POLE, mise, repeated the responses aloud, and would recede from Abp. Cant. nothing of the English service. Upon this, Knox mounted the pulpit, and declaimed intemperately against our Liturgy. Here, amongst other things, he pretends to divination and prophecy, and affirms that the English, being too heavy and languid in the Reformation, was one reason why that nation was so much punished at present. And here he ran out in his censure of the constitution of the English Church, charged it with want of discipline, found fault with the episcopal habit and the permission of pluralities.

Cox, his party adnitted to

role in the congregation, and

become a majority.

Id. p. 33.

396.

A conference.

Page 34.

Another meeting was appointed to debate these matters at large. And here a motion was made, that Dr. Cox and his company might have the liberty of voting in the congregation. The Dissenters-for so I shall distinguish them-objected that the controversy on foot ought first to be decided, and that the Coxians should be obliged to subscribe the discipline as the rest had done. They objected, farther, that some of those lately arrived lay under suspicion of going to mass in England, and that others had signed the doctrine of the church of Rome. It seems they had been informed of Mr. Jewel's failing in that point, which he afterwards lamented there in the pulpit. And thus the motion made in behalf of Dr. Cox and his friends was at first rejected; till, at last, Knox, by a surprising compliance, prevailed with the congregation to admit the Coxians to vote with the rest. When they had gained this point, they soon grew to a majority, and were admitted members of the Church; and thus, pushing the advantage, they drove Knox from his post, and ordered him not to officiate any longer in the congregation.

Upon this, Whittingham went with a remonstrance to the senator Glauberg, who, interposing in the dispute, silenced the pulpit for one day, sent for Valerand the French minister, and ordered him to appoint the choosing two learned persons of each party; that these four should pitch upon an expedient, and make a report to him of what they had done. Cox and Leaver were chosen by one party, and Knox and Whittingham by the other; and Valerand was ordered to take notes of what they agreed in: but, when they came to the conference, they could not get through the Morning Prayer, nor come to any tolerable harmony. The author of this narrative, who was a Knoxian, lays the blame upon Dr. Cox's stiffness and magisterial behaviour. Thus, the committee breaking up without

effect, the Knoxians addressed the senate, and complained MARY. loudly of the other party and the English Reformation.

Upon this address, Glauberg came to the English congregation, acquainted them it was the magistrate's command they should conform to the French, both in doctrine and ceremonies, menaced them with shutting up their church, and that those who refused to comply should quit the town. Cox, being pressed thus close, was willing to relax. He told the congregation he had perused the Geneva service, thought it good and defensible, and therefore advised them to comply with the order of the magistracy. The congregation consenting, Glauberg returned satisfied..

Page 36.

against

The matter had not been long settled upon this footing, when A charge of Knox was charged with treason by the Coxians. They drew high treas the impeachment out of his book entitled, " An Admonition to Kor. Christians," written in English. In this tract he had taken some unaccountable freedoms with the emperor, his son king Philip, and Mary queen of England. The passage relating to the emperor, preached in Buckinghamshire in the beginning of the present reign, was this: "O England, England! if thou wilt obstinately return into Egypt, that is, if thou contract marriage, confederacy, or league, with such princes as do maintain and advance idolatry, such as the emperor, who is no less enemy to Christ than was Nero,-if, for the pleasure and friendship, I say, of such princes thou return to thine old abominations before used under papistry,-then assuredly, O England, thou shalt be plagued and brought to desolation by the means of those whose favour thou seekest, and by whom thou art procured to fall from Christ and serve antichrist." There were eight other obnoxious citations, but this was the most remarkable. The magistracy, not pleased with March 26, the information, ordered Knox to depart the city; for that otherwise they should be obliged to deliver him up to the le quits emperor's council upon demand. Thus Knox, having made and retires a farewell sermon to support his party, retired to Geneva.

And now the interest of those who adhered to the English establishment improved to an overbalance: for, the same day that Knox went off, Adulphus Glauberg, nephew to John Glauberg the senator, sent for Whittingham, and told him that three doctors, thirteen bachelors of divinity, besides others of the same nation, had petitioned the magistrates for the use

1555.

Frankfort,

to Geneva.

POLE,

Abp. Cant.

The English Common Prayerbook received at Frankfort.

Page 39.

Page 40.

of the English service; that they had succeeded in their application; and, therefore, charged him not to clash with what was settled, or make any disturbance. Whittingham answered, he was ready to acquiesce, but moved for toleration; and that himself and his friends might have the liberty of joining some other church. Cox soliciting against this indulgence, Whittingham offered to dispute before the magistracy against the English Liturgy; but this offer was overruled by young Glauberg. The Knoxians, thus distressed, applied to Glauberg the senator; but this gentleman told them he was informed both parties had agreed to receive the English book, and that he had referred the matter to his nephew Adulphus.

Whittingham, in a letter to his correspondent in England, reports the misfortunes of his friends, charges Cox with breach of promise and indirect dealing, and magnifies the Geneva Church above all the rest. This Whittingham was employed as an agent, to procure a settlement for his party, at Geneva and Basil. He succeeded in his negotiation, and, Bullinger's passing by Zurich, asked Bullinger's opinion of the English service. And here Bullinger declared against the use of the surplice, against private baptism, churching of women, and the ring in marriage.

censure.

