1 'such books to suffer three months imprisonment. And it of their adversaries. Some faint attempts were made this summer for reviving the exercises called prophesyings, in the diocese of Ches ter, where the clergy were very ignorant: Bishop Chad derton drew up proper regulations, in imitation of those al ready mentioned; but the design proved abortive. The bishop of Litchfield and Coventry also published some articles for his visitation which savored of puritanism, as against non-residents, for making a more strict enquiry into the qualifications of ministers, and for restraining un. worthy communicants.* He also erected a kind of judicatory, consisting of four learned divines with himself, to examine such as should be presented for ordination. When the archbishop had read them over he called them the wellspring of a pernicious platform, and represented them to the Queen as contrary to law, and to the settled state of the church; the bishop wrote a defence of his articles to the archbishop, shewing their consistency with law, and the great advantage which might arise from them; but Whitgift would hear of nothing that looked like a puritanical reformation.‡ Strype's Ann. vol. iii. p. 328. 6 Here Mr. Neal is censured by bishop Warburton, as partial, for reckoning the bishop of Litchfield's conduct to be agreeable to law, because in favor of the puritans: and for representing before, p. 348, the archbishop's publishing articles without the great seal as illegal, because against the puritans. Not to say that the articles in one case are very different from the object of the judicatory in the other, Mr. Neal, it will appear on examining, doth not decide on the legality of the measure in either case, but, as an historian, states what was offered on this head by the parties: and this he does, with respect to the archbishop very fully pro and con. ED. + MS. p. 515. The Lord's day was now very much profaned, by the encouraging of plays and sports in the evening, and sometimes in the afternoon. The Rev. Mr. Smith, M. A. in his sermon before the university of Cambridge, the first Sunday in Lent, maintained the unlawfulness of these plays; for which he was summoned before the vice-chancellor, and upon examination offered to prove, that the Christian Sabbath ought to be observed by an abstinence from all worldly business, and spent in works of piety and charity; though he did not apprehend we were bound to the strictness of the Jewish precepts.* The parliament had taken this matter into consideration,t and passed a bill for the better and more reverent observation of the Sabbath, which the speaker recommended to the Queen in an elegant speech, but her majesty refused to pass it, under pretence of not suffering the parliament to meddle with matters of religion, which was her prerogative. However, the thing appeared so reasonable, that without the sanction of a law, the religious observation of the sabbath grew into esteem with all sober persons, and after a few years became the distinguishing mark of a puritan. This summer Mr. Cartwright returned from abroad, having spent five years in preaching to the English congregation at Antwerp; he had been seized with an ague, which ended in an hectic, for which the physicians advised him to his native air. Upon this he wrote to the earl of Leicester and the lord treasurer for leave to come home; these noblemen made an honorable mention of him in parliament, but he could not obtain their mediation with the Queen for his pardon, so that as soon as it was known he was landed, though in a weak and languishing condition, he was apprehended and thrown into prison; when he appeared before the archbishop, he behaved with that modesty and respect as softened the heart of his great adversary, who, upon promise of his peaceable and quiet behavior, suffered him to go at large; for which the earl of Leicester and Mr. Cartwright returned his grace thanks; but all their interest could not procure him a licence to preach. Strype's Ann. p. 341. † Ibid. vol. iii. p. 296. Mr. Cartwright (says the archbishop to the earl) shall be welcome to me at all times, but to grant him a licence to 'preach, till I am better satisfied of his conformity, is not 'consistent with my duty or conscience." However, the earl made him governor of an hospital in Warwick, where he was connived at for a time, and preached without a licence; his salary was a house, and 100l. per ann. Mr. Fenner and Wood, two other suspended ministers, were released after twelve months imprisonment, upon a general subscription to the articles, as far as the law requir ed, and a promise to use the book of common prayer, and no other; but such was the clamor on all hands, by reason of the three articles to be subscribed by all who had livings already, as well as those that should hereafter take orders, that secretary Walsingham went over to Lambeth, and told his grace, that it would stop in a great measure the complaints which were brought to court, if he would require subscription only of such as were hereafter to enter into holy orders, and suffer those already in places to proceed in the discharge of their duty, upon condition of their giving bond to read the common prayer, according to the usages and laws prescribing the same; which the archbishop promised to comply with.