other, should not be suffered to impair the civil rights of Englishmen; and to affirm most explicitly that the validity of all such regulations must be derived from the authority of parliament. All these wholesome measures, however, the court had resisted, and by so doing had justified the parliament in its reluctance to part with the money of the subject.

As the commons assumed this bolder tone of remonstrance, James became more extravagant in his assertions as to the power of kings; and his conduct led to the framing of a protest, in which the commons claimed to be free and undisturbed in their deliberations to whatever matter of grievance or question of prerogative those deliberations might relate. This protest was accompanied by a petition, which stated that, "Whereas divers learned and painful pastors that have long travailed in the work of the ministry, with good fruit and blessing of their labour, who were ever ready to perform the legal subscription, appointed by the thirteenth of Elizabeth, which only concerneth the confession of the true Christian faith, and doctrine af the sacraments, yet, for not conforming in some points of ceremonies, and for refusing subscription to the late canons, have been removed from their ecclesiastical livings, being their freehold, and debarred from all means of maintenance, to the great grief of your majesty's subjects, seeing the whole people that want instruction lie open to the seducement of Popish and ill-affected persons; we therefore most humbly beseech your majesty that such deprived and silenced ministers may, by licence or permission of the reverend fathers in their several dioceses, instruct and preach unto their people in such parishes and places where they may be employed, so as they apply themselves in their ministry to wholesome doctrine and exhortation, and live quietly and peaceably in their calling, and shall not, by writing or preaching, impugn things established by public authority."

The commissioners further complained of pluralities and non-residence, and that "excommunication was exercised upon an incredible number of the common people, by the subordinate officers of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, for small causes, and by the sole information of a base apparitor, so that the poor were driven to excessive expenses for matters of small moment, while the rich escaped by a commutation of penance." These particulars are enumerated as calling for speedy reformation *.

Origin and constitution of the High Commission Court.

But the complaints made by the members of this parliament with respect to the practice of the High Commission Court bespoke their intelligence and love of justice more strongly than any other part of their conduct, and must have been regarded by the ruling clergy with the greatest alarm. The origin and nature of this court should be distinctly understood. In the Act of Uniformity, passed on the accession of Elizabeth, was the following clause :-"The queen and her successors * Howell's State Trials, ii, 522-527. Neal, ii. 68–74.

shall have power, by their letters patent under the great seal, to assign, name, and authorise, as often as they shall think meet, and for as long time as they shall please, persons, being natural-born subjects, to use, occupy, and exercise, under her and them, all manner of jurisdiction, privileges, and pre-eminences, touching any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the realms of England and Ireland, &c.; to visit, reform, redress, order, correct, and amend all errors, 'heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts, offences, and enormities whatsoever. Provided that they have no power to determine any thing to be heresy, but what has been adjudged to be so by the authority of the canonical Scripture, or by the first four general councils, or any of them, or by any other general council wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of canonical Scripture, or such as shall hereafter be declared to be heresy by the high court of parliament with the assent of the clergy in convocation*" It was further provided, "that the queen's majesty, by advice of her ecclesiastical commissioners, or of her metropolitan, may ordain and publish such ceremonies or rites as be most for the advancement of God's glory and the edifying of the church +."

On this authority Elizabeth instituted her Court of High Commission, in which certain civil and ecclesiastical functionaries of her own nomination were not only empowered to enforce the existing laws on the subject of religion, but to assume on all occasions indirectly, and on many occasions directly, a legislative character. It was left with these commissioners to decide on all alleged errors and offences in ecclesiasical matters; and if the power of interpreting the law must always approach very nearly to that of making it, such was particularly the case in this instance, where the judges might extend their appeal beyond the statutes of the realm, to the obscurities and subtleties of the ecclesiastical canons. The judgment of any three commissioners sufficed; and in the place of proceeding by witnesses in an open court, a power was assumed to oblige the accused to answer all questions that might be put to him, however prejudicial to his defence. On his refusal to do this, and to do it on oath, he exposed himself to imprisonment for contempt, while the effect of his compliance was generally to convict himself. This was the nature of the oath ex officio, so strenuously insisted on by one party, and so indignantly reprobated by another during the whole period. through which the High Commission Court was allowed to exist. The law had provided that all ecclesiastical courts should be subject to prohibitions from the courts of Westminster, by which a cause might be at any time withdrawn from the cognizance of the ecclesiastical to that of the civil judge, but the commissioners seldom allowed their proceedings to be interrupted by these prohibitions. It is also to be particularly

