CHAPTER XIV.

THE INDEPENDENTS.

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THE BISHOPS THEIR OWN ENEMIES.-INCREASE OF THE INDEPENDENTS. THEIR SECRET ASSEMBLIES. -A CHURCH ORGANIZED IN LONDON. - MIDNIGHT ARREST OF GREENWOOD AND JOHNSON. - FIFTY-SIX PERSONS ARRESTED AT ISLINGTON. OTHER ARRESTS. - PRIVATIONS OF PRISON LIFE. - PRISONERS DETAINED WITHOUT TRIAL. THEIR COMPLAINT. THE JAILFEVER. FLOGGING WITH CUDGELS. THE TORTURE OF "LITTLE EASE." -DEATH IN PRISON. CHAINS AND DUNGEONS. MANY DIE; SOME THRUST FORTH TO DIE. WHO WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE HORRORS, AND HOW FAR.- THE FACTS CONCEALED FROM THE QUEEN. THE INQUISITION OF ENGLAND AND THE INQUISITION OF SPAIN COMPARED.

1588-1593.

"AND all to clip the wings of the bishops," wrote Mr. Strype, when giving an account of bills ecclesiastical introduced to the Parliament of 1584-5.1 As we refer to their own doings from the beginning, and especially to their dominant influence in the cases of Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Udal, we cannot but echo the words, "And all to clip the wings of the bishops." Though screened behind bench and jurybox, it was well known, or at least believed, that their influence upon the queen guided prosecution, verdict, and judgment. Thus their apparent success was unreal. The moral effect of each decision was deceptive, apparently triumphant and stunning, but really reactive, and in the end terribly retributive.

1 Ante, Vol. II. p. 476.

They had more reason to regret than to exult over each of these cases, and had they not been bleareyed and infatuated, characteristics of despotism, they would have regretted them; for, as we have already suggested, the popular indignation had been roused against the bishops by these doings of the servile courts, as much as by those of the Commissioners in the case of Mr. Cartwright. Thus, without being conscious of it, the prelates had already clipped the tips of their own wings. The truth now and thus began to be foreshadowed, that "might is on the side of him who suffers, not of him who torments." Puritanism was invigorated, when supposed to have been weakened; and even Independency throve under the prelatic frown and the prelatic finger. The dangling corpses of Thacker and Copping had provoked inquiry into their crime and murmuring against their executioners. Thus, in mockery of the burning of their books, their ecclesiastical principles were enstamped in large letters upon the very posts of their gibbet; and thus again these principles, far more consonant with the instincts of humanity than those of the Puritans, which blended Church and State, were imbibed with the greater rapidity. During a single decade of years — from 1582 to 1592- the grain of mustard-seed had become a sheltering tree; an insignificant sect had been multiplied to twenty thousand of Elizabeth's stoutest subjects, having wives and children.2

All this increase was the result of the simplest means, — no oratory, no scholarship, no patronage, no promise or vision of aggrandizement, - only the D'Ewes, 517.

1 Marsden, 182.

Word of God, devoutly read, devoutly heard, and welding heart to heart of those to whom it was ministered. This was a crime in the eye of the State Church, especially as it involved a forsaking of the worship and a disowning of the ministry established.1 Hence those of this "wicked sect," so called,2 who lived in and about London met in secret places; - at Fox's Ordinary; in a house in Oldgate; in the house of Roger Rippon in Southwark; in Bilson's house in Cree-church, a parish of St. Katherine's; in a garden-house at St. George'sin-the-Fields; at Islington, also in the immediate suburbs of the city; and at Deptford on the Thames, four miles east of London. In the summer they assembled about five o'clock in the morning of Lord's day, under cover of the woods which here and there skirted the city, or on some secluded hill-side. In the colder months they met in houses; sometimes in the city; sometimes in Southwark ; sometimes in Deptford; sometimes in houses belonging to the suburban gardens whence the city market was supplied." They continued together during the whole day, sometimes joined by persons not affiliated. Except during a short intermission for dinner, they occupied the time in reading and expounding the Scriptures, and in extempore prayers, uttered by some one voice and without responses. Before dispersing, they made collections; the surplus

of which, after paying for their frugal meal, was devoted to the relief of their brethren in prison.1

Such were the religious assemblies of the Independents, such their modes of worship, and such their sanctuaries. But they were without the sacraments of the Gospel; for they shunned as corrupt the ministry and the ordinances of the parish assemblies, had no church organization of their own, and no brother set apart by ordination to the office of the holy ministry.2

One day in September, 1592,3 "a great many men, with some women," and a few children, were entering Mr. Fox's Ordinary in Nicholas Lane,* not in groups or in close succession, but in a careless and straggling way, as if happening thither without concert, as guests ordinarily come to a public house. By and by they were gathered in a spacious room, and were seated as it chanced, preserving a rigid silence. They did not seem gloomy; they did not seem convivial. Each countenance was serious, yet expressive of serene contentment. At the farther end of the apartment was a table, upon which rested some small vessels covered with a linen cloth of the purest white. When it became certain that their company was complete, one of them, seated near the table, rose and uttered a few words of welcome and congratulation. Then

1 Strype's Annals, VI. 103.

I do not understand why the Independents in and around London should have continued so long without the sacraments; for, upon their own principles, they might have elected their officers and conveyed ordination at any time.

"About half a year sithence "; Strype's Annals, VII. 245, from the deposition of Daniel Buck, given on the ninth day of March, 1592–3.

Ibid. Waddington's Penry, 93. 'Hanbury, I. 86, note: "They do not flock together, but come two or three in a company."

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followed a short prayer without book. Then, while all stood reverently and silently, he read these simple words: "We" - the several names of those present being pronounced agree to walk gether in the way of the Lord, and as far as may be warranted by the Word of God." To which a solemn assent was given by all.

"By this covenant, brethren," said the same voice, 66 we are now constituted a true and distinct church of Christ. Yet it remaineth for us, looking to God for direction, to elect our pastor, our teacher, our deacons, and our elders, that we may be furnished with those officers set forth in the Testament of our Lord." 2 The church was then organized by choosing Mr. Francis Johnson, pastor; Mr. John Greenwood, doctor or teacher; Christopher Bowman and Nicholas Lee, deacons; and Daniel Stud

1 Strype's Annals, VII. 244; world, “making the terms of comBuck's testimony.

Ante, Vol. II. p. 302.

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It should be noted, that we find no intimation, in this instance, of any written creed to be assented to as a condition of church-membership. In this connection, I refer my readers to a Congregational Dictionary," by Rev. Preston Cummings of Leicester, a work evincing much research. In the article "Creeds," it appears satisfactorily, I think, that the Congregational churches, from the time of which I write, abjured all creeds as tests of Christian character, or of fitness for church fellowship and communion; and that for more than a century those churches were more truly catholic in spirit than any churches in the

munion run as parallel as might be with the terms of salvation," ready "with delight to see godly Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Antipedobaptists, and Lutherans all members of the same churches and sitting together without offence in the same holy mountain and at the same holy table,” &c.

Mr. Cummings assures me, that requiring an assent to any particular formula of religious faith, as a strict condition of church fellowship, is an innovation upon the Congregational system, unknown in the churches until within a hundred or a hundred and fifty years. (Compare ante, Vol. II. p. 308, and note 2.)