increased by recent events. Laud's unwise attempt to suppress Puritanism had recoiled on himself, and through him on the nation. The more extreme Puritans were maddened with resentment, and regarded the attack upon the bishops and the Prayer Book as a holy work. Power, they thought, had at last been placed in their hands for the destruction of an ungodly and anti-Christian idolatry. Those from whose moderation much might at other times have been expected could hardly be moderate now. They found themselves face to face with ecclesiastical usages which they detested, and which had recently been imposed on them with the harshest rigour. Was it possible that they should take into consideration religious feelings which they were unable to comprehend, and grant religious liberty to practices which had been as a yoke upon their own necks in the days of the Laudian ascendency? Social antagonisms were already prepared to embitter the religious conflict. The greater part of the nobility and gentry of England were inclined to look with contempt and loathing upon the claims of yeomen and handicraftsmen to throw off the yoke of authority, whilst the yeomen and handicraftsmen were well pleased to vindicate their independence against the upper classes on the ground of theology, in which they imagined themselves to be masters. Difficult as it was to find a solution for the questions which arose, it was impossible to leave them unsettled. The Church was falling into anarchy, and its services were being moulded by the hazard of the moment at the will of the strongest. Some law must be laid down, some rule to which all would be bound to conform, whether it were a law maintaining enforced uniformity, or a law in protection of liberty. Need of a If ever a firm hand was needed to take the reins of government, it was at this crisis, when there had ceased to be any Government at all. What was wanted was a calm strong and statesmanlike mind ready to listen to all claims, Government. and to strike the balance between opposing forces. Charles, if he had had the power, had never had the capacity for such work as this. If it was to be done at all, it must be done by Parliament; and a Parliament, as had been shown in the days of Elizabeth, was less likely than a single mind to do such work worthily. It was more apt to mistake the voice of the majority for the voice of the nation, and less apt to remember that a large minority requires consideration from the mere fact of its existence. That tradition of compromise which is the inheritance of English cabinets had not yet been formed in the days when cabinets were unknown. To make the Church really national, to give within it free play for the religious. thought and life which was not too exuberant for its decorum. and to leave room outside for the growth of societies for which even its silken fetters were too oppressive, was the task which the time required. It was the last of which the predominant party was likely to think--it is but fair to add, was the last of which it could be expected to think. Sept. 1. on ecclesi vations. The announcement of the day of adjournment was followed by a feeling of regret in the majority of the Commons, that they should separate without having done anything Resolutions for religion. It was resolved at least to put an end astical inno- to Laud's innovations. It was determined that the communion-tables should be removed from the east end of the churches, and the rails taken down; that 'all crucifixes, scandalous pictures of one or more persons of the Trinity, and all images of the Virgin Mary' should be taken away,' and all tapers, candlesticks, and basins be removed from the communion-table;' that 'all corporal bowing at the name of Jesus, or towards the east end of the church, or towards the communion table be henceforth forborne;' that all dancing and sports be forborne on the Lord's Day, and the preaching of sermons be permitted in the afternoon.1 Proposal for altering the If no more than this had been proposed the scheme might have received, if not unanimous support, at least the support of a very considerable majority, in which many of the defenders of Episcopacy would have voted. The waters, however, had been too deeply stirred by the winds of religious controversy to be calmed so easily. A member suggested that it would be well to think of some alterations in the Book of Common Prayer.2 Culpepper at Prayer Culpepper's motion. 1 C. 7. ii. 279. 2 Diurnal Occurrences, Sept. I. once called on the House to provide a remedy against 'such as did vilify and contemn the Common Prayer Book . . . or else he feared it might be the occasion of many tumults in Church and State.' From that moment the party lines were strictly drawn. Behind the controversy on Episcopacy and Presbyterianism lay the controversy on forms of worship-a controversy which came home to every man who cared about religion at all. The attack upon the Prayer Book by the unnamed member was the commencement of the Civil War. There was now a possibility that Charles might find a party not only in Parliament but in the nation. In vain Cromwell urged that there were passages in the Prayer Book to which grave and learned divines could not submit. The house was thin, as it had long been, and this day Culpepper had a majority of 18 in a House of 92. Final formation of two parties. Culpepper's temporary success. On the 6th Culpepper's resolution came up for further discussion. Pym and his supporters were anxious to confine the censure of the House to those who interfered with the Sept. 6. The question existing service by creating actual disturbance in a postponed. church. Culpepper wished to extend it to all who 'depraved' or openly found fault with the Prayer Book, and he again carried his point; but when the final vote was taken, some of his friends held back, and the clause was ordered to be recommitted for further consideration.' amend On the 8th the Lords agreed to the resolution on the removal of the communion-table, but wished that, for the sake of deSept. 