ye the Holy Spirit’, and for an acceptance of the uses of the Church of
England even though they were not all to everyone’s liking. The authors
of the tract appear to be Thomas Wilcox and one William White, a well-
educated baker whose writings appear throughout the Seconde Parte of
a Register, and who had a real influence on the first Presbyterians.^137
Jewel had argued for the existing English polity, but most of all for the
necessity of unity in the preservation of the existing order. That this tract
against Jewel was not another Puritan screed can be seen in the third
section, wherein Wilcox and White pray:
that as he [God] moved the mariners to cast Jonah into the sea, so
he would put into the heart of the Queens Ma[jesty] (whom God
preserve) to remove you from your over quiet estates, pompous
livings, and lordly titles .... Our meaning is, because you will neither
reforme god his church yourselves for feare of losing your pomp and
honor, neither will you suffer those which would, even with the loss
of liberty, living, and life, that the beautiful face
[‘and purity’ in the Williams’ Library ms.] of the Apostolike Church
might shine in England, which God for his crucified Christe
Jesus sake bring to passe at this parliament if it be his good
pleasure.^138In keeping with this desire for the removal of the bishops, and in keeping
with the denial that the ecclesiastical and the civil could be confounded,
the authors go out of their way to point out that they will address Jewel
as Beloved father in the Lord Jesus Christ, but they will not address him
as lord, in that such a title was not countenanced by holy writ.
Jewel’s sermon clearly appealed for unity, his arguments aimed at the
criticisms and complaints of the Presbyterians. As Jewel’s other polemics
had also, so the sermon sought a unified face for the English Church.
This needed unity must be seen in light of the threats from without, that
is, the Catholic powers, and that schisms weakened not only the English
Church, but the English nation as well. This echoed the opening address
to the House of Lords in 1571 by the Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon,
who stressed the point that peace was the blessing of the Gospel, and
that the realm needed to defend itself against the incursions of Rome.^139
This is the thrust of Jewel’s polemic going back to the Epistola. The
matters over which the Puritans were quibbling were insignificant in
light of the substance of the religion they held commonly with the
established Church. Nonetheless, these differences Jewel could now no
198 JOHN JEWEL AND THE ENGLISH NATIONAL CHURCH
(^137) Collinson,Elizabethan Puritan Movement, p. 116.
(^138) Selden supra 44, fol. 50r.
(^139) Sir Simonds D’Ewes, A compleat journal of the votes, speeches and debates, both of
the House of lords and House of commons throught the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth,
of glorious memory(Wilmington, DE [1974?]) Facsimile of 1693 edition, pp. 137–39.
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