The Church And the Puritans 1570 1660

Authors: Henry Offley Wakeman

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. ELIZABETH AND THE PURITANS. While Elizabeth, with the nation at her back, was thus battling to the death, not always wisely, but The spread always manfully and successfully, against of Calvin- / / . " B ism foreign aggression and internal sedition, she was threatened with another difficulty at home, which was eventually to prove far more formidable to her system of government than any danger from abroad. During the years which had elapsed since her accession, religious opinion in England had been fast becoming more and more Calvinistic. The bulk of the Clergy, brought up amid the disputes and the doubts of the Reformation, had learned contentedly to acquiesce in every form of worship prescribed by authority which was reasonably orthodox, and had found it impossible to be enthusiastic about any

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. As we have seen, the devout among the Englishmen of the times of Edward and Mary had naturally been drawn towards the two extremes of Rome and Geneva. After the accession of Elizabeth this tendency became even more marked. Elizabeth had succeeded in inducing some of the Marian exiles, who had taken refuge at Basel and Zurich to accept Bishoprics ; but a measure which was necessary to preserve the appearance of unity was fatal to interior discipline. Diocese differed from diocese in the doctrine taught and the forms used. In days when uniformity was the policy of all parties, and toleration ofdifferences was considered inadmissible?while the Roman system presented to the devout an assumption of monopoly which dazzled the intellect, and a reality of devotion which won the heart; while Calvinism offered a masterful logic which enslaved the mind, and an organised discipline which dominated the will?the Church of England held out but a doubtful and hesitating compromi...

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