from a mistaken interpretation of the apostle's words, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers."

The Puritans replied to all these attempts of their adversaries; their tracts were eagerly sought after, and had a wide spread among the people; upon which the commissioners had recourse to their last remedy, which was the farther restraint of the press. They complained to the council, that notwithstanding the queen's injunctions, the differences in the church were kept open by the printing and publishing seditious libels; and hereupon procured the following decree of the star-chamber, viz.

1. "That no person shall print or publish any book against the queen's injunctions, ordinances, or letters patent, set forth or to be set forth, or against the meaning of them.*

2. "That such offenders should forfeit all their books and copies, and suffer three months' imprisonment, and never practise the art of printing any more.

3. "That no person should sell, bind, or stitch, such books, upon pain of twenty shillings for every book.

4. "That all forfeited books should be brought to Stationers'-hall, and half the money forfeited to be reserved for the queen, the rest for the informer, and the books to be destroyed or made waste-paper.

5. That the wardens of the company may from time to time search all suspected places, and open all packs, dry fats, &c. wherein paper or foreign books may be contained; and enter all warehouses where they have reasonable suspicion, and seize all books and pamphlets against the queen's ordinances, and bring the offender before the ecclesiastical commissioners.

6. "All stationers, booksellers, and merchants, trading in books, shall enter into recognizances of reasonable sums of money, to observe the premises, or pay the forfeitures."

This was signed by eight of the privy council, and by the bishops of Canterbury and London, with five more of the ecclesiastical commission, and published June 29th, 1566, in the eighth year of the queen's reign.+

The Puritans being thus foreclosed, and shut out of the + Life of Parker, p. 222.

Life of Parker, p. 221.

It is a just remark of a modern writer here, "that without entering into the controversy between the bishops and the Puritans, we may at least venture to affirm, that the former did no eredit to their cause by this arbitrary restraint of the press.

church by sequestrations, imprisonments, the taking away of their licences to preach, and the restraint of the press, most of them were at a loss how to behave, being unwilling to separate from the church where the word and sacraments were truly administered, though defiled with some Popish superstitions; of the number were, Dr. Humphreys, Sampson, Fox the martyrologist, Lever, Whittingham, Johnson, and others, who continued preaching up and down, as they had opportunity, and could be dispensed with for the habits, though they were excluded all parochial preferment.

But there were great numbers of the common people, who abhorred the habits as much as the ministers, and would not frequent the churches where they were used, thinking it as unlawful to countenance such superstitions with their presence, as if they themselves were to put on the garments. These were distressed where to hear; some stayed without the church till service was over, and the minister was entering upon his prayer before sermon; others flocked after father Coverdale, who preached without the habits; but being turned out of his church at St. Magnus, London-bridge, they were obliged to send to his house on Saturdays, to know where they might hear him the next day: the government took umbrage at this, insomuch that the good old man was obliged to tell his friends, that he durst not inform them any more of his preaching for fear of offending his superiors. At length, after having waited about eight weeks to see if the queen would have compassion on them, several of the deprived ministers had a solemn consultation with their friends, in which, after prayer, and a serious debate about the lawfulness and necessity of separating from the established church, they came to this agree ment, that since they could not have the word of God preached, nor the sacraments administered without idolatrous gear (as they called it), and since there had been a separate congregation in London, and another at Geneva in queen Mary's time, which used a book and order of preaching, administration of sacraments, and discipline, that the great Mr. Calvin had approved of, and which was free

This is an expedient utterly incompatible with the very notion of a free state, and therefore ever to be detested by the friends of liberty. And it is an expedient which can never be of any service to the cause of truth; whatever it may to error, superstition, or tyranny. British Biography, vol. 3. p. 25.-ED.

from the superstitions of the English service; that therefore it was their duty, in their present circumstances, to break off from the public churches, and to assemble, as they had opportunity, in private houses, or elsewhere, to worship God in a manner that might not offend against the light of their consciences.* Had the use of habits and a few ceremonies been left discretionary, both ministers and people had been easy; but it was the compelling these things by law, as they told the archbishop, that made them separate.

It was debated among them, whether they should use, as much of the common prayer and service of the church as was not offensive, or resolve at once, since they were cut off from the church of England, to set up the purest and best form of worship, most consonant to the Holy Scriptures, and to the practice of the foreign reformers; the latter of these was concluded upon, and accordingly they laid aside the English liturgy, and made use of the Geneva service-book.

