As in the histories of the English nation, so in histories of the
English Church, the individual, domestic, and social condition of the
people has been too much overlooked; public ecclesiastical affairs
have been allowed almost completely to overshadow private religious
customs and habits. Yet if we would fully understand what our ancestors
were, and truly estimate their character under its moral aspect, and
in its spiritual relations, we must enter as far as we can within
the circle of their inner Church life and their home retirements.
Happily, materials exist for the illustration of this important part
of the ecclesiastical history of England during the Civil Wars and the
Commonwealth.
[Sidenote: _Baptism._]
I. Episcopalians were deprived of the privilege of baptism according
to their own cherished formularies. Had the law only prohibited the
open celebration of that service, the hardship would have been less
than it was; inasmuch as christenings in the house had become common
in the Stuart period, and the display made on such occasions had been
often made the subject of complaint and rebuke. The ordinance of 1645
prohibited the use of Episcopal Church services in private as well as
in public. But notwithstanding this circumstance, many a clergyman ran
the risk of still wearing a surplice, of still making the sign of the
cross, and of still repeating those words which had become dearer to
him than ever, from the very fact of the peril which was now connected
with their employment.
The Directory described the legalized mode of celebrating the
initiatory rite of the Gospel. Private members of the Church were
by that authority forbidden to perform it; its administration being
lodged, it was said, in "the hands of the Stewards of the mysteries of
God." Great importance was attached to the publicity of the ceremony;
the law requiring it to be conducted in a place where the whole act
of worship could be seen and heard, and not in a dark corner of the
church, where--to use the words of the Directory--"fonts in the time
of Popery were unfitly and superstitiously placed." The Presbyterians
explained baptism as the seal of ingrafting into Christ--the right
to which formed the inheritance of the seed of believers, who were
pronounced to be "holy before baptism, and therefore are they to be
baptized." The inward virtue was not tied in its communication to the
time of administering the ordinance. Its fruit and power, it was said,
"reacheth to the whole course of our life; and that outward baptism
is not so necessary, that through the want thereof the infant is in
danger of damnation, or the parents guilty, if they do not contemn
or neglect the ordinance of Christ, when and where it may be had."
Instruction to that effect was to be given when the service took
place; then prayer was to be offered for "sanctifying the water to
this spiritual use"--the element being applied by means of pouring
or sprinkling.[397] The service was concluded with thanksgiving
and supplication, for which suitable topics were suggested by the
Directory. The staid Puritan matron, in raiment simple as it was pure,
came to church accompanied by her husband--also dressed in Puritan
garb--who presented the child to the minister and announced its name.
Names savouring of Paganism and Popery were decidedly forbidden, and
sometimes, no doubt, peculiar ones taken from Scripture were chosen;
yet, in this respect, the Puritans of the Commonwealth only followed
a custom which had been common in the reigns of James I. and Charles
I. Any strange Christian names which might be borne by men and women
under the Protectorate must have been given by a parent at that
earlier period, and can therefore be no just reason for ridiculing the
persons to whom they belonged. Care was taken in the ordinance which
established the Directory to require that there should be a book of
vellum provided for the registration of baptisms; but the unsettled
condition of the times in some cases rendered the provision nugatory.
For example, the Vicar of Lowestoft states that, in 1645, he and many
others were taken prisoners by Colonel Cromwell, so that, for some
time, there existed neither minister nor clerk in the town, and "the
inhabitants were obliged to procure one another to baptize their
children"--consequently baptisms could not be properly registered.[398]
That baptisms should be in public was required by the Independents
no less than by the Presbyterians; nor would the former, in general,
object to what the Directory prescribed, except that they disliked set
forms, and preferred "the administration of the seals," as they termed
them, by the minister in his own way, "according to the occasion."
It is mentioned as a practice amongst the Independents, that one
minister preached and another performed the rite of baptism after the
sermon.[399]
[Sidenote: _Education._]
II. The education of the young received much attention in Puritan
times. Devout parents were anxious that their children should be
well instructed in the truths of Christianity, and for this purpose
they used certain approved catechisms. That which was prepared by
the Assembly of Divines soon superseded all others. Schools, whether
conducted by an Anglican priest or by a Puritan presbyter, were
remarkable both for the thorough drilling which the younger pupils
received in the rudiments of the dead languages, and for the use of
the higher classics by elder boys in the upper forms. Such boys were
required to talk during school hours in Latin, "under a penalty if they
either spoke English or broke Priscian's head;" but if their Latinity
was barbarous and not ungrammatical, they were subject simply to the
derision of their juvenile critics. The study of Greek authors was
also cultivated, and school exercises in that department took a shape
bearing upon the illustration of Scripture, and sometimes presented
very amusing examples. A "great anti-Puritan" schoolmaster is mentioned
as being particularly careful to observe in profane authors all
allusions to the contents of the Bible; and so quick were his eyes in
detecting these that he would gravely tell his boys that the words,
"_ubi nuper arârat_," in Ovid's story of Deucalion's flood, had in them
a strange allusion, (he would not say whether intended or accidental,)
to the Mountain of Ararat on which rested Noah's ark.[400] The tutors
of the upper classes were ambitious of improving upon earlier methods,
avoiding "the miseducation of the gentry," over which Bishop Hall, in
one of his letters, pours out very characteristic lamentations.[401]
William Greenhill--the Independent minister of Stepney--in the
Dedication prefixed to one of his works, compliments the Princess
Elizabeth upon her resolution to write out with her own princely hand
the Holy Oracles in the original, thus breeding hopes that she would
excel her sex throughout Europe, as Drusius said of his son, who,
when five years old, learned Hebrew, and at twelve could write it
_extempore_, both in prose and verse.[402] Discipline seems to have
been equally strict at home and at school; and the young Puritan was
taught in his earliest days to regard life as a very grave and serious
business. He had to pass through long seasons of fasting and prayer,
and to listen to sermons of three hours' duration, from which he was
required to carry home "the minister's method," duly drawn out in heads
and particulars.[403]
[Sidenote: _Marriage._]
III. When Puritan young ladies and gentlemen had reached a fitting
age, and began to think of a union for life--after courtship had been
commenced in earnest, and the lovers' knot had been tied--there came
what was called the _handfasting_, which was a sort of solemn espousal,
and upon this event a day was spent in praying and hearing a sermon,
and in forming a contract, which bound the parties to wed each other.
