Chapter XXXII: Appendix: I.--Vol. I. 137 (5)

[379] Two striking cases, however, occurred in New England. See _Besse's Sufferings_, 235.

[380] _Sewel's History_, i. 112.

[381] In a Diurnal, February 16, 1654-55, mention is made of letters from several places, which speak of Quakers and Ranters, and others that disturb ministers in their sermons in public churches, and the meetings of ministers and other Christians in private, in several places of England. The Quaker meetings are said to be receptacles for Papists, and Popish priests and friars.

In another Commonwealth newspaper it is said: "Some think this Fox is a Popish priest, because of his tenets of salvation by works." Most absurd and incredible stories are told of Fox and Mr. Fell.

The monstrous things related in these newspapers defy belief. What was thought of Quakers in high quarters may be seen in the Pell correspondence.--_Vaughan's Protectorate_, ii. 309.

[382] The difficulty in believing these stories does not arise from what we know of the moral character of the Jesuits, but only from their reputation for cleverness, and from what we know of the shrewdness of the Quakers. The Quakers were not likely to be so deceived by the Jesuits, and the Jesuits were not likely to adopt a scheme of action which promised so little success. But the _Provincial Letters_ of Pascal, written during the Protectorate, prove that Jesuit morality placed no bar in the way of such dishonest intrigues.

[383] _Abstract of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers_, i. 216, 222, 223. See also _Evelyn's Diary_, i. 332.

The Quakers were often very violent. There is a very intemperate and foolish pamphlet, entitled, _A True Testimony against the Pope's Ways, in a Return to that Agreement of '42 of those who call themselves Ministers of Christ (but are proved to be wrongers of Men and of Christ), in the County of Worcester: by Richard Farnsworth, a Quaker_, 1656. Richard Baxter is first on the list of persons attacked.--See also _Sussex Arch. Collections_, vol. xvi. The Quakers were assailed in their turn most furiously. For example, there is a tract entitled, _The Deceived and Deceiving Quakers discovered; their Damnable Heresies, Horrid Blasphemies, &c., laid open, by Matthew Caffin, a Servant of the Lord, related to the Church of Christ, near Worsham, in Sussex_, 1656. This was answered by James Nayler, with like scurrility. It is curious that Caffin denies the man of sin to be Popery, and maintains that he is a person yet to appear. Nayler sets Caffin down as Antichrist.

[384] _Quakers' Sufferings_, i. 70.

[385] _Cromwellian Diary_, ii. 112.

[386] _Sewel_, i. 158.

[387] _Cromwellian Diary_, i. 46. His trial has been already mentioned in this volume, p. 133.

[388] His dying words place him in a much better light than that in which he is commonly viewed.--See _Sewel's Hist._, i. 207.

[389] _Cromwellian Diary_, i. 216. The petitioners were called in, to the number of thirty, and Mr. Sprigg made a short speech, saying that they did not countenance the wicked, and were no partakers of their crime; but upon the common account of liberty, found it upon their spirits to become petitioners in this thing, leaving it to God to direct the House.

See the beautiful apology for Nayler in _Lamb's Elia, Quakers' Meeting_.

[390] p. 16.

[391] Baxter says Sir H. Vane spoke against him in the House of Commons; and he adds, "I confess my writing was a means to lessen his reputation."--_Life and Times_, p. i. 76.

[392] _Baxter's Life and Times_, p. i. 77.

[393] _The Life of one Jacob Bœhmen, wherein is contained a perfect Catalogue of his Workes._ London, 1644.

[394] "I have seen myself," says Baxter, "letters written from Abingdon, where among both soldiers and people, this contagion did then prevail, full of horrid oaths and curses, and blasphemy, not fit to be repeated by the tongue or pen of man; and this all uttered as the effect of knowledge and a part of their religion, in a fanatic strain, and fathered on the Spirit of God."--_Baxter's Life and Times_, p. i. 77.

It must be remembered Baxter would make the most of all this.

[395] Such things may be found by those who search after them. Historically they are of little worth; in other respects worse than worthless.

[396] The following are titles of books by Muggleton: _The Answer to William Penn, Quaker, his book, entitled The New Witnesses proved Old Heretics, wherein he is proved to be an ignorant spatter-brained Quaker_, &c. _Looking-Glass for George Fox, and other Quakers, wherein they may see themselves to be right Devils_, &c. _The Neck of the Quakers Broken_, &c.

[397] Ministers in Edinburgh had a basin and ewer placed in a frame of iron fastened to the pulpit, and there performed the ceremony.--See _Travels by Sir W. Brereton_, p. 110, published by Cheetham Society. Bishop Wren, in his injunctions, orders that "the _fonts_ at baptism be filled with clean water, and no dishes, pails, nor basins, be used in it, or instead of it."--_Cardwell_, ii. 204.

[398] _Gillingwater's History of Lowestoft._

[399] _Hanbury's Memorials_, ii. 568, i. 536.

[400] _Martindale's Autobiography_, quoted in _Hunter's Life of Heywood_, 42.

[401] _Hall's Works_, 555.

[402] Dedication to his _Commentary on Ezekiel_.

[403] As it is our object to afford glimpses of domestic life, it is worth while to insert the following letters, trivial though they be, preserved in the State Paper Office. They are from parents to their son at school, and present an odd and amusing jumble of advice:--

"London, 16th Nov., 1641.

"Son John, the Lord bless thee, and these are to let you know that, thanks be to God, we are all now indifferent well. I have had a great desire, this long time, to come into the country to see you; but I have been very ill of a pleurisy, which hindered me, and now the ways are deep and the days are short, and your mother and sisters long to see you. Therefore I have desired your master in the enclosed to let you come up to London upon Friday next, at the return of this carrier. You may come up in the waggon, which if you do, your mother would have you keep on your coat to keep you warm. I would have you the rather come upon Friday next, because the next week we have a great feast at the Hall, and your mother would have you there. When you come up, bring with you both your coats and your two best suits of apparel, and your mother would have you bring up your writing book, and the book wherein you take the heads of your master's sermons in; and this is all I have to say till I see you, which I expect will be on Friday night next.

