Chap. V. The HISTORY of the PURITANS. 573 all the churches and chapels of his province; to accomplifh which, it K. Charles I. was neceffary to take down the galleries in fome churches, and to remove ancient monuments. This was refented by fome conftderable families, and Prynne's Complained of as an injury to the dead, and fuch an expence to the living, Cant. Do.mì as force country parifhes could not bear , yet thofe who refuted to pay P the rates impofed by the archbifhop for this purpofe, were fined in the fpi- ritual courts contrary to law. It is almoft incredible, what a ferment the making this alteration at once, railed among the common people all over England. Many minifters and church wardens were excommunicated, fined, and obliged to do penance, for neglecting the -bifhops injunctions. Great numbers refufed to come up to the rails and receive the facrament; for which force were fined, and others excommunicated, to the number of force hundreds, fay the committee of the houle of commons at the arch.. bifhop s trial. umeutr' Books were wrote for and again(' this new practice, with the fame Arg n a earneftnefs and contention for vii ory, as if the life of religion had beenf r andta- at flake. Dr. LYilleams bifhop of Lincoln, publi(hed two treadles againft it, one intituled a letter to the vicar of Grantham ; the other the holy table, name and thing; filled with fo much learning, and that learning fo clofely and fondly applied (lays lord Clarendon,) as (hewed he had fpent his time in his retirement with his books very profitably. Dr. Fleylin who anfwered the bifhop, argued from the words of queen Elizabeth's in- junélions 1559, from the orders and advertifements of 1562 and 1565, from the praélice of the king's chapels and cathedrals , and finally, from the prefent king's declaration, recommending a conformity of the parifh. churches to their cathedrals. The bifhop and with him all the puritans,., infifted upon the practice of primitive antiquity, and upon the eighty.fe- cond canon of 1603, which fays, " We appoint that the table for the ce- " lebration of the holy communion, íhall be covered with a fair linen " cloth at the time of adminiftration, and (hall then be placed in fo, °' good fort within the church or chancel, as thereby the minifter may " more conveniently be heard ofthe communicants in his prayer, and the F. communicants may more conveniently, and in more numbers commu= " nicate." They urged the rubrick in the common prayer book; that altars in churches were a popifh invention, of no greater antiquity in the .chriftian church than the facrifice of the mafs; and infifted ftrenuoufly on the difcontinuance of them Pnce the reformation. But the archbifhop, being determined to carry his point, profecuted the affair with unjuftifia- able rigor over all the kingdom, punifhing thofe who oppofed him, with- out regard to the laws of the land. This occafioned a fort of fchifm a mong the bifhops, and a great deal of uncharitablenefs among the infe- rior
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