London on Palm-Sunday to receive the commu nion, but the doors were fhut, and no minifter to officiate. This was a ftrange fight in the city of London, and gave great offence. The complaints of the people reached the court; which made the Secretary write to the Archbishop to fupply the churches, and release the prifoners: but Parker was inexorable, and was inclined that the people fhould have no fermons, rather than enjoy them without the furplice and cap. The Archbishop in a letter which he wrote to the fecretary acquaints him, that when the Queen put him upon what he had done, he told her that thefe precife folks, would offer their goods and bodies to prifon rather than relent; and her Highness willed him to imprifon them. He confeffed that many parifhes were unprovided; that he had undergone many hard fpeeches, and much refiftance from the people; but it was only what he expected. That he had fent his chaplains into the city, to ferve in fome of the great parishes, but they could not administer the facrament because the officers of the parish had provided neither furplice nor wafer bread. In this letter he uttered many complaints, against the people of London, and made fome reflections against Grindal, the Bishop of that diocefe, who was now fufficiently wearied of fuch difagreeable proceedings. Such a foolish letter was not worthy of any notice; and could give little fatisfaction to the Secretary any farther than it expreffed the fentiments of the Archbishop, with regard to his . readiness to promote monarchy, and arbitrary government, which was at this time the principal object of Elizabeth's attention. It will not readily be admitted by true proteftants, that the furplice and wafer bread are effentially neceffary to the communion of the Lord's Supper, and yet the Archbishop could not administer the Lord's Supper without fuch ceremonies as he had already declared to be indifferent, and yet he makes them effentially neceffary to a divine ordinance: fuch abfurdity could only proceed from a mind warped by interest, and stimulated by unbounded pride, which inflames the paffions, and hinders men from liftening to the voice of reafon and the dictates of confcience. The zeal of the Archbishop and the ob ftinacy of the Queen, with regard to ceremo- 1566. nies, were not always approved by the council, they fhewed a backwardnefs to countenance fuch -violent meafures, and fometimes refufed to proceed. This temper in her Majesty's council, on fome occafions reftrained the fury of the high commiffion, which was now advanced to a degree of madness, inconfiftent with reafon, religion, and true policy. The high commiffion proceeded in the most arbitrary manner, and fhewed no mercy to non-conformists: all her Majesty's injunctions were ́executed with rigour in the remoteft corners of the kingdom, and the whole nation groaned under the yoke of oppreffion; all application to the Queen and her Commiffioners were ineffectual; every complaint was confidered as difobedience to the laws, and petitions ac counted counted difloyal libels against the Queen's government, and the petitioners punished as traitors to the Queen and enemies to the church. All hopes of redress or expectation of relief were now at an end: the Puritans had nothing to expect but poverty, punishment, and distress: they therefore refolved to give a reprefentation of their caufe to the world. Accordingly this year they published a small treatife in vindication of their conduct, in which they fhew the abfurdity and unreasonablenefs of impofing the ceremonies, from the fcriptures and many ancient authorities, and conclude with a serious address to the Almighty for his interpofition, when now all human help had failed them. Many other pamphlets were published in defence of the fufpended minifters, which the Bishops ordered their chaplains to answer. Mr Stripe in his life of Parker fays, that the Archbishop anfwered this reprefentation of the Puritans; but whoever was the author of that treatise, it does him but little honour. It is full of the spirit of perfecution and tyranny, that it is not poffible that he could be a true chriftian that compofed it. The ministers answered this abufive pamphlet with much temper and decency, which gave great difcontent to the Bishops. They therefore to gain the populace, published the teftimonies of fome foreign proteftant divines who were in much efteem, who had fhewed fome attachment to the ceremopies of the church of England. They published Melanchton's Expofition on Rom. xiii. 1. Let every foul be fubject to the higher powers. From whence they infer, that because things in fome A.. cafes cafes are barely tolerable, offenfive, and dangerous, yet in the mean time, they may be impofed under the fevereft penalties. The Puritans replied to all these attempts of their adverfaries, and what was readily to be expected, their writings were greedily received by the people, while the answers of the Bishops were very little taken notice of. The Bishops and High-commiffioners were not a littled nettled to fee the refpect that was paid to the Puritans, when their performances were fuffered to die away in oblivion and contempt. They complained loudly to the council, that notwithstanding. the Queen's injunctions, the differences in the church encreafed by printing and publishing feditious libels, which inflamed the people, and rendered the established clergy contemptible in the eyes of the multitude. Their chief refource now. was to have the liberty of the press restrained, that the non-conformists might have no opportunity to make any more appeals or apologies to the public. They at laft procured the following decree of the Star-chamber: 1. That no perfon fhould print or publifh any book against the Queen's injunctions, ordinances, or letters-patent, fet forth or to be fet forth, or against their meaning. 2. That fuch fhould forfeit all their books and copies, and fuffer three months imprisonment, and never practise the art of printing any more. 3. That no perfon fhould fell, bind, or ftitch fuch books, upon pain of forfeiting twenty fhillings for every book. 4. That all forfeited books fhould be brought to Stationers-hall, and half the for feited 1 feited money to be referved for the Queen, the reft for the informer, and the books to be deftroyed or made wafte paper. 5. That the wardens of the company may from time to time fearch all fufpected places, and open packs, dry fats, &c. wherein paper or foreign books may be contained; and enter all warehoufes where they have reafonable fufpicion, and feize all books and pamphlets against the Queen's ordinances, and bring the offenders before the ecclefiaftical commiffioners. 6. All stationers, bookfellers, and merchants trading in books, fhall enter into recognizances of reafonable fums of money, to obferve the premises or pay the forfeitures. This was figned by eight of the privy council, and by the Bishops of Canterbury and London, with five more of the ecclefiaftical commiffion, in the eighth year of Elizabeth's reign. This was a ftretch of arbitrary power, unheard of in all free ftates, and was ex-: cogitated principally by the clergy, who are generally among the first to encroach upon the liberties of others, when they have power in their hands. The liberty of the prefs is the terror of tyrants, and all who have not truth on their fidé to fupport their caufe. Wicked and ambitious men are not only difpofed to deprive others of their rights and privileges, but cannot endure that the injuries they commit fhould be reprefented in their proper colours to the public error and falfhood are objects of ridicule as foon as they are known, and for that reafon their friends are ashamed to have them published, and for the moft |