Chap. VIII. The HISTORY of the PURITANS. 665 ubferibing to the book of common-prayer, and to the thirty-nine articles, h Charles I. the houle of commons voted, .. that the ftatute made twenty-leven i6cJ years ago in the univerfity of Cambridge, impofing upon young fcho- '° tarsa fubfcription, according to the thirty -fixth canon of 16o3. is againft law, and the liberty of the fubjeét, and ought not to be im- " ° poled upon any ftudents or graduates whatfoever." About five months forwards they paffed the fame refolution for Oxford, which was not unreafonable, becaufe the univerfities had not an unlimited power by the thirty-fixth canon to call upon all their ftudents to fub- fcribe, but only upon fuch letlurers or readers of divinity whom they had a privilege of licenfing; and to this I conceive the Taft words of the canon refer ; if either of the univerfities ofrnd therein, we leave them to the danger ofthe law and his majefy's cesefure. And it ought to be remembered, that all the proceedings of the Dzign óf houle of commons this year, in punifhing delinquents; and all their their votes and refolutions about the circumftances of public worfhip, had no other view, than the cutting off thofe illegal additions and innovations, which the fuperftition of the latetimes had introduced, and reducing the difcipline of the church to the flandard of ftatute law. No man was punifhed for afing according to law; but the difpleafure of the houle ran high againft thofe, who in their public miniftrations, or in their ecciefiaftical courts, had bound thofe things upon the fubjeét, whichwere either contrary to the laws of the land, or about which the laws were altogether filent. C H A P. VIII. The Antiquity of Liturgies, and of the Epifcopal Order, debated between Bop HALL and SMECTYMNUUS. Petitions for and againfi the Hierarchy. RooT and BRANCH Petition. The Minifers Petition for Refor- mation. Speeches upon the Petitions. Proceedings againf Papills. T H E debates in parliamant concerning the eng1Jh liturgy and hie- rarchy, engaged the attention of the whole nation, and revived thecontroverfy without doors. The preis being open, great numbers of Pam' anonymous pamphlets appeared againft the eftablifhment, not without Bai' VoL. I. 4 Q indecent pa
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