knowing the translator; and it went on against all who imported, received, or retained it. Under the reign of his son, it had been plentifully printed, purchased, and read; and it will now become a decided proof of progress, however heart-rending in detail, that the persecution about to commence was to be against all who had believed its contents, and held its sacred This, however, truths to be more precious than life itself.

in the end, will materially further the cause of Divine Truth, not retard it.

REIGN OF QUEEN MARY.

MDLIII.-MDLVIII.

A REIGN, HOWEVER PAINFUL IN ITS DETAILS, WHICH SO FAR FROM RETARDING THE PROGRESS OF DIVINE TRUTH, ONLY DEEPENED THE IMPRESSION OF ITS VALUE; AND AFFORDED THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE SACRED SCRIPTURES BEING GIVEN AFRESH TO ENGLAND, CAREFULLY REVISED THE EXILES FROM THE KINGDOM PROVING, ONCE MORE, ITS GREATEST BENEFACTORS.

PON the 6th of July, 1553, at the age of thirty-six, Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII., succeeded to the throne, and reigned as Sovereign alone for one year. Afterwards, allied by marriage to Philip of Spain, the Queen died in less than four years and four months, on the 17th of November, 1558. This reign throughout has been all along, and generally regarded as a portion of English history distinguished by little. else than the shedding of blood. Few, however, have sufficiently observed, that this blood-shedding for 'opinions held, did not commence till February 1555, or more than a year and a half after Mary held the sceptre. And if this fact has been but slightly regarded, fewer still have ever noticed its bearing on the Sacred Volume, and those who prized it.

That Volume, printed for a period of fully ten years on the Continent, had been very strangely introduced into England; or in a manner which must ever distinguish it, historically, among

all other European versions. Yet now, as if to fix the eye upon it still more intensely, it was about to be carried abroad, or back to that same Continent from whence it first came, and by all such as valued the boon, above their necessary food. Yes, now, when the first edition of the New Testament was already twentyseven years old, and the first Bible printed on English ground had left the press fourteen years ago, as many copies as could be must be carefully concealed at home, and even built up, as they actually were, and the rest must be carried abroad! For years that were past, the people had read those Oracles of God on English ground, which had been prepared for them on the Continent: they must now, scattered all over that Continent itself, read the volumes which had been printed in the metropolis of their native island! Formerly, they perused at home, what came from abroad; they must now read beyond seas, what had been prepared for them at home. No doubt, also, copies which had been printed on the Continent were then carried back to it. Still, however, time must be afforded for escape. The wind of persecution being restrained, that it should not blow on the land for fully a year and a half, those who valued the truth of God, carrying with them the Sacred Volume as their highest treasure, soon departed by hundreds, as best they could. The clouds were gathering over England: a time of trouble and rebuke to a nation which, as such, had too long "despised the Word of the Lord," was at hand; yet could those who fled have seen only a few years before them, they might have sung in concert over the result, as they were sailing to the different seaports to which they fled for shelter.

Upon leaving the Tower for her palace at Richmond, but a few days had elapsed before Mary issued her "Inhibition" against preaching, reading or teaching any Scriptures in the churches, and printing any books! The Word of God in the vulgar tongue, and the printing-press, being the objects of special dread. But even two days before this, there were certain men at large, who must be so no longer. On the 16th of August, Bradford, Vernon, and Becon were committed to the Tower; while no other than John Rogers, alias Matthew, the editor of the Bible received by Henry in 1537, was commanded to keep himself within his own house, and to have no communi

cation with any persons except those of his own family. They had already taken certain steps, if not commenced proceedings against many persons; and by the 15th of September, Latimer and Hooper, as well as Cranmer, were safe in the Tower. As for Ridley, having preached at Paul's Cross in favour of Queen Jane, he had chosen, however strangely, to proceed to Framlingham to salute Mary, where he was instantly despoiled of his dignities, and sent back to the Tower, by the 26th of July, or only ten days after he had preached his sermon. But still there were as yet no tortures, no murder, nor any threatened martyrdom.

Most providentially, the Queen, though only thirty-six years of age, was to reign no longer than five years and four months; but those fires which never ceased to blaze for three years and nine months, were not kindled till a year and a half after she had come to the throne. Gardiner and Bonner, as the leading dogs of war, had not only been let loose, but reinstated as Bishops, and there was the most cordial feeling in harmony with Rome; but still the arm of the oppressor was stayed, nor must one stake be prepared, or fire lighted up, for more than sixteen months after these imprisonments. Cardinal Pole, also, must first come from Italy to England before the kingdom could be formally reconciled to Rome; while Gardiner, now raised to be Lord Chancellor, was, from personal ambition, not a little anxious to retard his return, and, in the meanwhile, seeking greater things, if possible, for himself. Bonner, it is true, at once brutal and rash, was ready, at a moment's warning, to plunge into his favourite occupation with fury; but a compass must be fetched; and Gardiner was there to guide it. Cautious, as well as vindictive, he will steadily watch the time, and not fail to end in blood; when both he and Bonner will be in at the death of the best men in all England.

