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And so he gave his influence in aid of the old policy of compulsion. In 1626 William Laud was translated from his see of St. David's to that of Bath and Wells, was made also Dean of the Chapel Royal, and a Privy Councillor. In July, 1628, he was translated from the bishopric of Bath and Wells to that of London; in April, 1630, Laud was made Chancellor of the University of Oxford; in July, 1630, as Dean of the Chapel Royal, he baptized the infant who afterwards became Charles II. In the same year, a Scotch minister, Alexander Leighton, father to the more famous Robert Leighton, personally presented to members of the House of Commons a book he had written, called "An Appeal to Parliament, or Zion's Plea again Prelacy." He was sentenced by the Star Chamber to a fine of £10,000 and imprisonment for life, then transferred to the High Court of Commission to be degraded from his ministerial office, because the Star Chamber could not pass sentence of corporal punishment upon a man in orders. Having been degraded by the High Commission, he was returned to the Star Chamber, where he was further sentenced to be pilloried at Westminster during the sitting of the court, and there whipped; after the whipping to have one of his ears cut off, his nose slit, his forehead branded with S.S. for Seditious Slanderer,' and then to be taken to his prison, whence at another time he was to be conveyed to the pillory in Cheapside, where his other ear was to be cut off and he was again to be whipped. Leighton's imprisonment lasted for ten years, until he was released by the Long Parliament in 1640. Alexander Leighton was then made keeper of Lambeth Palace, after Laud had been imprisoned in the Tower; but Leighton died insane in 1645. In 1633, William Prynne, a Puritan barrister, published against stage plays, masques, and dances his "HistrioMastix." It denounced masques and dances in terms that could be said to involve the queen in their condemnation. Therefore he was committed to the Tower. In the same year, 1633, Laud, Bishop of London, went with Charles I. into Scotland, and helped to impose a liturgy upon the Scottish Church against the will of the people; and in August of that year Dr. Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose resistance to the policy of compulsion had withdrawn him from royal favour, died. Laud was immediately appointed his successor. At the same time he had secret offer of a cardinal's hat through a person to whom he records in his diary that he answered, "Something dwelt within him which would not suffer that, till Rome was otherwise than it was at the present time." Laud at once pursued his policy with excess of zeal. The Declaration concerning

1 Or Sower of Sedition. When Prynne had been branded on the cheek with S. L. (Seditious Libeller), he made these lines on his way back in a boat to the Tower:

"S. L. STIGMATA LAUDIS.

"Stigmata maxillis referens insignia Laudis Exultans remeo, victima grata Deo."

Which was Englished:

"S. L. LAUD'S SCARS.

"Triumphant I return, my face descries

Laud's scorching scars, God's grateful sacrifice."

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Ovr Deare Father of blessed Memory, in his returne from Scotland, comming through Lancashire, found that his Subiects were debarred from Lawful Recreations vpon Sundayes after Euening Prayers ended, and vpon Holy dayes: And Hee prudently considered, that if these times were taken from them, the meaner sort who labour hard all the weeke, should haue no Recreations at all to refresh their spirits. And after His returne, Hee farther saw that His loyall Subiects in all other parts of His Kingdome did suffer in the same kinde, though perhaps not in the same degree: And did therefore in His Princely wisedome, publish a Declaration to all his louing Subiects concerning lawfull Sports to be vsed at such times, which was printed and published by His royall Commandement in the yeere 1618. In the Tenor which hereafter followeth.

By the King.

Whereas vpon Our returne the last yere out of Scotland, We did publish Our Pleasure touching the recreations of Our people in those parts vnder Our hand: For some causes Vs thereunto moouing, Wee haue thought good to command these Our Directions then giuen in Lancashire with a few words thereunto added, and most appliable to these parts of Our Realmes, to bee published to all Our Subiects.

