encouraged and heightened by a correspondence and confederacy with
that brotherhood in Scotland; so that here they become so bold, that
one [Mr. Dering][16] told the Queen openly in a sermon, "She was
like an untamed heifer, that would not be ruled by God's people, but
obstructed his discipline." And in Scotland they were more confident;
for there [Vide Bishop Spotswood's History of the Church of Scotland]
they declared her an Atheist, and grew to such an height, as not to be
accountable for any thing spoken against her, nor for treason against
their own King, if it were but spoken in the pulpit; shewing at last
such a disobedience to him, that his mother being in England, and then
in distress, and in prison, and in danger of death, the Church denied
the King their prayers for her; and at another time, when he had
appointed a day of Feasting, the Church declared for a general Fast,
in opposition to his authority.
[Sidenote: Remedial measures.]
To this height they were grown in both nations, and by these means
there was distilled into the minds of the common people such other
venomous and turbulent principles as were inconsistent with the safety
of the Church and State: and these opinions vented so daringly, that,
beside the loss of life and limbs, the governors of the Church and
State were forced to use such other severities as will not admit of an
excuse, if it had not been to prevent the gangrene of confusion, and
the perilous consequences of it; which, without such prevention, would
have been first confusion, and then ruin and misery to this numerous
nation.
[Sidenote: Spectator ab extra]
These errors and animosities were so remarkable, that they begot
wonder in an ingenious Italian, who being about this time come newly
into this nation, and considering them, writ scoffingly to a friend in
his own country, to this purpose; "That the common people of England
were wiser than the wisest of his nation; for here the very women and
shop-keepers were able to judge of Predestination, and to determine
what laws were fit to be made concerning Church-government; and then,
what were fit to be obeyed or abolished. That they were more able--or
at least thought so--to raise and determine perplexed Cases of
Conscience, than the wisest of the most learned Colleges in Italy!
That men of the slightest learning, and the most ignorant of the
common people, were mad for a new, or super, or re-reformation of
Religion; and that in this they appeared like that man, who would
never cease to whet and whet his knife, till there was no steel left
to make it useful." And he concluded his letter with this observation,
"That those very men that were most busy in oppositions, and
disputations, and controversies, and finding out the faults of their
governors, had usually the least of humility and mortification, or of
the power of godliness."
[Sidenote: Growth of Atheism]
And to heighten all these discontents and dangers, there was also
sprung up a generation of godless men; men that had so long given way
to their own lusts and delusions, and so highly opposed the blessed
motions of His Spirit, and the inward light of their own consciences,
that they became the very slaves of vice, and had thereby sinned
themselves into a belief of that which they would, but could not
believe, into a belief, which is repugnant even to human nature;--for
the Heathens believe that there are many Gods;--but these had sinned
themselves into a belief that there was no God! and so, finding
nothing in themselves but what was worse than nothing, began to wish
what they were not able to hope for, namely, "That they might be like
the beasts that perish!" and in wicked company--which is the Atheist's
sanctuary--were so bold as to say so: though the worst of mankind,
when he is left alone at midnight, may wish, but is not then able to
think it: even into a belief that there is no God. Into this wretched,
this reprobate condition, many had then sinned themselves.
[Sidenote: John Whitgift]
And now, when the Church was pestered with them, and with all those
other fore-named irregularities; when her lands were in danger of
alienation, her power at least neglected, and her peace torn to
pieces by several schisms, and such heresies as do usually attend that
sin:--for heresies do usually out-live their first authors;--when the
common people seemed ambitious of doing those very things that were
forbidden and attended with most dangers, that thereby they might be
punished, and then applauded and pitied: when they called the spirit
of opposition a tender conscience, and complained of persecution,
because they wanted power to persecute others: when the giddy
multitude raged, and became restless to find out misery for themselves
and others; and the rabble would herd themselves together, and
endeavour to govern and act in spite of authority:--in this extremity
of fear, and danger of the Church and State, when, to suppress the
growing evils of both, they needed a man of prudence and piety, and
of an high and fearless fortitude, they were blest in all by John
Whitgift, his being made Archbishop of Canterbury; of whom Sir Henry
Wotton--that knew him well in his youth, and had studied him in his
age--gives this true character; "That he was a man of reverend and
sacred memory, and of the primitive temper; such a temper, as when
the Church by lowliness of spirit did flourish in highest examples of
virtue." And indeed this man proved so.
