Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/396

Rh 376 ENGLAND [CHURCH. and print a translation of the Scriptures from the Latin and German versions of them. This was published in England (October 1535), and though not formally approved, was tolerated by the king. Another version, which embodied all Tyndale s translations, appeared in 1537 (Matthew s Bible), and in 1538 Cromwell ventured to in sert in a body of injunctions, issued by him for the direc tion of the clergy, an order that each parish should procure a copy of what was called the Great Bible. This referred to an edition not yet published, which came forth in the following year (1539); and in the next (1540) was re- published with a preface written by Archbishop Cranmer. The English Bible being thus fairly launched in the country, the attempts made by the reactionary party to check the advance of reformed opinions all proved abortive. The king vacillated strangely between one influence and the other. In 1539 he was himself the author of a law intended to uphold the old faith with extreme severity. Under this the punishment of death was decreed against all who re fused to acknowledge the doctrine of transubstantiatiori, and very rigorous penalties against five other proscribed opinions. The fall of Cromwell soon followed, and the reactionary party oeemed for a moment to have triumphed. But the influence of Archbishop Cranmer with the king could not be overthrown, and further progress in reforma tion was soon to be discerned. The law of Six Articles was modified and allowed to lie dormant ; the service-books were reviewed and amended by convocation ; the litany was published in English ; the king himself put out an English primer, in which the strongest statements are made as to the desirability of having prayers and services in English. In fact, an English prayer-book and an English service for the mass were both in course of construction by convocation when King Henry died (1547). By his will he nominated sixteen councillors to administer affairs during the minority of his son Edward VI., and in this council the reforming or Protestant element soon had complete sway. A book of homilies containing reformed doctrine was ordered to be read in all churches. In 1548 a service in English was published to be appended to the Latin service of the mass, and provision was made in this for the recep tion in both kinds by the laity. In 1549 an English prayer-book, carefully drawn up from the eld service-books, of a body of divines, accepted by convocation and parlia ment, was given to the church, and the use of it was made compulsory by an Act of Uniformity. Images were soon removed from churches, altars taken away to be replaced by tables, and Archbishop Cranmer, zealously bent on the work of reformation, earnestly invited all the most distin guished foreign Reformers to visit England, that, if possible, the lovers of reformation might agree to a confession of faith, to be opposed to the confession of the Romish Church then being formulated and settled at the Council of Trent. Many of the foreigners thus invited did in fact visit England, and their influence was very considerable. With their help a body of 42 articles was drawn up by the English divines, which, having been approved by convoca tion and sanctioned by the king, the clergy were called upon to subscribe. In 1552 was published a second prayer- book, which, with some additions, and a considerable retrenchment of the first book in the matter of ceremonial, had altogether a much more Protestant character than its predecessor. The ordinal was also a second time reformed. The extreme rapaciousness of the chief men of the state at this period led to a seizure of church property, which greatly impoverished and kept back the growth of the church in after years. The impropriate tithes, which in very many cases had been acquired by monasteries, went, at their suppression, into lay hands, and no suitable provi sion was made for the remuneration of the clergyman of the benefice. Hence the clergy for a long period were of a low social grade, and very few of them competent through learning to become preachers. When, on the death of Edward (1553), Queen Mary succeeded him, the majority of the clergy accepted without hesitation the re-establish ment of the old superstitions. There was, however, a certain number, estimated variously from 1500 to 3000, who were incapacitated from doing this. These were the clergy who had taken advantage of the enabling law, passed in the last reign, to contract matrimony. These clergy were now everywhere expelled from their benefices, and some of them were harshly treated. About 800 of the laity and clergy who favoured reforming views, foreseeing the danger to be apprehended from the queen, escaped at her accession to various towns on the continent ; the remainder of like views in England soon found their way into prison, until it should be determined what policy to adopt towards them. There is reason to believe that Bishop Gardiner, who was Mary s chief adviser at the beginning of her reign, was in favour of a lenient policy, and that Cardinal Pole, who arrived in England as papal legate (November 1554), was also opposed at first to harsh measures. But the temper of the prince whom Mary had married, as well as her own, were both favourable to persecution, and it was determined in the council to proceed to the extremest measures sanctioned by the law against the so-called here tics. A commission of bishops was opened (January ] 555) for the trial of heretics. On February 4 was burned for alleged heresy at Smithfield Mr Rogers, prebendary of St Pauls ; on February 8, at Coventry, Mr Saunders, rector of All Hallows Bread St. ; on February 9, Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, at Gloucester, and on the same day &quot;Dr Taylor, rector of Hadleigh, at that place ; on March 30, Farrar, bishop of St David s, at Carmarthen. On October 16 Bishops Ridley and Latimer were burned at Oxford, and finally at the same place, on March 22, 155G, was burned Archbishop Cranmer, for 23 years the primate of England. These executions of leading divines were accompanied by those of others, many of whom were illiterate persons, many also women. In the year 1555 were burned 75 ; in 1556, 83 ; in 1557, 77 ; in 1558, 51, making a total of 286 in four years. So far, however, was this savage persecution from exterminating the reforming spirit from the church that, when, on the welcome death of Queen Mary (1558), a new queen who favoured the reformation succeeded, the whole of the clergy of England, with the exception of 189, accepted the change. The chief danger to the Church of England now arose, not from the cruelty of the Romanists, who were henceforth kept down with a strong hand, but from the contemptuous and insubordinate spirit developed among some who held reforming views. During their so journ abroad the English exiles had become familiar with a type of reformed religion different from that which had been adopted by their own church, and they endeavoured to press this upon the acceptance of the Church of England. It was seen that no change of importance, and certainly none in the Protestant direction, was to be expected in the formularies of that church. The queen was a lover of ceremonial. The primate (Parker) was a moderate man, but with no tendency to favour the foreign reformers, and inclined to exact obedience to law. The prayec-book was reviewed, but the only alterations made in it tended rather in the direction of increased ceremonial. The disciples of the foreign reformers, who soon obtained the name of Puritans, could not for a time believe that the ceremonial would be really enforced against them with vigour. But the queen was determined to compel the bishops to exercise discipline. When the Puritans discovered this, some of them formally separated from the church (1560) ; many more deliberately set themselves to devise plans for evad-