him. On this, he made intereft, with the master of the ship to put to fea again, without delay; though at evident hazard of their lives, as the tempeft had not yet fubfided. Through God's goodnefs, however, they all arrived, in two days, at Nieuport in Flanders: from whence Mr. Fox and his company travelled to Antwerp, and Franckford; and fo to Bafil, in Switzerland, whither great numbers of the English reforted in thofe times of domeftic perfe cution. The city of Bafil was then one of the moft famous in Europe, for printing: and many of the learned refugees, who retired thither, got their fubfistence by revifing and correcting the prefs. To this employment, Mr. Fox betook himfelf: and it was here, that he laid the firft plan of his ineftimable history and martyrology, intitled, Acts and Monuments of the Church. Queen Mary the bloody died in the month of November, 1558. And, the day before he died in England, Mr. Fox, in a fermon then preached by him at Bafil, publicly and pofitively predicted, that the day then next enfuing would be the laft of her life. An event, fo circumftantially foretold, by one at such a distance from the place of Mary's refidence; and fo punctually accomplished, by the hand of divine Providence; could only be made known to the predictor, by revelation from God. Elizabeth's acceffion encouraged Mr. Fox to return home where, on his arrival, he ftill found a faithful and ferviceable friend, in his late pupil, the duke of Norfolk; who hofpitably and nobly entertained him, at his manor of Christ Church, in London, until his [i. e. until the duke's] death: from which latter period, Mr. Fox inherited a penfion, bequeathed to him by his deceafed benefactor, and ratified by his fon the earl of Suffolk. Nor did the good man's fucceffes ftop here. On being recommended to the queen, by her fecretary of ftate, ftate, the great Cecil; her majefty gave him the prebendary of Shipton, in the cathedral of Salisbury: which was, in a manner, forced upon him; for he brought himself with difficulty to accept of it. The truth is, that, wife and holy and learned as Mr. Fox unquestionably was, he entertained fome needlefs doubts, concerning the lawfulness of fubfcribing to the ecclefiaftical canons: a requifition, which, in his idea, he confidered as an infringement of Proteftant liberty. Through this extreme fcrupuloufnefs, he excluded himself from rifing to thofe dignities and promotions in the Church, to which his uncommon merit, as a scholar and a divine, eminently entitled him and to which he would most certainly have rifen, but for the caufe now affigned. His friends were many, great, and powerful; as Sir Francis Walfingham, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Thomas Grefham, Sir Drue Drury, archbishop Grindal, bifhop Aylmer, bishop Parkhurft, &c: who would have been the inftruments of raifing him to very confiderable preferments, had not his unaccountable coolness, toward the canons and ceremonies of the Church of England, reftrained him from accepting any of her capital emoluments. While, however, we wonder at his prejudices; we cannot but revere him for his honefty, and for his extreme tenderness of confcience.-Dr. Fuller tells us, that archbishop Parker fummoned him to fubfcribe; in hope, "that the general reputation of his piety might give the greater countenance to conformity. But, instead of complying with the command, Mr. Fox pulled out of his pocket the New Teftament, in Greek; and, holding it up, faid, To this will I subscribe. And, when a fubfcription to the canons was required of him, he refufed; faying, I have nothing in the Church, but a prebend at Salisbury: and, if you take it away from me, much good may it do you. But he was permitted to retain it, until his death: fuch refpect did the bishops (who had, C 2 moft most of them, been his fellow exiles abroad) bear to his age, parts and labours. Yet, let it be remembered, that, notwithstanding his acknowledged moderation in point of thorough conformity; he was ftill a declared enemy, to the heats and violences of rigid puritanifin. "I cannot but wonder," faid he, in a letter to a bishop, "at that turbulent genius, which infpires thofe factious puritans.-Were I one, who, like them, would be violently outrageous against bishops and archbishops; or join myself with them, i. e. become mad, as they are; I had not met with fevere treatment [at their hands]. But because, quite different from them, I have chofen the fide of modefty and public tranquillity; the hatred, which they have long conceived against me, is at last grown to this degree of bitternefs. Your prudence is not ignorant, how much the Chriftian religion fuffered, formerly, by the diffimulation and hypocrify of the monks. At prefent, in these men, I know not what new fort of monks feems to revive; fo much more pernicious than the former, as, with more fubtle artifices of deceiving, and under pretence of perfection, like ftage-players who only act a part, they conceal a more dangerous poifon who, while they require every thing to be formed according to their own ftrict difcipline, will not defift, until they have brought all things into Jewish bondage *." Thus thought, and thus wrote, this admirable divine! this friend to men of all parties, but a slave to no party of men ! How benevolently difpofed this great and good man was, even toward those who differed the most widely from him in religious principles; appears, *The occafion, on which this letter was written; and the whole of the letter itfelf, in its original Latin; are extant in Fuller's Church Hift. b. ix. p. 106.