tiness and roughness, seemed to spoil the force of his arguments," and incurred the Royal neglect, which bore hard upon h's proud spirit. That Cartwright's independent manuers might wound her Majesty's supre macy, is far from being improbable, but the accusation is discredited by the testimony of Strype and Fuller; and his journey to Geneva, which has been attributed to his disgust on this occasion, does not appear to have taken place for several years. In the year 1750, Mr. Cartwright was elected to the Margaret Profes sorship, and his lectures in that capacity were much admired for their acuteness and solidity. When he preached in rotation at St. Mary's, the church could not accommodate the multitudes who flocked to hear him. Dr. Whitgift, theu Master of Trinity College, was in the habit of answering Cartwright's sermons on the disputed points concerning church discipline, upon which Fuller candidly remarks, "The result of the difference between them is this, that (leaving the controversy itself to the judgment of others) if Cartwright had the better of it in his learning, Whitgift had the advantage in his temper; and, which is the main, he had more power to back, if fewer people to follow him." Archbishop Grindal (who was supposed by many to be in his heart favourable to the Puritans) wrote to Sir Wm. Cecil, Chancellor of the University, urging him to take some course with Cartwright, who constantly spake against the external policy of the Established Church, in consequence of which, the youth of the University described as, " at that time, very toward in learning," frequented his lectures, and were in danger of being poisoned by his doctrines Mr. Cartwright vindicated his conduct in a letter to the Chancellor, and was supported by numerous friends in his assertion of the moderation and caution with which he treated the disputed topics. In spite, however, of the Chancellor's wish to shield him from severe animadversion, Mr. Cartwright was first deprived of his stipend, and afterwards, during Whitgift's Vice-chancellorship, was wholly removed from his professorship; and, not content with this measure of degradation, Whitgift soon procured his expulsion from the University. That the credit and fame which the deprived Professor enjoyed at Cambridge, did not desert him in general society, appears from the insulting language addressed to him by his persecutor. "What commodities you want that I have I cannot conjecture: your meat and drink is provided with less trouble and charges unto you, and in more delicate and dainty manner than mine is; your ease and pleasure ten times more; you do what you list, go where you list, come when you list, speak when you list, at your pleasure. What would you have more? I know not why you should complain, except you be of the same disposition with the Franciscan Friars; who, when they had filled their bellies at other men's tables, were wont to cry out and say, How many things are we forced to endure! Some men are delighted to be fed at other men's tables, and prefer popular fame before gold and silver." Mr. Cartwright being thus prevented from usefulness in his native country, visited the Continent, and established an intimacy with several of the most distinguished Protestant divines, and particularly with the celebrated Beza, who bestowed on him this lofty commendation, that "he thought the sun did uot sce a more learned man." He also officiated in the capacity of minister to the English merchants at Antwerp and Middleburgh, with great acceptance, and returned to England after an absence of two years, upon the pressing entreaties of Fulke and others of his friends. About this time an "Admonition to Parliament" was published, on the subject of Church Discipline, which was answered by Dr. Whitgift's pen, aided by the imprisoument of its supposed authors. On this occasion Cartwright much distinguished himself by two replies to Whitgift, who, however, gained more substantial advancement, being con. secrated Archbishop of Canterbury, on the death of Grindal. The High Commissioner having issued an order for his apprehension, Cartwright took refuge in the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, and afterwards revisited the Peirce's Vindication, p. 79. Continent upon his return in consequence of ill health, and for the benefit of his native air, he was arrested by Bishop Aylmer, and cast into prison, from which he was relieved by the intercession of the Earl of Leicester, who made him master of the Hospital at Warwick: his brother, the good Earl of Warwick, was also his constaut patron. King James of Scotland, about this time, offered him a professorship in the University of St. Andrews, and the Archbishop of Dublin strongly solicited him to accept preferment in Ireland. the subjects nearest to his heart, or disarm the animosity of the Archbishop and his brethren; and in the year 1590 a long list of articles were exhibited against him, several of which referred to his conduct as a minister in foreign parts. To these he declined making an answer upon oath, and being in consequence committed to the Fleet prison, with Udal and many other mimisters, he was, in advanced age, and under the pressure of disease, harassed by the most irregular attempts to procure his submission. Upon this occasion, King James did himself the credit In the year 1583 was