the same. He said, "I have done what I could to bring my conscience to a compliance with their proposals, and cannot, and I will He did, indeed, at not lose my conscience to save my life." 1 length so far yield as to allow the establishment of Presbyterianism side by side with Episcopacy-a concession which, as it supplied a basis for the Presbyterians to treat with the king, hastened the action of Cromwell and the Independents, and quickly brought Charles to his trial and his death. The § 18. In these last scenes, described with so much power and pathos by Sir T. Herbert and Sir P. Warwick in their Memoirs, the ministrations of the Church, which he had so much loved and so resolutely upheld, did not fail the king. The good Bishop Juxon zealously attended on him to the last, and read to him "the lesson of the day," in which the Church might seem to have reserved to the last her highest and chiefest consolation." murder of the king put the finishing touch to the overthrow of the temporal status and external life of the Church of England. The triumphant fanatic might now gaze round with complacency and contemplate the ruin he had made. But there was an inward life of the Church which no persecution could destroy, and which continued through the long years of trial which yet remained, to maintain its vigour and power. How this was done, and under what difficulties and trials, will be told in the following chapter. Exeter, London, Bath and Wells, Armagh, Rochester; Drs. Sanderson. Holdsworth, Hammond, Jeremy Taylor (original signatures in MS.) 1 Wordsworth, Eccl. Biog. iv. 426. 2 Bishop Juxon, on the morning of the execution, read to the king the Church service of the day, in which Matthew xxvii., containing the account of the Crucifixion, is the second lesson. The king was much struck, and asked the bishop if he had selected that chapter purposely. When told that it was the ordinary lesson of the day, he put off his hat and said, "I bless God that it has thus fallen out."-Sir P. Warwick's Memoirs, p. 345. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. That he had traitorously endeavoured to subvert the fundamental laws of the realm, and to persuade the king that he might levy money without consent of Parliament. 2. That he had encouraged sermons and publications tending to the establishment of arbitrary power. 3. That he had interrupted and perverted the course of justice in Westminster Hall. 4. That he had traitorously and corruptly sold justice, and advised the king to sell judicial and other offices. 5. That he had caused a Book of Canons to be published without lawful authority, and had enforced subscription to it. 6. That he had assumed a papal and tyrannical power both in ecclesiastical and temporal matters. 7. That he had laboured to subvert God's true religion, and to introduce popish superstition and idolatry. 8. That he had usurped the nomination to many ecclesiastical benefices, and had promoted none but persons who were popishly affected, or otherwise unsound in doctrine and corrupt in man ners. 9. That he had committed the licensing of books to chaplains notoriously disaffected to the reformed religion. 10. That he had endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England to the Church of Rome; had held intelligence with Jesuits and the Pope; and had permitted a popish hierarchy to be established in this kingdom. 11. That he had silenced many godly ministers; hindered the preaching of God's Word; cherished profaneness and ignorance; and caused many of the king's subjects to forsake the country. 12. That he had endeavoured to raise discord between the Church of England and other Reformed Churches, and had oppressed the Dutch and French congregations in England. 13. That he had laboured to introduce innovations in ret ligion and government into the kingdom of Scotland, and to stir up war between the two countries. 14. That, to preserve himself from being questioned for these traitorous practices, he had laboured to divert the ancient course of Parliamentary proceeding, and to incense the king against all Parliaments. (Laud's History of his Troubles.) Ten additional Articles were afterwards exhibited, which were somewhat more specific in their character. CHAPTER XXXI. THE CHURCH DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 1649-1660. § 1. The period of religious anarchy. § 2. Some clergy return to their work under The Engagement. § 3. Difficulties of their position. § 4. English clergy in France. § 5. Appointment of the Triers. § 6. Clergy before the Triers. §7. Cromwell exhibits some inclination to favour the Church. § 8. He issues the persecuting edict. § 9. Its crushing effect. § 10. Dr. Gauden's Remonstrance. § 11. Leading Clergy take measures to save the Church from destruction. § 12. Jeremy Taylor's Prayer-Book. § 13. Edward Pocock before the Commissioners. 14. A congregation imprisoned for celebrating the Lord's Supper. § 15. Dr. Hammond takes measures to alleviate the poverty of the Clergy. § 16. Secret ordinations. § 17. Attempts to procure the consecration of Bishops. § 18. The beginnings of hope. Declaration of Moderation. § 20. Death of Dr. Hammond. $ 19. The § 1. THE Westminster Assembly of Divines had ceased to act long before the king's death, and the system of Church government and ordination which they had devised had never been fully carried out. From the rise into power of the Independents, the Presbyterian system, favoured by the Assembly, was of necessity overturned. The Independents, indeed, accepted the Westminster Confession, but the very essence of their system was the independence of congregations, and the right of each congregation to appoint its own church officers. Thus, from about the year 1648 till the year 1654-when the Government was constrained to adopt some means of testing the qualifications of ministers-there was absolutely no Church government in England, no machinery for ordination. In consequence, the wildest religious anarchy prevailed. The strange sects 1 fostered and encouraged in the army, claimed as much right to furnish ministers to churches as the 'Presbyterians. Every wild and wicked opinion found an expositor, and was heard advocated within the venerable walls which had long echoed to far different sounds. Where the fabric of a vacant 1 Besides the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, there were numerous other sects, as Vanists, Fifth Monarchists, Seekers, Ranters, Familists, and Behmenists. Besides these, the followers of the strange enthusiast George Fox began now to be abundant. For some reason or other these fanatics were worse treated than the others. The gaols are said to have been full of Quakers under the Commonwealth.