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of  CI)ttrd) 


EDITED   BY   THE 


RIGHT  KEY.  MAXDELL  CREIGHTON,  D.D. 

LATE   LORD   B1SHOI'  ul     LONDON 


THE 
BEFOEMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


r. 

HISTORY 


OF   THE 


REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


BY 


GEORGE     G.    PERRY,    M.A. 

LATE  ARCHDEACON   OF  STOW  ; 
CANON  OF  LINCOLN  AND  KECTOR  OF  WADDINGTON 


SEVENTH  IMPRESSION 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    AND    CO. 

39   PATERNOSTER   ROW,    LOXDOX 

NEW   YORK   AND    BOMBAY 

1903 

All   rights   reserved 


PEE FACE. 


IN  this  little  volume  an  attempt  is  made  to  give  a  clear 
and  connected  account  of  the  religious  and  ecclesiastical 
changes  through  which  the  Church  of  England  passed 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  order  to  preserve  this 
special  character  of  the  book,  many  aspects  of  the  Refor- 
mation, and  of  the  history  of  the  Church  during  this 
period,  are  scarcely  touched  upon.  My  endeavour  has 
been  to  keep  steadily  in  view  the  progress  of  the 
National  Church  from  its  state  of  bondage  to  Rome,  and 
its  encumbrance  with  many  superstitious  doctrines  and 
practices,  to  the  commencement  of  a  higher  life,  the 
acquisition  of  Catholic  and  scriptural  formularies,  and 
the  enjoyment  of  greater  freedom.  Only  such  historical 
facts  as  are  directly  connected  with  this  religious  pro- 
gress are  here  given.  Ecclesiastical  history  may  be 
written  in  many  different  ways,  and  it  is  not  every 


vi  PREFACE 

period  which  is  susceptible  of  such  a  treatment  as  this. 
But  the  Reformation  was  a  great  religious  crisis  in  the 
life  of  the  Church,  and  seems  to  demand  a  special  treat- 
ment. The  formation  and  growth  of  the  Formularies 
with  which  English  Churchmen  are  familiar,  must  ever 
be  a  subject  of  peculiar  interest.  It  is  hoped  also  that 
the  simple  narrative  of  the  religious  struggles  and 
changes  through  which  the  Church  of  England  passed 
during  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years,  may  serve  to 
remove  the  delusion,  still  too  widely  spread,  that  the 
Church  of  England  is  a  body  which  was  called  into 
existence  by  some  Act  of  Parliament  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  We  may  here  see  the  National  Church — not 
without  many  weaknesses,  drawbacks,  and  errors — slowly 
and  painfully  shaking  herself  free  from  the  obstructions 
which  had  long  vexed  her,  and  at  length  reaching  a 
region  of  purer  light. 

/ 

As  no  references  are  given  in  the  body  of  the 
work  it  may  be  desirable  to  state  the  principal  sources 
from  which  it  is  compiled.  These  are: — Strype's 
'  Annals  of  the  Reformation '  and  '  Lives  of  Archbishops 
Cranmer  and  Parker  ' ;  Collier's  '  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory ' ;  Burnet's  *  History  of  the  Reformation  ' ;  Heylin's 
'  Ecclesia  Restaurata  ' ;  Wilkins's  '  Concilia  Magnas 
Britannite ' ;  Cardwell's  '  Synodalia  :  ;  '  Documentary 


PREFACE  vir 

Annals '  and  '  Two  Liturgies  of  Edward  VI. ' ;  Ellis's 
'  Original  Letters ' ;  Amos  '  '  Statutes  of  Reformation 
Parliament ' ;  Churton's  '  Papers  in  British  Magazine  ' ; 
'  The  Phoenix '  (containing  an  account  of  the  English 
Reformers  abroad) ;  Archaeologia,  vol.  xviii.  ;  the 
'  Original  Letters "  and  '  Zurich  Letters '  (published  by 
the  Parker  Society  )  ;  the  '  Parker  Correspondence  ' ; 
'  Suppression  of  the  Monasteries '  (Camden  Society)  ; 
<  Formularies  of  Faith  in  the  Reign  of  Henry  VIII.' ; 
Camden's  '  Life  and  Reign  of  Elizabeth ' ;  the  '  Eliza- 
bethan Formularies '  (Parker  Society) ;  Hardwick  on 
the  Articles ;  Foxe's  '  Martyrology  ; '  and  numerous  other 
works. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    L. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

PAOE 

Causes  of  the  Reformation — 1.  Religious;  2.  Political ;  3.  Social 
— Character  of  the  Reformation — National  rights  of  the 
Church  of  England  ....  .  1 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    REFORMATION    PARLIAMENT   AND    CONVOCATION, 

15^9-35. 

Fall  of  Cardinal  Wolsey — Wolsey  inaugurator  of  radical 
reform — Three  anti-clerical  bills — Opposition  of  Bishop 
Fisher — The  first  blow  against  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope 
— Complaints  of  the  Convocation — Petition  of  members 
of  Parliament  to  the  Pope — Proclamation  against  bulls 
from  Rome — Royal  supremacy  voted  by  the  clergy — The 
grievances  of  the  Commons  against  the  ordinaries — Answers 
of  Convocation — The  '  Submission  of  the  clergy ' — Convoca- 
tion petitions  against  papal  annates — Statute  for  restraint 
of  appeals — Subsequent  modification  of  vhe  statute — The 
'  Consecration '  statute — Visitatorial  rights  given  to  the 
Crown — Supremacy  Act — First-fruits  and  tenths  given  to 
the  Crown — Vote  of  the  clergy  against  jurisdiction  of  the 
Pope 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE    ADVOCATES    OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

PAOH 

General  desire  for  change  in  the  religious  status — Cambridge 
reformers — Hugh  Latimer — His  letter  to  the  king — Made 
bishop  of  Worcester — Dr.  Barnes — John  Fryth — William 
Tyndale — His  translation  of  the  New  Testament — Archbishop 
Granmer — Thomas  Crumwell — Affair  of  the  Nun  of  Kent — 
The  oath  in  the  Succession  Act — Condemnation  of  More  and 
Fisher— The  Court  divines— The  first  English  Bible— First 
reforming  primer — Crumwell  appointed  vicar-general  .  ,  18 

CHAPTER   IV. 

FALL    OF    THE    MONASTERIES,     1536-9. 

Growth  and  character  of  the  monastic  S3rstem — Decay  of  the 
monasteries — Their  suppression  resolved  upon — The  passing  of 
the  Act — Commissioners  to  arrange  for  the  demolition — The 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace — Disastrous  effect  of  it  on  the  greater 
monasteries— Cruelties  of  the  dissolution — Amount  of  spoil 
obtained — Its  appropriation — Transfer  of  the  abbey  lands 
to  laymen — Evils  resulting  from  this— Act  to  give  the  king 
chantries  and  collegiate  property — Hard  case  of  the  ejected 
monks  and  nuns — Cruelties  of  the  period  .  .  .  ,30 

CHAPTER  V. 

RELIGIOUS    PROGRESS    DURING    THE    REIGN    OF 
HENRY   VIII.,    1536-47. 

The  ancient  Church  services —  Ignorance  of  the  people — Bishop 
Latimer's  sermon  to  the  Convocation — The  Ten  Articles — 
Protest  against  proposed  Council  of  Mantua — Diminution  of 
holydays — First  royal  injunctions — Measures  taken  to  in- 
tiuence  the  people — The  making  of  the  book, '  The  Institu- 
tion of  a  Christian  Man' — Second  English  Bible — The 


CONTENTS 


PAUB 


'Great  Bible '—The  injunctions  of  1538— Rifling  of  the 
tomb  of  St.  Thomas — The  king  excommunicated — Attempt 
to  procure  a  union  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Church 
of  England— Effects  of  this  attempt  on  the  king— The  Six 
Article  law — Obsequiousness  of  Cranmer  and  the  clergy- 
Bloodthirsty  proceedings  of  the  latter  part  of  the  reign — 
Policy  of  the  anti-reforming  party — Formation  of  the 
•  Erudition  of  any  Christian  Man  '—The  king's  primer— The 
liturgical  revision — Bishop  Gardiner — Thomas  Crumwell— 
Character  of  the  religious  history  of  the  period 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    UNSETTLING    CAUSED    BY   THE    ACCESSION 
OF   EDWARD   VI.,    1547-9. 

Frastian  policy  of  King  Edward's  council — The  check  of  Convo- 
cation— First  royal  visitation — The  homilies — The  first 
Injunctions  of  Edward  VI. — Gardiner  and  Bonner  committed 
to  prison — First  English  communion  office — The  proclama- 
tion for  the  new  communion  office — Violent  legislation — 
Proclamations  of  the  year  1548 — Unauthorised  services — 
Wild  opinions 60 


CHAPTER  VII. 

TITE    FIRST    ENGLISH    PRAYER-BOOK,    1549-50. 

Cranmer's  invitations  to  foreign  reformers — Amount  of  influence 
of  foreign  reformers  on  English  Prayer-book — The  book 
mainly  an  adaptation  of  the  ancient  offices — Great  value  of 
the  book — Approved  by  Convocation — Established  by  law— 
The  preface — Unpleasing  to  the  more  violent  reformers — To 
the  common  people — Attempts  to  give  the  book  the  cha- 
racter of  the  old  services — Second  royal  visitation — Bishop 
Bonner  deprived — The  first  reformed  ordinal—  Order  to 
destroy  the  old  service-books — Altars  ordered  to  be  re- 
moved .  -  69 


xii  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

THE    DOCTRINAL    CONFESSION    AND    MANUALS    OF 
THIS     REIGN,    1547-53. 

PAOB 

Cranmer's  homilies — The  Lutheran  catechism — Cranmer's 
treatise  on  the  Eucharist — Formation  of  the  Forty-two 
Articles — Poynet's  catechism — The  primer  of  1553 — Writings 
of  reformers  ....  80 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    SECOND    ENGLISH    PEA YER- BOOK,    1552-3. 

Heformatio  legiim  ecclesiasticarum — Cranmer  and  Ridley  satis- 
fied with  first  Prayer-book — John  Hooper — Review  of  the 
first  Prayer-book — The  second  communion  office — The  Black 
Kubrick — Second  Act  of  Uniformity  .  .  .  86 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE    LEGISLATION    UNDER    EDWARD    VI.,    1547-53. 

Legislation  of  the  first  Parliament — Act  to  give  the  king  free 
chapels  and  chantries — Marriage  of  clergy  legalised — Act 
for  securing  tithes — Act  for  the  removal  of  all  images  and 
pictures — Legislation  of  1552 — The  Holydays  Act — Con- 
fusion between  sacred  and  secular  things  .  .  .  .95 

CHAPTER  XI. 

CHURCH    SPOLIATIONS    AND    MORALS,    1547-53. 

Church  spoliation  not  peculiar  to  the  Reformation  era — Various 
forms  of  church  spoliation — The  building  of  Somerset  House 
— The  commissioners  under  the  Act  for  granting  colleges,  &c., 
to  the  king— Seizure  of  episcopal  manors — Spoliation  of  bene- 
fices— Spoliation  of  churches — King  Edward's  benefactions 
^Burning  of  Joan  Boucher-  The  morality  of  the  period  .  101 


CONTENTS  xiii 

CHAPTER   XII. 

THE    FIRST    MEASURES    OF    RETALIATION,    1553-4. 

PAOB 

Change  by  the  accession  of  Mary— Character  of  the  Queen— 
.Release  of  the  imprisoned  bishops — Indifference  of  the 
people — Resistance  of  the  Parliament — The  Convocation  of 
Canterbury — Exercise  of  the  royal  supremacy — Gardiner's 
policy — Measures  against  the  reforming  bishops  .  .  .113 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    SPANISH    REVENGE,    1554-8. 

The  Spanish  divines — Bartholomeo  de  Carranza — Pedro  de 
Soto—  Villagarcia — Alphonso  de  Castro — Arrival  of  the  papal 
legate  and  absolution  of  the  nation — The  Queen's  deter- 
mination to  burn — The  first  commissioners — Hooper  and 
Rogers — Rowland  Taylor — John  Bradford  and  Laurence 
Saunders — Bishop  Farrar — Sermon  of  Alphonso  de  Castro — 
The  bishops  checked  for  slackness — Ridley  and  Latimer — 
Archbishop  Cranmer — His  recantations — Retracts  his  recant- 
ations— His  execution — His  character — Archdeacon  Philpot 
— The  bishops  driven  on  unwillingly — Lay  officers  shrink 
from  acting — Amount  of  the  sufferers — Reformation  ad- 
vanced by  the  persecution — The  Queen's  benefactions — 
Misery  of  the  period  .  ....  .  120 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  ENGLISH  REFORMERS  ABROAD,  1553-8. 

Reformed  congregations  in  England — The  reformers  who  es- 
caped—  The  English  service  at  Frankfort — Others  invited  to 
Frankfort — Stipulation  for  use  of  the  English  Prayer-book — 
John  Knox — Dispute  as  to  the  English  Prayer-book — Calvin's 
opinion  of  the  Prayer-book — Dr.  Cox — Knox  banished — New 
dissension  on  discipline — The  Frankfort  congregation  be- 
comes Presbyterian — The  other  English  settlements — Action 
of  the  Geneva  body — Sp»dt  of  the  reformers  who  returned  .  142 


xiv  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   RECOVERY    OF    THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND, 

1558-9. 

PAQH 

Queen  Elizabeth's  religious  policy — Proclamation  about  preach- 
ing— The  recommendations  given  to  Cecil — Elizabeth's  own 
religious  views — The  question  of  the  bringing  back  the  re- 
formed settlement — The  commission  to  review  the  Prayer- 
book— Sir  W.  Cecil's  questions — The  proviso  in  the  Act  of 
Uniformity — The  meeting  of  Parliament — Supremacy  Act — 
— The  Act  of  Uniformity — The  Elizabethan  Prayer-book — 
The  Latin  Prayer-book  .  .  .  .  .  .  .151 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE    BISHOPS    AND    CLERGY. 

The  difficulty  of  tinding  clergy  for  the  reformed  church — The 
Romish  bishops  and  clergy — The  Westminster  disputation — 
The  bishops  before  the  Queen — Their  treatment — The  clergy 
who  refused  the  Prayer-book— The  new  bishops — Archbishop 
Parker — His  consecration — Consecration  of  other  bishops — 
Poverty  of  the  sees — Ordinations  of  clergy — Ordination  of 
readers — Arrangements  for  lay  readers — Scrupulousness  of 
the  new  bishops  ....  .165 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   DISCIPLINE,    1559-71. 

Queen  Elizabeth's  injunctions — Clerical  matrimony — Images  in 
churches — Explanation  of  the  royal  supremacy— Prayer  for 
thedead — Visitation  of  the  commissioners — Bernard  Gilpin — 
The  'Declaration' — The  bishops'  '  Interpretations  ' — Articles 
and  declaration— The  bishops  not  favourable  to  discipline — 
Debate  on  ceremonies  in  the  Convocation — The  Queen's 
letter  to  the  primate — Archbishop  Parker's  '  Advertisements  ' 
— Opposition  of  some  of  the  clergy — Reply  of  the  London 
ministers— Growth  and  ill-effects  of  the  controversy— The 
difficulties  through  which  the  church  advanced  .  .  .176 


CONTENTS  xv 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    DOCTRINAL    CONFESSION,    1563-71. 

PAGH 

The  doctrinal  confession  not  restored  at  first — Review  of  the 
Forty-two  Articles — The  articles  before  Convocation — The 
Queen's  ratification — The  clause  in  the  twentieth  article — 
Attempt  to  enforce  subscription  by  law — The  Act  of  1571 — 
The  articles  finally  reviewed  by  the  Convocation — Character 
of  the  subscription — The  new  homilies — Completion  of  the 
Reformation  settlement  .  192 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

Protests  against  Rome  in  earlier  days — At  length  successful 
— The  cause  of  obloquy  against  the  Church  of  England — 
Defenders  of  the  English  church — Bishop  Jewel — Richard 
Hooker — Dean  Field — Archbishop  Bramhall — The  Protestant 
defence — William  Chillingworth — Varieties  of  doctrine  no 
just  reproach  to  the  Reformation — The  reformed  church 
unfairly  censured  for  irregularities — Difficulty  arising  from 
the  character  of  Elizabeth — The  Reformation  not  chargeable 
with  the  cruelties  exercised  towards  Roman  Catholics — Its 
effects  favourable  to  art  and  literature — Its  effects  on  the 
Roman  church 199 

INDEX  .  213 


HISTOEY 


OF   THE 


EEFORMATION    IN    ENGLAND. 


CHAPTER    I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

IN  the  great  ecclesiastical  revolution  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  Church  of  England  reached  at  length  that 
deliverance  from  the  fetters  of  Rome  for  which  she 
had  been  labouring  and  struggling,  at  various  times, 
through  many  centuries.  Having  established  and 
cleared  her  national  rights,  she  was  then  able  to  enter 
upon  a  course  of  reformation  and  improvement  in  accord- 
ance with  the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  primi- 
tive Church.  But  this  was  not  done  at  once,  nor 
without  convulsions,  reactions,  errors,  and  harsh  dealing. 
It  would  indeed  be  impossible  to  find  in  all  history 
a  genuine  record  of  any  great  revolution,  either  in 
Church  or  State,  wherein  all  the  agents  had  proceeded 
upon  pure,  disinterested  motives — which  was  entirely 
uncontarninated  by  ambition,  self-seeking,  covetousnesa, 

C.  H.  B 


2  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

or  any  of  the  lower  motives  of  human  actions.  Certainly 
an  exception  to  this  cannot  be  claimed  in  favour  of  the 
English  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century,  whether 
we  look  at  the  usurping  and  tyrannical  King,  the  timid 
and  too  subservient  clergy,  or  the  grasping  and  un- 
principled laity.  Yet  reflection  shows  that  there  were 
advantages  even  in  these  evil  features.  Nothing  less 
than  the  bold,  overbearing  temper  of  the  King  would 
have  been  adequate  to  head  the  movement  which 
brought  about  the  emancipation  of  England  from  the 
tyranny  of  Rome.  A  bolder  struggle  for  ancient  rights 
on  the  part  of  the  clergy  might  have  led  to  the  utter 
apostasy  of  the  State ;  and  the  covetous  greed  with  which 
the  laymen  fell  upon  ecclesiastical  property  gave  a  sta- 
bility to  the  work  of  change  which  it  could  not  probably 
have  acquired  in  any  other  way. 

In  estimating  the  immediate  causes  which  brought 
about  the  great  change  which  passed  over  the  Church 
Causes  of  of  England  at  this  period,  we  may  perceive 

theRefor-  a 

mation.        that   they  were  ot  various   character,     borne 

1.  Religious 

causes  ot  the  causes  were  religious,  some  political, 
some  social.  Of  the  first  sort  was  the  strong  and  faith- 
ful attachment  to  the  writings  and  teaching  of  John 
Wycliffe  and  the  Lollards,  cherished  by  many  persons, 
chiefly  in  humble  positions,  in  spite  of  the  persecu- 
tions to  which  they  had  been  subjected.  The  Lollard 
opinions  had  survived  and  been  handed  down,  though, 
as  Lord  Herbert  observes,  '  in  so  obscure  and  perplexed 
a  manner  that  they  served  rather  to  show  errors  than 
to  rectify  them.'  Their  preservation  had  the  effect, 
however,  of  making  many  dissatisfied  with  the  teaching 
then  prevalent  in  the  Church,  and  ready  to  welcome  a 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

doctrinal  change.  The  holders  of  these  opinions  were 
more  or  less  persecuted  by  the  bishops  in  the  earlier 
days  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  persecution  had  its  usual 
effect  of  increasing  zeal  for  the  persecuted  opinions. 
Then,  in  aid  of  this  somewhat  ignorant  disaffection  to 
the  prevailing  teaching,  came  the  gradual  leakage  into 
England  of  the  opinions  of  Luther.  Luther's  '  Babylon- 
ish Captivity '  was  published  in  1520,  and  in  March 
1521  we  find  Archbishop  Warham  writing  to  Wolsey 
to  tell  him  that  Oxford  was  greatly  infected  with  the 
heresies  of  Luther,  and  that  he  feared  Cambridge  was 
in  no  better  plight.  The  Cardinal  determined  to  make 
a  holocaust  of  the  heretical  books,  and  it  appears  that  a 
very  large  number  of  them  were  brought  together  and 
burned  at  St.  Paul's  (Aug.  1,  1521).  The  King's  book 
against  Luther  quickly  followed  (Aug.  25),  and  the 
interest  excited  by  this  unusual  proceeding,  the  daring 
reply  of  Luther,  and  the  gross  invective  of  Sir  Thomas 
More,  all  tended  to  bring  this  controversy  into  marked 
prominence.  There  are  indications  that  Cardinal  Wol- 
sey, though  compelled  officially  to  act  against  them, 
was  yet  somewhat  of  a  favourer  of  the  Lutheran  views. 
He  could  not  be  induced  cordially  to  approve  of  the 
King's  book,  and  the  divines  whom  he  brought  from 
Cambridge  to  be  members  of  his  new  college  at  Oxford 
were,  most  of  them,  holders  of  Lutheran  opinions.  A 
vast  stimulus  was  given  to  the  reforming  sentiment  by 
the  publication  in  1526  at  Worms,  on  the  Rhine,  of 
William  Tyndale's  translation  into  English  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  bishops  were  immediately  on  the 
watch  to  prevent  these  books  from  being  brought  into 
England ;  but  very  large  numbers  eluded  their  vigilance, 

B  2 


4  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

and  in  1527  it  was  thought  necessary  to  have  a  public 
burning  in  Cheapside  of  all  the  copies  which  could  be 
found.  At  the  same  time  a  large  number  of  reforming 
tracts  and  books  were  written  by  English  refugees 
sheltered  abroad,  and  imported  into  England.  Of  these 
the  '  Supplication  of  Beggars,'  written  by  Simon  Fish, 
and  brought  into  England  in  1528,  fell  in  exactly  with 
the  sentiment,  now  becoming  very  prevalent,  as  to  the 
gross  abuses  upheld  by  ecclesiastics  in  connection  with 
the  doctrine  of  Purgatory.  In  this  witty  but  scurrilous 
composition  the  whole  of  the  fables  about  Purgatory, 
the  efficacy  of  masses,  and  the  value  of  indulgences  are 
held  up  to  ridicule ;  and  so  popular  was  it  that  Sir 
Thomas  More  thought  it  necessary  at  once  to  answer  it 
by  his  '  Supplication  of  Souls.'  The  effect  of  this  and 
the  other  books  of  a  strongly  reforming  character  dis- 
persed through  the  country  was  that,  before  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Reformation  Parliament  of  November 
1529,  which  is  the  true  beginning  of  the  English 
Reformation,  public  opinion  was  thoroughly  leavened, 
and  prepared  for  considerable  changes  in  the  religious 
status. 

Probably,  however,  the  religious  forces  at  work 
would  not  have  been  sufficient  to  produce  important 
2  Political  results,  nor  strong  enough  to  stand  the  test  of 
causes  a  repressive  persecution,  had  they  not  been 
supplemented  by  others  of  a  political  and  social  cha- 
racter. Among  the  chief  of  the  political  causes  was,  of 
course,  the  divorce  case  of  the  King  and  the  introduc- 
tion into  power  and  influence,  through  Anne  Boleyn,  of 
a  party  whose  interests  were  staked  on  taking  up  and 
maintaining  a  position  hostile  to  the  Pope  and  the 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

Emperor.  Henry  VIII.  had  always  been  eager  to  assert 
liis  supremacy  over  ecclesiastical  persons,  as  he  had 
shown  in  1516  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Standish.  Later  in  his 
reign  he  had  been  in  treaty  with  the  King  of  France 
to  bring  about  the  liberation  of  both  Churches  from 
Romish  control.  When,  therefore,  he  was  harassed 
above  measure  by  the  duplicity  and  tergiversation  of 
Rome  in  the  divorce  case,  he  was  well  disposed  to  throw 
the  weight  of  his  authority  on  the  side  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, though  in  his  religious  views  he  in  no  way  varied 
from  the  prevalent  Church  teaching.  A  man  of  great 
abilities,  and  of  a  strongly  autocratic  temper,  Henry 
was  fully  cognisant  of  the  rights  which  had  fre- 
quently been  exercised  by  the  Kings  of  England,  and 
was  perfectly  determined  to  exert  them.  The  proceed- 
ings of  the  Legatine  Court  at  Blackfriars,  which  took 
place  during  the  summer  of  1529,  and  proved  clearly 
to  him  that  the  Pope  was  playing  with  him,  did  not 
tend  to  make  his  temper  more  conciliatory  towards  the 
Church  when  Parliament  met. 

There  were  also  social  causes  strongly  at  work  in 
England  at  this  period  which  were  leading  towards  a 
s.  social  change  in  the  ecclesiastical  position.  It  is 
evident  that  there  was  a  most  bitter  feeling 
prevalent  between  clergy  and  laity.  The  vexations  of 
the  Church  courts;  their  processes,  where  scarce  even 
the  semblance  of  justice  was  preserved;  the  heavy  fines 
inflicted  by  them,  and  the  inordinate  use  of  the  weapon 
of  excommunication ;  the  immunities  of  the  clergy, 
defended  by  numberless  Acts  of  Parliament ;  the  absorp- 
tion of  almost  all  valuable  State  offices  by  Churchmen ; 
the  luxurious  pomp  of  Wolsey  and  others,  while  the 


6  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

country  was  covered  with  gibbets  bearing  the  bodies  of 
poor  wretches  executed  simply  for  the  crime  of  begging 
—all  these  things  tended  to  produce  a  hatred  of  Church- 
men in  the  minds  of  the  laity.  Many  of  those  who  had 
not  imbibed  any  of  the  reforming  religious  opinions  had 
ceased  to  care  about  the  old  attractions  of  the  Church. 
Pilgrimages,  relics,  winking  Madonnas,  and  bleeding 
saints  were  a  subject  of  ridicule.  Erasmus,  in  his 
'  Colloquies  '  and  '  Encomium  Morise,'  represents  to  us 
the  sentiment  of  this  class,  who  soon  came  to  be  known 
by  the  name  of  the  Ribands.  The  manifold  grievances 
which  the  laity  had,  or  thought  they  had,  against  the 
Church  and  Churchmen  found  expression  in  the  Par- 
liament of  1529. 

And,  besides  these  more  vulgar  complainants,  there 
was  a  knot  of  superior  men,  not  desiring  a  change  of 
intellectual  religion,  nor  even  caring  much  about  an  im- 
reformers  provement  in  Papal  relations,  but  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  gross  ignorance  which  prevailed 
among  the  clergy,  and  earnestly  desiring  at  almost  any 
cost  a  reformation  in  learning.  Of  this  coterie  Cardinal 
Wolsey  was  the  patron,  and  probably  a  sincere  one. 
Erasmus  was  a  valuable  ally,  rather  from  his  love  of 
learning  than  from  any  zeal  for  truth.  Sir  Thomas 
More  and  Bishop  Fisher  were  members,  though  scon 
frightened  away  by  their  dread  of  heresy;  but  the 
most  valuable  and  most  sincere  of  them  all  was  Dean 
Colet,  too  soon  lost  to  the  Church.  Archbishop  War- 
ham  and  Bishop  Foxe  of  Winchester  may  also  be  fairly 
described  as  members  of  this  band  of  educational 
reformers.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in  1529,  when 
our  History  commences,  a  number  of  causes  were  at 


INTRODUCTORY  y 

work  to  prepare  the  ground  for  some  considerable 
change  in  the  condition  of  the  Church.  A  vast  mass  of 
superstitious  practices  and  strange  semi-pagan  teach- 
ing, had,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  gathered  round  the 
great  doctrines  of  Christianity.  The  remarkable  work 
of  Thomas  Gascoigne  l  exhibits  to  us  the  religion  of 
that  period  in  a  frightfully  corrupted  state.  Men  in 
England  might  not  be  able  as  yet  to  reach  the  exact 
standard  of  theological  truth,  but  there  were  many 
who  had  sufficient  moral  sense  to  be  repelled  by  gross 
abuses  and  manifest  impostures,  and  light  was  gradu- 
ally streaming  into  the  land  from  various  quarters. 

In  the  changes  and  convulsions  of  the  period  there 
were  divers  unjust  and    evil   things  done,  and  many 

Character  characters  damaged;  but,  upon  the  whole,  pro- 
of the  Re-  .  .  .  '  ,  . 

formation  gress  was  maintained  towards  the  perception 
of  the  true  position  of  the  Church  of  England,  a  purer 
doctrinal  standard,  a  pruning  away  of  the  superstitious 
accessories  of  worship,  an  open  Bible,  and  greater 
liberty  of  thought.  In  reaching  these  things  the  con- 
tinuity of  the  National  Church  was  not  interfered  with, 
the  succession  of  bishops  was  not  broken,  nor  did  the 
sacraments  cease  to  be  administered.  The  process  was 
gradual — subject  indeed  to  many  checks  and  vicissi- 
tudes ;  yet  it  never  took  the  form  of  a  revolution,  but 
always  maintained  a  conservative  character. 

It  was,  in  fact,  but  the  continuation  and  successful 
development  of  the  ancient  struggle  and  contention  of 

1  Thomas  Gascoigne,  a  leading  divine  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
composed  a  '  Theological  Dictionary,'  great  part  of  which,  under  the 
name  of  Loci  e  Libra  Veritatum,  has  lately  been  published  by  the 
Clarendon  Press,  with  an  able  preface  by  Mr.  T.  Rogers,  M.P. 


8  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

the  Church  of  the  land.  The  English  Reformation  began 
with  the  assertion  of  the  true  position  of  the  National 
National  Church  as  regards  Rome.  In  times  of  weak- 
c'hurchofhe  ness  an(^  ignorance  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  having 
England  ^e  prestige  of  the  imperial  city,  had  contrived 
to  persuade  Europe  that  it  was  his  mission  to  be  the 
autocrat  over  all  the  Churches.  To  this  the  English 
Church  before  the  Conquest  had  yielded  but  a  partial 
assent.  But  the  Norman  dynasty  brought  England 
more  distinctly  into  the  European  family,  and  her 
Churchmen  adopted  the  prevailing  tone  of  subjection 
to  the  inordinate  claims  of  Rome.  There  were,  how- 
ever, frequent  protests  against  this.  The  founder  of 
the  dynasty,  William  I.,  claimed  for  himself  a  com- 
plete ecclesiastical  supremacy.  He  refused  to  do  homage 
to  the  Pope  for  the  realm  of  England,  on  the  ground 
that  his  predecessors  had  never  done  so,  and  he  would 
not  allow  Papal  Bulls  to  run  in  his  kingdom  without  his 
approval  first  obtained.  A  successor,  Henry  II.,  brought 
about  at  Clarendon  the  same  assertion  of  the  rights  of 
the  National  Church  as  was  afterwards  embodied  in  the 
Statute  of  Appeals.  This  was  repeated  by  King  John, 
who  told  the  Pope  that  l  his  prelates  in  England  were 
sufficiently  furnished  with  a  full  provision  of  all  learn- 
ing, and  he  had  no  need  to  go  a-begging  to  foreigners 
for  justice  and  judgment.'  During  the  reigns  of 
Edward  III.  and  Richard  II.  no  less  than  six  Acts  of 
Parliament  asserted  the  illegality  of  the  interfei'ence  of 
the  Pope  with  the  temporalties  of  the  English  Church ; 
and  when,  in  the  next  century,  an  overbearing  Pope 
(Martin  V.)  demanded  of  the  Crown  the  repeal  of  these 
obnoxious  statutes,  the  Commons  replied  by  presenting 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

a  petition  to  the  King  praying  him  to  uphold  the 
liberties  of  the  Church  of  England  against  Papal  aggres- 
sions. The  legislation,  therefore,  of  the  Reformation 
Parliament  was  not  of  altogether  a  novel  character,  but 
only  the  revival  of  that  which,  for  somewhat  more  than 
a  century,  during  the  troubles  and  weakness  of  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  had  been  in  abeyance. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   REFORMATION   PARLIAMENT   AND   CONVOCATION. 

1529-1535. 

WHEN  the  Parliament  met  on  November  3,  1529,  all 
men's  minds  were  full  of  the  fall  of  Cardinal  Wolsey. 
Fan  of  Shortly  before  this  the  King  had  caused  the 
Great  Seal  to  be  taken  from  him  by  the  Dukes 


of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  had  seized  his  costly  goods  and 
furniture,  and  sent  him  in  disgrace  to  Esher.  The 
Cardinal's  influence  had  been  so  great  that  this  was 
almost  equivalent  to  a  revolution.  There  was  a  baseness 
in  men's  characters  at  this  time,  and  a  mean  subservi- 
ence to  the  King's  will,  which  were  now  remarkably 
displayed.  The  Cardinal  had  been  a  great  minister, 
with  many  excellent  qualities  ;  but  he,  too,  had  shown 
a  sycophantic  deference  to  Henry's  whims,  and  had 
behaved  very  badly  to  Queen  Catherine  in  the  divorce 
case.  Now  the  same  evil  spirit  was  displayed  towards 
himself.  Sir  Thomas  More  thought  it  consistent  with 
.his  high  office  as  Chancellor  to  inveigh  against  the 


10  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

fallen  man  as  a  '  rotten  sheep,'  and  a  Bill  of  frivolous 
indictment  was  brought  into  the  House  of  Lords  against 
him.  Wolsey  passes  from  the  scene  eating  his  great 
heart  in  misery,  at  the  loss  of  royal  favour,  and  dying 
wretchedly  at  Leicester  Abbey  (November  30,  1530). 
But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  Wolsev,  the 

v     1 

great  Churchman,  was  the  inaugurator  of  that  bold 
Woisey,  in-  P°lic7  of  dealing  with  the  old  religious  founda- 
ot  radical  tions,  with  a  view  to  employing  their  revenues 
for  more  useful  purposes,  which  afterwards  ran 
into  so  much  riot  and  excess.  He  procured  from  the 
Pope  two  Bulls  for  suppressing  monasteries,  in  order 
to  endow  his  Colleges  of  Oxford  and  Ipswich,  and  two 
other  Bulls  (1528,  1529)  for  suppressing  monasteries 
for  the  foundation  of  bishoprics.  The  latter  Bull  seems 
to  give  the  Cardinal  a  general  power  of  using  any  or 
all  abbeys  for  the  erection  of  sees,  and  it  is  apparently 
on  this  ground  that  a  paper  was  drawn  up  by  the  King 
specifying  twenty-one  new  sees  which  it  would  be 
desirable  to  found  out  of  monasteries.  Wolsey  was 
therefore  the  beginner  of  the  vigorous  attack  on  the  old 
ecclesiastical  system  which  was  now  commenced. 

Immediately  on  the  opening  of  Parliament  three 
Bills  directed  against  the  clergy  were  brought  in  and 
Three  anti-  passed  by  the  Commons.  The  first  of  these 
Bins  regulated  the  fees  payable  in  the  Church 

courts  for  the  probate  of  wills.  The  second  fixed  the 
amount  which  might  be  claimed  for  mortuary  fees.  The 
third  was  directed  against  pluralities,  non-residence,  and 
clerical  farming.  These  Bills,  when  brought  into  the 
Lords,  excited  great  indignation  among  the  bishops. 
The  most  prominent  among  these  was  Fisher,  Bishop  of 


REFORMATION  PARLIAMENT  AND  CONVOCATION  1  1 

Rochester,  a  man  of  saintly  life  but  somewhat  narrow 
mind.  He  had  been  confessor  to  Queen  Catherine  and 
opposition  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  divorce.  He  now 

01  Bishop  -ii 

Fisher  attacked  the  proceedings  of  the  Commons  with 
vehemence  and  accused  them  of  wanting  to  imitate 
the  heretics  of  Bohemia.  What  followed  clearly  indi- 
cated the  feeling  of  the  laymen  towards  the  ecclesi- 
astics. The  Commons,  headed  by  their  Speaker,  com- 
plained to  the  King.  The  Bishop  was  sent  for  by 
Henry,  and  the  Archbishop  and  six  other  bishops  were 
bidden  to  accompany  him.  He  was  called  on  for  a 
public  apology,  and  made  one,  which  certainly  looks 
very  feeble,  and  which  the  Commons  freely  stigmatised 
as  a  'blind  excuse.'  As  in  the  House  of  Lords  the 
spiritual  peers  were  in  a  majority,  the  Bills  sent  up 
from  the  Commons  were  not  able  to  pass  until  they  had 
been  considerably  modified  ;  and  the  Bill  against  plurali- 
ties, which  made  it  penal  to  obtain  a  license  from  Eome, 
was  absolutely  condemned.  But  at  that  period  the 
King  had  great  power  in  controlling  the  action  of 
Parliament,  and  he  was  bent  on  obtaining  the  passing 
of  this  Bill,  the  importance  of  which  he  clearly  saw. 
He  called  a  meeting  of  eight  members  of  each  House. 
There  was  '  sore  debating  '  (as  the  chronicler  Hall  tells 
us),  but  the  bishops  were  at  last  obliged  to  yield  and 
the  Bill  passed. 

It  was  the  first  blow  struck  against  the  Pope's 
supremacy  at  this  time,  and  was  conceived  exactly  in 
The  first  the  spirit  of  the  Provisors  and  Prasmuniro 

blow  against     o 

the  supre-      fetatutes  of  the  fourteenth  century.    It  enacted 

inacy  of  the  " 

heavy   fines    against   any    clerk   who    should 


obtain  from  Rome  a  license  for  holding   benefices  in 


12  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

plurality,  or  for  non-residence,  and  the  sequestration  of 
the  benefices  obtained  under  such  license.  Naturally 
so  rude  an  interference  of  the  lay  power  provoked  the 
complaints  clergy  of  the  Convocation  of  Canterbury.  They 
vocation  complain  that,  in  spite  of  the  liberties  con- 
ceded to  them  by  ancient  charters,  they  are  much 
oppressed  by  the  uncertain  action  of  the  Statute  of 
Prasmunire,  and  that  the  law  just  passed,  without  their 
being  consulted,  was  a  grievous  act  of  tyranny,  the 
authors  of  which  deserved  excommunication.  The  first 
session  of  this  Parliament  terminated,  leaving  things  in 
a  very  embittered  state  between  the  clergy  and  laity. 
During  the  year  1530  there  was  no  regular  session  of 
Petition  of  Parliament,  but  a  petition  was  addressed  to 
paerTiamen°tf  tne  P°Pe  as  fr°m  *^e  Parliament,  signed  by 
to  tue  Pope  ^wo  archbishops,  two  dukes,  two  marquesses, 
thirteen  earls,  four  bishops,  twenty-six  barons,  twenty- 
two  abbots,  and  eleven  knights  and  doctors  of  Parlia- 
ment, praying  for  a  speedy  settlement  of  the  divorce 
suit.  The  Pope  answered  this  petition  somewhat 
angrily,  blaming  the  signers  for  their  interference.  The 
King  replied  by  a  proclamation  making  it  penal  to 
introduce  Bulls  from  Rome. 

The  Parliament  met  on  January  16,  1531.  The 
opinions  of  the  Universities  in  favour  of  the  divorce  were 
Prociama-  read.  An  Act  of  excessive  severity  against 
BuUsfrom*  proctors  and  pardoners,  who  sold  indulgences 
from  Rome,  was  passed.  The  whole  of  the 
clergy  of  England  had  been  found  guilty  under  the 
Statute  of  Preemunire  for  having  submitted  to  the 
legislative  authority  of  Wolsey.  They  were  informed 
by  the  judges,  in  a  communication  to  the  Convocation 


REFORMATION  PARLIAMENT  AND  CONVOCATION  13 

of  Canterbury,  that  they  would  be  pardoned  on  voting 
a  subsidy,  if  the  subsidy  was  accompanied  by  a  formal 
Royal  admission  of  the  King's  supremacy.  After 

voted1  by°the  many  negotiations  and  much  unwillingness 
clergy  ou  +foQ  par£  Qf  f.j1Q  Canterbury  Convocation, 

that  body  voted  (February  11,  1531)  to  address  the 
King  as  '  the  singular  protector,  the  only  and  su- 
preme lord,  and,  as  far  as  is  permitted  by  the  law 
of  Christ,  even  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church  of 
England.'  Upon  this,  and  after  voting  a  subsidy  of 
100,044?.  8s.  8d.,  the  clergy  of  the  southern  province. 
were  'pardoned.'  The  northern  province  stood  out 
longer  against  the  acknowledgment  of  the  supremacy, 
but  finally  (May  4)  admitted  it,  and  voted  a  subsidy  of 
18,040Z.  Os.  Wd.  Upon  this  they  also  were  pardoned. 
This  '  acknowledgment  of  the  royal  supremacy  '  was 
afterwards  embodied  in  an  Act  of  Parliament,  but  not 
in  the  exact  terms  in  which  it  was  made,  the  phrase 
'  as  far  as  is  permitted  by  the  law  of  Christ  '  being 
omitted. 

In   the    session   of  Parliament    of    January    1532 
several  Bills  abridging  the  power  and  privileges  of  the 
clergy  were  brought  in,  and  on  March  18  the 

i=>J  &  ' 


fincesofthe  . 

commons      Commons  laid  before  the  King  their  paper 

against  the  .  ,  .          .  i,, 

ordinaries  ot  grievances  against  the  ordinaries.  Ihese 
were  :  (1)  That  canons  were  made  in  Convocation 
without  the  royal  assent,  and  enforced  to  the  derogation 
of  the  royal  authority.  (2)  That  the  Archbishop  only 
allowed  certain  proctors  to  plead  in  his  court.  (3) 
That  the  laity  were  vexed  in  proceedings  for  discipline. 
(4)  That  the  fees  of  ecclesiastical  courts  were  exces- 
sive. (5)  That  the  clergy  exacted  fees  for  sacraments 


14  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

and  sacramentals.  (6)  That  testamentary  proceedings 
were  very  troublesome  and  expensive.  (7)  That  the 
ordinaries  required  inordinate  fees  for  induction  and 
institution.  (8)  That  patronage  was  misused.  (9) 
That  the  number  of  holy  days  was  excessive.  (10) 
That  men  were  sent  to  prison  without  knowing  the 
charge  against  them.  (11)  That  they  had  no  chance  of 
recovering  damages  for  false  charges.  (12)  That  men 
were  examined  subtilly  and  entrapped  into  heretical 
statements.  They  prayed  the  King  to  provide  such 
remedies  as  might  reconcile  and  bring  into  unity  his 
subjects,  secular  and  spiritual. 

The  Convocation  replied,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester 
(Gardiner)  being  appointed  to  revise  the  answer.  The 
Answers  of  King  gave  it  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 

Couvoca-  ,  .       .  ,. 

tion  Commons  with  a  contemptuous  description  01 

it.  The  Convocation,  finding  that  it  was  not  accept- 
able, drew  up  another  answer,  which  specially  addressed 
itself  to  the  point  of  the  right  of  the  clergy  to  make 
canons,  independently  of  the  royal  assent.  They  claimed 
this  right  to  belong  to  them  in  all  matters  connected 
with  faith,  doctrine,  and  discipline. 

This  had  the  effect  of  rousing  the  King's  autocratic 
spirit.  He  sent  down  to  the  Convocation  by  Bishop 
The 'sub-  Edward  Fox,  his  almoner,  three  articles,  to 
the3 clergy'  which  he  required  the  clergy  to  subscribe. 
The  first  of  these  was  :  (1)  That  no  constitution  or 
canon  should  hereafter  be  enacted  and  put  forth  by 
the  clergy  without  the  King's  consent.  (2)  That  the 
ancient  canons  should  be  revised  and  amended  by  a 
Commission  to  be  appointed  by  the  King,  (o)  That 
the  ancient  canons  not  objected  to  by  the  Commission 


REFORMATION  PARLIAMENT  AND  CONVOCATION  1 5 

should  stand  good  when  ratified  by  the  King's  approval. 
This  was  to  put  the  whole  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws  into 
a  position  of  absolute  dependence  upon  the  King's  will, 
and  was  naturally  very  distasteful  to  the  clergy.  The 
Lower  House  of  the  Canterbury  Convocation,  however, 
accepted  it.  But  the  Upper  House,  by  inserting  the 
word  new  into  the  first  clause  (May  16),  still  left  the 
old  constitutions  untouched  until  condemned  by  the 
Commission.  The  work  of  this  Commission,  afterwards 
reappointed,  was  never  legally  sanctioned  and  has  no 
binding  force.  Consequently  neither  the  '  submission 
of  the  clergy  '  in  their  Convocation,  nor  the  Act  of 
Parliament  which  embodied  it,  has  had  the  effect  of 
abrogating  the  ancient  canons  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, which,  when  not  contrariant  to  statute  law,  are 
in  force  still.  The  important  points  established  by  the 
'  submission  of  the  clergy '  and  the  Act  of  Parliament 
which  embodied  it  were  :  (1)  That  Convocation  must 
always  henceforth  originate  with  the  King's  writ  to  tho 
Archbishop.  (2)  That  no  new  canon  passed  by  it  can 
be  promulged  without  the  royal  sanction.  These  were 
cardinal  points  in  formulating  and  settling  the  royal 
supremacy. 

If  the  clergy  accepted  these  things  grudgingly,  it 
does  not  appear  that  they  were  actuated  in  doing  so  by 
Convocation  any  special  regard  for  the  Pope  and  his  in- 

petition  ° 

against         terests ;    for  the  Convocation   petitioned  the 

Papal  . 

annates  King  to  demand  from  the  Pope  the  surrender  of 
his  claim  to  annates  (the  first  year's  income  of  benefices) 
and  other  pecuniary  claims,  and  if  he  should  refuse, 
'  that  then  the  obedience  of  the  King  and  his  people 
be  withdrawn  from  the  See  of  Rome.'  This  petition 


1  6  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


either  suggested  by,  or  was  the  foundation  of, 
the  Act  of  Parliament  abolishing  annates  and  Papal 
fees.  This  Act  was  remarkable  as  containing  a  clause 
which  suspended  its  ratification  for  a  year,  the  intention 
being  to  give  the  Pope  the  opportunity  of  yielding  by 
his  own  action.  But  this  not  being  done,  the  Act  was 
ratified  by  the  King's  letters  patent  and  confirmed  in 
1534.  In  1533  anti-Papal  legislation  was  continued, 
and  produced  the  famous  Statute  for  Eestraint  of 
statute  for  Appeals,  the  best  known  and  most  frequently 

Restraint  J 

of  Appeals  quoted  of  all  the  Reformation  statutes,  Its 
preamble  set  forth  in  most  emphatic  language  the 
independence  and  nationality  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  the  power  and  right  of  the  spiritualty  in  it  'to 
determine  all  doubts  within  the  kingdom  ;  '  and  it  enacts 
that  all  spiritual  causes  were  to  be  determined  by  the 
Church  courts  in  England,  without  appeal  to  Rome 
being  allowed  or  Roman  prohibitions  regarded.  Appeals 
were  to  lie  from  the  archdeacon  to  the  bishop,  from  the 
bishop  to  the  archbishop,  and  (in  the  case  of  the  King 
and  his  heirs)  from  the  archbishop  to  the  Upper  House 
subsequent  °^  Convocation.  This  arrangement  was  after- 
of°theCation  wards  somewhat  altered  by  a  provision  for  an 
statute  appeal  from  the  Archbishop's  court  to  the  King 
in  Chancery,  the  cause  to  be  heard  by  a  body  of  delegates 
to  be  nominated  by  the  King.  Papal  interference  with 
The  'Con-  the  election  to  bishoprics  was  forbidden,  and 

secration'         .  ..  _. 

statute  it  was  enacted  that  the  Grown  should  send  a 
license  to  the  chapter  (conge  d'eslire)  to  elect,  and  that 
this  license  should  be  accompanied  by  a  letter  missive 
specifying  the  person  to  be  elected,  under  the  penalties 
oi*  Prcemunire  for  refusal.  Papal  dispensations  were 


REFORMATION  PARLIAMENT  AND  CONVOCATION  17 

abolished,  and  the  archbishops  were  to  have  the  right 
of  granting  them  in  certain  cases.  The  King  was  in- 
visitatoriai  vested  with  visitatorial  power  over  all  monaste- 
togthhes  given  ries>  colleges,  &c.  This  Act  declared  'that  the 
crown  King  and  Parliament  did  not  intend  to  decline 
or  vary  from  the  congregation  of  Christ's  Church  in 
anything  concerning  the  very  articles  of  the  catholic 
faith  of  Christendom,  and  in  any  other  things  declared 
by  Scripture  and  the  Word  of  God  necessary  for  salva- 
s-iprema  tion.'  What  these  things  were,  however,  was 
Ajt  as  it  seems,  to  be  left  to  the  King's  own 

judgment ;  for  the  King  was  left  absolutely  free  '  to  visit, 
repress,  redress,  reform,  order,  correct,  restrain,  and 
amend  all  such  errors,  heresies,  abuses,  contempts,  and 
enormities,  whatsoever  they  be,  which  by  any  manner 
of  spiritual  jurisdiction  ought  and  may  be  law- 


and  tenths 

given 

King 


givento the  /"%   reformed'     The   firstfruits   and  tenths, 


formerly  paid   to   the   Pope,  were  also   now 
conferred  upon  the  King. 

Thus  a  complete  transformation  in  the  relations  of 
the  clergy  to  the  Crown  had  been  effected.  The  clergy, 
surprised,  confounded,  and  intimidated  by  the  King's 
vigour,  and  having  no  love  for  the  Papal  system,  under 
which  they  had  long  groaned,  opposed  no  effectual  op- 
position to  any  of  these  drastic  measures,  and  in  their 
Convocations  advanced  in  parallel  lines  with  the  action 
of  Parliament.  They  voted  the  Koyal  Supremacy  under 
the  fear  of  the  penalties  of  the  Prasmunire  Statute. 
vote  of  the  In  1533  both  Convocations  voted  that  the 


against  the    marriage  of  Henry  with  Catherine  was  illegal, 

jurisdiction  ..  .  1-111 

of  the  Pope    ana    could    not     be    dispensed    with    by   the 
Pope.     In  153-1  both   Convocations,  in  like  manner, 
c.  H.  c 


iH  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

voted  '  that  the  Roman  bishop  has  no  greater  juris- 
diction given  him  by  God  in  this  kingdom  than  any 
other  bishop.'  This  was  also  voted  by  the  two  Uni- 
versities, by  the  clergy  of  each  diocese  by  means  of 
forms  sent  round  by  the  bishops  through  the  arch- 
deacons, by  all  the  most  considerable  abbots  and  their 
monks,  and  by  all  public  lay  bodies.  By  the  end  of 
1534,  therefore,  the  renunciation  of  the  Papal  autho- 
rity in  England  both  by  clergy  and  laity  was  complete. 
This  was  followed  up  (1535)  by  the  King's  proclama- 
tion of  his  style  and  title — '  in  terra  supremum  capufc 
Anglican ae  ecclesise ' — and  by  a  proclamation  (June  9) 
for  the  abrogation  of  the  usurped  authority  of  the  Pope, 
and  for  the  erasure  of  his  name  from  all  the  service 
books. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   ADVOCATES   OF  REFORMATION. 

THE  Parliament  of  1529  was  doubtless  very  subservient 
to  the  will  of  the  King,  but  it  would  hardly  have 
General  passed  with  such  readiness  so  many  Acts  in- 

desire  for  '         .  . 

change  in      volvmg  almost  a  revolution  in  the  ecclesias- 

the  religious      .  ... 

status  tical  status,  had  there  not  been  in  the  country 
a  growing  desire  for  change.  It  might  be  thought, 
indeed,  that  the  increase  of  this  reforming  spirit  would 
influence  the  spiritual  peers  in  the  House  of  Lords 
rather  to  resist  change  than  to  welcome  it.  With 
them,  however,  it  is  probable  that  another  motive  pre- 
vailed. They  thought  that  the  best  way  of  securing 


THE  ADVOCATES  OF  REFORMATION          19 

safety  for  the  Church,  and  keeping  the  King  interested 
in  its  defence,  was  to  aid  him  in  his  attacks  on  the 
Papal  system,  which  from  time  immemorial  had  been 
a  miserable  yoke  on  the  neck  of  all  English  prelates, 
but  which,  partly  from  esprit  de  corps,  partly  from  fear 
of  the  power  of  Rome,  they  had  felt  constrained  to 
defend.  Now  there  was  a  happy  opportunity  of  shaking 
themselves  free  and  at  the  same  time  of  obliging  the 
King,  of  whose  autocratic  temper  and  unscrupulous 
readiness  to  act  they  had  a  wholesome  dread.  This  may 
accounc  for  the  fact  that  all  the  bishops,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  Fisher,  went  with  the  King  in  the  divorce 
case,  and  that  no  vigorous  protest,  no  effectual  opposi- 
tion, appears  to  have  been  raised  in  the  Upper  House 
against  any  of  the  Bills  taking  away  the  Papal  authority. 
But  while  the  bishops  may  have  acted  with  a  view  of 
pleasing  the  King,  and  of  keeping  him  faithful  to  the 
Church  system,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Commons 
and  lay  peers  were  urged  on  by  a  strong  stimulus  from 
without.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  writes  to  the  ambassador 
at  Rome,  '  This  realm  did  never  grudge  the  tenth  part 
against  the  abuses  of  the  Church,  at  no  Parliament  in 
my  days,  as  they  do  now.' 

Who  were  the  promoters  of  this  spirit  ?  Cambridge 
seems  to  have  been  the  chief  nurse  of  the  teachers 
Cambridge  °^  Reforming  views.  It  was  from  that 
Reformers  University  that  the  knot  of  Lutherans  was 
brought  by  Wolsey  (whether  designedly  or  not)  to  his 
new  college  at  Oxford.  Several  of  these  men  were 
conspicuous  afterwards.  At  Cambridge  Mr.  Stafford, 
who  seems  to  have  owed  his  love  of  the  Scriptures 
to  Dean  Colet,  lectured  on  Holy  Scripture,  freely 

c  2 


2O  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

condemning  many  of  the  superstitions  of  the  day.  By 
Stafford  Thomas  Bilney  was  impressed,  and  byBilney 
Hugh  Latimer.  As  regards  Bilney  he  never  varied, 
according  to  Foxe,  from  the  views  on  the  Sacrament  of 
the  altar  held  by  '  the  grossest  Catholics ; '  but  he  con- 
demned pilgrimages,  and  the  worship  of  saints  and  relics, 
and  for  this  he  was  judged  a  heretic  by  Bishop  Tonstal 
and  made  to  carry  a  fagot  at  Paul's  Cross.  Afterwards 
he  recanted  his  recantation  and  was  burned  by  Bishop 
Nix  at  Norwich  (1531). 

Hugh  Latimer,  the  son  of  a  Leicestershire  farmer, 
was,  up  to  the  taking  his  Bachelor  of  Divinity  degree, 

a  zeal°us  upholder  of  the  old  superstitions. 

jje  fchen  fen  under  the  influence  of  Bilney  and 
adopted  a  considerable  change  in  his  religious  senti- 
ments. His  terse  and  witty  style  of  preaching  attracted 
much  attention  at  Cambridge  and  brought  the  Bishop 
of  Ely  to  listen  to  one  of  his  sermons.  Latimer,  seeing 
the  entrance  of  the  Bishop,  turned  his  discourse  to  a 
description  of  what  a  Christian  prelate  should  be.  The 
Bishop,  perhaps  not  much  soothed  by  the  admoni- 
tion, required  Latimer  after  the  conclusion  of  the  sermon 
to  declare  against  the  errors  of  Martin  Luther ;  but  to 
this  he  objected.  He  then  inhibited  him  from  preach- 
ing ;  but  Latimer  continued  to  preach  in  the  exempt 
church  of  the  Austin  Friars,  whose  prior,  Dr.  Barnes, 
was  a  favourer  of  Lutheran  views.  An  information 
laid  against  him  by  the  Bishop  and  the  Cambridge 
doctors  now  brought  Latimer  before  Cardinal  Wolsey. 
The  Cardinal  found  him  well  versed  in  school  divinity, 
and  having  heard  the  substance  of  the  sermon  delivered 
by  him  before  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  saw  nothing  to  dis- 


THE  ADVOCATES  OF  REFORMATION          21 

approve,  and  gave  Latimer  a  general  license  to  preach 
throughout  England.  The  King's  physician,  Dr.  Butts, 
who  had  been  sent  to  Cambridge  to  influence  the 
University  about  the  divorce  matter,  seems  to  have 
been  the  means  of  bringing  Latimer  to  preach  at  Court. 
The  King  liked  his  plain  speaking,  and  liked  him  all 
the  better  because  the  Cambridge  vice-chancellor,  Dr. 
Buckmaster,  who  was  opposed  to  the  divorce  and  who 
was  among  the  audience,  showed  his  dislike  of  his 
doctrine.  The  beginning  of  Sir  T.  More's  Chancellorship 
(1529)  was  marked  by  a  violent  proclamation  against 
heretical  books.  This  does  not  appear  to  have  pro- 
duced the  required  effect ;  so  another  proclamation,  of  a 
milder  type,  came  out,  which,  while  it  condemns  heretical 
books,  promises  that,  when  they  are  cleared  away,  the 
King  will  cause  the  Scripture  to  be  translated  into 
English  by  '  great,  learned,  and  Catholic  persons.'  Upon 
His  letter  to  ^s  Proclamation  Latimer  wrote  the  King  a 
the  King  long  letter  to  encourage  him  in  his  design 
of  having  the  Scripture  translated,  and  offering  some 
apology  for  those  who  circulated  the  forbidden  books. 
The  character  of  this  letter  would  be  higher  were  there 
not  to  be  found  in  it  a  sharp  cut  at  the  Cardinal,  to 
whom  Latimer  owed  so  much,  and  who  was  just  they 
under  the  royal  displeasure.  Latimer  was  now  pro- 
moted to  the  living  of  West  Kington  in  Wiltshire, 
which  he  owed  to  the  patronage  of  Thomas  Crumwell. 
Soon  he  was  in  trouble  for  his  preaching,  articles  having 
been  exhibited  against  him  in  Convocation  in  1532. 
He  at  first  refused  the  paper  tendered  to  him  for  sub- 
scription, then  accepted  it,  and  then  again  preached  in 
opposition  to  it.  Perhaps  he  held  the  dangerous 


22  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

doctrine  that  the  obligation  to  preach  '  the  truth '  is 
superior  to  promises.  His  zeal  caused  him  to  be 
Made  regarded  by  Crumwell  as  a  valuable  instru- 

worcester  ment  for  furthering  the  Reformation,  and  in 
1535  he  was  made  Bishop  of  Worcester. 

It  has  been  said  that  while  Latimer  was  at  Cam- 
brid^e  a  church  was  lent  him  by  Dr.  Barnes,  Prior  of 

o  *  ' 

the  Austin  Friars.  Barnes  was  one  of  the 
first  men  in  England  in  trouble  for  Lutheran- 
ism.  In  1521,  at  the  book-burning  at  St.  Paul's,  he 
was  obliged  to  throw  a  fagot  into  the  flames,  to  signify 
that  this  might  well  have  been  his  own  fate.  This, 
however,  does  not  appear  to  have  driven  him  from  his 
convictions.  He  was  held  to  have  relapsed,  it  may  be 
on  account  of  his  support  of  Latimer,  and  escaping, 
carried  on  from  abroad  a  controversy  with  Sir  Thomas 
More  as  to  the  nature  of  the  true  Church,  which  he 
held  to  be  invisible. 

A  more  notable  man  than  Barnes  was  John  Fryth, 

who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Cardinal's  college.    Being 

suspected   of  heresy,   he   fled  from    England 

John  Fryth  -.    .    .        ,  m        ,    ,      .       _,  -„,.,  -.  , 

and  joined  Tyndale  in  Germany.  When  More, 
Fisher,  and  Rastall  endeavoured  to  defend  the  doctrine 
of  Purgatory,  Fryth,  having  obtained  their  treatises, 
proceeded  to  demolish  them  with  much  skill  and  learn- 
ing. His  end  was  very  tragical.  He  was  the  victim 
of  treachery,  and  shamefully  condemned  to  death  by 
the  bishops.  Having  returned  to  England,  lie  was 
arrested  and  thrown  into  prison,  and,  when  there,  was 
entrapped  by  a  pretended  convert  to  write  something  on 
the  Eucharist.  This  fell  into  Sir  T.  More's  hands,  and 
was  the  cause  of  bringing  Fryth  before  Bishops  Stokes- 


THE  ADVOCATES  OF  REFORMATION         23 

ley,  Longland,  and  Gardiner.  Fryth  spoke  with  remark- 
able moderation,  and  made  no  absolute  objection  to 
anything  but  the  worship  of  the  elements.  This,  how- 
ever, was  sufficient  to  condemn  him  to  the  stake.  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  had  an  interview  with  him,  but  left 
him  unconvinced  and  as  fitting  fuel  for  the  flames. 
The  startling  brutality  of  this  sentence  led  to  a  change 
of  the  law  touching  heretics.  An  Act  was  passed 
which  prohibited  the  bishops  from  acting  on  mere  sus- 
picion, and  required  the  testimony  of  two  witnesses  and 
a  trial  in  open  court.  Considering  the  fearful  danger 
ever  menacing  them  from  the  law,  it  is  marvellous  to 
find  so  many  men  ready  to  advocate  these  perilous 
opinions. 

Yet  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  acted  as  a  general 
champion  of  the  old  superstitions,  had  a  whole  host  of 
William  disputants  to  contend  with.  Of  these  none 
Tyndaie  gave  fam  more  trouble  than  William  Tyn- 
dale,  whom  he  attacked  in  his  '  Dialogue.'  Tyndale 
answered  by  a  lengthy  Reply.  Then  there  came  a 
'  Confutation,'  and  an  answer  to  the  Confutation,  with 
much  railing  language  on  the  part  of  More  and  some 
very  feeble  arguments  from  Tyndale.  The  opinions 
which  Tyndale  advocated  were  those  of  Zwingli.  He 
held  the  Eucharist  to  be  designed  for  a  '  lively  memo- 
rial,' or,  in  other  words,  to  '  preach,'  and  his  doctrine  on 
the  connection  of  faith  and  works  seemed  dangerously 
Histransia-  Antinomian.  But  it  is  not  on  his  controver- 
KewTesta-  sial  works  that  Tyndale's  fame  rests.  By  his 
meut  admirable  translation  of  the  New  Testament 

he  conferred  a  greater  benefit  on  the  Church  and  gave 
a  greater  stimulus  to  the  Reformation  than  perhaps 
any  other  man.  The  translation  of  Wycliffe  and  Purvey 


24  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

had  never  been  printed,  and  existed  only  in  a  few 
imperfect  manuscripts.  Its  English  also  was  obsolete 
and  hardly  intelligible  to  the  men  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. Tyiidale  was  a  good  scholar,  having  studied  both 
at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  he  had  the  advantage  of 
the  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament,  with  a  Latin  ver- 
sion published  by  Erasmus  in  1516.  He  determined 
to  translate  from  the  original  Greek,  and  with  the  help 
of  friends,  he  brought  out  at  Worms  two  editions  of  the 
New  Testament  in  English  in  the  year  1526.  It  has 
been  already  stated  how  sedulous  the  bishops  were  in 
burning  these  books,  and  Sir  Thomas  More  and  others 
were  no  less  eager  in  denouncing  the  translation  as 
imperfect  and  erroneous.  Its  merits,  however,  were 
too  solid  to  be  affected  by  ignorant  abuse,  and  it 
finally  triumphed  by  becoming  the  foundation  of  the 
Authorised  Version  of  1611.  It  is  sad  to  note  that 
Tyndale,  like  Fryth,  was  brought  by  treachery  to  a 
cruel  death,  being  strangled  and  burned  in  Germany  at 
the  instance  of  the  King  of  England,  in  1536. 

Archbishop  Cranmer  can  hardly  as  yet  be  counted 

as  one  of  the  advocates  of  Reformation  in  religion.     He 

owed  his  promotion  to  his  zeal  in  the  divorce 

Archbishop 

Cranmer  Cas6j  jn  which  he  became  one  of  the  principal 
agents  after  the  fall  of  Wolsey,  and  to  finish  which  he 
was  raised  to  the  Primacy  (March  30,  1533)  on  the 
death  of  Warham.  He  pronounced  the  sentence  of 
divorce  between  Henry  and  Catherine  (May  23,  1533), 
and  took  a  ready  part  in  the  anti-Papal  movement,  but 
in  his  religious  views  he  was  still  unchanged,  and  could 
see  Fryth  handed  over  to  the  secular  arm  without  an 
attempt  to  save  him. 


