The Times: 1642-1660
For four years, there was civil war between the King, backed
generally by the upper class, the established church, and most of the
gentry, against the Parliamentarians, backed generally by middle class
yeomen, town dwellers, some of the gentry, most of the great
corporations, the City of London, the ports, the seamen, and the Navy.
Oxford University was royalist, and Cambridge University was Puritan in
sympathy. Archery was not used in the war, having become just sport by
1633. Flint-lock pistols, which relied on flint striking steel to
ignite the powder, as well as swords were used by horsemen in the civil
war. Footmen were musketeers using a match lock with a cord boiled in
vinegar as the match, and dressed in leather doublets and an iron-pot
headpiece; or pikemen with long wooden poles with spearheads of iron or
steel and short swords, and dressed in armor. This was the last time
armor was used. The Parliamentarians wore orange scarves to distinguish
themselves from their enemy. Cromwell, who had a natural aptitude for
military matters, selected for his troops, Puritan zealots with a
Puritan code of behavior which included no drinking or swearing. He
selected horsemen based on ability rather than social class. He was
regarded as one of the leaders of the Independents, who wanted total
abolition of the monarchy and of the aristocracy. When made a leader of
the New Model Army, Cromwell dressed all his foot men in red with only
the facings being regimental colors. The New Model Army had been
assembled because there had been disagreement about policy among the
members of Parliament who held commissions. Almost all members gave up
their commissions. For their continued support, many wives and also
prostitutes put on men's clothing and followed the troops. They nursed
the wounded. Those many wives who stayed at home pleaded and answered
in court; petitioned to the House of Commons, e.g. for release of
debtors from prison, high taxes, lack of work, and arbitrary
government; and made other public appearances. Puritan and royalist
newspapers printed the news at least once weekly. Poet John Milton pled
for civil and religious freedom, freedom of social life, and freedom of
the press. He stated: "Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to
argue freely, according to conscience, above all liberties."
The Mayor and citizens of London were given authority in 1642
to fortify all highways leading to the city and levy a tax on
inhabitants for this purpose. When London was deprived of coal during
the war, trees and flowers again flourished there.
Officers and seamen in navy ships were authorized in 1642 to
take one-third of all prize goods captured, the other two-thirds going
to the state.
Parliament approved certain persons to set forth ships at their
own expense to defend the realm in 1643. They were allowed to keep any
ships, goods, ammunition, or moneys they seized.
Saltpeter men were appointed by Parliament in 1643 and later
times to search and dig for saltpeter in pigeon houses, stables, and
outhouses, but not dwelling, shops, or milkhouses. They had to repair
any damage done to the contentment of the owners.
Complaints were made to Parliament that there were scandalous
and ill-affected fomenters of the civil war and disobeyers of the
ordinaries of Parliament and deserters of their ordinary places of
residence. These complaints were made by members of the University of
Cambridge, students, clergy in surrounding counties, and schoolmasters.
So a committee was established in 1643 to investigate and sequester
their lands and goods, excepting one- fifth of the estate for the wife
and children.
When Charles was captured in 1646, the episcopacy of the
bishops was abolished. When Parliament was about to reinstate Charles
as king with weakened powers and establish a Presbyterian state church,
the soldiers, who were religious Independents and who still had not
been fully paid (the infantry pay was 18 weeks in arrears and the
cavalry 43 weeks) despite plans to disband them, spontaneously took the
King by force. They demanded liberty of conscience to practice their
own religion and their pay. Cromwell sided with the army and then
became leader of the House of Commons. Charles dissembled in his
negotiations with the army generals. He felt freed from his promises as
soon as the pressure was removed. The army could not forgive Charles'
duplicity and deceitfulness and insisted upon his death as the only way
to bring peace. Cromwell gave up hope on negotiations with Charles when
he intercepted a letter by Charles to his Queen decreeing the final
doom of the army adherents in favor of the Scottish Presbyterians.
During protracted negotiations over months between the army and
Parliament over a new constitution, a renewed support for the King,
which was inspired by him, necessitated a second civil war to put down
this revolt and subdue its Scot supporters. Eventually the army took
control of Parliament by force, only allowing the few members who
agreed with them on the trial of the King into Parliamentary meetings.
So Charles was tried in 1649, found guilty of "an unlimited and
tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the
rights and liberties of the people ... which by the fundamental
constitutions of this kingdom were reserved on the peoples' behalf in
the right and power of frequent and successive parliaments or national
meetings in council", and maintaining a war against his subjects, which
amounted to treason. To prevent his adherents from trying to reinstate
him, he was condemned to death and beheaded in January 1649.
To pay for the civil war, an assessment tax on the yearly value
of rents, annuities, and offices was often levied. The main burden of
this tax fell on the gentry rather than the merchants and smaller men
of property, as previous taxes had. An excise tax, a tax on
consumption, was begun on ale and beer and then extended to meat, salt,
starch, soap, and paper. It was gradually extended to many goods. The
excise taxes were paid, as was the customs tax, by manufacturers on
goods made in England and by foreign manufacturers on goods at the
ports.
Parishes had to give maintenance to maimed soldiers and
provision for the livelihood to the wives and children of killed
soldiers. Masters of apprentices who became soldiers had to take them
back as apprentices without loss for their absence in defense of the
Commonwealth. Masters who received considerable loss by the absence of
their apprentices received reasonable satisfaction from the public
stock.
