Page images
PDF
EPUB

real strength among the clergy. It was proposed that all holy days, with the exception of Sundays, Christmas Day, Easter, and Whitsuntide, should be abolished; that in all parish churches the minister while conducting service should turn his face to the people-not to the altar-so that the congregation might "hear and be edified"; that the ceremony of making the cross on the child's forehead in baptism should be omitted as tending to superstition; that each bishop should be at liberty to determine whether in his own diocese the communicants should be required to kneel at the Lord's Supper; that the sacramental vestments should not be enforced, but that it should be "sufficient for the minister in time of saying divine service and ministering the sacraments to use a surplice"; and that the use of organs in divine service should be discontinued. A paper containing similar proposals had previously received the signatures of five deans, twelve archdeacons, the provost of Eton, and fourteen proctors.1 On a division, these six Articles were supported by 43 against 35; but the extreme Reformers had only 15 proxies, while their opponents had 24. Including proxies, the numbers were 59 against, and 58 for; so that the Articles were lost by a single vote.

But though defeated in Convocation, the Puritans were not disheartened. They did all they could to bring the Romish vestments into contempt. The Dean of Wells, by way of insult, required a man who had been guilty of adultery to do his open penance in a priest's square cap. In the celebration of divine service they wholly disregarded the directions of the Book of Common Prayer, and committed the grossest irregularities. A paper found among Cecil's MSS., and dated February 14, 1564-5, illustrates the extent of the disorder.

VARIETIES IN THE SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION USED

Service and Prayer.-Some say the service and prayers in the chancel; others in the body of the church. Some say the same in a seat made in the church; some in the pulpit, with their faces to the people. Some keep precisely the order of the book; others intermeddle Psalms in metre. Some say with a surplice; others without a surplice.

1 Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 239-240. Cardwell, Conferences, 39-41.

Table.-The table standeth in the body of the church in some places, in others it standeth in the chancel. In some places the table standeth altarwise, distant from the wall [a] yard. In some others in the middle of the chancel, north and south. In some places the table is joined, in others it standeth upon tressels. In some the table hath a carpet; in others it hath none.

Administration of the Communion.-Some with surplice and cap; some with surplice alone; others with none. Some with chalice; some with a Communion cup; others with a common cup. Some with unleavened bread; and some with leavened. ("He might have added," says Strype, "some with wafers, some with common manchet-bread.")

Receiving. Some receive kneeling, others standing, others sitting.

Baptizing. Some baptize in a font; some in a basin. Some sign with the sign of the cross; others sign not. Some minister in a surplice; others without.

Apparel.-Some with a square cap; some with a round cap; some with a button cap; some with a hat. Some in scholars' clothes, some in others."

II

When the Queen heard of these disorderly practices, she was exceedingly angry. The officers in her army might as well refuse to wear their uniforms, or her judges their scarlet and ermine, as her clergy refuse to wear the vestments. The clergy were the servants of the Crown, and their irregularities were an insult to her authority. There were grave reasons for her impatience and displeasure. The general carelessness of the Puritan clergy about the external decencies of worship would be regarded as a sign of irreverence; and their refusal to wear such of the vestments, and to observe such of the ceremonies of the ancient faith, as she had determined to preserve, would repel large numbers of the people from the reformed services. She therefore directed the archbishop to enforce compliance with the Act of Uniformity. A book of "Advertisements" was drawn up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, and Lincoln. It consists of a series of directions for the guidance

2 Strype, Parker, i. 302.

3 The book was also signed by the Bishop of Rochester. It was entitled, Advertisements partly for the Due Order in the Publique Administration of Common Prayers and Usinge the Holy Sacraments, and

66

of the clergy. Every " parson " that is able to preach is required to preach, "in his own person," to his congregation once, at least, in every three months; but, if unable, he may preach by another," and incur no penalty. If a preacher occupies the pulpit for a poor brother, he is not to exact or receive an unreasonable fee. All preachers are to avoid subjects" tending to dissension." No clergyman is to preach without a licence from the bishop of the diocese; until he is licensed, he must neither "preach" nor "expound, in his own Cure or otherwhere, any Scripture or matter of doctrine, or by the way of exhortation, but only study to read gravely and aptly, without any glossing of the same, or any additions, the homilies already set out" or any others that may be issued. There are directions about the celebration of the communion and the administration of baptism; the communion table is to be covered with a carpet of silk or other decent covering, and "with a fair linnen cloth at the time of ministration "; the communicants are to receive kneeling; in baptism it is forbidden to use basins. The dress of the clergy is carefully regulated. They are told what they are to wear on ordinary occasions; what they are to wear when travelling; every man is to be dressed according to his ecclesiastical rank; “in their private houses and studies" they may use their own liberty of comely apparel." When saying public prayers or administering the sacraments in ordinary churches, the minister is to wear a "comely surplice with sleeves"; in collegiate churches the principal minister, the gospeller, and the epistoler are to wear copes when celebrating the Holy Communion.