"Your loving Father,

"GEORGE WILLINGHAM.

(Addressed) "To his loving son John Willingham, at Mr. Herring's house, in Duddinghurst, these."

The following letter is written to the boy by his mother:--

"John, think it not strange that you have not received your clothes before. The reason you may well know, which was the vexation you put me and your father to at your departing, which lets us understand that your heart is not reformed, notwithstanding all your good education. I have sent you your clothes--a pair of stockings, a pair of gloves. I would have you wear your fres jump (freize jacket) every day and your waistcoat a'nights, and have a care of your clothes, that you keep them in your trunk, and above all look to your heart in all the duties that you perform, and improve the day of grace, which God yet affords you, and improve your time, that you spend it not in play, and neglect your learning, and labour to be a comfort to your parents and not a grief. I have sent you some plums, of your brother's christening. Had I sent them as you did your father's nuts they would come short to you. You sent your father a pint of nuts which cost him eightpence. Had you regarded your father, you would have tied and sealed them up. Your brother Samuel and sister is well and remember them to you, and remember me to your master Herring, and Mrs. Herring, and your old Mistress and Mr. Chadley. Thus I rest praying to God, for I rest your careful mother,

"ANNA WILLINGHAM.

"Your brother's name is Ebenezer.

(Addressed) "To John Willingham, living at Mr. Herring's, at Duddinghurst, deliver these."

There are also letters, &c., endorsed, "Intercepted, 1641, to Willingham." Probably it was suspected they were letters of political significance.

[404] As to Lancashire, Dr. Hibbert observes, in his _History of the Collegiate Church of Manchester_, i. 272:--"The greatest discontent was excited at the mode of solemnizing marriages, which was no longer before the altar, or accompanied with the pledge of the ring, which had been hitherto considered essential to the contract. This meanness of ceremony was so ill relished, that many clandestine marriages were celebrated by unauthorized persons, or ejected clergymen." The author mentions the case of a woman who refused to submit to Presbyterian rites, but asserted herself a "wife before God."

[405] Many Independents, it should be remembered, treated marriage as a civil contract, and had no religious service.

[406] These particulars are gleaned from _Brand's Popular Antiquities_.

[407] _Hunter's Life of Heywood_, 33.

[408] _Autobiography of Joseph Lister._

[409] According to _Archbishop Islep's Constitutions_ (1362), the observance of the Lord's Day was to begin at Saturday vespers, like the feasts that have vigils.--_Johnson's English Canons_, ii. 426.

Eustace, abbot of Flay (1201), went beyond the Puritans in his Sabbatarianism, and sought to terrify people into a cessation of labour from three o'clock on Saturday afternoon until Monday sunrise, by relating all sorts of miracles. A woman, for weaving on Saturday afternoon, was struck dead with palsy; another woman, who kept her paste wrapped up in a cloth until Monday morning, found it then ready baked.--_Johnson_, ii. 95.

[410] _Baxter's Works_, xiii. 457.

[411] Professor Kingsley, in his _Lectures on the Roman and the Teuton_, ascribes the spread of witch-mania to the influence of the Romish clergy (p. 293).

[412] In an instructive article respecting _Witchcraft_, in _Charles Knight's Cyclopædia_, it is remarked "that a large portion of the witchcraft superstition was propagated by means of books, or through the tuition of men of letters."

[413] Enquiries about sorcerers, incantations, and witchcraft occur in the _Visitation Articles of Laud_.--_Works_, v. 417, 432.

[414] There are numerous stories of Lancashire witches in the _State Papers_. See, for example, _Calendar Dom._, 1634-1635, p. 78.

[415] _Gaule's Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches_, 1646. See also _Hale's Tracts_, containing _Trial of the Witches at Bury St. Edmunds_.

[416] Widdrington, in a letter to Whitelocke (_Memorials_, 424), says: "I met at Berwick with a discovery of witches by a Scotchman, who professeth himself an artist that way. I know not whence he derives his skill. His salary was twenty shillings for every witch. He got thirty pounds after that rate." Of the burning or imprisonment of witches, cases are mentioned by _Whitelocke_, in pp. 412, 423, 450, 570.

[417] In the Assembly Books of the Corporation of Yarmouth is this entry:--"August 15th, 1637. That the gentleman, Mr. Hopkins, employed in the country for discovering and finding out witches be sent for to town, to search for those wicked persons, if any may be, and have his fee and allowance for his pains, as he hath in other places."

[418] There is amongst the Baxter MSS. in Dr. Williams's Library, a long letter respecting something of this kind, which I remember noticing many years ago.

[419] "During the few years of the Commonwealth, there is reason to believe that more alleged witches perished in England than in the whole period before and after."--_Lecky's Rise and Influence of Rationalism_, 116; _Hutchinson's Historical Account of Witchcraft_, p. 68.

[420] This is stated on the authority of the article on _Witchcraft_ in _Knight's Cyclopædia_.

Hutchinson says, of the thousands of executions for witchcraft in 250 years, he had ascertained only about 140 cases in England. Other writers placed the numbers higher. Some estimates appear absurdly extravagant; for example, that in _Barrington's Observations on the More Ancient Statutes_.

