PARTY SIMILES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY:—NO. I. "FOXES AND FIREBRANDS." NO. II. "THE TROJAN HORSE."
(Continued from Vol. viii., p. 488.)
The following works I omitted to mention in my last Note from want of room. The first is by that amiable Nimrod, John Bale, Bishop of Ossory:
"Yet a Course at the Romyshe Foxe, &c. Compyled by Johan Harrison. Zurich. 1543. 4to."
The four following are by William Turner, M.D., who also wrote under an assumed name:
"The Huntyng of the Romishe Foxe, &c. By William Wraughton. Basil. 1543."
"The Rescuynge of the Romishe Foxe, &c. Winchester. 1545. 8vo."
"The Huntyng of the Romyshe Wolfe. 8vo. 1554(?)."
"The Huntyng of the Foxe and Wolfe, &c. 8vo."
The next is the most important work, and I give the title in full:
"The Hunting of the Romish Fox, and the Quenching of Sectarian Firebrands. Being a Specimen of Popery and Separation. Collected by the Honourable Sir James Ware, Knight, out of the Memorials of Eminent Men, both in Church and State: A. B. Cranmer, A. B. Usher, A. B. Parker, Sir Henry Sidney, A. B. Abbot, Lord Cecil, A. B. Laud, and others. And now published for the Public Good. By Robert Ware, Gent. Dublin. 1683. 12mo. pp. 248."
The work concludes with this paragraph:
"Now he that hath given us all our hearts, give unto His Majesties subjects of these nations an heart of unity, to quash division and separation; of obedience, to quench the fury of rebellious firebrands: and a heart of constancy to the Reformed Church of England, the better to expel Popery, and to confound dissention. Amen."
The last work, with reference to the first simile of my note, which I shall mention, is that by Zephaniah Smith, one of the leaders of the English Antinomians:
"The Doome of Heretiques; or a Discovery of Subtle Foxes who wer tyed Tayle to Tayle, and crept into the Church to doe Mischiefe, &c. Lond. 1648." [[1]]
With regard to the second simile, see—
"The Trojan Horse, or the Presbyterian Government Unbowelled. London. 1646. 4to. By Henry Parker of Lincoln's Inn."
"Comprehension and Toleration Considered, in a Sermon on Gal. ii. 5. By Dr. South."
"Remarks on a Bill of Comprehension. London. 1684. By Dr. Hickes."
"The New Distemper, or The Dissenters' Usual Pleas for Comprehension, Toleration, and the Renouncing the Covenant, Considered and Discussed. Non Quis sed Quid. London. 1680. 12mo. Second Edition. Pp. 184. (With a figurative frontispiece, representing the 'Ecclesia Anglicana.')"
The first edition was published in 1675. Thomas Tomkins, Fellow of All Souls' College, was the author; but the two editions are anonymous.
As to the Service Book, see the curious work of George Lightbodie:
"Against the Apple of the Left Eye of Antichrist; or The Masse-Booke of Lurking Darknesse (The Liturgy), making Way for the Apple of the Right Eye of Antichrist, the Compleate Masse-Booke of Palpable Darknesse. London. 1638. 8vo."
Baylie's Parallel (before referred to) was a popular work; it was first printed London, 1641, in 4to.; and reprinted 1641, 1642, 1646, 1661.
As to "High Church" and "Low Church," see an article in the Edinburgh Review for last October, on "Church Parties," and the following works:
"The True Character of a Churchman, showing the False Pretences to that Name. By Dr. West." (No date. 1702?) Answered by Sacheverell in "The Character of a Low Churchman. 4to. 1702." "Low Churchmen vindicated from the Charge of being no Churchmen. London. 1706. 8vo. By John Handcock, D.D., Rector of St. Margaret's, Lothbury."
"Inquiry into the Duty of a Low Churchman. London. 1711. 8vo." (By James Peirce, a Nonconformist divine, largely quoted in The Scourge: where he is spoken of as "A gentleman of figure, of the most apostolical moderation, of the most Christian temper, and is esteemed as the Evangelical Doctor of the Presbyterians in this kingdom," &c.—P. 342.)
