done to the Catholics by such an abolition, was to them one of the principal recommendations of the step. It was a blow to Antichrist which would help its downfall; and the necessities of the State were to them a secondary and unimportant thought. But this was necessarily to Elizabeth herself, and men like Cecil —the primary consideration, to which all others must yield. The Catholics could not be outraged and driven to rebellion without peril to the Crown, and ruin to all the best interests of the nation. It is impossible to doubt that this was a real exigency. It is perhaps too much to say that it was a defence of Elizabeth's conduct in the repressive measures which, in conjunction with Parker, she now resolved to adopt against the aggressive or Puritan party in the Church.

In the beginning of 1564-5 the Queen addressed a letter to the archbishop on the subject of “ ceremonial diversities" and "novelties of rites" in the Church, which, through the negligence of her bishops, had crept in and were on the increase." These, she said emphatically, "must needs provoke the displeasure of Almighty God, and bring danger of ruin to the people and the country;" and she accordingly charged him to investigate into the disorders, and to take means that "uniformity of order may be kept in every church." The result of this investigation was, that a book of articles was drawn up for enforcing uniformity, which did not, owing to the secret opposition of Dudley and others, receive the sanction of the Privy Council, but which became practically the rule of Episcopal action. The most important of its provisions was, subscription on the part of the clergy to certain promises, which placed them entirely as to preaching under the control of their bishop, and

bound them to the use of the apparel and other institu tions as already established in the Church.

Fox the martyrologist, Coverdale, and Whitehead, were among the most conspicuous victims of the system of repression upon which Parker now zealously entered. He had not been very forward to move, but, having once "stirred in the affair," he, and some more of the bishops, acted with a determination and vigour which outran the more cautious policy of Cecil. He professed at last to see that not only were "the rites of apparel now in danger, but all other rites universally." * Fox refused to subscribe to the promises of the Book of Articles or Advertisements, as it came to be called, and was dismissed in disgrace to his quiet Salisbury prebend. Such respect was entertained for his "age, parts, and pains," that the Bishops did not venture to take any further steps against him. Whitehead was suspended; but the somewhat singular favour that he enjoyed with Elizabeth as "a man of parts, but more as a clergyman unmarried," formed also a shield of protection to him. Upon "poor old Miles" the persecution fell more heavily. He was driven from his humble benefice of St Magnus, and died in a few years in great poverty. Sampson, Dean of Christ Church, and Humphrey, President of Magdalene College, Oxford, were also summoned before the ecclesiastical commissioners, and the former deprived of his deanery. The harshness of this measure was aggravated by the fact that Sampson, along with his companions Humphrey, Lever, and others, were so far from being extreme in their views, that many of the ultra-Puritans looked upon them with dislike, and altogether disowned their preaching.

* STRYPE'S Parker, 161; Annals, ii. 129.

It would be impossible for us to trace minutely the course of the controversy, and the persecutions to which it gave rise in the time of Elizabeth. The subject is a history in itself. We can only briefly glance at the two main phases into which the controversy ran during this period. These phases mark a certain definite advance in the principles which guided both sides.

The first is represented by the dispute between Cartwright and Whitgift. This dispute had its origin in various causes. Personal bitterness between the combatants helped to inflame public animosity. They had been rival disputants at the university of Cambridge. Cartwright, as professor of divinity, had identified himself with the movement party, and ventured freely to discuss the new ecclesiastical policy in his lectures. Whitgift, as vice-chancellor of the university, keenly took the opposite side, and, by his influence, silenced and expelled from his office the professor of divinity. Cartwright was driven abroad, but his spirit survived at home, and circumstances soon occurred to draw him again into the field.

In many of the younger clergy the Protestant schism was fast spreading, and assuming a more definite and irreconcilable form. A small band of more zealous spirits even went the length of establishing themselves into a separate congregation on the basis of the Genevan plan of government. Plumber's Hall, in Anchor's Lane, became the scene of the first meeting of Dissenters from the Church of England, in the month of June 1567. The appearance of the sheriffs dispersed the infant congregation, thirty-one of whom, men and women, were seized and hurried to prison. The fact of such an attempt at ecclesiastical separation was re

B

garded with dismay. Even many among the bishops, who had hitherto befriended those opposed to the ceremonies, and especially the vestments, were shocked at such an open expression of variance from the Church, and joined with their brethren in adopting means to arrest it. Grindal, in so far, was united with Parker, although, with the mildness characteristic of him, he prevailed with Cecil and the Lords of Council to dismiss the present offenders after a brief imprisonment, but, at the same time, with a solemn warning of greater severity should they persist in their factious conduct.

The Parliament of 1571 met amidst continued excitement, and no fewer than seven bills for the "Reformation of Ceremonies in matters of Religion and Church Government" were introduced. The Commons showed a strong sympathy for further reformation. Mr Strickland, a grave and ancient man, of great zeal," spoke boldly. "There be abuses in the Church of England, there be also abuses of churchmen-all these it were high time were corrected." He received a summons to attend the Privy Council for his plain speaking, and was temporarily detained from the House. Peter Wentworth spoke with no less freedom, and formed one of a committee of six who waited upon the archbishop touching a "model of reformation." Nothing, however, followed these expressions of discontent, except a more determined zeal on the part of the Crown and the Bench to enforce the laws for uniformity. Only three of the seven bills were passed to the House of Lords, and all of them finally fell to the ground.

A new Parliament opened in May 1572, with a speech from the Lord Keeper, in which he complained

of the neglect of the "laudable rites and ceremonies of the Church, the very ornaments of our religion;" and recommended that systematic means should be adopted by the bishops for correcting this neglect, "that thus the civil sword might support the sword ecclesiastic."* While this was the temper of the Court, that of many of the clergy was increasing in boldness. Two of their number, of the names of Field and Wilcox, presented, after careful preparation, a document to this Parliament, entitled "An Admonition for Reformation of Church Discipline." It keenly exposed the corruptions of the hierarchy and the proceedings of the bishops; and, after setting forth a new platform of Church government, craved that the Church of England might be remodelled according to it, in greater conformity to the Word of God and the foreign Reformed Churches. Both the authors were apprehended and committed to Newgate; but their boldness only served to call into the field an abler and more vigorous champion, who had already whetted his pen in the controversy.

Thomas Cartwright had lately returned from exile, with all his Puritan convictions deepened and strengthened. He was an attentive observer of the proceedings in Parliament, and when the writers of the original "Admonition" were violently withdrawn from the scene of conflict, he prepared and published a "Second Admonition," more importunate, and to the same effect, which came out, according to Heylin, "with such a flash of lightning, and such claps of thunder, as if heaven and earth were presently to have met together." Whitgift, in the mean time, had joined in the fray; and, with the direct concurrence of Parker

* D'EWES, 195.