THE  ADVOCATES  OP  REFORMATION          25 

A  more  decided  and  earnest  partisan  of  the  move- 
ment (to  whom,  indeed,  it  owed  much  of  its  force  and 
Thomas  vigour)  was  Thomas  Crumwell.  Crumwell 
cruinweii  hac[  risen  from  quite  a  low  station  by  the 
dexterity  which  he  displayed  in  the  service  of  Cardinal 
Wolsey.  He  had  loyally  defended  the  Cardinal  on  his 
disgrace,  and  had  thus  recommended  himself  to  the 
King,  whose  principal  adviser  he  soon  became.  Stak- 
ing his  political  career  on  the  success  of  the  Reforma- 
tion movement,  Crumwell  omitted  nothing  to  advance 
it.  Doubtless  he  was  the  author  of  some  of  the  legis- 
lative Acts  which  ensured  the  freedom  of  the  Church  of 
England  from  Rome.  It  was  Crumwell  who  carefully 
devised  the  scheme  for  influencing  public  opinion  on 
the  matter  of  the  Royal  Supremacy.  Justices  of  the 
peace  and  all  public  officers  were  to  be  enlisted  in  the 
work,  while  the  bishops  were  not  only  to  procure  from 
their  clergy  the  renunciation  of  the  Papal  supremacy, 
but  were  also  to  take  care  that  the  name  arid  title  of 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  should  be  expunged  from  all 
prayers,  rubricks,  and  canons,  and  specially  from  the 
great  '  sentence  of  curse '  against  the  enemies  of  Holy 
Church  wont  to  be  recited  four  times  a  year  in 
churches. 

When  the  Nun  of  Kent,  Elizabeth  Barton,  who  was 
supposed  to  have  visions  and  revelations,  was  being 
Affair  of  made  use  of  by  the  Roman  party  to  check 

the  Nun  of       ,,..,,  -,      J 

Kent  the   anti-rapal    movement,   and  was   put   in 

communication  with  Sir  Thomas  More  and  Bishop 
Fisher,  the  two  great  champions  of  the  old  state  of 
things,  Crumwell  saw  his  opportunity  for  ruining  his 
chief  opponents.  More  had  still  sufficient  influence 


2-5  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

with  the  King  to  keep  his  name  out  of  the  bill  of 
attainder.  He  had,  in  fact,  in  no  way  encouraged 
the  nun's  revelations.  But  Bishop  Fisher  was  found 
guilty  of  misprision  of  treason,  and  compounded  for 
a  fine  of  300Z.  This  partial  success  against  the  two 
leading  men  of  the  old  party  was  not,  however,  suffi- 
cient for  Crumwell.  The  Act  of  Succession,  passed  in 
The  oath  in  1534,  was  drawn  in  such  terms  that  it  in- 
sfonSAetes'  volved  a  rejection  of  the  Pope  as  well  as  a 
pi  omise  to  be  faithful  to  the  children  of  Queen  Anne. 
This  Act  was  to  be  confirmed  by  an  oath,  which  Crum- 
well knew  well  neither  More  nor  Fisher  could  take. 
They  were  willing  to  accept  the  succession,  but  not  the 
wording  of  the  Act.  An  attempt  made  by  Cranmer  to 
allow  them  this  modified  acceptance  was  opposed  by 
Crumwell,  sufficiently  indicating  his  set  purpose  to 
destroy  them. 

More  and  Fisher  were  committed  to  the  Tower,  and 
when  Parliament  met  in  the  autumn  of  1534,  an  elabo- 
condemna-    rate  scheme  was  carried  out  by  the  King  and 
and  Fishe0/6  Crumwell  for  their  destruction.     An  Act  was 
passed  giving  a  legal  sanction  to  the  wording  of  the 
oath,  which  had  not  been  included  in  the  first  Act ;  and 
a  second  Act  followed,  which  is  one  of  the  most  atro- 
cious that  was   ever  put  upon   the    Statute   Book  of 
England.     This  Act,  generally  known  as  the  Treason 
Act,  made  it  high  treason  to  speak  against  any  of  the 
king's  titles  or  prerogatives  (including  the  Supremacy), 
or  even  to  imagine  anything  against  them.     Persons 
were  to  be  held  guilty  of  treason  who  would  not  in 
words   assent   to   the    Royal    Supremacy.     'Malicious 
silence '  was  to  be  a  sufficient   condemnation.     It  was 


THE  ADVOCATES  OF  REFORMATION         27 

thus  deliberately  attempted  to  cause  tlie  forfeit  of  a 
man's  life  for  his  thoughts.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that 
the  King  would  have  assented  to  such  a  murderous  law 
as  this  had  he  not  been  specially  exasperated  by  the 
Pope's  action  in  annulling  Cranmer's  sentence  of  divorce 
(thus  making  Anne's  daughter  illegitimate)  and  declar- 
ing his  intention  to  excommunicate  Henry.  His  fury 
against  the  Pope  found  expression  in  this  violent  demon- 
stration against  his  adherents,  suggested  probably  by 
Crumwell,  and  passed  by  a  too  subservient  Parliament. 
Under  this  law  the  Carthusian  monks  in  London 
—men  famed  for  their  piety  and  devotion — were  ruth- 
lessly put  to  death ;  and  the  witty  and  upright  ex- 
Chancellor,  Sir  Thomas  More,  and  the  venerable  Bishop 
Fisher,  having  been  brought  to  trial  in  Westminster 
Hall,  and  condemned,  both  for  'malicious  silence'  and 
for  words  said  to  have  been  uttered  in  derogation  of  the 
Supremacy,  were  beheaded  (June  22  and  July  6, 1535). 
While  Fisher  was  lying  in  prison  the  Pope  had  sent 
him  the  gift  of  a  cardinal's  hat,  an  honour  which  served 
still  further  to  exasperate  the  King  against  him.  The 
horror  caused  by  the  judicial  murder  of  two  such  men 
as  More  and  Fisher  could  not  easily  be  suppressed,  and 
it  needed  all  Crumwell's  skill  to  meet  and  check  the 
tide  of  indignation  which  was  rising  both  at  home 
and  abroad.  Ambassadors  were  sent  to  all  the  foreign 
courts  to  explain,  and  at  home  a  circular  was  sent 
to  the  justices  of  the  peace  (a  favourite  device  of 
Crumwell's)  bidding  them  to  see  that  the  clergy  pub- 
lished four  tim,es  a  year  an  account  of  the  'trea- 
sons '  of  the  late  Bishop  of  Rochester  and  Sir  Thomas 
More. 


23  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

The  Court  divines  were  also  set  to  work  with  the 
pen.  Dr.  Sampson,  Dean  of  the  Chapel  Eoyal,  com- 
The  court  posed  a  Latin  oration  in  support  of  the  Royal 
divines  Supremacy;  Bishop  Gardiner  wrote  a  book  on 
'True  Obedience'  (1535),  which  was  re-edited  the  next 
year  by  Bonner,  then  Archdeacon  of  Leicester,  with  a 
laudatory  preface.  But  Crumwell  was  far  from  depend- 
ing for  the  success  of  his  policy  in  carrying  forward  the 
Reformation  on  the  somewhat  hollow  support  of  divines 
who  wrote  to  order.  He  desired  to  enlist  the  mass  of 
the  nation  in  the  work  of  Reformation,  and  to  force 
the  King's  hand,  who  had  no  wish  for  any  religious 
changes,  but  only  cared  about  the  establishment  of  his 
own  autocracy.  With  this  view  Crumwell  had  long 
The  erst  been  secretly  preparing  for  the  publication  of 
Bible  the  whole  Bible  in  English.  Tyndale's  Testa- 

ment had  been  proscribed,  but  the  King  had  committed 
himself  to  a  promise  that  an  English  translation  should 
be  made ;  Cranmer  had  urged  the  necessity  of  this  in 
the  Convocation  of  1534,  and  some  beginning  had  been 
effected.  This  about  coincided  with  the  completion  of 
an  English  translation  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
from  the  Vulgate,  which  Crumwell  had  procured  to  be 
made  in  Germany.  The  scholar  employed  by  him  was 
Miles  Coverdale,  who  had  been  an  Austin  Friar  in  the 
house  at  Cambridge  over  which  Robert  Barnes  pre- 
sided, had  adopted  Lutheran  views,  and  had  fled  abroad. 
The  work  was  finished  and  printed  by  October  1535, 
was  published  in  England  without  express  royal  sanc- 
tion, and  spread  rapidly.  Probably  it  owed  its  tolera- 
tion to  the  fact  that  it  was  a  translation  from  the 
Vulgate,  and  made  no  attempt  to  give  a  new  rendering 


THE  ADVOCATES  OF  REFORMATION         29 

of  the  original.  The  same  year  which  witnessed  the 
publication  of  the  first  English  Bible  witnessed  also 
First  Re-  the  printing  of  the  first  Reforming  Primer. 
p°dmenrg  This  book  contained  a  condemnation  of  saint 
and  image  worship  and  of  superstitious  legends  and 
practices,  furnished  some  good  prayers  for  private  use, 
and  was  altogether  of  a  distinctly  Reforming  type. 

While    Crumwell   was    thus    skilfully   striving    to 

leaven  the  people  with  Reforming  views,  with  the  King 

he  remained  in  greater  favour  than  ever.     The 

Urumwell 

appointed      dimax  was  reached  when,  in  1535,  there  was 

Vicar-  ' 

General  issued  under  the  Great  Seal  an  instrument 
empowering  Crumwell  to  use  to  its  full  extent  the 
Royal  Supremacy  as  it  was  set  forth  in  the  Act  of 
Parliament — that  is,  to  have  a  complete,  absolute, 
irresponsible  power  over  all  ecclesiastical  persons,  cor- 
porations, laws  ;  to  inflict  any  censures  or  punishments 
which  he  pleased  ;  to  '  deal  in  any  way  with  the  eccle- 
siastical property  ;  to  preside  at  and  direct  the  elections 
of  prelates,  confirm  those  rightly  made  and  annul  the 
contrary ;  to  institute  and  induct  into  possession  of 
churches.'  To  make  this  more  than  Papal  power  the 
more  effective  the  jurisdiction  of  all  bishops  was  sus- 
pended, and  then  restored  to  them  under  the  royal 
license,  so  that  they  became  the  officers  of  the  Vicar- 
General  ;  and  Crumwell's  deputies  being  endowed  with 
the  same  power  as  himself,  the  ecclesiastical  system  was 
for  the  time  completely  in  abeyance,  and  the  Church 
had  exchanged  the  tyranny  of  Rome  for  a  tyranny 
nearer,  more  searching,  more  drastic,  and  more 
dangerous.  As  it  happened,  no  special  damage  accrued 
to  the  Church  from  this  extravagant  exaggeration  of 


30  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

the  royal  supremacy.  No  bishops  were  appointee! 
simply  by  royal  warrant  without  consecration,  no 
laymen  were  commissioned  to  administer  the  Sacra- 
ments or  to  preach,  and  the  attention  of  the  King  and 
Crumwell  was  soon  drawn  away  from  ecclesiastical 
schemes  to  the  more  congenial  task  of  plundering  and 
suppressing  the  monasteries.  This  was  a  policy  sug- 
gested to  Crumwell  by  his  previous  experience  with 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  and  it  was  a  bribe  to  the  King  to 
continue  his  favour  to  him — so  enormous  that  during 
its  progress,  and  while  he  still  was  necessary  for  carry- 
ing it  on,  he  felt  himself  secure  of  the  royal  approbation 
whatever  schemes  he  might  entertain.  We  now  proceed 
to  consider  this  crowning  act  of  the  '  Reformation 
Parliament,'  which  has  drawn  upon  it  laudation  from 
some,  but  unmeasured  abuse  from  others. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FALL    OF    THE     MONASTERIES. 
1536-1539. 

FOR  some  time  before  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  the  whole 
nation  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  monasteries  had 
'Decay  of  the  °u^ived  their  day.  For  more  than  a  century 
monasteries  yerv  few  }ia(j  been  founded,  and  the  entire  re- 
laxation of  the  rules,  and  the  general  mixing  of  monks  in 
secular  affairs,  showed  that  the  members  of  the  monastic 
houses  were  themselves  of  the  same  opinion.  It  is  some- 
times contended  that  monasteries  were  very  valuable  for 


FALL  OF  THE  MONASTERIES  31 

the  alms  they  distributed ;  but,  as  the  houses  were  mostly 
apart  from  the  centres  of  population,  and  their  annals 
show  but  little  traces  of  any  thoughtful  charity,  this 
can  hardly  be  estimated  of  any  great  value.  And  while 
the  monasteries  could  plead  no  special  ground  for  con- 
tinued preservation,  their  very  considerable  estates  were 
a  constant  temptation  to  the  spoiler.  These  estates 
had  often  been  grievously  mismanaged,  and  in  many 
instances  fraudulently  alienated.  The  houses  were 
almost  universally  deeply  in  debt,  and  there  seemed 
nothing  to  check  a  strong  and  vigorous  interference 
with  this  mass  of  misapplied  property,  save  the  religious 
sentiment  of  the  rulers  and  the  strong  protection  of 
Rome.  When  the  King  and  Parliament  and  the  whole 
Church  of  England  formally  broke  with  Rome  it  is 
evident  that  the  great  monastic  institutions  of  the  land 
were  in  imminent  danger.  The  Pope  himself  had 
shown  the  way  to  their  suppression.  Besides  various 
authorised  suppressions  sanctioned  in  earlier  days,  the 
Bulls  granted  to  Wolsey  had  given  into  his  hands  a 
considerable  number  of  monastic  houses,  the  property 
of  which  had  been  dealt  with  by  Crumwell,  who  was 
thus  a  ready-prepared  instrument  for  more  general 
spoliation. 

The  opportunity  was  given  to  Crumwell  to  buy  the 
favour  of  the  King  by  a  monstrous  bribe,  and  he  did 
Their  sup-  not  hesitate  to  avail  himself  of  it.  Henry 

pression  re-  .  * 

solved  upon  did  not  need  much  persuasion  to  use  this 
ready  method  of  replenishing  his  exhausted  ex- 
chequer. The  suppression  of  the  monasteries  was 
resolved  upon.  There  would  not  have  been  so  much 
occardoa  to  find  fault  with  this  resolve  had  it  been 


3*  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

carried  out  in  a  different  way.  A  well-considered  Act 
of  Parliament,  with  full  regard  for  life  interests,  a 
judicious  application  of  the  funds,  and  a  fitting  use 
found  for  the  consecrated  buildings,  might  have  done 
much  to  excuse  it  in  the  judgment  of  posterity.  But, 
unhappily,  it  was  thought  necessary,  in  deference  to 
the  religious  sentiment  of  the  nation,  to  endeavour  to 
ground  the  suppression  on  the  plea  of  morality  and  ne- 
cessary correction  of  abuses ;  and  hence  a  mass  of  slan- 
derous and  unproved  charges  was  got  together  by  a  body 
of  visitors  appointed  by  Crumwell,  and  was  laid  before 
The  passing  Parliament  to  ensure  the  passing  of  the  Act.1 
of  the  Act  (phe  grst  Act  of  Suppression  was  passed  in 
February  1536.  In  the  House  of  Lords  the  mitred 
abbots,  who  formed  a  large  part  of  that  body,  offered  no 
opposition,  inasrn  ach  as  the  Act  only  decreed  the  con- 
fiscation of  houses  with  a  revenue  under  200L  a  year. 
This  selfish  spirit — a  natural  product  of  the  monastic 
system — did  not  avail  long  to  save  those  who  were 
thus  ready  to  sacrifice  their  weaker  brethren.  The 
bishops  also  readily  accepted  the  confiscation.  Monas- 
teries had  always  been  thorns  in  their  sides.  Defying, 
eluding,  or  resisting  their  visitations,  ever  striving  for 

1  The  original  indictment  against  the  monasteries,  called  the 
'Black  Book,'  has  been  destroyed  or  lost.  There  remain  in  the 
Record  Office  certain  documents  called  'Comperta,'  which  are  a 
sort  of  tabulated  statement  of  the  immoralities  imputed  to  religious 
persons  and  their  houses.  These  cannot  be  regarded  as  historically 
reliable  ;  but  to  find  sufficient  evidence  against  the  purity  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  '  religious '  we  need  not  travel  beyond  the  bishops' 
registers,  the  entries  in  which  are  above  suspicion,  and  which  go 
far  to  substantiate  some  of  the  worst  accusations.  No  doubt  plenty 
of  scandals  might  be  alleged  with  truth,  but  why  allege  them  ?  This 
was  a  cruel  method  of  carrying  out  a  predetermined  policy. 


FALL  OF  THE  MONASTERIES  33 

an  imperium  in  imperio,  systematically  robbing  parish 
churches,  and  always  ready  with  the  appeal  to  Home, 
the  monasteries  were  little  loved  by  them,  and  were 
abandoned  to  their  fate  with  complacency. 

After  the  passing  of  the  Act,  Commissioners  were  sent 
to  the  smaller  monasteries  to  take  inventories,  to  settle 
commis-  the  pensions  of  the  monks  and  nuns  if  they 

sinners  to  A  » 

arrange  for    should  desire  to  enter  secular  life,  or  to  arrange 
the  demoli- 
tion for  their  being  transferred  to  one  of  the  larger 

monasteries  still  left  intact  ;  also  to  report  upon  the 
buildings  —  whether  the  churches  should  be  pulled 
iown  for  the  sake  of  the  lead  and  bells — and  gene- 
rally to  arrange  for  the  demolition  of  the  house.  These 
Commissioners  reported  to  a  Court  called  the  Court 
of  Augmentation,  which  was  specially  appointed  to  con- 
sider and  arrange  all  the  matter  of  the  suppression 
and  to  receive  the  spoil,  and  which,  when  the  proce- 
dure had  been  determined  upon  from  the  report  of  the 
Commissioners,  sent  receivers  to  carry  out  the  sale  and 
demolition  of  the  monastic  property.  The  monasteries 
suppressed  under  the  first  Act  amounted  in  number  to 
376,  and  produced  a  revenue  of  about  32,OOOZ.  to  the 
Crown,  and  a  capital  sum  of  about  100,OOOZ.  arising 
from  the  plate  and  valuables.  The  demolition  of  all 
these  ancient  buildings  and  the  ejection  of  their  inmates 
were  equivalent  to  a  social  revolution,  as  the  monks  were 
great  employers  of  labour,  and  were  frequently  attended 
by  a  host  of  servants.  Yet  in  all  the  southern  parts  of 
the  land  there  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  opposi- 
tion or  disturbance  created  by  the  demolition.  The 
thing  principally  noted  is  the  eagerness  of  the  people 
to  steal  the  goods  of  the  condemned  house.  In  fact,  the 
c.  H.  D 


34  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

monastic   chronicles   generally  represent   the  religions 
house  as  being  on  very  bad  terms  with  its  neighbours. 

In  the  north   things  were    different.      Here   some 
active  spirits  among  the  religious  were  able  to  incite 
the  people  to  join  with  them  in  open  revolt. 

A 


grimageof  . 

Grace  ±5ut    it  is    very   observable   that   the    griev- 

ances which  were  alleged  as  a  justification  for  the 
'  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  '  were  by  no  means  confined  to 
the  suppression  of  the  monasteries.  The  people  were 
equally,  if  not  more,  excited  by  the  '  Statute  of  Uses,' 
which  affected  the  transfer  of  property  ;  by  the  heavy 
imposts  which  they  had  to  bear;  by  the  counsellors 
'  of  mean  birth  '  whom  the  King  had  about  him;  and 
by  the  danger  which  they  thought  menaced  the  plate 
and  valuables  of  the  parish  churches.  The  rebellion 
assumed  most  formidable  proportions  both  in  Lincoln- 
shire and  Yorkshire,  and  the  King  was  obliged  to  make 
long  explanations  of  his  policy,  and  to  promise  consider- 
able concessions  before  it  could  be  overcome. 

Far  from  benefiting  the  cause  of  the  monastic 
houses,  the  immediate  effect  of  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace 
Disastrous  was  ^°  bring  ruin  on  those  monasteries  which 
effeaterU  ^ad  as  ye^  ^een  spared.  For  their  complicity 
monasteries  or  alleged  complicity  in  it,  twelve  abbots  were 
hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered,  and  their  houses  were 
seized  by  the  Crown.  Every  means  was  employed  by  a 
new  set  of  Commissioners  to  bring  about  the  surrender 
of  others  of  the  greater  abbeys.  The  houses  were 
visited,  and  their  pretended  relics  and  various  tricks  to 
encourage  the  devotion  of  the  people  were  exposed. 
Surrenders  went  rapidly  on  during  the  years  1537  and 
1538,  and  it  became  necessary  to  obtain  a  new  Act  of 


FALL  OF  THE  MONASTERIES  35 

Parliament  to  vest  the  property  of  the  later  surrenders  in 
the  Crown.  Eager  to  grasp  the  whole  of  the  spoil  which 
now  seemed  within  his  reach,  the  King  sanctioned  acts 
cruelties  of  of  grievous  and  revolting  injustice  against  the 

the  Dissolu-  °  r... 

tion.  abbots  of  the  greater  abbeys.     Of  these  none 

made  so  great  an  impression  at  the  time,  and  has 
been  so  well  remembered  by  posterity,  as  the  murder 
of  Abbot  Whiting  of  Glastonbury,  on  the  pretence  of 
treason  in  having  concealed  the  goods  belonging  to  the 
house.  This  poor  man  had  often  bribed  and  flattered 
Crumwell,  but  found  no  help  from  him  in  his  hour  of 
need.  Nothing,  indeed,  can  be  more  tragical  than  the 
way  in  which  the  greater  abbeys  were  destroyed  on 
manufactured  charges  and  for  imaginary  crimes.  These 
houses  had  been  described  in  the  first  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment as  '  great  and  honourable,'  wherein  '  religion  was 
right  well  kept  and  observed.'  Yet  now  they  were 
pitilessly  destroyed. 

A  revenue  of  about  131,607Z.  is  computed  to  have 
thus  come  to  the  Crown,  while  the  movables  are  valued 
Amount  of  at  400,00(K  How  was  this  vast  sum  of 
tained.  its  money  expended  ?  (1)  By  the  Act  for  the 

appropria-  . 

tion  suppression    of   the    greater  monasteries   the 

King  was  empowered  to  erect  six  new  sees  with  their 
deans  and  chapters,  namely,  Westminster.  Oxford, 
Chester,  Gloucester,  Bristol,  and  Peterborough.  He 
had  formerly,  in  Wolsey's  time,  contemplated  a  larger 
number,  but  his  views  were  not  the  same  under  the 
influence  of  the  Cardinal  and  that  of  Thomas  Crumwell. 
(2)  Some  monasteries  were  turned  into  collegiate 
churches,  and  many  of  the  abbey  churches,  after  the 
destruction  of  the  conventual  buildings,  were  assigned 

u  2 


36  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

as  parish  churches  for  the  use  of  the  people.  (3)  Some 
grammar  schools  were  erected.  (4)  A  considerable 
sum  is  said  to  have  been  spent  in  making  roads  and  in 
fortifying  the  coasts  of  the  Channel.  (5)  But  by  far  the 
Transfer  of  greater  part  of  the  monastic  property  passed 
iandasbtoeLy-  into  the  hands  of  the  nobility  and  gentry, 
men  either  by  purchase  at  very  easy  rates,  or  by 

direct  gift  from  the  Crown.  This  was  the  policy  of 
Crumwell,  who  astutely  foresaw  that  the  great  change 
which  had  been  effected  would  be  made  perpetual  in 
its  effects,  if  all  the  leading  men  of  the  country  were 
directly  and  personally  interested  in  maintaining  it. 
Henry  was  not  of  a  parsimonious  character  like  his 
father,  but  rather  inclined  to  profuse  extravagance,  and 
readily  parted  with  his  new  acquisitions.  Hallam  is  of 
opinion  that  this  disposition  of  the  conventual  estates, 
'  however  illaudable  in  its  motive,  has  proved  upon  the 
whole  more  beneficial  to  England  than  any  other  dispo- 
sition would  have  turned  out.' 

There  were,  however,  two  manifest  evils  which 
flowed  directly  from  it.  The  first  was  the  creation 
Evils  result-  of  a  great  mass  of  lay  tithes — an  absurd  ano- 
thfs  maly,  and  a  grievous  injustice  to  the  clergy. 

Throughout  all  their  history  the  monasteries  had  been 
eager  to  get  impropriations  of  tithes,  and  to  reduce 
the  parish  priest  to  the  miserable  stipend  paid  for  a 
vicar.  Now  the  tithes  which  they  had  filched  from  the 
Church,  instead  of  being  restored  to  the  clergy,  were 
greedily  seized  by  lay  hands.  '  The  impropriations, 
says  Hallam,  'were  in  no  instance,  I  believe,  restored 
to  the  parochial  clergy.'  Thus,  secondly,  the  poverty 
of  the  clergy  was  not  only  continued,  but  was  griev- 


FALL  OF  THE  MONASTERIES  37 

ously  increased.  While  tlie  monasteries  lasted,  the 
vicar  who  served  the  parish  church  was  often  a  member 
of  the  corporate  body ;  in  the  case  of  Houses  of  Canons, 
who  were  all  in  orders,  almost  universally  so.  The 
smallness  of  the  vicarial  stipend  did  not,  therefore, 
much  affect  him.  But  when,  on  the  D's solution,  this 
alone  formed  the  support  of  the  priest,  the  greatest 
inconvenience  followed,  even  if  it  were  regularly  paid. 
But. there  is  ample  testimony  that  in  a  great  many 
cases,  when  the  tithes  passed  into  lay  hands,  the  vicarial 
stipend  was  not  paid  at  all.  Hence  followed  an  utter 
cessation  of  the  offices  in  many  churches,  and  a  legacy 
of  trouble  and  poverty  was  bequeathed  to  the  Church 
for  all  time.  Henry's  ecclesiastical  spoliations  were 
Act  to  give  completed  by  the  Act  passed  in  1545.  which 

the  King  • 

chantry  and  gave  the  King  the  property  of  all  colleges, 

collegiate         °  .  . 

property  tree  chapels,  chantries,  hospitals,  fraternities, 
guilds,  which  were  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  Court  of 
Augmentation.  This  Act  was  renewed  in  the  next 
reign,  but  its  terribly  sweeping  provisions  were  never 
fully  carried  out. 

The  monks  and  nuns  ejected  from  the  monasteries 
had  small  pensions  assigned  to  them,  which  are  said  to 
Hard  case  of  have  been  regularly  paid;  but  to  many  of 
moenksMid  them  the  sudden  return  into  a  world  with 
which  they  had  become  utterly  unacquainted, 
and  in  which  they  had  no  part  to  play,  was  a  terrible 
hardship.  This  hardship  was  greatly  increased  by  the 
Six  Article  Law,  which  enacted  that  vows  of  chastity, 
once  taken,  must  be  rigidly  observed  and  made  the 
marriage  of  the  secularised  '  religious '  illegal  under 
heavy  penalties. 


38  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

During  the  latter  years  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
the  attention  is  drawn  aside  to  the  fearful  parodies  of 
Cruelties  of  justice ;  to  the  execution,  at  the  same  time 
and  place,  of  one  set  of  persons  for  denying 
the  Supremacy,  of  another  for  Lutheran  heresy  (1540); ' 
to  the  murder  of  the  venerable  Countess  of  Salisbury 
in  revenge  for  the  sharp  words  of  her  son,  Cardinal 
Pole  (1541);  to  the  torture  and  burning  of  a  delicate 
and  learned  lady  (Anne  Ayscough)  for  alleged  heresy 
on  the  Eucharist  (1546);  and  we  are  apt  to  forget  what 
the  miseries  of  the  poor  ejected  monks  and  nuns  must 
have  been  in  that  harsh  and  troubled  time. 

We  turn  with  pleasure  from  the  destructive  and 
vindictive  policy  of  this  reign,  from  the  savage  blows 
and  repulsive  cruelties  which  marked  the  extinction  of 
the  old  ecclesiastical  system,  to  the  consideration  of  the 
constructive  process  which,  during  all  these  horrors, 
was  steadily  proceeding,  and  paving  the  way  for  a 
happier  state  of  things  in  the  future. 

1  On  the  same  day  Abel,  Featherstone,  and  Powel,  priests,  and 
doctors  of  divinity,  and  Barnes,  Gerard,  and  Jerome,  Lutherans,  who 
had  been  attainted  in  Parliament  for  heresies,  '  the  number  of 
which  was  too  long  to  be  repeated,'  were  burned.  It  is  calculated 
that  sixty-five  persons  were  executed  in  Henry's  reign  for  denying 
the  Supremacy,  and  sixty-one  were  condemned  but  not  executed. 
The  number  of  those  executed  for  heresy  was  also  very  considerable. 


CHAPTER  V. 

RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS   DURING  THE  REIGN   OF  HENRY  VIII. 

1536-1547. 

SINCE  the  clays  of  St.  Osmund  of  Salisbury,  who  about 
1085  put  forth  his  Custom  Book,  containing  a  revised 
The  ancient  edition  of  the  offices  of  the  English  Church, 

Church  ser- 

vices  but  little  had  been  done   by  the  Church  or 

England  as  a  body  to  instruct  or  enlighten  the  clergy  or 
the  people.  The  old  fables  still  remained  in  the  Breviary, 
occupying  a  position  of  equal  honour  with  the  words  of 
Scripture,  and  everything  was  in  a  language  '  not 
understanded  of  the  people.'  The  idea  of  a  religious 
service  was  that  the  people  should  assemble  in  church 
and  say  their  own  prayers,  while  the  Mass  was  being- 
celebrated  in  an  unknown  tongue,  their  part  in  the 
service  being  confined  to  occasionally  exhibiting  respect 
for  what  was  going  on  by  standing  or  genuflecting. 
To  provide  them  with  prayers  to  say  at  this  time  there 
were  divers  Primers,  Manuals,  Hours,  and  little  books, 
containing  English  prayers  or  doggerel  explanations  of 
the  various  parts  of  the  Mass.  There  were  also  many 
poems  in  doggerel  verse,  both  French  and  English, 
recounting  the  chief  facts  of  Scripture  ;  but  in  spite  of 
such  useful  little  books,  and  in  spite  of  Wycliffe's  Eng- 
lish version  of  the  Bible,  and  his  pungent  English 
ignorance  of  Tracts,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  exaggerate  the 
state  of  ignorance  concerning  religious  truth 
in  which  the  people  of  England  were  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century. 

39 


4O  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

This  ignorance  was  compulsory,  and  not  patiently 
accepted  by  the  people  themselves.  The  bishops  were 
anxious  to  keep  them  from  knowledge,  from  fear  lest  this 
knowledge  should  produce  heresy.  Instead  of  providing 
useful  instruction,  their  policy  was  to  debar  the  people 
from  all  instruction.1  But  when  books  were  to  be  had, 
repressive  measures  could  not  prevent  their  being  bought 
and  read.  The  little  English  books  attacking  the 
Church  system,  which  were  printed  abroad,  were  im- 
ported into  England  in  great  numbers,  and  were  eagerly 
bought.  Tyndale's  Testaments  were  purchased  in  large 
quantities  at  a  price  equivalent  to  two  weeks'  wages  of 
a  labourer.  In  the  Convocation  of  1534  a  portentous 
list  of  heretical  books  was  handed  by  the  Lower  House 
to  the  Upper.  The  King  and  the  bishops  saw  that 
they  must  accept  the  situation,  and  provide  some  in- 
struction for  the  people,  who  would  no  longer  be  denied. 
Hence  the  promise  in  1530  that  the  Bible  should  be 
translated  into  English.  Hence  Cranmer's  movement 
in  Convocation  in  1534,  and  the  attempt  to  arrange 
translators.  Hence  Crumwell's  more  decided  action, 
which  produced  the  English  Bible  of  1535.  But  the  pub- 
1  ication  of  the  text  of  the  Bible  was  not  sufficient.  How 
were  the  ignorant  people  to  formulate  their  doctrines 
rightly  when  nothing  was  done  for  them  by  the  clergy, 
their  proper  instructors  ?  When  the  Convocation  of 
Canterbury  met  in  1536,  Bishop  Latimer  preached  the 
sermon,  ad,  clerum.  His  discourse  was  a  very  remark- 

1  In  the  fifteenth  century  Bishop  Pecock's  principal  offence  was 
his  having  written  theological  books  in  English.  IB  the  Register 
ot:  Bishop  Chedworth,  at  the  same  period,  men  are  censured  for 
having  books  in  English,  without  reference  to  the  contents  of  the 
books. 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  41 

able  one.  lie  denounced  with  withering  scorn  the 
old  superstitions  as  to  image-worship  and  purgatory, 
Bishop  and  represented  God  as  addressing  the  clergy. 
seannonto  '  You  teach  your  own  traditions  and  seek 
cation"1'  your  own  glory  and  profit.  You  preach  very 
seldom,  and  when  you  do  preach,  do  nothing  but  cum- 
ber them  that  preach  truly,  as  much  as  lieth  in  you. 
I  would  that  Christian  people  should  hear  my  doctrine, 
and  at  their  convenient  leisure  read  it  also,  as  many 
as  would.  Your  care  is  not  that  all  men  may  hear  it, 
but  all  your  care  is  that  no  layman  do  read  it.'  When 
such  plain  words  could  be  addressed  to  the  assembled 
clergy  by  a  bishop  enjoying  royal  favour,  it  is  clear  that 
the  time  of  enforced  ignorance  was  drawing  to  a  close. 
The  Ten  ^e  ^rst  ^tempt  to  put  out  anything  like  an 
Articles  authoritative  manual  of  instruction  was  made 
by  the  publication  of  the  'Ten  Articles'  in  1536.  The 
iirst  draft  of  these  articles  is  in  the  King's  hand,  but  he 
no  doubt  had  the  assistance  of  some  of  the  bishops  in 
drawing  them  up.  They  are  borrowed  chiefly  from  the 
Confession  of  Augsburg.  They  begin  by  stating  that  the 
Scriptures  are  to  be  taken  as  the  rule  of  faith,  as  inter- 
preted by  the  Three  Creeds  and  the  '  four  holy  Councils.' 
They  treat,  first  of  Baptism,  which  is  declared  to  be  neces- 
sary for  the  remission  of  sins.  Then  of  Penance,  '  a  thing 
so  necessary  for  man's  salvation,  that  no  man  which  after 
his  baptism  is  fallen  again,  and  hath  committed  deadly 
sin,  can  without  the  same  be  saved  or  attain  everlasting 
life.'  It  consists  in  contrition,  confession,  and  amend- 
ment. As  to  confession,  all  are  bid  '  in  nowise  to  con- 
temn the  auricular  confession  made  unto  the  ministers 
of  the  Church,  but  to  repute  the  same  as  a  very  expedient 


42  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

and  necessary  mean  whereby  they  may  require  and  ask 
absolution  at  the  priest's  hands  ; '  and  that  l  they  ought 
and  must  give  no  less  faith  and  credence  to  the  words 
of  absolution  pronounced  by  the  ministers  of  the  Church 
than  they  would  unto  the  very  words  and  voice  of  God 
Himself.'  Amendment  of  life  is  also  necessary,  and  the 
bringing  forth  fruits  of  faith  in  good  living.  As  regards 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  men  are  to  believe  that 
'  under  the  form  and  figure  of  bread  and  wine,  which 
we  there  presently  do  see  and  perceive  by  outward 
senses,  is  verily,  substantially,  and  really  contained  and 
comprehended  the  very  selfsame  body  and  blood  of  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  which  was  born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  and  suffered  on  the  cross  for  our  redemption, 
which  is  corporally,  really,  and  in  the  very  substance, 
exhibited,  distributed,  and  received  unto  and  of  all 
them  which  receive  the  said  sacrament,'  and  therefore 
due  reverence  and  fitting  preparation  are  to  be  used  for 
that  sacrament.  Justification,  or  remission  of  sins,  is 
obtained  by  contrition  and  faith  joined  with  charity, 
the  only  meritorious  cause  being  the  merits  of  Jesub 
Christ.  Images  may  be  used  as  '  representers  of  virtue 
and  good  example,'  but  '  as  for  censing  them,  kneeling 
and  offering  unto  them,  with  other  like  worshippings, 
although  the  same  hath  entered  by  devotion  and  fallen 
to  custom,  yet  the  people  are  to  be  taught  that  they  in 
nowise  do  it,  nor  think  it  meet  to  be  done  to  the  same 
images,  but  only  to  be  done  to  God.'  Saints  are  to  be 
honoured,  '  but  not  with  that  confidence  and  honour 
which  are  only  due  to  God,  trusting  to  attain  at  their 
hands  that  which  must  be  had  only  of  God.'  They  may 
be  prayed  to  as  intercessors  to  God  for  us,  {  so  that  it  be 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  43 

done  without  any  vain  superstition  as  to  think  that  any 
saint  will  hear  us  sooner  than  Christ,  or  that  any 
saint  cloth  serve  for  one  thing  more  than  another,  or  is 
patron  of  the  same.'  The  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  are  '  not  to  be  contemned  and  cast  away,  but  to 
be  used  and  continued  as  things  good  and  laudable,  but 
none  of  these  ceremonies  have  power  to  remit  sin.'  As 
regards  Purgatory,  it  is  good  and  charitable  to  pray  for 
Christian  souls,  and  to  have  Masses  for  them,  but 
'forasmuch  as  the  place  where  they  be,  the  name  there- 
of, and  kind  of  pains  there  also  be  to  us  uncertain  by 
Scripture,  therefore  this  with  all  other  things  we  remit 
to  Almighty  God,  unto  whose  mercy  it  is  meet  and  con- 
venient for  us  to  commend  them ;  but  it  is  so  much  neces- 
sary that  such  abuses  be  clearly  put  away,  which  under 
the  name  of  purgatory  hath  been  advanced  as  to  make 
men  believe  that  through  the  Bishop  of  Rome's  pardons 
souls  might  be  clearly  delivered  out  of  purgatory,  and 
all  the  pains  of  it ;  or  that  Masses  said  a.t  Scala  Cceli,  or 
otherwise  in  any  place,  or  before  any  image,  might 
likewise  deliver  them  from  all  their  pain,  and  send 
them  straight  to  Heaven,  and  other  like  abuses.' 

These  Articles,  originally  drafted  by  the  King  and 
some  of  the  more  reforming  bishops,  were  accepted  by 
the  Convocation  of  Canterbury,  and  signed  by  all  the 
members  of  it.  They  were  also  accepted  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York  and  the  Bishop  of  Durham  for  the 
northern  Convocation.  At  the  head  of  the  signatures 
appears  that  of  Thomas  Crumwell,  who,  as  the  Vicar- 
General  of  the  King,  claimed  to  take  precedence  of  all 
the  bishops.  The  Articles  are  very  remarkable,  as  re- 
presenting the  immense  progress  which  had  been  made 


44  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAXD 

since  the  time  when  the  King  wrote  in  defence  of  the 
'  Seven  Sacraments,'  and  Bishop  Fisher  and  Sir  Thomas 
More  in  defence  of  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory.  Of  the 
seven  so-called  sacraments,  four  are  entirely  omitted  in 
these  Articles,  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory  is  practically 
abandoned,  and  the  teaching  on  the  Eucharist,  which 
omits  the  crucial  words  '  that  bread  and  wine  no  longer 
remain,'  represents  rather  the  consubstantiation  theory 
of  the  Lutherans  than  the  transubstantiation  of  the 
Church.  The  influences  of  Crumwell  and  of  the  German 
theology  are  here  very  evident.  The  document  was  in 
many  ways  extremely  well  calculated  for  the  guidance 
of  the  clergy  in  the  instruction  of  the  people. 

Doubtless  political  causes  had  much  to  do  in  giving 
their  special  character  to  the  Ten  Articles.  Henry, 
though  strongly  pressed,  had  refused  to  accept  the  Con- 
fession of  Augsburg  or  to  join  the  Smalcald  League. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  bitterly  incensed  against  the 
new  Pope,  Paul  III.,  who,  as  he  knew,  had  excommuni- 
cated him,  and  was  only  kept  back  from  the  publication 
of  the  sentence  by  the  influence  of  the  King  of  France. 
While,  therefore,  he  was  not  prepared  to  make  common 
cause  with  the  German  Reformers,  he  was  also  desirous 
to  show  to  the  Roman  party  that  he  was  ready  to  accept 
a  definite  position  for  the  Church  of  England  on  the 
basis  of  a  national  confession  of  faith.  The  clergy, 
Protest  readily  following  the  King's  lead,  voted  that 
proposed  whereas  a  true  General  Council  ought  in  all 

Council  of  „. 

Mantua  things  to  be  obeyed,  the  Council  now  sum- 
moned by  the  Pope,  '  not  christianly  nor  charitably,  but 
for  and  upon  private  malice  and  ambition,  or  other 
worldly  and  carnal  respects,'  ought  to  be  treated  with 
contempt. 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  45 

Tins  Convocation  also  voted  the  diminution  of  the 
number  of  saints'  days  and  holy  days,  and  that  all  the 
Diminution  dedication  feasts  of  churches  should  be  observed 
of  holy  days  on  a  uniform  daVj  viz.  the  first  Sunday  inOctober. 
The  Convocation  was  dissolved  in  July,  1536,  and  soon 
First  •  Royal  afterwards  was  published  the  first  set  of  '  Royal 
injunctions-  Injunctions'  to  the  clergy,  enforcing  upon 
their  attention  not  only  the  '  Ten  Articles'  and  the 
new  rules  about  holy  days,  but  also  divers  other  regu- 
lations which  do  not  appear  to  have  been  before 
Convocation,  and  which,  therefore,  were  due  to  that 
theory  of  the  Royal  Supremacy  which  the  King  had 
adopted. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  the  breaking  out  of  the 
northern  rebellion,  known  as  the  '  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,' 
Measures  an(^  *ne  voting  by  an  irregular  assembly  of 
mlen'cetne"  C^erg7  at  York  of  a  series  of  propositions 
people  directly  contradicting  the  '  Ten  Articles,'  and 
upholding  all  the  old  superstitions,  made  it  necessary 
to  take  some  further  steps  to  influence  the  people.  The 
bishops  were  directed  to  distribute  copies  of  the  Articles, 
and  to  explain  that  in  them  there  was  no  departure 
from  the  Catholic  religion.  They  were  also  to  teach 
the  people  that  the  '  honest  ceremonies  '  of  the  Church 
were  by  all  means  to  be  upheld. 

Crumwell,  however,  perceived  that  something  more 
was  needed  for  the  instruction  of  the  people  and  the 
The  making  confirmation  of  the  Reformation  movement. 
?Theeinstt'  Tne  Ten  Articles  were  a  good  foundation,  but 
chn'tian*  they  left  the  actual  instruction  in  the  hands  of 
Mau>  the  clergy,  and  it  did  not  as  yet  appear  that 

the  clergy  had  any  disposition  to  perform  this  duty. 


4  5  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Crumwell  accordingly  got  together  a  meeting  of  the 
bishops  in  the  early  part  of  the  following  year,  with  tho 
object  of  discussing  the  plan  of  a  work  of  more  full 
instruction.  An  account  of  this  meeting  is  given  in  a 
letter  of  Mr.  Aless,  a  Scot,  who  was  brought  in  by  Crum- 
well with  the  view  of  upholding  his  plans.  Some  of  the 
bishops  made  considerable  objections ;  but  these  were 
overruled,  and  a  large  committee  of  divines  was  appointed 
to  draw  up  a  complete  manual  of  faith  and  morals.  This 
committee  worked  with  great  diligence,  separate  portions 
of  the  subject  being  entrusted  to  each  member ;  so  that 
it  produced  in  a  very  short  time  the  book  known 
as  '  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,'  which  was 
signed  by  the  King,  and  printed  and  published  in  May, 
1537.  The  book  is  divided  into  four  parts.  The  first; 
contains  the  exposition  of  the  Creed ;  the  second  that 
of  the  Sacraments — which  are  here  seven,  and  not  three 
as  in  the  '  Ten  Articles ' ;  the  third,  the  exposition  of 
the  Ten  Commandments  ;  the  fourth,  that  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  the  Ave,  with  articles  on  Justification  and 
Purgatory.  The  Ten  Articles  are  embodied  in  the  book 
almost  verbatim.  The  book  is  a  very  remarkable  one 
in  many  ways.  It  shows  great  power  of  theological 
disquisition  and  of  practical  exhortation.  Some  of  its 
enunciations  are  so  happy  and  apposite  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  improve  on  them.  It  appears  to  have 
had  in  view  three  main  objects — first,  the  better  and 
fuller  instruction  of  the  people;  secondly,  the  careful 
and  elaborate  statement  of  the  case  of  the  Church  of 
England  as  against  the  Church  of  Rome ;  thirdly,  the 
softening  down  some  of  the  bitterness  produced  in  tho 
minds  of  the  party  of  the  old  learning  by  the  publication 


RELfGtOUS   PROGRESS  47 

of  tho  Ten  Articles,  and  the  effecting  what  was  intended 
to  be  a  happy  compromise  between  the  reforming  and 
anti-reforming  party.  Of  this  compromise  there  are 
abundant  traces  throughout  the  whole  treatise.  Thus 
Christ's  merits  are  all  sufficient  for  justification,  but 
yet  the  merits  of  saints  are  valuable.  Christ  is  the 
only  mediator  and  intercessor,  but  we  may  ask  the 
saints  to  pray  for  us.  The  Church  is  both  visible  and 
invisible,  either  a  church  or  a  congregation.  There  are 
only  two  orders  of  ministers  in  Scripture — priests  or 
bishops,  and  deacons — but  others  may  be  lawfully  used. 
Bishops  have  a  jurisdiction,  but  a  certain  liberty  is 
allowable  to  Christian  men.  Images  are  only  books 
for  the  unlearned,  but  they  may  be  used  and  worshipped 
so  long  as  the  honour  is  given  to  God.  Ceremonies 
have  no  power  to  remit  sin,  but  are  very  expedient  for 
devotion.  Sacraments  are  seven,  but  four  of  them  fall 
short  of  the  other  three  in  dignity. 

As  '  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man '  may  be  looked 
upon  (as  doubtless  it  was  intended  to  be)  as  a  manifesto 
of  the  Church  of  England  as  against  the  Church  of 
Rome,  it  will  be  well  to  quote  the  words  in  which  it 
enunciates  what  may  be  considered  as  the  foundation 
principle  of  the  Reformation,  viz.  the  national  rights 
of  churches.  '  I  believe  that  particular  churches,  in 
what  place  of  the  world  soever  they  be  congregated,  be 
the  very  parts,  portions,  or  members  of  the  Catholic 
and  Universal  Church,  and  that  between  them  there  is 
indeed  no  difference  in  superiority,  pre-eminence,  or 
authority,  neither  that  any  one  of  them  is  head  or 
sovereign  over  the  other;  but  that  they  be  all  equal 
in  power  and  dignity,  and  be  all  grounded  and  builded 


43  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

upon  one  foundation.  .  .  .  And  therefore  I  do  believe 
that  the  Church  of  Rome  is  not,  nor  cannot,  worthily  be 
called  the  Catholic  Church,  but  only  a  particular  mem- 
ber thereof,  and  cannot  challenge  or  vindicate  of  right 
and  by  the  Word  of  God  to  be  head  of  this  Universal 
Church,  or  to  have  any  superiority  over  the  other 
churches  of  Christ  which  be  in  England,  France,  Spain, 
or  any  other  realm,  but  that  they  be  all  free  from  any 
subjection  unto  the  said  Church  of  Rome,  or  unto  the 
minister  or  bishop  of  the  same.  .  .  .  And  though  the 
said  particular  churches  do  much  differ  one  from  the 
other  in  the  divers  using  and  observation  of  such  out- 
ward rites,  ceremonies,  traditions,  and  ordinances  as  be 
instituted  by  their  governors  and  received  and  approved 
among  them,  yet  I  believe  assuredly  that  the  unity  of 
this  Catholic  Church  cannot  therefore,  or  for  that  cause, 
be  anything  hurted,  impeached,  or  infringed.'  The 
King  signed  this  book  hastily,  and  without  having 
fully  considered  its  contents.  There  was,  in  fact,  much 
in  it  with  which  he  did  not  agree.  The  kingly  power 
was  not  sufficiently  magnified,  and  only  a  corrective 
and  regulative  force  was  ascribed  to  the  Supremacy. 
He  afterwards  had  much  controversy  with  Cranmer  as 
to  some  of  its  statements,  as  his  notes  on  his  copy,  with 
Cranmer's  animadversions  on  them  (still  preserved  at 
Oxford),  testify.  There  is  evidence  that  the  book  was 
readily  welcomed  and  used  by  some  of  the  bishops.  The 
Bishop  of  Exeter  directs  his  clergy  to  read  some  part 
of  the  explanations  of  the  Paternoster,  Ave,  Creed,  and 
Commandments,  as  given  in  this  book,  every  Sunday  to 
the  people.  And  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London,  bids  all 
his  clergy  procure  the  book  and  exercise  themselves  in 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  49 

the  same.  Cranmer  also  published  an  order  that  some* 
part  of  the  book  should  be  read  every  Sunday  to  the 
people. 

In  the  year  1537  came  out  another  English  version 
of  the  Bible,  which  had  been  compiled  by  John  Rogers. 
Second  Eng-  ^n^s  contained  all  of  Tyndale's  version  that 
Hsh  Bible  \±Q  jia(j  completed,  the  gaps  being  filled  from 
Coverdale's  Bible.  This  version  is  known  as  Matthew's 
Bible,  the  name  of  Matthew  having  been  assumed  by 
Rogers.  The  book  was  licensed  by  the  King ;  but  it 
was  not  considered  sufficiently  perfect  by  Cranmer  and 
The 'Great  ^ie  bishops,  who  immediately  set  on  foot  a 
Bible-  revision  of  it,  which  issued  in  1539  in  the 
publication  of  the  '  Great  Bible.' 

By  an  injunction  published  by  the  King  in  1538, 
each  parish  priest  is  ordered  to  '  provide  one  book  of 
Theinjunc-  ^ie  wn°le  Bible  of  the  largest  volume  in 
tion  of  1538.  English^  and  the  same  set  up  in  some  con- 
venient place  within  your  church,  whereas  your  parish- 
ioners may  most  commodiously  resort  to  the  same  and 
read  it,  and  that  ye  discourage  no  man,  privily  or 
apertly,  from  reading  the  same  Bible,  but  expressly 
provoke,  stir,  and  exhort  every  person  to  read  the 
same  as  that  which  is  the  very  lively  Word  of  God.' 
The  clergy  are  also  bidden  to  repeat  to  their  parishioners 
on  Sunday,  several  times  over,  some  portion  of  the 
Paternoster,  Creed,  and  Ten  Commandments  in 
English.  Images  which  had  been  abused  by  pilgrim- 
ages or  offerings  were  to  be  taken  down. 

Soon  afterwards  the  tomb  of  Thomas  Becket  at 
Canterbury,  which  contained  an  immense  accumulation 
of  treasure  from  the  offerings  of  the  faithful  for  near 

C.  H.  E 


5O  THE  RsroKAfATioN  IN  ENGLAND 

upon  four  centuries,  was  dismantled  and  rifled  by  tho 
King's  order,  and  the  name  of  the  saint,  as  an  opponent- 
Rifling  of  of  kings,  was  io-nominiously  struck  out  of 

the  tomb  of     ,,,,_,  .  ,     , 

st.  Thomas  the  calendar.  Iwenty-six  carts  conveyed  the 
treasure  to  the  royal  coffers ;  but  the  effect  of  this  pro- 
ceeding was  to  draw  forth  from  the  impetuous  Pope, 
The  King  Paul  III.,  the  excommunication  which  had 
cated  l°ng  been  held  back  for  politic  considerations, 

and  Henry  was  denounced  by  Home  as  an  heretic  and 
apostate  from  the  faith  (December  17,  1538). 

In  the  rapid  advancing  of  the  Reformation,  Cranmer 
and  Crumwell  had  no  doubt  been  acting  cordially 
together,  while  the  King  was  dexterously  led  by  the 
\ttemptto  enormous  bribe  of  the  monastic  spoils  and  the 
riches  of  St.  Thomas  to  acquiesce  in  doctrinal 
statements  and  an  ecclesiastical  policy  of 
of  which  he  did  not  really  approve.  The  time 
England  r]OW  appeared  favourable  to  the  heads  of  the 
reforming  party  to  make  a  renewed  effort  to  effect  a 
union  between  the  Church  of  England  and  the  Lutherans. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  was  the  policy  of  both 
Cranmer  and  Crumwell ;  but  the  means  which  they  took 
to  bring  it  about  were  just  such  as  were  most  calculated 
to  thwart  it.  They  brought  a  deputation  of  Lutheran 
divines  to  England  1  (1538),  and  contrived  that  they 
should  present  their  views  to  the  King,  censuring  those 
points  on  which  they  had  as  yet  been  unable  to  influence 

1  There  was  much  conference  between  these  divines  and 
Cranmer  and  the  reforming  bishops,  and  an  attempt  was  made  to 
draw  up  a  confession  of  the  reformed  faith  in  Articles.  The  document 
which  was  agreed  upon,  usually  known  as  the  '  Thirteen  Articles,'  is 
printed  in  Cranmer's  Remains.  The  substance  of  it  was  afterwards 
embodied  in  the  fort y  -two  articles. 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  51 

him,  viz.  communion  in  one  kind,  private  masses,  and 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy.  Henry  called  Bishop 
Effects  of  Tonstal  to  his  aid,  and  immediately  proceeded 

this  attempt  . 

on  the  King  to  argue  against  the  Lutheran  propositions. 
The  polemical  spirit  which  had  led  him  formerly  to 
write  against  Luther  was  roused  afresh.  He  utterly 
repudiated  the  Lutherans,  and  from  that  moment  his 
whole  policy  towards  the  reforming  movement  was 
changed.  He  issued  a  proclamation  proclaiming  penal- 
ties against  married  priests.  He  himself  presided  at 
the  trial  and  condemnation  of  Lambert,  or  Nicholson, 
a  Sacramentary.  Another  proclamation  ordered  the 
full  observance  of  all  the  ancient  ceremonies.  Finally, 
he  replied  to  the  Lutheran  objections  by  procuring  the 
passing  of  the  Six  Article  Law  (1539). 

This  was  the  first  attempt  to  make  religious  doctrine 
part  of  the  statute  law,  and  to  enforce  and  defend  it 
The  six  ^J  terrible  penalties.  The  process  is  somewhat 
Article  Law  obscure  by  which  the  definition  of  the  doctrines 
to  be  thus  upheld  was  arrived  at.  Six  questions, 
apparently  drawn  up  by  the  King,  were  submitted  to 
Convocation  and  to  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
composed  of  bishops.  The  reforming  party  and  the 
anti-reformers  were  represented  on  the  committee,  and 
no  agreement  could  be  arrived  at.  Then  each  party 
was  commissioned  to  draft  a  Bill,  and  upon  these  Bills 
discussion  took  place  in  Parliament.  The  result  was 
the  acceptance  by  Parliament  of  the  Six  Articles  in 
their  strongest  anti-reforming  form.  The  King  had 
been  very  busy  in  procuring  this  result ;  but  the  singular 
part  of  the  matter  is  that  the  Articles  ultimately  passed 
were  not  altogether  in  accordance  with  his  views.  By 

E   2 


52  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

the  first  draft  of  the  questions  he  had  shown  that  he 
was  inclined  to  accept  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the 
real  presence,  without  transubstantiation ;  and  by  a 
paper  printed  among  Burnet's  '  Records '  we  find  that  he 
was  strongly  opposed  to  the  necessity  of  auricular  con- 
fession. It  is  probable  that,  excited  by  the  opposition 
of  the  reforming  party,  and  angered  by  the  accounts  of 
the  insults  offered  to  religion  by  the  '  Ribauds,'  Henry 
came  at  last  to  a  more  strict  view  than  that  with  which 
he  had  started,  and  abandoned  all  thought  of  com- 
promise. The  Act  of  Parliament  after  speaking  of  the 
need  of  unity  and  asserting  that  the  questions  had  been 
debated  on  by  the  clergy,  and  that  the  King  had  con- 
tributed '  high  learning  and  great  knowledge '  to  the 
discussion,  enacts  (1)  that  in  the  Eucharist  there  is  no 
longer  bread  and  wine,  but  the  natural  body  and  blood 
of  Christ;  (2)  that  communion  in  both  kinds  is  not 
necessary ;  (3)  that  priests  might  not  marry  ;  (4)  that 
vows  of  chastity  ought  not  to  be  dispensed  with ;  (5) 
that  the  use  of  private  masses  ought  to  be  continued  ; 
(G)  that  auricular  confession  was  expedient  and  neces- 
sary, and  to  be  retained.  Those  who  spoke,  preached, 
or  wrote  against  the  first  article  were  to  be  burned 
as  heretics,  '  without  any  abjuration.' l  Those  who 
preached  or  obstinately  disputed  against  the  others  were 
to  be  hanged  as  felons.  Those  who  in  any  way  spoke 
against  them  were  to  be  imprisoned.  Married  priests 
were  to  be  separated  from  their  wives ;  if  they  returned 
to  them  to  be  hanged  as  felons,  the  women  to  suffer  in 

1  The  peculiar  ferocity  of  this  statute  was  shown  in  this  refusal 
of  escape  by  abjuration,  which  had  always  been  allowed  by  the 
ecclesiastical  law. 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  53 

like  manner.  Those  who  contemned  or  abstained  from 
confession  or  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  were,  for  the 
first  offence,  to  forfeit  their  goods  and  be  imprisoned  ; 
for  the  second  offence  to  suffer  as  felons. 

It  is  almost  inconceivable  that  any  Parliament 
should  have  passed  this  bloodthirsty  law  with  the  in- 
obsequious-  tention  of  seriously  enforcing  it.  Accordingly, 
many  writers  have  endeavoured  to  show  that 


and  the  . 

clergy  it  was  never  to  any  extent  enforced.  But 
contemporary  records  prove  that  a  very  considerable 
number  of  persons  suffered  under  it.  It  was,  indeed, 
soon  modified,  which  was  not  improbably  due  to  the 
gratitude  of  the  King  to  Archbishop  Cranmer  for  pro- 
curing the  sentence  of  the  clergy  in  their  Convocation 
as  to  the  nullity  of  his  marriage  with  Anne  of  Cleves. 
By  this  sentence,  as  by  that  which  decreed  the  divorce 
from  Anne  Boleyn,  the  too  pliant  Archbishop  and  the 
too  obsequious  clergy  covered  themselves  with  disgrace. 
The  triumph  of  the  anti-reforming1'  party  led  to  the 
attainder  and  death  of  Crumwell.  The  Kin  had 


Fan  of         obtained  by  his  means  all  the  spoil  he 

Crumwell,       ,-11  i*  ^        m 

1540  likely  to  secure  irom   the  bhurch,  and  now 

threw  aside  his  instrument,  with  whom,  for  other  causes, 
he  was  dissatisfied. 

The  anti-reformers  had  gained  much,  but  they  by 
no  means  felt  secure.  Cranmer  was  known  to  be  in 
roiic  oi  high  favour  with  the  King,  and  might  at  any 
reforming  time  launch  him  again  on  the  path  of  reform. 
party  <  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man  '  was 

still  the  authorised  exposition  of  doctrine,  which  in  the 
view  of  many  was  heretical  and  mischievous.  Cranmer 
therefore,  at  all  hazards,  must  be  destroyed,  and  the 


54  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

1  Institution '  superseded.  The  attempt  to  bring  about 
the  first  of  these  objects  failed,  Cranmer  being  too 
useful  to  the  King  to  be  abandoned.  The  attempt  to 
overthrow  the  '  Institution  '  and  to  check  the  reading 
of  the  English  Bible  was  to  a  certain  extent  successful. 
A  curious  anticipatory  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed 
(July  1540)  called  an  Act  concerning  the  '  constitution 
and  declaration  of  the  Christian  religion,'  which  enacted 
that  whatsoever  should  be  determined  by  a  committee 
of  divines  appointed  for  that  purpose,  and  approved  by 
the  King,  should  be  received  and  believed  by  all  the 
King's  subjects,  but  that  nothing  should  be  sanc- 
tioned by  this  Act  contrary  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of 
the  realm. 

An  attempt  was  made  by  the  committee  of  divines 
to  draw  up  a  document  without  the  knowledge  of 
Formation  Cranmer,  and,  having  obtained  the  King's 

of'TheEru-  '  •          •,  A       l 

ditionofany  license,  suddenly  to  spring1  it  upon  the  Arch- 

Christiau  J  \ ,  •  1 

Man*  bishop — who,  it  was  thought,  seeing  the  royal 

signature,  would  be  compelled  to  accept  it.  This, 
however,  failed.  Cranmer,  who  was  not  so  pliant  in 
his  theology  as  in  his  administration,  refused  to  sign. 
The  Archbishop  then  issued  a  series  of  questions  to 
some  leading  divines  on  points  which  were  to  be  treated 
of  in  the  new  book.  The  answers  which  remain  (in 
Burnet  and  Strype)  show  a  strange  confusion  in  the 
minds  of  the  writers  between  the  secular  and  the  eccle- 
siastical. It  would  seem  as  if  the  overbearing  dogmatism 
of  the  King  had  thrown  the  minds  of  the  divines  quite 
off  their  balance,  and  everything  is  interpreted  with 
reference  to  his  claims  of  autocracy.  The  King  has, 
according  to  some  of  the  answers,  the  {  cure  of  souls ' 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  55 

of  all  his  people ;  he  can  make  bishops  and  priests — 
all  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  is  from  him.  The  out- 
come, however,  of  these  preparations  was,  on  the  whole, 
satisfactory.  The  book  now  constructed — called  '  The 
Erudition  of  •  any  Christian  Man '- —follows  generally 
the  lines  of  the  '  Institution,'  though  the  language  is 
different.  It  begins  with  an  article  on  faith,  which  the 
first  book  had  not.  On  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  the 
1  Institution '  had  taught  that  the  natural  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  is  '  contained  and  comprehended '  under 
the  form  of  bread  and  wine.  The  '  Erudition  '  teaches 
that  the  bread  and  wine  is  '  changed  and  turned  to 
the  very  substance  of  the  body  and  blood.'  There 
is  added  a  long  exhortation  as  to  the  preparation 
for  receiving.  The  '  Erudition '  speaks  of  '•  bishops 
and  priests/  not  '  bishops  or  priests,'  and  declares  the 
*  succession  from  the  Apostles.'  It  has  a  stronger 
declaration  of  the  King's  ecclesiastical  supremacy  than 
the  first  book.  This  very  useful  book,  having  been 
first  accepted  by  Convocation,  was  published  in  May, 
1543,  and  was  generally  known  as  the  '  King's  Book,' 
as  distinguished  from  the  '  Institution,'  called  the 
'  Bishops'  Book.'  The  anti-reforming  party  had  thus 
found  that  the  chief  thing  which  they  had  to  dread  was 
the  continued  influence  of  Archbishop  Cranmer  with 
the  King.  This  had  availed  to  bring  about  a  modifica- 
tion of  the  Six  Article  Law ;  to  prevent  the  suppression 
of  the  English  Bible  under  the  pretence  of  a  new 
revision  by  the  bishops  (1542) ;  to  make  the  attempt 
to  overthrow  the  '  Institution '  issue  in  the  publication 
of  the  '  Erudition ' ;  and  it  also  availed  to  bring  out, 
under  the  King's  sanction,  the  Litany  in  English 


56  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

(1544),  and  in  1545  to  produce  what  was  known  as 
the  '  King's  Primer,'  a  book  of  English  prayers  and 
The « King's  religious  pieces,  which  schoolmasters  were  to 
teach  to  the  young,  and  which  all  were  in- 
vited to  use.  The  preface  of  this  book  strongly  stated 
the  importance  of  all  religious  services  being  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  that  '  all  may  know  both  what  they 
pray,  and  also  with  what  words.' 

