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sies so imprudently introduced by the late king, about the extent of his prerogatives, the great charter, the privileges and liberties of the people, &c. This year John Hambden acquired universal popu larity, by the bold stand he made in defence of the laws and liberties of his country. The judges had solemnly declared, that in a case of necessity, the king might impose the tax of ship-money, and that he was the sole judge of the necessity. Hambden, who had been rated at twenty shillings, resolved to stand a legal prosecution rather than submit to an imposition which he pretended to be illegal. The case was argued during twelve days before all the judges of England, and the whole nation expected with anxiety the event of this celebrated trial.

It was urged by Hambden's counsel, and by his partizans, that the plea of necessity could only be justified by an extreme and imminent danger, which being palpable to every eye, all men would readily submit to that irregular power when it would be supported by its obvious necessity for their preservation. Notwithstanding these arguments the sentence was in favour of the crown, but the people became sensible of the danger to which their liberties were exposed. These national questions became the topic of every conversation, and the more they were examined, the more prevailed the opinion that liberty was totally subverted.

The grievances complained of, however, were by no means burthensome, and things might probably have continued long on the same footing, had it not been for the discontents which prevailed among the nobility, and the clergy or ministers of Scotland. The former were disgusted at the piety of Charles, which inclining him to the ecclesiastical order, had raised many of the prelates to the highest dignities of the state. The ministers in general equalled, if

not surpassed, the nobility in their prejudices against the court, against the prelates, and against episcopal authority. The people under the influence of the nobility and clergy did not fail to partake the same dispositions, and amidst the terrors of innovation in the church, they thought that the civil and religious liberties of the nation were not altogether free from invasion.

The high-commission established by James was considered as the most dangerous of all courts, and as an encroachment of the crown. All steps towards the settlement of episcopacy had been taken with the consent of parliament, but it was known that these laws had passed contrary to the sentiments even of those who had voted for them. Though James had obtained the vote of assemblies for receiving episcopacy and his new rites, such irregularities had prevailed in constituting these ecclesiastical courts, and such violence in conducting them, that the authority of all their acts might be denied. Charles, sensible that an extorted consent, attended with such invidious circumstances, would rather be prejudicial to his measures, preferred, in conjunction with the bishops, to govern the church by an authority to which he thought himself fully entitled, and which he believed inherent in the

crown.

The canons he promulgated in 1635, for esta blishing ecclesiastical jurisdiction, were received by the nation, though without much apparent opposition, yet with great inward discontent.

The liturgy which the king imposed on Scotland, was copied with a few alterations from that of England. But the Scots thought that the English, though separated from Rome, still retained too much of the Roman rites, and their liturgy was represented as a species of mass, against which great

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prejudices were entertained, even considered in itself, much more when regarded as a preparative to the introduction of popery in Scotland.

On reading of the new liturgy in Edinburgh, no sooner had the dean, arrayed in his surplice, opened the book, than a multitude of the lowest class, most of them women, clapping their hands, cursing, and crying out, "a pope! a pope! anti"christ! stone him!" raised such a tumult that it was impossible to proceed with the service. The bishop endeavouring to appease the populace had a stool thrown at him; the council was insulted; and it was with difficulty that the magistrates were able, partly by force, partly by authority, to expel the rabble and shut the door against them. The tumult however still continued without; stones were thrown at the doors and windows; the bishop going home after the service was attacked, and narrowly escaped with his life. In the afternoon the privy seal, carrying the bishop in his coach, was so pelted with stones by the populace, that if his servants with drawn swords, had not kept them off, the bishop's life had been exposed to the utmost danger. When it was known that the king persevered in his intentions of imposing that mode of worship, great multitudes resorted to Edinburgh in order to oppose its being established. The bishop of Galloway was attacked in the streets, the council was besieged, as well as the town council, and none of them would have escaped, had they not been protected by some popular lords, who dispersed the multitude. In short, fanaticism mingling with faction, private interest with the spirit of liberty, symptoms appeared on all hands of a most dangerous insurrection, The primate, a man of wisdom and prudence, who had been averse to the liturgy, represented to the king the state of the nation. The earl of Traquair, the treasurer, set out for London,

in order to lay the matter more fully before him, but Charles continued inflexible,

Ann. 1638.

A proclamation is issued in which all past offences are pardoned, and the people exhorted to submit peaceably to the use of the liturgy. A protestation against this proclamation is instantly published, and presented by the earl of Hume and Lord Lindesey. This proved a crisis. The insurrection, which had been advancing by a gradual and slow progress, now blazed at once, and a new order of things immediately took place. Four tables, as they were called, were formed in Edinburgh, one consisted of nobility, another of gentry, a third of ministers, a fourth of burgesses. The table of gentry was divided into many subordinate tables, according to their different counties. In the hands of the four tables the whole authority of the kingdom was placed; the orders issued by them were obeyed with the utmost regularity. Among the first acts of their government was the framing of the covenant, which consisted first of a renunciation of popery, signed by James in his youth. Then followed a bond of union, by which the subscribers obliged themselves to resist religious innovations, and to defend each other against all opposition whatsoever. The people, without distinction of rank, flocked to sign it; the king's ministers and counsellors themselves were most of them seized by the general contagion.

Charles, who now began to apprehend the consequences, sent the marquis of Hamilton, as commissioner, to treat with the covenanters, and offer them, if they would renounce the covenant, to suspend the liturgy and canons till they could be received in a legal way. The covenanters finding themselves seconded by the zeal of the whole nation, and

knowing that the discontents in England did not allow the king to employ in such a cause the power of that kingdom, answered they would sooner renounce their baptism than the covenant, and the clergy invited the commissioner himself to subscribe it.

A second offer to abolish the liturgy, the canons, the high-commission court, and even to restrain the power of the bishops, was equally ineffectual. The popular leaders, however, willingly accepted the offer of summoning first a general assembly, and then a parliament, where every national grievance might be redressed.

Charles, perceiving the advantage his enemies had reaped from their covenant, resolved to have one on his side; but it was soon discovered by the members of the first covenant that this new one was only meant to weaken and divide them, and they received it with the utmost scorn and detestation. An edict of the tables, whose authority was supreme, prescribed the form of proceeding to the election of the members of the intended assembly, and it was so contrived that the most furious of all ranks were chosen. The more to overawe the clergy, four or five lay assessors were adjoined to every commissioner, who, though they had no vote might yet interpose with their advice in the assembly at Glasgow, where it was summoned; and besides a great concourse of people, all the nobility and gentfy were present. It soon appeared that a firm determination had been entered into of utterly abolishing episcopacy; there was laid before the presbytery of Edinburgh, and solemnly read in all the churches of the kingdom, an accusation against the bishops, as guilty of every crime that had occurred to the malignity of their accusers. The bishops sent a protest, declining the authority of the assembly; the king's commissioner too protested against it, as

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