religion objected, since we are persuaded in our conscience, that no church can be found upon the earth that professeth the true religion with more purity of doctrine than the Church of England doth; nor where the government and discipline are jointly more beautified, and free from superstition, than as they are here established by law; which by the grace of God, we will with constancy maintain (while we live) in their purity and glory, not only against all invasions of popery, but also from the irreverence of those many schismatics and separatists, wherewith of late this kingdom and this city abound, to the great dishonour and hazard both of Church and State, for the suppression of whom we require your timely aid and active assistance." 1

After the Remonstrance had been presented, affairs remained hopeful to the Royal eye; and as the Commons had issued their ordinance touching religious worship, the King on the 10th of December published one of his own, enjoining strict conformity to the form of divine service as by law established. But whatever advantages he might possess at the close of 1641, all were forfeited by the monstrously rash attempt to arrest the five members at the beginning of 1642. That fatal act rung the deathknell of his hopes throughout the country, startling at once friends and foes. A letter by Captain Robert Slingsby to Admiral Pennington gives a Royalist version of the affair, which happened on the 4th of January.

"All parts of the court being thronged with gentlemen and officers of the army, in the afternoon the King went with them all, his own guard and the pensioners, most of the gentlemen armed with swords and pistols. When we came into Westminster Hall, which was thronged with

' Rushworth, iv. 452.

the number, the King commanded us all to stay there; and himself, with a very small train, went into the House of Commons, where never king was (as they say), but once, King Henry VIII." The writer, who remained in the lobby, then proceeds to report what occurred inside the House; depending for his information, it appears, on some member, from whose lips he had eagerly caught up the following account:-"He came very unexpectedly; and at first coming in commanded the Speaker to come out of his chair, and sat down in it himself, asking divers times, whether those traitors were there, but had no answer; but at last an excuse, that by the orders. of the House, they might not speak when their Speaker was out of his chair. The King then asked the Speaker, who excused himself, that he might not speak but what the House gave order to him to say, whereupon the King replied, it was no matter, for he knew them all if he saw them.' And after he had viewed them all, he made a speech to them very majestically, declaring his resolution to have them, though they were then absent; promising not to infringe any of their liberties of Parliament, but commanding them to send the traitors to him, if they came there again. And after his coming out, he gave orders to the Serjeant-at-arms to find them out and attach them. Before the King's coming, the House were very high; and (as I was informed), sent to the city for four thousand men to be presently sent down to them for their guard but none came, all the city being terribly amazed with that unexpected charge of those persons; shops all shut, many of which do still continue so. likewise sent to the trained bands in the Court of Guard, before Whitehall, to command them to disband, but they stayed still."

They

The same correspondent then relates what he had

himself witnessed in London. "Yesterday it was my fortune, being in a coach, to meet the King with a small train going into the City; whereupon I followed him to Guildhall, where the Mayor, all the Aldermen, and Common Council were met. The King made a speech to them, declaring his intention to join with the Parliament in extirpation of popery and all schisms and sectaries; of redressing of all grievances of the subject, and his care to preserve the privileges of the Parliament: but to question these traitors, the reason of his guards for securing himself, the Parliament, and them from those late tumults, and something of the Irish; and at last had some familiar discourse to the Aldermen, and invited himself to dinner to the Sheriff. After a little pause a cry was set up amongst the Common Council, 'Parliament, privileges of Parliament;' and presently another, God bless the King'-these two continued both at once a good while. I know not which was louder. After some knocking for silence, the King commanded one to speak, if they had anything to say; one said, 'It is the vote of this Court that your Majesty hear the advice of your Parliament'-but presently another answeredIt is not the vote of this Court, it is your own vote.' The King replied, 'Who is it that says, I do not take the advice of my Parliament? I do take their advice, and will; but I must distinguish between the Parliament and some traitors in it;' and those he would bring to legal trial. Another bold fellow, in the lowest rank, stood up upon a form, and cried, "The privileges of Parliament;' and another cried out, Observe the man, apprehend him.' The King mildly replied, I have, and will observe all privileges of Parliament, but no privileges can prevent a traitor from a legal trial'-and so departed. In the outer hall were a multitude of the ruder people, who, as

the King went out, set up a great cry, 'The privileges of Parliament.' At the King's coming home, there was a mean fellow came into the privy chamber, who had a paper sealed up, which he would needs deliver to the King himself with his much importunity he was urged to be mad or drunk, but he denied both. The gentlemanusher took the paper from him and carried it to the King, desiring some gentleman there to keep the man. He was presently sent for in, and is kept a prisoner, but I know not where." The arrest, which with its accompanying circumstances is vividly brought before us in this letter by Slingsby, was a fatal crisis in the history of Charles I. He thought by one stroke of policy to crush his enemies, but the avenging deities, shod in felt, were turning round on the infatuated prince, who could not perceive his own danger, but was in a fool's paradise, dreaming of restored absolutism. The liberties of the country having now become more obviously, perhaps more completely, than before, imperilled by the sovereign's misconduct, the national indignation was immediately aroused; and whatever Anglican and Royalist reaction might have set in from Michaelmas to Christmas, the tide turned, and furiously rushed in the opposite direction after New Year's Day. Such a defiance of the Constitution by the King, such a manifestation of despotism, after promising to rule according to law, left no doubt as to his character, his principles, and his motives.

The arrest was interpreted as an assault upon the interests of Puritanism, no less than upon the liberties of the nation; because the one cause had become identified with the other, and the friends of reformation in

1 State Papers Dom. Letters of Robert Slingsby, dated (by mistake) 6th Dec., 1641, and properly placed

under Jan. 6th, 1641-2. Slingsby is not perfectly accurate in his account of what took place in the House.

the Established Church, and the separatists who stood outside of it, saw that their hopes would be entirely cut off if the King were permitted to re-establish his despotic rule, or if he were allowed to perpetrate with impunity such a political crime as the arrest involved.

Other circumstances had helped forward the political reaction in favour of the Puritan cause. Not only had the popular dislike to Bishops continued in London, Southwark, and Lambeth, in spite of all which might appear to the contrary in the civic doings on the King's return, but the revived spirit of ecclesiastical conservation roused afresh the spirit of ecclesiastical revolution. After petitions had flowed in from different parts of the country in favour of Episcopacy, the Aldermen,' Common Council, and other inhabitants of London, went down to Westminster in sixty coaches, carrying a counter petition for removing prelates and popish peers from their seats in Parliament. Crowds also assembled on Blackheath for a similar purpose; and the Puritan clergy of London again addressed the House, for taking away whatever should appear to be the cause of those grievances which remained in existence." The Prayer Book-said these ministers-continued to be vexatiously enforced, and what remedy, asked they, for this and other evils could there be but the debate of a free synod, and till that was held some relaxation on matters of ceremony? The London apprentices at such a time could not be quiet, and impelled by their own zeal, and perhaps also guided by their masters' commands, they in large numbers put their hands to a further "Root and Branch" petition.

Every day the lobbies of the Houses were thronged by people eagerly watching the fate of the documents which

1 The High Church Lord Mayor Gourney would not accompany them. 2 Nalson, ii. 764.