remarked, that the act on which their authority was founded, large as were the powers it conferred, gave no sanction to what became the frequent practice of the commissioners-the adjudging men to fines, imprisonments, and corporeal punishments, for mere nonconformity. Such persons might be suspended from their livings, and, after warning, deprived of them; but this was the severest penalty the law had allowed the commissioners to inflict. It was natural, however, when the Court of High Commission was made to embrace all the matters usually brought within the cognizance of the bishops' courts, that its penalties and methods of proceeding should become so far secular in their character as to awaken the jealousy of the courts of law. In these courts the oath ex officio was declared to be against the law of nature and of the land; the imprisonments which took place by order of the commissioners were also generally held to be contrary to law; their right to enact any thing beyond the nature of bye-laws was denied; and while some questioned their authority to impose fines of any sort, all were agreed in reprobating the language which left the amount to be determined by the pleasure of the judge rather than by the estate or ability of the sufferer; nor were there wanting those who rejected the authority of the court altogether, on the ground that supposing such acts to have the sanction of the queen, it was not in the power of the sovereign to delegate the supremacy of the crown in such a manner to others.

But notwithstanding these remonstrances on the part of lawyers, and of the Puritans, the nonconforming clergy were exposed to much annoyance and suffering, by the usurpations and activity of this court; and these evils, which continued to increase under Elizabeth, became more than ever oppressive under her successor. The parliament of 1610 renewed the complaints which had often been made, and the commons sent the following bill no less than three several times to the upper house." Forasmuch as divers inconveniences have grown and happened to your majesty's subjects of this realm of England, by the multiplicity of canons, constitutions, and ordinances ecclesiastical, heretofore made, whereof sundry, varying from the common laws and statutes of this your highness's realm, have already grown, and are likely daily to grow more grievous and burdensome to your majesty's subjects, unless some restraint and provision be made to the contrary; may it therefore please your most excellent majesty, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same decree, that no canon, constitution, or ordinance ecclesiastical, heretofore made, constituted or ordained, shall be of any force or effect, by any means whatsoever, to impeach or hurt any person or persons, in his or their life, liberty, lands, or goods, until the same be confirmed by act of parliament." All this was apparently without effect. But in conclusion the house proceeded so far as to pray, not only that the inquisitorial encroachments of this court might

be checked, but that the tribunal itself might be wholly abolished as "a very great grievance *.'

from the Es

The small measure of success which seemed to be attendant on these spirited efforts in the commons, and the persevering Progress of intolerance of the ruling churchmen, did not lessen the separation number or the disaffection of the Puritans. On the con- tablished trary, the sympathy which existed in their favour became Church. more widely diffused; and while such as had separated themselves from the established church became more satisfied as to the propriety of their conduct in that particular, many who had hitherto regarded such a course as involving the guilt of schism, began to view it as the path of Christian liberty and duty. The separatists from the church of England during this reign, who adopted the leading principles of the Brownists, and gave rise to the sect afterwards so conspicuous under the name of Independents, were accustomed to speak of the established church as a mere creation of the civil power. They were no believers in the doctrine held forth by their persecutors with respect to the nature of schism, and as far as their own impressions were concerned, all the spiritual censures of the hiererchy were as empty sounds +.

But the majority of the Puritans had not yet learned to deem themselves secure against such anathemas. In their judgment The Puritans the doctrines and the sacraments of the church were apo- consist of two stolic; it was in her discipline and ceremonies only that classes at this further reformation was needed. The doctrines and sacra

time.

