forced to desert their stations, and thus the university would be stripped of its ornaments. They therefore gave it as their humble opinion that indulgence in this matter would be attended with no inconveniences; but, on the other hand, they were afraid religion and learning would suffer very much by rigour and imposition."1 Incredible as it may appear, among the signatories attached to this statement was the name of John Whitgift, Master of Trinity, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and in that position the relentless oppressor of the Puritans. How divided opinion and feeling were, may be gathered from what took place in the Convocation of 1563. The Puritan demands that the habits, all but the surplice, should be done away, also the use of organs, the sign of the cross in baptism, enforced kneeling at the communion, were defeated by a majority of one (fifty-eight for, fiftynine against). "It would have been interesting to see how such proposals would have been received by Elizabeth had this trifling majority been reversed." It is clear that at that time no appeal in favour of the habits on the ground of order and comeliness could avail in the face of their dubious origin and their Romish associations. Everything that savoured of Rome was, for that reason, specially repugnant to Protestant feeling. "I wish," said Jewel, "that all, even the slightest, vestiges of Popery might be removed from our churches, and, above all, from our minds. But the Queen at this time is unable to endure the least alteration in matters of religion." Elizabeth had fully made up her mind that no latitude was to be allowed the clergy in regard to the 1 Strype's Life of Parker, bk. iii. p. 125, and also Appendix. wearing of the prescribed vestments. In this, as in all other respects, the requirements of the Act of Uniformity must be rigorously carried out. In Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, the Queen found an ally and supporter after her own mind, and, needless to say, the power which they wielded bore down all opposition. Humphrey, president of Magdalen, was admonished, and Sampson was deprived of his deanery. Out of ninety-eight ministers in London, thirty-seven refused to comply with the prescribed ceremonies, and were, in consequence, suspended from their ministry, and their livings sequestrated.1 Many will concur in the very moderate judgment of Hallam: “I am far from being convinced that it would not have been practicable, by receding a little from that uniformity which governors delight to prescribe, to have palliated in a great measure, if not put an end for a time to, the discontent that so soon endangered the new Establishment. The frivolous usages, to which so many frivolous objections were raised, such as the tippet and surplice, the sign of the cross in baptism, the ring in matrimony, the posture of kneeling at the communion, might have been left to private discretion, not possibly without some inconvenience, but with less, as I conceive, than resulted from rendering their observance indispensable." 2 1 The Advertisements, as the articles drawn up by Archbishop Parker were called, may be consulted in Professor Prothero's work, pp. 191-4. They are styled Parker's Advertisements, 1565, and prescribe the conditions to be observed in connection with doctrine and preaching, the administration of prayers and sacraments, certain orders in ecclesiastical policy, and the kind of apparel to be worn by all ecclesiastical persons. 2 Hallam's Constitutional History of England, vol. i. p. 241. Rise of Separatism-The Puritans and the Church-Points of divergence-Early and later Puritans-All early Puritans desired uniformity-Rise of Presbyterianism-Return of Refugees-Cartwright His positions stated-Founder of Presbyterianism in England-Cartwright and Whitgift-Puritan and Anglican antithesesWalter Travers Presbyterianised State Church-Book of Discipline -Five hundred signatories-Presbyterians not Separatists-Not friendly to religious liberty-Impermanence of Presbyterianism in England. CHAPTER IV THE CHASM WIDENING-RISE OF PRESBYTERIANISM IN ENGLAND Rise of Separatism.—In this "vestiarian controversy”—the resistance which the enforcement of the habits provoked — Separatism originated. "A most unhappy event," says Strype," whereby people of the same country, of the same religion, and of the same judgment in doctrine, parted communion; one part being obliged to go aside into secret houses and chambers to serve God by themselves, which begat strangeness between neighbours, Christians, and Protestants." This was the beginning of the breach between the Church and the people,—the breach in which Dissent and Nonconformity took its rise, and which has gone on widening ever since, till it has divided the nation into two rival religious camps, and run a line of cleavage throughout the entire strata of English society. The Puritans and the Church.-The Puritans were not sorry to see the authority of the Queen substituted for that of the Pope, but they could not bring themselves to submit to her assumption of headship over the Church. "The Christian sovereign," said Cartwright in "An |