who died in the ensuing year, relates that on the 23rd July, 1646,
many gentlemen went to six o'clock prayers at the cathedral to take
the last sad farewell of the church services, the organs having been
removed three days before, and that at ten o'clock in the morning the
several regiments marched forth, and all the gentlemen with the
baggage; and that at one o'clock Peters brought them their passes, and
importuned every one individually to pass his word not again to bear
arms against the Parliament.
Hugh Peters was now such a favourite with the Parliament that they
made an order for £100 a year to himself and his heirs for ever; later
an additional £200 per annum was voted to him, and all this in
addition to his pay as preacher, and to sundry grants as bearer of
news from the army. He was also accorded Archbishop Laud's library.
Nevertheless, as he lamented in his _Legacy of a Dying Father_, he
found it impossible to keep out of debt.
There is this in Peters' favour to be urged, that he opposed the
execution of Archbishop Laud, and urged that instead he should be sent
to New England. So he begged the life of Lord George Goring, Earl of
Norwich, and of the Marquis of Hamilton, and again of the Marquis of
Worcester.
The Presbyterians were in force in the House of Commons, but the army
was composed mainly of Independents, worked up to enthusiasm by their
preachers. It had been six months in the field in the summer of 1648,
engaged against the Cavaliers and Scots. The soldiers were thoroughly
incensed against the King, and they had no respect for the
Presbyterians. Their officers resolved on assuming the sovereign power
in their own hands, and bringing the King to justice, and converting
the Government into a commonwealth.
To accomplish this they presented a remonstrance to the Parliament by
six of their council on November 20th, demanding: (1) that the King be
brought to trial for high treason; (2) that a day be set for the
Prince of Wales and the Duke of York to surrender themselves, or to be
declared incapable of government, and that in future no king should be
admitted but by the free election of the people.
The Commons were struck with dismay, and deferred debate on the
remonstrance for ten days. But the officers despatched Colonel Ewes to
the Isle of Wight with a party of horse to secure the King's person,
and to bring him to Windsor, in order to his trial. The officers then,
on November 30th, sent a declaration to the House to enforce their
late remonstrance, and requiring the majority in the House to exclude
from their councils such as would obstruct the King's trial.
On December 2nd Fairfax arrived in London at the head of the army, and
the House of Commons found itself cornered by the armed force.
Nevertheless, they had the courage to vote that the seizure of the
King, and the conveying him a prisoner to Hurst Castle, had been done
without their advice and consent.
The officers were resolved to carry their point. A regiment of horse and
another of foot were placed at the door of the Parliament House, and
Colonel Pride entered and took into custody about forty of the members
who were disposed to obstruct the cause the army sought to pursue, and
denied entrance to about a hundred more; others were ordered to leave;
and the number of those present was thus thinned down to a hundred and
fifty or two hundred, most of them officers of the army.
The secluded members published a protestation against all these
proceedings as null and void till they were restored to their places;
but the Lords and Commons who remained in the House voted their
protestation false, scandalous, and seditious.
The army, having vanquished all opposition, went on to change the
whole form of government; and to make way for it determined to impeach
the King of high treason, as having been the cause of all the blood
that had been spilt in the late war.
There was commotion in the House and in town and the country. In the
House some declared that there was no need to bring the King to trial;
others said that there existed no law by which he could be tried; but
all this was overruled.
Meanwhile Hugh Peters was not idle. In a sermon addressed to the
members of the two Houses a few days before the King's trial he said:
"My Lords, and you noble Gentlemen,--It is you we chiefly look for
justice from. Do you prefer the great Barabbas, Murderer, Tyrant, and
Traitor, before these poor hearts (pointing to the red coats) and the
army who are our saviour?"
In another sermon before Cromwell and Bradshaw he said: "There is a
great discourse and talk in the world, What, will ye cut off the head
of a Protestant Prince? Turn to your Bibles, and ye shall find it
there, Whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. I
see neither King Charles, Prince Charles, Prince Rupert, nor Prince
Maurice, nor any of that rabble excepted out of it."
