THE PURITANS IN EXILE. 281 The offer of CHAP. them, compromise was itself apostasy. 2 A large part of the English clergy returned to their submission to the see of Rome; others firmly adhered to the reformation, which they had adopted from conviction; and very many, who had taken advantage of the laws1 of Edward, sanctioning the marriage of the clergy, had, in their wives and children, given hostages for their fidelity to the Protestant cause. Multitudes, therefore, hurried into exile to escape the grasp of vindictive bigotry; but even in foreign lands, two parties among the emigrants were visible; and the sympathies of a common exile could not immediately eradicate The one party the rancor of religious divisions. aimed at renewing abroad the forms of discipline which had been sanctioned by the English parliaments in the reign of Edward; the Puritans, on the contrary, endeavored to sweeten exile by a complete emancipation from ceremonies which they had reluctantly observed. The sojourning in Frankfort was imbittered by the anger of consequent divisions; but Time, the great calmer of the human passions, softened the asperities of controversy; and a reconciliation of the two parties was prepared by concessions3 to the Puritans. For the circumstances of their abode on the continent were well adapted to strengthen the influence of the 1 2 and 3 Edward VI., c. xxi., 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. xii., in Statutes, iv. 67, and 146, 147. Strype's Memorials, iii. 108. 2 Discourse of the Troubles in Frankfort. 3 Ibid., edition of 1642, p. 160, 36 VOL. I. 161, 162, 163. "We will joyne VIII. VIII. CHAP. stricter sect. While the companions of their exile had, with the most bitter intolerance, been rejected by Denmark and Northern Germany,' the English emigrants received in Switzerland the kindest welcome; their love for the rigorous austerity of a spiritual worship was confirmed by the stern simplicity of the republic; and some of them had enjoyed in Geneva the instructions and the friendship of Calvin. 1558. On the death of Mary, the Puritans returned to England, with still stronger antipathies to the forms of worship and the vestures, which they now repelled as associated with the cruelties of Roman intolerance at home, and which they had seen so successfully rejected by the churches of Switzerland. The pledges which had been given at Frankfort and Geneva, to promote further reforms, were redeemed. But the controversy did not remain a dispute about ceremonies; it was modified by the personal character of the English sovereign, and became identified with the political parties in the state. The first act of parliament in the reign of Elizabeth declared the supremacy of the crown in the state ecclesiastical; and the uniformity of common prayer was soon established under the severest penalties. In these enactments, the common zeal to assert the Protestant ascendency left out of sight the scruples of the Puritans. 3 The early associations of the younger daughter of Henry VIII. led her to respect the faith of the Catholics, and to love the magnificence of their worship. She publicly thanked one of her chaplains, who had 1 Planck's Geschichte des Protestantischen Lehrbegriffs, b. v. t. ii. p. 35-45, and 69. 2 Prince, 288. 3 1 Elizabeth, c. i. Statutes, iv. 350-355. Hallam, i. 152. Mackintosh, iii. 45, 46. 4 1 Elizabeth, c. ii. Hallam, i 153. Mackintosh, iii. 46, 47. ELIZABETH AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 283 VIII. asserted the real presence; and, on a revision of the CHAP. creed of the English church, the tenet of transubstantiation was no longer expressly rejected. To calm the fury of religious intolerance, let it be forever remembered, that the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, which, by the statutes of the realm in the reign of Edward VI., Englishmen were punished for believing, and in that of Henry VIII. were burned at the stake for denying, was, in the reign of Elizabeth, left undecided, as a question of national indifference. She long struggled to retain images, the crucifix, and tapers, in her private chapel; she was inclined to offer prayers to the Virgin; she favored the invocation of saints.1 She insisted upon the continuance of the celibacy of the clergy, and, during her reign, their marriages took place only by connivance. For several years, she desired and was able to conciliate the Catholics into a partial conformity. The Puritans denounced concession to the Papists, even in things indifferent; but during the reign of her sister, Elizabeth had conformed in all things, and she still retained an attachment for many tenets that were deemed the most objectionable. Could she, then, favor the party of rigid reform? Besides the influence of early education, the love of authority would not permit Elizabeth to cherish the new sect among Protestants-a sect which had risen in defiance of all ordinary powers of the world, and which could justify its existence only on a strong claim to natural liberty. The Catholics were friends to monarchy, if not to the monarch; they upheld the forms of regal government, if they were not friends to 1 Burnett, part ii. b. iii. No. 6. Heylin, 124. Neal's Puritans, i. 191, 192. Mackintosh, iii. 161. Hume, c. xlv. Hallam, i. 124. 2 Neal's Puritans, i. 205, 206. Strype's Parker, 107. 3 Southey's Book of the Church, i. 257, 258. CHAP. the person of the queen. VIII. But the Puritans were the harbingers of a revolution; the hierarchy charged them with seeking a popular state; and Elizabeth openly declared, that they were more perilous than the Romanists. At a time when the readiest mode of reaching the minds of the common people was through the pulpit, and when the preachers would often speak with plainness and homely energy on all the events of the day, their claim to "the liberty of prophesying" was similar to the modern demand of the liberty of the press; and the free exercise of private judgment threatened, not only to disturb the uniformity of the national worship, but to impair the royal authority and erect the dictates of conscience into a tribunal, before which sovereigns might be arraigned.' The Puritan clergy were fast becoming tribunes of the people, and the pulpit was the place for freedom of rebuke and discussion. The queen long desired to establish the national religion mid-way between sectarian licentiousness and Roman supremacy; and when her policy in religion was once declared, the pride of authority would brook no opposition. By degrees she occupied politically the position of the head of Protestantism; Catholic sovereigns conspired against her kingdom; the convocation of cardinals proposed measures for her deposition; the pope, in his excommunications, urged her subjects to rebellions. Then it was, that, as the Roman Catholics were no longer treated with forbearance, so the queen, struggling, from regard to her safety, to preserve unity among her friends, hated the Puritans, as mutineers in the camp. 1563. The popular voice was not favorable to a rigorous enforcement of the ceremonies. In the first Prot Jan. 12. 1 Cartwright's Second Reply, 158-170. Hallam, i. 254 PROGRESS OF PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 285 VIII. estant convocation of the clergy under Elizabeth, CHAP though the square cap and the surplice found in the queen a resolute friend, and though there were in the assembly many, who, at heart, preferred the old religion, the proposition to abolish a part of the ceremonies was lost in the lower house by the majority of a single vote. Nearly nine years passed away, before the thirty-nine articles, which were then adopted, were confirmed by parliament; and the act, 1571. by which they were finally established, required assent to those articles only, which concern the confession of faith and the doctrine of the sacraments 2a limitation which the Puritans interpreted in their favor. The house of commons often displayed an earnest zeal for a further reformation; and its active 1565 interference was prevented only by the authority of the queen. 3 Mar. When rigorous orders for enforcing conformity were first issued, the Puritans were rather excited to defiance than intimidated. Of the London ministers, about thirty refused subscription,5 and men began to speak openly of a secession from the church." At length, a separate congregation was formed; im- 1567 mediately the government was alarmed; and the June. 1 Strype's Annals, i. 338, 339. Hallam, i. 238. Prince, 289 -293. 2 Strype's Annals, ii. 71. 3 Prince, 300. 4 Strype's Annals, i. 460, 461. Appendix to Strype's Parker, b. ii. Do. 24. state in religious matters, is evi- 5 Strype's Annals, i. 462. 6 Grindall, in Prince. wright's Second Reply, p. 38. "Not for hatred to the estates of the church of England, but for love to a better." How little the early Puritans knew of the true results of their doctrines of independence of the |