Dalrymple's Memorials, i. 24, 25. Bancroft watched these proceedings in the commons with the closest attention, and laboured much to counteract them. With this view he procured the payment of a subsidy voted some time since by the Convocation, and the vote of a further supply from that quarter. To silence the demands of the Puritans for a nearer equalization of livings, and on the subject of pluralities and non-residence, the primate would have them reminded, that a more legitimate exercise of their professed zeal for the good of the church would be in a surrender of their own lay impropriations. Ibid., i. 18-27. The exiled Puritan, Dr. Ames, makes repeated allusion in his "Fresh Suit against Ceremonies," to the bold efforts of the commons during the session of 1610, in the cause of the proscribed Puritans and of general liberty. He dwells especially on the illegality of depriving the clergy on account of their nonconformity with respect to ceremonies which had never obtained the sanction of parliament, c. x. xi. Hume's account of this session is, that the commons contented themselves with remonstrating against the proceedings of the High Commission Court." See p. 74--78 of this volume. Bancroft devised a project at this juncture for the better maintenance of the clergy, which is printed, from the copy in the State Paper Office, in the Biog. Britan., i. 468.

+ Bacon ventured to address James in the following terms, on the necessity of frequent ecclesiastical reforms:-" I would ask why the civil state should be purged and restored by good and wholesome laws, made every third or fourth year in parliament assembled, devising remedies as fast as time breedeth mischief, and contrariwise the ecclesiastical state should continue upon the dregs of time, and receive no alteration now for these five and forty years and more? If any man shall object, that, if the like intermission had been used in civil causes also, the error had not been great, surely the wisdom of the kingdom hath been otherwise in experience for three hundred years space, at least. But if it be said to me, that there is a difference between civil causes and ecclesiastical, they may as well tell me that churches and chapels need no reparation, though castles and houses do." Considerations concerning the Pacification of the Church. Works, vi. 61–97.

ments of the church made her a true church, and made the act of separation from her inseparable from the guilt of schism; but this material fact did not release her members from their obligation to seek the improvement of her discipline, and the exclusion of superstition from her worship.

There were others, however, even in this class of persons, to whom the general reasoning of the separatists appeared much more sound, and who, had the law permitted, would not have hesitated to establish separate congregations. These two parties constituted, in the language of that age, the conforming and nonconforming Puritans; and their disputes with each other, which were sometimes conducted with much warmth, tended to enlarge their views, and to advance the great principles of religious liberty, though their enemies saw nothing in them but a source of weakness over which they never failed to rejoice.

The more moderate of these parties were accustomed to plead, that as their complaints related to such things only as they deemed contrary to the word of God, there was nothing in their conduct of the nature of schism, or at variance with a due regard to the supremacy of the crown in ecclesiastical affairs. They accordingly challenged their opponents to public discussion on the points in debate, and even on the question respecting the lawfulness of imposing religious ceremonies as matters of necessity in any case. But the court clergy, entrenched by means of the royal inclination and prerogative, and by ecclesiastical usage, were not disposed to place matters on such an issue. The clergy of several counties, particularly of Cornwall, Devon, and Lincoln, presented petitions to the king, explaining the motives of their conduct in objecting to the disputed ceremonies. The clergy of Lincolnshire commenced by professing to acknowledge the authority of the sovereign as the head of the church; but they venture to state that there were injunctions with which, though proceeding from his majesty in this character, their consciences would not allow them to comply. They make particular mention of the lessons from the Apocrypha as said to be taken from Holy Scripture, and as more numerous in proportion than those from the canonical books; and with respect to the reading lessons generally, they complain that the selection was by no means the most judicious that Inight be made, while the translation was such, that in the judgment of many learned men it often obscured, and sometimes destroyed the meaning of the original. Ou the subject of ceremonies, they state it to be the doctrine of the wisest men in ancient and modern times, that such as tended to idolatry or superstition should be suppressed, and they professed to see tendencies of this nature in the sign of the cross in baptism, the practice of kneeling at the sacrament, the use of the surplice, and some other matters. Many authorities are adduced in support of these statements, and the particulars enumerated are said to have occasioned much grief and suffering to the greater part of the preaching clergy through