The book of Articles having thus been sent, and subscribed, it will be proper to consider the causes of this royal message and convocational subscription. The oppositions of non-conformity, which were displayed in 1583, were now little abated. Accordingly, among the points discussed, during the Conference at Hampton Court in Jan. 1603-4, the Articles of Religion were one of the first. Dr. Reynolds, the leader of the puritans, (y)" moved his majesty, that the book of Articles of Religion, concluded [in] 1562, might be explained in places obscure, and enlarged where some things were defective." And afterwards, "he comes to Subscription, both as to Articles and Liturgy; (z) making the urging of it to be a great impeachment of a learned ministry; and therefore intreated, it might not be exacted as heretofore." To these scruples the king himself replied; and after (a) "the bishop of London, for the matter of Subscription, had shewed his highness the three Articles, which the

(y) Sum and Substance of the Conference, which it pleased his Majesty to have with the Lords, Bishops, and others of his Clergy, Jan. 14, 1603. Contracted by William Barlow, D. D. and Dean of Chester, 4to. 1604, p. 24.

(z) Ibid. p. 58.

(a) Ibid. p. 90.

church

church-men of England are to approve by subscribing, namely, the King's Supremacy, the Articles of Religion, and the Book of Common Prayer, all which it pleased his majesty himself to read ;he [the king] dilated how necessary subscription was in every well governed Church; that it was to be urged for the keeping of peace: for as laws, to prevent killing, did provide there should be no quarrelling; so, to prevent greater tumults in the Church, subscription was requisite." A few days after this conference, the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical were published; of which the thirty sixth requires the subscription both of such as are to be made ministers, and of such ministers as are to be admitted to benefices and licensed to lectures, to those three Articles, which the bishop of London names; and to which, with very little variation, the clergy had before subscribed (b) in 1584, when they were called the Articles of archbishop Whitgift, but had not formed a part, as now they did, of a particular canon.

The Convocational Subscription to the Articles of Religion was therefore now made, and to the printed

(b)" Of the great subscription urged from the pastors and ministers of the worde and sacramentes, in a great part of this lande, the last yeare, ye cannot be lightlie ignorant." The English Creede, &c. by Thomas Rogers, fol. Lond. 1585. Pref. See also Strype and Heylin.

copy

copy of them, sent by the king, in which the (c) controverted clause of the twentieth Article was not omitted; in order that their unanimity might promote the general subscription now enacted, might shew what copy of the Articles the clergy were "to approve by subscribing," and authenticate that in which the clause is found, according to their belief and solemn determination.

At the time of subscription in 1604, the see of Canterbury was vacant; and all the business, incumbent upon it, was committed to Bancroft, bishop of London, who, soon after this memorable Convocation, was advanced to the archbishoprick.

It is reasonable to suppose, that he took especial care of so important a book, so solemnly consigned to his custody; that it regularly passed into the hands of his successor, archbishop Abbot; and

(c) That is, the first clause of the twentieth Article.) Besides the copies of 1571, which Bennet mentions as containing this clause, one was in 1811 met with and purchased by the late reverend and most learned Dr. Charles Burney, printed by Jugge and Cawood in English in 1571. I do not remember to have seen any observation, (and, it is in my humble opinion, a support of the belief of the authenticity of this clause,) that a copy of the Articles appeared in the year 1642, with this express notification in the title-page, "Printed for the benefit of the Common-wealth, 1642," having no printer's name to it, yet having the twentieth Article complete. I possess a copy of this remarkable edition.

from his into those of Laud, the next occupier of the primacy. That the private study of Laud was plundered, is notorious; it was a subject, in deed, of Laud's deepest grief. (d)" May 9, 1643. All my goods seized upon, books, and all." Such is the record in the archbishop's own diary; of which also he was plundered. His enemies ransacked all papers left by him in his study at Lambeth; and Prynne moreover took from the primate what papers he had carried with him, on his commitment to the tower; which were (e) "twenty one bundles of papers, his diary, his book of private devotions, the Scotch service-book, and directions accompanying it, &c." Of all these Prynne promised restitution; but he restored (f) "no more than three bundles, suppressed some, embezzled others, and kept the rest to the day of his death." Upon the death of Prynne, archbishop Sheldon, well knowing that the papers, taken by Prynne from Laud, (g)" either out of his study at Lambeth, or out of his chamber and pockets in the tower; or seized after his martyrdom," had been unjustly de

(d) Archbp. Laud's Diary, published by Henry Wharton,

p. 65.

(e) Henry Wharton's Preface to the Hist, and Troubles of Archbp. Laud.

(f) Ibid. (g) Ibid.

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tained

tained by him; procured an order from the king and council, deputing Sir William Dugdale and others to view the study of Prynne, and thence to bring to him all books and papers which had been Laud's. This was accordingly done; and a return was made of (h)" both very much diminished in number." A colonel Scott has been recorded by Dr. Ducarel as a plunderer in 1644 of books and manuscripts in Lambeth Palace. Books and papers from the same place had also found a master in the infamous Hugh Peters. An order of Parlia ment in 1660, directs, "That all books and papers heretofore belonging to the library of the archbishop of Canterbury, and now, or lately, in the hands of Mr. Hugh Peters, be forthwith secured." But (as I have elsewhere observed) after the grant of them to such a man, and after such a lapse of time, how could the order prove entirely effectual? We see also how partial the recovery was from the heaps pilfered by Prynne. Selden, by whatever means he obtained it, posesssed the earlier copy of the convocational subscription, which certainly had been in the possession of Laud. The archbishop, (i) "in his speech in the star-chamber, tells us, that he had (not in his office or public registry, but)

(h) Henry Wharton's Preface to the Hist. and Troubles of archbp. Laud.

(i) Bennet, Ess. on the 39 Art. p. 275.

in.