[484] The following illustrations are from the volumes in the Record Office.—Dom. Inter., 1646.

[485] In the State Paper Office I find a case submitted to Lord Chief Justice Heath, in March, 1644, relative to sueing for tithes, in which his lordship gives opinion "that where the bishop, or other inferior judge, will not, dare not, or cannot do justice, the superior Court may and ought to do it." State Papers, Dom., 1643, March 22nd.

[486] See Scobell (1644), 45; (1647), 85; (1648), 110.

[487] The Parliamentary Journals testify to various kinds of ecclesiastical affairs which came under the notice of the whole House, such as allowances to ministers, the collecting of pew-rents, contributions in churches for those who suffered in the wars, appointments to livings, &c., &c.—See Entries, August 26th, Sept. 7th, 11th, 19th, October 14th, and Dec. 16th, 1644.

[488] Parliament conferred powers on Lord Fairfax in February, 1644, whilst he was in the north, and the next month, commissioners there received the following warrant:—

"Whereas we are credibly informed that many ministers in the several counties of Nottingham, York, bishopric of Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, the town and county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the city and county of the city of York, and the town of Nottingham, are not only of scandalous life and conversation, but leaving their charges and cures, have withdrawn themselves wilfully from the same, and have joined with such forces as are raised against Parliament and Kingdom, and have aided and assisted the said forces, and that many that would give evidence against such scandalous ministers are not able to travel to London, nor bear the expenses of such journeys, you have therefore hereby full power and authority to call before you, &c., &c., and to eject such as you shall judge unfit for their places, and to sequester their livings and spiritual promotions, and to place others in their room, such as shall be approved, godly, learned, and orthodox divines, &c., &c. And further, you shall have power to dispose a fifth part of all such estates as you shall sequester for the benefit of the wives and children of any the aforesaid persons, &c., &c."—State Papers, Dom., March 6th, 1643-4.

With the sword of Fairfax, a real Andrea Ferrara, and other relics of the Commonwealth, there is preserved at Farnley Hall, Yorkshire, the silver matrix of a seal for the licensing of preachers. It shews within a circlet of leaves an open Bible, inscribed "The Word of God," with the words running round the edge, "The Seal for the Approbation of Ministers." It is engraved in Scott's Antiquarian Gleanings in the North of England.

See Resolutions in Journals, August 29th, 1644.

[489] Rushworth, vi. 212.

[490] Great Fight in the Church at Thaxted, 1647. Quoted in Davis's Nonconformity in Essex.

[491] Rushworth, iv. 113-123.

These articles, charging him with introducing Popish innovations into Scotland, are given by Laud, together with his replies, in the History of his Troubles. Works, iii. 301. Laud's answers are not those of a Papist, but those of a thorough Anglo-Catholic. Another set of charges was presented against the bishops generally. Works, iii. 379. How the thing was talked about in Scotland appears in the History of the Troubles in England and Scotland (Ballatyne Club), 275.

[492] Laud, in his Diary, March 24, 1642-3, alludes to plots to send him and Wren to New England.—Works, iv. 19.

[493] Neal, iii. 176. Laud says, under date January 22, 1643-4:—"This day the Thames was so full of ice that I could not go by water. It was frost and snow, and a most bitter day. I went, therefore, with the Lieutenant in his coach, and twelve wardens, with halberts, went all along the streets." "So from the Tower-gate to Westminster I was sufficiently railed on and reviled all the way. God, of his mercy, forgive the misguided people! My answer being put in, I was for that time dismissed; and the tide serving me, I made a hard shift to return by water."—Works, iv. 45.

[494] It has been justly remarked that the Greek orators were careful to impress upon their audience that, in bringing a charge against any one, they were actuated by the strongest personal motives. Æschines, in his oration against Ctesiphon, expresses his intense personal spite against Demosthenes. Christianity has taught us a different lesson, and happily the authority of that lesson is acknowledged, and its spirit generally exemplified by the English bar, and in the British Senate.

With regard to Prynne, let me add that, though his prejudices might warp his judgment, he shewed himself throughout his whole life to be an honest man. Of his learning, there cannot be two opinions. His great work on Parliamentary writs, in four volumes, is pronounced by a competent judge to be so admirable, that "it is impossible to speak of it in terms of too high commendation."—Parry's Parliaments and Councils, Preface, 21. See also Spilsbury's Lincoln's Inn, 283.

