broken ; while the third section really aimed at a complete re-modelling of the Church, more or less on the lines followed in Geneva and Scot- land. For some years all of these could and did worship together in the parish churches of England, and it was impossible to distinguish one from another, unless individuals by their own choice made them- selves in some way conspicuous. After 1571 those who were of the first section were obliged to withdraw from the public services of the English Church, or to arrange some compromise between their duty to the pope and to the queen, which really satisfied neither and must have sorely wounded their own consciences. But the other two theories went on working themselves out side by side up to the out- break of the Civil War, and it is not until the beginning of the seven- teenth century that we can measure what strength they had in different parts of the country.
In the county of Buckingham, however, a few names may be reckoned among the advocates of reform on the most extreme principles almost from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. It is evident that during the time of Edward VI. and Mary those revolutionary ideas about Church government and Church doctrine which had once been popular only amongst the lower classes had gained adherents amongst the gentry of the county. The two Wentworths, Peter and Paul, well- known for their bold assertion of the liberties of Parliament, were both of them thorough-going Puritans. It was Peter Wentworth who was spokesman for the six members who presented themselves to Archbishop Parker in 1571 with a model for 'further reformation' [1] ; and when the archbishop ventured to suggest that such matters were more suited for the clergy to consider, [2] it was he who answered, ' No, by the faith I bear to God, we will pass nothing before we understand what it is, for that were to make you popes. Make you popes who listfor we will make you none.' Whether we approve or disapprove this speech, there is no possibility of mistaking its tenorto reformers of this type the witness of the primitive church was of little more value than that of the mediaeval ; everything was to be brought to the test of private judgment, and devout laymen in the sixteenth century with no theological training were as likely to interpret Holy Scripture correctly as all the Fathers of the Church. Peter Wentworth, however, did not carry the day at this time, and the Thirty-nine Articles suffered no further alteration ; but his brother Paul ten years later was more successful, though in a matter of less importance. In 1581 he brought in a motion for a public fast and daily preaching for the benefit of the House of Commons : * the fast to be appointed for one certain day, the preaching to be every morning at seven of the clock before the
- ↑ D'Ewes Journal, 179 (Wednesday, 25 April, 1571) ; Strype, Annals, ii. 67.
- ↑ They had put aside the article concerning the Homilies and for the Consecration of Bishops on the ground that ' they were so occupied with other matters that they had no time to examine how they agreed with The Word of God.' The archbishop answered, ' Surely . . . you will refer yourselves wholly to us (the bishops) therein ? ' Strype, Annals, ii. 67.
