The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643 1649 by David Masson
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David Masson >> The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643 1649
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64 Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON:
NARRATED IN CONNEXION WITH THE POLITICAL,
ECCLESIASTICAL, AND LITERARY HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
VOL. III. 1643-1649.
BY DAVID MASSON, M.A., LL.D.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
JULY 1643--MARCH 1643-4.
_HISTORY_:--FIRST EIGHT MONTHS OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY: CIVIL
WAR AND THE LONG PARLIAMENT CONTINUED.
_BIOGRAPHY_:--MILTON STILL IN ALDERSGATE STREET: HIS MARRIAGE
MISFORTUNE: HIS FIRST DIVORCE TREATISE.
CHAP.
I. The Westminster Assembly in Session--The Solemn League and Covenant:
Scottish Commissioners in the Assembly--Debates on Church-Government:
_Apologetical Narration_ of the Independents--Parliamentary
Proceedings--Scottish Auxiliary Army in England
II. Milton unhappy in his Marriage: His First Divorce Tract: Two Editions
of it
BOOK II.
MARCH 1644-MARCH 1645.
_HISTORY_:--THE YEAR OF MARSTON MOOR: CIVIL WAR, LONG PARLIAMENT,
AND WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY CONTINUED--STRUGGLE OF INDEPENDENCY WITH
PRESBYTERIANISM: TOLERATION CONTROVERSY: ENGLISH SECTS AND SECTARIES--
PRESBYTERIAN SETTLEMENT VOTED--NEW MODEL OF THE ARMY.
_BIOGRAPHY_:--MILTON AMONG THE SECTARIES: HIS SECOND DIVORCE PAMPHLET,
_TRACT ON EDUCATION_, _AREOPAGITICA_, _TETRACHORDON_, AND _COLISTERION_.
CHAP.
I. Inactivity of the Scottish Auxiliaries--Spread of Independency and
Multiplication of Sects--Visitation of the University of Cambridge--
Battle of Marston Moor--Fortnight's Vacation of the Westminster Assembly
(July 23-August 7, 1644),--Principle of Toleration and State of the
Toleration Controversy: Synopsis of English Sects and Sectaries in 1644.-
-Resumption of Assembly's Proceedings: Denunciation of Picked Sectaries
and Heretics--Cromwell's Interference for Independency: Accommodation
Order of Parliament--Presbyterian Settlement voted--Essex beaten and the
War flagging: Self-denying Ordinance and New Model of the Army--
Parliamentary Vengeances: Death of Laud
II. Milton among the Sectaries, and in a "World of Disesteem": Story of
Mrs. Attaway--Samuel Hantlib, John Durie, and John Amos Comenius: Schemes
of a Reformed Education, and Project of a London University--Milton's
_Tract on Education_, and Method with his Pupils--His Second Divorce
Tract, or Compilation from Bucer--Mr. Herbert Palmer's Attack on Milton
from the Pulpit--Milton and the Stationers' Company: Their Accusation of
him in a Petition to the Commons--His _Areopagitica_, or Speech for
the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing--Anger of the Stationers, and their
Complaint against Milton to the Lords: Consequence of the Complaint--The
Divorce Question continued: Publication of Mr. Herbert Palmer's Sermon,
and farther Attacks on Milton by Prynne, Dr. Featley, and an Anonymous
Pamphleteer--_Tetrachordon_ and _Colasterion_: Their Replies to
the Assailants.
BOOK III.
APRIL 1645-AUGUST 1646.
_HISTORY_:--SIXTEEN MONTHS OF THE NEW MODEL, AND OF THE LONG
PARLIAMENT AND WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY CONTINUED.--BATTLE OF NASEBY AND ITS
CONSEQUENCES: EPISODE OF MONTROSE IN SCOTLAND: FLIGHT OF THE KING TO THE
SCOTS AND CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR.--PROGRESS OF THE TOLERATION
CONTROVERSY AND OF THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE PRESBYTERIANS AND THE
INDEPENDENTS.--LONDON AND LANCASHIRE PRESBYTERIANIZED.
