1628 HEATH AND MONTAGUE. 19 Oct. 7. Heath's letter to Charles should do his best to shield from future attack the Churchmen who had been assailed in the last session, and he accordingly ordered the preparation of a pardon for Montague, which, as he hoped, would place out of the question the continuance of his impeachment. A letter addressed to the new bishop by Heath, the Attorney-General, Montague. shows the disquietude felt, by men most devoted to the prerogative, at the danger which might arise if the King involved himself in the quarrels of ecclesiastical controversialists. "I know," he wrote, "you are wise, and I presume you are charitable, and will make no misconstruction of my honest intentions. Haply this pardon may set your lordship free in foro civili; and yet I must put your lordship in mind that the Court of Parliament may peradventure call things past into question, notwithstanding your pardon; nay, perhaps, by your pardon they will rather be stirred to question you not but that the King by his supreme power may pardon whatsoever may be questioned by any court; yet that is not all, a scar to one is worse than a wound to another. You are now a father of our Church; and, as a father, you will, I know, tender the peace and quiet of the Church. Alas, a little spot is seen on that white garment, and a little fire, nay a spark, may influence a great mass; and how glad would the common adversary be to see us at odds amongst ourselves. We are not bound to flatter any in their humours; but we are bound in conscience to prevent, nay, to avoid, all occasions of strife and contentions in those things specially which are so tender as the peace of the Church and the unity of religion. My lord, I take not upon me to advise your lordship,-but I pray, give me leave to put your lordship in mind of thus much,-that if your lordship will be pleased to review your book, to consult first with Almighty God, the God of peace, the bond of peace, the spirit of peace; next, with our most gracious and good King, and by his approbation take away the acrimony of the style, and explain those things which are therein left doubtful and undefined, that the orthodoxal tenets of the Church of England might be justified and cleared by your own pen,-I am persuaded all scandal would be taken away, and your lordship may be a happy instrument of reconciling and giving a stop to these unhappy differences and jealousies, which else may trouble the quiet of our Church, and may occasion the disquiet of our commonwealth." 1 Neither Charles nor dogmatic The general drift of Heath's recommendation was in accordance with the sentiments of the King. Neither Charles November. nor Laud, by whose advice in ecclesiastical matters Charles was more than ever guided, had any taste Laud fond of for dogmatic controversy. Laud believed that it controversy. only served to distract the clergy from their real work, and he looked with the contempt of a practical man upon endless discussions about problems which it was impossible for the human intellect to solve. It was only, he thought, to lose themselves in wandering mazes, that reasonable beings, with the world's sin and shame before them, could rack their brains to divine the secret Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate, Nor had he less contempt for public opinion than he had for abstract thought. There was something in his eyes inexpressibly mean in the notion that a teacher was to be bound to deliver the sentiments and inculcate the doctrines of which his disciples happened to approve. In the combat which he waged against this double danger lay the strength of his position. It was well that resistance should be made to Prynne's demand for the imposition of the test of agreement with certain abstruse doctrines, or, in other words, that what was believed by the mass of ordinary Englishmen must be stereotyped for ever on the minds of the rising generation. Unhappily Laud did not catch a glimpse—no man at that time could be expected to do more-of the truth that in full liberty of utterance lies the true corrective of the tyranny of public opinion. Laud had no hesitation in recommending that the substance of the Royal Proclamation for the peace of the Church which had been drawn up in 1626 should be reissued in a form calculated to reach the ears of all. Laud's suggestion. Heath to Montague, Cct. 7, S. P. Dom. cxviii. 33. 1628 THE KING'S DECLARATION. 21 Orders were accordingly given for the preparation of a new edition of the Articles of Religion, to be prefaced by a Declaration which every minister entering upon a new cure would be bound to read.1 "Being by God's ordinance," thus ran Charles's last word in the controversy, "according to our just title, Defender of The King's the Faith, and supreme governor of the Church, Declaration. within these our dominions, we hold it most agreeable to this our kingly office, and our own religious zeal, to conserve and maintain the Church committed to our charge in unity of true religion and in the bond of peace; and not to suffer unnecessary disputations, altercations, or questions to be raised which may nourish faction both in the Church and commonwealth. "We have therefore, upon mature deliberation, and upon the advice of so many of our Bishops as might conveniently be called together, thought fit to make this Declaration following :-That the Articles of the Church of England, which have been allowed and authorised heretofore, and which our