A history of the English Puritans

Front matter

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A HISTORY

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Preface

This book makes no pretensions. It often falls below what Dryasdust would call "the dignity of history," and is satisfied to be considered simply an accurate daguerreotype of the men and manners of a heroic past.

' The English Puritans have always labored under the disadvantage of which the lion in the fable complained so bitterly. Though they were the conquerors, their enemies were the painters. They have come down to us in tho distorted lineaments of hostile pencils. If one may borrow the clever illustration of Grainger, the performances of most of their historians remind us of the paintings of Brueghel, who had so accustomed himself to paint witches and imps, that if he tried to paint a man, he was sure to make him like a devil.

But it has been well said, that in history the law of optics is reversed :

"Our souls much, further than our eyes can see."

Society now perceives that the Puritans were earnest, honest, devout men, anxious mainly to inaugurate the regime of vital godliness and of civil libert}' — sub libertate quietem. Their great effort was

PREFACE.

to purify society. Puritanism was a protest against formalism ; it was an insurrection of the soul against the body. And their pithy theology, their stern devotion to duty, their unfaltering heroism, have combined to crown them as the teachers of their own time and as the apostles of the Christian future.

Posterity is concerned to know precisely how such men lived and acted, " at what a forge and what a heat was shaped the anchor of their hope." A volume which shall tell this story, and tell it fairly, which shall

"Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice,"

is certain to receive a welcome not only from the descendants of the Puritans, but from good men who do not see eye to eye with those uncompromising heroes.

The materials for such a work are vastly more copious than the mere casual observer would imagine ; they not only fill the highways of English history, they choke the bypaths. From the reign of Elizabeth up to the Act of Toleration under William of Orange, there is hardly a private memoir or a diary which does not have something to say about the Puritans. English chroniclers and foreign savants alike noted their impressions of them. Puritanism was not merely of local interest ; it expanded into European importance, and forced men, whether they would or not, to investigate and to judge it.

The distinctive name Puritan was not applied

PEEFAOE.

until the reign of Elizabeth, but the spirit existed long before the name was born ; so also did the great struggle which gave rise to it. It is impossible to understand Puritanism unless we comprehend what preceded it. Therefore this sketch antedates the nominal rise of the Puritans under the maiden queen. Going back to the introduction of Christianity into Britain, it has compressed into two or three score pages the ecclesiastical history of twice seven hundred years before the Reformation, and ends the rehearsal at the year 1688, the epoch of definitive toleration. This is a broad field to traverse, but an honest effort has been made to glean the harvest ; and at the same time that saying of the Grecians has been borne in mind, that " the best books are those whose covers are least far apart."

For the authority of this volume, the marginal notes must speak, and an appeal is made to them.

With the Puritans every enterprise commenced with God ; it is eminently proper that the benediction of heaven should be invoked upon the record of their labors. To His favor this book, a feeble but sincere tribute to the spiritual heroes "who kept the faith so pure of old," is reverently commended.

New Yoke, January, 1867.

Chapter I

The epoch of Christian democracy — Characteristics of the nineteenth century — The distinctive lesson of the Reformation — Puritanism the inevitable outgrowth of the pacification of the sixteenth century — The vilifiers of the Puritans — Puritanism the creator of moral America — Nature of history — Preparatory eras — Birth of English Christianity — The merchant-preachers — The aborigines of Britain — The Boman civility — Druidism — Absence of authentic records of the vicissitudes of this historic period — The Saxon invasion — Introduction of the Tartaric idolatry of the North — Beintroduction of Christianity — Gregory the Great in the Boman market-place — The Saxon slave-gangs — The clerical punster — Ecclesiastical commission under Augustine — Its success — Character of papal Christianity — Causes of the corruption of the Boman hierarchy — Church history of the heptarchy — Beign of Alfred — England esteemed the try sting-place of the dead — Wretched condition of the island — Alfred's testimony — The hero-king founds schools — Establishment of Oxford university — Continental scholars invited into England — Learning the avant courrier of reform 25

Chapter II

State of England after the death of Alfred — St. Dunstan — His career — The struggle which Dunstan inaugurates marks one age and moulds the succeeding — The Norman conquest — Influence of the Conqueror — Lanfranc's primacy — His innovations — The scheme of Hildebrand — How it was momentarily thwarted in England — Borne bides her time, and intrigues — Early British literature — Burke's complaint — Progress of the Boman usurpations — The papacy, speaking through the Hps of Becket, claims the immunity of ecclesiastics from the secular jurisdiction — Disastrous close of the consequent controversy — King John alienates the sovereignty of England, and pays tribute to the pope — A phase of resistance to the papal arrogance — Grostete, Bradwardine, Edward III., Wickliffe— Wickliffc the progenitor

CONTENTS.