-Life of George Fox, p. 6. church was not to be had (as would sometimes be the case through the action of a resolute patron), the fanatical sectary would gather his congregation in a private room. This was also frequently done when the living was occupied. The Presbyterian incumbent had to witness the abstraction of his congregation by the more popular sectary. But generally, in the case of vacant churches, when the congregation desired any minister, they were able, in those times when no one ventured to resist the popular will, to obtain their wish by the aid of the secular authority; and thus the rights of patrons were over-ridden, and the qualifications declared necessary by the Assembly dispensed with. The proportion of Independents who obtained benefices is thought by good authority to have been considerable.1 But as a matte of fact, except in London and some parts of Lancashire, the Presbyterian incumbent was independent. There was no authority to control his proceedings, and he might conduct matters exactly as he pleased, so long as he satisfied the people, and did not get complained of to Parliament or the General. § 2. This state of complete anarchy was thought by some churchmen a favourable opportunity for again obtaining the power to minister to some of their afflicted countrymen. The Parliament had abolished the obligation of subscribing to the Covenant, and had substituted for it a declaration called The Engagement. By this, all who ministered were simply called upon to swear that they "would be true and faithful to the Government established, without king and House of Peers." The right of a de facto government to claim obedience was generally admitted by churchmen, and had been decreed in one of the canons of a late Convocation. Dr. Sanderson wrote in favour of taking the Engagement, and Baxter assures us that other Episcopal divines also did so, "pleading the irresistibility of the imposer." 2 The taking the Engagement was of course equivalent to abandoning the cause of the young king; but many despaired of the restoration of royalty, and were unwilling to remain all their lives useless as regarded their office on the mere ground of sentiment. The Presbyterians most strongly opposed the policy which dictated the Engagement, and which in fact dispensed with religious tests altogether. To them the notion of a toleration was altogether shocking. A fierce strife raged between Presbyterians and Independents, and the former freely averred that they regretted the times of "Canterbury and the prelates." But it was soon found that the new ruler of England was not to be trifled with. The execution of Mr. 1 Stoughton's Church and State, p. 6. 2 Life and Times, p. 65. 3 Edward's Gangræna, Ep. Ded. Love, a London minister, for intriguing with the Scotch, struck terror into the Presbyterian party, and when Cromwell reached complete ascendancy as Lord Protector of the distracted Commonwealth, the religious settlement which was agreed upon was one of toleration for all religious opinions, with the notable exceptions of Popery and Prelacy.1 But this did not prevent such clergy as had taken the Engagement from ministering where they were acceptable to the flocks, though it barred the putting forward of any claim grounded on Episcopal ordination. § 3. The clergy who had undertaken to minister during this chaos of opinions must have done so under the greatest possible difficulties. The administration of the sacraments was scarcely tolerated. The liturgy could not be used except from memory. Dr. Sanderson composed a form for the use of the orthodox clergy, which, being very nearly identical with that of the Prayer-Book, he thought might be used with advantage. For doing this, and for countenancing the Engagement, he incurred the severe censure of his friend Dr. Hammond.2 Yet it seems that had it not been for the devotion of some men like-minded with him, the state of things must have been much worse than even it was. At St. George's, near Bristol, George Bull ministered in the same way as Sanderson, using prayers nearly identical with those of the Church from memory. Thus, too, did Dr. Bernard, Dr. Heylin, Bishops Duppa and Rainbow Some clergy kept up in secret, and at great risk to themselves, the exact performance of the Church service. Thus did Dr. Wild and Dr. Gunning in London, and Mr. Fell at Oxford. Evelyn notes (March 5, 1649), "I heard the Common Prayer (a rare thing in those days) in St. Peter's at Paul's Wharf, London." (1652.) "I went to Lewisham, where I heard an honest sermon on 2 Cor. v. 7, being the first Sunday I had been at church since my return, it being now a rare thing to find a priest of the Church of England in a parish pulpit." (1653.) "There was now and then an honest orthodox man got into the pulpit, and though the present incumbent was an Independent, he ordinarily preached sound doctrine, and was a peaceable man, which was an extraordinary felicity in this age." "My child, christened by Mr. Owen in my library at Say's Court, where he afterwards churched my wife, I always making use of him on 1 Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 557. Before, however, this settlement was reached, the Barebones Parliament had been within two of voting the confiscation of the revenues of all the livings in England, with a view of appointing certain itinerant preachers to take the place of the fixed ministers. This was actually done in Wales. 2 Harleian MSS. (Brit. Mus.), No. 6942. lately been published by Bishop Jacobson. Sanderson's Liturgy has |