Rise of the Puritans

England had become a Protestant kingdom and her church a Protestant church ; yet among the Protestants were those who were not satisfied with Elizabeth's moderation, and wished that all, even the slightest vestiges of popery might be removed" from the church and from the mind. These people, at first called Evangelics," had been obliged to flee from England during Mary's reign and to take refuge in certain cities of Germany, Geneva, Zurich, Strasburg, Frankfort, and Basel. There they had established churches, and during the years 1554-1558 had fought out among themselves many of the issues afterward to be raised in England. When in 1554 they had submitted to Calvin the question as to whether or not the prayer book of Edward VI should be adopted, the latter decided against it, on the ground that the prayer book lacked the purity that was desirable. This decision gave the victory to the more extreme or Calvinistic party among them and suggested the name, Puritan, which was afterward given to this party in England.

In 1555 a new order for the church in Geneva was drawn up, which omitted as pernicious the old prayers, hymns, and saints' days. It produced much quarrelling between the Anglicans and Calvinists on the Continent, but was finally adopted both at Geneva and Frankfort. A new translation of the Bible was printed; the Genevan or Breeches" Bible, which omitted the Apocrypha, struck out of the calendar saints' names and days, and in the explanatory notes defended the Puritan doctrines. The new Bible was smaller in size than had been the older versions, contained a text which for the first time was divided into verses, and was printed in Roman instead of black letter type. With Calvin's Institutes and Foxe's Book of Martyrs it became the guide and consoler of the Puritans during the later days of trouble. Thus in Geneva and Frankfort, before Elizabeth's accession, a new religious party had come into being, which not only rejected the entire tradition of the old Catholic church, but was opposed to any compromise with the old forms and doctrines.

Elizabeth and the Puritans : the Question of Vestments

When these reformers returned to England, they hoped that Elizabeth and her ministers would adopt the Calvinism of the Continent. They were not so much opposed to the doctrines of the Forty-two (afterward Thirty-nine) Articles as to the retention in the service of "certain vestments and ceremonies which seemed to savor of the Roman liturgy." They wished to get rid of the cap and surplice, of the use of the sign of the cross, of the ring in marriage, of the practice of kneeling at the reception of the sacrament. But Elizabeth would consider none of these changes, and in her decision was supported by the majority of the nation, which loved the old Catholic forms. The matter was settled by the queen's injunctions of 1559 and by the Act of Uniformity of the same year, which ordered that the vestments and rites should be those of Edward VI's time . In the convocation of 1563 the reformers made a formal statement of their demands, which was rejected. Two years later the queen met the issue squarely in Parker's "Advertisements" of 1565, which ordained that every parish minister should wear a surplice, and that the celebrant in collegiate and cathedral churches should wear a cope.' The clergy still refused, however, to observe these regulations, and it was not until Whitgift became archbishop that serious attempts were made to compel them to do so.

Division among the Reformers: Presbyterians and Independents

Thus far the reformers had been concerned chiefly with questions of worship; they had not objected to the state control of the church. But the controversy over vestments had led certain among them to ask whether the organization of the Anglican church ought not to be changed also. Of these, Thomas Cartwright, professor of divinity at Cambridge, was the leader. In The Book of Discipline, published in 1580, he presented his views . He agreed with the Anglicans in desiring the church to be national, but he wished it to be separated entirely from state control. He would grant to the state only the right to aid the church in suppressing heresy and enforcing uniformity. He wanted a complete organization for the church, but one differing from that of the Anglican. Instead of convocation he wanted a national synod, a provincial synod, and classes or local assemblies. For bishops and priests he would substitute presbyters and elders, and would have every minister selected by the congregation and dependent upon it, instead of being appointed and paid by the state. He agreed with the Anglicans in believing that every baptized person, whether or not he had remained faithful to his vows, should be a member of the church. Those supporting these views came to be known as Presbyterians, and in Northampton and Warwick they set up Presbyterian churches which adopted the Genevan Book of Common Prayer instead of that of Edward VI. Thus the Presbyterians differed from the Anglicans in rejecting convocation, bishops, the Book of Common Prayer, the method of appointing and paying ministers, and finally the authority of the state and the supremacy of the queen.

More radical than the Presbyterians were those afterward known as Independents, who rejected not only bishops and a state church, but also presbyters, synods, and a national church! They desired that only those who were faithful Christians should constitute a church, and that each church so constituted should be complete in itself, self-governing, and independent of all higher control, whether of state, convocation, or synod. Men holding this view of church organization had been in Frankfort in 1558, and a church thus constituted had been set tip in London in 1567. But the man who gave definite form to these views was Robert Browne, who declared that True Christians are united into a companie or number of believers, who by willing covenant made with their God place themselves under the government of God and Christ, The Independents were not willing, as were the Puritans, to remain within the Anglican church, hoping for a purification of its worship, or as were the Presbyterians, hoping that the government would change the organization of the church. They were more than Non-conformists ; they were Separatists. Inasmuch as they were to apply their theories of church government to political government also, they are of very great importance in the later history both of England and of America.