These  publications  were  coincident  with  a  work  of 
great  importance,  which,  under  the  sanction  and  direc- 
The  Liturgi-  ^i°n  °^  ^ne  Archbishop,  was  being  carried  on  in 
oai  Revision  ^Q  Convocation  of  Canterbury.  On  February 
24,  1542,  Cranmer  introduced  the  question  of  the  ex- 
amination and  correction  of  the  old  service-books.  As 
such  work  could  only  be  done  by  a  committee,  it  is 
probable  that  a  committee  was  at  this  time  appointed. 
In  the  following  February  the  Archbishop  informed  the 
House  that  the  King  desired  that  all  the  service-books 
should  be  thoroughly  corrected,  and  '  castigated  from 
all  manner  of  mention  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome's  name  ; 
from  all  apocryphas,  feigned  legends,  superstitious 
orations,  collects,  versicles  and  responses,  and  that  the 
services  should  be  made  out  of  Scripture  or  other 
authentic  doctors.'  This  was  the  foundation  of  the 
English  Prayer-book.  The  only  results  of  the  labours 
of  this  committee,  published  during  this  reign,  were 
the  English  Litany,  an  English  version  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  the  '  Hail,  Mary.' 
Archbishop  These,  together  with  a  chapter  of  the  Old 
work  Testament  and  a  chapter  of  the  New  Testa- 

ment from  the  English  Bible,  were  to  be  read  in  all 
churches  every  Sunday.      As  early  as  1542   Cranmer 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  57 

also  introduced  in  Convocation  the  subject  of  pre- 
paring a  book  of  English  Homilies. 

Thus  the  Archbishop,  whose  subservience  to  the 
King  in  the  scandalous  proceedings  of  his  divorce  cases 
has  brought  upon  his  memory  deserved  reproach,  was, 
in  the  matter  of  the  religious  reformation,  of  the  highest 
value  to  the  Church  of  England.  There  was  apparently 
no  other  divine  in  a  place  of  influence  who  cared  much 
for  the  furtherance  of  this  work,  while  there  were  many 
who  were  bitterly  hostile  to  it.  Occasionally  their  in- 
fluence predominated,  as  in  the  proclamations  of  1543 
and  1546,  restricting  the  reading  of  the  Bible.  But, 
upon  the  whole,  the  reforming  process  went  steadily 
forward  under  Cranmer's  guidance,  and  he  retained  his 
exceptional  favour  with  the  King  to  the  last.  At  this 
period  probably  his  sentiments  were  more  Lutheran 
than  anything  else  ;  b'ut  he  was  in  a  transition  state, 
and  in  the  next  reign  he  adopted  views  on  the  Eucharist 
different  from  those  which  he  now  held. 

The  chief  opponent  of  Cranmer's  religious  policy 
was  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  who  also  had  first 
risen  through  the  divorce  case,  who  had  zealously 
defended  the  ecclesiastical  supremacy,  and  been  con- 
tent to  take  the  royal  license  for  the  exercise  of  his  epis- 
Bisho  copal  jurisdiction.  Gardiner  was  an  able  man ; 

Gardiner  more  of  a  canonist  than  a  divine ;  not  very 
honest  apparently,  and  hence  not  so  fully  trusted  by 
the  King  as  Cranmer,  as  his  omission  from  the  Council 
appointed  by  the  King's  will  proved.  But  Cranmer's 
work  might  never  have  been  carried  out,  there  might 
have  been  no  English  Bible,  no  Ten  Articles  or  '  In- 
stitution,' no  reforming  Primers,  nor  Proclamations 


5  8  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

against  Ceremonies,  had  it  not  been  for  the  tact,  bold- 
ness, and  skill  of  Thomas  Crumwell,  who  influenced  the 
Thomas  King  more  directly  and  constantly  than  Cran- 
mer,  and  who  knew  how  to  make  his  influence 
acceptable  by  an  unprincipled  confiscation  and  an 
absurd  exaggeration  of  the  royal  supremacy.  Crumwell 
knew  that  in  his  master's  heart  there  was  a  dislike  and 
contempt  of  the  clergy,  and  a  scorn  of  all  clerical 
claims,  when  he  induced  him  to  issue  in  1535  his 
appointment  as  Vicar-General,  couched  in  terms  studi- 
ously offensive  to  the  clergy,  and  sweeping  away  at  a 
blow  all  the  liberties  of  the  Church  ;  and  when,  as  a 
sequel  to  this,  he  led  him  to  declare  the  suspension  of 
the  jurisdiction  of  all  bishops,  who  were  to  be  restored 
to  it  only  on  taking  out  licenses  from  the  Crown.  It 
is  probable  that  Crumwell's  policy  was  simply  irreli- 
gious, and  only  directed  towards  preserving  his  influ- 
ence with  the  King  ;  but  as  the  support  of  the  reforming 
part  of  the  nation  was  a  useful  factor  in  it,  he  was  thus 
led  to  push  forward  religious  reformation  in  conjunction 
with  Cranmer. 

It  has  been  before  said  that  purity  and  disinterest- 
edness are  not  to  be  looked  for  in  all  the  actors  in  the 
English  Reformation.  To  this  it  may  be  added  that 
character  of  neither  in  the  movement  itself  nor  in  those 


the  period  plete  consistency.  This,  indeed,  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at.  Men  were  feeling  their  way  along  un- 
trodden paths,  without  any  very  clear  perception  of  the 
end  at  which  they  were  aiming,  or  any  perfect  under- 
standing of  the  situation.  The  King  had  altogether 
misapprehended  the  meaning  of  his  supremacy.  A  host 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  59 

of  divines,  whose  views  as  to  the  distinction  between 
the  secular  and  the  spiritual  had  been  confused  by  the 
action  of  the  Popes,  helped  to  mislead  him.  The  clergy, 
accuuton'.od  to  be  crushed  and  humiliated  by  the  Popes, 
submitted  to  be  crushed  and  humiliated  by  the  King  ; 
and  as  the  tide  of  his  autocratic  temper  ebbed  and 
flowed,  yielded  to  each  change.  Hence  there  was 
action  and  reaction  throughout  the  reign.  But  in  this 
there  were  obvious  advantages  for  the  Church.  The 
gradual  process  accustomed  men's  thoughts  to  a  re- 
formation which  should  not  be  drastic  or  iconoclastic, 
but  rather  conservative  and  deliberate.  In  this  temper 
men  came  to  meet  the  sudden  laxity  and  commotions  of 
the  next  reign,  when  there  was  especial  need  for  a 
thoughtful  and  judicious  deliberateness  to  check  the 
haste  and  hurry  of  the  more  violent  reformers. 


6o  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    UNSETTLING   CAUSED   BY   THE   ACCESSION   OF 
EDWARD   VI. 

1547-1549. 

IN  the  Council  .which  was  appointed  by  King  Henry's 
will  to  be  the  administrators  of  affairs  under  the  boy 
Policy  of  King  Edward,  views  favourable  to  sweeping 
Edward's  alterations  in  religion  quickly  gained  the 
ascendent.  Bishop  Gardiner  was  not  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Council,  Bishop  Tonstal  was  soon  got  rid  of, 
and  the  direction  of  affairs  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Lord  Protector,  the  Earl  of  Hertford,  and  Archbishop 
Cranmer.  Cranmer,  though  his  views  were  not  opposed 
to  Erastianism,  happily  had  the  element  of  caution  and 
moderation.  He  had  taken  an  active  part  and  lively 
interest  in  the  labours  of  Convocation  during  the  latter 
years  of  Henry's  reign,  and  it  might  fairly  be  hoped 
that  he  would  not  now  depreciate  or  neglect  the  resulb 
of  its  deliberations.  The  Lord  Protector  was  without 
genuine  care  for  the  Church  or  for  religion,  and  was 
chiefly  intent  on  strengthening  his  position,  and  ob- 
taining spoils  from  ecclesiastical  property.  The  first 
measures  of  the  reign  were  ominous.  '  The  young  King 
and  his  ministers,'  writes  Bishop  Stubbs,  '  entertained 
ideas  which,  if  they  had  been  fully  developed,  must 
have  ended  in  the  destruction  of  the  older  ecclesiastical 
system.' 

But  now  came  in  the  salutary  check  furnished  by 
the  action  of  Convocation,  and  by  the  work  in  which  it 


FIRST  MEASURES  UNDER  EDWARD  VI.      61 

had  been  employed  during  the  latter  years  of  Henry's 
reign.  The  Convocation  addressed  the  Archbishop,  who 
The  check  had  shown  himself  inclined  to  act  rather  as  a 
Minister  of  State  than  as  Primate,  demanding 


its  proper  share  in  the  work  concerning  the  Church 
which  was  in  progress.  There  was  an  evident  intention 
to  put  the  clergy  aside  altogether  ;  but  they  returned  to 
the  charge,  and  finally  succeeded  so  far  that  though  there 
were  irregularities  enough,  there  was  nevertheless  no 
change  made  in  the  Church  services  and  religious 
standards  in  this  reign  quite  independently  of  the 
recognised  clerical  body.  Throughout  the  reign  we  see 
two  opposing  forces  at  work  —  the  eager  reforming 
movement  represented  by  Hooper,  the  calm,  construc- 
tive spirit,  represented  by  the  First  Prayer-book. 

The  first  act  affecting  the  Church  determined  upon 
by  the  Council  of  the  young  King  was  the  holding  of 
The  first  a  general  royal  visitation,  such  as  had  been 
designed  in  1535,  when  Crumvvell  was  made 


Vicar-General,  but  which  had  then  been  confined  to  the 
monasteries.  With  a  view  to  this  visitation  all  epis- 
copal jurisdiction  was  suspended.  The  King's  letter  to 
the  Archbishop  of  York  informs  him  'that  inasmuch 
we,  by  our  supreme  royal  authority,  have  determined  to 
visit  all  and  singular  ecclesiastical  places,  and  the 
clergy  and  the  people,'  therefore  the  Archbishop  is 
strictly  forbidden,  either  by  himself  or  his  deputies,  to 
exercise  any  jurisdiction  ;  only  he  is  commanded  to 
inhibit  all  bishops  and  priests  from  preaching  anywhere 
save  where  they  were  legally  entitled  to  preach.  Great 
preparations  were  made  for  this  visitation.  There  were 
to  be  civilians,  divines,  and  secretaries,  as  well  .as 


62  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

persons  described  simply  as  '  gentlemen.'  England 
was  divided  into  six  districts  for  tlie  purposes  of  the 
visitation. 

The  visitors  were  to  take  with  them  a  book  of 
Homilies,  some  of  which  were  probably  drawn  up  in 
The  *^e  ^as^  reignj  as  there  was  an  order  of  Con- 

Homiiies  vocation  that  this  should  be  done,  and  some 
were  now  added,  composed  by  Cranmer.  These  Homi- 
lies were  plain  sermons  on  the  chief  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity and  on  Christian  practice.  They  were  divided 
into  parts,  not  in  their  length  overtaxing  the  patience  of 
the  hearers.  There  was  not  much  controversial  matter 
in  them,  but  in  the  third  part  of  the  sermon  on  good 
works  there  is  a  lively  attack  on  the  old  superstitions 
which  it  was  desired  to  eradicate.  As  there  were  then 
but  few  priests  in  England  competent  to  preach  in 
English,  and  fewer  still  inclined  to  preach  such  doctrine 
as  was  desired  by  the  authorities,  these  Homilies  were 
designed  to  take  the  place  of  sermons  when  the  parish 
priest  was  either  unable  to  preach,  or  was  inhibited 
from  preaching  his  own  words.  In  a  short  time,  when 
all  preaching  was  forbidden  ;  the  Homilies  became  the 
only  instruction  allowed  to  the  people,  and  doubtless 
they  had  a  great  effect  in  advancing  the  Reformation 
movement. 

Another  chief  work  of  the  visitors  was  to  leave  with 
each  church  a  body  of  '  Injunctions,'  which  may  be 
The  erst  in-  regarded  as  a  formal  attempt  to  construct  the 

junctions  of  .  _  . 

Keiormation   settlement.      inese  Injunctions 


had  the  force  of  an  Act  of  Parliament,  and  could  not 
lightly  be  disregarded.  They  professed  to  be  drawn 
up  for  '  the  advancement  of  the  true  honour  of  Almighty 


FIRST  MEASURES  UNDER  EDWARD  VI.      63 

God,  the  suppression  of  idolatry  and  superstition  through- 
out the  King's  realms  and  dominions,  and  for  planting 
true  religion,  to  the  extirpation  of  all  hypocrisy,  enormi- 
ties and  abuses.'  The  first  enjoins  all  persons  having 
the  cure  of  souls  four  times  a  year  to  declare  the  abolish- 
ing of  the  Bishop  of  Rome's  '  usurped  power  and 
jurisdiction,'  and  to  set  forth  the  King's  supremacy. 
Once  a  quarter  also  such  persons  shall  '  make  or  cause 
to  be  made '  a  sermon  '  purely  and  sincerely  declaring 
the  Word  of  God,'  and  condemning  the  old  superstitious 
image-worship  as  idolatry.  Then  all  images  which  have 
been  '  abused  with  pilgrimage  and  oSering '  are  ordered 
to  be  removed.1  On  holy  days  when  there  is  no  sermon, 
the  priest  is  to  recite  from  the  pulpit  the  Paternoster, 
Credo,  and  Ten  Commandments  in  English.  He  is 
charged  to  see  that  the  Sacraments  be  duly  administered, 
and  that  within  three  months  '  one  book  of  the  whole 
Bible,  of  the  largest  volume  in  English,'  be  procured,2 
and  within  twelve  months  the  '  Paraphrases  of  Erasmus, 
also  in  English,  upon  the  Gospels,'  which  are  to  be 
set  up  in  some  convenient  place  in  the  churches,  to 
which  the  parishioners  can  have  free  access.  The 
parishioners  are  to  be  examined  in  Lent  whether  they 
can  say  the  Creed,  the  Paternoster,  and  the  Ten 
Commandments  in  English,  as  a  necessary  preliminary 
to  the  reception  of  the  Holy  Communion.  Parish 
registers  are  to  be  carefully  kept,  and  all  beueficed 
ckjgy  are  to  distribute  a  certain  proportion  of  their 

1  These  Injunctions  embodied  and  repeated  those  of  1538,  but 
with  large  additions. 

2  Bibles  probably  were  already  to  be  found  in  most  churches, 
having  been  prescribed  by  the  Injunctions  of  1538. 


64  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

income  to  the  poor,  and  be  liable  to  repair  the  chancels 
of  their  churches  and  their  '  mansions  '  up  to  the  fifth 
part  of  their  benefice.     At  high  mass  the  Epistle  and 
Gospel  are  to  be  read  in  English,  and  at  matins  one 
chapter  of  the  New  Testament  immediately  after  the 
lections,  and  at  evensong  after  Magnificat  one  chapter 
of  the  Old  Testament.     Processions  are  to  be  disused, 
and  the  Litany  in  English  is  to  be  said  '  in  the  midst  of 
the  church.'      The  Lord's  day  is  to  be  strictly  observed, 
but  in  the  time  of  harvest  men  might  labour  on  that 
day.     All  vain  ceremonies  are  to  be  abandoned,  and 
all  '  pictures,    paintings,    and   monuments   of  feigned 
miracles,  pilgrimages,  idolatry,  and  superstition  to  be 
destroyed,'  whether  on  walls,  glass  windows,  or  other- 
wise, and  a  pulpit  set  up  in  every  church.     One  of  the 
Homilies  is  to  be  read  every  Sunday,  at  which  time  '  the 
prime  and  hours '  are  to  be  omitted.     A  new  form  of 
the  *  Bidding  Prayer '  is  given.1     In  this,  prayer  for 
the  dead  is  enjoined,  but  only  in  general  terms.     Special 
injunctions  were  given  to  the  bishops  to  see  that  these 
directions   were   obeyed.      They   are   also   charged   to 
preach  within  their  dioceses  at  least  four  times  a  year, 
and  to  be  very  careful  in  giving  Orders.     The  Injunc- 
tions seem  to  have  been  generally  received  without  much 
Gardiner       opposition,  but  Bishops  Gardiner  and  Bonner 
and  Bonner    ma(je  stronsr  protests  against  them,  and  were 

committed 

to  prison       committed  to  the  Fleet  prison. 

Parliament  met  on  November  4.     Its  first  act  was 
of  a  religious  character,  and  a  necessary  supplement  to 

1  The  old  form  of  '  bidding  of  bedes,'  which  is  very  lengthy,  ia 
printed  by  Burnet  in  the  Records  from  The  Festival  (Edw.  VI.  No. 
viii.). 


FIRST  MEASURES  UNDER  EDWARD  VI.      65 

the  injunctions.  It  ordained  that  from  henceforth 
Holy  Communion  should  be  given  to  the  laity  in  both 
Fir,t  kinds.  This  act  was  founded  upon  a  resolu* 

Commuuion  ^on  °f  the  Convocation  of  Canterbury,  passed 
office  November  30,  and  received  the  royal  assent 

on  December  20,  1547.  It  recited  the  great  reverence 
due  to  that  Holy  Sacrament,  and  ordered  that  it  should 
be  offered  to  all  in  both  kinds.  It  is  probable  that  the 
service  for  this  was  already  prepared.  It  is  known 
that  it  was  the  wish  of  King  Henry  to  have  an  English 
mass,  and  the  Convocation  Committee — which  since 
1543  had  been  employed  on  the  recasting  of  the  services 
— had  probably  arrived  at  an  agreement  as  to  the  service 
which  now  appeared.  According  to  Heylin  a  com- 
mittee of  divines  was  appointed  to  review  and  approve 
this  service.  This  committee  he  conjectures  to  have 
consisted  of  the  same  persons  who  shortly  afterwards 
were  engaged  in  the  construction  of  the  First  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  viz.  Cranmer,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury; Goodrich,  Bishop  of  Ely;  Holbech,  Bishop  of 
Lincoln ;  Day,  Bishop  of  Chichester ;  Skyp,  Bishop  of 
Hereford ;  Thirlby,  Bishop  of  Westminster ;  Ridley, 
Bishop  of  Rochester ;  Cox,  Dean  of  Christ  Church ; 
May,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's ;  Taylor,  Dean  of  Lincoln ; 
Heynes,  Dean  of  Exeter  ;  Robertson,  afterwards  Dean 
of  Durham ;  Redmayne,  Master  of  Trinity,  Cambridge. 
*  Taking  into  consideration,'  says  Heylin,  '  as  well  the 
right  use  of  Scripture  as  the  usage  of  the  Primitive 
Church,  they  agreed  to  such  a  form  and  order  as  might 
comply  with  the  intention  of  the  King  and  the  Act  of 
Parliament,  without  giving  any  just  offence  to  the 
Romish  party.'  The  plan  which  they  adopted  was  to 
C.  u.  F 


66  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

leave  the  Latin  mass  unaltered  up  to  the  end  of  the 
canon  and  the  communion  of  the  priest,  and  to  add 
to  it  in  English  a  form  of  communion  for  the  people. 
The  English  part  of  this  office  was  with  some  small 
variations  reproduced  in  the  Prayer-book  of  1549,  and 
has  survived,  very  justly,  all  the  various  reviews  to 
which  the  Prayer-book  has  been  subjected.  It  was 
The  pro-  published  March,  1548,  by  a  proclamation,  in 

carnation  ,  .    , 

for  the  new    which  men  were  exhorted  to. '  receive  it  with 

Communion  1  n 

office  such  obedience  and  conformity  that  the  King 

might  be  encouraged  from  time  to  time  further  to  travail 
for  the  Reformation,  and  setting  forth  of  such  godly 
orders  as  may  be  most  to  God's  glory,  the  edifying  of 
our  subjects,  and  the  advancement  of  true  religion ; 
which  thing  we,  by  the  help  of  God,  most  earnestly 
intend  to  bring  to  good  effect,  wishing  all  our  loving 
subjects  in  the  meantime  to  stay  and  quiet  themselves 
with  our  direction,  as  men  content  to  follow  authority, 
and  not  enterprising  to  run  afore,  and  so  by  their 
rashness  become  the  greatest  hinderers  of  such  things 
as  they  more  arrogantly  than  godly  would  seem  most 
hotly  to  put  forward.' 

The  calm  wisdom  of  these  words  contrasted  some- 
what strangely  with  some  of  the  acts  of  those  in 
violent  authority.  Bishop  Ridley  had,  as  it  seems- 
legislation  without  any  legal  justification,  begun  to  cause 
the  demolition  of  altars  in  his  diocese  of  Rochester. 
By  an  Act  of  Parliament  bishops  were  to  be  appointed 
simply  by  letters  patent ;  they  were  not  only  obliged  to 
take  out  commissions  for  the  exercise  of  their  office, 
but  held  their  sees  during  good  behaviour,  and  exercised 
their  jurisdiction  only  under  the  King,  their  writs 


FIRST  MEASURES  UNDER  EDWARD   VI.      67 

running  in  his  name  and  their  seals  bearing  the  royal 
arms.  By  another  Act  all  chantries,  hospitals,  and 
colleges  were  granted  anew  to  the  Crown.  These 
Acts  exhibit  the  spirit  then  too  prevalent,  of  the  deter- 
mination to  force  the  new  state  of  things  on  an  uncon- 
vinced and  uninstructed  people. 

Throughout  the  year  1548  one  proclamation  succeeds 
another,  bearing  witness  to  the  troubled  state  of  things. 
Prociama-  By  one  the  people  are  forbidden  to  '  inno- 

tionsoftlie          J       , 

jeario48  vate  or  leave  undone  any  ceremonies  which 
were  legal  in  the  last  reign.  By  another,  the  absolute 
removal  of  all  images  from  churches  is  ordered.  Another 
enjoins  upon  preachers  prudence  and  forbearance ;  but 
as  this  proved  ineffective,  another  proclamation  in- 
hibited preaching  altogether.  Irreverence  was  terribly 
on  the  increase.  Proclamations  forbade  quarrelling  and 
shouting  in  churches,  bringing  horses  and  mules  into 
churches,  mobbing  and  ill-treating  of  priests,  stealing 
sacred  vessels  and  church  furniture.  The  old  system 
of  religious  worship  stood  condemned,  and  as  yet  there 
was  no  new  system  perfected  to  take  its  place. 

One  curious  effect  of  the  disjointed  state  of  things 
which  prevailed  in  the  year  1548  was  the  formation 
unauthor-  and  use  of  private  and  unauthorised  English 

ised  ser- 

vices  services.      The  preamble  to   the  first  Act  of 

Uniformity  speaks  of  '  divers  and  sundry  forms  and 
fashions '  of  Matins  and  Evensong  and  of  the  Com- 
munion office,  and  (  divers  and  sundry  rites  and 
ceremonies  concerning  the  same.'  Indeed,  some  of 
these  service  books  have  been  discovered.  They  were 
due  to  the  impatience  of  men  at  the  calm  and  cautious 

F  2 


68  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

action  of  the  body  of  divines  at  Windsor,  who  were 
carefully  compiling  the  First  English  Prayer-book. 

The  delay  was  certainly  not  more  than  the  import- 
ance of  the  task  confided  to  the  body  of  divines  absolutely 
wild  required ;  but  at  this  critical  moment  it  was 

opinions  unfortunate,  as  giving  occasion  to  the  outbreak 
of  the  wildest  fantasies.  '  Alas ! '  writes  Hooper,  '  not 
only  are  those  heresies  reviving  among  us  which  were 
formerly  dead  and  buried,  but  new  ones  are  springing 
up  every  day.  There  are  such  libertines  and  wretches 
as  are  daring  enough  in  their  conventicles  not  only  to 
deny  that  Christ  is  the  Messiah  and  Saviour  of  the 
world,  but  also  to  call  that  blessed  seed  a  mischievous 
fellow,  and  a  deceiver  of  the  world.  On  the  other  hand 
a  great  portion  of  the  kingdom  so  adheres  to  the  Popish 
faction  as  altogether  to  set  at  nought  God  and  the 
lawful  authority  of  the  magistrates.'  It  must  have 
been,  therefore,  with  the  most  lively  satisfaction  that 
many  heard  that  the  divines  at  Windsor  had  at  last 
finished  their  task,  and  that  the  new  service  book  had 
been  brought  into  Convocation  some  time  in  November, 
1548. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK. 
1549-50. 

As  soon  as  Archbishop  Cranmer  was  set  free  by  the 
death  of  Henry  VIII.  from  the  difficulties  which 
stood  in  the  way  of  co-operation  with  the 
German  divines,  he  proceeded  at  once  to  carry 
reformers  Q^.  j^g  long.cherished  scheme  of  close  inter- 
course with  the  leading  men  among  them.  He  had  for 
fifteen  years  been  married  to  a  German  lady,  the  niece 
of  Osiander,  the  pastor  of  Nuremberg.  His  acquaint- 
ance with  the  chief  Lutherans  was  considerable,  and 
though  as  yet  he  looked  with  somewhat  of  suspicion  on 
the  Genevan  and  French  school  of  reformers,  he  still  was 
willing  to  take  them  into  counsel — his  favourite  project 
being  to  promulgate  a  confession,  or  declaration  of  doc- 
trine, by  all  the  chief  reformers,  in  opposition  to  the 
decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  In  July  1548  Cranmer 
writes  to  the  Pole,  John  a  Lasco,  that  they  had  invited 
all  the  learned  men,  and  scarcely  had  to  lament  the 
absence  of  any  of  them,  save  himself  and  Melanchthon. 
A  Lasco  soon  afterwards  came  to  England ;  but  neither 
Melanchthon  on  the  one  hand,  nor  Calvin  nor  Bullinger 
on  the  other,  responded  to  the  invitation.  Among  the 
earliest  arrivals  were  Peter  Martyr,  a  Florentine  by  birth, 
and  Martin  Bucer,  an  Alsatian.  They  were  both  learned 
men,  and  were  settled  by  the  Archbishop  in  the  divinity 
professorships  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Neither  of 


7o  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

them  could  be  said  to  symbolise  altogether  either  with 
Luther  or  Calvin.  They  inclined,  however,  more  to- 
wards the  latter  than  the  former,  especially  on  the 
subject  of  the  Eucharist,  aucl  their  views  soon  produced 
a  marked  effect  upon  those  of  the  Archbishop. 

No  trace  of  this,  however,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
First  English  Prayer-book,  although  Cranmer's  previous 
Amount  of  connection  with  Lutheranism,  and  especially 

influence  of         .  .'  .  , 

foreign  re-     with  .Nuremberg,  had  exercised  considerable 

formers  on       .  .  . 

the  English    influence  upon   the    services  which  had  now 

Prayer- 

book  been    prepared   for   the  use   of  the    English 

Church.  In  the  first  Communion  office  the  Consulta- 
tion of  Archbishop  Herman  of  Cologne,  adapted  by 
Bucer  and  Melanchthon  from  the  Nuremberg  office,  had 
furnished  the  subject  matter  of  the  exhortation,  the 
confession,  and  the  comfortable  words,  which  were 
reproduced  in  the  book  of  1549.  Other  parts  of  the 
English  book,  as  the  Litany  and  the  Baptismal  services, 
owed  something  to  the  Consultation.  But  with  this 
exception  the  Prayer-book  now  compiled  for  the  use  of 
the  English  Church  owed  nothing  to  the  foreign  re- 
formers. Calvin  had  signified  his  views  about  what 
was  fitting  for  such  a  book  in  a  letter  to  the  Protector 
in  the  autumn  of  1548;  but  there  is  no  trace  of  his 
opinions  having  had  any  influence  on  the  compilers. 
Bucer  and  Martyr  criticised  the  book  when  it  appeared, 
and  found  many  faults  in  it.  It  is  clear  they  had  no 
hand  in  framing  it. 

The  book  was,  in  fact,  substantially,  and  almost 
entirely,  an  adaptation  of  the  ancient  Breviary  and 
sacramental  offices  of  the  Sarum  Custom  Book,  and  in 
its  character  illustrated  the  triumph  of  the  moderate 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK          71 

and  Catholic  party  over  the  more  violent  and  drastic 
reformers.  The  Morning  Praver  is  formed  from  the 

CJ  v 

Tiiebook  ancient  offices  of  matins,  laud,  and  prime; 
adaptation  ^ne  Evening  Prayer  from  those  of  vespers  and 
ancient  compline.  The  intermediate  hours  of  tierce 
offices  an(j  gex£  (j0  no£  contribute  much  to  the  English 
office.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  though  the  services  for  Seven 
Hours  are  given  in  the  Breviary,  these  were  not  ordi- 
narily said  separately,  except  in  the  monasteries,  but  by 
an  aggregation  similar  to  that  which  was  carried  out  in 
the  English  book,  were  made  into  two  services,  between 
which  mass  was  said.  The  English  book  therefore  fol- 
lowed the  ancient  usage  in  this  respect,  and  with  regard 
to  ( the  Supper  of  the  Lord,  and  the  Holy  Communion, 
commonly  called  the  Mass,'  it  followed  the  Sarum 
missal  in  all  essentials,  providing  carefully  for  the 
sacrificial  character  of  the  service,  directing  the  mixing 
of  water  with  the  wine,  and  the  use  of  the  ancient 
vestments. 

Such  a  book  coming  forth  by  authority  in  those 
troublous  and  excited  times  may  well  be  regarded  as  a 
Great  value  special  and  peculiar  gift  to  the  Church,  and  it 
is  hardly  too  much  to  say  of  it  that  it  was  the 
salvation  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  book  appears 
to  have  been  laid  before  the  Convocation  of  Canterbury 
in  November  or  early  in  December.  In  the  absence 
of  the  Convocation  Records  this  has  sometimes  been 
doubted;  but  one  fact  sufficiently  proves  it,  viz.  that 
in  a  letter  to  Bishop  Bonner,  who  scrupled  about,  the 
Approvedby  use  of  the  book,  the  Council  allege  that  '  the 
tion  book  was  approved  arid  set  forth  by  the  bishops 

and  all  other  learned  men  of  the  realm  in  their  synods 


72  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

and  convocations  provincial.'  This  could  not  have 
been  alleged  to  Bishop  Bonner,  who  must  have  been 
perfectly  cognisant  of  the  facts,  had  he  been  able  to 
disprove  it. 

The  Act  of  Uniformity  establishing  the  book  was 
read  a  first  time  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  December 

Established  19>  ancl  in  tlie  Lords  on  tlie  following  day. 
bylaw  i^  introduction  of  the  Prayer-book  had 
been  preceded  by  a  public  disputation  on  the  Eucharist, 
in  which  almost  all  the  bishops  took  part.  This  is  said 
to  have  been  held  in  the  Parliament  House,  but  probably 
was  not  part  of  the  regular  proceedings  of  Parliament, 
but  an  extraordinary  arrangement  to  facilitate  the 
passing  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  As  it  was,  there 
was  a  very  strong  opposition  made  to  the  Act  in  the 
House  of  Lords  by  the  bishops  of  the  '  old  learning,' 
three  even  of  those  who  had  been  appointed  to  compile 
the  book — Day,  Skyp,  and  Thirlby — protesting  against 
it.  Finally  the  Act  passed  the  Lords  January  15,  and 
the  Commons  January  21,  1549,  thus  falling  within 
the  second  year  of  King  Edward.  The  general  use  of 
the  new  service-book  was  prescribed  to  commence  on 
Whit  Sunday,  June  9,  and  heavy  penalties  were  enacted 
for  those  who  should  refuse  to  use  it,  or  should '  deprave 
it.'1 

The  grounds  upon  which  the  acceptance  of  the  new 
book  was  based  in  the  preface  were :  first,  the  more  full 

1  The  first  edition  was  published  at  the  beginning  of  March.  An 
order  as  to  the  price  was  inserted,  which  varies  somewhat  in  tlio 
various  editions.  In  one  copy  the  book  unbound  is  to  be  sold  for 
2.<.  2d ,  in  another  2s.  6d.,  and  '  bound  in  paste  or  in  boards  not 
above  the  price  of  4s.  the  piece.' 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK          73 

and  orderly  reading  of  Holy  Scripture,  very  little  of 
which  found  a  place  in  the  old  services;  secondly,  the 
omission  of  '  vain  and  superstitious '  matters  ; 
thirdly,  the  use  of  the  English  language,  en- 
abling the  people  to  understand  the  services  in  which 
they  were  taking  a  part ;  fourthly,  the  introduction  of 
uniformity,  thereby  getting  rid  of  the  great  variety  in 
the  services  previously  existing  from  the  prevalence  ot 
various  '  uses '  in  different  parts  of  the  kingdom. 

The  book  being  essentially  of  a  moderate  type  was 
not  of  a  nature  calculated  to  please  the  extreme  men  on 
either  side.  The  violent  reformers  were  extremely  angry 
and  indignant.  Hooper,  afterwards  a  bishop,  thus  writes 
to  BulKnger :  '  I  can  scarcely  express  to  you, 
™J  clear  friend,  under  what  difficulties  and 
Reformers  clangers  we  are  labouring  and  struggling  that 
the  idol  of  the  Mass  may  be  thrown  out.  It  is  no  small 
hindrance  to  our  exertions  that  the  form  which  our 
Senate  or  Parliament,  as  we  commonly  call  it,  has 
prescribed  for  the  whole  realm,  is  so  very  defective  and 
of  doubtful  construction,  and  in  some  respects  indeed 
manifestly  impious.  I  am  so  much  offended  with  that 
book,  and  that  not  without  abundant  reason,  that,  if  it  be 
not  corrected,  I  neither  can  nor  will  communicate  with 
the  Church  in  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.' 

On  the  other  hand,  partly  from  dislike  of  the 
changes  in  religious  worship,  but  more,  probably,  from 
TO  the  anger  at  the  enclosure  of  the  commons  and 

common  .    ,  . 

people  social  grievances,  the  people  rose  in  Sussex, 
Hampshire,  Kent,  Gloucestershire,  Suffolk,  Warwick- 
shire, Essex,  Hertfordshire,  Leicestershire,  Worcester- 
shire, and  Rutlandshire.  These  risings  were  easily  put 


74  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

down,  but  one  in  Devonshire  was  more  difficult  to  deal 
with.  These  insurgents  sent  up  a  paper  of  formal 
demands  for  the  restoration  of  all  the  old  superstitions. 
They  desired  that  the  Bible  should  be  suppressed, 
t  since  otherwise  the  clergy  could  not  easily  confound 
the  heretics,'  and  that  '  the  new  service  should  be  laid 
aside,  since  it  was  like  a  Christmas  game.'  Archbishop 
Cranmer  replied  to  this  paper,  answering  all  their 
objections.  To  their  censure  of  the  new  service  book 
he  said,  '  The  old  service  had  many  ludicrous  things 
in  it.  The  new  was  simple  and  grave  ;  if  it  appeared 
ridiculous  to  them,  it  was  as  the  gospel  was  long  ago, 
foolishness  to  the  Greeks.'  This  very  serious  outbreak, 
as  well  as  that  in  Norfolk  under  Ket,  was  not  put  down 
without  great  difficulty  and  much  bloodshed.  It  may 
be  assumed  from  these  general  commotions  throughout 
England  that  the  new  service  book  was  by  no  means 
popular  with  the  common  people,  who  were  naturally 
much  under  the  influence  of  the  priests. 

These  men,  very  few  of  whom  cared  for  reformation, 
had  all  their  lives  been  accustomed  to  say  the  Latin 
Attempts  to  seryices  in  a  conventional  way,  and  when  the 
bookie  English  service  was  forced  upon  them,  they 


of  theCoid  tried  to  impress  the  same  sort  of  character 
services  upon  this.  They  had  their  frequent  Masses, 
now  called  Communions  ;  and  their  bowing  and  kissing, 
their  gestures  and  tones,  were  those  of  the  old  cere- 
monial. The  services,  though  now  put  into  the  English 
language,  might  still  be  used  in  such  a  way  that  they 
would  not  be  '  understanded  of  the  people.'  In  July 
1549  the  Council  wrote  to  Bishop  Bonner  that  'the 
book  so  much  travailed  for,  and  also  sincerely  set  forth, 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK          75 

remainetli  in  many  places  of  tins  our  realm  either  not 
known  at  all,  or  not  used,  or  at  the  least  if  it  be  used, 
very  seldom,  and  that  in  such  light  and  irreverent  sort 
as  the  people  in  many  places  have  heard  nothing ;  or 
if  they  hear,  they  neither  understand,  nor  have  that 
spiritual  delectation  in  the  same,  that  to  good  Christians 
appertaineth.'  Evidently  the  mere  publication  of  the 
book  was  not  sufficient.  Some  further  measures  must 
be  taken  to  insure  its  proper  use. 

With  this  view  a  second  Royal  Visitation  took 
place  in  the  summer  of  1549.  Among  the  articles  or 
second  Eoyai  inquisitions  left  by  the  Visitors  we  find, '  That 
visitation  no  minister  do  counterfeit  the  Popish  Mass, 
as  to  kiss  the  Lord's  Table ;  washing  his  fingers  at 
every  time  of  the  Communion ;  blessing  his  eyes  with 
the  paten  or  sudary  ;  or  crossing  his  head  with  the 
paten  ;  shifting  of  the  book  from  one  place  to  the  other ; 
laying  down  and  licking  the  chalice  of  the  Communion ; 
holding  up  his  fingers,  hands,  or  thumbs  joined  toward 
his  temples ;  breathing  upon  the  bread  or  chalice ; 
showing  the  Sacrament  openly  before  the  distribution 
of  the  Communion  ;  ringing  or  sacring  bells  ;  or  setting 
any  light  upon  the  Lord's  board  at  any  time ;  and 
finally  to  use  no  other  ceremonies  than  are  appointed 
in  the  King's  Book  of  Common-prayers,  or  kneeling 
otherwise  than  is  in  the  said  book.' 

The  great  upholder  of  this  plan  for  giving  a  charac- 
ter to  the  English  book  which  it  was  not  intended 
Bishop  to  bear,  was  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London,  and, 
deprived  in  consequence,  after  some  attempts  had 
been  made  without  success  to  cause  him  to  change 
his  policy,  he  was  brought  before  a  mixed  commission. 


76  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

The  principal  charge  against  him  was  that  he  had  not 
asserted,  as  he  had  been  required  to  do,  that  the  King's 
nonage  did  not  interfere  with  his  sovereign  authority ; 
but  the  fact  that  he  was  the  leading  antagonist  of 
the  Reformation  was  doubtless  chiefly  in  the  minds  of 
the  commissioners.  He  was  deprived  of  his  bishopric 
(October  1549)  and  committed  to  the  Tower. 

The  service-book,  in  consideration  of  the  distracted 
and  unsettled  state  of  things,  had  been  published  with 
The  first  all.possible  speed,  and  without  waiting  for  the 
ordinal  construction  of  an  Ordinal  which  should  be 
in  accordance  with  the  rest  of  the  book.  The  task  of 
making  this  was  now  committed  to  six  prelates,  and 
'  six  other  men  learned  in  God's  law '  (whether  divines 
or  not  does  not  appear).  An  Act  of  Parliament  gave 
legal  force  to  the  Ordinal  when  it  should  be  made  and 
ratified,  and  on  February  28,  1550,  it  was  laid  before 
the  Council.  Eleven  of  the  commissioners  signed  it, 
Heath,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  alone  refusing.  For  this 
he  was  very  unjustly,  as  it  seems,  committed  to  the 
Fleet  prison.  The  character  of  this  Ordinal  was  the 
same  with  that  of  the  Prayer-book,  to  which  it  was 
designed  to  be  annexed.  It  retained  somewhat  of  the 
old  ceremonial  in  combination  with  newly-introduced 
prayers  and  passages  of  Scripture.  It  differed  in  some 
respects  from  the  Ordinal  which  immediately  succeeded 
it,  but  in  substance  the  two  were  identical.  In  the 
first  Ordinal  the  persons  to  be  ordained  were  to  be 
vested  in  white  albs  plain.  The  deacon  who  was  to 
read  the  Gospel  was  to  put  on  a  tunicle.  The  ordina- 
tion of  a  priest  was  accompanied  by  the  giving  the 
chalice  and  paten.  The  bishop  to  be  consecrated,  as 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK         77 

well  as  the  consecrators,  was  to  wear  a  surplice  with 
a  cope.  The  Bible  was  to  be  laid  upon  his  neck  with 
an  exhortation.  The  pastoral  staff  to  be  placed  in 
his  hands  with  another  exhortation.  These  things  were 
afterwards  omitted  in  the  revised  Ordinal,  whether 
wisely  or  not  may  be  doubted. 

In  order  to  assist  the  establishment  of  the  new  book, 
and  to  overthrow  the  hopes  of  those  who  were  building 
order  to  on  *ne  disgrace  of  the  Duke  of  Somerset  an 
ow  se°m*o(£  expectation  of  the  reversal  of  the  Reformation, 
an  order  was  issued  to  Archbishop  Cranmer 
by  the  Council  (February  1550),  which  recited 'That 
divers  unquiet  and  evil-disposed  persons,  since  the 
apprehension  of  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  have  noised  and 
bruited  abroad  that  they  should  have  again  their  old 
Latin  service,  their  conjured  bread  and  water,  with 
suchlike  vain  and  superstitious  ceremonies,  as  though 
the  setting  forth  of  that  book  had  been  the  only  act 
of  the  said  duke  ;  We,  therefore,  by  the  advice  of  the 
body  and  state  of  our  Privy  Council,  not  only  consider- 
ing the  said  book  to  be  our  act  and  the  act  of  the 
whole  state  of  our  realm  assembled  together  in  Parlia- 
ment, but  also  the  same  to  be  grounded  upon  Holy 
Scripture  ...  to  put  away  all  such  vain  expectation 
of  having  the  public  service  again  in  the  Latin  tongue, 
do  require  and  charge  you  that  you  do  command  the 
dean  and  prebendaries  of  the  cathedral  church,  the 
parson,  vicar,  or  curate  and  churchwardens  of  every 
parish  within  your  diocere,  to  bring  and  deliver  unto 
you  or  your  deputy  all  Antiphoners,  Missals,  Grails, 
Processionals,  Manuals,  Legends,  Pies,  Portasies,  Jour- 
nals, and  Ordinals  after  the  use  of  Sarum,  Lincoln, 


73  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

York,  or  any  other  private  use,  and  all  other  books  of 
service  the  keeping  whereof  should  be  a  let  to  the  usage 
of  the  Book  of  Common-prayers,  and  that  you  take  the 
same  books  into  your  hands  and  them  so  deface  and 
abolish  that  they  never  hereafter  serve  to  any  such 
use  as  they  were  provided  for.'  This  violent  order  l 
against  the  old  service-books,  which  might  at  least 
have  been  removed  with  reverence,  was  the  commence- 
ment of  a  more  thoroughgoing  and  drastic  policy  in 
Church  matters. 

Of  a  piece  with  it  was  the  attack  now  made  upon 
the  ancient  altars  of  the  Church.  The  credit,  or  other- 
Aitars  wise,  of  originating  this  must  be  given  to 
be  removed  Bishop  Ridley.  He  had  commenced  to  attack 
the  altars,  without  legal  right,  as  it  seems,  in  the 
diocese  of  Rochester,  and  when  translated  to  London 
he  continued  the  same  policy.  In  his  'Injunctions,' 
published  in  the  summer  of  1550,  it  is  said,  'Whereas 
in  divers  places  some  use  the  Lord's  board  after  the 
form  of  a  table,  and  some  as  an  altar,  whereby  dissen- 
sion is  perceived  to  arise  among  the  unlearned ;  there- 
fore, wishing  a  godly  unity  to  be  observed  in  all  our 
diocese,  and  for  that  the  form  of  a  table  may  move  more 
and  turn  the  simple  from  the  old  superstitious  opinions 
of  the  Popish  Mass,  and  to  the  right  use  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  we  exhort  the  curates,  churchwardens,  and 
questmen  here  present  to  erect  and  set  up  the  Lord's 
board  after  the  form  of  an  honest  table  decently  covered 
.  .  .  and  to  take  down  and  abolish  all  other  by-altars 
or  tables.'  This  policy  strongly  commending  itself  to 
the  Council,  an  order  was  issued  to  Bishop  Ridley  and 

1  This  order  was  afterwards  repeated  in  an  Act  of  Parliament. 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK         79 

the  other  bishops  (November  1550)  to  cause  all  the 
altars  in  every  church  and  chapel  to  be  taken  down, 
and  instead  of  them  c  a  table  to  be  set  up  in  some  con- 
venient part  of  the  chancel.'  One  bishop  at  least,  Day 
of  Chichester,  refused  to  obey  this  order,  it  being,  as  he 
said,  against  his  conscience  to  do  so.  In  the  tyrannical 
spirit  which  now  prevailed,  Bishop  Day  was  committed 
to  prison.  Day  had  been  selected  as  one  of  the  com- 
pilers of  the  Prayer-book,  but  had  not  been  able  to 
accept  it  in  its  completed  form.  Together  with  Skyp, 
Bishop  of  Hereford,  and  Thirlby,  of  Westminster,  he 
had  opposed  in  the  House  of  Lords  the  legalising  of 
the  Book.  This  opposition  may  have  had  something 
to  do  with  the  harshness  with  which  he  was  treated. 
Everything  now  pointed  towards  a  complete  and  entire 
transformation  of  the  religious  status  of  the  country. 
The  young  King's  new  advisers  were  still  more  reckless 
and  unscrupulous  than  the  last.  The  more  the  thorough- 
ness and  simplicity  of  the  Geneva  Reformation  could  be 
furthered,  the  more  Church  plunder  would  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  courtiers.  From  this  point  a  strong  and 
decided  movement  in  the  '  Protestant '  direction  sets  in. 


So  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   DOCTRINAL   CONFESSION  AND   THE   MANUALS  OF 

THIS   REIGN. 

1547-1553. 

THE  exhibition  of  the  reforming  spirit  in  matters  of 
doctrine  in  this  reign  must  be  sought  for  not  so  much 
^n  ^ne  Prayer-book  as  in  the  Doctrinal  Con- 
fession  and  the  Manuals  of  Instruction.  In 
these  the  Archbishop  led  the  way  in  his  '  Homilies  on 
Salvation,  on  Faith,  and  on  Good  Works.'  It  is  pro- 
bable also  that  he  had  a  principal  share  in  the  com- 
position of  the  other  homilies.  His  style  is  homely, 
but  very  plain  and  instructive,  and  well  suited  for 
teaching  uneducated  people. 

In  1548  Archbishop  Cranmer  put  out  a  catechism 
translated  into  English  from  a  Latin  translation  of  the 
The  German  original  made  by  Justus  Jonas.  This 

Lutheran  ,  .  .  ,,  .  „ 

catechism  catechism  consists  ol  a  series  or  sermons  on 
the  Articles  of  the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten 
Commandments,  and  the  Sacraments.  Coming  as  it  did 
from  a  Lutheran  source,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find 
in  it  strong  assertions  of  the  corporal  presence  in  the 
Eucharist,  though  the  Archbishop  subsequently  main- 
tained that  there  was  nothing  in  it  which  might  not  be 
interpreted  spiritually.  It  is  not  probable  that  this 
catechism  had  much  to  do  with  the  spread  of  the  Re- 
formation. It  is  heavy  and  dull  in  style  and  not  likely 
to  be  attractive  to  young  people.  Its  translator  and 
publisher  soon  passed  to  another  terminology  and  dif- 


THE  ARTICLES  AND  MANUALS  Si 

ferent  statements  on  the  Eucharist,  and  a  little  after- 
wards sanctioned  another  catechism  of  which  more  will 
be  said  hereafter. 

It  was  some  time  about  the  year  1548  that  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  abandoned  the  doctrine  of  the  Lutherans 
Cranmer's  on  ^ie  Eucharist,  and  accepted  that  medium 
onrfheise  position  between  Lutheranism  and  Zwing- 
Euchansf  Hanism  which  was  advocated  by  Martyr  and 
Bucer.  He  himself  ascribes  this  change  in  his  views  to 
the  influence  of  Dr.  Ridley,  formerly  his  chaplain,  and 
always  his  constant  friend.  He  now  decided  to  give 
expression  to  his  opinions  in  a  book  called  '  A  Defence 
of  the  true  and  catholic  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Body  and  Blood  of  our  Saviour  Christ.'  This  book 
greatly  pleased  the  Zwinglians.  John  a  Lasco  writes 
to  Bullinger,  '  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  a  man  of 
singular  worth  and  learning,  has,  contrary  to  the  gene- 
ral expectation,  delivered  his  opinion  upon  this  subject 
learnedly,  correctly,  orderly,  and  clearly.'  The  uncom- 
promising Hooper  was  not,  however,  altogether  satisfied. 
He  writes,  '  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  has  relaxed 
much  of  his  Lutheranism  (whether  all  of  it  I  cannot 
say).  He  is  not  so  decided  as  I  could  wish,  and  dares 
not,  I  fear,  assert  his  opinion  in  all  respects.'  The  book 
commences  with  a  very  solemn  preface,  and  is  written 
in  that  simple  and  plain  style  of  which  the  Archbishop 
was  a  singular  master.  He  declares  that  he  proposes 
to  treat  the  subject  '  so  sincerely  and  plainly,  without 
doubts,  ambiguities,  or  vain  questions,  that  the  very 
simple  and  unlearned  people  may  easily  understand  the 
same  and  be  edified  thereby.'  It  may  therefore  be 
regarded  more  as  a  manual  of  instruction  for  the  people 

c.  H.  a 


82  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

than  as  a  controversial  treatise,  though  it  immediately 
involved  its  author  in  controversy  with  Bishop  Gardiner 
and  Dr.  Smith. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  reign,  in  the  midst 
of  his  manifold  employments,  Cranmer  had  never  lost 
Formation  sight  of  that  which  was  nearest  his  heart, 
4-2  Articles  namely,  the  setting  forth  by  authority  a  con- 
fession of  faith,  which  should  state  the  doctrines  of  the 
reformed  churches  as  against  the  canons  then  being 
fashioned  at  Trent.  It  was  for  this  purpose  that  he 
invited,  one  after  another,  the  leading  advocates  of  the 
Reformation  from  abroad,  desiring,  as  he  writes  to 
Bullinger,  '  That  in  England  or  elsewhere  there  might 
be  convoked  a  synod  of  the  most  learned  and  excellent 
persons,  in  which  provision  might  be  made  for  the 
purity  of  ecclesiastical  doctrine,  and  especially  for  an 
agreement  upon  the  Sacrarnentarian  controversy.'  Cran- 
mer had  not  forgotten  how,  twenty  years  before,  he  had 
conferred  with  the  Lutheran  divines  then  in  England 
and  had  arrived  at  a  substantial  agreement  on  thirteen 
articles  based  on  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  which 
only  failed  of  being  enacted  from  Henry's  jealousy  of 
foreign  interference.  These  articles  he  proposed  now 
to  promulgate  and  ratify,  and  to  combine  with  them 
others  which  should  cover  all  the  main  points  on  which 
difference  of  opinion  might  arise..  An  Order  in  Council 
in  the  beginning  of  1551  directed  the  Archbishop  to 
proceed  in  this  work.  The  method  adopted  appears  to 
have  been  for  Cranmer  and  Ridley  to  make  drafts  of  the 
articles  and  forward  these  to  such  bishops  and  divines 
as  it  was  thought  could  be  trusted,  for  their  animadver- 
sions. Some  of  the  foreign  divines  in  England  were 


Tun  ARTICLES  AND  MANUALS  83 

no  doubt  applied  to  for  their  criticisms,  but  there  is  no 
distinct  record  of  this  being  done.  Two  of  the  most 
prominent  of  them,  Bucer  and  Paul  Fagius,  were  now 
dead,  and  there  was  none  perhaps  with  whom  Cranmer 
altogether  symbolised,  except  Peter  Martyr.  John 
a  Lasco  was,  however,  a  bosom  friend  of  the  Archbishop, 
and  it  is  not  improbable  that  some  of  the  suggestions  of 
this  talented  Zwinglian  may  have  found  a  place  in  the 
Articles.  In  May  1552  the  Council  desired  that  the 
draft  of  the  Confession  might  be  laid  before  them. 
This  was  done,  and  it  was  returned  to  the  Archbishop 
for  some  emendations.  He  then  presented  it  to  the 
King.  The  King  gave  it  for  review  to  his  six  chaplains, 
who  sent  it  again  to  the  Archbishop,  accompanied  by 
some  suggestions,  and  with  a  request  that  it  should  be 
returned  at  once  to  his  Majesty.  The  very  next  day 
Cranmer  returned  it.  There  was  evidently  great  eager- 
ness on  the  part  of  Edward  to  get  the  matter  finished. 
From  this  fact  a  strong  presumption  arises  that  the 
Articles  when  finished  were  laid  before  the  Convocation. 
For,  in  spite  of  the  eagerness  with  which  they  had  been 
pressed  forward  to  completion,  they  were  not  published 
till  May  in  the  following  year,  when  the  clergy  were 
invited  to  subscribe  them.  Convocation  had  met  in 
March  1553,  and  it  is  almost  certain  must  then  have 
received  and  sanctioned  the  Articles,  its  assent  having 
been  waited  for  before  their  promulgation.  The  title  of 
the  Articles  asserts  that  they  were  agreed  upon  in  the 
Synod  of  London  in  1552  (N.S.  1553)  and  this  assertion 
is  repeated  in  the  title  of  the  catechism  presently  to  be 
mentioned.  There  is  therefore  no  good  reason  for 
doubting  this  fact,  especially  as  ten  years  afterwards,  in 


84  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

the  Convocation  held  under  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  asser- 
tion was  emphatically  repeated.1  Now  if  the  Convoca- 
tion gave  a,  formal  sanction  to  the  Forty-two  Articles 
in  March  1553,  it  also  thereby  gave  a  formal  sanction  to 
the  Second  Prayer-book,  by  the  Thirty-fifth  Article, 
which  declares,  '  The  book  which  of  very  late  time  was 
given  to  the  Church  of  England  by  the  King's  authority 
and  the  Parliament,  containing  the  manner  and  form  of 
praying  and  ministering  the  Sacraments  in  the  Church 
of  England  ;  likewise  also  the  book  of  ordering  minis- 
ters of  the  Church  set  forth  by  the  aforesaid  authority, 
are  godly,  and  in  no  point  repugnant  to  the  wholesome 
doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  but  agreeable  thereto,  furthering 
and  beautifying  the  same  not  a  little.' 

In  the  Convocation,  which  accepted  the  Articles  in 
1553,  a  committee  of  the  House  appears  to  have  given  a 
Poynet's  sanction  to  a  catechism  which  had  been  drawn 
catechism  up  by  poynetj  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  by 

him  submitted  to  the  King.  The  King,  in  his  inj  unction 
giving  authority  to  this  catechism,  says  that  it  had  been 
submitted '  to  certain  bishops  and  other  learned  men,'  and 
appoints  it  to  be  taught  by  schoolmasters  to  their  scholars. 
It  was  published  first  in  Latin,  with  the  Forty-two  Arti- 

1  See  Lathbury's  History  of  Convocation,  p.  1 43,  note  x.  An 
additional  proof  of  the  synodical  acceptance  of  the  Articles  is  fur- 
nished by  a  letter  written  by  Sir  John  Cheke  to  Bullinger,  where, 
speaking  of  the  King,  he  says,  '  Nuper  articalos  synodi  Londinensis 
promulgavit ; '  Two  Liturgies,  Parker  Soc.,  Preface,  p.  xii.  Al»o 
John  Clement,  a  martyr  in  the  Marian  persecution,  says,  in  his  Con- 
fession, 'I  do  accept,  believe,  and  allow  for  a  very  truth  all  the 
godly  articles  that  were  agreed  upon  in  the  Convocation  House, 
and  published  by  the  King's  Majesty's  authority  in  the  last  year  of 
his  most  gracious  reign.' — St.rype,  Scales.  Memorials,  vol.  iii.  App. 
p.  210. 

*•  • 


THE  ARTICLES  AND  J\!ANUALS  85 

eles  appended  to  it,  and  afterwards  in  English,  with  the 
Articles  in  English.  This  is  called  a  '  Short  Catechism,' 
but  it  is  extremely  verbose  and  tedious.  The  '  scholar ' 
sermonises  and  argues,  and  the  '  master '  does  not  con- 
fine himself  to  asking  questions,  but  runs  into  dis- 
quisitions. It  formed  the  foundation  of  the  still  more 
verbose  catechism  of  Alexander  Nowel,  from  a  synodical 
acceptance  of  which  the  Church  of  England  only  just 
escaped.  The  sacramental  doctrine  of  this  catechism  is 
Zwinglian,  its  theology  predestinarian. 

The  last  of  the  manuals  put  forth  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  VI.  was  the  '  Primer,  or  Book  of  Private 
The  Prayer.'  The  publication  of  this  book  is  an- 

'  Primer" 

of  1653  other  evidence  of  the  triumph  of  the  thorough- 
going reformers  over  the  moderate  party.  In  1551  the 
King's  Primer  of  1545  had  been  reprinted  with  some 
alterations.  But  the  book  set  out  in  1553  was  of  alto- 
gether a  different  kind.  It  contains  first  the  Calendar, 
then  the  Prayer-book  Catechism,  forms  of  grace  at 
meals,  directions  for  self-examination,  a  form  of  morn- 
ing and  evening  prayer  for  each  day,  and  a  large 
body  of  special  prayers,  including  prayers  in  behalf 
of  judges,  bishops,  gentlemen,  landlords,  merchants, 
lawyers,  labourers,  rich  men,  poor  men,  masters,  ser- 
vants, &c.,  also  prayers  for  the  use  of  the  several  classes 
of  worshippers,  and  petitions  for  various  graces,  &c. 
Some  of  the  petitions  are  very  singular  compositions, 
and  seem  rather  designed  to  instruct  the  Almighty  than 
humbly  to  sue  for  His  aid.  Nothing  could  well  be  found 
more  opposite  to  the  style  of  the  Prayer-book  than  this 
Primer,  and  it  may  be  assumed  as  certain  that  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  had  no  share  in  its  composition. 


86  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

If  in  addition  to  these  more  formal  and  authorised 
documents  we  take  into  consideration  the  numerous 
writings  writings  of  the  chief  reformers  at  this  period, 
of  reformers  &&  Hooper's  Declaration  of  Christ,  Confession 

of  Faith,  Treatise  on  the  Ten  Commandments,  and 
Exposition  of  some  Psalms ;  Ridley's  Treatise  on  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  the  writings  of  many  others  of  less 
note,  it  is  evident  that  a  sufficiently  large  amount  of 
reformed  teaching  was  now  available  for  the  instruction 
of  the  people.  How  far  this  instruction  actually  availed 
to  correct  the  morals  and  raise  the  character  of  the 
people  will  be  better  judged  after  some  other  facts  con- 
nected with  this  period  have  been  detailed. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   SECOND   ENGLISH   rHAYER-BOOK. 
1552-1553. 

IT  has  been  already  remarked  that  a  struggle  between 
two  parties,  the  moderate  reformers  and  the  thorough- 
going reformers,  may  be  observed  all  through  the  reign 
of  Edward  VI.  The  former  party  is  represented  by  the 
First  Prayer-book.  The  latter  obtained  its  triumph 
in  the  Second.  The  Primate  belonged  to  the  moderate 
section,  and  to  a  certain  extent  Bishop  Ridley  did  also. 
It  is  remarkable  that  both  Cranmer  and  Ridley  opposed 
and  protested  against  the  bill  for  appointing  thirty-two 
commissioners  to  draw  up  a  new  code  of  ecclesiastical  law.1 

1  This  may  have  been  because  only  four  bishops  were  named  on 
the  Commission. 


THE  SECOND  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK        87 

This  scheme,  which  had  its  origin  in  the  last  reign,  was 
now  revived  with  a  different  meaning  and  intention 
than  it  had  under  Henry.  The  thirty-two  Commis- 
•  Reformat™  s^oners  were  in  fact  appointed,  and  drew  up  a 
leg"m.  scheme  which  we  now  know  under  the  title 

eccJesiasti- 


of  f-jie  Reformatio  lecjum  ecclesiasticarum.     It 
failed,    however,  to    receive    the    roval    assent   in  this 

v 

reign,  and  when  revived  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  failed 
also  in  like  manner. 

And  if  Archbishop  Cranmer  was   not  eager  for  a 
sweeping  change  of  the  ancient  canons,  he  was  also 
little    desirous  of  a   change    in   the  Liturgy 


satisfied65  which  had  so  lately  been  established  and  vigo- 
rrayer-t>ook  rously  enforced.  In  his  work  on  the  Eucha- 
rist he  has  left  an  emphatic  testimony  that  he  was  fully 
satisfied  with  the  service  of  the  First  Book.  'Thanks  be 
to  the  Eternal  God,  the  manner  of  the  holy  communion 
(which  is  now  set  forth  in  this  realm)  is  agreeable  with 
the  institution  of  Christ,  with  St.  Paul,  and  the  old 
primitive  and  apostolic  Church,  with  the  right  faith  of 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  upon  the  cross  for  our  redemp- 
tion, and  with  the  true  doctrine  of  our  salvation,  justi- 
fication, and  remission  of  our  sins  by  that  only  sacrifice.' 
This  was  written  about  the  beginning  of  the  year  1550. 
The  complaints  against  the  First  Prayer-book  were  first 
heard  in  Convocation  towards  the  end  of  that  year  or 
the  beginning  of  1551.  It  is  incredible  that  they  could 
have  proceeded  from  or  been  countenanced  by  the  man 
who  had  thus  written  a  short  year  before.  Neither  is 
there  any  reason  to  think  that  Bishop  Ridley  was  dis- 
satisfied with  the  first  Liturgy.  In  his  treatise  on  the 
Lord's  Supper  Ridley  emphatically  disclaims  the  opinion 


88  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

of  those  who  make  that  sacrament  only  a  bare  sign  or 
figure,  and  says  :  '  We  deny  the  presence  of  Christ's  body 
in  the  natural  substance  of  His  human  and  assumed 
nature,  and  grant  the  presence  of  the  same  by  grace. 
By  grace  (I  say)  the  same  body  of  Christ  is  here  pre- 
sent with  us.'  Eidley,  therefore,  cannot  be  classed  with 
the  Sacramentaries.  It  is  true  that  he  had  been  prin- 
cipally concerned  in  the  movement  against  the  ancient 
altars,  which  he  thought  to  be  incompatible  with 
the  reformed  service.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
was  resolute  for  the  retention  of  the  episcopal  vest- 
ments. 

Who  then  was  the  leader  of  the  movement  against 

the  English  Liturgy  which  commenced  to  take  formal 

proportions   about   the   beginning   of   1551  ? 

