be suppressed. It took several years to put it down completely, for some of the bishops made a stout resistance; but the queen triumphed in the end, her clergy being left as ignorant as she could well desire.*

Meantime, the work of weeding out the Puritans went on more vigorously than ever. Their books were suppressed, their preachers silenced, their private meetings broken up, and even plain citizens for listening to their sermons were dragged before the High Commission upon any refusal to conform.† These were the severities practised upon those who, agreeing with the Church authorities in matters of doctrine, differed from them only upon questions of form. For out-and-out heretics, those who denied the doctrines of the Church, a different fate was reserved.

We have seen how William of Orange protected the Anabaptists of Holland when some of the men about him would have refused them civil rights. About 1575, twenty-seven of this sect, refugees from the Continent,

* Hallam, i. 201, 203; Neal. Even Strype, who attempts to justify everything done by Elizabeth, admits the benefits derived from prophesying. He says: "This was practised, to the great benefit and improvement of the clergy, many of whom in those times were ignorant, both in Scripture and divinity."-Strype's "Annals of the Reformation," ii. 313. The only excuse which the queen offered for suppressing this educational system was that it had been abused in the diocese of Norwich, by the discussion of ceremonial questions. But the Bishop of Norwich showed that this charge was unfounded. Idem. It is a fact not without interest that Cornwall, the county in which, according to Neal, not a minister could preach a sermon, furnished to Parliament the two brothers Paul and Peter Wentworth, who throughout the reign of Elizabeth stood up, almost alone, for freedom of speech in religious matters. They appreciated fully the results of the royal policy.

+ Hallam, i. 197.

ANABAPTISTS BURNED AT THE STAKE-1575

469

were apprehended in a private house in London, where they had assembled for worship. Tried before the Bishops' Court for heresy, in holding blasphemous opinions as to the nature of Christ's body-believing that he brought it with him from heaven-four recanted, but eleven of the number were convicted and sentenced to be burned. One of these, a woman, gave way and was pardoned, and nine of the others had their sentences commuted to perpetual banishment. The eleventh, with one of the first four who had relapsed, was reserved for the stake. Great efforts were made to save their lives, every one admitting their inoffensiveness. The Dutch congregation interceded for them, and Foxe, the martyrologist, petitioned the queen in their behalf. But Elizabeth had for the time made friends with Spain, and was bent on showing that she had no sympathy with heresy. An example was needed to show her sincerity, and she proved inexorable. On the 22d of July, 1575, the two unhappy foreigners, who had sought England as an asylum from persecution, and whose only imputed crime was an error of theological belief, were publicly burned alive, mingling their ashes with those of the many other martyrs who have made the soil of Smithfield sacred ground.*

In the year which witnessed this tragedy, Parker, the persecuting Archbishop of Canterbury, died, and was succeeded by Grindal, a man of a very different type. He was not unfriendly to the Puritans, and was an earnest believer in the education of the clergy, and in supplying the pulpits with men capable of preaching. But his actual rule was very brief. The queen strenuously objected to his encouragement of prophesying, as well as to the number of preaching ministers whom he licensed,

*Neal, p. 186; Froude, xi. 43.

and, upon his refusing to give way, suspended him from office, the suspension lasting until shortly before his death, in 1583.* Owing partly to his influence, partly to the fact that most of the old non-conforming clergy had been silenced, and perhaps still more to fears incited by the Jesuits, who about this time began their active campaign in England, the Puritans seem to have been but little disturbed for several years, although, in 1581, some acts were passed by Parliament which, aimed primarily at the Catholics, bore heavily upon the non-conformists in later days.t

But upon the death of Grindal a prelate took his place who was well qualified to carry out all the wishes of the queen. This was John Whitgift, a man who did more to develop the aggressive Puritanism of later years, with its outgrowth of independent sects, than any other person except Elizabeth herself. Whitgift had been Master of Trinity College when Cartwright was its Professor of Divinity. He was ignorant, probably not even knowing Greek; was as narrow-minded as he was ignorant, but full of zeal for the establishment. He had been chiefly instrumental in driving Cartwright from Cambridge, and had been subsequently distinguished for some violent pamphlets against the Puritans. As a reward for these services he was made Bishop of Worcester. Now, Elizabeth had determined that, while "she would suppress the papistical religion so that it should

* Hallam's "Const. Hist.," i. 201. In the opinion of Elizabeth, two or three preachers in a county were enough.

+ One of these acts imposed a fine of twenty pounds per month for not attending the Established Church. Another made it felony,

punishable with death, to libel the queen.

Hallam's "Const. Hist.," i. 202.

not

ARCHBISHOP WHITGIFT TO ROOT OUT PURITANISM

471

grow, she would root out Puritanism and the favorers thereof."* For the latter purpose she could have chosen no better instrument than her "little black parson," as she used to call him. As for the Catholics, they were so pleased with his work that Throgmorton, who was executed for conspiracy in the following year, called him "the meetest bishop in the realm;" and, about the same time, Mary Stuart exultingly exclaimed: "Nothing is lacking, but only the setting-up of the mass again." +

Whitgift began his official duties with great vigor. He was appointed archbishop in September, 1583; in October he issued orders for the enforcement of religious discipline throughout the realm. One of these orders prohibited all preaching, reading, or catechising in private houses, whereto any not of the same family shall resort, "seeing the same was never permitted as lawful under any Christian magistrate." As all public gatherings had been suppressed before, it was now intended to prevent the assembling of neighbors to read the Bible or for any religious services. This order, however, was aimed only at private individuals; the others which accompanied it were directed at the clergy. They were all to subscribe a declaration, in writing, that the Book of Common

*Strype's "Whitgift, Annals," iv. 242. We shall see in later chapters something of the dangers which at this particular time threatened England from abroad. They served to arouse the courage of the nation at large, but seem to have turned the thoughts of Elizabeth more than ever to the idea of reconciliation with Rome. The suppression of the Puritans was a necessary step in this direction.

Froude, x. 116, 117; Hallam, i. 202.

Robert Beal, Clerk of the Council, to Whitgift, May 7th, 1584; Strype's "Whitgift," App. book iii. No. 6.

Prayer contained nothing contrary to the Word of God, and a promise that they would use its Form of Prayer and no other; also an approval of the Thirty-nine Articles, set out by the queen's authority in 1562, and a declaration that all such articles were agreeable to the Word of God. In addition, it was provided that no one should exercise ecclesiastical functions unless he had been admitted to holy orders according to the manner of the Church of England.*

It would have been difficult even for Whitgift, in his ignorance of law, to have framed a document more full of illegal exactions than was this. The statutes of the realm required the use of the Book of Common Prayer, but did not require any such declaration or promise as it demanded. Neither did they require such an acceptance of the Thirty-nine Articles. When a bill for the latter purpose was brought into Parliament, it was amended so as to provide simply for a subscription to "all the Articles of Religion which only concern the confession of the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the Sacraments." As for ordination according to the "manner of the Church of England," the very statute which required a qualified subscription to the Articles admitted, by implication, the validity of other ordination. Hundreds of old priests were still in their livings who had never been reordained, and many Protestants were preaching who had been ordained only in Scotland or upon the Continent. +

*Strype's "Whitgift," pp. 114, 117.

† 13 Eliz. cap. xii. sec. 1.

The words of the statute are: "That every person, under the degree of bishop, who doth or shall pretend to be a priest or minister of God's holy Word and Sacraments, by reason of any other form of