£ARLY ENGLISH PURITANISM A3 EXEMPLIFIED IN THE LIFE AMD OF HENRY SMITH A Thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D., Edinburgh University DOUGLAS EVOiM NELSON, B.A. , Th.B. November, 1939 TABLE OF Chapter Preface i . ENGLISH PURITANISM: QRI^I^ AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT . i Part One- The beginning of the vestiarian controversy under Edward VI. Part Two- The Reformation in exile. The Troubles uf Frankfort. The English Church at G-eneva; its contributions to later Puritanism II. PUhiTANIdu UNDER ELIZABETH (1558-1568).......... 25 The hopeful return or the exiles. Elizabeth and Parker hostile to the Genevan spirit. Principle of via media adopted in ecclesiasti­ cal policy. Act Qf Supremacy and Act of Uniformity give Elizabeth full scope ror her Tudor absolutism. Convocation of 156J5 closes door nnaily on Puritan hopes of concessions. Parker determined to enforce conformity in spite of reluctance or his bishops. III. PURITANISM (1568-1583) ....................... 49 Attack on Church shifts from vestments and rites to polity. Puritan party begins to organize around Presbyterianism of Cartwright. Admonitions to Parliament. .Yandsworth Presby. Book of Discipline arranged by Travers. Grindai and the "Prophesylngs". IV. PURITANISM (1583-16031......................... 82 Archbishop whitgift and his arbitrary policy. Court or High Commission ana its powers. Presbyterian activities on Continent and in Parliament. Cartwright and Browne. Synods and classes. Presbyterian movement subsides alter dereat 01 Armada. Marpreiate Tracts. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity deiines new basis for Churcn claims, flhitgirt and the Lambetn Articles. Doctrinal divergences begin to appear. TABLE OF (cont'd. ) Chapter V BRIEF HISTORY OF HEJNRI 5aITH(l^60-lb90) . 109 Birtn and family Background. His education at Oxford. Encounter with Robert Dickons. Studies under Richard Greenham. nis career at St. Clement's Danes. Suspension, defence, and restoration. His part In tne classes. G-od's Arrow Against Atnelsm And IrreilKion. Career cut shore Dy sickness, ms retire - menu and death. VI. Smith. Churcnman And Presbyterian ......... 128 His antipathy toward thetitles and cere­ monies of the Establishment. His funda­ mental loyaity to the Churcn places hiir; in opposition to the Separatists. Church- type vs, sect-type. VII SMlln AND THE MAGISTRATES, or LOYALIST ..... 140 versus EVENTUAL PRESBYTEiU^nISM Puritans or sixteenth century concerned with ecclesiastical rather than civil activity. Smith and his reverence for magistrates as God's anointed. Not uncritical however. Puritan view on ruler's duties and subject's obedience. VIII, Smith. Tne 3iblicist--rtITii ADDITIONS ........150 The typical Puritan insistence on Scripture as the only court of appeal on all matters of faith and conduct. Smith unconsciously adds to autnority of Bible by appeal to reason. Puritans accused of over-emphasis or Old Testament. Smith preaches whole ,Yord or God. IX. THE HUMANIST. ................ .160 Smith a poet, nis thirst for knowledge, his learning and the application of it mark him as Erasmian humanist. Poetic sense dis­ played in his use of imagery. TABLE OF COflTEisTS (cont'd.) Chapter Page X. SMITH. THE PURITAN vs. THE ,,QKLD .......... 166 Puritanism essentially etnical in emphasis. The .Puritan and his he art-searching. Smith not concerned with own soul to ex­ tent of neglecting others. As Puritan he le distrustful of world but takes his part in it. Puritan ascetic by instinct but in practice is practical and shrewd. Doctrine of calling and its effect on Puritan as a social being. Puritans and usury. Smith and the Puritan emphasis on practical faith as opposed to metaphysical specu­ lation. XI. SMITH. THE SILVEH-TQiMGUED PrtE^CHEix ....... 182 Puritan views on the duties and dignities of the preaching orrice. Smith's themes; personal, practical, ethical, and poetical. nis style: forensic and schematic to a fault. Sermon-construction over-burdened with elaborate outline. Language and imagery brilliant, expressive, and simple. xii . HiLivrii SMITH; AH EVALUATION ............... 200 PREFACE In writng this dissertation, it has not "been my intention to treat English Puritanism merely as a series of dates and events, although such comparative adiaphora have necessarily entered into it to a large extent. r;or have I been greatly con­ cerned with defending Puritanism; that has been made necessary only occasionally, owing to tradidtinal misconceptions regard­ ing it. As a religious, moral, and political factor in the history of English civilisation, Puritanism cries out to be understood rather than to be defended. Following out this purpose, therefore, I have tried to brinri; out the early development of Puritanism as literally a movement t as the growth of a ^2i.r:ili« Tne first four chapters, delineating the growth of the movement from a petty squabble over vestments to the rise and temporary decline of the Presby­ terian revolt, are an attempt to keep this picture of growth and