On the next page is an account of another merry spectacle for the amusement of Charles and his courtiers, amongst whom was the grave Evelyn: "Sep. 13. I saw in Southwark, at St. Margaret's Faire, monkies and apes dance, and do other feates of activity on y high rope; they were gallantly clad à la mode, went up right, saluted the company, bowing and pulling off their hatts; they saluted one another with as good a grace as if instructed by a dancingmaster; they turn'd heels over head with a basket having eggs in it, with out breaking any; also with lighted candles in their hands and on their heads, without extinguishing them, and with vessells of water without spilling a drop. I also saw an Italian wench daunce and perform all the tricks on the high rope to admiration; all the Court went to see her. Like wise here was a man who tooke up a piece of iron cannon, of about 400 lb. weight, with the haire of his head onely." Vol. I. p. 325.

In the page following is described another sight not less gratifying to the Court.

"Oct. 17. Scot, Scroope, Cook and Jones, suffered for reward of their iniquities at Charing Crosse, in sight of the place where they put to death their natural Prince, and in the presence of the King, his sonn, whom they also sought to kill. I saw not their execution, but met their quarters, mangled and cutt and reeking, as they were brought from the gallows in baskets on the hurdle. Oh the miraculous providence of God!" Vol. I. p. 326.

The presence of Charles II. at these horrid barbarities, perpetrated upon some of the wisest and best of men, [it is no longer treason to say so,] is a new feature in his character, already sufficiently marked with the worst vices and crimes of human nature. The amiable and virtuous Evelyn, too, beheld the spectacle with pious exultation in the same temper he records in his Diary, Jan. 30, 1661, the brutal, savage proceeding of tearing up the dead bodies of Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton, and exposing them on the gallows at Tyburn, from nine in the morning till six at night! The violators of the sanctuary of the

tomb were probably mistaken in the body of the Protector: but what times, what manners!

Loyalty was now become a passion, and good men, while they secretly deplored Charles's vices, were in some measure and on principle participes criminis. The return of "the good old times" brought back the court celebration of the Epiphany, or Twelfth-day: the restoration of the day is thus described by the abovenamed accurate Journalist ;

"1662, 6 Jan. This evening, according to costome, his Majesty open'd the revells of that night by throwing the dice himselfe in the privy chamber, where was a table set on purpose, and lost his 100l. (The yeare before he won 1500/.) The ladies also plaied very deepe. I came away when the Duke of Ormond had won about 1000l., and left them still at passage, cards, &c. At other tables, both there and at ye Groom-porter's, observing the wicked folly and monstrous excesse of passion amongst some loosers; sorry I am that such a wretched costome as play to that excesse should be countenanc'd in a Court, which ought to be an example of virtue to the rest of the kingdome." Vol. I. p. 344.

A few days after "there was a general fast," and the preacher, before the House of Commons, shewed “how the neglect of exacting justice on offenders was a maine cause of God's punishing a land," meaning, as Evelyn explains, that there were some of the regicides not yet hewed in pieces. How much the King was edified by "this solemn fast" is not recorded, but the entry of the next day, Jan. 16, is, "This night was acted before his Matie The Widow,' a lewd play."

Evelyn relates nothing more of the operation of the black Bartholomew act, than that (1662, Aug. 20,) "There were strong guards in the citty this day, apprehending some tumults, many of the Presbyterian Ministers not conforming."

The book, though a private Diary, is a commentary on the history of the most Religious King, as he was described by the Church in her prayers to heaven.

The Nonconformist.

No. VI.

On the Cause of Nonconformity as connected with the Interests of general

Literature.

THE

HE spirit of resistance to ecclesiastical domination, which con stituted the æra of the Reformation, was unquestionably coeval with such gigantic strides in the march of intellect, as to make compensation, in a great degree, for the sloth and retrogression of preceding ages; nor will it be denied by any, except the disciples of that Church, whose supremacy was invaded in the glorious contest, that Protestantism was, at that period, identified in its interests and prospects, with all those literary pursuits which tend to expand and dignify the human understanding. If, then, that cause of Nonconformity of which we profess ourselves the advocates, is neither more nor less than Protestantism carried on and pursued to its genuine consequences, we shall have little hesitation in concluding, without having recourse to historical induction, that English Nonconformity has been, upon the whole, serviceable to the cause of English literature. To this conclusion, however, we must not expect a hasty assent from that large portion of our fellowchristians, who, with the celebrated Commentator upon the laws of England, ingeniously and candidly resolve the causes of Nonconformity into "weakness of intellect," "misdirected piety," "perverseness and acerbity of temper," and "a prospect of secular advantage in herding with a party" qualities, from which no flowers of genius, no fruits of learning, could consistently be expected to spring. To this elegant but undiscriminating encomiast of English legislators, and to thousands who, like him, draw their information and their spirit from no purer sources than the acrid fount of test laws and proscriptive statutes, the principles and conduct of Nonconformists present nothing but an arrogation of superior sanctity, an abstinence from the most innocent and tasteful recreations, and an ignorant contempt of those sublime products of the imagination, and those venerable works of art which tend to mould and

