FOOTSTEPS OF OUR FOREFATHERS:
wB~ t tgEI; ~itfrAh laui mWtt t0}q  o~.g~it.
DESCRIBING LOCALITIES, AND PORTRAYING PERSONAGES
AND EVENTS CONSPICUOUS IN THI-IE STRUGGLES
FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.
BY JA3MIES G. MIALL.
HAMPDEN MA ^NOR, THE SEAT O1F THE PATRIOT RAMPDEN.
z])rti.; 3t[IttutrattlS  tmn ~ncta,, frmn   ft[etctjeo ]   tt je  luttor,
ENGRAVED BY DICKES, LONDON.
BOSTON:
GOULD AND LINCOLN,
69 WASrINGTON STREET.
1852.




PRESS OF G. C. RAND, CORNHILL, BOSTON.




PREFACE.
THE design of the following work is to exhibit, in a form
as little repulsive as the nature of the subject will allow,
some of the phenomena of Religious Intolerance, especially
as it has been displayed in a Protestant form, and to indicate
the mistaken principle in which these melancholy results
have had their origin.
It has been no part of the author's aim to advocate any
distinctive form of doctrine or polity; but rather to show
how any religious system, whether Episcopal, Presbyterian
or Congregational, may become vitiated and perverted by its
alliance with the powers of the state, and by the assumption, exclusiveness and worldly pride, which such a connection invariably engenders.




IV                    PREFACE.
The author will rejoice if his work shall produce, especially in the minds of the young, a juster estimate of the
value of that spiritual freedom for which their ancestors
longed, suffered, and even died; though they did not always
clearly understand the true nature of that liberty which
alone could have met their wants, and which, in the degree
in which it exists, is, for the most part, the measure of the
religious prosperity, and of the moral and social well-being,
of nations.
To those friends who have aided in such inquiries as
were important to the writer's object,- who have opened
sources of information, or yielded to him  their generous
hospitality during the progress of his search,- cordial thanks
are offered.




CONTTENTS.
CHAPTER  I.
PAGE
THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE,...................... 9
CHAPTER  II.
WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.................  39
CHAPTER  III.
CONTESTS WITII DESPOTISM........................ 73
CHAPTER IV.
PIONEERS OF LIBERTY,.........0..............  101
CHAPTER V.
AIMINGS AT THE IMIPOSSIBLE:....................... 141
C I A P T E R  VI.
THE CROWNLESS MONARCH,........................    176




VI                      CONTENTS.
CHAPTER  VII.
PAGF
THE RETURNING TIDE,.....................223
CHAPTER  VIII.
T'HE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS,................261
CHAPTER IX.
"CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT,"..................  285
CHAPTER X.
APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS,...............3........318
CHAPTER XI.
HIGH CHURCII,............................330
CHAPTER XII.
THE WILL MINUS TIlE POWER,..................... 343




PAGE
HAMPDEN MIANOR, THE SEAT OF THE PATRIOT HAMPDEN,..... 1
IUTTERWORTH (WICLIF'S CHURCH)................ 9
CHAIR IN WHICH THE REFORMER DIED,...........   31
LUTTERWORTH BRIDGE-TIIE STREAM INTO WHICH HIS BONES WERE
THROWN,.................        3 4
GATEWAY OF HAMPTON COURT PALACE,.............  39
HAMPTON COURT PALACE,...................41
FAC-SIMILE OF THE AUTOGRAPH OF KING JAMES I......... 52
LEICESTER'S HOSPITAL, WARWICK- RESIDENCE OF CARTWRIGHT,.. 67
ANCIENT COURT OF STAR-CHAMBER,............... 78
WHITEHALL, AS IT EXISTED IN 17460...............  88
HAMPDEN  CHURCH - WITH  THE FUNERAL PROCESSION  OF JOHN
HAMIPDEN,...................                133
HAMPDEN HOUSE —RESIDENCE OF JOHN HAMPDEN,........          139
KIMBOLTON, HUNTS —RECTORY OF PHILIP NYE,........      144
JERUSALEM CHAMIBER, WESTMINSTER —SCENE OF THE ASSEMBLY OF
DIVINES,........................   162
JENNY GEDDES' CUTTY-STOOL,................   175
HUNTINGTON - BIRTH-PLACE OF CROMWELL,........-    176




VIII                  ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
FAC-SIMILE OF CROMWELL'S BAPTISMAL REGISTRY,.......... 181
HINCHINBROOK —SEAT OF CROMWELL'S ANCESTORS........ 182
REPUTED BARN OF CROMWELL, ST. IVES', HUNTS,.........188
KIDDERMINSTER —WITH THE CHURCH OF BAXTER........  224
BAXTER'S ANCIENT PULPIT, KIDDERMINSTER,...........226
OLD SAVOY —SCENE OF THE "CSAVOY CONFERENCE,"....... 237
GATEWAY OF LANCASTER CASTLE — PRISON-HOUSE OF EARLY QUAKERS,. 261
LANCASTER CASTLE — PLACE OF CONFINEMENT OF GEORGE FOX,... 264.CARLISLE CASTLE- A MEMORABLE PLACE OF INCARCERATION,....279
COVENANTERS' BANNER,................... 285
BOTHWELL BRIGG,......................   287
THE " BRIDLE,"' AN INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE,....... 296
THE SOLITARY PRISON-ISLAND IN THE FRITH OF FORTH,......311
BASS ROCK-THE CAGE OF THE COVENANTERS,..........313
THUMBSCREWS - INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE............317
CHURCH AT ELSTOW, BEDFORDSHIRE-W- IERE BUNYAN WAS BORN,. 318
STEPNEY MEETING-HIOUSE, LONDON,...............329
MATTHEW HENRY'S MEETING-HOUSE, CHESTER,.        c ~.. 340
DODDRIDGE'S MONUMENT, LISBON..............343
DODDRIDGE'S HOUSE, NORTHAMPTON,'..............            349
OLD FOUNDERY, CITY-ROAD, LONDON — SCENE OF WESLEY'S FIRST
LABORS,..............352




CHAPTER I.
THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
"Fame's lasting register
Shall leave his name enrolled as great as those
Who at Philippi for their country fell."
Lines to the Memory of A. Marvell, 1678.
fWICLIF'S CHURCH AT LUTTERWORTH.
No part of England is more rich in historical associations than
its midland counties. Though neither statues nor obelisks mark
the spots where our ancestors struggled for freedom or for truth,
the scenes are sacred; and Buckinghamshire, Huntingdonshire,
Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, offer points not less memorable than were Platsea, Marathon and Thermopylxe, in Grecian
story. Our first journey with the reader shall be taken to the




10               TIIE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
last of the counties we have named, and to the secluded, yet not
altogether inconsiderable, town of Lutterworth. The traveller is
here in the centre of England. Not far distant is Leicester, where
Richard III. buckled on his armor for the battle of Bosworth, - a
conflict which delivered the country from a cruel tyrant and a disputed succession; and which, ending the wars of the Roses, introducedc  a new era.  In the same town Wolsey breathed out his
troubled spirit, when Protestantism, headed by Anne Boleyn,
became for the moment triumphant, and the cardinal began to
stand in the way of his master. There, too, John Bunyan's life
was spared, when an accidental circumstance substituted a comrade
in his place; and so saved the future saint from death, that he
might devote a rich genius to the cause of religion and of truth.
Not: far from  Lutterworth, in the village of Thurcaston, Hugh
Latimer was born.  And on another side of the town stand the
height and village of Naseby, memorable for that great conflict
which displayed the military prowess of Cromwell, changed the
fortunes of a great empire, and proved the ruin of a despotic
tyrant and a perjured prince.
The scenery about Lutterworth is not of the highest order.
But the country, though flat, is fertile; consisting of rich, level
grazing land, interspersed with good trees. If, in visiting the
town, the traveller shall expect many memorials of the past, he
will be disappointed; few antiquarian curiosities remain. Five
centuries are, in truth, a huge period in the history of man, and
most human structures crumble down before it. " The lines where
beauty lingers" are altogether swept away, so far as the town
itself is concerned; and for the characteristic buildings of the
period most in his mind, - for the sharp gables with overhanging
stories, and every rich adornment of carved wood and florid plaster, - the visitant must draw upon his imagination. Instead of
these, he will find only buildings constructed with the most mathematical precision, and of the reddest of red brick. Lutterworth
is, in short, a quiet, well-to-do-looking town, exhibiting everywhere modern neatness and respectability, but totally unlike what




THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.                 11
it must have been in 1350; when, with more picturesqueness, it
must have contained much squalid poverty, wretched ventilation,
and deplorable agriculture. On the whole, though with some
restiveness, we prefer the place as it is.
But Lutterworth contains one building worth all the rest; having, it is true, little about it likely to prove attractive to a stranger,
but full of interest when one is aware that this is the ancient church
of John Wiclif. — The name of the reformer was spelt in many
different ways, like those of Shakespear, Rawleigh and others,
and perhaps was not written uniformly even by its possessor. We
choose the form in which the name appears when the reformer was
appointed papal delegate, in 1374.
A grave, quiet sanctity, renders the old church at Lutterworth
attractive, and even imposing. The walls are rent, patched, and
buttressed. The windows, dim with age, admit a struggling and
murky light. The old porch seems to have been constructed for
the days when marriages were not yet celebrated within ecclesiastical edifices, but at their entrance.  On the rectory side of the
building, a low portal, which seems specially appropriated to the
officiating clergyman, receives interest from the thought that by it,
probably, Wiclif passed to the performance of his sacred duties.
Though close to the town, the grave-yard is quiet and secluded;
and when, towards evening, the overhanging trees are casting
their thick shadows over the venerable pile, the gloom and silence
answer well to the dusky memories of the period which renders
the scene memorable.
The exterior of the church is, however, its greatest attraction;
the interior is scarcely worthy of its associations. A slovenly,
semi-Grecian, but altogether barbaric hand, has been busy at the
processes of restoration, - removing, repairing and enlarging, Wiclif's pulpit, and leaving the interior of the church in a state of
miserable and most unmeaning transformation. But the vestry
still retains the table on which the reformer was once wont to dispense a primitive hospitality,- a fine piece of old oak; and the
vestment which he wore when officiating at the altar is still pre



12               THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
served, embroidered with angels, and now shut up in a glass case,
like some relies of saints in continental churches. The first view
of this popish habiliment is somewhat startling; for the world has
learned almost to regard Wiclif as a Protestant, —which he was
in fact, but not then in name; and, as one looks upon the timeworn garment, it becomes invested with very peculiar associations,
reminding us of him who has grown too large for his system, but
is still obliged to keep within its narrow limits, and compelling us
to pity the contest - the terrible contest - going on still, in many
a mind, conscientious as Wiclif's was, between the claims of position on the one hand, and of convictions on the other. Those
dingy rafters, too, over head, look as if they might once have
echoed to the reformer's voice. But this is rendered somewhat
doubtful by the fact that, in 1703, a violent storm blew down the
ancient spire - a tapering and very lofty cone, surmounted by a
ball - into the nave, leaving it to be replaced by a structure bearing no kind of resemblance to the original erection. Though
somewhat out of place, it may illustrate one peculiarity of a state
church -its want of ready adjustment to circumstances as they
arise - to observe that the necessary repairs consequent on this
accident involved the then existing rector —the Rev. H. Meriton -  in a prolonged chancery suit.  He had collected money by
brief, for the purpose of repairing the edifice, which the high wind
had nearly destroyed. But, though personally above suspicion,
he had applied part of that money to the repairing of the church;
a condition "not in the bond."  The troubles incident on this litigation shortened the poor man's life.*
To this living of Lutterworth, John de WViclif, so called from
the place of his birth, on the banks of the Tees, Yorkshire, was
presented by the crown in the year 1375, when about fifty years
of age. IHe held the rectory about ten years. The services which
led to his appointment may be briefly told.
Wiclif, one of the best scholars of his time, had attained great
distinction as the most advanced man in the University of Oxford
* Nichols' Hist. and Ant. of Leicestershire.




THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.                   13
(which has not always been in arrear of the age). He had signalized himself by the offensive war he had carried on, in behalf of
that university, against the mendicant friars.  The fashion of
monkery, which had been extremely popular during the reigns of
the Anglo-Norman kings, had been for some time on the wane;
and the disgust excited by the venality and licentiousness of the
religious houses had called into existence the begging orders, who,
abjuring monastic establishments, professed poverty, and, as wandering priests, subsisted on the alms of the devout.  Yielding, in
their turn, however, to the temptations of the times, these wandering friars soon began to wallow in the mire of corruption which
had swallowed up their predecessors.  These friars were divided
into four principal orders, and indeed were, by the constitutions
of Pope Gregory X., limited to that number: the Dominicans,
established by St. Dominic, founder of the Inquisition; the Franciscan or Gray friars, established by St. Francis of Assisa, called
also Cordeliers from the knotted cord which they wore suspended
from  their girdles; the Carmelites or White friars, and the
Augustinian or Austin friars.  Many cities were divided and
mapped out among these four orders, each of which was licensed
to beg within a given district; whence the mendicants were called
"limitours."  The doctrine of these friars was, that the Founder
of the Christian religion was himself a beggar, and that mendicancy was a gospel ordinance. Every reader of Milton is familiar
with the passage which Bentley would fain have expunged as an
interpolation.
"Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars
White, black and gray, with all their trumpery.
$*  *         Then might ye see
Cowls, hoods and habits, with their wearers tossed
And fluttered into rags; then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
The sport of winds: all these, upwhirled aloft,
Fly o'er the backside of the world far off,
Into a limbo large and broad, since called
The paradise of fools." -  Par. Lost, III.
2




14                THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
Such was the popularity of these mendicants, that the confessionals of the ordinary clergy were at one time almost forsaken,
whilst penitents of all classes crowded for absolution to these
religious drones.  Chaucer has thus painted one of them:
"6 For he had power of confession,
As said himself, more than a curate,
For of this order he was licenciate.
Full swetely heard he confession,
And pleasant was his absolution 
He was an easy man to give penance,
And well he knew to have a good pittance.*
~u.               5,.      5,
Therefore, instead of weeping and prayers,
Men might give money to the poor friars."
Prol. to Cant. Tales,
The powers and privileges claimed by some of these orders were
enormous. Salvation, they said, was certain to those who died
invested with the scapulary of their order.  It was usual for persons of infirm  health, or at the point of death, to seek admission
among the mendicants, and to desire that their bodies might be
interred in the old garments of the friars, or at least near some of
the order, that thus they might be safe at last.  St. Eloy gave the
following advice to his parishioners:'" Redeem your souls from
destruction while you have the means in your power.  Offer presents and titles to churchmen; come more frequently to church;
humbly implore the patronage of the saints; for, if you do these
things, you may come with security in the day of retribution to
the tribunal of the Eternal Judge, and say, Give to us, 0 Lord,
for we have given to Thee."l 
Among the mendicant friars, the Franciscans surpassed all
others in the privileges they claimed, holding their powers independently of the bishops, and possessing unlimited authority to
grant indulgences as a compensation for their vows of poverty.
Their authority was principally appealed to in all questions affect* Plenty of provisions.             - Mosheim.




THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.                    15
ing the See of Rome.  But each of these orders waged incessant
warfare with the rest, and the contests between the Franciscans
and Dominicans were most exasperated.  Nor were the members
of the same fraternity at peace among themselves.  In the mean
time, however, they all lived by continual benevolences, and often
by gross exactions.  Chaucer's lines may be accepted as a general
portrait of the class:
"c Specially, above everything,
Excited he the people in his preaching
To trentals,? and to give for God's sake
Wherewith men might holy houses make.
dci when this friar had said all his intent
With qui cum Patre,t forth his way he went.
Where folks in church had given what he list,
He went his way, no longer would he rest,
With scrip and tipped staff, uplifted high,
In every house began to pore and pry,.And begged meal and cheese, or else corn.
The fellow had a staff tipped with horn,
And wrote always the names as he stood
Of all folk that gave him any good.
Aside that he would for him pray,
Give us a bushel wheat, or meal, or rye,
A holy cake, or a piece of cheese,
Or else what you will, we may not choose.
A God's halfpenny, or a mass penny,
Or give us of your bran if you have any.
Bacon or beef, or such thing as you find.' "
Nor was the morality of these friars more unimpeachable.  The
virtue of the clergy in general may be pretty decisively inferred
from  a petition presented to parliament by the clergy in 1449,
which prayed that all cases of rape, committed by priests before
the following 1st June, might be pardoned, on condition that a
noble (6s. 8d.) should be paid to the king on behalf of every
priest in the lkingdom.  Nor did the mendicants greatly differ' A service of thirty masses.   t The last words of the church service.




16               TlEE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
from the priests.  One of them is described by Chaucer (and the
portrait corresponds with a multitude of insinuations scattered
about his works) as " a wanton and a merrie," having his tippet
stuffed full of presents " for to given faire wives;" " he sings a
merrie note;" he knows " ful wel the tavernes in every town;"
he could "rage as it hadde been a whelp; " and
"Wan that he had his song,
His eyen twinkled in his hed aright
As dow the sterres in a frosty night."
Such are only specimens.
The Dominicans had, on their first introduction into England,
settled at Oxford.  But, in the course of a few years, their disorders and encroachments had so enormously increased, as to reduce
the number of university students from thirty thousand to six
thousand. Parents feared to send their children to the schools,
lest they should become corrupted by the friars. Fitz-Ralph, the
Chancellor of Oxford, and afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, had
appealed against them to the pope, but the death of the prelate
suspended the proceedings.
It was at this crisis that Wiclif, on behalf of the university in
which he held the post of divinity professor, entered the lists of
controversial warfare. Brought up in the most rigidl school of
Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, of Ockham and Duns Scotus,
Wiclif was well versed in all the dialectical subtleties of the day.
But he was more; - his remarkable acquaintance with the Scriptures — a matter not altogether neglected by the schoolmen of
his day- had procured for him the title of the evangelical doctor, as Aquinas had been called the angelical, from his discussions
of the properties of angels.  Whatever Wiclif's merits as a schoolman, his distinction in this controversy arose from the plain sense
and daring pungency of his diatribes. His words were strong,
though careless; he spared no epithets, he rounded no periods. It
is beside our purpose to enter further into the nature of this controversy.  It will be sufficient to remark that Wielif's part in it




THE LIGHT OF A DABK AGE.                17
gained him speedy preferment.  He was constituted warden, first
of Balliol College, and afterwards of Canterbury Hall, by the
presentation of Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury. Islip soon after
died, and his successor in office, who was favorable to the religious
orders, deposed Wiclif from his post.  Wiclif appealed to the
pope, and ultimately lost his appointment.
Every one must have observed how frequently it happens, in
excited states of society, that slight circumstances are attracted,
as by a kind of magnetic influence, to range themselves about
great principles.  Whilst Wiclif was awaiting the papal decision
on his wardership, a concurrent movement of much greater importance was agitating the community. The pope, Urban V., not
satisfied that one-third of the property of England had already
passed over to the church, had demanded of Edward III. the
tribute promised by King John, in token of his feudal subjection
to the successors of St. Peter.  But the demand came a day too
late, and the House of Commons, which had now become one of
the powers of the realm, united with the spirited monarch in
repudiating the claim. Up to this time, the chmuch had been the
superior and the state the inferior power; but now lords spiritual
and temporal united with the -commons in repudiating the claims
of the papacy, and in declaring themselves ready to uphold the
monarch in resistance to its offensive demands.  Wiclif, who was
already known to the court, and who had been promoted to the
office of king's chaplain, entered warmly into this controversy, and
his name, now graced by the title of D. D., appears second on the
list of English delegates selected by the parliament to remonstrate
with the pontiff at Bruges.
In this embassy he was associated with men of the highest rank
and station, and, among others, with John of Gaunt, his future
patron, third son of Edward III. To this great man, the Duke
of Lancaster, much of the management of the kingdom was confided, in the latter part of this and the commencement of the sueceeding reign; and he was the only member of the royal family
who took a conspicuous part in the stormy religious controversies
2*




18               THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
of those times.  It would interest us much to know the details of
the proceedings of the great reformer during this memorable
period. Bruges, that old continental city, memorable still for the
traces which it preserves of the medimval ages, - a kind of Venice
of the north, whose merchants were princes resolutely maintaining
freedom of thought and action, - was doubtless the scene of many
debates and movements of the highest importance. But the
records have mainly perished. About the same time, an energetic
effort was made by the parliament to dispossess churchmen of the
high secular offices they were then in the habit of holding, and to
confine the clergy to their more spiritual duties.  Wiclif entered
into this controversy with characteristic ardor.
The consequence of these movements was, that the Bishop of
Winchester relinquished his post of chancellor, and the Bishop of
Exeter resigned that of treasurer.
Though the mission of Wiclif to Bruges was productive of little
direct service, it was of unspeakable benefit in maturing the views
of the reformer himself.  Something, indeed, was done in support
of the celebrated statute against " provisors," passed in 1350; but
the increasing age and infirmities of the king rendered him less
an object of dread than he had been heretofore, and Wiclif saw in
the pope's conduct, throughout the whole transaction, a worldly
ambition on the one hand, and a paltry evasiveness on the other,
which stimulated him to attack the Romish hierarchy with
increased severity. Removed from his mastership at Oxford, he
was at this time, by way of amends, constituted prebendary of
Worcester, and rector of Lutterworth.
Chaucer's description of the good parish priest has been frequently supposed to be a representation of the manner in which
Wiclif fulfilled the duties of his cure.  Certain it is that Chaucer,
like the reformer, was attached to the party of the Duke of Lancaster, and sympathized strongly with many of Wiclif's opinions.
But that the portrait of the clergyman was designed to represent
any individual, is without sufficient evidence. Wiclif is represented as going about the country, clad in a long frieze gown,




THE LIGHT OF A DARIK AGE.                19
preaching whenever he could find or make an opportunity. In
thus occupying himself, he was intent on correcting a special
deficiency of the times. Not many years before, Archbishop
Pecham, after complaining of the almost universal disuse of
preaching, made some attempt at an improvement. He drew out
a list of topics, to be expounded in the regular course of pulpit
instruction, such as the decalogue, the articles of faith, the seven
leading virtues, the seven deadly sins, &c. Each preacher was
required to deliver four sermons to his parishioners during the year;
and the sort of aid which the archbishop proposed to give may be
well understood by those who are familiar with the technical terms,
"cramming" and " grinding."  Wiclif, however, was a preacher
for himself, and in earnest. He devoted his time, also, most assiduously, to the humbler duties of his sacred office.  His place was,
every morning, by the sick-bed of the sufferer, or in the home of
the mourner. A considerable number of his sermons are still extant,-probably preserved by the care of his curate,-replete with
vehement attacks upon incompetent and indolent priests, exhorting to the study of God's Word in opposition to popes and prelates, vindicating the freedom of Christian men, and dilating, with
fervid earnestness, on those various points of doctrine or practice
which would be enforced by a Christian teacher in perilous times.
Plain speaking like this roused, we may well suppose, the
reformer's enemies into action. The seclusion of Lutterworth
proved no asylum to Wiclif.  Scarcely was he settled in his new
rectory, when, at the instigation of Courtenay, Bishop of London,
a haughty and intolerant churchman, but fully accredited by the
pope in the movement, the reformer was cited to appear before
him, at the church of St. Paul's, in London.
What would not a historian and antiquarian of the present day
sacrifice to know the details of a journey from Lutterworth to
London five hundred years ago, or to look upon the picture of the
metropolis at that date?  Instead of the well-adjusted towns and
quiet homesteads which the traveller now passes, on his way to the
great city, the route would then be marked by the presence of




20               THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
castles of strength, whilst the few inhabitants were fain to place
cottages or other property beneath their gigantic protection.
Extensive forests yet stretched themselves across the country, the
haunts of the successors of Robin Hood and his associates; and
such a man as the reformer would be only safe with a military
escort to protect him, not only from such marauders, but from open
and avowed enemies.  Except castles, nothing more distinguished
the period than the churches which were springing up in all the
larger towns, marked by the features of a true, though then somewhat modern, style of architecture. Arrived in London, possibly
to make his "hostelrie" at the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, the
traveller from Leicestershire would gaze with unconcealed eagerness upon a metropolis then rarely visited.  The old, ugly, but
venerable bridge, now supplanted, was then the only one which
spanned the river; the stream, at ebb tide, flowing down its arches
almost with the force of a cataract. Thoughl on this bridge the
church of St. Thomas was conspicuous, yet it was, as yet, unencumbered with the numerous buildings afterwards attaching themselves to it like limpets; and chivalry, then the prevailing fashion,
held occasional joustings on its narrow area. The order of the
Templars had been recently suppressed; but that of the Knights
of St. John survived, and maintained its splendors in a building
adjacent to the ancient gate, yet standing.  " The pomp and circumstance of glorious war" was witnessed everywhere.  Mingling
with the crowd in the streets, less dense than that of 1851, the
spectator might discern the mailed baron, with his armed retinue
of bowmen and lancers, or the gay lady, wearing the embroidered
jacket, not much unlike the "polka" of a more modern day,
though sometimes accompanied by the long strips of linen which
dangled from her elbows, or fluttered like pennons in the breeze,
whilst her head was enveloped in an inflated but not ungraceful
head-tire, and surmounted by a woollen cap. Ecclesiastics of high
rank were then little distinguishable from the military barons;
the man of peace was not to be found amidst those mounted and
armed retainers. Sometimes, amidst the crowd, who were dressed




THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.                 21
in sober, and often wretched habits, might be discerned the men
of some of the less strict orders, or the monk, with his bald tonsure, and often jolly form; and not unfrequently the eye might
rest upon the bare head, brown coat and long rosary, of the Franciscan friar, or the solemn, black-hooded stateliness of the Dominican. The civic honors of London were then in their infancy, and
were guarded by the citizens with a jealousy pertaining to semibarbarous times, whilst the people were at all times ripe for conflict, or even for revolt. A peculiar feature of the period was,
that the city was then beginning to be remarkable for its opaque
and dense atmosphere, derived from the use of coals, then recently
introduced. The sides of the Thames were not then, as now,
crowded with houses of merchandise. Stately palaces, well fortified, stood on the Strand side of the river, among which the Savoy,
the castellated residence of the Duke of Lancaster, was very conspicuous.  A large Dominican friary stood in Blackfriars; another,
of equal pretensions, near to the Temple, belonged to the Carmelites, and was called Whitef'iars; the Franciscans had an edifice
in Newgate-street, whilst a fourth, in the vicinity of what is now
the Bank, was devoted to the Austins, or Augustines. The
plague, which had recently desolated Europe, had been extremely
fatal in London, and had caused considerable improvements in the
city. But it was close, ill-ventilated, and inconvenient; and the
inhabitant of Chester can well understand, from certain parts of
his own city, what was its general appearance.
To this city, and, when arrived there, to one of the courts in
the vicinity of Old St. Paul's, Wiclif, now an accused man, made
his way. He had sought protection from the Duke of Lancaster,
who, nothing loth, accompanied him on his trial, together with
Earl Percy, the Marshal of England.  On their arrival at St.
Paul's, they met an excited crowd.  The Duke of Lancaster was
suspected to be hostile to the liberties of the city of London, and
was extremely unpopular amongst its inhabitants, and the representations made by the hierarchy had greatly inflamed the minds
of the people. Wiclif made his way with much difficulty into




22               THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
the presence of his judges. He found Courtenay extremely
annoyed at the powerful defenders who stood at his side. When
the earl marshal employed his authority to gain Wiclif a place,
the following excited conversation occurred:
Bishop Courtenay.  Lord Percy, if I had known what maistcries you would have kept in the church, I would have kept you
out from coming hither.
Duke of Lancaster, He shall keep such maisteries here,
though you say nay!
Lord Percy.  Wiclif, sit down, for you have many things to
answer to, and you need to repose yourself on a soft seat.
Bishop. It is unseasonable that one cited before his ordinary
should sit down during his answer.  He must and shall stand!
Duke of Lancaster.  The Lord Percy his motion for WViclif is
but reasonable.  And as for you, my lord bishop, who are grown
so proud and arrogant, I will bring down the pride, not of you
alone, but of all the prelatey in England!
Bishop.  Do your worst, sir!
Duke of Lancaster. Thou bearest thyself so brag upon thy
parents,* which shall not be able to help thee; they shall have
enough to do to help themselves.
Bishop.  My confidence is not in my parents, nor in any man
else, but only in God, in whom I trust; by whose assistance I will
be bold to speak the truth.
Duke.  Rather than I will take these words at his hands, I
would pluck the bishop by the hair out of the church!
How often have great interests been jeoparded by such rash and
excited advocates!  John of Gaunt had little sympathy with
Wiclif's opinions, as matters of truth.  He regarded them only
as implements of a party, and he soon after this period grew cold
on Wiclif and his cause. His last words, however, though spoken
in an undertone, were caught up by the by-standers, and a tumult
ensued.  The trial was suspended; the mob proceeded to violence.
* Courtenay's father was Duke of Devonshire, a powerful noble.




THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.                 23
"They broke open," says Fox, "the Marshalsea, and freed all the
prisoners; and, not content with this, a vast number of them went
to the duke's palace, in the Savoy, where, missing his person, they
plundered his house." At the same time, a clergyman, mistaken
for the earl marshal, was put to death.
The protracted and vigorous reign of Edward III. was now
ended, and the weak-minded Richard of Bordeaux had succeeded
him on the throne.  One of the earliest questions debated by parliament in this reign was, whether it was not lawful for the
nation to forbid the exit of its treasure to foreign ecclesiastics.
The judgment of Wiclif was appealed to, who, as a divine grounding his opinions solely on the lessons of God's Word, gave his conclusion strongly in the affirmative. In his published reply he
says, "Temporal lords may lawfully and meritoriously take away
the goods of fobrtune from a delinquent church." " In the paper
subsequently published he repeats that the use of church censures,
and of the authority of the magistrate, to extort from the people
a revenue for the priesthood, are customs unknown to the better
ages of the church, and to be numbered among the corruptions
consequent on her endowment under Constantine.  He even proceeds so far as to say, that a state of things might arise in which
to deprive the church of her wealth would be a more Christian
act than to have bestowed it upon her." *
Though the church had been baffled in its first endeavor to
punish the boldness of Wiclif, it resolved to make a new attempt
to exterminate these new and dangerous heresies.  The pope wrote
letters to the king and the higher ecclesiastics, demanding the
seizure of the reformer's person, and the suppression of his tenets.
The rector of Lutterworth was once more summoned.  The Duke
of Lancaster had now lost much of his political influence, and on
this occasion Wiclif was alone.
But it was better as it was. The people, who had now extensively learned Wiclif's doctrines, constituted a surer protection.
$ Vaughan's Tracts and Treatises of Wycliffe, XLVII.




24               THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
The queen mother, widow of the Black Prince, sent a message
to the court of Lambeth, before which Wiclif was cited, forbidding further proceedings. Muzzled thus by a power greater than
their own, the baffled authors of the citation could only vent their
rage in angry growls.
But the great discovery was already made. Digging amidst
these ruins of a hieroglyphical system, now beginning to be obsolete, Wiclif had found the explanatory stone, the key to the whole
mystery; and, after him, Luther had nothing left to do but to
show its important application. Errors and truth were alike
expounded by one simple principle, THE SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE.  Wiclif seized the truth, and it became in his hand a thunderbolt.  His blood was up, and he wrote daringly, and, for
himself, dangerously. It is not for ordinary minds to conceive
of the impetuosity of an ardent soul which has caught fire from a
"present truth," especially if it happen to be one which has been
long undiscovered. It is more than a conviction, - it is an inspiration. Colder men may censure; unbelieving ones may doubt.
Prudence may summon a halt, and fear may draw back aghast.
But such a man sees his goal, and opposition only stimulates the
high purpose of his noble nature. Rushing onward to the conflict,
Wiclif was not always careful. on what or on whom he trod. But
he uplifted his standard, and, fearful as have been the attacks upon
it, it has never been removed. IHe set up the truth which the
experience of centuries has but served to maintain, that, whether
against popes or cardinals, against law churches or ecclesiastical
organizations, the only test of truth is the Word of God.
But the mortal man failed where the spiritual one was impregnable. Bulls from Rome denounced him; a hostile and furious
clamor pursued his steps, and in the midst of the irritation consequent on these combined hostilities his overtasked frame gave
way. He fell ill at Oxford, where he had still continued to
deliver his lectures.  His sickness emboldened his old enemies, the
mendicants, and they sent a deputation to his chamber, imagining
that he would attribute his illness to a judicial providence, and




THE LIGIT OF A DARK AGE.                 25
be ready to recant.  But they had mistaken their man.  Wiclif
listened in silence to the admonitions addressed to him; and, when
they were concluded, beckoned his servants to raise him in his bed.
Then, fixing his eyes on those who were around him, he said, with
emphasis, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the evil deeds of
the friars."  It was like a voice from another world! The mendicants fled, and time soon brought to pass the sick man's prediction.
The influence of the doctrines which Wiclif promulgated was at
this time extremely great. Even popish writers have confessed
that more' than half of the population of England were Lollards;
and Walsingham, the papal advocate of the period, declares that
the Londoners were nearly all such. It must not be supposed that
up to this time heretical opinions, as they were termed, had been
absolutely unknown in England, though they certainly had met
with remarkably little encouragement here. In matters of religious freedom, Britain had been hitherto far behind its continental
neighbors. Its submission to the pope was more abject, its dread
of heresy more obstructive to free inquiry.  Though from  this
circumstance it persecuted less than others, it was not, however,
entirely guiltless of human blood.  In the year 1159, a band of
German exiles had appeared in this country, who, though they
did not claim the character of ecclesiastics, denied or ignored many
of the favorite doctrines of the Church of Rome.  They appear
only to have made a single convert; but they were condemned to
be branded in the forehead, whipped through the streets, and
denied the smallest offices of life.  Thus wounded, naked, desolate,
they died miserably.  During the reign of John, mention is also
made of a company of Albigenses, who were burned alive.  The
doctrines of Wiclif appear to have been the first which made any
considerable impression on the population.  The name " Lollard "
has been attributed by some to Walter Lolhard, who suffered death
for his opinions in the city of Cologne.  But this is altogether an
Knighton Troysd. Script. x. col. 2664:.




26               TIHE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
error.  The origin of the word is the German Ludlen, whence the
English verb to lull. The term 6 "Lollard" was thus expressive
of one who praised God by sacred songs.  It did not denote any
particular class of opinions, but was applied generally to all those
who made, or were supposed to make, professions of unusual piety.
The attention received by the sick and dying, from various religious
persons, at the time when the fearful plague of 1345 was desolating Europe and taking off half its inhabitants, and when the
religious orders had fled in terror from  its advance, had tended
greatly to render the name 1' Lollard" popular among the people.
Though not himself the originator, therefore, of this body as a
sect, Wiclif's teachings had largely contributed to strengthen their
opinions, and to increase their numbers.
It appears, from the first act in our parliamentary history, which
was one levelled against the followers of Wiclif, and providing.for
their arrest, that the great reformer and his "' poor priests " were
accustomed, without license from their ordinary, to preach daily as
they perambulated the country, in churches and church-yards, in
markets and in firs, and wherever a congregation could be assembled. Two of the names which figure in these proceedings were
Dr. Hereford and IMaster John Ashton.  The former probably
aided Wiclif in his translation; the other was an active Lollard
missionary, who, by simplicity of character, conversation and
preaching, was distinguished  among the rest.  The question
" why poor priests have no benefices," which is the title of one
of Wiclif's tracts, is thus easily answered.  They were the protestors-the dissenters of their day.  One of these "poor
priests " — William Thorp — is described as having principally
labored in the northern counties.
Knighton observes that in the year 1382 the number of Wiclif's followers had greatly increased; and that, "' starting like saplings from the root of a tree, they were multiplied, and filled every
place within the compass of the land."  As Knighton was an
inhabitant of Leicester, thus much may, at least, be inferred, - that
Wiclif's doctrines had taken a strong hold on the inhabitants of




THE LIGHT OF A DARi  AGE.                27
the midland counties.  The sympathetic influence of similar
religious sentiments is always remarkable; and persons were
struck by the singular correspondence, in modes of speech and
peculiarities of opinion, among these Lollards, wherever they were
found. Like most sincere converts to important truths, they were
eager and prompt for controversy, fervent in their appeals and their
remonstraneces, and inclined, on all occasions, to act aggressively on
the old system.  It will interest many modern readers to know
that a renunciation of war was one of the principles of the Lollard
creed; and that, whilst they claimed from the civil power that
they should be protected in their just rights, they regarded moral
suasion as the only means of establishing truth. *
On his recovery from the illness which we have just mentioned,
Wiclif now set about that great work on which his fame as a
reformer may most securely rest, - the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular tongue. Before the reformer's time,
portions of the Word of God had been rendered into the vhlgar
language, usually accompanied, however, by comments. It was
Wiclif's great ambition to liberate gospel truth from the bondage
of an unknown tongue, and thus to make his appeal to private
judgment, - the true means bof determining the accuracy of the
doctrines he had so laboriously taught. A concurrence of circumstances rendered the period at which this translation was issued
very remarkable.  It was in a secondary, though not unimportant
sense, " the fulness of the time."  The good seed scattered in
Europe by the Albigenses had not wholly perished; the English
language was becoming fixed and definite; the influence of Rome
was perceptibly on the wane; and the seat of the papacy had
been removed from the Eternal city.  The constitution of England had begun to develop itself in its existing form; and the love
of liberty, both in action and thought, was taking firm root in the
minds of the multitude. In the apprehension of Romanists, therefore, Wiclif's Bible was like a firebrand thrown amongst a mass of
Vaughan's WyclifSe, p. 190.




28               THE LIGH-T OF A DARKI AGE.
combustibles.  Knighton says: " In this way the gospel pearl is
cast abroad and trodden under foot of swine; and that which was
before precious to both clergy and laity is rendered, as it were,
the common jest of both.  The jewel of the church is turned
into the sport of the people; and what was hitherto the principal
gift of the clergy and divines is made forever common to the
laity."  In subsequent times it was usual, when a heretic was
burned, to fasten round his neck such portions of Wiclif's translation as were found in his possession.
The excitement which followed the issuing of this edition of the
Scriptures was intense. A bill was brought into parliament to
suppress the whole work, under the plea that it would prove ruinous to all religion. The friends of Wiclif argued that, as the
translation of the Scriptures into Latin had been followed by no
less than sixty different heretical opinions, though none of those
heresies had been charged on that translation, there could be no
argument against the English Bible which did not hold against
the Latin one. The bill for the suppression was thrown out by a
large majority.
Every reader of history will remember the insurrection which,
headed by Wat Tyler, menaced the royal authority in the early
part of the reign of Richard II.  The opportunity of calumniating the reformer was too tempting to be lost; and, though at
that period other European states exhibited similar convulsions,
the disaffection was eagerly traced to Wiclif and his writings. It
is a penalty which every one who attacks abuses must be content
to bear, that, whatever disorders or convulsions may simultaneously arise, which can be by possibility connected with his doctrines, the stigma will be fixed on himself. It is always convenient
to transfer blame from the evils themselves to the individual who
has exposed them.  But in this connection Walsingham has himself recorded the confession of one of the leaders of the rebellion,
that the destruction of the hierarchy was contemplated in that
insurrection only to make way for the promotion of the mendicants.
At the same time the House of Commons, in an address to the




TILE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.                 29
king, declared that the late riots were but the natural consequence
of years of oppression and misgovernment.@  It is beside our
purpose to detail the attack which Wiclif next made on the doctrine of transubstantiation, in his lectures before the University
of Oxford, in 1381.  It may be sufficient to observe that, in the
course of the quarrel, the reformer, having appealed, as before, to
the Duke of Lancaster, was informed that the best advice that
prince could give him was to abandon his novelties, and to submit
quietly to his ecclesiastical superiors. Courtenay was now Archbishop of Canterbury.  He summoned Wiclif to a convocation, at
the monastery of the Grayfriars in London, to answer for his new
and dangerous opinions. Wiclif declined to appear, declaring
that, as a member of the University, he was not subjected to
episcopal jurisdiction; but the court proceeded, in his absence, to
condemn his sentiments.  Whilst they were debating these points
an earthquake occurred, by which the monastery was violently
agitated.  The bishops threw down their papers, and declared that
their discussion was displeasing to God, and that they would proceed no further.  Courtenay with some difficulty calmed their
fears.  Wiclif was accustomed jestingly to call this the " Council
of the Herydene," -that is, earthquake.  The resolution of the
convocation was, that some of WXiclif's opinions were erroneous, and
some heretical.  Courtenay, upon this, preferred a bill in parliament to imprison preachers of heresy. The Lords passed it; but
the Commons, jealous of the powers of the clergy, refused their
concurrence.  Disappointed in his act of parliament, Courtenay
obtained letters patent from the king to the same effect; but this
measure was vehemently opposed by the Commons, and Richard
II. was compelled to yield.  The archbishop, however, succeeded,
after some difficulty, in obtaining the expulsion of Wiclif from the
University of Oxford.  The contest which was at this time going
on between two rival popes, and the appointment of Spenser,
Bishop of Norwich, as general of an army, in the war made by
*Ilallam, vol. III., p. 93.
r)~o




30               TIHE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
Pope Urban against Pope Clement, led Wiclif once more to take
up his pen. Though he was now advanced in years, age had not
abated the vigor of his style.  He asks the pope, " How dare you
make the token of Christ on the cross (which is a token of peace,
mercy, and charity) a banner to lead on to slay Christian men for
the love of two false priests, and to oppress Christendom  worse
than Christ and his apostles were oppressed by the Jews?  When
will the proud priest of Rome grant indulgences to mankind to
live in peace and charity, as he now does to fight and slay one
another? "
Roused by such remonstrances, Urban summoned him to Rome;
but the citation came too late.  A stroke of palsy had already
fallen upon the old man, and his enemies regarded him as no longer
an object of terror.  His public work was done; but yet that venerable form, hoary with age, and bearing an expression of fine
benevolence, was to be seen amidst the public worshippers in the
parish church at Lutterworth, where he sometimes preached.  But
his end was near.  " It was reported," one of them tells us, " that
he had prepared accusations and blasphemies, which he intended,
on the day he was taken ill, to have uttered in his pulpit against
Thomas'a Becket, the saint and martyr of the day; but by the
judgment of God he was suddenly struck, and the palsy seized all
his limbs; and that mouth, which was to have spoken huge things
against God and his saints and holy church, was miserably drawn
aside, and afforded a fiightful spectacle to the beholders.  His
tongue was speechless, and his head shook, showing plainly that
the curse of God was upon him."  The fact is, that whilst he was
attending divine service in the church at Lutterworth, he was
seized with a fresh attack of paralysis, which, on the third day,
terminated his valuable life.
Lutterworth still preserves among its relics the chair in which
the proto-reformer of England is reported to have died. It now
occupies a place by the communion-table of the old church. It is
a venerable relic, apparently of the period to which it professes to
belong.  Wiclif's portrait is to be seen in his vestry.  It has no




THE LIGHIT OF A DARK AGE.                 31
merit as a work of art; but corresponds with sufficient closeness
to the portraits given of him as authentic,- one of which is that
in the possession of the Duke of
Dorset, - and to the fine one prefixed to Vaughan's Life of the
reformer.  In all of them  he is
represented as of a manly and noble......
form, wearing a flowing gown, and       f
bearing on his head a velvet cap.           r "   B
HIis face, graced by a long, white
beard, exhibits mingled penetration,
firmness, intelligence, and goodness.
Wiclif died on the 31st of Decem-        
ber, 1384, and his body was buried --
in the chancel of his own church.
Itmy of the opinions of this          WICLIF's CHAIR
great reformer were illustriously
in advance of his times. It would be superfluous to cite his observations on the multifarious subjects which employed his pen; but
some of his opinions are so decidedly cognate to the objects of the
present treatise, as to justify a few short extracts.
Respecting the sufficiency of the Word of God: —" Poor priests
and true men would willingly yield obedience to God and to holy
church, and also to each man on earth, inasmuch as he teacheth
truly the commandments of God and things which may profit the
souls of nlen.  And no more ought any man to obey, even to
Christ himself, both God and man. If any worldly prelate asketh
more obedience than this, he surely is antichrist, and Lucifer's
minister."
With regard to the liberty of preaching the truth: - "Almighty
Lord God, most merciful, and in wisdom  boundless, since thou
sufferedst Peter and all apostles to have so great fear and cowardice, at the time of thy passion, that they flew all away for dread of
death and for a poor woman's voice; and since, afterwards, by the
comfort of the Holy Ghost thou madest them  so strong that they




32               THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
were afraid of no man, nor of pain, nor death; help now, by gifts
of the same Spirit, thy poor servants who all their life have been
cowards, and make them strong and bold in thy cause, to maintain
the gospel against antichrist and the tyrants of this world."
Wiclif strongly advocated the removal of spiritual men from all
secular duties, and from the temptations of inordinate wealth.
" By this means, the poor commons would be discharged of many
heavy rents. x *  *    And thus, by restoring lordships to secular men, as is done by Holy Writ, and by reducing the clergy to
meekness and wilful poverty and ghostly travail, as lived Christ
and his apostles: sin should be destroyed in each degree of holy
church, and holiness of life brought in, and secular laws strengthened, and the poor commons aided, and good government, both
temporal and spiritual, come again." —" Lordly dominion is plainly
forbidden by the apostles, and wilt thou venture to usurp the same?
If a lord, thine apostleship is lost; if an apostle, thy lordship is no
more, for certainly one or the other must be relinquished. If both
are sought, both shall be lost.  Or shouldst thou succeed, then
judge thyself to be of that number respecting whom God so greatly
complains, saying, They have reigned, but not through me; they
have become princes, but I have not known them.  *  *  This,
then, is the true form and institution. of the apostolic callinglordship and rule are forbidden, ministration and service are commanded."
On courage for trut;h's sake:- " Let a man stand in virtue and
truth, and all the world overcometh him not; for if they overcome
him with these, then they overcome God and his angels, and then
they should make him to be no God.  Thus good men are comforted to put away fear, since be they never so febw nor feeble, they
believe that they may not be discomfited. Thus the words of Christ
make his knights to be hardy."
His views of compulsory payments may be gained from the following passage: -" True it is that tithes were due to priests and
deacons under the old law, and so bodily circumcision was then
needful to all men, but it is not so now, under the law of grace.




THE LIGIIT OF A DARIK AGE.                33
Christ, however, was circumcised, and yet we read not where he
took tithes as we do; nor do we read in all the gospels that he
paid them to the high priest, or bade that any other man do so.
Lord, why should our worldly clergy claim tithes, and offerings,
and customs, from Christian people, more than did Christ and his
apostles, and even more than men were burdened with under the
law? "
Our last quotation, on the duty of avowing convictions, approaches the sublime:-" To live, and to be silent, is with me
impossible; the guilt of such treason against the Lord of heaven
is more to be dreaded than many deaths.  Let the blow therefore
fall.  Enough I know of the men whom I oppose, of the times on
which I am  thrown, and of the mysterious providence which
relates to our sinful race, to expect that the stroke will, ere long,
descend.  But my purpose is unalterable.  I wait its coming! "
It is scarcely wonderful that a reformer who promulgated such
views should be greatly distasteful to those who strongly advocate
ecclesiastical establishments, or that they should speak of the merits of Wiclif as " greatly exaggerated," or of " his wild and irregular notions."@   It will be gratifying, however, to many readers,
to learn how an eminent man of the fourteenth century anticipated,
in the darkness and gloom of so remote a period, sentiments to
which the lapse of four hundred and fifty years has only added
an increasing force of conviction.
Forty-three years after the death of Wiclif, the town of Lutterworth witnessed a strange and almost incredible scene. The Council of Constance, after much deliberation upon the tenets of the
reformer, and after condemning forty-five of his tenets, arrived at
the conclusion that the rector of that parish had lived and died an
obstinate heretic. They, therefore, determined that his dead body
should be treated with ignominy, and that his bones should be disinterred and thrown upon a dunghill.  Thirteen years afterwards,
their sentence took effect.  Richard Fleming, the Bishop of Lincoln, and, as such, the diocesan of Lutterworth, sent his commis] Milner's Church History, IuI.




34                THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
sary, chancellors, proctors, doctors, and their servants, to exhume
Wiclif's body.  The bones were burnt to ashes, and were then
LUTTERWORTE BRIDGE.
"; STREAM INTO WHICH WICLIF'S BONES WERE THROWN."':
cast into the Swift, a river running close by the town.  "Then
the brook," says Fuller, "conveyed his ashes into Avon; Avon
into Severn; Severn into the narrow  seas; they into the main
ocean.  And thus the ashes of Wiclif are the emblem of his doctrine, which was dispersed the world over." Tradition yet marks
out the spot where this poor and ineffective revenge was perpetrated.
The whole life of this celebrated reformer was devoted to the
great enterprise of exposing ecclesiastical enormities, of vindicating
the simplicity of gospel truth, and of resisting the inroads of ecclesiastical assumption. That such pursuits exposed him to the charge
of being a sour and turbulent demagogue, -that some even of those
who, like John of Gaunt, patronized him so long as he served their
purpose, afterwards deserted him, and that many of his friends
drew in their breath with a shudder at the boldness with which
his opinions were avowed, -  who can doubt?  The day in which
his singleness and nobility of purpose should be manifested was' It was currently reported that miracles attended this circumstance, expressive of the displeasure of Heaven at this removal. It is not worth while to
relate them in detail.




THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.                  35
long in coming. And it can never fully come whilst any of the
errors which he lived to expose survive. Yet will he appear to
some "that limb of the devil, enemy of the church, deceiver of
the people, idol of heretics, mirror of hypocrites, author of schisms,
sower of hatred, and inventor of lies."* But, if prejudice can enact
attainders, virtue and truth can reverse them; and Wiclif's name
will stand an example to posterity of the moral palingenesis by
which the apparently destroyed existence lives again from its ashes,
and will supply encouragement to believe that successors may profit
extensively from the very truths which now cover their propounder
with ignominy and disgrace. The realms of oblivion are crowded
by those who wrote or spoke in accordance only with the sentiments of their day.  The renowned are mainly those who opposed
the current.
The spirit of Wiclif's reformation was immensely in advance of
its age.  He was, indeed, to some extent, an advocate for the
interference of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. But to
what extent he meant this interference to reach, may be learned
from the following passage:
" Let what they solicit from the magistrate be simply protection,
and to meet the evils arising from  the withholding of settled pastors from  the established cures; and the many which must be
inseparable from the appointment of improper men, let such priests
as may prefer the labors of the evangelist to the more regular duties
of the parochial shepherd, be allowed to act on that preference."
Wiclif's opinions on this subject are susceptible of both explanation and apology.
The history of England may be divided into two great periods,
both bearing on "lthe constitution in church and state."   The
former was one in which our ancestors sought to ally the spiritual
with the civil power, that they might ward off the encroachments
of a secular hierarchy; — the latter, one in which dire experience
caused them to retrace their steps, and to seek relief from the
* If Wiclif was occasionally somewhat coarse, Walsingham, the papal advocate, and the author of the above sentence, is more than his peer.




36               THE LIGHT OF A DARK AGE.
injuries which this ecclesiastico-political system  had engendered.
We shall have many occasions to refer to the latter class of opinions.  At present we may mainly dwell on the former.  A conviction seized the most far-seeing men, during the period of the
Anglo-Norman rule, that the power of spiritual despotism, then
represented by the court of Rome, " had increased, was increasing,
and ought to be diminished;" and to accomplish the latter. purpose
was a leading object with princes or people, as the case might be,
down to the time of Henry VIII. The reformation was caused by
that monarch's sensual desires, only as it is the last drop which
causes the cup to overflow.  William  I. was, it is well known,
encouraged by Pope Alexander III. to undertake the conquest of
the kingdom of Edward the Confessor, that by such means Rome
might obtain an increased power.  But that iron-willed despot,
when his victory was achieved, was so far from yielding the allsubmissive compliance expected of him, that not even the menaces
of Hildebrand himself could exact from him the homage required
by the Roman see; and he strictly forbade all relations between
his subjects and the pope not sanctioned by himself. The selfishness and rapacity of his successor, Rufus, were great reductions,
for the time, on the power of the clergy, who long remembered
them. Under Henry the First arose the dispute respecting investitures: * Hildebrand demanded the abolition of the ceremony by
the king; but whilst the monarch altered the ceremony he still
retained the right of appointment, and thus substantially obtained
the victory. The daring resistance of Thomas a Beckett toHenry
II., who claimed the right of punishing felonious offences committed by ecclesiastics, led to the enactments of " The Constitutions of Clarendon," which, though issuing in the great and protracted troubles consequent on that archbishop's murder, drew a
stricter limit around the usurpations of the papal prerogative.
* Investiture was the act by which the feudal lord placed his vassal in
actual possession of his fief. In ecclesiastical preferments, it was originally
effected by the sovereign delivering to the newly-appointed bishop his ring
and crosier.




THE LIGHT OF A DARI  AGE.                 37
John attempted a still further limitation, though his shallow and
reckless scheming ended only in his own debasement.  Under the
weak-minded Henry III., the claims prepared by the pope to
appoint to vacant benefices, whilst thus trampling on the rights of
patrons, caused great disaffection even among the clergy themselves,
and this dissatisfaction was still further increased by the immense
sums received by foreigners bearing the titles of English ecclesiastics, for services which they performed only by proxy.  In this
contest respecting "provisors," as they were termed, Grossteste,
the Bishop of Lincoln,* eminently distinguished himself as an
opponent of the pope, by his refusal to induct an Italian boy into
a vacant benefice.  Nor must we be unmindful of two other most
signal events in British history, - the efforts made by Cardinal
Langton to gain the great charter, or the contention till death of
Simon de Montfort in behalf of a parliamentary representation,both of which occurrences greatly contracted the circle of ecclesiastical sovereignty.  Edward I., in defiance of the bull of Boniface
VIII., and of the excommunication which it threatened against
those who taxed the clergy against his authority, had recourse to
the severest exactions from the ecclesiastics to support the expenses
of his war against France; and, by an express act, he prohibited
his clergy from sending moneys to their foreign superiors. In the
following reign- in which Wiclif was born - so alive had the
people become to this subject, that one of the complaints against
Edward II. was that he had permitted bulls from the Roman see.
In fact, the civil power was, in those days, regarded as a harbor
of refuge from the distresses consequent on hierarchical tyranny.
If the convictions of our forefathers shall differ in some respects
from our own, we must be content to remember that their experience was less wide and extensive than that of a later age; that
learning consists greatly in un-learning; and that truths of the
largest magnitude are of slow and often almost imperceptible
growth.  We must judge our forefathers by the light in which
they lived; whilst we cannot restrain the conviction that the same
*"  Terrificus Papne redargutor," as Camden styles him.
4




38               THE LIGHT OF A DARIK AGE.
principles, opposed to the same errors, would, under different circumstances, and conjoined with a wider experience, have landed them
far beyond the point which they ultimately reached. The supremacy of God's Word, the right of private judgment, the voluntariness of true Christianity, the simplicity and energy of moral power,
the self-contradiction of systems of worldly policy as means of
advancing the progress of truth, — for all these doctrines were
those which Wiclif maintained, - are principles which would have
carried him further than he really went. The inconsistency was
in the limited degree in which they were then applied; the truths
are immortal and all-sufficient.  We may not reduce them; we
cannot exaggerate their moral power.
NOTE. -The author confesses a general obligation for the matter of the
preceding chapter to Vaughan's able Life of Wycliffe.




CHAPTER It.
WRITHIINGS OF TIIE DOWN-TRODDEN.
"0  terrible excess
Of headstrong will! Can this be piety  "- WORDSWORTH.'~'~          OTHING  is proverbially more inf-   1constant than the taste of monarchs.
Of this the history of all palaces,
_,___,,            " especially the history of English,_             2 jr~r1palaces, affords incontestable proof.
U]i        i:  ~  E G  T"Varium   et mutabile seamper,"
might be written upon each portico
and pediment!  Winchester, Westminster, Blackfriars, Crosby Hall,
the Tower, Greenwich, Theobald's, Rich-  W01  mond, Hampton Court, Kensington, and
olthers  down to Buclkingham  Palace, Brighton and Osborne, what " thick-coming fan-ll
cies "!  St. James' and Windsor alone seem
permanent; yet the latter has undergone nearly
as many changes as all the rest combined.  If
\ ~.~ ~  these variations afford no proof of the stability of
our monarchs' tastes, they at least demonstrate
that the attachment of the people to the monarchy is no fitful
and uncertain thing.  To appropriate structures of which the
sovereign has grown weary, - though thousands, perhaps millions,
of the nation's money have been profusely lavished on the magnificent decoration of them, — into hospitals for useless sinecurists,
maintained at the public expense, might seem to be adding insult




40            WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
to injury.  Yet this has been the uniform  course of palace
transformations!  The British people are used to it.  They
grumble, exclaim, resist, threaten, grow furious, and - submit.
TWhat inhabitant of the metropolis is ignorant of the pleasures
of an excursion to Hampton Court?  Choose a sunny day,- a
small and well-assorted party,- take a return ticket by the railway, and you have within your reach as many materials for enjoyment as can be derived from fresh air, rich scenery, horticultural
rarities, the wonders of ancient and modern art, — the Cartoons of
Raphael included, —and abundant historical associations.  You
can people the scene, if you please, with the successive courts of
British monarchs, from Henry VIII. down to George II.; and,
should you be well versed in the history of female costume, you
can vary the dress into the fashion of each age as it passes: the
cap-like head attire of the court of Henry VIII.; the ruff and farthingale of Elizabeth; the thin curls of the date of Charles I.; the
hood and close kerchief of the time of Cromwell; the negligent
nakedness of the court of Charles II.; the ring-fence, called a hoop,
of the period of Queen Anne.  If your tastes be architectural, it is
probable, indeed, that you will receive a smart shock as you see
Wolsey's noble Tudor Gothic side by side with Grecian pillars
and porticos, and you may think, somewhat emphatically, of
Horace's emblem, which represents the horse's head conjoined with
the fish's tail.  It may possibly surprise you to learn that Sir
Christopher Wren himself, no inferior man, is responsible for these
incongruities.  But he, too, could plead precedents; and Inigo
Jones had marshalled the way to false taste before him.  Besides,
when royalty commanded, Wren had been more than once made to
sacrifice - as in the re-building of St. Paul's - his own tastes and
convictions.  Yet, notwithstanding every apology, it must be
acknowledged that Wren did not excel in alterations.  With him,
indeed, they were never restorations.  Lincoln and Westminster
Abbey cry shame; and the visitant to Hampton Court deplores
the incestuous union which he there witnesses! " M3lost lame and
impotent conclusion!"  But when even'" the good Hlomer " is




WYRITIIINGS OF TIlE DOWN-TRODDEN.           41
allowed his occasional nod, we must be patient if Sir Christopher
should sometimes betray a similar infirmity.
H AMPTON COUNT.
A noble place is Hampton Court in which to study modern
English history! We suggest this hint to parents, and advise
them now and then to abandon the labored volumes over which
their children are poring, and to give their lessons in some place
like this - viva voce. The course of the projector of this pile is in
itself a high moral. How industry and learning can lift a man
firom littleness; how sensuality, luxury and pride, can thrust him
down from greatness; how insecure is the tenure of the mightiest
possessions; how the pomp of the world is like the fata morgana
- dazzling, indeed, but airy and unsubstantial; how the man who
rises suddenly by ambition may fall like lightning down; how
adversity often brings out of the humble all the good that was ever
in them; how the possessions of the mind transcend and outlast
the acquisitions of the powerful; and how a conscience-stricken
death-bed is the saddest see saddest scene on this side of the infinite; - all
these lessons, and many more, are suggested by the name and by the
4*




42            WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
ancient palace of Cardinal Wolsey. Every court and ornament
recalls some passage of his history. Imposingly went forth from
under these arches the train of the last of English cardinals,- the
last, at least, before Pio Nono imparted new life to a defunct title,
- with its array of pursuivants, esquires, retainers, and even
nobles; of cross and basin and chalice; whilst in the midst of all
rode forth the reverend priest, his sumptuous array of blazing scarlet relieved only by golden stirrup and ermined fur; himself the
personification of grandeur, as his mule was meant to be of humility; uniting thus the opposite emblems of godliness with worldly
pride.  Sad scene! sadder even in its triumphs than in its catastrophe! We turn firom the bloated rich man with disgust; but
when we hear the humbled poor man ejaculating, "Vain pomp
and glory of the world, I hate ye! " we feel that the moralities of
the tragedy are satisfied. About this spot moved, as long as he
could move,-  after iVolsey had resigned Hampton Court to his
imperious master, - Henry VIII.; passing here through his
successive phases of gayety, gallantry, extravagance, selfish hardheartedness, imperious self-will, cruelty, wholesale  oppression,
bloated animalism, ulcerated death by inches! Here, by the
strong will which beat down More, Wolsey, the pope, his successive wives, the great monastic establishments, and which only
failed before Luther, he formed, to the extensive injury of his
neighbors, and in imitation of the Anglo-Norman sovereigns, an
enormous park, which was mercifully dcle-chased by his successor.
Whatever our symnpathy with Wolsey may be, who can have any
with the brutal tyrant who called himself his lord?
The title of " Head of the Church " was in his case a monstrous
anomaly; the Church of England was not wont to set a layman
at its head. " The limits of the authority which he possessed as
such were not traced, and indeed have never been traced,
with precision.  The laws which declared him  supreme in
ecclesiastical matters were drawn rudely, and in general terms.
If, for the purpose of ascertaining the sense of those laws, we
examine the books and lives of those echo founded the English




WRITHINGS OF TIIE DOWN-TRODDEN.             43
church, our perplexity will be increased.  For the founders of
the English church wrote and acted in an age of violent intellectual fermentation, and of constant action and reaetion.  They,
therefore, often contradicted each other, and sometimes contradicted themselves. That the king was, under Christ, sole head
of the church, was a doctrine which they all with one voice
affirmed; but those words had very different signification in
different mouths, and in the same mouth at different conjunctures.
Sometimes an authority which would have satisfied Hildebrand
was ascribed to the sovereign; then it dwindled down to an
authority little more than that which had been claimed by many
ancient English princes, who had been in constant communication'with the Church of Rome.  What Henry and his favorite counsellors meant at one time by the supremacy, was certainly nothing
less than the whole power of the keys.  The king was to be the
pope of his kingdom, the vicar of God, the expositor of catholic
verity, the channel of sacramental grace.  He arrogated to himself the right of deciding dogmatically what was orthodox doctrine
and what was heresy, of drawing up and imposing confessions of
faith, and of giving religious instruction to his people. He proclaimed that all jurisdiction, spiritual as well as temporal, was
derived from  him  alone, and that it was in his power to confer
episcopal authority and to take it away.  He actually ordered his
seal to be put to commissions by which bishops were appointed,
who were to exercise their functions as his deputies and during his
pleasure.  According to this system, as expounded by Cranmer,
the king was the spiritual as well as the temporal chief of the
nation. In both capacities his highness must have lieutenants.
As he appointed civil officers to keep his seal, to collect his revenues, and to dispense justice in his name, so he appointed divines,
of various ranks, to preach the gospel and to administer the sacraments.  It was unnecessary that there should be any imposition of
hands. The king — such was the opinion of Cranmer, given in
the plainest words - might, in virtue of authority.derived from
God, make a priest; and the priest so made needed no ordination




44            WI'T'IIINGS OF T~IE DOWN-T-RODDEN.
whatever.  These opinions, Cranmer, in spite of the opposition of
less courtly divines, followed out to every legitimate consequence.
I-Ie held that his own spiritual functions, like the secular functions
of the chancellor and treasurers, were at once determined by a
demise of the crown.  When it was objected that a power to bind
and to loose, altogether distinct from temporal power, had been
given by our Lord to his apostles, some theologians replied that
the powers to bind and to loose had descended, not to the clergy,
but to the whole body of Christian men, and ought to be exercised
by the chief magistrate, as the representative of the society.
When it was objected that St. Paul had spoken of certain persons
whom the Holy Ghost had made overseers and shepherds of the
faithful, it was answered that King Henry was the very overseer,
the very shepherd, whom  the Holy Ghost had appointed, and to
whom the expressions of St. Paul applied." *
Like Napoleon with his' iron crown, the king put the superepiscopal diadem upon his own head; and he knew well how to give
effect to the motto, "Gare qui la touche!"  What schemes connected with his headship may have been projected and matured
within these walls, who can tell? The mode by which IHenry
forced his clergy into the acknowledgment of this title is well
known.  As Wolsey had been appointed legate by bulls from the
pope,- an illegal act, — the king proceeded against the ecclesiastics for the crime of acknowledging that authority, and obtained
judgment against them under the statute of prcemunire, which
declared their possessions forfeited.  Under this judgment, he
extorted from  them, in addition to the sum  of one hundred and
eighteen thousand pounds, their admission of the coveted title.
This designation was afterwards confirmed by parliament, and set
forth the astounding proposition, " that our sovereign lord, his heirs
and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and
authority to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain
and amend, all such errors, heresies, abuses, contempts and enornlities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner of spiritual
I' Macaulay's list,. of England, vol. I., pp. 51-5G.




WRITtlINGS OF TI-IE DOWN-TRODDEN.            45
authority or jurisdiction ought or may be lawfully reformed,
repressed, ordered, redressed, corrected or amended, most to the
pleasure of Almighty God, and increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of peace, unity, and tranquillity of
this realm, any usage, custom, foreign authority, prescription, or
any other thing or things to the contrary, notwithstanding."
The execution of the maid of Kent, and of Sir Thomas More
and Bishop Fisher, who sympathized with her hysterical ravings,
but who were guilty of the much higher offence of denying the
king's new-made authority, followed rapidly in the wake of this
enactment.
Hampton Court witnessed, soon after this period, another scene
forming a consequence of this new assertion of ecclesiastical authority.  The snake of popish intolerance -" scotched, not killed,"had, during the latter years of Henry's life, recovered not a little
of its former influence.  Disgusted with his new wife, Anne of
Cleves, the king had conceived a hatred against the minister who
had advised the marriage. A suspicion, too, that he was secretly
opposed to the six articles, recently passed by parliament, had
rendered Cromwell increasingly obnoxious to the papists.  These
articles asserted that the sacrament was the real body and blood of
Christ; that the communion in one kind was sufficient; that
priests should not marry; that vows of chastity were binding;
that private masses were desirable, and that auricular confession
was necessary.  To these suspicions Cromwell fell a sacrifice.
Other victims followed, and with one of these this palace is associated.
Dr. Barnes, a man of distinguished learning and piety, was
prior of the Augustine monastery at Cambridge.  He greatly
reformed the studies of that university, and took occasion to
expound in public the apostolical epistles, and to inveigh against
the vices of the clergy. He had learned fiom Bilney the true doctrine of salvation, which he hesitated not to proclaim; and for this
offence had been brought, at a previous period, before Wolsey, at
Westminster.  "W Vhat!  Mr. Doctor," said that prelate, " had you




46           VWRITIIINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people, but that
my golden shoes, my pollaxes, my pillars, my golden cushions, my
crosses, did so sore offend you that you must make us ridiculum
caput amongst the people, who that day laughed us to scorn?"
Barnes replied that he had preached the truth out of the Scriptures, according to " his conscience and the old doctors." He was,
however, committed to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms, and
was on the Saturday following brought up before the bishops.
The prospect of martyrdom so terrified the poor man that he was
induced in their presence to abjure his heresies; was compelled in
St. Paul's church to ask forgiveness of " God and the Catholic
church, and the cardinal's grace; " and was, with others holding
sentiments similar to his own, marched three times about a fire
kindled at the outer gate of the church, and declared to be received
once more into the body of the faithful.  Yet these men were,
notwithstanding, recommitted to prison. Barnes, by some means,
made his escape to Antwerp, where he enjoyed the friendship of
Luther, Melancthon, and other distinguished reformers.  The
King of Denmark sent' him as his ambassador to England, where
his person was respected, though Sir T. More, at that time lord
chancellor, and in violation of the toleration which he had advocated in his Utopia, desired his apprehension on the old charge.
WVhen his mission was fulfilled, Barnes returned to the continent,
and afterwards revisited London.  Ann Boleyn protected and promoted him.  Afterwards, whilst the marriage with Anne of Cleves
was in progress, Henry sent him ambassador to the Duke of
Cleves, and expressed his satisfaction at the manner in which
Barnes had discharged that office.
But Gardiner, who, after being the friend of Wolsey, had sided
with the king in the matter of the divorce, and had recently written his treatise " De vera obedientia," in favor of the supremacy,
was now lord of the ascendant, and complained to the king of
Barnes and two of his friends, Thomas Garret and William Jerome.
In consequence, they were brought before Henry at Hampton
Court. The particulars of the interview are not recorded. But




WRITIIINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.           - 47
the result was that the Iking, who cherished some favor for Barnes,
permitted him to go home with the bishop for the purpose of private conference.  The result may be anticipated.  Barnes and his
companions were attainted of heresy, and sentenced to be burned.
Their end was worthy of the doctrines they had proclaimed.
WVhen brought to Smithfield, Barnes asked for the sheriff: "Have
ye any articles against me for which I am condemned?" "  No."
" Is there any mail else that knoweth wherefor I die, or that by
my preaching hath taken any error?  Let them now speak, and I
will answer."  He proceeded to add, " If Dr. Stephen, Bishop of
Winchester, have sought or wrought this my death, either by word
or deed, I tray God to forgive him as heartily, as freely, as charitably, and as sincerely, as Christ forgave them that put him to
death.  And if any of the council, or any other, have sought or
wrought it through malice or ignorance, I pray God forgive their
ignorance, and illuminate their eyes that they may see and find
mercy for it."
"He then," says Fox, "begged all men to forgive him; to
bear witness that he detested and abhorred all evil opinions and
doctrines against the Word of God, and that he died in the faith
of Jesus Christ, by whom he doubted not to be saved. With
these words he desired all the spectators to pray for him, and then
he prepared himself to suffer."
Garret and Jerome addressed the people in a similar manner;
the latter concluding his address with the following words:
" And thus do I now yield my soul up unto Almighty God,
trusting and believing that he, of his infinite mercy, according to
the promise made in the blood of his Son Jesus Christ, will take
it, and pardon all my sins, of which I ask him mercy, and desire
you all to pray with and for me, that I may patiently suffer this
pain, and die in true faith, hope and charity."
The three then took an affectionate embrace of each other, were
fastened to the stake, and bore witness in their death to the faith
of Christ and to the energy of protestant supremacy.*
$ Fox's Acts and Monuments.




48            WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
Bishop ZBurnet, summing up the various persecutions of this illstarred reign, says, " So there were many brought into the bishop's
courts, some for teaching their children the Lord's prayer in English, some for reading the forbidden books, some for harboring the
preachers, some for speaking against pilgrimages, or the worshipping and adorning of images, some for not observing the church
fasts, some for not conling to confession and the sacrament, and
some for speaking against the vices of the clergy." * The catalogue
is sufficiently large. Thomas Bernard and James Merton, burnzed.
Pearson, Testwood and Filmer, burned.  Adam Damlip, burned.
Kirby and Clarke, burnzed.  Anne Askew, Nicholas Belenian,
John Adams, John Lacells, burned.  Hinton, burned.  Hugh
Latimer, imprisoned.  Thomas Bilney, burned.  Byfield and
others, burned.  Frith, burned.  John Lambert, burned.  Bent
and Trapnel, burned.  Thomas Benet, burnged.  Launcelot, John
and Giles German, burned. Style, burned. John Brown, burned.
Such were the first fruits of the English state-cburch! In
what respects did it differ from the ecclesiastical tyranny which it
had superseded?
Edward VI. was frequently a resident in the palace of IHampton Court, and his diary contains the following entry descriptive
of the palace at this period:
" Monsieur le mareschal came to me at Hampton Court at nine
of the clock, being met by the Duke of Somerset at the Wall End,
and so conveyed first to me; when, after his master's recommendations and letters, he went to his chamber on the queen's side, all
hanged with cloth of arras, and so was the hall, and all my
lodging."
This is not the place in which to enter upon the ecclesiastical
proceedings of this memorable reign.  It may be enough to
observe, that the progress of the reformation exhibited the strongest contrast to the principles which could alone have justified it.
The Princess Mary might justly complain of persecution.  Ana6 Burnet's Reformation, Book Ir.