From 1640-60, Royalists were purged from Oxford and a group of
Baconians moved into the university behind Parliamentary armies. At the
two universities, books were no longer chained to the bookcases. The
universities were freed from taxation.
After the civil wars, Cromwell led the country. He was a
military, political, and religious leader. He had become a Puritan
zealot after a youth of gambling, drinking, debauchery, and rioting. He
believed that military success was a reflection of divine favor and he
regarded himself as one the few elect preordained for salvation. Those
in power in the new Commonwealth tended to explain their regime in
terms of popular consent, and the takeover from Charles I as due to his
breaking of a contract with the people.
Most people dressed in Puritan fashion. A Puritan's favorite
readings were the Old Testament, Epistles of St. Paul, and writings of
John Calvin.
Wealth and prosperity steadily increased in spite of the civil
wars. During Cromwell's tenure, there was a marked revival of economic
prosperity. By the mid-1600s, landlords had been able to shorten their
leases so that a lease of twenty-one years was the predominant form of
landholding.
Patent protection was given in 1642 for seven years to the
inventors of a device for salvaging ships' goods and cannons from the
seas. With it they could convert to their own use one half of the items
retrieved, the other half going to the Navy and Parliament. Patent
protection was given in 1650 to George Manby on his new invention for
boiling liquors and making salt with less coal and wood and iron, lead,
and copper for fourteen years. Patent protection was given in 1651 for
fourteen years to Jeromy Buck for melting iron, lead, tin, copper,
brass, and other metals with coal without burning charcoal.
The Merchant Adventurers were incorporated again in 1643 to
have a monopoly. It was required to admit into membership for 100
pounds anyone free of London and bred as a merchant, and for 50 pounds
any non-inhabitant of London. The penalty for trading for one who was
not free of the corporation was forfeiture of his goods.
In 1648, the House of Commons abolished the monarchy and in
1649 the House of Lords. Also in 1649 it declared that England "should
thenceforth be governed as a commonwealth and free state by the supreme
authority of this nation, the representatives of the people in
Parliament." It made a new constitution.
John Milton defended the Commonwealth as superior to the
monarchy because it could not deteriorate into tyranny in his books:
"First Defense of the People of England" in 1651, and "Second Defense"
in 1654. He lauded Cromwell as great in war and great in peace, and
exemplifying the principle that "nature appoints that wise men should
govern fools".
Thomas Hobbes, the son of a clergyman, and tutor to students,
wrote "Leviathan" in 1651 on his theory of sovereignty. Hobbes thought
that states are formed as the only alternative to anarchy, barbarism,
and war, so that supremacy and unity of a sovereign power is essential
to a civilized life and the protection of the citizenry. A sovereign
may be a man or body of men as long as his or its authority is
generally recognized. There must be a social contract among the
citizenry to obey a certain sovereign. To avoid religious conflict,
there must be a complete subordination of the church to the state and
the religion of a state must be dependent upon its secular sovereign.
Hobbes thought that knowledge of the world came through experience and
not reason alone. Only matter exists, and everything that happens can
be predicted in accordance with exact, scientific laws. He regarded
human societies as purely mechanical systems set in motion by human
desires. He saw self interest as the mainspring of moral law.
Conflicting self interests transformed into a lawful system of
agreements. Hobbes opined that all power really originated in the
people and that the end of all power was for the people's good.
On the other hand, James Harrington, who wrote "The
Commonwealth of Oceana" in 1656, opined that a stable society depended
on a direct relationship between the distribution of property and
political power; no one with property worth more than 2,000 pounds
should be allowed to acquire more and property should be divided among
children. A senate of mature property owners were to make and debate
the laws while an assembly elected by universal suffrage was to vote on
them because "a popular assembly without a senate cannot be wise and a
senate without a popular assembly will not be honest". A third of the
Senate would turn over every year. John Milton defended the execution
of the King in "The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates" in which he
maintained that the people may "as often as they shall judge it for the
best either to choose him or reject him or depose him, though no
tyrant, merely by the liberty and right of freeborn men to be governed
as seems to the best". He also wrote in favor of liberty of the press.
Ordinary speech found its way into prose writing.
Lands of more than 700 Royalists, including church lands, were
confiscated and sold or leased by county committees. Many Royalists put
their lands into trusts or turned them over to relatives or sold them
outright to prevent confiscation. It was an upheaval comparable to the
dissolution of the monasteries. Also, specified Papists who had taken
up arms against the realm lost their lands, goods, money, rents, and
two-thirds of their personal estates. But allowance was made for the
maintenance of their wives and children.
The Book of Common Prayer was abolished because of its
burdensome ceremonies. It was replaced by a Directory for Public
Worship. According to this, the Sunday service was to include reading
of the Scriptures, prayer, and a sermon, ordinarily on some text of
scripture which would be explained with reasons therefore and applied
to peoples' lives so they could see if they had sinned or not. The
ending of episcopal patronage gave some parishes the right to elect
their own ministers.
All festivals and holy days were abolished, e.g. Christmas,
Easter, Whitsuntide. Instead, scholars, apprentices, and servants were
to have recreation and stores were to be closed every second Tuesday of
the month. The usual merry-making, music, dancing, and sports after the
Sunday service were discontinued.