-For a fummary of it, in English, fee Biographia Britannica, vol. iii. p. 2021. among among many other inftances, from the Latin letter, which he wrote to queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1575, to diffuade her majefty from putting to death two anabaptifts, who had been condemned to the fire. Fuller has preferved the whole of this mafterly and truly Christian address. The fubftance of it was as follows: that "To punish, with the flames, the bodies of thofe, who err rather from blindnefs, than obftinacy of will, is cruel, and more fuitable to the example of the Romish church, than to the mildness of the gofpel. I do not" (added he) "write thus, from any bias to the indulgence of error; but from a regard to the lives of men, as being myself a man: and in hope, that the offending parties may have opportunity to repent "" of and retract their mistakes. He earnestly befeeches her majefty, to fpare the lives of thefe miferable men; or, at least, foften their mode of punishment as to banish them, or commit them to per-. * "On Eafter-day was disclosed a congregation of Dutch_anabaptifts, without Aldgate, in London: whereof feven-and-twenty were taken, and imprifoned; and four bearing faggots at Paul's Crofs, folemnly recanted their dangerous opinions. Next month, one Dutchman, and ten women, were condemned, of whom one woman was converted to renounce her errors; eight were banished the land; two so obstinate, that command was iffued out for their burning in Smithfield.”. -FULLER'S Ch. Hift. B. ix. p. 204. This fhocking and unjuftifiable perfecution, could not but reflect deep difgrace on the Proteftant name. The two unhappy victims were burned, according to their fentence, July 22, 1575. They. were both Dutchmen, and, as we are informed by Stow, "died in great horror, with roaring and crying." (Chronicle, p. 680.)Strype fays, their names were, John Wielmacker, and Hendrick Ter Woort; and that they fuffered, after an imprisonment of fixteen weeks. Much intereft was made in their behalf, by the Dutch congregation fettled in London; but the Privy Council would not fpare them (Strype's Annals, vol. ii. p. 380). It was eminently humane, in their countrymen here, to importune the government fo earnestly in their favour: efpecially, when we recollect, that the interceffors were Calvinifts, and that the fufferers added, to their other herefies, the maintenance of free-will; perfection, juftification by works, and falling from grace; which, however, was infinitely far from warranting the fanguinary rigour with which they were treated. petual imprisonment, &c. but, at all events, not to re-kindle the Smithfield fires, which, through her goodness and care, had been fo long extinguished. If this could not be granted, at least to allow them a month or two, in order that endeavours might be ufed, to reclaim them from their errors, and thereby to prevent the destruction of their fouls, as well as of their bodies."Mr. Fox (fays Fuller) was very loath, that Smithfield, formerly confecrated with martyrs' afhes, should now be profaned with those of heretics and was defirous, that the Papifts might enjoy their own monopoly of cruelty, in burning condemned perfons. But, though queen Elizabethconftantly called him, "her father Fox;" yet, herein, was the no dutiful daughter: for fhe gave him a flat denial, as to the faving of their lives; if, after a month's reprieve, and conference with divines, they would not recant their herefies. It is not a little furprising, that fo holy and fo candid a man, as Dr. Fuller, fhould endeavour to palliate, if not to juftify, the extreme malignity, which brought those two Dutchmen to the ftake. "Damnable,' fays this hiftorian," were their impieties; and the queen was neceffitated to this feverity: who, having formerly punished fome traitors, if now fparing these blafphemers, the world would condemn her; as being more earneft, in afferting her own fafety, than God's honour." A wretched excufe this, for wilful and deliberate murder! It reminds us, of Melancthon's cruelty (falfely fathered on Calvin), in preffing the magiftrates of Geneva, to burn the heretic Servetus. The answer of a Popish princefs on a fimilar occafion, did more honour to humanity. This lady (who is ftill living) was folicited, by fome Romith ecclefiaftics, to concur with them, in bringing a fuppofed heretic to the flames. "Is it not true," faid the, "that heretics burn, forever, in hell-fire?" Without doubt, anfwered the priests. "It would be too fevere, then," added fhe, "to burn them in both worlds. Since they are devoted to |