Oxford and Cambridge. Then it reigns, and to re-enact those old was that on account of the popish bloody statutes which brought the ignorance and incapacity of the martyrs to the stake, showed too clergy, and as the best substitute for plainly how little progress had then a preaching ministry, the first book been made in that reformation of of homilies was published to be read the people without which all reforin the churches, and a copy deposit- mation of doctrines and of forms is ed with every parish priest. Then of no worth. On one point, howit was that the images were ordered ever, the Queen found her subjects to be removed from places of wor- less flexible. The very act repealship; and the order went forth that ing all laws against the see of Rome, every church should within three could not be carried without a promonths be provided with a Bible. viso that the plunder of the monasThen it was that the old Latin forms teries and bishoprics, which Henry of public worship were collated, re- had so profusely distributed among vised, expurgated, and translated in- his courtiers, and by which he had to English. Then it was that one made the reformation so acceptable great and noisome abomination of to them, should remain undisturbed the ancient or popish Christianity, with those who then possessed it. was swept away by legalizing the The Queen indeed gave back all of marriage of the clergy. Then it that property which was still in poswas that the reformation of the session of the sovereign, and testichurch was continually regarded, fied her zeal by repairing old monnot as a work completed and inca. asteries and erecting new ones; but pable of advancement, but as a when it was proposed in Parliament work in progress, to be carried on that the abbey lands should be refrom one degree of purity to anoth- stored by law to the uses from which

These six years of the reign they had been alienated, the Eng. of Edward VI. are the years in lish temper was up in a moment; which the foundation was laid for and even in that obsequious assemwhatever of real Protestantism per bly there were those who signifitains to the church of England as cantly laid their hands on their by law established.

swords, and said they knew how to On the accession of Mary, when defend their own property.

Had the reforming prelates and states. the Queen, or rather had the Pope men found their own engine of the her master, been wise enough to king's supremacy turned against abandon the claim on the alienated themselves, it was soon manifest property of the church, and to conthat the measures of the preceding firm that property to the actual posreign had not been ineffectual; and sessors, trusting to the power of su. the three hundred victims, of all perstition and of priestcraft to make ranks, from the aged primate of up all losses, the cruelties which all England to the simple peasant have gained for Mary so unhappy a and the little child, who were burn. preëminence in English history, ed at the stake as martyrs to the re- would have been far more effectual formed faith, "lighted such a can- toward suppressing the Protestant dle in England as shall never be party. But while the alienation re. put out." Yet the facility with mained unsanctioned by the Pope, which almost the entire nation was all that property, amounting to perturned back from the religion of haps a fifth part of the rental of the Edward and Cranmer to the religion kingdom, was a “vested interest" of Mary and Bonner—the pliable. against the establishment of popery. ness of Parliament to repeal all the It was the security which the re. reforming laws of the two preceding formation gave to the tenure of so

er.

large an amount of property, to- to religious affairs, which agitated gether with the personal unpopular. England from the days of Elizabeth ity of Mary, gloomy, bigoted, aus. to the revolution of 1688. On the tere, better qualified for an abbess one hand, the ecclesiastical estab. than a queen, which, more than any lishment was so constituted as to be, general conviction of the truth of far more than the aristocracy, the the reformed doctrine, made the ac- great support and bulwark of the cession of Elizabeth so acceptable throne; its patronage being, for the to the majority of the nation. Eliz- most part, directly or indirectly at abeth's title to the throne being ex- the king's disposal ; its bishop bar. clusively Protestant, and depending ons, with their power over the infeon an act of Parliament empower- rior clergy, and with their votes in ing her father to settle the succes- the house of lords, being his creasion by his will, she could not but tures; and all the highest honors of adopt the Protestant policy, espe- the national church, with whatever cially as in the person of her cousin influence such honors can have on Mary of Scotland there was a Po- opinion or action, being absolutely pish pretender to the crown. Ac. at his disposal. On the other hand, cordingly, in a few months, the laws there was among the people, and relating to the ecclesiastical estab- had been from the days of Wycliffe, lishment were restored nearly as a leaven of that true Protestantism they stood at the death of Edward which bids every man read the ScripVI. The great difference was not tures for himself, and teaches every that in a few things the service book man that he is to be saved, not by was made less exceptionable to the the mediation of the church or of adherents of the old superstition; its priesthood, but by the grace of nor was it that the taste of the “ head God in Christ freely pardoning his of the church” affected all sorts of sin and forming his soul anew. To pomp and stately ceremony. The this remnant of Lollardism, and to great difference lay rather in that the influence which Wycliffe and pregnant fact, that the reformation his followers had left upon the popas Edward left it was a reformation ular mind, the reformation in the in full progress, a reformation car- days of Henry, and still more in ried as far as the exigencies of those the days of Edward, gave impulse times would allow, and to be carried and development. Thus while the farther when the times should be church, considered as a political inmore propitious; whereas the refor- stitution, was reformed into so commation as restored by Elizabeth was plete a dependence on the king, a a reformation already completed, a reformation of another kind was reformation sealed and hallowed by going on among the people. New the blood of the martyrs, and never spiritual ideas-ideas which are the to be called in question without the germ of popular liberty and of guilt, at least of“ temerity.” From boundless activity and improvement, that time the church of England began to spread rapidly. Especialhas been, in the estimation of all ly in the reign of Edward VI, when her true disciples, not infallible, for Bucer at Cambridge, and Peter Mar. that would not be Protestant, but al. tyr at Oxford, were the authorized always and perfectly in the right,- teachers of theology, forming the theoretically fallible, but in fact nev- opinions and character of the young er erring,-a church “ without spot clergy—an arrangement not unlike or wrinkle or any such thing." what might he seen now in England