And though I dare not undertake to add to this excellent and true
character of Sir Henry Wotton; yet I shall neither do right to this
discourse, nor to my Reader, if I forbear to give him a further and
short account of the life and manners of this excellent man; and it
shall be short, for I long to end this digression, that I may lead my
reader back to Mr. Hooker where we left him at the Temple.
[Sidenote: Archbishop of Canterbury]
John Whitgift was born in the County of Lincoln, of a family that
was ancient; and noted to be both prudent and affable, and gentle
by nature. He was educated in Cambridge; much of his learning was
acquired in Pembroke Hall,--where Mr. Bradford[17] the Martyr was his
tutor;--from thence he was removed to Peter House; from thence to be
Master of Pembroke Hall; and from thence to the Mastership of Trinity
College. About which time the Queen made him her Chaplain; and not
long after Prebend of Ely, and then Dean of Lincoln; and having for
many years past looked upon him with much reverence and favour,
gave him a fair testimony of both, by giving him the Bishoprick of
Worcester, and--which was not with her a usual favour--forgiving
him his first fruits; then by constituting him Vice-President of
the Principality of Wales. And having experimented his wisdom, his
justice, and moderation in the manage of her affairs in both these
places, she, in the twenty-sixth of her reign, 1583, made him
Archbishop of Canterbury, and, not long after, of her Privy Council;
and trusted him to manage all her Ecclesiastical affairs and
preferments. In all which removes, he was like the Ark, which left a
blessing on the place where it rested; and in all his employments was
like Jehoiada, that did good unto Israel.
These were the steps of this Bishop's ascension to this place of
dignity and cares: in which place--to speak Mr. Camden's very words in
his Annals of Queen Elizabeth--"he devoutly consecrated both his whole
life to God, and his painful labours to the good of his Church."
And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation
of Church affairs, which were much disordered at his entrance, by
reason of the age and remissness of Bishop Grindal,[18] his immediate
predecessor, the activity of the Non-conformists, and their chief
assistant the Earl of Leicester; and indeed by too many others of
the like sacrilegious principles. With these he was to encounter; and
though he wanted neither courage, nor a good cause, yet he foresaw,
that without a great measure of the Queen's favour, it was impossible
to stand in the breach that had been lately made into the lands and
immunities of the Church, or indeed to maintain the remaining lands
and rights of it. And therefore by justifiable sacred insinuations,
such as St. Paul to Agrippa,--"Agrippa, believest thou? I know thou
believest," he wrought himself into so great a degree of favour with
her, as, by his pious use of it, hath got both of them a great degree
of fame in this world, and of glory in that into which they are now
both entered.
[Sidenote: The "little black husband"]
His merits to the Queen, and her favours to him were such, that she
called him, "her little black husband," and called "his servants her
servants:" and she saw so visible and blessed a sincerity shine in all
his cares and endeavours for the Church's and for her good, that she
was supposed to trust him with the very secrets of her soul, and to
make him her confessor; of which she gave many fair testimonies; and
of which one was, that "she would never eat flesh in Lent, without
obtaining a licence from her little black husband:" and would often
say "she pitied him because she trusted him, and had thereby eased
herself by laying the burthen of all her Clergy-cares upon his
shoulders, which he managed with prudence and piety."
