with ecclesiastical history, councils, and fathers, and had lived in a college all his days.

66

The third day's conference was on Wednesday Jan. 18, when the bishops and deans were first called into the privy chamber with the civilians, to satisfy the king about the high commission and the oath ex officio, which they might easily do as being principal branches of his prerogative. When the king said he approved of the wisdom of the law in making the oath ex officio, the old archbishop was so transported, as to cry out, " Undoubtedly your majesty speaks by the special assistance of God's Spirit." A committee of bishops and privy-counsellors was then appointed to consider of lessening the charges in the high-commission, and for planting schools, and proper ministers in the kingdom of Ireland, and on the borders of England and Scotland. After which Dr. Raynolds and his brethren were called in, not to dispute, but only to hear the few alterations or explanations in the Common Prayer-book already mentioned; which not answering their expectations, Mr. Chadderton fell on his knees, and humbly prayed, that the surplice and cross might not be urged on some godly ministers in Lancashire; and Mr. Knewstubs desired the same favour for some Suffolk ministers; which the bishops were going to oppose, but the king replied with a stern countenance, "We have taken pains here to conclude in a resolution for uniformity, and you will undo all by preferring the credit of a few private men to the peace of the church; this is the Scots way, but I will have none of this arguing, therefore let them conform, and that quickly too, or they shall hear of it; the bishops will give them some time, but if they are of an ob stinate and turbulent spirit, I will have them enforced to conformity." "'*

Thus ended this mock conference, for it deserves no better name, all things being previously concluded between the

"In this manner ended this conference; which (observes Dr. Warner) convinced the Puritans they were mistaken in depending on the king's protection; which convinced the king that they were not to be won by a few insignificant concessions; and which, if it did not convince the privy council and the bishops that they had got a Solomon for their king, yet they spoke of him as though it did." Eccles. Hist. vol. 3. p. 482.

"This conference (says another writer) was but a blind to introduce episcopacy in Scotland; all the Scotch noblemen then at court being designed to be present, and others, both noblemen and ministers, being called up from Scotland by the king's letter to assist at it." Dr. Welwood, as quoted by Crosby. Hist. of Engl. Baptists, vol. 1. p. 85.—ED.

king and the bishops, before the Puritans were brought upon the stage, to be made a spectacle to their enemies, and borne down not with calm reason and argument, but with the royal authority, I approve or I dissent; the king making himself both judge and party. No wonder, therefore, if Dr. Raynolds fell below himself, and lost some part of his esteem with the Puritans, being overawed by the place and company, and the arbitrary dictates of his sovereign opponent. The Puritans refused to be concluded by this conference, for the following reasons, because,

1. "The ministers appointed to speak for them were not of their nomination or choosing, nor of one judgment in the points of controversy; for being desired by their brethren to argue against the corruptions of the church as simply evil, they replied, they were not so persuaded. Being farther desired to acquaint the king, that some of their brethren thought them sinful, they refused that also. Lastly, being desired to give their reasons in writing, why they thought the ceremonies only indifferent; or to answer the reasons they had to offer to prove them sinful, they would do neither one nor other.

2. "Because the points in controversy were not thoroughly debated, but nakedly propounded, and some not at all touched. Neither was there any one argument to the purpose pursued and followed.

3. "Because the prelates took the liberty of interrupting at their pleasure those of the other side, insomuch that they were checked for it by the king himself."

They objected also to the account of the conference by Dean Barlow, as published without the knowledge, advice, or consent, of the other side, and therefore deserving no credit; they said that Dr. Moreton had called some part of it in question, and rectified some speeches fathered on the king: besides, that the prelates only were present at the first day's conference, when the principal matters were determined.

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The conclusion of his address to the Puritan ministers, at this conference, as it was a curious specimen of the king's logic, so it was a proof of the insolent and tyrannical spirit, with which he aimed to bear down all opposition. If (said he) this be all your party hath to say, I will make them conform themselves, or else I will harrie them out of the land, or else do worse, only hang them, that's all." It is very evident, from this, that he trasted more, as it has been observed by a modern writer, to the power of hanging than of convincing his adversaries. Secret History of the Court and Reign of Charles II. vol. 1. Introduction, p. 23, the note.-Ed.

"Therefore the Puritan ministers offer (if his majesty will give them leave) in one week's space to deliver his majesty in writing, a full answer to any argument or assertion propounded in that conference by any prelate; and in the meantime they do aver them to be most vain and frivolous."

If the bishops had been men of moderation, or if the king had discovered any part of that wisdom he was flattered with, all parties might have been made easy at this time; for the bishops, in such a crisis, would have complied with any thing his majesty had insisted on; but the king's cowardice, his love of flattery, his high and arbitrary principles, and his mortal hatred of the Puritans, lost one of the fairest opportunities, that had ever offered, to heal the divisions of the church.

On the 5th of March the king published a proclamation, in which he says, " that though the doctrine and discipline of the established church were unexceptionable, and agreeable to primitive antiquity, nevertheless he had given way to a conference, to hear the exceptions of the Nonconformists, which he had found very slender; but that some few explanations of passages had been yielded to for their satisfaction; therefore he now requires and enjoins all his subjects to conform to it, as the only public form established in this realm; and admonishes them not to expect any farther alterations, for that his resolutions were absolutely settled." The Common Prayer-book was accordingly printed with the amendments, and the proclamation prefixed.

