London's prison at Woburn, called Little-ease. The third was this Thomas Man, called also Dr. Man, burned, as is here mentioned, in Smithfield anno 1518. . . . He confesseth himself in the same Register that he had turned seven hundred people to his religion and doctrine, for the which he thanked God. .. The fourth was Robert Cosin, named likewise among them Dr. Cosin, burnt in Buckingham." 22 66 Writing in Elizabeth's time, Foxe expresses his judgment that in the first quarter of the sixteenth century there were in England great multitudes which tasted and followed the sweetness of God's Holy Word almost in as ample manner for the number of well-disposed hearts, as now." 23 It is not contended that these secret assemblies, which were probably held in many parts of England from the time of Wyclif to the time of Luther, were regularly organised Congregational Churches, or that their members held the Congregational theory of church polity. But the devout men and women who met together for common worship and for mutual instruction in Christian truth had discovered that "the communion of saints" was necessary for the satisfaction of some of the deepest and strongest cravings of their spiritual nature, for the enlargement of their knowledge of God, the discipline of their strength, and the perfecting of their faith and joy; and they had also discovered that such 22 Foxe, Acts and Monuments (1631), ii. 29. 23 66 Although public authority then lacked to maintain the open preaching of the Gospel, yet the secret multitude of true professors was not much unequal: certes the fervent zeal of those Christian days seemed much superior to these our days and times; as manifestly may appear by their sitting up all night in reading and hearing; also by their expenses and charges in buying of books in English, of whom some gave five marks, some more, some less, for a book; some gave a load of hay for a few chapters of St. James or of St. Paul in English. In which rarity of books, and want of teachers, this one thing I greatly marvel and muse at; to note in the Registers, and to consider how the word of truth, notwithstanding, did multiply so exceedingly as it did amongst them. Wherein is to be seen no doubt the marvellous working of God's mighty power; for so I find and observe in considering the Registers, how one neighbour, resorting and conferring with another, eftsoons with a few words of their first or second talk, did win and turn their minds to that wherein they desired to persuade them touching the truth of God's Word and His sacraments. To see their travels, their earnest seekings, their burning zeals, their readings, their watchings, their sweet assemblies, their love and concord, their godly living, their faithful marrying with the faithful, may make us now, in these our days of free profession, to blush for shame." Foxe, ibid., ii. 31-32. communion was not to be had in the corrupt institution which claimed to be the Catholic Church. They had discovered that where two or three are gathered together in Christ's name, though not in consecrated walls and without a priest, Christ Himself is among them; and it was their experience of the peace and blessedness which His presence in their assemblies imparted to them, that drew them together at the peril of life itself. They had discovered that devout men on whom the bishops had conferred no mysterious powers could instruct their brethren in Christian faith and duty and lift up the hearts of an assembly to God in prayer. Their teachers were men in whom they themselves had recognised the light and power of the Spirit of God. The only justification of their secret meetings, and the only explanation of the spiritual benefit they derived from them, was to be found in the principles of Congregationalism. IV In 1527 Henry VIII. submitted to Clement VII. the question of the legality of his marriage with Katharine of Aragon: in 1528 a commission was granted by the Pope to Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio, authorising them to inquire whether the dispensation of Julius II., allowing the marriage, had been obtained by unfair means; and further authorising Wolsey and any one of the English bishops to dissolve the marriage if the Commission pronounced against the validity of the dispensation. This was the beginning of the quarrel between the English Crown and the Pope. Through all the vicissitudes of the struggle,24 which was not closed till the accession of Elizabeth in 1558, secret assemblies for Christian worship continued to be held in London and in many other parts of the kingdom. In 1527 "one Hacker, of Ebbe, who was a great reader and teacher about six years past in London, and now in the parts of Essex about Colchester, Witham, and Braintree," being pressed hard by the authorities, gave the names of many of his friends and followers in Essex and London. Their conversations, teachings, and readings were kept at one 66 24 For the principal dates showing the progress of the conflict, see Note A, pp. 63-64. Russel's house, at the gates of Bird's-alley, against St. Stephen's Church in Coleman Street "; the three persons against whom he informed had "continued in his company, and he with them, by the space of six years." Strype, in his Memorials, gives a long list of the "known men and women, as they were then called," who were discovered through the information of Hacker and Pykas, who were" the chief leaders and teachers of the rest." 25 In 1550" sectaries " appeared in Essex and Kent, sheltering themselves under profession of the Gospel. "These," says Strype, "were the first that made separation from the Reformed Church of England, having gathered congregations of their own." 26 There was a congregation at Feversham in Kent, and another at Bocking in Essex. Between the two congregations there was friendly intercourse: "the members of the congregation in Kent went over unto the congregation in