baggage, and that we had not so great a desire to be enriched with their spoils."

EDWARD DEERING, of the ancient Kentish family at Surrenden-Dering, studied at Christ Church, Cambridge, and having become B.D., served as Proctor in 1566 and Lady Margaret Preacher, 1567. Singularly enough, the very year (1571) he was cited before the High Commission for his adherence to the FIRST MANIFESTO, he was acting as Domestic Chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, with whom he dealt very plainly for those treasonable practices on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots, which brought the unfortunate Duke to the block.

Deering, though himself an habitual sufferer for his principles, was able to interfere on behalf of others by his intimacy with Lord Treasurer Burleigh. In a letter to Burleigh, Nov. 1, 1573, he explains and defends his position with great force and fulness; showing how "the lordship and civil government of Bishops is utterly unlawful," the Kingdom of Christ and His Church being "a spiritual government only"; no carnal weapons nor temporal sword being allowed in it.

As to the primitive Church, "the Bishops and Ministers then were one in degree; now they are diverse. There were many Bishops in one town; now there is but one in a whole county. The Bishops then used no bodily punishment; now they beat, imprison, and fine." And much more to the same purpose in this admirable letter; as also in his replies to the twenty questions proposed to him in the Star Chamber that same year.

2

Deering was suspended from his Lectureship at St. Paul's, and kept from any other preferment. He died in 1576.3

R. HARVEY was one of a band of Presbyterian clergy about Norwich, summoned in 1576 before the Bishop of that diocese and suspended for testifying against the prelatic constitution

1 Strype's Annals, ii. p. 270–279.

2 Strype's Parker, p. 433.

3 See that beautiful piece of biography, "The Life and Death of Edward Deering," in Fuller's Abel Redivivus.

of the Church. We find him protesting in a letter to the Bishop:

"That when Christ ruled in His Church, His officers were Bishops or Pastors, Elders, and Deacons. But when the Pope set aside this government, he appointed new governors in the Church, as Cardinals, Archbishops, Lord Bishops, Deans, Chancellors, Commissioners, and many others. The doctrines have been purged; but the Church's government continues much the same as under Popery. You prelates turn the edge of the sword against us, . . though you hide yourselves under the shadow of the prince, saying that she created you and your authority. . . . But as Jesus Christ is the only lawgiver in His Church, and as He alone has power and authority to appoint its officers, if any other king or prince appoint any others than Christ has allowed, we will lay down our necks on the block, rather than consent to them."1

GROWTH AND INCREASE OF THE "CLASSES," WITH THE EARLY SYNODICAL GATHERINGS.

It is unfortunate that the principal authority here is the book by Bancroft already referred to, which is so bitterly hostile, and so largely made up of ex parte selections from the depositions of spies and informers, wrung from unwilling witnesses before the High Commission or Star Chamber-the original papers and full depositions having apparently disappeared or been destroyed. It is evident that many consultations and gatherings of ministerial brethren were held from time to time in various places, to consider the "Orders of Wandsworth," and to come to some agreement how best the discipline by parochial Presbyteries or Elderships might be brought into operation. Slowly and steadily they were constructing a Directory, or Book of Order; and as their numbers grew, their synods and assemblies became more numerous and consolidated. Thus we read :

3

"There was an Assembly of threescore Ministers appointed out of Essex,

1 It would be easy to extend these notices of the earlier Presbyterian clergy, who all signed the "Discipline." Those who would inquire further may consult Brook's Lives of the Puritans (with the authorities there given) under such names as Anthony Gilby, Robert Wright, Fenn, Fenner, Edward Snape, Edmund Lyttleton, Edward Lord, Robert Cawdry, and numbers more.

2 Dangerous Positions and Proceedings for the Presbyterial Discipline.

3 The heading of Chap. ii. Book iii. in Bancroft runs thus, "The Secret Meetings for Discipline and the matters handled in them here in England, from 1572 till 1583."

Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, to meet the 8th of May, 1582, at Cockfield (Mr. Knewstubb's town), there to confer of the Common Book, what might be tolerated, and what necessarily to be refused in every point of it, apparel, matter, form, days, fastings, Injunctions, etc. Of this meeting it is thus reported, Our meeting was appointed to be kept very secretly and to be made known to none. ANOTHER MEETING was also appointed to be held that year, at the Commencement in Cambridge, as is plain by these words (letter to Field, 16 May, 1582), ' I like well your motion concerning the Commencement, if you at London shall so think well of it, and we here may understand your mind."

Three things become very evident at this time :

1. An increasing tendency for "Brethren" (as the Presbyterian ministers called each other) to arrange themselves into Classes or Conferences in their respective localities, and to stand by one another in resisting the arbitrary or illegal injunctions by Bishops and others.

2. Setting up of parochial Presbyteries after the Wandsworth pattern; and,

3. The development of a Directory, or Book of Discipline.

"Hitherto it would seem that, in all their former proceedings, they had relied chiefly upon the First Admonition and Cartwright's Book; but now at length, about the year 1583, the FORM OF DISCIPLINE (which is lately come to light) was compiled; and thereupon an Assembly or Council being held, as I think at London or Cambridge, CERTAIN DECREES were made concerning the establishing and the practice thereof." "

1 Bancroft (Dangerous Positions, p. 73) quotes "a letter written to Mr. Field from Antwerp, 25 June, 1583, by one Cholmsley (it is in Latin, like so many of its kind), in which he writes, "Lator intus et in corde meliori successu rerum vestrarum," etc. "I am rejoiced with all my heart for the better success of your affairs, not only in that I hear of your assemblies, but most delightfully of all, in respect of your so effectually practising of the Ecclesiastical Discipline in all its parts."

Bancroft, p. 69. He adds, "In which decrees mention is made of a collection concluded upon for the Scottish ministers fugitives here in England, 1583 (which sheweth the time when they were made); and order is also taken for putting in use of the Synodical Discipline."

Very interesting it is to notice the strong sympathy of these English Presbyterian ministers with their exiled Scottish brethren, and their anxiety to further "the Discipline" without violating their canonical obedience or making a breach in the Church's peace.

All the DECREES," as Bancroft calls them, he says he had seen in the hand-writing of "one of that brotherhood," Dr. Robert Wright; and he translates them "word for word out of their own Latin copy."-Dangerous Positions, pp. 70-72. We give a few extracts:

"Let no Man (though he be an University-Man) offer himself to the Ministry; nor take upon him any uncertain and vague Ministry. . . But such as be called to the Ministry by some certain Church, let them impart it unto that Classis or Con

THE GREAT DIRECTORY, OR BOOK OF DISCIPLINE, 1583.

These prolonged deliberations resulted in the DIRECTORY of worship and government, which seems to have been completed by 1583. This was really the "Order of Wandsworth," revised, sifted, and enlarged, as its contents had been from time to time in the Assemblies so frequently held during the intervening ten years.1

Originally written in Latin, as it would appear, for the use of the ministers, it was rendered into English by Cartwright

2

ference (whereof themselves are) or else unto some greater Church Assembly; and if such shall be found fit by them, then let them be commended, by their Letters unto the Bishop, that they may be ordained Ministers by him. If subscription

to the ARTICLES of Religion, and to the Book of Common Prayer, shall be again urged: It is thought that the Book of Articles may be subscribed unto, according to Statute 13 Eliz., that is, unto such of them only, as contain the sum of Christian Faith, and Doctrine of the Sacraments. But for many weighty Causes, neither the rest of the Articles, nor the Book of Common Prayer, may be subscribed: No, though a Man should be deprived of his Ministry for it.

