[185] Fuller, iii. 422. According to Verney's Notes, Burgess speaks of "Choristers and officers as fellows that are condemned for felons, and keep ale-houses, and so they may still," 77.

[186] Rushworth, iv. 276.

[187] Parl. Hist., ii. 773.

[188] Sanford's Illustrations, 363.

[189] Nalson, ii. 248.

[190] Parry's Parliaments and Councils of England, 353.

[191] Sanford's Studies and Illustrations, 364.

[192] Dering published an apology in 1642.

[193] The following letter by Sydney Bere, secretary to Sir Balthazar Gerbier, afterwards to Sir H. Vane, is preserved in the State Paper Office.

"Whitehall, 17th June, 1641.

"You will surely have heard that the utter abolishing of the bishops and all titular ecclesiastics, with the dependents, hath been agreed upon in the House of Commons, and met with less noes in the debate than the business of the Earl of Strafford had. This day they voted it again, and now it is to be engrossed, a draft of the Act goes herewith.

"The business of the bishops will be of dangerous consequence, they being violent and passionate in their own defence, and having engaged, as it were, the Lords, by their late votes in their favour, to the maintenance of their cause; whereas the Commons seem as resolute to pass the Bill for their utter extirpation, and so transmitting it to the Lords, according to the custom; and then it may be justly inferred the city will prove as turbulent as they were on Strafford's cause."

Sidney Bere became under-secretary upon the appointment of Nicholas, in November, to the chief secretaryship of state.

[194] Rushworth, iv. 279.

[195] Nalson, ii. 529.

[196] Journal, June 7, 1641.

Verney's Notes bear evidence that the same day the feeling of the House was unfavourable to Episcopacy. Monday, 7th June:—"Sir John Griffin, the elder, said, I see it is distasteful to this House to speak for the government of the Church."—Verney Papers, 83.

On the same day, in the course of a debate, the subject of ecclesiastical canons came again under consideration. Mr. Maynard "transmitted the votes about the canons." According to Verney's Notes, (84) in which this appears, the debate touched generally on the power of the clergy to make canons. No formal resolution or vote is recorded.

[197] Sanford's Illustrations, 365.

[198] Clarendon's Hist., 110.

[199] Parl. Hist., ii. 822-826.

Sir Ralph Verney notices the debate on the 12th, but his notes are unfortunately very brief, and run thus:—

"Actions constant at all times to men of one order, 'tis a great sign of their malignity.

Oil and water may be severed, but oil and wine never.

Pledwell's arguments might have been used for the pope as well as for other bishops.

Vaughan.—Three things considerable in bishops: election, confirmation, consecration.

Os Episcopi is a chancellor.

Oculus Episcopi is the commissary.

Consilium Episcopi is the dean."—Verney Papers, 94.

Letters in the State Paper Office show the excitement produced by the Commons' proceedings. Slingsby says, 10th June, "The discourse of all men is they must now strike at root and branch, and not slip this occasion."

[200] Parl. Hist., ii. 828. et seq.

[201] Rushworth, iv. 295.

[202] Nalson, ii. 245.

[203] White was grandfather of Susannah Annesly, the mother of the Wesleys.

[204] For cases which came before Dering, see "Proceedings principally in the County of Kent, &c." Edited by the Rev. L. B. Barking, with preface by John Bruce, Esq. Camden Soc.

[205] Rushworth, iv. 113-123.

[206] Rushworth, 194, 195.

See Laud's Journal, March 1, p. 240.

March 1, Monday.—"I went in Mr. Maxwell's coach to the Tower. No noise till I came into Cheapside. But from thence to the Tower I was followed and railed at by the 'prentices and the rabble, in great numbers, to the very Tower gates, where I left them, and I thank God he made me patient!"—Laud's Diary.

[207] Rushworth, iv. 122-351.

Widdrington's speech on presenting the impeachment is a curiosity in its way. Amongst other odd things he says of Wren: "Without doubt he would never have been so strait-laced and severe in this particular (i. e., his hatred of extempore prayer), if he had but dreamed of that strait which a minister, a friend of his, was put into by this means. The story is short. A butcher was gored in the belly by an ox; the wound was cured; the party desired public thanksgiving in the congregation; the minister, finding no form for that purpose, read the collect for churching of women."—Parl. Hist., ii. 888.

[208] Fuller's Church History, iii. 418. See also Worthies, ii. 359.

[209] Hanbury's Historical Memorials, ii. 97-100.

