XVI. Their fate was severe; the storms of persecution CENT. assailed them with unparalleled fury; and, thoughs.CT. 1. many princes of the royal blood, and a great PATIL number of the flower of the nobility, adopted their sentiments, and stood forth in their cause [e], yet it may nevertheless be affirmed, that no other part of the Reformed church suffered so grievously as they did for the sake of religion. Even the peace, which they obtained from Henry III. in the year 1576, was the source of that civil war, in which the powerful and ambitious house of 'Guise, instigated by the sanguinary suggestions of the Roman pontifs, aimed at nothing less than the extirpation of the royal family, and the utter ruin of the protestant religion; while the Huguenots, on the other hand, headed by leaders of the most heroic valour and the most illustrious rank, combated for their religion and for their sovereigns with various success. These dreadful commotions, in which both the contending parties committed such deeds as are yet, and always will be remembered with horror, were, at length, calmed by the fortitude and prudence of HENRY IV. This monarch, indeed, sacrificed the dictates of conscience to the suggestions of policy; and imagining, that his government could have no stable nor solid foundation, as long as he persisted in disowning the authority and jurisdiction of Rome, VOL. IV. Count Villars, in a letter written to the king of France, from the province of Languedoc, where he was lieutenant general, and dated the 11th of November, 1560, calls the riotous Calvinists of the Cevennes, Huguenots, and this is the first time that this term is found, in the registers of that province applied to the protestants. C c he [e] See the Histoire Eccles. des Eglises Reformées au Reyaume de France, published at Antwerp, in three volumes 8vo, in the year 1580, and supposed by many to have been written by Beza. The writers that have given the best accounts of the French reformed churches, their confession of faith, and their forms of worship and discipline, are enumerated by Kocherus, in his Bibliotheca Theolog. Symbolica, p. 299. SECT. III. CEN The renounced the Reformed religion, and made a XVI solemn and public profession of popery. PerPART II.ceiving, however, on the other hand, that it was not possible either to extirpate or suppress entirely the protestant religion, he granted to its professors, by the famous edict drawn up at Nantes in the year 1598, the liberty of serving God according to their consciences [f], and a full security for the enjoyment of their civil rights and privileges, without persecution or molestation from any quarter [g]. XVI. The church of Scotland acknowledges as its founder JOHN KNOX, the disciple of CALVIN; and, accordingly, from its first reformation, it adopted the doctrine, rites, and form of ecclesiastical government established at Geneva. These it has always adhered to with the utmost uniformity, and maintained with the greatest jealousy and zeal; so that even in the last century the designs of those who attempted to introduce certain changes into its discipline and worship, were publicly opposed by the force of arms [b]. A quite different constitution of things is observable in the church of England, which could never [f] This edict restored and confirmed, in the fullest terms, all the favours that had ever been granted to the protestants by other princes, and particularly by Henry III. To these privileges others were also added, which had never been granted, nor even demanded, before; such as a free admission to all employments of trust, honour and profit; the establishing courts and chambers in which the professors of the two religions were equal in number; and the permitting the children of protestants to be educated, without any molestation or constraint, in the public universities. [g] Benoit, Histoire da l'Edit. de Nantes, tom. i. lib. v. p. 200.-Daniel, Hist. de France,tom. ix. p. 4c9.-Boulay, Hist. Academ. Paris. tom. vi. [b] Salig. Hist. Aug. Confession. part II. lib. vi. cap. i. p. 403.- Dr Mosheim alludes, in this passage, to the attempts made under the reign of Charles II. to introduce episcopacy in to Scotland. XVI. never be brought to an entire compliance with C EN T. the ecclesiastical laws of Geneva, and which re- SECT. III. tained, but for a short time, even those which it PART II. adopted. It is well known, that the greatest part of those English, who first threw off the yoke of Rome, seemed much more inclined to the sentiments of LUTHER concerning the eucharist, the form of public worship, and ecclesiastical government, than to those of the Swiss churches. But the scene changed after the death of HENRY VIII. when, by the industrious zeal of CALVIN, and his disciples, more especially PETER MARTYR, the cause of Lutheranism lost ground considerably; and the universities, schools, and churches became the oracles of Calvinism, which also acquired new votaries among the people from day to day [i]. Hence it happened, that when it was proposed, under the reign of EDWARD VI. to give a fixed and stable form to the doctrine and discipline of the church, Geneva was acknowledged as a sister church; and the theological system, there established by