A day for fasting: the last Wednesday of every month, was
declared by statute. This day was to be "kept with the more solemn
humiliation, because it may call to remembrance our sins, and the sins
of our forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending the memory
of Christ into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to
carnal and sensual delights, being contrary to the life which Christ
himself led here upon earth, ...". This statute lasted for only five
years from 1644 because observance of it was not consistent throughout
the country.
Educational opportunities such as in grammar schools were more
widespread and stronger than ever before or since until the 1800s.
About 78% of men in London were literate, and 30% of men nationwide.
About half the women in London were literate by 1700.
In 1645, the marshalls of the admiralty and five major ports
were ordered to search all ships for stolen children since it had been
a problem in London.
The elderships of the church were given power in 1645 to
suspend from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper all ignorant and
scandalous persons. Ignorance was lack of knowledge that there is a God
and this is the one true God we worship, that this God is one, yet
three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that God created man in his
own image, that all have sinned and therefore shall die, that there is
one mediator between God and man: Jesus Christ, who died on the cross
to save men from their sins, that he rose from the dead, ascended into
heaven, sits at the right hand of God, and intercedes for us, that
Christ and his benefits are applied only by faith, that the souls of
the faithful live with Christ in blessedness, that non-believers and
non-repenters shall perish eternally, that the sacraments are baptism
and communion, and that there is a judgment day on which the righteous
will be given life eternal and the wicked shall receive everlasting
punishment. Scandalous persons are those who blasphemously speak or
write anything of God, his holy work or the sacraments; an incestuous
person; an adulterer; a fornicator; a drunkard; a profane swearer or
cursor; a murderer; a worshipper of images, crosses, crucifixes,
relics, saints, or angels; makers of images of the trinity; one who
professes not to be in charity with his neighbor; any challenging
another to fight or accepting such challenge; on the Lord's day,
dancing, dicing, cards, masking, wake, shooting, bowling, football,
wrestling, plays, interludes, fencing, bullbaiting, bearbaiting,
hawking, hunting, coursing [hunting with hounds], fishing, fowling,
selling wares, travel without reasonable cause; a brothel-house keeper;
one who solicits the chastity of another; one who marries a Papist or
consents to the marriage of his child to a Papist; own who goes for
advice to a witch, wizard, or fortune-teller; one who assaults his
parents, or any magistrate, minister, or elder in the execution of his
office; and one attainted of barratry [purchase or sale of office or
preferment], forgery, extortion, or bribery. If such a person persists,
he shall be excommunicated.
Cromwell did not disapprove of activities prohibited because of
the recreation they provided, but thought that they had become too
central to people's lives. He did not close the taverns or ale houses.
In 1653 it was required that public preachers be approved by a
commission nominated by the Lord Protector and Parliament because there
had been too many "weak, scandalous, popish, and ill- affected" ones.
In 1654 named persons were ejected as scandalous, ignorant and
insufficient ministers and schoolmasters.
Because the poorer parishes of London were having problems
supporting their poor, a Corporation for the poor of London was
established in 1647 with authority to erect workhouses and houses of
correction.
Imprisoned debtors who had less than five pounds and less that
five pounds worth of trade tools and clothing and bedding for his
family were ordered released in 1649.
Wardship was abolished. Military tenures were abolished. Feudal
tenures were converted into freehold in 1646.
In 1653 those living in Crown forest land were given free
socage in that land. The game laws were not enforced, so people could
eat deer.
Enclosures were increasing and Parliament was disinclined to
protect copyholders against enclosures, favoring those with rights of
ownership. Enclosure was no longer deterred especially after abolition
of the Star Chamber. The legal device of "strict settlement" evolved to
prevent heirs from breaking up estates enabled families to concentrate
land and capital into large units. The oldest son inherited the land
and the younger sons now received money. Clover seed was sold in London
by 1650. It revolutionized the cultivation of barren land. England
began to export instead of import grain. But vagrancy increased from
people dispossessed of land. And the village artisan, when deprived of
his field and of his rights of common, could not continue to work at
home, but had to accept the wages offered to him in an employer's
workshop.
Employers and entrepreneurs were now free from control by the
Crown. There were no more attempts to supervise quality of manufactures
or to fix prices or regulate wages. There was greater freedom
established in relations between employers and workers. The government
no longer tried to compel employers to keep employees in times of
economic slump. The requirement of seven year apprenticeships and being
the son of a freeholder to be an apprentice were not enforced.
The economy was still volatile due ostensibly to variable
harvests, amount of gold and money in circulation, and balances of
trade, and to periods of plague. Wages rose steadily. The rise in
prices ended about 1650, and prices remained stable until about 1775.
There was more mobility of people. Taxation became regular and it was
controlled by representatives of the taxpayers. Population growth
gradually stabilized.
Capitalism was coming into being. For instance, the clothier
was now a manufacturer. He had become a contractor, taking wool to the
specialist spinner, the yarn to the specialist weaver, the rough cloth
to be washed and stretched, and finally to the dyer. This cloth was
sold at retail by the drapers. Tin on the surface was exhausted, so
capital was used to drive deep shafts in tin mines. No longer did a
single man with a single ship sail around until he found a market, but
companies trading overseas had their ships, wharves, and depots
furnished by men's savings put into a common stock. The first major
capitalist industries were coal mining, iron mining, and foreign trade
because they all needed large investments, and thus joint-stock company
organization.
