f,

CENTRE
for
REFORMATION
and
RENAISSANCE
STUDIES

VICTORIA
UNIVERSITY

TORONTO

I

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER LXVI.

PREPARATIONS FOR A PARLIAMENTARY" SESSION.

ALTHOUGH as the time drew near for the opening of another
session, it seemed likely that the cloud which had long hung
,29. over the foreign relations of England would clear
January. away, the Government was not without grave sub-
Prospects of
the session, jects of disquietude. Its first difficulty arose from
the question of tonnage and poundage which had been stirred
at the end of the last session. The Commons had not only
declared the levy of these dues to be illegal, but had encouraged
individual merchants to refuse payment to the King's officers. !
As the trade of the country had suffered severely froln the ravages
of the Dunkirk privateers, the suggestion thatthe merchants
might free themselves from such a burden fell upon willing
ears. The spirit of the old English constitution was on their
side, and they were assured by no less a body than the House
of Commons, that they had the letter of the law on their side as
well. The King was sure to take a different view of the case.
He held it to be the duty of his subjects to give him a revenue
sufficient to enable him to conduct the regular administration
of government without interruption ; and it was certain that,
unless tonnage and poundage and the still more questionable
impositions continued to be paid, little short of half of his
income would be lost at a stroke.
t See Vol. VI., page 323.
VOI... VII. B

COSLV' S  DE I;O TIO.'q. 

It

Hell and Heaven are duly catalogued as the four last things
which may befall a man. t
The gulf between this religion and the religion of the or-
dinary English Protestant was wide and deep. As the central
cotrast point of the Puritan system lay in preaching and
t,,.een conversion, the central point of the system of their
t_oin and
the Puritans. opponents lay in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
In preparing for it Cosin laid stress upon the words in the
Prayer-book in which those who require counsel and comfort
are admonished to seek out some discreet minister of God's
Word, in order that they may receive absolution from him,
though he never thonght of proposing that such applications
should be general or compulsory, l:or the Communion Service
itself he provided a form of words to be repeated by the wor-
shipper ' p:-ostrate before the altar,' whilst he spoke of a real
though spiritual presence of Christ in the Sacrament itscll;
and reminded Christians that they were here enabled to offer
a ' s,.crifice of praise and thanksgiving' as a memorial of the
sacrifice of the Cross.
,uch a doctrine would offer a refitge to many who bnt for
it would have fled from the uncongenial teaching of Puritanism
into the arms of the Church of P, ome. It would gather
_lii views
ot,o b round it all the growing love of esthetic decoration,
ssa. of colour, and of music. ]3eyond that, it appealed to
one whole ride of human nature, its vcakness, its dependence
upon outward surroundings, its need of a curb upon irreverence
and thcughtlessness. On the other hand, to men of a strong
and high-souled temperament it was nothing but Popery in dis-
guise, bringing the spirit under outward and material bondage.
If Puritanism had a noble and vigorous protest to urge
against tb_e attempt to confine religion within the bonds of
Opposition ceremonial forms, it had also its own narrowness, and
to Co.i. its prostration before a logical system of theology.
The first assault upon Cosin came from men who had no broad
intelligence or spiritual insight, no quality to inspire respect,
except that dogged persistency in support of that which they
t Except the special hours of prayer, there is nothing of all this in
Elizabeth's book.

z8 .PREPMI?MTIONS "OR . SESSION. CI-I. LXVI.
introduction of ceremonial forms which they regarded with de-
testation. He decided, as every unprejudiced person
ni,ecision, would decide now, that the meaning of the Injunc-
tions and Canons was that the table should ordinarily stand at
the east end, and should be moved down when required for use.
lore questionable was his ruling, that the table when placed
at the east end should stand east and west as a table, and not
along the wall as an altar.
"Lastly," wrote Williams to the Vicar, "whether side soever,
you or your parish, shall first yield unto the other in these need-
less controversies, shall remain, in nay poor judgment, the more
discreet, grave, and learned man of the two, and by that time
you have gained some more experience in the cure of souls,
you shall find no such ceremony equal to Christian charity." 
Williams has many faults to answer for. He was hot-
tempered and worldly-minded, and when driven to bay he had
resort to the most discreditable means in order to overpower
his pursuers ; but he had the strong conviction that men were
greater than either intellectual or ceremonial form On the
one hand he repelled Prynne's assumption that the human mind
could only be purified by submission to the strictest Calvinistic
dogmatism. On the other hand he repelled Laud's assumption
that the human mind could only be purified by submission to a
certain external order. Though it is impossible not to think the
better of Charles for refusing to look up to a man so shifty as
Williams, it is impossible not to regret that he was not large-
minded enough to utilise the counsel of one who, if he could have
kept himself aloof from trickery and intrigue, might have been the
Burke of the ecclesiastical politics of the seventeenth century.
It soon became evident how much need Charles had of a
counsellor who could have taught him that a ruler can no more
afford to despise the currents of opinion than a navigator can
afford to despise the set of the tides. It was only natural that
 Printed in The Holy it'able, .A'ame and Thbtg'. Williams appeals to
general practice : " If you mean bv altar ise," he writes, " that the table
should stand along close to the wall, I do not believe that ever the com-
munion-tahles vere, othervise than by casualty, so placed in country,
churches."

628

TIIF. A'IA'G'S DiC'LARA TIO.'V:

21

Orders were accordingly given for the preparation of a new
edition of the Articles of Religion, to be prelb.ced by a Declara-
tion which every minister entering upon a new cure would bc
bound to read.
" Being by God's ordinance," thus ran Charles's last word
in the controversy, "according to our just title, Defender f
T ring's the Faith, and supreme governor of tlm Church,
X)cIra,on. within these our dominions, we hold it most agree-
able to this our kingly office, and our own religious zeal, to
conserve and maintain the Church committed to our charge
ira the unity of true religion and in the bond of peace ; and
not to suffer unnecessary disputations, altercations, or questions
to be raised which may nourish faction both in the Church
and commonwealth.
"We have therefore, upon mature deliberation, and with
the advice of so many of our ]Bishops as might conveniently
be called together, thought fit to make this declaration follow-
ing :--That the Articles of the Church of Englatd (which have
been allowed and autborised heretofore, and which our Clergy
generally have subscribed unto) do contain the true doctrine
of the Church of England agreeable to God's Word : which
we do therefore ratify and confirm; requiri, ng all our loving
subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof, and
l)rohibiting the least difference from the said Articles ; which
to that end we command to be new printed, and this our
Declaration to be published therewith :
"That we are supreme governor of the Church of Englar.d ;
and that if any difference arise about the external policy
concerning the Injunctions, Canons, and other Constitutions
whatsoever thereto belonging, the Clergy in their Convocation
is to order and settle them, having first obtained leave under
our broad seal so to do, and we approving, their said ordinances
and constitutions, providing that none be made contrary to the
laws and customs of the land :
"That out of our princely care that the Churchmen may
do the work which is proper unto them, the Bishops and

tIeylyn's Lc of Laud, p. 18 7.

2z PREP4R.4 TiOA'S FOR q SESSIOA: cg. LXVt.

Clergy, from time to time in Convocation, upon their humble
desire, shall have license under our broad seal to deliberate of,
and to do all such things, as being m.de plain by them, and
assented unto by us, shall concern the settled continuance of
the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England now
established ; fiom which we will not endure any varying or
departing in the least degree :
"That for the present, though some differences have been
ill raised, yet we take comfort i,a this, that all clerg}men within
our realm have always most willingly subscribed to the Articles
established ; which is an argument to us that they all agree in
the true, usual, literal meaning of the said Articles ; and that
even in those curious points in which the present differences lie,
men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be
for them ; which is an argument again that none of them intend
any desertion of the Articles established :
"That therefore in these both curious and unhappy differ-
ences, which have for so many hundred years, in different times
and places, exercised the Church of Christ, we will that all
further curious search be laid aside, and these disputes shut up
in God's promises as they be generally set forth to us in the
Holy Scriptures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the
Church of England according to them ; and that no man here-
after shall either print or preach to draw the Article aside any
way, but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereo
and shall not put his own sense or comment to be the meaning
of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical
sense :
"That if any public reader in either of our l_'niversities, or
any head or master of a college, or any other person respec-
tively in either of them, shall affix any new sense to any Article,
or shall publicly read, determine, or hold any public disputa-
tion, or suffer any such to be held either way, in either the
Universities or colleges respectively, or if an), divine in the
Universities shall preach or print anything either way, other
than is already established in Convocation with our Royal
assent ; he or they the offenders shall be liable to our displeasure,
and the Church's censure in our Commis;ion ecclesiasticaI, as

24 PVEI'AR.,4 TIO:'S FOR .,4 SESSIO: r. err. LXVt.
Commons rnight be warned not to rake up the embers of the
old quarrel.
Obli:'ion for the past and silence for the future were the
terms offered by Charles. It remained to be seen how accept-
Chars's able they would be to the Commons, whose com-
trms, petency to deal with religious questions at all was
implicitly denied by the reference in the Declaration to the
King and Com'ocation as the sole constitutional authority in
such matters.
Though it was b_ardly likely that the Commons would be
content with this, therc was one man who had played a leading
I. part in the preceding session who asked nothing
Vcmb. better. Immediately after the close of that session,
VenIworth
President of Wentworth had been raised to a Barony, and had
h No,-th. been promised the Presidency of the North. On
December o, he became Viscount Wentworth, and five days
later he received the patent of his Presidency.
On the 3oth he entered upon the duties of his
Dec. 3o.
ispo.h office at York. In the speech  which he there de-
w, york. livered amongst his old friends and neighbours, he
showed no signs of regret for the part which he had played
in the preceding session. He thanked them for the
lie does not
repudiate kindness with which they had received him after his
the past. exile for resisting the forced loan. What confidence
or affection could be greater ? Yet he had not thanks for them
alone. " Cast," he said, "the free bounties of my gracious
master into the other scale : there weigh me, within the space
of one year, a bird, a wandering bird cast out of the nest, a
prisoner, planted here again in nay own soil, amongst the com-
panions of my youth ; my house honoured, myself entrusted
with the rich dispensation of a sovereign goodness, nay assured
of all these before I asked, before I thought of any."
If Wentworth did not repudiate the Petition of Right, he
Hiscenstltu- repudiated the challenge of sovereignty put forward
tional views, on behalf of the Commons at the close of the ses-
sion. "To the joint individual wellbeing of sovereignty and
 Printed flom the TantcrISS. lxxii. 300; in theAca,lcm.v, June 5, 875-

1629
increase.
Privilege of
goods from
arrest.

PI ITZEGE OF P,4RLIAJIEA'7". 33
Up to the accession of James, only three cases
could be shown in which a member had established
his claim to fieedoln for his goods, and ill tWO of
these the claim had been expressly limited to such

gaods as it was necessary for him to have with him during his
attendance at Westminster or on his way home. 1 In James's
reign the interference of the House to protect melnbers'
goods in general had becolne frequeut, and was justified on
the principle that those who were engaged ill the public service
ought not to be distracted froln their duties by the care of
defending their own property; but nothing had been settled
as to the exact time before and after each session during which
the privilege was to last.  It was only indeed by a technicality
that Rolle's case could be brought within the largest limits
which had ever been suggested. The seizure of his goods had
been effected on October 3 o, more than four months after the
close of one session, and more than two months before the
comlnencement of another; but it so happened that Parlia-
ment had been originally prorogued to October 20, and Rolle
was therefore supposed, by a legal fict2on, to have been hindered
in the fulfilment of duties which, as he was perfectly aware at
the time, were not to be imposed upon him for many weeks
to come.
At last Charles discovered that it was unwise to allow the
debates to proceed without a word from himself. Summoning
the Houses to Whitehall, he assured them distinctly
Jan. 4-
"l'he King's that he had had no intention to levy the duties
peeh. by his 'hereditary prerogative.' " It ever was," he
declared, "and still is my meaning, by the gift of my people
to enjoy it ; and my intention in my speech at the end of the
last session was not to challenge tonnage and poundage of
fight, but for expedience de bene esse, showing you the necessity,
not the right, by which I was to take it until you had granted
it unto me ; assuring myself, according to your general profes-
sion, that you wanted time and not good will to give it me."
He had been startled, he added, by some things which had

 tlatsell, i. 67.  Zbi, L i. 99.
VOL. VlI. D

x6-"9 ELIOT ON RELIGION. 39

ferred ! I reverence the order, though I honour not the man.
Others may be named too, of the same bark and leaven, to
whose judgments if our religion were committed, it might easily
be discerned what resolutions they would give ; whereof even
the procuring of this reference, this manifesto, to be made, is a
perfect demonstration."
Eliot had singled out the true rock of offence. Between
the controversialists, wholn Charles had hoped to silence, there
was a difference not to be measured by words or
Meaning of
thedi,r- terms. It was a difference reaching deep down into
Eiota,,d his the moral and spiritual basis upon which all con-
opponents, ceptions of theology rest, a difference of habit of
mind and religious instinct. To Eliot and to such as Eliot,
the helps and assistances to faith upon which Cosin dwelt so
lovingly only served to distract the mind from the contenapla-
tion of the great Taskmaster, even if they did not threaten to
occupy His place. To them even the hard Calvinistic dogma-
tism, so repulsive in the pages of Prynne, was full of a precious
and tender reality. Through it they entered into the sweet
contemplation of a ruling Personality, who had raised them
from the dust, and who guarded them from the sin which so
easily beset them. To the harder, sterner features of that creed
they closed their eyes.
Where then was the remedy ? It is easy for us to say that
it was to be found in liberty, in the permission to each new
w .... -., thought to develop itself as best it might ; but the
teremeey? very notion of religious liberty was as yet unheard of,
and even if it had been as familiar as it is now, its bare pro-
clamation would have been of little avail. Bishops, it seemed,
of the stamp of Laud and Montague were to rule the Church,
and to exercise the enormous powers of the Episcopate and
the High Commission to depress one mode of thought and to
elevate another. All the patronage of the Court, all the patron-
age of the bishops, would flow in one direction. The ideas of
a minority of religious men would prevail by other means than
their own persuasiveness. The religion dear to the gentlemen
of England was thus thrown on the defensive, and the House of
Commons was not inclined to abandon it without a struggle.

4 o

THE SESSION OF x6z 9.

CH. LXVIL

Eliot refused to allow that his faith was a matter for argu-
ment. "Some of our adversaries, you know," he said, "are
Religion to masters of forms and ceremonies. Well, I would
t,edefended grant to their honour even the admission at our
by" Parlia-
n,e.t, worship of sonle of those great idols which they
vorship. There is a ceremony used in the Eastern Churches
of standing at the repetition of the Creed to testify their purpose
to maintain it, and as some had it, not only with their bodies
upright, but with their swords dl-awn. Give me leave to call
that a custom very COlmnendable. It signified the constancy
and readiness of their resolution to live and die in that pro-
fession ; and that resolution I hope we have with as much
constancy assumed, and on all occasions shall as faithfully dis-
charge, not valuing our lives wb.cre the adventure may be neces-
sary for the defence of our Sovereign, for the defence of our
country, for the defence of our religion."
"I desire," saZ.d Eliot, in conclusion, " that we may avoid
confusion and distraction; that ve may go presently to the
Eliot's grounds of our religion, and lay that down as a rule.
o,,io,. Then, when that is done, it will be time to take into
consideration the breakers and offenders against this rule, and
before we have done that, our work will be in vain. Therefore,
first lay down the profession wherein we differ from the Ar-
minians, and in that I shall be ready to deliver nay opinion."
It was the inevitable consequence of the failure of Charles
to stand forth as the representative of the nation, that the
p.,itio House of Coll]ll]OllS should thrust itself into a posi-
,=e y* tion which it could not with credit occupy. Because
lao. Charles treated the religion of the nation as a matter
with which the nation had no concern whatever, therefore the
Commons attempted to define the doctrine of the nation and
to inflict penalties upon those who refused to accept it. Eliot
and Pyre said in effect, "We will not allow the religion of
England to be chanoed. To carry out their purpose they
were forced, much against their will, to convert the House of
Commons into a school of theology one day, as they would
have to convert it into a school of law on the next. At one
time the bishops, at another time the judges, would be called

I6z9 .4 RFSOL UTION OV RtLIGIOM 4I
to accoant before a body which had never studied profoundly
the subjects with which bishops and judges were respectively
conversant.
The House shrank fiom the uncongenial path
Resolution
of,heCon,- upon which it was invited to enter. It was not till
"ons. after many suggestions had been made, that the
following Resolution was finally adopted :--
"We the Comnaons now in Parliament assembled do claim,
profess, and avow for truth the sense of the Articles of Religion
which were established in Parliament in the reign of our late
Queen Elizabeth, which by public acts of the Church of England,
and by the general and concurrent exposition of the writers of
our Church, have been delivered to us, and we do reject the
sense of the Jesuits and Arminians."
Like many other celebrated l'arliamentary documents, this
famous Resolution was by no means a model of precision.
The clause about the Parliamentary title of the Articles, which
had been suggested by Selden, was evidently intended to deny
the claim of Convocation to legislate even on religious matters ;
but nothing of the kind was said, and the rest of the document
was still more indefinite. When the Committee met
Jan. 3.
Its meaning tWO days afterwards, even friendly criticism professed
acknow-
ledged to be that it was impossible to understand what was really
,obtfu. meant by the Resolution.  What, for instance, were
the public acts of the Church to which it appealed ? According
to Sir Nathaniel Rich, they were the Catechisms, the Lambeth
_articles, the Irish Articles, the Acts of the Synod of Dort which
had been approved by King James, the readings of professors
.;.n the Universities, the Homilies, and all other books of divines
printed by authority. To this portentous list the lawyers de-
murred. Nothing, said Selden, could be called a public act of
the Church which had not received the assent of Convocation.
Serjeant Hoskins refused to give the title even to acts of Con-
vocation. "That only," he argued, "is said to be a public act
which is considered of, debated, disputed, and resolved on by
the King and all the State."
' This debate is only to be found in .Vicolas's Nottt