When the Presbyterian minister had received a certificate of the banns
having been published, he might solemnize the marriage on any day
excepting one of public humiliation; although the Directory advised
that it should not be on a Lord's Day.[404] After an address had been
delivered, and the usual charge had been given, as to whether the
parties were aware of any impediment to their union, the man and woman,
taking each other by the hand, promised to be loving and faithful to
each other until God should separate them by death. Then, without any
further ceremony, the minister pronounced them to be husband and wife,
and "concluded the action with prayer." When several persons were
present, it was not an uncommon thing for a sermon to be preached.[405]
Old English wedding customs had been rather wild and rude. Amidst
plenty of music and dancing, with perhaps a masque and other sports,
the bride had appeared adorned with garlands, when her head was touched
with the sole of a shoe, in token of subjection to her future lord.
Stockings were flung at the fair one; and on the sideboard, in addition
to the bride-cake, bays and rosemary (the latter dipped in scented
water) played an important part in the marriage feast. Sheffield
knives were presented, to be worn, one each in the girdle of bride and
bridegroom; gloves, scarfs, points, and laces, were also fashionable
offerings on the happy occasion. But Puritans, shocked at the
superstition which animated some ancient usages, and at the indelicacy
and grossness of others, became sparing in the use of symbols, and
contracted the entertainments of the most joyous day of human life so
as to bring them within very narrow dimensions. It might indeed be
said, in the words of an old play, "We see no ensigns of a wedding
here--no character of a bridal; where be our scarfs and gloves?"[406]
John Howe speaks of "Emanuel, God with us," as the motto of a married
pair, and as "the posy on their wedding ring;" but with some persons,
even the use of that simple and beautiful sign now stood in jeopardy,
from the supposed paganism of its remote origin. Whatever might be the
speeches made at wedding feasts, no healths would be drunk, for such
a practice was distinctly forbidden. Yet innocent mirth, according to
the taste of the persons assembled, would not be wanting; nor did they
need any commiseration for the absence of what they did not relish, and
what it would have been really a sacrifice for them to adopt. Presents
of substantial worth sometimes graced these festivals; and a silver
bowl, given at Oliver Heywood's nuptials, continued for many years an
heirloom in the family.
[Sidenote: _Puritan Women._]
IV. The ideal of the Puritan woman is one of the fairest types of
womanhood--face full of the beautifulness of modesty; eyes lustrous
with the calm light of devotion; countenance expressive of firmness
and gentleness, meekness and love; dress of subdued colour--of silk,
or stuff, according to the wearer's rank; kerchief white as snow; no
"plaiting of hair," but locks tucked back, smooth and glossy as a
raven's wing. The bashful maiden sat in her garden bower, with lute
and psalm-book; the matron, with her waiting women, in the fair oak
parlour after morning prayer, her character formed on King Lemuel's
model, "seeking wool and flax, and working willingly with her hands;"
laying her hands to the spindle, and her hands holding the distaff;
stretching forth her hand to the poor, reaching forth her hands to the
needy; opening her mouth with wisdom, while on her tongue is the law
of kindness; looking well to the ways of her household, and not eating
the bread of idleness. This is a lovelier type of female humanity than
can be found in any of Lily's pictures of Charles II.'s beauties, with
luscious lips and dainty lovelocks--with their outward adorning, and
wearing of gold, and putting on of apparel. Modern painters, with the
instinctive insight of genius, see and appreciate the fact, and hence
depict, not the Puritan in love with the Cavalier's daughter, but the
Cavalier in love with the Puritan girl.
Puritan houses exhibited Scripture texts upon the doors and over the
fire-places; also upon the baby's cot, and even upon a wooden skillet
or a copper kettle. Godly verses hung on the walls, forming decorations
destitute of all beauty, save such as might exist in the meaning of
the words printed in rude type and upon coarse paper. The ladies, in
fair white stomachers and silken skirts, plied their needles or read
their books. A few conned the Greek Testament or spelt out the Hebrew
Bible. Lips and the lute yielded fair music; but in some cases a
large induction from the study of natural history seems to have been
considered necessary to vindicate the recreation, for it was sagely
observed: "Of all beasts, saith Ælian, there is not that delighteth not
in harmony only the ass; strange would it be for man to love it not."
It ought in this connection, however, to be remembered that the songs
of the seventeenth century were not generally of a kind to commend
themselves to minds distinguished by purity; and therefore, amongst
religious and virtuous persons, a prejudice extensively obtained
against all music except such as was sacred.
[Sidenote: _Domestic Religion._]
V. Family worship was maintained with conscientious regularity, but
was sometimes carried to a most wearisome length. In earlier days,
Presbyterians had been cautious in their prolonged devotions, lest they
should be interrupted by their neighbours, and had even adopted the
very strange expedient of posting a boy by the gate, to sing and shout,
for the purpose of deadening the voice of the individual who might
be engaged in domestic supplication. When alarming events occurred,
persons of this description would spend whole nights in the exercises
of devotion; and Oliver Heywood, referring to one of these seasons,
remarks: "Such a night of prayers, tears, and groans, I was never
present at in all my life."[407] Whilst in the days of the Civil Wars
and the Protectorate the Puritans had full liberty of worship, their
Episcopalian neighbours were obliged to take the place of those whom
they had previously persecuted; and the reader of "Woodstock" will,
perhaps, call to mind Sir Henry Lee, in his wicker chair, listening
to an old man, in a dilapidated clerical habit, reading prayers, as
Alice knelt at her father's feet, uttering "responses with a voice
that might have suited a choir of angels." The picture is no doubt
over-coloured, and may express a deceptive kind of sentimentalism; yet
the circumstances of domestic worship in the dwelling of a High Church
family would not be unlike the graphic sketch supplied by the great
novelist.