_BIOGRAPHY_:--RETURN OF MILTON'S WIFE: HIS REMOVAL FROM ALDERSGATE
STREET TO BARBICAN: FIRST EDITION OF HIS POEMS: THREE MORE SONNETS:
CONTINUED PRESBYTERIAN ATTACKS ON MILTON: HIS RETALIATION: TROUBLES OF
THE POWELL FAMILY.
CHAP.
I. Composition of the New Model, and View of the Work lying before it--
First Actions of the New Model--Cromwell retained in Command: Battle of
Naseby: Other Successes of the New Model--Poor Performance of the
Scottish Auxiliary Army--Episode of Montrose in Scotland--Fag-end of the
War in England, and Flight of the King to the Scots--Fallen and Risen
Stars.
II. Work in Parliament and the Westminster Assembly during the Sixteen
Months of the New Model--The two continued Church Controversies--
Independency and Sectarianism in the New Model: Toleration Controversy
continued: Cromwell's part in it: Lilburne and other Pamphleteers: Sion
College and the Corporation of London: Success of the Presbyterians in
Parliament--Presbyterian Frame of Church Government completed: Details of
the Arrangement--The Recruiting of the Commons: Eminent Recruiters--
Effects of the Recruiting: Alliance of Independency and Erastianism:
Check given to the Presbyterians: Westminster Assembly rebuked and
curbed--Negotiations round the King at Newcastle--Threatened Rupture
between the Scots and the English: Argyle's Visit to London: The Nineteen
Propositions--Parliament and the Assembly reconciled: Presbyterianizing
of London and Lancashire: Death of Alexander Henderson.
III. Effects of Milton's _Areopagitica_--His Intention of another
Marriage: His Wife's Return and Reconciliation with him--Removal from
Aldersgate Street to Barbican--First Edition of Milton's Collected Poems:
Humphrey Moseley the Bookseller--Two Divorce Sonnets and Sonnet to Henry
Lawes--Continued Presbyterian Attacks on Milton: His Anti-Presbyterian
Sonnet of Reply--Surrender of Oxford: Condition of the Powell Family--The
Powells in London: More Family Perplexities: Birth of Milton's first
Child.
BOOK IV.
AUGUST 1646--JANUARY 1648-9.
_HISTORY_:--THE LAST TWO YEARS AND A HALF OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.:--
I. HIS CONTINUED CAPTIVITY WITH THE SCOTS AT NEWCASTLE, AND FAILURE OF
HIS NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PRESBYTERIANS;
II. HIS CAPTIVITY AT HOLMBY HOUSE, AND THE QUARREL BETWEEN THE ENGLISH
PARLIAMENT AND THE ENGLISH ARMY;
III. HIS CAPTIVITY WITH THE ENGLISH ARMY, AND THEIR PROPOSALS TO HIM;
IV. HIS CAPTIVITY IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT, AND THE SECOND CIVIL WAR;
V. HIS TRIAL AND DOOM.
_BIOGRAPHY_:--MILTON IN BARBICAN AND IN HIGH HOLBORN.--PRIVATE AND
PUBLIC ANXIETIES: ODE TO ROUS, TWO MORE SONNETS, AND TRANSLATION OF NINE
PSALMS: OTHER WORKS IN PROGRESS: LETTERS TO AND FROM CARLO DATI.
CHAP.
