enforcement of con formity. abhorred episcopacy, and favoured the Presbyterian form of government in the church. Toleration might have softened the asperities of theological controversy, until time had reconciled many of the differences springing from the Reformation. A few enlightened statesmen would gladly have practised it1; but the Rigorous imperious temper of the queen2, and the bigoted zeal of her ruling churchmen, would not suffer the least liberty of conscience. Not even waiting for outward signs of departure from the standard of the church, they jealously enforced subscription to the articles of religion; and addressed searching interrogatories to the clergy, in order to extort confessions of doubt or nonconformity. Even the oath of supremacy, designed to discover Catholics, was also a stumbling-block to many Puritans. The former denied the queen's supremacy, because they still owned that of the Pope; many of the latter hesitated to acknowledge it, as irreconcilable with their own church polity. One party were known to be disloyal the other were faithful subjects of the crown. But conformity with the reformed ritual, and attendance upon the services of the church, were enforced against both, with indiscriminating rigour. In aiming at unity, the church fostered dissent. Growth of noncon formity. The early Puritans had no desire to separate from the national church but were deprived of their bene the ordination of priests without a 431. 2 Elizabeth's policy may be described in her own words:-"She would suppress the papistical religion, that it should not grow: but would root out puritanism, and the favourers thereof."-Strype's Eccl. Annals, iv. 242. 3 Strype's Eccl. Annals, iii. 81 Strype's Life of Whitgift, iii. 106; Fuller's Church Hist., ix. 156; Sparrow, 123. 4 Burnet's Hist. of the Refor; mation, iii. 587; Short's Hist. of the Church, 306; Strype's Eccl Annals, iv. 93, et seq.; Strype's Parker, 155, 225; Strype's Grindal, 99; Froude's Hist., ii. 134. fices, and cast forth by persecution. They sought further to reform her polity and ceremonies, upon the Calvinistic model; and claimed greater latitude in their own conformity. They objected to clerical vestments, and other forms, rather than to matters of faith and doctrine; and were slow to form a distinct communion. They met secretly for prayer and worship, hoping that truth and pure religion would ultimately prevail in the church, according to their cherished principles, as Protestantism had prevailed over the errors of Rome. The ideal of the Presbyterians was a national church, to which they clung through all their sufferings: but they were driven out, with stripes, from the church of England. The Independents, claiming self-government for each congregation, repelling an ecclesiastical polity, and renouncing all connection with the state, naturally favoured secession from the establishment. Separation and isolation were the very foundation of their creed1; and before the death of Elizabeth they had spread themselves widely through the country, being chiefly known as Brownists.2 Protestant nonconformity had taken root in the land; and its growth was momentous to the future destinies of church and state. nection of church While the Reformed church lost from her fold con- Close considerable numbers of the people, her connection with the Rethe state was far more intimate than that of the church formed of Rome. There was no longer a divided authority. with the The crown was supreme in church and state alike. The Reformed church was the creation of Parliament: her polity and ritual, and even her doctrines, were 1 Heylyn's Hist. of the Presbyterians, lib. vi.-x.; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, i. ch. iv. &c.; Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Dissenters, Intr. 58-65; i. 109—140; Price's Hist. of Nonconformity; Conder's 2 The act 35 Eliz. c. 1, was state. Reformation in Scotland. prescribed by statutes. She could lay no claim to ecclesiastical independence. Convocation was restrained from exercising any of its functions without the king's licence. No canons had force without his assent; and even the subsidies granted by the clergy, in convocation, were henceforward confirmed by Parliament. Bishops, dignitaries and clergy looked up to the crown, as the only source of power within the realm. Laymen administered justice in the ecclesiastical courts; and expounded the doctrines of the church. Lay patronage placed the greater part of the benefices at the disposal of the crown, the barons, and the landowners. The constitution of the church was identified with that of the state; and their union was political as well as religious. The church leaned to the government, rather than to the people; and, on her side, became a powerful auxiliary in maintaining the ascendency of the crown, and the aristocracy. The union of ecclesiastical supremacy with prerogatives, already excessive, dangerously enlarged the power of the crown over the civil and religious liberties of the people. Authority had too strong a fulcrum; and threatened the realm with absolute subjection: but the wrongs of Puritans provoked a spirit of resistance, which eventually won for Englishmen a surer freedom. Meanwhile, the Reformation had taken a different course in Scotland. The Calvinists had triumphed. They had overthrown episcopacy, and established a Presbyterian church, upon their own cherished model.2 125 Hen. VIII. c. 19; Froude's Hist., ii. 193-198, 325, iv. 479. 