of the Puritans — His birth — Broad scholarship — He "searches the Scriptures" — He becomes convinced of the corruption of Rome, and commences to proclaim the tenets of the primitive faith — Four phases of "Wickliffe's public life — Wickliffe as a politician — Insolent claims of pope Urban V. — Resistance of Edward III. — Parliament convened — The statutes of Provisors and Praemunire — Puller's witticism — Wickliffe's share in the controversy — His ministry — The Oxford professor and the Lutterworth pastor — "Wickliffe translates the Bible into English — Consequent sensation — A papist's protest — Wickliffe as a theologian — He proclaims the essential doctrines of Protestantism — Effect of his brave preaching — Persecution — The Reformer's death — Hampden and Milton join hands with Wickliffe and hail him as their father 38

Chapter III

Four ascending steps of English Protestantism — Effect of Wickliffe's doctrines — The agitation spreads through Europe — The papacy lets slip her dogs, and hounds down " heresy" — Political changes — A cunning priest — "The pelting of the pitiless storm" — Violation of Wickliffe's sepulchre — The wars of the "Roses" — The first of the Tudors— "Retribution has a foot of velvet, but a hand of steel" — Henry VIII. — A leaf from Bolingbroke — The two tides — Seed-time of the Reformation — English apostles — Old Hugh Latimer — "The most diligentest bishop in England" — The distinctive principle of the English Reformers — Animus of the government — Cardinal Wolsey — Status of the king — The ill-omened marriage — Anne Boleyn — The divorce struggle — The mission to Rome — Wolsey's urgency — Papal chicanery — The king loses patience— -The result — Downfall of Wolsey - - - 49

Chapter IV

Fuller's summary — Progress of the Reformation — Marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn — Action of parliament — Popery barred out of England by statute — The convocation — An episode which illustrates the benefit of an acquaintance with musty statutes — How the convocation was reduced to obedience — Act of Supremacy — Visitation of the monasteries — The "Bible era " of the Information — Activity of the court of Rome — The papal bull — Iveflcctions on the origin of the English Reformation — The rationale of Romanism — Subtlety and flexibility — The grace of God the only adequate weapon of assault 62

CONTENTS.

Chapter V

Character of the age of Henry VIII. — The religious Babel — First reformed convocation — It confirms Henry's divorce from Anne Boleyn — Some facts — The elaboration of a creed — Latimer's text — The debate — The " twilight religion " — "What it settled, and what it did not settle — Unpopularity of the new ritual — Severity of the government — Emeutes broaden into rebellion — Action of a committee — The " Six Articles" — The surrender to Rome — The royal "power and profit" reformer- — Cranmer and Cromwell protest — Lambert's auto da f£ — The victims of "home-bred popery "—England exchanges popes — Fall of Lord Cromwell — Death of Henry VIII. — The verdict of history- - 72

Chapter VI

"The king is dead ; long live the king!" — Edward VI. — The marvellous character of the baby king — Constitution of the new government — Cranmer becomes the leader of the Reformation — Repeal of the "Six Articles" — The "open sesame" of the new regime — Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer in England — The ecclesiastical system of Henry VIII. is remodelled — Programme of procedure — The royal visitation — Cranmer's " homilies " — Conformity enforced — Imprisonment of Gardiner and Bonner — Unsettled condition of religious faith in England — ■ The expediency and justice of toleration — Plan to secure religious unity — Servility of the .old English Parliaments — The "iconoclastic Parliament" — Its glorious achievements — Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England — -The Liturgy — Enforcement of the Service-book by harsh legislation — Animadversions — The victims— Joan of Kent — Cranmer's course — Burnet censures him — The princess Mary — Popular tumults — ■ Birth of Non-conformity - — 81

Chapter VII

The bond between church and state — Universal belief in the right of government to dictate in religious matters — Jewish and Roman precedents— The new regime retains many of the ecclesiastical equipments of the old — It parts with the essence of popery — Beneficent results of the use of the new Service-book — The attempt to enforce absolute uniformity the fatal error of the church-and-state reformers — The "vestment controversy" — Bishop Hooper — His antecedents — Apx^ointed bishop of Gloucester — Refuses to accept that see — Reasons for his rejection

1*

CONTENTS.

of the dignity — Action of the king and council — Bishop Kidley — Reasons for the retention of the old vestments — The plan in Ridley's argument — The debate contains the gems of Puritanism — Cranmer's views — Bucer and Martyr appealed to — Their decision — Advice of the Genevan doctors — Hooper's unwillingness to conform provokes his persecution — His imprisonment — The king's decree — Eventual settlement of the controversy by a compromise — In after years Cranmer and Ridley agree with Hooper's estimate of the vestments — The importance assigned to preaching one of the marked features of Edward's reign — The six most zealous and ready preachers of the time — The first Anglo-Saxon Tract Society — Approach of black days — Death of Edward VI. — England given over to demoniacs- - 90

CHAPTEE YIII.

