illiterate. Nine-tenths of the people were Protestant. On the whole,
they were more inclined to salvation by grace than to salvation by good
works. Popular reading included guides for good manners such as "The
Rich Cabinet" by Thomas Gainsford, and "Youths Behavior" translated from
the French by Francis Hawkins. It advised not to sit with one leg on the
other, but with the feet even; not to spit on one's fingers; and not to
sniffle in the sight of others. Books for ladies such as "Delights for
Ladies" by Hugh Platt told them how to adorn themselves, tables,
closets, and rooms with beautiful objects, perfumes, and waters. It
taught preserving and the making of candy preserved by sugar, cooking,
and housewifery. Gervase Markham wrote advice for men in "Hobsons
Horse-load of Letters", which addressed serious negotiations, private
businesses, amorous accomplishment, wanton merriment, and the defense of
honor and reputation. "A Helpe to Discourse" primed a man to meet
company with suggested questions and answers, epigrams, riddles, and
jests. In Henry Peacham's "The Compleat Gentleman" (1622), the model
Cavalier is portrayed in terms of horsemanship, tilting, sports, choice
of companions, reserved and dignified conduct, good scholarship, and
responsibility. This popular book was a guide to university, where there
was a seven year course of classroom lectures. It advised conversation
with men of the soundest reputation for religion, life, and learning,
but recreation with those of the same rank and quality. First place was
to be given to religion, so that the foundation of all studies would be
the service of God. Following in importance were: speaking and writing
in English or Latin (grammar, syntax, and rhetoric), astronomy,
astrology, geography (whose authorities were Pliny, Strabo, and the
pagan writers of the first century), chorography [map-making],
mathematics (including arithmetic and geometry), poetry, (reading,
writing, and criticizing), music (including part-music), drawing,
limning [putting drawings in books], painting, art history, exercise
(riding, running, leaping, tilting, throwing, wrestling, swimming,
shooting, and falconry), logic and disputation (if related to one's
intended profession such as the law), philosophy (Plato and Aristotle),
and some medicine and botany.
Richard Brathwaite's "The English Gentleman" portrays the somber
Puritan who accepts the gospel of work. He is a staid and serious
businessman. "Matrimonial Honour" by Daniel Rogers opined that for
success, a marriage must be godly, with the parties equally religious,
worshipping together in private and in public. A hasty or worldly
marriage would bring repentance. The spouses should agree, but keep to
their spheres. Children should not be spoiled.
Large households were more or less self-supporting and were managed by
their ladies. Work included ordering wool, hemp, and flax; making cloth
and dying it; dairy work; brewing; malting; baking; preserving wines;
extracting oils; distilling perfume; and putting on banquets. Couches
were coming into use in parlors.
The king and his court entourage settled for most of the year in
Whitehall instead of traveling around the country. The king let the
public into Hyde Park, the king's private hunting park, for
recreation. The City of London and Westminster were still separate, but
a mass of hovels was springing up in between them. In certain areas
there were houses crowded with those wanted for minor offenses, small
thefts, and debt. Bailiffs did not dare venture into these areas because
the inhabitants hid and defended each other unless the offense was a
major one. The penalty for stealing even small sums was still death. The
water carrier was still active and the night transport of sewage
necessary.
Inigo Jones was the first architect of consequence. He had studied in
Italy and designed and built the Banqueting House at Whitehall, near
Westminster, in London in 1622. It had classical proportions and nice
shaping and dressing in stone. He was now an arbiter of taste for the
King Charles and his Queen and built many structures for them, including
the Queen's Chapel at St. James Palace and her bedroom in the Queen's
Hose in Greenwich. All over London and the country he and his pupils
built many classical buildings, including houses, churches, stables,
lodgings, out-buildings, staircases, galleries, watergates, and
archways. They stood in stark contrast to the Tudor buildings around
them. In the 1632, Jones started town planning in London with Covent
Garden fruit and vegetable market and terraced houses around a central
piazza surrounded by open arcades with a Tuscan church at one end. In
1634, a man from the suburb of Hackney introduced a line of coaches
rented at 1s. per hour. They soon became very popular.
The Flemish Johann Baptista van Helmont demonstrated that metals
dissolved in acid can be recovered through chemical means and enunciated
the doctrine that each thing in nature has its own specific
organization.
