clusions which were thought to imply religious indifference, though the same conclusions are now firmly held by many, the earnestness of whose piety none would question. In a petition presented to the House of Commons in 1648, and generally attributed to his pen, these passages occur: "That you would have exempted matters of religion and God's worship from the compulsive or restrictive power of any authority upon earth, and reserved to the supreme authority an uncompulsive power only of appointing a way for the public, whereby abundance of misery, persecution, and heart-burning would for ever be avoided." "That you would have removed the tedious. burden of tithes, satisfying all impropriations, and providing a more equal way of maintenance for the public ministers." In the same tone reference is made to the laws against blasphemy and heresies; men, it is said, being easily mistaken, and Divine truths not needing human support.1

An extraordinary crisis had now arrived in ecclesiastical affairs. The fate of the Church had become subject almost entirely to the will of three men, one of whom was an utter worldling, another a spiritual theorist, and the third an evangelical Independent, and at the same time a man full of political sagacity.

A declaration of Parliament, stating the grounds of their late proceedings, and the republican nature of the present government, appeared in the month of March.2 The document entered fully into a defence of the measures which had issued in this result; but the authors

1 Parl. Hist., iii. 1009, 1010.

On the 9th of March, the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel, were executed on Tower Hill in consequence of the

decision of the preceding year that all who took up arms in the second war were traitors, and should suffer the penalties of treason.

ences.

were exceedingly cautious in their ecclesiastical referThey state that their design had been to deliver England from tyranny, to prevent a new war, to establish a safe peace, and to provide for the due worship of God according to His word, the advancement of the true Protestant religion, the maintenance of godly ministers, and a just liberty for the consciences, persons, and estates of all men, conformable to God's glory and their own peace."

66

These vague expressions are remarkable, especially when it is remembered that the declaration, though published by Parliament, must have emanated from the Council of State. In reference to the doctrine of toleration,

it lagged behind the " Agreement of the People of England," a document which is ascribed to General Ireton, and which was presented in the name of the army to the House of Commons in January, a few days before the King's execution. For that political and ecclesiastical manifesto, whilst it recognized the national profession of Christianity and the duty of publicly instructing the people, adds the significant words, "so it be not compulsive ;" and also, whilst it excluded Popery and Prelacy from toleration, and approved of the maintenance of religious teachers out of the public treasury, it also protested against perpetuating tithes, enforcing religion by penalties, and the disturbing of those who "profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, however differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or discipline publicly held forth," provided they did not disturb the public peace.2

To such lengths Ireton and certain other officers wished to push the new government; but extreme men in the army were not then, as is often supposed, the rulers of

1 Parl. Hist., iii. 1303.

2 Parl. Hist., iii., 1267, 1276.

the country, either in religious or in secular affairs. The statesmen possessed the supreme power, and of that power Cromwell exercised the largest share, simply because he possessed as much of the sagacity and wisdom required for the cabinet, as of the valour and generalship needed in the field. And hence it was, that although the army rushed forward towards extreme ecclesiastical measures, the government paused, and declined to adopt any plan for the abolition of tithes; and also maintained so much reticence in expressing what was designed in relation to the extent of religious liberty. The Presbyterians had become alarmed at the paper drawn up by the army, and the ministers of the county of Essex had plainly declared what were the evils which they apprehended in consequence. In their worst apprehensions, many other clergymen throughout the country deeply shared ; and the new rulers were not so firmly seated on their thrones that they could afford unnecessarily to provoke the anger of such a number of influential persons. To expound fully at that moment their ecclesiastical policy would inevitably have exasperated their opponents; and therefore they maintained a prudent reserve, and acted with extreme caution.

