who then quoted the words of the New Testament, such as, you have but one Master, which is Christ, and all you are brethren. 'If these places proue that the Pope ought not to be aboue other ministers of the Church, why doe they not likewise proue that the Ministers are equal among themselves?' (pp. 79, 80). The prevalence of an 'ignorant ministry' is bitterly deplored. 'We have hitherto taken vpon us without warraunt of Gods worde, to allow such for Pastours of mens soules, whom no carefull owner of Cattell woulde make ouerseer of his sheepes bodyes' (p. 44).

The writer enters into the age-long conflict between æstheticism and edification. 'Scrines of rode-lofts, Organe lofts, Idoll cages, otherwise called Chauntrie Chappells, and high pewes between them: which although they do manifestly hinder edification, yet may they not be remooued in many places, for defacing the beauty of the materiall houses' (p. 65). Music was being exalted to the disparagement of a 'godly and learned sermon.' In the case of cathedral churches you may see 'great numbers that tarrye while the seruice is songe, but depart so soone as the Sermon beginneth. While the Organes pipe, some are drawen with the sweetnes of musike to come vp; but while the preacher cryeth out continue beneath, and in laughter or brawling be louder than he oftentimes' (pp. 67, 68).

The 'gouernment of the Church' should be by the people acting through elders whom they freely elect; who, when they arrive at a decision, 'propound it to the whole multitude that it may be confirmed by their consent' (p. 86). The celebrated text Dic ecclesiae 'tel the congregation,' that is, the Church, he would not have 'so largely taken as in other places for the whole multitude,' but restrict to the chosen assembly of elders' (p. 87). Discipline should be retained in the Church, but he detests the 'Popish tyrannie' which excommunicates 'for euery trifle, yea for such as are no sinnes' (p. 92). As regards the election of church officers, 'it is agreeable to reason that hee that should doe any seruice in the name of all, should be chosen and approved by the consent of all' (p. 107). He

objects to the civil magistrate exercising power in the Church, and demands by what authority it was ever transferred from the Church to the magistrate (p. 119).

Ministers, he contends, are only such when they are in office; theirs is an office in act and esse,' 'not a Potentiall abilitye in the cloudes'; they should only be ordained to particular posts. 'If Byshoppes, as they be nowe, were consecrated after the same manner to seeke their Bishoprickes where they could find them, it were no greater absurdity then it is to ordayne Pastoures, and let them proll where they can for their benefices' (p. 126).

In regard to the relation of the Prince to the Church -a very difficult subject for any save an Erastian, when Elizabeth was the Prince-according to the writer's teaching, the Prince is under no subjection unto men,' but 'to God and his worde' (p. 142).

From the reputation gained by this little tract, as well as from the official attention paid to it, it is clear that it achieved a considerable circulation. Nor is there, in the circumstance, anything to be wondered at. Its point and perspicuity are obvious. Its argument could be readily grasped by the common folk; and its democratic temper, though by no means over emphasised, fell in with a growing spirit of the time; for the 'popularity' which Whitgift and the official writers so much abhorred and feared was the natural product of their own oppressive policy. Tyrants have forced men into a noble comprehension of their native and inalienable rights. And so it was that the lawless system of Whitgift growing and developing in the hands of Bancroft and of Laud, brought about at last the virile reaction which destroyed the personal and irresponsible government of Tudor and Stuart, and sent Laud and his master to the block.

The Briefe and Plaine Declaration was published anonymously. Apparently the secret of its authorship was well guarded. The later speculation which assigned it to Dudley Fenner arose in the first place, from the circumstance that he took a foremost part in its literary defence; and also from

the fact that, wielding a capable pen, and having a resolute spirit, it was the habit at this period to ascribe to Fenner all unsigned attacks upon the episcopal system, if they possessed a certain degree of merit. But the weight of tradition ascribes the pamphlet to William Fulke, Master of Pembroke College. He was Margaret Professor of Divinity, and had filled the office of Vice-Chancellor. His chief reputation was gained in his controversies with the Popish writers of the time, particularly with the Jesuit Campion, and by his notable defence of the English translation of the Bible against the Rhemists. Editors of Fulke include A Briefe and Plaine Declaration in their catalogues of his works. If Fulke be the author, it is easy to understand why it was issued anonymously; it is less easy to understand the statement of the Parker Society's editor concerning his defence of the English Bible, that no writer 'devoted more vigorous and untiring energy in supporting the bulwarks of the Church of England.' The otherwise competent editor could not have read the seventh item in his list of Fulke's works.

2. The Defence of the Government Established.'-When the ecclesiastical authorities realised the wide circulation and influence of The Learned Discourse they appointed Dr. John Bridges, Dean of Sarum, to answer it from the popular pulpit at Paul's Cross; which he did during the following year. Then being greatly importuned to publish his discourse, and having specifically promised in his sermon, to answer the Learned Discourse at large,' he spent the next two years, with an industry which would have been commendable had it not been futile, in producing A Defence of the Government Established in the Church of Englande for Ecclesiasticall Matters, a portentous quarto of over fourteen hundred pages.1 Martin, when he comes upon the scene,

1 The full title of Bridges' work is A Defence of the Government Established in the Church of Englande for Ecclesiasticall Matters. Contayning an answere vnto a Treatise called The Learned Discourse of Eccl. Gouernment,' otherwise entituled, 'A briefe and plaine declaration concerning the desires of all the faithfull Ministers that haue, and do seeke for the discipline and reformation of the Church of Englande.' Comprehending likewise an aunswere to the arguments in a Treatise named 'The Judgement of a most Reverend and

at once seizes on the contrast between the diminutive tract of the reformer and the ponderous size of the Dean's

