*

1610.

mission esta

not ensure them reverence and obedience from Chap. IV. laymen. The great might refuse to pay them deference, the poorer sort to bend beneath their rule. To provide against this danger, to give Court of them a real and effective power, which all must High Comlearn to recognise and fear, the King scrupled not blished for to put into their hands that instrument which had Scotland. proved so efficacious in England-he established the Court of High Commission in Scotland. The bishops were made commissioners. Armed with this terrible and irresponsible power, they would be able to contend with advantage against even their most stubborn enemies. The oath ex officio, which superseded the necessity of bringing evidence, and the unbailable imprisonment which lighted upon those who declined it-these, as they had been wielded by Archbishop Bancroft during his six years' sway, were promised to the delighted Scotchmen, who returned to their country elated with the greatness of their office and the fulness of their powers. Certain instructions were furnished by the King for the conduct of the court and the bishops. These, as might be expected, breathe a still higher Church strain than any that had preceded them. Lay elders are declared to have "no authority in Scripture, nor precedent in the primitive Church." Not only bishops, but deans and archdeacons, have their functions regulated, and all

*Collier's Church Hist., vii., 365. It would appear that the Court of High Commission was established in Scotland the year previous to the consecration of the bishops. See Cunningham's Church Hist. of Scotland, vol. ii., c. i.

1610.

Chap. IV. appears to be comfortably and satisfactorily established on the Anglican model. Murmurs, however, are soon heard from the great ones of the land at the extraordinary powers of the Court of High Commission, and the bishop-hating nature of the Scotch was not to be subdued so easily as the King and his prelates seem to have fancied.

Death of
Bancroft.
His charac-

ter.

Unpopu

Church with

*

Before a fortnight had elapsed after the consecration of the Scotch bishops, the English primate had breathed his last.† Bancroft was a prelate whose character it is difficult to dwell upon with satisfaction and pleasure. It is possible that he may have done the Church good service by his violent repression of Puritanism, but it was at the cost of considerable oppression and much obloquy. It is under his strict and searching administration that we trace the beginning of the unpopularity of larity of the the Church, not only with the Puritans, but with the laity in general. Not content to reserve his temporal power for extreme cases, and a last remedy, but making a constant and habitual use of it to further all his designs, he soon attached to it an especial odium, and came to be regarded by many as a persecuting tyrant. Those ministers who had substantially conformed he subjected to a new trial, by the device of a test which reached to their thoughts and opinions, and many men who would have gradually ripened into firm friends, were thus embittered into open enemies of the Church. He had the strictness, without the forbearance and

the laity under him.

Collier, vii., 367.

+ November 2, 1610.

1610.

geniality of Whitgift, the high notions without the Chap. IV. wit and learning of Andrewes. He disgusted the great by his lack of hospitality,* and frightened those of a lower rank by his passion and violence. Yet, on the other hand, he was an earnest, devoted, and untiring worker for what he conceived to be the interests of the Church. He was without suspicion of unduly favouring his own relations. At his death he left only a fortune of six thousand pounds, "no sum to speak a single man covetous,' says Fuller, "who had sat six years in the See of Canterbury, and somewhat longer in London."+

*"This I may truly say, that for his predecessor Whitgift, and his successor Abbot, I never heard nor read anything tending to their disparagement: but on him some unhappy wit vented this pasquin :

"Here lies his grace in cold earth clad,
Who died for want of what he had."

Wilson's Hist. of James I., p. 53.

+ Church Hist., x., iii., 45.

Chap. V. 1611.

CHAPTER V.

Bishops desire Andrewes for Primate-Abbot appointed by influence of Lord Dunbar-His character-Puritanism at OxfordLaud first comes into notice-Williams at Cambridge; Puritanism there-Promotion heaped on Laud and WilliamsWretched state of the Country clergy-The King writes against Vorstius-The new translation of the Bible - Burning of Legate and Wightman-Character of Bishop Neile-Foundation of the Charter House-Reappearance of the Puritans-Death of Prince Henry-Marriage of Princess Elizabeth-Divorce case of Lady Essex-Characters of Bishops Bilson and Neile affected -Founding of Wadham College at Oxford-A new Parliament-The court divines offend the Commons-Case of Edmund Peacham-The Comedy of Ignoramus at CambridgeSelden's treatise on Tithes-Death and character of Bishop Rudde, of St. David's-Death of Isaac Casaubon.

HE death of Archbishop Bancroft was a critical moment for the Church of England, and very much depended on the selection of his successor. It was now to be seen whether the harsh measures, which he had not scrupled to use, were to be the introduction to a time of general conformity which should permit the gradual relaxation of the strictness of authority, or whether, by an opposite course of policy being at once adopted, their effect should only survive in exasperation and ill-blood.

1611.

drewes for

The ravages of an epidemic or a conflagration are Chap. V. often most useful, if they awaken and compel attention to neglected sanitary laws, or the hitherto unheeded requirements of social life; so, a storm of persecution may be the preface to a happy and flourishing state of the Church. The bishops feel- Bishops deing the importance of the matter, met in all haste sire Anupon Bancroft's death, to consult together as to Primate. the prelate to be recommended to the King for his successor. They were divided between Overall and Andrewes, but most of them inclined towards Andrewes, who was certainly the first divine of the day for learning and talent, and who was an especial favourite with the King, by whose side he had just been engaged in fighting the battles against Bellarmine.* Whether the bishops actually recommended Andrewes to the King for the primacy seems uncertain. Perhaps they felt so sure that his majesty could select no one else, that they may not have thought it desirable to show themselves over-forward in the matter. But even if they did recommend him, there was an influence at work more powerful than theirs. Almost the only transaction which had proceeded with unbroken success for James since he came to the crown of England, was his scheme for restoring the Scotch Episcopacy. It had doubtless been adroitly managed, and the King felt that he owed a debt of gratitude to the politic Earl of Dunbar, who had conducted the whole business. But Dunbar had been greatly

* In his treatises, Tortura Torti and Responsio ad Bellar

minum.