in their own eyes. The former, then, was the position of the well-wishers of the Church of England, the latter that of those who were preparing the way for its overthrow: the former was advocated by those who defended order and primitive truth, the latter by those who were on the point of holding out the right hand of fellowship to novelty and fanaticism. Laud hesitated not for a moment to decide; and his memory does truly deserve well of the Church of England, since he so early avowed himself the bold defender of its constitutions.

Nor was it long before Laud had an opportunity of displaying his sentiments. Upon this subject, however, it is necessary to go a little into detail, more especially as it will serve to explain the opposition which he encountered. During the Marian persecution, as it is termed, Laurence Humphries, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, having been deprived of his fellowship for his attachment to the Reformation, retreated to the city of Zurich, in Switzerland, then famous as the birth-place and residence of Zuinglius. Associating with that Reformer, and maintaining a constant correspondence with Calvin and his friends at Geneva, he became so much attached to the Calvinistic tenets, that, on his return to England after the death of Mary, he studied to promote them with all his influence. "The best that could be said of him," says Dr. Heylin', "by one who commonly speaks well of

1 Life of Laud, p. 46.

all that party, is, that he was a moderate and conscientious nonconformist." As he was a man of very great learning, on his return from his exile he was presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Presidency of Magdalen College, and was also appointed Professor of Theology, and Vice-chancellor of the University. The duties of this office he discharged till 1596, about which time it is supposed he died". With these advantages, his influence was great in the University, nor was he idle in disseminating the tenets which he had imbibed while in exile. Hence, through the influence of Dr. Humphries, Magdalen College became a nursery of non-conformity, and those students were only noticed who were zealous supporters of the dogmas of Calvin. It would appear that he coincided with some of that school who positively deny that Papists are Christians, or that there can be any

1

Fuller's Church History, lib. ix. p. 234.

2" He was master," says Heylin, "of a pure Latin style." Heylin, ut sup.

3 The year of this learned man's death, however, is uncertain. Fuller, in his Church History of Britain, (lib. ix. p. 233, 234. London, folio, 1655.) says, "Here I am at a loss for the death of Laurence Humphries, but confident I hit the but, though miss the mark, at about this time, (1596). He was a conscientious and moderate Nonconformist, (condemned for lukewarm by such as were scalding hot) Dean of Winchester, and Master of Magdalene College in Oxford, to which he bequeathed a considerable sum of gold, left in a chest, not to be opened unless some great necessity urged it thereto."

good in their corrupt and degenerate Church'. For his anti-popish zeal he was jocularly surnamed Papisto-Mastix.

Dr. Humphries was succeeded by Dr. John Holland, Rector of Exeter College, who, though a man of much greater moderation, was strongly inclined to the tenets of the Puritans. But, zealous as Dr. Humphries had been against every thing, whether good or bad, which was observed in the Church of Rome, it would appear that he found an active assistant in the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity 2. Yet even he was thought to be deficient in zeal; and accordingly, Sir Francis Walsingham, the principal Secretary of State, who favoured the Nonconformists, founded a new theological lecture in the University. The reader of this lecture was required to make short annotations on the holy Scriptures, in order that the students might be induced to pursue their researches. Whitgift was then primate, whose character for mildness, firmness, and moderation, is most conspicuous in those troublous times. By his judicious conduct he had

Heylin, p. 46. "He did not only stock his college with such a generation of Non-conformists, as could not be wormed out in many years after his decease, but sowed in the divinity schools such seeds of Calvinism, and laboured to create in the younger students such a strong hate against the Papists, as if nothing but divine truth were to be found in the one, and nothing but abominations in the other."

"Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 46.

3

Heylin, ut sup. Collier's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 597.

4 Collier, ut sup.

brought over many Roman Catholics to the Church of England; but he was completely unsuccessful in his attempts to restrain the enthusiasm of the Puritans'. Before his promotion, he had engaged in dispute with the celebrated Puritan leader, Thomas Cartwright of Cambridge, and had written an answer to the Admonition of that zealot; to which Cartwright wrote a reply. Whitgift rejoined in the following year, (1571), in a work entitled, "A Defence of the Answer." "To which," observes Collier, "Cartwright offered nothing, but retired from the field, and left the enemy possessed of all the entire marks of victory." Walsingham, who had already signalised himself by his opposition to the subscription of three articles, which had been enacted" for the better increase of learning in the inferior ministers, and for the more diligent preaching and catechizing," and which are in themselves truly admirable, as he was a resolute friend to the Puritans, and had, besides, engaged in other disputes, in which he always advocated the cause of his dissenting friends, instituted this lecture not so much out of a pure desire to foster and encourage learning, as to make it subservient to the schemes of the Puritans, and to irritate and insult the fallen Roman Catholics. And that this might be the more

* Collier's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. P. 537.

'Register, Whitgift, Part I. fol. 97. 131. 162.

4

Strype's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, vol. ii.; also Lives of Archbishops Parker and Whitgift. Collier, Eccles. Hist. vol. ii.

effectually promoted, the celebrated Dr. John Reynolds, President of Corpus Christi College, who afterwards distinguished himself in the dispute held at Hampton Court, before King James, in 1603-4, was appointed to the lectureship. Reynolds, though now a violent enemy to Popery, and to the hierarchy in general, had been in his youth on the continent, and, during his residence there was devoted in his attachment to Popery; but having been drawn over to the Church of England by his brother, who himself recanted', he fell into the other extreme, and resolved

p. 597. Wood, Hist. and Antiq. Oxon. Heylin, ut sup. The last writer says, that Walsingham was "a man of great abilities in the schools of policy, an extreme hater of the Popes and Church of Rome, and no less favourable unto those of the Puritan faction." It would appear that the lecture was well attended by the younger students; but its object was censured by many, and even by some of the moderate Puritans, who, suspecting Walsingham's motives, " ventured to say, that the pretence of propagating truth, was only a colour to convey Walsingham's sacrilege out of sight. For this gentleman, it seems, during the vacancy of the see of Oxford, had lopped the revenues." Collier, ut sup.

'Fuller's Church History, book x. p. 47. Dr. Reynolds' brother, William Reynolds, had been as resolute a Protestant as he was a Papist. A mutual disputation took place between them on the articles of their faith, which ended in the Papist turning Protestant, and the Protestant to the Church of Rome, in which he died. "This singular occurrence," says Fuller, "gave the occasion to an excellent copy of verses, concluding with this distich:

"Quod genus hoc pugnæ est? ubi victus gaudet uterque? Et simul alteruter se superâsse dolet."