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REIGN OF EDWARD THE SIXTH.
[ch. 27.
he altogether consisted,' the wearing of apparel would in all likelihood admit of settlement afterwards.[1]
Finding no comfort from Bucer, the suffering Hooper turned to Oxford to Peter Martyr; to meet, however, with the same indifference. Peter Martyr told him, like Bucer, that the thing was of no consequence at all—that it was foolish and wrong to quarrel about it. When changes were being introduced of vital moment, the retention of outward forms was not only tolerable, but of high importance and utility; the imaginations of the people were not disturbed, their habits were not shocked; they would listen the more quietly to new doctrines, and the form in due time would follow the matter.[2]
- ↑ Bucer to Hooper: printed in Strype's Memorials. In the same spirit Bucer wrote to Alasco the Pole, who was President of the foreign congregation at Austin Friars.'The more diligently,' he said, 'I weigh and consider both what fruit we may gather by this controversy of vestures, and also what Satan goeth about thereby to work, I would have wished before the Lord that it had never once been spoken of; but rather that all men of our function had gone stoutly forward, teaching true repentance, the wholesome use of all things, and the putting on the apparel of salvation.'I see in many, marvellous diligence in abolishing Amalek concerning stocks and stones, vestures, and things without us, when in their acts and lives they maintain the whole Amalek still. I know that some help forward this strife, so that in the mean time the chief essentials may be less regarded, the staying of sacrilege, and the providing decent ministers in the parishes.'In all outward things the churches should be left free. If white dresses can be abused, they can also be used innocently. Let the white dress be taken to signify the purity of the Christian life. There can be no offence then; and officers of all kinds must wear something to distinguish them, that their office may be known and respected.'—Bucer to Alasco: Epistolæ Tigurinæ.Bucer died a few months after; his companion, Fagius, was already gone; good men both of them, Bucer especially, who at such a time could be ill spared.
- ↑ Peter Martyr to Hooper: Strype's Cranmer.