[421] I do not profess to be learned in these matters, but I would just add that caps fitting close to the head were not necessarily badges of Puritanism; for, to mention no other instances, they may be seen in the portraits of Andrewes and Taylor. Bands are said to have been introduced in 1652, but I do not know on what authority the statement rests. In the portrait of William Jenkyn, already noticed, an indescribable piece of ornamentation appears in the front of his dress. Caryl's portrait shews no gown at all, only a plain, tight dress. I mention these trifles simply to indicate that there was a variety of costume amongst the Puritans. They were firm in resisting the use of Popish vestments; but they do not seem to have maintained anything like uniformity amongst themselves. I may add that the authors of the Seventy-fourth Canon could have had no such childish ideas about clerical costume as many express in the present day, for they distinctly declare: "In all which particulars concerning the apparel here prescribed, our meaning is not to attribute any holiness or special worthiness to the said garments, but for decency, gravity, and order, as is before specified."

[422] Weever, writing in 1631, complains of pews as a novelty. "They are made high and easy, for parishioners to sit or sleep in, a fashion of no long continuance, and worthy of reformation."

In the Visitation Books of the Archdeacon of Norfolk there are many presentments in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. against high-backed pews as nuisances. In 1638, some of the parishioners of Great St. Andrew's Church, Cambridge, were presented for not kneeling at the Sacrament, and excused themselves by saying their seats were so straight that, being filled, they could not kneel.--_Hist. of Yarmouth, by C. J. Palmer_, 127.

[423] The purchasing of hour-glasses is an item occurring in the Windsor Churchwardens' accounts. In the same records are the following curious entries for 1652-3:--

"Paid for fastening the paraphrase of Erasmus to the desk, viii. d.; for nine pounds of candles, for the use of morning prayer, vs. id." The charges for sack after preaching are numerous.--See _Annals of Windsor_, ii. 266, _et. seq._ "For one pint of sack, given to a merchant of Bristol who preached in the parish church, by William Myelles, Mayor, his appointment, 8d."

The church plate at Windsor was for safe custody deposited in the Guildhall. It consisted of two silver flagons, two chalices, one silver cover, and one bread-plate.--_Annals_, ii. 271.

[424] It has been stated, but I do not know on what authority, that Baxter read his sermons. Altogether, the advice given in the Directory, under the head "Of the Preaching of the Word," is so admirable that it deserves to be studied by every Christian minister.

[425] _Oxoniana_, i. 64; _Peck's Desiderata Curiosa_, _lib._ xx.; _Stanford's Life of Joseph Alleine_, 113. In some parts of Switzerland, the practice of wearing hats at sermon time is still maintained.

[426] _Perfect Occurrences_, June 22nd, 1644.

[427] _Baillie_, ii. 149.

[428] _Hanbury's Memorials_, ii. 105, 111.

[429] The omission of singing in public worship was continued in the Baptist church at Maze Pond, Southwark, until the year 1733.--_Ivimey's Hist. of Baptists_, Sup., 432.

[430] Sternhold's version was first published in 1548 or 1549, and was dedicated to King Edward VI. Hopkins' additions appear in 1551.

The following may be mentioned as of a Puritan character:--

_Dod's Psalms of David; with a Public Thanksgiving on the Fifth of November, composed into Easie Meter, a Song meete for Young and Old._ 1620.

_Psalms of David, by George Wither, 1632, printed in the Netherlands; dedicated to the Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia._

_The Psalms, in prose and metre, by H. A., Amsterdam_, 1612. H. A. means Henry Ainsworth, the Nonconformist.

For a list of versions, see _Lownde's Bibliographers' Manual_ (Bohn's edit.)

[431] _Humble Advice; or, the Heads of those Things which were offered to many honourable Members of Parliament, by Richard Baxter, at the End of his Sermon, December 24th, at the Abbey in Westminster._ 1655.

Baxter recommends the version "first approved of by the late Assembly of Divines, and, after, very much corrected and bettered in Scotland." This was Rouse's. Mr. Lathbury, to whom I am indebted for the reference, incorrectly supposes it to be Barton's.--_Hist. of Convocation_, 510.

[432] _Weekly Account_, 1643, October the 4th.

Substitutes for theatrical entertainments were ingeniously contrived under the Protectorate, of which a curious example is afforded in a description of a public amusement upon Friday, May the 23rd, 1656, which I find amongst the _State Papers_.

[433] The following extract is worth notice:--

May the 1st, 1654, _Moderate Intelligencer_.

"This day was more observed by people's going a-maying than for divers years past, and indeed much sin committed by wicked meetings, with fighting, drunkenness, ribaldry, and the like. Great resort came to Hyde Park; many hundred of rich coaches, and gallants in rich attire, but most shameful powdered hair men, and painted and spotted women.

[434] Macaulay says: "If the Puritans suppressed bull-baiting it was not because it gave pain to the bull, but because it gave pleasure to spectators." Is this a fair statement? I do not discover in _Scobell_ any act or ordinance against bull-baiting at all. There is one against cock-fighting, and the reason alleged for suppressing the practice is, that it disturbed the public peace, and was connected with dissolute practices to the dishonour of God. The prohibition of races, and the grounds of the prohibition, have been already noticed.

[435] _Scobell._

[436] The following is extracted from the biography of John Bruen.--_Nonconformity in Cheshire_, 56:--

"Master Done being young and youthly, yet very tractable, could not well away with the strict observation of the lord's Day, whereupon we did all conspire to do him good, ten of my family speaking one after another, and myself last, for the sanctifying of the lord's Day. After which he did very cheerfully yield himself; blessed be God." ... "I [John Bruen] coming once into his chamber and finding over the mantel-piece a pair of new cards, nobody being there I opened them, and took out the four knaves and burnt them, and so laid them together again; and so for want of such knaves his gaming was marred, and never did he play in my house, for aught I ever heard, any more." Puritans played at billiards, bowls, and shuffle-board.--See _Newcome's Diary_.

