VI. CHAS. I. A.D. 1647-8. While these proposals were under discussion, the CHAPTER army retired to Aylesbury. The city and the apprentices resumed their courage and became more insolent. Fairfax at once returned to Uxbridge, advanced to Hounslow, and was evidently preparing to march on London. The helpless and distracted condition both of the city and the parliament was again apparent. The earl of Manchester and Lenthall, the speakers of the two houses, accompanied by about sixty members, fled in the night from London, and presented themselves, Lenthall carrying his mace of office, before the general and the camp at Hounslow. They were received with acclamations. The two houses at Westminster however elected new speakers, and the city prepared for a vigorous defence. The presbyterian clergy from their pulpits moved the people to take up arms, and a solemn fast was kept; the fortifications were repaired, the walls bristled with pikes, the gates and the bridge looked formidable with artillery. But there was no heart within ; for presbyterian London had now spent itself. The citizens passed the night in their guildhall, and received every hour by an express fresh tidings of the army. On the report that it halted, their courage revived, and they cried, One and all! live and die! Another scout informed them that it was advancing; and they cried as loudly, Treat and capitulate! At two o'clock in the morning, colonel Rainsborough and his regiment appeared in Southwark at the foot of London bridge. It was strongly fortified and well guarded; but the soldiers on cach side no sooner confronted their old associates than CHAPTER all other considerations vanished. They shook hands as veterans in a common cause and let down VI. A.D. 1647-8. CHAS. I. the drawbridge. Not a gun had been fired, but London was surrendered. Two days afterwards, on the 7th of August, the army, headed by Fairfax, Cromwell, Hammond, Rich, and Tomlinson, entered London in military pomp. At Hyde-park corner the aldermen offered Fairfax a ewer and basin of gold valued at £1000: he received them coldly and refused their present. At Charing cross the common council were assembled and made obeisance to their invader. The army passed on through the city, but in the highest state of discipline: not a soldier uttered one angry word; there was not an insulting look, not an action or gesture in the conquerors to give the least offence. Fairfax took up public dinner. The clergy apologized for their But while, since the beginning of the revolution, power had been transferred through many hands and lodged with various parties in succession, upon certain great and leading points one purpose had all Clarendon, b. x. pp. 50-60. Whitelocke, pp. 240-266. Ludlow, p. 75. VI. CHAS. I. A.D. 1647-8. along prevailed. Substantially the puritans had CHAPTER differed rather as to the means to be employed than the objects to be attained. In religion at least their aim was always the same; it was to abolish prelacy and establish in its place a national church in accordance more or less with the churches on the continent. Between the presbyterians and the independents the difference was not so much of religion as of politics. Presbyterians feared the democratic tendency of the independent theory; the independents grudged the formidable powers, approaching to a new kind of spiritual star chamber, which the presbyterians claimed for their ecclesiastical courts. Both alike were anxious for a learned ministry. Both alike were anxious for a ministry whose doctrines should be those of the reformation, as expounded by Jewel and Whitgift, by Bullinger and Calvin. It was only the lowest of the sectaries who affected to depreciate learning. The mass of the puritans carried their admiration, perhaps, even too far. The sermons of their greatest divines are encumbered with it, and they ministered, it is evident, to the prevailing taste. It is strange that contempt of literature should be gravely charged upon a party amongst whom Selden talked and Milton flourished; amongst whom Algernon Sidney and sir William Waller were great names; under whose shelter John Howe, little known as yet, already "mewed his mighty youth." The cares of sacred literature engaged the parliament during the most anxious periods of the war. To-day the tidings of a battle, to-morrow a discussion upon the price to be paid for an ancient manuscript of the new testament, or a CHAPTER grant of books, the richest spoil of Lambeth, to some VI. CHAS. I. A.D. 1647-8. favourite divine. Attempts were even made to found two new universities. One was actually opened in London, though it soon perished; the other was to have been fixed at Durham, and richly endowed from the property of that wealthy see; but this too failed, and it was left to us of the present generation to revive effectually these noble projects of our puritan forefathers. The university of Cambridge was from the first in their hands. Cromwell represented the town in parliament, and such was his influence there that Charles's cause never obtained a footing in the university. A commission was issued early in the war to the earl of Manchester, assisted by commissioners, to investigate abuses in the university, to dispossess malignants, and in short to remodel Cambridge in accordance with the solemn league and covenant. A large body of parliamentary troops then lay in the town and lent their officious aid in the work of reformation. The Lady Margaret's professor in his robes, on his way to Great St. Mary's to preach a latin sermon, according to the statute, was surrounded by a crowd of soldiers crying, "A pope, a pope!" They followed him into the church, and insisted with threatenings and uproar that he should preach in English. The courts of St. John's college and Pembroke hall were converted into prisons for the royalists; the soldiers were exercised in King's college chapel: monuments and sepulchral brasses, paintings and stained glass, it was their pastime to demolish. What plate remained was seized, upon the communion tables of VI. CHAS. I. A.D. 1647-8. the chapels, and some valuable collections of books, CHAPTER coins, and medals, were destroyed. Still, however, the university, making due allowance for a state of civil war, was by no means harshly used. The chief commissioner, the earl of Manchester, was a man of high breeding, courteous and benevolent. He was never known to insult even those whom he was obliged to oppress.* The rudeness of the soldiers was soon checked by an ordinance from parliament, and the noblest monuments of the university escaped untouched. The sculptures and statuary in King's college survived this frenzy, and still astonish and delight the visitor; and its painted windows, recording the whole history of the Saviour's life and passion, and many a scene from the old testament, depicted with a lustre which nearly four centuries have done nothing to impair, testify to this day the prompt obedience which the republican army rendered to its superiors. Many fellows of various colleges refused to appear before the commissioners; of these sixty-five were immediately expelled. About two hundred graduates were dismissed; and of sixteen heads of houses ten were ejected. Amongst the latter were Dr. Ward, master of Sidney college, and Dr. Brownrigg, bishop of Exeter and master of Catherine hall; Dr. Ward, a church puritan in the days of Laud, but in earlier and better times, with bishop Hall of Norwich, one of the English representatives at the synod of Dort. Dr. Holdsworth, master of Emmanuel, and from that circumstance alone probably a puritan so called, was turned out; he attended the king in his last troubles in the Isle * Clarendon, book vi. p. 211. |