In the circumstances and method if Merle D'Aubigné were placed at of the English reformation, we see the head of theological instruction the elements of that strife in relation in one of those universities, and

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Tholuck or Neander in the other prayer-book as the very thing for the principles of a true and thorough which their brethren in England reformation took root in the univer. were then suffering martyrdom, were sities; and thence were propagated, a demonstration of the opposing as the men educated under such an tendencies which needed only time influence went abroad to their vari- for growth, and opportunity for de. ous employments in church or state. velopment, to agitate all England. The towns, essentially republican in of the eight hundred fugitives, lay their constitution, showed from the and clerical, who during that bloody first a decided aptitude for the re- reign found refuge in Geneva, and ception of the new opinions. in other cities where the reformation

The two reformations—the one after the Swiss model had prevailed, proceeding from the king, and the only a few came home without the other proceeding from the people— earnest desire of seeing the ecclewere for a while prevented from siastical order of their native councoming into active collision, by the try carried back, much farther than presence of an enemy equally dread. Edward's counselors had ventured, ed by each. Yet even in the reign toward a primitive simplicity. The of Edward VI, there was an omen disappointment to which they were of a coming controversy when the doomed under Elizabeth, had no excellent Hooper refused to be con- tendency to make them satisfied, secrated bishop in the “ Aaronical and did little to prevent their views habits," as they were styled, and from spreading among the most rewas consequently imprisoned till he ligious portion of the people. The consented to a compromise, and ac- Puritans began to be a distinct parcordingly made his appearance in ty as soon as the exiles returned. his prelatical character “ like a new The supreme head of the church of player on the stage,” his upper gar. England, Queen Elizabeth, was de. ment a long scarlet chimere down termined that all the forms and cir. to the feet, and under that a white cumstances of worship throughout linen rochet “that covered all his the kingdom, should be exactly acshoulders, and a four-square cap up. cording

to her ideas of dignity and on his head.” The disgust which decorum. The prayers prepared Hooper, with his thoroughly Protes, and set forth in the service book, tant tastes, must have felt in being and no others, were to be offered in compelled to make this mountebank all churches. The clergy, accordappearance even once or twice, and ing to their degrees and functions, the sympathy which all of his way were not only to be distinguished by of thinking must have felt with him their dress, like the soldiers and offi. in his imprisonment and in the de- cers of a military establishment, but gradation of his coerced conformity, were to wear the same vestments might have shown to wise men what which had been worn by the popish was to be expected when the refor. clergy of old, and which in the popmation should be less in danger from ular mind were inseparably associaany dissension among the enemies ted with the old superstition. The of Rome. In the reign of Mary, communion table in every church " the troubles at Frankfort,” where was to stand, not as might please a little congregation of fugitives from the taste of the congregation, or of England had adopted, instead of the officiating minister, but as the the book of common prayer, modes Queen's injunctions had directed. of worship more in accordance with Several of the bishops were at first the usages of the Protestants around much inclined to Puritan opinions, them, till new comers made a schism or at least to a reasonable and Chris. among them by insisting on the tian moderation. Desiring to see

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the people instructed and made bet- try, skill, enterprise, and so rapid. ter by the preaching of the Gospel, ly acquiring both knowledge and they were slow in adopting those wealth, was beginning gradually to measures which tended to perpetu- feel its strength. A philosophic and ate the reign of popular ignorance enlightened mind might have foreby silencing the most intelligent and seen that the balance of powers in conscientious, as well as the most the state must ere long be re-adjustzealous and popular of the preach- ed, either gradually or suddenly, eiing clergy. "Could those bishops ther peacefully or violently. have exercised, at that time, their When James I. came to the own judgment, many of the objec. throne, the constitution of the church tionable ceremonies and vestments of England had been arranged long would have been dispensed with. enough to produce its legitimate reBut the queen was in flexible, and sults. The bishops and other dig. her power over the church as its nitaries had learned their dependhead brought the bishops, after a ence on the sovereign, and genwhile, to a zeal for “the ceremo- erally were no longer tainted with nies and the habits” to which some any suspicion of Puritanism. Strange of them, at the beginning, were would it have been, if a church strangers.

