XV. 3.

Division of the Nation into a Catholic and a Protestant

party.

this time, into a

THE nation was divided at catholic and a protestant party. From several circumstances it is evident that a great majority of the nation then inclined to the roman-catholic religion. All the bishops, with the solitary exception of Kitchin of Landaff, opposed the change of religion; the whole convocation, which met at the same time with the queen's first parliament, declared against it, and expressed their unanimous adherence to the antient creed, by a declaration conformable to it, on the five important articles of the real presence, transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass for the living and the dead, the supremacy of St. Peter and his successors, and the authority of the pastors of the church, exclusive of the laity, in matters of faith and discipline. They addressed these articles to the bishops, with a request to lay them before the lords in parliament. Both the universities signed a writing, declaring their concurrence in the same articles. Thus the change was in opposition to the wishes of the body of the clergy.

The laity were divided-but several facts seem to show that a great majority must have been in favour of the catholic religion; the single circumstance of the known general attachment, at this

time, of the laity for their pastors, renders this highly probable.

Rishton, a contemporary writer, speaking from his own observation, says *, that one third of the kingdom was at this time protestant; most of the nobility, the majority of the greater commoners, and the generality of the persons employed in agriculture and husbandry, being catholics.

This conclusion is also favoured by the violence, which the court party found it necessary to use, in the ensuing election of members to serve in the house of commons. Five candidates were nominated by the court to each borough, and three to each county; and by the sheriff's authority, the members were chosen from among these candidates. This measure seems to indicate that the court entertained apprehensions that the general sense of the people was against the Reformation. The same conclusion is again rendered probable by the complaints, which are found in the protestant writers of these times, concerning the general dearth of teachers in the universities and the public schools, and of ministers to officiate in the parishes.

XV. 4.

IT

Subdivision of the Protestants into Lutherans ;

may be generally said, that, with the exception of the belief of the ecclesiastical supremacy of the monarch, the church of England continued

* De Schismate Angliæ, p. 272.

catholic during the reign of Henry. The first seeds of the protestant doctrine were sown by Lutheran hands. The emissaries employed by Henry in obtaining the opinions of foreigners on the lawfulnessof his marriage with Katharine of Arragon became acquainted with Luther and some of his disciples; they returned home with dispositions favourable to his principles; and, in their return, were either accompanied, or soon after followed, by some of their ablest advocates. Several attempts were made by the protestant princes of Germany to induce Henry to subscribe the confession of Augsburgh, and to place himself at the head of the league, which had been formed for its support. These attempts did not succeed; but they gave occasion to communications between the Lutheran divines and the English advocates of reform. Thus, therefore, during the reign of Henry the eighth, the seeds of the Reformation sown in this country were Lutheran.

XV. 5.

Zuinglians;

WHILE Henry lived, arcibishop Cranmer, the most powerful advocate of protestantism in this country, outwardly professed, except in the article of the supremacy, the catholic religion; but in the reign of Edward he veered to the creed of Zuingle; and the majority of the royal council adopted and led the infant monarch into the adoption of the same principles. We have before observed, that

Zuingle differed from Luther in several articles, particularly in considering the sacrament of the eucharist merely as a pious rite, established to commemorate the passion and death of Christ, in abolishing religious ceremonies, and in his total subjection of the priest to the magistrate. In conformity with the two former opinions, the ministers of Edward the sixth expunged from their creed the belief of the corporal presence of Christ in the holy eucharist; and reduced the ecclesiastical orders of the church to bishops, priests and deacons. In the ordination of bishops and priests they used the same ceremonial; omitting every antient rite, except the imposition of hands, and some prayers. They laid aside all the vestments of bishops, priests and deacons, with the exception of the surplice. They retained the altar, the cross in baptism, the ring in marriage, and the bowing at the name of Jesus. To all that was retained, the disciples of Zuingle seriously objected.

XV. 6.

And Calvinists.

MEANWHILE, several disciples of Calvin had found their way into England: by degrees they attracted almost all the disciples of Zuingle. It has been mentioned, that, in opposition to Zuingle, Calvin contended for the absolute subserviency of the magistrate to the priest in all ecclesiastical concerns. To the followers of his doctrine it had

therefore given great offence, that the acts of parlia ment of Edward the sixth for ordaining ministers, establishing the common prayer, and constituting the forty-two articles as the national creed, were imposed by the authority of the temporal power. Still, the influence of the disciples of Calvin is very discernible in all the ecclesiastical regulations. which took place during the reign of that monarch; and from the beginning of it to its close, this influence was always on the increase.

It should be remarked, that those, who embraced the doctrines of Calvin, were known by different appellations from their master, they were frequently called Calvinists; from their innovations on Luther's system, they were styled the Reformed; from their peculiar tenets respecting the real presence, they were called Sacramentarians; in France, for some unknown reason, they were called Hugonots; in England, their alleged improvements in the national worship gave them, soon after queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, the appellation of Puritans; while their objection to episcopacy gave them, in the reign of her successor, the name of Presbyterians.

XV. 7.

The Queen's preference of the Protestant party.

SUCH was the division of public opinions on religious concerns, when Elizabeth ascended the throne. For some time the catholics and the protestants waited in a state of anxious uncertainty to