A large part of England was rebuilt as yeomen expanded their houses and
others lower in rank replaced mud and wood hovels with brick and stone
cottages. A separate kitchen appeared. The ground floors are boarded
over to create bedrooms. Permanent stairs replace ladders. Glass appears
in windows. Glass and crockery replace wood and pewter, Chairs replace
benches. Knives and forks become common.
About 1640 began travel between towns by covered wagons called stage
coaches. They carried passengers and goods and stopped at inns for
stabling and repairs.
Work was begun in 1630 to make canals that would make marsh waters run
to the sea. Barges on canals were the most efficient mode of
transportation. A barge could carry 50 tons on a canal and only 30 tons
on a river. A single horse could haul an 8-ton wagon on iron rails or on
a soft road, but only 1/8 of a ton on his back.
A new trend of spring-sown crops led to better crop balance and reduced
the risks of scarcity in a bad year. But the economy was still volatile.
There were riots in London in 1640-1 from a complete breakdown in
political consensus, the factions being the Royalist City elite versus
the middling and lesser merchants and craftsmen.
In 1631, the clock makers broke away from the control of the
Blacksmiths. The gunmakers also broke away from the Blacksmiths. The
tinplate workers broke away from the Ironmongers.
"Searching" for bad cloth became more difficult as the industry became
more diversified. For instance, a new machine called a gig- mill did the
work of many hand finishers. In 1633, Charles issued a commission for
the reformation of the cloth industry with minute directions for the
manufacture of cloth. But there were many disagreements over the details
of manufacture and reform was difficult to enforce.
By the 1630s, many parishes had a resident intellectual for the first
time. The parish priests came from gentry, upper yeomanry, urban
tradesmen and clerical families. They were educated and highly learned.
They had libraries and were in touch with contemporary religious
debates. They saw their role primarily as pastoral care. Many wanted to
improve the religious knowledge and moral conduct of their parishioners.
Puritan influence deepened as they forbade dancing, games, minstrels,
and festivals. They punished superstitious conduct. They initiated
prosecutions in church courts for sexual lapses and drunkenness. The
church court had little coercive power and its punishments were
restricted to penance or excommunication. Many Puritan sects espoused
equality for women. By the 1640s women were preachers, e.g. in the
Baptist and Anabaptist religions and, until 1660, prophetesses. These
sects were mostly composed of the lower echelons of society.
Poor people did not respond to sermons as did the well-to-do. Nor were
they as involved in church activity, attending church only for
marriages, baptisms, and funerals.
Charles I not only believed in the divine right of kings and was
authoritarian; he was the ultimate autocrat. He had an unalterable
conviction that he was superior to other men, who were insignificant and
privileged to revolve around him. He issued directives to reverse jury
verdicts. Parliamentarians Oliver Cromwell and other educated men
opposed this view. The Commons voted not to grant Charles the usual
custom-dues for life, making it instead renewable each year, conditioned
on the king's behavior. Charles dissolved Parliament before this passed.
He continued to take tonnage and poundage.
Charles wanted money for war so he imposed many taxes, but without the
consent of Parliament. They included many of which had fallen into
disuse. He imposed a compulsory "loan" on private individuals, which the
courts held was illegal, and imprisoned those who refused. Bail was
denied to these men. Simpler people who refused were threatened with
impressment into the Navy, which included being landed on shore to fight
as marines and soldiers. They sought to revive the old writ of habeas
corpus to get released, but to no avail. Charles billeted unpaid and
unruly soldiers in private homes, which they plundered. It was customary
to quarter them in inns and public houses at royal expense. Martial law
was declared and soldiers were executed. But the citizens did not want
martial law either.
The Magna Carta was now seen as a protector of basic liberties, instead
of a restoration of certain past rights.. Both attorneys and laymen read
"The Pastyme of People" written by John Rastell in 1529, which described
the history of the Magna Carta from 1215 to 1225. Also read was the
"Great Abridgment" of the English law written by Rastell in 1527, and
Coke's volume of his Institutes which dealt with the Magna Carta, which
the Crown took to prevent being published until 1642, when Parliament
allowed it. Broad-scale pamphleteering turned England into a school of
political discussion. Oxford University favored the established church
and Cambridge University was Puritan.