Whereas Wee did iustly in Our Progresse through Lancashire, rebuke some Puritanes and precise people, and tooke order that the like vnlawfull carriage should not bee vsed by any of them hereafter, in the prohibiting and vnlawfull punishing of Our good people for vsing their lawfull Recrea

tions, and honest exercises vpon Sundayes and other Holy dayes, after the afternoone Sermon or Seruice: Wee now finde that two sorts of people wherewith that Countrey is much infected, (Wee meane Papists and Puritanes) haue maliciously traduced and calumniated those Our iust and honourable proceedings. And therefore lest Our reputation might vpon the one side (though innocently) haue some aspersion layd vpon it, and that vpon the other part Our good people in that Countrey be misled by the mistaking and misinterpretation of Our meaning: We haue therefore thought good hereby to cleare and make Our pleasure to be manifested to all Our good People in those parts.

It is true that at Our first entry to this Crowne, and Kingdome, Wee were informed, and that too truely, that Our County of Lancashire abounded more in Popish Recusants then any County of England, and thus hath still continued since to Our great regreet, with little amendmēt, saue that now of late, in Our last riding through Our said County, Wee find both by the report of the Iudges, and of the Bishop of that diocesse, that there is some amendment now daily beginning, which is no small contentment to Vs.

The report of this growing amendment amongst them, made Vs the more sorry, when with Our owne Eares We heard the generall complaint of Our people, that they were barred from all lawfull Recreation, & exercise vpon the Sundayes afternoone, after the ending of all Diuine Seruice, which cannot but produce two euils: The one, the hindering of the conuersion of many, whom their Priests will take occasion hereby to vexe, perswading them that no honest mirth or recreation is lawfull or tolerable in Our Religion, which cannot but breed a great discontentment in Our peoples hearts, especially of such as are peraduenture vpon the point of turning; The other inconuenience is, that this prohibition barreth the common and meaner sort of people from vsing such exercises as may make their bodies more able for Warre, when Wee or Our Successours shall haue occasion to vse them. And in place thereof sets vp filthy tiplings and drunkennesse, & breeds a number of idle and discontented speeches in their Alehouses. For when shall the common people haue leaue to exercise, if not vpon the Sundayes & holydaies, seeing they must apply their labour, & win their liuing in all working daies?

Our expresse pleasure therefore is, that the Lawes of Our Kingdome, & Canons of Our Church be as well obserued in that Countie, as in all other places of this Our Kingdome. And on the other part, that no lawfull Recreation shall bee barred to Our good People, which shall not tend to the breach of Our aforesayd Lawes, and Canons of Our Church: which to expresse more particularly, Our pleasure is, That the Bishop, and all other inferiour Churchmen, and Churchwardens, shall for their parts bee carefull and diligent, both to instruct the ignorant, and conuince and reforme them that are mis-led in Religion, presenting them that will not conforme themselues, but obstinately stand out to Our Iudges and Iustices: Whom We likewise command to put the Law in due execution against them.

Our pleasure likewise is, That the Bishop of that Diocesse take the like straight order with all the Puritanes and Precisians within the same, either constraining them to conforme themselues, or to leaue the County according to the Lawes of Our Kingdome, and Canons of Our Church, and so to strike equally on both hands, against the contemners of Our Authority, and aduersaries of Our Church. And as for Our good peoples lawfull Recreation, Our pleasure likewise is, That after the end of Diuine Seruice, Our good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreation, Such as dauncing, either men or women, Archery for

men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmelesse Recreation, nor from hauing of May-Games, Whitson Ales, and Morris-dances, and the setting vp of Maypoles & other sports therewith vsed, so as the same be had in due & conuenient time, without impediment or neglect of Diuine Seruice: And that women shall haue leaue to carry rushes to the Church for the decoring of it, according to their old custome. But withall We doe here account still as prohibited all vnlawfull games to bee vsed vpon Sundayes onely, as Beare and Bullbaitings, Interludes, and at all times in the meaner sort of people by Law prohibited, Bowling.