[Sidenote: Church-lands Acts]
I shall not keep myself within the promised rules of brevity in this
account of his interest with her Majesty, and his care of the Church's
rights, if in this digression I should enlarge to particulars; and
therefore my desire is, that one example may serve for a testimony of
both. And, that the Reader may the better understand it, he may take
notice, that not many years before his being made Archbishop,
there passed an Act, or Acts of Parliament, intending the better
preservation of the Church-lands, by recalling a power which was
vested in others to sell or lease them, by lodging and trusting the
future care and protection of them only in the Crown: and amongst many
that made a bad use of this power or trust of the Queen's, the Earl
of Leicester was one; and the Bishop having, by his interest with her
Majesty, put a stop to the Earl's sacrilegious designs, they two fell
to an open opposition before her; after which they both quitted the
room, not friends in appearance. But the Bishop made a sudden and
seasonable return to her Majesty,--for he found her alone--and spake
to her with great humility and reverence, to this purpose.
[Sidenote: An address]
"I beseech your Majesty to hear me with patience, and to believe that
your's and the Church's safety are dearer to me than my life, but
my conscience dearer than both: and therefore give me leave to do my
duty, and tell you, that Princes are deputed nursing Fathers of the
Church, and owe it a protection; and therefore God forbid that you
should be so much as passive in her ruin, when you may prevent it;
or that I should behold it without horror and detestation; or should
forbear to tell your Majesty of the sin and danger of Sacrilege.
And though you and myself were born in an age of frailties, when the
primitive piety and care of the Church's lands and immunities are much
decayed; yet, Madam, let me beg that you would first consider that
there are such sins as Profaneness and Sacrilege: and that, if there
were not, they could not have names in Holy Writ, and particularly
in the New Testament. And I beseech you to consider, that though our
Saviour said, 'He judged no man;' and, to testify it, would not judge
nor divide the inheritance betwixt the two brethren, nor would judge
the woman taken in adultery; yet in this point of the Church's rights
he was so zealous, that he made himself both the accuser, and the
judge, and the executioner too, to punish these sins; witnessed,
in that he himself made the whip to drive the profaners out of the
Temple, overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and drove them out
of it. And I beseech you to consider, that it was St. Paul that said
to those Christians of his time that were offended with Idolatry, and
yet committed Sacrilege; 'Thou that abhorrest Idols, dost thou commit
Sacrilege?' supposing, I think, Sacrilege the greater sin. This
may occasion your Majesty to consider, that there is such a sin as
Sacrilege; and to incline you to prevent the Curse that will follow
it, I beseech you also to consider, that Constantine, the first
Christian Emperor, and Helena his Mother; that King Edgar, and Edward
the Confessor; and indeed many others of your predecessors, and many
private Christians, have also given to God, and to his Church, much
land, and many immunities, which they might have given to those of
their own families, and did not; but gave them for ever as an absolute
right and sacrifice to God: and with these immunities and lands they
have entailed a curse upon the alienators of them: God prevent your
Majesty and your successors from being liable to that Curse, which
will cleave unto Church-lands as the leprosy to the Jews.
"And to make you, that are trusted with their preservation, the better
to understand the danger of it, I beseech you forget not, that, to
prevent these Curses, the Church's land and power have been also
endeavoured to be preserved, as far as human reason and the law of
this nation have been able to preserve them, by an immediate and most
sacred obligation on the consciences of the Princes of this realm.
For they that consult Magna Charta shall find, that as all your
predecessors were at their Coronation, so you also were sworn before
all the Nobility and Bishops then present, and in the presence of
God, and in his stead to him that anointed you, to maintain the
Church-lands, and the rights belonging to it: and this you yourself
have testified openly to God at the holy Altar, by laying your hands
on the Bible then lying upon it. And not only Magna Charta, but many
modern Statutes have denounced a Curse upon those that break Magna
Charta; a Curse like the leprosy, that was entailed on the Jews: for
as that, so these Curses have, and will cleave to the very stones of
those buildings that have been consecrated to God; and the father's
sin of Sacrilege hath, and will prove to be entailed on his son and
family. And now, Madam, what account can be given for the breach of
this Oath at the Last Great Day, either by your Majesty, or by me, if
it be wilfully, or but negligently violated, I know not.