which had made them peers of the The great personal popularity of realm, and had placed their order Elizabeth as a sovereign, the ener- nearest to the throne, and which gy of her administration in the hands gave them pomp, equipage, revof such statesmen as Cecil and Bur. enues and palaces, such as princes leigh, the eclat attendant on the re- might envy, had seemed to them to pulse of the Spanish invasion, and require farther reformation. The her good sense in avoiding all col. church, as an establishment, had lision with the established forms of become the ally of the court. And the English constitution as it then thus, if for no other reason,

it came was, enabled her to carry her peo- to pass that the Parliament, and esple along with her in what she did, pecially the house of commons, and in what she refused to do for representing the public sentiment ecclesiastical reformation. Thus un- of the towns and of those smaller der her long reign, the religious dif- landholders who had little connecferences among her Protestant sub- tion with the court, naturally favored jects, though continually becoming the Puritan demand for a farther deeper and more ominous, never as- reformation. Even during the reign sumed such a form as to disturb the of Elizabeth, the house of commons peace or check the prosperity of the had repeatedly manifested a dispokingdom. No equal period since sition to interfere with the affairs the Norman conquest, had been of the church, much farther than more brilliant or more prosperous. agreed with the Queen's inclinaBut that very prosperity was prepa- tions. And when James, in his ring the way for revolutions. The blustering and insolent way, began aristocracy, enriched by the spoils to promulgate and to put in practice of the suppressed monastic institu- his preposterous claim of a divine tions, were gradually recovering right to govern with absolute power, something of their ancient weight a right superior to all laws and in the nation. Commerce and the inalienable by any compact, and it arts were giving increased impor- grew evident to all thoughtful men tance to the towns. The middling that a great struggle for the ancient class between the sluggish peasant- liberties of England was approachry and the proud nobility—that great ing, and that the royal prerogative class embodying so much of indus- which was so fast overshadowing the laws must be bounded by new court, began to stigmatize with the and more effectual limitations, the name of Puritans, not only those Puritans who demanded a reform in who were zealous against the habits the church, and the patriotic party and the ceremonies, but all who who withstood the usurpations of opposed the introduction of Arminthe court, became more and more ianism, all who desired to see the identified.

Lord's day kept holy, all who were There is a connection, deeper dissatisfied with an ignorant and than Cranmer or Jewel ever suspectscandalous clergy, and all who were ed, between Romish forms and insti- alarmed at the outrageous princi. tutions on the one hand, and Rom- ples on which the government of ish doctrine on the other. In the the kingdom was conducted. latter part of the reign of James, The reformation in Scotland had when the influence of Laud began been from the beginning a move. to be ascendant, the true doctrines ment of the people. It was an inof the reformation began to be in surrection and revolution. There, dustriously obscured and discoun- as in England, the reforming nobles tenanced; and a doctrine more con- had grasped in one way and an. sonant with the idea of a priesthood other a great portion of the wealth, and of justification by some other with which the priestcraft of the process, besides a simple and un- clergy and the superstition of the divided reliance on Christ's inter- laity had been for ages enriching cession, became the doctrine of the the church. Not only had the monchurch as allied with the court. asteries been dissolved, but the sees From this time, popish innovations of the bishops had been despoiled, began to be a distinct theme of coma

and the bishops reduced to mere plaint on the part of the Puritans. nullities, though the office had not And in proportion as men were con. yet been formally abolished by law. vinced, that under the existing sys. Scotland was in effect, though not tem the doctrine of the church was in form, a Presbyterian kingdom, going back, not only from the mark from the moment in which the reto which Latimer and Ridley at- formation triumphed there. And tained, but even from the standard when the kings of Scotland became of the Elizabethan reformation, they by inheritance possessors of the naturally reasoned about the church, throne of England, the Scotch, in as they were already reasoning un- their jealousy lest their country consciously about the state, that might become a mere dependency some new reform was needed; men, of the greater and more powerful who sincerely believed and loved kingdom, were more zealous than the Gospel, the doctrine of salva- ever for their own ecclesiastical in. tion by the grace of God, could stitutions as distinguished from the not but feel that adequate security loftier hierarchy and the more or against a return of the whole body of nate worship of the English church. popish doctrines, must be found in The measures of James and of his some new and more thorough re- son and successor, Charles I, both formation. And then, as if on pur- of whom were bent on gradually pose to make Puritanism as pow- carrying the Scotch reformation erful and formidable as possible, backward into a conformity with and to blend all voices of 'dissatis- England, irritated the religious sym. faction against usurpation in the pathies of the northern kingdom, state or superstition in the church, and made not only the enlightened into one swelling chorus of com- and devout, but the masses, cling plaint and threatening, the court, to their particular type of Protestand the church as swayed by the antism, as the badge and the very