that Puritanism flourished, and Separatism afterwards sprang up.

The influence of Holland upon England. These refugees from the Netherlands brought with them the arts and sciences for which their country had already become famous, and they taught them to a people entirely ignorant of them; for it must be admitted, says Mr. Thorold Rogers, that for a long time in the industrial history of modern civilisation the English were "the stupidest and most backward nation in Europe." Holland, on the other hand, was the instructor of Europe in the most advanced kind of agriculture, the most enterprising commerce. It was the pioneer in navigation and in discovery, in physical research, in medical knowledge and skill, and produced the greatest jurists and the most learned scholars of the seventeenth century. It was a centre of varied literary activity when England lay enveloped in the gross darkness of ignorance, and more books teemed from its presses than from all other parts of the Continent.

But the greatest service which Holland rendered to our own country in the sixteenth century was the dissemination of Protestant convictions and sentiments-the right of private judgment, the duty of toleration, and liberty of conscience. The Netherlanders became missionaries to the people wherever they settled down, instructing them in the truths of the Bible, quickening at once their intelligence and aspirations, and leading them into the love and practice of virtue, which seemed indeed lofty and austere when compared with the morals of our

own countrymen. The chief strongholds of English Puritanism were London and Norwich, and these were just the two cities where the Dutch community and influence were the most widely represented. It was in Norwich, as we have seen, that Robert Browne gathered the first Separatist or Independent Church, a church mainly composed of people from the Netherlands, who at that time formed the majority of the population of the city.

Holland the birthplace of Puritanism.—It seems clear, then, from what has been thus said, that the origin of Puritanism, strictly speaking, is to be sought, not in England, but Holland. It was in Holland that it first made its appearance, and when it began to appear in England at first it found a prepared soil, both among the Walloon settlers and among the people who came under the leaven of their influence. There can be no question that this powerfully contributed to its rapid growth, and to its indefinite expansion.

The debt of England to the Netherlands has been elaborately shown and emphasised in a work1 to which reference has been already made, and the gist of which,

1 The Puritan in Holland, England, and America; an Introduction to American History, by Douglas Campbell, A.M., LL.B., Member of the American Historical Association. The praise which Mr. Gladstone bestowed upon this work, it may be remembered, drew an indignant letter from Mr. Goldwin Smith, in which he characterised it as a laborious and prolix disparagement of one of the most glorious periods of English history. The contrast is certainly drawn between Holland and England in a way which is decidedly unflattering to the latter; but the body of facts which Mr.

so far as this part of the subject is concerned, is contained in the following words: "When the Reformation came in, in which North-Western Europe was new-born, it was the Netherlands which led the van, and for eighty years waged the war which disenthralled the sculs of men. Out of that confict, shared by thousands of hercie Englishmen, but in which England, as a nation. Larly had a place, Puritanism was evolvel-the Puritanism which gave the triumph to the Netherland Republic. and has shaped the character of the English-speaking

race."

Continued oppression of the Puritan Separatists. -In the year 1592, that is, about ten years after Robert Browne began to disseminate his opinions, Lord Bacon wrote these words: “As for those which are called Brownists, being when they were at the most a very small number of very allly and base people here and there in corners depered, they are now (thanks be to God. by the god remedies that have been used suppressed and worn out. so that there is scarce any news of them! The ku doubt, excellent testiming This

to the good and strong remedies which had been used against them; not equally good testimony, however, to their success, as appears from what follows.

Barrowe and Greenwood and Penry were the last who suffered death for their Separatist convictions. Their execution raised such a feeling of resentment against the bishops, both in the House of Commons and among the mass of the people, that the prelates took alarm; they saw clearly that the policy of murdering innocent men must be desisted from, or it would recoil with fatal effect

upon themselves. Some other mode of quelling the spirit of dissent-the growth of Separatism-must be devised. Accordingly, about the very time that these martyrs for Independency were sent to their graves, an Act of Parliament was passed, making it penal for any person "to abstain from coming to church to hear divine service, or to receive the communion according to Her Majesty's laws and statutes aforesaid, or to be present at any unlawful assemblies, conventicles, or meetings under pretence of any exercise of religion contrary to Her Majesty's said laws and statutes." All persons convicted of such an offence were "to be committed to prison, there to remain without bail or mainprize, until they shall conform and yield themselves," etc. All persons refusing to make submission within three months were to be required to "abjure this realm of England and all other the Queen's Majesty's dominions for ever, unless Her Majesty shall license the party to return." The convicted person was required to make his submission in the following terms: “I, A. B., do humbly confess and acknowledge that I have grievously offended God in contemning Her Majesty's godly

and lawful government and authority by absenting myself from church and from hearing divine service, contrary to the godly laws and statutes of this realm, and in using and frequenting disordered and unlawful conventicles and assemblies, under pretence and colour of exercise of religion; and I am heartily sorry for the same, and do acknowledge and testify in my conscience that no other person hath or ought to have any power or authority over Her Majesty," etc. In the last place, the Act provides "that every person that shall abjure by force of this Act, or refuse to abjure being thereunto required as aforesaid, shall forfeit to her Majesty all His goods and chattels for ever," etc.

This Act surely supplies a very striking comment upon Bacon's gratulatory deliverance. If these silly and base people, the Brownists, were, by the good remedies that had been used, suppressed and worn out, what need was there to pass an Act so drastic and designedly so woven as to enmesh and convict all persons guilty of the sin of Separatism? Drastic remedies usually imply the existence of desperate diseases.

The penalty which the Act visited upon those who refused to conform to its requirements left the Puritan Separatists no choice but to banish themselves as speedily as possible, and seek in some new land a freer air, a more hospitable asylum.

The Separatists or Independents in Holland. -We propose now to accompany to Holland these expatriated Separatists, and note very briefly their fortunes and vicissitudes in that country till the great