Evelyn in his _Diary_, under date 17th January, 1648-9, says: "I heard
the rebel Peters invite the rebel powers met in the Painted Chamber to
destroy his Majesty." Bishop Burnet says: "That he (Peters) had been
outrageous in pressing the King's death with the cruelty and rudeness
of an inquisitor."
Prynne, one of the secluded members, published "A brief memento to the
present unparliamentary junto, touching their present intentions and
proceedings to depose and execute Charles Stuart, their lawful King of
England."
The officers now decided to gain the approval of the
ministers--Presbyterian--in London, or at least persuade them to
remain neutral.
Hugh Peters was selected for the purpose, and he went among them, but
all his efforts were fruitless. They declared unanimously for the
release of the King. He then invited several of them, Calamy,
Whitaker, Sedgwick, etc., to a conference with some of the officers;
but instead of attending, the ministers assembled in Sion College and
drew up "A serious and faithful representation of the judgment of the
ministers of the Gospel within the province of London," dated 18th
January, 1648-9. In this they protested against the coercive measures
adopted toward the Parliament, and bade them beware of proceeding to
extremities. "Examine your consciences, if any number of persons of
different principles from yourselves had invaded the rights of
Parliament, imprisoned the King, and carried him about from place to
place, and attempted the dissolution of the whole government, whether
you would not have charged them with the highest crimes."
This was subscribed by forty-seven ministers.
A second paper, "A vindication of the London ministers from the unjust
aspersions ... as if they had promoted the bringing of the King to
capital punishment," appeared shortly after, signed by fifty-seven
ministers.
Even the Independent preachers shrank from approving the proceedings of
the council of officers in the trial of the King, with the exception of
Hugh Peters and John Goodwin. Some of the Independent ministers in the
country joined the Presbyterians in protesting against them.
But it was all in vain. The King was tried and sentenced to death, and
executed on 30th January, 1649. Rumour had it that the masked
executioner was none other than Peters himself. This he denied,
asserting that on the day of the King's death he was ill in bed. He
had certainly been about and preaching not many days before.
Who the executioner was, was never discovered, and Peters was not
charged as such when tried for his life in 1660.
In _Epulæ Thyestæ_, printed in 1649, Peters is accused of having been
the executioner of King Charles:--
There's Peters, the Denyer, (nay 'tis sad)
He that, disguised, cut off his Master's head;
That godly pigeon of Apostacy
Does buz about his Ante-Monarchy,
His scaffold Doctrines.
But there was an element of kindness in Hugh Peters that induced him
to do gracious acts even to those whom he hated. Whitelocke assures us
that "at a conference between him (Peters) and the King, the King
desired one of his own chaplains might be permitted to come to him" on
the occasion of his execution; he had refused the ministrations of the
Presbyterian divines, "and thereupon the Bishop of London was ordered
to go to his Majesty."
On a former occasion a message from the Queen was allowed to be
transmitted to the King through the instrumentality of Peters.
In his letter to his daughter Peters says: "I had access to the
King--he used me civilly, I, in requital, offered my poor thoughts
three times for his safety." It was an impertinence in the man to
approach the King, when he had stirred up the army to demand his
death, and had raced about London endeavouring to get the approval of
the sentence from the ministers. Although we cannot believe that Hugh
Peters was the executioner of Charles, yet he cannot be acquitted of
being a regicide, on the same principle as the trumpeter in the fable
was condemned to be hanged. His plea that he had not drawn a sword in
the battle was not held to justify him--he had sounded the charge and
summoned to the battle.
Peters was one of the Triers appointed by Cromwell to test the
parochial clergy, and to eject from their livings such as did not
approve themselves to their judgment as fitting pastors to the flock
either by their morals or theological opinions.
Every parishioner who bore a grudge against his pastor was invited to
lay his grievances before the Grand Committee. Lord Clarendon says:
"Petitions presented by many parishioners against their pastors, with
articles of their misdemeanours and behaviours ... were read with
great delight and promptly referred to the Committee about Religion."