Puritanical servants were ill at ease in houses where young gentlewomen
learned to play, and dance, and sing; but they breathed a congenial
atmosphere in places where the means of grace were amply enjoyed, and
a rigid discipline was firmly maintained. An individual of this class
has minutely detailed his own history; and in it he describes himself
as receiving hat-bands, doublet, coat, breeches, stockings, shoes, a
cloak, and half-a-dozen pairs of cuffs, from his mistress, in the shape
of a gratuity, besides some £5 a year wages. He waited--he says--upon
her at table, brought the table-cloth and spread it out, laid upon
the trenchers salt and bread, set her a chair, brought her the first
dish, begged her to sit down, and supplied whatever she asked for. This
footman used to write down the sermons which he heard, and repeated
them noon and night on Sabbath and other "special days," thanking God,
who provided him with "rich and fat ordinances" in the ministry of the
Word.[408]
Where some members of a family remained faithful to the Episcopal
Church--loving her liturgy, and frequenting the private meetings of her
clergy--divisions might naturally be expected to arise; but sometimes
also, even where all were under the power of a Puritan spirit,
religious discord, contrary to all expectation, might be introduced.
For instance, we are informed by Lucy Hutchinson that the home of Sir
Thomas Fairfax suffered much disquiet from collisions of sentiment
between his lady, a staunch Covenanter and Royalist, and certain
Independent ministers holding republican views, who attended upon the
General in the capacity of his chaplains.
VI. Scarcely anything more obviously marked out the Puritans as objects
for the notice of the world than the manner in which they regarded
the Lord's Day. They could not agree with Anglicans even as to its
appellation; the word _Sabbath_, commonly used by the former class,
being much disliked by the latter. The Puritans claimed sanctity for
all the hours of the day from morning until night; their neighbours
accounted the hours spent in Divine service alone as holy.[409] The one
party founded the whole observance entirely upon words of Scripture,
the other mainly upon ecclesiastical tradition. The difference as
to the mode of keeping the first day of the week was still more
striking. High Churchmen approved of rural amusements after the
celebration of public worship, and vindicated the "Book of Sports"
as a wise regulation; an extravagance of opinion which drove their
fellow-countrymen to an opposite extreme. Whether it were right even
to take a walk on the Sunday became with them a serious question; and
Baxter, whose health required that he should do so, remarks that he did
it privately, lest he should lead other people into sin.[410] The lower
orders would sometimes burst through the trammels of law, and would
riotously attempt the revival of ancient sports; and it happened once,
that upon Easter Sunday, a number of noisy apprentices met in Finsbury
Fields to play at their favourite games, and, when the train bands had
been sent to disperse them, the young men said that, since all other
holydays had been abolished by law, no time of recreation remained but
the Sabbath.
[Sidenote: _Belief in Witchcraft._]
VII. Superstitious beliefs deeply tinged the religious and social life
of the seventeenth century. There is in human nature an ineradicable
conviction of the presence throughout the universe of invisible
and mysterious influences; and this conviction, in certain wild
imaginary forms, is found in a number of instances to be a pitiable
substitute for religion, and, in a still greater number, to be its
unworthy companion, and the corrupter of its purity. One of the worst
superstitions of this kind is that belief in witchcraft which, after
being widely and fondly cherished in mediæval Christendom, was brought
over into Protestant churches at the period of the Reformation.[411]
An Act of Parliament in the reign of Queen Elizabeth--the Book
on Dæmonology by King James--other works on the subject by less
conspicuous authors[412]--articles of visitation issued by
Bishops[413]--and even the writings of Lord Bacon and John Selden, bear
witness to the existence of this delusion on an extensive scale in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Indeed, it hung at that time like
a black cloud over all Europe, terrifying people of all countries, of
all ranks, of all degrees of culture, and of all varieties of religious
opinion.
[Sidenote: _Belief in Witchcraft._]
The most terrible form of this superstition within the shores of Great
Britain was to be found in Scotland. The enormous number of witches
executed there proves the intense and general persuasion as to the
reality of witchcraft which must at the time have existed in that
country; and the vigorous and active faith in such diabolical agency
manifested by the northern inhabitants of our island could not fail
to influence their southern brethren, with whom they were connected
by so many bonds of religious association.[414] The common idea was,
that witches possessed all sorts of mischievous power. Diseases,
especially such as lay beyond the reach of medical art, mysterious
pains and convulsions, even accidents and injuries from lightning, and
also murrain amongst cattle, were by all classes of people laid at the
doors of unfortunate old women who had wrinkled faces, or furrowed
brows, or hairy lips, or a squinting eye, or a squeaking voice, or a
hump back. It was, moreover, said, that the bewitched fell into fits
when they tried to pronounce the name of "Lord," or Jesus, or Christ;
but that they could glibly utter the words "Satan," or "Devil."[415]
To check the demoniacal craft, witchfinders were employed, who drove a
thriving trade at the expense of an inconceivable amount of suffering.
Detectives of this order were busy in England, imported from beyond
the Tweed,[416] and there were others of southern origin, possessing
a wonderful skill for witch-catching altogether of indigenous growth.
