presented ' omnia bene ' in his own parish, where he could testify that there was almost nothing in order.[1]
The truth of the matter was that such men as Adams and Andrewes were distinctly in the minority in this county : not only their church- wardens and their congregations, but their brother clergy and the majority of the local gentry had embraced a wholly different religious ideal. [2] These latter had but one idea in coming to church, and that was to hear sermons. Thomas Adams, himself a notable preacher, complains 'not that our churches are auditories, but that they are not oratories [3] ; and begs his audience to remember that ' all our preaching is to beget your praying, to instruct you to praise and worship God ' ; and that 'the end is ever held more noble than the means." This testimony is of the more value as it comes from one who had no secret sympathies with Rome, who never loses an opportunity, indeed, of abusing the pope and his adherents with all the violence of epithet common in those days. John Andrewes had a good deal to say on the same subject. He was one of those who sympathized strongly with the efforts after a truer reform that were being made by the clergy who had been brought up in the school of Hooker, and were now led by Archbishop Laud : he had a clear idea and appreciation of the priestly office,[4] and to him ' the best part of God's service ' was not the sermon but the Holy Eucharist.[5] But it is very evident that he stood very much alone, and that nearly all the clergy and gentry of his neighbourhood were against him.[6] His efforts to revive the practice of catechizing in the afternoons, instead of giving another sermon, had been almost isolated : the vicar of Chalfont St. Peter, who wished to follow his example, was ' violently importuned ' by his congregation to give them another preaching, and was ' so over- awed by the justices and clergy of those parts ' [7] that he was fain to yield,
- ↑ S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cclxxix. 36, and cclxxxvi. 86. The former letter is of great interest, explaining the state of Beaconsfield and that part of the county in detail, and the vain efforts of Andrewes to cope with his opponents as well as his own parishioners.
- ↑ As a trifling balance to all this it should be recorded that in 1610 a new church was built at Fulmer (where there had once been a chapel before the Reformation) by Sir Marmaduke Dayrell (Records of Bucks, ii. 85-91) ; and that the chapel at Tattenhoe was rebuilt in 1635 under the patronage of Thomas Stafford (Cal. of State Papers Chas. I. 1635, cccxvii. 76).
- ↑ Adams goes on, ' I complain not that you come to sermons . . . but that you neglect public prayer, as if it were only God's part to bless you, and not yours to bless God ' ; and calls it ' an error of our times ' that many were so transported with desire of hearing that they forgot the ' fervency of praying and praising God.'
- ↑ He speaks of his ' good neighbour Mr. Foster ' as ' learned in the canon law, a true son of the Church of England ... no man can be of a more unblameable life, of a graver priest-like carriage, none more observant of the laws of the church ' (S. P. Dom. Chas. I. ccxci. 87). He is careful always to use the word priest where his puritan brethren spoke of ministers, adding once, when he had been quoting one of these, ' here are no priests.' (Ibid, cclxxxvii. 31.)
- ↑ In the last-mentioned letter he speaks of a man being arrested for debt ' within the Church, and when he was purposed to have received the Blessed Sacrament, and while the best part of God's service was in doing (viz. the celebration of the Holy Eucharist) ... as he was going up to the high altar.' All these phrases mark him as belonging to the Laudian school.
- ↑ The fewness of the clergy ejected during the Commonwealth in this county bears witness to this ; the fact that the county declared finally for the Parliament tends the same way.
- ↑ From a letter of Andrewes to Archbishop Laud, 13 June, 1636 (S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cccxxvi. 18). He says also that where catechizing was done the children were instructed usually in ' Perkins' Six Principles,' and not the Church catechism.
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