preferred to bishopriks, and other promotions, according to their aimes and desires. That inveterate hatered against the holy discipline of christ in his church hath continued to this day. In somuch that for fear [4] it should preveile, all plotts, and devices have been used to keepe it out, incensing the queene, and state against it as dangerous for the common wealth; And that it was most needfull that the fundamentall poynts of Religion should be preached in those ignorante, and superstitious times;1 And to wine the weake In 1597 some of the Queen's "faithful Subjects falsly called Brownistes" petitioned for permission to settle in Canada. They described themselves as "nowe lyving many of us in other Countries as mene exiles her highnes Domynions and the rest which remaine within her Graces land greatlie distressed throughe imprisonment and other great troubles sus- Robe of Browne tained onlie for some matters of conscience," and wished to go to Canada where "we may not onlie worshippe god as wee are in conscience perswaded by his word, but also doe unto her Majestie, and our Country great good service, and in tyme also greatlie annoy that bloodie and persecuting Spaniard about the Baye of Mexico." In March of that year some merchants designed to form a settlement for fishing in the St. Lawrence, and obtained leave from the Privy Council to "take divers persons whose minds are continually in an ecclesiastical ferment," bonds to be given that they never should return unless willing to conform. Register of Privy Council, March 25, 1597. Three London merchants, Charles Leigh and Abraham and Steven Van Herwick, sent out two vessels to make a settlement upon the island of Rainea, one of the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Francis Johnson and Daniel Studley were assigned to the Hopewell, and George Johnson and John Clark to the Chancewell, all of whom answered to the description of troublesome non-conformists. The voyage of Leigh is described in Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, III. 195. (Reprinted by the Hakluyt Society, extra series, vIII. 166.) See Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, x. 393; N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. xIII. 259. The Chancewell was wrecked, and the four exiles, after landing in England, went to Holland and joined their brethren in a congregation. These first refugees of the Separation, followers for the most part of Barrowe, formed the first or Auncient Church at Amsterdam. The name Canada was at this time usually applied to a district lying along the St. Lawrence, near the Saguenay. The northern region was all called New France, and to the south lay Norumbega, covering lower New England. Frances fobnjon: 1 Into the controversies that continued through the reign of Elizabeth over church government it will not be necessary to go deeply. The publication in 1565, without and ignorante they might retaine divers harmles ceremoneis, and though it were to be wished that diverse things were reformed, yet this was not a season for it. And many the like to stop the mouthes the Queen's open approval, of Matthew Parker's Advertisements, precipitated an unexpectedly fierce discussion upon the due order of prayers and the priestly apparel enjoined by that compilation of enactments. The cope, the surplice, and the square cap were rejected by the Puritans, who extended their dislike to painted windows, cer Watthaus cantuas ABP Parker Азр Edm. London. By Grindal. berty. Wintry JBP Hora). Richardus chew tain signs with the hand, and other superstitious monuments. Parker de sired to enforce uniformity, and in this desire he had the authority of the Queen. Upon Parker's death in 1575 his successor, Edmund Grindal, in whom existed a sincere desire to conciliate the Puritans, refused to follow the somewhat fickle desires of Elizabeth, now courting catholicism, and he could accomplish little towards lightening the demands of an enforced uniformity in church offices. Yet his known views against severe measures brought him into disfavor with his royal mistress, who welcomed the opportunity given by Grindal's death in 1583 to place the see of Canterbury into the keeping of John Whit- ✓ gift, a devoted defender of the Episcopal form of church government and a believer in the Anglican ritual. To him Elizabeth gave a free hand in church matters, and he willingly took up the question of full conformity and uniformity with an energy that caused the Puritans to suffer. He greatly s3p Cox Jo: Cart of the more godly. To bring them one [over] to yeeld to one ceremonei after another; and one corruption after another; by these wyles begyleing some, and corrupting others till at length they begane to persecute all the zealous proffessors in the land (though they knew little what this discipline mente) both by word, and deed, if they would not submitte to their ceremonies, and become slaves to them, and their popish trash, which have no ground in the word of God, but are relikes of that man of sine. And the more the light of the gospell grew, the more they urged their subscriptions to increased the powers of the Court of High Commission, prohibited unlicensed preaching, framed questions for testing the sincerity of adherence in the clergy to the thirtynine articles and the Book of Common Prayer, and sought in many ways to introduce a procedure that would discover and punish the non-conforming element in the churches. His measures led to much protest, and called out from Burghley the comment that some of them, and especially the oath ex officio, by which a minister became evidence against himself, "too much savoured of the Romish inquisition," rather a device to seek for offenders than to reform any. The printing press was placed under restrictions, every manuscript being first submitted to the archbishop or the bishop of London for his perusal and approval. Attacked in the "Martin Marprelate" tracts, he redoubled his efforts to weed out opposition to his orders, and resorted to extreme measures of persecution, under which many were driven to Holland. He survived Elizabeth, and took a prominent part in the Conference of Hampton Court under James, but died one month after that event. Against him the Puritans and their historians have levelled their severest criticisms, and it was under his rule that the persecution described by Bradford occurred. Outside of Holland, the idea of toleration did not exist in Whitgift's day. See p. 25, infra. The affairs of church and state, inseparable as they were, lay in a critical posture, and assaults upon the church, whether by Roman catholics or non-conformists, he regarded as assaults upon the state. Those who set aside ritual or ceremony as established by law were rebels and traitors, and he dealt with them accordingly. In his eyes the cruelty and suffering resulting from his acts were more than compensated by increased strength through homogeneity in the church to resist attack. Having eliminated Rome's priests, it only remained to reduce the somewhat restive protestant clergy at least to a passive or an outward conformity. The six bishops, whose signatures are reproduced, were: Matthew Parker (1504-1575), archbishop of Canterbury; Edmund Grindal (1519?