desperate resolutions who had rather venture at large their decayed bottom, than bring her in to be new-trimmed in the dock,--who had rather promiscuously retain all, than abridge any, and obstinately be what they are, than what they have been, as to stand in diameter and sword's point with them. We have reformed from them, not against them: for, omitting those improperations and terms of scurrility betwixt us, which only difference our affections, and not our cause, there is between us one common name and appellation, one faith and necessary body of principles common to us both; and therefore I am not scrupulous to converse and live with them, to enter their churches in defect of ours, and either pray with them or for them. I could never perceive any rational consequence from those many texts which prohibit the children of Israel to pollute themselves with the temples of the heathens; we being all Christians, and not divided by such detested impieties as might profane our prayers, or the place wherein we make them; or that a resolved conscience may not adore her Creator any where, especially in places devoted to his service; where, if their devotions offend him, mine may please him; if theirs profane it, mine may hallow it. Holy water and crucifix (dangerous to the common people) deceive not my judgment, nor abuse my devotion at all. I am, I confess, naturally inclined to that which misguided zeal terms superstition: my common conversation I do acknowledge austere, my behaviour full of rigor, sometimes not without morosity; yet, at my devotion I love to use the civility of my knee, my hat, and hand, with all those outward and sensible motions which may express or promote my invisible devotion. I should violate my own arm rather than a church; nor willingly deface the name of saint or martyr.9 At the sight of a cross, or crucifix, I can dispense with my hat, but scarce with the thought or memory of my Saviour. I cannot laugh at, but rather pity, the fruitless journeys of pilgrims, or contemn the miserable condition of

8. . . . improperations] From impropero, to reproach, to taunt; see in Plaut. Rud. 3, 4. MS. R. has a blank in place of the word; and in MS. L. it stands, impropriations.-Ed.

9 I should violate my own arm rather

than a church; nor willingly, &c.] The two editions of 1642 and MSS. W. & R. have this sentence thus: "I should cut off my arm, rather than violate a church window, than deface or demolish the memory of a saint or martyr."—Ed.

friars; for, though misplaced in circumstances, there is something in it of devotion. I could never hear the Ave-Mary bell without an elevation, or think it a sufficient warrant, because they erred in one circumstance, for me to err in all,— that is, in silence and dumb contempt. Whilst, therefore, they directed their devotions to her, I offered mine to God; and rectified the errors of their prayers by rightly ordering mine own. At a solemn procession I have wept abundantly, while my consorts, blind with opposition and prejudice, have fallen into an excess of scorn and laughter. There are, questionless, both in Greek, Roman, and African churches, solemnities and ceremonies, whereof the wiser zeals do make a Christian use; and which stand condemned by us, not as evil in themselves, but as allurements and baits of superstition" to those vulgar heads that look asquint on the face of truth, and those unstable judgments that cannot consist in the narrow point and centre of virtue without a reel or stagger to the circumference.

SECT. IV. As there were many reformers, so likewise many reformations; every country proceeding in a particular way and method, according as their national interest, together with their constitution and clime, inclined them: some angrily and with extremity; others calmly and with mediocrity, not rending, but easily dividing, the community, and leaving an honest possibility of a reconciliation;—which, though peaceable spirits do desire, and may conceive that revolution of time and the mercies of God may effect, yet that judgment that shall consider the present antipathies between the two extremes,—their contrarieties in condition, affection, and opinion,3-may, with the same hopes, expect a union in the poles of heaven.

A church-bell, that tolls every day at six and twelve of the clock; at the hearing whereof every one, in what place soever, either of house or street, betakes himself to his prayer, which is commonly directed to the Virgin.

a

clime, &c.] The Lansdowne MS. reads "with their constitution and temper, inclined them: some with extremity and fury, &c."-Ed.

3....

. opinion,-] In the Lansdowne MS. the paragraph is thus concluded: "—and will not easily despair of so happy an effect, may as easily conceive an union with the poles in heaven."-Ed.

SECT. V. But, to difference myself nearer, and draw into a lesser circle; there is no church whose every part so squares unto my conscience, whose articles, constitutions, and customs, seem so consonant unto reason, and, as it were, framed to my particular devotion, as this whereof I hold my belief-the church of England; to whose faith I am a sworn subject, and therefore, in a double obligation, subscribe unto her articles, and endeavour to observe her constitutions: whatsoever is beyond, as points indifferent, I observe according to the rules of my private reason, or the humor and fashion of my devotion; neither believing this because Luther affirmed it, nor disapproving that because Calvin hath disavouched it. I condemn not all things in the council of Trent, nor approve all in the synod of Dort. In brief, where the Scripture is silent, the church is my text; where that speaks, 't is but my comment; where there is a joint silence of both, I borrow not the rules of my religion from Rome or Geneva, but from the dictates of my own reason. It is an unjust scandal of our adversaries, and a gross error in ourselves, to compute the nativity of our religion from Henry the Eighth; who, though he rejected the Pope, refused not the faith of Rome, and effected no more than what his own predecessors desired and essayed in ages past, and it was conceived the state of Venice would have

5....

disapproving] Thus in MS. R.; MS. L. has, disallowing; MS. W. and all the editions read, disproving; but, without doubt, incorrectly.-Ed.

