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to by archbishop Whitgift, Dr. Fletcher bishop of London, Dr. Vaughan elect of Bangor, and some others; they were sent to Dr. Hutton archbishop of York, and Dr. Young of Rochester, who subscribed them only wishing that the word [necessarily] in the fourth article, and those words in the seventh article [if they will] might be omitted. The archbishop in his letter which he sent to the university with the articles, say they are to look upon them not as new laws, and decrees, but only as an explication of certain points which they apprehend to be true, and corresponding to the doctrine professed in the church of England, and already established by the laws of the land. But forasmuch as they had not the Queen's sanction, he desires they may not become a public act, but used privately and with discretion.* He adds, that her majesty was fully persuaded of the truth of them; which is strange, when she commanded Sir Robert Cecil to signify to the archbishop by letter, "That she misliked much that any allowance had been given by his grace and his brethren for any such points to be disputed, being 'a matter tender and dangerous to weak, ignorant minds: And thereupon commanded him to suspend the urging them publicly, or suffering them to be debated in the 'pulpit."

The Queen's design was to stifle the controversy in its birth; for if she was dissatisfied with the archbishop's private determinations, she was downright angry with Dr. Baro a Frenchman, and one of the divinity professors at Cambridge, for continuing the debate. She said, that being an alien, and humanely harbored and infranchised both himself and family, he ought to have carried himself more quietly and peaceably. His case was this; in his sermon before the university preached Jan. 12, he asserted, "That "God created all men according to his own likeness in Adam, and consequently to eternal life, from which he re'jects no man but on the account of his sins:-That Christ died for all mankind, and was a propitiation for the sins ' of the whole world, original and actual; the remedy pro'vided by him being as extensive as the ruins of the fall: That the promises of eternal life made to us in Christ, are 'to be generally and universally taken and understood, beLife of Whitgift, p. 462-3.

ing made as much to Judas as to Peter." For these propositions he was summoned before the vice-chancellor, and heads of colleges, who examined him by several interrogatories and commanded him peremptorily to abstain from those controversies in his lectures and sermons for the future, They acquainted secretary Cecil by letter with their proceedings, in which they call all doctrines popish, and say, that for fourteen or fifteen years he has taught in his lectures, and preached in his sermons, divers points of doctrine contrary to those which have been taught and read ever since her majesty's reign, and agreeable to the errors of popery, by which means they fear the whole body of that religion will break in upon them; they therefore pray his lordship's assistance for the suppressing them. Camb. March 8th, 1595.*

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On the other hand Baro wrote to the archbishop to keep him in his place, promising obedience to his grace's commands, and to keep the peace of the university by dropping the controversy in silence.† He also wrote to secretary Cecil to put a stop to the proceedings of the vice-chancellor, which he together with the archbishop accomplished; but the university not being satisfied with him, he was obliged next year to quit his professorship and retire to London, where he died two or three years after, having been Lady Margaret's professor at Cambridge about 25 years. He left a large posterity behind him, and was buried in St. Olave's Heart-street, his pall being supported by six doctors

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"Hence," remarks an able writer, "it appears what little latitude was then allowed to the freedom of thinking and debate, on subjects the most innocent, and with regard to doctrines the truth of which is now generally maintained by the clergy, and especially by those of them who stand the highest in dignity, reputation and learning. We must be sensible how narrow was the spirit, and how confined the true theological knowledge of the times, when the gloomy dogmas of calvinism were maintained with such pertinacity by the governors of the church, and to call them in question was looked upon as a crime.

History of Knowledge in the New Annual Register for 1789, p. 9.

of divinity, by order from the bishop of London. The chancellor in his letter to the university was very angry, because they sifted Baro with interrogatories, "as if, says he, he was a thief; this seems done of stomach among you." How sad then was the case of the puritans !

The divines of Oxford, and indeed all the first reformers, were in the same sentiments with those of Cambridge about the disputed points; Calvin's institutions being read publicly in the schools by appointment of the convocation, though perhaps they might not go the full length of the Lambeth articles, nor express themselves with the exactness of those who lived afterwards, when those doctrines were publicly opposed by Arminius and his followers.

