Ecclesiastical
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
VOLUME I.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
In one volume, crown 8vo.
Church and State Two Hundred Years Ago:
Being a History of Ecclesiastical Affairs from 1660 to 1663.
"A volume that, regarded from every point of view, we can
approve--contains proof of independent research and cautious
industry. The temper of the book is generous and impartial
throughout."--_Athenæum._
"Mr. Stoughton's is the best history of the ejection of the
Puritans that has yet been written."--_North British Review._
"The thanks, not only of the Nonconforming community, but
of all who are interested in the religious history of our
country, are due to Mr. Stoughton for the ability, the
impartiality, the fidelity, and the Christian spirit with
which he has pictured Church and State two hundred years
ago."--_Patriot._
In crown 8vo., cloth.
Ages of Christendom: Before the Reformation.
"We know not where to find, within so brief a space, so
intelligent a clue to the labyrinth of Church History before
the Reformation."--_British Quarterly Review._
LONDON: JACKSON, WALFORD, & HODDER,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
Ecclesiastical
HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
FROM THE OPENING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT TO THE
DEATH OF OLIVER CROMWELL.
BY
JOHN STOUGHTON.
VOLUME I.
THE CHURCH OF THE CIVIL WARS.
[Illustration]
London:
JACKSON, WALFORD, AND HODDER,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
MDCCCLXVII.
UNWIN BROTHERS, GRESHAM STEAM PRESS, BUCKLERSBURY, LONDON, E.C.
[Illustration]
ADVERTISEMENT.
English literature includes valuable histories of the Church, some of
them prominently exhibiting whatever relates to Anglicanism, others
almost exclusively describing the developments of Puritanism. In
such works the ecclesiastical events of the Civil Wars and of the
Commonwealth may be found described with considerable, but not with
sufficient fullness. Many persons wish to know more respecting those
times. The book now published is designed to meet this wish, by telling
the ecclesiastical part of England's story at that eventful period
with less of incompleteness. In doing so, the object is not to give
prominence to any single ecclesiastical party to the disadvantage of
others in that respect; but to point out the circumstances of all, and
the spirit of each, to trace their mutual relations, and to indicate
the influence which they exerted upon one another. The study of
original authorities, researches amongst State Papers and other MS.
collections, together with enquiries pursued by the aid of historical
treasures of all kinds in the British Museum, have brought to light
many fresh illustrations of the period under review; and the author,
whilst endeavouring to make use of the results so obtained, has reached
the conclusion, that the only method by which a satisfactory account of
a single religious denomination can be given, is by the exhibition of
it in connexion with all the rest.
His purpose has been carefully to ascertain, and honestly to state
the truth, in reference both to the nature of the events, and the
characters of the persons introduced in the following chapters.
He is by no means indifferent to certain principles, political,
ecclesiastical, and theological, which were involved in the great
controversy of the seventeenth century. As will appear in this
narrative, his faith in these is strong and unwavering: nor does he
fail to recognize the bearing of certain things which he has recorded,
upon certain other things occurring at this very moment; but he cannot
see why private opinions and public events should stand in the way of
an impartial statement of historical facts, or a righteous judgment
of historical characters. For the principles which a man holds remain
exactly the same, whatever may have been the past incidents or the
departed individuals connected with their history. Happily, a change is
coming over historical literature in this respect; persons and opinions
are now being distinguished from each other, and it is seen, that
advocates on the one side of a great question were not all perfectly
good, and that those on the other side were not all thoroughly bad.
The writer has sought to do honour to Christian faith, devotion,
constancy, and love wherever he has found them, and never in any case
to varnish over the hateful opposite of these noble qualities. And he
will esteem it a great reward to be, by the blessing of God, in any
measure the means of promoting what is most dear to his heart, the
cause of truth and charity amongst Christian Englishmen.
The plan of the work, and the various aspects under which the public
affairs, the principal actors, and the private religious life of
England from the opening of the Long Parliament to the death of Oliver
Cromwell are exhibited, may be discovered at a glance, by any one who
will take the trouble to run over the table of contents.
Many defects which have escaped the Author will doubtless be noticed
by his critics, and in this respect he ventures to throw himself
upon their candour and generosity. One omission, however, may be
explained. The theological literature of the period needs to be studied
at large, for the purpose of making apparent the grounds upon which
different bodies of Christians based their respective beliefs. Most
ecclesiastical historians fail to exhibit those grounds. The Author is
fully aware of this deficiency in his own case; but it is his hope,
should Divine Providence spare his life, to be enabled, in some humble
degree, to supply that deficiency at a future time.
He begs gratefully to acknowledge the valuable assistance rendered
him by the Very Reverend the Dean of Westminster, in what relates to
Westminster Abbey and the Universities--by Mr. John Bruce, F.S.A.,
for information and advice on several curious points--and by Mr.
Clarence Hopper, who has collated with the originals, almost all the
extracts from State Papers. Nor can he omit thankfully to notice the
special facilities afforded him for consulting the large collection of
Commonwealth pamphlets in the British Museum, and the polite attention
and help which he has received from gentlemen connected with Sion
College and with Dr. Williams' Library. He has also had other helpers
in his own house--helpers very dear to him, whom he must not name.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE.
Opening of Long Parliament 1
ANGLICANS.
Under Elizabeth 4
Under the Stuarts 6
Spirit of Anglicanism 9
Intolerance 17
Ecclesiastical Courts 18
High Commission Court 20
Star Chamber Court 26
Strafford 29
Laud 31
PURITANS.
In the reign of Elizabeth 40
Change in the Controversy 45
Puritan dislike of Ceremonies 48
Sufferings 49
Emigration 50
Bolton and Sibbs 53
Puritanism a Reaction 55
Its defects 56
CHAPTER I.
MEMBERS OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
Lenthall 59
Holles--Glynne--Rudyard 60
Vane 61
Fiennes 62
Cromwell 63
St. John 64
Haselrig--Pym 65
Hampden 66
Marten 68
Selden 69
Falkland 72
Dering 74
Digby 75
Hyde 77
CHAPTER II.
Grand Committee for Religion 79
Petitions from Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick 79
Debates on Religion 83
Pym's and Rudyard's Speeches 83-85
Committee appointed to prepare
a Remonstrance 86
Debates respecting Strafford 87
Strafford impeached by Pym 89
Impeachment of Laud 91
Puritan Petitions 93
Debate on the Canons 95
CHAPTER III.
Presbyterianism in England 100
Root and Branch Petition 103
Presbyterianism in Scotland 104
Scotch Commissioners in London 107
Petition and Remonstrance presented to the House 109
Other Petitions 110
Debate touching Root and Branch Petition 112
CHAPTER IV.
Lords' Committee on Innovations 119
Williams, Dean of Westminster 119
Meetings in Jerusalem Chamber 121
Ceremonial Innovations 123
The Prayer Book 124
Episcopacy 124
Resolutions for Reforming Pluralities and removing
Bishops from the Peerage 126
Star Chamber and High Commission Courts 127
The Smectymnus Controversy 128
CHAPTER V.
Marriage of the Princess Mary 131
The Solemn Vow and Protestation 133
Conference between the two Houses 134
No Popery Riots 136
Trial of Strafford 137
His Execution 141
Deans and Chapters 142
Bill for Restraining Bishops 144
Bill for Abolition of Episcopacy 146
Debated by the Commons 148
Conference between the two Houses 150
Further Debate 152
Discussion on Deans and Chapters 154
Discussions respecting Episcopacy 157
Complaints against the Clergy 158
CHAPTER VI.
Laud sent to the Tower 160
Bishop Wren arrested 161
Montague's Death 162
Davenant's Death 163
Impeachment of the Thirteen Prelates 163
Correspondence between English and Scotch Clergy 163
Visit of Charles to Scotland 165
Dislike of the Lower House to the Expedition 166
Charles departs for Edinburgh 166
Letters from Sidney Bere 167
Conduct of Charles in Scotland 169
Church Reforms 170
Innovations discussed 171
Parliament adjourns 172
Parliament less popular 173
Causes of the Reaction 174
CHAPTER VII.
Bill for excluding Bishops from Parliament 176
Dering's Speech 176
The Grand Remonstrance 179
Debated by the Commons 182
Discussion about the Printing of it 183
CHAPTER VIII.
Return of the King 186
Vacant Bishoprics filled up 186
Reception of Charles in London 187
The Remonstrance presented 191
His Majesty's Answer 192
Arrest of the Five Members 193
Royalist Version of the Affair 193
Fatal Crisis in the History of Charles 196
Reaction in favour of the Puritans 197
Westminster Riots 198
Protest drawn up by Twelve Bishops 203
Presented to the King 204
Prelates sent to the Tower 205
Their Unpopularity 205
Dismissed on Bail 206
CHAPTER IX.
Bishops excluded from the Upper House 207
Those who died before 1650 209
Wright--Frewen--Westfield Howell 209
Coke--Owen--Curle--Towers 210
Prideaux--Williams 211
Irish Rebellion 212
Protestant Churches in Ireland 216
Popish Massacre 218
Fears of the English 220
CHAPTER X.
Episcopacy 223
Seceders from the Popular Party 224
Opponents of Episcopacy 227
Sectaries 228
Flight of the King 229
Charles at Windsor 230
Charles at York 231
Attempts at Mediation 231
Manifestoes 233
The Coming Conflict 237
Hostile Preparations 239
The Parliamentary Army 240
Royalist Army 242
Nature of the Struggle 243
CHAPTER XI.
Outbreak of the War 246
Puritan Troops on the March 248
Barbarity of the Cavaliers 251
Battle of Edge Hill 253
Church Politics in London 255
Popular Preachers 259
The Scotch advocate a thorough Reformation 261
The Fate of Prelacy 262
Negotiations at Oxford 264
Proposals from Parliament 265
Royal Answer 266
Scottish Petition 267
CHAPTER XII.
Westminster Assembly 271
Its Constitution 273
Meeting of the Members 275
Parliamentary Directions 278
Death of Brooke 280
Death of Hampden 281
Success of the Royalists 283
Bradford Besieged 283
Gloucester Besieged 284
Effect of the War upon the Assembly 287
Commissioners sent to Scotland 289
The Solemn League and Covenant 292
Taken by the Assembly 294
Battle of Newbury 296
Treaty with the Scotch 297
CHAPTER XIII.
Death of Pym 301
Court Intrigues 305
Corporation Banquet 307
Marshall's Discourse 308
Iconoclastic Crusade 312
Cromwell at Ely 319
League and Covenant set up 319
Covenant imposed upon the Irish 323
Meetings of Westminster Assembly 326
Presbyterians 329
Erastians 330
Dissenting Brethren 332
Toleration--Chillingworth 335
Hales 336
Jeremy Taylor 337
Cudworth--More 339
John Goodwin 343
Busher--Locke 346
CHAPTER XIV.
Early Congregational Churches 348
Browne 349
Barrowe--Greenwood 353
Penry 356
Jacob 357
Lathrop 358
Independents and Brownists 365
Spread of Congregationalism 369
Presbyterians and Independents 371
CHAPTER XV.
Charles at Oxford 372
Royalist Army 373
Reports Respecting the King and the Court 374
Conduct of his Majesty 376
Bishops at Oxford 378
Clergy at Oxford 379
Chillingworth and Cheynell 381
Barwick 383
CHAPTER XVI.
Ecclesiastical Affairs 385
Committee for Plundered Ministers 387
Tithes 389
Local Committees 390
Church and Parliament 391
CHAPTER XVII.
Laud's Trial 395
Accusations against him 396
His Defence 397
Bill of Attainder passed 399
His Execution 401
His Character 402
The Directory 404
Sanctioned by General Assembly and House of Lords 406
Ordinance enforcing the Directory 407
Dissatisfaction of the Scotch 408
Irish Loyal to Prayer Book 409
Forms of Devotion for the Navy 409
CHAPTER XVIII.
Treaty at Uxbridge 412
Debate between Royalists and Parliamentarians 414
Charles makes a shew of Concession 415
Debates at Westminster about Ordination 417
Debates on Presbyterian Discipline 418
Presbyterians and Independents 419
Committee of Accommodation 421
CHAPTER XIX.
Long Marston Moor 425
Naseby 428
Sufferings of the Clergy 431
Alphery--Alcock--Alvey 433
CHAPTER XX.
Jealousy of Presbyterian Power 436
Unpopularity of Scotch Army 437
The Power of the Keys 439
Toleration 443
Divine Right of Presbyterianism 446
Assembly threatened with a Præmunire 448
Confession of Faith drawn up by Assembly 450
Revision of Psalmody 451
Character of Assembly 452
CHAPTER XXI.
New modelling of the Army 455
Richard Baxter 456
Religion in the Camp 457
Army Chaplains--Sprigg 459
Palmer 461
Saltmarsh 462
Preaching in the Army 464
Conference between Charles I. and Henderson 469
Newcastle Treaty 471
Letters to the Queen 474
CHAPTER XXII.
Ordinances for establishing Presbyteries 477
Final Measures with regard to Episcopacy 479
Ecclesiastical Courts 481
Registration of Wills 483
Tithes 485
Church Dues 487
University of Cambridge 490
Ordinance for its Regulation 491
Commissioners appointed to administer the Covenant 491
Sequestrations 493
Revival of Puritanism 494
Oxford 496
Military Occupation of the University 497
Parliamentary Commissioners 497
Dr. Laurence and Colonel Walton 499
Resistance to the New Authorities 500
CHAPTER XXIII.
Presbyterians and Independents 504
Contentions at Norwich 505
Presbyterian Policy 508
Attack on the Sectaries 509
Supernatural Omens 511
Negotiations between the Parliament and the Scotch 513
The King at Holdenby 514
Presbyterians jealous of the Army 515
Earl of Essex 517
False Step of the Presbyterians 518
The King in the Hands of the Independents 519
Cromwell's attempt at reconciling Parties 520
Royalist Violence 522
Laws against Heresy 523
Newport Treaty 526
Concessions made by the King 527
Military Remonstrance 528
Presbyterian Efforts to save the King 529
Pride's Purge 531
Trial of Charles 531
Execution 532
Burial 535
[Illustration]
CORRIGENDA.