629 ELIO T'S IIOPOSZIL. 43
justified by the argulnents which may be used to justify a revo-
lution. The mere assent of the House of Comlnons
Character of
Eliot'spru- to certain doctrinal propositions which had never
posat, been legally binding upon anyone was to be made
the touchstone of orthodox)'. Unpopular theologians were to
be summoned to give account of their actions and opinions
before a tribunal which recognised no fixed legal procedure,
and which would decide according to the popular instinct
rather than according to any certain rule of law. It was
perhaps inevitable that it should be so. The King's clailn to
rule as seemed right in his own eyes without taking the national
conscience into account was met by the claim of the House of
Comlnons to rule as seemed right in its own eyes without
taking the rights of individual conscience into account. The
time would come when it would be understood that libert 3, of
speech and action is all that either a majority or a minority can
fairly claim. But that tilne had not yet arrived. The declara-
tion on Religion nominally imposed silence on both parties
alike. Practically it imposed silence on those to whom the
Calrinistic doctrines were precious, not upon those who cared
far more about other doctrines on which they were at liberty
to talk as much as they pleased. The restraint upon freedoln
which the Declaration undoubtedly was, was therefore answered
by an attack upon the men froln wholn the restraint pro-
ceeded.
As usual, Charles had studied the letter rather than the
spirit of history. It was undoubtedly true that religious changes
Position of had been effected by the authority of kings. It was
Chle. undoubtedly true that Henry and Elizabeth had made
use of the bishops as their instruments in Convocation and out
of Convocation, with scant respect for any objections which might
reach them from the House of Comlnons; but in so doing they
had allowed it to be plainly seen that they were not wedded to
any particular Church party. They took their stand as modera
tots above all. Charles could not do this. What he believed
he believed thoroughly. He had no notion of watching the
tides to gain the port which he had in sight. He had honestly
believed his Declaration to be a healing measure and it as

44 TtIE SESS[OA r OF 1629. CH. LXVII.
perfectly incomprehensible to him how men, except from factions
motives, could lash themselves into a fury against it.
The adoption of Eliot's proposal by the House therefore
meant nothing less than a declaration of war against the King.
The House was ready to follow him. It resolved to
Eliot's
oropot make inquiry into the pardons lately granted, and
adopted.
more especially to take up once more the charges
against Montague. Addresses and remonstrances to the King
had come to an end. They were to give place to sharp action
against the men who owed to the King's favour their power to
do good or evil.
The appointment of Montague to a bishopric had been
one of Charles's most indiscreet actions. In the House of
Ve.,. Commons it was felt bitterly. What, Seymour had
w,to- argucd in the late dcbates, was the use of suppress-
tague legally
a bishop? ing a book, if its author was made a bishop? The
}fouse caught eagerly at a suggestion that, after all, he was not
legally a bishop. One Jones, a bookbinder, had declared in a
petition that at Montague's confirmation he had presented
objections which had been passed over as irregular in form,
and though the Solicitor-General explained that the confirma-
t_ion nevertheless was perfectly legal, it was resolved that the
question should be argued at the bar.
The quarrel of the Commons xith Montague was a quarrel
about doctrine. Their quarrel with Cosin was a quarrel about
ceremonies. Since the publication of his Book of Devotions,
Cosin had been involved in charges on which he was hardly likely
to receive a fair hearing from the House of Commons. During
the last summer the old Norman pile which looked down from
its green height upon the then limpid waters of the
The cere-
,oi t Wear had been the scene of religious strife. Durham
uhm. Cathedral had remaiued longer than most other
cathedrals in the state in which a Puritan would have wished
to see it. It was not so very long ago that the comumnion-
table and the font had stood one on each side of the north
door which leads into the choir. Before James I. died the
hand of the reformer had come. The font was moved first
into the nave, then into the galilee, the Lady Chapel as it had

46 THE SIfSS.ION OF x6:9. cH. LXVII.
of sacraments. In all this, he added, they had but copied
' that painted harlot, the Church of Rome.' In short, they were
bent on introducing the Mass into the midst of an English
congregation.
Smart was at once convened before the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners for the Province of York. He appealed to the
july 27 . secular courts. At the summer assizes he preferred
lroceeaigs an indictment against the principal preber]daries
against
Smart. for their conduct relating to the communion-table,
standing at the Nicene Creed, and other ceremonies of the
Church. Though Whitelocke, the judge on circuit, had taken
care, in the new chapel at his own house at Fawley, to place the
communion-table by the side of the pulpit,  he seems to have
thought, as many others thought, that a cathedral was not to
be bound by the regulations which were fitted for a parish
church. He allowed himself to be conducted over the Cathe-
dral, expressed his approval of all that he saw, and refused
Smart's application. Upon this the Dean and Chaptel
sept. o. sequestered Smart's prebend for an offence 'against
good manners, Christian charity, and the statutes of the Church
,9. of Durham.' In the following January he was trans-
Ja. 29. mitted to the High Commission Court of the Province
of Canterbury, where his judges would at least be so far ina-
partial that they would not feel personally aggrieved by his
sermon.2
Amongst the Durham prebendaries Cosin was the most
active and influential. In the preceding spring he had been
62s. present at a conversation which turned upon the right
April. of excommunication. Cosin maintained that the
Cosin's con-
,,etio clergy held it directly from Christ. A certain Mr.
about the
oyal S- Pleasance, who was present, was of a different opinion.
peacy. "You have it," he said, "from the King. He can
excommunicate as well as you." "The exercise of it indeed,"
replied Cosin, "is under the King. But the power is derived
from Christ and Iy virtue of holy orders." The discourse then
 "l'his appears from Lord Bute's IS. of ll;hi/elockc's e][emorials.
 Illustratiot of Weal, 47-5- The Dean and Chapter to Ne,zl
3, S. P. Dora. cxiii. 6 5.

629 CRO2III'ELL'S EARL Y I'EARS. 53
and in the stately galleries of Whitehall. It is generally be-
lieved that the marriage was arranged by Oliver's aunt, the
mother of John Hampden. In the beginning of
I, chosen
llemberfor I628, his fellow-townsmen chose him to represent
iluntingdon, them in the great Parliament which was to claim the
Petition of Right. To have been so chosen whilst still in his
twenty-ninth year, by those who had the most intimate ac-
quaintance with his daily life, was the best possible testimony
to his high character.
Of the wild cahunnies repeated of him in after years it is
unnecessary to say a word.  So far as it is possible to catch a
His rnol glilnpse of the human figure which they snrround,
ch,,ract, we see a youth endowed with a vigorous fl-mne and
strong a:lilnal spirits, not unmindful of his studies, lnastering
the difficulties of the Latin language, so far at least as to be
able to converse in it in later }'ears, though he did not satisfy
the requirements of professed scholars. It was the same with
his other studies. From umthematics, history, and law he
extracted just as much as would be serviceable to him in his
battle with the world; aud it may perhaps be taken as the
residuum of a vast mass of scandal, that he loved his jest, and
was fond of outdoor exercise, sometimes allowing his pursuit
of anuseneut to interrupt his severer employments. On the
whole, there was in him a balance of the mental, the moral, and
the physical pcwers which must have rendered him a notable
example of the sound mind in the sound body, without which
but little can be accomplished in the world.
Not one man in a thousand who is possessed of a sound
mind and a sound body raises himself from obscurity. Great
Crislsin hs achievements come but to those who have learned
life. to sacrifice thensehes to the ideal which flashes
before the inner eye of conscience. To some the wakening
to higher aims and a nobler life comes gradually and insensibly;
to some it comes with a painful struggle : but to uone was the
sense of change so complete, and the struggle so intensified as
to the Puritan of the seventeenth century. It may be that
 The are collected, accompanied by judicious reflection, in Sanford's
tudies of te Great ld,c:lin,  74.

62 Tiff.F_. SESSION O.F 1629. CH. LXVII.

narrowed to a mere dispute over privilege had the weighty
P.ym'sobjec- support of Pyre. " The liberties of this House," he
t,on to n.r- said, "are inferior to the liberties of this kingdom.
row the dis-
v, te. To determine the privilege of this House is but a
mean matter, and the main end is to establish possession of the
subjects, and to take off the commission and records and orders
that are against us. This is the main business ; and the way
to sweeten the business with the King, and to certify ourselves,
is, first, to settle these things, and then we may ira good time
proceed to vindicate our own privileges."
Ira Pym's words was to be heard the prudence of the great
tactician of the Long Parliament. His skill was formed upon
py,'po- the truest perception of the conditions of action. He
ce. felt instinctively that the great cause of the subject's
rights ought to be brought into the foreground, and that the
petty question of Rolle's privilege, resting as it did on pre-
cedents not absolutely certain, and involving an unfair advan-
tage to members of the House over other merchants, ought to
be kept in the background.
Once more Selden failed to rise to the height of the argu-
ment. If a point of privilege was raised, he said, all other
matters must give place. Sir Nathaniel Rich pointed
Selden's
o. out the risk into which Selden was bringing the
ri', ,g- House. He asked whether it was true that a member
gestion, of Parliament had privilege for his goods against the
King. "We have not used," he added, "when anything has
been done by the King's command, to the breach of a privilege
of this House, to fly on the officer that hath put such com-
mands in question ; but have by petition gone to the King and
it hath ever succeeded well." He suggested that the mode of
proceeding should be referred to a committee.
Eliot would not hear of such a suggestion. "Place your
liberty," he cried, "in what sphere you will, if it be not to
Eiot ,,.in preserve the privileges of this House ; for if we were
,ot,xt it. not here to debate and right ourselves and the king-
dora in their liberties, where had all our liberty been at this
day?" The course proposed by Pyre, however, was not left
unsupported. Digges and Seymour sp6ke warmly for it. iViay

t629 ELIOT A TTACA'S IVESTO.'t:
Scripture saith, 'His servants ye are whom ye obey.' If you
will not obey us, you are not our servant."
Fmch's position was indeed a hard one. Elected by the
Commons, but with a tacit regard to a previous selection by
His dtfficult the King, the Speaker had hitherto served as a link
position, between the Crown and the House over which he
presided. In Elizabeth's days it had been easy for a Speaker
to serve two masters. It was no longer possible now. The
strain of the breaking constitution fell upon him. " I am not
the less the King's servant," he said piteously, "for being yours.
I will not say I will not put the reading of the paper to the
question, but I must say, I dare not."
Upon this final refusal Eliot raised his voice.  He told
hearers, silent enough now, how religion had been attacked
:ot's how Arminianism was the pioneer to Popery ; how
,peech. there was a power above the law which checked the
magistrates in the execution of justice. Those who exercised
this power had been the authors of the interruptions in this
pktce, whose guilt and fear of punishment had cast the House
upon the rocks. Amongst these evil councillors were some
prelates of the Church, such as in all ages have been ready for
innovation and disturbance, though at this time more than an3".
Thetn he denounced as enemies to his .Majesty. And behind
them stood another figure more base and sinister still.
He proposes
t,,i,npeach The l,ord Treasurer himself was the prime agent of
'geton. iniquity. "i fear," continued Eliot, "in his person
is contracted the very root and principle of these evils. I find
him building upon the old grounds and foundations which
were built by the Duke of Buckingham, his great master. His
counsels, I am doubtful, begat the sad issue of the last session,
and from this cause that unhappy conclusion crone." Not only
was Weston ' the head of all the Papists,' and the root of all
the dangers to which religion was exposed, but the course
 Eliot began, " I shall now express," &c., as printed by lIr. Forster
{ii. 244). Then fi,llowed, " The miserable condition," &c., which lIr.
Forster believed to hare been spoken at the beginning of the debate {ii.
4o). The concluding phrase, " And for myself," &c. {ii. 45) followed
next.

72 THE SSSSION OF 16-.29. CH. LXVXt.
which he had taken in the question of tonnage and poundage had
been adopted from a deliberate design of subverting
t.rch . the trade of the country, and in the end of subverting
the government. When commerce had been ruined, and the
wooden walls of England were no longer in existence, the State
would be at the mercy of its neighbours. "These things," cried
Eliot, "would have been made more apparent if time had been
for it, and I hope to have time to do it yet."
Olce more Eliot's lightly-kindled imagination had played
him false. The charge of deliberate treason was as unfounded
as it was improbable. In the wild excitement of that day
everything seemed credible to him, and the proud confidence
of his bearing stamped upon his listening auditors the firm
assurance that he was not dealing his shafts at random. At
last, turning to the paper which he held in his hand, he briefly
rxVins the explained its meaning. "There is in this paper,"
vrop,,s, he said, "a protestation against those persons that
protest.
are innovators in religion, against those that are
introducers of any new customs; and a protestaticn against
those that shall execute such commands for tonnage and
poundage, and a protestation against merchants that, if any
merchant shall pay any such duties, he as all the rest shall be
as capital enemies of the State, and whensoever we shall sit
here again, if I be here--as I think I shall--I will deliver
myself more at large, and fall upon the person of that man." 
Eliot had made known what the contents of the paper were ;
but unless his resolutions could be formally put by the Speaker,
they would not go forth as more than the expression
"l'he reading"
of the protest of his private opinion. Coryton urged that it would
girgea. be for the King's advantage that the paper should be
read. He had need of help fi-om the House, and those persons
that had been named kept it from him. The members had
come there with a full resolution to grant not merely tonnage
 This last paragraph is from S. P. l)ottt, cxxxviii. 6. It is more life-
like than the words given in Nicholas's Notes. " If ever I ser-e again in
Parliament I shall proceed against them as capital enemies of the State."
It must be acknowledged, however, that the latter form agrees better 'ith
that printed by lXlr. Forster {ii. 245).

76 THE SESSIOV OF i629. cry. LXWL
put the question himself, ttearty shouts of 'Ay !' 'Ay !' adopted
the defianze which he flung in the face of the King.
The Resolu-
tions The House then voted its ovn adjournment. The
adopted.
The House door was thrown open at last, and the members
adjour,s, poured forth to convey to the outer world the tidings
of their high resolve. Eleven )'ears were to pass away befi)re
the representatives of the c'ountry were permitted to cross that
threshold again.

78 PRiI'ILEGE 01: IL4RLL43IENT. cH. LXVIII.
last freed himself from a yoke to which he had long sub-
mitted with difficulty, x
Charles's feeling of self-satisfaction was in truth the most
ominous element in the political prospect. No candid person
can find fault with him for dissolving Parlimnent.
Charles's
self-satifae- The House of Commons which had just ceased to
i... exist had been elected under circumstances of pecnliar
excitement, and it had ended by clamouring for stringent
measures of repression which would have been fatal to the free
development of thought in England. Unhappily Charles had
been himself to blame fo, the explosion by his unwise
Was the
di.solution promotion of men holding unpopular opinions. If,
justifiable? recognising the true causes of his unpopularity, he
had wished to gain a year or two to recover the confidence of
the nation, no one but a constitutional purist would blame him
for refusing to abdicate his hereditary authority. A wiser man
might well bare shrunk from placing himself unreservedly in
the hands of a ttouse of Commons which clained supremacy
in the State whilst crying down that essential condition of
liberty of thought and speech, without which parliamentary
government is only a mote crushing form of tyranny.
The Declaration set forth by the King  to justify the dis-
solution was an able statement of his case against the House of
The Kig' Commons. In his own mind at least Charles took
1)eclarati,n. his stand upon the law. He would carry out, he
said, the provisions of the Petition of Right. He would allow
no innovations in the Church. But he protested against the
new doctrine that the House of Commons might erect itself
into a supreme tribunal, before which all ministers of State, and
even all courts of justice, were bound to give account. As to
tonnage and poundage, it had always been enjoyed by his pre-
decessors from the first day of their reign. His father had
collected it for a year before it had been granted by Parliament
It was clear to him therefore that the Commons had no right
to construe a formal and friendly act of acknowledgment into
 Lords' ournals, iv. 43; Contarini to the Doge, March t3 l'en.
2ranscrijts, . O. '
" Declaration, March IO, tarl. IIisl. il. 492.

1629 FIRST RESg.TLTS OF TIIE DISSOLUTION. 79
an authority to transfer the whole government of England into
their hands.
Of course there was an answcr to all this. Formal or not,
the grant of tonnage and poundage by Parliament signified
that the government rested upon the co-operation of King and
Parliament. If it was a new thing for the Commons to claim
supreme power without the King, it was also a new thing for
the King to claim snpreme power without consulting the wishes
of the nation. The old order had given way. It was not in
the nature of things to eliminate the Itouse of Commons from
the constitution without effecting corresponding changes in
every direction. A King without a Parliament would be quite
different from a King with a Parliament. He wottld glide
without a check down the easy path which leads through arbi-
trary power to despotism, and through despotism to anarchy.
No doubt Charles did not distinctly acknowledge to himself
that he had resolved never to call a Parliament again ; but he
had made up his mind to exact conditions which no English
Parliament would ever again yield. The time had gone by
when a House of Commons could be cmtent with respectfully
watching for the word of colmnand from the throne, not because
the members were more unruly than they had been fifty years
before, but because the King was utterly careless of the course
of public opinion. Elizabeth had controlled her Parliaments
because she embodied that opinion better than they did.
Charles would, in the end, be controlled by his Parliaments
because they represented that opinion better than he did.
n'_ight indeed have found a work to do in guiding that opinion,
in the hope of preventing it from degenerating into mob-
government either in Parliament or in the streets. It was his
misfortune to think it possible to fulfil this duty by placing
himself in opposition to the current of contemporary sentiment.
He did not appeal to the nation against the House of Com-
mons. He bade the nation to keep silence whilst he moulded
it into the shape which seemed best to hilnself.
On the  7th of March a series of questions was put to t.he
prisoners. It now appeared that they were not all alike pre-
pared to carry their opposition to extrelnes. Valentine indeed

0

PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAJIENT. cH. LXVL

f, rmly refused to answer any charge founded on acts done in
rr,z. Parliament. Coryton was less firm. He acknow-
l':.mi,ation tedged that it was ' fit to suffer by paying' tonnage
of the
wion,, and poundage rather 'than to do those things that
might be worse.'t Before long he made his submission, and
was at once released. Heyman, too, soon afterwards satisfied
the Court that he might safely be allowed his liberty.
Selden, who was examined on the following day, had still
Iess the temperament of a martyr than Coryton or Heyman.
z . Intellectually audacious, he needed the applanse of a
v,,i,io, favouring audience to inspire him to resist authority.
,rsa,, He boldly assured his examiners that he was in ab-
solute ignorance of all that had passed on the eventful morning.
He had never moved that Eliot's paper should be read by the
(lerk. He had only made a motion in order to help on the ad-
jourmnent of the House in compliance with the King's wishes.
If he had understood Eliot's speech, ' he would have absolutely
dissented from him.' The falsehood was so unblushing that it
can hardly be reckoned as a falsehood at all. He could never
for an instant have expected to be believed. _All he meant was
to intimate that he had no ir.tention of allowing himself to be
made a victim for any opinion whatever. - He deeply felt his
separation from his books and his pep., and he was anxious to
recover the use of them as soon as possible, a
If Eliot was weak where Selden as strong, he was strong
where Selden was weak. He never peered forward into the
gloom of the future in anxious watching for the new
a,,a of Eliot. ideas of toleration and liberty ; but he was not the
man to flinch before danger. To every question put he had but

* Interrogatories and Examinations, March I7 S. o. /9ore. cxxxviii.
$7, 88, 89.
* Mr. Forster (Sir . Eliot, iii. z49) doubts the correctness o! these
answers because ' the alleged res,dt of Selden's examination is not re-
concilab!e either with his former speechtt; or with his tone afterwards.'
I'rohably Mr. Forster contented himself with the abstract in Mr. Bruce's
Calendar. The original examination (S. f'. Z3om. cxxxiv. 8) is sighed
Selden, and his signature is attested by the trivy Couucillors present.
 Selden to Apsley March 3 o, S. 2 v. Dora. ccxxxix. 7S.