WRITHINGS OF TIIE DOVN-TRODDEN.              49
baptists, who are reported to have been very numerous, were proscribed, and many of them burnt in various parts of the kingdom.
George Van Parre, a Dutchman, was consigned to the flames for
denial of the divinity of Christ; Hooper was committed to the
Fleet for not wearing, as Bishop of Gloucester, the episcopal vestments; and a commission was issued empowering Cranmer and
others to correct and punish * those who would not conform. The
reluctance of the young king to sign the sentence against Joan of
Kent is well known.  She was, however, burnt at the stake!
In the year 1558 Hampton Court exhibited an unusual scene
of splendor and revelry, in connection with a Christmas visit of
Philip and Mary. The Princess Elizabeth, who was invited to
attend, seems on this occasion to have manifested no dislike to
the rites of the Catholic worship. She heard matins in the queen's
closet on St. Stephen's day.  How  many of the barbarities and
horrors which desolated the land, and poured a crimson flood
through its borders, were discussed and planned in this palace, is
unknown.  But it is obvious to remark, that, however essentially
intolerant and persecuting the spirit of popery may be, it perpetrated its fierce deeds, during this reign, as during others, by
means of the mechanism of an ecclesiastical establishment.  And,
though we do not confound the animzus of the papal with that of
any protestant system, it must still be remembered that even
popery itself would be comparatively harmless but for the secular
power which obeys its dictates. Had the church been, as the principles of the reformation demanded, dissevered from the state, into
what comparatively small dimensions would the " acts and monuments of British martyrs " have been reduced! Papal, episcopal,
puritan,- the degrees of intolerance may vary, but the fact of
persecution under any state-church is invariable.
The reconciliation of England with the church of Rome was the
signal for a storm of vengeance. The alliance of the queen with
* Hallam infers, from the word punienduzs, that the penalty intended was
death; but Sir J. Mackintosh urges sufficient reasons to avoid this conclusion,
Hist. Eng., vol. II., p. 318.
5




50            WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
Charles V., her marriage with Philip of Spain, thEe history of
her mother's divorce, the movement by which Lady Jane Grey
had so nearly possessed the throne, the instigations of Gardiner
and Bonner, were all electric elements in the deep thunder-cloud
which now hung over the ecclesiastical horizon.  The queen's
headship was nominally foregone; but, as the pope's supremacy
was not acknowledged, it was really exercised.  The old statutes
fbr burning heretics were revived.  Rogers, Hooper, Taylor, were
put to death by Gardiner, to try the example of severity in terrifying the rest.  On its failure, Bonner took up the work in a
spirit akin to the blood-thirstines of a famished tiger.  Bradford,
Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, are the world-wide names of some
who followed.  " Turn or burn" became the prevailing motto!
Tomkins, a weaver, whose hand Bonner held in the flame of a
candle till the skin burst, and the blood flew out in the face of
the. bystanders; companies of martyrs consigned to a commnon and
miscellaneous death; women in travail executed, and their just
born infants committed to the flames; children pitilessly destroyed; Christian men driven in all directions into foreign countries; one martyr forbidden to say farewell to his wife and children, come out to take their final leave of him  on his way to
execution; another denied fire enough to put an end to the inexpressible torture of his death; horrible severities in prison, where
multitudes perished by famine and wretchedness; - these, and
many similar details, from the memory of which humanity shrinks
appalled, testify the demoniacal spirit of this persecution.  Many
of the exiles formed themselves at Frankfort into a congregational church.  They disputed respecting the liturgy; those who
opposed it joined the Presbyterian discipline at Geneva; those
who admitted it, after many debates among themselves, became
the harbingers of English puritanism.
It is computed that in this reign four hundred persons were
publicly executed for their religion.
Again Hampton Court experiences a change.  Elizabeth has
succeeded to the throne, and holds her occasional residences here.




WIRITHINGS OF TIHE DOWN-TILODDEN.            51
According to the testimony of an eye-witness, the palace in this
reign exhibits much of regal magnificence.  The canopy is still
embroidered with the name of Henry VIII.; the tapestry is
superb;. one of the cabinets is called Paradise; the gardens are
s" most pleasant;"  the chapel is " most splendid;" " in the centre
of the area, which is paved with white stone," is "a fountain that
throws up water, covered with a gilt crown, on the top of which is
a statue of JusTIrE." The reader of history asks in vain for the
counterpart of the allegory!
A protestant sovereign now stood in the place of the pope,
and became the polar star of hope.  The more pious among her
clergy believed that she would not fail to remove some of those
minor ceremonies which, while they fretted men's consciences, were
by no means essential to the protestant establishment. The mitigation of the censures against uniformity in worship, the change
of habits during divine service, the abolition of some minor festivals, the sign of the cross in baptismn, the use of the ring in mar.
riage, liberty not to kneel at the Lord's supper, — these, and
others like them, were the points on which the early puritans
sought relief.  Moderns can scarcely sympathize with all these
difficulties; but, because they were points of conscientious convic.
tion, they were momentous to our forefathers; and all that they
asked was, with due allowance for the opinions of others who dif:
fered from them, that these points should not be rigidly, pertinaciously and authoritatively enforced.
But the queen had all the blood of Henry VIII. in her, and
was, like him, only opposed to popery because it limited her prerogative.  The most careless visitant to Hampton Court, who wandcers through the " Queen's Gallery" and studies the pictures of
the father and daughter by Holbein, will instinctively feel how
dangerous it might be to trifle with either the one or the other.
Elizabeth was resolute in maintaining the Act of Uniformity;
and, though even men like Walsillgham, Burleigh, Sir RI. Bacon,
Leicester, Sir F. Knollys, and many other noblemen, knelt at her
feet on behalf of the persecuted puritans, she was still inexorable.




52            WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
The natural consequence was, that these people began to form separate congregations. They were immediately brought to trial, and
imprisoned.  But law could not stop the schism which had begun,
though it severely punished all aiders and abettors, by suspension,
deprivation, imprisonment, and banishment. The issue of these
proceedings was, that from some counties all the most faithful
ministers were exterminated, whilst the services of the church
were administered by men of inferior ability or of tarnished character. Even the parliament ventured in defence of the oppressed,
and two bills for the redress of these severities were introduced;
but a peremptory message from the queen commanded the Commons to abandon their proceedings, to withdraw their bills, and to
introduce no more measures bearing relation to religion.  The condemnation of Udal, and his death in prison; the hanging, after
imprisonment, of two ministers and a layman, for distributing
Brownist tracts; the trial and death of Greenwood and Barrow,
for adopting the same sentiments; as also of Penry, who was cruelly and disgracefully executed, demonstrate that, how glorious
soever the days " of good Queen Bess " might be so far as the
national character was maintained among foreign potentates, much
of its domestic administration was intolerable. In the severity
of her laws the queen exceeded every predecessor.
Great were the hopes entertained by the puritan party at the
time of the accession of James I. Were not monarchs' opinions
something like lovers' promises, we might have expected this monarch to bear some favor towards puritanism.  In the Advocates'
Library, Edinburgh, is still preserved a document entitled "The
Confession of Faith," in reality the first Scottish Covenant, A. D.
1580; and the first name appended to it, at an imposing distance
from all others, is
jd           Orc~




WRITIIINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.               53
Twenty-three years, however, had passed since the king's signature
had been affixed to that document, and James I. was not the only
one, as we shall observe hereafter, who forgot his covenanted
engagements.  The same city preserves another instance of a similar kind, in a copy of the Solemn League and Covenant, many of
the signatures of which are written in blood, whilst all are preceded by one name of celebrity, though not of consistency —
MONTROSE.  Not to do James injustice, we readily avow that we
have not the strongest conviction of the voluntary agency granted
to sovereigns and nobles on occasions of such national signature.
But let that pass.  Perhaps James might recollect certain passages in his early life, - the raid of Rluthven, for instance,which struck uncomfortably on his notions of royal prerogative;
whilst the puritan speech, —" It is better that bairns should
greet than gray-headed men," together with the appellation of
" God's silly vassal," bestowed on him  by Andrew Melville, were
not likely to be soon forgiven. There were, besides, many other
causes at work to produce this altered issue.  The instructions of
Buchanan had contributed to make James a learned man; but not
a fifty-Buchanan power could have made him a wise one.*  James'
learning, indeed, only manifested his real weakness. The man
who, monarch though he was, could employ his mind in comparing
tobacco to the fires of everlasting punishment, -who could send
forth a production like that of" D]emonology," and who was to be
found on the bench whenever a trial took place for witchcraft in
any of the courts of Scotland, and who could himself direct the
application of the torture to the wretched victims, - might be capable of acquiring learning, but could scarcely be of improving it.
Self-important, flippant, conceited; continually leaning on favorites who wore him as an appendage to their state; his constitutional firmness lessened by at least occasional intemperance; t dis* When asked why he had made James a pedant, Buchanan answered, " I
was happy to be able to accomplish even that! "-D'Israeli's Curiosities of
Literature.
t I-le divided his time between his standish, his bottle, and his hunting. -'"'ELWOOD.
5*




54            WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
trusted by the Scottish religionists as hollow, though he had
praised their kirk as " the sincerest kirk in the world; " d convicted repeatedly of falsehood and treachery to every holy cause;
- such was the man whom the death of Queen Elizabeth promoted
td the throne of Great Britain!
James had sent a remonstrance to Elizabeth, imploring her that
"the puritans might be relieved of their present strait."  During
his progress from Scotland to London, at the rate of fifteen miles
a day, he had, however, given utterance to sentiments by no means
favorable to the religious party. He had said that there was more
pride under the cap of Diogenes, or of a puritan, than under a
king's crown.  He acknowledged that he had read more papists'
books than protestants'; though this reading, he declared, had
only confirmed him in the protestant religion.  He had avowed,
moreover, that he would not admit a conference between twelve
papists and twelve protestants, " because he might lose more that
would not be satisfied, than he could win, although the papists'
side were convicted." On his journey, he had received the petition of nearly a thousand ministers - hence called the millenary
petition - praying for relief of their grievances.  As an answer
to this, he called a conference, to be held in Hampton Court palace,
on Thursday, January 12, 1603.
The visitant to the palace who shall endeavor to ascertain the
precise room  in which this conference was held will be disappointed.  It was probably a chamber communicating with the
exquisitely adorned room which stands at the end of the great
banqueting-hall, and was termed at that day " the interior privy
chamber."t The courts of the palace presented, on the 14th of
January, - which was the real date of the conference, - a somewhat unusual appearance. Rcchets, lawn, and square caps, designated the numerous ecclesiastical party, on the one hand; whilst
to encounter them, on the other, were only four plainly-attired
* Sully also mentions the distrust with which he always regarded James. -
Book xiv.
t Neal calls it the drawing-room.




WRITHINGS OF TIlE DOWN-TRODDEN.               55
puritans, - men, however, of the highest standing. The king was
to decide between them.  Some of these divines deserve a passing
comment.  There was Whitgift, the primate, the strong-hold of
the anti-puritan party, -a passionate and vigorous partisan, not
without' fits of moderation, but a restrainer of the liberty of the
press, and a determined persecutor.  By his side was Bancroft,
Bishop of London, whose preferment was obtained by a sermon,
preached at Paul's Cross, against the puritans; the dictator to
the archbishop, and the manager of his ecclesiastical affairs,-  a
man bitter, resolute, unsparing, well described by Bishop Kennet
as "a sturdy piece," who proceeded with rigor, severity, and
wrath.  There was also Bilson, who had written a celebrated
defence of episcopacy; with others, whose names are less known
to posterity. On the other side were Dr. Rainolds, reputed the
most learned man of his times, the vigorous opponent of Bellarmine, the answerer of Bancroft, and the refuser, fromn  conscien.
tious scruples, of a bishopric, offered by Elizabeth; Dr. Sparke,
the defender of puritanism against Whitgift, in public conference,
at Lambeth, - a divine of great learning, and exemplary life;
Dr. Chadderton, also an eminent scholar, and master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, tutor of Bishop lBedell, and one of the
translators of King James' Bible; and tMr. Knewstubs, formerly
fellow of St. John's, Cambridge, but now  under suspension, in
consequence of' his refusal to sign " Wlfitgift's Three Articles."
Dr. Barlow, Dean of Chester, who has given an account of
these proceedings, at which he was present, with the suppressions
of a partisan, tells us that, as " the deans and doctors attended
my lords the bishops into the presence-chamber, there we found,
sitting upon a form, the agents for the millenary plaintiffs."
Here they were left, whilst the ecclesiastics, attended by the lords
of the privy-council, were summoned to the king's chamber, and
the door was shut.
Small, indeed, had been the probability, from the very terms in
which this convocation was announced, that any important concessions would be made.  The king's proclamation had already stated




56            WARITHINGS OF THIE DOWN-TRODD)EN.
that he was " determined to preserve the ecclesiastical state in such
form as he found it established by law, only to reform such abuses
as he should find apparently proved." The misgivings of Whitgift, respecting the anti-episcopal influence of " the Scotch mist,"
wvre entirely superfluous!
The entrance of his majesty constituted the assembly.  "He
sat down in his chair, removed forward from the cloth of state a'pretty distance.' "   "His summoning the assembly together
was," he said, "no novel device, but according to the example
of Christian princes," instancing Henry VIII., Edward VI., and
last, " the queen of famous memory."  As yet he saw no cause
to alter anything done by his predecessors; but thanked God - at
which words he put off his hat - " for bringing him into the promised land," &c.  Yet, as corruptions might creep into the bestordered community, his purpose was to inquire into them, and
cure them, if scandalous; but, if frivolous, " to cast a sop into
Cerberus' mouth, that he may never bark again."
To follow the debate, if such it can be termed, through the
whole of the questions, would occupy more space than would be
interesting to the reader.  Let it suffice to make a few extracts
from the strange admixture.
The first clay was principally occupied by objections taken by
the king himself to various parts of the church ritual. Galloway,
who was present at some subsequent parts of the conference,
declares that the bishops, on their knees, entreated his majesty not
to consent to any alteration, lest it should be regarded as affixing a
stigma on their past treatment of the puritans. Bishop Andrewes,
clerk of the closet, declares that the king did on that day wonderfully play the puritan. It is difficult to reconcile this with Barlow's statement, who, after speaking with unbounded admiration
of James' " understanding, speech and judgment," attributes to
him  this sentence, " that, since he was the age of his son-  tell
years old- he ever disliked their (the puritans') opinions: as the
Saviour of the world said, though he lived among them, he was
not of them."  But the king was a bundle of incongruities, and




WRIlTHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.                57
the divines who represented the Church of England were equally
notorious for flattery of the monarch, and for misrepresentation of
such portions of the conference as did not coincide with their
views.*
On the second day, nearly the same party was again assembled,
the king being, however, accompanied by his son, Prince Henry.
After an introduction, as before, Dr. Rainolds, on the part of the
puritans, opened his case.  Taking exception to certain parts of
the doctrine of the church, especially a portion of the sixteenth
article, he was interrupted by Bancroft, who besought the king to
remember the ancient canon, "that schismatics should not be
heard against bishops."  Bancroft proceeded to complain of the
inconsistency of men who had once subscribed the articles now
speaking against them; and complained that the objectors were
wanting in due regard to the orders of the church, in that they
came attired in Turkey gowns instead of their proper college uniforms.  (It will be remembered that one prominent puritan objection arose out of ecclesiastical habiliments.)  But the king ruled
that Bancroft was out of order, though Rainolds had offensively
trespassed in traducing the church.  Among other topics, Rainolds urged the importance of a new translation of the Scriptures.
Bancroft testily replied, that if every man's humor should be followed there would be no end of translation.t  But  the king
favored the request, providing the new translation were without
marginal notes, saying that he had found some of them in a Geneva translation, which taught disobedience to kings.  The suppression of popish books was next urged.  On which it pleased his
majesty to tell Dr. Rainolds " he was a better collegeman than
statesman," and that the permission of such books was by warrant,
to keep up the schism between the seculars and Jesuits.  Rlainolds
* Barlow has certainly reported the conference in an extremely ex parte manner. lie has suppressed all the king's objections to the Church of England.
Neal tells us, on the authority of Dr. Jackson, that Barlow, on his death-bed,
repented of the injustice his narrative had done to the adverse party.
t Barlow.




58            WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
again desired that every parish might be provided with a learned
minister.  The king declared that there were more learned men
already than maintenance for them; and Bancroft besought his
majesty to let them rather have a praying ministry; for that
there was too much of preaching, and too little of praying,
already.*  James, well pleased, assented to these observations.
When the Bishop of London petitioned " that pulpits might
not be made pasquils, wherein every humorous or discontented fellow might traduce his superiors," the king threatened " that if he
should but hear such an one in a pulpit, he would make him  an
example; concluding with a sage admonition to his opponents, that
every man should solicit and draw his friiends to make peace; and
if anything were amiss in the church officers, not to make the
pulpit the place of personal reproof, but to let his majesty hear of
it - yet by deg'rees!"
The next point was a sore one, and related to subscription.
Rainolds said that there was no objection to subscribe to the articles, and to tAle king's supremacy; but that there were other
points to which serious objections were felt; among others, to the
books called apocryphal.  The bishops were here somewhat at a
loss; till the monarch himself, with a vast display of useless and
impertinent learning, came in to their rescue, concluding with the
observation, as he turned to the lords, "What, trow ye, make
these men so angry with Ecclesiasticus?  By my soul, I think he
was a bishop, or else they would never use him so."
Certain other of the puritan objections were afterwards raised
seriatim.  The day was now closing, and the patience of the king
was ebbing fast.  When, therefore, Rainolds proceeded to ask for
"liberty of prophesying," James broke out into a flame.  "I
will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion in substance and
ceremony. Never speak more to that point, how far you are
bound to obey! "
After other observations of the same kind, he asked if they had
* Elizabeth was accustomed to say that two or three preachers in a county
were enough.




WRITHIINGS OF T'IE DOWN-TRODDEN.             59
anything more to say.  Upon their answering in the negative, he
ended the conference, declaring, " If this be all, I shall make them
conform themselves, or I will harry them  out of this land, or do
worse! "
The utter indecency of the king's conduct was only to be surpassed by that of the bishops.  Bancroft declared "he was fully
persuaded that his majesty spoke by the instinct of the Spirit of
God! "   Lord Cecil declared that they were much bound to God,
who had given to the king an understanding heart.  And the lord
chancellor added, that he had never understood the conjunction
of the monarch and the priest till that day.*  Barlow adds that
the king was " a living library and a walking study."  Comment
is utterly superfluous!
The third day's conference was worthy of its precursors. iDuring
a considerable period the puritans were kept waiting in the outer
chamber, whilst the divines of the church were endeavoring within
to satisfy the king - no difficult matter - respecting some points
of his prerogative relating to the church, especially the High Commission Court and the ex-oficio oaths.
The king said that he regarded subscription as wise and requisite.  " If any, after things are well ordered, will not be quiet and
show his obedience, the church is better without him, and he is
worthy to be hanged.  Better that one perish, than the whole
body."
He. then described the ex-o~ficio oath, "in such a compendious
but absolute order, that all the lords and the rest of the present
auditors stood amazed at it." t
Whitgift: "Undoubtedly his majesty speaks by the special
assistance of God's spirit."
Bancroft, on his knees: " I protest that my heart melts within
me with joy that Almighty God has given us such a king, as, since
Christ's time, the like hath not been."
* Barlow. Warburton observes, in his notes on Neal," Sancho Panza never
made a better speech, nor more to the purpose, during his government."
t Barlow.




60           WRITHINGS OF TIHE DOWN-TRODDEN.
This sentiment was unanimously applauded!
After the discussion of questions regarding the high commission, and plans for instituting schools and appointing ministers in
Ireland and the border, the puritan ministers were called in for the
last time, but it was now only to receive the royal pleasure touching the points in issue. The king announced to them the parsimonious alterations agreed on in their absence; gave them a special
exhortation to unity — that is, to uniformity; - and, in answer
to requests for indulgences to weak consciences, said, among other
matters:
" This is just the Scottish argument; for when anything is
there concluded which dislikes some humors, the only reason why
they will not obey is, that it stands not with their credit to yield,
having so long time been of the contrary opinion.  I will none of
that; and, therefore, either let them conform themselves, and that
shortly, or they shall hear of it! "
And thus ended the Hampton Court Conference.
Contemporary accounts agree in their description of the insulting nature of this whole council.  One of the number said that he
now saw that " a puritan was a protestant frightened out of his
wits."  The king, writing to Scotland, says that "he had soundly
peppered off the puritans;" and, moreover, " They fled me so
from argument to argument, without ever answering me directly,
that I was forced to tell them that, if any of them, when boys,
had disputed thus in the college, the moderator would have fetched
them up and applied the rod." Sir J. Harington said, "' The king
talked much Latin, and disputed much with Dr. Rainolds, telling
the petitioners that they wanted to strip Christ again, and bade
them get away with their snivelling." The puritans were evidently borne down and confounded; no one point was thoroughly
debated; the prelates interposed the most unbecoming interruptions; the king was witness, advocate, judge and- jury, by turns;
and the whole debate, if such it could be termed, was a mockery
of the ends for which it had been professedly summoned. " This
great mountain," says, Heylin, too truly, " which had excited so




WRITIIINGS OF TILE DOWN-TRODDEN.            61
much expectation, was delivered only of a mouse.  The millenary
plaintiffs have gained nothing by their fruitless travail, but the
expounding of the word absolution by remission of sins, the qualifying of the rubric about private baptism, the adding of some
thanksgivings at the end of the litany, and of some questions and
answers at the close of the catechism."  " In the accounts that we
read of this meeting," says Hallam, " we are alternately struck
with wonder at the indecent and partial behavior of the king. It
was easy for a monarch and eighteen churchmen to claim the victory, be the merits of their dispute what they might, over four
abashed and timid adversaries."   Let it be also observed that
these men were not selected by the puritan party, and that the four
were not even agreed among themselves as to the points at issue.
Well might their brethren say, " Therefore the puritan ministers
offer -if his majesty will give them leave - in one week's space
to deliver his majesty, in writing, a full answer to any argument
or assertion propounded in that conference by any prelate; and in
the mean time they do avow them to be most vain and frivolous! "
The preconcerted scheme of which this conference was only the
exponent was soon made apparent by a royal proclamation,
March 5, 1603.  The king declared that, after listening to " the
exceptions of the nonconformists, which he had found very
slender," and after yielding some explanations for their " satisfaction," " he now requires and enjoins all his subjects to conform to
the liturgy, as the only public form established in this realm; and
admonishes them not to expect any further alterations, for that
his resolutions were absolutely settled."  The Book of Canons was
immediately adopted by the convocation, in which it was set forth
that those denying the royal supremacy, or the orthodoxy of the
English church, or the congruity of the public service to the Word
of God, or asserting the erroneousness of the Articles, the ceremonies of the church, or administration of its prelacy, or maintaining the legitimacy of ministers not established by law, or favoring
conventicles, or holding other anabaptist errors, should be excom6




62            WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
municated, and only restored by an archbishop after due and piublie recantation.
The effect of these enactments was subsequently aggravated by
the publication of the " Book of Sports," which allowed, after
divine service, "all lawful recreations," but prohibited all puritans
and recusants from the indulgence.
Under these canons, it was computed that fifteen hundred ministers were suspended.
In relating this conference, mention has been made of the names
of four ministers of reputation, though they were not actually
leaders among the puritan party.  This is, perhaps, the proper
place to add the names of a few others, who, in or before the reign
of James, were conspicuous for similar opinions.  That the party
was very considerable is obvious, if from nothing else, yet, at least,
from the number of names attached to the "' millenary petition;"
that it comprehended men of the highest position, both in church
and state, has been already shown. Detesting popery, because it
obscured the gospel, because of its essential intolerance, and because
it repressed liberty of thought and progress, it had been the design
of the early puritans to substitute a spiritual religion in its stead.
They were not precisely agreed how far it might be desirable to
go; but all were of opinion that they might advance far beyond
the point reached already, without hazard. They had therefore
witnessed, with surprise and alarm, the sudden check given, by
Cranmer's means, to the progress of the reformation.  They
exclaimed against the arbitrariness of so sudden a pause in reform,
and urged upon the higher powers points in which it appeared to
them  that further amendment was indispensable.   Could the
stream  have rolled onward, the muddy waters would soon have
wrought themselves clear, and the reformers would have seen
wherein the channel was defective.  But as yet they had never
recognized the alliance between the ecclesiastical adid civil powers
as the great instrument of their sorrow; and by admitting it they
involved themselves in endless contradictions, and knotted the
whip which lacerated their own flesh. The error mainly consisted




WRITHINGS OF THIE DOWN-TRODDEN.             63
in setting up the model of the Jewish polity as the law of the
Christian church. Lacking a special revelation to point out who
were the peculiar people, and what, to its very letter, was the belief they should hold, the notion was a mere dream, a phantom, an
4" airy nothing."  It seemed clear to them  that they held the
truth, and should, therefore, be protected, whilst others were in
error, and their opinions should be extirpated.  But they forgot
that there is more self-delusion in the world than absolute hypocrisy; and that the same doctrine was preached on the opposite side
against them.  The distinction was not only unfair, but such as it
would prove impossible for any civil power to make.  Protestantism destroying puritanism  was to them  murder; protestantism
destroying anabaptism, or popery, or Arianism, was no murder at
all.  The only defence which can be offered for this is, that it
was the error of the times.  The apology will avail as well for the
persecutor as the persecuted.  It is not without some force as
applied to men; but incorrect principles deserve no favor, and
indulgence to them is high treason to truth.
Yet the position in which the puritans stood had much which
rendered it unutterably galling and intolerable.  Not knowing, as
yet, by long experience, the anomalous influence of civil power
over spiritual men, they might well wonder how those who, from
their very position, ought to be seeking the same great objects as
themselves, should - only because the puritans were in earnest
- first forsake, and then trample them  down.  War between
reformers and IRoman Catholics they could understand; but this
was more than a civil war- it was fratricidal.  The wounds were
the cruel infliction of a brother; the puritan thus was struck
by the very hand which he prayed for.  A few of the leaders of
this party may be briefly distinguished.
At the foot of the old London-bridge formerly stood a church,
destroyed by the great fire of London, but long since rebuilt, bearing
the name of St. Magnus. Here, during two years, preached a poor
and infirm old man, who had acted a conspicuous part in the great
movements of his day; but now, battered and worn, had become an




64            WRITHTINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN
object of contempt to the high persecuting powers. Hle was called
Father Coverdale.  -Ie was one of the first preachers of protestantism, when Henry VIII. renounced the authority of the pope.
In conjunction with William Tindal, - afterwards burnt for heresy at Wilford, near Brussels, - he had translated and printed,
for the first time, the Bible in the English language, -A. D.
1535.  A second edition was published in 1537.  When Cromwell procured liberty from  Henry VIII. to print the English
Bible, Covercidale was engaged to superintend it at Paris, where he
narrowly escaped the tortures of the inquisition. Persecuted
by the bishops in England, he was compelled to retire to Germany,
where Lord Cromwell maintained him.  Under Edward  TI., he
was made Bishop of Exeter, and was associated with Cranmer,
Latimer and Parker, in a commission for punishing the anabaptists.  During the reign of Miary, he was compelled again to retire
to Germany, where, with several of his brethren, among whom
Knox was included, he issued the Geneva Bible, with marginal
notes. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, he returned home,
refusing to be reinducted into his former bishopric, because of his
objection to the vestments, and assisted at the consecration of
Archbishop Parker, dressed in a plain black gown.  Grindal,
Bishop of London, gave him the living of St. Magnus; but his
obnoxious principles forced him, after a brief ministry, to relinquish
it under the Act of UJniformity; and, though hle still preached, it
was in secret and in terror.  Hle died almost broken-hearted, and
was buried in St. Bartholomew's church; great crowds, to show
their respect for his useful and exemplary life, attending at his
funeral.  This was in the year 1568.
The University of Cambridge was not a little distinguished, at
this period, for the number of those who, educated within its halls
and colleges, had imbibed the new principles.  That they were
exposed to considerable privations we learn from a sermon preached
before Henry VTIIi., by Thomas Lever, B. D., master of St. John's,
in which he complains that ecclesiastics and courtiers had stripped
the university of its aids and preferments. "'A small number




ltITIINGS OF TIHE DOWN-TRnODDEN.            65
of poore godly dylygent students, now remaynynge only in colleges, be not able to tary, and contynue their studye in the universitye for lack of exhibition and helpe.  There be dyverse ther
which ryse dayly, betwixt fourte and fyve of the clocke in the
mornynge, and from fyve till syxe of the clocke use common
prayer, wyth an exhortation of God's worde in a common chappell; and from sixe unto ten of the clocke, use ever either private
study or common lectures. At tenne of the clocke, they go to dinner, where, as they be contente wyth a penye piece of biefe among
foure, having a fewve porage made of the broth of the same byefe,
wythe salte and otemel, and nothynge els.  After this slender dinner, they be either teachinge or learnynge untyll fyve of the clocke
in the evening, whereas they have a supper not much better than
theyr diner.  Immedyatelye after the wyche, they go eyther to
reasonynge in problems, or unto some other studye, untyl it be
nyne or tenne of the clocke; and there beynge wythout fyre, are
f:.n to walke or runne up and downe halfe an houre, to gette a
heate on their feete, when they go to bed."-* This was, truly,
" the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties;" but under such
hard regimen piety flourished, and conscience asserted itself.
Special prominence is, however, due among these men to
Thoemas Cartwright, fellow of John's and afterwards of Trinity
College, - a man of extraordinary acquisition and piety, said by
Beza to be the most learned man under the sun; and the opponent
against whom Hooker argued in his " Ecclesiastical Polity." So
popular was he as a preacher, that when he occupied the pulpit at
the University church, it was necessary to remove the glass from
the windows, that the crowd without might hear his voice. When
Queen Elizabeth visited Cambridge, Cartwright was selected as one
of the public disputants, and received her majesty's high encomium.
I-Ie was appointed Margaret Professor of Divinity, in which capacity he lectured on the Acts of the Apostles, and asserted, "with
all possible caution and modesty," that the Church of England had
$*Baber's MSS. Collection, vol. I., pp. 147, 148.
6*X




66             WRITwIINGS OF TIHE DOWN-TRODDEN.
declined from  its primitive model, and ought to be purified.  He
was, moreover, accused of objecting to the names of archbishops
and archdeacons, of desiring that each minister should be capable
of preaching and be chosen by the people, of opposing the observance of Lent and the transaction of business on the Lord's day,
and of objecting to the phrase " Receive the Holy Ghost," in the
ordination service. Dire offences, especially at a time when reformation was supposed to be in progress!  Yet, for these crimes,
he was expelled the University by Whitgift, the vice-chancellor,
and forbidden to  preach within its jurisdiction.  Whilst thus
deprived, his persecutor accused him of idleness, and of living at
other people's expense!! After spending five years abroad, he
returned to England.  At this time was published " The book of
Discipline," which obtained much celebrity as an exposition of.
puritan  principles.  Its authors were Field and Wilcox, who
underwent a long imprisonment because of its publication.  Cartwright published a supplementary volume, which was replied to
by Whitgift, and to which he rejoined with great moderation; but
he was a mark to many archers, and, after much hunting, was
compelled to withdraw from the country once more.  HIe appeared
again in England, and was cast into prison at the suit of Bishop
Aylmer; but on this occasion -  marvellous to relate! -Whitgift
interposed, and set him free.  At this juncture he was patronized
by one who, though from  motives of worldly ambition he often
advocated the  puritan cause, was destitute of a single virtue
which could have entitled him  to that honor.  The Earl of Leicester gave him  the mastership  of his hospital, at Warwick.*
$ This hospital was originally a monastery, which, despoiled at the Reformation, was conveyed, either by descent or purchase, to "Lord Robert Dudley,
Earl of Leycester," who obtained its constitution as a collegiate body. It is
an interesting relic of the times. The gate-posts are entwined with texts from
the Bible. Each brother occupies separate apartments, with the use of a common kitchen, and is allowed eighty pounds per annum. The brethren wear the
cognizance of the Earl of Leicester -a silver badge, with a bear and a ragged
staff- suspended from their left sleeve. Cartwright resided in the master's
lodge.




WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRIODDEN.              67
Here, accordingly, Cartwright resided; and, though unable to
obtain a preaching license, was sometimes surreptitiously listened
to in the neighboring church of St. Mary's.
LEICESTER'S HOSPITAL, WARWICK,
The death of Leicester immediately afterwards was the occasion
for a new attack upon Cartwright; and, after many torturing
cross-examinations before the Court of Star Chamber, he, together
with others, was committed to prison, where, notwithstanding the
interposition of James VI. of Scotland, Lord Burleigh and others,
they remained two years.  Cartwright never recovered the shock
which damp prisons and numerous privations inflicted on his constitution.
It is certain that Whitgift entertained no small regard for his
former adversary; but the queen again pursued him, and drove
him, in old age, from  his native land. He returned, however, to
Warwick, and died in great peace and religious enjoyment, the
lustre of his last days displaying the radiance of the jewel which
intolerance had trampled in the dust. His death took place at
the time when the writs for the Hampton Court Conference were
issued, and he was interred in the hospital at Warwick.
Oxford produced at this time some men not less memorable.
For a period after Elizabeth's accession, only three preachers were
to be found in the university, -  Dr. Humphrey, Dr. Sampson,




68            WRIITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
and Mr. KIingsmill.  In an address presented by thenm, explanatory of their reasons for wearing the " popish habits," we find the
following sentence: "Because these things do not seem so to you,
you are not to be condemned by us; and because they do seem
so to us, we ought not to be condemned by you."  To these names
may be added that of Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of the north; of
Walter Travers, who was member of the first Presbyterian church
established at Wandsworth, part of whose library is incorporated
in Zion's College, London; and of Henry Jacob, who formed the
first independent church in England, and afterwards emigrated to
Virginia.  We have not hitherto mentioned John Robinson, justly
regarded as the founder of the English Independents.  I-He had
been originally settled as a clergyman near Yarmouth, in the
midst of a knot of persecuted puritans; but after citations and
legal harassments, till he and his friends were almost ruined by
ecclesiastical proceedings, he had taken refuge in the south of
Lincolnshire, where he became the pastor of a small and persecuted flock, with whom he migrated to Holland.  The narrative
of the difficulties encountered by this little band is extremely
interesting, and is related in the first number of the "1British
Quarterly'Review."  Robinson formed in Leyden an independent
church, and there he died.  He was a man of singular wisdom,
piety, and ability.  The archives of St. Peter's church, in Leyden, preserve a note of his burial: " 1626, 10 Mlarch. - Open
and hire foi John Robenls, English preacher, 9 florins." 
The effect of the vigorous measures taken by the prelatical
party, immediately after the Hampton Court Conference, was to
scatter the puritans in every direction.  Hundreds of them fled to
Holland, then the asylum of the persecuted.  But that country
was in many respects unsuitable for a permanent residence.  It
was at best but a lodging, and the emigrants longed for a home.
They were, moreover, imperfect in the language, and they disliked
the low and humid climate.  Bred - most of them - to agricul* Cheever's Pilgrim Fathers, p. 157.




WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.              69
ture, they pined in the close but necessary confinement of mechanical occupations.  With the natural longings of the human heart,
- and who shall censure the impulse out of which the advance of
mankind has grown? - they sighed for family establishment, for
lineage, for a government adapted to their wants, and for a position which might enable them to become free members of society,
and important workers in the business of the world.  The accounts which they had recently received respecting the territories
of the western continent excited and allured them, superadding to
their other desires a noble missionary feeling, — an impulse to
spread the gospel in the regions of Virginia, the name which the
queen had affixed to the greater portion of these transatlantic
domains.  Long and anxious were their debates respecting this
project. The timid shrunk back; the aged recommended caution; the ardent overleaped the apparent difficulties, and bounded
with hope.  After much prayer, the exiled church at Leyden
came to the conclusion that they would bend their course to the
Western World. They began negotiations with one of the Virginia companies, - at that time there were two, - and endeavored,
though fruitlessly, to gain the sanction of King James.  They
resolved to sail for New England. It was with them no mercantile adventure; it was strictly an ecclesiastical movement, in
which the whole church under Robinson's pastoral care, now
amounting to three hundred members, were interested.  It had
been originally designed that the pastor himself, and the greater
part of his flock, should remove to Virginia, and set up a new
church there; but unexpected difficulties intervened, and, in the
issue, Robinson, with the majority of his members, was reluctantly
compelled to remain. Yet did he not the less encourage his followers in the enterprise which he might not join; whilst his holy
character, his judicious discrimination, and his weighty counsel,
were of unspeakable service to them  in their proceedings.  Two
vessels were hired to convey the emigrants, under the direction of
Brewster, an elder of the church: the Speedzwell of sixty and




70            EWRITIIINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.
the Mayflower of one hundred and eighty tons.  Larger means
of transport they could not obtain.
And now the Speedwell is anchored in Delft Haven, whilst the
Jliayflower waits in London to convey the greater part of the passengers across the Atlantic. It is a time of activity and solicitude,
but yet of hope, -  moistened eyes and brightening ones alternate.  In preparation for their voyage, the pastor had proclaimed
a fast, and called a solemn assembly; had set before them  noble
motives, and warned them against probable dangers.  "Brethren,"
said the holy man of God, " we are now quickly to part from  one
another, and whether I may ever live to see your face on earth
any more, the God of heaven only knows "-  such, at this moment,
was, however, his earnest hope; — " but whether the Lord has
appointed that or no, I charge you before God and the blessed
angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ." He knew their unbounded regard
for him, and feared lest truth might be sacrificed to that affection.
" If God reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his,
be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth by
my ministry; for I am verily persuaded the Lord has more truth
yet to break forth out of his holy Word."*   The times of primitive Christianity were almost come again, when these emigrants,
attended by the mass of Robinson's congregation, by hoary men,
tender women and weeping children, were accompanied from Leyden to Delft Haven, seventy-four miles. All were strangers,
in a strange land; all were now especially dear to each other,
because they could interpret each other's beating hearts and bleeding sympathies.  In the affecting language of Bradford, "they
knew that they were pilgrims, and lifted up their eyes to heaven,, The text from which Robinson preached was Ezra 8: 21. And it is evident from its context what were the sentiments then present to his mind:
":For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers, and horsemen
to help us against the enemy in the way; because we had spoken unto the
king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him;
but his power, his wrath, is against all them that forsake him."




WRITHINGS OF THE DOWN-TRODDEN.               71
their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.  That night was
spent with little sleep by the rmost."  The next day they went on
board.  The parting was unspeakably sad, especially for those who
were left behind; and uncertainty spread its impenetrable shadow
over those about to embark.  Who could tell what perils they
might encounter on their passage, or what dangers might meet
them on the distant strand to which the eye of their hope was
looking?  BEut faith in God, for which they had sacrificed so
much, imparted a solemn grandeur to the affecting scene.  Tears,
sobs and mutual prayers, impressive even to the Dutch strangers,
mark their final leave-taking. The pastor falls on his knees, his
departing children all around him, and, with "watery cheeks,"
commends them, in a last most fervent supplication, to the God of
the winds and the waves, and the Lord of the ends of the earth.
It was a chapter in the history of time!  They are gone, and
Robinson's best hopes on this side the grave are gone with them.
This was the 20th of July, 1620.     *,             *       *
It was the middle of November in the same year, the commencemnent of a stern season, though somewhat less inclement than
usual. The lfakyflower, with its passengers, is now on the other
side of the Atlantic.  Perplexities and disasters have accompanied
the pilgrim fathers on their way, and they are now a diminished
band.  Many were the delays before they could set sail from England.  They had not proceeded far before the Speedwell was
declared, truly or falsely, unfit for her passage. They returned
to Dartmouth, repaired her, and again set sail.  A  hundred
leagues of their passage were traversed, when Reynolds, master of
the Speedwell, declared his ship in imminent danger of foundering.
Again they returoned, depositing "the feeble and faint-hearted"
on their native shores, and the Mayflower pur-suea her voyage
alone.  For a time the windss were favorable; then a succession of
storms invaded them.  Their vessel is shattered, cracked, and during many days incapable of bearing a sail.  Treachery, too, had
brought them to a palrt of the coast very different from  the banks
of the Hudson, which had been intended for their future home.




72            WItITHINGS OF TIIE DOWN-TRODDEN.
To land upon the shore they had now reached, was to forfeit the
conditions of their charter; yet, worn by perils and exhausted by
privation, they regarded any land as welcome.  As with prayer
they had left the Old World, so with devotion and thanksgiving
they planted themselves upon the New.  Providence had opened
for them an unexpected home. The season was bitter - the land
unknown. They were feeble in body, sickly in health, unhoused,
unwelcomed, unblessed, except by Him whose eye wras upon them
for good. They found cleared land, springs of water, and a good
harbor.  They formed themselves into a body politic, as loyal subjects of King  James; chose John Carver for their governor, and
began to take measures for their future security.  They had left
Europe in search of liberty, and they found it in a desert.  On
the 9th of December they kept their first Sabbath on shore.  On
the 10th they removed their goods and chattels to the spot now
occupied by the flourishing wharves and mercantile riches of the
modern town of Plymouth.  In commemoration of this event,
sacred services still mark the return of "Forefathers' Day," and
the rock on which the pilgrim  fathers set foot is enclosed and
enshrined as an enduring monument of the ancestors of the now
great North American community.
Such were some of the hardships of the days of King James,
-such the firmness of noble-minded Christians, and such the
manner in which Providence transformed many of their evils into
blessings! Whilst we may not suppose that all, or even many of
the puritans, held clear views respecting that domination of the
civil power in religious matters from which their sufferings had
sprung, they were rapidly advancing towards the attainment of
more correct principles.  We admire their fortitude, and love their
memory; we must estimate their opinions by a clearer light than
their own.




CHAPTER III.
CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
" I know how to add, Sovereign to the King's person, but not to his power."
- Pwr.
FEW ancient cities have undergone such changes as London.
The continental traveller delights to observe how quaint and
abnormal structures of the olden times solicit the eye at every
turn, and their recurrence gives to foreign cities no inconsiderable
amount of their strangeness. In Rome, in Paris, in Brussels, in
Antwerp, in Cologne, in Mayence, in Frankfort, he who penetrates
into the crowded mass of houses which usually bears the name of
the old town becomes surrounded by the vestiges of other days,
and delights to hang historical associations on each projecting
frieze, or overhanging balcony, or grotesque ornament. But London is, with few exceptions, a city of very modern growth. Much
of this is doubtless attributable to the great fire, which nearly
destroyed the old metropolis, in 1666; but even had this desolation never occurred, the busy enterprise, the increasing commerce,
the readiness to adopt recent improvements, the love of cleanliness
and care of health, which distinguished the English people, would
probably have led to nearly the same results.
How few of the countless multitudes who daily press along that
crowded thoroughfare, the Strand, which runs between Temple-bar
and Charing-cross, think, or care to think, of the successive changes
which have passed over the spots ardund them! Yet there was a
time when that causeway had no crowd!  St. Clement Danes,
Somerset House, and their environs, were not always what they
now are. Time was when no public carriages rattled along those
7




74               CONTESTS WITIH DESPOTISM.
streets; when no crowd hastened to share in the excitements of
Exeter Hall; when no Waterloo-bridge invited architectural admiration, and when even Charing-cross presented no statue of Charles
the First!  In Saxon times, Westminster -- the name distinguished it from the East Minster of St. Paul's - was little better
than a reclaimed morass, just redeemed from insignificance by the
erection of a cathedral, by Edward the Confessor. Yet even this
was not the first church which stood upon the spot. An earlier
one had been built between 604 and 606; and, if we give heed to
tradition, St. Peter himself had set up an oratory upon the same
site.  During the Saxon monarchy, and under the reign oT the
Anglo-Normans, Westminster was the seat of royalty, and the
place of the inauguration of the successive monarchs. Rufus built
the hall as a banquet-room. It was afterwards rebuilt or restored
by Richard II., and the monastic church, as it now exists, was
added in the reign of Henry III.  Henry VII. built the gorgeous
edifice which bears his name, in the place of the " Ladye-chapel,"
which he removed. At a much later period, the western towers
were erected, after the designs of Sir Christopher Wren.
In early days, Westminster was a suburban village, important
from its cathedral and palace, and connected with London by a
highway, which ran along the side of the river, and passed through
the village of Charing.  Even so lately as the reign of Elizabeth,
the Strand was mainly occupied by the houses and gardens of the
nobility. In the time of James I., part of it had become the
favorite resort of fishmongers. These traders increased so much,
that they at length became a nuisance, and were in the year 1630
dispossessed of the positions they had before occupied in the middle
of the street.  It may be not uninteresting to ask the reader to
accompany us on an imaginary journey from Temple-bar to West.
minster, during the reign of Charles I., a period which gives its
date to the ensuing chapter.
Passing from the clumsy wooden building which stretched itself
across the street, where now the insignificant erection of Wren,
called. Temple-bar, stands in commencing ruin, we notice, on the




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTIrMI                7 5
left, a building called, successively, Exeter House, as being the
"inn" of the Bishops of Exeter; then Paget House, because occupied by Lord Paget; afterwards Leicester House, as having been
enlarged, and in part rebuilt, by Dudley, the favorite of Elizabeth,
and at this time Essex House, till lately the residence of the earl
of that name, for whom the maiden queen entertained so strong
an affection.  The son of that great man was now residing in this
building, -a building well known heretofore to Spenser,  nursing the sense of injured justice which afterwards made him an
active, though note fortunate general, in the parliamentary campaigns.  We next pass Arundel, afterwards Norfolk House, in
which died the Countess of Nottingham, who withheld Essex's
ring from  Elizabeth.  Afterwards comes within view Somerset
House, built by the protector of that name, in the year 1549,
successively inhabited by Queen Elizabeth and Ann of Denmark,
the wife of James I., now by Henrietta Maria,- whom Charles,
despising the omen, resolutely called  Mary, - a palace the
intrigues of which occupy a prominent position in the history of
the times.  From  this house Charles had just sent away the
French household, which he said "have so dallied with my
patience, and so highly affronted me, as I cannot and will not
longer endure it."  Within this building the queen had fitted up
a splendid catholic chapel, served by a host of capuchins.  Here
the body of King James had lain in state, and hereafter it furnished other state beds for the dead body of the Protector, and
subsequently for that of Mlonk.  We next pass the Savoy, formerly the residence of John of Gaunt, burned by the populace
during the insurrection of Wat Tyler, now converted into a hospital for the poor. Beyond this is Bedford IHouse, built by. Sir
Robert Cecil, but now in the possession of the family of Russell;
and next to it, on the other side of the spot where Ivy-bridge once
stood, the magnificent palace of the Duke of Buckingham, now
recently erected, of which the fine water-gate by Inigo Jones is all
which is destined to be known to posterity.  Northumberland
House, occupying the site of the hospital of St. Mary, - dissolved




76                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
at the Reformation, - is one of the lordly structures of the last
reign which was destined hereafter to be the sole survivor of a line
of stately residences.
We have now arrived at Charing, where once stood a cross
erected by Edward I. in memory of his deceased queen, - C/hre
Reynze, — but now a place for the pillory.  In its immediate
vicinity is Whitehall, which we must pause a little to describe.
A mass of buildings, courts and gardens, extending from St.
James' Park to the river, in breadth, and from Scotland-yard,
along the side of the Thames, nearly to Westminster-bridge, in
length, formed at this time the precincts of the royal palace.
Here, in the days of his grandeur, Wolsey held state, and displayed the profuse magnificence which made him popular with
those of the king's subjects who fed themselves from his prodigalities; and here, it is conjectured, he built the palace then called
York Place, but subsequently Whitehall, from the whiteness of
its stone in comparison with the surrounding buildings.  The
former name, however, ceased at the period when the possessions
of the cardinal passed away under the statute of proemunire.
" Sir, you
Must no more call it York Place - that is past;
For since the cardinal fell, that title's lost:'T is now the king's, and called Whitehall.'" — SIHAKSPmiE.
Here Henry married Anne B]oleyn, and here he died of "an
inveterate ulcer in the thigh," which, says Hollinshed, "added to
the irascibility of his temper," an addition which will generally be
admitted to have been quite unnecessary.
Passing over the period during which Edward VI. and Mary
held court here, we dwell with no small interest upon the next
name, alike memorable for good and for evil, - Elizabeth. She
held her court alternately at Greenwich and at Whitehall.  Resolute despotism was the law of her reign.  Whether she were in
any great degree susceptible of the softer passions may be doubted;
the only strong demonstration of such a weakness — the case of




CONTESTS WITHI DESPOTISAi.              77
Essex-is of somewhat doubtful authenticity, and is besides equivocal in its amount of proof.  That she had no hesitation in overstepping law, when it suited her purpose, is evident from her whole
history, and from nothing more than from the manner in which
she acted - then fortunately - during the terror of the Spanish
Armada. If religion had been a dogma held carelessly and doubtingly,- an affair of interest or an opinion of a political party, -
she would have extinguished its light, when with flashing eye she
trampled it in the dust.  But, as an eternal verity, it was beyond
her power.  She, who was flattered by her courtiers for personal
charms she had long ceased to possess, - if, indeed, she had ever
possessed them at all, - till she believed herself a Diana, became,
when her spiritual supremacy was in question, so instinct-with
wrath as to be almost a demon.
Rightly to understand the history of this period, let us take the
reader a little further into the liberties of the ancient city of Westminster.  We walk under the gloomy but majestic Gate-house,
designed by Holbein, - in a style not altogether unlike the front
of the present St. James', —then stretching itself across the road,
and forming the southern precinct of the palace; and passing by
the side of Privy Gardens, then really the private gardens which
the name imported, and bestowing a thought on the pulpit erected
there by Edward VI. for Latimer, we pass on to Old Palace-yard,
which derived its name from having been an adjunct to the ancient
residence of the English kings.  Two remarkable buildings there
meet our eye.
The first of them is the Star Chamber Court.
The second of them is the Gate-house.
Stow, who published his " Survay of London" in the year 1603,
thus describes the Star Chamber, which during his day existed in
all its dread authority:
" Then there is also the Star Chamber, wher'e in the term-time
every week, once at the least, which is commonly on Fridays and
Wednesdays, and on the next day after the term endeth, the lord
chancellor, and theo lords, and other of the privy council and the
7*.




78                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
chief justices of England, from nine of the clock till it be eleven,
do sit. This place is called the Star Chamber, because the roof
~-    -'I
COURT OF STAR CIAMBER.
thereof is decked with the likenesses of stars gilt; there be plaints
heard of riots, routs, and other misdemeanors; which if they be
found by the king's council, the party offender shall be censured
by these persons, which speak one after the other, and he shall be
both fined and commanded to prison."
It appears that so early as the reign of Edward III. this court
was protested against by the commons, as interfering with the
course of common law.  Henry VII. revived or reconstituted it,
and appointed it to try, inter alia, cases of unlawful assembling,
together with all kinds of irregularity and disorder, not coming
under the cognizance of the more ordinary courts. That it had
some points of utility may be inferred from Lord Bacon's approval
of its constitution. But when, in the reign of Elizabeth, it developed its full powers, it became a tremendous instrument of despotism.  It possessed the power of fining, imprisoning, banishing,
mutilating, inflicting corporal punishment; and as it had authority




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.                  79
to proceed on confession, every kind of examination, not excepting
that by torture, was within the range of its jurisdiction. It was,
moreover, administered by judges whose appointment and removal
were entirely within the power of the crown.  Hume says, "II
question whether any of the absolute monarchies of Europe contain
at present so illegal and despotic a tribunal."
"It was also usual for the judges of assize, previously to their
circuits, to repair to the Star Chamber, and there to receive from
the court directions respecting the enforcement or restraint of
penal statutes. Numerous instances of this unwarrantable interference with the administration of the criminal law occur, with
reference to the statutes against recusants in the reigns of Elizabeth
and James I."
Second only to the persecutions of Laud, of which we shall hereafter speak, were those instigated by Archbishop Whitgift, under
the powers of this court.
Conjointly with the Star Chamber, Elizabeth established another
court, termed "the Court of High Commission," the proceedings
of which, being often not very clearly distinguishable from that of
the Star Chamber, may without injury be associated with it. The
authority of this court embraced offences against the canons, and-it
exercised a jurisdiction greatly resembling that of the inquisition
in other countries.  The rack, torture and imprisonment, were
means it was authorized to employ. It watched over the enforcement of the oath of supremacy, writing or preaching against which
was punishable, for the first offence, with forfeiture of goods, and
a year's imprisonment; for the second, with the pains of prcemunire; and for the third, with proceedings as against high treason.
It was entitled to administer the oath called the ex-officio oath,
which demanded that the prisoner should answer all questions put
to him; if he did, he was convicted on his own confession, and if
he did not, he was imprisoned for contempt of court. This tribunal was established in December, 1583, at the special instance of
Archbishop Whitgift.  It was not the first of its kind, though its
powers were more extensive than those of its predecessors. It




80                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISMI.
was presided over by forty-four commissioners, twelve of whom
were bishops.
The Gate-house, of which mention has been made, is thus
described by Stow, in his "Survay":
"The Gate-house is so called of two gates, the one out of the
college court towards the north, on the east side whereof was the
Bishop of London's prison for clerks convict; and the other gate
adjoining to the first, but toward the west, is a gaol or prison for
offenders hither committed.  Walter Warfield, cellarer to the
monastery, caused both these gates, with the appurtenances, to be
built in the reign of Edward III."
In this prison was confined John Udal, accused of having signed
"the Book of Discipline," - a treatise drawn up by Travers, and
sanctioned by Cartwright, explanatory of puritan opinions. Here
he was kept most strictly, being denied the use of pen, ink, paper,
books, and all communication with his fiiends.  With fetters on
his legs, he was afterwards tried at Croydon on written depositions,
without being allowed to confront the accusing witnesses, and so to
cross-examine them, or to produce any evidence in his own exculpation; he was denied even to be heard by counsel. Though no legal
evidence proved Udal to be the author of the book, he was condemned as a felon. When he heard the sentence of death pronounced upon him, his exclamation was, " God's will be done!" He
died in the Marshalsea prison, worn out and broken-hearted. It
is said that when James I. came to England, the first person he
inquired after was Mr. Udal; and that, when informed of his end,
he said, "By my soul, then, the greatest scholar in Europe is
dead!"
In the same prison was confined Robert Johnson, domestic
chaplain to lord keeper Bacon, for refusing subscription, baptizing
without the cross, and marrying without the ring. From this
prison he wrote to the bishop, his accuser: " If to imprison and
famish men be the proper way to instruct the ignorant and reduce
the obstinate, where is the office and work of a shepherd, to seek
that which was lost and bring home that which went astray? * *




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.                81
I pray you let us feel some of your charitable relief, to preserve us
from death under this hard usage; especially as you have been the
chief cause of my trouble, I desire you to be some part of my
comfort.  Let pity requite spite, and mercy recompense malice."
Another petition was presented on his behalf to Whitgift, informing him that the prisoner "was sick and ready to die, unless he
might enjoy more air." But the intercessions were vain,- Johnson died a prisoner in the Gate-house.
Here, too, was confined Giles Wigginton, vicar of Sedberg, in
Yorkshire, where, for. refusing to take the oath to furnish evidence
against himself, he was treated with the utmost barbarity, being so
imperfectly supplied with food, and so heavily loaded with irons, as
to be nearly dead.  "My old adversary, the archbishop," he conlplained, " hath treated me more like a Turk or a dog than a man,
or a minister of Jesus Christ." This suffering divine was unjustly
accused of treasonable practices against the government of his
day.
The heart sickens at the recital of atrocities like these.  One or
two others must, however, be mentioned as having occurred within
the jurisdiction of the Star Chamber, or its blood-relation, the
High Commission Court:
Francis Johnson had embraced the principles of thee Brownists,
and whilst assembled with a congregation in Islington was apprehended, with fifty-five others. A somewhat similar apprehension
had occurred at the same place in the reign of Mary. These criminals, as they were called, were dispersed among the various prisons
of London.  A petition presented by them  to the privy council
sets forth the hardships which ecclesiastical offenders at that time
endured. Some, they said, were overladen with irons; many, and
among them aged women and young maidens, had died; in certain
cases prisoners had been beaten with cudgels, and in case of death
under such treatment no inquest was held; while the houses of
those suspected of puritanism were liable to be broken into and
rifled at any hour of the night. Such were some of the outrages
against which they petitioned. Johnson, when examined, though




82               CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
he refused the ex-oficio oath, made a candid statement of his
principles and practices, but expressed his wonder that he should
be treated in a manner which could only make men hypocrites.
The commissioner's reply is thorough-going; and, as an exponent
of the whole system of ecclesiastical compulsion, is worthy of being
commemorated,-" Come to the church and.obey the queen's laws;
and be a dissembler, be a hypocrite, or a devil, if thou wilt!"
Johnson was consigned to perpetual banishment.
What nonconformist is not familiar with the names of John
GOreenwood; co-minister with the last sufferer, and Henry Barrow,
a lawyer and a Brownist?  Accused with others of publishing
seditious writings, these men were separately brought to trial.
Greenwood was examined at great length, in the hope that he
would accuse himself.  "The inquisitors of Rome," said Lord
Burleigh of similar proceedings, " use not so many questions to
trap their prey." Among other points was the following:
Whitgift. What say you of the prince's supremacy?  Is her
majesty supreme head of the church, in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil?
Greenwood. She is supreme magistrate over all persons, to
punish the evil, and defend the good.
W. Is she over all causes?
G. No: Christ is the only head of his church, and his laws
may no man alter.
tW. What say you of the oath of supremacy? Do you approve
of it?
G. If these ecclesiastical orders mean such as are agreeable to
the Scriptures, I do.  For I deny all foreign power.
W. It means the order and government, with all the laws of
the church, as now established.
G. Then I will not answer to approve of it.
The result of their several examinations was, that these Inen
were sentenced to die. They were brought to the gallows to try
their firmness, and afterwards reprieved. But, at length, they
were carried to Tyburn a second time, and there executed!




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.               83
Nor these alone.  Penry, whose Welsh blood rendered him
somewhat vehement against ecclesiastical abuses, was apprehended
as an enemy of the state, arrested and condemned. Whilst lying
under sentence of death he addressed a most affecting letter to his
fellow-Christians:
"I humbly beseech you, not in any outward, regard, as I shall
answer before my God, that you would take my poor and desolate
widow, and my mess of fatherless and friendless orphans," - he
had four, the eldest only four years old, -" with you into exile,
whithersoever you go; and you shall find, I doubt not, that the
blessed promises of my God, made to me and mine, will accompany
them."
He was executed in an unexpected moment to himself, and in
secret!
The inveteracy of Whitgift against anabaptism was especially
vehement.  "Anabaptism," said he, " which usually followeth the
preaching of the gospel, is greatly to be feared in the Church of
England." Multitudes were, therefore, persecuted; two, John
WVielmaker and Hendrick Terwood, were burned at Smithfield.
The latter fact is memorable, as having called forth a remonstrance
to Queen Elizabeth from John Fox, the martyrologist.
The death of Elizabeth — had remorse, for her part in these
barbarities, any share in emnbittering her last hours? - abated little
of the severities practised in these terrible courts.  James I.
received and transmitted them as a part of the heirloom of the
British monarchy. During the transactions related in the preceding chapter, the Star Chamber and the Gate-house, as well as the
Clink, Newgate, the MIarshalsea, overflowed with victims.  The
king was intent on maintaining his own saying in the Basilicon
Doron: "That puritans were the very pest of the church and
commonwealth; whom no deserts can oblige, neither oaths nor
promises bind; breathing nothing but seditions and calumnies;
aspiring without measure, railing without reason, and making their
own imaginations the square of their consciences;" and he declared
" before the great God that he should never find in any High



84                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
lander baser thieves, greater ingratitude, and more lies and vile
perjuries, than among those fanatical spirits he should meet withal."
Such is the testimony which Heylin, the vindicator of the high
church party, quotes with approbation.*
Whilst at Westminster we cannot forget an event which in its day
shook all Europe, and went deep into the hearts andl memories of
puritans, - the gunpowder plot. Those who know not how, in royal
hunts, game is planted within the reach of royal huntsmen, that
they may have the credit of superior skill, may give to James, and
not to Cecil; the credit of really discovering the bloody conspiracy.t
It was evident that the plot was not undertaken from any deep
dislike, on the part of the catholics engaged in it, of James himself.
So to believe would be too great a compliment to the monarch;
and it would be at variance with his repeated declarations, and
with his conduct in the matter of Spain and the Palatinate, to
regard him as bearing any decided hostility to popery. In a
curious volume, entitled "A King James, his Apopthegmes, or Tabletalk as they were by him delivered occasionally, and by the publisher - his quondam  servant - carefully received, by B. A.,
Gent., London, 1643," we have several proofs of the royal sentiments on this subject.  He declares that he himself would not
condemn anything for heresy that had been anciently confirmed by
a universal consent. He says, moreover, that if there were no
quarrel between papists and protestants but the number of sacraments, he would himself be a papist; and then tells a story of two
persons, a papist and a protestant, who fought together fatally to
them both: and adds, "Before I would have lost my life in this
quarrel, I would have divided the seven into three and a half."
But, though James was in the eyes of catholic conspirators scarcely
regarded as an enemy, or at all events a dangerous one, the plot
stood out portentously before thinking religious men of that day,
and inexpressibly deepened their detestation of and their panic at
t Heylin's Adrius Redivivus, lib. x.
t It is not certain if it belong to either. A passage in Lodge's Portraits may
seem to destroy the claims of both. See Mackintosh's England, vol. Iv., p. 187.




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.                85
the errors of popery. They saw in Romanism a system of huge
ecclesiastical domination, which claimed the homage of the body,
and would fain extinguish the soul.  They saw that in proportion
as their own rulers advanced towards it they became insolent,
imperious and persecuting, and they suspected that all this arose,
as in some degree it did, from the essential nature and genius of
catholicism itself. But they overlooked the fact that whenever
any system of religion holds the civil sword, it becomes an oppressor, and in its measure a tyrant. Yet the crisis was certainly a
fearful one, and puritans might well fear that their whole reformation was at stake.
The plot might have read men a higher lesson. It might have
told them that physical force, as a means of maintaining religion,
was an implement which could be wielded by enemies, as well as by
friends. But men's eyes were as yet only half open, and they
derived from this monstrous combination only a small fraction of
the lessons it really conveyed.  When, five years after, Henry IV.
of France was assassinated in the streets of Paris by the Jesuits,
the dire result led to a sad confirmation to the worst fears of good
men; especially when James, released by that event from all
protestant leagues, approximated to Romanism as closely as he
could without actual contact.
In the mean time, but less vigorously after the death of Bancroft, the severities against the puritans continued.  Heylin
declares that if James had done his duty he might have extirpated
the system altogether: a thing easier to speak of now than to
execute at that time. Certainly, Bancroft, though a right man
for that purpose, could not accomplish this villany; and Abbot,
his semi-puritan successor, would not. Lacking the power to
exterminate, which alone could have been successful, the court
took to tormenting, to which it was more competent; and no
inquisitor showed more alacrity for the task. Touched by a feeling of sympathy for the sufferings of the puritans, a lady of piety
had bequeathed five thousand pounds to be distributed among the
sufferers. The money was seized and distributed among conform8




86                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
ists.  Bartholomew Leggatt was cited for denying the divinity of
Christ. The king held a conference with him till his royal
patience was exhausted.  Then, rising from his chair and dealing
a kick to the heretic, he said, "Away, base fellow! it shall never
be said that one stayeth in my presence that hath never prayed to
our Saviour for seven years." He was burnt at Smithfield.
Another, named Whiteman, convicted of "unheard-of opinions,"
was similarly executed; and a third, ordered to the fire, to which
he was not brought, because of the sympathy feared from the
spectators, died miserably in Newgate.
Before we leave the Star Chamber we must make room for " a
sermon" preached by James in that court.  He took his text
from  Psalm  72: 1, -" Give the king thy judgments, O God."
After dividing and subdividing, and giving the literal and mystical
sense of the text, he applied it to the judges and courts of judicature, telling them " that the king sitting in the throne of God, all
judgments centre in him; and therefore, for inferior courts to
determine difficult questions without consulting him, is to encroach
upon his prerogative, and to limit his power; which it is not lawful for the tongue of a lawyer nor any subject to dispute. As it
is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do, so it is
presumption and high contempt to dispute what kings can do or
say; it is to take away that mystical reverence that belongs to
them who sit in the throne of God."*
Well might some of the courtiers speak of King Elizabeth and
Queen James!
But there were materials in the adjacency of the king's state
which were festering already into a mortal gangrene. A proof of
this was soon afforded. Roused by James' supineness in defending the protestant interests of his son-in-law, the elector palatine,
and also by his desire that Prince Charles should contract a
Spanish, and, therefore, catholic alliance, the commons prepared a
remonstrance. His majesty threatened; they drew up another
paper, which they sent to the king, then at Newmarket, by a
* Neal's Puritans.




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.                87
committee of twelve. The king ordered twelve chairs to be brought,
"for there were so many kings a coming." He browbeat. They
resisted; and passed the spirited resolution, "that the liberties,
franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of parliament, are the
ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of the subjects
of England." The king tore the protest from the book, dissolved
the houses, and committed several leading members of the commons to prison. Among these were Sir Edward Coke, Selden,
and Prynne.  Prince Charles learnt from his father's example,
and practised the triek once too often!
The last considerable act of James' reign was the publication
of," The Book of Sports." The purport of this enactment may be
learned from the following extract:
"s That, for his good people's recreation, his majesty's pleasure
was, that they should not be disturbed, letted or discouraged,
from any such harmless recreations on the Lord's-day, - such as
dancing, either of men or women, archery for men, leaping or
vaulting, or any such harmless recreations; nor having of Maypoles, or other sports therewith, so as the same may be had in due
and convenient time, without impediment or let of divine service."
t*  *  But "no recusant (papist) was to have the benefit of this
declaration; nor such as were not present at the whole divine
service; nor such as did not keep their own parish churches."
This was designed as a blow for the puritans; but its effects
reached far beyond them, and prepared the way in no inconsiderable degree for the tumults and disasters of the following reign.
"The Book of Sports " was ordered to be read in churches, and
refusal exposed the offender to all the penalties of the high commission. Yet, said the king, in 1620, " I mean not to compel any
man's conscience: for I ever protested against it." Under this
enactment, many were imprisoned, or ruined by heavy costs.
Fresh gloom and terror gathered on good men's minds. But the
death of James suspended operations for a moment, though only
for a moment.




88                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
Of Whitehall, as it appeared a century ago, and much nearer to
the time of James, the following engraving is a representation:
r- -~ —..- J.  H
WlHITEHALL, AS IT EXISTED IN 1746.
Nothing could be more heterogeneous and confused than the
mass of buildings which, under the general name of Whitehall,
met the eye at this period. They were all in great ruin, and
extremely ill-assorted.  The only nucleus of order was in the
banqueting-house, designed by Inigo Jones, and still remaining, as
a proof of the graceful conceptions and exquisite taste which that
great architect could exhibit in erections of the Grecian order.
The palace planned by him, of which this is the only executed
portion, was of the most extensive and magnificent description,
intended to look out on St. James' Park, and the banquetinghouse was meant to be the ornament of its principal court.  By
the side of this great design most modern palaces look extremely
contracted. But other things, in addition to an appropriate design,
are requisite for the construction of a splendid palace; and it so
happened that in these other things - in cash, for instance - James




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.                89
and his successor proved dismally deficient. As it turned out, the
father, in providing for that building, was only preparing his son's
grave.
We have now to imagine, occupying Whitehall, the staid, sober,
and generally decorous court of Charles I. Not, however, that we
must suppose that nothing was heard or seen about Charles I.
which would prove incongruous to our modern sense of propriety;
for we are told that Charles II., when once reproved for swearing,
replied, - not very gracefully, -" Oaths! why, your martyr was
a greater swearer than I am." But Charles I. was haughty, ceremonious and unbending, exhibiting the not uncommon paradox of
much obstinacy with little firmness, a scholar, a gentleman, - in
its popular sense, - capable of warm affections and distinguished
by fine tastes, but uniting with these an ungracious manner, a
preposterous notion of the royal prerogative, a contempt for the
people, and an overweening estimate of himself. His person was
imposing, but somewhat crooked in the lower extremities; he
stammered in his talk; he avowed himself no orator, but declared
to his second parliament that he desired to be known by his actions
- a wish which has certainly been amply fulfilled. Large sums
were, in the commencement of his reign, expended on the diversions of the court. The monarch boasted that he possessed " fourand-twenty palaces, all of them elegantly and completely furnished." His collection of pictures was unrivalled.
The features of Henrietta, his queen, are good-looking, but
shrewish; her countenance, distinguished by the thin curls of the
period, is probably known to every reader. She was a haughty
coquette, full of vivacity and fond of intrigue, proud of being the
daughter of Henri Quatre, and capable of an activity to which her
intellect bore no proportion.
Some of the earlier portions of this reign exhibit no little irritation of feeling between the king and his spouse.
"The king and queen, dining together in the presence, Mr.
Hacket, being then to say grace, the confessor would have prevented him, but that Hacket shoved him away.; whereupon the
8*




90                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
confessor went to the queen's side, and was about to say grace
again, but that the king, pulling the dishes unto him, and the
carvers falling to their business, hindered.  When dinner was
done, the confessor thought, standing by the queen, to have been
before Mr. Hacket, but Mr. Hacket again got the start.  The
confessor, nevertheless, begins his grace as loud as Mr. Hacket,
with such a confusion, that the king in great passion instantly rose
from the table, and taking the queen by the hand, retired into the
bed-chamber."*
Amidst the elements of Charles' reign there was one hostile
force, however, on which the king had little calculated, and which
he was little prepared to meet; which had acquired prodigious
strength during the folly and imbecility of the last reign, and
which, when tortured into madness by Charles himself, proved a
Hercules by whose strength the monarchy was strangled. It was
PUBLIC OPINION.
What scenes —scenes now faded from  men's eyes into the
obscurity of oblivion — did Whitehall witness in those days!
There might be seen, immediately after Charles' accession, the
new court going forth from the palace with its huge array of
attendants and purveyance, to seek a refuge in the country,
because the knell of the plague-bell was sounding in its ears!
There, in the next year, the plague being now abated, might be
witnessed the great ceremonial attending the coronation, in which
the queen, from catholic scruples, refused to bear a part, - which
gave rise to the prejudice that she was no queen at all, - the king,
clothed in white, going by water from Whitehall, whilst Buckingham, though nominally the dependent, took the right hand of the
king, and, by advice of Laud, a ceremonial was administered in
which occurred some singular interpolations assertive of ecclesiastical power; whilst men might note with what singular coldness
and silence the new monarch was received by his already suspicious
people. There might be heard the whispers of the day respecting
the feud now commencing between Charles and his parliament, -
* D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature.