VOL. I.
Page Line
114 29 _for_ Simon _read_ Symonds.
192 note _for_ Horton _read_ Hopton.
207 1 _insert_ Bishops.
210 7 _for_ in 1646. He died _read_ He died in 1646,
215 19 _for_ Rauthaus _read_ Rathhaus.
453 22 _for_ condition _read_ erudition.
521 heading _for_ Denominations _read_ Demonstrations.
VOL. II.
125}
127} headings read _Sir Harry Vane_.
133 7 _for_ Naylor _read_ Nayler.
146 3 _the word_ been _is dropped into line_ 4.
151 31 _for_ Bordura _read_ Bodurda.
262 note _for_ according _read_ accordingly.
361 heading for _Fox and Cromwell_ read _Fox's Disciples_.
409 10 _for_ Isaac _read_ Isaak.
427 1 & 13 _for_ Francis _read_ Frances.
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION.
On the third of November, 1640, at nine o'clock in the forenoon, the
Earl Marshal of England came into the outer room of the Commons'
House, accompanied by the Treasurer of the King's Household and other
officers. When the Chancery crier had made proclamation, and the
clerk of the Crown had called over the names of the returned knights,
citizens, burgesses, and barons of the Cinque-ports; and after his
Lordship had sworn some threescore members, and made arrangements for
swearing the rest, he departed to wait upon his Majesty, who, about one
o'clock, came in his barge from Whitehall to Westminster stairs. There
the lords met him. Thence on foot marched a procession consisting of
servants and officers of state.[1]
The King, so accompanied, passed through Westminster Hall and the Court
of Requests to the Abbey, where a sermon was preached by the Bishop of
Bristol. The King's Majesty, arrayed in his royal robes, ascended the
throne. The Prince of Wales sat on his left hand: on the right stood
the Lord High Chamberlain of England and the Earl of Essex, bearing
the cap; and the Earl Marshal and the Earl of Bath bearing the sword
of state occupied the left. Clarence, in the absence of Garter, and
also the gentleman of the black rod, were near the Earl Marshal. The
Earl of Cork, Viscount Willmott, the Lord Newburgh, and the Master of
the Rolls, called by writ as assistants, "sat on the inside of the
wool-sacks;" so did the Lord Chief Justices, Lord Chief Baron, and
the rest of the judges under them. "On the outside of the woolsack"
were four Masters of Chancery, the King's two ancient Serjeants, the
Attorney-General, and three of the puisne Serjeants. To the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal, apparelled in their robes, and seated in their
places, and to the House of Commons, assembled below the bar, his
Majesty delivered an address, declaring the cause of summoning this
parliament. Then the Lord Keeper Finch made a speech; after which, the
Commons having chosen William Lenthall, of Lincoln's Inn, as Speaker,
that gentleman, being approved with the usual ceremonies, added another
oration, in which he observed: "I see before my eyes the Majesty of
Great Britain, the glory of times, the history of honour, Charles
I. in his forefront, placed by descent of ancient kings, settled
by a long succession, and continued to us by a pious and peaceful
government. On the one side, the monument of glory, the progeny of
valiant and puissant princes, the Queen's most excellent Majesty. On
the other side, the hopes of posterity, the joy of this nation, those
olive-branches set around your tables, emblems of peace to posterity.
Here shine those lights and lamps placed in a mount, which attend your
Sacred Majesty as supreme head, and borrow from you the splendour of
their government."
Thus opened the Long Parliament; knowing what followed, we feel a
strange interest in these quaint items extracted from State Papers and
Parliamentary Journals.[2] With such ceremonies Charles I. once more
sat down on the throne of his fathers; and once more, too, clothed in
lawn and rochet, the prelates occupied their old benches. Great was
their power: Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, might be said to discharge
the functions of Prime Minister; Juxon, Bishop of London, clasped the
Lord Treasurer's staff; and Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, had some years
before held the great seal. They and their reverend brethren sat as
co-equals with scarlet-robed and coroneted barons. They represented the
stately and ancient Church of England, in closest union with the senate
and the throne; suggesting, as to the relations of ecclesiastical and
civil power, questions, which are as ancient as mediæval times, and
as modern as our own. Thus too again the Commons' Speaker, in florid
diction congratulated the monarch on the prosperity of his realms.
That day can never be forgotten. Outwardly the Church, like the State,
looked strong; but an earthquake was at hand, destined to overturn
the foundations of both. To understand the crisis in reference to the
Church we must look a little further back.[3]
The Anglo-Catholic and Puritan parties stood face to face in the
National Church, at the opening of the Long Parliament. They had
existed from the time of the Reformation.
Anglo-Catholics, while upholding with reverence the three creeds of
Christendom, did not maintain any particular doctrines as distinctive
of their system. Neither did they, though their peculiarities were
chiefly ecclesiastical, propound any special theory of Church and
State. Under Queen Elizabeth they maintained theological opinions
different from those which they upheld under Charles the First. At the
former period they were Calvinists. Before the civil wars they became
Arminians. Preaching upon the controversy was forbidden; and Bishop
Morley, on being asked "what Arminians held," wittily replied, "the
best bishoprics and deaneries in England!"[4]
Whereas in reference to doctrine there was change, in reference to
ecclesiastical principles there was progress. The constitution of
the Protestant Church of England being based on Acts of Parliament,
and the supremacy of the Crown in all matters "touching spiritual
or ecclesiastical jurisdiction"[5] being recognized as a fundamental
principle of the Reformation--the dependence of the Church upon the
civil power appeared as soon as the great ecclesiastical change took
place. The Act of Uniformity in the first year of Elizabeth was passed
by the lay Lords alone--all the Bishops who were present dissented--and
the validity of the consecration of the first Protestant Archbishop had
to be ratified by a parliamentary statute.[6]
Of the successive High Commissions--which formed the great spiritual
tribunals of the land--the majority of the Commissioners were
laymen.[7] The Anglo-Catholics of Elizabeth's reign were obliged to
accept this state of things, and sometimes to bow before their royal
mistress, as if she had been possessed of an absolute super-episcopal
rule.[8] Yet gradually they shewed a jealousy of parliamentary
interference, and rose in the assertion of their authority and the
exercise of their power. Whitgift availed himself of the lofty
spiritual prerogatives of the Crown to check the Commons in what he
deemed their intrusive meddlings with spiritual affairs.[9] He strove
to lift the Parliamentary yoke from the neck of the Church, and to
place all ecclesiastical matters in the hands of Convocation. He
preferred canons to statutes, and asked for the royal confirmation of
the first rather than the second. But, after Whitgift and under the
Stuarts, Church power made considerable advances. Anglo-Catholics,
under the first James and the first Charles, took higher ground than
did their fathers. Their dislike of Parliaments went beyond what
Whitgift had dared to manifest. The doctrine of the divine origin
of Episcopacy, which was propounded by Bancroft, when Whitgift's
chaplain, probably at Whitgift's suggestion, certainly with his
concurrence--though it startled some English Protestants as a novelty,
and roused the anger of a Puritan privy councillor jealous of the
Queen's supremacy,[10] became a current belief of the Stuart Anglicans.
At the same time the power of Convocation was widely stretched, as
will be seen in the business of the famous canons of 1640. The
encroachments of the High Commission upon the jurisdiction of the
Civil Courts, and the liberties of the subject, produced complaints in
everybody's mouth, and served, as much as anything, to bring on the
great catastrophe. What is now indicated in a few words will receive
proof and illustration hereafter.
Looking at changes in the doctrine and at progress in the policy
of Anglo-Catholics, perhaps, on the whole, the persons intended by
that denomination may be best described as distinguished by certain
principles or sentiments, rather than by any organic scheme of dogma or
polity. They formed a school of thought which bowed to the decisions
of the past, craved Catholic unity, elevated the episcopal office,
exalted Church authority, suspected individual opinion, gave prominence
to social Christianity, delighted in ceremonial worship and symbolism,
attached great importance to order and uniformity, and sought the
mysterious operations of divine grace through material channels. The
Anglo-Catholic spirit in most respects, as might be expected, appears
more shadowy and in less power amongst the Bishops connected with the
Reformation than amongst those who succeeded.[11] Parker, Whitgift, and
Laud represent stages of advancement in this point of view. But from
the very foundation of the Reformed Church of England this spirit, in a
measure, manifested itself, and in no respect, perhaps, so much as in
reverence for early patristic teaching. No one can be surprised that
such tendencies remained with many who withdrew allegiance from the
Pope, and renounced the grosser corruptions of Rome. It is a notable
fact that out of 9,400 ecclesiastics, at the accession of Elizabeth,
less than 200 left their livings.[12] Many evaded the law under shelter
of powerful patrons, or escaped through the remoteness and poverty of
their cures. And it cannot be believed that, of those who positively
conformed, all or nearly all became real Protestants.
The divines of this school, drawn towards the Fathers by their
venerable antiquity, their sacramental tone and their reverence for
the episcopate, did not miss in them doctrinal tendencies accordant
with their own. Even the Calvinistic Anglican of an earlier period
could turn to the pages of Augustine and of other Latin Fathers, and
find there nourishment for belief in Predestination, and Salvation
by faith. But the Arminian still more easily found his own ideas of
Christianity in Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, and other Eastern
oracles. The Greek Fathers were favourites with the Anglican party
of the seventeenth century. Whether the study of that branch of
literature was the cause or the effect of the Arminian tendencies of
the day--whether a taste for the learning and rhetoric of the great
writers of Byzantium and Alexandria paved the way for the adoption of
their creed, or sympathies with that creed led to the opening of their
long neglected folios, may admit of question. Certainly the formation
of theological beliefs is always a subtle process, and is subject to so
many influences that, in the absence of conclusive evidence, it is
hazardous confidently to pronounce a judgment.
The fairest side of Stuart-Anglicanism presents itself in the writings
of Dr. Donne, and Bishop Andrewes. In the first of these great
preachers there is a strong "patristic leaven,"--a lofty enforcement of
church claims, a deep reverence for virginity, and an inculcation of
the doctrine of the Real presence--such as we notice in the writings
of the Fathers before the schoolmen had crystallized the feeling of
an earlier age into the hard dogma of Transubstantiation. But there
are also in some of his quaint and beautiful sermons statements of
Christian truth, resembling the theology of Augustine; and at the
same time, from the very bent of his genius, he was led to illustrate
practical duty in many edifying ways. As to Bishop Andrewes, his "Greek
Devotions" present him as a man of great spirituality; and we are not
surprised to learn that he spent five hours every day in prayer and
meditation. The formality of method in his celebrated manual, the
quaintness of his diction, and his artificial but ingenious arrangement
of petition and praise are offensive to modern taste; and, it must be
allowed, his catholic _animus_ is betrayed every now and then, so as
to shock Protestant sensibilities; yet there are Protestants who still
use these Devotions, and find in them helps to communion with God, aids
to self-examination, and impulses to a holy life. On turning to his
sermons, we discover expressed in his sententious eloquence (which has
been rather too much condemned for pedantry and alliteration) doctrinal
statements respecting the Atonement and Justification by Faith, quite
in harmony with evangelical opinions. Though not a Calvinist, he was
free from Pelagian tincture. Andrewes, Donne and others, however,
are not--any more than the Fathers--to be judged by extracts. A few
passages do not accurately convey their pervading sentiments. Orthodox
and evangelical in occasional statements of doctrine, still they are
thoroughly sacramentarian and priestly in spirit. And, no doubt, their
works, especially those of Andrewes, contributed in a great degree to
foster that kind of religion which so much distressed, alarmed, and
irritated the Puritans at the opening of the Civil War.
The admirable George Herbert, too, had strong Anglo-Catholic
sympathies, on their poetical and devotional side. His hymns and
prayers are in harmony with his holy quiet life, and may be compared
to a strain of music such as he drew from his lute or viol, or to a
deep-toned cathedral antiphony, in response to notes struck by an angel
choir.
The type of character formed under such culture partook largely of a
mediæval spirit. The saints of the Church were cherished models. The
festivals of the Church were seasons for joy, its fasts for sorrow. The
liturgy of the Church stereotyped the expressions of devotion, almost
as much in its private as in its public exercise. The ministers of the
Church were regarded more as priests than teachers, and their spiritual
counsel and consolations were sought with a feeling, not foreign to
that in which Romanists approach the confessional. The sacraments
of the Church were received with awe, if not with trembling, as the
mystic vehicles of salvation; and the whole History of the Church,
its persecution and prosperity, its endurance and achievements, its
conflicts and victories, were connected in the minds of such persons
with the ancient edifices in which they worshipped. The cathedral and
even many village choirs told them of "the glorious company of the
Apostles," "the goodly fellowship of the prophets," and "the noble
army of martyrs," and "the Holy Church throughout all the world."
They loved to see those holy ones carved in stone and emblazoned in
coloured glass. A dim religious light was in harmony with their grave
and subdued temper. The lofty Gothic roof, the long-drawn aisle, the
fretted vault, and the pavement solemnly echoing every footfall,
had in their eyes a mysterious charm. The external, the visible,
and the symbolic, more exalted their souls than anything abstract,
argumentative, and doctrinal: yet, though their understanding and
reason had little exercise, it must not be forgotten, that, through
imagination and sensibility awakened by material objects, these
worshippers might rise into the regions of the sublime and infinite,
the eternal and divine.
Such religion existed in the reign of Charles I. amongst the
dignitaries of the Church. Occupying prebendal houses in a Cathedral
close, they found nourishment for their devotion in "the service of
song," as they occupied the dark oak stalls of the Minster choir. It
was also cherished in the Universities. Heads of houses, professors,
and fellows carried much of the Anglican feeling with them, as they
crossed the green quadrangle, to morning and evening prayer. Town
rectors and rural incumbents would participate in the same influence.