A genius of this description, the notorious Hopkins,[417] boasted of
having hanged no less than sixty of the infernal sisterhood in the
county of Essex alone; and trials for these mysterious offences excited
a curiosity, possessed a fascination, and inspired a terror such as, in
our time, it is extremely difficult to imagine. The effect of all this
upon private life amongst religious people, who had a strong faith in
the spiritual world and in the agency of Satan, would be exceedingly
great; and mainly for the illustration of this point our cursory notice
of the subject has been introduced. Stories of dealers in the black
art, and of the spells with which they bound men, women, and children,
and how pins were extracted from those suffering under enchantment,
would be related by the firesides of religious families throughout
England during the Commonwealth; these miserable hallucinations making
people tremble who were far too brave to shrink with fear from some
other things which were really terrific. Tales of apparitions, dreams,
and other mysterious occurrences, were not only mingled largely in the
staple of such conversations, but they also formed topics of discussion
in the correspondence of Divines.[418]
The belief in witchcraft, although so common in Puritan times, and
even culminating in England under the Commonwealth,[419] was not, as
already indicated, of Puritan origin; nor was it confined to Puritan
religionists. Richard Baxter, indeed, dwelt much upon the subject, and
derived from it arguments against the doctrines of materialism and
the denial of revelation; but men of another theological school,
such as More and Cudworth, were equally believers in this form of
the marvellous; and the same faith was held by the scientific Robert
Boyle, and by Sir Thomas Brown, notwithstanding his exposure of "Vulgar
Errors." Nor did this credulity, after all, produce in England an
amount of mischief and suffering, great as it was, to be compared with
what it did on the Continent before the Reformation, when as many as
500 people are said to have been executed at Geneva in one year, and
the Inquisitor Remigius boasted that he had put 900 to death in the
province of Lorraine.[420] Neither were there wanting in this country
some who, when the rage for witch-burning was most rampant, protested
against the whole system as an impious absurdity. In a curious tract,
written by Thomas Adey, in the year 1656, entitled, "A Candle in the
Dark; or, a Treatise concerning the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft,"
we meet with the following passage:--"It is reported by travellers
that some people in America do worship for a day the first living
creature they see in the morning, be it but a bird or a worm. This
idolatry is like the idolatry of this part of the world, who, when
they are afflicted in body or goods by God's hand, they have an eye
to some mouse, or bug, or frog, or other living creature, saying it
is some witch's imp that is sent to afflict them; ascribing the work
of God to a witch, or any mean creature, rather than God." The writer
also alludes to Reginald Scott, who had published a book, called "The
Discovery of Witchcraft," in the beginning of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, and describes it as composed for the instruction of all
Judges and Justices of that day; which book, he observes, did for a
while make great impression on the magistracy, and also on the clergy,
"but, since that time, England has shamefully fallen from the truth
which they began to receive."
[Sidenote: _Clerical Costume._]
VIII. Clerical costume is worth at least one word. The Seventy-fourth
Canon of the Church of England--and this Canon has never been
repealed--prescribes very minutely that persons in holy orders shall,
in ordinary, wear gowns with standing collars and hoods; and shall,
when they are on a journey, be dressed in cloaks with sleeves, without
welts, but with long buttons; and shall, when they are taking a
walk, appear in doublet and hose, with coat or cassock, but not in
light-coloured stockings. This law affords some idea of the garb of
ministers in the days of Queen Elizabeth; and, with some little change,
their garments would be similar in the days of the Stuarts. Ejected
Episcopalians, in places where prejudice against them did not exist,
would dress in this fashion. Some teachers belonging to the sects
would clothe themselves just like other people; and leathern doublets,
nay, even uniforms of buff or scarlet, might be seen in pulpits. But
such Puritan instructors of the people as had received a University
education retained their academic costume for general use; and, of
course eschewing in acts of worship the surplice prescribed in the
Fifty-eighth Canon, wore gowns of Genevan form, with bands; which
latter appendages--judging from old portraits--varied in dimensions
from their present cut to such ample breadths as to fall like a collar
across the shoulders. Square caps were signs of Anglicanism; and the
advocates of the opposite system rigidly refused to wear any which
were not round. The wigs so conspicuous in the portraits of early
Nonconformists were the luxurious innovations of the period after the
Restoration.[421]
[Sidenote: _Public Worship._]
IX. Churches were divested of Catholic adornments, except in the case
of certain large and elegant edifices, which, as already remarked, shew
in their present state how little injury was done to their sculpture,
their carvings, or even their painted windows. Commonly, however,
images were torn from their niches, screens were taken down in the
Chancel, and plain glass substituted in windows for coloured panes.
Walls became whitewashed, and exhibited a framed copy of the Covenant
hung up in some conspicuous position. No rails enclosed the uncovered
table of plain wood standing in the chancel, then altarless. No organ
helped the service of song. Pews in continually-increasing number[422]
covered the floor of the nave; galleries in the side aisles also
afforded accommodation for the multitudes who, in greater crowds than
ever, flocked to hear the sermons of popular Divines. Reading-desks
went out of fashion; and a precentor, instead of a clerk, occupied a
seat under the pulpit--a heavy sounding-board aiding the preacher's
voice, and the sands of the hour-glass measuring out the length of
his discourses.[423] The general appearance of Gothic fabrics under
Presbyterian rule resembled that of ancient parish churches and
cathedrals in Holland, Switzerland, and Scotland. Indeed, St. Lawrence
at Rotterdam, the Gross Minster of Zurich, and the Grey Friars in
Edinburgh, may be regarded as specimens of the appearance which some of
our large religious edifices wore before the Restoration.
X. Presbyterians conducted worship according to the terms of the
Directory. The service commenced with prayer; then followed the
reading of the Holy Scriptures, with more or less of exposition.