Dr. Cox forms the Church

towards the

English constitution.

He writes to
Calvin.

Culvin's answer.

May 31,

1555.

Cox, having gained his point, began to form the congregation to farther advantage, and bring it forward to the face and reputation of an English Church. He got Whitehead chosen superintendant or principal pastor, appointed two clergymen for elders, and four deacons to assist. He likewise proceeded to some resemblance of an university: Robert Horn had the Hebrew lecture, and Mullings the Greek; Trahern was preferred to the divinity chair, and Chambers made treasurer for the contributions remitted from England.

The Church settlement being thus far advanced, Cox gave Calvin an account of their proceedings. The letter is subscribed by fourteen of the chief in the congregation. They excuse their going so far without consulting him; but conclude with the satisfaction they had of bringing over the greatest part of the Church to their sentiments. Calvin, in his answer, complains of their pressing the English Common Prayer-book too far. And here he takes the freedom to dictate with his usual haughtiness, and calls the use of the cross and other ceremonies "trifles and dregs," and makes no scruple to say they are

hurtful and offensive in the present circumstances; and, lastly, MARY. he recommends a fair correspondence between those who remain at Frankfort and the others who seem disposed to go off, and points at some farther expedient to make up the breach.

Those who refused to acquiesce in the majority, and retired to Geneva and Basil, wrote a letter to the Coxians, to purge themselves from the imputation of schism, and offer to refer the controversy to four arbitrators. This letter is signed by eighteen, of whom Whittingham, Gilby, Christopher Goldman, and John Fox the martyrologist, are four. But Cox, thinking

it best to maintain his ground, insisted on the present settlement, and declined any farther reference; and in this condition I shall leave the English refugees at present.

Page 43.

account of

tion.

I shall now return to England, and proceed to a farther A general account of the persecution. And here I shall only be brief the persecu and general in the narrative. To begin: Bonner is reported to have burnt no less than two hundred in three years. Christopherson, bishop of Chichester, brought ten to the stake together at Lewes, and seventeen more during the course of this reign. Harpsfield, archdeacon of Canterbury, and Thornton, suffragan of Dover, were remarkably sanguinary, as hath been already observed. Griffin, bishop of Rochester, was furiously warm in his prosecutions. And bishop Baine, of Lichfield and Coventry, burnt several clergymen and others of both sexes.

The prelates in the northern province managed with more tenderness and humanity. Neither Heath, archbishop of York, nor Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle, proceeded to any severity upon the score of religion; and, in the diocese of Chester, there were none burnt, excepting one George Marsh. In the four Welsh dioceses, bishop Farrar and two more were condemned to the fire. In the dioceses of Exeter, Peterborough, Bath and Wells, and Lincoln, four suffered by the same cruelty; two in the diocese of Ely, and six by the bishops of Salisbury and Bristol; and, lastly, the bishops of Oxford, Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford, stood off from persecution, and made no martyrs. In short, those who suffered death for their belief are said to amount to two hundred and seventy-seven. And, to mention somewhat of the distinctions of those that were burnt, in this list there are

397.

POLE, Abp. Cant.

five bishops, one-and-twenty clergymen, eight lay gentlemen, eighty-four tradesmen, one hundred husbandmen, servants, and labourers, five-and-fifty women, and four children: sixty-four more were prosecuted for religion, seven of whom were whipped, and sixteen perished in prison; not to mention those who lay condemned in durance, and were discharged by the queen's death. In fine, the proceedings against the reformed in this reign were extremely bloody and barbarous. To destroy people for points of mere speculation, and which have no ill effect on practice and civil government, seems very remote from the spirit of Christianity. Supposing truth on the persecuting side, yet, to burn a man because he will not belie his conscience and turn hypocrite, is strangely unaccountable. Men cannot believe what they please. Their understandings are not all of a size. Things do not stand in the same light, and strike with the same force on every body.

Besides, if the Roman Catholics believed the reformed such notorious heretics, if they believed they would be so ill received in the other world,-why did they not use them gentlier in this? Why did they hurry them to eternal destruction before their time? If life had gone on in its natural course, it is possible they might have altered their belief; mere compassion, one would think, should have given them the utmost leisure to recover themselves. If it is said that, in charity to other people, they were obliged to come to extremities, had the heretics' (as they call them) lives been spared, they would have spread the contagion, and destroyed great numbers with themselves. To this it may be returned, they might have been closely confined, barred correspondence, and made very inoffensive as to See the first this matter.

part of

this history, P. 616.

In a word, these cruel expedients serve only to blacken a communion, to heighten differences, and inflame one part of Christendom against another. And besides the doing injury in religion, the State has sometimes suffered upon this account the dread of the Smithfield fires has given designing men a handle to impose on the people, to make them tools to their ambition, and fright them into a revolt. Whether the grounds of their fear are real or imaginary, is little material; they are generally apt to indulge their suspicion, to swallow a calumny, and believe the worst of their governors. Thus, to avoid being martyrs, they turn rebels; and rather than endure