Read Online The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 by Robert Middlekauff - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Robert Middlekauff
Tags: United States, Historical, History, Religion & Spirituality, Biographies & Memoirs, State & Local, Religious, Christianity, Leaders & Notable People, Christian Books & Bibles, test, Americas
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there, he had left behind friends he would never forget. Fifteen years after his departure he was still gently instructing his old church in Lancashire. 1 Two of his sons, Nathanael and Samuel, returned to spend their adult lives in England and Ireland; and Increase took an M.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, after he was graduated from Harvard. His father watched him go, fully expecting never to see him again; Increase, he supposed, would make his career abroad. 2
Mather felt his mind and heart pulled towards England by other considerations too. England figured in his understanding of Biblical prophecies about the Church and the end of the world. And, of course, the Church, even more than the Antichrist, dominated his thought.
Page 36
At the time Richard went to New England there was a good deal to ponder about the Church. It, of course, had been the occasion for the first appearance of the Puritans. When Henry VIII broke with Rome he did not reform the Church wholesalehis was a reformation at the top supported at the bottom by men who helped themselves to the riches of the Church. The old doctrine and the traditional Church hierarchy satisfied Henry, who thought the bishops needed English direction, not Roman; and he knew none better than himself to supply it.
Reformers with visions of a new purity and simplicity and with a greater respect for Scripture, especially their own reading of it, did not like Henry's notions. They thought that they had a chance to alter things when he died, but Henry's young son, Edward VI, who came to the throne in 1547, lived only six more years. During those six years a satisfactory beginning was madesatisfactory to some at leastbut the changes under Edward were repealed by Mary Tudor, who craved the opportunity to return the English Church to Rome. She did her best (her worst, the Puritans said), restoring bishops friendly to her plans, reinvigorating the old doctrine, and driving non-conforming ministers from their pulpits. At least eight hundred fled England, their departure warmed by pyres on which martyrs burned. 3
The Puritans greeted Mary's successor, Elizabeth, with great hope. But however much the middle way of the Elizabethan Church satisfiedor left undisturbedmost men, it did not please Puritans. They were gratified at the elimination of the Mass and of the Pope's authority, but were appalled by the Popish remnants which were left untouchedbishops, corrupt ministers, to say nothing of pluralities and sinecures, and favors and fees. Moreover, the Queen's Church retained a system of ecclesiastical justice including the Commissary's Court which was probably the most corrupt, and therefore most detested, institution in the entire arrangement. All these vestiges of the old order offended men who valued godliness above everything else.
Although the Puritans, uneasy in this sloppy and comfortable structure, attacked it on all fronts, they could not make the Church over in the face of the Queen's desire for the middle way. Elizabeth stopped their attempt to discard vestments and
Page 37
ceremonies in the Convocations of 1563. To be sure, individual ministers modified the liturgy and refused to wear the surplice; but individual practice, fearless as it sometimes was, could not alter policy. And dissent took casualties as it always does. Thomas Sampson, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, for example, lost his post when he refused to conform. The challenge to the surplice and the liturgy soon broadened as the Puritans took on the bishops who enforced practice in vestments and ceremonies. The Queen saw the ultimate threat in these attacksher own authority as Supreme Governor of the Church was clearly called in question by the attack on her appointees, the bishops. 4
The climax to this phase of the Puritan struggle came in the Admonition Controversy of the 1570's. This engagement, which took its name from two Puritan appeals, the Admonitions to Parliament, followed soon after the expulsion of
Mather felt his mind and heart pulled towards England by other considerations too. England figured in his understanding of Biblical prophecies about the Church and the end of the world. And, of course, the Church, even more than the Antichrist, dominated his thought.
Page 36
At the time Richard went to New England there was a good deal to ponder about the Church. It, of course, had been the occasion for the first appearance of the Puritans. When Henry VIII broke with Rome he did not reform the Church wholesalehis was a reformation at the top supported at the bottom by men who helped themselves to the riches of the Church. The old doctrine and the traditional Church hierarchy satisfied Henry, who thought the bishops needed English direction, not Roman; and he knew none better than himself to supply it.
Reformers with visions of a new purity and simplicity and with a greater respect for Scripture, especially their own reading of it, did not like Henry's notions. They thought that they had a chance to alter things when he died, but Henry's young son, Edward VI, who came to the throne in 1547, lived only six more years. During those six years a satisfactory beginning was madesatisfactory to some at leastbut the changes under Edward were repealed by Mary Tudor, who craved the opportunity to return the English Church to Rome. She did her best (her worst, the Puritans said), restoring bishops friendly to her plans, reinvigorating the old doctrine, and driving non-conforming ministers from their pulpits. At least eight hundred fled England, their departure warmed by pyres on which martyrs burned. 3
The Puritans greeted Mary's successor, Elizabeth, with great hope. But however much the middle way of the Elizabethan Church satisfiedor left undisturbedmost men, it did not please Puritans. They were gratified at the elimination of the Mass and of the Pope's authority, but were appalled by the Popish remnants which were left untouchedbishops, corrupt ministers, to say nothing of pluralities and sinecures, and favors and fees. Moreover, the Queen's Church retained a system of ecclesiastical justice including the Commissary's Court which was probably the most corrupt, and therefore most detested, institution in the entire arrangement. All these vestiges of the old order offended men who valued godliness above everything else.
Although the Puritans, uneasy in this sloppy and comfortable structure, attacked it on all fronts, they could not make the Church over in the face of the Queen's desire for the middle way. Elizabeth stopped their attempt to discard vestments and
Page 37
ceremonies in the Convocations of 1563. To be sure, individual ministers modified the liturgy and refused to wear the surplice; but individual practice, fearless as it sometimes was, could not alter policy. And dissent took casualties as it always does. Thomas Sampson, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, for example, lost his post when he refused to conform. The challenge to the surplice and the liturgy soon broadened as the Puritans took on the bishops who enforced practice in vestments and ceremonies. The Queen saw the ultimate threat in these attacksher own authority as Supreme Governor of the Church was clearly called in question by the attack on her appointees, the bishops. 4
The climax to this phase of the Puritan struggle came in the Admonition Controversy of the 1570's. This engagement, which took its name from two Puritan appeals, the Admonitions to Parliament, followed soon after the expulsion of
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