8. cency, it should still be surrounded with rails in its The Lords' new position, at least in those churches in which it had been railed in at the east end.2 Images of the Virgin which had been erected more than twenty years were to be allowed to stand, and everyone was to be left free to do as he pleased in the matter of bowing. The clause on the Lord's ments. 1 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxiv. fol. 82 b, 83, 84, 89. 2 The cases of persons putting their hats on the table are well known. In a sermon preached in little more than a month after this date, there is mention of a woman who put her baby on the communion-table, with con. sequences that may easily be imagined. day was left for consideration on the 9th, the adjournment having been postponed till that day. Order on Sept. 9. Lords that service be performed law. Whilst the Lords were thus busy, the Commons took another forward step. They declared it to be lawful for all parishes to set up lecturers at their own charge, and there was no lecturers. sign that they meant to consult the Lords on this important declaration.1 It is probable that the Peers took offence at the neglect. On the 9th they laid aside the resolutions of the Commons.2 In a house of twenty it was Order of the carried by a majority of eleven to nine, that an order of the 16th of January should be printed and pubaccording to lished, to the effect 'that the divine service be performed as it is appointed by the Acts of Parliament of this Realm; and that all such as shall disturb that wholesome order shall be severely punished according to law; and that all parsons, vicars, and curates in their several parishes shall forbear to introduce any rites or ceremonies otherwise than those that are established by the laws of this land.' The Lords not only passed this order, but they refused to communicate their resolution to the Commons. Against this latter resolve six peers-Bedford, Warwick, Clare, Newport, Wharton, and Mandeville-protested. Lyttelton, Manchester, and Huns don voted in the minority, but did not protest.3 Protest of six peers. 1 C. F. ii. 283. 2 In Dover's Notes, where the affair is misdated as Aug. 10 (Clarendon MSS. 1603), we are told that our reasons for proceeding in this manner, before we advised with the House of Commons, was that the very night before they had in their House ordered that very order which is now set forth by them, to be published and printed before they had a conference with us. Query, whether the House of Commons have power of themselves to enjoin the whole kingdom anything which is not settled by the laws?' Dover was clearly mistaken in saying that the Commons published their order about innovations before the division in the Lords. Probably the truth is as I have put it in the text, though there is no actual direction in the Fournais to print the order about lecturers. 3 L. F. iv. 395. The names of the eleven who formed the majority are given in Dover's Notes as Bishop Williams, the Earls of Denbigh, Cleveland, Portland, Dover, Kingston, and Barons Mowbray, Wentworth, Dunsmore, Coventry, and Capel. The names are given somewhat differ Feeling in the Commons. Both the resolutions and the As might have been expected, the Commons in their turn took offence. D'Ewes said that it was not a fit time to print such an order, 'when all men who loved the truth expected a mitigation of the laws already established touching religion, and not a severe execution of them.' Yet it was hard to know what was to be done. Pym suggested that a messenger should be despatched to ask the King to revoke the Lords' order by proclamation.' The House probably felt that this would not be a hopeful course. It was finally resolved that its own resolutions should be published together with the order of the Lords. A commentary was to be affixed, expressing surprise at the thinness of the Upper House when so important a decision had been arrived at. 'So it may still be hoped, when both Houses shall meet again, that the good propositions and preparations in the House of Commons, for preventing the like grievances, and reforming other disorders and abuse in matters of religion, may be brought to perfection.' 'Wherefore,' they ended by saying, 'we expect that the commons of mons appeal the realm, do, in the meantime, quietly attend the reformation intended, without any tumultuous disturbance of the worship of God and the peace of the kingdom." order to be published. The Com to patience. 2 The printing of this declaration was carried without a division. Nothing could have been more conciliatory than the last paragraph. The warning to submit to the law without impatience till Parliament was again in session was conceived in the best spirit of both parties. The Lords For all that, the danger was postponed, not averted. The call to abide by the law which had sounded forth from the House of Lords would be sure to find a response in appeal to the the nation, if it were coupled with a firm resolve to search out the defects of the existing law, in order to bring it into conformity with the new facts which had arisen law. ently in the Diurnal Occurrences. Lord Hunsdon was Dover's eldest son, who had been raised to a peerage in his father's lifetime. This is noteworthy, as showing that Pym did not yet despair of Charles's co-operation. 2 C. F. ii. 287. D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxiv. fol. 110, |