The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10Dryden, John
Religion
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10
Dryden, John
English literature
The personal appearance of the Presbyterian clergy was suited by an
affectation of extreme plainness and rigour of appearance. A Geneva
cloak and band, with the hair close cropped, and covered with a sort
of black scull-cap, was the discriminating attire of their teachers.
This last article of dress occasioned an unseemly projection of their
ears, and procured those who affected it the nick-name of prick-eared
fanatics, and the still better known appellation of Round-heads. Our
author proceeds, with great bitterness, to investigate the origin
of Calvinism. His account of the rise and destruction of a sect of
heretics in Cambria may be understood to refer to the ancient British
church, which disowned the supremacy of the see of Rome, refused to
adopt her ritual, and opposed St Augustin's claims to be metropolitan
of Britain, in virtue of Pope Gregory's appointment. They held two
conferences with Augustin; at one of which he pretended to work a
miracle by the cure of a blind man; at the second, seven British
bishops, and a numerous deputation from the monastery of Bangor,
disputed with Augustin, who denounced vengeance against them by the
sword of the Saxons, in case they refused to submit to the see of Rome.
His prophecy, which had as little effect upon the Welch clergy as his
miracle, was shortly afterwards accomplished: For Ethelfred, the Saxon
king of Northumberland, having defeated the British under the walls of
Chester, cut to pieces no fewer than twelve hundred of the monks of
Bangor, who had come to assist their countrymen with their prayers. Our
author alludes to this extermination of the British recusant clergy,
by comparing it to the census, or tribute of wolves-heads, imposed
on the Cambrian kings. It has been surmised by some authors, that
Augustin himself instigated this massacre, and thereby contributed to
the accomplishment of his own prophecy. Other authorities say, that he
died in 604, and that the monks of Bangor were slain in 613. Perhaps,
however, our author did not mean to carry the rise of Presbytery so
far back, but only referred to the doctrines of Wiccliff, who, in the
reign of Edward III., and his successor Richard II., taught publicly at
Oxford several doctrines inconsistent with the supremacy of the Pope,
and otherwise repugnant to the doctrines of the Roman church. He was
protected during his lifetime by John of Gaunt; but, forty years after
his death, his bones were dug up and burned for heresy. His followers
were called Lollards, and were persecuted with great severity in the
reign of Henry V., Lord Cobham and many others being burned to death.
Thinking, perhaps, either of these too honourable and ancient a descent
for the English Presbyterians, our author next refers to Heylin, who
brings them from Geneva,[136] where the reformed doctrine was taught
by the well known Zuinglius, and the still more famous Calvin. The
former began to preach the Reformation at Zurich about 1518, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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