Thomas Wiseman, in a letter (July 1, 1641) State Papers, says of the Scotch, "God send us well rid of them, and then we may hope to enjoy our ancient peace both of Church and Commonwealth, for till they are gone, whatever they pretend, we find they are the only disturbers of both."

[210] Rushworth, iv. 368.

[211] State Papers, Dom., 1641. Letter of Sidney Bere, August 18.

[212] Idem. Letter of Sidney Bere, August 22.

[213] Letter of Bere. August 30th.

In a manuscript diurnal, also preserved among the State Papers, it is remarked: "Mr. Henderson is in great favour with the king, and stands next to his chair in sermon time. His Majesty daily hears two sermons every Sunday, besides week-day lectures."

[214] Baillie's notices are to the same effect as Bere's: "Mr. Alexander Henderson, in the morning and evening before supper, does daily say prayers, read a chapter, sing a psalm, and say prayer again. The King hears all duly, and we hear none of his complaints for want of a liturgy or any ceremonies." Letters, i. 385.

[215] Nalson, ii. 683.

[216] Parry's Parliaments and Councils, 365.

[217] On the 8th September, "upon Mr. Cromwell's motion, it was ordered, that sermons should be in the afternoon in all parishes of England, at the charge of the inhabitants of those parishes where there are no sermons in the afternoon."—D'Ewes' Journals. Sanford's Illustrations, 371.

[218] Commons' Journals. Parl. Hist., ii. 907.

[219] Nalson, ii. 483. Parl. Hist., ii. 910.

[220] An attempt was made in the Lower House to revise the Prayer Book, but it failed.—Rushworth, iv. 385.

[221] London was in a very troubled state that autumn, as appears from a letter by Thomas Wiseman, dated October 7th.—State Papers Dom.

"The city is full of the disbanded soldiers, and such robbing in and about it that we are not safe in our own houses, yet this day there is an order come from the Committee of Parliament to send every soldier away upon pain of imprisonment, and leave granted to any of them that will to transport themselves for the low countries into the service of the States. On Tuesday last the post was robbed between this and Theobalds, and the letters to the King and other Lords in Scotland, from the Queen and the Lords of the Council, were taken away by fellows with vizors on their faces; such an insolence hath not been, however, before, and who they were, or who set them to work is suspected, but not yet discovered. We have the most pestilent libels spread abroad against the precise Lords and Commons of the Parliament, that they are fearful to be named. And the Brownists and other sectaries make such havoc in our churches by pulling down of ancient monuments, glass windows, and rails, that their madness is intolerable; and I think it will be thought blasphemy shortly to name Jesus Christ, for it is already forbidden to bow to his name, though Scripture and the practice of the Church of England doth both warrant and command it."

[222] May's History of the Long Parliament, 113-115.

[223] See his speeches in Rushworth, iv. 392-394.

[224] Parl. Hist., ii. 924.

[225] Parl. Hist., ii. 919, 920.

[226] Rushworth, iv. 438-451.

[227] Sidney Bere says in a letter dated 25th Nov., 1641 (State Papers Dom.): "For the business of the Houses of Parliament, they have been in great debates about a Remonstrance, which the House of Commons frames, shewing the grievances and abuses of many years past. The contestation now is, how to publish it, whether in print to the public view, or by petition to his Majesty—it was so equally carried in a division of opinion, that there were but eleven voices different. This day is a great day about it, but what the event will be I shall not be able to write you by this ordinary. It seems there are great divisions between the two Houses, and even in the Commons House, which, if not suddenly reconciled, may cause very great distractions amongst us. It is the fear of many wise and well-meaning men, who apprehend great distempers, which I pray God to direct."

[228] Memoirs by Sir Philip Warwick, 201.

[229] Forster's Grand Remonstrance, 324. I refer the reader to this valuable work for minute particulars respecting this debate.

[230] Clarendon. Hist., 125. Compare Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 161.

[231] So Queen Henrietta Maria was then commonly called.

[232] Nalson, ii. 679-681.

[233] Nicholas' Correspondence. Evelyn's Diary, iv. 82.

[234] "I observe since my coming to town, a very great alteration of the affections of the City, to what they were when I went away. They say a great present is to be presented to the King after dinner, and a petition such as he will be glad to receive, the contents I hear not yet, only one clause for the maintenance of Episcopacy and the suppression of schism."—Robert Slingsby, State Papers Dom., Nov. 25.