The congregation afterwards sung a psalm; subsequently to which the
minister offered a long prayer, which embraced a number of prescribed
topics. The sermons introduced by these devotional exercises
were--according to the admirable advice given in the Directory--to be
prepared and delivered _painfully_, _plainly_, _faithfully_, _wisely_,
_gravely_, _lovingly_, and _as taught of God_. Some preachers, it would
appear, read their discourses; but it was by far the most general
practice amongst Puritan Divines to deliver them without the aid
of notes.[424] In the Westminster Assembly there had been a debate
respecting a curious practice adopted by the Scotch clergy, of bowing
in the pulpit to certain distinguished persons in the audience. Baillie
attempted to introduce the custom into England, but the Independents
opposed it; and the Presbyterians on this side the Tweed never imitated
this peculiar usage of their brethren on the other. Devout behaviour
at worship was carefully enjoined in the Directory, which, very
properly, interdicted all whispering, sleeping, and looking about.
Yet the taking of notes--as observed already in the case of persons
in Calamy's congregation--seems to have continued as a common habit.
"Almost all people," Baillie remarks, "men, women, and children, write
at preaching."
Wearing hats during Divine service had been usual in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. At the funeral of Bishop Cox, in Ely Cathedral, the
congregation sat in the choir to hear the sermon, "all covered, and
having their bonnets on." Archbishop Laud noticed that it was a new
thing, and he approved of it, for the Oxford Masters to sit at St.
Mary's Church bareheaded. To do so became a sign of Cavaliership;
and a Royalist colonel, hanged for burglary, told the crowd what a
consolation it was to him to remember "that he had always taken his
hat off when he went to church." The Puritans continued the older
practice, and a forest of steeple-crowned hats covered the pews as long
as the sermon lasted; but they were all doffed again as soon as they
began to pray.[425]
During the Civil Wars, very unseemly conduct was witnessed occasionally
in places of worship. The inhabitants of a parish in the Isle of Wight
being divided into two parties as to the great religious questions of
the day, the Puritans went one Sunday to church to hear a minister
sent down by Parliament. But the previous Anglican incumbent stood
upon his rights, and would not allow the new comer to enter within the
sacred edifice. Sending for his surplice, he preached in the porch,
whereupon the other party adjourned to the school-room, leaving him
where he was, surrounded by a small auditory. The correspondent who
communicated to the newspaper this piece of intelligence added to it
this congratulatory remark: that the discomfiture of the parson was
the more remarkable, because in that rude place, the godly folks had
before been scorned and derided--as was the case when a certain Lady
Norton, living in that neighbourhood, "had repetitions of sermons in
her house."[426]
There was little or no difference between the Presbyterian and
Independent methods of worship, except that the latter would not
employ any prescribed method of service; insisting very much upon the
advantages of free prayer, and upon the doctrine that in such kind of
prayer "the Spirit helpeth our infirmities."
[Sidenote: _The Lord's Supper._]
XI. Anglicans still knelt in secret, and received the consecrated
bread and cup from the hands of one of their own priests; but the
Presbyterian incumbent administered the Lord's Supper in the parish
church to all parishioners, excepting the ignorant and scandalous.
The table, decently covered, was conveniently placed so that the
communicants might sit around it. After a short warning against
improper communion--called in Scotland _fencing the tables_--the
minister began "the action" by sanctifying the elements; then he read
the words of institution, and proceeded to pray; after which the bread
and wine were distributed, with solemn words, including those used by
our blessed Saviour when He instituted the holy feast. Thanksgiving,
with a collection, closed the celebration of the Eucharist.
The Independents sat in their pews during the commemoration, instead of
sitting close around the tables, as the Presbyterians did; also, they
disapproved of the unfrequency of the service amongst their brethren,
and were themselves wont to celebrate it week by week. Generally, they
partook of the sacred emblems in silence. Philip Nye, according to the
report of Robert Baillie, thought that the minister, in preaching,
should "be covered, and the people discovered;" but that, "in the
sacrament, the minister should be discovered, as a servant, and the
guests all covered."[427] How far this strange practice prevailed we
cannot say; but the wearing of hats at the Lord's table was a reproach
which we find cast upon the Independents by Edwards, the Presbyterian;
and that he did not bring the charge without good reason appears from
the reply which was made to him by one Catherine Chidley, who thus
attempts to vindicate the practice: "It may be as lawful for one man to
sit covered, and another uncovered, as it may be lawful for one man to
receive it sitting, and another lying in bed."[428]
[Sidenote: _Psalmody._]
XII. A prejudice existed amongst some of the earlier Baptists against
the use of psalmody in the worship of the Almighty, but the practice
met with decided approval from Ainsworth and Robinson, who were
patriarchs of Congregationalism.[429] Also, in "The Apologetical
Narration of the Five Brethren," the singing of psalms is mentioned as
a part of their worship, from which it follows that any objection to it
amongst the Congregationalists must have been quite exceptional. The
many versions of the Psalms (forty-three at least) at the commencement
of the Civil Wars, bear witness to the extensive delight felt at that
time in the exercise of praise. Of the primitive Protestant version
of Sternhold and Hopkins, there were then several Genevan editions;
and certain other versions--altogether distinct from it--present clear
indications of a Puritan, and even of a Nonconformist origin.[430]
Rivalry between the two Presbyterian hymnologists, Rouse and Barton,
as to the use of their new books, published respectively in 1641 and
1644, has been already noticed. The metrical psalms of King Edward
the Sixth's time--which had been enjoined under Queen Elizabeth, and in
the reigns of the early Stuarts had been liked by the Puritans--were
pronounced by some, after the commencement of the Civil Wars, as
"uncouth, and unsuited to the times." But the venerable psalter of the
Reformers still, to some extent, held its ground; and Baxter complains
that those who laid it by used, "some one, and some another" of the
existing versions, so that there could be no uniformity at that time in
"the service of song."[431]
XIII. Lenten and other Church fasts savoured of superstition in the
esteem of the Puritans; but, by the latter, seasons of national
humiliation were as solemnly observed as they were frequently enjoined.
