-""ShM-
says, " if the cause were good, the men have plenty of
leaming, wit, eloquence, and above all, boldness and stiff
ness to make it out."|
In early life Mr. Burroughes had been obliged to leave
the University of Cambridge, and his native land, for non
conformity. A few years before the calling of the West
minster Assembly, he was deprived of Fitshall, in Norfolk,
(where Mr. Edward Calamy, the elder, was feUow-labourer
with him,) and, fleeing from ecclesiastical severity, became
teacher in the congregational church of which Mr. William
Bridge (afterwards, like himself, a member of the assembly)
was pastor at Rotterdam. At the breaking out of the civil
war, he retumed to England, and became eminent as a
preacher in the parish churches of St. Giles, Cripplegate,
and of Stepney : in the latter church he was associated
with Mr. WUliam Greenhill ; and in allusion to them Hugh
Peters, in a sermon preached in the pulpit of that church,
• Ath. Oxon. VOL ii. No. 69. Additional particulars of Dr. Twisse will be
fotmd in his correspondence with Mede, in Mode's Works, folio, 1692, and in
-Whitelodt's Memorials. Clarke's Lives of Eminent Persons in tills latter age.
Divines, Nobility, and Gentry, folio, 1683. Beid's Memoirs of Divines of the
Assembly, Paisley 1811
Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, A.M., Principal of the University of
Glasgow, edited by David Lalng, Esq: 184L -Vol, 11. pp. 108-313
t Ibid, vol. ii. pp. 110 * . n^

274 progress op the puritans.
BOOK IIL called one the morning, and the other, the evening star.
chap. II. He was one of " the Dissenting Brethren" in the assembly
who presented the Apologetical Narration, and " reasons
against certain Propositions," in expLination and vindica
tion of their dissent from the judgment of the Presbyterians
in Church Government. He likewise published a " Vindi
cation " of himself from the representations of Vicai-s and
Edwards, who wrote against him. His last work, published
in the year of his death, was " Irenicam : To the Lovei-s
of Truth and Peace : Heart Divisions opened in the Causes
and Evils of them ; with cautions that we may not be hurt
by them."-*
Mr. Burroughes' incessant labours, and his grief for the
distractions of the times, are said to have hastened his end.
He died of consumption, November 14, 1646, in the forty-
seventh year of his age.t
Mr. Stephen Marshall, though styled by Wood, " a no-
Mr. Stephen torious Independent, and the arch-flamer of the rebelhous
rout." was one of the Presbyterian clergy, sent with Sir H.
Vane, Sir WilUam Armine, Mr. Hatcher, Mr. Dairy, and
Mr. Philip Nye, as the commissioners of the English Par
liament to the General Parliament, in 1643. Bay lie speaks
of him before his arrival in Scotland, as " a notable man,
who would be welcome, if not Nye." He describes him as
preaching with great contentment,]: during his visit to the
North. In the Westminster Assembly, the same writer
mentions Marshall as " the be.st preacher in England,"§ as
siding with the Scottish Presbyters in their opinion of
" ruling elders ; as chairman of the comraittee for drawing
up the Directory for Worship, and introducing it to the As
sembly -with a smooth speech : as the writer of the letters
to the foreign churches ; as preaching the thanksgiving
sermon before the great feast given by the city of London
to the Parliament, and the Assembly at Taylor's Hall ;
aggrseing with the Presbyterians in their scheme of Church
» Several Treatises of Burroughes are in Dr. Williams' Library. Sorae of
them have been frequently reprinted. A copious anaty ^i of liis works relet
mg to tlie church conti'oversies in the assembly, is given by Mr. Hanbuiy in
his Historical Memorials, in vols. IL and iii. In vol. iii. p. 1 12, {note), Mr. Hanbory
fciys, " that the four surviving Apologists, with William GreenhUl, John Tatei^
and WilUam Adderly, superintended the publication of eleven volumes, quarto
of Borroughes' remains
t Brook's Lives of the Puritans, vol iii. p. 25.
t Ibid. VOL ii. p. 1 04. 5 Ibid, vol il. p. 14S.

reign op CHARLES I. 276
Government, but differing from them as to the seat of the BOOK HL
excommunicating power." He thus speaks of him on one cHAI^n.
occasion : " This day was the sweetest that I have seen in
England. General Essex, when he went out, sent to the
Assemblj to entreat that a day of fasting might be kept
for him. We appoint, this day, four of our number to pray
and preach at Christ's Church ; also, taking the occasion,
we thought meet to be humbled in the Assembly, so we
spent from nine to five very gi'aciously. After Dr. Twisse
had begun with a brief prayer, Mr. Marshall prayed large
two hours, most divinely confessing the sins of the members
of the Assembly, in a wonderfully pathetic and prudent
way."* On another occasion, he speaks doubtingly of Marshall : —
" WhUe Cromwell is here, the House of Commons, with
out the least advertisements to any of us, or of the Assem
bly, passes an order, that the grand committee of both
houses. Assembly and ns, (the Scottish Presbyterians) shall
consider of the means to unite us and the Independents ;
or, if that be found impossible, to see how they may be
tolerated. Thi^ has much affected us. These men have
retarded the Assembly these twelve long months. Tlus is
the fruit of their disservice, to obtain really an act of par
Uament for their toleration, before we have gotten anything
for presbytery, either in Assembly or Parliament. Our
greatest friends, Sir Henry Vane, and the solicitor (Oliver
St. John) are the main procurers of all this ; and that
without any regard to us, (the Scots) who have saved their
nation, and brought these two persons to the heights of the
power they now enjoy, and use to our prejudice. We are
on our way, with God and men, to redress all these things
as we may. We had much need of your prayers. This is
a very fickle people ; so wonderfully divided in all their
armies, both their Houses of Parliament, Assembly, city,
and counti'y, that it's a miracle if they fall not into the
mouth of the King. That party grows in strength and
courage ; the Queen is very like to get an army from
France. The great shot of Cromwell and Vane is, to have
a Uberty for all religions, without any exceptions. Many
a tune we are put to great trouble of mind : we must make
• Brook's Lives of the Puritans, voL 11. p. 184.

276 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK 111, the best of an ill-game we can. Marshall miskens (orer-
CHApTii. looks) us altogether ; he is for a middle way of his own,
and draws a faction in the synods to give ordination and
excommunication to congiegations, albeit dependently in
case of mal-administration ; God help us. If God be pleased
to settle Scotland, and give us Newcastle, all will go well.
We must see for new fiiends at last, when our old ones,
without any the least cause have deserted, and half be
trayed us."*
Another passage shows that Mr. Marshall was losing fa
vour with his own party : —
" But their greatest plot, wherewith yet we are wrestling,
is an order of the House of Comraons, contrived by Mr.
Solicitor (Oliver St. John) and Mr. Marshall, which they
got stolen through to the committee of lords, commons, and
divines, which treated with us to consider of differences in
point of Church Government, which were araongthe members
of the Assembly, if they might be agreed; or, if not, how far
tender consciences might be borne with, which could not
come up to the common rule to be established, that so the
proceedings of the Assembly might not be retarded. This
order presently gave us the alai-ra ; we saw it was for a
toleration of the Independents, by act of parliament, before
the presbytery or any common rule were established. Our
most trusty friend the solicitor, had ihroughed it the house
before we heard of it. Mr. Marshall had, evidently, in the
prosecution of it, slighted U3."t
Again, he describes Mr. Marshall as "helping the Indepen
dents :"t " They plead for a toleration to other sects, as weU
as to themselves, and with much ado could we get them to
propose what they desired to (for) themselves. At last, they
did give us a paper requiring expressly a full toleration of
congregations, in their way everywhere separate from our's.
In our reply we did flatly deny such a vast liberty, and
backed it with reasons, and withal we begun to show what
indulgence we could, for peace' sake, grant. Here Mr.
Marshall, our chairman, has been their most diligent agent,
to draw too many of us to gi-ant them much more than my
heart can yield to, and which, to my power, I oppose."§
• Bailie's Letters, voL iL p. 230. \ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 286.
} Ibid. vol. a p. 260 ; Ibid. vol. il. p. 3iS.

IIEIGN OP CHARLES X. 277
Before these proceedings in the Assembly, Mr. Marshall book nt
bad been engaged in a "rigorous controversy on Episcopacy chap" It
with Bishop Hall. The worthy bishop had laid before
King Charles what he calls " Irrefragable Propositions
against the solemn League and Covenant ;" and, a year
after, he dedicated to his Majesty as "under God appointed
the great Patron of all divine truths, the great guardian
and protector of these parts of His church npon earth," an
elaborate treatise on " Episcopacy, by Divine Right," which
was followed by " a Humble Remonstrance to the High
Court of Parliament," on behalf of the Liturgy, and Epis
copal Government of the Church of England.*
To " this remonstrance" an answer was published in
1641, written by Smectymnws.t
In 1665 Mr. MarshaU was associated with Mr. Caryl, as
chaplains of the commissioners to the King at Newcastle,
and at Holraby House, in Northamptonshire. While in
this situation, the King declined to avail himself of the
services of these chaplains, though he was unattended by
any of his chapl-iins in ordinary.^
Mr. Eachard, according to his usual candour, calls him
' a famous incendiary, and assistant to the parliamentarians,
their trumpet in their feasts, their confession in their sick
ness, their councillor in their assemblies, their chaplain in
their treaties, and their champion in their disputations.'
This great Shimei, being taken with a desperate sickness,
departed the world, dead and i'aving.§
He was better Known to Baxter, and other good men.
• Hall's Works, folio, 1662. -Vol ill pp. 118, 208.
t The word was formed of the initials of the names of Marshall and other
wiiters wlio joined with him in the compoiilion of tliu book, S, .M[arshall,] E.
Cfalamv,] T, Y[oung,] M. N[ewcorien,] W. S[pursten], The controversy was
kept up with great spirit. Some of the most splendid of Milton's prose worlia
belong to it. Milton's Prose Works, (Child's Edition, 1834,) pp. 1—76.
t Anthony Wood says : "They, the said ministers, upon tlie desire of the
Commissionei s. did offer tlieir service to preach before the King, and say grace
at meals; but they were both by liim denied, the King always saying grace
himself with an audible voice, standing under the state (canopy.) So that our
author Caryl and Mai-shall (lo whom the King nevertheless was civil) did take
so gleat disgust at his Miijesty's refusals, that they did evei- after mightily pro
mote the Independent slander uf the King's obstinacy. 'Tis said that MarshaU
did on a time put liimsdf more forward than was meet, to say grace; and
while he was long iu foniiing his chaps, as the manner was among the saints,
and making ugly faces, his Majesty said grace himself, and wastallerl to ma
meat, and hail eaten some part uf his dinner before Manstoll had ended the
blessing. Ath. Oxon., vol, ii p. 414, (Caryl.) .......
§ The History of England, from the time ot Julius Cssar to the conclniilon of
the reign of James IL Folio, London, 1720, pp. 783.

278 PROGRESS OP THB PURITANS.
BOOK HL They gave hira a different character, and described his death
(T^j^, 11 in very different terms. He died at Ipswich, after two
years of retirement and afiliction. Conversing on his death
bed with some friends, he said : — " I cannot say, as one did,
' I have not so lived that I should now be afraid to die ;'
but this I can say, I have so leamed Christ, that I am not
afraid to die." He had the full use of his understanding
to the last ; but he lost the use of his hands, and his ap
petite, insomuch that he could eat nothing for some months
before he died  His remains were solemnly in
terred at Westminster Abbey, but were dug up again at the
Restoration. Mr. Bailie's references to Marshall in his sickness, and
after his death, are not without interest. " I am sorry Mr.
Marshall is a-dying : he was ever in my heart, a very emi
nent man. His many sermons on that verse of John viii.
36, If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed, I
have oft pressed him to make public : he was the preacher
who, now living, ordinarily most affected ray heart. Mr.
MarshaU long ago lost the hearts of our nation. He was
the main instrument of that national covenant with God
and among ourselves, which was wont to hang on the walls
of our churches : it -will hang ever before the eye of God,
the Prime Covenanter ; never a league so openly and uni
versally trod upon, and obUterated without any just cause.
I vrish Mr. Marshall, for saving of his o-wn soul, before he
appear at Christ's bar, did exoner (ate) himself with the
Protector, if he come to visit him, as I think he wiU, or
otherwise in write (ing) about every article of the covenant.
I think the Protector wUl take it as weU to be freely and
friendly dealt with, by dying Mr. Marshall as any man on
earth ; and I hope Mr. MarshaU will be lothe to deny this
very necessary and last sei'vice to Christ and his own soul,
if you three wiU require it of him."+
To this letter Mr. Aske repUes : — " Mr. MarshaU was
dead before I received your letter ; and I cannot give you
intelUgence of any conference with the Protector, either in
• Neale's History of the Puritans, vol. 11, c iii. The Indignity of digging up
these bones was inflicted on Dr. Twisse and on Mr, W, Sti'ong, another clerical
member of the Assembly. Nor was it confined to them, as -ffili appear here
after. t Letter to Mr, Simeon Aske, vol UL p. 802.

BEIGN op CHARLES I. 279
reference to the Covenant, or any other concernment. He BOOK 111
was more satisfied -with the change of government, both civU chap, tt
and ecclesiastical, than many of his brethren."*
The last reference to Marshall in Bailie's Letters is in a
letter to Mr. Francis Rous, — the translator of the Psalms
for the church service, — in which the writer exhorts his
ancient friend, in his extreme old age " to do some service
yet for presbytery in England : —
" While there is time, and you are not gone, do service
to God and to good men. Mr. Tate, Mr. MarshaU, Mr.
Whitaker, Mr. Vines, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Gillespie, and
many more of our dear friends are gone ; at once the rest
of us wUl follow, and stand before our Master."t
Mr. Philip Nvh, one of the most conspicuous members Mr. Philip
of the Assembly was son-in-law to Mr. Marshall. Accord- ^*
ing to Anthony Wood,t he was born of a good family in
Sussex, entered Brazen-nose College, Oxford, in his nine
teenth year, but removed to Magdalene College, where he
was put under the tuition of a puritanical tutor. Afte
taking his degrees in arts, he became the minister of St.
Michael's Church, Comhill, London. This charge, how
ever, he was obliged to resign on account of his puritani
cal principles, and he lived about seven years at Arnheim,
in Guildeiiand ; from thence he returned to England, after
the meeting of the Long Parliament, and obtained the
living of Kirabolton, in Huntingdonshire, by the favour of
the Earl of Manchester. He accompanied Mr. Marshall,
Sir Henry Vane, and others, as we have seen, as commis
sioners from the English ParUament to the General As
sembly of the Church of Scotland, and on his return became
a leading champion for the Solemn League and Covenant.
His conduct in the Assembly has been partially referred to
in the account already given of Mr. Marshall by Mr. BaUUe.
There are several more pointed references to Nye in the
same remarkable letters. BaiUie caUs him the " head of
the Independents."§ Speaking of Nye's preaching at Edin
burgh, he says — " In the afternoon, in the Greyfriars, Mr.
Nye did not please. His voice was clamorous ; he touched
• Letter to Mr. Eobert BaUUe, in Baillie's Letters, vol UL p. 306.
t Ibid, vol iii. p, 326,
1 Ath Oion. vol. U. No. 403. } Ibid, vol it No 81

280 PROGRESS OP THB PURITANS.
BOO V IIL neither in prayer nor preaching, the comraon business ; he
c'lTT'ti ^^^ much out of his paper book. All his sermon was on
the common head of a spiritual life — wherein he ran out,
above our understandings, upon a knowledge of God as God,
-without the Scripture, without grace, without Christ. They
say he amended it somewhat the next Sabbath.* Nye
was one of ten or eleven independent men in the Synod,
many of them very able men, to whom others were extreme
ly opposite, and somewhat bitterly, on the office of teachers
in the church.t On the question of the metrical version
of the Psalms, Mr. Nye did speak much against a tie to any
psalter, and something (probably in favour) "of the singing
of paraphrases as of preaching of homilies. We, underhand,
wUl mightUy oppose it ; for the psalter is a great part of
our uniformity, which we cannot lift up, till our church be
well advised with it."t
" When our chief question, that many particular congre
gations were under the government of one presbytery," when
Nye saw the Assembly full of the prince, nobles, and chief
members of both houses, he did fall on that argument again,
and very bol(Uy offered to demonstrate that our way of
drawing a whole kingdom under one national assembly as
formidable, yea, pernicious ; and thrice over pernicious, to
civil states and kingdoms. All had him down, and some
would have had him expelled the Assembly as seditious.
Mr. Henderson shew(ed) he spoke against the govemment
of our's, and all the refoi-med churches, as Lucian and the
Pagans (were) wont to stir up princes and states against the
Christian religion. We were all highly offended with him.
The Asserably voted him to have spoken against the order —
this is the highest of their censures. Maitland was absent, but
enraged when he heard of it. We had many consultations
what to do, at last we resolved to pursue it no farther, only
we would not meet with him, except he acknowledged his
fault. The Independents were resolute not to meet without
him, and he resolute to recaU nothing of the substance of
what he had said. At last we were entreated by our friends
to shuffle it over the best' way might be, and to go on in
our business. God, that brings good out of evil, made that
miscaniage of Nye a mean to do him some good ; for ever
• Wood's Ath. Oxon. vol IL No. 97. t Ibid, vol a p. 110.
t Ibid, vol li, p. 12L

REIGN OP CHARLES I. 881
ttA !e find him, in all things, the most accommodating book UL
>han "n the company."-* Baillie complains again, of Nye's CHAP IL
opposition in several circurastancial matters, and of a re
monstrance to Parliament against " the huge increase, and
insolences intolerable of the Anabaptists and Antinomians,"
tnd of his contending for the right of church members to
vote in matters of discipline.
The eminent statesmen, jurists, and scholars, who sat as Lay mem.
laymen in this Asserably, are well known to the readers of westailns1«r
EngUsh historj', to which their character belongs, rather Assembly.
than to that of the Puritans. On the general character of
the Assembly itself, very different opinions have been given,
according to the party views or personal feelings with which
the minds of the writers have been tinctured. It was,
iurely, a noble gathering for a noble purpose. It was sum
moned for giving advice to Parliament in one department
of its multifarious business. The Assembly had no power.
(ts long debates were, probably, encouraged by the Parlia
mentary leaders, to divert the subtle and active minds
which composed it from meddling too much -with general
poUtics, and to keep them not only employed but under
sontrol.t The progress of religious freedom in modem times has
kept many frora duly estimating the leamed and pious
churchmen who expressed their horror of tolerating all
sects; and comparatively few, perhaps, are nowin a condition
to appreciate the labours of that Assembly, or to trace their
influence on the minds of men in following generations.
Although the Scottish comraissioners mistook, as we be
lieve, the genius of the English people, and had but dim
insight into the intentions of the English Paiiiament ; al
though there was too much both of northern and southern
nationality ; although the spirit so natural to every priest
hood, and to evei-y church establishment was stronger than
it ought to be ; though there was a morbid dread of the
evils that seemed to be the necessary consequences of entire
»eligious freedom ; — stiU the Westminster Asserably con-
• Wood's Ath. Oxon. vol, 11, pp. 145, 146.
+ Ormc's Lite of Baxter. I<t an elaborate history of the Assembly, written
bv a Presbyterian, see the " History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines,"
by the Rev. W. M. Herherington, author of the " History of the Church of Scot
land," te. &C. Edinburgh, lS4b.

282 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IIL talned within it the ?< mis of nearly all the civil and reli-
OHAP II gioHS liberty which has wrought such happy effects in Eng
land, and in her ancient colonies on the westem side of the
Atlantic. And even yet, it must be acknowledged, the very
principle of religious liberty is far from being understood,
or acted on, throughout the greater part of Christendom.
SECTION IV.  OVERTHROW OP THE MONARCHY.
As it does not belong to our object to narrate the politi
cal history of the times, the reader will not expect more
than a very brief reference to the abohtion of the monarchy,
and the execution of the King. The time it is hoped, has
gone by, when persons were so ignorant, or so bigoted, as to
connect those events with either the religious or the politi
cal principles now held by any party in common -with the
Puritans. From the conflicting statements of men pledged to oppo
site parties, on the most exciting of all questions, the calmer
writers of later times and of other countries besides our
own, have dravm a tolerably correct narrative of the facts,
and have formed a somewhat impartial judgment of the
men. With the aid of such writers, we have studied this grand
tragedy in English history. The spirit of English liberty
which had been down-trodden by the Norman barons, and,
with the help of their feudal successors, and of the church,
curbed by the princes of the house of Tudor, slowly but
steadUy diffused itself among the yeomanry, and still more
through the communities that grew into power with the
progress of trade and the increase of towns. The wealth
and intelligence, the union and energy, arising from the
same causes which also prepared the way for the Reforma
tion, required a great enlargement of wisdom, and we must
add, of goodness, in the rulers of such a people. Unhappily,
such were not the qualities either of James or of his son ; and
the rulers of the church, Bancroft and Laud, in both these
reigns, believed, we may suppose, that they served the
church by exalting the prerogative of the monarch, and
jealously thwarting the liberties of the people.
Two distinct classes of motives w-ere at work in widening

REION OP CHARLES I. 283
the breach between tho throne and the subjects— the reli- BOOK in,
aious and the political. Tliough both might unite, and chap! U.
doubtless often did, in tlie same mind, they were not
neces.sarily blended ; numbers acted as politicians, and num
bers acted as the religious. But as these parties were suf
fering frora a common grievance, it was impossible that
the one should not influence the other. It is among the
proofs of human weakness, that there should be men who
cannot conceive of the love of liberty being .llied to reU
gion ; and others who will not believe that religion can have
anything to do with social subordination, and graduated po
htical institutions. One consequence -if this weakness is,
that by one party, every advocate of authority is regarded
as something very like a tyrant, and every combatant for
fi-eedom by another party, as of necessity a rebel ; while
each party joined with the other in denouncing the tyrant or
the rebel, according to their respective views, as a hypocrite.
To one of these extremes it belonged to believe or say all
manner of evU things against the King and the bishops,
and to the other, to beUeve or say quite as many evil things
of regicides, who destroyed a church. Now here are the
facts : the ParUaments were so disliked by Charles, that, Uke
his father, he resolved, if possible, to reign without them.
This, however, he could not do, without inflicting grievances
on his subjects contrary to the laws. When the Parliament
— the Long Parliament — met, it quarrelled with the King,
both the King and ParUament appealed to the sword. This
brought a now power into the field, an army without a
constitutional leader. That army having conquei'ed the
King, quarrelled -with the ParUament, and crushed it in its
tum. It was by this triumphant army — not by the Parlia
ment — not by the people — not by any church or religious
sect, that the King was d,jstroyed ; because they knew that
if they did not destroy him, he would destroy them, and
with them, aU the liberties for which they had pledged
their fortunes, and exposed their lives. There was among
them, at least one man who saw that either Charles or him
self must perish — the hero of Marston Moor, and of Naseby.
He made his choice ; he had the sword in his hand ; Charles
was brought to the block ; Oliver Cromwell became the
Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England.

284 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK in. " Modern readers," says Mr. Carlyle, " ought to beUeve
<jHAP~in. t^^* there was a real impulse of heavenly faith at work in
the controversy ; that on both sides, more especially on the
army's side ; here lay the central element of all, modifying
all other elements and passions ; that this controversy was
in several respects vei'y different from the common wrest
ling of Greek with Greek, for what are called ' political ob
jects.' Modern readers, mindful of the French Revolution,
-wUl perhaps compare these Presbyterians and Independents
to the Gironde and the Mountain. And there is an analogy,
yet with differences. With a great difference of situations ;
with the difference, too, between Englishmen and French
men, which is always considerable; and then with the differ
ence between believers in Jesus Christ, and beUevers in
Jean Jacques, which is still more considerable."*

CHAPTER IIL

HISTORY OP THE PURITANS DURING THE COMMONWEALTH.
Immediately after the death of the King, the ancient
monarchy of England, and all the institutions dependent
on it, were abolished. Two-thirds of the members of Par
liament were expelled by Cromwell from the House of
Commons ; the House of Lords was declared useless, and
• Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, voL L p. 289 In the same
volume tp. 337) Mr Carlyle inserts from Some's Tracts, vii. 499-501, " a faith-
ful memorial of that remarkable meeting of many officers of the army in Eng
land, at Windsor Castle, in the year 1648," on whicli he makes these cliarac-
teiistic remarks - "In which, however, if he (the ri-ader) will look till it be
come credible and intelligent to him, a strange thing, most elucidative of the
heart of this matter, will disclose itself, . , , . (They meet tx) pray.) Entirely
amazing to us. These are tlie longest heads and strongest hearts in England,
and this is the thing tliey are doing ; this is the way they, for their part, be
gin dispatch of business. The reader, if he is an eamest man, may look at
it with very many thoughts, for which there is no word at present Abysses,
black chaotic whirlwinds ;- does the r ader look upon it all as madness? .Mad
ness lies close by ; as madness d.ies to the highest wisdom in 'man's life al
ways : but this is not mad ! This dark element, it is the mother of the light ¦
nings and the splendours ; it is very sure this'." — P. 336, 341.

DURIIVO THE COMMONWEALTH. 286
the office of a King unnecessary and dangerous. England BOOKIIL
was declared to be a pbee common wioalt h ; a Council of cHAP. HL
State, appointed for a year, assumed all the fiinctions of
govemment, and an " Engagement" to be faithful to the
new government was substituted for the oaths of allegiance
and supremacy. A high court of justice condemned to
death three noblemen, the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of
Holland, and Lord Capel, who had been active in the
King's service in the late war, and they were beheaded in
the Palace Yard, Westminster.
These changes did not take place without strong remon- Eemonstran-
strances. The Episcopalian and Presbyterian clergy refused theCommoa.
to take " the engagement ;" and they joined the Scots in -we'itli-
making the best terms they could with Charles II. The
Presbyterian church government was declared to be the
established religion, but all penal laws against Noncon
formists were aboUshed. All persons were required to at
tend some place of worship ; while the severest ordinances
were published against profanity, vice, blasphemy, and
maintaining monstrous opinions tending to the dissolution
of society, and especially, against trading, travelling, or
frequenting of taverns, on the Sabbath.
The liturgy of the Church of England continued to be
forbidden ; but its peaceful use was connived at, until those
who used it were detected in opposing the Govemment ;
and many of the Episcopal clergy, being allowed to use
prayers as nearly like the Utm-gy as they chose, took " the
Engagement." The reproach of the Comraonwealth, in the eyes of many Dnperfecl;
of the Puritans, not less than of the enemies of the Puri- °
tans, was the toleration allowed to all religious parties ; yet
this toleration was very far frora being complete. The
Catholics, especially priests and Jesuits, were hotly pursued,
The prelates and the Episcopal clergy were, indeed, pro
vided for out of the sales of lands formerly belonging to
bishops and chapters of cathedrals, and one-fifth of the
tithes and church livings ; but their religious profession
was so intimately connected with their attachment to
monarchy, and with their dread or hatred of republicans
and sectaries, that they were involved in hea-vy sufferings,
imputed (as in the case of the CathoUcs, and of the Puri-

286 PROGRESS OP the puritans
BOOK in. tans in the reign of Elizabeth) to t'heir political, rather than
chap. IIL ^" their religious, offences.
The Presbyterians were much in the same predicament.
Their attachment to the Covenant,- — their dread of tolera
tion, — their hatred of the present Government,— their hope
of accomplishing their object by agreement with Charles
II. , who had taken the Covenant, and was crowned in Scot
land, led them to those correspondences with the King
and his party, which brought upon thera the severest dis
pleasure of the new Govemment.
The most remarkable or best known example of this class
Mr. Chris- of persons, was Mr. Christopher Love. He was a native
topherLove. ^^ Cardiff, in Glamorganshire. With much difficulty he
had been able to spend some time at New Hall, Oxford,
under the tuition of Mr. Rogers, a " noted Puritan." For
refusing to subscribe Laud's canons, he was driven from
the University, and became domestic chaplain to the sheriff
of London ; but was unable to obtain a settlement as a
minister either in England or in Scotland.
For a short time we find him at Newcastle, preaching in
prison, first through the gi-atings, and afterwards within
the walls, to large companies. Again we trace him as the
preacher to the Parliament's garrison at Windsor. When
the Presbyterian system was established in London he re
ceived Presbyterian ordination, and, in the following year,
preached before the Commissioners assembled to treat with
the King at Uxbridge : where, says Fuller, " he gave great
offence to the Royalists in his sermon ; showing the im
possibility of an agreement, such were the dangerous errors
and malicious practices of the opposite party. Many con
demned his want of charity, more of discretion, in this
juncture of time, when there should be a cessation of invec
tives for the tirae being. But men's censures must fall the
more lightly on his memory, because, since, he hath suf
fered, and so satisfied here for his faults in this or any other
kind."-*- Mr. Love w.is a member of the Westminster Assembly ;
and his name, as minister of St. Anne's, Aldersgate Street,
is attached to a " Vindication of the Ministers of the Gospel
in and about London from the unjust aspersion cast upon
• Church History, b, xL pp. 61—66.

DURING THE COMMONWBALTH. 287
their former actings for the Parliament, as if they had pro- book nt
moted the bringing of the King to capital punishment ; cHApTni.
-with a short exhortation to their people to keep close to
their Covenant engagement."*
On the 20th of June 1651, Mr. Love was indicted before indicted as •
the High Court of Justice as a traitor, for holding cri- ''''^'"'
minal communications with King Charles IL, and the
Soots. During his trial, which lasted six days, he enjoyed
the assistance of the eminent Matthew Hale, as counsel ;
and, in his own defence, he acknowledged that he was
guUty of concealing the fact that letters between conspira
tors against the new Govemment were read in his house ;
but he warmly approved of the end aimed at by the con
spirators, casting himself on the mercy of the Court, and
promising if they would spare him, to live a quiet and
peaceable life for the fiiture.
He was condemned, along -with a gentleman whose name Condemn»d
¦was Gibbons, to lose his head. He was accompanied to the mted.^*'
scaffold by three eminent Presbyterian divines, Dr. Thomas
Manton, Mr. Edmund Calamy, and Mr. Simeon Ashe. In
his speech before his execution, he 'boldly avowed his
" cleaving to all those oaths, vows, covenants, and protesta
tions, which were imposed by the two Houses of Parlia
ment," and his judgment against "the Engagement." He
expressed his peaceful confidence in God, and his assured
hope of heaven. After offering a fervent prayer, he said to
Mr. Ashe, just before he laid his head npon the block, — " I
bless God, sir, I am as full of joy and comfort as ever my
heart can hold. Blessed be God for Jesus Christ."
He was buried in the chancel of his ovm church, St.
Lawrence, Je-my ; and his funeral sermon was preached in
the same church by Dr. Manton, though the Govemment
was displeased, and the soldiers threatened to shoot him.
In his sei-mon. Dr. Manton speaks of Mr. Love as " a His charw
man eminent in grace, of a singular Ufe and conversation, '*''¦
and a pattern of piety, most worthy of imitation." From
several publications of Mr, Love, or of others respecting
him, we learn that many petitions, from himself, from his
wife, fi-om more than fifty ministers, and from sundry
• Loudon : printed by A. M., Ibr T. Underbill, at the Bible, ta Wood Street
1648. 4to, 10 pages.

288

PROGRESS OF THB PUEITANS

CHAP. IIL

Mr. John
Biddle.

BOOK IIL parishes in London, were presented in his behalf to Parlia-
-~ ment. Whitelocke says that Cromwell, at that time in
Scotland, declined to interfere in the business ; while Ken-
nett and Eachard, Episcopal historians, both say that he
sent a letter, recommending him to mercy, which was
intercepted and destroyed by persons belonging to the late
King's army, " Which could be proved," Mr. Carlyle says,
" if time and paper were of no value, to be, like a hun
dred other very wooden myths of the same period, without
truth."-* Some letters of great value, for their piety and
tenderness, are printed in the appendix to one of his publica-
tions.t An instance of the fierceness with which " heretical doc
trines" were then assailed by all parties, occurs in the case
of Mb. John Biddle. Mr. Biddle was accused of heresy,
and committed to jaU, at Gloucester, where he was master
of a free school, in 1645, but he was set free, on the bail of
a respectable inhabitant of that city .J After enjoying his
fr-eedom about six months, he was examined by a com
mittee, and put into confinement, and a book which he
pubUshed was bumed by the common hangman. He was,
at one time, very near losing his life for his heretical opi
nions, under the act of the Commonwealth against blas
phemers and heretics. He appears to have suffered impri
sonment, with occasional gUmpses of freedom, for about
seven years ; and, in 1655, he was saved from death, set at
liberty, and supported by Cromwell. He at last died in
prison, after the Restoration.!
• Cromwell's Letters, vol it p. 331.
t "Grace: the Trutli, and Growth, and Different Degrees thereof; being
the sum and substance of Sixteen Sermons," Towhlch are added seven letters
to and from him while in prison, with a sketch of his life and his produc
tions. 12mo, London, 1810. For the account of Love, see also Sylvester's
Life of Baxter. State Trials, voL v. Thurlow's State Papers, vol L p. 66.
X Ath. Oxon.
5 For the particulars respecting Biddle, see his Life, prefixed to his "Apos
tolical and True Opinions respecting the Holy Tiinity," revised and asserted.
London, 1691 ; and Toulmin's Review of the Life, Cliaracter, and Writings of
th* Bev. John Biddle. London, 179L

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OF CROMWELL. 289 BOOK IIL
OHAP.IV.

CHAPTER IV.
THE PURITANS UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP CROMWELL.
The Protectorate of Cromwell led to the dissolution of the Toleration
remnant, or " Rump," of the Long Parliaraent, and to the welL
calling of the Little Parliaraent, or Barebone's ParUament.
Under this government there was, strictly speaking, no
established church. The Roman Catholics were still pro
scribed. Not a few of the Episcopal clergy, as Archbishop
Usher, Bishop Brownrigge, Dr. Hall, Dr. Wilde, and others,
whom both the Covenant and the Engagement had silenced,
resumed their publio ministry. The Presbyterians were
allowed to carry out their system. The Independents joined
the Presbyterians and the Baptists, in the commission of
Tryers. CromweU even contemplated offering religious
freedom to the Jews.
As the Presbyterian doctrines and discipline prevailed in
the Westminster Assembly, the Independents moved the
Protector for permission to hold a meeting for drawing up
and publishing a confession of their faith. Though Oliver
CromweU gave a reluctant assent to this petition, the as
sembly was not held till after his death.
Some remarkable persons, connected with the Puritans,
closed their lives under the government of Cromwell, or
soon after. A review of their leading principles and ac
tions, as illustrating the religious history of the Protecto
rate, may be gathered from the historical and biographical
¦writings relating to these times.
Mr. Jeremiah Whittakeb, a native of Wakefield, and Mr.Jeremlali
a student of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, had become '*™ttat«-
the minister of Stretton in Rutlandshire. After his appoint
ment as one of the Westminster Assembly, we find him
mentioned as the minister of St. Mary Magdalene's Church,
Bermondsey, and a morning lecturer in the Abbey Church,
Westminister. He declined taking the Engagement to the
government of the Common wealth. Mr. Samuel Clarke gives
13

290 PROGRESS OP THB PURITANS.
BOOK III. a minute account of the particulars of his life, and of his ex-
CHAPI-V. treme sufferings and eminent consolation in his last illness.*
Mr. Brook has printed, from Sloane's MSS. in the British
Museum, a copy of a letter of Mr. Whittaker, on his bed
of suffering, " to His Highness the Lord Protector," in which
he gives him thanks for taking away the Engagement ; urges
him to appoint justices who will be vigilant in suppressing
Sabbath-breakin.g and other -vices; to pay the poor creditors
of the State who were languishing in poverty and in prison;
he petitions his favour on behalf of Mr. Cawton, a minister
who had been compelled to leave the country to escape the
fate of Love, in whose business he had been involved ; and
he prays the God of glory to help Cromwell to lay such
foundations in common equity and righteousness, that he
may leave the nation when he dies in a better condition
than that in which he found it, so that he may give up his
account with joy.t
The memory of Dk. Samuel Bolton is in like manner
Dr. Samuel preseiwed by Clarke, and by Dr. Calamy, who preached bis
Bolton. funeral sermon. He appears to be mentioned by White-
lockj as attending the Earl of Holland at his execution, at
the beginning of the Comraonwealth. He is described as
a benevolent raan, an orthodox believer, an experienced
and exeraplary Christian, and a leamed and able ex
pounder of the Scriptures. After a long and painful illness,
which he bore with patient cheerfulness, — calling the symp
toms of dissolution the little crevices through which his
soul peeped, — he died at the age of forty-eight, in the year
1654.§ Mr. Richard Vines is mentioned by Baxter as one of
Mr. Richard about thirty worthy ministers, whom he had in his congre-
'^^^ gation when he preached at Warwick, after the battle of
Edge-hill. Of these ministers he says, that they had fled
to that city from soldiers and from popular fury, as he had
done himself, though they never meddled in the wars.
He preached the funeral sermon for the Earl of Essex, in
* Clarke's Lives of Ten Eminent Diwnes— London, 1662. Ashe's Funeral
Sermon for Wliittuker, with Calamy's Epistle prefixed. Fuller's Church His.
tory, b. xi. Christian Magazine, vol. vi. No. 62, p. 95, There is an interesting
account of Whittaker in Reid's Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 216 — 247. (Paisley, 1815.)
t Lives of tlie Puritans, vol ill. pp. IW, 19C.
X Memorials of English Affairs, p. 387.
5 Clarke's Uvea of Eminent Persons. Broo ft Uvea of the Puritans, roL 111.

UNDER the protectorate OP CROMWELL. 291
1646. We find him with Mr. Marshall and others on the BOOK III.
commission from the Parliament to Charles the First, in chaFiv
the Isle of Wight.
Among those who lost their places in the universities for His charao-
refusing the Engagement, Mr. Vines was required to give '"'¦
up the mastership of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He had
been a prominent member of the Westminster Assembly ;
and he is refeiTed to both by Baillie and by Baxter, in a
way which proves that he was a man of shining abilities, of
a noble character, uniting decided views in favour of Pres-
byterianism, generally, with an anxious desire to see a union
of moderate men of all parties in the English Church.*
Dr. Zachary Grey, who calls Mr. Vines " one of the best
of them," has quoted from Carte's " Irish Massacre set in
a True Light," in which Mr. Vines is mentioned as " a very
celebrated man among the Presbyterians in the time of the
rebellion; and in the same passage, Mr. Vines is said to
have had much conversation with King Charles I., and
to have reported that he found him " a very precious prince,
able of himself to argue vrith the ablest divines we
have."t He is mentioned as one of the Puritan clergy,
whose services the King rejected as he was going to the
scaffold. He appears to have occupied several pulpits, suc
cessively, in those changing times. We trace him at Wed-
dington, Caldecot, and Nuneaton, in Warwickshire ; at St.
Clement, Danes ; at Walton, in Hertfordshire ; at St. Law
rence, Jewry ; and, as a weekly lecturer, at St. Michael's,
Comhill. In his funeral sermon, preached in his church
of St. Lawrence, Dr. Thomas Jacomb celebrates him as rising
far above his contemporaries, in ability, learning, piety,
laboriousness, and courage.
Mr. Thomas Gataker, son of a Puritan clergyman bear- Mr. Thonm
ing the same name, was a man of most profound, exact, and
extensive erudition, a firm Calvinist, the dreaded assailant
of astrologers, who were mighty people in that day ; and,
on the disputed points in church govemment, not violent
on any side. Witsius says that his celebrity is such, that
none but the most utter strangers to the literature of Europe
can be ignorant of it ; and he yields to him the palm of
• BaUlie's Letters, vol U. Ui. Sylvester's Life of Baxter, p. 62, 64, 147.
t Grey's Examination of Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. 11, p. 414.

id-2 PROGRESS OF THE PURITANS.
BOOK III. superior acquaintance with the antiquities of the Greek
chap" IV learning, from the rich stores of which he illustrated the
grandeur and the fulness of the Holy Scriptures.* Though
His modera- a member of the Westminster Assembly, we do not find that
*'°°- he took a prominent part. BaUlie mentions him but once,
and then as among " the ablest men," who differed from
the majority in. their views of the divine right of the office
of ruling elders.t In one of Mr. Gataker's own publica
tions against the astrologers, he vindicates himself and other
ministers from the accusations of Lilly the astrologer ; and,
in the course of this vindication, he shows that he leaned
to a moderate episcopacy ; that for the sake of usefulness,
he had submitted to the bishops, without approving of their
pomp ; and that frora the same motive, he likewise sub
mitted to the government which overturned them, without
accepting preferment in the church frora either the one
party or the other. Amid many changes around, he con
tinued his ministry in the parish church at Rotherhithe,
frora an early part of the reign of King James I., till nearly
the end of the life of Cromwell.t The reader who is in
terested in such biographies, will find ample materials in
Mr. Brook's Lives of the Puritans, and in Reid's Memoirs
of the Westminster Divines.
The religious principles and character of the Photbotob
Religious himself have been discussed by men of all parties. His re-
Cromwdl."^ lation to the Puritans began in early life. Born at a period
when Whitgift was driving the Puritans to the utmost
extremity, his boyhood and youth at Huntingdon and at
Cambridge were spent amid the deep purposes and burning
thoughts of grave neighbours, who felt that they were
oppressed by man because they raaintained a conscience
towards God. He had risen into manhood at the acces
sion of Charles I. While yet a youth, and steady in
the fulfilment of domestic duties, he underwent some
mysterious exercises of mind, which have given occasion to
not a few blundering and superficial opinions, but which
were evidently the working of spiritual convictions in a
mind of extraordinary capacity, and darkly troubling his
• Thomffi Gatakesi Opera Critica, Preface. 1698.
t Ibid. vtL ii. p. 110.
X A Discourse Apologetical; wherein Lilly's lies, in his Meshing, or PasquU,
for 1654 are laid open.

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP OBJMWELL. 293
whole system. From a letter written by him several years BOOK IIL
after, it has been harshly inferred that his early course of cHAP~IV
ufe had been vicious ; and his enemies have not been spar
ing in the use which they have made of expressions in this
letter. The Christian reader will, probably, find another
explanation of his words. Addressing his cousin, Mrs. St.
John, he says : — " You know what ray manner of life hath
been. Oh ! 1 lived in and loved darkness and hated Ught ;
I was a chief, the chief of sinners. This is true ; I hated
godliness, yet God had mercy on me. 0 the riches of His
mercy ! Praise Him for me ; pray for me, that He who
hath begun a good work in me, would perform it in the day
of Christ."*
More than five years before this letter was written, Croni- Commence
well was actively engaged in promoting, in his own county, Sfg"^^
the lectures which have been mentioned as put down by
Laud. He was one of a band of patriots who were pre
vented by the tyranny of government from seeking a home
for their freedom and their religion in New England.
In the Long ParUament, where he sat for the town of
Cambridge, he took the popular side, as the associate of
Pym, Hampden, Selden, and other illustrious men. When
the civil war broke out, he raised a troop of horse, and
secured the town of Cambridge for the Parliament. He
broke the power of the King at Marston Moor. By new-
modelling the army, he gained the complete victory over
Charles at Naseby, and acquired so much influence among
the soldiers as to overawe the Parliaraent, and destroy the
King. By his subjugation of Ireland and of the royalist
party in Scotland, followed by the defeat of Charles II.
at Worcester, and the triumphs gained in the Dutch
war, as well as by the height of prosperity and glory to
which his counsels helped to raise his country, he raised
himself to the highest place in the new Commonwealth,
and enjoyed the substance without the forms of sovereignty.
In this high position he sustained the majesty of England
before foreign nations, in a styl* which had never been
equalled by any of the legitimate monarchs. His court
was the purest that had ever been known in Europe. The
? This letter is quoted by Harris, and eiven at length by Carlyle, from
Thurloc's State Papers.

294 PROGRESS OP the puritans
BOOK III. administration of justice, under his Protectorate, has been
CHAP. IV praised by raen of all parties. His eneraies have celebrated
his encouragement of science and learning. While he
sternly repressed the attempts of all religious parties to
" overtop the civil power, or deface it if they please,"* he
advocated and practised liberty of conscience to an extent
unparalleled by any former government. While he declared
himself an Independent, he protected Catholics, in many in
stances, frora popular hatred ; and he treated as raany of the
Episcopalians as would allow him with respect ; and seve
ral Presbyterian clergymen, — Manton, Baxter, Calamy, —
officiated in his court, or enjoyed his confidence in pri-
vate.f The personal religion of this extraordinary man, it is
Hl« sincerity, believed, was sincere. His most ardent admirers find it
difficult to show the consistency of every part of his life, to
justify every part of his conduct, to free hira frora the charges
of ambition, impetuosity, waywardness, cunning, and mUi
tary despotism ; but yet, the more thoroughly his character
is studied by impartial and religious men, the more difficult
and rare will be the attempt to fasten on his raemoi-y the
accusation of hypocrisy. " Some writers," says Dr. Lingard,
" have maintained that Cromwell dissembled in religion as
well as in politics, and that when he condescended to act
the part of the saint, he assumed for interested purposes a
character which he otherwise despised. But this supposi
tion is contradicted by the uniform tenor of his life. Long
before he tumed his attention to the disputes between the
King and the Parliament, religious enthusiasm had made a
deep impression on his mind ; it continuaUy manifested it
self during his long career both in the senate and the field ;
and it was strikingly displayed in his speeches and prayers
on the last evening of his life."t
• Letter to the Govemor of Edinburgh Castle, Sept. 9, 1650. Copied from
Thurloc's state Papers, by Mr. Carlyle, letter 134, voL 11 p. 232.
t Ludlow's Memoirs, Sylvester's Life of Baxter. -Whiteloek's Memolrt
Thurloc's State Papers, vol i-lv.
X Lingard's Hist of England, ToL xL p. 13L

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP CROMWELL. 295 BOOK IO.
SECTION I. — THE SECTS. CHAiTlV.
We have seen that toleration, even under the Common
wealth and the Protectorate, was imperfect, both in law and
in practice. All those who were not Presbyterians, were
by them called sectaries. Of these sectaries, some were
Independents and Baptists, who occupied places of tmst in
Parliament, in the array, and not a few of them were heads
of colleges, members of the Committee of Triers for exa
mining the clergy, and occupants of livings in the church.
The Baptists (or Anabaptists, as their eneraies styled them)
were scattered among other sects, differing from each other
on many points of doctrine, though united in the rejection
of infent baptism, and in tlieir restriction of that rite to the
immersion of believers.
Many of the Baptists, as well as other Nonconformists, Baptists.
had suffered martyrdom under successive reigns, and not a
few of them had left the other separatists, differing from
them in theological doctrines, as well as in their views re
specting baptism.
The first pastor of a separate baptist church of which we Mr. Joha
find record, was Mu. John Smyth, who was succeeded at ""^
Amsterdam, by Mr. Thomas Helwise. Mr. Helwise, accom
panied by other English refugees, believing that it was their
duty to bear their testimony to the truth in their own
countiy, returned to England, where they maintained their
feUowship as a church, in the midst of much obloquy and
persecution, and greatly increased in numbers.-*- The same
spirit induced many of the Baptists to remain in Eng
land, when numbers of their own persuasion accorapanied
other Puritans to Araerica. As early as the year 16 J 5,
a small treatise, ascribed to Mr. Helwise, appeared in
the name ot the " Christ's unworthy witnesses, his Majes
ty's faithful subjects, commonly (but most falsely), called
Anabaptists." The title of this treatise was " Persecution
Judged and Condemned, &c." Its main oliject was to prove
that no man. ought to be persecuted for his religion so lonff
as he testified his allegiance.
• Crosby's History of the Baptists, voL I pp. 271, 272.

296 PROGRESS 01 THE PURITANS.
BOOK IIL Four years before the appearance of this treatise, the Bap-
CHAP. IV tists had published a Confession ; and, indeed, many works
more or less public, had been circulated by them, in vindi
cation of their principles. In 1620, they addressed an able
and elaborate letter to James I., which, together with the
above-mentioned paraphlet, was republished in 1662. From
the " Supplication," it appears that they had suffered im
prisonment for many years, " in divers counties in England."
From other docuraents published about the sarae time, it
is thought probable that the Baptists of that age were for
the raost part general Baptists, that is, not holding the Cal
vinian doctrine of particular redemption.*
The earliest distinct record of a separate Baptist church
First Baptist jn England, according to Crosby, (with whom, however, Mr.
church in - . ° , ", . ,. ,
England. iviraey does not agree,) consisted ot twenty men and women,
with divers others, who retired from the first Independent
church, gathered by Mr. Jacob, during the ministry of Mr.
Jacob's successor, Mr. John Lathrop. This separation took
place, with the consent of the mother church, in the year
1633. Their minister was Mr. John Spilsbury. Six years
after, another Baptist congregation was formed at Crutched
Friars, consisting of another portion of the sarae first Inde
pendent church, in which Mr. Henry Jessey had, about a
year before, succeeded Mr. Lathrop. Soon after, Mr. Jessey
himself became a Baptist. Notwithstanding this change in
his sentiments, he maintained the same Christian love and
charity for good men of all denominations. As a proof of
this, he had always Paedobaptists in his church, whom he
admitted to coraraunion. He could not think that any par
ticular sentiraents concerning baptisra should be the boun
dary of church fellowship ; and took great pains to promote
a like catholic spirit in others. Mr. Jessey divided his lar
hours in the rainistry according to the Catholicism of his
principles. Every Lord's day he was among his own people.
In the morning he usually preached at St. George's Church,
Southwark, where he appears to have been rector t
In 1640, Mr. Jessey 's congregation being too numerous
to meet in one place without being discovered, divided, by
• Crosby, vol 1. p. 133. There is a tradition that the general Baptist chnrdi
at Canterbury existed in the reign of Edward VL, and that Joan Bouclier was
a member of it. Ivimey's History of English Baptists, vol i p. 138.
t Wilson's History and Antiquities of Dissenting Chnrcbes, toL L p. 44

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP OKOMWELL. 297
mutual consent— one half remaining with Mr. Jessey, and BOCK Itt
the other half with Mr. Barebone, who was the successor of chajFi'/
Mr. Stephen More, as pastor of a Baptist church meeting
in Fleet Street. Mr. Barebone's name was given to Crom
well's little Parliaraent, of which he was a member, but
when that Parliament was dissolved he disappears from
the stage of history until the time of the Restoration. It
is probable that he imbibed in a high degree both the reli
gious and political enthusiasm of the age.
Tbe Baptists had suffered much persecution during the Persecution
Commonwealth. One of their number, Mr Roger Williams, tistsl^ '*"
is represented by the historian of the Baptists in America,
as the first governor who proclaimed and practised liberty
of conscience.-'' There appeared to have been some Baptists in the army of
CromweU who entertained republican opinions. Though
some divines of this persuasion were on the committee of
Triers, the Baptists in the army were decidedly adverse to
CromweU's government, and foUowed Harrison as their
leader. The great body of their churches, however, in Eng
land, Wales, and Ireland, peaceably submitted to the exist
ing govei'nment, and enjoyed the esteem and protection of
the existing mler.t
The Quakers met with severer treatraent during the Com- The Quakert
raonwealth, and under the Protectorate, than any other sect
of Christians. We trace them somewhat obscurely under
the denomination of Seekers, their distinguishing principle
being the doctrine of an inward light. The acknowledged
founder of the Society of Friends was George Fox. He was George Fox.
the son of Christopher Fox, a weaver by trade, an honest
man, and of such a virtuous life, that his neighbours were
used to call him " Righteous Christer."! George attracted
attention in his youth, by his grave and retiring habits, his
temperance, industry, and unflinching adherence to truth.
Through a, succession of religious experiences, he arrived
at those convictions which he believed he was called by God
to propagate.
He travelled, while yet a young man, through parts of
• Barker's History of the American Baptists, quoted in Ivimey's History of
Bio EngUsh Baptists, voL i. p. 219.
t See Crosby's and Ivimey's History of the Baptists.
J Sewel's History of the people called Quakers, vol L p. II. 13'=

298 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS
BOOK m. Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and the northern counties, tes-
CHAP. IV tifying in " steeple-houses," and in other places, against the
superstitions of the times, exciting much attention, gaining
many converts, and suffering grievous persecutions.
In 1650 he was committed to the House of Correction at
His suffer- Derby, as a blasphemer, for preaching his doctrines. One
of the justices who committed hira, an Independent, hear
ing that Fox " bade hira and those about him tremble at the
word of the Lord, took hold of this weighty saying with
such an airy mind, that from thence he took occasion to call
him and his friends, scornfully, Quakers. This new and
unusual denomination was taken up so eagerly, and spread
so among the people, that not only the priests there, from
that time gave no other name to the professors of the light,
but sounded it so gladly abroad, that it soon ran over all
England, and, making no stand there, it quickly reached to
the neighbouring countries, and adjacent kingdoms, inso
much that the said professors of the Light, for distinction's
sake from other religious societies, have been caUed every
where by that EngUsh name, which, sounding very odd in
the ears of sorae foreign nations, hath also given occasion to
many silly stories."-* /
While Fox lay in prison at Derby, he addressed letters
letters from to the priests, to the raagistrates, to the justices who had
committed him, both jointly and separately ; to the Mayor
of Derby, and to the bell-ringers of St. Peter's '' steeple-
house." All these letters are written with much Scriptural
simpUcity and faithfulness, and breathe a meek, affectionate
spirit. His jailor was so impressed with his language and
behaviour, that he told the justices his house had been
plagued for George Fox's sake. The justices wished to get
rid of hira by giving him liberty to walk a mile, hoping he
would escape, but he gave them to understand that " he had
no mind to get his liberty that way." He employed him
self in writing various letters and addresses, which were dis
persed abroad, and he so far availed himself of his liberty
to walk out, tbat he visited the prisoners, and preached re
pentance to the people in the streets and in the raarket-place.
Sorae of his relations and friends offered their bonds for large
sums of money that he should no more come thither to de-
• Sewel, vol. I

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP CROMWELL. 299
clare against the priests, but he would not consent to this, BOOK HL
" believing himself to be innocent frora any ill behaviour." cuAP. lY.
Before the terra of his imprisonraent expired, he was cora-
mitted " to the dungeon, araongst rogues and felons," for de- Increase of
,..,., ¦ • ¦ il Afi. ' the Quaker*.
clming to take a commission in the army. Alter a year s
imprisonment, he travelled through parts of Nottingham
shire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland,
and Lancashire, preaching with various success, and amidst
evei-j' form of opposition. By this time, not fewer than
sixty ministei-3 were raised up to preach the sarae doctrines
in several parts of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
One of these preachers, Francis Howgill, an eloquent and
eminent man, went to court, where he uttered what was in
his mind to Cromwell. In 1650, Fox himself was brought
into the presence of the Protector. Before the interview.
Fox was told that the Protector required him to promise
that he would not take up any carnal sword against him or
the government as it then was ; and to send the promise in
writing with lus signature. In compliance with this re
quirement, he sent up a paper declaring that he denied the
wearing or drawing of a carnal sword, or any outward wea
pon against him, or any man.
Early on the following morning, before the Protector was ^p%'s inta
dressed. Fox was conducted to Whitehall. As he came in, cromwelL
he said, "Peace be in this house." After much discourse
concerning religion, in which CromweU often said in re
sponse to the sentiments of Fox, " It is very good," " It is
truth," the Protector took the Quaker preacher by the hand,
and with tears in his eyes, said, " Come again to my house ;
for if thou and I were but an hour of a day together, we
should be nearer to one another." Fox was then brought
into a great hall, where the Protector's gentlemen were
to dine. He asked, What did they bring him thither for ?
They told him it was by the Protector's orders, that he
might dine vrith them. But George bid thera tell the Pro
tector he would not eat a bit of his bread, nor drink a sup
of his drink. When Cromwell heard this, he said, " Now I
see there is a people risen and come up that I cannot win
either with gifts, honours, offices, or places ; but all other
sects and people I can."* •Sewel, VOL i. pp. 182, 18&

300 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS
BOOK in. This was not the last interview of Fox with CromweU.
CHAPTIV I" 1656, Fox, riding near Hyde Park, saw the Protector
coming in his coach. He rode up to the side of the coach.
Dissuasive Some of the life-guards would have prevented him, but the
Sie^he^'^™' Protector permitted him to ride by his side, and listened to
crown. his tales of the suffering Friends, and his remonstrances
against persecution. When they parted, the Protector de
sired Fox to visit him. Pox afterwards wrote to CromweU,
dissuading him from assuming the crown. Here is the
letter :
0 Protector,
Who hast tasted of the power of God, which many gene
rations before thee have not so muA, since the days of
apostacy from the apostles, — take heed that thou lose not
thy power, but keep kingship off thy head, which the world
would give thee, and earthly crowns under thy feet, lest
with that thou cover thyself, and so lose the power of God.
When the children of Israel went from that of God in them,
they would have kings, as other nations had, as transgressors
had, and so God gave them one ; and what did they do then?
And when they would have taken Christ, and made him a
king, he hid himself frora thera; he was hid from that which
would have made hira a king, he who was king of the Jews
in word. 0 Oliver, take heed of undoing thyself, by running
into things that will fade — the things of this world that
vrill change. Be subject and obedient to the Lord God.
George Fox.
A short tirae before Cromwell's death. Fox went to Hamp
ton Court, to speak to hira once more about the sufferings
of the Friends. He met the Protector riding in the Park,
and, after solemnly warning him, he was invited to come to
him at his house. When he came, Cromwell was in his
last sickness, so Fox " passed away, and never saw Oliver
CromweU any more."
Through a ministry of forty-four years, George Fox main
tained a character of blameless integrity, purity, and bene
volence. He was often in prison for his boldness in pursuing
what he regarded as his heavenly calling ; and suffered at
Derby, CarUsle, Launceston, Leicester, Lancaster, and Scar-

UNDER THB PROTECTORATE OP CROMWELL. 301
borough. He laboured not only in England, Wales, and BOOK m
Scotland, but in America, Germany, and Holland ; and he CHAP IV.
pleaded the cause of his suffering brethren with tbe kings
of France and Spain, with the Emperor, and even with the
Pope. He preached at " Gracious Street meeting-house"
two days before his death, which occurred in 1691.*
Jambs Naylor is mentioned by Baxter, in his very par- James N»y-
tial account of the Quakers, as " their chief leader." He '""
certainly was not so considered by that people themselves.
He appears to have been a man of great eloquence, of a lively
imagination, without much judgraent. He permitted him
self to be led in a triumphant style through a suburb of
the city of Bristol, preceded by a man bareheaded, while a
woman led his horse, and other women spread their scar&
and handkerchiefs before him, singing, " Holy, holy, holy,
is the Lord God of Hosts ! Hosannah in the highest ! Holy,
holy, holy, is the Lord God of Israel."
"Thus these mad people," says the Quaker historian,
"sung, while they were walking through the mire and
dirt, tiU they carae into Bristol, where they were exarained
by the magistrates, and comraitted to prison ; and not long
after he was carried to London, to be examined by the Par-
liament.t" For eleven days a committee of Parliament was occupied Parliamen-
with this " foohsh business." Petitions on his behalf were ^JS.^^^
presented by persons of different persuasions, to the Parlia
ment, and to the Protector ; and a merchant, named Robert
Rich, addressed a pamphlet to the Parliament, proving that
Naylor's offence could not be construed into blasphemy.
Notwithstanding, the Parliament condemned the wretched
man to be pUloried in Westminster and in London ; to be
whipped by the hangman from Palace Yard to the old Ex
change ; to have his forehead branded ; to have his tongue
bored through with a hot iron ; then to ride through Brisr
tol on horseback, with his face backward, and to be pubUcly
whipped in the market-place ; and, after all, to be impri-
son»d, with hard labour, during the pleasure of Parliament,
without pen, ink, paper, society, or even food, but by the
earnings of his daily labour. Cromwell was at first un-wU-
* George Fox's Journal, 1694. Collection's Piety Promoted, 1703. Sewel's
Hist 2 vols., 1796. Penn's Brief Account, 1694.
t Sewel, voL 1. p. 237.