Devout women, in oriel-windowed closets, also would kneel down, under
its inspiration, to repeat passages in the Prayer book, or in Bishop
Andrewes' devotions. And some English noblemen, free from courtly vice,
would embody the nobler principles of the system. Yet, probably, the
larger number of religious people in England were of a different class.
The following extract from a letter, belonging to the early part of
the year 1641, giving an account of the death of the Lady Barbara
Viscountess Fielding, affords an idea of Anglican piety in the last
hour of life, more vivid than any general description:--
"About twelve of the clock this Thursday, the day of her departure, Dr.
More being gone, I went to her, and by degrees told her of the danger
she was in, upon which she seemed as it were to recollect herself,
and desired me to deal plainly with her, when I told her Dr. More's
judgment of her, for which she gave me most hearty thanks, saying this
was a favour above all I had ever done her, &c.; and when she had, in
a most comfortable manner, given me hearty thanks, she desired me to
spend the time she had to live here, with her in praises and prayers
to Almighty God for her, desiring me not to leave her, but to pray
for her, when she could not, and was not able to pray for herself,
and not to forsake her until I had commended her soul to God her
Creator. After which, some time being spent in praising God for her
creation, redemption, preservation hitherto, &c., we went to prayers,
using in the first place the form appointed by our Church (a form
she most highly admired), and then we enlarged ourselves, when she
added thirty or forty holy ejaculations;--then I read unto her divers
of David's Psalms, after which we went to prayers again; then she
desired the company to go out of the room, when she made a relation of
some particulars of her life to me (being then of perfect judgment),
desiring the absolution our Church had appointed, before which nurses
and others were called in, and all kneeling by her, she asked pardon of
all she had offended there, and desired me to do the like for her to
those that were not there; and when I had pronounced the absolution,
she gave an account of her faith, and then after some ejaculations she
praised Almighty God that He had given her a sight of her sins, giving
Him most humble thanks that He had given her time to repent, and to
receive the Church's absolution; and then she prayed in a very audible
voice, that God would be pleased to be merciful to this our distressed
Church of England for Jesus Christ his sake. After this she only spoke
to my Lord, having spoken to her father, Sir J. Lambe, two or three
hours before, and then at last of all, she only said, 'Lord Jesus,
receive my soul;' but this was so weakly, that all heard it not, nor
did I plainly, but in some sort guessed by what I heard of it."[13]
But the Anglo-Catholicism of the Stuart age presented other aspects.
In a multitude of cases, ritual worship degenerated into mere
ceremonialism. An ignorant peasantry, who could neither read nor write,
and who were destitute of all that intellectual stimulus which, in a
thousand ways, now touches the most illiterate, would derive little
benefit from reading liturgical forms, unaccompanied by instructive
preaching--against which, in the Puritan form, the abettors of the
system were much prejudiced. Though the prayers and offices of the
Church of England be incomparably beautiful, experience is sufficient
to show that, familiar with their repetition, the thoughtless and
demoralized, being quite out of sympathy with their spirit, fail to
discern their excellence. And, when it is remembered, that the Book
of Sports, instituted by King James, was the rule and the reward for
Sabbath observance; that after service in the parish church (not
otherwise), the rustics were encouraged to play old English games on
the village green, to dance around the May-pole, or to shoot at butts;
we ask what could be the result, but religious formalism scarcely
distinguishable from the lowest superstition? Should it be pleaded,
that a pious and exemplary clergyman would impart life to what might
otherwise have been dead forms, and restrain what otherwise would have
been riotous excess; it may be replied, that a very considerable number
of the holders of livings were not persons of that description; they
sank to the level of their parishioners, and had no power to lift their
parishioners to a level higher than their own.
The sympathies of the Church were with the people in their amusements;
a circumstance which contributed to the strong popular reaction in
favour of the Church, when Charles II. was restored. In the reign of
Charles I. the wakes, or feasts, intended to celebrate the dedication
of churches had degenerated into intemperate and noisy gatherings, and
were, on that account, brought by the Magistrates under the notice of
the Judges. But the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Bath
and Wells, backed by the King, came to the rescue. The complaints were
attributed to Puritan "humourists." Alleged disorders were denied. The
better sort of clergy in the diocese of Bath and Wells,--seventy-two
in number, likened to the Septuagint interpreters, "who agreed so soon
in the translation of the Old Testament,"--came together, and declared
that these wakes were fit to be continued for a memorial of the
dedication of churches, for the civilizing of the people, for lawful
recreation, for composing differences, for increase of love and amity,
for the relief of the poor, and for many other reasons.[14]
The charge has been brought against the high Churchmen of that day,
that they were _papistically_ inclined. If by this term be meant any
disposition to uphold the Papacy, and to acknowledge the authority
of the Bishop of Rome over other Churches, even though modified by
a charter of liberties like the Gallican, the charge is unfair. A
distinct national establishment was always contended for by those
who were suspected of the strongest papal leanings. They advocated
an authority not derived from any foreign potentate, but, as they
conceived, of immediate divine origin, and this authority they
considered to be entitled to uncontrolled jurisdiction within the
shores of the four seas. They wished for a Pope--to use the current
language of the times--"not at Rome but at Lambeth." A reconciliation
with the Church of Rome not involving submission, might have been
agreeable to some of the party; yet, it must be acknowledged that, in
solemn conclave, the Anglicans accused the Romanists of idolatry.[15]
If, however, by _papistic_ be meant a tendency to Catholic worship,
and so ultimately to Romish conformity, then may the imputation be
supported by facts. The history of Christendom shews that the Church
gradually passed from its primitive simplicity to the corruptions
of the papacy; that ante-Nicene innovations, with post-Nicene
developments and traditionalism, were stepping-stones in the
transition. The process, on a wide scale, requires many centuries for
its accomplishment; but partially and in individual cases a few years
may suffice for the experiment. Ecclesiastical annals, from Constantine
to Hildebrand, may be epitomized in a brief chronology. Movements may
rapidly pass through stages, like those of the Nicene and Mediæval. And
sharp speaking, in order to maintain a certain ecclesiastical position
against Rome, may immediately precede, and in fact, herald the approach
of pilgrims to the very gate of the seven-hilled city.[16] What has
occurred within our own time in individual instances, was likely to
occur, to a large extent, in the first half of the seventeenth century.
Mediæval sympathies, at the period now under our review, are obvious
not only in the rigorous enforcement of fasting and abstinence,[17]
which had continued ever since the Reformation, but in certain
monastic tendencies, and in slurs cast on the reformers. A document,
prepared in 1633--no doubt under the influence of Laud--by Secretary
Windebank, for the direction of Judges of assize, urged obedience to
the proclamation for the better observance of Lent and fish-days,
because their neglect had become very common, probably in many cases
on Puritan grounds.[18] Monastic tendencies, about the same time,
appeared in the famous Monastery at Gidding, in Huntingdonshire. While
the devotions of the pious family there excited the admiration of Isaak
Walton,--in whose account of it is reflected the more spiritual phase
of the proceeding,--the superstitions, mingled with better things,
provoked the severest animadversions of Puritan contemporaries,[19] who
wondered at nothing more than, that in a settled Church government,
Bishops could permit "such a foundation so nearly complying with
Popery." In connection with this may be mentioned the preface to the
new statutes for the University of Oxford, published in Convocation,
which "disparaged King Edward's times and government, declaring, that
the discipline of the University was then discomposed and troubled by
that King's injunctions, and the flattering novelty of the age, and
that it did revive and flourish again in Queen Mary's days, under the
government of Cardinal Pole, when by the much-to-be-desired felicity of
those times, an inbred candour supplied the defect of statutes."[20]
In the sixteenth century, and far into the seventeenth, intolerance,
inherited from former ages, infected more or less all religious
parties. Few saw civil liberty to be a social right, which justice
claimed for the whole community, whatever might be the ecclesiastical
opinions of individuals. This position of affairs shewed how little
dependent is spiritual despotism upon any particular theological
system, and how it can graft itself upon one theory as well as upon
another; for, while under Elizabeth persecution allied itself to
Calvinism, in the first two of the Stuart reigns, Arminianism--at
that time in Holland wedded to liberty of conscience--appeared in
England embracing a form of merciless oppression. But, though without
special theological affinities, intolerance certainly shewed kinship
to certain forms of ecclesiastical rule. It fondly clung to prelacy
before the Civil War. The relation in which subsequently it appeared to
other Church organizations will be disclosed hereafter. Whitgift and
Bancroft, inheriting intolerance from their predecessors, persecuted
Nonconformists. They silenced and deprived many; whilst others they
excommunicated and cast into prison. The Anglican Canon Law--which must
be distinguished from the Papal Canon Law[21]--remained a formidable
engine of tyranny in the hands of those disposed to use it for that
purpose. That law, of course, claimed to be not law for Episcopalians
alone but for the people at large, who were treated altogether as
subject to Episcopal rule; and neither creed nor worship inconsistent
with canonical regulations could be tolerated for a moment. Only
one Church was allowed in England; and for those who denied its
apostolicity, objected to its government, disapproved of its rites and
observances, or affirmed other congregations to be lawful churches,
there remained the penalty of excommunication, with all its alarming
consequences.[22]
Anglicanism allowed no exercise of private judgment, but required
everybody to submit to the same standard of doctrine, worship, and
discipline. Moderate Puritans were to be broken in, and Nonconformists
"harried out of the land." It might seem a trifle that people should
be fined for not attending parish churches; but imprisonment and exile
for nonconformity struck most Englishmen as a stretch of injustice
perfectly intolerable.[23]
Ecclesiastical Courts, not only consistory and commissary, but
branching out into numerous forms, carried on actively and continuously
the administration of canon law after the Reformation. Discipline
was, perhaps, not much less maintained after that event than
before.[24] Such activity continued throughout the reigns of Elizabeth,
James, and Charles; and so late as 1636 the Archdeacon of Colchester
held forty-two sessions at four different towns during that single
year. The object of the canon law and the ecclesiastical courts being
_pro morum correctione et salute animæ_, immoralities such as the
common law did not punish as crimes, came within the range of their
authority, together with all sorts of offences against religion and the
Church. The idea was to treat the inhabitants of a parish as members
of the Anglican Church, and to exercise a vigilant and universal
discipline by punishing them for vice, heresy, and schism. Intemperance
and incontinence are offences very frequently noticed in the records of
Archidiaconal proceedings in the latter part of the sixteenth and the
early part of the seventeenth centuries, suggesting a very unfavourable
idea of public morals at that time; and a long catalogue also appears
of charges touching all kinds of misconduct. Some appear very
strange,--such as hanging up linen in a church to dry; a woman coming
to worship in man's apparel; a girl sitting in the same pew with her
mother, and not at the pew door, to the great offence of many reverent
women; and matrons being churched without wearing veils. Others relate
to profaning Sundays and holidays, setting up maypoles in church time,
and disturbing and even reviling the parish ministers. Certain of them
point distinctly to Puritan and Nonconformist behaviour, such as
refusing to stand and bow when the creed was repeated, and to kneel
at particular parts of divine service. Brownists are specifically
mentioned, and extreme anti-sacramental opinions are described.
The method of proceeding _ex officio_ was by the examination of the
accused on his oath, that he might so convict himself if guilty, and
if innocent, justify himself by compurgation[25]--a method, it may be
observed, totally opposed to the criminal jurisprudence of our common
law, and one which became increasingly offensive in proportion to the
increase of national attachment to the English Constitution on the side
of popular freedom. Though, as we look at the moral purpose of these
institutions, and the cognizance they took of many vicious and criminal
irregularities of conduct which did not come under the notice of civil
magistrates, we are quite disposed to do justice to the motives in
which the courts originated, and to admit that in the rude life of the
middle ages they might possess some advantages--we must see, looking at
them altogether, that they became the ready instruments of intolerance
when great differences in religious opinion had appeared; that they
were certain, in Puritan esteem, to attach odium to the old system of
Church discipline; and that they were completely out of harmony with
the modern spirit of Protestant civilization.
In the Tudor and Stuart days, there also existed two tribunals of
a character which it is difficult in the nineteenth century to
understand. The High Commission Court was doubtless intended to
promote and consolidate the Reformation on Anglo-Catholic principles,
by exterminating Popery on the one hand, and checking Puritanism on
the other. According to the terms of the Act of Uniformity, Elizabeth
and her successors had power given them "to visit, reform, redress,
order, correct and amend all such errors, heresies, schisms, abuses,
contempts, offences and enormities whatsoever, which, by any manner
of spiritual authority or jurisdiction, ought, or may be lawfully
reformed, ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained or amended." Her
Majesty became invested with authority to correct such heresies of the
clergy as had been adjudged to be so by the authority of the canonical
Scripture, or by the first four general councils, or any of them, or
by any other general council, or by the High Court of Parliament, with
the assent of the clergy in convocation.[26] Many Commissions were
successively issued by the Queen.[27] Neal gives an abstract of that
one which was issued in the month of December, 1583. After reciting
the Act of Supremacy, the Act of Uniformity, the Act for the assurance
of the Queen's powers over all states, and the Act for reforming
certain disorders touching ministers of the Church, her Majesty
named forty-four commissioners, of whom twelve were bishops, some were
privy councillors, lawyers, and officers of state, the rest deans,
archdeacons, and civilians. They were authorized to enquire respecting
heretical opinions, schisms, absence from church, seditious books,
contempts, conspiracies, false rumours, and slanderous words, besides
offences, such as adultery, punishable by ecclesiastical laws. In the
first clause command is given to enquire, "as well by the oaths of
twelve good and lawful men, as also by witnesses, and all _other means
and ways you can devise_."[28] With this power of enormous latitude,
instituting enquiry over vague offences, was connected a power of
punishment, qualified by the word "lawful," and by reference "to the
power and authority limited and appointed by the laws, ordinances, and
statutes of the realm." Liberty was given to examine suspected persons
"on their corporal oath"--in fact, the _ex officio_ oath.[29] Any
three of the members had authority to execute the commission.[30]
The Court so constituted extended its range, and increased its
activity, and pressed beyond the boundaries of statute law, so as
to become, in the reign of Charles the First, a means of arbitrary
government intolerable to the country.
