Two ideas of Church reform evolved themselves: one already
indicated,--that of separating from simple primitive Episcopacy all
prelatical assumptions,--and another, which amounted to a decided
revolution in the Church, including the extinction of Episcopacy
altogether. While the former rose out of reverence for the Reformation
under Elizabeth, combined with disgust at the history of prelatical
rule,--the latter had a deeper and wider cause.
When Episcopacy strove to maintain itself in England, after the shock
given to ecclesiastical power in the days of Henry VIII. and Edward
VI., Presbyterianism made good its position at Geneva under Calvin, and
at Edinburgh under Knox. The connexion between the two cities and the
two Reformers, and between them both and our own country, everybody
knows. The exiles who had found a home, not only on the shores of the
beautiful Lake Leman, but also on the scarcely less beautiful banks of
the Lake of Zurich, brought with them, when they returned home after
the Marian persecution, strong Presbyterian predilections. Calvin,
also, exercised a direct influence on some of the English Reformers;
and the system of John Knox, in such close neighbourhood as the north
of the Tweed, could not fail to affect those who were studying the
question, "what ought to be the Church of the future?"
[Sidenote: 1567.]
Indications of Presbyterian sentiments in the England of Elizabeth are
very numerous.[124] They wrought within the Episcopal establishment
without producing a severance. Cartwright was a Presbyterian. He
contended for the abolition of archbishops, and archdeacons, and
would retain only bishops or presbyters to preach the word and pray,
and deacons to take care of the poor. Every Church, by which he
meant a "certain flock," was to be governed by its own ministers and
presbyters, and these were not to be created by civil authority, but
chosen by popular election. The directory of government, found in the
study of that eminent Puritan after his death, said to be composed by
Travers, is in perfect harmony with this Presbyterian scheme. Certain
clerical meetings, under the auspices of Cartwright and Travers, took
a decided synodical shape.[125] This element continued in the Church
under the Stuarts, notwithstanding the efforts of bishops to extinguish
it.[126]
[Sidenote: _Presbyterianism._]
Certain Puritans of a Presbyterian turn, formally separated themselves
from the Establishment so early as 1567, and met together for
Nonconformist worship in Plumber's Hall.[127] An organized Presbytery
appears at Wandsworth in 1572,--in the Channel Islands, where the
Government of England could not reach it, the system was fully
established in 1577; and Presbyterian classes may be traced in Cheshire
and Lancashire, Warwick and Northampton, during the last few years
of the Tudor dynasty. Organized Presbyterianism is seen but faintly
in the early part of the seventeenth century, but Presbyterianism,
as a sentiment within the Established Church, is distinctly visible.
Nonconformity of another kind was also on the increase at this period.
Churches of the Independent and Baptist order may be discovered in
Tudor times, but they became more apparent and numerous in the days of
the Stuarts. Their rise and progress will be afterwards described.
[Sidenote: 1640.]
How Puritanism glided into a state of separation, and the nonconformist
in the Church became a dissenter outside its pale, is curiously
illustrated in the Records of the Church assembling in Broadmead,
Bristol. In those records is a story of a certain zealous lady of
that city named Kelly.[128] "She kept a grocer's shop in High Street,
between the Builders' Inn and the High Cross," and that she might bear
a testimony against superstitious observances, "she would keep open her
shop on Christmas Day, and sit sewing in the face of the sun, and in
the sight of all men." Afterwards, when she heard a clergyman she did
not like at the parish church, "away she went forth before them all,
and said she would hear no more, and never did." Puritan emigrants to
New England embarked at Bristol, and would abide with Mrs. Hazzard "if
they waited for a wind." Women actually sought to be confined in the
parish of a Puritan clergyman, to avoid the ceremonies of "churching
and crossing." "The consciences of the good people began to be very
weary." Then "it pleased the Lord to stir up some few of the professors
of this city to lead the way out of Babylon." "Five persons began to
go further, and scrupled to hear common prayer, even four men and one
woman." So that in the year 1640, those five persons met together at
Mrs. Hazzard's house, "at the upper end of Broad Street, in Bristol,
and came to a holy resolution to separate from the worship of the world
and times they lived in, and that they would go no more to it."[129]
In this case, we see how dissatisfaction with the Established Church
gradually led to positive separation, and how extremely feeble, in some
instances, was the commencement of organized dissent. But the spirit
working in the way just indicated, slowly, and without much notice,
came suddenly and boldly on the surface, soon after the Long Parliament
had opened.
