CHAPTER IV.
Lords' Committee on Innovations.
Whilst the Commons were receiving Puritan petitions, the Lords were presented with others of a different kind. The presence in the Upper House of Anglican bishops and noblemen, encouraged the Church party to make complaints to them of Puritan irreverence and interruption; and these complaints indicated very plainly, how the revolution of affairs had emboldened certain individuals to commit some very unseemly acts.[150] At the same time, the gracious reception given by the peers to anti-Puritan memorials manifested a temper quite different from that which prevailed in the Lower House. Yet there was not altogether wanting on the part of their lordships a disposition to make some small concession to Puritan demands, with the view of saving the Church of England from changes of a more serious nature. Hence, in the early spring, they appointed a committee to consider the subject of innovations. This committee was empowered to consult with any divines whom they might wish to select; and when the selection had been made, a theological sub-committee was formed.[151]
1641, March.
Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, and Dean of Westminster, became convener of this committee of divines, and he presided over all the meetings. Though possessed of considerable knowledge and ability, and of an active turn of mind, this remarkable person had not the qualities necessary for ecclesiastical statesmanship in troubled times such as those in which his lot was thrown. His whole history supports the opinion that selfish policy formed the guiding star of his life; and there is little doubt that a key to such of his proceedings as favoured Puritanism may be found in his remark that "the Puritans were many, and strong sticklers; and if his Majesty would but give private orders to his ministers to connive a little at their party, and shew them some indulgence, it might, perhaps, mollify them a little, and make them more pliant, though he did not promise that they would be trusty long to any government."[152] Williams cannot be honoured for any high moral or religious principle; he was very much of a time-server, and fondly loved popularity; indeed his whole history is in keeping with the keen and cunning expression of his handsome countenance seen in that portrait of him, with black hat and close ruff, which hangs in the dining-room of the Westminster Deanery.
Lords' Committee on Innovations.
We can believe what his biographer says respecting his management of the Committee:—
"The Bishop had undertaken a draught for regulating the government ecclesiastical, but had not finished it. The sudden and quiet dispatch of all that was done already was attributed to the Chairman's dexterity, who could play his prize at all weapons, dally with crooked humours, and pluck them straight; bring all stragglers into his own pound, and never drive them in; foresee a tempest of contradiction the best that ever I knew, and scatter it before it could rise; and won all his adversaries insensibly into a compliance before they were aware. To this day they of the Nonconformists that survive, and were present, will tell you that they admired two things in him, in their phrase—his courtesy and his cunning."[153]
The members met for a week in the Jerusalem Chamber, and were daily entertained by the hospitable Dean. This circumstance Fuller could not record without the witticism, that it was "the last course of all public episcopal treatments—whose guests may now even put up their knives, seeing soon after the voider was called for, which took away all bishops' lands, and most of English hospitality."[154]
Just as Williams was summoning the divines to meet together to enquire into innovations since the Reformation, and to "examine the degrees and perfections of the Reformation itself," Laud wrote down in his diary, "This Committee will meddle with doctrine as well as ceremonies, and will prove the national synod of England to the great dishonour of the Church, and what else may follow upon it, God knows."[155]
1641, March.
Though Laud was wrong in the importance which he attached to this mixed conclave, he was right enough in concluding that it would meddle with doctrines as well as ceremonies. This appeared very early; for it is alleged in the memoranda prepared for the Committee that there were some ministers who preached justification by works, the efficacy of penance, confession, and absolution, and the sacrificial character of the Lord's supper; that prayers for the dead were used, and monastic vows defended; also, "that the whole gross substance of Arminianism was avowed, and original sin absolutely denied:" and together with these notices of Romanist tendencies on the one hand, there appear references to Socinianism on the other. The introduction of these charges could not but lead to doctrinal controversy, and rumours soon got abroad that changes in the theological standards of the Church were under consideration.[156]
Lords' Committee on Innovations.
