Whitgift, and suspended. Mr. Hildersham was prosecuted a second time in the high commission, and again suspended. He was obliged to enter into bonds not to preach in any part of England; and when restored he was not allowed, for some time, to preach at any place south of the river Trent. The celebrated Mr. Cartwright, with many of his brethren, endured much severe persecution. This divine having been prosecuted for nonconformity, was driven into a foreign land, where he remained several years in a state of exile. Upon his return for the benefit of his health, he was immediately apprehended, and, though in a very languishing condition, was cast into prison. At length, having obtained his liberty, he was suspended by his diocesan, and convened before the high commission, when thirty-one articles were exhibited against him. But refusing the oath ex officio, to answer these articles, he was immediately committed to the Fleet, with his brethren, Messrs. Stephen Egerton, Humphrey Fenn, Daniel Wight, Farmer, Edward Lord, Edmund Snape, Andrew King, Rushbrooke, Wiggins, John Field, Royde, John Payne, William Proudlove, Melancton Jewel, &c. Many others were summoned at the same time: as, Messrs. Henry Alvey, Thomas Edmunds, William Perkins, Edmund Littleton, John Johnson, Thomas Stone, Thomas Barber, Hercules Cleavely, and Andrew Nutter. These believing it to be their duty to take the oath, deposed many things relative to the associations, and thus became witnesses against their brethren; for which they were most probably released. But the others underwent many examinations; received much unkind treatment in the high commission and star-chamber; and they continued in prison several years. As this storm was gathering, Mr. Francis Kett, a man of some learning, and master of arts in one of the universities, was convened before the Bishop of Norwich; and for holding divers detestable opinions, as they are called, he was condemned and burnt near the city of Norwich.+ Such was the outrageous persecution in the reign of Queen Elizabeth! In the year 1592, the nonconformists had many bold and zealous advocates in both houses of parliament. Mr. Attorney Morrice, a man of distinguished eminence, moved the house of commons to enquire into the inquisition and other proceedings of the bishops, contrary to the honour Strype's Whitgift, p. 331-333. + Parallel betwixt Phanatics, p. 11. Edit. 1661: from Stow. of God, the laws of the realm, and the liberty of the subject; compelling learned and godly ministers upon their own oaths, to accuse themselves, and to deprive, degrade and imprison them upon this accusation. He also offered two bills to the house; the one against the oath ex officio, the other against the illegal proceedings of the bishops, in which he was warmly supported by Sir Francis Knollys and other famous statesmen. But the queen, by her own arbitrary command, forbad the house to discuss ecclesiastical matters, and charged the speaker, upon his allegiance, not to read the bills. Morrice was, at the same time, seized in the house, and carried prisoner to Tutbury castle, where he continued many years. The parliament having tamely yielded its own liberties and those of the subject, to the tyrannical power of the queen, passed one of the most unjust and inhuman acts for oppression and cruelty, that was ever known in a protestant country. It is entitled "An Act for the Punishment of Persons obstinately refusing to come to Church;" and enacts," that all persons above the age of sixteen, refusing to come to church; or persuading others to deny her majesty's authority in causes ecclesiastical; or dissuading them from coming to church; or being found present at any conventicle or meeting under pretence of religion; shall upon conviction be committed to prison without bail, till they shall conform and come to church." But in case such offenders should refuse to subscribe a most debasing recantation, it is further enacted, "That within three months, they shall ABJURE THE REALM and go into PERPETUAL BANISHMENT. And if they do not depart within the time appointed; or if they ever return without the queen's license, they shall SUFFER DEATH WITHOUT BENEFIT OF CLERGY."‡ The case of the nonconformists was by this act worse than that of felons. Herein the queen exceeded the tyranny of Henry VIII. For absolute as that monarch was, he contented himself with punishing those who opposed the established religion by some overt act; but by this new statute, the subjects were obliged, under the heaviest penalty, to make an open profession of the established religion, by a constant attendance on its public service." The oppression of this statute fell chiefly upon the Brownists, who renounced all communion with the national D. Ewes's Journal, p. 474. church, and were now become very numerous.* There were several considerable persons at their head: as, Messrs. Smyth, Jacob, Ainsworth, Johnson, and Greenwood. Their London congregation being obliged to meet in different places, to hide itself from the bishops' officers, was at length discovered on a Lord's day at Islington, in the very place in which the protestant congregation met in the reign of Queen Mary; when about fifty-six were apprehended, and sent two by two to the different prisons about London, where many others had been long confined. The names of most of these persecuted servants of Christ, with the cruel oppressions they endured, are now before me. They suffered a long and miserable confinement; and under the barbarous usage they met with, many of them died in prison.