The House of Commons asserted a preeminence to the House of Lords for
the following reasons: The estates of the members of the House of
Commons were three times the extent of the members' of the House of
Lords. Bishops' estates had diminished considerably because of
secularization. The members of the House of Commons were elected
[chosen] by the people.
The House of Commons drew up a Petition of Right in 1627, which
expanded upon the principles of Magna Carta and sought to fix definite
bounds between royal power and the power of the law. It protested the
loans compelled under pain of imprisonment and stated that no tax or the
like should be exacted without the common consent of Parliament. It
quoted previous law that "...no freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or
be disseised of his freeholds or liberties, or his free customs, or be
outlawed or exiled; or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful
judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land" and that "...no man of
what estate or condition that he be, should be put out of his land or
tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned nor disinherited, nor put to death
without being brought to answer by due process of law". It continued
that "... divers of your subjects have of late been imprisoned without
any cause showed; and when for their deliverance they were brought
before your Justices by your Majesty's writs of Habeas Corpus, there to
undergo and receive as the court should order, and their keepers
commanded to certify the causes of their detainer, no cause was
certified, but that they were detained by your Majesty's special
command, signified by the Lords of your Privy Council, and yet were
returned back to several prisons, without being charged with anything to
which they might make answer according to the law." It also protested
the billeting of soldiers in private houses and martial law trying
soldiers and sailors. If these terms were agreed to by the King, he was
to be given a good sum of money. Since he needed the money, he yielded.
He expected tonnage and poundage for the Navy for life, as was the
custom. But he got it only for one year, to be renewable yearly. The
King agreed to the petition, quietly putting his narrow interpretation
on it, and it was put into the statute book.
In 1629 Parliament distinguished between treason to the king and
treason to the Commonwealth.
The Chief Justice held in 1638 that acts of Parliament to take away the
King's royal power in the defense of his kingdom were void; the king may
command his subjects, their persons, their goods, and their money and
acts of Parliament make no difference. But the people refused to pay
these taxes.
Charles thought of more ways to obtain money and disregarded his
agreement to the Petition of Right.
Without the consent of Parliament, Charles extended ship money to all
the kingdom instead of just the ports. It was used to outfit ships for
the protection of the coasts. Hampden refused to pay it on principle and
the courts ruled against him in the case of King v. John Hampden and he
was sent to prison. When distraints were tried, the common people used
violence to prevent them. The bailiffs were pelted with rocks when they
came to distrain property. One man used his pitchfork to take back his
steer being taken by the bailiff. If a distraint was successful, people
would refuse to buy the distrained property of their neighbors.
Charles revived the right of the Crown to force knighthood on the
landed gentry for a fee.
Charles sold monopolies in such goods as soap, leather, salt, wine,
coal, and linen rags although they had been abolished in the last
Parliament of James. This made employment uncertain for workers and
prices high for the public, and put masters in danger of loss of
capital.
Fines were levied on people for the redress of defects in their title
deeds. Crown forest boundaries were arbitrarily extended and landowners
near Crown forests were heavily fined for their encroachments on them.
Money was extorted from London by an illegal proclamation by which every
house had to pay three years' rental to the Crown to save itself from
demolition.
But what incensed the people more than the money issue were the changes
in the established church. High churchmen, called Ritualists, enforced
ceremonies offensive to Puritan feeling in every parish. The centrally
placed communion tables were to be placed at the east end within
railings and called "altars", or "mercy seats" as if for mass. They were
to be ornamented with crucifixes, images, pretty trifles, books, candles
and rich tapestries. Bowing was to be done when approaching them.
Clergymen were to be called "priests" and their authority treated as
divine. Worship was to be done in accordance with the prescribed forms
of Romish Breviars, Rituals, and Mass-books. Its ritual was to have pomp
and ceremony, including kneeling for communion. Rings were to be used in
marriages and crosses used in baptisms. Churches, fonts, tables,
pulpits, chalices and the like were to be consecrated, thereby putting
holiness in them. Churches that did not do this but used unconsecrated
or "polluted" articles were closed by interdiction [a Catholic censure
withdrawing most sacraments and Christian burial]. Days, postures,
meats, and vestments were to be regarded. The clergy was to wear
supplices [white linen vestments flowing to the foot with lawn sleeves]
and embroidered copes [vestment over the head]. A Bishop wore a
four-cornered cap, cope and surplice with lawn-sleeves, tippet (long,
black scarf), hood, and canonical coat. Churchwardens were to take oaths
to inform against any who disobeyed. The law still required that all
attend Sunday sermons. But parishes had some control over who was their
preacher, even though a minister could be assigned to a parish by the
bishops without the consent of the patron of the church or parish
people. By increasing the meager pay of a parish clergyman, they could
choose one with a compatible theology or employ a lecturer from outside.