And likewise We barre from this benefite and liberty, all such knowne recusants, either men or women, as will abstaine from comming to Church or diuine Seruice, being therefore vnworthy of any lawfull recreation after the said Seruice, that will not first come to the Church, and serue God: Prohibiting in like sort the said Recreations to any that, though conforme in Religion, are not present in the Church at the seruice of GoD, before their going to the said Recrea tions. Our pleasure likewise is, That they to whom it belongeth in Office, shall present and sharpely punish all such as in abuse of this Our liberty, will vse these exercises before the ends of all Diuine Seruices for that day. And We likewise straightly command, that euery person shall resort to his owne Parish Church to heare Diuine Seruice, and each Parish by it selfe to vse the said Recreation after Diuine Seruice. Prohibiting likewise any Offensiue weapons to bee carried or vsed in the said times of Recreations. And Our pleasure is, That this Our Declaration shall bee published by order from the Bishop of the Diocesse, through all the Parish Churches, and that both Our Iudges of Our Circuit, and Our Iustices of Our Peace be informed thereof.

Giuen at Our Mannour of Greenwich the foure and twentieth day of May, in the sixteenth yeere of Our Raigne of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland the one and fiftieth.

Now out of a like pious Care for the seruice of God, and for suppressing of any humors that oppose trueth, and for the Ease, Comfort, & Recreation of Our well deseruing People, Wee doe ratifie and publish this Our blessed Fathers Declaration: The rather because of late in some Counties of Our Kingdome, Wee finde that vnder pretence of taking away abuses, there hath been a generall forbidding, not onely of ordinary meetings, but of the Feasts of the Dedication of the Churches, commonly called Wakes. Now our expresse will and pleasure is, that these Feasts with others shall bee obserued, and that Our Iustices of the peace in their seuerall Diuisions shall looke to it, both that all disorders there, may be preuented or punished, and that all neighbourhood and freedome, with manlike and lawfull Exercises bee vsed. And Wee farther Command Our Justices of Assize in their seuerall Circuits, to see that no man doe trouble or molest any of Our loyall and duetifull people, in or for their lawful Recrea tions, having first done their duetie to God, and continuing in obedience to Vs and Our Lawes. And of this Wee command all our Iudges, Iustices of the Peace, as well within Liberties as without, Maiors, Bayliffes, Constables, and other Officers, to take notice of, and to see obserued, as they tender Our displeasure. And Wee farther will, that publication of this Our Command bee made by order from the Bishops through all the Parish Churches of their seuerall Diocesse respectiuely.

Giuen at Our Palace of Westminster the eighteenth day of October, in the ninth yeere of Our Reigne.

God sane the King

Laud, as Bishop of London, had severely censured the Lord Mayor for prohibiting a woman from selling apples on Sunday in St. Paul's Churchyard. His enforcement of the reading of this "Book of Sports " in all the English churches was resisted by many of the clergy, who were therefore silenced. Some who read it, read the Fourth Commandment after it. Some read it unwillingly, with forced compliance to preserve their livings. William Prynne, after a year's imprisonment in the Tower, was sentenced to a fine of £5,000, to be expelled from his University, his Inn of Court, and his profession of the law; to be pilloried, first at Palace Yard, Westminster, then at Cheapside, and in each place to lose an ear; to have his book burnt before his face by the common executioner; and to be imprisoned for life. In 1637 eight ships in the Thames prepared to carry to New England refugees from the rule of compulsion, were stopped, and an Order of Council prohibited "all ministers unconformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England; and that no clergyman should be suffered to pass to the foreign plantations without the approbation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London." On the 30th of June in the same year Prynne, the lawyer, stood in the pillory again, to lose what remained of his ears, with the Rev. Henry Burton and Dr. John Bastwick, a physician, sentenced also to fine, branding, mutilation, and imprisonment. But as they went to the pillory the people had strewed sweet herbs on the way.