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.               91
the criminations heaped on the head of Buckingham on the one
hand, and the spirited defence made by the king on the other.
There was witnessed the crowd of the commons, as, in obedience
to the monarch's summons, they thronged to meet him at his palace, and as they received the following dictum at their dismissal:
" Remember that parliaments are altogether in my power for their
calling, sitting, or dissolution; therefore, as I find the fruits of
them good or evil, they are to continue or not to be." Courtiers
burn with indignation as they learn that, nothing daunted by such
reprehensions, the commons complain of grievances, and in the
end proceed to the impeachment of the great duke himself; and
the names of Digges, Selden, Whitelock, Pym and Elliott, are
handed about, in detestation or in scorn.  Of these courtiers, how
many afterwards moistened the earth with their blood in the king's
cause! There, too, might be seen, on the day after the imprisonment of Digges and Elliott in the Tower, the king in earnest conversation with the duke in the royal bed-chamber, whilst Charles
was overheard to pronounce the words: " What can I do more?
I have engaged mine honor to mine uncle of Denmark, and other
princes. I have in a manner lost the love of my subjects.  What
wouldst thou have me to do?" Was the duke urging the king to
a dissolution, and was Charles' firmness beginning to give way
already? At length the king rescued his favorite by dissolving
the parliament.
How the king after this dissolution embarked upon his new
career of forced loans; how the Gate-house and other prisons were
crowded with the victims of his oppression; how the orthodox
clergy sanctioned his proceedings and preached up the doctrine of
divine right; how, whenever his majesty appeared in public,
whether at Whitehall or in Westminster, he was greeted by the
cries of "a parliament!" how, after much hesitation, Charles
was compelled at length, by the strong pressure of his own necessities, to give way; how the commons, thus brought together,
framed with much stormy debate the celebrated petition of right;
how the king gave his assent to it; how, after parliament had been




92                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISIM.
prorogued, this petition of right, though purchased with the people's
subsidies, was faithlessly and shamelessly broken, and even the copy
of it ordered to be printed garbled or suppressed; how Wentworth
deserted to the court; how the Duke of Buckingham was suddenly
and cruelly assassinated; how his murderer was executed at Tyburn, and afterwards hung in chains at. Portsmouth; — such are
the matters now notorious to the world, but then matters of surmise, or whisper, or doubt, of conversation, concern or horror, to
the circle about Whitehall. The contest between the king and his
people had begun! 
Charles' prime favorite at this time was one whose name is
bound up with the tragical history of his times, William Laud.
He was the son of a clothier in Reading.  His education was
gained at Oxford, where, in some of his chapel-exercises, he
had defended the side of the Church of Rome. In taking his
degree of B. D., he maintained two points, - the necessity of baptism to salvation, and that there could be no true church without
diocesan bishops.  Such principles smoothed his way to the court,
though Abbott, Archbishop of Canterbury, threw constant obstacles in his path.  He became successively Prebendary of Lincoln
and Archdeacon of Huntingdon.  He accompanied King James in
his visit to Scotland in 1617, and on his return became Prebendary
of Westminster. He next became Bishop of St. David's. Laud
took a large share in the correspondence relative to the marriage
of Charles I. with Henrietta Maria, and, soon after the new reign
had begun, delivered to the king, by royal command, a list of the
clergy in the kingdom, or at least of the principal of them, distinguishing them by 0. for Orthodox, and P. for Puritan, as the case
might be. After holding for a short time the bishopric of Bath
and NWells, he was translated to that of London.  It is at this
period we find him at court; in person a short, ruddy, self-satisfied.
looking man; in disposition active, bustling, but not a little choleric withal; a conscientious persecutor, who transacts his greatest
barbarities upon his knees; a meddling, officious person, as obstinate as rash; in short, one of that tribe apparently born to do




CONTESTS WITh DESPOTISM.                93
mischief, and to take credit in doing it. This man, the right hand
of Buckingham whilst that duke was living, is now highest in the
king's confidence; suspected already of being the author of those
speeches of Charles in which he abuses members of the commons;
asserts that he does not deign to threaten them because they are not
his equals; and declares his own prerogative in almost every sentence. In addition to these reasons of dislike, Laud is known to
be an Arminian, and suspected of being a Romanist in disguise.
Nor were similar apprehensions frivolous. Under Henry VIII.
the crown had been the dominant influence, and the church had
taken life from it.  But now the bishops began to declare that
they did not hold the jurisdiction of their spiritual courts from the
king. Religion, armed with civil power, was aiming at the preeminence, as in the worst days of Romish despotism. The affairs
of chancery were very extensively conducted by arbitrary courts,
altogether beyond the reach of law. It behoved men to be awake
and in earnest.  Had they not been so, all that Britons most prize
would have been speedily and irretrievably lost.
Charles' third parliament was full of action. It was not noisy,
but it was resolute. There was a general understanding that Laud
suggested the moves which the king was making.  In the midst
of encounters, therefore, respecting "tonnage and poundage," the
commons take up religion. The subject was promising, it was very
sincerely eritered upon; but it proved the fly in the pot of ointment. The course taken undid Laud, which was one object; but
it also undid in the issue religion itself, which was grievous to all
concerned. If parliament, according to Pym's doctrine, must settle religion, it must needs establish, at that time, presbyterian worship.  Pymo might not object to the conclusion, but it was Pym's
boast that-they were legislating for posterity; and there were
those who, both now and hereafter, would dispute the legislative
right.  How little advance had been made in the understanding
of true religious liberty by this parliament, may be learned from
one of the protests voted by the commons at the time when the
king attempted violently to stop their proceedings:- "Whoever




94                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISIM.
shall bring in innovation in religion, or by favor seek to extend or
introduce popery or Arminianism, or other opinions disagreeing
from a true and orthodox church, shall be reputed a capital enemy
to this kingdom and commonwealth."   On the same day, the
king, without summoning the commons, dissolved the parliament
-1629.
Charles seemed now to have nailed his colors to the mast. iHe
resolved to rely no more on parliaments, but to govern by his own
sole authority, and believed that in this effort at despotism he would
be successful. Canute might as well command the roaring waves
to retire. In this expedition the king was sustained by two advisers,
Strafford and Laud.
The Star Chamber and High Commission Court now asserted
all their terrors.  Laud republished "The Book of Sports," and
suspended, deprived, expelled, without justice or mercy, those who
opposed its introduction, or who resisted, or were even suspected
of resisting, the royal prerogative. Let one or two scenes exhibit
to the reader the tender mercies of these tribunals!
It is the 26th of November, - cold and piercing weather. A
multitude is assembled at Westminster, to witness the punishment
of one of Laud's victims. Surrounded by a host of constables and
truculent attendants, is seen a man of fair complexion and low
stature, with light hair and high forehead, between forty and fifty
years of age; evidently a man of thought and mental vigor. He
is mounted on a stage, probably in Palace-yard.  First, with a
sharp knife, one of his ears is sliced off; then, with the same instrument, one side of his nose is cut open; the attendants then bring
a red-hot iron, which with hissing sound imprints on one of his
cheeks the letters S. S. (sower of sedition), amidst the prisoner's
yell of agony. Then, maimed, bleeding, frantic with pain, he is left
amidst the murmurs and execrations of the mob, - not on him, but
on his persecutors, - to stand for two h6urs in the severity of the
weather. This done, the poor victim is tied to a post; whipped
with a triple cord, whilst each stripe tears away the flesh from
his lacerated back; he is denied to be carried back to his prison




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.                95
in a coach which had been provided for him, but instead of this is
compelled, with those bleeding wounds, to go by water in an open
boat!  And this is only the half of his sentence.  For, seven
days after, he undergoes in Cheapside the cutting off of another
ear, the branding with a red-hot iron of another cheek; a similar
whipping; after which, he is kept in the Fleet prison for a fortnight, in an apartment exposed to the snow and cold. Such is the
treatment of a scholar and a divine -of the father of the future
Archbishop of Dumblane! His crime was, that, maddened by
oppression and outrage, he had been guilty of denouncing his persecutors. And when this terrible sentence was pronounced upon
him, Laud had taken off his hat and given God thanks! And
this by way of promoting - according to Laud's views - true
religion! Was it wonderful that when the petition of this sufferer, Dr. Leighton, was read to the Long Parliament, the House
interrupted the reading of it with floods of tears? Or that, when
by the interposition of that parliament he was set free, being then
scarcely able to walk, or see, or hear, men should have execrated
the author of such barbarities?
Not less memorable were the sentences passed upon Burton,
Bastwick and Prynne.
The first of these men was minister of Friday-street, London.
He had been clerk of the closet to Prince Henry, and after his
death to Prince Charles,- with whom, after the latter came to
the throne, he had remonstrated on the popery of some of its
favorites, especially of Laud, whose very religion is intolerance.
He had been cited, tormented, imprisoned; but all efforts had
failed to subdue the spirit with which he inveighed against papistry. He had still complained, to Laud's great annoyance, of
tables turned into altars, the worship of the crucifix, and the suppression of Sunday-afternoon services.  He had refused to condemn himself on the ex-ojficio oath, and did not appear when cited
before the High Commission Court. For these offences he had
been apprehended.




96                CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
The second of these victims had published reflections on the
proceedings of the bishops.
The third had written against plays and players, as tending to
the corruption of public morality; and because the queen, some
six weeks after its publication, had performed a part in a pastorale
at Somerset-house, he had been represented by Laud as directing
his attacks against her; and in consequence he had been brought
into the Star Chamber.* These three were sentenced by this
court to be fined five thousand pounds each, and to have their
ears cut off; and, as Prynne had already lost his ears by a sentence of the court in 1633 (his wife had them caught in her lap,
and had sewn them on again), the remainder of the stumps were
ordered to be cut off, and the letters S. L. (seditious libeller)
branded on both cheeks.  They were condemned, moreover, to
suffer separate imprisonment in three of the most distant prisons;
namely, Burton in Lancaster Castle, Prynne in Carnarvon, and
Bastwick in Launceston.   In  vain did Burton's parishioners
numerously petition on his behalf. The two individuals who presented the memorial were themselves imprisoned, and the sentence
was executed!
When it was passed, Laud, after a speech to the judges, declaratory of the rectitude of his intentions, and the singleness of his
heart, said, " I humbly give you all hearty thanks for your just
and honorable censure upon these men, and your unanimous dislike
of them! "
Burton came to the scaffold in the spirit of a martyr.  "Shall
I be ashamed," said he, " of a pillory for Christ, who was not
ashamed of a cross for me? "  "I never was in such a pulpit
before." " The truth which I have preached I am ready to seal
cc "On the restoration of Charles II., some one asked the king what must be
done with Prynne to make him quiet.'Why,' said his majesty,'let him
amuse himself with writing against the catholics, and in poring over the
records of the Tower.' To enable him to do the latter, Charles made him
keeper of the records of the Tower, with a salary of five hundred pounds per
annum."- Wood's Athen. Oxon, vol. I., pp. 311-317.




CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.                 97
with my own blood, and this is my crown both here and hereafter."  So mercilessly was the sentence executed, that the temporal
artery was cut, and the blood streamed in torrents, amidst the
cries of an excited multitude, who treasured up the bloody rags
as relics.
Prynne's ears were almost sawn off.  "Cut me, tear me," said
the fiery and intrepid man.  " I fear thee not.  I fear the fire of
hell, not thee!"
When these men were taken out of the city to be forwarded to
their respective oplaces of confinement, the concourse of spectators
was very great.  Burton's wife had large sums of money thrown
into her coach, and Prynne, on his way to Carnarvon, stopped at
Coventry, where many persohs visited  him, and  contributed
towards the furniture of his prison..  At this sympathy Laud
wasfurious.  In a letter to the Earl of Strafford, he expresses the
most lively indignation.  Those who had aided Prynne were
apprehended, fined, and compelled to nlake a public acknowledgment of their guilt.  Prynne's portrait had been taken and copied.  The painter was prosecuted, the pictures destroyed and publicly burnt.  Prynne's servant was proceeded against because he
had refused to give evidence against his master. Not content
with this, the archbishop procured an order to be sent after the
prisoners, increasing the severity of their imprisonment. No letters were allowed; not even the wives of the two who were married were permitted to see their husbands, and they were commanded to be separated from  all intercourse, except with their
jailors.  Burton was afterwards removed from Lancaster, contrary
to his sentence, to Guernsey, where he was confined in a dungeon
of the most narrow dimensions; Bastwick was transported to the
Scilly Islands, and Prynne to the Isle of Jersey. There these
afflicted men remained till 1640.  Charles I. somewhat mitigated
Prynne's sentence.  But Laud, enraged, sent for Hungerford, who
had obtained the relaxation, and afterwards summoned him before
the council.
At the same time, a Mr. Hayden, for' "venturing to preach
9




98                CONTESTS'WITH DESPOTISM.
occasionally without being restored, was apprehended again, and
sent to the Gate-house by Archbishop Laudl, and from thence to
Bridewell, where he was whipt, and kept to hard labor.  Here he
was confined in a cold, dark dungeon, during a whole winter, being
chained to a post in the middle of a room, with irons on his hands
and feet, having no other food but bread and water, and a pad of
straw to lie upon." *
Great numbers of persons were expatriated to Holland and New
England, from  fear of the consequences to which their nonconformity would expose them.  One of these persons - Mr. Cotton
-applied to the Earl of Dorset to shield him from the anger of
the archbishop, and received for reply: "If you had been guilty
of drunkenness, uncleanness, or any such fault, I could have got
your pardon; but the sin of puritanism and nonconformity is
unpardonable, and therefore you must fly for your safety."  Informers abounded in every direction; no man was safe, either in
public or in private; and, to stop the tide of emigration, all persons, except for specified purposes, were forbidden to leave the
kingdom without the king's license4.
These events added other items to the catalogue of crimes subsequently to be remembered by an indignant parliament.
Well might Prynne afterwards enumerate Laud's offences with
indignation, and speak of his " violent acts and tyrannous proceedings,"-  " by war, by bloodshed, rather than fail in his designs;
by cutting off ministers', lawyers', physicians', and mnechanics' ears;
searing their cheeks; slitting their noses; whipping them  openly
through the streets at carts' tails; banishing them  their country;
shutting them  up close prisoners in remote lands, where neither
their kindred, friends, wives nor children, must have any access to
them,- no, nor yet once set footing in those lands to inquire how
their husbands did, under pain of like imprisonment. Nor have
they pen, ink or paper, once allowed to them, to write to their
# Neal, vol. II., p. 224.
t Clergymen were required to swear that they would never consent to alter
the existing form of prelatical government. - NEAL, vol. TI.




CONTESTS WITH D'SP~OTISM.                99
friends for necessaries; and by a bloody, cruel war between England and Scotland, which Bishop Pierce truly termed Bellum
Episcopale, —' the bishops' war.' " All this can be strictly verified by contemporaneous history.  Some were prosecuted for the
violation of the canon-law; some for reprehending the practice of
bowing at the name of Jesus; some for declaring against popish
saints' days; some for omitting the cross in baptism; one for
preaching more than an hour on Sunday afternoon. Another was
suspended without any exhibited charge. Pierce, the Bishop of
Bath and Wells; Wren, Bishop of Norwich; the Bishop of
Chester, and others, seconded the efforts of Laud, with their
whole power and influence.  The case became fearful.  Thousands
emigrated to Holland, or to New England.  So distasteful was
this self-expatriation to the court, that the king issued a proclamation, declaring that none should be allowed to depart without tes.
timonials of conformity.  The infection of puritanism, nevertheless, spread extensively.  Every measure adopted heightened the
spirit of resistance to such monstrous oppression. The materials
which had been long gathering into one huge volume of combustible matter were fired, at length, by the insanity of the king; and
Laud, Strafford, prelacy, lords, and the king himself, perished in
the tremendous explosion.
Never was there a more memorable series of events than that
which led to this dire conclusion! It was truly a momentous conflict. Every high interest, as men understood the matter then,
was involved.  Right, liberty, religion, - that is, religion according to the Jewish polity, which was nearly as far as that age could
go, - were dependent on the issue.  Mten had greatly outgrown
their governments.  The feudal system was blown out, even to its
last spark.  There was a deep conviction of right, and that
always makes men strong.  A growing notion of a noble name,
and of a self-perpetuating power, loomed before their eyes.  That
name and power are now embodied in the phrase,'"the British
people."  But Charles I. little thought of this.  He sought to beo
all that his predecessors had ever been.  Hle dreamed not of p:,ro



100               CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.
gress.  He endeavored to back the fiery steed; but that task surpassed his powers. Irritated by the opposition, he had recourse
to violence.  He thought that will could do it! Blow succeeded
to blow, and goad to goad, yet without effect. Therefore, with
Laud and Strafford at his side, he had recourse to greater violence.  The whip was more vigorously applied, the rowel went
deeper, till the noble steed rose with one furious effort, threw off,
by a, sudden plunge, its mad rider, and left him dead! This is
but metaphorically the course pursued by " the royal martyr"
towards his people.  "' The advocates of Charles," says Macaulay,
in that brilliant article which first gave him fame, "like the advocates of other malefactors against whom overwhelming evidence is
produced, generally decline all controversy about the facts, and
content themselves with calling testimony to character. IHe had
so many private virtues! And had James II. no private virtues?
Was even Oliver Cromwell, his bitterest enemies themselves being
judges, destitute of private virtues?  And what, after all, are the
virtues ascribed to Charles?  A religious zeal, not more sincere
than that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a
few of the ordinary household decencies which half the tombstones in England claim for those who lie beneath them.  A good
father!  A good husband!  Ample apologies, indeed, for fifteen
years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood!  We charge him
with having broken his coronation oath; we are told that he kept
his marriage vow! We accuse him of having given up his people
to the merciless inflictions of the most hot-headed and hard-hearted
of prelates; and the defence is, that he took his little son on his
knee, and kissed him! We censure him for having violated the
articles of the Petition of Right, after having, for good and valuable consideration, promised to observe them; and we are informed
that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning! It is to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beafrd, that he owes,
we verily believe, most of his popularity with the present generatisu.




CHAPTER IV.
PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
"An honest soul is like a ship at sea,
That sleeps at anchor when the occasion's calm,
But when it rages, and the wind blows high,
She cuts her way with skill and majesty."
HE who has never visited the Chiltern-hills is ignorant of one
of the most agreeable varieties of English scenery. The evervarying undulations of rapid hill and dale, the thick woods. of
beech, now hanging over the steep declivities and now distributing
themselves over the rich meadows, the frequent abrupt turns which
present points of scenery altogether unexpected, the pellucid springs,
the steep ravines, and the richness of the long-extended vale of
Aylesbury, which stretches itself out in a long channel of luxuriance, render this vicinity, though not often visited, one of special
interest to every lover of nature in its undress. Not many miles
distant from  High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, and perfectly
shut in amidst these lovely accompaniments, is an old ancestral
mansion, connected in its history with one of the noblest' biographies, that of John Hampden.  The name is of itself an Englishman's inheritance. In. these deep seclusions the patriot lived;
here he nursed his soul for great actions; to this delicious spot his
mind, jaded by public cares, often turned with fond longings; and
here in death he has found, by the side of his cherished wife, a
grave. What spot can furnish m6re attractive materials for a
passing visit?
The family of Hampden was of great antiquity, coeval with the




102                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
earliest periods of authentic history.  The name occurs in Domesday book, written H1adena (Hamdenam).  It is related that in the
fourteenth century the family was one of the wealthiest in England.  It is, moreover, told how one of the ancestors of Hampden,
having quarrelled with the Black Prince in a game at tennis,
struck his royal antagonist with the racquet with which he was
playing.  The offence was grave; the punishment was the loss of
a hand.  To avoid so serious a penalty, the offender gave to the
prince in compensation three of his best manors, which gave occasion to the traditionary distich:
" Tring, Wing ancl Ivinghoe, didl go
For striking the Black Prince a blow;"
and the memory of the rhyme furnished a title for one of Scott's
most popular productions.  By the last of these villages the Northwestern railway passes, immediately before reaching the Tring
station, which itself stands in one of the manors so forfeited.
The family mansion of the Hampdens is of great antiquity.  It
has been altered many times. One of ifs chambers is still called
King John's bedroom; not that it preserves any appearance of so
ancient a time, but that it, or some part of it, once received that
monarch during a visit to the spot.  On one of the hills in the
immediate neighborhood has been cut a white cross, which may be
seen to a great distance, and bears the name of the White Leaf
Cross, supposed to have been left as a memorial of the last:battle
of Hengist and Horsa with the Britons, when the Saxons planted
their standard upon this eminence.  The house itself, though bearing some marks of a later date, is of the age of Elizabeth, who
directed one of her royal progresses hither; on which occasion the
mansion was almost rebuilt, and its stately and extensive avenues
planted. One of these, visible from the surrounding neighborhood, still bears the name of the Queen's-gap.  The edifice is not
large, nor perhaps convenient; but it has suffered no very exten* Scott's memory failed him in the spelling.




PIONEiRS OF LItBERTY.                 103
sive alterations, and is a striking specimen, though in great dilapidation, of the architecture of the sixteenth century.  The house
is not seen till the traveller is just upon the spot, nor is its first
view very imposing or even antique, its principal front having
been repaired during the time probably of the earlier Georges, in
the tamest style possible.  But when it is approached on the side
nearest to the little church which adjoins it, it is discovered to be
a castellated mansion, adorned with grotesque and arabesque ornamients, and topped by tall and clustered chimneys, whilst noble
cedars of Lebanon, of a great age, spread out their branches by
its side, and trees of large dimensions throw their protecting
shadows over its vicinity.  One large forest tree is especially
remarkable, - a huge elm, - under the shadow of which a small
army might repose, - more like an Indian banyan-tree than one
of the vegetable productions of these degenerate latitudes,,- full
of verdure and vigor, and likely enough yet to last for centuries.
The inside of the house more than redeems the promise of its
outside. A large hall, now called the billiard-room, has a carved
balustrade running round, and forming a gallery which at once
admits to the sleeping apartments, and which heretofore accommodated the members of the family, when they assembled as spectators of mimes or pageants below.  The principal entrance exhibits
a groined and coved ceiling, somewhat in the style of a crypt, but
bearing traces of ancient splendor.  The India room  is fitted up
with a superfluity of arabesque ornament, and is extremely beautiful, though very ancient.  The richly-carved mantel-piece, the
pendent chandelier of colored glass, cut into forms of fruit and
foliage, the cabinets and appendages, all belong to the days of the
Virgin Queen; whilst the windows open out upon a large and
extensive avenue, diminishing to a narrow point in the distance,
formed in honor of that great monrceh's visit.  Beyond the India
room is the queen's state bed-room, preserved in all the fashion of
1550, though the silkl window-hangings and the coverlid of the
sleeping-couch are now faded and tattered with age.  The cabinet
still holds the innumerable receptacles for the toilet conveniences




104                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
of that day, and before it that ancient lady "tricked her beams,"
spread out her farthingale, and meditated, perchance, some of her
many schemes of regal flirtation. The very washing-basin is preserved, and also a huge pair of carved bellows; the attendant
naively saying, as she exhibited the latter, that she did not know
whether Queen Elizabeth herself had used them or not.  In the
library is preserved a volume, exhibited as a great curiosity, - a
family Bible belonging to the Cromwell fiamily, in which the name
of Oliver Cromwell occurs, written, our attendant assures us, by
the protector himself.  A moment's examination convinced us that
this could not be; it was the property, evidently, of one of Oliver's uncles, a brother of the protector's father, who was, it may
be remembered, brother of Hampden's mother, and the writing
was a record of his children, one of whom bore the name of the
protector, or rather of the protector's uncle, Sir Oliver.  But
as the visitor ascends the massively-balustraded staircase, a portrait of the real Oliver presents itself, exhibiting a well-made and
not inelegant figure, clad in the half armor of the time; and,
though not very finely painted nor well preserved, it is probably
a veritable likeness. Extending along the top of the house is
a large though not lofty library, its chair and tables evidently
of a remote date; commanding a magnificent view of the park
and of its grand avenue, and, among other interesting recollections, exhibiting a portrait of John Hampden as a child in a
go-cart! Full as one is of lofty and solemn musings, as one
traverses a house associated with the memory of so great a name,
the unexpected occurrence is almost ludicrous, — a step from  the
sublime to the ridiculous! Yet " the child is father of the man;"
and a careful observer could have doubtless detected, even at that
age, the traits which gave to Hampden his future greatness; the
kindliness, urbanity, self-sacrifice and integrity, which made so
noble a man 
John  IHampden was not born in the mansion of his family.
Where the place actually was will, perhaps, never be discovered.
Probably it was in London.  Nor is the year precisely known;




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                 105
probably it was 1594.  His mother was a daughter of Sir Henry
Cromwell, of Hinchinbrook (of which place we shall write in the
next chapter), aunt, as we have said, of the great protector.  She
appears to have sympathized but little with the politics of her son;
on the contrary, she was aspiring and ambitious. At his father's
death, John Hampden was a minor.  He received his education at
Oxford, where he was coeval with Laud, by one of those singular
juxtapositions which sometimes occur in history, reminding one of
a house to be seen in Derbyshire, which transmits every shower
that falls upon it into two different oceans, one east, the other
west.  Laud and Hlampden were associated as authors of the
Oxford congratulations on the marriage of the Elector Palatine
with the Princess Elizabeth, — a union which afterwards called
forth the bitterest hostility of the prelate, whilst in a conflict with
their son Hampdcle received his death-blow.
The youth of the patriot was probably much spent in the hunting diversions of his native residence. He is traditionally reported
to have been extremely fond of the chase, in which amusement he
became an expert horseman; and the knowledge he gained of all
the passes of the country proved of signal service to him in his
future military career.  His early life is reported by Clarendon to
have been characterized by "great pleasure and license," - a
stigma anxiously affixed by the royalists on those who were subsequently distinguished by puritan propensities.  But he married
very early a lady in every way worthy of his future character,
a daughter of Edmund Symeon, Esq., of Pyrton, in Oxfordshire.
The next year he entered the House of Commons, as member from
Grampound (1620).
What hopes his mother formed of the young senator, may be
learned from an extant letter in the British Museum:   " If ever
my sonn will seek for his honor, tell him nowe to come; for heare
is multitudes of lords a making - Vicount BMandvile, lo. Threasorer, &c., &c. I alm  ambitious of my sonn's honor, which I wish
were hnoe conferred upon hime, that he might not come after so
many new creations."  But it was not by dangling at the court of




106                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
James that lHampden "achieved greatness."  HIe took his stand,
from the first, by the side of freedom. It was then no gaining
cause, and he did not live to witness its victory.
Here, amidst these woods, anad in these foliaged recesses, as often
as time and space during a most busy life would allow,was Hampden found.  Devotedly attached to domestic life, he might seem
to have full materials of the purest enjoyment placed within his
reach.  He was beloving and beloved; he was far beyond the
reach of want; he had learned to regard religion as the food and
medicine'of his soul. It was about this period that his cousin
Oliver Cromwell underwent that change of sentiment regarding
religion, which, it'is likely, awoke in his bosom sympathetic and
corresponding emotions. But there was rising up before his view
in England's history a future over which every dark cloud seemed
to concentrate its shadow; and Hampden's mind could not rest in
peace when such disturbed elements were around him. The name
of Buckingham was getting falmous, or rather infamous, and that
of Laud was becoming notorious with it.  Hampden felt that, when
evil was so dominant, he too had a work to do, and that the senate
was the appropriate sphere for executing it.  Much of his time
was spent at this period in those heavy but important studies of
parliamentary papers and similar documents, without which no
senator can be pronounced accomplished, or even qualified for his
position.  Lord Nugent tells us that there is abundant evidence of
the labor'bestowed at this period by the young member on cluestions of precedent and privilege.
Such stormy times as those of which we write demanded also
much counsel and compact.  Many were the conferences held at
the various houses of the leading patriots.  One may seem yet to
see among these Hampden glades, or in those wildernesses, grouped
in a mass, or distributed into earnest parties of two or three, such
men as Pym  and Sir John Eliot, Hampden's fiiends; Cromwell
his cousin, Lord Manchester his neighbor, the witty Lord Warwick, the stern Lord Say, the pious Lord Brooke.  What discussions have not been held in that library! what letters have not




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                  107
been written on those venerable tables! A house adjoining, built
in a style not altogether unlike that of Hampden itself, and bearing the name of the Checquers, is reported to have been a frequent place of such meetings.
In a dressing-room  of Hiampden-house, distinguished by the
beauty of the painted window which opens towards the ancient
church, is preserved a small row or two of those " dumpy quartos"
which swarmed like flies in autumn at the period of the commonwealth.  The visitor turns them  over with uncommon interest,
and longs to be;ible to sit down and peruse them at his leisure.
Many of them  relate to the questions of royal prerogative then
agitated.  The part taken' in this matter by Hampdclen forms the
"stand-point " in his history.
When Charles dissolved his second parliament for impeaching
the Duke of Buckingham, and for insisting on a redress of grievances, he, by advice of Laud, had recourse to forced loans for the
supply of his wants. Hampden resolved to resist the arbitrary
demand.  It was at no slight expense that he did so.  None can
look round on his lovely and sequestered residence, in every
respect so congenial with his literary'>< and domestic tastes, without feeling that, to expose himself to the risk of losing by a forward movement quiet, property, rank, liberty, peace and fame, was
the highest sacrifice which patriotism could demand. But he resolutely made it.  When questioned on what ground he refused to
lend money to the king, his reply was, " that he could be content
to lend as well as others, but feared to draw upon himself that
curse in Magna Charta, which should be read twice a year against
those who infringe it."  The result was, that Hampden was torn
away from  his home, and shut up in the Gate-house, as were also
Sir John Eliot and many others. After some imprisonment, the
question whether he would pay was repeated, and, on his renewed
refusal, he was imprisoned in Hampshire.
When Charles resolved upon calling the parliament of 1628,
* Hampden's literary attainments may be inferred firom the fact that it was
once in contemplation to appoint him tutor to the Prince of Wales.




108                 PIONEiRS OF LIBERTY.
Ilampden was, as a matter of conciliation, set at liberty.  It vas
not easy, however, to banish from his mind the hardships he had
personally undergone, or those others with which his imprisonment
in the Gate-house must necessarily have made him familiar.
Not very far from Hampden, nestling in a quiet'nook of the
surrounding hills, and still bearing upon its aspect the traces of
considerable antiquity, stands the little pleasant town of Wendover.  About the time of which we speak, this little borough had
recovered, in spite of King James, its franchise, which by the
reform bill it has since lost.  This was the borough which Hampden represented several times in the legislature.  He became a
prominent man on all questions involving either liberty or religion.
Among other subjects on which he was engaged, one was "for the
better continuance of peace and unity in the church and commonwealth."  Another, "on acts against scandalous and unworthy
ministers; " another, "on redressing the neglect of preaching and
catechising; " another, " to examine into the legality of the imprisonment of Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, by Laud;;" another, " to
inquire into the proceedings of the Star Chamber;" and another,
"' for giving increased liberty to hear the Word of God."  From
this it will appear that on the many questions of civil and religious
liberty agitated at that period, Hampden was a most distinguished
advocate of sacred franchises. No man was more deeply concerned
than himself in the preparation of the " Petition of Right," the
king's signature to which the parliament purchased for five subsidies.  But, purchased though that celebrated petition was, it
was violated even before the parliament which had passed it was
dissolved. The king, in opposition to its provisions, continued to
raise taxes under the name of "tonnage and poundage," without
consent of parliament. The commons protested, exclaimed, grew
inflamed, and the impetuous Eliot led the way against the king,
who for a moment quailed before the storm. A fierce onslaught
on the encouragement which had been given to Arminianism, was
the signal for a vigorous attack on Laud; and the result was, that
a vote was entered upon the journals that " the commons of Eng



PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                 109
land claimed, professed and avowed for truth, that sense of the
articles of religion which were established in parliament in the
thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth, which, by the public acts of
the Church of England, and by the general and current exposition
of the writers of that church, had been declared unto them; and
that they rejected the sense of the Jesuits, Arminians, and of all
others wherein they differed from it."  Simultaneously with this
movement Eliot drew up a most vigorous protest, declaring that he
who should attempt to bring in popery, or who should counsel the
king to levy tonnage and poundage, should be reputed a capital
enemy to the king and commonwealth; and that any person paying the subsidies without consent of parliament should be reputed
"a betrayer of the liberty of England, and an enemy to the
same."  When this resolution was submitted to the house, on the
last day of Sir John Eliot's senatorial career, the following scene
occurred: After a powerful speech, "Eliot concluded, as if by a
forecast of the future, with these memorable words, -  I protest,
as I am a gentleman, if my fortune be ever again to meet in this
honorable assembly, where I now leave, I will begin again.' Advancing to the speaker, Sir John Eliot then produced his remonstrance, and desired that he would read it.  The speaker refused.
I-e presented it to the clerk at the table.  The clerk also refused.
With fearless determination, Eliot now read the remonstrance himself, and demanded of the speaker, as a right, that he should put
it to the vote.  Again the speaker refused.' He was commanded
otherwise by the king.' A severe reprimand followed from Selden, and the speaker rose to quit the chair.  Denzil Holles and
Valentine dragged him  back.  Sir Thomas Edmonds, and other
privy councillors, made an attempt to rescue him, but'with a
strong hand' he was held down in the chair, and Hollis swore he
should sit still till it pleased them to rise. The house was now in
open and violent disorder. The speaker weepingly implored them
to let him go; and Sir Peter Iayman, in reply, renounced him
for his kinsman, as the disgrace of his country, the blot of a noble
family, and a man whom posterity would remember with scorn and
10




110                 PIONEMlZS OF LIBERTY.
disdain. Every moment increased the disorder, till at last it
threatened the most serious consequences.  Some members involuntarily placed their hands upon their swords.  Above the throng
was again heard the voice of the steady and undaunted Eliot:' I
shall then express by my tongue what that paper should have done.'
He flung it down upon the floor, and placed the protestations in the
hands of Hollis.' It shall be declared by us,' he exclaimed,'that
all that we suffer is the effect of new counsels, to the ruin of the
government of the state. Let us make a protestation against those
men, whether greater or subordinate, that may hereafter persuade
the king to take tonnage and poundage without grant of parliament.  We declare them  capital enemies to the king and the
kingdom!  If any merchants shall willingly pay those duties,
without consent of parliament, they are declared accessaries to the
rest!' Hollis instantly read Eliot's paper, put it to the house in
the character of speaker, and was answered by tremendous acclamations.  During this, the king had sent the serjeant, to bring away
the mace; but he could not obtain admission, and the usher of the
black rod had followed with the same ill success.  In an extremity of rage, Charles then sent for the captain of his guard to force
an entrance. But a later and yet more disastrous day was
reserved for that outrage; for, meanwhile, Eliot's resolutions
having been passed, the doors were thrown open, and the members
rushed out in a body, carrying a king's officer that was standing at
the entrance'away before them  in the crowd.'  Such was the
scene of Monday, the 2nd of March, 1629,' the most gloomy and
portentous day for England that had happened for five hundred
years.' The king instantly went down to the House of Lords, called
the leaders of the commons'vipers,' who should have their rewards,
and dissolved the parliament."*
Several of the leading patriots were imprisoned, amongst whom
was Eliot, who died before he recovered his liberty.
Hampden was now again at his country seat; but his heart was
*] Forster's Life of Sir J. Eliot.




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                  111
with his captive friend, with whom he kept up a regular correspondence, and whose sons were intrusted to Hampden's charge.
The following letter, which has been exhibited this year (1851) in
the British Museum, will afford a beautiful illustration of the
nature of this correspondence:
" NOBLE SIR'T is well for me that letters cannot blush, else
you would easily read me guilty.  I am ashamed of so long a
silence, and know not how to excuse it; for as nothing but businesse can speake fobr mee, of wch kind I have many advocates, so
can I not tell how to call any businesse greater than holding an
affectionate correspondence with so excellent a friend.  IMy only
confidence is, I pleade at a barr of love, where absolutions are
much more frequent than censures.  Sure I am that conscience of
neglect doth not accuse me; though evidence of fact doth.  I
would add more, but ye entertainment of a stranger friend calls
upon me, and one other inevitable occasion; hold nmee excused,
thllerefore, deare friend; and if you vouchsafe mee a letter, lett
mee beg of you to teach mee some thrift of time; that I may
imploy more in your service, who will ever be
" Your faithful servant and affectionate friend,
"JO. HAMPDEN.
" Commend my service to ye soldier, if not gone to his colors.*
" Hamnpden, March 21. "
About this time an event occurred which doubtless modified to
a considerable extent the subsequent career of this admirable man.
We have seen how open his whole nature was to the delights of
domestic privacy; and it seems almost directly providential, that
at the moment when his country demanded him, the closest of all
those ties which interfered with that paramount claim was suddenly
dissolved.  When I-Hampden was already beginning to admit the
thought of the terrible national crisis which was approaching, and
was intent on the study of Davila's "History of the Civil Wars
~ One of Eliot's sons, then on a visit to his father in the Tower.




112                  PIONERS OF LIBERTY.
of France," his beloved wife sickened and died.  The depth and
fervor of Hampden's affection for her may be conjectured from the
annexed epitaph, placed by her desolate husband in the church
which immediately adjoins his mansion.
To tf)e eternat lreimorg
OF THE TRITUELY
VERTUOUS AND PIOUS
ELIZABETII IAMIPDEN WIFE OF JOHN
HAhIPDEN OF GREAT HIAMIPDEN ESQUIER
SOLE DAUGIITER & HEIRE OF EDMUND
SYMIEON OF PYRTON IN THE COUNTY OF
OXON ESQ. TIIE TENDER MOTHER 
OF A HAPPY OFSPRING IN 9
HOPEFUL CHILDREN
kin jev r ilglimuage
TIHE STATIE &3 COMFORT OF TIER NEIGHBOURS
TIE JOIE & GLORY OF A WELL ORDERED FAMIILY
TIIE DELIGI-IT & IHAPPINESS OF TENDER PARENTS
BUT A CROWNE OF BLESSINGS TO A HUSBAND
Kia a W7ife
TO ALL AN ETERNALL PATERNE OF GOODNES
AND CAUSE OF JOIE WHILE SHE WAS.
Klt ier hi s'oltfon
A LOSSE UNVALUABLE TO EACI YET BIERSELFE
BLEST AND THEY FULLY RECUMPENED IN IIER
TRANSLATION FROM A TABERNACLE OF CLAYE
AND FELLOWSHIP WTa MORTALS TO A CELESTIALL
TIANSION & COTMBIUNION WT~ A DEITY THE
20t1 at  of ~ugust 1 34.
JOItN HAMPIDEN HER SORROWFUL
IIUSBAND IN PERPETUALL TESTIMONY
OF HIS CONIUGALL LOVE I-IATH
DEDICATED THIS,OR-1or t  I  It,




PIONEERS OF LMBERTY.                  113
Those only who have experienced the loss of so dear a relative
can understand the sensations with which this generous and ardent
spirit would retire from the church in which he had just deposited
the remains of her he had loved so well. How sad and solitary
was now that widowed heart! How often would he visit the spot
become so sacred, or trace the memory of his cherished companion
in the scenes and seclusions they had so often visited together!
Nothing  can be more beautiful than is the position of the little
ecclesiastical structure which holds the remains cf Hampden's wife.
It stands in the midst of the park, within a very few steps of the
mansion, and is overhung by beech-trees of the largest size. Its
interior is mainly such as it must have been in the time of Hampden himself. Its carved oaken pews have a massiveness extremely
unlike the present style of church erection. Beneath its chancel
many of Hampden's ancestors lie; and the foot of the visitor, as he
paces the aisle, treads upon the monumental brasses which mark
their last resting-place. Hampden's monument to his wife is a
simple slab of Derbyshire marble, originally without decoration of
any kind, though modern hands have attempted to add some slight
adornments; in bad taste, however; for it seems as if he who
placed it there had disdained the artificial, and had been anxious
for no paraded display of his real grief. Within that pew, - now
renovated and curtained round, - his manly countenance clouded
by inexpressible grief, would sit Hampden, surrounded by his
tenantry, to hear from some puritan minister of the day the lessons
read to the living by voiceless death; he, perhaps, taking a review
of the excellences of the departed lady, and offering to the afflicted
husband such consolations as evangelical religion offers to the
mourner. Nline years after, the husband was himself laid by the
side of his lamented companion!
But sterner duties now awaited the patriot. In 1635 Charles
issued his writs of ship-money; * and, amongst other places, they
* Clarendon tells us that the king had gained two hundred thousand pounds
in ten years by the ship-money project. But only a fraction of that sum found
its way to the royal exchequer.
10*




114                 PIONEERS OF LIBEkT Y.
reached the parish of Great Kimble, at the base of the Chiltern
Hills, not far fi'om  Great Hampclen, and on the estate which
belonged to Hampden's ancestral residence.  Instead of payment,
the constables and assessors returned a protest; and foremost
among the names is that of John Hampden, who was amereGed
in the sum  of twenty shillings, - "as a passport," says Lord
Nugent, " for the rest to an honorable memory so long as the love
of liberty shall retain a place in the hearts of the British nation."
The well-known case was brought before the courts of law with
much preparation on both sides; and, after a display of the highest
style of legal pleading by St. John, till then almost unknown, the
judges pronounced in favor of ship-money, by a majority of seven
out of twelve.  The victory was, however, in fact, a defeat; and
though the king's messengers continued to levy the hateful tax,
they enforced it upon a people now thoroughly aroused and indignant.  Clarendon tells us that "the judgment proved of more
advantage and credit to the gentlemen condemned than to the
king's service."  It was a grand era in the history of a great
nation's liberties!
Hampden, soon after this period, was returned, for the county
of Buckingham, to Charles' next parliament, and left the Chiltern
Hills, as a residence, forever.  They had probably become distasteful to him since the death of his wife; and the large amount of
public business now pressing on his attention rendered a residence
in town indispensable. He took lodgings in Gray's Inn-lane, and
afterwards in Old Palace-yard, Westminster, near to Pyry, now
the leader - though Hampden was scarcely second - of the liberal party in the House of Commons.  What kind of a speaker he
was, we learn from Lord Clarendon, who describes him as " not a
man of many words, who rarely begun the discourse, or made the
first entrance upon any business that was assumed, but a very
weighty speaker; and, after he had heard a full debate, and
observed how the House was like to be inclined, took up the argument, and shortly, and clearly, and craftily so stated it, that he
commonly conducted it to the conclusion he desired; and if he




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                 115
found he could not do that, he never was without the dexterity to
divert the debate to another time, and to prevent the determining
anything in the negative which might prove inconvenient in the
future."  The same thing may be inferred fromn an examination
of Hampden's letters, in which courtesy and kindness, always predominant, are often made the agreeable vehicle of conveying truths
otherwise likely to prove salutary, but unpalatable.  He had
evidently great power over the minds of others; and, as a natural
correlative, large control over his own. The amount of business
which he transacted during this parliament was extraordinary.
In the course of six weeks we find him thus engaged: on a commnittee respecting the bill against spiritual pluralities; assisting in
managing matters relative to the Earl of Strafford; on a committee
respecting the seduction of the king's army; on a committee
respecting the queen-mother and the tumults in London; on a
committee respecting the affairs of the kingdom; on a committee
respecting the affairs of Jersey and Guernsey; on committee
respecting patent of wines; on committee respecting tonnage and
poundage; on committee respecting melting the plate of the kingdom; on committees respecting removing bishops from temporal
concerns; on the impeachment of Laud; on disbanding the armies;
on the abolition of the Star Chamber; on danger from  popish
recusants; on danger of popish vestments; concerning a branch
of a statute in things ecclesiastical; for giving thanks to the lord
admiral and Lord Essex; and on a deputation for waiting on Lord
Northumberland.  This is but a fraction of a list of parliamentary
engagements which extended over a considerable period.
It will have been observed by the reader that many of these
questions on which Ilampden exercised his high talents were
ecclesiastical ones.  It will also have been observed with regret
that Hampden did not extend to the papists the liberty which he
claimed as a puritan. Still, regarded on the large scale, the course
taken by HaRnpden and Pyro  was equally creditable to their heart
and their head; and, with a full margin allowed for their errors,
it must be allowed that they were greatly in advance of their age.




11.6                PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
In Pym's speech before this parliament, on the redress of grievances, he says:
"The greatest liberty of the kingdom is religion, whereby we
are free from spiritual evils; and no impositions are so grievous
as those that are laid upon the soul."  Again - the admission was
a large one for the age: —" I do not desire any new laws against
popery, or any rigorous course in the execution of those already in
force; I am far from seeking the ruin of their persons or estates;
only I wish they may be kept in such a condition as may
restrain them from doing hurt." But he complained of the license
given to popish books and ceremonies, and that thereby " a shape
and face of poperie " had been given to the churches.  After complaining of the court of Star Chamber as " an instrument of erecting and defending monopolies and other grievances," he goes on to
say, "Although he was come as high as he could on earth, yet the
presumption of evil men did lead him one step higher - even as
high as heaven, as high as the throne of God   It is now grown
common for ambitious and corrupt men of the clergy to abuse the
truth of God and the bond of conscience,'   C- pretending divine
authority for an absolute power in the king to do what he will
with our persons and goods.  This hath been so often published in
sermons and printed books, that it is now the highway to preferment."  The effect of this most vigorous and able speech was so
strong as to lead the king to dissolve the parliament.
Great was the consternation with which the news of this dissolution was received by the nation at large. But some of the
more long-sighted leaders saw in the arbitrary act an omen for
good.  Oliver St. John especially told Hyde —afterwards Lord
Clarendon —that " all was well, and that it must be worse before
it could be better."
Pym and Hampden now took a more decided course against the
royal tyranny.  They made common cause with the army of Scotland, then advancing beyond the border.  The king's army refused
to fight against them; and Charles was compelled, after much hesitation, to summon another parliament. IHe could never dissolve
that parliament again!




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                 117
In this Long Parliament, which comprised men of such abilities
as had never been gathered into an English senate before, Pym
and Hampden were the avowed leaders, -  the former being the
most forward, the latter the most trusted man. " I am persuaded,"
says Clarendon, writing of Hampden, "that his power and interest
at that time were greater to do good and hurt than any man's in
the kingdom, or than any man of his rank hath had in any time;
for his reputation of honesty was universal, and his affections
seemed so publicly guided that no corrupt or private ends could
bias them.'  *- He was, indeed, a very wise man, and of great
parts; and possessed with the most absolute spirit of popularity,
and the most absolute faculties to govern the people, of any man I
ever knew."  It was now no carpet warfare.  Pym is known to
have said to Hyde, " that they must now be of another temper
than they were the last parliament;"  "that they must now not only
sweep the house clean below, but must pull down all the cobwebs which hung in the tops and corners, that they might not
breed dust, and so make a foul house hereafter: that they had
now an opportunity to make their country happy, by removing
all grievances, and pulling up the causes of them by the roots, if
all men would do their duties." The conflict had begun in
earnest.  The Earl of Strafford was the first against whom the
hostilities were directed.  Men felt that they had a great work
to do, and they did it thoroughly.  Strafford was impeached;
monopolies were denounced; ship-money was proclaimed a subversion of law; Laud's recent canons were declared hostile to
the liberties of the subject; and a petition, signed by fifteen
thousand citizens of London, which prayed that episcopal government might be abolished, with all its dependencies, called from
its nature "the root and branch petition," was brought into the
houses.  This was met by a counter-petition in favor of the
hierarchy, in which the petitioners declare "that since the
reformation the times have been very peaceable, happy, and
glorious," and that " so much care is taken that no man should be
offended in the least ceremony."  In a similar strain we find Lord
Clarendon saying, " Now, after this, I must be so just as to say,




118                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
that from the dissolution of parliament, in the fourth year of the
king, to the beginning of the Long Parliament, which was about
twelve years, this kingdom  and all his majesty's dominions
enjoyed the greatest calm and the fullest measure of felicity that
any people, in any age, for so long time together, have been
blessed with, to the wonder and envy of all parts of Christendom."
* * " Charles might have said that which Pericles was proud of
ulpon his death-bed concerning his citizens -  that no Englishman
had worn a mourning gown through his occasion. In a word,
many wise men thought it a time wherein those two adjuncts,
imperizum, and libertas, were as well reconciled as possible." Such
is the spirit and truth of party! Prelates were now censured or
impeached; the secretary and lord keeper fled to Holland; and
the lord chief justice was publicly arrested in the court in which
he was sitting, and consigned to prison. " The civility of our law
tells us," said Pym, " that the king can do no wrong; but then
only is the state secure when judges, their ministers, dare do
none.  Since our times have found the want of such examples,'tis fit we leave some to posterity."  "The power of future preservation," said Pym, "is now in us.  Et qlgi non servat patiam
cuZm potest, idem  tradit destruenti patriamz.  What though we
cannot restore the damage of the commonwealth, we may yet
repair the breaches in the bounds of monarchy: though it be with
our loss and charge, we shall so leave our children's children
fenced as with a wall of safety, by the restoration of our laws to
their ancient vigor and lustre."  "When religion is innovated,
our liberties violated, our fundamental laws abrogated, our modern
laws already obsoleted, the property of our states alienated, nothing left us we can call our own but our misery and our patience,
-if ever any nation might justifiably, we certainly may now, most
properly, most seasonably, cry out, and cry aloud,' eZl sacra regnzet justitia, vel ruat cowlum.!"'
"Shall it be treason," again Pymr says, "to embase the king's
coin, though it be but a piece of twelve-pence or six-pence? and
must it not needs be the effect of a greater treason to ernbase the




PIONEERS O' LIBERTY.                119
spirit of his subjects, and to set up a stamp and character of servitude on them, whereby they shall be disabled to do anything for
the service of the king and commonwealth?"
The reader must look elsewhere for the details of the trial and
death of Strafford, - that "bold, bad man," - accused of designing, under the watchwords of Thorough and Thorough-out, to subvert and abolish the essential liberties of the English nation.  Of
all the scenes which Westminster Hall has ever exhibited during
successive periods, none has been more memorable than the trial
of the lord-depatty.  The dauntless courage with which Pym
advanced, in the name of truth and justice, to the attack; the
contrary emotions excited, on the one hand, by the sight of the
prisoner loaded with torturing infirmities, and, on the other, by the
recollection of his crimes; the display of his heroic firmness set
in opposition to the proofs of an unsparing resolution to beat down
all resistance to his course; the overpowering eloquence-of the
accused, standing, though he did, against a world in arms; the
effect of his sudden glance on Pym himself, recalling, as that
glance did, years of ancient friendship and intercourse, so that even
Pym for a moment forgot himself; the promises made by the king
to save the servant who had imperilled all in the royal causes; the
manner in which those pledges, like all which Charles had ever
made, were violated under the strong pressure of the serious emergency; the clamors of the people for the death of the traitor
to their rights; the calm composure with which Strafford appeared
on the scaffold and underwent his sentence,- form together a picture full of materials for the pencil of art, and instructive in the
highest degreealike to the statesman and the moralist.
Admirably has Macaulay painted a companion portrait: that
of Laud, whose name has often occurred in these pages, and who
suffered, about this time, a similar fate:- -
" The mean forehead, the pinched features, the peering eyes, of
the prelate, suit admirably with his disposition. They mark him
out as a lower kind of Saint Dominic, differing from the fierce and
gloomy enthusiast who founded the inquisition as we might




120                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
imagine the familiar imp of a spiteful witch to differ from an archangel of darkness.  When we read his grace's judgment,- when
we read the report which he drew up setting forth that he had
sent some separatists to prison, and imploring the royal aid
against others,- we feel a movement of indignation. We turn to
his diary, and we are at once as cool as contempt can make us.
There we learn how his picture fell down, and how fearful he
was lest the fall should be an omen; how he dreamed that the
Duke of Buckingham came to bed to him; that King James
walked past him; that he saw Thomas Flaxney in green garments,
and the Bishop of Worcester with his shoulders wrapped in linen.
In the early part of 1627, the sleep of this great ornament of the
church seems to have been much disturbed.  On the fifth of January, he saw a merry old man with a wrinkled countenance,
named Grove, lying on the ground.  On the 14th of the same
memorable month, he saw the Bishop of Lincoln jump on a horse,
and ride away.  A day or two after this, he dreamed that he
gave the king drink in a silver cup, and that the king refused
it, and called for glass. Then he dreamed that he had turned
papist; of all his dreams the only one, we suspect, which came
through the gate of horn. But of these visions our favorite is
that which, as he has recorded, he enjoyed on the night of Friday,
the 19th of February, 1627.' I dreamed,' says he,' that I had
the scurvy, and that forthwith all my teeth became loose. There
was one especially in my lower jaw, which I could scarcely keep
in with my finger, till I had called for help.' Yet this was the
man who claimed to have the superintendence of the opinions of a
great nation! "x
In the impeachment of this despicable man - whose name,
though of late years it has become almost fashionable to canonize
it, is worthy only of the emphasis of scorn - Pym also took, as is
well known, a distinguished part.
"      ly lords," said he, " there is an expression in the Scripture
I Macaulay's Critical and Historical Essays, I., p. 450.




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                 121
which I will not presume either to understand or to interpret; yet
to a vulgar eye it seems to have an aspect something suitable to
the person and cause before you.  It is a description of the evil
spirits, wherein. they are said to be'spiritual wickednesses in high
places.' Crimes acted by the spiritual faculties of the soul -  the
will and the understanding - exercised about spiritual matters,
concerning God's worship and the salvation of man, seconded with
power, authority, learning, and many other advantages, to make
the party who commits them very suitable to that description, -
I SPIRITUAL WICKE DNESSES IN HIGI PLACES!' "" %      ";I erein
your lordships may observe that those who labor, in civil matters,
to set up the king above the laws of the kingdom, do yet, in ecclesiastical matters, endeavor to set up themselves above the king."
-.a *%   ~  " You have the king's loyal subjects banished out of
the kingdonl, not as Elimelech, to seek for bread in foreign countries, by reason of the great scarcity which was in Israel, but
travelling abroad for the bread of life, because they could not have
it at home by reason of the spiritual famine of God's Word,
caused by this man and his partakers; and by this means you
have had the trade, the manufactory, the industry, of many thousands of his majesty's subjects, carried out of the land.  It is a
miserable abuse of the spiritual keys to shut up the doors of
heaven, and to open the doors of hell; to let in profaneness, ignorance, superstition, and error.  I shall need say no more.  These
things are evident, and abundantly known to all."
The hour of Laud's retribution had arrived. He, before whom
an insulted nation had trembled, now felt the weight of a people's
indignation, and found it terrible.  Reparation was required of
him and others for the sentences passed in the Star Chamber,
especially on Burton, Bastwick, and Prynne; he was fined
twenty thousand pounds, was removed from the chancellorship
of Oxford, his jurisdiction was put into trust, and it was enacted
that he should give no presentation to benefices without the prep
viously-obtained consent of the House.  His arms were removed;
the rents of his archbishopric sequestrated; his house plundered,
11




122                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
whilst for the outrage he could obtain no restitution; his goods and
books sold, after his papers had been searched, in no very forbearing spirit, by the earless and now remorseless Prynne. It is impossible to give a detailed account of his trial and sentence.  The last
was what sentences passed in the passion of a moment which puts
revenge within a people's power are apt to be. And it was at last
forced upon the commons, mainly by the popular cry for his blood.
No act which emanated from the Long Parliament is more open to
censure than the proceedings against Laud, considered as a legal
sentence.  No act was at the time felt to have been more richly
deserved by a long and cold-blooded course of persecution. Subsequently, Laud, like Strafford, was beheaded, and met his death
with a stubborn fortitude.
Coincidently with these transactions, bills were introduced and
passed abolishing the courts of Star Chamber and High Commission, with other parts of the despotic apparatus of Laud and Strafford.  The king was, with great difficulty, persuaded to sign these
bills.  The conduct of the monarch on this occasion revived the
question of the root and branch petition.  The Long Parliament
now began a serious and most comprehensive attack on prelacy.
As a vindicator of this course of procedure, Hampden must be
regarded as favorable to stronger anti-episcopal measures than
Pym.  Both, however, are described by Hyde, afterwards Lord
Clarendon, as inviting to their table at Westminster'" those of
whose conversion they had any hope," and, among the rest, MIr.
Hyde himself.  This clearly proves that, in Clarendon's opinion,
at least, there was an agreement between the two on the general
question then agitated.  Yet Clarendon, in another place, seems
to contradict himself.  Thus much is certain: that when the bill
came into a committee of the whole house, Hyde was himself placed
in the chair, and that he boasted, in the first volume of his " History
of the Rebellion," " how he had perplexed them very much;" how,
"when they were in the heat and passion of the debate, he often
ensnared them in a question;" and how, "after nearly twenty
days spent in that manner, they found themselves very little




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                  123
advanced towards a conclusion."  One of the foremost speakers
upon this root and branch question was Sir H-larry Vane, jr.; one
of the strongest defenders of episcopacy was Lord Falkland.  We
shall have occasion elsewhere to review the proceedings of the
Long Parliament in relation to prelacy.  It will be sufficient, at
present, to observe the two resolutions of the commons which followed this debate:'- That the legislative and judicial power of
bishops in the House of Peers is a great hindrance to the discharge
of their spiritual function, prejudicial to the commonwealth, and
fit to be taken away by bill, and that'a bill be drawn up to this
purpose."  March 11, it was resolved further, "That for bishops
or any other clergymen to be in the commission of the peace, or to
have any judicial power in the Star Chamber, or in any civil court,
is a great hindrance to their spiritual function, and fit to be taken
away by bill." And, not many days after, it was resolved that
they should not be privy-councillors, or in any temporal offices.
This took place in 1640.  Prynne the next year took courage and
published his celebrated book, entitled "' The Antipathie of the
English Lordly Prelacie both to Regall Monarchy and Civill
Unity; or, An Historical Collection of the several Execrable
Treasons, Conspiracies, Rebellions, Seditions, State-schisms, Contumacies, Oppressions, and Anti-Monarchical Practices of our
English, British, French, Scottish and Irish Lordly Prelates,
against our Kings, Kingdomes, Laws, Liberties; and of the severall Warres and Civill Dissentions occasioned by them  in or
against our Realm, in Former and Later Ages, &c., &c.  By
Wrm. Prynne, late (and now again) an utter Barrister of Lincolne's Inn."  Bastwick also signalized himself on the occasion, by
publishing a pamphlet entitled "6 Lord Bishops none of the Lord's
Bishops: a short Discourse, 1640." We will by no means undertake to justify all the contents of these pamphlets: they both contain, however, many important facts.  The consent of the king
was with diffieulty obtained to the bill for abolishing prelacy, and
he only yielded on the undcerstanding that, by yielding, his queen




124                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
should not be molested in going abroad, a mnovement now essential
to him.
About this time, the king having determined to pay a visit to
Scotland, the parliament, having become extrelmly suspicious of all
his movements, commissioned Hampden, as part of a deputation, to
follow and observe him. What intrigues were carried on by Charles
at this time against the cause of liberty in general, and against the
popular leaders in particular, are made most apparent by the correspondence of Evelyn; and we must refer the reader, for an account
of them, -to Forster's able life of John Pym.  By means of Lady
Carlisle, who, though about the court, was in Pyni's interest, the
popular leaders were fully instructed in the dangers of their position. An attempt was made to assassinate Pym; but the blow fell
upon another man, mistaken for the statesman. The Irish Rebellion, in which the queen and the king were suspected of bearing a
part, and the occurrence known by the name of the "incident,"of which all that has transpired is, that lMontrose proposed to the
king a system of assassination, and that Charles continued him in
his service and confidence, - rendered the puritan party still more
suspicious than before, and induced them to bring in the measure
to which they attached the most emphatic importance, " The Grand
Remonstrance."  Some of those who had been advocates on the
side of liberty in the commons were now beginning to grow exhausted and cold.  The nation was weary of tumult and contention.  Charles' most pernicious favorites had been extirpated, and
a feeling of sympathy was arising for the misfortunes of the king
himself.  But the multitude was, as usual, very imperfectly
informed on the subject, and did not see through the intrigues of
the court; though, had Charles' wisdom been equal to the demands
of his position, he might at this time have re-settled himself upon
his throne.  His wife's folly, however, and his own fatuity,
destroyed him, and saved the liberties of his country.  In this
divided state of opinions, it was a great question whether the
Remonstrance would pass. The debate was long and ang and angry. The
"Grand Remonstranee" was carried by a majority of nine.  Car



PIONEERs   OF LIBERTY.                 125
lyle calls the Irish Rebellion, which gave rise to it, "An Irish
Catholic imitation of the late Scotch Presbyterian achievements in
the way of religious liberty."*  Many of the puritan leaders, and
Cromwell among them, are said to have declared their resolution,
had the Remonstrance been lost, to leave the kingdom.  Such a
statement, perhaps, constitutes the only ground for the tradition
that Hampden and Cromwell had, at a former period, actually
prepared to embark, and had been stopped by the king's order.
Roused by this "Grand Remonstrance," Charles now performed
the crowning act of his own infatuation. He resolved to impeach
the leading members of the two houses of high treason. This he
did, not by the ordinary legal processes, but by sending the attorney-general to the House of Lords to accuse them in the king's
name.  The lords instantly sent a message to the commons, stating to them  the fact, and informing them that pursuivants were
already employed in sealing the trunks and papers of the accused
members.  Immediately the commons sent a speaker's warrant to
remove the seals. In the mean time the sergeant-at-arms demanded,
by a message from the king to the speaker, Pym, Hampden, Hollis,
llazlerigg and Strode.  The house replied that the matter was too
serious to be decided without consideration, but that the accused
members would be ready to answer any legal charge.  Pym and
Hiampden were then present in the house.  The next morning,
amidst the intense silence which frequently accompanies great
events, the five members rose in their places, each to refute in his
turn the charges which the king's attorney-general had brought
against them.  The house had retired for its usual dinner-interval,
and resumed its sitting, when, by means of a letter from Lady
Carlisle, who had overheard in the palace the queen'st premature
-' Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. r., p. 166.
f The queen had spirited the king to this attack. WVhen Charles left her to
seize the members, he said to his wife, "If you find one hour elapse without
hearing ill news from me, you will see me, when I return, the master of my
kingdom." The queen waited, her eyes fixed on her watch. At last she said
to Ladly Carlisle, "( Rejoice with me, for at this hour the king is, as I have reason to hope, master of his realm; for Pymn and his confederates are arrested




126                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
triumph at the king's act, Pym was made aware that the king was
coming down to the house, and he lost no time in proclaiming it to
his fellow-members.  As it was felt that bloodshed would be the
inevitable consequence if Charles seized them in the house, they
were requested to withdraw.  The commons then, arming themselves with the sternest resolution, awaited, in the silence of a
gathering storm, their royal visitor.
The scene which followed, standing as it did in immediate connection with the action taken by the five members in the war
against bishops, and the calling in of the Scots for the promotion
of uniformity, is too characteristic of the period to be omitted. The
door of the house was thrown violently open: this marked the
arrival of the king, with his guard, his pensioners, and two or three
hundred soldiers. Charles commanded the soldiers to remain, arid
sent word that he was at the door. The speaker was ordered by
the house to sit still, with his mace lying before him. The king,
in a state of high excitement, advanced from  his retainers, checking their eagerness by commanding them on their lives not to
enter. Only his nephew, the prince palatine, accompanied him;
the Earl of Rloxburgh standing by the door.  Charles entered
uncovered; the members of the house stood up uncovered to
receive him. The speaker advanced to meet him: the king walked
into his place, and stood upon the step.  For some considerable
time he stood looking inquiringly around in search of the five
members.  At length he spoke, stammering more than usual, in
the agitation of such a moment, and declared, " I will not break
your privileges, but treason has no privilege.  I come for those
five gentlemen, for I expected obedience yesterday,.and not an
answer."  The king called Mr. Pym and fMr. Hollis by name, -
there was no reply. In all that assembly there was probably not
one who sympathized with the royal madness of that moment.
The king asked the speaker if the five members were in the house,
before now." Lady Carlisle gave the alarm.  Something had detained the
king, and the news reached the members in time for their escape. Henrietta
Maria confessed this indiscretion to her husband, who forgave her.




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                 127
or where they were?  Lenthall admirably said that he was only
the servant of the house, and could neither see nor hear but by its
order.  The king replied, "I think my own eyes are as good as
yours; the birds are flown; but I expect, as soon as they come to
the house, you will send them to me; otherwise I must take my
own course to find them."  Amidst mutterings, loud enough to
reach the royal ears, of" Privilege, privilege! " the king departed;
and his armed retainers, who had stood at the door eagerly expecting the moment of their entrance, received him on his return with
disappointment.' There was no need for their cocked pistols that
day, but the occasion was soon coming which should give them
employment enough.*
The members sought refuge in the city.  The king pursued
them.  The city defended and honored them.  Four thousand
men from Buckingham came up to the defence of Hampden. Pym
was also strongly guarded. The king vainly endeavored to patch
the rent his rash hand had made.  The house ordered its accused
members to attend in their places on the 11th January.  They
sailed up the Thames in gorgeous and magnificent procession, with
all the defences of war, and the king retreated to Hampton Court.
Pym and Hampden had now received from Charles' hostile hands
an enlarged influence and a mightier impulse. The civil war began.
HIampden summoned his Buckinghamshire retainers to form a militia, and was cheerfully obeyed.  His purse was open at the same
time to supply the wants of the parliament, and he received commission as a colonel.  His subscription was two thousand pounds.
His regiment was considered the best infantry among the parliamentary forces.  His livery was green; his banner bore his own
family motto, on this occasion most appropriate, "Vestigia ndla?'etrorsum."  Lord Clarendon, in describing Hampden's character,
expresses a sentiment which is a true translation of this phrase,
" \When he drew the sword, he threw away the scabbard."  His
personal courage was conspicuous; it even approached to the rash
* A graphic account of this celebrated scene, from the pen of an eye-witness,
is given in the Verney papers, recently published by the Camden Society.




128                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
imperilling of his life. The following lines are those of "a friend
and fellow-soldier:"
"I hlave seen
Him in the front of's regiment in green,
When death about him did in ambush lye,
And whizzing shot-like showres of arrowes flye,
Waving his conquering steele, as if that he
From Alars had got the sole monopolie
Of never-failing courage."
These are not the pages in which to discuss the question of war
in the general, or of the great civil war in particular. It is clear,
however, that those who in this contest appealed to arms against
the king were actuated by no sinister or unworthy motives.  The
war was distinctly a war for religion.  It was a war for protestantism  against R9manism; for puritanism  against prelacy; but
it was not, in its widest sense, a war for perfect religious liberty.
Pym and IHampden appear to have been both attached to the forms
and ceremonial of the Church of England, so far as that was consistent with Pym's deploring and Hlampden's denouncing its hierarchy. Both felt that the liberty of the person and that of the
religion were inseparably associated; at least, they felt this up to
a certain point. In resisting the encroachments of Charles, they
felt that they were opposing one, whose word, on what subject
soever it had been pledged, was as unstable as a quicksand; who
bad bullied and then crouched down; had promised and recalled
his promise; had put aside the most solemn charters of the land;
had even trampled upon those which himself had conceded; and
that from  him  nothing could be hoped, until, by his committing
himself to their hands, he should give some security that he held
good faith towards them.  In thus resisting the king, the patriot
party felt that they were fighting for their altars, their hearths,
their liberties, and the decencies of a public morality outraged by
the license of the times.  Many of the contrasts between the two
armies were uncommonly striking.  It was not only that the




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                  129
flowing locks of the cavalier, who wore his love-token suspended
round his neck, were most distinguishable from the close-cropped
hair of the Roundhead, whose only conspicuous ornament was his
military belt. It was not only that the uncouth psalms sung on
the one side to the ancient tunes of " Old Windsor," or " Babylon
Streams," formed a singular contrast to the songs which, shouted
forth by some drunken cavalier, formed a mingled compound of
wit, scandal, and licentiousness. But it was that, though the
full development had not yet taken place, the leaders of the parliament army possessed the dignity, and some of them the enthusiasm, of martyrs; whilst on the other side, with some distinguished exceptions, the royalist leaders were little better than
remorseless and revengeful rakes.  The parliament army was
more distinguished by dogmatic pertinacity of opinion than it was
by vice, whilst the king's army suspected virtue itself to be disloyal. The Roundheads knew, almost to a man, the nature and
dignity of their cause, and were prepared to argue as well as to
fight for it; their adversaries, for the most part, cared more for
the name of loyalty than for any truth embodied in it.  Some of
them were ignorant of the merit of the question for which they
fought; others of them would have disdained to defend the conduct of the king; and the mass of their army was a rabble rout,
the most debauched, the most reckless, the most irreligious, that
ever trailed a pike or fired a matchlock.
In levying his army, Charles was compelled to forego all atten.
tion to religious differences.  The following letter, written to the
Earl of Newcastle, has perhaps, an eye towards Roman Catholies:
"NEw CASTEL, -This is to tell you that this rebellion is growen
to that height, that I must not look what opinion men ar who
at this time ar willing and able to serve me. Therefore, I doe not
only permitt, but command you to make use of all my loving subjects' services, without examining ther contienses (more than




130                 PIONEERS 0F LIBERTY.
there loyalty to me) as you shall fynde most to conduce to the
uphoulding of my just royall power.  So I rest,
"Your most assured faithfull frend,
" CHARLES R..i
"Shrews1bury, 23 Sep. 1642."
The command of the army of the parliament was, in the first
instance, intrusted to the Earl of Essex.  HI-e had practised military tactics in the war of the palatinate, and was deeply earnest in
the cause of freedom; but he possessed the fatal fault of hesitating
in a crisis, and he knew not how to follow up his own advantages.
Hampden was placed near him, on the principle of compensation,
that he might add energy to his commander's prudence.  Essex,
though in the first instance satisfied that war with the king was a
necessary evil, became, as the conflict proceeded, uncertain whether
great triumphs on his part would be altogether salutary to the
parliament itself; and this fear withheld him from striking when
the blow might have been decisive.  " It was believed," says Lucy
HEutchinson, in her Memoirs of her Husband, Colonel Hutchinson,
" that he - Essex -himself, with his commanders, rather endeavored to become arbiters of war and peace than conquerors for the
parliament: for it was known that he had given out such expressions."
A civil war is a peculiar and a fearful thing! The greatest
captain of our own day has said that, rather than witness it at
home, he would freely lay down his own life.  Such a war does
not, like other wars, concentrate itself on a few principal points.
It is an eruptive disease of singular malignity, which breaks out
irregularly, and often simultaneously, on all parts of the body
politic. Discord, revenge, want, rapine, murder, suffering, are of
course its attendants; but, besides these, loyalty is made a reproach
on the one hand, and liberty is ridiculed as an empty name on the
other.  The most sacred things are violated, and placed in juxtaposition with the most odious. The closest ties are severed and
* Ellis' Letters.




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                 131
dislocated; families are ranged against each other; the chiefest
friends become enemies. The soldier is often compelled to advance
against the homesteads of his own kindred.  The exercises of
industry and piety are disturbed by the shouts of massacre, or the
roaring of musketry.  " Even things inanimate, which appeal to
remembrance only, crowd in, with their numberless associations,
to tell how unnatural a state of man is civil war. The village
street barricaded; the house deserted by all its social charities,
perhaps occupied as the stronghold of a foe; the church, where lie
our parents' bones, become a battery for cannon, a hospital for the
wounded, a stable for horses, or a keep for captives; the accustomed paths of our early youth beset with open menace or hidden
danger; its fields made foul with carnage; and the imprecations
of furious hate, or the supplications of mortal agony, coming to us
in our own language, haply in the very dialect of our peculiar
province; - these are among the familiar and frequent griefs of
civil war."'
As the contest proceeded, Hampden was impatient of the delays
which only protracted the nation's sufferings, and earnestly desired
some more determinate measures on the part of the parliament.
But his remonstrances with Essex were vain.  Hampden had
urged him to defend two regiments peculiarly exposed to attack.
His advice was unheeded, and Prince IRupert fell upon them, and
slew them to a man.  Anticipating that Rupert was aiming to
turn the eastern flank of the army, and aware that Chiselhampton Bridge was.the only point by which he could return to his
army, posted at Oxford, Hampden felt it to be his duty to attempt
to intercept him, and drew up his infantry on Chalgrave-field, a
plain where he had often been accustomed to exercise his militia.
In leading his men to the charge, two carbine balls pierced his
shoulder, and, breaking his arm, entered his body. Noble, however, relates that "a great man assured him that Hampden's
death-wound proceeded from the breaking of an overcharged pistol,
B Nugent's Memoirs of Hampden.




132                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
given him by his son-in-law, Sir R. Pye, to whom, when he saw
him on his death-bed, he said: "Ah, Robin, your unhappy present
has been my ruin! " *  But this is a mere figment.
"It is a tradition that he was seen," after his wound, "first
moving towards the house of his father-in-law at Pyrton. There
he had in youth married the first wife of his love,t and thither he
would have gone to die.  But Rupert's cavalry covered the plain
between. Turning his horse, therefore, he rode back across the
grounds of Hazelrig, in his way to Thame.  At the brook which
divides the parishes he paused a while, but, it being impossible for
him, in his wounded state, to remount, if he had alighted to turn
his horse over, he suddenly summoned his strength, clapped spurs,
and cleared the leap. In great pain, and almost fainting, he reached
Thame, and was conducted to the house of one Ezekiel Browne,
where, his wounds being dressed, the surgeons would for a while
have given him hopes of life; but he felt that his hurt was mortal.
Hle was attended by Dr. Giles, the rector of Chimnor, and by Dr.
Spurstowe, an independent minister, the chaplain of his regiment." 4
It appears that Hampden's death was attributable to a deserter,
who gave Rupert information, and suggested the attack which
ended on Chalgrave-field, and that this man pointed out to the
marksmen the different commanders, crying, " That's Hampden,
that's Gunter, that's Luke."  Hampden's dying breath, like Nelson's on a similar occasion, directed the movements which he felt
to be important for the security of his army and the vigorous conduct of the war.  During six days, he suffered the most agonizing
pain. As his dissolution drew near, he received the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper, avowing "that though he could not away
with the governance of the church by bishops, and did utterly
I' Noble's Cromwell.
t Hampden had married a second time, about the period of his removal from
his ancestral mansion. HIis lady long survived him, and lived to an advanced
age.
Nuugent's Life of Hamlpden.




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                  133
abominate the scandalous life of some clergymen, he thought its
doctrines in the greater part primitive and conformable to God's
Word, as in Holy Scripture revealed."  Before his death he
uttered a prayer in the highest degree affecting and sublime. "0
Lord God of hosts," said he, " great is thy mercy, just and holy are
thy dealings unto us sinful men.  Save me, 0 Lord, if it be thy
good will, from the jaws of death.  Pardon my manifold transgressions. 0 Lord, save my bleeding country. Have these realms
in thy special keeping.  Confound and level in the dust those who
would rob the people of their liberty and lawful prerogative. Let
the king see his error, and turn the hearts of his wicked counsellors
from  the malice and wickedness of their designs.  Lord Jesus,
receive my soul! "  He then mournfully uttered, "   Lord, save
my country.  0 Lord, be merciful.."  And here his
speech failed him. He fell back in the bed, and expired. Hampden was buried in the manor which bears his name, and within the
beautiful church we have already described.
HAMPDEN CHURCH, THE PLACE OF HAMPDEN'S INTERMENT.
The body was followed to the grave by many of his troops,
their arms reversed, their heads uncovered. They are related to
12
12




134                  PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
have sung the ninetieth Psalm as they went, and the forty-third
as they returned.  Some verses of the former run thus:
"Thou guidest man through grief and pain
to dust, and clay, and then;
And then thou sayst; againe return
againe, ye sonnes of men.
The lasting of a thousand yeeres
what is it in thy sight:
As yesterday it doth appeare
or as a watch by night.' So soone as thou doest scatter them
then is their life and trade,
All as a sleepe and like the grasse
whose beauty soone doth fade,
Which in the morning shines full bright,
but fadeth by and by:
And is cut downe ere it be night
all withered, dead and dry."
Not less appropriate were the lines sung by the mourners on
their return:
"Judge and avenge my cause, 0 Lord,
from them that evill be,
From wicked and deceitful men,
O Lord deliver me.
For of my strength thou art the Gocl,
why put'st thou me thee fro:
And why walk I so heauily
oppressed with my foe.
"Why art thou then so sad, my soule,
and fretst thus in my brest:
Still trust in God; for him to prayse
I hold it always best.
By him I haue deliverance
against all paine and griefe:




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                  135
He is my God which doth alwayes
at nede send me reliefe.''" 
Hampden's death, occurring as it did at so critical a point of
the nation's history, spread dismay among the numerous party to
which he had belonged.  "The loss of Colonel Hampden," said
the Weekly Intelligencer, one of the journals of the period,
"goeth near the heart of every man that loves the good of his
king and country, and makes some conceive little content to be at
the army, now that he is gone.  The memory of this deceased
colonel is such; that inll no age to come but it will more and more
be had in honor and esteem; a man so religious, and of that prudence, judgment, temper, valor and integrity, that he hath left
few his like behind."
"He had indeed left none his like behind him.  There still
remained, indeed, in his party, many acute intellects, many
eloquent tongues, many brave and honest hearts. There still
remained a rugged and clownish soldier, whose talents, discerned
aright by only one penetrating eye, were equal to all the highest
duties of the soldier and the prince.  But in Hamnpden, and in
Hampden alone, were united all the qualities which, at such a
crisis, were necessary to save the state; - the valor and energy
of Cromwell, the discernment and eloquence of Vane, the humanity and moderation of Manchester, the stern integrity of Hale, the
ardent public spirit of Sydney.  Others might possess the qualities which were necessary to save the popular party in the crisis
of danger: he alone had both the power and the inclination to
restrain its excesses in the hour of triumph.  Others could conquer; he alone could reconcile."i
Some few years ago, with the view of determining where the
remains of Hampden were actually buried, an exhumation was
made of the body supposed to be his, from the chancel of the little
church at IHampden.  It was found in a state of complete preservation, wrapped in cere-cloth, and some who were present at the
* Sternhold and Hopkins.  f Macaulay's Essays, vol. I., p. 489.