Respecting the King's reception, Wiseman says, "I confess it was a great one every way, and so acknowledged beyond the precedent of any made to former Kings, that history makes mention of, which well suits with the goodness, sweetness, and meritorious virtues of so gracious a King as ours is. The present mean estate of the Chamber denied the form of a gift, but this of the hearts of the citizens and those of the better sort, and at this tune so seasonably expressed, was of greater import to His Majesty than, for my part, I dare take upon me to value."—2nd Dec., 1641. State Papers, Dom.

[235] Nalson, ii. 681. Rushworth, iv. 432.

[236] Letter of Thomas Wiseman, addressed to "Sir John Pennington, Admiral of his Majesty's fleet for the guard of the Narrow Seas."—State Papers Dom., 9th Dec., 1641.

[237] In the same letter to Sir John Pennington, Wiseman says, "His Majesty was pleased, with a return of many thanks for his entertainment, to set a mark of his favour by knighting the seven aldermen, whereof your cousin the alderman was none, whose ways, as you partly know, are rather to please himself than to strive to do any acceptable service for the king, if it stand not with the sense of the preciser sort of the House of Commons."

[238] Sir Ralph Hopton gave a report to the House of the interview.—Parl. Hist., ii. 942.

[239] Rushworth, iv. 452.

[240] State Papers Dom. Letters of Robert Slingsby, dated (by mistake) 6th Dec., 1641, and properly placed under Jan. 6th, 1641-2. Slingsby is not perfectly accurate in his account of what took place in the House.

[241] The High Church Lord Mayor Gourney would not accompany them.

[242] Nalson, ii. 764.

[243] There were other disturbances in London.

"For the proceedings of the Parliament, you have them here enclosed until Monday, which day there happened some disorder concerning the prisoners in Newgate, who being to suffer, and understanding the priests condemned with them were not, but in hope of reprieve, they found means to seize the jailor's keys, and so made themselves master of the prison, but the train bands coming up that same day forced them to surrender, and the next they were hanged, not without great murmuring of the common people. The saving of the priests is yet a point debated in Parliament, and, as I am told, will hardly be obtained. In the meantime, these intervenient things add much to the distractions and distempers of the time, which I pray God to give a better end unto than at present there is any great appearance for to hope it." * * *

"I am told the House did yesternight vote the printing of the Remonstrance."—State Papers. Letter of Sidney Bere, 16th Dec., 1641.

[244] Bramston's Autobiography, published by the Camden Society, 82.

[245] Rushworth, iv. 463.

Cutting the hair short was a Puritan reaction, occasioned by the opposite Cavalier fashion of wearing locks profusely long. It is worth notice, that the nickname given to Elisha by the boys at the town gate, as they watched the prophet passing by, was just the same as that given to the Parliamentarians. "Baldhead," is really "roundhead," in allusion to shortness of hair at the back of the head.—Ewald, iii. 512.—Smith's Dict. of the Bible, i. 537.

[246] The following letter by Captain Slingsby relates to this disturbance. It will be noticed that the writer says, "none were killed;" but Fuller states one man died of the injuries he received.

"I cannot say we have had a merry Christmas, but the maddest one that I ever saw. The prentices and baser sort of citizens, sailors, and watermen, in great numbers every day at Westminster, armed with swords, halberds, clubs, which hath made the King keep a strong guard about Whitehall of the trained-bands without, and of gentlemen and officers of the army within. The King had upon Christmas-eve put Colonel Lunsford in to be Lieutenant of the Tower, which was so much resented by the Commons and by the City, that the Sunday after he displaced him again and put in Sir John Biron, who is little better accepted than the other. Lunsford being on Monday last in the Hall with about a dozen other gentlemen, he was affronted by some of the citizens, whereof the Hall was full, and so they drew their swords, chasing the citizens about the Hall, and so made their way through them which were in the Palace Yard and in King's Street, till they came to Whitehall. The Archbishop of York was beaten by the prentices the same day, as he was going into the Parliament. The next day they assaulted the Abbey, to pull down the organs and altar; but it was defended by the Archbishop of York and his servants, with some other gentlemen that came to them; divers of the citizens hurt, but none killed. Amongst them that were hurt one knight, Sir Richard Wiseman, who is their chief leader. Yesterday, about fifteen or sixteen officers of the army, standing at the Court gate, took a slight occasion to fall upon them and hurt about forty or so of them. They, in all their skirmishes have avoided thrusting, because they would not kill them. I never saw the Court so full of gentlemen. Every one comes thither with their swords. This day 500 gentlemen of the Inns of Court came to offer their services to the King. The officers of the army, since these tumults, have watcht and kept a Court of guard in the presence chamber, and are entertained upon the King's charge. A company of soldiers put into the Abbey for defence of it."—State Papers, December 30th, 1641.

