was absolutely without the power of governing aright, and there was no counsellor at hand to direct him. Charles alternated between senseless obstinacy, rash violence, and unseemly and disgraceful concessions. In the latter mood he gave the noble Strafford to the block; agreed to the Act which made it impossible for him to dissolve the Parliament without its own consent; and now, in Scotland, in the autumn of 1641, assented to a Bill which declared that "the government of the Church by bishops was repugnant to the Word of God; that the prelates were enemies to the true Protestant religion; that their order was to be suppressed and their lands given to the king." Of course this did not express the king's real sentiments. It was intended as a fine stroke of policy to detach the Scotch interest from the English Presbyterian party; but, like other fine strokes of Stuart policy, it served only to encourage the enemies, and to dispirit the friends, of the Church. § 23. To give a practical proof that he did not wish the order of bishops to be taken away, the king now made eight Episcopal appointments. Williams was made Archbishop of York. Archbishop Usher, unable to return to Ireland amidst the horrors of the rebellion, was appointed to the See of Carlisle. Hall was translated from Exeter to Norwich Brian Duppa from Chichester to Salisbury; Westfield, King, Brownrigg, and Prideaux were nominated for consecration. § 24. When the House of Commons met on October 20, Mr. Pym made a report from the Committee of Religion, which had sat during the recess, with regard to the declaration on ceremonial and ritual which had been made by the House on September 9.2 Many ministers were complained of, either for having refused to read it in their churches, or for not allowing it to be acted on, and several churchwardens were also informed against for having defended the fittings of their churches against the rabble who wished to tear them down. 3 As this order was altogether illegal, resistance to it was scarce to be wondered at. § 25. But the king's vacillation in Scotland, and the reports of the Irish massacres, attributed to the queen's influence, encouraged the Puritanical faction to try a bolder step, and by making use of the irritation existing from civil discontents, to obtain, together with a protest against these, that condemnation of the Church which they had failed to obtain by direct means. For this purpose a long bill of indictment against the policy of the Government in Church and State, called a Remonstrance, was drawn up, 2 See Notes and Illustrations to this chapter. 1 Collier, viii. 219. and, after violent debate, carried in the House by a majority of nine. In this the bishops are accused of "triumphing in the excommunication and degradation of pious and learned ministers, and in the vexation and grievous oppression of great numbers of his Majesty's good subjects." At the same time, the Commons express strict loyalty to the king, and declare that it is far from their purpose "to let loose the golden reins of discipline in the Church, and to leave private persons or particular congregations to take up what form of service they please." They only desire "to unburden the consciences of men of needless and superstitious ceremonies, suppress innovations, and take away the monuments of idolatry." For this purpose they desire that there may be a Synod of the most pious and learned divines in the realm, assisted by some from foreign parts. The king is prayed to take away the bishops' votes in Parliament, and to abridge the immoderate power which they have usurped over the clergy, and which they have grievously misused. This remonstrance could serve, and was intended to serve, no other purpose except that of exasperating the people against the king and the bishops. 1 § 26. Against these latter the popular fury was now fairly aroused, and they could only attend to their Parliamentary duties at hazard of their lives. Mobs surrounded them as they passed to and from the House of Lords, shouting "No bishops!" "The oyster-women lock'd their fish up, Of pudding-pies, and gingerbread ; A gospel-preaching ministry; And some for old suits, coats, or cloak, It was in vain that the bishops in the House of Lords defended their ancient and unimpeachable right to sit there as one of the three Estates of the realm; that they showed that their order had voted in the councils of the nation many hundred years before a House of Commons was known. The Lords only listened coldly to them, and wished them gone. The mob now surrounded the House, carrying arms in their hands, and threatening to take their lives. § 27. At length, on December 27, the tumult became so threatening, that the bishops-some under the protection of temporal peers, some by secret passages and in disguise-quitted the 1 Hallam, Const. Hist. i. 532. 2 Butler's Hudibras, canto ii. House, and meeting together at the lodgings of the Archbishop of York, agreed on his advice to draw up and sign a protest declaring all the proceedings of Parliament in their enforced absence to be illegal. A great authority pronounces this protest to be "abundantly justifiable by the plainest principles of law." Nothing, however, could well have been more impolitic. It exasperated the Lords; it delighted their enemies in the Commons; it made it almost impossible for the king to protect them. § 28. The bishops had agreed to it, trusting to the legal knowledge and political skill of Archbishop Williams, but they soon had reason to regret the step they had taken. "We poor souls," says Bishop Hall," who little thought we had done anything that might deserve a chiding, are now called to our knees at the bar, and severally charged with high treason, being not a little astonished with the suddenness of this crimination, compared with the perfect innocence of our intentions, which were only to bring us to our due places in Parliament with safety and speed, without the least purpose of any man's offence. But now traitors we are in all haste, and must be dealt with accordingly. For on January 30, in all extremity of frost, at eight o'clock in the dark evening, we are voted to the Tower, and the news of our imprisonment was entertained with ringing of bells and bonfires; and men gave us up for lost. railing at our perfidiousness, and adjudging us to what foul deaths they pleased." 