302

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS

BOOK IIL ling to sanction this sentence ; and after it had been partly
CHApT rv. inflicted, he wrote a letter to the Parliament, which occa
sioned some debate. " The full sentence was executed
in the presence of many thousands. When he was burnins
the people both before and behind him, and on both sides
with one consent stood bareheaded." *
SECTION III.  THE SEQUESTERED CLERGY.

Deprived
Episcopalclergy.

JeremyTaylor.

An historian of the Puritans in England would, in the
present day, be justly chargeable with criminal partiality,
if he should omit to lay before his readers some account of
the Episcopal clergy who were deprived of their livings by
the Parliament, during the ascendency of the Puritans.
There are names among thera which posterity has delighted
to honour for all those qualities which win the esteem of
the wise and good.
Jeremy Taylor was born at Cambridge, in 1613. He
was a lineal descendant of Rowland Taylor, the Protestant
martyr. At the early age of thirteen he became a sizar in
Caius College, Cambridge. When not more than twenty he
preached with great acceptance at St. Paul's, and obtained
the notice of Laud, who had then recently become Arch
bishop of Canterbury. Tbe Archbishop had but one ob
jection to the young preacher — his youth ; which fault
Taylor slyly promised to amend, if he lived ! Under the
Archbishop's patronage he was placed at All-Soul's College,
Oxford. The Archbishop also made hira one of his cliap-
iains ; and in the course of a few years, he was presented
by Bishop Juxon to the rectory of Uppingham, in Rutland
shire. When the civil war broke out, Taylor joined the King
at Oxford ; and he published his work on Episcopacy by his
Majesty's command. Of his rectory he was deprived by the
Presbyterian party. It is probable that he continued with
the royal array as a chaplain. He appears to have been
taken prisoner by the Parliamentary forces near Cardigan
Castle. In the opening of the dedication of his " Discourse
of the Liberty of Prophesying," to Lord Hatton, he paints
this part of his history with his own beautiful colouring of
poetical imagery : —
• Sewel's Hist, voL L p 265. Burton's Diary, edited by Entt, 1828. -

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP OKOMWSMi. 303
" In this great storm, which hath dashed the vessel of BOOK m.
the church all in pieces, I have been cast upon the coast of CHAP~IV.
Wales, and in a Uttle boat, thought to have enjoyed that
rest and quietness which in England, in a greater, I could
not hope for. Here I cast anchor, and thinking to ride
safely, the storm followed nie with such impetuous violence,
that it broke a cable, and I lost my anchor ; and here again
I was exposed to the mercy of the seas, and the gentleness
of an element that could neither distinguish things nor per
sons. And but that He who ' stilleth the raging of the sea,
and the noise of his waves, and the madness of the people,'
had provided a plank for rae, I had been lost to all tbe op
portunities of content or study. But I know not whether
I have been more preserved by the courtesies of my friends,
or the gentleness and mercies of a noble enemy."
After liis release from prison, we find him keeping a school, Taylor't
along with William Nicholson, afterwards Bisliop of Glou- (rlendi.
cester, and William Wyatt, afterwards a prebendary of Lin
coln, at Newton Hall, in the parish of Llanfihangel, where,
we presume, be composed the celebrated " Discourse," which
has been mentioned. During this period, also, many of his
other well-known works were published, and his correspon
dence shows that he enjoyed the protection of Lord Hatton,
and of the Earl of Carberry, and the friendship of Evelyn ;
and also that he had easy and pleasant intercourse witli
Berkeley, Boyle, and Wilkins. That he occasionally suf
fered from the existing govemment is sufficiently evident
from his being both in Chepstow Castle, and in tlie Tower ;
but his imprisonments were slight and brief ; for, through
the influence of noble friends, he obtained a passport and
protection from Cromwell to retire to Ireland, on the princely
estate of the Earl of Conway. Frora Ireland he repaired to
London, in time to receive frora Charles II. the bishopric
of Down and Connor, the duties of which see he discharged
Tfith mildness and dignity till August 1667, when he was
carried off by a rapid fever, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.
Of a man whose leai-ning was so great, and whose fancy
was so bright and active, it can be no libel to say that his
reasoning faculty, though vigorous in itself, was oppressed
by the one, and misguided by the other. He was a " lover
of the picturesque " in religion, so much so as to have la-

;XH PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS
BOOK HI. boured all his life under an unfounded suspicion of a
CHAP IV leaning towards Popery. His gentle spirit showed itself in
the almost singular sweetness with which he could conduct
a controversy, and in the peculiar ground which he took in
pleading for toleration. His portrait shows the man ; his
" gentle melancholy, the half-ascetic turn of his mind, and
his love of contemplation."*
Bishop Hall " had such hard measure as that the bare
Bishop Hall, reading the narrative of it that he hatli left behind him, is
enough to make any one melancholy that has the least sense
either of humanity or Christianity in him."t
This venerable bishop has long been a favourite author
¦with Christians of all denominations. His "Contemplations
of the Historical Passages of the Old and New Testament "
are very charming — sparkling with antitheses, happy allu
sions, and ingenious practical reflections, and breathing the
poetic spirit which had animated his earlier compositions
in verse. His mother was a pious woman, slightly super
stitious, and strongly attached to the ministry of Anthony
Gilby, the Puritan pastor of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. "How
often," says the good Bishop, " have I blessed the memory
of those divine passages of experimental divinity which I
have heard from her mouth. What day did she pass with
out a large task of private devotion, whence she would still
come forthwith a countenance of undissembled mortification!
Never any Ups have read to me such feeling lectures of piety,
neither have I known any soul that more accurately prac
tised them than her own."t
Bishop Hall suffered not a little frora the intolerance of
Archbishop Laud, and from the swarms of spies and calum
niators among the clergy of his own church. We have
had occasion already to mention his controversial writ
ings in defence of Episcopacy. On the 30th of December,
1661, he was one of the ten bishops committed to the
Tower, for singing a protest against the legalitj' of all legis
lative acts during the compulsory absence of the prelates
from the House of Lords. For five months he remained
"' See Life of Jeremy T.ay]or, by Bishop Heber, prefixed to his entire Works,
new edition, revised by Eden, 1S47. Essay on the genius and wiitii>gs of
Jeremy Taylor, prefi.Ked to the imperial edition of his works.
t Dr. Caliimy's Life and Times, edited by Rutt, 2d edition, 1»30, vol I p. 43.
X Specialities, by Bishop Hall.

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP CROMWELL. 305
there, as in a place of safety from the fury of the populace, BOOK IT.
and preaching, in turn with the other bishops, to large cHAP.W
audiences. In the year after his liberation, under a heavy
bond, his living was sequestered, and he was likewise de
prived of his pei-sonal property. His cathedral was despoiled.
After these sufferings, he pubUshed his narrative, to which
Dr. Calaray refers, entitled "Hard Measure." When he
was forcibly ejected frora his palace at Norwich, he i-etired
to. Heigham, near Norwich. On his eightieth birthday sermon at
(July 1st, 1665,) he preached at Heigham, the beautiful Heigham.
sermon, ' Life a Sojourning," in which he says : — " It hath
pleased the providence of God so to contrive it tbat this day,
this very moming fourscore years ago, I was born into the
world. ' A great tirae since,' ye are ready to say, and so it
seems to you that look at it forward ; but to me that look at
it past, it seems so short, that it is gone like a tale that is
told, or a dream by night, and looks like yesterday. It can
be no offence for me to say that many of you who hear
me this day, are not like to see so many suns walk over
your heads as I have done. Yea what speak I of this ?
There is not one of us that can assure himself of his con
tinuance here one day. We are all tenants at will ; and for
aught we know, may be tumed out of these clay cottages at
an hour's warning. Oh! then, what should we do, but as
wise farmers, who know the time of their lease is expiring,
and cannot be renewed, carefully and seasonably provide our
selves of a surer and more during tenure." When he was
too old and feeble to preach, he was a diligent hearer.
" How often have we seen him walking alone, like old Jacob,
with his staff, to Bethel, the house of God."-* He died in
his eighty-second year.
Dit. PococKE, the accomplished professor of Arabic at Dr. Pocockft
Oxford, was deprived of his professorship in 1651, for de
clining to take the Engagement. The committee for re
moving scandalous ministers afterwards summoned him
betbre them, at Abingdon, in Berkshire, where he had a
parsonage. FaUing to convict him of anything scandalous,
they charged him with ignorance and insufficiency ; but he
was saved by the interference of Dr. John Owen, the vice-
chancellor, who lamented the rashness and ignorance of the
• Hall's Life, by Hughes.

306

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS

BOOK in.
CHAP. IV.

Archbishop Usher.

comraissioners, in seeking to disturb a raan of unblameable
conversation, and of " repute for learning tliroughout the
worid."* Arohbisuop Usher is placed by Walker among the suf
ferers during the grand rebellion. His name has long been
celebrated throughout Europe, as a man of singular abilities,
rare learning, and exemplary piety ; and it will flourish,
we hope, as long as these high qualities are cherished and
venerated among raen. After suffering greatly fi-om the Insh
rebellion, he left that country, the land of his birth, and
he received from Charles I. the bishopric of Carlisle, to be
held in commendam with the primacy of Ireland. In 1642
we find him diligently studying and preaching at Oxford.
Though he was nominated one of the Westminster Assera
bly, he decUned the appointment ; and, indeed, he spoke
against its authority. His libi-ary was seized by the Par
liamentary forces. When the King's affairs became des
perate. Usher retired to the house of his son-in-law. Sir
Timothy TyiTel, governor of the garrison at Cardiff, in
Wales. When the governor was compelled to evacuate the
garrison. Usher accepted the invitation of the Lady dowager
Stradling, to the Castle of St. Donate, from whence he re
moved to the house of the Countess of Peterborough, in
London. While in London, he became preacher to the
society of Lincoln's Inn. He went to the Isle of Wight, at
the request of King Charles, to aid him in settling the
question of Episcopacy with the Parliamentary Commis
sioners, and he received his Majesty's approval of his plan
for uniting Episcopacy with Presbyterianism, in the govem
ment of the English Church.
From the leads of Lady Peterborough's house, in which
he was then li-ving, he witnessed the execution of his sove
reign. WhUe the King was delivering his last speech upon
the scaffold, the primate stood still and sighed, raising his
hands, and his eyes full of tears, to heaven in prayer. When
he saw the King prepare to lay his head on the block,
Usher turned pale and well-nigh swooned away. He was
carried to his bed, -w here, for a long tirae he wept and prayed.
CroraweU treated Archbishop Usher with much courtesy,
• Pococke's Theological Works, life prefixed, by Mr. Lcnard Twells, M. A-
S vols, folio, 1740.

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE Of CROMWELL. 307
but two years after his interview with the Protector, the BOOK UL
Archbishop died at Lady Peterborough's house at Ryegate, chap. IV.
Surry, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. The Protector
ordered his body to be removed to Somerset House, and
afterwards to be buried vrith much magnificence, and accor
ding to the foi-ras of the English liturgy, in Westminster
Abbey.-* Dk. Peter Hetlin is well known as the author of Dr. Feter
" Aerius Redivivus ; or the History of Presbyterianism."
He was a prebendary of Westminster, and rector of Aires-
ford, and South Warnborough, in Hampshire, and likewise
chaplain in ordinary to Charles I. Ee was a devoted friend
of Archbisho]) Laud, to whom he rendered welcome service
in furnishing matter for the prosecution of Prynne, by col
lecting passages frora his " Histrio-Mastix." At the be
ginning of the civil war, he was sent for fi-ora Alresford
by a party of horse in the parliamentary array at Ports
mouth, but he raade his escape to the King at Oxford.
The comraittee of the House of Comraons, hearing of his
escape, voted hira a delinquent, and sequestered the profits
of bis prebend, and of both his rectors, and also his worldly
estate. " His friends at Oxford asking him how he lived,
he told them that, he lived upon horseflesh and old leather,
meaning his coach and horses, with which he had fled to Ox
ford, the only portion of his goods which he had saved,
and which he was forced to sell for his subsistence. When
he had eaten up these, to use his own figure, he was after
wards for some time supported by charity, sending his wife
to London, amongst her own relations, to try what he could
get there."t
On the death of his patron. Archbishop Laud, he com
pounded for his temporal estate, to which he betook himself;
and he eked out a livelihood by writing books at Oxford.
After this, we find him leading a wandering life, travelling
through the country in disguise, and under assumed names ;
at one time without a groat in his pocket, and at another
entertained in the houses of royalists. Tired of roving, he
settled, with bis wife and children, at Winchester, in the
house of one Mr. Lizard, " a right honest man." When Win-
* Dr Aikin's Lives of Suldeu and Usher. CuUection of Usher's Letters, with
his Life, by K. Pan-, folio, 16S6.
t Walker's Attempt, part ii. p. 90.

308 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS
BOOK IIL Chester Castle was taken by Cromwell, he escaped from the
CHApTiv search of the soldiers, by going out on a market-day, dressed
as a countryman, with a long stick in his hand. A few
mUes from the city, he fell in -with a party of Cromwell's
soldiers, who examined him ; and, feeling a ring under his
glove, which in his hurry he had forgotten to take off, they
swore he was some runaway cavalier. They began to rifle
him ; but alarmed by the reported approach of a superior
force of the King's party, they quickly left him, carrying
away his ring and some money. After many removes, he
lived six years at Minster Level, in Oxfordshire, on a ferm
which he held under his nephew, Colonel Henry Heylin,
and where he continued his studies, and wrote several of his
treatises in defence of the Church of England. He afterwards
lived at Abingdon, Berkshire, five miles from Oxford, where
he had easy access to the libraries of the University. In
Sufferings as common with many royalist families, he had to bear
• royalist. ^j^^ decimation of the property for which he had pre
viously compounded. " In 1660, upon his Majesty's return
to his kingdoms, he (Heylin) was restored to his spirituali
ties, but never rose higher than sub-dean of Westminster,
which was a wonder to many, and a great discontent to
him and his ; but the reason being manifest to those that
well knew the temper of the person, I shall forbear," says
Anthony Wood, " to make mention of that matter any
farther. He was a person endowed with singular gifts, of a
sharp and pregnant wit, solid and clear judgment. In his
younger years he was accounted an excellent poet, but very
conceited and pragmatical ; in his elder years a better his
torian, a noted preacher, and a ready, or extemporanean
speaker. He had a tenacious raeraory, to arairacle ; where-
unto he added an incredible patience in study, in which he
persisted, when his eyesight failed him. He died at West
minster, May 8. 1663."
" He was a bold and undaunted man, among his friends and
foes, (though of very mean poit and presence) and therefore,
by some of thera he was accounted too high and proud for
the function he professed. On all occasions he was a con
stant assertor of the church's right, and the King's prero
gative, either in their afflicted or prosperous estate ; a se-
-vere and vigorous opponent of rebels and schismatics, a de-

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP CROMWELL. 309
spiser of envy, and in mind not at all discouraged. He BOOKjn.
writ raany books upon various subjects, containing in thera CHAP. rv.
many things that are not vulgar, either for style or argu
ment ; and wrote a history pleasant enough ; but in some
things, he was too much a party to be an historian ; and
equally an enemy to Popery and Puritanism."*
Dr. Thomas Fuller, the writer of " The Church His- Dr. Thomee
tory of Britain," son of the rector of Aldwinkle, St. Peter, ' ^^'
was bom there in 1 608. His father was so successful in
teaching him the rudiments of learning, that at the age of
twelve he was placed under the charge of his uncle. Dr.
Davenant, (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury) at Queen's Col
lege, Cambridge. He joined the King at Oxford, and preached
before his Majesty in St. Mary's. Though he was as much
blamed by the royalists for lukewarmness, as by the par
liamentarians for his zeal in the King's cause, he became
a chaplain in the army, under Sir Ralph Hopton, but his
time was employed chiefly in collecting- raaterials for his
" Worthies of England." Sir Ralph left him at Basinghouse,
the mansion of Pawlet, Marquis of Winchester, near Basing
stoke, in Hampshire. When Waller besieged this cele
brated house before it was destroyed by Cromwell, Dr.
Puller animated the garrison to so spirited a defence, that
the parliamentary general was obliged to raise the siege,
with great loss. When the course of the war drove Sir
Ralph to Cornwall, where he surrendered, and then went
abroad into honourable poverty. Fuller obtained leave to re
main at Exeter. Here he renewed his studies, and preached
to the citizens. This city was the birth-place of King
Charles's daughter, Henrietta Maria. The King appointed
Fuller to be chaplain to the princess, and likewise presented
him with the living of Dorchester. After the surrender of
Exeter to the Parliament, in 1646, he came to London,
where he became lecturer at St. Clement's Dane, fi'om
whence he removed to the lectureship of St. Bride's, Fleet
Street. Shortly afterwards he was appointed chaplain to
the Earl of Carhsle, who presented him with the perpetual
curacy of Waltham Abbey. Not long before the Restora
tion, he was readmitted to the lectureship in the Savoy,
• Wood's Athense, voL ii. No. 267. Walker's Attempt, part IL p. 90

310

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS

BOOK IIL
CHAP. rv.

William
Chilling- worth.

and the prebend in Salisbury Cathedral which he had held
before King Charles II. had made him chaplain extraor
dinary to his Majesty, and he was prevented being made
a bishop on! 3' by his death in 1661. He was, as all his
tvritings show, a man of overflowing wit ; and though an
Episcopalian and a royalist, he avoided the controversies of
the times, and was charged by warmer partizans with Puri
tanism. William Chillingworth is famous for his " Religion
of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation," in answer to a book
entitled, '- Mercy and Truth : or Charity maintained by
Catholics," which was written to prove the contrary. This
eminent writer had been seduced by Fisher, the learned
Jesuit, to go to the Jesuit's College at St. Oraer, where he
became a Roman Catholic. He afterwards returned tothe
profession of Protestantism, took up his abode at Oxford,
and wrote the book with which his name has ever since
been connected. For this service he was rewarded with
the chancellorship of the church of Salisbury, and the mas
tership of Wigstan's Hospital, Leicester, which he retained
till his death. In the beginning of the civil war, he joined
the King's party, and acted as an engineer in the garrison
of Arundel Castle, Sussex. When Waller took that garrison
in the name of the Parliament, Chillingworth, being ill, was
removed to Chichester, and lodged in the Bishop's house,
where shortly afterwards he died. The living of Petworth
was held at that time by Dr. Francis Cheynel, who enter
tained much veneration for Chillingworth, and laboured
earnestly to convert him to his own church principles. He
also provided commodious lodgings for him ; engaged a
physician to renew his visits as his symptoms grew worse ;
and, after his death, procured him the rites of burial, which
some would have denied him. Wood tells a story, which
Walker repeats and embellishes, which is inconsistent with
the foregoing account of Chej-nel, given by Dr. Johnson.*
The story is this : " His body being carried into the
cloister adjoining Chichester Cathedral. Cheynel stood at
the grave, ready to receive it, with the author's book of
' The Religion of Protestants ' in his hand, and when the

* Gentleman's Magazine, March and April, 1775.

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP CROMWELL. 311
company were all settled, he spoke before them a ridiculous BOOK ID.
speech conceming the author, Chillingworth, and that book ; chap IV.
and in conclusion, throwing the book insultingly on the
coi-pse in the grave, said thus : ' Get thee gone, then, thou
cursed book, which hast seduced so many precious souls ; get
thee gone, thou corrupt rotten book — earth to earth, and dust
to dust ; get thee gone into the place of rottenness, that thou
mayest rot with thy author, and see corruption.' 
After the conclusion, Cheynel went to the pulpit in the
cathedral church, and preached a sermon on Luke ix. 60,
' Let the dead bury their dead,' while the malignants, (as
he called them) made a shift to perform some parts of the
English liturgy at his grave."
Chillingworth was a poet, an orator, a mathematician,
a philosopher, and so subtle a disputant, that it was a cur
rent saying at Oxford, " that Chillingworth and Lord Lucius
Falkland had such extraordinary clear reason, that if the
great Turk or the devil were to be converted, they were
able to do it." Wood says of him : " He was a man of little
stature, but of great soul, which, if,times had been serene,
and life spared, might have done incomparable service to the
Church of England."-* Walker says : " It must not be
concealed, that on his return from the Romish religion, he
had a tincture of Socinianism ; but, as he was a man of in
tegrity, so his afterwards accepting of preferment in the
Church of England, and subscribing to the articles of it, is
an undeniable proof of his liaving quitted these prin-
ciples."t Dr. Cosin was araong the first of the Episcopal clergy
sequestered by the Parliaraent. He suffered iraprisoninent
many months, and paid heavy fines. It is said that he
was plundered of all his property. He fled to Charenton,
near Paris. In his exile, he kept up the forms of the
Church of England, and exerted himself vigorously in de
fence of the Protestant reUgion. At the end of twenty
years of deprivation, he was the first person that read the
Common Prayer in Peterborough Cathedral, after the King's
return, and in the same year he was created Bishop of
Durham. He had in that see sixty-seven predecessors ;
' Athens, Oion. toL ii. No. 43. t Attempt, part il p. 63.

312

PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS

CHAP. IV.

Dr. Henry
Hammond.

BrianWalton.

but he obtained the character of the most muniffcent bishop
that had ever held it.-*
Dr, Henry Hammond was descended irom Dr. Alexander
Nowell, who has been spoken of before as Dean of St.
Paul's in the reign of Elizabeth. He was one of the Epis
copal clergy nominated for the Westminster Assembly, but
he never obeyed the summons. He was one of King
Charles's clerical assistants ; and we beUeve the last chap
lain appointed by that monarch, whom he constantly at
tended, until he was dismissed by the parliamentai-y ofii
cers. He then retired to his canonry of Christ Church,
Oxford. The Committee for the reformation of the uni
versity deprived him of his office, and committed him to
prison. The last few years of his life were spent in fi'eedom
and leamed leisure, though in much bodily affliction, under
the roof of Sir John Packington, at Westwood. He died
at Westwood, aged fifty-seven ; and was buried, according
with the office of the church of England, in the chancel of the
neighbouring church at Hampton. Dr. Hammond was
uncle to Colonel Robert Hammond, the parliamentary go
vemor of the Isle of Wight, who had the charge of King
Charles at Carisbrook Castle. The doctor was one of the
eminent scholars employed in Walton's Polyglot. Bishop
Bumet speaks of him as a man of great learning, and of
most eminent merit ; maintaining the cause of the church
in a very singular manner, combining high principle with
a moderate temper, and bent on reforming abuses among
the clei'gj'.t
Brian Walton, the indefatigable editor of the London
Polyglot, was deprived of the living of St. Martin's Orgar,
London, by the Parliament. He had, however, another
benefice at Sandon, in Essex. Sir Henry Mildmay and
Mr. Ash, raerabers of Parliaraent, drew up articles against
him, which were sent to Sandon to be witnessed and sub
scribed. Being expelled from this living, he took refuge
vrith the King's party at Oxford. During this period, he
formed the plan of the Polyglot Bible, which he commenced
in London in 1653, and completed in four years. He had
the honour to present this monument of biblical learning

* Busire's Life of Dr. Cosin. Wood's Atliense, vol. L p. 541.
borough, p. 339. Queret's Cantab, p. 7.
History of his own Times, vol. i. p. -305.

Hist, of Peter-

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP OROMWBLL. 813
and industry to Charles II. who appointed him his chaplain BOOR IK
in ordinary, and promoted him to the see of Chester. His oHAP IV.
reception in that ancient city in the year 1660, was one of
unusual excitement among all ranks. It was, according to
Anthony Wood, " a day not to be forgotten by all the true
sons of the Church of England, though cursed then in pri
vate by the most rascally faction, and crop-eared whelps of
those parts, who did their endeavours to make it a May
game, and a piece of foppery."-*
Walton was assisted in his great work, the Polyglot, by Walton's as-
Usher, Dr. FuUer, Ryves, Castell, Stokes, Huish, Samuel polyglot""'
Clarke, Hyde, Wheelock, Thomdike, Pococke, Greaves,
Loftus, Hammond, Sanderson, Sheldon, Sterne, Feme, Smith,
Baker, and other scholars. It is a curious fact, that in
he preface to this Polyglot, Walton acknowledged the
patronage of CromweU ; but after the Restoration, the para-
gi-aph containing this acknowledgement was suppressed,
and its place was supplied by a compliraent to the King.t
Dr. Walton was one of the comraissioners in the Savoy
conferences, of which -^'e shall have presently to give some
account. He died in London, after returning from a visit
to his diocese, on the 29th of November, 1661 ; and he was
buried, with great pomp, at St. Paul's, of which Cathedral
he was a prebendary. His monument was placed over his
grave on tho south side of the Cathedral.J
Dr. Sanderson, a native of Rotherhara, in Yorkshire, Dr. Simder-
and a canon of Christ Church, Oxford, was introduced by "'°'
Archbishop Laud to Charles I., who made him his chaplain,
and employed him, along with other Episcopalian divines,
in making alterations on the book of Common Prayer, to
meet tlie views of the Presbyterians. He also appointed •
him Regius professor of divinity in Oxford. Dr. Sanderson
was summoned to the Westminster Assembly, but he never
attended its sittings. The Parliament chose him as one of
the managers of the treaty with the King for settling the
aflairs of the church. He had a principal hand in drawing
up the Reasons of the University of Oxford against the
* Ath. Oxon. vol ii. p. 47.
t See Hoin.V Memoirs, vol. i. p. 4'25. Bowyer's Oriinn of Printing, Appendix.
j Lloyd's Memoirs of the lives, acticns, and sufferings of excellent persona,
that suffered for their allegiance to their sovereign, London, 1668. AVcod's
Ath. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 730. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Brian Wai-
ton, by J. a Todd, London, 182L J4

314

PROGRESS OP THB PURITANS

BOOK III
CHAP. IV.
Deprived of
his prefer
ments.

Dr. George
Uorley.

Covenant and the Negative Oath. He was also one of his
Majesty's attendant chaplains in the Isle of Wight.
The Parliamentary Committee for reforming the Univer
sity expelled him from his canonry and professorship, am
he retired to his rectoi-y of Boothby-Paynel, in Lincolnshire,
which he held, together with two prebends, one in the
church at Lincoln, and the other at Southwark. His living
at Boothbj' had been sequestered four years before ; and he
was carried to prison at Lincoln. It appears that he suc
ceeded in having the sequestration of his living taken off;
but we are told that he was several times plundered, and
once wounded in three places. In 1668, he was living with
his wife and children in the deepest poverty. At the Res
toration in 1660, he resumed his canonry and his professor
ship, and was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln. He wrote the
preface to the book of Common Prayer, assisted in the edit
ing of the Polyglot, and left behind him large collections of
sermons, and other works, displaying vast leaming, and
sound judgment, though wanting in the plain and familiar
style of popular English writing. He did not long enjoy
his bishopric ; for he died January 29, 1662, in the seventy-
sixth year of his age.-*
Da. George Morlet, one of the chaplains of King
Charles, was nominated to the Westminster Assembly, but
he refused to attend. He was so prominent and active in
the King's service, that the parliamentary commissioners
deprived him of his preferments in the church. He assisted
the King in the treaty of the Isle of Wight. He attended
Lord Capel " as his confessor," before his execution on tlie
9th March 1618. It does not appear that he was with
that nobleman on the scaffold ; for Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke,
speaking of Lord Capel, who was beheaded at the same
time with the Duke of Hamilton, and the Earl of Holland,
says, "He acted much after the manner of a stout Roman :
he had no minister with him."t
Morley left England to join the young King at the Hague
and he continued his attendance till Charles went to Scot
land, when the chaplain retired to Antwerp; where, foi
three or four years, he read the service of the Church of
* laaac Walton's Life of Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln.
t Memurials, p. 380.

UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OP OROMWBLL. 316
England twice every day. During his absence from Eng- book iil
land he appears to have been chaplain for a while to the cHAp"lV
unhappy Queen of Bohemia. After the King's restoration
he was loaded with ecclesiastical honours — the deanery of
Christ Church, the see of Worcester, the deanery of the
chapel-royal ; and, finally, the bishopric of Winchester.
"His loyalty to his prince^ and zeal for the established
church were plainly inimitable."-" Anthony Wood passes
a long eulogy on his loyalty, constancj', vigour, and muni
ficence ; on his piety as a Christian ; and his temperance
and application as a student. He says. " he was a great
Calvinist, and esteemed one of the main portions of those
of that persuasion." Bishop Burnet, however, assures us that
though he was thought a fiiend to the Puritans before the
wars, he took care after his promotion to free himself from
all suspicion of that kind. While he bears testimony to
bis piety, charity, and exeraplary life, he adds that he was
extremely passionate, and very obstinate. He died in
1684 1
Db. Gilbert Shelden was another of the cliaplains of Dr. Giibep
Charles I. He was on the point of becoming master of the Shelden.
Savoy, and dean of Westminster, when the King's last
troubles came upon him. During the wars, he lost nearly
every trace of the scholar and the clergyman in the politi
cian. Being ejected from the wardenship of Trinity CoUege,
Oxford, by the parliamentary commissioners, he was impri
soned with Dr. Hammond ; but he was released, on condi
tion that he would not go to the King in the Isle of Wight.
At tbe Restoration he was made a member of the Pri-vy
Council, and dean of the chapel-royal ; and he was the suc
cessor of Dr. Juxon, first as Bishop of London, and then as
Archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Burnet says, " he was
a very dexterous man in business, had a great quickness of
apprehension, and a very true judgment. He had a great
pleasantness of conversation, perhaps too great. He had an
art that was peculiar to hira, of treating all that came to
him in a most obliging manner. But few depended much
on his professions of friendship. He seemed not to have a
deep sense of religion, if any at all ; and spoke of it most
• Walker's Attempt, part a p. 106.
T Wood's Ath. Ojttin. voL iv. No. 694. Enmet'i! HiBt. of taia Own Tim**

charity.

316 progress op the puritans
book iil commonly as of an engine of government, and a matter of
CHAP? IV. policy. By this means the King came to look on him as a
¦wise and honest clergyman."* Dr. Sheldon died in 1677,
and was buried, at his own re([uest, near the tomb of Arch
bishop Whitgift, in the parish church at Croydon. It is re
markable that the only publication he left behind him was
the sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, June
28, 1660, the day of solemn thanksgiving for the return of
His great his Maiesty. The theatre of the Universitv of Oxford was
built by him at his own expense, and likewise the library
at Larabeth House. Between the time of his being made
Bishop of London and liis death, he spent about sixty-six
thousand pounds in public and charitable uses.t
These were the principal men of the Episcopal Church
in England who suffered in consequence of the ascendency
of the puritans. The numbers who were deprived of tlieir
livings in the church and in the universities was of course
very large. The reader will find a list of them in Mr. John
Walker's " Attempt towards Recovering an Account of the
Numbers and Sufferings of the Clergy of the Church of
England ;" and in the same work there is a particular
account of the mode in which they were dealt with by the
several commissioners of the Parliament. In Dr. Garden's
Petitionary Remonstrance addressed to the Protector, it is
stated that above half of the ministers and scholars o
England and Wales had been, upon one account or other,
sequestered from their livings, besides fellowships or free
schools. To these Mr. Walker adds curates, chaplains, per
sons not fixed, and persons not in any orders, but preparing
for them ; and he reckons the whole number as amounting
to ten thousand.
Fuller says of many of the ejected clergy, "sorae of their
offences were so foul it is a shame to report them, crying to
justice for punishraent." Indeed, Constantino the Christian
emperor was wont to say, " If I see a clergyman offending,
I will cover him with my cloak ;" but surely he meant
such offences as are frailties and infirmities ; not scandalous
enormities. He then states the pleas of the Royalists
for their fi-iends, which amount to this : that some of the
• Wood's Ath. Oxon. voL IL No. 52.
t Bnmet, yoL L p. 394.

UNDEB the PROTECTORATH OF OROMWBLIi. 317
offences charged on the ejected clergy were capital, and ROOK lit
there is a suspicion of defective proof ; that the witnesses chapTiv.
against them were seldom examined on oath ; that many
of the complainers were factious persons ; that some of the
clergy were charged unjustly with false doctrine ; and that
the real fault, in many cases, was loyalty. He adds, that
" many moderate men of the opposite party much bemoaned
such severity, that some clergymen, blameless for life, and
orthodox for doctrine, were only ejected on account of their
faithfulness to the King's cause ; and as much corruption
was let out by this ejection (many scandalous ministers de-
sei-vedly punished), so at the same tirae the veins of the
English Church were also emptied of much good blood
(some inoffensive pastors), which hath made her body drop
sical ever since, ill humours succeeding in the room, by rea
son of too large and sudden evacuation. " *
Dr Heylin handled Fuller very severely for this jiassage
in his Animadversioiis on his Church History ; but Fuller
replies to hira with his wonted good humour and candour,
in his " Appeal of Injured Innocence." — (Part iii. b. xi.,
secii. 308-310.)
That the clergy generally suffered much during the civ.l Treataent
wars cannot be doubted ; neither can it be doubted that in- „nder Crom.
justice was done, in many cases, by the violence of political ™"-
antipathies, and by the rudeness of soldiers, as well as by
the enthusiasm of religious parties, who ascribed their own
long course of suffering to the prelates, and to all who
adhered to them. At the same ti-me, it is confessed by
moderate men of all parties that a large portion of the
clergy were utterly unworthy of their sacred office, and in
competent to the discharge of its duties, so that their
removal was a benefit rather than an injury to the church.
The triers appointed by Cromwell have been exposed to
the cheap ridicule which was at one time somewhat fashion
able on these topics, but which the growing intelligence of
Englishmen begins to value according to its real worth ;
nothing, however, can be plainer to those who have gone
into the inquiry carefully, and with candour, than the
general truthfulness of Baxter's deliberate statements on
this subject : — • Church Hist, cent xvIL b. xL pp. 31-34

;;i8 PROGRESS or the puritans.
book hi. " Because this assembly of triers is most heavily acccused
CHAi iv '''-"'' reproached by some men, I shall speak the truth of
them, and (I) suppose my word will be rather taken, be-
Baxter's de- cause most of them took me for one of their boldest adver-
Triers. sai'ies as to their opinions, and because I was known to dis
own their power ; insomuch that I refused to try any un
der them upon their reference, except very few, whose im
portunity and necessity moved me (they being such as, foi
their Episcopal judgment, or some such cause, the triers
were Ukely to have rejected.) The truth is, that though
their authority is null,* and though some few over busy
and over rigid Independents among them were too severe
against all that were Arminians, and too particular in in
quiring after evidences of sanctification in those whom they
examined, and somewhat too lax in their admission of un
learned and erroneous men that favoured Antinomianism or
Anabaptism, yet, to give them their due, they did abun
dance of good to the church. They saved many a congre
gation from ignorant, ungodly, drunken teachers — the sort
of men that intended no more in the ministry than to say a
sermon as readers say their common prayers, and to patch
up a few good words together to talk the people asleep with
on Sunday, and all the rest of the week to go with them to
the ale-house, and harden them in their sin ; and that sort
of ministers that either preached against a holy life, or
preached as men that never were acquainted with it. AU
those who used the ministry but as a-comraon trade to live
by were never likely to convert a soul : all these they usu
ally rejected ; and in their stead they adraitted any that
were able serious preachers, and lived a godly life, of what
tolerable opinion soever they were. So that though there
were many of them somewhat partial for the Indepen
dents, Separatists, Fifth-monarchy men, and Anabaptists,
and against the Prelatists and Arminians, so great was the
benefit above the hurt which they brought to the church,
that many thousands of souls blessed God for the faithful
ministers whom they let in, and grieved when the Prela
tists afterwards cast them out again.
• Mr. Orme, in his Life of Baxter, has the word " mild " in this passage,
which has no meaning, and is obviously one of several errors of transcription,
or of tlU) press. I copy fk-om Beliquisa Baxterianie, Ist edit. 1696.

V.MlER TUB PROTECTORATE OF CROMWELL. 319
" And — because I am fallen on this subject — I will look BOOKIIL
back upon the alterations that \\-ere made upon the minis- cHAp'lT.
try by the Long Parliament before, both by the county
committees and the synod at Westminster. I know there
ai-e men in the world that defame both the actors and the
work, and would make the world believe that almost none
but worthy, leamed men were turned out, and that for
their fidelity to the King and bishops ; and that almost
none but unlearned and factious fellows were introduced.
But this age hath taught the world how little the report of
such men is to be believed of any others who speak what
their interest and malice do command them, and by these
are made strangers to the men they speak of, though they
dwell araong thera ; for they convei-se not with them at
all, unless in sorae wrangUng dispute, when raalice and pas
sion seek a whetstone ; but they talk only with those that
talk against them, and easily beUeve any false reports when
once they are so like the common enemy that they desire
them to be true.
" The power of casting out unworthy men was partly in
a committee of Parliamentmen at London, and partly in
the committees of each several county, according to an or
dinance of Parliament, expressing their crimes. Herein it
was laudable : that drunkards, swearei-s, cursers, blasphem
ers, heretics, fornicators, and such scandalous persons, were
to be ejected ; but it was not well done to put in those
among them that had been agfiinst the Parliament in the
war : for the work of God should not give place to the
mattei-s of their secular interest and policy, as long as the
being of the commonwealth is secured ; and all the learned
ministers in the land, on one side and on the other, are few
enow to do the work of Christ ; and I believe that those
that were against them would have done them less hurt in
the pulpits, where there were so many loitiiesses, than they
did in private. But yet, I must needs say, that in aU the
countries where I was acquainted, six to one, at least, (if
not many more,) that were sequestered by the coraraittee
were, by the oaths of witnesses, proved insufficient, or
scandalous, or both, especially guilty of drunkenness or
swearing ; and those that being able godly preachers were
cast out for the war alone, as for their opinion's sake, were

320 PROGRESS OP THB PURITANS.
BOOK IIL comparatively very few. This, 1 know, will displease theij
CHAP. IV. party, but this is true; and though now and then an un
worthy person, by sinister means, crept into their places,
yet comraonly those whom they put in were such as set
themselves laboriously to seek the salvation of souls. In
deed, the one-half of them were very young ; but that could
not be helped, because there were no other to be had. You
must understand, that when the Parliament purged the
ministry, they cast out. the grosser sort of insufficient and
scandalous ones, as gross drunkards and such like, and also
some few civil men that had assisted in the wars against the
Parliaraent, or set up bowing to altars, and such innova
tions ; but they had left in near one-half the rainisters that
were not good enough to do much service, nor bad enough
to be cast out as utterly intolerable : these were a company
of poor weak preachers that had no great skill in divinity,
nor zeal for godUness ; but preached weakly that which is
true, and lived in no gross notorious sin. These men were
not cast out ; but yet their people greatly needed help, for
their dark sleepy preaching did but little good.*. . . . The
Parliament could not make men leamed, nor godly ; but
only put in the learnedst and ablest that they could have.
And though it had been to be wished that they might
have had leisure to ripen in the universities, yet many of
them did — as Ambrose — teach and learn at once so suc
cessfully, as that they much increased in learning them
selves whilst they profited others, and proportionably more
than any in the universities do."t
• Reliqulse Baxteilanse, lib. 1. p. 1.
I Seliqulffi Baxterianae, lib. L pp. 30, 116, 117.

BEIGN OP CHARLES II. 321

BOOK m.
CHAP, V.

CHAPTER V.
THE PURITANS IN THE REIGN OP CHARLES II.
SECTION I.  PURITAN NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE KING.
Apter the death of Oliver CromweU, and the resignation
of his son Richard, the eyes of the nation were generaUy
directed to Charles. This prince had been proclaimed in
Ireland ; and in Scotland, after swearing to the Covenant,
he had been crowned, according to the ancient usage of the
Scottish kings, at Scone. The battle of Worcester, how
ever, had seemed to destroy for ever his hopes of ascending
the throne of England. The powerful influence of Crom
well with the Court of France had driven him from his re
fuge in that country, and had thrown him as a poor pen
sioner into the arms of Spain. Many causes, however, now
conspired to render it a matter of expediency, if not of ne
cessity, that he should be recalled. Once more the army
had quarreUed with the ParUament. The strength of the
Royalist party throughout the nation, which had in fact
been growing ever since the execution of the late king, was
indicated by the elections ; and the political parties opposed
to the King, whether on principle or from fear, were too
nearly balanced for any one of them to gain the ascendency
over the rest. Thus encouraged, Charles and his attend
ants, at Brussels, kept up an active correspondence with the
leaders of the different parties at home ; and, after a long
course of intrigue and dissimulation on many sides, it was
agreed that he should be recalled. WhUe yet at Breda, in
Brabant, watching the progress of negotiations as seriously
as was compatible with the levity of his disposition, Charles
sent forth a royal declaration, promising — among other
things — such liberty for tender consciences, that no man
should be called in question for religious opinions which did
not disturb the peace of The kingdom.-* The national en-
• Journal of the House of Lords, xi. p. 710. ^4*

322 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IIL tliusiasm was at its height. No limits were imposed on the
CHAK V. new sovereign. He landed at Dover, and passed, as if in
triumph, through crowds of nobles, gentry, and people of
all ranks, to receive at Whitehall the professions of un
bounded loyalty from both Houses of Parliament.*
Previously to the King's departure frora Breda, a deputa-
Presbyterian tion from Parliament had been accompanied by some of the
Bredl^"™ '° principal Presbyterian clergy from London : Doctors Rey
nolds and Spurston, and Messrs. Calamy, HaU, Manton,
Bowles, and Case. They expressed to the King their own
affection and that of their friends towards him, declaring
that they were not opposed to a moderate Episcopacy, and
praying that indifferent things might not be imposed on
them in the worship of God.
When the King retui-ned there was a great variety of opi-
Expectatlons nions and of expectations respecting the course he might
litton.''^'"'' '^"^°Pt '" relation to the church. The Presbyterian clergy,
who felt themselves bound by their covenant to acknow
ledge Charles as the undoubted heir to the crown, had done
all in their power to bring about his restoration ; but while
one portion of them were led, by the representations raade
to them of the King's character, to hope that they would be
allowed to retain their churches, and another portion ex
pected no more from the ascendancy of the Episcopal party
than such a toleration as the Protestants enjoyed in France,
there were not a few who looked more deeply into the pro-
babUities of the case, and indulged in the darkest forebod
ings. The more sanguine of their number built their hopes
on the published determination of the Royalist party in
several counties to forget all past injuries, and to Uve in
peace. They put the largest and most favourable construc
tion on the King's declaration frora Breda ; and in these
hopes they were encouraged by Dr. Morley and other emi
nent divines among the Royalists, who, before the King's
return, had met with some of the Presbyterian ministers in
private, and had given them assurances of great lenity and
moderation. On the other hand, the fears of those who dreaded the
consequences of the restoration were grounded on the views
• Clarendon's Hist. iii. p. 772 Evelyn's Diary, 11. p. 148. Whitelock's M*
morials, p. 702.

REIQN OF OHABLES II. 323
Qiey took of the religious character of the two great parties BOOK IIL
which had been warring against each other for twenty years, chap, v.;
Regarding the party now recovering its ascendency, as hav
ing been fi-om the beginning composed chiefly of those who
were enemies to serious and spiritual religion, while the
friends of such religion were mainly found to side with the
Parhament against the late King, they argued that every
man whose religion did not show itself in forms and cere
monies would be scoffed at as a Puritan, and denounced as a
rebel, though not one in forty of their ministers had taken
any part whatever in the wars.
Nor were those belonging to the Episcopalian party all of
one mind. There were those among them who thought
favourably of a union with the Presbyterians, and even of
rewarding them for bringing home the King ; whUe others
looked on the restoration of the King as necessarily bring
ing along with it the restoration of then- own church to its
ancient revenues and splendour.
To soothe and gratify the Presbyterian clergy, several of Concessiona
the most eminent among thera -* were adraitted as chaplains b^erteM?*
in ordinaiy to the King ; and Mr Calamy, Dr Reynolds,
and Mr Baxter, preached each of them once at Court.
The intercourse of these Presbyterian chaplains with
statesmen. Episcopal divines, and courtiers, led to many
attempts at forming a scheme of comprehension which
would enable the Presbyterian clergy to retain their minis
try and their Uvings in the chm-ch. In apparent compU
ance with this scheme, the King granted an audience to
several of their leaders in the lodgings of the Earl of Man
chester, the lord chamberlain. Baxter seems to have been
the chief speaker. After a long preamble, in which he be
spoke his Majesty's gracious attention, he told him that it
was not for Presbyterians, or for any party as such, that
they were pleading, but for the religious part of his subjects
as such. He dwelt on the advantages of union to his Ma
jesty, to the people, to the bishops themselves ; and he
showed that such a imion might be easily secured by taking
only things necessary for its basis ; by the true exercise ot
church discipUne against sin ; and by neither casting out
• Mr. Calamy and Dr. Reynolds, Mr. Baxter, Dr. Bates, Dr. Manton, Dr.
Spurstow, Dr. Wallls, Mr. Carr, and three or fonr more.

324 PKOGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
BOOKIIL feithfal ministers, whose consciences would urge them to
0g^y_ exercise such discipUne, nor obtruding unworthy and in
competent clergymen upon the Christian peopb.
The King, in reply to the addresses of Baxter and his
brethren, professed his gladness to hear of their desires for
agreement, and his resolution at the sarae tirae to do his
part in bringing it about. He told thera that the desired
union could be effected not by bringing one party over to
the other, but by each party yielding sorae points, and
meeting on common ground. He assured them, that if the
attempt at union failed, it would not be his feult, but
their's, for he was resolved to see it brought to pass, and he
would draw the parties together himself. In furtherance,
as it appeared, of this gracious design, his Majesty desired
the Presbyterian clergy to draw up their proposals, stating
how fiir they could go in the way of concession on the
points of difference between themselTes and the Episcopa
lians in the raatter of church governn.om ..
In obedience to this royal command, the Presbyterian
Proposals for leaders consulted with as many of their 'jrethren in London
cession. ' ^^ tliey could bring together at Sion College, where, after
much debating, they drew up a paper of proposals — ^in which
they adopted Archbishop Usher's model of church govem
ment — to be laid before the King. On their arrival in the
royal presence, the Presbyterian leaders were bitterly dis
appointed at not meeting, as they had expected, with any of
the divines of the other party ; but the King himself most
graciously repeated his former professions, declaring he
would see that the bishops should come down and make
concessions on their part.
Instead, however, of concessions, the Bishops forwarded
Objections of to the assembled Presbyterian ministers an elaborate paper
"^^ of objections to every part of their proposals, concluding in
these remarkable words : —
" We are so far frora belie-ving that his Majesty's conde
scending to these demands will take away not only differ
ences, but the roots and causes of them, that we are con
fident it will prove the seminary of new differences, both by
giving dissatisfaction to those that, are well pleased with
what is already established — who are much the greater part
of his Majesty's subjects — and by encouraging unquiet

REION OP CHARLES II. 326
spirits when these things shall be granted to make further BOOK IIL
demands ; there being no assurance by them given what wUl chap. -y
content aU Dissenters ; than which nothing is more neces
sary for the settUng of a firm peace in the church,"
To this paper of the Bishops a long rejoinder was written Baxter's re-
by Baxter, who concludes in tlus dignified and serious ^jshopi
style : — " If yom- want of charity were not extraordinary, it
could not work effectually to the end of afflicting your breth
ren and the church. When we tell you what wUl end our
differences, you know om- minds so much better than our
selves that you wUl not beUeve us ; but you vriU be confi
dent that we wiU come on with new demands.
" This is your way of conciliation ! When you were to
bring in your utmost concessions in order to our unity, and
it was promised by his Majesty that you should meet us
half-way, you bring in nothing ; and you persuade his Ma
jesty also that he should not beUeve us in what we offer,
that it would not be satisfactory if it were granted !
" You say that it wiUgive dissatisfaction to the greater part
of his Majesty's subjects I We are more charitable than to be
Ueve that a quarter of his Majesty's subjects are so uncha-
ritable as to be dissatisfied, if their brethren be not excom
municated for not swearing, subscribing, or using a cere
mony, whUst they may do it as much as they Ust them
selves. And whereas you say, that there is ¦no assurance
given that it wiU content all Dissenters, you know that there
are many Dissenters, as Papists, Quakers, &c., for whom we
never meddled ; and we think this an unjust answer to be
given to them who craved of his Majesty that they might
send to their brethren throughout the land to have the tes
timony of their common consent, and were denied it, and
told that it should be our work alone, and imputed to no
others. " In conclusion, we perceive that your counsels againet
peace are not Ukely to be frustrated. Your desires con
ceming us are Ukely to be accomplished. You are likely to
be gratified with our silence and ejection, and the excom
munication and consequent sufferings of Dissenters. And
yet we will believe, that blessed are the peace makers; and
though deceit be in the heart of them that imagine evil, yet
there is joy to the counsellors of peace. And though we are

326 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK IE. stopped by you in our following of peace, and are never
^S.KS.Y. likely thus publicly to seek it more, because you think we
must hold our tongues that you may hold your peace ; yet
are we resolved, by the help of God, if it be possible, and as
much as Ueth in us, to live peaceably vrith aU men." *
SECTION II.  THE SAVOY CONPERENOE.
Discouraging as was the issue of the Puritan negociations
with the King, the disappointed ministers resolved to act
according to their own professed desires for peace. They
knew that they were not formidable in point of number ;
and, even if they had been, their consciences bound them to
offer no resistance to the legal exercise of acknowledged
authority. " I looked," says Baxter, " to the end of aU
these actions, and the chief thing that moved me, next to
the pleasing of God and of conscience, is, that when we are
aU sUenced and persecuted, and the history of these things
shall be deUvered to posterity, it will be a just blot upon us
Lf we suffer as refusing to sue for peace ; and it wiU be our
just -vindication when it shall appear that we have humbly
petitioned for and earnestly pursued after peace, and came
as near them for the obtaining it as Scripture and reason
-wUl aUow us to do, and were ready to do any thing for
peace, except to sin and damn our souls ; and, for my own
part, I could suffer much more comfortably when I had
used these means and been repulsed, than if I had used
none ; and, lastly, I gave them aU notice that I hoped, if we
got no more, to have an opportunity by this treaty to state
our difference right to the understanding of foreigners and
posterity, and to bear my testimony to the cause of truth, and
peace, and godliness, openly under the protection of the
King's authority both by word and vmting, which they that
sit stUl would never do, but look on with secret silent grief
till all is gone, and then have their consciences, and others,
teU them that they never made any just attempt, or spake
a word to prevent the ruin." ¦\
oTttfitSta-- WhUe the Puritan party were thus anticipating the
By worst, the Bishops, it may be supposed, were not idle. The
• RellquiiB Baxterianse, lib. L p. U. p. 90-103.
t Bellqnlae Bazterlanee, p. iL p. Ses.

REIGN OP CHARLES II. 327
liturgy was restored by public authority. For not comply- book in.
ing with this order, many of the clergy were forcibly re- chap! V,
moved from their Uvings. In reply to a remonstrance
from the London ministers, the King issued a declaration,
which Episcopalians of that day lauded as breathing the
spirit of true wisdom and charity, and for which the Pres
byterians offered hira their public thanks : in reply to which
acknowledgment his Majesty said : " / will endeavour to
qive you aU satisfaction, and to make you as happy as my
self.'^ On the ground of this declaration Dr. Reynolds ac
cepted the Bishopric of Norwich, and Dr. Manton took the
Uving of Covent Garden. At the same time Mr. Baxter,
on separate grounds, refused the Bishopric of Hereford. Mr.
Calamy declined the Bishopric of Litchfield and Coventry
until the King's declaration should become the law of the
land. Dr. Bates, probably for the same reason, refused the
Deanery of Litchfield, and Mr Bowles the Deanery of York.
The King's declaration, however, was rejected by the Excesses of
House of Commons. While the Bishops were revellmg in "is royals'*
pomp, not a few of the scmpulous clergy — even some who
had been raost zealous for the Restoration — were driven
from their benefices, fined, and sent to prison. The seques
tered clergy to some extent had recovered their U-vings.
The corpses of Cromwell and of many others were digged
out of their graves, dra-wn on hurdles to Tyburn, hung up
for a day, then decapitated, and buried together in a hole
beneath the gibbet. The surviving agents in the late
King's death were, with some exceptions, hanged. The
writings of Milton in defence of the regicides were ignomi
niously bui'ned by the executioner.
The Roman CathoUcs now came forth from their lurking Proclamation
places both in England and in Ireland, and they were gra- ^^^a.
ciously received by the King. Venner's insurrection gave
occasion and excuse for an order in council, followed by a
proclamation, forbidding all sectaries to meet in large num
bers, or at unusual times, though the Independents, the
Baptists, and the Quakers, severally pubUshed their detesta
tion of Venner's insurrection, and urged their prayer for
toleration. In the midst of these troubles the Presbyterian
clergy were exposed to all manner of rude insults. Pre
tended plots were laid to their charge. The infamous Cor-

Conference.

:i3S PROGRESS OP THB PURITANS.
BOOKIIL PORATION AcT expcUcd from every municipiil tiu.'it all v, !i,)
CHAP V. were not slavishly devoted to the King and to the Episcopal
Church. It was in this state of affairs that the celebrated
conferences were held at the Bishop of London's lodgings in
the Savoy. These conferences were appointed to sit four
months from the 25th of March 1661. They were con
ducted by twelve Bishops, with nine assistants, and the
same number of Presbyterians. Their proposed object was
to ad-rise upon and review the Book of Common Prayer, for
the purpose of giving satisfaction to tender consciences, and
restoring and continuing peace and unity in the church."*
At the first meeting of the commissioners. Dr. Sheldon,
The Savoy the new Bishop of London, took the lead. He told them
that this meeting had not been sought by his party, who
were satisfied with the Uturgy as it vv'as, but by the opposite
party, who desired that alterations might be made. He
therefore insisted that they should bring forward their ob
jections all at once in writing. These objections, stated at
considerable length, accompanied with a new liturgy, were
drawn up by Baxter. The gi'eat length of the objections
was pointed out by the Episcopal party, as a proof that they
had to do with men who could never be satisfied ; while the
substitution of a hastily composed liturgy for one which had
been deliberately prepared, and had been a hundred j'ears
in use, was, they said, a clear evidence of their presump
tion. Neither were the Presbyterians entirely agreed
among themselves. In the end the whole business was re
duced to the single question — Is it lawful or sinful to im
pose indifferent ceremonies in the worship of God ? The
Bishops pressed the Presbyterians to prove that any of the
things imposed by the liturgy were by themselves sinful.
The Presbyterians, on the other hand, contented them
selves with maintaining, that many circumstances might
render it unlawful to insist on matters acknowledged by the
imposers to be indifferent. They instanced more particu
larly the law which required that all persons should kneel
at the Lord's table, as placing a human limitation upon an
express ordinance of Christ. This point being once raised,
aa opening conference was held respecting it, wliich lasted
several days. Baxter and Gunning were the champions
* Reliquiae Baxterianie, p. IL

REIGN OP CHARLES II 329
for the respective sides. Gunning, who afterwards became book HL
Bisbop, first of Chichester and then of Ely, was a man of chap. V.
large reading and a subtle reasoner, strongly inclined in
many respects to the Roman CathoUc Church, and well
versed in all the arts of sopliistry. Baxter is described by
Bishop Burnet as " a man of great piety, who, if he had not
meddled in too many things, would have been esteemed one
of the leamed men of the age. He was his whole Ufe long
a man of great zeal and much simpUcity; but was most
unhappUy subtle and metaphysical in every thing."-*
The controversy between these weU matched disputants
excited great attention, being resorted to as a most enter
taining exhibition of intellectual fencing.
The time appointed for the conference passed away with- Concession
out the parties coming to any agreement. The Bishops, ^^ °
insisting that the laws were stUl in force, would yield no
thing untU it should be proved that those laws were sinful,
and charged the Presbyterians -with a schismatical accusa
tion against the church of matters which they themselves
would not venture to condemn as sinful. We see no reason,
they said, to gratify such men in any thing ; one demand
granted wUl draw on many more ; aU authority in Church
and State is struck at by the position on which they insist,
that it is not lawful to impose things indifferent, these being
the only things with which human authority can interfere.
As a specimen of the sharpness vrith which it was attempted
to fasten on the Presbyterians the odium of being enemies
to aU order, the foUowing fact deserves to be remembered.
Baxter said, on one occasion, " Such things would offend
many good men in the nation." Sterne, Archbishop of
York, said " that Baxter would not say kingdom, but nation,
because he would not acknowledge the King !"t So decent
was the retum for the zeal of the Presbyterians iu bringing
back the King. " With grief I told him," says Baxter,
" that half the charity which became so grave a bishop
might have sufficed to have helped him to a better exposi
tion." In Baxter's Life a full account is given of these pro- ,
ceedings. We leam from his narrative that the work of
the conference was carried on by only a small number of
the commissioners. Dr. Cosens, Bishop of Durham, who at-
* Hist. Own Times, voL i. p. 300. t Bumet, vol 1. p. 303.