-1583), then bishop of London; Robert Horne (1519-1580), bishop of Winchester; Richard Cox (1500-1581), bishop of Ely; John Jewel (1522-1571), bishop of Salisbury; and John Whitgift (1530?-1604), archbishop of Canterbury. these corruptions. So as (notwithstanding all their former pretences, and fair colures) they whose eyes God had not justly blinded might easily see wherto these things tended. And to cast 1 That a little concession on the part of the prelates would have retained many in the Church of England who rebelled against their demands for full conformity, is indicated by John Bastwick, doctor of physic, soldier, and controversialist. He suffered with Prynne and Burton, being sentenced to lose his ears, pay a fine of £5000, and be imprisoned for life; but after 1640 some reparation was made for his punishments. Writing in 1646, he said: "It is well known that, in the time of the Prelates' power, the removal of a very few things would have given great content to the most scrupulous consciences. For myself I can speak thus much, not only concerning the conscientious Professors here in England, but the most rigid Separatists beyond the seas; with many of which, I had familiar acquaintance at home and abroad: and amongst all that I ever conversed with, I never heard them, till within these twenty years, desire any other thing in Reformation but that the Ceremonies might be removed with their Innovations; and that Episcopacy might be regulated, and their boundless power and authority taken from them; and that the extravagances of the High Commission Court might be annihilated and made void; and that there might, through the kingdom, be a preaching Ministry everywhere set up. . . . Yea, I can speak thus much, in the presence of God, That Master Robinson, of Leyden, the Pastor of the Brownist Church there, told me, and others who are yet living to witness the truth of what I now say: "That if he might in England have enjoyed but the liberty of his Ministry there, with an immunity but from the very Ceremonies; and that they had not forced him to a Subscription to them, and imposed upon him the observation of them: that he had never separated from it, and left that Church."" The utter Routing of the whole Army of all the Independents and Sectaries, Sig. F. 2. Bastwick matriculated at Leyden University on 4/14 January, 1617, while the Robinson church was still intact. From evidence found in a recently discovered мs. it is believed that Robinson was for a time a minister in the Church of England, officiating in St. Andrew's in Norwich, though he never lived in that parish or made an attempt to become a member of that church. Taking offense at the church officers and the ceremonies, he was suspended. His opposition to the prelacy and ceremonies was not of a violent kind, for Joseph Hall wrote at the time: "And touching ceremonies, you [Robinson] refused them formerly, but not long: and when you did refuse them, you knew not wherefore; for immediately before your suspension, you acknowledged them to be things indifferent, and for matter of scandall by them you had not informed your selfe (by your own confession) of a whole quarter of a yeare after. Why refused you then...? But refusing them, you submitted to the prelates spirituall iurisdiction: there was your crime . . . Did cuer any prelate challenge spirituall rule ouer your conscience?" Common Apologie of the Chorch of England (1610), 114. contempte the more upon the sincere servants of God; they opprobriously and most injuriously, gave unto, and imposed upon them, that name of Puritans; which [it] is said the Novatians (out of prid) did assume and take unto themselves.1 And lamentable it is to see the effects which have followed; Religion hath been disgraced, the godly greeved, afflicted, persecuted, and many exiled, sundrie have lost their lives in prisones, and otherways. On the other hand, sin hath been countenanced; ignorance, profannes, and Athe[i]sme increased, and the papists encouraged to hope againe for a day. This made that holy man Mr. Perkins' crie out in his exhortation 1 Eus:lib: 6. Chap. 42. BRADFORD. Fuller says the name Puritan began to be applied in 1564, as a term of reproach, to such of the clergy as refused to subscribe to the liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline of the established church. Church History, 1x. i. § 66. The word is of French form, and "appears to have been intended to suggest that of the Kabapol (the pure), Catharans, or Catharists, assumed by the Novatian heretics, and thus to convey an odious imputation." English Historical Dictionary. The Novatians were a sect founded in the middle of the third century by Novatianus, a Roman presbyter. Chillingworth wrote that "excepting their peculiar error, of denying reconciliation to those that fell in persecution, they held other things in common with Catholiques." Religion of Protestants, 1. vi. § 49. 368. Sir Edwin Sandys gave this definition of "Puritaines" in his A Relation of the State of Religion, London, 1605: "A sort of men there liveth in the world at this day whose leaders (whether vpon extreamity of hatred toward the Church of Rome, or vpon self-liking and singularitie to value their owne wittes and devises) did cut out in such sort, their reformation of religion, as not onely in all outward religious services and ceremonies, in governement, and church discipline, they doe strive to be as vnlike the Papacie as is possible: but even in very lawfull pollicies, for the advancing of their part, doe disdaine to seeme to bee imitators to them, whom they so much abhored, much like [to a] stowt harted, selfe-witted Capitaine, who scornes to imitate any stratageme before vsed by the enemie, though the putting of it in exploit, might give him assured victorie." 2 Pag. 421.- BRADFORD. William Perkins (1558-1602), one of the ablest and most open-minded of the Puritan controversialists, much read and admired in his day, and long of wide influence. His Catechism was republished in Leyden by John Robinson, and two "little chatachismes" listed in Elder Brewster's library are believed to have been "An Appendix to Mr. Perkins his Six Principles of the Christian Religion, by J. R." 2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, v. 38. The particular reference is to his Godly and learned Exposition of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, 1618. No less than nine of Perkins's volumes were certainly in Elder Brewster's library, and three additional |