136                 PIONEERS OF' LIBERTY.
disinterment, which was made in the presence of the late Lord
Nugent, and the present Lord Denman, thought they could distinctly trace the likeness of the features to the best existing
portraits.  But, when interrogated, the other day, on the subject,
the sexton averred, though he very attentively examined the dead
body, he could not find any trace of the wound by which the great
patriot was reported to have died, and expressed a distinct conviction that the body was not that of John Hampden.
Worn out by his superhuman exertions, Pym, commonly nicknamed ".King Pym," six months after followed his distinguished
friend to the tomb.  Though just appointed by the parliament to
the distinguished office of lieutenant of the ordnance, he never
lived to fulfil its duties.  It is said that, whilst on his death-bed, a
band of rioters, provoked by the sufferings of the times, beset the
Louse of Commons with a petition for peace, crying out, for two
hours, "Give us the traitor Pym, that we may tear him in
pieces! " and were only dispersed by a troop of horse.  Ile died at
Derby House, in great calmness of spirit, declaring that it was
" an indifferent thing to him whether he lived or died," and that,
"if his life and death were put into a balance, he would not willingly east in one drachm to turn the balance either way."  With
his last breath he prayed with energy for the king and the public
weal, and having just recovered from a fainting fit, told his
fiiends " he had looked death in the face, and knew, and therefore feared not, the worst it could do," and that " his heart was
filled with more comfort and joy than he was able to utter."  He
died whilst a minister was offering prayer by his bedside.  He
was buried with great " pomp and circumstance " in Westminster
Abbey, his body being borne to the grave by the ten principal
gentlemen of the HEouse of Commons, attended by both houses
clad in mourning, by the assembly of divines just met, and by
other gentlemen of rank.   We have before us the sermon
preached on this memorable occasion, by Mr. Marshall, from the
text, " Woe is me, for the good man is perished out of the earth."
The following is an extract from its close.  Besides exhibiting a




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                 137
portrait of the man, it may be regarded as an exemplification of
the fearlessness with which the godly preachers of that day were
accustomed to address even their most distinguished auditors:
" And certainly, if God sends us to the pismire, to consider her
waies, and thereby to learne wisdome, it can be no disparagement
to any of you to consider his worth, and thereby to grow better; I.shall, therefore, make bold to propound him as Bishop Montacute
did Master Perkins in his funerall sermon, to be the man that
taught England to serve God, and ministers to preach Jesus
Christ; so Master John Pym to be the man whose example may
teach all our nobles and gentlemen to be good Christians, good
patriots, good parliament men. You all knew him well, and
knew
" That he was not a man, who when he was called to the publike service of his countrey, lay here to satisfie his lusts, spending
his time in riot and wantonnesse, in gaming, drinking, whoring, &c.
Take heed none of you be such.
"Hle was not a man who proved a traitour to God and his
countrey, and the cause of religion, which he had solemnly protested to maintaine. Take heed none of you be such.
"lHee was not a man who (though hee appeared often in the
parliament house, yet) neither promoted good causes himselfe,
nor willingly permitted others to do it.  Take heed there be none
such among you.
" He was not a man who owned the good cause so long as it was
like to thrive, and then tackt about when it seemed to decline;
resolved to secure himselfe, whatever became of the publike.  Beware none of you be such.
" Ie was nrot a man who would feed himselfe, or feather his
own nest, or provide for his family or friends out of the publike
stoeke, or treasure of the kingdome. Take heed none of you be
such.
"' Ile was not a man who would favor the cause of his friend, or
presse too heavily against his enemy; he was no respecter of persons in any cause or judgment.  Take heed none of you doe so.
12*




138                 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
"lHe was not a man who would consider how far any publike
service would stand with his own private designes, and promote
the one no further than the other could be driven on with it.
Beware this be none of your condition.
"He was not a man who for maintaining or propagating any
private opinion, or way of his owne, would hazard the publike
safety.  Take heed none of you be such.
"He was not a man who feared to promote the reformation of
religion, lest himselfe should be brought under the yoke of it.
Take heed that none of you doe so.
"Not ua man living (I believe) could justly taxe him for any
of these; God grant none of you may be found guilty of any one
of them in the day of your account.
"But instead of these things he was the holy man,'the good
man, adorned with that integrity, constancy, and unwveariablenesse
in doing good, which I before told you of. Goe, and doe likewise;
get such an upright heart to God; lay out yourselves wholly in
the publike cause; put both your hands to this worke, and the
smaller your number is, be the more diligent, and fall the closer to
it; set selfe and selfe respects aside; drive no designes of your
owne; count it reward enough, to spend and be spent in this
cause; esteeme the worke more worth than all your lives; imitate
him in these things; so might you make him, as another Samlpson,
more advantageous to the cause of God in his death, than ever he
was in his whole life." *
Baxter, in the earlier editions of the "Saint's Rest," is well
known to have inserted a passage, which, in the copies published
after the restoration, was unhappily and disgracefully expunged to
please Dr. Jane, and to obtain a license for his book: " I think,
Christian, this will be a more honorable assembly than you ever
*" (0PITNS2 zI_41. The Church's Lamentation for the Good Man his Losse,
delivered in a Sermon to the 1Right Honorable the two Houses of Parliament,
and the Reverend Assembly of Divines, &c., by Stephen Marshall, 13.D., 1644."
The Sermon is prefixed by "a Portrait of John Pym, Esq., late 3Burges for
Tavistocke."




PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.                  139
here belheld; and a more happy society than you were ever of
before.  Surely Brook and Pim, and Hamden, and White, &c.,
are now members of a more knowing, unerring, well-ordered, right
ayming, self-denying, unanimous, honorable, triumphant senate,
than this from whence they were taken is, or ever parliament will
be. It is better to be a doorkeeper to that assembly, whither I
wish we are translated, than to have continued here the moderator
of this.  That is the true Parliamentumz   Beatum, the blessed
parliament, and that is the only church that cannot erre."
The testimony of these famous divines puts utterly to flight the
vile and mad rumors which the royalists malignantly raised against
the moral reputations of Hamllpden and Pyrm, especially the latter.
It is incredible that men like Baxter and Marshall would have so
HAMPDEN HOUSE.- RESIDENCE OF JOHN HAMPDEN.
written or so spoken, had not such reports been empty as the wind.
The accusation, commonly believed among the royalists, that Pym
died of a loathsome disease, is a calumny which only party malice
could have invented, and was disproved by post-mortem dissection.




140                PIONEERS OF LIBERTY.
Before we leave lHampden Manor, we may recall the fact that
it was the place of Baxter's residence during the period of the
great plague of London. He was then visiting his beloved friend,
Mr. Richard HIampden, "the true heir of his famous father's
sincerity, piety, and devotedness to God." From this place he
returned to Acton, in March, 1666, to find " the church-yard like
a ploughed field with graves, and many of his neighbors dead."




CHAPTER V.
AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.
" With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up-hill rolls Sisyphus his huge round stone.
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and forms along the ground."
POPE.
T1J: old town of Kimbolton, in the county of Huntingdon, has
not much to recommend it, except to an historical antiquary.
Yet it is situated in the midst of agreeable and quietly-varied
scenery, stands amidst rich slopes of arable land, and is in the
immediate adjacency of a ducal residence with an extensive park.
The town itself is small, and its situation shows that in former
times it had nestled as closely as possible to the baronial castle
which stood there, for protection.  To many readers the name of
Kimbolton will at once recall the remembrance of an important
history and a despotic tyrant; - of a faithless husband, an injured
wife, and of a course of ecclesiastical oppression which has, from
that clay to this, been the fruitful source of misconduct and disorder.  Kimbolton was the residence, after her divorce, of Katharine of Arragon, the first and not least injured wife of Henry
VIII.  One of Shakspeare's best scenes points hither:
" Grif. How does your grace?
"K ath.                0 Griffith, sick to death;
MIy legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth,
Willing to leave their burden.
Now I am past all comforts here but prayers.
Remember me




142              AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.
In all humility unto his highness:
Say his long trouble now is passing
Out of this world; tell him in death I blessed him,
And so I will. - Mine eyes grow dim. - Farewell,
My lord - Griffith, farewell- I must to bed;
Call in more women.- When I am dead, good wench,
Let me be used with honor; strew me o'er
With maiden flowers, that all the world may know
I was a chaste wife to my grave; embalm me,
Then lay me forth; although unqueened, yet like
A queen and daughter to a king inter me;
I can no more." - SHIAKSPEARiE, Henry VIII.
At this time Kimbolton Castle is represented as being " double
dyked, and the building of it metely strong; " in short, totally
unlike the aspect it presents at the present day.  Kimbolton Castle has for centuries belonged to the Montagus.  This name was
derived from a town in Normandy; and as it was convenient to
write it in Latin "De Monteacuto," it was sometimes termed
in English Montacute.  Little of the baronial style characterizes
the present residence of the Dukes of Manchester.  The associations which this chapter is intended to connect with Kimbolton
belonged to it when it was very different from that in which it now
appears.
No man occupiedc a more prominent position during the early
history of the Commonwealth than Edward, afterwards known by
the name of the Earl of Manchester.  His father was Lord Privy
Seal in the reign of James, and had passed, as Clarendon tells us,
"through all the eminent degrees in the law and in the state;"
but, losing the favor of the court, had been left with the empty title
of President of the Council, and, to make amends, had been created Viscount Mandeville, and, in James' latter days, Earl of
Manchester.  He died about the opening of the great civil war.
His son, of whom we now principally write, had been one of Prince
Charles' attendants during the expedition to Spain, but being of
uncourtly principles, and being also known strongly to favor puri



AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.              143
tanism, he had become unacceptable to his royal patron. His first
marriage was to a relative of the Duke of Buckingham, by whose
influence he was raised to the peerage whilst his father was yet living, under the designation of Baron of Kimbolton.  His first wife
being dead, he married as his second wife the daughter of the Earl
of Warwick. This alliance naturally tended to increase his predilections in favor of the puritans; for Warwick, though himself of
facetious manners, is well known to have greatly encouraged and
protected that religious party. After this marriage, Lord Mandeville gradually ~withdrew himself from court, and formed a strict
alliance with many noblemen and gentlemen of similar views.
Clarendon says, " There was a kind of fraternity of many persons
of good condition, who chose to live together in one family at a
gentleman's house of fair fortune."  This was probably at Great
Stoughton, which lies about three miles south of Kimbolton. Valentine Wauton, or Walton, its proprietor, was member for the
county, and his wife was Oliver Cromwell's youngest sister. Between this faunmily and Cromwell's there was, therefore, a strong
alliance; and the reader of " Carlyle's Letters" will remember a
striking communication addressed by Cromwell to his brother-inlaw, announcing the death of Walton's son by a cannon-ball at
Marston Moor.
Manchester's disposition was in early life frank, generous, and
impulsive, and he was in the very centre of all the movements
contemplated'by the party in opposition, as well as a principal
actor in the turbulent scenes of the time. He had the singular
honor of being the only peer who was included in the list of the
impeached members by the king's proscription.
When, in 1642, Charles, amidst adverse and discouraging
omens, first erected his standard at Nottingham, Manchester was
appointed to one of the principal posts of command. None was
more earnest in the cause of the parliament, but the views of
Manchester were narrow and confined; he could not step out of
a prescribed circle. That' sweet, meek man," as Baillie terms




144              AIMINGS AT TIHE IMPOSSIBLE.
him, was, in fact, ill qualified to conduct an enterprise so vast to a
prosperous issue.  He grew weary of his position; became disgusted with his former allies; was sneered at and scorned by
Cromwell, as incapable; and ended by swearing allegiance to the
monarch whose father he had unwittingly aided to dethrone.
KIMBOLTON, HIUNTINGDONSHItRE. -RESIDENCE OF PHILIP NYE.
In the midst of the town of Kimbolton, and surrounded by
houses, stands its parish church.  It is a noble " time-honored edifice," dating from the moeso-gothic period, with castellated battlements, deep buttresses, and a spire which shoots up high in air,
surmounted by the figure of a cock, the memorial of Peter's
denial, and in ancient times admonitory to the clergy of the need
of pastoral vigilance. Its interior is venerable, though it has
become divested of many of the remnants of its earlier history.
Banners telling of militia warfare are pendent from  the roof of
its chancel, and the death-memorials of a great family are conspicuous upon its walls. A costly monument, rich with marble,
scroll-work and emblazonry, records the titles and the dignities
of King James' lord treasurer, and seems to mock at mortality.
In a little enclosure, which might have been once a chapel, stand
two marble tablets, recording the memories of the second and
third wives of the parliamentary general:




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.               145
OF THE RIGI-IT IIOUNORABLE ANNE
LADY MALNDEVILLE DAUGIITER TO
ROBERT EARL OF WARWICK AND
WIFE  TO EDWARD  LORD  MANDEVILLE
NOWE EARL OF MIANCIIESTER.
SHEE DYED FEB. 14 ANN. DOM.
1641 & LEFT TIIREE CHILDREN
1 SONN & 2 DAUGIITERS.
HIER HUSBAND HEE PRAYSETH IIER
SAYING, MANY DAUGHITERS HAVE
DONE VIRTUOUSLY BUT THOU
EXCELLEST THEM ALL —PROVERBS 31.
OF ESSEX, COUNTESSE OF MANCHESTER
DAUGIITER TO SR. THOMAS CHIEERE
& WIFE TO EDWARD EARL OF
MANCHESTER.
SHE DYED THE 25 OF SEPTEMBER
ANN. DOM. 165S AND LEFT
8 CHIILDREN G6 SONNS &
2 DAUGHTERS 7 OF TI-IEM
SHE NURSED WIT IIHER OWN BREASTS.
HIER CIIILDREN SHALL RISE UP & CALL
HER BLESSED
THE HEART OF HER HUSBAND SAFELY
TRUSTED IN HIER
SIIE DID 1IBI GOOD & NOE EVILL ALL
YE DAYES OF HER LIFE
THEREFOtRE HEE PRAYSETIt tHER AND
HER OWN WORKS PRAYSE HER IN
YE GATE — PROVERBS 31.
13




146              AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.
Beneath these tablets is the vault of the Manchester fanlily.
A visit to such sepulchres is sometimes repulsive for other reasons
than the mental suggestions which belong to mortality. But this
enclosure is remarkably clean and well ventilated. This is, however, the only praise that can be accorded to it; for the visitor
who would read the inscription on the crimson velvet coffins of the
fathers and mothers, and the remoter ancestors and ancestresses of
the present family, is actually made to walk upon their surface, -
an act which, to those " mindful of the honored dead," seems little
less than sepulchral sacrilege.  We look in vain amongst these
mournful tenements for the coffin which once contained the body
of Cromwell's superior.  In a dark corner, bricked up from view,
and consequently almost invisible, we saw two mouldered receptacles which might possibly have belonged to the parliamentary
earl; but the brass plate, which had been perhaps originally on
the coffin, had been altogether removed, and conjecture was useless. The attendant could supply us with no information; but,
after being pressed with inquiries, produced at length from a dark
corner of the mausoleum a bundle of plates, which it appeared
had been detached at some time or other from the narrow homes
of those whom nobility and fortune had once dignified. Amongst
these we found the following:
VCqpositunill.
NOBILLISSIMtI & ILLUSTRISSIMI DOMINI, DNI
EDWARPDI, COMITIS MANCIIESTRIE
VICECOMITIS MANDEVILIME BARONIS DE
KIMBOLTON IIOSPITII DNI REGIS CAMERARIUS
UNIVERSITATIS CANTABRIGLE CANCELLARIUS CAROLO
2DO REGI AUGUSTISSIMO A SECRETIORIBUS CONSILIUS
NOBILLISSIMI ORDINIS GARTERII EQUITIS
QUI APUD WHITEHALL PIISSIMIE
IN DOMINO OBDORMIVIT VTO DIE MAII
ANNO A CHRISTO NATO MDc: LXXI.
2ETATIS SUIE LXIX.




AIMINGS AT THE IMIPOSSIBLE.             147
If the classical reader shall happen to detect any errors in the
composition of this memorial, he must blame the Latinity of 1699,
or the ignorance of the engraver of the escutcheon, and not the
transcriber.
Perhaps, after all, the object of great interest in Kimnbolton
church is its pulpit.  It possesses a singular adornment in the
shape of a large hammer-cloth, richly embroidered with gold lace
of a gorgeous and elegant pattern, evidently of no recent date.
This piece of tapestry is recorded to have been worked by one of
the ancestresses of the Manchester family, who, when it was near
its completion, pricked her finger with the needle she had used in
executing it, and died of the wound. Till a very recent period
the needle was itself preserved with religious veneration.  It has
now, we believe, altogether disappeared.
A great name is associated with the pulpit of Kimbolton church.
It is that of Philip Nye.  When the parliament of England
gained the ascendency, and removed from their position many
ignorant and incompetent clergymen, Nye, who had descended
from a well-born family, had received his education at Oxford, and
had fled to Holland from the persecution of Archbishop Laud, was
appointed by the Earl of Manchester minister of the church at
Kimbolton. A fire in Coleman-street, where Nye's papers were
deposited, unhappily prevents us from forming an intimate acquaintance with the earlier history of this remarkable man; and
very little except the fact we have just narrated is known of Philip
Nye, till we arrive at the period in which was summoned the wellknown Westminster Assembly.
We must beg the reader's pardon for a slight historical digression, whilst we attempt to lay before him some of the circumstances
which led to this famous convocation.  We return for a moment to
the times of Archbishop Laud.
The evil spirit by which Charles was possessed led him, in a
dark lhour, even when all the elements of discord were raging and
boiling around him in England, to impose upon the Scottish people
the prelacy of the English establishment.  No infatuation could




148                AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.
be more perfect than that which led Charles at that moment to
adopt Laud's advice.  Who does not know the story of the cuttystool, thrown at the Dean of Edinburgh, in St. Giles' church, by
Jeannie Geddes, on the first reading of the English prayers in that
ancient cathedral? * Who does not know, moreover, how from
that moment Scottish episcopacy was rent to tatters? The whole
country flew to arms. Christ's crown and covenant headed every
array, or was lighted up by every watch-fire; and even Charles himself stood for a moment aghast at the consequences of his own stupendous'folly. But Charles was no yielder; and there was no
possibility of forcing into his mind anything like a sincere conviction that he had been in error. There was an Eve, too, standing
at his ear and strengthening his will whenever it was irresolute,
though in a manner altogether opposite to Pope's character of the
wise wife:
" She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
And, if she rules him, never shows she rules;"
for, when the king was somewhat undecided about seizing the five
members, the papistical Henrietta Maria said to him: "Go, you
poltroon, and pull these rogues out by the ears, or never see my
face any more! "  Whether under this influence or not, Charles
determined to maintain his ground; and, having dissolved parliament and thrown its leading members into prison, obtained from
convocation a large sum of money, to enable him to prosecute the
war against the Scots.  If anything were necessary to increase
*' For when a woman scolding mad is,
5We call her daft as Jenny Geddes."
This celebrated lady was, we fear, of no unspotted fame. The first actors in
reformation are usually to be distinguished from those whose principles prompt
the movement. Jenny G-eddes was only a forward expositor on this occasion
of a popular sentiment. The stool - or what is believed to be such - is still
preserved in the Museum of Antiquaries, Edinburgh.  It is a light kind of
camp-stool, bearing the date 1565. The prayer-book was called, in these
times, 1"the mass;" the surplice, "the sark of God." — See Minstrelsy ofthe
Scottish Border, vol. II., p. 167.




AIMINGS AT TIHE  MPOSSIBLE.              149
the odium of this illegal transaction, it was supplied by Laud, who
instigated the convocation to publish seventeen canons, one of
which required all clergymen to take an oath, which ran thus:
"' Nor will I ever give my consent to alter the government of this
church by archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, &c., as it
stands now established."  This pledge was called the "et-cetera
oath," and was signally offensive on two grounds: first, because it
demanded approval of the whole prelatical establishment; and,
secondly, because it was so indefinite that no man knew precisely
what he was required to swear.  But for refusing to take this
oath multitudes of worthy clergymen were reviled, fined, and
imprisoned.
Charles now marched to Scotland, to subdue his refractory subjects.  They, acting in correspondence with the patriot leaders in
England, marched across the border, and took possession of Newcastle.  The treaty of Ripon led to a temporary cessation of
hostilities.
On the 10th September, 1642, the prelatic form of church government was, by vote of parliament, abolished.  The oppressed
puritans had now removed from the position of sufferers into that
of law-makers.  How did they comport themselves in their altered
circumstances?
It is plainly impossible that the administration of religion, in an
ecclesiastical system, could have fallen into the hands of more sincere or of more spiritual men.  The quality of puritanical piety
was pure, - much purer than that which ordinarily demands the
respect of mankind. Their religion had been learned from no
authority, except a divine one. Nothing resembling its tone of
fervor had previously existed around them; and, in maintaining
it, they had adopted no fashion of the day.  Their professions had
been winnowed and tested by persecution,- had been often placed
in the crucible, or passed through the fire; and they possessed a
vitality which had cheered their companions, and often silenced
their very enemies. They had themselves suffered for heresy (as
it was termed by others); it was a just inference that they would




150              AIMINGS AT THE IIMPOSSIBLE.
understand how to behave to those who were heretics in their own
eyes.  They had proved, in their own unaltered convictions, that
the arm of power was too short to reach the inner man; and that
a creed became suspicious just in proportion as its adoption was
externally forced.  They had experience (in their own persons,
or in that of their forefathers) how HIenry VIII. had led the
nation away from  popery, and would have restored it to popery
(himself only wearing the tiara) again; they had bled under
Mary for being protestants at all, and under Elizabeth for being
protestants of any form  save one; they had, under James' and
Charles' rule, felt often convinced that, if the prelatical form. of
religion had been true, it would not have availed itself of such
inconclusive arguments as physical ones to support it; and now,
these men — men of an education fully equal to the mass of the
clergy in any age (perhaps superior to most ages) — these men,
whose deep and fervent piety thrilled through every fibre of their
nature, and had been attested by sacrifices of every possible
amount, -  men whose heartfelt sincerity and simplicity will in all
probability be felt, by means of their writings, to the end of time,
these men were permitted by Divine Providence to leap into
the chariot from which the unskilful and malignant drivers had
been just precipitated. And what was the course they pursued?
They altered the venue, but they kept the legislation; they changed
the hand, but they retained the sword; they mitigated the penalty, whilst, though the criminals were different, they yet pursued
the offence.  The consequence was, that they were preparing for
themselves a sad and desolating reiection, - a reiaction by which
laws, liberties, religion, were a second time thrown down; and
they added thus a new lesson to the many read before, - a lesson
the more forcible because we love and venerate the men from whose
mistake we have received it, - that force in religion makes slaves,
and never freemen; that the noblest forms of piety do not flourish in its atmosphere; and that religion is a thing which men
may embrace, but into which they will never be driven.  Let us
be wiser by the experience we have so disastrously gained!




AIMINGS AT TIIE IIMPOSSIBLE.               151
It is with a sad and shuddering heart that the true lover of
religious liberty follows the course of inconoclasticism pursued in
those days.  So flar as prelacy was a tyrannical and unjust usurpation over the rights of conscience, it deserved to be exterminated.
IHappy had it been if the consequences had stopped at this point!
Some considerable allowance might also be made, if the true protestants of that day believed that popery was not to be regarded as
a spiritual system alone, but as one which aimed at an unrighteous
temporal sovereignty.  But the desolation went much further.
It was not merely that they deprived bishops of their seats in
the House of'Peers, but it was that they proceeded against the persons of those who had been attached to prelacy with relentless
eagerness.  It was not merely tlat they took every precaution to
screen themselves from  the political rule of IRomanism; nor yet
was it that they removed from the army all Roeman Catholics, -  a
measure which was undoubtedly justified by the excitement of the
times.  But it was that they desired to seize the lands of popish
recusants, to execute bloody laws against priests, and to depress
and subject to penalties all forms of religion except their own.
In the mean time, an enthusiastic but senseless rage took possession of the public mind, which led to the extensive destruction
of ecclesiastical property.  Organs were pulled asunder; commnunion-plate was melted down; prayer-bookls were torn in pieces;
tombs were opened and despoiled; market crosses were pulled
down or defaced.>   2The commons sent commnissioners into the
counties, to remove froom  the churches altars, images, crucifixes,
and other idolatrous relics.  " In diverse churches," says Baillie,
"the people raised psalms to sing out the service; and in some
they pulled down the railles before the altars."  Doubtless these
excesses of popular feeling often went beyond the intentions of the
patriot leaders; but the prelatical party'was reaping only the harvest which Laud and Strafford had sown, though, unquestionably,
R "Paul's and Westminster," says Baillic, "are purged of their images and
organs, and all which gave offence. Mly Lord Miancihester made two fair bolnfires of such trinkets at (Ca!Iridg-e.o




152              AIMIINGS AT TIIE IMPOSSIBLE.
the proceedings were beneath the importance of the occasion, and
provoked, at a later period, a tremendous retaliation.  The true
quarrel was not with the prayer-book, but with its impositions.
In order to supplement prelacy, thus abolished, the Long Parliament issued an ordinance convening an assembly of divines, for
the purpose of effecting a reformation of religion. This measure
was dated June 12th, 1643. After declaring the purity of religion to be one of the greatest blessings, and reciting the act passed
for the abolition of the hierarchy, it convoked "all and every the
persons hereafter in this ordinance named, that is to say " (here
follow the names), "and such other persons as shall be nominated
and appointed by both houses of parliament," &c. &c., "to meet
and assemble at Westminster, in the chapel called King Henry
VII.'s Chapel, on the 1st July, 1643,"  *  *   "to confer and
treat among themselves of such matters and things touching the
liturgy, discipline and government of the Church of England, or
the vindicating and clearing of the same from all false aspersions
and misconstructions, as shall be proposed to them by both or
either of the said houses of parliament and no other, * * and
not to divulge by printing, writing, or otherwise, without the consent of both or either house of parliament." The same warrant
provided that WVm. Twisse, D. D., should occupy the chair, and
that four shillings per day should be allowed to each member for
his expenses.
The very constitution of the assembly proceeded upon confused
and imperfect views of the duties of the civil government in matters of religion.  Dr. Hetherington, the historian of the Free
Church, says, deliberately, " It may be said, with the most strict
propriety, that the native aim and tendency of the Westminster
Assembly was to establish the presbyterian government in England, the great body of Eiglish puritans having gradually become
presbyterians."'* Unquestionably it was. Nor can we claim for
any of the leading parties of that day the possession of a clear
* IHistory of the Westminster Assembly, p. 136.




AIMINGS AT TEIE IMPOSSTBLE.              153
understanding of voluntary religion.  It was deemed the duty of
the state to be religious.  It was, undoubtedly, the duty of every
man regulating the state to be such; for that is an obligation
which rests upon each member of the human family. But the
essence of the state, as an organized system, is force; and force
applied to religion neutralizes its whole character, which is the
voluntary surrender of the soul to God. Religion is an affair of
believed truths, of experimental conviction, of the practical exemplification of prescribed duties. The state has no soul to believe
the truths, to experience the convictions, or to practise the duties,
which religion involves.  "The circumstance of a state church
denies in principle, and compromises in fact, these sacred characteristics - namely, individuality and spontaneity —of every true
worship; it annihilates, as far as in it lies, the religious being; it
is not we, then, it is itself, which delivers to the state, under the
name of a complete man, a wreck, a caput morttunz of the human
being." *
In convening the assembly, the parliament authoritatively indicated the persons of whom it should be composed; though pains
were taken to secure a comprehension of men of a few different
shades of religious sentiment. Of Romanists, indeed, there were
none, and it was impossible that there should be.  NTor were
quakers and baptists represented in the convocation.  But summonses were addressed to moderate episcopalians,- that is, to those
who were not prominent among the ranks of the stronger prelatists; Erastians -that is, those who believed with Erastus, that the
ecclesiastical powers of a state should be altogether subordinated to
its civil apparatus - were also summoned, and a few of the most
eminent among the independents were nominated. But the majority of the assessors was composed of presbyterians.  The lords
were,- the Earls of Northumberland, Bedford, Pembroke and
MIonltgomery, Salisbury, Holland, Manchester, Say and Sele, Conway, Wharton and Howard.  Among the members of the Comn* Vinet on Separation of Church and State, chap. x.




154             AIMINGS AT TlHE IMPOSSIBLE.
mons were Selden, whose book on "Tithes" - published 1618had shown that tithes were not the property of the clergy by
divine right, but only by the law of the land, and who, for the
publication of that book, had been compelled, in James' day, to
make submission before the privy-council; one of  Hampden's
defenders in the matter of ship-money, a man of great learning,
who often told the divines, " Perhaps in your pocket-books with
gilt leaves the translation may be thus; but the Greek or the
1Hebrew signify thus and thus;" Sir H. Vane, senior, and his son,
- the former had been secretary of state to Charles I., the latter
had beenechosen governor of New England, a man of great ability,
quickness and versatility; apt to be led astray by quips and
crotchets, but a sincere lover of liberty, and a man of first-rate
eminence; Bulstrode A.Whitelocke, then member for Marlow,
afterwards ambassador to the Queen of Sweden, to whose " Memorials," though tinged with party spirit, we are indebted for much
information of the times; Oliver St. John, the celebrated defender
of Hampden, whose wife was mother of Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson;
and John Pym, who was, however, prevented by an untimely death
from taking his part as an assessor.
The presbyterian divines were very numerous. Among them
were Valentine, suspended for refusing to read "The Book of
Sports;" Stephen Marshall, father-in-law of Nye, a man of the
highest Christian eminence, a firm antagonist of the divine right
of' bishops, in opposition to which dogma, he had, with others,
drawn up a work entitled';Smectymnuus," an anagrammatic compound of the initials of its authors, S. 3P. (Marshall), E. C. (Calamy), T. Y. (Young), M. N. (Newcomen), W. S. (Spurstowe);
Thomas Case, who first set up the "3 Morning Exercises," and was
afterwards imprisoned for conspiracy against the parliament; Dr.
Gouge, an eminent theologian and practical writer; Dr. Reynolds,
subsequently Bishop of Norwich; Dr. Love, afterwards beheaded
for corresponding with Charles II.; Edward Calamy, a leading
minister of London; Dr. Spurstowe, one of the chaplains of the
lately-deceased Hampden, with many others.




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.             155
The Erastian party comprehended Thomas Coleman, Dr. Lightfoot, — a name in the highest -repute among scholars and critics, —
and some others.
The independents -a portion of whom  were designated, by
emphasis, " the five dissenting brethren "- were principally Dr.
Thomas Goodwin, of whom Owen said, "Nothing nor great, nor
considerable, nor someway eminent, is by any person spoken of
him, either consenting with him or differing from him," afterwards
president of Magdalen College, Oxford; Sydrach Simpson, a good
scholar; Jerenfiah Burroughes, author of a commentary on Hosea,
and remarkable for his gentle and pacific disposition; William
Bridge, once minister of the parish church at St. George's Tombland, Norwich, of whom, when he fled from persecution to Holland,
Laud said, " We are well rid of him! " the first pastor of a congregational church in Yarmouth; and Philip Nye, a man of remarkable learning, quickness and subtlety. "He left behind him," says
Dr. Calamy, " the character of a man of uncommon depth, who
was seldom, if ever, outreached." In addition to these "five," were
Caryl, author of the exposition of Job, and Greenhill, who wrote
the commentary on Ezekiel, and was, as evening preacher, called
" the evening-star of Stepney."
The episcopal party were prohibited by the king from taking
part in this assembly. Only one appeared, Dr. Featley. He was
subsequently accused of revealing the secrets of the assembly to
Archbishop Usher, and was expelled the convocation, and committed to prison. The places of the twenty-five who thus absented
themselves were, in the end, supplied by twenty-five others. The
usual attendance was between seventy and eighty. All these,
however, did not take part in the debates, which were usually
conducted by a few of the greatest eminence.
When the assembly met, a sermon was preached to them and to
a very large congregation, in the abbey church, Westminster, by
their prolocutor, Dr. Twisse.  They then adjourned to Henry
VII.'s Chapel. This was on Saturday, July 1st, 1643.
It is not wonderful if such a convocation drew forth expressions




156              AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.
of very diverse opinions as to its character and value. The king,
Laud  (then  in  prison), Clarendon, Eehard, all vehemently
denounced it.  Baxter says, " Being not worthy to be one " (of
the assembly) "myself, I may the more freely speak the truth,
even in the face of malice and envy; that, so far as I am able to
judge by the information of all history of that kind, and by any
other evidences left us, the Christian world, since the days of the
apostles, had never a synod of more excellent divines than this and
the synod of Dort."  Milton in the first instance applauded it;
but whei this very assembly denounced his " Treatise on Marriage
and Divorce," and caused him even to be summoned before the
iHouse of Lords, he saw reason to alter his conclusions.  Hall]am
speaks of the assembly as "equal in learning, good sense, and other
merits, to any lower house of convocation that ever made a figure
in England."
Unhappily, the authorized journal of the proceedings of this
assembly is irrecoverably lost.  Some say that it was burnt in the
fire of 1666; others, that it is still preserved in the library of Sion
College, London.  But there it is not to be found; and many
believe it to have been destroyed by the fire which consumed the
houses of parliament in 1834, having been carried there to assist
the inquiries of the commissioners into the question of Scottishl
patronage, which was then pending.  Certain it is, however, that
the only sources of information open to the public are the journals
of Baillie, one of the Scottish commissioners, and the other journal
kept by Dr. Lightfoot, one of the assembly.
The time at which this assembly is gathered together is very
critical. Essex is commander of the parliamentary forces; the
Earl of Manchester having direction over the eastern counties,
with Cromwell serving under him, but by no means relishing the
half-measures of his superior officer.  Strafford has been executed.
Laud is in the Tower, whence he will remove no more alive. The
battle of Newbury has been fought; but, out of the whole, it is
difficult to say whether the military advantage be on the side of
the king or of the parliament.  Charles is at Oxford, and the




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.               1.57
Scotch are summoning an army for a third expedition to England.
In the view of the Scottish people, much depends upon this army.
Independency has become, in their eyes, a very dangerous dogma;
but it must be borne with, they think, till their army shall advance,
and they shall be in a position to crush it.  Besides, bad as independency is, " we expect," says Baillie, " no small help from them
to abolish the great idol of England, the service-book."  And
again, "we did not much care for delays till the breath of our
army might blow upon us some more favor and strength.  So
that the independent party were but walking over concealed
ashes."
The labors of the assembly began upon the thirty-nine articles.
The first fifteen occupied them ten weeks, and gave them much
trouble.  As this assembly had. been originally called in compliance with the wishes of the Church of Scotland, one of the earliest
acts of the parliament, after its sitting, was to send a deputation
across the border, to solicit the presence in the convocation of
Scottish commissioners. The embassy on this occasion consisted
of the Earl of Rutland for the lords; Sir W. Armyn, Sir Harry
Vane, jr., MIr. Hatcher and Mr. Darley, from the commons; and
Mr. Marshall and Mr. Nye, from the assembly of divines. Baillie,
principal of the university of Glasgow, gives us a graphic account
of the whole transactions.
Nye, it appears, was very unacceptable, beforehand, to the Scottish assembly.  "M{ir. Marshall will be most welcome, but if Mr.
Nye, the head of the independents, be his fellow, we cannot take
it well."* There was considerable delay during the sittings of
the assembly before the English envoys arrived.  "We were
ashamed with waiting." " We had our first session in a little
roome of the east church," (qu. of St. Giles?) "which is very
handsomelie dressed for our assemblies in all time coming."  Some
of the business which occupied the body is mournfully characteristic of the times.  " Upon the regrate " (regret?) " of the extra* Baillie's Letters to Spang, July 26, 1643: and Sept. 22, 1643.
14




158             AIMIINGS AT TIIE IMPOSSIBLE.
ordinar multiplying of witches, above thirtie being burnt in Fife in
a few months, a committee was appointed to thinke on that'sinne,
the way to search and cure it."
At length the English commissioners land in a "strong vessel,"
appointed for the voyage, at Leith.  "The lords went and convoyed them up in coatch.  We were exhorted to be more grave
than ordinaire; and so, indeed, all was carried to the end with
much more awe and gravity than usual."  These messengers
brought, it appears, very urgent letters from England, which made
mention of the doubtful position in which the parliament stood, and
requested help from the Scotch. " The letter of the private divines
was so lamentable, that it drew tears from many."  " The English
were for a civill league, we for a religious covenant.  Wvhen they
were brought to us in this (and Mr. Jiendersone had given them
a draught of a covenant, we were not like to agree on the frame),
they were more nor we could assent to for keeping of a doore
open in England to independencie. Against this we were peremptor."  "In none of our brethren appears as yet the least inclination to independencie."
After much debate, the SOLEMN LACUE' AND COVENANT, framed
by Henderson, moderator of the assembly, was agreed to by the
English commissioners, and passed, not without considerable misgiving, we may imagine, on the part of Philip Nye.  The times
were, it must be perceived, uncommonly difficult.  Without the
aid of the Scottish army, it was manifestly impossible that the
parliament could make head against the king; and every circumstance concurs to prove that the independent party, pressed by the
exigencies of the times, yielded in this affair their better judgment.  As it was, an opportunity of the most extensive usefulness
was lost, never to be regained; and in pledging themselves to the
Scottish covenant, men were abandoning the high principles of
liberty for which the war with the king had been undertaken,
were weaving extensive snares for men's consciences, and were
arming the civil government with a power too soon to be directed
against themselves.




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.               159
Something, at least, which Nye said or did on this occasion,
appears to have given no little offence.
" The Sabbath before noon, in the new church, we heard Mr.
Marshall preach with great contentment; but, in the afternoon, in
the Grey Friars, Mr. Nye did not please.  His voice was clamorous; he touched, neither in prayer or preaching, the common
bussinesse."  That is, he did not preach about the covenant.  "He
read much out of his paper book. All his sermon was on the
common head of a spiritual life; wherein he ran out above all our
understandingsi, upon a knowledge of God, as God, without the
Scripture, without grace, without Christ.  They say he amended
it somewhat the next Sabbath."*  This covenant, thus agreed
upon, was sent in 5" a ketch   to London, where it occasioned no
little difficulty. In the assembly of divines, all seemed to have
approved it, except Burgess.t  He, we are told, " did doubt for one
night." About this time a mob besieged the House of Commons,
demanding peace with the king on any terms; and some of the
lords, who were adverse to the proceedings of the parliament,
"stole away."  "Siurely," says Baillie, " it was a great act of
faith in God, and huge courage, and unheard-of compassion, that
moved our nation to hazard their own peace, and venture their
lives and all for to save a people irrecoverablie ruined, both in
their owne, and all the world's eyes."
The scene now changes to St. Margaret's Church, Westminster,
which the reader may remember to be a parochial edifice, standing
by the side of the great abbey.  The whole assembly of divines,
together with the House of Commons, here met with the Scottish
commissioners, among their number Henderson, Lord MIaitland
(subsequently Lord Lauderdale), and Gillespie.  To these were
$ Baillie's Letter to Spang, Sept. 22, 1643.
" A wretch," says Dr. Lightfoot, speaking of Burgess and his opposition,
"that ought to be branded to all posterity, who seeks, for some devilish ends
either of his own or others, or both, to hinder so great a good of the two
nations.




160              AIMINGS AT THE IMBPOSSIBLE.
added, at a later period, Archibald Johnston, of W}arrington, a
victim, in later days, of Lord Lauderdale's barbarity; Samuel
Rutherford, largely known by his religious and devotional works;
and Robert Baillie, afterwards Principal of Glasgow, to whose letters we are mainly indebted for our information of the period.
After solemn prayer, Nye ascended the pulpit, and addressed the
audience in a prolonged speech, in which he exhibited the scriptural authority for covenants, and dilated on their advantages.
Henderson followed, in a shorter speech, but one described as possessing'"great dignity and power."  Nye then read the covenant.
The document is too long to be here quoted at large, but its contents are well known. It was a pledge that those entering into it
would preserve " the reformed religion in the Church of Scotland,
in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government; " and would
"endeavor to bring the churches of God in the three kingdoms to
the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion; " that they would
" endeavor the extirpation of popery, prelacy, superstition, heresy,
schism, profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found contrary to
sound doctrine and the power of godliness; " that they would
preserve the rights of the parliament, the liberties of the kingdom,
and the king's majesty; that they would endeavor to discover
malignants, and those who hindered the reformation of religion;
that they would be at peace with each other; and that they would
amend their lives, and give an example of real reformation.
"' And this covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God,
the searcher of hearts, with a true intention to perform the same,
as we shall answer at that great day, when the secrets of all hearts
shall be disclosed," &c. &c. At the end of each clause of this
covenant, the whole assembly arose and lifted up their right hand
to heaven.  They afterwards appended, in the chancel, their
names to the oath.  The covenant was afterwards taken by both
houses of parliament, and by various congregations in and around
London.  The House of Commons ordclained that it should be
sworn to by all persons in England above the age of eighteen; and
that those who refused to take it should be disqualified from




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.              161
becoming common councilmen of the city, or from voting for such
officers. It was a part of the conditions necessary for ordination,
and for holding any post, military or civil.  The historian of the
free church says that the league and covenant was too good for the
age. We believe the garment to have been too small to be adapted
to men whose opinions must necessarily differ. It was like a
straight waistcoat upon energetic spiritual action. Men will never
go to solemn leagues and covenants again.  Religion proved incomprehensible by such a mould; - not worldly enough for a machine
of state, and& not spiritual enough for earnest and heaven-born
men, it exploded in the hands of its workmen, and hundreds of
them were wounded by its fragments.
The first place in which this assembly met was Henry VII.'s
Chapel at Westminster.  As the winter came on, they transferred
their sittings to a less splendid, but more venerable and more convenient apartment.
The visitor to the abbey who stands at its western front, opposite to the two towers erected by Wren, may mark a small knot
of buildings, insignificant when compared with the church itself,
abutting on the south tower. One of these, the window of which
is defended by wire, still bears the name of the Jerusalem  chamber.  It was erected in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard I.
The chamber is thirty-eight fbet long and nineteen broad, with a
coved ceiling, and a handsome mantel-piece of cedar, erected in
the reign of James I. Its side-walls exhibit some old tapestry
hangings, removed from  the choir of the abbey, and a curious
painting of Richard II.; a colored window mitigates and tinges
the light of day. The room is memorable as the death-place of
Henry IV., who, when preparing for a voyage to the Holy Land,
was taken sick whilst worshipping at the shrine of St. Edward.
" He became so syke," says Fabian, " while he was makynge his
prayers, to take there his leve, and so to spede hym upon his journeye, that such as were aboute him feryd that he would have dyed
right there; wherefore they, for his comforte, bare hym into the
abbot's place and lodged him in a chamber, and there, upon a pay



162               AIMIN~S AT TIHE IbMIPOSSIBLE.
let, leyde him before the fyre."  HIe asked where lie was, and on
being told the Jerusalem Chamber, he imagined it to be the fulfilment of a previous prophecy that he should die in Jerusalem.
"Laud be to Heaven - even there my life must end.
It hath been prophesied to me many years
I should not die but in Jerusalem,
Which vainly I supposed the Holy Lanl  "
SIIAKSPEARE, Her'y IF., Part II.
It was' in this chamber, also, that Addison's body lay in state
before his funeral in Westminster Abbey.
JERUSALEM CHAMBER.
Baillie, one of the Scottish commissioners, now arrived in London, shall himself describe the assembly as it sat in this building:
"At the one end nearest the door, and along both sides, are
stages of seats, as in the new assembly house at Edinburgh, but not
so high; for there will be room but for five or six score.  At the
uppermost end there is a chair set on a frame, a foot from  the
earth, for the IMr. Prolocutor, Dr. Twisse.  Before it, on the
ground, stand two chairs for the two Mr. Assessors, Dr. Burgess
and MlIr. White. Before these two chairs, through the whole




AIMINGS AT THlE IMPOSSIBLE.             163
length of the room, stands a table, at which sit the two scribes.
*-  *  Opposite the table, upon the prolocutor's right hand, there
are three or four ranks of benches.  On the lowest we five do sit.
Upon the other, at our backs, the members of parliament deputed to
the assembly.  On the benches opposite to us, on the prolocutor's
left hand, going from the upper end of the house to the chimney,
and at the other end of the house and back of the table, till it
come about to our seats, are four or five stages of benches, upon
which their divines sit as they please: albeit, commonly they keep
the same place.  From the chimney to the door there are no
seats, but a void space for passage. The lords of the parliament
use to sit on chairs, in that void, about the fire.  Wye meet every
day of the week but Saturday.  We sit commonly from nine till
one or two afternoon.'  e  No man is called up to speak; but
whosoever stands up of his own accord speaks as long as he will
without interruption.  *   *   They study the questions well
beforehand, and prepare their speeches; but withal the men are
exceedingly prompt and well-spoken.  I do marvel at the very
accurate and extemporal replies that many of them usually make."
At this period the Scottish commissioners were the lions of London.  They were fkted, consulted with the utmost deference, and
their preaching was attended by such crowds, that many retired
unable to obtain an entrance.
Soon after the assembly of divines was constituted, it, with the
members of both houses of parliament, was invited to a great feast
by the Lord IMayor and Sheriffs at " Taylor's Hall."  This was a
grand occasion.  A sermon of thanksgiving was preached in the
morning by Stephen Marshall.  The guests then walked in procession to Taylor's Hall in the following order: first, the common
council in their gowns; next, the mayor and aldermen in scarlet
on horseback.  After these the general, admiral and lords, with
officers of the army, on foot.  Then followed the House of Commons and the assembly of divines.  It was arranged that the Scottish commissioners should come between the commons and the
assembly; " but," says one of them, "my Lord Maitland being




164             AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.
drawn away to the lords, and we not loving to take our place
before all the divines of England, stole away to our coatch; and
when there was no way for coatches, for throng of people, we
went on foot, with great difficultie, through hudge crowdings of
people.  While all past throu Cheapside, there was a great bonfyre kindled, where the rich Cross wont to stand, of manie fyne
pictures of Christ and the saints, of relieks, beads, and such trinkets. The feast was great, valued at four thousands pounds sterling;
yet had no desert, nor musick, but drums and trumpets.  In the
great laigh hall were four tables for the lords and commons. The
mayor at the head of the chiefe in ane upper roome. Two long
tables for the divines; at the head of the which we were sett,
with their proloquutor. All was concluded with a psalme, whereof
Dr. Burgess read the line.  There was no excess in any we heard
of.  The speaker of the commons house drank to the lords, in
name of all the commons of England. The lords stood all up,
everie one with his glass, for they represent none but themselves,
and drank to the commons.  The mayor drank to both in name of
the citie.  The sword-bearer, with his strong cap of maintainance
still fixed on his head, came to us with the mayor's drink." d
WVe have seen that ten weeks were spent by this assembly in
discussing the thirty-nine articles.  Before, however, this debate
was ended, an order came from both houses of parliament requesting their immediate attention to the subjects of discipline and a
directory of worship. This was in reality the great purpose of
their meeting.  After a day of solemn fasting and prayer, they
agreed to take up the subject of church government; and, to
avoid any unnecessary differences of opinion at the outset, they
began with church officers.  Various debates followed, in the midst
of which the parliament, embarrassed by these delays, sent a message requesting a speedy decision respecting two points, - the ordination of ministers and induction into vacant benefices.  (It was
now October.)  Ministers, regular and irregular, deprived by the
* Baillie, Feb. 18, 16C14.




AIMINGS AT THlE IMPOSSIBLE.             165
tyranny of Laud, were starving, and asked to be replaced or maintained; and the great difficulty pressed upon the assembly how to
deal with those whom they might account regular, so as not to do
flagrant injustice to those whose tenets they accounted heretical.
An impossible equation truly! though some attempt was made to
solve it. Then came the questions of ordination and discipline,
debates on which lasted till the end of the year. Parliament
became more impatient; the assembly was required to make more
haste! But this was not so easy. A body of independents, consisting of Philip Nye, Thomas Goodwin, D.D. (not to be confounded
with John Goodwin), Sydrach Simpson, Jeremiah Burroughes, and
William  Bridge (called "the five dissenting brethren"), with a
few others, proved themselves, according to the views of the Scottish commissioners, extremely troublesome and pertinacious.  It
was April before the assembly, having long dwelt upon the doctrinal part of ordination, came to consider the manner in which
it should be conducted.  When this was settled by a majority of
votes, and the report presented to parliament, that superior assembly altered certain parts of it likely to prove offensive to the leading sectaries, and sent it back amended to the assembly, who
refused to receive it.  The remnonstrances of the convocation caused
it to be restored to the condition in which they had presented it;
and it thus became the law of the land, a committee being appointed for the ordination of ministers, consisting of ten of the
assembly with thirteen city ministers.
But rocks and quicksands of every variety yet beset the course
of these theological navigators, sailing in search of a land of happy
uniformity. Defeated in voting, the independent party made use
of the press.  "Foreseeing," says Baillie, " they behoved ere long
to come to the point, they put out, in print, on a sudden, an Apologetical Narration of their way, which long had lain ready beside
them, wherein they petition the parliament, in a most sly and cunning way, for a toleration; and withal lend too bold wipes to all
the reformed churches, as imperfect yet in their reformation, till
their new model be embraced." In this publication, undeserving




166              AIMINGS AT TIIE IMPOSSIBLE.
Of Baillie's censure, the writers state their own sufferings for the
sake of the truth; avow their wish to stand only by the WVord of
Godl; acknowledge " multitudes of the assemblies and parochial
congregations" (of the Church of England) to be "the true
churches and body of Christ, and the ministry thereof to be a
true ministry," " and that they had held, and would hold, communion with them  as the churches of Christ," &c.  Calm and
dignified as this publication was, it irritated the opposite party
almost into frenzy, and upon this rock the whole vessel afterwards
became irrecoverably stranded.  A  sharp  and somewhat acrimonious conflict began, in the midst of which, the battle of Marstonmoor having been now gained, an order of the commons reached
the assembly, " to refer to the committee of both kingdoms the
accommodation or toleration of the independents." " This," says
Baillie, "is the fruit of their disservice, to obtain really an act of
parliament for their toleration, before we have got anything for
presbytery, either in assembly or parliament."
It is evident that, however defective the viewsof the independents might be, they were considerably in advance of the assembly
in general.  Yet they distinctly acknowledged the power of the
magistrate in backing the sentences of the various churches, and
say that to hold an exemption from  the power of the civil magistrate is dishonorable to Christianity; whilst they disclaimed the
notion of a national church in any other sense than as a collection
of individual congregational bodies,* and claimed the right of
"gathering churches," though out of the members of other communions,- a demand necessarily fatal to the scheme of a general
uniformity.  Such were the views propounded in the "Apologetical Narration."
To follow the debates of this famous convocation through all the
points which came under its notice is, within our limits, impossible.
Cynically enough, yet truly, Carlyle thus describes it: " Uniformity of free-growing, healthy forest-trees is good; uniformity of
* Hetherington's Westminster Assembly, p. 201.




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSB1LE.              167
clipt Dutch-dragons is not so good! The question, Which of the
two? is by no means settled,- though the assembly of divines
and majorities of both houses would fain think it so.  The general
English mind, which, loving good order in all things, loves regularity even at a high price, could be content with this presbyterian
scheme, which we call the Dutch-dragon one; but a deeper portion
of the English mind inclines decisively to growing in the foresttree way,- and, indeed, will shoot out into very singular excrescences, quakerisms, and what not, in the coming years.  Nay,
already we have anabaptists, Brownists, sectaries and schismatics,
springing tip very rife; already there is a Paul Best, brought before
the House of Commons for Socinianism; nay, we hear of another
distracted individual, who seemed to maintain, in confidential argument, that  God was mere reason.' There is like to be need of
garden-shears, at this rate! The devout House of Commons, viewing these things with a horror inconceivable in our loose days,
knows not well what to do. London city cries — Apply the
shears!'- the army answers,' Apply them gently; cut off nothing
that is sound.' The question of garden-shears, and how far you are
to apply them, is really difficult;- the settling of it will lead to
very unexpected results.  London city knows with pain that there
are'many persons in the army who have never yet taken the
covenant,' the army begins to consider it unlikely that certain of
them ever will take it."' *
It is very clear that in this assembly the independent party
argued for a more complete toleration than had been yet seen, or
than their opponents were at all willing to grant.  "People in the
country," - as distinguished from those in London, - says Baillie,
" complained that the assembly did cry down the truth with votes,
and was but an anti-christian meeting, which would soon erect a
presbytery worse than bishops." Nye contended strongly against
presbyterial church government.  Baillie says, " The day following, when he saw the assembly full of the prime nobles and chief
members of both houses, he did fall upon the argument again, and
~ Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. i., pp. 341, 342.




168              AIMIINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.
boldly offered to demonstrate that our way of drawing a whole
kingdom under one national assembly was formidable, yea, pernicious, and thrice over pernicious to civil states and kingdoms. All
cried him  down, and some would have had him  expelled the
assembly as seditious."  Again, " Our next work is to give our
advice what to do for the suppression of anabaptists, antinomians,
and other sectaries."  "The independents, in their last meeting of
our grand committee of accommodation, have expressed their desires
for toleration, not only to themselves, but to other sects."
It is equally clear, however, that the toleration which these five
"dissenting brethren" advocated so strongly was not a perfect
equality in matters of religious opinion.
In a treatise entitled " Irenicum; to the Lovers of Truth and
Peace," written evidently after these agitations of this Westminster
Assembly, Jeremiah Burroughes (one of the five) says:
"But for all that hath been said, are there not yet a sort of
men who though they would colour over things, and put faire
glosses upon their opinion and wayes, saying they would not have
such an absolute liberty as to have all religions suffered, yet doe
they not come near this in their tenets and practice?  Doe not
men in a congregational way take away all ecclesiastical means that
should hinder such an absolute liberty as this? for they hold,
every congregation hath sole power within itself, and they are not
tyed to give any account to others, but merely in an arbitrary
way. Will not thlis bring in a toleration of all religions, and a
very anarchy?
"First: I know none holds this; and how farre men in a congregationall way are from it shall appear presently."  He then
shows " wherein consists the power of the magistrate in matters
of religion," and that " they which are for a congregationall way
doe not hold absolute liberty for all religions."  He adduces the
examples of Jewish worship, in support of the doctrine that it is
the province of the magistrate to interpose, though not in all
cases; and says, "I doe not in these deliver only mine owne
judgement, but by what I know of the judgements of all those




AI~MINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.                169
brethren with whom  I have occasion to converse by conference,
both before and since: I stand charged to make it good to be their
judgments also; yea, it hath been both their's and mine for divers
years," * &c.  This, from  one of the " five brethren," is surely
decisive.
Some of the mistakes on this point have evidently arisen from
confounding the name of Dr. Thomas Goodwin with that of John
Goodwin, of Coleman Street. The latter published a work arising
out of the "Apologetical Narration," which proves him, says Baillie,
"to be a bitter enemie to presbytery, and to be openly for a full
liberty of conscience to all sects, even Turks, Jews, papists."
Again: "The independents here, finding they have not the magistrate so obsequious as in New England, turn their penns, as you
will see in MS." (John Goodwin), " to take from  the magistrate
all power of taking any coercive order with the vilest heretics.
Not only they praise your magistrate, who for secret policie gives
some secret tollerance to diverse religions, wherein, as I conceive,
your divines preache against them as great sinners; but avows by
God's command, the magistrate is discharged to put the least discourtesie on any man, Turk, Jew, papist, Socinian, or whatever,
for his religion.  I wish Apollonius f considered this well.  The
five he writes to will not say this; but MS. (John Goodwin) is
of as great authoritie here as any of them." T
In a work published by Baillie, a year or two later, he refers to
the same John Goodwin's " Theomachia," and quotes the following
passage:
" Concerning other civil means for the suppression and restraint
of these spiritual evils, errours, heresies, &c., as imprisonment,
banishment, interdictions, fineings, &c., both reason and experience
concur in this demonstration, that sxuch fetters as these, put on the
x Burroughes' Irenicum, pp. 18, 44.
t Apollonius wrote a book entitled " A. Consideration of Certain Controversies
agitated in the Kingdom of England;" he sent from the Wallachian churches
to declare the sense and consent of their churches to the Synod at London, 1645.
$ Baillie's Letters.
15




170               AIMINGS AT TIIE IMPOSSIBLE.
feet of errors and heresies, to secure and keep them under, still
have proved wings whereby they raise themselves the higher in
the thoughts and minds of men, and gain an opportunity of further
propagation."
So far was the generality, even of men of the most expanded
minds, from apprehending the true principles of religious freedom
at this period, that Milton himself, though a noble defender of
religious toleration in general, places exceptions to its universal
extension, and regards Romanism and idolatry as not to be comprised inmits benefits.*   The exceptions taken in those days excite
our regret, rather than our wonder.  Sir H-Iarry Vane, taught by
Roger Williams, appears to have been the only one in the assembly
who assserted anything like consistent sentiments.  Ie pleaded
for " a full libertie of conscience to all religions," and opposed the
clause which required subscription to the covenant before ordination.t To the anabaptists, as they were then termed, the high
praise is due, that at this period and before it they had been clear
in the principle, " that it is not only unmerciful, but unnatural and
abominable, yea, monstrous, for one Christian to vex and destroy
another for difference on questions of religion." $ They asked again,
" Whether it be not better for us that a patent were granted to
monopolize all the cloth and corn, and to have it measured out unto
us, at their price and pleasure, which were yet intolerable, as for
some men to appoint and measure out to us what and how much
we shall believe and practise in matters of religion?"  "If the
magistrate must punish errors in religion, whether it does not
impose a necessity that the magistrate have a certainty of knowledge in all intricate cases? And whether God calls such to that
place whom  he hath not furnished with abilities for that place?
And if a magistrate in darkness, and spiritually blind and dead, be
" See John Milton: a Biography. By Cyrus R. Edmonds.
f Baillie, Oct. 25, 1644.
4 Religion's Peace; or, a Plea for Liberty of Conscience. Published 1646,
with a preface to the presbyterian reader.




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.               171
fit to judge of light, of truth, and error? And whether such be
fit for the place of the magistracy? " *
Such are specimens of the kind of questions addressed by baptists to the consideration of the Assembly of Divines, at the period
of which we write.
It is scarcely surprising that, among the most grievous heresies
of the day, anabaptism was hence regarded as of singular malignity.
The following extract from a title-page of the period will speak
for itself:
ANABAPTISME THE TRUE FOUNTAINE
INDEPENDEPENDENCY ANTINOMY
BROWNISIE         F { TAMILIS3M.&ND THE MOST OF THE OTHER ERgROIS
WHICH FOR THE TIME DOE TROUBLE
TILE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, UNSEALED,
&c., &c.n &c.,
BY ROBERT BAILLIE, MINISTER AT GLASGOW.
1647.
This work, dedicated to "' the Right Hon. the Earl of Lauderdail" and others, is an attempt to confound the anabaptists of that
day with the abettors of the outrages and abominations of Miinster.
One of their enormities is thus held up to horror, -" They are a
people very zealous of liberty, and most unwilling to be under the
bondage of any other."
It is easy to charge upon the independent members of this
Westminster Assembly factiousness and crotchetiness.  It is intimated by the free-church historian, Dr. Hetherington, that Nye
and his brethren were introduced by the intrigues of Cromwell
purposely to thwart the progress of the deliberations. But this is
entirely gratuitous.  The fact evidently was, that the men who had
originally met to promote a protestant uniformity found themselves
~ Necessity of Toleration in lmatters of Religion: Certain Questions proposed
to the Synod, &c. By Samuel Richardson, 1617.




172              AIMINGS AT TiHE IMPOSSIBLE.
further and further, as the discussion advanced, from  the object
they sought.  The justice of differing claims opposed the course
they had at first meditated. Experience taught them truth; they
found that they themselves were on the brink of exclusion, as
afterwards happened, from  the new establishment; and they
plainly saw what disastrous effects would follow, if the " sectarian "
parties, now increased and increasing, were excluded by the parlianent they were even now in arms to support.  They had aimed to
form an establishment, based, to some extent, on the voluntary
consent of differing parties.  It was like extracting "sunbeams
from  cucumbers."  The effort dislocated the puritan party; the
presbyterians, resolved to have their doctrine and discipline, seized
the earliest period possible, and brought in their covenanted king!
The history of what the Westminster Assembly, or rather the
parliament under their guidance, did accomplish, must be briefly
told.  They suppressed the liturgy, - forbade the use of the common-prayer in public or in private, under the penalty of five
pounds for the first offence, ten pounds for the second, and a year's
imprisonment for the third.  They set up a directory for public
worship, according to the presbyterial model, including sitting at
the communion, and burying without the necessity of a religious
ceremony; and imposed a fine on those who did not observe this
directory, of forty shillings, whilst such as should " preach, write,
or print anything in derogation of it," forfeited a sum of not less
than five pounds, nor more than twenty pounds.  They ordered
all prayer-books found in churches to be disposed of according to
the pleasure of parliament.  They enforced the observance of the
Sabbath, ordaining " That no person, without cause, shall travel, or
carry a burden, or do any worldly labor, upon penalty of ten
shillings for the traveller, and five shillings for every burden;"
and " if children are found offending in the premises, their parents
and guardians to forfeit twelve pence for every offence." *  They
put down the observance of Christmas, by a special decree, which
commanded a fast in its stead; they determined "what degrees
* Neal, chap. Iv.




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.              173
of knowledge in the Christian religion were necessary to qualify
persons for the communion, and what sorts of scandal deserved
suspension or excommunication." They passed a presbyterian
form of church government, " as narrow," says Neal, "as the prelatical; and as it did not allow a liberty of conscience, claiming a
civil as well as ecclesiastical authority over men's persons and
properties, it was equally, if not more insufferable."* The
Assembly of Divines claimed presbyterian government as a divine
right, and, therefore, independent of parliamentary control; but
this the parliament would not acknowledge. The same assembly
denied the right of the independents to form separate congregations,
till they forced the moderate Burroughes to declare, on behalf of
the independents, that, "if their congregations might not be
exempted from the coercive power of the classes, if they might
not have liberty to govern themselves in their own way as long as
they behaved peaceably towards the civil magistrate, they were
resolved to suffer, or go to some other place of the world, where
they might enjoy their liberty."  Prynne himself, the victim of
Laud, declared, "that if the parliament and synod establish presbytery, the independents and all others are bound to submit, under
pain of obstinacy."  But the debate on this subject was never
ended.  They imprisoned one of their own members, Dr. Featley,
as a spy, mainly for his attachment to the Church of England,
sequestrated his livings, and he died in their hands.  They
demanded of the king that he would sign the covenant; confirm
the proceedings of the Assembly of Divines; establish an oath
whereby papists should be required to renounce the pope's supremacy, provide for the education of the children of papists by protestants, prevent the hearing of mass, enforce the observance of the
Lord's day, and declare those who had taken arms against the
parliament incapable of preferment or employment, without consent
of the houses of legislature, -the king intriguing, in the mean
time, with the independents on the one hand, and the presbyterians
on the other.  They abolished " archbishops and bishops, and for-,Neal, chap. vI.
15>"




174              AIMINGS AT THE IMIPOSSIBLE.
bade their ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or the use of their titles."
They denounced lay-preachers, and published an ordinance to prevent " the growth of errors, heresies and blasphemies;" they authorized the larger and shorter catechisms, and confession of faith, and
Rouse's metrical Psalms; they declared stage-players punishable
as rogues, and decreed that they should be publicly whipped, whilst
all spectators should be fined five shillings for every offence; they
proclaimed that any person holding certain heresies, - atheism,
Socinianism, universalism, free-will, qualerisin, &c., - should be,
for some offences, committed to prison, and, unless he abjured,
should suffer the pains of death; whilst for others, he should be
imprisoned till he found sureties that he would maintain such
doctrines no more! Such was presbyterian uniformity!
Many baptists were exposed — among them Ilanserd Knollys —
to severe persecutions, were stoned, fined, imprisoned and outraged.
The sufferings of the episcopal clergy were great. Provision was,
indeed, made for them out of the sales of lands heretofore in the
possession of bishops and chapters of cathedrals, and from a fifth of
tithes and livings; but the allowance became difficult, and, from
their suspected monarchical tendencies, dangerous to be procured.
The course taken against Roman Catholics was even more severe.
Such were the fruits of a national establishment which, in the
first instance, presbyterians and independents had united to form!
The lamentable result shows that the evils of persecution are not
justly chargeable upon any mere opinions, whether episcopalian or
any other, but upon the principle of state-alliance itself.  That
involves so monstrous an injustice, as to metamorphose the best of
men into the most unrelenting.  Laud himself, when his actions
are fairly put by the side of his principles, was not so bad as he
seemed; and it was not wonderful that these really good men
should, when judged by the same standard as that which was
applied to him, appear, though none ever less deserved the charge,
self-seekers and hypocrites.  It is the infallible effect of power
used for spiritual purposes, that it contaminates and degrades the
men who use it. We can no more apologize for the conduct of the




AIMINGS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE.              175
Long Parliament, than we can for the burning of Servetus, the
sufferings of Bartholomew-day, or the horrors of the inquisition.
The degrees of penalty might differ; the substantial principle was
the same.
The assembly of divines dwindled away, after the business of the
committee of accommodation, till the death of the king.  A fiagment of it remained after that period, for the examination of ministers.  The dissolution of the Long Parliament was at hand, and
the convocation perished with it. It was high time!
The Earl of 3Manchester was deputed by the I-louse of Lords, at
some time hereafter, to congratulate Charles II. on his return.
Philip Nye was very prominent in political movements during'the period of the commonwealth.  When commissioners were
appointed to treat with the king in the Isle of Wight, Nye was
one of their chaplains; and when the citizens of London were
actively endeavoring to procure a treaty with the king, he endeavored by a counted-petition to prevent it. Nye was one of the Triers
for appointing ministers, and is represented as having a living at
Acton, and lectures in Westminster and London. I-e opposed the
return of Charles, and it was for some time questioned whether he
should be excepted from the king's indulgence.  Nye drew up a
complete history of the old puritan dissenters, but the manuscript
was burnt in the fire of London.  After the Restoration, he
preached to a church who met chiefly in private houses, till the
indulgence granted by Charles II.  I-e died in September, 1672,
aged seventy-six, and was buried in St. AMichael's, Cornhill.
JENNY GEDDES' CUTTY STOOL,




CHIAPTEiR VI.
THE CROWNLESS MONARCHI.
" iStrongest of mortal men!
$   t Iis fiery virtue roused
From under ashes into sudden flame! "
Sanson Agoesistes.
UNTINGDON. — THE'BIRTH-PLACE OP CROMIWELL.
THE  "whirigig of time," which  "brings about its reVnges,"
has within the last two years restored the town of Huntingdon to
its ancient place on the great north road. W~hen stage-coaches
began to mend their pace, and to cease to stop on their journey, it




TIHE CROWNLESS MONARCH.                177
was of some consequence to avoid the angle which the road made
at that point, and Huntingdon was dispossessed of its pride of
place, till the Great Northern Railway was recently brought
through it. Yet Huntingdon boasts of some antiquity. It was
one of the head-quarters of the Iceni, -possibly of the ancient
British queen, Boadicea, herself; its " castle hills" were probably
the site of the fortress which gave to the Duriliponte of Antoninus,
afterwards called, in Saxon, Godmanchester (Good-man's-castle),
its importance; and its name occurs in Saxon chronicles as Huntandene, and sometimes as Huntantum.  Henry of Huntingdon
lived here, and Edward the Elder rebuilt, near the town, a castle
given by Stephen to David, Earl of Huntingdon and King of Scotland, of which the intrenchments remain, though the building was
destroyed by Henry IL, as affording too safe a retreat to his disaffected barons.  In subsequent times, when the steam-engine was
a mere toy in the hands of the Marquis of Worcester, when delays
in travelling were, as much sought as they are now avoided, that
passengers might repose their bodies, bruised by the jolting and illmanaged roads, and refresh their exhausted frames; when night
journeys were full of dangers, and the passage from York to London was measured but by days; lHuntingdon formed a convenient
resting-place, and abounded in inns, after the model then most
approved, replete with all conveniences which the luxury of the
times could furnish.
Huntingdon has now lost much of its ancient prestige. Its
monasteries are dismantled, and their localities almost unknown:
instead of the fifteen churches once standing in it, it now boasts
only two; and the hospitals which formerly distinguished it have
altogether disappeared. Nor will the traveller be attracted to the
town by any very picturesque environs.  On one side of the river
Ouse, there are, indeed, gentle and agreeable undulations, though
they are deserving of no higher name, and the foliage of several
respectable trees is full and luxuriant.  But the traveller who
stands on the ancient bridge with his back to the town, and looks




178               TiE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
out on the expanse before him, may begin to understand what is
meant by the phrase, so mysterious to the uninitiated, the fens.
Hle will see a kind of Sahara, in which the fault, however, is not
too little water, but too much, and out of which a few distant
churches stand up as land-marks. Through this level the river
"creeping like snail," slowly saunters along; and if its waters do
contrive to reach the sea near Lynn, it is by dint of more means
and appliances than we can now stay to record. It was some similar region to that now within sight that a celebrated preacher
called " the focus of suicides;" and the few willows scattered in
groups over the wide flat correspond sufficiently to his similitude
of " nature hanging out signals of distress."  Certainly, if there
be any poetry on this side of the town, it is such as only Cowper,
who for some time resided here, could have found; and but that
" the blue sky," always beautiful, " bends over all," one may well
wonder at the interest awakened in some whom we have known
by the view. If great thoughts have ever come into minds in this
region, they must have arisen from interior inspiration, not by any
natural and obvious association with the scenes themselves.  But
one great name is prominent in the history of this heretofore
celebrated town, a name long cast out as worthless, but now
believed to be not wholly a lie; and the whole region is memorable for having produced a phenomenon, regarded once as a mere
flashing meteor which had passed away into darkness, but now,
in spite of Heylins and Clarendons, and Heaths and Hunmes;
and house-of-parliament decorators, proved to have had an orbit
of its own, and to have been, nay, yet to be, one of the superior
planets of our system. Need we pronounce the name of Cromwell?
But it is not at Huntingdon that the visitant will discover any
enthusiastic memory of that remarkable man, or even many traces
of his whereabouts.  Except the bridge, a few ancient gateways,
the two surviving churches, and one or two scattered and mouldering fragments besides, there is little to feed an antiquarian's curi



TIIE CRIOWNLESS MONARCII.              179
osity. Something about the whole town, indeed, reminds one of
the past. But this is owing rather to the narrowness of the streets,
and the projecting upper stories of the houses, than to any actual
antiquity in the buildings.  The majesty of Huntingdon, if it ever
had any, is faded away.
Passing through the single street of which this now quiet country town is composed, and leaving behind us the area called the
market-place, we reach, after a short walk, a house on the right,
now shut in by high walls and overtopped by pieached lime-trees;
a pleasant spot, suggestive of privacy and wealth; a true banker's
residence; and here, we are told, the Protector was born. Whether
this was really a brewery, is doubtful; but it is very probable that,
in his day, malting and brewing to some extent may have been
carried on upon the premises to supply the wants of tenants and
dependants. At all events, the narrow lane which runs by the
side of the mansion, contiguous to its adjacent out-buildings, and
the vicinity of a little brook hard by, would have been very suitable for such purposes.  But the family of Cromwell was not baseborn.
Let us now take the reader by the hand, and invite him to a
pleasant walk up the gentle slope which overhangs the town, and
across a bridge now traversing the Great Northern Railway.
Thick groves of young and flourishing trees, enclosed within
extensive oaken fences, mark the beautiful residence of one of our
English aristocracy, the Earl of Sandwich.  If the reader can
propitiate the dragons who guard the entrance, he will find himself, after traversing a considerable park, before a residence of
the olden time, views of which catch the eye of the railway
traveller as he approaches Huntingdon from the south.  This is
the ancient residence of the family of (romwell, - Hinchinbrook
House.
"I was by birth," said Cromwell, in one of his speeches to
parliament, " neither living in any considerable height, nor yet in
obscurity."  His family was well born, had some relationship with




180               THE CROW~NLEss MONARCH.
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, and " mauler of monasteries " in
the times of Henry VIII., and was represented by many branches
round about the country.  The church of All-Saints, Hluntingdon,
yet preserves traces of some of them; namely,
"Johan Cromwell, daughter of Mr. Oliver Cromwell, buried 13
April, 1600."
"James Tinsty, servant to Sir George Cromwell."
" Mistress Oliver Cromwell, of Godmanchester, buried the 27
July, and her funeral was the 12th of August."  (Sic!)
"' Richard, the son of Mr. George Cromwell, buried the 1I  Nov.
1601."
"Mr. George Cromwell, Captain, buried the 24 of December,
1601."
1I-inchinbrook was somewhat memorable in the history of royal
progresses.  Henry Cromwell entertained Elizabeth at this family
mansion in 1563, and was knighted by the queen in testimony of
her remembrance of his hospitalities.  He had a large family, six
sons and five daughters; the eldest son succeeded to the estate;
the second daughter was the mother of Hampden; the youngest
son, Robert, was father of the protector.
This Robert Cromwell, whose elder brother, Oliver, it is to be
remembered, was Lord of Hinchinbrook, married a Miss Steward,
of the Isle of Ely, a descendant of the royal fatmily of the Stuarts,
though the name had become, in process of time, a little changed.
She was a woman of equal energy and virtue; simple in her habits,
firm in character, a faithful wife, and a true mother, who, in the
later years of her life, occupied apartments in the palace of Whitehall, and at the age of ninety-five breathed forth her "good-night"
to her son, who stood by her bed-side.
Of these parents was born Oliver Cromwell, named after his
uncle at Hinchinbrook.  Four days afterwards, the infant was
baptized in the parish church of St. John's, which then stood
opposite to his father's house, but the site of which is now a mere
cemetery. The baptismal registry is still extant:




THIE CROWNLESS MONARCH.                181
44/WS I,0 C4c 4{4Y
"Anno Dom.., 1599.
"Oliverus, filius Robti Cromwell gentis et Elizabeth fux: eius, natus
vicesimo quinto die Aprilis, et Baptisatus vicesinmo nzono eiusdem mensis. "
Of the house in which this great man saw the light, scarcely
any, if any, trace is now extant.  Rumor speaks of a remnant of
the old Gothic edifice; but it is mere rumor. The existing building is of comparatively modern date; and as one walks round, and
looks into the precincts, all which one can connect with Cromwell
is an ancient wall, probably belonging to the monastery on the
locality of which Mr. Robert Cromwell's house was built, but
which it gratifies the fancy to connect with the boyish antics of
the future statesman.  Mlany traditions, two of which we give as
we find them, have become attached to Oliver's memory. One
is, that when the little infant was carried up to Hinchinbrook,
that his relatives might see him, a monkey took him from the
cradle, and carried him up to the leads of the house. Another
is, that the child was saved from  drowning by Mr. Johnson,
curate of Cunnington, who, in after life, told Oliver that he
wished he had let him be drowned, rather than see him take arms
against his king.
16




182               THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
In the year 1603, Iinchinbrook was the scene of great preparations and festivity at the reception of James I., who was then
travelling southward to take possession of the crown of England.
The king stayed here two nights. In honor of this visit, Oliver,
the protector's uncle, built the portion of the mansion which yet
forms the most conspicuous part of the edifice, and displays the
royal arms carved in stone.
HINCHINBROOK HOUSE,* —THE SEAT OF CROMWELL'S ANCESTORS.
The entertainments with which majesty was greeted were profuse and magnificent.  The king was in excellent humor at
having at length gained possession of " the promised land; " and
the tables of his nobility not only supplied him with good cheer,
-- no insignificant matter in his eyes, -but afforded him an
opportunity for displaying his boasted conversational powers.  He
had created knights all the way that he came, and in the great
hall of Hinchinbrook he dubbed little Oliver's uncle Sir Oliver.
His majesty departed laden with the presents of his munificent
host.
The following anecdote is from Noble: "They have a tradition
at Huntingdon, that when King Charles I., then Duke of York, in
7 From an engraving in Noble's Life of Cromwell.