The

There had been old antagonism between William Laud and John Williams, who in 1621 succeeded Bacon as Lord Keeper, and was at the same time made Bishop of Lincoln. His opinions on public questions did not please the Court of Charles. Duke of Buckingham had been his enemy, and he had both Charles and Laud against him. As early as 1627 an attempt had been begun to charge him with betrayal of the king's secrets. In 1637 this accusation was shifted to a charge of tampering with the king's witnesses. He was condemned, and sentenced to a fine of £10,000, suspension by the High Commission Court from all his offices, and imprisonment during the king's pleasure. His palace was entered to seize goods to the value of the fine, and a letter was there found from Lambert Osbaldistone, Master of Westminster School, in which Laud, small of stature, was referred to as "the little urchin," and "the little meddling hocus pocus." Upon this letter further proceedings were taken, and Dr. Williams was sentenced to pay £5,000 more to the king and £3,000 to the Archbishop of Canterbury; while the writer of the letter was fined £5,000 to the king, £5,000 to the Archbishop of Canterbury, deprived of his preferments, condemned to imprisonment during the king's pleasure, and to stand in the pillory with his ear nailed to the posts. Dr. Williams was not released until 1640, when he was reconciled to the king, who made him, in 1641, Archbishop of York. Laud was then in the Tower, to which he was conveyed on the 1st of March, 1641. He had tried force against force stronger than his own, and raised a tumult against prelacy. He was stripped of his revenues, heavily fined, and

harshly treated during three years of imprisonment, that ended in his trial and his execution on the 10th of January, 1645. From the scaffold Laud, seventyone years old, delivered his last words to man in the form of his own funeral sermon, on a text from the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Let us run with patience the race which is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The sermon ended, this was

LAUD'S LAST PRAYER.

O Eternal God and merciful Father, look down upon me in mercy; in the riches and fulness of all thy mercies look down upon me, but not till thou hast nailed my sins to the cross of Christ. Look upon me, but not till thou hast bathed me in the blood of Christ; not till I have hid myself in the wounds of Christ; that so the punishment that is due to my sins may pass away and go over me: and since thou art pleased to try me to the uttermost, humbly beseech thee, give me now in this great instant full patience, proportionable comfort, a heart ready to die for my sins, the King's happiness, and the preservation of this Church; and my zeal to these (far from arrogance be it spoken) is all the sin, human frailty excepted, and all incidents thereunto, which is yet known of me in this particular, for which I now come to suffer; but otherwise my sins are many and great. Lord, pardon them all, and those especially which have drawn down this present judgment upon me; and when thou hast given me strength to bear it, then do with me as seems best to thee; and carry me through death that I may look upon it in what visage soever it shall appear to me, and that there may be a stop of this issue of blood in this more than miserable kingdom. I pray for the people, too, as well as for myself. O Lord, I beseech thee, give grace of repentance to all people that have a thirst for blood; but if they will not repent, then scatter their devices, and such as are or shall be contrary to the glory of thy great name, the truth and sincerity of religion, the establishment of the King, and his posterity after him in their just rights and privileges, the honour and conservation of Parliament, in their ancient and just power, the preservation of this poor Church in the truth, peace, and patrimony, and the settlement of this distracted and distressed people under their ancient laws and in their native liberties. And when thou hast done all this in mere mercy for them, O Lord, fill their hearts with thankfulness, and with religious dutiful obedience to thee and thy commandments all their days. Amen, Lord Jesus, and I beseech thee receive my soul into thy bosom, Amen.

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impious ignorance." Another urged that "Religion admits of no eccentric notions." Every member of the congregation of a tolerant Baptist of Rhode Island was fined twenty or thirty pounds, and one who refused to pay the fine was whipped unmercifully. There was a fine on absence from "the ministry of the Word;" to deny that any book in the Old or New Testament was throughout the infallible Word of God, was blasphemy, punishable by fine and flogging, and in case of obstinacy, by exile or death. A devout woman, hearing of such things, travelled all the way from London to warn the leaders of the new church against persecution, and they flogged her. She was sentenced to twenty stripes. At home, when Laud's friends ceased to be the persecutors, they became the persecuted. Each party was full of zeal in either character, and we can only look with equal eye, whether argument be of the seventeenth or nineteenth century, on imperfections common to humanity. John Robinson uttered a great truth when, in his farewell to the little band that left Delft in the Mayflower, he said, "The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy Word." Are we not waiting yet for the acceptance of its leading truth, that of the three abiding virtues of the Christian the greatest is charity? "Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." So St. Paul interpreted the teaching of Him who based His Church upon two articles: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great command