[Sidenote: _Presbyterianism._]
Though the incumbents of the metropolis were almost all High Churchmen,
there were many Puritan lecturers in the city with strong Presbyterian
sympathies, supported by wealthy citizens, and in high repute with the
multitude. Amongst them, Dr. Cornelius Burgess is a very noticeable
man--already mentioned as the fast-day preacher--who, in connection
with a lectureship at St. Paul's, held other Church preferment. To
him and his brother lecturers may be ascribed the inspiration of much
intense public feeling against prelatical assumptions, and against
Episcopacy itself,[130] out of which arose an extraordinary memorial,
which has attained no small notoriety under the name of the _Root and
Branch_ petition.
This petition complained that the offices and jurisdictions of
archbishops were the same as in the papal community, "little change
thereof being made, except only the head from whence it was derived;"
that there was great conformity of the English Church to the Church
of Rome in vestures, postures, ceremonies, and administrations; that
the liturgy, for the most part, is framed out of the Romish Breviary,
Ritual, and the Mass Book; and that the forms of ordination and
consecration were drawn from the Romish pontifical.[131] Whoever
prepared this document, it was soon submitted to Mr. Bagshawe, of the
Inner Temple, member for Southwark, who had obtained great popularity
by his lectures against the temporalities of bishops--lectures which
brought on him the displeasure of Laud. But Bagshawe, though zealous
for the reform of Episcopacy, did not desire to see it abolished. He
therefore declined to take charge of the petition, when Mr. John White,
his fellow-burgess for Southwark--afterwards the famous chairman of
the committee for scandalous ministers--arranged its delivery to the
Commons, not however by his own hands, but through Alderman Pennington,
a citizen well known for his extreme dislike to the Episcopal
Bench.[132]
[Sidenote: 1633.]
A still more effective agency on the Presbyterian side appeared in
London at the same time.
[Sidenote: _Presbyterianism._]
Scotland had silently fostered the Presbyterianism of England for many
years. Head quarters for that polity had been there established. In
the neighbourhood of the Highlands, synods found even a kindlier soil
and a more congenial climate than under the shadow of the Alps. True
to its old French sympathies, Scotland did not follow the example of
reformation set in England or in Germany; it eschewed Saxon examples,
and adopted that form of Protestantism which had been embraced by such
of the Gallic nation as had seceded from Rome, and which bore the
impress of the piety and genius of one of the most illustrious sons of
France. Edinburgh, during the ministry of Knox, saw as complete a work
accomplished as Geneva had witnessed during the ministry of Calvin.
Episcopacy was thoroughly rooted out, and the attempts under Charles
I. to replant it only exasperated the husbandmen of the vineyard, and
made them love the more what they counted "trees of the Lord's right
hand planting." Presbyterianism became doubly dear to Scotchmen when
the grandson of Mary sought to destroy that, which, in the days of his
grandmother, their forefathers had cultivated with toil and tears. To
make the matter worse, when Charles went to Scotland in 1633, and took
with him Laud, then Bishop of London, everything seemed to be done
which was likely to arouse Scotch prejudices against episcopal order
and the English liturgy. Instead of reducing the Anglican ceremonies
to as simple a form as possible, the most elaborate pomp of worship
appeared in Holyrood Chapel. The _Dreadnought_, a good ship, well
victualled, "appointed to guard the narrow seas," was engaged to
transport from Tilbury Hope to the Firth of Forth, twenty-six musical
gentlemen of the Royal Chapel at Whitehall, with their goods and
paraphernalia to perform the cathedral service, so as to impress the
Presbyterians of Edinburgh.[133] A more thorough mistake could not
have been made in a city where even the sight of a surplice and the
reading of the common prayer, a few years afterwards, occasioned the
world-known episode of "Jenny Geddes and her wonderful Folding Stool."