6. ... who, though he rejected the Pope, refused not the faith of Rome,] So much Buchanan, in his own life, written by himself, testifieth; who, speaking of his coming into England, about the latter end of that king's time, saith, "sed ibi tum omnia adeo erant incerta, ut eodem die ac eodem igne (very strange!) utriusque factionis homines cremarentur, Henrico viii, jam seniore suæ magis securitati quam religionis puritati intento." Opera, Omnia, cur. Ruddimanno. Edin. 1715, p. 3. And, for confirmation of this as

sertion of the author, vide Stat. 31 Hen. VIII, cap. xiv.-K.

See also Hume, History of England, chap. 31, anno 1534.-Lingard, Hist. of England, Hen. VIII, ch. 3, 1531, May 4. -Ibid. chap. iv, § 3.-Henry, Hist. of Great Britain, vol. xii, p. 71.

Instead of refused, the Editions of 1642, and all the MSS. read, confuted.—Ed.

7. ... and effected no more than what his own predecessors, &c.] It can scarcely be necessary to illustrate this allusion by reminding the reader of the long and repeated struggles maintained against papal tyranny by many sovereigns of this kingdom before the time of Henry VIII, especially by William Rufus, and Henry I & II, against Anselm and Becket, and John against Pope Innocent III. But these contests ever ended in the advancement of the claims and power of Rome, and in the humiliation of the king and government. Nor will this result surprise

attempted in our days. It is as uncharitable a point in us to fall upon those popular scurrilities and opprobrious scoffs of the bishop of Rome, to whom, as a temporal prince, we owe the duty of good language. I confess there is a cause of passion

between us: by his sentence I stand excommunicated; heretic is the best language he affords me: yet can no ear witness I ever returned to him the name of antichrist, man of sin, or whore of Babylon. It is the method of charity to suffer without reaction: those usual satires and invectives of the pulpit may perchance produce a good effect on the vulgar, whose ears are opener to rhetoric than logic; yet do they, in no wise, confirm the faith of wiser believers, who know that a good cause needs not be patroned by passion, but can sustain itself upon a temperate dispute.

SECT. VI. I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgment for ' not agreeing with me in that from which, perhaps, within a few days, I should dissent myself.

breasts of every class of citizens against the court of Rome; offers of men and money were poured daily into the senate, to resist these arbitrary proceedings; and even the clergy, in spite of the intrigues of secret agents and the increasing efforts of the nuncio, disregarded the papal authority, and continued to say mass in the churches as before. The monks of the order of St. Bernard offered a hundred and fifty thousand ducats towards the general defence; and, in fine, the most unequivocal spirit was manifested by all ranks and degrees, except the immediate agents of Rome, to support the independence of their country. Under these circumstances, the nuncio had recourse to entreaty; and he conjured the senate to offer some terms of accommodation to the holy father, to avert the dreadful sentence of excommunication: but the Doge, in the following reply, as cited by Daru, left no alternative but an immediate rupture with the holy see. "L'Europe," said he, "ne pourra que désapprouver la rigueur que le pape veut employer contre un peuple qui a toujours montré tant de zèle pour la réligion, et tant de dévouement au saintsiége. Vous conseillez la paix; mais c'est à ceux qui la troublent que vous devez offrir vos conseils. Vous nous exhortez à ne pas nous exposer à de plus grands dangers. Il en est un très-grand, que le pape aurait a craindre, si la république, moins fidèle a ses principes, n'écoutait que son juste ressentiment; ce serait, qu'elle se separát elle-même de l'obéissance du saint siége, à l'imitation de tant de

I have no genius to dis

peuples qui en ont donné recemment l'exemple. Faites sentir ce danger au saintpère; engagez-le à écouter des conseils plus pacifiques. Mon àge et mon expérience m'autorisent à vous parler ainsi."After this formal answer, the Venetian ambassador was recalled from Rome, and the nuncio received orders to quit Venice. The most violent manifestoes were published on each side of the question: nearly the whole of the courts of Europe were, either voluntarily or at the request of the Pope, involved in the dispute; and it was not until the month of April of the following year (1607) that an accommodation was effected, through the mediation of the court of France, which for a time covered the embers of animosity, without entirely extinguishing them. No rejoicings, however, took place on the occasion. Every application for the restoration of the Jesuits was peremptorily refused; and in Venice they have never again been tolerated. It is a curious fact, that Paul V, when only a cardinal, once being in conversation with Leonard Donato, at that time ambassador of Venice at the court of Rome, declared that, if he were Pope, and the republic should give him cause of dissatisfaction, he would not lose his time in manifestoes and negotiations, but would immediately issue his interdict against it. "And I," returned Donato, "if I were Doge, would despise your anathemas." Each of them had his determination put to the proof, by the events which took place.-Ed.

9. ... or be angry with his judgment &c.] I cannot think but, in this expres