The Directory defined a fast as requiring total abstinence, not only
from food, but also from worldly labour, discourses, and thoughts,
and from all bodily delights and rich apparel; still much more from
what is scandalous and offensive, such as "gaudish attire, lascivious
habits and gestures, and other vanities of either sex;" but abstinence
in the last particulars certainly was not meant to be represented as
peculiar to days of public repentance. Much time on these occasions
was ordered to be spent in reading, hearing, and singing in such
manner so "as to quicken suitable affections, especially in prayer;"
for which latter exercise the Assembly of Divines had been careful--as
in reference to all other kinds of worship--to provide appropriate
subjects. Nor were themes proper for the pulpit at such seasons, left
unmentioned by those spiritual counsellors. Similar directions, the
difference of the object being taken into account, were also given for
public thanksgivings. And, not only when governments ordered fasts for
the sins of the people, or festivals for victories and deliverances,
but at other times, on account both of private sorrows and private
joys, did Puritan households devote whole days to the worship of God.
Scattered up and down the quaint biographies of that era are instances
of hours spent in solitary devotion; of lengthened preparations for
the sacrament; of family groups gathered upon their knees, bewailing
lukewarmness, declension and backsliding; of services at home akin to
those at church, bewailing the low estate of Christendom; of sorrowful
commemorations of public and domestic calamities, and of intense
spiritual enjoyments experienced alone in the closet, or shared by all
the inmates of a dwelling; whilst texts and psalms, religious anecdotes
and pious meditations, set their mark on the anniversaries of births,
marriages, and special interventions of providence.
[Sidenote: _Recreations._]
XIV. Certain recreations were rigorously forbidden. No wonder the
theatre incurred denunciation, after the character given of it by Ben
Jonson. Parliament prohibited stage exhibitions; but, in despite of the
law, they were covertly continued in certain private mansions, much to
the annoyance of the Puritan class. A company of actors in Golding Lane
were frequently complained of, who, notwithstanding all complaints,
still persevered in their forbidden art; but they were at length seized
in the middle of a performance, when, as it was remarked, comedy was
turned into tragedy. They were put under a strong guard of pikes and
muskets, "plundered of all the richest of their clothes," and left
"nothing but necessaries, now"--adds the newspaper which reports the
occurrence--"to act and to learn a better life."[432]
The festivities of New Year and of Shrovetide, of May and Michaelmas,
also shared in receiving reprehension;[433] the picturesqueness
of ancient customs being overlooked amidst the cruelties and the
immoralities, with which they had become associated. Wakes were
dropped; maypoles were pulled down; cock-fights and bear-baitings
came to an end.[434] No doubt actual wickedness and temptations
to vice thus met with a decided check, and a surface morality for
a while appeared; but certain other prohibitions of a different
nature--for which, however, occasion had been given in part, by the
circumstance of such amusements as we have just mentioned having become
connected with the observance of the seasons prohibited--shocked the
sensibilities of many truly pious people. The Christmas, Easter,
and Whitsuntide festivals, with other holydays, were abolished by
the ordinance of 1647.[435] This touched the conscience of devout
Episcopalians, who loved to commemorate at special seasons the great
events of Christianity, and cut deep into the heart of certain social
enjoyments, which had come to depend very much upon the associations
formed between them and the festivals of the Church. Such unreasonable
interferences produced popular tumults. For example, the Mayor of
Canterbury would have a market held on Christmas day; and people who
at that season desired to attend divine worship in the Cathedral were
roughly handled. The discontent which was thus produced burst out
into open revolt, and the military were called in to put an end to
the uproar,--in consequence of which several people were committed to
prison. Puritans, however, had their periods of rest and amusement.
The Ordinance for abolishing holidays provided that there should be
allotted to scholars, apprentices, and other servants, for recreation,
on every second Tuesday of the month, such time as the masters could
conveniently spare. The determination of its length would be a matter
of difficulty when servant and master were of different minds; to meet
which circumstance, this awkward piece of legislation provided, that
the next Justice of the Peace should "have power to order and reconcile
the same." "_Public_ holidays," therefore, must be considered as having
been entirely suspended during the Commonwealth,--a most injudicious
proceeding, which led to the worst results at the Restoration.
[Sidenote: _Recreations._]
Ladies had their sober and stinted diversions in the parlour and the
garden; and gentlemen had theirs at home and in the field--all measured
out sparingly, and by scripture line and rule. The Word of God, said
the Puritan licensers, permitted shooting, (2 Samuel i. 18), musical
consort, (Nehemiah vii. 67), putting forth riddles, (Judges xiv. 12),
hunting of wild beasts (Canticles ii. 15), searching out, or the
contemplation of the works of God, (I Kings iv. 33). This enumeration
of amusements allowed by Scripture seemed to sanction certain old
English field sports, to concede the pleasures of the chase, and to
permit ladies from the manor-house and the castle to ride out a-hawking
over hill and dale.[436]
XV. It is a mistake to suppose that the Independents of the
Commonwealth were very ascetic. Even the habits of the Presbyterians
in this respect have been considerably exaggerated. They were by no
means so rigid and demure as prejudiced writers are wont to represent.