[247] "There has been great store of the scum of the people who have gone this holidays to Westminster, to have down Bishops, and against Lunsford, who is now dismissed from being Lieutenant of the Tower, the King having given him £500 pension per annum, and hath invested one Sir John Biron in that place. All things are in much distemper, and I fear that they yet will grow worse."—State Papers. Letter of Capt. Carterett to Sir J. Pennington, dated London, 29th Dec.

[248] I drew up this account from documents in the Record Office, dated the last few days of December, 1641, when I had no opportunity of consulting what Mr. Forster says of the disturbances, in his careful history of the Arrest of the Five Members.

[249] See Rushworth, iv. 695, for examples of exaggeration in the royalist statements. This disturbance became a subject of controversy between the King and Parliament.—Rushworth, iv. 710.

[250] "Here," says Mr. Forster, "and not in any dispute as to whom the powers of the militia should reside with, really began the Civil War." Arrest of the Five Members, 66.

[251] Hall's Works for Hard Measure, xiii.

[252] Fuller's Church History, iii. 431. He gives a copy of the protest.

[253] See his speech on the 4th of March—Parl. Hist., ii. 1111.

[254] Bishop Hall's account in his Hard Measure would seem to imply that the King had not seen the paper before it was brought under the notice of the Upper House by Lord-keeper Littleton, but it is clearly stated (Parl. Hist., ii. 993) that what Littleton did in this matter was by his Majesty's command. "The Jesuitical faction," says a letter of the day, "according to their wonted custom, fomenting still jealousies between the King and his people, and the bishops, continually concurring with the Popish lords against the passing any good Bills sent from the House of Commons thither; and their last plot hath been their endeavour to make this Parliament no Parliament, and so to overthrow all Acts past, and to cause a dissolution of it for the present, which hath been so strongly followed by the Popish party, that it was fain to be put to the vote, and the Protestant Lords carried it to be a free and perfect Parliament as ever any was before. This did so gall the bishops that they made their protestation against the freedom of the vote, and the Parliament; and in their protestation have inserted such speeches as have brought them within the compass of treason, and thus the Council of Achitophel is turned into foolishness. The Earl of Bristol and his son have been chief concurrents with them in this and other evil councils, for which they have been impeached and branded in the House of Commons."—State Papers, Letter of Thomas Smith to Sir J. Pennington, dated York House, 30th Dec., 1641.

There are allusions to these proceedings in other letters (State Papers) which all blame the bishops for want of wisdom.

[255] Hall says, "On January the 30th, in all the extremity of frost, at 8 o'clock in the dark evening, are we voted to the Tower. The news of this our crime and imprisonment flew over the city, and was entertained by our well-wishers with ringing of bells and bonfires." Hard Measure.

[256] "This day the bishops have made a protestation against the proceedings of this Parliament, declaring it no free Parliament. This makes a great stir here. The favourers of them think it done too soon, the other side do seem now to rejoice that it is done, having thereby excluded themselves from it." Slingsby to Pennington. State Papers, 30th Dec., 1641.

[257] Collier's Ecclesiastical History, ii. 819.

[258] Parl. Hist., ii. 1206. The bishops were: Dr. John Williams, Archbishop of York; Dr. T. Moreton, Bishop of Durham; Dr. J. Hall, Bishop of Norwich; Dr. Robert Wright, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield; Dr. John Owen, Bishop of St. Asaph; Dr. William Piers, Bishop of Bath and Wells; Dr. John Coke, Bishop of Hereford; Dr. M. Wren, Bishop of Ely; Dr. Robert Skinner, Bishop of Oxon; Dr. G. Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester; Dr. J. Towers, Bishop of Peterborough; Dr. M. Owen, Bishop of Llandaff.

In Parl. Hist., ii. 998, Warner is mentioned as Bishop of Peterborough, but he was Bishop of Rochester. See list of the thirteen impeached in August.

[259] Parl. Hist., ii. 1080.

[260] Lords' Journals, Feb. 16th.

[261] It is related of this eccentric person that, as master of a household, he never allowed the presence of a female servant.—See Worthies of Sussex, by Mark Antony Lower.

[262] Harl. MSS. in Lysons, iii. 56.

[263] There is a curious letter from Towers, then Dean of Peterborough, dated December 30, 1633, in which he seeks to make interest with Sir John Lambe, Dean of the Arches, for the succession of the bishopric. He says he should be almost as glad to see his friend Dr. Sibthorpe in the deanery as himself in the palace. State Papers Dom., Chas. I.

