change she underwent at the time of the Reformation, she continued to bear, and still bears, the marks of the lineage from which she sprang. Her orders, her offices, and her ritual are modelled upon those of the Romish Church, though the more objectionable, and what were deemed distinctively popish, elements have been drastically expunged. As Macaulay says, she copied the Roman Catholic forms of prayer. "Utterly rejecting the doctrine of transubstantiation, and condemning as idolatrous all adoration paid to the sacramental bread and wine, she yet, to the disgust of the Puritan, required her children to receive the memorials of divine love meekly kneeling upon their knees. Discarding many rich vestments which surrounded the altars of the ancient faith, she yet retained to the horror of weak minds a robe of white linen, typical of the purity which belonged to her as the mystical spouse of Christ. Discarding a crowd of pantomimic gestures, which in the Roman Catholic worship are substituted for intelligible words, she yet shocked many rigid Protestants by marking the infant just sprinkled from the font with the sign of the cross. The Church of England, though she asked for the intercession of no created being, still set apart days for the commemoration of some who had done and suffered great things for the faith. She retained confirmation and ordination as edifying rites; but she degraded them from the rank of sacraments. Shrift was no part of her system. Yet she gently invited the dying penitent to confess his sins to a divine, and empowered her ministers to soothe the departing soul by an absolution which breathes the very spirit of the old religion." 1 1 Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. pp. 53-4; see Zurich Letters -Laurence Humphrey and Thomas Sampson to Henry Bullinger, "Some blemishes which still attach to the Church of England." "After the Council of Trent had effected such considerable reforms in the Catholic discipline, it seemed a sort of reproach to the Protestant Church of England that she retained all the dispensations, the exemptions, the pluralities, which had been deemed the peculiar corruptions of the worst times of Popery."-Hallam's Const. History, vol. i. p. 194. In his Life of Grindal, p. 542, Strype gives a list of dispensations and their prices. Puritanism originated not in England but in Holland-John Hooper, first Puritan Confessor-Made Bishop of GloucesterMartyrdom of Hooper-Puritanism and Anglicanism-Jewel-Orders, non-Episcopal-Macaulay on Orders-Strype-Dr. Hammond - Cosin-Bacon - Bishop Barlow - Archbishop ParkerElizabeth and the Puritans-Act of Supremacy-Act of Uniformity -Vestments Controversy-Sacerdotal and non-Sacerdotal conceptions-Resistance to Vestments Convocation-Suspension of Clergy -Hallam's Judgment-Parker's Advertisements. CHAPTER III THE RISE OF PURITANISM IN ENGLAND It is a common impression that Puritanism is a growth that first sprang upon British soil-that, from the seed sown by the early Protestant Reformers, it first pushed its way into the light of day during the reign of Elizabeth, or during the closing years of the reign of her sister Mary. This, however, is an error. Its origin must be sought at a much earlier period than this, and in a country relatively smaller and historically much less important. It was in HOLLAND or the NETHERLANDS that Puritanism first sprang and took root. But of this we shall have occasion to speak presently,1 and mention it here only as a caveat to prevent any premature conclusion being drawn as to its British origin. John Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, may be regarded as the father and founder of English Puritanism. Canon Perry speaks of him as the "first Puritan confessor." He was the first Nonconformist, though his nonconformity did not lead him to cross the Rubicon of separation from the Church of England. He had been a Cistercian monk, but, embracing the principles of the 1 See p. 203. Reformation, he advocated them with such zeal that it became unsafe for him to remain in his own country. This was in the closing years of the reign of Henry VIII. Hooper fled to Switzerland, and settled down in Zurich, where, under the influence of Bullinger, his Puritan. leanings became developed and strongly confirmed. On the accession of Edward VI. he returned to England, and, with the exception of Latimer, became the most popular preacher of his day. He was the first champion of the cause of religious liberty after the Reformation, and stood alone amongst the English Protestants of his age in the clearness with which he grasped the doctrine of the independence of the Church and the spirituality of the kingdom of Christ. "As touching," he says, "the superior powers of earth, it is not unknown to all of them who have readen and marked the Scripture, that it appertaineth nothing unto their office to make any law to govern the conscience of their subjects in religion. . . . Christ's kingdom is a spiritual one. In this neither King nor Pope may govern. Christ alone is the Governor of His Church, and the only lawgiver." Preaching before the King, he called for the restoration of the primitive Church, and demanded the abolition of all vestments, crosses, and altars. King Edward conceived a great liking for this honest and brave man. He was offered the bishopric of Gloucester, and, though willing to accept the appointment, he "scrupled the vestments," and refused to take the oath"So help me God and all the saints." A change in the wording of the latter relieved his conscience, but 1 Early Writings of Bishop Hooper, p. 280 (Parker Society, 1843). |