I. Charles in his Captivity First Stage of the Captivity: Still with the
Scots at Newcastle: Aug. 1646--Jan. 1646-7.--Balancings of Charles
between the Presbyterians and the Independents--His Negotiations in the
Presbyterian direction: The Hamiltons his Agents among the Scots--His
Attempt to negotiate with the Independents: Will Murray in London--
Interferences of the Queen from France: Davenant's Mission to Newcastle--
The Nineteen Propositions unanswered: A Personal Treaty offered--
Difficulties between the Scots and the English Parliament--Their
Adjustment: Departure of the Scots from England, and Cession of Charles
to the English--Westminster Assembly Business, and Progress of the
Presbyterian Settlement
Second Stage of the Captivity: At Holmby House: Feb. 1646-7--June 1647.--
The King's Manner of Life at Holmby--New Omens in his favour from the
Relations of Parliament to its own Army--Proposals to disband the Army
and reconstruct part of it for service in Ireland--Summary of Irish
Affairs since 1641--Army's Anger at the Proposal to disband it--View of
the State of the Army: Medley of Religious Opinions in it. Passion for
Toleration: Prevalence of Democratic Tendencies: The Levellers--
Determination of the Presbyterians for the Policy of Disbandment, and
Votes in Parliament to that effect--Resistance of the Army: Petitions and
Remonstrances from the Officers and Men: Regimental Agitators--Cromwell's
Efforts at Accommodation: Fairfax's Order for a General Rendezvous--
Cromwell's Adhesion to the Army--The Rendezvous at Newmarket, and Joyce's
Abduction of the King from Holmby--Westminster Assembly Business: First
Provincial Synod of London: Proceedings for the Purgation of Oxford
University
Third Stage of the Captivity: The King with the Army: June-Nov. 1647.--
Effects of Joyce's Abduction of the King--Movements of the Army: their
Denunciation of Eleven of the Presbyterian Leaders: Parliamentary Alarms
and Concessions--Presbyterian Phrenzy of the London Populace: Parliament
mobbed, and Presbyterian Votes carried by Mob-law: Flight of the two
Speakers and their Adherents: Restoration of the Eleven--March of the
Army upon London: Military Occupation of the City: The Mob quelled,
Parliament reinstated, and the Eleven expelled--Generous Treatment of the
King by the Army: His Conferences with Fairfax, Cromwell, and Ireton--The
Army's _Heads of Proposals_, and Comparison of the same with the
_Nineteen Propositions_ of the Parliament--The King at Hampton Court,
still demurring privately over the _Heads of Proposals_, but playing them
off publicly against the _Nineteen Propositions:_ Army at Putney--
Cromwell's Motion for a Recast of the _Nineteen Propositions_ and Re-
application to the King on that Basis: Consequences of the Compromise--
Intrigues at Hampton Court: Influence of the Scottish Commissioners
there: King immoveable--Impatience of the Army at Putney: Cromwell under
Suspicion: New Activity of the Agitatorships: Growth of Levelling
Doctrines among the Soldiers: _Agreement of the People_--Cromwell breaks
utterly with the King: Meetings of the Army Officers at Putney: Proposed
Concordat between the Army and Parliament--The King's Escape to the Isle
of Wight
Fourth Stage of the Captivity: In the Isle of Wight: Nov. 1647-Nov.