Cromwell reconstituted the East India Company on a wider and
more permanent basis. He gave it a new charter in 1657 which included
authority to make stock permanent, thus ensuring a continuity of
capital. This solved the problem of the competition of overlapping
voyages which still occurred despite their terms of several years. The
company became one of the first permanent joint-stock companies. Now
the stock was never wound up. The Company had permanent capital which
could grow. The absence of competition among voyages made the Company
stronger in the face of a common enemy, such as a rival trading country
or Indian groups. The charter also authorized the company to fortify
and colonize any of its establishments and to transport to them
settlers, stores, and ammunition.
Later in 1657, the Company threw open the freedom of the
Company to the public for a nominal sum of five pounds. Now the
Merchant Adventurers and private traders could participate. It provided
that dividends were to be paid only in cash and not in kind (goods). It
also provided for appraisals of the Company's property to be made every
three years, so any shareholders could redeem their shares
proportionately. His shares would then be resold. People began to buy
and sell their shares among each other. The Company made the minimum
subscription 100 pounds. Each person holding 500 pounds worth of shares
had one vote. Holding 1,000 pounds worth of shares qualified one for
election to the committee of twenty-four. The seats of the members of
this committee and of the Governor and Deputy Governor could no longer
be permanent, but had limited and staggered terms. The continuity of
capital took the place of the permanence of the governing body in
providing stability. There was a regular scale of salaries for
employees, and rules of conduct such as the one disallowing any clerk
of the India House from going to play houses, dancing schools, or
taverns. The Company established almshouses for its widows and orphans.
In 1657 the Muscovy Company, renewed its charter for trade in
Russia and established a New General Stock. If a man bought a share, he
bought freedom of the company. An annual dividend was declared from the
annual profits.
Commercial men regularly kept accounts with bankers. Merchants
used division to apportion profits or losses to the parties whose
capital was involved. Simple and compound interest were used. The
concept of contract became a familiar one.
Regular private bankers of London emerged from the Goldsmiths
from 1640 to 1675. They issued bank notes and paid checks.
Cromwell increased trade by seizing territories, establishing
colonies, and warring with competitors for master of the seas and
trade. In 1649 it was provided that no one who paid his assessment for
soldiers' pay would have to quarter any of them.
Authority was given in 1649 to impress seamen: mariners,
sailors, watermen, surgeons, gunners, ship carpenters, caukers,
coopers, whoymen, and carmen for carriage of victuals.
English ships were embellished with decoration. Their sail area
was increased by triangular fore and aft sails. The Navy increased from
39 to 80 vessels.
After serving in foreign wars, ex-soldiers were allowed in 1654
to practice any trade without serving a seven year apprenticeship.
Colonies New Hampshire and Maine were established in 1635,
Connecticut in 1636, and Rhode Island in 1638, as offshoots from other
colonies.
In 1649 a corporation was established to teach the Gospel of
Jesus Christ in New England to Indians.
About 1650, steel was hardened by repeated quenchings and
temperings when the steel had reached certain colors. Brass was made
from copper and zinc alloyed together.
There were power-driven rolls for the coinage from 1657. Strips
of silver were passed between engraved rolls. Then coins were punched
out and their edges serrated.
In the 1650s, Huygens made the first pendulum that worked
practically in a mechanical clock. This new clock increased the
accuracy of time-keeping tenfold. He also introduced the concept of
mathematical expectation into probability theory.
There was a thermometer which used liquid such as water or
alcohol in a glass tube instead of air.
Dutchman Stevinus showed that the pressure at the bottom of a
column of liquid is proportional to the height of the column, and not
to its bulk, about 1634. He also studied oblique forces, and the
balancing of such that could bring about "stable equilibrium".
Evangelista Torricelli, an Italian student of Galileo,
discovered in 1643 that any fluid will be supported at a definite
height, according to its relative weight, as compared with air. He
realized that a mercury column, 30 inches in height, in a long glass
tube inverted in a cup of mercury, was being supported by air pressure
exerted on the mercury in the cup. When he observed that this height
changed with the weather, he had invented the mercury barometer. In his
work, he created and used vacuums.
Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, and religious
philosopher, was a child prodigy. At the age of 12, he proved Euclid's
32nd theorem that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two
right angles. Before age 16, he wrote a book on conic sections. He is
famous for his theorem that a hexagon inscribed in a conic section has
the property that the three meeting points of the opposed sides are
always in a straight line. He constructed a calculator, which could
handle nine-digit numbers, in 1644 to assist his father, also a gifted
mathematician, in tax computations he did as a local government
official. He had Torricelli's mercury barometer carried up a mountain
and found that the height of the column dropped as altitude increased,
and thus that air pressure decreased with altitude. This showed that
the attribution of these effects to nature's abhorrence of a vacuum
were due instead solely to the weight and pressure of air. He
determined that the height to which the mercury rose was the same
regardless of the shape of the vessel containing it. Around 1646, he
did experiments with double vacuums and on the results formulated his
principle that pressure applied to a confined liquid is transmitted
undiminished through the liquid in all directions regardless of the
area to which the pressure is applied. Around 1653, he laid the
foundations for the theory of probabilities after being asked by a
gambling friend why, in playing dice, some frequencies came up more
often than others. He developed a means of calculating probabilities
with his "Pascal's Triangle" of coefficients of (a+b) raised to the nth
power. Each row represents the coefficients of a power one greater than
the power of the previous row. Each number is the sum of the nearest
two numbers in the row above it. He and lawyer and mathematician Pierre
Fermat invented the theory of probabilities.