Essex, to instruct and to join with them, and they had their meetings in Kent in divers places besides Feversham."” The assembly at Bocking numbered sixty persons. Nine of them who were arrested by the Sheriff of Essex were "cowherds, clothiers, and such-like mean people." They confessed that they met "to talk of the Scriptures"; that they had refused the communion for above two years, on grounds which were determined by their judges to be very superstitious and erroneous"; and that they held what the same authorities pronounced to be "divers other evil opinions, worthy of great punishment." Among these "evil opinions " were the following: "That the doctrine of predestination was meeter for devils than for Christian men ; "that there was no man so chosen, but that he might damn himself; neither any man so reprobate, but that he might keep God's commandments and be saved; that St. Paul might have damned himself if he listed"; and "that children were not born in original sin." They also taught-but this is hardly a theological heresy-" that learned men were the cause of great errors," and they rejected infant baptism.27 In the reign of Queen Mary there were many secret congregations of Protestants in London. Some of them had for 25 Strype, Memorials, i. (1), 114-115; 123; 599. 27 Ibid., ii. (1), 369-370; and Cranmer, i. 334-335. their ministers ordained clergymen who were driven from their churches by the restoration of the Romish service. But there were also congregations in London and elsewhere which accepted the ministry of laymen. Of one of these unordained ministers, who died in prison in 1556, Strype gives the following account: "This Clement I esteem to be one of that sort of laymen, that, in the private assemblies of the professors, in these hard times, did perform the office of ministers among them. For when the learned preachers and ministers were most of them burnt or fled, (as they were by the middle of this [that is, Mary's] reign), and the flocks left destitute of their faithful pastors, some of the laity, tradesmen, or others, endued with parts and some learning, used, in that distress, to read the Scriptures to the rest in their meetings, and the letters of the martyrs and prisoners, and other good books; also to pray with them, and exhort them to stand fast, and to comfort and establish them in the confession of Christ to the death. Such an one was that excellent, pious man and confessor, John Careless, who was a weaver, of Coventry, and this Clement, a wheelwright." 28 When Elizabeth came to the throne the blessedness of those secret meetings for worship would not soon be forgotten. Devout men and women had learnt that in a small company of Christian people, united to each other by strong mutual affection and a common loyalty to Christ, it was possible to realise in a wonderful way the joy and strength of the communion of saints; and that such an assembly, though it had only a weaver or a wheelwright for its minister, might have a vivid consciousness of access to God through Christ, and might receive surprising discoveries of the divine righteousness and love. For more than a hundred and fifty years there had been meetings of the same kind in England. They had not been prevented by the severity with which Henry VI. and Henry VII. persecuted the Lollards, or by the severity with which Mary persecuted the Protestants. Was it not possible that such assemblies were a nearer approach to the ideal of the Christian Church than the miscellaneous congregation which gathered on Sundays and festival days to join in the prescribed prayers which were read by the parish priest and to listen to his sermons? To this question the theory of the Congregational polity, for which during the last twenty years 28 Strype, Memorials, iii. (1), 587. of the reign of Elizabeth men were willing to endure imprisonment, exile, and death, gave an affirmative answer. Congregational Churches, though imperfectly organised, had existed in England long before Browne and Barrowe formally developed the Congregational polity and demonstrated that it had the sanction of apostolic authority and the practice of the apostolic age. NOTE A The following dates illustrating the struggle between the English Crown and the Papacy, and the vicissitudes of the English Reformation, are taken from Acland and Ransome's Handbook in Outline of the Political History of England, 241–242. HENRY VIII. 1521.-Henry VIII. receives from the Pope the title of Defender of the Faith for having written a work against Luther. 1527.-Henry VIII., having doubt about the legality of his marriage with Katharine of Aragon, submits the case to the Pope. 1528. A commission to Cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio to try the question of the King's marriage is granted by the Pope. 1529.-Katharine appeals to the Pope, and the cause is finally avocated to Rome. Fall of Wolsey. November. The Seven Years' Parliament, which carries out the severance from Rome, now meets for the first time. Parliament regulates fees paid to the clergy and forbids pluralities. 1530.-Cranmer carries the opinions favourable to the divorce which had been received from the Universities to the Pope. 1531. The clergy, incurring the penalty of " præmunire" and being fined for acknowledging Wolsey as papal legate, address Henry, after much protest, as "Head of the Church and Clergy so far as the law of Christ will allow." Convocation makes the first proposal to limit the Pope's power by petitioning the King and Parliament to abolish the payment of annates to the Pope. 1532.-Parliament reforms the spiritual courts, and strengthens the Mortmain statutes. An Act for restraining all appeals to Rome is passed 1533. Cranmer is consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, and declares Henry's marriage with Katharine void and that with Anne Boleyn legal. 1534.-The Act forbidding the payment of annates to Rome is |