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 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY ■where the ministers were most of them no better than Papists. In vain did the bishop urge the authority of the queen ; in vain did the lord mayor present the common-sense view of the matter ; the nonconforming ministers argued the question at great length, appealing throughout to the Scriptures, and in the end all or most of them were committed to prison."" From this time onward the Puritan spirit grew and waxed strong in London. In a list of recusants in the deanery of the Arches made in 1569, nearly all those who refused to attend their parish churches were described as Puritans.^' In 1571 the Puritans of London acting as a body presented a petition to the queen, begging her to ' set forth the true Word of God, to cut down, root out, and utterly destroy all monuments of idolatry produced by the canon law, as forked caps and tippets, surplices, copes, starch-cakes, godfathers and godmothers, and all other abominations ; and. . . not to use in God's service the manners, fashions, and customs of the Papists.' ^* The Puritans, both those who conformed and those who did not, refused to acknowledge any authority other than that of the Scriptures as interpreted by themselves,-^ and disputed with the utmost freedom with the bishops before whom they were brought for correction.^" For example, Christopher Bowman, a London goldsmith, when examined with regard to the meetings of a secret congregation, stated that in his opinion conventicles were not contrary to God's law, nor to the law of the realm ; and refused to attend his parish church on the ground that, since any man, however wicked [sk) was admitted to the Holy Communion, he himself would not ' join in prayer ' with that minister who gave holy things to dogs." A request for more liberty and better accommodation addressed to the Bishop of London by some Puritan ministers imprisoned in 1573 seems to have been worded more like a command than a petition.^* The Presbyterian form of Church government was the one which com- mended itself to the stricter sort of Puritans. As early as 1572 the Presby- terians of London held meetings, called ' conferences,' of ministers in private houses.^' Among their leaders were Mr. Bonham and Mr. Crane, who were appointed by the bishop in 1569 to lecture in London, and if their own ac- count were true, were at first allowed by him to baptize children according to the order of the Geneva book, and to minister to certain Londoners who had been released after a year's imprisonment for conscience' sake.'" In these conferences little was discussed at first save the questions of subscription, clerical apparel, and the use of the Book of Common Prayer. But as more ministers joined the brotherhood they began to consider the subject of discipline, and agreed that the episcopal form of Church government was antichristian, and that government by pastors, doctors, elders, and deacons should be substituted for it. They resolved both publicly and privately to teach this form of discipline, and as far as possible to bring it into practice, ' though they concealed the names either of presbytery, elder or deacon, making little account of the name for the time, so that their offices might be '' GrMaPs Rem. (Parker Soc), 216. " S.P. Dom. Eliz. Ix, 71. " S.P. Dom. Add. Eliz. xx, 107. '' See Zurich Letters, i, no. cxxxiv ; GrMa/'s Rem. ut sup. 213. '« Ibid. cf. S.P. Dom. Eliz. xliv, 22. " S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxliv, 62. " B.M. Lansd. MS. 17, no. 30. " B.M. Tracts, 775 (3), p. 43. '' Strype, Lifeof'Grindal (1821), 226-8. 3"