I629 ELIOT IA" THE TOIt'ER. 8
one reply to give. " I refuse to answer, bec,quse I hold that it
is against the privilege of the House of Parliament to speak of
anything which was done in the House." *
No wonder the whole wrath of Charles was discharged upon
Eliot. To Charles, according to an expression used by his
Antagonism Attorney-General in a subsequent case, Parliament
between 
Charles was a great court, a great council, the great council
and Wliot. of the King ;' but the Houses were ' but his council,
not his governors. ' Eliot claimed for l'arliament an inde-
pendent position, free except in the specified cases of treason,
felony, or breach of the peace, from any authority whatever.
The whole conflict between Crown and l'arliament appeared to
be summed up in this duel between two men, of whom one was
armed to the teeth, and the other was a defence]ess captive at
his feet.
To Charles, Eliot was but an ambitious demagogue who
must be punished in order that the commonwealth might have
M =o. peace. Eliot, he knew, did not stand alone. Men of
Eliot visited the highest rank--the Earl of Lincoln, Lord Roch-
intheTower, ford, Lord St. John, and many others--were flocking
to the Tower to express their sympathy with him in his suf-
5hrd*-7. ferings'Z A proclamation issued on March 7 bore
rodama- the impress of Charles's angry feeling. He spoke of
liOn against 
fal.er- Eliot as an outlawed man, desperate in mind and
or. fortune.' "And whereas," he continued, "for several
ill ends the calling again of a Parliament is divulged, however
we have shewed by our frequent meeting with our people our
love to the use of Parliaments ; yet the late abuse having for
the present driven us unwillingly out of that course, we shall
account it presumption for any to prescribe any time unto us
for Parliaments, the calling, continuing, and dissolving of which
is always in our own power, and we shall be more inclinable to
meet in Parliament again when our people shall see more clearly
into our intents and actions, when such as have bred this inter-
ruption shall have received their condign punishment, and those
 S. 19. Dont. cxxxiv. 7-
"- lleath's speech against Leighton, p. 9, Camden .Iiscellany, vol. vii.
s Apsley to Dorchester, March co, S. o./)am. cxxxix. 19.
VOL. VII. G

jury. It had thus become a tribunal constantly resorted to as
a resource against the ignorance or prejudices of a country
jury, much in the same way as a special jury is applied to in
our own days. t In such investigations it showed itself intel-
ligent and impartial. In political trials, however, impartiality
could hardly be expected. Ever), member of the Court, with
the exception of the two Chief Justices, was also a Privy
Councillor. The persons who were cited as defendants had
invariably given offence to the Privy Council, and the g-rear
majority of the members of the Court were therefore in
reality parties to the dispute which they were called upou to
decide.
Before such a court, Chambers had no chance of escape ;
but there was a difference of opinion as to the extent of the
s,e punishment to be inflicted. The two Chief Justices,
,,po,, Hyde and Richardson, would have been content
(.hanbers.
with a fine of 500/. The two bishops, Neile and
Laud, would not be satisfied with less than 3,000/. The flue
was at last fixed at 2,ooo1., and to this was added--the Chief
Justices alone disenting--imprisomnent uutil the fau!t com-
mitted had been duly acknowledged.
Chambers refused to allow that he had committed an)' fault
at all. In vain a form of submission prepared by the Court
was offered to him for signature. "All the above
He refuses to
,,,owe contents and submission," he wrote at the foot of it,
his offence. "I, Richard Chambers, do utterly abhor and detest
aa most unjust, and never till death will acknowledge any part
thereof." Then followed a string of Scripture texts denouncing
tho:e who refused to execute judgment and justice, and who
were ready to make a man an offender for a word. 
Chambers was not content with the choice of imprisonment
rather than submission. In order to force on a legal decision
upon the maiu point at issue, he brought an action in the
* We are so apt to think of the Star Chamber simply as a Court em-
ployed upon State Trials, that it requires a strong effort of the imagination
Io grasp he fact hat the great majority of cases lzefore it were owing to
the action of private prosecutors.
-" State Y'rials iii. 374.

t629 .I,'V IA,'FOR,1IA TIO,'V IN THE STAR cHeqIIER. 9 t
for "-he imprisonment beyond the King's pleasure. A fresh
warrant was now issued, stating the ground of committal to be
notable contempts against the King and his Government,
stirring np of sedition in the State. The next step to be taken
by the prisoners' connsel would be to convince the judges that
the offence so named was a bailable one.
The cause expressed was somewhat vaguely given. All
reference to the existence of such a body as Parliament was
H.th' ,- carefully avoided. In the information exhibited by
formation in Heath in the Star Chamber on the same day, it was
the Star
Chamber. impossible to avoid all mention of l'arliament. But
as little was said about it as possible. Heath took his stand
upon the conspiracy to pnblish slanderous rumours, in order
to bring the Government into disrepute. He now waived the
question of the King's right to enforce an adjourmnent which
he had mooted in his private application to the judges, mad he
contrived to represent the tumult as an offence against the
House as well as against the King, by alleging that, but for
the machinations of the prisoners, the lnajority of the Colnmos
would have been read)" to adjourn.
It was possible that when Heath came to argue his case he
would find that he had only escaped one difficulty to land
himself in another. He would first have to prove that the
conspiracy had a real existence. Ite would then have to proV.e
the falsehood of Eliot's deliberate statement that whatever he
had said against Weston had been said with a view to a formal
impeachment. The defendants, however, saved him the trouble
of marshalling his evidence. They repudiated the
lXlay =2.
a'f- jurisdiction of the Star Chamber entirely. Of the
dantsdemur, pleas put in, Selden's was the longest and most com-
prehensive. The great lawyer was himself again. It was one
thing to be brought face to face with Privy Councillors it a cell
in the Tower. It was another thing to plead in due professional
form. Going to the heart of the question, he asserted boldly,
what Heath had abstained from denying, that the Royal com-
mand did not adjourn the House, and that all that had been
t t'arl. Ilisl. ii. 507 ; S. P. Dam. cxliii. 4-3.

96 PRII'ILEGE 01: p.qILLq[]:.'ArT, c. LXVl.
demonstration of their modesty and cMlity than on the last
OCCaSiOrl. !
When the Court met on the following day no prisoners
,qppearcd. The judges accepted the check without relnon-
strance. On the 6th the term came to an end, and
June 5-
Voi the Court contented itself with directing that the
o,ea. prisoners should be produced after the Long Vaca-
June 6. tiou. This time Eliot's name is found on the list of
applicants for bail. It would seeln that though he had taken
no steps to share in his comrades' chances of freedom, he was
ready to share in their misfortune, now that there was no longer
any risk of compromising them by his presence. 
Charles had been scrupulous to observe the Petition of
Right in the letter, but he had not observed its spirit. He had
' sought to entrust the arbitration between himself and
,,,ndo his subjects to the judges, and on the first occasion
,idge that the judges decided against him, he set aside
their decision by a subterfuge. Perhaps it was inevitable that
he should refuse to submit. A lnodern Parliament under
similar circumstances would have overruled the judges by
suspending the Habeas Corpus Act. It is a clear gain to the
working of the constitution that overwhelluing power should be
placed iu a political not in a judicial body. It is also a clear
gain that it should be placed in a body which is likely to
exercise it as seldom as possible. Charles was neither in the
positiou of an absolute king nor of an absolute Parliamelzt.
The traditions of the constitution forbade him from claiming
to be the source of law. Yet the traditions of the constitution
justified him in claiming the supreme regulative power in the
nation. True to his nature, he concealed from himself the
real meaning of his act by the trick in which it was enveloped.
His own position was weakened by the manceuvre. He had
humiliated the judges, and if he humiliated the judges his
subjects were not likely to respect them. He could no longer

Heath to Dorchester : the King to Apsley ; the King to the .udges
of the King's Bench, S. t . Dora. cxlv. 4o, 41, 4 z.
Rule Book of the Ixing's Bench,

1o6 PRII,'ILEGE OF PARLIA31E.VT". cIL LXVltL
Everything the ambassador saw led him to believe that with
the Queel_ on his side he could hardly fail of success. Charles
was still an ardent lover. He kissed his wife again and again
.elations in Chateauneuf's presence. " You do not see that
bet,,'een at Turin," he said gaily, referring to the Queen's
Charles and
t,eueen, eldest sister. " Nor at Paris either," he added in a
lower tone, with a glance at the loveless wedlock of Louis.
Some councillors complained that the King was ahvays in his
wife's apartments. Except when he was hunting it was im-
possible to speak to him. Yet he was excessively jealous of
the supposition that he was under the Queen's influence. " I
wish," he said to her one day, "that we could be always to-
gether, and that you could accompany me to the Council ; but
what would these people say if a woman were to busy herself
with matters of govermnent?" Chateauneuf thought that if
the Queen would play her card well she might lead her hus-
band where she chose ; but he could not persuade her to care
for politics at all. She was too happy in the immediate present,
too little capable at any time of a sustained effort, except when
some personal object was at stake, to trouble herself with the
combinations of statesmen. 
Chateauneuf now tried to reach the Queen through her
religious zeal. He proposed to establish in her household
TheQueen's eight French Capuchins and a bishop, and to get rid
vriess, of the two Oratorians who had been in attendance
since the expulsion of the French, one of whom, Father Philips,
an Englishman, had acted as the Queen's confessor. Chateau-
neuf found the King ready to give his wife all freedom in the
exercise of her religion. He sometimes scolded her for staying
in bed so long that she was unable to hear mass before noon.
To the eight Capuchins he made no objection ; but he would
not hear of the bishop. He would come to England, he said,
in his episcopal habit, and would jostle with the bishops of the
land. To the Queen he expressed his own personal objection.
" Your mother," he said, "is sending you a governor. When
 Chateauneuf to Richelieu, July 3 Aug. w, Aug. 3 /
tliii. 9, 27, 249.

xn9 ARH TIlE P2ISOA'ERS TO HE BAILED? io 9
however, dropped, in coml)liance with the wishes of lhe judges.
The great cause was to be removed to the King's Bench.
The scandal of calling the offending melnbers before a
Court mainly composed of Privy Councillors was thus avoided.
Charles would appeal to the ordinary guardians of the law to
punish his assailants.
He had not much cause to fear. The judges were ready
enough to carry out his wishes. The course to be pursued in
the question of bail was settled at a conference
Sept. 9-
I)ifficulties between Coventry, Manchester, and Dorchester with
Uout il. the assistance of Heath. The first day of term on
which the prisoners would be brought up in pursuance of the
rule of the Court was October 9- It was now resolved to
anticipate the day, to bring theln up as soon as possible, and
to take their bail for the remainder of the vacation on condition
that they would give security for their good behaviour whilst at
liberty ; in other words, that they would engage not to make
the Govermnent unpopular by recounting their wrongs.
This proposal was adopted by the judges without difficulty.
They were even prepared to go farther. Not only would they
Sept. 3 o. offer the bail on the King's terms, but they would
Course offer it as a matter of favour, not as a right to which
adopted by
the judges, the prisoners were legally entitled. - Even with this
Charles was not satisfied. He required that if the prisoners
once refused the grace offered them, they should not
Oct. x.
Further be allowed another chance unless they first asked
dimculties, his pardon. On this point, however, the judges
were firm. Hyde answered that the prisoners would not be so
foolish as to reject the favour offered to them, yet, 'if they
should be so gross,' and should afterwards repent of their folly,
' bailable they are by law.'
The King insisted. He sent his letter empowering the
ot. . judges to offer bail, but accompanied with a warning
that if his grace was refused the prisoners should
' neither have their liberty by his letter or by other means till they
 The King to the Judges of the King's Bench, Sept. 9 ; Iteath to
Dorchester, Sept. o, 5'. '. Dom. cxlix. 37 ; i. 37-
t H)-de to Dorchester Sept. 3o, iMd. cxlix. o.

I'RIVILEGE OF PARLIA3IEWT. ct. LXVI.

himself incapable of that privilege, although I conceive the
l'arliamcnt to be the best servant the King hath, and the
commonwealth cannot stand without it. I have been a Par-
liament man ahnost these twenty }.ears, yet I never observed
any inveighing against the person of any great man, but we
followed the matter, although we thought that there were
great offenders then as at any time. Suppose a judge of this
court flies into gross invectives and leaves his office, shall this
judge in Court of Oyer and Terminer plead his privilege ? No,
for you did this as a defamer, not a judge." 
But for one consideration, it would be impossible to resist
this argument. If Parliament was to be nothing more than the
Cosi.- high court which in technical langauge it still is, it
tion of its would be for the public benefit that a power should
,.eight. exist strong enough to impose upon its members
the restraints to which every other Englishman submits his
language and his actions. It was because Parliament was
rapidly becoming more than a high court that Whitelocke's
argument was invalid. It was unconsciously putting in a
claim to share in the superiority which, as Whitelockesaid, was
subject to no control. By-and-by it would vindicate that supe-
riority to itself. Privileges xvhich might be lightly regarded
when the machinery of government was working easily, became
matters of life and death when the different powers of the
constitution were eyeing one another suspiciously, ready before
long to sound the challenge to civil war. Calthrop had said
that if malice could bring words within the jurisdiction of the
King's Bench, malice might be imputed to anyone. To sur-
render the point at issue was to renounce the weapon without
which victory in the approaching strife was hardly possible.
It was simply impossible that this broad view of the case
should be taken by the judges. Even Eliot did not avow
probably hardly thought of it in the self-communings of his
heart. With him resistance proceeded rather from instinctive
defiance of wrong than from a deliberate foreknowledge of the
path before him. As yet the Court had only claimed its juris-
 Stage Trials, ill. e93- israel..ISS, eS, fol. e. I have taken extracta
indiscriminately from the two reports.

CHAPTER LXIX.

lAUD, WENTWORTH AND WESTON.

TuF. permanent interest of the judicial proceedings which have
just been narrated centres in Eliot's protest. Their importance
for the immediate future lay in the tacit renunciation
*63o.
The judges by the judges of that high authority which the
and the
retitionor Commous had thrust upon them in x628. They
Right. fused to be arbitrators between the King and the
nation. They accepted the position which Bacon had assigned
them, of lions beneath the throne, upon whom was imposed the
duty of guarding the throne from attack. All t!mt had been
gained by the Petition of Right seemed to be lost in an instant.
What would it matter that the judges were ready to enforce
the specificatiou of the cause of committal, if they were ready
to be satisfied ith the cause shown, whatever it might be ?
The Petition, in truth, had laid down a great principle, which
could only be carried out to its logical results by the strenuous
efforts of future Parliaments.
Would Parliament ever meet again ? The real line of
separation between the King and the House of Commons had
lain in the religious questit,,. So decided Ead been
*69.
Thereligioes the olposition that it seemed hardly possible that a
question, compromise could be discovered which would enable
them to meet on friendly terms. At first sight, indeed, it naight
seem that the policy im'olved in the King's Declaration on Re-
ligion was more likely to win general support than the zealous
intolerance of the Commons. Laud's comment on the Resolu-

16 L I'D O.V TOLE'ATIO:'.
cruel ent hould 6rt be Oroen up into 6omcnt, nd then,
by radual ubdiviion, hto minute tom, nd hould o
into nothing.. . or mv own prt, I will Ibour wth the
grace of God that truth and peace may kiss one another.
fir our sins, God refuses to grant this, I will hope for eterual
peace for myself as soon as possible, leaving to God those who
break that kiss asunder, that He may either convert them, as
heartily desire, or may visit them with punishment." 
Dislike of arrogant and selfsufficient dogmatists is plainly
to be read in these words of I,aud. For all that, the true ring
o,,-ri of liberty is not in them. There is none of that
l. vt sympathy with the aspirations of the limited human
the idea of
toleration? mind to win by arduous struggle a footing on the out-
works f truth which is the sustenance of the spirit of tolera-
tion. For speculative thought Laud cared nothing. Not truth,
but peace, was the object which he pursued. Hence the iu-
retest which he took in the fortunes of that Dutch Church
which came so short of his own episcopal standard gave tzo
warrant of equal liberality at home. He never felt himself to
be burdened with faults committed outside his own special
sphere of action, and he might therefore be easily moved to
treat with extreme severity in England practices which in a
foreign country would cause him no more than a passing annoy-
ance. In England his hand was likely to be heavily
is estimate
ofext ..... 1 felt. The pursuit of peace in preference to the
i,,nc, pnrsuit of truth was certain to be accompanied by
an exaggerated estimate of the importance of external influences
over the mind. It was characteristic in him to speak of Ar-
totle, the philosopher who tadght that virtue owed its strength
to the formation of habits, as his great master hz humanis. 
His love of outward observances, of the eauty of Holiness, as
he fondly called it, was partly founded on a keen sense of the
incongruity of dirt and disorder with sacred things ; partly upon
the recognition of the educative influence of regularity and ar-
rangement. There was in his mind no dim sense of the spiritual
depths o[ lif% no reaching forward to ineffable mysteries veiled

Laud to Vossius, july I4, Works, vi. 265. 2 ll-/s, iv. 59.

