B. Thou takest upon thee to be a preacher, but there is nothing in thee. Thou art a very ass, an idiot, and a fool. M. I humbly beseech you, sir, have patience, and give this people a better example. Through the Lord, I am what I am. I submit the trial of my sufficiency to the judgment of the learned. But this wandering speech is not logical.

Hopton. Mr. Merbury, how do you prove all the bishops in England, to be guilty of the death of as many souls as have perished, by the ignorance of the unable ministers which they have made?

M. If they ordain unmeet or unable ministers, they give unto them imposition of hands too hastily; to do which, the apostle saith, they are partakers of other mens' sins.

B. The Greek word importeth nothing but the examination of their lives.

M. It is general enough to include both; and it is before set down in the Epistle as a positive law. "A bishop (a word formerly used in a more general sense) must be apt to teach;" and, according to the apostle, if he be not so approved to your conscience, you communicate with his

sins.

B. What sins are those, I pray thee?

M. Soul-murder.

B. How dost thou prove that?

M. The words of the prophet are, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." And who should teach them knowledge?

B. Knowledge! Have they not the homilies and the catechism? It is more, methinks, than they will learn.

M. Yes, or their parish priest either, to any purpose, in many places.

B. Why then, by thy saying, it seems they have too much of this already.

M. And too little of the other.

B. What other?

M. I mean preaching. What can an ignorant minister see in those things more than a book-learned parishioner? B. O! thou wouldst have all preaching. Are not the homilies sermons?

M. God giveth his own blessing to his own appointed means, which is preaching, not reading.

* Such was the language from a lord bishop, whom Mr. Strype highly commends as an exact logician, and a man of universal learning !—Strype's Aylmer, p. 240.

B. Mark you what his words insinuate. He condemneth reading in churches; and seemeth to affirm, that they are all damned, whose minister is not a preacher. You see what he is.

Dr. Lewis. By St. Mary, these be pernicious errors. Sir, what say you of them?

M. Mr. Doctor, I allow of the reading of the scriptures in the church; for Christ read Esaias in the temple, and expounded what he read. I am no judge. God hath extraordinary supplies, when he takes away the ordinary means; but it is good for us not to tempt God, but thankfully to use his ordinary means.

L. Go to the purpose. If I present a man to my lord, whom I take to be a true man, and he prove a thief, am I guilty of his theft? Neither is the bishop guilty of the faults of ministers, of whom there is good hope when he maketh them.

M. Sir, you argue a paribus, but your reason holdeth not. L. Why?

M. You may try him who would be a spiritual thief before you trust him: but you cannot try the other till he have stolen something.

L. What trial would you have more than this: he is a honest man, and in time likely to prove learned?

M. Then, in the mean time, the people perish. You will not commit your sucking child to a dry nurse, be she ever so honest.

L. A good life is a good sermon; and such ministers slay no souls, though they be not so exquisite.

M. To teach by example only, is good in a matron whom silence best becometh; but the apostle telleth Titus, that "ministers must be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers."

B. This fellow would have a preacher in every parish church!

M. So would St. Paul.

B. Where wouldst thou have them?

M. In Cambridge, in Oxford, in the inns of court, yea, and some in prison, if more were wanted. We doing our part, the Lord would do his.

B. I thought where thou wouldst be. But where is the living for them?

M. A man might cut a large thong out of your hide, and that of the other prelates, and it would never be missed.

B. Go thou on to contrive. Thou shalt orderly dispose of our livings.

M. That is more than you can do yourselves. If rich livings be the fault, they are to blame who have too much. Whatever be the cause, the church feeleth the smart.

Mullins. Sir, in the beginning of her majesty's reign, there was a defect of able men; and the church was constrained to take such as it could get, upon the recommendation of noblemen.

M. I speak of later times. As for noblemen, they are no sureties for us; and as to the defect, it cannot wholly dispense with the word. A minister must be able to teach. Mull. Then you would have a preacher, or none at all; and so the church would be unserved.

M. It would be better to have nothing, than that which God would not have.

B. How dost thou prove that God would not have them, when we can get no better?

M. Doth he not say, "Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest unto me?"

B. Thou are an overthwart, proud, puritan knave. Thou wilt go to Northampton; and thou wilt have thine own sayings till thou die. But thou shalt repent.

M. I am no puritan. I beseech you to be good to me. I have been twice in prison already; but I know not why. B. Where was he before?

Keeper of the Gatehouse. With me, my lord.