John  Hooper    £!_.  ,  °  TT 

Without  doubt  it  was  John  Hooper.  Hooper 
was  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  man  produced  by 
the  English  Reformation.  He  was  the  stern,  uncom- 
promising, unsparing  enthusiast.  With  him  the  altars 
were  'altars  of  Baal,'  the  priests  who  ministered  at 
them  '  priests  of  Baal.'  Of  the  Liturgy  he  writes  to 
Bullinger,  '  The  public  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
is  very  far  from  the  order  and  institution  of  our 
Lord.'  In  another  passage,  already  quoted,  he  de- 
clares that  he  can  never  communicate  according  to  the 
English  book.  He  scoffs  at  Cranmer  as  '  too  fearful 
about  what  may  happen  to  him,'  and  at  some  of  the 
other  bishops  as  holding  right  views  about  the  Lord's 
Supper,  but  '  kept  back  by  the  fear  of  their  property 
from  reforming  their  churches.'  This  enthusiast  had 
resided  seven  or  eight  years  abroad  in  the  closest 
intimacy  with  Calvin,  Bullinger,  and  the  Swiss  refor- 


THE  SECOND  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK        89 

mers.  He  had  married  a  lady  who  was  of  their  school, 
and  he  came  into  England  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign 
of  Edward  VI.,  fully  determined  in  his  own  mind  to 
strive  to  the  uttermost  for  nothing  less  than  a  complete 
Swiss  reformation.  A  treatise  of  his  called '  A  Declara- 
tion of  Christ/  printed  abroad  and  published  immediately 
on  his  coming  to  England,  with  a  dedication  to  the 
Duke  of  Somerset,  made  known  his  sentiments,  and 
he  soon  became  a  popular  and  admired  preacher.  His 
views  on  the  Eucharist  were,  as  might  be  expected, 
simply  those  of  the  Swiss  school.  '  I  believe  it  is  a 
remembrance  of  Christ's  death,  a  seal  and  confirmation 
of  His  precious  body  given  unto  death.  It  is  a  visible 
word  that  preacheth  peace  between  God  and  man,  ex- 
horteth  to  mutual  love  and  godly  life.'  The  fall  of  the 
Protector  Somerset  resulted,  not  as  was  expected  by 
many,  in  the  triumph  of  the  reactionary  party,  but 
rather  in  the  triumph  of  the  ultra-reformers.  Somerset, 
with  all  his  faults,  had  more  care  for  the  Church  than 
Warwick,  who  succeeded  him.  Under  the  new  influ- 
ence Hooper  was  brought  to  preach  a  course  of  Lent 
sermons  before  the  young  King  (1550).  The  boy  King 
was  very  impressionable  in  the  Puritan  direction,  and  he 
no  doubt  now  received  a  strong  impulse  towards  seeking 
for  further  liturgical  changes.  In  a  short  time  (July  3) 
the  fiery  reformer  was  made  Bishop  of  Gloucester. 
Hooper  was  quite  willing  to  take  a  prominent  post  in 
the  Church,  but  he  scrupled  at  the  necessary  condition. 
He  would  neither  wear  the  vestments,  nor  take  the  oath 
of  Supremacy  in  which  saints  and  angels  were  adjured. 
An  attempt  was  made  by  the  ultra-Protestant  party  to 
force  the  Bishop  to  yield,  and  to  consecrate  Hooper  on 


9O  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

his  own  terms.  Had  he  clone  so,  irreparable  mischief  might 
have  happened  to  the  Church  of  England.  But  Cranmer 
stood  firm,  and  he  carried  the  majority  of  the  Council 
with  him.  He  argued  to  no  purpose  with  the  stubborn 
Hooper.  Bishop  Ridley  did  the  same.  The  opinions 
of  Bucer  and  Martyr  were  brought  to  him  to  the  effect 
that  the  vestments  were  not  unlawful.  Hooper  would 
not  yield,  and  was  confined  to  his  house  and  commanded 
not  to  publish  anything.  How  far  he  obeyed  this,  an 
entry  in  the  Council  Book  tells  us  (January  1,  1551). 
'  It  appeared  that  Mr.  Hooper  had  not  kept  his  house, 
and  that  he  had  also  written  and  printed  a  book  wherein 
was  contained  matter  that  he  should  not  have  written, 
for  the  •  which,  and  for  that  also  he  persevered  in  his 
former  opinion  of  not  wearing  the  bishops'  apparel,  he 
was  now  committed  to  the  Bishop  of  Canterbury's 
custody  '  (January  27).  '  Upon  letters  from  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  that,  Mr.  Hooper  cannot  be 
brought  to  any  conformity,  but  rather  persevering  in 
his  obstinacy,  covetetJi  to  prescribe  orders  and  necessary 
laws  of  his  head,  it  was  agreed  that  he  should  be  com- 
mitted to  the  Fleet.'  Less  than  two  months'  durance 
in  the  Fleet  served,  however,  to  convince  Hooper  of  the 
folly  of  resistance.  He  was  consecrated  in  the  full  epis- 
copal dress  (March  8, 1551),  and  took  the  oath,  the  King 
having  struck  out  with  his  own  hand  the  clause  which 
made  mention  of  saints  and  angels.  Hooper's  entrance 
into  Convocation  was  coincident  with  the  first  formal 
complaints  against  the  Liturgy  and  service-book.  Its 
opponents  were  able  to  appeal  to  the  opinion  of  Calvin, 
who  (as  Collier  says),  '  continued  still  to  intermeddle 
and  solicit  for  his  €>wn  fancy,'  and  to  the  long  tirade  of 


THE  SECOND  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK        91 

Bucer,  in  which  he  blows  hot  and  cold  on  the  English 
Liturgy,  with  which  Peter  Martyr  also  agreed. 

Things  assumed  a  definite  shape  early  in  the  year 
1551.     A  committee  was  appointed,  probably  by  Con- 
vocation,  perhaps  by  an  order  from  the  King, 


, 

the  First  .          ,-,       i       •,         a  ,-, 

Prayer-book  to  review  the  book.  Some  other  matters  were 
alleged  to  be  needing  change,  but  there  is  no  question 
that  it  was  against  the  communion  office  that  the  chief 
attack  was  directed.  The  Liturgy  of  the  book  of  1549 
utterly  refused  to  lend  itself  to  the  Zuinglian  notion  of 
a  commemorative  feast.  In  fact,  it  allowed  a  celebra- 
tion very  little  differing  from  the  old  type  of  the  mass 
service;  especially  when  the  'Agnus  Dei'  was  sung  after 
the  consecration  and  before  the  reception,  which  might 
well  be  treated  as  the  worship  of  the  divine  presence  in 
the  elements.  It  also  provided  for  the  sacrificial  charac- 
ter of  the  rite  by  the  prayer  for  the  descent  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  on  the  elements,  the  prayer  of  oblation,  and  the 
words  used  in  the  delivery  of  the  elements.  So  nicely 
and  with  such  judgment  was  the  service  balanced,  that 
while  Cranmer  could  praise  it  with  enthusiasm  (as  has 
been  seen),  his  great  antagonist  Gardiner  could  say  of 
it  :  '  This  holy  mystery  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
is  well  termed,  not  distant  from  the  Catholic  faith  in 
my  judgment.'  It  was  against  these  characteristics  of 
the  liturgical  service,  its  recognition  of  the  divine 
presence,  and  its  sacrificial  character,  that  the  attacks 
of  the  extreme  reforming  party  were  directed.  They 
had  potent  allies.  The  young  King,  who  had  been  led 
to  regard  the  mass  as  utterly  hateful,  declared  that,  if 
the  bishops  and  divines  would  not  make  the  required 
alterations,  he  would  make  them  with  his  own  hand, 


92  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

and  obtain  tlie  ratification  of  Parliament.  Northum- 
berland, and  many  other  courtiers,  eager  for  more 
church  spoils,  were  anxious  to  lower  as  much  as  pos- 
sible the  ceremonial  character  of  the  services.  The 
English  divines  may  have  saved  their  dignity  by  not 
making  the  alterations  in  the  book  in  the  way  suggested 
by  the  foreign  divines,1  but  that  they  made  them  in 
the  direction  which  they  pointed  out  is  evident. 

The  second  Communion  Office,  as  it  came  forth  from 
their  hands,  is  of  an  entirely  different  character  from 
The  second  the  first.  They  altered  the  name,  striking  out 

Communion 


the  words  '  commonly  called  the  Mass  ;  '  they 
took  away  the  ancient  vestments  and  the  introits;  they 
introduced  the  recitation  of  the  ten  commandments 
with  responses  to  signify  the  inward  conditions  re- 
quired ;  they  took  away  the  prayer  for  the  descent  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  oblation,  the  name  of  the 
blessed  Virgin,  the  prophets  and  saints,  the  prayer  for 
the  dead,  the  manual  acts,  the  signing  the  cross,  the 
mixing  of  water  with  the  wine,  the  Agnus  Dei,  making 
the  reception  follow  immediately  after  the  consecration  ; 
and  most  of  all  they  removed  the  words  used  at  the 
reception,  and  substituted  a  new  form  taken  very 
nearly  from  the  Liturgy  used  by  John  a  Lasco.  Thus 
the  office  was  adapted  so  as  to  give  no  offence  to  the 
Sacramentaries,  and  was  capable  of  being  regarded 
simply  as  a  sacred  feast.  The  priest  was  now  to  stand 
at  the  north  '  side  of  the  table,'  and  not  '  humbly  afore 
the  midst  of  the  altar.'  There  was  to  be  no  oblation 
of  the  alms.  They  were  to  be  deposited  in  the  poor 
man's  box. 

1  Sec  Cardwell,  Introduction  to  Two  Liturgies,  p.  xxv. 


THE  SECOND  ENGLISH  PRAYER-BOOK        93 

Tlie  triumph  of  the  thoroughgoing  reformers  was 
complete.  The  moderate  party  had  yielded  to  them, 
Tiie  Black  doubtless  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  a  new 
character  was  given  for  the  moment  to  the 
worship  of  the  Church  of  England.  They  were,  how- 
ever, far  from  being  contented.  There  was  still  the 
solemn  reception  of  the  consecrated  elements  by  kneel- 
ing worshippers,  who  might  yet  adore  the  divine  pre- 
sence even  in  the  mutilated  rite.  The  moderates  had 
been  ready  to  concede  much,  but  they  were  not  pre- 
pared entirely  to  revolutionise  the  service  by  abolishing 
the  direction  for  kneeling.  The  extreme  party  then 
had  recourse  to  another  plan.  Long  after  the  book 
was  agreed  upon,  six  months  after  the  Second  Act  of 
Uniformity,  which  legalised  it,  had  become  law,  an 
order  of  Council  was  passed,  explanatory  of  the  posture 
of  kneeling  at  the  holy  communion.  Some  impressions 
of  the  book  had  already  been  printed  before  this  order 
was  made,  and  in  consequence  do  not  contain  it.  In 
others  it  is  found  printed  on  a  separate  leaf,  and  thus 
bound  into  the  book.  Many  alterations  besides  those 
in  the  communion  service  were  made  in  the  first  service- 
book.  Some  of  them  were  no  doubt  great  improve- 
ments, as  the  exhortation,  confession,  and  absolution  at 
the  beginning  of  matins,  which  were  taken  principally 
from  the  service-book  of  John  a  Lasco. 

The  Second  Act  of  Uniformity  passed  both  Houses 
April  6,  1552.  The  moderate  party  were  able  to  insert 
second  in  it  a  handsome  tribute  to  the  merits  of  the 
uniformity  First  Book.  It  is  described  as  '  a  very  godly 
order,  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God  and  the  primitive 
church,  very  comfortable  to  all  good  people  desirous  to  live 


94  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

in  Christian  conversation,  and  most  profitable  to  the 
state  of  this  realm ' ;  and  the  new  book  is  said  to  be  put 
forth  '  because  there  hath  arisen  in  the  use  and  exercise 
of  the  foresaid  common  service  in  the  Church  hereto- 
fore set  forth  divers  doubts  of  the  fashion  and  manner 
of  the  ministration  of  the  same,  rather  by  the  curiosity 
of  the  minister  and  mistakers,  than  of  any  other  worthy 
cause ;  therefore,  for  the  more  plain  and  manifest  ex- 
planation hereof,  as  for  the  more  perfection  of  the  said 
order  of  common  service,  to  make  the  same  prayer  and 
fashion  of  service  more  earnest  and  fit  to  stir  Christian 
people  to  the  true  honouring  of  Almighty  God,'  &c.  The 
book  thus  tenderly  treated,  and  as  to  the  calling  in  of 
which  no  order  was  given,  probably  remained  in  use 
in  many  churches.  The  use  of  the  new  book  was  to 
begin  on  All  Saints'  Day,  1552,  and  no  doubt  in  the 
more  prominent  churches  its  use  was  then  begun,  as  it 
was  by  Bishop  Ridley  at  St.  Paul's.  But  there  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  it  never  became  very  generally 
used  during  the  few  months  which  intervened  between 
All  Saints'  Day, l  1552,  and  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI. 

1  If  the  printing  of  the  book  was  stopped  for  the  introduction 
of  the  order  in  Council  of  October  27,  very  few  copies  could  have 
been  ready  by  All  Saints'  Day,  November  1 


CHAPTER  X. 

TEE   LEGISLATION    UNDER   EDWARD    VI, 
1547-1553. 

THE  Reformation  was  doubtless  mainly  dependent  for 
its  progress  on  the  formularies,  manuals,  and  bodies  of 
Legislation  instruction  set  forth  by  authority,  or  recom- 

of  the  first  -1-1-1,1  • ,  •  p     .1.1 

Parliament  mended  by  the  position  or  power  01  tlie 
writers.  But  without  the  prop  and  stay  of  legislative 
acts  it  would  have  been  very  deficient  in  permanence 
and  solidity.  To  obtain,  therefore,  a  complete  notion 
of  what  was  done  in  the  short  reign  of  Edward  VI.  we 
need  to  attend  to  the  progress  of  legislation. 

The  Parliament  met  November  4  (1547),  and  its 
first  two  acts  relating  to  the  holy  communion  and  the 
appointment  of  bishops  have  been  already  mentioned. 
The  third  act  was  one  of  a  most  revolting  character. 
It  was  directed  against  vagabonds,  and  from  its  numer- 
ous references  to  '  clerks  convict,'  the  class  of  vagabonds 
specially  intended  was  clearly  the  wandering  '  religious,' 
who  lived  upon  the  alms  of  the  people.  The  act 
allowed  anyone  to  seize  upon  a  '  vagabond,'  carry  him 
before  a  justice  of  the  peace,  have  him  branded  with 
the  letter  V,  and  condemned  to  be  a  '  slave  '  for  two 
years,  to  be  fed  on  bread  and  water,  and  beaten  and 
chastised  as  the  master  pleased.  If  the  poor  wretch 
attempted  to  escape,  he  was  to  be  branded  with  S,  and 
adjudged  to  be  a  slave  for  life.  This  act  did  not  long 
continue  to  disgrace  the  statute  book.  It  must,  how- 
ever, have  served  to  make  the  governing  body  odious  in 


96  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

the  eyes  of  many,  and  to  cast  a  slur  upon  the  religions 
changes  which  they  advocated.  The  act  abolishing  the 
treason  statutes  of  Henry  VIII.  was  altogether  a 
wholesome  one. 

That  which  gave  the  King  the  property  of  colleges, 
free  chapels,  and  chantries  was  a  following  out  the 
Act  to  give  precedents  of  the  late  reign,  many  of  these 
freechapuis  foundations  which  had  been  granted  to  King 
tries  h  Henry  VIII.  not  having  been  taken  posses- 
sion of.  The  appetite  for  seizing  upon  the  property  of 
religious  bodies,  for  the  profit  both  of  the  State  and 
individuals,  had  been  created  in  the  last  reign,  and 
could  not  now  be  easily  appeased.  Heylin  writes : 
1  Though  the  Parliament  consisted  of  such  members  as 
disagreed  among  themselves  in  respect  of  religion,  yet 
they  agreed  well  enough  together  in  one  common  prin- 
ciple, which  was  to  serve  the  present  time  and  to  pre- 
serve themselves.  A  great  part  of  the  nobility  and 
not  a  few  of  the  chief  gentry  in  the  House  of  Commons 
were  cordially  affected  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  yet  were 
they  willing  to  give  way  to  all  such  acts  and  statutes 
as  were  made  against  it,  out  of  a  fear  of  losing  such 
church  lands  as  they  were  possessed  of,  if  that  religion 
should  prevail  and  get  up  again.'  The  same  writer 
observes  that  the  hospitals,  to  the  number  of  110,  were 
not  included  in  this  act,  as  they  had  been  in  that  passed 
under  Henry ;  but  about  ninety  Colleges  of  Clerks  (the 
Universities  being  excepted)  and  no  fewer  than  2,374 
free  chapels  and  chantries  were  vested  in  the  King, 
for  the  purpose,  as  the  Act  states,  of  the  maintenance  of 
grammar  schools  and  the  support  of  preachers.  Doubt- 
less some  portion  of  the  spoil  was  thus  applied ;  a 


THE  LEGISLATION  UNDER  EDWARD  VI.     97 

greater  part  probably  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  cour- 
tiers. 

Next  session  the  Parliament  legalised,  somewhat 
grudgingly,  the  marriage  of  the  clergy.  Attention  to 
Marriage  the  wording  of  this  statute  shows  clearly  that 
legalised  the  Parliament  was  not  much  inclined  towards 
reformation  when  there  was  no  question  of  church 
spoils  to  be  obtained.  The  preamble  declares  that  it 
were  much  to  be  desired  that  priests  and  all  others  in 
holy  orders  might  abstain  from  marriage ;  that  thereby, 
being  freed  from  the  cares  of  wedlock  and  abstracted 
from  the  troubles  of  domestic  business,  they  might  more 
diligently  attend  the  ministry,  and  apply  themselves 
unto  their  studies.  The  Act  nevertheless  permits  the 
marriage  of  priests,  legalises  the  endowments  of  their 
wives,  and  makes  their  children  heritable. 

Another  act,  which  reads  as  though  it  were  an  honest 
attempt  to  do  justice  to  the  clergy,  was  now  passed. 
Act  for  By  the  change  in  the  ecclesiastical  system, 

securing  n   ,-1        t  •  i 

tithes  the  taking  away  01  the  power  of  the  bishops, 
and  the  general  disuse  of  excommunication  (of  which 
Bishop  Latimer  so  bitterly  complains),  unscrupulous 
patrons  and  parishioners  had  in  many  cases  been  em- 
boldened to  divert  to  their  own  uses  the  monies  accus- 
tomed to  be  paid  to  the  clergy.  There  was  no  statute 
law  which  obliged  them  to  pay  the  tithe,  and  the  eccle- 
siastical law,  which  in  old  time  had  sufficed,  was  now 
greatly  in  abeyance.  It  was  now  enacted,  that  no 
person  or  persons  should  take  away  any  tithes  which 
had  been  received  or  paid  within  forty  years  next  before 
the  date  of  the  act,  or  of  right  ought  to  have  been 
paid,  until  he  had  divided  the  tenth  part  of  the  same, 
c.  H.  n 


98  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

or  otherwise  agreed  with  the  incumbent  or  owner  of 
the  tithe,  under  penalty  of  forfeiting  three  times  the 
amount.  And  in  order  to  compensate  the  clergy  for 
their  loss  by  the  cessation  of  offerings,  it  was  enacted 
that  personal  tithes  to  the  extent  of  a  tenth  of  the 
profits  made  by  anyone  as  a  merchant,  tradesman,  or 
in  any  other  art  or  faculty,  should  be  payable  to  the 
clergy,  and  might  be  enforced  by  the  ordinary.  This 
last  clause  probably  proved  unworkable.  A  singular 
statute  of  the  same  session  ordered  abstinence  from 
flesh  in  Lent  and  on  other  fasting  days.  In  this  act 
we  may  read  a  curious  compromise.  The  Church  party 
was  gratified  by  having  the  old  seasons  of  fasting 
recognised  by  law,  while  the  reformers  took  out  the 
sting  of  the  concession  by  inserting  in  the  act  the 
objects  of  the  restriction,  namely,  to  preserve  the  breed 
of  cattle,  to  promote  health,  and  to  encourage  the 
fishermen. 

In  the  autumn  session  the  removal  of  all  images 
and  pictures  of  saints,  except  those  upon  tombs,  was 
Act  for  the  ordered.  This  had  already  been  partially  ac- 
aiumTgef  complished  by  injunction,  but  in  many  places 
1  the  opposition,  strenuously  encouraged  by 
Bishop  Gardiner,  was  so  strong  that  a  statute  with 
penalties  was  needed.  In  Cornwall  one  of  the  Visitors 
had  been  stabbed  by  the  priest  of  the  church  while 
engaged  in  carrying  out  the  work  of  removal.  The 
unfortunate  priest  was  afterwards  hanged  from  the 
Eteeple  of  his  own  church. 

The  session  of  Parliament  which,  passed  the  second 
Act  of  Uniformity  engaged  rather  fully  in  ecclesiastical 
legislation.  The  act  which  sanctioned  the  observation 


THE  LEGISLATION  UNDER  EDWARD   VI.      99 

of  holidays  is  a  very  remarkable  one.  It  is,  as  Hey- 
lin  points  out,  distinctly  anti-sabbatarian.  It  is  well 
Legislation  known  that  the  earlier  reformers,  in  their 
the  Hoii-  strong  objections  to  all  positive  law,  held  some- 
what lax  notions  as  to  the  obligation  of  the 
Lord's  Day.  In  this  act  the  Sunday  is  placed  on 
precisely  the  same  footing  as  the  other  holidays.  It 
asserts,  '  There  is  no  certain  time  nor  definite  number 
of  days  appointed  by  Holy  Scripture,  but  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  time,  as  also  of  the  days,  is  left  to  the 
liberty  of  Christ's  Church  by  the  Word  of  God ;  that 
the  days  which  from  henceforth  were  to  be  kept  as 
holidays  in  the  Church  of  England  should  be  all 
Sundays  in  the  year,  the  Feast  of  the  Circumcision,  the 
Epiphany,  the  Purification  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  with 
all  the  rest  recited  at  the  end  of  the  Calendar  in  the 
public  Liturgy ;  that  the  archbishop  and  bishops  shall 
have  the  power  to  punish  offenders,  by  the  usual  cen- 
sures of  the  Church  ;  that  notwithstanding  it  shall  be 
lawful  for  any  husbandman,  labourer,  fisherman,  &c., 
to  labour,  ride,  fish,  or  work  any  kind  of  work  on  the 
foresaid  holidays,  not  only  in  the  time  of  harvest,  but 
at  any  other  time  of  the  year  when  need  shall  require.' 
The  eves  of  the  holidays  were  also  by  this  statute 
directed  to  be  observed  as  fasts.  The  marriage  of  the 
clergy  was  now  again  legalised  without  the  somewhat 
insulting  qualifications  which  distinguished  the  first 
act.  Further,  a  very  severe  act  prohibited  quarrelling 
and  brawling  in  churches  and  churchyards ;  the  use  of 
a  weapon  in  a  consecrated  place  was  subjected  to  the 
penalty  of  the  loss  of  an  ear. 


ioo          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

This  act  may  bo  regarded  as  somewhat  of  a  curi- 
osity, for  by  this  time  the  distinction  between  sacred 
and  secular  had  been  in  a  great  measure  obliterated. 
Confusion  Service-books  were  sanctioned  by  acts  of  Par- 
sacred  and  liament  under  the  dread  of  secular  penalties 
things  to  be  inflicted  by  the  judges,  while  brawling, 
and  refusing  to  contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
poor,  were  directed  by  the  same  authority  to  be  visited 
by  Church  censures.  In  the  midst  of  the  convulsions 
and  difficulties  of  this  period — when  new  forms  were 
displacing  the  old  ones,  and  a  multitude  of  new  ideas 
were  struggling  to  establish  themselves  as  visible  facts, 
when  opposition  to  the  efforts  of  the  settling  process 
was  coming  from  many  quarters  at  once,  and  statesmen 
knew  not  how  to  gauge  public  opinion,  or  in  what 
direction  to  advance  along  the  line  of  least  resistance — 
it  was  to  be  expected  that  numerous  anomalies  would 
be  found  in  the  measures  adopted  both  in  Church  and 
State.  We  might  easily  excuse  this  if  principles  were 
merely  obscured,  and  for  the  moment  forgotten.  But 
it  would  be  impossible  to  apologise  on  this  ground 
for  all  that  took  place  in  matters  relating  to  the 
Church  during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  An  organised 
system  of  selfish  and  unblushing  spoliation  of  church 
property  went  forward,  with  but  feeble  opposition  and 
condemnation.  The  leading  statesmen  were  thoroughly 
unprincipled  and  selfish ;  the  leading  prelates  too 
weak  and  ready  with  concessions.  The  young  King, 
who  had  imbibed  principles  not  altogether  in  accord- 
ance with  the  spirit  of  the  Church  of  England,  was  yet 
a  bright  exception  to  those  around  him  in  the  stedfast- 
uess  with  which  he  adhered  to  them.  That  the  reader 


THE  LEGISLATION  UNDER  EDWARD  VI.     101 

may  judge  the  way  in  which  the  Church  was  handled 
at  this  period,  some  of  the  chief  acts  of  spoliation  and 
oppression  will  be  brought  together  in  the  following 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CHURCH  SPOLIATION  AND   MORALS. 
1547-1553. 

IN  estimating  the  spoliation  of  churches  and  the  seizure 
by  laymen  of  ecclesiastical  property  which  were  so 
church  prevalent  at  the  period  of  the  Reformation, 
notliaec£jiar  **  mus^  not  ^e  forgotten  that  these  practices 
Reformation  were  not  the  invention  of  those  days.  In  the 
era  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  deliberate 

proposals  were  made  to  secularise  the  whole  of  the 
Church  revenues.  John  WyclifFe  maintained  that  this 
was  permissible  and  might  be  desirable,  and  no  one  did 
more  to  establish  the  principle  than  some  of  the  more 
energetic  of  the  Popes.  By  collecting  taxes  from  the 
clergy  to  carry  on  secular  wars  against  the  emperors, 
by  authorising  and  enforcing  church  payments  for  King 
Henry  III.  to  gain  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  the  Popes 
of  that  period  went  far  to  obliterate  the  distinction 
between  sacred  and  profane.  It  was  not  in  the  spirit 
of  a  doctrinal  reformation  that  Wykeham,  Waynflete, 
and  Chichele  used  religious  foundations  for  endowing 
secular  colleges,  or  that  Cardinal  Wolsey  and  King 
Henry  VIII.  laid  violent  hands  on  the  monastic  pro- 
perty of  their  day,  or  that  the  latter  spoiled  the  tomb 
of  St.  Thomas  of  its  enormous  treasure.  Nor  were  the 


IO2  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

spoliations  of  the  Reformation  days  confined  to  those 
who  held  reforming  opinions.  Queen  Mary  authorised 
the  spoliation  of  churches  as  well  as  her  brother,  and 
consented  to  the  retention  of  the  abbey  lands  by  those 
who  had  become  possessed  of  them.  It  is  not  fair, 
therefore,  to  attribute  the  devastation  of  King  Edward's 
days  simply  to  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation.  Rather 
it  should  be  set  down  to  the  grasping,  selfish,  and  un- 
principled characters  of  the  men  who  had  the  chief 
direction  of  affairs.  Among  these  there  was  not  one 
who  redeemed  his  greed  by  any  high  qualities.  Eliza- 
beth's statesmen,  it  may  be,  were  equally  grasping; 
but  they  were  at  any  rate  men  of  powerful  characters 
and  great  capacity  for  affairs.  The  leading  bishops,  as 
Cranmer,  and  especially  Latimer,  advocated  some  care 
for  the  temporal  interests  of  the  Church  ;  but  it  must 
be  confessed  that  their  exhortations  on  this  head  were 
but  little  heeded. 

The  spoliation  of  the  Church  took  many  forms.  There 
was  first  the  pulling  down  of  churches  and  ecclesiastical 
Various  buildings  to  use  the  materials  for  secular 
cimrch  building.  Those  who  remembered  the  whole- 
sale destruction  of  the  fine  abbeys  under 
Henry  VIII.  would  have  little  scruple  about  this.  Then 
there  was  the  robbing  the  sees  of  manors,  which  went 
on  to  a  vast  extent  in  the  time  of  Edward  VI.,  and 
was  resumed  under  Elizabeth.  There  was  also  a  very 
general  retention  of  tithes  from  the  lower  clergy,  the 
open  sale  of  livings  by  the  patron,  and  the  promotion 
of  obscure  and  unfit  persons,  on  the  understanding  that 
they  were  only  to  receive  a  small  part  of  the  stipend. 
Lastly,  there  was  the  actual  spoliation  of  churches,  the 


CHURCH  SPOLIATION  AND  MORALS         103 

seizure  of  the  vestments,  the  bells,  the  sacramental 
plate,  for  which  purpose  three  several  commissions 
were  issued  in  the  reign  of  Edward,  and  which  was 
done,  perhaps  to  a  greater  extent,  by  unauthorised 
spoilers. 

Of  the  first  sort  of  attack  on  church  property  the 
most  notorious  instance  was  the  famous  one  of  the  erec- 
The  buiid-  tion  of  Somerset  House.  The  Protector  had 
somerset  at  first  deliberately  intended  to  seize  upon 
the  noble  Abbey  of  Westminster,  and  to  pull 
it  down  for  the  erection  of  a  palace  on  the  site.  Benson, 
the  last  abbot  and  first  dean,  hearing  of  the  project, 
lost  no  time  in  offering  an  enormous  bribe  to  save  his 
church.  But  it  needed  the  sacrifice  of  more  than  half 
the  estates  belonging  to  the  foundation  before  the  peril 
could  be  averted.  Somerset  then  turned  his  attention 
to  another  site.  '  He  casts  his  eye  upon  a  piece  of 
ground  in  the  Strand,  on  which  stood  three  episcopal 
houses  and  one  parish  church ;  the  parish  church  de- 
dicated to  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  houses  belonging  to 
the  Bishops  of  Worcester,  Lichfield,  and  Llandaff — all 
these  he  takes  into  his  hands,  the  owners  not  daring 
to  oppose,  and,  therefore,  willingly  assenting  to  it.' 
But  the  materials  of  the  church  and  houses  were  not 
enough  for  the  magnificent  structure  contemplated. 
An  attempt  was  then  made  to  seize  St.  Margarets, 
Westminster;  but  this,  being  strenuously  resisted, 
was  abandoned.  Somerset  had  to  be  content  with  a 
cloister  of  Old  St.  Paul's,  and  the  rich  work  of  the 
Church  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem — '  most  beautifully 
built  not  long  before  by  Dockwray,  a  late  prior  thereof.' 
So  arose  Somerset  House,  although  the  unfortunate 


IO4          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

projector  of  it  was  not  destined  to  enjoy  the  fair  palace 
which  he  had  planned. 

This  was  but  a  sample  of  what  was  going  on  in 
every  county  of  England  when  the  Commissioners  sent 
The  Com-  ^n  March  1548  to  carry  out  the  act  grant- 
Side*  the5  ing  colleges  and  free  chapels  to  the  Crown 
granting  were  at  work.  The  buildings  were  readily  sold 
&°c!(efoethe  to  neighbouring  proprietors  to  be  used  as 
Ki°g  they  thought  fit.  It  was  then  that  St.  Ste- 

phen's Chapel  became  the  Parliament  House,  and  the 
famous  College  of  St.  Martin-le-Grand  was  turned  into 
a  tavern. 

As  the  houses  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  were  built 
or  enlarged  from  the  churches,  so  were  their  estates 
seizure  of  swelled  from  the  episcopal  manors  ;  for  as  the 
manorf1  bishops  now  held  their  office  at  the  will  of 
the  Crown,  they  were  completely  at  the  mercy  of  the 
State  in  regard  to  their  property.  The  possessors  of 
power  did  not  fail  to  take  fall  advantage  of  this.  When 
Barlow,  bishop  of  St.  David's,  was  translated  to  Bath 
and  Wells,  he  '  gratified  the  Lord  Protector/  by  a  pre- 
sent of  eighteen  or  nineteen  manors,  which,  being  situ- 
ated-in  Somersetshire,  were  thought  very  appropriate  to 
his  title.  '  There  was  no  other  means,'  says  Heylin,  '  as 
the  times  then  were,  to  preserve  the  whole,  but  by 
advancing  some  part  thereof  to  the  spoil  of  others.' 
Lord  Wentworth  obtained  a  fine  property  in  London 
from  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  St.  Paul's ;  and  Lord 
Paget,  another  courtier,  seems  to  have  been  exception- 
ably  fortunate  in  spoiling  both  the  see  of  Exeter  and 
that  of  Lichfield.  To  the  former  he  owed  a  fine  house, 
and  to  the  latter  the  manor  of  Beau-desert,  and  '  many 


CHURCH  SPOLIATION  AND  MORALS         105 

other  fair  estates  in  the  county  of  Stafford.'  These 
last  were  surrendered,  not  by  a  newly-created  bishop, 
but  by  one  of  old  standing,  who,  being  opposed  to  the 
reforming  proceedings,  found  no  other  way  to  preserve 
his  see.  Bishop  Sampson  had  played  a  conspicuous, 
and  perhaps  not  over-honest,  part  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,  and  now  found  that  royal  supremacy, 
which  he  had  done  his  best  to  exaggerate,  an  incon- 
venient power  in  his  own  case.  Salcot,  bishop  of 
Salisbury,  avoided  the  actual  surrender  of  his  manors 
by  making  long  leases  of  them.  But  Kitchen,  bishop 
of  Llandaff,  was  less  scrupulous.  His  see  was  so  richly 
endowed  that  it  might  be  reckoned  one  of  the  most 
wealthy  in  Christendom ;  but  by  his  grants  it  was 
so  impoverished  '  that  it  is  hardly  able  to  keep  the 
pot  boiling  for  a  parson's  dinner.'  When  Voysey, 
bishop  of  Exeter,  was  implicated  in  the  Devonshire 
rebellion,  the  greater  part  of  the  endowments  of  his 
see  were  forfeited,  which  once  consisted  of  twenty-two 
goodly  manors  and  fourteen  mansion-houses.  Upon 
the  accession  of  Poynet  to  the  see  of  Winchester,  after 
the  deprivation  of  Gardiner,  that  rich  see  was  severely 
amerced,  though  the  manors  and  palaces  seized  upon 
by  the  courtiers  were  afterwards  recovered  on  the 
restoration  of  Gardiner.  When  Bishop  Heath  was 
removed  from  Worcester,  this  see  was  given  to  Hooper, 
bishop  of  the  new  diocese  of  Gloucester,  to  hold  in 
commendam.  But  he  only  held  the  see  as  adminis- 
trator, its  revenues  being  grasped  by  the  '  pirates  of  the 
Court.'  Thus  the  impoverishment  of  the  sees  went  on 
throughout  all  the  dioceses  of  England.  The  legal 
pretence  was  an  act  of  Henry  VIII.,  which  enabled 


io6  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

bishops  to  exchange  manors  for  impropriate  tithes  that 
had  come  into  the  King's  hands ;  but  there  is  no  evi- 
dence of  an  equivalent  having  been  given  at  this  time. 
The  spoliation  of  the  wealthy  see  of  Durham  was  ob- 
tained by  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  through  the 
attainder  of  Bishop  Tonstal,  on  pretence  of  being  im- 
plicated in  a  rising  in  the  north.  This  good  bishop, 
together  with  Gardiner,  Bonner,  Heath,  Day,  and 
Voysey,  remained  in  prison  till  the  accession  of  Queen 
Mary.  The  strangest  disregard  of  ecclesiastical  rights 
prevailed  throughout  all  this  period.  Crumwell  had 
been  dean  of  Wells  under  Henry  VIII.  Somerset 
held  not  only  a  deanery,  but  also  a  treasurership  and 
four  cathedral  prebends. 

But  if  the  bishops  were  heavily  amerced,  they  still 
had  some  revenues  left.  This,  however,  in  numerous 
spoliation  instances  was  not  the  case  with  the  parochial 
of  benefices  clergy.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the  bene- 
fices of  England  had  in  the  course  of  the  middle  ages 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  monasteries,  which  had 
been  compelled,  both  by  ecclesiastical  and  statute  law, 
to  appoint  as  permanent  vicars,  clerks  outside  their 
body  at  a  fixed  stipend,  or,  when  the  monastic  house 
was  clerical,  to  serve  the  churches  by  one  of  their  own 
body.  Thus  the  Benedictines,  Cistercians,  the  military 
orders,  and  all  houses  of  nuns  appointed  vicars;  the 
Austin  canons,  and  other  foundations  of  canons,  usu- 
ally served  the  church  themselves.  When  then,  at  the 
dissolution  of  monasteries,  these  impropriate  tithes 
passed  into  lay  hands,  the  same  duties  devolved  on 
the  holders  of  them,  as  regards  the  churches,  as  had 
belonged  previously  to  the  religious  house.  There  is  an 


CHURCH  SPOLIATION  AND  MORALS         107 

nnanimous  testimony  from  contemporary  writers,  that 
these  duties  were  performed  very  inadequately  or  were 
altogether  evaded.  A  contemporary  writer  says,  '  Where 
the  monks  always  had  one  or  other  vicar  that  either 
preached  or  hired  some  one  to  preach,  now  there  is 
no  vicar  at  all ;  but  the  farmer  is  vicar  and  parson 
altogether,  and  an  old  castaway  monk  or  friar  that  can 
scarcely  say  his  matins,  is  hired  for  twenty  or  thirty 
shillings,  meat  and  drink,  yea,  in  some  places  for  meat 
and  drink  alone,  without  wages.'  Bishop  Latimer  thus 
addresses  the  patrons  of  benefices :  '  What  do  you 
patrons  ?  Sell  your  benefices,  or  give  them  to  your 
servants  for  their  service,  for  keeping  of  hounds,  or 
hawks,  for  making  of  your  gardens.  These  patrons 
regard  no  souls,  neither  their  own  nor  other  men's.  To 
consider  what  hath  been  plucked  from  abbeys,  colleges, 
and  chantries,  it  is  marvel  no  more  to  be  bestowed  on 
this  holy  office  of  salvation.  Many  will  choose  now 
such  a  curate  for  their  souls  as  they  may  call  fool, 
rather  than  one  that  will  rebuke  their  covetousness, 
ambition,  unmercifulness,  uncharitableness.'  In  older 
times  the  bishop  had  full  power  to  force  an  augmenta- 
tion of  the  vicar's  stipend,  when  it  was  shown  to  be 
insufficient.  Now  the  bishops  were  powerless,  and  the 
lay  patrons  had  it  all  their  own  way.  The  vicar's 
stipend  was  often  withheld  altogether,  and  where  per- 
petual curacies  were  established,  which  was  done  in 
those  cases  where  the  church  had  been  served  directly 
from  the  monastery,  there  was  no  check  upon  the  bar- 
gain which  might  be  made  between  the  patron  and  any 
compliant  priest  he  might  be  able  to  find.  In  addition 
to  this,  it  appears  that  many  rectorial  incumbents  had, 


io8          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

like  the  bishops,  alienated  the  manors  and  lands  belong- 
ing to  their  benefices. 

Poverty  was  thus  threatening  the  Church  on  all 
sides,  nor  were  the  sacred  edifices  and  their  contents 
spoliation  spared.  The  Government  proceeded  on  the 
theory  that  church  ornaments  and  vestures, 
not  needed  for  the  performance  of  service  according  to 
the  new  settlement,  belonged  to  the  Crown,  and  were 
to  be  kept  for  its  use.  With  this  view  commissions  to 
take  inventories  had  been  issued  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  reign,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  goods  inven- 
toried had  been  removed.  As  the  reforming  spirit, 
however,  developed  itself,  it  seems  that  a  great  quantity 
of  private  pillage  of  church  valuables  was  experienced. 
Accordingly  in  1553  a  new  commission  was  issued, 
the  duty  of  which  was  to  obtain  the  inventories  which 
were  in  the  hands  either  of  the  clerk  of  the  peace  or 
the  bishop,  and  to  compare  the  lists  with  the  articles 
found  in  each  church  ;  where  any  of  them  were  missing 
the  commissioners  were  to  trace  out  the  purloiner,  and 
if  possible  to  recover  the  lost  article.  But  the  com- 
missioners were  to  do  more  than  this.  Their  principal 
duty  is  euphoniously  expressed  thus  : — '.  They  shall  give 
good  charge  and  order  that  the  same  goods,  and  every 
part  thereof,  be  at  all  times  forthcoming  to  be  an- 
swered.' No  way  appeared  so  satisfactory  for  effecting 
this  as  that  of  removing  them  from  the  churches  alto- 
gether, and  that  this  was  intended  appears  from  the 
next  sentence,  '  leaving  nevertheless  in  every  parish 
church  or  chapel  of  common  resort — one,  two,  or  more 
chalices  or  cups,  according  to  the  multitude  of  the  people 
in  every  such  church  or  chapel,  and  also  such  other 


CHURCH  SPOLIATION  AND  MORALS         109 

ornaments  as  by  their  discretion  shall  seem  requisite 
for  the  divine  service  in  every  such  place  for  the  time.' 
A  very  large  number  of  the  returns  made  by  these 
commissioners  remains  among  the  Augmentation  Office 
papers,  many  of  which  have  been  printed  as  curiosities 
of  the  time.  The  following,  taken  from  the  return 
for  a  deanery  in  the  diocese  of  Norwich,  may  serve  as 
specimens  : — 

Church  1. 

£     *.    d. 
I  chalice  parcel  gilt,  with  paten  of  silver  parcel 

gilt  weighing  9i  ounces,  at  3s.  ±d.  per  ounce    11410 
1  cope  of  cloth  of  Bawdekin  .  .068 

1  vestment  of  green  sarsnet  .         .         .         .020 

1  cross  of  copper    .         .         .         .         .         .049 

2  bells  weighing  9  cwt.,  at  15s.  the  cwt.         .     615     0 

The   following    were   assigned   for  divine  service — The 
chalice,  1  surplice,  2  tablecloths,  1  bell. 

Church  2. 

£     *.    d. 
1  chalice  parcel  gilt  weighing  11£  ounces,  at 

3s.  4cZ.  the  ounce      .         .         .         .         .289 
1  chalice  of  silver  weighing  2  ounces      .         .068 

1  cope  blue  silk 040 

1  vestment  blue  silk,  with  the  alb .  .  .030 
1  old  cope  of  green  say  .  .  .  .  .010 
1  vestment  white  fustian  .  .  .  .010 

1  cross,  1  pair  censers  of  latten      .         .         .004 

2  handbells  8  Ib 010 

3  bells  in  steeple  IS  cwt.        .         .         .         .   13  10     0 
3  clappers  (whereof  two  do   remain   in   the 

hands  of  Sir  Anthony  Hevingham,  Ivnt.)      034 

The  following  assigned  for  divine  service — The  chalice, 
1  surplice,  1  bell. 


no          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Bells  were  evidently  the  principal  spoil.  The  copes 
and  vestments  were  but  of  little  value,  as  no  doubt  there 
were  many  who  would  shrink  from  putting  them  to 
profane  uses.  It  is  remarkable  that,  though  the  chalice 
was  usually  assigned  to  the  church,  the  paten  was 
ordinarily  carried  away.  It  appears  to  be  thought  that 
any  ordinary  plate  might  suffice.  The  cathedrals  pro- 
bably fared  as  badly,  perhaps  worse,  than  the  parish 
churches.  The  primate,  though  a  member  of  the 
Council,  could  not  protect  his  own  church.  January 
16,  1548,  occurs  in  the  Council  books  the  following : 
'  A  letter  to  the  Dean  and  Prebendaries  of  Canterbury 
to  deliver  the  silver  table  that  stood  upon  their  high 
altar,  by  indenture  containing  the  weight  of  the  same, 
to  Sir  Anthony  Aucher.'  January  29  :  'To  Mr.  Aucher 
to  receive  of  the  Chapter  of  Christ  Church  in  Canter- 
bury, all  such  jewels  and  plate  of  gold  and  silver  as 
they  have  by  their  late  sovereign  lord's  permission  to 
their  church's  use,  and  forthwith  to  deliver  the  same 
by  bill  indented  to  the  officers  of  the  Mint.'  In  these 
various  ways  the  Church  was  spoiled  during  this 
period. 

It  would  be  unfair  to  forget  among  these  selfish 
graspings  that  the  young  King  himself  showed  an 
King  altogether  different  spirit.  From  the  sale  of 

benefactions  chantry  and  free-chapel  lands  twenty-two 
grammar-schools  were  founded,  and  just  at  the  end  of 
his  life  the  King  made  considerable  benefactions  to  the 
City  of  London.  He  gave  the  palace  of  Bridewell  to 
be  a  place  of  relief  for  travellers  and  correction  for 
the  idle  and  vagabond.  He  dissolved  the  Hospital  of 
the  Savoy  and  gave  its  revenues  to  the  Hospitals  of 


CHURCH  SPOLIATION  AND  MORALS         in 

Sfc.  Thomas,  St.  Bartholomew,  and  Christ  Church ;  tho 
buildings  of  which  on  the  destruction  of  the  religious 
houses  had  been  rescued  by  the  City  of  London  from 
the  grasp  of  the  King.  Thus  Christ's  Hospital  became 
a  noble  free  school,  and  the  others  became  institutions 
of  infinite  value  for  the  sick  and  suffering.  If  Kino1 
Edward  did  not  do  more  with  the  Church  property 
which  came  into  his  possession,  it  was  certainly  the 
fault  of  his  advisers  rather  than  his  own.  In  many 
ways  the  young  King  was  infinitely  superior  to  his 
surroundings. 

This  was  especially  marked  in  the  melancholy  case 
of  the  woman  Joan  Boucher,  who  was  condemned  to 
Burning  death  in  1549,  for  some  mad  blasphemies 

of  Joan 

Boucher  as  to  the  Incarnation  of  our  Lord.  For  a 
whole  year  this  woman  was  kept  in  prison,  and  the 
greatest  efforts  were  made  by  Cranmer  and  others  to 
make  her  recant.  She  obstinately  refused,  and  at 
length  a  warrant  was  made  out  for  her  burning.  It 
needed,  however,  all  Cranmer's  emphatic  declarations, 
and  his  assertion  that  he  took  the  sole  responsibility 
upon  himself,  before  the  young  King  could  be  induced 
to  yield  to  the  barbarous  spirit  of  the  age.  The  poor 
creature  was  burned  May  2,  1550.  One  other  execu- 
tion for  heresy  only,  that  of  George  Van  Parre,  an 
Anabaptist,  took  place  in  this  reign. 

It  is  hard,  almost  impossible,  to  estimate  the  rela- 
tive amounts  of  immorality  prevailing  in  society  at 
The  mo-  different  periods :  but  there  is  a  general  con- 

rality  of  the  A    .  '        . 

period  sent  that  ID  the  times  of  Edward  VI.  all 
moral  obligations  were  greatly  loosened.  Something 
of  this  might  naturally  be  expected  from  the  state  of 


H2  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

chaos  in  which  religious  matters  were,  and  from  the 
relaxation  of  the  old  bonds  of  Church  authority,  while 
as  yet  the  secular  government  was  not  strong  or  ener- 
getic enough  to  redress  disorders.  Camden's  estimate 
is  : — '  That  ambition  and  faction  amongst  the  nobility, 
insolence  and  insurrection  among  the  commons,  were 
never  more  flagrant  or  disturbing.  In  short,  consider- 
ing the  animosities  and  tumults  amongst  great  men, 
the  debasing  the  coin,  the  disorders  in  the  administra- 
tion and  the  revolt  of  the  peasantry,  the  kingdom  made 
a  miserable  appearance,  and  looked  as  it  were  lan- 
guishing in  one  part  and  distracted  in  another.'  In  the 
singular  rhoclomontades  which  Bishop  Latimer  deli- 
vered as  sermons,  the  most  violent  attacks  are  con- 
stantly made  upon  the  wickedness  of  the  age.  But 
this  is  a  commonplace  with  all  preachers,  and  it  is  hard 
to  gather  anything  definite  as  to  the  state  of  society 
from  such  words.  Whatever  it  may  have  been,  the 
religious  Reformation  cannot  fairly  be  held  accountable 
for  it.  As  yet  this  was  scarcely  inaugurated;  and  all 
things  were  in  an  unfinished  and  chaotic  state,  when 
the  young  King  died  at  Greenwich  (July  6,  1553),  and 
men's  hearts  were  filled  with  anxiety  and  fear  as  to  the 
prospect  before  them  in  a  new  reign. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   FIRST   MEASURES   OF   RETALIATION. 
1553-1554. 

BY  the  accession  of  Mary  to  the  throne  after  the  short 
and  melancholy  episode  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  the  whole 
Change  by  aspect  of  affairs  in  the  English  Church  was 

theaccession  i    .    i  i  j         mr  •,        ,• 

of  Mary  completely  changed.  Ihe  situation  was  in 
some  respects  parallel  to  that  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII., 
when  the  King  suddenly  drew  back  from  the  reforming 
party,  and  by  the  passing  of  the  Sis  Article  Law  and 
the  disgrace  of  Crumwell,  struck  terror  into  those  who 
desired  further  reforms.  Without  contending  for  an 
exact  parallel,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  both  these  san- 
guinary checks  to  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  were 
made  to  subserve  good  and  useful  purposes.  Another 
year  or  two  of  the  power  of  King  Edward's  counsellors, 
and  it  is  probable  that  but  little  of  the  face  of  the 
ancient  Church  of  England  would  have  been  left. 
There  might  have  been  a  Directory  in  place  of  the 
Prayer-book,  and  the  call  of  the  congregation  instead 
of  ordination  by  the  Bishop.  But  there  came  a 
terrible  time  of  trial.  The  Reformed  Church  was 
baptized  in  blood.  The  halo  of  martyrdom  was  spread 
around  it.  The  enthusiasm  of  men  was  stirred.  Their 
hearts  were  touched.  The  most  intense  feelings  of 
horror  for  the  opposing  system  were  generated,  and  to 
this  day  the  Queen  who  was  the  cause  of  the  cruelties 
C.  H.  I 


ii4  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

which  were  practised  is  regarded  with  dislike  by  the 
mass  of  Englishmen. 

There  is  much  excuse  to  be  made  for  Mary.  She 
had  been  persecuted  more  or  less  all  her  life,  as  her 
character  ot  mother  had  been  before  her.  She  had  been 
most  unjustifiably  vexed  and  annoyed  as  to 
her  religious  observances  during  the  late  reign.  The 
Reformation  and  all  its  supporters  could  not  be  any- 
thing but  absolutely  odious  to  her.  She  was  much 
more  of  a  Spanish  than  an  English  woman.  She  had 
altogether  the  Spanish  temperament ;  short  and  slightly 
made,  but  with  a  saturnine  look  and  a  deep  voice,  she 
was  absolutely  unyielding  in  obstinacy,  and  entirely 
devoid  of  fear.  She  knew  nothing  of  the  feelings  of 
pity  and  compassion.  She  was  sternly  determined  to 
do  what  she  believed  to  be  her  duty.  In  doing  this 
she  scrupled  not  to  use  falsehood.  Her  most  honoured 
counsellor  was  her  cousin  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  and 
he  has  left  it  on  record  that  no  faith  ought  to  be  kept 
with  heretics,  and  that  he  bitterly  repented  not  having 
broken  his  word  and  put  Luther  to  death  when  he  was 
in  his  power.  Calvin  called  her  Proserpine,  as  having 
all  the  qualities  suitable  for  reigning  in  Hell.  The 
English  nation  has  agreed  to  affix  to  her  name  another 
epithet,  from  which  it  will  probably  never  shake  itself 
free.  For  it  is  now  known,  almost  with  certainty,  that 
it  was  not  to  the  politic  Gardiner,  nor  to  the  coarse  and 
butcherly  Bonner,  nor  to  the  amiable  Pole,  nor  to  any  of 
the  English  bishops,  that  the  cruelties  of  this  reign 
were  mainly  due ;  but  to  the  vindictive  temper  of  the 
Queen  herself,  encouraged  and  approved  by  the  cold- 
blooded murderous  principles  of  her  husband. 


THE  FIRST  MEASURES  OF  RETALIATION     115 

The  first  ecclesiastical  act  of  Mary's  reign  was  one 
which  all  would  naturally  expect.  Bishop  Gardiner 
Release  of  was  set  free  from  the  Tower,  Bonner  from  the 
prisoned  Marshalsea,  and  Tonstal  from  the  King's 
Bench  prison.  Bishops  Voysey,  Day,  and 
Heath  were  also  liberated,  and  the  holders  of  their 
sees,  Poynet,  Ridley,  Coverdale,  Scory,  and  Hooper, 
were  dispossessed.  This  appears  to  have  been  done  by 
a  Commission  appointed  by  the  Council,  which  also 
deprived  all  deans,  dignitaries,  and  parochial  ministers 
who  had  during  the  last  two  reigns  succeeded  to  any 
preferment  of  which  the  old  incumbent  was  still  living. 

Heylin  says  '  the  people  were  generally  well  af- 
fected to  the  Reformation.'  There  is,  however,  very 
indifference  little  trace  of  this.  There  was  a  general 
people  acquiescence  in  what  came  to  be  called  '  The 
Queen's  Proceedings.'  The  old  services  were  soon  seen 
everywhere,  though  still  illegal ;  and  we  can  hardly 
wonder  at  the  caustic  observations  of  the  Venetian 
Ambassador,  who  writes,  '  The  example  and  authority 
of  the  Sovereign  are  everything  with  the  people  of 
this  country  in  matters  of  faith.  As  he  believes,  they 
believe.  Judaism  or  Mahometanism  is  all  one  to  them. 
They  conform  themselves  easily  to  his  will,  at  least  so 
far  as  the  outward  show  is  concerned,  and  most  easily 
of  all  where  it  concerns  their  own  pleasure  and  profit.' 

There  was,  however,  some  spirit  of  resistance  in  the 
Parliament,  which  met  October  5.  It  would  not  repeal 
Resistance  the  Acts  on  religion  passed  under  Henry  VIII., 
Parliament  nor  would  it  express  its  desire  that  the  Queen 
should  marry  the  Spanish  Prince.  It  was  with  very 
great  difficulty  that  it  was  brought  to  annul  the  Acts 

i  2 


1 1 6          THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  ENGLAND 

on  religion  of  Edward  VI.,  about  a  third  of  the  assembly 
standing  out  for  the  Reformation  settlement ;  but  it 
was  at  length  agreed  that  the  form  of  Divine  Service 
and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments  which  were  used 
in  the  last  year  of  King  Henry  VIII.,  should  hence- 
forth be  the  legal  service,  and  no  other. 

In  the  Convocation  there  was  not  so  stout  a  resist- 
ance to  the  changed  state  of  religious  affairs  as  in  the 
The  convo-  Parliament.  Only  five  divines — Phillips,  Dean 
Canterbury  of  Rochester,  Cheyney,  Archdeacon  of  Here- 
ford. Haddon,  Dean  of  Exeter,  Philpot,  Archdeacon 
of  Winchester,  and  Aylmer,  Archdeacon  of  Stow  '— 
ventured  to  dispute  openly  against  resolutions  which 
reaffirmed  in  the  most  pointed  manner  the  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass.  It  is 
said  that  the  proctorial  elections  were  so  managed  that 
none  of '  King  Edward's  clergy,'  as  they  were  termed, 
were  sent  to  the  House,  those  who  defended  the  reform- 
ing doctrines  being  all  dignitaries.  Of  course  their 
opposition  was  overruled,  the  Prolocutor  closing  the 
discussion  with  very  remarkable  words  :  '  It  is  not  the 
Queen's  pleasure  that  we  should  spend  any  more  time 
in  these  disputes,  and  ye  are  well  enough  already,  for 
you  have  the  word,  and  we  have  the  sword.' 

Nothing  indeed  could  better  describe  the  state  of 
affairs  than  these  words.  The  '  Queen's  Pleasure  '  was 
Exercise  of  now  to  be  the  absolute  law  for  the  Church,  as 
supremacy  in  the  days  of  Henry  VIII.  She  put  out  a 
proclamation  forbidding  preaching.  She  issued  a  set 
of  injunctions,  as  '  Head  of  the  Church,'  to  the  bishops, 
bidding  them  deprive  the  married  clergy,  re-establish 

1  There  is  said  to  have  been  a  sixth,  whose  name  is  not  known. 


THE  FIRST  MEASURES  OF  RETALIATION    117 

the  ancient  services  and  processions,  set  forth  Homi- 
lies ;  and  by  Commissions  appointed  under  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Crown,  she  caused  all  the  reforming  bishops, 
on  one  ground  or  other,  to  be  deprived.  Only  Cranmer, 
being  a  Metropolitan  and  having  been  appointed  by 
Papal  Bulls,  could  not  be  thus  dealt  with  without 
direct  authority  from  Rome. 

This,  no  doubt,  was  Bishop  Gardiner's  policy.  Car- 
dinal Pole,  designed  to  be  the  Papal  Legate  in  England, 
Gardiner's  would  have  acted  differently.  But  Pole,  on 
policy  Gardiner's  advice,  was  kept  back,  by  the  Em- 
peror's influence.  Had  he  appeared  in  England  at 
once,  and  before  the  Abbey  lands  were  secured  to  their 
lay-holders,  it  was  thought  to  be  not  improbable  that 
the  Queen  would  lose  her  Crown.  The  Queen's  ad- 
visers as  yet  had  no  thought  of  persecution  other  than 
that  which  had  been  used  in  the  last  reign.  Then  the 
romanizing  bishops  had  been  deprived  and  sent  to 
prison ;  now,  the  same  measure  was  meted  out  to  the 
reforming  bishops.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  as  Barlow, 
Poynet,  and  Coverdale,  escaped.  A  great  number  of 
the  inferior  clergy  and  of  the  lay  folk  who  were  most 
in  earnest  about  the  Reformation  followed  their  example. 
The  foreigners  had  all  been  allowed  to  pass  freely. 
Gardiner,  foreseeing  probably  troubles  ahead,  was  glad 
to  be  rid  of  them.  It  is  said  that  even  Archbishop 
Cranmer  had  an  opening  for  escape ;  but  this  seems 
scarcely  credible.  Against  him  more  than  any  other 
man  the  Queen  nourished  a  deadly  hatred.  In  her  view, 
he  had  misled  her  father,  pronounced  the  divorce  of 
her  mother,  overturned  the  mass,  and  brought  persecu- 
tion upon  her  for  her  religion  during  her  brother's 


nS          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

reign.  All  this  had  been  aggravated  by  his  endeavour 
to  set  her  aside  in  favour  of  Lady  Jane  Grey.  Cran- 
mer,  under  one  pretext  or  another,  must  needs  bs 
sacrificed.  Gardiner  would  probably  have  been  satis- 
fied with  his  deprivation.  He  bore  the  Primate  no 
good-will,  and  besides,  he  wanted  his  place ;  but  Pole 
was  a  formidable  rival.  Could  not,  perhaps,  Pole  be 
kept  out  altogether,  or,  at  any  rate,  for  some  time  ? 
Certainly  this  could  not  be  done  unless  some  measures 
were  taken  against  the  leading  heretics.  The  Queen's 
impatience  for  revenge  could  not  otherwise  be  met. 

So  a  singular  resolve  was  taken.     Cranmer,  Ridley, 

and   Latimer    were    sent    to     Oxford   (March    1554). 

Measures       Hooper,  Rogers,  Philpot,  Bradford,  Crome  and 

Sming6    Taylor  were  reserved  for  Cambridge.     There 

ishops         wag  £Q  j^  a  grgjj^  academical    discussion   on 

the  doctrine  of  the  mass,  in  which  the  heretics  were 
to  be  ignominiously  worsted.  What  was  to  be  done 
with  them  afterwards  had  not  as  yet  been  decided 
upon.  At  Oxford  the  controversial  duel  took  place  in 
St.  Mary's  Church  (April  14,  16,  17,  20).  The  bishops 
defended  their  opinions  with  great  zeal ;  but  they  were 
interrupted,  howled  at,  mobbed,  and  of  course  condemned 
to  be  guilty  of  heresy.  This,  however,  was  merely  an 
academical  resolution,  which  hurt  nobody,  and  perhaps 
this  was  all  that  Gardiner  desired.  But  it  by  no  means 
satisfied  the  Queen.  At  the  beginning  of  May  the 
Judges  and  Queen's  Counsel  were  summoned  to  be 
asked  what  might  be  done  against  the  heretical  bishops. 
There  was  a  considerable  difficulty.  The  Act  25 
Henry  VIII.,  c.  16,  had  repealed  the  old  Lollard  Laws, 
and  substituted  another  process.  The  Six  Article  Law 


THE  FIRST  MEASURES  OF  RETALIATION     119 

had  made  heresy  a  statutable  offence ;  but  the  Six 
Article  Law  had  been  repealed  under  Edward,  and  had 
not  been  re-enacted.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to 
wait  for  better  times,  until  the  Legate  should  come, 
with  full  power  to  assure  the  holders  of  Church  spoils 
that  they  would  not  be  disturbed,  and  then  a  repentant 
and  grateful  Parliament  would  doubtless  cheerfully  re- 
enact  the  Lollard  Laws.  Gardiner  has  left  it  on  record 
that  he  disapproved  of  this  policy,  and  we  may  readily 
believe  him.  Shifty  and  unprincipled  as  he  was,  he  yet 
was  English,  and  did  not  thirst  for  blood.  In  his  pre- 
dilections he  was  anti-papal.  He  was  quite  satisfied 
to  work  the  Royal  Supremacy,  for  which  he  had  learn- 
edly argued  in  the  days  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  he  had 
no  desire  for  the  Spaniard  and  the  Inquisition.  The 
retaliation  Avhich  had  been  already  meted  out  to  the 
prominent  Reformers  probably  satisfied  him,  and  had 
Cranmer  been  duly  deposed,  and  he  himself  substituted 
in  his  room,  his  appetite  for  revenge  would  have  been 
fully  appeased.  But  behind  and  above  him  there  was 
a  very  different  spirit,  fostered  and  upheld  by  influences 
which  are  now  to  be  detailed.  Before  this  his  power 
waned  and  fell,  while  the  influence  which  overcame 
him  availed  to  write  the  saddest  and  most  humiliating 
chapter  in  the  whole  history  of  England. 


120          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   SPANISH   REVENGE. 
1554-1558. 

ON  July  25,  1554,  Queen  Mary  was  married,  at  "Win- 
chester, to  a  prince  who  was  the  most  perfect  type  and 
The  Spanish  embodiment  of  cold-blooded  cruelty.  He  had 
dWnes  been  educated  in  the  notion  that  to  burn  or 
otherwise  destroy  heretics  was  the  most  acceptable 
piacular  offering  to  heaven ;  and  in  this  spirit  he  is 
found  showing  his  gratitude  for  preservation  in  a  storm 
by  extemporising  an  auto-da-fe,  or  at  another  time 
causing  twenty-seven  gentlemen  convicted  of  heresy  to 
be  burned  in  his  presence.  When  Philip  came  to  Eng- 
land he  did  not  come  alone.  With  him  there  came 
Bartholomeo  de  Carranza,  who  had  represented  Spain 
at  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  who  was  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Toledo;  Pedro  de  Soto,  Confessor  to 
Charles  V. ;  Juan  de  Villagarcia,  and  some  other  Domi- 
nicans.1 Philip  also  brought  with  him  as  his  chaplain 
Alphonso  de  Castro,  a  Franciscan. 

In  the  '  Life  of  Carranza  '  it  is  stated,  '  As  it  was 
the  intention  of  the  affianced  parties  to  reduce  the 
Bartho-  kingdom  of  England  to  the  unity  and  bosom 
toranza  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  enterprise  was 
begun  by  Carranza  receiving  orders  to  pass  over  into 
England,  and  to  take  with  him  great  nnd  learned  clerks 
who  might  arrange  the  business  dexterously,  conquer- 

1  One  of  these,  Constantine  Ponce,  became  converted  to  reform- 
ing views  in  England,  and  was  afterwards  condemned  by  the  Inqui- 
sition. 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  121 

ing  the  difficulties  which  might  present  themselves.' 
Carranza  became  the  Queen's  confessor,  and  was  em- 
ployed in  the  visitation  of  both  the  universities.  To 
him  is  to  be  set  down  one  of  the  most  infamous  acts 
of  the  '  revenge,'  namely,  the  disinterring  and  burning 
the  bodies  of  Fagius  and  Bucer,  and  the  burying  the 
remains  of  Peter  Martyr's  wife  in  a  dunghill.  For  this 
he  himself  takes  credit.  It  is  probable  also,  from  some 
expressions  of  his,  that  he  attempted  to  induce  the 
Queen  to  establish  the  Inquisition  in  England,  for 
which,  if  it  were  so,  a  strange  nemesis  overtook  him, 
for  he  passed  the  last  sixteen  years  of  his  life  in  the 
dungeons  of  the  Holy  Office. 

Pedro  de  Soto  was  made  Regius  Professor  at  Oxford 
in  succession  to  Peter  Martyr.  He  was  doubtless  con- 
Pedro  de  sidered  the  man  most  calculated  to  undo  the 
mischief  of  the  reforming  teaching  of  his  pre- 
decessor. Having  been  long  confessor  to  the  Emperor 
Charles,  he  had  left  him  and  established  himself  in 
Flanders  with  the  special  object  of  confuting  the  Ger- 
man heresies.  From  this  he  had  been  drawn  into 
England  as  a  yet  more  promising  field  for  his  labours  ; 
and  at  Oxford  he  '  reinstated  the  theology  of  St.  Thomas, 
the  solid  buttress  against  heretics,  and  banished  their 
fictitious  and  fallacious  doctrine.' 