The attempt to impose Episcopacy and its associations on Presbyterian
Scotland provoked a Covenant war, and roused a determination in the
hearts of her sons to carry Presbyterianism over the border, and to
make the two countries one pure Kirk. How the strong Presbyterianism
on the other side the Tweed re-inforced what was comparatively weak at
first on this side the border,--how the Scotch made the system amongst
Englishmen what it became,--how, like a loadstone, it attracted and
brought together the scattered particles of Presbyterian sentiments
throughout England,--how the Church of the North greatly augmented the
mass of Puritanism in the South, and welded it for a while into form
somewhat like its own, will appear as this narrative proceeds.
Meanwhile some passing notice must be taken of the enthusiasm of the
Scotch army in support of Presbyterianism, and it cannot better be done
than in the words of a worthy minister who visited the camp, and whose
_naïve_ and graphic notes on other subjects, we shall have frequent
occasion to use.
[Sidenote: 1639.]
"It would have done you good," the writer says, "to have cast your
eyes athwart our brave and rich hill as oft as I did, with great
contentment and joy; for I (quoth the wren) was there among the rest,
being chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our Shyre, who came late with
my Lord of Eglintoun. I furnished to half-a-dozen of good fellows
muskets and picks, and to my boy a broadsword. I carried myself, as the
fashion was, a sword, and a couple of Dutch pistols at my saddle; but
I promise, for the offence of no man, except a robber in the way; for
it was our part alone to pray and preach for the encouragement of our
countrymen, which I did to my power most cheerfully." The troops were
commanded by noblemen; the captains, for the most part, were landed
proprietors; and the lieutenants, experienced soldiers, who had been
employed in the wars of Gustavus Adolphus. The colours flying at the
entrance of each captain's tent bore the Scottish arms, with the motto,
'For Christ's Crown and Covenant,' in golden letters. There were some
companies of Highlanders, "souple fellows, with their playds, targes,
and dorlachs." But the soldiers were mostly stout young ploughmen, who
increased in courage and experience daily; "the sight of the nobles and
their beloved pastors daily raised their hearts; the good sermons and
prayers, morning and evening, under the roof of heaven, to which their
drums did call them for bells; the remonstrances very frequent of the
goodness of their cause; of their conduct hitherto, by a hand clearly
divine; also Leslie's skill and fortune made them all so resolute for
battle as could be wished. We were feared that emulation among our
nobles might have done harm, when they should be met in the fields, but
such was the wisdom and authority of that old, little, crooked soldier,
that all, with one incredible submission, from the beginning to the
end, gave over themselves to be guided by him, as if he had been great
Solyman. Certainly the obedience of our nobles to that man's advices
was as great as their forbears wont to be to their King's commands." He
further adds: "Had you lent your ear in the morning, or especially at
even, and heard in the tents the sound of some singing psalms, some
praying, and some reading scripture, ye would have been refreshed. For
myself, I never found my mind in better temper than it was all that
time frae I came from home, till my head was again homeward; for I was
as a man who had taken my leave from the world, and was resolved to die
in that service without return."[134]
[Sidenote: _Presbyterianism._]
The writer of this description was Robert Baillie, and he, in company
with two other distinguished clergymen, Alexander Henderson and Robert
Blair, visited London just as the "Root and Branch" petition was being
prepared. They came with a commission from Scotland, under the broad
seal of the Northern Parliament, to settle the quarrel which had led to
the encampment of the covenant army--a quarrel in which the Puritans
and the Long Parliament took part with the Scotch against the King and
his Bishops. Three noblemen, three barons and three burgesses were
commissioned for the same purpose. With the treaty of peace there was
to be the payment of the Scotch troops by the English nation. The
clerical commissioners hoped that there would follow the inauguration
of goodly presbyteries throughout the fair land of the South, an object
which was dearer to them than any political alliance, or than any
amount of money.
