PUR 



PUR 



These exiles were no sooner come to 

 their native country, than they set about 

 to carry on the work of reformation, even 

 further than it had been done by the ec- 

 clesiastical laws of Elizabeth. This prin- 

 cess, with those that had weathered the 

 storm at home, were only tor restoring 

 King Edward's liturgy ; but the majority 

 of the exiles were for the worship and 

 discipline of the foreign churches, and 

 refused to conform to the usages of the old 

 establishment, declaiming loudly against 

 the popish habits and ceremonies. For a 

 time the Queen connived at their non-con- 

 formity ; but no sooner did she find her- 

 self firmly established on the throne, 

 than she gave the Puritans, as the reform- 

 ing exiles were reproachfully called, a 

 specimen of her proud spirit, and the na- 

 tion a proof of her secret attachment to 

 the principles and many ot the ceremonies 

 of the Romish faith. A Puritan, at that 

 time, was a man of severe morals, a Cal- 

 vinist in doctrine, and a non-conformist to 

 the ceremonies and discipline of the 

 church. As they did not avowedly sepa- 

 rate from the church, they seem to have 

 acted, in this particular, somewhat like 

 the Wesleyan Methodists of the present 

 day. 



The aversion which Queen Elizabeth 

 conceived against the Puritans induced 

 her to act against them in the most crjiel 

 and rigid manner. " For," says Neal, 

 " besides the ordinary courts of the bi- 

 shops, her Majesty erected a new tribu- 

 nal, called the High Commission, which 

 suspended and deprived men of their 

 livings, not by the verdict of twelve men 

 upon oath, but by the sovereign determi- 

 nation of three commissioners of her Ma- 

 jesty's own nomination, founded not upon 

 the statute laws of the realm, but upon 

 the bottomless deep of the canon law; 

 and instead of producing witnesses in 

 open court to prove the charge, they as- 

 sumed a power of administering an oath 

 ex officio, whereby the prisoner was 

 obliged to answer all questions the court 

 should put to him, though never so pre- 

 judicial to his own defence ; if he refused 

 to swear, he was imprisoned for con- 

 tempt ; and if he took the oath, he was 

 convicted upon his own confession." Such 

 are the ingenious intricacies which a spirit 

 of intolerance can invent to puzzle and 

 embarrass its victims ! 



Having already, in some degree, antici- 

 pated the history of the Puritans, in the 

 article PRESBYTERIANS, it is almost un- 

 necessary to enlarge in this place. 

 Mr. Hume, whom no one will accuse 



of an unwarrantable prejudice for the prin- 

 ciples of civil and religious liberty, ob- 

 serves, when speaking of the conduct of 

 Elizabeth, " so absolute was the authority 

 of the crown, that the precious spark of 

 liberty had been kindled, and was pre- 

 served by the Puritans alone, and it was 

 to this sect, whose principles appear so 

 frivolous, and habits so ridiculous, that 

 the English owe the whole freedom of 

 their constitution." When it is consider- 

 ed who it is that thus speaks of the Puri- 

 tans, and when it is also considered what 

 is meant by " the whole freedom of the 

 English constitution," it will be thought 

 that we, of the present day, are debtors, 

 of no small magnitude, to the zeal and 

 perseverance of the ancient Puritans. 



It must, however, be granted, that 

 when the persecutions carried on against 

 the Puritans, during the reign of Eliza- 

 beth and the Stuarts, had driven the 

 Puritans once more to seek refuge abroad, 

 they now, in their turn, persecuted others 

 who dissented from them. Those wh 

 formed the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 

 having never relinquished the principle of 

 a national church establishment, were 

 less tolerant than those who settled at 

 Plymouth, at Rhode Island, and at Pro- 

 vidence plantations. The consequence 

 was, they did not fail to discover that 

 their sufferings and trials had not fully 

 taught them the lessons of Christian for- 

 bearance and universal toleration. Hap. 

 ily for the peace and security of man- 

 ind, those lessons are now better under- 

 stood ; and little remains of the offensive 

 parts of Puritanism, besides what is to 

 be found in the genius of high Calvinism, 

 still unhappily possessing the minds of 

 some of the sectaries of our own time. 

 We may, however, fairly hope that the 

 time is fast approaching, when the true 

 principles of liberty shall be not only ac- 

 knowledged, but fully acted upon ; and 

 the spirit of enthusiasm and bigotry 

 known only to be execrated, and remem- 

 bered only to be avoided. See Dr. 

 Toulmin's edition of Neal's History of the 

 Puritans, and Palmer's Nonconformist's 

 Memorial; two works of considerable 

 merit, and fraught with information, on 

 the history and principles of the Puritans. 

 See also the articles, NON-CONFORMISTS, 

 PRESBYTERIANS, PROTESTANTS, and 

 REFORMATION. 



PURLUE, or PURWEU, signifies all that 

 ground near any forest, which, being 1 

 made forest by King Henry II. Richard 

 I. and King John, was afterwards, by per- 

 ambulations and grants of Henry IH.se- 



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