CHAPTER XIX.

Application of the Puritans to the Convocation and to Whitgift, for Relief.-Dangers to the Government.-Spanish Armada.-Conduct of the Papists and Puritans.—Martin Marprelate.-Answers by Bridges and Cooper.-New Parliament. Severe penal Laws passed.-Of the Barrowists, and the Execution of their Leaders.-Penry's Character and Death.-Writings of the English Divines against Puritanism. -HOOKER'S ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.

A. D.

1585.

WHILE the puritans were urging their solicitations on the house of commons, they did not neglect to bring their grievances before the convocation. Elizabeth. An address was presented in the name of those ministers who had refused to subscribe the three articles promulgated by the archbishop. These ministers desired at least to be satisfied with respect to their scruples, a satisfaction which had not hitherto been attempted *. The convocation having rejected their petition, the ministers printed their " Apology to the Church, and Humble Suit to the High Court of Parliament." In this performance they repeated the common objections against the liturgy, and concluded with an earnest request that they might be continued in their cures. As they had been set apart to the sacred ministry, they considered themselves to be bounden to God and their flocks; they professed their readiness to submit to any ordinance which was

*Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. i. c. 7.

XIX.

CHAP. not sinful, because they apprehended that the shepherds being stricken, their flocks would be scattered*"

After these fruitless solicitations to the parliament and the convocation, the puritans importuned the archbishop separately to exert his interest with the queen for an abatement in the terms of conformity. A short tract was also published, containing "Means to settle a godly and charitable Quietness in the Church," humbly addressed to the primate. Whitgift never spared any personal exertion when he could be useful, and his living cares as his dying wishes were for the church of God. With great assiduity and skill he framed an answer to the treatise, in which he informed the petitioners, that it was not his business to alter or to dispense with the ecclesiastical laws, but to see that they were duly observed. On one of the propositions submitted by the non-conforming ministers, he commented with his usual acuteness. It was proposed that those ministers who had been suspended for their refusal to subscribe the articles might be restored to their benefices, on condition of giving a bond or security not to preach against the hierarchy, or to disturb the peace of the church; but, on the contrary, to uphold both, as far as they consistently and conscientiously were able. this proposal, specious but hollow, Whitgift replied, that he was not averse from receiving such a bond; but added the following unanswerable observation: "He that shall enter into a bond, and yet refuse

* Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. c. 7.

Το

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

to subscribe, is in my opinion very hypocritical or very perverse; for a bond is a stronger assurance than subscription*."

These divisions, as it was reasonable to expect, were converted by the papists to their advantage, and a plot was at this time formed for the assassination of the queen. The principal contriver of the conspiracy was lord Paget, who escaped by flight as soon as his treason was discovered; while one Parry, who was to have been the instrument of this treason, was executed t.

A. D.

1585.

Elizabeth.

The parliament which met after the discovery 1586. of this conspiracy, sensible of the calamities which Nov. 15. must happen to the nation by the death of the queen, entered into a voluntary association to revenge it, if it should take place by violence. They also enacted a severe statute against jesuits and priests of foreign seminaries, or any others who should engage in plots, by virtue of the bull of excommunication of pope Pius the Fifth, and against any English subject who should go to the foreign popish seminaries for education.

The trial and execution of the unfortunate queen of Scotland, have thrown a shade over the character of Elizabeth which it is impossible to dispel, and even her vindicators have been constrained to acknowledge that her conduct had in it more of policy than justice, and more of spleen than policy. The impartial judgment of Camden has attributed this tragical catastrophe to the excessive anxiety

estants for the safety of Elizabeth, as it

1587. Feb. 8.

XIX.

was connected with their religion, and to the intrigues of the papists, eager to reduce England under the jurisdiction of the see of Rome. Mary was the last hope of the Romanists, and their extinction of hope was succeeded, not by despondency, but by rebellion.

The parliament did not separate without another effort on the part of the puritans to obtain relief, or more properly an establishment*. The house of commons also, not intimidated by its former defeat, revived the bill for farther reformation. A new book of common prayer was proposed for the sanction of parliamentary authority; and the reformed liturgy, while it contained a prescribed form to be used before and after the sermon, left to the officiating minister the liberty of varying it according to his discretion. The article in the creed on the descent of Christ into hell was altered, and three out of the thirty-nine articles established by Elizabeth were omitted. Besides the change in the liturgy, the bill provided for the total abolition of the ecclesiastical courts: the spiritual jurisdiction was to be placed in the hands of an assembly of ministers and elders in every county, which assembly was empowered to examine, approve, and present ministers to the several parishes for their sanction, and were to depose them, with consent of the bishop, for misconductt.

Some bold speeches were made in the house against the proceedings of the bishops, and particularly by Wentworth, who, unmindful of his

*

Bishop Warburton's Remarks on Neal's History of the Puritans.

† Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. c. 7.

1587.

Elizabeth.

former punishment, provoked its repetition. To- A. D. gether with some other members, he was sent to the Tower, at which act of severity the house was so greatly intimidated that the reading of the bill was postponed. The queen commanded the petition of the puritans and the bill before the house to be withdrawn, and sent a message to the commons by their speaker, that she was already settled in her religion, and would not begin again; that changes in religion were dangerous; that it was not reasonable for the commons to call in question the established faith, while others were endeavouring to overthrow it; that she had considered the objections, and found that they were frivolous; and that the platform of discipline, which the puritans wished to establish, was prejudicial to her crown and the peace of her government. So highly incensed was the queen with the attempts of the puritans, at the crisis of an expected invasion from Spain, that, in the customary act of general pardon passed at the end of the session, she commanded an exception to be made of such as committed any offence against the act of uniformity, or were convicted of publishing seditious books and pamphlets.

The convocation, contrary to its general usage, continued to sit after the parliament had risen, and granted a liberal subsidy to the queen in aid of the war against the popish powers of Europe. Impressed with a conviction that the church was in far greater danger from the puritans, the two houses addressed the queen, offering to maintain by disputation that the puritanical platform of discipline was absurd in theology, and dangerous in politics. Never was the government of Elizabeth and the