Cartwright  held  that  it  did.  He  was  not  content  to  assert
a  regulative  principle  of  fraternity,  controlling  all  followers
of  Christ,  and  condemning  all  prelatical  gradations,  all
'  superiority,'  all  offices  of  pride  and  power  whose  occupants
claimed  authority  to  lord  it  over  their  charge,  and  thus  to
imitate  the  '  rulers  of  the  Gentiles.'  The  prescribed  offices,
however  expedient  it  should  be  to  diminish  or  increase
their  number,  or  vary  their  sphere  of  operations,  within  the

1  B.M.   press-marks:  1st  ed.  T.   2108(1);  2nd  ed.  108,   b  4;  both  in
4to,  B.L.
2  Baker  MSS.  (Camb.),  Mm.  i.  43  (439).
3  B.M.  press-marks :  1st  ed.  14,  b  8  ;  2nd  ed.  475,  d  18

E


50  THE  MARPRELATE  TRACTS

restrictions  of  the  regulative  principle,  those  and  none  other
were  to  be  permitted,  according  to  the  Scriptures.  Whit-
V  gift  maintained  that  the  Church  was  left  ample  liberty  in
these  matters.  True  the  Gospel  taught  that  the  Disciples
had  but  one  Master,  and  they  all  were  brethren;  but  the
course  of  ages  had  shown  the  desirability  of  having  Gentilic
orders  of  men  authorised  to  '  lord  it '  over  the  Church,
having  prelatic  gradations  of  '  superiority/  and  claiming  all
the  prerogatives  set  forth  by  such  of  the  Fathers  as  Cyprian,
as  pertinent,  and  indeed  essential,  to  the  episcopal  office.
