of nature, they can never do it with impunity: there are blessings for obedience, but pains and penalties, from which no repentance can save us, whenever we rebel. Some day (let us cherish the hope) man will fulfil the high purposes of his existence, and ignorance, sin, disease, and misery, will be banished for ever from this beautiful world.

At the dissolution of the monasteries by Harry the Eighth, seveneighths of the land of England had become the property of the popish church, principally extorted from the fears of ignorant sinners, to save their souls from the bottomless pit; and out of this large accumulation the poor were in some sort kept. The monasteries had become corrupt, and were suppressed; but the property they had amassed, instead of being applied to state purposes as it ought, was divided, like robbers' booty, amongst the great and powerful partisans of the king. The poor, now left without any legal support, became vagabonds and thieves; and as neither reducing many to slavery, nor hanging others, could abate the evil, (for the cause was not removed,) the people were saddled with their support. Accordingly we find that this year, Master John Shakspere is one on whom the new burden falls. "In a subscription for the relief of the poor in 1564," says AUGUSTINE SKOTTOWE, "out of twenty-four persons, twelve gave more, six the same, and six less than John Shakspere: in a second subscription by fourteen persons, eight gave more, five the same, and one less." This is an interesting fact, as giving us some clue to the social position of Shakspere's father.

Queen Elizabeth, who visited Cambridge this year, witnessed the play of Aulularia Plauto, on Sunday, August 6th; that piece being got up in the body of King's College church, at her expense. For Sunday was at first the great day for theatrical entertainments; a practice inherited from the old miracle-plays, which they had now in some measure displaced. After spending five days in Cambridge, during which time she inspected all the colleges, and was entertained with orations, disputations, and various dramatic exhibitions, the queen returned to London, sleeping, on the night of August 18th, at Hinchingbrook, near Huntingdon, the seat of Sir Henry Cromwell, whom she greatly esteemed; a gentleman called for his liberality

"the Golden knight," and to whom the future Lord Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell, as yet unborn, was grandson.

In the political world, we find the infamous Lord Robert Dudley, now about thirty-three years of age, almost omnipotent. Elizabeth, who but for the intercession of the good Lord Burleigh, would have married him herself when he caused his wife, Amy Robsart, to be murdered for the purpose, in 1560, had only a year ago proposed him as a husband to her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, and now creates him Earl of Leicester, and grants him the castle and manor of Kenilworth, in Warwickshire, thirteen miles distant from the birthplace of Shakspere. Better that he had perished with his father in 1553.

In the religious world, all is unsettled. The learned Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, now in his sixtieth year, attempts to compel the clergy to conform to the Ritual; and begins with John Fox, the Martyrologist, who is in his forty-seventh year. But John Fox is too rigid a Puritan to conform; besides, he has a pension for life from his former pupil, Thomas, the eldest son of the unfortunate Earl of Surrey, who has now become fourth Duke of Norfolk.Thomas Sampson, D.D., one of the most learned and earnest of the Puritans, who had assisted to translate the Genevan Bible, and refused the bishopric of Norwich, when offered it on the accession of Elizabeth to the throne, is now, in the forty-seventh year of his age, deprived of the deanery of Christchurch, Oxford, and thrown into prison, for refusing to wear the clerical habits. David Whitehead, B.D., a learned Puritan divine, whom Archbishop Cranmer had recommended for the archbishopric of Armagh, and whom Queen Mary's persecution drave to Frankfort, a man who, whilst many were scrambling for preferment, refused the see of Canterbury when offered it by Elizabeth-is now cited before the ecclesiastical commissioners, and suffers deprivation, although he was a great favourite with the Queen. "I like thee the better, Whitehead," said she, "because thou livest unmarried." "In troth, madam," rejoined he, "I like thee the worse for the same cause." Christopher Goodman, B.D., now forty-five years old, the friend of John Knox, and one of the translators of the Genevan Bible, is appointed to preach at Edinburgh. William Fulke, afterwards D.D., a zealous Puritan,

is chosen fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, March 26th, on the Lady Margaret's foundation. Miles Coverdale, D.D., now seventy-eight years of age, the principal translator of the Geneva Bible, and formerly bishop of Exeter, but now content with the humble benefice of St. Magnus at Bridgefoot, issues his Godly, Fruitful, and Comfortable Letters of the true Saints and Holy Martyrs of this Realm, written in the time of their Affliction and cruel Imprisonment. It is printed, in a thick small quarto volume, by the celebrated John Daye, "the printer of the Reformation," who is this year, for the first time, chosen warden of the Stationers' Company,an office which he is four times to fill before he attains to that of master. Archbishop Parker prints his version of the Psalms, for private circulation, but the work never was published; the only wonder is that a prelate of such undoubtedly fine taste in many respects, should be the author of such limping lines as the following, which is the archbishop's rendering of the first verse of the hundred and twenty-fifth Psalm:

"Who sticketh to God in stable trust,

As Sion's mount he stands full just;

Which moveth no whit, nor yet can reel,
But standeth for ever, as stiff as steel."

