Chap. I. The HISTORY of the PURITANS. 455 " quietly enjoy their Paid liberty in the ufe of ecciefiaftical difcipline KingJa1CSI. " there now efla6lifhed; forbidding any one to give them any trouble or ' « impeachment fo long as they contain themfeves in our obedience. --" Given at Hampton- Court, Auguft 8th. in theAll of our reign, 1603. But Bancroft and Come of his brethren the bithops, having poffefï'ed the king with the necef3ity of a general uniformity throughout all his domi- nions, there iflands were to be included ; accordingly Sir fohn Peyton a zealous church-man, was appointed governor, with fecret inftruElions to root out the Geneva difcipline, and plant the Englifh liturgy and ceremo- nies in its room. This gentleman taking advantage of the fynod's ap- pointing a minifter to a vacant living according to cuftom, protefted againft it, as injurious to the king's prerogative, and complained to court, that the ferfy minifters had ufurped the patronage of the benefices of the ifland ; that they admitted men to livings without the form of pre- fentation, which was a lofs to the crown in its firft fruits ; that by the connivance or allowance of former governors, they eaercifed a kind of arbitrary jurifdi6tiorr; and therefore prayed that his majefty would fettle the Englifh difcipline among them. The ferfey mirlifters alledged in their own defence, that the prefentation to livings was a branch of their difcipline ; and that the payment offirjifruits and tenths had never been demanded fnce they were difengaged from the fee of Confiance. They pleaded his majefly's royal confirmation of their difcipline, which was read publickly in a fynod of both iflands in the year rhos. But this pious king had very little regard to promifes, oaths, or charters, when they flood in the way of his arbitrary deigns ; he ordered therefore his ecclefiaftical officers to purfue his inftruEtions in the molt efe ual man- ner. Accordingly they took the prefentations to vacant livings into their own hands, without confulting the prefbytery ; they annulled the oath, whereby all eccleftafticai and civil officers were obliged to fwear to the maintenanceof their difipline; and whereas all who received the holy facrament were required to fubfcribe to the allowanceof the general form of church government in that ifland, the king's attorney general and his friends now refuted it. Their elders likewìfe were cited into the tem- poral courts and ¡tripped of their privileges; nor had they much better quarter in the con/iflory, for the governor and jurats made the decrees of that court ineffebtual, by revering them in the Town Hall. Complaint being made to the court of thefe innovations, the king fent Coltyer, them word, that to avoid all difputes for the future, he was determined P. 706 to revive the office and authority of a dean, and to eftablith the Engajh Heylin. common -prayer -book among them, which he did accordingly ; and or- dered the bifhop of Wincheer, in Whole diocefe they were, to draw up Tome
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