126 LAUD, IVE.NTIVORTII', A.:VD II'ESYO,V.. CH. LXIX.

from the eye of flesh. It was incomprehensible to him why
men should trouble themselves about matters which they could
not understand. Itis acts of reverence had nothing in common
with the utter self-abnegation of the great Italian falling as a
dead body falls before the revelation of those things which eye
had not seen, nor ear heard. If he is called upon to defend his
practice of bowing towards the altar upon entering a church,
he founds his arguments not on any high religious theme, but
upon the custom of the Order of the Garter. To him a church
was not so much the temple of a living Spirit, as the palace of
an invisible King. He had a plain prosaic reason for every-
thing that he did.
Even those strange entries in his diary which have some-
times been treated as if they contained the key of his mind
His dreams have nothing imaginative in them. There is no
,,omens. thought of following a heavenly voice when he re-
cords the falling down of a picture or the dropping out of a
tooth. "God grant," he writes, "that this be no omen," as if
there were just a possibility that the invisible King might have
something to tell him in this way. Yet though he notices the
occurrence sufficiently to make him think it worth while to jot
it down for future comparison with events, he never thinks of
acting upon it.
To form the habits of Englishmen in order that there might
be peace amongst them, was the task which Laud set before
him. The Declaration on Peligion had been the
Policy of the
Declaration first great step in this direction. The excitement
on Religion. caused by polemical controversy must be allayed [ y
the prohibition of controversy. It remained to foster a sense
of union amongst those whom theological argument had divided.
If all men worshipped in the same way, used the stone forn-.s
and ceremonies, pronounced the same words, and accompanied
them with the same gestures, a feeling of brotherhood would
gradually spring up. The outward and visible was to be the
road to the inward and spiritual. "Since I came into this
place," he wrote long afterwards in defence of his conduct, "I
laboured nothing more than that the external public worsl:ip

So LAUD, IVENTIVORTI4", AND W)ESTOA r. CH. LXlX.
King commanded Howson to carry the dispute no further.
Such interference with a bishop tended to bring episcopal au-
thority into contempt, by showing that it might be wielded in
one direction or another according to the varying influences
which prevailed at Court. 
In the suppression of books in which the predestinarian
doctrine was handled, Laud had no need of the King's assist-
*e9- ance. A decree of the Star Chamber in Elizabeth's
N.'uppression reign had prohibited the printing of books without
of unlicensed
boo. the licence of one of the Archbishops or of the
Bishop of London. Printers and authors in vain urged the argu-
ment which Selden had supported in Parliament that the Star
Chamber had exceeded its powers. Printers and authors were
brought before the High Commission, and were taught to obey
the restrictions imposed upon them at the risk of fine and im-
prisonment.
In his own diocese, at least, Laud was able greatly to
restrict, if not altogether to bring to an end, that diversity
of practice which had long been suffered to prevail.
Prohibition
aocon- The Book of Common Prayer was to be accepted as
fortuity, the complete rule of worship. The ministers of the
Church were no longer to be permitted to omit this or that
prayer at pleasure, to stand when they were bidden to kneel, or
to kneel when they were bidden to stand.
Iaud's chief difficulty lay with the lecturers. The parish
clergy could hardly avoid reading Morning or Evening Prayer
The lec- in a more or less nutilated form ; but a lecturer was
tre,-, under no such obligation. He was paid by a Cor-
poration, or by individnals, to preach and to do nothing more.
He might remain sitting in the vestry, if he chose, till the
service was at an end, when he could come out to ascend the
pulpit, and to shine forth in the eyes of the congregation as
one who was far superior to the man by whom the printed
prayers had been recited. The lecturers were to be found
 Cosin's CorreslSon,lnce , i. I55. ACtS of the Iligh Commission, App.
A. {Suttees SocieO, ). Much correspondence is scattered through the Sate
taters, The first letter from the King to Howson is dated Nov. 3, I63I
Tanner USS. lxx. 8.

t629 ZECTUI?ER&  3 I
chiefly in towns where there was a strong Puritan element m
the population, and they were themselves Puritans ahnost to a
I f).an.
TO those vho think it desirable that the teaching of a
Church shoul21 be in harmony with the prevalent opinions
of the congregations of which it is composed, the arrangement
may seera not to have been a bad one after all. The existence
of the lecturers provided a certain elasticity in the ecclesiastical
institutions of the country, without which the enforcement of
uniformity would in the long run prove impracticable. I.aud
was not likely to regard the lecturers from so favourable a poi:t
of view. Not only were they careless about forms and cere-
monies, but they owed their appointment to the private actio_
f the laity. Those who appointed might dismiss as well, and
if Laud's eyes were closed to the evils of subjecting the clergy
to the word of command from the Court, they were opened
widely to the evils of leaving them in entire dependence upon
the varying humours of the richer me:nbets of their cougrega-
tions.
Ii. December Laud's meditations on the subject of lec-
turers took shape in a series of instructions sent out by the King
to the bishops. Some clauses were applicable to
I)ecember.
The King's special abuses committed by the bishops themselves
instructions, in the administration of the property of their sees.
But those which were of most general importance touched the
preachers, and more especially the lecturers. In the first place
the King's Declaration forbidding the introductiou of contro-
versial topics was to be strictly observed. Further, there were
no longer to be any afternoon sermons at all. Catechizing of
children was to take their place. In the morning sermons
were still permitted, but no lecturer was to be suffered to open
his moufla unless he had first 'read Divine Service according
*o the Liturgy printed by authority, in his surplice.' Nor was
any lecturer to receive an appointment in a corporate town
unless he was ready to accept 'a living with cure of souls'
within the limits of the Corporation. The bishops were to
gather information on the behaviour of the preachers, and
to ' take order for any abuse accordingly.' I.astly, in order to
K2

34 L4L'19, II'EA'TII'ORTt[, AA'D IVESTOA: cH. l.xtx.
governnmnt were at an end. Laud at once attacked the riotous
and disorderly habits of tim place. Academical
May.
o;,cipt,e costume was no longer to be neglected. Under-
,i,.ed. graduates were no longer to occnpy seats destined
for Masters of Arts. Above all the King's Declaration was to
be enlbrced. Even a preacher who ventured to praise Armi-
nianism and to revile the Synod of 1)oft was severely repri-
manded. Another preacher had offended in a different way.
He had declared 'directly against all reverence in churches,
and all obeisance or any devout gesture in or at the receiving
of' the Communion. " If this be true," wrote laud, "belike
we shall not kneel neither."
There was little in common between the bustling energy of
the Bishop prying into every corner of the land, and counting
nothing too small for his regulative authority, and the
Contrast
t,, La ponderous inertia of the Lord Treasurer, to whom it
a,,a wto,,, was the highest of arts to leave difficulties alone, and
who was well satisfied if he could leave to a future generation
tho problenas which he was himself incapable of solving. There
was but one man in England as untiring as Laud, and that nmn,
though long admitted into the King's .service, had only recently
acquired even a very slight hold upon the King's thvour. But
little is known of Wentworth for nearly a year after
x69.
W,,,,-o.,h his speech at York.  He was in his place in the
and
House of Lords during the short session which
followed, and it needs no evidence to prove that the proceed-
ings of the I.ower House nmst have left an indelible impression
upon his mind. Whatever distrust he had felt before of the
intolerant predominance of Calvinism; whatever shrinking he
had felt from the rule of a dominant House of Commons, was
now doubled. In the maintenance and elevation of the Royal
authority lay for him henceforth the only path of safety and
wisdom. It was impossible for him to be content, as Charles
and Weston were content, with the mere suspension of Parlia-
mentary life. He knew too well that the habit of insub-
ordination to authority could not be uprooted by mere passive

t Laud to Tolsoa, biay 7, Laud's tl'orks, v. 5-  See p. 24.

I36 LAUD, IVENTIVORTt-I", A,VD I'.ESTO'V. ell. lXX.
and his superabundant reliance upon the all-sufficiency of the
t,eakness. average religious feeling of his day, never entered
upon a course so hopeless as did Wentworth when
he set his hand to build up a compact constitutional edifice of
which Charles was to be the corner-stone. Nor would Went-
worth have been likely to achieve permanent success even if
Charles had been other than he was. Wi ling co-operation
can never be looked for where there is no sympathy between
the governors and the governed, no spontaneousness of action
in those whose assistance is required. Exper:,ence teaches that
such a synapathy and such spontaneousness of action can only
be maintained where the govermnent is in one sense or another
representative. Either by the election of a controlling assembly
or by some less direct means, the nation must be able to make
its voice heard, unless a gnlf is to open between Government
and people which nothing short of revolutionary violence can
close up.
Eliot and Wentworth indeed were of one mind as to wishing
such a catastrophe to be averted ; but they differed as to the
Fliot and means to be employed to ward off the danger. For
we.,o,,h. Eliot it was enough that the House of Commons had
spoken That House in his eyes truly represented the nation
in the fervour of its religion, in the wisdom and gravity of its
political aspirations. In Wentworth's eyes it only partially re-
presented the nation, if it represented it at all. The lawyers
and country gentlenen of whom it was composed were not to
be trusted to govern England. The lawyers with their quirks
and formulas too often stood in the way of substantial justice.
The country gentlemen too often misused the opportunities of
their wealth to t3rannise over their poorer neighbours. Went-
worth therefore would appeal to the nation outside the House
of Commons, as Chatham afterwards appealed to the nation
outside the House of Commons. The King was to do judg-
ment and justice fairly and equally to rich and poor. So would
come the day when Parliament could be allowed to meet again.
The King would not have altered his course to put himself in
harmony with the nation, but the nation would have grown in
intelligence to take hold of the hand offered to it by the King.

t629 IVEWTIVORTH'S CONSTITUTIONALI.M'. t37
Thus Veentworth seemed to himself to be contendiug for
the old and undoubted liberties of Englishmen, for their right
,rentworth to freedom from vexatious injustice. He was stand-
tegardshim-e:fas the ing in the ancient paths. His knowledge of history
maimainerof told him how a Henry lI. and an Edward I., a
the old con-
stitution. Henry VIII. and an Elizabeth, had actually guided
a willing people. It told hiln nothing of a dominant House of
Commons reducing its Sovereigu to insignificance. What it
told him of coutrol from the baronage, or even from Parliament
as a body, might safely be set down as irregular and unconsti-
tutional, the deplorable result of misgovernment. That Charles
should ever make such violence necessary he could not briug
himself to believe. At all events, he did not see that the King
had made it necessary by his resistance to the House of
Commons. As he had accused Buckingham once, so he might
accuse Eliot now 'of ravishing at once the spheres of all
mtcient govermnent.'
Was there indeed a nation behind the House of Commons
to which Weutworth could give au articulate voice, or had he
miscalculated his strength and over-estimated his power of
raising the inert masses to a level with the effective strength
of the nation, in the same way as he undervalued the worth of
those religious and moral ideas to which the political classes
clung so tenaciously? This was the secret of the future.
Others, Charles more especially, would have to contribute to
the solution of the prc-blem. Yet even if all power had been
concentrated in Wentworth's hands, it is unlikely that he would
have solved it successfully. He had too little attractive force
to overcome the difficulties in his path. He was too self-
reliant, too read}, to leave his deeds to speak for themselves,
too haaghty and arrogant towards adversaries, to conciliate
opposition, or even to be regarded by those whose cause he
supported with that mingled feeling of reverence and familiarity
w'hich marks out the true leaders of mankind. He lnight come
to be looked upon as the embodiment of force. Men might
quail before his knitted brow and his clear commanding voice.
They would not follow him to the death as Gustavus was
followed, or" hasten to his succour as the freeholders of Buck

163o
his congregation dismissed him from his post, he continued to
occupy the pulpit, till the magistrates of the city intervened,
and forced him to forbear preaching. A few weeks later,
finding that there was no place for him in the Netherlands, he
returned to England, probably thinking that his work had es-
caped notice. His book, however, though it could not be sold
openly, was circulated in private, under the title of 4n 4eal
to garliamozt ; or, Sion's glea agat)tst grelacy. In the following
,630. February a copy fell into Laud's hands. The pur-
Vb. w. suivants were at once put upon the track of the daring
Arrest of
Leighton. author, and, before long, he was arrested by a warrant
from the High Commission, and lodged, if Iris description is
correct, ' in a nasty dog-hole full of rats and mice.' 1
Leighton's treatise was undoubtedly the production of a
vigorous understanding. There is an intellectual freshness
Character of in its composition which is wholly wanting in the
i ook. ponderous learning of Prynne. It is, however, the
work of a man with a single fixed idea. Whatever evil ex-
isted in the world was laid to the charge of the bishops,
the antichristian and Satanical prelacy. If the season was un-
healthy, if provisions were dear, if ladies displayed extravagance
in dress, it was all the fault of the bishops. They had poisoned
the ear of the late King, telling him that if he would support
their authority he might have 'absolute liberty to do what he
list.' They had supported Buckingham in his resistance to
Parliaments till God cut him off. They were 'men of blood,'
persecuting the saints, 'knobs and wens and bunchy popish
flesh'; they were the 'trumpery of Antichrist,' by whom the
land was filled with swearing, drunkenness, pride, idleness, and
all kinds of sin.
Though Leighton spoke respectfully of the King, he did
not hesitate to wound his tenderest feelings. He described
]3uckingham as ' that great Goliath,' who had been made ' to fall
 The greater part of the evidence on which this narrative is based is
collected in the introduction to Heath's speech in the Camden 3Iiscellany,
vol. vii. Some important corrections ae due to information given me by
lr. James Christie.
VOL. Vll.

,48 LAUD, II'EA'TII'ORTlt, AA'D II'E.VTOiV. CH. LXIX.

place in that court, declared that if the King had so pleased,
Leighton might have been put on his trial for high treason,
and some of the Privy Councillors assured him that ' it was his
Majesty's exceeding mercy and goodness' ,hich had brought
him there. In order to show his Majesty's mercy and good-
hess, Leighton was condemned to pay a fine of o, oooL, to be
set in the pillory at Westminster, and there xhilped , and after
his whippiug to ' have one of his ears cnt off and his nose slit,
aud be branded in the face with SS, for a sower of sedition.' At
some future time he was to be taken to the pillory at Cheapside,
The lash was again to descend upon his back, his other ear was
to be sliced off, and he was then to be imprisoned for life,
' unless his Majesty shall be graciously pleased to enlarge him.'
It is not probable that any one of the judges expected
I.eighton to pay a hundredth part of the line which had been
set upon him. In truth the enormous fines which have left
such a mark upon the history of this reign were seldom ex-
acted, and became little more than a conventional mode in
which the judges expressed their horror of the offence, * except
so far as they may have been intended to bring the offender to
an earls" confession of his fault. The rest of Leighton's sen
tence, however, was far from nominal. In its treatment
criminals, the age was hard and brutal. The constant pass-
ing of the death-cart along the road to Tybum raised no

 Every individual payment of the fines is set down in the Receipt Books
of the Exchequer. The only question is whether those not there mentioned
wcre paid underhand. I thik if this had been the case we should have
heard something of it. There is, moreover, one instance in which, if ever,
concealment would have been maintained. When the heavy fine of 7o, oooL
was set on the City of London in t635 , nothing was heard of any paymen:
for some time. In 638 , however, there is a pardon for the whole sum
(lat. ]?olls, 4 Charles I., Part t4)- About he same time the Receipt
Books (June 29) show a payment of lz,oooL from the City. The explana-
tion is found in a Privy Seal of April 23 of the same year (Chapter House
Ix cords), m which he King states that he had promised flae Queen o, oooL
out of this fine, and that he thought fit to make it 2,oocL Surely if the
Queen's grant passed through the Exchequer, money given to inferior
persons would hat-e been dealt with in the sanae wa)'. See, however r
Ahngton'.s case at p.

i52 LAUD, II'ENTItIORT, .4A'D II'ESTOA r. err. LXlX.
Was made for him at the time of his escape, the lawyers ' took
,t unkindly that they should be suspected for Puritans.' It
may well be doubted whether the feeling of opposition had as
yet reached below the political classes. Even anaongst them
Leighton's subversive Presbyterianism could have found but
few defenders. It required many years of misgovernment to
convert dissatisfaction with particular acts of the King and the
bishops into the torrent of revolutionary abhorrence which was
to sweep away King and bishops together.
It has been said, and it is by no means improbable, that
Leighton's deuunciations were the means of drawing Laud
.,,d d and Wentworth into close communication with one
Wentworth another. To them at least they would contain the
same lesson of warning. Presbyterianism in the Church and
Parliamcntarism in the State would seem to be two forms of
one disease--of the error which sought to control the govern-
ment of the wise few by the voice of the ignorant many.
Governments do themselves little direct harm by the punish-
ment which they inflict upon violent and unreasonable oppo-
nents. Indirectly, the temper which encourages harsh and
extreme repression leads to an unwise antagonism to the mode-
rate demands of those who are neither violent nor fanatical.
Charles might long have treated the claims of the House of
Commons with contempt, and might tong have bidden defiance
to Presbyterian enthusiasts, if he could have understood ho"
to make use of the higher devotional tendencies of the Puritan-
ism of his day. It was of no good omen for the State that by
choice or by compulsion men who would have added strength
to any Government stood aside from participation in public
duties, and that some even sought elsewhere than in England

 Meade to Stutes-ille, Nov. 7, Court and Times, ii. 79-
z Leighton, in his r?.ibitome, sny that  a man of eminent quality told
me that the book and nay sufferings did occasion their combination ; for the
prelate seeing that the book struck at the root and branch of the hierarchy,
and Stratford perceiving that the support and defence of the hierarchy would
make him great, they struck a league, like sun and moon to govern day
and night, religion and state.' He also says that in the Star Chamber
Wentworth  used many violent and virulent expressions against ' him.

