it appears we are Papists too for
kneeling at the Communion; this he names a 'feeble superstition.' Then he
would have all men reside in their benefices or vacate them; and all that
do not so, it appears, are no better than thieves or robbers.

"And so he rages on, breathing out this smoky stuff, and all the young
men do run after him, as if he were the very Pillar of Fire to lead them
to Canaan. One day he says there shall be no bishop--and my Lord of Ely
rides through Petty Cury with scarce a man found to doff cap and say 'my
lord' save foolish 'Papists' like myself! Another day he will have no
distinction of apparel; and the young sparks straight dress like
ministers, and the ministers like young sparks. On another he likes not
Saint Peter his day, and none will go to church. He would have us all to
be little Master Calvins, if he could have his way with us. But the
Master of Trinity has sent a complaint to the Council with charges
against him, and has preached against him too. But no word hath yet come
from the Council; and we fear nought will be done; to the sore injury of
Christ His holy Church and the Protestant Religion; and the triumphing of
their pestilent heresies."

So the caustic divine wrote, and the Rector of Great Keynes was
heavy-hearted as he walked up and down and read. Everywhere it was the
same story; the extreme precisians openly flouted the religion of the
Church of England; submitted to episcopal ordination as a legal necessity
and then mocked at it; refused to wear the prescribed dress, and
repudiated all other distinctions too in meats and days as Judaic
remnants; denounced all forms of worship except those directly sanctioned
by Scripture; in short, they remained in the Church of England and drew
her pay while they scouted her orders and derided her claims. Further,
they cried out as persecuted martyrs whenever it was proposed to insist
that they should observe their obligations. But worse than all, for such
conscientious clergymen as Mr. Dent, was the fact that bishops preferred
such men to livings, and at the same time were energetic against the
Papist party. It was not that there was not an abundance of disciplinary
machinery ready at the bishop's disposal or that the Queen was opposed to
coercion--rather she was always urging them to insist upon conformity;
but it seemed rather to such sober men as the Rector that the principle
of authority had been lost with the rejection of the Papacy, a