33y PROGRESS OP THB PUEITANS.
BOOK IIL tended constantly, spoke with severity ; Dr. Morley, Bishop
q£^ V °^ Worcester, with vehemence ; Dr. Gunning with sophistry ;
Dr. Pearson, with calraness and gentleness ; Dr. Gauden,
Bishop of Exeter, -with moderation. Dr. Bates and Dr.
Manton are praised for their modesty, and Mr. Calamy for
his gra-vity ; while the most prominent part was taken by
Baxter himself, whose metaphysical power and ready inven
tion were not more remarkable than the tenacity with
which he held opinions, and the earnestness with which he
pressed them upon others. This conference was carried on
with great vindictiveness and haughty arrogance by the
Episcopal party, and by the Presbyterian party with the
irritation not unnatural to men who saw that the King
whom they had a principal hand in restoring, was about to
violate his royal faith. " The chief blame, it cannot be dis
sembled, ought to faU on the Churchmen. An opportunity
was afforded of healing, in a very great measure, that schism
and separation which, if they are to be beUeved, is one of
the worst evUs which can befal a Christian community.
They had it in their power to retain, or to expel, a vast
number of worthy and laborious ministers of the gospel, with
whom they had, in their own estimation, no essential
ground of difference. They knew the King, and conse
quently themselves, to have been restored with (I might al
most say, by) the strenuous co-operation of those very men
who were now at their mercy."-*
SECTION III.  THE ACT OP UNIFOEMITT, 1662.
The conclusion of the Savoy Conference was such as might
have been expected from the known principles of the con
tending parties ; and all the documents belonging to that
period prove that it was exactly what the Court and the
Episcopalians had desired. The work of revising the Book
of Common Prayer was now referred to the Convocation.
As soon as it was completed, the Act for Uniformity in the
pubUc prayers and ceremonies of the Church of England
was passed in the House of Commons by a majority of six.
After a long debate, and a conference with the Commons, it
was passed by only a smaU majority in the Lords. On the
• HaUam, vol ii. p. 193.

REIGN OP CHARLES II. 331
10th of May 1662 it received the royal assent, and it was BOOK IIL
ordered to be carried into execution on Bartholomew's Day, char v.
the 24th of August in the same year. This law required
every minister to declare openly and publicly, before the
congregation assembled for reUgious worship, his unfeigned
assent and consent to the use of all things contained and
prescribed in the said book, in certain words set forth, and
in no other.
It required further that all ministers, and aU public and Bartho-jomew
private teachers, should subscribe a declaration that they °
would conform to the liturgy, that it is not lawful upon any
pretence whatever to take arms against the King, or to en
deavour any change or alteration of govemment in Church
or State. It also enacted that no person should hold any
benefice, or administer the Lord's supper, unless he was
ordained a priest by Episcopal ordination. The penalties
for violating this law were fines, imprisonment, and depri
vation of all livings in the church. By this act the King's
spiritual advisers induced him to break his promise con
tained in the declaration from Breda. The Episcopal party
broke their o'wu promises, on the faith of which the Presby
terians joined with them in the restoration of the monar
chy; the terms of conformity were made more stringent
than they had been before the commencement of the ci-ril
wars ; and a yoke was placed on the civU rights of EngUsh
men, and on. the religious Uberty of Christians, which is a
foul blot on any system of govemment, and a curse to any
institution which caUs itself a church. Of this act the dis
grace belongs in an eminent degree to the Lord ClianceUor
Hyde, who drew up the declaration at Breda ; but the truth
of history requires it to be distinctly recorded, that the
leading Bishops of the Church of England were its authors,
abettors, and defenders. When the Earl of Manchester
told the King the terras of conforraity were so strict, that he
feared many of the ministers would not comply. Bishop
Sheldon said, " He had been afraid that they would ; but
— ^now we know their minds — ^we wiU make them aU knaves
if they conform." When Dr. AUen said, " It is a pity the
door is so strait." " It is no pity at aU," said the same proud
prelate ; " if we had thought so many of them would have
conformed, we would have made it straiter." The craft of

332

PROGKESS OP THB PURITANS.

CHAP. V.

Ttie ejected
Nonconfor-

BOOK m. the Chancellor, and the bigotry of the Bishops, were aided
by the hatred of the ParUament towards the Presbyterians,
and by the poverty of the King, who sold at once his own
honour and the consciences of his subjects for money.
Before the day appointed for the enforcement of the Act,
some of tbe most eminent of the Puritan clergy preached
ferewell sermons to their weeping congregations, and re
signed their livings. And when the fetal day arrived, Eng
land beheld the spectacle — ^unparalleled in the history of
the Church — of nearly two thousand clergymen giving up
all that was dear to them as gentlemen, scholars, and minis
ters of religion, for the sake of truth and a good conscience.
Such was the end of the Puritan stmggles in the Church
of England. The ejected Nonconformists were the found
ers of numerous congregations of Christians in England, by
whom the principles of the Reformation were cherished
apart from the established hierarchy, and without even tole
ration from the State.
Of those separate churches, some had been formed long
before the Act of Uniformity by Independents, Baptists, and
Quakers ; and a portion of these received not a few both of
the ministers and of the people that were now thrown out
of the church. But here the history of the Puritans as a
body in the Anglican Church comes to an end. It belongs
to another department to trace the progress of the Non
conformists. The Act of Uniformity has been defended, and is defended
stUl ; but, though this is not the place for controversial dis
cussion, it is but just to state, that from the passing of that
Act until the present day, it has been condemned by the
most thoughtful and candid writers of nearly every persus/-
sion. The spmt of the measure was that of haughty and -rin-
dictive retaliation, beneath the dignity of statesmen, and
unworthy of the character of Christians.
The circumstances attending it were disgraceful to all
parties, excepting the sufferers ; the King was convicted of
dissimulation, the leaders of the Church of treacherous in
gratitude, and the Parliament of grossly neglecting, in the
heat of theu' passionate loyalty, the justice that was due to
every subject of the realm, and the grand principles of

Opinions of
'Jl6 Act of
Unifonnity:

BBION OP CHARLES II. 3.'j3
liberty by which alone the safety of the throne and the BOOK IIL
rights of the nation can ever be secured. Instead of pro- chap. V.
moting unity and peace, it gave a bribe to the unprincipled,
and multiplied the divisions of the conscientious. It tumed
devotion into pageantry, substituted superstition for piety,
rancour for zeal, and unquestioning submission to human
authority for feiith in the truth of God, and hearty obedience
to his revealed will. It was essentially the system of which
Popery is the perfection.
It was among the aggi'avations of this wicked Act, that
not one man in forty could have the opportunity of examining
the book to which all were requu-ed to profess their unfeigned
assent and consent.-* And it was another aggravation that
the time fixed for the execution of the Act went to deprive
the non-conforming clergy of their means of living for a
whole year, as the tithes were commonly due about two
months after St. Bartholomew's Day.t It was not unna
tural that the Presbyterians should compare these harsh
• proceedings -with another Bartholomew Day, when, ninety
years before, the unoffending Protestants were massacred in
Paris. The sufferings of those ejected men were strongly
contrasted to those of the Roman Catholics in the reign of
Elizabeth, and of the Episcopalians under the Long Parlia
ment ; for in both those instances a fifth part of the bene
fices of the clergy was reserved for their subsistence ; much
caution was used in proceeding to the extremity of depriva
tion, and those who were deprived were treated with many
kinds of indulgence.
But the victims of the Bartholomew Act were sUenced by
ministers of the same Protestant faith ; and they were
driven from the pulpits, which could not then be adequately
filled, to die of want, or to suffer the most cmel persecu
tions, if they lifted up their voices for the instruction o,
• Loike's Letter to a Person of QuaHti/.— Tlie same great writer says, in his
Third Letter on Toleration, " They who talk so much of sects and divisions
would do well to consider, too, whether those are not most authors and pro
moters of sects and divisions who impose creeds, ceremonies, and articles of
men's malting, and make things not necessary to salvation the necessary terms
of salvation, and treating them as if they were aliens from the churcli of. God,
and such as were deservedly shut out as unfit to be members of it : who nar
row Christianity ivithin bounds of their own making, and which, the gospel
knows nothing of; and often for things by themselves confessed inMorent
thrust men out of their communion, and then punish them for not being
ofit" t Bnmet, toL L p. 308.

334 PROGRESS OP THE PURITANS.
BOOK in. consolation of the bereaved and insulted people on whose
CSAP.V. freewill offerings they were thrown.
No bigotry can weaken the evidence of their leai-niug,
Character of their sanctity, their loyalty, their love of order, their minis-
Miufstoi* terial qualifications, and their laborious diligence. They
struggled on to the end of life amid the frowns of power and
the hardships of poverty, and they left behind them a me
morial which will last as long as our language, and will
spread as widely as our religion. Manton and Howe,
Baxter and Charnock, Bates and Flavel, are names that
cannot die ; even now they are better known among the
pious members of the Church which flung them from her
bosom than any one of their Episcopal oppressors. And
the liberty for which they suffered has become dear to the
hearts of millions, who have in this respect become wiser
than their teachers, entertaining larger views of toleration,
and caiTying to a greater extent the distinction between the
duties which are peculiar to religion, and the rights which
are common to mankind. The spirit of the ancient Chris
tians, which was partially revived at the era of the Refor
mation, animated the Puritans in their objections to the
usurpations of human authority, and in their patient suf
ferings for conscience' sake ; and to their manly protest,
given with meekness and humility, England owes aU her
freedom, not a little of her choicest learning, and very mnch
of her evangelical light and fervour. With the opinions
and wishes of the great bulk of the Puritans in matters
ecclesiastical, the principles embodied in their best writings
have taught us to have no sympathy. But their noble
theology, their spiritual earnestness, their unwearied indus
try, and their glorious testimony to the freedom of the
human conscience, have won the approbation of the wisest
and the best men in both hemispheres, and their true
monument will endure for ever in the grateful hearts of tht
holy and ihe free.

•»• The publisher begs to announce, that tliere will be issued, uniform with
the present work, "Tuk Hlstori oi- the Ehgush Nohconfoemisis," with
fin Appendix containing the Farewell Sermons of some of the most eminent
among the ejected rainisters. See Advertisement, page 14.

INDEX.

A.
A. Abbott, Dr., 2S4.
Act of Uniformity, 380. Effects of,
S35. Opinions respecting, 833.
Articles, the Six, their publication, 73
Anabaptists, 175. B.
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 217.
Bancroft, Abp., his character, 238.
Baptists, 295— First church of, 296.
Persecutions of, 297.
Ball, John, 245.
Basilicon Doron, 244.
Becon, Thomas, 93.
Bible, printing of the English, 72.
Bishop, abolition of the ofdee, 270.
Book of Sports, 238.
Brownists, 191.
Browne's treatment and death, 192.
Burghley, Lord, 218.
Burroughes, Jeremiah, 273.
Burton, Henry, 258. C.
Cartwright, Thomas, 152. His public
lectures, 153. Retirement to Ge
neva, 164. Reply to Whitgift, 158.
His marriage, 164. Letter to Lord
Burghley, 170. His death, 17L
Carlyle's account of the Hampton
Court Conference, 227.
Cawdrey, Robert, 182-185
Chadderton, Dr., 224.
Charles L, influence of his Queen, 250.
His opposition to the opinion of the
nation, 251.
Chillmgworth, 310.
Commonwealth, remonstrance against
285.
Conformity forced, 82.
Conforming clergy, 185.
Congregational Oiurch, flrst in Eng
land, 237.
Convocation of the Reformed Church,
69.
Court of High Commission, 115
Cranmer, 35-60.
CromweU, Earl of Essex, 75.

Cmmwell, CUver, Mb lelinlsni |tte
clples, 292. 3i( ettcaitj, S94. T*
leration nnder, 289.
Cuthbert Simpson, 108.
D.
Dearing, Edward, charges against,
160. His reply, 161. Articles he
was required to subscribe, 162.
E.
Edward -VL, 79.
Elizabeth, Joy at her accession, il%
Her leaning towards Popery, 123.
Her hatred of the Puritans, 159.
Treaty for her marriage, 164. Her
speech at the dissolution of Parlia
ment, 204.
Erastians, 269.
Exiles at Erankfort, 98.

Fox, George, 298. Interview with
Cromwell, 299. Letter to Cram-
¦well, 300
Fox, the martyrologist, 96.
Puller, Dr. Thomas, 309.
G.
Gilndal, Abp., 209-213.

Habits, disputes about, 117.
Hall, Bp., 304.
Hammond, Dr. Henry, 312.
Hampton Court Conference, 228.
HeyUn, Dr. 307.
Henry VIII.,-hi3 infiuence on the R©-
formation, 76.
Humphrey, 96. J.
James L, his character, 246. His In-
tolerance towards the Furitani, M7.
Jeremy Taylor, 302. His early fticUto.
308. -s.
Joan of Kent, SS.

336

Knollys, Sir Francis, 219.

Laud, 254.
Leighton, Dr., 257.
Liturgy, English, at Frankfort, 101.
Restoration o^ 326.
Long Parliament, 265.
Love, Christopher, 286.
M.
Marprelate-s Pamphlets, 200.
Marshall, Stephen, 274-279.
Mary, Queen, character of, 90.
Ministers suspended for Nonconfor
mity, 178-190.
Monarchy, overthrow o^ 282.
Morley, Dr. George, 314.
N.
Naylor, James, 301.
Nonconformity, 116,
Nonconformists, proceedings against,
231. Sufferings for, 242.

Parker, Abp., 207-209.
Pole, Cardmal, 113.
Presbyterians, deputation to Breda,
322. Concession to them, 323. Ob
jections of the Bishops, 324. Bax
ter's reply, 325.
Puritans, their appeal to public opi
nion, i42. Replies of their oppo
nents, 143. Refused reUe^ 145.
Separate from the Establishment.
146. Their replies to Grindai, Bp.
of London, 147. Restraints im
posed, 150. Exposition of their
views, 156.
Puritans In the House of Commons,
202.

Quakers, 29'/. laagaase o^ 299.
B.
Reformers, English, 19. TindaL 20

JohnFirtli, 23. Launcelot BWlcT,
30. Latimer, 3L Dr. Nichclan liW-
ley, 34. Cranmer, 35-60. Hot-j.-it;
60-62. Bradford, 63.
Restoration, expectations at. 322.
Refugees on the Continent during aio
persecution of Mary, 92-112.
Rose, Thomas, 109. His examination,
110 Escape, 112.
Rough, John, 106. S.
Sabbath, questions relating to, 263.
Sampson, Dr., 97. Refuses a Bishop-
rick, 1-27. His New Year's Gift to
the Queen, 128. Deprived of hia
Deanery, 131. His correspondence
with the Abp. of York, 132.
Sanderson, Dr., 314.
Savoy Conference, 328.
Sectaries, proclamation against, 327.
Shelden, Dr., 315.
Star Chamber, constitution o^ 25S.
Sparke, Dr., 224.

Toleration, debate on, 270. Under
Cromwell, 289.
Triers, Baxter's defence o^ 318-320.
Twisse, Dr., 271.
Turner, William, 93. U.
Udal, John, 187. Imprisonment^ 18*.
Sentence, 190. Deatb, 19L
Usher, Abp., 306. V.
-Vestments, 119.
-Vines, Richard, 290. W.
¦Whitpft, Abp , 213-217.
Walsuigham, Sir Frauds, 818.
Walton, 312. His asalstaBii iR Be
Polyglot, 418.
Westminster Assembly, 267. FartleB
composing it, 268.
-Whitehead, David, 91.

TAB
ILGRIM FATHERSc

DANIEL WILSON, F. S A Scot.
41JTH0S 07 "CBOUWSLL AND THB PKOTBCTOHATS," SXa
idka Israel's host to exila dii-fen.
Across tha flood, the FUgrima fled;
Theii hands bore -up the ark of Heu.'ren,
And Heavdn their trusting footataps lad,
Tfll OQ these Barage ehorea they trod,
Aad won HiO wilderness Ibr God. PXBBFOSR. 16

CONTENTS.

L— THE SISCOVEBEBS,
n.— THE PIONEKES OF LIBEETr,
HL— LOVE OF COmjTBT,
IV. — THE LANJ> OF PH0MI3E
v.— THE NEW -WORLD,
VI.— THE WINTER OP HOPE,
VII. — THE IKFAITT COLONY,
Vin.— FRIT ATI0N3 AHD DANGERS,
IX. — THE MERCHANT AD-VEKTUREKS,
X. — WESTON'S COLONY,
XI.— THE FIRST INDIAN -WAR, ...
XII. — DESPONDENCY AND THANKSGIVINQ,
XIII. — THE LAST OF THE FOREFATHERS,
XIV. — THE FIRST GOVERNORS OF NEW ENGLAND,
XV.— PURITAN ACQUISITION OF NEW ENGLAND,
XVI. — THB MASSACHUSETTS PILGRIMS,
XVIL — THE CONSTITUTION OF MASSACHUSETTS,
XVm.— THE PILGBIMS'S MEMORIALS,

337 342

376
334 m 403
410424433440 iCi
468480490liOt

PREFACE.

The name of the Pilorim Fathers has become a house
hold word among all good and true men, in the Old and the
New World. England has learned to feel that the pride
which accompanies the remembrance of them as her children,
can compensate for the dishonour done her by unworthy sous,
who cast them forth from their native land. America looks
proudly back to them as a national ancestry, mojp noble
than the lineage of the eldest of Europe's royal lines. In
them the New and the Old World meet, and another era be
gins in the history of nations.
To exhibit the virtues of such men, requires no more than
a true narrative of their deeds, and a just exposition of the
principles by which they were actuated. No more has been
attempted in the following pages. A great deal has beeu
attained, if thus muoh has been done.
The author feels it especiaUy necessary to place his own
work in its true light as au unpretending narrative, expand
ing into a somewhat comprehensive view one of the remark
able results of English Puritanism. United as it is, in the
present series, with Mr. Stowell's careful and well-digested
History of the Puritans, he feels that he may appear to claim
for his mere picturesque narrative more than it has any pre
tensions to. It ifl only justice to himself therefore, to say

BOCXI PBBPAOB.
that the history of the Pilgrim Fathers was originally des
tined for another pen, and was undertaken by him when tha
publisher had been unexpectedly disappointed, after the
volume was announced for publication. This, he trusts, -will
be borne in remembrance in any comparison that may be
drawn between the elaborately authenticated History of the
Puritans, and this narrative of one, certainly not the least
striking or important, of the momentous results wbich have
sprung from the development of Protestant Nonconformity
'unong the Anglo-Saxon taoe.
Bdobcsob, May, 184>

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

CHAPTER I.
¦THE LAND OF PBOMISB.

Chosen of men I twos thine, at noon of night,
Rrst from the prow to hail the glimmering light;
Emblem of Tnith divine, whose seeret ray
Enters the sonl. and makes the darkness day!
There methought it shone I
There — in the west— and now, alas, 'tis gonel —
*Twas all a dream 1 We gaze and gaze in vain!—
But, mark and speak not, there it comes again! Rogers.

Ijt the year 1486, while Christian and Moor disputed pos- (jhap i
session of the westem peninsula, and all the magnificence 
and valour of the chivalry of Spain were marshalling for discoveiT:
renewal of Moslem war, a poor wayferer, — supplied on his
jom'ney hy the alms of the convent gate, and sustained
amid poverty and disappointment by the indomitable faith
of genius, — sought the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and
offered to discover for them a new world ! The time was
altogether unpropitious for such a scheme. With the whole
array of the kingdom mustering for renewal of the Moorish
war, and the fate of Castile hanging on the fortune of arms,
the magnificent projects of the poor wayfarer seemed as
idle dreams. Nevertheless the busiest men have generally
the greatest leisure, and while loung-ing courtiers and indo
lent priests smiled at the scheme of Columbus, and shallow
financiers treated it with contempt, he found sympathy
»nd encouragement among the few men possessed of genius

338

THE PUGRIM FATHERS.

Rejected hy
Portugal.

CHAP. I. alUed to liis own. The queen, Isabella, a woman of true
genius, admitted him to an audience, and listened, as the
wise only listen, to the arguments of the great navigator.
Nevertheless years of vain tarrying and hopeless delay
must intervene, ere Columbus shall be permitted to achieve
his mighty task.
Already had an assembly of leamed bishops and unlearned
pilots, at the court of John II. of Portugal, sat in council
on the proposition, and pronounced the whole project of
Columbus an extravagant and -visionary scheme. The
courtiers and philosophers of Castile were not a whit behind
their Portuguese brethren. For five tedious years Colum
bus prosecuted his suit at the court of Ferdinand and
Isabella, beseeching permission to win for them a new
world; and at length his patience was rewarded by the
decision of a grave council of doctors who assembled at
Salamanca, and published as their opinion that the scheme
was vain and impossible, — as indeed to such leamed coun
cillors it undoubtedly was. Columbus had set his life-
work before him, and no disappointment could scare him
Asiiratioos fi'om its pursuit. His soul was inspired with the great
Of Columbus. J jgg^ j^g jj^^ wrought out, which no difficulty could se
duce him from accomplishing. " When he had formed his
theory," says his latest and best biographer, Washington
Irving, " it became fixed in his mind with singular firm
ness, and influenced his entire character and conduct. He
never spoke in doubt or hesitation, but with as much cer
tainty as if his eyes had beheld the promised land. No
trial nor disappointment could afterwards divert him from
the steady pursuit of his object. A deep religious senti
ment mingled with his meditations, and gave them at times
a tinge of superstition, but it was of a sublime and lofty
kind ; he looked upon himself as standing in the hand of
Heaven, chosen from among men for the accomplishment
ff its high purpose; he read, as he supposed, his contem
plated discovery foretold in Holy Writ, and shadowed forth
darkly in the mystic revelations of the prophets. The ends
of the earth were to be brought together, and all nations
and tongues and languages united under the banners of the
Redeemer."-* • Life of Columbus, vol L p. 61.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 339
Was there not something prophetic in the glorious anti- CHAP. I.
cipations of Columbus 1 Long indeed did they tarry for '
their accomplishment. Spain had already established the The reward
dreadful tribunal of the Inquisition on her native soil. She "' ^P**"'
could not be the missionary of Heaven's purposes, though
Providence permitted her for a time to work out the begin
nings of so great a future. The Spaniard, curst with the
lust of gold, bartered at the shrine of Moloch his honour,
his patriotism, his humanity, his soul, — and won his reward.
But the spoiler became the prey. Spain, which then as
serted her pre-eminence among the nations of Europe by
monuments in arts and literature which still survive to
mock her misery, now owns not a foot of soil on the conti
nents discovered and peopled by her sons. Her gold has
been the prey of every nation, — her colonies have been
vrrested from her, or have disovraed her yoke, and wanderers
from other lands, whose new soil was shadowed with the
virgin forests, and trod alone by the Red Indian, for more
than a century after the Spaniard had established himself
in the magnificent capital of Montesuma, have in our own
day dictated terms to the vanquished descendants of the
colonists of Spain.
The nations of Europe who shared with Spain in the dis- TheColqni»t»
covery of the new regions of the western world, have little of •^s"'*'
reason to congratulate themselves on any display of superior
virtue in those who followed in the track of the great
Genoese. Happily England is not cursed vrith the blood of
exterminated Gharibs. Providence, that had chosen her to
plant the colonies from whence a great nation was to spring,
rescued her from the infamy which still clings to Spain.
But the commercial energy by which her early colonists
were charactei'ized, was not always unalloyed by baser in
gredients. The reprisals with which the great admirals of
Queen Elizabeth's reign sought to avenge on the haughty
Spaniard their nation's wrongs, were not unfrequently influ
enced by no higher motive than the pirate's hope of plun
der ; and when the sceptre of Elizabeth had passed into the
weak hands of her successor, the struggle of servility and
lust in his ignoble mind, led to the last expedition and to
the judicial murder of Sir Walter Raleigh.
A stem retributive justice marks the ways of Providence

340

THE PILQBIM FATHERS.

England's
first Colo
nies.

CHAP. L in dealing with nations. Judgment may tai'ry long, but its
time of execution is certain to arrive. England's first
colonies planted beyond the Atlantic, are stamped to this
day with the mingled character of their founders's motives.
Commercial enterprise, and the love of free institutions
derived from their Saxon ancestry, still influence the cha
racter of the Southern States, but the curse of slavery
checks their full development, and younger colonies out
strip them in the race. Nevertheless England justly claims
an honourable place among the nations of Europe for the
spirit whick guided her plans of colonization in the latter
end of the sixteenth, and in the seventeenth century.
Much of the lustre which dignifies the name of Drake, is, it
must be confessed, due to his success in a career of bold
piracy ; but while daring adventurers at the court of Eliza
beth, valued only the chances of lavifless plunder, or the
unbounded spoils of the undiscovered El Dorado, statesmen
of sounder judgment fostered the commercial spirit, by
which alone this love of adventure could be turned to good
account, or beneficial plans of colonization carried into
efiect. Sorae of the ablest men of their day were the leaders
in England's first schemes of colonization. Foremost among
these stands the name of Raleigh, a man whose varied and
extraordinary gifts have rarely been surpassed by the
greatest men of any age or country. In him we behold the
highest -virtues of the soldier, the statesman, and tbe man
of letters combined. His calm courage, self-possession, and
unconquerable perseverance, admirably fitted him to be the
founder of a colony. With him were associated Ralph Lane,
Sir Richard Gren-ville, Cavendish the great navigator, and
Harriot, the inventor of the system of notation in modem
algebra. Under the guidance of such leaders, the first Eng
lish colonists of America reached the Vii'ginian coast, and pro
ceeded to explore the country they had taken possession of.
Lane thus described the first impressions of the colonists,
after they had examined the region wherein they proposed to
build and plant, and establish themselves as the founders of
a great colony : — " It is the goodliest soil under the cope of
heaven ; the most pleasing territory of the world ; the con
tinent is of a huge and unknown greatness, and very well
peopled and to-wned, though savagely. The climate is so

sir Walter
Balelgh.

TUB PILGRIM I'ATHBRS. 341
wholesome, that we have not one sick since we touched the csifJr. l
land. If Virginia had but horses and kine, and were in- '
habited with English, no realm in Christendom were com
parable to it."-*
Such is the glowing description, furnished by one of the TiicPlantini;
colonists, of the land of promise which they had gone to ° 'S " »•
take possession of. No wonder that disappointment speed
ily followed. Lane, and the whole body of the Virginian
settlers precipitately deserted " the paradise of the world,"
and when the first ship, despatched by Raleigh from Eng
land to his new colony, arrived, laden -with all needful
stores and provisions for the infant settlement, they searched
in vain for the sanguine dreamers, who had pictured in
sueh extravagant terms the possessions won by thera in the
New World. Raleigh was not discouraged by the failure
of this attempt at the colonization of Virginia. He leamed
wisdom from experience, and even thus early adopted the
policy on which alone the true basis of successful coloniza
tion has ever been founded. The golden dreams which
deluded the first European colonists of America were akin,
alike in object and results, to the old alchymist's search
for the philosopher's stone. The painful alchymist lost not
only the gold he was in search of, but the wealth of know
ledge and of substantial commercial treasure which the
researches of modem chemistry have disclosed ; and in like
manner the Spanish colonists slighted the treasures of a
genial climate and a fertile soil, while chasing the phantom
of an illusive " land of gold." The superior wisdom and
,agacity of Raleigh were manifested by the adoption of a
totally different policy. " He determined," says Bancroft,
"to plant an agricultural state; to send emigi-ants with
wives and families, who should at once make their homes
in the New World ; and, that life and property might be
secured, he granted a charter of incorporation for the settle
ment, and established a municipal govemment for the city
of Raleigh. The company, as it embarked, was cheered by
the presence of women ; and an ample provision of the
implements of husbandry gave a pledge for successful in-
iustry."t • Kajph Lane, in Hakluyt, voL iii. p. 311.
t Bancroft's Hietory of the United States, vol L p. 48.

342

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

CHAP. L It is not our object to follow out these early schemes for
the colonization of America, in which the courage and
enterprise of Englishmen were displayed in defiance of the
selfishness or the timidity of their rulers, and the Saxon
race was firmly planted in the western heraisphere. Other
motives than commercial enterprise or the base lust for gold,
were destined to plant amid the wilds of the New World
the germs of free institutions, and the rudiments of that
great nation which is rapidly extending over a vast conti
nent the descendants of the old Anglo-Saxon race.

CHAPTER II.
THE PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.

True liberty is stiU the birth of time,
And springeth up, for all that tyrants whet
-Iheir pitiful ingenuity, to fret
The bud npshooting through the frosty rime;
That, for their pruning, doth the higher climb.
Spreading a leafy bower, wherein, elate.
The world shall yet rejoice, as consecrate
To virtues flourishing therein sublime.
Quit ye as men, be true then, who would fight
In this so holy cause ; think ye a soul
Weighed down by beggarly lusts can have a right
To urge God's ark of freedom to its goal ?
They must be holy who're ordained to be
The high-priests of a people's liberty.

CIIAP. IL It is not necessary for our plan that we should follow out
Rise of the here the history of the narrow and bigoted policy of tbe
Pnrttana Stuarts, which so largely contributed to the new develope-
inent of colonization under the Christian exiles of New
England. The history of the English Puritans, which
forms so large a part of this volume, supplies an accurate
and carefully vmtten digest of the annals of nonconformity,

THB PILaBIM fathubs. 343
from the pen of one well suited to the task. There the CHAP. It
reader will learn of the rise of a small but resolute commu-
nity of conscientious Nonconformists, in the north of Eng
land, towai'ds the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Even
thus early had these men despaired of effecting such changes
in the Church of England as they deemed essential to
its purity and accordance with New Testament models,
and resolved, " whatever it might cost them, as the Lord's
fi'ee people, to join themselves by covenant into a churcli
state." Such English Covenanters were not confined to
this body of Nonconformists in the north, though they pe
culiarly merit attention ; nor are the pilgrim-colonists of
England their sole descendants. In the portion of this vo
lume devoted to the history of the Puritans, we trace the
like principles maintained -with fidelity by many others, in
defiance of sufferings and ignominous death. Udal, Cop
ping, Thacker, Johnston, Greenwood, Barrow, and the gen
tle Penry, " the first, since the last springing of the gospel
in this latter age, that publicly laboured to have the blessed
seed thereof so-wn in those barren mountains of Wales ;"
all these, and many more brave confessors, endured impri
sonment and ignominious death in the struggle for a pure
church in England. The object they aimed at, though not
always distinctly understood by themselves, was the sepa
ration from the church of those secular elements which the
peculiar forms established under the royal reformers of
England's ecclesiastical polity, had riveted more securely
even than under the papal sway. They sought to establish
the law, -within their own sphere, at least, and by their
example, that membership in a Christian church could
pertain, of right, only to men of Christian character ; that
its ministers must, of necessity, be alone Christian men.
Such were the principles which excited the indignation Quetn EUaa-
of Queen Elizabeth and her subservient courtiers, as well ^J^j^y' ™p«-
iudeed they might. Henry VIII. overthrew the dominion
of the Pope of Rome in England, only that he might estab-
hsh in his person a pope of her own ; and Elizabeth, the
last of the Tudors, was not a whit behind her despotic sire.
She valued her ecclesiastical, even more than her civil
supremacy, and looked upon those who laid claim to
greater liberty of conscience than it suited her arbitrary

344 THE pilsbim fathbbs.
CHAP, n will to concede to them, as rebels who were leaguing to
wrest from her the most valued half of her empire. Queen
Elizabeth derived these opinions no less from her education
than frora the almost universally received dogmas of the
period ; nor was she countenanced in them alone by the
subservient and courtly priests of the dominant church.
Such men as Cartwright and Udal, the Fathers of English
Presbyterianism, were scarcely less inimical to the more
enlarged views advocated by Robert Brown, and afterwards
more consistently by Robinson and others, than the most
pliant churchmen of the Court. It was only when the
cruelty of the legal oppressions to which these early Pro
testant confessors were subjected, roused the natural in
stincts of humanity to protest against the excesses of legal
oppression, that the Govemment met with any check to its
The peculiar tyranny. The peculiarity of Queen Elizabeth's position,
v" °°' however, is worthy of special notice, as supplying an im
portant element in the source of such proceedings. To the
Roman Catholic subjects of the English crown Henry VIIL,
Edward, Elizabeth, James, and Charles, appeared alike as
usui-pers of the prerogative of the Supreme Pontiff' when
tliey claimed to themselves the spiritual supremacy, as
head of the Church, which had formerly belonged to him,
and still remains an ill-defined anomaly araong the royal
prerogatives of England. But Queen Elizabeth was not
only an intruder on the papal prerogative, — in the eyes of
English Roman Catholics she was an illegitimate descend
ant of the profligate Henry VIIL, and utterly incapacitated
from succeeding to his throne ; nor can the legal casuist
wlio calmly investigates the "whole history of Henry's
intercourse with the fair maid of honour of his first Queen,
deny that the English Catholic had reason on his side.
Queen Elizabeth was accordingly placed in a false position,
which, while it bound her by indissoluble ties to the Pro
testant cause, incited her to guard with peculiar jealousy
those prerogatives which had been wrested frora the Pope.
When the Roman Catholic challenged her spiritual supre
macy, she regarded him as no less distinctly denying her
legitimacy, and pronouncing her a usurper ; and when, at
the very opposite extreme of religious parties, the conscien
tious Congregationalist demuri'ed at the constitution of the

THE PlLOBIK FAIHEhS. 345
state-church, he was placed in the same categoi-y with the CHAP. u.
protesting Catholic, and looked upon and treated as a rebel. "
The accession of the vain and weak pedant, James VL, Accession of
while it removed the possibility of challenging the legitimacy ""^ ^'™''*'
of the succession, in no way affected the opinions it had
given rise to. That imbecile monarch clung with no less
pertinacity to the prejudices than to tho assumed preroga
tives of his predecessor ; and the claimant of liberty of con
science was equally subjected, under his reign, as in that of
Elizabeth, to all the penalties of open rebellion.
It was at the very close of Queen Elizabeth's long and The first
prosperous reign, that these humble and little-noticed pio- pi^iSt. *
neers of religious liberty in England found the yoke of
bondage too galling to be longer endured. With patience
worthy of the foUowers of Him who endured for us all the
indignities and virongs that the enmity of sinful nature and
devilish malice could devise, they had borne confiscations,
imprisonments, mutilations, and cruel deaths, not only
without murmuring, but with uncomplaining and even
thankful submission. Henry Barrow, the son of a gentle
man of good estate in Norfolk, had united with his old
fiiend and fellow-student at Cambridge, Mr John Green
wood, in holding secret assemblies for reUgious worship in
Islington, — then a quiet village, at some distance from the
English capital. It is a place memorable in the history of
the English sufferers for conscience' sake. It was a retreat
of the persecuted Protestants while Mary's martyr fires
raged in Smithfield, and kindling piles were preaching to
thousands throughout England with stronger eloquence
than the voices they were destined to quench. In Eliza
beth's and James's reigns we frequently find it the chosen
shelter of persecuted Nonconformity ; and in the lives of
the ejected ministers of St. Bartholomew's day, it is no less
often referred to, as the refuge of the persecuted Puritans
of the Restoration Government. It was, in fact, the first
stage in the pilgrimage of those who at length found a final
resting-place beyond the Atlantic.
Both Barrow and Greenwood were apprehended in con- Noncoa-
sequence of these Islington meetings, and committed to the feasor*
dungeons of Newgate : their crime was forming churches
and conducting religious worship contrary to law ; and to

346 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. n. this was added the charge of impugning the Queen's pre-
rogative of spiritual supremacy. They were condemned to
the gallows. Conveyed to Tyburn, and with the rope round
their necks, these brave confessors held fast to the faith and
doctrines they had professed as the true teaching of the
Holy Scriptures ; but they declared their unshaken loyalty
to the Queen, and their fidelity to the Government, express
ing unfeigned sorrow if they had ever been betrayed into
any expression of irreverence or undue freedom against
those in authority over them. They prayed for the Queen,
for their country, and for all who had borne a part in their
sufferings and condemnation. It was with their dying
breath. They were about to close their eyes on all earthly
things, when suddenly a reprieve was announced. Her
Majesty had interposed her royal prerogative of mercy,
and they were led back to Newgate amid the shouts and
acclamations of the populace. The bitterness of death
was past. The captives wrote to Elizabeth, urging that
their loyalty could no longer be doubted, since they had
maintained it when they believed all hope was vain, and
beseeching her, at the least, to interpose on then- behalf,
and mitigate the rigour of their imprisonment in the loath
some dungeons of Newgate. But the royal reprieve was a
heartless mockery. These Christian men, who vrith their
last breath, as they believed, had prayed for the Queen of
England, and called down the blessings of Heaven on her
throne and kingdom, were secretly led back on the morrow
to the same spot where they had before so bravely feced
death, and executed with the ignominy of felons. In like
John Penry manner the noble-hearted young Welshman, John Penry,
was hurried to the scaffold. In closing the final protest,
which he addressed to the Lord Treasurer, rather with the
desire of vindicating his character than from any hope of
mercy, he thus writes : " Subscribed with the heart and
he hand, which never devised or wrote any thing to the
discredit or defamation of my sovereign, Queen Elizabeth,
I take it on my death as I hope to have a life after this ;
by me, John Penry." But the martyr, while bravely bow
ing his head to the cruel blow, could not forget the ties that
bound him to life. He was sustained by the consciousness
of innocence and the prospect of heaven ; but his heart

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 347
yearned 07 3r the young wife and infant children, whom he chap. Ji,
must leave desolate in their sorrow. Assured, from his own Exile sng-
sad experience, that his brethren could entertain no hope ess'od.
of justice or liberty of conscience fi'om the tribunals that
had condemned him to death, he penned a letter " to the
distressed and faithftil congregation of Christ in London,"
which is charactei'ized by the same simple and touching
eloquence as his address to the Lord Treasurer, and by the
love, strong in death, of a faithful heart. In this he anti
cipates the distant refuge of the Pilgrim Fathers, urging
them to forsake their country and seek, in some foreign
land, the liberty to worship God ; and then he adds : " I
humbly beseech you, not in any outward regard, as I shall
answer before my God, that you would take my poor and
desolate widow, and my mess of fatherless and friendless
orphans, with you into exile, whithersoever you go, and
you shall find, I doubt not, that the blessed promises of my
God, made unto me and mine, will accompany them, and
even the whole church for their sakes ; for this also is the
Lord's promise unto the holy seed."
The ties of country are strong, and the stroke that severs The tiei oi
them is a harsh and cruel one, whatever be the necessity " ™^'
that drives the exile forth. Even the children of Israel,
though their lives had been made bitter with cruel bondage,
were loath to leave Goshen, wherein the patriarch had
established their fathers, as in a chosen and fertile land.
Their cr3' had already gone up to heaven, and yet it required
the aggravation of stiH crueler oppressions ere the thou
sands of Israel went forth, with their little ones, their flocks
and herds, and sought a home by the way of the wilderness
beyond the sea. But the rulers of England would not let
the sufferers rest. Imprisonments, with attendant miseries
crueler than death itself, penalties, confiscations, and wrongs
of every kind, at length filled up the cup of their sorrows.
Their state in England had become unendurable, and the
long-persecuted sufferers began very generally to look upon
voluntary exile as their sole refuge.
But, in the estimation of England's rulers, even voluntary The crime of
exile had become a crime. To live in England as Noncon- ^^P"'™'-'""-
formists was to live with the loathsome dungeon and the
gallows ever in view ; to leave it was at the risk of preci-

348 THE PILGRIM FATHEB8.
CHAP. II. pitating the fate which they attempted to avert. It is only
a little more than two centuries since Englishmen were
compelled to choose between such an alternative. " Even
this com'se," says Dr. Vaughan, in a well-written article on
the Pilgrim Fathers, " was beset with difficulty. They
Escape of the could escape only by secret raeans; to be detected was to
first pUgrims, ^^jj j^^^ ^^^ Snare they were so much concerned to avoid.
But the thought of the religious freedom which might be
enjoyed in Holland was so welcome, that for that object
numbers became willing to bear the pains of separation fi-om
their native land, and to brave the dangers of attempting
to withdraw from it. Many made that attempt with suc
cess, but some were less fortunate. An instance of the
latter kind is recorded in the history of Robinson, a clergy
man, who had embraced the principles of the Brownists,
but who so far modified those principles on some points as
to bring them more into the form of modern Congregation
alism, and who, on that account, is generally regarded as
the father of the English Independents. Robinson, and a
large company, contracted with the master of a ship for a
passage to Holland. They were to embark at Boston, in
Lincolnshire, on a certain day, and from a point agreed
upon. The captain was not punctual. At length, however,
the vessel arrived, and, under cover of the night, the men,
and women, and children, all reached the ship in safety
But the captain was a villain. He betrayed them to the
officers of the port. The passengers and their goods were
immediately removed from the vessel to several boats in
waiting to receive them. All their property was turned
over and exarained, and not a little of it rifled. The per
sons of the men were searched, ' even to their shirts,' and
the women were treated with indelicacy and rudeness,
When these unhappy people reached the town, crowds as
sembled to gaze upon them, and raany mocked and derided
them. Nor was their condition improved when brought
before the magistrates. Several were bound over to the
assizes, and all were committed to prison. Some were re
leased after the confinement of a few weeks, others after a
longer period.
IWlureof "This happened in 1602. In the following spring, Ro-
Kobinson s Vinson and his friends resolved on making a second attempt

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 349
of this nature. They made an arrangement for this pur- CHAP. n.
pose with a Dutch captain ; and their plan now was, that
the men should assemble on a large common, between
Grimsby and Hull, a place chosen on account of its remote
ness from any town ; while the women, the children, and
the property of these parties, were to be conveyed to that
point of the coast in a barque. The men made their way
to the place of rendezvous, in small companies, by land.
But the barque reached its destination a day before the
ship. The swell of the sea was considerable, and as the
females were suffering greatly from that cause, the sailors
ran the barque into the shelter of a small creek. The next
morning the ship arrived, but through some negligence on
the part of the seamen, the vessel containing the women,
their little ones, and the property, had run aground. The
men stood in groups on the shore, and that no time might
be lost, the captain of the ship sent his boat to convey some
of them on board. But by this time, so considerable a
gathering of people in such a place, and in a manner so
unusual, had attracted attention; information had been
conveyed to persons of authority in the neighbourhood;
and as the boat which had taken the gi-eater part of the
men to the ship was proceeding again towards the shore,
the captain saw a large company, armed with swords and
muskets, and consisting of horse and foot, advancing towards
the point where the barque was still ashore, and where the
few remaining men had grouped together. Fearing the con
sequences of his illicit compact, the captain returned to the
ship, hoisted sail, and was speedily at sea. Robinson —
honest and able general as he was in every sense— had re
solved to be the last to embark. He was a witness, accord
ingly, of the scene of distress and agony which ensued.
The outburst of gi-ief was not to be restrained. Some of Sufferings of
the women wept aloud, others felt too deeply, or were too tehi^i
much bewildered, to indulge in utterance of any kind ; while
the children, partly from seeing what had happened, and
partly from a vague impression that something dreadful had
come, mingled their sobs and cries in the general lamenta
tion. As the sail of that ship faded away upon the distant
waters, the wives felt as if one stroke had reduced them all
to widowhood, and every child that had reached the years

350

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

CHAP II of consciousness, felt as one who in a moment had become
fatherless. But thus dark are the chapters in human affairs
in which the good have often to become students, and from
which they have commonly had to learn their special les
sons. The ship soon encountered foul weather, and after
being driven far along the coast of Norway, all hope of sav
ing her being at one time abandoned, she at length safely
reached Holland."*
Such was the fate of those who were foremost in the
guUt of seeking to escape from persecution. But even to
the servile magistrates of King James, it seemed monstrous
to punish and imprison -wives and children for no other
crime than that of seeking to accompany their husbands
and fethers. They could not send them home, for they
had no home left in England ; and at length, after enduring
much misery, they were left to go whither they pleased.
Persecution had become generaUy odious by its excesses ;
and during the reaction which followed, Robinson and the
remainder of his company succeeded in escaping from their
native land, and, early in the year 1608, the English exiles
effected a settlement at Leyden.

Escape of
Robinsonand his
company.

CHAPTER IIL
LOVE OF COUNTRY.

By the gathering round the mnter hearth,
When twilight called unto household mirth;
Ey the fairy tale or the legend old
In that ring of happy faces told,
By the quiet hour when hearts unite,
In the parting prayer and the kind " good night ;'
Ey the smiling eye and the loving tone,
Over thy life has the spell been tlirown.

Hemans.

CHAP. ro. DuEiNQ eleven years the English exiles lived together in
Leyden in peace and harmony. Their leader, John Robin-
? British Quarterly Review, vol. i. p. 15.

THE PILORIM FATHERS. 361
son, was a man of devout piety, and of great leaming and °^*^'"^
judgment. The fame of their virtues and worth attracted
numbers from England, and won the respect of the people
among whom they had sought a home. "The church
under the care of Robinson," says Dr. Vaughan, " increased
until it numbered more than three hundred members, con
sisting almost wholly of English exiles. Robinson himself
was greatly respected by the clergy of Leyden, and by the
professors in the university, and on raore than one occasion
the pastor of the congregational church in that city gave
pabhc proof that his piety, his araiableness, and his emi
nently practical understanding, were allied with sound
scholarship, and with much intellectual vigour and acute-
ness. He succeeded also, in comraunicating much of his
own well-regulated temper to his charge. We have good
reason to believe that no church in Europe in that age
exhibited more of the wise simplicity of a primitive church,
or more of that correctness of habit by which we suppose
the primitive churches to have been distinguished."
England had proved so cruel a step-mother that it might Attractions
have been thought no difficult matter to wean these exiles °' S'''^*"*-
from the strong love of their native land. But these super
stitions of the heart, as they have been happily styled, are
not to be subjected to the cold formulas of reason. Com
mon sympathies had attracted the emigrants to Holland.
In the long struggle with Spain that country had been the
barrier of northern Europe against despotism and religious
intolerance. England had often been her ally, and garri
soned her walled towns with the island Protestants ; and
when at length the Spanish influence was utterly over
thrown in the Low Countries, an ecclesiastical discipline
had been established which the English Nonconformists
regarded vrith a favour they could not concede to the hier-
ai'chial constitution of the Church of England. There was
much, therefore, in the circumstances of the period, to point
out Holland as the fittest refuge for the English exiles. Nor
were they disappointed. Hundreds found there the peace
and liberty of conscience they were denied at home. But
they felt themselves as strangers in a strange land, and
sighed for old scenes femUiar and dear to them from many
fond associations.

352

THE PILOBIM FATHERS.

their suc
cessors.

Motives for
leavingHolland.

CHAP. III. The annals of the Pilgrim Fathers naturally excite the
gy^pathy of li-yeliest uiterest among their American descendants and
successors. With the excusable pride of a new people, emi
grants who have hardly lost the provincial patois of soms
rural district of England or of Germany, boast of the fathers
of New England as the root of their family tree ; and even
the calmer annalist overlooks the legitimate inferences
from the evidence at command when treating of this fa
vourite theme. Bancroft, the historian of the United States,
strangely enough, describes these exiles for conscience' sake
as " restless, from the consciousness of ability to act a more
important part on the theatre of the world. The career of
maritime discovery," he adds, " had been pursued with dar
ing intrepidity, and rewarded with brilliant success. The
voyages of Gosnold, and Smith, and Hudson ; the enterprise
of Raleigh, and Delaware, and Gorges ; the compilations of
Eden, and Willes, and Hakluyt, had filled the commercial
world with wonder."-*
The reader may be pardoned if he smile at the republi
can historian when ^le describes the home-sick exiles of
Leyden, as impatient to play their part in " the great drama
of humanity!" as he has elsewhere styled it. The gentle
English poetess has caught the source of their actions with
truer inspiration, when she exclaims : —
" "WTiat sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine ?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? 
They sought a faith's pure shrine!"
The American historian assigns juster motives, however,
for the final decision of the Pilgrims to abandon their
foreign resting-place, and found a new home under the
government of their native land. " Weighty reasons,, often
and seriously discussed, inclined the Pilgrims to change
their abode. They had been bred to the pursuits of hus
bandry, and in Holland they were compelled to leam
mechanical trades ; Brewster became a printer ; Bradford,
who had been educated as a farmer, learned the art of dye
ing silk. The language of the Dutch never became plea
santly familiar ; and their manners still less so. The cli
mate was not grateful to the aged ; and close occupation
in mechanical trades was detrimental to the young. The
• Bancroft's Hist. V. S. vol. I p. 808.

THU riLiilllM i'ATHEUS. 3.33
dissoluteness of the disbanded soldiers and mariners, who had CHAP, m,
gro-wn licentious in the recent wars, filled the English with
anxiety, lest their children should become contaminated;
and they were moved by an enlightened desire-of improving
their condition — the honourable ambition of becoming the
founders of a state.
'Upon their talk of removing, sundry of the Dutch would
have them go under them, and made them large offers ;'
but the Pilgrims were attached to their nationality as Eng
lishmen, and to the language of their line. A secret, but
deeply-seated love of their country led them to the gener
ous purpose of recovering the protection of England by
enlarging her dominions. They were ' restless ' with the
desire to live once more under the government of their
native land.
And whither should they go to acquire a province for Proposed
Kmg James ! The beautiful fertility and immeasurable t"^^
wealth of Guiana had been exhibited in dazzling colours by
the brilliant eloquence of Raleigh. But the terrors of the
tropical climate, the wavering pretensions of England to
the soil, and the proximity of bigoted Catholics, led them
rather to look towards Virginia ; and Robert Cushman and
John Carver repaired to England to obtain consent of the
London company to their emigration. The envoys were
favourably received ; and a patent, and ample liberties were
cheerfully promised. Assured of the special approbation of
Sir Edwin Sandys, they declined completing their negotia
tion till they could consult the multitude with whose
interests they were intrasted. The Pilgrims, following the
principles of deraocratic liberty, transraitted to the corapany
their request, signed by the hands of the greatest part of
the congregation. ' We are well weaned,' added Robinson
and Brewster, ' from the delicate milk of our mother coun
try, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land ; the
people are industrious and frugal. We are knit together as
a body in a most sacred covenant of the Lord, of the viola
tion whereof we make great conscience, and by virtue
whereof we hold ourselves straitly tied to aU care of each
other's good, and of the whole. It Is not with us as with
men whom small things can discourage.' "*
• Bancroft's Hist; U. S. vol i. p. 303.

grantSL

354 TUE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP III. Weightier and nobler motives than the vanity of imsatis-
True'motives fied ambition moved these Christian exiles to seek a home
of the emi- for themselves and their children beyond the Atlantic ; nor
was the feeling of loyalty without its influence on their
generous spirits ; that loyalty which springs from the un
quenchable love of country, which neither time nor distance
can overcome. A republican vrriter will hardly, perhaps,
venture to analyze the feelings which prompted the wronged
and persecuted exiles still to speak with pride, in the land
of the stranger, of the King of England as their " natural
"Prince." Cruel as were the wrongs which they had received
fi-om King James, and hopeless as they were of any ame
lioration of the condition of English Nonconformists, they
nevertheless shrunk from the thought of their children
becoming the subjects of a foreign crown. England, with
all her faults, was still their native land, and the love they
bore her only deepened amid the strange aspects of their
foreign shelter, and proved itself unquenchable. The
spirit which moved them to seek an abiding home was the
very opposite of that restless ambition, which the republican
historian deems essential to the founders of the state of New
England. Their motives were far more generous and noble.
The desire for peace induced them to leave Amsterdam in
1609, after they had lived there about a year, although,
says Govemor Bradford in his History of Plymouth Colony,
" they well knew it would be much to the prej udice of their
outward estate, both at present, and, in all likelihood, in the
future ; as indeed it proved to be." The old historian, after
enlarging on the attractions of Leyden, as " a fair and beau
tiful city, and of a, swoet situation," adds of it, "but want
ing that traffic by sea which Amsterdam enjoyed, it was
not so beneficial for their outward means of living and
estates. But being now here pitched, they fell to such
trades and employments as they best could, valuing peace
and their spiritual comfort above any other riches whatso
ever ; and at len^^th they came to raise a competent and
somfortable living, and with hard and continual labour.
Being thus settled, after many difficulties, they continued
many years in a comfortable condition, enjoying much sweet
and delightful society and spiritual comfort together, in the
ways of God, under the able ministry and prudent govern

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 3J5
ment of Mr. John Robinson and Mr. William Brewster, chap. m.
who was an assistant unto him in the place of an elder, char'S'erof
unto which he was now called and chosen by the church ; Eobtason.
60 as they gi-ew in knowledge and other gifts and gi-aces of
the Spirit of God ; and lived together in peace, and love,
and holiness. And many came unto them from divers parts
of England, so as they grew a great congregation. And if
at any time any differences did arise or oflences broke out,
(as it cannot be but that sometimes there -will, even amongst
the best of men,) they were ever so met with and nipped
in the head betimes, or othervrise so well composed, as still
love, peace, and communion was continued, or else the
church purged of those that were incurable and incorrigible,
when, after much patience used, no other means would
serve ; which seldom comes to pass.
"Yea, such was the mutual love and reciprocal respect Love of his
that this worthy man had to his flock, and his flock to him, ^'"*^
that it might be said of them, as it was once said of that
famous emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and the people of Rome,
that it was hard to judge whether he delighted more in
having such a people, or they in ha-ving such a pastor. His
love was ^eat towards them, and his care was always bent
for their best good, both for soul and body. For, besides
his singular abilities in divine things, wherein he excelled,
he was able also to give direction in ci-vil affairs, and to fore
see dangers and inconveniences ; by which means he was
very helpful to their outward estates; and so was every
way as a common father unto them."*
The magistrates of the city bore honourable testimony to Testimony to
their -virtuous and peaceable lives during the years they J^' ^^arac-
sojourned among thera ; and when they spoke of seeking a
place of final settlement in the New World, " sundry of the
Dutch would have them go under them, and made them
large offers." But England was still the home of their
hearts, and its institutions a birthright derived fi-om their
fathers, which they would not willingly forego. They
dreaded " that their posterity would in a few generations
become Dutch, and so lose their interest in the English
nation," while love rather than ambition prompted the de-
• Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, p. 3S. Boston 13^

0.-)6 THE PILGRIM FATBEBS.
CHAP. III. sire "to enlarge his Majesty's dominions, and to live under
their natural prince."
NeRoaatlons Negotiations were immediately entered into with the
ginia Com- " Virginia Company, and even the favour of the King was
vany. sought to be conciliated, but in vain. Their generous and
unquenchable loyalty met with no like response. It was
in the year 1618, that the messengers from the exiles at
Leyden were received by the London merchants, who con-
troled the direction of the Virginia Company. Until four
years preceding this, the whole extent of country between
Florida and Canada was loosely comprehended under the
name of Virginia; but in 1814, the name of New England
began to be generally applied to the northern portion. Two
companies had been chartered by James to colonize the
country, and empowered to efiect regular and perma
nent settlements, extending to an hundred miles inland.
The one of these merchant companies was in London, the
other in Plymouth, and it was with the latter that the Pil
grims of Leyden negotiated their scheme of colonization.
The enterprise had already been maturely weighed. Solemn
days of humiliation had been set apart, in which they sought
divine guidance by united prayer ; and at length it had been
resolved, " that part of the church should go before their
brethren into America, to prepare for the rest. And if in
case the major part of the church should choose to go over
with the first, then the pastor should go along with them ;
but if the major part stayed, that he should then stay vrith
them."
Arrange- The church at Leyden had good reason to look up with
ne'wcoiony!'* confidence to their generous guide, who was indeed a pastor
to that little flock. He appears to have been a man of the
raost noble and disinterested heroism, whose abilities fitted
him to shine in a far more conspicuous station, had he not
chosen rather to cast in his lot with the people of God.
But like Moses, he was only to guide them through the
wilderness, and behold the promised land from afar. Delays
and difficulties yielded before the persevering exertions of
the expectant colonists. Their property was sold and con
verted into a common stock, not, however, as Robertson the
historian affirms, " under the influence of a wild notion of
imitating the primitive Christians," but as an arrangement

THE PILOBIM PATHEB8. 367
into which they -were necessarily forced by the nature of CHAF.IIl
their negotiations with the English Company of Merchants, 
on whose co-operation they mainly depended for success.
Their first expenditure fi-om this fund was in the purchase
of the Speedwell, a small vessel of 60 tons. In this the
brethren who had formed the deputation to England, re
turned when their negociations were completed. Landing
at Delft Haven, they thence proceeded to Leyden, and re
ported their success. A patent had been obtained for the
emigi'ants under the Company's seal, which secured their
civil rights and ample liberty of worship, along with some
prospect of worldly comfort ; though in the latter respect the
Merchant Company had dictated terms wherein more respect
was paid to their own profit, than to the interests of those
who were to risk all in the attempt.
In addition to the Speedwell, which the intending emi- The May
grants had purchased in order to retain possession of it for *°^" '^'*
the service of the colony, the Mayflower, a ship of 180 tons,
¦was hired in Jjondon to sail in company with it, and to bear
the chief portion of the emigrants. The limited accommo
dation which could be afibrded in these vessels, admitted of
only a minority of the congregation at Leyden proceeding
to their new destination ; and Robinson therefore remained
behind. The parting between these pioneers and their
brethren was a most touching scene. The time had come at
length. Nearly the whole congregation, old raen, women,
and children, accompanied the emigrants from Leyden to
Delft Haven, and spent the last night in friendly converse
and prayer. They were to see their beloved pastor's face
no more, and doubtless the anticipation that such might be,
added not a little to the natural shrinking from tbe perils
they were about to face. At parting, Robinson addressed
to them the most affectionate and earnest councils, charac
terized by a spirit of enlightened judgment and true liberal- Parting id
ity, such as was rare indeed in that age. " Brethren," said ^°°*
he, "we are now quickly to part fi-om one another, and
whether I may ever live to see 3'our face on earth any
more, the God of heaven only knows ; but whether the
Lord has appointed that or no, I charge you, before God
and his blessed angels, that you follow me no further than
yon have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. 16

^68 THE PILOBIM FATHERS.
CHAP. ni. " If God reveal anj'thing to you by any other instrument
 of his, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive
any truth by my ministry ; for I am verily persuaded the
Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy
word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the con
dition of the Reformed Churches, who are come to a period
in religion, and will go at present no further than the in
struments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be.
drawn to go beyond what Luther saw ; whatever part of
his will our good God has revealed to Calvin, they will
rather die than embrace it. And the Calvinists, you see,
stick fast where they were left by that great man of God,
who yet saw not all things.
" This is a misery much to be lamented, for though they
were burning and shining lights in their times, yet they
penetrated not into the whole council of God ; but were
they now living, would be as willing to embrace further
light as that which they first received, for it is not possible
the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick
Antichristian darkness, and that perfection of knowledge
should break forth at once."
Parting at In the same noble spirit, Robinson wrote to the band of
eelft Haven, ^^,^ England emigrants ere they finally sailed for their
destination, urging upon them motives of action which
afford us the best evidence of the principles by which they
were actuated. It was a small and feeble company who
were thus committing themselves to the wide waste of
waters, and to the wilderness beyond ; but there were brave
and true men among them, whose names are now men
tioned with pi-ide in the populous cities of New England.
" As morning dawned," says Bancroft, after the night of
parting passed by them at Delft Haven, in Christian con
verse and prayer, " Carver, Bradford, and Winslow, Brew
ster the ruling elder. Allerton, and the brave and faithful
Standish, with their equal associates,- -a feeble band for a
perilous enterprise, — bade farewell to Holland ; while Ro
binson, kneeling in prayer by the sea-side, gave to their
embarkation the sanctity of a religious rite. A prosperous
vrind soon wafts the vessel to Southampton, and, in a fort
night, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, freighted with the
first colony for New Englamrt, leave Southampton for Ame-

THE PII.QRIM PATHISRS. 359
rica. But they had not gone far upon the Atlantic before CHAP. UL
the smaller vessel was found to need repairs ; and they enter
the port of Dartmouth. After the lapse of eight precious
days, they again weigh anchor ; the coast of England re
cedes ; already they are unfurling their sails on the broad
ocean, when the captain of the Speedwell, -with his cora
pany, dismayed at the dangers of the enterprise, once more
pretend that his ship is too weak for the service. They Ahandon-
put back to Plymouth, to dismiss their treacherous compa- Sfeedweii!°
nions, though the loss of the vessel was ' very gi-ievous and
discouraging.' The timid and the hesitating were all freely
allowed to abandon the expedition. Having thus winnowed
their numbers of the cowardly and disaffected, the little
band, not of resolute men only, but wives, some far gone in
pregnancy, children, infants, a floating village, yet, in all,
but one hundred and one souls, went on board the single
ship, which was hired only to convey them across the
Atlantic ; and, on the sixth dij^y of September, 1620, thir
teen years after the first colonization of Virginia, two
months before the concession of the grand charter of Ply
mouth, without any warrant from the sovereign of Eng
land, -svithout any useful charter from a corporate body, the
passengers in the Mayflower set sail for a new world, where
the past could offer no favourable auguries.
" Had New England been colonized immediately on the
discovery of the American continent, the old English insti
tutions would have been planted under the powerful influ
ence of the Roman Catholic religion ; had the settlement
been made under Elizabeth, it would have been before ac
tivity of the popular mind in religion had conducted to a
con-esponding activity of mind in politics. The Pilgrims
were Englishmen, Protestants, exiles for religion ; men dis
ciplined by misfortune, cultivated by opportunities of ex
tensive observation, equal in rank as in rights, and bound
by no code but that which was imposed by religion, or
might be created by the public will."-*-
The difficulties seemed enough to daunt the stoutest Courage of
heart ; but the exiles were strong in the courage supplied by ^^ *="''''¦
noble principles and a pure feith ; and if these had failed
them, had they not even the courage of despair 1 Whither
• Bancroft's Hist, of U. S., vol. i. p. 307.

