of these simple fruits of my devotion and studies, I do wish, (and I do wish it not in the nature of an impossibility, to my thinking), that the happy union of your Majesty's two kingdoms of England and Scotland may be in as good an hour and under the like divine providence, as that was between the Romans and the Sabines. FRA. BACON. 5. With regard to the policy to be pursued in Ireland, which was perhaps the next question in immediate urgency, so impossible it was to stand still and yet so much depended upon the step taken,Bacon had communicated his thoughts not long before to Cecil: and as Montjoy was now in England and a councillor, he had no pretence for interposing further in the matter at this time. But there was another question, if not so immediately urgent, yet of a far more vital character, which forced itself upon James's attention, and upon the answer to which hung consequences beyond all estimate or prediction; a question turning indeed upon arguments which lay within his own province and which he was well qualified to handle, but involving issues which it was hardly possible for him to appreciate. This was the dispute between the High Churchmen and the Puritans; which Elizabeth had bequeathed to him still unsettled, but yet (for a new King coming to it unembarrassed by personal antecedents, able to understand the fact, and willing to accept and make the best of it) in a condition apparently very favourable for settlement. : Elizabeth had made up her mind at the beginning of her reign how much innovation she would allow Protestantism was to go so far, and no further. Nor had she miscalculated her own position. To the last, when a wave threatened to encroach, she could rebuke it and it would go back. But the tide was coming in nevertheless; and had she reigned a few years longer, and in security from foreign enemies, she would have had to choose between making terms with the non-conformists and suffering from the want of subsidies. How she would have dealt with them, it is of course vain to conjecture. But I suppose her principal difficulty would have lain in her own mind and declared resolution. She would have had to retract a policy to which she stood publicly committed; and though I dare say she would have known how to do it and would have got it done, the difficulty would have been considerable. To James the thing was comparatively easy. He was not as yet personally committed : to either side in the controversy. He was not naturally disposed to sectarianism, in matters of opinion and doctrine, on any side. His tolerance towards Popery had no superstition in it it arose not from an inclination to agree, but from a liberal admission of the right to differ. His objection to the Puritans was rather political than theological, and was in fact a legitimate counterpart of his objection to Popery he took them for a party which aimed to make the Church supreme over the King, and themselves supreme in the Church. But apart from the political tendency of their opinions, I do not find that he had any horror of the particular opinions which they held for he was naturally a Protestant, aware that Truth had many aspects, and willing to have all questions referred to reason. and argument. There was nothing therefore to prevent him from taking the course which seemed most politic and prudent. His difficulty was to know what was the prudent course for that depended upon the tendencies of popular opinion and the relative strength of parties; of which he had not yet the means of judging personally, and his advisers would no doubt tell him very different stories. This was a question upon which Bacon, having been an active. member of the House of Commons for nearly twenty years, had had good opportunities of forming a judgment. He had been (as we saw) by no means satisfied with the course formerly taken by the authorities in the matter: and being well aware of the weight of it, could not but be anxious that the chance should not be missed of taking up the right position now, when everything lay so fair and open for it; for as in differences between neighbours the question whether two families shall be friends or enemies for years to come will often depend upon the temper of the first answer, so in the larger theatres of the world the manner of entertaining the first motion for reform may decide whether there shall be peace or war half a century after. The right position no doubt was to treat the reformed Church as a living and therefore a growing body; subject to the condition of all growth, which is change: to dispose it to take in and digest into its own system as much as possible of all that was good in all that was new: not to attempt to fix it in the shape which appeared to the wisest men then living to be the most perfect, but to leave it open to receive new impressions from the wisdom of other men and other times; and therefore to admit as disputable within its precincts all questions which were among well instructed and earnest men really matter of dispute: allowing as much liberty to each as was compatible with the liberty of all, and trusting to the natural authority of reason in a fair field to make good the truth against all assailants. In any subject except theology this would undoubtedly be allowed as the only rational way of proceeding. If a commission were appointed to frame rules for a school of natural science or profane history, no one would think of prohibiting the promulgation or theories inconsistent with those at present accepted and approved : or if any such thing were done the result might easily be foretold. The new schools which would not the less inevitably arise would come as enemies and antagonists of the old, and they would spend their time in quarrelling instead of enquiring. Now when the Scriptures were once accepted (as by all varieties of Protestantism they then were) for the supreme authority in matters of religion, the interpretation and application of them became a work of human science, subject to like conditions. To be pursued successfully it must be pursued freely. It is true that this was not a view which could then be taken by any party, in the Church or out of it. They all believed in orthodoxy, and each held it for a first duty to establish its own creed and exclude every other-if possible for ever. Not the less, however, was it the wisdom of the Protestant Church to make room for as many varieties of honest opinion as were not incompatible with each other; and it seems probable that the manifestation even of a tendency in that direction would have sufficed to draw towards it all that was most