It was a high strain of the prerogative, to alter a form of worship established by law, merely by a royal proclamation, without consent of parliament or convocation; for by the same power that his majesty altered one article in the liturgy, he might set aside the whole, every sentence being equally established by act of parliament; but this wise monarch made no scruple of dispensing with the laws. However, the force of all proclamations determining with the king's life, and there being no subsequent act of parliament to establish these amendments, it was urged very justly in the next reign, that this was not the liturgy of the church of England established by law, and consequently not binding upon the clergy.

A fortnight before this conference was held, the learned and reverend Mr. Thomas Cartwright, one of the chief of

the Puritans, and a great sufferer for nonconformity died. He was born in Hertfordshire, 1535, and entered into St. John's college, Cambridge, 1550, where he became a hard student, never sleeping above five hours in a night. During the reign of queen Mary he left the university, and became a lawyer's clerk; but upon the accession of queen Elizabeth he resumed his theological studies, and was chosen fellow of Trinity-college in the year 1563. The year following he bore a part in the philosophy act before the queen. In the year 1567, he commenced bachelor of divinity, and three years after was chosen lady Margaret's professor, He was so popular a preacher, that when his turn came at St. Mary's, the sexton was obliged to take down the windows. But Mr. Cartwright venturing in some of his lectures to shew the defects of the discipline of the church, as it then stood, he was questioned for it before the vice-chancellor, denied his doctor's degree, and expelled the university, as has been related. He then travelled to Geneva, and afterward became preacher to the English merchants at Antwerp. King James invited him to be professor in his university of St. Andrew's, which he declined. After his return from Antwerp he was often in trouble by suspensions, deprivations, and long imprisonment; at length the great earl of Leicester, who knew his worth, made him go, vernor of his hospital in Warwick, where he ended his days, December 27, 1603. He was certainly one of the most learned and acute disputants of his age, but very ill used by the governing clergy. He wrote several books besides his controversy with archbishop Whitgift, as, his Latin comment on Ecclesiastes, dedicated to king James, in which he thankfully acknowledges his being appointed professor to a Scots university: his celebrated confutation of the Rhemist translation of the New Testament, to which work he was solicited not only by sir Francis Walsingham, but by letter under the hands of the principal divines of Cambridge, as, Roger Goad, Wm. Whitaker, Thomas Crooke, John Ireton, Wm. Fulke, John Field, Nicholas Crane, Gibs Seinthe, Rich. Gardiner, Wm. Clarke, &c. Such an opinion had these great men of his learning and abilities. He was a person of uncommon industry and piety, fervent in prayer, a frequent preacher, and of a meek and humble spirit. In his old age he was so troubled with the stone and

gout by frequent lying in prisons, that he was obliged always to study on his knees. His last sermon was on Eccles. xii. 7. "Then shall the dust return to the earth, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." The Tuesday following he was two hours on his knees in private prayer, and a few hours after quietly resigned his spirit to God, in the sixtyeighth year of his age, and was buried in his own hospital. The famous Mr. Dod preached his funeral sermon.*

Six weeks after died his great antagonist Dr. John Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury; who was born at Great Grimsby in Lincolnshire in the year 1530, and educated in Pembroke-hall, and was fellow of Peter-house, Cambridge. He complied with the changes in Queen Mary's reign, though he disapproved of her religion. He commenced doctor of divinity 1569; and was afterward Margaret and queen's professor,+ and master of Trinity-college. Having been a celebrated champion for the hierarchy, the queen advanced him first to the bishoprick of Worcester, and then to the archbishopric of Canterbury. He was a severe governor of the church, pressing conformity with the utmost rigour, in which her majesty always gave him her countenance and support. He regarded neither the entreaties of poor ministers, nor the intercessions of courtiers, being steady to the laws, and even outgoing them in the cause of uniformity. Mr. Fuller says, he would give fair words and good language, but would abate nothing. Sir G. Paul, the writer of his life, says, that choler was his chief infirmity,§ which has sufficiently appeared by the account already given of the many persecutions, oppressions, and unjustifiable hardships, the Puritans suffered under his administration; notwithstanding which they increased prodigiously, insomuch, that towards the latter end of his life his grace grew weary of the invidious employment; and being afraid of king James's first parliament,[] died, as it is said, with grief before it met, desiring rather to give an account of his bishoprick to God than exercise it among men. He had been at court * Clarke's Lives annexed to his General Martyrology, p. 16.

For his sake the salary of lady Margaret's professorship was raised from twenty imarks to 201. And it is observed to his honour, that this prelate was the great re storer of order and discipline in the university of Cambridge, when deeply wounded and almost sunk. Granger's Hist. of England, 8vo. vol. 1. p. 206.-ED. $ "Even sometimes it may be (says Dr. Warner) beyond all other law, but that of her majesty's pleasure."-ED. Life of Whitgift, p. 108.

Fuller's Church Hist. b. 10. p. 25.

Strype's words, Dr. Grey says, are, "Et nunc Domine exaltata est mea anima,