The matter of these accusations was for the most part, as Clarendon
informs us, "bowing at the name of Jesus, and obliging the
communicants to the altar, i.e. to the rails which enclosed the
Communion table, to receive the sacrament." What the Puritans desired
was that the minister should walk about the church distributing to the
people in the pews. The observance of all holy days except Sundays had
already been forbidden. A priest who said service on Christmas Day or
Good Friday was certain of deprivation. But the great question put to
each rector or vicar was, "whether he had any experience of a work of
grace" in his heart, and the answer to this determined whether he
should be allowed to hold his cure or be thrust out, apart from all
question of moral fitness. That there were a host of lukewarm,
indifferent men in the ministry, caring little for religion and
knowing little, without fixed convictions, cannot be wondered at,
after the swaying of the pendulum of belief during the last reigns,
and these would be precisely the men who would be able volubly to
assert their experience of divine grace, and abandon doctrines they
never sincerely held and ceremonies about which they cared nothing.
There were vicars of Bray everywhere.
Butler hits off the work of the Triers in _Hudibras_:--
Whose business is, by cunning sight,
To cast a figure for men's light;
To find in lines of Beard and Face
The Physiognomy of Grace;
And by the Sound and Twang of Nose,
If all the sound within disclose;
Free from a crack or flaw of sinning,
As men try pipkins by the ringing.
Peters was next appointed a commissioner for the amending of the laws,
though he had no knowledge of law. He said himself, in his _Legacy_:
"When I was a trier of others, I went to hear and gain experience,
rather than to judge; when I was called to mend laws, I rather was there
to pray than to mend laws." Whitelocke says: "I was often advised with
by some of this committee, and none of them was more active in this
business than Mr. Hugh Peters, the minister, who understood little of
the law, but was very opinionative, and would frequently mention some
proceedings of law in Holland, wherein he was altogether mistaken."
Peters was chaplain to the Protector, and certainly in one way or
another made a good deal of money. Dr. Barwick in his Life says:[5]
"The wild prophecies uttered by his (Hugh Peters') impure mouth were
still received by the people with the same veneration as if they had
been oracles; though he was known to be infamous for more than one
kind of wickedness. A fact which Milton himself did not dare to deny
when he purposely wrote his Apology, for this very end, to defend even
by name, as far as possible, the very blackest of the conspirators,
and Hugh Peters among the chief of them, who were by name accused of
manifest impieties by their adversaries." Bishop Burnet says as well:
"He was a very vicious man."
Peters by his wife--his second wife, Deliverance, the widow of a Mr.
Sheffield--became the father of the Elizabeth Peters to whom he
addressed his _Dying Father's Last Legacy_.
The Dutch having been disconcerted by the defeats of their fleets by
Admiral Blake, and the messengers they had sent to England having
failed to satisfy Cromwell, in the beginning of the year 1653 they
commissioned Colonel Doleman and others to learn the sentiments of the
leading men in Parliament, and to gain over to the cause of peace Hugh
Peters, as Cromwell's influential chaplain. Peters had always
entertained a tenderness for the Dutch, and he interceded on their
behalf, and the Dutch gave him £300,000 wherewith to bribe and
purchase the amity of Parliament and the Protector. That a good share
of this gold adhered to Peters' fingers we may be pretty confident;
and indeed it was intended that it should do so. The attempt, however,
did not succeed, and when the negotiations were broken off, the Dutch
fitted out another fleet under Van Tromp, De Witt, and De Ruyter, and
appointed four other deputies to go upon another embassy to England.
These men arrived on July 2nd, 1658, and "all joined in one petition
for a common audience, praying thrice humbly that they should have a
favourable answer, and beseeching the God of Peace to co-operate."[6]
These ambassadors, like the foregoing, sought out Peters and engaged
his services. After several interviews, peace was at last concluded
2nd May, 1654. In the _Justification of the War_, by Stubbe, is an
engraving that represents the four deputies presenting their humble
petition to Peters.
In 1655 feeling in England was greatly stirred by the account that
reached the country of the persecution of the Waldenses in the valleys
of Piedmont. Cromwell at once ordered a collection for the sufferers
to be made throughout the kingdom, and it amounted to upwards of
£38,000. In this Peters took an active part. Ludlow says: "He was a
diligent and earnest solicitor for the distressed Protestants of the
valleys of Piedmont."