What the Council said is recorded in their Declaration,

1 The Essex Watchmen to the Inhabitants of the said County. London, 1649. This publication, referring to the clause in the agreement," so it be not compulsory," declared that "this one little parenthesis was the fly in the box of ointment," which made it " an abhorring in the nostrils of every one who is knowingly judicious and pious." The ministers lamented that, in consequence of those five fatal words, heads of families would be prevented from

obliging their children and servants to attend public worship; and thus, they said, an inlet was opened for domestic profanity. In their estimation, not to compel people to be religious was to grant them “liberty to apostatize, and cast off the profession of Christianity;" and before concluding their testimony, they denounced toleration as a satanic engine "for demolishing the beauty, yea, theeing of religion."

what they did may be traced in the Acts of Parliament passed at that time. The new financiers of the State, in order to meet the pressing necessities of the Commonwealth, availed themselves of cathedral property. The ordinance of 1646 for abolishing Bishops, and selling their lands, had taken no notice of the titles and of the possessions of Deans and Chapters. These possessions presented a rich quarry to the needy masters of the realm; consequently, at the end of April, the House of Commons was found at work upon this new spoil.' An

The Act for the abolition and sale is printed in Scobell, p. 16. Date, April 30, 1649. There were surveys and valuations made accordingly, of which some records are preserved in the Lambeth Library. As these surveys are often referred to, the following description of them is given from the Catalogue of the Lambeth MSS.:

66

Surveys of the possessions of bishops, deans, and chapters, and other benefices, were made in pursuance of various ordinances of Parliament during the Commonwealth, by surveyors appointed for that purpose, acting on oath, under instructions given to them, as may be seen in Scobell's Acts and Ordinances, A.D. 1649, p. 19, &c. The original surveys were returned to a registrar appointed by the ordinances, and duplicates or transcripts of them were transferred to the trustees or commissioners nominated for the sale of the possessions, who held their meetings in a house in Broad Street, in the City, where these documents remained until after the Restoration." It was afterwards ordered that these records should be delivered to Juxon, Archbishop of

Canterbury, to take care of the same, and by him they were deposited in the Lambeth Library.

46

Some of them were afterwards sent by his Grace to the bishops and deans and chapters to which they belonged, so that the collection in the Lambeth Library is not complete. What remain are bound up in twenty-one large folio volumes, in alphabetical order, of the different dioceses or counties to which they relate. A minute index to the whole, in one folio volume, exhibits the name of every place surveyed. Besides the above, there are surveys of the possessions of the see of Canterbury kept separate from the possession of the other sees, deans and chapters, &c., with indexes in alphabetical order, which are bound in three volumes; of these the second contains original surveys, as far as folio 73, from thence to the end are copies."

Several interesting extracts from the survey are contained in Lyson's Environs. Take the following as illustrative of the religious affairs of the parish of Walthamstow :

"The commissioners appointed to enquire into the state of ecclesiastical

Act was passed for abolishing the offices of Deans and Prebendaries and Archdeacons, and for investing the endowments of cathedral chapters in the hands of trustees, for the supply of the necessities of the Commonwealth. Other Acts followed for the purpose of removing obstructions to the sale of these estates, and affording encouragement to purchasers. Yet, we may add, that although the stalls of cathedrals were swept of their occupants, with no legal authority remaining for the appointment of successors, Bishop Wren continued the forms of presentation to prebends at Ely, as he had done all along from the commencement of the civil wars. His regular collations to preferments, as they fell vacant, appear in the records of his see.1

Amidst this wholesale spoliation of the Church it must be remembered the public support of religion was not neglected. An Act of the 8th of June provided maintenance for preaching ministers and other pious uses out of the appropriate tithes belonging to the late hierarchy. No charge remained on cathedral estates for the service of religion. Such property had undergone a thorough secularization;2 but the appropriate tithes pertaining to

benefices, in 1650, found by their inquest that the vicarage of Walthamstow was worth £40 per annum, including the tithes and glebe. John Wood was then vicar; he had been put in by the committee of plundered ministers; but (says the inquest) he is now questioned for his abilities; and certain articles have been exhibited against him to the committee, and he is disliked by the greater part of the inhabitants, who will not come to church to hear him; whereby there is great distraction in the parish.' The jurors re