The Ritualists scolded clergymen for "gospel preaching" and suppressed
Puritan preaching in public meetings. Preaching or printing matter
concerning the controversy of free will versus predestination was
forbidden. Geneva Bibles, which were popular among laymen, were
prohibited from being imported. Many were excommunicated for sitting
instead of kneeling at communion. The clergy prohibited marriage if they
liked by withholding their license, and they licensed marriages without
banns. The Ritualists encouraged certain sports to be played after
church on Sunday. The Puritans protested vehemently to this because they
wanted to strictly observe the Sabbath. The Puritans saw the high
churchmen as wanting to return to the doctrine and customs they thought
to be Papist. The Ritualists were absolutists in their political views
and accepted the King's intervention in church matters. The
ecclesiastical Court of High Commission enforced the edicts of the
church, excommunicating those who did not conform and expelling
clergymen who, for instance, did not bow at the name of Jesus or wear
the surplice. It was used against the Puritans and imposed high fines
and imprisonment for religious eccentricity and Puritan preaching.
Charles supported the established church in this endeavor because it
agreed that he had a divine right to rule.
The universities and high churchmen were beginning to adopt the
doctrine of free will over predestination. Parliamentarian and Puritan
Oliver Cromwell and others feared this presaged a return to
justification by works and the popish faith. In Parliament, he spoke out
against the tyranny of the bishops, whose offices he wanted abolished,
and the elaborateness of church services.
To avoid persecution, many Puritans emigrated to Virginia and New
England. They were led by magistrates, country gentlemen, prominent
businessmen, attorneys, and other professionals. In 1629, the
Massachusetts Bay Colony was chartered at the instigation of John
Winthrop as a Puritan refuge. Its leaders led a migration of Puritans
organized to include five each of armorers, bakers, blacksmiths,
carpenters, shoemakers, merchants; three each of clothiers, chandlers,
coopers, military officers, physicians, and tailors; two each of
fishermen, herdsmen, and masons; on tanner, and one weaver. The fare was
five pounds and an applicant was interviewed to make sure he was a
Puritan. He got 50 acres, or more for a larger family. But if he paid 50
pounds into the common stock he received 200 acres of land, plus 50 more
for each dependent. Maryland was founded in 1632 as a haven for
Catholics, but its charter precluded a government-established religion.
It was granted to Lord Baltimore to hold in free socage and was named
after Charles' wife, who was Catholic. Catholics in England could
practice their religion only in their homes and could not carry arms.
As hostility grew, censorship of books and plays accelerated and the
number of authorized printers was reduced in 1637 by decree of the Star
Chamber. In 1640s effective government control of the press collapsed.
Then there were many pamphlets and newspapers with all variety of
interpretation of the Bible and all sorts of political opinion, such as
on taxation; law and the liberties of the subject; religion; land and
trade; and authority and property. Twenty-two pamphlets were published
in 1640 and 1,996 in 1642.
In 1640 the canons of the church included a requirement for parsons to
exclaim divine right of kings every year. The Commons soon resolved that
this was contrary to the fundamental laws and liberties of the realm.
The Short Parliament of 1640 was dissolved soon because the Commons
demanded redress of its grievances. The Long Parliament of 1640-1653
requested by the House of Lords was agreed to by Charles because he
still wanted money. In election of members to the Long Parliament,
voters wanted to know where contenders stood on certain political
issues. In this Parliament, the Commons ceased to agree on all issues
and started to rely on majority rule.
The House of Commons was led by John Pym, a middle class landholder
with extensive commercial interests. The Commons treated the King's
refusal to act with them as a relinquishment of his power to Parliament.
