In England the Reformation was controlled by statesmen, whose object was
to invest the crown with ecclesiastical power, and who made no changes
except such as they thought necessary for their purpose. They repudiated
the papal supremacy, and adopted articles of religion sufficiently
evangelical in form, but they retained episcopacy, the liturgy, and the
surplice; the cross was still used in baptism, the people bowed at the
name of Jesus, and knelt at the communion. Such a compromise with what
they deemed idolatry was offensive to the stricter Protestants, and so
early as 1550 John Hooper refused the see of Gloucester because he would
not wear the robes of office; thus almost from its foundation the church
was divided into factions, and those who demanded a more radical reform
were nicknamed Puritans. As time elapsed large numbers who could no longer
bring themselves to conform withdrew from the orthodox communion, and
began to worship by themselves; persecution followed, and many fled to
Holland, where they formed congregations in the larger towns, the most
celebrated of them being that of John Robinson at Leyden, which afterward
founded Plymouth. But the intellectual ferment was universal, and the same
upheaval that was rending the church was shaking the foundations of the
state: power was passing into the hands of the people, but a century was
to elapse before the relations of the sovereign to the House of Commons
were fully adjusted. During this interval the Stuarts reigned and three of
the four kings suffered exile or death in the fierce contest for mastery.

The fixed determination of Charles I. was to establish a despotism and
enforce conformity with ritualism; and the result was the Great Rebellion.

Among the statesmen who advised him, none has met with such scant mercy
from posterity as Laud, who has been gibbeted as the impersonification of
narrowness, of bigotry, and of cruelty. The judgment is unscientific, for
whatever may be thought of the humanity or wisdom of his policy, he only