Fermat also proved that the law for refraction (bending) of light
results from light's following the path that takes the shortest time.
He founded number theory, the study of properties of whole numbers, in
1640. Fermat formulated the notion of a line tangent to a curve and
started the development of differential calculus, in which a rate of
change is expressed as a function of time in equation form and also as
a tangent to the curve associated with that equation. This work helped
lay the foundation for the mathematics field of analysis. He and German
Gottfried Leibniz formulated the principle that an equation with two
unknown quantities can represent a curve. Leibnitz believed that man's
mind can arrive at truths about entities by pure thought.
Jean Ray from France concluded from his experiments that every
piece of material has a given weight, including air and fire. Otto von
Guericke from Germany discovered that, in a vacuum, sound does not
travel, fire is extinguished, and animals stop breathing.
At a time when mathematics was only a business of traders,
merchants, seamen, carpenters, and surveyors, mathematician John
Wallis, the son of a minister, studied sections of cones [circles,
ellipses, parabola, and hyperbolas] as curves of the second algebraic
degree, i.e. with an exponent of two, i.e. y = (a (x squared)) + b. He
also worked with negative and fractional exponents. Around 1655 he
invented the infinite arithmetic and introduced the symbol for
infinity. He determined that the area under any curve defined by the
equation y = (x to the nth power), was x to the (n+1)th power divided
by n+1. He introduced the concept of the limit of a string of numbers.
He wrote a treatise on algebra which was historical as well as
practical. He also decoded enemy cyphers for the sovereign.
Some English gentlemen interested in the new scientific methods
originated by Galileo had meetings beginning about 1645 to discuss
scientific topics. One group met at Gresham College and was headed by
Wallis. Another group was led by Robert Boyle, a philosopher,
physicist, and chemist. They wrote in English instead of Latin. These
meetings later gave rise to the Royal Society for science.
Since the Puritans forbade music in churches, but enjoyed it in
domestic circumstances, much secular music was composed, published, and
played. There were many musical clubs. The violin became very popular.
Solo songs were much sung. The first English opera: "The Siege of
Rhodes" was written and performed with women on stage. Writers of the
time included John Milton, political philosopher James Harrington, poet
Edmund Waller, Thomas Fuller, poet Abraham Cowley, and biographer Issak
Walton. John Aubrey wrote anecdotes about famous men. Jeremy Taylor,
chaplain to Charles I, wrote on theology. People still read French
romances translated into English. Dancing was still popular. Coffee
houses came into prominence as places of social discourse. The first
coffee house was established in London in 1652; ten years later, there
were 82 coffee houses in the City. There were elegant pleasure gardens,
with a fee for access. They were used for promenades and picnics.
Ladies and their gallants rendezvoused there. Cromwell introduced the
habit of port drinking to England.
In 1657, one general Post Offices was established with one
Postmaster General for all of England. No other person could have the
horsing of the through-posts. It cost 2d. for a letter to or from 80
miles of London and 3d. for one outside 80 miles of London.
The Society of Friends was founded by the son of a weaver. They
greeted everyone as "friend" and did not bow; remove their hat, as was
the custom when before the king or an earl; or otherwise show any
reverence to anyone. From 1650, they were called Quakers because they
trembled when religiously stirred. They reverted to the ancient "thou"
and "thee" appellations. Their dress was particularly simple, with no
buttons, lace, ruffles, or embroidery. They hated ritual so much that
they rejected baptism and communion. They did not observe the Sabbath
as a special day different from other days. They derided the holiness
of churches. No clergy were admitted into their sect. When they met for
divine worship, each rose to deliver extemporaneous inspirations of the
Holy Ghost. Women were admitted to teach the brethren and were
considered proper vehicles to convey the dictates of the spirit.
Quakers believed that every man, in his own life, could be fully
victorious over sin. They denied any clerical authority and all texts.
They believed in the separation of church and state. They refused to
swear to any oath, e.g. in court, or to participate in war. They
refused to take off their hats to anyone but God. It was their practice
to turn the other cheek when one cheek had been struck. If asked for
his cloak, a Quaker would give it. He never asked more for his wares
than the precise sum which he was determined to accept. The Quakers
encouraged widows and widowers to provide for children from a first
spouse when remarrying. They carefully selected masters and mistresses
who wanted to take on child apprentices for their suitability for such
responsibility. The education of Quaker women did not decline, as it
did for other women. From the fervor of their zeal, the Quakers broke
into churches, disturbed public worship, and harassed the clergyman and
audience with railing and reproaches. When brought before a magistrate,
they show no reverence but treated him as an equal. Sometimes they were
thrown into mad house or prisons and sometimes whipped or pilloried.
They endured stoically under this suffering. Mary Fisher from Yorkshire
introduced Quakerism to colonial New England.
In 1653 there were separation agreements between spouses as to
property, e.g. support and maintenance.