He also wrote:
"The Loyalty, Integrity, and Ingenuity of High Churchmen and Dissenters, and their respective Writers, Compared. London. 1719. 8vo."
See also the following periodical, which Lowndes thus describes:
"The Independent Whig. From Jan. 20, 1719-20, to Jan. 4, 1721. 53 Numbers. London. Written by Gordon and Trenchard in order to oppose the High Church Party; 1732-5, 12mo., 2 vols.; 1753, 12mo., 4 vols."
Will some correspondent kindly furnish me with the date, author's name, &c., of the pamphlet entitled Merciful Judgments of High Church Triumphant on Offending Clergymen and others in the Reign of Charles I.?[[2]]
I omitted Wordsworth's lines in my first note:
"High and Low,
Watchwords of party, on all tongues are rife;
As if a Church, though sprung from heaven, must owe
To opposites and fierce extremes her life;—
Not to the golden mean and quiet flow
Of truths, that soften hatred, temper strife."
Wordsworth, and most Anglican writers down to Dr. Hook, are ever extolling the Golden Mean and the moderation of the Church of England. A fine old writer of the same Church (Dr. Joseph Beaumont) seems to think that this love of the Mean can be carried too far:
"And witty too in self-delusion, we
Against highstreined piety can plead,
Gravely pretending that extremity
Is Vice's clime; that by the Catholick creed
Of all the world it is acknowledged that
The temperate mean is always Virtue's seat.
Hence comes the race of mongrel goodness: hence
Faint tepidness usurpeth fervour's name;
Hence will the earth-born meteor needs commence,
In his gay glaring robes, sydereal flame;
Hence foolish man, if moderately evil,
Dreams he's a saint because he's not a devil."
Psyche, cant. xxi. 4, 5.
Cf. Bishop Taylor's Life of Christ, part i. sect. v. 9.
Jarltzberg.
Nov. 28, 1853.
P.S.—Not having the fear of Sir Roger Twisden or Mr. Thomas Collis before my eyes, I advisedly made what the latter gentleman is pleased to term a "loose statement" (Vol. viii., p. 631.), when I spoke of the Church of England separating from Rome. As to the Romanists "conforming" for the first twelve (or as some have it nineteen) years of Elizabeth's reign, the less said about that the better for both parties, and especially for the dominant party.[[3]]
Mr. Collis's dogmatic assertions, that the Roman Catholics "conformed" for the twelve years, and that Popes Paul IV. and Pius IV. offered to confirm the Book of Common Prayer if Elizabeth would acknowledge the papal supremacy, are evidently borrowed, word for word, from Dr. Wordsworth's[[4]] Theophilus Anglicanus, cap. vii. p. 219. A careful examination of the evidence adduced in support of the latter assertion, shows it to be of the most flimsy description, and refers it to its true basis, viz. hearsay: the reasoning and inferences which prop the evidence are equally flimsy.
Fuller, speaking of this report, says that it originated with "some who love to feign what they cannot find, that they may never appear to be at a loss." (Ch. Hist., b. ix. 69.)
As the question at issue is one of great historical importance, I am prepared, if called on, to give a summary of the case in all its bearings; for the present I content myself with giving the following references:
"Sir Roger Twisden's Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism, as it stands separated from the Roman. Lond. 1675."—P. 175.
"Bp. Andrewes' Tortura Torti. Lond. 1609."—P. 142.
"Parallel Torti et Tortoris."—P. 241.
"Abp. Bramhall ag. Bp. Chal."—Ch. ii. (vol. ii. p. 85., Oxf. ed.)
"Sir E. Cook's Speech and Charge at Norwich Assizes. 1607."
"Babington upon Numbers. Lond. 1615."—Ch. vii. § 2. p. 35.
"Servi Fidelis subdito infideli Responsis, apud Johannem Dayum. Lond. 1573." (In reply to Saunders' De Visibili Monarchia.)
"Camd. Annal. an. 1560. Lond. 1639."—Pt. i. pp. 47. 49.
(See also Heylin, 303.; Burnet, ii. 387.; Strype, Annal. ch. xix.; Tierney's Dodd, ii. 147.)