Villagarcia,  another  Dominican,  also  sent  to  Oxford, 
and  appointed  to  a  professorship,  was  a  member  of  the 
viiiagarcia  Convent  of  St.  Paul,  at  Valladolid.  He  had 
obtained  high  reputation  in  his  own  country,  and  ia 
said  by  Fernandez  '  to  have  been  taken  to  England  to 
purify  the  universities  of  that  realm  of  the  views  which 
the  heretic  doctors  had  sown  in  them.  He  laboured 


122  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

indefatigably  in  scattering  the  darkness  with  which 
the  Lutheran  and  Calvinist  teachers  had  blinded  the 
students.'  He  is  said  to  have  read  theological  lec- 
tures both  at  Lincoln  and  Magdalen  Colleges.  All  these 
divines  will  be  found  to  have  been  employed  around 
the  unfortunate  Archbishop  Cranmer,  in  carrying  out 
the  scheme  of  refined  malice  devised  against  him.,  namely, 
to  make  him  first  recant  and  deny  his  former  teaching, 
and  then  to  burn  him  in  spite  of  his  recantation. 

But  the  most  remarkable  of  the  Spaniards  who 
at  this  time  alighted  upon  the  unfortunate  Church 
Aiphonso  °f  England  was  Alphonso  de  Castro,  'King 
ik-  Castro  Philip's  preacher.'  He  is  remarkable  in  this, 
that  whereas  the  others  did  not  stoop  to  dissemble  their 
horrible  maxims  of  fire  and  sword  for  heretics,  De 
Castro,  for  politic  reasons  and  at  the  instance  of  his 
master,  actually  ventured  to  preach  a  sermon  in  which 
he  denounced  vindictive  proceedings  against  heretics, 
endeavouring  to  throw  the  odium  of  these  inhumanities 
upon  the  English  bishops,  and  to  gain  for  the  Spaniard 
the  praise  of  mercy.  With  this  apparatus  of  divines 
the  Spanish  prince  'came  to  England.  The  effect  of 
his  arrival,  and  the  support  which  he  and  his  clergy  lent 
to  the  Queen's  vindictive  temper,  was  soon  apparent  in 
the  complete  downfall  of  Gardiner's  policy,  and  the 
commencement  of  a  new  state  of  things. 

In  November  (1554)  arrived  Cardinal  Pole,  being 
the  bearer  of  a  Bull  from  the  Pope,  empowering  him  to 
Arrival  of  alienate  and  transfer  to  its  present  holders 

the  Papal  .    - 

Legate  and     a\\  the  monastic   and  church  property  which 

absolution  _.   . 

ofthenation  had  been  granted  or  sold  to  laymen.  Ihis 
welcome  document  insured  the  Cardinal's  favourable 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  123 

reception.  Parliament  first,  and  then  the  Convocation 
of  the  Clergy,  were  quite  ready  to  receive  with  due 
expressions  of  gratitude  and  humility  the  absolution 
sent  to  them  from  the  Pope.  The  dispensation  was  at 
once  embodied  in  an  Act  of  Parliament,  which  recited 
the  return  of  the  English  nation  to  the  papal  obedience, 
and  confirmed  the  settlement  of  cathedrals  and  schools, 
marriages  celebrated,  and  institutions  to  benefices  during 
the  schismatical  period.  The  clergy  were  sent  home 
from  their  synod  with  a  direction  to  use  lenity,  and  a 
form  of  absolution  was  furnished  them  for  the  recon- 
ciling of  their  flocks.  The  Parliament,  in  the  spirit  of 
zeal  and  gratitude  produced  by  the  confirmation  of  the 
titles  to  the  confiscated  Church  lands,  repealed  the 
Act  of  Henry  VIII.,  which  made  the  trial  of  heretics 
difficult,  and  revived  the  statutes  made  against  the 
Lollards. 

This  was  done  in  December ;  but  fully  a  month  before 
this  and  before  the  arrival  of  the  Cardinal,  the  Queen, 
The  Queen's  in  anticipation  of  the  policy  resolved  upon  by 
ti'on  to  burn  herself  and  her  Spanish  friends,  had  addressed 
to  the  Council  her  famous  letter  in  which  she  gives  her 
regulations  for  the  punishment  of  heretics.  '  Specially 
within  London,'  she  writes,  '  I  would  wish  none  to  le 
burnt  without  some  of  the  Council's  presence,  and  both 
there  and  everywhere  good  sermons  at  the  same  time.' 
The  Queen,  therefore,  now  married  about  four  months, 
had  already  decided  to  burn  a  considerable  portion 
of  her  subjects,  even  before  her  Roman  adviser  had 
arrived.  What  was  her  motive  ?  Everything  was  quiet 
in  England.  No  danger  threatened  from  abroad.  The 
leading  Reformers  had  either  fled  or  were  in  prison.  The 


124          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

bishops  were  making  no  demands  for  violent  measures. 
The  Queen  had  been  tranquilly  settled  on  her  throne 
for  more  than  a  year,  and  yet  a  preparation  was  being 
made  for  a  great  burning,  with  '  good  sermons '  to  edify 
the  people.  Here  then  was  a  complete  demonstration 
of  the  triumph  of  Spanish  ideas  and  Spanish  principles. 
The  unhappy  English  bishops  were,  however,  to  be  made 
the  instruments.  Gardiner,  who  completely  detested 
this  policy,  avowed,  at  the  examination  of  Eogers,  that 
'  the  Queen  went  before  them  in  those  counsels  which 
proceeded  of  her  own  proper  motion.' 

On  January  29  (1555),  the  Cardinal  Legate  issued 
his  Commission  to  Bishops  Gardiner,  Tonstal,  Capon, 
The  erst  Thirlby,  and  Aldridge,  to  proceed  to  the  trial 
of  heretics.  Of  these  five  Commissioners  it 
may  be  said  with  certainty  that  three  at  least — Gar- 
diner, Tonstal,  and  Aldridge — were  opposed  to  persecu- 
tion. Thirlby  and  Capon  were  shifty  prelates  who  had 
bought  toleration  during  the  last  reign  by  the  sacrifice 
of  manors  ;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  they 
were  bloodthirsty.  In  fact,  there  is  no  English  prelate 
of  the  day  to  whom  this  character  can  fairly  be  attri- 
buted, except  perhaps  Bonner.  Bonner  did  not  originate 
the  persecution,  but  he  seems  to  have  entered  into  it 
heartily ;  and  the  brutal  way  in  which  he  treated  the 
married  clergy  in  his  diocese  may  lead  one  to  suspect 
that  he  could  even  take  pleasure  in  the  cruelties  of 
which  he  was  the  instrument.  Before  the  Episcopal 
Commissioners  sitting  at  St.  Mary  Overy  Church,  South- 
wark,  were  brought  from  their  prison,  Rogers,  Pre- 
bendary of  St.  Paul's,  and  Hooper,  late  Bishop  of 
Gloucester. 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  125 

Hooper  had  been  the  leader  of  the  extreme  reform- 
ing party  in  the  late  reign ;  and  that  uncompromising 
Hooper  and  spirit  which  had  led  him  to  condemn  un- 
Rogers  hesitatingly  everything  which  he  thought 
savoured  of  superstition,  did  not  now  desert  him.  He 
had  been  scandalously  ill-treated  in  the  Fleet  prison, 
'  having  nothing  appointed  to  him  for  his  bed  but  a 
little  pad  of  straw,  and  a  rotten  covering  with  a  tick 
and  a  few  feathers  therein,  the  chamber  being  vile  and 
stinking.  On  the  one  side  the  sink  and  filth  of  the 
house,  and  on  the  other  the  Tower  ditch,  so  that  the 
stench  of  the  house  infected  him  with  divers  diseases.' 
During  the  time  he  was  sick  he  '  had  mourned,  called, 
and  cried  for  help,  but  in  vain.'  On  his  appearing, 
Gardiner  made  an  earnest  attempt  to  induce  him  to 
submit  and  receive  the  Pope's  blessing,  as  he  himself 
had  done ;  but  all  in  vain.  After  a  second  examination, 
being  adjudged  to  be  guilty  of  heresy,  he  was  delivered 
over  to  the  sheriffs.  In  pursuance  of  the  policy  which 
had  been  determined  on,  it  was  arranged  that  Hooper 
should  suffer  at  his  late  cathedral  city,  and  he  was  con- 
sequently escorted  to  Gloucester,  riding  joyfully  and 
merrily  to  the  goal  which  he  ardently  desired.  The 
details  of  his  execution  are  too  shocking  to  be  dwelt 
upon.  The  inefficient  fire,  which  consumed  only  his 
lower  extremities,  gave  him  three-quarters  of  an  hour 
of  intense  agony,  but  the  brave  spirit  of  the  man  never 
quailed.  He  continued  to  pray  until  prayer  was  no 
longer  possible  and  no  longer  needed.  The  execution 
of  Rogers  was  of  a  similar  character.  The  French 
Ambassador  notes  that  the  people  were  PO  delighted  at 
his  constancy, '  that  they  did  not  fear  to  strengthen  his 


126  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

courage  by  their  acclamations,  even  his  own  children 
joining  and  consoling  him  after  such  a  fashion  that  is 
seemed  as  though  they  were  conducting  him  to  his 
nuptials.' 

Dr.  Rowland  Taylor,  parson  of  Hadley,  in  Suffolk, 
was  a  man  in  high  repute  for  learning,  but  more 
Rowland  remarkable  as  a  parish  priest,  and  so 
diligent  in  his  work  '  that  the  whole  town 
seemed  rather  an  university  of  the  learned  than  a  town 
of  clothmaking  and  labouring  people.'  Soon  after  the 
accession  of  Mary  some  restless  spirits  endeavoured  to 
introduce  into  the  parish  '  The  Queen's  Proceedings,' 
and  brought  a  neighbouring  parson  to  say  Mass  in  the 
church.  This  Dr.  Taylor  stoutly  resisted,  upon  which 
he  was  apprehended  and  brought  before  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, Gardiner.  After  the  usual  amount  of  brow- 
beating and  rude  talk,  Taylor  was  committed  to  the 
King's  Bench  prison,  where  he  seems  to  have  been 
better  treated  than  Bishop  Hooper  was.  He  was  soon 
afterwards  deprived  of  his  benefice  for  being  married, 
and  after  nearly  two  years'  imprisonment  was  brought 
before  the  Commissioners  in  Southwark.  Gardiner 
spoke  at  first  kindly  to  him  and  endeavoured  to  induce 
him  to  yield  ;  but  he  defended  his  opinions  with  great 
spirit,  and  when  it  was  perceived  that  nothing  could 
be  done  with  him,  he  was  handed  over  to  the  sheriff  to 
be  burned  in  his  own  parish  of  Hadley.  The  admirable 
temper  and  constancy  with  which  he  met  his  fate  was 
the  most  effective  of  sermons  to  the  people  ;  and  it 
must  have  been  soon  apparent  to  those  who  managed 
these  proceedings,  that  there  could  not  have  been  a  more 
mistaken  policy  than  to  arrange  the  execution  of  these 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  127 

snfierers  In  the  places  where  they  were  most  known 
and  reverenced.  They  thus  gave  them  the  opportunity 
of  sealing  and  confirming  their  teaching  in  a  way  that 
could  not  be  mistaken,  and  invested  their  doctrines 
with  a  sanctity  which  could  not  fail  to  promote  theiv 
spread.  It  is  probable  that  the  Reformation  went 
forward  more  rapidly  and  with  more  real  power  in  the 
days  of  Mary  than  it  had  done  in  those  of  King  Edward. 

To  some  of  the  prisoners  very  great  liberty  was 
permitted,  which  they  did  not  fail  to  use  for  the  teach- 
john  ing  of  the  people.  We  are  told  of  Bradford, 

Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's,  that  '  for  the  time 
he  did  remain  prisoner  he  preached  twice  a  day  con- 
tinually, unless  sickness  hindered  him ;  where  also 
the  Sacrament  was  often  administered,  and  through  his 
means  (the  keepers  so  well  did  bear  with  him)  such 
resort  of  good  folks  was  daily  to  his  lecture,  and  to  the 
ministration  of  the  Sacrament,  that  commonly  his 
chamber  was  well-nigh  filled.'  This  good  man  was 
so  trusted  by  his  keepers  that  they  even  allowed 
him  to  ride  into  Oxfordshire,  being  certain  that  he 
would  keep  faith  with  them.  Bradford,  when  con- 
demned to  the  stake,  suffered  with  a  constancy  equal  to 
those  who  had  preceded  him,  his  companion  in  suffer- 
ing being  an  apprentice  lad  named  Leaf,  who  imitated 
his  example  of  fortitude.  Bradford's  execution  was 
deferred  till  July  £L555),  but  another  of  the  earlier 
batch  of  martyrs  who  suffered  in  February  ought  not 
te  be  passed  over. 

This  was  Laurence  Saunders,  Rector  of  All  Hallows, 
Bread  Street,  first  committed  by  Bonner  for  alleged 
heresy  on  the  Eucharist,  and  in  January  (1555j 


1 28          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

brought  before  the  Commissioners.  The  feelings  of 
some  of  the  bishops  could  not  have  been  very  pleasant 
Laurence  when  this  brave  man  said  to  them,  in  reply 
to  a  reproach  that  he  was  '  dividing  himself 
by  singularity  from  the  Church  ' — '  For  dividing  myself 
from  the  Church,  I  live  in  the  faith  wherein  I  have 
been  brought  up  since  I  was  fourteen  years  old  ;  being 
taught  that  the  power  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  is  but 
usurped,  with  many  other  abuses  springing  thereof. 
Yea,  this  I  have  received,  even  at  your  hands  that  are  here 
present,  as  <i  thing  agreed  upon  by  the  Catholic  Church 
and  public  authority.'  To  this  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  answer ;  and  as  Gardiner,  Bonner,  and  Tonstal 
had  taught  precisely  the  same  when  it  was  their  interest 
to  do  so,  an  answer  would  have  been  difficult.  With  the 
same  mistaken  policy  which  had  sent  Hooper  to  Glou- 
cester and  Taylor  to  Hadley,  Saunders  was  sent  to  suffer 
at  Coventry,  where  he  had  formerly  held  preferment. 

On  March  30  Farrar,  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  an  eccen- 
tric man  who  pleased  neither  party,  and  was  actually 
Bishop  in  prison  at  the  death  of  King  Edward,  was 
condemned  by  his  successor  in  the  see,  and 
burned  at  Carmarthen.  This  was  a  new  element  of 
horror.  A  shudder  was  running  throughout  the  land,  and 
it  was  seen  that  there  was  a  danger  of  reaction.  Gardiner 
and  Tonstal  abandoned  their  places  on  the  Commission, 
and  would  act  no  more  in  this  bloodthirsty  business. 

It  was  then  that  Alphonso  de  Castro  was  put  up  to 
Sermon  of  preach  his  famous  sermon,  in  which  he  advo- 
castro  '  cated  lenity  and  gentle  dealing  with  heretics. 
But  how  much  reality  there  was  about  this  was  soon  to 
be  shown. 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  129 

At.  the  end  of  May  the  Council  addressed  a  letter  to 
the  Bishops,  reproving  them  for  their  slackness,  and 
The  Bishops  bidding  them  proceed  against  those  who  were 

checked  for  '  r 

slackness  suspected  of  heresy.  This  at  any  rate  seems 
to  have  stirred  up  Bishop  Bonner.  In  June  six  persons 
were  burned  at  Smithfield,  five  of  them  being  mechanics. 
As  victims  must  be  found  to  satisfy  the  Queen  and  the 
Spaniards,  it  was  easier  to  secure  them  from  the  un- 
lettered class,  whose  powers  of  disputation  were  small, 
than  from  such  acute  disputants  as  Taylor,  Bradford, 
and  Saunders.  So  Bonner  went  on  making  havoc  of 
the  poor  creatures  in  his  diocese,  committing  to  the 
flames  during  the  reign  of  Mary  no  less  than  128  per- 
sons. As  the  year  went  on,  the  fires  were  kindled  in 
various  places,  especially  at  Canterbury,  where  no  less 
than  eighteen  persons  were  burned. 

But  when  September  came  the  attention  of  all  men 
was  fixed  upon  Oxford,  where  after  two  years'  deten- 
tion  in  the    prison  called  Bocardo,  the  three 


most  illustrious  of  the  Reformers,  Cranmer, 
Ridley,  and  Latinier,  were  to  be  tried  by  a  lega- 
tine  Commission.  Though  they  had  been  joined  to- 
gether in  the  disputation,  yet  now  they  must  be  treated 
differently.  Cranmer,  as  a  Metropolitan,  appointed  by 
Papal  Bulls,  must  needs  be  sentenced  directly  from 
Rome  ;  with  Latimer  and  Ridley  the  Cardinal's  Com- 
missioners —  the  Bishops  of  Lincoln,  Gloucester,  and 
Bristol  -  were  competent  to  deal.  On  September  30, 
in  the  Divinity  School  at  Oxford,  articles  were  given 
to  them,  which  they  were  to  answer.  The  next  day 
in  St.  Mary's  Church  the  answers  were  received. 
The  accused  were  then  pronounced  to  be  heretics,  and 

C.  H.  K 


130          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND. 

ordered  to  be  degraded  and  excommunicated.  It  was 
the  same  wretched  story  as  in  all  these  ghastly  doings. 
The  Sacrament  of  love  and  mercy  was  made  the  pre- 
tence for  dragging  venerable  men,  even  those  in  extreme 
old  age,  as  was  Latimer,  to  the  agonies  of  the  stake. 
The  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  the  president  of  the  Commis- 
sion, spoke  very  courteously  to  Ridley,  and  exhorted 
him  earnestly  to  recant.  '  Remember,'  he  said,  '  Master 
Ridley,  you  were  once  one  of  us.  You  have  taken 
degrees  in  the  school.  You  were  made  a  priest  and 
became  a  preacher,  setting  forth  the  same  doctrine  that 
we  do  now.  In  a  sermon  of  yours  at  Paul's  Cross  you 
as  effectually  and  as  catholicly  spake  of  that  blessed 
Sacrament  as  any  man  might  have  done.  I  wish  you 
to  return  thither  from  whence  you  came,  that  is,  together 
with  us  to  acknowledge  the  truth,  to  acknowledge  the 
Church  of  God,  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  our 
most  reverend  father  in  God,  the  Pope's  Holiness.' 
Ridley  answered  everything  with  the  greatest  calmness. 
As  regards  his  sermon  at  Paul's  Cross,  he  said  that 
many  irreverent  attacks  upon  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  were  abroad,  and  so  he  '  preached  as 
reverently  of  that  matter  as  he  might,  declaring  what 
estimation  and  reverence  ought  to  be  given  to  it,  what 
danger  ensued  the  mishandling  thereof,  affirming  in 
that  Sacrament  to  be  truly  and  verily  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  effectuously  by  grace  and  spirit.'  And 
yet  the  man  who  held  this  doctrine  was  to  suffer  death 
as  a  heretic  in  the  matter  of  the  Eucharist.  '  I  prefer 
the  antiquity  'of  the  primitive  Church,'  said  the  Bishop, 
'  before  the  novelty  of  the  Church  of  Rome ; '  and  for  this 
he  must  die. 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  131 

Bishop  Latimer,  old  and  broken  as  lie  was,  exhi- 
bited before  the  Commissioners  a  true  dignity,  and 
spoke  with  much  pathos  and  power.  '  I  acknowledge,' 
he  said,  '  a  Catholic  Church  spread  throughout  the 
world  in  which  no  man  may  err ;  without  the  which  unity 
of  the  Church  no  man  can  be  saved  ;  but  I  know  per- 
fectly by  God's  Word  that  this  Church  is  in  all  the 
world  and  hath  not  its  foundation  in  Rome  only.  I 
acknowledge  authority  to  be  given  to  the  spiritualty 
in  matters  of  religion.  I  do  not  deny  that  in  the 
Sacrament  by  spirit  and  grace  is  the  very  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  because  that  every  man  by  receiving 
bodily  that  bread  and  wine  spiritually  receiveth  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  is  made  partaker  thereby 
of  the  merits  of  Christ's  passion.'  After  their  con- 
demnation and  degradation  the  two  Bishops  were  not 
allowed  to  remain  in  peace.  Friar  Soto,  the  Spanish 
Divinity  Professor,  would  needs  try  his  eloquence  upon 
them.  He  writes,  however,  to  record  his  disappoint- 
ment. Latimer  would  not  speak  to  him  at  all.  Ridley 
spoke  indeed,  but  he  could  make  no  impression  upon 
him.  Ridley's  last  act  was  a  touching  appeal  addressed 
to  the  Queen,  and  impressed  also  upon  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester,  in  behalf  of  some  poor  people  to  whom  he 
had  granted  leases,  and  for  some  kindness  to  be  shown 
to  his  sister  and  her  three  fatherless  children.  When 
brought  to  the  stake,  near  to  the  western  end  of  Balliol 
College,  old  Latimer,  with  cheery  and  jocund  manner, 
more  as  if  preparing  for  some  festal  banquet  than  for 
the  agonies  of  the  fire,  bade  Ridley  be  of  good  cheer, 
for  that  'they  should  that  day  light  such  a  candle 
in  England  as  would  never  be  put  out.'  Ridley  too 

K   2 


132  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

was  cheerful  and  even  jubilant.  After  the  needless 
torture  of  listening  to  one  of  the  '  good  sermons,'  011 
which  the  Queen  so  much  insisted,  preached  by  the 
renegade  Doctor  Smith,  the  pyres  at  length  were 
lighted.  Latimer's  sufferings  were  marvellously  short. 
Ridley,  like  Hooper,  endured  infinite  pain  from  the 
clumsiness  or  brutality  with  which  the  fagots  had  been 
arranged  ;  but  at  length  all  was  over. 

The  next  victim  was  to  be  one  still  more  illustrious, 
who,  as  if  to  compensate  for  the  many  vacillations 
Archbishop  °^  ^s  career,  was  to  have  a  final  bitterness 
cranmer  added  to  his  death  by  a  vacillation  such 
as  was  exhibited  by  none  of  the  less  conspicuous 
martyrs.  Archbishop  Cranmer  had  to  wait  in  his 
prison  until  his  sentence  should  be  received  from 
Rome.  This,  of  course,  decreed  his  degradation,  ex- 
communication, and  handing  over  to  the  secular  arm. 
During  this  interval  Cranmer  was  beset  with  continual 
attacks  from  the  Spaniards  who  had  established  them- 
selves at  Oxford.  The  Queen's  heart  was  set  on  ob- 
taining in  his  case  a  peculiar  vengeance.  He  was  to 
be  led  to  deny  his  convictions  from  hope  of  life,  and 
then  in  spite  of  his  denial  to  suffer  death — to  be  held 
up  thus  to  utter  scorn  and  contempt,  condemning  him- 
self and  condemned  of  others.  If  the  Spanish  friars 
could  accomplish  this  they  might  hope  for  the  highest 
favour.  Carranza  was  now  Confessor  to  the  Queen,  and 
Carranza's  biographer  claims  for  him  the  credit  of 
having  managed  everything  connected  with  the  execu- 
tion of  Cranmer.  Carranza  worked  upon  Cranmer  by 
means  of  his  two  friends  in  Oxford — Soto  and  Villa- 
garoia.  When  Ridley  and  Latimer  passed  the  Arch- 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  133 

bishop's  prison  on  their  way  'to  execution,  and  had 
hoped  to  have  taken  a  final  farewell  of  him,  they  did 
not  see  him,  because  he  was  then  engaged  in  a  dispute 
with  Soto. 

But  there  was  something  more  than  disputation 
going  on.  There  were  promises,  or  at  any  rate  hopes, 
His  re-  held  out  of  pardon  and  favour  if  the  Arch- 
bishop would  recant ;  and  Cranmer,  whose 
character  was  weak  and  pliant,  yielded  to  the  temp- 
tations. Again  and  again,  under  pretence  of  the 
need  of  greater  distinctness  or  for  some  other  cause, 
he  was  induced  to  sign  recantations  no  less  than  six 
times ;  and  so  jubilant  were  his  enemies,  that  Bonner 
was  actually  rash  enough  to  publish  a  pamphlet  con- 
taining them  before  Cranmer's  execution.  This  false 
step  the  astute  Spaniards  endeavoured  at  once  to  rec- 
tify. They  foresaw  that  the  publication  of  his  recanta- 
tions would  be  the  most  likely  way  to  cause  the 
Archbishop  to  retract  them  all.  Nevertheless  some 
copies  of  the  pamphlet  got  abroad  and  even  now 
remain.  The  series  of  recantations  contained  in  it 
show  the  infinite  skill  with  which  the  Archbishop  was 
handled.  The  first  three  are  merely  submissions  to 
authority,  such  as  he  might  have  made  without  any 
change  of  sentiments.  The  fourth  is  a  declaration  of 
adherence  to  the  Catholic  faith,  such  as  he  himself  had 
voluntarily  made  at  his  degradation.  Had  his  assail- 
ants been  unable  to  obtain  no  more,  doubtless  these 
would  have  been  used  afterwards  to  discredit  the  Arch- 
bishop. But  encouraged  by  the  facility  with  which 
they  obtained  his  signature  to  these,  they  proceeded  Lo 
attempt  more.  The  fifth  paper  is  in  Latin,  and  is  a 


134          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

most  specific  and  complete  retractation,  anathematising 
Luther  and  Zwingli,  acknowledging  one  only  Church 
of  which  the  Pope  is  head,  the  vicar  of  Christ,  to  whom 
all  the  faithful  must  submit  themselves ;  admitting 
transubstantiation,  seven  sacraments  and  purgatory, 
the  wholesome  custom  of  praying  to  saints,  and  an 
agreement  in  all  things  with  the  Catholic  and  Roman 
Church's  belief.  The  sixth  paper  is  of  a  similar  cha- 
racter, being  also  in  Latin.  It  is  conjectured  that  it 
was  written  by  Cardinal  Pole,  who  probably  thought 
he  could  improve  on  what  had  been  already  signed ; 
there  is,  however,  no  proof  that  Cranmer  ever  signed 
this  paper.  The  seventh  is  Cranmer's  own  composition, 
being  his  prayer  and  dying  speech,  but  not  as  he  deli- 
vered it.  The  Archbishop  had,  without  question,  been 
overcome  to  sign,  through  hope  of  life,  that  which  his 
conscience  did  not  approve. 

But  when  the  end  really  came,  there  came  a  return 
of  fortitude  and  a  better  mind.  On  March  21  (1556), 
Retracts  the  Archbishop  was  led  to  St.  Mary's  Church, 

his  recanta-     ,  -.  .  .  , 

tions  being  under  the  impression  (as  seems   most 

probable)  that  after  his  public  recantation  his  life  would 
be  spared.  He  had,  however,  resolved  that  he  would 
not  purchase  deliverance  at  such  a  price,  and  after  a 
devout  prayer  and  the  deepest  expressions  of  contrition, 
he  continued,  '  Now  I  come  to  the  great  thing  that  so 
much  troubleth  my  conscience,  more  than  anything  that 
ever  I  did  or  said  in  my  whole  life,  and  that  is  the 
setting  abroad  of  a  writing  contrary  to  the  truth,  which 
noAv  here  I  renounce  and  refuse  as  things  written  with 
my  hand  contrary  to  the  truth  which  I  thought  in  my 
heart,  and  were  written  for  fear  of  death,  and  to  save  my 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  135 

lifo  if  it  might  be;  and  that  is  all  such  bills  o.nd  papers 
which  I  have  written  or  signed  with  my  hand  since  my 
degradation,  wherein  I  have  written  many  things  untrue. 
And  forasmuch  as  my  hand  offended,  writing  con- 
trary to  my  heart,  my  hand  shall  first  be  punished 
therefore ;  for  may  I  come  to  the  fire  it  shall  first  be 
burned.  And  as  for  the  Pope,  I  refuse  him  as  Christ's 
enemy  and  Anti-Christ,  with  all  his  false  doctrine. 
And  as  for  the  Sacrament,  I  believe  as  I  have  taught 
against  the  Bishop  of  Winchester.'  At  this  bold  decla- 
ration a  general  hubbub  was  raised  in  the  audience, 
who  had  expected  something  quite  different.  Dr.  Cole, 
the  preacher,  called  aloud  that  the  heretic's  mouth 
should  be  stopped,  and  he  was  quickly  dragged  away 
to  the  stake. 

The  Spanish  friars,  wofully  disappointed,  now  re- 
newed their  attacks,  threatening  him  with  the  pains  of 
Hisexecu-  hell  if  he  did  not  instantly  change  his  tone. 
But  Cranmer  disregarded  them,  and  endowed 
at  the  last  with  a  constancy  which  he  had  never  known 
before,  thrust  his  right  hand  into  the  flame  and  held  it 
steadily  there  till  it  was  consumed.  His  death  soon 
followed,  apparently  without  much  suffering. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  the  Archbishop  had 
been  the  chief  mover  of  reformation  in  the  English 
His  Church,  and  though  he  had  committed  many 

character  faultSj  ^Q  ^  also  been  the  cause  of  a  vast 

amount  of  good.  In  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  too  sub- 
servient to  the  King's  imperious  will ;  in  the  time  of 
Edward,  too  forward  to  act  without  waiting  for  the  due 
and  deliberate  consent  oi'  the  Church  ;  Erastiau  in  his 
views  on  Church  government,  unstable  in  his  theology. 


136          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

he  cannot  be  placed  among  our  greatest  prelates  or 
divines.  But  he  was  mild,  tolerant,  moderate  and  fair ; 
an  earnest  seeker  for  truth;  with  a  burning  zeal  to 
benefit  others,  and  a  sincere  spirit  of  devotion ;  not  a  re- 
solute nor  clear-sighted  man,  he  was  still  in  his  genera- 
tion a  great  benefactor  to  his  Church  and  country. 

Archbishop  Cranmer  seems  almost  a  solitary  instance 
among  the  persecuted  Reformers  of  a  temporary  yield- 
constancy  ing  through  fear  of  death.  In  looking  over 

ofthe          4.1,  e  4.1,  •         of    •  i         v 

Reformers     the  records  oi  their  sufferings,  and  reading 

their  confessions  of  faith,  many  of  which  are  preserved 
in  Strype  and  Foxe,  we  are  amazed  at  the  calm  con- 
stancy of  their  courage,  and  the  simple,  earnest,  and 
scriptural  tone  of  their  declarations  of  faith,  entirely 
in  accordance  with  the  Articles  and  Prayer-books  set 
forth  in  King  Edward's  days. 

In  December,  1555,  was  brought  to  the  stake  a 
very  distinguished  scholar  and  divine,  of  the  particulars 
Archdeacon  °*'  wnose  condemnation  very  minute  details, 
pinipot  written  by  himself,  remain  to  us.  This  was 
John  Philpot,  Archdeacon  of  Winchester,  formerly  a 
Fellow  of  New  College,  Oxford.  Philpot  had  been  one 
of  the  five  divines  who,  in  the  first  Convocation  of 
Queen  Mary,  had  boldly  undertaken  to  dispute  against 
the  Romish  doctrine  of  the  mass,  and  this  had  never 
been  forgiven  him.  He  was  a  man  of  singular  power 
and  readiness  in  disputation,  and  as  the  Romish  divines 
had  been  unable  to  contend  with  him  in  argument,  they 
had,  with  great  unfairness  (inasmuch  as  all  discussions 
in  Convocation  were  held  to  be  privileged),  induced  his 
ordinary  to  commit  him  to  prison  on  the  charge  of 
heresy.  Here  he  might  probably  have  remained  lonij 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  137 

enough,  inasmuch  as  Gardiner  was  in  no  mood  to  con- 
tinue these  trials  for  heresy  ;  but  the  Queen's  orde.r  to 
justices  of  the  peace  to  search  out  heretics  and  bring 
them  to  their  ordinaries  touched  him.  Philpot  was 
brought  from  his  prison  before  a  party  of  magistrates, 
and  having  been  treated  very  rudely  by  them  was  sent 
to  Lollards  Tower  to  be  judged  by  the  Bishop  of 
London.  At  this  Bonner  was  by  no  means  pleased. 
He  did  not  wish  to  be  constituted  the  ordinary  of 
Philpot,  who  belonged  to  the  diocese  of  Winchester. 
But  it  was  said  that  the  heresy  was  spoken  in  the  diocese 
of  London,  and  he  must  judge  the  matter.  Philpot  was 
accordingly  confined  in  the  coal-house  of  the  Bishop  of 
London's  palace,  and  from  time  to  time  was  brought 
before  the  Bishop,  who  was  sometimes  aided  by  one 
party  of  assistants,  sometimes  by  another.  He  con- 
stantly refused  Bonner's  jurisdiction,  and  claimed  privi- 
lege for  what  he  had  said  in  the  Convocation  House ; 
but  at  length,  articles  being  objected  to  him,  he  was 
compelled  to  answer,  and  was  condemned  for  heresy. 
The  records  of  the  thirteen  examinations  which  Philpot 
underwent,  and  which  are  left  us  by  his  own  hand,  as 
they  do  credit  to  his  acuteness  and  knowledge  of  law 
and  divinity,  so  also  testify  to  the  evident  desire  of  the 
Bishops  to  save  him,  if  possible,  from  the  heretic's 
doom.  Bonner,  though  rough  and  sometimes  brutal, 
was  not  unkind  to  him  upon  the  whole.  Some  of  the 
other  prelates  besought  him  with  most  friendly  sympathy 
to  enable  them  to  obtain  his  release.  Philpot,  however, 
would  not  yield,  and  there  was  a  stern  power  behind 
the  bishops  which  would  not  admit  of  any  compromise. 
Bonner  says,  with  evident  annoyance  at  the  part  he  was 


138          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

obliged  to  play,  '  I  marvel  that  other  men  will  trouble 
me  with  their  matters,  bat  I  must  be  obedient  to  my 
betters,  and  I  wis  men  speak  otherwise  of  me  than  I 
deserve.'  Heath,  Tonstal,  Day,  and  the  other  prelates 
who  examined  Philpot,  felt  doubtless  that  the  burning 
of  so  distinguished  a  man  would  be  a  scandal  before 
Christendom ;  but  burned  he  was,  notwithstanding. 

The  Bishops  were  being  driven  on  in  spite  of  them- 
selves. All,  we  may  believe,  were  unwilling  to  act  in 
The  Bishops  the  persecution.  Many,  in  spite  of  the  impulse 

driven  on  .  \  .        -, 

unwillingly  winch  they  received,  never  acted,  and  there 
were  many  dioceses  free  from  burnings.  A  Commission 
was  issued,  February  8,  1557,  to  two  bishops  (Bonner 
and  Thirlby),  Dr.  Cole,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  and  about 
twenty  laymen,  in  which  the  question  of  sedition  and 
disaffection  was  skilfully  mixed  up  with  that  of  heresy. 
The  Commissioners,  or  any  three  of  them,  had  the  full- 
est and  most  arbitrary  powers  given  to  them  to  fine, 
imprison,  or  otherwise  punish.  Heretics  were  to  be 
remitted  to  their  ordinaries  if  they  persisted  in  their 
heresy,  but  all  persons  refusing  to  hear  mass  or  to  go 
in  procession  might  be  summarily  dealt  with.  This 
Commission  caused  the  greatest  consternation,  as  it  was 
thought  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  Inquisition,  and  a 
machinery  for  superseding  the  ordinary  laws. 

Nor  was  it  only  the  Bishops  who  shrank  from  the 
odious  tasks  forced  upon  them.  The  sheriffs,  to  whom 
Lay  officers  the  execution  of  the  sentence  belonged,  also 
acting  exhibited  reluctance  to  carry  it  out.  Com- 
plaints were  brought  in  1557  to  the  Council,  of  the 
sheriffs  of  Kent,  Essex,  Suffolk,  and  Staffordshire,  of 
the  Mayor  of  Rochester  and  the  Bailiff  of  Colchester, 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE 


that  they  had  delayed  proceeding  to  the  execution  of 
those  who  had  been  handed  over  to  them  by  the 
ordinary.  They  were  reprimanded,  and  ordered  to 
proceed  at  once.  The  Council-book  also  contains  a 
letter  (August  1,  1558)  reproving  the  sheriff  of  Hamp- 
shire for  staying  the  execution  of  a  man  who  offered  to 
recant. 

The  vengeance  would  thus  seem  to  have  increased 
in  intensity  and  bitterness  as  it  went  on.  The  most 
Number  fiendish  act  of  all  was,  perhaps,  the  publishing 
sufferers  of  a  proclamation  that  no  one  should  presume 
to  pray  for  the  sufferers,  or  should  say  '  God  help 
them ! '  on  pain  of  severe  punishment.  Neither  age, 
sex,  nor  condition  sufficed  to  shield.  Five  bishops, 
twenty-one  divines,  eight  gentlemen  of  position,  and 
about  250  of  the  tradesman  and  husbandman  class,  of 
whom  about  forty  were  women,  are  believed,  after 
careful  investigations,  to  represent  the  number  of 
sufferers.1  About  sixty  died  in  prison.  The  nobility 
were  mostly  ready  to  accept  the  Romish  faith.  Only 
one,  the  second  Earl  of  Bedford,  appears  to  have  suffered 
imprisonment.  '  The  same  accommodating  spirit,'  says 

1  Heylin's  summary  is  : — 

Bishops           .        ^  5 

Clergy 21 

Gentlemen .....  8 

Artificers         ....  81 

Husbandmen  and  servants     .  100 

Wives 26 

Widows  .....  20 

Virgins            ,  9 

Boys        .....  2 

Infants            «        .       •        ,  2 

277 


140  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

JIallam,  c  characterised  upon  the  whole  the  clergy,  and 
would  have  been  far  more  general  if  a  considerable 
number  had  not  availed  themselves  of  the  permission  to 
marry.'  The  taking  advantage  of  this  permission 
furnishes  some  clue  (not  a  complete  or  satisfactory  one) 
to  the  number  of  clergy  who  had  embraced  the  tenets 
of  the  Reformation.  Burnet  computes  the  married 
clergy  at  3,000  ;  Lingard  at  1,500. 

It   is   certain,   however,  that  many  who  were  in- 
different or  opposed  to  reforming  tenets  at  the  accession 
of  Mary   became   hearty   favourers   of  them 

Reformation  *  J 

advanced  by  before  her  miserable  reign  was  ended.     *  The 

tUe  persecu- 

tion  strongest  proof  of  this,'  says  Hallam,  '  may 

be  drawn  from  the  acquiescence  of  the  great  body  of 
the  kingdom  in  the  re-establishment  of  Protestantism 
by  Elizabeth,  when  compared  with  the  seditions  and 
discontent  on  that  account  under  Edward.'  The  fires 
of  Smithfield,  the  cruelties  of  the  Spaniard,  and  the 
miserable  decadence  of  the  kingdom,  had  made  the 
name  of  Rome  more  hateful  in  England  than  it  had 
ever  been,  and  made  reaction  impossible.  The  tradi- 
tional jealousy  of  France  was  now  eclipsed  and  obscured 
by  that  bitter  detestation  of  the  Spaniard,  which  for 
many  generations  was  the  most  prominent  feeling  in 
the  English  mind.  Hasty  and  unjust  measures,  feeble 
and  vacillating  counsels,  the  dread  of  fanaticism,  the  love 
for  old  customs,  checked  men's  acceptance  of  the  Refor- 
mation under  Edward,  and  the  attempt  to  press  it  on  too 
violently  threatened  the  most  serious  danger.  But  in 
the  midst  of  the  scenes  of  blood  and  misery  which  were 
enacted  befi.re  the  eyes  of  Englishmen  and  English- 
women during  Mary's  reign,  all  this  was  forgotten,  and 


THE  SPANISH  REVENGE  141 

the  weaknesses  and  difficulties  of  the  last  reign  seemed 
to  be  virtues  and  glories  compared  with  the  wretchedness 
of  the  present. 

To  those  of  the  clergy  who  were  ready  to  submit  to 
the  yoke  of  Rome,  the  Queen  was  kind  and  liberal. 
The  Queen's  She  would  gladly  have  seen  all  the  abbey  and 
church  lands  restored  to  their  former  owners, 
but  to  this  her  subjects  were  by  no  means  ready  to  con- 
sent. She  refounded  the  Abbey  of  Westminster  and 
many  other  monastic  houses.  She  surrendered  to  the 
Church  the  first  fruits  and  tenths  which  had  been 
grasped  by  King  Henry  VIII.1  The  Cardinal  Arch- 
bishop also  showed  himself  a  vigorous  and  skilful 
administrator. 

But  the  curse  of  blood  was  upon  everything.  The 
Queen,  childless,  isolated,  neglected  by  her  husband, 
Misery  of  whom  she  fondly  loved,  in  constant  fear  of 
plots  and  conspiracies,  dreading  her  subjects 
and  dreaded  by  them,  was  the  most  miserable  woman 
in  the  land.  Cardinal  Pole,  who  had  done  so  much  for 
Rome,  was  denounced  to  the  Inquisition,  condemned  by 
the  Pope,  superseded  in  his  office  of  Legate.  In  the 
bitterness  which  took  possession  of  him,  he  is  said  to 
have  entered  at  last  zealously  into  the  persecution  from 
which  he  had  shrunk  at  first.  The  month  of  November 
(1558)  brought  a  happy  relief  to  the  persecuted  Church 
of  England.  The  Queen  died  on  the  17th  and  Car- 
dinal Pole  the  following  day.  Only  one  week  before 
her  death  five  persons  were  burned  at  Canterbury,  where 
the  suffragan  bishop  Thornden,  and  the  archdeacon 

1  Heylin  says :  '  She  lost  nothing  by   the  bargain,  the  clergy 
paid  her  back  again  in  their  bills  of  subsidies.' — Eccl.  Rest.  S3. 


142          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Harpsfield,  had  distinguished  themselves  as  persecutors 
throughout.  But  in  the  cathedral  city  of  the  Cardinal's 
diocese  these  victims  must  have  been  sacrificed  by  his 
special  authorisation.  Heylin  says, '  It  had  been  prayed 
or  prophesied  by  those  five  martyrs,  when  they  were  at 
the  stake,  that  they  might  be  the  last  who  should  suffer 
death  in  that  manner,  and  by  God's  mercy  so  it  proved, 
they  being  the  last  which  suffered  death  under  the 
severity  of  this  persecution.' 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   ENGLISH   REFORMERS   ABROAD. 
1653-1558. 

IT  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  persecution  of  the 
English  Reformers,  though  prosecuted  with  the  utmost 
Reformed  cruelty,  availed  to  destroy  or  drive  away  all 
tionTTn*"  those  who  openly  professed  these  opinions 
England  ^  EngiancL  There  is  evidence  that  even  in 
the  most  dangerous  spot  in  the  country,  in  Bonner's 
own  diocese,  there  existed  a  congregation,  varying  in 
number  from  forty  up  to  two  hundred,  which  maintained 
constant  meetings  for  religion  in  London  during  the 
whole  of  Mary's  reign.  The  ministers  of  this  congre- 
gation were  Scambler,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough ;  Foule,  Rough,  who  was  put  to  death  by 
Bonner ;  Augustine  Bernher,  and  finally  Thomas 
Bentham,  who  continued  in  the  charge  till  the  death 
of  Queen  Mary.  And  if  this  was  the  case  in  London, 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMERS  ABROAD        143 

doubtless  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  where  there 
was  comparatively  no  danger,  congregations  of  those 
who  held  to  the  form  of  religion  legalised  under  King 
Edward  would  be  found.  In  England  the  bond  of  a 
common  danger  would  avail  to  hold  together  those  who 
were  bitterly  opposed  to  the  Roman  and  Spanish  reli- 
gion, however  much  they  might  differ  among  them- 
selves. But  that  very  great  differences  did  exist  among 
them  cannot  be  doubted.  There  were  those  who  held 
loyally  to  the  English  Prayer-book  ;  there  were  '  gos- 
pellers '  who  would  have  everything  levelled  down  to 
the  platform  of  Calvin  and  Zwingli  ;  there  were  Ana- 
baptists, the  enemies  of  all  restraints,  and  of  all  kinds 
of  ministry  whether  Episcopal  or  Presbyterian.  These 
differences  among  the  Reformers,  concealed  in  England 
by  the  circumstances  of  their  position,  when  these 
circumstances  were  absent  came  out  strongly,  and  pro- 
duced disastrous  effects. 

It  is  conjectured  that  about  eight  hundred  persons 
known  to  be  of  strong  reforming  views  escaped  from 
England  at   the   beginning  of  the   reign   of 


escaped  Mary,  and  found  asylums  in  Switzerland  and 
the  free  cities  on  the  Rhine.  The  Lutheran  cities  of 
Germany,  being  more  under  the  dread  of  the  Emperor, 
do  not  seem  to  have  done  much  in  the  way  of  hospi- 
tality to  the  fugitives  ;  but  the  French  and  Swiss 
Reformers  were  most  kind  and  sympathetic.  Five 
bishops  escaped  —  Poynet,  Barlow,  Scory,  Coverdale, 
Bale  of  Ossory  ;  five  deans  —  Cox,  Home,  Haddon, 
Turner,  Sampson  ;  three  archdeacons  —  Cranmer,  Ayl- 
mer,  Bullingham.  Among  the  better  known  divines 
were  Grindal,  King,  Sandys,  Jewel,  Reynolds, 


144          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Pilkington,  Nowel,  Knox,  Gilby,  Wliittingham,  Foxe. 
There  were  also  the  Duchess  of  Suffolk,  and  her  second 
husband,  Mr.  Bertie  ;  Sir  Richard  Morrison,  Sir  Anthony 
Cook,  and  Sir  John  Cheke.  The  fugitives  distributed 
themselves  in  some  seven  or  eight  cities  where  reform- 
ing opinions  were  safe  from  persecution,  but  the  greatest 
i)  ambers  seem  to  have  been  brought  together  at  Zurich 
and  at  Frankfort.  Those  who  first  arrived  at  Frank- 
fort were  kindly  greeted  by  the  colony  of  French  Pro- 
testants established  there ;  and  through  their  support 
obtained  leave  from  the  civic  authorities  both  to  remain 
in  the  city,  and  to  practise  their  religious  worship  in 
the  church  used  by  the  French,  at  the  times  when  the 
latter  did  not  need  it.  Only  a  condition  was  laid  down, 
viz.,  'That  they  should  not  dissent  from  the  Frenchmen 
in  doctrine  or  ceremonies,  and  that  they  should  approve 
and  subscribe  the  same  confession  of  faith  that  the 
Frenchmen  had  then  presented,  and  were  about  to  put 
in  print.' 

The  English  exiles  took  counsel  as  to  what  sort 
of  a  service  they  should  use,  and  came  to  the  con- 
The  En-ash  elusion  to  use  the  English  service  in  part,  but 

service  at  .,         T  .  ,         .   , 

Frankfort  without  responses  or  the  Litany,  and  with- 
out surplice  ;  to  sing  '  a  Psalm  in  metre  to  a  plain 
tune ' ;  the  minister  to  use  an  extemporary  prayer, 
and  '  so  to  proceed  to  the  sermon  ' ;  after  the  sermon 
another  extemporary  prayer  f  for  all  estates,  and  for  our 
country  of  England  ' ;  then  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the 
rehearsal  of  the  Articles  of  Belief,  then  another  Psalm 
and  the  Blessing.  This  service  may  have  been  very 
edifying ;  but  it  was  not  the  service  of  the  Church  of 
England  as  settled  in  the  Prayer-book,  and  it  could 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMERS  ABROAD         145 

hardly  fail  to  be  displeasing  to  those  who  were  zealous 
for  the  preservation  of  the  work  done  by  the  Church  in 
the  days  of  King  Edward.  '  As  touching  the  ministra- 
tion of  the  Sacraments,  sundry  things  were  also  by 
common  consent  omitted,  as  superfluous  and  super- 
stitious.' A  minister  '  and  deacons  '  were  chosen, 
and  in  fact  a  complete  Presbyterian  settlement  was 
effected. 

Then  the  Frankfort  men  ,  being  greatly  pleased  with 
their  work,  invited  the  exiles  from  other  quarters  to 
others  in-  repair  to  this  favoured  place.  In  answer  to 

viied  to 


i  •        i 

this  letter  a  reply  came  from  the  English 
at  Strasburg,  recommending  the  Frankfort  men  to  put 
themselves  under  the  direction  of  one  of  the  exiled 
bishops,  such  as  Bishop  Scory.  This  greatly  annoyed 
the  Frankfort  body,  who  did  not  want  a  bishop,  but 
had  already  written  to  Knox  at  Geneva,  Haddou  at 
Strasburg,  and  Lever  at  Zurich,  requesting  them  to 
take  charge  of  the  church  in  Presbyterian  fashion. 

Next  came  a  reply  from  Zurich  stating  that  the 
fugitives  there  were  well  established,  and  had  no  desire 
to  move  ;  but  if  their  brethren  at  Frankfort  thought 
it  absolutely  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the 
faith  that  they  should  join  them,  they  would  do  so. 
This,  however,  must  be  on  the  condition  that  '  the 
order  last  taken  in  the  Church  of  England  should  be 
stipulation  adhered  to  ;  '  for,  say  they,  '  we  are  fully  de- 
ti.e  English  termined  to  admit  and  use  no  other.'  The 
book  r  Zurich  party  also  sent  one  of  their  number, 
Chambers,  to  arrange  for  the  junction  of  the  two 
bodies  if  he  found  all  things  suitable  for  it.  But 
when  Chambers  came  to  Frankfort,  he  found  that  the 

c.  H.  L 


146          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

English  there  were  not  at  all  prepared  to  guarantee 
'  the  full  use  of  the  English  book,'  and  the  negotiation 
came  to  an  end. 

In  the  meantime  the  Frankforters  had,  by  an  un- 
animous vote,  invited  John  Knox,  from  Geneva,  to 
John  Knox  be  their  minister.  Kuox,  a  Scotchman  by 
birth,  had  lived  for  some  time  in  England,  in  consider- 
able repute  as  one  of  King  Edward's  chaplains,  and 
one  of  the  royal  itinerant  preachers.  He  had,  however, 
no  love  for  the  settlement  of  the  English  Church  or  its 
services,  as  his  conduct  at  Frankfort  soon  showed. 

Before  his  arrival  the  Frankfort  body  had  answered 
the  Zurich  men,  giving  a  very  modified  approval  of  the 
Dispute  asto  English  Prayer-book,  condemning  some  of  the 
phra^er?llsh  ceremonies,  and  saying  that  doubtless  much 
more  would  have  been  changed  had  not  the 
Reformation  been  suddenly  checked.  The  Churchmen 
at  Zurich,  alarmed  at  this  serious  manifestation  of 
dissent,  sent  back  Chambers,  and  with  him  Grindal, 
to  endeavour  to  persuade  the  Frankfort  body  to  stand 
loyally  by  the  English  Prayer-book,  on  the  ground 
that  dissent  from  it  in  any  way  would  cast  a  slur  on 
the  English  Reformation  and  on  those  who  were  suffer- 
ing for  it  at  home.  The  answer  of  Knox  and  Whit- 
tingham  was,  that  they  were  willing  to  accept  the  book 
so  far  as  it  was  grounded  on  the  Word  of  God— the 
interpretation  to  be  put  on  the  Word  of  God  being,  of 
course,  their  own.  Upon  this  the  negotiations  were 
broken  off;  and  the  Frankfort  congregation  asked  Knox 
to  administer  the  Holy  Communion  according  to  '  the 
order  of  Geneva.'  Knox  hesitated  to  do  this,  '  think- 
ing,' says  Heylin,  '  himself  as  able  to  make  a  rule  as 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMERS  ABROAD        147 

any  Calvin  of  them  all,'  neither  would  he  use  the 
English  book,  to  which  he  strongly  objected. 

Lever  had  now  joined  him  in  the  pastorate,  and  they 
came  to  the  resolution  to  submit  the  matter  to  Calvin 
Calvin's  at  Geneva,  sending  him  the  Prayer-book  in 
thenp°ayer-  Latin  translation,  and  giving  him  a  descrip- 
tion or  comment  upon  the  book  '  to  which 
some  of  their  countrymen  went  about  to  force  them, 
and  would  admit  no  other.'  They  requested  his  solution 
of  the  difficulty.  Calvin  was  well  enough  acquainted 
with  the  English  Prayer-book  before  this,  and  did  not 
gain  much  new  information  from  the  description  now 
sent  to  him,  which  is  an  unfair  and  clumsy  document. 
He  replied,  in  a  contemptuous  manner,  that  the  English 
book  contained  many  '  tolerable  fooleries,'  but  he  would 
not  have  them  '  fierce  over  those  whose  infirmity  will 
not  suffer  them  to  ascend  an  higher  step.'  The  effect 
of  this  letter  was  to  cause  the  adoption  at  Frankfort  of 
an  order  for  the  Holy  Communion,  '  some  part  taken 
forth  of  the  English  book  and  other  things  put  to.' 

At  this  juncture  Cox,  late  Dean  of  Christ  Church 
and  Westminster,  and  one  of  the  compilers  of  the 
Dr.  cox  English  Prayer-book,  arrived  at  Frankfort, 
accompanied  by  a  large  party  of  English  Churchmen. 
Cox  insisted  on  saying  aloud  the  responses  as  in  the 
English  Prayer-book,  and  one  of  his  party  even  read 
the  Litany  in  the  church.  Upon  this  he  was  vehe- 
mently attacked  by  Knox,  and  the  original  body  of 
fugitives  appealed  to  the  magistrates. 

As  a  counter-move  the  new-comers  represented  to 
the  magistrates  that  Knox,  in  a  book  which  he  had 
published,  had  described  the  Emperor  Charles  as  Nero. 

L  2 


148          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Upon  this  the  magistrates  immediately  took  alarm, 
and  Knox  was  ordered  to  leave  the  city.  Cox  had  also 
Knox  contrived  to  get  on  his  side  a  nephew  of  the 

chief  magistrate  of  Frankfort,  and  by  his  in- 
fluence it  was  directed  that  the  English  Prayer-book 
should  henceforth  be  used  in  the  Frankfort  congrega- 
tion. This  arrangement  being  very  distasteful  to  some, 
a  secession  of  the  malcontents  under  Whittingham  and 
Foxe  was  made  to  Basle  and  Geneva.  The  congregation 
at  Frankfort  remained  under  the  ministry  of  White- 
head  and  Home,  assisted  by  Mullings  and  Treherne ; 
but  did  not,  alas,  remain  in  peace.  These  dissensions 
are  a  very  uninviting  subject ;  but  the  consideration 
of  them  is  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the  Re- 
formation movement,  as  all  the  controversies  which 
afterwards  troubled  the  Church  of  England  were  now 
hatched. 

The  first  dispute  had  been  on  the  matter  of  the 
ceremonies.  The  second,  which  is  now  to  be  touched, 
Kewdis-  was  on  the  question  of  discipline.  Already 
discipline  Knox  and  Goodman,  at  Geneva,  had  com- 
pletely rejected  the  'whole  frame  and  fashion  of  the 
Reformation  made  in  England,  and  had  conformed 
themselves  wholly  to  the  fashions  of  the  Church  of 
Geneva.'  The  same  spirit  was  now  exhibited  at 
Frankfort.  A  dispute  had  arisen  between  Home,  the 
pastor  (Whitehead  having  now  gone),  and  one  Ashley, 
a  lay  member  of  the  congregation.  Home,  supported 
by  Chambers  and  some  others,  endeavoured  to  rule 
matters  with  a  high  hand.  Ashley's  party  held  meet- 
ings to  resist  their  authority.  Presently  they  drew  up 
a  '  book  of  discipline,'  in  which  '  the  supreme  power  in 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMERS  ABROAD        149 

all  ecclesiastical  causes  was  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
congregations,  and  the  disposal  of  the  public  monies 
committed  to  the  trust  of  certain  officers  by  the  name 
of  deacons.'  The  dispute  becoming  more  serious,  the 
interference  of  the  magistrates  was  invoked,  who  re- 
ferred the  settlement  of  the  matter  to  Cox,  Sandys, 
and  Bertie. 

The  settlement  proposed  by  the  referees  did  nod 
suit  the  discipline  party,  who  refused  to  abandon  their 
The  scheme.  In  consequence  Home  and  Cham- 

congrega-  bers  resigned  their  offices,  and  retired  to 
Presby-on  *  Strasburg,  leaving  the  congregation  at  Frank- 
fort to  be  worked  on  the  Presbyterian  plat- 
form. l  Hence,'  says  Heylin,  '  the  beginning  of  the 
Puritan  faction  against  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  ;  that  of  the  Presbyterians  against  the  bishops 
or  episcopal  government ;  and  finally,  that  also  of  the 
Independents  against  the  superintendency  of  pastors 
and  elders.' 

The  other  English  colonies  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  distracted  with  the  same  troubles  that  befell  the 
The  other  congregation  at  Frankfort.  At  Ernbden, 
settlements  Bishop  Scory  presided  over  a  congregation  in 
quiet.  The  Duchess  of  Suffolk  and  her  husband  had 
settled  at  Wesel ;  but  afterwards,  at  the  invitation  of 
the  Palsgrave,  they  removed  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Heidelberg.  The  Wesel  congregation  then  migrated  to 
Basle.  Lever  obtained  permission  from  the  autho- 
rities of  Bern  to  open  a  church  in  their  territories, 
and  he  chose  Aarau,  where  the  c  congregation  lived 
together  in  godly  quietness  among  themselves  with 
great  favour  of  the  people.' 


150          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

At  the  death  of  Queen  Mary  an  attempt  appears  to 
have  been  made  by  the  party  at  Geneva  to  bring  about 
Action  of  a  sort  of  united  action  among  the  various 

the  Geneva  .  ,,  ,        ,, 

body  congregations,  on   the   ground   or   not  'con- 

tending for  superfluous  ceremonies  and  other  like 
trifles.'  Keith  was  dispatched  by  them  to  endea- 
vour to  effect  this.  The  answer  which  came  from 
Frankfort  shows  that  a  complete  change  had  by  this 
time  been  effected  in  the  state  of  things  there.  Only 
four  of  those  who  were  engaged  in  the  original  disputes 
remained.  The  present  members  of  the  congregation 
replied  to  Geneva  in  a  very  sensible  strain.  '  We  pur- 
pose to  submit  ourselves  to  such  orders  as  shall  bo 
established  by  authority,  being  not  of  themselves 
wicked  ;  so  we  would  wish  you  willingly  to  do  the  same. 
For  whereas  all  the  reformed  churches  differ  among 
themselves  in  divers  ceremonies,  and  yet  agree  in  the 
unity  of  doctrine,  we  see  no  inconvenience  if  we  use 
some  ceremonies  diverse  from  them,  so  that  we  agree  in 
the  chief  points  of  our  religion.' 

.  The  calm  spirit  which  appears  in  these  words  was 
not,  however,  shared  by  the  majority  of  the  English 
spirit  of  the  fugitives  who  hastened  back  at  the  death  of 
who™-rs  the  persecuting  Queen.  Most  of  them  un- 
doubtedly were  possessed  with  the  notion  of 
a  '  further  reformation.'  They  did  not  anticipate  merely 
the  revival  of  the  old  book,  and  even  an  increase  in 
ceremonial  and  strictness.  Having  become  accustomed 
to  the  freer  ways  and  more  democratic  life  of  the  com- 
munities where  they  had  long  sojourned,  they  did  not 
contemplate  with  satisfaction  being  regulated  by  auto- 
cratic bishops,  and  kept  to  a  hard  and  fast  uniformity. 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMERS  ABROAD        151 

Some  of  them  preferred  on  principle  the  Genevan  plat- 
form, or  the  government  of  the  Church  by  an  oligarchy. 
Many  more,  without  distinctly  adopting  this,  desired 
freedom ;  that  ceremonies  should  be  left  as  matters 
indifferent,  and  that  each  man  should  be  allowed  to 
treat  the  rule  according  to  his  conscience.  The  first 
of  these  became  the  parents  of  the  Separatists,  the 
second  of  the  Unconformable  or  Nonconformist  clergy, 
of  whom  we  hear  so  much  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth. 
Thus  as  the  Marian  persecution  had  endeared  the 
Church  to  the  people,  and  strengthened  it  in  the  affec- 
tions of  many,  so  the  sojourn  of  the  exiles  abroad  had 
sowed  the  seed  of  contentiousness,  Precisianism,  and 
Puritanism,  from  which  the  Church  was  afterwards  so 
terribly  to  suffer. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

TEE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND. 
1558-1559. 

IT  was  assumed  as  certain  by  the  reforming  party  that 
Queen  Elizabeth,  who  had  been  in  peril  of  her  life 
queen  from  her  sister,  and  had  been  subjected  to 
religious''8  constraint  and  ill-usage  for  her  inclination 
pollcy  towards  the  Reformation,  would,  on  her  acces- 
sion, take  a  decided  line  against  the  old  supersti- 
tions. At  once,  therefore,  in  many  places  the  people 
began  to  pull  down  images  and  to  pour  contempt  upon 
the  priests  and  their  service.  Under  Mary's  tyranny 
the  nation,  which  had  slowly  and  reluctantly  accepted 


152  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

tlie  changes  made  under  King  Edward,  had  become 
fiercely  Protestant.  But  Queen  Elizabeth  had  no  in- 
tention of  compromising  her  position,  and  endangering 
her  throne  by  any  violent  partisan  action.  The  powers 
of  Europe  were  hostile  to  her  ;  a  large  section  of  her 
own  subjects  would  be  ready  to  join  them  against  one 
who  would  certainly  be  excommunicated  and  declared 
illegitimate  by  the  Pope.  There  was  need  of  the  most 
consummate  prudence  if  the  State  was  to  be  saved  from 
danger,  and  the  Church  reinstated  in  its  national  posi- 
tion. This  gift  of  prudence  and  policy  Elizabeth  hap- 
pily possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree.  '  This  Queen,' 
says  Burnet,  '  had  a  strange  art  of  insinuating  herself 
into  the  affections  of  her  people.'  She  was  determined 
to  carry,  if  possible,  all  parties  with  her.  Thus,  when 
she  went  to  her  coronation  she  clasped  the  Bible  to  her 
bosom  with  such  fervour  that  she  drew  tears  from  many 
of  the  spectators  ;  but  the  ceremony  of  her  coronation 
was  performed,  not  by  one  of  the  reforming  bishops, 
but  by  Oglethorpe,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  with  all  the  old 
ceremonies.  Again,  she  did  not  at  once  sanction  the 
use  of  the  English  Prayer-book,  which  was  not  as  yet 
legal,  but  adopted  a  modified  form  of  worship  such  as 
had  been  used  in  King  Henry's  days,  and  by  a  Procla- 
mation enjoined  this  upon  the  people. 

This    document   ran    as    follows  :     '  The    Queen's 
Majesty  understanding   that   there  be  certain  persons 
having  in  times  past  the  office  of  ministry  in 


tion  about          ,        .~,  ,  1-1  -i 

the  Uhurch,  which  now   do   purpose   to   use 


their  former  office  in  preaching  and  ministry,  and  partly 
have  attempted  the  same,  assembling  specially  in  the 
city  of  London^  ia  sundry  places,  great  number  of 


THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND    153 

people  ;  whereupon  riseth  among  the  common  sort  not 
only  unfruitful  disputes  in  matters  of  religion,  but  also 
contention  and  occasion  to  break  common  quiet ;  hath 
therefore  according  to  the  authority  committed  to  her 
Highness,  for  the  quiet  governance  of  all  manner  of  her 
subjects,  thought  it  necessary  to  charge  and  command, 
like  as  hereby  her  Highness  doth  charge  and  command, 
all  manner  of  her  subjects,  as  well  those  as  be  called  to 
the  ministry  in  the  Church  as  all  others  ;  that  they  do 
forbear  to  preach  or  teach,  or  to  give  audience  to  any 
manner  of  doctrine  or  preaching,  other   than   to   the 
Gospels  and  Epistles  commonly  called  the  Gospel  and 
Epistle  of  the  day,  and  to  the  Ten  Commandments  in 
the  vulgar  tongue,  without  exposition  or  addition  of 
any  manner  sense  or  meaning  to  be  applied  and  added  ; 
or  to  use  any  manner  of  public  prayer,  rite  or  ceremony 
in  the  Church,  but  that  which  is  already  used  and  by 
law  received,  as  the  Common  Litany  used  at  this  pre- 
sent in  Her  Majesty's  Chapel,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer 
and  the  Creed  in  English ;  until  consultation  may  be 
had  by  Parliament  by  Her   Majesty,   and    her   three 
estates  of  this  realm,   for  the  better  conciliation  and 
accord  of  such  causes  as  at  this  present  are  moved  in 
matters  and  ceremonies  of  religion.'     This  was  to  bring 
back  the  state  of  things  to  what  it  was  in  King  Henry's 
time,  and  could  not    have   satisfied  the   more  ardent 
reformers.     The  Latin  mass  was  still  to  be  said  with 
the  English  parts  which  had  been  then  introduced. 