ment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

In this sense many a true man of many a creed has sought the peace of God, and Richard Baxter laboured towards peace. He was gentle, without cowardice or weakness, and he sought unity for the distracted Church as earnestly as William Laud. Baxter was reckoned among the Puritans, and shared the Presbyterian sympathies of the Long Parliament, whose members voted, in May, 1641, approval " of the affection of their brethren of Scotland, in their desire of a conformity in the Church government between the two nations." The Grand Committee of the whole House for Religion, appointed three days after the assembling of the Parliament, had originated in King James's time, but soon became a new energy for the inquiry into accusations against loyal clergy. It had a sub-committee, which divided itself into several lesser committees, and the first sentence of sequestration was passed by the Grand Committee itself as early as the 16th of January, 1641. As the work grew on the hands of the sequestrators, committees were appointed under Parliament in all parts of the country. They were to consist of from five to ten members, each paid five shillings a day for his attendance, and were enjoined to be "speedy and effectual" in their inquiry into the lives, doctrine,

and conversation of all ministers and schoolmasters. These local courts were first instituted in 1643, and remained instruments of tyranny for the next ten years. A fifth of the sequestrated income might be granted to the expelled man, on conditions that even a word of resentment might be held to break, and the number of the clergy thus ejected has been reckoned by the historian of their sufferings at seven thousand.

When Cromwell first raised his troop, he had invited Baxter to become its pastor. Baxter refused, and reasoned against the appeal to arms. But whe war was so far afoot that the only question could be of having or not having the religious life maintained among the combatants, Baxter consented to become, and was for two years, chaplain to a regiment. Ths he was at the taking of Bridgewater, the siege of Bristol and of Sherborne Castle. He was three weeks at the siege of Exeter, six weeks before Banbury Castle, and eleven weeks at the siege of Worcester, In the army he opposed the various forms of tre opinion in religion to be found among the soldiers. and somewhat lost their confidence by his zeal a behalf of unity; for he flinched from the religira disputations that had cast out love, and chiefly a that ground held with the Presbyterians of th se days, who desired uniform Church government less than Laud, but sought to give it a shape whi they regarded as more Biblical than the machinery f archbishops and bishops. In their desire also a separate their church as much as possible from the traditions of the Church of Rome, they scrupulos avoided naming children after saints. Most of names in the New Testament, and many more, be thus associated with saint worship, Old Testam names, as Elijah, Jonathan, Obadiah; or the name of Christian gifts, Grace, Faith, Hope, Charity, even religious phrases, were given as Christian naas to their children by pious parents. Towards t end of the civil war Baxter had a severe ill and it was at that time that he wrote that of his many books which is most widely read, "T Saint's Everlasting Rest," first published in It He says:

"Whilst I was in health, I had not the least thou writing books, or of serving God in any more public preaching. But when I was weakened with great bedand left solitary in my chamber at Sir John Cook's in Ivie, shire, without any acquaintance but my servant ab and was sentenced to death by the physicians, I be↑↑ contemplate more seriously on the everlasting rest wh apprehended myself to be just on the borders of; ani my thoughts might not too much scatter in my medit began to write something on that subject, inten·ling *** quantity of a sermon or two (which is the cause th beginning is, in brevity and style, disproportional rest); but being continued long in weakness, where I bl books, nor no better employment, I followed it on till enlarged to the bulk in which it is published. The firs* * weeks I spent in it was at Mr. Nowell's house st K Mallory, in Leicestershire; a quarter of a year natë 4" seasons which so great weakness would allow, I les" * it at Sir Tho. Rouse's house, at Rouse Lench, in W shire; and I finished it shortly after at Kiddermine ↑ first and last parts were first done, being all that I

