I.

Optatus.

F political calamities cast before them a visible and appalling shadow, the bitterness and wrath of the Elizabethan pulpit was that projected from the great rebellion; if, on the other hand, this shadow is the soul which gives animation to yet inert matter, then was the doctrine of the preachers in question that soul, and the great rebellion the body to which it imparted life. For the first years of Elizabeth, perhaps the blame was too evenly divided between parties to fall with overwhelming weight on either, but when the generation of the oppressed and the oppressors had lain down side by side in the common churchyards, their children were without excuse in accepting as an inheritance the enmities of their fathers.

The first decided step towards this lamentable issue was the formal separation of various sectarian bodies from the national church; while England, intoxicated with party violence, reeled from one extreme of religious opinion to another, under the guidance of a primate

who had not the power to stay his companions' steps, even if he ever saw that they were approaching a precipice, and a cardinal who was drawn by his Spanish allies into a most atrocious persecution, there could be little avowed schism in the church. In the former period, numerous priests and congregations pursued their former courses as nearly as might be, only disturbed, perhaps, for a day by some preacher or visitor; and so, in Mary's time, many who did not think the differences between protestant and papist worth a schism, continued to preach as before, while tamely complying with the orders received from authority.

II. It pleased divine Providence that beside the zealous persons who sought martyrdom, many were driven to a point beyond which their consciences would not allow them to comply, and perished at the stake rather than assent to an unauthenticated dogma of the Romish church. While the government was pursuing such a course as this, no doubt many who had lost, in their contemplation of enormous abuses, that strong love of church unity which should characterize every Christian, would consider themselves at perfect liberty to accept the ministrations of preachers whose opinions harmonized with their own. Much had been done in the reign of Edward to pave the way for schismatical worship under the sanction of those whose right to guide the opinions of their contemporaries could not be disputed. Cranmer had compelled Smith, the Regius professor of divinity at Oxford, to recant as errors many of his opinions previously published: among others, the following declaration then made at Paul's Cross, appears subversive of all ecclesiastical authority whatsoever, except such as the state exercised: "Where I said concerning the same matter, that as subjects be bound to obey and fulfil their prince's laws which are not contained in God's laws, being not against it, even

so be Christian people bound to obey and do that which their bishops biddeth them do; all these sayings I do now revoke, disannul and condemn as erroneous and false, and do profess and acknowledge, first, that the authority as well of the bishop of Rome, whose authority is justly and lawfully abolished in this realm, as of other bishops and other called ministers of the church, consisteth in the dispensation and ministration of God's word, and not in making laws or divorces and decrees over the people, beside God's word, without the consent and authority of the prince and people............... And if they do make any such, no man is bound to obey them."*

In perfect conformity with these views, a congregation-nay, a regularly organized conventicle-of foreigners, had been encouraged to settle in England, established in a city church, and aided with pecuniary supplies. The Bishop of Gloucester, a close friend of a Lasco, the superintendent, sympathized more with it than the church of which he was a reluctant prelate, and many English sought shelter in their nonconformity by gaining, under various pretexts, admission among the strangers. This party received accessions from Hooper's "unseasonable and too bitter sermons," as his friend described them, in which he taught doctrines of which hatred to ecclesiastical vestments may be fairly considered as the symbol; that the constitution of a church depended entirely on the purity of its doctrine; and when any one supposes this purity lost, he has no need to wait for any ordinary authority before taking the responsibility of the priesthood upon himself. Such, at least, seems a fair inference from passages like the following, in Hooper's sermons on Jonah. "Ordinarily, where there is no corruption of the ministry in the church, neither in doctrine nor in the * Godly and faithful Retractation, Sign. A, 1547.

right ministration of the sacraments, which are as seals
and conclusions of God's holy word; where this integ-
rity, I say, remains in the church, no man ought, with-
out the appointment of the higher powers, to intrude or
appoint himself to preach or minister, even as it was in
Moses' time and the apostles." "'* But as an integrity
of this kind, according to Hooper's acceptation of the
term, has never existed from the apostolic age, the alter-
native was obvious. Persons every where assumed the
office of teachers, and some of the authorities certainly
would be
very slow to interfere with them. "These
men did appoint mere laymen to minister; yea, and lay
women sometimes it is said."+ And when it was seen
how easily a church could generate itself, such an event
as the restoration of popery would be sure to suggest
the experiment. Accordingly, a separation took place
in London of about two hundred persons, led by a suc-
cession of pastors—

"Each stepping where his comrade stood,
The instant that he fell;"

and cold must be the heart which does not glow at the recital of their trials. Five teachers superintended the London society during this melancholy period-Scambler, Fowler, Rough, Bernher, and Bentham, successively assembled them in private houses, inns, alleys, lofts, and sometimes on shipboard, and accompanied to the stake such as suffered during their presidency. Rough, returning from the martyrdom of Austoo, was met by a merchant, who inquired where he had been. "I have been," said he, "where I would not for one of mine eyes but I had been. I have been, forsooth, to learn the way." He trod it soon, and was succeeded by Latimer's faithful servant, Augustine Bernher, after whom, Bentham, who returned from his retreat on the 1st Sermon.

† Watson's two notable sermons. 2nd Serm. 1554.

continent for the purpose, assumed his perilous office. He, when the last seven were burned in Smithfield, and all were forbidden to pray for them, went up to the just kindled pyre, and exclaimed, “We know they are the people of God, and therefore we cannot choose but wish well for them, and say, God strengthen them. Almighty God, for Christ's sake strengthen them." He preached many longer sermons; never one more striking: the whole multitude cried, Amen. But whatever became of the principles of the reformation, the feeling for it was thus fostered into depth and vigour. "The blood of the Christians," says Latimer, himself one of those who lighted in England the candle that could never be put out- "the blood of the Christians is as it were the seed of the fruit of the Gospel; for when one is hanged here, and another yonder, then God goeth sowing of his seed: for like as the corn that is cast into the ground riseth up again and is multiplied, even so the blood of those which suffer for God's holy word's sake stirreth up a great many, and happy is he to whom it is given to suffer for God's holy word's sake.' ""*

III. The moderation of Elizabeth, while it satisfied none, kept all in sufficient suspense to prevent them from rushing at once into separation. The fewness of those who thought that she had kept the golden mean, encouraged each to hope for ultimate ascendancy; and after a struggle for popery by the bishops, and a struggle against every thing they could imagine to be a relic of it by the returned exiles, all seemed fast settling down into unity and peace. The Romanists came orderly to church, and found nothing needlessly offensive where the laws were obeyed; nothing which the learned of their own clergy could pronounce heretical, and prove it. The puritan, too, though little pleased with con* 3rd Serm. on Lord's Prayer.