Records of the Court are still preserved in the State Paper Office,[31]
shewing the modes of proceeding, the charges of which the Commissioners
took cognizance, and the punishments they pronounced upon the
convicted. Counsel for office--counsel for defendants--appearance
and oath to answer articles--appearance, and delivering in of
certificate--orders for defendants to give in answers--motion for
permission to put in additional articles--commissions decreed for
taking answers and examining witnesses--commissions brought in and
depositions of witnesses published--and orders for taxation of
costs--are forms of expression and notices of proceeding very frequent
in these old Books. Some of them conveyed, no doubt, terrible meanings
to the parties accused. We meet also with "suppressions of motion,"
"agreements for subduction of articles," petitions to be admitted
in "_formâ pauperis_," and reference of causes to the Dean of Arches.
Collecting together heads of accusation, we find the following in the
list--holding heretical opinions, contempt of ecclesiastical laws,
seditious preaching, scandalous matter in sermons, using invective
speeches unfit for the pulpit, nonconformity, publishing fanatical
pamphlets, profane speeches, schism, blasphemy, raising new doctrines,
preaching after deposition, and simoniacal contracts. Descending to
minute particulars, we discover such items as these:--"locking the
church door, and impounding the archdeacons, officials, and clergy," in
the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; wearing hats in church;
counting money on the communion-table; saying, "A ploughman was as
good as a priest," and asking, "What good do bishops in Ireland?;"
profane acts endangering parish edifices; praying that young Prince
Charles might not be brought up in popery; and submission performed in
a slight and contemptuous manner.[32] Entries of fines and imprisonment
frequently occur.
It should be stated that occasionally other religious offences are
noticed in these volumes, such as possessing a Romish breviary, and
refusing the oath of allegiance. Enquiries also appear, as to persons
who secreted young ladies "going to the nunneries beyond seas."
There are, too, monitions "to bring to the office popish stuff and
books."[33] But such instances are few compared with those relating
to Puritans. Also now and then occur cases of flagrant clerical
immorality, acts of violence, and of criminal behaviour.[34] But it
was the persecution, the intolerance, the irritating control over
so many persons and things, and the harsh treatment, and severe
sentences of this absorbing jurisdiction, emulating as it did the worst
ecclesiastical tribunals of the middle ages, and of Roman Catholic
countries, that so roused the wrath of our forefathers against it.
It is very curious, after inspecting the records of the High
Commission, to open Dr. Featley's _Clavis_, and there to find
sermons, preached by him at Lambeth before the Commissioners, on such
subjects as "The bruised reed and smoking flax," and "The still small
voice,"--sermons filled with the mildest and gentlest sentiments. More
curious, to light on other discourses in the same volume, bearing the
very appropriate titles of "Pandora's box," and "The lamb turned into
a lion." But for the knowledge we have of the preacher and of the
contents of his discourses, we should suppose the former titles were
ironical hits, and the latter outspoken truths. They are neither; but
are chosen, it is plain, with perfect simplicity.[35]
The Star Chamber is commonly associated in the minds of Englishmen with
the High Commission Court. Unfettered by the verdict of juries, not
guided by statute law, and irresponsible to other tribunals, it claimed
an indefinable jurisdiction over all sorts of misdemeanours--"holding
for honourable that which pleased, and for just that which profited."
Though not a constituted ecclesiastical court, like the High
Commission, bishops as privy councillors sat amongst its judges, and it
took cognizance of religious publications. Whilst the High Commission
confined its penalties to deprivation, imprisonment, and fines, the
favourite punishments of the Star Chamber were whipping, branding,
cutting ears, and slitting noses. The barbarous treatment of Leighton,
Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick, will shortly be noticed.
These two arbitrary courts, which, in spite of their difference, were
almost invariably linked together in the thoughts of our countrymen,
concentrated on themselves an amount of public indignation equal to the
fury of the French against the Bastile; and at last, like that prison,
they fell amidst the execrations of a people whose patience had been
exhausted by such prolonged iniquities.[36]
Nor was it only the intolerance of the Church which exasperated
the people, its secular intermeddling did so likewise. Before the
Reformation Churchmen had held the highest offices in the State,
indeed, had controlled all civil affairs; and Laud was now imitating
the Cardinals of an earlier age. But the English Reformation had shaken
off from itself the civil power of the Church; laymen, not the clergy,
now claimed to guide the helm. The Puritanism of the seventeenth
century, and the civil war which grew out of it, were practical
protests against the attempts of Charles, Strafford, and Laud to
revive what the Reformation in this country had destroyed. The modern
spirit of civilization was seen rebelling against the intrusion of the
spiritual on the secular power. It was a stage in the great European
conflict which ended in the French Revolution; it was an assault upon a
system which has now expired everywhere except in the city of Rome.
As was only consistent, the party supporting ecclesiastical intolerance
also supported civil despotism. Never since the English Constitution
had grown up were the liberties of the people so threatened as during
the earlier part of the seventeenth century. The two checks on the
tyranny of the Crown, the aristocracy and the Church, had long been
enfeebled--the aristocracy by the wars of the Roses; the Church by
the loss of independence at the Reformation. The nobles of England had
wasted their strength in the fifteenth century; the Church of England
had prostrated herself before the throne in the sixteenth. Neither of
them had now the power, any more than they had now the will, to defend
popular freedom against the invasions of regal prerogative. It is true,
that the same causes, which weakened them as the possible friends of
the people, weakened them also as actual friends of the Sovereign.
What they did for the Crown in the Civil Wars, was far less than they
might have done at an earlier period: even as what remained in their
power to accomplish on behalf of popular rights was far less. But the
malign aspect of the Church, then the chief power next the throne,
towards the nation at large, and the Commons in particular, was most
manifest and most alarming at the epoch under consideration. Old
English liberties indeed had never been extinguished. The spirit of
English self-government asserted under the house of Lancaster, though
seemingly held in abeyance in the times of the Tudors, so far from
expiring, had come out with renewed youth in the days of the Stuarts,
through the parliamentary career of those eminent statesmen who formed
the vanguard of the Commonwealth army. But against the illustrious Sir
John Eliot, with his noble compeers, High Church contemporaries stood
in defiant hostility. That kings are the fountains of all power; that
they reign "by the grace of God," in the sense of divine right; that
they are feudal lords--the soil their property, and the people their
slaves--were doctrines upheld by sycophants of the Court, and endorsed
and defended by doctors of the Church. Dr. Sibthorpe, a notorious
zealot for passive obedience and non-resistance, monstrously declared,
"If princes command anything, which subjects may not perform, because
it is against the laws of God, or of nature, or impossible; yet
subjects are bound to undergo the punishment, without either resisting,
or railing, or reviling; and so to yield a passive obedience where they
cannot exhibit an active one. I know no other case, but one of those
three wherein a subject may excuse himself with passive obedience, but
in all other he is bound to active obedience."[37] Another preacher
of the same class, Dr. Manwaring, was brought before Parliament for
maintaining, "That his Majesty is not bound to keep and observe the
good laws and customs of this realm; and that his royal will and
command in imposing loans, taxes, and other aids upon his people,
without common consent in Parliament, doth so far bind the consciences
of the subjects of this kingdom, that they cannot refuse the same
without peril of eternal damnation."[38]
The Church of the middle ages had commonly thrown its shield over
subjects against the oppression of rulers: but in contrast with
this, the Anglo-Catholic Church of the Stuart times stood in closest
league with Government for purposes the most despotic. The tyranny
of Buckingham in 1624, with his forced loans, became insupportable,
and the obloquy of it all--alas for the Church of England!--fell
largely upon its dignitaries, because favour had been strongly shown
to the policy of that arrogant minister by such men as Sibthorpe and
Manwaring. Strafford went beyond Charles in imperious despotism; and
Strafford found in Archbishop Laud not only a helper in his "thorough"
policy, but an example of even more violent measures, and a counsellor
instigating him to still greater lengths.[39]
Besides all this intolerance and oppression, it must be acknowledged
that there was in the ministry of the Church of England a large amount
of ungodliness and immorality. To believe that all the charges of
clerical viciousness and criminality were true, would be to imbibe
Puritan prejudice; whilst, on the other hand, to believe that all
were false, would betray a strong tincture of High Church partiality;
so much could not have been boldly affirmed, and generally believed,
without a large substratum of fact. But more of this hereafter.
Rigid ceremonialism, desecration of the Sabbath, sympathy with
Roman Catholicism, fondness for imitating popish practices, cruel
intolerance, alliance with unconstitutional rule, and the immorality
of clergymen, will serve to explain what gave such force to the
antagonistic puritan feeling which surged up so fearfully in 1640.
The Church had become thoroughly unpopular amongst the middle and
lower classes in London and other large places; in short, with that
portion of the people, which in the modern age of civilization, must
and will carry the day. They did not then, with all their fondness
for theological controversy, care so much for any abstract idea of
Church polity as for the actual working of ecclesiastical machinery,
and the character and conduct of ecclesiastical men before their eyes.
It was not any Presbyterian or Independent theory, as opposed to the
Episcopalian system of the Church of England, that swept the nation
along its fiery path in the dread assault which levelled the Episcopal
establishment; but it was the indignation aroused by corruption,
immorality, and intolerance, which kindled the blazing war-torch
destined to burn to the ground both temple and throne. Had the Church
of England been at that time a liberal and purely Protestant Church,
and its rulers wise, moderate, and charitable men; whatever might have
been the influence of ecclesiastical dogmas, its fate must have been
far different from what it actually became.
The person who carried Anglo-Catholicism to its greatest excess,
and who, by other unpopular proceedings, did more than anybody
else, to alienate from the State religion a large proportion of his
fellow-countrymen, was William Laud. Ritualism ran riot under the rule
of this famous prelate. Alienated from the theology of Augustine,
but relishing the sacerdotalism of Chrysostom, he delighted in a
gorgeous worship such as accorded with the Byzantine liturgy, and was
penetrated with that reverence for the priesthood and the Eucharist
which the last of the Greek orators, in his flights of rhetoric, did
so much to foster. Whatever might be the extravagances in Byzantium,
they were nearly, if not quite, paralleled when Archbishop Laud held
unchecked sway. A church was consecrated by throwing dust or ashes
in the air.[40] The napkin covering the Eucharistic elements was
carefully lifted up, reverently peeped under, and then solemnly let
fall again: all which performances were accompanied by repeated lowly
obeisances before the altar. This ceremony was quite as childish and
far less picturesque than the dramatic doings in the Greek Church,
when choristers aped angels by fastening to their shoulders wings of
gauze.[41] Into cathedrals, churches, and chapels, were also introduced
pictures, images, crucifixes, and candles, which, with the aid of
surplices and copes,[42] bowing, crossing, and genuflections, produced
a spectacle which might be taken for a meagre imitation of the mass.
Had not public opinion, which was beginning to be a mighty power,
checked such proceedings, there can be no doubt they would speedily
have reached such lengths, that an English parish church would have
differed scarcely at all from a Roman Catholic chapel.[43]
Laud's size was in the inverse ratio of his activity--for he had the
name of "the little Archbishop," though his capacities for work were of
gigantic magnitude. His influence extended everywhere, over everybody,
and everything, small as well as great--like the trunk of an elephant,
as well suited to pick up a pin as to tear down a tree. His articles
of visitation traversed the widest variety of particulars, descending
through all conceivable ecclesiastical and moral contingencies, down
to the humblest details of village life. Churchwardens were asked,
"Doth your minister preach standing, and with his hat off? Do the
people cover their heads in the Church, during the time of divine
service, unless it be in case of necessity, in which case they may
wear a nightcap or coif?" These functionaries were also required to
state, how many physicians, chirurgeons, or midwives there might be
in the neighbourhood; how long they had used the office, and by what
authority; and how they demeaned themselves, and of what skill they
were accounted in their profession.[44] A report of the state of his
province he presented to the King year by year.[45] Every bishopric
passed under his review, and the substance of the information he
obtained and digested, affords a bird's-eye view of the religious
condition of each diocese, in the Archbishop's estimation. Oxford,
Salisbury, Chichester, Hereford, Exeter, Ely, Peterborough, and
Rochester, were in a tolerably fair condition, although furnishing
matter here and there for some complaint. But in his own see of
Canterbury there were many refractory persons, and divers Brownists
and other separatists, especially about Ashford and Maidstone, who
were doing harm, "not possible to be plucked up on the sudden."[46]
London occasioned divers complaints of nonconformity. Factious and
malicious pamphlets were circulated, Puritans were insolent, and
curates and lecturers were "convented." From Lincoln came complaints,
that parishioners wandered from church to church, and refused to come
up to the altar rail at the holy communion; Buckingham and Bedfordshire
also abounded in refractory people. Norwich had several factious men:
Bridge and Ward are named, and it is said there was more of disorder
in Ipswich and Yarmouth than in the cathedral city. Lecturers were
abundant, and catechising neglected. In the diocese of Bath and Wells,
lectures were put down in market towns, and afternoon sermons were
changed into catechetical exercises. Popish recusants appeared fewer
than before, and altogether the bishop had put things in marvellous
order.
As Laud's eye--that ferret-like eye, which under its arched brow,
looks with cunning vigilance from Vandyke's canvas--ran over his whole
province, and his busy pen recorded what he learned, he sent to the
Inns of Court--the benchers having betrayed Puritan tendencies--and
insisted upon surplice and hood, and the whole service prescribed for
the occasion being used in chapel before sermon. He claimed rights
of ecclesiastical visitation in the two universities, and inspected
cathedrals and churches, as to their improvements and repairs;
condescending even to order the removal of certain seats employed for
the wives of deans and prebendaries, and directing them to sit upon
movable benches, or chairs.[47]
English residents in Holland;[48] chaplains of regiments amongst the
Presbyterian Dutch; Protestant refugees in this country; and the
ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland, all came under his vigilant notice,
and within his tenacious grasp.[49]
In his own diocese and province[50] Laud's hand fell heavily on those
beneath his sway. "All men," it is remarked, "are overawed, so that
they dare not say their soul is their own." The clergy of his cathedral
muttered their dissatisfaction. Reports circulated that they were "a
little too bold with him;" and his remedy was, "If upon inquiry I do
find it true, I shall not forget that nine of the twelve prebends are
in the king's gift, and order the commission of my visitation; or
alter it accordingly."[51] Dean and prebendaries were soon humbled
under such discipline.
