.....

they had learned to treat the mass as an idolatrous mummery . . . . . Since these men could not be convinced, it was determined that they should be persecuted. Persecution produced its natural effects on them. It found them a sect; it made them a faction. To their hatred of the church was now added hatred of the crown. The two sentiments were intermingled, and each imbittered the other. The opinions. of the Puritan concerning the relation of ruler and subject were widely different from those which were inculcated in the homilies. His favorite divines had, both by precept and by example, encouraged resistance to tyrants and persecutors. His fellow Calvinists in France, in Holland, and in Scotland, were in arms against idolatrous and cruel princes. His notions, too, respecting the government of the state, took a tinge from his notions respecting the government of the church. Some of the sarcasms which were popularly thrown on episcopacy, might, without much difficulty, be turned. against royalty; and many of the arguments which were used to prove that spiritual power was best lodged in a synod, seemed to lead to the conclusion that temporal power was best lodged in a parliament."

FORTUNES OF THE BOOK.

Any memorial, slight as it may be in itself, which derives dignity and interest from its connection with men who have acted such a part in their generation, whose influence recast, to some extent, the political and religious institutions of England, and has shaped the destiny of the dominant race of our own continent, is worthy of attention, and should be treasured up by those who revere their principles, with pious care and homage. It seems that the company of these exiles who sojourned at Geneva kept a brief record of their history as the members of a religious community, and that this record, on their return to England, was left in that city, and is preserved there still, in one of the public libraries. What fortunes it has shared, in the long interval between that day and this, may not be easily known. The last persons of the company who went back to England,

gave the book to the magistrates of the city as a token of their regard and as a memorial of the friendship which had bound the strangers and their benefactors to each other. There is reason to believe that this manuscript is known to few comparatively, even at the present time. Still more, in former generations it must have been left to slumber in its hiding places, and have been there quite unnoticed, save as the eye of some antiquary may have chanced to light upon it. It appears to have been overlooked by most of the later writers on this branch of English history. It may not furnish any important additions to our knowledge; but it has some value, certainly, as a means of controlling dates, and of enabling us to trace the movements of some of the leaders of the Reformation during the earlier and more uncertain part of their lives.

ITS PRESERVATION AT GENEVA.

It was an ample reward for a distracting search of nearly two days (I had nothing but a vague rumor to guide me at first) to discover at length the object of my pursuit in the archives of the Hôtel de Ville. Three centuries have rolled away since the fingers which wrote the pages of that book have mouldered back to dust. Some of the brightest names in the annals of human courage and self-sacrifice are recorded in it. It was no common gratification assuredly to be able to take into one's own hands so interesting a relic of that distant and eventful age. The librarian granted readily my request to see the volume, and to be allowed to make some memoranda of its appearance and contents. Before proceeding far in this examination, I was informed that a member of the Society of History and Archaeology in Geneva had read a dissertation upon this very subject before that body, which had been printed in one of their annual publications.2 The librarian showed me the Article; and on looking it over I saw at once that it was much more

1 Mr. Hopkins, author of the History of the Puritans, informs the writer that he has met with no reference to this manuscript in the works which he has consulted. 2 Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Genève. The Article was presented on the 24th of March, 1853. Ten volumes of the "Mémoirs et Documents" of the Society had been published in 1854.

complete than any description which I could prepare myself to give as the result of the hurried examination of a few hours. The author is Monsieur TH. HEYER, whose name is attached to other valuable papers in the same collection. Instead of relying, therefore, on my own recollections and personal inspection of the manuscript, I feel that I should be dealing much more fairly with those whom the subject may interest, if I simply transcribe from the original French the substantial parts of this dissertation, which fell so opportunely into my hands.

Some paragraphs have been omitted and others abridged as involving some repetition, or possessing a local rather than a general interest. Some additions have been made, partly in the body of the piece, but chiefly in the form of notes, and of a fuller expansion of the personal notices which illustrate the significancy of the names and incidents mentioned, from the nature of the case, so briefly in the record. Some of the letters, and extracts from letters, which M. Heyer translated from Latin into French either existed at first in English or have been translated into English by other hands. These original letters or the translations I have generally adopted, with a few slight changes, after comparing them with the original copies.' The few added portions, consisting principally of facts designed for the confirmation or illustration of the text of M. Heyer's Article, have been drawn from the sources named or intimated in the course of the Essay.2

From the year 1553, when Mary succeeded Edward VI. upon the throne of England, a great number of the adhe

1 This could be done the more easily, as the Latin letters of Calvin, for instance, accompany the original Article. The limits of this mode of publication make it impossible to print them here.

