Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/133

Rh were now claiming to inherit their spiritual despotism."

In estimating the character of Cartwright, who, you remember, was the leader of the Puritans, Green, the historian, says that "his bigotry was that of a mediæval inquisitor." &hellip; "With the despotism of a Hildebrand," says Green, "Cartwight combined the cruelty of a Torquemada. Not only was Presbyterianism to be established as the one legal form of Church government, but all other forms, Episcopalian and Separatist, were to be ruthlessly put down. For heresy there was the punishment of death. Never had the doctrine of persecution been urged with such a blind and reckless ferocity. 'I deny,' wrote Cartwright, 'that upon repentance there ought to follow any pardon of death. &hellip; Heretics ought to be put to death now. If this be bloody and extreme, I am content to be so counted with the Holy Ghost.'" I could give numerous quotations from other writers to illustrate this side of the Puritan character. In the year 1655 the Puritans passed an edict dealing with the subject of the banishment of the clergy of the Church of England. It would be difficult to match this for severity and intolerance. It ran as follows:— "That no person or persons do, from after the first day of January (1656), keep in their houses or families as Chaplains, or Schoolmasters for the education of their children, any sequestered or ejected Minister, Fellow of a College, or Schoolmaster; nor permit any of their children to be taught by such; in pain of being proceeded against in such sort as the said orders do direct in such cases. And that no person who hath been sequestered or ejected out of any benefice, college, or school, for