King James made the deputation explain themselves; and after a day's
debate, he angrily told them that they were aiming at a Scottish
presbytery, which agreed with monarchy as well as God and the Devil.
"No bishop, no king!" added his Majesty. Some few members of the
Conference maintained that the Puritans had been crushed and insulted;
but Chancellor Egerton said he had never seen king and priest so fully
united in one person as in that of his sacred Majesty, and Bancroft
(afterwards Archbishop) fell upon his knees, unctuously exclaiming that
his heart melted for joy to think that England was blessed with such a
ruler. The bishops and privy-councillors then conferred alone, altered
a few expressions in the Liturgy, and summoned the Puritans to hear
their decision. Dr Raynolds, the Puritan spokesman, entreated that the
use of the surplice and the sign of the cross in baptism might be laid
aside, or at least not made compulsory, but the King sternly told him
that they preferred the credit of a few private men to the peace of the
Church; that he would have none of this arguing; "wherefore let them
conform, and quickly too, or they shall hear of it." By this
short-sighted policy, the opportunity for really securing peace to the
Church was lost for sixty years, and many of the troubles of the next
reign were sown. The next step was to arrest ten of the Puritan
leaders; and then to eject from their benefices three hundred clergy of
that school. Among these was Mr Marshall, the pastor of our friends.
Lady Louvaine was sorely troubled. She said they were now as sheep
without a shepherd, and were but too likely to have a shepherd set over
them who would fleece and devour the sheep. Of these clergy some joined
the Presbyterians, some the Brownists--whom people now began to call
Independents: others remained in the Church, ceasing to minister, and
following such callings as they deemed not unbecoming the position of a
Christian minister--chiefly tutorship and literature. Mr Marshall was
in the last class. He said better times might come, and he could not
see his way to desert the Church, though her ways to him at this present
were somewhat step-motherly.
"But how, Mr Marshall, if the Church cast you forth?" asked Temperance.
"Then must I needs go," he answered with a smile. "But that, look you,
were not my deed, nor should I be responsible for it before God. So
long as I break not her laws, she hath no right to eject me; and so long
as she abideth in the truth, I have no right to desert her."
"But the bishops abide not in the truth, as I take it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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