228 7be HISTORY of the PURITANS: Chap. V. wen ritual perfe&ion, adoptedlome odd and whimfical opinions, while they fihaaheth; too lax in their morals, being in their principles fomething akin to the Zuietifts of the church of Rome, and theQuakers among ourfelves. They had their private affemblies for devotion, for which they tailed of the feve- rities of the government. - But the weight of the penal laws fell heavieft upon fomeof the German .r4nabaptifls, who refufed to join with the Dutch or Englifh churches: There were two forts of Anabapt /s that fprung tap with the reformation in Germany ; one was of thofe who differed only about the fubjeEt and mode of baptifm, whether it fhould be adminiftered to infants, or in any other manner, than by dipping the whole body under water. But others who bore that name, were meer enthufiafis, men of fierce and barbarous tempers, who broke out into a general revolt, and railed the war called the 4rabapt;/ts ruftie war. They had an unintelligible way of talking of religion, which burnt.. they ufually turned into allegory; and thefe being joined in the common name of Anabaptfis, brought the others under an ill charafter. Twenty- feven of them were apprehended in a private houle, withoutllderfgate- Bars, on Eafter-day, 1575. where they were affembled for worfhip : Of thefe, four recanted the following errors, (1.) That Chrift took notfelh of thefub/lance of the Virgin. (2.) That infantsborn offaithfulparents ought to be rebaptized. (g.) That nó Chriftian man ought to be a magiftrate. (4.) That it is not lawfulfor a Chriftian man to take an oath. But others refufing to abjure, e 1 of them all Dutchmen, were condemned in the confifioryofSt. Paul's tobe burnt, q of whom were banithed, and two fuffered the extre- mity of the fire in Smithfield, 7uly 22, 1575. (viz.) john Wielmacker and Hendrick Ter Woort. Thus the writ de Haretico comburendo, which had hung uponly in terrorem for 17years, was taken down and put in executi- on, upon thefe unhappy men. The Dutchcongregation interceded earnefily for their lives ; as did Mr. Fox the martyrologift, in an elegant latin letter to the queen, but the was immoveable; fo diftant was her majefty from the tender fpirit of her brother king Edward. .DeatbofAbp.. A little before the burning of thefe hereticks, MATTHEW PARKER Parker' archbifhop of Canterbury, departed this life: He was born at Norwich, 1.504.. and educated in Bennet College, Cambridge. In the reign ofking Ed- ward VI. he married, and was therefore obliged to live privately under queen Mary. Upon queen Elizabeth's acceflion, he was advanced, to the archbifhoprick ofCanterbury ; and how he managed in that high ftation, may be colleëted from the foregoing hiftory. He wrote a book entitled, L;fs of Par- Antiquitates Britannicee which fhows him to have had forre (kill ineccle- ligr, P. 524. fiaftical antiquity ; but he was a fevere churchman ; of a rough and un- courtly temper, and of highand arbitrary principles both in church and fiate ,
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