tence did not nauseate him as it flowed from his pen-point; 252 so, conversely, it has seemed almost a necessity somewhat to disinfect the memory of Robert Browne, before we could fairly do justice to his opinions. On the whole,253 I am persuaded we need 252 Answere to Master Cartwright, etc., 6. 253 It may interest the reader if I put on record here the judgment of some who have spoken as to the true relation of Browne to the general ecclesiastical system to which his name has been as persistently assigned by its enemies, as it has been repudiated by its friends. I begin with one of his contemporaries, the physician whom I have already had frequent occasion to cite. He says: "Although (as it hath beene obserued) sundrie among them, from time to time, haue laboured to be leaders, and so vpon the spurre of emulation haue gallopped as hard as they could yet without all question, there is none among them that can iustly take the garland from Rob. Browne. His writings doe foreiudge the cause agaynst all his competitors. And albeit newe maisters are risen among them, that nowe, in a fresh hote moode, condemne his coldnesse and colourable dealing, and that worthily: yet they must, euen Barow and Greenwood, with the rest, acknowledge him the shop of their store, and the steele of their strength: for arguments, obiections and shiftes, to colour, and (if it were possible) to vphold their crasie cause withall. Let them not disdaine (therefore) that he should beare the name, as the father of that familie and brood, which, of late yeares in a quarell for the Discipline, haue made that rende in the assemblies of Englande." Rasing of the Foundations, etc., viii. So George Giffard of Maldon says (1590) of these Separatists: "We terme them Brownists as being the Disciples & Scholers of Browne. There be indeed new masters sprong vp, which seeke to carrie awaye the name, and I haue heard diuers say, they go beyond Browne. But whosoeuer shal reade his books, and peruse all their writings, shall well see, that he deserueth to haue the honour, if any be, and to be called the Captaine and maister of them all. They haue all their furniture from him: they do but open his packe, and displaye his wares. They haue not a sharpe arrowe, which is not drawne out of his quiuer." Short Treatise agst. Donatists of Eng., v. So Baillie (1645) wrote of Browne's books: "Whence ever since the best Arguments for that Schism are drawn," and, again: "Whosoever shall read Brown his Books, and peruse all his Scholars writings, shall see that they have no sharp arrow but which is draun out of his Quiver." Dissvasive, etc., 14, 18. I append to these the judgment of four of the ablest among late writers who have referred to the subject: "The crude immediate beginning of that process [by which modern Independency came to its growth] should be sought in the opinions propagated, between 1580 and 1590, by the erratic Robert Browne;" which fifty years later, "passed through a singular history in the minds and lives of men of steadier and more persevering character." Prof. Masson, Life of John Milton, etc., ii: 536. “Although Richard Fitz was the first pastor of the first Independent Church in England, to Robert Browne belongs the honor of founding the denomination." H. S. Skeats, Hist. of Free Churches of England (ed. 1869), 23. "The principles, however, which he espoused did not depend on him for their truth, and consequently were cherished by great numbers of the people. Instead of dying out of the minds of men, they revived with increasing power, and spread with great rapidity during the reign of Elizabeth." J. Fletcher, Hist. Independency, etc. (1862), ii: 130. "His [Browne's] books and pamphlets formed for a long time the arsenal, whence the controversial weapons of his party were procured: and he is acknowledged by the latest Independent historians to have held all the views which distinguish the denomination at this moment, with one important exception, [which we have already seen to be an erroneous view founded on false information]-viz.: that he had no idea of what we now mean by 'toleration." G. H. Curteis (Bampton Lect. 1871), Dissent in its Relation to the Chh. of Eng., 68. The quotation with which the lecture closes is from the Spectator, No. 518. not be ashamed of him, nor recognize the least necessity of trying to dislodge him from his natural primacy among the great thinkers of Liberalism, and of modern Congregationalism. That charity which is predisposed to think no evil, with trustful tolerance will insist, in the face of all calumniators of his own and of succeeding generations, that if his spirit were sometimes harsh, and his language often violent; something of this was due to the anomalies of a natural temperament for which he was nowise responsible, and more to the tremendous urgencies of the times when such a gale of Established forces was blowing in the face of reformation, that whispers and even common words were wasted breath, and no sound that was much less than a shout, or a shriek, had ability to catch the public ear. Surely, if we could find his unknown grave, it would be safe for us-in the comfortable, if not the sure and certain, hope of a glorious immortality for him in that blessed country where "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick," to inscribe upon it at least this ancient epitaph: Auffidius. What is thy name? Coriolanus. A name vnmusicall to the Volscians eares, And harsh in sound to thine. Auf. Say, what's thy name? Thou hast a Grim appearance, and thy Face Beares a Command in't: Though thy Tackles torne, Shakespeare (ed. 1623), Coriolanus, Act iv, p. 22. Men of most renowned virtue have sometimes, by transgressing, most truly kept the law. Milton, Tetrachordon, Prose Works (ed. 1848), iii: 324. Jam called Martin Marprelat. There be many that greatly dislike of my doinges. I may haue my wants I know. For Jam a man. But my course I knowe to be ordinary and lawfull. I saw the cause of Christs gouernment, and of the Bishops Antichristian Dealing to be hidden. The most part of men could not be gotten to read any thing, written in the defence of the on and against the other. I bethought mee therefore, of a way whereby men might be drawne to do both, perceiuing the humors of men in these times (especially of those that are in any place) to be given to mirth. I tooke that course. I might lawfully do it. [aye], for iesting is lawful by circumstances, euen in the greatest matters. The circumstances of time, place and persons vrged me thereunto. I neuer profaned the word in any iest. Dther mirth I vsed as a couert, wherin I would bring the truth into light. The Lord being the authour both of mirth and grauitie, is it not lawfull in it selfe, for the trueth to vse eyther of these wayes, when the circumstances Do make it lawful? My purpose was and is to do good. I know I haue don no harme howsokuer some may iudg Martin to mar al. They are very weake ons that so think,—Hay any Worke, etc., 14. F one will take the pains, as vividly as he can, to summon before his mind a great school of boys and girls, which since the memory of living men has been maintained in the sternest old fashion under the discipline of the rod, until its venerable master, in all the solemn starch and buckram of his scholastic pomp, has come to seem there as but little lower than the All-mighty; and then will imagine them assembled some day in the great hall, in trembling terror, as the extreme penalty of the birch is about to be administered with all the honors upon some misdoers; and, in the awful preliminary hush, will conceive the side door to open suddenly, and Mr. Punch, in all the uniqueness of his jolly belly, his protuberant and rubicund nose, his merry squint, and the shrill cacklechuckle of his thin and tinny voice, to come blandly bounding upon the platform; squeaking aside a "How are ye, ancient fellow!" to the master, and, while delivering a ludicrously awkward bow to the thunder-stricken assembly, contrive to land upon his hands, and from this inverted position proceed-gesturing with his heels-to make a speech, denouncing the "old man out there" as a humbug and a tyrant, begging to call the |