LVII. 1645 him to retract his former declaration, that the two CHAP. houses at Westminster were not a free parliament; and accordingly he was induced, though with great reluctance, to give them, in his answer, the appellation of the parliament of England. But it appeared afterwards, by a letter which he wrote to the queen, and of which a copy was taken at Nafeby, that he fecretly entered an explanatory protest in his council-book; and he pretended that, though he had called them the parliament, he had not thereby acknowledged them for fuch. This fubtlety, which has been frequently objected to Charles, is the most noted of those very few inftances, from which the enemies of this prince have endeavoured to load him with the imputation of infincerity; and inferred, that the parliament could repofe no confidence in his profeffions and declarations, not even in his laws and ftatutes. There is, however, it must be confeffed, a difference univerfally avowed between fimply giving to men the appellation which they affume, and the formal acknowledgment of their title to it; nor is any thing more common and familiar in all public tranfactions. THE time of place and treaty being fettled, fix- 30th Jan. teen commiffioners from the king met at Uxbridge, with twelve authorised by the parliament, attended by the Scottish commiffioners. It was agreed, that the Scottish and parliamentary commiffioners should give in their demands, with regard to three im His words are, b Whitlocke, p. 111. Dugdale, p. 748. "As for my calling thofe at London a parliament, I fhall refer thee to "Digby for particular fatisfaction; this in general: If there had been "but two befides myself, of my opinion, I had not done it; and the argument that prevailed with me was, that the calling did no ways " acknowledge them to be a parliament; upon which condition and " conftruction I did it, and no otherwife, and accordingly it is regiftered in the council books, with the council's unanimous approbation." The King's cabinet opened, Ruth, vol. iv. p. 943. portant CHAP. 1645. portant articles, religion, the militia, and Ireland; and that these fhould be fucceffively difcuffed in conference with the king's commiffioners. It was foon found impracticable to come to any agreement with regard to any of these articles. IN the fummer 1643, while the negotiations were carried on with Scotland, the parliament had fummoned an affembly at Westminster, confifting of 121 divines and 30 laymen, celebrated in their party for piety and learning. By their advice, alterations were made in the thirty-nine articles, or in the metaphyfical doctrines of the church; and, what was of greater importance, the liturgy was entirely abolished, and, in its ftead, a new directory for worship was established; by which, fuitably to the fpirit of the puritans, the utmost liberty, both in praying and preaching, was indulged to the public teachers. By the folemn league and covenant, epifcopacy was abjured, as destructive of all true piety; and a national engagement, attended with every circumstance that could render a promise facred and obligatory, was entered into with the Scots, never to fuffer its re-admiffion. All these measures fhewed little fpirit of accommodation in the parliament; and the king's commiffioners were not furprised to find the establishment of prefbytery and the directory pofitively demanded, together with the fubfcription of the covenant, both by the king and kingdom. HAD • Such love of con. d Whitlocke, p. 121. Dugdale, p. 758. tradiction prevailed in the parliament, that they had converted Chriftmas, which, with the churchmen, was a great feftival, into a folemn faft and humiliation; "In order," as they faid, "that it might call "to remembrance our fins and the fins of our forefathers, who, pre"tending to celebrate the memory of Chrift, have turned this feaft "into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to carnal " and fenfual delights." Rush. vol. vi. p. 817. It is remarkable that, as the parliament abolished all holy days, and severely prohibited all amufement on the fabbath; and even burned, by the hands of the hangman, LVII. 1645. HAD Charles been of a difpofition to neglect all CHA P. theological controverfy, he yet had been obliged, in good policy, to adhere to epifcopal jurifdiction, not only because it was favourable to monarchy, but because all his adherents were paffionately devoted to it; and to abandon them, in what they regarded as fo important an article, was for ever to relinquish their friendship and affiftance. But Charles had never attained fuch enlarged principles. He deemed bifhops effential to the very being of a christian church; and he thought himself bound, by more facred ties than thofe of policy, or even of honour, to the fupport of that order. His conceflions, therefore, on this head, he judged fufficient, when he agreed that an indulgence fhould be given to tender confciences with regard to ceremonies; that the bifhops fhould hangman, the king's book of fports; the nation found, that there was no time left for relaxation or diverfion. Upon application, therefore, of the fervants and apprentices, the parliament appointed the fecond Tuesday of every month for play and recreation. Rub. vol. vii. p. 460. Whitlocke, p. 247. But thefe inftitutions