B. Have him to the Marshalsea. There he shall cope with the papists.

M. I must go where it pleaseth God. But remember God's judgments. You do me open wrong. I pray God forgive you.+

Mr. Merbury was then carried to the Marshalsea; but how long he remained in prison we are not able to learn. Notwithstanding the cruelty with which the good man was treated, he was not a person of severe principles, but acted with great moderation; and afterwards, with liberty of interpretation, became much more conformable.+ A minister of the same name was afterwards

This prelate was much accustomed to use foul language. He called Bishop Bonner, because he was remarkably corpulent, "My Lord Lubber of London."-Strype's Aylmer, p. 275. Baxter's Second Plea, p. 41.

+ Parte of a Register, p. 381-386.

beneficed in the city of London; but whether he was the same person appears rather doubtful.*

WILLIAM WHITTINGHAM, A. M.-This excellent divine was born in the city of Chester, in the year 1524, and educated in Brazen-nose college, Oxford. In 1545, he became fellow of All-Souls college. Afterwards, being accounted one of the best scholars in the university, he was translated to Christ-church, then founded by Henry VIII. In the year 1550, he travelled into France, Germany, and Italy, and returned towards the close of the reign of Edward VI. Upon the accession of Queen Mary, and the commencement of her bloody persecution, he fled from the storm, and retired to Frankfort, where he settled among the first of the English exiles. Here he was the first who took the charge of the congregation, but afterwards resigned to Mr. John Knox. Mr. Whittingham and his brethren having comfortably settled their church at Frankfort, invited their brethren, who had taken refuge in other places, to come to them, and participate of their comforts: but on the arrival of Dr. Cox and his friends, instead of union and comfort, they were soon deeply involved in discord and contention; and many of them, in a short were time, obliged to leave the place. Our historian observes, that when "Dr. Cox and others with him came to Frankfort, they began to break that order which was agreed upon: first, by answering aloud after the minister, contrary to the determination of the church; and being admonished thereof by the seniors of the congregation, he, with the rest who came with him, made answer, that they would do as they had done in England, and that they would have the face of the English church. And the Sunday following, one of his company, without the consent and knowledge of the congregation, got up suddenly into the pulpit, read the litany, and Dr. Cox with his company answered aloud, whereby the determination of the church was broken."+ These imperious exiles having, by very ungenerous and unchristian methods, procured the use of the church, Mr. Whittingham said, he did not doubt that it was lawful for him and others to join themselves to some other church. But Dr. Cox sought that it might not be suffered. Then Mr. Whittingham observed, that it would be great cruelty to force men, contrary to their consciences, Newcourt's Repert. Eccl. vol. i. p. 406, 422, 519. + Troubles at Frankeford, p. 31.

to obey all their disorderly proceedings; and offered, if the magistrate would be pleased to give them the hearing, to dispute the matter against all the contrary party, and prove, that the order which they sought to establish, ought not to take place in any reformed church. In this they were expressly prohibited, and even forbidden meddling any more in the business. They ventured, however, to offer, as their last refuge, to refer the whole matter to four arbitrators, two on each side; that it might appear who was faulty, and they might vindicate themselves from the charge of schism: but the proposal was rejected; and after this unkind and unchristian treatment, they left the place.* Mr. Whittingham being, in effect, driven from Frankfort, went to Geneva, where he was invited to become pastor to the English church. He refused, at first, to accept the charge; but, by the earnest persuasion of John Calvin, he complied with their invitation, and was ordained by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. During his abode at Geneva, he was employed with several other learned divines, in pub. lishing a new translation of the Bible. This was afterwards called the Geneva Translation, a particular account of which is given in another place.+

Soon after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Whittingham returned home; and presently after his arrival, was nominated to accompany the Earl of Bedford on his mission to the court of France. Upon his return from France, he accompanied the Earl of Warwick, in his defence of Newhaven against the French. There he was a preacher for some time; and, as Wood observes, though he was ready in his ministerial function, he dissuaded his hearers against conformity, and the observance of the rites and ceremonies of the English church. Yet, such was the high esteem which this excellent earl had for him, that, about 1563, he was the means of procuring from the queen, his preferment to the deanery of Durham. He was a very learned and popular preacher; and in September 1563, he preached before the queen. During this year, the ruling prelates proceeded to a more rigorous imposition of the clerical habits; therefore, Mr. Whittingham wrote a most pressing letter to the Earl of Leicester, intreating him to use his interest to prevent it. In this letter, he expressed him

Troubles at Frankeford, p. 38-51.

See Art. Coverdale.

Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. i. p. 153.-Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 327." Strype's Parker, p. 135.