Here was the era or date of the separation, a most unhappy event, says Mr. Strype, whereby " people of the same country, of the same religion, and of the same judgment in doctrine, parted communions; 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." And not only strangeness, but unspeakable mischiefs to the nation in this and the following reigns. The breach might easily have been made up at first, but it widened by degrees; the passions of the contending parties increased, till the fire, which for some years was burning under ground, broke out into a civil war, and with unspeakable fury destroyed the constitution both of church and state.

I leave the reader to judge at whose door the beginnings of these sorrows are to be laid, each party casting the blame on the other. The Conformists charged the deprived ministers with disobedience to the queen, and obstinacy, preciseness, and with breaking the peace of the church for matters of no consequence to salvation. The ministers, on the other hand, thought it cruel usage to be turned out of the church for things which their adversaries acknowledged to be of mere indifference; whereas they took it upon their

* Life of Parker, p. 241.

consciences, and were ready to aver in the most solemn manner, that they deemed them unlawful. They complied as far as they could with the establishment while they were within it, by using as much of the liturgy as was not offensive, and by taking the oath of supremacy; they were as dutiful subjects to the queen as the bishops, and declared themselves ready to obey their sovereign in all things lawful; and when they could not obey, patiently to suffer her displeasure. After all this, to impute the behaviour of the Nonconformists to obstinacy and peevishness, was very uncharitable. What could move them to part with their livings, or support them under the loss, but the testimony of a good conscience? When they could not but be sensible their nonconformity would be followed with poverty and disgrace, with the loss of their characters and usefulness in the church; and with numberless unforeseen calamities to themselves and families, unless it should please God in his allwise providence, to soften the queen's heart in their favour.

In Scotland all things were in confusion. The young queen Mary, after the death of her husband Francis II. returned into her own country, August 21st, 1561, upon ill terms with queen Elizabeth, who could not brook her assuming the arms of England, and putting in her claim to the crown, on the pretence of her bastardy, which most of the Popish powers maintained, because she was born during the life of queen Katharine, whose marriage had been declared valid by the pope. Elizabeth offered her a safe conduct, if she would ratify the treaty of Edinburgh; but she chose rather to run all risks than submit. Mary was a bigoted Papist, and her juvenile amours and follies soon entangled her government, and lost her crown. As soon as she arrived in Scotland she had the mortification to see the whole nation turned Protestant, and the Reformation established by laws so secure and strict, that only herself was allowed the liberty of mass in her own chapel, and that without pomp or ostentation. The Protestants of Scotland, by the preaching of Mr. Knox, and others, having imbibed the strongest aversion to Popery, were for removing at the greatest distance from its superstitions. The general assembly petitioned her majesty, to ratify the acts of parliament for abolishing the mass, and for obliging all her subjects to frequent the reformed worship. But she replied,

that she saw no impiety in the mass, and was determined not to quit the religion in which she was educated, being satisfied it was founded on the word of God. To which the general assembly answered a little coarsely, that Turkism stood upon as good ground as Popery; and then required her, in the name of the eternal God, to inform herself better, by frequenting sermons, and conferring with learned men; but her majesty gave no ear to their counsels.

In the year 1564, the queen married Henry Stuart, lord Darnley, who was joined with her in the government. By him she was brought to bed of a son June 15th, 1566, afterward James I. king of England; and while she was with child of him, she received a fright by her husband's coming into her chamber with his servants, and putting to death her favourite David Rizzio an Italian musician, who was sitting with her at table. This was thought to have such an influence upon the prince that was born of her, that he never loved the sight of a sword. Soon after this the king himself was found murdered in a garden, the house in which the murder was committed being blown up with gunpowder, to prevent the discovery. Upon the king's death the earl of Bothwell became the queen's favourite, and as soon as he had obtained a divorce from his lawful wife, she took him into her marriage-bed, to her very great infamy, and the regret of the whole Scots nation, who took up arms to revenge the late king's murder, and dissolve the present incestuous marriage. When the two armies were ready to engage, Bothwell fled to Dunbar; and the queen being apprehensive her soldiers would not fight in such an infamous cause, surrendered herself to the confederates, who shut her up the castle of Lock Levin, and obliged her to resign the crown to her young son, under the regency of the earl of Murray. From hence she made her escape into England in the year 1568, where she was detained prisoner by queen Elizabeth almost eighteen years, and then put to death. Bothwell turned pirate, and being taken by the Danes, was shut up for ten years in a noisome prison in Denmark, till he lost his senses and died mad.*

in

The earl of Murray being regent of Scotland, convened a parliament and assembly at Edinburgh, in which the pope's authority was again discharged, and the act of parliament *Rapin, p. 357.