[437] A curious description of the prevalent fashions of the day is found in _Fox's Journal_, i. 274:--

People "must be in the fashion of the world, else they are not in esteem; else they shall not be respected, if they have not gold or silver upon their backs, or if the hair be not powdered. But if he have store of ribands hanging about his waist, and at his knees, and in his hat, of divers colours, red, white, black, or yellow, and his hair be powdered, then he is a brave man; then he is accepted, he is no Quaker, because he hath ribands on his back, and belly, and knees, and his hair powdered. This is the array of the world. But is not this from the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life? Likewise the women having their gold, their patches on their faces, noses, cheeks, foreheads; having their rings on their fingers, wearing gold, having their cuffs double, under and above, like unto a butcher with his white sleeves; having their ribands tied about their hands, and three or four gold laces about their clothes, this is no Quaker, say they. This attire pleaseth the world; and if they cannot get these things, they are discontented."

[438] Bastwick, quoted in _Hanbury's Memorials_, iii. 81.

[439] _Whitelocke's Memorials_, 628.

[440] _Oldmixon's History of England_, 426.

"I knew them both," he says, "and heard this story told when Mrs. White was present, who did not contradict it, but owned there was something in it."

[441] _Rogers' Life of Howe_, 69, 72.

[442] Mr. John Nelson, father of "the pious Robert Nelson," dying in 1657, having "a distaste" "for the intruding ministry of the time," requested to be "privately buried by an orthodox minister in the evening."--_Nelson's Life, by Secretan_, p. 2.

[443] _Harl. MSS._, 5176, 15, quoted in _Lyson's Environs_, i. 42.

[444] _Brook_, iii. 290.

[445] _Baxter's Poetical Fragments._

[446] _Fell_, p. 230.

[447] _Essays_, by Henry Rogers, 17.

[448] _Taylor's Works_, vi. 564-566.

[449] _Life of Quarles, in Sacred Poets, by Willmott._

[450] _Dixon's Life of the Earl of Manchester._

[451] _Memorials of John Hampden_, by Lord Nugent, 336.

[452] _Evelyn's Diary_, i. 342.

[453] _Howe's Works_, vi. 233. Fairclough was Rector of the parish of Wells, in the county of Somerset. He was one of the ejected ministers; he died July 4th, 1682, and is buried in Bunhill Fields. Howe gives an account of his indefatigable diligence in the discharge of his ministry.

[454] _Clark's Lives_, 103.

[455] Samuel Fairclough. He held the living of Banardiston in Suffolk, and afterwards became Rector of Keddington, in the same county. There is a remarkable memoir of him in _Clark's Lives_.

[456] _Clark's Lives_, 114.

[457] _Works_, vi. 476.

[458] _Memorable Women of the Puritan Times_, i. 105-116.

[459] These notices are taken from _Dr. Gibbons Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women_. We have purposely retained some forms of phraseology which are employed in the original narrative. It would be easy to add to these illustrations. Some interesting ones are given in _Pattison's Rise and Progress of Religious Life in England_, chap. xii. See also _Tomkin's Piety Promoted_. Even amongst the Fifth Monarchy men there were instances of genuine piety; nor do we doubt that the persecuted Roman Catholics furnished examples of devotion and beneficence.

[460] Morley stated at the Savoy Conference "that some places had no ministers at all through all those times of usurpation," and instanced Aylesbury. Baxter told him: "I never knew any such; and therefore I knew there were not many such in England." With regard to Aylesbury, he says the story was false, as he ascertained there were usually in that town two at a time.--_Life and Times_, part ii., 340. Some poor parishes might, during a part of the period, be without ministers.

[461] _Life and Times_, part i., 96.

[462] Even what was said by the scoffers is worth noting:--

"Here's now no good action for a man to spend his time in; taverns grow dead; ordinaries are blown up; plays are at a stand; houses of hospitality at fall; not a feather waving, nor a spur jingling anywhere. I'll away instantly."--_Eastward Ho!_ 228.

This testifies to an extensive outward reformation.

[463] _Works_, ii. 251.

[464] _Communion with God_: two Sermons preached at St. Paul's, by Saml. Annesley, LL.D., 1654-1655, minister of the Gospel at St. John the Evangelist's, London.

[465] _Owen's Works_, vol. vii. ccccxxxiv.

[466] The one called Germany worse than Sodom, and the other declared the waters of the Elbe would not suffice for tears to weep over those dissensions.--_Hase's History of the Church_, 439.

[467] For extract from Becon, see _Strype's Cranmer_, i. 417.

[468] See _Strype's Parker_, i. 465.

[469] These are expressions used in the Account of Twiss.--_Clark's Lives_, 18.

[470] See _Hase_, 485.

[471] Bishop Burnet, in the _History of his own Times_, says of the year 1680, (and his words are true of the times just before), "I was indeed amazed at the labours and learning of the ministers among the Reformed. They understood the Scriptures well in the original tongues, they had all the points of controversy very ready, and did thoroughly understand the whole body of divinity. In many places they preached every day, and were almost constantly employed in visiting their flock. But they performed their devotions but slightly, and read their prayers, which were too long, with great precipitation and little zeal. Their sermons were too long and too dry. And they were so strict, even to jealousy, in the smallest points in which they put orthodoxy, that one who could not go into all their notions, but was resolved not to quarrel with them, could not converse much with them with any freedom." In reference to the French refugees, he observes: "Even among them there did not appear a spirit of piety and devotion suitable to their condition, though persons who have willingly suffered the loss of all things rather than sin against their consciences, must be believed to have a deeper principle in them than can well be observed by others."

Archbishop Trench has drawn an instructive and admonitory parallel between this condition of things on the Continent, in the 17th century, and the picture of the Church at Ephesus in the Book of Revelation.--_Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches_, 73.

[472] Quoted in _Anderson's History of the Colonial Church_, i. 25-27.

_Worthies of England, Derbyshire_, i. 373.

[473] _Anderson_, i., 46-56.

[474] _Advertisement for the Unexperienced Planters in New England, &c._, p. 32, quoted in _Anderson's Colonial Church_, i. 180.