In court and country, in Church and State, Laud, next to the Earl of
Strafford, must be considered to have been the most powerful minister
in England.[52] Pledged to a thorough policy of arbitrary kingship, he
helped in all things his royal master, and his able fellow-councillor.
When Strafford was in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, the Archbishop was
the great power at home behind the throne. "He is the man," said
courtiers, when they would point out the most favourable medium for
approaching royalty.[53] His own power availed for the province of
Canterbury; by the help of his archiepiscopal brother, Neil of York,
it sufficed for all England. Such a man, so bigoted, so imperious, and
so marvellously active, was sure to make many more foes than friends.
He had also ways, altogether his own, of making enemies. As he himself
tells us, he kept a ledger, in which he preserved a strict account of
the theological and ecclesiastical bias of clergymen, for the guidance
of his royal master in the distribution of patronage. O and P were the
letters at the heads of two lists. On the _Orthodox_ all favours were
showered. From those favours all _Puritans_ were excluded.[54]
The Anglicanism of Laud was dear to Charles I. for two reasons. First,
it harmonized with his own despotic principles. The King had been,
ever since he assumed the crown, working out a problem in which the
direst mischief was involved--whether it were not possible for an
English sovereign, without casting away constitutional forms, to grasp
at absolute dominion, to make the Commons a mere council for advice,
or a Court to register decrees, rather than an integral branch of the
Legislature; and, while conceding to them the office of filling the
country's purse, to claim and exercise an independent power of managing
the strings. He disliked parliaments, if they exercised their rights.
"They are of the nature of cats," said he, "they ever grow curst with
age, so that if you will have good of them, put them off handsomely
when they come to any age, for young ones are ever most tractable."[55]
His remedy for troublesome parliaments was dissolution. He preferred
ship money to legal taxation: Anglicanism, from its maintenance of
the Divine right of Kings, favoured his views in this respect, and
divines of that stamp were after his own heart. But there was a
second reason why Charles was drawn towards Laud. It would be unjust
to the King to represent him merely as a politician. Grave, cold,
reserved and haughty--qualities indicated in the countenance which the
pencil of Vandyke has made familiar to us all--he was also a man of
sincere religious feeling; but that feeling appears in harmony with
his natural character. Stately ceremonialism, court-like prelacy,
priestly _hauteur_, and a frigid creed corresponded even more with
the idiosyncracy of the man than with the prejudices of the monarch.
From a youth he had shown a leaning towards the Roman Catholic form of
worship, and this tendency had been nourished by the education received
from his father. "I have fully instructed them," King James observed in
a letter touching his sons, "so as their behaviour and service shall,
I hope, prove decent, and agreeable to the purity of the primitive
Church, and yet as near the Roman form as can lawfully be done, for
it hath ever been my way to go with the Church of Rome _usque ad
aras_."[56]
As we proceed in our review of parties, we feel the difficulty of
defining the boundary between them. The majority of divines were
thoroughly Anglican or thoroughly Puritan; yet a great many had only
partial sympathies with the one or the other. Nor did they form a
class of their own. In no sense were they party men, except so far
as they were prepared to support episcopacy and defend the Common
Prayer. Amongst these may be mentioned Dr. Jackson, sometime vicar of
Newcastle, (afterwards Dean of Peterborough,) known in his own time as
an exemplary parish priest, and very popular with the poor, relieving
their wants "with a free heart, a bountiful hand, a comfortable
speech, and a cheerful eye;" better known in our day as the author
of a goodly row of theological works, including discourses on the
Apostles' Creed.[57] He was a decided Arminian, and a rather High
Churchman. Bishop Horne acknowledged a large debt to Dean Jackson, and
Southey ranks him in the first class of English divines.[58] But his
writings present strong attractions for those who have no High Church
sympathies, because the reasonings and contemplations of such a man
rise far above sectarian levels, and are suited to enrich and edify the
whole Church of God. Dr. Christopher Sutton, prebendary of Westminster,
the learned author of two admirable practical treatises, "Learn to
Live" and "Learn to Die,"--in which patristic taste and a special
regard for the Greek Fathers appear in connection with a highly devout
spirit--is another theologian of the same period and the same class,
in whom, with some Anglican elements, others of a Puritan cast are
combined. The well-known Bishop Hall is a still more striking example
of the Puritan divine united with the Anglican ecclesiastic.
If Puritanism cared for antiquity it would be possible to make out
for it a lineage extending back to the first ages of Christendom. As
soon as the Church betrayed symptoms of backsliding, persons arose,
jealous for her honour, who recalled her erring children to paths
of pristine purity. When, boasting of numbers, the many who were
predominant relaxed severity of discipline, and conformed to the
world in various ways--a few zealous Novations and Donatists set up
a standard of reform. In some cases they proceeded at the expense
of charity, and in a narrow spirit; but they aimed ultimately at
restoring what they deemed primitive communion. At a later period the
name, and some of the ecclesiastical sympathies of the Puritans, were
anticipated by the _Cathari_: and in the Lollards and Wickliffites
of England, we may trace the spiritual ancestors of the men who
revolutionized the Church in the seventeenth century. Several of our
Reformers went beyond their brethren in ideas of reform; and in the
reign of Elizabeth--particularly amongst those who returned from the
continent, where they had been brought into close fellowship with
Zwinglians and other advanced Protestants--there were persons holding
opinions substantially the same with those adopted by Puritans under
Charles I.; and those who had no doctrinal tenets or ecclesiastical
preferences to separate them from their contemporaries, but had become
somewhat distinguished by objections to certain forms, and more so by
superior religiousness and spirituality of life, were, on that account,
reproached by laxer men as bigoted precisians. As was natural, this
treatment drove such persons into the arms of others who had embraced
distinctive views of polity, between which and the strict habits of
these new allies there existed obvious harmony. The anti-hierarchical
temper of Puritanism, and its presumed favourableness to the broad
principles and popular spirit of the British constitution secured for
it, on that side, countenance from such as were far from adopting its
religious principles. Leicester and Walsingham looked on it with some
favour as a counterpoise to prelatical arrogance, if not for other
reasons. Burleigh shielded the persecuted from the violence of the High
Commission. Raleigh defended the cause in Parliament. Connection with
these politicians gave political significancy to a movement originating
entirely in spiritual impulses.
Whenever any vigorous revival of religious life occurs, a tendency
to "irregular proceedings" will be sure to appear in the movement
party. Accordingly, one peculiarity of the early Protestants is seen
in a love of meeting together for Christian culture and edification,
apart from the formalities of established worship. The proceedings of
these good people were such as would be now pronounced intensely Low
Church. One neighbour conferred with another, and "did win and turn
his mind with persuasive talk." "To see their travels," exclaimed our
old martyrologist, "their earnest seeking, their burning zeal, their
readings, their watchings, their sweet assemblies, their love and
concord, their godly living, their faithful marrying with the faithful,
may make us now, in these days of our free profession, to blush for
shame."
Somewhat resembling those meetings in the commencement of Henry VIII.'s
reign were the prophesyings in the time of Elizabeth. A number of
junior divines, present on these occasions, delivered in the order of
seniority discourses on a portion of scripture appointed for the day,
and then an elder brother, of learning, experience, and influence,
reviewed what had been advanced, and terminated the engagement by
prayer. Some of Elizabeth's bishops favourably regarded this practice
as good discipline for preachers, and as affording edification to the
people. Grindal incurred the royal displeasure for not putting down
these prophesyings, for her Majesty would tolerate no innovations
in the Established Church. Nor did she look with favour on popular
preaching at all. Theological questions she reserved to be investigated
by her learned divines. Only moral duties, the most elementary truths
of Christianity, and the worship of God, belonged in her opinion to
the people in general. "The liberty of prophesying," indeed, in those
days so much resembled the liberty of the press--preachers so often
spoke as the tribunes of the people, bringing divers public questions
within the range of pulpit criticism, that the Queen had political as
well as religious objections to the freedom of such orators.[59] To
check Puritan tendencies, uniformity was pressed with rigour; The Queen
assumed the initiative in the proceeding. Pilkington, Bishop of Durham,
disliked the cap and surplice. Grindal, Bishop of London, was reluctant
to force the prescribed habits. Even Archbishop Parker was slow in the
business. At length the Queen's zeal carried all before it; Parker
and his commission set to work, and shewed no want of earnestness.
Aylmer, when he succeeded Grindal in the see of London, though once a
friend to the Puritans, made up for his predecessor's lukewarmness by a
rigorous suppression of all Nonconformity;[60] and Whitgift, tolerant
in his Cambridge days, showed himself a stern persecutor when he became
Primate, and Archbishop Bancroft went beyond them all. The minutest
ceremonies were enforced; clerical garments, odious because of their
Popish fashion, were imposed.[61] Such things were held by one party
to be in themselves indifferent, and by the other party to involve a
grave dereliction of Protestant principle. Yet the former imposed these
things upon the latter. What was only excused by the imposer as an
affair in itself of little moment, except for the sake of uniformity,
was condemned by victims of the imposition as a perilous concession
to superstitious ceremonialism. The cause of conscience on the one side
came into collision with the cause of order on the other; part of the
zeal manifested against Puritanism no doubt proceeded from a desire to
gratify the Queen and prevent her from favouring Popery, and therefore
originated in Protestant policy, but the policy was very short-sighted,
and its injustice was equalled by its folly. Able, faithful, and
learned ministers were silenced. In London especially, where Puritan
ministers were numerous, multitudes of quiet steady citizens, with no
love for schism, were alienated from the Established Church, and a long
account of persecution began to be kept, which, when produced at the
day of reckoning, had to be paid in the endurance of similar sufferings.
The strong leaven of Puritanism in the reign of Elizabeth fermented
in different ways. It produced the memorable controversies between
Cartwright and Whitgift, and between Travers and Hooker: curiously
enough, in both cases, the combatants were unequally matched;
Cartwright being a much abler man than Whitgift, and Hooker vastly
surpassing Travers. In the first of these polemical encounters, the
Puritan maintained the exclusive authority of Scripture against the
Anglican, who appealed to the Fathers: and in his opposition to
prelacy, the Puritan developed views of Church government, hereafter
to be noticed, which the Presbyterians of the seventeenth century for
a while, and in a measure, succeeded in practically carrying out. We
see the battle between Travers and Hooker fought on a wider field,
including points of doctrine as well as matters of polity. The Puritan
contended for the Scriptural authority of Church government, while the
Churchman, looking more to the spirit than the letter of God's law
and holy order, sought to lay the corner-stones of ecclesiastical
polity in general principles. Beyond this difference, as preachers
at the Temple where Travers was Lecturer and Hooker was Master, they
presented rather dissimilar phases of theological doctrine; for it was
said "the forenoon sermon spoke Canterbury, and the afternoon sermon
Geneva." The preachers could not agree upon Predestination.[62] They
had not precisely the same idea of Justification by faith. And further
still--and in an age when the Popish controversy excited such deep
feeling, the difference was of great consequence,--Hooker maintained,
that the Church of Rome, though not a pure and perfect Church, was
a true one, so far that such as live and die in its communion, upon
repenting of their sins of ignorance, may be saved; but Travers said,
that the Church of Rome is no true Church at all, so that such as
live and die therein, holding justification in part by works, cannot,
according to the Scriptures, be regarded as saved. Whatever now may be
thought of this latter teaching, most Churchmen then would agree with
Hooker, most Puritans with Travers.
Puritanism opened its lips in parliament. An effort was made in 1584
to curtail the power of bishops, to supersede or control canon law by
common law, to give the people a share in the election of ministers,
and to erect an eldership which, conjointly with the clergy, should
manage the spiritual affairs of a parish. Attempts also were made at
Sabbath reform; but the whole of this Puritanical movement was stopped
by the Queen. Whitgift wrote to his royal mistress, condemning the
interference of Parliament with ecclesiastical matters, and advising
that whatever alterations were made in the Church should come in form
of canon law from the clergy by _her Majesty's authority_. In this
business we recognize an anticipation of the subsequent relative
position of parties. Anglicanism stood on the side of prerogatives
claimed by the Crown, Puritanism on the side of power claimed by
Parliament.[63]
With the Anglican change of doctrine came a change in Puritan
controversy. Under Elizabeth, both parties in the Church of England
were Calvinistic in their creed. When High Churchmen in the reign of
James I. adopted Arminian views, this naturally excited the opposition
of Low Churchmen, and the battle which had before been waged against
caps and canons assumed a character of higher importance, and
discussions were carried on involving creeds.
The Puritans were the champions of predestination, and _identified_
it with the doctrine of salvation by grace. Whether right or wrong
in this respect, it is necessary that such an identification in
their minds should be remembered, for the just appreciation of their
character and conduct. They did not consider themselves as contending
for mere abstractions, but for truths of the highest practical moment
to the interests of mankind: and certainly many of their opponents in
their anti-Calvinistic zeal shewed little sympathy with Evangelical
sentiments, and contented themselves too generally with a hard, dry,
Nicene orthodoxy, coupled with strong ritualistic predilections.
There may certainly be found not a little of powerful moral teaching,
like Chrysostom's, amongst the Anglican divines of that day, and a
firm inculcation of such views as he held on the person of Christ; but
there is a lack, as in his case, of that teaching which exalts the
atoning work of the Redeemer, and the regenerating and sanctifying
agency of the Holy Spirit. The Calvinistic decisions of the Synod of
Dort--whither King James sent English representatives--did not at all
allay the furiousness of the controversy: and if, in consequence of
the Court instructions of 1622, "that no preacher under a bishop or
dean should meddle with the dispute,"[64] the flame here and there
might smoulder, assuredly the fire was by no means extinguished.