1648.--Carisbrooke Castle, and the King's Letters thence--Parliament's
New Method of the _Four Bills_--Indignation of the Scots: their
Complaints of Breach of the Covenant--Army Rendezvous at Ware:
Suppression of a Mutiny of Levellers by Cromwell, and Establishment of
the Concordat with Parliament--Parliamentary Commissioners in the Isle of
Wight: Scottish Commissioners also there: the King's Rejection of the
Four Bills--Firmness of Parliament: their Resolutions of No Farther
Addresses to the King: Severance of the Scottish Alliance--_The
Engagement_, or Secret Treaty between Charles and the Scots in the Isle
of Wight--Stricter guard of the King in Carisbrooke Castle: His Habits in
his Imprisonment--First Rumours of _The Scottish Engagement_: Royalist
Programme of a SECOND CIVIL WAR--Beginnings of THE SECOND CIVIL WAR:
Royalist Risings: Cromwell in Wales: Fairfax in the Southeast: Siege of
Colchester--Revolt of the Fleet: Commotion among the Royalist Exiles
abroad: Holland's attempted Rising in Surrey--Invasion of England by
Hamilton's Scottish Army: Arrival of the Prince of Wales off the
Southeast Coast: Blockade of the Thames--Consternation of the Londoners:
Faintheartedness of Parliament: New Hopes of the Presbyterians: their
Ordinance against Heresies and Blasphemies: their Leanings to the King:
Independents in a struggling minority: Charge of Treason against Cromwell
in his absence--The Three Days' Battle of Preston and utter Defeat of the
Scots by Cromwell: Surrender of Colchester to Fairfax: Return of the
Prince of Wales to Holland: Virtual End of THE SECOND CIVIL WAR--
Parliamentary Treaty with the King at Newport: Unsatisfactory Results--
Protests against the Treaty by the Independents--Disgust of the Army with
the Treaty: Revocation of their Concordat with Parliament, and Resolution
to seize the Political Mastery: Formation of a Republican Party--
Petitions for Justice on the King: The _Grand Army Remonstrance_--
Cromwell in Scotland: Restoration of the Argyle Government there:
Cromwell at Pontefract: His Letter to Hammond--The King removed from the
Isle of Wight to Hurst Castle--The Army again in possession of London
II. Troubles in the Barbican Household: Christopher Milton's Composition
Suit: Mr. Powell's Composition Suit: Death of Mr. Powell: His Will: Death
of Milton's Father--Sonnet XIV. and Ode to John Rous--Italian
Reminiscences: Lost Letters from Carlo Dati of Florence: Milton's Reply
to the last of them--Pedagogy in the Barbican: List of Milton's known
Pupils: Lady Ranelagh--Educational Reform still a Question: Hartlib
again: The Invisible College: Young Robert Boyle and William Petty--
Removal from Barbican to High Holborn--Meditations and Occupations in the
House in High Holborn: Milton's Sympathies with the Army Chiefs and the
Expectant Republicans--Still under the Ban of the Presbyterians:
Testimony of the London Ministers against Heresies and Blasphemies:
Milton in the Black List--Another Letter from Carlo Dati: Translation of
Nine Psalms from the Hebrew--Milton through the Second Civil War: His
personal Interest in it, and Delight in the Army's Triumph: His Sonnet to
Fairfax--Birth of Milton's Second Child: Another Letter from Carlo Dati
III. The Two Houses in the Grasp of the Army: Final Efforts for the King:
Pride's Purge and its Consequences--The King brought from Hurst Castle to
Windsor: Ordinance for his Trial passed by the Commons alone:
Constitution of the Court--The Trial in Westminster Hall: Incidents of
the Seven successive Days: The Sentence--Last Three Days of Charles's
Life: His Execution and Burial
BOOK I.
JULY 1643--MARCH 1643-4.
_HISTORY_:--FIRST EIGHT MONTHS OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY: CIVIL
WAR AND THE LONG PARLIAMENT CONTINUED.
_BIOGRAPHY_:--MILTON STILL IN ALDERSGATE STREET: HIS MARRIAGE
MISFORTUNE: HIS FIRST DIVORCE TREATISE.
CHAPTER I
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY IN SESSION--THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT:
SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS IN THE ASSEMBLY--DEBATES ON CHURCH-GOVERNMENT:
_APOLOGETICAL NARRATION_ OF THE INDEPENDENTS--PARLIAMENTARY
PROCEEDINGS--SCOTTISH AUXILIARY ARMY IN ENGLAND.