When it met at the Long Parliament, Pym expressed the grievances of the
King's actions against the privileges of Parliament, against religion,
and against the liberties of the subjects. Specifically, he decried the
disregard of free speech and of freedom from prosecution afterward, and
the arbitrary dissolution of Parliament. Secondly, he alleged popery had
been encouraged and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction enlarged. Thirdly,
he protested the patent monopolies given to favorites to the detriment
of the buying public, the imposition of ship money levies beyond the
need of national defense and without the consent of Parliament, the
revival of the feudal practice of imposing a fine for refusal to accept
a knighthood with its attendant obligations, the enlargement of the
King's forests and driving out from hence tenants with lucrative
holdings, extra judicial declarations of justices without hearing of
counsel or argument in many criminal matters, and the abuses of the
prerogative courts in defending monopolies. Parliament's assertion into
religious matters and foreign affairs was unprecedented, those areas
having been exclusively in the power of the King.
The Long Parliament begun in 1640 removed many of the King's ministers
and forbade clergy from sitting in Parliament or exercising any temporal
authority. It passed measures which were not agreed to by the King. It
undid the lawless acts of the King and the court decision in the case of
King v. Hampden. Ship money was declared illegal. The new concept that
the present Parliament should not be dissolved but by its own consent
was adopted. The Star Chamber and Court of High Commission were
abolished. The oath ex officio, an oath to answer all questions, was
originally meant for facts at issue, but had been extended by these
courts to opinions, beliefs, and religion and had led to abuses. The
Star Chamber had been the only court which punished infractions of the
Kings' edicts, so now his proclamations were unenforceable. Protection
against self-incrimination was given by the provision that no person be
forced "to confess or accuse him or herself of crime, offense,
delinquency, or misdemeanor, or any neglect... or thing whereby, or by
reason whereof, he or she shall or may be liable or exposed to any
censure, pain, penalty, or punishment whatsoever, as had been the
practice in the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission.
These measures were also adopted: No one may be compelled to take
knighthood nor undergo any fine for not so doing. The forest boundaries
are returned to their former place. All subjects may now import
gunpowder; they may also make and sell gunpowder and import saltpeter.
The Root and Branch Petition of 1640 to abolish episcopacy roots and
branches complained about pressure on ministers by bishops on threat of
dismissal not to preach about predestination, free grace, perseverance,
original sin remaining after baptism, the Sabbath, doctrine against
universal grace, election for faith foreseen, free-will against
anti-Christ, non- residents, nor human inventions in God's worship. It
also complained about the great increase of idle, lewd, and dissolute,
ignorant and erroneous men in the ministry who wanted only to wear a
canonical coat, a surplice, and a hood, bow at the name of Jesus, and be
zealous of superstitious ceremonies. It also complained about the
swarming of lascivious, idle, and unprofitable books, pamphlets,
play-books, and ballads, such as Ovid's "Fits of Love", "The Parliament
of Women", Barn's "Poems", and Parker's "Ballads". Further it opposed
the restraint of reprinting books formerly licensed without relicensing.
It protested the growth of popery and increase of priests and Jesuits,
the strict observance of saints' days whereby large fines were imposed
on people working on them, the increase of whoredoms and adulteries
because of the bishops' corrupt administration of justice and taking of
bribes, and the practice of excommunicating for trivial matters such as
working on a holy day or not paying a fee. It further protested the
fining and imprisoning of many people; breaking up men's houses and
studies; taking away men's books, letters, and writings; seizing upon
their estates; removing them from their callings; and separating them
from their wives, to the utter infringement of the laws and of people's
liberties. It complained that these practices caused many clothiers,
merchants, and others to flee to Holland, thus undermining the wool
industry. It finally complained of the multitude of monopolies and
patents, large increase of customs, and ship-money. Many Londoners
signed this petition.
The House of Commons decided to forbid bowing at the name of Jesus.
When the House of Lords disagreed with this, the House of Commons
claimed that it represented all the people and didn't need the
concurrence of the House of Lords. The House of Commons ordered that all
communion tables be removed from the east end of churches, that the
railings be taken away, and all candles and basins be removed from it.
Further, all crucifixes, images of the Virgin Mary, and pictures of any
of the Trinity were to be demolished, including those in markets and
streets. Further, all bowing at the name of Jesus or toward the east end
of the church or toward the communion table was forbidden. All dancing
or other sports on Sunday was forbidden. Enforcement was to be done by
Justices of the Peace and Mayors. But these orders never became
statutes.