The letter which the pontiff did address to Elizabeth is given in Fuller, ix. 68., and Dodd, ii. app. xlvii. p. cccxxi.
N.B.—In the P.S. to my last note, "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 156., was a misprint for Vol. v.
Footnote 1: [(return)]
The titles of these books remind one of "a merry disport," which formerly took place in the hall of the Inner Temple. "At the conclusion of the ceremony, a huntsman came into the hall bearing a fox, a pursenet, and a cat, both bound at the end of a staff, attended by nine or ten couples of hounds with the blowing of hunting-horns. Then were the fox and cat set upon and killed by the dogs beneath the fire, to the no small pleasure of the spectators." One of the masque-names in this ceremony was "Sir Morgan Mumchance, of Much Monkery, in the county of Mad Popery."
In Ane Compendious Boke of Godly and Spiritual Songs, Edinburgh, 1621, printed from an old copy, are the following lines, seemingly referring to some such pageant:
"The Hunter is Christ that hunts in haist,
The Hunds are Peter and Pawle,
The Paip is the Fox, Rome is the Rox
That rubbis us on the gall."
See Hone's Year-Book, p. 1513.
The symbolism of the brute creation is copiously employed in Holy Scripture and in ancient writings, and furnishes a magazine of arms in all disputes and party controversies. Thus, the strange sculptures on misereres, &c. are ascribed to contests between the secular and regular clergy: and thus Dryden, in his polemical poem of The Hind and the Panther, made these two animals symbolise respectively the Church of Rome and the Church of England, while the Independents, Calvinists, Quakers, Anabaptists, and other sects are characterised as wolves, bears, boars, foxes—all that is odious and horrible in the brute creation.
"A Jesuit has collected An Alphabetical Catalogue of the Names of Beasts by which the Fathers characterised the Heretics. It may be found in Erotemata de malis ac bonis Libris, p. 93., 4to., 1653, of Father Raynaud. This list of brutes and insects, among which are a variety of serpents, is accompanied by the names of the heretics designated." (See the chapter in D'Israeli's Curios. Lit. on "Literary Controversy," where many other instances of this kind of complimentary epithets are given, especially from the writings of Luther, Calvin, and Beza.)
Footnote 2: [(return)]
[We are enabled to give the remainder of the title and the date:—"Together with the Lord Falkland's Speech in Parliament, 1640, relating to that subject: London, printed for Ben. Bragg, at the Black Raven in Paternoster Row. 1710."—Ed.]
Footnote 3: [(return)]
See the authorities given by Mr. Palmer, Church of Christ, 3rd ed., Lond. 1842, pp. 347-349.; and Mr. Percival On the Roman Schism: see also Tierney's Dodd, vols. ii. and iii.
A full and impartial history of the "conformity" of Roman Catholics and Puritans duping the penal laws is much wanting, especially of the former during the first twelve years of Elizabeth. With the Editor's permission I shall probably send in a few notes on the latter subject, with a list of the works for and against outward conformity, which was published during that period. (See Bp. Earle's character of "A Church Papist," Microcosmography, Bliss's edition, p. 29.)
Footnote 4: [(return)]
It is painful to see party spirit lead aside so learned and estimable a man as Dr. Wordsworth, and induce him to convert a ridiculous report into a grave and indisputable matter of fact. The more we know, the greater is our reverence for accuracy, truthfulness, and candour; and the older we grow in years and wisdom, the more we estimate that glorious motto—Audi alteram partem.
What are our ordinary histories of the Reformation from Burnet to Cobbett but so many caricatures? Would that there were more Maitlands in the English Church, and more Pascals and Pugins in the Roman!
Let me take this occasion to recommend to the particular attention of all candid inquirers a little brochure, by the noble-minded writer last named, entitled An Earnest Address on the Establishment of the Hierarchy, by A. Welby Pugin: Lond. Dolman, 1851. And let me here inquire whether this lamented writer completed his New View of an Old Subject; or, the English Schism impartially Considered, which he advertised as in preparation?
I should mention, perhaps, that Sir Roger Twisden's book was reprinted in 1847: I have, however, met with the original edition only.