360 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. HL were these poor outcast children of England to go, if not
onward, even amid such dangers. The all that they pos
sessed was with them, and their only hope lay beyond the
terrors of the Atlantic. But God's eye was over them, and
his dealings seemed as the winnowing of Gideon's band, —
" It shall be that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go
with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomso
ever I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, the same
shall not go." These, indeed, -vvere the true founderis of a
colony, the elements from whence a great nation might arise,
and return upon the Old World the influences of the noble
principles in which it found being.

CHAPTER IV.
THE LAND OF PROMISE.

Not as the flying come,
In silence and in fear,—
Tliey shook the depths of the desert gloom
With their hjinns of lofty cheer.
Amid the storm they sang,
And the stars heard and the sea !
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods ran.g
To the anthem of the free.

CHAP IV. The pioneers of civilization, who bear the seeds of future
colonies and kingdoms to distant lands, require, under the
most favourable circumstances, the utraost courage, firm
ness, and self-denial ; and never were such virtues more
eminently required than among the wandering outcasts
whom the little Mayflower was bearing to the New England
shores. On the 22d of July, 1620, they had taken their
last farewell look on the fond group of brethren and friends
who knelt on the shore, and commended them to the pro
tection and favour of Heaven. The vessel weighed anchor
and stood to sea under a smiling sky and &vouring breeze.

THE PILORIM PATHEIIS, 361
and soon the receding sail faded before the eyes of these CHAP. IV
faithful watchers, and disappeared on the faint blue line of
the distant horizon. Wives were there, and children ; the
young, the sanguine, and hopeful ; old men, too, were there,
and some who looked forward with doubt and fear even
under the smiling skies and prosperous breeze ; — how must
their hearts have sunk within them when weeks and months
passed over, and found them still far frora the goal of hope?
It was the sixth of September ere the Jlayflower at length
sailed from Plymouth, and the Pilgrim Fathers saw the
headlands of Old England fade for ever frora their sight.
The Old World had cast them forth ; it was with no cheer
ing welcome that the New World received her adopted
sons. Nevertheless the eye of God was upon them, and his good The choseo
providence had prepared for them the chosen land. From '^°*-
amid the convenient harbours, and the majestic bays and
estuaries with which the coasts of America abound, the
Pilgrims had chosen for their destined home the mouth of
the river Hudson, where now the wealth of every quarter
of the globe is home by native saUs. But a less hospitable
coast had been chosen for them, where they should rear
their tabernacle in the wilderness. After a long and stormy
voyage of sixty-three days, during which the emigrants had
endured great sufferings, and one had died, the anxious out-
lookers were gladdened by the sight of land.
Fresh difiiculties perplexed the wanderers as they touched
the shores of the New World. The pluce of their destina
tion was the Hudson River, which lay t tne south, and the
patent which they had obtained under the Virginia Com
pany's seal, at considerable cost, and after long vexation and
delay, was of less value, in that northern latitude, than the
sheep-skin on which it was engrossed. But the land seemed
to the weary voyagers to smile in welcome. The place of
their intended settlement -was one of the most fertile and
convenient along the whole Atlantic sea-board, and, whe
ther from treachery or ignorance, their captain liad guided
them to one of the least inviting portions of the coast. But
the Pilgrims yielded to the natural impulse of the tempest-
tost wanderer at the sight of the green earth. "The appear-
»nce of it," says Governor Bradford, " much comforted us,

362 THE PILORIM FATHERS.
CHAP. IV. especially seeing so goodly a land, and wooded to the brink
¦ ¦ of the sea, it caused us to rejoice together, and praise God
that had given us again to see land." Nevertheless, they
were not inclined to overlook the risks which they must
incur by forfeiting the privileges of the charter it had cost
them so much labour and difficulty to procure ; and after
they had gi-atified themselves by setting foot on the New
World, towards which their hopes had so long been turned,
they resolved to endeavour still to reach their destined set
tlement. " The pilgrims," says Vaughan, " as they reached
the shore, fell upon their knees, and blessed the God of hea
ven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean,
and delivered thera fi'ora raany perils and miseries. It
is not too much to say, that in that first prayer fi-om the
soil of the New World, ascending from so feeble a brother
hood amidst a wilderness so desolate, there were the seeds
of a new civilization for mankind, the elements of all free
dom for all nations, and the power which in its turn shall
regenerate all the empires of the earth. Half a day was
thus spent. The Pilgrims then urged the captain to pursue
his com'se southward. But the Dutch had resolved to estab
lish settlements of their own in those parts, and had bribed
the commander to frustrate the purpose of the colonists in
that respect. This he did by entangling the ship amidst
shoals and breakers, instead of putting out to sea, and foul
weather coming on in the early part of the second day, they
were driven back to Cape Cod. It was now the middle of
November. The shelter offered at the Cape was inviting.
The captain became impatient to dispose of his company
and return. He admonished them that nothing should in
duce him to expose himself and his men to the hazard of
wanting provisions. Unless they meant, therefore, that he
should at once set them and their goods on shore and leave
them to theu' course, it would behove them to adopt their
own measures and to act upon them without delay. They
knew that the documents they had brought with them from
England gave them no authority to attempt a settlement oa
the land now before them. But the plea of necessity was
upon them, and was more than enough to justify them in
selecting a home wherever it might be found. The voyage
had reduced most of them to a weak and sickly condition.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 363
The wild country, as they gazed upon it frora their ship, CHAP. IV.
was seen to be covered with thickets and dense woods, and 
already wore the aspect of winter. No medical aid awaited
them on that shore, no friendly greetings, but hardship and
danger in every form. They felt that their safety, and such
poor comfort as might be left to them, must depend on their
power to confide in God and in each other. Hence, before
they left the Mayflower, they constituted themselves as
subjects of their 'dread sovereign lord King James,' into a
body politic, and bound themselves to such obedience in all
things as the majority should impose."-*-
American writers are, not unnaturally, inclined to make Voluntary
the most of the independent position thus forced upon the «>°stttatioa
Pilgrim Fathers of New England. The terais of this volun
tary political constitution were thus briefly drawn out, and
signed by all the men of the party :—" In the name of God,
amen ; we, whose names are underwritten, the loyal sub
jects of our dread sovereign King James, having undertaken,
for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian
faith, and honour of our king and country, a voyage to
plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do,
by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence
of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves
together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering
and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and
by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame, such just
and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices,
from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for
the geneial good of the colony. Unto which we promise
all due submission and obedience."
This inosl; interesting document is worthy of admiration,
not because of any claim which it asserted to the Republi
can's ideas of the rights of man,- — for it is a mere fanciful
liberty of speech to characterise it by any such high-sound
ing terms, — but from the wisdom and sagacity it displayed
in these Fathers of the New England state. It was a re
cognition of the advantages of social union, and of well-
defined laws, over the wild liberty of men loosed from all
restraint ; and it acquires its peculiar value when we re-
• British Quarterly Review, p. 23.

364 THE FILGHIM FATHERS.
CHAP, rv member that the men who thus carefully guarded these
fruits of civilization, had been driven forth to this inhospi
table wilderness by the oppressive laws of this same " dread
sovereign King James," whose loyal subjects they so anxi
ously strove still to remain.
Opmions of But the aspect in which the self-constituted polity of the
^ericant PUgrim Fathers is viewed by the modern American, is not
unworthy of notice. The very prejudices of patriotism are
sacred, and the fancies that liberty and nationality inspire
have a value altogether apart from the severe deductions of
the logician. " This instrument," says , Bancroft, " was
signed by the whole body of men, forty-one in number,
who, with their families, constituted the one hundred and
one, the whole colony, ' the proper democracy,' that arrived
in New England. This was the birth of popular constitu
tional liberty. The middle ages had been familiar with
charters and constitutions ; but they had been merely com
pacts for immunities, partial enfranchisements, patents of
nobility, concessions of municipal privileges, or limitations
of the sovereign power in favour of feudal institutions. In
the cabin of the Mayflower, humanity recovered its rights,
and instituted govei-nment on the basis of ' equal laws '
for the ' general good.' John Carver was immediately and
unanimously chosen governor for the year."-*
In like terms, Dr. Cheever rejoices over the " unpatented
and unfettered" landing of the Pilgrims to take possession
of their new homes ; though acknowledging that another
patent, which included their settlement, had been drawn
up and signed ere their landing. " Meanwhile," says he,
" the noblemen and gentlemen engaged before in the old
patent for North Virginia were seeking a new and separate
patent of incorporation for New England, under the style
and title of the council established at Plymouth, in the
county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and
governing of New England, in America, which, says Mr.
Prince, is the great and civil basis of all the future patents
and plantations that divide this country. This patent they
at length obtained from King James ; but it was not signed
by the King until long after the Pilgrims had set sail, not
indeed till November 3, 1620, just before the Mayflower
• Bancroft's Hist of C. b., voL 1^ p. 810.

THE PILCRIJI FATHER;?. 30.3
anchored in Cape Cod harbour. There the Pilgrims were to chap, iv
land in New England, unchartered bj' any earthly power,
and were to take possession at Plymouth of their desired
retreat in the wilderness, in full liberty o; conscience, un
patented and unfettered."*
Yeai-s of suffering, perplexity, and fears, had prepared Schooling of
the exiles of Leyden for contentment -svith a humble rest- " ^™*
ing-place, and tedious months of hardships and disap
pointments schooled them into moderating their hum
blest wishes, ere at length they set foot on the New Eng
land shores. It seems to be the appointed law of pro-vi-
dence to perfect men in the school of suffering, for every
great work ; and many circumstances had combined to
accumulate hardships roimd these devoted pioneers of
civilization. They had parted ^^ith their brethren at Delft
Haven in the warm month of July, and the bright skies of
an early English harvest cheered them as they embarked
at Southampton on board the Mayflower. But hope long
defeiTed had made them sick at heart, and the warm breezes
of July had been exchanged for the boisterous gales of the
Atlantic, ere the weary fugitives stepped on the New Eng
land shores just as winter was assuming its keenest severity.
They stood between the wilderness and the sea. In doubt
and difiiculty their leaders strc ye to explore the coast, with
the hope of lighting on some more sheltered and convenient
spot whereon to found the first city of refuge for the outcast
children of England. But tirae was pressing ; the captain
of the Mayflower was impatient to be gone, and no friendly
guide appeared to bid them welcome and point them to a
liaven of rest. No friendly guide, — and yet an unseen hand
was there, not unrecognized, amid all their sufferings, by
these weary wanderers. God in his good providence, was
leading them by a way that they knew not. The chosen
spot whereon they were to find rest and the liberty of con
science, in pursuit of which they had braved such perils,
was already prepared ; even as the land of promise, when
" the ark of the covenant of the Lord of aU the earth" passed
over before them into the Jordan, and the people of Israel
entered as an armed host to take possession of then long-
promised inheritance.
• The riymouth Pilgrims, p. 12L New York. 1848. 16*

S6S THE PILQRIH FATHBBS.
CHAPTER V.
THE NHW WOBIiD.

"There were men with hoary hair,
Amid that Pilgrim band;
Wliy had they come to wither there.
Away from their childhood's land?
There was woman's fearless eye.
Lit by her deep love's truth ;
There was manhood's brow serenely high.
And the fiery heai-t of youth. —
Wliat sought they thus afar ? HsuAKa

CHAP V. '^^ ^^® ^^^^ hunter who sought pleasure as well as profit in
 the toils of the chase, or to the hardy adventurer whom the
eo™ ^ novelties of a strange land had attracted from the Old
World, there were not wanting romantic incidents on the
New England coast. But though these have been preserved
to us in the quaint and graphic descriptions of Governor
Bradford's Journal, they ofiered no attractions to the poor
exiles, cast amid the incleraencies of winter on a bleak and
inhospitable shore. Nevertheless, they were no body of
unprincipled adventurers, such as those who had landed on
the shores of Virginia during the previous reign, in expec
tation of possessing the golden treasures with which the
New World was reputed to abound. In the " Chronicles
of the Pilgrims," we find evidence enough that they had
counted the cost before leaving the shores of Europe.
" Some," says the contemporary annalist, " from their rea
sons and hopes conceived, laboured to stir up and encourage
the rest to undertake and prosecute the same ; others, again,
out of their fears, objected against it, and sought to divert
from it, alleging many things, and those neither unreason
able nor unprobable ; as that it was a great design, and sub
ject to many inconceivable perils and dangers; as, besides
the casualties of the seas, (which none can be freed from,)

Tliu PILGRIM FATHERS. 3(i7
the length of the voyage was such as the weak bodies of chap. V.
men and women and such other persons, worn out with age 
and travail, (as many of them were,) could never be able to
endure; and yet if they should, the miseries of the land
which the}- should be exposed unto would be too hard to
be borne, and likely, some or all of them, to consume and
utterly to ruinate them. For there they should be liable
to famine, and nakedness, and the want, in a manner, of all
things." Nor does the chronicler forget the " danger of the
salvage people who delight to toi-ment men in most bloody
manner that may be." But to all these it had been answered,
"that all great and honourable actions were accompanied
with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and
overcome \rith answerable courages. It was gi-anted the
dangers were great, but not desperate, and the difficulties
were many, but not invincible ; for although there were
many of them likely, yet they were not certain. It might
be that some of the things feared might never befall them ;
othei"?, by provi'dence, care, and the use of good raeans,
might in a great measure be prevented ; and all of thera
through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might
either be borne or overcome."-*
From the greatest of all these dangers, (that of the savage The ohoseE;
Indian,) they were rescued by the good Providence that
cast thera, against their wills, on the bleak coast of New
England. Had they followed out their original plan, and
the requirements of the charter granted under the seal of
the Virginia Company, they would in all probability have
perished by the hands of the Red Indian tribes, who then
populated the vast savannahs along the shores of the Hud
son. Various attempts had been made from time to tirae
to colonize New England, but without success ; and at length
all thought of it seemed abandoned by the boldest of Eng
lish adventurers, unless where they occasionally established
a temporary summer station there, for trafficking with the
Indians. But the chosen soil which had thus been protected
by the mde hand of the savage from the mere mercenai-y
adventurer in search of gain, was suddenly prepared for the
reception of those who " sought a faith's pure shrine." The
first of the natives with whom the Pilgrims had any intelli-
• Chronicles of the Pilgrims, pp. 48-fiO.

3J8 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. V. gibie intercourse was Saraoset,an Indian of theWampanoags,
' who had acquired some smattering of the English tongue
frora frequent intercourse with the fisherraen who visited
that shore. From him they learned that a terrible pesti
lence had broken out among the tribes of Massachusetts
only four years before, and that out of these Indian nations
who had numbered among them thirty thousand fighting
men, scarcely three hundred were left alive. There was no
need of the signing of treaties, or the smoking of the calumet
of peace, as in the negotiations of the founder of Pensyl-
vania. The land was without possessors ; the succession of
heirs had failed ; and the broad savannahs had been gifted
anew, by their great Suzerain, to the wandering outcasts of
the pale-faces.
The inhospi- Scarcely any position can be conceived of as more desolate
e g ore. ^^^^ ^j^^j. p£ ^^j^g passengers on board the Mayflower, when
it rounded Cape Cod, and cast anchor in Plymouth Bay.
After their tedious and long-protracted voyage, their eyes
at length rested on the land of promise. But no friendly
hand was extended to welcome them to the shore. Along
the coast, far as the eye could reach, no spot appeared to
offer even a convenient landing, or a commodious shelter;
while, on board, they must have felt that they could repose
little faith on the friendly aid of the mercenary hirelings
who had guided the Mayflower thus far from their destined
haven, and were now impatient to land thera and begone.
Dreary indeed raust have teen the prospect that presented
itself, when, after a tempestuous passage, during which the
little band, with their wives and infant children, had been
exposed for nine weeks to all the ten-ors of the stormy
Atlantic, they still hesitated to land. Exploring parties
tracked their way through the woods, followed on the trail
of the wild Indians, and strove with all diligence to fami
liarize themselves with the capabilities of the new country
they had come to take possession of Their desires were
humble enough, their gratitude overflowed in thanksgivings
at the least favour of Heaven. After a long and devious
ramble, in which their slender stock of provisions had
proved inadequate for their wants, their own journalist re
marks: "About ten a'clocke we came into a deepe valley,
full of brush, wood-gaUe, and long grasse, through which

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 369
we found little paths or tracks, and there we saw a deere, CHAP. V.
and found springs of fresh water, of which we were heartily
glad, and sat us dovme and drunke our first New England
water, with as much delight as ever we drunks di'inke in
all our lives."-*-
So soon as the voluntary charter of association, already The land
referred to, had been drawn up and signed by every member ""'"'"'"'
of the new colony, a party of sixteen explorers was sent on
shore "to see what the land was, and- what inhabitants
they could meet with." Time pressed ; the chUl blasts of
winter were already come, and the little band, with their
wives and helpless infants, were to be left to brave its worst
on that inhospitable shore. Yet sorae sixteen raore precicms
days were spent ere the carpenter could unship the shallop
and render it sea-worthy, they " having been forced to cut
her downe in bestowing her betwixt the decks, and she was
much opened with the peoples' lying in her." There are
no complaints or murmurs recorded in these early journals
of the Pilgrims, from which we quote. It is only by such
passing allusions as this that we leam of their privations.
For the tedious weeks of the long voyage, when tossed about
by the equinoctial gales of the Atlantic, the shallop between
the decks had been the hard couch of these uncomplaining
wanderers. Meanwhile, however, the explorers set out to
examine the capabilities of their destined home. They
struck inland, and found a little path to certain heaps of
sand, one of which they dug into, " musing what it might
be." It contained a bow and arrows greatly decayed, the
simple memorials of an Indian warrior, one of the last of
his race. They left the others untouched, because they
thought " it would be odious unto them to ransacke their
sepulchres." There was deep meaning in this first disco
very, though they thought not of it at the time. They met
with many more such evidences of death. The same Jour
nal records at the close of the month : " We followed cer
taine beaten pathes and tracts of the Indians into the
Woods, supposing they would liaue led vs into sorae Towne,
or houses ; after wee had gone a while, we light vpon a
very broad beaten path, well nigh two foote broad, then we
¦? Journal of the proeeediogs ot the Plantation settled at Plymouth in New
England. Nov. 16, 1G20.

UiU THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CUAP. V. lighted all our Matches, and prepared our seines, conclud-
ing wee were neare their dwellings, but in the end we found
it to be onely a path made to driue Deere in, when the
Indians hunt, as wee supposed. When we had marched fine
or six myles into the Woods, and could find no signes of
any people, we retumed againe another way, and as we
carae into the plaine ground, wee found a place like a graue,
but it was much bigger and longer then any we had yet
scene. It was also covered with boords, so as we mused
what it should be, and resolved to digge it vp, where we
found, first a Matt, and vnder that a fayre Bow, and there
another Matt, and vnder that a boord about three quarters
long, finely carued and paynted, with three tynes, or broches
on the top, like a Crowne ; also betweene the Matts we
found Boules, Trayes, Dishes, and such like Trinkets ; at
length we came to a faire new Matt, and vnder that two
Bundles, the one bigger, the other lesse, we opened the
greater and found in it a great quantitie of fine and perfect
red Powder, and in it the bones and skull of a man. The
skull had fine yellow haire still on it, and some of the flesh
vnconsumed ; there was bound vp with it a knife, a pack-
needle, and two or three old iron things. It was bound vp
in a Saylers canvas Casacke, and a payre of cloth breeches ;
the red Powder was a kind of Embaulment, and yielded a
strong, but no offensiue smell ; It was as fine as any flower.
We opened the lesse bundle likewise, and found of the same
Powder in it, and the bones and head of a little childe ;
about the leggs, and other parts of it was bound strings,
and bracelets of fine white Beads ; there was also by it a
little Bow, about three quarters long, and some other odd
knackes ; we brought sundry of the pretiest things away
with vs, and covered the Corps vp againe. After this, we
digged in sundry like places, but found no more Come, not
any things els but graues."*
Life In death. Nothing but graves ! and the keen frosts and snows of an
American winter already settling down upon them; the
morrow the 1st of December; and no shelter yet provided
against the inclement region ! A superstitions, or even a
desponding mind might be pardoned if, in like circumstances,
* Journal of the proceedings of the Plantation settled at Plymoth In N«ir
England. Nor. SOtli.

THE PILORIM FATHERS. 371
it read in such ominous traces of death's footsteps the fore- chap. t.
shadowing of doom. Yet therein lay their pledge of safety — "
and their charter to the soil. The Red Indian's lease of
ages of the forests of the New World had at length come to
an end. The Great Spirit had granted it to another race,
and the Red warrior and his child reposed together beneath
the memorial mounds of the Warapanoags.
And who shall deem the spot unWest,
¦Where Nature-* younger children rest,
Lnll'd on their sorrowing mother's breast ?
Deem ye that mother loveth less
These bronzed forms of the wilderness
She foldeth in her long caress ?
As sweet o'er them her wild flowers blow.
As if with fairer hair and brow.
The blue-eyed Saxon slept belov^.«
The explorers found other relics of the old Indian posses
sors of the soil, raore welcome to them than those we have
described. Digging into one of the forest mounds, which
seemed to have been very recently consti-ucted, they disco
vered " a little old basket full of feire Indian corne, and dig
ging further found a fine great new basket full of very fau-e
come of this yeare, with some 36 goodly eares of come,
which was a very goodly sight. The basket was round and
narrow at the top, it held about three or foure bushels,
which was as much as two of us could lift up from the
gi'ound, and was very handsomely and cunningly made."
It was a most opportune and seasonable discovery ; a trea
sure of more worth than a tumulus of such gold dust as the
first colonists of Virginia sought for in vain.
But the explorers met with other adventures, and found Forest ad-
evidence of the Red Indian's ingenuity and skill, ere they ^™
got their harvest treasure borne safely home. They had to
pass the night in the forest, and in the morning wandered
from the track, or as their quaint old journalist records it,
" were shrewdly pus-led, and lost their way. As we wan
dered," he continues, " we came to a tree, where a yong
Spi-itt was bowed downe over a bow, and some Acornes
strewed vnder-neath ; Stephen Hopkins sayd, it had beene
to catch some Deere, so, as we were looking at it, 'William
Bradford being in the reare, when he came looked also
• Ballads and other Poems. By John <J. Wliittlcr,

372 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. V. -vpon it, and as he went about, it gaue a sodaine jerk -vp,
and he was immediately caught by the leg ; It was a very
pretie devise, made with a rope of their owne making, and
ha-ving a noose as artificially made, as any Roper in Eng
land can make, and as like ours as can be, which we brought
away with vs."
It was a pleasant jest to the wanderers, in which the
gravest of them doubtless indulged in a laugh at their too
curious companion, thus caught in the Indian's deer-trap.
The hint, however, was well worth their study ; a lesson in
New England forestry which might serve them in good
stead, ere the ringing axes of the colonists should scare the
wild deer to follow the Indian hunter beyond the reach of
encroaching civilization. "And thus," adds the honest jour
nalist, "wee came both weary and well-come home, and
delivered in our corne into the store, to be kept for seed, for
we knew not how to come by any, and therefore were very
glad, purposing so soone as we could meete with any of the
inhabitants of that place to make them large satisfaction.
This was our first discovery, while om- shallop was in re
pairing."
winter's The rigour of the northern winter was now setting in,
and the want of any fit landing place added to the difficul
ties and hardships of the settlers. Every tirae they came
on shore they had to wade, often considerablj' above the
knees. The cold was severe, and the frost fi'equently so
keen that the water froze upon them, and made their gar
ments like coats of mail. Coughs and colds followed, and
the seeds of death were sown in many of that forlorn
band of pioneers in the wilderness. The roll is printed in
the recent American edition of the " Pilgrim's Journal,"
from that copied by Mr. Prince from the end of Governor
Bradford's folio manuscript. This list only gives the names
of the forty-one males who signed the original compact
drawn up on board the Mayflower, and of this little com
pany, twenty-one names are printed in italics, as those who
died before the following March. " For an nndefiled con
science, and the love of pure Christianity," says Prince,
"they first left their pleasant and native land, and encoun
tered all the toils and hazards of a tumultuous ocean, in
search of some uncultivated region, where they mighl

severities.

l-'iE riLOKlM FATHERS. 373
quietly enjoy tlieir religious liberties, and transmit them to CHAP. T
posterity, in hopes that none would follow to disturb or vex 
them." But they were to be sorely tried, and sifted, and
vrinnowed, ere the first-fruits were to be reaped, of a har
vest sovra in such toil and sorrow. Hardships and delays
aad been the first winnowers of the little host, and now
death stepped in and still further reduced the numbers of
these brave adventurers for liberty of conscience. They
had gone from " their pleasant and native land," only to
find a grave beside the burial mounds of the Red Indian.
The shallop was at length fit for sea, and Carver, Bradford, Firstexplo».
Winslow, and Standish, all celebrated 'm the annals of the ^s^"^-
infant settlement of New England, set ont with sorae eight
or ten men, to explore the shores of the New World, and
fix on the spot of their final settlement. But the season
was now far advanced. December had brought with it the
bitter blasts of -winter. The rude gusts of -wind dashed
the spray of the sea about them, which froze as it fell, con
gealing upon their garments like the mailed grasp of death.
On shore the prospect was little more cheering, for at length,
on the 8th of December, when they had risen before da-wn,
and commended themselves with pious fervour to the pro
tection of Heaven, their ears were for the first time stunned
with the horrid yell of the Indian war-whoop, and a flight
of arrows gave notice of an attack. A wandering tribe, to
whom the English were already an object of hatred, from
the wrongs done by former 'visitors, had stolen on the
exploring party; but they stood to their arms, and no
harm followed. Once more they thank God for his pro
tecting care over thera, and resume their task. For fif
teen leagues, they steer their shallop along the coast, in
search for a convenient harbour, but in vain. A storm sets
in, with snow and drizzling rain. The sea rises, the rudder
is broken, and the gathering clouds add to the gloom of
approaching night. One of the crew, who had visited these
regions before, assuring them of a convenient harbour with
in reach, they crowd all sail, the mast is shivered to pieces,
and the whole crew are on the point of perishing amid the
breakers of a lee-shore. On gaining the land, the half-fi'ozen
and weary wanderers tremble to kindle a fire lest it should
guide the fierce savage to their hearth. " In the moming,"

374

THE PILORIM FATHERS.

l-jrst New
EnglandSabbath.

CHAP. V. adds Bradford, " they found the place to be a small island,
"""" secure from Indians ; and this being the last day of the
week, they here di-y their stuff, fix tlieir pieces, rest them
selves, return God thanks for their many deliverances ; and
here, the next day, keep their Christian Sabbath." It was
the 9th of December, and the bitter experience of their
wanderings had giA'en no uncertain note of winter. Time
was pressing. Every consideration demanded haste, and
yet these single-hearted and sincere Christian men spent
the day in the solemn rites of Christian worship, and awoke
the sylvan echoes of_the Indian forest with their hymns of
thanksgiving and praise to God. " Thou in thy mercy hast
led forth the people thou hast redeemed ; thou hast guided
them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Thou shalt
bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine
inheritance, in the place, 0 Lord, which thou hast made
for thee to dwell in ; in the sanctuary, 0 Lord, which thy
hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and
ever." So might they — so perchance, may they — have sung,
in the words of the old Hebrew Prophet, in that first cele
bration of the Christian's rest amid the wilds of the New
World, which they had gone up to possess, as the servants
of the Most High.
" On Monday," says the old Pilgrim Chronicler, " we
sounded the harbour, and found it a very good harbour for
our shipping. We inarched also into the land, and found
divers corn-fields and little running brooks, — a place very
good for situation. — so we returned to our ship again
with good news to the rest of our people, which did much
comfort their hearts." This is the day ever memorable to
the children of New England as that on which the Pilgrim
Fathers first landed at Plymouth. It is one worthy of
commemoration, and annual rites and sacred sei-vices still
mark the return of its anniversary, familiar to the New
Englander by the homely but endearing appellation of
Forefather^ Day.
" Plymouth," says President Dwight, " was the first
town built in New England by civilized men, and those by
whom it was built were inferior in worth to no body of
men whose names are recorded in history during the last
1700 years. A kind of venerableness, arising fiom these

Forefathers'day.

THB PILOBIM TATHBBS. 376
fects, attaches to this town, which may be termed a preju- CHAP. T
dice. Still it has its foundation in the nature of man, and
will never be eradicated by philosophy or ridicule."*
The English reader will smile at the half apologetic tone
with which the Republican Divine acknowledges the influ
ence of these prejudices. Prejudices we may call them if
we please, but they spring from the sarae source whence
the noblest and the holiest feelings arise in the soul of raan ;
and cold must he be, whether of New or of Old England,
who could tread, unmoved, the spot which well authenti
cated tradition has recorded as that of the Pilgrim Fathers's
landii^. In 1774, the rock, which was in danger of being
buried by the increasing wharfage of the thriving sea-port,
became an object of attention to the successors of the Pil
grim founders of Plymouth. A mass of it, weighing seve
ral tons, was rescued from the threatened destruction, and
removed to an open area in the town, where it now stands
within an appropriate inclosure, — a far fitter memorial of
the Fathers of New England than all that the most costly
efforts of the sculptor, in brass or marble, could have pro
duced. " "Voici," exclaims M. de Tocqueville, with the
lively susceptibility of a Frenchman, " Void une pierre que
les pieds de quelques misirables toucheni un instant, et cette
pierre devient celebre ; die attire les regards d'un grand
peuple; on en venere les debris, on s'en partage au loin la
poussiere." It would be folly to attempt to realise the
thoughts of these wanderers, these misSrables, as they first
set foot on the rocky landing of Plymouth Bay. They dreamt
not of cities and empires founded by their efforts. They
sought only to discover a place of shelter where the weary
voyagers of the Mayflower might rear their home in the
wilderness. Nevertheless, be it remembered, their trust
was in God, and they were iu search of " some uncultivated
region," where they might not only enjoy religious liberty
themselves, but transmit the same to their latest posterity.
? Dwlght's Travels through New England, vol. il. p. UO.

376 THB PILGRIM FATHBBS.
CHAPTER VI.
THE WINTER OF HOPE.

What sought they there, — ^whose steps were on the dnst
Of the old forest lords? Not summer skies 9
Nor geuial zephyrs, nor the amenities
Of golden spoils. Their strength was in the trust
That breasts all billows of the abyss of Time,
The Rock of Ages, and its hopes sublime. Ambbioait Souvenie.

CHAP. VI The month of December had nearly dravm to a close, with
all the hopes and disappointments of that eventful year, ere,
amid the snows or dri-ving rain of an American vrinter, the
Pilgrim founders of New England got a beginning fairly
made to their destined settlement. Having fixed on the
scene of their intended home, the journal of their proceed
ings records four excellent and satisfactory reasons for set
tling there ; but the candid annalist adds, " The last and
especiall reason was, that now the heart of winter and un
seasonable weather was come upon us, so that we could not
go upon coasting and discovery without danger of loosing
men and boat, upon which would follow the overthrow of
all. Also cold and wet lodging had so tainted our people,
scarce any of us were free from vehement coughs, as, if they
should continue long, would endanger the lives of many.
... It was also conceived, whilst we had competent vic
tuals, that the ship would stay with us, but when that grew
low they would begone, and let us shift as we could." This
harsh and unanswerable argument of necessity sufficed
better than all other reasonings to promote unanimity
among the colonists. Wood was cut down and reduced to
shape for building materials, in the intervals between the
storms that usually attend on the closing season of the year.

Tliu PILGRIM FATHERS. ¦ 'A77
A rising ground was chosen as the site of the new city they chap, vl
were to found, and the citadel which was to secure its safety The~8ltoof
against the dreaded assaults of the wild Indian. The " great New Piy-
hai," which the old historian of the colony designates as
that " on which we point to make a platform and plant our
ordnance, which will command all round about," is now-
known to the modern New Englander as Burial Hill, an
eminence commanding one of the most extensive and mag
nificent sea views in the country.-* As the difficulties of
their task became more apparent, the whole company were
divided into families, the unmarried being required to
choose a femily into whose circle they should be adopted,
in order that fewer houses might be needed. By this wise
arrangement, the colonists were subdivided into nineteen
famUies; and at length, on the 9th of Januai-y 1621, the
first operations of building the infant city were begun. The
plot of ground was divided by lot among them, and each
party set dihgently to the task of providing a shelter and a
home in the wilderness for their little circle. Their houses
were built in two rows, for greater convenience and safety,
and although these primitive log huts have long since been
displaced by the superior mansions of successive generations,
the local historian still delights to point to the old thorough-
fere of Leyden Street, as the avenue first rescued by the
Fathers of New England from the primeval forest. But
such operations were necessarily difficult and slow, amid
the storms of winter and the wasting fever of slow consump
tion which already preyed on many of that devoted band.
Sometimes for days together nothing could be done. Brief
glimpses of suns-hine, between showers of sleet and pro
tracted snow storms, were the only opportunities the builders
had for their important task. Occasionally the painful
monotony of such difiiculties is relieved only by a change Difaeultles
of sufferings. A party sent to gather thatch loose their way '™''*answ
in the forest, and are forced to pass the night on the bare
ground, amid frost and snow, — destitute aHke of food or
shelter; or an invalid wandering a little way from the rising
settlement is beset by hungry wolves, and narrowly escapes
to bear home the tidings of such dangerous neighbours at
hand. The house set apart as a shelter for the sick takes
* Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 168.

378 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. VJ. fire, and is with difficulty extinguished ; the violent rain
- and -winds strip their half-built houses of the clay and mor
tar with which their builders had hoped to shield them
selves and families from the cold ; and the occasional dis
covery of an Indian trail, and even sometimes the glimpse
of a native straggler, or the smoke of their distant fires, fill
the feeble band of colonists with anx'ety and fear.
Thus did the infant settlement of New Plymouth slowly
progress, amid raany difficulties and dangers, and amid
much suffering patiently endured. There were wives, and
mothers, and sisters there. There were infants fondly
pressed to these mothers' breasts, amid the privations of
that dreary winter. There were husbands, and fathers, and
brothers too, sinking into untimely graves, who had come
from the far-off land of their birth, only to find a burial
place among the graves of the strangers.
£3"' °'*° John Carver had been chosen by the unanimous voice of
nor. ' his companions as the first governor of their little republic.
But his own home-circle had been one of the earliest marks
for the shaft of death. He had scarcely landed ere he was
called upon to dig a grave for his son, and he had only felt
the first breath of the south wind fan his fevered temples,
when he also sunk under the severities of the climate and his
unwearied anxiety for the common good, leaving a desolate
and broken-hearted widow, who was soon laid at rest beside
hira in the same grave. " Mai-ch 24," says Governor Brad
ford, " dies Elizabeth, the -wife of Mr. Edward Winslow.
This month thirteen of our number die. And in three
months past, dies half our company ; the greatest part in
the depth of winter, wanting houses and other comforts,
being infected with the scurvy and other diseases, which
their long voyage and unaccommodate condition brought
npon them ; so as there die sometimes two or three a day.
Of a hundred persons scarce fifty remain ; the living scarce
able to bui-y the dead ; the well not sufficient to tend the
sick, there being, in their tirae of gi'eatest distress, but six
or seven, who spare no pains to help them. Two of the
seven were Mr. Brewster, the reverend elder, and Mr.
Standish, their captain. The like disease fell also among
the sailors, so as almost half their company also die before
they sail. But the spring advancing, it pleases God the

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 379
mortality begins to cease, and the sick and lame recover ; chap. -VI
which puts new life into the people, though they had home
their sad afiliction with as much patience as any could do."
Such were the first experiences of the colonists of New Compared
England. Had they resembled the rabble of needy and ^,* Sfti"
dissipated adventurers, bankrupt courtiers, and covetous
gold seekers, who set sail only fourteen years hefore, with
the intention of colonizing Virginia, the fate of their pro
ject may well be conceived. Captain Smith described the
band of Virginian colonists as composed of some forty-
eight needy gentlemen to four carpenters. It was consi
dered as no little advantage to these emigrants, that they
took neither wives nor children in their train. Jealousies,
divisions, and excesses had sorely reduced their numbers
when they were recruited by a band of new comers, com
posed, in spite of Smith's remonstrances, chiefly of vagabond
gentlemen and journeymen goldsmiths, who were come to
do nothing else " but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, and
load gold." The main portion of the new comers retumed
to England, bearing with them a freight of worthless ochre,
which their unskillful refiners had satisfied them was gold
dust ; while Smith, whose ability and genius had raised
him to be president of the Council, had to adopt coercive
measures to compel the gentlemen-colonists to work, and
wrote home to the directors of the colony, " I entreat you
rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners,
fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of tree
roots, than a thousand such as we have."
Such emigrants as these we may well believe would have
found no gold on the New England shores, had they landed
there to brave the perils and endure the sufferings that at
tended on the founders of that free state. But they had
leamed to count the cost of their undertakings, and had
entered on the scheme of rearing a home amid the wilder
ness of the New World, in no hope of gathering gold from
the unbroken soil. They had calculated, as we have seen,
the worst dangers that were before them, yet it was scarcely
possible for the most candid foresight to have exceeded the
painful realizations of their experience. Sickness and many
privations disabled them, and death thinned their ranks of
the vrisest and ablest of their number, while the survivors

380

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

Breaking Bun shine.

CHAP. VL were sometimes scarcely able to tend on the sick, or to bui-y
the dead. At one period during that dreadful winter, only
seven were left out of the whole company capable of ren
dering assistance to their companions.
At Igngth the dreary winter began to draw to a close.
On the 3d of March a south wind brought warm and fair
weather, and the ears of the sad and toil-worn emigrants
were greeted with the cheering notes of the birds as they
" sang in the woods raost pleasantly." Other comforts fol
lowed in hke manner, though, like the warmth of the spring
sunshine, chequered by many keen blasts and disheartening
rains. On the 16th of March, "a fayre warrae day," while
the colonists were consulting together about the establish
ing of military orders among them for securing the safety of
the settlement, they were interrupted by the approach of a
Red Indian, whose presence filled them with alarm. But
their fears were happily groundless. Nor were they now
dependent for their safety on the forbearance of the Indian
straggler. Their citadel on Burial Hill had been laid out
according to the simple rules of fortification best suited to
this primitive settlement, and the captain and sailors of the
Mayflower had landed and mounted on their hill fort a for
midable array of ordnance, described in Governor Bradford's
history as " one of the great pieces called a minion, a sailer,
[sakerj and two bases," all pieces of artillery in common use
at the period. Tho Indian described himself as one of the
sagamores or chiefs of his tribe, but he came at the head of no
warlike band of savages, but frankly presented himself alone
among the strangers, hailing them with the pleasant Eng
lish salutation of " Welcome !" He was the first native of
the wilderness with whom they had been able to hold con
verse, and it must have sounded even stranger iu their ears
than the most unintelligible dialect of the forest, to be
saluted by the wild Indian in their o-wn mother tongue.
The colonists were soon on friendly terms with then- Indian
visitor. They entertained him hospitably ; giving him
"strong water, biscuit, butter, and cheese, -with pudding,
and a piece of mallard," and received from him information
of no little value to them. He informed them that the
Indian name of their new settlement was Patuxet, and from
him they first learned the glad tidings that they had no

THB PILGRIM FATHERS. 381
reason to fear the return of any Indian possessor to claim CHAP. -VI
from them the restitution of bis native soil. This fact,
however, was already well known to mariners who fre
quented the coast for the purposes of fishing or trading in
furs with the natives. Captain Dei-mer who had visited
the shores of New England in 1619, described the country
as consisting of " ancient plantations, not long since popu
lous but now utterly void," and all the writers of the period
who speak of New England agree in their accounts of a
deadly plague which had devastated the whole country,
from the Penobscot to Narraganset Bay, sweeping away
whole tribes in its progress, and nearly extei-minating the
old possessors of the soil. It cannot excite our sui-prise that
this should have been regarded, both by the devout colonists
of New England and by later historians, as an immediate
interjiosition of Providence, to make room for the settlement
of the English colonists. It was so viewed even by the
statesmen of England, in the seventeenth century, and is
no less confidently referred to by the devout author of the
" Plymouth Pilgrims," as the casting out of the heathen,
preparatory to God's planting there the vine which he
brought forth from the land of bondage.
In the great patent of New England, which was granted The appoint
by King James, — though unknown to the Pilgrim colonists, *¦
— before they had set foot on the sacred landing-place in
Plymouth Bay, the King thus refers to the extei-mination
produced by the Indian pestilence, as a strong inducement
to enter on the possession of these goodly but deserted ter
ritories : — " We have been further given certainly to know,
that within these late years there hath, by God's visitation,
reigned a wondei-ful plague amongst the savages there here
tofore inhabiting, in a manner to the utter destruction, de
vastation, and depopulation of that whole territoi-y, so as
there is not left, for many leagues together, in a manner,
any that do claim or challenge any kind of interest therein ;
whereby we, in our judgment, are persuaded and satisfied
that the appointed time is come in which Almighty God, in
his great goodness and bounty towards us and our people,
hath thought fit and determined, that these large and goodly
territories, deserted as it were by their natural inhabitants,
should be possessed and enjoved by such of our subjects and
17

382

THE PILGRIll TATUEKS.

Pro'*dential
arrange ments.

CHAP. -VI. people as shall by his mercy and favour, and by his power-
ful arm, be directed and conducted thither."
It would be a sti-ange amount of incredulous scepticism
that could induce any one to overlook so remarkable a con-
cuiTence of circumstances, or regard the depopulation of so
large a portion of the American continent at this important
crisis, as merely an accidental and chance coincidence. Had
the Pilgrims of New England been compelled to rear the
primitive log huts of Leyden Street, with their arms in their
hands, and the craft and cruelty of the Red Indian conti
nually opposed to thera, according to all ordinary proba
bility, the settlers who left England the following year to
cast in their lot among the survivors of that terrible winter
¦91'ould have found only the unburied bones of their friends
amid the blackened ruins of their log huts. Of this they
were themselves sufficiently aware. Holmes remarks in his
Annals :¦* " Tradition gives an affecting picture of the infant
colony during this critical and distressing period. The dead
were buried on the bank, at a little distance from the rock
where the Fathers landed ; and, lest the Indiana should
take advantage of the weak and wretched state of the Eng
lish, the graves were levelled and sown for the purpose of
concealment." How touching is the picture which this
presents to us of the privations and sufferings endured by
these uncomplaining exiles, denied even the sad privilege of
erecting the frail memorial of sorrow, or rearing the little
mound that speaks so eloquently of the calm repose of the
dead. It was no vague fancy that kept the early colonists alive
to the constant danger of attack from the Indians. They
had repeatedly learned of their near neighbourhood, and
even had some experience of their violence, before they
learned from Samoset, their friendly visitor, that these were
only the straggling survivors of neighbouring tribes, who
had wandered to the deserted hunting-grounds of Patuxet.
The Indians of New England were not totally exterrainated,
though the survivors were but a feeble and scattered rem
nant of the old warriors of the forest. Samoset from time
to time guided parties of these to the new settlement, and
negotiated both friendly and trading alliances, from which
« Hohnes's Annals, 1 168, Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 199.

Indiannelgbhours.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 383
the colonists reaped considerable advantage; though from CHAP. -VI
the first they assumed a bold and uncompromising bearing '
in all their intercourse with the Indians, to which their
safety was in no slight degree to be ascribed. They were
bound together by the strongest ties of mutual esteem and
affection, no less than by those of self-interest, so that a
consistent harmony pervaded all their proceedings. The
first interruption to this, with the penalty thereby incurred, interrupted
are thus quaintly recorded in the Governor's journal, to- l"^'-"™/
wards the end of March : — " The first offence since our
arrival is of John Billington, who came on board at London,
and is this month convented before the whole company for
his contempt of the Captain's lawful comm.and with oppro
brious speeches, for which he is adjudged to have his neck
and heels tied together ; but upon humbling himself and
craving pardon, and it being the first offence, he is for
given." At length, with the return of spring, and the cheering Departure of
prospects inspired by the season of hope and promise, the flowe^^"
surviving colonists felt emboldened to trust to their own
resources, and on the 6th of April 1621, the Mayflower
hoisted sail, and bore away from Plymouth harbour for
England. It affords perhaps the best evidence of the firm
ness and unanimity of the little band of colonists, that not
withstanding the wasting effects of hardship and disease,
which had reduced their numbers to nearly a half of what
they originally were, and had subjected the survivors to
such dreadful privations and sufferings, not one of them
offered to desert his companions with the departing May
flower, whose lessening sail must have been watched by
some there, till it vanished on the horizon, as the last link
that bound them to the fiar-off land of their birth.

384

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

CHAPTER VII.
THE INFANT COLONY.

Can ye lead out to distant colonies
Tlie o'erflowings of a people, or your wrong'd
Brethren, by impious persecution driven.
And ai-m their breasts with fortitude to try
New regions; climes though barren, yet beyond
The baneful power of tyrants? These are deeds
To which their hardy labours well prepare
The sinewy arm of Albion's sons.

Dter.

CHAP. VII. The death of Govemor Carver, the first President of the
_ ' 7 little republic of New England, devolved on the colonists
Bradford. the necessity of a new election, and Mr William Bradford,
the historian of the colony, was accordingly selected to fill
his place. Hope now began to reanimate the settlers as
the season of summer drevir near ; and the first fruits of
their winter's toils and privations became apparent, in the
enjoyment of domestic comforts, and the prospects of a
fruitful harvest ere the year drew to a close. Their fortu
nate discovery of the hoard of Indian grain had supplied
them with the seed best adapted for the soil and climate of
their new settlement ; and their friendly visitor, Samoset,
repaid their hospitality by instructing them in the rules of
Indian husbandry.
One of the earliest entries in G<ivei-nor Bradford's His
tory for the first summer of the New England colony,
affords good evidence of the return of hope and confidence
among the survivors of those who had sailed in the May
flower. Under the date of May 12th the historian -uTites,
— "The first marriage in this place is of Mr. Edward Wins
low to Mrs. Susanna White." It furnishes the best proof
we could desire, that, after counting the cost, and experi
encing well nigh the utmost evils that despondency liad
suggested, the colonists had no thought of abandoning the

First New
Englandmarriage.

THE ni.CiRIM FATHERS. 385
hope of founding a home for liberty in the new world. It chap, vil
may perhaps also suggest to us that that influential motive 
of action which ordinarily springs from the fear of public
opinion, had, as yet, acquired but little power in the infant
commonwealth of New England, when it is noted that its
first bride and bridegroom were among those whom the
severities of the previous winter had deprived of their wed
ded partnei-s. But the necessities of such a state of society
are not to be subjected to the rules of ordinary life. The
fii'st New England marriage, notwithstanding the brief
widowhood which preceded it, is undoubtedly to be viewed
as the harbinger of brighter hopes to the poor exiles.
Evil mingles with good in all the social compacts of men, crimes and
strangely chequering the purest schemes of piety and penalties.
patriotism with evidences of the corruption and depravity
of our nature. The very next entry in Govemor Bradford's
journal records the first exercise of his judicial authority
on two culprits, arraigned for a far more serious crime than
that for which John Billington had been adjudged to be
tied together, neck and heels. The same summary mode
of punishment was resorted to in the case of the new
offender, who were convicted of fighting a duel with sword
and dagger, in which both were slightly ivounded. Though
on this occasion the culprits did not escape, the adjudged
punishment was mercifully executed. " The combat," says
Bradford, " was between Edward Doty and Edward Leister,
servants of Mr. Hopkins. They are adjudged by the whole
company to h.ave their head and feet tied together, and so
to lie for twenty-four hours, without meat or drink ; which
is begun to be inflicted, but within an hour, — ^because of their
great pains, — at theirown and their master's humble request,
upon promise of better carriage, they are released by the
Governor." The month of June found the settlers so far advanced Indian em
with the first necessary labours of a new colony, that they ***^"
had time to examine more accurately than had been before
possible, into the character of the surrounding country, and
the disposition of the native tribes who still retained pos
session of then- ancient hunting grounds. It was accord
ingly resolved to despatch a friendly embassy to Massasoyt,
the most powerful chief among the surrounding tribes.

386 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. -VII. '' partly to know where to find them, if occasion served, as
also to see thei;- strength, discover the country, prevent
abuses in their disorderly coming to us, make satisfaction
for some injuries conceived to be done on our parts, and to
continue the league of peace and friendship between thera
and us." Edward Winslow and Steven Hopkins were
selected to go on this delicate mission, in company with
Squanto, an Indian, who was to act as their interpreter.
He had been kidnapped at an earlier period by a miscreant
who carried off a number of Indians to sell them as slaves.
Squanto was rescued and taken to England, where he re
ceived much kindness ; and being at length restored to his
native land, he was well qualified to act as a mediator
between the new settlers and their Indian neighbours.
The messengers entrusted with this delicate embassy were
not sent empty-handed. They bore with them a supply of
trinkets best suited to gratify the tastes of their Indian
neighbours ; and, for the great Sagamore himself, a horse
man's coat of red cotton, trimmed with lace, which stirred
up in his Majesty no little pride, when he was decked in
such unwonted bravery of attire ! They strove also, with
skilful diplomacy, to reduce to sorae degree of certainty
and mutual confidence the future political intercourse be
tween the President of the little New England republic
and the great king Massasoyt. " To the end," says Wins
low, — the historian, as is believed, of the mission which he so
successfully negotiated,-* — " To the end we might know his
messengeis from others, our Governor had sent Massasoyt
a copper chain, desiring if any messenger should come frora
him to us, we might know him by bringing it -with him,
and hearken and give credit to his message accordingly."
Sie'ra^asrv. ^^® messengers of the colony met with a friendly recep
tion whenever they paused at an Indian settlement, and
were entertained by the gi'eat King Massasoyt according to
the most gracious rites of Indian hospitality, and invited to
pass the night in the same bed with himself and his wife,
— the colonial ambassadors at the one end and their Indian
Majesties at the other. Like other royal favours, it proved
somewhat irksome to the recipients, who had to complain
of very straitened accommodation, and record that " they
* See Ctuoniclea of the Pllcrim& Note oa p. 20&

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 387
were worse weary of their lodging than of their journey." CHAP. VU.
In the course of that excursion, they acquired considerable 
knowledge of their Indian neighbours, and learned that
rivalry and enmity stirred up constant feuds among the
tribes by whom they were sun-ounded. The sight of a
strange Indian filled their guides with watchfulness and
alarm ; and the most frequent warning they received was to
place no faith in the Narragansetts. But the courage of
the colonists, which had been undaunted by the privations
and sufferings of their first New England winter, was not
to be daunted by the bravados of Indian savages.
They learned soon after of some wrongs done to their Eupcdlllon
Indian ally by the Narragansetts, and being also informed, JJaians."''
though erroneously, of their having murdered Squanto, the
faithful interpreter of Winslow on his mission to Massasoyt,
an ai-med party of ten of the most trusty colonists was de
spatched to bring their troublesome neighbour to terms, or
punish him for his audacity. With the most determined
courage this brave little band marched into the forest, sur
rounded the house where they believed the obnoxious chief
to be, disarmed the Indians who came to the rescue, and
by their determined bearing completely awed the savages
into subjection.
The reader may perchance smile at the formidable expe- The Narra.
dition of ten armed colonists, going out to war on behalf of k™^**'-
their Indian ally, and striking terror to the hearts of their
enemies. Yet if we justly estimate it, there was more of
sound policy and gallant daring in the proceedings of this
handful of strangers, than has marked many a deed of arms
which historians have delighted to record, and which na
tions still look back to with exulting pride. The Narragan
setts, as they afterwards learned, were a numerous and
powerful tribe, occupying nearly the whole territory now
comprehended within the State of Rhode Island. They had
escaped the pestilence which depopulated the greater part
of New England ; and at the time that they were thus
menaced by the gallant Pilgrims, they numbered among
them five thousand fighting men, descendants of a martial
race, inured to arras, and confident by reason of the dimin
ished number of the rival tribes with whom they had been
wont to engage in war. Behind the little band of strangets

388 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CKAP. -VlL was nothing but the sea. Beyond it no powerful friends or
"  ¦ allies watched their fortunes, or hastened to bring them
aid. They were alone, and sorely reduced in numbers, on
that strange shore, where they had been forced to bury in
secret so many of their friends ; while before thera lay the
vast and unexplored forests of the New World, whose lords
they had defied and forced into submission by the terror of
their arras. Tet their proceedings were characterised by
the utmost moderation and self-command. They won the
respect of the Indians by the anxious care with which they
avoided injuring their women and children ; and so gi'eat
was the confidence they inspired, that even the wounded
Narragansetts repaired to New Plymouth to be healed by
the same hands that had inflicted the injuries.
Winsiow's In a private letter, addressed by Edward Winslow,
Indians.' '''^ towards the close of this year, to a friend in England,
he says, — " We have found the Indians very faithful in
their covenant of peace with us, very loving and ready to
pleasure us. We often go to them, and they come to us.
Some of us have been fifty miles by land in the coun
try with them, the occasions and relations whereof you
shall understand by our general and more full declaration
of such things as are worth the noting. Yea, it hath
pleased God so to possess the Indians with a fear of us,
and love unto us, that not only the greatest king amongst
them, called Massasoyt, but also all the princes and peo
ples round about us, have either made suit unto us, or
been glad of any occasion to make peace with us ; so that
seven of them at once have sent their messengers to us to
that end. Yea, an isle at sea, which we never saw, hath
also, together with the former, yielded willingly to be
under the protection and subject to our sovereign lord
King James. So that there is now great peace araongst
the Indians themselves, which was not formerly, neither
would have been but for us ; and we, for our parts, walk as
peaceably and safely in the wood as in the highways in
England. We entertain them familiarly in our houses,
and they as friendly bestowing their venison on us. They
are a people without any religion, yet very trusty, quick of
apprehension, ripe-witted, just."'*
• Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 232.