Soon after the affair of the persecuted Waldenses was concluded the
Protector formed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the
French, in which it was agreed that Dunkirk should be delivered up to
him. In consequence of this agreement six thousand men were sent over
to join the French army, and Peters received a commission to attend
them thither. The town of Dunkirk, in consequence of this league, was
taken from the Spaniards, and on the 26th of June, 1658, was delivered
to Colonel Lockart, Cromwell's ambassador at the French Court.
Lockart wrote the following letter to Secretary Thurloe:--
"DUNKIRK, _July_ 8-18_th_, 1658.
"May it please your Lordship,
"I could not suffer my worthy friend, Mr. Peters, to come away
from Dunkirk without a testimony of the great benefits we have all
received from him in this place, where he hath laid himself forth
in great charity and goodness in sermons, prayers, and
exhortations, in visiting and relieving the sick and wounded; and,
in all these, profitably applying the singular talent God hath
bestowed upon him to the chief ends, proper for an auditory. For
he hath not only showed the soldiers their duty to God, and
pressed it home upon them, I hope with good advantage, but hath
likewise acquainted them with their obligations of obedience to
his Highness's government and affection to his person. He hath
laboured amongst us here with such goodwill, and seems to enlarge
his heart towards us, and care of us for many other things, the
effects whereof I design to leave upon that Providence which has
brought us hither.... Mr. Peters hath taken leave at least three
or four times, but still something falls out which hinders his
return to England. He hath been twice at Bergh, and hath spoke
with the Cardinal (Mazarin) three or four times; I kept myself by,
and had a care that he did not importune him with too long
speeches. He returns, loaden with an account of all things here,
and hath undertaken every man's business. I must give him that
testimony, that he gave us three or four very honest sermons; and
if it were possible to get him to mind preaching, and to forbear
the troubling himself with other things, he would certainly prove
a very fit minister for soldiers. I hope he cometh well satisfied
from this place. He hath often insinuated to me his desire to stay
here, if he had a call. Some of the officers also have been with
me to that purpose; but I have shifted him so handsomely as, I
hope, he will not be displeased. For I have told him that the
greatest service he can do us is to go to England and carry on his
propositions, and to own us in all other interests, which he hath
undertaken with much zeal."
This letter lets us see what were some of Peters' weaknesses. He was
vastly loquacious, so that Colonel Lockart had to see to it that he
did not "importune the Cardinal with too long speeches," and he was
conceited, self-opinionated, and meddlesome, interfering in matters
beyond his province, so that the Colonel was heartily glad to be rid
of him from Dunkirk.
That there was humour in Hugh Peters, not unfrequently running into
profanity, would appear from a work, "The Tales and Jests of Mr. Hugh
Peters, collected into one volume; published by one that hath formerly
been conversant with the Author in his lifetime; dedicated to Mr. John
Goodwin and Mr. Philip Nye." London, 1660.
These appeared in the same year under a different title--"Hugh Peters,
his figaries, or his merry tales and witty jests both in city, town,
and country." It was reprinted by James Caulfield in 1807.
A few of these will suffice.
Peters had preached for two hours; the sands in the hour-glass had
run out. He observed it, and turning it over, said to his hearers:
"Come, let us have another glass!"
Once he preached: "Beware, young men, of the three W's--Wine, Women,
and Tobacco. Now Tobacco, you will say, does not begin with a W. But
what is Tobacco but a weed?"
Another of his jests in the pulpit was, "England will never prosper
till one hundred and fifty are taken away." The explanation is L L
L--Lords, Lawyers, and Levites.
Preaching on the devils entering into the swine (S. Mark v. 23), he
said that the miracle illustrated three English proverbs:--
1. That the devil will rather play at small game than sit out.
2. That those must needs go forward whom the devil drives.
3. That at last he brought his hogs to a fair market.
It was a favourite saying of Peters that in Christendom there were
neither scholars enough, gentlemen enough, nor Jews enough; for, said
he, if there were more scholars there would not be so many pluralists
in the Church; if there were more gentry, so many born would not be
reckoned among them; if there were more Jews, so many Christians would
not practise usury.
One rainy day Oliver Cromwell offered Peters his greatcoat. "No, thank
you," replied his chaplain; "I would not be in your coat for a
thousand pounds."