Cromwell had bad experiences with Parliaments. The Rump
Parliament was a remnant of the Long Parliament. The army and then
Cromwell, although a member, came to believe that its members were
self- interested, preoccupied with perpetuating themselves in seats of
power, and corrupt. They thought that their own hopes of reform in the
law, in the church, and in public finances were being deliberately
frustrated. Cromwell came to doubt that it would ever give the people
adequate government and protection. He started to believe that one man
as chief executive could do this better. Cromwell dismissed the Rump
Parliament in 1653. A new constitution created a Puritan "Parliament of
Saints". These men were nominated in various ways, such as by church
parishes, and selected by Cromwell. This one-house Parliament of Saints
in 1653 made Cromwell Lord Protector for life with executive power of
the state, with responsibility for making peace and establishing order
after a decade of civil strife and political chaos. He was to
administer the government and be the chief magistrate. It also provided
for triennial Parliaments consisting of one house, and religious
freedom for all except Roman Catholics and adherents of the formerly
established Church of England. Cromwell did not tolerate the ritual of
the formerly established English church nor allow any of its adherents
to have any office under him. His was a purely Puritan government. He
did not sell offices. The Parliament of Saints challenged many vested
interests in property such as sales of delinquents' and Papists' lands.
It clashed severely over the continuation of tithes to the church. It
became disorderly when some declared the Parliament dissolved and left.
Others remained in their seats. To avoid a Parliamentary crisis,
Cromwell had soldiers close the Parliament of Saints and lock its
doors. The people supported this action because they were dissatisfied
with the state of public affairs. The next Parliament that was tried
was elected on a new constitutional basis of men with 200 pounds, but
these men voted to make Parliament sovereign without a chief executive,
thereby abolishing the protectorate. Cromwell was distressed that this
Parliament had also voted themselves to be the sole determinors of
atheism and blasphemy instead of advancing liberty of religious
conscience and religious toleration as Cromwell had advocated. He
dissolved this Parliament, declaring that it was not acting for the
public good. A last Parliament was also dissolved by Cromwell for
tending to loosen the bonds of government and thereby threatening the
peace of the nation.
Cromwell had first ruled as a democratic leader who did not
believe in force, but preferred to persuade with reason. He initially
believed that people would do the right thing according to their
consciences, but was disillusioned and then became autocratic. He came
to rule as a military dictator. Payment of taxes was enforced by
distraint. After 1654, he issued about 100 proclamations covering
public amusements, roads, finances, the condition of prisons, the
imprisonment of debtors, banning of dueling and cockfighting, law
reform, control of religion and education, and reorganization of the
army. The singing of ballads was banned. The Court of Chancery was
reformed by proclamation. The established church was reformed and the
power to interfere with different faiths was denied to it. Each parish
could choose its form of service, whether Presbyterian, Congregational,
Baptist, or any other seen as fundamental by the Puritans. No one was
compelled to attend any particular church or to accept the discipline
of any particular minister. But the Book of Common Prayer was
forbidden. There was freedom of worship for Presbyterians,
Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, and Jews who had secretly
migrated to England to avoid persecution on the continent, but not
Prelatists , who favored government of the church by bishops).
In 1655, Cromwell placed major generals in charge of eleven
newly- established provinces. As their Governors, they had authority to
levy troops, exact taxes imposed by the Protector, disarm Royalists and
Catholics, examine into the conduct of the clergy and schoolmasters,
arrest dangerous and suspicious persons, prevent unlawful assemblies,
and to enforce the existing laws against immorality and blasphemy. The
only appeal was to the Protector. Since they were Puritans, they
ordered public ale houses to close as dusk, banned idlers, minstrels,
and actors, forbade exercising of horses on Sunday and the holding of
markets on Saturday as well as Sunday, censored the press, and
proscribed newspapers. Horse races, which meetings were used for
seditious purposes, were closed. Theaters were closed. Dancing was
discontinued. Organs and choirs in churches were prohibited. Court
masks continued because they provided soothing music. After a year,
Cromwell withdrew the major-generals. From this time, men of property
hated the idea of a standing army.
In 1657, the officers of a new Parliament modified the
constitution and Cromwell approved it. It was to secure liberties of
the people as they never before had. Under the modified constitution,
there were again two houses. The Commons regained its old right of
exclusively deciding on the qualification of its members. Parliamentary
restrictions were imposed on the choice of members of the Council,
officers of state, and officers of the army. A fixed revenue was voted
to the Protector. No moneys were to be raised except by consent of
Parliament. Liberty of worship was guaranteed to all except Papists;
Prelatists; Socinians, who denied the divinity of Jesus; for those who
denied the inspiration of the Scriptures. Liberty of conscience was
secured for all. In 1658, Cromwell tried another Parliament, but
dissolved it because it wrangled without resolution.
There was continual problem with Catholics. Mayors, Justices
and capital burgesses of towns where Papists or others had caused
rebellion and insurrection and plundered, robbed, pillaged, murdered
and raped, were given the power in 1642 to call, assemble, train, and
arm soldiers for defense. The Committee of the Militia of London was
given authority in 1647 to search all houses and places for Papists and
to search for and seize any arms, ammunition, and war materials in
custody of such persons. In 1648, all Papists and soldiers of fortune
who had borne arms against Parliament were ordered to depart from
within twenty miles of London and Westminster or be imprisoned as
traitors. In 1657 convicted Papists and people marrying convicted
Papists were required to take an oath renouncing the pope and Catholic
Church or lose two-thirds of their lands and estate, retaining their
house on the remaining one-third. If one went to mass in an
ambassador's house, the fine was 100 pounds and imprisonment for six
months, one half going to the informer. In 1659 all householders in
London and Westminster had to give a list of persons lodging in their
house, and the horses and arms there. But the laws against Catholics
practicing their religion were not rigorously enforced, nor were those
against adherents of the formerly established Church of England.
