events which make the history of the 17th centurj' one of the most melancholy pages of the annals of England.
Queen Elizabeth died in 1G03, and was succeeded by James VI of Scotland. From one who, like him, had been the member of a Presbyterian Church, and had on more than one occasion expressed his decided attachment to its principles and worship, the Noncon- formists, not without reason, expected more lenient treatment than they had met with in the preceding reign. But their expectations were bitterly disap- pointed. In compliance with their petitions, a confer- ence was indeed appointed and held at Hampton Court, at which nine bishops and as many dignitaries were present on the one side, and four Puritan ministers, selected bj' James, on the other. The king himself presided, and took part in the debate. But no good results ensued. The Nonconformist representatives were loaded with insults, and dismissed in such a manner as might well give birth to the darkest anticipations re- garding the fate of the party to which they belonged. Shortly after a few slight alterations of the national rubric were made, and a proclamation issued requiring the strictest conformity. In IGO-t the Book of Canons was passed by a convocation, at which bishop Bancroft presided. It announced severe temporal and spiritual penalties against the Puritan divines, and was followed up by unsparing persecutions. In spite, however, of all the means employed for its eradication, the cause of Nonconformity advanced. In the Church itself there were many of the clergy who held the Puritan opinions, though they deemed it inexpedient to make a very open display of them, and who sighed for a change; and the number of such was largely augmented by the alteration which James made in his creed — from Calvin- ism to the doctrines of Arminius.
The son and successor of James, Charles I, adopted towards the Nonconformists the policy of his predeces- sors. His haughty temper and despotic disposition speedily involved him in difficulties with his Parlia- ment and people. In carrying into execution his de- signs against Puritanism, he found an able and zealous assistant in archbishop Laud, under whose arbitrary ad- ministration the proceedings of the Star Chamber and High Commission Court were characterized by great se- verity. Many Puritans sought for safety and quiet in emigration ; and the colony of Massachusetts Bay was founded bj' them in the New World. But a proclama- tion by the king put a stop to this self- banishment ; and thus even the miserable consolation of expatriation was denied. Hundreds of Puritan clergymen were eject- ed from their cures on account of their opposition to the " Book of Sports," published in the previous reign. Cal- vinism was denounced by royal authority, and severe restrictions laid on the modes and times of preach- ing. But a change was approaching. In 1644 Laud was declared guilty of high-treason, and beheaded; and about five years after Charles shared the same fate. The Parliament abolished Episcopacy and everj'thing in the Church that was opposed to the model of the Genevan Church. During the Protectorate, Presbytery continued to be the established religion. Independency, however, prevailed in the army, and was in high favor with Cromwell. Under his government the Quakers and Baptists flourished unmolested ; and other sects, some of which held the wildest and most visionar)' ten- ets, came into existence. All were tolerated. Episco- pacy only was proscribed ; and the Nonconformists, in their hour of prosperity, forgetful of the lessons which adversity should have taught them, directed against its adherents severities similar to those of which they them- selves had been the objects. On Nov. 8, 1645, an " ordi- nance" was passed by the Lords and Commons, who then claimed to be the Parliament of England, declaring that '• the word ' presbyter,' t hat is to say ' elder,' and the word 'bishop,' do in the Scripture intend and signify one and the same function ;" and that, " it being an usurpation on
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the part of bishops for them alone to ordain, henceforth ordination was to be given by presbyters," under cer- tain rules respecting examination and trial which were laid down in the ordinance; and then it was enacted that all persons who shall be ordained presbyters ac- coriling to this Directory "shall be forever reputed and taken, to all intents and purposes, for lawful and suffi- ciently authorized ministers of the Church of England" (Kusliworth, Hist. Coll. vii, 212). At this time the parochial clergy were rapidly and very generally driv- en from their parishes. INIan}' were notoriously loyal to the crown and to Episcopacy, and had to flee for their lives because they would not take the covenant and the engagement; many were imprisoned (some with circumstances of great cruelty, as when twenty were kept under hatches in a ship on the Thames) ; and it is believed that not a few were " sent to plantations" to slaver^-, as the early Christians were sent to the mines. There were also "committees for inquiry into the scandalous immoralities of the clergy," and as the least taint of loyalty to Church or king, the use of the Prayer-book, or the refusal of the Directory was scan- dalous and immoral in the estimation of these commit- tees, they turned out most of those clergy who were not got rid of by other means. The consequence of all these rigid measures was that nearly the whole of the epis- copal clergy were deprived of their benefices during the early years of the great rebellion. A few tempo- rized, a few were protected by influential laymen, and a few escaped notice ; but the number of those who thus retained their places was very small, and it is probable that the popular estimate which put down the number of the clergy ejected by the parliamentary party at 8000 to 10,000 was correct. As the episcopally ordained clergy were thus driven away from their churches, their parsonages, their tithes, and their glebes, the Presbyteri- ans and Independents stepped into the vacated benefices, and were securely settled in them by the authority of the ordinance of Parliament which is quoted above. Thus it came to pass that between the years 1643 and 16G0 most of the parishes throughout England and Wales received for their incumbents ministers who had not received episcopal ordination, the number of such amounting to about 10,000 at the time of the Eestora- tion.