IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 17 



"tremble for the ark." He would have grieved 

 over those vs^ho, taking the pay and status of the 

 English Church, openly deny the principles of 

 the Reformation, and, hating the very name of 

 "Protestant," seek altogether to alter the geo- 

 graphical boundaries of that Church. 



The late Bishop Harvey Goodwin, of Carlisle, 

 well said, "that any English Churchman should 

 doubt whether upon the whole the Church was 

 better or worse for being reformed, or should 

 regard the Eeformation not as a necessity, but as 

 a crime — this is to my mind absolutely wonderful " 

 ("The Message of the Spirit to the Church of 

 England," a sermon preached before the University 

 of Cambridge, 'l869). 



In no period has the Anglican Church, writes 

 Hallam, referring to the period 1650-1700, stood 

 up so powerfully in defence of the Protestant 

 cause. From the era of the Restoration to the 

 close of the century, the war was unremitting 

 and vigorous. And it is particularly to be re- 

 marked, he says, that the principal champions 

 of the Church of England "threw off that 

 ambiguous syncretism which had displayed itself 

 under the first Stuarts, and, comparatively at 

 least with their immediate predecessors, avoided 

 every admission which might facilitate a deceitful 

 compromise." Many of Walton's greatest friends 

 were out and out Protestants. 



B 