THE CROWNLESS MONAtCH.                 183
his journey from Scotland to London, in 1604, called, in his way,
at Hinchinbrook, the seat of Sir Oliver Cromwell, that knight, to
divert the young prince, sent for his nephew, Oliver, that he,
with his own sons, might play with his royal highness; but they
had not been long together, when Charles and Oliver disagreed;
and, as the former was then as weakly as the latter was strong, it
was no wonder that the royal visitant was worsted. And Oliver,
even at this age, so little regarded dignity, that he made the royal
blood flow in copious streams from the prince's nose. I give this
only as the report of the place."  Certain it is that this story is
currently believed at Huntingdon.
The grammar-school of the town at which young Oliver was
educated still preserves some traces of the original edifice, though
considerably altered, and almost re-built.  His master was Thomas
Beard, D. D., "preacher of the word in the town of Huntingdon,"
— certainly an anti-papist, and probably somewhat of a puritan.
Men's minds were at that time full of the gunpowder plot, — a
then recent occurrence.  It was an event which could not but
make a profound impression on the imagination of young Oliver;
nor would he fail to connect it, in after years, with the promotion
of Dr. Laud to the archdeaconry of Huntingdon.  We find Cromwell's first recorded public speech dwelling on the tolerance given to
"flat popery at Paul's Cross;" and this self-same Dr. Beard cited
as his authority for his statements. Dr. Beard, like his contemporary, Dr. Busby, was a firm believer in the medicinal virtues of the
birch.  A plate of him is said to exist, representing the pedagogue,
rod in hand, with two scholars in the back-ground, and "As in
presenti " coming from his mouth. This kind of regimen seems
to have been frequently employed towards the young pupil.  "His
master, honestly and severely observing his faults, did, by correction, hope to better his manners; and, with a diligent hand and
careful eye, to hinder the thick growth of those vices which were
so predominant and visible in him."  Such is the testimony of an
enemy, and it must, therefore, be received with some abatement.
The subsequent acknowledgment of Oliver himself, - " You know




184               TIlE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
what manner of life I led," - seems to imply that his early youth
was not remarkable for its regularity or propriety.  That bridge
across the brook at the back of his father's house, - those castle
hills whereon the youth of Huntingdon love to congregate, - that
full and deep river bestrode by the antique bridge, over which the
royal forces afterwards made their way into the town, - could,
perhaps, tell many a tale of follies which in another's case would
have been dismissed and forgotten, but which it suited the purpose
of " Carrion Heath" to retail in all their varied or disgusting
features.
These are meagre materials out of which to form a conception
of the first seventeen years of Oliver's life; but they are all now
extant of any credit and respectability.  The 23d of April, 1616,
witnessed, passing along the raised causeway which extends from
Huntingdon to Godmanchester, a father and a son travelling to
Cambridge, that that son might be admitted fellow commoner of
Sydney Sussex College; and here for a time we lose sight of our
young hero. Yet, if tradition may be credited, there were not
wanting reports that this son turned out somewhat wild; in fact,
" a roysterer."  A  year after, his devout and worthy father is
taken sick, and Oliver is summoned in all haste to his death-bed.
This event breaks up his college career. To fit him for the duties
of after life, he spends some time in London, gaining a knowledge
of law in Lincoln's-inn. Stories of his wildness still prevail at
Huntingdon.  But it is now impossible to verify them.  In 1620,
just after he had reached his twenty-first year, he returns home,
married to a lady suitable for a life-companion, and not entirely
destitute of fortune.  He now takes up his position in his native
town; becomes the father of a family; opens his house to persecuted puritan ministers; is oppressed by convictions of conscience
approaching almost to insanity; sets himself to retrieve and
repair some of his former errors; pays back money which he had
formerly won at play; declares himself ready to make restitution
to any whom he had wronged; erects, behind his house, a building
which might be used as a chapel; grows in the opinion of his




T'lE CltOWNLESS MONARCH.                185
townsmen; is an unsuccessful candidate, in 1625, for his native
borough; but is returned in the third parliament of Charles I.,
ready to take his part in the mighty movement of those tumultuous times.
Could we discover some newspaper of 1628, containing, in the
modern fashion of detail, the whole history of such an election,the movers and seconders of the candidates, the speeches of the
day, the feeling existing in that ancient borough respecting the
court, its advisers and its measures, the list of votes as they were
polled, the account of the chairing of the members according to
the fashion of those times, - how invaluable would such a document be!
The following mysterious entry occurs, in reference to this year,
in the Register of All-Saints', Huntingdon:
cc 1628.
Hoc anno Oliverus Cromwell pmenitentia esca tota amissa.*
J. T."
The initials are those of J. Tomlinson, then the rector.  The
Latin is none of the best, and it defies the present author's power
of interpretation. It may refer to the uncle, Sir Oliver, whose
extravagance had compelled him, in the preceding year, to sell
Hinchinbrook into the family of the 3Montagues., Or does it refer
to the nephew, and is it confirmatory of those traditions which
relate how he sold his wife's jointure, with her consent, in payment of his debts? and does it tell us that he liad arrived at the
end of his substance, being then a penitent? South's abusive
representation of Cromwell may be here remembered: "Who that
had seen such a bankrupt, beggarly fellow as Cromwell first entering the Parliament-house, with a thread-bare cloak and a greasy
hat, and perhaps neither of them paid for," &c.  We must regard
this interpretation of Mr. Tomlinson's bad Latin as not altogether improbable. But conjecture is useless. This much alone
is clear, that from  this time the whole course of Cromwell's life
* Q? escit totS. amiss~.
16*




186               TILE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
became completely changed. That change he avows in a letter
written subsequently to his cousin, and already partially quoted:
"You know what manner of life mine hath been.  O! I lived in
and loved darkness, and hated light; I was a chief, yea, the chief
of sinners.  This is true; I hated godliness, yet God had mercy on
me.  O the riches of his mercy! "  The Christian man who honors the transforming power. of religion will not shrink from  this
side of the alternative.
What tempestuous matters were agitated in this parliament
needs not here be told.  The relationship between Cromwell and
Hampden, with St. John's marriage to Oliver's cousin, would necessarily place the young Cromwell in the thickest of the fight;
and the only speech in a committee of this parliament which is
extant shows with what eagerness he took up the cause of protestantism. Parliament was vehemently and angrily dissolved.
"I know," said the king, " there are dutiful subjects in this house
as any in the world; it being but some few vipers among them that
did cast this mist of misunderstanding before their eyes."  " To
conclude, these vipers must look for their reward of punishment."
Was Cromwell then in the king's eye, as a young spawn of this
brood?
Eleven years now elapse before the electors of Huntingdon are
again called to exercise their franchise. After three years were
ended, Cromwell ceased to be a resident in his native town, and
we must move with him five or six miles lower down the river.
His mother remained at Huntingdon, making the best of the property belonging to the family.  She was well known as a good
parent, a frugal housewife, and a clever manager of her brewery -
if brewery it were.
St. Ives, though not itself actually fen-country, is the cattlemarket of the fens.  It has many points of resemblance to Huntingdon, being situated like it upon a rising bank of land immediately above the river Ouse, and overlooking a large extent of
fiat country. On one side of the river the fields are all pastures,
rich, green, and succulent.  An antique bridge, with only breadth




TilE CROWNLESS MONARCH.                187
enough to admit of a single carriage, spans the river by six arches,
and bears upon it the remains of a chapel, now transformed into a
beer-house. The town preserves an air of grave and sober antiquity, here and there yielding to the innovations of modern time.
A venerable house, which stands by the side of the bridge, gives
the town, as one enters, a somewhat foreign air. Carlyle supposes
that in the seventeenth century it consisted, not,'as now, mainly
of one long street, having houses on each side, but principally of a
row of houses overlooking the river, with an intervening green.
That author's visit to the town must have certainly been made
under unfavorable circumstances.  The river is not " black as
Acheron;" its waters are limpid and transparent, though somewhat deep, and the metallic streaks to which he refers must have
arisen from some accidental and unusual defilement.  The church
is pleasantly situated on a gentle elevation at the end of the town,
immediately above a branch of the stream; and, though it has no
architecture of high pretensions, is a good and substantial edifice.
Like many such structures, its interior has been sadly disfigured
by modern alteration; but it preserves some traces of the ancient
carved pews which once filled it, probably about the date of James
I., and the pulpit is perhaps referable to the same period.  The
whole structure has a mildewy air, which corresponds with the
times of which we write.
Such was the town in which Cromwell, then a grazing farmer,
spent five years of his varied life.  The lands occupied by him
were on the end of the town opposite to the church.  It is believed
at St. Ives that he lived in an old house called Slepe-hall. Cromwell certainly rented the estate; and though the house, lately
standing but now removed, was more modern than the time at
which he lived, the traces of an older building have been very
apparent in its removal, and a chain of testimony points to this
preexisting hall as his residence.  The barn belonging to it is
unquestionably an ancient piece of masonry; the timber-work of
the roof is very curiously constructed; and a strong and confident
statement attaches his tenantship to tthe building, whilst some




188                 TIE CROWNLESS MIONARCIH.
inhabitants of St. Ives remember the rings to which, it was
asserted, Cromwell's horses were customarily attached.
CROMWELL'S BARN AT ST. IVES.
Cromwell was overseer of the St. Ives' green,   perhaps then
used as a cattle-market, — and his name appears in the parish
records of the town in this capacity.  Carlyle says, graphically, as
he points to the lands "past which the river Ouse slumberously
rolls:"  "Here of a certainty Oliver did walk and look about him
habitually during those five years, from 1631 to 1636, -  a man
studious of many temporal and many eternal things!   -Iis cattle
grazed here, his ploughs tilled here, the heavenly skies and infernal abysses over-arched and under-arched him here! " 
EIe had certainly materials enough for reflection.  Not to speak
of the inward conflicts of his own mind, — conflicts arising froin
* To this period of Cromwell's life we may imagine Milton's stately eulogium
to refer:
"li He had grown up in peace and privacy at home, silently cherishing in his
heart a confidence in God, and a malgnanimity well adapted for the solemn
times that were approaching. Although of ripe years, he had not yet stepped
forward into public life; and nothing so much distinguished him from all
around, as,the cultivation of a pure religion, and the integrity of his life."




THE CROWNLESS MONAItCII.                 189
the views of truth he had been recently led to take-  deep, earnest, heaven-born impulses, - society around him was raging like
a volcano. Laud's horizon, though as yet he knew it not, was
growing darker and darker. Prynne's case, with that of Burton
and of Bastwick, was deeply touching the sympathies of men's
minds. Episcopacy was beginning to be introduced in Scotland.
The efforts made by well-wishers of religion to purchase advowsons, that godly ministers might preach the truth, had exposed
many to the terrors of the Star Chamber.  The Book of Sports
was revived.  The writs of ship-money had been issued, and
Hampden had stood resolute in its refusal.  The thunder-storm
was rising!
Cromwell had now a numerous family, the eldest son a youth
of great hope.  What destiny he might imagine for his son -
what for himself —who can tell!  As he walked to that old
church, his neck enveloped, if tradition may be believed, in red
flannel (for the air of the place did not agree with his constitution),
what devout thoughts regarding his own spiritual state, and what
distaste, probably, for the preacher who gave him husks instead of
grain!  I-low would he muse upon the religious destitution around
him!  How converse upon the subject with "Dr. AVells, a man
of goodness, and industry, and ability to'do good every way"!
How listen to his words, perhaps on the very spot now occupied by
nonconformists in a similar manner!  His fervor was contagious;
fervor cannot be hid.  It communicated itself to his tenants and
friends.  Cromwell prayed with them, expounded to them, sounded
the very depths of their hearts.  And then we think how, amidst
the dreadful chaos of his emotions, there came across his mind the
thought which loyalty forbade him  to utter, and Christianity to
think of (it was a Jewish age!)  - the sword!  Till the grave
W -We have before us a pamphlet entitled "The Truth of the Times Vindicated; whereby the lawfulness of Parliamentary proceedings in talking up of
arms is justified, &c., by William Bridge, Preacher of God's Word, at Yarmouth," the arguments of which are almost entirely drawn from Judaism.
Owen, too, was strongly belligerent. An appeal to arms on behalf of Christianity is, perhaps, one of the greatest anomalies on record.




190               TIME CROWNLESS MONARCH.
reveal its secrets, we can never know precisely what these workings were! They have passed away like the waters of the river
on whose banks they were conceived.  But fit is it that St. Ives
should have Cromwell's monument. Miistaken as in some points
he was, there has been a prophet among them! Not many towns
have given a resting-place to a king in his own right!
He who falls in with the lying, canting strain, which proclaims
Cromwell to be nothing but a designing hypocrite, has small
knowledge of the anatomy of human nature. It is true that he
might deem considerable retention of his thoughts to be legitimate
— even virtuous; and that he might carry that opinion more
strongly than we should care to justify.  But his private utterances are not at war with his public ones. The complexion of his
inward musings, so far as they can be gleaned from his most confidential letters, does not differ from that of his public actions.
Religion was not with him a garb put on as a holiday suit; it was
an earnest and deep conviction. He must be strangely constituted,
who, while reading Cromwell's letters, and then viewing his private
life, can discern nothing in him but unmingled dissimulation. -ie
declares himself not to have been ambitious of power.  What is
there to prove the contrary?  Amidst the earlier part of Charles'
reign, his talents might have won for him distinctions of a high
order; yet until the age of forty we see him little more than a
dignified farmer.  So far from eagerly grasping after place and
power, it was the force of circumstances alone which brought him
out from his obscurity, and set him on high as the object of universal attention.  That men's noses were slit, and men's ears cut
off, because of their love to a spiritual religion, was no fault of
Cromwell's.  It was no fault of his that a nation, long downtrodden, rose up, with an almost unanimous energy, to assert their
rights and liberties.  In the first instance, Cromwell was but following in the wake of others, and he certainly indicated no eager
desire to be prominent in the reclamations of the times.  But
that, when the quarrel had reached its crisis, and the demands of
the period called out loudly for a man, Cromwell, feeling himself




iHE CROWNLESS MONARCH.                    191
inspired for great actions, put himself into the position to which
an outraged nation was calling him, is his highest honor. "I have
been called," he said, in a subsequent address to the House of
Commons, "to several employments in the nation, and I did
endeavor to discharge the duty of an honest man in those services,
to God and his people's interest, and to the commonwealth; having, when time was, a competent acceptation in the hearts of men,
and some evidence thereof." If any man were ever summoned by
Providence to the post he afterwards occupied, Cromwell was that
man.   WVlhen once aroused, there were with such a man no prolonged pauses of hesitancy:
"On each glance of thought
Decision followed, as the thunder-bolt
Pursues the flash."
To determine and to do were with him almost simultaneous; and
when Charles had consummated his oppression, by the attempt to
seize the five members, and war had become inevitable, he was at
once, and the first, in action. IHis influence, his purse,* his sword,
were at the nation's call; and on August 15, 1642, we find him
under arms, taking vigorous measures for the defence of the kingdom, seizing the magazine in the castle of Cambridge, and hindering " the carrying off of plate from that university."t The
king was soon to learn what an enemy his unrighteous acts had
made.
Cromwell is now appointed captain, and soon after colonel, of
the sixty-seventh troop of the parliament's forces; the commanderin-chief being the Earl of Essex.  I{e is present at the indecisive
I IHe states himself to have contributed to this service between eleven and
twelve hundred pounds. Carlyle, vol. T., p. 226.
- This service was of great importance to the commonwealth.  It was not
only twenty thousand pounds cut off from the royalists, but the addition of
twenty thousand pounds to the funds for raising the parliamentary army; and
this was at the time most valuable. Cromwell was assisted in this movement
by Wauton, father of Valentine Wauton, who afterwards became his brotherin-law, and one of the captains of the Ironsidles.




192               TIME CtROWNLESS MONARCH.
battle of Edge-hill, and he is already coming to conclusions far in
advance of his position. His rapid tactics have on more than one
occasion "prevented the designs of the royal army."  But he
groans inwardly at the want of adequate support from those who
ought to aid him, and says to Hampden, yet living, " Your troops
are most of themn old, decayed serving-men, and tapsters, and such
kind of fellows; and their troops are gentlemen's sons, younger
sons, and persons of quality; do you think that the spirits of such
base and mean fellows will be ever able to encounter gentlemen
that have honor and courage and resolution in them? " Forthwith,
therefore, he began to organize his Ironsides, and to try what
religious conviction would do, when set in array against punctilious
loyalty.  "My troops," he writes, "increase.  I have a lovely
company; you would respect them, did you know them.  No
anabaptists? They are honest, sober Christians; they expect to
be used as men! " " I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain, that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows, than
that which you call a gentleman, and is nothing else." Of these
Ironsides there appears to have been nearly fifty troops organized
from  the surrounding districts, as the " St. Neot's troop," &c.
The captains of these troops probably included Evanson, Whalley,
Norton, Sidney (Algernon?) O. Cromwell, jr.,* H. Cromwell,
Montague (afterwards Earl of Sandwich), and others.  These
troops seem  to have been formed at different periods.  It was
the desire of Cromwell that his Ironsides should be, in the phrase
of that day, "a gathered church." f  Now and then an old Bible
turns up from the relics of a past age, which formed an absolute
necessary of their baggage and equipment.  The report is that a
fine of twelve-pence was levied for every oath, and that plunder,
drinking and disorder, were severely discountenanced. An air of
stern morality t pervaded the whole superintendence of these troops,
* This was Cromwell's eldest son. He appears to have been killed near
Knaresborough, in 1644.
t Calamy's Baxter.
i Even Clarendon bears witness concerning these soldiers- "An army whose




TIHE CROPWNLESS MONARCH.                193
and indeed the conduct of Oliver himself. He had got into his
possession a horse seized by force.  "I understand," he writes,
" there was some exception taken at a horse that was sent to me.
If the owner be not by you judged a malignant, and you do not
approve of my having of the horse, I shall as willingly return him
again, as you shall desire.  Not that I would for ten thousand
horses have the horse to my own private benefit, saving to make
use of him for the public," &c.
For an account of the rapidity of Cromwell's marches and
counter-marches, at this crisis everywhere full of decision, we
must be content to Xefer our reader to the pages of his biography
themselves, which record how he dashed into St. Alban's in the
midst of a certain royal commission of array, broke down the
intrenchment of Lowestoffe, delivered Lincolnshire from the power
of the royalists, and, by concentrating thus a strong force in the
eastern counties, kept the war most effectually from  that quarter
of the kingdom.  Many similar adventures at this period demonstrated equally his skill and prowess.
We have seen what was the substance of the solemn league and
covenant taken at this time by the English parliament, in conjunction with the Scottish nation.  Cromwell himself does not appear
to have been in London to affix his signature among the rest to
that celebrated document.  But that he was prepared to act in
the full spirit of it, the following incident will show: Lord Manchester is, at this time, sergeant-major of the associated counties,
Cromwell being his lieutenant, and also governor of Ely. Parliament has determined on the removal of all "monuments of superstition and idolatry," and Cromwell resolves to enforce the command in his own vicinity.  The scene is Ely Cathedral, a very
ancient edifice, bearing traces of having been repaired and restored
at various periods, and of having narrowly escaped total destruction
in the wars with the barons, during the reign of King John.
sobriety of manners, whose courage and success, made it famous and terrible
over the world; which lived like good husbandmen in the country, and good
citizens in the city." Rebellion, vol. Iv., p. 729.
17




194                 TILE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
Cromwell, who has caused fortifications to be raised  near the
HIorse-Shoe, to secure the passes out of Lincolnshire, which were
held on behalf of the king, resolves to proceed in enforcing the
orders of the parliament with promptitude. A letter has accordingly been despatched to " The Reverend IMr. Hitch, at Ely,"
requiring him, "lest the soldiers should in any tumultuary or disorderly way attempt the reformation of the Cathedral Church,"
"to  forbear altogether" the "choir service, as unedifying and
offensive;" and conveying, moreover, this advice: " I advise you
to catechise, and read and expound the Scripture to the people;
not doubting but the parliament, with the advice of the assembly
of divines, will direct you further. I desire your sermons where
usually they have been, but more frequent.  Your loving friend,
Oliver Cromwell."*
The warning was disregarded; the choir service went on.  The
little city, to whose knowledge we may suppose this military threatening had come, was in a hubbub of anxious expectation as to what
the event might be.   Cromwell issued no idle orders.  One day,
therefore, he makes his appearance in the church, his hat upon his' The second volume (third edition) of Carlyle's "C Letters, &c.," which presents to the public the remarkable collection entitled the Squire-papers, contains the following letter, bearing dlate a little while preceding:
"ClChistmas Eve, 1643.
" To MR. SQUIRE.
" SIRn: It is no use any man's saying he will not do this or that. What is to
be done is no choice of mine. Let it be suflicient, it is the parliament's orders,
and we to obey them. I am surprised at Montague to say so. Show him this;
if the men are not of a mind to obey this order, I will cashier them, the whole
troop.  I heed God's Ilouse as much as any man, but vanities and trumpery
give no honor to God, nor idols serve him; neither do painted windows make
men more pious. Let them do as parliament bid them, or else go home: and
then others will be less careful to do what we had done with judgment. I learn
there is four men down with the sickness in the St. Neot's troop now at march.
Let me hear; so ride over, and learn all of it.
"Sir, I am your friend,
1" OLIVEiR CROIVMWELL."
Squire has endorsed, -"' They obeyed the order."




THE CROWNLSs MONARCHI.                  195
head.  -te gazes sternly at the resolute looks of the little congregation, and says aloud, "I am a man under authority: I am commanded to dismiss this assembly."  He is disregarded; the service
goes on. He becomes more peremptory. " Leave off your fooling,
and come down, sir!" was the distinct and sufficient command. It
was no longer to be disputed, and the company gloomily retired.
This was a sad scene, but not unlike a hundred previous ones,
which had removed catholic worshippers to make way for their
protestant successors.  It was a lesson to those who stood by parliamentary enactment, that the power which had made could also
unmake.  Such are the alternations to which a state-church is
necessarily liable in times of public excitement.  For the sake of
peace, of the decencies of a spiritual religion, and of truth itself,
let it not be exposed to such questionable hazards! What has
Christ's gospel to do with steel caps or glittering partisans, or why
needs it be subjected to their influence?  Cromwell learned afterwards to suspect the system under which he was then acting; but
if there be a parliamentary church at all, and if the parliament,
which gives life to that church, deem certain opinions sacrilegious
and unchristian,- alnd if, moreover, those who believe in the authority of such a church refuse to adhere to the principle which their
own doctrine recognizes, - what then? It is not for us, who deny
the right of the state's interference, to be responsible for all its
possible consequences.
Already the "solemn league and covenant" is beginning to work
ill.  Cromwell himself becomes one of the first to distrust its efficacy.  For, not two months after this transaction at Ely, we have
a letter of remonstrance to Major-general Crawford, on behalf of
some poor anabaptist in the army, who it seems has been laid under
arrest because of his unpopular opinions; giving us clear evidence
how a man like Cromwell, taught by experience and reflection,
may begin to outgrow a garment which seemed to fit him only a
few short weeks before:
"Surely, you are not wvell advised thus to turn off one so faithful to the cause, and so able to serve you as this man is. Give me




196               THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
leave to tell you, I cannot be of your judgment (if a man notorious for wickedness, for oaths, for drinking, hath as great a share
in your affection as one who fears an oath, who fears to sin), that
this doth commend your election of men to serve as fit instruments
in this work! "
"Ay, but the man' is an anabaptist.'"  "Are you sure of that?
Admit he be, shall that render him incapable to serve the public? "
*  *  " Sir, the state, in choosing men to serve it, takei no notice
of their opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies. I advised you formerly to bear with men of different minds
from yourself: if you had done it when I advised you to it, I
think you would not have had so many stumbling-blocks in your
way."
What will the restminster assembly of divines, now earnestly
sitting, say to such doctrine?  Baillie shall answer for himself:
"'The independents have so managed their affaires, that of the
officers and sojours in Manchester's armie, certainlie also in the
generall's, and, as I hear, in Waller's likewise, more than the two
parts are for them, and these of the farr most resolute and confident men for the parliament party. Judge ye if we had not need
of our friends' help."*   "In this long anarchic, the sectaries and
heretics increase marvellouslie; yet we are hopefull, if God might
help us, to have our presbyteries erected as we expect shortly to
have them, and gett the chiefe of the independents to joyn with us
in our practicall conclusions, as we are much labouring for it; and
are not yet out of hope, we trust, to winn about all the rest of
these wild and enormous people." t  "The humor of this people
is very various and inclinable to singularities, to differ. from all the
world, and one from another, and shortly from  themselves.  No
people had so much need of a presbytrie." tBut instead of matters inclining, as the war went on, to this
mode of adjustment, they gradually moved further and further
from the desired point.  After the battle of Marston Moor, fol-' Baillie, April 26, 1644.     t Ibid., April 29, 1614.: Ibid., May 9, 1644.




THE CROWNLESS MONARCII.                    197
lowed by the second battle of Newbury, Cromwell and Manchester
differed, divided, became antagonists.   Whilst Essex and Manchester commanded, the war was indeed little likely to be brought
to a close. Cromwell exhibited in the House of Commons charges
against his superior officer, and was charged in return with having
said, "There will never be a good time in England till we have
done with lords."  The self-denying ordinance was accordingly
passed; was at first rejected by the lords, but afterwards obtained
their concurrence. One of the features of this bill was, that religious men might be permitted to serve in the army without taking
the covenant; another was, that no member of either house should
take any officee of command, civil or military.   The adherents of
the covenant were deeply shocked by Cromwell having declared
that, if he met the king in battle, he would as soon fire his pistol
at him  as at any other man.  Essex, Manchester, and others,
immediately resigned their commissions.   Cromwell, by some
means not very apparent, retained, or was recalled to, his post of
service.  The season of uniformity and dilatoriness had passed.
The battle of Naseby followed.  Charles was completely routed on
the field, and the publication of his correspondence, seized on the
spot, proclaimed to the nation his utter insincerity,* and his determination to have called in a catholic army to reinstate him on the
throne.  " I give thee power," he says to one of his generals, " to
promise in my name that I will take away all the penal laws
against the Roman Catholics in England, as soon as God shall
enable me to do it; so that by their means and favors I may have
such powerful resistance as may deserve so great a favor, and
enable me to do it."  It was equally evident that the king was
intending to bring in a foreign force for the subjugation of his
* The want of "reliableness," to use a Scottish phrase, was remarkable in
the Stuarts.  It was, vice of James I.  Part of Rochester's epigram was
equally applicable to the father, the son, and the grandson:
"'here lies our sovereign Lord the lkng,
Whose wvord no man relies on."




198               TIiE CItOWNLESS MlONARICII.
people.*  This battle, after some further adventures, in which
Cromwell's energy was conspicuous, ended the first civil war, June
14, 1645, with the defeat of the king.
Charles now put himself into the hands of the Scottish army,
encamped before Newark.  The solitary man who, with clipped
beard, and in a mean disguise, came to seek a refuge in the camp
of his enemies, was yet a king; and the Scotch army was not
insensible of the advantages his possession gave them.  But the
king proved in their hands intractable.t  lHe would not abandon
episcopacy; the Scotch would not abandon their covenant; and between the presbyterian and the independent party Charles endeavored to intrigue, so as to get 1" his ai again."  " The king's madness," writes Baillie, "has confounded us all.  We are in a woeful
evil taking; we know not what to doe, nor what to say." *  "The
king's answer has broken our heart; we see nothing but a sea of
new and more horrible confusions.  WTe are afraid of the hardness
of God's decree against that madd man, and against all his kingdomes."    The result was, that the Scottish army delivered him
over into the hands of the English, receiving two hundred thousand pounds in payment of the arrears due to the army, and
marched home.  They would not serve a monarch who rejected
the covenant of Christ.  His majesty left Newcastle, and was
escorted to a kind of honorable imprisonment in Holmby House.
The 10th Mlarch, 1647, was appointed by the commons -
who as yet adhered to the notion of the possibility of a general
uniformity, and had just passed the presbyterian platform of church
government -as a day of fasting and humiliation against " blasphemies and heresies."  It was the first overt manifestation of a
discord which soon became notorious.  Cromwell felt the blow;
and a letter of his, addressed to Fairfax, who had now superseded
Manchester, shows the state of his feelings:  " Never were the
- "The RKing's Cabinet, &c., Opened." Publishcd by special order of parliaLment, 1645.
t Baillic, Aug. 4, 1646.: Ibid.
~ No fewer than twenty garrisons were taken this summer by the army.




THE CROWNLESS MONARCII.                199
spirits of men more embittered than now.  Surely the devil hath
but a short time.  Sir, it's good the heart be fixed against all
this. The naked simplicity of Christ, with that wisdom he is
pleased to give, and patience, will overcome all this  *  *  *.
Upon the fast-day divers soldiers were raised (as I heard), both
horse and foot, near two hundred in Covent Garden, to prevent
us soldiers from  cutting the presbyterians' throats.  These are
fine tricks to mock God with."  Uniformity was crumbling
already in the hands of its manufacturers! The,city and the
army had become antagonists. A new contest was rising —presbyterianism versus independency; by which word independency
let the reader understand is meant the party contending, not so
much for a particular form of church polity, as for religious liberty
in general.  Among the latter party, Cromwell was daily becoming mightier.   i e had even ventured, when watching the developments of the strugglers for uniformity in the House of Commons, to say to Ludlow, " These men will never leave till the army
pull them out by the ears! "
We must hastily pass over the complicated history of this crisis.
Presbyterianism  is established, at least in London and in Lancashire; but the discontents between the city and army are every
day increasing. Those who cannot understand the questions at issue
will be forward in connecting these dislocations with Cromwell's
intrigues. But there was a vital question involved; and that
question was, whether Cromwell and his army would allow the
religious liberty, for which they had struggled so manfully, to be
crushed by the heel of a dominant establishment, by what religious
name soever that establishment might be called.  Ludlow relates
that, in a conversation with Harrison, he asked that general what
had led him to unite with Cromwell in his movements against the
parliament; and the reply was, " that he had done it because he
was fully persuaded they had not a heart to do any more good for.the Lord and his people." The king had been taken by the army
from I-Iolmby House, not unwillingly; and it was the question of
a moment whether he could not be set upon his throne on terms




200                TIHE CItOWNLESS MONARCH.
which might give to Cromwell's party a guarantee for the religious
liberty they sought.  But Charles proved now, as always, impracticable. His coronation oath would not allow episcopacy to be
abolished, though it had suffered the daily infraction of Magna
Charta.
At length, the king fed from Hampton Court to the Isle of
VWight; and, by a resolution of the two houses that they would
treat with him no more, was virtually dethroned, and made a prisoner in Carisbrook Castle.  The Scotch raised an army to deliver
the king from  sectaries, and the second civil war began.  This
war will be understood to have been a contest for liberty against
parliamentary uniformity.
We cannot better describe the position of affairs than by an
extract from Neal: " The army * had been six months in the field,
this summer, engaged against the cavaliers and Scots, who being now
reduced and subdued, they began to express a high dissatisfaction
with the present treaty, because no provision had been made for
their darling point, liberty of conscience.  Here they had just
reason for complaint, but ought not to have relieved themselves by
the methods and at the expense they did. They were thoroughly
incensed against the king and his cavaliers on one hand, and the
high presbyterians on the other. It appeared to them that the
king's sentiments in religion and politics were not changed; that
he would always be raising new commotions till things returned to
their former channel, and in the present treaty he had yielded
nothing but through constraint; and that when he was restored to
his throne, after all the blood that had been shed, they should
neither be safe in their lives or fortunes.  On the other hand, if
protestant uniformity should take place by virtue of the present
treaty, their condition would be little mended; for (said they), if
the king himself cannot obtain liberty to have the common prayer
read privately in his own family, what must the independents and
* It is important to remember that the body termedl "the army" was not at
this period a band of mercenaries, beut a collection of sober citizens, whoml rleligPioLtS perseontion hbad dclivlen to tale u? asrm, algatinst the liile.




THE'CROWNLESS MONARCH.               201
sectaries expect? W}hat have we been contending for, if, after all
the hazards we have run, presbytery is to be exalted, and we are
to be banished our country or driven into corners? " *
In the present crisis, days of fasting and prayer were instituted
by the army at their head-quarters in St. Albans.  The result
was the presentation of a remonstrance, demanding that the king
be brought to justice; that the Prince of Wales and the Duke of
York be required to surrender, or be declared incapable of governing; and that henceforth no king be admitted but by the people's free election.
Other prompt measures followed up this remonstrance.  A
party of horse was marched to the Isle of Wight to secure the
king.  The army, with Fairfax at its head, posted itself in London, and the troops were quartered about Whitehall and St. James',
with the assurance that the property of the people should not be
disturbed.
It is impossible for us to follow Cromwell through the vigorous
Scottish campaigns by which (contemporaneously with the above
movements) this second civil war was distinguished.  An extract
from a letter, addressed by Cromwell to the House of Commons,
is, however, worth the quotation: "I do think the affairs of Scotland are in a thriving posture as to the interests of honest men;
and Scotland is like to be a better neighbor to you now than when
the great pretenders to the covenant, and religion, and treaties,I mean Duke Hamilton, the Earls of Lauderdale, Traquhar, Carnegy, and their confederates, —had the power in their hands.  I
dare to say that that party, with their pretences, had not only
thought the treachery of some in England (who have cause to
blush) endangered the whole state and kingdom of England, but
also brought Scotland into such. a condition as that no honest
man, who had the fear of God, or a conscience of religion and the
just ends of the covenant and treaties, could have a being in that
kingdom."  This extract will show  on what principles Oliver
Cromwell's campaign was undertaken.
* Neal, vol. III., p. 485.




202              TIHE CROWNLESS MONARCHI.
During the subseqiuent proceedings, Cromwell was a constant
attendant in his place in the HIouse of Commons.  He had narrowly escaped being committed to the Tower in June, 1647, by
leaving London early.  At this time, he is described by Mrs.
Hutchinson as being " uncorruptibly faithful to his trust and to the
people's interest."  Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law, had, up to a
late period, been of opinion that Charles might even yet be
brought to a safe adjustment.  But an expression of the king's,
added to many others, undeceived him.  On one occasion the king
said, "I shall play my game as well as I can."  To which Ireton
replied, significantly, " If your majesty has a game to play, you
must give us also the liberty to play ours."  It would appear that
Cromwell had for some time hesitated respecting the proceedings to
be taken in reference to the king.  HIe said, "If any man moved
this of choice or design, he should think him the greatest traitor
in the world; but, since Providence and necessity had cast them
upon it, he should pray God to bless their counsels, though he
was not provided on the sudden to give them advice."  Burnet
says, "Ireton was the person that drove it on.  Cromwell was all
the while in some suspense about it." *
Were we compiling a general history, it would be necessary to
enter at large upon the constitutional and moral questions which
were involved in the execution of the king.  As it is, we must leave
them to the reader's own consideration, simply observing that, to
regard the matter aright, it must be looked at in connection with
the recent deaths of Strafford and Laud, and that the religious
party who advocated the former stand upon disadvantageous
ground in condemning the latter.  Nor will we stay to record the
deliberate and public manner in which that deed was executed, as
an act which its perpetrators by no means shrank from avowing;
nor tell how the death of the king pierced the nation to the centre
of its sympathies, and tended materially to shake the foundations
of the new commonwealth.  No edifices are more insecure than
* Burnet's IIistory of Iis Own Times, vol. I., p. 46.




THE CROWVNLESS MONARCH.                 203
those which are cemented with blood.  A terrible spirit of Judaical severity pervaded the whole transaction, - a spirit only legitimate when inspired by direct divine sanction, and, lacking that,
formidable and most dangerous.  Cromwell was not the proposer
of the measure; but,. by the part he performed in it, he voluntarily undertook its large responsibility.@
The remnant of the assembly of divines at Westminster protested unanimously against the execution of the king, and on
behalf of the solemn league and covenant which was intended to
secure his person.  A remonstrance to this effect was signed by
the most eminent London ministers.  Neal says, " None of their
ministers, that I know of, declare their approbation of the proceedings of the council of officers in the trial of the king, except
Hugh Peters and John Godwin."  Many of the independent ministers, though dissatisfied with the treaty of Newport, because it
denied toleration to them, joined with their brethren in protesting
against the king's execution; whilst the commissioners of the
Scottish Kirk denounced the proceeding, and wrote a letter to
the ministers of London, exhorting them  to persevere in their
opposition to the Iouse of Commons, and to a general toleration.
It is evident that at this time the parliament had not determined
what form of government was most desirable, and that the execution of the king was not the act of any one party alone, seeing
that there were then in the house " men of all parties, -  episcopalians, presbyterians, independents, anabaptists, and others."
Cromwell's defence of his course will be found in the memoir
prefixed to the state letters of Lord Broghill.  The writer says,
" One time particularly, in the year 1649, when Lord Broghill
was riding with Cromwell on one side of him and Ireton on
the other, they fell into discourse about the late king's death.
Cromwell declared that if the king had followed his own mind,
and had had trusty servants about him, he had fooled them all;
* Dr. Owen preached before parliament on the day following the decapitation of the king. But he evidently avoided expressing any distinct opinion on
the procedure.




204               TIIE CROWNLESS MONARCIH.
and further said that once they had a mind to have closed with
him; but upon something that happened, they fell off from their
design again.  My lord, finding Cromwell and Ireton in good
humor, and no other person within hearing, asked them if he
might be so bold as to desire an account: 1. Why they once
would have closeld with the king? and 2. Why they did not?
Cromwell very freely told him that he would satisfy him in both
his queries.  The reason, says he, why we would once have closed
with the king was this: we found that the Scots and the presbyterians began to he more powerful than we; and if they had made
up matters with the king, we should have been left in the lurch,
-therefore we thought it best to prevent them, by offering first to
come in upon any reasonable conditions.  But while we were busied
with these thoughts, there came a letter from one of our spies who
was of the king's bedchamber, which acquainted us that on that
day our doom was decreed; that he could not possibly tell what it
was, but we might find it out if we could intercept a letter from
the king to the queen, wherein he declared what he would do.
The letter, he said, was sewed in the skirt of a saddle, and the
bearer of it would come with the saddle upon his head, about ten
o'clock that night, to the Blue Boar Inn, in I-lolborn; for there
he was to take horse and go to Dover with it. This messenger
knew nothing of the document in the saddle, but some persons in
Dover did."  The letter is intercepted.  "As soon as we had it
we opened it, in which we found the king had acquainted the
queen that he was now courted by both factions, the Scotch presbyterians and the army, and which bid fairest for him should have
him; but he thought he should close with the Scots sooner than
the other, &c. Upon this, added Cromwell, we took horse and
went to Windsar; and, finding we were not likely to have any
tolerable terms from the king, we immediately, from that time forward, resolved his ruin."
The constitution of England was now completely changed. The
House of Commons was proclaimed the supreme authority; the
Prince of Wales was disinherited; the House of Lords abolished;




THE CROow NLESS MONARCH.              205
the office of king declared unnecessary and dangerous; the executive power lodged in a council of state; the oaths of allegiance
and supremacy abandoned, and supplanted by the 1" engagement,"
— a declaration that the person taking it would be " true and
faithful to the government established without king or house of
peers." Cromwell, with his army, departed for Ireland, to quell
the catholic insurrection.
Before he embarked, he addressed a letter for the parliament,
recommending the abandonment of penal laws relating to religion.
The house accordingly brought in an act " for the approbation of
able and well-qualified persons to be made ministers, who cannot
comply with the present ordinance for ordination of ministers."
At the same time an act was passed, at the instance of General
Fairfax and his council of officers, to abandon all penal statutes
which offended weak consciences, excepting, however, from the
indulgence, all papists, or favorers of the late hierarchy, and providing for the punishment of immorality and profaneness.  No
minister was capable of presentation to any living, unless within six
months he took the engagement publicly before his congregation.
This was very partial justice, if indeed it was justice at all.
IMany ministers, accordingly, refused to abide by the test, and
would not keep the fast-days appointed by the government.  In
these protests the presbyterians were especially prominent.  In
the mean time, the Scotch commissioners, supported by the English presbyterians, were treating with young Charles in Holland,
with a view to obtaining his subscription to the covenant.
Cromwell's campaign in Ireland was, like its author, stern,
prompt, terrible; undertaken and executed upon principles sufficiently intelligible, but open, like the rest of his actions, to large
questioning. The cruelties which had been practised upon protestants had inflamed his spirit. He felt that so dangerous a party
as excited " papists " must be dealt with as the highest class of
enemies; and, anticipating a general movement in Scotland consequent upon the death of the king, it was requisite that no time
should be lost. Cromwell was not by nature cruel; on the con18




206                THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
trary, the letters which are preserved at this date, in reference to
the marriage treaty he had just concluded on behalf of his son,
afford evidence of the softest tenderness.  But, whilst some of his
protestantism was principle, some of it was passion; and Cromwell's military mind saw but one way to an object, and that the
shortest.  His red right hand avenged the persecutions of his
brethren. We hasten over a page which the religion of Christ,
in its gentleness, forgiveness, and loving persuasion, trembles to
peruse. Ireland was subdued: the flame of its disaffection quenched
in blood.  The spirit of the campaign is sufficiently indicated by
Cromwell's own manifesto: "You, unprovoked, put the English to
the most unheard-of and most barbarous massacre, - without respect
of sex or age, -that ever the sun beheld.  And at a time when
Ireland was in perfect peace, and when, through the example of
English industry, through commerce and traffic, that which was in
the natives' hands was better to theml than if all Ireland had been
in their possession, and not an Englishman in it.  And yet then,
I say, was this unheard-of villany perpetrated by your instigation,
who boast of' peace-making' and' union against the common enemy.'
What think you, by this time, is not my assertion true?  Is God,
will God be, with you?
"H' Ie that bids us' contend for the faith once delivered to the
saints' tells us that we should do it by' avoiding the spirit of
Cain, Corah, and Balaam:' and by' building up ourselves in the
most holy faith,' not pinning it upon other men's sleeves.  Praying' in the Holy Ghost:' not mumbling over matins.  Keeping'ourselves in the love of God:' not destroying men because they
will not be of our faith.' Waiting for the mercy of Jesus Christ:'
not cruel, but merciful. But, alas! why is this said? why are
these pearls cast before you? You are resolved not to be charmed
from'using the instrument of a foolish shepherd.' You are a part
of Antichrist, whose kingdom  the Scripture so expressly speaks
should be' laid in blood;' yea,' in the blood of the saints.'  You
have shed great store of that already; and ore it be long, you must




THaE CROWNLESS MONARCI.               207
all of you have' blood to drink;'; even the dregs of the cup of the
fury and the wrath of God, which will be poured out unto you.'
*F      *        *       *       *        >*
"First, therefore: I shall not, where I have power, and the
Lord is pleased to bless me, suffer the exercise of the mass where
I can take notice of it.' No,' nor' in any way' suffer you that
are papists, where I can find you seducing the people, or by any
overt act violating the laws established; but if you come into
my hands, I shall cause to be inflicted the punishments appointed
by the laws, to use your own terms, secundumn gravitatenm delicti,
upon you; and shall try to reduce things to their former state on
this behalf.  As for the people, what thoughts they have in their
own breasts I cannot reach; but shall think it my duty, if they
walk honestly and peaceably, not to cause them in the least to
suffer for the same. And shall endeavor to walk patiently and in
love towards them, to see if at any time it shall please God to give
them another or a better mind.  And all men under the power of
England within this dominion are hereby required and enjoined
strictly and religiously to do the same."
Leaving Ireton, his son-in-law, as the lord-deputy of Ireland,
Cromwell next marched, Fairfax having resigned his command,
against the Scotch. A  new position had been taken by that
nation.  They had proclaimed Prince Charles their king; had
"compelled him voluntarily," as Carlyle says, to take the covenant; and Charles is now on his way to be crowned among them.
Anticipating a little, we may remark that we have now before us
"a sermon preach'd at Scoon, Jan. 1, 1651, at the coronation of
Charles the Second. By Robert Dowglass, minister at Edinburgh,
moderator of the commission of the General Assembly."  The text
is 2 Kings 11: 12, 17, -" And he brought forth the king's son and
put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony, and they
made him king, and anointed him, and they clapt their hands and
said, God save the king.  And Jehoiada made a covenant between
the Lord and the king, and the people that they should be the
Lord's people, between the king also and the people."




208               THE CIROWNLESS MONARCHI.
In the course of this sermon the preacher declaims against anabaptists, photinians, levellers and republicans, and tells the king
that he has covenanted to maintain the true reformed religion, " to
extirpate popery, prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, and profaneness; " to punish " malignants and evil instruments."  "Sir,
you are in covenant with God and his people, and are obliged to
maintain presbyterian government as well against Erastians as
sectaries." " Another example I give you, yet in recent memory,
of your grandfather, King James.  Hie happened to be very young
in a time full of difficulties; yet there was a godly party in the
land who put the crown upon his head. And when he came to
some years, he and his people entered into the covenant with God:
he was much commended by godly and faithful men; comparing
him of young Josiah standing at the altar renewing a covenant
with God. And he himself did thank God that he was born in a
reformed faith, better reformed than England, for they retained
many popish ceremonies: yea, better reformed than Geneva, for
they keep some holy days: charging his people to be constant, and
promising himself to continue in that reformation, and to maintain
the same. Notwithstanding of all this he made a foul defection:
he remembered not the kindness of them who had held the crown
upon his head: yea, he persecuted faithful ministers for opposing
that course of defection. Hle never rested till he had undone




TIIE CIOWNLESS MONARCII.               209
oath, and was girded with the sword, the lord great constable
saying:
"Receive this kingly sword for the defence of the faith of
Christ, and protection of his kirk and of the true religion, as it is
presently professed within this kingdom, and according to the
national covenant and league and covenant, and for executing
justice and equity," &c. &c.  Then the king, after other ceremonies, was crowned, and when he was seated on the throne the
minister "spoke to him a word of exhortation."  The lords after
tlhis, holding their hands between the king's hands, swore the
following oath:
"By the eternal and almighty God, who liveth and reigneth
forever, I become your liege man, and truth and faith shall bear
unto you, and live and die with you, against all manner of folks
whatsoever, in your service, according to the national covenant and
solemn league and covenant." The ceremony was concluded by
another exhortation, and by prayer, singing, and the benediction.A
Such, though the period has been a little antedated, was the
king, alid such the system which Scotland was now in arms to
promote! It was, as before, a war for a national presbyterial
establishment. Against this system, and against this future king,
Cromwell is now marching to Scotland, not without visions of what
may happen should he be successful in keepingf him  from  his
hereditary crown!
Cronmwell's Scottish campaigns are most interesting and instructive.  They exhibit the same man that we saw in Ireland, impulsive, energetic, absolute; but they exhibit him in his better
aspects.
lie is afterwards seen lying at Berwiek; Leslie, the Scottish
general, in front of Edinburgh. From this point the English
general addresses a manifesto to the people of Scotland: "Your
own guilt is too much for you to bear; bring not, therefore, upon
yourselves the blood of innocent men, deceived with pretences
l The P1hoenix,
l1S~




210                  THIE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
of king and covenant; from whose eyes you hide a better knowledge. I am persuaded that divers of you, who lead the people,
have labored to build yourselves in these things; wherein you
have censured others, and established yourselves'upon the Word
of God.'  Is it, therefore, infallibly agreeable to the Word of God,
all that you say?  I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it
possible you may be mistaken."
fIow Cromwell becomes cooped up in the peninsula on which
Dunbar is situated; how his forces are discouraged at their position, whilst Cromwell, undaunted in trouble, comforts himself with
hope; how Leslie looks upon Oliver as altogether undone; how
the weather is wet and stormy, most unfavorable for such military
movements as it is necessary for Cromwell to take; how Leslie is,
in an unguarded moment, tempted from  his position on the overlooking heights; how the quick eye of the future protector detects
the error of his antagonist; how he attacks the Scottish general
with an overwhelming force, routs and almost destroys his army,
and compels Leslie to enter Edinburgh as a fugitive, we cannot
stay to record.*   It is the turning-point of the whole campaign.
The covenant is tottering again!  It is finally lost at the great
battle of Worcester, where Charles narrowly escapes being taken
by his foes.  His hopes are for the present baffled.  The crown
has faded before the vision of the covenanted king!
Who wielded the power of that throne is known.  By what
means he ascended to its high eminence it is not our province to
record.  It will be sufficient to mark the aspect which the protectorate of Cromwell bore towards the great questions of religious
liberty.
*- It must be observed, however, as characteristic of the spirit of Cromwell's
legislation, that when he arrived in Edinburgh, while he put down the General
Assembly, he gave the Scotch ministers full liberty to occupy their own pulpits,
though they declined to avail themselves of it. "I verily believe," says
Kirkton, in his IIistory of the Church of Scotland, " there were more souls
converted to Christ in that short period of time, - that is, cluring the administration of Cromwell,- than in any season since the lReformation, though of triple
its duration."




THE CROWNLXSS MONARCH.                     211
In the thirty-seventh article of " the instrument of government "
which appointed Cromwell protector, it was provided that " all who
professed faith in God by Jesus Christ should be protected in their
religion."  This, though by no means complete, was a great advance upon the toleration of any preceding period. Popery and
prelacy were indeed excluded; but rather on the supposition that
they were political than  because they were religious systems.
Parliament, however, either with a view  to restrict Cromwell's
desired toleration, or because they designed to bring forward a
measure for the propagation of the gospel,* appointed a committee
of fourteen persons, among whom  were Owen, J. Goodwin, Marshall, Nye, Manson and Baxter, to determine what were the
fundamentals of Christianity.  It was a disputatious meeting;
Baxter, who, in the case of the assembly of divines, complained
of the logomachies of the sectaries, being the most pertinacious in
it. But their labors were stopped by the dissolution of the parliament. Cromwell himself, according to the testimony of Baxter,
declared that "6 he could not understand what the magistrate had
to do in matters of religion; he thought that all men should be
left to the liberty of their own consciences, and that the magistrate
could not interpose without ensnaring himself in the guilt of persecution."  And these were the protector's own words: t
"Have we not lately labored under the weight of persecution,
and is it fit then to sit heavy on others? Is it ingenuous to ask
liberty, and not to give it?  What greater hypocrisy than for
those who were oppressed by the bishops to become the greatest
* Orme's Life of Owen, p. 150.
it During his protectorship, Cromwell called a conference in his drawing-room
respecting the toleration of the Jews, a measure advised by some of his highness' judges. The conference was composed of judlges, citizens, and divines.
Among the latter were Owen, Goodwin, Cudworth, and Bridge. The laymen
affirmed; the divines denied. Cromwell's patience was, at length, wearied;
he told theml he had hoped they would throw some light on the subject, but
that they had rendered the matter more obscure than before; he, therefore,
wished no more of their counsels, but desired an interest in their prayers. The
project came to no result.




212                THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
oppressors themselves so soon as their yoke is removed?  - x
As for profane persons, blasphemers, such as preach sedition, contentious railers, evil-speakers, who seek by evil words to corrupt
good manners, and persons of evil conversation, punishment from
the civil magistrate ought to meet with them," &c.
The notion of a " Christian nation "- that lamentable confounding of an external with a spiritual religion - was clearly upper.
most in Cromwell's mind, and it was a gigantic error. But within
these limits he intrenched himself most firmly:
" Men who believe in Jesus Christ — that is the form  that
gives being to true religion.  *   *  Whoever hath this faith, let
his form be what it will, he walking peaceably, without prejudice
to others under other forms, it is a debt due to God and Christ;
and he will require it if that Christian may not enjoy his liberty.
If a man of one form will be trampling upon the heels of another
form,-. if an independent, for example, will despise him under baptism, and will revile him, and reproach, and provoke him, -I WILL
NOT SUFFER'IT IN HIIt.  If, on the other side, those of the anabaptist" (sentiment) "' shall be censuring the godly ministers of the
nation who profess under that of independency; or if those that
profess under presbytery shall be reproaching or speaking evil of
them, traducing and censuring them,- as I would not be willing
to see the day when England shall be in the power of the presbytery to impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in
Christ,- so I will not endure any reproach to them. But God
give us hearts and spirits to keep all things eclual! ",
These were noble sentiments!  And, though they were dashed
with matters not altogether palatable to modern tastes, such as the
maintenance of ministers by a state provision, —at present by the
tithes of the old episcopal clergy, 1 —they give us a striking view
* Speech to Protector's Second Parliament. Carlyle, vol. Iv., pp. 123, 124.
t The appointment of Tryers, which were thirty-eight in nnmber, and consisted of independents, presbyterians and baptists, was, perhaps, as good as
any such measure could be. Blaxter himself praises the body and their usefulness to the community. But such a mleasure must be attesnded, it is evident,




THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.                  213
of what was the true nature of Cromwell's ambition, — that of
being  not a monarch of precedents and conventionalities, of
gilded crowns and red cushions, but, in the largest sense of the
term, a king of men!
None is prepared rightly to estimate Cromwell's character and
conduct, without the fairest examination of the elements with
which he was required to deal, and of the unpropitious demands
by which he was surrounded.  Even the greatest admirers of the
superiority of right over policy will not find the question compressible into a very narrow  compass.   But it was the day when
"there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was
right in his own eyes."  Cromwell did what was right in his eyes,
and he saved the nation from anarchy and confusion. Yet, successful as, in its immediate results, his strong-handed policy might
have been, the admirer of right versus might may still believe
that a different course would have been attended with less ultimate reaction. But Cromwell was no yielding Apollo, who would
let every upstart Phaeton step into his chariot, and possess himself of the reins of a, most difficult government. He believed himself, like one of the judges of ancient Israel, called, by an
authority which superseded ordinary precedent, to a certain work,
and he did that work. WVe do not defend the integrity of the
whole premiss; but, admitting it, it is impossible to deny the completeness of the conclusion.  "We are ready," said he, " to excuse
most of our actions, - and justify them too, as well as to excuse
them, - upon the ground of necessity. The ground of necessity,
for justifying men's actions, is above all considerations of instituted
law; and if this or any other state should go about- as I know
they never will - to make laws against events, against what mzay
happen, I think it obvious to any man they will be making laws
against Providence; events and issues of things being from God
alone, to whom all issues belong."*
by great occasional injustice. It was only at Owen's strong intercessions that
Pococke, the Orientalist, and Fuller, the church historian, retained their positions in the church.
* Speech to Second Protectorate Parliament, 1656. Carlyle, vol. Iv., p. 95.




214               THE CROWNLESS ~MONARCH.
Of Cromwell's conviction of this divine call, how questionable
or dangerous soever the precedent thus established may be, there
is not the slightest valid reason for doubt. That he was accessible
to fanaticism may be granted; that he was a deep designing hypocrite is a calumny, such as could only arise out of the doctrine of
Charles' divine right to tread down his subjects on the one hand,
or out of an ignorance of the spiritual liberty which Cromwell
sought to promote, and which he mainly did promote, on the other.
These points in Cromwell's character may be extensively illustrated by reference to his extant memorials. The following extract
from a letter, which appears among the " Squire Papers " of Carlyle's edition, is remarkable, and we leave the reader to estimate it
for himself.
" To
" London, July, 1642.
":IDEAR FRIENDS: Your letters gave me great joy at reading
your great progress in behalf of our great cause.
"Verily, I do think the Lord is with me!  I do undertake
strange things, yet do I go through with them, to great profit and
gladness, and furtherance of the Lord's great work. I do feel
myself lifted on by a strange force, I cannot tell why.  By night
and by day I am urged forward on the great work.  As sure as
God appeared to Joseph in a dream, also to Jacob, he also has
directed - (some words eaten out by moths.)  Therefore I shall
not fear what man can do unto me.  I feel IHe giveth me the
light to see the great darkness that surrounds us at noon day. * *
" I hoped, in a private capacity, to have reaped the fruit and
benefit, together with my brethren, of our hard labor and hazards;
the enjoyment, to wit, of peace and liberty, and the privileges of a
Christian and a man, in some equality with others, according as it
should please the Lord to dispense unto me.  And when, I say,
God had put an end to our wars, or at least brought them  to a
very hopeful issue, very near an end, - after Worcester fight,I came up to London to pay my service and duty to the parliament which then sat; hoping that all minds would have been dis



THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.                  215
posed to answer what seemed to be the mind of God, namely, To
give peace and rest to his people, and especially to those who had
bled more than others in the carrying on of the military affairs. I
was much disappointed of my expectation; for the issue did not
prove so. Whatever may be boasted or misrepresented, it was not
so, not so-! "
Again: -
" I appeal to the Lord, that the desires and endeavors we have
had - nay, the things will speak for themselves: the liberty of
England, *the liberty of the people; the avoiding of tyrannous
impositions, either upon men as men, or Christians as Christians;
is made so safe by this act of settlement -  the Protectorate - that
it will speak for itself.  And when it shall appear to the world
what really hath been said and done by all of us, and what our
real transactions were - for God can discover; no privilege will
hinder the Lord from discovering! "
It is difficult to understand on what supposition, except that of
divine right, Cromwell's conduct in desiring to be king, even supposing that he did desire it, is to be represented as of such inconceivable enormity.  As protector, he enjoyed more real power,
though less state; than he could have possessed had he brought
himself, by the acceptance of the royal title, within the definitions
and provisions of British law.  To be king, was not, therefore,
his interest. But he evidently desired it, in order to settle his
government, to put an end to the distracting influences which raged
around him, and to render the recovered liberties of the English
people permanent.  But such a thing might not be.  The officers
of the army, conspicuous among whom were Fleetwood and Desborough, his own son-in-law and brother-in-law, resisted it, and
presented a petition drawn up by Dr. Owen,* and signed by a
majority of the officers near town, which determined the question.
England by this course lost a race of monarchs called to the throne
by the popular voice; went back to its old oppressors; smarted
*1 Owen appears to have lost, by this act, Cromwell's favor. Ormc's Life of
Owen, p. 165.




216                THE CROWNLESS 3MONARCH.
beneath the rod of their vengeance or their folly; and, after a few
years, called for another revolution, to throw off its oppressive
burden.
It was a frequent declaration of Cromwell's, that the course of
his life was one great aim to promote religious freedom.  Was he
insincere in this affirmation? Let his conduct in the matter of the
Piedmontese bear witness!
The persecutions instituted by the Duke of Savoy against the
poor protestants who occupied the mountains and valleys of Piedmont were of the most atrocious description. The duke published
an order, dated January 25, 1655, commanding all protestants to
depart from their homes to such places as he should appoint, within
three days, on pain of death and confiscation.  This was in the
depth of a most severe winter, and many perished in the mountains from hunger and cold.  The most cruel barbarities were perpetrated on those who remained.  Many men and women were
hewn in pieces, others were ravished and murdered. Some, hung
on hooks, were left so to expire. Some had their mouths filled
with gunpowder, which was made to explode.  Some were flayed
alive; some burned alive; and a variety of other tortures, too
numerous or too barbarous to relate, signalized the infuriate malice
borne by Italian PRomanists to gospel truth. It was, in fact, all
but an extermination; churches were set on fire, full of miserable
fugitives, and families hunted like wild beasts.  The news reached
England just as Britain was on the eve of concluding a treaty
with France.  Louis XIV. was then nominally king, but he had
not yet asserted his own authority, and Cardinal Mazarin, in conjunction with Ann of Austria, wielded the sole power. Cromwell
refused to sign the treaty till he had despatched an ambassador on
the part of the Piedmontese to the court of Turin.  With all the
protector's hardness and sternness, when the occasion called for
them, pity was an essential ingredient in his nature.* The news
* The following extract from a letter of Cromwell's illustrates both these
aspects of his character: —" To Cornet Squire, 15th Mlarch, 1642. Dear
Friend, — I have no great llind to take Montague's word about that farml. I




THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.                 217
of the sufferings of these Piedmontese had melted him to tears; he
sent them two thousand pounds from his privy purse, appointed a
day of national humiliation, and a collection, in order to relieve
their wants, and resolved that, in the absence of all other power to
compel justice for these sufferers, England should and would see
them righted. Forty thousand pounds were contributed, with
generous readiness, for the relief of these poor victims of oppression.
But Cromwell did more — he insisted that, before he would
sign the treaty with France, MIazarin should interpose with the
Duke of Savoy to procure a cessation of these outrages.  In vain
did the cardinal represent that the matter stood in no relation to
the treaty, and that the Vaudois had committed a hundred times
worse cruelties on the catholics than they had suffered from them.
Cromwell was not the man to give way. He told Mazarin that
he had already allowed his own troops to be engaged on the side
of the persecution.  The French ambassador threatened to take
his leave.  Cromwell, entirely unmoved, allowed him  to go. He
at the same time announced to the court of Turin that if remonstrances failed he was prepared to take up arms.  Encouraged by
the example of England - Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and some
of the German States, said the same.  The result was, that the
Duke of Savoy sent the English ambassador to Cromwell, with a
message most respectfully worded, declaring that " the persecutions had been much misrepresented and exaggerated, and that
they had been occasioned by his rebellious subjects themselves;
nevertheless, to show his great respect for his highness, he would
pardon them, and restore them to their former privileges." Such
was the issue of a negotiation, by which the descendants of the
ancient Waldenses were protected by the strong hand of Cromlearn behind the oven is the place they hide them (the arms); so watch well
and take what the man leaves; and hang the fellow out of hand [out a hand],
and I am your warrant. For he shot a boy at Pilton-bee by the Spinney, the
wvidow's son. her only support: so God and man must rejoice at his piuishment."
19




218               THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
well's freedom-loving administration! The interval of quiet lasted
so long as Cromwell lived, and no longer.
An instance not dissimilar occurred in reference to the city of
Nismes, in the province of Languedoc.  The protestants had set
up a reformer as magistrate, which the catholics strongly opposed.
On the day of election the protestants took possession of the townhouse, which they occupied with armed men; and when the magnates of the city came to give their votes, the protestants poured
out a volley of musket-shot upon them. The provocation was certainly very great, and the catholic party immediately proceeded
to great severities against them.  The inhabitants of Nismes, seeing an army marching against their city, and fearful of the consequences which their rash conduct had entailed on themselves, sent
a messenger to Cromwell, to desire his interposition on their behalf.
That very night, Cromwell despatched a courier to the English
ambassador at Paris, who prevailed on the cardinal to pardon the
offending reformers, and to stop the troops, which were already on
their march to chastise them, so that when the messenger returned,
he found the negotiation complete, and the city absolved.
Such were some of the leading features in the ecclesiastical history of Oliver Cromwell.  In no line of regal descent, his kingship stands distinct, peculiar, alone, —for his successor was the
merest cipher, — denied by the republican, and more strongly
denied by the royalist, a gap in sculptured lineage, and a blot in
history; yet acknowledged by such men as Louis XIV. and Mazarin, who made the rest of the world fall down and worship them.
That Cromwell's character - independent, decisive and self-reliant,
as he was- prompted him to actions which, had they been performed by royalists, he would have been the first to condemn; that
the doctrine of the divine law of necessity, as he held it, made him
dangerously a law to himself; that he showed "' the terror of his
beak, the lightning of his eye," not always to punish the daring
Prometheus who was wielding the fire of heaven, but sometimes
to fright men away from  the dead carrion of his own inter



THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.                     219
ests* and power, we fear truth and candor must admit.  But he
was a vessel moulded out of no common clay.  He had the quick,
intuitive perceptions which seem akin to inspiration. As we search
the dunghill on which his memory has been ignominiously thrown,
the jewels which adorned him flash out upon our eyes. His enemies
dwell upon his despotism, his friends applaud his love of religious
liberty; both verdicts may be conjoined in the paradox which is
his true description. He was a despot for religious liberty. He
held that religion was above all law, excepting always that false
religion which rendered law  impossible.  Whilst he crushed the
uniformity which would have paralyzed moral action, he taught
that spiritual liberty was the vital element of a nation's glory, and
that greatness belonged to character, and was not identical with
the punctilios of a denominational creed. He did not, it is true,
realize a complete notion of the thing he aimed at, and he sometimes perplexed and confounded himself.  But he showed the way
to a possibility of which the nation never lost sight; the conviction
of which made men impatient of the harsh rule of the second
Stuart, and prompted the subsequent movements of the great revolution. It must never be forgotten that much of the obloquy
heaped upon this great man arises not only from the malignity of
the royalists, t but from the narrow views of the disappointed
seekers of presbyterian uniformity.  The day of Cromwell's degradation is, however, over. In vain do men any longer trample
on his memory; his name will not die.
We cannot close this chapter without adverting to two scenes in
* The testimony of so eminent a man as Howe must not be forgotten, in this
connection.
t The reader of the history of the commonwealth needs not to be told that
many of the tales which obtained credence relative to the personages of that
period are absolutely nakedl inventions. Owen was charged with having gone
about Oxford girt with a sword; he declares that he never, to his remembrance,
wore a sword in his life. The same divine is spoken of by Tillotson as having
been present at Cromwell's death-scene. Every probability attests that this
was entirely without foundation. These may be taken as specimens of the
rest.




220               THE CROWNLESS MONARCH.
the protector's private life, which form a counterpart more than
corresponding to the descriptions of his royal antagonist's domestic
virtues. One is the death of Cromwell's earnest, loving, truehearted mother:
" On Friday, Secretary Thurloe writes incidentally:' My Lord
Protector's mother, of ninety-four years old, died last night. A
little before her death she gave my lord her blessing, in these
words.: The Lord cause his face to shine upon you, and comfort you
in all your adversities, and enable you to do great things for the
glory of your most High God, and to be a relief unto his people.
My dear son, I leave my heart with thee.  A  good-night - and
therewith sank into her long sleep.' Even so.  Words of ours are
but idle.  Thou brave one, mother of a hero, farewell! Ninetyfour years old! The royalties of Whitehall, says Ludlow, very
credibly, were of small moment to her; at the sound of a musket,
she would often be afraid her son was shot, and could not be satisfied unless she saw him once a day, at least. She, - old, weak,
wearied one, — she cannot help him with his refractory pedant
parliaments, with his anabaptist plotters, royalist assassins, and
world-wide confusions; but she bids him be strong, be comforted
in God. And so good-night! And in the still eternities and
divine Silences, - Well, are they not divine? "*
The companion scene is not less affecting; it describes the deathbed of Oliver's favorite daughter, the Lady Claypole. " For fourteen days he watched by her bed-side, he and her noble mother,
and the loving circle of sisters, including their young Frances, with
her widow's tears still undried.  For fourteen days the fond
father, unable to attend to any public business, refused to quit her
bedside. On the 6th day of August she lay at rest, in her last
sleep, and the weeping circle sought consolation where they had
oft before found it in less trying hours of bereavement."
Oliver bore the trial with the fortitude of a Christian parent,
and yet it broke his heart. About a fortnight afterwards, Thur* Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, vol. mI., p. 406.




THIE CROWNLESS IONARCHI.                221
loe wrote to Henry Cromwell, and, after describing the funeral of
his sister Elizabeth, he adds: —" Your lordship is a very sensible
judge how great an affliction this was to both their highnesses, and
how sad a family she left behind her; which sadness was truly
very much increased by the sickness of his highness, who at the
same time lay ill of the gout and other distempers, contracted by
the long sickness of my Lady Elizabeth, which made great impression on him."
But Cromwell's life, shattered by this new sorrow, approached
its close.  The sunset was impressive, really sublime.*  Did ever
hypocrite - conscious of his manifold  hypocrisies - so  die?
"' Children, live like Christians; I leave you the covenant" (of
grace) " to feed upon." -" Lord, thou knowest that if I desire to
live, it is to show forth thy praise and declare thy works."-" It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."  His
calmness, therefore, was not without a doubt; but the doubt was
transient!  " All the promises of God are in Him, yea, and in
him Amen, to the glory of God by us in Jesus Christ." — " The
Lord hath filled me with as much assurance of his pardon as my
soul can hold."- "I am a conqueror, and more than a conqueror,
through Christ that strengtheneth me." And then he breathes
forth the following prayer: —" Lord, though I am a miserable
and wretched creature, I am in covenant with thee, through grace.
And I may, I will, come unto thee for this people. Thou hast
made me, though very unworthy, a mean instrument to do them
some good, and thee service; and many of them have set too high
a value upon me, though others wish and would be glad of my
death; Lord, however thou do dispose of me, continue and go on
to do good for them.  Give them  consistency of judgment, one
head, and mutual love; and go on to deliver them, and with the
work of reformation; and make the name of Christ glorious in the
world.  Teach those who look too much on thy instruments to
* Mr. Carlyle has done much service by his disinterments; by none more
than by his publication of HIarvey's " Collection of several passagcs concerning
his hate I-ighncess, Oliver Cromwell, in the time of his sickness."




222               THE CROWNLESS MONARCH
depend more on thyself. Pardon such as desire to trample on the
dust of a poor worm, for they are thy people, too; and pardon the
folly of this short prayer.  Even for Jesus Christ's sake.  And
give us a good-night, if it be thy pleasure.  Amen! " *
But the days of Cromwell —such is the tenure upon which
human life is held — were numbered! Whilst Europe was resounding with the fame of those splendid achievements which had raised
Great Britain to an unprecedented eminence, —whilst powerful
empires were crouching at his feet, and his incomparable energy
was beating down the hydra-like attempts of modern and ancient
factions, but before he had time fully to concentrate and establish
the power out of which future liberty was to spring, — he died.
He left behind him a name inseparably bound up with England's
pride and power, and a fame which will outlive reproach, and may
well dispense with statuary.  Whatever his faults, — and his
very strength was his weakness, - he taught a secondary nation to
become the first in Europe, by developing its latent powers and
resources.  What can be more honorable to Cromwell than the
fact that he, in the seventeenth century, had approximated as
nearly to religious liberty as most senators have done in the nineteenth; and that he only stopped then where they are stopping
now? With clearer views than his predecessors, his contemporaries, or his immediate successors, he saw, to a large extent, that
freedom was an essential element of virtue and of power, and that
a nation was great, not when it prescribed opinions, but when it
acted on the divine rule of bearing with the mistaken, and diffusing free air and sunshine around it.
Happy shall we be if whilst we profit by the errors, we shall
exceed the lessons, of so great an instructor!
* Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. Ix., p. 400.