[264] Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, part ii. 78. The few particulars we have given respecting the bishops rest chiefly on his authority.

[265] Hacket's Memorial, ii. 226.

[266] The following State Papers Dom., (Chas. I.), was written at the same time:—

"Sir—What passeth in Scotland I presume you have already understood from Mr. Bere, so that I shall only say, that I believe the great plot there may prove much ado about nothing. Howsoever I am advertised that all the distractions thereupon have suddenly composed, which gives great hope of his Majesty's return ere it be long. Our Parliament, I mean the House of Commons, were very hot in getting the Lords to pass a bill which they had voted, and sent up against the bishops; but the news of a rebellion in Ireland made them cast that by, and ever since Saturday last both Houses have bestowed their time upon this business, and at length have concluded to send away the Lord Lieutenant speedily with 1,000 men and £50,000 in money, which is to be taken up of the city, if they can get it there, for the citizens of the best rank are at this time much discontented with the Parliament about protections, whereby they are stopped from getting in their debts to their great prejudice....

"H. Cogan.

"Charing Cross, 4th Nov., 1641."

[267] Letter of Thos. Wiseman, dated 4th Nov., 1641. (State Papers Dom., Chas. I.)

This letter discloses to us facts which were the subject of many a letter, and many a conversation in the autumn of 1641. Public indignation was awakened by these atrocities in a way resembling that with which we were all sadly familiar at the period of the Indian massacre.

[268] Mant's History of the Church of Ireland, i. 467, 470.

[269] Bramhall's Works, i., letters, p. 79. The Lord Deputy's letter in 1634 also gives a lamentable description.—Strafford's Letters, i. 187. See also Petition of Irish Convocation.—Collier, ii. 763.

[270] Mant's Church of Ireland, i. 548.

[271] Rushworth, iv. 406.

[272] For the Roman Catholic view of the case, see Lingard's History of England, x. 41.

[273] Lister's Autobiography, 7. The places named are on the great highway from South Lancashire to Halifax.

[274] Calamy's Ejected Ministers, i. 45.

[275] Nalson, ii. 647-688. Cogan (servant to some one addressed by Nicholas as Rt. Honble.) in a letter dated Charing Cross, November 18, 1641, after relating the story told by the tailor of White Cross Street, continues—"he went with all speed to the House of Commons, unto whom being with great importunity admitted, he at large related all the aforesaid passages, and withal shewed in how many places of his cloak and clothes he was run through; and after long examination of him they sent him up unto the Lords, who in like manner questioned him a long time, and ever since there hath been a great coil about the finding out of this matter, by searching of Recusants' houses, as my Lord of Worcester's in the Strand, St. Basil Brooke's, and others. Now, whether this be a truth or an imposture, time will resolve."

[276] Nalson, ii. 673. Dering's subsequent history does not belong to our pages. It is enough to say he was expelled the House, his published speeches were burnt by the hangman, he joined the King, and served in the army; and then, after all, made his peace with the Parliament.

[277] Clarendon, 433.

[278] Macaulay's Essays, i. 160.

[279] Quoted in Forster's Grand Remonstrance, 172.

[280] As to Royalists of the mean and selfish class, see Brodie, iii. 344-354.

[281] Parl. Hist., ii. 990.

[282] Nalson, ii. 673.

[283] Letters of the 13th and 14th of January, in the State Paper Office, indicate the excitement of the period, and the uncertainty felt about the King's movements.

[284] State Papers Dom., under date January 13, 1642. Parts of this letter, of which I have not transcribed the whole, are inserted by Mr. Forster in his Arrest of the Five Members. I had intended to introduce other interesting letters of that date, but as they are already printed by him, I refer the reader to his pages.

[285] March 28, 1642.—A conference was held respecting a petition from Kent, which prayed for a restoration of the Bishops, and the Liturgy, &c., &c. Some parts of the petition were voted scandalous, dangerous, and tending to sedition.—Lords' Journal.

April 21.—Both Houses made a curious order against counter-petitions—"As no man ought to petition for the Government established by law because he has already his wish; but they that desire an alteration cannot otherwise have their desires known, and therefore are to be countenanced."

April 28.—The Commons, by Mr. Oliver Cromwell, acquaint the Lords "that a great meeting is to be held next day on Blackheath, to back the rejected Kentish petition." 30—"The Men of Kent come to the House, and again present their petition formerly burnt. Several are committed to the Gate House and Fleet."—Parry's Parliaments and Councils of England, 385, 386.

[286] This appears from a letter by Slingsby.—State Papers, December 2, 1641.

[287] Rushworth, iv. 498.