They did not look so melancholy, nor dress in such ridiculous garbs,
nor act in such absurd ways, as believers in Hudibras imagine. Many
were gentlemen of graceful bearing, polite demeanour, and genial
sympathies. They had amongst them some of the noblest blood of England,
and they included large numbers of genteel descent. Such persons, with
multitudes of yeomen of ruddy countenances, would crack a joke, and
ring an honest laugh, as they walked through trim flower gardens or
rode out to their field sports. But the Independents, perhaps, advanced
still further in conformity to the outward world.[437]
[Sidenote: _Social Life of the Independents._]
Country life in the old mansions and manor houses, with the exception
of certain "superstitions," remained much the same as in the days
before the wars. And city life in the main ran on as it did before the
fall of monarchy; merchants and tradesmen lived as of yore; and mayors
and corporations feasted as they had ever done in guildhalls. Wives
were handed by wealthy husbands, and maidens by ambitious lovers, up
staircases of polished oak, to drawing rooms, profusely carved, and
full of furniture curiously fashioned. The dining-room wore an air of
enticing comfort, and the hearth blazed, as family and friends sat down
to a well-spread table after a long grace. Probably the feast did not
break up until a godly minister had expounded a chapter and offered a
prayer. And if the guests did not quaff as much sack as some of their
royalist friends, and although they did abstain from drinking healths,
they were not more addicted to asceticism than excess; all this it
would be idle to mention, but for the preposterous notions so widely
prevalent, that the Independents and other "sects" of the Commonwealth
were an exceptional order of beings, living somewhere quite beyond the
outskirts of civilized life. If their connexion with Cromwell's Court
somewhat affected the social habits of Independents, and spread amongst
them rather more of indulgence in luxury than might be witnessed
in other Puritan dwellings, it should be stated, that before any
such influence existed, even amidst the early controversies between
Presbyterians and Independents, the latter were charged with worldly
conformity. They were reproached for riding about in coaches and four
on the lord's Day, and so acting the gallant, that they might have
been taken "for roarers and ruffians, rather than saints." They wore
cuffs and silver spurs, and gold upon their clothes. Their houses were
furnished like those of noblemen and peers. More plate was in their
cupboards than in the palaces of grandees. Their fare was delicious,
set out with "such curiosity of cookery," and all sorts of wines and
delicacies.[438] This picture is connected with accusations of unkind
conduct towards those of "the presbyter way," which clearly prove
the animus of the writer, and justify us in toning down considerably
the colours in which he has painted the Independents. But, after due
abatement, enough remains to shew that they were less precise in
their habits, and more conformed to the fashion of the age in dress,
equipage, and entertainments, than some of their Puritan contemporaries.
[Sidenote: _Cromwell's Court._]
XVI. The Independent Protector's Court, whilst eminently virtuous and
religious, exhibited also a degree of magnificence, little inferior
to that of any court in Christendom. Louis the Fourteenth would not
have found in the apartments at Whitehall splendour equal to that
which blazed at Versailles; but the envoy of Sweden, when he visited
England in the summer of 1655, beheld a scene of pomp and magnificence
which filled him with perfect surprise. Soldiers were drawn up at the
entrance; guards in livery lined the stairs; the banqueting house was
hung with arras; and multitudes of ladies waited in the galleries, to
receive the Ambassador and his attendants, consisting of "two hundred
persons, generally proper handsome men, and fair-haired; they were all
in mourning, very genteel." At the upper end of the room stood his
Highness, with a chair of state behind him, and divers of his council
and servants, the master of the ceremonies regulating the interview.
His Highness did not put off his hat till the Swede had put off his,
and whenever the latter named the king his master, or Sweden, or the
Protector, or England, he moved his hat. And, if he used the Divine
name, or spoke of the good of Christendom, he put off his hat very low,
the Protector assuming "like postures of civility."[439]
As an illustration of the social life of Whitehall, an amusing incident
may be related respecting one of the clergy in attendance upon Oliver,
indicative of those flirtations which neither clerical office nor the
strictest forms of religious profession can banish either from royal
courts or from the scenes of humble life. Jeremiah White, of Trinity
College, Cambridge, a handsome young man, noted for "facetiousness,"
and at the time enjoying a court chaplainship, became an admirer of
the lively Lady Frances Cromwell. He was one day found by his Highness
on his knees, kissing the lady's hand. "What is the meaning of that
posture," the grave soldier sternly enquired. "May it please your
Highness," replied the chaplain, "I have a long time courted that
young gentlewoman there, my lady's woman, and cannot prevail. I
was therefore humbly praying her ladyship to intercede for me." The
Protector demanded of the girl what she meant, by refusing the honour
which Mr. White proposed. She, too glad of the opportunity, curtsied
and said, "If the reverend gentleman had any such wish, she could not
refuse." "Sayst thou so, my lass," answered Cromwell, "call Goodwin,
this business shall be done presently before I go out of the room." The
couple were married, and the bride received from the Protector five
hundred pounds dowry.[440]
[Sidenote: _Cromwell's Court._]
Besides Jeremiah White, Cromwell had other chaplains, Hugh Peters,
William Hook, Nicholas Lockier, and Peter Sterry. John Howe, as already
noticed, was also of the number; and in his letters there are found
allusions to the moral and religious character of the Protector's
Court, of so much importance that we cannot pass them over. Howe asked
Baxter, what he conceived a chaplain ought to do in the way of urging
upon the Government a redress of spiritual evils; how far it became him
by public preaching, as well as by private exhortation, to bear witness
against the neglect of such redress--supposing that those persons
who were in power did not conceive that any interference of this
description came within the range of their duty, or excused themselves
because they had to attend to other affairs of still greater moment.
