REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.
By S. N. Haskell
The treaty which put an end to hostilities between the French forces and those of the Reformers made no settlement of religious differences. During the war the Protestant ministers labored untiringly and without resistance to disseminate a knowledge of the truth throughout the kingdom. The firm hold which Popery once had upon the opinions and affections of the people was completely loosened, and when the force which upheld it was removed, this fabric which had stood for ages in Scotland fell to the ground. Its feeble and dismayed priests ceased, of their own accord, from the celebration of its rites; and the reform service was peaceably set up wherever ministers could be found to perform it. All that remained for Parliament to do, in church matters, was to sanction the move that had been made, and to abolish Popery. "Never before, perhaps," says the historian, "was a more important meeting of the estates of the kingdom held in Scotland. The attendance was numerous beyond all precedent." Many of the lesser Barons had ceased to claim the privilege of voting in this assembly. Among this class the Reformation had made great progress, and at this time they entered the assembly and were permitted to take their seats. After the meeting was fully organized, a petition was presented by some of the most zealous of the Reformers, which, embracing the whole papal church in one sweeping anathema, offered to prove that, if the word of God and the example of the apostles and primitive church were taken as authority, there was not one lawful minister among the popish clergy. It denominated them thieves and murderers, rebels, traitors, and adulterers, and demanded that they should be pronounced unworthy of authority in the church of God, and that they should be expelled forever from having a voice or vote in the great council of the nation; "which," it continued, "if ye do not, we forewarn you, in the fear of God, and by the assurance of his word, that ye leave a grievous yoke and a burden intolerable upon the church of God in this realm, so shall they be as thorns in your eyes, and pricks in your sides, whom afterward when ye would ye shall have no power to remove." This petition, which if not composed by Knox, received his sanction, also called for the restoration of the patrimony of the church which it seems some of the Protestant nobles had unjustly appropriated to themselves, to its legitimate use, —"the support of the ministers, the restoration of godly learning, and the assistance of the poor." This, according to Knox, was unpalatable doctrine to the nobles, who, waving the practical part of the question, required the ministers to draw up a confession of their faith, or a brief summary of those doctrines which they considered wholesome and true, and necessary to be believed and received throughout the realm. This arduous task was accomplished by five ministers, John Winrow, John Spotswood, John Douglass, John Row, and John Knox, in four days. "They performed this work," says the historian, "with the utmost diligence and care," taking example from no church in the world, "but laying God's word before them, made reformation according thereunto." The work was divided among them, and after each had accomplished his share, they met together and examined it with "great pains, much reading, and meditation, with earnest calling on the name of God." When read in Parliament, all who had any objections to it were called upon to state them, for which ample liberty was allowed them. After reading it repeatedly a vote was taken, three persons only voting against it. The reason which they assigned for so doing was this, "We will believe as our forefatheris beleivt." A few days later three acts were passed by Parliament: the first, abolished forever in that country the power and jurisdiction of the Pope; the second repealed all former statutes passed in favor of the Romish church; and the third forbade, under penalty, all persons from hearing or saying mass. Knox, whose zeal flamed high at this time, seized upon the opportunity afforded by the sitting of Parliament to deliver a course of sermons on the prophecies of Haggai, in which, he himself says, that he was peculiarly "special and vehement," the doctrine being appropriate to the times.