But the ulterior design which the king intended to accomplish by the incorporation of this church, is what I have particularly in view. This is explicitly stated by A Lasco, in a book which he published in 1555. In his dedication of it to Sigismund, king of Poland, he says, “When I was called by that king, [Edward VI.] and when certain laws of the country stood in the way, so that the public rites of divine worship used under popery could not {409} immediately be purged out (which the king himself desired;) and when I was earnest for the foreign churches, it was at length his pleasure, that the public rites of the English churches should be reformed by degrees, as far as could be got done by the laws of the country; but that strangers, who were not strictly bound to these laws in this matter, should have churches granted unto them, in which they should freely regulate all things _wholly according to apostolical doctrine and practice_, without any regard to the rites of the country; that by this means the English churches also might be excited to embrace the apostolical purity, by the unanimous consent of all the estates of the kingdom. Of this project, the king himself, from his great piety, was both the chief author and the defender. For, although it was almost universally acceptable to the king’s council, and the archbishop of Canterbury promoted it with all his might, there were not wanting some who took it ill, and would have opposed it, had not his Majesty checked them by his authority, and the reasons which he adduced for the design.” Again, in the Appendix to the same book, p. 649, he says, “The care of our church was committed to us chiefly with this view, that in the ministration thereof, we should follow the rule of the divine word and apostolical observance, rather than any rites of other churches. In fine, we were admonished both by the king himself, and his chief nobility, to use this great liberty granted to us in our ministry, rightly and faithfully, not to please men but for the glory of God, by promoting the reformation of his worship.” The following are the original words of the author: “Cum ego quoque per Regem illum vocatus essem: et leges quædam patriæ obstarent, quominus publici potissimum cultus divini ritus sub papismo usurpati (pro eo ac rex ipse cupiebat) repurgari protinus possunt. Ego vero peregrinorum ecclesiis sedulo instarem, ita demum placuit, ut ritus publici in Anglicis Ecclesiis per gradus quosdam (quantum per leges patrias omnino liceret) repurgarentur: Peregrinis vero hominibus (qui patriis hac alioqui in parte legibus non usque adeo tenerentur) ecclesiæ concederentur in quibus omnia libere, et nulla rituum patriorum habita ratione (juxta doctrinam duntaxit atque observationem apostolicam) instituerentur, ita enim fore, ut Anglicæ quoque ecclesiæ ad puritatem apostolicam amplectendam unanimi {410} omnium regni ordinum consensu excitarentur.