154 LIUD, IVEVTIVORTtI, IA'D IVESTO': cH.
again, but it was only to lay his second wife in the grave, after
a brief year of happiness. In his third wife, Margaret Tynda[,
he found his mate ; she it was who made him what hc now
became. From the day that his faith was plighted to her,
,,s. nothing more was heard of the old moodiness and
His third timidity. He learned to step boldly out amongst his
,ig. equals, to take his share in the world's work. He
became a practising attorney in the Court of Wards, and in his
letters of this period there is nothing to distinguish him from
any other God-fearing Puritan of the time, excepting the almost
feminine tenderness and sensitiveness of his disposition. 
To this stage of Winthrop's life the dissolution of Parlia-
ment in 6 9 sounded the death-knell. There was no prone-
,9. hess to despondency in his own religion ; but as he
Determines looked around him he despaired of his native country.
to go to New
Z,,gl,nd. Evil times were coming, when the Church must 'fly
to the wilderness.' Where Eliot saw a passing sickness, Win-
throp's softer nature turned sadly from the s)mptoms of mortal
disease. Population, he thought, was overtaking the means o!
subsistence. The rich were vying with one another in sumptu-
ousness of dress and fare. At the universities men had learned
to ' strain at gnats and swallow camels,' to ' use all severity for
the maintenance of caps,' but to 'suffer all ruffian-like fashions
and disorders in manners to pass uncontrolled.' Winthrop
resolved to seek in New England the congenial home which
Old England could not afford him. 
Though emigration to New England was no longer the
 It is only by inference that the evident clange can be connected wih
Winthrop's marriage. He says (Life, ii. I7I) : "I was about thirty years
f age, and now was the time come that the Lord vould reveal Christ unto
me. I could now no more look at what I had been, or what I had done.
ngr be discontented for want of strength or assurance ; mine eyes were only
upov. Iris free mercy in Jesus Christ." Winthrop was thirty on January
I618. llis father, writing on lIarch 3 I, speaks of the marriage as already
arranged. I am responsible for this and other conclusions on Winthrop's
character, but they are based on the facts as narrated in the/'.e, the memo-
rial which has been raised by the devotion of the Hon. R. C. Winthrop to
illustrate the deeds of his ancestor.
 Reasons to be considered, L, i.

t63o GOV'IN.71ENT BY THE COUNCIL.
llagistratcs wcrc ordered to stop the passage of rogues and
Aprll 23. vagabonds who might carry the infection. Houses
e.sures in which the disease already prevailed wcrc to bc
,u. closed. Householders were to refuse relief to wan-
dering beggars, and to cause them to be apprehended by the
nearest constable. On the other hand, the deserving poor
were to be protected against want and suffering, and the laws
on their behalf were to be strictly put in force.'
Three months later an attempt was made to deal with
the evil in London, where its consequences were most to be
dreaded. There is no doubt that our forefathers were
July 24.
roUm- indebted for the existence of this as well as of other
tion ngainst
new build- forms of disease to the overcrowded habitations
ings. in which they dwelt, nnd to the neglect of the most
elementary sanitary precautions. In such a city as London,
growing from year to year, it seelned hopeless to cope with the
evil in any other way than by strictly controlling the influx of
population to the city. An Act of Parliament in Elizabeth's
reign had prohibited the building of new houses, and the recep-
tion of an increased nulnber of lodgers in the old ones, but it
had been passed for a lilnited period of seven years, and when
the terln came to an end it had not been renewed. In James's
reign, however, the salne difficulty had been felt. Recourse
had been had to the judges, who had declared that the excessive
building of houses was illegal as a nuisance, and could therefore
be dealt with whether the Act of Parliament were renewed or
not.  James had accordingly proceeded to execute the powers
thus acknowledged to be his, and Charles followed in his
father's steps. All previous orders on the subject were rein-
forced by a fresh proclamation not long after tile outbreak of
the plague. Injurious as the intervention was, there is no
reason to doubt that it was well intended, and the prohibitions
against building new rooms under a certain height, and against
t Proclamation, April 2 3, tymer, xix. 16o.
 "About 6 acoi the judges resolved in the Star Chamber and de-
clared that these buildings were nuisances and against the law." Notes in
the hand of Secretary Coke, Febrttary (?) 1632 S. t'. Z?om. ccxi. 9
VOL. VII M

CHAPTER LXX.

FUTILE I)IPLOMACY.

{.)I the whole Charles's treatment of his home difficulties had
been tolerably straightforward. He had been under no temp-
,69. tation to act otherwise than he had done. He had
ove,ber. cast upon the judges the duty of defending his
Domestic
and foreign position, and as there was no general dispos;tion to
policy of
Charles. resist their decisions he was able to maintain his
ground without much effort of his own.
The moment that Charles cast his eyes beyond his own
dominions these conditions were reversed. He could not cite
the kings of France or Spain before the Court of Exchequer.
He could not persuade the citizens of the Dutch Republic
to submit the interests of their state to technical argument.
Whatever he wanted he must achieve by wise foresight and
by the confidence inspired by honesty of purpose and by
readiness to postpone considerations of his own welfare to
considerations of the general good. Nothing of the kind was
to be expected from Charles. His knowledge of foreign
nations was most elementar): With their aims and struggles
he had no sympathy whatever. James had made many mis-
takes, but at least he had a European policy. Charles had no
European policy at all. The one thing for which he cared was
the re-establishment of his sister in the Palatinate. His object
was merely dynastic. How it would affect Germany, even
how it would affect England, were questions which he never
thought of proposing to himself. The result was what might
have been expected. Whatever tendency to duplicity was n

174 FUTILE DIPLO3IACI; cH. LXX.
Richelieu cared for the national aggrandisement of France and
for the humiliation of the House of Austria, and he was ready
to seek any allies who would help him to attain his object;
bat he did not, like Charles, fancy that allies could be gained
without definite action on his own part, or without a resolution
to associate himself with those great currents of popular feeling
in which strength is ultimately to be found.
Affairs in Germany were rapidly approaching a crisis. On
the one hand, the resolution of the Emperor and the Catholic
States to carry out the Edict of Restitution exaspe-
ims.l or rated the Protestants. On the other hand, the ravages
Wanens,,. and oppressions of Wallenstein and the Imperial
.qrmy exasperated the Catholic States. At the Diet of Ratisbon,
Ferdinand was compelled to dismiss Wallenstein at the demand
of the Elector of Eavaria and the Catholic Princes. The great
military instrument which had hitherto overpowered all resist-
.qnce was shattered. Before it could be reconstructed a fresh
enemy appeared to attack that Empire which was outwardly
.ndgor so strong, but which had grown so weak through its
Gss. inward distractions In une, Gustavus Adolphus
landed on the ]3altic coast.
Richelieu had been ready to profit by every circumstance.
All through the year French troops had been fighting in Italy.
French emissaries had been busy at Ratisbon, hounding on the
angry princes against Wallenstein. A French envoy, in con-
junction with Roe, had patched up the truce between Sweden
and Poland which set Gustavus free for his great enterprise.
Charles was strongly urged to seize the opportunity, and to
strike for the Palatinate in the only way in which he had a
chance of regaining it, by placing himself on the side of
Gustavus.
Charles could neither accept nor reject a policy so promising
and yet so hazardous. He listened to appeals from every side.
He assured both the Dutch and the French that he
August.
,soor would join them on some future occasion, if his ne-
c,. gofiation with Spain should fail. For the present he
adopted his father's favourite device for freeing himself from
esponsibility. He gave permission t the Marquis of Hamilton

'63 A SECRET TREA
ef the independent Netherlands. The two kilgs were to make
j,n. . war upon the Dutch by land and sea till they were
ecret treaty reduced to submission. In the part which was to be
v, ith Slcain. ceded to England, the Roman Catholic religion was
to be freely tolerated. No corresponding stipulation was inserted
on behalf of Protestantism in those lands which were to be
handed over to the King of Spain. t
No doubt everything was not settled by this nefarious instru-
ment. It still needed Charles's ratification. It seems, too, that
there was no more than a general understanding upon the order
in which each Govermnent was to take the steps to which it
was bound. In Spain there was a tendency to think that the
promise of an intervention with the Emperor would be fulfilled
by a few formal words. In England there was a tendency to
think that nothing short of the colnplete restitution of the
Palatinate was intended. Charles, at all events, took care to
remind the Spanish ambassador of the extent of his expecta-
tions. Upon taking leave, Coloma asked for certain
Feb.
cooa' favours which had been granted to former ambas-
leave-taking, sadors. Charles replied that the cases were different.
In his father's time there had been friendship between England
and Spain. Now there was only a 'peace barely and simply
concluded, with promise of further satisfaction. '-
Pending Charles's resolution on larger questions, there was
one way in which he hoped to reap a profit from his new all),.
lXIoney Cottington brought hcme with him 8o, oool. in
brought the Nether- for Spanish silver, to be made over in bills of exchange
na. to Brussels for the payment of the troops in the
Netherlands. So much bullion, to the simple economists of
the day, was a mine of wealth. London would become the
exchange of Europe where the precious metals would be re-
ceived, and nothing but paper would be given in return. The
Dutch might grumble if they pleas.ed3 The ambassador received
t Secret Treaty, Jan..__2 Clar. S. -P. i. 49. Drafts of this treaty, as
well as the treaty itself, are at Simancas. Dorchester refers to a different
,locmnent altogether in Cla,: S./'. I , App. xxxiv.
" 3,Iemorial, Feb. '9, S. /'. Sain.
" Joachimi to the States-General, April 6, Add. 1S.5; 7,677 N. fol. I63.
/OL VII.

63  GUSTM VUS MND IdZCtIEZIE 79

of Austria and its enemies at the same time, Richelieu was
Richelieu's aiming at the less difficult object of uniting the
designs, tWO branches of the opposition to that House. In
January, by the Treaty of BSrwalde, he engaged to provide
Gustavus with money, whilst Gustavus promised to
Jan. x3.
The Treaty leave the Catholic religion unmolested where he found
d Barwade. it established, and undertook to allow the Elector
of Bavaria and the Catholic League to enter into a treaty of
neutrality if they chose so to do. Four months later on, May to,
a secret treaty was signed between France and Ba-
1[ay to.
"treaty be- varia, by which they nmtually guaranteed to one
tween
Vra,ce,d another the territories which they respectively pOS-
Bavaria. sessed. The Upper Palatinate was therefore placed
by this treaty under French protection.
To substitute political opposition to the House of Austria
for the religious conflict between Catholic and Protestant was
Richelieu's object. His plan was simplicity itself when com-
pared to the airy imagination of Charles. Yet even Richelieu
had aimed at more than he could accomplish. The Edict of
Restitution stood in the way. The Elector of Bavaria wished
to preserve it intact. Gustavus had not only come to de-
troy it, but saw in the terror which it produced a lever by
which the German Protestant princes, more especially the
Elector of Saxony, might be driven to throw in their lot with
his own.
As yet John George of Saxony held aloof, hoping still that
the Emperor would abandon the edict, and spare him, as a
Storming of German prince, the odious necessity of joining a
agdbrg. foreign invader. Tilly, who had succeeded Wallen-
stein at the head of the Imperialist armies, was assailing Mag-
deburg, which had prematurely d, clared in favour of Gustavus.
John George barred the way against the Swedish succours,
and on May o, the very day of the signature of the treaty be-
tween France and Bavaria, the city was taken by storm. Amidst
blood and flame the citadel of North German Protestantism
perished with a lnighty destruction. The next day the cathe-
dral alone stood untouched amidst the blackened ruins.
In all probability the fire was the work of a few desperate

163t S II'EDISH SUCCESSES. x89
]3reitenfeld decided once for all that North Germany was to
Chrcterof" be essentiall)" Protestant. The Edict of Restitution
the victory. WaS swept away at a blow. Ferdinand's system, like
that of Charles, was one which rested on technical legality,
and which took no account of the feelings and aspirations of
the populations over which he ruled. Guarded by the most
numerous and well-appointed armies which the world had
seen since the days of the Roman Empire, that system had
been dashed to the ground through its own inherent weakness.
Could Charles hope to escape a like calamity ? In Breitenfeld
lay the promise of Marston Moor and Naseby--of the ruin of
a cause which rested on traditionary claims in the face of the
living demands of the present hour.
Gustavus pushed on for the Rhine to lay his hand on the
Ecclesiastical States of the League, to gather round him the
Gustavuson scattered forces of the Southern Protestants, and to
the Rhine. drive home the wedge which he had struck in
between France and Bavaria. Vane had hard work to come
up with him. On November 6 he found him at Wiirzburg.
o,..6. He had been sent, he explained, to 'treat of an
Vane's inter-alliance the ground whereof was to be the
view with " " "
i,. restitution of both Palatinates and the liberty of
Germany.' Gustavus naturally inquired what help Charles
purposed to give. If he would send him ten or twelve
thousand men in the spring, and a large sum of money
besides, he was ready to give the engagement he required.
The German princes, he said, had made no stipulations for
the Palatinate. It concerned his Majesty to look about him,
for, unless he gave a Royal assistance, the proposal could not
be entertained. Vane thought all this very unreasonable.
" If this king," he wrote, "gets the Palatinate, it will be hard
fetching it out of his hands without satisfaction." It would
be far better to get it in a peaceable way by negotiation at
Vienna. 
Few in England would have echoed Vane's opinion. The
news of Tilly's defeat had been received with an outburst of
 Vane to Dorchester, Nov. x2, ..7. t'. Germany.

1632 GUSTAVUS ON THE RHI2VE. I95
Germany to be postponed to make way for a petty dynastic
interest ? He was ready enough to do the best for the Pala-
tinate that circumstances would permit. Charles wanted him
to act as if the one question of pre-eminent importance to the
world was the question whether an incapable and headstrong
prince was to rule again over the dominions which he had
inherited from his father. What hearty co-operation could there
be between two men so differently constituted ?
Gustavus had need to walk warily. In the midst of his
triumphant progress, when all Protestant Europe was shouting
6t applause, he was weighing the difficulties before
and the him--above all, the difficulties which were likely to
l"h" arise from France. When he kept Christmas at
1Ientz, a French army was not far off. Richelieu had fallen
upon the Duke of Lorraine,. and had frustrated the hopes of
Gaston and the Queen Mother. It was not, however, merely
o crush the Duke of l,orraine that he had brought Louis with
him. The Cardinal cherished hopes which were not as yet
destined to be fulfilled. He hoped that the German princes
and cities on the left bank of the Rhine--the Ecclesiastical
Electorates especially--would take refuge from the storm of
Protestant conquest beneath the lilied banner of France. The
great German river would form the boundary, if not of French
territory, at least of a French confederation, whilst Gustavus
would be thrust on to the work for which Richelieu had origi-
nally destined him--the work of crushing the House of Austria
for the benefit of France.
Richelieu's schemes were premature. As yet the German
princes showed no disposition to revolve as satellites round
the throne at Paris. The Elector of Bavaria drew closer and
closer to the Emperor. 13efore the end of January, Louis,
sick and disappointed, hurried home from the army, leaving
the affairs of Germany to be disposed of by Gustavus. He
was not anxious to remain as a looker-on, when he had ex-
pected to step forth as the arbiter of Europe?

 Wake's despatches (S. P. France) contain minute information on all
tb, is, rind show the tone prevailing fi'om day to day in the French camp.
O2

163z TR1U.II.PHS OF GUSL4 b'l.TS.
was prepared. He would give Gustavus io, oooL a month, in
return for which the King of Sweden was to endeavour by all
means possible, whether by arms or treaty, to 'effect the resti-
tution of the Palatinate, delivering tip to the Elector the places
in it which were recovered.' As Charles omitted to stipulate
lhat his contribution should continue for any definite number
of years, he, in reality, bound himself to nothing beyond the
first month's contribution.l
Before Charles's proposal reached Gustavus, the south of
Germany was at the feet of the Swedish conqueror. On
tarch. March .oi he entered Niiremberg. On the 26th he
F,eh,.ic- was at Donauw6rth. On April 4 he came tip with
tories of
;ta,,s. Till}" on the Lech, and forced the passage of the river
after a sharp fight, in which the veteran commander of the Im-
perialist forces was mortally wounded. Gustavus pressed on.
He liberated Augsburg, and entered Munich in triumph.
The news of victory was received in England with inde
scribable emotion. It had come, wrote Roe, like rain in a dry
May. "We will not gi'e the King of Sweden leave
Reception of
the newsin to conquer like a man by degrees nor human ways,
V,gla,d. but we look he should fight battles and take towns
so fast as we read them in the Book of Joshua, whose example
indeed he is." The Papist, he added, hung his head like a
bulrush. The offer of io, oool. a month was not all which
Gustavus had a right to expect, but ' a wise Prince would accept
of less than he wished to obtain.' u
In drawing near to Gustavus, Charles had taken
lIarch
Negotiations some steps to draw near to Richelieu as well. On
w-ith France. March Io a treaty was arranged to put an end to
the commercial disputes which had arisen with France since
the peace. Four days afterwards, Charles's anabas-
ar . sador, Sir Isaac Wake, presented to Lo,ais a letter
from his lnaster, formally proposing a joint action in Ger-
malay. Like Gustavus, Louis had views and objects of his
own which were not absolutely identical with those of Charles.

Articles, April 26. Coke to Vane, May 2, S. I'. Swe,kn.
Roe to Horwood May 23 S.

98 FUTILE DIPLOIACH CH. LXX.
He was ready, he said, to do anything for Frederick which
April. would not tend to the ruin of the Catholics of Ger-
Richelieu many) For the moment Richelieu had work enough
and the
Qen to do at home. The party of Gaston and the Queen
Mother's
prty. Mother caused him continual disquiet. He struck
hard and pitilessly. Mariliac, the political chief of the oppo-
sition, died in prison. His brother, a Marshal of
1y. France, perished on the scaffold. Gaston prepared
an invasion from the Spanish Duchy of Luxemburg, whilst the
Iuke of I.orraine, eager to avenge his defeat of the previous
summer, permitted Gaston's troops to enter his terri-
lIay 29.
tory. Richelieu treated the act as a declaration of
war, entered Lorraine, and compelled the Duke to sign a treaty
Juries6. by which he surrendered three of his strongest
Richelieu fortresses as a pledge of his enforced fidelity.  This
overpowers
,ri,,. time Richelieu's hand stretched over Germany itself.
The Elector of Treves, failing to obtain support from
The French
t Ebb,n- the Emperor, invoked French protection. The lilies
breitstein, of France floated over the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein.
Before commencing the attack .upon Lorraine, Richelieu
had thought fit to despatch the Marquis of St. Chaumont as a
ty. special envoy to prevent Charles from taking offence.
1iionor He did not promise himself much from England;
t. Chau-
n,ot, but if Spain should attack France, in consequence
of its interference in Germany, it was just possible that Charles
might be roused to give some kind of assistance. "Although,"
wrote Louis in his instructions to St. Chaumont, "the English
should not keep any of their promises, it is important to bring
about some sort of union between the two crowns." St. Chau-
mont was also charged to effect a reconciliation between the
French ambassador, Fontenay, and Henrietta Maria, in order
to bring the Queen's influence to bear in the interest of
France. 

' Wake to Coke (?) March l. Wake to Weston, March I6.
signed, March I9, S. P. France.
: Instructions to St. Chaumont, May t6
-, ,4. Er. xlv. 2I 5-
IMd.

