given no other open proof of discontent, than by objecting to the ministerial habits retained in the Church, as at least inexpedient, if not unlawful; the reestablishment of the Papal sway under Mary, and the bloody persecution which attended it, drove numbers both of the laity and the clergy beyond the seas, to find a temporary refuge from the storm, in the charitable hospitality of their Protestant brethren.

The salutary restraints of that ecclesiastical authority, which, under the superintendance of Cranmer, had been generally exercised with temperate firmness, being thus at once removed; and the innovating spirit of the discontented being encouraged by the example of those who had afforded them shelter, their leaders assembled at m Frankfort; and having secured the protection of the magistrates, set up a new order and discipline of their own, in which the ancient form of epi

m See Note CII. Appendix.

n See Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 129.

• See Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 129, 130. Articles 7, 9. p. 135. Articles 39, 40, 41, 42, 43. p. 144. Answers

M

scopal government was superseded; the P catechism of Calvin substituted for that of the Church of England; and the Liturgy hastily a renounced, as not always agreeable to the word of God, as enjoining a ceremonial, unprofitable in some respects, intolerable in others.

Thus did the schism which afterwards rent the Church of England in pieces first rear its head in a foreign land: and the pressure of external persecution, which has generally been found to unite the sufferers more closely for their mutual support, in this instance afforded an opportunity to factious and turbulent men, of inflicting a wound upon the Protestant Church, more grievous than all the evil which the malice of its open enemies could devise for its injury.

The blood of the martyrs set the seal of truth to that reformed religion which they taught, and some even of those who had

of Hales, Whitehead, &c. to the reasons of Horne and the Episcopalians.

P See Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 130. 9 See Note CIII. Appendix.

been proof against their arguments, were converted by the constancy with which they endured the suffering of death, rather than renounce the truth as it is in "Jesus." But while these illustrious men s" were tortured, not accepting deliver"ance," that the purity of the Gospel might triumph in their death; their exiled brethren were too many of them labouring in the work of trouble and division, and giving that advantage to the common enemy by their dissensions, which he had in vain attempted to gain, by assailing the doctrines of the Reformation, or persecuting its defenders.

These unfortunate contentions, if not openly promoted, were at least not discouraged by Calvin; who, "disappointed by the prudence of Cranmer in his attempt to direct the English Reformation, seemed not unwilling to lend his aid to those who were destroying the fabric, which he had

Ephes. iv. 21.

s Heb. xi. 35.

t See Calvin's Answer to Knox and others. Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 69.

u See Note CIV. Appendix.

X

not been permitted to rear after his own model. To him the discontented constantly appealed; and by his epistles he strengthened their opposition to those who were determined to maintain the established ritual and government of their Church, as far as their unfortunate circumstances would permit; and when finally driven from the field, under his auspices these separatists found an asylum. It may perhaps be true, that, during the struggle, greater heat and violence were manifested by both parties, than became professors of the same faith, and sufferers under a com mon calamity: but it should not be forgotten, that the contest was of no slight or trifling nature: it involved the preservation or destruction of that Church, which was "built upon the foundation laid by the

66

Apostles;" and it is evident, even from the partial record of an avowed favourer of the projected innovations, that nothing less was meditated, than an entire alteration of the public service; an abolition of all

See Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 88.

those ceremonies, which primitive use had sanctioned; a total destruction of that hierarchy, which had ever been deemed essential to the very being of a Christian Church. It was the rooted opinion of these euthusiastic men, that yin Geneva "alone God's word was truly preached,

manners best reformed, and true com"fort to be found:" thither their eyes and their hearts were directed;" and to the order of Geneva, as the "purest reformed "Church in the world," they were determined to conform. With this disposition did they return from exile; and instead of profiting by the advice of their more temperate brethren, who urged the propriety of submitting to such orders as should be established by authority, unless they were in themselves wicked; and represented the folly of contending about ceremonies, which after all they could not be allowed to ap

y See Wittingham's Letter. Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 80, 81..

z See Answer of the Church at Frankfort to the Church at Geneva. Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 183.