published the of applying to the Queen on behalf of "Rhemish Translation of the New Udal, Cartwright, and "certain other Testament," the annotations subjoined ministers of the Evangel, of whose good to which were generally thought, by erudition and fruitful travels in the the learned Protestants, to call for a church" he had received "a very crepowerful refutation. The Queen her- dible commendation." This intercesself is reported to have applied to sion, and several other attempts to Beza, requesting him to undertake procure their release, were wholly the answer; but he modestly declined, fruitless: but after two years' unwholesaying, that she had one in her own some confinement, the Archbishop rekingdom far abler than himself to un-lented in favour of Cartwright, who dertake such a task; and afterwards was released upon promise of his quiet intimated that Mr. Thomas Cartwright was the man. Sir Francis Walsingham (that distinguished favourer of the Puritans, with the Queen's concurrence, as is supposed, then solicited Cartwright to undertake the work, and, as an encouragement, sent him a sum of money. This application was seconded by Fulke, Whitaker and other celebrated Cambridge divines, and by the ministers of London aud Suffolk, Thus encouraged, Cartwright diligently applied himself, and had made considerable progress in the work, when his evil genius, now seated on the archiepiscopal throne, dispatched a haughty messenger, forbidding his further proceeding, and enforced obedience to this tyrannical prohibition. It was not until the year 1618 that the work was published, under the double disadvantage of being unfinished in itself, and printed from a mouse-eaten copy," a book," says Fuller, "which, notwithstanding the foresaid defects, is so complete that the Rhemists durst never return the least answer thereunto;" and, "in a word, no English champion to that age did with more valour or success charge or rout the Romish enemy in matters of doctrine." This learned advocate of the reformed religion could not secure himself by any thing short of complete silence on and peaceable behaviour, and restored to his hospital at Warwick, where he ended his days in the exemplary discharge of his duties, continuing to preach when he could scarcely creep into the pulpit. His character is thus pithily summed up by Fuller: "He was most pious and strict in his conversation, a pure Latinist, an accurate Grecian, an exact Hebrean, and, in short, a most excellent scholar."* Churton, in his Life of Nowell, vehemently arraigns the taste and judgment of Mr. Cartwright, who in a familiar corre spondence had compared prayer to a bunch of keys, "whereby we go to all the treasures and storehouses of the Lord, his but the man teries, his pantries, his cellars, his wardrobe;" and triumphantly asks," Was this done by Cranmer and his coadjutors-to to improve what had been give us a form of worship more pure and edifying, more dignified and devout?" The passage cannot be extolled as a speci. men of good taste, but it would be as unreasonable to pronounce the writer incapable of a sublime address to the Deity as to deny Shakspeare's claims as a poet and philosopher, because his dialogue is occawhich were fashionable in that age. A sionally infected with the trivial conceits more formidable objection might be preferred against the good taste of Taverner, another of the learned Puritans of Queen Elizabeth's reign, who, having obtained a Nor were the literary acquirements of the Puritans restricted to theology, although that "Queen of all Sciences" might have justified her votaries in an exclusive homage, whilst the unhallowed arm of temporal authority still retained within its grasp so large a portion of her rightful domains. Of Whitaker, Rainolds and several others, still more unequivocally Nonconform ists, the concurrent testimonies of eminent and impartial writers prove that their learning was varied and comprehensive, extending to the ornamental as well as the more solid branches of knowledge; and with respect to many of them it may be remarked, that their English style is as correct and pure as their reasoning is vigorous and unanswerable. Amongst the laity distinguished by talent, and not unfrequently also by rank and station, the principles of Puritanism found many secret supporters, and not a few public advocates. The corruption aud venality of the established clergy, which had in Wickliffe's days provoked the satire of Chaucer, in a more advanced stage of the Reformation called forth the indignant but cautious reprobation of a Spenser.