[495] See Rushworth, v. 763-780. A fuller account of the trial may be found in Neal, iii. 172-242.

[496] This is taken, not from Rushworth's report (v. 777), but from Laud's own copy of his speech. They differ somewhat.—Works, iv. 60.

[497] Quoted in Neal, iii. 239.

[498] Laud said in his defence: "The result must be of the same nature and species with the particulars from which it rises. But 'tis confessed no one of the particulars are treason, therefore, neither is the result that rises from them. And this holds in nature, in morality, and in law."—Works, iv. 380.

In reply to Serjeant Wylde's argument, that the misdemeanours together, by accumulation made up treason, Laud's advocate wittily observed: "I crave your mercy, good Mr. Serjeant, I never understood before this time that two hundred couple of black rabbits would make a black horse."

[499] Walton's Lives, 390.

[500] Heylyn says, in his Life of Archbishop Laud (527), that Stroud was sent up to the Lords with a message from the House of Commons, to let them know that the Londoners would shortly petition with 20,000 hands to obtain that ordinance.

The arguments of the Commons in support of the attainder, as presented to the Lords, are given in the journals of the latter, under date, Die Sabbati, 4 die Januarii.

Heylyn (528) states, that only seven Lords concurred in the sentence; Clarendon (519), that there were not above twelve peers in the House at the time. In the Journals the names of nineteen appear at the commencement of the minutes of the sitting.

[501] Lives of the Chancellors, iii. 204; Const. Hist., i. 577; Hist. of Commonwealth, i. 428.

[502] Life of Pocock, by Dr. Twells, 84. See also a curious tract respecting Laud in Harleian Miscel., iv. 450.

[503] Rushworth, v. 781. "Let us run with patience that race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

[504] Rushworth, v. 785.

[505] A newspaper notices that:—Whereas he had been the archpatron of those who branded honest men with the name of roundheads more than hath been usual, his own head when cut off, though sawdust had been laid about the block, "did tumble once or twice about like a ball."

[506] Henry Rogers.

[507] See Bruce's Account of Laud's Berkshire Benefactions.

Mr. Bruce, who has had ample means of judging of Laud's character, observes:—"A winking at a little finesse designed to accomplish some end, supposed to be for the good of the Church, is all that may be brought home to him—his hands were never defiled by the touch of a bribe."—Calendar of State Papers, Dom., 1635. Preface.

[508] Overstrained parallels between Laud and Wolsey were drawn in the pamphlets of the day.—See Harl. Miscell., iv. 462.

I may add that Dunstan and Laud were alike insular men, if that term may be used to distinguish them from Becket and Wolsey, both of whom had large intercourse with the Continent. Dunstan and Laud were narrower in their feeling and character than the other two. I have before noticed the resemblance between Dunstan and Laud in point of influence.

[509] Journals of the Lords, January 4th, 1645.

[510] An Anatomy of the Service Book, by Dwalphintramis. Southey's Common-place Book, iii. 40.

[511] See Christ on the Throne. 1640.

[512] A letter by George Gillespie, on the Directory, being forwarded to Scotland, shews the difficulty there was in getting it passed.—Baillie, ii., App. 505. He says, May 9th, 1645: "I pray you be careful that the Act of the General Assembly, approving the Directory, be not so altered as to make it a straiter imposition." "Sure I am, the Directory had never past the Assembly of Divines, if it had not been for the qualifications in the preface. This is only for yourself, except ye hear any controversy about it in your meeting."

[513] Baillie's Letters, ii. 271.

[514] Scobell, 97.

[515] The following should be recorded to Whitelocke's credit. 1646. Oct. 26. "Indictment in Bucks for not reading the Common Prayer complained of. Ordered that an ordinance be brought in to take away the statute that enjoins it, and to disable malignant ministers from preaching. This was much opposed by me and some others, as contrary to that principle which the Parliament had avowed of liberty of conscience, and like that former way complained of against the bishops for silencing of ministers."—Memorials, 226. The diarist here shews that the use of the Prayer Book was not considered by the Royalists to be legally abolished.

I may here add that Whitelocke was not a party man. He sympathized with Presbyterian leaders in wishing to save the monarchy, but he co-operated with Independents in advocating religious liberty.

[516] Mant's History of the Church of Ireland, i. 587-594.

[517] Lathbury's History of Convocation, 497.

[518] Clarendon's Hist., 515.