CHAPTER VII.
TIIE RETURNING TIDE.
"' The flagrant inconsistency of all protestant intolerance is a poison in its
veins which must destroy it." - MAcKINTOSH.
AMONG the eminent men who flourished during the period of
the great civil wars, none was more worthily conspicuous than
Richard Baxter.  His name, his piety, his usefulness, have been
bequeathed by him as a precious legacy to Christ's church, to show
how much more religion is than an empty name; how near a
Christian on earth may be to a saint in Paradise; and how the
deepest concern in public movements does not necessarily fret
away a heaven-born piety. His portrait is almost as well known
as his name. The pinched skull-cap, from under which the jetblack locks flow down with puritanical severity; the sharplychiselled features, indicating an equal familiarity with thought
and emotion; the somewhat severe expression of the dark lineaments, over which a divine radiance is yet diffused, like some stern
fastness glowing in the brilliance of a summer's sun, - are in the
memory of the least intelligent. To dwell upon the history of
such a man, even to its most detailed incidents, and to observe how
his errors and littlenesses become faint, when regarded by the side
of a devoutness which has scarcely a parallel, would be, to any
well-constituted man, a delightful task; but it is one we cannot in
this chapter undertake to perform, - nor is it necessary.
The ancient town of Kidderminster is at present, owing to its
being off the great lines of railway, no very accessible spot. It
stands in a basin of the red sandstone formation, and its vicinity is




224                  T-IE RETURNING TIDE.
delightfully diversified with hill and valley.  Nothing can be more
delicious than the green foliage, alternating with the ruby-colored
soil which abundantly produces it, —a contrast of color always
harmonious, and in this neighborhood peculiarly beautiful. Kidderminster is less injured than most towns by the progress of modern
improvement.  The natural features of the place are, indeed,
beyond the possibility of change; but, besides these, old structures
meet the eye continually. The eminence from which our sketch
KIDDERMINSTER, WITH THE CHURCH OF BAXTER.
is taken - Bewdley-road-must exhibit in 1851 nearly the
same aspect it presented in the daysof the devout nonconformist.
The steep declivity down which the road passes into the town, displaying ancient houses, hollowed out of the living rock, as if they
had been parts- though very ungraceful ones - of some modern
Petra; the antique tower, conspicuous in the central distance, built
of the red rock, to which the corrosions of weather impart a peculiar mellowness; the ill-constructed houses, sometimes almost
buried under the cliffs, and then as picturesquely lifting them



THE RETURNING TIDE.                 225
selves high in air, - impart a physiognomy to the ancient place
extremely uncommon.
Here, then, the holy man lived and labored. On each side of
this old street the voice of thanksgiving might be heard, on a Sabbath-evening, from the various families assembled at their evening
devotions. The grave form of the thin, sickness-worn divine, or
of his congenial assistant, may be imagined, proceeding from house
to house, as he pursued his work of conversation or catechising
among the numerous parishioners.  The crowds gathering weekly
to the church bore witness to the value the hearers set upon the
living truth, enforced as it was by Baxter's earnest oratory, and
still more by his exemplary life. His time - for at this period he
had neither wife nor family - was altogether devoted to his flock.
Though his means were small, his liberality was great. Vice was
frowned down.  The Sabbath was so observed, that the traces of
that observance yet remain, or did until very recently, in the
habits of the people. All Baxter's hearers were not, indeed, converted, and enemies and maligners still remained; but they were
mostly silenced; and Kidderminster presented, in his days, the
nearest approach, perhaps, which any town has ever exhibited, to
a Christianized community. And what rendered this the more
remarkable was, that this reformation took place at a time when
internal discord was eating into the heart of the land.
No change can be greater than that which has befallen the
interior of Baxter's church itself. It stands on one side of the
town, and on the edge of a precipice, which renders it a commanding object. But all within is transformed. A taste, in some
respects of the best kind, but of the most tractarian pattern, has
remodelled the whole edifice; and the advance to Romanism is
conspicuous upon every panel and adornment. But in the " New
Mleeting " Baxter's ancient pulpit yet survives, having been purchased, among a mass of old rubbish, when, some years ago, the
church was undergoing alteration.  What visitor can look upon it
unmoved? It is an ornamented structure, as rich as carving and
gilt could make it, of the date of James I., when Inigo Jones gave




226                  THE RETURNING TIDE.
the taste for Grecian architecture in Gothic churches.  Carved in
alto-relievo, on its sounding-board are the appropriate words:
SING UNTO THE
LORD PRAISE
HIS NAME DECLARE
HIIS WORKS A
AL    1;   ~MlONG THE PEOPLE
PSALMS THE CV.
Below, in a similar style, is the
1-X' SEHLLOR At1W ~  conspicuous namle of-its donor:
DAi     W l      l      ALICE DAWX WIDOW GAVE TIIIS.
CKidderminster has no other monument of' Richard Baxter.  It is
impossible that it could possess a
better.
Baxter had not been long settled
in Kidderminster, when the great civil war began.  I-e was at
this time twenty-six years of age.  The king kept as far as possible from the counties which formed the eastern association; and
drew most of his retainers from Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Wales.  As, to be a puritan, or to be suspected
of being one, exposed a man to all kinds of abuse and exaction
from  the royal partisans, many who would have lived in quiet,
had such a course been possible, were compelled to ally themselves
with the parliamentary troops, and seek refuge under their protection. Among those who were in this predicament was Baxter
himself.  When the king's declarations were read in the miarketplace of Kidderminster, the rabble grew so riotous and outrageous,
that he was compelled to leave the town.  He retired for a while
to Gloucester, where he became involved in sectarian disputes,
tending to sharpen his acrimony against ecclesiastical schismatics.
He subsequently found a refuge in Coventry, where he resided for
a time with a friend, preaching once a week to the soldiers of the
garrison, and to various ministers and others, who had taken refuge




THE RETURNING TIDE.                 227
in the town from the flames of popular fury.  Many of his old
h6arers, also, had here sought a quiet retreat.
After the battle of Naseby, Baxter went to visit the army, and
to see some of his friends.  " Ie staid," says Calamy, "a night
with them, and got such intelligence as to the state of the army
as amazed him.  He found plotting heads were hot upon what
intimated their intention to subvert both chureh and state.  Independency and anabaptistry extremely prevailed among them;
antinomianism and arminianism were equally distributed.  *  *
Many common soldiers, and some of the officers, were honest, sober,
and orthodox men; but a few proud, self-conceited, hot-headed
sectaries had got into the highest places, and were Cromwell's
chief favorites; and by their very heat and activity bore down the
rest, or carried them along with them, and were the soul of the
army, though much fewer in numbers than the rest.  *  >  Separatists and sectaries were the persons most honored; but Cromwell and his council joyn'd with no party, being for the liberty of
all."
This, it will be remembered, is the testimony of a presbyterian,
relating the impressions made upon Baxter, himself a presbyterian,
by the agitation of the times. The evil was, indeed, manifest, and
was a grief to every well-wisher to the church of God, as well as
a serious impediment to all united and concentrated action. But
the remedy was one entirely beyond the power of Baxter, or of
those who thought with him, to apply; and the course they
took only exasperated the malady they would fain have cured.
The state had, certainly, no appliances which could heal so wide
a wound.
This visit, however, made a deep impression upon Baxter's
mind.  When Croimwell had first formed his band of Ironsides,
"which was to be a gathered church," he had invited Baxter to
become their chaplain.  He, perhaps, afterwards, as he reasoned
out his own position more clearly, had ceased to desire it; but
when now Baxter witnessed the influence of this band, and saw
the increase of sectarianism among them, he regretted that the




228                 THE RETURNING TIDE.
invitation had not been accepted, and readily fell in with the
entreaty of Colonel Whalley to undertake a similar charge in his
regiment. He went, therefore, into the army, hoping to stem the
torrent of sectarianism, from which he boded the most disastrous
consequences. "His life among them," says Calamy, " was a daily
contending against seducers."  "He was almost always disputing
with one or other of them,- sometimes for civil government, and
sometimes for church order and government; sometimes for infant
baptism, and often against antinomianism, and the contrary extreme.
But their most frequent and vehement disputes were Jbr liberty
of conscience, as they called it; that is, that the civil magistrate
had nothing to do in matters of religion, by constraint or restraint;
but every man might not only hold and believe, but preach and do,
in matters of religion, what he pleased." * Their spirit was no
doubt sufficiently factious and disorderly, especially if we remember that conspicuous among them were the levellers, who afterwards rose up against Cromwell himself. But it is evident that
to Baxter "liberty of conscience" was rank heresy.  No man
better loved the order and power implied in the phrase "church
and state" than Baxter.  He therefore complained that he was
kept in ignorance of the meetings and councils of Cromwell and
his officers, and "found reason to apprehend that, if there had been
a competent number of ministers, each doing his part, the whole
plot of the furious party might have been broken, and king, parliament and religion, preserved."  Let us hear Baxter's own words
relative to the assembly of "dry vines," as the sectaries in the
army then called it, and to the period in general which his autobiography so energetically describes:
" A few dissenting ministers of the Westminster assembly began
all this, and carried it far on. * * Afterwards they increased,
and others joined themselves to them, who, partly by stiffness, and
partly by policy, encreas'd our flames, and kept open our wounds,
as if there had been none but they considerable in the world. And
* Calamy's Life of Baxter.




THE RETURNING TIDE.                    229
having an army and city agents, fit to second them, effectually
hindered all remedy, till they had dash'd all to pieces as a broken
glass.  0, what may not pride do, and what miscarriages will not
false principles and faction hide!  One would have thought that
if their opinions had been certainly true, and their church order
good, yet the interest of Christ, and the souls of men, and of
greater truths, should have been so regarded by the dividers in
England, as that the safety of all these should have been preferred, and not all ruined, rather than their way should want its
carnal aim and liberty; and that they should not tear the garment of Christ all to pieces, rather than it should want their
lace."
These words describe a not uncommon error, especially among
some good men, who regard the unity of the church as implying
the sacrifice of its less important truths.   How Baxter himself
acted when the current ran in the contrary direction we hhve seen
already.  None was more liable to the charge of an undue pertinacity than himself.   But in this case the plea which the presbyterian party urged against the sectaries was but that which the
episcopal had urged against the puritans.  How easy it is for the
inflicter of an injury to cry out, Peace! *
It would be a gross mistake to imagine that Baxter meant to
impute to these sectaries in general a spirit of lawless disorder, so
far as the great object for which they were in arms was concerned.
"They all agreed to preserve the kingdom; they prospered more
in amity than unifbrmity.   Whatever their opinions were, they
plundered none with them, they betrayed none with them, nor
disobeyed the state with them; and they were more visibly pious
* It is right that Baxter's praises should be set over against his censures.
In another passage he says, speaking of the independents, s"Most of then.
were zealous, and very many learned, discreet, and godly men, fit to be serviceable in the church.   *  I saw also a commendable care of serious
holiness and discipline in most of the independent churches."  Life, part I.,
p. 140.
20




230                  THE REI TURNING TIDE.
and peaceable in their opinions than those we call more orthodox." *
An accusation was got up against Baxter, that at this period he
had killed a papist with his own hand. But the report was utterly
unfounded.
Whilst with the army, Baxter was visited with a dangerous
sickness.  His constitution was naturally most delicate, his blood
being so attenuated that it frequently oozed out from  his fingers'
ends; but on this occasion he was seized with so violent a bleeding at the nose, as to put his life in great peril, and entirely to
destroy his schemes for drawing off the sectarian party from their
proposed plans.  He was pitied in this distress by Lady Rous,
who cared for him and tended him with great assiduity, till he.was able to return to Kidderminster.  This sickness is memorable
as having led to the publication of that devout and incomparable
work, " The Saint's Rest;" one chapter of which more than compensates for all the venial errors into which Baxter was ever
betrayed.
He now resumed his labors at Kidderminster.  At this time he
sided with neither party; opposing on the one hand the covenant,
and on the other the engagement.  Conscientious always, he was,
probably, in a state of indecision as to his duty.  One great object
of his life was now, however, secured; he was free to resume his
beloved work at Kidderminster. For fourteen years he had, as he
tells us,'c after wars and sickness, liberty in such sweet employment." Nothing can better describe his pastoral life than the
account he gives of it himself. His self-denying earnestness; the
pungency of address which he carefully cultivated; the intense
ardor with which he spoke, to use his own well-known words,
" as a dying man to dying men;" the faithfulness of his rebukes;
the loftiness of his seraphic piety; the unyielding firmness with
which he maintained all which he believed to be true; and the
energy with which he seconded in private all which he delivered
* Sprigge's "Anglia Rediviva," quoted in Orme's Baxter, p. 53. Sprigge
was chaplain to Fairfax, himself a presbyterian.




THIE RETURNING TIDE.                 231
in public, might almost form an appendix to "the Acts of the
Apostles."
During his residence at Kidderminster, he once preached at
court before Cromwell.  His subject was 1 Cor. I: 10, " against
the divisions and distractions of the church."  HIe says, "lMy
plainness was displeasing to him and his courtiers, but they put it
up."  Cromwell sent to converse with him, endeavoring, in "a
long and tedious speech," to reconcile him to the new government;
but Baxter, who was a firm royalist, could not be won. Cromwell
afterwards summoned him to a conversation on liberty of conscience: a subject which the protector understood much better
than the divine. But this interview was equally fruitless. Baxter
was remarkable for tenacity of opinion, and the matter ended as it
had begun.
The following passage exhibits Baxter's views of Cromwell's
administration of religious liberty.  It will be read with mingled
pleasure and pain:
"When Cromwell was made Lord Protector, he had the policy
not to detect and exasperate the ministers and others who consented
not to his government.  Having seen what a stir the engagement
had before made, he let men live quietly, without putting any
oaths of fidelity upon them, except mernbers of his parliaments;
these he would not allow to enter the house till they had sworn
fidelity to him.  The sectarian party in his army and elsewhere
he chiefly trusted to, and pleased; till, by the people's submission
and quietness, he thought himself well settled; and then he began
to undermine them, and by degrees to work them out.  Though
he had so often spoken for the anabaptists, he now found them so
heady, and so much against any settled government, and so set
upon the promotion of their way andqparty, that he not only began
to blame their uneasiness, but also to design to settle himself in the
people's favor by suppressing thlem."x
When Richard Cromwell succeeded his father, Baxter gave his
* Life, part I., p. 74.




232                 TIIHE RETURNING TIDE.
allegiance to the new government. In his simplicity, he sufficiently
indicates the ground of his adherence.  " I-Ie began to favor," says
Baxter, " the sober people of the land, to honor parliaments, and
to respect the ministers called presbyterians." The last assertion
probably contains the gist of the whole matter. The independent
party saw no small fear for religious liberty. - They dreaded a
return to uniformity, and to the conditions of the solemn league
and covenant. In the movements of the period which followed,
Joseph Caryl, Dr. Owen and Philip Nye, were conspicuous. They
sent a deputation to Monk at Holyrood House, in the name of the
independent churches, to which Monk was regarded as belonging,
and they offered to raise one hundred thousand pounds for the use
of the army, that their religious liberty might be protected.*  But
the presbyterian party prevailed. M1onk veiled his intentions until,
at last, backed by the Earl of Manchester, Lord Hollis, the presbyterian ministers of London, and others, he declared for the king.
Baxter appears to have taken little part in the movement, beyond
that of interceding with the general that debauchery and profaneness might be put down.  The king sent over a proclamation
against these evils, (!) to the great joy of the future nonconformists,
who lost no time in reading it in their churches.
The day much desired, but long delayed, of the restoration of
Charles II. to the throne, had arrived.  Under what pretexts he
now ascended it needs not to be detailed.  With a base hypocrisy,
far transcending the worst transactions attributed to Cromwell by
his bitterest enemies, he had caused certain presbyterian ministers
to overhear him in his devotions, like Richard III. of old time,
praying for the presbyterian church, and for the success of the
covenant.  Notwithstanding unfavorable rumors of his levity, the
reality of this scene was beliloed. Thus far, at least, his scheming
proved successful; if that could be called success which involved
conditions he had neither the inclination nor the power to fulfil.
"We do grant," he had said from  Breda, "a free and general
* Orme's Life of Owen, pp. 282, 283.




THE RETURNING TIDE.                  233
pardon, which we are ready, upon demand, to pass under our great
seal of England, to all our subjects of what degree soever, who,
within forty days after the publishing hereof, shall lay hold on
this our grace and favor, and shall by any public act declare their
doing so, and that they return to the loyalty and obedience of good
subjects, exeeptconly such persons as shall hereafter be excepted
by parliament:  *  x  we desiring and ordaining that thenceforward all notes of discord, separation and difference of parties,
be utterly abolished among all our subjects, whom we invite and
conjure to a perfect union among themselves, under our protection,
for the re-settlement of our just rights and theirs in a free parliament; by which, on the word of a king, we will be advised. *'x *
We do declare a liberty to tender consciences; and that no man
shall be disquieted, or called in question, for differences in matters
of religioim whichi do not disturb the"peace of the kingdom."'*
Under these assurances, the king returned on the 29th May,
1660.  It was a period of mad intoxication.  Could men have
lifted the veil which concealed the secret history of the period,
they would have ascertained what would have abated their ardor.
For, on the king's journey towards London, Monk had placed in
his hand a list of about seventy persons recommended as privycouncillors, at the same time assuring his majesty that in doing
so he only complied with the necessities of his position, and did
not suppose the persons so recommended would be accepted by his
majesty.
On that day, -a day memorable in the annals of national infatuation and royal perjury, — Charles advanced from Canterbury to
London, amidst the loud shouts of a rejoicing nation. All the most
splendid concomitants usual upon royal progresses attended him.
But there were also peculiar features in this welcome.  When he
reached Blackheath, his eye rested upon the army, - the people's
national guard, the same army which had beaten down his royal
father, and changed the kingdom into a commonwealth,- drawn up
* This phrase is memorable, and will account for the subsequent eagerness
shown to implicate the religious parties in the various plots of the period.
20*




234                  THE IBETUENING TIDE.
in their most imposing array, to hail him as their undisputed sovereign.  At St. George's-fields he was met by the lord mayor and
aldermen of the city of London, who, after inviting him to a collation in a tent provided for that purpose, took part in the gorgeous
procession which escorted his majesty over London-bridge to
Whitehall.  The streets were hung with tapestry; the trainbands of the city, and the several companies in their liveries, lined
the way as far as Temple-bar; and beyond that a similar array
was formed, consisting of the train-bands of Westminster, and
portions of the army.  The procession itself was prolonged and
superb. It was led by troops, some in doublets of cloth of silver,
some in buff coats, with sleeves of silver lace, and rich green
scarves, and some in blue.  Trumpeters with the king's arms,
sheriffs' men in rich cloaks laced with silver, six hundred of the
different companies of London, in black velvet coats, with gold
chains, on horseback, attended by footmen in liveries, followed.
Then, kettle-drums, trumpeters, and rich red liveries; twelve
ministers, succeeded by the king's life-guards; the sheriffs; the
aldermen, in scarlet robes; the lord mayor, with the sword and
badges of his office; the Duke of Buckingham, and the general of
the forces; whilst, after these, came the king himself, riding
between the Dukes of York and Gloucester. All men pressed forward to see the son of the royal martyr, and the hero of the Boscobel oak, and to look upon that swarthy countenance* radiant
with joy.  He was followed by a troop of horse, bearing white
colors, and a great multitude of noblemen and gentlemen.  Hearts
were beating; bonfires blazing; everywhere was heard the refrain,
"The king shall enjoy his own again."
Thus, on his birth-day, was Charles II. conducted to the palace
of his fathers.  Here the lord mayor took leave of him.  The
king then went to the lords, where he was addressed, on behalf
of that house, by the Earl of Manchester, in the following
terms:
* Charles was so far from being handsome, that his mother, H-Ienrietta Maria,
said at his birth, "He is so ugly, that I am ashamed of him."




TIE RETURNING TIDE.                   235
"Dread Sovereign," said the once parliamentary general, "I
offer no flattering titles, but speak the words of truth; you are the
desire of three kingdoms, the strength and stay of the tribes of the
people, for the moderating of extremities, the reconciling of differences, the satisfying of all interests, and for the restoring of the
collapsed honor of these nations."
I-Ie then proceeded to the banqueting-house, where the commons
awaited him, and Sir Harbottle Grimstone said, on their behalf,
" With an humble confidence, I shall presume to acquaint your
majesty that I have further in command to present to you at this
time a petition of right, and humbly, on my bended knees, to beg
your assent thereto. Sir, it hath already passed two great houses,
- heaven and earth,- and I have vox popzdi and vox Dei to warrant this bold demand. It is that your majesty would be pleased
to remove your throne of state, and set it up in the hearts of your
people; and, as you are deservedly the king of hearts, there to
receive from your people a crown of hearts."
To these addresses the king replied, " that next to the honor of
God, from whom he chiefly owed the restoration to his crown, he
would study the welfare of his people, and not only be a true
defender of the faith, but a just assertor of the laws and liberties
of his subjects." A pledge akin to lovers' promises, which are kept,
according to Ariosto, in jars in the moon.
A further scene ensued. The dignitaries of the church, in their
long-disused habits, awaited him  in Westminster Abbey, to give
thanks for his restoration.  The king, however, pleaded fatigue,
and made his oblations in his own apartment.  After which, he
who, on his arrival, had received from certain presbyterian ministers the present of a large Bible, with clasps of gold, which he
declared should be the guide of his life, went to the lodgings'of
lMrs. Palmer, afterwards Lady Castlemaine, his avowed mistress,
to spend his evening.
The first acts of Charles were full of promise to the presbyterian
party.  Several of their ministers, among whom  were Calamy,
Reynolds, Spurstow and Baxter, were appointed royal chaplains,




236                 TILE RETURNING TIDE.
and some of them  preached before the king.  The time had now
come, as they imagined, for the realization of their fondest hopes.
Baxter's warm heart had longed for a scheme of comprehension.
He had hoped for it, even in the days of Cromwell, and his correspondence with Howe, who was preacher at Oliver's court, had
signified the sincerity and ardency of his desires for such an issue.
Under Cromwell the motto had been " state and church;" there
was now hope that it would be " church and state " once more. A
deputation, accordingly, waited on the king, in which Baxter was
the chief speaker. Charles gave so gracious a reception to these
representatives, that old Mr. Ash burst into tears of joy!
As, on the king's arrival, it had been decreed that all the acts
of the Long Parliament, not having received the royal assent, were
null and void, the nation, by a huge transition, fell back upon those
laws which, existing before the proceedings of the commonwealth,
brought the people once more under compulsory episcopacy. A
year had not passed before these former laws began to be rigorously enforced.  The old clergy now took possession of their former livings, - the court paying no regard to the petitions that
those who had been sequestrated for malignancy or for scandal
might not be replaced.  But, where the old incumbent was dead,
the king confirmed the living to the present possessor. It was
evident that, at this time, a modification of the liturgy might have
comprehended a large portion of both parties, - perhaps have
quieted for a moment the exhausted and gasping nation.
We have, in a former part of this volume, made mention of a
palace, situated on the banks of the river Thames, and once the
residence of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.  It had now
fallen into the possession of the Bishop of London, and was, at the
early part of the reign of Charles II., the scene of a remarkable
conference, called for the purpose of effecting what, in those days,
was termed a comprehension: in other words, of so adjusting the
liturgy of the church establishment as to accommodate it to the
consciences of religious men of different persuasions.  In this
scheme Baxter was specially prominent.  He, and the presbyte



TIIE RETURNING TIDE.                  237
rian party which he led, entertained no objection to episcopacy as
such, though they would have desired to modify its prelatical form;
nor would they have rigorously objected to the Book of Commonprayer, provided that certain alterations could have been made in
it, to relieve their. consciences from its more offensive portions. To
discuss the possibility of such an adjustment, the Savoy conference
had been summoned by the king.
THE SAVOY PALACE-SCENE OF THE CONFERENCE.
It was attended by the Archbishop of York, with twelve bishops
on the one side, and eleven nonconformist ministers, chosen either
by Reynolds (Bishop of Norwich) or by Calamy, on the other.
The scene was singular, but characteristic of the temper of the
times. The Archbishop of York, opening the conference, avowed
that he did not know its precise object, and referred to Sheldon,
the Bishop of London; he, a merciless enemy of nonconformity,
with ill-disguised contempt, said that it was not the episcopal, but
the nonconformist party, who had desired the alterations in the
liturgy; and that, therefore, nothing could be done till they
exhibited their objections and amnendments.*  In vain was it urged
This prelate, upon being told that the presbyterian ministers were not
likely to accept the terms of conformity offered to them, is reported to have
said, "I am afraid they will." The presbyterian party was the only body




238                 THE RETURNING TIDE.
by the nonconformists that this would be a tedious business, and
at variance with the purposes of the king's commission, which
required them to meet together and to consult. The bishop was
inexorable, and Baxter reluctantly agreed to adopt his proposal.
Sheldon's motives are obvious. He wished to throw the odium of
attacking  the Common-prayer upon the  nonconformist party.
If, in stating their objections, they should agree among themselves,
-  which was doubtful, - it would not be difficult to represent
them as captious and destructive. The temper of the times was
with prelacy, and against presbyterianism. The nonconformists,
however, addressed themselves to the task of stating their objections, whilst to Baxter was given that part which referred to the
substitution of new forms for the old. In the course of a fortnight,
he prepared a revised liturgy — a formula, expressive, in all its
parts, of a spiritual religion, but immeasurably inferior, as a piece
of composition, to the compendium it was designed to supplant.
Indeed, none but an untaught and untrained man, like Baxter,
would have presumed to offer the labor of a few short days, as a
rival to a liturgy which, whatever its faults, was much of it the
production of men of various ages, eminent for profundity, piety,
and religious taste.
A  tedious logomachy followed.  The conclusion was, indeed,
from the first, foreseen; but, for the sake of appearances, a little
show of debate seemed necessary.  We need not follow the history into its particulars.  Like all similar convocations, it was a
heartless juggle, a farce scarcely possible to be thought serious.
The whole affair was, on the part of the presbyterians, a signal
failure.  The episcopalians would not abate the smallest ceremony
of the church; the puritans retired disappointed and disgusted.
The open and then unoccupied area of Charing Cross was the
scene, about this time, of a cruel and inhuman punishment. This
whose rising power was then dreaded. The policy of the day was to keep them
down, not merely because of their religious views, but in order to diminish
their influence in elections.




TIHE RETURNING TIDE.                239
was the carrying oBt of " An Act for the attainder of several persons guilty of the horrid murder of his late sacred majesty King
Charles I."  Harrison, Carew, Scroope, Jones, Clement, Scot,
IJugh Peters, Cooke, Axtel and Hacker, were the names of the
ten who, out of twenty-nine convicted for having been concerned
in the late king's death, underwent the severest penalty.  At the
same time, the writings of Milton and John Goodwin, defending
the death of the king, were suppressed by proclamation. The most
inhuman and cowardly outrages were committed on the bodies of
those who had been concerned in the late revolution.  The mouldering remains of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw, were dragged
to Tyburn, and there hanged and decapitated, whilst the heads
were exposed on the top of Westminster H-all. Nor did even the
bodies of Cromwell's mother and daughter escape indignity.  By
the authority of the king's warrants, the corpses of all who had
been buried in Westminster Abbey since 1641, including those
of Pym, Blake, Twisse, Marshall, and others of scarcely less fame,
were exhumed, and cast into a pit in St. Margaret's church-yard.
The revenge was paltry and impotent. At the same time, the
Solemn League and Covenant was declared illegal by parliament;
and the well-known law, entitled the " Corporation Act," which
prohibited all persons from bearing offices of magistracy without
taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, was passed.  The
ancient flame was again kindled.
The convocation was now, by command of the king, employed
on the revision of the Book of Common-prayer, in conformity, it
was pretended, with the wishes of the Savoy conference. Between
the court, stimulated by Clarendon, on the one hand, and the presbyterians on the other, they found this a task of no common difficulty; but they resolved to ignore the objections of the latter, and
to listen only to the former.  " They made," says Tenison, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, " about six hundred small alterations or additions; but, if there was reason for these changes, there
was equal, if not greater, reason for some further improvements."
They added forms of prayer for the 30th of January and the 29th




240                 TIE RIETURNING TIDE.
of May; also, prayers to be used at sea, and adnew office for the
administration of adult baptism.  New holidays were appointed,
and more lessons from the Apocrypha, such as the history of Bel
and the Dragon, were inserted.  The prayer for "our most
religious and gracious king " was also added.  It was the opinion
of Burnet and Baxter that these alterations only rendered the
Prayer-book more open to objection.*  But it was thus sent up
to the houses of legislature.
Symptoms of the rising storm were already apparent. Nonconformists were indicted for not reading the common-prayer, and
hearers were complained of for neglecting their parish churches.
Worshippers in conventicles were exposed to all kinds of annoyance; insulted on their way, their windows broken with stones,
and their religious rites often disturbed by the blowing of horns,
and other similar outrages. The spread of immorality and profaneness was most extensive; and the court was given up to
profligacy and licentiousness.  Dunkirk, which had been gained
by Cromwell with so much eclat, was sold to the French king for
five hundred thousand pounds; Lambert and Sir Harry Vane, jr.,
were brought to trial, one for taking arms against the king, the
other for compassing his death; the former was imprisoned for
life, the latter executed on Tower-hill, not being allowed to speak
to the people from the scaffold.
At length, after sundry debates, and by a majority of six votes,
the commons passed the infamous bill for " the uniformity of public prayers and administration of sacraments, and other rites and
ceremonies, &c. &c., in the Church of England."  The act was
ordered, either by a strange fatality, or in daring defiance, to take
effect from the Feast of St. Bartholomew, Aug. 24, 1662.
One of the provisions of this act was, that before St. Bartholomew's day every parson, vicar, or other minister whatsoever, should,
on pain of deprival, declare openly and publicly his approval of
the Book of Common-prayer, according to the following formula:
"I, A B, do hereby declare my unfeigned assent and consent
* Neal, vol. iv., c. 6.




TIE RETURNING TIDE.                 241
to all and everything contained and prescribed in and by the book
entitled the Book of Common-prayer," &c.
At the samie time, the act provided that all persons holding preferment or office in the church, and every schoolmaster keeping
any public or private school, and every person instructing youth
in any private family, " should declare it unlawful to take arms
against the king; should promise to conform to the liturgy; and
should disclaim, as unlawful, the Solemn League and Covenant."
Those who were not clergymen, but only teachers, were, in case of
non-compliance with the act, visited with heavy penalties.
One of the first persons on whom the weight of this enactment
fell was Richard Baxter.  He had refused to accept a bishopric;
and had made an endeavor to return to the curacy, the duties of
which he offered to perform without recompense, and he carried
with him the express desires of the king and Lord Clarendon in
his reinstatement. Had their desires, however, been sincere, the
issue probably would have been widely different. As it was, the
Bishop of Worcester, Dr. Morley, refused to appoint him.  Baxter
now joined Dr. Bates, and preached for him once a week at St.
Dunstan's; and, whilst that church was under repair, at St.
Bride's, Milk-street, and Blackfriars.  His preaching began to be
regarded with much suspicion. HIe was watched, waylaid, and
positively prohibited from preaching at Kidderminster any more.
Such was Baxter's position at the time of the passing of the Act
of Uniformity. That act received the royal assent on the 19th
May; it was to take effect from the 17th August, which was the
Sunday before St. Bartholomew's day; but the revised Prayerbook was not printed till the middle of August, leaving a space of
only a few hours for conveying both the announcement and the test
through the country. Even in our own day, such wanton haste in
the smallest legal matter would be regarded as a serious indignity;
what, then, must so great a measure have been at that period,
when few papers were published at all, none of them more frequently than twice a week, and when the roads were always bad,
and sometimes impassable? Bishop Burnet says, " The vast num21




242                 TIE RETURNING TIDE.
ber of copies, being many thousands, that were to be wrought off
for all the parish churches of England, made the impression go so
slowly, that there were few books set out to sale when the day
came.  *  *  The matter was urged on with so much precipitancy, that it seems implied that the clergy should subscribe
implicitly to a book they had never seen; and this was done by
too many, as the bishops themselves confessed."  We have said
that Baxter was the first on whom the weight of this act fell.
The explanation he gives himself.  "The last sermon that I
preached in public was on May 25th; the reasons why I gave
over sooner than most others were, because lawyers did interpret a
doubtful clause in the act as ending the liberty of lectures at that
time; because I would let authority soon know that I intended to
obey in all that was lawful; because I would let all ministers in
England understand in time whether I would conform or not: for
had I staid to the last day, some would have conformed the sooner,
from a supposition that I intended it."  From this time, therefore,
Baxter ceased to be a minister in the Church of England.
We may well imagine with what beating, and sometimes bursting hearts, many of those who were then holding livings in the
Church of England anticipated the twenty-fourth of August in that
year. How many a father would feel his eyes fill with tears, as
he looked to the prospect of penury for his helpless offspring.
How many a pastor would think, with an anguish which no words
can describe, of the separation which was soon to sever him fiom
his flock, the object of so many solicitudes and prayers! Before
the eyes of those most sensitive to feel such a reverse would rise
up the visions of hated idleness, of galling persecution, of dreary
and aching want! The secession of the Free Church within our
own day is justly regarded as a noble instance in modern times of
men who preferred truth to interest.  But St. Bartholomew's was
a still severer test; for the power enlisted against the puritans of
that day threatened to exterminate them altogether. Who could
tell what might be the next step which should follow one so
severe?   But there was no alternative.  They were good men,




THE RETURNING TIDE.                    243
and behind them  stood conscience, an impassable wall of adamant.  The test before them - at least, before those of them who
had time to inspect it - admitted of no subtlety or evasion which
it was consistent with their high character to adopt. They were
not required to approve a part of the system, nor even the system
as a whole, but to declare their " unfeigned assent and consent to
all and everything; " though even passages of that same Prayerbook asserted that some parts of the church's own discipline were
not all that could be desired! *-  Failing in their adhesion, they
would lose station, honor, usefulness, emolument, subsistence -for,the time fixed upon for compliance was just before the yearly
tithes would be due, and the non-compliant would thus sacrifice a
year's income;- " their houses would be turned to aliens, their
inheritance to strangers." t But the act set forth so many conditions, and prescribed them so absolutely, that no alternative
remained.
Were there none who at such a conjuncture thought even more
deeply?  Were there none whose soliloquies were not unlike the
following: There is something judicial in our position; when we
proclaimed uniformity, we lifted on high the stone which is to fall
on our own heads! The instrument of torture, which, like a new
Perillus, we prepared, is turned, by a not unjust retribution, on
ourselves! So would we have crushed all sectarianism except our
own!  When we gave ecclesiastical power to the state, did we not
know that forms of religion in its hands would vary as the administration of the state itself? We came in upon the ruin of another
system; that other system now returns upon us! t
With all their errors, however, we love, we admire, we reverence, the holy men of those days!  But, whilst we pity their
* See the Commination service.
t Such was the text from which Bridge preached at Yarmouth to a party of
religious emigrants at an earlier period.
$ It must not, however, be forgotten that, in the ejectment of the prelatical
clergy, a fifth part of the sequestrated revenue was assigned for their support.
In the present case thero was no such provision.




244                  THE IRETURNING TIDE.
sufferings, let us not forget that there were others more to be pitied
than they.  What stings and agonies must have passed, however
transiently, through the mind of Charles,* who knew that, with all
this pretended zeal for protestant uniformity, he, even now, believed all protestantism to be a lie! What unenviable moments
were those in which Clarendon called to mind how he had once
fought the battles of religious liberty, by the side of the very men
whom, for the paltry bribe of seeing his daughter acknowledged
as a duchess, perhaps as a queen, he was now laboring to destroy!
Who would envy Lauderdale, who had once sat as a commissioner
in the Assembly of Divines, enacting the very provisions for their
part in which these men and their successors were now about to
suffer! And there were more pitiable objects than even these.
Men who were renouncing the high franchises of eternity for a
miserable pittance; forcing down the feather-weight of worldly
advantage, to make it heavier than the deeply-loaded scale of conscience and of God; intentionally shutting out the light of their
clearest understanding; taking refuge in quips and evasions, from
which their inmost souls recoiled; and pronouncing with faltering
voice the words which sunk them irrecoverably in their own selfesteem, no less than it did so in the esteem of their observant
flocks.  Among the many who subscribed in utter levity, and the
many more who had made over their consciences already to the
ruling power, there were doubtless such men as these.  The honor
and dignity of Christianity were, however, amply redeemed by the
fact that their number was not greater.  On the 24th of August,
1662, the Church of England was poorer by two thousand conscientious ministers!
No day in the annals of the church in modern times ever witnessed such an amount of pathetic and earnest Christian preaching
as the Lord's day before that Feast of St. Bartholomew! The
deepest solemnity pervaded these last utterances.  The whole
* Perhaps we do Charles II., in such supposition, more than justice. Many
parts of his history would seem to indicate him as a specimen of that morbid
moral anatomy in which conscience is altogether wantifg.




TILE RETURNING TIDE.                245
fervor of puritan piety blazed up in these last farewells.  The
preacher stood above suspicion. The hearer gave emphasis to
every word of the voice he was to hear no more.'Whole audiences were bathed in tears. The fire of religion fed its flames
from the very elements which were employed to quench it!
But the most extensive suffering succeeded.  Several became
houseless, homeless, and almost destitute of food.  Those who had
congregations were in continual need of their contributions, to aid
them in paying fines, or in maintaining them whilst in prison.
Some died of dejection; some took shipping for Holland or New
England; many found their ejection followed by years of hardships, imprisonments and fines; some endured persecutions from
the succeeding incumbents, under the name of suits for dilapidations; some took to authorship, or sought a precarious subsistence
by teaching in secret and in danger; some lost the favor of their
own families by their firmness, and lived a life of bitter reproach
from their connections; a few practised physic; whilst many who
had seemed at the Restoration on the eve of a high church preferment began a course of trial and contumely which ended only in
the grave.  Happy were they who, like Woodward and Ash, died
before this harsh act took effect!
Nor was the effect of such enactments less disastrous upon the
Church of England herself.  "The author of' The Five Groans
of the Church' complains," says Neal, "with great warmth, of
above three thousand ministers admitted into the church who were
unfit to teach because of their youth; of fifteen hundred debauched
men ordained; of the ordination of many illiterate men; of one
thousand three hundred and forty-two factious ministers, a little
before ordained; and that of twelve thousand church livings, or
thereabouts, three thousand or more being impropriate, and four
thousand one hundred and sixty-five sinecures; so that there was
a poor remainder left for a painful and honest ministry."  The
consequences are admirably depicted by Macaulay:
"During the domination of the puritans, many of the ejected
ministers of the Church of England could obtain bread and shelter
2 1:31t




246                 TIIE RETURNING'TIDE.
only by attaching themselves to the households of royalist gentlemen; and the habits which had been formed in those times continued long after the reestablishment of monarchy and episcopacy.
In the mansions of men of liberal sentiments and cultivated understandings, the. chaplain was doubtless treated with urbanity and
kindness. His conversation, his literary assistance, his spiritual
advice, were considered as an ample return for his food, his lodging, and his stipend. But this was not the general feeling of the
country gentlemen. * *  A young Levite- such was the phrase
then in use - might be had for his board, a small garret, and tell
pounds a-year; and might not only perform his own professional
functions, might not only be the most patient of butts and of listeners, might not only be always ready in fine weather for bowls and
in rainy weather for shovel board, but might also save the expense
of a gardener or a groom. *  *  With his cure he was expected
to take a wife. The wife had ordinarily been in the patron's service; and it was well if she was not suspected of standing too high
in the patron's favor.  *  *  Not one living in fifty enabled the
incumbent to bring up a family comfortably. As children multiplied and grew, the household of the priest became more and more
beggarly.  IIoles appeared more and more plainly in the thatch
of his parsonage and on his single cassock.  *  >  I His boys followed the plough, and his girls went out to service.  Study he
found impossible; for the advowson of his living would hardly
have sold for a sum sufficient to purchase a good theological
library; and he might be considered as unusually lucky, if he
had ten or twelve dog-eared volumes among the pots and pans on
his shelves. Even a keen and strong intellect might be expected
to rust in so unfavorable a situation."*
Bishop Burnet says that these men were mean and despicable
in all respects: the worst preachers he ever heard; ignorant to a
reproach, and many of them openly vicious; that they were a disgrace to their order, and to the sacred functions, and were, indeed,
the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. The few who were
* Macaulay's Englandc, vol. I., pp. 327-329.




THE RnETURNING TIDE.                  247
above contempt or scandal were men of such violent tempers that
they were as much hated as the others were despised.
Those who desire to peruse the reasons for the nonconformity of
these two thousand will find them amply detailed in Calamy's
Abridgment of Baxter (c. x.). The objections were mainly specific;
they seldom rose to the dignity of a fundamental truth.  But the
case was one which rendered a single objection, how small soever
its weight, " though in the estimation of a hair," decisive.  The
assent and consent to all and everything is so narrow a sieve, that
not the smallest gnat will pass it.* Yet the objections sometimes
hovered on the edge of a great principle. "M Many of them," says
Calamy, " apprehended that the method of the national establishment broke in upon oaonomical government. The master of a
falmily is an emblem of a prince in the state.  Some branches of
his power and authority are evidently superior. The parental
authority is the highest that nature gives. We may suppose it to
reach a great way, when we consider that it is designed to supply
the place of reason; whereas, in the exercise of a prince's authority, he is supposed to have subjects that use their reason; and must
be dealt with accordingly.'* * If neither prince nor bishop
may choose for my children a tutor, a trade, a physician, or diet,
or clothing, or impose husbands and wives without my consent,
how should either of them  come by a right to impose a minister
upon them without my will and choice? Especially when his
management of holy things is a matter of such vast importance,
and wherein their salvation and my interest are so nearly concerned? "
The course taken by Baxter, relative to the Act of Uniformity,
is an epitome of his whole character.  Where it affected himself,
and touched his own disinterested conscientiousness, he was ready
to show himself the first sufferer; where the case of others could
be met by palliatives, instead of decided and clear-headed courses,
~ Yet the unworthy continuator of Mackintosh's Hiistory of England can see
in this course, taken by the nonconformists, nothing but "frivolous objects"
and " perfidious artifices! 




248                  THE RETURNING TIDE.
he was prone to recommend the former.  But Baxter was a disciple of the schoolmen, and was so addicted to casuistical subtleties,
that he might have attempted  to  solve the  problem, "How
many angels can stand on the point of a needle without jostling?"
His heart, not his judgment, was the best director of his conduct.
At this time he gave serious offence to some of his most attached
hearers at Kidderminster, by advising them still to remain in the
establishment, though they were altogether disgusted with its
spirit, and were presided over by a man thoroughly incompetent
for his task.  When, at length, their unworthy clergyman was
dead, many of his old parishioners thought that Baxter would now
conform, in order to receive the next presentation. But they were
in error; he was no self-pleaser.The design of the king - if, indeed, so heartless a voluptuary
could be said to have a design,- was evidently to eject the presbyterians, and to let in the catholics.* The former part of the scheme
had been successful.  Charles now endeavored to accomplish the
latter; and he published, on the 26th of December following the
Act of Uniformity, a declaration expressive of his purpose to grant
some indulgence, - not excluding the papists, " many of whom,"
he said, "had deserved well of him."  But here he met with an
unexpected opposition. The parliament set themselves in array
against such a dispensation of penal laws, on the sole authority of
the crown; and the king, fearing for his next subsidy, was compelled to retreat.  The sectarian party of the nonconformists had
rejoiced in the prospect of the alleviation; but the presbyterians,
firm to their principle of an ecclesiastical establishment, resolved
rather to petition against their own toleration than to abandon
their idol of uniformity. In this crisis, Philip Nye came to Bax-' "I will not yield to any," said this perjured and despicable man, " no,
not to the bishops themselves, in my zeal for the protestant religion, and my
liking for the Act of Uniformity." Speech to parliament, Feb. 2S, 1662.
With equal infamy, he. declared, towards the close of his reign, in the course
of a proclamation, that "ho had always adhered to the true religion, established in these realsms, against all temptations whatsoever."




TILE RETURNING TIDE.                   249
ter to solicit his cooperation for greater liberty.  Baxter, however,
declined, and the nonconformist ministers in general followed his
example.  They preferred to be left to perish, rather than that the
help given them should be the means of saving some papist from a
similar predicament. It must, however, be remembered that, in
thus acting, political causes had no small influence. The presbyterians suspected already the protestantism of the house of Stuart.
They identified catholicism  with despotism, and held the penal
argument to be the most cogent, if not the most convincing.'Much, therefore, of what followed must be regarded, so far as this
party was concerned, in the light of a voluntary martyrdom.
The revived doctrine of church and state, having silenced the
ministers, proceeded to attack the flocks.*  Worshippers were laid
under penalties so confused and ambiguous, that none could precisely determine the extent of his danger. The act of the 35
Elizabeth was put in force, requiring all persons to attend at church,
under the severest penalties. Justices were empowered to dissolve
all unlawful assemblies, and to take as many of the congregation
into custody as they might deem proper. A jury was unnecessary.
A single justice of the peace and the oath of an informer were sufficient. The work of persecution was taken up with great eagerness by those whose former sufferings had exasperated their tempers.  But the better part of the episcopalians soon cooled.  Dr.
Laney, Bishop of Peterborough, "'looked through his fingers," to
use his own phrase, at the nonconformists in his neighborhood.
Saunderson had a list of culprits marked out for prosecution; but,
when he was dying, he ordered it to be burnt.  Dr. Cosins, Bishop
of Durham, though once bitter, became of a more pacific tone;
* "Before the Conventicle Act took place, the laity were courageous, and
exhorted their ministers to preach till they went to prison; but when it came
home to themselves, and they had been once in jail, they began to be more
cautious, and consulted among themselves how to avoid the edge of the law in
the best manner they could." Neal, vol. Iv., chap. 7. So true is human nature
to itself, in every age!




250                 THE RETURNING TIDE.
Gauden (author of Ikon rBasilike), Wilkins, Reynolds, and some
others, were never guilty of these outrages.
What, in the anguish of these trials, were the feelings of ministers and people, may be sufficiently learned from the following
extracts. The first describes the sentiments of Oliver Heywood:
-" I am  so well satisfied in my refusing subscription and conformity to the terms enjoined by law for the exercise of my public ministry, that, notwithstanding all the taunts, rebukes and
affronts, I have had from men; the weary travels for many thousand miles; the hazardous meetings, plunderings and imprisonments; the banishment from my own house, coming home with
fear in the night, &c., - notwithstanding all this, I am  so fully
satisfied in my conscience that my nonconformity as a minister is
the way of God, and I have so much peace in my spirit that what
I do in the main is according to God's Word, that, if I knew of all
these troubles beforehand, and were to begin again, I would persist
in this course to my dying day, and, if God call me to it, would
seal it with my blood."
Again.  " Our adversaries envy us all our pains, and toils, and
hazard, for our dear Lord and the good of sinners. They enjoy
their rich livings, fair parsonages, and fruitful glebes; they step
out of their houses into their churches, read their easy service, say
their eloquent orations, eat the fat and drink the sweet; are companions with gentlemen and peers of the realm; have their thousands a-year; make laws for us; and yet think much at our havw
ing a poor livelihood, and a little honest work; weeping and
wrestling with God and sinners to do good.  They call us schismatics and seditious; they exasperate magistrates against us, punish, banish, and imprison us; confiscate our goods, excommunicate
and censure us, and think and say we are not worthy to live;
while we live peaceably, pray for them, and dare challenge them
if ever they found fault in us, save in the matters of our God. 0
Lord, judge between them and us, and plead the cause of thy servants! "
" In consequence of the Conventicle Act," says Dr. Fawcett, in




THE RETURNING TIDE.                   251
his life of Heywood, " the jails in the several counties were quickly
filled with dissenting protestants.  If the money was not immediately paid, there was a seizure of their effects.  The goods and
wares were taken out of the shops, and cattle were driven away,
and sold for half their value.  If the seizure did not answer the
fine, the minister and people were hurried to prison, and put under
close confinement for three or six months. Religious assemblies
were frequently held at midnight, and in the most private places;
and, notwithstanding all their caution, the poor people were frequently disturbed.  Yet it is very remarkable that, under all
their hardships, they never were known to make the least resistance, but went quietly along with the officers, when they couldnot
fly from them."
The well-known Vavasor Powell gives, about the same period, a
similar description of the measures taken in Wales:' There have been very violent proceedings, especially in some
counties, where some poor and peaceable people have been
dragged out of their beds, and, without regard of sex or age, have
been driven on their feet some twenty miles to prison, and forced,
though in the heat of summer, till their feet were much blistered,
and they ready to fall with faintness, to run by the troopers'
horses, receiving many blows and beatings. Others, as if they had
been brute beasts, were driven into pinfolds or pounds, wheire they
were kept several hours, their persecutors, in the interim, drinking
in an ale-house, and forcing the poor people to pay for it, though
they were not suffered to taste; afterwards bringing them to the
sea-side, and leaving them  in the night in danger of being swallowed up by the sea, and blasphemously saying that a dog that was
with them was the spirit that led them.  Others were committed
to prison at pleasure, and kept there many months; and yet their
cattle and sheep, to the number of above six hundred, were taken
from them and sold. Some were forced, when they were called to
the quarter sessions, to walk in chains, which should not by law,
upon any such grounds, be put upon them, unless they had attempted to make an escape, or break prison.  Others, who were




252                 TiHE RETURNING TIDE.
quietly met together, after their usual manner for many years, to
worship God and edify one another, were cast into prison without
any examination, showing cause, or commitment, that they could
understand, contrary to the laws of this and other nations.
" Nay, such was the enmity of the seed of the serpent against
the seed of the woman, that, though the king was pleased by his
proclamation to grant Christian liberty for some time, yet upon the
next Lord's day following after the receipt of the said proclamation,
some of the officers of one corporation dragged and hailed some
poor women, who were hearing the word of God, into an ale-house,
and kept them there till after night, and until they made them pay
for the ale which these disturbers did drink."
The following (somewhat miscellaneous) extracts from "the
Records of a Church of Christ meeting in Broadmead, Bristol,
1640-1687," will amply describe the character of the times:
" Upon the 26th day of September, 1664, MIr. Ewin and brother
Simpson were released out of prison; which long and tedious
imprisonment so decayed our pastor, and his straining his voice in
prison to preach, which he would every Lord's day, that the people
that gathered together under the prison walls might hear, he being
about four pair of stairs high from them, that when he came out
of prison, after the first sermon he preached abroad, he fainted
away, and declined continually, (so) that it hastened his days." * *5" Thus we were hunted by the Nimrods; but the Lord hid us
many Lord's days at brother Ellis', in Corn-street, that we had
some peace, though the meeting was numerous; yet we were
assaulted there many a time by men, but saved by God. One
time, upon a week-day meeting, which was likewise there for a
long time, a guard of musketeers was sent for to take us into custody; and then, being in the evening, we were conveyed ipto a
cellar under ground, that went into Ballance (Baldwin) street, and
so we escaped, and they (were) disappointed through the Lord." ~* *
"Another time, at brother Ellis' upon a Lord's day, the mayor
and aldermen, with officers, beset the house, and at last broke open
the back door, and so came in; but, in the mean time, our brother,




THE RETURNING TIDE.                 253
having before contrived, by a great cupboard, to hide a garret door,
he sent up most of the men out of the meeting into the said garret,
and some were concealed.  But the mayor and Sir John sent
away thirty-one of the members and auditors to prison, to Bridewell, for a month, upon their first conviction."
Bristol witnessed at this time the conspiracy of an intolerant
bishop, a drunken vintner, and an attorney, against the nonconformists. The bishop took his place daily on the justice-bench, and
threatened the religious men of his town with all kinds of severity.
To meet the storm, the various nonconforming churches, two baptist, the presbyterian, and the independent, combined into a kind
of protective association:
" It pleased the Lord to suffer Hiellier aforesaid" (the attorney),
"the first day, as he began against us, to be caught in a snare.
For when he came to Mr. Gifford's meeting, it happened, by providence disposed, that at that morning another brother, that did use
to preach every other Lord's day there, namely, brother Harford,
was then preaching when Iellier came in. But Hellier goes before
the mayor, and swears that it was Andrew Gifford was preaching
then, upon the 27th of September last.  So there was a warrant,
as well as for other ministers, so for Andrew Gifford.  Which warrants being delivered to the chief constable of Janmes' ward, who
would not execute the warrants, but would make evasions; and
some Lord's days would get out of town, when he might take up
the ministers, who still kept their preaching; but we suffered the
chief constable to take brother Andrew Gifford, because we knew
him to be clear of that information.  And he being brought before
the mayor, Hellier had the confidence to swear, upon the holy
record, that this was the man, swearing to his person, although it
was another; and notwithstanding it was put to him several times
to consider, lest he was mistaken, yet he swore positively that was
the man.  Thus Hellier took a false oath, and there were ten
present that did witness the contrary, and four took their oaths it
was another did then preach; so the magistrates said Hellier had
sworn false.  And so they'troubled us for several months, but we
22




254                 THE RETURNING TIDE.
kept our meetings, and our pastors preaching, still pleading our
rights by law."
"Now, three of our ministers being imprisoned, some of each
congregation of the brethren met together to consult how to carry
on our meetings, that we might keep to our duty, and edify one
another now our pastors were gone. Some even were ready of
thinking to give off, viz: of the presbyterians; that they could not
carry it on, because of their principle, (which) was not to hear a
man not bred up at the university, and not ordained. But the
Lord appeared, and helped us to prevail with thenm to hold on and
keep up their meetings. And for *the first, and (for) some time.
we concluded this: to come and assemble together, and for one to
pray and read a chapter, and then sing a psalm, and after conclude
with prayer; and so two brethren to carry on the meeting one
day, and two another, for a while, to try what they would do with
us. So we did, and ordered one of the doors of our meeting-place
to be made fast, and all to come in at one, but open it when we
go forth; and to appoint some youth or two of them, to be out at
the door, every meeting, to watch when I-Iellier or other informers
or officers were coming; and so to come in, one of them, and give
us notice thereof. Also, some of the hearers, women and sisters,
would sit and crowd in the stairs, when we did begin the meeting
with any exercise, that so the informers might not too suddenly
come in upon us; by reason of which they were prevented divers
times." X*  *  *  "To prevent spies that might come into the
room as hearers, and yet that no strangers or persons we knew not
might not be hindered from coming into our meeting, whether good
or bad, to hear the gospel, we contrived a curtain to be hung in
the meeting-place; that did enclose as much room as above fifty
might sit within it; and among those men, he that preached should
stand; that so, if any informer was privately in the room as a
hearer, he might hear him that spake, but could not see him, and
thereby not know him.  And there were brethren without the
curtain, that would hinder any from going within the curtain,




THE RETURNING TIDE.                 255
that they did not know to be friends; and let whoso would come
into our meeting, to hear without the curtain.  And when our
company and time were come to begin the meeting, we drew the
curtain, and filled up the stairs with women and maids that sat in
it, that the informers could not quickly run up.
"And when we had notice that the informers or officers were
coming, we caused the minister, or brother, that preached, to forbear and sit down. Then we drew back the curtain, laying'the
whole room open that they might see us all. And so all the people begin to sing a psalm that, at the beginning of the meeting, we
did always name what psalm we would sing, if the informers, or
the mayor or his officers, come in.  Thus till when they came in
we were singing, so that they could not find any one preaching,
but all singing.  And, at our meeting, we ordered it so that none
read the psalm after the first line, but every one brought their
Bibles, and so read for themselves; that they might not lay hold
of any one for preaching, or as much as reading the psalm, and so
to imprison any more for that, as they had our ministers.  Which
means the Lord blessed, that many times when the irmayor came
they were all singing, that he knew not who to take away more
than another.  And so when the mayor, Ilellier, or the other
informers, had taken our names, and done what they would, and
carried away whom they pleased, and when they were gone down
out of our rooms, then we ceased singing, and drew the curtain
again, and the minister, or brother, would go on with the rest of
his sermon, until they came again, which sometimes they would
thrice in one meeting disturb us, - or until our time was expired.
This was our constant manner during this persecution, in Olive's
mayoralty, and we were by the Lord helped, that we were in a
good measure edified, and our enemies often disappointed.  Laus
Deo." *
As the public mind became aroused, the lay nonconformists
looked with increasing disapprobation on the conduct of Baxter
and others, who, instead of manfully protesting against the perse* Broadlmead Records.




256                 TIHE RETURNING TIDE.
cuting system, conformed as far as was possible.  None suspected
Baxter's motives; but he was a paradox: a combatant for peace,
and disputatious for charity.
The summer of 1665 was memorable for its close and oppressive
heat. The connection between cometary influences and a sultry
atmosphere has been often observed, and it was this year very
remarkable.  No less than three comets had appeared during
twelve months, and astrologers derived from the phenomena appalling auguries, whilst even religious men looked on in fear and
dismay. It added to Baxter's horror at the wickedness of the
times, that such portents could be disregarded.  The great plague
of London followed. The metropolis singularly invited such a
desolation. Its ill-built wooden houses, huddled promiscuously on
each other, and forbidding, from the nature of their construction,
the access of free air, -its imperfect sewerage, and the absence of
all adequate sanitary laws, -had often before this period provoked
this fatal epidemic; but it now burst forth with fury to which all
previous experience offered no parallel. The crowded horrors of
that period have been amply and graphically drawn by Defoe in
his memorials of the plague year. During a single night ten
thousand persons died.  At the time of this infliction Baxter was
a resident, with his new wife, in the house which had belonged to
Hampden, now occupied by his son.  But he did not behold the
fearful desolation unmoved; and the British IMuseurn still preserves a broad-sheet, entitled, "Short Instructions for the Sick,
especially those who, by Contagion, or otherwise, are deprived of
the presence of a Faithful Pastor. By Richard Baxter." When
the sound in health fled from the pestilential city in crowds, and
the parochial ministers deserted their posts through fear of contagion, a little respite was hoped for by the nonconformists, and
many of them  gladly availed themselves of the opportunity to
prosecute, in the midst of disease and death, their heavenly calling.
Yet the malice of Clarendon, and Sheldon, now Archbishop of
Canterbury, was proof even against such a visitation; and they
employed themselves in the interval in forging "the Five Mile




TIlE RETURNING TIDE.                257
Act." This act set forth a certain oath, declaring the conviction
of the person taking it that it is unlawful to take up arms
against the sovereign, and promising not to attempt an alteration
of the government either in church or state; and it provided that
those who refused to take such an oath should not come within
five miles of any corporate city, or within five miles of any town or
place in which they had been heretofore settled, or in which they
had preached, under enormous penalties. By this act the nonconformists were a second time driven from their homes.
In the following year another tremendous visitation occurred.
"September 2, 1666, began," says Baxter, as quoted by Calamy,
"that dreadful fire, whereby the best and one of the fairest cities
in the world was turned into ashes and ruins in three days' space.
The season had been exceeding dry before, and the wind in the
east when the fire began. The people, having none to conduct
them aright, could do nothing to resist it, but stood and saw their
houses burnt without remedy, the engines being presently out of
order and useless. The streets were crowded with people and
carts, to carry away what goods they could get; and they that
were most active and befriended got carts and saved much, while
the rest lost almost all they had. The loss in houses and goods
could scarce be valued. Among the rest, the loss of books was a
very great detriment to the interest of piety and learning. * >*
To see the fields filled with heaps of goods, and sumptuous buildings, curious rooms, costly furniture, and household stuff, - yea,
warehouses and furnished shops and libraries, &c., all on a flame,
whilst none durst come near to receive anything; to see the king
and nobles ride about the streets, beholding all these desolations,
while none could afford the least relief; to see the air, as far as it
could be beheld, so filled with smoke that the sun shined through
it with a color like blood, &c. But the dolefullest sight of all
was, afterwards, to see what a ruinous confused place the city was,
by chimneys and steeples only standing in the midst of cellars and
heaps of rubbish; so that it was hard to know where the streets
22*




258                  TIIE RETURNING TIDE.
had been, and dangerous of a long time to pass through the ruins,
because of vaults and fires in them." *
True to their function, the nonconformist ministers availed themselves of the occasion to open houses for divine service, which were
crowded with worshippers.
Some of these churches were built of boards, and were called
tabernacles. Most of the leading dissenting churches of London
originated about this period.
In the following year, Clarendon, then lord chancellor, was impeached and discarded. His retirement was the consequence of
intrigues disgraceful to the court and revolting to the nation. The
Duke of Buckingham, the most abandoned of debauchees, succeeded him in the favor of the monarch, and the nonconformists
gained some respite by the change.  The king, influenced by
Buckingham, and intent on gaining a popish ascendency, endeavored to moderate the stringency of preceding enactments. But
the parliament refused to be won.  The attempt made about this
time to effect another scheme of comprehension irritated Sheldon,
who addressed a circular letter to the bishops, demanding from
them  an account of the nonconformist ministers in their several
dioceses.  Under this proceeding Baxter was seized and imprisoned.  He demanded a writ of habeas corpus, which, because he
was favored by the court, was granted.  Many friends at this conjuncture offered to assist him with their purses, but he refused all
aid except for his law and prison charges.
Baffled in his attempts to affect a compromise with the episcopalians, Baxter next endeavored to make one with the independents.
A correspondence on the subject took place between him and Dr.
Owen, but it reached no issue, partly from a want of agreement
between the two correspondents regarding the power of the civil
magistrate.
* Calamy's Baxter. Calamy had reason to be interested in this event. IHis
grandfather, Mr. E. Calamy, who refused a bishopric under Charles II., was so
affected by the sight of the ruins, that it brought on his death. IHe had been
imprisoned for nonconformity.




THE RETURNING TIDE.                 259
In the year 1.766 Baxter's friends built him a new meetinghouse, in Oxenden-street. HI-e had not preached more than once in
this building when new persecutions awaited him. Baxter was
surprised in his own house, and served with a warrant under the
corporation act, and five more warrants claiming one hundred and
ninety-five pounds for four sermons. His extreme illness rescued
him from prison, but the warrant was executed upon his books
and goods.  Fearing new seizures, he was compelled to go into
private lodgings.  Again he tells us, "While I lay in pain and
languishing, the justices of the session sent warrants to apprehend
me, about a thousand more being in catalogue to be bound to their
good behavior.  I refused to open my chamber-door to them, their
warrant not being to break it open; but they set six officers at my
study door, who watched all night, and kept me from my bed and
food; so that the next day I yielded to them, who carried me,
scarce able to stand, to the sessions, and bound me in four hundred
pounds."
Other parts of the reign of Charles II. are full of incidents
illustrative of the principles set forth in this volume; but these
must be briefly told. England became, under the pressure of the
king's unprincipled necessities, a mere appanage of France. Charles
endeavored to prepare the way for Roman Catholic ascendency.
The parliament, jealous of his intentions, labored for the passing
of penal enactments. Nonconformists, who would have rejoiced
at even indulgence, hesitated to accept it when offered by the king
" in virtue of his supreme power in matters ecclesiastical."  The
contest between the king and his parliament gave birth to the
Test Act, which provided that all persons holding office, civil or
military, should take the oath of supremacy, declare against transubstantiation, and receive the sacrament according to the forms of
the Church of England.  Then came the rumors of a popish plot,
which all feared, some believed, but none understood.  The nation
was hastening to ruin.  The exchequer was bankrupt.  Public
morality was destroyed. The court was dissolute to a degree
which, in the present day, seems incredible. The church, de



260                  THE RETURNING TIDE.
prived of its most faithful ministers, was left a prey to clergymen
who, though not without bright exceptions, were mostly careless,
whilst many were dissolute, and some abandoned. The nonconformists were indulged or persecuted, according to the policy or
the humor of the moment. The metropolis was a scene of constant agitation. The office of jailer alone was profitable. The
Roman Catholics were dispossessed of their seats in parliament.
The Duke of York, avowing himself a Romanist, was excluded
from the privy council.  Rumors of plots possessed men's minds.
Noblemen suffered death under the suspicion of indefinable treasons. Judges and juries were alike servile and venal. The monarchy was hastening to its extinction. At length, jaded, sated,
disgraced, contemned, Charles II. died in the arms of his mistress,
comforted in his last moments by the thought that he should reach
"'heaven's gates" by means of the rites of the Roman Catholic
church, -  leaving a name characterized by no good quality, but
easy address and careless facility; a saunterer, a reveller, a lampooner, a liar, a profligate; reckless of the nation's honor, and
indifferent to his own; a bad husband, an untrusted friend, a
merciless judge, a despotic king; pilloried, till the latest day of
England's history, as one by whom its liberties were betrayed, its
honor humiliated, its greatness prostituted and destroyed. Such
was the penalty paid by a nation for its undiscerning enthusiasm;
by a religious party for its tenacity after uniformity, and its
struggles for the covenant; by an establishment for "its most
religious and gracious king."




CHAPTER VIII.
TIlE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
"If we come to prohibiting, there is nothing so likely to be prohibited as
truth itself."- MILTON.
F all the scenes which the sun shines
upon  in  the north of England, there
is surely none more lovely than  that
-  which encircles the famous castle of Lancaster. The Roman poet tells us that
in his day it was not the good fortune of
every one to go to Corinth.  Neither is a
visit to the lakes within the compass of
every tourist. Should the reader lack
~   the reality, he must be contented with the
pictorial, which, however, we may assure
him, is a very inferior affair.  The name
Lancashire" indicates its origin, — the
JOHN OF GAUNT'S GATEWAY, Chester (or Castle) of the Lune, which
LANCASTER.       river flashes its rapid waters in a full
mountain-stream  above the town, where it abates its haste, and
flows on more gently till it yields to the tides of the ocean beneath its walls.  The castle itself stands on a considerable eminence, not, like Windsor Castle, the highest point of the landscape,
but reposing on an altitude surmounted by the greater eminences
of an amphitheatre of hills. The present building is not the first
strong-hold by which the town has been distinguished; it is the
successor of one much older, but now entirely demolished, dating
back from  Saxon, if not from  Roman, times.  From  the now




262         TIIE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
existing castle, however, so placed as to give protection to the shipping of its day, and a fastness of considerable celebrity in ancient
story, did the county of Lancashire derive its name.
I do not know how Lancaster may look at all seasons; but I
know how it looked on nearly the first spring morning of the present year. I had been directed to the Scotforth road (the name is
suggestive), as presenting one of the finest views of the town; and
I was not disappointed. Lord Bacon, it is said, delighted to
expose himself bareheaded to the rain, avowing that he loved the
spirit of nature to come over him.  Since the invention of umbrellas, his taste in that respect seems to have grown obsolete.
Wishing for the same thing, one would seek it now in another
form, and would court the subtle essence rather in sunshine than in
shower;, and it is the early warmth of the year that seems best to
realize it.  The reader shall suppose this early spring.  The
hedges in their vernal beauty; the rivulet stealing clown the
gentle eminence " by its own sweet will," glittering and babbling
in playful activity as it goes; the furze, gaudy with its rich golden
blossom, yet furnishing a welcome ornament when there is not
another flower within view;- let these be the foreground of my
picture.  The mid-ground is the valley of the Lune, stretching
itself out in wide and varied luxuriance, while houses, gardens,
mills, churches, trees, bridges and ships, define its course, till it
pours its waters into the Irish sea, which is from this spot distinctly visible.  Behind this, again, is the usually placid and
unrippled bay of Morecamb, famous for those treacherous sands
which have deluded and destroyed many a traveller; and further
in the distance still, the eye rests on the WVestmoreland mountains:
"Rocks, hills and crags, confusedly hurled,
The frargments of an earlier world,"
looking as if some pre-Adamite giants had been at play; or, as if
there had been a thought of erecting some Titanic temple, which
never proceeded further than the first excavations.




THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.          263
In the midst of this wide-spread panorama stands, elevated on
a considerable hill, a mass of building, in such a position as that
it seems the picture to which the landscape itself is but the frame,
- the Castle of Lancaster. Viewed from a distance, its aspect is
extremely imposing. But a nearer view dispels much of the illusion, and presents an uncomfortable piece of modern restoration.
The grave mingles with the gay.  Gothic windows, brilliant with
plate glass, force themselves on the eye in such situations as, in the
original building, would have altogether destroyed its strength as a
fortress. An old Roman tower, or that which is called such, has
been cased over, to preserve it, upon no conceivable principle except
that which dictated the conduct of the wife of the Vicar of Wakefield, when she gave a golden guinea to each of her daughters, with
a strict charge that they were on no account to use it.  The inhabitants of Lancaster have the satisfaction of knowing that the tower
is there.  The further advantage they derive from its possession is
inconceivable.  But, as we stand upon this Scotforth-road, these
renovations are happily unseen, nor can we here perceive what "a
thing of shreds and patches " the building has become.  We gladly
forget the mangled present, and throw ourselves on the past. Here,
in the reign of Titus the Roman emperor, Julius Agricola formed
a fortress, and sent hence the military stores requisite for the
northern Roman stations.  hiere the Picts and Scots established
themselves. Here Arthur, the king of the round table, conducted
a successful siege against the Saxons, who, however, subsequently
regained their fortress. The Danes afterwards invested the town,
and committed great devastations on the surrounding country.
Roger of Poitou, one of the retainers of the fierce " conqueror,"
built the keep, and at last rebelled against his liege lord. King
John was himself, at one period, lord of Lancaster, and its next
possessor became one of the barons who wrested Magna Charta
from the unwilling sovereign. One of his successors joined the
ranks of Simon de 3Montfort, and was deprived of his possessions
by Henry III.; another headed the barons, who opposed Piers
Gavestone and the Despensers.  One of the Earls of Lancaster




264          THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
was foremost in the battle of Poictiers, and entertained John, King
of France,when brought over to England a prisoner.  By marriage
with the daughter of this noble, created by Edward III. Duke of
LANCASTER CASTLE.-THE PRISON OF GEORGE FOX.
Lancaster, John of Gaunt became possessed of the castle and the
title.  He built the entrance towers, which rise up in such majestic
grandeur before the eye.  His son, Henry of Bolingbroke, was one
of the most remarkable of England's constitutional kings.  From
that day Lancaster became an appanage of the crown. Edward IV.
escaped hither from York. During the civil wars Lancaster was
a strong refuge of the royalists.  Cromwell, in person, besieged
it.  Bradshaw, at the time when he sat as judge upon Charles I.,
was sheriff of Lancashire. The pretender was proclaimed in the
market-place of the town, when the Earl of Derwentwater headed
his rebel army.  Charles Edward passed hither on his way to
England, and visited it again on his disastrous retreat. What
spot has such an associated series of historical incidents? Familiar
in its day with a state only second to that of royalty itself; mixed
up with the successive crises of history, whether for evil or for




THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.         265
good; the fortress of liberty, the home of chivalry, the highway
of armies, the scene of the most gorgeous hospitalities, who could
have augured that its destiny would end in being what it now is,
- a debtor's prison?
Amidst the many purposes to which this fastness of "time-honored Lancaster "- if we may transfer the epithet from John of
Gaunt to the place whence he derived his title —has been applied,
during the vicissitudes of its singular history, none, at the present
moment, interests us more than its having been the prison of some
of the martyrs of religious liberty. The founder of the castle in
its present form, John of Gaunt, has been already mentioned as a
temporary patron of England's first reformer, though he obeyed in
this connection the promptings of ambition, rather than those of
conscience.  Our present reference to Lancaster is associated with
a later period.
Among the sects which sprang up in England during the time
of the great civil wars, scarcely any was more frequently mentioned than that of the " quakers." The term was one of reproach,
said to have been first given to the body by some of the independents; but it covered with its contemptuous designation many men
of large hearts, earnest zeal, and unquestionable integrity. Our
object, in these pages, is not to advocate any definite form of religious opinion, but to endeavor to do some justice to all; and none
but a prejudiced observer, looking on the personal and social virtues which the system called " quakerism" carries in its train, can
fail to distinguish many points worthy of an emphatic commendation.
IHe would be a bold man who should assert that, in the early
days of their history, the leaders of that body now called quakers
never overran the bounds of prudence, or even of constitutional
liberty. That they were men of the deepest religious sincerity
must be apparent to the most superficial observer. It is also most
evident that many of the convictions they strongly entertained
were forced upon them by the irreligion, inconsistency and heartless formalism, of their times. The early Friends were as magnan23




266          THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
imous in avowing these convictions as they were earnest in adopting them.  They were under the influence of an energy for truth
so powerful as to out-run ordinary calculations.  But, unless we
were prepared to assert, not only that conscience is above all law,
but that law has nothing to do with any form in which that conscience may assert itself, even when it interferes with the liberties
of others, we must demur to some of their manifestations; nor,
probably, will any modern follower of the tenets of the earlier
Friends greatly differ from us in doing so.  When, invading the
quietude of churches, they debated before the assembled congregations the doctrines which the preacher had just delivered; or when
they attacked, before his flock, the personal qualifications of their
minister himself, they exceeded the bounds which the largest definition of religious liberty will allow. It was not, however, against
such offences as these, considered in the light of misdemeanors, and
justly noticeable as such, that the civil powers of that day exclusively or even mainly proceeded, but against, the right they claimed
to hold opinions not recognized by any existing system.  Their
refusal of oaths and tithes, their preaching in mnarkets and other
public places, their declining to take off their hats before magistrates, were their main offences, and for these they suffered severely.
When they had increased so much as to hold assemblies of their
own, -one of them being in a house known in after years by the
name of the Bull and Mouth, Aldersgate-street, - they were often
violently molested, under pretence of their being engaged in treasonable conspiracies, and an order against unlawful assemblies was
especially directed against them. They justly accused the government of Cromwell of great inconsistency, in thus dealing with
them, especially after his professions of liberty of conscience; and
many were the appeals they addressed to him on the subject.
There was justice in the complaint that, " although Archbishop
Laud was beheaded, yet it could not be proved that the episcopalians had persecuted so severely as these pretended assertors of
liberty of conscience had done, who, being got into possession of




THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.           267
power, did oppress more than those they had driven out."*
George Fox, especially, seems to have become acquainted with
most of the prisons in the kingdom. The truth was, that, during
Cromwell's protectorate, most of the inferior magistrates were continued in office; and Cromwell was fearful of offending the dominant religious sects, by preventing, as he ought to have done, the
injurious proceedings of those who acted in his name.  So dangerous is it to commit the maintenance of religion to those who have
other interests to serve.
These proceedings constitute a blot upon the administration of
~the protectorate. t  Many laws, and, among others, one for the
suppression of vagrants, were put in force against them.  MIen
and women were imprisoned merely because they were found on
the road, some of them  to visit their friends, or to transact their
necessary business.  Others were whipped and sent with a pass
from  tything to tything; one, a female, was stopped about ten
miles from her home, and robbed of her horse, which was sold to
Pay the expenses of her incarceration. As this body held different
views of the Sabbath- from other Christians, they were often tormented under the pretext that they abused it; and when found
travelling to their own houses of worship, were frequently punished by distresses, impoundings, fines, imprisonment, whippings
and confinement in the stocks. Sometimes, when preaching, they
were violently assaulted; sometimes wounded with stones and
sharp instruments.  The popular feeling against them  was certainly extremely strong; but no decisive measures were adopted
to reform  it, or to check its excesses.  Scarcely a quaker was
known to escape the violence of this general persecution.
Severe as these sufferings were, they were greatly increased by
the inhumanity of those who kept custody of these poor victims of
an established religion.  Three quakers, imprisoned in Norwich,
were compelled to lie on the floor for eight weeks in a most severe
t Sewall's History of the Quakers, vol. I., p. 151.
f The case of John Lilburn must be regarded in a light rather political than
religious.