Clergy generally have subscribed unto, do contain the true doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to God's Word which we do therefore ratify and confirm; requiring all our loving subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof, and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles; which to that end we command to be new printed, and this our Declaration to be published therewith: "That we are supreme governor of the Church of England; and that if any difference arise about the external policy concerning Injunctions, Canons, and other Constitutions whatsoever thereto belonging, the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them, having first obtained leave under our broad seal so to do, and we approving their said ordinances and constitutions, providing that none be made contrary to the laws and customs of the land : "That out of our princely care that the Churchmen may do the work which is proper unto them, the Bishops and Clergy, from time to time in Convocation, upon their humble desire, shall have license under our broad seal to deliberate of, and to do all such things, as being made plain by them, and assented to by us, shall concern the settled continuance of the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England now established; from which we will not endure any varying or departing in the least degree: "That for the present, though some differences have been ill raised, yet we take comfort in this, that all clergymen within our realm have always most willingly subscribed to the Articles established; which is an argument to us that they all agree in the true, usual, literal meaning of the said Articles; and that even in those curious points in which the present differences lie, men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them; which is an argument again that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established: "That therefore in these both curious and unhappy differences, which have for so many hundred years, in different times and places, exercised the Church of Christ, we will that all further curious search be laid aside, and these disputes shut up in God's promises as they be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scriptures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England according to them; and that no man hereafter shall either print or preach to draw the Article aside any way, but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof, and shall not put his own sense or comment to be the meaning of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical sense: "That if any public reader in either of our Universities, or any head or master of a college, or any other person respectively in either of them, shall affix any new sense to any Article, or shall publicly read, determine, or hold any public disputation, or suffer any such to be held either way, in either the Universities or colleges respectively, or if any divine in the Universities shall preach or print anything either way, other than is already established in Convocation with our Royal assent; he or they the offenders shall be liable to our displeasure, and the Church's censure in our Commission ecclesiastical, as 1628 A GENERAL RECONCILIATION: 23 well as any other; and we will see there shall be due execution upon them." 1 tion ap The draft of the document thus prepared was approved by the Privy Council in the end of November or the beginning of The Declara- the following month.2 The next step was to obtain proved by the assent of both parties amongst the bishops. Monthe Council. tague was induced to write a letter to Abbot, in which he disclaimed any wish to uphold Arminianism.3 Abbot accepted the hand thus held out to him, and was restored by Charles to such favour as Charles had to bestow upon one with Dec. 11. Abbot restored to favour. whom he had so little sympathy. On December 11 the Archbishop appeared once more at Whitehall, kissed the King's hands, and was graciously bidden. to attend the meetings of the Council. The next day such bishops as could be brought together on so short an invitation met in council at Lambeth. As soon as they had declared their acceptance of the proposed Declaration, it was sent to the Dec. 12. Meeting of bishops at Lambeth. press. 1629. Jan. 17. Appello Cæsarem called in. 4 The first step taken to emphasise the Declaration was the issue of a proclamation calling in Montague's Appello Cæsarem, in order that men might no more trouble themselves with these unnecessary questions, the first occasion being taken away.' If writers continued to carry on the dispute, such order should be taken with them that they 'should wish that they had never thought upon these needless controversies.' 5 The Proclamation had been preceded by the grant of special pardons to Montague, Sibthorpe, Manwaring, and Cosin, in order that the Pardons issued. The Declaration is prefixed to the edition of the Articles of 1628, and is to be found in the present Book of Common Prayer. How many people who see it there are aware of its historical importance? 2 It is mentioned in Contarini's despatch of Dec. Venice Tran scripts, R. O. 3 I do not believe that he went do, on the same grounds as Laud. 2 12' beyond this, which he might honestly Pory in his letters makes him ready to subscribe to the Synod of Dort, which is incredible. 4 • Pory to Meade, Dec. 12, 19, Court and Times, i. 448, 451. Proclamation, Jan. 17, Rymer, xix. 26. |