Bishops are authorised to prevent improper and incompetent persons from being admitted to benefices. "At the Archdeacon's visitation the Archdeacon shall appoint the curate to certain Texts of the New Testament, to be conned without book"; and at the next Synod the curate is to be required to repeat them.

All licences to preach granted in the Province of Canterbury before March 1, 1564-5, are declared void; but "such as shall be thought meet for the office" are to receive a fresh

partly for the Apparel of all Persons Ecclesiastical, etc. 1564. Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 247-250. Sparrow, A Collection of Articles, Injunctions, etc., 121-128 (3rd edition).

licence, "paying no more but four pence for the Writing, Parchment, and Wax."

On Sundays there are to be no shops open; "artificers " are not to go about their "affairs worldly"; and "in all Fairs and common markets falling upon the Sunday" there is to be "no shewing of any wares before the Service be done."

Finally, every clergyman before admission to any ecclesiastical office is to be required to promise that he will not preach without licence; that he will read the service plainly, distinctly, and audibly, so that all the people may hear and understand; that he will wear the appointed dress; that he will try to promote peace among his parishioners; that he will read every day at least one chapter in the Old Testament and one chapter in the New," with good advisement," to increase his knowledge; that he will "keep and maintain such order and uniformity in all external polity, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Church as by the Laws, good Usages, and Orders are already well provided and established"; and that he will not openly intermeddle with any artificer's occupation, as covetously to seek a gain thereby," if he has an ecclesiastical living worth twenty nobles a year.

The Puritans were alarmed when they heard of the Queen's determination to compel their submission, and they appealed to the Earl of Leicester, on whose friendly offices they were accustomed to rely. Through his influence the confirmation of the Queen in Council was withheld from the book, and it appeared without the direct sanction of the Crown. To enforce the new regulations, the bishops had to rely on their ordinary powers.

"The Archbishop," says Strype, was now arrived to the sixty-first year of his age; and all the remainder of his days from hence to his grave was imbittered by the labours and pains he had with such as would not comply with the established rites and orders of the Church." 4

The most distinguished of those who refused to conform were Sampson, Dean of Christchurch, Oxford, and Humphreys, Regius Professor of Divinity in the same university and President of Magdalen. Humphreys resisted for a long time, but yielded at last. Sampson was deprived of his deanery.

At the end of March (1565-6) the Archbishop and Grindal, 4 Strype, Parker, i. 367.

Bishop of London, called all the London clergy before them at Lambeth. Cecil and the Lord Keeper Bacon and the Marquis of Northampton, who promised to be present, were not there. When the clergy were assembled, they found the Rev. Robert Cole, a city clergyman who had formerly refused to wear the habits, canonically dressed. The Bishop's Chancellor addressed them :

[ocr errors]

My Masters and the Ministers of London, the Council's pleasure is, that strictly ye keep the unity of apparel like to this man, as you see him; that is, a square cap, a scholar's gown-priest-like, a tippet, and in the church a linen surplice; and inviolably observe the rubric of the Book of Common Prayer, and the Queen's Majesty's injunctions, and the Book of Convocation. . . . Ye that will presently subscribe, write Volo. Those that will not subscribe, write Nolo. Be brief; make no words." When some wanted to speak, the answer was "Peace, peace! Apparitor, call the churches."

As the name of each parish church was called, the minister was required to answer. Sixty-one promised conformity; nine or ten were absent; thirty-or perhaps thirty-sevenresisted. It was expected that the nonconforming clergy would have been rough and clamorous," but they behaved with "reasonable quietness and modesty." Among them, as the Archbishop acknowledged, were the best clergymen in London and "some preachers." They were at once suspended from their ministry, and were to be deprived within three months if they did not submit. Some of the deprived clergy became physicians; some entered other secular employments; some went to Scotland; some crossed over to the Continent; some were reduced to beggary. Churches were closed in the City of London because there was no one to conduct the service. Six hundred persons came to a church on one Sunday to receive the communion and found the doors shut the minister had been deprived.

5 Issued 1559.

Perhaps the Articles agreed upon in Convocation 1562; but they had not yet received the royal sanction.

7 Strype, Parker, i. 429. For a fuller account of this scene, see Idem, Grindal, 144-146. Strype gives two different accounts of the number of those who declined submission. In his Life of Parker he says that "thirty-seven denied"; in his Life of Grindal, that "only thirty did not subscribe." Some of those who refused submission were Romanists. Perhaps the thirty were those who were ultimately deprived.

« PreviousContinue »