Page:Historical Lectures and Addresses.djvu/48

 Cartwright. This movement, which seems important, was not so in reality. It took no hold upon the popular mind; in fact the ecclesiastical system of Presbyterianism never commended itself to Englishmen. Its rigid enforcement of discipline, its large claims to allegiance, did not attract them; long before Milton's days they had grasped the fact that "new presbyter is but old priest writ large". The discussion of Presbyterianism was left to the learned and the decision was given against it. Still the need was felt for a freer and fuller expression of the needs of the religious life. The clergy met for the purpose of theological discussion. It may be that the time was ill-chosen; but the State did not endeavour to find room for this growing zeal and energy. Archbishop Grindal was ordered to forbid these "prophesyings," as they were called, and when he refused was suspended from his office. After this there could be no longer any doubt about the position of affairs in England. Religious earnestness must be content to find its expression through such sources as the State allowed. Puritanism might be repressed as a system, but as a temper of mind it still survived and raised questions from time to time: a controversy about the keeping of the Sabbath: an effort, again started in Cambridge, to assert the rigid doctrine of Calvinistic Predestination against an apparently laxer conception of grace: still later a protest in behalf of greater morality of life as shown in reverence for the Lord's Day and the stricter observance of the practices of outward devotion.

These were not matters of vital importance, and in themselves aroused only languid interest. But the