The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut | Page 9

nations.
The death of Mary Queen of Scots crushed the Catholic party, and the
defeat of the Armada left Elizabeth free to turn her attention to the
phases of the Protestant movement in her own realm. While Browne
was preaching in Norwich, the Queen raised Whitgift to the See of
Canterbury. He was the bitter opponent of all nonconformity, and
immediately the persecution both of Separatists and of Puritans became
severe. Elizabeth, sure at last of her throne and of her position as head
of the Protestant cause in Europe, gave her minister a free hand. She
demanded rigid conformity, but wisely forbore to revive many of the
customs which the Puritans had succeeded in rendering obsolete.
Notwithstanding such modifications, the English liturgy had been so
slightly altered that, "Pius the Fifth did see so little variation in it from
the Latin service that had been formerly used in that Kingdom that he
would have ratified it by his authority, if the Queen would have so

received it." [m] Elizabeth now forbade all preaching, teaching, and
catechising in private houses, and refused to recognize lay or
Presbyterian ordination. Ministers who could no longer accept
episcopal ordination, or subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles, or
approve the Book of Common Prayer and conform to its liturgy were
silenced and deprived of their salaries. In default of witnesses, charges
against them were proved by their own testimony under oath, whereby
they were made to incriminate themselves. The censorship of the press
was made stringent, printing was restricted to London and to the two
universities, and all printers had to be licensed. Furthermore, all
publications, even pamphlets, had to receive the approval of the
Primate or of the Bishop of London. In addition, the Queen established
the Ecclesiastical Commission of forty-four members, which became a
permanent court where all authority virtually centred in the hands of the
archbishops. English law had not as yet defined the powers and
limitations of the Protestant clergy. Consequently, this Commission
assumed almost unlimited powers and cared little for its own
precedents. Its very existence undid a large part of the work of the
Reformation, and the successive Archbishops of Canterbury, Parker,
Whitgift, Bancroft, Abbott, and Laud, claimed greater and more
despotic authority than any papal primate since the days of Augustine.
The Commission passed upon all opinions or acts which it held to be
contrary to the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. It altered or
amended the Statutes of Schools and Colleges; it claimed the right of
deprivation of clergy and held them at its mercy; it passed from
decisions upon heresy, schism, or nonconformity to judgment and
sentence upon incest and similar crimes. It could fine and imprison at
will, and employ any measures for securing information or calling
witnesses. The result was that all nonconformists and all Puritans drew
closer together under trial. Another result was that the Bible was
studied more earnestly in private, and that there was a public eager to
read the religious books and pamphlets published abroad and
cautiously circulated in England. Though the Presbyterians were
confined to the nonconformist clergy and to a comparatively small
number among them, they were rising in importance, and were
accorded sympathetic recognition as a section of the Puritan party. This
party, as a whole, continued to increase its membership. The

Separatists also increased, for, as of old, the blood of the martyrs
became the seed of the church.
The hope that times would mend when James ascended the throne was
soon abandoned. As he had been trained in Scotch Presbyterianism, the
Presbyterians believed that he would grant them some favor, while the
Puritans looked for some conciliatory measures. Eight hundred Puritan
ministers, a tenth of all the clergy, signed the "Millenary Petition,"
asking that the practices which they most abhorred, such as the sign of
the cross in baptism, the use of the surplice, the giving of the ring at
marriage, and the kneeling during the communion service, should be
done away with. The petition was not Presbyterian, but was strictly
Puritan in tone. It asked for no change in the government or
organization of the church. It did ask for a reform in the ecclesiastical
courts, and it demanded provision for the training of godly ministers.
James replied to the petition by promising a conference of prelates and
of Puritan ministers to consider their demands; but at the conference it
was found that he had summpned it only to air the theological
knowledge upon which he so greatly prided himself. His answer to the
petition was that he would have "one doctrine, one religion, in
substance and in ceremony," and of the remonstrants he added, "I will
make them conform or I will harry them out of the land." The harrying
began. The recently organized Separatist