A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



broken ; while the third section really aimed at a complete re-modelling 

 of the Church, more or less on the lines followed in Geneva and Scot- 

 land. For some years all of these could and did worship together in 

 the parish churches of England, and it was impossible to distinguish 

 one from another, unless individuals by their own choice made them- 

 selves in some way conspicuous. After 1571 those who were of the 

 first section were obliged to withdraw from the public services of 

 the English Church, or to arrange some compromise between their 

 duty to the pope and to the queen, which really satisfied neither and 

 must have sorely wounded their own consciences. But the other two 

 theories went on working themselves out side by side up to the out- 

 break of the Civil War, and it is not until the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century that we can measure what strength they had in different 

 parts of the country. 



In the county of Buckingham, however, a few names may be 

 reckoned among the advocates of reform on the most extreme principles 

 almost from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. It is evident that 

 during the time of Edward VI. and Mary those revolutionary ideas 

 about Church government and Church doctrine which had once been 

 popular only amongst the lower classes had gained adherents amongst 

 the gentry of the county. The two Wentworths, Peter and Paul, well- 

 known for their bold assertion of the liberties of Parliament, were both 

 of them thorough-going Puritans. It was Peter Wentworth who was 

 spokesman for the six members who presented themselves to Archbishop 

 Parker in 1571 with a model for 'further reformation' 1 ; and when 

 the archbishop ventured to suggest that such matters were more 

 suited for the clergy to consider, 8 it was he who answered, ' No, by 

 the faith I bear to God, we will pass nothing before we understand 

 what it is, for that were to make you popes. Make you popes who 

 list for we will make you none.' Whether we approve or disapprove 

 this speech, there is no possibility of mistaking its tenor to reformers 

 of this type the witness of the primitive church was of little more value 

 than that of the mediaeval ; everything was to be brought to the test of 

 private judgment, and devout laymen in the sixteenth century with no 

 theological training were as likely to interpret Holy Scripture correctly 

 as all the Fathers of the Church. Peter Wentworth, however, did not 

 carry the day at this time, and the Thirty-nine Articles suffered no 

 further alteration ; but his brother Paul ten years later was more 

 successful, though in a matter of less importance. In 1581 he brought 

 in a motion for a public fast and daily preaching for the benefit of the 

 House of Commons : * the fast to be appointed for one certain day, 

 the preaching to be every morning at seven of the clock before the 



i D'Ewes Journal, 179 (Wednesday, 25 April, 1571) ; Strype, Annals, ii. 67. 



1 They had put aside the article concerning the Homilies and for the Consecration of Bishops on 

 the ground that ' they were so occupied with other matters that they had no time to examine how they 

 agreed with The Word of God.' The archbishop answered, ' Surely . . . you will refer yourselves 

 wholly to us (the bishops) therein ? ' Strype, Annals, ii. 67. 



312 



