BETH. tion of her majesty's high commission, and proceeded with ac- ELIZAcording to the direction of the said high commission. And to the end her majesty may understand what shall be from time to time done in the execution of the said commission, to give order that certificate be made of the proceedings in the said commission unto us of her majesty's privy council. From Nonsuch, 18th June, 1580. "THO. BROMLEY, Canc. W. BURGHLEY. E. CLINTON. T. SUSSEX. FRANC. BEDford. R. LEISTER. J. HUNSDON. J. CROFT. F. WALSINGHAM. T. WILTON. W. MILDMAY." This year the lord D'Aubigny came from France to Scotland to make that court a visit. He was nearly related to the queen, and well recommended by his behaviour. The young king (for so I shall call him after the queen's resignation, without pretending to determine any thing concerning that dispute,) much pleased with his conversation, made him earl of Lenox, and refused to part with him. This unexpected favour drew envy; and being a Roman Catholic, those who grudged him his good fortune, spread a report that his business in coming from France was only to proselyte the king to the Church of Rome. And thus he became the aversion of the preachers. These men taking the alarm, declaimed warmly from the pulpits that he was tampering with the king's conscience; that there was a secret design against the Church; and that popery was growing upon them. However, in the late parliament there were several acts passed in favour of the Reformation. To mention one of them relating to jurisdiction: 572. "Our soveraine lord, with advice of his three estaites of this An act of parliament present parliament, hes declared and granted jurisdiction to in favour of the Kirk, quhilk consistis and stands in the preaching of the the Kirk. trew word of Jesus Christ, correction of manners, and administration of the halie sacraments, and declairis that there is na uther face of Kirk, nor uther face of religion, than is presentlie be the favour of God establisched within this realme, and that there be na uther jurisdiction ecclesiastical acknow- Jac. 6. 6 parl. c.69. GRINDAL ledged within this realme, uther than that that quhilk is, and Abp. Cant. sall be, within the sammin Kirk, or that quhilk flowis theirfra, concerning the premisses." The king displeased with the assembly. Spotswood. The earl of Lenox recants popery. But this act was drawn in general terms, and neither the persons in whom the jurisdiction was lodged, nor the extent of their authority, is stated. This statute therefore came short of satisfaction to the assembly. The court looked upon these divines as too forward and enterprising. To bring them to more sobriety, the king not long since sent them a letter to forbear all innovations in the polity of the Church, to let things rest till the meeting of the estates, and not overrun the parliament. But they gave little regard to this letter: they were resolved to reform upon their own authority, and not wait the leisure of the government. For instance, they called the archbishop of St. Andrew's to account for granting collations to benefices, and voting in parliament, without commission from the assembly. This hardy incompliance lost them the king's favour, made him arrest their motion, and supersede their censures and process. This misunderstanding between the court and the assembly, encouraged the Roman Catholics to declare their belief more openly. Several seminary priests came over; and in Paisley some of that persuasion took the freedom to sing a requiem for the Reformation. These sallies of indiscretion raised a great clamour, and filled the country with complaints; and the court was charged by the pulpits for countenancing popery. To undeceive the people, and allay these heats, the king sent for the ministers to Edinburgh, told them what pains he had taken to convert his cousin Lenox; and that he had prevailed with this earl to entertain a protestant divine in his house. He desired therefore that one of their number might be pitched on for this employment. Mr. David Lindsay being master of the French language, and a person of temper and address, was recommended, and the choice approved by the king. Lindsay performed to satisfaction, and in a short time gained the nobleman, and brought him to recant his error in St. Giles's church but all this was not sufficient to remove the people's jealousies. It seems some dispensations from Rome were intercepted about this time. They indulged a scandalous latitude, and gave the Roman Catholics leave to comply to what lengths they pleased, and subscribe any articles put upon them: BETH. but with this proviso, that their mind should not go along with ELIZAtheir practice; that though their caution moved more at large, their zeal should continue the same; and that they should act behind the scene for the old interest. Spotswood, These dispensations, whether genuine or forged, being p. 308. brought to the king, he ordered his preacher, Mr. John Craig, The negative to draw up a short confession of faith. In this instrument, Confession. which mostly turned upon negatives, the doctrine and ceremonies peculiar to the Church of Rome were particularly abjured, and a clause inserted to meet with the dispensations: for the subscribers call God to witness that they signed heartily and sincerely, and without any reserve or dissembling. And to set an example to the subjects, the king, the court, and the council, publicly swore, and subscribed the confession. And one part of this form was, that they would keep close to the belief and constitutions of the Scottish Church. But when this was done, the government of the Church was in the hands of bishops and superintendents: and therefore the swearing Refut. this confession cannot fairly be urged for the presbyterian Regim. model. Libell. de Eccles. Sco tic. p. 36. Upon the 12th of July this summer the assembly met at A.D. 1580. Dundee and here the Presbyterians, after a