[119] This oath "approved the doctrine and discipline of government established in the Church of England, as containing all things necessary to salvation;" and denied all "consent to alter the government of this Church by Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, &c., as it stands now established."
[120] Journals of the Commons, Dec. 16, 1640.—The matter came before the House again on the 7th June, 1641.
[121] The letter is in Laud's Works, Vol. vi. 584.
[122] Laud's Works, vi. 589.
[123] Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation, 267.
[124] See Letter to Bullinger by Sandys, 1573.—Zurich Letters, 294.
[125] Fuller, ii. 504-5.
[126] It frequently appears in the records of that period. There is a curious example in the introduction to the will of Humphrey Fen.—Cal. Dom., 1633-4, p. 468.
[127] They claimed as precedents the Protestants in Queen Mary's time, and the exiles at Geneva, that used a book framed by them there.—Strype's Parker, i. 480.
There is at Horningsham, in Wiltshire, an old meeting-house, with a large stone in the end wall, bearing date 1566. When the stone was put there is not known, and whence it came I cannot learn, but the Rev. H. M. Gunn, of Warminster, informs me that, according to tradition, some Scotch Presbyterians, disciples of Knox, came over from Scotland to build Longleat House for Sir John Thynne, in 1566. The building went on for thirteen years, when Sir John died. They refused to attend the parish church, and obtained a cottage in which to meet for Divine service, with a piece of land attached for a grave-yard. This house, Mr. Gunn says, turned into a chapel, has been preserved till now. Though originally a Presbyterian, it long since became an Independent place of worship.