Note VIII.
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More haughty than the rest, the Wolfish race}Appears with belly gaunt, and famished face; }Never was so deformed a beast of grace. }His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,Close clapped for shame; but his rough crest he rears,And pricks up his predestinating ears._--P. 124. The personal appearance of the Presbyterian clergy was suited by anaffectation of extreme plainness and rigour of appearance. A Genevacloak and band, with the hair close cropped, and covered with a sortof black scull-cap, was the discriminating attire of their teachers.This last article of dress occasioned an unseemly projection of theirears, and procured those who affected it the nick-name of prick-earedfanatics, and the still better known appellation of Round-heads. Ourauthor proceeds, with great bitterness, to investigate the originof Calvinism. His account of the rise and destruction of a sect ofheretics in Cambria may be understood to refer to the ancient Britishchurch, which disowned the supremacy of the see of Rome, refused toadopt her ritual, and opposed St Augustin's claims to be metropolitanof Britain, in virtue of Pope Gregory's appointment. They held twoconferences with Augustin; at one of which he pretended to work amiracle by the cure of a blind man; at the second, seven Britishbishops, and a numerous deputation from the monastery of Bangor,disputed with Augustin, who denounced vengeance against them by thesword of the Saxons, in case they refused to submit to the see of Rome.His prophecy, which had as little effect upon the Welch clergy as hismiracle, was shortly afterwards accomplished: For Ethelfred, the Saxonking of Northumberland, having defeated the British under the walls ofChester, cut to pieces no fewer than twelve hundred of the monks ofBangor, who had come to assist their countrymen with their prayers. Ourauthor alludes to this extermination of the British recusant clergy,by comparing it to the census, or tribute of wolves-heads, imposedon the Cambrian kings. It has been surmised by some authors, thatAugustin himself instigated this massacre, and thereby contributed tothe accomplishment of his own prophecy. Other authorities say, that hedied in 604, and that the monks of Bangor were slain in 613. Perhaps,however, our author did not mean to carry the rise of Presbytery sofar back, but only referred to the doctrines of Wiccliff, who, in thereign of Edward III., and his successor Richard II., taught publicly atOxford several doctrines inconsistent with the supremacy of the Pope,and otherwise repugnant to the doctrines of the Roman church. He wasprotected during his lifetime by John of Gaunt; but, forty years afterhis death, his bones were dug up and burned for heresy. His followerswere called Lollards, and were persecuted with great severity in thereign of Henry V., Lord Cobham and many others being burned to death.Thinking, perhaps, either of these too honourable and ancient a descentfor the English Presbyterians, our author next refers to Heylin, whobrings them from Geneva,[136] where the reformed doctrine was taughtby the well known Zuinglius, and the still more famous Calvin. Theformer began to preach the Reformation at Zurich about 1518, anddisputed publicly with one Sampson, a friar, whom the Pope had sentthither to distribute indulgences. Zuinglius was persecuted by thebishop of Constance; but, being protected by the magistrates of Zurich,he set him at defiance, and in 1523 held an open disputation beforethe senate, with such success, that they commanded the traditions ofthe church to be thrown aside, and the gospel to be taught throughall their canton. Zuinglius, in some respects, merited the epithet of_fiery_, which Dryden has given him; he was an ardent lover of liberty,and dissuaded his countrymen from a league with the French, by which itmust have been endangered; he vindicated, from Scripture, the doctrineof resisting oppressors and asserting liberty, of which he said God wasthe author, and would be the defender;[137] and, finally, he was killedin battle between the inhabitants of Zurich and those of the five smallcantons. The conquerors, being Catholics, treated his dead body withthe most shameless indignity. The history of Calvin is too well known to need recital in this place.He was expelled from France, his native country, on account of hishaving adopted the doctrines of the reformers, and, taking refuge inGeneva, was appointed professor of divinity there in 1536. But beingafterwards obliged to retire from thence, on account of a quarrel aboutthe administration of the communion to certain individuals, Calvintaught a French congregation at Strasburgh. He may be considered as thefounder of the Presbyterian doctrine, differing from that of Lutherin denying consubstantiation, and affirming, in a large extent, thedoctrine of predestination, founded upon election to grace. The poetproceeds to describe the progress of this sect: With teeth untried, and rudiments of claws,Your first essay was on your native laws;Those having torn with ease, and trampled down,}Your fangs you fastened on the mitred crown, }And freed from God and monarchy your town. }What though your native kennel still be small,Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall;Yet your victorious colonies are sentWhere the north ocean girds the continent.Quickened with fire below, your monsters breedIn fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed;And like the first the last affects to be,Drawn to the dregs of a democracy. The citizens of Geneva, before they adopted the reformed religion,were under the temporal, as well as the ecclesiastical, authority ofa bishop. But, in 1528, when they followed the example of the city ofBerne, in destroying images, and abolishing the Roman ceremonies, thebishop and his clergy were expelled from the city, which from thattime was considered as the cradle of Presbytery. As they had madechoice of a republican form of government for their little state,our author infers, that democracy is most congenial to their newform of religion. It is no doubt true, that the Presbyterian churchgovernment is most purely democratical; which perhaps recommended itin Holland. It is also true, that the Presbyterian divines have alwayspreached, and their followers practised, the doctrine of resistance tooppression, whether affecting civil or religious liberty. But if Drydenhad looked to his own times, he would have seen, that the ScottishPresbyterians made a very decided stand for monarchy after the deathof Charles I.; and even such as were engaged in the conspiracy ofBaillie of Jerviswood, which was in some respects the counter-part ofthe Ryehouse-plot, refused to take arms, because they suspected thatthe intentions of Sidney, and others of the party in England, were toestablish a commonwealth. I may add, that, in latter times, no body ofmen have shewn themselves more attached to the king and constitutionthan the Presbyterian clergy of Scotland. There is room for criticism also in the poetry of these lines. Iquestion whether _fenny Holland_ and _fruitful Tweed_, in other words,a marsh and a river, could form a favourable medium for communicatingthe influence of the _quickening fire below_.
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