[475] _Anderson's History of the Colonial Church_, i. 217, 231.

[476] _Ibid._, i. 267.

_Bancroft_, i. 178, 206.

Even Mr. Anderson, who praises Virginia for its tolerance, acknowledges, "that if the enactments concerning the Church had been literally enforced, the Puritan would have found no resting-place within its borders."--i. 270.

[477] _Anderson_, i. 461-2.

[478] See _Articles Subscribed by the Colonists_.--_Ibid._, i. 301.

[479] _Anderson_, i. 308. This was a French translation of Edward the Sixth's Prayer Book. Edward the Sixth's first Prayer Book (1549) was translated into French for the use of the King's subjects in Calais and the Channel Islands, by command of Sir Hugh Paulet, Governor of Calais. This book was corrected, according to the revision of the second Prayer Book, in 1532.--_Procter on the Book of Common Prayer_, 37.

[480] _Anderson_, i. 488.

[481] _Bancroft_, i. 248. Afterwards it was declared that "Holy Church" should enjoy all her liberties and rights.--_Bacon's Laws of Maryland._

[482] _Ibid._, i. 272.

[483] _Holme's American Annals_, i. 163. _Bancroft_, i. 305.

[484] _Anderson_, i. 359.

[485] A copy of the Charter may be found in the State Paper Office, _Col. Series_, under date 1629, March 4th. An account of it is given in _Bancroft_, i. 342.

[486] _Cotton Mather's Magnalia_, i. 66. The distinct origin of the Massachusetts colony has been overlooked by some historians. The Pilgrim Fathers of New England have been confounded with the planters of the neighbouring state.

[487] _Baird's Religion of the United States_, 107, 108.--_Anderson_, ii. 156, 157.

[488] _Bancroft_, i. 349.

The treatment of Roger Williams, who, with all his folly and rashness, blended qualities of the noblest kind,--can never be justified.

[489] _Heylyn's Life of Laud_, p. 369.

[490] _Heylyn's Life of Laud_, 276.

[491] _Hazard_, i. 344. _Anderson_, i. 412.

[492] December, 1634. _State Papers, Colonial._

"The question about the lawfulness of the cross was warmly agitated at the time, and the matter was finally settled by the magistrates commanding that the cross be struck out of the colours for the trained bands, but retained on the banners of the castle and of vessels in the harbour."--_Elton's Life of Roger Williams_, 23.

[493] 1634, No. 41, _State Papers, Colonial_; 1637, October 7th and 15th, _Ibid._; 1637, No. 73, _Ibid._ These are all described in _Mr. Sainsbury's Calendar, Col. Series_, 1574-1660.

[494] 1637, October 6th, _State Papers, Colonial_.

[495] _Ibid._

[496] _Anderson_, ii. 18.

The Council of State, 1649, were informed, by a petition of the congregation of Nansamund, in Virginia, that their minister, Mr. Harrison, an able man of unblameable conversation, had been banished the Colony because he would not conform to the Prayer Book. The Prayer Book being prohibited by Parliament, the Council directs that Mr. Harrison be restored, unless there be a cause for his removal satisfactory to Parliament.--_State Papers, Colonial_, October, 1649; _Entry Book_, cxv. p. 482.

In the Bermudas, or Somers Isles, Puritanism had become prevalent in 1642. Richard Norwood, a Puritan minister, writes thence, February 28th:--"We have seen an experiment here of that which very few, I suppose, in England have seen, namely, of the superiority or government of ministers, or an assembly of ministers esteeming the government to be theirs, who have the most sway in it." He expects the Government at home will receive complaints of arbitrary proceedings. The same writer, May 14th, 1645, speaks of "diversity of opinions touching ecclesiastical discipline." There were two parties, he says, one under Mr. White, adhering to the Independent way; the other, and the larger number, holding to the former discipline used there until Parliament should order otherwise.

Again, in May, 1647, he speaks of "bitter acrimony" between the two Independents and two Presbyterian ministers. The reins of government were slack.--_State Papers, Colonial_, under dates.

[497] _Anderson_, i. 373.

[498] _Anderson_, ii. 57-59.

[499] This Act, passed in 1649, may be seen in _Bacon's Laws_.

[500] _Bancroft_, i. 421.

[501] _Ibid._, i. 432.

[502] _Bancroft_, i. 448.

[503] _Ibid._, 441. See also his preceding pages.

[504] See _Scobell_, July the 27th, 1649, p. 66.

[505] Some in New England held back from this kind of missionary work,--_Anderson_, ii. 195.

Just on the eve of the Restoration this entry occurs in the minutes of the synod at Sion College, the 19th March, 1659-60.

"There was then propounded by some of the Corporation for New England that our help should be administered for the printing of the Bible in the Indian languages. It was then ordered that the design propounded was eminently acceptable, and that the ministers would engage that they would promote the design to their utmost capacity."

[506] _Bancroft_, i. 445.

[507] _Thurloe_, v. 147. We can trace this Gookin in the Colonial State Papers as admitted a patentee under a grant from the New England Company (July the 5th, 1622); as praying Charles I. for a patent in the capacity of planter and adventurer (March the 1st, 1631); as receiving a warrant to export to New England powder and shot (July the 24th, 1650); as receiving £300 to defray charges of service (September the 21st, 1655); and as passing from Jamaica to New England on board the _Fraternity_ (December the 19th, 1655).

[508] _Life of Williams_, 111.

[509] _Bancroft_, i. 425.

[510] _Bancroft_, i. 428.

[511] _Whitelocke_, 474.

[512] _Scobell_, 1650, Oct. 3rd.

[513] _State Papers. Colonial._ Feb. 1st, 1651.

[514] _Ibid. Colonial._ Oct. 31st, 1651.

[515] _State Papers. Colonial._ Nov. 13th, 1651.