268         TIlE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
winter. Others were kept among felons, and exposed to abuse
from  their fellow-prisoners, who said that "if such were killed
there would be no hanging for it." Others were treated in prison
in a manner not only injurious, but execrable; —  we spare the
reader the offensive details.  5Tomen were kept in the stocks in a
way most indelicate and severe, and then turned abroad in the
freezing night.  James Parnel, a young man of tender constitution, but a powerful preacher and vigorous disputant, was imprisonedl for several months, till he died under the severity of his
treatment.
Besides this, great injuries were done by depredations committed
on their property in the processes of distraint for tithes.  In one
case, where fifty-four pounds only were demanded, the sumn actually seized was one hundred and thirty-eight pounds.
The patience of these sufferers was such as to cause wonder that
it did not disarm their enemies. They conducted themselves under
persecution with a meekness truly exemplary.  When they lifted
up their public testimony, they were not always sparing of severe
denunciation.  Indeed, this was sometimes carried not only to an
injudicious, but even to an unwarrantable extent. But, when they
suffered, there was usually a total absence of passion, or of revenge.
Whitelock relates two anecdotes, which may be regarded as striking illustrations of this most Christian temper.  When sonme of
the body were assaulted and ill-treated by the populace, "the
quakers fell on their knees, and prayed to God to forgive the
people, as those who knew not what they did; and remonstrated
with them, so as to convince them of the evil of their conduct, on
which they ceased from their violence, and began to reproach each
other with being the occasions of it; and beat one another more
than they had before done the quakers."*
The spirit of intolerance which oppressed the quakers was
stronger among the presbyterian party of that day than any other.
The independents were by no means altogether free.  But they
* Memorials, pp. 564, 599.




THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.            269
were not the distinguished persecutors.  The protectorate parliament, dissolved in 1654, was extremely vehement against sectarian
opinions. One of their resolutions was:
That the true reformed protestant Christian religion, as it is
contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments,
and no other, shall be asserted and maintained as the public profession of these nations."*
In a subsequent parliament we meet the following resolutions:
"Ordered, that it be referred to the sub-committee to bring in
the bill for supply of the defects in the act for the observation of
the Lord's day, to peruse the several ordinances and acts for abolishing of the Book of Common-prayer, and to consider wherein
those laws are defective, and to bring in a bill to supply the same;
and further, to prevent the using of Common Prayer, and to provide
a.gainst the using of other superstitious ceremonies and practices in
divine worship.
"It was further ordered, that it be referred to another subcommittee to consider how to suppress the meetings of quakers,
papists, anti-sabbatarians, anti-trinitarians, and of the setters up
of Jewish worship; and two worthy members were desired to
take care hereof, and to bring in one or more bills to remedy the
same."t
To one case, among the rest, more than an ordinary notoriety is
attached.  It is that of James Naylor.  This man, born near
Wakefield, had been once a soldier under General Lambert, and
had been held in considerable repute among the body of Friends.
His popularity proved too much for his understanding; and when
some of his followers addressed blasphemous expressions to him,
he received them with a gratification extremely inconsistent with
his religious professions.  " He was already," says Sewall, t "too
much transported, and grew still more exorbitant; for,  *   *
riding into Bristol in the beginning of November, 1656, he was
* Burton's Diary, Introduction, p. 112.
t Moercurius Politicus. Quoted in Burton's Diary, vol. III., p. 403.
t I-ist. Quakers, vol. I., pp. 236, et seq.
23



270         THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
accompanied by several persons; and passing through the suburbs
of Bristol, one Thomas Woodcock went bareheaded before him;
one of the women led his horse; Dorcas, Martha and Hannah,
spread their scarfs and handkerchiefs before him, and the company
sung,'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts,' &c. * *
Thus these mad people sung, whilst they were walking through
the mire and dirt, till they came to Bristol, where they were
examined by the magistrates and committed to prison; and not
long after he was carried to London, to be examined by the parliament."
The case was sufficiently lamentable and disgraceful, and his
party believed him, not improbably, to be "clouded in his understanding," and hastened to avow, as they have ever since done,
their entire repudiation of his extravagances.  " His sorrowful
fall," says their historian, " ought to stand as a warning, even to
those that are endued with great gifts, that they do not presume
to be exalted, lest they also fall; but endeavor to continue in true
humility, in which alone a Christian can be kept safe."
Naylor's conduct came before parliament, Dec. 3, 1656.  He
was accused of having "assumed the gesture, words, names and
attributes, of our Saviour Jesus Christ."  The case excited a deep
sensation in the house. " Naylor is, in fact," says Carlyle, " almost
all that survives with one, from Burton, as the sum of what this
parliament did."  The first speaker, Major-general Skippon, said,
breaking the silence which had followed the report, "' I do not
marvel at this silence.  Every man is astonished to hear this
report. I am glad it is come hither; I hope it will mind you to
look about you now. It is now come to your doors, to know how
you that bear witness of Christ do relish such things.  God's
displeasure will be upon you, if you do not lay out your special
endeavors in the things of God; not to postpone them. You are
cumbered about many things; but I may truly say this, zunum
necessar ium."  "I am as tender as any man to lay impositions
upon men's consciences, but in these horrid things. I have always
been against laws for matters ex post facto: but in this I am free




THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.            271
to look back, for it is a special emergency."  There were not
wanting those in the house who, though they abominated the blaspherny, desired fairness to be shown to the criminal. Captain
Baynes said, " However others look upon Naylor, I look upon him
as a man, an Englishman."   Naylor was, at length, brought to
the bar of the house.  He was examined, and, being removed, the
debate proceeded.  Skippon pressed for punishment with extreme
urgency: "These quakers, ranters, levellers, Socinians and all
sorts, bolster themselves under thirty-seven and thirty-eight of
government,*x' which, at one breath, repeals all the acts and ordinances against them.  I heard the supreme magistrate say,'It
was never his intention to indulge such things.' Yet we see the
issue of this liberty of conscience. It sits hard upon my conscience;
and I choose rather to venture my discretion than betray conscience by my silence.  If this be liberty, God deliver me from
such liberty!" Some difficulties occurred respecting the propriety
of the phrase, horrid blasphemy.  The lord-president said that
it was a matter very hard for a parliament to define, and that no
definition of it could be given which would not include many others
besides Naylor.   What would become of the familists, what of
Arians, what of Arminians?  "By this rule," replied Skippon,
"' none shall meddle at all in matters of religion."  Colonel Sydenham said, " If. some of those parliaments were sitting in our places,
I believe they would condemn most of us for heretics." In the end
it was resolved, " that James Naylor is guilty of horrid blasphemy."
Many were for condemning him to death; some, — amongst others
Thurloe, the secretary of state, - for punishing him as a rogue.
The debate grew excited.  One said, " The quakers are not only
numerous, but dangerous; and the sooner we shall put a stop, the
more glory we shall do to God, and safety to this commonwealth."
* These parts of the " Instrument of government " provided'" that such as
profess faith in God by Jesus Christ (though differing in judgment from the
doctrine, worship or discipline, publicly held forth), shall not be restrained
from, but protected in, the profession of the faith and exercise of their religion," &c., "provided this liberty be not extended to popery nor prelacy."




272         THIE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
Some contended that the law for punishing blasphemers was binding only on the Jewish nation. The nature of the punishment to
be inflicted, death being set aside, was much discussed. The
debate turned on the questions of slitting the tongue, or boring it;
of cutting off his hair; of whipping; of sending him to Bristol,
the Isle of Scilly, Jamaica, the Isle of Dogs, the Marshalsea.  At
length the prisoner was called up to receive his sentence. It was
one of terrible severity:
"' That James Naylor be set in the pillory, with his head in the
pillory, in the New Palace, Westminster, during the space of two
hours, on Thursday next; and be whipped by the hangman through
the streets of Westminster to the Old Exchange, London; and
there likewise to be set upon the pillory, with his head in the pillory, for the space of two hours, between the hours of eleven and
one on Saturday next, in each of the said places, wearing a paper
containing an inscription of his crimes; and that, at the Old Exchange, his tongue should be bored through with a hot iron, and
that he be there also stigmatized in the forehead with the letter
B; and that he afterwards be sent to Bristol, and conveyed into
and through the said city, on a horse, bare-ridged, with his face
back, and there also publicly whipped, the next market-day after he
comes thither; and that from thence he be committed to prison in
Bridewell, London, and there restrained from the society of all
people, and kept to hard labor, till he be released by the parliament; and during that time be debarred of the use of pen, ink
and paper, and have no relief but what he earns by his daily
labor."
The sentence was executed accordingly.  "The 18th of December, J. Naylor suffered part of it; and, after having stood two
full hours with his head in the pillory, was stripped, and whipped
at a cart's tail, from  Palace-yard to the Old Exchange, and
received three hundred and ten stripes; and the executioner
would have given him one more (as he confessed to the sheriff),
there being three hundred and eleven kennels; but his foot slipping, the stroke fell upon his own hand, which hurt him much.




THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.              273
All this Naylor bore with so much patience and quietness, that it
astonished many of the beholders, though his body was in a most
pitiful condition. He was also much hurt with horses treading
on his feet, whereon the print of the nails was seen.  Rebecca
Travers, a grave person, who washed his wounds, in a certificate
which was presented to the parliament, and afterwards printed,
says,'There was not the space of a man's nail free from stripes
and blood, from  his shoulders near to his waist; his right arm
sorely striped, his hands much cut with cords, that they bled and
were swelled; the blood and wounds of his back did very little
appear at first sight, by reason of the abundance of dirt that covered them, till it was washed off.' "    When the time arrived for
the second part of Naylor's punishment, he was in a state so
exhausted that it was necessarily deferred; and a petition was presented to the protector in this interval, signed by many who were
not quakers, for clemency to be showed to the sufferer, -"  leaving him to the Lord, and to such gospel remedies as he hath sanctified."  It was a general impression on many minds that Naylor
had been rather guilty of inconsiderateness and folly, than actual
guilt.  But the interposition was in vain.  The commons sent
several ministers, among whom  were Caryl, Manton, Nye and
Reynolds, to speak with the prisoner; and they, according to
Naylor's account, were unable to prove that he had been guilty
of blasphemly at all, and after some rebuffs, left him as they came.
The rest of Naylor's sentence was afterwards executed. t  This
* " A merchant's wife told me there was no skin left between his shoulders
and his hips."  Col. Holland, in parliament, 1656.
t " This day B. and I went to see Naylor's tongue bored through, and him
marked in the forehead. IIe put out his tongue very willingly (.), but
shrinked a little when the iron came on his forehead. I-e was pale when he
calne out of the pillory, but high-colored after tongue-boring. Hie was bound
with a cord by both arms to the pillory. Rich, the mad merchant, sat bare at
Naylor's feet all the time. Sometimes he sang and cried, and stroked his hair
and face, and kissed his hand, and stroke the fire out of his forehead. Naylor embraced his executioner, and behaved himself very handsomely and
patiently."- Burton's Diary, vol. I., p. 226.




274         TIlE PRICE.OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
poor wretch, who was probably under the influence of a temporary
insanity, made, subsequently, a public recantation of his errors.
These proceedings seem not to have been very acceptable to Cromwell. Whilst they were yet pending, he sent a message to the
IHouse, desiring to know " the grounds and reasons how you proceeded therein without our consent."  The interposition was useless; the parliament would have its way.  Naylor, after some
time, recovered his liberty, and spent the rest of his days blamelessly and usefully.  Hie died in Huntingdonshire, in the year
1660.
The interviews which are related to have taken place between
George Fox and Cromwell himself would lead us to the conclusion
that he was favorable to the religious liberty which the quakers
claimed.  On one occasion, Oliver said, " Come again to my house!
If thou and I were but an hour of the day together, we should
be nearer one to the other.  I wish no more harm to thee than I
do to my own soul! "  On a second occasion, after some grave
conversation, the protector said " to his wife and other company,
that he had never parted so with the quakers before."  On the
third and last interview, he went to the protector at Hampton
Court " to speak with him  about the sufferings of his friends."
IHe here met him riding into the park, and says that he felt "a
waft of death going forth against him, and when he came near
him  he looked like a dead man."  Oliver invited him to his
house; but when he came, Oliver was already on his bed of
death.
The reader by this time will have almost forgotten that he is
yet standing within view of Lancaster Castle.  In one of his peregrinations, in the year 1660, Fox had come to Swarthmore, near
Lancaster, immediately after the restoration of Charles II. tIe
was here apprehended at the house of a widow named Fell, and
led away to Ulverston. Here he tells us he was kept a night at
the house of the constable, with fifteen or sixteen men set to watch
him, in some fear lest he might make his escape up the chimney.
* Fox's Journal, vol. I., p. 265.




THIE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.        275
Next morning he was carried to Lancaster, seated on a horse,
behind the saddle, with nothing by which to support himself;
whilst the attendants urged on the horse by sudden strokes, so
that the animal kicked and galloped, and threw his rider.  Here
he was put in prison. In vain did he ask for a copy of the mittimlus under the authority of which he was imprisoned.  lie
learned, however, that his accusation was that he was suspected of
being "a common disturber of the peace of the nation."  The
justice before whom he was brought, and who had granted the
warrant against him, was named Porter; he had been heretofore a
zealous defender of the cause of the parliament against the kcing.
The widow in whose house Fox had been apprehended, with
another feimale fiiend, resolved to go to London personally, to
petition the king in favor of the imprisoned man.  Porter declared that he would go also, till he was reminded that the part
he had taken in the recent civil war would be likely to gain him
small favor at court. The women, therefore, went alone, and
were received by Charles with the grace and courtesy which are
not seldom  associated with the absence of valuable principle.
They asked the king to hear the cause himself.  They were fed
by promises, pending the slow execution of which Fox was kept
in prison.  At length the sheriff said he would release him, if he
would enter into recognizances to pay the charges incurred by his
incarceration and his removal to London.  This, however, Fox
refused to do.  The authorities then considered how to convey
him to town.  At first, they proposed to send a few horsemen
as guard over him.  Fox told them that, if all were true which
had been laid to his charge, a troop or two would not be more than
was sufficient for his security.  At length they determined that
he should go up, guarded only by the jailer and some bailiffs.
But even this they found would be an expensive proceeding; there
were no railroads in those days.  They asked Fox himself to give
bail for his appearance in London, which he refused to do.  In the
end, they adopted a proceeding so extraordinary as to be, probably,
without parallel in the whole annals of criminal jurisdiction.




276         THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
They sent him to London, on his pledging his word that, "if God
did permit," he should appear before the judges on a certain day.
Fox gave the word, and honorably kept it. He appeared, and
was told to come again on another day.  At his second appearance, the indictment set forth that he and his friends were embroiling the nation in blood.  Fox told them that he was the man
against whom such a charge was laid, and related to them the
circumstances under which he had come up to appear before them.
Seeing his hat on his head, they asked him "why he stood before
them with his head covered."  He told them that he did not retain
it out of any contempt to them. They commanded it to be
removed; and, calling for the marshal of the King's Bench, they
commanded him to secure Fox.  The marshal declared that the
house was quite full.  Judge Foster then said, "Will you appear
to-morrow about ten o'clock at the King's Bench bar, in Westminster Hall? "  " Yes," said he, "if the Lord give me strength."
Upon which the judge said to his co-assessor, " If he says yes, and
promises it, ye may take his word."
On the next day, Fox appeared accordingly once more.  The
charge of bloody practices was repeated.  " I am the man," said
Fox, "against whom this charge is laid; but I am as innocent as a
child concerning the charge, and have never learned any war postures.  Do you think that, if I and my friends had been such men
as this charge declares, I would have brought it up against myself, or that I should have been suffered to come up with only one
or two of my friends with me? "  The result was, that for this
time the courageous martyr was set at liberty by royal warrant.
But this was not the only imprisonment undergone by Fox in
Lancaster jail.  In the year 1663 he was seized again, and in the
same house as before.  He was brought at this time before several
justices, and underwent a long examination.  "You deny God,"
said Middleton, one of the number, "and the church, and the
faith."  " Nay," replied George Fox, "I own God, and the true
church, and the true faith; but," said he (having understood iMiddleton to be a papist), " what church dost thou own? "  The other,




TIHE PRlICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.       277
instead of answering this question, said, "You are a rebel and a
traitor."  Fox asked him whom he spoke to, or whom he called
rebel.  The other, having been silent a while, said, at last, "I
spoke to you."  Fox, then striking his hand on the table, told him,
"I have suffered more than twenty such as thou, or any that are
here; for I have been cast into Derby dungeon for six months
together, and have suffered much, because I would not take up arms
against the king before Worcester fight; and I have been sent up
prisoner out of my own country, by Colonel HIacker, to 0. Cromwell, as a plotter to bring in King Charles. Ye talk of the king,
a company of you; but where were ye in Oliver's days, and what
did ye do then for the king? But I have more love to him, for
his eternal good and welfare, than any of you have."
After some more debate of this kind, Middleton said, " Bring
the book, and put the oath of allegiance and supremacy to him! "
But Fox, knowing him to be a papist, asked him whether he, who
was a swearer, had taken the oath of supremacy; for this oath,
tending to reject the pope's power in England, was a kind of test
to try people whether they were papists, or no.  "But as for us,"
said Fox, "we cannot swear at all, because Christ and his apostles
have forbidden it! "
"Now, some of those that sat there, seeing Middleton thus
pinched, would not have had the oath put to G. Fox; but others
would, because this was their last snare, and they had no other
way to get him into prison. So they tendered Fox the oath, and
he refusing to take it, they consulted together about sending him
to jail; but all not agreeing, he was only engaged to appear at the
sessions; and so for that time they dismissed him." *
Fox appeared at the Lancaster sessions, and was accused of
being concerned in the popish plot.  As, however, it was impossible to substantiate this charge, he was required to take the oaths;
which, now as always, he refused to do.  He was, therefore, committed to prison.
* Sewell's Iist. of Quakers, vol. II., pp. 63, 64.
24




27 8        TIIE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
The room in which Fox was incarcerated is still visible.  He
who penetrates within the enclosure of the castle will wonder at
the kind of life which kings and princes must have led in the days
of its erection.  Here are the same rooms of John of Gaunt,
visited sometimes by his father, Edward the Third, —small,
stately, strong apartments, having few windows in the exterior,
and those narrowed to the smallest possible dimensions, —well
fitted to serve as the prisons they have since become.  Fox's room
was in the donjon, and the window of what was his residence during many long, dreary months, is conspicuous over the greater part
of the ancient town.  It was evidently at one period a room of
considerable s'ze, but in Fox's day it was old and ruinous. He
could scarcely walk across his apartment, because of the dilapidated
state of the floor. The smoke which came from the other prisons
was so dense, that sometimes a burning candle was scarcely visible,
and he was in imminent danger of being choked; and the turnkey
was with difficulty persuaded to unlock one of the upper doors, in
order to let out the smoke.  In wet weather it rained upon his
bed. The inconveniences of his imprisonment affected Fox to such
a degree, during a cold and prolonged winter, that his body became
swollen, and his limbs benumbed.  When he was brought up at
the March assizes, 1665, he was so weak that he could scarcely
stand or move.  Although, upon many occasions during this
incarceration, Fox demonstrated the absurdity of the charge
brought against him, and even showed that the indictment on
which he was accused was bad, he was readily silenced and sent
back to prison, on his refusal to take the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy.  At length, he was conveyed on horseback to York,
and thence to Scarborough Castle, where he underwent even
greater hardships.
In 1674 Fox was again in prison, under an accusation of prtcmunire, passed against him at Worcester sessions, and clandestinely recorded in his absence. Here he was seized with a v:olensickness, which endangered his life. His wife came from the north
to attend on him.  She afterwards visited London, and solicited




TIHE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.        279
from the king his discharge.  Charles granted a pardon, which
Fox, however, refused to accept, saying " he had rather lie in a
prison all his days, than come out in any way dishonorable to the
truth he made profession of."  Hie demanded a fair trial upon
habeas corpus, and succeeded in quashing the indictment. When,
afterwards, an effort was made to induce Sir MI. Hale to put the
oaths to him, on the plea that he was a dangerous man to be at
liberty, that upright judge refused, saying that he had, indeed,
heard some unfavorable reports regarding him, but he had also
heard more good reports respecting him.  In the course of a subsequent trial of this martyr, respecting tithes levied on his and his
wife's estate, a document was produced under his hand and seal,
constituting an engagement that he would never touch his wife's
property, — an instance of disinterestedness which excited the
applause of the judges. The suit was, in great part, baffled.
Nor were Fox's friends in this neighborhood allowed to escape.
Many of his followers, and amongst them Margaret Fell, at whose
house he had been apprehended, were also confined
in the castle, where an
__        S       ~apartment exists still call~L~ -~' N A               ed the quakers' room, bec' j   -      __-__  cause it was the scene of
the sufferings of many of.....i' _:         these oppressed and unre-'i      not possible for us to give
in this chapter a compre.:   hensive view of the varig    ous trials and inflictions
undergone by this perser —~-~-   cuted body.  It may be
~",~-~,  A'              sufficient to remark, that
CARLISLE CASTLE.         Carlisle Castle, as well as
Lancaster Castle, was a celebrated scene of quaker imprisonments.




280         TIIE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
Here, where the guilty and unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots
was confined, and where, at a subsequent period, the heads
and disfigured limbs of those who had espoused the cause of the
young pretender were set up in ghastly array, - within the walls,
which still bear the rude sculptures made by the hands of prisoners during the wars of the Roses, -  multitudes of the early
quakers were confined.
Their patience, magnanimity, and quiet endurance of untold hardships, remain as lessons of Christian principles; whilst the history
of their hardships, and the survival of their tenets among a body
preeminently devoted to the cause of benevolence and the quiet
assertion of religious liberty, demonstrates how ineffective is the
civil arm before the might of religious earnestness.
No proceedings at this period excited greater attention, or led
to more important consequences, than the trial of William Penn
and William Mead, at the Old Bailey, in the month of September,
1670.  The charge against them was, "that William  Penn and
William Mead, with divers other persons to the number of three
hundred, at Grace-church-street in London, on the 15th August,
with force and arms had tumultuously assembled together; and
that William Penn, by agreement between him and William Mead,
had preached in the public street, whereby was caused a great
concourse and tumult of the people," &c. The facts of the case
were these: A guard had been placed to hinder the Friends from
approaching their meeting-house, whereby a concourse was occasioned in the street; but no arms were employed, as it was contrary to the principles of the quakers that they should be. Before
the commencement of the trial, the prisoners were kept five hours
waiting whilst other criminal cases were disposed of. When the
indictment against Penn and Mead was read, the attendants of the
court removed the prisoners' hats.  The lord mayor ordered them
to be replaced; and when this was done, the recorder, Sir John
Howel, complained that they had not showed due respect to the
court by removing their hats, and fined them in a sum of forty
marks each for the neglect. As the trial proceeded, Penn declared




THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.        281
that he held it to be an indispensable duty to Ineet for purposes of
public worship, and desired to know upon what law he was prosecuted. The recorder replied, "Upon the common law."  Penn
demanded to be shown the law, and refused to plead to an indictmnent that had no legal foundation.
Recorder. You are an impertinent fellow. Will you teach
the court what law is? It's lex non scripta, that which many
have studied thirty or forty years to know; and would you have
me to tell you in a moment?
Penn. Certainly, if the common law be so hard to be understood, it's far from being very common; but if the Lord Coke in
his Institutes be of any consideration, he tells us that common law
is common right, and that common right is the great charter
privileges confirmed by 9 Hen. III.; 25 Edw. I.; 2 Edw. III.;
Coke's Institutes 2.
Rec. Sir, you are a troublesome fellow, and it is not for the
honor of the court to suffer you to go on.
Penn. I have asked but one question, and you have not
answered me, though the rights and privileges of every Englishman be concerned in it.
Rec. If I should suffer you to ask questions till to-morrow
morning, you will never be the wiser.
Penn. That is according as the answers are!
Rec. Sir, we must not stand to hear you talk all night.
Penn. I desire no affront to the court, but to be heard in my
just plea; and I must plainly tell you, that if you will deny me
oyer of that law which you suggest I have broken, you do at once
deny me an acknowledged right, and evidence to the whole world
your resolution to sacrifice the privileges of Englishmen to your
sinister and arbitrary designs.
Rec. Take him away! My lord, if you take not some course
with this pestilent fellow, to stop his mouth, we shall not be able
to do anything to-night.
Mayor. Take him away, - take him away, - turn him into
the bail dock!
24-*




282         THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.
Pennz. These are' but so many vain exclamations.  Is this
justice or true judgment?  MIust I, therefore, be taken away,
because I plead for the fundamental laws of England?  However,
this I leave on your consciences who are of the jury, -and my
sole judges, - that if those ancient fundamental laws which relate
to liberty and property, - and are not limited to particular persuasions in matters of religion, - must not be indispensably maintained and observed, who can say he hath right to the coat on his
back? Certainly, our liberties are openly to be invaded, our wives
to be ravished, qur children slaved, our families ruined, and our
estates led away in triumph by every sturdy beggar and malicious
informer, as their trophies, but our pretended forfeits for conscience'
sake; the Lord of heaven and earth will be judge between us in
this matter!
Rec. Be silent, there!
Penn. I am not to be silent in a cause wherein I am so much
concerned; and not only myself, but many ten thousand families
besides.
It was now Mead's turn, who defended himself no less manfully.
He defined a riot, and showed that his conduct had borne no relation to that offence. He was interrupted by the recorder, who,
contemptuously pulling off his hat, said, " I thank you, sir, that
you will tell me what the law is.  You deserve to have your
tongue cut out."  He, too, was ordered to the bail dock.
The judge then proceeded to charge the jury.  As Penn, however, was not out of hearing, he protested, with raised voice, against
so illegal an act as that of charging the jury in the absence of the
prisoner. The recorder, in a state of violent excitement, cried out,
" Take him away into the hole! To hear them talk thus does not
become the honor of the court."
After an hour and a half, eight of the jury came down, - the
court sent an officer for the other four.  After much menacing
language, they were sent back to agree upon a verdict. At length
they returned.
Clerk. Look upon the prisoners at the bar. How say you?




THE PRICE OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS.          283
Is William Penn guilty of the matter whereof he stands indicted,
in matter and form, or not guilty?
Foreman. Guilty of speaking in Gracious-street.
Court. Is that all?
Foreman. That is all I have in commission.
Rec. You had as good say nothing.
J3fayor. Was it not an unlawful assembly?  You mean he was
speaking to a tumult of people there?
Foreman. MTy lord, this was all I had in commission.
After much scurrilous browbeating, the jury requested to give in
their verdict in writing, which they did, finding still Penn guilty
of speaking, and acquitting 3Mead.  Still the court threatened and
reviled.  But Penn boldly required the clerk to record it, and
turning to the jury said, "You are Englishmen; mind your
privilege; give not away your right."
Several persons were sworn to keep the jury all night in seclusion, without meat, drink, fire, or any ordinary conveniences. But
again they repeated their verdict.  "I knew," said one on the
bench, " that IMr. Bushell would not yield."
Bush. I have done' according to my conscience.
Mayor. That conscience of yours would cut my throat.
BushZ. No, my lord; it never shall.
3Mayor. But I will cut yours so soon as I can.
After more threatening and bullying, silence was proclaimed,
and the question deliberately put to the jury once more.
Clerk. What say you?  Is William Penn guilty of the matter
whereof he stands indicted, in matter and form aforesaid, or not
guilty? 
Foreman. Guilty of speaking in Grace-church-street.
Once more the court bullied; once more Penn remonstrated, on
behalf of his jury.
Rec. My lord, you must tale a course with that same fellow.
Mayor. Stop his mouth! Jailer, bring fetters, and stake him
to the ground.
Pecnn. Do your pleasure. I matter not your fetters.




284         THE PRIICE OF' RELIG-IOUS CONVICTIONS.
Rec. Till now I never understood the policy and prudence of
the Spaniards in suffering the inquisition among them; and certainly it never will be well with us till something like unto the
Spanish inquisition be in England.  After more objurgation, the
recorder said, "Draw  up another verdict, that they may bring it
in special."  The clerk said that he knew not how to do it.  The
recorder declared he would have another verdict, or that they
should starve.  The jury was remanded once more, till seven
o'clock the next morning. Then the question was again put: "Is
William Penn guilty or not guilty? "
Forenman. Not guilty.
Clerk. Is William Mead guilty or not guilty?
Foreznanz. Not guilty.
The assembly showed their satisfaction, but the recorder demanded that each separate juror should declare for himself the
verdict.  It was done.  Penn then demanded his liberty, but it
was denied him, because his fines were not paid.  In the issue,
Penn, Mead and the jury, were consigned to Newgate. IHow they
recovered their liberty is unknown.*
The trials undergone by the quakers under the six oppressive
acts of Charles II. were very severe.  On the accession of the
king they had enjoyed a momentary respite, and had been delivered from the confinement in which they were held.  Their bold
and unflinching testimony had been, however, of the greatest
service in advancing the recognition of the principles of religious
liberty, and none more warmly recognized their services than the
baptists, themselves very prominent sufferers in the sacred cause.
The interval was a brief one.  Like other dissenters, they became,
after the restoration, the prey of unprincipled informers, and were
harassed by all the variety of penal enactments, by fines, distraints,
imprisonment. In 1683 there were, it was computed, seven hundred members of their society in the different prisons of England.
$ This whole trial may be found in "Phoenix; or, a Revival of Scarce and
Valuable Pieces. London, 1707." Its effect on the cause of liberty was prodigious.




CHAPTER IX.
" CtIRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT."
"Tyrants! could not misfortune teach
That man has rights beyond your reach'
Thought ye the torture and the stake
Could that intrepid spirit break,
Which even in woman's breast withstood
The terrors of the fire and blood' "- SCOTT.
HICH  is the way to Bothwell-bridge?"
was my question, as, alighting from one of
the Glasgow railroads near the village of
Uddingstone, I sought my course onwards.
~i~5',M2IMRZ ~ "There is a regular road to it, sir; turn
e-0.~..~111~~    to your left, and you'11 be there."  No
~   course could be more agreeable than that
to which my informant just pointed.  It
was  what it became a road to be which
-   passed through the estates of the Douglases
and Hamiltons, broad, trim, well-sheltered
by trees, and affording plentiful accommoCOVENANTERS) BANNER. dation for the foot-passenger. The country
around was bold and charming; smiling,
luxuriant, open scenery, never rugged and precipitous, made up
of recurrent " lines of beauty."  I know of no sensations more
agreeable than those which attend a fine day in a rich country;
especially if, with an unexhausted body, one treads over ground
which has been the seat of ancient story, expecting, at each turn
or ascent, some characteristic view, or some object of historical




286            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
interest.  It was in this mood that, und6r the shadow of the
park-wall of Lord Douglas, I drew near to the pleasant but very
modern village of Bothwell, or Both'll as it is called by the natives,
encountering in my way, however, very little of that which I
sought, though the graceful Free Church, and the imposing tower
of the Established one, might have claimed, at another time, some
passing admiration.  But I knew that I was within reach of
scenes which, slowly as they might develop themselves, are attractive to the tourist, and full of interest to the eager antiquary.
Somewhere to my right, though I could not yet see it, was the
ruin of the ancient castle of Bothwell, associated with the memories of Wallace, Edward I., Bruce, and the dark and desperate
husband of Mary Queen of Scots.  I knew that I was not far
distant from the ruins of Blantyre Priory, founded by Alexander
II., and from " Bothwell banks, that bloom so fair," situated upon
its opposite side.  Each eminence I climbed might, for aught I
knew, bring into view the palace and park of the Duke of Hamilton; might open a prospect which would comprehend the estate
whence the injured and revengeful assassin of the Regent Murray
derived his title; or introduce me to the remnants of the ancient
Caledonian forest, once famous for its breed of wild cattle, now
almost extinct; or to the ruins of the fortress of Craignethan,
better known under the name of Tillietudlem.  Such, at least, are
the localities which solicit, in this neighborhood, the regards of the
passing traveller.  I was not far, moreover, from the historical
town of Hamilton, which I afterwards visited, and found to resemble, in its better parts, a slip-shod damsel caught in her slovenliest
dishcabille upon a washing-day; and in its worst, nothing to which
an Englishman's notion of a country town could, for filth and
wretchedness, furnish a comparison; and this, too, though lying
in the immediate adjacency of the duke's " peelace " itself.  Some
one has said that, were he a monarch, the first thing he wouldl do
would be to run away with his crown. Methinks, were I the Duke
of Hamilton, my fiist measure would be to annihilate, if I could




cHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.           287
not reform, the towrn which gave me my title. But this is an
anticipation.
Passing through the village of Bothwell, one desends, by a
gentle slope, to the banks of the Clyde. But it is not till you
have just reached the spot, that you obtain a sight of the transfluvial erection which bears the name of Bothwell-bridge. It is
well to cavil at antiqcuarian tastes, and to complain that they would
willingly reduce the world to a heap of ruins; but it is impossible
to repress a feeling of disappointment, when modern improvement
has erased so many vestiges of ancient association. The history?                ~~~~~~~~~~~~-=BOTIIWELL-BRIDGE.
of the covenanters represents this celebrated bridge as about twelve
feet in breadth; it is now thirty-two. A main feature of the
romantic story is connected with an embattled gateway, which
stood on its south-east end; it has been long entirely removed.
Instead of the sharp acclivity which rose uip to a point from each
side of the river, the road over the Clyde is now as level as that
of Waterloo-bridge in London. On the further side, too, where the
body of the insurgents were once mustered, "grove" now "nods




288            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
on grove," round the beautiful entrance to"HIamiilton-park, in all
the plentifulness of ornamental plantations. But I checked myself
by remembering the Frenchman's definition of a tory, that he was
one who, if he had been living at the creation, would have said,
" Let chaos be," and I endeavored to discover what might render
these egregious improvements less distressing. When I expressed
my disappointment to the toll-keeper, he forthwith took me to a
point whence I perceived that, though on one side the bridge was
much changed, the other side was yet unaltered. One looks with
deep interest on those buttresses, now gray with age, and partially
overgrown with grass and low shrubs, as one thinks that they were
the very objects on which the eyes of the covenanters and their
persecutors had alike rested; that Hamilton, Burley and Hackstone, on the one side, and Monmouth, Dalzell and Claverhouse,
on the other, had manoeuvred in view of them; that here the
deadly battle had raged; and that the river which flowed beneath
that bridge in 1679 poured its tide along as deep and rapid as it
does to-day, though then it bore with it gallant bodies, and ran red
with the blood of the slain.
It was the distinguishing characteristic of all the Stuarts, that,
ignorant alike of true liberty and spiritual religion, they had no
other notions of the right and the true than those which were
forced upon them by the groans and rebellion of their outraged
subjects. The example of Mary Queen of Scots might have taught
a son ordinarily constituted some lessons on the evil of misrule;
it left James I. not a whit the wiser. Instead of deriving benefit
from the experience of his father, Charles I. surpassed him in miscalculation; The son of that monarch who had lost his head on a
scaffold for not respecting the people's rights was no sooner seated
in power, than he trod the very path of his. more determined
father; transmitting to his brother James, and after him to his
sister, Queen Anne, precisely the same predilections. In the case
of Charles II. there were some events which rendered his conduct
peculiarly inexcusable.  IIe was not ignorant of what he might
deem the bigoted peculiarities of the Scottish character; he had




CHRIIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.                 289
resided among the people; had himself signed, voluntarily or
involuntarily, the Scottish covenant; had professed to mourn over
the sins of his father; and, though he had protested that "presbyterianism was no religion for a gentleman," * he had been
indebted to that very system for his reinstatement on a throne,
forfeited by his ancestors for their fondness for tyranny, and their
recklessness of all laws, divine and human. If conscience could
not bind him, at least policy and interest might be expected to
exert some sway. But Charles II. was not to be bound. A libertine, and reproved as such by some of the Scottish ministers in
his earlier days; a hard-hearted, ungrateful man, as was proved
by his conduct to his former friends;t a traitor to his promises,
some of which had specially regarded the security of the Church
of Scotland; a man to whose carelessness and cold-blooded apathy
sorrow and suffering were indifferent; — such are the hands into
which the constitution of church and state provides that spiritual
matters may be thrown; and such was the man whom, though
they did not take the pains they might have done to know him
well, a large party in both Scotland and England reinstated on the
throne as their covenanted king.  They had their reward.
The observations already submitted to the reader on the course
of policy adopted by the presbyterians, relative to the questions of
religious liberty, will sufficiently exempt us from the charge of
vindicating their course.  But, whatever the inconsistency of their
system, Charles was deeply pledged to support it. A letter from
him, addressed to the presbyterian body in Edinburgh, to be transmitted by them to the other presbyteries, contained the assurance,
* " An anecdote is told of Mr. Robert Blair's civility to Charles, who visited
him at his own house. Mr. Blair was minister at St. Andrew's, and' famous
for his familiar way.' When the king came in he was sitting on a chair, being
at the time under a bodily infirmity, which kept him from rising, and excused
it. When Mrs. Blair ran to fetch a seat to his majesty, he said,' My heart,
do not trouble yourself; he is a young man, and may draw in one to himself."'
- Memoirs of Blackader.
f The Act of Oblivion and Indemnity was called, sarcastically, "an act of
oblivion for his friends and of indemnity for his enemies."
25




290              CIHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
"We also resolve to protect and preserve the government of the
Church of Scotland, as it is settled by law, without violation."
There were two men about the court of Charles whom the Church
of Scotland regarded as hostages for the performance of these
promises. They were both covenanted presbyterians; one of them
had sat as a Scottish commissioner in the assembly of divines, the
other was a minister of the kirk itself.   These men were Lord
Lauderdale and James Sharp; men at that time trusted, but whose
names now " fester in the infamy of years." *
* The following is Bishop Burnet's description of Lauderdale:-" I knew
him very particularly; he made a very ill appearance. lie was very big, his
hair red, hanging oddly about him. His tongue was too big for his mouth,
which made him bedew all that he talked to; and his whole manner was rough
and boisterous, and very unfit for a court.  He was very learned, not only in
Latin, in which he was a master, but in Greek and Hi-ebrew. He had read a
great deal of divinity, and almost all the historians, ancient and modern, so
that he had great materials.  He had with these an extraordinary memory,
and a copious, but unpolished expression.  He was a man, as the Duke of
Buckingham said to me, of a blundering understanding, IHe was haughty
beyond expression, - abject to those he saw he must stoop to, but imperious to
others. lie had a violence of passion that carried him often to fits like madness, in which he had no temper; If he took a thing wrong, it was a vain thing
to study to convince him. That would rather provoke him to swear he would
never be of another mind. He was to be let alone, and perhaps he would have
forgot what he said, and come about of his own accord.  HIe was the coldest
friend and the violentest enemy I ever knew. I felt it too much not to know
it. He at first seemed to despise wealth; but he delivered himself up, afterwards, to luxury and sensuality; and by that means he ran into a vast expense,
and stuck at nothing that was necessary to support it. In his long imprisonments (for the cause of the king, to which he had apostatized), he had great
impressions of religion on his mind; but he wore these out so entirely, that
scarce any trace of them was left.  His great experience in affairs, his ready
compliance with everything that he thought would please the king, and his
bold offering of the most desperate counsels, gained him such an interest in the
king, that no attempt against him, nor complaint of him, could ever shake it,
till a decay of strength and understanding forced him to let go his hold. lHe
was, in his principles, much against popery and arbitrary government; and
yet, by a fatal train of passions and interests, he made way for the former,
and had almost established the latter.  And whereas some, by a smooth
deportment, male the first beginnings of tyranny less discernible and unac



CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENAN'.                291
Under their deceitful auspices it was easy to persuade the presbyterians that the dispositions of the king were such as to render
all treaties unnecessary.  Monk had pledged himself "that the
welfare of the church should be a great part of his care." On the
23d of October, 1660, Lauderdale, then secretary of state for
Scotland, wrote as follows: "As to the concerns of our Mother
Kirk, I can only promise my faithful endeavors in what may be
for her good; and, indeed, it is no small comfort to me, in serving
my master, to find that his majestic is so fixt in his resolution not
to alter anything in the government of that church; of this you
may be confident, though I dare not answer but some would be
willing to have it otherwise.  *  *  I dare answer for the king,
having of late had full contentment in discoursing with his majestie
on that subject." Whatever the views of Lauderdale, or the intention of Charles on his first accession, however, the flame soon burst
out.  In the act which asserted the king's power in matters of
peace or war, all treaties with other nations, not made by royal
authority, were pronounced treasonable.  The "' covenanted king,"
therefore, had, by this act, provided against the covenant which set
him on his throne. In the same year, the first of his reign, Charles,
forgetful of his father's experience, and of his own pledges, permitted episcopacy to be reestablished in Scotland.  This was done
mainly by two acts: one, 1" the Act of Supremacy," which constituted the king supreme judge in matters ecclesiastical; whilst the
other, "the Act Rescissory," cancelled all the acts and proceedings
of preceding parliaments between the years 1640 and 1648. Lauderdale is not to be blamed for this act, of which he strongly disapproved, nor even Charles himself; it was passed without his knowledge.  It was proposed, according to Burnet, half in jest, by
Primrose, the quasi master of the rolls, and carried through by
the Scottish ministry after a drunken freak.  By the Scottish
parliament, held in IMay, 1662, it was required that all appointceptable, he, by the fury of his behavior, heightened the severity of his ministry, which was liker the cruelty of an inquisition than tho legality of
justice." -  ist. of 1Ils Own Time, vol. I., p. 102.




292            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
ments to Scottish benefices, since 1649, should be confirmed by
their respective patrons, and also by the bishop of the diocese.
]Four hundred ministers refused to comply with these terms, and
were summarily ejected. Sharp was promoted to the archiepiscopal see of St. Andrew's. At the same time, Dr. Leighton, son to
the persecuted puritan, who had never liked presbytery, but had
consistently adhered to the king, was appointed Bishop of Dunblane, which he chose because the diocese was the smallest.  Itis
piety was most eminent; but if, as Burnet says, he disliked presbyterianism because of its fury against those who differed from it,
his judgment was considerably inferior to his piety, when he joined
the most cruelly persecuting establishment that ever existed.  He
afterwards desired to resign his bishopric. These symptoms of the
designs of the court justified the utmost distrust on the part of the
presbyterians; and, in a letter to Lord Lauderdale, in the beginning of 1661, Baillie speaks out in a very uncompromising style:
" What needed you do that disservice to the king, which all of you
cannot recompense, - to grieve the hearts of all your gracious
friends in Scotland, to whom the king was, is, and will be, I hope,
after God, most dear,- with pulling down all our laws at once
which concerned our church since 1633? Was this good advice,
or will this thrive?  Is it wisdom to bring back upon us the Canterburyian times?  The same designs, the same practices, will
they not at last bring upon us the same horrible effects, whatever
fools dream? *  *  My lord, ye are the noblemen of the world I
esteem most, and love best. * * If you have gone with your
heart to forsake your covenant, to countenance the introduction
of bishops and books, and strengthening the king by your advice
in these things, I think you a prime transgressor, and liable among
the first to answer to God for that great sin, and opening a door,
which in haste will not be closed, for persecution of a multitude of
the best persons and most loyal subjects that are in all the three
dominions."* In another letter to a friend, the same writer says,
* Baillie, April 18, 1661.




CHRIST'S CROVWN AND COVENANT.                 293
"What ye desire me to write to Lauderdaill, I have done it
already, as my testament to him, fully and sharply enough. * *
I think, verily, if that wicked change come, it will hasten me to
my grave." >   It did; the next year the good, but in many
respects mistaken man, died.
The king on resuming his throne had declared, presbytery
being then the order of the day, that it was his intention to uphold
the Church of Scotland as by law established. The miserable shift
now was, that as all the laws upholding presbyterianism had been
rescinded by parliament, in supporting episcopacy against presbyterianisim, he was but redeeming his pledge.  The careful observer
will not fail to mark in this a peculiar condition of a law-church
— that the power which makes is equally competent to unmake.
But the whole course of proceedings in England and Scotland
was a series of occurrences impossible to be believed, had not the
facts demonstrated them to be too true.
A fierce, exterminating war was now carried on against the
presbyterians, by the very men they had most trusted. The royalists avenged themselves for their wrongs, real and supposed, by
every kind of reprisal.  The Marquess of Argyll was brought to
the block in requital for the part he had taken against Charles I.,
and in the execution of 3Montrose.t The hand of Lauderdale was
early turned against his former companions. Among these Johnston of Warriston deserves to be commemorated.
* Baillie, June 24, 1661.
t Argyll pleaded the Act of Oblivion as to these offences, which, by intervention of the king, was allowed; and when, moreover, charged with taking office
under Cromwell, said, " What could he think of that matter, after so eminent
a man as the king's advocate had done the same? " on which that legal functionary called him " an impudent villain."  Argyll was at last condemned on
the testimony of some letters which he, in the days of their friendship, had
written to Monk, and which Monk now sent to Scotland. Ile was found guilty
of treason, and beheaded by "the maiden."  Some of the noblest blood in
Scotland perished by this prototype of the guillotine, of the invention of which
so singular a story exists. The Earl of Argyll, who was beheaded in 1685, for
his part'in the insurrection of the Duke of Monmouth, said it was " the sweetest maiden he hlead ever kissed.'
25*




294            CIRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
This man, uncle of Bishop Burnet, had held several offices of
trust under the Scottish church, and had been appointed, together
with Lauderdale and others, commissioner from the General Assembly to the Assembly of Divines. He was a thorough presbyterian.  When that assembly was divided, in 1650, upon the
question whether malignants should be taken into places of power
and trust, he had asserted the negative, and had written and
spoken against taking office under Cromwell; but had been, at
length, after much importunity, prevailed upon to become clerk
register, equivalent to master of the rolls, under the protectorate
On the restoration, he was ordered to be seized, and, contriving
to escape, was declared fugitive, and forfeiture was pronounced
against him.  It is said that, whilst in Hamburg, poison was
administered to him by Dr. Bates, one of King Charles' physicians, who, moreover, caused him to be bled to such an extent
that he narrowly escaped death; and that, in consequence of this
treatment, he " so far lost his memory that he could not rememoer what had been said or done a quarter of an hour before, and
continued so till the day of his martyrdom."  He was, however. at
length apprehended at Rouen, whilst engaged in his private devotions, and committed to the Tower of London, whence he was sent
down to be executed at Edinburgh.  He was so miserable a wreck
of his former self, that, says Burnet, " it was a reproach to any
government to proceed against him."  His want of memory rendered him a pitiable spectacle in the eyes of all men, excepting
Sharp and the bishops, who laughed at his infirmities.  When the
question arose respecting his execution, many were inclined to
delay it; but Lauderdale interposed, and delivered "a most dreadful speech for his present execution." He was, accordingly, sentenced to be hung at the cross of Edinburgh, and his head placed at
the Nether Bow. At length, having spent the short time allotted
to him in the most devout and edifying religious exercises, he was
taken from prison to undergo his sentence. As he advanced to the
scaffold, he called out to the people, "Your prayers  your
prayers! "  Arrived at the place of his death, he said, " I entreat




CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.                295
you, quiet yourselves a little, till this dying man deliver his last
speech among you," - requesting them to bear with him that he
made use of notes to refresh his memory, so impaired by long sickness and the cruelty of his physicians. In this speech he confessed
his sins, bewailed his having taken part with the usurper, and
declared his "adherence to the covenanted work of the reformation," disavowing any part in the late king's death, committing his
soul to God, and occupying himself in conclusion in fervent
prayers, though denied the presence of any minister.  I-He was
aided up the ladder by solme of his friends, and when he reached
the summit, he exhorted Christians to be ready to suffer in the
name of religion, as he was. The executioner desired his forgiveness; to which he replied, "The Lord forgive thee, poor man! "
and gave him money.  Then, ejaculating, " O pray, pray! praise,
praise, praise! " he was turned off.* His head was exposed with
that of James Guthrie, t accused of conspiracy against Charles I.
At this period the solemn league and covenant, late the pride
and glory of the presbyterians, was burnt by the common hangman,
and those ministers who had refused to submit to the conditions by
which alone their benefices could be retained were replaced by
others. These successors were men who had little sympathy with
vital religion; they were, by their very position, parasites; and
they were frequently ignorant, and often grossly immoral. Under
such a ministry, the churches, which now echoed weakly to the
notes of passive obedience and non-resistance, became almost deserted. At the same time, the civil offices were filled by libertines, or by avaricious men, who availed themselves of every
advantage for their own aggrandizement.  The general assembly
* Howie's Scots Worthies, pp. 228-237.
t This Guthrie had been minister at Stirling at the time of Charles' residence there, and had often preached at his majesty, in a manner which, Burnet
says, was "indecent and intolerable." HIe was cited before the king to answer
for his sermons. He refused, saying that the king and council were not authorities in matters of doctrine. This irritated the king excessively, and was never
forgotten.




296             CIIRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
was dissolved; presbyteries were forbidden; field-preaching was
prohibited, as an act of sedition and contempt of the royal authority, exposing the offender to death and confiscation of property;
whilst absentees from their parish churches were liable to the
severest penalties.  The deprived ministers were banished to a distance of six miles from  any city or cathedral church, and three
from any borough.  At this period, also, was established a high
commission court, where, without " accusation, evidence or defence," fines and imprisonment were extensively inflicted. Gentlemen and ladies of rank attending field-preachings were proscribed, prohibited from conversing with their nearest friends, or
from receiving the necessaries of life. These persecuting laws were
put into execution in a manner which renders it difficult to determine whether ferocity or cupidity were the most conspicuous.
When Lauderdale received fines for attending conventicles, he said,
" Now, gentlemen, you know the price of a conventicle, and shame
fall them  that tires first."  And when a soldier, pursuing his
severe exactions, was asked by his victim why he was so treated,
he replied, "Because ye have gear, and I maun ha' a share o't."
A deputation waited on Lauderdale, to petition for liberty. " This
put," says Burnet, " Dule Lauderdale in such a frenzy, that at
the council table he made bare his arms above his elbows, and
swore by Jehovah that he would make them enter into these bonds."
The military apostle of this persecution was Sir J. Turner, who,
savage by nature, and usually half-drunk, swept like a whirlwind
over Nithsdale and Galloway, at the head of his " lambs " (as in
bitter irony they were termed), dragging people to
church, devouring the substance of families, binding prisoners with iron chains, applying thumbscrews and instruments of torture, and carrying
ruin and desolation in his train.  "Sabbath was
the day on which these extravagances were very
often committed.  The soldiers sat drinking and
THE GAG.*   revelling in the nearest alehouse until public
~ An instrument of torture, extensively used at this period. It was eml
ployed in the burning of witches, to stifle their cries during execution.




CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.               297
worship drew to a close. The last psalm was the signal of attack;
they sallied from their cups, surrounded the church-yard, and
placed sentinels at the doors. The people were made to pass out
one by one, and interrogated whether they belonged to that congregation.  If they answered in the negative, they were fined upon
the spot; generally, all the money they had was taken from them.
Those who had none, or too little, were plundered of their coats,
hoods, plaids and Bibles; and the soldiers, laden with their sacrilegious spoils, returned from the house of God as from the field of battle, or the pillage of a stormed city. In churches where a presbyterian officiated, they were not to be obstructed by doors or decency,
but would rudely interrupt the divine service, entering in armed
parties, wounding, and haling multitudes from devotion to imprisonment.  After all this insolence and barbarity, to secure themselves from danger, they compelled the people to declare, by
certificate, that they had been kindly dealt with, and bind themselves to make no complaints." *  " They suffered extremities that
tongue cannot describe, and which heart can scarcely conceive of,
from the dismal circumstances of hunger, nakedness, and the
severity of the climate; lying in damp caves, and in hollow clefts
of the naked rocks, without shelter, covering, fire or food; none
durst harbor, entertain, relieve, or speak to them, on pain of
death. Many, for venturing to receive them, were forced to fly,
and several put to death for no other offence; fathers were persecuted for supplying their children, and children for nourishing
their parents; husbands for harboring their wives, and wives for
cherishing their own husbands. The ties and obligations of the laws
of nature were no defence, but it was made death to perform natural duties; and many suffered death for acts of piety and charity, in
cases where human nature could not bear the thoughts of suffering
it." " Such of them as escaped execution were transported, or
rather sold as slaves, to people desolate and barbarous colonies;
the price of a whig was fixed at five pounds, and sometimes they
* Memoirs of Blackader.




298            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
were given away in presents by their judges."*    Many were
" indicted, tried and executed, on the same day, and intercessions
on their behalf met with the reply that' they should have no time
to prepare for heaven, for hell was too good for them.' Druims were
ordered to be beat at the execution, to drown the dying words of
the martyrs; and the least expression of sympathy in the crowd
exposed the individual to be dragged to the scaffold."
A general convulsion followed.  Maddened by the repetition
of such outrages, many of the pebple rose against Turner, and
over-estimating, as excited popular assemblies are apt to do, their
real power, marched in a body to Edinburgh. They were met at
the Pentland-hills by General Dalzell, and were routed in great
confusion. But they Were not yet subdued.
The ablest of hands has drawn the portrait - far too favorable
— of one of the men most distinguished as a royalist in suppressing these insurrections, whose name first appears at the'battle of
the Pentland-hills - Graham of Claverhouse.:Brave, imperious,
unswerving, he was cruel, implacable, and fearfully revengeful.
His commanding and handsome person might have been justly
admired, had there not been a Medea-like ferocity discernible in
that bold forehead, on those widely separated eyes, and on that
curled lip, which he had in common with others of his class, - as,
for instance, with the modern Murat.  The most terrible superstitions attached themselves to his name.  It was the age in which
men believed much — often too much; and Claver'se, as he was
called, was supposed to be closely in league with the author of all
evil. There are some who still believe that, at the battle of Killiecrankie, in which he fell, fighting for the lost cause of James
II., no bullet of lead would take effect on him, and that he was
killed by a silver button, shot at him by his own servant.
Dalzell, associated with him in these cruel campaigns, was not
less notorious.  His portrait is characterized by a head of unusual
size, which he had sworn never to shave after the death of Charles
I. He had first learned war in Muscovy, where he was charged
M *'Crie's Vindication of Scottish Covenanters.




CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.             299
with roasting men alive.  His cruelties were enormous.  He
struck one prisoner before the privy-council with the pommel of
his sword "on the face, till the blood sprung." He imprisoned
another poor victim, who suffered a man, pursued by his soldiers,
to run through her house, in the thieves' hole at Kilmarnock,
" among toads, and other venomous creatures," as the relator tells
us, "where her shrieks were heard at a distance, but none durst
help her."  When one of his victims pleaded his age as a reason
why he should not suffer banishment, he savagely told him that
he was not too old to hang -" he would hang well enough." He
~was a ferocious ruffian, worse, in some respects, if that were possible, than Claverhouse himself.
But the man who was suspected of being the real instigator of
these unmanly outrages was James Sharp.  We have said that he
received the archiepiscopal see of St. Andrew's as the price of his
treachery. He was a fellow-student at St. Andrew's with Guthrie, of whom we have spoken, and who wrote upon him the following distich, which marks the early character of the man:
" If thou, Sharp, die the common death of men,
I'11 burn my bill and throw away my pen."
He was charged, when young, with murdering his own infant,
and burying its dead body beneath the hearth-stone.  As, however, he avowed his repentance for the act, it did not prevent his
becoming, afterwards, minister of Craill.  He had been, on more
than one occasion, chosen by the Assembly of the Church of Scotland as its confidential agent. ]But when the restoration took
place, the part he took was characterized by the most treacherous
duplicity. It was he who persuaded the presbyterians that there
was no need to make terms with the king, and who asserted that
the rumored intention of Charles to set up prelacy was "a malicious lie." It was, however, most: probable that the restoration
of prelacy took place at his suggestion.  When he had received
the archbishopric of St. Andrew's and the primacy of Scotland, he
became an unrelenting persecutor of his former friends, continually




300             CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
stimulating the privy-council to fresh acts of severity, and even
exceeding those remorseless inquisitors in his love of cruelty and
thirst for blood.  He encouraged the clergy to supply him with
informations, and proceeded against the accused with the most
incredible rigor. The consequences were such as might have been
almost foreseen, in a day when religion often took a form of passionate enthusiasm, and loved to array itself in the habiliments of
an ancient and semi-civilized antiquity.  Stung to madness by the
inquisitorial injuries inflicted by the archbishop, and justifying
their savage proceedings by Jewish precedent, nine men conspired
to waylay and murder the spy of Sharp- one Carmichael.
Among these associates was Hackston of Rathillet, his brother-inlaw, Burley of Kinlock, or B3alfour, and Robert Hamilton.  As
they searched for the informer on Magus Moor, near St. Andrew's,
they were informed of the vicinity of the archbishop himself.
The primate was in his carriage, with his daughter by his side.
Perceiving their approach, he urged his attendants to put the
horses to their utmost speed. It was in vain. One of the pursuers, better mounted than the rest, cut the traces of the horses
and wounded the postilion, and the whole party was soon upon the
spot.  Then Burley, exclaiming " Judas, be taken! " fired a pistol
into the carriage, from so short distance as to set the archbishop's
lawn sleeves on fire. He was then dragged out of his carriage,
whilst the rest of the party fired their pistols at him in a volley.
Imagining they had completed the dreadful deed, they were riding
off, when one of them  overheard the lady saying to the postilion
that her father was not yet dead.  On this, Burley returned, and
kicking off the prelate's hat with his foot, cleft his skull with
his sabre.
Far be it from us, whatever the provocation, to justify such a
deed of cold-blooded assassination. It has been often exhibited in
its terrors to the disadvantage of the religious men of that day,
and by none more forcibly than by the late Sir Walter Scott.  It
was a deed which, under any circumstances of aggravation, Christianity scorns even to palliate. But, because Balfour and his




CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.                    301
party were bloody assassins, it does not follow that the Archbishop
of St. Andrew's was a saint. *
Chambers, in his " Picture of Scotland," relates the following
anecdote, which, he says, "we received from  the grandson of the
person who witnessed it:"
" Between ninety and a hundred years ago, an aged man, of a
forlorn and wretched appearance, applied for lodging at a small
public-house in the suburb of Edinbro', called Portsburgh. He
seemed to have just terminated a long and painful journey, and,
from his lodging at this part of the town, was supposed to be a
west-country-man.  During the night he alarmed and attracted
the people of the house by sounds which betokened great bodily
pain.  A light being brought forward to his wretched pallet, he
was found to be in the deid thraws, his body convulsed, his eye
glazed, and teeth set.  In a little time, collecting the remnants of
his strength, he raised his right hand above his head, and exclaimed, in a voice that indicated extreme remorse,' There's the
hand that slaughtered Bishop Sharp; is there ony blude on't,
think  ye?'  Having uttered, this, he expired.  The body was
buried among the strangers in the Greyfriars' church-yard."
This deed instigated the privy council to new acts of severity.
The act was really that of a party only, but it was made the
pretext for new harassments and persecutions. One of the first
* Every Christian man, well read in history, cannot fail to regard the influonce of the Waverley Novels with the utmost jealousy. The author's love for
history is that of an antiquarian, not that of a moralist. He is usually true
to scenery, costume, and to the great incidents he professes to record. But,
though it is sometimes difficult to lay one's finger on the precise passage one
would dispute, the tendencies of the whole are, usually, where religion is concerned, most false. The worst evils of the anti-religious party are smoothed
or totally suppressed; the severity and errors of the nonconformists tortured
into the ridiculous, or exaggerated into the wildest enthusiasm. Much of this
falsification is effected by the introduction of fictitious personages, placed in
situations so ridiculous, or unfavorable, as to deprive the reader of all sympathy with their opinions. Party had something to do with this misrepresentation; a love of military glory still more; Jacobinical propensities even more
yet; and, it is to be feared, a dislike of spiritual religion most of all.
26




302            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
questions hereafter put to the suspected was, whether they thought
the death of the archbishop a justifiable act? It will be readily
ilnagined that many, who would have revolted from that deed with
horror and indignation, had its perpetration been proposed to themselves, would be slow, under the common persecution which involved them all, to sacrifice their criminal brethren.  Fresh orders
were given to proceed against all who were found attending fieldmeetings, as traitors; and as an act to this effect was the last to
which Sharp had set his hand, the severe measure was entitled
"the bishop's legacy."
Under the command of Robert Hamilton, brother to Sir W.
Hamilton, of Preston, a Cameronian of the severest order, the
persecuted presbyterians flew to arms. 3Marching in a body to
Rutherglen, where illuminations were taking place in honor of the
restoration, they extinguished the bonfires, burned at the marketcross copies of the several edicts by which they were oppressed,
and retired, leaving behind them a statement of the causes which
had led them to take up arms against the government.
Claverhouse now took the field, and having understood that an
open-air meeting was to be held at Loudon Hill, about twelve
miles from Hamilton, resolved to disperse it. But his forces,
having been suddenly called into action, were weak, amounting
only to about a hundred and fifty foot soldiers, besides a few horse,
and neither well armed. He had full powers to kill all whom he
found in a posture of rebellion. But the ground on which he
found the covenanters encamped had been skilfully chosen, with a
morass in their front.  Claverhouse was routed for the only time
during his life, and compelled to retreat on a horse that was
frightfully mutilated.  The general retired to Glasgow, whither
he was pursued by the insurgents; though, when they ventured
to attack that city, they were repulsed. Deeming his position,
however, not a strong one, Claverhouse retreated from Glasgow to
the main army at Sterling.
In the mean time, the covenanters took up a position near to
Bothwell-bridge, where they were numerously joined by those who




CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.             303
were terrified by the recent proclamations.  The insurgent body
now consisted of two parties: the Cameronians - so called from
Richard Cameron, a bold protester against all compliances - and
the Erastians - as they were scornfully termed by their brethren,
who held the lawfulness of the interference of the civil magistrate
in matters of religion. Hamilton was the leader of the former
party; John Walsh, a presbyterian minister, of the other. Unhappily, the most serious differences prevailed between these
factions; and, at a time when the utmost concentration of their
forces was necessary, the insurgents spent their time in debate and
discord amongst themselves.
This historical summary, necessary to put the reader in possession of the facts which give interest to the scene, ought to be in
the mind of every tourist who visits " Bothwell-brigg."
The court of London had sent down the Duke of Monmouth,
Charles' natural son, and one who, among the royalists of that
day, had some touch of pity in his breast, to take command of the
king's forces against the insurgents.  This measure, extremely
distasteful to the privy council of Scotland, may be regarded as
an indication that the king was growing somewhat weary of the
internecine strife, and was desirous of being, according to his
own phrase, monarch of the whole nation, and not of a mere
party.  The Scottish ministers of state contrived, however, to get
Dalzell appointed as the duke's lieutenant, that he might check
the movements they could not openly oppose. On the 18th of
June, 1679, Monmouth arrived at Edinburgh, whence he marched
slowly towards Hamilton.  His tardiness was occasioned by his
desire to receive overtures of peace from the insurgents. Two
days after he left Edinburgh, an order reached the duke to proceed instantly with all the extremities of war. On Sunday, the
22d, the opposing forces were almost within view of each other;
the advanced guards of the duke being at Bothwell, and the insurgents on Hamilton Moor, with a detachment posted at Bothwellbridge. The insurgents had resolved, after a stormy discussion,
to send a statement of their grievances to Monmouth.  But this




304            CIRIST S CROWN AND COVENANT.
resolution had not been arrived at without a strenuous opposition;
and so violent had been the dispute, that Hamilton, their general,
with several of his supporters, had altogether withdrawn themselves from the deliberations.  The petition, begging for the free
exercise of their religion, and for the speedy summoning of the
General Assembly, was presented to the duke, who replied by
requiring, as a preliminary condition, that they should lay down
their arms, -- on doing which, he promised that he would intercede
with the king in their favor.  Half an hour was allowed for the
fulfilment of the condition.  The messengers returned to the
insurgents; but the only result was the renewal of the former
altercations.
The river Clyde, at Bothwell, runs between considerably sloping
banks, more steep on the side of the village of Bothwell than on
the opposite side, on which the insurgent army was posted. The
stream is here so deep and broad as to forbid the advance of
troops in the teeth of an armed force, except by means of the
bridge itself. The king's army posted themselves on the heights
of Bothwell, and thus held a commanding position.  They were,
besides, greatly superior in the force of their artillery. They first
made an attack on the bridge, which was at that time crowned by
a gateway, barricaded by stones and timber, and vigorously defended by lHackstone of Rathillet.  But the insurgents were
deficient in ammunition, and the supply they had was soon exhausted.  They sent to the main army a demand for more; but,
instead of receiving a supply, were ordered by Hamilton to retire.
This was wantonly sacrificing the only point at which a defence
could be sustained. Before they yielded to this suicidal command,
they swept their enemies from the bridge, as if to demonstrate
that, had means and appliances been left to them, they would yet
have maintained their post.  But retirement became inevitable,
and they were soon compelled to join the main body of the insurgent forces.  This ended the defence; the royal troops, unresisted,
slowly crossed the bridge, and defiled before their stupefied and
now resistless victims.  In a moment more, the rout was univer



C-TIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.            305
sal: Claverhouse and his soldiers attacked the insurgents like
demons.  Everywhere was disaster and dismay.  The carnage
was fearful.  Four hundred men were killed, almost in cold blood.
Twelve hundred were taken prisoners. These were disarmed and
stripped, commanded to lie flat on the ground, and forbidden to
change their posture. He who raised his head, even for an instant,
was shot dead.  A person named William Gordon, who was ignorant of the disasters of his party, while hastening to join them,
was slain on the spot. Others, who had sought the camp in the
hope of hearing a sermon, were killed.  A man, because he was
found reading the Bible, was cloven through the skull.  The surviving prisoners were marched to Edinburgh, where they were
imprisoned in the inner Greyfriars church-yard, lying at night on
the ground, and standing during the day, for a period of five
months.  If, in the course of the night, a prisoner lifted his head,
he was instantly fired upon. Provisions were obtained with extreme difficulty; and the women suffered all kinds of insult from
the soldiers, by whom they were continually guarded. After
they had thus occupied this church-yard for nearly five months,
a few rough deal boards were erected for their accommodation,
which was regarded as a special favor. Some of these prisoners
were liberated, on a promise not to take arms without the'king's
leave. But two hundred and fifty, who refused to take the bond,
were ordered to be transported to Barbadoes, and' sold as slaves.
The vessel was wrecked on the Orkney Islands, and most of them
perished.*
The insurgents who escaped the furious onslaught of Claverhouse at Bothwell were immediately proclaimed rebels; and,
though the Duke of Monmouth published a promise of amnesty to
those tenants and sub-tenants who should lay down their arms by
a prescribed day, few dared to trust themselves in the hands of the
magistrates. Claverhouse now began a course of proscription and
extermination.  Marching into Galloway, he tracked all who had
*- Memoirs of Rev. J. Blackader.
26*




306            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
been, or might have been, at Bothwell-bridge, seizing their horses,
plundering their persons, and committing himself, as well as tolerating in his soldiers, every kind of outrage and debauchery.
Even Claverhouse's mind, hardened as it was, was not unsusceptible of remorse.  He confessed to some of his friends that the
dying prayer of some of his victims often rose up before his
thoughts; and this was, perhaps, the cause of his being more slow
than usual in committing a similar murder about ten days after.
"In one of his expeditions he seized Andrew Hislop, and carried
him prisoner along with him to the house of Sir James Johnston
of Wester-raw, without any design, as it would appear, to put
him  to death.  As Hislop was taken on his lands, Wester-raw
insisted on passing sentence of death on him.  Claverhouse
opposed this, and pressed a delay of the execution; but his host
urging him, he yielded, saying,' The blood of this poor man be
on you, Wester-raw; I am free of it."  A Highland gentleman,
who was traversing the country, having come that way with a comnpany of soldiers, Claverhouse meanly endeavored to make him the
executioner of Wester-raw's sentence; but that gentleman, having
more humanity and a higher sense of honor, drew off his men to
some distance, and swore that he would fight Colonel Graham
sooner than perform  such an office.  Upon this, Claverhouse
ordered three of his own soldiers to do it.  When they were
ready to fire, they desired Hislop to draw his bonnet over his
face; but he refused, telling them that he had done nothing of
which he had reason to be ashamed, and could look them in the
face without fear; -and, holding up his Bible in one of his hands,
and reminding them of the account which they had to render, he
received the contents of their muskets in his body." *
It is said that Claverhouse, in his expeditions up and down the
country, subsequently to the battle of Bothwell-bridge, killed
nearly a hundred persons in cold blood, amidst varied circumstances of licentiousness and atrocity.  For such services he was
$ I'Crie's Covenanters.




CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.               307
created Viscount Dundee, and made a privy-councillor.  He was
ardent in the cause of James II. till he met with his death at the
battle of Killiecrankie.  IHe fell with a violent imprecation on his
lips.
Every tourist in Scotland is familiar with the wide estuary
called the Frith of Froth, which constitutes the ocean highway to
Edinburgh and the heart of Scotland. The most cursory view of
the shores must have made him acquainted with a steep, abrupt
mountain, which rises up at its entrance, like some huge natural
pyramid, and which bears the name of Berwick-law, because
offenders were anciently executed upon its summit. About three
miles to the east stand the massive towers of the ancient castle
of Tantallon, on the edge of a promontory inaccessible on the seaside, and only united to the land by a narrow isthmus, once the
seat of " the noble Lord of Douglas blood," but destroyed for its
adherence to the royal cause in the days of Charles I. The poem
"Marmion" contains its best description:
"cI said Tantallon's dizzy steep
Hung o'er the margin of the deep,
And many a tower and rampart there
Repelled the insult of the air;
Which, when the tempest vexed the sky,
HIalf breeze, half spray, came whistling by..$               *        $
Above the booming ocean leant
The far-projecting battlement;
The billows burst in ceaseless flow
Deep on the precipice below;
And steepy rock and frantic tide
Approach of human step defied."
But the object of my principal attention, when I last visited
the spot, was neither Berwick-law nor Tantallon Castle.  Some
of those misadventures to which railway travellers are subject had
caused me to leave my route, and to walk across from Linton to
North Berwick.  It was a very wet and altogether unpropitious




308            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
morning; and, as is usual in such cases, it seemed as if the desired
point would never be attained. At length, from the distance I
had walked, I hoped I was nearing the end of my journey, when
I happily met a passenger, - almost the only one whom, on that
morning, it had been my good fortune to encounter.  " How far is
it to North Berwick?"  "How far is it? I cannot justly tell ye,
-  ye'11 be near aboot half waa."  The best consolation under the
disappointment was, that the rain was now beginning to abate, and
there was the hope that, by the time the rest of the journey was
traversed, I might obtain a favorable view of that which I had
travelled so far to see. So, in view of hard rocks, but with feet
upon the softest roads conceivable, I trudged on over a country in
the highest degree uninteresting, near to the sea; which was, however, from  no point visible, though now and then a few sea-gulls
saluted me with their unfamiliar screams.  At length the sun
caught the top of Berwick-law, and the scene began to brighten,
especially when, soon after, I became aware of the vicinity of the
object of which I was in search.
The ascent of the hill speedily rewarded my expectations.
From  its summit a lovely scene presented itself.  On my right,
constituting a huge foreground, was Berwick-law, a spot celebrated, in the annals of witchcraft, for the executions which took
place upon it. On the left was the ancient and English-looking
village of North Berwick, snugly shut in by cliffs and hills.  Before me was a considerable expanse of cultivated land; and
beyond, at some little distance out at sea, surrounded on all sides
by the magnificent ocean, was the Bass rock, deriving its name
probably from a bass or hassock, - what in Yorkshire would be
termed a buffet, to which it bears considerable resemblance, - a
huge mass rising suddenly from the waters, and thrown up evidently in one of nature's most heaving convulsions.  This little
but very remarkable natural phenomenon has a history; and it is
one of unusual interest.  During the wars between the Scots and
Picts it was inhabited by one of the crowd of ancient saints, who
was called St. Baldred.  He is said to have been a successor of




CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.               309
St. Mungo, and was, perhaps, a Culdee presbyter, residing here
for safety fiom persecution.  It is even reported that he miraculously caused this remarkable rock to rise up from the waves.  The
tradition is, at least, as good as many others of a much later period, and quite as authentic as many of the tales told of the puritans about the time of which we are now writing.  To the honor
of this somewhat apocryphal saint a chapel was at a later period
erected by Cardinal Beaton, which was occasionally used as a place
of prayer till the Reformation.  The rock afforded a temporary
protection to Robert III., before his captivity by the English.
Walter Stewart, son of the Duke of Albany, was imprisoned here.
James VI. paid a visit to it in 1581, and the accounts of his treasurer include the following item: "To Alexander Young, his hienes
servitour for his grace's extraordinar expenses in his jornay towardis
the Bass, conforme to his hienes precept, as the samin with his
acquittance producit upon compt proportis XL. li."  (Forty
pounds).*  James even desired, it appears, to purchase it of its
then possessor, -  one of the Lauders, - offering him whatever he
pleased to ask for it.  Lauder replied, " Your majesty must e'en
resign it to me, for I'11 have the auld crag back again."  Charles
I. claimed it, on what ground does not appear, nor does the claim
seem to have been successful.  When Cromwell invaded Scotland,
in 1650, the public records of the Church of Scotland were consigned to this fastness, which, however, soon after fell into the
hands of that victorious general, who conveyed them in casks to
London. At the restoration, they were ordered to be returned.
But Lauderdale, believing that the covenant and other papers
signed by the king were among the documents, detained them  till
search should be made. Not being found, fifty hogsheads were
charged with them, and they were sent back to Scotland. But so
much time had been lost, that the season became stormy before
they could be transported.  The ship was cast away at ]Berwick,
and the papers were most of them lost.t  After a second removal,
"'" The Bass Rock." Edinburgh, 1848.
t Burnet's Own Times, vol. I., p. 110.