It may be added, that many excellent men in the Church of England,
who were far from embracing the theory of government espoused by
Cartwright and Travers, and who considered as trifles the habits and
ceremonies against which the earlier Puritans so earnestly protested,
nevertheless joined with all their heart in opposing the doctrinal
tenets of the Anglicans. Hence arose the distinction between doctrinal
and ecclesiastical Puritans. To Puritans of both kinds James I. had a
strong antipathy. Though at one time a sturdy Calvinist, he abandoned
the system when it became a Puritan badge, but his most intense
dislike fell on the ecclesiastical peculiarities of the party. When
once he had come across the border, he identified Presbyterianism with
republicanism, declaring that a kirk and a monarchy could no more agree
than God and the Devil; and with a coarse insolence and vulgar spite,
far more intolerable to his subjects than the temper of Elizabeth in
her most imperious proceedings--for the two sovereigns were of totally
different natures--the Scotch King of England declared, "I will harry
the Puritans out of the land, or worse."
We have already noticed the prayer-meetings and the prophesyings of
the sixteenth century. Puritan lectureships, proceeding from the
same spirit, were very much in advance of the other associations.
They sprung from a desire to promote spiritual edification by means
extraneous to the old parochial system, and in fact they practically
anticipated the popular rights of election, and the principles of
ecclesiastical voluntaryism taught at the present day. The lectureships
depended on the free contributions of the people, who exercised the
privilege of choosing as their lecturer the man whose doctrines and
manner of life they approved. As parochial duties did not attach to
the office, the lecturers were relieved of certain ceremonies, and,
consequently, such ministers as felt Puritan scruples preferred to
minister in this more limited capacity. The origin of the institution
is obscure. It was first legally recognized by the Act of Uniformity
at the Restoration; but a Friday evening lecture existed in the parish
of St. Michael Royal as early as the year 1589. Whatever might be the
exact nature of the beginning, the extensive progress of lectureships
is apparent in the seventeenth century. The lecturers stood somewhat in
the same relation to parish priests as the friars of the middle ages
to the secular clergy, and, like them, they exercised large popular
influence; like them too, they received large popular contributions;
and also like them, in some cases, they were found in painful rivalry
and collision with parochial incumbents.
Another form of Puritan activity appeared in the institution of a
body of trustees for the purchase of impropriations, with a view to
secure as many livings as possible for ministers of Puritan opinions--a
proceeding closely imitated in recent times by religious laymen, who
buy advowsons for Evangelical clergymen. Fuller, who, in his own droll
style, tells us of the twelve trustees, that four were "divines to
persuade men's consciences; four lawyers to draw all conveyances; and
four citizens who commanded rich coffers"--goes on to observe what
incredibly large sums were advanced in a short time, and that it was
verily believed, "if not obstructed in their endeavours, within fifty
years, rather purchases than money would have been wanting."[65]
Puritans disliked ceremonies. Earnest as to the spirit of worship, they
cared little--often not enough--about forms. These men did not study,
and could but imperfectly understand, the æsthetics of religion--as
some people now call that which relates to seemly and expressive
modes of divine service, dictated by propriety, common sense, and
good taste. But beyond this, and chiefly, they had conscientious
scruples respecting observances, to which, no doubt, with equal
conscientiousness, the rulers of the Church attached importance. If
conscience, on the one side, had been content to practice and not
impose; conscience, on the other side, would have been saved the pain
of resistance, if not the trouble of protest. The two parties were
ever coming into dogged antagonism--prelates, zealous for uniformity,
and Puritans as zealous against it. The latter, if ministers, would not
wear the surplice, or read the whole liturgy; if people, they would
not recite the creed after the minister, nor repeat the responses in
the Litany and after the Ten Commandments; they would sit when they
ought to stand, or stand when they ought to kneel, or remain erect
when they ought to bow; ministers would preach when they were required
to catechise; people wanted lecturers when they had only rectors or
curates. Rather than yield in these matters they would suffer anything.
Their oppressors called them "proud," "self-conceited," "malapert,"
"puffed up by popular vogue," "indiscreet," "hollow pillars of
Puritanism."[66] They retorted that Popery was overflowing the land,
and they prayed that the Spirit of the Lord would lift up a standard
against it.
To repress these disorders, articles of visitation were drawn up more
carefully than ever, with an increase of minuteness and stringency;
and these were sent to churchwardens and sidesmen. But the power of
spiritual courts, and episcopal and archidiaconal authority were set at
nought by Puritan Protestants. It was asserted by some of the stiffer
sort that bishops have no right to hold visitations without express
commission under the great seal, or to tender articles unless made by
Convocation and ratified by Parliament. People were advised to keep
the visitation articles "for waste paper, or to stop mustard-pots."
Citations to spiritual courts should be disregarded, it was said,
unless the courts were held by royal patent and the processes were
in the King's name. "Depart without more ado," advised these hasty
disposers of ecclesiastical law; "if they excommunicate you it is
void--you may go to Church notwithstanding. If all subjects will take
this course, they will soon shake off the prelates' tyranny and yoke
of bondage, under which they groan through their own defaults and
cowardice."[67]
Such was the spirit shown by some; but in many cases the ecclesiastical
powers could not be so trifled with, and Puritans suffered fines
and imprisonment. Rather than endure this injustice many preferred
exile; some retired to Holland; others to the shores of New England.
Six-score passengers, it was reported, were going out in two ships,
and six hundred more were prepared to follow. Such swarms of emigrants
alarmed their neighbours, who complained of the decrease of the
king's people, the overthrow of trade, and the augmented number of
those who were disaffected towards episcopacy.[68] But the drain went
on, the Puritans saying, "The sun of heaven doth shine as comfortably
in other places; the sun of righteousness much brighter; better to go
and dwell in Goshen, find it where we can, than tarry in the midst of
such an Egyptian darkness as is falling on this land."[69] This was in
the spirit of Dante, who, when an exile from his beloved home on the
Arno, asked, "Shall I not everywhere behold the light of the sun and of
the stars?--Shall I not everywhere under Heaven be able to enjoy the
most delightful truths?"
Baxter has embodied the sentiment in one of his hymns:--
"All countries are my Father's lands,
Thy sun, Thy love doth shine on all;
We may in all lift up pure hands,
And with acceptance on Thee call.
"No walls, nor bars, can keep Thee out,
None can confine a holy soul;
The street of heaven it walks about,
None can its liberty control."
Such men were not likely to be subdued by persecution; they had caught
a spirit which all the violence in the world could not crush; and the
only results of that violence were the increase of their own constancy,
surrounded by the honours of spiritual heroism, and the infamy which
will for ever rest on the memory of their cruel oppressors.
It must not be supposed that their cause was unpatronized by men of
influence, or their case unheard in the halls of Parliament. They had
friends amongst the noble; and patriotic tongues were eloquent on their
behalf in the House of Commons. Though for a while protest did not
avail against their persecution, in the end it bore for the persecutors
bitter fruit. It made way for the exposure and chastisement of their
guilt, and was neither forgotten nor found to be ineffective, when, in
the dispensations of a righteous Providence, a day of retribution came.
Puritanism was a reaction against Anglicanism. It was an assertion
of the right of private judgment against Church decisions, of the
exclusive authority of Scripture against tradition, and of the
simplicity of worship against elaborate ceremonialism. The intense
horror of Popery felt by the Puritans was deepened by the papistic
practices of the Anglicans. The strict observance of the Sabbath was
made still more strict by the publication of the "Book of Sports," and
by the practical depreciation of the Lord's day through the immense
importance attached to Church festivals. The defection of the High
Church party from the Evangelical creed, and still more from the
evangelical spirit of the Reformers, riveted closely the attachment of
the Puritans to the articles and homilies, as distinguished from the
liturgy and rubric; and made them more full and earnest in exhibiting
the freedom of salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and
the new birth of the Spirit of God. Also the working out of Arminian
principles in unevangelical ways drove the Puritans into sharper and
more rigid forms of Calvinistic speculation. But, happily for the fame
of the latter, they were led, by the persecution they suffered, to
connect themselves with the friends of political liberty; and thus to
share in the honour belonging to the noble band of patriots, who, not
without some mistakes but with a wisdom and heroism--which it would
be idle to question and unthankful to forget--secured for us those
national privileges which distinguish Englishmen from the rest of
Europe.
Taking Andrewes and Donne as exponents of Anglican theology, the reader
may take Bolton and Sibbs as representatives of Puritan teaching. Their
works were exceedingly popular with the Evangelicals of Charles I.'s
reign. In rough leather binding they might have been seen on the humble
library shelf of the yeoman's house, or in his hands well thumbed,
as he sat in his window-seat or walked in his little garden. "The
Four Last Things" led many to prepare for the future life; and "The
Bruised Reed" became honoured as the chief means of Richard Baxter's
conversion. The tone of piety in these men partook of a glow and ardour
which made their spiritual life, at times, appear like a rapture, and
rendered their death "a perfect euthanasia." "By the wonderful mercies
of God," said Bolton, "I am as full of comfort as my heart can hold,
and feel nothing in my soul but Christ, with whom I heartily desire to
be." Asked by a friend in his last moments on a sharp December day,
"Do you feel much pain?" "Truly no," he replied, "the greatest pain I
feel is your cold hand." If, to use a figure of Coleridge, the Cross
shines dimly in certain Anglican authors, that Cross is all-radiant in
Puritan theology. If, in the one case, the cloudy pillar hovers in the
neighbourhood of the promised land without entering it, in the other,
it conducts those who follow its guidance straight into a land flowing
with milk and honey.
Let it not be supposed that the doctrinal Puritans in Stuart times were
perpetually preaching, or writing on doctrinal subjects; or that they
had the least sympathy with the sectaries. Thomas Adams is an eminent
doctrinal Puritan of that age, but no sermons can be more eminently
practical than his; they are the furthest removed from Antinomian
tendencies. He is ever combating the vices around him, and insisting
upon a solid scriptural morality; whilst his allusions to Brownists are
caustic enough to have satisfied, in that respect, the taste of the
most decided Anglican.
Puritanism was not so much a creed, or a code, as a life. Though a
reaction, the movement was no superficial phenomenon thrown up by the
chafing together of obstinate minds on opposite sides. The causes
were some of them ancient, and all of them deep. It is possible even
that peculiarities of race and blood might have somewhat to do with
the strong sympathies of the middle and lower classes, in a simple
and unostentatious kind of religious worship. The plain and sturdy
nature of the Anglo-Saxon was still pure, in a multitude of cases,
from Norman admixture in those ranks of society where Puritanism most
prevailed; and the Anglo-Saxon had ever shown himself unfriendly to
that ecclesiastical pomp of architecture and glittering ritual which
delighted the Norman. Traditional opinions and sentiments, opposed
to the spirit of Romanism, had been handed down through the middle
ages, from one generation to another of the English commonalty in
their homesteads and cottages; and, probably, as those opinions and
sentiments had contributed to the outbursts of Lollardism, and helped
on the cause of the Reformation, so also they ministered to the later
development of principles, proceeding further in the same direction.
Beyond all doubt, the Puritan under James was the religious son and
heir of the reformer under Elizabeth; he inherited, and expressed
more boldly and more truly, his father's spirit. Puritanism came only
as the second stage in a progress of which the Reformation was the
first. Such an impulse as Protestantism could not be resisted--set,
as it was from the beginning, decidedly in the direction of change
beyond what the compromise under the Tudors allowed. The pent-up
waters of Protestantism found a vent through Puritanism. Besides,
the persecutions under Mary rendered Rome more hateful to Englishmen
during the last half of the sixteenth century than during the first;
the children who heard of the Smithfield fires were more exasperated
even than the parents who saw them, and they hated with a bitter hatred
everything in the Church which, in their opinion, pointed Romewards.
The Puritan reaction against Popery is to be regarded as also aided
by its alliance with the reactions, moral and political, against
despotism; freedom appeared to the Puritan not merely as something
expedient, and to be desired for temporal ends, but as a heaven-born
right, a gift of God, which it was man's duty to claim and assert, in
the face of earth and hell: and thus kindred forces bore toward the
same point. Puritanism, moreover, presented a strong attraction to
religious minds of a certain class. Multitudes were sinners of a coarse
type, and wanted something infinitely stronger than forms, ceremonies,
orthodox abstractions, and moral advice to put things right between
their souls and God, and to give them holiness and peace. The Puritan
exhibition of the love of God in Christ, of the wonders of redemption,
and of the abounding mercy of Heaven through the Cross for the chief
of sinners, supplied just what such persons required. Nor to these
alone, but to numbers beside, not coarse-minded transgressors, the
full, clear, and unmixed manifestation of the Gospel plan of saving the
lost came as the most blessed and welcome of messages. And finally, in
enumerating the causes of Puritanism, devout minds, at all in sympathy
with it, will assuredly include that mighty wind which "bloweth where
it listeth."
Being in some respects a reaction, I may venture to observe, it had
in it what all reactions have--much onesidedness. It betrayed narrow
views of many subjects, straining at trifles, magnifying unimportant
points, and not seeing that the avoidance of superstition in one
quarter is no security against being overtaken by it in another.