learned, weighty, and influential in the religious opinions of the time. For though the change of masters, joined with the general uncertainty as to the policy which would find favour with the new King, had awakened all hopes and set all discontents free to express themselves, and James was greeted at his entrance with many petitions for reformation in the orders of the Church, it is impossible to look through the list of particular alterations proposed without feeling that most of the points in question might have been left open without either danger or disturbance to the establishment. Where authority does not interfere, general opinion keeps order; and there can be little doubt that the great majority of churchmen, if left to themselves, would have followed the fashion, and so established as much uniformity in practice as was desirable. The danger was in giving it to be understood that nothing would be conceded for opposition to a government which threatens dissatisfaction to all alike is the one thing in which all varieties of dissatisfaction can agree. On the other hand, the indication of a willingness on the part of the Church to tolerate differences,―to allow more liberty for clergymen to think freely and to say freely what they thought,-would to a certain extent have satisfied them all, and united them in a common support of the government. And this course, which a wise statesmanship would surely have prescribed, appeared to Bacon to be prescribed by reason and religion as well. "A man that is of judgment and understanding shall sometimes hear ignorant men differ, and know well within himself that those which so differ mean one thing, and yet themselves would never agree. And if it come so to pass in that distance of judgment which is between man and man, shall we not think that God above, that knows the heart, doth not discern that frail men in some of their contradictions intend the same thing, and accepteth of both ?" To "accept of both," therefore, was the course which he would have recommended to the Church in cases where religious men, intending acceptable service, brought different gifts; and now was the time when such a course might be most happily inaugurated. It was under these circumstances that (having received some gracious acknowledgment of his discourse touching the Union of the Kingdoms) he made bold to present the King, in a paper entitled "Certain considerations touching the better pacification and edification of the Church of England," with his opinion as to the best method of reconciling the prevailing dissensions. This paper-a worthy sequel to the "Advertisement touching Church Controversies written in 1589,-was presented to the King" at his first coming in:"2 and was not (I presume) meant to be published at that time. There exists however a printed copy with the date 1604:-the same probably which Dr. Rawley mentions in his commonplace book as having been "called in." In 1641, when there was a great demand for all Bacon's political tracts, it was reprinted. And it was afterwards included in the Resuscitatio. But the copy which I have taken as the ground of my text is a manuscript in the Rolls House, which has the great merit of having been revised and corrected by Bacon himself. The printed copies (which are independent authorities and may possibly be later) I have collated, and the result of the collation is given in the footnotes: in which A means the first printed copy; B the second (apparently a reprint of the first, but without any date); R the copy in the Resuscitatio; MS. the manuscript at the Rolls. 1 Essay of Unity in Religion. 2 These words are inserted in the title of one of the manuscript copies. 3 Lambeth MSS. 1034: in a list of "Lo. St. Alban's works printed." * London: printed for Henrie Tomes. An. 1604. I have not met with or heard of any perfect copy of this edition; and it seems probable that the printing was stopped before it was completed: for the most perfect copy I have seen (bought 17 Aug. 1865, from Mr. Wilson, of Great Russell Street) has sheet E printed only on pages 1, 4, 5, and 8, (as if only one side had been completed :) the blank pages being supplied in MS. Printed for Henry Tomes. (No place or date.) CERTAIN CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE BETTER PACIFICATION AND EDIFICATION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.1 Dedicated to his Most Excellent Majesty. The unity of your Church, excellent Sovereign, is a thing no less precious than the union of your kingdoms; being both works wherein your happiness may contend with your worthiness. Having therefore presumed, not without your Majesty's gracious acceptation, to say somewhat of the one, I am the more encouraged not to be silent in the other, the rather because it is an argument that I have travelled in heretofore. But Salomon commendeth a word spoken in season; and as our Saviour, speaking of the discerning of seasons, saith, when you see a cloud rising in the west, you say it will be a shower, so your Majesty's rising to this monarchy in the west parts of the world doth promise a sweet and fruitful shower of many blessings upon this Church and commonwealth; a shower of that influence as the very first dews and drops thereof have already laid the storms and winds throughout Christendom, reducing the very face of Europe to a more peaceable and amiable countenance. But to the purpose; it is very true that these ecclesiastical matters are things not properly appertaining to my profession, which I was not so inconsiderate but to object to myself. But finding that it is many times seen that a man that standeth off, and somewhat removed from a plot of ground, doth better survey it and discover it than those which are upon it, I thought it not impossible but that I, as a looker on, might cast mine eyes upon some things which the actors themselves (specially some being interessed, some led and addicted, some declared and engaged) did not or would not see; and that knowing in my own conscience, whereto God beareth witness, that the things which I shall speak spring out of no vein of popularity, ostentation, desire of novelty, partiality to either side, disposition to intermeddle, or any the like leaven, I may conceive hope that what I want in depth of judgment may be countervailed in simplicity and sincerity of affection. But of all things this did most animate me, that I found in these opinions of mine, which I have long held and embraced (as may appear by that which I have many years since written of them) according to the proportion nevertheless in my conscience: A, B, R. S. P. Dom. James I. vol. v. 51. |