* Does any one still hesitate to pronounce Noncouformity to the state religion compatible with the expansion and culti vation of genius, imagination, fancy and taste, let him look upwards to the venerable form of Milton, enthroned on the imperishable products of his iutellect, and crowned with increasing honours from each successive generation. To describe him worthily requires a genius like his own. In the regions of poetry he alternately contests the empire with Shakspeare, special licence from King Edward to preach without being ordained, took every opportunity of acting under it which the favour and connivance of the Queen afforded him, Whilst high sheriff of the county of Oxford, he appeared in St. Mary's stone pulpit, with his gold chain and sword, and preluded his discourse with the following words: "Arriving at the mount of St. Mary's, in the stony stage where I now stand, I have brought you some fine biscuits, baked in the oven of charity, and carefully conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the spirit, and the sweet swallows of salvation.' See his Shepherd's Calendar, Eclogues 5th and 7th, and Mother Hubberd's Tale. "Fancy's child," and with the epic muse of antiquity. To the less ideal conflict with the "powers of this world" in the cause of liberty, he advanced under the celestial panoply of wisdom and virtue, nor has his "noble task" been wrought in vain. The country which gave him birth will not cease to derive a growing lustre from so rare and perhaps unparalleled a combination of all the majesty of genius with all the grace of science; but more especially may those who enlist under the banners of Protestant Nonconformity, that glorious cause which called forth the most powerful energies and moulded the loftiest conceptions of his mind, fearlessly go forth, armed in the mental and moral strength of their immortal champion, so long as 66 -New foes arise "Threat'ning to bind our souls with secular I SIR, chains." Essex Street, R. Jan. 16, 1819. SEE, by Mr. Harris's account, published in the blue cover of your last Repository, that there remains in his hands £800. of the colJection made for building a Chapel at Greenock: but as the conditions of the collection were not fulfilled, and as there is no reasonable prospect of building an Unitarian Chapel at Greenock, the money collected returns of right to the subscribers, to whom, if required, their proportion, that is, two thirds of the original contribution, should be paid. But as this would occasion great trouble and considerable expense, and as the main object for which the money was collected was to promote the cause of Unitarian Christianity in Scotland, I would recommend that the three hundred pounds in Mr. Harris's hands should be divided equally between the two congregations of Edinburgh and Glasgow, to assist in discharging the Chapel debt of the one, and in accumulating the Chapel, fund of the other. In order to this, would it not be advisable that Mr. Harris, if he has no objection, should give notice every month in your Repository that it is his "For who loves that, must first be wise and good." intention so to dispose of the sum now remaining in his hands, at next Midsummer, unless it or any part of it should be previously demanded by the original contributors? And further to secure Mr. Harris, the Trustees who receive the money for Edinburgh and Glasgow should indemnify that gentleman against any future claims from the original contributors. T. BELSHAM. As one of the contributors to the proposed Greenock Chapel, I beg leave to add that I concur entirely in Mr. Belsham's recommendation. ROBERT ASPLAND. Hackney, Jan. 18, 1819. SIR, I Bath, Nov. 3, 1818. [T is often the fate of historical and biographical collections, when they are not deposited in some public library, to fall into the hands of persons who are little able to appreciate their value, and who, not esteeming them as they deserve, suffer them to be lost or destroyed. I am not without hope that the three following manuscript memoirs, which were used by Dr. Calamy in the composition of his invaluable work, may be still in existence; and that, if you will allow me to make the inquiry through the medium of the Monthly Repository, information may be obtained where they are now to be found, which I have long sought by other means in vain. 1. The Collections of Dr. Henry Sampson, an ejected Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, afterwards M.D. and an Honorary Fellow of the College of Physicians. They appear to have embraced a variety of matter highly interesting to the student in the history of English Puritanism and its offspring, Nonconformity, by the account given of them in the Preface to the first volume of the Abridgment of Baxter's Life and Times. 2. "A thankful Remembrance of some remarkable Acts of the Lord's good Providence towards me, Richard Taylor,' mentioned in Dr. Calamy's Continuation of his Account of the ejected and silenced Ministers, p. 941. 9. A Narration of his Life and Times, by John Shaw, M. A. ejected at Hull, and formerly Vicar of Rotherham. Dr. Calamy had a copy, from which he has abridged the excellent account he has given of Mr. Shaw [Account, p. 823]. Another copy was in the library of Thoresby, the Leeds antiquary, who had also made many extracts from Dr. Sampson's Collectious. See Duc. Leod. p. 537. JOSEPH HUNTER. SIR, Bridport, Dec. 9, 1818. ATELY reading the Appendix to the 86th Volume of the Monthly Review, my attention was peculiarly arrested by some remarks of the Reviewers on "the Abbé Morellet's Miscellanies of Literature and Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century." These I have sent for insertion in the Monthly Repository, hoping that one or other of your correspondents may be able to throw some light on a scheme said to be in contemplation in France, which, if carried into effect, would probably produce most important changes in the system of religion and the mode of public worship, not only in that country, but also eventually in all Christendom. Whether there be sufficient ground for the representations of the Reviewers, I cannot