2 1560-1592.-The events of this period are amply illustrated in Spottiswood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland; M'Crie's Lives of Knox and Melville; Knox's Hist. of the Reformation; Robertson's Hist. of Scotland; Tytler's Hist. of Scotland; Cook's Hist. of the Reformation in Scotland; Cunningham's Church Hist., i. 351; Row's Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland; Stephen's Hist. of the Church of Scot Their creed and polity suited the tastes of the people, and were accepted with enthusiasm. The Catholic faith was renounced everywhere but in some parts of the Highlands; and the Reformed establishment at once assumed the comprehensive character of a national church. But while supported by the people, it was in constant antagonism to the state. Its rulers repudiated the supremacy of the crown': resisted the jurisdiction of the civil courts2; and set up pretensions to spiritual authority and independence, not unworthy of the church they had lately overthrown. They would not suffer temporal power to intrude upon the spiritual church of Christ.4 of Scot The constitution of the Scottish church was republi- The church can; her power at once spiritual and popular. Instead land. of being governed by courtly prelates and an impotent convocation, she was represented by the general assembly, an ecclesiastical Parliament of wide jurisdiction, little controlled by the civil power. The leaders of that assembly were bold and earnest men, with high notions of ecclesiastical authority, a democratic temper, and habitual reliance upon popular support. A church so constituted was, indeed, endowed and acknowledged by the state but was more likely to withstand the land; Buckle's Hist., ii. ch. 3; Froude's Hist., vii. 116, 269. In the Book of Polity, it is laid down that "the power ecclesiastical flows immediately from God and the Mediator Jesus Christ, and is spiritual, not having a temporal head on earth, but only Christ, the only spiritual governor and head of his kirk." 2 Cunningham's Church Hist., 535; Calderwood's Hist., v. 457— 460, 475; Spottiswood's Hist., iii. 21; Tytler's Hist., vii. 326; Buchanan's Ten Years' Conflict, i. 73-81. 3 Mr. Cunningham, comparing the churches of Rome and Scotland, says :-"With both there has been the same union and energy of action, the same assumption of spiritual supremacy, the same defiance of law courts, parliaments, and kings."-Pref. to Church Hist. of Scotland. 4" When the church was Roman, it was the duty of the magistrate to reform it. When the church was Protestant, it was impiety in the magistrate to touch it."-Čunningham's Church Hist., i. 537. Her connection with the state. Reformation in Ireland. power of the crown and aristocracy, than to uphold it. The formal connection of the church with the state was, nevertheless, maintained with scarcely less strictness than in England. The new establishment was the work of the legislature; the Protestant religion was originally adopted; the church's confession of faith ratified; and the entire Presbyterian polity established by statute.1 And further, the crown was represented in her assembly, by the Lord High Commissioner. The Reformation had also been extended to Ire land: but in a manner the most extraordinary and exceptional. In England and Scotland, the clergy and people had unquestionably been predisposed to changes in the Catholic church; and the reforms effected were more or less the expression of the national will. But in Ireland, the Reformation was forced upon an unyielding priesthood, and a half-conquered people. The priests were driven from their churches and homes, by ministers of the new faith,-generally Englishmen or strangers, who were ignorant of the language of their flocks, and indifferent to their conversion or teaching. Conformity was exacted in obedience to the law, and under severe penalties: not sought by appeals to the reason and conscience of a subject race. Who can wonder that the Reformation never took root in Ireland? It was accepted by the majority of the English colonists : but many who abjured the Catholic faith, declined to join the new establishment, and founded Presbyterian communions of their own. The Reformation added a new element of discord between the colonists and the natives embittered the chronic discontents against the 1 Scots Acts, 1560; 1567, c. 4, 6, 7, 1592, c. 116; Ibid., 1690, c. 5, 25 |