The Westminster Assembly held its first formal meeting in Henry the
Seventh's Chapel on Saturday, July 1, 1643, after the impressive opening
ceremonial of a sermon preached before a great congregation in the Abbey
Church by the appointed Prolocutor, Dr. Twisse, on the text John xiv. 18,
"_I will not leave you comfortless_!" About 69 of the members were
present at that first meeting, many who attended afterwards not having
yet come up from the country. Among the 69 were the few of "the Episcopal
persuasion" who afterwards dropped off; and these were conspicuous by
their canonical dresses among the bulk of the members in all sorts of
plain Puritan suits. The average attendance subsequently seems to have
been from 60 to 80. The place of meeting for some time continued to be
King Henry the Seventh's Chapel; but this was changed, when the weather
grew colder, for the celebrated Jerusalem Chamber, also in the close
vicinity of the Houses of Parliament. [Footnote: The Ordinance of
Parliament authorizing the change of the place of meeting to the
Jerusalem Chamber is dated Sept. 23, 1643 see Lords Journals for that
day] None but members of the Assembly were allowed to be present, and
there was no deviation from this rule except on the very rarest occasions
and by special authority from Parliament. The Assembly sat commonly from
nine in the morning till one or two P.M. The Prolocutor sat at one end of
the room on a raised chair; his two Assessors were near him; and a table
ran through the whole length of the room, at one end of which sat the
Scribes, close to the Prolocutor, while the members were seated in tiers
at the sides and other end. The forms of debate and voting were very much
those of the House of Commons. Besides the meetings of the Assembly as
such, there were afternoon meetings of Committees for the preparation of
business for the Assembly. There were three such chief Standing
Committees, to one or other of which every member belonged. [Footnote:
Lightfoot's Notes of Assembly Works (ed. 1824), Vol. XIII, pp. 4, 5; and
Baillie, II. 107-109]
FIRST BUSINESS OF THE ASSEMBLY: REVISION OF THE ARTICLES.
Not till Thursday, July 6, or indeed Saturday, July 8, was the Assembly
constituted for actual business. On the first of these days the
Regulations which had been drawn up by the two Houses of Parliament for
the procedure of the Assembly were duly received; and on the second all
the members of Assembly present took the solemn Protestation which had
been settled for them by the Commons with the concurrence of the Lords.
It was in these terms: "I, A. B., do seriously and solemnly protest, in
the presence of Almighty God, that in this Assembly, wherein I am a
member, I will not maintain anything in matters of Doctrine but what I
think in my conscience to be truth, or in point of Discipline but what I
shall conceive to conduce most to the glory of God and the good and peace
of His Church." So sworn, the members were ready for their first work.
That also had been rigidly prescribed for them by Parliament. On July 5
the Commons had ruled and the Lords had agreed "that the Assembly, in
their beginning, in the first place shall take the ten first Articles of
the Church of England into their consideration, to vindicate them from
all false doctrine and heresy." In other words, it was the pleasure of
Parliament that the first business of the Assembly should consist in a
revision and amendment of the Thirty-nine Articles, and that, by way of a
commencement in this business, or specimen to Parliament of the manner in
which it might be done, they were to confine themselves at first to the
first Ten of the Articles. Accordingly, the Assembly at once addressed
themselves to this business. It was with a view to it that they first
adopted that machinery of Committees which was to be employed
subsequently, with so much effect, in all the deliberations. The Divines
of the Assembly were distributed, in the order in which their names stood
in the Ordinance calling the Assembly, into three Committees for
preparatory revision of the said Articles in such a manner that the whole
Assembly might more clearly exercise its final judgment on them; while a
fourth Committee, in which the lay-members were included, was to assist
the others by procuring the most correct copies of the text of the
Articles. To the first revising Committee, of which Dr. Burges was
appointed chairman, were entrusted the first four Articles; to the
second, of which Dr. Stanton was chairman, the fifth, sixth, and seventh
Articles; and to the third, which had Mr. Gibbon for chairman, the
eighth, ninth, and tenth.
