RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Puritans
ecclesiastical advisers was a less evil than_a ministry without the Roman Catholic vestments^'
Archbishop Parker seconded the queen~in all her
severities, the consequence of which was that' in
1567 some of the laity resolved to meet privately
and to worship God as the Protestants did in Queen
Mary's days. About 100 of them met
5. Growth in Plumbers' Hall in London. But
of Puritan- they were surprised and some were
ism; apprehended and imprisoned for more
Thomas than a year. These rigorous measures
Cartwright. tended rather to the increase of Puritanism than to its destruction. The people continued to meet privately and the clergy began to look beyond the vestments_and to question the constitution of the Church itself. Their leader wasfThomas Cartwrighi] who, asTIargaret professor of divinity at Cambridge, unfolded his views of ecclesiastical order, which were in harmony with those of the Presbyterian churches on the continent and in Scotland. A severe controversy hereupon aro|S Cartwright was deprived of his professorship and fellowship, and was forbidden to teach or to preach. [He retired to Geneva,! where he was chosen professor of .divinity; (but he afterward returnedto EnglandjQn 1571 John Field and Thomas Wilcox7(two ministers of the Puritan party) p_reparedThe famous Admonition to Parliament for the Reformation of Church Discipline. They presented it themselyes, and for doing so were committed to prisonj ^Whitgift replied to the admonition, and tookThe Erastian ground, which Hooker afterward maintained, that no form of church order is laid down in the New Testament, and that the government in the apostles' days can not now be exercisedt ^^CartwrightAwho had published A Second Admonitionl was chosen to reply to Whitgift. Both his books gave such offense to the queen and archbishop that it was resolved to try him, but he escaped to Heidelberg. During Cartwright's exile, Whitgift published his Defence of the Answer to the Admonition; and Cartwright then published _his Second Re-ply. This exile continued eleven years,} after which Cartwright returned home to experience yet further molestation and suffering (see Cartwkight, Thomas; Whitgift, John)^
It has been frequently said, thatQn, 1572 a Presbyterian church was formed at Wandsworth? Field, the lecturer of Wandsworth7T5eing the 6. Attempts first minister, and Travers and Wilcox
at Pres- among the founders. The facts are, byterianism, that (the first distinct practical move- I572- ment to secure a Presbyterian organization began with a secret meeting at that place^ iWJlcox and Field convened a few of their ministerial brethren and others to sketch an outline of the ecclesiastical polity which they wished to see in operation] /Some of their papers fell into the hands of Bancroft? from which it appears that the only presbytery "erected was on paper and was immediately demolished by Bancroft. !_Field and Wilcox wer,e thrown into prison. The leaders of the party juccumbed, and their meetings were discontinues (cf. J. Waddington, Surrey Congregational Hisfflf, p. 5, London, 1866).
In 1575 -Archbishop Parker died and was suc-
ceeded by Grindal. He found the country morally and religiously in a deplorable condition in consequence of the ignorance and inca- 7. The pacity of so many of its clergy. This " Proph- state of things did not distress the esyings"; queen, for she thought one or two Archbishop preachers in a diocese enough; but the Grindal. Puritans thought otherwise.)' Tin the year 1571 these clergy, in some districts, with the permission of the bishop, engaged in religious exercises called " prophesyings, " which were meetings at which short sermons were preached on subjects previously fixed. These were good exercises for the clergy and cultivated the art of preaching. The laity were admitted and derived instruction and benefit from them. In 1574 Parker told the queen that they were only auxiliaries to Puritanism and Non-conformity, whereupon she gave him private orders to suppress them. When Grindal became archbishop of Canterbury, he inherited not only that office but also the task of suppressing the prophesyings; but, approving of them, he set himself rather to redress irregularities and to guard them against abuse. The queen, on the other hand, disliked them, and determined that they should be suppressed. On Dec. 20, 1576, Grindal wrote a respectful but faithful letter to the queen, in which he said, " I am forced with all humility, and yet plainly, to profess that I can not with safe conscience, and without the offense of the majesty of God, give my assent to the suppressing of the said exercises: much less can I send out any injunction for the utter and universal subversion of the same." For this boldness, Grindal was suspended, his see was placed under sequestration for six months, and he was confined to his housel jGrindal died in 1583, and was succeeded by Whitgift, who, during the first week of his archi' episcopal rule, issued his famous articles.:]
(1) That all preaching, catechising, and praying in any [private house, where any are present besides the family, be utterly extinguished. (2) That none do
8. Arch-
preach or catechise, except also he will read
the whole service, and administer the sacrabishop ments four times a year. (3) That all Whitgift's preachers, and others in ecclesiastical orders, Articles ^° a* a" times wear the habits prescribed. (4) That none be admitted to preach, unless he be ordained according to the manner of the Church of England. (5) That none be admitted to preach, or execute any part of the ecclesiastical function, unless he subscribe the following articles: (a) That the queen hath, and ought to have, the sovereignty and rule over all manner of persons born within her dominions, of what condition soever they be; and that none other power or potentate hath, or ought to have, any power, ecclesiastical or civil, within her realms or dominions, (b) That the Book of Common Prayer, and of ordering bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary to the word of God, but may be lawfully used; and/that he himself will use the same, and none other, in public prayer, and administration of the sacraments, (c) That he alloweth the Book of Articles agreed upon in the Convocation holden in London in 1562, and set forth by her Majesty's authority; and he believe all the articles therein contained to be agreeable to the word of God." j
) It is not surprising to find that, wielding almost absolute power with a despotic severity, Whitgift suspended many hundred clergy from their ministry.] Petitions and remonstrances were in vain. ' And for twenty years this man guided the affairs
Puritans