+ Mr. Roger Rippon, who died this year, is said to have been the last of sixteen or seventeen that were murdered in Newgate. Numerous families, as well as individuals, were driven into banishment, while many died in close imprisonment, and others suffered upon the gallows. Among the latter were Mr. Henry Barrow and Mr. John Greenwood. These persons having endured several years close confinement in the Fleet, were tried, condemned, and executed at Tyburn, giving the strongest testimony of their unfeigned piety towards God, and their unshaken loyalty to the queen. Also, Mr. John Penry, a pious and learned minister, was arraigned, condemned, and executed in a most cruel and barbarous manner. Mr. William Dennys was also executed on the same account, at Thetford in Norfolk. These violent proceedings drove great numbers of the Brownists into Holland, where their leaders, Messrs. Smyth, Johnson, Ainsworth, Jacob, Robinson, and others, by leave of the states, erected churches according to their own views of the gospel, at Amsterdam, Arnheim, Middleburgh, and Leyden. Several champions now appeared in defence of episcopacy: as, Drs. Bancroft, Bilcon, Bridges, Cosin, and Soam. These were answered by Bradshaw, Fenner, Sir Walter Raleigh declared in parliament, that in their various congregations, they were increased to the number of twenty thousand.-D. Ewes's Journal, p. 517.-Townshend's Collections, p. 76. + Baker's MS. Collec. vol. xiv. p. 311. xv. 59-111, "These round dealings," says a reverend author, "did a little terrify the rest of the puritans, and checked the furiousness of the wiser sort. But having the Earls of Leicester, Warwick, and Shrewsbury, Lords North and Burleigh, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Francis Knollys, with others of the nobility, for their honourable patrons, they resumed their cou sage."-Peirce's Findication, part i. p. 151,-Foulis's Hist. of Plots, p. 61, In Morrice, and others; though the press was shut against the puritans. But Bancroft was their bitterest enemy. his "Survey" and "Dangerous Positions," he wrote with much fierceness, misrepresentation, and abuse. He reproached the principles and practices of the puritans, as if they were enemies both to church and state, when they only sought, in the most peaceable manner, to promote a reformation of the ecclesiastical discipline and ceremonies, according to their views of the word of God.* Towards the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign many severities were inflicted upon the nonconformists. Mr. William Smyth was apprehended and cast into prison. Mr. Smythurst was deprived of his living, and treated with great injustice by the high commission. Mr. Rudd was convened before the high commission, suspended, and forced to make a recantation. Mr. Aderster, a Lincolnshire divine, having endured many sufferings by suspension, deprivation, and other censures, in the high commission at Lambeth, was tried at the public assizes, when Judge Anderson treated him worse than a dog. Mr. Clarke, preacher to the society at Lincoln's-inn, London, and Mr. Philips, preacher at St. Saviour's, Southwark, were both summoned before the high commission; when the former was deprived, and the latter suspended and com, mitted to the Gatehouse. Mr. Bradshaw, an excellent divine, was silenced by Archbishop Whitgift; and a great number of ministers in Norfolk were under suspension, and their people greatly oppressed in the ecclesiastical courts. Some, indeed, supposed that the puritans were now vanquished, and their number greatly diminished, by the rigorous execution of the penal laws.+ This, however, is contrary to matter of fact. For in the beginning of the next reign, there were at least fifteen hundred ministers who avowed their nonconformity to the national church. The queen died March 24, 1603, having reigned upwards of forty-four years. The puritans of these times were not without their failings, being men of like passions with their adversaries; yet, while they opposed the episcopal impositions and oppres sions, if they had accomplished their wishes, there is cause to fear, that they would have imposed their own discipline. Their notions of civil and religious liberty were confused, and their principles and behaviour sometimes rigid; yet + Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 233. *MS. Remarks, p. 461. they were men eminent for piety, devotion, and zeal in the cause of Christ. The suspensions and deprivations of this long reign are said to amount to several thousands.* But, while the nonconformists were thus harassed, the church and the nation were in a most deplorable state. Great numbers of churches, in all parts of the country, were without ministers; and among those who professed to be ministers, about three thousand were mere readers, who could not preach at all. And under pretence of maintaining order and uniformity in the church, popery, immorality, and ungodliness were every where promoted: so that while the zealous prelates pretended to be building up the church of England, they were evidently undermining the church of God.+ SECT. III. From the Death of Queen Elizabeth, to the Death of King James I. KING JAMES was thirty-six years old when he came to the crown of England, having reigned in Scotland from his infancy. His majesty's behaviour in Scotland had raised too high the expectations of the puritans: they relied upon his education, his subscribing the covenant, his professed kindness for the suffering nonconformists, and his repeated declarations. He had declared in the general assembly at Edinburgh, with his hands lifted up to heaven, "That he praised God that he was born to be king of the purest kirk in the world. As for our neighbour kirk of England," said he," their service is an evil-said mass in English. They want nothing of the mass but the liftings." The king had given great offence to the English bishops, by saying," that their order smelled vilely of popish pride; that they were a principal branch of the pope, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh; that the Book of Common Prayer was the English mass-book; and that the surplice, copes, and ceremonies were outward badges of popery." The expectations of the puritans were, therefore, highly * Neal's Puritans, vol. i. p. 511.-The number of clergy suspended and deprived for nonconformity was, according to Hume, very great, and comprehended at one time a third of all the ecclesiastics in the kingdom!! -Hist. of Eng. vol. v. p. 337. + MS. Remarks, p. 411. Calderwood's Hist. of Scotland, p. 256. § MS. Remarks, p. 535. |