scandalous as some of them are, we could not have covered them with a mantle without failing in justice to those who suffered, and who have been branded in history as contumacious.

When the Prelates were moved by a spirit so unlike that of Christ in their government of the Church, when they made such a spirit the great motive power of a tremendous ecclesiastical machinery, not only outraging law and right and humanity, but even decency itself, can we wonder that men resented the outrage, and that Christians revolted from the discipline?

We do not believe that Parker and Whitgift and Sandys and Aylmer were sinners above all the dwellers in the Church of England; but we do believe that the vicious unition of Church and State, sustained by the self-interest of ecclesiastical magistrates and energized by irresponsible power, would have made a Parker, a Whitgift, a Sandys, or an Aylmer of almost any man placed in their position. It is rarely that more than one Grindal is to be found in a generation.

CHAPTER II.

TRAVERS AND HOOKER.

RICHARD HOOKER'S ARRIVAL AT LONDON. HE IS INVEIGLED TO MARRIAGE. HIS SAD CONDITION. WALTER TRAVERS RECOMMENDED TO THE MASTERSHIP OF THE TEMPLE. ARCHBISHOP WHITGIFT PROTESTS AGAINST IT. TRAVERS REFUSES EPISCOPAL ORDINATION. HOOKER APPOINTED TO THE MASTERSHIP. HE REFUSES TO AWAIT THE SUFFRAGES OF THE TEMPLARS. -THE PULPIT CONTROVERSY OF TRAVERS AND HOOKER. THEIR DIFFERENT STYLES OF PREACHING. -TRAVERS PUBLICLY ORDERED BY THE ARCHBISHOP TO CEASE PREACHING. THE ARCHBISHOP'S REASONS. TRAVERS APPEALS TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL. HIS ARGUMENT FOR THE VALIDITY OF HIS PRESBYTERIAN ORDINATION. HIS FRIENDS IN THE COUNCIL BAFFLED. - THE OBJECTION TO HIS ORDINATION A PRETENCE. — HOOKER WEARIES OF HIS UNPOPULARITY AND RESIGNS THE MASTERSHIP.

1581-1586.

WHEN Elisha the prophet was in Israel, he often passed through the city of Shunem. Perceiving this, a certain Shunammite and his wife prepared and furnished an apartment under their own roof, for his sole use and behoof, because he was "an holy man of God."1 Queen Elizabeth had made a like provision for those of her clergy whom she might appoint, from time to time, to preach at St. Paul's Cross. The house thus provided - and which had its resident host and hostess was appropriately called "The Shunammite's House." In addition to his stipend for his public service, each preacher was entitled to full hospitalities here "for two days before, and one after, his sermon."

1 2 Kings iv. 8-10.

Some time in the year 1581, a clergyman from the University of Oxford appeared before the door on horseback. Though but about twenty-seven years of age, he dismounted with every sign of extreme infirmity. A journey of two days or more upon the back of a rough-going horse, and the latter part of the way through a drizzling rain, had been so hard an experience for a man of quiet and sedentary life, that it cost him both effort and pain to leave his saddle and creep into his house of refuge. He stood before honest John Churchman and his wife the host and hostess so stiff and sore, so cold and wet and weary and weather-beaten, as to excite their compassion and their apprehensions. He was a man of "a sweet serene quietness of nature"; yet it so far gave way that he spoke with "passion against a friend that dissuaded him from footing it to London, and for finding him no easier a horse." He was utterly disheartened, too, assuring Churchman and his wife that the two days allotted to him for repose, and all other means whatever, could not enable him to perform his task at Paul's Cross on the next Sunday. But Mistress Churchman bade him be of good cheer, and trust himself to her skill in leech-craft. The poor man, "possest with faintness and fear," submitted meekly; and by means of a warm bed, warm drinks, good posset, and careful nursing, he was enabled to perform the office of the Sunday. He was very grateful, and expressed himself so, with all the simplicity of a child. Guileless himself, he suspected no guile in others. Transparent himself, he trusted to every one's outward show. His life having been passed in the cloister,

and in the Christian's closet, he was necessarily ignorant of the ways and wiles of the world. His hostess, on the contrary, had been trained in the shrewd school of trade, - her husband having been a draper of good note in Watling Street, -and she had become skilled in the art of disposing of wares and in reading the characters of her customers. She had read that of her new guest at a glance, and now betook herself to her old vocation of traffic. After modestly acknowledging his expressions of gratitude, she said, "It grieveth me sore, Master Hooker, that a preacher who so commandeth the respect of our good Bishop of London,1- for I did observe his lordship's eager hearing of your sermon, -should be in peril of having his light go out at noonday, and all for lack of the remedy that God provideth."

"Prithee! Mistress Churchman, whereto tendeth your speech? His lordship's humor, perchance, was but a misliking of my doctrine that God hath two wills touching men's salvation. But of my light going out at noon, pray, Mrs. Churchman, explain." "You have but a tender constitution, good sir; and it needeth cherishing."

"My constitution! Of a verity, I do perceive nothing tender therein."

"Albeit, when you came hither you did."

"A tender constitution! and it needeth care! Mayhap; mayhap, Mistress Churchman. Yet have I never thought so aforetime. Think you so?”

"Troth; that do I. It be plain to me that you have but a frail body; that if you take not care

VOL. III.

1 Hooker's Works, I. 26; II. 483.

6

for it, your usefulness will soon have an end; that if you do care for it by the means of God's appointment, you will answer more largely and longer your high vocation."

"I' sooth, I be bound to believe thy better judgment; for I was much afflicted by my journey."

"Ay, Master Hooker; and it was a woman's care which God blessed to your reviving. Of a surety it be best for you, good sir, to have a wife that may prove a nurse to you; such an one as may both prolong your life and make it more comfortable."

Mr. Hooker looked bewildered. The idea was new to him. At length he said, half soliloquizing, "A wife!"

"To be an helpmeet for the infirmities of the body and the burdens of life.”

The good man fell into a brown study for a few moments, sighed, and then said, in a submissive tone, "Good Mistress Churchman, thou art right, methinks; but I know not how to do it."

"Trust the providing of a wife to some discreet matron; and if there be none other that you prefer, let me do the office."

"I know no discreeter matron than thyself, good Mistress Churchman; and sith it seemeth I do err in not entering upon the holy state of matrimony, I will intrust this business to thy discretion, an thou wilt essay it."

"Most heartily, Master Hooker."

And so it was agreed, she to find him a wife, and he "promising upon a fair summons to return to London and accept her choice." Before long he was summoned; returned according to promise, and