A History of Horncastle, from the earliest period to the present time

by J. Conway Walter

Such opinions, put forward in somewhat intemperate language, aroused much opposition and bitter feeling, which Brown was too impetuous to avoid, or to mitigate. He continued his teaching and presently formed a congregation at Norwich, holding his views.

An Act of Parliament had been recently passed (23 Eliz., c. 2) which made anyone guilty of felony who should write, or set forth, seditious matter; and the Queen, as supreme head of the Church, regarded Brown’s action as an interference with the Royal prerogative. Severe measures were adopted in order to restrain this new teaching. Two preachers, Elias Thacker and John Copping, who embraced and proclaimed these tenet, were tried at the Bury Assizes in 1583, condemned, and shortly afterwards hanged. Brown was himself thrown into prison, but released through the intercession of Lord Burghley, with whom he was connected.

He now left England, and, with a number of followers settled, by permission of the state, at Middlebourg, in Zealand, where they formed a congregation. There, however, freed from all restraint, their principles of independence carried them so far that differences arose among themselves, which broke up the community. Brown presently returned to England, and for a time conformed to the Church, which he had so freely abused, being allowed even to hold the Benefice of Thorpe Achurch, in Northamptonshire. But again and again his independence asserted itself, and it is said that he incurred imprisonment no less than 32 times, finally ending his days in Northampton jail. While at Middlebourg he had published, in 1582, a book entitled A Treatise of Reformation, of which he sent many copies to England, and it was for distributing these, and other of his pamphlets, that the two above-named offenders were executed. [78] (Collier’s Ecclesiastical History.)

The movement which Brown originated did not die with himself, and in 1593 a congregation of Brownists was formed in London, which numbered some 20,000 members. A few years later their obnoxious tenets again provoked persecution, and once more they had to take refuge on the continent. Churches were established by them at Amsterdam and elsewhere, the principal one being at Leyden, under the Rev. John Robinson, who afterwards came to be regarded as the founder of Independency. He was a man of considerable attainments; of more genuine piety than the impetuous Brown; and while equally with him, holding that each congregation was in itself a perfect and independent church, under Christ, he would avoid all bitter invective against other communities, who, with different regulations, might still be regarded equally as churches.

Although the Brownists had no regularly ordained ministry; as newly constituted under Robinson, there were a number of ministers elected by the congregations, and no one was allowed to teach publicly until, after due

examination, he had been pronounced qualified for the work. The Independents differ chiefly from other religious societies, in that they reject all creeds of fallible man, their test of orthodoxy being a declaration that they accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and adhere to the scriptures as the sole standard of faith and practice.

In 1616 a number of the society again returned to England under the leadership of Henry Jacobs, who had served under Robinson, and once more established a meeting house in London; while others, in charge of a Mr. Brewster, who had been a lay Elder, also under Robinson, went out, in 1620, to North America, in the good ship Mayflower, and another vessel, and founded a colony at Massachusetts.

Although, as has been already stated, under the influence of Robinson sectarian bitterness was much modified, yet throughout the reigns of James I. and Charles I., the Independents were in frequent conflict with the Presbyterians; nor was there only sectarian strife, for both parties had numerous supporters in Parliament, as well as partizans in the army. Preaching Generals and praying Captains abounded; but Cromwell favoured the Independents, as against Presbyterians, and this gradually paved the way for toleration.

At the “Savoy Conference” in London (so called because held at the palace of that name), in 1658, the Independents published an epitome of their faith, and henceforth, with occasional interruptions, they held on their way; although it was not till 1831 that the “Congregational Union of England and Wales” was finally and fully constituted. They again published, in 1833, a more definite “Declaration of Faith, Order, and Discipline,” which continues still to be the charter of the community.