In  a  paper  of  recommendations  offered  to  Secretary 
Cecil,  it  is  suggested  that  there  be  no  further  altera- 
tions '  except  it  be  to  receive  the  Communion  as  her 
Majesty  pleaseth,  at  high  feasts ;  and  that  where  there 


154          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

be  more  chaplains  at  the  mass,  that  they  do  always 
communicate  with  the  executor  in  both  kinds.  And 
The  recpm-  for  her  Highness'  conscience,  till  then,  if  there 

mcndatious      -i  ,1  -,  /. 

given  to  be  some  other  devout  sort  of  prayer  or  me- 
mory said,  and  the  seldomer,  mass.'  This 
advice  is  somewhat  enigmatical,  but  it  clearly  contem- 
plates the  Queen  continuing  to  be  present  at  mass 
according  to  the  old  form.  The  only  alteration  which 
she  required  the  officiating  priest  to  make  was,  the 
disuse  of  the  elevation  of  the  consecrated  elements. 

And  it  is  probable  that  this  form  of  service  would 
have  quite  satisfied  the  Queen  for  a  continuance.  '  The 
Elizabeth's  Queen,'  says  Burnet,  *  had  been  bred  up  from 
gious  views  her  infancy  with  a  hatred  of  the  Papacy  and  a 
love  for  the  Reformation ;  but  yet,  as  her  first  impres- 
sions in  her  father's  reign  were  in  favour  of  such  old 
rites  as  he  had  still  retained,  so  in  her  own  nature  she 
loved  state  and  some  magnificence  in  religion  as  in 
everything  else.  She  thought  that  in  her  brother's 
reign  they  had  stripped  it  too  much  of  external  orna- 
ments, and  made  their  doctrine  too  narrow  in  some 
points.  She  inclined  to  keep  up  images  in  churches, 
and  to  have  the  manner  of  Christ's  presence  in  the 
Sacrament  left  in  some  general  words,  that  those  who 
believed  the  corporal  presence  might  not  be  driven 
away  from  the  Church  by  too  nice  an  explanation  of  it.' 
But  though  it  is  possible  that  a  very  moderate  amount 
of  reformation  might  have  satisfied  the  Queen,  she 
knew  well  that  nothing  less  would  satisfy  the  great 
body  of  her  subjects  than  that  the  Church  of  England 
should  be  '  reduced  to  its  former  purity ' ;  and  the  ques- 
tion at  once  arose  how  this  was  to  be  done. 


THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND    155 

The  Convocation  was  bitterly  hostile  to  reforming 
views.  Under  Mary,  all  the  clergy  in  high  places  who 
had  been  favourers  of  the  Reformation  had 
been  assiduously  weeded  out.  The  revival  of 
the  illegality  of  clerical  marriage  had  served 
^Q  Q^  ^Q  greater  part  Of  those  incumbents 

who  were  of  similar  views.  Many  of  the  livings  had 
fallen  to  dispossessed  monks  and  friars,  so  that  the 
proctors  elected  for  the  clergy  would  assuredly  be  no 
favourers  of  the  Reformation.  The  bishops,  deans  and 
archdeacons,  who  form  the  majority  of  Convocation, 
would  be  still  less  likely  to  be  so.  From  this  clerical 
body,  therefore,  which  would  assemble  with  the  Par- 
liament, nothing  in  the  way  of  bringing  back  the  settle- 
ment made  under  King  Edward  could  be  hoped  for. 
The  Parliament  might  be  more  easily  handled  and 
better  trusted ;  but  to  establish  a  form  of  religious  ser- 
vice simply  by  the  action  of  Parliament,  in  opposition 
to  the  voice  of  the  spiritualty,  was  a  dangerous  measure, 
and  more  even  than  had  been  attempted  in  the  rash 
days  of  King  Edward.  In  the  State  Paper  already 
quoted,  a  cautious  course  is  recommended.  The  bishops 
and  dignified  clergy  '  being  in  manner  all  made  and 
chosen  such  as  were  thought  the  stoutest  and  mightiest 
champions  of  the  Pope's  church,'  and  having  enriched 
themselves  illegally  in  Queen  Mary's  time,  were  to  be 
reduced  to  order  by  the  Prtemunire  statute,  and  made 
to  abjure  the  Pope  of  Rome,  and  to  conform  themselves 
to  the  new  alteration.  In  place  of  the  Convocation,  a 
Committee  of  Divines  was  to  be  appointed  to  review  the 
Service-books  of  King  Edward,  and  to  specify  what,  if 
any,  alterations  should  be  made,  before  one  of  them, 


156  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

either  tlie  first  form  or  the  second,  should  be  re- 
established by  Act  of  Parliament.  Both  of  these  booka, 
had  the  sanction  of  Convocation,  and  had  been  pre- 
pared solely  by  divines.  To  fall  back  simply  on  the 
constitutional  arrangement  of  the  former  reign,  which 
was  a  natural  sequence  from  the  acts  of  the  State  and 
Church  under  Henry  VIII.,  and  to  disregard  the  violent 
interruption  and  un-English  doings  of  Mary,  was  clearly 
the  best  policy  and  a  proceeding  justifiable  on  all 
grounds.  Thus  the  reforming  party  would  have  all 
that  they  could  fairly  claim,  while  a  door  might  be, 
opened  for  those  who  favoured  Romish  views,  by 
introducing  some  alterations  in  the  Communion  Office, 
which  had  been  hardly  treated  in  the  second  book 
of  King  Edward.  The  persons  recommended  for  the 
important  task  of  reviewing  the  Service-book  were 
Bill,  Parker,  May,  Cox,  Whitehead,  Grindal,  and 
Pilkington.  They  were  to  be  called  together  and 
assisted  by  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  and  when  they  had  come 
to  a  decision  '  to  draw  in  other  men  of  learning,  and 
grave  and  apt  men,'  to  confirm  their  views. 

These  persons  in  effect  were  appointed  for  this 
work,  with  the  addition  of  Sandys ;  and  when  Parker 
The  Com-  could  not  act  on  account  of  illness,  Guest  was 
Kvfew'the  put  in  his  place.  The  work  was  immediately 
commenced,  and  was  done  with  great  secrecy, 
the  Queen  being  very  careful  that  nothing  decisive  should 
be  known  as  to  her  intentions  in  matters  of  religion  until 
Parliament  met.  What  the  temper  of  that  body  would 
be  as  regards  changes  in  religion  was  of  course  very 
doubtful.  In  the  House  of  Lords  the  whole  of  the  bishops, 
and  many  of  the  other  peers,  would  certainly  oppose  any 


THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND    1 57 

reforming  movement.  The  Crown  had  great  power  in 
influencing  elections  for  the  Commons ;  but  it  was  not 
probable  that  it  would  be  able  to  bring  together  a 
House  altogether  prepared  to  reject  the  religious  settle- 
ment so  lately  voted  and  established.  Meantime,  in  the 
preparation  of  the  Prayer-book  to  be  submitted  to 
Parliament,  the  same  opposing  forces  were  at  work  as 
had  been  observable  in  the  time  ot  King  Edward. 
There  was  the  love  of  antiquity  and  the  old  ceremonial 
face  to  face  with  the  eager  desire  to  make  much  greater 
changes  than  had  been  already  made,  and  to  advance  in 
the  direction  of  the  foreign  reformers.  The  Queen  was 
the  upholder  of  the  first  view,  and  Sir  William  Cecil 
endeavoured  to  impress  the  Queen's  opinion  upon  the 
revisers,  who  themselves  were  mostly  in  favour  of  a  more 
drastic  reformation.  Many  of  them  had  lived  abroad 
and  had  become  intimate  with  the  foreign  reformers. 
Some  of  the  body  were  certainly  disposed  to  go  greot 
lengths  in  change.  Parker,  the  most  moderate  of  them, 
was  absent  through  illness.  There  was  an  evident  dan- 
ger of  strong  measures  being  applied  to  the  Service- 
book,  which  would  hopelessly  alienate  the  moderate 
Romanists  whom  it  was  the  Queen's  policy  to  conci- 
liate. 

Then  Sir  W.  Cecil  came  to  the  rescue,  handing  to 
the  revisers  a  paper  of  questions  which  clearly  indi- 
sirw.  cated  the  Queen's  wishes,  and  which,  if  it 
questions  were  not  accepted  altogether,  would  certainly 
serve  to  modify  their  desire  for  violent  change.  This 
paper  puts  in  a  plea  for  the  ceremonies  of  King  Edward's 
first  book.  It  suggests  that  the  crucifix  should  bo 
retained.  To  this  we  know  the  Queen  was  quite 


1 58          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

determined  to  adhere  as  regards  her  own  chapel.  That 
the  cope  should  be  used  at  the  celebration  of  the  Holy 
Communion ;  that  processions  should  be  used  ;  prayer 
for  the  dead,  and  the  prayers  taken  out  of  the  first 
Communion  Office  be  restored.  What  was  going  on 
soon  came  to  be  known  among  the  leading  reforming 
divines.  Thus  Jewel  writes  to  Peter  Martyr :  '  Tho 
scenic  apparatus  of  divine  worship  is  now  under  agita- 
tion ;  and  these  very  things  which  you  and  I  have  so 
often  laughed  at  are  now  seriously  and  solemnly  main- 
tained by  certain  persons  (for  we  are  not  consulted), 
as  if  the  Christian  religion  could  not  exist  without 
something  tawdry.  Our  minds  indeed  are  not  suffi- 
ciently disengaged  to  make  these  fooleries  of  much  im- 
portance. Others  are  seeking  after  a  golden,  or  as  it 
seems  to  me,  a  leaden  mediocrity,  and  are  crying  out 
that  the  half  is  better  than  the  whole.'  The  revi- 
sers, however,  were  not  prepared  to  accept  the  sugges- 
tions which  came  to  them  through  Sir  W.  Cecil  from 
the  Queen.  Dr.  Guest  drew  up  an  answer  to  them  all, 
in  what  may  be  called  the  Protestant  sense.  The 
revisers  held  to  the  second  book  of  King  Edward  rather 
than  to  the  first,  and  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained  (for 
the  subject  is  involved  in  obscurity),  the  book  left  their 
hands  with  only  three  alterations,  viz.  an  addition  of 
certain  lessons  to  be  used  on  Sundays  ;  an  amended 
form  of  the  Litany ;  the  bringing  back  of  the  words  to 
be  used  to  communicants  of  the  first  book  in  union 
with  those  of  the  second.  These,  it  seems,  were  in- 
tended by  the  revisers  to  be  the  only  alterations  made 
in  the  sec  nd  book  of  King  Edward  when  it  was  pre- 
sented to  Parliament. 


THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND    159 

But  it  will  presently  appear  that  the  opposing  in- 
fluence which  they  had  set  aside  in  their  review  was 
The  proviso  not  to  be  so  easily  disposed  of.  The  Act  of 
uniformity  Parliament  (Act  of  Uniformity)  was  actually 
drawn,  enacting  the  establishment  of  the  book  with 
these  three  alterations  specified,  '  and  none  other  or 
otherwise,'  but  at  the  close  of  this  very  Act  occurs  a 
clause  which,  in  fact,  did  legalise  another  and  a  very 
important  alteration.  'Provided  always,  and  be  it 
enacted,  that  such  ornaments  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
ministers  thereof  shall  be  retained,  and  be  used,  as  was 
in  this  Church  of  England  by  authority  of  Parliament 
in  the  second  year  of  King  Edward  VI.,  until  other 
order  shall  be  therein  taken  by  the  authority  of  the 
Queen's  Majesty,  with  the  advice  of  her  Commissioners 
appointed  and  authorised  under  the  Great  Seal  of 
England  for  causes  ecclesiastical,  or  of  the  Metropolitan 
of  this  realm.'  This  proviso  involved  the  abrogation  of 
at  least  one,  if  not  both,  of  the  first  Kubricks  in  King 
Edward's  book.  How  did  it  get  into  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment which  in  its  previous  clauses  expressly  excludes 
it  ?  Evidently  it  must  have  been  added  to  the  Act  by 
the  direction  of  the  Queen  herself,  when  the  draft 
was  considered  in  Council ;  and  being  drawn  in  a 
provisional  form,  it  was  perhaps  held  that  it  might 
fairly  be  defended  as  not  making  any  actual  alteration 
in  the  previous  wording  of  the  Act.1  More  will  have  to 

1  Strype  is  of  opinion  that  the  book  as  it  came  from  the  re- 
visers allowed  the  communicants  to  receive  standing  or  kneeling 
(according  to  Guest's  paper),  and  that  the  words  '  standing  or  '  were 
struck  out  in  Parliament.  This  may  have  been  the  case,  for  as 
Edward's  book  has  simply  kneeling,  this  would  not  require  specify« 
ing  as  a  change. 


160          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

be  presently  said  as  to  the  Elizabethan  Prayer-book  ; 
but  first  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Parliament 
which  authorised  it. 

Parliament  met  on  January  25  (1559).  It  was 
opened  by  a  speech  from  the  Lord  Keeper  which  was 
The  meeting  intended  to  be  a  manifesto.  He  said  that  '  the 
meat,  1559  Queen  had  God  before  her  eyes  and  was  not 
unmindful  of  precepts  and  divine  counsels ;  that  she 
required  them,  for  the  duty  they  bore  to  God  and  their 
service  to  her  and  their  country,  that  they  would  with 
all  humbleness,  singleness  and  pureuess  of  mind,  use 
their  whole  endeavour  and  diligence  to  establish  that 

o 

which  by  their  wisdoms  should  be  thought  most  meet 
for  the  well  preserving  of  this  godly  purpose,  and  that 
without  respect  of  honour,  rule  or  sovereignty,  profit, 
pleasure  or  ease ;  or  of  anything  that  might  touch  any 
person  in  estimation  or  opinion,  of  wit,  learning  or 
knowledge ;  and  without  regard  of  other  affection ;  that 
in  their  conference  about  this  they  would  wholly  forbear 
as  a  great  enemy  to  good  counsel,  all  manner  of  con- 
tention, reasonings,  disputes  ;  that  no  contentious  or 
contumelious  words  as  heretic,  schismatic,  papist,  should 
be  used.  And  that  as  nothing  should  be  advised  or 
done  that  might  in  any  way  breed  or  nourish  any  kind 
of  idolatry  or  superstition,  so  heed  was  to  be  taken  that 
by  licentious  or  loose  handling  any  occasion  might  bo 
given  whereby  contempt  or  irreverent  behaviour  towards 
God  and  godly  things  might  creep  in.'  The  Parliament 
fully  responded  to  this  appeal.  It  showed  itself,  indeed, 
somewhat  too  ready  to  help  the  Queen  at  the  expense 
of  the  Church,  rather  than  out  of  the  pockets  of  the 


TJIE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND    16 1 

laity,  giving  her  the  first-fruits  and  tenths  which  Mary 
had  restored  to  the  Church,  and  again  legalising  the 
evil  practice  of  exchange  by  the  Crown  of  impropriate 
tithes  for  manors  at  the  vacancy  of  a  bishopric.  It 
also  readily  recognised  the  Queen's  title  and  legi- 
timacy. 

But  the  Bill  for  '  Restoring  the  Supremacy,'  which 
was  sent  up  from  the  Commons  on  February  27,  en- 
supremacy  countered  considerable  difficulty  in  the  House 
of  Lords.  This  important  Bill  was,  in  fact, 
some  two  months  in  its  passage  through  Parliament, 
additions  having  been  constantly  made  to  it,  and  con- 
siderable changes  introduced.  The  title  finally  adopted 
for  it  was  'An  Act  for  restoring  to  the  Crown  the 
ancient  jurisdiction  over  the  State,  ecclesiastical  and 
spiritual.'  The  Act  did  in  effect,  though  not  in  name, 
bring  back  the  dominating  power  of  Henry  VIII.,  and 
as  he  was  enabled  to  commit  this  irresponsible  power 
to  a  lay  Vicar-General,  so  this  Act  enabled  the  Queen 
to  erect  a  '  High  Commission  Court,'  which  should  be 
empowered  to  '  visit,  reform,  correct  and  amend  all 
such  errors,  heresies,  schisms,  abuses,  offences,  con- 
tempts and  enormities  whatsoever,  which  by  any  manner, 
spiritual  or  ecclesiastical  power,  authority,  or  jurisdic- 
tion, can  or  may  lawfully  be  reformed,  ordered,  re- 
dressed, corrected,  restrained  or  amended.'  Thus,  as 
Collier  observes,  '  the  whole  Church  discipline  seems 
transferred  upon  the  Crown  ' ;  and,  as  he  points  out, 
no  mention  being  made  of  the  necessity  of  spiritual 
persons  being  appointed  on  the  High  Commission 
Court,  the  whole  of  this  discipline  might  be  exercised 
by  laymen.  For  the  guidance  of  such  Commissioners, 
C.  H.  M 


1 62          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

who  might  be  presumed  not  to  be  learned  in  eccle- 
siastical matters,  the  Act  vouchsafes  to  define  what  is 
to  be  accounted  heresy,  namely,  what  had  '  heretofore 
been  determined,  ordered,  or  adjudged  to  be  heresy  by 
the  authority  of  the  canonical  Scriptures,  or  by  the  first 
four  General  Councils,  or  any  of  them,  or  by  any  other 
General  Council  wherein  the  same  was  declared  heresy 
by  the  express  and  plain  words  of  the  said  canonical 
Scriptures,  or  such  as  hereafter  shall  be  judged,  ordered, 
or  determined  to  be  heresy  by  the  High  Court  of  Par- 
liament of  this  realm,  with  the  assent  of  the  clergy  in 
their  Convocation.'  The  Bill  was  strongly  opposed,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  by  the  ten  bishops,  who 
were  all  that  were  able  to  be  present  of  the  number  of 
those  appointed  under  Queen  Mary.  Heath,  Archbishop 
of  York  and  Mary's  Lord  Chancellor,  spoke  strongly 
against  it.  But  it  was  at  length  carried  by  a  small 
majority  (April  29),  containing  a  proviso  that  it  should 
be  supported  by  an  oath,  to  be  taken  by  all  clergymen 
and  public  functionaries,  '  to  defend  all  jurisdictions, 
privileges,  pre-eminences  and  authorities,  granted  or 
belonging  to  the  Queen's  Highness,  her  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors, or  united  and  annexed  to  the  Imperial  Crown 
of  this  realm.'  In  this  Act  the  Queen  is  not  styled 
Supreme  Head  of  the  Church,  as  her  father  and  her 
sister  had  been,  but  Supreme  Governor — a  more  fitting 
title.  The  Act  also  repealed  the  ecclesiastical  legisla- 
tion made  or  revived  in  the  past  reign,  and  revived  the 
ecclesiastical  acts  of  Henry  and  Edward.  One  Act, 
however,  was  not  revived  ;  the  bishops  were  not  hence- 
forth to  be  appointed  by  letters  patent,  and  to  use  the 
royal  name  in  their  orders,  but  were  to  be  elected,  as  of  old, 


THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND    163 

by  their  Chapters,  aud  to  use  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction. 
The  powers  thus  entrusted  to  the  Crown  appear  por- 
tentous, and  in  principle  are  perhaps  indefensible.  But 
in  the  utterly  disorganised  state  of  the  Church  after 
so  many  changes,  they  were  greatly  needed  and  were 
practically  valuable.  The  Queen  had  no  intention  of 
appointing  laymen  to  represent  her  supremacy,  being 
extremely  jealous  of  lay  interference  in  Church  matters. 
But  she  wished  to  arm  the  bishops  with  full  power 
and  authority,  and  having  thus  armed  them,  she  was 
fully  determined  that  they  should  do  the  work  of  dis- 
cipline— from  which  indeed  many  of  them  afterwards 
shrank  in  a  very  cowardly  manner. 

Before  this  Act  had  become  law,  the  Act  for  Uni- 
formity of  Public  Worship  was  brought  into  the 
The  Act  of  Lords  (April  25),  and  after  three  days'  discus- 
uniformity  S[QU^  jn  which  some  very  able  speeches  were 
made  against  it  by  the  Romanist  bishops,  was  passed 
by  a  small  majority.  It  Has  been  already  pointed  out 
that  the  Act  contained  a  proviso  which  was  not  in 
accordance  with  the  description  of  the  Prayer-book  as 
given  in  the  earlier  part  of  it. 

In  addition  to  this,  when  the  Prayer-book  appeared 
in  print  it  contained  other  alterations  not  specified  by 
The  Eiiza-  the  Act.  Very  few  copies  of  the  Elizabethan 

bethan  ..,:...,,  .  ,., 

Prayer-book  Prayer-book  remain,  but  there  is  none  which  is 
in  accordance  with  the  description  of  the  book  in  the 
Act  of  Parliament.  In  the  first  place,  the  proviso  which 
had  been  inserted  in  the  Act  appears  in  the  book  in  the 
form  of  two  initial  Kubricks,  which  take  the  place  of 
two  similar  Kubricks  of  the  book  of  Edward,  from 
which  they  altogether  ditfer.  Then  there  are  several 

M    2 


1 64  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

alterations  in  the  prayers  besides  what  is  specified 
in  the  Act ;  and  thirdly,  the  declaration  as  to  kneel- 
ing, which  appears  in  the  book  of  Edward,  is  omitted. 
This  last  was  probably  done  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
not  covered  by  his  Act  of  Uniformity.  That  the 
revisers  were  somewhat  startled  by  the  form  which 
the  book  ultimately  assumed  may  be  inferred  from  the 
letter  of  Dr.  Sandys,  who,  speaking  of  the  Kubricks 
which  legalised  the  use  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  vesture, 
says,  '  Our  gloss  upon  this  text  is,  that  we  shall  not  be 
forced  to  use  them,  but  that  others  in  the  meantime 
shall  not  convey  them  away,  but  that  they  may  remain 
for  the  Queen.'  It  may  be  questioned,  however,  whether 
that  was  the  intention  of  the  Queen,  who  had  no  doubt 
procured  the  insertion  of  this  Kubrick,  the  legality  of 
which  was  covered  by  the  Act  of  Parliament.  That 
Elizabeth  still  entertained  the  desire  and  hope  of  intro- 
ducing more  ceremonial  and  more  of  the  ancient  prac- 
tices into  the  Church  may  be  inferred  from  many  things, 
and  especially  from  the  history  of  the  Latin  Prayer- 
book,  in  which  the  Queen  was  much  interested. 

This  book,  translated  by  Dr.  Walter  Haddon  at  the 
Queen's  desire — the  translator  taking  as  his  groundwork 
The  Latin  Aless's  translation  of  the  book  of  ]  549 — con- 
Pra,yer-Book  taing  many  t^ng&  which  the  English  Prayer- 
book  does  not  contain  ;  and  it  is  conjectured  with  great 
probability  that  the  Queen's  wish  in  authorising  the 
book  by  her  letters  patent  (April  1560),  was  to  bring 
back  for  the  use  of  the  clergy  and  learned  societies  the 
usages  of  1549,  and  so  gradually  to  reintroduce  them 
for  the  whole  Church.  In  accordance  with  this,  although 
power  was  reserved  for  the  Queen  in  the  Act  of  Uni- 


THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND    165 

formity  to  take  fui'ther  order  for  ecclesiastical  vest- 
ments, it  is  not  found  that  she  ever  did  take  such 
further  order,  but  allowed  the  vestures  of  1549  to 
remain  as  the  prescribed  officiating  dress  of  the  clergy, 
although  their  use  was  not  enforced.  On  January  22, 
1561,  she  did  indeed  publish,  under  the  Great  Seal,  a 
'  further  order,'  but  this  was  merely  to  legalise  the 
changes  in  the  Calendar  of  Lessons  which,  bad  been 
already  prepared  ;  to  direct  that  the  decays  in  churches, 
and  especially  in  chancels,  should  be  looked  to ;  and 
that  tables  of  the  Ten  Commandments  should  be  '  comely 
set  or  hung  up  in  the  east  end  of  the  chancel,  to  ba 
not  only  read  for  edification,  but  also  to  give  some 
comely  ornament,  and  demonstration  that  the  same 
is  a  place  of  religion.'  It  is  evident  that  the  desire 
to  make  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  England  more 
ceremonious  and  ornamental  was  constantly  in  the 
Queen's  mind. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   BISHOPS   AND   CLERGY. 

THE  Parliament  had  brought  back  again  the  reformed 
Prayer-book  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  had  over- 
dim-  thrown  the  Romish  system  established  under 
Queen  Mary.  But  by  what  agency  was  the 
new  condition  of  things  to  be  upheld,  and 
where  were  to  be  found  the  ministers  ready 
to  use  the  English  book  ?  Would  the  incumbents  of 
churches,  who  had  returned  gladly  to  the  Romish 
services  under  Queen  Mary,  again  abandon  them,  and 


1 66          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

adopt  the  English  forms,  which  had  been  pronounced 
heretical ;  and  would  they  go  further  and  recommend 
the  doctrines  embodied  in  them  in  sermons  or  homi- 
lies ?     This  could  hardly  be  expected.     Where  also  were 
the  bishops  to  superintend  the  Church  in  so  critical  a 
juncture,  and  by  judicious  discipline   to  bring  about 
conformity?      The  supply    of    fit  ministers   was   the 
one  especial  difficulty  of  the  time.     Books  and  laws 
might  be  excellent,  but  without  the  living  agent  they 
would  be  utterly  futile.     That  this  enormous  difficulty 
was  got  over — that  competent  bishops  were  found,  and 
clergy  and  preachers  gradually  supplied  to  the  Church 
at  this  period — is  not  the  least  marvellous  fact  in  the 
history  of  the  English  Keformation.    It  would  of  course 
have  been  impossible  that  this  should  have  been  done 
without  scandals  occurring.    That  out  of  the  old  Marian 
priests,  who  in  their  hearts  hated  reform,  and  the  fana- 
tical Protestants,  driven  to  fury  by  the  late  butcheries, 
there  should  at  once  and  easily  have  been  constructed  a 
well-qualified  and  earnest  set  of  Anglican  clergy,  who 
would  temperately  and  wisely  work  out  the  system  of 
the  English  Prayer-book,  would  have  been  a  greater 
miracle  than  could  have  been  expected.     No  doubt  the 
scandals  were  many,  but  order  was  gradually  educed ; 
and  long  before  the  end  of  this  eventful  reign  the  Church 
was  well  provided  with  an  efficient  ministry. 

Before  however  anything  is  said  of  the  Anglican 
prelates  and  clergy,  it  is  necessary  to  note  briefly  the 
The  Kornish  fate  of  those  who  were  in  high  position  at  the 
clergy8 '  accession  of  Elizabeth.  Many  of  the  Romish 
bishops  had  died  just  about  that  time  from  the  quartan 
fever  then  very  prevalent.  Fourteen  only  were  now 
remaining.  These  had  greatly  disobliged  the  Queen 


THE  BISHOPS  AND  CLERGY  167 

by  the  refusal  of  all  of  them  (excepting  Oglethorpe,  of 
Carlisle),  to  officiate  at  her  coronation ;  and  by  the 
conduct  of  some  of  them  in  a  disputation  held  at  West- 
minster before  the  Parliament. 

In  this  the  bishops,  who  had  undertaken  to  conduct 
the  discussion  according  to  certain  fixed  rules,  which 
The  west-  had  been  accepted  on  their  part  by  Arch— 
putation  bishop  Heath,  afterwards  refused  to  abide  by 
these  rules,  and  broke  off  the  discussion.  A  very  bitter 
feeling  was  evoked  by  this,  and  two  of  the  Romish 
bishops,  White  and  Watson,  were  committed  to 
the  Tower.  The  bishops  also  strongly  opposed  both 
the  Supremacy  and  Uniformity  Acts  in  Parliament, 
and  in  Convocation  had  joined  in  passing  resolutions 
directly  antagonistic  to  the  English  Prayer-book. 
They  were  in  fact,  according  to  their  power,  carrying 
on  war  against  the  Crown  ;  and  if  the  precedent  of  the 
last  reign  had  been  followed,  would  have  quickly  found 
themselves  in  the  Tower.  But  Elizabeth,  wiser  in  her 
generation,  tried  conciliatory  courses. 

On  May  15  (1559),  all  the  bishops  were  called  into 
her  presence,  and  being  reminded  of  the  laws  lately 
The  bishops  passed,  were  invited  by  her  to  conform  and 
Queen  so  retain  their  Sees.  In  this  request  it  need 

not  be  doubted,  from  her  known  sentiments,  that  the 
Queen  was  sincere.  But  Archbishop  Heath  thought  it 
his  duty  to  address  the  Queen  on  the  zeal  of  her  sister 
Mary  for  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  to  add  the  very 
impolitic  suggestion  that  Mary's  acts  bound  her  Majesty 
and  her  successors,  Elizabeth  answered  with  much 
dignity.  '  She  owed  allegiance  to  God,  but  none  to  the 
Bishop  of  Rome ;  her  sister's  acts  did  not  bind  her,  her 


1 68  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

successors  or  her  realms.  The  nation  had  rejected  the 
usurped  authority  of  this  bishop,  and  she  for  her  part 
absolutely  repudiated  it,  holding  her  crown  only  under 
Christ,  and  looking  upon  all  those  as  her  enemies  who 
should  maintain  allegiance  to  this  foreign  power.'  The 
bishops  retired,  somewhat  dismayed  at  the  Queen's 
vigour,  and  the  Council  were  now  convinced  that  they 
would  have  to  be  treated  as  enemies.  They  discovered 
also,  as  is  said,  among  the  papers  left  by  Queen  Mary, 
a  mass  of  evidence  showing  the  treasonable  practices  of 
some  of  them  in  King  Edward's  time. 

It  was  decided,  however,  not  to  trouble  them  on 
these  matters,  but  simply  to  propose  to  them  the  oath 
Their  treat-  lately  enacted  in  the  Supremacy  statute.  This 
they  all  refused  to  take,  an'd  were  accordingly 
deprived.  Their  after  treatment  was  not  specially 
severe.  There  were  no  retaliatory  burnings.  They 
suffered  a  short  imprisonment,  and  then  most  of  them 
were  restored  to  liberty.  Archbishop  Heath  lived  on 
his  own  estate  at  Chobham,  and  was  occasionally  visited 
by  the  Queen.  The  amiable  Tonstal  lived  for  the  short 
remainder  of  his  life  with  the  new  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, with  whom  he  had  much  in  common.  Thirlby, 
Bishop  of  Ely,  a  much  inferior  man,  also  '  lived  in  much 
ease  and  credit  with  the  Archbishop  for  ten  years,' 
when  he  died.  White,  a  violent  man,  who  with  Bishop 
Watson  had  threatened  to  excommunicate  the  Queen, 
nevertheless  died  at  liberty.  Bourne  lived  in  comfort 
with  Dr.  Carew,  Dean  of  Exeter.  Turberville  and  Poole 
lived  in  their  own  houses  unmolested.  Bayne  and  Ogle- 
thorpe  died  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  reign. 
Watson,  '  a  sour  and  morose  man,'  lived  at  first  in  com- 
parative freedom,  but  after  a  time,  becoming  an  in- 


THE  BISHOPS  AND  CLERGY  169 

triguer,  was  committed  to  Wisbech  Castle,  where  lie 
died.  Scott,  Pate,  and  Goldwell,  after  some  imprison- 
ment, were  allowed  to  go  abroad.  Bonner,  the  most 
obnoxious  of  all,  and  who  had  shown  a  cruelty  and 
bitterness  in  persecution  with  which  none  of  the  others 
are  chargeable,  lived  and  died  in  the  Marshalsea.  He 
dared  not  have  ventured  out,  so  infuriated  were  the 
people  against  him  ;  but  within  the  strong  walls  of  the 
prison  '  he  lived  daintily,  having  the  use  of  the  garden 
and  orchards  when  he  was  minded  to  walk  abroad.' 
The  treatment  these  prelates  received  was  somewhat 
different  from  that  which  Spanish  cruelty  had  accorded 
to  Cranmer,  Ridley  and  Latimer,  Hooper  and  Farrar. 
Nor  was  the  treatment  of  the  inferior  clergy  more  severe. 
The  use  of  the  Prayer-book  had  been  appointed 
under  penalties  for  St.  John  Baptist's  Day  (June  24). 
The  clergy  But  at  that  time  the  great  majority  utterly 
the°p^yer-d  refused  to  use  it.  They  were  not  immediately 
book  interfered  with.  They  had  seven  months  for 

reflection  ;  and  they  made  so  good  a  use  of  th's  interval, 
that  when  the  Commissioners  afterwards  made  their 
visitation  throughout  the  whole  of  the  country,  a  ridi- 
culously small  proportion  of  the  clergy  then  refused  to 
conform.  The  list,  as  given  in  Camden,  only  amounts 
to  189  ;  *  and  'we  may  reckon,'  says  that  historian,  'in 

1  Bishops 14 

Deans 12 

Archdeacons  .         .        *        .        .12 
Heads  of  Colleges  .  ,.15 

Abbots  and  Priors  ....       6 
Prebendaries  .  ...     50 

Parish  priests          ,        r        .        .80 

189 
Collier's  list  makes  22». 


170  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

England  above  9,400  ecclesiastical  preferments/  It 
must  not,  however,  be  assumed  that  in  all  but  some  one 
hundred  parishes  there  were  incumbents  conforming, 
however  unwillingly.  A  great  number  doubtless  re- 
signed their  cures.  There  was  a  pressing  and  imme- 
diate demand  for  clergy. 

But  in  order  to  provide  clergy  there  must  first  be 
bishops,  and  to  this  the  Queen  and  her  ministers  had 
The  new  to  ^urn  their  earliest  attention.  The  See  of 
Archbishop  Canterbury  was  vacant  by  death.  Here  there 
could  be  no  question  of  intrusion,  and  on  the 
appointment  to  the  primatial  See  the  greatest  issues 
manifestly  depended.  There  was  one  divine  for  whom 
the  Queen  had  an  especial  affection,  and  who  was  also 
well  known  to  and  much  honoured  by  her  leading 
ministers.  This  was  Matthew  Parker,  who  had  been 
chaplain  to  her  mother  and  her  father,  and,  in  King 
Edward's  time,  Dean  of  Lincoln.  Parker  had  been 
named  first  in  the  Commission  for  revising  the  Prayer- 
book,  and  had  he  been  able  to  attend,  it  is  probable 
that  the  Queen's  wishes  would  have  been  more  carefully 
regarded  He  was  known  to  be  a  moderate  man ; 
studious,  well  learned  and  upright ;  an  able  preacher ; 
and  seemed  indeed  to  unite  in  himself  all  the  qualities 
needed  for  a  primate  at  this  important  juncture.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  was  in  feeble  health,  had  led  a 
studious  and  retired  life,  and  he  himself  unfeignedly 
shrank  from  the  arduous  task  which  the  Queen  desired 
to  impose  upon  him.  His  resistance  was  at  length  with 
difficulty  overcome.  On  July  18  (1559),  the  conge- 
iTelire  was  sent  to  the  Chapter  of  Canterbury,  with  a 
letter  missive  nominating  Parker.  The  Chapter  were 


THE  BISHOPS  AND  CLERGV  171 

divided  in  their  views ;  but  at  length  they  agreed  to 
elect  by  way  of  compromise,  leaving  the  actual  election 
to  the  Dean,  who  duly  elected  Parker  (August  1).  On 
September  9  a  Commission  under  the  Great  Seal  was 
issued  to  certain  bishops  to  consecrate  him.  But  as 
the  three  first  named  of  these  refused  to  act,  a  second 
Commission  was  issued  (December  6)  to  Kitchen,  Bishop 
of  Llandaff ;  Barlow,  late  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells ; 
Scory,  late  Bishop  of  Chichester ;  Coverdale,  late  Bishop 
of  Exeter ;  John,  Suffragan  of  Bedford ;  John,  Suffragan 
of  Thetford ;  John  Bale,  late  Bishop  of  Ossory,  empower- 
ing them,  or  any  four  of  them,  to  act-  Kitchen,  fearful, 
as  is  said,  of  Bonner's  anathema,  feared  to  act.  The 
next  four  named  in  the  Commission  consented. 

The  election  was  confirmed  on  December  9  ;  and  on 
Sunday,  December  17,  Parker  was  consecrated  accord- 
^ie  ordinal  of  the  Church  of  England, 
cnapei  of  Lambeth  Palace,  by  Bishops 
Barlow,  Scory,  Coverdale  and  Hodgkins.  Of  these 
bishops  the  two  first  had  been  consecrated  in  the  time 
of  Henry  VIII.,  Coverdale  in  that  of  Edward  VI.  An 
absurd  story,  invented  by  the  Romanists  some  fifty  years 
later,  endeavoured  to  throw  discredit  upon  Parker's  con- 
secration, by  pretending  that  it  was  done  at  a  tavern  in 
a  ludicrous  manner.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  no  his- 
torical fact  is  more  fully  and  satisfactorily  attested  than 
the  due  and  orderly  performance  of  the  ceremony. 
Then  it  has  been  attempted  to  throw  doubts  on  the 
consecration  of  Bishop  Barlow,  who  acted  as  the  head 
of  the  Commission.  Of  this,  however,  the  fullest  proof 
can  be  given,  though  it  happens  that  his  consecration 
is  not  entered  in  Cranmer's  register.  But  this  register, 


172  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

which  was  very  carelessly  kept,  in  like  manner  does  not 
contain  entries  of  the  consecration  of  Gardiner,  Fox, 
and  some  six  or  seven  other  prelates  who  are  known 
to  have  been  consecrated  during  Cranmer's  primacy. 

The  Church  of  England  had  thus  happily  again  a 
Primate  ;  and  he  was  now  free  to  provide  himself  with 
a  body  of  suffragans  who   might  ordain   the 

°  ° 


tiuu  of  other  .  . 

bishops  clergy  needed  in  their  several  dioceses.  In 
his  first  consecration,  Grindal  was  made  Bishop  of 
London,  Cox  of  Ely,  Sandys  of  Worcester,  and  Merick 
of  Bangor.  Shortly  afterwards  Young  was  consecrated 
to  the  See  of  St.  David's,  Bullingham  to  Lincoln, 
Jewel  to  Salisbury,  Davis  to  St.  Asaph,  and  Guest  to 
Rochester.  The  next  month  Barkley  was  consecrated 
to  Bath  and  Wells,  and  Bentham  to  Lichfield  and 
Coventry. 

The  new  prelates  were  not  altogether  in  an  enviable 
position.  The  Sees  had  been  robbed  of  their  manors 
Povert-of  under  Henry  VIII.  and  Edward  VI.,  and 
the  sees  after  t,he  death  of  Queen  Mary,  when  the  Popish 
bishops  foresaw  that  their  reign  would  be  short,  they 
had  carefully  set  themselves  to  deplete  their  Sees  as 
much  as  possible.  '  They  would  rather  give  their 
manors  to  women,  children,  housekeepers  (to  say  no 
worse),  by  lease,  patents,  annuities,  than  that  any  that 
loved  God  should  enjoy  them.  Many  bishoprics  of  the 
realm  had  they  impoverished  by  these  means,  so  that 
some  of  the  new  bishops  had  scarce  a  corner  of  a  house 
to  lie  in  ;  and  divers  not  so  much  ground  as  to  graze 
a  goose  or  a  sheep,  so  that  some  were  compelled  to 
tether  their  horses  in  their  orchard.'  In  the  midst  of 
the  great  calls  for  active  ministrations  which  pressed 


THE  BISHOPS  AND  CLERGY  173 

upon  the  prelates,  this  state  of  things  was  doubly  uii- 
fortunate. 

Ordinations  of  priests  now  quickly  succeeded  one 
another.  On  December  22  (1559)  Bishop  Scory,  act- 
ordinations  ^S  under  a  Commission  from  Bishop  Parker, 
of  clergy  ordained  at  Lambeth  eleven  deacons  and  ten 
deacons  and  priests  together,  conferring  both  orders  on 
the  same  day.  These  were  for  various  dioceses.  The 
Bishop  of  Bangor  held  an  ordination  on  January  7,  and 
in  addition  to  some  ordinations  to  the  priesthood  or- 
dained five  readers.  On  February  11  and  March  3  there 
were  more  ordinations  at  Lambeth;  and  on  March  10 
the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  acting  under  a  Commission  from 
the  Primate,  ordained  120  deacons,  thirty-seven  priests, 
and  seven  to  both  orders.  Several  other  ordinations 
followed;  but  with  all  this  the  supply  fell  lamentably 
short  of  the  demand. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  bishops,  under  the 
Primate's  direction,  ordained  as  readers  tradesmen  or 
ordination  °ther  unlearned  persons  so  long  as  they  were 
of  readers  of  gOO(j  repute ;  the  intention  being  that  they 
should  merely  read  the  Service  and  the  Homilies  and 
perform  some  of  the  other  church  offices,  but  not  ad- 
minister the  Sacraments.  But  this  '  minor  order,'  which 
was  intended  to  meet  the  present  distress,  was  soon 
found  not  to  be  a  successful  arrangement.  Before  the 
end  of  the  year  the  Archbishop  had  determined  to 
abandon  it.  In  August  (15GO)  Parker  writes  to 
Grindal :  '  Whereas  occasioned  by  the  great  want  of 
ministers,  we  and  you  both,  for  tolerable  supply  thereof, 
have  heretofore  admitted  unto  the  ministry  sundry 
artificers  and  others,  not  traded  and  brought  up  in 


174          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

learning ;  and  as  it  happened  in  a  multitude,  some  that 
•were  of  base  occupations ;  forasmuch  as  now  by  ex- 
perience it  is  seen  that  such  manner  of  men,  partly  by 
reason  of  their  former  profane  arts,  partly  by  their  light 
behaviour  otherwise  and  trade  of  life,  are  very  offensive 
to  the  people,  yea,  and  to  the  wise  of  this  realm  are 
thought  to  do  a  great  deal  more  hurt  than  good ;  the 
Gospel  thus  sustaining  slander — these  shall  be  to 
desire  and  require  you  hereafter  to  be  very  circumspect 
in  admitting  any  to  the  ministry,  and  only  to  allow 
such  as,  having  good  testimony  of  their  honest  con- 
versation, have  been  traded  and  exercised  in  learning, 
or  at  the  least  have  spent  their  time  with  teaching  of 
children;  excluding  all  others  which  have  been  brought 
up  and  sustained  themselves  either  by  occupation  or 
other  kinds  of  life  alienated  from  learning.  This  we 
pray  you  diligently  to  look  unto,  and  to  observe  not 
only  in  your  own  person,  but  also  to  signify  this  our 
advertisement  to  other  of  our  brethren,  bishops  of  our 
province,  in  as  good  speed  as  ye  may,  so  that  you 
and  they  may  stay  from  collating  such  orders  to  so 
unmeet  persons,  unto  such  time  as  in  a  Convocation 
we  may  meet  together  and  have  further  conference 
thereof.' 

The  need,  however,  being  very  pressing,  the  Arch- 
bishop wisely  determined  to  employ  the  same  class  of 
Arrange-  men  without  giving  them  orders,  and  thus 

mentforlay  . 

readers  making  them  a  permanent  burden  upon  the 
Church.  He  arranged  for  the  temporary  union  of 
several  benefices  under  an  ordained  minister,  '  deputing 
in  every  parish  committed  to  his  care  one  able  minister 
within  the  orders  of  deacon,  if  it  may  be,  or  else  some 


THE  BISHOPS  AND  CLERGY  1/5 

honest  and  grave  layman  who,  as  a  lector  or  reader, 
shall  give  his  attendance  to  read  the  order  of  service 
appointed ;    except   that   he   shall   not,   being  only  a 
reader,    intermeddle    with    christening,    marrying,    or 
ministering  the  Holy  Communion,  or  with  any  volun- 
tary preaching  or  prophesying,  but  read  the  service  of 
the  day   with  the  Litany   and  Homily,    agreeably,  as 
shall  be  prescribed,  in  the  absence  of  the   principal 
pastor,  or  some  one  pastor  chanceably  coming  to  that 
parish    for  the  time.'     The   pastor   was   to   make  his 
circuit  of  the  parishes  constantly,  administer  the  sacra- 
ments and  oversee  the   work  of  the  readers.     These 
were  to  be  appointed  with  consent  of  the  bishop,  and  to 
be  removable  upon  proof  of  disability  and   disorder. 
But  while  the  Archbishop  was  thus  striving  with  some 
success  to  provide  ministers  in  the  various  parts  of  his 
province,  he  had  to  contend  with  a  considerable  diffi- 
culty in  the  narrow-minded  scrupulousness  of  some  of 
scrupulous-   his  brethren.     The  Queen  insisted  on  retain- 
new  bishops   ing   in  her  chapel   the    crucifix,  lights,    and 
vestments.      Neither  had    she    any   great   liking   for 
sermons.     A  chorus  of  complaints  goes  forth  from  the 
new  bishops  to  their  friends  abroad.     Sampson,  a  man 
well  qualified  by  learning  and  power,  refused  a  bishopric 
on  this  ground.     'What    can  I  hope  for,'  he  writes 
pathetically,  '  when  the  ministry  of  Christ  is  banished 
from  Court,  while  the  image  of  the  Crucified  is  allowed 
with  lights  burning  before  it  ?  when  three  of  our  lately 
appointed  bishops  are  to  officiate  at  the  table  of  the 
Lord,  one  as  priest,  another  as  deacon,  and  a  third  as 
sub-deacon,  before  the  image  of  the  crucifix,  and  habited 
in  the  golden  vestments  of  the  Papacy,  and  are  thus  to 


176          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper  without  any  sermon  ? '  Cox, 
Bishop  of  Ely,  writes :  '  We  are  constrained,  to  our  great 
distress  of  mind,  to  tolerate  in  our  churches  the  image 
of  the  cross  and  Him  who  was  crucified.'  Bishop  Jewel 
writes  :  '  Matters  are  come  to  that :  either  the  crosses  of 
silver  and  tin  which  we  have  everywhere  broken  in 
pieces  must  be  restored,  or  our  bishoprics  relinquished.' 
Bishop  Sandys :  c  I  was  rather  vehement  in  the  matter, 
and  could  by  no  means  consent  that  an  occasion  of 
stumbling  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  so  that  I  was  very 
near  being  deposed  from  my  office  and  incurring  the 
displeasure  of  the  Queen.  .  .  .  The  Popish  vestments 
remain  in  our  Church,  I  mean  the  copes,  which  however 
we  hope  will  not  last  very  long.'  It  was  no  doubt 
seriously  deliberated  upon  by  many  in  high  place 
whether  they  were  not  called  upon  rather  to  abandon 
their  position  than  to  countenance  the  enforcement  of 
any  sort  of  decent  ceremonial.  With  such  half-hearted 
coadjutors,  the  Archbishop  had  no  easy  task  before 
him  when  he  set  himself  to  perform  the  great  work 
which  the  Queen  specially  required  at  his  hands,  namely, 
the  enforcement  of  order  and  discipline. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   DISCIPLINE. 
1559-1571. 

THE  way  for  the  action  of  the  bishops  had  been  pre- 
pared by  a  royal  visitation,  following  the  precedents  of 
the  two  previous  reigns.  The  Queen,  by  virtue  of  her 


THE  DISCIPLINE  177 

ecclesiastical  supremacy,  had  reissued  the  Injunctions 
of  the  first  year  of  Edward,  with  certain  additions 
Queen  which  were  thought  to  be  necessitated  by  the 

llizabeth's  .      .  J 

injunctions   state  oi  things  then  existing. 

The  most  characteristic  of  these  additions  is  perhaps 
the  twenty-ninth  Injunction,  which  treats  of  clerical 
clerical  matrimony.  It  is  said  that  the  Injunctions 
matrimony  were  ^rawn  Up  by  the  same  set  of  divines  as 

revised  the  Prayer-book.     Whether  this  were  so  or  not, 
there  is  pretty  clear  internal  evidence  that  the  Injunc- 
tion as  to  matrimony  proceeded  from  the  Queen  herself. 
It  is  well  known  that  Elizabeth  was  strongly  opposed 
to  the  marriage  of  the  clergy ;    her   spite  against  it, 
and  desire  to  pour  contempt  upon  it,  break  out  in  this 
Injunction  in  a  somewhat  scandalous  manner.      '  Be- 
cause,' it   is  said,  '  there  hath  grown  offence  and  some 
slander  to  the  Church  by  lack  of  discreet  and  sober 
behaviour  in  many  ministers  of  the  Church,  both  in 
choosing  their  wives  and  in  discreet  living  with  them, 
the  remedy  whereof  is  necessary  to  be  sought;  it  is 
thought,  therefore,  very  necessary  that  no  manner  of 
priest  or  deacon   shall  hereafter  take  to  his  wife  any 
manner  of  woman,  without  the  advice  and  allowance 
first  had,  upon  good  examination,  by  the  bishop  of  the 
same  diocese,  and  two  justices  of  peace  of  the  same 
shire,   dwelling    next   to   the   place   where   the   same 
woman  hath  made  her  most  abode  before  the  marriage ; 
nor  without  the  good-will  of  the  parents  of  the  said 
woman,  if  she  have  any  living,  or  two  of  the  next  of  her 
kinsfolks,    or   for  lack    of  knowledge  of  such,  of  her 
master  and  mistress  where  she  serveth.     And  before  he 
ehall  be  contracted  in  any  place,  he  shall  make  a  good 
C.  H.  N 


i~8          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

and  certain  proof  hereof  to  tlie  minister  or  to  the 
congregation  assembled  for  that  purpose,  which  shall  be 
upon  some  holy  day  where  divers  may  be  present.  And 
if  any  shall  do  otherwise,  that  then  they  shall  not  be 
permitted  to  minister  either  the  word  or  sacraments  of 
the  Church,  nor  shall  be  capable  of  any  ecclesiastical 
benefice.'  The  contemptuous  spite  against  clerical 
matrimony  which  may  be  read  in  this  Injunction  was 
displayed  in  many  other  acts  and  utterances  of  the 
Queen.  Archbishop  Parker  was  so  grieved  by  it,  that 
he  declared  that  it  had  made  him  bitterly  regret  his 
ever  having  accepted  office  at  her  desire. 

Another  Injunction  in  which  the  Queen's  special 
views  are  represented  is  the  twenty-fifth,  which  repeats 
images  in  the  earlier  Injunction  of  King  Edward  touch- 
ing images,  without  reference  to  the  Injunction 
published  soon  after  through  Cranmer,  that  all  images 
should  be  removed  from  churches.  In  this  Injunction 
nothing  is  said  as  to  the  removal,  but  only  the  '  decking  ' 
of  them  is  forbidden.  The  people  indeed  proceeded  in 
many  places  to  remove  them,  and  the  Queen  caused 
dismay  among  her  bishops  by  declaring  that  she  would 
have  them  reinstated.  Upon  this  a  formal  address  was 
presented  to  the  Queen  by  some  of  the  bishops  whose 
consciences  were  aggrieved,  which,  after  quoting  many 
authorities  against  the  use  of  images,  concludes,  '  We 
beseech  your  Majesty,  in  these  and  such  like  contro- 
versies of  religion,  to  refer  the  discussment  and  deciding 
of  them  to  a  synod  of  bishops,  and  other  godly  learned 
men,  according  to  the  example  of  Constantiuus  Magnus 
and  other  Christian  emperors,  and  to  consider,  that 
besides  weighty  causes  in  policy,  the  establishing  of 


THE  DISCIPLINE  179 

images  by  your  authority  shall  not  only  utterly  dis- 
credit our  ministries,  but  also  blemish  the  fame  of  your 
most  godly  brother,  and  such  notable  fathers  as  have 
given  their  lives  for  the  testimony  of  God's  truth,  who 
by  public  law  removed  all  images.'  The  Queen  was  per- 
suaded to  withdraw  the  order  for  their  restitution,  but 
nevertheless  she  still  retained  the  crucifix  in  her  own 
chapel.  In  these  Injunctions  there  are  valuable  direc- 
tions for  reverence  in  divine  service;  for  the  careful 
and  orderly  change  of  the  altar  into  a  table,  when  it 
was  thought  necessary,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  said, 
'  there  seemeth  no  matter  of  great  moment '  why  the 
change  should  be  made ;  for  the  use  in  the  Holy 
Communion  of  round  wafers  instead  of  common  bread, 
and  for  a  '  modest  and  distinct  song '  in  the  using  the 
Common  Prayer. 

But  the  most  satisfactory  part  of  the  document  is 
the  '  admonition  to  simple  men  deceived  by  the  ma- 
Expianation  licious,'  in  which  an  explanation  of  what  was 

of  the  Royal  ,  .  -       .         .       ,  ,     . 

supremacy  meant  by  the  '  ecclesiastical  supremacy  is 
given.  '  Her  Majesty  neither  doth,  nor  ever  will,  chal- 
lenge any  [other]  authority,  than  under  God  to  have  the 
sovereignty  and  rule  over  all  manner  of  persons  born 
within  these  her  realms,  dominions,  and  countries,  of 
what  estate,  either  ecclesiastical  or  temporal  soever 
they  be,  so  as  no  other  foreign  powers  shall  or  ought  to 
have  any  superiority  over  them.'  The  Queen  utterly 
repudiates  the  sentiments  of  those  who  '  most  sinisterly 
and  maliciously  labour  to  notify  to  her  loving  subjects 
how  by  words  of  the  said  oath  it  may  be  collected  that 
the  kings  or  queens  of  this  realm,  possessors  of  the 
Crowu,  may  challenge  authority  and  power  of  ministry 

N   2 


i  So          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

of  divine  service  in  the  Church.'  This  wholesome  doo- 
trine  of  the  Supremacy  was  afterwards  fully  embodied 
in  the  Articles  of  Religion  ;  and  in  accordance  with 
this  the  Queen  in  the  bidding  prayer  is  described  not 
as  '  the  supreme  head  immediately  under  God  of  the 
spiritualty  and  temporalty  of  the  Church,'  as  Edward 
was,  but  as  '  supreme  governor  of  this  realm  in  all 
causes  ecclesiastical  as  temporal.' 

The  bidding  prayer  of  Edward  is  further  changed 
by  the  omission  of  the  bidding  of  prayer  for  the  dead. 
Praver  for  ^n  P^ace  °^  this  is  substituted,  '  Let  us  praise 
the  dead  QO(J  for  ajj  those  that  are  departed  out  of  this 
life  in  the  faith  of  Christ,'  and  pray  '  that  we,  with 
them,  be  made  partakers  of  the  glorious  resurrection.' 
The  Injunctions  having  been  issued,  a  number  of 
articles  of  inquiry  were  framed  upon  them,  which  were 
to  be  administered  by  various  bodies  of  Commissioners 
throughout  the  country. 

The  Commission  for  the  northern  province  provided 
for  the  allowance  of  pensions  to  the  ministers  ejected 
visitation  of  for  refusing  to  conform.  Part  of  the  duties  of 

the  Commis-      i       /-.  .      . 

the  Commissioners  was  to  provide  sermons. 


At  Auckland  they  were  anxious  to  procure  the  ser- 
vices of  Bernard  Gilpin,  the  famous  apostle  of  the  north, 
Bernard  who,  though  accepting  reforming  views,  had 
Giipin  lived  in  all  amity  with  Bishop  Tonstal  in  the 
diocese  of  Durham,  and  was  held  in  universal  respect. 
Gilpin  was  somewhat  doubtful  about  advocating  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Commissioners,  but  at  length  he  consented 
to  preach  against  the  primacy  of  the  Pope.  Finding, 
however,  that  Dr.  Sandys,  preaching  the  previous  day, 
had  argued  against  the  doctrine  of  the  real  presence  in 


THE  DISCIPLINE  181 

the  Eucharist,  Gilpin  again  hesitated  as  to  subscription. 
His  scruples  were  at  length  overcome,  principally  on 
the  ground  that  if  he  refused  to  subscribe  almost  all  the 
clergy  in  the  north  would  be  sure  to  follow  his  example. 
He  subscribed,  therefore,  to  the  declaration  tendered  by 
the  Commissioners,  but  at  the  same  time  he  did  not 
fail  to  send  to  Dr.  Sandys  a  protest  against  his  doctrine. 
In  the  London  visitation  the  roods  and  images  were 
generally  pulled  down  and  burned,  which  was  the  cause 
of  the  anger  of  the  Queen  which  has  been  mentioned. 

The  Commissioners  tendered  to  the  clergy  the 
declaration  as  follows :  '  We  do  confess  and  acknow- 
le(%e  the  restoration  again  of  the  ancient 
jurisdiction  over  the  state  ecclesiastical  and 
temporal  of  this  realm  of  England,  and  abolishing  of 
all  foreign  power  repugnant  to  the  same,  according  to 
an  act  thereof  made  in  the  last  Parliament ;  the  admin- 
istration of  the  sacraments,  the  use  and  order  of  divine 
service,  in  manner  and  form  as  it  is  set  forth  in  a  book 
commonly  called  "  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,"  esta- 
blished by  the  same  act  (?  Parliament),  and  the  orders 
and  rules  contained  in  the  Injunctions  given  by  the 
Queen's  Majesty,  and  exhibited  in  this  present  visita- 
tion, to  be  according  to  the  true  word  of  God,  and 
agreeable  with  the  doctrine  and  use  of  the  primitive 
and  apostolic  Church.  In  witness  whereof  hereunto 
we  have  subscribed  our  names.'  The  number  of  the 
clergy  ejected  under  this  visitation  has  been  already 
mentioned.  The  Queen  by  her  Commissioners  had  thus 
prepared  the  way  for  the  action  of  the  bishops ;  but 
when  they  were  once  constituted,  the  enforcement  of 
discipline  was  to  be  left  to  them. 


1 82  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Archbishop  Parker,  recognising  this,  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  take  counsel  with  some  of  his  brethren  as  to 
The  bishops-  the  way  in  which  the  Injunctions  were  to  be 
tions  carried  out,  and  the  difficulties  of  the  position. 

There  were  strong  objections  on  the  part  of  some  of 
the  clergy  to  the  clerical  dress  prescribed  to  be  used  in 
the  Church  ministrations  and  in  ordinary  life.  There 
was  also  the  difficulty  caused  by  the  absence  of  any  test 
of  fitness,  of  doctrine,  or  of  competent  knowledge  on  the 
part  of  those  who  were  willing  to  subscribe  the  formula 
of  acceptance.  The  resolutions  of  the  bishops  were 
cast  into  the  form  of  a  paper  headed  '  Interpretations 
and  further  considerations,'  a  copy  of  which  remains 
among  the  Primate's  papers.  It  is  a  sort  of  comment 
upon  certain  of  the  Injunctions,  indicating  the  way  in 
which  they  were  to  be  enforced  by  the  bishops.  What- 
ever force  it  had  depended  upon  the  authority  belonging 
to  the  Injunctions.  Some  of  the  notes  show  a  desire 
for  a  more  lenient  code  than  that  expressed  in  the 
Injunctions.  Thus  incumbents  may  satisfy  the  re- 
quirements of  the  law  by  preaching  once  a  quarter 
instead  of  once  a  month.  Some  express  a  greater 
strictness.  Thus  curates  are  to  be  made  to  learn  to 
repeat  certain  texts.  No  shops  were  to  be  kept  open 
on  Sundays,  and  at  fairs  '  no  showing  of  merchandise 
till  service  be  done.'  '  All  bishops  and  others  having 
any  living  ecclesiastical,  to  go  in  apparel  agreeable,  or 
else  within  two  monitions  given  by  the  ordinary  to  be 
deposed  or  sequestered  from  his  fruits.'  '  Incorrigible 
Arians,  Pelagians,  and  Free-will  men  to  be  sent  into 
some  one  castle  in  North  Wales,  or  Wallingford,  and 
there  to  live  of  their  own  labour  and  exercise.'  With 


THE  DISCIPLINE  183 

regard  to  tlie  Church  service  it  is  recommended  that 
'  there  be  used  but  one  apparel ;  as  the  cope  in  the 
ministration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  and  the  surplice 
in  all  other  ministrations,  and  that  there  be  no  other 
manner  and  form  of  ministering  the  sacraments  but  as 
the  Service-book  doth  precisely  prescribe,  with  the 
declaration  of  the  Injunctions,  as,  for  example,  the 
common  bread.'  This  resolution  may  be  regarded  as 
aimed  at  the  laxer  section.  The  next  seems  directed 
against  the  other  side.  *  That  the  table  be  removed  out 
of  the  choir  into  the  body  of  the  church  before  the 
chancel  door,  where  either  the  choir  seemeth  to  be  too 
little,  or  at  great  feasts  of  receivings,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  communion  to  be  set  up  again  according  to  the 
Injunctions.'  The  Injunction  allowed  the  Holy  Table, 
which  was  to  stand  '  where  the  altar  stood,'  to  be  moved 
as  occasion  required  within  the  chancel.  This  comment 
authorises  it  to  be  moved  out  of  the  chancel,  thereby 
emphasising  the  Zwinglian  notion  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion being  a  commemorative  feast.  Other  provisions 
of  the  same  character  with  regard  to  the  Sacraments 
follow,  and  some  useful  rules  of  discipline  as  to  ad- 
mission to  orders  and  collation  to  benefices. 

But  the  most  important  work  of  this  little  episcopal 
synod  was  to  agree  upon  certain  articles  of  religion  to 

Articles  and  ^e  ProPosed  to  all  ministers  on  entering  a 
declaration  benefice,  and  to  draw  up  a  declaration  in 
English,  grounded  upon  these,  which  the  ministers  were 
to  read  and  subscribe.  This  was  the  best  provision 
which  the  Archbishop  could  devise  for  bringing  about 
a  unity  in  doctrine  of  the  ministering  clergy.  And 
for  the  bishops  he  drew  up  a  short  paper,  recommending 


1  84          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

that  tlie  licences  granted  by  the  Visitors  should  be  no 
longer  in  force,  but  that  the  bishops  should  examine  the 
clergy  for  themselves  as  to  their  competency,  and  that 
the  clergy  should  in  their  preaching  set  out  the  '  reverend 
estimation  of  the  holy  sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper;  exciting  the  people  to  the  often  and 
devout  receiving  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  in 
such  form  as  is  already  prescribed  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer.'  Public  baptism  should  be  ministered 
in  the  font,  '  not  in  basons  or  other  like  thing.'  Private 
baptism,  when  in  peril  of  death,  might  be  used  either  by 
the  minister  '  or  some  other  grave  and  sober  person.' 
A  proclamation  issued  about  this  time  against  defacing 
monuments  in  churches,  under  the  pretence  of  doing 
away  with  superstitious  memorials,  is  also  supposed  to 
have  been  drawn  up  by  the  pen  of  the  Archbishop,  who, 
in  union  with  the  Queen,  was  doing  his  best  to  establish 
in  the  reformed  Church  of  England  a  comely  and 
decent  ritual,  with  due  reverence  and  ceremonial. 

But  it  must  be  confessed  that  Parker  had  but  little 
assistance  in  this  matter  from  the  bishops  and  clergy 
whom  he  had  to  work.     It  would  seem 


The  bishops 

as  thouh  the  enormities  of  that  Church  which 


discipline  j^  a]ways  upheld  and  practised  a  splendid 
ceremonial  worship,  had  completely  alienated  the  re- 
formed clergy  from  anything  approaching  to  its  model. 
They  connected  decent  ceremonies  and  rites  with 
blasphemous  doctrines  and  murderous  persecutions,  and 
altogether  shrank  from  them.  Their  friends  and  sup- 
porters in  the  foreign  reformed  communities  had  thrown 
off  all  these  things;  why  should  not  they  be  equally 
free  and  happy  ?  Thus,  to  many,  every  sort  of  clerical 


THE  DISCIPLINE  185 

vesture,  even  the  simplest,  was  an  abomination ;  every 
attempt  to  restrict  ministers  from  following  their  own 
fancies  in  the  celebration  of  divine  worship  was  a 
tyranny.  The  irregularities  which  were  everywhere 
apparent  angered  the  Queen  beyond  measure,  and  the 
Archbishop  had  by  no  means  a  happy  time  in  trying 
to  satisfy  Her  Majesty  by  reducing  the  '  Germanical 
natures,'  as  he  called  them,  of  the  clergy  to  some  sort 
of  order. 