The ceremonial innovations complained of were more numerous than the doctrinal. They included turning the holy table altar-wise; bowing to the east; the use of candlesticks upon the altar, so called; the construction of a canopy over it, with curtains on each side; the display of crucifixes and images upon the parafront or altar-cloth; reading some parts of the morning service at the table, when the communion is not celebrated; the employment of credence tables; the introduction of an offertory distinct from giving alms to the poor; and "singing the 'Te Deum' in prose, after a cathedral church way, in divers parochial churches where the people have no skill in such music." The last of the practices here enumerated might seem to occasion censure only on the ground of unfitness and want of taste, such as High Churchmen would disapprove; but all the other particulars in the paper, of which we have given only specimens, demonstrate that Puritan, if not Presbyterian pens were employed in drawing it up. Another proof of this circumstance is found in the reference to "standing up at the hymns in the church, and always at 'Gloria Patri.'" The finding fault with that shews the extreme length to which the Puritans went in their objections; and it is curious to observe, that standing up to sing, which was in the seventeenth century complained of as an innovation upon the reformed discipline of the Church, is now an almost universal practice in all communities of English Christians.[157] A memorandum follows—which might have proceeded from the Episcopal portion of the Committee—to the effect that two sermons should be preached in all cathedral and collegiate churches on Sundays and holydays, and that there should be at least one lecture a week; but, again, Puritan influence appears in the expression of a desire that music should be arranged with less curiosity, and that no "ditties" should be "framed by private men."
1641, March.
In reference to the Prayer Book, suggestions to the number of thirty-five occur, of which the following may be mentioned: expunging the names of some departed saints from the calendar; the disuse of apocryphal lessons; omitting the Benedicite; the making some discreet rubric to take away the scandal of signing the cross in baptism, or the abolition of that sign altogether; the enlargement of the Catechism; and certain changes in the Marriage[158] and Burial Services, and also in that for the Visitation of the Sick,—changes of a kind such as have been commonly proposed by those who advocate a revision of the Prayer Book.[159]
A proposal for reforming the Episcopate which was volunteered by Williams, and was submitted by him on his own responsibility, without success, to the House of Lords,[160] does not belong to the schemes of the Committee. It went no further than to propose that bishops should preach every Sunday under penalty for default; that none should be justices of the peace except the Dean of Westminster; and that prelates should have twelve assistants besides Deans and Chapters. Four of these assistants were to be appointed by the King, four by the Lords, and four by the Commons; and in the case of a see being vacant, they were to present three able divines to His Majesty, who was to nominate one of them to the Episcopal chair; no Dean or Prebendary was to absent himself from his cathedral above sixty days.
Lords' Committee on Innovations.
Other plans were drawn up by different persons with a view to the reconciliation of opposite parties, and there were moderate men who believed that, "but for some hot spirits who would abate nothing of episcopal power and profit," a compromise might have been effected. Perhaps it might; yet supposing some likelihood of peace through mutual concession at an earlier period, it admits of a question whether any possibility of it remained, now that the pent-up animosities of many years had burst out like the fires of a volcano. Theologians of a spirit like that of Ussher and others might have discovered grounds of union in spite of different views on some subjects; but a large majority of the divines who formed the two parties which then divided the Church, had reached conclusions irreconcilably opposed to each other. At all events, the semi-Puritan scheme of accommodation came to nothing. By the middle of May, the Committee had broken up, and when the reader reflects upon the crisis which affairs had reached, he will not wonder that the members abandoned the project in despair.
1641, April.
The Committee of the Commons appointed for considering the Ministers' Remonstrance of the 27th of January, had not been idle. They had made reports and submitted questions for discussion. The House consequently passed resolutions for reforming pluralities, removing bishops from the Peerage and Privy Council, and for excluding all clergymen from the commission of the peace. Orders were given to frame Bills accordingly.[161]
One of these Bills, which was introduced on the 9th of March, provided that no minister should have more than one living; that if he absented himself from his cure for forty days, he should forfeit his preferment; and that no member of the University should hold a benefice ten miles distant from his College, without living in the parish.[162]
Debates respecting Bishops.
