I. CHAS. I. A.D. 1643. and constitutional reform. Hampden and Falkland CHAPTER might have saved the state. But the great arbiter of the destinies of men and nations had otherwise decreed. They fell in the prime of life. Hampden was but forty-nine years of age, and Falkland only thirty-six. CHAPTER II. A.D. 1643-1644. II. A.D. 1643. CHAPTER THE cares of the parliament and the hopes of the puritans were not confined to the management, nor CHAS. I. bounded by the issues, of the war. Another object of vast importance divided their attention. They were intent upon a second reformation. By an act dated the 10th of September, 1642, (which was to take effect from the 5th of November, 1643,) the hierarchy was dissolved, and the church of Elizabeth, of Parker and of Whitgift, was denuded of its splendours. Meanwhile the disposition grew every day more apparent to destroy it altogether, and to replace it with another. Various motives concurred to produce this hostile feeling. The delinquencies of the high prelatic section of the church had been very great. The Laudian party, though crushed in London, was still powerful with the court; it had undergone no change; it still verged on popery. To subjugate the people to their priests, and to assimilate the usages of the church of England to the pomp of the church of Rome, was the whole of its ambition. Reformation it abhorred, in the sense in which reformation was understood by the parliament and people. From the Laudians, therefore, there II. CHAS. I. A.D. 1643. was nothing to hope. Again, the indiscriminate CHAPTER severity with which all the dignitaries and bishops had been treated by the parliament (moderate as some of them were known to be) had driven them for refuge to the king; some indeed had fled abroad and some were in prison. It was therefore impossible to assemble a legal convocation; and even had it been assembled, the majority would not have undertaken the reformation of the church; the minority might reason and protest, but it was evident that a minority could accomplish nothing. A thorough reformation, such as the times required, must be effected, if at all, by rougher hands, and in a manner of which the forms of the constitution in church or state afforded no example. Besides, as the breach widened with the king, the parliament felt, no doubt, that it was politic to strengthen their cause with the aspect of a religious quarrel. This was necessary to their influence with the nation; for there was still a loyalty abroad which would have forbidden the people to fight against the king, had they not believed that the popular cause was that of the protestant faith and of pure religion. The difficulties of the parliament were great, and in part they were owing to themselves. The disorders of the church required a searching hand, and their own violence alienated those moderate churchmen who, perhaps, knew best the seat of the disease, and certainly were by no means indisposed to apply a pungent remedy. Deprived of their assistance, it seemed, upon the whole, more easy to the parliament to overthrow the national church than merely to amend it; it was safer to rebuild than to repair the II. A.D. 1643. CHAPTER ancient edifice. In this embarrassment they devised two measures: the one was meant to clear away the CHAS. I. difficulties which hindered the work of demolition ; the other was designed to reconstruct the church upon more popular, and, as they believed, more scriptural foundations. First, they instituted an inquiry into the morals and fitness of the clergy then beneficed in England; this was to be managed by a committee of the house of commons. And, secondly, they convened a great assembly or conference of puritan divines and laymen, to advise upon the constitution of the future church. This was the origin of the once famous WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. The machinery for cleansing the church of unfaithful ministers was already in existence. The parliament had not sat three days when, on the 6th of November, 1640, the house of commons resolved itself into a committee of religion.* The state of public feeling was evident from the labours which instantly devolved upon the new tribunal. Almost every parish had a grievance, and within a few days the table of the house was loaded with petitions. The complaints were various. Some ministers were "scandalous," some were "of mean parts," some were "ill affected," and parliament was earnestly implored, in every case, to afford redress. Since the house of commons, at this early period, was by no means hostile to the national church, we conclude at once that great abuses existed, and that there were real grievances to be redressed. Overwhelmed with business, the committee of religion, which * Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy; London, 1714, part i. p. 62. II. CHAS. I. A D. 1643. consisted of the whole house, appointed several sub- CHAPTER committees, to receive complaints against the clergy and to assist in the work of reformation. There were at least four of these, known by their chairmen as White's, Corbett's, Harlowe's, and Deering's committees. White's was the most famous, and it seems to have absorbed the rest. It was 66 the committee for scandalous ministers ;" and its duty, as indicated by its title, was to enquire into the morals of the clergy, and in general to investigate their fitness for the sacred office. It entered upon its task without reluctance, and within a few months had received above two thousand petitions against various ministers; while, at the same time, Corbett is said to have boasted that his own committee had received nine hundred more.* A Scythian warfare followed against the hapless clergy; and before the war had broken out a thousand had been deprived. At first the concurrence of the house of lords was necessary; but after the war began, the house of commons became every day less episcopalian and more democratic. It now dispossessed the scandalous clergy on its own authority, and appointed others in their place. During the whole of the war "the committee of religion" continued sitting, and the work went on. At length, few adherents of the royal cause, and perhaps not one of the Laudian party, remained. The benefices of England were now in the hands of the puritans. It is impossible to compute the amount of suffering inflicted by these measures. A proscribed * Walker, part i. p. 65. |