CALVIN, was adopted, and rendered the public rule of faith in England. This, however, was done without any change of the form of episcopal government, which had already taken place, and was entirely different from that of Geneva; nor was this step attended with any alteration of several religious rites and ceremonies, which were looked upon as superstitious by the greatest part of the Reformed. This dif ference, however, between the two churches, though it appeared at first of little consequence, and, in the judgment even of CALVIN, was esteemed an object of toleration and indulgence, was, nevertheless, in after-ages, a source of many calamities and dissensions, that were highly detrimental Cc 2 [i] Loscheri Hist. Motuum, part II. lib. iii. cap. vii. p. 67. Salig. Hist. Aug. Confession. tom. ii. lib. vi. cap. iii. p. 317. CENT. trimental both to the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of Great Britain. XVI. SECT. III. PART II. The rise of tang. XVII. The origin of these unhappy dissensions, which it has not as yet been possible entirely to the Puri- heal, must be sought for in the conduct of those persecuted fugitives, who, to save their lives, their families, and their fortunes, from the bloody rage and inhuman tyranny of queen MARY, left the places of their nativity in the year 1554, and took refuge in Germany [k]. Of these fugitive congregations [] I cannot help mentioning the uncharitableness of the Lutherans, upon this occasion, who hated these unhappy exiles, because they were Sacramentarians (for so the Lutherans called those who denied Christ's bodily presence in the eucharist), and expelled from their cities such of the English Protestants as repaired to them, as a refuge from popish superstition and persecution. Such as sought for shelter in France, Geneva, and those parts of Switzerland and Germany where the Reformation had taken place, and where Lutheranism was not professed, were received with great humanity, and allowed places of public worship. But it was at Frankfort that the exiles were most numerous; and there began the contest and division which gave rise to that separation from the church of England which continues to this day. It is, however, a piece of justice due to the memory of the excellent Melancthon, to observe, that he warmly condemned this uncharitable treatment, and more especially the indecent reproaches which the Lutherans cast upon the English martyrs who had sealed the Reformation with their calling them the Devil's martyrs. "Vociferantur quidam (says this amiable reformer) Martyres Anglicos esse Martyres Diaboli. Nolim hac contumalia officere sanctum spiritum in Latimero, qui annum octogesimum egressus fuit, et in aliis sanctis viris, quos novi." These are the words of this truly Christian Reformer, in one of his letters to Camerarius, Epist. lib. iv. p. 959. and in another of his letters, speaking of the burning of Burgius at Paris, he thus severely censures Westphal's intolerant principles: "Tales viros ait Westphalus esse Diaboli Martyres. Hanc judicii perversitatem quis non detestetur?" Ep. lib. ii. p. 387. Such were the humane and liberal sentiments of Melancthon, which have rendered his name so precious to the lovers of piety, probity, and moderation; while the zealots of his own church have treated his memory with obloquy, and composed dissertations de Indifferentismo Melancthonis. N. 譬 The XVI. congregations some performed divine worship CENT with the rites that had been authorized by ED-SECT. II. WARD VI.; while others preferred the Swiss me- PART II. thod of worship as more recommendable on account of its purity and simplicity. The former were called Conformists, on account of their compliance with the ecclesiastical laws enacted by the prince now mentioned; and the denominations of Non-conformists and Puritans were given to the latter, from their insisting upon a form of worship, more exempt from superstition, and of a more pure kind, than the liturgy of EDWARD seemed to them to be. These denominations became permanent marks of distinction, which still continue to denote those different religious communities which divide the British nation. controversy concerning the ceremonial part of divine worship that had divided the exiles abroad, changed scenes, and was removed with them to England, when the auspicious succession of queen ELIZABETH to the throne permitted them to return to their native country. The hopes of enjoying liberty, and of promoting each their respective systems, increased their contests instead, of diminishing them; and the breach widened to such a degree, that the most sagacious and provident observers of things seemed to despair of seeing it healed. The wise queen, in her design to accomplish the reformation of the church, was fully resolved not to confine herself to the model exhibited by the protestants of Geneva, and their adherents to the Puritans ; and, therefore, she recommended to the attention and imitation of the doctors, that were employed in this weighty and important matter, the practice and institutions of the primitive ages [7]. When her plan was put [] Dr Mosheim seems disposed, by this ambiguous expression of the primitive ages, to insinuate that queen EliCc 3 zabeth |