Discoursing one day on the advantage Christians had in having the
Gospel preached to them--"Verily," said he, "the Word hath a free
passage amongst you, for it goes in at one ear and out at the other."
Preaching on the subject of duties, he said:--
"Observe the three fools in the Gospel, who, being bid to the wedding
supper, every one had his excuse--
"1. He that had hired a farm and must go see it. Had he not been a
fool, he would have seen it before hiring it.
"2. He that had bought a yoke of oxen and must go try them. He also
was a fool, because he did not try them before he bought them.
"3. He that married a wife, and without complement said he could not
come. He too was a fool, for he showed that one woman drew him away,
more than a whole yoke of oxen did the former."
Peters, invited to dinner at a friend's house, knowing him to be very
wealthy and his wife very fat, said at table to his host, "Truly, sir,
you have the world and the flesh, but pray God you get not the devil
in the end."
The copy of the _Tales and Jests of Hugh Peters_ in the British Museum
has notes to some of them, showing that the writer regarded a certain
number as genuine anecdotes of Peters. Most of the others are either
older stories, or else have little or no wit in them.
The above anecdotes are some of those thus noted.
That Hugh Peters was a wag Pepys lets us know, for he speaks of a
Scottish chaplain at Whitehall, after the Restoration, a Dr.
Creighton, whose humour reminded the diarist of Peters: "the most
comical man that ever I heard; just such a man as Hugh Peters."
At the Restoration he was executed as a regicide. He was not directly
implicated in the King's death, and all that he could be accused of
was using words incentive to regicide. That he had been the
executioner was not charged against him. There was no evidence. The
accusations Hugh Peters had to meet were that he had encouraged the
soldiers to cry out for the blood of the King, whom he had likened to
Barabbas; that he had preached against him; that he had accused the
Levites, Lords, and Lawyers--the three L's, or the Hundred and Fifty,
in allusion to the numerical value of the numbers--as men who should
be swept out of the Commonwealth; that he had declared the King to be
a tyrant, and that the office of King was useless and dangerous.
Peters pleaded that he had been living fourteen years out of England,
and that when he came home he found that the Civil War had already
begun; that he had not been at Edgehill or Naseby; that he had looked
after three things only--the introduction into the country of what he
considered to be sound religion, the maintenance of learning, and the
relief of the poor. He further stated that on coming to England he had
considered it his duty to side with the Parliament, and that he had
acted without malice, avarice, or ambition.
The jury, with very little consultation, returned a verdict of guilty,
and he was sentenced to death.
On the 16th October Coke, the solicitor for the people of England who
had acted against the King at his trial, and Hugh Peters, who had
stood and preached that no mercy should be shown him, were to die.
On the hurdle which carried Coke was placed the head of Harrison, who
had been executed the day before--a piece of needless brutality, which
the people who lined the streets indignantly resented. On the scaffold
Coke declared that for the part he had borne in the trial of Charles I
he in no way repented of what he had done. Hugh Peters was made to
witness all the horrible details of Coke's execution, the hanging, the
disembowelling. He sat within the rails which surrounded the scaffold.
According to Ludlow: "When this victim (Coke) was cut down and brought
to be quartered, one Colonel Turner called to the sheriff's men to bring
Mr. Peters to see what was doing; which being done, the executioner came
to him, and rubbing his bloody hands together, asked him how he liked
that work. He told him he was not at all terrified, and that he might do
his worst, and when he was on the ladder he said to the sheriff, 'Sir,
you have butchered one of the servants of God before my eyes, and have
forced me to see it, in order to terrify and discourage me; but God has
permitted it for my support and encouragement.'"
A man upbraided Peters with the King's death. "Friend," said Peters,
"you do not well to trample upon a dying man: you are greatly
mistaken; I had nothing to do in the death of the King."
As he was going to the gallows, he looked about him and espied a man
with whom he was acquainted, and to him he gave a piece of money,
having first bent it; and he desired the man to carry that piece of
gold to his daughter as a token, and to assure her that his heart was
full of comfort, and that before that piece would reach her hand he
would be with God in glory. Then the old preacher, who had lived in
storms and whirlwinds, died with a quiet smile on his countenance.