Treat),

162 .xtDV1CE OF SIR T. ROE. 99
Charles received St. Chaumont coldly ; talked about his
good intentions, but went no farther. The Queen refused to
be reconciled to Fontenay. He had done her no special
injury, she said, but she did not like him. t
The views of those who advocated an alliance with Sweden,
independently of France, may best be taken from an argument
in its favour forwarded by Roe to the Earl of Hol-
June 9-
Roe's po- land whilst St. Chaumont was still in England. Roe
liticaladvice, did not agree with those who feared danger from the
ambition of Gustavus. "The King of Sweden," he urged, "is
not to be considered in his branches and fair plumes of one
year's prosperity, but in his root, and so he is not at all to be
feared; and it hath been a false and a feigned suspicion in
those who from his sudden owth have augured that he might
prove dangerous to the public liberty. That kingdom of itself
can do no more than Eotia without Epaminondas. If this
king had a foundation, ancient dependence, and a settled
posterity, it were great wisdom to stay his career and limit it ;
but when we see he doth embrace more than he can hold, and
is rather a torrent than a live spring, that all his glory and
greatness depends upon his own virtue and life; and that in
case of sure mortality it is certain that all this inundation will
dry up and return to the first channel of moderation, it is mere
folly to object him, mere malice and envy to make the seeming
care of the future hinder that course of victo which God hath
chosen by him, not to set up a new monarchy, but to temper
the fury of tyranny and to restore the equality of just govern-
llleL 
From France or Spain, Roe thought there was nothing to
be hoped. Neither of these states cared for anything except
the atification of its own ambition, and they were therefore
' best employed like millstones to grind themselves thin.' The
true alliance for England was with the Dutch. It was true that
the States had been ungrateful and insolent; but they had
not been kindly treated, and if the English Government would
meet them in a friendly spirit, it would obtain their friendship
lay 3
 Fontenay to Richelieu, ?fie" St. Chaumont to chelieu, lay (?)

I632 3IASSLVGER'S POLITICAL PLA I'S. ao3
It.crease of empire, and augment their cares
In keeping that which was by wrongs extorted,
Gilding unjust invasions with the trim
Of glorious conquests ; we, that would be knowD
The father of our people, in our study
And vigilance for their safety, must not change
Their ploughshares into swords, and force them from
The secure shade of their own vines, to be
Scorched with the flames of war ; or, for our sport
Expose their lives to ruin.
To this Bertolo answers in words which bear the impress of
the fierce love of adventure and prowess which sways alter-
nately with more peaceful energies the breasts of Englishmen.
Here are no mines of gold
Or silver to enrich you : no worm spins
Silk in her womb, to make distinction
Between you and a peasant in your hahits:
No fish lives near our shores whose blood can dye
Scarlet or purple ; all that we possess
With beasts we have in common : nature did
Design us to be warriors, and to break through
Our ring, the sea, by which we are environed,
And we by force must fetch in what is wanting
Or precious to us.
The King will hear nothing of his counsels. Think not, he
answers,
Think not
Our counsel's built upon so weak a base
.s to be overturned, or shaken with
Tempestuous winds of word. As I, my lord,
Before resolved you, I will not engage
My person in this quarrel ; neither press
My subjects to maintain it ; yet to sbew
l]y rule is gentle, and that I have feeling
O' your master's sufferings, and these gallants, weary'
Of the happiness of peace, desire to taste
The bitter sweet of var, ve do consent
That, as adventurers and volunteers,
iN*o way compelled by us, they may make trial
Of" their boasted vaiours.
In another speech Challes himself is brought before us as

o8 FUTZE I)II'LO3IA C Y. c. xx.

The death of Gustavus and the death of Frederick were
alike welcome to Weston and his clique. In their detestatign
loato of war there was nothing noble, no preference of
material higher objects to be gained in peace, no wise con-
prosperity
,.E,,g*a,,d. ception of international duties. To them material
prosperity had become an idol, and the habit of regarding the
accumulation of wealth as the sole test of greatness was ac-
companied by a contemptuous indifference for the trials and
sorrows of other nations, of which the hot Protestant partisan
of earlier days had never been guilty. Flatterers found their
account in praising the skill with which Charles had preserved
England from the scourge of war. The low and debased feel-
ing which had been fostered by men in high places found full
expression in the lines in which Carew, himself a royal cup-
bearer, commented on the death of the Swedish King :
"Then let lhe Germans fear, if C.'esar shall
On the United Pinces rise and fall ;
But let ns lhat in myrtle bowers sit
Unde secure shades, use the benefit
Of peace and plenty which the blessed hand
Of our good king gives this obdm'ale land.
Tourneys, masques, theatres bette become
Our halcyon days. ,Vhal lhough lhe German dum
Bellow for. freedom and revenge? The noise
Conce,ns not us, no should divet our joys."
Perish Europe, if only England may fiddle in safety ! Already
the sword was sharpening which should chastise the men by
whom such things were said.
Charles's first thought on receiving the news of the death
of his brother-in-law was to solace his widowed sister. Laying
.. aside for the moment his fear that her presence in
F..lizabeth
i=,-io England would serve as an encouragement to his
"gl. own Puritans, he despatched Arundel to offer her a
refuge at his Court. At first in her loneliness she was inclined
,6.x. to accept the offer ; but she very soon changed her
Jam'- mind, and told Arundel that her duty to her family
required her presence in Holland. It is probable that she

1633 TH SPAISt NETItEPL.4A'DS. o 9
shrank from exchanging a dwelling-place amongst a sympathetic
people for the daily annoyance of the companionship of a
brother who promised so much and performed so little.
With the deatI of Gustavus the question of the relations
between England and France assumed increased importance.
If, as was only too likely, jealousies broke out amongst
Growing im-
portance of the princes who lind with difficulty been kept in bar-
France.
mony by the genius of the Swedish king, it would be
absolutely necessary that Richelieu should take a more pro-
minent part in the conflict than he had hitherto done. And
at this time circumstances were occurring in the Netherlands
which forced Charles to consider how his alliances would affect
the national interests of England as well as how they would
affect the dynastic iuterests of his family.
The weight of the war fell heavily upon the Spanish Nether-
lands. The King of Spain was no longer able to protect them
3. as of old. Every year was now marked by some
Discontent fresh defeat, and unless the course of the Prince of
in the
Spani-h Orar:.ge could be stopped, the whole country would
Nethet-
,=d. sooner or later be at his disposal. The nobility
echoed the lmnentations of the common people. The proud
]elgian aristocracy complained that military and civil employ-
ments alike were in the hands of Castilians. Meetings were
held, and in the spriug of 632 many of the nobles banded
together acl made overtures to Richelieu for assistance to
enable them to shake off the authority of Spain. When
Frederick Henry took the field, he found but cold resistance.
Venloo and Roermonde quickly surrendered, and
"Y the Prince proceeded to lay siege to Maestricht.
Count Henry de Bergh, a Netherlander who had been replaced
by a Spaniard in the command of the army, passed over to the
Dutch, and called upon his countrymen to free themselves from
the foreign yoke.
In spite of the prevailing dissatisfaction, the count W was
not disposed to follow the interested counsels of a malcontent

 Gussoni's despatch, Dec, 7_, _ Feb..L Venice ZSS.
XT) 3 I) lI I
 (?)Jan. 5, S. 1 . Hollan,L
VOL VII. P

Goring to

212 F:,rTILE DIPLOAIACI: cH. LXX.
arrangement of I6o9, but they professed their intention to
September. remain the subjects of the King of Spain. Their
rtem..zof resolution seriously compromised the chances of
the Brussels
States. an arrangement. Doubtless there were many in the
Northern Provinces who were weary of war, mad who would have
welcomed a cessation of hostilities at ahnost any cost ; but a
lnrge part),, with Frcderick Henry at its head, was by no means
inclined to give way to peace or truce so long as the Spaniards
retained a threatening position on their southern fi'ontier. It
was true that for five )'ears the Dutch armies had been vic-
torious. Grol, Hertogenbosch, Wesel, Venloo, Maestricht, had
fallen in rapid succession ; but the Spanish monarchy was not
crushed. A few seasons of peace might enable it to restore its
dilapidated finances and to reorganise its military resources.
With this divergency of feeling, it is not likely that an agree-
ment would have been come to in any case, and it is therefore
doubtful whether Charles could have intervened with
Oct.
Ches'si- good effect. The course which he actually took was
tervention, pitiable. The tendencyto intrigue which was rooted
in his character had been growing during the last few years.
He instructed Boswell, his minister at the Hague, to
His instruc-
tionsto be present at the conferences between the deputies
v, oswem of the two States-General. He was to do his best,
in an underhand way, to make any arrangement impossible.
He was to press the Northern States to include the restoration
of the Palatinate in the negotiation. He was tc hold up to the
Southern States the advantage which they would gain by an
open trade with England, and to 'show them what near and
powerful protection they may have from his l\[ajesty's dominions
to support them in their freedom and liberties, if they resolve
to make themselves an entire and independent body ; what in.
dignity aed prejudice they nmy suffcr if they submit themselves
to those neighbours upon unequal couditions, under whom
neither their clergy, their nobility, nor their burghers can expect
those honours, that profit and that continual defence which
from his Maiesty, upon reasonable and equal terms, they may
be assured of.'
 Instrttctions to Boswell, Oct. 22, S. /. Iarolland.

63" RICtIEZIEU'S STROJVG POSITIO.V. 2 3
Assuredly Charles did not stand alone amongst the rulers
of the world in resorting to intrigue. Richelieu was quite as
ready as he was to veil his intentions in a cloud of words and
to co,,er his self-seeking with an appearance of disinterested-
ness ; but, whilst Charles had absolutely no perception of the
facts of the world, Richelieu surpassed all his contemporaries,
except Gustavus, in the skill with which he mastered events
by adapting his course to the currents of opinion around him.
He had just brought to a close the long internal struggle with
the French aristocracy. Gaston had at last smnmoned up
courage, and had crossed the French border to make his way
to the South, where Montmorency, the dashing cavalier, the
flower of the French nobility, was ready to rise at his bidding.
,ug .... On the field of Castelnaudary that conflict was
r)fat of brought to an issue. Richelieu stood up for national
Montmo-
,cy. unity and religious toleration against those who would
have made France their prey, who would have stooped their
heads to the foreigner abroad, and re-lighted the flames of civil
war at home. The better side prevailed. The gay chivalry
which followed the banner of the insurgents was no match for
the steady discipline of the Royal arlny. Montlnorency bowed
his head as a traitor on the scaffold, whilst Gaston slunk home,
like a poltroon as he was, to accept a contemptuous pardon
from his brother.
Richelieu was thus at liberty to turn his attention abroad.
He did not build his hopes much upon the oscillations of the
ichiu States of Brussels. Charles might dream of thrust-
-k., 1.rig the wedge of English power into Flanders by the
Dutch al- 
iuc. expenditure of a few soft words. Richelieu knew
that strength was to be found mnongst the burgher counsellors
of the Hague mad the tried veterans who had reduced the
proud citadel of Maestricht to surrender. If the obedient
Provinces chose to throw off the yoke of Spain, it would be
easy to satisfy them on all secondary points. If not, an alli-
ance with the independent States against Spain was the policy
imposed by circumstances upon Frauce.
By the middle of Novmnber, Charles had learned that he
had no prgspect of effecting his object with the assent of Spain.

220

CHAPTER LXXI.

DIVERGENT TENDENCIES IN POLITICS AND .RELIGION.

lr is impossible to pass from the foreign to the domestic
politics of i63 and i63z without being conscious of the iln-
163x. incase gulf between them. On the Continent great
Contrast problems were presented to the human mind, and
Letveen
foreign and great intellects applied themselves to their solution
dome,,tic
politics, with the pen mad with the sword. Gustavus, Riche-
lieu, and Frederick Henry tower above ordinary men. At home
all things appear tame and quiet. English life seems to be
unruffled by any breeze of discontent. It is only here and there
that some solitary person puts lbrth opinions which, read in the
light of subsequent events, are seen to be the precursors of the
storm, only here and there that the legal action of the Govern-
meat is put forth to settle controversies which, but for those
subsequent events, would not seem to possess an)-very great
importance. It was a time of preparation and development
for good or for evil, which Charles, if he had been other than
he was, might have guided to fruitful ends, but in which it was
impossible for the man whose diplomatic helplessness has just
passed before us to act with forethought or decision.
One great advantage Charles had. The lawyers began to
rally to hiq side. In August 63x Chief Justice Hyde died,
August. little regretted, and his plhce was taken by Richard-
Legal pro-
motions. SOn. The Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas
thus vacated was deservedly allotted to Heath.
To the surprise of all men the new Attorney-General was
Willimn Noy. His long Parliamentary opposition was re-

._ tOLITICS AWD IELIGIOW. cH. LXXI
English kings for centuries, and if he disregarded other rights
which had been possessed by English Parliaments, he could
argue that these rights were necessarily in abeyance till
the Commons consented to resume their proper place in
the State. In truth there was much to induce a lawyer
to cast in his lot with Charles rather than with the House
of Commons. If only the judges could make up their minds
to avoid challenging the King's claim to supreme head-
ship of the nation, and the consequences which he deduced
from it, they were certain to be treated with the highest re-
spect. Charles's attack upon the independence of the Bench
was directed against individuals. Though in the persons of
Crewe and Walter, the whole legal profession had in reali:y
been assailed, no other member of the profession need feel
personally insulted. The House of Conamons, on the other
hand, had proceeded much more undisguisedly. It had openly
found fault with a judicial declaration solemnly pronounced in
the Court of Exchequer, and had summoned the Barons to
give account of the reasons by which they had been guided.
It is not strange if many lawyers preferred the silken chains of
the Court to the iron yoke of a popular assembly not yet con-
scious of the necessity of submitting to those restraints which it
was one day to impose upon itself in the hour of victor),.
How far the lawyers who now took the side of Charles were
led by these considerations we have no means of knowing.
s ssoe, In the case of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, however, we are
'E,e. able to examine the feelings of a man who, without
being a practising lawyer himself, had received a legal educa-
tion, and whose Puritanical turn of mind would lead us to
expect a decided antagonism to the King. A prim and acrid
young man in his twenty-eighth year, he had made the study of
legal antiquities the delight of his life, though he kept a human
corner in his heart for his wife, the little lady who possessed,
as he boasted, the smallest foot in England. As a proof of
the tenderness of his affection, he tells how at the time of his
courtship, he 'could not find leisure once to visit the Court of
Common Pleas, or continue' his ' course of reporting law cases,
but devoted mornings and afternoons to the service and attend-

 63  THE ' 3IOW'I RCIt Y OF .II.':'  2 

The King's case was that Parliament had come persistently
and hopelessly to a wrong conclusion, and that it threatened to
make all government impossible till its own errors had been
carried into practice. Eliot held that the conclusion come to
by Parliament had been right, but he did not touch the question
whether in such a case Parliament might in any way force its
opinions upon the King.
If, however, Eliot had no particular medicine to offer for
the sickness of the commonwealth, he could lay his hand, as
Bacon had laid his hand before him, on the true source of the
disease. It had all come, he held, because there had been no
sympathy between the King and his people, because the King
had not striven to understand their thoughts, or to feel for their
grievances. To the misfortunes of the State he declared the
art of government must now be applied, 'so to dispose the
several parts and members that they may be at peace and mnity
with each other, reciprocally helpful and assistant by all mutual
offices and respects as fellow-citizens and friends, brethren of
the same mother, members of one body, nay individually one
body, one consolid substance; . . . and likewise to compose
them to that concord and agreement as they may be at unity
in themselves, rendering that harmony of the heavens, that
pure diapason and content,  and in that strength to encounter
all opposition of the contrary for the public utility and good,
the conservation and felicity of the whole. For these, because
no single ability is sufficient, helps and advantages are pro-
vided,' laws,' which are a level and direction,' and a council
'to be aiding and assistant . . . a supply of that defect which
may be in one person by the abilities of more, that by many
virtues so contracted one tanaretus might be formed, an all-
sufficiency in virtue and fulness of perfection, the true texture
and concinnity of a king. '
Eliot had not many more months of life before him. "I
have these three days been abroad," he wrote to Hampden in
March, "and as often brought in new impressions of the colds,

t Had Eliot seen a copy of Milton's lines At a Solemn lInsic, supposed.
to have been written in I63O
VOL. VII.