[519] While the Oxford Lords were in London on the embassy, there was, according to the Diurnal, entitled Perfect Occurrences, December 28, a great auditory to hear the chaplain preach and read prayers. After the sermon, it is said, the people were very merry, and a young lady and gentleman went dancing by the river side, and fell in—"good for them to cool their courage in frosty weather."

[520] Whitelocke, 112. The entire propositions for peace may be seen in Parl. Hist., iii. 299.

[521] King's Cabinet opened.—Neal, iii. 250.

[522] Parl. Hist., iii. 339.

[523] Memorials, 127.

[524] All the documents during the attempts at a treaty are given by Dugdale in his Short View of the late Troubles.

A full account is also given by Rushworth, v.

[525] Clarendon's Hist., 521.

Secretary Nicholas writes to the King, 5th of February, 1644: "This morning we are to observe the fast, according to your Majesty's proclamation; but it must be done here in the inn, for we cannot be permitted to have the Book of Common Prayer read in the church here, and we resolve not to go to any church where the Divine service established by law may not be celebrated." "You have done well, but they barbarously," Charles writes in the margin. But in the prayer appointed by the King the war is described as "unnatural," and the Almighty is entreated "to let the truth clearly appear, who those are which, under pretence of the public good, do pursue their own private ends." It was not likely the Parliament would allow that prayer to be used.—Nicholas' Correspondence, Evelyn, iv. 136.

[526] The other chief subjects were the militia and Irish affairs.

[527] Rushworth, v. 818.

[528] Evelyn, iv. 137.

[529] In the British Museum there is a petition, presented in the year 1647, complaining of many hundreds of towns and villages destitute of any preaching ministry, by occasion whereof ignorance, drunkenness, profaneness, disaffection, &c., abound.

[530] Husband's Col., 645.

[531] See ordinance dated November the 8th, 1645, in Rushworth, vi. 212, and Baillie's Letters, ii. 349.

[532] Letters and Journals, ii. 145.

[533] Letters and Journals, ii. 146.

[534] Neal, iii. 309.

[535] Lives, 380.

[536] Baillie's Letters, ii. 157.

[537] The religious feelings of the two armies are thus stated by an eyewitness:—"Consider the height of difference of spirits; in their army the cream of all the Papists in England, and in ours, a collection out of all the corners of England and Scotland of such as had the greatest antipathy to Popery and tyranny."—Sanford, 597. He gives a careful account of the battle.

For the state of feeling in general after the victory, see Baillie, ii. 201, et seq.

[538] I adopt some of the words quoted by Sanford.

[539] There was one of the Royalist soldiers at Marston Moor wounded in the shoulder by a musket ball, who afterwards became Archbishop Dolbon, of York, 1683-1686. The following incident is interesting:—"Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Trappes, married Charles Towneley, of Towneley, in Lancashire, Esquire, who was killed at the battle of Marston Moor. During the engagement she was with her father at Knaresborough, where she heard of her husband's fate, and came upon the field the next morning in order to search for his body, while the attendants of the camp were stripping and burying the dead. Here she was accosted by a general officer, to whom she told her melancholy story. He heard her with great tenderness, but earnestly desired her to leave a place where, besides the distress of witnessing such a scene, she might probably be insulted. She complied, and he called a trooper, who took her encroup. On her way to Knaresborough she enquired of the man the name of the officer to whose civility she had been indebted, and learned that it was Lieutenant-General Cromwell."—Sanford, 610.

[540] See Lightfoot's Journal, September 9, 1644.

[541] Here we may mention that it is probable that John Bunyan was at that time in the Royalist army, and that while he was fighting for the King the incident occurred so often related of his post being occupied by a comrade who could handle a musket better than he could do, and who, on account of his superior skill and bravery, unfortunately received a fatal carbine shot which otherwise might have killed our matchless dreamer. Nobody can say what the world lost by that poor fellow's death, but everybody knows what the world gained by John Bunyan's preservation.

[542] For a full account of the battle of Naseby see England's Recovery, by Joshua Sprigg, 1647. It is he who reports the complaints we have noticed. See p. 6 of his interesting narrative.