After Cromwell died, the people demanded the return of a
genuine and free Parliament. The old constitution was restored and a
new House of Commons was elected. It called Charles II to return to be
king if he promised religious freedom and backpay to the army, which
had not recently been paid. When Cromwell's Puritan soldiers were
disbanded, they did not drift into thievery as royalists soldiers had
before, but took up honest work such as baker, mason, brewer, baker, or
haberdasher. Puritanism now made itself felt not by the sword, but in
literature and politics. It affected the character of the English, who
tend to be stoics, and imbued capitalists with a hard-working attitude.
The Law
After the civil wars, the law against enclosure was not
enforced.
What was passed in Parliament in Cromwell's time were called
statutes, but after Cromwell's time, these statutes were not recognized
as legitimate.
"whereas Public Sports do not well agree with Public
Calamities, not Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation,
this being an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and the other being
Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth and
Levity ... Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborne instead of
which are recommended to the People of this Land the profitable and
seasonable considerations of Repentance, Reconciliation, and Peace with
God, ..."
No book or pamphlet may be printed, bound, stitched, or sold or
imported unless licensed and entered into the Register Book of the
Company of Stationers. Officials of this company and of Parliament may
search all places which they shall think meet for all unlicensed
printing presses and all suspected printing houses, warehouses, and
shops and other places for unlicensed books and pamphlets and papers
and seize them and apprehend all authors, printers, and other involved
people and bring them before Parliament or the Committee on
Examinations for punishment. Justices of the Peace and other officers
may order doors and locks broken for this purpose. The fine is ten
pounds for authors, five pounds for printers, two pounds for
booksellers, and one pound for buyers who conceal a book bought. One
half of each fine shall go to the person who discovers and prosecutes
the offender, and the other half shall go to the poor. This law
suppressed royalist newspapers but was enforced only with great
difficulty.
All shall observe Sunday and days of Thanksgiving in their
"duties of Piety and true Religion publicly and privately" and none may
sell wares or goods, including fruit or herbs upon pain of forfeiture
of such. None may, without reasonable cause, travel, carry burdens, or
do any worldly labors or work whatsoever or pay a fine of 10s. This
work shall include grinding grain, fulling in mills, burning turf or
earth, gathering taxes, melting wax for candles, brewing, baking,
butchering cattle, tailors fitting or carrying clothes, barbers
trimming hair, being present at fairs or markets, or washing, whiting,
or drying clothes. Nor may any one maintain or be present at
wrestlings, shooting, bowling, ringing of bells for pleasure or
pastime, masks, wake, church-ale, dancing, games, sport or, for those
over 14, forfeit 5s., and for those having care or education of a child
under 14, 12d. Maypoles, a "Heathenish vanity, generally abused to
superstition and wickedness", shall be taken down by officers or else
forfeit 5s. per week. If any offender can't pay his fine, he shall be
put in the stocks for three hours. However meat maybe dressed in
private families, and victual sold in inns and victualing houses in a
moderate way, and milk sold before 9a.m. or after 4p.m.
Persons of the trinity, angels, or saints shall be demolished.
Altar and communion tables must not be raised but leveled. There may be
no copes, surplices, superstitious vestments, or holy water fonts.
There may be no crosses, crucifixes, pictures of the trinity, angels or
saints on plates. All organs must be taken away.
The fine for using the Book of Common Prayer is five pounds for
the first offense, ten pounds for the second offense, and one year
imprisonment without bail for the third offense. The penalty for
writing or preaching against the Directory for Public Worship is five
to fifty pounds.
Blasphemies and heresies such as teaching or writing or
printing that there is no God, that God is not almighty, that Jesus was
not divine, that the resurrection of Jesus did not occur, that the
Bible is not the word of God, or that there is no judgment day after
death, are felony without benefit of clergy. If such an offender
recants, he shall stay in gaol until he obtains two sureties. If he
offends again after recantation, it is felony without benefit of clergy.
In 1650 adultery was declared to be a felony, except for a wife
whose husband had been beyond the seas for three years or had been
reputed to be dead. Incest was also declared to be a felony. It was
defined as marrying or having carnal knowledge of one's grandparent,
parent, sibling, mother's brother or sister, father's wife, mother's
husband, son's wife, daughter's husband, wife's mother or daughter, or
husband's father or son. Fornication was given a punishment of three
months imprisonment and until security was obtained for one year for
good behavior. It was defined as carnal knowledge of a virgin,
unmarried woman, or widow. A common bawd or one keeping a brothel or
bawdy house was to be whipped, set in the pillory, marked in the
forehead by a hot iron with the letter: B, and then imprisoned for
three years without bail and until there were sureties for good
behavior for life. The second offense was felony without benefit of
clergy. There was to be no corruption of the blood. However, juries
were reluctant to convict for adultery and incest.
There shall be no profane swearing or cursing of forfeit by a
lord 30s., a baronet or knight 20s., an esquire 10s., a gentleman
6s.8d., and all others 3s.4d. There is a double fine for the second
offense. For the tenth offense, the offender shall be bound by sureties
for good behavior for three years.
