CHAPTER XVIII. GRINDAL IN EXILE. Policy of Mary's government towards the Reformers.—Remarks on the XVIII. Ir does not appear that Grindal took any active part part CHAP. in the revolutionary movement which had for its object the placing of the Lady Jane upon the throne vacated by the Edmund death of Edward VI. Grindal. 1575-6 1583. Policy of govern We have had occasion before to remark, that the object of Queen Mary's government was not, in the first instance, Mary's to have recourse to severe and extreme measures. There ment. was no desire to persecute the wish was rather to alarm discontented subjects, and having done so, to facilitate their removal to the Continent; peaceful and quiet men they would permit to remain in the country, if, left undisturbed themselves, they did not seek to create a disturbance among others. Matthew Parker remained, not quite unmolested, for he was suspected of being ready to intrigue against the government, if an opportunity to intrigue should present itself; but Roger Ascham was not XVIII. CHAP. only unmolested-he was actually received into favour, and notwithstanding his devotion to the cause of the Reformation, he was even employed by Bishop Gardyner 1575-6- and treated as a friend. Edmund Grindal. 1583. Burnet's character of Edward's tion. Nevertheless, England was scarcely a safe place of abode for a chaplain of Bishop Ridley, who had without doubt committed himself to the side of the Lady Jane; and unwilling as Grindal was to leave his friends and fellow-students, there was not much in the existing state of affairs to induce a theologian, especially a man of Grindal's disposition and temperament, to remain in England. If the Reformation under Edward VI. was not a failure, it certainly was not a success. Certain profligate noblemen, most active in the cause, maintained the Reformation. in words; but, to all appearance, over their hearts religion had no salutary influence. With the spoils of a plundered church they had filled their coffers; but for the fruits of the Spirit we have too often to look in vain among the Protestants as well as among the Papists. Of so much boasting are men frequently guilty when they refer to this age, that it becomes important, if we would judge aright of Grindal's character, to have regard to the circumstances under which he was placed. Even Burnet cannot deny that the Church was brought into jeopardy by the malpractices of many among the Reforma nobility who were the most zealous in upholding the cause of the Reformation. He confesses that their fraudulent proceedings, combined with a great laxity of morals spreading fearfully among the people, gave the enemies of the Reformation too great a handle against them. "The open lewdness," he says, " in which many lived without shame or remorse gave great occasion to their adversaries to say they were in the right to assert Justification by Faith without works-since they were as to every good work reprobate. Their gross and insatiable scrambling after the goods and wealth that had been dedicated with good design, though to superstitious uses, without applying any part of it to the promoting of the Gospel, the instructing of the youth, and relieving the poor, made all people conclude it was for robbery, and not for reformation, that their zeal made them so active.”* CHAP. XVIII. Edmund 1575-6 Grindal. 1583. on the tion. To the same effect we may refer to the work of a Bishop Prelate far superior in ecclesiastical and historical know- Kennet ledge to Burnet. The following passage is to be found Reformain Bishop Kennet's treatise entitled 'The Impropriation of Vicarages':" The irregular and immoral lives of many of the professors of the Gospel gave their enemies real advantages to say they ran away from confession, penance, fasting, and prayer, only that they might lie under no restraint, but indulge themselves in a licentious and dissolute course of life. By these things, which were but too visible in some of the more eminent among them, the people were much alienated from them. Some of the clergy that promoted the Reformation were not without very visible blemishes; some indiscretions, both in their marriages and in their behaviour, contributed not a little to raise a general aversion from them. It is true there were great and shining lights among them; but they were few in comparison with the many bad." Brewer, Professor Brewer + does not hesitate to remark that Professor "the generality of men are too much misled by Foxe in forming anything like a fair and just estimate of the reigns. of King Edward and his successor. No king ever lived in this nation, except perhaps Henry VIII., whose reign was more disastrous to the cause of true religion, and conse*Burnet, iii. 216. † Brewer, Notes on Fuller, Book viii. p. 150. Grindal. 1575-6 1583. Reaction tion. CHAP. quently to the Church, than was the reign of Edward VI. XVIII. As Bishop Burnet states, men were fast falling away from Edmund the truth altogether, or turning back to their ancient professions and opinions. It was the fires which were lighted in Smithfield which brought men again, if not to soberer ary effect feelings, yet at least to greater caution. Persecution, of persecu- whilst it purged the Reformation to a great extent of those who had supported it merely because it allowed a greater laxity than Romanism, threw a halo round those who suffered, a feeling of pity and respect for them, and of veneration for those opinions for which they suffered, which a milder policy had never produced. Without any such intention, Queen Mary did far more for the Reformation than either of her immediate predecessors." Grindal leaves England for the Continent. Though Grindal was at this time by no means a wealthy man, yet we gather from various circumstances, that he was not dependent upon the Church for support, and that he could both maintain himself in foreign parts and at the same time render some assistance to his friends. He determined to expatriate himself, and he left England for the Continent in the course of the year 1553. He does not seem to have been obliged like some of the other exiles to support himself by tuition, by applying to some of the learned printers for employment, or by becoming corrector of the press. But he intended to translate some of the German works which were more talked of than read; for he did what very few of his contemporaries thought of doing, he became a student of the German language. The early English reformers had been the adherents of Martin Luther; and they therefore and their followers, when driven into exile, expected to receive from the Germans the hospitality which had not been withheld from expatriated Germans when they sought refuge in England. XVIII. Edmund 1575-6— Grindal. 1583. Lutheran ance. But this was not their sole resource; for towards the CHAP. close of King Edward's reign Calvinism had been gradually gaining ground;* and had absorbed the sympathies of many in all classes of Protestantism. The English reformers were sadly disappointed by the conduct of the Lutherans and by the course into which they were intolerforced, the English Church was also seriously damaged. The Lutherans reminded the exiles that the devil had martyrs as well as God; and as the devil's martyrs these exiles were spurned from most of the churches of Germany, and they were thus obliged to seek protection from the Calvinists. Cranmer, with his usual vacillation, having first abetted the Lutheran view of the Divine Presence in the Eucharist, eventually forsook it, and hence the hostility to his name became the greater. The English reformers were therefore most of them driven to seek protection from the Calvinists. The reader who desires to become acquainted with the uncontrollable temper of Calvin, and with the remonstrances addressed to him with too little success by Melanchthon and the real friends of the Reformation, will do well to consult Dyer upon the subject.† To the same authority we may also refer if we desire to Calvin's see how equally violent Calvin could be in the expres- of temper. sion of his feelings when he was engaged in controversy with Luther and the Lutherans. It seems strange that the two founders of new sects, each disclaiming the preten * When the word Calvinist first became general in England, in the sense in which it is now employed, Archbishop Laurence, who has studied the subject, says, "I have not been able precisely to ascertain. Fox does not use it. Evidently, however, in 1585, if not before, it was applied by Saunders to Cranmer, who, in the Book of Martyrs, is termed a Zuinglian, and not a Calvinist."-Archbishop Laurence, Bampton Lectures, p. 237. † Melanchthon protested against the intolerant violence of his party. violence |