The three religious classes of the second half of the reign of Elizabeth-Progress of Non-Conformity-Statute against the Puritans-The Puritan enmity to the habits of societyPhilip Stubbes' Anatomy of Abuses-Pride of Apparel-Gluttony and DrunkennessDancing considered a vice-Music held to be corrupting-The Sabbath profaned by Sports -The Lord of Misrule-May-games; Wakes; Church-ales-Country festivals-Athletic exercises and sports-Gaming-Stage Plays. THE three chief religious classes of the second half of the reign of Elizabeth have been defined by one who lived near that period:-" They may for distinction be called the active Romanists, the restless Nonconformists (of which there were many sorts), and the passive peaceable Protestants."* In the history of this time, as of every other time, the doings of the "active" and of the "restless" must be far more prominent than any movement of the "passive peaceable." Up to the period of the death of Mary Stuart, the "active Romanists" were the only objects of grave solicitude to the government. All the just and rational energies of the queen and the statesmen who surrounded her; all the severities against Popish recusants, which were defended as being levelled only against traitors, were calculated to uphold the great edifice of Protestantism which was the shelter and bulwark of the civil polity. In this contest against the Romanists, none were more zealous than those who, known as Puritans, first objected to some ceremonies of the Anglican Church, and then denounced the hierarchical constitution upon which * Walton, "Life of Hooker." VOL. III. R 242 PROGRESS OF NON-CONFORMITY. [1567-1593 she rested. They became "restless Noncomformists." They were compared to a man "who would never cease to whet and whet his knife, till there was no steel left to make it useful." * Both these classes, however, constituted a decided minority, as compared with the "passive peaceable Protestants those who were content to remain in the quiet enjoyment of the security which had been won by the sagacity of their rulers. Amongst their ranks the enthusiasts were not to be found. The Established Church had opened its arms widely, to embrace many who conscientiously differed as to doctrine and discipline. The majority accepted the invitation to abide by the religion of the State,-to form contented if not zealous members of a Church which was expressly calculated to reconcile differences. Her decent ceremonies, her abundant provision for the maintenance of her ministers, her beautiful form of Common Prayer, her solemn Offices, were well suited to the quiet and orderly English character. The Romanists, who, at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, were a powerful body decidedly hostile to the government, had, after the contests of a quarter of a century, been absorbed into the ranks of the conformists, or held their own opinions in secret, or had been crushed. The power which had largely contributed to crush the more dangerous of the enemies of the reformed doctrines had, in its turn, become troublesome if not dangerous. Let us endeavour to sketch an outline of the position of the Puritans, in their relations to the Church and State, and in their social relations, as they present themselves to our observation during the years immediately succeeding the great triumph over the attempt to make England an appanage of Spain, a country for the bishop of Rome "to tithe and toll in." In 1588, the bishop of Winchester, Thomas Cooper, published "An Admonition to the People of England," which aimed at counteracting the effect of certain bold and scurrilous pamphlets which had been issued with the intent to bring the Church and its ministers into contempt. He especially complains that such books should be in men's hands and bosoms," when the view of the mighty navy of the Spaniards is scant passed out of our sight; when the terrible sound of their shot ringeth, as it were, yet in our ears." But though the Puritans were at issue with the government upon the great question of religious freedom, and held opinions very adverse to the constitution and discipline of the Church, as enforced by the Act of Uniformity, they had not been the less ready to defend their country against invasion. They were naturally most strenuous in their hatred of the invader that drew the sword in the name of Rome. When the immediate danger had passed away, the Puritans went with redoubled zeal about the work which they called a Re-reformation. The age of pamphlets had now fully come. As the power of reading was more widely extended, tracts were multiplied, whose tone was adapted for men of strong convictions and obstinate prejudices, to whom abuse would be more acceptable than placid reasoning. Many, also, who cared little for the subjects of controversy, read with avidity the little books that bore the name of Martin Marprelate, and the answers they called forth; for they were bitter and sarcastic, with touches of coarse humour. The queen's proclamation against certain seditious and schismatical books and * Walton, "Life of Hooker." 1567-1593.] PROGRESS OF NON-CONFORMITY. 