204 VIL—GREAT KINGS AND BISHOPS (A.D. 15931718).
Spottiswoode) and Armagh (Usher), and the treatises of
Bishops Thomas Morton, John Davenant and Joseph
Hall, which he had reprinted at Amsterdam, together with
a fourth by some unnamed Gallican pastors. He had un-
fortunately not taken the opportunity of procuring a letter
from Gustavus Adolphus, but he was well known to the
great chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, although the latter
treated him with a good deal of caution. He came
certainly under much better auspices and on a more
prudent mission than his countryman, John Forbes.
You will understand that his connection with my pre-
decessor, Bishop Davenant, who left a considerable mark
upon the diocese of Salisbury, is naturally peculiarly in-
teresting to myself. I may be excused if I take his opinion
as a specimen of the way in which well-informed and liberal
minded Englishmen approached the great subject.
Davenant had attended the Synod of Dort in 1618 in order
to watch the proceedings in the interests of our Church,
and he was familiar with the internal divisions of the
Netherlands. He naturally attached much importance to
them, as well as to the larger divisions between the
‘Saxon ’’ and ‘‘ Helvetian »’ Churches, as he calls them.
It is curious that he makes no mention of the difference
between Episcopalians and Presbyterians as being any
difficulty in the way of a project of brotherly communion.
The difficulties which he treats are those that divide the
Continental Churches, such as ‘ Saxon” and *‘ Hel-
vetian ”’ in different lands, or the Dutch among
themselves.
He seems to think with Calixtus that adherence to the
Apostles’ Creed should be a sufficient basis of communion.
He notices that the difference between the Spanish and
Italian Churches on the one side, and the French on the
other, in their belief as to the papacy, does not interrupt
® De pace ecclesiastica inter Evangelicos procuranda sen-
tentie quatuor . . . e@ Johanni Duro fuerunt ab Auctoribus
tradite ad ecclesiarum reconciliationem promowvendam, Ams-
telodami, 1636 (See note 44).