[543] There is an interesting letter by Cromwell, dated July 10, 1645, giving an account of the Naseby fight, reprinted in Sanford, p. 625, from pamphlets in Lincoln College, Oxford. As the letter is not in Carlyle (2nd edition), I give the following extract:—"Thus you see what the Lord hath wrought for us. Can any creature ascribe anything to itself? Now can we give all the glory to God, and desire all may do so, for it is all due unto Him. Thus you have Long Sutton mercy added to Naseby mercy; and to see this, is it not to see the face of God? You have heard of Naseby; it was a happy victory. As in this, so in that, God was pleased to use His servants; and if men will be malicious, and swell with envy, we know who hath said—'If they will not see, yet they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at his people.' I can say this of Naseby, that when I saw the enemy draw up, and march in gallant order towards us, and we a company of poor ignorant men, to seek how to order our battle, the general having commanded me to order all the horse. I could not (riding alone about my business) but smile out to God in praises, in assurance of victory, because God would, by things that are not, bring to nought things that are, of which I had great assurance, and God did it. Oh, that men would therefore praise the Lord, and declare the wonders that He doth for the children of men!"

[544] Nevertheless, Royalist hopes were unquenched as late as the month of September, 1645.

"If you consider," it is said in an anonymous letter of that date, in the State Paper Office, "the strange extremities we were then in, the progress which we have made, and our wonderful success at last in the relieving of Hereford and chasing away the Scots, at a time when, in my conscience, within one week there had been a general revolt of South Wales (which is now likely to be entirely settled), you will think that it promises to us and portends to the rebels a strange revolution in the whole face of affairs; and if to this you add the miracles done by the same time by my Lord Montrose, in Scotland (who hath made himself entirety master of that kingdom), you will have reason to join with me in the confidence, that we shall have, by God's blessing, as quick a progress to happiness as we have had to the greatest extremities. I must confess, for my part, that these miracles, besides the worldly joy they give me, have made me even a better Christian, by begetting in me a stronger faith and reliance upon God Almighty, than before; having manifested that it is wholly His work, and that He will bring about His intended blessings upon this just cause, by ways the most impossible to human understanding, and consequently teach us to cast off all reliance upon our own strength."

This letter is dated September the 9th, 1645, and is addressed to Lord Byron.

[545] Life of Dod.—Brooks' Lives, iii. 4.

[546] Brook, iii. 80.

[547] Wood, ii. 89, says this was Aulkryngton, commonly called Okerton, near Banbury, in Oxfordshire; but I cannot find in Topographical Dictionaries any mention of such a place.

[548] Brook's Lives, iii. 10. See also p. 63.

[549] Walker's Sufferings, part ii. 183-185, 193.

I have lighted on the following scraps in newspapers of the day:—

Mr. Bullinger, of Lincolnshire (sometime chaplain to a Regent of the King), grandchild to the old bishop, being newly returned from France, where he hath lately been, is sent up by the Committee of Dover, very poor, in a gray suit, and neither cloak to his back nor money in his purse; and yet he scruples the taking of the Covenant, and desires time to consider of it. His examinations were this day taken.—Perfect Occurrences, 18th of December, 1646.

A story is told of a singing man from Peterborough, who went to Wisbeach, as clerk, and then read the burial service, when he was insulted in the rudest manner, and knocked down, the poor fellow crying out, "I am a Covenanter."—Moderate Intelligence, January, 1647.

[550] Letters, ii. 274.

[551] Letters, ii. 298, 299.

Baillie complains of the growing influence of the Erastians.—Ibid., 311, 318, 320.

[552] These rules are given in Rushworth, vi. 210.

[553] Baillie's Letters and Journals, ii. 362, et seq.

[554] Ibid., 344.

[555] Godwin, ii. 10.

[556] Neal, iii. 311.

[557] See Letter to Parliament, in Rushworth, vi. 234.

[558] Baillie, ii. 367. For the Parliament's notice of what the Scots had said, see Declaration, in Rushworth, vi. 257. The notice is only in the way of general allusion.

[559] Froude's History of England, vii. 340.

[560] Neal, iii. 330.

[561] Neal, iii. 381. Hetherington's History of the Westminster Assembly, 300.

[562] Rushworth, vii. 1035. At a conference between the Lords and Commons, on March 22nd, 1648, the latter declared their consent to the doctrinal parts, with the desire that the same be "made public, that this kingdom and all the reformed Churches of Christendom may see the Parliament of England differ not in doctrine." It is added, "particulars in discipline are recommitted." Of the confession of faith the title was altered to "articles of faith, agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament, as most suitable to the former title of the Thirty-nine Articles." The Covenant was legally enforced, but the Westminster Confession never was. Only part of it, under the title of Articles, ever became law at all.