It must, however, have very soon, and thus mercifully, appeared, that good faith and clemency were out of the question. Conscientious men, in considerable numbers, were bent upon escape to the Continent, and facilities shall not be wanting. All foreigners were to be allowed to depart without hindrance. There were not only Germans and Frenchmen, but Italians and Spaniards, Poles and Scotsmen, harbouring not in

London alone, but elsewhere, and enjoying a degree of freedom from molestation, unknown at the moment in any other part of the world! They must now seek safety by flight. Early in the month of September, that interesting Polish nobleman, John A-Lasco, the uncle of the King of Poland, embarked from London, carrying a considerable number of his congregation with him. About the same time many French, and other foreigners, left England. Orders were sent down to Rye and Dover, that no impediments should be placed in their way; and to these orders, not a few of the English, the salt of the land, were indebted for their escape. Many went under the character of servants, and others, by what means they could, till at last it has been computed that there were from eight hundred to a thousand learned Englishmen, beside those in other conditions, who were now to sustain the honourable character of exiles from their native land, on account of their attachment to Divine Truth. There can be no question that, as far as they could, they took their most valued treasure, their books, with them, but, above all, their copies of the Scriptures; and thus it was that the volume which had been originally translated for England, upon the European continent, was now to be read by more than a thousand of her sons and daughters, and all over these countries, from Emden to Geneva!

These exiles, of whom their native land at the moment was not worthy, found refuge at Emden in Friesland, as A-Lasco and his flock had done; at Wesel on the Rhine in Prussia; at Duisburg, a town of Guelderland in Holland; at Strasburg in France; at Zurich and Berne, Basle, Geneva, and Aran in Switzerland; at Frankfort in Germany, and a few fled to Worms, the spot where the first English New Testaments had been completed at press. Many of these people had, in the end, no great occasion to regret the storm that had driven them from home, so far as they themselves were personally concerned. The improvement and enlargement of their minds was the result, in many instances; while their being all alike sufferers from one common calamity, gave occasion to a far finer display of Christian sympathy and bounty, both abroad and at home, than they ever could have experienced in other circumstances, or ever left for posterity to admire. There were at least three

Ladies of title, at least six Knights, besides other persons of property, among the number who had fled, and they regarded all the rest as brethren in adversity. Many pious individuals too, chiefly in London, contributed freely to their relief, by sending money, clothes, and provisions. Strype gives a list of twenty-six as the most eminent. Abroad, the King of Denmark, Henry, Prince Palatine, the Duke of Wurtemberg, and Wolfgang, Duke of Bipont, with all the states and free cities where the English sojourned, were very bountiful to them. So were foreign divines, especially those of Zurich, whose small stipends scarcely served to maintain themselves. Peter Martyr's house at Strasburg was filled, where the inmates, living at one common table, paid, if anything, easy charges for their diet. Several of the learned exiles subsisted partly by their own exertions. John Foxe had now leisure to compose and publish the first edition of his history in Latin, and Grafton the printer had time to write his Chronicle, to say nothing of other works; but we shall hear of labours infinitely more valuable, for which this temporary banishment from their native land was to prove the time appointed.

These may be regarded as an army of confessors; but there were many who could not, while others would not, avail themselves of safety by flight, and these formed a distinguished portion of the noble army of martyrs. England, as we have witnessed, under Edward VI. had proved an asylum for the oppressed among other nations: it was ere long to become an Aceldama, or field of blood. In the first Parliament under Mary at the close of 1553, the statutes of the preceding reign, as well as some of Henry VIII., had been repealed. The state machine was rolled back to its old position, and the kingdom in 1554 was once more placed under the protection of Rome. Her Majesty, though not at all times a quiescent votary of the Pontiff, was, both from principle and past circumstances, a persecutor; while she could not have found in all England two spirits more congenial with her intentions than those of Stephen Gardiner and Edmund Bonner. If they led, others on the bench, and many unprincipled underlings, were ready to follow. All statutes which stood in the way being entirely removed, as there was "a clear field," so there was to be "no favour." Men and