163x II'EA'TII'ORTtI IN THE A*ORTIL
except so far as masterful dealing with those who resisted hi:s
own authority and the King's might count for injustice.
It was perhaps not altogether a matter of accident that
whilst the West and South of England produced the warmest
rheNor, h defenders of the predominance of Parliament, the
,,so,h. warmest defender of the King's authority should
come from the North. Beyond the Trent, government by the
strong hand was far more needed than it was in Hampden's
Buckinghamshire or Eliot's Cornwall. Old men could still re-
member the day wheu the Northern earls burnt the Bibles in
Durham Cathedral and laid siege to Elizabeth's representative
iu Barnard Castle. Those northeru shires were still the utrong-
hold of recusancy, and, except iu the south of Yorkshire, where
a scanty manufacturing population gathered in Leeds, Brad-
ford, and Sheffield, poverty was great, and the power of the
gentry was great in cousequence. The gentry then,selves were
far less politically advanced than iu the South of England,
and banded themselves together from the consideration of
social ties and the memory of ancient feuds rather than from
any differe,ce of ideas ou affairs of State. In looking upon
the rule of the gentry as synonymous with the predominance
of faction, Wentworth was but trausferring to the whole of
England an i,ference which might fairly be drawn from the
condition of his native county. He knew well enough how
little of public virtue had given him the victory over his rival
Savile in the electoral conflicts of his earlier life.
In returning to Yorkshire, therefore, as Lord President of
the North, Wentworth had to encounter a personal as well as a
w,,t,,.or, political opposition. One of those who grudged him
i,,,,e y his new honours was Henry Bellasys, the son of Lord
Y" Fauconberg, a young man of haughty disposition and
uncontrollable temper. Coming one day into the hall in which
Weutworth was sittiug in full council, he neglected to make the
customary reverence to the King's representative, and when at
the close of the business the President left the room, he alone
of all who were present, kept his head covered.
Bellasys was sent for by the Privy Council, to answer for his
offensive conduct. He showed as little good breeding in London

03- IVENTII'ORTII PROTESTS Ills DEUOI'IOV.
jesty's ministers, which might enable it to subsist of itself,
without being necessitated to accept of such conditions as
others might vainly think to impose upon it. 'Tis true this
way is displeasing for the present, lays me open to calun.ny and
hatred, causeth me by some ill.disposed people to be, it may
be, ill-reported; whereas the contrary would make me pass
slnooth and still along without noise ; but I have not so learnt
nay master, nor am I so indulgent to my own ease as to see his
affairs suffer shipwreck whilst I myself rest secure in harbour.
No, let the tempest be never so great, I will lnuch rather put
forth to sea, work forth the storm, or at least be fo,nd dead
with the rudder in my hands ; and all that I shall desire is that
his Majesty and my other friends should narrowly observe
me, and see if ever I question any man in my own in-
terests, but where they are only interlaced as accessories,
his Iajesty's service and the just aspect towards the public
and duty of nay place set before them as principals."
 Ventworh to Carlisle, Sept. 24, Forstcr [SS., South A'nsington
][tt.rettttt. 'o one who has studied Wentworth's letters and speeches can
fail to notice his habit of repeating or echoing a phrase which he had used
on some other occasions long before, a habit which in some men might be
explained as a thoughtless repetition of formula, but which in a man of
Wentworth's character, can only be interpreted as arising from the fixity of
his views on the main principles on which he founded his practice. In he
extracts given above, two cases of this kind occur. The sentence in the
last paragraph about the Crown being enabled ' to subsist of itself without
being necessitated to accept of such conditions as others might vainly think
to impose upon it,' carries us on to the well-known phre which he used
in I637 of ship-money as vindicating ' Royalty at home from under the
conditions and restraints of subjects,' whilst by the way in which the idea
is here connected with the proceedin of Foulis, we get a little neare to
XVentwoh's conception of the danger which he dreaded as likely to arise
from the power of subjects to enforce upon the Crown a poli,zy which suited
their own private ends. Another phrase, earlier in the letter, carries us
back in quite another direction. When Wentworth speaks of the rights of
the Crown as tranwled on, and declares ' how necessary examples are--as
well for de subject as the sovereignto retain licentious spirits within the
sober bounds ot humility and fear,' we are at once reminded of the call
made by the writer on the Commons of 6zS, to vindicate their ' ancient,
sober, and vit libeaies, by reinforcing of the ancient laws of our an-
cestors ; by setting sttch a stamp upon thegn as no licentious spirit hall

38

POLITICS AxVD RELIGIO cL LXXL

particularly strong ground. Sir Thomas Gower insulted the
King's Attorney in open court, and then took refuge in London.
Wentworth's officers met him in Holborn, and attempted in
vain to arrest him. The Lord President appealed to the Privy
Council. "Upon these oppositions," he wrote, "and others of
like nature, all rests are up, and the issue joined, as we con-
ceive. A provincial court at York or none ? It is surely the
state of the question, the very lnark they shoot at ; all eyes are
at gaze there, and every ear listening here what becomes of it :
so as it behoves us to attend it, and clearly to acknowledge
it before your lordships, that unless this court have in itself
coercive power, after it be possessed justly and fairly of a cause,
to compel the parties to an answer and to obey the final decrees
thereof, all the motions of it become bruta fidmiita, fruitless to
the people, useless to the King, and ourselves altogether unable
to govern and contain within the bounds of sobriety a people
sometimes so stormy as live under it, which partly appeared
in the late business of Malton, where, we dare without vanity
speak it, had it not been for the little power and credit that is
yet left us here, the injunction of the Chancery itself had been
as ill obeyed, as little respected, as either our commission or
sergeant in Llolborn."
Other questions of jurisdiction arose between the Coun-
cil of the North and the Courts of ,Vestminster. Persons
worsted in their suits appealed to the judges of the
Prohibitions. King's Bench, who welcomed their complaints and
issued prohibitions to stop the execution of their sentences.
Wentworth utterly refused to pay any attention to these pro-
hibitions. 'As for the question of jurisdiction of courts,' he
wrote, 'which indeed little concerns the subject, much more
the Crown, and which it may restrain or enlarge from time to
time as shall in his Majesty's wisdom seem best for the good
government of his people and dominions,' he was well able to
give satisfaction to the Council. 
Wentworth was dearly right in holding that it was not fit

t Wentworth and tae Council of the Iqorth to the Privy Council,
Dec,  S, .P, Dam. ccxxvi, I.

240 POLITICS
and resxstance if ever the existence of the great parent Court
of Star Chamber at VCestminster was seriously attacked.
In the North, Wentworth had far more to do with the
opposition of the country gentlemen than with the opposition
,63. of the Puritans. In the South, the Goverument found
Action of the
;oeroe,,t more resistance from the Puritans titan fi-om the
in the South. country gentlemen. The spirit of submission to the
King's authority was widely spread even amongst those who
shared the feelings of the Parliamentary Opposition. It is true
that the system of expecting men to assist in carrying out the
orders of the Government whilst no pains were taken to consult
their wishes or to conciliate their prejudices, was one which
was likely to break down if any strain were put upon it. But
as yet no strain had come, and it seemed as if ('harles /tad no
danger to fear in this direction.
An illustration of the bearing of the Government towards
the gentry is to be found in a proclamation issued in the
J,,e,o. summer of I63, directing all gentlemen to leave
P,'oclama- London and to return to their houses in the country.
tion for leav-
ingLondon. The judges were expressly ordered by the Lord
K.eeper to enforce obedience to it at the assizes. The King,
said Coventry, had po'er by ancient precedents to
Jme=--. send the gentlemen to their homes. They formed
the principal part of the county organisation. In their absence
there would be no one to preside over musters or suppress
rebellions, uo one to perform the duties of the justices of the
peace, or to supply a higher element in the composition of
juries. In I.ondon they only wasted their time. "Themselves,"
said the Lord Keeper, "go from ordinaries to dicing-
houses, and from thence to play-houses. Their wives dress
themselves in the morning, visit iu the afternoon and perhaps
make a journey to Hyde Park, and so home again." As the
exhortations of the judges did not produce the desired
November.
Se,,te,eo, effect, a lXIr. Palmer, who had remained in London
ra,,e, during the summer, was brought before the Star
Chmnber. He pleaded in vain that his house in the country
had been burnt down, and that he had nowhere to live except
 Proclamation, ymer, xix. 374.

03t OPPOSING TENDENCIES. 24t
in London. A fine of I,oooL was the only answer vouchsafed
to his reasoning.
If the feeling of the country gentlemen was one of dissatis-
faction, that of the Puritan clergy was far more bitter wherever
x63. the hand of Laud reached. As yet, indeed, it did
Iimits of
Laud'sin- not reach very far. In his own diocese and in the
uence. University of Oxford he was supreme. To the rest
of England he was able to issue mandates in the King's name ;
but he could not personally see to their execution, nor could
he engage other bishops to be very zealous in carrying his
theories into practice. Practically, therefore, the Puritan was
safe, excepting in certain localities. Those localities, however,
the University of Oxford, the City of London, with the counties
of Middlesex and Essex, were precisely those where Puritanism
was exceptionally strong, and where a defeat would be most
ruinous to it.
If the settlement at which Charles aimed by the issue of
his Declaration, had been less onesided than it was in reality,
it could not have secured peace for more than a very short
time. Even if the contending parties had agreed to forget all
about predestination, some other question would of necessity
have arisen, about which they would contend as bitterly. When
men are divided by opposing tendencies of thought, it matters
little what is the actual point round which the storm of discus-
sion gathers. Such a discussion is not to be judged worthy or
unworthy of notice according to the subject by which it is pro-
voked, or the temper in which it is conducted, but according
to the intellectual and moral problems which are raised by it
There have been times when opposite views of the deepest
problems of human nature have been called out by a dispute
about the colour of a vestment, as there have been times when
questions of infinite importance to mankind have been ap-
proached by men of the meanest intellects and the most
wrangling temper.
In his anxiety to carry out the directions of the Church to
the letter, Laud soon gave positive offence even to those of the

 D'Ewes, Autobiograi#hy, ii. 78.
VOL. VIL R

x633 SttERFIEZD'S SENTE,VCE. 257
of the case; but there was much difference of opinion as to
The_,en- the penalty to be inflicted. The lawyers--Coventry,
tence. Heath, and Richardson--were on the side of leniency;
the bishops--Laud and Neile--were on the side of harshness.
The sentence was at last fixed at 5oo/. and a public acknow-
ledgment of the fault.
Though on the general question Noy's argument was un
answerable, the objections of the lawyers in the court went
deeper than the lowering or raising of a fine by a
The bishops
d the few hundred pounds. It was well that the authority
lawyers, to remove such a window as had been removed by
Sheffield should be in the hands of persons of larger views than
the members of a parish vestry were likely to be ; but it would
be to little purpose to assign this authority to the bishops, if the
bishops were to have as little sympathy as Laud had with the
dominant religious feelings of the country. Works of art are
worth preserving, but the religious sentiments of the wor-
shippers demand consideration also. It was evident from the
language employed by Coventry and the Chief Justices that,
though they objected to the way in which Sherfield's act had
been done, they shared his dislike of the representation which
had given him offence. Laud was so occupied with his de-
testation of the unruly behaviour of the man that he had no
room .for consideration whether his dislike was justifiable or not.
He treated the reasonings of the lawyers as an assault upon the
episcopal order. He told them that the authority of the bishops
was derived from the authority of the King, and that if they
attacked that, they would fall as low as bishops had once fallen.
Yet though Laud carried his point in referring all questions re-
lating to the ornamentation of churches to the bishop of the
diocese, the objection against the figure which had attracted
such notice at Salisbury was too widely felt to be treated with
contempt. Charles ordered Bishop Davenant to see that the
broken window was repaired at Sherfield's expense, but to take
care that it was repaired, as the vestry had before ordered,
with white and not with coloured glass. Before long Sherfield
made due acknowledgment of his fault to the bishop, but he
VOL. VII. S

58 POLITICS LVD RELIGIOV. cB. LXXI.
died not long afterwards, leaving the bill to be paid by his
relatives. 
A few days afterwards a case of still greater importance was
decided by the Court of Exchequer. In the beginning of the
,6s. reign, four citizens of London, four lawyers, and four
"rereoes Puritan clergymen of note had associated themselves
f" impro-
vitio,s, for the purpose of doing something to remedy the
evil of an impoverished clergy. They established a fund by
means of voluntary contributions, from which they bought up
impropriate tithes, and were thus enabled to increase the sti-
pends of ministers, lecturers, and schoolmasters. Naturally the
persons selected for their favours were Puritans, and Laud
had early marked the feoffees for impropriations, as they were
called, for destruction.
The first to lift up his voice publicly against them was
Peter Heylyn, Laud's chaplain and future biographer. In a
6o. sermon preached at Oxford in i63o , he said that the
july xt. enemy had been sowing tares. The feoffees were
Heylyn's
mo. ' chief patron of the faction.' They preferred those
who were 'serviceable to their dangerous innovations.' In
time they would 'have more preferments to bestow, and
therefore more dependencies, than all the prelates in the
kingdom.' 
Laud took the matter up warmly. At his instigation, Noy
exhibited against the feoffees an information in the Exchequer
6s. Chamber, a court of equity in which the Lord
o.'iro- Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer sat
as judges by the side of the barons. The charge
against the feoffees was that they had illegally constituted
themselves into a body holding property without the sanction
of the King. An argument of more general interest was that,
instead of employing the money collected in the permanent
increase of endowments, they had paid the favoured ministers
or schoolmasters by grants revocable at their own pleasure.
 Coke to Davenant, Feb. 5, .Ielbore .ISS. S/age Trials, iii. 59.
Nicholas to E. Nicholas, written early in 634 , not in 63 , as calendared.
S. t 9. loom. ccxiv. 92. Narrative, March I5, x633 , S. t . Dam. cxxxiii. 8%
2 lleylyn, C#ri.nur .4nglicus, 199.

633 GEORGE ttERER T -"65
at Little Gidding was preserved from all moral question-
Character of ings by submission to external rule and order.
theife Those who were always praying or working had not
chosen by
Ferr, r. much time left for thought. Each day passed away
as like the last as possible. Ferrar sought but a harbour from
the changes of life. There was no striving after an ideal per-
fection, no fierce asceticism or self-torture in him. His life
was the application to himself of-that dislike of mental and
moral unrest which was at the bottom of I,aud's disciplinarian
efforts. That which existed acquired a sacredness in his eyes
merely because it existed. He was once asked why he did
not place a crucifix in his church. '" If there had been any
when we came," he answered, " I would not have pulled it
down except authority had commanded ; so neither will I
set up anything without command of authority." He at least
would be free as long as possible from the responsibility of
decision. 
It was not by such negative virtues that the old nmnasticism
had gained a hold on the medkeval world. Men came to
look at Ferrar's community, wondered, admired, and turned
C, eorge away tO their own activities. George Herbert had
e,'rt. much in common with Ferrar ; but he never could
have arrived at this perfect quiescence of spirit. A younger
brother of that Edward Herbert who had been created by
Charles l,ord Herbert of Cherbury, he was fired, at
x6o 9,
an early age, with an ambition to rise in the service
of the State. At Westminster and Cambridge he was noted
Corge for industry and intelligence, wrote lines, like so
Herbert at
Cambridge. many others, to the memory of Prince Henry and
:6. flashed before the University as the author of a series
of Latin poems in defence of the ceremonies of the Church
against Andrew Melville. If the reader misses in these sar-
castic poems any manifestation of high spiritual devotion, they
need not, on that account, be set down as a mere offering upon
the altar of courtiership. Herb,rt was a ceremonialist by nature.
The outward sign was to him more than to most men the ex-
pression of the inward fact. His religion fed itself upon that
 Two Lives of Nicholas ''rra; Edited by |. E. B. IIai-or.

I623 GEORGE HERBERT. 267
which James should give his consent. If Herbert bowed down
it was not to the Prince whom it was his interest to captivate,
but to the peaceful King who had maintained the ceremonies
of the Church against their assailants.
A change came over Herbert's life. His three patrons--
ttamilton, Lennox, and James--died. From Charles, rushing
x6s. headlong into war, the lover of peace had no favour
He eole to expect. His health, always feeble, broke down.
to take
orde,s. In this time of depression he formed a resolution to
take orders, to become, as he said, one of 'the domestic ser-
vants of the King of heaven.' The clerical office was not in
those days held in very high esteem. A friend dissuaded him
fiom entering upon 'too mean an employment, and too much
below his birth and the excellent abilities and endowments
of his mind.' "Though the iniquity of the late times," he
answered, "have made clergymen meanly valued, and the
sacred name of priest contemptible, yet I will labour to make it
honourable, by consecrating all nay learniug and all nay pctw
abilities to advance the glory of that God that gave them, and
I will labour to be like my Saviour by making humility lovely
in the eyes of all men, and by folloving the merciful and meek
example of my dear Jesus."
Nevertheless, Herbert hesitated long. He was still a lay-
man when Williams presented him to the prebend of Leighton
Ecclesia in the diocese of Lincoln. The church
x66.
Leighton was in ruins, and Herbert signalised his connection
v'i, with it by collecting money from his wealthy fiiends
for its repair. As in Cosin's church at Brancepeth and Ferrar's
at Little Gidding, the reading-desk and the pulpit were placed
side by side, and both were made of the same height, in order
that it might appear that ' they should neither have a precedency
or priority of the other ; but that prayer and preaching, being
equally useful, might agree like brethren and have an equal
honour and estimation.'
Four years after his acceptance of preferment in
x63o.
Hett the Church, Herbert was still a layman. In x63o ,
Be,,eto. at the request of the head of his family, the new Earl
of Pembroke, he-was presented by the King to the Rectory

268 POLITICS A.VD RELIGIO.V. CH. LXXl.
of Fugglestone and ]3emerton, two hamlets lying between
Salisbury and Wilton. Stories were afterwards told of his re-
luctance to undertake a duty which he held to be too high for
his powers, and it is said that he only gave an unwilling con-
sent on Laud's representation ' that the refusal of it was a sin.'
It was doubtless at this time that he received ordination, either
from Laud, or from Davenant his diocesan, t
The charm of Herbert's life at Bemerton lies in the harmony
which had arisen between the discordant elements of his Cam-
Hiifeand bridge life. The love of action, which was wanting
ot-. in Ferrar, is still there. " A pastor," he declares, "is
the deputy of Christ for reducing of man to the obedience of
God." But it has blended with a quiet meditative devotion.
and out of this soil spring the tenderest blossoms of poetic
feeling. His own life was a daily sacrifice, but it was a sacri-
fice, made not by the avoidance, but by the pursuance of work.
For him the sacraments and observances of the Church had a
fellowship with the myriad-sided sacrament of nature. As the
bee hununed and the tree sent forth its branches, they conveyed
to his pure and observant mind the inward and spiritual grace
which was to him a comfort and a strength. The things of
nature formed a standing protest against idleness. "Every
gift of ability," he said, "is a talent to be accounted for."
There was to be no mere crucifying of the flesh for its own
sake, no turning of the back upon the world as evil. His
sermons were filled with homely illustrations, and he took good
care to explain to his parishioners the meaning of the prayers
which they used. His own life was the best sermon. His
predecessor had lived sixteen or twenty miles off, and had left
the church in need of repair, whilst the parsonage-house was
in ruins. The congregation was that of an ordinary country
parish, long untaught and untended, and accustomed to regard
 Walton's well-known story that the Court was at Wilton, and that
the tailor was sent for from Salisbury to provide a clerical dress, is certainly
untrue. The Court was at \Vhitehall, and the presentation, printed fi'om
the Patent Rolls in Ryn,er (xix. 258), is dated from Westminster. It also
-lescribes Herbert simply as a master of.arts. The omission of the usual
lericus skows that he was still a layman at this time.

