CHAP. witness of his dying moments. XVII. Unto the end, he ceased not to continue in that belief which he had always professed, and his last words proved the sincerity of his faith and the fervency of his hope: "I have not so lived that I am ashamed to live, neither am I afraid to die." The writer who has recorded the manner of his death has also subjoined an apostrophe, of which piety and taste equally forbid the suppression: "Be thou thankful to God for giving his church so worthy an instrument to his glory, and be careful to follow the good doctrine which he left behind him*." * Garbrand's Preface to Jewel's View of a Seditious Bull. CHAPTER XVIII. Different Sects of the Puritans.-Their Influence in the Council, and in the House of Commons.-First Admonition to Parliament by Field and Wilcox.-Second Admonition to Parliament by Cartwright.-Whitgift's Controversy with Cartwright.-First Presbyterian Congregation at Wandsworth.-Puritans attempt to join the foreign Congregations.-Prophesyings of the Clergy.-Parker's Death.— Grindal's Succession.-Refuses to suppress the Prophesyings, and is suspended.-Parliament meets, and enacts penal Statutes against Papists and Puritans. Further Dissensions.-Death of Grindal, and Succession of Whitgift.Revives the Discipline of the Church.-Puritans propose their Scheme of Discipline in Parliament, but it is rejected. -Speech of the Queen at the Prorogation of Parliament. THE puritans, having now separated from the church, formed divisions among themselves, and were spread in different branches. A sect, denominated Precisians by Parker, held that obedience to civil government was a thing indifferent, and some of this sect attempted to gain possession of the royal chapel, and to preach the court sermons in Lent. Another branch of the puritans were the Brownists, who derived their name from Robert Brown. He was educated in the university of Cambridge, and being a contemporary of Cartwright, embraced his opinions, and at last went farther than Cartwright in dissent. He possessed nothing of Cartwright's moderation; but, in a strain of bitter satire, inveighed against the hierarchy as VOL. II. H A. D. 1572. Elizabeth. XVIII. CHAP. antichristian, and not better than the mission of the priests of Baal. He had frequently suffered imprisonment on account of his daring violation of the ecclesiastical laws; but his relationship to the secretary Cecil as frequently skreened him from punishment. At length, believing himself conscientiously obliged to go out of the church as another Babylon, he left his country, and joined the congregation of Cartwright at Middleburgh: but this communion not reaching his ideas of spiritual perfection, he refined on Cartwright's scheme, and became the founder of a sect. His notions of Christian purity were developed in a treatise on reformation, which he printed at Middleburgh, and sent into England, and having dispersed as many copies as he thought necessary, he resolved to carry his speculations into practice by his personal exertions, and return to his native land. In the latter part of a long life*, he renounced his singularities, and accepted a benefice in the church; but his sect outlived the non-conformity of its founder, and was considered to be the most fanatical of all the modifications of puritanism. 1572. May 8. At the council-board the puritans had many friends, of whom the earl of Leicester was chief, and in the house of commons their cause was strenuously defended by sir Peter Wentworth. The lord-keeper opened the succeeding session of parliament with a recommendation from the queen, that the laws relating to ecclesiastical discipline might be duly executed; but the commons, instead of framing any laws to enforce conformity, per * He died in 1630. mitted the introduction of two bills to mitigate the the A. D. 1572. Elizabeth. XVIII. CHAP. reign of Elizabeth, was not to be uttered with impunity, even in the house of commons, and Wentworth was sent to the Tower. In the mean time, the late act for subscribing the articles was carried into execution throughout England, and about one hundred clergymen were deprived for refusing to subscribe*. The university of Cambridge was still a sanctuary for the puritans, and even the vigilance of Whitgift could not prevent them from showing a defiance of discipline. One Charke, a fellow of Peter-house, in a sermon before the university, maintained that there ought to be a parity of ministers in the church, and that the hierarchical orders were introduced into the church by Satan. Deering, a man of reputation for his preaching, both in the university and also at court, carried his invectives from prelacy to royalty †. Deprivation was inflicted on both these ministers; Charke by the authority of the university, and Deering by the court of high commission. The puritans, finding that the queen and the bishops were resolved not to concede either to persuasion or menace, turned their attention to the parliament. They had interested many members of the house of commons in their favour, and, to strengthen this interest, set forth their grievances in a treatise, entitled "An Admonition to the Parliament," to which were annexed, Beza's letter to the earl of Leicester, and Gualter's letter to * Strype's Annals, vol. ii. † In one of his sermons before the queen, he said, that when she was under persecution, her motto was, Tanquam ovis ;" but now it might be, "Tanquam indomita juvenca."-Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. c. 5. |