A person equating himself or another with God or not believing
in God shall be imprisoned for six months without bail. For the second
offense, he shall be banished from the nation.
No longer shall people be punished for nonattendance at church
on Sunday or days of Thanksgiving, but may be at some other place of
prayer, preaching, reading, or the scriptures.
Hawkers and ballad singers have been libelous, so are to be
whipped as common rogues and then dismissed. Also, their ballads and
pamphlets are to be confiscated. Vagrant, idle, loose, dissolute and
disorderly persons and fiddlers in inns, alehouses, and taverns are to
be punished as rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, that is, whipped.
In 1649, treason against Parliament was defined as writing,
printing, or declaring that the government is tyrannical, usurped, or
unlawful; or that Parliament is not the supreme authority of the
nation; or plot, contrive, or endeavor to stir up or raise force
against the government. Attainder for such would not work corruption of
the blood.
Treason to the Protector was defined the same as it was to the
King.
Army deserters are to be corporally punished or executed.
Fellable wood and underwood, but no timber trees, may be cut
within 60 miles of London because fuel is needed, especially by the
poor. This will be supervised by overseers appointed by Parliament.
No one may import foreign hats or hatbands to relieve that
industry in England.
As of 1656, certain food could not be exported when the prices
of such exceeded a stated amount. For instance, 5 pounds for a 36
gallon barrel of beef, 6d. for a pound of bacon, 4 pounds and 10s. for
a 224 gallon barrel of butter, and 24s. for 64 pounds of rye, pease, or
beans. The customs for such items was more for foreigners than for
natives, for instance 3s. for natives and 5s. for foreigners for a
barrel of beef.
Butter for sale must not be corrupt and be properly weighed.
One must obtain a license to buy wheat or other grain and put
it to sale in meal or flour or else forfeit three times the value.
All books of the law, writs, pleadings, and patents shall be in
English or else forfeit 20 pounds.
No deer may be killed or else forfeit 15 pounds, half to the
informer and half to the poor.
Interest may not exceed 6 pounds for a loan of 100 pounds
yearly as of 1651.
No goods are to be imported from America, Asia, or Africa
except in English ships or else forfeit all goods and the ship, one
half of which goes to the one who seizes the goods and prosecutes. None
may be imported from Europe except in English ships or ships from the
country of origin of the goods. No salt fish may be imported or
exported but in English vessels.
There is a 10 pound reward for discovery of highwaymen and
burglars or persons who break and enter into houses and there use
violence.
No cart or wagon or carriage on the road may be drawn by more
than five horses or six oxen and a horse except for military vehicles.
Notice of intended marriages shall be published once a week for
three weeks in a public meeting place called church or a public market
place next to church. Exceptions to the marriage shall be noted by the
Register and considered by the Justice of the Peace before the marriage
is performed. The words used shall be: "...promise to be unto thee a
loving and faithful husband..." and "promise to be unto thee a loving,
faithful, and obedient wife...".
There shall be no cock-fighting because it disturbs the peace
and usually is accompanied by gaming, drinking, swearing, and
quarreling.
Anyone challenging or accepting a challenge to duel shall be
imprisoned for six months without bail, and must acquire two sureties
for a year. Anyone fighting a duel in which death ensues, shall be
banished for life.
Horse races were forbidden in 1654 for six months to discourage
mischievous plots and designs by enemies of the state. The penalty was
forfeiting the horse. Attendees were to be brought to justice.
As of 1657, a house or building built within ten miles of the
walls of the City of London not having at least four acres had to pay a
fine of one year's rent. All houses within London or Westminster or the
suburbs must be brick or stone, and built straight up without
protruding into the street or else forfeit 100 pounds.
As of 1657 persons living extravagantly without visible estate
or calling may be made by Justices of the Peace to acquire sureties for
good behavior or go to gaol. They would also be sent to the house of
correction to work for three months for the first offense and for a
time specified by the Justice of the Peace for the second offense.
Anyone winning at betting or playing at cards, dice, tennis,
and horse races shall forfeit double his winnings.
Excluded from pardon were buggery with man [sodomy] or animal
[bestiality], carnal ravishment of women, and bigamy.
Husbands were responsible for their wives' oaths and fathers
for their daughters'.
Drunkenness was much punished.
Judicial Procedure
The Protector is the supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth,
with power to pardon all crimes, except murder and treason.
Parliament was no longer a court.
Use of the torture was proscribed in 1649.
In 1652, the justices were given a salary of 1,000 pounds and
forbidden to take fees or rewards. They also got tenure, thus freeing
them from government pressure. Now civil justice was honestly dispensed
and justices were learned and honest.
The jurisdiction of Admiralty court was defined to include:
ships and vessels with tackle, apparel and furniture thereof;
repairing, victualing, and furnishing provisions of ships and vessels
for sea; all cases of bottomry [ship-owner indemnified if the vessel
were lost, but paid over a substantial share of the profits if it
reached its destination safely], contracts beyond the seas concerning
shipping or navigation; charter, parties, contracts for freight; bills
of lading; mariners wages; damage of goods on board ships; and damage
by one ship to another including by anchors or want of laying buoys. It
did not include contracts between merchants.
Military tenure was abolished in 1660.