Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/266

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250 REFORMATION of Cranmer, to undo the reformation and to restore the Roman Catholic religion and the authority of the pope. This Catholic interim did more to consolidate the reformation in England than Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth. Hundreds were martyred in this short reign, among them the three British reformers, Rid- ley, Latimer, and Cranmer, who were publicly burned at Oxford in 1555 and 1556. Many others fled to the continent, especially to Ge- neva, Zurich, Basel, and Frankfort, where they were hospitably received and brought into closer co.ntact with the Reformed churches of Switzerland and Germany. The fourth period is the restoration and permanent establishment of the Anglican reformation during the long reign of Elizabeth, 1558 to 1603. The Roman Catholic hierarchy was replaced by a Protes- tant, and the articles of religion and the com- mon prayer book of fhe reign of Edward were introduced again, after a revision. The eccle- siastical supremacy of the crown was likewise renewed, but under a modified form, the queen refusing the title "supreme head" of the church of England, and choosing in its place the less objectionable title " supreme governor." The convocation and parliament readily sanc- tioned all these changes; but the Anglican church as established by Elizabeth was semi- Catholic in its form of prelatical government and liturgical worship, a sort of via media between Rome and Geneva. It suited the policy of the court and the taste of the major- ity of the English people, but was offensive to the severer school of strict Calvinists who had returned from their continental exile. Hence the agitation in the bosom of the re- formed church of England, and the growing conflict between the Episcopalian majority and the puritanic minority. Elizabeth's reign was as intolerant against Puritan as against papal dissenters, and passed the severest penal laws against both. But while the Catholic party was almost annihilated in England, the Puritan party grew more powerful under the succes- sors of Elizabeth, and overthrew the dynasty of the Stuarts, and even the Episcopalian es- tablishment, although the latter revived from the shock. These troubles and agitations con- stitute the fifth period in the history of Eng- lish Protestantism, which in some respects is the most important and interesting, but lies beyond the age of the reformation proper. IX. THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND. The first impulse to the reformation in Scotland proceeded from Germany and Switzerland. Copies of the writings of the continental re- formers and of Tyndale's English Testament found their way to the far north. The first preacher and martyr of Protestantism in that country was Patrick Hamilton, a youth of royal blood, and for some time a student at Witten- berg and Marburg, who was condemned to death by Archbishop Beaton and burned at the stake. The movement gradually increased in spite of persecution, especially after the rup- ture of England with the pope, and was car- ried to a successful conclusion under the gui- dance of John Knox. He was a disciple and admirer of John Calvin, with whom he spent several years. He returned after the accession of Elizabeth to his native country, resolved to reform the Scotch church after the model of the church of Geneva. After a short civil war the parliament of 1560 introduced the refor- mation, and adopted a Calvinistic confession of faith, drawn up by Knox, Spottswood, Row, and others (superseded afterward by the West- minster standards), and prohibited under severe penalties the exercise of the Roman Catholic worship. In 1561 the first " Book of Disci- pline " was issued, and gave the new church a complete presbyterian organization, culmina- ting in a general assembly of ministers and elders. The mode of worship was reduced to the greatest simplicity, with a decided predom- inance of the didactic element. When the un- fortunate Mary Stuart, of French education, tastes, and manners, and in no sympathy with the public opinion of Scotland, began her reign in August, 1561, she made an attempt to re- store the Roman Catholic religion, to which she was sincerely devoted. But her own im- prudences and the determined resistance of the nation frustrated her plans, and after her flight to England (1568) Protestantism was again declared the only religion of Scotland, and re- ceived formal legal sanction under the regency of Murray. Among the numerous historians of the reformation, in whole or in part, the following deserve special mention : SleidaiK De Statu Religionis et Reipullicce Carolo V. Ccesare (Strasburg, 1555) ; Beza, ISHistoire ecclesiastique de egliset reformtes au royaume de France, &c. (3 vols., Lille, 1580) ; Burnet, "Reformation in England" (3 vols. fol., Lon- don, 1679-1714); Seckendorf, Commentariut Historicus et Apologeticus de Lutheranismo (3 vols. fol., Leipsic, 1686-'92); Strype, "Annals of the Reformation" (4 vols. fol., London, 1709-'31), and "Ecclesiastical Memorials" (3 vols. fol., 1721), and his lives of Cranmer, Par- ker, Knox, McCrie, Hetherington, and others; Schr6ckh, Chrittliche Kirchengeschichte seit der Reformation (10 vols., Leipsic, 1804-'12); Marheineke, Getchichte der deutschen Refor- mation (4 vols., Berlin, 1816-'84) ; Hottinger, Getchichte der sehweizerischen Kirchentren- nung (2 vols., Zurich, 1825-'7); Ruchat, Jlis- toire de la reformation de la Suitse (6 vols., Geneva, 1727) ; Merle d'Aubign6, Histoire de la reformation au XVI' siecle (5 vols., Paris, 1835-'53), and Histoire de la reformation au tempt de Calvin (5 vols., 1862-'8 ; vol. vi., 1875), both works translated into English; the English translation of vol. iv. of Gieseler's Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte (New York, 1858), valuable for its extracts from original authorities; L. Hausser, Geschichte des Zeital- ters der Reformation (Berlin, 1868 ; English translation, 1874) ; and George P. Fisher, " His- tory of the Reformation" (New York, 1873).