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ruler God hath made me; whose negligence cannot be excused, if any schisms or errors heretical were suffered. All which if you my Lords of the clergy do not amend, I mean to depose you."* We need not wonder therefore at the fact that in the latter part of her reign an act was passed, ordering all Anabaptists to leave the country, under penalty of imprisonment or confiscation of property. This decree shows that they existed in England to a considerable extent, which confirms what is stated by Dr. Some, who wrote against the Puritans in 1589, "that there were several Anabaptistical Conventicles in London and other places," and that "some persons of these sentiments had been at the universities." It is highly probable, therefore, that a large number of the learned Puritans who left the national church, carried out their principles to this conclusion. The opinions with which Dr. Some charges them are precisely the same as those for which Roger Williams suffered, namely," that the ministers of the gospel ought to be maintained by the voluntary contributions of the people that the civil power has no right to make or impose ecclesiastical laws that the high commission court was an anti-christian

* Hansard's parliamentary History, Vol. I, 834. Strype's Life of Whitgift, I, 494.

usurpation—that those who are qualified to teach ought not to be burthened by the civil power-that though the Lord's prayer be a rule and foundation of prayer, yet it is not to be used as a form, and that no forms of prayer ought to be imposed on the church—that the baptism administered by the Church of Rome is invalid -that a true constitution and discipline are essential to a true church, and that the worship of God in the established church is in many things defective."

It is worthy of note, that archbishop Whitgift's charges against the Baptists are of precisely the same character, while at the same time he observes, that their influence among the people was increased by their appearance of extraordinary piety.* If, as has been said, Roger Williams was far in advance of his age, how much more were these men in advance of theirs. Their doctrine of human liberty they learned from no school of political philosophy, nor discovered it by any superior sagacity of their own, but it was an article of their religious faith, received directly from that "word which giveth understanding to the simple."

* Strype's Life of Whitgift. This prelate, of an intolerant lordly spirit, was truly after Queen Elizabeth's own heart, and Strype says she used to pun upon his name, calling him "her White-gift."

About 1575, in the eighteenth year of Elizabeth, the fires of Smithfield were rekindled. Two Dutch Baptists, John Wielmaker and Henry Ter Woort, were condemned to be burnt there. In regard to this, an eloquent letter in the Latin language was addressed to the Queen, by John Fox, the martyrologist of the Church of England, in order to dissuade her from such an act of cruelty. In it he says, "there are excommunications and close imprisonments; there are bonds; there is perpetual banishment, burning of the hand and whipping, or even slavery itself. This one thing I most earnestly beg, that the flames of Smithfield, so long ago extinguished by your happy governments, may not be again revived."* This appeal had no effect on the heart of Elizabeth, except to gain a month's reprieve, at the end of which as they refused to recant, these men were led forth from their prison to an honorable martyrdom.

During the preceding reign of Mary, the Baptists, no doubt, among the other sufferers, had their share of trial. She is often by protestants called the "bloody Mary," though it may well be questioned whether, as to her real character, she deserved to have that epithet attached to her name, any more than her father Henry, or

* Fuller, b. 9, p. 104, § 13. London, 1656.

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her sister Elizabeth. True, her spirit was fierce and intolerant; but so was their's. ever, was surrounded with every incentive to persecution; for, in addition to her veneration for the Romish church, she was prompted by a sense of personal honor. She knew that her father's secession from the see of Rome, was not for the sake of conscience, but from the impulse of lawless passion. With her, protestantism was not the cause of religion, but the cause of Anne Boleyn; and catholicism was not only the cause of religion, but the cause of her repudiated and dishonored mother. Before coming to the throne she had been closely watched, denied the mass, and the privilege of worship according to her wishes. Who can wonder then, at the rebound of her spirit when the day of her power came, associated as the whole subject of controversy was with mere family bickering; a fact gloried in at Rome to this day, where is exhibited at the Vatican library, on the one hand, Henry's defence of popery, and on the other, his love letters to Anne Boleyn, written from Rome at the time he was seeking a divorce from Catharine of Arragon.

A striking instance of the persecuting spirit of Mary's reign, is mentioned by Spanheim, who says that Daniel George, of Delft, in Holland, died in London, and was honorably interred in

St. Lawrence's church. Three years after, it was discovered that he was an anabaptist; then his corpse was disinterred and burnt, his picture was also burnt, and his followers were sought after with the most rigid scrutiny. At that time too, a society of persons, whom Brandt denominates in his History of the Reformation,* the low-country exiles, was broken up, and after a northern journey, found several congregations of Baptists at Wismar.

One of the mildest and most religious princes that ever sat on the English throne, was the brother of Mary, Edward VI; and one of the most touching spectacles presented to us in English history, is that of this young monarch in tears, arguing with Cranmer against the necessity of signing the death-warrant of Joan Bocher, commonly called Joan of Kent. She was a Baptist, a pious and useful woman. "She was," says Strype, "a great disperser of Tyndal's New Testament, and was a great reader of scripture herself; which book also, she dispersed in the court, and so became known to certain women of quality, and was particularly acquainted with Mrs. Anne Askew. She used for greater secresy to tie the books with strings under her apparel, and so pass with them into

* Vol. I, b. IV.

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