The main reliance has been on the publications of the Parker Society, relating to the Fathers and early writers of the reformed English Church. The contents of this Book of the English,' with a fac-simile of the chirography, might well form the subject of a tract by this Society, or at least of an appendix to one of the volumes.

rents of the reformation came upon the Continent to seek a place where they might freely profess their faith. Some of them repaired at first to France, others to different States of the North, and finally, about the middle of 1554, a small company of them arrived at Frankfort. Having found in this city a French church, recently established, the English easily obtained of the magistrates the same favor. They were allowed to celebrate their worship in the temple provided for the French, on condition, however, that they should not innovate too much in their ceremonies.1

Thus situated, the English here entered into correspondence with their compatriots established in Strasbourg, Zurich and other places. They sought to organize themselves, and ere long received additions to their number. John Knox, Richard Cox, and other distinguished men joined them. But if they were all agreed to repudiate the Romish faith, they were not all agreed for a long time on certain points of doctrine, and especially on forms of worship. Hence, arose discussions more or less violent, in which their brethren elsewhere in Germany and in Switzerland were led to take part. The circumstances of this controversy are related at great length in a curious work 3 which appeared for the first time in 1575, and which has been reprinted as late as 1846.

This means, as we learn from the Narrative of the Frankfort Troubles, that they should follow the worship of the French Protestants as their model.

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"The exiles," says Neale, in his History of the Puritans, were most numerous at Frankfort, where that contest and division began which gave rise to the PURITANs, and to that separation from the Church of England which continues to this day." One of the parties insisted that they should adhere to the liturgy and form of worship established under Edward VI., and the other, that they ought to recede further from the Romish usages, in imitation of the reformed churches on the Continent. Knox belonged to the progressive party, and, among other arguments, urged that when Providence affords us a time and place for reforming abuses, we are guilty of treason against God if we neglect the opportunity.

A brief Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort in the Year 1555. This narrative has been ascribed to Whittingham, whose name occurs so often in this account of the Church-Book. No one can read the narrative with a knowledge of the facts of Whittingham's history, without perceiving in it many indi cations which favor strongly that opinion of its authorship. The edition of the 'Discourse' which I have used is that in the 'Phoenix' (Vol. I. p. 44, sq.), printed at London in 1708.

Some among them, therefore, wrote to Calvin; and in the printed correspondence of this reformer we find the letter which he sent in reply to the English refugees at Frankfort. The nature of their representation to him may be inferred from his answer to them. The best history of this question, so fruitful in its results, is furnished by the letter of Calvin, which we here subjoin:

"To the godly and learned men, Mr. John Knox and Mr. William Whittingham, his faithful brethren at Frankfort, etc.

This thing truly grieveth me very much, and it is a great shame that contention should arise among brethren, banished and driven out of their country for one faith, and for that cause which only ought to have holden you bound together, as it were, with an holy band, in this your dispersion. For what might you do better in this dolorous and miserable plague, than (being pulled violently from your country) to procure yourselves a church which should receive and nourish you (being joined together in minds and language) in her motherly lap? But now for some men to strive as touching the form of prayer and for ceremonies, as though ye were at rest and prosperity, and to suffer that to be an impediment that ye cannot there join into one body of the church (as I think), it is too much out of season.

Yet notwithstanding, I allow their constancy which strive for a just cause, being forced against their wills unto contention; I do worthily condemn frowardness, which doth hinder and stay the holy carefulness of reforming the church.

And as I behave myself gentle and tractable in mean things (as external ceremonys), so do I not always judge it profitable to give place to the foolish stoutness, which will forsake nothing of their own wonted custom. In the liturgy of England I see that there were many tolerable foolish things (ineptiae tolerabiles); by these words I mean, that there was not the purity which was to be desired. These vices, though they could not at the first day be amended, yet, seeing there was manifest impiety, they were for a season to be tolerated. Therefore it was lawful to begin of such rudiments or abcedarys, but so, that it behooved the learned, grave, and godly ministers of Christ to enterprise farther, and to set forth something more fil'd from rust, and purer. If godly religion had flourished till this day in England, there ought to have been a thing better corrected, and many things clean taken away. Now when these principles be overthrown, a church must be set up in another place, where ye may freely make an order again, which shall be apparent to be most commodious to the use and edification of the church. I cannot tell what they mean which so greatly delight in the leavings of Popish dregs. They love the things whereunto they are accustomed. First of all, this is a thing both trifling and childish; furthermore, this new order far differeth from a change.