"And therefore, good Madam, let not the late Lord's exceptions
against the failings of some few Clergymen prevail with you to punish
posterity for the errors of the present age; let particular men suffer
for their particular errors; but let God and his Church have their
inheritance: and though I pretend not to prophecy, yet I beg posterity
to take notice of what is already become visible in many families;
that Church-land added to an ancient and just inheritance, hath proved
like a moth fretting a garment, and secretly consumed both: or like
the Eagle that stole a coal from the altar, and thereby set her nest
on fire, which consumed both her young eagles and herself that stole
it. And though I shall forbear to speak reproachfully of your Father,
yet I beg you to take notice, that a part of the Church's rights added
to the vast treasures left him by his Father, hath been conceived to
bring an unavoidable consumption upon both, notwithstanding all his
diligency to preserve them.
"And consider, that after the violation of those laws, to which he had
sworn in Magna Charta, God did so far deny him his restraining grace,
that as King Saul, after he was forsaken of God, fell from one sin
to another; so he, till at last he fell into greater sins than I am
willing to mention. Madam, Religion is the foundation and cement of
human societies; and when they that serve at God's Altar shall be
exposed to poverty, then Religion itself will be exposed to scorn, and
become contemptible; as you may already observe it to be in too many
poor Vicarages in this nation. And therefore, as you are by a late
Act or Acts of Parliament, entrusted with a great power to preserve or
waste the Church-lands; yet dispose of them, for Jesus' sake, as
you have promised to men, and vowed to God, that is, as the donors
intended: let neither falsehood nor flattery beguile you to do
otherwise; but put a stop to God's and the Levites' portion, I beseech
you, and to the approaching ruins of His Church, as you expect
comfort at the Last Great Day; for Kings must be judged. Pardon this
affectionate plainness, my most dear Sovereign, and let me beg to be
still continued in your favour; and the Lord still continue you in
His."
[Sidenote: Its reception]
The Queen's patient hearing this affectionate speech, and her future
care to preserve the Church's rights, which till then had been
neglected, may appear a fair testimony, that he made her's and the
Church's good the chiefest of his cares, and that she also thought so.
And of this there were such daily testimonies given, as begot betwixt
them so mutual a joy and confidence, that they seemed born to believe
and do good to each other; she not doubting his piety to be more than
all his opposers, which were many; nor doubting his prudence to be
equal to the chiefest of her Council, who were then as remarkable for
active wisdom, as those dangerous times did require, or this nation
did ever enjoy. And in this condition he continued twenty years; in
which time he saw some flowings, but many more ebbings of her
favour towards all men that had opposed him, especially the Earl of
Leicester: so that God seemed still to keep him in her favour, that
he might preserve the remaining Church-lands and immunities from
Sacrilegious alienations. And this good man deserved all the honour
and power with which she gratified and trusted him; for he was a pious
man, and naturally of noble and grateful principles: he eased her of
all her Church-cares by his wise manage of them; he gave her faithful
and prudent counsels in all the extremities and dangers of her
temporal affairs, which were very many; he lived to be the chief
comfort of her life in her declining age, and to be then most
frequently with her, and her assistant at her private devotions; he
lived to be the greatest comfort of her soul upon her death-bed, to
be present at the expiration of her last breath, and to behold the
closing of those eyes that had long looked upon him with reverence and
affection. And let this also be added, that he was the Chief Mourner
at her sad funeral; nor let this be forgotten, that, within a
few hours after her death, he was the happy proclaimer, that King
James--her peaceful successor--was heir to the Crown.