foster lofty thoughts, and to embellish and refine the social state. The unprejudiced student of English history will not, however, be deceived by such partial and superficial estimates either of the mental or moral qualities of that illustrious band, who have extorted from an adversary the memorable confession, that to their efforts Englaud stood indebted for the preservation of the precious spark of civil liberty, as well as of religious independence, "which two things," as Milton observes, "God hath inseparably knit together, and hath disclosed to us, that they who seek to corrupt our religion, are the same that would enthral our civil liberty." From those who have successfully resisted the uuhallowed usurpations of priests and statesmen, upon the highest and most important province of human inquiry, every philosophic and candid mind must concede that the interests of science and literature, in every department, have derived eminent and lasting advancement.

But in what proportion the champions of Nonconformity have, in the different stages of their history, individually recruited the ranks of learning, presents, it must be admitted, an inquiry of a different complexion, the result of which might, from adventitious circumstances, be unfavourable, without in the slightest degree impeaching the general conclusion. A marked deficiency in literary acquirements has been ever and anon insinuated against the body of Nonconformists, in modern as well as in more early times: and it is to an investigation of the truth of this charge, that the present writer wishes to invite some of the members of this society, whose talents and information might do that justice to the subject, which he feels beyond the scope of his own leisure and course of study, and the limits of a single Essay. That Noncouformists, in later times, have been outrivalled by their brethren within the pale, and under the opulent patronage of the Establishment, in some of the ornamental branches of literaturethat they have been comparatively unskilled in the art of cementing the disjecta membra of a Greek tragedy, or penetrating the mysteries of ancient mythologies, or even of steeping the

brain in the cheerless gulph of mathematics, may, perhaps, be conceded without disgrace; or, let the disgrace rest upon that truly monastic policy which closes the avenues to the literary honours and rewards of our splendid Universities, against those who cannot submit to be "hamstringed and manacled by early oaths and subscriptions" to unexamined dogmas, and who prefer the free and unshackled use of five talents to the acquisition of ten, which must be suppressed or stored away, lest they should "plague the inventor." At least in the fearless application of their literary acquirements to the best and noblest purposes, Nonconformists may boldly claim the preeminence over their more richly-endowed neighbours, whose literary wreaths are " sadly mixed, half flowers, half chains "t

Although the more detailed view of this subject is recommended and wil- ́ lingly devolved to abler pens, it may be permitted to the present writer to take a transient notice of a few of those literary worthies who have been enrolled in the records of English Nonconformity. To the honour of his country, our Wickliffe ushered

Sir Richard Baker, that garrulous chronicler, uttered more truth than he was aware of, when, speaking of Cardinal Wolsey's erection of colleges at Oxford and Ipswich out of the revenues of the smaller monasteries, "a pernicious president," says our Author, "though, indeed, there be great difference between couverting of monasteries into colleges, and utter subverting them."-Baker's Chron. p. 273.

The hope may be indulged that, ere long, enlightened and liberal Dissenters will unite their efforts in establishing an institution upon a more enlarged scale, and under more fortunate auspices than hitherto, from which our students for the ministry, and the sous of our opulent families, may derive every advantage which literature can bestow, without paying the degrading price of University subscriptions. To nurse this hope, and aid in bringing it into action, would be a noble employment of the faculties of a society instituted to forward the interests of Nonconformity.

I do not overlook the services of the Albigenses and Waldenses, who were still earlier engaged in bringing light out of darkness.

in "the morming beam of Reformation," upwards of a century before its brighter effulgence in the days of Luther, and from the professor's chair at Oxford, emboldened the theological student to burst asunder the fetters of scholastic jargon, and draw his tenets from the pure fountain of Scripture. His transcendent learning was acknowledged by his most inveterate enemies: it was, indeed, insufficient to protect him against the manœuvres of the regular clergy aud the bulls of the pope; but his degradation from University honours invigorated his daring attacks upon that mystic Babylon, to which he seems to have been the first to apply the merited epithet of Antichrist. His trauslation of the Bible into' English was the greatest and most important of his works, though, until the establishment of the