Edmund Grindal, bishop of London, now forty-five years of age, on the 10th of April proceeds to the degree of D.D. John Knox, aged fifty-nine, marries his second wife, Mary Steward, daughter of Lord

* Knox's heroical daughter Elizabeth, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Welch, was the offspring of this marriage. When her husband, by the shameless influence of the Scottish court, was sentenced to death as a traitor, at Linlithgow, along with five other ministers, Madam Welch received the sentence calmly, accompanied her husband to prison, and sent for the wives of each of the other five ministers to join her in giving thanks to God for having given them husbands who were not afraid to suffer death for His sake. The sentence was commuted to that of exile; and after residing with her husband for sixteen years in France, he became deeply consumptive, and the doctors said that nothing could save him but native air. Through the influence of her mother's relatives, she procured an interview in 1622 with the "British Solomon," who asked the name of her father. "Knox and Welch!" exclaimed Jamie, "the devil never made that match!" "Very like, sire," rejoined she, "for we never asked his advice." He asked what children her father had left, and she replied three, but all were lasses. "God be praised!" said British Solomon, "for if there lived three sons of Knox, I could never enjoy my

Ochiltree.

The learned George Buchanan, now fifty-five years of age, having returned to his native Scotland in 1561, after having been driven from country to country by priestly persecution, is this year presented with the temporalities of the abbey of Crossraguell, by Mary, Queen of Scots, whose studies he is now directing; doubtless to the great horror of those holy fathers, the Franciscans, whose licentiousness he has lashed in one of his poems. The persecution of the poor Waldenses, when about to be cruelly renewed, is stayed through the merciful intercession of Margaret, sister of the king of France, with her husband, the Duke of Savoy. The Duke of Cleves sends George Cassander on a mission to convert the Anabaptists; and the Council of Trent, on the twenty-fourth of March, present Pope Pius the Fourth with a catalogue of books to be forbidden, and the literary despotism called "The Congregation of the Index," seems to have begun its unholy crusade, in a systematic manner. But these mental tyrants could not agree amongst them. selves as to what works might be read and what might not, and even condemned the writings of each other. In one thing only did they seem unanimous-to crush the rising liberties of men, and bow their necks to the priestly yoke. Vain and futile thought!—as though the light that once illumines human minds can ever be totally extinguished! John Agricola, the German theologian, is residing at Berlin, where he has, obtained considerable reputation both as a preacher of the sentiments of Luther, and as a commentator on St. Luke, as well as for his collection of German proverbs; but has failed, as he was sure to do, in his attempt to reconcile the differences between the Papists and the Protestants; his age being sixty-two years according to some accounts, and seventy-two according to others. Alexander Ales, or Alesse, a native of Edinburgh, who, having himself seen into the evils of popery is anxious that others should do

three kingdoms in peace." She beseeched the king to allow her husband to return to die in Scotland. "Give him his native air! give him the devil!" was the king's brutal reply. "Give that to your hungry courtiers!" was her brave rejoinder; and when his majesty at last told her that her husband might return if he would obey the bishop, the spirit of her father stirred within her, and raising her apron towards Jamie, she exclaimed " With your leave, sire, rather would I receive his head in this apron !"

E

the same, is propagating the great principles of protestantism in Germany, having happily escaped the flames which consumed his friend Cranmer and so many others. The learned Ugo Buoncompagni, of Bologna, some sixty-two years of age, must wait eight years longer before he becomes Pope Gregory the Thirteenth; for the quondam Dominican monk, Michael Ghislieri, a native of Alessandria in Piedmont, must first sit in the chair of St. Peter as Pope Pius the Fifth,-an austere and zealous supporter of the Inquisition, fulminating his curses against all men and women who refuse to bend their necks beneath the hoofs of Rome: the present Pope being Pius the Fourth, a man of naturally generous disposition, who is as liberal in his opinions as popery will allow him. The indefatigable, but gloomy and intolerant bigot, John Calvin-by whose fiendish malignity the philosopher Servetus* was burnt in a slow fire, and poor Castalion+ hunted down-is now, in his fifty-fifth year, approaching his death, which occurs at Geneva, on the twenty-seventh of May and he who himself had narrowly escaped the Inquisition in Italy, must go to be judged by his Maker with innocent blood on his

* It is impossible for a reformer to contemplate the cruel murder of Michael Servetus without feelings of more than ordinary horror; for it will ever be a deep blood-stain on the name of Calvin, which, like the "damned spot" on the hand of Lady Macbeth, has "the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten it." The doctrine of the circulation of the blood, which appears to have been known, in whole or in part, to the wise Hippocrates, (who was born at Cos a thousand and four years before the birth of Shakspere,) but which was not proven by Harvey until Shakspere was in his grave, would have been publicly taught by Servetus in 1553, had not the philosopher and his works alike been burnt at the stake. Luckily, or rather providentially, one copy of Servetus's book was secretly preserved by D. Colladin, one of his judges; and it was reprinted, by Dr. Mead, in 1723, but the whole edition, with the exception of a few copies, was seized and burnt, at the instance of Dr. Gibson, bishop of London, because the book contained heretical opinions! Liberty of conscience being now nearly achieved in England, I trust that an English translation of this book will be printed before long, so that we may each judge for ourselves of its merits.

+ Sebastian Castalion, or Chasteillon, was born about 1515, according to some accounts, in Savoy, and early became a great proficient in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In 1540-1, he became acquainted with Calvin at Strasbourg, who invited him to Geneva, and procured him a professorship in the college there. He published several works, and was engaged on a complete Latin Bible from the Greek and Hebrew when gloomy Calvin drove him from