243 libels was issued with little effect. The Marprelate tracts were secretly printed and circulated in despite of authority. "The public printing-presses being shut against the Puritans, some of them purchased a private one, and carried it from one country to another, to prevent discovery. It was first set up at Moulsey, in Surrey, near Kingston-on-Thames; from thence it was conveyed to Fawsley, in Northamptonshire; from thence to Norton; from thence to Coventry; from Coventry to Woolston, in Warwickshire; and from thence to Manchester, in Lancashire, where it was discovered. Sundry satirical pamphlets were printed by this press, and dispersed all over the kingdom." The crisis of a great struggle had arrived; and these libels were the straws which, thrown up, showed which way the wind blew. The Protestant ministers who fled from the persecutions of queen Mary, had remained long enough in communion with foreign reformed Churches to bring home, upon the accession of Elizabeth, opinions much opposed to the system of church government as established by the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. There were some portions of the ceremonies prescribed in the rubric which they held to be superstitious. They regarded the vestments of the clergy as popish. They objected to the sign of the cross in the office of baptism, and to the ring in that of matrimony. They objected to kneeling at the communion service. Throughout the reign of Elizabeth her Council held divided opinions upon these matters of controversy; but the queen herself was opposed to an abolition of forms to which the only serious objection was that they belonged to the rites of the earlier Church. But in that age opinions assumed a more violent character of opposition when their differences centred round some visible object; and we still contend in a like fashion, as soldiers in a battle strive to gain or to hold the rag of silk under which one side fights, whilst the principle of the warfare has passed out of mind. The clergy who returned from their seven years' exile during the time of persecution, were put in possession of many of the livings from which the Romish priests had been in their turn ejected. They very soon ceased to regard the Act of Uniformity as imperatively binding; and great irregularities in the performance of ceremonies crept in, and were for some time tolerated. But at length a rigid observance of the rubric was enforced; and the ministers who would not conform were thrust out from their benefices. There was now a body of men, powerful from their abilities and their earnestness, deprived of their means of subsistence, and excluded from the vocations to which they were dedicated. They had their admirers and their followers; and their course was to form separate assemblies. In 1567 a congregation of dissenters were seized at Plumbers' Hall, and some were committed to prison. As yet, the contest had been about what the Puritans held as superstitious ceremonies. The resistance with which they were encountered upon minor points ultimately led them to condemn the episcopal constitution of the Anglican Church, and to proclaim the superiority of the Genevan model. Although the queen was decidedly opposed to their pretensions, which, as set forth by some of their leaders, affected her own claim to supremacy, they had a covert support amongst the most influential of her ministers. Burleigh and Walsingham, and even the favourite, Leicester, knew *Neal's "History of the Puritans," vol. i. chap. viii. 244 STATUTE AGAINST THE PURITANS. [1593. that if the civil government became persecutors of these zealous men it would alienate its warmest supporters in the contest between Protestantism and Romanism. These were the men who were the most powerful in keeping the people from lukewarmness in the great cause for which they were fighting. But the queen and the ecclesiastical authorities were too strong for the moderate party of the Council. Archbishop Parker discountenanced the meetings of the clergy called Prophesyings. The licences for preaching were greatly restricted under his authority. Archbishop Grindal, who succeeded Parker, took a different view of what he considered the interests of the Church. He inclined to a toleration of preachings and prophesyings, and accordingly fell under the queen's displeasure. Archbishop Whitgift, who succeeded to the primacy in 1583, was determined to put down rather than conciliate the party of the Puritans. As might be expected he drove them into Non-conformity. He prohibited all preaching, reading, or catechising in private houses, if any resorted thereto not of the same family. He imperatively required from every minister of the Church a new subscription, which under previous requirements had been probably evaded. The clergy were now absolutely driven to subscribe to the point of the queen's supremacy, to that of the lawfulness of the Common Prayer and the Ordination Service, and to the Thirty-nine Articles. He appointed a new Ecclesiastical Commission, who were to examine the clergy upon twenty-four articles, of so stringent and subtle a nature that Burleigh wrote to the archbishop: "I find them so curiously penned that I think the Inquisition of Spain used not so many questions to comprehend and to trap their priests." Burleigh remonstrated in vain; the archbishop, supported by some of the bishops, pursued his course. The result