There also often occurred a want of charity in judging other people,
and those who did not adopt the Puritan type were in danger of being
put down as publicans and sinners. Puritans were also prone to use
irritating language to their opponents, and shewed at times little
of that meekness and gentleness, the want of which they bitterly
condemned in others.[70] They were intolerant,--with the exception of
a few separatists,--and cannot be regarded as having understood the
principles of religious liberty. They asserted freedom on their own
behalf, but if they could have had the power, they would have imposed
their own peculiarities on all their fellow-countrymen. They were too
apt to be rigid and precise in their methods of theology, and to take
"tithe of mint, anise, and cummin," though not so as to be unmindful
of "the weightier matters of the law." Their scruples as to liturgical
forms were carried to excess, and they evinced a want of that kind
of taste which marked the Anglican churchman by excluding, as Jeremy
Taylor says, "the solemn melody of the organ, and the raptures of
warbling and sweet voices out of cathedral choirs."[71] And finally,
they did not sufficiently recognize the need of providing innocent
and healthy recreations for the people. Man was regarded by them as a
creature made to work and worship, but hardly to play. Some Anglicans
were ascetic, but they were gleesome at times, and conceded, if they
did not enjoin, rather uproarious amusement in connection with their
festivals. They had their fast-days and lenten seasons, but they
had also the merry feasts of Christmas and Easter, Whitsuntide and
Michaelmas. They went daily to church, were fond of the Prayer Book and
oratory, but they had no objection to revels, masques, May-poles, and
village games. These sudden transitions from what was grave to what
was gay, and this mixing up of things sacred with things trifling, had
a hurtful effect, and the religion thus fostered closely approached
that of France and Italy. Hence the Puritans rushed to the extreme of
putting down many manly sports, and discouraging national pastimes,
which, purified from immorality, were adapted to promote national
vigour, cheerfulness, and good fellowship. While, however, they
abolished church festivals they appointed holidays of another kind,
and had relaxations of their own, hereafter to be recounted. Yet the
restraints they placed upon society in the day of their power were
such, perhaps, as more than any thing else tended to alienate from
them the sympathies of a large portion of their fellow-countrymen.
The broken May-pole and deserted village green had no small share in
bringing about some of the worst resentments of the Restoration.
Blind homage is no honour. To acknowledge the defects of Puritanism
gives all the more force to an exhibition of its excellencies. There
clung around it the imperfections of humanity, but it had in it a germ
of lasting life, a divine element of grace and power.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I.
We meet with statements, on the authority of Lord Clarendon, to the
effect that the members of the Long Parliament "were almost to a man
for episcopal government," and "had no mind to make any considerable
alteration in Church or State."[72] On the other hand, we are told that
at the beginning, "the party in favour of presbyterian government was
very strong in the House of Commons, and that they were disposed to be
contented with no less than the extirpation of bishops."[73] Neither
statement conveys a correct idea of this remarkable assembly.
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
Let us enter St. Stephen's chapel after the ceremony described in our
Introduction, and see for ourselves.
Dressed mostly in short cloaks, and wearing high-crowned hats,
grave-looking men were seated on either side the speaker's chair, which
was occupied by William Lenthall, a person of dignified aspect, arrayed
in official robes, as represented by the picture in the National
Portrait Gallery. Behind the chair were the Royal arms, and above it
was the grand Gothic window, rendered familiar to us by old quaint
woodcuts. The mace lay on the table by which the clerks of the House
sat, busy with books and papers; and it may be stated, once for all,
that the forms of the House were rigidly observed, during the memorable
war of words through which this history will conduct the reader.
Denzil Holles, younger son of John, first Earl of Clare, sat for
Dorchester. Foremost amongst those afterwards known as Presbyterian
leaders, his influence in part was owing to his rank, and early court
associations--for he had been on terms of intimacy with the King--but
still more his power proceeded from the firm and somewhat fiery
decision of his views, as well as from a reputation for integrity and
honour, which raised him above the suspicion of self-interest or of
factious animosity. Even in the days of James, he had resisted the
encroachments of prerogative; and, in the reign of Charles, he had,
through his adherence to the same course, been not only mulcted in a
large fine, but imprisoned during the Royal pleasure.[74]
[Sidenote: _Members of Long Parliament._]
Glynne, Recorder of London, and a Member for the City, was also
ultimately a decided Presbyterian; and the same may be said of Maynard,
who represented the borough of Totness. In the same class may be
included Sir Benjamin Rudyard, member for Wilton, and Surveyor of His
Majesty's Court of Wards and Liveries, an accomplished gentleman, "an
elegant scholar," and a frequent speaker. In earlier parliaments he had
hotly debated religious questions, though he was conspicuous for loyal
protestations as sincere as they were fervid. At first he advocated
some qualified form of episcopal superintendence, but, from the opening
of the Long Parliament, he condemned existing prelacy, and thus
prepared himself for adopting presbyterian tenets.
All these, and others less known, were from the first not only
doctrinal but ecclesiastical Puritans, and were inspired by an intense
detestation of Popery, and of everything which they believed paved the
way to it. Beyond them, we find another group of men further advanced
in the path of Church politics.
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
[Sidenote: _Members of Long Parliament._]
Few have been more unfairly represented than Sir Harry Vane the
younger, member for Hull. Though son of the Comptroller of His
Majesty's household, and brought up at Court, he was, when a youth,
reported to the King as "grown into dislike of the discipline and
ceremonies of the Church of England." Not long after this, it was
stated in a letter, that he had left his father, (old Sir Harry Vane,)
his mother, and his country, and that fortune which his father would
have left him, and for conscience' sake was gone to New England.[75]
There he became Governor of Massachusetts, and, in that capacity,
carried out the principles of religious toleration with a consistency
and an equity so unique, as to offend many of the colonists, who,
while advocates of religious freedom, persecuted, through mistaken
fears, a sincerely religious woman, only because she was obstinate
and fanatical. Returned to England, young Vane became not only member
of the Short Parliament, but received knighthood from Charles I., and
joined Sir W. Russel in the Treasurership of the Navy--a proceeding
which indicated at the time something of a conciliatory disposition
on both sides. With a philosophical temperament of the imaginative
cast, and with strong religious tendencies in a mystical direction;
smitten also with the charms of Plato's republic, and longing for
the realization of his ideal within the shores of England, Vane
seemed to many of his sober-minded contemporaries an enthusiast and
a visionary; yet it would be difficult to disprove the testimony of
Ludlow, that "he was capable of managing great affairs--possessing,
in the highest perfection, a quick and ready apprehension, a strong
and tenacious memory, a profound and penetrating judgment, a just and
noble eloquence, with an easy and graceful manner of speaking. To
these were added a singular zeal and affection for the good of the
Commonwealth, and a resolution and courage not to be shaken or diverted
from the public service."[76] Probably no man, at the beginning of the
Long Parliament, so thoroughly grasped or could so well advocate the
principles of religious liberty as Sir Harry Vane. There he sat in old
St. Stephen's, with a refined expression of countenance, most pleasant
and prepossessing; a person, says Clarendon, "of unusual aspect, which
made men think there was somewhat in him of extraordinary."[77]
Nathaniel Fiennes, Lord Say and Sele's son, who represented Banbury,
also held rank in the vanguard of religious liberty. Educated at
Geneva--where also Vane had spent some of his early years--he had
imbibed in some degree the spirit of that renowned little republic;
and his opposition to the ecclesiastical establishment of his native
country was, on his entering public life, soon roused by the working
out of Anglo-Catholic principles. He agreed with Vane in his broad
views of freedom, and when the Presbyterian and Independent parties
assumed a definite form, he took his place with the latter. Clarendon
admits his "good stock of estimation in the House of Commons," his
superior "parts of learning and nature," and speaks of his being "a
great manager in the most secret designs from the beginning."[78]
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
Another individual there--according to the report of a courtly young
gentleman, Sir Philip Warwick--wore a suit which seemed made by a
country tailor; his linen was plain, and not very clean; a speck or two
of blood stained his little band, which, very uncourtier-like, was not
much larger than his collar; his hat had no hat-band, and his sword
stuck close to his side. The man appeared of good stature, but his
countenance looked swollen and reddish, and his voice sounded sharp and
untunable; but he spoke with fervour, and much to the vexation of the
royalist observer, this shabby-looking member was "very much hearkened
unto." "Pray who is that man, that sloven who spake just now?" said
Lord Digby--one who _then_ took the patriotic side--to another, John
Hampden,--who afterwards died for it.--"That sloven whom you see before
you hath no ornament of speech; that sloven, I say, if we should ever
come to a breach with the King, which God forbid, in such a case I say,
that sloven will be the greatest man in England." The speaker was the
sloven's cousin, and, with the intuitive perception of a kindred mind,
saw in that rough piece of humanity some of the rarest elements of
power which this world has ever felt.
Oliver Cromwell began his parliamentary career in 1628, as member for
Huntingdon. In the Long Parliament he represented Cambridge, being
returned by a majority of only one. As early as 1628 he distinguished
himself in a debate respecting the pardon of certain religious
delinquents, by charging some leading Churchmen with Popery; and though
we can see nothing in his speeches but a rough, rude energy, they were
jerked out by his untunable voice in such a fashion that they were
remembered and talked of when many eloquent orations had glided into
oblivion. His house at Huntingdon afforded a refuge to persecuted
Nonconformist ministers. At St. Ives he achieved an unequalled
reputation for "piety and self-denying virtue." And at Ely--whence he
had now come to London, over bad roads in the foggy month of November,
travelling on horseback in humble style--at Ely, dwelling at the glebe
house, near St. Mary's Churchyard, he maintained the same character and
influence, though there he suffered dreadfully from hypochondria. In
part it rose from seeing his brethren forsake their native country to
seek their bread among strangers, or to live in a howling wilderness.
[Sidenote: _Members of the Long Parliament._]
Oliver St. John, member for Totness, was on terms of friendship with
Oliver Cromwell, more so in the later than in the earlier portion of
his history. Eminent for qualities such as help to make the good lawyer
and the useful statesman, there hung round his ways a mystery--the
effect of reticence and moroseness--which impaired his influence, and
gave him the name of "the dark-lantern man!" At first chiefly known in
a legal and political capacity, as time advanced, and events rolled
into ecclesiastical channels, he became active in religious affairs,
and took a foremost place amongst political independents.
Sir Arthur Haselrig represented Leicestershire. He had married the
sister of Lord Brook, and probably shared in what were considered the
extreme ecclesiastical opinions of that nobleman. What these opinions
were will be seen as we proceed, together with the course which the
Leicestershire baronet took, as well on State as on Church questions.
He, at an early period of the Long Parliament, showed himself decidedly
opposed to Episcopacy, and ultimately became a thorough Republican.
With much warm-heartedness and generosity, he had also the rashness
and prejudice which are the dark shadows of such virtues, so that his
enemies said he had "more will than wit," and gave him the nickname of
"hare-brained."
But far more influential at first than any of these were other men whom
we must describe.
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
Of the Parliamentary leaders, the most renowned and influential at the
commencement of the struggle was John Pym. That "grave and religious
gentleman"--burgess for the good town of Tavistock--appeared as
conspicuously in religious business as in that which was strictly
political. His countenance had a lion-like dignity, and, with a
touch of melancholy in eyes and lips, there blended an expression of
invincible firmness, while his shaggy mane-like hair, disarranged,
as he spoke with tremendous energy, were in keeping with the rest of
his majestic appearance. For eight and twenty years he had struggled
against the policy of King, Court, and Church. Wise in council, and
eloquent in speech, though quaint and tedious in the style of his
oratory--a trifling drawback, however, in that age--he stood forward
the most formidable antagonist with whom the High Church party had to
deal. So closely at one time did John Pym connect Church and State--in
this respect widely differing from Sir Harry Vane--that in 1628, he
declared, "It belongs to the duty of a Parliament to establish true
religion and to punish false; we must know what Parliaments have
done formerly in religion. Our Parliaments have confirmed General
Councils."[79] This now would be called a thoroughly Erastian style of
speaking. It proceeded on the theory of the Church being subject to
the State, and in this view many of the ecclesiastical reformers of
that age were _practically_ agreed, however diversified their notions
of Church government might be. Pym, though never a Nonconformist, but
simply professing himself "a faithful son of the Protestant religion,"
from the beginning of his career opposed the spirit and proceedings of
Anglican prelacy; and as to the questions affecting Episcopacy, he at
last acted with those who sought its overthrow. He had a large share
in calling the Long Parliament, as he prepared the petition for that
purpose, and went to York to present it to the King. After the writs
had been issued, Pym and others proceeded on an electioneering crusade,
urging the voters to support representatives who would maintain the
liberties of their country, then so threatened and imperilled. As
popular opinion counted him the author of the Long Parliament, so
common consent assigned to him the position of its leader.
[Sidenote: _Members of the Long Parliament._]
Next to John Pym comes John Hampden--the illustrious member for
Buckinghamshire, universally known for his resistance of ship-money,
and for his brief but brilliant military career. His religious
character and the part he took in ecclesiastical affairs have,
however, been much overlooked; yet, in early life, as the friend of
Sir John Eliot, he had followed that single-minded and unflinching
patriot in his noble resistance of ecclesiastical as well as regal
despotism, and was one of the leaders of the advanced party which
sought to promote reforms in Church and State. In 1629 he was engaged
in preparing bills for enlarging the liberty of hearing the Word of
God, and for preventing corruption in the collation to benefices,
headships, fellowships, and scholarships in Colleges, besides other
measures of less importance in a similar direction. "He was," says
Clarendon, "not a man of many words, and rarely began the discourse,
or made the first entrance upon any business that was assumed; but
a very weighty speaker, and after he had heard a full debate, and
observed how the House was like to be inclined, took up the argument,
and shortly, and clearly, and craftily, so stated it, that he commonly
conducted it to the conclusion he desired; and if he found he could
not do that, he never was without the dexterity to divert the debate
to another time, and to prevent the determining anything in the
negative which might prove inconvenient in the future."[80] All this,
when stript of its manifest unfairness, means neither more nor less
than that this persistent enemy of ship-money must have been also a
skilful parliamentary tactician, possessing a rare insight into men
and motives. His modesty and moderation are acknowledged even by
this prejudiced historian; and the rapid progress of his opinions on
ecclesiastical affairs made him what the same authority truly calls,
"a root-and-branch man"--a fact which, though doubted by one of
his biographers, is correctly maintained by another.[81] His high
intellectual forehead, his delicately chiselled features, his eyes so
calmly looking you through, his lips of compressed firmness, with a
kind of melancholy presentiment imprinted on his whole face--betoken
a man born to a great but sad destiny; and we do not wonder at
the confidence he inspired, whether he appealed to the patriotism
of his tenantry and neighbours in the old family mansion down in
Buckinghamshire, at the back of the Chiltern hills, or stood up to
address the grave assembly in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster.[82]
Perhaps it is right here to mention a man of a very different stamp,
who sat near these illustrious statesmen and acted with them. Henry
Marten, member for Berks--and, after his father's death, renowned
through the county for his hospitable entertainments in the vale of
"White Horse"--was as gay and humorous, and as fond of fun as the other
two were serious and dignified. Nor can it be denied that he seems to
have been as licentious as they were virtuous--as "far from a Puritan
as light from darkness," and as destitute of religious faith as they
were diligent in its cultivation. Strongly republican, he steadily
opposed the Court policy, and, perhaps through religious indifference,
became tolerant of the religious opinions of others. He belongs to a
considerable class of men who from political feeling are attached to
ecclesiastical reformers, and who join with them in aspirations after
the widest liberty, though incapable of entering into their loftier
purposes. Marten's name does not occur in the early ecclesiastical
debates of the Long Parliament, but he is found afterwards in
connection with political Independents.