Political situation on the death of Edward — The will of Henry VIII. — The young king's ruse — An unlawful testament — Coronation of Lady Jane Grey — Why the conspiracy was defeated — Mary's accession — Mary's bigotry has four phases — How the queen cozened the Suffolk men — Release of the Romanist bishops from the Tower — The proclamation — The inhibition — -The Protestant pulpits shackled — Reformers bastilled— The foreign Protestants resident in England driven out — Self-exile of the English reformers— The muddle — Coronation of the queen — Convention of Parliament — The house packed by bribery and menace— Abolition of the reformatory statutes — Romanism once more legalized in England — The convocation — Bonner loses temper — "You have the word, but we have the sword" — England and Rome reconciled — The cardinal's benediction — Resurrection of the statutes for the execution of heretics by fire — The dance of death begins— Gardiner and Bonner the twin jackals of the hunt— The English court of Inquisition— Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer baited and abused at Oxford— The logical dilemma— -Autos da fe— John Rogers' martyrdom— Old Smithfi, Id—The rendezvous of the fire goblins— Scenes at the stake— The heroes of chivalry, and the heroes of the faith— Martyrdom of Hooper at Gloucester— Bradford ascends to heaven in a chariot of fire— The fires of Smithfield broaden over England — Ridley and Latimer martyred at one stake in Oxford— Gardiner death-smitten— Execution of Archbishop Cranmer — "Oh that unworthy hand, that unworthy hand "—Intolerance broods over England — Rome must persecute to be consistent — Persecution does not choke heresy— The throttled truth still finds proselytes - - 103

CONTENTS..

Chapter IX

The self-banished reformers — The Frankfort congregation — Their cordial reception — The English Protestants share the chapel of the French Huguenots — Conditions of the grant — The new church government — The packet of letters — Response of the neighboring English refugees — The Frankfortites grieved but firm — They appoint John Knox their pastor — The exiled adherents of the Established church refuse to fellowship the non-conforming church — The appeal to Calvin — Verdict of the Genevan doctor — The debate — The decision — Dr. Cox and his colleagues arrive in Frankfort — He determines to compel conformity to the English ritual — Consequent troubles — Intervention of the Frankfort magistrates — The Coxians beaten — Cox denounces Knox to the city senate as a traitor to the emperor — Knox requested to leave the town — Arbitrary course of the Coxians — Vain protest of the non-conformists — Cox writes Calvin — The reply — The old congregation quit Frankfort for Basle and Geneva — Knox forms a new church in Geneva — After history of the Frankfort exiles — These troubles the infant cry of Puritanism — The epithet "schismatics" — Ecclesiastical opinions of the fathers of the English Eeformation — The pros and cons — The two parties in the English church — How the exiles "made shift to subsist through these hard times " — Death of Mary — The release from banishment 124

Chapter X

England awakes from her nightmare — Events which preceded the coronation of Elizabeth — The unhappy situation on her accession — Elizabeth dissembles, and preserved for a time the status quo — Parliament assembles at Westminster — Its bias towards reform — Eepeal of the papal legislation of Mary's reign — The new act of supremacy — The "weak and dwindled" convocation — The disputation — The papists refuse to debate — "They only love to have syllogisms in their mouths, when they have swords in their hands" — The Eomanists ordered to take the oath of supremacy — The larger portion do so — Those who are contumacious imprisoned — Preparations made to enforce conformity — Large numbers of the English Protestants prefer the Genevan and Lutheran discipline — The Non-conformists now styled Puritans — Eeason of the nickname — The Puritans and the Conformists agree in doctrine but quarrel over discipline — Animus of the queen — Eevision of the Liturgy — Parliament places the law of uniformity upon the statute-book — The court

CONTENTS.

of High Commission — Its abnormal character — The govern ment enforce uniformity in non-essentials by penal legislation — The rock on which the peace of the church is split — Eeflections — The vacant sees filled by Protestants — Parker consecrated archbishop of Canterbury — The Reformation settled — Resume of the points of agreement and disagreement between the Conformists and the Puritans in the church of England — Neither party believes in toleration — The tendency of Puritanism — Its spirituality - 137

CHAPTER XL

Two principles — Distinction between the civil and the ecclesiastical jurisdictions — Elizabeth "ransacks consciences" — The bishops and the royal council wink at the evasion of the Uniformity act — The queen's rage thereat— End of the policy of delay — Zeal of Archbishop Parker — A record of heroism — London the Gibraltar of Puritanism — The citation — "In the gap" — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — The killed consciences — The bureau of spies — The license system — The parish pulpits closed to Non-conformists — The ancient privilege of Cambridge — The Puritans, shackled in the pulpit, turn to the press — The war of pamphlets — A Star-chamber decree muzzles the press— Faith in God a distinctive principle of Puritanism— The Separatists — The majority of the Puritans still adhere to the church of England—The Puritans, whether Separatists or church-of-England men, relentlessly harried by the government — Mary of Scots in England — Knox runs the Scottish Keformation in the Genevan mould — The Scotch Presbyterians and the English Puritans clasp hands — Elizabeth's disgust — Detention of Mary of Scots in a gilded imprisonment — The portentous European sky — Kome's reactive assault upon the Protestant idea — France — The Netherlands — England swarms with popish emissaries — Jesuit masqueraders — Rome's "missionary"' colleges — The quelled irneutes — The bruium f ulmen — The Chinese gong of excommunication frightens no one — Continued persecution of the Puritans — Elizabeth's Don Quixotism - — 152