THE PILORIM FATHERS. 389
In the same letter, the writer refers to the first freight CHAP. VIL
sent home by the Colonists, and describes to his friends
the most useful stores to be provided by such as proposed
joining the first settlers in New England. Not the least
significant portion of this is the advice to " bring paper and
linseed oil for the windows, with cotton yam for the lamps ;"
requirements which furnish no little insight into the hard
ships of the Pilgrims, and the very homely accommodation
that sufficed to satisfy their lowly desires, and to fill their
hearts with gratitude and thanksgiving to God.
The vessel by which Edward Winsiow's letter was de- Good report
spatched to England was the Fortune, a small barque of " " ""
about fifty-five tons, which had arrived in Plymouth Bay
on the 9th of November, bringing thirty-five new settlers,
including, it is beheved, those who had been compelled
fo abandon the enterprise when the Speedwell put back,
owing to the fears or treachery of its commander. By
the same opportunity, William Hilton, one of the passengers
in the Fortune, thus sums up an account to his "loving
cousin," of the wealth and prospects of the country to which
he had been borne : — " Better grain cannot be than the In
dian corn, if we will plant it upon as good ground as a man
need desire. We are all freeholders ; the rent-day doth not
trouble us ; and all those good blessings we have, of which,
and what we list, in their seasons for taking. Our company
are, for most part, very religious, honest people ; the word
of God sincerely taught us every Sabbath ; so that I know
not any thing a contented mind can here want. I desire
your friendly care to send my vrife and children to me,
where I wish all the friends I have in England." The For
tune also brought a new charter, granted by the merchant
adventurers, as they are generally styled, but which was
probably never turned to account by the colonists, as it was
very shortly afterwards superseded by another patent, sur
reptitiously obtained by Mr. John Pierce, a pretended friend
of the emigiants, who treacherously laboured to place the co
lony completely in his own power, and to make the labour
of the emigrants mainly conducive to his own selfish inter
ests. The Fortune sailed for England on the 13th of December TheFortune^
1621, freighted with the first fruits of colonial industry, "'"^'"'
17*

390 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CEAP. VTL consisting of beaver skins, and wood of various kinds, to the
 value of £500. But the trials of the Pilgrims of New Eng
land were not at an end ; the brief summer of their pros
perity had once more gone by, and yielded them but a
scanty and deceitful harvest. As the Fortune drew near
TheFoi-tnne-s the English coast, she was seized by a privateer ; and, after
'*'"- being detained fifteen days in a French port, was released
to find her way to London with an empty hold. While the
colonists were cheered with the hopes arising from the an
ticipated fruits of the first export of the new settlement, the
friends who had been enabled to join the first band of exiles,
by means of the good ship Fortune, thus vainly freighted
¦with so many hopes, — however welcome to the little com
munity of New Plymouth, — threatened to involve them in
even raore dreadful hardships than had been endured dur
ing the previous -winter. They brought no provisions with
them, and the colonists now found themselves nearly doubled
in numbers, while their first harvest, gathered amid so many
difficulties, was almost the sole resource to which they could
look for the subsistence of the whole colony through the
second winter of its existence. To add to their many diffi
culties, the Fortune had hardly sailed from Plymouth Bay
when the colonists learned that the Narragansett Indians
were preparing to descend in overwhelming numbers to take
vengeance on the colonists for leaguing with Massasoyt, the
Challenge of chief of their most hated rivals. " The common talk," says
war. Winslow, " of our neighbour Indians on all sides was of
the preparation they made to come against us ;" and at
length an Indian messenger arrived at the New England
settlement, commissioned by Conanacus, the great sachem
of the Narragansetts, to bear to the colonists their symbolic
declaration of war. The Indian hastily entered the settle
ment, and inquiring for the interpreter, left for hira a bundle
of arrows wrapt in the skin of a rattlesnake. The colonist
to whom this missive was intrusted by the ambassador of
the Indian sachem, was somewhat puzzled to interpret its
significance ; but Governor Bradford was at no loss either
for a meaning or an answer to so intelligible a symbol, old
as the era of the great Persian empire, when the Scythian
chief sent to Darius his challenge of war by a herald, who
presented the king with a bundle of arrows. The Govemor

THB PILOBIU FATHERS. 391
removed the ai-rows, stuffed the snake's skin with powder CHAP. VIL
and shot, and sent it back to the warlike sachem, with a
message that if his shipping had been at hand to carry him
to the Indians' hunting grounds, he would have saved them
the trouble of so long a journey. Conanacus shrunk from
a conflict with men who possessed such mysterious and de
structive weapons. He dreaded even to touch the ominous
missive, and would not suffer the newly-stuffed snakeskin
to remain in his house or counti'y. It was posted from
place to place, filling the wild natives of the forest wigwams
with terror wherever it appeared; and at length it was
brought back untouched to the English settlement. The
calm courage and self-possession of the Governor had
¦wrought more effectually than armed battalions could have
done. The settlers received no more challenges to war.
Notwithstanding the courage of Govemor Bradford, he The citadel
was well aware of the inability of the little band of colonists "rtifled.
to contend against the Indians for any length of time, if they
brought so numerous a body against them as Conanacus was
capable of mustering. Every available means of defence
was therefore adopted. Early in the spring a strong stock
ade was constmcted, so as completely to enclose the top of
the hill whereon their cannon had been planted when they
first landed, and secure them a citadel to which they might
retreat in any emergency, and hold out against an over
whelming force. Beyond this they constructed a second
Kne of ramparts, inclosing the whole town with four bul
warks, in three of which the gates of the little town were
placed. The next step was to divide the whole available
force of the colony into four bands, to appoint captains to
each, and assign to them the charge of distinct localities for
defence, and the obseivation of certain well digested rules
for mustering and mutual co-operation, in case of any sud
den surprise. By this means confidence was infused into
the minds of the colonists, and effectual provision made for
their safety in the worst extremity.
There were other enemies, however, whom the colonists R^n^dprl
had to contend with, and who proved far more dreadfiil ™ "^
than the sachem of the Narragansetts. When the genial
breath of the first New England summer brought with it
healing on its vrings, and the voice of the singing birds was

392 THE I-ILGltIM FATHERS.
CHAP.vn. heard in the woods, cheering the exiles with the promise of
 harvest, and the prospect of realizing such a home as they
had longed for in that far wilderness, they naturally yielded
to renewed hopes. The sufferings of their first dreary winter
were forgotten, despondency gave place to joy and thanks-
gi-vings, and the letters which they despatched to their
friends in England and Leyden gave an account of their
condition which was far more justified by their hopes than
their experience. " Certain of ourselves," says Winslow,
" were too prodigal in their writing and reporting of that
Tooflattering plenty we enjoyed." One of the earliest fruits of this was
reports. ^j^g arrival of the Fortune, to which we have already refer
red, towards the close of autumn, bringing a band of new
settlers to the colony, totally unfurnished with any provi
sions for the approaching vrinter. Fresh settlers are indeed
the life of a colony, and had they landed in the spring, in
time to bear their part in the labours of colonial husbandry,
and to reap the harvest by which their winter stores were
to be supplied, the first emigrants would have had no reason
to regret the flattering accounts that tempted their friends
so speedily to follow in the track of the Mayflower. But
this augmentation of their numbers took place after their
harvest had been reaped, and laid up for their winter's
stores. " The Fortune," says Winslow, " carae so unpro
vided, not landing so much as a barrel of bread or meal for
their whole company, but contrariwise received from us for
their ship's store homeward." The consequence was, that
the whole body of colonists were reduced to subsist on half
allowance for nearly six months. They were no longer
compelled, as in their first winter's experience, to watch by
the deathbeds of their companions, and hide the graves of
their brethren, lest the watchful Indian should count the
green mounds of their little burial-field, and learn from
thence the weakness of the infent settlement. But they
had only exchanged deadly sickness for privations and want.
" I have seen men," says Winslow, " stagger by reason of
faintness for want of food ;" and yet the historian of the
colony tells of no repining or threatened desertion among
the devoted and faithful band, who thus shared their hard
won harvest with their brethren. At length even their
meagre and carefully-husbanded stores entirely failed them,

TUB PILGRIM PATHHES. 393
and toward the end of May they were left utterly destitute CHAP. vn.
of pi-ovisions. 
Such were the experiences of the settlers of New England Elements of
at the very time when they were returning to the sachem ^"*'^™<='^
of the Narragansetts their message of defiance, and calmly
pro-riding the means of defence against Indian stratagem or
open siege. The Pilgrim Fathers were slowly and painfuUy
laying the foundations of a mighty structure, which the
builders of many generations shall add to ere it be com
pleted. It was a work which the dark cloud was oftener
shadowing, than the ray of hope illuminating and brighten
ing vrith promise. They were to be perfected in the school
of suffering ; and, as the faithful pioneers of other genera
tions, to open up the way for those who are reaping the
harvest they sowed in hope and in tears. But they had
vrithin them the enduring elements of Christian feith and
trust, which guarded them against worse dangera even than
famine and disease. The self-sacrificing spirit of mutual
love protected the little colony from discord and strife, and
enabled it to surmount dangers and trials which had proved
the ruin of the powerful settlements of Vii'ginia, when they
numbered the colonists not by tens but by hundreds, and
boasted of noble birth and titled governors, and the influ
ence and protection of the Court at their command. But it
needed all the long-suffering patience and enduring hope of
the Christian to enable these exiles of New England to
brave the sufferings by which they were encompassed. The
first spring and summer, in which they watched the lessen
ing sail of the homeward-bound Mayflower, had seemed to
promise that their worst trials were at an end. But the
return of another summer found them even worse off than
at the first. They were starving in the land of promise. The
fruits of their first harvest were exhausted, ere they had
done more than comrait the seed for their next reaping to
the ground. Dearly indeed were the rights of conscience
and the home of liberty won. Costly was the price they
paid for freedom to rear their tabernacle in the wilderness.
Yet amid all their endurance of self-denial and suffering,
the Pilgrim Fathers never murmured at their lot. They
had counted well the cost. Their trusting reliance in the
overruling providence of God remained unshaken, and in

394 IHE PILGRIM FATHERS.
OHAP. vn. the darkest hour of their painful experience they looked
' with cheerful confidence to the future ; nor ever turned
back a repining gaze on the golden harvest homes of old
England, where still there was enough and to spare for
them, if only they would trample on the dictates of con
science, and worship God according to the will of a bigot
king. Rare, indeed, are the examples which history fur
nishes that may be compared with this united baud of
Christian brethren.

CHAPTER VIII.
PRIVATIONS AND DANOBBS.

Tes, in the desert there is built a home
For Freedom. Genius is made strong to rear
The monuments of man beneath the dome
Of a new heaven ; myriads assemble there,
¦Whom the proud lords of man. In rage or fear,
Drove from their wasted homea Shbzibt.

CHAP. -vm. Thb stores of the colonists had wasted slowly away, not-
Snmmer prl- withstanding the rigorous and impartial frugality with
TBtioni. which they were dispensed. The wild fowl, which are so
abundant at some seasons of the year, and had furnished
more than once a seasonable supply to their necessities
during their first vrinter's privations, were not then to be
seen. " No man," says Winslow, " will go into an orchard
in the -winter to gather cherries ; so he that looks for fowls
there in the summer will be deceived in his expectation.
The time they continue in plenty -with us is from the be
ginning of October to the end of March ; but these extre
mities befell us in May and June." True, indeed, the har
vest-time of their well-stored bay was then fully come.
The creeks and pools along the encircling coast of Cape
Cod were glittering with the silver fins of the bass and white

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 395
fish ; and farther off, the cod fish abounded in the deep CHAP VUL
waters of the Bay. But it was like the phantom streams 
of the desert to the traveller who is perishing of thu'st.
The nets which they laboured to construct gave way with
the very wealth of their seas ; they were destitute of the
necessary tackling for the cod fishery, never having con
templated the interchange of such occupations with the
labours of the field ; and they were in danger of perisliing
for want in the midst of abundance. Often they awoke,
with the necessity before them of going in search of means
for their moming's meal, ere they resumed the daily toils
by which a fiiture hai'vest was to be secured. It seemed,
indeed, as if no change was destined to bring about any
improvement on the hard lot of these suffering exiles ; and
doubtless, had they been mere trading adventurers, who
looked forward to the realization of worldly gain as the
great end of their settlement on the shores of New England,
the broad savannahs which the Pilgrim Fathers found with
out an owner, would speedily have been abandoned to the
solitude of their Indian sepulchres. But there they had
cast their lot, in full assurance that the good Providence of
God would work out for them a haven of rest, wherein they
might build an altar to his name, though it might be that
the way in which they were led would prove a weary and
desert road.
Among those friends who joined the first New England Robert Cush.
Pilgrims on the arrival of the Fortune, was Robert Cush- """^
man, whom Governor Bradford speaks of as " our ancient
friend, who was our right hand with the adventurers, and
for divers years managed all our business with them." He
it was who was sent from Leyden to England comraissioned
to enter into arrangements for the settlement of the Pil
grims in the Virginia Company's territories. He was one
of those who embarked in the Speedwell and were com
pelled to turn back. His whole sympathies, however, were
vrith the Pilgrims, and his prayers went forth for those
whom he deemed more fortunate than himself, as he
watched the lessening sail of the Mayflower, till it disap
peared on the distant horizon. Ere he reached the settle
ment of the Mayflower Pilgrims death had been busy with
the little circle. One and another of his friends, for whom

.-^96 THE PII.UKIM FATHERS.
CH.ir. ->-in he may have most fondly inquired, had found only a grave
where they had sought the home of liberty. He himself,
too, had to partake of the stinted rations of that severe
winter, and to share in the pinching cares of the uncom
plaining little band of friends, who, after parting their last
winter's stores with their companions, often retired hungry
and faint to rest, with no provision left for the moming's
meal. Nevertheless, he is the author of a plea for the Pil
grim colonization of New England, in which we trace the
tme elements of the devoted and self-denying spirit which
guided the Christian exiles in their unwavering course.
Reasons for He entitles it " Reasons and Considerations touching the
emigra mg. j^jj.,^fj,]Qggg gf Removing out of England into the parts of
America," in which he makes httle account, indeed, of the
needy adventurers, whose sole reason for abandoning their
native land, is their haste to be rich, and to store up the
fancied treasures of the land of gold. He thus deals with
the varied opponents, or opposites, as he styles them, of the
scheme of American emigi-ation. "Although the most
of the opposites are such as either dream of raising their
fortunes here, — than which there is nothing more unlike,
— or such as affecting their home-born country so vehe
mently, as that they had rather vrith all their friends,
beg, yea, starve in it, than undergo a little difficulty in
seeking abroad ; yet are there some who, out of doubt, in
tenderness of conscience and fear to offend God by running
before they are called, are straitened and do straiten others
from going to foreign plantations. For whose cause espe
cially I have been drawn, out cf my good affection to them,
to publish some reasons that might give thera content and
satisfaction, and also stay and stop the wilful and witty
caviller."
Character of A fine, touching train of natural eloquence mingles -with
C^man's jjjg quaint simplicity of these " Reasons and Considera
tions," testifying to the pure and elevated character of the
author's own motives to action. God of old, he says, did
summon our forefethers by dreams and -risions, and many
special providences, to leave their country and place oi
habitation, and wander from land to land, in obedience to
his will, but now no sueh calling is to be expected. " Now
the ordinary examples and precepts of the Scriptures, rea-

THE PILORIM FATHERS. 397
sonably and rightly unt'.erstood and applied, raust be the CHAP -vm.
voice and word that must call us, press us, and direct us in '
every action." Still the thought dwells on his mind that
God has some land of rest and of hope in store for his suffer
ing people, even as he kept so long the promised Canaan in
preparation for the chosen seed. But he deals vrith the
hope, not as an enthusiast, but as a Christian believer ;
reasoning with a degree of wisdom and intelligent simpli
city altogether remarkable, when we consider both the cha
racter of the age, and the cu'cumstances under which he
wrote. " Neither," ai-gues he, " is there any land or pos
session now, like unto the possession which the Jews had
in Canaan, being legally holy and appropriated unto a holy
people, the seed of Abraham, in which they dwelt securely,
and had their days prolonged, it being by an immediate
voice said, that the Lord gave it them as a land of rest
after their weary travels, and a type of eternal rest in hea
ven. But now there is no land of that sanctity, no land
so appropriated, none typical ; much less any that can be
said to be given of God to any nation, as was Canaan, which
they and their seed must dwell in, till God sendeth upon
them sword or captivity. But now we are all, in all places,
strangers and pilgrims, travellers and sojourners, most pro
perly, having no dwelling but in this earthly tabernacle ;
our dwelling is but a wandering, and our abiding but as a
fleeting; and, in a word, our home is nowhere but in the hea
vens, in that house not made with hands, whose maker and
builder is God, and to which all ascend that love the com
ing of our Lord Jesus."
Referring then to the straits and difficulties to which the inducemonte
dwellers in the crowded cities of the Old World are sub- old World.
jected in their daily struggle for subsistence, he alludes, in
passing, to the generous self-denial of the Patriarch Abra
ham, when his worldly-minded companion cast a gi'eedy
eye on the well-watered plains of Mamre, and exclaims, —
" Let us not oppress, straiten, and afflict one another ; but
see ng there is a spacious land, the way to which is through
the ,"ea, we will end this difference in a day." Finally, as
to the inducements, and the hopes and fears that might
guide those who sought a home beyond the Atlantic, he
remarks : — " The land being, first, a vast and empty chaos;

308 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. VIII, secondly, acknowledged the right of our sovereign king;
thirdly, by a peaceable composition in part possessed of
divers of his loving subjects, I see not who can doubt or
call in question the lawfulness of inhabiting or dwelling
there; but that it may be as lawful for such as are not tied
upon some special occasion here, to live there as well as
here. Yea, and as the enteiprise is weighty and difficult,
so the honour is raore worthy, to plant a rude wilderness,
to enlarge the honour and fame of our dread sovereign, but
chiefly to display the efficacy and power of the gospel, both
in zealous preaching, professing, and wise-walking under it,
before the faces of these poor blind infidels.
" As for such as object the tediousness of the voyage
thither, the danger of pirates's robbery, of the savages's
treachei-y, &c., these are but lions in the way ; and it were
well for such men if they were in heaven. For who can
show thera a place in this world where iniquity shall not
compass them at the heels, and where they shall have a
day without grief, or a lease of life for a moment 1 And
who can tell, but God, what dangers may lie at our doors,
even in our native country, or what plots may be abroad,
or when God will cause our sun to go down at noon-day,
and, in the midst of our peace and security, lay upon us
some lasting scourge for our so long neglect and contempt
of his most glorious gospel 1"*
nieauthorof The author of these " Reasons and Considerations" was
Ac. ' one of the friends from whom the first emigrants had parted
with aching hearts, when the Speedwell put back a second
time to Plymouth, and landed not only the cowardly and
faint-hearted, but the faithful and true partners in their
enterprise, who were thus compelled to abandon hopes so
fondly cherished and defended. He also, as we have seen,
was one of those whom the settlers welcomed amid mingling
hope and apprehension, when the good ship Fortune cast
anchor in the Bay. But for such friends privations might
be borne ; and we can the better understand the patient,
uncomplaining endurance of their hard lot, which the colo
nists displayed, after glancing at the simple declaration of
the motives and inducements to emigration set forth by
Robert Cushman. There is no high-coloured picturing of a
* Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 245.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 399
paradise of plenty amid the forests of the New World, where CHAP. -\T1L
the wanderers should forget all cares, and bask in the de-
fights of an eternal summer. Even after the first winter of
death, and the second, wherein death's allies, privation and
want, had threatened extermination to the colonists, they
could still read these " Reasons," and confess their justice
and candour, as well as the encouraging assurance which
then- calm Christian confidence was so well calculated to
yield. " The greatest let that is yet beliind," exclaims Robert
Cushman, in sumraing up the hindrances that tempted the
lingering pUgrims to hesitate, ere they committed them
selves for ever to the unknown solitudes beyond the ocean,
" The greatest let is the sweet fellowship of fiiends."
But that hindrance was being removed, not without mingled
sorrow tempering the joy with which they welcomed their
brethren to the shelter of their humble dwellings in the
land of their adoption.
In the month of May, 1622, amid the severe privations Squanto »
to which we have alluded, the colonists had other additions '™*''^^-
to theu' cares, arising from the knavery of Squanto, their
Indian interpreter. In his ambition to increase his own
consequence, both with the settlers and the Indians, he
had plotted and counter-plotted in a way that threatened
to uivolve them in an exterminating war. Not the least
ingenious device of the Indian plotter for raising his own
importance, along with that of his English allies, in the
estimation of his fellow-savages, was a story he narrated
to them, in order to fill them with the dread of utter exter
mination, at the will of the colonists, by the same mysteri
ous pestilence which had already depopulated so vast an
area of the American continent. Less scrupulous colonists
would have readily availed themselves of such falsehoods to
secure a hold on the superstitious fears of the Indians, but
these exiles for conscience' sake had leamed not to do evU
hat good may come. They hastened to tell the untutored
lavage that God alone holds in his hands that dread power,
oefore which the Red warriors of the forest had faded away
like the leaves of its autumn foliage. " Let me not omit,"
says the historian of the colony, "one notable, though
wicked practice of this Squanto ; who, to the end he

400 THE PILGRIM FATHERS
CHAP. vm. might possess his countrymen with tbe greater fear of us,
and so consequently of himself, told them we had the
plague buried in our store-house ; which, at our pleasure,
we could send forth to what place or people we would, and
destroy them therewith, though we stirred not from home.
Being, upon the forenamed brabbles, sent for by the Gover
nor to this place, where Hobbamock was and some other of
us, the ground being broke in the midst of the house,
whereunder certain barrels of powder were buried, though
unknown to him, Hobbamock asked hira what it meant.
To whom he readily answered, That was the place wherein
the plague was buried, whereof he formerly told him and
others. After this Hobbamock asked one of our people,
whether such a thing were, and whether we had such com
mand of it; who answered, No ; but the God of the Eng
lish had it in store, and could send it at his pleasure to the
destruction of his and our eneraies.
" This was, as I take it, about the end of May, 1622 ; at
which tirae our store of -rictuals was wholly spent, having
lived long before with a bare and short allowance."*
Maasaaoit's Massasoit, the Indian ally of the colonists, was filled with
"^^^ the utraost indignation on leaming of the machinations of
the knavish interpreter, and demanded that Governor Brad
ford should give him up to him to be put to death. The
Governor interceded for hira, and dismissed the Sachem's
messenger with many friendly assurances ; but he speedily
returned, accorapanied with others, one of whom bore Mas-
sasoit's own knife, with which, according to the Indian
custom, the offender was to be beheaded. Along with this,
the Indians brought a valuable collection of skins, with
which they sought to vrin the favour, and purchase the
concurrence, of the Governor, to this act of savage justice.
To this he replied by telling them that it was not the cus
tom of the English to sell raen's lives at a price ; and while
he acknowledged that the traitor well merited death, he
again disraissed the messengers to renew the plea of mercy.
While these negotiations were in progress, the colonists
found new cause of alarm in a boat which was seen to cross
the Bay in front of their settlement, and disappear behind a
neighbouring headland. They dreaded the realization of
• Winsiow's Relation ; Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 291.

THE PILOBIM FATHIBB. 401
many rumours -which bad reached them of a threatened CHAP. VIIL
attack by the French, and feared tliat advantage had been
taken of the differences between them and the neighbour
ing Indians to bring about an alliance between the latter and
the European foe of the English colonists. With such foes
united to their Indian eneraies, all hope of safety or suc
cessful defence must have proved utterly vain. But though
these fears were not realized, the strange boat was the har
binger of other, and scarcely less irarainent, dangers.
The boat proved to belong to a fishing vessel called the Arrival of
Sparrow, which brought an addition of seven new colonists ct^^'
to add to their nuraber, but without the slightest provi
sion for a day's supply of food. At this very time tradition
tells that they were reduced to their last pint of corn,
which, being parched and distributed among them, yielded
the fearful mockery of five seedling kernels to each indivi
dual. It may be that the generous hearts of the colonists
felt even more sadness at the inhospitable welcome which
they were compelled to offer to their friends, than at the
additional difficulties arising frora added numbers at such a
season. The boat, however, though it brought no pro-vision
from the Sparrow, conveyed lettei-s pregnant with hope and
fear. One from Mr. Weston, one of the merchant adven
turers, under whose auspices the first band of New England
Pilgrims had sailed, coldly informed them that his interest
and theirs were no longer one. The other letter was from
Captain Huddleston, a total stranger to the colonists, who
commanded a ship engaged in the fishing trade along the
North American coast. Frora the latter they learned of the
massacre of four hundred Enghsh settlers in Virginia by the
savage natives : so that, even in the depth of their severe
privations, they had to acknowledge that mercy mingled
with their trials, and that the unseen hand of a kind Pro
vidence had watched over thera in the land of their adop
tion. Govemor Bradford retumed a kind and grateful answer Captain
to the friendly Captain ; and almost immediately after the 2SdnS?"'
departure of the messenger, Mr. Winslow was despatched
in their own boat to endeavour to obtain pro-visions from
the fishing ships. Captain Huddleston received Mr Win-
slow with great kindness, and not only liberally contributed

402 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. -VUL to supply the wants of the colonists from his own stores,
but -wrote to the captains of the neighbouring ships, urging
their good services on their behalf. Mr. Winslow found
about thirty sail of ships on the fishing ttation, and, with
the generosity of a grateful heart, he is raore rainute iu
detailing their hberality, than in recording his own priva
tions. " I was employed," says he, " by our Governor, with
orders to take up such victuals as the ships could spare ;
where I found kind entertainment and good respect, with a
-willingness to supply our wants. But being not able to
spare that quantity I required, by reason of the necessity
of some amongst themselves whom they supplied before
my coming, they would not take bills for the same, but did
what they could freely, wishing their store had been such
as they might in greater measure have expressed their own
love, and supplied our necessities, for which they sorrowed,
provoking one another to the utmost of their abiUties;
which, although it were not much amongst so many people
as were at the plantation, yet through the provident and
discreet care of the governors, recovered and preserved
strength till our own crop on the ground was ready."
By careful husbandry the colonists had now bread enough
to secure a quarter of a pound to each individual, daily, till
harvest ; and encouraged by this meagre yet raost oppor
tune supply, they set to work -with renewed energy and
thankfulness to their ordinary tasks. The dangers and perils
of the second year of the infant colony were over — another
victory, won with hard toil and privations, had crowned the
trusting faith and indomitable perseverance of the Pilgrim
founders of New England.

THB PILGRIM FATHERS. 408
CHAPTER IX.
THE UEBCHANT ADVENTUBBBR.

The little landscape round
Was green and woody, and refreah'd the eye.
It was a spot which you might aptly call
The Valley of Seclusion 1 Once I saw
A wealthy son of commerce saunter by,
Bristowa's citizen : methought it calm'd
His thirst of idle gold, and made him muse
With ¦wiser feelings: for he paused and look'd
With a pleased sadness, and gazed round again,
And sigh'd, and said, it was a blessed place 1 COLSsmoB.

The early history of the settlement of New England is in- chap, dl
timately connected with the various English companies ciaiinoT
which were incorporated and chartered at the commence- Americals
ment of the seventeenth century, for the purpose of colo- '*°°™'^ '
nizing America and securing for Britain her shares in the
golden spoils of the New World. The ideas which prevailed
during the first centui'y after the great discoveries of Colum
bus, in reference to the right of property in the newly-
discovered continents, were of a piece with the arbitrary
notions of kingly rights and pri'vileges which were almost
universaUy acknowledged at the same period. When Spain
had successfuUy estabUshed her colonies on the islands and
the mainland of the New World, and had won for herself
golden spoils purchased ¦with the blood of exterminated
Indian tribes, she was in the zenith of her power, and suc
cessfuUy dictated laws to the civilized world. Portugal,
debarred from these coveted regions by the prior claims of
Spain, hastened to outrival the latter by seeking another
passage to India, — the object at which Columbus aimed in
his westem voyage across the Atlantic. Vasco de Gama
achieved the object of long-cherished arabition, and sweep-

404

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

CHAP. IX. ing round the Cape of Storms, now better known as the
Cape of Good Hope, he bestowed on Portugal the wealth of
India and the title to its seas. Spain and Portu-jal were
now content to possess their separate claims in amieaWe
rivalry, so that the rest of the world were excluded from
encroaching on their coveted posses^illlls. The Pope was
called in as arbiter, and by his Holiness an imaginary line
of division was traced through the Atlantic on either side
of which the fleets of Spain and Portugal were free to pur
sue their course in solitary majesty, unapjjroached hy envi
ous adventurers of less fortunate states. But the energy of
the old Saxon race was not to be restrained by sueh fanciful
titles and imaginary boundaries. In the year 1496, Henry
VII. of England granted a patent to John Cabot, a Venetian
merchant settled at Bristol, and to his three sons, natives
of that old English sea-port, to sail into the western and
northern seas, to search for regions hitherto unknown, and
to possess and occupy thera as vassals of the English crown.
They were further bound to land, on their return from
each successive voyage, at the English sea-port of Bristol,
and to pay to the King a fifth part of the fi-uits of their
voyage. The first fruit of this expedition was the discoveiy
of the American continent, ere its existence was known to
the adventurous mariners of Spain ; and nearly fourteen
years before Columbus, in his thu-d voyage, came in sight
of the mainland. England had therefore acquired all the
right that priority of discovery could confer, to the pos
session of the American continent, and might smile at
the arrogant pretensions of rival nations. But long before
England thought of effecting any permanent settlement on
the newly-discovered continent, she had leamed to hold in
peculiar contempt the assumptions of the Bishop of Rome
to any authority in the subdivision of maritime discoveries.
When the projects for planting English colonies in Virginia
were revived during James's reign, the attempts of Spain to
estabUsh a prior title to the American continent were justly
regarded as untenable, and both the Parliament and courts
of England derided a claim, founded on no better grounds
than the grant by the sovereign Pontiff of lands he had
never seen, to those who had neither discovered nor occu
pied them.

Discoveryof the con
L-lnent ai
America.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 406
England had established her connexion with Araerica by CHAP. IX.
more legitiraate and honourable intercourse than the bold commercial
but lawless adventures of the Spanish followers of Colum- 'P'"-" »'
bus could secure for Spain. So early as 1593, Sir Walter "^'"'
Raleigh referred, in the House of Comraons, to the New
foundland fisheries as the stay of the west countries and the
nursery of the English navy. The wealth which abounded
on the great fishing banks of Newfoundland had been hon
ourably secured by English merchants, and an intimate in
tercourse established between its coasts and the great sea
ports on the west of England. In 1602, Bartholomew
Gosnold steered a small trading barque directly across the
Atlantic, and in seven weeks reached the bay of Massachu
setts. Finding no suitable harbour along the shores at that
part of the American continent, he directed his course to the
south, and on the 14th of May discovered the promontory
to which he gave the appropriate name of Cape Cod. It
was the first spot in New England ever trod by English
men. Coasting along the adjacent shores, and trafficing with
the natives whenever opportunity offered, Gosnold was en
abled, after a brief stay, to retum to England with a valu
able freight, and with a crew prepared to circulate the most
favourable reports of a country from which they had re
tumed after so successful a voyage.
Many similar voyages followed, in which the merchants incorpora.
of Bristol bore a very prominent share, and only four years yS'etaia"
after the retum of Gosnold from New England, two corapa- Companies
nies of merchants were incorporated by royal charter to
colonize and trade with the country of Virginia. The first
of these companies, consisting of merchants of the city of
London, was empowered to colonize a portion of Virginia
extending to a hundred square miles, and ranging between
thirty-four and forty-one degrees north latitude. The rival
company was constituted of the merchants of the great west
ern sea-ports, — the chief of which were, Plymouth, Bris
tol, and Exeter, — and had simUar privileges conferred on
it, within a corresponding range of thirty-eight and forty-
five degrees. The London company immediately proceeded
to avail themselves of the privUeges conferred by their
charter right to South Virginia, as it was then termed ; and
il 1606, the foundations of Jamestown were laid. The
18

406 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. DC patentees of North Virginia, including the whole of what
afterwards received the name of New England, were not so
successful. Their possessions were destined for other plant
ers, and at the very time that they were engaged in un
successful attempts to colonize them -with their own emis
saries, the Pilgrim Fathers were effecting their escape to
Holland, and unconsciously preparing a hardy and self-
denying band of adventurers to go and possess the land.
Soon after this Captain Smith conferred on North Virginia
its name of New England, and the colonizers of the southern
states assumed the name of tho Virginia Company. It was
with the latter company, and not with the chartered claim
ants of New England, that the first agents despatched by
the Pilgrims from Leyden, sought to treat — at the very time
when the pestilence was sweeping over the northern savan
nahs, and the Indian possessors of New England were yield
ing up the lands of their wild ancestry, for the little span
of earth that furnished for them a grave.
Failure of Happily for the English exiles, Robert Cushraan and
theVir^ia John Carver, the deputies from Leyden, failed in their
Company. treaties for a settlement under the Virginia Corapany. The
character of the adventurers who established the first co
lonies there has already been described. They included
men whose sole religion was the ecclesiastical dogmas of a
political creed, and they had willingly adopted the royal
requirements, which bound them to follow out the rites and
doctrines of the Church of England, in all the services of
religion. Araid such colonists the English exiles would
only have experienced a change of persecutors, and been
subjected to all the toils and privations of the emigrant,
without securing the liberty of conscience, for which alone
they were content to forego all the fondest ties of home and
country.
The Ply- Discouraged by the refusal of the Virginia Company, they
pany. ' next entered into terms for effecting a settlement within
the possessions chartered to the Plymouth Company, as the
New England planters had come to be termed. But the
means of the poor exiles were inadequate to secure the
necessary supplies and equipments ; and it is at this stage
accordingly, that the merchant adventurers uppear, by
whom their funds were supplemented, and their transport

THE riLQRlM FATHERS. 407
to the scene of colonization secured, under condition of re- CHAP BL
turns guaranteed by the colonists, proportioned to the '
amount of money they adventured in the scheme. The
emigrants were necessarily placed greatly at the mercy of
those who supplied them with the means of prosecuting
their scheme of colonization. Their whole money had been The mer-
exhausted in the preparatory steps necessary for accom- *„JJJ,,^
plisbing their object, and had the merchant adventurers
chosen to dictate to them far more unjust and injurious
terms than they did, the poor Pilgrims would have had no
choice but to submit. " The adventurers," says Captain
John Smith, writing only three years after the agreement
between thera and the English exiles, "who raised the stock
to begin and supply this plantation, were about seventy,
some merchants, some handicraftsmen, some adventuring
great sums, some small, as their affections served. The
general stock already employed is about 7000 pounds, by
reason of which charge and many crosses, many would ad
venture no more ; but others, that know so great charge
cannot be effected without both losses and crosses, are re
solved to go forward with it to their powers ; which deserve
no small commendation and encouragement. These dweU
most about London. They are not a corporation, but knit
together by a voluntary combination, in a society, without
constraint or penalty, aiming to do good, and to plant reli
gion." The good they aimed at, as it proved, was only such
as suited their own individual interests, and if any of them
strove to plant religion among the exiles for conscience'
sake, it was such a religion as would have robbed the Pil-
gi-ims of New England of all their hard- won privUeges.
They were in fact a voluntary trading company, no better,
and probably not very much worse, than such corporate
bodies usually are. It has almost become a proverb that
" corporations have no consciences I" They consist of indi
viduals associated together for a selfish end, and nearly the
sole standard of good and evil too frequently resolves itself
into the very simple question of success or failure. To this
body the colonists had to look for shipping and stores to
transport them to New England, and for the first supplies
that were to enable them to secure a footing after their ar
rival. In return for this they entered into agreements by

408 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
L'HAP. IX. which they were to remit to the adventurers the produce
of the colony, exchanging with them, after large deductions
for the profit of these speculators, such supplies as tho emi
grants might still stand in need of from the old country.
To reason on the conduct of such a body as if it were a bene
volent society, united for the sole purpose of aiding the per
secuted Nonconformists of England to establish themselves
in peace and safety on the New England shores — or a mis
sionary board, whose lofty aim was the evangelizing, by their
means, of the wild Indians of the New World, would mani
festly be an act of injustice. But unhappily, some of thera
at least will hardly stand the lowest test we can apply to
honest speculators. It was no generous nor princely mer
chants, such as England has had to boast of for raany gene
rations, that ventured their raoney on the faith of the tried
fideUty and upright zeal of the nonconfoi'raist exiles of Ley
den; though even among the members of this trading part
nership there were not wanting some honourable excep
tions, to sustain the character of their country, and second
the unwearied zeal of the suffering band of colonists.
The Pilgrims The Pilgrims left " the goodly and pleasant city, which
andtheAd- , ,, f, . ,. , * \ i .. • li i,
venturers, had been their resting-place near twelve years, m the hopo
of finding a home where they might worship God accord
ing to the dictates of their conscience, and publish his name
among some of the vrild Indians of the American forests,
who had as yet only known the white man as a kidnapper
and murderer, or at best as a selfish and overreaching trader
for the spoils of the chace. The adventurers made no pre
tence to any higher object than their own profit. Some of
them had not even the patience and worldly wisdom to
wait until the settlers at Plymouth had found tirae to effect
a lodgment in their strange home, ere they began to thwart
them with rival schemes of short-sighted selfishness. But
amid so many appearances of evil, aU things were working
together for good to the founders of the free state of New
England.
Mr. Thomas The boat which hove in sight — and filled the colonists
Weston with apprehensions of European alUes abetting their Indian
foes, at the very time when they were negotiating with the
agents of Massasoit on behalf of their treacherous interpreter
Squanto — ^belonged to a fishing vessel despatched to New

THE PILORIM FATHERS. 400
England by Mr. Thomas Weston, a citizen of London, and CHAP, nt
one of the merchant adventurers, who was impatient to reap
a speedier harvest from the colony than the returns of the
Plymouth settlers seemed to promise. The loss of the For
tune's freight probably contributed in some degi-ee to raise
dissatisfaction in the minds of the adventurers, though it
may be that the report of its value, notwithstanding all the
disadvantages under which the colonists had laboured, con
tributed still farther to excite the cupidity of Mr. Weston,
and tempted him to seek the fii'st gleanings of so promising
a hai'vest. His projects, however, were already far advanced
before he had time to learn of the welfare of the colonists.
He hasted to get rich, and reaped his reward. The Fortune
sailed on her homeward voyage on the 13th of December
1621, and the letter in which Mr. Weston first intimates
his intention of breaking faith, bears date the 17th of Jan-
uaiy, while the Fortune's goodly freight was still safe in
her hold, and her crew were anticipating their speedy arri
val at their destined port. He had not, therefore, even the
poor apology of disappointed hopes to justify his faithless
deeds, and yet this was the same Mr. Thomas Weston on
whom the Pilgrims had placed no slight reliance, who had
visited them at Leyden, had advanced .£500 to promote
their scheme of colonization, and, with many noisy protes
tations of sympathy and favour, had hurried fi-om London
to Southampton to bid them farewell. When the Sparrow's
boat sailed into Plymouth bai-bour, towards the end of May
1622, and landed seven new emigrants to add to the num
ber of the colonists, at the very time they were parting
among their feeble company the last grains of their winter's
store, it was no unmeet foreshadowing of the future services
they had to expect fi-om the same quarter. The boat was
freighted with no provisions even for those it brought, nor
bore with it any message of good will to the colonists. Al
ready other ships were following on its track, sent out by
the same unfriendly adventurer, crowded with rival colo
nists, destined to cause raore son-ow and anxiety to the Pil-
grira founders of New England than all the sufferings and
privations which they had pre-viously endured.

410 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAPTER X.
westoh's colony.

why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behiild our works ;
And think them shames, which are indeed nought elaa
But the protraetive trials of great Jove,
To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found
In fortune's love : for then, the bold and coward.
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
Tlie hard and soft, seem all affined and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan.
Puffing at all, winnow the light away;
And what hath mass or matter by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled. TROII.US AND CrESSIDA.

CHAP. X. The good ship Sparrow, with its unfriendly shallop and
Weston's crew, proved but the forerunner of evils that threatened
letter. utterly to overturn the whole labours of the New England
colonists, pursued with s-uch unwearied constancy in defi
ance of every obstacle. A letter received by that oppor
tunity, addressed to Governor Carver, conveyed to the
colonists the first notice of rivah-y and disunion among the
adventurers, on whose good faith their success seemed then
so greatly to depend. " The shallop," says Bradford, " brings
a letter from Mr. Weston of January 17, by which we find
he has quite deserted us, and is going to settle a plantation
of his own." The ungracious conduct of those who deUvered
the letter was a sufficiently intelligent illustration of the
intentions of the writer, but the journals of the Pilgrims
record no complaints or desponding forebodings, though
they must now have sometimes cast an anxious look towards
the distant horizon, not with the fond hope of descrying a

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 411
fi-iendly sail hearing down on them from the far-off land of CHAP. X.
their nativity, but with the fear of unfriendly rivals coming '
to reap where they had sown, and to dispute with them the
hard-won fiiiits of their persevering industiy. Their worst
fears could hardly surpass the reality. Towards the close
of the pleasant month of June the expect ed colonists arrived.
From their citadel on Burial Hill the Plymouth settlers
beheld two vessels round the point of Cape Cod and cast
anchor in the bay. They proved to be the Charity and the
Swan, two ships freighted by Mr. Thomas Weston, and
bringing sorae sixty emigrants, sent over at his own cost,
and commissioned to plant and colonize for his exclusive
benefit. The Charity was a large emigrant ship, having on board The new
a numerous body of colonists destined for Virginia, in ad
dition to those who landed at Plymouth. The Pilgrims
soon found that their character amply corresponded with
that which we have already described as most commonly
pertaining to the vagabond settlers of the Virginia Com
pany's plantations. They dreamt of no aim to " do good or
to plant religion." No wounded conscience had driven them
to forsake the land of their birth, and to break the fond ties
of home, in the hope of finding liberty to worship God amid
the wilds of the New World. Even Mr. Weston owned that
many of them were rude and profane fellows, and Robert
Cushman wrote a wai-ning letter to his fiiends at New Ply
mouth, in which he says, " They are no men for us, and I
fear they will hardly deal so well with the savages as they
should. I pray you therefore signify to Squanto that they
are a distinct body from us, and we have nothing to do -with
them, nor must be blamed for their faults, much less can
warrant their fidelity." This indeed was the greatest of
all the dangers they had to fear. Their most difficult task
had already been to deal with their Indian neighbours, and
establish an intercourse equally based on the foundation
of respect for their courage and confidence in their inte
grity. The danger, therefore, of being held responsible for
the excesses of such men was great, the impossibility of
guaranteeing their fidelity was speedily still move apparent,
for Mr. John Pierce in writing to them remarks: "They
are so base in condition for the most part, as in all appear-

412 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. X. ance not fit for an honest man's company." An inroad of
savage Narragansetts, armed with tomaha-B'k and scalping-
knife, could hardly have been more dreaded by the vii--
tuous colonists of New Plymouth, as the arrival of such a
band of vagabond adventurers, to taint their new settlement
with the worst vices of the Old World. Nevertheless the
colonists failed not in good services of kindly hospitality to
the unwelcome strangers. " We received them," says
Winslow, " into our town, affording them whatsoever cour
tesy our mean condition could afford." And yet their con
dition was such as might amply have justified the dismis
sion of their visitors to seek for themselves such a welcome
as the forest wilds had afforded to the first settlers, under
more inclement skies. But it was a trial of strength between
selfishness and principle, wherein the former overreached
herself, and proved how worthless is the policy of shrewd
dishonesty and greed.
Generous It was not alone in the simple rites of hospitality to the
°°'" ^ intruders that the sterling principles of the Plymouth Pil
grims were made manifest. Their generous faith triumphed
over every selfish consideration, so that -we almost rejoice
in reviewing trials which led to the display of such true
Christian nobility. So far from giving w-ay to indignant
feelings at the desertion of their cause, by one who had
made such protestations of friendly zeal and disinterested
sympathy on their behalf, the colonists still generously re
curred to the early services of Mr. Weston ; and Winslow,
after narrating the base ingratitude of their guests, remarks,
"Nevertheless, for their master's sake, who foi-merly had
deserved well from us, we continued to do thera whatsoever
good or furtherance we could." Truly it was taking on
their enemy the Christian's revenge, and " heaping coals of
fire upon his head." " In the mean time," says Winslow,
" the body of them refreshed themselves at Plymouth,
whilst sorae most fit sought out a place for them. That
little store of corn we had was exceedingly wasted by the
unjust and dishonest walking of these strangers ; -vv'ho,
though they would sometimes seem to help us in our labour
about our corn, yet spared not day and night to steal the
same, it being then eatable and pleasant to taste, though
green and unprofitable; and though they received much

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

¦113

kindness, set light both by it and us, not sparing to requite OHAP. X.
the love we showed them, with secret backbitings, reviUngs,
&c., the chief of them being forestalled' and made against
us before they came, as after appeared. Nevertheless, for
their master's sake, who formerly had deserved well from
us, we continued to do thera whatsoever good or furtherance
we could, attributing these things to the want of conscience
and discretion, expecting each day when God in his provi
dence would disburden us of them, sorrowing that their
overseers were not of more ability and fitness for their places,
and much fearing what would be the issue of such raw and
unconscionable beginnings.
"At length their coasters retumed, having found, in their
judgment, a place fit for plantation, within the bay of the
Massachusets at a place caUed by the Indians Wichaguscus-
set ; to which place the body of them went with all con
venient speed, leaving stUl with us such as were sick and
lame, by the Governor's permission, though on their parts un
deserved ; whom our surgeon, by the help of God, recovered
gratis for them, and they fetched home, as occasion served.
" They had not been long from us, ere the Indians fiUed Indian com-
our ears with clamours against them, for stealing their corn, SeTcoio- *
and other abuses conceived by them. At which we grieved nists.
the more, because the same men, [the Indians] in mine own
heaa-ing, had been earnest in persuading Captain Standish,
before their coming, to solicit our Govemor to send some of
his men to plant by them, alleging many reasons how it
might be commodious for us."*
It was evil enough for the Pilgrims to have such neigh
bours planted in ungenerous rivalry beside them on the
New England coast, but it would have been infinitely worse
had the merchant adventurers, on whose good will they so
much depended, insisted on intmding such a vicious rabble
into their own community. Then, indeed, it would have
been vain for them to warn the Indians that they were
blameless of the new comers's deeds, and scarcely less vain
would it have proved for the elders of New Plymouth to
strive to guard the rising generation, the hope and Ufe of
the colony, from their contaminating influence. But as the
season of harvest drew near the colonists were once more
• Winsiow's Eehitlon. Chronldes of the Pilgrims, p. 297. 18*

-J 1 1 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CUAP.X. threatened with a renewal of the privations which had so
sorely tried them in the earlier raonths of the year. Heed
less of the stinted and hard-won stores which they had
obtained when seemingly on the verge of want, they had
generously shared thera with their unwelcorae guests.
Added to this, their crop proved scanty, partly by reason of
the weakness of its planters, through want, and partly
o'wing to the base ingratitude and dishonesty of the new
emigrants, who had plucked much of it while the ear was
stUl green. They had shipped to the merchant adventurers
a costly freight, but they looked in vain for any return; and
once more the fading leaves of the forest warned them of
the coming winter, and recalled, to their remembrance
forraer privations, when they had been better provided
against threatened famine.
Arrival of The colonists of New England had leamed, from their
and Dlsco-"^ opportune visit to the vessels employed in fishing on the
«ry. coast, that they might hope at times to interchange cour
tesies -with their fellow-countrymen on that distant shore.
Towards the end of August, when their scanty harvest had
been reaped, and no adequate provision seemed to be left
for the -winter, they were gratified -with the sight of two
English ships entering the Bay. One of these was the
Sparrow, returning from the fishing grounds laden with the
spoils of the sea, and in consort with it the Discovery, a
stranger vessel, but commanded by Captain Jones, the same
it is supposed, who, as Master of the Mayflower, had guided
the Pilgrim Fathers to Plymouth Bay. To an American,
more especially, these records of the early history of his
country must be peculiarly attractive, wherein he catches a
glimpse of the strange and unknown sail welcomed at long
intervals on the solitary shores, where now the merchant
navies of the world are crowding to traffic with the de
scendants of the PUgrim Fathers of New England. The
early colonial historians describe the vessels which visited
them from time to tirae, generally as ships ; but probably
the little Mayflower, of one hundred and eighty tons, was
regarded as no inconsiderable vessel by the colonists, who,
had they sailed in a, larger ship, would have been com
pelled to choose a more convenient harbour than the capa
cious but shallow waters of Plymouth Bay afford.

THE PILORIM FATHERS. 416
We must bori'ow a minute description of the features it CHAP.X.
still displays, fi-om the pen of an American writer, though Description
the reader will not fail to remember the additional suffer- of Plymouth
ings which the PilgTims had to endure in consequence of
the difficulty of landing along its shallow coasts. " To gain
a satisfactory impression," says Dr. Cheever, " of the loca
lities of Plymouth Harbour, we must ascend the Burial
Hill, which rises, covered -with its forest of grave-stones,
directly above the terrace, where the Pilgi'ims laid out the
first rude street of their settlement. It is a very sacred spot
in their history, and the view from it is incomparably fine.
The town lies below you, around the bosom of the hill. A
few majestic elms and lindens rise in beautiful masses of
foliage among the buildings on the water side, but in gene
ral there are few trees, until the eye passes into that noble
ridge of pine forest on the south-east, running out into the
sea ; a hill-range of the primeval wilderness, as deeply foU-
aged as the Green Mountains, or the Jura range in Switzer
land. The wide harboui- is before you, with a bar or spit
of land straight stretching across the centre of it, and divid
ing the inner flats fi-om the deep blue water beyond. I say
the wide harbour. And now it depends very much upon
the time of tide when you first enter the town, whether
you are greatly disappointed or pleased in tbe first impres
sion. Plymouth harbour is one of those vast inlets so fre
quent along our coast, where, at high tide, you see a mag
nificent bay studded with islands, and opening proudly into
the open ocean ; but at low tide an immense extent of
muddy, salt-grassed, and sea-weeded shaUows, with a nar
row stream -winding its way among them to find the sea.
Here and there lies the stranded bark of a fisherman, or a
lumber schooner amidst the flats, left at low tide, not high
and dry, but half sunk in the mud ; and the wharves are
dripping with rotting sea-weed, and the shores look decay
ing and deserted ; not pebbly or sandy like a beach, but
swampy with eel grass, and strewn here and there with the
skeletons of old horse-fishes, crabs, muscles, &c., araong the
withered layers of dry kelp. Now and then, also, the red
huts and fish-flakes of the fishermen vary the scene upon
the shore, or a small vessel, about as large as the May
flower, slowly, though with aU saU set, follows the course

416 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAF.X of the stream winding among the shallows, the only chan-
nel, at low tide, by which there is any approach frora the
outer open bay, towards the quay or business landing-place
of the village. The extent of these flats and shallows at
Cape Cod and Plymouth, was the cause of great evil and
hardship at first ; for, speaking of Cape Cod Bay, where the
PUgrims first came to anchor, they say : — ' We could not
come near the shore by three-quarters of an English mile,
because of shaUow water, which was a great prejudice to ns,
for our people, going on shore, were forced to wade a bow-
shoot or two in going a-land, which caused many to get
colds and coughs, for it was by times freezing weather.' In
these colds and coughs were the seed, to some of a speedy,
to others a Ungering New England consumption, which
soon sowed the harbour side with graves, almost, as many
as the names of the Uving.
Now this whole range of low tide scenery, to one who is
truly fond of the sea and the shore, in all their freaks, in
lets, varieties, and grand and homely moods, is not without
its beauty. The poet Crabbe, or the Puritan poet, R. H.
Dana, would describe it in such interesting colours that it
would wear a most romantic charm ; the stranded boats,
and the rand flats, and the rotting sea-weed, would have a
strange imaginative life put into them. Nevertheless, if
these are the first images of the landing of the PUgrims
presented to you, you will experience, probably, a gxeat
disappointment.
jni«_Baj^at " But now if you behold this same sweep of sea scenery
at high tide, beneath a clear sky, a bright sun, in the
colouring of morn or evening, or in the solemn stUlness of
an autumn moon, what an amazing change I It is no longer
the same region. You would think it one of the finest
harbours in the world. Ton would think it was the pre
ference and selection of the human will, after long search
ing, that brought the Pilgrims hither, and not merely the
hand and compulsion of an oven-uling Providence. You
would think how easy and how natural for thera to find
their way just to this landing-place; and how beautiful and
admirable the region, for the thrift of a colony, both in
commercial and in country life."*
• Plymouth Pilgrims, p. 208.

high tide.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 417
It was not, however, the vrill of Providence that the CHAP&
jrttthers of New England should found a great city, whose — — "
swift commercial growth should reward them with the
wealth of the Old World, and expose them to its envy and
corrupting restraints. The wide-spreading oak, underneath
which freedom was to shelter, needed the slow growth of
centuries, ere its sappling boughs were knit into sinewy
strength, and required its unseen, but strong and far-ex
tending roots, no less than the sightly canopy of its green
foliage. It was God's good providence that frustrated the
Pilgrims's plans of settling in Virginia, and guided the Uttle
Mayflower away fi'om the fertile shores of the Hudson, to
land them on the bare rocks of Plymouth Bay.
The opportune arrival of the Sparrow and Discovery in Opportua*
the harbour, furnished the colonists of Plymouth with the ^t"™*
means of weathering another winter. They obtained from
Captain Jones some supply of such provisions as they stood
most in need of ; not, however, without paying full value
for such seasonable stores. " As he used us kindly," says
Winslow in his relation, " so he made us pay largely for the
things we had." Such is the passing allusion of these
contented and grateful exUes to the usurious deaUngs of the
EngUsh trader, who made them pay fully double the origi
nal value of their needful supplies. Costly, however, though
it -was, the supply proved most seasonable ; and it is thus
thankfully recorded by the historian of the colony: — " Had
not the Almighty, in his all-ordering providence, directed
him to us, it would have gone worse with us than ever it
had been, or after was ; for as we had now but small store
of corn for the year following, so, for want of supply, we
were worn ont of all manner of ti-ucking-stuff, not having
any means left to help ourselves by trade ; but, through
God's good mercy towards us, he had wherewith, and did
supply our wants on that kind competently."
In addition to the raore direct necessaries, consisting of
bread and other provisions frora the ship's stores, the colo
nists became possessed, in consequence of this transaction, of a
stock of clasp-knives, scissors, beads, and trinkets of various
kinds, by means of which they were enabled to trade with
the Indians both for corn and furs, and thereby to secure
the expected retm-ns at a future season for satisfying the

418 THE PILGRIM FATHBBS.
OHAP. X adventurers who had supplied the original cost of the out-
fit and passage from England.
By this time, the rival colonists atWessagusset, (the Indian
narae which Weymouth then bore,) had been established,
with every reasonable prospect of success. They reached
the destined site of their settlement, not like the Pilgrim
Fathers, amid the bitter frost, and the piercing gales of win
ter, but in the sweet and sunny month of June, when the
birds were singing in the trees, and the green corn-fields,
sown around the settlement at New Plymouth, gave evi
dence of the arts and virtues of civilization having preceded
thera to the New World. They found too, however unde
servedly, a friendly and hospitable reception frora their
precursors, and were aided with counsel and direction in
the choice of a site for their settlement, and in the con
struction of their dwellings; so that long ere the first blasts
of winter were felt, they were provided with effective,
though perhaps homely enough, shelter against its severi
ties.
Departure of Towards the latter end of autumn the Charity retumed
to England, after having seen the colonists settled in their
new habitations, and left them sufficiently provisioned for
the winter, while the Swan, a smaller vessel, remained be
hind for their use.
The Pilgrims agreed, at their urgent request, to co-ope
rate with them in trading with the Indians for corn ; and a
party, composed of members of both companies, set saU
accordingly, in the Swan, accompanied with Squanto as
their interpreter.
Difficulties of Difficulties speedily beset them. Mr. Richard Green,
par,,. brother-in-law of Mr. Thomas Weston, ¦n-ho had been ap
pointed to the Governorship of the new colony, suddenly
died. Captain Standish, who was employed to replace him
in the conduct of the trading expedition of the Swan, was
seized with a violent fever ; and Govemor Bradford had to
leave his charge of the settlement at Plymouth to take the
command. After incurring considerable dangers and diffi
culties, in consequence of the total ignorance of the colo
nists of the pilotage of the shallow seas along the coast, a
landing was effected at Manamoyt, and by the aid of their
Indian interpreter they speedUy entered into friendly nego-

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 419
tiations with the natives, and procured, in return for their CHAP. X,
beads and trinkets, eight hogsheads of corn and beans, in
addition to a store of venison and other victuals. The sup
ply was most opportune; for the Plymouth Corapany were
again nearly reduced to straits, chiefly in consequence of
the reckless dishonesty and ingratitude of Weston's colo
nists, who had so shamefully requited their hospitality.
Encouraged by his success, the Governor was bent on Death of the
prosecuting his trading expedition along the coast; but, says sq^'f"),,
Winslow, " God had otherwise disposed." Just when they
were about to resume their southern voyage, Squanto, their
Indian interpreter, was suddenly seized with fever, of which
he died in a short time. Poor Squanto, notwithstanding
the extravagancies and deceits occasionally practised by him,
proved an invaluable fi'iend to the New England colonists ;
and they mourned his loss with sincere and affectionate sor
row. The upright and consistent piety of the PUgrims, and
their uniform friendly and generous treatment of him, had
won the heart of the wild Indian. On his death-bed he
bequeathed the personal ornaments, and other possessions
most prized by him, to several of his English friends, " as
remembrances of his love ;" and calling Governor Brad
ford to his side, he besought him to pray that he might
go to the Englishman's God in heaven. Such was the
end of this poor child of nature ; the first that had been
brought under the influence of those who made it one of the
objects which they sought, in seeking a home amid these
savage wilds, and friendly relations with their ancient
claimants. " that warring with them after another man
ner than their wont, — by friendly usage, love, peace, honest
and just carnage, and good counEcl, — we and they may not
only live in peace in tbat land, and they yield subjection to
an earthly prince, but that they may be persuaded at length
to embrace the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus."-*- It may be
that Squanto had leamed to bow the knee, and to utter the
child-like prayers of a poor Indian savage, to the English
man's God,— and that not in vain were the last prayers
uttered by his couch, asking for him re-union with the
Englishman's God in heaven.
« Reasons and Considerations touching the Lawfulness of Removing OBt at
England into the parts of America.

