LIBERALS AND CALVINISTS. 315 and each congregation being governed according to the Presbyterian order. The germs of the Arminian controversy are obvious in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The party which called for full toleration, and were impatient of strict creeds and a rigid discipline, contended, also, for the union of Church and State. The Spanish persecution confirmed the Liberals in the fear that the Church would subject the State to an ecclesiastical tyranny; it confirmed the Calvinists in the fear that the State would subject the Church to a political despotism. CHAPTER X. THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. THERE is reason to believe that the Lollards, as the disciples of Wickliffe were called, were still numerous among the rustic population of England at the beginning of the sixteenth century. We have records of the recantation of some and the burning of other adherents of this sect in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII.1 When John Knox preached in the North of England and the South of Scotland, he found a cordial reception for his doctrine in districts where the Lollards lived. The revival of learning had also prepared a very different class in English society for ecclesiastial reform. Linguistic and patristic studies had begun to flourish under the influence of Thomas More, Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and other friends of Erasmus, and under the personal influence of Erasmus himself. Wolsey, whatever may have been his faults, was a liberal patron of learning. He obtained leave to suppress not less than twenty smaller monasteries, and to use their property for the establishment of a noble college, Christ Church, at Oxford, and of another college as a nursery for it, at Ipswich. His fall from power prevented the full accomplishment of the vast educational plans which form his best title to esteem. Wolsey was disinclined to persecution, and preferred to burn heretical 1 Burnet, History of the Reformation in the Church of England (ed. 1825, 6 vols.), i. 37. Hallam, Const. History of England, ch. ii. 2 G. Weber, Geschichte d. Kirchenreformation in Grossbrittanien, i. 140. PECULIARITY OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 317 books, rather than heretics themselves.1 Most of the friends of "the new learning" were disposed to remedy ecclesiastical abuses.2 The writings of Luther early found approving readers, especially among the young men at Oxford and Cambridge. The younger generation of Humanists did not stop at the point reached by Colet and More. Tyndale and Frith, both of whom perished as martyrs, and their associates, read the German books with avidity. Tyndale's version of the New Testament was circulated in spite of the efforts of the government to suppress it. It was impossible that the ferment that existed on the continent should fail to extend itself across the channel. Yet at first the signs were not auspicious for the new doctrine. King Henry VIII. appeared in the lists as an antagonist of Luther, and received from Leo X., in return for his polemical book upon the Sacraments, the title of "Defender of the Faith."5 Little did either of them imagine that the same monarch would shortly strike one of the heaviest blows at the Papal dominion. - The peculiarity of the English Reformation lies, not in the separation of a political community in this case a powerful nation from the papal see; for the same thing took place generally where the Reformation prevailed; but it lies in the fact that it involved immediately so little departure from the dogmatic system of the mediaval 1 Blunt, History of the Reformation in England (from 1514 to 1547), gives an interesting account, and presents a flattering estimate, of the services of Wolsey. 2 See the sketch of Colet's sermon before the Convocation of Canterbury (1572) in Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers of 1498: also in Blunt, p. 10. Milman, Annals of St. Paul's, ch. vi., gives an interesting sketch of Colet's life. 8 Frith was burned at Smithfield in 1533. Tyndale was strangled and burned near Brussels in 1536. 4 Erasmus, in a letter to Luther, speaks of the warm reception of his writings in England. Erasmi Opera, iii. 445. Warham, in a letter to Wolsey, under date of March 8, 1521, reports to what extent Lutheran books had found readers at Oxford. Blunt, p. 74. 5 This title was intended for himself personally, but was retained after his oreach with Rome, and transmitted to his successors. Lingard, History of England, vi. 90, n. Church. At the outset, the creed, and, to a great extent, the polity and ritual, of the Church in England remained intact. Thus in the growth of the English Reformation, there were two factors, the one, in a sense, political; the other, doctrinal or religious. These two agencies might coalesce or might clash with one another. They could not fail to act upon one another with great effect. They moved upon different lines; yet there were certain principal ends, which, from the beginning, they had in common.. Owing to this peculiarity, the leaders of English Reform on the spiritual side did not play the prominent part which was taken by the Reformers in Scotland and on the Continent. In other countries, the political adherents of Protestantism were auxiliaries rather than principals. The foreground was occupied by men like Luther, Calvin, and Knox. In England there were individuals of marked learning, energy, and courage; but to a considerable extent they were cast into the shade by the controlling position which was assumed by rulers and statesmen. The English Reformation, instead of pursuing its course as a religious and intellectual movement, was subject, in an important degree, to the disturbing force of governmental authority, of worldly policy.1 to Henry VIII. had been married, in his twelfth year, Catharine of Aragon, the widow of his deceased brother Arthur, and the aunt of the Emperor Charles V. A dispensation had been obtained previously from Pope Julius II., marriage with a deceased brother's wife being contrary to the canon law. Scruples had been entertained early by some in regard to the validity of the dispensation, and, consequently, of the marriage. Whether Henry himself shared these scruples prior to his acquaintance with Anne Boleyn, it may not be easy to determine. Nor can we say how far his disappointment in 1 Macaulay, Review of Hallam (Essays, i. 146). DIVORCE OF HENRY VIII. 319 not having a male heir to his throne may have prompted him to seek for a divorce. It is not improbable that the death of his children excited in his mind a superstitious feeling respecting the lawfulness of his connection with Catharine. Yet according to her solemn testimony, made in his presence, the marriage with Arthur had not been consummated; and if so, the main ground of these alleged misgivings and of the application for the annulling of the marriage had no reality. His application to Clement VII. for the annulling of the marriage, was founded on two grounds: first, that it is not competent for the Pope to grant a dispensation in such a case; and secondly, that it was granted on the basis of erroneous representations. Henry's passion for 'Anne Boleyn made the delay and vacillation of Clement in regard to the divorce the more unbearable. The Pope might naturally shrink from annulling the act of his predecessor by a decree which would involve, at the same time, a restriction of the papal prerogative. But the real and obvious motive of his procrastinating and evasive conduct was his reluctance to offend Charles V. This temporizing course in one whose exalted office implied a proportionate moral independence, was not adapted to increase the loyalty of the King or of his people to the Papacy. By the advice of Cranmer, Henry laid the question of the validity of the dispensation before the universities of Europe, not abstaining, however, from the use of bribery abroad, and of menaces at home. Meantime he proceeded to the adoption of measures for reducing the power of the Pope and of the clergy in England. Jealousy in regard to the wealth and the usurpations of the hierarchical body, which had long been a growing feeling, prepared the nation for these bold measures. One sign of this feeling was the satisfaction which had been felt at the restraints laid upon the privilege of clerical exemption from responsibility to the civil tribunals. In the preceding reign, a bishop had |