John Selden, member for the University of Oxford, must not be dropped
out of this roll. Merely to mention his name is to suggest the idea
of marvellous learning. His reputation--now exalted by distance of
time, and widened by the flow of ages--reached in his own day almost
surprising magnitude, and must have imparted immense authority to his
opinions. Those opinions, in reference to Church affairs, were what are
commonly called Erastian. In the early conflicts of Puritanism, Selden
fought in its ranks against the domineering spirit of prelacy, though
no Puritan himself, and not having any objection to bishops, provided
they were kept in subjection to the State.[83] His strength in public
affairs seems to have shewn itself more in the way of opposition than
in constructive skill. If he did not positively help to pull down
Episcopacy he hindered the setting up of Presbyterianism. Nor should it
be forgotten that, student-like, he preferred his library to the arena
of debate, and notwithstanding his sacrifices at one time to liberty,
he had too great a love of ease--if we are to believe Clarendon, who
knew and admired him[84]--to take much trouble in guiding the helm of
public affairs.
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
[Sidenote: _Members of the Long Parliament._]
Anecdotes are related serving to shew that even after the opening
of the Long Parliament, the reformers had not definitely made up
their minds as to what should be done. One "fine evening," Nathaniel
Fiennes, after dining at Pym's lodgings with Mr. Hyde, afterwards
Lord Clarendon, rode out with him on horseback "in the fields between
Westminster and Chelsea." Hyde, in the course of conversation, asked
Fiennes, "what government do you mean to introduce if the existing
constitution of the Church were altered?" To this he replied "there
will be time enough to think of that;" but he "assured him, and wished
him to remember what he said, that if the King resolved to defend
the bishops, it would cost the kingdom much blood, and would be the
occasion of as sharp a war as had ever been in England; for that there
was so great a number of good men who resolved to lose their lives
before they would ever submit to that government."[85] These words
were uttered in the summer of 1641, when the Long Parliament had
been sitting seven or eight months. At an earlier period, Sir Philip
Warwick--the Court gentleman who quizzed Cromwell's clothes--met the
rough-looking man in the lobby of the House, and wished to know what
the real objects of his party were. "I can tell you," he bluntly
replied, "what I would _not_ have, if I cannot what I _would_." We are
convinced that Cromwell spoke the truth in relation to his views of
both the political and ecclesiastical changes on the brink of which
the nation stood. Changes hovered not in the distance but at hand, and
amongst them some which must modify the ecclesiastical establishment;
but how far, looking at the different opinions of the country, reform
ought to be carried, did not at once appear. Some few had republican
theories--for example, Vane and Marten--and possibly at an early
period they contemplated the overthrow of the monarchy, and with it
the Episcopal Church. The latter of these gentlemen blurted out as
much, with regard to monarchy, only two days after Fiennes' talk with
Hyde, intimating his design to employ certain persons up to a certain
point, and then to use them "as they had used others." But there is no
solid ground for believing that the greater number of the reformers
had at first any further object than that of effectually curbing
kingly prerogative in the state, and bringing down the pomp and pride
of episcopacy in the Church. The course which they actually pursued
shaped itself according to the discipline of circumstances. Their
views widened as they went along. As is often the case in times of
change, these reformers in the end were forced to seek more than they
originally imagined. First denied the little which might have contented
them, they felt prompted to a further struggle, and naturally claimed
more and more: it was but the story of the Sybil, with her books,
repeated once again. Easy is it to point out apparent inconsistencies
in the career of men so influenced, and plausible too are the charges
against them of concealment, treachery, and breach of faith; but an
impartial consideration of facts, and honest views of human nature,
will lead to conclusions at once more favourable and more just. The
truth is, that the members of the Long Parliament were not theorists
intent on working out some perfect ideal, but practical men who looked
at things as they were, and with upright intentions endeavoured to mend
them as best they could. They aimed at reforming institutions much
in the same plodding way as that in which their fathers had founded
and reared those institutions. The opening of the States General in
France presents in this respect a contrast to the opening of the
Long Parliament in England; the brilliant theoristic Frank cannot be
confounded with the sober, practical Saxon. The defiance or treachery
of opponents filled our religious patriots of the seventeenth century
with alarm, drove them to take up a higher position than they at first
assumed, and to encamp themselves behind more formidable entrenchments
than it then entered into their minds to raise.
Another class in the House of Commons requires attention. Many were
favourably disposed to the Church of England, advocating a moderate
episcopacy and approving the use of the Common Prayer, with a few
alterations. They had no liking for Presbyterian schemes of government,
much less for a congregational polity. Their sympathies went with the
Church of their fathers, the Church of the Reformation, the Church
which was built over the ashes of Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer. They
cannot be called Anglican Catholics; but they were to the heart
English Churchmen. Despising the mummeries of Laud, and not liking the
instructions of his school, then so common in parish churches--these
persons loved the old Gothic and ivy-mantled edifices where they had
been baptized and married, and by whose altars their parents slept
under quaint old monuments, which touched their hearts whenever they
worshipped within the walls. They wished to see the Church of England
reformed, not overturned.
[Sidenote: _Members of the Long Parliament._]
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
Lucius Carey, Viscount Falkland, member for Newport, stood among
the chief of this description. His early fate, as well as his high
esteem for John Hampden, must ever link their names in affecting
companionship. For a time they fought a common battle. What Hampden
said at the commencement of the strife about bishops and Anglican High
Churchism we do not know; but we know what Falkland said, and shall
have occasion to record some of his words, which for fiery sharpness
against prelatical assumptions were not surpassed by the speeches of
any Puritan. Attempts had been made to bring him over to Popery, which
had led to his reading the Fathers and pursuing the controversy for
himself.[86] Thus skilled in the knowledge of the whole question, the
result of his studies was not only an aversion to the finished system
of Popery, but a healthful horror of all those insinuating principles
and practices which lead to it. A sounder Protestant did not tread
the floor of the House than Viscount Falkland. Virtuous and brave,
with honour unimpeachable, and with patriotism unsuspected, he wins
our heart, even though we lament the course he ultimately pursued.
His full-length character, drawn by Clarendon, true and faithful no
doubt, though the hand of friendship laid on the colours, inspires
the reader with admiration and love: but we are somewhat startled at
what the historian says of the _physique_ of his honoured friend: his
stature low, his motion not graceful, his aspect far from inviting,
with a voice so untuned that none could expect music from that tongue,
he was so uncomely that "no man was less beholden to nature for its
recommendation into the world." The portrait of Falkland, by Vandyke,
hardly confirms this unfavourable description of his appearance by
Clarendon, though even there, in spite of cavalier silk and slashed
doublet, ample collar tassel-tyed, and flowing locks, the face of the
young nobleman wears a somewhat rustic simplicity, albeit, tinged with
an expression of sincere good-nature.
[Sidenote: _Members of the Long Parliament._]
A chief place amongst Church reformers during the first few months
of the Long Parliament must be assigned to Sir Edward Dering. He
represented the Kentish yeomen, the majority of whom had been driven
into Puritanism by the Anglo-Catholic zeal of Laud; and he expressed
the predominant feeling of the county, when he quaintly said, "he
hoped Laud would have more grace, or no grace at all." Chairman of
a sub-committee for religion, and a frequent and ardent speaker,
he gathered round him the sympathies of the party opposed to the
government, and was hailed by the citizens of London with "God
bless your worship!" while the people--who in those days gathered
about the doors of the House of Commons, as crowds do still, to
cheer their favourite members--pointed to him as the man of the
day, exclaiming, "There goes Sir Edward Dering!" This he tells us
himself--an indication of his egotism. Vanity, no doubt, and weakness
mixed themselves with his impetuous but persistent pursuit of an
object, of which many laughable examples are furnished in the story
of his life.[87] Impetuous and rash, flexible to flattery, neither
firm nor courageous under opposition, he was, nevertheless, amiable,
well-meaning, patriotic, gentlemanly, and even chivalrous. He could
reason with force, and declaim with eloquence, being no less fervent in
his religious affections than in his political sentiments. The comely
person of the Kentish baronet aided his popularity, and so did his
genial manners, in spite of his hasty temper.[88]
Posthumous fame is often not at all in proportion to contemporary
influence. Sir Edward Dering is now by many forgotten, and, even John
Pym, perhaps, does not hold the place in history which he did in life;
yet, in the early days of the Long Parliament, these persons were more
conspicuous in debate, and had more weight with the populace than John
Hampden or Oliver Cromwell.
Amongst the class at first favourable to extensive ecclesiastical
reforms was also that mercurial royalist, Lord Digby, who represented
Dorsetshire, and afterwards became Earl of Bristol. He soon diverged
very far from his early compatriots, and played a part which must
always affix dishonour to his name, whatever opinion may be formed of
the cause he espoused.
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
All the persons now mentioned acted together in ecclesiastical affairs,
more or less intimately, at the opening of Parliament. Those who came
nearest to one another in opinion had meetings for conference. Pym,
Hampden, Fiennes, and Vane the younger, with some liberal noblemen
of the Upper House, were wont to assemble at Broughton Castle,
Oxfordshire, the seat of Lord Say, Fiennes' father, and at Tawsley, in
Northamptonshire, the mansion of Sir Richard Knightley, father-in-law
to Hampden. A story is related--not a very likely one--that in certain
old stone-walled and casemated rooms, shown in the castle, the
worthies[89] used to meet lest they should be detected; and, which
is more probable, that a printing-press, established in the mansion by
Sir Richard's father, was applied to their purposes. Perhaps about the
same time, meetings of a similar kind were also held at Kensington, in
the noble mansion of Lord Holland, one of the statesmen who took part
in these conferences. There were gatherings in Gray's Inn Lane, too,
whither reports came up from the country, and whence intelligence was
distributed amongst the city patriots. After the opening of Parliament,
Pym's lodgings at Westminster became a place of rendezvous, at least
for a select few. But though these consultations so far obtained
amongst certain chiefs, it must not be supposed that there existed
a large organized party, resembling the phalanx which till of late
years used compactly to follow some great leader. The two parties into
which the House of Commons fell did by no means distinctly divide at
first. How, on ecclesiastical questions they formed, and took up their
position, will be seen as we proceed.
[Sidenote: _Members of the Long Parliament._]
Certainly there can be traced nothing like an organized party for
defending the Church. The King and the bishops, with many of the
nobility and a number of the people, were sincerely attached to the
Establishment, and were prepared to admit only slight changes in its
constitution. In the House of Commons, however, where its battle had
to be fought, and its fate decided, there did not appear any strong
alliance, or any distinct advocacy in its favour. It is surprising
that in the early debates, when so many voices fiercely proclaimed its
corruptions, so few made themselves heard in its defence. No chivalrous
spirit stepped forward to resist the band of assailants. The tide
flowed in. Not one strong man attempted to build a breakwater.
Edward Hyde, who did so much for the Church of England at the
Restoration, did little for it in this crisis of its fate. It is true
he was a young man, and without great influence, but he shewed no
heroism on its behalf; indeed, heroism was foreign to his nature. What
he attempted he himself describes, and that the reader will discover to
be paltry enough.
In the Upper House were the bishops, who might naturally be esteemed
as guardians and defenders of the Church in the hour of need. But
there were none of them possessed of that statesman-like ability,
without which it would have been impossible to preserve the Episcopal
Establishment in the shock of revolution. Laud, no doubt, had great
talents and abundant courage, but the blunders he had made in driving
the ship on to the rocks, gave no hope that he would have skill enough
to pilot the ship off, even if granted the opportunity. But he had
not even the opportunity. Hardly did the Long Parliament open when
his indignant enemies thrust him from the helm. The conduct of other
bishops had only served to strip them of the last chance of saving
their order. The best on the bench shared in the obloquy brought on
all by the intolerance and corruption of the worst, while none of them
possessed the mental and moral calibre necessary for dealing with those
huge difficulties amidst which the Church of England had now been
dashed.
[Sidenote: 1640, November.]
Puritans too, it should be remembered, sat in the Upper as well as
in the Lower House. Amongst them may be numbered Devereux, Earl of
Essex; Seymour, Earl of Hertford; Rich, Earl of Warwick; Rich, Earl of
Holland; Viscount Say and Sele, Viscount Mandeville, Baron Wharton,
Greville, Lord Brook, and others. Some of these will appear in the
following pages, and of them in general we may observe that they did
not lack astuteness, courage, and power. Anglicanism might be stronger
in the House of Lords than in the House of Commons; but Puritanism, on
the whole, appeared stronger than Anglicanism even there.
One man alone could be found capable of doing aught to preserve the
Church in this hour of her adversity. Could Lord Strafford have carried
out his thorough policy, had he been left free to pursue his course,
had no _coup d'etat_ come in the way to arrest his daring ambition, and
crush his despotic projects; he might, with his subtle brain, brave
heart, and iron hand, have defeated the patriots once more, and so have
saved the Anglican Establishment awhile. Another dissolution, or some
arbitrary arrests, would, for a season, have crushed Pym and his party.
That, however, was not to be.
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