[563] Baillie, iii., Appendix, 537, et seq. A full account is there given of Rouse's revised version, 1646, in connexion with the present Scotch version, published in 1650, p. 549.

[564] Prose Works, vol. ii., 40.

[565] Life and Times, part i. 73.

[566] Hallam speaks of the Assembly as "perhaps equal in learning, good sense, and other merits, to any Lower House of Convocation that ever made a figure in England."—Const. Hist., i. 609.

[567] Sprigg's England's Recovery, 326.

[568] Opera, iii. 466.

[569] Life and Times, part i. 53-56.

[570] Owen's Works, edited by Russell, xv. 96.

[571] I find the following reference to Peters in the State Papers:—

"Dec. 10.—The fifteen articles and covenant of Hugh Peters, minister of the English congregation in Rotterdam, stated in an indorsement, which is in the handwriting of Sir William Boswell, to have been proposed to that congregation before their admission to the communion. The following are examples of these articles: '1. Be contented with meet trial for our fitness to be members. 2. Cleave in heart to the truth and pure worship of God, and oppose all ways of innovation and corruption. 3. Suffer the Word to be the guider of all controversies. 10. Meditate the furthering of the Gospel at home and abroad, as well in our persons as with our purses. 11. Take nearly to heart our brethren's condition, and conform ourselves to these troublesome times in our diet and apparel, that they be without excess in necessity. 14. Put one another in mind of this covenant, and as occasion is offered, to take an account of what is done in the premises.'"—Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1633-4, p. 318.

[572] The imputations on Peters's moral character were no doubt malicious falsehoods.—Brook's Lives, iii. 350.

[573] Abridged from Life of Colonel Hutchinson, 151.

[574] Ath. Oxon., ii. 287.

The Westminster Assembly condemned certain positions in Saltmarsh's writings, as well as in the writings of Dr. Crisp, and Mr. John Eaton, for their Antinomian tendencies.—See Neal, iii. 68. Neal does not say what the passages were. Edwards, in his Gangræna, part i., 25, 26, gives a list of their tenets, but we place little dependence on his accusations. It is very likely, however, that Saltmarsh might lay himself open to the charge of Antinomianism. We have not seen his book on Free-grace, in which perhaps the dangerous tenets he was charged with are to be looked for.

[575] As an example of the kind of preaching by these officers we may mention a tract entitled "Orders given out—the word Stand fast, as it was lately delivered in a farewell sermon, by Major Samuel Kem, to the officers and soldiers of his regiment in Bristol, November 8th, 1646." The discourse is full of military allusions.

[576] Journal of the Swedish Embassy, 1653-4.

[577] Neal, iii. 330.

[578] This is the account in Ashburnham's Narrative, ii. 72. Rushworth says the King came to Brentford and Harrow, and then went to St. Albans, vi. 267. Ashburnham's is, no doubt, the correct story.

Hacket tells the following story in the Life of Archbishop Williams: "His Majesty, unwilling to stay to the last in a city begirt, by the persuasion of Mons. Mountrevile, went privily out of Oxford, and put himself into the hands of his native countrymen and subjects at Newcastle. 'What,' says Mr. Archbishop, when he heard of it, 'be advised by a stranger, and trust the Scots; then all is lost.' It was a journey not imparted to above ten persons to know it, begun upon sudden resolution against that rule of Tacitus: 'Bona consilia morâ valescere.'"—Memorial of Williams, ii. 222.

[579] There is an important memorandum for Lord Balcarras "anent the King's coming to the Scots' army," in Baillie's Letters and Journals, ii. 514. Appendix.

[580] Charles I. in 1646. Letters published by the Camden Society.

[581] Neal, iii. 336-347.

[582] Rushworth, vi. 319.

[583] Rushworth, vi. 309.

[584] Mercurius Civicus, Oct. 8-15, 1646.

"By letters from Scotland we were this day advertised that the Estates of Edinburgh have sent up their determination to the Commissioners at Worcester House. One, 'That Presbyterian government be established, as that which will suit best with monarchy.'"

It was commonly said at Newcastle, that his Majesty would take the Covenant.

[585] Charles I. in 1646, 63, 86.

[586] Charles I. in 1646, 6, 11. See also Ogle's letter, printed in this volume, p. 306.

[587] Ibid., 24. In reading Charles's correspondence we observe that, whatever may be said of fanatical ideas of providence entertained by Puritans, ideas equally fanatical were entertained by the King.—See Mr. Bruce's Introduction to the volume of Letters.