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
On Monday morning, November 16th, long before dawn, after spending
their Sabbath in the little town of Ware, the three clergymen started
for London. They had travelled from Edinburgh on horseback, surprised
at the inns, seeming to them "like palaces," which they thought
accounted for exorbitant charges for coarse meals. In the dark they
trotted forth from Ware, all well, "horse and men, with divers
merchants, and their servants on little nags," the road "extremely
foul and deep;" and by sunrise that cold morning,--as the light
woke up the slumbering city, as the smoke rose through the quaint
chimneys from ten thousand hearths,--the three presbyters entered the
metropolis.[135] They lodged in the city close to London Stone,[136]
in a house which was wont to be inhabited by the Lord Mayor, or by one
of the Sheriffs. St. Antholin's (or St. Anthony's) Church, connected
with the mansion by a gallery, became their place of worship. There
they soon had throngs as great as at their own communions, and daily
the crowds increased to hear Mr. Henderson, so that "from the first
appearance of day to the shutting in the light, the church was never
empty." The lodgings by London Stone became the scene of many an
earnest conference, and there Baillie wrote the letters and journals
which afford us such an insight into public proceedings and religious
life in London during that eventful winter.
The Scotch Commissioners soon saw the famous petition, from "the town
of London, and a world of men, for the abolition of bishops and deans
and all their appurtenances," and were consulted about the time of its
presentation.[137] They seem to have recommended delay, till Parliament
should pull down "Canterbury and some prime bishops;" and Convocation
should be visited with a _præmunire_ for its illegal canons; and
preachers have further opportunity of preparing the people to root out
Episcopacy. "Huge things," Baillie told his friends, were working in
England. God's mighty hand was raising a joyful harvest from long sown
tears, but the fruit was scarcely ripe.
[Sidenote: _Presbyterianism._]
The tide of excitement could not be stayed. The London petitioners had
not more desire, but they had less patience than the prudent ministers.
On the 11th of December, as Baillie tells us, the honest citizens,
in their best apparel and in a very modest way, went to the House of
Commons, and sent in two aldermen with the document, bearing 15,000
signatures. It was well received. They who brought it were desired to
go in peace, and Alderman Pennington laid the huge scroll upon the
table.
[Sidenote: 1641, January.]
Another petition, prepared at the same time,[138] came under Baillie's
notice, who speaks of it as drawn up by the well-affected clergy
for the overthrow of the bishops, and posted through the land for
signatures, and as likely to be returned in a fortnight, with "a
large remonstrance." "At that time," he exultingly adds, "the root of
Episcopacy will be assaulted with the strongest blast it ever felt
in England. Let your hearty prayers be joined with mine, and of many
millions, that the breath of the Lord's nostrils may join with the
endeavours of weak men to blow up that old gourd[139] wicked oak."
Whether the Presbyterian Commissioner had been misinformed respecting
the Petition and Remonstrance, or whether the paper had undergone
alterations after its first issue, this is certain, that when
presented to the House on the 23rd January, it differed materially
from that of "the Root and Branch," inasmuch as it prayed not for the
subversion, but only for the reform of Episcopacy. It contained the
names of seven hundred beneficed clergymen. Other petitions had been
brought to the House. On the 12th of January several arrived, and that
from Kent may be taken as a sample, in which the government of the
Church of England by Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, and Archdeacons, was
deplored as dangerous to the Commonwealth, and it was earnestly prayed
that this hierarchial power might be totally abrogated, if the wisdom
of the House should find it could not be maintained by God's word, and
to His glory.[140]
Petitions afterwards flowed in on the other side from Wales,
Lancashire, Staffordshire, and other counties.[141] High Churchmen
talked about the way in which the Puritans and Presbyterians got up
these documents. The signatures were fictitious. People were cajoled
into writing their names--intended for one purpose, they were perverted
for another. Such things might not be altogether without truth. But we
are safe in believing, if tricks were played by one party they were
played by the other also; and as at present, so then, whatever was done
by either faction came in for an unmerciful, and often unrighteous,
share of criticism from exasperated opponents.[142]
[Sidenote: _Petitions._]
While petitioners were busy, and the House of Commons had enough to
do to hear their grievances, and debates were earnest, and two potent
principles were embodied in the strife, the King watched it all with
alarm for Episcopacy rather than with any apprehensions for his
own personal safety. For his subjects were loyal and dutiful, and,
according to Baillie, "feared his frown." He summoned both Houses
of Parliament to Whitehall, on the 25th January, 1641, and, after
professing willingness to concur in the reformation of the Church,
added the following characteristic sentences: "I will show you some
_rubs_, and must needs take notice of some very strange (I know
not what term to give them) petitions given in the names of divers
counties, against the present established Government, and of the great
threatenings against the bishops, that they will make them to be but
cyphers, or, at least, their voices to be taken away. Now I must tell
you, that I make a great difference between reformation and alteration
of Government, though I am for the former, I cannot give way to the
latter. If some of them have overstretched their power, I shall not be
unwilling these things should be redressed and reformed--nay, further,
if upon serious debate you shall show me that bishops have some
temporal authority inconvenient to the State, I shall not be unwilling
to desire them to lay it down. But this must not be understood, that
I shall in any way consent that their voices in Parliament should be
taken away; for in all the times of my predecessors since the Conquest,
and before, they have enjoyed it, and I am bound to maintain them in it
as one of the fundamental constitutions of this kingdom."[143]
[Sidenote: 1641, February.]
