[3] No one can see more clearly than myself the defectiveness of these views of the state of parties. We must begin somewhere. To go very far back is unsatisfactory, because the glimpses given of remote periods must be indistinct and confused, and are apt to convey inaccurate impressions. To commence with notices of what took place just before our history opens, is also exposed to objection, because it leaves out of sight so much which served to prepare for what followed. The history of the Commonwealth requires a previous study of the history of the Reformation, and that again the history of the Middle Ages. Notices of the early Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists will be found in subsequent chapters.
[4] This oft-told story rests on the authority of his friend, Lord Clarendon.—Hist. and Life, 928.
[5] Stat. 1 Eliz. C.Q., lv. 3, 15.
When the Bills of Supremacy and Uniformity were read a third time in the House of Lords (April 26 and 28, 1558), the Bishops of York, London, Ely, Wigorn, Llandaff, Coventry and Litchfield, Exon, Chester, Carlisle, are mentioned in the Journals as dissentients from both the Bills.—Strype's Annals of the Reformation, i. 87, (Oxford edition.) In connection with the history of the Bill of Supremacy in Strype's Annals the student should read the history of convocation in Strype's Memorials, Vol. i. Chap. xvii. An extraordinary paper in favour of the King's supremacy, attributed to Gardiner, is given, p. 209.
[6] 8 Eliz. c. 1, "declaring the manner of making and consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops of the realm to be good, lawful, and perfect."—Strype's Life of Parker, (Oxford edition) i. 109-121. See also "paper of arguments for the Queen's supreme power in causes ecclesiastical."—Strype's Life of Whitgift, iii. 213.
[7] Selden says so in his Table Talk, 38. Mr. Bruce informs me, "I have no doubt that Selden was right. Many great persons holding offices in the State and Household were appointed Commissioners by reason of their offices, but never attended. The business fell into the hands of the Bishops (or rather some three or four of them) and a few civilians from Doctors' Commons—the Judge of the Arches, the Judge of the Prerogative Court, and a few other such persons. The sentences that I have seen have been signed by from 15 to 20 persons, generally such as I have indicated."
[8] "Turning her speech to the Bishops, she gave them this admonition, 'That if they, the Lords of the clergy (as she called them), did not amend, she was minded to depose them, and bade them therefore to look well to their charges.'"—Strype's Whitgift, i. 393.
[9] Strype's Whitgift, i. 391. Whitgift has been called an Erastian, and Warburton (Works, xii. 386), on Selden's authority, attributes to him the publication of the De excommunicatione, under fictitious names of the place and printer. I do not know the ground of Selden's statement. The proceedings of Whitgift were inconsistent with Erastianism. The famous work of Erastus will be noticed hereafter.
[10] Strype's Whitgift, i. 559. See Sir Francis Knolly's objection to Bancroft's doctrine, reduced to a syllogistic form (560). Knollys had encouraged Parker to oppose the use of burning tapers, and of the cross, in the Queen's chapel.—Strype's Parker, i. 92.
[11] Parker was kept up to the mark in enforcing uniformity by the Queen, who in this and some other points was more decidedly Anglo-Catholic than her Protestant prelates. See her letter to him "roundly penned." Strype's Parker, ii. 76.