parish churches. The purpose of this
injunction was to throw a restraint on the Catholic divines; while
the Protestant, by the grant of particular licenses, should he allowed
unbounded liberty. Bonner made some opposition to these measures; but
soon after retracted and acquiesced. Gardiner was more high-spirited and
more steady. He represented the peril of perpetual innovations, and the
necessity of adhering to some system. "'Tis a dangerous thing," said
he, "to use too much freedom in researches of this kind. If you cut the
old canal, the water is apt to run farther than you have a mind to.
If you indulge the humor of novelty, you cannot put a stop to people's
demands, nor govern their indiscretions at pleasure." "For my part,"
said he, on another occasion "my sole concern is, to manage the third
and last act of my life with decency, and to make a handsome exit off
the stage. Provided this point is secured, I am not solicitous about the
rest. I am already by nature condemned to death: no man can give me
a pardon from this sentence; nor so much as procure me a reprieve. To
speak my mind, and to act as my conscience directs, are two branches of
liberty which I can never part with. Sincerity in speech, and integrity
in action, are entertaining qualities: they will stick by a man when
every thing else takes its leave; and I must not resign them upon any
consideration. The best on it is, if I do not throw them away myself, no
man can force them from me: but if I give them up, then am I ruined by
myself, and deserve to lose all my preferments."[*] This opposition of
Gardiner drew on him the indignation of the council; and he was sent to
the Fleet, where he was used with some severity.

* Collier, vol. ii. p. 228, ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab.
Bibliotheca Britannica, article Gardiner.

One of the chief objections urged by Gardiner against the new homilies
was, that they defined with the most metaphysical precision the
doctrines of grace, and of justification by faith; points, he thought,
which it was superfluous for any man to know exactly, and which
certainly much exceeded the comprehension of the vulgar. A famous
martyrologist calls Gardiner, on account of this opinion, "an insensible
ass, and one that had no feeling of God's spirit in the matter of
justification."[*] The meanest Protestant imagined, at that time, that
he had a full comprehension of all those mysterious doctrines; and he
heartily despised the most l