Milton thus beautifully describes the gradual triumph of the reforming spirit: "For he (God) being equally near to his whole creation of mankind, and of free power to turn his beneficent and fatherly regard to what region or kingdom he pleases, hath yet ever had this island under the special, indulgent eye of his providence; and pitying us the first of all other nations, after he had decreed to purify and renew his church that lay wallowing in idolatrous pollutions, sent first to us a healing messenger to touch softly our sores, and carry a gentle hand over our wounds; he knocked once, and twice, and came again, opening our drowsy eyelids leisurely by that glimmering light, which Wickliffe and his followers dispersed; and still taking off, by degrees, the inveterate scales from our nigh perished sight, purged also our deaf ears, and prepared them to attend his second warning trumpet in our grandsires' days. How else could they have been able to have received the sudden assaults of his reforming spirit, warring against human principles, and carnal sense, the pride of flesh, that still cried up antiquity, custom, canous, councils and laws; and cried down the truth for novelty, schism, profaneness and sacrilege? Whereas, we that have lived so long in abundant light, besides the sunny reflection of all the neighbouring churches, have yet our hearts riveted with those old opinions, and so obstructed and benumbed with the same fleshly reasonings which in our forefathers soon melted and gave away, against the morning beam of Reformation." Milton's Prose Works, by Symmons, I. 182.

vested in her by this act, materially checked the freedom of discussion, but at the same time caused Nonconformity to assume a more settled and decided character. It is with reference to this period that Mr. Geo. Cranmer, in his Letter to Hooker, prefixed to the Ecclesiastical Polity, says, "It may be remembered, that at first the greatest part of the learned in the land were either eagerly af fected or favourably inclined that way. The books then written for the most part savoured of the disciplinary style: it sounded every where in pulpits, and in common phrase of men's speech: the contrary part began to fear they had taken a wrong course." So far were the Puritans (as the Nonconformists were reproachfully termed) from taking their rise amongst the ignorant and enthusiastic, as many are ready to believe, it is abundantly evident that the first statesmen of that day countenanced the efforts of the most learned and estimable divines, towards effecting a further Reformation. The University of Cambridge appears to have become a nursery of Puritanism; the fellows and scholars of St. John's College, to the number of nearly three hundred, threw away their supplices with one consent, and many in other colleges followed their example. The heads of colleges + remonstrated with the Chancellor, who was urged on by the jealousy of Archbishop Parker, upon the injurious effects which an imposition of Conformity must produce, not only to the

Amongst the more celebrated favourers of the Puritans, such as the Earls of Leicester and Huntingdon, the great Lord Burleigh, Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Francis Knollys, we ought not to omit honourable mention of Attorney James Morrice, an able and learned bar. rister, and a man of great piety, who was both in and out of Parliament a most zealous defender of the rights and liberties of his fellow-subjects.-Strype's Whitgift, pp. 387, 388.

+ Amongst the subscribers to this Letter was Dr. John Whitgift, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and a zealous persecutor of his former friends. Thus, in most cases, the more celebrated Conformists had to answer for an abandonment of their earlier principles, under circumstances too strongly indicating the motives of their conversion.

preaching of the gospel, but also to good learning. The Archbishop and his coadjutors, nevertheless, proceeded rigidly to exact Conformity, and the consequence of these proceedings was, the deprivation of the most able of the clergy, and the shutting up of their churches, or the substitution of other ministers, whose ignorance and incapacity were only equalled by the laxity of their manners. The vene rable Miles Coverdale, (the joint translator and publisher, with Tindal, of the first entire English Bible,) Dr. Sampson, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and Dr. Humphrey, President of Magdalen College, and Dr. Turner, Dean of Wells, were among the early sufferers under these anti-protestant measures. It would, indeed, be almost endless to repeat even the names of those divines of creditable talents and learning, who, in a greater or less degree, entered their protest against them: but the name of Cartwright is so closely connected with the early history and literary reputation of the Puritans, of whom he has been sometimes styled the Father, as to recommend some passages of his Biography to more particular notice. *

Thomas Cartwright was born about the year 1535, and educated in St. John's College, Cambridge, and soon after Queen Elizabeth's accession was made a Fellow of that house, and subsequently one of the eight senior Fellows of Trinity College. In the year 1564, when Queen Elizabeth visited the University, Mr. Cartwright was selected as one of the learned disputants for her Majesty's entertainment, and, according to some acabilities as to give the greatest satiscounts, discovered such extraordinary faction to the Queen and other auditors: but Dr. Nichols remarks, that Dr. Preston, Cartwright's opponent, "by the sweetness of his voice, and the modesty of his behaviour, did extraordinarily please the Queen; while the other, by his natural baugh

* I have extracted these particulars of his life principally from Peirce's Vindication of Dissenters, and Brook's Lives of the Puritans, in 3 vols., a publication not much known, but which has collected together much interesting matter relative to the history of Nonconformity prior to the Restoration.