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"As we hindered no man from following his own judgment in his own congregation, so we evinced, beyond denial, that it would be but a partial, dividing agreement to agree on the terms of Presbyterian, Episcopal, or any one party, because it would unavoidably shut out the other parties; which was the principal thing which we endeavoured to avoid; it being not with Presbyterians only, but with all orthodox, faithful pastors and people, that we are bound to hold communion, and to live in Christian concord, so far as we have attained. Hereupon, many counties began to associate, as Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, Hampshire, Essex, and others; and some of them printed the articles of their agreement. In a word, a great desire of concord began to possess all good people in the land, and our breaches seemed ready to heal. And though some thought that so many associations and forms of agreement did but tend to more division, by showing our diversity of apprehensions, the contrary proved true by experience; for we all agreed on the same course, even to unite in the practice of so much discipline as the Episcopal, Presbyterians, and Independents are agreed in, and as crosseth none of their principles."

Baxter, who had always held by the monarchy, welcomed the Restoration, and his great hope for a measure of compromise that would bring again into one church the Episcopal and Presbyterian Christians seemed at last attainable. The best Independents desired fellowship without the pale of a church to which, however they might be parted from it upon matters of opinion, they could be joined in the

"I have credibly Thomas Goodwin, leaders of the In

brotherhood of Christian charity. heard," says Baxter, "that Dr. Philip Nye, and Dr. Owen, the dependents, did tell the king that, as the Pope allowed orders of religious parties in mere dependence on himself, all that they desired was, not to be masters of others, but to hold their own liberty of worship and discipline in sole dependence on the king, as the Dutch and French churches do, so they may be saved from the bishops and ecclesiastical courts." Before the arrival of Charles II. he had been visited in Holland by English Presbyterians. His Declaration from Breda had included in these words the promise of an end of persecution for religion:

"And because the passion and uncharitableness of the times have produced several opinions in religion, by which men are engaged in parties and animosities against each other; which when they shall hereafter unite in a freedom of conversation, will be composed, or better understood; we do declare a liberty to tender consciences; and that no man shall be disquieted, or called in question, for differences of opinion in matters of religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom; and that we shall be ready to consent to such an act of Parliament as, upon mature deliberation, shall be offered to us, for the full granting that indulgence."

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The king, whom Presbyterians had helped to the throne, after his arrival in London, named ten or twelve Presbyterians, including Baxter, chaplains in ordinary. Baxter counselled his king not less faithfully than he had counselled Cromwell, and stil! laboured above all things to establish spiritual union among English Christians. Baxter and other Presbyterians in London discussed measures of compromise with Episcopal clergy, and began by offering to accept Archbishop Usher's scheme of church government, that made each bishop the head of a Presbytery which shared his powers, and a revised Liturgy that did not forbid extemporary prayer. They accepted the king as supreme "in all things and causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil." They proposed also that of the church ceremonies in question, some should be abolished as occasions of dispute upon indifferent matters, and that use of others should be optional. Upon every point the Presbyterians were met with resistance by the bishops, but in October, 1660, the king signed a Declaration on ecclesiastical affairs, which conceded very much to Presbyterian desires. Had it been acted upon, much strife and division would have been at an end; but there can be no end to strife without change in the minds of combatants. The House of Commons in November, 1660, rejected the Declaration by a majority of twenty-six.

Among enthusiasts of the time was a small body of Fifth-Monarchy men, so called from their interpretation of the prophecy in the seventh chapter of Daniel. The four beasts had always been interpreted to mean the four great monarchies of the world; the ten horns of the fourth beast were said to be the ten European kingdoms, and the "little horn" (verses 8, 20, 21,) was now read to mean William the Conqueror and his successors, who "made war with the

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