420 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP X. The death of Squanto overthrew all Governor Bradford's
HeturnaTong plans, and compelled him to return. Coasting along the
the coast gay, he negotiated various interchanges with the natives,
and obtained considerable supplies of corn and beans ; but
a violent storm having cast away the shallop belonging to
the Plymouth colonists, and greatly damaged the small boat
of the Swan, they were no longer able to keep up the neces
sary intercourse between that vessel and the shore, and were
compelled to leave their latter purchases behind, com
mitting them to the care of the Indian Sachem. From
Nauset, or Eastham, where the Governor had effected these
arrangements, he returned home with his company by land,
a distance of about fifty miles, leaving the vessel to follow
as soon as the weather adraitted of her sailing, and soon
afterwards the colonists succeeded in recovering their shal
lop, and bringing home the remainder of their purchases,
which were honourably divided between the rival settle
ments.
Manners of During their second visit to Nauset, for the purpose of
e n lans. jegoyg^ing the shallop and com, an incident occurred, which
is worth quoting, as an illustration of Indian manners at
that early period : — " Having occasion," says Winslow, " to
lie on the shore, laying their shallop in a creek not far from
thera, an Indian came into the same, and stole certain
beads, scissors, and other trifles, out of the same ; which,
when the captain missed, he took certain of his company
vrith him, and went to the sachem, telling him what had
happened, and requiring the same again, or the party that
stole them, (who was known to certain of the Indians,) or
else he would revenge it on them before his departure; and
so took leave for that night, being late, refusing whatsoever
kindness they offered. On the morrow the sachera came to
their rendezvous, accompanied vrith many men, in a stately
manner, who saluted the captain in this wise. He thrust out
his tongue, that one might see the root thereof, and therewith
licked his hand frora the wrist to the finger's end,-withal bow
ing the knee, stri-ring to iraitate the English gestm-e, being
instructed therein formerly by Tisquantura. His men did the
'ike, but in so rude and savage a manner, as our men could
scarce forbear to break out in open laughter. After saluta
tion he delivered the beads and other things to the cap-

IHE PILGRIM FATHERS. 421
tahn, saying he had much beaten the party for doing it; CHAF.X.
causing the women to make bread, and bring them accord- '
ing to their desire ; seeming to be vei'y sorry for the fact,
but glad to be reconcUed. So they departed and came
home in safety, where the com was equally divided as
before." The Governor renewed his trading intercourse with the
neighbouring Indians from time to time, though not without
receiving frequent evidence of the evil effects resulting from
the unprincipled conduct of Weston's colonists. By these
expeditions the settlers of Plymouth were not only secured
in a sufficient supply for the winter, but were able to store
up furs and other native produce, for exporting to England,
as opportunity might offer. Towards the end of April, when
new hopes were once more cheering the Pilgrims with the
anticipations suggested by the approaching summer, the
disheartening news was brought to Plymouth, that Massa- illness of
soyt, their Indian ally, was dangerously ill. Winslow was ^^^^^'^V
immediately despatched on a friendly visit to him, fur
nished with medicines and cordials, and accompanied by
Mr. John Hampden, a gentleman from London, who had
passed the vrinter with them, and who has been supposed
by some, though on little better evidence than the name, to
have been the celebrated English patriot. Their visit to
the sick-bed of the sachem proved altogether fortunate,
and their medical skill was productive of the best effects.
" Many," says Winslow, " while we were there, came to
see liim ; some, hy their report, from a place not less than
an hundred miles. To all that came one of his chief
men related the manner of his sickness, how near he was
spent; how, amongst others, his friends the EngUsh came to
see him, and how suddenly they recovered him to this
strength they saw, he being now able to sit upright of him
self. " The day before our coming, another sachem being there,
lold him that now he might see how hollow-hearted the
f^nglish were, saying, if we had been such friends in deed, as
<ve were in show, we would have visited him in this his sick
ness, using many arguments to withdraw his affections, and
to persuade him to give way to some things against us,
ffhycb were motioned to him not long before. But upon

422 THE PILGRIM FATII*;!.?.
CHAP. X. this his recovery, he brake forth into these speeches : Now
I see the EngUsh are my friends and love me; and whilst I
live, I will never forget this kindness they have shown me."
Visit to Con- On their retum to Plymouth, they lodged for a night
batant yfiith a neighbouring chief, with whom the following very
characteristic intercourse took place. " That night, through
the earnest request of Conbatant, who till now remained at
Sawaams, or Puckanokick, we lodged with hira at Matta-
puyst. By the way I had much conference with him, so
likewise at his house, he being a notable poUtician, yet full
of merry jests and squibs, and never better pleased than
when the like are returned again upon him. Amongst
other things he asked me, if in case he were thus danger
ously sick, as Massasoyt had been, and should send word
thereof to Patuxet for maskiet, that is, physic, whether then
Mr. Governor would send it ; and if he would, whether I
would come therewith to him. To both which I answered.
Yea; whereat he gave me many joyful thanks. After that,
being at his house, he demanded further, how we durst,
being but two, come so far into the country. I answered,
where was true love there was no fear ; and my heart was
so upright towards them, that for mine own part I was
fearless to come amongst them. But, said he, if your love
be such, and it bring forth such fruits, how cometh it to
pass, that when we come to Patuxet, you stand upon your
guard, with the mouths of your pieces presented towards
us 1 Whereupon I answered, it was the most honourable
and respective entertainment we could give them ; it being
an order amongst us so to receive our best respected friends;
and as it was used on the land, so the ships observed it also
at sea, which Hobbamock knew and had seen observed.
But shaking the head, he answered that he liked not such
salutations.
Eellgious Further, observing us to crave a blessing on our meat
wUh'the'ln^ before we did eat, and after to give thanks for the same, he
diaua asked us, what was the meaning of that ordinaiy custom.
Hereupon I took occasion to tell them of God's works of
creation and preservation, of his laws and ordinances, espe
cially of the ten commandments; all which they hearkened
unto -with great attention, and liked well of; only the
seventh commandment they excepted against, thinking

THE PILGRIM TATHBRS. 423
there were many inconveniences in it, that a man should CHAP. X.
be tied to one woman ; about which we reasoned a good
time. Also I told them, that whatsoever good things we
had, we received from God, as the author and giver there
of; and therefore craved his blessing upon that we had,
and were about to eat, that it might nourish and strengthen
our bodies; and ha-ring eaten sufficient, being satisfied
therewith, we again returned thanks to the same our God,
for that our refreshing, &c. This all of them concluded to
be very well ; and said, they believed almost all the same
things, and that the same power that we called God, they
called Eiehtan. Much profitable conference," adds Win-
slow, " was occasioned hereby, which would be too tedious
to relate, yet was no less delightful to thera, than comfort
able to us. Here we remained only that night, but never
had better entertainment amongst any of them."*
One of the most important fi-uits of this journey was Discovery of
the discovery of a plot concocted by a neighbouring Indian plot
tribe for utterly exterminating the colomsts at AVessagusset.
It was a danger brought on Weston's colony chiefly in con
sequence of their own dishonest and vicious practices, but
it threatened to involve the peaceful settlers at Plymouth
in the same unmerited fate, had they not thus providen-
tiaUy leamed of the Indians's designs in tirae to counteract
them. When they reached Plymouth, they found that Cap
tain Standish had left the previous day in company with
one of the Indians who had been emploj'ed to decoy him
from the colony, where his military skill was of so much
avail. Fortunately he was driven back by contrary winds ;
and having been informed of the infamous plot that was in
progi-ess, the Indian was quietly dismissed, without making
him aware of their knowledge of his designs, and Governor
Bradford immediately proceeded to adopt all needful steps
for the defence of the colony.
• Chronicles of the Pllgrhns, p. 324.

424 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

CHAPTER XL
THE FIRST INDIAN WAB.

-Whoso shrinks or falters now,
Vnioso to the yoke would bow.
Brand the craven on his brow.
Give us bright tliough broken rays,
Rather than eternal haze.
Clouding o'er the full-orb'd tlaze.
Take your land of sun and bloom ;
Only leave to Fi'eedom room
For her plough, and forge, and loom.

WmrriES.

CHAP. XL As time wore on, the state of Weston's colonists grew daUy
Weston's worse. The Charity set sail for England in the month of
Bhort-slghted October, leaving them well housed and provisioned for the
^ °^' winter ; and furnished with a vessel by which they could
coramand a ready intercourse with the natives along an
extensive coast, and by barter or by fishing, secure for them
selves abundant stores, and the means of future export to
England. But all these advantages were thrown away on
the reckless and improvident band of emigi'ants, whom
Weston had selected to establish a colony in opposition to
the simple and pious founders of Plymouth. In his short
sighted worldly wisdom, Weston had flattered himself that
a band of active and daring spirits, unencumbered by wives
or children, and not over scrupulous as to the means to be
used for gaining their purpose, could hardly fail of success
in opposition to the New England Pilgrims, who numbered
among them old men and maidens, wives and helpless in
fants ; and were straitened in their dealings with the rude
Indian by the constant suggestions of tender consciences.
All experience, however, disproves the popular notion that
the domestic relationships furnish an impediment to the

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 425
progress of early colonization, or indeed to the rise of man CHAP. Xt
in any of the social spheres of Ufe. The stimulus which 
the calls of affection and duty supply far raore than com
pensate for these added claims, while the social and domes
tic comforts which woman is able to create around the most
lowly hearth, are such as without her presence no wealth
can secure.
The retum of spring brought with it no cheering hopes Spring-time
to the settlers at Wessagusset. Improvidence, dishonesty, "et"^*"**"*'
and frequent dissensions, had squandered their means and
completely debaiTed thera from any united efforts for the
general good. Towards the end of February, frequent com
plaints were brought to Plymouth, by the Indians, of their
unjust and faithless dealings, while these received abundant
confirmation by the few of their number who were reaUy
honestly disposed deserting the settlement, and imploring
permission to unite themselves with the colonists of Ply
mouth. AU attempts at restraint by those who still retained
a nominal authority proved utterly vain. These men, who,
by ordinary industry might have secured ample means to
supply evei-y want, squandered their bread and com, vrith
out even preserving enough of the latter for seed, where
with to pro'ride for the golden finiits of harvest. So utterly
lost were they to all honesty or -virtuous shame, that they
at length degraded themselves to beg a meal of food from
the neighbouring Indians, and lured themselves to fetch
wood and draw water for them, that they might share in
the more provident stores of the savages. Prom this abject
servitude they sought reUef by robbing the Indians's stores,
and though there was still authority enough left in the
Govemor of the colony to -risit such crimes with the pillory
and the lash, this was altogether ineffectual either for the
reformation of the unprincipled emigrants, or the molUfica^
tion of the exasperated savages, who had thus been taught
both to hate and to despise their white neighbours.
Towards the end of February, the reckless planters of Contempt of
Weston's settlement began to dread the future consequences ' ° i°*i™»-
of their total neglect of the duties of the season, and ha-ring
wasted their whole seed com, they again applied to the In
dians to furnish the needful supply ; but all their approaches
were met with sullen and determined refusal. They would

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

CHAP. XL

Violent de
signs of the
new colo-

GovemorBradford's
letter of
warning and
adrice.

neither sell nor barter to them, nor enter into any friendly
interchange of good services ; though now, when too late,
the new settlers would gladly have won their favo-ur by the
most humiliating concessions. Disappointed by such obsti
nate rejection of all friendly overtures, the raost unscrupu
lous of them resolved to take what they wanted by force.
Fortunately for their more honest neighbours at Plymouth,
it was thought advisable to consult with the latter ere com
mitting themselves to so perilous a course. " Some," says
Winslow-, "raore honest minded, advised John Sanders, their
overseer, first to write to Plyraouth ; and if the Governor
advised hira thereunto, he might the better do it. This
course was well liked, and an Indian was sent vfith all speed
with a letter to our Governor, the contents whereof were to
this effect ; that being in great want, and their people daily
falling down, he intended to go to Munhiggen, where was a
plantation of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, to buy bread from the
ships that came thither a fishing, with the first opportunity
of wind ; but knew not how the colony would be preserved
tOl his return. He had used all means both to buy and
borrow of Indians, whom he knew to be stored, and he
thought maliciously vrithheld it, and therefore was resolved
to take it by violence, and only waited the return of the
messenger, which he desired should be hastened, craving
his advice therein, promising also to make restitution after
ward. The Governor, upon the receipt hereof, asked the
messenger what store of corn they had, as if he had intended
to buy of them ; who answered, very little more than that
they reserved for seed, having already spared all they could.
" Forthwith the Governor and his assistant sent for many
of us to advise -with them herein ; who, after serious con
sideration, no way approving of this intended course, the
Governor ansvv-ered his letter, and caused many of us to set
our hands thereto ; the contents whereof were to this pur
pose : We altogether disliked their intendment, as being
against the law of God and nature, showing how it would
cross the worthy ends and proceedings of the King's Ma
jesty, and his honourable Council for this place, both in
respect of the peaceable enlarging of his Majesty's dominions,
and also of the propagation of the knowledge and law of
God, and the glad tidings of salvation, which we and they

THE PILGRIM FATHERS, 427
were bound to seek, and were not to use such means as chap. xi.
would breed a distaste in the savages against our persons
and professions, assuring them their master would incur
much blame hereby, neither could they answer the same.
For our own parts, our case was alraost the sarae with
theirs, having but a sraall quantity of com left, and were
enforced to live on ground-nuts, clams, muscles, and such
other things as naturally the country afforded, and which
did and would maintain strength, and -were easy to be got
ten; all which things they had in great abundance, yea,
oysters also, which we wanted ; and therefore necessity
could not be said to constrain them thereunto. Moreover,
that they should consider, if they proceeded therein, all
they could so get would maintain them but a small time,
and then they must perforce seek their food abroad ; which,
having made the Indians their enemies, would be vei'y dif
ficult for them, and therefore much better to begin a little
the sooner, and so continue their peace ; upon which course
they might with good conscience desire and expect the
blessing of God ; whereas on the contrary they could not.
"Also that they should consider their own weakness,
being most swelled and diseased in their bodies, and there
fore the more unlikely to make their party good against
them, and that they should not expect help from us in that
or any the like unlawful actions. Lastly, that howsoever
some of them might escape, yet the principal agents should
expect no better than the gallows, whensoever any special
officer should be sent over by his Majesty, or his Council
for New England, which we expected, and who would un
doubtedly caU them to account for the same. These were
the contents of our answer, which was directed to their
whole colony. Another particular letter our Governor sent
to John Sanders, showing how dangerous it would be for
hira above all others, seeing he was their leader and com
mander; and therefore in friendly manner advised him to
desist."-*- The threats, more than the honest warnings of Governor
Bradford, induced the unprincipled agents of Weston to
abandon their project ; but this only delayed without avert
ing the dangers in which their vices had involved the whole
• Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 328.

428 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
chap. XL English colonists of New England. The exasperated Indians
had resolved to drive from their shores the base miscreants
who alternately excited their anger and contempt hy mean-
InteUlgenee ness and faithless dishonesty. Early in March the Governor
of the Indian obtained undoubted intelligence of a wide-spread conspiracy
among the Indians, which was directed indiscriminately
against all who bore the hated badge of the Pale Faces.
On the 23d of March 1623, the whole colonists of Plymouth
were assembled in public court, the Governor laid before
thera the evidence he had received of the Indian conspiracy,
and after grave declaration, the unanimous voice of the
Pilgrims declared for war. It was a momentous era in the
history of the colony, and the pious Pilgrims keenly felt
the necessity which thus compelled them to become the
emissaries of death to those whom they had desired to visit
as the messengers of eternal Ufe, and the ministers of the
Prince of Peace. " This business," says one of the colonists,
" was no less troublesome than grievous, especiaUy because
we knew no means to deliver our own countrymen and pre
serve ourselves than by returning the maUcious and cruel
purposes of these Indians upon their own heads, and caus
ing them to fall into the same pit they had digged for
others; though it much grieved us to shed the blood of
those whose good we ever intended and aimed at as a prin
cipal object in all our proceedings." It cannot but have
added to the grief with which they viewed the dire neces
sity of war, that they must have felt how much more their
own countrymen were the cause of it, than the Indians,
against whom they now sought to defend them; though
probably at that time they had been only very partially
informed of the unprincipled dealings of these men with
their Indian neighbom-s. Had not these Pilgrim Fathers for
saken the Old World, parted from many friends, and bade
a sorrowful fareweU to their native land, under the influ
ence of " a great hope and inward zeal of laying some good
foundation for the propagating and advancing the gospel of
the kingdom of Christ in these remote parts of the world ;
yea, though they should be but as stepping-stones unto
others for performing of so great a work?" — and now in their
third year it had come to this. They were to fight with
the weapons of this world, and meet the Indian hand to

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 429
hand in the deadly stmggle ; not tenderly warning him of CHAP. XI
an hereafter, and whispering in his ear the name of Him ' —
who hath made of one blood all that dwell upon tho earth,
but hurrying him more swiftly to the dark and hopeless
grave, whither he was already hastening, —
" No reckoning made, but sent to his account
With all his imperfections on his head."
WeU might their good pastor, Robinson, ¦write from Leyden Reflections
when he leai-ned of the first Indians who had perished by KrsUn"''
their hands, " how happy a thing had it been that you had ^''^^ wan
converted sorae before you killed any !" It raust be con
fessed that this Indian war is the most painful incident re
corded in these annals of the Pilgi'im Fathers. It is not
because these brave pioneers of civiUzatiou have taken up
arms to defend their hearths against the invasion of the
savage, that we regard their first warfare with sorrowful
regret. We are rather called upon to admire the calm and
unchanging courage which this little handful of raen dis
played when menaced by so merciless and powerful a foe.
But there was certainly more of the guile of the serpent in
their military tactics, than can well be reconciled with the
high and holy calling in obedience to which they professed
to have reared their home near the rude -wigwams of the
benighted Indian. It was resolved in the deliberations at
New Plymouth that they should meet gnUe with guile, and
" as it was impossible to deal with the Indians upon open
defiance, to take them in such traps as they lay for others."
Captain Standish set out accordingly with eight companions,
under the pretence of trading as at other times. They saw
sufficient evidence of the enmity with which the Indians
regarded them, and the Indians in like manner, notwith
standing the fi-iendly guise which Captain Standish still Tactics of
deemed it prudent to assume, soon began to suspect they *"-
were discovered. One of thera on his retum to the Indian
settleraent reported, that " he saw by th^ Captain's eyes he
was angi-y in his heart." Captain Standish, however, still
watched his time, until, having got the chief leaders of the
threatened conspiracy together in one of the Indian wig
wams, he suddenly gave the word to his men, secured the
door, and springing upon Pecksuot, one of the fiercest of
the Indians, he stabbed him to the heart with his own knife.
19

430

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

GovernorBradford'smessage to
tbe Indians.

CHAP. XI. Seven Indians in all perished by their hands, but though
thus fierce in the deadly struggle to which they felt them
selves driven by the stern dictates of necessity, they showed
a becoming moderation in what followed. They dismissed
the women who had fallen into their hands, refusing to
spoil them of their beaver coats, or to meddle -with any of
the Indian property. The whole party retumed safely to
Plymouth, to the great joy of the colonists, bringing with
them the head of Wituwamat, an Indian Sachem who had
breathed against them the most deadly vengeance, and
spoken of their leaders with open contempt. This barbarous
trophy was set up on the fort as a terror to , their foes.
One of them who had been seized and kept in irons during
the absence of Captain Standish and his party, was released
and commanded to bear this message from the Governor to
his Sachera : " That for our parts it never entered into our
hearts to take such a course with them, till their own
treachery enforced us thereunto, and therefore they might
thank themselves for their own overthrow ; yet since he
had begun, if again by any the like courses he did provoke
hira, his country should not hold hira ; for he would never
suffer him or his to rest in peace, till he had utterly con
sumed them ; and therefore should take this as a warning ;
further, that he should send to Patuxet three Englishmen
[of Weston's colony] he had, and not kill them ; also that
he should not spoil the pale and houses at Wichaguscusset ;
and that this messenger should either bring the .English, or
an answer, or both ; promising his safe return.
" This message was delivered, and the party would have
returned with an answer, but was at first dissuaded by
thera, whom afterwards they would, but could not, persuade
to come to us. At length, though long, a woman came and
told us, that Obtakiest was sorry that the EngUsh were
killed before he heard from the Governor ; otherwise he
would have sent them. Also she said, he would fain make
liis peace again with us, but none of his men durst come to
treat about it, having forsaken his dwelling, and daily re
moved from place to place, expecting when we would take
further vengeance on him.
" Conceming those other people, that intended to join
with the Massacheuseuks against us, though we never went

Terror of the
Indians.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 431
against any of them ; yet this sudden and unexpected exe- chap, xi
cution, together with the just judgment of God upon their "
guilty consciences, hath so terrified and amazed them, as in
like manner they forsook their houses, running to and fro
Uke men distracted, living in swamps and other desert
places, and so brought manifold diseases amongst them
selves, whereof very many are dead ; as Canaoum, the sachem
of Manomet, Aspinet, the sachem of Nauset, and lanough,
sachem of Jlattachiest. This sachem in his life, in the
midst of these distractions, said the God of the English was
offended with them, and would destroy them in his anger ;
and certainly it is strange to hear how many of late have
died, and still daily die araongst them. Neither is there any
likelihood it will easily cease ; because through fear they
set little or no corn, which is the staff of life, and without
-vN'hich they cannot long preserve health and strength. Frora
one of these places a boat was sent with presents to the
Governor, hoping thereby to work their peace ; but the boat
was cast away, and three of the persons drowned, not far
from our plantation. Only one escaped, who durst not come
to us, but retui-ned ; so as none of them dare come amongst
US."* Thus complete had been the victory of the Plymouth Fate tf Wee-
colonists, accomplished by such slight and seemingly inad
equate means. But what, meanwhile, had been the fate of
the wretched band of adventurers whose crimes and folly
had led to such results 1 The dishonest speculator — who
had faithlessly sought by means of this plantation to secure
for himself the gains which he had become bound long be
fore to share with the PUgrim Fathers who first sailed in
the Mayflower — came shortly afterwards, disguised like a
guilty coward, to learn of the prosperity of his new colony,
" who being all able men, had boasted of their strength and
what they would bring to pass, in comparison with the
people at Plymouth, who had many women, children, and
weak ones with thera."t But the race is not always to the
swift, nor the battle to the strong. The weak ones were
stUl there, strong in their honest virtue and their simple
trust in the good providence of God ; but the settlement of
• Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 344.
t Prince's New England Chronicles, vol. i. p 182.

132 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
ciiAP.jii. Wessagusset was utterly deserted and desolate. Some had
been hanged by their comrades for their crimes, more had
perished by the Indian's knife, or fled to escape just ven
geance, and the few that survived were indebted for their
safety to the hospitable shelter of their despised and crueUy
wronged neighbours.
Weston's Weston himself reached the shores of Araerica, only to
SceU.'^ "''' receive good at the hands of those on whom he had been
the means of bringing so raany evils ; and he showed him
self the worthy originator of such a band of profligate and
faithless adventurers, as had been thus speedUy cast out
from New England. " Shortly after Mr. Weston's people
went to the eastward," says Governor Bradford, " he comes
there himself with some of the fishermen, under another
name and the disguise of a blacksmith ; where he hears the
ruin of his plantation, and getting a shallop with a man or
two comes on to see how things are ; hut in a storm is cast
away in the bottom of the bay between Pascataquak and
Merrimak river, and hardly escapes with his life. After
wards he falls into the hands of the Indians, who pillage
him of all he saved from the sea, and strip him of all his
clothes to his shirt. At length he gets to Pascataquak, bor
rows a suit of clothes, finds means to come to Plymouth,
and desires to borrow some beaver of us. Notwithstanding
our straits, yet in consideration of liis necessity, we let him
have one hundred and seventy odd pounds of beaver, with
which he goes to the eastward, stays his small ship and
some of his men, buys provisions and fits himself, which is
the foundation of his future courses ; and yet he never repaid
us any thing save reproaches, and became our enemy on
all occasions."*
The entfre history of these rival settlements fimiishes a
most eloquent commentary on the true elements of a nation's
strength. It seems as if a great experiment had been tried
on the remote shores of New England, to demonstrate
the fact that virtue and true piety are the surest elements
of national greatness. " Except the Lord build the house,
they labour in vain that build it ; except the Lord keep the
tity, the watchman waketh but in vain."
* Prince's New England Chronicles, vol I. p. 134.

IHE PILGRIM FATHERS. 433
CHAPTER XII.
DBSPONDENOT AND THANKSQIVIN8.

Summer la come ; for every spray now springs ;
The hart hath hum; his old head on the pale:
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings ;
The fishes fleet with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she flings ;
The swift swaUow pursueth the flyes small;
The busy bee her honey now she myngs;
Winter is worn, that was tlie flowei-s' hale
And thus I see, among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs. Loss Sdbbet.

Returning spring once more brought to the Pilgrim colo- chap.xh
nists of New England fresh privations and sorrows. Their jj^^ jjjj^^
carefvdly husbanded stores, which would have sufficed for spring.
their own frugal housekeeping, had been generously squan
dered on the thankless settlers of Weston's colony. They
had encroached even on the stores for seed, in order to
minister to their necessities ; and when the month of April
anived, they were compelled to abandon all other labour in
order to get the seed into the gi'ound, though at the time
they had none left to fumish bread fox their present neces
sities, and were frequently compelled to betake themselves
to the sea-shore, and gather the shell-fish cast up by the
tide, as the only means of furnishing their table with a
meal. During the previous seasons they had sown from
the public stock, and gathered in a comraon harvest, but
now it was resolved to adopt a method which should dis
tinguish between the idle and industrious, and leave each
family dependent on the exertions of its members. A por
tion of land was allotted to each individual, — land being re
served for the m.aintenance of public officers, fishermen, and
others, whose services were demanded for the general good

i'S-i

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

CHAP.Xn.

Greatdrought.

Destitution of the colo
nists.

Day of fast
ing and hn
mlllatlon.

The colonists resumed the labours of the field with re
newed energy and zeal. Ttie ground was speedily prepared
and sown with seed; the sun smiled above, and genial
showers watered the earth, filling their hearts -with thank
fulness in the hopes of future plenty. So it continued till
the close of May. But new trials awaited them. " It pleased
God for our further chastisement," says Winslow, " to send
a gxeat drought ; insomuch as in six weeks after the latter
setting there scarce fell any rain ; so that the stalk of what
was first set began to send forth the ear, before it came to
half growth, and that which was later was not like to yield
any at all, both blade and stalk hanging the head, and chang
ing the colour in such manner, as we judged it utterly dead.
Our beans also ran not up according to their wonted man
ner, but stood at a stay, many being parched away, as
though they had been scorched before the fire. Now were
our hopes overthrown, and we discouraged, our joy being
turned into mourning."
Govemor Bradford furnishes a most touching picture of
the destitution of the colony at this period. The men were
divided into companies of six or seven each, who by turns
went out with their boat and nets, and returned not, says
he, though five or six days out ; knowing there was nothing
at home. To add to their sorrow the colonists learned of
abundant supplies that had been shipped for thera many
raonths before, and now the shattered remnants of a -wreck
which were drifted into the bay, seemed to the desponding
Pilgrims to furnish undoubted evidence that their friends
and their long expected stores had perished together in
the storm. " God," says Winslow, " seemed to deprive us
of aU future hopes. The most courageous were discour
aged, because He who had hitherto been our shield and
supporter now seemed in his anger to arm himself against
us, and who can withstand the fierceness of his wrath 1"
But though thus cast down and despairing, they did not
abandon the ancient stronghold of faith. Privately and
unitedly they offered up earnest prayers to God, with solemn
confessions of sin. A day of fasting and humiliation was
¦ appointed by public authority, and especially set apart for
casting themselves as a people on the mercy and long-suffer
ing goodness of God, who had bo often proved himself a

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 435
very present help in tirae of trouble. Such incidents as CHAP.XU.
this prove, more than any thing else could do, the nature
of tliat vital principle by which the weak and apparently
helpless band of exiles, cast on the desolate shores of New
England, took root and established themselves, until they
grew into a powerful state, which the Old World still re
gards with wonder and admiration ; while numerous and
powerful bodies of emigrants, sustained by the wealth of
England, and furnished with annual supplies by her fleets,
failed to leave behind them any enduring traces of the set
tlements they went forth to establish. The spirit of religious
feith and humble trust in the overruling providence of God
never forsook the PUgrim Fathers, and was most strongly
present in their minds as a vital principle of sustaining
power in those dark hours of trial when all other hope
seemed vain. This it was which enabled them to surmount
the difficulties and dangers, hefore which the bands of Eng
land's most daring adventurers had quailed ; and we shall
best understand its nature by recording its manifestations
in the language of the old Pilgrim's narrative. " These and
the like considerations," says Winslow, "moved not only
every good man privately to enter into examination with
his own estate between God and his conscience, and so to
humiliation before Hira, but also more solemnly to humble
ourselves togetlier before the Lord by fasting and prayer.
To that end a day was appointed by public authority, and
set apart fi-om all other employments ; hoping that the same
God, which had stirred us up hereunto, would be moved
hereby in mercy to look down upon us, and grant the re
quest of our dejected souls, if our continuance there might
any way stand with his glory and our good. But oh the ScasonaMe
mercy of our God ! who was as ready to hear, as we to ask ; '"'^°'
for though in the moming, when we assembled together,
the heavens were as clear, and the drought as like to con
tinue as ever it was, yet, (our exercise continuing sorae
eight or nine hours,) before our departiu-e, the weather was
overcast, the clouds gathered together on all sides, and on
the next morning distilled such soft, sweet, and moderate
showers of rain, continuing some fourteen days, and mixed
with such seasonable weather, as it was hard to say whether
)ur withered com or drooping affections were most quick-

436 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP.xn. ened or revived ; such was the bounty and goodness of our
—— God." The Pilgrim Fathers were no superstitious visionaries
Ideas of Pro- who looked for miraculous interpositions of Providence on
their behalf in every emergency. In Robert Cushman's
" Reasons and Considerations," he shows this most clearly,
discriminating between God's extraordinary deaUngs with
his chosen people of old, and the overruUng providence by
which alone he now manifests his care over all his works.
" God of old," says he, " did so guide his people, hut now he
doth not, but speaks in another manner, and so we must
apply ourselves to God's present dealing, and not to his
wonted dealing ; and as the miracle of gi-ring manna ceased
when the fruits of the land became plenty, so God having
such a plentiful storehouse of directions in his Holy Word,
then must not now any extraordinary revelations be ex
pected." So did the old Pilgrims reason, free from the
slightest tincture of fanaticism or superstition ; but they
did not the less surely believe that the eye of the Lord ia
still upon all his works, and his ear is still ready to hear the
prayer of the destitute, and himself to be the help and the
refuge of his people.
The Indians had not failed to note, in their frequent in-
Surpiise ot tercourse with the colonists, that on each returning seventh
day they rested from all worldly labour, however pressing
their necessities might be, and devoted their Sabbath to the
worship of the Great Spirit, whose oven-uling providence
was dimly shadowed forth in the traditional faith of the
mde children of the forest. It chanced at the period ap
pointed for this solemn fast, that a number of Indians had
assembled from various causes at the settlement, araong
whom was Hobbamock, the friendly Indian, who, to a great
extent, supplied the loss of Squanto, thefr former intei-pre-
ter. The Indians gazed with their silent but observant
habits on the colonists, wondering to see them gathering
together for worship, and no signs of their wonted industry,
although it was only three days since the Sunday of the
Pale Faces. By a happy union of apparently very diverse
uses, the fort they had reared as their stronghold on Burial
Hill served in like manner as the place of pubUc worship.
To this indeed it owes its latter designation, the colonists

THB PILGRIM PATHEBS. 487
having naturally reverted after a time to the custom of CHAP.Xil
their EngUsh forefathers, and chosen the site of their burial
ground around the sacred place of their Sabbath assemblies.
Not now to the warrior's fort and citadel, but to the Chris
tian's stronghold were they betaking themselves. The In
dians strove in vain to conceive what this could mean, and
at length Hobbamock demanded of a boy the reason of such
unwonted procedure. The effect on the minds of the won
dering Indians may readily be conceived, when,, as at the
prayer of the prophet Elijah, " the heaven was black with
clouds and wind, and there was a great rain."
The virtues of Hobbamock, their Indian fiiend and inter- Hobbamock,
preter, appear to have been held in high estimation by the preter.
colonists. His services to the settlement had proved of great
value, and his hearty sympathy and co-operation with them
in aU thefr proceedings, seem completely to have overcome
the feelings of distrust, which thefr ordinary intercourse
with their Indian neighbours must have induced in the
minds of the Pilgrims. In the following year he was com
pletely adopted into their number as a member of the co
lony of New Plymouth. In the allotment of the lands of
the settlement in 1624, a portion was set apart as " Hobba-
mock's gi'ound ;" and in a work published in London about
twenty years later, entitled " New England's First Fruits,"
the following touching record of his fidelity occurs : — " As
he increased in knowledge, so in affection, and also in his
practice, reforming and conforming himself accordingly ;
and though he was much tempted by enticements, scofis,
and scorns from the Indians, yet could he never be gotten
from the English, nor from seeking after their God, but died
amongst them, lea^ring some good hopes in their hearts that
his soul went to rest."
It is curious, and not unworthy of note in passing, that Indian cieed.
the name of this Indian, whom the pious Pilgrims thus re
garded as probably the first fruits of thefr missionary zeal,
is the same which Winslow notes as that apphed by the
natives to the spirit of evU. The coincidence seems to have
escaped their observation, or they would hardly have failed
to notice the deliverance of the plighted bondsman of Satan,
to become the first freedman of the gospel among the natives
of New England. It may not be unmeet to glance for a
19*

433 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. XIL moment at the Indian's creed, — a faith not devoid of some
.sublimity in its most prominent features, though deformed
by many degrading superstitions " A few things," WTites
Winslow, — in a narrative appended to his historic relation,
— " I have obsei-ved amongst the Indians, both touching
their religion and sundry other customs amongst them.
And first, whereas myself and others, in former letters,
-wrote that the Indians about us are a people without any
religion, or knowledge of any God, therein I erred, though
we could then gather no better ; for as they conceive of
many divine powers, so of one, whom they call Kiehtan, to
be the principal and maker of all the rest, and to be made
by none. He, they say, created the heavens, earth, sea, and
all creatures contained therein ; also that he raade one man
and one woman, of whom they and we and all mankind
came : but how they became so far dispersed, that know
they not. At first, they say, there was no sachera or king,
but Kiehtan, who dwelleth above in the heavens, whither
all good men go when they die, to see their friends, and
have their fill of all things. This his habitation lieth far
westward in the heavens, they say; thither the bad men go
also, and knock at his door, but he bids them quatchet, that
is to say, walk abroad, for there is no place for such ; so that
they wander in restless want and penury. Nevef pian saw
this Kiehtan ; only old men tell them of Mm, and bid them
tell their children, yea, to charge them to teach their pos
terities the same, and lay the like charge upon them. This
power they acknowledge to be good ; and when they would
obtain any gi-eat matter, thej' meet together and cry unto
him ; and so likewise for plenty, victory, &c., sing, dance,
feast, give thanks, and hang up garlands and other things
in memory of the same.
" Another power they worship, whom they call Hobba-
Hobbamock, mock, and to the northward of us, Hobbamoqui; this, as far
fte^Splrit of j^g .^^.g jjj^j^ conceive, is the devil. Hira they call upon to
cure their wounds and diseases. When they are curable,
he persuades them he sends the same for some conceived
anger against them, but upon their calling upon him, he can
and doth help them. But when they are mortal and not
curable in nature, then he persuades them Kiehtan is angry,
and sends them, whom none can cure ; insomuch as in that

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 439
respect only they somewhat doubt whether he be simply CHAP. XH
good, and therefore in sickness never call upon him."
As the apprehensions of the colonists were dispelled Apprehen-
in so remarkable a manner, they learned soon after that peUed.
their sorrow at the supposed loss of the vessel freighted
with their expected stores had been no less premature.
The sliip was safe, and on its way to New England with the
needful supplies, while the dangers and long delays it had
experienced, were fruitful to them in unlooked for blessings.
WhUe the colonists were mourning over the wreck flung
on their coast, not only as the evidence of ruined hopes,
but of friends intorabed amid the raging billows of the At
lantic, God in his good providence was watching over them,
and working out for them a great deliverance. The good
prospects of the New England colonists, which were pro
bably exaggerated in the eyes of the English adventurers
by thefr unwearied patience and contentment, had excited
the covetous longings of others besides Mr. Thomas Weston.
Mr. John Pierce, vpith shrewder foresight than Weston, re- Schemes o
solved to secure to himself the first fruits of their success, pjerc^
not by entering into competition with them, but by render
ing thera completely subservient to his interests. " We
received," says Bradford, "letters frora the adventurers in
England of Deceraber 22 and April 9 last, wherein they
say, ' It rejoiceth us much to hear those good reports that
divers have brought home of you ;' and give an account,
that last fall, a ship, the Paragon, sailed from London with
passengers, for New Plymouth ; being fitted out by Mr.
John Pierce, in whose name our first patent was taken, his
name being only used in trust ; but when he saw we were
here hopefuUy seated, and by the success God gave us, had
obtained favour with the Council for New England, he gets
another patent of a larger extent, meaning to keep it to
himself, allow us only what he pleased, hold us as his ten
ants and sue to his courts as chief lord. But meeting with
tempestuous storms in the Downs, the ship is so bruised
and leaky that in fourteen days she retui-ned to London,
was forced to be put into the dock, £100 laid out to" mend
her, and lay six or seven weeks to December 22, before she
saUed a second time ; but being half way over, met with
extreme tempestuous weather about the middle of February

440 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. XIL which held fourteen days, beat off the round nouse with all
her upper works, obliged thera to cut her mast and return
to Portsmouth, having 109 souls aboard, with Mr. Pierce
himself Upon which gi-eat and repeated loss and disap
pointment, he is prevailed upon for .£500 to resign his
patent to the Company, which cost him but £.50 ; and the
goods, with charge of passengers in this ship, cost the Com
pany £640, for which they were forced to hire another ship,
the Anne, of 140 tons, to transport them, namely, sixty
passengers with sixty tons of goods, hoping to saU by the
end of April."
Every step secured by the founders of New England was
slowly and hardly won. Their growth was Uke that of the
hardy oak, which gains strength cradled by the storms of
winter, and roots itself the more firmly by contending with
its rudest gales.

CHAPTER XIII
THE LAST OF THE FOREFATHERS.

Our bleak hills shall bud and blow.
Vines our rocks shall overgrow,
Plenty in our valleys flow.
We but aslc our rocky strand,
Freedom's true and brother band,
Freedom's strong and honest hand, —
Valleys by the slave untrod.
And the Pilgrims' mountain sod,
Blessed by our Father's God. Whittieb.

CHAP. XIIL Just as the colonists were beginning to look with pleasing
anticipations on the ripening of the golden grain, which
they had sowed under such severe privations, and tended
amid many fears, the outlookers on Burial Hill were
cheered vrith the sight of a sail on the distant horizon. In

THB PILGRIM FATHERS. 441
the latter end of July the ship Anne arrived, followed soon CHAP. Xm.
after by the Little James, a smaU vessel of forty-four tons, 
built expressly for trading ¦with the colony. In addition to
the acceptable supplies which they brought, about sixty
passengers landed at Plymouth, most of whom were wel
come to the Pilgrims as dear and long-expected friends.
Some of them were the wives and children of those who
had been the foremost to face the dangers and difficulties of
the infant settlement They found not one sick person in
the settlement, notwithstanding all the want and privations
they had endured. Imagination must be left to picture the
joyful meetmg of husband and wife, parents and chUdren,
after so long a separation, and the tedious hopes and fears
attendant on the cfrcumstances in which both parties had
been placed. In the quaint Christian names mingling
among the common Georges, Thomases and Edwards, fami- Purita:
Uar to EngUsh ears, which appear in the Ust of tliese new "*""*
emigrants, we detect one of the peculiar characteristics
which, at a later period, became so general among the
Puritans both of England and America. There are Fear
and Patience, daughters of Elder Brewster, Manasseh
Faunce, Christian Penn, and Experience Mitchell. Jonar
than and Love were in like manner the sons of the venera
ble Elder, whom Govemor Bradford speaks of as the father
of many chUdren. Another of his chUdren bore the name
of WrestUng ; and the history of the colony in later times
affords evidence that the example was not lost on thefr
descendants. Among those undistinguished by thefr names
there unhappily proved to be sorae but little welcome as
members of that virtuous community, and whose peculiar
ities had anything but a Puritan tendency. So vicious
and troublesome, indeed, did they prove, that the colonists
were compeUed to ship them home the foUovring year,
being glad to secure thefr absence at any cost.
The arrival of the Anne and Little James, with thefr The last of
new band of emi^-ants casting in their lot -with the found- ^j)^!^''"
ers of Plymouth, marks a period of peculiar interest in the
annals of the Pilgrim Fathers. By all the historians of
New England these later pilgrims are reckoned with those
who came in the Mayflower and Fortune, as the Old Comer*
or Forefathers. It was the completion of the band of Pil-

442 THE PILORIM PATHEBS.
CHAP. XIIL grims, the aristocracy of the New World, frora whom, as
from a fount of honour, its titles and its privileges were to
be derived to all after ages ; and a nobler ancestry could
not be desired, amid all the pomp and blazonry of old heral
dic trees. In the welcome which the colonists gave to their
friends, kindliness and love had to make up for the absence
of much else at the homely board. " When they see our
poor and low condition," writes one of thera, " they are
much dismayed and full of sadness ; only our old friends
rejoice to see us, and that it is no worse, and now hope we
shall enjoy better days together. The best dish we could
present them with, is a lobster, or piece of fish, without
bread, or anything else but a cup of fair spring water ; and
the long continuance of this diet, -with our labours abroad,
has somewhat abated the freshness of our complexion; but
God gives us health," &c.
The severest hardships of the colonists were now over, and
they could venture to welcome the reunion of long-disse
vered family circles, and to sympathise with the salutation
of their faithful counsellor, Mr Robert Cushman, who had
returned to England, and wrote from thence, " Your old
fiiends come dropping to you, and by degrees I hope ere
long you shall enjoy them all."
Some, however, there were, whom the Pilgrims had
-Mr. John longed and hoped for, but whom they were never destined
to see join thera, in their far distant home ; and foremost
araong these, was their beloved pastor Robinson. He had
been their guide through all their earlier wanderings. He
had held' sweet converse with them, and ministered kindly
consolation to many there, in years long gone by, that
seemed to them now as a shadowy but pleasant dream of
childhood, when they wandered together among the green
lanes, or watched the heron or wild duck in the quiet fens
of Lincolnshire, in Old England. He had stood by them in
perilous hours, and borne persecution for thera and with
them, when the dear ties of their native land were rudely
severed. He was the last to leave the post of danger when
the exiled families were escaping to a foreign land, and,
with self-sacrificing devotion, he was content to go or to
stay, according as the wants of his severed flock should
seem most to need his presence in the old city of Leyden,

HE PILGRIM FATHERS. 443
or in the land of hope and promise beyond the billows of CHAP. XIIL
the Atlantic. Few men of nobler spirit have ever lived ; NobTutTof
)>erhaps none that could compare with this humble and character.
little-noticed pastor of the exiled flock, were left behind
him, in those early years of the seventeenth century, when
he bade farewell to his native shores. He was a man of
refined intellect, and great natural powers of mind. He
had studied and taken high degrees at Emmanuel Col
lege, Cambridge, and had held a living in the Church of
England. But the poor pedant king had taken into his
head that the minds and creeds of all Englislimen should
be moulded into an exact resemblance to his own ; and,
unhappily for England, there were not wanting abundant
tools, — knaves and bigots, with some honest but dim-sighted
men to boot, — who were willing to strive for the accom
plishment of this impossibilitj'. Robinson accordingly found
that his benefice in the neighbourhood of Yarmouth could
not long be held in peace with a clear conscience. He was
frequently molested with bishops's officers, and his friends
prosecuted, fined, imprisoned, and nearly ruined, in the
ecclesiastical courts. They escaped to Holland at last, after
many difficulties, having resolved not to purchase peace or
worldly honours by sinful compliance with the restraints
imposed on conscientious heUef. There we have already
followed them to Arasterdara, and from thence to Leyden,
and to Delft Haven, where the good pastor knelt upon the
shore, and with tearful eyes implored the blessings of Hea
ven upon his severed flock, as he watched the Speedwell
receding from his gaze, till lost in the distant meeting of the
sea and sky. Neither he nor his flock ever gave up the hope
of reunion in their new home. But it was not so to be.
They were to see the face of their loved pastor no more.
John Robinson was only thirty-two years of age when
the exiled church was re-formed at Amsterdam. Neverthe
less he had left behind him a reputation for learning, as
well as for simple piety and devoted zeal ; and even some
of his enemies acknowledged hira to be " the most leamed,
polished, and modest spirit, that ever separated from the
Church of England." He appears to have possessed the
rare virtues of courage and prudence in a singular degree.
Ee was remarkable as a lover of peace ; and when threat

444

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

Controversy
with the
Armenians.

CHAP. xiil. ened to be involved in the dissensions which originated in
.another body of English Nonconformist exiles at Antwerp,
he at once removed vvith his flock to Leyden, to escape so
dreaded a danger, although both he and they were well
aware that their worldly cares and difficulties would be
greatly increased by removing to an inland town. Neverthe
less, when he conceived the great interests of religion were
at stake, in consequence of the teaching of the Arminians, he
boldly stepped forward as the champion of what he believed
to be the truth. The period was a critical one in the state
of the controversy at Leyden. _Episcopius, one of the divi
nity professors, maintained the doctrines of the Armenians;
while Polyander, his colleague in the university, was the
champion of the Calvinists. It is sufficient evidence of his
great abilities, that though a young raan and a foreigner so
recently come araongst them, his appearance in the contro
versy was hailed with delight by Polyander, and won him
great honour, without any appearance of enmity or ill-vrill
being shown by his opponents. His leaming and piety
attracted many English Nonconformists to Leyden ; and he
published several works, particularly his " Justification of
Separation from the Church of England," which were long
held in high estimation. His character is thus briefly, but
lovingly, drawn by Governor Bradford, in his Dialogne be
tween some young raen born in New England, and sundry
ancient men that carae out of Holland and Old England : —
" Mr. John Robinson was pastor of that famous church of
Leyden, in HoUand ; a man not easily to be paralleled for
all things, whose singular vfrtues we shall not take upon
us here to describe. Neither need we, for they so well are
known both by friends and enemies. As he was a man
leamed and of solid judgment, and of a quick and sharp
wit, so was he also of a tender conscience, and very sincere
in all his ways, a hater of hypocrisy and dissimulation, and
would be very plain with his best friends. He was very
courteous, affable, and sociable in his conversation, and
towards his own people especiaUy. He was an acute and
expert disputant, very quick and ready, and had much
bickering with the Arminians, who stood more in fear of
him than any of the university. He was never satisfied in
himself until he had searched any cause or argument he

Governor
Bradford's character of
Robinson.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 445
had to deal in thoroughly and to the bottom ; and we have chap, xm
heard him sometimes say to his familiars, that many times,
both in writing and disputation, he knew he had sufficiently
answered others, but many times not himself; and was
ever desirous of any light, and the more able, leai-ned, and
holy the persons were, the more he desired to confer and
reason with them. He was very profitable in lus ministry,
and comfortable to liis people. He was muoh beloved of
them, and as loring was he unto them, and entirely sought
their good for soul and body. In a word, he was much
esteemed and reverenced of all that knew him, and his abi
Uties were acknowledged both of friends and strangers."-*-
The testimony of Bradford has already been referred to His liberality
IS to the sagacity and wisdom vrith which their pastor ment"'*"
guided them, no less in temporal than in spiritual things.
" His love," says he, " was great towards them, and his
care was always bent for their best good, both for soul and
body. For, besides his singular abiUties in divine things,
wherein he excelled, he was able also to give direction in
civil affairs, and to foresee dangers and inconveniences ; by
which means he was very helpful to thefr outward estates ;
and so was every way as a common father unto them. And
none did more offend him than those that were close and
cleaving to themselves, and retired from the common good;
as also such as would be stiff and rigid in matters of out
ward order, and inveigh against the es-ils of others, and yet
be remiss in themselves, and not so careful to express a vfr-
tuous conversation. They, in Uke manner, have ever a reve
rent regard unto him, and had him in precious estimation,
as his worth and wisdom did deserve ; and although they
esteemed hun highly whilst he lived and laboured amongst
them, yet much more after his death, when they carae to
feel the want of his help, and saw by woeful experience
what a treasure they had lost, to the grief of their hearts
and wounding of thefr souls ; yea, such a loss as they saw
could not be repafred; for it was hard for thera to find such
another leader and feeder in all respects."
The life of Robinson was one of many trials; and it must Disappoint
have been no slight addition to these, to see one after an- jeBtiu
other of his flock escaping to the settlement they had estab-
? Chronicles of tho Pflgrhns. p. 45L

446

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

Funeral
honoui-a

OHAP. xin. lished in New England, while he strove in vain to accom-
, pUsh his long-cherished -wish of being united to his people.
Poverty during the first years, and the opposition of some
of the merchant adventurers afterwards, prevented this;*
and when the colonists had just triumphed over their great
est difficulties, and would gladly have removed all these
obstacles, death put his final fiat on the step. On the 1st
of March 1625, Uttle more than five years from the date of
that sad, yet hopeful parting at Delft Haven, Robinson's
pUgi-image was over, and he had entered into his rest.
Unwonted funeral honours were paid to the good man's
niemoi-y, as they laid hira in his gi-ave in the land of the
stranger. His death was looked on as a public loss. The
university and the ministers of the city, with many of the
citizens, followed his remains to the place of interment,
under the pavement in the aisle of St. Peter's, the oldest
church in the city of Leyden. No stone marks the spot
where he is laid, for his fi-iends were mostly gone to thefr
far-distant settlement of Plymouth, in New England, and
the few that remained — exiles like himseltj— -were too poor
to spare the costs of such a memorial. " If either prayers,
tears, or means," said one of them, in writing to Governor
Bradford, •' vvould have saved his life, he had not gone hence.
But he having faithfully finished his work which the Lord
had appointed him here to perform, he now rests with the
Lord in eternal happiness." In another letter preserved by
the first governor of New England, the writer exclaims, —
" Alas ! you would fain have had him with you, and he
would as fain have come to you."
Peace to the just man's memorj',— let It grow
Greener with years, and blossom through the flight
Of ages; let tho mimic canvass sliow
His calm benevolent features ; let the light
Sti-earn on his deeds of love that shunned the sight
Of all but Heaven, and in the book of fame
The glorious record of his virtues write.
And hold it up to men, and bid them claim
A palm lilve his, and catch frpm him the hallowed flame.
How small a place he occupied in the world's eye, whom
Reverence now the people of a vast continent look back to with fiUal
memory. reverence, though it was not permitted him to set a foot
• Vide Letter of Holbrcuon to Elder Brewster, -f oung's Chronicles of the Pil-

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 447
- upon the promised land. Like Moses, he led his people to Chap. xm.
the verge of the wilderness, and from afar beheld thefr'
goodly inheritance. What mattered it though the few who
yet lingered behind could not grave for Mm the memorial
stone. They needed it not ; for the spot was hallowed in
their remembrance, as the resting-place of their loved
minister ; and they looked, probably, rather to hold its
record in their memory, than to behold it much longer
¦with thefr eyes, when the strongest tie that might have
bound them to their foreign shelter, was thus severed, and
they liastened to join their brethren in their home in the
wUderness. Nevertheless the gi-ave of the good man has
not been forgot. Pilgiims from that far land, where
now the memory of the Uttle band of exiles is revered as
that of the fathers of a gi'eat nation, have sought the old
church of St. Peter's at Leyden, and have thought its
ancient aisle more sacred because it holds the dust of the
PUgrims's pastor.
While the church of the PUgrims at Plymouth waited ^J;J™
and longed for their pastor, whose face they were no more
to see in the flesh, his place was supplied by Mr. William
Brewster, a man endowed with no mean gifts, and not
unworthy to occupy the honourable pre-eminence of the
first New England pastor. His place in the exiled church
at Leyden appears to have been that of ruling elder ; an
office which would seem to have been only temporarily
continued in the church of the PUgi-ims, though it stUl
foiins an essential feature in the ecclesiastical polity of
most of the Presbyterian churches of Scotland and Ame
rica. What the exact effect of such a pastoral oversight,
vested solely in the hands of a ruling elder, was calculated
to produce, in robbing the church of the Pilgiiras of some
essential feature of ecclesiastical completeness and sym
metry, it does not concern us greatly to inquire. Dr.
Cheever, indeed, has thought it advisable to discuss its
merits, in his " Plymouth Pilgrims," and to compare the
ideas entertained by the founders of New England, with
the rules of the " Cambridge Platfoi-m of 1649, and the
Confessions of the New England Churches of 1680." Hap
pily the Pilgrim Pathers were occupied with weightier
affairs, and left to the next generation to revive the party

448 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
OHAP. XIIL spirit of controversial religion, which engrafted on the New
England annals, records of bigotry and intolerance not greatly
behind those of the mother country.
The history of Elder Brewster, as he is usually styled
Earlyhlstory in the Pilgrims's journals, presents us with some re
markable incidents. Like Robinson, he was a student of
Cambridge University, though he did not pursue his stu
dies long enough to attain to the acquirements or hon
ours of the former. On leaving the University, he repaired
to the Court, and was engaged for some years in the service
of William Davidson, the celebrated and unfortunate secre
tary of Queen Elizabeth, and the victim of her duplicity,
when she polluted her womanly fkme with the blood of a
sister Queen, and then strove to shift its responsibility on
her agents. In 1584, the EngUsh Queen leagued with the
United Provinces, to enable them to maintain thefr inde
pendence of her Spanish rival. The fortresses of Flushing,
the Brille, and Rammekins, were consigned to them as
pledges for the repayment of the money, which, with cha
racteristic prudence, she had advanced them on loan.
Brewster accompanied the Secretary of State when he went
as ambassador to the Low Countries, to take possession of
these cautionary towns, as they were termed; and when in
token of their being thus ceded to the Queen, the keys of
Flushing were delivered to her Majesty's ambassador,
Brewster received them in charge, and slept with them
under his pUlow.
When Elizabeth had resolved on the death of Mary, the
Davidson, hapless Queen of Scots, Davidson was privately ordered to
beth's score- draw out the death-warrant; which she signed, and sent to
**'^ the Chancellor to have the Great Seal appended to it.*
When her victim was beyond the reach of mercy or justice,
Elizabeth shrunk from the execration with which the mur
der of her defenceless prisoner was univereally regarded,
and accused her secretary of undue precipitancy. With an
affected sorrow and indignation which deceived no one, she
railed at the unfortunate agent of her vrill, committed him
to the Tower, and arraigned him before the Star Chamber.
He was amerced in a fine of £10,000, by which he was
* Vide Davidson's Apology, Chalmer's Life of Mary Queen of Scots, 8T0,
¦roh iii., pp. 618, 620.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 449
utterly ruined. " Thus," says Whitaker, the able vindi- CHAP. xm.
cator of the Scottish Queen, " feU Davidson, a memorable
e-ridence of the cunning, the perfidiousness, and the barba
rity of Elizabeth and her Cecil !" The fall of Davidson put
an end to WUliam Brewster's connection vrith the Court,
though he failed not to do what good services he could for
his old master, who is spoken of not only as a man of great
abilities, but as no less esteemed for his piety and worth,
and unskilful only in those pliant arts which best subserve
the ambition of the courtier.
Brewster retired to the country, most probably to his Brewster's
native place in Lincolnshire, where he won the esteem of cohiSre.
many friends, and where, it is presumed, he first became
known to Mr. John Robinson. " He did much good," says
Govemor Bradford, " in the country where he lived, in
promoting and furthering religion ; and not only by his
practice and example, and provoking and encouraging of
others, but by procuring of good preachers to aU places
thereabouts, and drawing on of others to assist and help to
forward in such a work ; he himself most commonly deep
est in the chaise, and sometimes above his ability. And in
this state he continued many years, doing the best good he
could, and walking according to the light he saw, untU the
lord revealed further linto him. And in the end, by the
tyranny of the bishops against godly preachers and people,
in silencing the one and persecuting the other, he and many
more of those times began to look further into particulars,
and to see into the imlawfulness of their calUngs, and the
burden of raany anti-ohristian corruptions, which both he
and they endeavoured to cast off, as they also did, as in the
beginning of this treatise is to be seen.
"After they were joined together into communion, he Church form-
was a special stay and help to them. They ordinarily met hons&
at his house on the Lord's day, which was a manor of the
bishop's, and with great love he entertained them when
they came, making provision for them to his great charge;
and contuiued so to do whilst they could stay in England.
And when they were to remove out of the country, he was
one of the first in all adventures, and forwardest in any.
He was the chief of those that were taken at Boston, in
Lincolnshfre, and sufferad the greatest loss; and one of

450

THB PILGRIM FATHBBS.