Under  these  circumstances  he  probably  rejoiced  to 
be  able  to  summon  his  Provincial  Synod  (January  19, 
Debate  on  1563).  But  he  must  have  been  grievously  dis- 
inrthe°me3  appointed  when  he  encountered  in  that  Synod 
convocation  an  organised  attempt  to  overset  the  little 
discipline  which  had  as  yet  been  established.  A  paper 
signed  by  thirty-two  members  of  the  Lower  House 
prayed  the  Synod  to  resolve  :  (1)  against  the  chanting 
of  the  Psalms  with  the  organ  accompaniment;  (2)  against 
the  use  of  the  Cross  in  baptism ;  (3)  to  leave  kneeling  at 
the  communion  discretionary ;  (4)  that  copes  and  surplices 
be  discontinued ;  (5)  that  the  clerical  dress  for  ordinary 
use  be  abandoned  ;  (6)  that  all  saints'  days  and  holidays 
'  bearing  the  name  of  a  creature,  may,  as  leading  to 
superstition,,  or  rather  gentility,  be  clearly  abrogated.' 
Resolutions  embodying  these  demands  in  a  slightly 
modified  form  were  proposed  to  the  House  (February  13), 
and  a  great  debate  followed.  'Those,'  says  Strype, 
'  who  were  for  alterations  and  for  stripping  the  English 
Church  of  her  ceremonies  and  usages  then  retained  and 
used,  were  such  (as  I  find  by  their  names  subscribed) 
as  had  lately  lived  abroad  in  the  reformed  churches  of 
Geneva,  Switzerland,  or  Germany.  But  the  divines  on 


1 86          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

the  other  side  reckoned  the  wisdom,  learning,  and  piety 
of  Cranmer,  Ridley,  and  the  other  reformers  of  the 
Church,  to  be  equal  every  way  with  those  of  the  foreign 
reformers,  and  knew  what  these  venerable  men  did  in 
the  settlement  of  this  Church  was  accompanied  with  great 
deliberation,  and  a  resolution  of  reducing  it  in  doctrine 
and  worship  to  the  platform  of  the  primitive  churches, 
as  they  found  it  in  the  old  ecclesiastical  writers.'  This 
party  ultimately  succeeded  in  negativing  the  resolutions, 
but  only  by  a  majority  of  one.  With  such  a  difference 
of  opinion  among  the  leading  clergy,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  greatest  absence  of  uniformity 
and  the  most  contradictory  uses  should  prevail  in  the 
celebration  of  divine  service.  The  bishops  were  no  more 
of  one  mind  than  the  clergy,  and  in  some  dioceses  there 
was  no  attempt  made  to  enforce  ritual,  conformity,  or 
decency  of  ceremonial. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Queen  addressed  to 
the  Primate  a  letter,  dated  January  25,  1565.  After 
The  Queen's  speaking  severely  of  the  state  of  disorder  in 

letter  to  the       \        rn          i  -in- 

1'rimate  the  Uhurch,  and  reflecting  sharply  upon  the 
Primate  and  bishops  for  not  rectifying  it,  the  Queen 
proceeds :  '  Therefore  we  do  by  these  our  present 
letters  require,  enjoin,  and  straitly  charge  you,  being 
the  Metropolitan,  according  to  the  power  and  authority 
which  you  have  under  us  over  this  province  of  Canter- 
bury (as  the  like  we  will  order  for  the  province  of 
York),  to  confer  with  the  bishops  your  brethren, 
namely,  such  as  be  in  commission  for  causes  ecclesi- 
astical .  .  .  and  cause  to  be  truly  understood  what 
varieties,  novelties,  and  diversities  there  are  in  our 
clergy,  or  among  our  people,  either  in  doctrine  or  in 


THE  DISCIPLINE  187 

ceremonies  and  rights  of  the  Church,  or  in  the  manners, 
usages,  and  behaviour  of  the  clergy  themselves,  by 
what  name  soever  any  of  them  be  called.  And,  there- 
upon, as  the  several  cases  shall  appear  to  require  reform- 
ation, so  to  proceed  by  order,  injunction,  or  censure, 
according  to  the  order  and  appointment  of  such  laws  and 
ordinances  as  are  provided  by  Act  of  Parliament  and 
the  true  meaning  thereof.  And  for  the  time  to  come 
we  will  and  straitly  charge  to  provide  and  enjoin  in  our 
name,  in  all  and  every  place  of  your  province,  that 
none  hereafter  be  admitted  to  any  place  ecclesiastical 
but  such  as  shall  be  found  advisedly  given  to  common 
order  in  all  external  rites  and  ceremonies,  both  for  the 
Church  and  their  own  persons.  And  if  any  superior 
officers  be  found  hereunto  disagreeable,  to  inform  us 
hereof.  For  we  intend  to  have  no  dissension  or  variety 
grow,  by  suffering  of  persons  which  maintain  the  same 
to  remain  in  authority.'  Upon  receiving  this  letter 
Archbishop  Parker  wrote  to  the  Bishop  of  London  to 
communicate  to  the  other  bishops  of  the  province  Her 
Majesty's  wishes,  and  also  to  desire  them  to  furnish  him 
with  a  report  as  to  the  state  of  conformity  in  their 
dioceses. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  these  reports  Parker  drew  up 
what  he  calls  a  '  Book  of  Articles,'  put  together  by 
Archbishop  himself  an^  several  other  bishops,  and  this  he 
Advertise-  sen^  ^°  Secretary  Cecil  for  approval.  He  was 
ments  desirous  that  the  Queen  should  authorise  these 
Articles  and  enforce  them  by  her  royal  authority,  but 
this  she  would  not  do.  She  had  indeed  issued  a  body 
of  Injunctions  in  an  abnormal  state  of  the  Church, 
when  as  yet  there  were  no  bishops  ;  but  now  that  bishops 


1 88  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

existed  with  full  authority,  it  was  their  business  to  en- 
force order,  not  hers.  The  Archbishop  was  much  vexed 
at  this  answer  ;  but  he  altered  his  '  Book  of  Articles,' 
and  again  next  year  endeavoured  to  obtain  the  Queen's 
authorisation.  At  the  same  time  he  said  that,  failing 
this,  he  was  fully  determined  'to  prosecute  this  order,' 
and  as  the  Queen  would  '  needs  have  him  assay  with 
his  own  authority,'  he  trusts  '  that  he  shall  not  be 
stayed  hereafter.'  The  new  Rules  were  therefore 
now  published  by  him  (March  1566)  as  'Adver- 
tisements, partly  for  due  order  in  the  public  mini- 
stration of  Common  Prayers  and  using  the  Holy 
Sacraments,  and  partly  for  the  apparel  of  all  persons 
ecclesiastical  by  virtue  of  the  Queen's  Majesty's  letters 
commanding  the  same,  January  25.'  Under  this  last 
head  it  is  directed  that  in  cathedrals,  at  ministration  of 
Holy  Communion,  the  '  principal  minister  shall  use  a 
cope,  with  gospeller  and  epistler  agreeably ; '  but  in 
parish  churches  the  minister  at  all  ministrations  '  shall 
wear  a  comely  surplice  with  sleeves.'  This  was  an 
abandonment  of  the  attempt  to  enforce  the  use  of  the 
cope  in  parish  churches,  which  had  been  contemplated 
in  the  '  Interpretations  '  of  a  few  years  previously.  So 
general  was  the  opposition  to  clerical  vestments,  that 
now  a  permissible  minimum  is  specified.  Communi- 
cants are  enjoined  to  receive  kneeling.  Fonts  are  to  be 
used  for  baptism.  The  holidays  of  the  '  new  calendar 
authorised  by  the  Queen  '  are  to  be  observed,  and  many 
other  disciplinary  regulations.  As  regards  the  ordinary 
dress  of  the  clergy,  the  bishops  are  to  wear  their 
accustomed  dress.  Dignified  clergy  to  wear  a  side- 
gown  with  sleeves  cut  straight  at  the  hands,  a  tippet 


THE  DISCIPLINE  189 

(scarf)  of  sarsenet.  Other  '  ecclesiastical  persons  '  to 
wear  the  same  shaped  gown,  and  square  cap,  without 
tippet.  Poor  clergy  might  wear  short  gowns. 

These  directions  as  to  dress  can  scarcely  be  con- 
sidered onerous,  merely  prescribing,  as  they  do,  a 
Opposition  simple  linen  garment  for  church  ministrations, 

of  some  of  1111  T  p  j  • 

the  clergy  and  a  black  gown  and  cap  tor  ordinary  use. 
Nevertheless  they  excited  the  most  violent  opposition 
in  a  section  of  the  clergy.  The  Archbishop  and  some 
of  the  other  bishops,  having  the  power  of  the  Eccle- 
siastical Commission,  were  able  to  punish  breaches 
of  discipline  with  fine  and  imprisonment ;  but  still 
the  opposition  raged  fiercely.  The  London  ministers 
were  especially  unconforrnable.  Soon  after  the  publi- 
cation of  the  '  Advertisements '  they  made  a  sort  of 
Reply  of  the  reply,  called  '  A  Declaration  of  the  doings  of 
ministers  those  ministers  of  God's  Word  and  Sacra- 
ments in  the  city  of  London,  which  have  refused  to 
wear  the  upper  apparel  and  ministering  garments  of 
the  Pope's  Church.'  In  this  book  they  show  'that 
neither  the  Prophets  in  the  Old  Testament,  nor  the 
Apostles  in  the  New,  were  distinguished  by  their 
garments  ;  that  the  linen  garment  was  peculiar  to  the 
priesthood  of  Aaron,  and  had  a  signification  of  some- 
thing to  be  fulfilled  in  Christ  and  His  Church.  That 
the  surplice  or  white  linen  garment  came  from  the 
Egyptians  into  the  Jewish  Church,  and  that  Pope 
Sylvester,  about  the  year  320,  was  the  first  that  ap- 
pointed the  Sacrament  to  be  administered  in  a  white 
linen  garment,  giving  this  reason  for  it— because  the 
body  of  Christ  was  buried  in  a  white  linen  cloth.  These 
garments  have  been  abused  to  idolatry,  sorcery,  and  all 


190          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

kinds  of  conjurations;  for  (say  they)  the  Popish  priests 
can  perform  none  of  their  pretended  consecrations  of 
holy  water,  transubstantiation  of  the  body  of  Christ, 
conjurations  of  the  devil  out  of  places  or  persons  pos- 
sessed, without  a  surplice,  or  an  albe,  or  some  hallowed 
stole.  The  habits  are  an  offence  to  weak  Christians,  an 
encouragement  to  ignorant  and  obstinate  Papists,  and 
an  affectation  to  return  to  their  communion.' 

Such  were  some  of  the  grounds  on  which  these  men 
persuaded  themselves  that  it  was  incumbent  on  them  to 
Growth  and  resisfc  authority  and  to  sacrifice  the  peace  of  the 
theecoentro°f  Church.  The  controversy  which  began  about 
versy  vestments  speedily  passed  on  to  other  things 

— Church  government,  discipline,  and  forms  of  prayer. 
The  name  of  Puritans  now  first  began  to  be  applied  to 
those  who  scrupled  about  the  Church  ceremonial.  Some 
of  these  soon  determined  to  separate  from  the  Church 
and  to  hold  secret  and  unlawful  assemblies  for  worship. 
Others  remained  in  the  Church,  endeavouring  to  elude 
conformity  by  every  art  and  stratagem — thorns  in  the 
sides  of  the  bishops,  who  were  ever  being  driven  on- 
ward by  the  Queen  to  repress  their  eccentricities ;  in 
some  parts  of  the  reign  a  source  of  most  serious  danger 
to  the  Church  of  England,  until  at  length  reduced  by 
Whitgift,  and  refuted  by  Hooker.  In  the  Parliaments 
of  1571-2,  the  Puritanical  element  had  considerable 
power,  and  had  the  Queen  been  less  firm  and  resolute 
it  might  even  have  triumphed.  It  is,  however,  very 
noteworthy,  and  very  admirable,  that  all  attempts  to  give 
a  Puritanical  character  to  the  Church  of  England,  either 
in  doctrine  or  discipline,  have  universally  failed,  though 
sometimes  their  success  has  seemed  very  near.  Thus 


THE  DISCIPLINE 

Alexander  Newel's  Catechism,  though  almost  accepted  by 
Convocation,  was  never  quite  sanctioned.  The  new  book 
The  difficui-  of  discipline,  '  Reform  atio  leg-urn  ecclesiasti- 

ties  through  , 

«hich  the      carum,    though  three  times  coming-  near  to 

Church  ad-  .    . 

vanced  the  receiving  of  the  royal  ratification,  never 
did  receive  it,  and  at  last  completely  disappeared.  The 
various  schemes  for  upsetting  the  Prayer-book  in  the 
time  of  Elizabeth  all  miscarried.  But  though  a  member 
of  the  Church  of  England  may  fairly  rejoice  at  the 
failure  of  the  dangerous  and  threatening  attacks  of  the 
ultra-Reformers,  it  does  not  follow  from  this  that  he 
must  needs  approve  of  all  the  methods  by  which  this 
was  brought  about.  The  Court  of  High  Commission, 
which  was  the  great  instrument  for  subduing  Puritan-  ," 
ism,  was  an  institution  alien  from  the  spirit  of  our  laws, 
and  its  procedure  by  the  method  of  objecting  articles, 
and  requiring  purgation  upon  oath,  was  charged  with 
gross  injustice.  It  would  be  impossible  to  defend  all 
the  acts  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  either  in  Church 
or  State,  on  the  ground  of  principle.  Necessity  and  the 
difficulties  of  the  time  can  alone  be  pleaded.  The  treat- 
ment of  the  Romanist  missionaries,  after  the  excom- 
municating Bull  of  the  Pope,  has  many  terrible 
chapters.  In  the  period,  however,  covered  by  this 
history,  there  was  not  much  cause  of  complaint  as 
regards  the  Romanists.  Persons  and  Cresswell  in  their 
memorial  to  the  Queen  acknowledge,  '  In  the  beginning 
of  thy  kingdom  thou  didst  deal  something  more  gently 
with  Catholics.  None  were  then  urged  by  thee  or 
pressed  either  to  thy  sect  or  to  the  denial  of  the  faith. 
All  things  did  seem  to  proceed  in  a  far  milder  course. 
No  great  complaints  were  heard  cf.'  And  the  body  of 


iQ2          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

secular  priests  in  England,  who  in  1G01  published  their 
views,  go  so  far  as  to  say,  '  None  were  ever  vexed  that 
way  and  simply  for  that  he  was  either  priest  or  Catholic, 
but  because  they  were  suspected  to  have  had  their 
hands  in  some  of  the  said  most  traitorous  designments.' 
There  is  indeed  abundant  evidence  to  prove  that,  up  to 
the  time  of  the  papal  excommunication  of  Elizabeth  in 
1570,  the  Romanists  attended  the  service  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  showed  a  temper  altogether  different 
from  that  which  they  displayed  after  the  coming  of  the 
seminary  priests.  From  that  time  Romanism  was  in- 
tensely hostile  to  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  with 
these  powerful  enemies  on  one  side,  and  the  equally 
fierce  and  more  numerous  Puritans  on  the  other ;  the 
hollow  loyalty  of  the  nonconforming  clergy ;  the  bitter 
and  libellous  attacks  of  the  Anabaptists,  Familists,  and 
Brownists,  it  was  no  small  evidence  of  power  in  the 
Church  of  England  that  it  went  on  gathering  strength 
and  comeliness  until  it  reached  an  era  of  partial  repose 
in  the  latter  days  of  the  great  Queen. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

TEIE   DOCTRINAL   CONFESSION. 
1563-1571. 

IT  MAY  perhaps  be  considered  somewhat  strange  that 

the  doctrinal  confession  contained  in  the  forty-two  articles 

published  in  the  time  of  Edward  VI.  was  not  restored 

bv  the  same  authority  which  restored  the  Praver-book. 


THE  DOCTRINAL  CON r ESS  ION  193 

But  the  Queen  was  by  no  means  so  well  inclined  to 
accept  the  reformed  doctrine  as  she  was  to  re-establish 
The  doc-  the  Service-book,  and  to  enforce  discipline. 

trinal  con-        _  ,  ..  -..,  -iij. 

fession  not     It  was  her  policy  and  her  nope  to  include  at 

restored  at  ,  ,  P      ,-, 

first  least    the    more    moderate    section    ol     the 

Romanists  within  the  Church,  and  she  desired  no  sharp 
delimitations  of  doctrine  which  should  effectually  ex- 
clude them.  Thus  for  the  first  four  years  of  her  reign 
there  was  no  doctrinal  standard  for  the  English  Church 
beyond  that  which  was  contained  in  the  Prayer-book. 
The  bishops  had  indeed  found  it  necessary  to  put  forth 
a  short  form,  contained  in  eleven  articles  which  were  to 
be  accepted  by  the  clergy ;  but  these  had  no  legal 
or  binding  character,1  and  were  not  ratified  by  the 
Queen.  It  is  probable  that  the  general  acceptance  of 
the  Eeformation  settlement  in  the  country,  and  the 
little  opposition  offered  to  the  Archbishop's  measures, 
except  by  a  few  of  the  more  contentious  of  the  clergy, 
induced  the  Queen  to  sanction  the  reintroduction  of  the 
longer  doctrinal  confession. 

But  this  was  not  to  be  done  without  a  careful 
review  such  as  that  to  which  the  Prayer-book  had  been 
Review  of  subjected.  The  preliminary  part  of  this  work 
two  wticiea  was  undertaken  by  the  Primate,  Bishops  Cox 
and  Guest,  in  the  autumn  and  early  winter  of  1562. 
The  MS.  of  the  forty-two  articles  subjected  to  this 
review  has  been  preserved ;  and  it  is  found  that  as  the 
original  articles  were  drawn  in  great  measure  from  the 

1  These  eleven  articles  were  legalised  for  the  Church  of  Ireland, 
and  constituted  the  sole  formulary  of  that  Church  till  1615.  But  in 
England  they  were  intended  merely  as  a  provisional  test  of  ortho- 
doxy.— Hardrcich. 

C.  U.  O 


194  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Confession  of  Augsburg,  so  the  new  matter  now  intro- 
duced was  borrowed  extensively  from  another  Lutheran 
Confession,  that  of  Wiirtemberg.  But  in  addition  to 
this,  numerous  changes  were  introduced  to  meet  de- 
velopments of  doctrine  which  had  sprung  up  since  the 
first  drafting  of  the  articles,  and  much  was  cut  off 
which  was  deemed  superfluous.  '  The  effect  of  this 
searching  criticism  of  Parker  and  his  colleagues,'  says 
Hardwick,  '  was,  first,  to  add  four  articles ;  secondly, 
to  take  away  an  equal  number;  thirdly,  to  modify 
by  partial  amplification  or  curtailment  as  many  as 
seventeen  of  the  remainder.' 

The  Convocation  of  Canterbury,  after  the  pre- 
liminary formalities,  began  its  work  on  the  articles  on 
The  articles  January  19  (1563).  The  Upper  House  agreed 

before  Con-  *      . 

vocation  to  and  signed  them  on  January  29.  The 
articles  were  reduced  to  thirty-nine,  by  omitting 
three  relating  to  the  theories  of  Anabaptism.  An 
important  alteration  was  also  made  in  the  article  on 
the  Lord's  Supper,  the  former  expressions  having 
been  thought  to  favour  the  Zwinglian  doctrine  ;  and, 
with  some  other  changes,  the  document  was  sent 
down  to  the  Lower  House.  It  seems  to  have  been 
considered  by  the  bishops  that  a  very  short  time 
was  sufficient  for  the  consideration  of  the  formula  by 
that  body.  On  February  5  the  document  with  sub- 
scriptions was  called  for.  A  good  many  of  the  members 
of  the  Lower  House  had,  however,  demurred  about 
subscribing,  and  the  Prolocutor  asked  the  President 
that  they  should  be  ordered  to  subscribe.  On  Febru- 
ary 10  it  was  reported  to  the  bishops  that  some  still 
refused.  The  majority,  however,  certainly  subscribed, 


THE  DOCTRINAL  CONFESSION  195 

and  the  document  as  agreed  upon  by  Convocation  was 
forwarded  to  the  Queen  for  ratification. 

But  it  was  a  long  time  before  this  was  given,  and 
when  at  length  the  Latin  copy  of  the  articles  with  the 
The  Queen's  Queen's  ratification  appeared,  it  was  found  to 
ratification  nave  two  important  variations  from  the  copy 
which  had  been  agreed  upon  and  signed  in  Convocation. 
Very  much  the  same,  apparently,  had  been  done  by  the 
Queen  in  Council  as  was  done  by  her  with  regard  to  the 
Prayer-book.  An  article  which  denied  that  the  wicked 
were  in  any  wise  partakers  of  the  Lord's  Supper- 
article  twenty-nine — thus  seeming  to  invalidate  the  doc- 
trine of  the  real  presence — was  struck  out,  and  a  clause 
was  added  to  the  twentieth  article  which  asserted  that 
'  the  Church  hath  power  to  decree  rites  and  ceremonies, 
and  authority  in  controversies  of  faith.' 

A  great  controversy  has  arisen  about  this  clause. 
In  the  English  copy,  printed  soon  after  the  Latin  one 
The  clause  which  bears  the  Queen's  ratification,  it  does 
tieth  article  not  appear.  It  was  afterwards  charged 
against  Archbishop  Laud  that  he  had  inserted  the 
clause  without  authority ;  but  there  is  abundant  evidence 
that  it  had  its  place  in  the  copy  of  the  articles  which 
was  finally  ratified  and  subscribed  in  1571. 

An  attempt  was    made  in   Parliament  in  1566  to 

carry  an  Act  making  subscription  to  the  articles  binding 

on  all  the  clergy.     The  copy  of  the  articles 

Attempt  to  &J      _  r" 

enforce         which  was  specified  in  the  Bill  was  the  English 

subscription 

by  law  version  of  1563,  which  did  not  contain  the  clause 
inserted  by  the  Queen,  nor  the  twenty-ninth  article. 
Whether  it  was  owing  to  the  omission  of  this  clause,  or 

to  the  strong  dislike  which   the  Queen  always  felt  to 

02 


196          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Parliament  intermeddling  in  the  affairs  of  religion,  this 
Bill,  having  passed  the  Commons,  was  '  abruptly  stayed  ' 
by  the  Queen's  command  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
This  was  greatly  to  the  annoyance  of  the  bishops,  who 
were  continually  striving  to  obtain  secular  authority 
for  their  discipline,  and  were  unwilling  to  exert  their 
ecclesiastical  authority  as  much  as  the  Queen  desired. 
They  seem  even  to  have  apprehended  that  the  Queen 
by  '  staying '  the  Bill  was  inclined  to  withdraw  her 
support  from  the  articles  altogether ;  and  they  complain 
that  '  for  want  of  a  plain  certainty  of  articles  of  doctrine 
by  law  to  be  declared,  great  distraction  and  dissention 
of  minds  is  at  this 'present  'among  your  subjects,  and 
daily  is  like  more  and  more  to  increase,  and  that  with 
very  great  danger  in  policy,  the  circumstances  con- 
sidered, if  the  said  book  of  articles  be  now  stayed  in 
your  Majesty's  hand,  or  (as  God  forbid)  rejected.' 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Queen  Elizabeth  had 
any  special  affection  for  the  articles ;  but  she  had  no 
intention  of  rejecting  them.  She  considered  she  had 
done  quite  sufficient  for  their  establishment  by  her 
ratification.  But  as  it  was  well  known  that  many  of 
the  incumbents  of  livings  held  Komanising  views,  the 
desire  to  have  subscription  to  the  articles  enforced  by 
Act  of  Parliament  was  the  favourite  policy  of  the 
Puritan  party,  as  well  as  of  the  bishops,  while  to  the 
Queen,  who  did  not  desire  at  that  time  to  bear  hard  upon 
the  Romanists,  it  was  distasteful.  By  the  time  of  the 
Parliament  of  1571,  however,  both  this  party  had  grown 
in  strength,  and  the  Queen,  after  the  northern  rebellion 
and  her  excommunication  by  the  Pope,  regarded  matters 
differently. 


THE  DOCTRINAL  CONFESSION  197 

In  May  1571,  an  Act  was  passed  by  both  Houses  of 
Parliament  and  received  the  royal  assent,  which  enacted 
The  Act  of  tnat  a^  tne  c^erSJ  should,  before  Christmas 
1571  next,  in  the  presence  of  their  Ordinaries, 

subscribe  the  Book  of  the  Articles  of  Eeligion,  '  which 
only  concern  the  confession  of  the  true  Christian  faith 
and  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacraments.'  It  was  argued 
afterwards  that  this  Act  did  not  make  subscription 
compulsory  as  to  any  other  articles  besides  those  which 
concerned  faith  and  doctrine.  But  it  was  the  judgment 
of  Sir  E.  Coke  that  the  word  only  was  not  intended  to 
divide  the  articles,  but  to  qualify  or  describe  the  whole 
of  them.  No  doubt  at  this  time  the  Queen's  anger 
was  great  against  the  Romanising  party,  against  whom 
the  Subscription  Bill  was  specially  aimed  ;  but  it  must 
have  cost  her  a  considerable  effort  to  depart  thus  from 
her  favourite  policy,  and  to  make  such  a  concession  to 
the  Puritanical  party  in  Parliament. 

This  agitation  on  the  subject  of  the  articles  in 
Parliament  was  the  cause  of  renewed  attention  being 
The  Articles  Pa^  ^°  them  in  the  Convocation  of  1571. 
vieweydbey  Those  who  had  not  subscribed  them  in  15G3 


were  now>  if  still  Members  of  the  House, 
peremptorily  ordered  to  subscribe  under  pain 
of  excommunication.  One  bishop,  Cheyney  of  Gloucester, 
refused  subscription,  and  was  actually  excommunicated, 
though  soon  restored  on  subscription.  The  articles  were 
carefully  revised  and  Mie  change  made  by  the  Queen 
in  the  twentieth  article  was  now  accepted.  On  the 
other  hand  the  twenty-ninth  article  was  restored  ;  and 
this  form  was  subscribed  by  Convocation.  The  revised 
English  edition  was  to  be  superintended  and  edited  by 


ig8  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Bishop  Jewel.  This  contained  the  disputed  clause  of  the 
twentieth  article,  and  had  some  other  emendations  of  the 
1 563  copy,  but  made  no  important  change.  It  was  to  this 
copy  that  the  whole  of  the  clergy  were  now  called  upon 
to  affix  their  signatures;  and  this  subscription  was 
strictly  enforced  and  carried  out  by  the  order  of  Con- 
vocation, and  the  action  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Commis- 
sioners. Thus  the  subscription  was,  as  it  were,  taken  by 
the  Church  out  of  the  domain  of  the  Act  of  Parliament ; 
and  the  acceptance  not  only  of  the  doctrinal  articles 
but  of  all  the  articles  indifferently  was  made  com- 
pulsory. 

It  is  clear  that,  fairly  considered,  the  affixing  a 
signature  to  a  long  doctrinal  confession  is  not  equiva- 
ci.aracter  lent  to  an  assertion  that  the  signer  admits 
scriptiou  and  believes  every  statement  in  that  confes- 
sion, but  only  that  he  accepts  it  as  a  whole,  and  under- 
takes not  to  teach  doctrine  contrariant  to  it.  Viewed 
in  this  light,  subscription  to  the  doctrinal  confession 
of  1563  seems  nothing  more  than  the  authorities  in 
Church  and  State  were  justified  in  demanding  of  the 
clergy  ;  and  there  can  be  no  question  that  this  sub- 
scription has  been  of  the  highest  value  in  preserving  a 
uniform  standard  of  doctrine  in  the  Church  of  England. 

The  same  may  doubtless  be  said  in  a  lesser  degree 
of  the  homilies  which  were  now  set  forth,  in  addition 
The  new  to  tnose  which  had  been  published  in  King 
homilies  Edward's  time.  The  authorship  of  these  is 
generally  attributed  to  Cox,  Bishop  of  Ely,  who  had  so 
considerable  a  share  in  compiling  the  Prayer-book  of 
King  Edward's  reign,  and  in  reviewing  and  recasting 
the  articles.  The  Queen,  ever  opposed  to  doctrinal 


THE  DOCTRINAL  CONFESS/ON  199 

statements,   made    a   difficulty  about   sanctioning   the 
homilies,  as  she  had  done  about  the  articles. 

This,  however,  was  ultimately  overcome,  and  with 
the  work  of  the  Convocation  of  1571  the  Reformation 
completion  settlement  of  the  Church  of  England  may  be 
formation'  regarded  as  complete.  Much  still  indeed 
settlement  remained  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  discipline 
and  organisation,  and  specially  in  the  providing  a 
sufficiency  of  preachers,  which  was  the  great  want  of 
the  Church  for  many  years.  But  the  lines  had  been 
laid  clown,  the  framework  constructed,  and  the  way 
made  plain  for  further  progress.  England  had  effect- 
ually broken  with  the  Pope,  who  had  excommunicated 
her  Queen  and  was  endeavouring  to  raise  up  enemies 
on  every  side.  She  had  learnt  by  the  reign  of  Mary 
what  a  return  to  the  subjection  to  Rome  meant,  and 
there  was  no  fear  of  her  again  making  the  experiment. 
Freed  from  external  tyranny  and  slavish  bonds,  the 
national  Church  could  now  go  forward  in  security  and 
peace  to  perfect  her  system,  and  to  bring  forth  from 
her  bosom  that  great  body  of  learned  and  eloquent 
divines,  which  has  availed  to  make  the  Church  of 
England  a  praise  upon  earth. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

TEE  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

ALL  through  the  Middle  Ages  the  Church  of  England 
had  been  constantly  protesting  against  Rome.  The 
extortion,  corruption,  and  tyranny  of  the  Court  of 


2OO  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

Rome  and  of  the  Pope,  its  head,  were  the  theme  of 
constant  invectives.  Some,  as  Bishop  Grosseteste,  had 
Protests  gone  so  far  as  to  speak  of  the  Pope  as  anti- 
Christ,  and  nothing  was  too  bad  for  the 


earlier  times  satirists  to  allege  against  the  whole  Roman 
court.  Yet  for  all  this  there  had  been  no  serious 
attempt  to  take  the  only  step  which  could  effectually 
free  the  Church  from  these  mischiefs,  viz.,  to  withdraw 
from  subjection  to  the  See  of  Rome,  and  to  assert  and 
act  upon  the  national  independence  of  the  Church. 
This  policy  had  been  frequently  indicated,  and  lay  at 
the  root  of  numerous  laws  passed  to  restrain  Roman 
encroachments  ;  but  it  had  never  been  fully  carried 
out  to  its  legitimate  ends.  The  fiction  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  Roman  bishop,  though  without 
any  foundation  in  primitive  antiquity,  had  yet  so  fully 
entered  into  the  mind  of  medieval  Europe,  that  it 
seemed  as  though  it  could  not  be  effectually  shaken. 
It  was  a  fiction,  moreover,  eminently  useful  to  kings 
and  rulers,  who  by  humouring  it  were  able  to  obtain 
large  subsidies  from  the  clergy,  and  the  nomination  to 
all  the  richest  preferments,  dispensations  to  break  vows 
and  cast  aside  oaths,  and  licences  to  contract  prohibited 
and  even  incestuous  marriages. 

At  length  in  England  this  very  dispensing  power 
—  the  fruitful  parent  of  so  much  sin  —  was  the  cause  of 
At  length  ^he  alienation  of  the  ruler  of  the  land,  and, 
successful  under  the  protection  of  this  prince,  who  was  a 
monarch  of  exceptionally  strong  character,  the  clergy 
ventured  to  do  what  for  a  long  time  they  had  desired 
but  feared  to  attempt,  and  proclaim  the  independence 
of  the  national  Church.  This,  when  fortified  by  Act  of 


THE  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION      201 

Parliament,  was  the  foundation  of  the  Reformation, 
and  from  this  the  remainder  of  its  history  naturally 
followed. 

But  as  this  step  brought  the  Church  of  England 
into  a  position  differing  from  that  of  the  other  churches 
The  cause  of  Europe,  which  still  slavishly  followed  Rome, 
against  the  it  was  obvious  that  the  Anglican  Church,  with 
England  its  national  life,  would  be  violently  assailed 
from  all  quarters  which  still  kept  fellowship  with  Rome, 
and  would  be  pelted  with  the  charges  of  schism  and 
heresy,  of  Erastiauism  and  profanity,  and  all  the  choice 
vocabulary  of  disappointed  Inquisitors.  Hence  that 
Church  needed  vigorous  defenders,  who  should  not 
merely  speak  the  language  of  meek  apologetics,  but 
who  should  be  able  to  retort  on  the  assailants  with 
overwhelming  power,  and  lay  bare  the  manifold  enor- 
mities both  in  doctrine  and  discipline  which  rendered 
separation  from  Rome  absolutely  necessary. 

The  Church  of  England  has  been  happy  in  having  a 
succession  of  such  defenders,  whose  labours  have  clearly 
Defenders  of  established  for  all  those  who  have  the  power 
church  '  or  the  desire  to  judge  fairly,  that  in  her 
Reformation  the  Church  of  England  broke  no  church 
law,  violated  no  authorised  creed,  sacrificed  no  true 
principle  of  unity,  lost  no  essential  of  church  life,  but 
in  a  regular  and  canonical  way  threw  off  a  load  of 
superstition,  and  drew  nearer  to  the  practice  of  primi- 
tive antiquity. 

The  first  of  these  defenders  to  be  quoted  was  John 
Jewel,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  who  in  1562  published  his 
famous  apology  for  the  Church  of  England — a  work 
written  in  Latin,  but  quickly  translated  into  English, 


2O2          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

and  into  all  the  European  languages.  At  the  conclusion 
of  this  work,  which  is  a  spirited  invective  against  the 
Bishop  Roman  corruptions,  the  Bishop  writes :  '  We 
have  departed  from  that  Church  which  they 
had  made  a  den  of  thieves,  in  which  they  had  left 
nothing  sound  or  like  a  Church,  and  which  they  them- 
selves confessed  to  have  erred  in  many  things ;  as  Lot 
left  Sodom,  or  Abraham  Chaldeea,  not  out  of  contention, 
but  out  of  obedience  to  God;  and  have  sought  the 
certain  way  of  religion  out  of  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
which  we  know  cannot  deceive  us,  and  have  returned 
to  the  primitive  Church  of  the  ancient  fathers  and 
apostles,  that  is,  to  the  beginning  and  first  rise  of  the 
Church,  as  to  the  proper  fountain.  We  have  not 
indeed  expected  the  authority  or  consent  of  the  Council 
of  Trent,  in  which  we  saw  nothing  was  managed  well 
and  regularly ;  where  all  that  entered  took  an  oath  to 
one  man ;  where  the  ambassadors  of  our  princes  were 
despised  and  ill-treated ;  where  none  of  our  divines 
could  be  heard ;  where  partiality  and  ambition  openly 
carried  all  things ;  and,  according  to  the  practice  of  the 
holy  fathers,  and  the  customs  of  our  own  ancestors,  we 
have  reformed  our  churches  in  a  provincial  synod,  and 
according  to  our  duty  have  cast  off  the  yoke  and  tyranny 
of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  who  had  no  just  authority  over 
us,  nor  was  like  either  Christ,  or  St.  Peter,  or  the 
Apostles,  or  indeed  like  a  bishop  in  anything.  We  do 
not  decline  concord  and  peace  with  men,  but  we  will 
not  continue  in  a  state  of  war  with  God  that  we  may 
have  peace  with  men.  If  the  Pope  does  indeed  desire 
us  to  be  reconciled  to  him,  lie  ought  first  to  reconcile 
himself  to  God.  We  know  that  all  we  teacli  is  true, 


THE  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION      203 

and  we  cannot  offer  violence  to  our  own  consciences,  or 
give  testimony  against  God,  for  if  we  deny  any  part  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  before  men,  He  will  in  like 
manner  deny  us  before  His  Father ;  and  if  there  be  any 
that  will  be  offended  and  cannot  bear  the  doctrine  of 
Christ,  they  are  blind  and  the  leaders  of  the  blind ;  but 
the  truth  is  still  to  be  preached  and  owned,  and  we 
must  patiently  expect  the  judgment  of  God.' 

The  next  witness  to  be  quoted  in  defence  of  the 
Reformation  is  a  divine  of  a  different  stamp  and  temper 
Eichard  from  the  impetuous  Jewel — the  calm,  learned, 
Hooker  an(^  judicious  Richard  Hooker.  Hooker's 
great  work  was  published  about  thirty  years  after  that 
of  Jewel.  '  It  is,'  he  writes,  '  an  error  and  misconceit 
wherewith  they  are  possessed  who  ask  us  where  our 
Church  did  lurk,  in  what  cave  of  the  earth  it  slept,  for 
so  many  hundreds  of  years  together  before  the  birth  of 
Martin  Luther  ?  As  if  we  were  of  opinion  that  Luther  did 
erect  a  new  Church  of  Christ.  No  !  the  Church  of  Christ, 
which  was  from  the  beginning,  is  and  continueth  unto 
the  end ;  of  which  Church  all  parts  have  not  been 
equally  sincere  and  sound.  We  hope  that  to  reform 
ourselves,  if  at  any  time  we  have  done  amiss,  is  not  to 
sever  ourselves  from  the  Church  we  were  of  before. 
The  indisposition  of  the  Church  of  Rome  to  reform 
herself  must  be  no  stay  unto  us  from  performing  our 
duty  to  God ;  even  as  desire  of  retaining  conformity  with 
them  could  be  no  excuse  if  we  did  not  perform  that 
duty.  Notwithstanding,  so  far  as  lawfully  we  may,  we 
have  held  and  do  hold  fellowship  with  them.  We  dare 
not  communicate  with  Rome  concerning  sundry  her 
gross  and  grievous  abominations,  yet  touching  those 


2O4  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

main  parts  of  Christian  truth  wherein  they  constantly 
still  persist,  we  gladly  acknowledge  them  to  be  of  the 
family  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  our  hearty  prayer  unto  God 
Almighty  is,  that  being  joined  so  far  forth  with  them, 
they  may  at  length  (if  it  be  His  will)  so  yield  to  frame 
and  reform  themselves  that  no  distraction  remain  in 
anything,  but  that  we  all  may  with  one  heart  and  one 
mouth  glorify  God,  the  Father  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour, 
whose  Church  we  are.' 

This  stock  taunt  of  the  Romanist  as  to  the  novelty 

of  the  Reformed  Church  of  England,  and  the  insulting 

question   often    thrown   in   the   teeth   of  its 

Dean  Field 

members,  '  Where  was  your  Church  before 
the  days  of  Luther  ? '  is  also  well  answered  by  Dr. 
Field,  Dean  of  Gloucester,  in  his  work  on  the  Church 
published  soon  after  the  work  of  Hooker.  '  It  is  most 
fond  and  frivolous  that  some  demand  of  us  where  our 
Church  was  before  Luther  began  ?  For  we  say  it  was 
where  it  now  is.  If  they  ask  us  Avhich  ?  we  answer  it 
was  the  known  and  apparent  Church  in  the  world, 
wherein  all  our  fathers  lived  and  died,  wherein  Luther 
and  the  rest  were  baptized,  received  their  Christianity, 
ordination,  and  power  of  ministry.  If  they  reply  that 
the  Church  was  theirs  and  not  ours,  for  that  the  doctrines 
they  now  teach  and  we  impugn ;  the  ceremonies, 
customs,  and  observations  which  they  retain  and  defend, 
and  we  have  abolished  as  fond,  vain  and  superstitious, 
were  taught,  used,  and  practised  in  that  Church  wherein 
our  fathers  lived  and  died,  we  answer  that  none  of 
these  points  of  false  docti'ine  and  error,  which  they 
now  maintain  and  we  condemn,  Avere  the  doctrines  of 
that  Church  constantly  delivered  or  generally  received 


THE  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION      205 

by  all  them  that  were  of  it,  but  doubtfully  broached 
and  devised  without  all  certain  resolution,  or  factiously 
defended  by  some  certain  only,  who  as  a  dangerous 
faction  adulterated  the  sincerity  of  the  Christian  verity, 
and  brought  the  Church  into  miserable  bondage. 
Touching  the  abuses  and  manifold  superstitions  which 
we  have  removed,  it  is  true  they  were  in  the  Church 
wherein  our  fathers  lived,  but  not  without  signification 
of  their  dislike  of  them  and  earnest  desire  of  reformation. 
So  when  many  princes,  prelates,  and  great  states  of  the 
Church  have  in  our  days  shaken  off  the  yoke  of  miser- 
able bondage  whereof  our  fathers  complained,  removed 
these  superstitious  abuses  they  disliked,  condemned, 
those  errors  in  matter  of  doctrine  which  they  acknow- 
ledged to  be  dangerous  and  damnable,  fretting  as  a 
canker  and  ensnaring  the  consciences  of  many,  it  is  vain 
and  frivolous  for  the  patrons  of  error  to  ask  us  which 
and  where  our  Church  was  before  the  Reformation  began, 
for  it  was  that  wherein  all  our  fathers  lived,  longing 
to  see  things  brought  back  to  their  first  beginnings 
again ;  in  which  their  predecessors,  as  a  dangerous 
and  wicked  faction,  tyrannised  over  men's  consciences, 
and  perverted  all  things  to  the  endless  destruction  of 
themselves  and  many  others  with  whom  they  prevailed.' 
The  Church  of  England  by  the  circumstances  of  its 
position  was  necessarily  a  controversial  Church,  and 
^as  ^een  obliged  to  wage  a  vigorous  war 
against  many  generations  of  opponents.  It 
has  produced  many  masters  of  controversy,  but  none 
perhaps  more  completely  furnished  with  the  necessary 
weapons  than  John  Bramhall,  Archbishop  of  Armagh, 
who  waged  vigorous  war  with  enemies  on  every  side,  'in 


206  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

one  of  the  ablest  of  his  treatises,  '  A  just  vindication  of 
the  Church  of  England/  he  thus  pointedly  states  the 
case  for  the    national   rights   of  the  English  Church. 
'  Nothing  hath  been  hitherto,   or  can  hereafter  be  ob- 
jected to  the  Church  of  England,  which,  to  strangers 
unacquainted  with  the  state  of  our  affairs,  or  to  such  of 
our  natives  as  have  only  looked  upon  the  case  super- 
ficially, hath  more  colour  of  truth,  at  first  sight,  than 
that  of  schism — that  we  have  withdrawn  our  obedience 
from  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  or  at  least  from  our  lawful 
Patriarch,  and  separated  ourselves  from  the  communion 
of  the  Catholic  Church — a  grievous  accusation,  I  confess, 
if  it  were  true ;  for  we  acknowledge  that  there  is  no 
salvation  to  be  expected  ordinarily  without  the  pale  of 
the  Church.    But  when  all  things  are  judicially  weighed 
in  the  balance  of  right  reason,  when  it  shall  appear  that 
we  never  had  any  such  foreign  Patriarch  for  the  first 
six  hundred  years  and  upwards,  and    it  was   a  gross 
violation    of  the    canons    of  the    Catholic    Church    to 
attempt  after    that   to  obtrude    any    such  jurisdiction 
upon  us ;  that  before  the  bishops  of  Rome  ever  exercised 
any   jurisdiction    in    Britain,    they    had    quitted   their 
lawful  patriarchate,  wherewith  they  were  invested  by 
the  authority  of  the  Church,  for  an  unlawful  monarchy 
pretended  to  belong  unto  them  by  the  institution  of 
Christ ;  that  whatsoever  the  Popes  of  Rome  gained  upon 
us  in  after  ages,  without   our  own  free  consent,  was 
mere   tyranny  and   usurpation ;    that  our   kings    with 
their  Synods    and    Parliaments  had  power   to  revoke, 
retract,    and    abrogate    whatsoever  they  found  by  ex- 
perience to   become  burdensome  and  insupportable  to 
their  subjects;  that  they  did  use  in  all  ages,  with  the 


THE  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION      207 

consent  of  the  Church  and  Kingdom  of  England  to 
limit  and  restrain  the  exercise  of  papal  power,  and  to 
provide  remedies  against  the  daily  encroachments  of 
the  Roman  Court ;  so  as  Henry  VIII.  at  the  Reforma- 
tion did  but  tread  in  the  steps  of  his  most  renowned 
ancestors,  who  flourished  while  Popery  was  in  its  zenith, 
and  pursued  but  that  way  which  they  had  chalked  out 
unto  him — a  way  warranted  by  the  practice  of  the 
most  Christian  emperors  of  old,  and  frequented  at  this 
day  by  the  greatest,  or  rather  by  all  the  princes  of  the 
Roman  communion  so  often  as  they  find  occasion — 
when  it  shall  be  made  evident  that  the  Bishops  of  Rome 
never  enjoyed  any  quiet  or  settled  possession  of  that 
power  which  was  after  deservedly  cast  out  of  England, 
so  as  to  beget  a  lawful  prescription — and  lastly,  that  we 
have  not  at  all  separated  ourselves  from  the  communion 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  nor  of  any  part  thereof,  Roman 
or  other,  qua  tales,  as  they  are  such,  but  only  in  their 
innovations,  wherein  they  have  separated  themselves 
first  from  their  common  mother  and  from  the  fellow- 
ship of  their  own  sisters — I  say,  when  all  this  shall  be 
cleared,  and  the  schism  is  brought  home  and  laid  at  the 
right  door,  then  we  may  safely  conclude  that  by  how 
much  we  should  turn  more  Roman  than  we  are  (whilst 
things  continue  in  the  same  condition),  by  so  much  we 
should  render  ourselves  less  Catholic,  and  plunge  our- 
selves deeper  into  schism  whilst  we  seek  to  avoid  it.* 
'  Whosoever  doth  preserve  his  obedience  entire  to  the 
universal  Church  and  its  representative,  a  General 
Council,  and  to  all  his  superiors  in  their  due  order, 
so  far  as  by  law  he  is  obliged ;  who  holds  an  in- 
ternal communion  with  all  churches,  and  an  external 


2o8  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

communion  so  far  as  he  can  with  a.  good  conscience ; 
who  approves  no  reformation  but  that  which  is  made 
by  lawful  authority,  upon  sufficient  grounds,  with  due 
moderation ;  who  derives  his  Christianity  by  the  un- 
interrupted line  of  apostolical  succession ;  who  contents 
himself  with  his  proper  place  in  the  ecclesiastical  body ; 
who  disbelieves  nothing  in  Holy  Scripture,  and  if  he 
hold  any  errors  unwittingly  and  UD willingly,  doth  im- 
plicitly renounce  them  by  his  fuller  and  more  firm 
adherence  to  that  infallible  rule  .  .  .  This  man  may 
truly  say,  "  My  name  is  Christian,  my  surname  is 
Catholic."  '  I  make  not  the  least  doubt  that  the  Church 
of  England  before  the  Reformation,  and  the  Church  of 
England  after  the  Reformation,  are  as  much  the  same 
Church  as  a  garden  before  it  is  weeded  and  after  it  is 
weeded  is  the  same  garden ;  or  a  vine  before  it  is 
pruned  and  after  it  is  pruned  and  freed  from  the  luxuri- 
ant branches  is  one  and  the  same  vine.' 

This  is  the  defence  of  the  Reformation  from  what  is 
called  the  Anglo-Catholic  point  of  view.  As  to  those 
The  Protes-  w^°  nave  defended  it  on  the  purely  Protestant 
fenc°— "  ground,  viz.  on  the  right  of  private  judgment, 
CMmn™-  and  the  obligation  on  every  man  to  fashion 
worth  nja  belief  simply  in  accordance  with  the 
Scriptures,  their  name  is  Legion.  The  most  famous 
doctor  of  this  school  is  William  Chillingworth,  who  in 
his  great  work,  '  The  Bible  the  Religion  of  Protes- 
tants,' has  produced  a  treatise  of  marvellous  power  aud 
acuteness. 

The  attempts  to  restrain  religious  thought  to  the 
basis  of  the  Prayer-book  and  Articles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion settlement  were  long  continued,  but  were  never  en- 


re- 


THE  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION      209 

tirely  successful.  The  variety  and  eccentricity  of  reli- 
gious views,  which  have  been  its  product,  have  often 
Varieties  of  ^een  made  a  subject  of  reproach  against  the 
Reformation.  It  may  be  questioned  however 
-  wnsther  this  is  justly  a  subject  for  reproach. 
ke  restrain^  of  religious  thought  by  penal 
laws,  or  church  censures,  or  social  disabilities,  is  more 
likely  to  impede  the  progress  of  religion,  by  produc- 
ing discontent,  indifference,  and  secret  unbelief,  than 
the  perfect  freedom  given  to  every  man  to  hold,  advocate, 
and  practise  what  he  believes  to  be  the  truth  in  the  way 
which  he  thinks  best.  A  scope  for  earnestness  and  zeal 
is  thus  provided,  and  in  the  torrent  which  arises  from 
the  confluence  of  various  streams  of  earnestness,  the 
reformed  Church  of  England  is  well  able  to  hold  her 
own  and  to  maintain  her  progress. 

Writers  unfriendly  to  the  Church  of  England  have 
endeavoured  to  cast  a  slur  upon  the  Reformation  by 
The  re-  magnifying  and  dwelling  upon  the  confusion, 

formed  ..  .  _  ...  ,   .    , 

church         shortcomings,  and  irregularities   which  were 

unfairly  °   '  °. 

censured  for  prevalent  in  .England,  in  religious  matters, 
ties  during  the  first   years  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 

Nothing  could  well  be  more  unphilosophical  or  more 
unfair  than  such  treatment.  Is  it  conceivable  that  the 
Church,  the  nation,  the  government,  the  law,  the 
political  and  social  conditions  of  affairs,  could  pass 
through  such  a  revolution,  as  that  which  met  them  at 
this  time,  without  great  confusion,  irregularity,  and  dis- 
order ?  Is  it  to  be  imagined  that  from  the  mass  priests 
of  Mary's  reign,  and  the  few  hundred  Protestant  refu- 
gees, many  of  whom  were  violent  fanatics,  a  decent, 
orthodox,  and  learned  incumbent  could  at  once  be  found 
C.  H.  P 


2io          THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

for  each  of  the  ten  thousand  parishes  of  England  —  that 
sermons  advocating  the  doctrines  of  the  Prayer-book 
should  at  once  be  heard  in  every  pulpit  —  that  a  comely 
and  rubrical  service  should  at  once  be  seen  in  every 
church  ?  The  notion  is  simply  preposterous.  And  yet 
it  is  not  thought  beneath  the  dignity  of  history  to  taunt 
the  Church  of  England  because  she  did  not  show  herself 
at  once  perfectly  armed  and  equipped  to  take  the  place 
of  the  exploded  superstitions  of  Rome.  Rather  it  is  a 
subject  of  wonder  to  the  true  historian,  and  of  earnest 
thankfulness  to  the  true  member  of  the  Church,  that 
out  of  the  apparent  chaos  and  the  manifest  difficulties, 
so  much  order  and  light  was  so  soon  educed. 

Among  these  difficulties  not  the  least  was  the  cha- 
racter of  Elizabeth,  and  the  policy  towards  which  she 
Difficulty  was  constantly  veering  during  the  earlier 

arising  from  , 

the  charac-    years  oi  her  reign.     It  is  not  too  much  to  say 

ter  of  Eliza-  -,         -n    r*  •  />  T     -m  •      ^      ,1 

that   the  Reformation  lorced  Elizabeth  into 


being  a  great  Sovereign,  as  it  certainly  brought  Eng- 
land into  the  position  of  a  great  nation.  The  character 
of  Elizabeth  is  one  of  the  most  singular  compounds  to 
be  found  in  all  history.  With  great  abilities,  keen  in- 
sight, a  most  determined  will  and  perfect  courage,  she 
yet  was  extraordinarily  vacillating  of  purpose,  and  liable 
to  be  swayed  by  the  lowest  impulses,  while  she  was 
deficient  both  in  moral  strictness  and  in  religious  con- 
viction. For  a  considerable  time,  at  the  beginning  of 
her  reign,  she  hovered  on  the  verge  of  becoming  even  a 
more  contemptible  Sovereign  than  her  sister,  when, 
carried  away  by  her  mad  love  for  Lord  Robert  Dudley, 
she  was  almost  prepared  to  sacrifice  the  cause  of  the 
Reformation,  if  she  might  obtain  the  support  cf  the 


TUP.  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION      211 

King  of  Spain  for  her  union  with  Dudley.  What  was 
it  that  saved  her  from  this  step,  which  would  have  been 
absolutely  fatal  to  the  country?  It  was  that  keen 
political  insight  which  never  quite  deserted  her,  and 
goon  taught  her  that  England,  which  had  welcomed 
back  the  reformed  faith  in  place  of  the  late  horrors,  and 
which  utterly  detested  Spain  and  Spanish  principles, 
would  have  at  once  hurled  her  from  her  throne,  had  she 
ventured  thus  to  degrade  herself  and  her  country.  It 
was  then  that  she  learned  the  force  of  that  spirit  and 
those  principles  which  were  represented  by  her  great 
ministers  Cecil  and  Bacon,  and  knew  that  the  religious 
sentiment  of  the  best  and  wisest  of  the  English  people 
was  not  a  thing  to  be  trifled  with,  as  the  caprices  of 
self-interest  or  the  shufflings  of  State  policy  might 
suggest,  but  must  be  loyally  supported  and  upheld,  or 
the  throne  itself  would  totter.  Not  that  Elizabeth,  even 
in  her  most  complacent  moods,  was  altogether  a  nursing 
mother  to  the  Church  of  England.  She  never  entirely 
liked  its  settlement.  She  was  too  worldly  to  appreciate 
its  doctrine,  too  sensuous  to  enjoy  the  plainness  of  its 
ritual.  She  could  not  get  over  her  objections  to  the 
married  clergy ;  and  she  had  no  patience  with  the 
bishops  for  not  enforcing  a  discipline  which  her  own 
courtiers  made  impossible.  She  had  no  scruple  in 
robbing  the  Church  of  its  property,  and  she  cared  little 
whether  the  people  had  a  sufficiency  of  instruction  or 
not.  But  substantial  and  efficient  support  she  gave  to 
it,  and  identified  herself  and  her  policy  with  the  cause 
of  which  it  was  the  brightest  ornament.  It  was  thua 
that  she  became  a  great  Queen  and  England  became  a 
great  nation.  Her  political  insight  was  sufficiently 


212  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 

strong  to  overcome  any  tendencies  which  she  had  to 
take  a  different  course.  Had  she  done  so — had  she 
left  '  religion  in  England  unchanged,  merely  attempting 
to  modify  the  fanaticism  of  the  Catholics  by  some 
practical  toleration,'  she  would  have  '  drifted  on  in 
happy  insignificance  till  some  fresh  ascendency  of  Ultra- 
montanism  and  persecution  had  been  followed  by  rebellion 
and  civil  war.  .  .  .  The  temptation  to  this  to  a  common 
nature  would  have  been  irresistible,  and  that  Elizabeth 
remained  in  essentials  true  to  the  Reformation  to  which 
she  owed  her  birth  and  Crown,  must  never  be  forgotten 
when  we  are  provoked  to  condemn  her  inconsistencies.' ' 
The  cruelty  undoubtedly  exercised  towards  the 
Romanists  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  has  often 
The  Eeform-  been  made  a  subject  of  reproach  to  the  Reform- 
ation,  and  it  has  even  been  contended  that 


cruelties  ^he  severities  shown  were  as  great  as  those 
towards11  experienced  by  the  reformers  during  the 
Romanists  rejgn  of  Mary.  In  the  first  place,  it  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  taking  the  highest  number  of 
Romanists  alleged  to  have  been  put  to  death  under 
Elizabeth,  the  average  scarcely  exceeds  four  for  each 
year  of  her  reign  ;  whereas,  under  Mary,  during  the  four 
years  of  persecution,  the  average  nearly  reaches  seventy. 
In  the  next  place,  it  is  certain  that  no  Romanists 
suffered  under  Elizabeth  simply  for  what  was  called 
heresy.  The  executions  were  for  treasonable  complicity 
with  the  enemies  of  England,  or  for  disobedience  to  the 
secular  laws.  Without  attempting  to  justify  this  policy, 
it  may  fairly  be  asserted  that  the  Reformation,  as  such, 
is  not  responsible  for  it.  Whether  or  not  the  unex- 
1  Froude,  History  of  England,  vii.  263 


THE  DEFENCE  OF  THE  REFORMATION      213 

ampled  difficulties  with  which  Elizabeth's  ministei's  had 
to  contend  could  have  been  overcome  by  some  other 
means,  it  is  clear  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  reformed 
faith  which  encourages  persecution.  That  individuals, 
especially  some  of  the  Puritanical  party,  called  for 
severe  measures  against  the  Romanists,  does  not  dis- 
prove this.  Toleration  is  of  the  very  essence  of  the 
Reformation,  when  rightly  understood ;  just  as  it  is 
essentially  opposed  to  the  principles  of  Romanism.  It 
needed  indeed  a  somewhat  long  education  before  this 
great  truth  could  be  reached — before  the  mistakes  of 
Laud  were  corrected  by  the  higher  wisdom  of  Jeremy 
Taylor — but  the  credit  of  having  taught  it  to  the  world 
is  certainly  due  to  the  Reformation. 

This  great  movement,  not  in  itself  or  at  its  com- 
mencement favourable  to  literature,  art,  and  science, 
its  effects  being  of  necessity  narrow,  intense,  and  an- 
tpVa°rtrande  tagonistic,  became  nevertheless,  on  its  success 
and  settlement,  the  parent  of  all  that  is  greatest 
and  best  in  the  triumphs  of  human  intellect. 

Nor  should  its  indirect  effect  upon  the  Church  of 
Rome  be  overlooked.  It  destroyed  in  it  the  pagan- 
its  effect  on  ised  religion  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  bring 

the  Roman  _.  _  *"  . 

church  out  a  more  earnest,  devout,  and  energetic 
habit ;  which,  if  still  more  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the 
Reformation  than  the  older  form,  has  been  constrained 
to  depend  for  its  progress  not  on  burnings  and  the 
Inquisition,  but  on  a  rivalry  in  good  works  and  zeal  for 
religion. 


INDEX. 