development clear in the mind of the reader. Puritanism be­ gan as an attitude toward life and toward certain ultimate re­ ligious principles upon which, it declared, life is founded. This attitude, or rather certain wa,ys of expressing it, led the Puritans into conflict with the authorities, civil and ecclesiast­ ical, of their day. It also set them apart from their fellow- citizens. As the adjustment with their environment grew more and more difficult, therefore, and as the hostility and coercive ii aggressiveness of the authorities increased, the Puritans pro­ gressively achieved and developed a rock-ribbed partisan solid­ arity. The treatment here seeks to show Puritanism as a kinetic force, burgeoning and proliferating with events and personalities Which are simply manifestations of this growth at its various stages. Fundamentally, all the while, Puritanism continued to be an attitude, a peculiar relation between a certain group of men and their G-od. The term, Puritanism, has often been used as a historical omnibus, to include all those, save the Catholics, wi:ose sym­ pathies led them into conflict with the rituals or polity of the Established Church. For our purpose here, however, I have chosen to confine the designation to those who stayed within the Church during Elizabeth's reign. Thus, "Puritan", as used in this dis­ sertation, applies to Conformists and nonconformists alike, so long as they shared in the basic Puritan spirit. The Separatists and early Congregationalists chose to reject rather than "purify" the Church of England as a true Church. Hence they merit here scant attention, for they were a party in their own right, and as such they demand separate treatment. Such an account of historical trends is here, of course, only propaedeutic to our specific concern: Henry Smith. The latter half of this dissertation approaches nenry Smith as one whose life and works, to an interesting degree, epitomize and illustrate early Puritanism. In such an endeavor, Srrith emerges, iii it is hoped, as much more than a mere source of quotable cits with which to illustrate the ristory of Puritanism. Such tendenz kritic is all too easy. I have tried to avoid it by using his sermons to give the reader not only a movement but a living, experiencing, intensely human Puritan himself. Perhaps, as we catch something of the man--his predilections, his prejudices, and the liore of his thinking, in short, his personality--we may nave a new glimpse of early Puritanism, not merely ab extra, the perspective of most historians, but ab imo. the vantage-point of one who rejoices in a new-found, deep sympathy with these apostles of the English Reformation. Chapter One ENGLISH PURITANISM; Origin and jjjarly Development In viewing the origin and development of the Puritan movement in England, it is difficult - indeed almost impossible - to fix upon any one place or person as the fons et origo. In one sense it is possible to point to John Wiclif and his Lollards in the fourteenth century as the lineal precursors of Puritanism, for much of the teaching of these earliest of English reformers is Puritan in tone, in another sense, we might date the Puritan movement strictly and literally from the year in which the name was first used to describe a section of the English Church. For our purpose, however, either extreme would be misleading. It is our intention to begin our discussion with the first appearance of the controversy over "vestments." This contention, beginning in the reign of Edward VI, grew and spread to include almost every phase of church order and discipline. Puller, in speaking of the beginning of this quarrel, says: "Come we now to the saddest difference that ever happened in the church of Kngland, if we consider either the time, how long it continued, the eminent persons therein engaged, or the doleful effects thereby produced. It was about matters of conformity. Alas I that men should have lese wisdom than locusts, which, when sent on God's errand, did not "thrust one another", (Joel 2:8); whereas here such shoving and shouldering, and hoisting and heavings, and jostling and thronging, betwixt clergymen of the highest parts and places. For now nonconformity, in the days of King Edward, was conceived: which afterward, in the reign of Queen Mary (but across the sea at Frankfort) was born; which afterward, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth was nursed and weaned; which under 1. Fuller: Church History of Britain; vol. 2, p. 540 -2- King James grew up a young youth, or tall stripling; but toward the end of King Charles 1 reign, shot up to the full strength and stature of a man, able not only to cope with but to conquer, the hierarchy, its adversary." 1 This "saddest difference" appears strikingly in the case of John Hooper, in the year 1550, though the attitude which caused the incident must have been latent for some time. A man of considerable learning, renowned among the reformers as one who had once been exiled for his faith, Hooper was singled out for the bishopric of Gloucester.