His employ
ment in Hol-

CHAP. xm. the seven that were kept longest in prison, and after bound
~ over to the assizes.
" When he came into Holland, he suffered much hardship
after he had spent the most of his means, having a great
charge and many children ; and in regard of his former
breeding and course of life, not so fit for many employ
ments as others were, especially such as were toilsome and
laborious. Yet he ever bore his condition with much cheer
fulness and contentation. Towards the latter part of those
twelve years spent in Holland, his outward condition was
mended, and he lived well and plentifully; for he fell into
a way, by reason he had the Latin tongue, to teach many
students who had a de.rire to learn the English tongue, to
teach them English, and by his method they quickly at
tained it with great facility ; for he drew rules to learn it
by, after the Latin manner ; and many gentlemen, both
Danes and Germans, resorted to him, as they had time from
other studies, some of them being great men's sons. He
also had means to set up printing, by the help of some
friends, and so had employment enough ; and by reason of
many books which would not be allowed to be printed in
England, they might have had more than they could do."-*
From the press established by William Brewster at Ley
den, came forth works esteemed no less by the good men of
that age, than distasteful to the advocates of absolute uni
formity among the people of England. When Cartwright,
the Father of English Puritans, retired to the mastership
of the hospital at Warwick, under the patronage of the Earl
of Leicester, on his release from prison iu 1585, he undertook
to refute the Rhemish translation of the New Testament, a
work on which the most learned Roman Catholic writers had
been employed, in order to counteract the influence of the
Protestant versions of the Scriptures. Queen Elizabeth was
herself alive to the necessity of exposing the fallacies of this
most subtle weapon of Romanism, and had already applied
to the celebrated Beza, when Sir Francis Walsingham re
ferred her to the great Puritan divine, as no less able to
cope with the chosen champions of Popery. Archbishop
Whitgift, however, was of a different opinion, and prefer
red leaving the Rhemists unanswered, rather than in-
• Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 465.

Productionsof his print
ing-press.

TRE FILGBIH FATHERS. 461
tmst the defence of the doctrines of tho Church of Eng- CHAP. XHL
land to one disaffected to its discipline. " Disheartened
hereat," says Fuller, " Cartwiight desisted, but some years
after, encouraged by an honourable lord, resumed his work ;
but prevented by death, perfected no further than the fif
teenth chapter of Revelation. Many years lay this worthy
work neglected, and the copy mouse-eaten in part, when
the printer excused some defects herein in his edition,
which, though late, at last came forth. Anno 1618."-*
The printer who thus apologized for the unavoidable Confutation
blanks in this Defence of the Protestant Scriptures, which mists.
the Archbishop of Canterbury consigned to the moths and
the mice, was none other than William Brewster. In a let
ter written from the Hague in 1619, by Sir Dudley Carels-
ton, addressed to Secretary Naunton, Brewster is referred
to, not only as the printer of Cartwright's " Confutation of
the Rhemists's Translation," but as either himself the prin
ter, or privy to the writing and printing, of all the Noncon
formist works which issued from the press in HoUand, for
distribution in England and Scotland. He appears to have
rendered himself peculiarly obnoxious to the Court by tha
publication of a book entitled, " De Regimine Ecclesise
Scoticanse." Such was the indignation of James's Govem
ment at this and similar controversial works, that Brewster
had to flee from Leyden, and to take refuge in England from
the emissaries of its own Govei-nment. It seems probable,
from all that appears, that he was in hiding there while the
negotiations were being carried on with the merchant ad
venturers for the transportation of the exiled church to
Virginia, and this no doubt contributed to confirm the in
tending emigrants in their desire to secure an asylum be
yond the Atlantic.
No printing-press was needed in the early years of the The Ne»
settlement at Plymouth Bay. Each of the PUgrims, doubt- forf'""* "¦*¦
less, bore with him his well-thumbed Bible, iu itself a suffi
cient Ubrary for the pious colonists. William Brewster
thenceforth shared in the labours of the planters, and in the
oversight of the colony, though in the latter he bore a less
prominent share than might have been anticipated. He
was fully sixty years of age when he landed with his breth-
* Fuller's Church Hi.-jtory, book ijc sect 6.

452 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. XHL ren to face the rigours of their first winter in New England,
in all probability the oldest of the Pilgrim Fathers. The
venerable elder thenceforth moved amid his little flock, en
forcing, by precept and example, the principles which he
maintained with undeviating integrity amid so many vicis
situdes and trials, and exhibiting amid the first rude log-
huts of Old Leyden Street, the same polished courtesy of
the Christian and the gentleman, with which he had graced
in earlier years the Court of Queen EUzabeth, and the
CouncU Hall of the Hague.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE FIBST GOVERNORS OF NEW BNOLAHS.

'TIS not in battles that from youth we train
The Govemor who must be -wise and good.
And temper with the sternness of the brain
Thoughts motherly, and weak as womanhood.
Wisdom doth live -with children round her knees,
Books, leisure, perfect freedom, and the talk
Man holds ¦with week-day man in the hourly walk
Of the mind's business: these are the degrees
By which tnie Sway doth mount; this is the stalk
'ft'ue Power doth grow on ; and her rights are these. WOBDSWOSTV.

CHAP. xrv. In glancing back on the annals of the Pilgrim Fathers, the
brave men who presided over the ci-ril affairs of the colony
during the period of its early growth occupy no less pro
minent a share of our interest than those who formed their
spiritual guides. The first journal of the Pilgrims ends
March 23, 1621, with the election of a Govemor for the
infent settlement, when the choice fell upon Mr. John
Carver, the faithful friend of the exiles of New England.
It is curious that, notwithstanding the pre-eminence, both
in personal worth, and in wealth and station, which led

THE tlLSIUM FATHERS. 463
to the unanimous choice of Carver as the first Governor chap, xrv
of the colony, scarcely any thing is known of his previ- Qo^^r
ous history. He appears to have been a man possessed Carver
of considerable -wealth, wliich he generously shared with
his Christian brethren, bearing a considerable proportion,
both of the whole necessary cost, and of the chief labour
and anxieties consequent on the removal fi'om Leyden to
, New England. Of his integrity and disinterested zeal, the
colony had received abundant proof As he had borne so
i large a share in the cost of the plantation, and had taken
so prominent a part in all the arrangements needful for
canying it into effect, the new settlers could not fail to
have unbounded confidence in his honest zeal for the suc
cessful carrying out of their scheme of colonization, and
therefore it is probable that the choice fell upon him as
first Governor of New Plymouth, alraost as a raatter of
course. In the MS. records of Plymouth church, the fol
lowing brief but most honourable tribute to his memory
occurs : — " I raay not omit to take notice of the sad loss
the church and this infant commonwealth sustained, by
the death of Mr. John Carver, who was one of the deacons
of the church in Leyden, but now had been and was thefr
first Governor. This worthy gentleman was one of singu
lar piety, and rare for humility, which appeared, as other
wise, so by his great condescendency, whenas this misera
ble people were in great sickness. He shunned not to do
very mean services for them, yea, the meanest of them.
He bare a share likewise of their labour in his own person,
according as their great necessity required. Who being one
also of a considerable estate, spent the main part of it in
this enterprise, and from first to last approved himself not
only as their agent in the first transacting of things, but
also all along to the period of his life, to be a pious, faith
ful, and very beneficial instrument. He deceased in the
month of April in the year 1621, and is now reaping the
fruit of his labour with the Lord."
The re-election of Mr. Carver, as Govemor of the co- Thegnnal
lony, had taken place little more than a fortnight before; carv™."
and now the sorrowing Pilgrims were called upon to lay
their chief in his unnoted resting-place close by the bleak
searshore, where the Pilgrims secretly bm-ied their dead
20

454 THE PILOBIM FATHERS.
CHAP. XIV. near by the rock which thefr descendants revere as the
 noblest monument of these Pilgrim Fathers. It was liter-
aUy but a step from the landing to the grave where the
first Governor of New England rested frora all his cares
and pains. There is a simple dignity in the brief his
tory of this Governorship worthy of the Cincinnatus of Ame
rica's first free settlement. His wealth and talents wore
the property of his people, and expended to the utmost
on their behalf. In retum, he bore the full weight of
all their sorrows and anxieties ; nor did he shrink from
the humblest or the meanest duties in which they shared,
but took a foremost part, alike in the burdens of govern
ment, the cares of the hospital, and the labours of the field.
He fell like a gallant soldier, fighting in the van. His
death is thus briefly noted in the journal of his succes
sor. " WhUe we are busy about our seed, our Governor,
Mr. Carver, comes out of the field very sick, complains
greatly of his head. Within a few hours his senses fail,
so as he speaks no more, and in a few days after dies, to om*
great lamentation and heaviness. His care and pains were
BO great for the common good, as therewith, it is thought,
he oppressed himself and shortened his days ; of whose loss
we cannot sufficiently complain."
Burial of They laid hira at rest in the same spot already conse-
Carver. crated by the dust of so many friends. Lest the Indians
should learn of their weakness, and take courage from that
to assail the little band of suffering exiles, they had been
compelled to bury their dead in secret, and to level the
graves and sow them, for the purpose of concealment.
But they departed from their wonted caution in laying
their first Governor in his grave, bestowing on hira such
honours as it was in their power to confer. " He was
buried," says Morton, " in the best manner they could,
with as much solemnity as they were in a capacity to per
form, with the discharge of some volleys of shot of aU that
bare arms."
Doecendantt The following brief summary in the Chronicles of the
of Carver, pilgrims is all that we know of his descendants. Amid the
life-struggles of the young colony, other thoughts possessed
them than the founding of femUies, or the carefiil records
of heraldic trees. " Nothing is known of Carver previous to

THE PILGRIM PATHERS. 456
his appointment in 1617 as one of the agents of the church at CHAP.XIV.
Leyden. Nor is any thing known of his immediate descend-
ants. It will be seen by the Compact, that there were eight
persons in his family. He lost a son, Dec. 6,, and his daugh
ter Elizabeth married John Howland. The name of Carver
does not appear in the assignment of the lands in 1623, nor
in the division of the cattle in 1627 ; nor does it occur at
any subsequent time in the annals of the colony. 'His
chUdren attained no ci-ril honours; they rose to no distinc
tion ; but, less fortunate than the children of the other
Governors, they remained in obscurity, and were unnoticed
by the people.' William, the grandson (or nephew) of the
Governor, died at Marshfield, Oct. 2, 1760, at the age of
102. Not long before his death, this grandson, with his
son, his gi-andson, and great grandson, were all at work to
gether without doors, and the great great grandson was in the
house at the .same tirae. Many of the narae are stUl living
in various parts of the old colony. The town of Carver, in
Plymouth County, will help to perpetuate it."
The successor to Governor Carver was Mr. William Election of
Bradford, and along with him, Mr. Isaac Allerton was BradS
elected as his assistant. Carver claims the foremost place
among the early Governors of New England, not simply
because he was the first on whom the choice of the colo
nists devolved the onerous duties of a ruler, but because,
with .persevering self-denial, and generous self-sacrificing
zeal, he tended on the birth of the colony, and nursed it in
its earliest hours. That done, his duties were at an end,
his work was accompUshed, he entered into his rest ; and
the eares of government devolved on a successor whose
name is stiU had in honourable remerabrance among his
people, as him who reared the humble settlement of Ply
mouth Bay amid its earliest h^dships and perils, and
guided its course with consumnia!#*SkUl during a period of
thirty years. Dr. Cheever remarks of him, that his cha
racter was not unlike that of Washington ; nay, says he,
" there is a very striking resemblance !" The same author
discovers in him, very shortly after, a resemblance scarcely
less striking to FrankUn. " He was a man whose natm'al
stamp of character was very much like Franklin's ; but in
him a calm and noble nature was early renewed and en-

456 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CH.vp. XIV. riched by grace, and brought under its supreme domina-
' tion ; not left to attach itself to earth only, or to exhibit
the qualities of a sage, in the wisdom of mere mortal huma
nity."
Characteris- Great men are not thus the mere repetitions of one ideal,
ttMofiead- j^ would be strange indeed, if, amid the infinite varieties of
nature, the giants of America, during the generations of her
new existence, were but successive reproductions of the one
type wliich the infant state of New England supplied. But
it was not so. Bradford resembles Washington and Frank
lin, only in the same degree in which he possessed virtues and
genius which are common to all the great and the good men
both of the Old and the New World. Placed in similar cir
cumstances, aU truly good men are found to exhibit strik
ing resemblances, from the very contrast which they pre
sent to the no less familiar assimilations which pervade the
common herd. But their resemblance is far greater, in the
possession of a distinct individuaUty, which distinguishes
all of them from the multitude, and each of them frora all
others.
Bradford's Governor Bradford was a man of unobtrusive virtue and
earjryeara sterling worth, well fitted to guide the colony through the
perils that beset its early years. He was bom at Auster-
field in Yorkshire, in 1568, the heir to a considerable landed
inheritance. The death of his parents, while he was yet a
child, left him to the guardianship of relatives, who consi
dered that they amply provided for the hefr to a rich pater
nal inheritance by instructing him in " the innocent trade
of husbandry." It was no act of special neglect which thus
abandoned him to no better education than sufficed for the
chUdren of a Yorkshire farmer in the sixteenth century,
and was deemed no insufficient stock of knowledge for a
Yorkshfre squire in times much nearer our own day. Wil
liam Bradford, however, was not so easUy satisfied. He
looked hack with gratitude in after years to early and long
protracted sickness, as a means by which God in kind pro
vidence had withheld him from the temptations and the
excesses, to which the orphan heir of a wealthy inheritance
is peculiarly exposed. To the same years of early sickness
were probably due much which influenced his whole fiiture
career. We can stUl picture to ourselves the pale, inteUi-

THE PILGRIM PATHEBS. 467
gent, thoughtful English boy, shut out by indisposition from CHAP, xrv
the ordinary boisterous sports of youth, and destitute of the
Uterary pastimes which now beguile the dullest youths
into occasional perusal of a book, not as a task but as a re
creation. Deprived of other means of occupation, the
orphan boy took refuge iu his own thoughts. His Bible,
moreover, supplied food for meditation and serious reflection ;
nor is it improbable, though no note of it is recorded, that
his houi-s of sickness and solitude were sometimes broken in
upon by some pious neighbour, who, amid the stringent for-
maUties of re-established Protestantism, was venturing to
judge for himself in the momentous concerns of his reUgious
&ith. Certain it is, that William Bradford, while a mere
boy, manifested an eai-nest impression of the power of reli
gious truth, and incm-red no slight ridicule and Ul-will by
casting in his lot -with the despised Nonconformists, who
thus early attracted the attention and opposition of Queen
EUzabeth's Govemment in the north of England by opinions,
in relation to ecclesiastical polity and personal feith, derived
fixim the presumed example of the primitive church. He was
subjected to the displeasure of his relatives, and the scorn of
hif neighbours, as a religious enthusiast and fanatic ; but
both were alike ineffectual in tempting him from his
course. The preacher -n-hose ministry fell on the heart of the Mr. PJchonl
orphan boy, Uke the refreshing showers of spring on the
green blades of the early grain, was Mr. Richard Clifton, of
whom we leam Uttle more than that he was an old man of
exemplary piety and self-denying zeal, whose labours in
the cause of truth had produced no slight influence on the
obscure coi-ner of Yorkshfre in which the little viUage of
Austerfield lay. He was a man whose gray hafrs told that
he had witnessed many changes of that eventful era ; had
escaped perchance from the bloody agents of Mary's blind
zeal, and haUed with joy and thanksgivings the accession of
Elizabeth. He is described in the Governor's History of tlie
Colony, as " a grave and reverend preacher, who by his
pains and diligence had been a means of converting many."
The band of English Nonconformists who united themselves
by a solemn covenant in the feUowship of tbe gospel, and
afterwards sought iu exile the Uberty of conscience denied

458 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
OHAP. XIV them at home, are described as " of several towns and vil-
lages, some in Nottinghamshire, some in Lincolnshfre, and
some in Yorkshire, where they bordered nearest together."
Mr. Richard Clifton appears to have been the evangeUst of
Yorkshire, under whom the brethren that went forth from
thence into exile -n-ere gathered together, ere they cast in
thefr lot with those who ultimately formed the Pilgrim
Pathers of New England. But the good old man's course
was well nigh i-un. In his old age he was driven forth by
persecution from the land of his birth and the scene of his
ministerial labours, only to find a g'-ave among strangers.
He shared with Robinson the pastoral charge of the exiled
church until its removal fi-om Amsterdam to Leyden. He
was then far advanced in years, and, in the near anticipation
of the great final change, he shrank frora another removal.
It was well that it should be so. The aged Pilgrim was
soon after called to his final home. But pious hands laid
him in his last resting-place, and tears of true affection were
shed as they committed his mortal remains to the dust, to
await the resurrection morn. His history is thus briefly
sumraed up in Governor Bradford's Dialogue : — " Mr.
Richard Clifton was a grave and fatherly old man when he
came first into Holland, having a great white beard ; ahd
pity it was thiit such a reverend old man should be forced
to leave his country, and at those years to go into exile.
But it was his lot ; and he boi-e it patiently. Muoh good
had he done in the country where he lived, and converted
many to God by his faithfiil and painful ministry, both in
preaching and catechizing. Sound and orthodox he always
was, and so continued to his end. He belonged to the
church at Leyden ; but being settled at Amsterdam, and
thus aged, he was loath to remove any more ; and so when
they removed, he was dismissed to them there, and there
remained until he died."
Bradford's When the Nonconformists of the north of England re-
Noncon'for-"' solved to brave all for conscience' sake, and rather give up
mlt/. their country with its most endearing ties, than sacrifice their
faith, which they valued more than life itself, WUUam Brad
ford appears to have cast in his lot among them, with all
the generous impetuosity of youthful enthusiasm. He was
scarcely nineteen years of age, when the attempted escape

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 469
to Holland, in 1607, was frustrated by the catchpole officers CHAP. XIV.
of Govemment. Nevertheless he was one of those seized ~~
by them at Boston, stript of their money and goods, and
cast into prison. Even after he had effected his escape, and
had reached Zealand, — which he appears to have done be
fore the most of his companions in the first attempted flight
renewed their efforts, — he was threatened with a repetition
of former sufferings. He had not been long on shore when
he was apprehended and dragged before the magistrates, at
the instigation of an envious and malignant fellow-passenger,
who accused him as a criminal fleeing from England. When
the magistrates of Zealand had learned the nature of young
Bradford's crimes, and the cause of his seeking the protection
of their Govemment, he was dismissed with assurances of
safety and welcome, and joyfully repaired to the appointed
place of rendezvous of his friends at Amsterdam.
William Bradford appears to have devoted himself at an Early thin*
early period to supply the deficiencies consequent on his ledge.
neglected education. Of the course pursued by him we
have no note, though doubtless the natural desire of an in
telligent mind for extended knowledge, would be fostered
and increased in him by the domestic habits which illness
forced on him during his early years. By his own exertions
he amply supplied the defects of a neglected education. He
thoroughly mastered the Dutch language, and was conver
sant with French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In the nar
rative he gives of the arrest of the Nonconformists, in 1607,
by the officers of the English Government at Boston, he
states that they were " rifled and stripped of their money,
looks, and much other goods." YoiKig Bradford was doubt
less one of those whose Ubrary was spoiled by the lawless
agents of the Government ; as we know that he afterwards
possessed a considerable collection, which he took with him
to New England. Araong the records of the founders of the
old colony, which have been preserved, is a catalogue of its
historian's library, which includes 275 volumes, 64 of which
are in the leamed languages.
In Holland, however, the young exUe had to tum his at- DillgencB m
tention to other objects than the acquirement of leaming,
and the amassing of books. He applied himself to study
the art of dyeing and washing silks ; and so soon as he was

460 'XHE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. xrv. of age, he converted his estate in England into ready money,
and endeavoured to establish a successful trade at Leyden.
But he was a stranger in the country, and inexperienced in
the manufacture by which he sought to support himself
in the land of his adoption. He met with many disappoint
ments and losses, which he piously esteemed as tbe chasten-
ings of God, lest the cares of this world should spring up
and choke the good seed in his heart. God, in truth, had
far other work for him, and was training hira for the duties
of the high trust that was to be comraitted to him. Prom
his earliest years he had been learning to think and judge
for himself He had been acquiring that essential virtue of
a ruler, even from childhood, of yielding obedience to prin
ciple in opposition to public opinion. " He had mingled
much with men of various classes, habits, opinions, and pur
suits, and had learned to bear with the prejudices of his
neighhoui's, and to avwid the spirit of obstinacy and intoler
ance, especially in indifferent things, while yet he held
firmlj', without the least abatement, to the truth. His ex
perience in Amsterdam and Leyden, as well as the admirable
instructions and example of his pastor, had taught him
much heavenly wisdom, and he could decern and note the
evil tendencies and extremes, not only of intolerant super
stition and formalism in the church party, but of unneces
sary and uncharitable rigidness in his own."
Fitness for William Bradford was in his thirty-second year when he
landed with the band of the Mayflower's Pilgrims in Ply
mouth Bay. He had been with them in every step of thefr
progress, from the tirae when, as a thoughtful boy, he cast in
his lot araong the despised Nonconformists of Yorkshire, and
shared in their prison and their flight, to that period when
the expedition, in which his energies and his w-orldly means
had been alike freely embarked, was safely anchored in its des
tined haven beyond the Atlantic. The sickly boy had grown
to be a man of robust fi-ame, of vigorous judgment, great
firmness, and self-reliance, and a gentle patience and sweet
ness of temper, such as is rarely found combined with the
sterner virtues of a mind fitted for command. Above aU,
Bradford had no ambition to mle, or to assume any promi
nent part in the niew state. We owe to his own pen the
most ample historic annals of the founding of New England,

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 461
yet, save by inference, we would hardly discover that the cii.vP. xiv.
writer had borne any part in the great work. It is perhaps
well that its history should be so considered even now ; that
it should be viewed solely as a comraunity animated by one
feeUng, and inspired by the same faith and humble trust in
the God and Father of all. It was, indeed, a noble band of
Christian men and Christian women, that breasted the bil
lows of the stormy Atlantic in the little Mayflower, "freighted
with the destinies of a continent." True, it may be, as one
of their descendants exclaims, that " on their heroic enter
prise the selectest influences of religion seemed descending
visibly; while beyond their perilous path were hung the
rainbow and the western star of empfre." But it was no
spirit of worldly ambition that animated these Christian
soldiers. Their unobtrusive virtues sought room for action,
not an arena for display. Each stepped into his own place
and fulfilled the duties of his station, without thought of
henour or reward ; and were it not that the great nation
wliich now fiUs the land where they struggled for a foot of
earth, has learned to look back on these Pilgrims with the
pride of ancestry, we might forget the worth of that freight
which the little Mayflower bore, as she battled with the
storms of the mighty ocean, and struggled onward to their
haven of rest. Of this, however, there is little danger. In
the annual and occasional festivities with which the anni-
versaiy of the Pilgrim Fathers's landing is celebrated
throughout America, oratory exhausts itself in the attempt
to clothe their virtues in language of fitting honour, and
worthily to picture an event wherein Americans behold the
advent of their national greatness and renown.
" Let us go up," exclaims Edward Everett, in an address Orations of _
delivered at one of these popular celebrations of the land- d^^* ""'
ing of the PUgrims, which took place throughout New Eng
land in 1839, — "Let us go up in imagination to yonder
hUl, and look out upon the November scene. That single
dark speck, just discernible through the perspective glass,
on the waste of waters, is the fated vessel. The storm
moans through her tattered canvass, as she creeps, almost
sinking, to her anchorage in Province-town harbour ; and
there she lies with all her treasures, not of silver and gold,
(for of these she has none,) but of courage, of patience, of
20*

462 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. XIV. zeal, of high spu-itual daring. So often as I dwell in ima
gination on this scene; when I consider the condition of the
Mayflower, utterly incapable as she was of living through
another gale; when I survey the terrible front presented by
our coast to the navigator, who, unacquainted with its chan
nels and roadsteads, should approach it in the stormy sea
son, I dare not caU it a mere piece of good fortune that the
general north and south wall of the shore of New England
should be broken by this extraordinary projection of the
Cape, running out into the ocean a hundred miles, as if on
purpose to receive and encircle the precious vessel. As I
now see her, freighted with the destinies of a continent,
barely escaped fi'om the perils of the deep, approaching the
shore precisely where the broad sweep of this most remark
able headland presents almost the only point at which for
hundreds of miles she could with any ease have made a har
bour, and this perhaps the very best on the seaboard, I feel
my spirit raised above the sphere of mere' natural agencies.
I see the mountains of New England rising from their rocky
thrones. They rush forward into the ocean, settling down
as they advance; and there they range themselves a mighty
bulwark around the heaven-directed vessel. Yes, the ever
lasting God himself stretches out the arm of his mercy and
his power in substantial manifestation, and gathers the
meek company of his worshippers as in the hollow of his
hand."
The people It is just that the virtues of the colonists of New England
nilera. should be remembered, while acknowledging the worth of
their Governor. Had Governor Carver lived, his successoi
would have pursued the even tenor of his way, contented
with the humble duties and virtues of private life; and had
the latter died, there were not wanting others to fill his place.
It is not detracting frora the merits, or diminishing the
worth, of Govei'nor Bradford, thus to picture him as the wil
Ung ruler of a hand of noble and virtuous colonists, who,
like one family, rejoiced and suffered together, and acted
in sympathy with the wise guidance of their head, even as
the blood circulates through every vein and artery of the
healthy fi'ame, and throbs responsive to the heart's pulsa
tions. The colonists of Plyraouth, it must he home in re
membrance, had exercised the rights of legislation and self-

THE FILGBIH rATHEBS. 463
government vrithout the sanction of a royal patent. The chap xiv.
social compact, which becomes little more than a figure of
speech, when adopted as a term descriptive of the compU
cated relations of the most republican govemment, was liter
ally realized araong the New England settlers. Each indi
vidual member of the settlement voluntarily subjected him
self to the will of the majority, and to the guidance of him
whom they had chosen to govern. In every community
the virtues of each individual member constitute an ele
ment in the prosperity of the state ; but in the first little
republic of New England one vicious member was suffici
ent to have destroyed the equilibrium on which the stabil
ity of the whole depended. Had some proud rebel, refus
ing either to subject himself to the will of the majority, or
to leave the society, to the arrangements of which he was
unwilling to submit, chosen to appeal directly to the king,
in all human probability the settlement would have been
dissolved, and scattered as effectually as the abortive colony
of Weston. The latter, indeed, abundantly suffices to illus
trate the instability of such a union when attempted -with
vicious and discordant elements. What would all the vir
tues and all the wisdom of Govemor Bradford have suf
ficed had his lot been to govern the colonists of Wessagus
set, instead of those of New Plymouth. Nevertheless the
wisdom and sagacity of the Govemor did stamp, as with
his own character, the whole early history of the colony.
While he lived his influence never faUed to be dfrected for
its best interests, and no eulogium can too strongly com
mend the vrisdom and sagacity with which he adminis
tered its alfeirs.
It must not he forgot, in estimating the -rirtues of him Unenvlablo
who held, during so many of its early and eventful years. Governor.
the chief post in the first colony of New England, how un
enviable were the duties of his station. Did provisions fail,
he must be appealed to. Did Indians prove treacherous, or
companions false, or fiHiends desert their cause, or ene
mies increase around them, he must be ready for each
emergency. Nay, did even seed-time and harvest seem to
belie the gracious promise of mercy made to Noah and hia
posterity ; — did the earth refuse to yield her increase ; or did
death cut dovm old man and maiden and child, untiLthe

464 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. xrv. soU beneath their feet was thickly sown with the mouldep-
ing dust of friends ; — all these created new calls for his wis
dom and sagacity, or his long-suffering and heroic endurance.
The very patient and virtuous forbearance of the colonists
added to his cares : for when with sad yet uncomplaining
wistfulness, each one turned to him in their adversity, and
with tearful eyes silently appealed to him for aid, he must
have felt as the fether of one great family, whose eveiy
want and suffering becomes even more keenly his own. It
is no mean award to hira that he proved equal to the task.
" Prom the time when Governor Bradford enters upon his
administration of the affairs of the colony, year after year
its history is his. He was in an eminent degree the moving
and guiding genius of the enterprise. His conduct towards
the Indians was marked with such wisdom, energy, and
kindness, that he soon gained a powerful influence over
them. With the people of the colony, not merely his first
fellow-pilgrims, but all that carae successively afterwards,
he had equal authority and power, without the necessity of
assuraing it. The raost heedless araong them seem to have
feared and respected him. He set thera all at work, and
would have none idle in the community, being resolved that
' if any would not work, neither should they eat.' Cotton
Mather gives an account of a company of young fellows
newly arrived, who were very unwilling to comply with his
orders, or rather with the arrangements of the colony, for
working in the fields on the public account. But on Christ
inas-day they excused themselves frora the labours of the
public industry, under pretence that it was against their
conscience to do any work on that day. The Governor told
them if that were the case, he would spare them tUl they
were better informed ; but soon afterwards he found them
all at play in the street, hard at work upon their diversions,
as if in obedience to the Book of Sports. That being the
case, he very quietly took away the instruments of thefr
games, and gave them to understand that he had a con
science as well as they, and that it was against his con
science as the Govei'nor that they should play while the
others were at work ; so that, if they had any devotion to
the day, they should show it at home, in the exercise of re
ligion, and not in the street, with their pastime and froUcs.

THB PILOBIM PATHS MS. 465
The reproof was as effectual as it was happy, and the Gov- CHAP. XIV
ernor was plagued with no more such tender consciences.
" His administration of affairs as connected with the mer
chant adventurers, was a model of fii-mness, patience, for
bearance, energy, and enterprise. Along with a few others,
he took the whole trade of the colony into his hands,
vrith the assumed responsibility of paying off all thefr
debts, and the benevolent determination to bring over the
rest of their brethren from Leyden. His activity in the
prosecution of this great undertaking was indefatigable.
Meanw^hile, no other business, either of the piety or civil
pohty of the colony, was neglected. He made such arrange
ments, in conjunction with his brethren, to redeem thefr
labour from the hopelessness of its conditions in the adven
turing copartnership under which they were bound for the
seven years' contract with the merchants, as inspired them
all speedily with new life and courage. Under the pressure
of the femine his example was as a star of hope, for he never
yielded to despondency; and while with Brewster he threw
them upon God for support and provision, he set in motion
every possible instrumentality for procuring supplies.'"*
But it is needless to follow out the eulogy, or enter fur- His influenoo
ther on the evidence of its tmth, Most justly may it be jony.
said, that Governor Bradford's history is the history of the
colony. He was annually re-elected so long as he Uved, —
excepting only five years, during which, at his own earnest
request, he was relieved fi-om the cares of his great trust.
Winslow filled his place during three years, and Prince
during the remaining two. To his moderation and publio ,
spirit, much of the character permanently stamped on the
institutions of New England may still be traced. Had he
been ambitious, much was in his power. Had he been the
narrow-minded sectary that prejudice has pictured the Non
conformists of England in the seventeenth century, the ele
ments of spiritual pride and the despotism of bigotry were
within his reach. But he was none of these ; nor was
that free colony of exiles for conscience' sake, the fit arena
either for unsatisfied ambition or intolerant sectarianism.
"The frame of civil government in the colony," says Bancroft,
"was of the utmost simplicity. A govemor was chosen by
• .'lymouth PUgrims, p. 227

466 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. xrv. general suffrage, whose power, always subordinate to the gen-
eral vrill, was, at the desire of Bradford, specially restricted by
a council of five, and afterwards of seven assistants. In the
councU, the governor had but a double vote. For more than
eighteen years, the whole body of the male inhabitants
constituted the legislature ; the state was governed, Uke our
towns, as a strict democracy ; and the people were frequently
convened to decide on executive not less than on judicial
questions. At length, the increase of population, and its
difiiision over a vrider territory, led to the introduction of
the representative system, and each town sent its commit
tee to the general court. We subsequently find the colony
a distinct member of the earliest American Confederacy ; but
it is chiefly as guides and pioneers that the fethers of the
old colony merit gratitude.
Debt of gra- "Through scenes of gloom and misery, the PUgrims
pS?hns."'° showed the way to an asylum for those who would go to
the -wUderness for the purity of religion or the Uberty of
conscience. Accustomed ' in their native land to no more
than a plain country life and the innocent trade of hus
bandry,' they set the example of colonizing New England,
and formed the mould for the ci-ril and religious character
of its institutions. Enduring every hardship themselves,
they were the servants of posterity, the benefactors of suc
ceeding generations. In the history of the world, many
pages are devoted to commemorate the men who have be
sieged cities, subdued provinces, or overthrown empires. In
the eye of reason and of truth, a colony is a better offering
than a victory ; the citizens of the United States should
rather cherish the memory of those who founded a state on
the basis of democratic liberty ; the fathers of the country ;
the men who, as they first trod the soil of the New World,
scattered the seminal principles of republican freedom and
national independence. They enjoyed, in anticipation, the
thought of their extending influence, and the fame which
their grateful successors would award to their virtues. ' Out
of small beginnings,' said Bradford, ' great things have been
produced ; and as one small candle raay light a thousand,
BO the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea, in some
sort to our whole nation.' — ' Let it not be grievous to you,'
—auch was the consolation offered from England to the Pil-

THB PILGRIM FATHERS. 467
grims in the season of their greatest sufferings, — ' let it not ciiAi' xrv
be grievous to you, that you have been instruments to break
the ice for others. The honour shall be yours to the world's
end.' "
Governor Bradford lived to the age of sixty-nine. He Posthumous
rejoiced in beholding the reward of his labours. The refuge ''"""'"¦'^
of freedom, which he had anticipated as he embarked with
the first Pilgrims in the Mayflower, had been realized. It
may be that he looked forward with stlU higher hopes,
and anticipated the future history not of the colony only,
but~of the vast continent which he had helped to rescue
from the wandering savage, that it might become the home
of a race sprung from the old Saxon Fathers of England.
He died on the 9th of May 1657, "lamented," says Mather,
" by all the colonies of New England, as a common blessing
and fether to them all." He was laid to rest, amid the
Fathers of New England, on the brow of Burial HUl, from
.whence he had so often looked out in earlier years over the
broad ocean that lay before him, watching in hope of tidings
and of help frora the laud of his birth. Two centuries had
elapsed since the landing of the Fathers at Plyraouth, when,
on the 22d of December 1820, the founding of New England
and its liberties was celebrated with unwonted honours and
rejoicing by the inheritors of their great bequest. The
name of William Bradford, the Governor of New England,
was then breathed with pride and veneration, and his me
mory revived as chief among the Pathers of the state. Sub
scriptions were entered into to provide some fit memorial of
his worth, and in 1825, a marble monument was erected on
the Burial Hill at Plymouth, to mark the spot where bo
sad his son WiUiam lie interred.

468 THE PILGRIM FATHEBS.

CHAPTER XV.
PUBITAN ACQUISITION OF NEW ENQLANB.

So I have known a country on the earth.
Where darkness sat upon the living waters,
And brutal ignorance, and toil and dearth,
Were the hard portion of its sons and daughters;
And yet where they who should have oped the door
Of charity and light, for all men's ftnding,
Squabbled for words upon the altar -floor,
And rent the Book, in struggles for the binding. Chables Dicebue

CHAP. XV. In pre-rious chapters we have followed out the early his-
Fldelltyof tory of the planting of New England with considerable
the Pilgrims, niinuteness. The first years of occupation of their chosen
place of settlement, were years of anxiety, apprehension,
and suffering, It was a constant warfare against foes with
out and within. Famine stared them in the face ; armed
savages menaced them in the field ; death stalked araid
their ranks, and threatened their utter annihUation ; and
from within, their worst foes appeared among those on whom
their only hope had seemed to depend. It was a struggle
for life, wherein the most undaunted courage seemed hardly
equal to the strife. But the Pilgrim Fathers were as the
forlorn hope of liberty to the persecuted Nonconformists of
England ; and even when most fearful, they yielded to no
thought of retreat. There was the appointed place of con
flict, and the only choice they seem ever to have placed
before themselves was victory or death. It was with some
thing of the calmness of the soldier on the battle-field that
th^, survivors of the Mayflow-er Pilgi'ims committed their
friends to the grave, on the bleak shores of Plymouth Bay,
in that first dreadful winter of their landing. They had
fallen the foremost in the strife, and their companions step
ped onward into the breach.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 469
We must glance back at the history of England during CHAP. XV.
the first years of the Pilgrim colony, in order fully to ap- '
preciate the deep sympathy and interest with which many
there were watching the tidings they should send back
from their wild refuge beyond the Atlantic. Even among
the selfish band of merchant adventurers, there were some
who sympathized more sincerely in the welfare of the co
lonists than in the success of thefr adventure. "Assuredly,"
writes one of them in 1627, "unless the Lord be merciful
to us and the whole land in general, our condition is fer
worse than yours. Wherefore if the Lord should send per
secution here, which is much to be feared, and should put
into our mind to fly for refuge, I know no place safer than
to come to you."
In the earlier pages of this volume, the reader may trace inducemente
out the progress of events in England which had brought tan emigra^
good men to feel that thefr condition was worse even than ''°"'
those who, amid the uncultivated wastes of the New World,
endured such privations and braved such dangers as few
men would willingly encounter. The contrast between the
last of the Tudors and the first of the Stuarts was gi'eat
indeed, but not more marked than the difference of feeling
with which the English nation regarded the one and the
other. These two causes combined to accelerate a change
in the relations between the Cro-wn and the people preg
nant with the most momentous consequences. Queen EU
zabeth was no less haughty an assertor of absolute power
than her father had been, and watched with proud jealousy
the slightest encroachments on her prerogatives. Her in
clinations, moreover, were far more papistical than puritan.
When we view her character and tastes as they are deve
loped in all the most prominent manifestations of her unbi
assed wiU, it cannot be considered any great lack of charity
to affirm that policy more than principle determined her
adherance to Protestantism. In refemng to the revival of
the Papal party in England during Queen EUzabeth's reign,
a recent advocate of the entire system of polity which she
established thus remarks : — " To render such a party need
less, by satisfying reasonable expectations, was one reason
for adopting Edward's reformation. But it was not the only
reason. Romish prejudice, it is true, seems to have per-

470 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CEVP. XV. vaded two-thirds of the nation. This majority, however
was far less considerable for intellect than for numbers,
hence it was justly, necessarily, called upon for extensive
concessions. Of the more intellectual minority, a large por
tion had no other wish than to see restored the system that
Queen Mary overthrew. It had not only stood the test of
many leamed inquiries, but also a crowd of martyrs had
sealed it with their blood. Even at this time it is impossi
ble to think of these self-devoted victims without feeling
them to have stamped a holy and venerable character
upon the Edwardian church. But Elizabeth carae to the
throne among their acquaintances and relatives. Thousands
of anecdotes now lost, must have then embalraed their
memories in every part of England. To depart from a sys
tem that had come off so gloriously, naturally appeared
something like sacrilege to many judicious minds. It was
a system also dear both to the Queen and the primate, and
each of them had large claims upon Protestants from im
portant services. If Elizabeth had embraced Romish prin
ciples, many of her difficulties, both at home and abroad,
would have imraediately vanished. Her actual determina
tion was the greatest advantage ever yet gained by the Pro
testant cause. But although wilUng thus to disoblige a
majority of her own subjects, and to incur serious risks from
Queen Eliza- foreign states, she was partial to many of the religious
ality to^'forois Usages in which she had been bred. The pomp and cere-
and ceremo- mony of Bomish worship were agreeable to her taste.
Hence the royal chapel, though it stood alone, long and
repeatedly exhibited, to the scandal of many zealous Pro
testants, but greatly to the satisfaction of all with Romish
prejudices, an altar, decorated with crucifix and lights.
Archbishop Parker was, probably, far less fond of such
imposing externals than his royal mistress, though he hesi
tated at first as to the expediency of retaining crosses.
Having, indeed, concealed himself at home during the
Marian persecution, he had never seen Protestantism under
any other form than that which it wore in Edward's reign.
He had accordingly no thought of reconstructing a church
upon some alleged reference to Scripture merely — a princi
pie hitherto unacknowledged by his countrymen. He was
imbued with a deep veneration for antiquity, and had no

THB PILGRIM FATHERS, 471
further wish than to free the reUgious system, immemori- chap. XV
ally estabUshed, from blemishes detected by recent inquirers
of undeniable competence."-*
The true hindrance, however, to Queen Elizabeth's hearty Necessity of
adoption of the Romish feith has alreadv been referred Q-Eii^abethi
Ti. , , 1 . , . , Protestant-
to. It must be sought in her equivocal position as the lam
daughter of Anne Boleyn. Successive Popes had stigma
tized the union of Henry with the favourite maid of honour
as an alliance which the church could not sanction; and the
fickle tyrant had legalized the decree which pronounced the
offspring of that union illegitimate. Hence it was that the
reformation which Cranmer had conducted through its early
struggles into life, becarae from policy far more than from
principle the object of her regard. The interests of the pro
tector and the protected were mutual; and her adherence
to the cause of Protestantism was more firmly strengthened
when the Catholic party, under the guidance of the ambi
tious Guises of France, set forth the young Queen of Scots
as the legitimate heir to her throne. Strange and incon
sistent as it may appear, it is undoubted that Protestantism
w-as still further acceptable to the haughty Tudor, because
it presented itself to her as the guarantee of an unlimited
despotism. The elder sister, Mary, had hastened, with
superstitious piety, to lay at the feet of the Sovereign Pon
tiff not only the supremacy of which Protestantism had
deprived him, but those raore substantial evidences of Eng
land's spiritual obedience, the temporalities which were
wont of old to flow through the various channels of patron
age and tithing into the Papal treasury. All these Eliza
beth immediately resumed. She was the inheritor not only
of her father's despotic throne, but of his despotic spirit.
Henry VIII. overthrew Papal supremacy, not as a libera
tor, to free his people from its burdens and restraints, but
as a conqueror, to assume them to himself; and in no point
did Queen Elizabeth so cordially depart from the example
of her elder sister, as in the re-assuraption of those Papal
prerogatives of queenly supremacy which still trammel the
Church of England with an ill-defined and inconsistent
subjection to the state. That she might more effectually
establish her claim to the title of England's Protestant
• Soames's Elizabethan Religious History, p. 888.

472 THB PILGRIM PATHEBS,
CHAP. XV. Pope, Queen Elizabeth made reUgious uniformity the deU-
berate aim of her government. Whatever changes on the
old faith were consistent with her own sympathies, or essen
tial to the line of policy she adopted, were received as the
truth, and presented to all for acceptance ; but beyond this
no change, however slight, was to be tolerated. Every year
}ier ideal of religious uniformity became more unrealizeable.
Restraint only fostered inquiry. Men who were compeUed
to adopt a ceremony at which their conscience stumbled,
began to inquire into the legitimacy of the authority by
which the soul was thus subjected to bondage. Every year
the Queen became more obstinate, and her aim more hope
less. Persecution became more frequent, and its spirit
more intolerant. Bonds, imprisonment, and death, waited
on those who differed frora the creed, or stumbled at the
ceremonies, which royalty had countersigned as the limits
of reformation. Yet with all this Queen Elizabeth was
loved, honoured, revered ; and still her raeraory is held in
reverence, and her reign looked back to as a glorious era in
our national annals. The cause of this is not difficult to
determine. Under her the scattered exiles, which the
Marian persecution drove forth, returned to their native
land ; and thousands whose relatives and dear friends had
perished in dungeons or at the stake, beheld in her the liber
ator who had opened the prison doors and quenched the
martyr fires. It was her good fortune, moreover, to succeed
to a weak-minded princess, guided by bigoted advisers, in
whose hands the national honour had been sacrificed, and
its revenues aUenated, squandered, or lost. She had learned
prudence in the school of adversity, and was fortunate in
the possession of wise advisers, who had influence to re
strain her in many of her excesses. Above all, it was her
fortune to reign while the Guises and Catherine de Medici
were deluging France with the blood of Protestants, and
-when Philip of Spain, after vainly .seeking to quench liberty
and faith in the Low Countries, tumed his thoughts to the
conquest of England and its subjection to Papal sway. At
such a time the Queen of England was venerated as the
champion of Protestantism, and the true defender of the
faith. No wonder that Protestants, who themselves gene
rally adhered to some ideal scheme of uniformity, though

TBB PILGBIM FATHBBS. 473
diverse from that of the Queen, should sink all minor CHAP. XV.
differences when she appeared as the leader in a struggle
which involved the very existence of Protestantisra.
The case was altogether different with James'. The Eng- jealousy and
Ush nation viewed his accession to the throne with no slight j|,m™i'''
degree of jealousy and distrust, and the Nonconformists
alone looked hopefully on the change which placed a Pres
byterian ruler in the coveted post of supremacy which had
heretofore been employed for the extinction of the opinions
he was beUeved conscientiously to maintain. The result is
well known. James, with none of the virtues, had all the
faults of Queen EUzabeth. He exhibited despotism and
intolerance in their most odious aspects. Still more. Ills
Court was speedily the scene of vice and criraes, exceeding
in depravity, if not in open profligacy, the licentious Court
of the Restoration. Religious men, of every shade of opi
nion, were alienated from Government ; and the supremacy,
which had assumed a grave and dignified severity of as
pect under EUzabeth, was beheld in its true character when
ostentatiously wielded by the profligate pedant who suc
ceeded her. England sunk to a state of degradation under
Mary which rendered her contemptible in the eyes of
Europe. She returned to that state under James, and be
came the unblushing hireling, and subservient tool, of her
old continental rivals. No wonder that England should still
forgive much to her who intercalated the Elizabethan era
between such reigns.
With the accession of Charles I. hope revived in England, Hopefiil oe
but only to be again disappointed. James had bequeathed 0^^°^"
to the inheritor of his throne ideas of kingly prerogatives,
which no lessons of wisdom or experience sufficed to change,
or even to modify. He succeeded his father on the 27th of
March 1625; and in 1627, we find Sherley writing to the
colonists of New England, anticipating the time when thefr
settlement must be the refuge of the persecuted exiles of
England. The state of things which followed on the deve-
lopement of Charles I. 's poUcy and intractable prejudices,
exercised a most important influence on the coloni^tion of
America. "This prince," says Lord Bolingbroke, "had
sucked in with his milk those absurd principles of govem
ment which his fether was so industrious, and unhappily

474 THE PII.HIUM FATHEBS.
CHAP. XV. for king and people, so successful in propagating. He found
them espoused as true principles, both of religion and po
licy, by a whole party in the nation, whom he esteemed
friends to the constitution in church and state. He found
thera opposed by a party whom he looked on indiscrimi
nately as enemies to the church and to monarchy. Can
we wonder that he grew jealous in a cause which he under
stood to concerp him so nearly, and in which he saw so
many men who had not the same interest, and might there
fore be supposed to act on a principle of conscience equally
zealous ? Let any one who hath been deeply and long en
gaged in the contests of party, ask himself, on cool reflec
tion, whether prejudices concerning raen and things have
not grown up and strengthened vrith him, and obtained an
unaccountable influence over his conduct t We dare appeal
to the inward sentiments of every such person. With this
habitual bias upon him. King Charles came to the throne ;
and, to complete the misfortune, he had given all his confi
dence to a madman."*
Virtues and Charles I. escaped the influence of the debasing profligacy
Charles. which polluted his father's court. He exhibited in a re
markable degreee the virtues that adom domestic life, and
subjected himself, more than became a man of intellect and
virtue, to the influence of a wife little worthy of such defer
ence. But if Charles escaped the poUution of the degi-ading
vices of the Court, the faithlessness which formed so promi
nent a weapon in all hisfether's policy was adopted by him,
as one of the most legitimate prerogatives of sovereignty.
His opinions were resolutely opposed to any relaxation of
the most despotic assumptions of the Crown, and his faith
less contempt of promises destroyed every remaining hope
of the people. With Laud as his favoured adviser, it seemed
vain for those who struggled for liberty of conscience to
expect it in England. Even before the death of James, the
English Nonconformists were anxiously watching the suc
cess of the planters of New Plymouth, and so early as 1624,
the Pilgrims found the deserted scene of Weston's colonial
establishment re-occupied by a raore congenial band of set
tlers. " The early history of Massachusetts," says Bancroft,
" is the history of a class of men as reraarkable for their
• Vide Harris-s Life of Charles L, p. 278.

HB PILGRIM FATHERS.

475

qualities and their influence on pubUc happiness, as any by CHAPjrv.
which the human race has ever been diversified.
" The settlement near Weymouth was revived ; a new The sentinels
plantation was begun near Mount WoUaston, within the °J„^^^t?on.
present Umits of Quincy ; and the merchants of the West
continued thefr voyages to the islands of New England.
But these things were of feeble influence compared with the
consequences of the attempt at a permanent establishment
near Cape Ann ; for White, a minister of Dorchester, a
Puritan, but not a separatist, breathed into the enterprise a
higher principle than that of the desire of gain. Roger
Conant, having already left New Plymouth for Nantasket,
through a brother in England, who -was a friend of White,
obtained the agency of the adventure. A year's experience
proved to the company, that their speculation must change
its form, or it would produce no results ; the merchants
paid with honest liberality all the persons whom they had
employed, and abandoned the unprofitable scheme. But
Conant, a man of extraordinary vigour, ' inspired as it ware
by some superior instinct,' and confiding in the active friend
ship of White, succeeded in breathing a portion of his
subUme courage into his three companions ; and, making
choice of Salem, as opening a convenient place of refuge for
the exUes for reUgion, they resolved to reraain as the senti
nels of Puritanism on the Bay of Massachusetts.
" The design of a plantation was now ripening in the
mind of White and his associates in the south-west of Eng
land. About the same time, some friends in Lincolnshire
feU into discourse about New England ; imagination swelled
with the thought of planting the pure gospel among the
quiet shades of America ; it seemed better to depend on the
benevolence of uncultivated nature and the care of Provi
dence, than to endure the constraints of the English laws
and the severities of the English hierarchy ; and who could
doubt, that, at the voice of nndefiled reUgion, the vrildemess
would change to a paradise for a people who Uved rmder a
bond with the omnipresent God ? After some deliberation,
persons in London and the West Country were made ac
quainted with the design.
" The council for New England, itself incapable of the
generous purpose of planting colonies, was ever ready to

476

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

Acquisition of the land.

CUAP. XV. make sale of patents, which had now become their oni>
source of revenue. Little concerned even at making gi-ants
of territory which had already been purchased, they sold to
Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, Thomas Southcoat,
John Humphrey, John Endicot, and Simon Whetcomb,
gentlemen of Dorchester, a belt of land, stretching from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, extending three miles south of the
River Charles and the Massachusetts Ba3-, and three miles
north of every part of the River Merrimac. The zeal of
White sought and soon found other and powerful associ
ates in and about London, kindred spirits, men of religious
fervour, uniting the emotions of enthusiasm with unbend
ing perseverance in action, — Winthrop, Dudley, Johnson,
Eaton, SaltonstaU, Bellingham, an eminent lawyer, famous
in colonial annals, besides many others, men of fortune, and
friends to colonial enterprise, who desired to establish a plan ¦
tation of 'the best' of their countrymen on the shores of
New England, in a safe seclusion, which the corruptions of
human superstition might never invade. Three of the ori
ginal purchasers parted with all their rights ; Humphrey,
Endicot, and Whetcomb, retained au equal interest with
the new partners
" The company, already possessing the firmness of religious
zeal and the resources of mercantile opulence, and haring
now acquired a title to an extensive territory, immediately
prepared for the emigration of a colony ; and Endicot — a
man of dauntless courage, and that cheerfulness which
accompanies courage ; benevolent, though austere ; firm,
though choleric; of a rugged nature, which the sternest
form of Puritanism had not served to mellow — was selected
as ' a fit instrument to begin this wUderness work.' His
-wife and femily were the companions of his voyage, the
hostages of his fixed attachment to the New World. His
immediate attendants, and those whom the company sent
over the same year, in aU, not far fi-om one hundred in
number, were welcomed by Conant and his faithful associ
ates to gloomy forests and unsubdued fields. Yet, even
then, the spfrit of enterprise predominated over the melan
choly which is impressed upon nature in its savage state ;
and seven or more threaded a path through the woods to
the neck of land which is now Charlestown. English cour-

The Massa-
chnsettsCompany

THB PILGRIM PATHERS. 477
age had preceded them; they found there one Bnglich CHAP. XV,
hovel already tenanted. 
" When the news reached London of the safe arrival of
the emigrants, the number of the adventurers had already
been much enlarged. The 'Boston men' next lent thefr
strength to the company ; and the Puritans throughout
England began to take an interest in the efforts which in
vited the imagination to indulge in delightful visions. Inter
est was also made to obtain a royal charter, with the aid
of BelUngham and of White, an eminent lawyer, who advo
cated the design. The Earl of Warwick had always been the
friend of the company; Gorges had seemed to favour its ad
vancement ; and Lord Dorchester, then one of the Secreta
ries of State, is said to have exerted a powerful influence in
its behalf At last, after much labour and large expendi-
tm'es, the patent for the Company of the Massachusetts Bay
passed the seals; a few days only before Charles I., in a pub
Uc state-paper, avowed his design of governing without a
Parliament."* Here we find the elements of a more rapid and extensive Causes of
colonization than that of the exUed church of Leyden in "Ltion.
Plymouth Bay. Charles I. and Laud, with his Star Cham
ber and High Commission Coui't, were most effectual agents
in carrying out this scheme. By such means many of tlie
noblest and worthiest araong the people of England, were
selected and sent out, to plant religion and free institutions
on the shores of New England. Happily the history of our
country proves that raany more, noble and worthy, tarried
behind to establish the same in their native land.
The new settlements in Massachusetts Bay date from Source of
the very commencement of Charles's reign. Hope long li^j^
deferred was waxing dim in the hearts of earnest men in
England, and some other well-wishers had already despaired.
Roger Conant and a few zealous associates had proceeded to
New England in 1625. It might be wondered why, while
they were still few in number, the religious emigrants from
England did not seek shelter within the hospitable refuge
of Plymouth settlement. But already the harsh spirit of
religious persecution was forcing into premature growth
many forms of diversity in the opinions of Christian men,
• Bancroft's History of the United States, pp. 137, 138. 21

478 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. XV and the victims of intolerance did not always leam by thefr
"¦ sufferings to practice toleration and grant liberty of con
science to others. " The settlers at Massachusetts Bay "
says Price in his History of Nonconformity, " were distin
guished from those at Plymouth, by some shades of theolo
gical opinion. The latter were Independents, who had
separated from the Church of England, and conducted dirine
worship in harmony with their o-wn views ; but the former,
for the most part, belonged to the more moderate class of
Nonconformists, who, without seceding from the communion
of the Hierarchy, acknowledged its corruptions, and earnestly
sought its reform. Before their departure for America, they
drew up a letter, addressed ' to the rest of their brethren in
and of the Church of England,' wherein they say, ' We de
sfre you would be pleased to take notice of the principals
and body of our company, as those who esteem it our hon
our to call the Church of England, from whence we arise,
our dear mother ; and cannot part from our native country,
where she specially resideth, without much sadness of heart,
and raany tears in our eyes ; ever acknowledging that such
hope and part as we have obtained in the common salvation,
we have received in her bosom, and sucked it from her
breasts. We leave it not, therefore, as loathing that mUk,
wherewith we were nourished, but, blessing God for the
parentage and education, as members of the same body,
shall always rejoice in her good, and unfeignedly grieve for
any sorrow that shall ever betide her ; and, while we have
breath, sincerely desire and endeavour the continuance and
abundance of her welfare, with the enlargement of her
bounds in the kingdom of Christ Jesus.'
Confusion of " The Settlement of their ecclesiastical polity engaged
ecclesiastl. their earliest attention. The main principles which it era-
calrule. braced, were precisely similar to those now held by the
Congregational and Baptist Churches of England ; but the
following article, which was also adopted, betrayed thefr
imperfect acquaintance with the rights of conscience, and
led to acts of persecution which disgraced their early histoiy.
It is thus expressed by Hubbard, ' Church govemment and
civU government may very well stand together, it being the
duty of the Magistrate to take care of matters of reUgion,
and to improve his civil authority for the observing the du-

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 479
ties commanded in the first as well as in the second table ; CHAP XV.
seeing the end of their office is not only the quiet and peace-
able life of the subject, in matters of righteousness and
honesty, but also in matters of godliness.' "* There is more
truth in these latter conclusions of the historian of Protest
ant Nonconforraity than in the first; for certainly the early
history of New England will lead few indeed to assign to
the colonists of Massachusetts the palm of moderation when
compared with the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth.
The Puritans of England and America were equally slow
to leam the true principles of Uberty of conscience. Here
and there a man might be found with clearer and larger
views, but the great mass of the reUgious confessors of the
seventeenth century could conceive of no degrees or dif
ferent phases of tmth. Holding their own opinions as
the result of conscientious convictions, and frequently in
defiance of cmel persecutions, they esteeraed them as
embodying the truth, and regarded every difference from
them as necessarily amounting to error. To this they too
often added the intolerant doctrines which spring from the
false idea that error must be rooted out by the strong hand
of power. In the self-constituted governments of the early
religious settlements of New England, we accordingly find
the duties of the magistrate confounded with those of the
religious teacher, and the government of the state regulated
by a discipline, which, if appUcable any where, is legitimate
only within the narrower limits of the church. It was not
unnatural that the distinctions between civU and ecclesias
tical rights and obUgations should have been confounded or
lost sight of in comraunities originally coraposed entfrely
of voluntary exiles for conscience' sake. The fact, however,
is not the less important to the historian, because of its
naturally resulting from the constitution of the human
mind when placed araid such novel circumstances. It sup
plies a key whereby to test the actions of the men of that
age, and bids the historian moderate the warmth of his
eulogium, and the bitterness of his censures, on individuals,
while it leaves him still free to estimate by the sole stand
ard of right and virrong the deeds of the persecutors and the
persecuted. * '•ioe't History of Nonconformity, voU ti. Pl CH

4B0 THE PILGRIM FATHIEBI.
CHAPTER XVI.
VHE MASSACHUSETTS PILGRIMS.