Then

Churchwardens, and Collectors for the Poor might thus be turned into Elders and Deacons. [Here come instructions.] And touching Deacons of both sorts (viz. Men and Women), the Church shall be monished not to choose them of custom, and of course, or for their Riches, but for their Faith, Zeal, and Integrity." follow instructions respecting Classes, Provincial and Comitial Assemblies, but especially the National Synod, with a view to the reform of Convocation on a less clerical and more representative basis. It has been suggested that the Presbyterian Clergy should have "quitted the Church." But what advantage would have been in that? Penal prosecutions would have not less inexorably pursued them. Besides, they maintained their strict legal right to continue inside with their Presbyterian views and practices, so long as they broke no statute law.

1 No copy of this "Order of Wandsworth" has ever come to light. Nor are we to conceive of these earlier documents as having ever existed in printed form. To have published such conclusions broadcast would have been both dangerous and premature. For long they were in manuscript only, and were passed from hand to hand for use in the secret discussions and deliberations. But having been carefully deliberated upon, and its provisions drawn out and amended by Cartwright and Travers, the book, in its enlarged and more complete condition, was at last ready for practical service, after being carefully considered by Conferences in London and Warwickshire. It seems to have been finally revised in 1584, by a general Synod in London; and being referred to Mr. Travers for its last corrections, was signed first in 1588, in the Warwickshire Assembly.

2 No copies in the original Latin have ever been found; but we know they were diligently searched for by the Bishops and destroyed. It was the English copy found among Thomas Cartwright's books that was reprinted in 1644, for the Long Parliament and Westminster Assembly. Its title is,

"A DIRECTORY OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. Anciently contended for, and as farre as the Times would suffer practised by the first Non-Conformists in the daies of Queen Elizabeth. Found in the Study of the most accomplished Divine, MR. THOMAS CARTWRIGHT after his decease, and reserved to be published for such a time as this. Published by Authority. London: printed for John Wright, in the Old-baily, 1644." This was reprinted in 1872, as "A Contribution to the Tercentenary Com.

himself, and through his influence was printed at the Cambridge Press, in 1584. Great things were hoped for by the Presbyterians from the New Parliament summoned for November, 1584; and it was this book that was referred to in the proceedings of that session, under the title, "A Book of the Form of Common Prayers; Administration of the Sacraments etc.," which was annexed to a petition of sixteen' Articles presented to the Commons by the Presbyterians, praying that the said Book "might be from henceforth authorized, put in use, and practised throughout all her Majesty's dominions"; and this was the Book which plays so important a part in the history and struggles of the Elizabethan Presbyterians.1

This was the "Book of Discipline," as it was commonly called, which was ultimately signed by 500 Clergy in the Church of England, and which they strove to get introduced and legalized, either as a substitute or an alternative for the Book of Common Prayer and its rubrics. Like the books on which it was modelled (those of the English Congregations at Geneva in 1556, the Reformed Church of Scotland, in 1564, and of France, in 1572), it is not a book of complete or fixed liturgical forms and prayers, but of Principles of Ecclesiastical Order, and directions for their application and administration in electing ministers, elders, and deacons, and in conducting religious ordinances. It has been well called, "THE PALLADIUM OF ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANISM," and is not a book to be ashamed of, for it is one of rare dignity and power.3

memoration, by the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of England, of the First Presbytery in England, at Wandsworth, in the year 1572," with a valuable preface by Principal Lorimer. It may be also seen in the Appendix of Briggs's American Presbyterianism.

Not to be confounded, as often it has been, with Travers's work, which we have seen was a Treatise and Vindication of Presbyterian Order, while THIS is of the nature of a Directory or Handbook of worship and discipline, to guide ministers and office-bearers in the discharge of their varied duties within the Church.

2 By the Anglican writer, Rev. Henry Soames, M.A., in his Elizabethan Religious History, p. 352. He commits the usual blunder of confounding it with Travers's treatise.

3 We ought most carefully to observe that it is made up of two distinct parts: The first part is: "The SACRED DISCIPLINE of the Church described in the Word of God," and is printed in large black-letter type, and occupies only three pages. Its fundamental position is, "The Discipline of Christ's Church that is necessary for all times, as delivered by Christ and set downe in the Holy Scriptures." But

M