Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER IX,

THE REIGN OF JAMES I.

Contents.

I. James I. on his Accession, promises to support the Hierarchy.-II. The Millenary Petition: other Petitions.-III. Hampton Court Conference.-IV. Remarks on the Proceedings.-V. Death and Character of Whitgift: Bancroft Archbishop. VI. First Parliament: Sentiments of King and Puritans relative to the Catholics.-VII. Convocation: Canons.-VIII. Conformity enforced.-IX. Gunpowder Plot.-X. Reflections on James's Conduct towards the Papists and Puritans.-XI. Oath of Allegiance.-XII. Complaints respecting the High Commission Court.-XIII. Death and Character of Bancroft: Abbot Archbishop. XIV. Book of Sports.-XV. Synod of Dort.-XVI, State of Parties: Calvinists and Arminians.-XVII. Papists and Regulations for Preaching.—XVIII, Death and Character of James.-XIX. Miscellaneous Matters: Character of the Reign: Conduct of Abbot : Convocations: Amusements of the Clergy: Form of consecrating a Church: Selden's History of Tithes.XX. Acts of Parliament.-XXI. Learned Divines. I. 1603. ELIZABETH was succeeded on the English throne by James, the son of her unfortunate rival, Mary. As this monarch had been born of a Popish mother, but educated by rigid Calvinists,

the hopes of the Roman Catholic and puritanical parties were equally elevated on his accession. Both, however, speedily sustained a grievous disappointment, by finding in the new sovereign a most zealous supporter of the English ecclesiastical constitution.

Whitgift, on the death of Elizabeth, had dispatched Neville, his dean, to make professions of loyalty to James, in the name of the bishops and their clergy, and to recommend the English church to his protection and favour. In reply to this embassy, the monarch signified his intention of preserving the doctrine and discipline of the church of England, in the state in which it had been left by his predecessor; an assurance productive of the highest satisfaction, by dissipating that Scottish mist, as his approach was termed, of which the southern divines had expressed their apprehensions *.

[ocr errors]

II. An address, denominated the Millenary Petition, from the round number employed in denoting the signatures, which, though boasted of as MORE than a thousand, did not really exceed seven hundred and fifty, was presented to James, on his way to the English metropolis, by the puritan clergy of the church. It contained little more than a repetition of the old invectives. With respect to the church service, it prayed, that the eross in baptism, interrogatories addressed to in* Life of Whitgift, p. 559.

7

*,、,,*

་ ་*

fants, and the office of confirmation, might be dispensed with it complained of baptism by fe. males, of the cap and surplice, of the ring in marriage, of the terms priest and absolution in the Liturgy; and it requested that the communion might be preceded by examination, and administered with the accompaniment of a sermon. The general length of the service, the cathedral music, the profanation of the Lord's Day, and idleness of holidays, the apocryphal books, and the bowing at the name of Jesus, were all embraced in the scope of its invective. A wish was next expressed, that only able men and diligent preachers might be henceforward admitted into the church; that non-residence might be prohibited, and that subscription might be confined solely to the articles and oath of supremacy. Commendams, pluralities, and impropriations annexed to bishoprics and colleges, were not omitted among the alleged grievances; while a hint was suggested that the lay im propriations should all be charged with the maintenance of a preacher. Lay excommunications, the frequency of oaths ex officio, and of marriage licenses, together with the length of suits in ecclesiastical courts, were the last evils of which redress was craved.

ཏ ན ་ ཾ

In this instrument the candid judge will not fail to perceive some improper demands, and many frivolous complaints, mingled, nevertheless, with

no small number of serious and well-grounded remonstrances. It is chiefly reprehensible in deprecating an uniformity in ecclesiastical discipline; without which it seems altogether impossible that any church could subsist in internal tranquillity.

The address having been presented, a rumour was spread abroad, that the King was favourably inclined to it: this, it is probable, originated in the wishes, and might be no deliberate fabrication, of the petitioners; but its effect was like that, in battle, of a cry of victory raised in the van, which induces the main army to follow for a variety of similar petitions accompanied the homage paid to James, as he proceeded through the several counties. To this brood of addresses the signature of no hand provided with fingers, was refused; the pen was even guided in the subscription of young boys; and there was discovered to be a remarkable ubiquitariness" of the same handwriting. Not content with that moderate pruning, which was the object of the parent address, several of these papers proposed the entire extirpation of the hierarchy.

"

With respect to the millenary petition, which, chiefly demanded notice, it instantly ran the gauntlet throughout the whole prelatical party, every one bestowing on it a lash as it passed; some with their pens, but more with their tongues; while even those who had been called, in derision, the dumb ministers, now finding their speech, be

1

came most vocal in its disparagement. Its most prominent opposers were the two universities, whose members accused the subscribers to it of hostility to the monarchical prerogative. Taking offence, as it was coarsely expressed, at the proposal for cutting off the nipples from the breasts of the almæ matres, in the clause respecting college impropriations, they affirmed, that although no express objection was then made to episcopacy and forms of prayer, the design of taking the place by storming the outworks, was manifest: and that the ultimate object of these millenary petitioners, was to bind their king in chains, and their prince in fetters of iron. Whether James was influenced by the same suspicions, and dis-* approved of the familiar language in which the complainants were accustomed to address their Creator, in prayer, as tending to abate their due respect for their earthly sovereign; or whether their austere manners, and enmity to diversions, so opposite to his own hilarity, were displeasing to him, he steadfastly adhered to the answer he had returned to the bishops; yet, desirous of conciliating the Puritans by deliberation and open inquiry, and at the same time anxious to display his theological accomplishments, he commanded all parties to abide quietly the result of a conference to be held at Hampton Court, where he proposed presiding as moderator. Though determined, as

« AnteriorContinuar »