After petitions from the people, consultations with the Scotch,
cautions from the Crown, and preparatory proceedings in the House, the
grand debate came on respecting the "Root and Branch" Petition. The
debate lasted throughout the 8th and 9th of February, 1641. In the
course of it, the mercurial royalist, Lord Digby, observed, he had
reason to believe that some aimed at a total extirpation of Episcopacy,
yet, whilst opposing such extreme views, he was for clipping the wings
of the prelates; and, though condemning the Petition, he thought no
people had ever been more provoked than England of late years, by the
insolence and exorbitance of the bishops. "For my part," declared he,
"I profess I am inflamed with the sense of them, so that I find myself
ready to cry out with the loudest of the 15,000, "down with them, down
with them, even to the ground!" Let us not, however," he added, "destroy
bishops, but make bishops such as they were in primitive times." The
independent Nathaniel Fiennes opposed Episcopal rule, maintaining
that until the Church Government of the country could "be framed of
another twist," and more assimilated to that of the commonwealth,
the ecclesiastical would be no good neighbour to the civil: for as
with children afflicted with the rickets, all nourishment goes to the
upper parts, so in the rickety condition of the Church, while the
hierarchy became monstrously enlarged, the lower clergy pined away.
Bishoprics, deaneries, and chapels, he compared to wasters in a wood.
The official Sir Benjamin Rudyard condemned bishops unsparingly, yet
advocated episcopal superintendence: and afterwards the learned Mr.
Bagshawe pedantically distinguished between Episcopacy primitive _in
statu puro_, and Episcopacy _in statu corrupto_, pleading, at the
same time, for a thorough reformation of abuses, and an alteration
of Ecclesiastical government into a Presbyterian form. Sir Harbottle
Grimstone also asked for a diminution of prelatical power.
[Sidenote: _Petitions._]
The speakers who carried the greatest weight in this debate were Pym
and Falkland. We have only a faint echo of the words delivered by
the former. They were to the effect that he thought it was not the
intention of the House to abolish either Episcopacy or the Book of
Common Prayer, but rather to reform both, so far as they gave offence;
and if that improvement could be effected with the concurrence of the
King, Parliament would accomplish a very acceptable work, such as had
never been done since the Reformation.[144] Falkland's speech is fully
reported. Very severe upon the conduct of the bishops generally, he
made exceptions, and expressed himself content to take away what he
said begot the mischief, such as judging wills and marriages, and
having votes in Parliament. He denied the divine right, but would
allow the human expediency of Episcopal rank. His opinion was, "that
we should not root up this ancient tree, as dead as it appears, till
we have tried whether by this, or the like lopping of the branches,
the sap which was unable to feed the whole may not serve to make what
is left both grow and flourish. And, certainly, if we may at once take
away both the inconveniences of bishops and the inconveniences of no
bishops, this course can only be opposed by those who love mutation for
mutation's sake."
[Sidenote: 1641, Feb.]