[516] _Ibid._, Dec. 14th, 1651.

[517] _State Papers. Colonial._ Dec. 27th, 1651.

[518] _State Papers. Colonial._ 1651, Dec. 26th: 1652, Jan. 9th.

[519] _Ibid._ 1653, Aug. 28th, Sept. 19th. _Calendar_, 408.

A large mass of correspondence respecting Barbadoes may be found in the Record Office. Barbadoes had been a place of banishment for the Irish taken at Drogheda, and thither were also sent the Royalists who were made prisoners at Exeter and Ilchester. In a Royalist pamphlet entitled, _England's Slavery, or Barbadoes Merchandize_, (1659,) a melancholy account is given of the barbarous treatment of seventy-two freeborn Englishmen who uncondemned had been sold into slavery.

[520] _State Papers. Colonial._ Sept. 26th, 1651. _Thurloe_, i. 197.

[521] _Anderson_, ii. 19-21.

"In _Virginia's Cure_ the Colony is represented as bearing a great love to the stated constitutions of the Church of England in her government and public worship, which gave us (who went thither under the late persecution of it) the advantage of liberty to use it constantly amongst them, after the naval force had reduced the Colony under the power (but never to the obedience) of the usurpers."--Quoted in _Wilberforce's History of the American Church_, 38.

[522] _Anderson_, ii. 20-23.

Bancroft paints a glowing picture of Virginia under the Commonwealth.--i. 224.

[523] Mr. Anderson, in his _History of the Church of England in the Colonies_, ii. 36, speaks of the paucity of his materials respecting the Bermudas. The particulars given above are picked out of the _State Papers, Colonial Series_ (see _Calendar_), 1652, Jan. 1st; 1653, June 25th; 1656, Oct. 7th, Nov. 18th; 1658, March 25th, Sept. 7th. It is stated in the Report, 1656, Oct. 7th, that the islands for the most part were naturally fortified or otherwise secured by four forts with sixty guns and five companies; 1,500 men were able to bear aims. About 3,000 inhabitants were without a minister. The charges of Government were £500 a year, and the tobacco duties amounted to £800.

[524] _Thurloe_, ii. 126.

[525] _State Papers. Colonial._ July 25th, 1657.

[526] _Thurloe_, iii. 497. _Long's Hist. of Jamaica_, i. 239, quoted by _Anderson_, ii. 75.

[527] _State Papers. Colonial._ Sept. 26th, 1655.

[528] _Thurloe_, iii. 650, iv. 4.

[529] There are several letters by D'Oyley in _Thurloe_.

[530] See papers in _Thurloe_, v. 482-487.

Puritan emigrants from Virginia are charged with fomenting quarrels in Maryland.--_Leah and Rachel_, quoted in _Anderson_, ii. 32.

[531] The persecution of the Roman Catholics in England has been noticed already. We may add, that in 1656-57, a new oath of adjuration was prescribed for discovering Papists, and a penalty of £100 was to be inflicted on any one who attended mass. The ordinance altogether was very severe.--_Scobell_, 443. Butler, (_Rom. Cath._, ii. 407,) mentions the execution of a priest for the exercise of his functions.

[532] _Thurloe._, iv. 55. _Bancroft_, i. 261, on the authority of Chalmers.

[533] _Bancroft_, i. 263.

In a pamphlet, entitled _Hammond versus Heamans_, preserved in the State Paper Office, there is published what is said to be "His Highness's absolute (though neglected) command to Richard Bennet, late Governor of Virginia, and all others, not to disturb the Lord Baltimore's plantation in Maryland."--1655, vol. xii. 59.

[534] Vol. i. p. 340.

[535] _Anderson_, ii. 272.

[536] _Ibid._, 271.

[537] Durie gives long and amusing accounts of his conversations with Archbishop Laud. Laud promised to use his influence with the King to procure him a living. He did so, and Durie went down into Devonshire, where the living was situated, to take possession, but he found it occupied by some one else. Laud paid Durie's travelling expenses. The letters are given in Mr. Bruce's interesting preface to the _Cal. Dom._, 1633-1634.

[538] _Calendar Dom._, 1633-34, 525.

[539] _Calendar, Dom._, 1633-34, p. 562.

[540] _Ibid._, p. 565, 566.

[541] _Calendar Dom._, 1634-35, p. 148.

A number of other interesting letters from or respecting Durie are condensed by Mr. Bruce in his Calendar.--See pp. 89, 96, 195, 204, 530.

[542] _Harris's Cromwell_, 304.

[543] See letters illustrative of Durie's efforts abroad in _Vaughan's Protectorate of Cromwell_, i. 48, 104, 117.

[544] Notices of Durie may be found in _Bayle's Dict._, in _Biog. Brit._, in _Brook's Lives_, and in _Herzog's Encycl._

[545] _Vaughan's Protectorate_, i. 136.

[546] _Thurloe_, iii. 362.

[547] _Vaughan_, i. 169, 170, 175.

[548] _Original Papers illustrative of the life and writings of John Milton_, Camden Society; the translation is taken from the _Athenæum_, Dec. 17th, 1859.

[549] _Thurloe_, iii. 476.

[550] _Ibid._, 558-568.

[551] _Ibid._, 623.

This, however, was an exaggeration. See page 498.

[552] The names of the Committee are given, including Nye, Caryl, Calamy, Jenkyn. Additions were afterwards made by order of his Highness and the Council, including the names of Lockier and Sterry.

[553] All the foregoing particulars on this subject are found in a bundle of papers relative to the Vaudois, preserved in the State Paper Office.--_Dom. Interreg._

[554] _Vaughan_, i. 260.

Commissioners must content themselves to give "some means of subsistence to feed and clothe them, with some small sum of money to those whose houses have been burnt, to enable them to provide timber against the spring time, that they may build them some small cottages to shelter."--_Public Intelligencer_, October 13th, 1655.