2 § 29. In the exasperation which prevailed against the bishops, and in the absence of their votes, the Bill for taking away their right of voting in the House of Lords, which had before been defeated, was now easily passed, and to this the king, after much hesitation, was induced to give his consent. This was another act of impolicy on the part of Charles. "The passing that Bill exceedingly weakened the king's party," says Clarendon, "not only as it perpetually swept away so considerable a number out of the House of Peers, which were constantly devoted to him, but as it made impression on others whose minds were in suspense, and shaken as when foundations are dissolved." 3 § 30. While the king was thus yielding to the enemies of the Church, the country did not cease to make its voice heard, to the effect that though reforms of abuses were desired, no constitutional change was wished for. Great masses of petitions reached the Parliament, all couched in this strain. "For the present govern ment of the Church," says the Somersetshire petition, signed by 1 Hallam, Const. Hist. i. 553. Bishop Hall's Hard Measure. Wordsworth, Eccl. Biog. iv. 299. 14,350 gentlemen and freeholders, we are most thankful to God, believing it in our hearts to be the most pious and the wisest that any people or kingdom hath been blest withal since the apostles' times." "Our pious, ancient, and laudable form of Church service," says the Cheshire petition, signed by 10,000 gentlemen and yeomen, "composed by the holy martyrs and worthy instruments of reformation, with such general consent received by all the laity, that scarce any family or person that can read but are furnished with the Books of Common Prayer, in the conscionable use whereof many Christian hearts have found unspeakable joy and comfort, wherein the famous Church of England, our dear mother, hath just cause to glory "I have a collection of these petitions," says Mr. Hallam, "now before me, printed in 1642, from thirteen English and five Welsh counties, and all very numerously signed. In almost every instance I observe they thank the Parliament for putting a check to innovations and abuses, while they deprecate the abolition of Episcopacy and the liturgy." 2 The heart of the country was, in fact, sound towards the Church. Exasperated though men had been by the Laudian discipline, this had not yet made them revolt from the Church of their fathers. A busy Puritanical clique, the influence of the Scotch, and the support of the city of London, availed to organise a successful opposition; but the sorry substitutes for the Church of England never obtained real acceptance in the country, nor, had there been more capacity on the part of the king, would they in all probability have obtained even this temporary success. ] Nalson, ii. 726-758. 2 Hallam, Const. Hist. i. 527 (note). NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. DECLARATION OF THE HOUSE OF "Whereas divers innovations in and about the service of God have been lately practised in this kingdom by enjoining some things and prohibiting others, without warrant of law, to the great grievance and discontent of his Majesty's subjects; For the suppression of such innovations, and for the preservation of the public peace, it is this day ordered by the Cominons in Parliament assembled that the churchwardens of every parish do forthwith remove the communion table from the east of the church, chapel, or chancel, into some other convenient place, and that they take away the rails and level the chancels as heretofore they were before the late innovations. That all crucifixes, scandalous pictures of any one or more persons of the Trinity, and all images of the Virgin Mary, shall be taken away and abolished, and that all tapers, candlesticks, and basins be removed from the communion table. That all corporal bowing at the name of Jesus, or towards the east end of the church, or towards the communion table, be henceforth forborne. That the Lord's day be duly observed and sanctified; all dancing and other sports, either before or after Divine service, be forborne and restrained; and that the preaching of God's Word be permitted in the afternoon in the several churches and chapels in this kingdom, and that ministers and preachers be encouraged thereunto."-RUSHWORTH. CHAPTER XXIX. THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES-THE COVENANT 1642-1647. § 1. Open strife between King and Parliament. § 2. The Parliamentary Declaration as to Religion. § 3. Presbyterianism forced upon the Parliament by the Scotch. § 4. The "Root and Branch" Bill passed. § 5. Calling of the Assembly of Divines. § 6. Commencement of their work. § 7. They adopt and confirm the Covenant. § 8. The Episcopal Clergy displaced by it. $9. They make temporary provision for ordination. § 10. Appoint a "Directory for Public Worship." § 11. Character of the Directory. § 12. The King forbids its use. § 13. The Independents and Erastians in the Assembly. § 14. The Directory for Ordination. § 15. The Scheme for Church Government. § 16. Only partially carried out. § 17. The Westminister Catechisms. § 18. The Confession of Faith. $ 19. The Assembly melts away. § 20. Its Character. § 1. FROM the moment that the king quitted Whitehall on January 10, 1642, the open strife between him and the Parliament began. Both sides were preparing for war, and both strove to justify their position by appeals to law and precedent. "The two parties," says M. Guizot, "reciprocally accused each other of illegality and innovation, and both with justice; for the one had violated the ancient rights of the kingdom and would not abjure the maxims of tyranny; the other claimed, in the name of principles altogether indefinite and confused, liberties and a power till then unknown." 1 The principles of the struggle being thus doubtful, there issued forth from the press, as might be expected, a vast mass of pamphlets and papers discussing the position, and the two parties commenced the struggle by broadsides of declarations and rejoinders. § 2. A declaration issued by the Parliament with respect to religion plainly shows that the tone of a total repudiation of and revolt from the Church was not one that could be safely adopted even by those who desired to please the persons most opposed to the old order of things. It says, "They intended a due and necessary reformation of the government and liturgy of the Church, and to take away nothing in the one or the other but what should be evil and justly offensive, or at least unnecessary and burdensome; and for the better effecting thereof, speedily to have consultation with 1 English Revolution (Trans.) p. 147. |