Imagine the Assembly collectively in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and its
Committees distributively there or in other places of meeting, busy day
after day, through the rest of the hot month of July, and then into
August, over its appointed revision of the Articles. "_I. Of Faith in
the Holy Trinity; II. Of the Word, or Son of God, which was made very
Man; III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell; IV. Of the Resurrection
of Christ; V. Of the Holy Ghost; VI. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy
Scriptures for Salvation; VII. Of the Old Testament; VIII. Of the Three
Creeds; IX. Of Original or Birth Sin; X. Of Free Will_;" imagine the
Articles under these headings discussed successively, sentence by
sentence and clause by clause, most of the sentences and clauses allowed
to pass without change as perfectly satisfactory, but here and there at
intervals a phrase modified or omitted, or a slight addition made, so as
to bring the meaning more sharply into accord with the letter of
Scripture or the Calvinistic system of doctrine. Such mere imagination of
the general process will suffice, and it is unnecessary to take account
of the actual changes proposed in the phraseology of particular Articles.
For, in fact, these first weeks of the Assembly's pains over the Articles
of the Church were to be labour wasted. Before the end of August, and
while they were still probing through the first Ten Articles, events had
taken such a course that the Assembly was called upon to co-operate with
the Parliament in matters of greater urgency.
THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT: SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS TO THE ASSEMBLY.
The war, which had been on the whole in the King's favour hitherto, was
going more and more against Parliament. In the north, Lord Fairfax had
been beaten at Atherston Moor by the Earl of Newcastle (June 30); Sir
William Waller, the hitherto unconquered, had been beaten twice in the
south-west (at Lansdowne, July 5, and at Roundway Down, July 13); the
Queen, coming from the north, had joined the King in his quarters, amid
great rejoicing, after their seventeen months of separation; and Bristol,
inefficiently defended by Nathaniel Fiennes, was on the point of yielding
to Prince Rupert. It was time, in short, to do what it had long been in
the mind of Parliament to do--call in once more the aid of the Scots.
On this the Parliament had already resolved. As it was judged likely,
however, that the Scots would listen more readily to the application for
armed aid if it were accompanied with some distinct proof of a desire for
"uniformity of religion" between the two kingdoms, the Assembly was
required to assist Parliament in pleading with the Scots. The Scottish
Convention of Estates was then sitting (it had met, by express call, June
22); and the Scottish General Assembly was to meet on the 2nd of August.
Let there be Commissioners from both the English Parliament and the
Westminster Assembly to these two bodies; let the Assembly write letters
to the Scottish Assembly, backing the political application with
religious arguments; let every exertion be made to secure a new alliance
with the Scottish nation! Accordingly, while the Assembly was pursuing
its revision of the Articles, or occupying itself with such incidental
matters as the appointment of ministers to preach before the two Houses,
and the recommendation of a Fast Day extraordinary in London, their
thoughts, like those of Parliament, were chiefly fixed on the issue of
their joint embassy to Edinburgh. [Footnote: Lightfoot's Notes for July
1643; and my MS. chronology of events]
The Scots had foreseen the application. Three courses were before them.
They might remain neutral; they might interfere as "redders," or
mediators between the King and the English Parliament; or they might
openly side with the Parliament and help it in the war. Great efforts had
been made by the King to induce the Scots to the first course. [Footnote:
Burnet's Dukes of Hamilton (ed. 52), pp. 279-298] Five or six of the
Scottish noblemen who were with the King at Oxford had been sent back
among their countrymen to labour for this end. All in vain. It had become
clear to Argyle, Loudoun, Warriston, and the other Scottish leaders, that
neutrality would be ruinous. Things were in this state when the
Commissioners from the English Parliament and the Westminster Assembly
arrived in Edinburgh (Aug. 7). The Scottish Convention of Estates was
then still sitting; and the General Assembly of the Scottish Kirk, with
Alexander Henderson again its Moderator (the third time he had been
raised to this Presidency), was in the middle of its annual fortnight or
so of Scottish ecclesiastical business--one item of the business this
time being, I find, "the late extraordinar multiplying of witches,"
especially in Fifeshire. Both the Convention and the Assembly had been
anxiously waiting for the English Commissioners, and were delighted when
they arrived. They were six in all--Sir William Armyn, Sir Harry Vane the
younger, Mr. Hatcher, and Mr. Darley, from the Parliament; and Stephen
Marshall and Philip Nye from the Westminster Divines. And what moving
letters they brought with them--official letters from the Parliament and
the Westminster Assembly to the Scottish Convention of Estates and
General Assembly, and also a more private letter signed by about seventy
English Divines! And how the Scots were impressed by the letters! The
private letter of the seventy Divines in especial was "so lamentable"
that, when it was read in the General Assembly, "it drew tears from
many." And how all were struck by the ability and gravity of young Sir
Harry Vane, and liked him and Stephen Marshall, but did not take so much
to Mr. Nye, because of his known Independency! In short, in conferences
between the English Commissioners and Commissioners appointed by the
Scottish Convention and General Assembly to meet them, it was all
arranged. There was, indeed, still some lingering question at first among
the Scottish leaders whether it might not do to "go as redders or friends
to both, without siding altogether with the Parliament;" but Warriston
alone "did show the vanity of that notion and the impossibility of it."
