Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction
"My lord has sent to know if I know aught of one Robert Browne, with whom
he is having trouble. This Mr. Browne has lately come from Cambridge, and
so my lord thought I might know something of him; but I do not. This
gentleman has been saying some wild and foolish things, I fear; and
desires that every church should be free of all others; and should
appoint its own minister, and rule its own affairs without interference,
and that prophesyings should be without restraint. Now, you know, Mr.
Norris, I have always tried to serve that party, and support them in
their gospel religion; but this goes too far. Where were any governance
at all, if all this were to come about? where were the Rule of Faith? the
power of discipline? Nay, where were the unity for which our Saviour
prayed? It liketh me not. Good Dr. Freake, as his messenger tells me,
feels as I do about this; and desires to restrain Mr. Browne, but he is
so hot he will not be restrained; and besides, he is some kin to my Lord
Burghley, so I fear his mouth will be hard to stop."
Anthony could not help thinking of Mr. Buxton's prediction that the
Church of England had so repudiated authority, that in turn her own would
one day be repudiated.
"A Papist prisoner, your Grace," he said, "said to me the other day that
this would be sure to come: that the whole principle of Church authority
had been destroyed in England; and that the Church of England would more
and more be deserted by her children; for that there was no necessary
centre of unity left, now that Peter was denied."
"It is what a Papist is bound to say," replied the Archbishop; "but it is
easy to prophesy, when fulfilment may be far away. Indeed, I think we
shall have trouble with some of these zealous men; and the Queen's Grace
was surely right in desiring some restraint to be put upon the Exercises.
But it is mere angry raving to say that the Church of England will lose
the allegiance of her children."
Anthony could not feel convinced that events bore out the Archbishop's
assertion. Everywhere the Puritans were becoming more outrageously
disloyal. There were everywhere signs of disaffection and revolt against
the authorities of the Establishment, even on the part of the most
sincere and earnest men, many of whom were looking forward to the day
when the last rags of popery should be cast away, and formal
Presbyterianism inaugurated in the Church of England. Episcopal
Ordination was more and more being regarded as a merely civil
requirement, but conveying no ministerial commission; recognition by the
congregation with the laying on of the hands of the presbyterate was the
only ordination they allowed as apostolic.
Anthony said a word to the Archbishop about this.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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