History and genealogy of Peter Montague, of Nansemond and ...

INTRODUCTION. 29
as the effort " to stand in the gappe against Puritanisme and Popery,
the Scilla and Charybdis of ancient piety."
A sermon preached by him as Canon of Windsor, before the King
in 162 1, aroused the suspicions of the Puritan party who accused
him of supporting the Invocation of Saints. His vindication of the
sermon showed that he was not to be daunted by threats, and he
wrote to his friend Cosin : "Me temerarhim, that provokes enimyes
on all sides, Puritans, Papists, Lawyers, hell and all. ' Dulichii
Samiique et quos tulit alta Zacynthus, Turba ruunt in me.'
So you heare, so you say .... I am redy not only to be bound
but sw ®ew to dye for the church. I shall never faile the church of
England but usque ad aras do my best to uphold the doctrine and
discipline ther."
Three years later Montague fell into controversy with the Roman-
ists, in consequence of his having found some of their emissaries
attempting to make proselytes in his county parish. Fuller says of
him, that " his great parts were attended with a tartness of writing
very sharp the nib of his pen, and much gall mingled in his ink,
against such as opposed him. However such the equability of the
sharpness of his style, he was impartial therein ; be
he ancient or
modern writer, papist or protestant, that stood in his way, they
should all equally taste thereof." In speaking of the Roman "Gag
for the new Gospell," Montague says, "answere it I have, bitterly
and tartly I confesse, which I did purposely, because the asse
deserved so to be rub'd." It so happened however that his mode of
conducting the controversy infuriated the Puritans even more than
his Romanist antagonists, as he surrendered, without a blow, many
positions which had hitherto been warmly contested. Like the earlier
English Reformers, he appealed to Holy Scripture as interpreted by
the Primitive church and General Councils, but he did so with a wider
knowledge of Patristic theology than any of them had possessed. He
refused to brand th^ Pope as Antichrist ; he defended the use of the
sign of the cross, of images, and of auricular confession ; and he
maintained high views as to the efficacy of the Sacraments.
Montague was protected from his enemies by the influence of the
King and by the dissolution of Parliament. His utter repudiation of
Calvanism would at one time, have got him into trouble at Court, but,
such is the irony of fate, he was appointed Bishop of Chichester in