was, first a furious attack upon episcopacy in the pamphlets of Martin Marprelate; and then severe laws against the Puritans, which had no ultimate effect but that of fortifying their opinions, and ultimately of making their cause the rallying point of civil and religious liberty. In 1593, an Act was passed "to restrain the queen's subjects in obedience." Those who disputed the queen's ecclesiastical authority, abstained from church, or attended "any assemblies, conventicles, or meetings, under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion," were to be imprisoned unless they made a formal submission in the open church; if at the expiration of three months they did not conform they were to abjure the realm; if they refused so to do, or returned after abjuration, the penalty of death awaited them. In the same session an Act of increased severity was passed against "popish recusants." The times were changed. There was now little distinction between the non-conforming Protestant and the recusant Romanist, in the eyes of the dominant Church. The obvious and not unreasonable excuse for this course, which we now call bigotry, is that neither of the three great parties, if placed in power, would have admitted the principle of toleration. There was not for Protestant, Puritan, or Papist, any middle course between the assertion of his own principles and the destruction of those of his adversaries. Cartwright, the great leader of the Puritans, claimed absolute power for the Church he would have set up; and he exhorted his brethren to resistance and nothing but resistance: "The Lord," he says, "keep you constant, that ye yield neither to toleration, neither to any other subtle persuasions of dispensations and licences, which were to fortify their Romish. THE PURITAN ENMITY TO THE HABITS OF SOCIETY. 245 1593.] practices; but, as you fight the Lord's fight, be valiant." And so, in this spirit of giving no quarter to those who asked none, the Ecclesiastical Commission ejected ministers; the government hanged libellers; and Penry, the supposed author of the Marprelate tracts, was hastily and cruelly executed, under the statute of 1581, for seditious words and rumours against the queen. These severities were chiefly directed against the separatists from the Church who were then denominated Brownists, and afterwards Independents. No man of those times who really desired the advancement of true religion could look upon the odious scoffings of either party-upon the schismatic spirit which rejected union as an accursed thing, and upon the arrogant temper which thought to compel conformity by banishment and the gibbet-without feeling sorrow and humiliation that so noxious weeds had sprung up amidst the rich harvest of the Reformation. Such lovers of peace would long to address the violent of both classes in the prophetic words which the most illustrious of the defenders of the establishment, the eloquent, profound, and sensible Hooker, addressed "to those who seek the reformation of the laws and orders ecclesiastical in the Church of England: "-" Far more comfort it were for us, so small is the joy we take in these strifes, to labour under the same yoke, as men that look for the same eternal reward of their labours; to be enjoined with you in bands of indissoluble love and amity; to live as if our persons being many, our souls were but one; rather than in such dismembered sort to spend our few and wretched days in a tedious prosecuting of wearisome contentions; the end whereof, if they have not some speedy end, will be heavy, even on both sides."+ Such, then, were the relations of the Puritan party to the Church and State, and so ominous were these "wearisome contentions," when Hooker published the first four books of his great work in 1594. In their social relations these dissenters certainly did not present an amiable aspect to the rest of the community. What Hooker said of the Anabaptists was indirectly pointed at them: "Every word otherwise than severely and sadly uttered, seemed to pierce like a sword through them. If any man were pleasant, their manner was fervently with sighs to repeat those words of our Saviour Christ, 'Woe be to you which now laugh, for ye shall lament.'' It was in this temper that the Puritans made themselves obnoxious as the enemies of all innocent amusements; and, affecting "to cross the ordinary custom in every thing," equally denounced the general habits of society, however harmless or indifferent, as well as its exceptional vices. In looking at this aspect of Puritanism we may collect some distinctive traits of the social life of the latter period of the reign of Elizabeth. We believe that we should greatly err if, accepting the denunciations of the puritanic writers without qualification, we were to regard this as a period of very marked profligacy. We open "The Anatomie of Abuses" of Philip Stubbes-"a most rigid Calvinist, a bitter enemy to Popery, and a great corrector of the vices and abuses of his time." This lay-preacher has no gradations in his scale of wickedness, "The horrible vice of pestiferous dancing" is as offensive to him as "the beastly vice of drunkenness ;" and "new devices and devilish fashions of apparel Quoted by Mr. Hallam, from Madox, "Vindication of the Church." |