ABBOTS 

ABBOTS,  the  greater,  not  op- 
posed to  suppression  of  smaller 
monasteries,  32;  hanging  of 
twelve  of,  34 

Act,  Consecration,  the,  16  ;  for 
restraint  of  appeals,  the,  16  ; 
of  supremacy  of  Henry  VIII. 
17  ;  to  regulate  trials  for 
heresy,  23  ;  Treason,  the,  atro- 
cious character  of,  26  ;  of  Six 
Articles,  the,  making  of,  51  ; 
character  of,  53 ;  ordering 
Communion  in  both  kinds, 
i!5  ;  to  give  colleges  and  chan- 
tries to  Crown,  67,  96 ;  of 
Uniformity,  the  first,  72 ;  the 
second,  93  ;  against  '  vaga- 
bonds,' 95  ;  to  legalise  clerical 
marriage,  97 ;  for  securing 
tithes,  97 ;  for  removal  of 
images  and  pictures,  98  ;  for 
holidays,  99 ;  of  Supremacy, 
of  Elizabeth,  161 ;  of  Unifor- 
mity, of  Elizabeth,  159,163; 
chansres  made  in  Prayer-book 
by,  159,  1 G3 

A  Lasco,  John,  called  to  Eng- 
land by  Cranmer,  69  ;  friend- 
ship of  Cranmer  for,  83 

Aless,  Mr.,  at  the  meeting  of 
bishops,  46 ;  Latin  Prayer- 
book  of,  16 4 


BARLOW 

Altars,  first  removed  by  Ridley, 
66 ;  order  of  Council  to  re- 
move, 78 

Articles,  the  Ten,  41 ;  the  Thir- 
teen, 50  note ;  the  Forty-two, 
formation  of,  82  ;  accepted  by 
Convocation,  83;  review  of, 
193;  the  Eleven,  183,  193; 
the  Thirty-nine,  before  Con- 
vocation, 194  ;  ratification  by 
the  Queen  of,  195 ;  changes 
introduced  into,  195  ;  attempt 
to  enforce  subscription  of,  195; 
stayed  by  the  Queen,  196  ;  Acb 
to  enforce,  passed,  197  ;  re- 
vision of  in  Convocation,  197  ; 
subscription  of,  198 

Augmentation,  Court  of,  33 

Augsburg,  Confession  of,  refused 
by  King  Henry,  44 

Aylmer,  Archdeacon,  defends 
reformed  doctrine,  116 

Ayscough,  Anne,  martyrdom  of 
38 


BACON,  Lord  Keeper,  speech  by, 
160 

Barlow,  Bishop,  gives  manors  to 
Somerset,  104;  one  of  the 
consecrators  of  Parker,  171 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


BAKNES 

Barnes,  Dr.,  lends  church  to 
Latimer,  20 ;  in  trouble  for 
Lutheranism,  22  ;  writes 
against  Sir  T.  More,  22 

Barton,  Elizabeth,  Nun  of  Kent, 
affair  of,  25 

Becket,  Thomas,  rifling  of  tomb 
of,  49 

Benefices,  spoliation  of,  106 ; 
destitution  of,  107 

Bible,  English,  the  first,  28 ; 
Matthew's.  49  ;  the  Great,  49  ; 
order  for  English  to  be  set  up 
in  churches,  49,  63 

Bidding  Prayer,  the,  new  form 
of,  64 

Bilney,  Thomas,  martyrdom  of,  20 

Bishops,  the,  support  the  King 
in  the  divorce  case,  19  ;  en- 
deavour to  suppress  Tyndale's 
version  of  the  New  Testament, 
24  ;  jurisdiction  of  suspended, 
29,  66 ;  not  opposed  to  the 
suppression  of  monasteries, 
32  ;  the  imprisoned,  released 
by  Queen  Mary,  115;  the  re- 
formed, dispossessed  by  Queen 
Mary,  115 ;  committed  to 
prison,  117  ;  measures  taken 
against,  118;  reproved  l>y 
Queen  Mary's  Council  for 
slackness,  129 ;  the  Romish, 
treatment  of,  under  Elizabeth, 
166-168  ;  consecration  of  re- 
forming, under  Elizabeth,  172; 
poverty  of  sees  of,  172;  scru- 
pulousness of,  175  ;  not  favour- 
able to  discipline,  184 

Boleyn,  Anne,  divorce  of,  decreed 
by  the  Convocations,  53 

Bonner,  Bishop,  committed  to 
prison,  64  ;  deprivation  of,  75; 
release  of,  115;  persecuting 
measures  of,  129 ;  treatment 
of  Archdeacon  Philpot  by,  137 

Boucher,  Joan,  execution  of,  111 

Bradford,  John,  imprisonment 
of-  127 


CLERGY 

Bramhall,  Archbishop,  defence 

of  the  Church  of  England  by, 

205 
Bridewell,  palace  of,  given  by 

King  Edward  for  public  uses, 

110 
Bucer,  Martin,  made  professor 

at  Cambridge,  69 


CALVIN,  John,  opinion  of,  on 
English  Prayer-book,  147 

Camden,  William,  estimate  by,  of 
the  morality  of  King  Edward's 
time,  112 

Canterbury,  cathedral  of,  spolia- 
tion of,  110 ;  burnings  of  re- 
formers at,  129,  141 

Carranza,  Bartolomeo  de,  cornea 
with  Philip  to  England,  1 10  ; 
Queen's  confessor,  121 ;  visi- 
tation of  the  universities  by, 
121 ;  manages  trial  of  Cran- 
mer,  132 

Carthusian  monks,  the,  persecu- 
tion of,  27 

Castro,  Alphonso  de,  comes  with 
Philip  to  England,  120; 
preaches  in  favour  of  tolera- 
tion, 122-128 

Catechism,  Lutheran,  published 
by  Cranmer,  80  ;  Poynet's,  84 

Cecil,  Sir  W.,  checks  violent  ro 
formers,  157 

Cheyney,  Bishop,  defends  re- 
formed doctrine,  116;  refuses 
to  subscribe  Articles,  197 

Chillingworth,  William,  '  The 
Religion  of  Protestants '  of,  208 

Churches,  spoliation  of,  at  Re- 
formation, 108, 109 

Clergy,  the  English,  Acts  to 
regulate,  10  ;  Royal  Supremacy 
voted  by,  13,  17  ;  submission 
of,  14 ;  petition  against  an- 
nates  by,  15  ;  change  in  posi- 
tion of,  17;  vote  illegality  of 
the  King's  marriage,  17 ;  re- 


INDEX 


217 


COLET 

piidiatc  the  Pope,  18  ;  opposed 
to  use  o^  English  Prayer-book, 
74  ;  generally  conform  under 
Queen  Elizabeth,  169;  great 
want  of,  170  ;  ordinations  of, 
173  ;  discouragement  of  mar- 
riage of,  177  ;  oppose  Parker's 
discipline,  188;  the  London 
•  Reply '  of,  189  ;  the  uncon- 
formable,  189,  190 

Colet,  Dean,  6, 19 

Commission  of  bishops  to  try 
heretics,  124 

Commissioners  for  suppressing 
smaller  monasteries,  33 ;  for 
visiting  the  greater,  34 ;  to 
construct  First  English  Li- 
turgy, 65 ;  to  seize  colleges 
and  chantries,  104  ;  for  taking 
Church  goods,  108  ;  to  review 
the  Prayer-books  of  Edward 
VI.  156 ;  Protestant  spirit  of, 
157  ;  checked  by  Cecil,  157  ;  to 
conduct  visitation  under  Queen 
Elizabeth,  169,  180,  181;  de- 
claration tendered  by,  181 

Communion,  Holy,  to  be  ad- 
ministered in  both  kinds,  65  ; 
office  of,  66  ;  office  of,  in  first 
Prayer-book,  71,  92  ;  in  second 
Prayer-book,  92,  93  ;  in  Eliza- 
bethan Prayer-book,  158 

Confession  to  priest,  treatment 
of,  in  Ten  Articles,  41 

Consecration  Statute,  the,  16 

Convocation  of  Canterbury,  the, 
reply  of  to  the  charges  against 
ordinaries,  14  ;  submission  of 
to  the  King's  Articles,  15 ; 
petition  of  against  Papal 
annates,  15  ;  accepts  Royal 
Supremacy,  13  ;  votes  supply, 
13;  votes  marriage  of  Henry 
and  Catherine  illegal,  17  ;  re- 
pudiates the  Pope,  17  ;  accepts 
the  Ten  Articles,  43  ;  protests 
against  Council  of  Mantua, 
44  ;  votes  diminution  of  saints' 


CRANMER 

days,  45 ;  commences  revision 
of  Liturgy,  56 ;  endeavours  to 
check  proceedings  at  begin- 
ning of  Edward  VI.'s  reign,  61  ; 
decrees  the  administering  of 
Communion  in  both  kinds,  65  ; 
Committee  of,  draws  up  Com- 
munion Service,  65 ;  accepts 
the  Forty-two  Articles,  83 ; 
sanctions  first  English  Prayer- 
book,  71  ;  sanctions  second 
Prayer-book,  84  ;  under  Mary 
upholds  Roman  doctrine,  116; 
undor  Elizabeth  opposed  to 
changes,  155  ;  debate  in  a,  as 
to  ceremonial,  185 

Convocation  of  York  accepts 
Royal  Supremacy,  13 ;  votes 
supply,  13  ;  votes  marriage  of 
Henry  and  Catherine  illegal, 
17  ;  repudiates  the  Pope,  17 

Court  of  High  Commission  esta- 
blished by  Parliament,  161 

Coverdale,  Bishop,  makes  first 
translation  of  Bible,  28  ;  one  of 
the  consecrators  of  Parker,  171 

Cox,  Dr.,  one  of  Committee 
for  first  Prayer-book,  65  ; 
goes  to  Frankfort,  147 ;  esta- 
blishes use  of  English  Prayer- 
book,  148 

Cranmer,  Archbishop,  intervie.v 
of  with  Fryth,  23 ;  appoint- 
ment of  to  Primacy,  24  ; 
pronounces  divorce  sentence, 
24 ;  arranges  for  revision  of 
translation  of  Bible,  49 ;  brings 
Lutheran  divines  to  England, 
50 ;  procures  divorce  of  Anne 
of  Cleves,  53 ;  retains  favour 
with  King  Henry  VIII.  54,  57; 
work  of  in  Liturgical  revision, 
54 ;  opinions  of,  60 ;  invites 
foreign  divines  to  England, 
69 ;  publishes  Catechism  of 
Justice  Jonas,  80  ;  writes 
treatise  on  the  Eucharist,  81 ; 
insists  upon  the  execution  of 


2IS 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


CHUMWELL 

Joan  Boucher,  111 ;  bitterness 
of  Queen  Mary  against,  118; 
sent  to  Oxford  to  dispute, 
118  ;  degradation  of,  132  ;  re- 
cantations signed  by,  133; 
retractation  of  recantations 
by,  134  ;  last  speech  of,  134; 
burning  of,  135  ;  character  of, 
135 

Crumwell,  Thomas,  rise  of,  25  ; 
Reformation  advanced  by,  25  ; 
scheme  of  against  More  and 
Fisher,  25 ;  endeavours  of  to 
influence  public  opinion,  27 ; 
procures  publication  of  Eng- 
lish Bible,  28 ;  appointed  Vicar- 
General,  29;  suggests  suppres- 
sion of  monasteries,  30 ;  acts 
as  Vicar-General,  43  ;  procures 
the  making  of  the '  Institution 
of  a  Christian  Man,'  45 ;  at- 
tainder of,  53 


DAY,  Bishop,  refuses  to  remove 
altars,  79  ;  committed  to 
prison,  79 ;  release  of,  115 

Declaration,  tendered  by  Com- 
missioners, 181 ;  drawn  up  by 
bishops,  183 

Divines,  foreign,  amount  of 
influence  of  on  English 
Prayer-book,  70 


EDWARD  VI.,  King,  commence- 
ment of  reign  of,  60  ;  opinions 
of  on  Eucharist,  91 ;  benefac- 
tions of,  110  ;  death  of,  112 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  accession  of, 
151 ;  policy  of,  152  ;  religious 
views  of,  154,  175,  176; 
'  further  order '  taken  by  in  the 
Church  ceremonial,  165;  speech 
of  to  Romish  bishops,  167; 
opposed  to  marriage  of  clergy, 
177;  letter  of  to  Archbishop 
Parker,  186;  ratines  Thirty  - 


GRAMMAR 

nine  Articles,  195;  character 
of,  creates  difficulties  for  the 
Church,  210,  211 

Erasmus,  Desiderius,  satires  of, 
G;  Greek  Testament  published 
by,  24  ;  Paraphrases  of  to  be 
set  up  in  churches,  63 

'Erudition  of  any  Christian 
Man,'  the,  making  of,  54 ; 
character  of,  55  ;  accepted  by 
Convocation,  55 

Eucharist,  the  treatment  of  in 
Ten  Articles,  42;  in  the 'Insti- 
tution' and  'Erudition,'  55 

FARRA.R,  Bishop,  burning  of,  128 

Field,  Dean,  defence  of  the 
Church  of  England  by,  204 

Fisher,  Bishop,  opposes  Church 
reform,  11  ;  implicated  in 
affair  of  Nun  of  Kent,  25  ; 
refuses  the  oath  of  succession, 
26  ;  committed  to  Tower,  26  ; 
offer  of  a  cardinal's  hat  to, 
27 ;  trial  and  execution  of,  27 

Fryth,  John,  a  member  of 
Cardinal's  College,  22  ;  writes 
against  Sir  T.  More,  22  ;  mar- 
tyrdom of,  23 

GARDINER,  Bishop,  DcVcrdObe- 
dientid  of,  28 ;  opponent  of 
Cranmer,  57;  committed  to 
Fleet  prison,  64 ;  opinion  of 
on  first  Prayer-book,  91 ;  de- 
privation of,  105 ;  release  of, 
115;  policy  of,  117-119 

Gascoigne,  Thomas,  Dictionary 
of,  7  and  note 

Geneva,  English  Reformers  at, 
145,  148,  150 

Gilpin,  Bernard,  preaches  before 
the  Commissioners,  1 80 

Grace,  Pilgrimage  of,  34,  45 

Grammar  schools  erected  after 
suppression  of  monasteries, 
36;  by  Edward  VI.  110 


INDEX 


219 


GUEST 

Guest,  Dr.,  a  commissioner  to 
review  Prayer-book,  157 ; 
answers  Sir  W.  Cecil's  paper, 
158 


HADDON.Dean,  defends  reformed 
doctrine,  116  ;  translates 
Prayer-book  into  Latin,  164 

Heath,  Archbishop,  refuses  to 
sign  Ordinal,  76 ;  committed 
to  Fleet  prison,  76  ;  release 
of,  115  ;  speaks  against  Act  of 
Supremacy,  162 

Henry  VIII.,  King,  summons 
bishops  before  him,  11 ;  in- 
Huences  Parliament,  11 ;  grants 
pardon  to  clergy,  13  ;  requires 
clergy  to  accept  Three  Articles, 
14:  visitatorial  power  given 
to,  1 7  ;  firstf ruits  and  tenths 
given  to,  17;  favour  of  to 
Latimer,  21 ;  exasperation  of 
against  More  and  Fisher,  27  ; 
appoints  Crumwell  Vicar- 
General,  29;  cruelty  of  to- 
wards abbots,  35  ;  cruelties 
of  the  latter  part  of  the  reign 
of,  38 ;  makes  draft  of  Ten 
Articles,  41,  43;  signs  the 
'  Institution  of  a  Christian 
Man,'  46-48 ;  injunctions  of, 
49  ;  excommunication  of,  50  ; 
procures  passing  of  Six  Arti- 
cle Law,  51  ;  favour  of  to- 
wards Cranmer,  54,  57 ;  Primer 
of,  56 ;  mistaken  view  of  as 
to  Supremacy,  59 

Homines,  the  first,  62,  80;  the 
second,  198 

Hooker,  Richard,  defence  of  the 
Church  of  England  by,  203 

Hooper,  Bishop,  laments  growth 
of  wild  opinions,  68  ;  character 
and  opinions  of,  88 ;  refuses 
episcopal  vestments,  89  ;  con- 
duct of  in  prison,  90;  con- 
secration of,  00 ;  holds  See  of 


LATIMER 

Gloucester  in  commemJam, 
105;  trial  of,  125;  burning 
of,  125 

Hospitals,  London,  endowment 
of,  111 

IGNORANCE  of  people  at  time  of 
the  Reformation,  39,  40 

Images,  treatment  of,  in  Ten 
Articles,  42  ;  in  '  Institution  of 
a  Christian  Man,'  4  7  ;  orders 
to  take  away,  49,  63;  treat- 
mentof,  in  Elizabethan  Injunc- 
tions, 178 

Injunctions,  Royal,  of  153G,  45  ; 
of  1538,  49  ;  first  of  Edward 
VI.  63 ;  second  of  Edward 
VI.  75;  of  Mary,  116;  of 
Elizabeth,  177 

'  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,' 
making  of,  46  ;  contents  of, 
47  ;  reception  of,  48 

Insurrections  in  1549,  73 

'  Interpretations,'  the,  of  Arch- 
bishop Parker,  182 

JEWEL,  Bishop, '  Apology  for  the 
Church  of  England  '  of,  201 

Justification,  treatment  of  in 
Ten  Articles,  42  ;  in  '  Institu- 
tion of  a  Christian  Man,' 
46,47 

KITCHEN,  Bishop,  despoils  See  of 
Llandaff,  105  :  refuses  to  con- 
secrate Parker,  171 

Kneeling  at  Holy  Communion, 
movement  against,  93 

Knox,  John,  ministers  at  Frank- 
fort, 146 ;  expelled  by  the  city, 
148  ;  adopts  Geneva  discipline, 
148 

LAMBERT  or  Nicholson,  burning 

of,  51 
Latimer,  Bishop,  at  Cambridge, 

20  ;  preaches  before  the  King, 


22O 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


LEVER 

21 ;  Rector  of  West  Kington, 
21  ;  before  Convocation,  21  ; 
Bishop  of  Worcester,  22 ; 
sermon  of  before  Convoca- 
tion, 40  ;  preaches  against 
spoliation  of  benefices,  107 ; 
against  immorality  of  the 
time,  112;  sent  to  Oxford  to 
dispute,  118;  trial  of,  for 
heresy,  129-131;  burning  cf, 
131 

Lever,  minister  at  Frankfort, 
147 

Lutheran  divines,  negotiations 
with,  50 


MANORS,  episcopal,  seizure  of, 
104 

Mantua,  Council  of,  protested 
against,  44 

Martyr,  Peter,  made  professor 
at  Oxford,  69 

Mary,  Queen,  accession  of,  113  ; 
character  of,  114  ;  marriage 
of,  120  ;  letter  of  as  to  punish- 
ment of  heretics,  123  ;  bene- 
factions of,  141  ;  unhappy 
condition  of,  141  ;  death  of, 
141 

Monasteries,  suppression  of  sug- 
gested by  Crumwell,  30  ;  decay 
of,  31 ;  suppression  of  resolved 
on,  3 1  ;  slanderous  accusations 
against,  32  ;  Act  for  suppres- 
sion of  the  smaller,  32 ;  ar- 
rangements for  demolition  of 
the  smaller,  33  ;  number  of, 
33  ;  amount  of  opposition  to 
demolition  of,  33  ;  the  greater 
endangered  by  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace,  34  ;  surrender  of  many 
of  the  greater,  34  ;  acts  of 
injustice  in  suppression  of, 
35 ;  revenue  obtained  from, 
33-35 ;  uses  made  of  some, 
33-35 ;  effects  of  dissolution 
if.  36 


PLURALITIES 

Monks  and  nuns,  hard  case  of, 
on  dissolution,  37 

More,  Sir  T.,  Chancellorship  of, 
21 ;  writes  against  Barnes, 
22 ;  against  Tyndale,  23  ;  im- 
plicated in  affair  of  Nun  of 
Kent,  25  ;  refuses  the  oath  of 
succession,  26  ;  committed  to 
Tower,  26 ;  trial  and  execu- 
tion of,  27 


ORDINAL,  the  first  reformed,  7G ; 

the  second,  76,  77 
Ordinaries,        the       grievances 

against,  13 
Osmund,  St., '  Custom  Book '  of ,  39 


PAPAL  JURISDICTION,  vote  of 
clergy  against,  1 8 

Parker,  Archbishop,  absent  from 
the  review  of  the  Prayer- 
book,  157 ;  appointment  of, 
as  Primate,  170 ;  consecra- 
tion of,  171 ;  consecration  of 
bishops  by,  172 ;  difficulties 
of,  185 ;  Advertisements  of, 
187,  188 

Parliament  of  1529,  legislation 
of,  10;  of  Edward  VI.,  legis- 
lation of,  64,  95, 100  ;  of  Mary, 
resists  changes  in  religion, 
115  ;  the  first  of  Elizabeth,  160 

Parre,  George  Van,  execution  of, 
111 

Paul  III.,  Pope,  excommunica- 
tion by  of  King  Henry  VIII. 
44,  50 

Petition  of  members  of  Parlia- 
ment to  Pope,  12 

Philip,  King,  character  of,  120 

Phillips,  Dean,  defends  reformed 
doctrine,  116 

Philpot,  Archdeacon,  defends  re- 
formed doctrine,  116;  trials 
of,  136  ;  burning  of,  138 

Pluralities,  Act  to  regulate,  11 


INDEX 


22i 


POLE 

Pole,  Cardinal,  kept  back  from 
proceeding  to  England,  117; 
arrival  of  in  England,  122  ; 
absolves  the  Parliament  and 
Convocation,  123;  condemna- 
tion of  at  Rome,  141  ;  death 
of,  141 

Pnemunire  statute,  clergy  con- 
victed under,  13 

Prayer-book,  the  first  English, 
character  of,  71  ;  accepted  by 
Convocation,  71 ;  established 
by  law,  72 ;  preface  of,  73 ; 
disliked  by  violent  reformers, 

73  ;   attempts  to  give  it  the 
character  of  the  old  services, 

74  ;  not  objected  to  by  Cranmer 
and  Ridley,  87  ;  review  of,  91 

Prayer-book,  the  second  English, 
making  of,  91 ;  order  for  use 
of,  94 

Prayer-book,  the  Elizabethan, 
formation  of,  156,  163;  the 
Latin,  164 ;  use  of  English 
book  ordered,  169 

Primer,  the  first  reforming,  29  ; 
of  King  Henry  VIII.  56  ;  of 
King  Edward  VI.  85 

Processions, disuse  of,  ordered,  64 

Proclamation  against  Bulls  from 
Rome,  12  ;  of  the  King's  style 
and  title,  IS;  to  abolish  au- 
thority of  Pope,  18 ;  nume- 
rous of  1548,  67;  by  Queen 
Elizabeth  against  changes  in 
religion,  152 

Proctors  and  pardoners,  Act 
against,  12 

Purgatory,  doctrine  of,  attacked 
by  Simon  Fish,  4  ;  defended  by 
Sir  T.  More,  4  ;  treatment  of 
in  Ten  Articles,  43 ;  in  '  Institu- 
tion of  a  Christian  Man,'  46 

Puritan,  beginning  of  the  name 
of,  190 

READERS,  ordinations  of,  173; 
appointment  of  lay,  174 


RIDLEY 

Eeformation,  the  English,  cha- 
racter of,  1-7  ;  religious  caused 
of,  2 ;  political  causes,  4 ; 
social  causes,  5  ;  assertion  of 
national  rights  by,  8  ;  legisla- 
tion of,  9;  advocates  of,  18; 
advanced  by  Queen  Mary's 
persecution,  113,  140;  com- 
pletion of  settlement  of,  199  ; 
defence  of,  201  ;  varieties  of 
doctrine  no  reproach  to,  209 ; 
irregularities  of  unavoidable, 
209  ;  not  chargeable  with 
cruelties  to  Romanists,  212  ; 
effects  of  favourable  to  art 
and  literature,  213  ;  effects  of, 
on  Roman  Church,  213 

Reformers,  at  Cambridge,  19  ; 
writings  of,  86  ;  triumph  of 
in  second  Prayer-book,  93 ; 
objection  of  to  kneeling  at 
Holy  Communion,  93 ;  con- 
stancy of  under  persecution, 
136  ;  number  of  burned 
under  Queen  Mary,  139;  the 
English,  abroad,  143,  149; 
proceedings  of  those  settled 
at  Frankfort,  144,  145,  147-9  ; 
invite  others  to  join  them, 
145;  refuse  to  use  English 
Prayer-book,  146  ;  disputes  as 
to  discipline  among,  148; 
become  Presbyterians,  149  ; 
return  of  at  death  of  Queen 
Mary,  150  ;  alarm  of  at  first 
proceedings  under  Elizabeth, 
158 

Restraint  of  appeals,  Act  for,  16 

Revision  of  Liturgy,  commence- 
ment of,  56 

Ridley,  Bishop,  removes  altars 
in  Rochester  diocese,  66 ; 
views  on  the  Eurcharist  of, 
88  ;  uses  second  Prayer-book 
at  St.  Paul's,  94  ;  sent  to  Ox- 
ford to  dispute,  118  ;  trial  of 
for  heresy,  129  ;  burning  of, 
132 


222 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND 


ROGERS 

Rogers,  John,  makes  translation 

of  the  Bible,  49  ;  burning  of, 

125 
Romanists,  treatment  of  under 

Elizabeth,  191,  192,  212 
Kubrick,  the  Black,  inserted  by 

Council,  93 


SACRAMENTS,  three,  in  Ten  Arti- 
cles, 42  ;  seven,  in  '  Institution 
of  a  Christian  Man,'  47 

Salcot,  Bishop,  grants  long  leases 
of  his  manors,  105 

Salisbury,  Countess  of,  execution 
of,  38 

Sampson,  Dr.,  argues  for  Royal 
Supremacy,  28  ;  gives  up  epi- 
scopal manors,  105 

Saunders,  Laurence,  burning  of, 
128 

Savoy,  Hospital  of,  revenues  of, 
given  for  charitable  purposes, 
110 

Sees,  six,  founded  after  sup- 
pression of  monasteries,  35 

Service-books,  the  old,  Order  to 
destroy,  77 

Sei  vices,  unauthorised,  use  of, 
67 

Somerset,  Duke  of,  religious 
views  of,  60 ;  seizes  ecclesias- 
tical buildings,  103 

Somerset  House,  building  of,  103 

goto,  Pedro  de,  comes  with 
Philip  to  England,  120 

Spoliation  of  Church  property 
in  mediaeval  times,  101  ; 
at  Reformation,  various  kinds 
of,  102,  104,  105,  108 

Stafford,  Mr.,  at  Cambridge,  19 

Supremacjr,  Royal,  voted  by  the 
clergy,  13,  17  ;  Act  of,  17; 
delegation  of  to  Crumwell, 
29 ;  mistaken  views  of,  59  ; 


ZURICH 

exercise  of  by  Mary,  116  ;  ex- 
planation of  in  Elizabethan 
Injunctions,  179 

TAYLOR,  Dr.  Rowland,  burning 
of,  126 

Testament,  the  New,  translated 
by  Tyndale,  23 

Tithes,  impropriate,  given  to 
laymen,  36 

Tonstal,  Bishop,  judges  Bilney, 
20 ;  argues  against  Lutheran 
divines,  51 ;  spoliation  of  the 
See  of,  106  ;  imprisonment  of, 
106  ;  release  of,  115 

Tyndale,  William,  writes  against 
Sir  T.  More,  23;  translation 
of  the  Scriptures  by,  23 ;  mar- 
tyrdom of,  24: 

YILLAGARCIA,  Juan  de,  comes 
with  Philip  to  England,  120  ; 
sent  to  Oxford  as  Professor,  121 

Visitation,  the  first,  under  Ed- 
ward VI.  61 ;  the  second,  of 
Edward  VI.  75  ;  under  Eliza- 
beth, 186 

Visitatorial  powers  given  to  the 
Crown,  17 

Voysey,  Bishop,  loses  property 
of  his  See,  105 ;  imprison- 
ment of,  106;  release  of,  115 

WESTMINSTER  ABBEY  threat- 
ened by  Somerset,  103 

Whiting,  Abbot,  tragical  fate  of, 
35 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  fall  of,  9  ;  in- 
auguration of  Church  Reform 
by,  10;  favours  Lutherans,  19 

Wycliffe,  John,  translation  of 
Scriptures  by,  23 

ZURICH,  the  Reformers  at,  145 
146 


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Svo.     2os.  net. 

Jones.— ENGLAND  AND  THE  HOLY  SEE:  An  Essay 
towards  Reunion.  By  SPENCER  TONES,  M.A.,  Rector  of  Moreton- 
in-Marsh.  With  a  Preface  by  the  "Right  Hon.  VISCOUNT  HALIFAX. 
Crown  Svo.  y.  6s.  net. 

Jukes. — Works  by  ANDREW  JUKES. 

LETTERS  OF  ANDREW  JUKES.     Edited,  with  a  Short  Biography, 
by  the  Rev.  HERBERT  H.  JEAFFERSON,  M.A.    Crown  Svo.    3*.  6d.  net. 

THE   NAMES   OF  GOD  IN   HOLY  SCRIPTURE  :  a    Revelation  of 

His  Nature  and  Relationships.     Crown  Svo.     4_r.  6d. 
THE  TYPES  OF  GENESIS.     Crown  Svo.     7s.  6d. 

THE    SECOND    DEATH    AND    THE    RESTITUTION   OF   ALL 
THINGS.      Crown  Svo.     y.  6d. 

Kelly.— Works  by  the  Rev.  HERBERT  H.  KELLY,  M.A.,  Director 
of  the  Society  of  the  Sacred  Mission,  Mildenhall,  Suffolk. 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCHOF  CHRIST.  Vol.  I.  A.D.  29-342. 
Crown  Svo.  35.  6d.  net.  Vol.  II.  A.D.  324-430.  Crown  Svo.  3*.  6d.  net. 

ENGLAND  AND  THE  CHURCH  :  Her  Calling  and  its  Fulfilment 
Considered  in  Relation  to  the  Increase  and  Efficiency  of  Her  Ministry. 
Crown  Svo.  4-J.  net. 


12 


A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 


Knox.— PASTORS     AND     TEACHERS  :     Six    Lectures    on 

Pastoral  Theology.  By  the  Right  Rev.  EDMUND  ARBUTHNOTT  KNOX, 
D.D.,  Bishop  of  Manchester.  With  an  Introduction  by  the  Right  Rev. 
CHARLES  GORE,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Worcester.  Crown  8vo.  $s.  net. 

Knox  Little. — Works  by  W.  J.  KNOX   LITTLE,   M.A.,   Canon 
Residentiary  of  Worcester,  and  Vicar  of  Hoar  Cross. 

HOLY    MATRIMONY.       Crown  8vo.     $s.      (The   Oxford  Library  of 
Practical  Theology.} 

THE  PERFECT  LIFE  :  Sermons.     Crown  8vo.     ^s.  6d. 
THE  CHRISTIAN  HOME.     Crown  8vo.     y.  6d. 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  PASSION  OF  OUR  MOST  HOLY 
REDEEMER.  Crown  8vo.  zs.  6d. 

THE  LIGHT  OF  LIFE.  Sermons  preached  on  Various  Occasions. 
Crown  %vo.  3*.  6d. 

SUNLIGHT  AND  SHADOW  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE. 
Sermons  preached  for  the  most  part  in  America.  Crown  8vt>.  %s.  6d. 

Lear— Works  by,  and  Edited  by,  H.  L.  SIDNEY  LEAR. 

FOR  DAYS  AND  YEARS.  A  book  containing  a  Text,  Short  Reading, 
and  Hymn  for  Every  Day  in  the  Church's  Year.  i6mo.  2s.  net.  Also  a, 
Cheap  Edition,  y.mo,  is.\  or  cloth  gilt,  is.  6d.\  or  with  red  borders, 
2s.  net. 


FIVE  MINUTES.     Daily  Readings  of  Poetry.     i6mo. 
Cheap  Edition,  yzrno.   is.;  or  cloth  gilt,  is.  6d. 


y.  6d.     Also  a 
Large   Type. 


WEARINESS.      A  Book  for  the   Languid   and  Lonely. 
Small  8vo.     55. 

DEVOTIONAL  WORKS.     Edited  by  H.  L.  SIDNEY  LEAR.     New  and 
Uniform  Editions.     Nine  Vols.     i6?no.     zs.  net  each. 


FENELON'S  SPIRITUAL  LETTERS  TO 
MEN. 

FENELON'S  SPIRITUAL  LETTERS  TO 
WOMEN. 

A  SELECTION  FROM  THE  SPIRITUAL 
LETTERS  OF  ST.  FRANCIS  DE 
SALES.  Also  Cheap  Edition,  •yz.tno, 
6d.  cloth  limp  ;  is.  cloth  boards. 

THE  SPIRIT  OF   ST.   FRANCIS  DE 
SALES, 


THE  HIDDEN  LIFE  OF  THE  SOUL. 
THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  CONSCIENCE. 
Also    Cheap   Edition,    yzmo,    6d. 
cloth  limp  ;  is.  cloth  boards. 
SELF-RENUNCIATION.       From    the 

French. 

ST.  FRANCIS  DE  SALES'   OF  THE 
LOVE  OF  GOD. 

SELECTIONS        FROM        PASCAL'S 
'  THOUGHTS.' 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE. 


Lear. —  Works    by,   and   Edited    by,   H.   L.    SIDNEY   LEAR.- 
continned. 


CHRISTIAN    BIOGRAPHIES. 
Crown  Svo.     y.  6d.  each.. 

MADAME  LOUISE  DE  FRANCE, 
Daughter  of  Louis  xv. ,  known 
also  as  the  Mother  TeYese  de  St. 
Augustin. 

A  DOMINICAN  ARTIST  :  a  Sketch  of 
the  Life  of  the  Rev.  Pere  Besson, 
of  the  Order  of  St.  Dominic. 

HENRIPERREYVE.  By  PERE 
GRATRY.  With  Portrait, 

ST.  FRANCIS  DE  SALES,  Bishop  and 
Prince  of  Geneva. 


Edited    by  H.    L.   SIDNEY  LEAR. 

A  CHRISTIAN  PAINTER  OF  THE 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY  :  being 
the  Life  of  Hippolyte  Flandrin. 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  PRIESTLY  LIFE 
IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 
IN  FRANCE. 

BOSSUET  AND  HIS  CONTEMPORA- 
RIES. 

FENELON,    ARCHBISHOP    OF    CAM- 

BRAI. 

HENRI  DOMINIQUE  LACORDAIRE. 


Liddon. — Works  by  HENRY  PARRY  LIDDON,  D.D.,D.C.L.,LL.D. 

SERMONS  ON  SOME  WORDS  OF  ST.   PAUL.     Crown  Svo.     55. 

SERMONS    PREACHED    ON     SPECIAL    OCCASIONS,   1860-1889. 
Crown  8vo.     5.1. 

CLERICAL  LIFE  AND  WORK  :  Sermons.     Crown  Svo.     $!. 

ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES  :   Lectures  on  Buddhism—Lectures  on  the 
Life  of  St.  Paul — Papers  on  Dante.     Crown  Svo.     55. 

EXPLANATORY    ANALYSIS    OF    PAUL'S    EPISTLE    TO    THE 
ROMANS.     Svo.     14*. 

EXPLANATORY   ANALYSIS    OF   ST.   PAUL'S    FIRST   EPISTLE 
TO  TIMOTHY.     Svo.     7$.  6d. 

SERMONS  ON  OLD  TESTAMENT  SUBJECTS.     CrownSvo.     $s. 
SERMONS  ON  SOME  WORDS  OF  CHRIST.     Crown  Svo.     5*. 

THE  DIVINITY  OF  OUR  LORD  AND  SAVIOUR  JESUS  CHRIST. 
Being  the  Bampton  Lectures  for  1866.     Crown  Svo.     55. 

ADVENT  IN  ST.   PAUL'S.      Crown  Svo.     5*. 
CHRISTMASTIDE  IN  ST.  PAUL'S.     Crown  Svo.     55. 

PASSIONTIDE  SERMONS.     Crown  Svo.     $s. 

{continued. 


14  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Liddon.— Works    by    HENRY  PARRY  LIDDON,   D.D.,   D.C.L., 
LL.  D. — continued. 

EASTER  IN  ST.  PAUL'S.  Sermons  bearing  chiefly  on  the  Resurrec- 
tion of  our  Lord.  Two  Vols.  Crown  8vo.  35.  6d.  each.  Cheap 
Edition  in  one  Volume.  Crown  8vo.  5*. 

SERMONS  PREACHED  BEFORE  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 
OXFORD.  Two  Vols.  Crown  8vo.  y.  6d.  each.  Cheap  Edition  in 
one  Volume.  Crown  8vo.  <$s. 

THE  MAGNIFICAT.     Sermons  in  St.  Paul's.     Crown  8vo.    2s.  net. 

SOME  ELEMENTS  OF  RELIGION.  Lent  Lectures.  Small  8vo. 
ss.  net.  [The  Crown  8vo  Edition  (55.)  may  still  be  had.] 

Luckock. — Works  by  HERBERT   MORTIMER  LUCKOCK,  D.D., 
Dean  of  Lichfield. 

THE  SPECIAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS, 
Crown  8vo.  6s. 

AFTER  DEATH.  An  Examination  of  the  Testimony  of  Primitive 
Times  respecting  the  State  of  the  Faithful  Dead,  and  their  Relationship 
to  the  Living.  Crown  8vo.  y.  ?iet. 

THE  INTERMEDIATE  STATE  BETWEEN  DEATH  AND 
JUDGMENT.  Being  a  Sequel  to  After  Death.  Crown  8vo.  y.  net. 

FOOTPRINTS  OF  THE  SON  OF  MAN,  as  traced  by  St.  Mark.  Being 
Eighty  Portions  for  Private  Study,  Family  Reading,  and  Instruction 
in  Church.  Croivn  8vo.  35.  net. 

FOOTPRINTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES,  as  traced  by  St.  Luke  in  the 
Acts.  Being  Sixty  Portions  for  Private  Study,  and  Instruction  in 
Church.  A  Sequel  to  '  Footprints  of  the  Son  of  Man,  as  traced  by 
St.  Mark.'  Two  Vols.  Crown  8vo.  I2s. 

THE  DIVINE  LITURGY.  Being  the  Order  for  Holy  Communion, 
Historically,  Doctrinally,  and  Devotionally  set  forth,  in  Fifty  Portions. 
Crown  8vo.  $s.  net. 

STUDIES  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON 
PRAYER.  The  Anglican  Reform — The  Puritan  Innovations — The 
Elizabethan  Reaction — The  Caroline  Settlement.  With  Appendices. 
Crown  8vo.  3*.  net. 

Lyra  Germanica :   Hymns  for  the  Sundays  and  Chief  Festivals 

of  the  Christian  Year.      Complete  Edition.     Small  8vi}.     5^. 
First  Series.     i6mo,  with  red  borders,  2S.  net. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE. 


MacColl.— Works  by  the  Rev.  MALCOLM  MACCOLL,  D.D.,  Canon 
Residentiary  of  Ripon. 

THE  REFORMATION  SETTLEMENT :  Examined  in  the  Light  of 
History  and  Law.  Tenth  Edition,  Revised,  with  a  new  Preface. 
Crown  8vo.  35.  6d.  net. 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  RELATION  TO  SCIENCE  AND  MORALS. 
Crown  8vo.  6s. 

LIFE  HERE  AND  HEREAFTER  :  Sermons.     Crown  8vo.     71.  6d. 

Marriage  Addresses  and  Marriage  Hymns.  By  the  BISHOP  OF 
LONDON,  the  BISHOP  OF  ROCHESTER,  the  BISHOP  OF  TRURO,  the  DEAN 
OF  ROCHESTER,  the  DEAN  OF  NORWICH,  ARCHDEACON  SINCLAIR, 
CANON  DUCKWORTH,  CANON  NEWBOLT,  CANON  KNOX  LITTLE, 
CANON  RAWNSLEY,  the  Rev.  J.  LLEWELLYN  DAVIES,  D.  D.,  the  Rev. 
W.  ALLEN  WHITWORTH,  etc.  Edited  by  the  Rev.  O.  P.  WARDELL- 
YERBURGH,  M.  A.,  Vicar  of  the  Abbey  Church  of  St.  Mary,  Tewkesbury. 
Crown  8vo.  v. 

Mason. — Works   by  A.  J.  MASON,  D.D.,  Master  of  Pembroke 
College,  Cambridge,  and  Canon  of  Canterbury. 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONVERSION.  Crown  8vo.  zs.  6d.  net. 
(Handbooks  for  the  Clergy. } 

PURGATORY;  THE  STATE  OF  THE  FAITHFUL  DEAD; 
INVOCATION  OF  SAINTS.  Three  Lectures.  Crown  8 vo.  3 s.  6d. net. 

THE  FAITH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  A  Manual  of  Christian  Doctrine. 
Crown  8vo.  js.  6d.  Cheap  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  y.  net. 

THE  RELATION  OF  CONFIRMATION  TO  BAPTISM.  As  taught 
in  Holy  Scripture  and  the  Fathers.  Crown  8vo.  75.  6d. 

Maturin. — Works  by  the  Rev.  B.  W.  MATURIN. 

SOME  PRINCIPLES  AND  PRACTICES  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL 
LIFE.  Crown  8i>o.  qj.  6d. 

PRACTICAL  STUDIES  ON  THE  PARABLES  OF  OUR  LORD. 
Crozvn  8vo.  $s. 

Medd.— THE  PRIEST  TO  THE  ALTAR  ;  or,  Aids  to  the 
Devout  Celebration  of  Holy  Communion,  chiefly  after  the  Ancient 
English  Use  of  Sarum.  By  PETER  GOLDSMITH  MEDD,  M.A. ,  Canon 
of  St.  Albans.  Fourth  Edition,  revised  and  enlarged.  Royal  &vo.  155. 

Meyrick.— THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF 

England  on  the  Holy  Communion  Restated  as  a  Guide  at  the  Present 
Time.     By  the  Rev.  F.  MEYRICK,  M.A.     Cro^-n  8vo.     43.  6d. 

Monro.— SACRED  ALLEGORIES.  By  Rev.  EDWARD  MONRO. 

Complete   Edition    in   one     Volume,   with  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo. 
3-r.  6d.  net. 


1 6  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Mortimer.— Works  by  the  Rev.  A.  G.  MORTIMER,  D.D.,  Rector 

of  St.  Mark's,  Philadelphia. 

THE  CREEDS :  An  Historical  and  Doctrinal  Exposition  of  the 
Apostles',  Nicene  and  Athanasian  Creeds.  Crown  8vo.  5.1.  net. 

THE  EUCHARISTIC  SACRIFICE:  An  Historical  and  Theological 
Investigation  of  the  Sacrificial  Conception  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  in  the 
Christian  Church.  Crown  8vo.  los.  6d. 

CATHOLIC  FAITH  AND  PRACTICE  :  A  Manual  of  Theology.  Two 
Parts.  Crown  8vo.  Part  I.  js.  6d.  Part  II.  gs. 

JESUS  AND  THE  RESURRECTION  :  Thirty  Addresses  for  Good 
Friday  and  Easter.  Crown  8i>o.  55. 

HELPS  TO  MEDITATION  :  Sketches  for  Every  Day  in  the  Year. 
Vol.    i.  ADVENT  TO  TRINITY.     8vo.     js.  6d. 
Vol.  ii.  TRINITY  TO  ADVENT.     &vo.     js.  6d. 

STORIES  FROM  GENESIS  :  Sermons  for  Children.     Crown  8vo.     45. 

THE  LAWS  OF  HAPPINESS;  or,  The  Beatitudes  as  teaching  our 
Duty  to  God,  Self,  and  our  Neighbour.  i8mo.  2s. 

THE  LAWS  OF  PENITENCE  :  Addresses  on  the  Words  of  our  Lord 
from  the  Cross.  i6mo.  is.  6d. 

SERMONS  IN  MINIATURE  FOR  EXTEMPORE  PREACHERS: 
Sketches  for  Every  Sunday  and  Holy  Day  of  the  Christian  Year. 
Crown  8vo.  6s. 

NOTES  ON  THE  SEVEN  PENITENTIAL  PSALMS,  chiefly  from 
Patristic  Sources.  Small  8vo.  35.  6d. 

MEDITATIONS  ON  THE  PASSION  OF  OUR  MOST  HOLY  RE- 
DEEMER. Part  I.  Crown  8vo.  y. 

THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  OF  OUR  MOST  HOLY  REDEEMER: 
Being  Meditations  on  some  Scenes  in  His  Passions  (Meditations  on 
the  Passions.  Part  n.)  Crown  8vo.  55. 

LEARN  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  TO  DIE  :  Addresses  on  the  Words  of  our 
Lord  from  the  Cross,  taken  as  teaching  the  way  of  Preparation  for 
Death.  i6mo.  2s. 

Mozley.— RULING  IDEAS  IN  EARLY  AGES  AND  THEIR 
RELATION  TO  OLD  TESTAMENT  FAITH.  By  J.  B.  MOZLEY, 
D.D.,  late  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  and  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity 
at  Oxford .  8vo.  6s. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE.  17 


Newbolt— Works  by  the  Rev.  W.  C.  E.  NEWBOLT,  M.A.,  Canon 
and  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 

APOSTLES  OF  THE  LORD  :  being  Six  Lectures  on  Pastoral  Theo- 
logy. Crown  8vo.  3*.  6d.  net. 

RELIGION.  Crown  8vo.  5*.  (The  Oxford  Library  of  Practical 
Theology. ) 

WORDS  OF  EXHORTATION.  Sermons  Preached  at  St.  Paul's  and 
elsewhere.  Crown  8vo.  55.  net. 

PENITENCE  AND  PEACE :  being  Addresses  on  the  515!  and  23rd 
Psalms.  Crown  8vo.  2s.  net. 

PRIESTLY  IDEALS  ;  being  a  Course  ot  Practical  Lectures  delivered  in 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral  to  '  Our  Society '  and  other  Clergy,  in  Lent,  1898. 
Crown  8vo.  35.  6d. 

PRIESTLY  BLEMISHES;  or,  Some  Secret  Hindrances  to  the  Realisa- 
tion of  Priestly  Ideals.  A  Sequel.  Being  a  Second  Course  of  Practical 
Lectures  delivered  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  to  '  Our  Society '  and  other 
Clergy  in  Lent,  1902.  Crown  8vo.  35.  6d. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  EXPERIENCE  ;  or,  the  Witness  of  Human  Life 
to  the  truth  of  Revelation.  Being  the  Boyle  Lectures  for  1895. 
Crown  8vo.  55. 

COUNSELS  OF  FAITH  AND  PRACTICE :  being  Sermons  preached 
on  various  occasions.  Crown  8vo.  55. 

SPECULUM  SACERDOTUM  ;  or,  the  Divine  Model  of  the  Priestly 
Life.  Crown  8vo.  js.  6d. 

THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  Being  Ten  Addresses  bearing  on 
the  Spiritual  Life.  Crown  8vo.  zs.  net. 

THE  PRAYER  BOOK  :  Its  Voice  and  Teaching.     Crown  8vo.     zs.  net. 

Newman. — Works  by  JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN,  B.D.,  sometime 
Vicar  of  St.  Mary's,  Oxford. 

LETTERS  AND  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  JOHN  HENRY  NEW- 
MAN DURING  HIS  LIFE  IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  With 
a  brief  Autobiography.  Edited,  at  Cardinal  Newman's  request,  by 
ANNE  MOZLEY.  2  vols.  Crown  %vo.  75. 

PAROCHIAL  AND  PLAIN  SERMONS.  Eight  Vols.  Crown  8vo. 
3*.  6d.  each, 

SELECTION,  ADAPTED  TO  THE  SEASONS  OF  THE  ECCLE- 
SIASTICAL YEAR,  from  the  '  Parochial  and  Plain  Sermons.'  Crown 
Svo.  2s-  6d- 

FIFTEEN  SERMONS  PREACHED  BEFORE  THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  OXFORD.  Crown  8vo.  y.  6d. 

SERMONS  BEARING  UPON  SUBJECTS  OF  THE  DAY.  Crown 
Svo.  y  6<£ 

LECTURES  ON  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  JUSTIFICATION.  Crown 
Svo.  2s-  6d- 

•»*  A  Complete  List  of  Cardinal  Newman's  Works  can  be  had  on  Application. 


1 8  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Osborne. — Works  by  EDWARD  OSBORNE,  Mission  Priest  of  the 
Society  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  Cowley,  Oxford. 

THE  CHILDREN'S  SAVIOUR.     Instructions  to  Children  on  the  Life 
of  Our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.     Illustrated.     i6mo.     zs.  net. 

THE  SAVIOUR   KING.      Instructions  to  Children  on  Old  Testament 
Types  and  Illustrations  of  the  Life  of  Christ.   Illustrated.   i6mo.  2s.net. 

THE  CHILDREN'S  FAITH.    Instructions  to  Children  on  the  Apostles' 
Creed.     Illustrated.     i6mo.     2s.  net. 

Ottley.— ASPECTS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT:  being  the 
Bampton  Lectures  for  1897.  By  ROBERT  LAWRENCE  OTTLEY,  M.A. , 
Canon  of  Christ  Church  and  Regius  Professor  of  Pastoral  Theology  in 
the  University  of  Oxford.  8vo.  js.  6d. 

Oxford  (The)  Library  of  Practical  Theology.— Edited  by  the 

Rev.  W.  C.  E.  NEWBOLT,  M.A.,  Canon  and  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's, 

and  the  Rev.  DARWELL  STONE,  M.A.,  Librarian  of  the  Pusey  House, 

Oxford.     Crown  Biv.     5.5.  each. 
RELIGION.     By  the    Rev.   W.    C.  E.    NEWBOLT,    M.A.,   Canon    and 

Chancellor  of  St,  Paul's. 
HOLY  BAPTISM.     By  the  Rev.  DARWELL  STONE,  M.A.,  Librarian  of 

the  Pusey  House,  Oxford. 

CONFIRMATION.     By  the  Right  Rev.  A.  C.  A.  HALL,  D.D.,  Bishop 

of  Vermont. 
THE   HISTORY   OF    THE    BOOK   OF   COMMON    PRAYER.     By 

the  Rev.   LEIGHTON  PULLAN,   M.A.,  Fellow  of  St.  John  Baptist's 

Oxford. 
HOLY  MATRIMONY.     By  the   Rev.   W.   J.    KNOX   LITTLE,    M.A., 

Canon  of  Worcester. 
THE    INCARNATION.      By    the    Rev.    H.    V.    S.    ECK,    M.A.,    St. 

Andrew's,  Bethnal  Green. 
FOREIGN  MISSIONS.     By  the   Right    Rev.  E.  T.  CHURTON,  D.D., 

formerly  Bishop  of  Nassau. 
PRAYER.     By  the  Rev.  ARTHUR  JOHN  WORLLEDGE,  M.A.,  Canon  and 

Chancellor  of  Truro. 
SUNDAY.      By   the    Rev.    W.    B.    TREVELYAN,    M.A.,    Vicar    of    St. 

Matthew's,  Westminster. 
THE  CHRISTIAN  TRADITION.     By  the  Rev.  LEIGHTON  PULLAN, 

M.A.,  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford. 
BOOKS  OF  DEVOTION.     By  the  Rev.  CHARLES  BODINGTON,  Canon 

and  Precentor  of  Lichfield. 
HOLY  ORDERS.      By  the  Rev.  A.   R.   WHITHAM,   M.A.,  Principal  of 

Culham  College,  Abingdon. 
THE    CHURCH    CATECHISM    THE    CHRISTIAN'S    MANUAL. 

By  the  Rev.  W.  C.  E.  NEWBOLT.  M.A..  Joint  Editor  of  the  Series. 

[continued. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE. 


Oxford  (The)  Library  of  Practical  Theology.— continued. 

THE  HOLY  COMMUNION.     By  the  Rev.  DARWELL  STONE,  M.A., 

Joint  Editor  of  the  Series.  \Jn preparation. 

RELIGIOUS    CEREMONIAL.      By    the     Rev.    WALTER     HOWARD 

FRERE,   M.A. ,   Superior  of    the    Community    of    the    Resurrection, 

Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Bishop  of  Rochester.  [In  preparation. 

VISITATION  OF  THE  SICK.     By  the  Rev.  E.   F.  RUSSELL,   M.A., 

St.  Alban's,  Holborn.  [In  preparation. 

CHURCH    WORK.       By    the    Rev.     BERNARD     REYNOLDS,    M.A., 

Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's.  [In  preparation. 

OLD  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM.     By  the  Rev.  HENRY  WAGE,  D.D., 

Dean  of  Canterbury.  [In  preparation. 

NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM.      By  the  Rev.  R.  J.   KNOWLING, 

D.D. ,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Exegesis  at  King's  College,  London. 

[In  preparation. 

Paget. — Works  by  FRANCIS  PAGET,   D.D.,  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

CHRIST  THE  WAY:  Four  Addresses  given  at  a  Meeting  of  School- 
masters and  others  at  Haileybury.  Crown  8vo.  u.  6d.  net. 

STUDIES  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER:  Sermons.  With  an 
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THE  SPIRIT  OF  DISCIPLINE:  Sermons.     Crown  8vo.     4*.  net. 

FACULTIES  AND  DIFFICULTIES  FOR  BELIEF  AND  DIS- 
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THE  HALLOWING  OF  WORK.  Addresses  given  at  Eton,  January 
16-18,  1888..  Small '  8vo.  2s. 

THE  REDEMPTION  OF  WAR  :  Sermons.     Crown  8va.     zs.  net. 

Passmore. — Works  by  the  Rev.  T.  H.  PASSMORE,  M.A. 

THE  THINGS  BEYOND  THE  TOMB  IN  A  CATHOLIC  LIGHT. 

Crown  8vo.     ss.  6d.  net. 
LEISURABLE  STUDIES.     Crown  8vo.     45.  net. 

CONTENTS. — The  'Religious  Woman' — Preachments — Silly  Ritual — The  Tyr- 
anny of  the  Word — The  Lectern — The  Functions  of  Ceremonial — Homo  Creator — 
Concerning  the  Pun — Preverbia. 

Percival.— THE  INVOCATION  OF  SAINTS.  Treated  Theo- 
logicallv  and  Historically.  By  HENRY  R.  PERCIVAL,  M.A.,  D.D. 
Crown  8vo.  $s. 

Powell.— CHORALIA  :  a  Handy-Book  for  Parochial  Precentors 

and   Choirmasters.      By   the   Rev.   JAMES   BADEN    POWELL,   M.A. , 
Precentor  of  St.  Paul's,  Knightsbridge.    Crown  8vo.     4.1.  6d.  net. 

Practical  Reflections.  By  a  CLERGYMAN.  With  Preface  by 
H.  P.  LIDDON,  D.D.,  D.C.  L.,  and  the  LORD  BISHOP  OF  LINCOLN. 
Crown  8vo. 


THE  BOOK  OF  GENESIS. 
THE  PSALMS.     $s. 
ISAIAH.     45.  6d. 


45. 


THE  MINOR  PROPHETS.    45.  6d. 
THE  HOLY  GOSPELS.    4^.  6d. 
ACTS  TO  REVELATION.    6s. 


20  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Praeparatio  :  HOLY  DAYS  ;  or,  Notes  of  Preparation  for  Holy 
Communion,  founded  on  the  Collect,  Epistle,  and  Gospel.  With 
Preface  by  the  Rev.  GEORGE  CONGREVE,  of  the  Society  of  St.  John 
the  Evangelist,  Cowley. 

SUNDAYS.     Crown  Svo.     6s.  net. 

HOLY  DAYS  AND  SAINTS'  DAYS.     Crown  Svo.     6s.  net. 

Priest's  Prayer  Book  (The).  Containing  Private  Prayers  and 
Intercessions ;  Occasional,  School,  and  Parochial  Offices  ;  Offices  for 
the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  with  Notes,  Readings,  Collects,  Hymns, 
Litanies,  etc.  With  a  brief  Pontifical.  By  the  late  Rev.  R.  F. 
LITTLEDALE,  LL. D. ,  D.C.L.,  and  Rev.  J.  EDWARD  VAUX,  M.A., 
F.S.A.  Post  Svo.  6s.  6d. 

Pullan. — Works  by  the  Rev.  LEIGHTON  PULLAN,  M.A.,  Fellow 

of  St.  John  Baptist's  College,  Oxford. 
LECTURES  ON  RELIGION.     Crown  Svo.     6s. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  Crown 
Svo.  $s.  (The  Oxford  Librarv  of  Practical  Theology. ) 

Puller.— THE   PRIMITIVE   SAINTS   AND  THE  SEE  OF 

ROME.      By  F.  W.  PULLER,  of  the  Society  of  St.  John  the  Evan- 
gelist, Cowley.      Svo.     i6s.  net. 

Pusey.— Works  by  the  Rev.  E.  B.  PUSEY,  D.D. 

PRIVATE  PRAYERS.  With  Preface  by  H.  P.  LIDDON,  D.D., 
late  Chancellor  and  Canon  of  St.  Paul's.  Royal  yimo.  is, 

SPIRITUAL  LETTERS  OF  EDWARD  BOUVERIE  PUSEY, 
D.D.  Edited  by  the  Rev.  J.  O.  JOHNSTON,  M.A.,  Principal  of  the 
Theological  College,  Cuddesdon  ;  and  the  Rev.  W.  C.  E.  NKWBOLT, 
M.  A.,  Canon  and  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's.  CrownSvo.  5*.  net. 

Pusey.— THE    STORY    OF   THE    LIFE    OF   DR.    PUSEY. 

By  the  Author  of  'Charles  Lowder.'    With  Frontispiece.     Crown  Svo. 
js.  6d.  net. 

Randolph.— Works  by  B.  W.  RANDOLPH,  D.D.,  Principal  of  the 
Theological  College  and  Hon.  Canon  of  Ely. 

THE  EXAMPLE  OF  THE  PASSION:  being  Addresses  given  in  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral  at  the  Mid-Day  Service  on  Monday,  Tuesday,  Wed- 
nesday, and  Thursday  in  Holy  Week,  and  at  the  Three  Hours'  Service 
on  Good  Friday,  1897.  Small  8vo.  zs.  net. 

THE  LAW  OF  SINAI :  Being  Devotional  Addresses  on  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments delivered  to  Ordinands.  Crown  Svo.  3^.  6d. 

MEDITATIONS  ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  for  Every  Day  in 
the  Year.  Crown  Svo.  55.  net. 

MEDITATIONS  ON  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  for  Every  Day  in 
the  Year.  Crown  Svo.  55.  net. 

THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY:  being  Short  Chapters 
on  the  Inner  Preparation  for  the  Priesthood.  Crown  Svo.  y.  6d. 

THE  VIRGIN  BIRTH  OFOUR  LORD :  a  Paper  read  (in  Substance)  before 
the  Brotherhood  of  the  Holy  Trinity  of  Cambridge.  Crown  Svo.  2s.net. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE. 


21 


RIVINGTON'S  DEVOTIONAL  SERIES. 

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YEAR.  First  Series.  Gilt  edges. 

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PERFECTION.  Edited  by  L.  H. 
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Robbins. — Works  by  WILFORD  L.  ROBBINS,  D.D.,  Dean  of  the 

General  Theological  Seminary,  New  York. 
AN  ESSAY  TOWARD  FAITH.     Small  8vo.     y.  net. 
A  CHRISTIAN  APOLOGETIC.    Crown  Zvo.    2s.6d.net.    (Handbooks 
for  the  Clergy. ) 

Robinson. — Works  by  the  Rev.  C.  H.  ROBINSON,  M.A.,  Editorial 

Secretary  to  the  S.P.G.  and  Canon  of  Ripon. 

STUDIES  IN  THE  CHARACTER  OF  CHRIST.     Crown  Svo.    y.  6d. 
HUMAN  NATURE  A  REVELATION  OF  THE  DIVINE  :  a  Sequel 

to  '  Studies  in  the  Character  of  Christ."     Crown  Svo.     6s.  net. 
SOME    THOUGHTS    ON    THE    INCARNATION.       Crown    Svo. 
is.  6d.  net. 

Romanes.— THOUGHTS  ON  THE  COLLECTS  FOR  THE 
TRINITY  SEASON.  By  ETHEL  ROMANES,  Author  of  'The  Life 
and  Letters  of  George  John  Romanes. '  With  a  Preface  by  the  Right 
Rev.  the  LORD  BISHOP  OF  LONDON.  iSmo.  2*.  6d. ;  gilt  edges,  y.  6d, 


22  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Sanday.— Works  by  W.  SANDAY,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Lady  Margaret 
Professor  of  Divinity  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 
THE  ORACLES  OF  GOD  :    Nine  Lectures  on  the  Nature  and  Extent 
of  Biblical  Inspiration  and  the  Special  Significance  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  at  the  Present  Time.     Crown  8vo.     45. 

DIFFERENT  CONCEPTIONS  OF  PRIESTHOOD  AND  SACRI- 
FICE :  a  Report  of  a  Conference  held  at  Oxford,  December  13  and 
14,  1899.  Edited  by  W.  SANDAY,  D.D.  8vo.  TS.  6d. 

INSPIRATION  :  Eight  Lectures  on  the  Early  History  and  Origin  of 
the  Doctrine  of  Biblical  Inspiration.  Being  the  Bampton  Lectures 
for  1893.  8vo.  75.  6d. 

Sanders.  — FEN ELON  :  HIS  FRIENDS  AND  HIS 
ENEMIES,  1651-1715.  By  E.  K.  SANDERS.  With  Portrait.  8vo. 
IQS.  6d.  net. 

Scudamore.— STEPS  TO  THE  ALTAR:  a  Manual  of  Devotion 
for  the  Blessed  Eucharist.  By  the  Rev.  W.  E.  SCUDAMORE,  M.A. 
Royal  -yzmo.  is. 

On  toned  paper,  and  rubricated,  2s.:  The  same,  with  Collects,  Epistles,  and 
Gospels,  2s.  6d.  ;  i8mo,  is.  net;  Demy  i8mo,  cloth,  large  type,  is.  %d.\  i6mo, 
with  red  borders,  zs.  net ;  Imperial  y.mo,  limp  cloth,  6d. 

Skrine.— PASTOR  AGNORUM  :  a  Schoolmaster's  After- 
thoughts. By  JOHN  HUNTLEY  SKRINE,  sometime  Warden  of  Glen- 
almond,  Author  of  'A  Memory  of  Edward  Thring,  etc.  Crown  8vo. 
5*.  net. 

Soulsby.— SUGGESTIONS  ON  PRAYER.     By  LUCY  H.  M. 

SOULSBY.     iSffio,  sewed,  is.  net.  ;  cloth,  is.  6d.  net. 

Stone.— Works  by  the  Rev.  DARWELL  STONE,  M.A.,  Librarian 
of  the  Pusey  House,  Oxford. 

THE  INVOCATION  OF  SAINTS:  an  Article  reprinted,  with  slight 
additions,  from  '  The  Church  Quarterly  Review. '  8vo.  2s.  6d.  net. 

OUTLINES  OF  MEDITATIONS  FOR  USE  IN  RETREAT.  Crown 
8vo.  2s.  6d.  net. 

CHRIST  AND  HUMAN  LIFE:  Lectures  delivered  in  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral  in  January  1901  ;  together  with  a  Sermon  on  '  The  Father- 
hood of  God. '  Crown  8vo.  2S.  6d.  net. 

OUTLINES  OF  CHRISTIAN  DOGMA.     Crown  &vo.     75.  6d. 
THE  INVOCATION  OF  SAINTS.      8vo.     zs.  6d.  net. 
HOLY  BAPTISM.     Crown  8vo.     5*.     (The  Oxford  Library  of  Practical 
Theology. ) 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE.  23 

Strong.— Works  by  THOMAS  B.  STRONG,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Christ 
Church,  Oxford. 

CHRISTIAN  ETHICS:  being  the  Bampton  Lectures  for  1895.  8vo. 
•js.  6d. 

GOD  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL.     Crown  Zvo.     2s.  6d.  net. 

AUTHORITY  IN  THE  CHURCH.  Crown  8vo.  ss.  6d.  net.  (Hand- 
books for  the  Clergy). 

Stubbs.— ORDINATION  ADDRESSES.  By  the  Right  Rev. 
W.  STUBBS,  D.D.,  late  Lord  Bishop  of  Oxford.  Edited  by  the  Rev. 
E.  E.  HOLMES,  formerly  Domestic  Chaplain  to  the  Bishop ;  Hon. 
Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  With  Photogravure  Portrait. 
Crown  8vo.  6s.  net. 

Waggett.— THE  AGE  OF  DECISION.    By  P.  N.  WAGGETT, 

M.A.,  of  the  Society  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  Cowley  St.  John, 
Oxford.      Crown  8vo.     25.  6d.  net. 

• 

Wakeford.— Works  by  the  Rev.  JOHN  WAKEFORD,  B.D.,  Vicar 
of  St.  Margaret,  Anfield,  Liverpool. 

THE  GLORY  OF  THE  CROSS:  a  Brief  Consideration  of  the  Force, 
Effects,  and  Merits  of  Christ's  Death  and  Passion.  Sermons  de- 
livered in  Liverpool  Cathedral.  Crown  8vo.  zs.  6d.  net. 

INTO  THE  HOLY  OF  HOLIES  THROUGH  THE  VAIL  OF  THE 
FLESH  OF  THE  ETERNAL  HIGH  PRIEST,  JESUS  CHRIST: 
Prayers  and  Devotions  for  Private  Use  at  Home  and  in  Church. 
i8mo,  cloth  limp,  gd.  net;  cloth  boards,  is.  net. 

Williams.— Works  by  the  Rev.  ISAAC  WILLIAMS,  B.D. 

A  DEVOTIONAL  COMMENTARY  ON  THE  GOSPEL  NARRA- 
TIVE. Eight  Voh.  Crown  8vo.  5*.  each. 


THOUGHTS  ON  THE  STUDY  OF  THE 

HOLY  GOSPELS. 
A    HARMONY    OF    THE   FOUR 

EVANGELISTS. 
OUR  LORD'S  NATIVITY. 


OUR  LORD'S  MiNiSTRY(Second  Year). 

OUR  LORD'S  MINISTRY  (Third  Year). 

THE  HOLY  WEEK. 

OUR  LORD'S  PASSION. 

OUR  LORD'S  RESURRECTION. 


FEMALE    CHARACTERS    OF    HOLY    SCRIPTURE.      A  Series  of 
Sermons.     Crown  8vo.     5*. 

THE  CHARACTERS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.     Crown  8vo.    &. 
SERMONS  ON  THE  EPISTLES  AND  GOSPELS  FOR  THE  SUN- 
DAYS AND  HOLY  DAYS.     Two  Voh.     Crown  8vo.  $s.  each. 

Wirgman.— THE   DOCTRINE  OF  CONFIRMATION.     By 
A.    THEODORE   WIRGMAN,    D.D.,  D.C.L.,  Canon  of  Grahamstown, 

and  Vice-Provost  of  St.   Mary's  Collegiate  Church,  Port  Elizabeth, 
South  Africa.     Crown  8vo.     3^.  6d. 


24       A  SELECTION  OF  THEOLOGICAL   WORKS. 

Wordsworth. — Works  by  CHRISTOPHER  WORDSWORTH,  D.D., 
sometime  Bishop  of  Lincoln. 

THE  HOLY  BIBLE  (the  Old  Testament).     With  Notes,  Introductions, 
and  Index.     Imperial  8vo. 

Vol.  I.  THE  PENTATEUCH.  25.;.  VoL  II.  JOSHUA  TO  SAMUEL.  15*. 
Vol.  III.  KINGS  to  ESTHER.  iy.  Vol.  IV.  JOB  TO  SONG  OF 
SOLOMON.  25.?.  Vol.  V.  ISAIAH  TO  EZEKIEL.  255.  Vol.  VI. 
DANIEL,  MINOR  PROPHETS,  and  Index.  15.?. 

Also  supplied  in  13  Parts.     Sold  separately. 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT,  in  the  Original  Greek.     With  Notes,  Intro- 
ductions, and  Indices.     Imperial  8vo. 

Vol.  I.  GOSPELS  AND  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  23.5.  Vol.  II. 
EPISTLES,  APOCALYPSE,  and  Indices,  yjs. 

A  Iso  supplied  in  4  Parts.     Sold  separately. 

CHURCH  HISTORY  TO  A.D.  451.     Four  Voh.     Crown  8vo. 

Vol.  I.  To  THE  COUNCIL  OF  NIC^A,  A.D.  325.  8s.  6d.  Vol.  II. 
FROM  THE  COUNCIL  OF  NIC^EA  TO  THAT  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 
6s.  Vol.  III.  CONTINUATION.  6s.  Vol.  IV.  CONCLUSION,  To 
THE  COUNCIL  OF  CHALCEDON,  A.D.  451.  6s. 

THEOPHILUS    ANGLICANUS :    a   Manual   of    Instruction    on    the 
Church  and  the  Anglican  Branch  of  it.     izmo.     2s.  6d. 

ELEMENTS    OF    INSTRUCTION    ON    THE    CHURCH.      i6mo. 
is.  cloth.     6d.  sewed. 

THE  HOLY  YEAR  :  Original  Hymns.     i6mo.    zs.bd.andis.    Limp,bd. 
,,  „      WithMusic.     Edited  by  W.  H.  MONK.     Square  8vo.  45.  6d. 

ON    THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE    OF    THE    SOUL    AFTER 
DEATH.     32mo.     is. 


Wordsworth. — Works   by   JOHN  WORDSWORTH,   D.D.,   Lord 
Bishop  of  Salisbury. 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  GRACE  :  Studies  in  Early  Church  History,  with 

reference  to  Present  Problems.  Crown  8vo.  6s.  6d.  net. 

THE  HOLY  COMMUNION :  Four  Visitation  Addresses.  1.891. 
Crown  8vo.  %s.  6d. 

THE  ONE  RELIGION  :  Truth,  Holiness,  and  Peace  desired  by  the 
Nations,  and  revealed  by  Jesus  Christ.  Eight  Lectures  delivered  oefore 
the  University  of  Oxford  in  1881.  Crown  8vo.  js.  6d. 

UNIVERSITY  SERMONS  ON  GOSPEL  SUBJECTS.   Sm.Bvo.  zs.6d. 
PRAYERS  FOR  USE  IN  COLLEGE.     i6mo.     is. 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 
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