And so Vane and the other Commissioners could write to England that their
mission had been successful, and that the armed aid of the Scottish
nation might be expected.
Ay, but there was a special condition. The Commissioners had come to
treat about "Scottish assistance to Parliament and a uniformity of
religion," and it was the prospect held out in the second phrase that
most reconciled the Scots to all that was involved in the first. The
extension of Scottish Presbyterianism over all England and Ireland, or,
at all events, the union of the two kingdoms in some common form of
Church-government not essentially differing from Scottish
Presbyterianism--for that object the Scots _would_ strike in; for
that object they _would_ shed their blood, as fellow-soldiers with
Englishmen, in the fields of England! Now the English Commissioners, like
wary men, and probably in accordance with their instructions, would fain
have avoided any too definite a pledging of England to a particular
ecclesiastical future. Nye, in especial, as an Independent, must have
desired to avoid this; and Vane, as a man who did not know how far from
his present opinions continued reasoning might carry him, may have felt
with Nye. Hence, on the religious question, they tried to get off with
generalities. If there were a league between the two kingdoms for their
civil liberties, would not a uniformity in Church matters naturally
follow? But this was not quite satisfactory to the Scottish
Commissioners. "The English were for a civil league, we for a religious
covenant," says Baillie; and the event has made the sentence memorable
historically. Let England and Scotland unite first in subscribing one and
the same document, swearing one and the same oath, which should base
their alliance on a certain amount of mutual engagement in the matter of
Religion! To such oaths of mutual allegiance the Scots, among themselves,
had long been accustomed. They called them "Covenants." This agency of
"Covenanting" had been a grand agency in Scottish History. Was not the
present liberation of Scotland, the destruction of Episcopacy root and
branch within its borders, the result of the "National Covenant" sworn to
only five years and a half ago--that Covenant being but the renewal, with
slight additions, of a document which had done not unimportant work in a
former age? Why not have another Covenant for the present emergency--not
that National or purely Scottish Covenant, but a Covenant expressly
framed for the new purpose, and fit to be a religious pact between the
two kingdoms? So argued the Scots with the English Commissioners; and,
that the English Commissioners might see what was meant, Alexander
Henderson, who was probably the author of the idea, and to whom, at any
rate, the preparation of any extremely important document was always
entrusted, produced a draft of the proposed Covenant. The English
Commissioners did not altogether like this draft; but, after a good deal
of discussion, and apparently some suggestions from Vane tending to
vagueness in the religious part and greater prominence of the civil, the
draft was modified into a shape in which it was agreed to unanimously. On
the 17th of August it was reported by Henderson to the General Assembly,
and passed there not only unanimously and with applause, but with a most
unusual show of emotion among old and young; and on the same day it
passed the Scottish Convention. "This seems to be a new period and crise
of the most great affair," writes Baillie, recording these facts.
[Footnote: Acts of Scottish General Assembly of 1644; Baillie's Letters,
II. 81-90; Burnet's Hamiltons, 298-307.]
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57 |
58 |
59 |
60 |
61 |
62 |
63 |
64