long contest, : carried their point. Their decree against episcopacy is strict, and very remarkable. The reader therefore shall have it in the words of the manuscript. MS. Acts of the Assem bly, fol. 898. The assembly decree copacy. "Forasmuch as the office of a bishop, as it is now used, and commonly taken within this realm, has no sure warrant, authority, or good ground, out of the Scriptures, but brought in by against episthe folly and corruption of men's inventions, to the great overthrow of the true Kirk of God; the whole assembly of the Kirk in one voice (after liberty given to all men to reason in the matter, none opponing himself in defence of the said pretended office) finds and declares the same pretended office used and termed, as is above said, unlawful in itself, as having neither foundation, ground, nor warrant, within the word of God and ordains, that all such persons as enjoy, or shall hereafter enjoy, the said office, shall be charged simpliciter, to demit, quit, and leave off, the same, as an office whereunto they are not called by God. And siclike to desist and cease from all preaching, ministration of the sacraments, or using GRINDAL any way the office of pastors, till they receive de novo admission Abp. Cant. from the general assembly of the Kirk, under the pain of excommunication to be used against them. Wherein if they be found disobedient or contravene this act in any point, the sentence of excommunication, after due admonition, is to be executed against them." 573. They pre-, tend to call Thus to pronounce against the universal practice of the the bishops to Church for 1500 years together, was a hardy stroke, and an account. peculiar to the courage of these assemblies. And, besides, their decree was no less impolitic than novel: for, had their order taken immediate effect, as it did not, it would only have given a fresh opportunity for sacrilege; for when the bishops were once set aside, and their sees left vacant, they might easily imagine the laity would fly upon the spoil, as it afterwards happened. However, these Presbyterian reformers were resolved to try their credit, and push the matter. To this purpose they ordained, " that a synodal assembly shall be holden in every province where any usurping bishops are. The synod was to begin the 17th day of August, next ensuing. Hither the bishops were to be summoned by the visitors of the said country. The bishop of St. Andrew's was to compear in St. Andrew's; the bishop of Aberdeen, in Aberdeen; the bishop of Glasgow, in Glasgow; the bishop of Murray, in Elgin to give obedience to the said act: which, if they refuse to do, the said synodal assemblies shall appoint certain brethren of the ministry to give them public admonition in their pulpit, and warn them, in case they disobey, to compear before the next general assembly, at Edinburgh, upon the 20th of October, next ensuing, to hear the sentence of excommunication pronounced against them for their disobedience. To this act," as the manuscript goes on, "the bishop of Dumblane submitted himself." 1bid. The earl of Lenox, being desirous to gain the good opinion of the Church, sent sir William Steward to the general assembly with a letter, importing, "that they were not unacquainted with his being brought over to a right persuasion in religious matters; that he preferred this blessing to all secular advantage whatsoever; that he had publicly renounced his mistakes, and subscribed the negative confession; and that, if anything farther was required, he was ready to perform it." But all this profession of clear dealing, all this resigning to their pleasure, ELIZAcould not make him believed: he was still charged with hypocrisy, and roughly treated by the preachers. BETH. Spotswood's Hist. p. 311. Jesuit, John Nichols, a Jesuit, committed to the Tower, renounced Nichols, a the communion of the Church of Rome before a considerable recants. audience. He likewise published the reasons which brought May, 1581. him off from his former persuasion. The privy council gave archbishop Grindal an account of this matter in a letter, and desired him to write to his suffragans to provide for this convert till some preferment fell. This Nichols, as Sanders Grindal's Regist. relates, preached in the Tower-chapel to several Roman fol. 234. Catholic priests, who were forced to hear him; that he was cried up by the Protestants as one of the most learned of his order; that he was particularly regarded by the pope; that he used to preach before the cardinals; that he was an eminent philosopher and divine, and master of almost all learning and languages: but that all this was nothing but a flourish; that, in his printed recantation, he had misreported the pope, the cardinals, the English college, the Jesuits, and all the orders of the religious and clergy, in a scandalous manner; and that, within a month after the publishing his narrative, there came out a book called "Nichols' Detection;" that, in this answer, it was clearly proved that he was neither divine nor philosopher, Jesuit nor priest; that he had neither learning nor languages; that he had never preached before the pope or the cardinals, unless his abjuring Calvinism at Rome in the inquisition-court may be called preaching. Sanders de This summer, in July, Cox, bishop of Ely, departed this Anglic. life. The queen, as she had reason, was much displeased with the "Gaping Gulph." She published a proclamation against the libel, in which she declares the duke of Anjou had a friendly disposition to the Protestants; that she deeply resented the outraging a prince of such quality and merit,—a prince, who never so much as desired the least alteration in Church or State; and that Simiere, who had a public character, and attended the duke, was a prudent inoffensive person: and, in short, the subject was admonished to look upon this libel as no better than the production of treason; and that it was P. 450. July, 1581. |