Learned man from beyond the seas, etc.' Aunsvvering also to the argumentes of Caluine, Beza, and Danaus, with other our Reuerend learned Bretheren, besides Canalis and Bodinus, both for the regiment of women, and in defence of her Majestie, and all other Christian Princes supreme Gouernment in Ecclesiasticall causes, Against The Tetrarchie that our Brethren would erect in euery particular congregation, of Doctors, Pastors, Gouernors, and Deacons, with their seuerall and ioynt authoritie in Elections, Excommunications, Synodall Constitutions, and other Ecclesiasticall matters. Aunsvvered by Iohn Bridges, Deane of Sarum. Come and see, Joh. i. 36. Take it up and Read. Aug. lib. conf. 8, ca. 12. At London, Printed by Iohn VVindet, for Thomas Chard, 1587. The second treatise mentioned in the title is by Th. Beza, and was published in a translation by John Field, cir. 1580. John Bridges, who was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge (B.A. 1556, M.A. 1560), besides some earlier translations, wrote, in 1573, on The Supremacie of Christian Princes, a subject then not only of living interest, but also one which promised promotion to advocates of the Elizabethan position. He had early succeeded in securing some of the good things of the Church. Bishop Horne collated him in 1565 to the third prebendal stall in Winchester Cathedral, besides bestowing upon him three rich parsonages,' the rectories of Cheriton and Crowley in Hants and Brightwell in Berks. In 1571 he was one of the Whitsuntide preachers at Paul's Cross, his sermon being an evangelical discourse on Jno. iii. 16, which he enlarged and published. His treatise on the 'Supremacie' was followed by a Canterbury degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1575, and in 1577 by the Deanery of Sarum. When Aylmer shrank from the further perils of authorship, he suggested the name of Bridges as one of the company who should be requested to reply to Campion's Ten Reasons. His name was also included the following year (1582) in the Commission ordered to confer with the Papists. It was supposed that he had still higher ambitions in writing the Defence, having before his eyes the shining example of Whitgift. In A Dialogue wherin is Plainly laide open, 'Puritane' says, 'At the beginning of the last parliament there were Bishops to be stalled, and his grace [Archbishop Whitgift] had promised him [Dean Bridges] very confidently that hee would not onely speake for him, [but] also assure him of a Bishoppricke. Uppon whiche the aspiring wretche did only relie.' But going to Richmond, Bridges met 'Master Thornbie, Master of the Sauoy,' returning thence, who informed him that he also had been promised a certain bishopric, which, however, he found had been otherwise bestowed. 'With that the Doctor was in his madde moode and saide, hath he [Whitgift] serued me so? whie then I wil say, and may speake it truely, there is no faith in a Bishop. Haue I wrote in their defence, and have gotten the ignomie (sic), shame, and reproache of it by publike writinge, and nowe to be thus vildely dealte with: I will tell you, Master Thornby, I do protest and alwaies will affirm it: That it is better to haue one inche of pollicie [craft] then all the Divinitie in the worlde' (sig. D 1, rect.). It was not the quantity but the quality of the Dean's divinity which was at fault, and Marprelate was probably right in his report that Whitgift was unfavourable to printing the Defence (EPISTLE, 2). Bridges' position is very frankly evangelical as regards his creed. He deals very tenderly with his reforming 'bretheren.' The Dialogue includes him in the list of notable turncoats'; he graduated bachelor in the reign of Mary, and must then have professed

reply.1 'The compleat worke (very briefly comprehended in a portable booke, if your horse be not too weake, of an hundred threescore and twelve sheets, of good Demie paper) is a confutation of The learned discourse of Ecclesiasticall gouernment.' Bridges undertakes to prove that the external polity of the Church as established is supported by antiquity and by the Apostolic epistles; that the service book contains nothing contrary to the Scriptures.

He endeavours to disarm the opposition of the reformers at the onset. In his Preface he writes: It is no small griefe to me (I protest) that on this occasion, I was thus drawen into these questions, with those whom otherwise in Christe, I humbly acknowledge to be our deare Brethren.' He would gladlier have united with them against the Papists, the publike aduersaries of Gods truth.' His statement of doctrine shows him to occupy a position almost directly opposite to that of the modern Anglican. He would relax the administration of the sacraments and the liturgical offices, in which minister and people co-operate as 'one party'; it is only in preaching that the minister stands, for the time, in the place of God to deliver His message. The ministring of the sacraments,' he holds, 'is a common action: therefore by this rule of our Breth[ren] euery man and woman that is present at the ministring of the sacraments, and assenteth to them, and partaketh with himself a Romanist. Nevertheless, in the Defence his sympathy with the Church of Rome is seen only in his superstitious belief in the working of modern miracles within that Church and his child-like confidence in old traditions (Defence, 68; EPISTLE, 12). He was clearly not the type of man to carry out the policy of Elizabeth and Whitgift, and had to wait until the accession of James to ascend the episcopal bench. His friends were not sure that he had not made a bad bargain when he accepted the indifferent see of Oxford as an exchange for his rich rectories, and other benefices. He died at a very advanced age in 1618, and was buried in the church of March Baldon, Oxon (Gent. Mag. 1794).

1 THE EPITOME, sig. Bi. Mr. F. O. White is wrong in supposing that Bridges' Defence was a reply to a bulky volume of 547 pages.' The Parte of a Register to which he refers was a volume of tracts, most of which had been previously published separately, gathered into a single volume at a much later date. It reprints the 'Letter of a Reverend Man across the Sea,' to which Bridges devoted one of the sixteen chapters of his book; but does not include the little pamphlet, A Briefe and Plaine Declaration ('The Learned Discourse'), to which the Defence was a formal reply.