Where is the true man's fatherland?
Is it where he by chance is bom?
Doth not the yearning spirit scorn
In such scant borders to be spanned?
O, yes I his fatherland must be,
Aa the blue heaven, wide and free 1
Where'er a human heart doth wear
Joy's myrtle-wreath, or sorrow's gyrei,
Wliere'er a human spirit strives
After a Ufe more true and fair.
There is the tme man's birth-place grand,
His is a world-wide fatherland.

LOWU^

CHAP. XVL The history of the settleraent of Massachusetts by the
Selcctciassof Puritan Pilgriras of Charles I. reign, is scarcely less inter-
eniigranta. esting than that of their predecessors in Plymouth Bay.
Both were of the same class. Both had been driven forth
frora their native country by the intolerable burdens of en
forced conformity, and both sought, in the colonial posses
sions of England, to enjoy liberty of conscience without the
sense of exile and banishment, which even prosperity can
not efface from the forced resident in a foreign land. It is
not to he wondered at that the same degree of harmony
and mutual agreement on all the thorny questions of pole
mic controversy which prevailed in the little settlement of
Plymouth, -was not always found among the Puritan settlers
that occupied the broad lands of Massachusets. The ex
iles who escaped from England to Holland were winnowed
and sifted again and again, ere the passengers of the May
flower effected a landing in the New World. At Amster
dam some were left behind, more tarried at Leyden, and
even of those who proceeded to England in the Speedwell,

THB PILQBIU FATBERB. 4S>
the feint-hearted and faithless abandoned the enterprise CHAP. XV.
when successive disappointments had allowed thefr early
hope and enthusiasm to give way at the chiU touch of ex
perience. It was very different, however, with those who
fled from the systematic persecutions of Laud, and the in
tolerant High Commission Court and Star Chamber of
Charles I. There was no time for sifting then, happily
for them too, less need of it than before. The Pilgrim
Fathers had led the way. The -wilderness had been proved
to be a safe and sure refuge for the persecuted sufferers for
conscience' sake, and now hundreds crowded from their
native shores, without waiting for the personal experience
of the ivrongs they saw inflicted on their brethren, longing
to breathe the free air of these distant wUds, where no bigot
king, or merciless zealot, strove to constrain the soul -within
the straitened bonds of established formulas. All wanted First differ.
hberty for themselves, but unhappily all were not prepared ^'^^
to exercise toleration, or extend the same liberty to others.
Even at the first difficulties arose from this source. Yet why
should we wonder that such was the case. The principles
on which mutual toleration finds its true basis were then
unknown. Even in the Commonwealth, which bold spirits
soon after estabUshed for a time in England, it was only a
smaU minority, with England's great Protector at their
head, who battled for equal privileges, and the like liberty
to all. Tme, indeed, both the Pilgrims of Plymouth, and
the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts, were even more in
tolerant of the Service Book and obseivances of the Church
of England than the Puritan rulers of the Commonwealth;
but the dictates of sound policy may plead an abundant
excuse for this. It was impossible for Prelacy and Puri
tanism to live amicably together under the counsels of
Laud and the Government of Charles I. The refugees of
New England had no choice but to banish or to be ban
ished ; to root out the green shoots of emigrant Prelacy, or
to let it grow until it added to the trials and privations of
these planters in the wUdemess, the very restraints, to
escape which all these lesser evils had been braved.
The name of the Rev. John White merits a prominent Rev. John
place among those who fostered the first New England colo
nies, and promoted the work of emigration among the suf-

482 THE PILGBIM PATHERS.
CHAP. XVI. fering Puritans. He was minister of Dorchester, a borough
" and market-town in the county of Dorset, a district of Eng
land which has borne a prominent share both in the glory
and the sufferings of the nation's struggles for Uberty. It
was the scene of some of the fiercest contests between the
forces of the Parliament and the King during the great civil
war ; and when the despotic bigotry of Charles's infatuated
son, James, had driven thousands to peril their fate under
the questionable leadership of Monmouth, Dorset was one
of the chief scenes of Judge Jeffries' bloody assizes. Doubt
less the zealous administration of such a teacher as John
White helped in no slight degi-ee to sow the seed which
bore such vigorous fmit. The attention of White was
early attracted, and his interest excited, by the settlement
effected at Plymouth in New England, and he devoted him
self with unwearied zeal to establish similar Christian com
munities along the unoccupied shores of the New World.
The first settlement at Salem was an offshoot from the PU
grims' colony at Plymouth Bay. Mr. Roger Conant led
forth a little company of hardy adventurers, who estab
lished themselves first at Cape Ann, and then at Salem.
But they experienced the usual privations and disasters
that await those who stand in the fore rank of aggressive
civilization. Difficulties and dangers seemed to accumu
late on their devoted heads, until, disheartened by the perils
that surrounded them, all but three of Conant's companions
abandoned what seemed to be a desperate project. In this
crisis Mr. White wrote to these last lingerers amid the
wreck of many hopes, entreating them not to desert the
settlement, and promising speedily to reinforce their num
bers, and furnish them with supplies of provisions and other
requisites from England.
PBTehsse of ijhe indefatigable minister of Dorchester amply fulfilled
his promises to Conant and his faithful adherents. In 1628,
only seven years after the sailing of the Mayflower, the
Council of Plymouth, as the English corapany was termed,
sold to six gentlemen of Dorchester a vast tract of land,
including not only the districts of New England which they
succeeded in colonizing, but stretching across the vast con
tinent of Araerica, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
Mr. White was unwearied in his exertions for furthering

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 483
this noble scheme of establishing Christian communities, CHAP. IW.
governed by free institutions, amid the uncultivated vrilds '
of Araerica. Chiefly by his exertions, a numerous body of
zealous Christian men from his own neighbourhood were
induced to unite themselves with the original purchasers of
the unoccupied tract of land; and among these were men of
large fortune and high rank, and distinguished no less by
an. earnest zeal for spiritual religion, and for the liberty of
conscience denied to them by the haughty rulers of Eng
land. Thus constituted, the colonists of Massachusetts were
fer more fortunately situated than the first PUgrim Fathers,
who had to contend with mercenary greed, envious rivah'y,
and the overreaching exactions of unfriendly speculators.
They immediately began the work of emigration. Mr. John
Endicot, one of the six original purchasers, was the leader
of the company of colonists who left England to reinforce
the forlorn band that still maintained their uncertain foot
ing at the settlement of Salem. That same year an explor
ing party set out to examine the character of the neigh
bouring country chartered to them by the Council of Ply
mouth. To their sui-prise and delight, they discovered, at
a distance of about twelve miles from Salem, a cottage, (the
same which the historian of the United States designates an
English hovel,) where a countryman of their own had already
won the favour of the Indians by his skill in working metals.
The locality seemed favourable for settlement, and the ability
of their countryman was scarcely less valuable to them than
to the wild Indians. A body of the colonists established them
selves around the forge of Thomas Walford, the English black
smith ; and with the old patriotic feeUng, which no wrongs or
sufferings can altogether eradicate, they named their new
settlement Charlestown, in honour of the king whose severi
ties had driven them from the land of their fathers.
In the following year, 1629, a hand of three hundred and Planting of
sixty English Puritans arrived at Salem, one hundred of Q^|™esS)wn.
whom chose Charlestown for their final resting-place ; and
now the interest excited by such extensive emigration was
productive of the most momentous results for the Uberty of
New England. All attempts to procure a royal charter for
Plymouth had proved unavailing, but the Puritans of Salem
and Charlestown were more successful. After some little

484 THE PILGBIM FATHEBS.
CHAP. XVI. difficulty and delay, Charles I. affixed the royal seal to a
charter, dated March 4, 1629, hy which the holders of the
purchase from the Council of Plymouth were erected into a
body poUtic, by the name of the Governor and Company of
Massachusetts Bay in New England. The Pilgrim Pathers
found their transactions with the merchant adventurers.
who constituted their governing company, the source oi
perpetual wrongs and disappointments, and were glad at
length to purchase reUef from such an intolerable yoke oi
the most exorbitant terms. But the result was altogethei
different with the colonists of Massachusetts Bay. They
had anticipated persecution, moreover, instead of waiting
until the galling yoke of the oppressor could no longer be
borne. They were not, therefore, driven to the necessity of
accepting such terms as might be offered. They could hus
band their resources and wait their tirae ; and therefore it
was that they achieved so readUy what thefr predecessors
had sought in vain, and secured for their Puritan brethren
free institutions in the New World, which tempted them
to emigrate, without tarrying till their worst anticipations
were realized. The leaders in the establishment of the new
colony were actuated solely by the honest desire to secure
beyond the Atlantic, a safe and abiding shelter for the suffer
ing Nonconformists of England. When, therefore, the royal
cliarter had given the highest legal security for the perma
nence of thefr corporate rights and privileges, raany of the
leading members of the company gladly avail themselves of
a guaranteed liberty over which they held so great control,
and soon the governor and company were themselves settled
amid the early clearings of Salem and Charlestown. The
consequeuces that flowed from this were altogether momen
tous. At the very time when the English sovereign was
seeking to overthrow the chief privileges wliich the British
constitution secured, and was entering on a contest which
involved the absolute supremacy of Crown or Parliament,
he had unconsciously established an independent provincial
government within his own dominions. The legality of such
a state of things was indeed attempted to be questioned,
but happily, amid the dangers and difficulties that sur
rounded the English Government at home, the New Eng
land settlers did not excite suflioient notice or interest to

THB PILGRIM FATHERS. 48J
tempt the Crown to investigate too curiously the conce- Cuap. xvl
quences of this destination of the royal charter. The trans-
ference of the body in whom the chartered privileges had
been reposed to the scene of their destined settlements, in
volved in point of law no more than a change in the place
of meeting. The Governor and Company henceforth assem
bled in Massachusetts, instead of at Dorchester in England,
and the English courts acknowledged that this did not in
terfere in any degree with the legality of their proceedings.
The gi'anting of the royal charter had furnished to the inflnem-e of
chief projectors of the settleraent a strong induceraent to charter.
emigrate, hut the transference of the govei-ning power to
the colony itself produced a fer more extensive movement.
The suffering Nonconformists throughout England leamed
with deUglit of a Puritan settlement estabUshed in the New
World, governed by Christian men who sympathized in their
opinions, and who guaranteed to them, by the security of
the King's own charter, the Uberty of conscience and the
civil pri-rileges, which he was then employing all the means
that policy and unprincipled ambition could suggest, to
wrest from them at home. During a single season fourteen
vessels sailed fi-ora England for Massachusetts Bay, crowded
with Nonconformist emigrants fleeing for shelter to this
land of promise. About fifteen hundred persons landed in
New England, and immediately formed themselves into an
independent settlement under the new charter. Mr. John
Winthrop, one of the first associates whom Mr. White had
induced to unite with the original purchasers of the tract
of land on which they were settling, was unanimously cho
sen Govemor; and we owe to his pen the most complete
record of the early histoi'y of the Puritan settlements of
New England.
The settlers of Massachusetts Bay forsook the land of Patriotic^
their nativity, under a less pressing necessity than that emigrantk '
which had driven forth the Pilgrim Fathers to a foreign
shore, ere they gratified the indomitable love of then' coun
tiy by seeking to shelter themselves within the skirts of its
government, amid the far wilds which modern adventure
liad added to its possessions. Nevertheless, the stunulus
to emigration originated among the early Nonconformists
under Charles I. from similar causes, and they were actuated
21*

486 THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP. XVI. by a scarcely less passionate attachment to their native
land, when, on the eve of their departure from Yarmouth
Roads, they pubUshed the affectionate farewell to England
and her Church, to which we have already referred. They
would not willingly break every tie that bound them to
England. They still regarded it with filial reverence, and
encouraged the fond hope that some bond of mutual sym
pathy would keep alive the union of love between the
parent and child.
Desertion of The privations attendant on the founding of a new settle-
ar es own. ^^gj^j. produced their usual consequences on the new colo
nists. They dispersed themselves in various directions, the
Governor choosing Charlestown as the place of his residence.
Thither many followed him. The place lately occupied by
a solitary English cottage, was become the populous capital
of an extensive colony. But there, as at Plymouth Bay,
the colonists had their houses to rear ere they could be
occupied ; their harvests to sow and tend ere they could be
reaped ; their streets to lay out, to drain, to pave, ere they
could enjoy, in the land of freedom, the thousand necessary
comforts and luxuries which they had possessed in England
almost without a thought of their necessity, or of 'the possi-
biUty of thefr absence. Sickness spread among them. There
also many reached their destination only to win a grave in
the land of promise ; and nearly the whole of the survivors
deserted Charlestown, and established themselves on the site
now occupied by the flourishing town of Boston. On the
19th of October 1630, the Governor summoned there the first
Colonial Assembly to deliberate on the affairs of the settle
ment, and begin their work as the free and unfettered legis
lators of the New World.
Mortality at The change of locality did not suffice to rescue the colo-
^"'°°' nists from sickness and death. The tme sources of their
privations still remained ; and, doubtless, among the large
body of honest, industrious, and wealthy emigrants, who
had forsaken England from the love of freedom and the de
sire for liberty of conscience, not a few were ill fitted by
previous habits for enduring the exposures and sufferings
attendant on the clearing of the forest, and the rearing of
the log huts wherein the exile finds his first shelter from
unwonted exposure and the incleraencies of the season, in

THB PILGRIM FATHBBS. 487
the strange country of his adoption. Nearly two hundred CHAP. XVI
died after the removal to Boston, and about an hundred
more, including some of the leading men of the colony, fled
frora the dangers which seemed to threaten destruction to
the whole settlement, and precipitately returned to England.
Tho sui'vivors, however, did not despair. It was hardly to
be looked for that so numerous a body, necessarily to a great
extent strangers to each other, should manifest the same
magnanimity and unflinching courage which animated the
little Christian family of New Plymouth. Still they did
not fell in deeds of generous charity and love. Many noble
acts of disinterested kindness proved to the colonists the
value of the high Christian principles, by which the great
body of them were actuated. Like the Pilgrims of the May
flower, they saw their provisions failing, and looked in vain
for the distant sail that should cheer them with the hope
of new supplies from England. But like them rich and
poor shared together their scanty stores ; and it is related
among the old traditions of the colony, that Governor
Winthrop was in the act of diriding his last handful of meal
with a poor neighbour, when the joyful tidings reached
hira that the long-expected ship from England was in
sight. It has already been hinted, that the plantation of Massa- Diversity of
chusetts Bay was speedily found to include among its set- °^ "'^
tiers sufficient diversity of opinion to produce at a very
early period the elements of discord. That the Puritan
settlers of New England should have ejected from among
them those who wished to adhere to the Church of England,
and to retain its ritual and forms of worship, was both
natural and perhaps necessary. Sound policy required it,
even fi'om those who might see its inconsistency with the
free toleration of religious belief. But unhappily the great
majority of the settlers went beyond this, and imitating the
earUer English Nonconformists, became almost as strenuous
maintainers of enforced uniformity as their English perse
cutors had been. They differed only on the standard of
uniformity, not on the principle. It is folly for either
American or English encomiasts to seek to disguise this.
It is an important feet in the history of the human
mind, and the impartial records of both countries aban-

488 THE PILGBIM FATHERS.
CHAP. X-VI. dantly prove that only a very few, even in the seven-
teenth century, had any just conception of the grand prin
ciples of toleration, which acknowledge God as the sole
judge of every man's faith, and interfere with opinions or
creeds only when they develope consequences inimical to
social virtue and order. The emigrant settlers who founded
the Puritan colony of New England, were composed of the
very class among whom diversities of opinion on reUgious
faith and ecclesiastical polity were most likely to arise.
They included many of the most devout and earnest thinkers
of the age. ReUgion was with thera a thing so momentous
that aU temporal interests became mean and Uttle worth in
comparison with it. But the sufferer for conscience' sake is
ever too apt to conclude that the faith which he has main
tained in defiance of persecution must be ti-ue. He is un
wiUing to believe that there may be martyrs for enor;
sincere confessors, worthy of all admiration for their ucroic
fideUty to what, after all, maj' prove an unworthy cause. It
is a fact, moreover, too well established to need now to be
argued, that suffering has rarely taught the persecuted to
show moderation to others ; and of this the annals of New
England furnish abundant evidence. Above all, it is to be
remerabered that common sufferings and perils had pro
duced unanimity among the Puritan emigrants, who crowded
the little fleet that sailed like a triumphant armament to
take possession of the chartered land of freedom which they
had won in the New World. It need not greatly surprise us,
that those who were at one in their opposition to the ritual of
the English Church, or to the restraints and formalities im
posed on its honest and conscientious adherents by Laud and
his disciples, should discover that they were not equaUy
unanimous when they came to give their own creeds and
systems practical form. Protestantism in all its phases is
but a negative creed. Thousands unite in the protest against
error, who have little common ground in their ideas of truth.
Surely it is not needful for the validity of their protest that
they should! Let it suffice that they do not rest their
hopes in such a negation. They triumph without a rictory,
who discover in the divisions of Protestantism a proof that
it originated in error. Human nature is ever the same, and
rarely indeed do the most clear-sighted of men comprehend

THB PILGRIM KATHEBS. 489
the ends which Providence is working out by such iinper- chap xvi
feet means. 
There were noble men among these Fathers of Massa- -nio Fathers
.-husetts. Winthrop, Johnson, and Dudley; Wilson, the °ette.°'^°''°
chosen minister of the first church formed araong thera ;
Cotton, a man who had won distinguished honours at the
University of Cambridge, ere he became an object of perse
cution for no less distinguished piety ; Eliot, the generous
and self-denying apostle of the Indians ; Francis Higginson,
the enthusiastic but truly catholic Nonconformist, who
esteemed the invitation of the first emigrants as a caU from
Heaven ; and Roger WUliams, the noble pastor of Salem,
who has won an unenviable distinction as the object, and
in some degi-ee the origin, of much unseemly strife among
the first New England churches, but who was notwithstand
ing a man of true piety, great moral worth, and generous
consistency as the advocate of perfect toleration. Others
were not without characteristics less worthy of admfration.
The historian of the United States describes Endicot, the
foremost among the leaders who planted the new colony, as
" benevolent, though austere ; firm, though choleric ; of a
ragged nature, which the sternest form of Puritanism had
not served to mellow." Some of the deeds of the stern
Puritan are still remembered amongrecords of the past which
New England has little pride in recalling, and one will
long live in the nervous stanzas of Whittier's " ballad of
Cassandra Southwick," the production of one of the most
vigorous and truly national of America's living poets. Yet
Massachusetts is justly boastful of her ancestry. Many
others might be singled out for notice from among the Puri
tan Fathers of New England. They were " a chosen gener
ation, a pecuUar people." A great work was before them,
and the fiTut of it has been a rich and abundant reward,
though the weakness and the failings of human nature
mingled with their work, and they proved, to use the
modest anticipations of the Pilgrim Fathers, but as step
ping-stones to others for the accomplishment of their high
aim.

480 THE PILOBI.-II FATHERS.

CHAPTER XVIL
THK COKSTITUTION OF MASSAOHUSETTB.

Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaphig something new:
That which they have done but eamest of the things that they shall do:
Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs.
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. Tennyson.
CHAPjyn. When sickness and death threatened the loyal founders of
Charlestown with utter annihilation, the place to which
they removed presented the appearance of a promontory
Shawmut, or stretching into the Bay. Its surface sweUed into rising
^staa. grounds of considerable height, now known to the New
Englander as Copp's HiU, Fort HiU, and Beacon HUl. The
colonists ascribed thefr sufferings at Charlestown to the
dampness of the locaUty, and, what might perhaps seem
an unlikely concomitant of this, to the want of a sufficient
supply of water. The neighbouring promontory seemed to
promise a reraedy for both evils. Its rising grounds offered
security for the dryness of the locality, whUe its old name
of Shawmut, or the living fountain, pointed it out as a spot
celebrated among the Indians for its abundant springs of
pure water. Thither, accordingly, the first occupants of
Charlestown removed in a body, on the 7th of September
1630, leaving only seventeen colonists who preferred retain
ing possession of that earUer settlement. The outlookers
were then daily watching the distant horizon, in anticipa
tion of a ship in which thefr minister, the Rev. John Cot
ton, had sailed from Boston, in England ; and it was in
honour of liim, and perhaps also of the town with which
many of them may have had the dear associations of nati-
-vity and kindred, that the colonists conferred on their new
settlement the name of Boston.
Shawmut, however, had one occupant previous to its

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 491
hasty adoption by the deserters from Charlestown, not un- CiiAP.xvir.
worthy of a passing glance among the good men who first ThelrsTBoe-
sought for freedi .:i amid the wilds of New England. The '>"> settler.
following brief notice of hira occurs in an American work,
devoted to the early histoi'y of Boston and its founders.
"The first settler of Shawmut was Mr. WilUam Black-
stone. He probably rame over with the company under
Endicot, who settled at Salem. Mr. Blackstone built a cot
tage at a point somewhere near Leverett Street, not very far
fiom Craigie's Bridge, and became sole proprietor of the whole
peninsula, which was afterwards bought of him. Here he
Uved nine or ten years, and saw the foundation of society
laid. He was a very eccentric character. He was an or
dained minister of the English church, but holding Puritan
sentiments, he preferred to enjoy them unmolested in the
-wilderness. He loved his liberty so well that he would
not connect himself with the church established here. He
said, ' I came fi'om England because I did not Uke the
Lord-Bishops ; and I cannot join with you, because I would
not be under the Lord-Brethren.' He retained nothing
while here of his ministerial character but his canonical
coat. He devoted himself to the cultivation of the six
acres of land which he retained in his possession, and.
planted there, it is said, the first orchard of apple-trees in
New England. It is supposed that he left Boston because
he was annoyed by the strict sectarian laws that were
established by the colony, and banished himself again to
the wUdemess, in a place now called Cumberland, on the
banks of Pawtucket river. Here he built his house in the
midst of a park, planted an orchard near it, and divided his
time between study and labour. He called his rural retreat
Study Hill, andmade it his permanent residence until the day
of his death, which happened May 26, 1675, two years after
he had buried his wife. He was a man of a kind and benevo
lent heart; and when he went to Providence to preach, which
he did occasionally, notwithstanding his disagreement in
opinion with Roger Williams, he would carry with him some
of his beautiful apples as a present to the children, who
never had seen such fruit before. Indeed, the kind called
yellow sweetings, were first produced from his orchard; and
the older inhabitants, who had seen apples in England, had

492 THE PILGRIM PATHERS.
CHAP.xvn. not before seen that sort. His eccen'ricity is seen in the
fact, that he used, in his old age, to ride into Providence on
a bull, which, for want of a horse, he had trained for that
purpose. ' The death of this venerable pilgrim,' says the
historian, 'was at a critical period, the beginning of an
Indian war. His estate was deseited, and his house burnt
by the natives. His library, which contained 186 volumes,
from folios to pamphlets, shared the same fate. His family
is now extinct, A flat stone marks his grave on Study HUl;
but we hope and trust the musing stranger will hereafter
find his name on some marble tablet of historical inscrip
tions, erected by the raunificent hand of some Bostonian,'
and in the city of Boston, which, for a short time, was called
for him Blackstone Neck, on the very spot where he erected
the first Christian dwelling-place.'"*
Mr. and Lady Mr. Johnson, who has been already referred to, occupies
Johnson ^ somewhat similar place among the founders of Boston to
that which is conceded to Governor Carver among the Pil
grim Fathers of Plymouth. He was a man of considerable
wealth, and highly connected in England. He was one of
the largest contributors to the original cost of the settle
ment, and removed to Salem among the first band of emi
grants who were tempted by the securities for their liberty
and religious privileges which the destination of the royal
charter seemed to fumish. He was accompanied by the
Lady Arabella, his young and devoted wife, a daughter of
the noble house of Lincoln ; biit, alas, ill-fitted by the
delicacy of her early nurture to brave the dangers and hard
ships of a new colony. The rank, and the generous liber
ality of Mr. Johnson naturally led the colonists to look up
to him as a leader. No feeUng was then stronger in the
breasts of Englishmen than tha,t reverence for rank, when
allied to coiTCsponding virtues, which includes some of the
best features of the old patriarchal state, and is peculiarly
calculated to exercise a beneficial influence in a new colony.
Those, however, who have been brought up amid the refined
delicacies and luxuries to which the wealthier ranks of
society are accustomed, are ill-fitted to contend with the
thousand hardships and privations that must be endured
by the first settlers in the wilderness. So it proved with
• Shawmut; or the Settlement of Boston, p. 27

THE PILORIM PATHERS. 493
him -whom local historians still name with reverence as the CHap.x-vil
fether of Boston. The Lady Arabella lived long enough to 
share in such homely comforts as the first log-hut of Salem
could afford. With generous fortitude she encouraged the
desponding settlers, and smiled at the rude substitutes fur
nished by her new home for the comforts which had been
femiUar to her from childhood. But she was too deli
cate an exotic for transplanting to the unprepared soil. She Death of
wasted under slow consuming sickness, and was one of the ^eua md'her
first buried at Salem. Her loss was deeply mourned by the husband.
colonists, and visibly preyed on the health of the sorrowing
husband. Notwithstanding this, however, and the sad tie
which such an event was calculated to create to the place
which held the dust of one so dear, Mr. Johnson accompa
nied the band of emigrants who abandoned Salem, and
selected Charlestown, the colonial seat of govemment, for
thefr place of settlement; and he again joined the survivors
who hastily deserted it, when a death-plague seemed to
threaten the destmction of all. He lived long enough at
Boston to aid in the distribution of its first lands, and to
build a house on the lot appropriated as his own share of
the soil. The ground alloted to the " Father of Boston" Is
still pointed out by the citizens of that flomishing sea-port.
The court-house now appropriately occupies the site of his
dwelling, and his grave was the first which consecrated the
burying-ground, where it is still pointed out as one of the
memorials of the founders of the state. The esteem in
which he was held araong the companions of his toU and
the sharers in his trials, is shown by the terms in which
his loss is mentioned by the early historian of the settle
ment, " He was endowed with many precious gifts, and a
chief pillar to support this new-erected building, so that at
his departure there were many weeping eyes, and some
fainting hearts, fearing the faUure of the undertaking." In
life he was the greatest furtherer of the plantation, and by
his bequest a benefactor of the infant state. It is not, per
haps, an altogether inappropriate destination, that the
chief portions of "Johnson's lot" is stiU occupied only with
the Uttle mounds which mark the resting-place of succes
sive generations who have gathered around the grave of the
founder of Boston.

494 THE PILORIM FATHERS.
CHAP.x-vai. But the tme father of Boston was Governor Winthrop.
Governor ^^ ^'^-^ * ^^^^ °^ more enlightened views, and juster ideas
Winthrop. of the basis of true liberty, than were acceptable to the stern
Puritan colonists of Massachusetts. He did much to tem
per the severity of their proceedings, when ecclesiastical
discipline was converted into civil law. It is an enviahle
tribute which Williams, the martyr-advocate of tole.'ii..jii,
bears to the memory of the Governor of Massachusetts,
while suffering from the intolerance of its laws : " That ever-
honowred Governor Winthrop privately wrote to me to steer
my course to the Narragansett Bay, encouraging me from
the freeness of the place from English claims or patents. I
took his prudent motion as a voice frora God." But raore
of him hereafter. Meanwhile the following summary of
Govemor Winthrop's character is furnished by the histo
rian of the "Settlement of Boston." "A raore interesting
character than Winthrop is scarcely to be found in Ameri
can history. Some of my readers have often seen his por
trait in the State-house. He was tall and well formed, his
visage long, a high forehead, with dark blue eyes, and dark
hair, worn in the form of a wig. His countenance beamed
benevolence and wisdora. Made a justice of the peace in
his native town in England at the early age of eighteen, he
grew up in the exercise and art of govei'nment. His pru
dence, patience, courage, and energy, made him the succes.'>-
ful pilot of the ship of state in the unchartered waters into
which she was launched. He was not a democrat. ' Tlie
best part of a community ' said he, ' is always the least ;
and of this least part the wiser is always the less.' He was
Uberal in his natural disposition, and it was with reluc
tance that he yielded to the reigning spirit of intolerance in
reUgion. Having been applied to in his last illness to sign
an order for the banishment of a minister, he refused, say
ing, he had done too much of that already. In private life
he was frugal and temperate, hospitable and exceedingly
generous to the poor. One hard winter, complaint was made
to him that a person frequently stole wood from his pile.
* Does he,' said Mr. Winthrop ; ' send him to me, and I
vrill take a course with him that wiU cure him of stealing.'
The man appeared, trembling under the terrors of the law.
Friend,' said the Governor, ' it is a cold winter, and I

TBB PILOBIM FATHERS. 496
doubt you are but poorly proirided with wood. You are CHAp.x'VII
welcome to supply yourself at my pile until the winter is
over.' " His religion shone out through all his life, and gave a Character of
higher lustre to his character. He was zealous for truth ^°^'
and righteousness. Often would he bear witness to the
minister in the congregation ; and frequently he visited the
neighbouring to-wns to prophesy, as it was called, that is,
discourse religiously. His character was admired, not only
throughout New England, but in the mother country, and
at the Court. Charles I remarked of hira, that it was a
pity that such a worthy gentleman should be no better
accommodated than with the hardships of America.
" A wonderful control of his own passions was a proof of
the grace of God in him, and associates him in the mind
with that other gi'eat model of virtue which will for ever
adom our country. On a certain occasion, one of the offi
cers of the colony wrote him a ' sharp letter,' complaining
of his official acts. He handed it back to the messenger,
after he had read it, remarking, that he ' was not wilUng to
keep such a letter of provocation by him.' Not long after
wards, whUe the colony was suffering frora scarcity of food,
the same gentleman sent to buy some of his cattle. The
Govemor sent them to him, begging that he ' would receive
them as a token of his good will.' The gentleman wiote
back, ' Sir, your overcoming of yourself, hath overcome
me.' " This admirable temper he carried in all his public life.
Cotton Mather says of him, that he had ' studied that book,
which, professing to teach politics, had but three leaves,
and on each leaf but one word, and that word was moder

ation.

'"¦»

He died at the age of sixty, worn out with public cares J^^'J^fO*',
and domestic afflictions. New England owed much to his ley
moderation, ir would have been well had the state been
more completely under his control. The deputy-governor,
Mr. Thomas Dudley, studied law in his youth, and had
home a captain's commission in the service of one of the
German states, during the continental wars. He attached
• Shawmut; or the Settlement of Boston, p. 86.

49C THE PILGRIM PATHERS.
CHAP.X-VIT. himself to the Nonconformists after his return to England.
His views coincided far more completely with the general
opinions of the colonists than those of Governor Winthrop.
He several times held the office himself, and was almost
always elected deputy when Winthrop was chosen Governor.
"He was," says the historian of Boston, " a raan of sound
sense, sterling integrity, and uncompromising faith. He
was rigid in his religious opinions, and went far beyond
Winthrop in enforcing the sectarian laws of the state. He
considered that the various opinions that were struggUng to
manifest themselves fi-om time to time tended to Ucentious-
ness ; and he was desirous that it should be inscribed, on
his grave-stone, that he was no friend to unlimited tolera
tion, which he called libertinism''
The following quaint but very characteristic Unes, em
bodying his protest against toleration, were found in his
pocket after his death : —
"Dim eye, dciif ear, cold stomach, show
My dissolution is in view ;
Eleven times seven near lived have I,
And now God calls, I willing die.
My shuttle's shot, my race is run,
My sun is set, my day is done;
My span is measured, tale is told.
My flower is faded and grown old ;
My dream is vanish'd, shadow's fled.
My soul with Christ, my body dead.
''arewell, dear wife, cliildren, and friends,
Hate heresy, make blessed ends.
Bear poverty, live with good men,
So shall we live with joy again.
Let men of God in court and churches watch
O'er sueh as do a toleration hatch,
Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice,
To poison all with heresy and vice.
If men be left and otherwise combine.
My epitaph's, I died no libertine."
With such a colleague, it needed all Winthrop's UberaUty
to moderate the severities of Puritan discipline. Governor
Winthrop proved himself well suited for the rijler of the
new settlement ; nor did he want efficient coadjutors, whose
virtues are still recorded in the annals of the state. The
survivors did not despafr amid the difficulties that sur
rounded them. Like the pioneers of Plymouth Bay, their

THB PILGRIM FATHERS. 497
trust was stiU unshaken, and they doubted not but the God CHAP.xVII
of heaven had better things in store, though the ways of his
providence seemed dark, and the blessings of Uberty were
bemg purchased at a costly grice. It was not in vain that
the brave settlers looked forw-ard to brighter days. They
had many fiiends still in England; nor were they, like the
founders of Plymouth, dependent on the niggard returns of
merchant adventurers. Ships arrived from tirae to time,
laden with pro-risions and needful stores, and bringing fi'esh
emigrants to fill the vacancies created by death and deser
tion. Thefr dangers and difficulties were fer fewer than
those experienced by the solitary band of exiles from Ley
den. They were speedily able to constitute their ci-ril and
ecclesiastical systems, and to establish themselves into a
well-ordered state, the beneficial influences of which were
shared, in some degree, even by the founders of Plymouth,
though their worst dangers and difficulties were afready at
an end.
The govemment of the new state was necessarUy moulded Peculiar
in consistency with the pecuUar -riews of its founders. It STh^lony
was a religious settlement, and the ecclesiastical and civil
rights of its members became, accordingly, as completely
interwoven as those of England were when the Queen as
sumed to be Defender of the Faith, and supreme head of
the Ghurch. One of the first procedures was to enter into
what was styled " A Church Covenant." On the 30th of
July 1631, while the colonists stUl held their head-quarters
at Charlestown, a solemn day of fasting and prayer was
observed. The public services were conducted in the open
air ; after which the following Covenant was signed in the
name of the whole community, hy Govei'nor Winthrop,
Deputy-Governor Dudley, Mr. Johnson, and the Rev. Mr.
WUson : —
" In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience Church »ot»
to his holy vrill and divine ordinance, We, whose names are
here underwritten, being by his most wise and good provi
dence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay
of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite into one congrega
tion or church, imder the Lord Jesus Christ, one head, in
such sort as becometh all those whom he hath redeemed
and sanctified to himself, do hereby solemniy and reUgiously,

498 THE PILORIM FATHERS.
CHAP XVIL as in his most holy presence, promise and bind ourselves to
walk in all our ways according to the rule of the gospel,
and in all sincere conformity to his holy ordinances, and in
mutual love and respect to eagh other, as near as God shall
give us gi'ace."
Tbi roiisions It was, in fact, the constitution of the colony as a religious
repu c. republic, and it stamped an enduring character on the his
tory of New England. The govemment of the colony of
Massachusetts, as finally settled, was vested in a governor,
deputy-govei'Hor, board of assistants, and deputies from each
town. At first they constituted one deliberative assembly,
but when the dependencies increased, and the number of
representatives became proportionably great, they were
formed into two houses, modelled to a considerable extent
after the Parliament of England. One most momentous
element, however, was infused into the political scheme of
the Republic. No man was entitled to a vote at any elec
tion, unless he was a member of the church. This test was
not immediately felt to be irksome where nearly every
member of the community was already possessed of the re
quisite qualification, and it cannot surprise us that it should
have been adopted. The Puritan Pathers of New England
were actuated by no visionary schemes of republican liberty.
They sought only permission to hold and to carry out their
own 'riews, and from the very first they laid it down as an
essential element in their scheme of policy, to exclude from
the settlement all who differed from them in religious opi
nions, or who refused to be subject to their ecclesiastical
discipline. It is unnecessary to remind the reader, that this
singular union of ecclesiastical "and civil polity was after-
Wards productive of many evils to the colony. But it must
not be overlooked, that this novel establishment of a state
religion and of a civil constitution, wherein the scriptures
of the Old and New Testaments were the acknowledged
basis of legislation, was not adopted without a vigorous
protest from sorae, who, with clearer foresight discerned the
evil consequences that must flow from such a system.
Most men love extremes. It is rare indeed to find the
happUy constituted mind that can hold fast to the golden
mien, which stands fest between the oscillating points of
the balance. Yet with self-complaceny and feith in our

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 499
own moderation, we look back on these stragglers, and CHAP.xvn,
smile as we see them with like complacency appeal to 
" His golden scales, hung forth in heaven,
Vfhich quick up-fly and kick the beam!"
Among the passengei-s that crowded the Puritan fleet Roger wn-
which bore onward to the land of promised liberty, there """*•
was one, " a young minister, godly and zealous, having
many precious gifts," who, with the keenest sympathy for
the doctrinal faith and ecclesiastical polity advocated by the
Nonconformists, could yet conceive of a higher good than
the absolute supremacy of these, as the unbending rule of
life, in the new state. Roger Williams was Uttle more than
thirty years of age when he landed, on the 6th of Febra-
ary 1631, at the old port of Nantasket, as Hull was caUed
by its Indian owners. He was a Puritan, and a fugitive
frora England, but his sagacious intellect could discern the
spirit of intolerance, whether it decked itself in the white
surpUce and the cassock of Prelacy, or assumed the demure
go-wn of Geneva. He had perceived, amid the strife of
opinions, and the struggle of rival sects for supremacy, the
force of the Scripture's golden rule, — the new command
ment which Christ gave to his church, and which includes
in its comprehensive summary the whole spirit of the Deca
logue graven of old on the tablets of Sinai, — " Do to others
as ye would that men should do to you." He sought, in
the land of promise, a far nobler liberty than that of mak
ing it an occasion of bondage to others. He was not,
indeed, perfect. In his desfre to divorce the ci-ril from the
spiritual power, so as to destroy the source of those evils
which he most dreaded in the new state, he undoubtedly
ran to some extremes. He maintained that it was wrong
for a magistrate to tender an oath to an unregenerate man,
" for he would thereby have coraraunication -with a wicked
man in the worship of God, and cause him to take the name
of God in vain." With stUl greater austerity, he pub
licly taught " that it was not lawful for an unregenerate
man to pray, or for a good man to join in family prayer with
those he judged unregenerate." Another opinion of his
will not probably sound quite so heinous in modern ears as
it did to his old New England auditors, when he told them
that the charter of Charles I was utterly worthless, for the

.500 THE PILGRIM FATHEBS.
CH-lP.xviL King of England had no right to cede to them the posses-
sions of the Indians. But if ever man had established the
right to hold his own opinions unchallenged, it was Roger
WUliams. His lofty principles of unqualified toleration
were scorned and condemned by his fellow emigrants, be
cause they were altogether in advance of his age. Crom
well, perhaps, more than any man of the 17th century, was
capable of appreciating them, yet it may be doubted if even
he had so early discerned the tme spfrit of liberty. It was
the great doctrine by which the Protector of the Common
wealth of England afterwards sought to secure her liberty,
and to prove himself her protector against her foes, and
against herself, not securing the liberty of the Puritans by
giving supremacy to Nonconformity, but uprooting Non
conformity as well as despotism, by extending equal liberty
to aU. " Roger WilUams," says Bancroft, " announced his
discovery under the simple proposition of the sanctity of
conscience. The civil magistrate should restrain crime, but
never control opinion ; should punish guilt, but never vio
late the fi'eedom of the soul. The doctrine contained within
itself an entire reformation of theological jurisprudence : it
would blot from the statute-book the felony of nonconform
ity ; would quench the fires that persecution had so long
kept burning ; would repeal every law compelling attend
ance on public worship ; would abolish tithes and all forced
contributions to the maintenance of religion ; would give
an equal protection to every form of reUgious faith ; and
never suffer the authority of the civil government to be
enUsted against the mosque of the Mussulman or the altar
of the fire-worshipper, against the Jewish synagogue or tho
Roman cathedral. It is wonderful with what distinctness
Roger Williams deduced these inferences from his great
principle, the consistency -with which, like Pascal and
Edwards, those bold and profound reasoners on other sub
jects, he accepted every fair inference from his doctrines,
and the circumspection with which he repelled every un
just imputation. In the unwavering assertion of his views
he never changed his position ; the sanctity of conscience
was the great tenet, which, with all its consequences, he
defended, as he first trod the shores of New England ; and
in his extreme old age it was the last pulsation of his heart."

THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 601
A man can hardly commit a greater crime, according to CHAPavn
the standard of his contemporaries, than that of being in 
advance of his age. It is an offence most hard to be for
given; and assuredly the New England of that 17th cen
tury, upon which America now delights to look back as the
cradle of liberty, was fully as little prepared as England to
pardon the advocacy of the doctrine of perfect toleration,
which, even iu the nineteenth centui'y, neither America nor
England have altogether carried out. It is the shame of
England that the conscientious religous opinions of a good
subject can still be a bar to literary honours, and a disqua
lification for civil office. It is no less a shame to Araerica
that the colour of the skin, for which man is even less
responsible, is a more insurmountable barrier to thousands
of her citizens ; meeting them alike in church and mart, and
palsying the voice of fi'ee discussion with a despotic tyranny
that makes good men blush. It is not for either nation to
cry shame on the other. Let their emulation be stUl which
shaU first -win the noble goal of Uberty that is the aim of
both. Roger Williams contended in vain vrith good men, strong Puritan teet
in the sincerity of convictions wliich they had afr'eady en- "^
dured much to maintain. The Puritan legislators of New
England enacted, that the observance of pubUc worship was
a duty every member of the community owed to the state.
No difference of opinion could excuse regular attendance at
the parish church, nor could either the unwiUingness of
worldly men, or the scruples of tender consciences, vrin any
relaxation from the law which subjected every member of
the community to taxation for the maintenance of the reU
gion of the majority. In addition to this, the adopted creed
became a necessary qualification for the meanest civil office,
and no test act was ever enforced more stringently in the
worst time of England's Stuart rule than this was under
the Puritan governors of New England. They had mdeed
this apology, that they had acquired the land as a refuge
for themselves, and had endm'ed not a few privations and
sufferings that they might estabUsh there an asylum wherem
English Nonconformity might be free to plume its wings,
and soar, unrestramed by any shackles but its own. The
discriminating reader wUl not fail to give them every ad-
22

502 THB PILGRIM FATHERS.
CHAP.XVII vantage of this apology, nor will he refuse a just admiration
for the uncompromising spfr'it with which they acted up to
their imperfect -riews ; although he still must own that they
were two centuries belund the liberty of our age.
Banishment The evils consequent on the establishment of dominant
of WiUiams. Pm-jtanism in the colony of Massachusetts, came to a height
when the advocate of perfect toleration was chosen by the
people of Salem as their pastor. All the worst consequences
that had sprung fi-om the religious intolerance of the High
Church party iu England, were repeated under new forms
in America. By a decree of the General Court, Roger Wil
Uams was banished from the colony. In the depth of vrin
ter, under storms more fierce than those that assaUed the
Pilgrim Fathers when they landed from the Mayflower, he
had to skulk for many weeks amid the intricate wilds of the
leafless forest, glad when he discovered a hollow tree to
shelter him fi-oni the pitUess blasts of the north -wind, laden
vrith ice and snow. But " the ravens," said he, " fed me in
the wilderness." The wUd Indians protected the outcast ;
and through his long Ufe he never forgot the debt of grati
tude. WUliams removed at length to Rhode Island. Five
companions, who shared with Mm the large views of Uberty
for which he had endured such sufferings, followed him
thither ; and there, with the advice of the benevolent
Governor of Boston, and beyond the reach of the charter of
Massachusetts, the martyr of liberty founded a new settle
ment, to wluch he gave the name of Providence. The
history of Roger Williams has been -written by his oppo
nents. Tardy and gi-udging justice has been rendered to his
memory. The eulogists of New England have been fein to
magnify his errors, or to conceal his wrongs. England may
now be proud that she gave birth to such a son, while
Araerica rejoices that araid the wilds of the New World, he
found at length a shelter, where it was not held a crime to
acknowledge no judge of conscience but God.

THE PILGRIM PATHEBS. 503

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE pilgrims's MEMORIALS

Tie Pilgrim exile— sainted name I
The hill, whose icy brow
Rejoiced, when he came, in the moming's flame^
In tlie moming's flame bums now ;
And the moon's cold light, as it loy that night
On the hill-side and the sea,
StUl lies where he laid his houseless head ;
But the Pilgrim  where is he ? PlKEPOKI.

The history of the Pilgrim founders of New England pro- CHAP.xvn-
perly closes when theu' work as the pioneers is done. Dif- i,auJ7cdo-
ficulties, indeed, stUl beset the path of the colonists, and niaimlsman.
some of these of no ordinary character. In 1633, a number
of ships, ready, with thefr emigrant passengers, to sail for
New England, were stayed by an arbitrary order of Coun
cil, and forbid to depart, " because of the resorting thither
of divers persons known to be iU-affected, not only with
civil, but ecclesiastical govemment at home." It has even
been said that Charles and his wise councillors arrested a
ship in the Thames some few years later, which, but for their
interference, would have borne Hampden and CromweU to
exhaust thefr mighty energies contending with the difficul
ties of an infent settlement;— a pregnant theme for reflec
tion, did we not remember that men are but the tools of
Providence. Yet how different had aU the new centuries
of England's history been, vrith her Hampden and Crom
weU buUding log-huts in Massachusett's Bay ! Wiser men
than Laud would have thought England weU rid of a few
ship-loads of ill-affected persons. But the pedant priest
flattered himself that the nation could be ruled with a peda
gogue's rod; and by and bye he even volunteered to extend
the salutary discipUne of his ferule to the New England

604

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

Mr. Wins-
low's impri
sonment.

CHAP.XVIIL colonists. In 1635, Archbishop Lauu was eonimissioiied
with irresponsible power to re-model all matters, civil or
ecclesiastical, belonging to the colony ; and things pro
ceeded so far that a writ was made out against the Gover
nor, Deputy-governor, and assistants of the Corporation of
Massachusetts Bay ; and even the valued charter was re
voked. Mr. Winslow, one of the first Governors of Ply
mouth, visited England, and petitioned the Council to check
some grievances which were felt to be injm-ious by the
colonists. The Archbishop forthwith interfered, denounced
Winslow as a separatist, had hira clapped in durance in the
Fleet ; and fortunate it was for him, that the Archbishop's
hands were too full of raore pressing work to allow him to
attend to the " scandalous licence" of the colonists, other
wise his escape would have been less easy than with only
seventeen weeks' imprisonment. But the miseries of Eng
land were the life of the colony. WhUe the long death-
struggle of despotism was tugging at the vitals of the
mother country, and her Ubei'ty trembled in the balance,
the colonies were slowly acquiring the needful strength and
consistency that enabled them to cope successfully with the
agents of restored despotism. With these early annals of
New England we need not intermeddle. They belong to
the history of the colony, and of the great nation into
which it is now incorporated ; they belong also to the
history of the nation from whence they sprung ; but they
form no portion of the legitiraate annals of the PUgrim
Fathers. " The Pilgrim Fathers are at rest;
"When summer's throned on high,
And the world's warm breast is in verdure dressed,
Go, stand on the hill where they lie.
The earliest ray of the golden day
On that hallowed spot is cast ;
And the evening sun, as he leaves the world.
Looks kindly on that spot last
*' The Pilgi-im spirit has not fled:
It walks in noon's broad light
And it watches the bed of the glorious dead.
With the holy stars by night.
It watches the bed of the brave who have bled,
And shall guard this ice-bound shore,
mi the waves of the Bay where the Mayflower lay
Shall foam and freeze no more."

THE PILGBIM FATHERS. 603
We run Uttle risk of over-estimating the influence of the CHAP.XVin.
Pilgrim Fathers on the history not only of their direct ^
descendants, but of the whole Saxon race who now fill the
vast continent frora the River St. Lawrence to the Gulf of
Mexico. The memory of the Pilgi'ims of Plymouth is ever
present, as an example or as a warning, calling on the Ame
rican to emulate the noble self-denial of his ancestry, and to
imitate their simple piety and trust in God. The narrow-
minded and cold-hearted utilitarian sneers at the enthusi
ast who thus looks behind him fbr encom-agement and
guidance in the onward race. But he who has discerned
the spfrit of man aright, knows how powerful are the invi
sible links that unite hira with the past.
The names of Bi-uce and Tell, of Hampden, Hoffer, Influence of
Kosciusko, — the names of the fathers of liberty in every ciatfons.""
land, — stu' the heart Uke the sound of a trumpet, and bid
the soul of man aspfre to his great birthright of freedom.
Let then those nations bless God who- has given them
such an ancestry; for there are some who, looking down the
fer vista of the past, discern no such leaders. It was not
Napoleon who taught France that glory was a better prize
than Uberty. He only caught up the echoes of older voices,
and summoned the nation to follow in the steps of her his
toric leaders. Napoleon was the fit Washington of France.
It is stiU pride enough for her to be identified with his
questionable glory. When we look upon such gauges of
the great tide-raarks of history, we may well regard with
interest the spirit of veneration with which the American
Republican treasures the homeliest relic of his Pilgrim sires.
It is a hero-worship unallied to superstition. It was when
the revolutionary conffict with the mother country was at
its crisis, that the citizens of Plymouth recalled the worth of
their old Memorial Rock, on which a few poor and despised
exiles had landed well nigh two centuries before, and res
cued it from the encroaching wharfege of the busy sea-port.
Again, in 1834, it was inaugurated with renewed ceremo
nial, and dedicated once more to the memory of the Pounders
of New England liberty. Nor does republican enthusiasm
pause even here. The grave divine who has undertaken to
iUustrate the history of the " Plymouth Pilgi'ims," suggests
tbat other duties stiU remain, ere the men of New England

506 THE PILGBIM PATHEBS.
CHAP.x-vill. shall learn to celebrate with fitting honours the landing of
these conquerors of the wilderness. America must take a
leaf from the page of old Europe's most eloquent ceremonial.
Like Venice, " she must espouse the everlasting sea," in
memory of those who triumphed amid its dangers, and
bridged the Atlantic with a highway for the exiles of the
Old World. " The people of Plymouth," says Dr. Cheever,
" wUl not have done their duty to the original Rock, till they
make a little park around it, down to the water's edge,
where annually there might be a pleasant ceremony of
landing from the sea, as solemn and magnificent as that of
dropping a ring into the Adriatic at Venice, and much raore
glorious in its meaning. The Rock now in fi-ont of the haU,
¦with the inscribed names in black around it, might be apt
to suggest to the mind the idea of a coffin or monumental
urn, with the pall-.bearei's. It looks too hearse-Uke for a
pleasant impression, such as one would wish to have before
that relic, which is the emblem of life, not death, fbr New
England."
American Whatever be the ceremonial, it should indeed be pleasant,
na on i y ^jjough grave and eamest, as the deeds that it comraemo-
rates. America vrill do better, however, to trust to her own
nationalities than to borrow her triumphant celebrations
from such symbols of medieval fancy, rich as they are in
old poetic feeling. She has her green forests, and her Bea
con Hill ; her broad encircled bay, with its winding shal
lows, and the memory of the little Mayflower still present
there, with its bent yards and tattered saUs. She has her
old flag, which replaced the older standard of England, vrith
its red cross of St. George, that roused the fre of the stern
Endicot, as a badge and relic of Antichrist. She has her old
seal too, stUl bearing the cross which once excited such strife
and commotion in her early councils, now quartering the
armorial shield of Plymouth quaintly charged -with four
Pilgrims at prayer. America needs no Old- World fencies
to prompt her celebrations, while she keeps alive for other
generations the memory of these Fathers of a great nation.
Yet it is well that she should not, in her high republican
pride, despise the pomps of old nations as antiquated and
chUdish. Human nature is ever the same ; and the noblest
spfrits feel the least condescension when they stoop to share

THB PILGRIM FATHERS. 607
in the pastimes of a nation's holydays ; for they know that CHAP.XVin.
beneath the rind and husk of such fantasies are hidden 
deeper things, kernels that germinate and produce worthy
finut in other times. The genial heart may weU share in
the rejoicings of such a festival, commemorating the advent
of liberty amid so clouded a dawn.
Scattered among the chief cities of the northern states. Relics of the
there are still preserved with loving veneration, a few pre- ^"'f''™*
cious reUes of the Pathere of the New World. The Massa
chusetts Historical Society possesses the swords of Carver
and Brewster. The Pilgrim Society of Plymouth preserves
that of MUes Standish. At Boston, the Uneal descendant of
Governor Winslow retains the portrait of his ancestor, as
weU as that of his son Isaac, who succeeded to the like hon
ours, and those of other members of his distinguished father's
race. An engraving of the portrait of Edward Winslow
forms the fi-ontispiece to " Young's Chronicles of the PU
grims," and shows the fine, dignified, manly chief, to whom
CromweU confided the superintendence of the expedition
against the West Indies, in 1655, from which he did not
retum. Among the same priceless famUy relics, is in
cluded the Bible of Governor Winslow, vrith the old famUy
register, avouching the noble pedigree of its present owner.
His ai-m-chair too, a plain but substantial old oaken seat,
stiU remains as a coveted memento of the New England
forefathers. Young appropriately introduces it as a vignette
at the close of Bradford and Winsiow's journal. In Uke
manner he has preserved the form of Elder Brewster and
Govemor Carver's chairs ; the latter a plain rush-bottomed
chafr, worthy in its simplicity to be the throne and judg
ment-seat of the first presidents of Plymouth colony.
Such are the few and simple reUcs which command the
devout reverence of a great nation. Trifles ai-e they, truly,
when estimated by their mere intrinsic worth ; but such
as America might well refuse to exchange for the gold
which Spanish gaUeons bore back to Europe as the spoUs of
the New World. Nor are these the sole memorials of the
Pilgrim Fathers. Their monument is the nation that owns
the Uttle spot whereon they reared their -wild home. Its
free institutions, its generous and philanthropic deeds, its
missionary labours, its arduous spirit of daring, its indomi-

608 THE PILGRIM PATHERS.
CHAP.XVin. table courage, its unquenchable love of liberty, all these are
the memorials of the Pilgrims ; nor are they all that shall
be. America has yet higher achievements and nobler vic
tories before her. There are stains, dark stains, on her
escutcheon. Good men blush at her boast of liberty while
these remain, and mean spirits triumph in her shame. Other
memorials shall be reared in America to the fathers of her
liberty; and when freedom has had her perfect triumph,
Forefethers's Day will be celebrated with rites worthy of
its old memories. But England also claims a share in these
old memories ; and an interest in the power with w-hich
their lessons are so pregnant. She too has triumphs to
achieve, ere the festival of Uberty can be fitly celebrated.
Slowly and with sore difficulty each step is won. But her
progress, too, is onward. The golden age is before her, her
warning only behind. May the two nations learn to emu
late each other only in such generous triumphs, while they
cherish the feelings that ought to animate races in whose
veins are circulating the same old Saxon blood.

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