The only person who boldly defended Episcopacy, and spoke in an
Anglican tone, was Mr. Pleydell, member for Wootton Bassett. "Sir,"
said he, addressing Mr. Speaker, "there is as much beyond truth as on
this side it, and would we steer a right course we must be sure to keep
the channel, lest we fall from one extreme to another, from the dotage
of superstition to the frenzy of profaneness, from bowing to idols
to worship the calves of our own imagination." This honest gentleman
lamented libellous pamphlets, Puritan sermons, irreverence in churches,
and the like; called himself a dutiful son of his distressed mother,
the Church of England; pleaded for referring matters of doctrine to
learned divines; and declared that to venture on any alteration was to
run a risk, the consequences of which no man could foresee.[145]
[Sidenote: _Petitions._]
A scene unnoticed by our historians, but brought to light by the
careful examination of Sir Symonds D'Ewes' journal, occurred during the
debate.[146] Alderman Pennington, Member for London, vindicated the
character of the anti-Episcopal petitioners, and maintained that in
obtaining signatures there "was no course used to rake up hands, for
if that had been done, 15,000 might have mounted to fifteen times
15,000." Then Sir John Strangways, Member for Weymouth, offered a
few words in favour of Episcopacy, observing that "if we made parity
in the Church, we must at last come to a parity in the Commonwealth,
and that the bishops were one of the three estates of the kingdom,
and had a voice in Parliament." Upon this Cromwell rose, and declared
that "he knew no reason of those suppositions and inferences which the
gentleman had made that last spoke." At this point some interruption
occurred, and divers members "called him to the bar." After which Pym
and Holles referred to the orders of the House, that if a gentleman
said anything objectionable, he might explain himself in his place.
D'Ewes followed this up by saying, "to call a member to the bar is the
highest and most supreme censure we can exercise within these walls,
for it is rending away a part from our body, because if once a member
amongst us is placed at yonder bar, he ceaseth to be a member." He then
moved, that if this offence of calling to the bar should be repeated,
the offender should be well fined. Cromwell, who thus appears to have
already become obnoxious to the Church party, must have still more
annoyed his interrupter, when he proceeded to observe, "He did not
understand why the gentleman that last spake (before the interruption)
should make an inference of parity from the Church to the Commonwealth,
nor that there was any necessity of the great revenues of bishops. He
was more convinced, touching the irregularity of bishops, than even
before; because, like the Roman hierarchy, they would not endure to
have their condition come to a trial."[147] This debate resulted in
the petition being referred to a Committee which had been appointed to
prepare subjects to be submitted to the House--the House reserving to
itself the main point of Episcopacy, which was to be afterwards taken
into consideration. The speeches had shewn a remarkable coincidence
of opinion as to the necessity of abridging prelatical power and
Church influence; but they had also brought out discordant views
in relation to Episcopacy itself, though few at present advocated
its total abolition. As yet, it did not seem wise to the Commons to
decide one way or the other on this important point, or to entrust
the consideration of the question to a Committee; but as we look at
the general complexion of the debate, together with the terms of the
resolution, the exceptive clause would appear simply to mean that
Parliament was not yet prepared to abolish Episcopacy.[148]
[Sidenote: 1641, Feb.]
[Sidenote: _Petitions._]
The Committee divided the grievances complained of into nineteen
heads, of which the principal were the inequality of benefices, the
claim of the hierarchy to be a divine institution, the assumption of
an exclusive power to ordain, the temporal power of the bishops, the
holding of pluralities, and the scandalous lives of the Clergy.[149]
The challenge of the divine right of Episcopacy, though it seems to
have come very near to the subject excepted in the resolution, was
pronounced to be a proper point for enquiry; and a long and minute
discussion followed, in which texts of Scripture and passages from
the Fathers were cited and canvassed. It was voted at length that the
"challenge of the divine right of Episcopacy is a question fit to be
presented;"--the Committee in this respect indicating a desire that the
House would proceed to discuss the point reserved, and also shewing by
the tenor of their private conference, the strong Presbyterian element
then at work amongst them. All the nineteen particulars were examined,
and evidence collected respecting each--especially that which bore
upon the conduct of scandalous bishops, whose speeches and quotations
of Scripture are given at length, some in an incredible strain of
impious levity. The Committee sat from the 10th to the 19th February.
No formal discussion of the abstract question about the divine right of
Episcopacy immediately followed the report of the Committee; but the
influence of the report probably told upon the House, and prepared for
an attack upon the bishops, which was made in the month of May.
[Illustration]