[Sidenote: The Bishop's works]
[Sidenote: His Free-school]
Let me beg of my Reader to allow me to say a little, and but a little,
more of this good Bishop, and I shall then presently lead him back to
Mr. Hooker; and because I would hasten, I will mention but one part of
the Bishop's charity and humility; but this of both. He built a large
Alms-house near to his own Palace at Croydon in Surrey, and endowed
it with maintenance for a Master and twenty-eight poor men and women;
which he visited so often, that he knew their names and dispositions;
and was so truly humble, that he called them Brothers and Sisters; and
whensoever the Queen descended to that lowliness to dine with him at
his Palace in Lambeth,--which was very often,--he would usually the
next day shew the like lowliness to his poor Brothers and Sisters at
Croydon, and dine with them at his Hospital; at which time, you may
believe there was joy at the table. And at this place he built also
a fair Free-school, with a good accommodation and maintenance for the
Master and Scholars. Which gave just occasion for Boyse Sisi, then
Ambassador for the French King, and resident here, at the Bishop's
death, to say, "the Bishop had published many learned books; but a
Free-school to train up youth, and an Hospital to lodge and maintain
aged and poor people, were the best evidences of Christian learning
that a Bishop could leave to posterity." This good Bishop lived to see
King James settled in peace, and then fell into an extreme sickness
at his Palace in Lambeth; of which when the King had notice, he
went presently to visit him, and found him in his bed in a declining
condition and very weak; and after some short discourse betwixt them,
the King at his departure assured him, "He had a great affection for
him, and a very high value for his prudence and virtues, and would
endeavour to beg his life of God for the good of his Church." To which
the good Bishop replied, "_Pro Ecclesia Dei! Pro Ecclesia Dei_!" which
were the last words he ever spake; therein testifying, that as in his
life, so at his death, his chiefest care was of God's Church.
This John Whitgift was made Archbishop in the year 1583. In which busy
place he continued twenty years and some months; and in which time you
may believe he had many trials of his courage and patience: but his
motto was "_Vincit qui patitur_;" and he made it good.
[Sidenote: His trials]
Many of his trials were occasioned by the then powerful Earl of
Leicester, who did still--but secretly--raise and cherish a faction of
Non-conformists to oppose him; especially one Thomas Cartwright,[19]
a man of noted learning, sometime contemporary with the Bishop in
Cambridge, and of the same College, of which the Bishop had been
Master; in which place there began some emulations,--the particulars
I forbear,--and at last open and high oppositions betwixt them; and in
which you may believe Mr. Cartwright was most faulty, if his expulsion
out of the University can incline you to it.
And in this discontent after the Earl's death,--which was 1588,--Mr.
Cartwright appeared a chief cherisher of a party that were for the
Geneva Church-government; and, to effect it, he ran himself into many
dangers both of liberty and life, appearing at the last to justify
himself and his party in many remonstrances, which he caused to be
printed: and to which the Bishop made a first answer, and Cartwright
replied upon him; and then the Bishop having rejoined to his first
reply, Mr. Cartwright either was, or was persuaded to be, satisfied,
for he wrote no more, but left the Reader to be judge which had
maintained their cause with most charity and reason. After some
silence, Mr. Cartwright received from the Bishop many personal favours
and betook himself to a more private living, which was at Warwick,
where he was made Master of an Hospital, and lived quietly, and grew
rich; and where the Bishop gave him a licence to preach, upon promises
not to meddle with controversies, but incline his hearers to piety
and moderation: and this promise he kept during his life, which ended
1602, the Bishop surviving him but some few months; each ending his
days in perfect charity with the other.
And now after this long digression, made for the information of my
Reader concerning what follows, I bring him back to venerable Mr.
Hooker, where we left him in the Temple, and where we shall find him
as deeply engaged in a controversy with Walter Travers,[20]--a friend
and favourite of Mr. Cartwright's--as the Bishop had ever been with
Mr. Cartwright himself, and of which I shall proceed to give this
following account.
[Sidenote: The new generation]
[Sidenote: Thomas Nashe]