310            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
the remnants were again brought to London, on the occasion of the
recent disruption of the Scottish church; but only to be consumed
by fire in the House of Commons, in 1834.
When,. after the restoration, the jails of Scotland were crowded
with the victims of the sanguinary persecutions which preceded
and followed the battle of Bothwell-bridge, the Bass rock was purchased by Lord Lauderdale, on behalf of the government, at the
price of four thousand pounds, as a state-prison; himself being
appointed to the undying disgrace of governor of the Bass, with a
salary of one hundred pounds per annum. It was now made a
prison for presbyterian ministers, and underwent such changes as
were necessary to fit it for its new destination.
It. is a beautiful walk which leads along the shores of the Frith
of Forth, from  the town of North Berwick to that part of the
coast which lies opposite to this singular rock.  Were the charms
of the scene better known to English tourists, it would certainly
be more frequently visited.  A  wide expanse of sand, of the
whitest and firmest kind, spotted here and there with beautiful
limpet shells, constitutes a level esplanade, of about a mile in
length, on the eastern side of the town; whilst within view are
the broad waters of the Forth, bearing numerous vessels on their
bosom; and, on the opposite side, the coasts of Fife, diminishing
away in the distance as the estuary grows wider, till the observer
scarcely knows whether his eye can discern the distant shore or
not. Beyond this esplanade the. rocks rise more precipitously,
commanding a majestic view of the wide German ocean, heaving
its faint blue tide, as if with the pulses which carry life and
health through the terraqueous system.  Then, after a short distance, the rocks subside again into a beautiful and quiet inlet,
called Canty Bay, and immediately opposite stands the hoary rock
itself, not near enough to the land to be discernible as to its minuter features, but leaving sufficiently evident to the eye the remnants of its ancient and time-worn structures.  Strange is the
appearance of this crimeless prison!  The steep, slope of its upper
surface gives a sensation of the uncomfortable, as if it were impos



CrII-ST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.            311
sible that a living being could find a secure footing upon so shelving a surface. Its distance from the shore renders escape almost
hopeless. It is not possible to reach the spot in a storm. There
is but one place of landing; and of any herbage, besides the grass
which grows on its top, there is now no vestige remaining. Nowhere else can the spectator realize a more vivid conception of
utter solitude!
I~~~~~~~'A'
__~~.-=~~~-~; —~~~
=~~~~~~~~[
BASS ROCK, FROM CANTY BAY.
A more miserable and forlorn prison-house than this of the Bass
rock it is impossible to conceive. With no fresh water,- for the
water to be found on the island was often corrupted, and the prisoners were obliged to mix it with oat-meal before it could be drunk,
washed at times by the spray from the boiling ocean below, and
exposed to the damps which arose from the water drizzling down
from the pent-house surface above; in narrow and inconvenient
rooms, some of them lighted by slits far above their heads; liable,
from the situation of the prisons, to have their movements watched,
their sufferings insulted, and their conversation overheard; the
rooms ordinarily so full of smoke as to compel them sometimes to
put their head and shoulders out of the window, in order to draw




312            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
fresh air; exposed to the fierceness of every wind that blew;
often in want of provisions, which, in stormy weather, could not be
landed; far from friends and home, - more than forty poor sufferers were incarcerated, some for a period of six years. Some
miserable consolation might be derived from  beholding —when
they were permitted to behold it - the glorious scene of nature's
loveliness which spread itself on every hand around them. The
" highway of nations " around, or the bright heavens above, - the
changes of atmosphere, the glorious sunrise or sunset, the darkening storm, —all would have their attractions in such a Patmos. They could look at Tantallon, but in the tales of its wild
chivalry and fierce warfare there was little to touch their sympathies.  Berwick-law rose up near them, but naked, stern and
forbidding, presenting to them no idea of sympathetic life.  The
eye could wander on to the huge crags which marked the distant
Arthur's Seat, perhaps to think that, within the privy-council
chamber, at the base of those hills, some poor victim whom they
knew was at that moment undergoing the torture so dreadfully
familiar to themselves; the more smiling coast of Fife presented
its singular and picturesque undulations to their view, but far, far
away; many of them could look from that prison fastness upon
the locality of their homes and their ministry, only to lament a
denounced religion and an outraged covenant. What could comfort them?  Nothing, but gospel truth and a good conscience.
" He that hath light within his own pure breast
Can sit i' the centre and enjoy bright day;
But he who hides a dark breast and foul thoughts
Benighted walks beneath the noon-day sun:
Himself is his own dungeon." -MILToN, Comus.
The following is the testimony of one of the prisoners: -   "Every
day I read the Scriptures, exhorted and taught therefrom, and
prayed with such of our society as our masters did permit to worship God together, and this two times a day. I studied Hebrew
and Greek, and gained some knowledge in these oriental languages.




CHRIST S  CROwN AND COVENANT.               313
I likewise read some divinity, and wrote a treatise on faith, with
other miscellanies, and wrote some letters to Christian friends and
relations. Thus I spent my time, and not without some fruit."
Another said," I have the experience of that saying,' Tanta est
dlcedo celestis gaudii, ut si una guttula deflueret in infernum,
totamn amaritudinenz  infernzi absorberet.' "*
BASS ROCK, NEAR VIEW.
So long as time shall endure, the Bass rock will remain an
imperishable monument to John Earl of Lauderdale.t
Here was imprisoned Robert Gillespie, who had opened a conventicle and preached without license and without lawful ordinal
tion. I-Ie was kept for a time totally secluded from all intercourse
with his friends, though, latterly, the injunction was relaxed.
Here, too, was found Alexander Peden, once minister of Glenluce,
in Galloway-, but prohibited by the Scottish act of parliament from
exercising his ministerial functions.  He joined the covenanters,
$ Such is the sweetness of the joy of heaven, that if the least drop of it were
to flow into hell, it would absorb all its bitterness.
i'" Quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens
Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis
Annorumn series, et fuga temporum."- Hor. Car. 1. iii.
27




314            CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
and although he parted from them before they proceeded to the
fight of the Pentland-hills, was yet proceeded against as if he had
been actually present at that battle. I-Ie was probably confined in
this prison during four years. A singular circumstance marked his
history in this spot. One day, a soldier passing by him cried out,
" The devil take him!"  Peden, who spoke with authority, said,
"Poor man! thou knowest not what thou art saying; but thou
wilt repent that! "  The soldier was terrified, and sent for Peden
to pray with him.  When next it was his turn to relieve guard,
he said, " I will lift no arms against Jesus Christ's cause, nor persecute his people; I have done that too long."  I-e was threatened with death; but he persisted in his refusal. The garrison
were compelled to send him on shore.  He afterwards became an
exemplary Christian.  Even this prison was no security against
such influences.  The history of Peden's future career was full
of remarkable incidents, which we must not stay to relate. Within
these walls was also found James Mitchell, who made an unsuccessful attempt upon the life of Archbishop Sharp, which he justified
by passages of Old Testament history. lie was apprehended by
the brother of the primate.  In order to extort a confession from
him, Sharp swore 1" with uplifted hands, by the living God, that
no harm  should befall him if he made a full discovery."  By
authority of Lauderdale, also, his life was promised him on a similar condition.  Hle confessed, and subscribed the confession, and
was sentenced to have his right hand cut off. But, as he refused to
repeat this acknowledgment before the court of justiciary, which
was necessary to his punishment, the prosecutors pleaded that they
were exempt from their promise.  He was sentenced, therefore, to
be examined by torture. The horrible instrument called the
" boots " was brought forward. This consisted of several pieces
of wood firmly fixed together, leaving an aperture for the reception
of the leg of the accused. When it was thus fitted on, wedges
were violently driven with a mallet between the boot and the leg,
which, compressing the shin-bone, caused the most exquisite suffering.  He was bound in an arm-chair, and asked which leg




CHRIST's CROWN AND COVENANT.            315
should be taken,  The executioner was commanded to take either,
and the left leg was inserted. But Mitchell lifted it out, and said,
"Since the judges have not determined it, take the best of the
two, for I freely bestow it in the cause," and he put in the other
leg.  As stroke after stroke descended, questions were put to the
prisoner, and the answers written down.  But nothing satisfactory was elicited. At last, the prisoner fainted, and was borne
off. It was proposed to proceed with the other leg, but the intention was abandoned, through the fears of Sharp that he should
have a shot from a steadier hand.  At length, after much imprisonment, - partly on the Bass rock, - he was tried for the attempted assassination.  The principal evidence was derived from
his own confession, made four years previously.  In vain did
Mitchell plead the promise under which that confession had been
made. It was solemnly denied, even by Lord Lauderdale and Sharp.
When, on his trial, MIitchell's counsel asked for the production of
the minutes which contained the promise under which the confession had been made, the request was denied, upon the plea, which
Lauderdale was not ashamed to urge, that the books of the council
were the king's secret! Mitchell was sentenced to be hanged at
the Grass-market.  When the court broke up, the lords of the
privy-council referred to the records, and there found the promise
made to Mitchell which they had just denied.  For a moment
Lauderdale wavered, and seemed inclined to grant a reprieve. But
Sharp was resolute.  " Then," said Lauderdale, "let Mitchell
glorify God in the Grass-market! " Bishop Burnet gives the
unexceptionable authority of Primrose, the clerk-register, for this
statement. It was this conduct of Sharp which, probably, led to
his death, two years after, as we have related.  gMitchell was executed, and died with the heroism of a martyr.  This attempted
assassination exhibits the stern ferocity engendered by the Scottish
covenant, and the inflexible firmness of some who were bound by
its provisions.  We honor conscience; but conscience and law are
not identical. The men acted as they believed; but their belief was
not founded upon what was written.  Mitchell originally deserved




316              CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.
to die; but no words can express the sentiments due to the treachery, barbarity and infamy, of those who condemned him.*
The close of Blackader's labors bore a singular relation to the
scene of his imprisonment.  Ten days before his apprehension he
had preached on a hill opposite to the Bass rock, and had prayed
with special energy for those who were imprisoned in that desolate
fortress.  Soon  after he was seized in Edinburgh, and himself
received a similar sentence.  Here he died, aged seventy.  His
prison is still to be seen, and a tombstone in the church-yard of
North Berwick marks the spot of his interment.t
The account given in this chapter of the martyrs of the covenant
has been brief and imperfect.  The reader may find the whole
series of transactions in Burnet's History of his Own Time, the
volume entitled " The Bass Rock," &c.
None can fail to regard the league and covenant with solemnity, when he recalls the events of its dismal history.  But as a
matter of legislation it was " a mockery, a delusion, and a snare."
If it were lawful for presbyterians to sharpen swords against prelacy, it was by the same rule lawful for the adherents of prelacy
to turn the sword so sharpened against those who had prepared
it. The principle announced by Castalio, whom Calvin bitterly
opposed, is clear and intelligible: —" Let us obey the righteous
* Yet on Sharp's monument is this inscription:-"Pietatis exemplum;
pacis angelum; sapientia oraculum; gravitatis imaginem; boni et fidelis subditi, impietatis, perduellonis, et schisrnaticis hostem acerrimum," &c. It is
well that marble cannot blush. The latter clause is all of the inscription which
is true. When this monument was opened, a few years since, it was found
empty. It is conjectured that it was opened in search of treasure.
t The Bass rock is now abandoned to Solan geese, which it harbors in great
abundance, and to a few sheep, the flesh of which is in great request; some
butchers have been known to boast of selling five times as much Bass wether
nlutton as the rock can by possibility sustain. Of the former, Defoe says,
"Their laying but one egg, which sticks to the rock, and will not fall off unless pulled off by force, and then not to be stuck on again, though we thought
them fictions, yet, being there at the season, we found true, as also their hatching upholding the egg fast by the foot."  Whatever the means Defoe might
have taken to verify the reports, they are only fictions.




CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.             317
Judge, and leave the tares till the harvest, lest, perchance (whilst
we seek to be wiser than the Master), we root up the wheat. For
neither is it yet the end of the world, nor are we angels to whom
this office has been intrusted."* Good men as they were, Gillespie, Henderson, Baillie, and the numerous ministers of London,
Lancashire and Chester, who swore by the directory, were scarcely
angels; nor were they prone to think that name deserved by Cromwell, Milton, Goodwin, Owen, and the host of sectaries.  And
deeply did they feel, under the terrible retribution which followed,
that Charles II., Monk, Sharp, Lauderdale, Middleton, were no
angels!
a  Bib. Sac., pp. xi., xii.
THEUMBSCREWS.
27*




CHAPTER X.
APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.
"Were I now to preach before a great magistrate that had the power in
his hands, I would say, My lord, you bear not the sword in vain. Let them be
fined and imprisoned, -nay, hanged, my lord. Now, if my lord should say,
Do you endeavor to refute and convince them of their errors by sound doctrine
and good example of life; then would I say, No, my lord, they will never be
convinced by us, for we have not wit or learning enough to do it, neither can we
take so much pains. It is easier to talk an hour about state affairs than. to
preach convincing and sound doctrine. The fanatics, therefore, must be confuted by bolts and shackles; by fines and imprisonments; by excommunications and exterminations; and, therefore, my lord, let them be scourged out
of the temple: let them be whipped out of the nation."- Speculuzmn Crapegownorum,* by D. DEFOE.,.~  ~ ttI HERE are few more interesting chapters
God~              in the miscellaneous volume of human
m|i~f i>S,      life than those which describe the manner in which some men have " achieved':'*I'  ~   greatness."   The case of a single indi-,i  vidual whom we desire to recall to the
1         1U  i   ('4;i;'~  mind of the reader may stand as an
illustration of some of these phenomena.
Let us imagine, in a secluded village, in.,~,~';/~;a flat midland county, a cottage- none
of the best-  built in the antique style
ELSTOW cHURCH.      of wood and plaster, with a steep roof
and narrow windows, some of them very parsimonious of light and
air, a poor but honest family, deriving their daily sustenance from
*Crape gowvns were at this timle the clerical fashion; a fashion, however,
which this pamphlet of Defoe's rendered obsolete.




APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.               319
the mean occupation of mending pans and kettles, mainly desirous
that their son - destined, perhaps, to pursue the same occupation as
themselves - should possess the rudiments of a decent education,
and be taught - what few of their class then possessed - the art
of reading, and even of writing.  Let it be supposed that this
boy, chubby, red-haired, and burly in person, gives, as he advances
in years, no little trouble to his ignorant but well-meaning parents.
Strong, masculine, self-willed, mischief delights him.  His passions, even in early life, are strong -often ungovernable. He is
riotous and unruly; a very roysterer among his young acquaintance, who are, nevertheless, attracted to him by some indefinable
charm, and delight in his humor, and in those massive or barbed
phrases which distinguished his very vulgarity. Yet there are
times in which this prevalent course of his life becomes interrupted;
when he breaks away from  his companions and plunges into solitude; when some unexplained sadness seems to bow down his
mind; when his sleep is often broken, and those who watch his
couch can observe writhings and shudderings, as if he were possessed by some infernal spirit. He grows up a tall and powerful
lad; and, as he grows, he becomes less sad and more jovial; a
despiser of all which calls itself religion; a captain among the
gay and careless; daring beyond all ordinary precedent; remarkable for the breadth of his vulgarity and the emphasis of his
oaths.
Such a disposition naturally impels him into all kinds of dangers; yet his preservations are all but miraculous.  His companions tell of his hair-breadth escapes from drowning in the sea and
in the river; how with his naked hand he once plucked out the
forked tongue of an adder, and escaped unhurt; how he afterwards
enlisted in the civil wars, and changed places with a fellow-soldier,
who was killed in his stead.  TWhen in a state of extreme poverty,
— a poverty greatly increased by the unsettled life he had led,
he marries, though destitute alike of money and of furniture, with
not even a dish or a spoon which he could call his own, whilst all
the fortune of his wife consists in two books left her by her father.




320               APPEJARING IN TRUE COLORS.
By dint of reading these, he is seized with a sudden impulse;
bows at altars, worship priests, believes in apostolical succession,
becomes religious just as a machine might be, whilst his soul lies
torpid and frozen within. It is, however, but the fashion of a
moment, and the wound-up spring speedily recovers its original
shape.  On the village-green, or at the street corner, wherever
the idle love to congregate, there is he to be found; sometimes
prompting their mirth; sometimes engaging with them in their
games of pitch-halfpenny or quoits, or cat; not despising the public house, and foremost in the triple-bob major of the village belfry.  Yet his companions think him  somewhat odd; perhaps
half-deranged. A sudden spasm will sometimes seize him in the
midst of a game; he will stop, and seem as if he heard strange
voices, and then resume his sport as if possessed with a demon of
desperation. Then his frolics will become more boisterous, his
oaths more fearful, till even the irreligious become disgusted with
his enormous profanity.
Another change comes over him.  I-e is grave again.  He
stands at the outer door of the church-tower, but no amount of
persuasion can induce him to enter. The dance loses its charm;
he ceases to swear; he becomes self-absorbed and dissatisfied.
During a short period he gains more composure, and his countenance puts on a smirk of self-satisfaction. But it is transient,,
and he appears more than ever gloomy, anxious, haggard. Is he
becoming a puritan?- for he seeks the conversation of the fanatics, and it is reported that he has been closeted with Gifford, the
baptist preacher! He even remonstrates with some of his former
acquaintance as to the impiety of their course.  He has visions;
reads his Bible; is alternately calm  and gloomy; undergoes a
whole campaign of conflicts, inconceivable to all except himself.
Sometimes he thinks himself abandoned by hope; sometimes that
the whole universe is leagued for his destruction.   Now  he
attempts miracles; then he thinks himself possessed by the evil
one.  But, whatever the process through which he- passes, all is as
vivid as if actually within the range of his senses.  He walks




APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.              321
through the wilderness of this world, and dreams as he goes.
Such was the process by which a poor tinker became a Christian;
and such the materials out of which was formed, in due time, the
Pilgrim's Progress!
Who has ever visited Bedford, — that pretty, well-arranged,
compact town, - who has ever stood on the top of that beautiful
Grecian bridge which now spans the river, and looked down that
rich watery avenue, overshadowed with thick foliage on either side,
towards the point where once stood the ancient castle, and not
remembered John Bunyan?  Simple, enchanting, noble man!
What does not the world owe to thee, and to the great:Being
who could produce such as thee? Teacher alike of the infant and
of the aged; who canst direct the first thought and comfort the
last doubt of man; property alike of the peasant and the prince;
welcomed by the ignorant and honored by the wise, - thou hast
translated Christianity into a new language, and that a universal
one! Thou art the prose-poet of all time!
In the year 1655 John Bunyan was admitted a member of the
baptist church at Bedford, then worshipping under the ministry
of John Gifford, who had been major in the army of Charles I.
He had not long joined himself to this society, when he began to
preach; and it -may be readily supposed that the style of such a
man as the author of the " Pilgrim's Progress " would render
him  uncommonly popular. The preaching of a baptist, however,
was not without its dangers, even in the commonwealth; and Bunyan was indicted for the offence, probably by the presbyterian
party. It appears, however, that, owing to the interference of
the protector, the indictment was set aside.  Soon after the
restoration, his persecution began in earnest, and he was sentenced
to perpetual banishment, for neglecting to come to church, and for
holding unlawful meetings. This sentence was, however, commuted into imprisonment; and the county jail, which then stood
on the top of Bedford Bridge, was the scene of his residence for
more than twelve years. One is almost inclined to think of that




322             APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.
building as the veritable "hospital of St. John the Baptist,"
which Bedford contains.
Sixty other dissenters and two ministers were imprisoned
together with Bunyan.  Whilst thus confined, he supported himself by making tagged laces. In the last year of his imprisonment, A. D. 1671, when the severity of his incarceration was considerably abated, he was elected pastor of the church at Bedford;
and whilst in this prison, assisted by no books beyond his Bible
and Fox's Martyrology, he wrote the Pilgrim's Progress.  Bunyan gives an affecting account of the mental trials he endured when
he was first imprisoned:
" I find myself a man encompassed with infirmities.  The parting with my wife and four children hath often been to me, in this
place, as the peeling the flesh from the bone; and that, not only
because I am somewhat too fond of these great mercies, but also
because I should have often brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries and wants, that my poor family was like to meet
with, should I be taken from them; especially my poor blind
child, who lay nearer to my heart than all beside. 0! the
thought of the hardships I thought my poor blind child might go
under would break my heart to pieces! Poor child! thought I,
what sorrows art thou like to have for thy portion in this world!
Thou must be beaten, must beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness and
a thousand calamities, though I cannot now endure the wind to
blow upon thee. But yet, recalling myself, thought I, I must
venture all with God, though it goeth to the quick to leave you."
Bunyan was at length released from his prison by the interposition
of Bishop Barlow, though he himself afterwards urged the rigorous execution of laws against nonconformists.
Bunyan had recovered his liberty when James II. ascended the
throne. This incarnation of despotism - this concentrated essence
of Stuart blood - began his reign by directing all his energies
against the nonconformists. They being removed, he thought little
difficulty would be found in uniting high churchmen and Romanists into one compact body. But he did not calculate what resist



APPEARING IN TRUE COLOhiS.              323
ance those who were in power would make, when it w, s proposed
to let in another power above their own.  If James was a catholic, so was Charles before him, - at least, so far as he was anything; for religion with him was a mere turnstile, to be moved
about as convenience might dictate.  Monk, it is said, once caught
him at mass, and told him" that if he played these pranks, though
he had interest enough to bring him in, he had not sufficient to
keep him there." Therefore Charles temporized. But James,
from the beginning of his reign, proclaimed himself a catholic and
a tyrant.  His early declaration to the Scotch gave a sample of
the kind of liberty they must expect: " I am resolved to maintain my power in its greatest lustre, that I may be the better able
to defend your religion against fanatics."
Informers again abounded; meeting-houses were disturbed;
ministers were searched for with the utmost rigor; tradesmen were
separated by imprisonment fiom their business; families were
painfully dislocated, fines heavily enforced, and spiritual courts
loaded with business.
The infamous Jeffreys was a worthy agent of James in this new
crusade against liberty of conscience.  The old high commission
court was restored, and this man, now chancellor, was its chief
commissioner, aided by Crewe, Bishop of Durham, and Sprat,
Bishop of Rochester.  One of the first victims of this new confederation was Richard Baxter, who, at the instigation of Sir Roger
L'Estrange, aided by Dr. Sherlock, was cited for portions of his
paraphrase of the New Testament referring to diocesan bishops
and the lawfulness of resisting the civil power. The whole transaction was a matchless specimen of effrontery and tyranny. When
he appeared in Westminster Hall, it was moved on his behalf, as
he was extremely ill, that the trial should be delayed.  Jeffreys,
in a passion, shouted out, " We have had to do with other sorts of
persons, but now we have a saint to deal with, and I know how to
deal with saints as well as sinners.  Yonder stands Oates in the
pillory" (he was actually there at the moment, for his evidence




324             APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.
respecting the popish plot, and richly deserved his punishment),
" and he says he suffers for'the truth, and so says Baxter; but if
Baxter did but stand on the other side of the pillory with him, I
would say,'Two of the greatest rogues and scoundrels in the
kingdom  stood there.'"  The rest of the trial was in perfect
accordance with this commencement.  Baxter was defended by
Pollexfen, who became, in the course of the trial, the object of
Jeffreys' fury. Jeffreys told him, "You cant to the jury beforehand.  Come, then," said he, "what do you say to this count?"
quoting a portion of the paraphrase; "is he not an old knave to
interpret this as belonging to liturgies? "So do others," replied
Pollexfen, " of the Church of England, who would be loth so to
wrong the cause of liturgies as to make them a novel invention, or
not to be able to date them as early as the Scribes and Pharisees."
" No, no, Mr. Pollexfen," said the judge; "they were long-winded,
extensive prayers, such as they used to say when they appropriated
God to themselves:' Lord, we are thy people, thy peculiar people,
thy dear people.' " And then he snorted, and squeaked through
his nose, and clenched his hands, and lifted up his eyes, mimicking
their manner, and running on furiously, as he said they used to
pray; but old Pollexfen gave him a bite now and then, though he
could hardly get in a word.  " Why, my lord," said he, " some
will think it's hard measure to stop these men's mouths, and not
let them speak through their noses." " Pollexfen," said Jeffreys,
"I know you well; I will set a mark upon you; you're the
patron of the faction. * - Don't we know how he preached
formerly; he used to encourage all the women and maids to bring
their bodkins and thimbles, to carry on the war against the king,
of ever blessed memory, - an old schismatical knave, a hypocritical
villain! *  *  What ailed the old blockhead, the unthankful
villain, that he would not conform? Was he wiser or better than
other men? *  *  A conceited, stubborn, fanatical dog, — hang
him! This one old fellow hath cast more reproach upon the constitution and discipline of our church than will be wiped off these




APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.              325
hundred years.  But I'11 handle him for it; for, by G —, he
deserves to be whipped through the city!"
The jury found Baxter guilty, and Jeffreys told him that there
was n't an honest man in England but what took him for a great
knave. The sentence was, that he should be fined five hundred
marks; be imprisoned till it was paid; and enter into recognizances to keep the peace for seven years. Jeffreys proposed the
addition of a whipping through the city, but in this he was overruled.  Being unable to pay the fine, Baxter was imprisoned for
two years, till a change of measures set him at liberty.  During
his imprisonment, he was visited by Matthew Henry, who relates
the conversation which took place during the interview.
The unsuccessful attempt of the Duke of Monmouth gave Jeffreys many opportunities of sating his bloodthirsty hostility to
nonconformists. Among others, Lady Lisle was beheaded, and
Mrs. Grant burnt alive, for admitting proscribed persons into their
houses. Such cruelties, while they led some dissenters to abandon
their profession, induced others to suspect the validity of the episcopal system itself, and to quit its communion.
" The dissenters continued to take the most prudent measures to
cover their private meetings from their adversaries. They assembled in small numbers; they frequently shifted their places of
worship, and met together late in the evenings, or early in the
mornings. There were friends without-doors, always on the watch
to give notice of approaching danger; where the dwellings of
dissenters joined, they made windows, or holes, in the walls, that
the preacher's voice might be heard in two or three houses; they
had sometimes private passages from one house to another; and
trap-doors for the escape of the minister, who always went in disguise, except when he was discharging his office. In country
towns and villages, they were admitted through back yards and
gardens into the house, to avoid the observation of neighbors and
passengers. For the same reason, they never sung psalms, and
the minister was placed in such an inward part of the house that
his voice might not be heard in the streets; the doors were
28




326               APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.
always locked, and a sentinel placed near therm to give the alarm,
that the preacher might escape by some private passage." *
In illustration, it may be observed that John Bunyan was usually in the habit of going to preach in the disguise of a carter, with
a long whip upon his shoulder.
The oppressive conduct of James, which was so little disguised
as to show that he was more weak than wicked, was next turned
against the prelates. This roused the clergy, who now employed
their pulpits to denounce his course. As if by some sudden wind,
all the statements which they had so profusely made, in favor
of non-resistancet and the royal prerogative, like the sentences
of the Curmman sibyl, were whirled away in an instant.  The
word of a king had been pronounced by Archbishop Sharp to be as
sacred as his text; but when the English hierarchy was thleatened,
the doctrine became naught. In an instant they threw themselves
into the position in which the reviled puritans of the commonwealth
had stood before them.  Even Oxford, which had described resistance as "impious, seditious and damnable," refused compliance
with James' new commission court, and drew from  him  the sarcasm, " Is this your Church of England loyalty? "
To promote still further his design of bringing the whole nation
under the influence of the Church of Rome, James now attempted
a general toleration, endeavoring to make common cause with
dissenters, and to outmatch the Church of England.  Despairing,
- Neal, vol. v., chap. I.
t This doctrine was maintained by Jeremy Taylor, Usher, Bramnhall, Saunderson, and most of the dignified clergy. Defoe declares that he had heard from
the pulpit, "that if the king commanded my head, and sent his message to
fetch it, I was bound to submit, and stand still while it was cut off." Cartwright, Bishop of Chester, said, " Though the king should not please or humor
us, though he rend off the mantle from our bodies, $ * nay, though he sentence us to death, * * yet if we are living members of the Church of England,
we must neither open our mouths, * * nor must we ask our prince why he
governs us otherwise than we please to be governed ourselves; we must neither
call him to account for his religion, nor question his policy in civil matters; for
he is made our king by God's law, of which the law of the land is only declarative."-Somers' Tracts, vol. IX., p. 129.




APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.               327
however, of gaining this point by act of parliament, and not unwilling to stretch his own prerogative, James proceeded to claim on
behalf of the monarch a dispensing power as it regarded penal
enactments made by act of parliament, and, with the concurrence
of his judges, declared the authority of the crown to be absolute.
Religious liberty was thus held out to dissenters, at the expense
of constitutional freedom.  The dilemma was a difficult one; so
difficult, as to make us cease to wonder that men should have taken
opposite views on the subject.  Some rejoiced in their actual freedom, however gained; whilst others saw that dissenters were only
protected in order to divide them from the church, and that the
end would be the bringing in of a popery which would crush them
both.  Bunyan, among the rest, detected the motive which
prompted the new measures. Whilst addresses went up to the
king from various bodies of dissenters, the principal men kept
silence.  Defoe says, "I told the dissenters I had rather the
Church of England should pull off our clothes by fines and forfeitures, than that the papists should fall both upon the church and
the dissenters, and pull our skins off by fire and fagot." *  The
truth, however, was, that the dissenters were afraid of toleration
in the abstract. " The shell," to use Bunyan's simile, was yet " on
their head."  They hated popery; their feelings regarding it were
the extreme of intolerance.  Their own and their fathers' sufferings had been so great, that they were distrustful and timorous as
to any decided action.
It was scarcely surprising. The havoc committed among them,
during the recent execution of the penal laws, was frightful.
Twenty thousand presbyterians suffered martyrdom in Scotland,
during the reigns of Charles II. and James II.J  The quakers
complained that fifteen hundred of their body were in prison; of
whom three hundred and fifty had died since 1660. Eight hundred
and forty-one were transported to the West Indies, many of whom
died in the passage, and some were sold as slaves. Eight thousand
* Defoe's Appeal to Honor and Justice, p. 52.
t M'Crie's Covenanters.




328              APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.
dissenters are said to have perished in prison, during the reign of
Charles I. alone. As a proof of the temper of the times, it may
be mentioned, that Jeremiah White, who had been one of Cromwell's chaplains, had "prepared a list of ministers and others who
had suffered imprisonment; distinguishing those who had died, or
were starved in jail, with an account of the fines levied by execution on their estates."  A large reward was offered by James'
party for its publication, as that which would bring infamy on the
Church of England.  White, however, absolutely refused.  "He
scorned the temptation, rejected the rewards, and told them  he
would not so far assist to pull down the church. In short, he
refused either to publish his memoranda, or to give them the least
opportunity for doing so themselves; and this purely as he saw
the design of the party, which, as fellow-protestant, as well as a
dissenter, he had more sense, honor and Christianity, than to join
in."*  According to Oldmixon, White had collected a list containing sixty thousand, who suffered for their religious opinions,
fiom the Restoration to the Revolution, five thousand of whom died
in prison.
William and Benjamin Hewling, who were baptists, suffered at
this time a cruel death. John Howe fled the country. The
objects for which the civil war had been undertaken during the
last reign were utterly, and, for the present, hopelessly defeated,
amidst a series of scenes to which English history offers no parallel.
The meeting-house at Stepney, built in 1674, still exists, to
show what were the circumstances under which dissenting worship
was carried on in those days, and how the congregations screened
themselves from notice.
The lower part of it was probably employed as a family mansion, and divided into rooms. This whole area is now sustained by
two majestic pillars, sent over from Holland after the revolution,
when Mlatthew M{ead was pastor of the church. But the upper
part of the building, then accessible by stairs and trap-doors, was
* Defoe's Review, vol. II., p. 488.




APPEARING IN TRUE COLORS.              329
fitted up as a place of public worship, in such a manner as to afford
some security against the intrusion of an informer. The whole
MIEETING-HOUSE, STEPNEY.
building is now one of the most venerable memorials of nonconformist history.
HIow James II. fulfilled the evil destinies of his notorious family,
and, whilst d.eaf to all friendly warning, rushed madly on the catastrophe which ended his dynasty; - how the king, diverted from
the powerless nonconformists, provoked a party able to avenge its
wrongs, — the prelatical party itself; — how the seven bishops
refused to proclaim the indulgence illegally granted by the monarch, and how James' war upon them hastened and consumnmated
his own ruin; — how William, Prince of Orange, was summoned
by the voice of the nation to the forsaken throne; - how, wearied
and exhausted by persecution, the nation consented to a form of
toleration which, though essentially imperfect, was a large improvement on the terror of the preceding reigns;- and how dissent
became an evil to be borne with, if it could not be cured, - absurd
and contemptible as such a condition is, - the reader of ordinary
history already knows.  That the main evil, however, still remained, though it was somewhat palliated and disguised, will be
apparent in the few pages which yet follow.
2S*




CHAPTER XI.
H IIIGIH CHURCH."
"Sir Richard Steele hit the mark when he thus distinguished the two principal churches in Christendom, the Church of Rome and the Church of England:
that the former pretended to be infallible, and the latter to be always in the
right." - Whiston's Life, p. 168.
Wxr have introduced the reader to London, as London, or some
part of it, appeared at the commencement of the seventeenth century. The present scene is laid in the heart of the city a hundred
years later. The ruins of the great and devastating fire have been
long since removed, and the metropolis puts on an altered air. The
opportunity would have been a noble one for carrying into execution the magnificent plans of Sir Christopher Wren, and for reducing the ill-arranged streets to a scheme presenting both grandeur
and unity. But private interests had prevailed over public convenience, and the city arose as it best could. It was, however,
greatly improved in its reconstruction.  New churches, of which
no less than fifty-one within the city were from the designs of
TWren himself, met the eye in every direction, many of them
alike remarkable for their elegance and convenience. The thoroughfares were, however, still narrow and confined; booths protruded
in front of many of the houses; footpaths were unknown, except
in a few favored quarters; and though some imperfect attempts
had been made at lighting the streets, the effort had not, as yet,
been remarkable for its succees. The great Cathedral Church of
St. Paul's, though ruined in the plan for its construction by the
desire of James II. to have it adapted to a Roman Catholic ceremonial, was advancing to its completion under the inspection of its now




HIGH CHURCH.                     331
aged architect. The crowds which fill the streets are remarkable
in their attire.  The full periwig, the broad-bottomed coat, the
conspicuous shoe-buckle, the dependent queue, distinguish the gentlemen, as the wide-spread hoop, now for some time in fashion,
marks the ladies; whilst the more sober citizen contents himself
with his single-breasted coat of russet color, and the square cravat
which hangs pendent beneath his chin. HIow different is the new
city in its character and costume from the old one, which so much
distinguished itself in the wars of the parliament!  The naked
tyranny of the sovereign is not now the theme of every crowd and
coffee-house.  Popish plots are no more.  The succession to the
throne is no longer disputed. Commerce, formerly disordered and
disorganized, is prosperous.  England, which a little while ago
expatriated its own religious men, has become the haven for those
who, driven from their homes by the revocation of the edict of
Nantes, have taken refuge here, and have introduced their manufactures to the great benefit of the entire community.  Has the
nation, then, unlearned its old illiberalities?  Has it arrived at
the conclusion that the war of the civil power with conscience is
unrighteous and monstrous?   Has the magistrate dropped his
sword where the rights of Casar end, and where those of God
begin? We shall see.
We are opposite to the New Exchange, A. D. 1703. (The reader
will remember that, at the date of which we speak, it faced, not as
now the east, but the south.)  A large crowd is collected before
the pillory which has been placed there. It is hung with garlands,
by hands which little sympathize with the purpose of its erection.
It contains a sufferer, —a man of the middle size, about forty years
of age, with hooked nose, a sharp chin, a dark-colored wig, and a
countenance bearing evident traces of much wear and tear, and in
which the grave is about equally mingled with the satirical. His
advent to the pillory has been a kind of triumphal procession; and
now he is fixed in it, the scoffs do not arise nor the missiles fly;
the mob, on the contrary, drink his health.  The careful spectator
may see, in the merry twinkle of those gray eyes, the -trenchant




332                    HIGH CIUITtCI.
thoughts which he afterwards puts into verse, styled "A Hymn
to the Pillory."  The exhibition over, to be repeated in Cheapside,
and at Temple-bar, on successive days, refreshments are handed to
him, and he departs from a scene which is rather a triumph than a
punishment.
Who is the criminal?  A man of intelligible principles, though
they were now out of fashion; the most versatile writer, perhaps,
of our literature; a wit, a true lover of liberty, a conscientious
dissenter, a brave and undaunted spirit; the author of works
which will live long after the majority of his contemporary generation are forgotten; the future idol of youth, one of whose works
will stand beside the Pilgrim's Progress, on every juvenile shelf.
" Fearlessly on higih stands unabashed DErOE."
What has he done?  The answer to that question will demand
a little retrospection.
When, on the revolution, William and Mary gained the throne
of Great Britain, one of the earliest measures prompted by the
king was a remission of the penal laws against protestant nonconformity.  William's sentiments regarding religion were liberal;
he was himself a presbyterian.  Yet neither he nor the dissenters
who so warmly supported him had any definite notion beyond that
of " making the rule of Christianity to be the rule of conformity."
Locke, to his immortal honor, though almost alone, advocated the
true principle: " The cure of souls cannot belong to the civil magistrate, because the whole of his power consists in outward force;
but true and saving religion consists in the inward persuasion of
the mind, without which nothing is acceptable to God. *, - x*
N1agistracy does not oblige him to put off either humanity or
Christianity.  But it is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties."
It had been moved by Hampden, grandson of the patriot, in the
House of Commons, that the oath which pledged the king to nmaintain the Church of England should be so modified as to admit of




HIGH CHURCH.                     333
his assenting to any forms and ceremonies which parliament should
approve. But the effort was fruitless. It was next attempted to
remove all impediments which prevented dissenters from exercising civic functions. This also was frustrated by a large majority;
and an equally fruitless attempt was made to rescind the Test Act.
All that could be gained was the Toleration Act; an imperfect and
insulting measure, since it gave what it conferred as an act of grace,
and involved in its very name the right to withhold. It made no
provision for free education; it was only available to those who
avowed the doctrinal articles of the Church of England; and it
excluded from its benefits all Roman Catholics. It was, in fact,
the old enemy, but in a more decorous dress.
Such as it was, however, it was extremely distasteful to the high
church section; and Bishop Burnet lost great favor with his prelatical friends for the part he took in upholding it. He who would
make himself acquainted with the opinions of those who opposed it
has only to turn to the bitter and caustic diatribes of South. Such
were the sentiments with which, in Queen Anne's time, Westminster Abbey and the royal chapels resounded!
Before the death of William, but after that of Queen 1Mary, a
controversy had arisen which assumes considerable importance in
the ecclesiastical history of the times.  When so large a number
of the citizens were dissenters, it was impossible that municipal
offices should not often invite their acceptance; and it was customary for dissenters, in order to comply with the requisitions of the
Test Act, to receive the communion occasionally at church.  On
one occasion, Sir Humphrey Edwin, then lord mayor, carried the
paraphernalia of his office to Pinner's Hall meeting-house. This
daring act of "profanation" was like a spark thrown into a barrel
of gunpowder.  Rebuke, abuse and satire, were alike directed
against the offence. Dr. Nichols complained that the lord mayor
carried the sword with him to "a nasty conventicle, which was
held in a hall belonging to one of the mean mechanical companies
in the city."  Swift, in his "Tale of a Tub," satirizes Sir Humphrey Edwin, by describing Jack getting upon a great horse, and




334                    HIGH CHURCH.
eating custard, - custard being a standing dish at a lord mayor's
feast.  Defoe stepped in to this controversy.  " There is a sort of
truth," said he, " which all men owe to the principles they profess,
and, generally speaking, all men pay it.  None but protestants
halt between God and Baal; Christians of an amphibious nature,
that can believe one way of worship to be right, and yet serve God
another. * * The prosperity of the church of Christ has been
more fatal to it than all the persecution of its enemies.  *   *'T is of absolute necessity that a man be of one side or the other;
either the conformist will mar the dissenter, or the dissenter will
mar the conformist.  But to make the matter a gain to dodge
religions, and go in the morning to church, and in the afternoon
to meeting; to communicate in private with the Church of England to save a penalty, and then go back to the dissenters and communicate again there; this is such a retrograde devotion, that I
can see no color of pretence for in all the sacred book."
On the death of King William, at the end of a reign favorable
on the whole to religious liberty, high church principles were again
in the ascendant, as might indeed have been expected from the
reign of a granddaughter of the Earl of Clarendon.  The tories
were now triumphant; fanaticism was proclaimed dangerous to'the welfare of the state.  Dissenters were exposed to every kind
of insult.  Their meeting-houses were invaded by the mob, and
ministers were insulted in the street. Almost all the May-poles in
England were repaired, and drunkenness and revelling resumed
their sway. To stem the tumult which threatened a revival of the
old persecutions, the queen was compelled to issue a declaration,
assuring dissenters of her intention to maintain the act of toleration.  But, in the first parliament of the queen, a bill was introduced to interdict dissenters from the practice of occasional conformity, a custom which had been sanctioned by Bates, Howe,
Baxter, and others of equal eminence.  Sir Thomas Abney had
revived the practice of Sir Humphrey Edwin, which led Defoe to
address a letter to Howe, Sir Thomas' pastor, calling upon him
either to vindicate or to denounce the practice. A correspondence




HIGH CHUIRCH.                     335
of some warmth ensued. Defoe remarks, " Is it not very hard
that the dissenters should be excluded from all places of profit and
trust and honor, and at the same time should not be excused firom
those which are attended with charge, trouble and loss of time?
That a dissenter shall be pressed as a sailor to fight at sea, listed
as a soldier to fight on shore, and, let his merit be never so much
above his fellows, shall never be capable of preferment so much as
to carry a halbert?  That we must maintain our own clergy and
your clergy, our own poor and your poor, pay equal taxes and
equal duties, and not to be thought worthy to be trusted to set a
drunkard in the stocks? *  *  We wonder, gentlemen, you will
accept our money to carry on your wars."
About this time, too, in the year 1702, Defoe published a pamphlet, entitled "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church."  In this pamphlet
he had principally in view a sermon recently preached by Dr.
Sacheverell, entitled "The Political Union," in which occurred
this sentence, " that he could not be a true son of the Church of
England who did not lift up the banner of the church against the
dissenters." In a cuttingly ironical manner, Defoe exhorts the
high-church party to proceed to severities against the dissenters.
" Here is the opportunity, and the only one, perhaps, that ever the
church had, to secure herself and destroy her enemies. If ever
you will establish the best Christian church in the world; if ever
you will suppress the spirit of enthusiasm; if ever you will free
the nation from the viperous brood that have so long sucked the
blood of their mother; if you will leave your posterity free from
faction and rebellion, this is the time. This is the time to pull up
this heretical weed of sedition, that has so long disturbed the peace
of the church, and poisoned the good corn.  But, says another hot
and cold objector,' This is renewing the fire and fagot; this will
be cruelty in its nature, and barbarous to all the world.' I answer,
it is cruel to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood; but the poison of
their nature makes it a charity to our neighbors to destroy those
creatures, not from any personal injury received, but for preven



336                    HIGH CHURCH.
tion; not for the evil they have done, but for the evil they may
do.  *  *  *  *  Some beasts are for sport, and the huntsmen
give them the advantages of ground; but some are knocked on the
head by all possible ways of violence and surprise. I do not prescribe fire and fagot, but, as Scipio said of Carthage,'Delenda est
Carthago,' they are to be rooted out of this nation, if ever we will
live in peace, serve God, or enjoy our own.  *  *  >*'T is vain
to trifle in this matter; the light foolish fondling of them by fines
is their glory and advantage; if the gallows instead of the compter,
and the galleys instead of the fines, were the reward of going to a
conventiele, there would not be so many sufferers.  The spirit of
martyrdom  is over; they that will go to church to be chosen
sheriffs and mayors would go to forty churches rather than be
hanged.  *  *  *  We hang men for trifles, and banish them
for things not worth naming. But an offence against God and the
church, against the welfare of the world and the dignity of religion,
shall be bought off for five shillings.  This is such a shame to a
Christian government, that't is with regret I transmit it to posterity."
So ingeniously was this production constructed, and so little did
it transcend the expressed opinions of the high-church bigots, that
in the first instance this pamphlet of Defoe's was received with
enthusiasm. He himself tells us that he received thanks for it,
and it was loudly praised by some who, when they ascertained the
authorship, were enraged beyond measure.
It was for the publication of this pamphlet that Defoe was
brought to trial at the Old Bailey, and, having submitted to the
mercy of the court, was thus sentenced: -" That he pay a fine
of two hundred marks to the queen, stand three times in the pillory, be imprisoned during the queen's pleasure, and find sureties
for his good behavior during seven years."
The imprisonment in Newgate, which succeeded this trial, was
ruinous to Defoe's circumstances; whilst his association in the
prison with thieves and vagabonds severely injured his moral delicacy. During his incarceration he published several works, and




HIGH CHURCH.                     337
led on the way to the Tatlers and Spectators of a subsequent day,
by commencing his periodical " PReview."  When the high-church
party were removed from power, and Harley became secretary of
state, Defoe was released from his imprisonment.
The hall at Westminster, which has witnessed the inauguration
of a long line of English monarchs, within which were tried Strafford, Laud and Charles I., and which, in modern times, was the
scene of the indictment of Warren Hastings, witnessed, in the year
1709, a pompous ceremonial held over a very insignificant offender.
We refer to the trial of Dr. Henry Sacheverell.  This man, who
was remarkable for nothing but his daring vehemence, whose first
application for ordination was refused, and who, in one of his publications, spoke of "parallel lines meeting in a common centre,"
who had been an unsuccessful whig, and now brought his newlygained toryism into the market for hire, had been by popular election inducted into the living of St. Saviour's, Southwark, and now
derived from his boldness a notoriety entirely unmerited by his
talents or his virtues. His manners were haughty, and his person,
which he attired with the most sedulous care, agreeable and imposing. H-Ie had preached during this year two sermons; one before
the judges at Derby, the other on the 5th of November, before the
lord mayor, at St. Paul's, under the titles of "The Communications of Sin," and " The Perils of False Brethren, both in Church
and State."  Of the sort of doctrines delivered in these addresses
it is almost unnecessary to select a specimen. We will, however,
take the following.  Referring to the Church of England, he
says:
" If to assert separation from her communion to be no schism,
or if it was, that schism is no damnable sin; *  *  If upon all
occasions to comply with the dissenters, both in public and private
affairs, as persons of tender conscience and piety; to promote their
interest in elections, to sneak to them for places and preferment,
to defend toleration and liberty of conscience, and under the pretence of moderation to excuse their separation, and lay the fault
upon the true sons of the church for carrying matters too high;
29




338                    HIGH CHURCII.
If to court the fanatics in private, and to hear them with patience,
if not with approbation, rail at and blaspheme the church, and
upon occasion to justify the king's murder; If to flatter both the
dead and the living in their vices, and to tell the world that if they
have wit and money enough, they need no repentance; and that
only fools and beggars can be damned, -  if these, I say, are the
modish and fashionable criterions of a true churchman, God deliver
us from all such false brethren!"
Such were some of the means by which Sacheverell blew himself into popularity. In ordinary times, such a man might be
left to his own insignificance.  But when Sacheverell advanced,
from abusing dissenters, to insinuate that the toleration act was
unwarrantable and unjust, that the ministry of state tended to
the destruction of the constitution, and that the means used to
bring about the late revolution were odious. and unjustifiable,
the ministry, headed by Lord Godolphin, whom, under the name
of Volpone, Sacheverell had especially attacked, brought against
him a bill of impeachment.
The case excited the widest interest.  During its progress business was almost at a stand.  The summons of this hot-headed
zealot to loosen from its scabbard the sword which the wiser policy
of William of Orange had sheathed, was responded to by the multitude with acclamations of enthusiasm.  The* trial lasted three
weeks, and excited the interest of the whole kingdom. Sacheverell
was attended daily to Westminster Hall by an excited and furious
mob. They compelled every person to pull off his hat to the highchurch martyr as he passedl; and each person endeavored to come
near his person, and to kiss his hand. The queen, who attended
the trial in her private capacity, was assailed by them with cries
- -" God bless your majesty and the church! we hope your
majesty is for Dr. Sacheverell."  The defence of this "highchurch martyr" was a perfect toztr de force.  He denied none of
the matters with which he was charged, but declared that King
William, in arriving at the throne, had disclaimed the idea of
resistance,-  "As if," says Defoe, " the Prince of Orange had




HIGH CHURCH.                     339
not brought with him an army to resist, but came with fourteen
thousand men at his heels, to stand and look on while the English gentry and clergy, with prayers and tears, besought King
James to run away and leave the *throne vacant!"  Sacheverell
well knew that William III. had glozed over his movements
by honeyed words.  It was, moreover, pleaded, that the language
held out by the doctor was sustained by the language of the church
homilies- an argument not so easy for the church party to answer!  He declared that, so far from bringing any charge against
the queen, he held her person in the utmost respect and affection;
and in answer to the accusation that he was an incendiary, quoted
passages from his sermons, in which "he had invited the separatists to renounce their schism, and to come sincerely into the
church." The occasion was distinguished by some parliamentary
oratory of a high kind.  Lieutenant-general Stanhope, especially,
one of the managers, made a deep impression by his oratory.
The defence of the accused was written for him, it was said, by
Atterbury. The result of the trial was that Sacheverell was declared guilty by a majority of eighty-two to sixty-nine.  EIe was
sentenced to be suspended for three years, and his books to be publicly burned. The issue was, in fact, a triumph for his party.
The queen secretly favored him; the mob shouted for his cause;
the high-church party stood by him, though they despised him in
their hearts.
The result of the trial was, as might have been foreseen, an
explosion of mob violence.  The cavalcade which had waited on
this inflated tool of a party on his way to and from Westminster
Hall, after escorting Sacheverell to his house in the Temple, dispersed themselves over London, and proceeded to violence.  They
attacked seven meeting-houses; amongst the rest, Meeting-house
Court, Blackfriars and Fetter-lane, demolishing pulpits, pews and
galleries, and making bonfires of such materials in the streets,
amidst huzzaing and cries of "High Church and Sacheverell!"
They also attacked the houses of Mr. Burgess and Mr. Earle, and
bore off or destroyed their furniture and books, and were with dif



340                     HIGH CHURCH.
ficulty restrained from setting fire to one of the houses.  Dissenters were insulted in the streets and in their dwellings. The houses
of the leading whig partisans were also threatened.*
Nor did the consequences of this most injudicious impeachment
stop here.  Sacheverell made a triumphant progress through the
kingdom, was everywhere hailed as a martyr, and almost worshipped as a demi-god. He dispensed his blessings with the air of
the Vatican; became the toast at the dinner-table, and the idol of
weak women; lived in immoderate luxury; and, when the immediate excitement had passed, fell into the contempt and oblivion
he deserved. t
In Wrexham  the effigies of the dissenting ministers were
dressed up, paraded through the streets, and publicly burned. In
the same place, Hoadly, who, though the champion of episcopacy,
was the advocate of liberal principles, was represented in effigy,
baptized with much ceremony, carried with a rope round his neck,
scourged, pilloried, drowned.
M3EETING MOUSE OF M3ATTHEW HENRY, CHESTER.
In the following election, the same tumults were repeated
Calamy's Life and Times, vol. iT., p. 228.
t See Duchess of Marlborough's Correspondence, vol. ii., p. 142.




HIGIt CHURCHI.                    341
Amongst other towns visited in this connection was Chester, the
residence of one to whose character and writings the Christian
world is inconceivably indebted -  Matthew Henry.  Henry well
knew what intolerance meant.  He was born in the year of the
passing of the Act of Uniformity, and he saw its pressure upon his
father during the first years of his life, and felt it himself during
the latter. His ancient chapel, yet standing, demonstrates by its
very position, shut in as it is from the street, with its windows
well guarded by shutters, the tenure upon which dissenters at that
time held their sanctuaries. Such precautions are very common in
the sanctuaries of the old nonconformists.
In Chester, Sacheverell's mob was so furious, that IHenly, though
he gave his vote according to his conscience, durst,not appear in
public, and was compelled to forego his attendance on a funeral, and
to omit the funeral sermon which was to have been preached on
the occasion.  The returned members were heralded in their procession by the figure of Dr. Sacheverell.
The feeling thus excited led to the dissolution of the whig ministry of the day. The contrast between the agitation of the country on this occasion, and the insignificance of the individual who
caused it,
" Resembles ocean into tempest tost,
To waft a feather, or to drown a fly." $
In consequence of the trial of Sacheverell, high-church addresses
flowed in upon the queen from  all quarters, beginning with the
city of London. Some of them asserted the doctrine of non-resistance in the most unqualified terms. On this Defoe asks, "Would
any man that had seen the temper of the people, in the time of the
late King James, believe it possible, without a judicial infatuation,
that the same people should reassume their blindness, and rise up
again for bondage?  Never, since the children of Israel demanded
to go back and make bricks without straw, and to feed on onions
and garlic, was any nation in the world so sordid, and so unaccountably bewitched!" f
" Young.                t Review, vol. vii., p. 107.
29*




342                     1IGH CHURCH.
As the reign of Anne drew towards its close, the bill to forbid
occasional conformity, and by this means to prevent dissenters from
occupying civil offices, which had been three times refused by the
lords, was passed almost without a murmur.  Encouraged by the
success of this movement, Bolingbroke and Atterbury instigated
" the Schism Bill." This was a prohibition of collegiate and other
dissenting institutions, under heavy penalties. " By virtue of this
act, nonconformists teaching school were to be imprisoned three
months.  Each schoolmaster was to receive the sacrament, and
take the oaths. If afterwards present at a conventicle, he was
incapacitated, and liable to be imprisoned.  He must teach only
the Church Catechism. But offenders conforming were recapacitated; and schools for reading, writing and mathematics, were,
after a warm debate, excepted." * The bill, in spite of great exertions on the part of the nonconformists, passed both houses, and
received the royal assent. It was designed to follow it by another,
declaring all dissenters in the kingdom unfit to vote in the election
of members of parliament. But the queen's decease happily prevented this dangerous issue. She died on the very day that the
Schism Act was to have taken effect.  " 0, that glorious first of
August! " said Dr. Benson, in a sermon preached at Salter's Hall,
" that most signal day, never to be forgot! "  The queen's death
prevented the further ascendency of Lord Bolingbroke, and rescued
protestant dissenters!
" Calamly's Life and Times, vol. ii., p. 283.




CHAPTEIt XII.
TIHE WILL MINUS TIIE POWER.
"Letting' I dare not  wait upon' I would.' "- SHAKISPEARE.
HE name of Dr. Doddridge is one on
which all who have sympathy with the
generous, the benevolent and the devout,
will ever delight to linger.  Though
deeply engraven in the annals of protestant nonconformity, it is the exclusive
property of no creed.  Doddridge was
no genius, in the ordinary acceptation of
B y_ - _~ ~the word, and no one thing which he did
/ transcended other things of a similar
kind done by others.  His learning has
been often surpassed; his pulpit oratory was not resplendent; his
poetry, though pleasing, bore no traces of inspiration; his power
over the minds of others was not supreme.  Yet there was in him
such a combination of excellences as to lift him at once out of all
vulgar mediocrity.  Commencing with a youth which was fuller
of a sportive playfulness than can be comprehended by the dull,
and which exposed him to reproof from the cynical, though it was
remote from vice and abhorrent from hypocrisy, the growth of his
character was like the gradual ripening of a rich harvest, at length
reaching the point of full maturity and ample abundance. The
diligence of his self-cultivation, the integrity of his heart and
frankness of his manners, the variety of his attainments, the
judiciousness and pertinence of his conduct, and his unwearied
industry, all united to fervor of devotion and an insatiable thirst




344             THE WILL MINUS THE POWER.
for usefulness which have never been surpassed, give him a just
claim to be regarded as belonging to the first rank among those
whose nobility will be the most conspicuous, and whose honors the
most enduring.
Such have been the thoughts of many, as they have looked
upon the pleasant and well-built town of Northampton.  Not a
few have probably directed their first inquiries, on entering it, to
the vestiges of the author of " The Family Expositor," and of
"The PRise and Progress of Religion in the Soul."
Doddridge's meeting-house still stands on the Castle-hill, - a
spot not to be visited without a crowd of historical reminiscences.
Northampton is well known as one of our oldest fortified towns,
dating from a period, at latest, soon after that of the Conquest.
Compared with Windsor or with Nottingham, there is nothing in
its appearance" which would seem to claim eminence for it.  It has
no bold, projecting, almost inaccessible rock, and the river which
flows through it is far from imposing. But the town is built
upon very high ground, and the Castle-hill, which is a considerable
elevation, overlooks a marshy tract, calculated to give great security to its ancient fortress. As we stand upon this hill, what
crowds of varied historical associations rush upon the mind!
Beauty and chivalry, conquest and defeat, tales of joy and sorrow, empires lost and won, have dated from  this spot their allvarying fortunes.  It was here that one of the most celebrated
scenes occurred in the contest waged by Henry TI. with the Roman
hierarchy, when that king, under the constitutions of Clarendon,
cited Thomas d' Beckett to appear before a council of the states,
and when the primate, blazing in all the splendors of his archiepiscopal pomp, refused to submit to the royal jurisdiction; and it
was from this town that Beckett fled, in the disguise of a monk, to
take refuge in Flanders.  It was here that King John was besieged by his barons; and here that the same king met the papal
nuncios, by whom, filing to make sufficient concessions, he was
excommunicated.  Here, also, Henry III. besieged his factious
barons, under the conduct of the younger De Monutfort.  Here was




THE WILL MINUS THE POWER.                 345
held the splendid court of Edward I.; and through this town the
king followed his beloved Eleanor.  Here, too, a parliament was
held, to consider the coronation and marriage of Edward II. Beneath these walls Henry VI. lost his kingdom in a battle with the
Earl of Warwick. The poll-tax, which occasioned the insurrection
of Wat Tyler, was passed by a parliament assembling in this town.
It was in this castle that Richard III. determined to seize the
crown of England from the infant hands of Edward V. Elizabeth, Charles I., Cromwell, Charles II., all have their memorials
here. The castle was demolished in the year 1662; and though
a few remains of the ancient building exist, its principal site is
now occupied by edifices of a less imposing and more peaceful
character.
" Time has seen, -that lifts the low,
And level lays the lofty brow, -
Has seen this broken pile complete,
Big with the vanities of state.
A little rule, a little sway,
A sunbeam in a winter's day,
Is all the proud and mighty have,
Between the cradle and the grave." *
WVe think with pleasure how the spot, once resounding with the
histories of the great, is now consecrated by the memory of the
good.
It was after a considerable conflict of opposite emotions, that
Doddridge, then twenty-seven years of age, came, in the year
1729, to the conclusion that it was his duty to settle at Northampton; and it was within the walls of the Castle-street meetinghouse that, during twenty-two years, he fulfilled the duties of a
"good and faithful servant."  I-is chapel, which would be deemed
a large one for that period, is neat and commodious; and, though
the lower part of it has been considerably renovated, the pulpit
and the pewing of the galleries are still unchanged. A marble
monument, in the most profuse style of mural decoration, bears an
$ Prior.




34G6             TIIE WILL MINUS THE POWER.
inscription to the memory of Doddridge, more verbose than powerful.
But there is no part of this building altogether so interesting to
the visitor as the vestry.  Here are the chair in which Doddridge
sat; the table at which he wrote his "Expositor; " the original
invitation addressed to him to become the pastor of the church,
with his reply; the drawing of the monument erected to his memory in the cemetery of Lisbon, where he died. These walls have
been, doubtless, familiar with many of those communings of ardent
devotion which rendered him so powerful in the pulpit and from
the press; and here he often verified the sentiment, that " Solitude has nothing gloomy in it when the soul points upwards."
When Doddridge undertook -as he did immediately before his
coming to Northampton - the formation of a dissenting academy,
the course was not without its perils. This aspect of the case presented itself to the mind of Dr. Watts, who was consulted respecting the project.  "Are the hands of enemies," writes Watts,
" so effectually chained up from offering us any violence, that they
cannot indict or persecute you, under the pretence that your academy is a school? "*
There were sufficient reasons for such a question.  Since the
Restoration, the nonconformists had been excluded from the benefit of the English universities, and their schools had been conducted in private, under the management of such individuals as
were considered competent.  One of the most eminent establishments was conducted by Mr. Morton, at Newington Green.  At
this school Defoe, Samuel Wesley, and many ministers, received
their first training.  Another was under the discipline of JIr.
Kerr, of Bethnal Green.  But these seminaries did not pass unmolested.  Morton was exposed to perpetual annoyances from spies
and informers; till, at length, worn out by vexations, he abandoned
his country, and took refuge in New England.  A little later, a
still more eminent establishment was kept by lMr. Doolittle, who
preached at Monkwell-street, and lived at Islington.  Many men
* Doddridge's Corrcspondcence, vol. ii., p. 481.




THE WILL MINUS TIIE POWER.                347
of considerable nonconformist eminence received their education
under his roof; amongst the rest, IMatthew Henry and Dr. Calamy.  But he was compelled also to break up his establishment at
Islington, and to remove first to Battersea, and afterwards to Clerkenwell.*  Indeed, no dissenter could at that time exercise the functions of a teacher without exposing himself to dangerous penalties.
Roger Rosen, for teaching a few little children to read, was cited
to Chester, excommunicated, and was in great danger of starvation.
In one of these academies, - that, namely, kept by Morton,Samuel Wesley, father of the celebrated founder of Methodism,
received, as we have said, his education. A book, bearing his
nlame, but published probably without his consent or authority,
was put forth, which contained severe strictures on the mode of
education adopted by protestant dissenters.  The work drew forth
a reply, to which Wesley added a rejoinder, containing severe
reflections on the nonconforming body.  This was a cruel blow,
especially at a time when dissenters with difficulty maintained a
tolerated position.  " When all is done, gentlemen," said Defoe, in
his strictures on the work, " why do we erect private academies,
and teach our children by themselves.?  Even for the same reason
that we do not communicate with you, because you shut us out by
imposing unreasonable terms.  *  *  But while you shut our
children out of your schools, never quarrel at our teaching them
at those of our own, or sending them into foreign countries; since,
wherever they are taught, they generally get a share of learning
at least equal to yourselves, and, we hope, partake of as much honesty; - and, as to their performances, match them, and outpreach
them, if you can. I wish that was the only strife between us."
The Schism Bill, as we have seen, gave new effect to this position
of affairs.  But, on the death of Queen Anne, the measure, though
passed, sank into oblivion, as no lawyer, who hoped for favor from
the court, would enforce its penalties.  It was repealed by 5 Geo.
1. Severe, however, as the Schism Bill was, it had been far outdone by the measure promoted by the Long Parliament, which
* Calamy's Life and Times, vol. I., pp. 113 —138.




348             THE WILL MINUS THE POWER.
provided that none but a protestant should educate the children
of papists.
Even after the accession of the house of Hanover, occasional
riots, stimulated by the party who were favorable to the Pretender,
menaced the dissenters in various parts of the kingdom, and were
stimulated by a celebrated sermon, preached March 31, 1.717, by
Bishop Hoadley, on the nature of the kingdom of Christ, in which
he asserted " that Christ is the sole law-giver to his subjects, and
the sole judge of their behavior in the affairs of conscience and
eternal salvation;" and that, "to set up any other authority in
his kingdom, to which his subjects are indispensably obliged to
submit their consciences or conduct in what is properly called
religion, evidently destroys the rule and authority of Jesus Christ
as king."  Sherlock charged Hoadley with endeavoring to prepare
the way for the repeal of the Test Act; and the Convocation
declared his sentiments subversive of all government and discipline
in the church of Christ.  This was the last bona fide sitting of
this body.  They have never been permitted to transact business
since that period.
Such were the circumstances under which Doddridge first instituted, on his settlement at Northampton, his academy.  He was,
in many respects, in a favorable position for doing so. The dissenters were in high favor at court, and their adversaries in a
position of declining influence.  But they had, on many occasions,
given great annoyance to Doddridge and his students, and at
length they proceeded to systematic hostility.  At a visitation in
Northampton, in the year 1752, Reynolds, the chancellor, told the
church-wardens of Doddridge's parish " that he was informed that
there was a fellow in this parish who taught a grammar-school, as
he supposed, without any license from the bishop," and commanded
them, if they found such to be the fact, to present Doddridge, that
he might be prosecuted according to law.  Nor was such a prosecution in those days an unusual event; for Doddridge tells us that
he knew twenty such attempts within less than so many years.
Whilst this case was pending in the ecclesiastical court, and at the
time of a general election, in which a Jacobite member was re



THE WILL MINUS THE POWER.                349
turned, a riotous attack was made on Doddridge's house, which
was connived at by the mayor of the town.
DODDRIDGE'S HOUSE, NORTHAMPTON.
By the express intervention of George II., who declared that,
in his reign, there should be no persecution, the suit was quashed.
WVere our volume of a nature which would expand according to
the materials which lie before us, it might be interesting to give a
detailed account of many recent movements, memorable in the
struggle for religious liberty, which we must now pass over in a
brief summary.
The doctrine of the alliance of church and state, as understood
by the inferior magistrates, proved, on many occasions, no inconsiderable annoyance to the early methodists, although their professed relation to the Church of England, and the decisive measures
which were adopted at court, prevented any systematic persecution.   It was to the honor of Doddridge, Lardner and other dissenters, that they opposed, in the case of Woollston, the deist, any
recourse to the civil power, in order to put down his pernicious
opinions. The quakers showed, in a petition to parliament, that
they were still liable to severe exactions in consequence of their
religious opinions, but failed in obtaining relief. The Test and
Corporation Acts still continued. In 1748 a law passed the city
of London, enforcing on every person who refused to act as sheriff,
when nominated by the mayor, a fine of upwards of four hundred
pounds, and six hundred pounds on every one who refused to serve
when elected by the common hall. Fifteen thousand pounds were
30




350             THE WILL MINUS THE POWER.
collected by this means, - a sum which was appropriated to the
building of the present Mansion House.  The speech of Lord
Mansfield in the House of Lords, when certain dissenters at length
resolved to dispute the validity of this ordinance, will be long
remembered to his honor.
The progress of dissenting liberty during the reign of Geo. III.
and his successors, the contests respecting the Corporation- and
Test Acts, and Catholic Emancipation, which were terminated in
1828 and 1829 by the repeal of those oppressive enactments, the
bill of Lord Sidmouth, in 1811, which sought to limit " the liberty of prophesying" by demanding securities of dissenting ministers, and which was resisted and defeated by the whole body of the
nonconformists, are incidents which belong, indeed, to this volume,
but which are matters of such modern history as scarcely to need
repetition. The spirit of an establishment is, we thankfully own,
becoming every day more enlarged and tolerant; but until -all
bounties and penalties apart- the state shall retire within the
province which alone she can legitimately occupy, and until the
rights of man shall be as distinctly acknowledged in the meanest
dissenter who worships in his barn as in the haughtiest churchman
who wears his mitre, the war for religious liberty will not be ended.
History has been well designated "philosophy teaching by
examples." The reader of the foregoing pages is invited, before
he lays down the volume, to glance at the kind of philosophy
deducible from its illustrations.
He has seen the civil sword wielded by the magistrate in professed defence of religion, in successive and very different periods.
By Romanism, by Lutheranism, by Arminianism, by Presbyterianism, sometimes conjoined with Independency, and sometimes
pure; and, since the accession of the house of Hanover, by a
system gradually approximating to Erastianism.
He has learned that the state church and the true church are
by no means identical. We do not sWay that the one has never
included a portion of the other, but that the one has never been a
fair representative of the other.  Whatever the reader's religious




TIHE WILL MINUS THE POWER.              351
opinions may happen to be, he cannot but mark certain periods in
which error, and not truth, has been armed with civil power. The
Rlomanist cannot believe the state church to be the true church
when it is protestant, nor the protestant when it is Romanistic.
Whether the reader be a presbyterian, or a baptist, or a unitarian,
or a friend, or an independent, he cannot but remember periods
in which the state church, so far from  being identical with the
true church, has done its utmost to weaken and to destroy it, by
bounty on the one hand, and by penalty on the other; sometimes
by fine; sometimes by imprisonment; sometimes by banishment;
sometimes by torture; sometimes by death.  Let him, then,
remember that a state church, so far from being necessarily a
friend to true religion, has been often its most virulent and deadly
enemy!
But the reader will see more.  If he be a man of candor and
piety, he will see that those periods in which a state church has
been most dominant are not the periods fixed upon by any party
as worthy of the highest complacency.  What frank Romanist
delights in Hildebrand and Innocent III., or in the memory of
Queen Mary and James II.?  What pious episcopalian will
endorse the acts of Laud and Strafford, of Lauderdale and Sacheverell?  What presbyterian vindicates the principles —as a
whole - of the covenanters? Just in proportion as the state alliance is a reality, and not a name, men shrink from glorying in it.
Can any circumstances be more suspicious, or more suggestive?
On the contrary, with a few distinguished exceptions, the best
men of every party have always been those who have either been
frowned on by the state church, or else have stood far away from
its vortex.  Fenelon and Pascal; Wilson, Leighton, Scott, Newton; Baxter, Blackader, Howe, the Henrys; Penn, Fry, Clarkson; Robinson, Nye, Watts, Doddridge; Kiffin, Bunyan, Whitefield, WeSley, were men who, whatever doctrines they avowed,
were in no position to exercise civil power for any prolonged period; or, if they were, tarnished by that means something of their
lustre.  So far is it from being true that a state church is necessary
to the vitality of the religious system with which we most agree!




352              THE WILL MINUS THE POWER.
The conclusion is that, so far from the removal of its state
machinery being injurious to the true church, that removal is,
all other things being equal, the surest means of confirming and
advancing it.
Advance, then, we say, advance the true church! Advance it,
by displaying its legitimate and spiritual character! Advance it,
by disencumbering it of its useless and worthless formalism!
Advance it, by removing from  its administration men who do not
sympathize with its high objects, nor comprehend its gentle spirit!
Advance it, by mnaking it the friend of all, and the enemy of none!
Advance it, by raising it to an eminence whence, without interfering with their just prerogative, it may observe, and teach and
pray, for the powers and dominions of this world! Advance it,
that, instead of bearing the mockery of a self-denying name, it
may be a sublime reality, comprehending within its range those
whom no law can define, and excluding from its bosom those whom
no earthly penitence can silence!
We are deeply aware that, to aid in this issue, other and more
spiritual processes are requisite. Far be it from us to scorn at
them. But, whatever else is important, this surely is: to assert
for the religion of the gospel, for it alone can sustain such a demand,
a Divine right -a Divine right superior to all human law!
OLD FOUNDERY MEETING, CITY ROAD, THE SCENE OF WESLEY'S FIRST LABORS.




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