"The last letters out of Dauphine advise that there is a provincial synod of them of the reformed religion, where, after they had taken a view of their own particular affairs, it was resolved that they would send a deputation to their brethren of the valleys of Piedmont, consisting of four ministers, two of which are to be of the most eminent, learned, and zealous men of that province, to be joined with two younger, and two gentlemen of the country most noted for their affection to the Protestant religion, and for purity of life and conversation, who are to go as deputies to see to the distributing of the moneys collected in this kingdom for relief of our poor brethren according to the necessity of their conditions and families."--_Ibid._, October 15th to 22nd.

[555] _Milton's Prose Works_, ii. 220.

In an Order Book (State Paper Office) there is, under date May 18th, 1658, an order for £3,000 to be paid to the suffering Vaudois.

[556] Upon the 2nd of September, 1658, £3,700 was ordered to be paid to the merchant adventurers at Hamburgh on behalf of the Polish Protestants.

A petition for assistance by Polish exiles appears under date November 18th, 1658, with the endorsement:--"I know this petition to be true, and know the petitioners to be very deserving, learned, godly persons, members of the Churches for whom the collection was made, as are also some others living with us on our charity, in the same condition with those petitioners. JOHN OWEN."

The bundle in the State Paper Office, containing the documents from which we have taken the foregoing particulars, is endorsed, _Papers relative to the Protestant Exiles from Poland and Bohemia, &c._, 1657, 1658.

[557] _Clarendon's Hist._, 863, and _Burnet's Hist. of his Own Times_, i. 77.

[558] _Ibid._ Stoupe was minister of the French Reformed Church in London, and was sent to Geneva in 1654 to negotiate affairs relative to Protestantism. There are several allusions to him in _Pell's Correspondence_. In one letter he is spoken of as a man "with good zeal, but little policy."--_Vaughan's Protectorate_, i. 48.

[559] King James's College, at Chelsea, was founded by Dr. Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, "to this intent, that learned men might there have maintenance to answer all the adversaries of religion."--_Alleyn's Life_, quoted in _Cunningham's Hand-Book of London_.

[560] The _Public Intelligencer_, of December 10th-17th, 1655, speaks of "a conference held concerning the Jews in a withdrawing-room, in the presence of his Highness, between the Committee of the Council and the ministers and other persons approved by his Highness. Among these present Mr. Bridge was one." There is a letter on the subject of the Jews in _Thurloe_, iv. 321.

[561] Even Burnet thought Cromwell meant to employ the Jews as spies.

[562] Samuel Brett has left "a Narrative (dated 1655) of the proceedings of a great council of Jews assembled in the plain of Ageda, in Hungaria, about thirty leagues distant from Breda, to examine the Scriptures concerning the Messiah." The narrative is in the British Museum.

[563] In addition to what has been stated before on this subject, notice may be taken of a conversation which Cromwell had with a minister named John Rogers (see _Brook's Lives_, iii. 328), who spoke against a National Church--calling it anti-Christian--applying what he said to the Commonwealth. Cromwell answered that the Commonwealth Church was not a National Church, "for a National Church endeavoured to force all into one form."--See also _Wood's Ath. Ox._, ii. 594.

[564] Yet Bates, the physician, who says this, also says she often mentioned the blood her father spilt. How did he know this, if nobody was near enough to hear what was said? We cannot help thinking that imagination has been very busy with the latter part of Cromwell's life. Elizabeth Claypole has been represented as having pleaded with her father to spare Dr. Hewit's life. However that might be, certainly this very lady, in her own handwriting, within two months of her death, expressed her satisfaction at the discovery of the plot, as of one which, had it taken effect, would have ruined her family and the whole nation.--_Thurloe_, vii. 173.

[565] _Thurloe_, vii. 320; _Ludlow's Memoirs_, i. 609.

[566] The account which follows is taken from "_A Collection of Several Passages concerning his Late Highness Oliver Cromwell in the Time of his Sickness_, written by one that was then groom of his bedchamber." The gentlemen of the bedchamber were Mr. Charles Harvey and Mr. Underwood. This pamphlet is in the British Museum. There is also another copy of it, with a somewhat different title, as follows: "_An Account of the Last Hours of the Late Renowned Oliver, Lord Protector_--drawn up and published by one who was an eye and ear witness of the most part of it."

"_The Portraiture of his Royal Highness Oliver in his Life and Death_," contains no information respecting his sickness. It has a curious frontispiece, exhibiting Cromwell's effigy crowned, and clothed in royal robes.

[567] "As near as I can remember them," says the writer of the _Collection_, &c.

[568] _Fox's Journal_, i. 477.

[569] _Journal_, 485. Fox says, immediately afterwards:--"From Kingston I went to Isaac Pennington's, in Buckinghamshire, where I had appointed a meeting, and the Lord's truth and power were preciously manifested amongst us." This was the celebrated Isaac Pennington repeatedly noticed in the first volume of this history.

[570] _Thurloe_, vii. 354.

[571] _Bates' Elenchi_, ii. 215.

Fleetwood and Thurloe both speak of divine assurances of Cromwell's restoration.--_Thurloe_, vii. 355, 364.

[572] The Royalist historians abound in stories of Cromwell's terror lest he should be assassinated, and of frightful remorse mixed with that terror. Yet Clarendon, (_Hist._, p. 861,) most inconsistently says: "He never made the least shew of remorse;" and Ludlow, the republican, remarks: "He manifested little remorse."--_Memoirs_, ii. 612.

[573] The letters are in _Peck's Desiderata Curiosa_, ii.

[574] This is stated on the authority of Eachard. Neal adopts it, (_Hist._ iv. 188.) I must confess I do not feel much confidence in such a report of Cromwell's last sayings.