* But the non-subscribing divines, who were unpreferred. might not so much as teach school for a livelihood, for the archbishop would grant no licence without subscribing; and from this time his licences to teach grammar, and even reading and writing, were granted only from year to year: The schoolmasters were to be full conformists;† they were limited to a particular diocese, and were not authorized to teach elsewhere; they were to instruct their scholars in nothing but what was agreeable to the laws and statutes of the realm and all this only during the bishop's pleasure. Such was the rigor of these times! Mr. Travers had been lecturer at the Temple with Mr. Hooker the new master about two years, but with very little harmony or agreement, one being a strict Calvinist, the other a person of larger principles; the sermon in the + Ibid. p. 246. Life of Whitgift, p. 226, 7. morning was very often confuted in the afternoon, and vindicated again the next Lord's day. The writer of Hooker's life reports, that the morning sermon spoke the language of Canterbury, the afternoon that of Geneva. Hooker complaining of this usage, the archbishop took the op.. portunity to suspend Mr. Travers at once, without any warning; for as he was going up into the pulpit to preach on the Lord's day afternoon the officer served him with a prohibition upon the pulpit stairs; upon which, instead of a sermon, he acquainted the congregation with his suspension, and dismissed them. The reasons given for it were, 1. That be was not ordained according to the rites of the church of England. 2. That he had broken the orders of the 7th of the Queen, That disputes should not be brought into the pulpit. Mr. Travers in his own vindication drew up a petition, or supplication to the council, in which he complains of being judged and condemned before he was heard; and then goes on to answer the objections alledged against him in the prohibition. First it is said, that I am not lawfully called to exercise the office of a minister, nor allowed to preach, according to the laws of the church of England. To which I answer, that my call was by such methods as are appointed in the national synods of the foreign reformed churches; testimonials of which I have shewn to my lord archbishop of Canterbury; so that if any man be lawfully called to the ministry in those countries, I am. But I am not qualified to be a minister in England, because I am not ordained according to the laws of this country. I beseech your lordships to weigh my answer: Such is the communion of saints, as that what solemn acts are done in one true church of Christ, according to his word, are held lawful in all others: The constituting or making of * Bishop Warburton deems it disingenuous in Mr. Neal to quote the language of this biographer, as he knew that, so quoted, it would be understood to reflect upon Mr. Hooker as only a tool or creature of the archbishop. But is not bishop Warburton, here, unnecessarily captious? To me it appears, that the opposition lying between Canterbury and Geneva, is sufficient to screen Mr. Neal's use of the biographer's words from the imputation of such a meaning. ED. a minister being once lawfully done ought not to be repealed: Pastors and teachers in the New Testament hold the same manner of calling as I had: The repeating ordination makes void the former ordination, and consequently all such acts as were done by virtue of it, as baptism, confirmation, marriage, &c. By the same rule people ought to be re-baptized and married over again, when they come into this country from a foreign.* Besides, by the statute 13 Elizabeth, those who have been ordained in foreign protestant churches, upon their subscribing the articles therein mentioned, are qualified to enjoy any benefice in the kingdom, equally with them who are ordained according to the laws now in being; which, comprehending all that are priests according to the order of the church of Rome, must certainly be as favorable to ministers ordained among foreign protestants. In consequence of this law many Scots divines are now in possession of benefices in the church, as was Mr. Whittingham, though he was the first who was called in question in this case. But it is said, I preached without presentation or licence. To which I answer, that the place where I exercised my ministry required no presentation, nor had I a title, or reaped any benefit by law, but only received a voluntary contribution, and was employed in preaching only ; and as to a licence, I was recommended to be a minister of that place, by two several letters of the bishop of London to the gentlemen of the Inner Temple, without which letters that society would not have permitted me to officiate. Secondly, I am charged with indiscretion and want of duty to Mr. Hooker, master of the Temple; and with breaking the order to the 7th of the Queen, about bringing disputes into the pulpit. As to want of duty, I answer, though some have suspected my want of good-will to Mr. Hooker, because he succeeded Dr. Alvey, in the place I desired for myself; this is a mistake, for I declined the place because I could not subscribe to my lord of Canterbury's late articles,which |