undertake to determine. THOMAS HOWE. After extracting a passage from the above work, containing an interesting account of Mariano Socini, born in Sienna, about the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Reviewers proceed: "Such was the grandfather of the celebrated Unitarian, Lelio Socini; and it is not unlikely that the opinions which his descendants promulgated, were first awakened in his own mind, and were traditionally preserved in his family, until a convenient moment arrived for giving publicity to them. The Abbé Morellet, however, ought not to have been ignorant of the existence and merit of a man who was probably recorded in the very popular and very accessible Biographical Dictionary of Ladvocat; and who, in common with the other members of his excellent family, is always mentioned by ecclesiastical historians. The advisers of Buonaparte were not ignorant of the literary force of the Socinian family, and were preparing to give an * Referring to the Abbé's acknowledg ment, that he never heard the name of Mariano Socini till he lately met with it in some Italian work. extensive establishment to their opinions in France, by amalgamating the Protestants and the Jews under a new Unitarian priesthood, combined by the same Presbyterian discipline. This bold innovation, for which Villers and others were employed to propitiate the public mind, though suspended, is probably not abandoned, and may yet be realized by the representatives of the French uation. It is felt that the people of France cannot be drilled again into Roman Catholic opinions; that an order of public instructors and a system of social religion are necessary to regularity, to probity, to domestic comfort, to convenient education, to piety, and to the decorous consecration of burials, marriages and deaths; and it has been thought that the form of Christianity least exposed to the shafts of ridicule, which in that country have been so often directed against the absurdities of Catholic superstition, is that which was revived by Mariano Socini." Appendix to the 86th Vol. of the On Mr. Belsham's "Plea for Infant TH HE interloquium, like other intruders, has, I perceive, been too prattling and prolix; and your readers, like the person intruded on, have a right to complain. They might, indeed, have been forewarned, that they would always have the remedy in their own hands; that when the letters grew tedious, they might readily pass to the next article in your Repository. Thus the door may be effectually barred against any intruder. But this interlocutory part, though entered upon somewhat indiscreetly, must not be left too abruptly. For, though, on one side, the probabilities in favour of Adult Baptism, to the exclusion of Infant, are accompanied with so much evidence, as to amount, in my judgment, to almost a moral certainty, yet, on the other, there occur some objections, which may seem to require a little adjustment. Before, then, we resume the subject of Mr. Belsham's Censure of Mr. Robinson, I beg leave to submit two or three more ideas to the indulgence of your readers. It may, then, and has been, asked, unless we admit Apostolical authority, how can we account for a practice that was so common? And how for the obscurity in which its origin is involved? There are several previous questions which might be here proposed, but they shall be reserved for a sort of postscript. In the mean time, with the evidence already before us, we must be permitted to consider Infant Baptism not as a divine, but human mustitution; and since the civil magistrate has adopted it for state purposes, it may be considered as other civil ordinances, and as other doctrines which have derived much support from the civil authority, so as to have become very popular. And it may, then, be asked, has any strange thing happened to Infant Baptism? Any thing more extraordinary than what has occurred to other affairs, which have beeu mere human contrivances, which have been involved in the vicissitudes of the world, depending on causes which are latent, and which, perhaps, never can be known, and liable to human contingences?-For example: Universities are the great luminaries of modern Europe. Like the sun in the firmament, they spread their influence, and, as objects of vision, are contemplated to a very remote distance. They are appealed to as the oracles of literature; their practices have the force of laws; and their authority is founded on ancient prescriptions and immemorial usages. But will any one say, at what precise period these magical institutions took their rise? They sprung up in various points of the political horizon, (the most ancient in the most obscure,) and in an atmosphere full of mists. The fact is, at whatever period we first consider them, we are obliged to consider them, not as being then first created, but as being previously in existence.* Prior to the very Il n'est pas possible de fixer par des dates-precises les commencemens soit de l'université de Paris en général, soit des parties qui la composent, des magistrats, qui la caractérisent. Les recherches sur tous la gouvernent, des principaux attributs qui les points ne menent en aucun façon a une origine claire et déterminée: et les premières mentions que l'on rencontre dans les monumens historiques, n'en contiennent point la creation, et l'établissement, mais en sup |