[575] Neal mentions Goodwin as the person who said this, (_Hist._ iv. 197,) and in so doing he is followed by Godwin and others. But Goodwin was not a chaplain of Cromwell's, nor was he likely to say what is thus ascribed to him. Neal gives no authority for his story. Baxter makes no mention of such an incident. Foster, in his _Life of Cromwell_, says it was Sterry who answered Cromwell, and he refers generally to the _Collection of Passages_; but in that collection Sterry's name does not occur, nor is there one word about this conversation. Baxter states that an Independent praying for Cromwell, said: "We ask not for his life, for that we are sure of, but that he may serve Thee better than ever he had done."--_Life and Times_, part i. 98. The author adds in the margin, "as it is currently reported without any contradiction that ever I heard of." There is no allusion to any such circumstance in the _Collection of Passages_. Ludlow, (_Memoirs_, ii. 610,) ascribes the prayer to Goodwin, but Ludlow was evidently prejudiced against both Cromwell and Goodwin. Tillotson, according to Birch, (_Life_, 16,) and also according to Burnet, (_Hist. of his own Times_, i. 82,) reported that he heard Goodwin say, a week after Cromwell's death: "Thou hast deceived us, and we were deceived." Tillotson also alluded to Goodwin's pretended assurance in prayer, before Cromwell expired. Tillotson would not fabricate the report, but might he not misunderstand what Goodwin meant? Eachard and Kennet, in relating the story, do not supply any corroboration of it. Tillotson is the only authority.

[576] _Carlyle_, iii. 151.

[577] _Collection of several Passages_, &c.

[578] "He did not mean," says the author of the _Collection_, "that it was safe to sin. No, the laying hold of the Covenant implies faith and repentance, which the Gospel requires with new obedience."--p. 6.

Throughout this paragraph we adhere to the words in the _Collection_.

[579] P. 7.

[580] P. 12.

[581] "Some variation," says the writer of the _Collection of Passages_, "there is of this prayer, as to the account divers give of it, and something is here omitted. But this is certain, that these were his requests, wherein his heart was so carried out for God and his people, yea for them who had added no little sorrow to his grief and afflictions, that at this time he seems to forget his own family and nearest relations."--13.

The statement that Sterry exclaimed after Cromwell's death, that he was of great use to the people of God whilst he lived, and that he would be much more so interceding for them at the right hand of Christ, rests mainly on the authority of Ludlow (_Memoirs_, ii. 612) who was not present, and in this instance could only repeat a rumour. He was as prejudiced against Cromwell and his court as any Royalist could be.

[582] _Commonwealth Mercury_, Sept. 2nd to Sept. 9th. The Protector's funeral was very magnificent, of which a minute account is given by the Rev. John Prestwich, of All Souls, Oxford, in a document preserved amongst the Ashmolean MSS. It is printed in the _Cromwellian Diary_, ii. 516.

In the newspaper announcing Cromwell's death, there occurs this amusing advertisement:--"That excellent, and by all physitians approved China drink, called by the Chineans, Tcha, by other nations Tay, or Tee, is sold at the Sultaness-Head, a cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London."

[583] Clarendon (_Hist._, 862), says that the day of Cromwell's death was memorable for a storm, which he describes as very violent. Heath says it was reported that he was carried away in the storm _the day_ before. (_Chronicle_, 408.) The fact is, that this storm, of which both the friends and the enemies of Cromwell made so much, really occurred on Monday, the 30th of August, _four days before his death_. Barwick, in a letter to Charles II., mentions it as occurring on the 30th. _Thurloe_, vii. 416. Ludlow, in his _Memoirs_, does the same, ii. 610. In the title to Waller's poem on the Protector, it is said that it alludes "to the storm that happened _about_ that time."

[584] Particular notice is taken of the prayers offered for Oliver's recovery in letters of the period.--See _Thurloe_, vii. 364-7.

[585] _Art._ II. charged him with saying "that some of the Justices were all for law, and nothing would please them but law; but they should find that the King's little finger should be heavier than the loins of the law."

_Art._ XXI. charged him with counselling his Majesty to call a Parliament in England with a design "to break the same, and by ways of force and power to raise monies upon the subjects of this kingdom."

_Art._ XXIII. charged him with saying "that his Majesty having tried the affections of his people, he was loose and absolved from all rules of Government, and was to do everything that power would admit."--_Rushworth's Trial of Lord Strafford_, 62, 71, 72.

[586] _Sufferings of the Clergy_, part i. 199-200.

The subject of martyrology strongly tempts to exaggeration. Certain writers on the catacombs are examples. A curious instance of the tendency occurs in _Donne's Sermons_, i. 328.

[587] Baxter, and the Presbyterian ministers at the Savoy, speak of "many hundreds," "several hundreds," and "some hundreds." Hook, in a letter in the State Paper Office (March 2nd, 1663) says: Of the ejected Puritans, they were "about 1,500 or 1,600 in the nation, _besides as near as many before upon the point of title_." All this is indeterminate, and in Hook's statement there must be exaggeration.

[588] _The Perfect Diurnal_, July, 1646, states that it was complained of in the House of Commons, that sequestered malignant ministers in London and other places were admitted to pulpits where they preached sedition.

On March the 1st, 1647, notice was given the Earl of Chesterfield not to entertain malignant preachers, nor use the Book of Common Prayer.--_Ibid._

[589] _Spittle Sermon_ on Eph. iv. 15.--"Speaking the truth in love," p. 24-25.

[590] _Pagninus et Arias Montanus._

[591] _Tromolius (Tremellius?) Junius, Beza, &c._

[592] First printed anno 1612.

[593] The name of Dr. Thomas Goodwin is altered into that of John Owen; Caryl's name is struck out.

Transcriber's Note:

1. Original spelling has been retained.

2. Obvious spelling, punctuation and typographical errors have been silently corrected.

3. Italics are shown as _xxx_.