Te article of our Savior's local descent into hell began to be questioned at this time. It had been the received doctrine of the church of England, that the soul of Christ, being separated from his body, descended locally into hell, that he might there triumph over satan, as before he had over death and sin.* But the learned Mr. Hugh Broughton, the rabbi of his age, whom King James would have courted into Scotland, convinced the world that the word hades, used by the Greek fathers for the place into which Christ went after his crucifixion, did not mean hell, or the place of the damned, but only the state of the dead, or the invisible world. It was further debated, whether Christ underwent in his soul the wrath of God, and the pains of hell, and finished all his sufferings upon the cross before he died.† This was Calvin's sentiment, and with him agreed all the puritan divines, who preached it in their sermons, and inserted it in their catechisms. On the other hand, bishop Bilson in his sermons at Paul's Cross maintained, that no text of scripture asserted the death of Christ's soul, or the pains of the damned to be requisite in the person of Christ before he could be our ransomer, and the Savior of the world. But still he maintained the local descent of Christ into hell, or the territory of the damned; and that by the course of the creed the article must refer not toChrist

• Life of Whitgift, p. 473.

+ Life of Whitgift, p. 482.

Heyl. Hist. Presb. p. 340.

Heyl. Hist. Presb. p. 350.

living upon the cross, but to Christ dead; and that he went thither not to suffer, but to wrest the keys of hell and death out of the hands of the devil.* When these sermons were

printed, they were presently answered by Mr. Henry Jacob, a learned Brownist. Bilson, by the Queen's command, defended his sermons, in a treatise entitled, A Survey of Christ's Sufferings, which did not appear in the world till 1604. The controversy was warmly debated in both universities; but when the learned combatants had spent their artillery it dropt in silence, without any determination from authority, though it was one of the articles usually objected to by the puritans, for which they were suspended their ministry. [And the rational sentiment, that the word hades signifies only the state of the dead, or the invisible world, silently and universally took place.]

Among other reproaches cast upon their clergy, one was, that they deluded the people by claiming a power to exorcise the devil. "Some of their ministers, says Mr. Strype, 'pretended to cast out devils, that so the amazed multitude having a great veneration for these exorcizers of devils, by the power of their prayers and fastings, might the more readily and awfully submit to their opinions and ways; a 'practice borrowed from the then papists to make their 'priests revered, and to confirm the laity in their superstitions." One would think here was a plot of some cunning, designing men, to conjure the people into the belief of discipline; but all vanishes in the peculiar principles of a weak, and (as Mr. Strype confesses) honest man, whose name was Darrel, a B. A. and minister of Nottingham. This divine was of opinion, that by the power of prayer the devil might be cast out of persons possessed;† and having tried the experiment upon one Darlin of Burton, a boy of about 14 years old with supposed success, and upon some others,

*This controversy gave a celebrity, beyond his own time, to the name of bishop Bilson; he was an eminent divine and the author of some doetrinal and practical works; as well as of some Latin poems and orations never published. In the reign of James the first, he was one of the two final correctors of the English translation of the Bible; for which office his easy and harmonious style particularly qualified him.

History of Knowledge in the New Annual Register for 1789, p. 17. ED.

+ Life of Whitgift, p. 492, 494, 495.

he was importuned by one of the ministers, and several inhabitants of the town of Nottingham, to visit one William Somers, a boy that had such convulsive agonies, as were thought to be preternatural, insomuch that when Mr. Darrel had seen them, he concluded with the rest of the spectators that he was possessed, and advised his friends to desire the help of godly and learned ministers to endeavor his recovery, but excused himself from being concerned, lest if the devil should be dispossessed, the common people should attribute to him some special gift of casting out devils; but upon a second request from the mayor of Nottingham, he agreed with Mr. Aldridge and two other ministers, with about one hundred and fifty neighboring christians, to set apart a day for fasting and prayer, to intreat the Lord to cast out Satan, and deliver the young man from his torments; and after some time the Lord they say was intreated, and they blessed God for the same; this was November 1597. A few days after, the mayor and some of the aldermen began to suspect that Somers was a cheat, and to make him confess, they took him from his parents, and committed him to the custody of two men, who with threatnings prevailed with him to acknowledge, that he had dissembled and counterfeited all he did. Upon this he was carried before the commission, where at first he owned himself a counterfeit, and then presently denied it again; but being thoroughly frighted, he fell into fits before the commissioners, which put an end to his examination for the present. After some time, being still in custody, he returned to his confessing, and charged Mr.Darrel with training him up in the art for four years. Upon this Mr. Darrel was summoned before the commissioners, and brought witnesses with him to prove, that Somers had declared in a very solemn manner that he had not dissembled; upon which he was dismissed, and the commission dissolved; but the affair making a great noise in the country, Mr. Darrel was sent for to Lambeth, and after a long hearing before the archbishop, and others of the high commission, he was deposed from his ministry, and committed close prisoner to the Gate-house, for being accessary to a vile imposture, where he continued many years."

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