Another Bill, founded on the resolutions excluding clergymen from secular offices, came before the House on the first of April, when it was read a second time, and committed.[163] The supporters of it argued:—"That there was so great a concurrence towards the passing this Bill, and so great a combination throughout the nation against the whole government of the Church, in which the Scots were so resolutely engaged, that it was impossible for a firm peace to be preserved between the nations, if bishops were not taken away, and that the army would never march out of the kingdom till that were brought to pass." Mr. Hyde, who afterwards, as Lord Clarendon, became his own reporter, replied that—"It was changing the whole frame and constitution of the kingdom, and of the Parliament itself; that, from the time that Parliaments began, there had never been one Parliament when the bishops were not part of it; that if they were taken out of the House there would be but two estates left, for that they, as the clergy, were the third estate, and being taken away, there was nobody left to represent the clergy, which would introduce another piece of injustice, which no other part of the kingdom could complain of, who were all represented in Parliament, and were, therefore, bound to submit to all that was enacted, because it was upon the matter with their own consent: whereas, if the bishops were taken from sitting in the House of Peers, there was nobody who could pretend to represent the clergy, and yet they must be bound by their determinations." Lord Falkland, who sat next to Hyde, then started up, and declared himself "to be of another opinion, and that, as he thought the thing itself to be absolutely necessary for the benefit of the Church, which was in so great danger, so he had never heard that the constitution of the kingdom would be violated by the passing that act, and that he had heard many of the clergy protest that they could not acknowledge that they were represented by the bishops. However, we might presume, that if they could make that appear, that they were a third estate, that the House of Peers (amongst whom they sat, and had yet their votes) would reject it."[164]
What became of this measure we shall see before long. In March and April, Bills were brought before the Commons for removing the Star Chamber and High Commission Courts, but they were not presented to the Lords till the fate of Strafford had been sealed. After a fruitless attempt by the Peers to modify the Bill respecting the Star Chamber, that and the measure for extinguishing the other despotic tribunal were allowed to pass.[165]
1641, April.
Before entering on the principal events of the month of May, it is proper to glance at a controversy, pending about that time, between bishops Hall and Ussher on the one side, and certain Presbyterians, together with John Milton, on the other. Hall had, at an earlier period, written his "Episcopacy by divine right." Now he appeared as the author of "An Humble Remonstrance," in defence of liturgical forms and diocesan Episcopacy. He was answered by five Presbyterian divines, the initials of whose names formed the word Smectymnus, under which ugly title their polemical production figures in literary history.[166] The prelate insisted on the antiquity of liturgical forms, and on the apostolical origin of diocesan bishops. The Presbyters contended that free prayer was the practice of the early Church, and that no genuine liturgy can be traced up beyond the third century. They further maintained that the primitive bishop was a parochial pastor, or preaching presbyter, without superiority of order or any exclusive jurisdiction; that Presbyters of old ordained, and ruled, and that what they did at the beginning they had a right to do still. Hall published a rejoinder in defence of the Remonstrance. The Presbyters soon produced a Vindication. The Bishop now sought assistance from his friend Ussher, entreating him to bestow "one sheet of paper in such distracted times on the subject of Episcopacy." Ussher complied, and entitled his tract, "The original of Bishops and Metropolitans briefly laid down." This, as well as another tract from the same pen, on the position of the bishops of Asia Minor, issued from the Oxford press in the course of the year, in a collection which further included extracts from the writings of Hooker and Andrewes. Ussher argued, that from the writings of the Fathers a succession of bishops may be shown to have existed ever since the age of the Apostles; and that the Seven Angels of the Seven Churches were "seven singular bishops who were the constant presidents" over them.[167]
Debates respecting Bishops.
1641, April.
Milton, with characteristic ardour and eloquence, plunged into this warfare, and published no less than five treatises on the subject, advocating ecclesiastical reform, condemning prelatical Episcopacy, reasoning against its government, animadverting on the "Defence," and apologizing for Smectymnus. The poet's genius, and his mastery of English prose, are conspicuous in these pamphlets; but the ferocity of temper with which he here uses his scalping-knife is hardly less than what it was in his onslaught upon Salmasius. Andrewes and Ussher are treated as dunces by the imperious scholar, and Lucifer is called the "first prelate angel," by this violent Nonconformist. Yet, behind his bitterest invectives,—with which mercenary feeling or personal grudge had nothing to do—may be seen a virtuous indignation against superstition, formality, and despotism; and it is in the very midst of this stormy assault, that he pauses to speak of that more congenial work—the great poem which even then floated before his imagination—which was "not to be obtained by the invocation of Dame Memory and her syren daughters, but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out His seraphim with the hallowed fire of His altar to touch and purify the lips of whom He pleases."
