Chap. V. the HISTORY of the PURITANS. 203 London, fent.his officers to take Tome of them into cuflody, the queen was difpleafed, and ordered them immediately to be releafed. ElizaZe h, Sad was the ftate of religion, Pays Mr. Strype, at this time ; " the fob- c15ß C' flantials being loft in contending for externals ; the churchmen heaped Sad /late of o up many benefices upon themfelves, and refided upon none; negleéting i ft f. Par- cures. Many of them alienated their lands, made unreafonable ker, p. 345. leafes, and wafte of woods, and granted reverfions, and advowfons to o their wives and children. Among the the laity there was little de- votion ; the Lord's day greatly profaned, and little obferved ; the com- " mon prayers not frequented ; tome lived without any fervice of God at all ; many were mere heathens and atheifts ; the queen's own court " an harbour for epicures and atheiffs, and a kind of lawlefs.place, becaufe " it flood in no parifh; which things made good men fear fcme fad o judgments impendingover the nation." The governors of the church expreffed no concern for fuppreffing ofvice, and encouraging virtue ; there were no citations into the commons for immoralities; But the bithops were every day (hutting the mouths of the molt pious, ufeful, and in- duflrious preachers in the nation, at a time when the queen was lick of the fmall pox, and troubled with fainting fits, and the whole reformation depended upon the tingle threadof her life. This precarious Rate of religion was the more terrible, becaufe of the Parifia Parfanmaffacre, which happened this very fummer on the 24th of Au- meiPmot, guff; being Bartholomew -day, when great numbers of proteffants having been invited to Paris, on pretence of doing honour to the king of Na- varré s marriage to the king's fitter, ten thoufand were maffacred in one night, and twenty thoufand more in other parts of the kingdom, within the compafs of a few weeks, by his majefly's commifon ; no diffin&ion being made between lords, gentlemen, juflices, lawyers,- fcholars, phy- Snipe's rtn- ficians, and the meaneft of the people ; they fpared neither women, maids, nais, P. eón. children in the cradle, nor infants in their mothers womb. Many who efcaped, fled to Geneva and Switzerland, and great numbers into England, to fave their lives. The proteftant princes of Germany were awakened with this butchery; and the queen put the coatis into a pofture of defence, but made no conceffions, for uniting her proteftant fubjefts among themfelves. This year died the reverend and learned Mr. fohn Knox, the apoffle Beath of and chief reformer, of the kirk of Scotland. This divine came Mr. Knox. into England, in the reign of king Edward VI. and was appoint- ed one of the itinerant preachers for the year 1552. he was after- wards offered a parochial living in London, but refufed it ; upon king Edward's death, he retired beyond lea, and became preacher to the - Englifh exiles at Frankfort, till he was artfully fpiritedaway by the con- D d a trivance
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