What the writer exactly meant by these expressions is not very clear,
whether by "interference" he intended merely _moral_ interference,
respecting which there ought to have been no hesitation; or beyond
this, some sort of _legislative_ interference, touching which, there
might be doubts in the minds of Cromwell and his State Counsellors. The
following passages had better be given literally:--
"My time will not serve me long; for I think I shall be constrained in
conscience (all things considered) to return, ere long, to my former
station. I left it, I think, upon very fair terms. For, first, when I
settled there, I expressly reserved to myself a liberty of removing,
if the providence of God should invite me to a condition of more
serviceableness anywhere else--which liberty I reckon I could not have
parted with if I would, unless I could have exempted myself from God's
dominion. My call hither was a work I thought very considerable--the
setting-up of the worship and discipline of Christ in this family,
wherein I was to have joined with another, called upon the same
account. I had made, as I supposed, a competent provision for the place
I left. But now at once I see the designed work here hopelessly laid
aside. We affect here to live in so loose a way, that a man cannot fix
upon any certain charge to carry towards them as a minister of Christ
should; so that it were as hopeful a course to preach in a market, or
in any assembly met by chance, as here."
"Here my influence is not like to be much (as it is not to be expected
a raw young man should be much considerable among grandees); my work
little; my success hitherto little; my hopes, considering the temper
of this place, very small; especially coupling it with the temper of
my spirit, which, did you know it, alone would, I think, greatly alter
your judgment of this case. I am naturally bashful, pusillanimous,
easily brow-beaten, solicitous about the fitness or unfitness of speech
or silence in most cases, afraid (especially having to do with those
who are constant in the '_arcana imperii_') of being accounted uncivil,
etc.; and the distemper being natural (most intrinsically) is less
curable. You can easily guess how little considerations are like to do
in such a case. I did not, I confess, know myself so well as, since my
coming up, occasion and reflection have taught me to do. I find now my
hopes of doing good will be among people where I shall not be so liable
to be overawed. I might have known this sooner and have prevented
the trouble I am now in. Though the case of my coming up hither, and
continuance, differ much, so as that I can't condemn the former, yet I
more incline to do that than justify the latter."[441]
The word "_loose_," used by John Howe, must not be strictly
interpreted. If licentiousness had prevailed at Whitehall, he certainly
would have used stronger language, and would not have remained in the
place a single hour after making such a discovery. The reputation
for virtue of Cromwell's family and Court has never been impeached.
Malignant slanders reflecting on their morals, and circulated by
enemies after Cromwell's death, have never received any support
from ascertained facts, or received any credence from unprejudiced
historians; but luxury, extravagance, practical jokes, and escapades
of the kind indicated in the case of Jeremiah White, there undoubtedly
were; and it is to these things, probably, that the strongest
expression in Howe's letter refers; whilst the rest of his complaints
relate to irregularity in worship, and to habits unfriendly to vital
religion. At the same time it must be remembered, that the character of
Baxter's correspondent was one of saintly holiness; and that, beheld
from the level of his eminently spiritual life, many things would
appear deplorable, which common persons are wont to pass by without the
utterance of any, even the slightest, reprehension.
[Sidenote: _The End of Life._]
XVII. Before terminating the review of the private and social life of
the period, as it existed amongst religious people, we must touch upon
those observances of a sacred kind which were connected with the close
of human existence.
One section in the Directory is "Concerning visitation of the sick."
It is observed that times of affliction are special opportunities put
into the minister's hands to communicate a word in season to weary
souls, and topics of spiritual address and advice are largely suggested
for his guidance in conducting conversation in the chamber of disease
and death. The minister is directed to admonish the patient to set
his house in order, to make provision for the payment of his debts,
to render satisfaction for any wrong he has done, to be reconciled to
his enemies, and to forgive all men their trespasses. The minister
also would, in addition to this, according to the instructions given
in the Directory, improve the occasion for the spiritual benefit of
relatives, friends, or servants present; but no mention is made, in
any way, of the administration of the Lord's supper, which, being then
regarded exclusively as a Church ordinance, both by Presbyterians
and Independents, would not be deemed a proper solemnity for a few
persons around a sick bed. But in numerous cases, beyond all doubt,
the sacrament would be administered secretly by Anglican clergymen to
persons of their own communion in the last hours of life.
[Sidenote: _The End of Life._]
The Episcopal burial service could not be used--a hardship which
can be appreciated by those, who, in the present day, occasionally
find enactments and prejudices interfering with their sentiments of
natural piety.[442] The custom of kneeling down by the side of the
corpse was pronounced by the Presbyterians to be superstitious; and all
praying, reading, and singing at funerals was forbidden. The minister
was directed simply to put people in mind of their duty of applying
"themselves to meditation and conferences suitable to the occasion."
Funeral sermons incurred from certain Divines strong objections. The
Puritans, Cartwright and Hildersam, had scrupled to allow them, and
some Reformed Churches abroad had abandoned their use. The Westminster
Assembly debated the question, and Baillie reports, that the difference
upon this point between the Scotch and some of the English brethren
appeared irreconcilable. Funeral sermons, he adds, were an abuse of
preaching, intended to humour the rich for reward, and employed in
order to augment the minister's livelihood; and, on these accounts, he
says, that they could not easily be got rid of. Yet, notwithstanding
this strong feeling against religious ceremonies at funerals, many
public ones are recorded in those times as having been conducted on a
scale of splendour surpassing anything we are familiar with now-a-days.
Pym's was very imposing; but in magnificence it was eclipsed by the
processions and formalities at the interment of the Earl of Essex,
Ireton, Blake, and Oliver Cromwell. Indeed, sometimes there seems
to have been an unusual love of display manifested at the tomb of a
Puritan grandee. In the British Museum is a curious deposition by a
herald, relative to the funeral of John St. John; that functionary
declares it to have been in violation of all heraldic laws, insomuch
that the escutcheons went beyond those pertaining to a duke, and that
he never saw so many pennons, except at the funeral of one of the blood
royal.[443]
Far different, and far more touching, were the obsequies of the Master
of St. Paul's School: as he died a single man, the boys walked before
the corpse with white gloves, verses being hung upon the pall instead
of escutcheons.[444]
[Illustration]