they found great difficulty to execute; and the people were refolved to be merry when they themselves pleafed, not when the parliament fhould prefcribe it to them. The keeping of Chriftmas holy-days was long a great mark of malignancy, and very feverely cenfured by the commons. Whitlocke, p. 286. Even minced pyes, which custom had made a Christmas difh among the churchmen, was regarded, during that feafon, as a profane and fuperftitious viand by the fectaries; though at other times it agreed very well with their ftomachs. In the parliamentary ordinance, too, for the obfervance of the fabbath, they inferted a claufe for the taking down of may-poles, which they called a heathenith vanity. Since we are upon this fubject, it may not be amifs to mention, that, beide fetting apart Sunday for the ordinances, as they called them, the godly had regular meetings on the Thurdays for refolving cafes of confcience, and conferring about their progrefs in grace. What they were chicfly anxious about, was the fixing the precife moment of their converfion or new birth; and whoever could not afcertain fo difficult a point of calculation, could not pretend to any title to faintfhip. The profane fcholars at Oxford, after the parliament became matters of that town, gave to the houfe in which the zealots affembled the denomination of Scruple Shop: The zealots, in their turn, infulted the fcholars and profeffors; and, intruding into the place of lectures, declaimed against human learning, and challenged the most knowing of them to prove that their calling was from Chrift. See Wood's Faiti Oxonienfis, p. 740. VOL. VII. D exer LVII. 1645 CHAP. exercife no act of jurifdiction or ordination, without the confent and counfel of fuch prefbyters as fhould be chofen by the clergy of each diocese; that they fhould refide conftantly in their diocefe, and be bound to preach every Sunday; that pluralities be abolished; that abufes in ecclefiaftical courts be redreffed; and that a hundred thousand pounds be levied on the bishops' eftates and the chapter lands, for payment of debts contracted by the parliament'. Thefe conceffions, though confiderable, gave no fatisfaction to the parliamentary commiffioners; and, without abating any thing of their rigour on this head, they proceeded to their demands with regard to the militia. THE king's partifans had all along maintained, that the fears and jealoufies of the parliament, after the fecurities fo early and easily given to public liberty, were either feigned or groundless; and that no human inftitution could be better poised and adjusted, than was now the government of England. By the abolition of the ftar-chamber and court of high commiffion, the prerogative, they faid, has loft all that coercive power by which it had formerly fuppreffed or endangered liberty: By the establishment of triennial parliaments, it can have no leifure to acquire new powers, or guard itself, during any time, from the infpection of that vigilant affembly: By the flender revenue of the crown, no king can ever attain fuch influence as to procure a repeal of these falutary ftatutes: And while the prince commands no military force, he will in vain, by violence, attempt an infringement of laws, fo clearly defined by means of late difputes, and fo paffionately cherished by all his fubjects. In this fituation, furely, the nation, governed by fo virtuous a monarch, may, for the prefent, remain in tranquillity, and try f Dugdale, p. 779, 780. whether LVII. whether it be not poffible, by peaceful arts, to elude CHAP. that danger with which, it is pretended, its liberties are ftill threatened. BUT though the royalifts infifted on these plaufible topics before the commencement of war, they were obliged to own, that the progrefs of civil commotions had fomewhat abated the force and evidence of this reafoning. If the power of the militia, faid the oppofite party, be entrusted to the king, it would not now be difficult for him to abuse that authority. By the rage of inteftine difcord, his partifans are inflamed into an extreme hatred against their antagonists; and have contracted, no doubt, fome prejudices against popular privileges, which, in their apprehenfion, have been the fource of fo much diforder. Were the arms of the ftate, therefore, put entirely into fuch hands, what public fecurity, it may be demanded, can be given to liberty, or what private fecurity to thofe who, in oppofition to the letter of the law, have fo generously ventured their lives in its defence? In compliance with this apprehenfion, Charles offered, that the arms of the ftate fhould be entrufted, during three years, to twenty commiffioners, who fhould be named, either by common agreement between him and the parliament, or one half by him, the other by the parliament. And after the expiration of that term, he infifted that his conftitutional authority over the militia fhould again return to him. THE parliamentary commiffioners at firft demanded, that the power of the fword fhould for ever be entrusted to fuch perfons as the parliament alone fhould appoint": But, afterwards, they relaxed fo far as to require that authority only for feven years; after which it was not to return to the king, but to be fettled by bill, or by common agreement between him and his parliament '. The 1645. |