*630 GEORGE HERBERT. 269
their rector as a mere grasper of tithe corn. The change
produced by Herbert's presence was magical. Wherever he
turned he gathered love and reverence round him, and when
his bell tolled for prayers the hardworked labourer, weary with
the toils of the day, would let his plough rest for a moment,
and breathe a prayer to heaven before resuming his labour.
The dominant note of Herbert's poetry is the eagerness for
action, mingled with a sense of its insuciency. The disease
I'athos of his which wasted his body filled him with the conscious-
poetry, ness of weakness, and he welcomed death as the
awakening to a higher life. Sometimes the sadness overpowers
the joy, as in those pathetic lines :--
"Life is a business, not good cheer,
Ever in wars,
The sun still shineth there or here ;
Whereas the stars
Watch an advantage to appear.
" Oh that I were an orange tree,
That busy plant !
Then should I ever laden be,
_And never want
Some fruit for him that dressed me.
" But we are still too young or old ;
The marx is gone
Before ve do our wares unfold ;
So we freeze on,
Until the grave increase our cold."
To Herbert the life of the orange tree was the best ; the.
life of strenuous restfulness which brings forth fruit without
effort. He lived less than three years at Bemerton.
*633.
He,-heWs When he died he left behind him a name which will
death.
never perish in England.
Herbert and Ferrar were instinct with the feminine ten-
dencies of spiritual thought. The masculine energy of life is
Tede,cie to be sought elsewhere. The self-reliant strength is
of thought, with the Puritan. The voices of Sibbes and Gouge
are raised in great cities. Wherever men are thickest their
prevailing eloquence is heard. Herbert and Ferrar allow the

xg3o M'ILT"OA"S E.,41?L Y POE2[S. 27t
"That we on earth with undiscording voice
May rightly answer that melodious noise ;
As once we di,1 till disproportioned sin
Jarred against Nature's chime, and with harsh din
llroke the fair music that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed
In perfect diapasou, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.
O may we soon again renew that song,
And keep in time with Heaven, lill God ere long
To his celestial comfort tts unite,
To live with llim anti sing in endless morn of light."
To llilton God was ever ' the great Taskmaster' who had
set him to cultivate the field of his own mind that he might
llilton's afterwards hold out help to others. Early in life he
,o,ios- had perceived that'hc ho would not be frustrate
hess of work
tobedo,, of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things
ought himself to be a true poem--that is, a composition and
pattern of the best and honourablest things; not presuming to
sing high praises of heroic men or famous cities, unless he have
in himself the experience and practice of all that which is
praiseworthy.' Thus he grew up in his father's house in Bread
Street, and anaongst the thoughtless, scoffing academic youth of
Cambridge, breathing the highest life of Puritanism, its serious
thoughtfulness, its love of all things good and honourable, its
pure morality and aversion to low and degrading vice, yet ,ith
nothing exclusive or narrow-minded in him. If he drank deeply
of the Bible, he drank deeply of the writers of Greece and
l(ome as well, and the influence of the philosophers and poets
of Greece and Rome was as marked upon his style as that of
the prophets and psahnists of Jerusalem. Even in the great
religious controversy of the day, the voice of the future assailant
of Episcopacy and the ceremonies gives as yet no certain
sound. The tone is Puritan, but there is nothing there of the
lkIilton not fierce doglnatism of Prynne. At the age of seven-
yet hostile to
tnoreerof teen he not only joined in the praises of Andrewes,
the Church. the prelate whom Laud most reverenced, but de-
scribed him as entering heaven dressed in the vestments of the

1633 A LULL BEFOR THE STOR3L 273
eem to be a fairer prospect of overcoming the irritation that
63. had prevailed four )'ears before. If only the rulers of
Civil war
ppat England could comprehend the virtue of moderation,
f, oer. and could learn the strength which is to be gained
by conciliation, all might yet be well. Unhappily, Charles was
still at the helm, and Charles had promised the Archbishopric
of Canterbury to the most conscientious, the most energetic,
and the most indiscreet man in his dominions. Abbot's death
would be the signal for violent changes, followed by a still more
violent reaction. Abbot had yet a few months of life before
him. During those months Charles, with Laud in his com-
pany, paid a visit to his northern kingdom.

VII. T

=86 Y'HA" ICLVG'S I'ISIT TO SCOTL.qA'D. CH. LXXll.

curiously wrought ; and as these bishops who were in service
passed by this crucifix they were seen to bow the knee and
t)eck, which, with their habit, was noticed, and bred great fear
of inbringing of Popery." t
The work of exasperating the religious feelings of the greater
part of those who had any religious feeling at all in Scotland
was thus successfully begun. The pressure put upon congrega-
tions to kneel at the Cotnmunion was only felt once or twice a
)car. The offence given by the white garment and the rever-
ence paid in passing before the crucifix would be an offence of
weekly, if not of daily repetition, in the eyes of men who were
sensitive above all other Protestants to the danger of relapsing
into a system which the)" counted irreligious and antichristian.
That which had been done in the King's chapel was hot
without its effect upon Parliatnent. On June 20, that body
met for despatch of business. Unlike the English
June o.
Icetingof Parliament, it was not divided into two Houses.
Parliament. Out of I8 3 metnbers, the non-official lords present
in person or by proxy could nntnber only sixty-six votes, and
resistance to the King was therefore too hopeless to be at-
tempted on a question in which, as in that of the compromise
on tithes, he would have at his disposal the ninety-six votes of
the representatives of the boroughs and of the untitled gentry.
The ecclesiastical ]3ills offered a better rallying-ground for

 Spalding, i. 36. Mr. Grub, in his Ecclesiastical t/islory of Sc,,tland,
it. 345, throws doubt on the usually accepted story told by Rushworth,
that the Archbishop of St. Andrews, being placed on the King's right hand,
and the Archhishol of Glasgow on the le.ft, iaud took Glasgow and
thrust him from the King in these words :--" Are you a churchman, and
wants the coat of your order."' Ile argues that 'in Sir J. Balfour's
minute narrative of the coronation it does not appear that any special place
was assigned to Archbishop Lindsay,' and that Spalding says that 'the
Archbishop of Glasgow and the remanent of the Bishops there present,
uho were not in the service, changed not their bah;t, but wore heir black
gowns without rochets or white s:eeves.' It may be added that the details
of the ceremony must have been arranged beforehand, and if the Arch-
IAshop objected to appear in a cope, the question would not have been left
o be settled in the church. It should be remembered that during this
period Rushworth is no safe authority.

290 TIlE K1A'G'S I;1SIY TO SCOTLA.VD. CH. LXXIL
to discuss with hiln and the King the proposed introduction
of the English Prayer-book. Some of those present, Lindsay,
j,,,e so. Bishop of Brechin, the historian and defender of the
hei,to- Articles of Perth, Maxwell, who had just become
ductlon of"
,,era-,r- Bishop of Ross, Sydserf an Edinburgh minister,
book pot-
you,d, and Wedderburn, a Scotchman who had been a
professor at St. Andrews, and was now a beneficed clergyman
in the English Church, gave their voices in favour of Laud's
unwise proposal. The mass of the bishops were still of the
same mind as in 62 9. Yet so far as our information goes,
they did not speak out plainly. They did not say that they
could not go one step farther than the liturgy which they
had prepared. They talked of the objection which would be
taken in Scotland to a liturgy precisely similar to that used
south of the Tweed. They complained of a few unimportant
errors, mistakes in the translation of the Psahns, and the like.
Every Scotchman knew that the real objection did not lie here.
Charles did not care to see it. He gave way so far as to agree
that some of the Scotch bishops should set to work 'to draw
up a liturgy as near that of England as might be.' t The Book
of 6 9 was tacitly allowed to drop out of sight. It had itself
been more obnoxious than the book of I6X 7. Its successor
might well be more obnoxious still.
The next day Charles set out for a progress in the country,
which he enjoyed extremely. In spite of all that had passed,
july 8. he was received with every demonstration of affec-
C,ar tion. In the whole course of his wanderings he
leaves Scot-
6. met with only one mishap, being nearly drowned in
crossing from Burntisland, on his way back to Edinburgh.
On July 8 he left his northern capital on his journey home.
.Although the composition of a Prayer-book was for the
present suspended, Charles had not been long in England before
he discharged a Parthian shot at Scotland. In virtue of the
i Laud's IVorks, iii. 278. Crawford, Lives of the Ovcers of the Cra-,t,n,
77. He founds his narrative on MSS. of Spottiswoode which have been
lost, and upon Clarendon, who had doubtless a good opportunity of hear-
ing what passed. Crawford anticipates by calling Sydserfand Wedder-
burn bishops.

t633 THE NOBLES IN OPPOSITIO.,V. =93

to be England to those who did not know where the heart of
England was. Moral instincts which refused to be smothered
by a catechism, a liturgy, and a confession prepared without
reference to the beliefs of those for whom they were intended,
would combine with the national indignation which was certain
sooner or later to blaze up against the Scots who were ready
to impose on their own country the bonds which were being
forged in England.
Till difficulties actually stared Charles in the face, he did
not know that they existed. Still less did he perceive how
much he was doing to increase them. He did not
Charles and
th Opposi- know that his Church policy was raising such men as
tion Lords. Loudoun and Rothes from insignificance. He fancied
that to overwhelm those selfish and unprincipled adventurers,
as he regarded them, he had but to testify his displeasure.
Before his arrival in Scotland he had created some new peers,
and had raised many barons to a higher rank. He now gave
orders that the grants which had not been fornaally made out
should be suspended in the cases of those who had joined in
the opposition in Parliament. When he returned to England,
he heard to his annoyance that untrue rumours were floating
about, and that Scotchmen were whispering to one another that
the majority for the Ecclesiastical Acts had been a fictitious
one, and that he had himself interfered to conceal the fraud.
Charles had thus gone back to England in no good temper
with the Opposition. Treating it as altogether factious, he had
refused, whilst yet in Scotland, to look at a paper
"rh s,ppi- which had been drawn up by a certain William Haig,
cation.
as embodying the sentiments of those who had voted
against the Acts. "F,.his paper had been approved of by Lord
]3almerino, the son of James's secretary, and had been passed
on by him to Rothes to be shown to the King as a 'suppli-
cation of a eat number of the nobility and other commis-
sioners in the late Parliament.' Rothes knew what the King's
temper was, and began by sounding him before he ventured to
deliver the paper. "My lord," was the reply, "ye know what
is fit for you to represent, and I know what is fit to me to hear
and consider ; and therefore do or do not upon your peril. '

296 THE A'25VG'S VISIT TO SCOTL./I.VD. CH. LXXII.
orthodoxy, and fearing the inquisitive meddling of the Presby-
terian clergy who would be sure to bear hard upon one of his
tastes and opinions. He was one who, like Patrick Forbes,
had formed part of that wave of liberal reaction, which, through
the blunders of James and Charles, had already spent its force.
As Forbes had warned James against his ecclesiastical mistakes,
l rummond now warned Charles against his political mistakes.
In a letter, evidently intended to be shown to the King, he
pointed out that it was impossible to secure popularity by
nmzzling men's tongues and pens. In so doing the King was
shutting his eyes to that which it most imported him to know.
" Sometimes it is great wisdom in a prince not to reject and
disdain those who freely tell him his duty, and open to him his
misdcmeanours to the commonwealth, and the surmises and
umbrages of his people and conncil for the amending disorders
awl bettering the form of his government.' The best way to
treat political libels was either to scorn them or to answer them.
" Wise princes have never troubled themselves much about
talkers; weak spirits cannot suffer the liberty of judgments nor
the indiscretion of tongues." 
Drummond's letter was even a more impressive condemna-
tion of Charles's system of government than the supplication
had been. The tone is different, but the fault corn-
July.
m,io plained of is the same. One man, however highly
wrao,, placed, cannot govern a nation from which he stands
apart. It was because Charles could never learn this lesson
that he fell at last. It was indeed morally impossible for him
to send Bahnerino to the scaffold. Even Laud told him that
a lnan must be pardoned who had been acquitted by seven
jurymen out of fifteen. = "l'he impression of the trial and the
events which had preceded it could not be so easily wiped
 Drummond's Apologetical Letter [to the Earl of Ancram], ll,rks,
132. I need not refer the reader to Professor Masson's .Drumtnont of
.tYawthorndcn, which should be in ever)one's hands who wishes to under-
stand these times in Scotland. Unluckily he has passed over the affair of
the tithes, without which no completely fair judgment can be formed.
Mr. Napier, on the other hand, in his various works on the life of lXlont-
rose, was totally unable to see anything except the commutation of tithes
aad Presbyterian intolerance. = .Z?ow, 389.

 633 THE ,]/'AR V OF H..IZIL TO: 29?
away. Charles had gone far to b!ot out the memory of the
services which he had rendered to Scotland ill enforcing the
colnmutation of tithes.
When great national errors have been committed, smaller
personal mistakes are certain to follow in their wake, and to
,e33. obtain an importance which they would not other-
,,roe wise have had. There can be no doubt that the
finding a
t;overnraent, absence of the King was an enormous difficulty in
the way of governing Scotland. Not only was the King himseff
liable to be filled with ideas which were not Scotti.h ideas, but
the Privy Council which ruled in his name was sure to deterio-
rate into the worst possible form of" government. It was a
committee in which there was no master mind. Personal
objects swayed its members, and those lnen who should have
stood as the leaders of" the nation became known as men
jostling against one another for power or pelf'. One great blow
had been wisely struck at their supremacy by Charles at the
beginning of. his reign. He had ordained that, with the excep-
tion of the Chancellor, men who sat in the Privy Council as
adlinistratols of the Government, should not also sk in the
Court of. Session as judges.  FrOln time to time he had done
his best to moderate the quarrels of his representatives at Edin-
burgh. But he had not sufficient knowledge of men to choose
counsellors who were really worthy to govern, and his gradual
alienation f"rom the national feeling on the subject of religion
made those who were really worthy shrink from his side.
Gradually Charles saw fit to take for his counsellor in
England the Marquis of Hamilton. He chose him as he had
Hamilton in chosen Buckingham and Weston, and resolved to
,-o,r. support him against all COlnplaints. It was not a
wise choice. Hamilton was a weak and inefficient man, with
just enough remembrance of his relationship to the Royal
dynasty to keep him perpetually on the watch for occasions
which might increase his credit in Scotland, whilst his double-
dealing, springing from an anxiety to stand well with every
party, deprived hiln of all value as an adviser.
Charles's choice of representatives at Edinburgh was even
 Balfour, ii. I Z 9.

298 Ttt, I(LVG'S VISIT TO SCOTLA.VD. cH. LXXII.
worse than his choice of a confidant in England. When nobles
were grasping and lawyers intriguing, there was one
The bishops
promoted in body of men who had never crossed his path, and
Scotland. who had given him every reason to assure himself of
their devotion. If the bishops had given him full satisfaction
when employed in Church affairs, why should they not give
him full satisfaction when employed in political affairs ? Man
for man, there was in all probability more chance that a bishop
would be honest and self-denying than an earl or a baron would
bc. Charles at least thought so. Step by step he had pushed
forward the bishops into temporal rank and office. At his
coronation he had been vexed by the refusal of Lord Chancellor
lfay, whom he had just created Earl of Kinnoul, to allow
Spottiswoode to take precedence of him. Kinnoul declared
his readiness to lay the Chancellorship at his Majesty's feet;
but whilst he kept it, 'never a priest in Scotland should set
a foot before him, as long as his blood was hot.'  In December
x635" x634 the 'old cankered goutish man,' as Charles
January. called him, died. In January 635 , the Archbishop
Spottis-
,,-ood Chart- of St. Andrews was appointed Chancellor in his place.
lor. Seven other bishops had been gradually admitted to
the Privy Council.
The step which Charles had taken was a distinct challenge
to all orders and classes of men. Those who were thus
promoted were obnoxious to the Presbyterians because they
were bishops, and to the mass of religious Scotchmen who
were not distinctly Presbyterians, because they supported the
ceremonies, and were incorrectly believed to havc been the
authors of all the innovations which had had their real origin
in England. The nobles hated them as intruders upon the
dignities which they claimed by birth. The lawyers were jealous
of them as intruders upon the dignities which they claimed by
virtue of professional knowledge. They stood alone in Scot-
land as Charles stood a/most alone in England.
r)ngrsin In the sunanaer of x635 every element of a great
the future conflagration was present in Scotland. Only the
spark was wanting to set the country ablaze.
 2alfour, ii. 141.

1633 TIlE T.4BLE M T ST. GREGORI"S. 3

ings, and summoned the parties, as well as the judge, before the
Privy Coulacil, there to discuss the matter in his owu presence.
Marten, as might be expected, was deeply annoyed, and he
showed his vexation by his lauguage. The comnmnion-table
in its new place, he said, would make a good Court cupboard.
'Arundel and Portland argued hat it was unfit that the table
should stand one way in the mother church, aud quite other-
wise in the parochial aunexed.' [.aud spoke strongly in favour
of the change. After the arguments on both sides were ex-
hau sted, Charles gave his decision.
"His Majesty . . . was pleased to declare his dislike of all
innovations and receding from ancient coustitutions grounded
The King's upon just and wanantabte reasons, especially in
derision, matters concerning ecclesiastical order and govern-
ment, knowing how easily men are drawn to affect novelties,
and how soon weak judgments in such cases may be overtaken
and abused .... He 'as also pleased to observe that if these
few parishoners might have their ills, the differeuce thereby
from the aforesaid cathedral mother church, by which all other
churches depending thereon ought to be guided, would be the
lnore notorious, and give lnore subject of discourse and disputes
that might be spared, by reason of St. Gregory's standing close
to the wall thereof." Then, after glancing at the plea of the
parishioners,  ho had abandoned the firm grouud of Williams's
settlement, to argue ' that the book of Common Prayer and the
eighty-second Canon do give permission to place the coin-
reunion-table where it nmy stand with most fitness and con-
veniency,' the King proceeded to lay down the law of the future.
" For so nmch," he said, " as concerns the liberty given by the
said Common Prayer-book or Canon, for placing the com-
nmnion-table in any church or chapel with most conveniency ;
that liberty is not so to be understood as if it were ever left to
the discretion of the parish, rnuch less to the particular fancy
of any humorous person, but to the judgment of the ordinary,
to whose place and function it doth properly belong to give
direction in that point, bo.th for the thing itself and for the time
when and how long, as he may find cause." In this case the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's were the ordinaries, and Marten

33 2 22,4 UD'S ARCHBISHOPRIC. crI. LXXIII.
an artist and a Christian. The art of the play which he now
patronised was in flagrant contradiction with the art of Shak-
spere. Its morality was in no less flagrant contradiction with
the morality of the Sermon on the Mount.
The day after The Gameslcr was represented at Court,
Prynne appeared before the Star Chamber. His own advocates
seem to have had little hope of an acquittal, and
Feb. 7.
St.,-Ch,m- contented themseh'es with maintaining that his in-
her proceed-
ings a.eaitst tentions had been good, and with giving a milder
,,:-n.. interpretation to some of his strongest expressions.
In the Court itself not a voice was raised in favour
Fb. i. of moderation. Even Richardson, who could be so
severe on the drunken revels of the poor, had no word to say
against the profligacy of the rich. Laud, who was no doubt
delighted to aim a blow at so bitter an opponent of his eccle-
siastical system as the author of ame Giles, his haltings, de-
clared that to speak of frequenters of plays as ' devils incarnate '
as a direct incitement to rebellion against a king who took
pleasure in these entertainments. It was not true that plays
were unlawful in themselves. " Take away the scurf and rub-
bish which they are incident unto, they are things indifferent."
As to the indecencies charged against them, 'if there be such
things now, it is a scandal and not to be tolerated.' It was the
business of the Lord Chamberlain and the Master of the Revels
to see to that.
Laud, in short, excused his own remissness on the ground
that the licensing of plays was out of his own official province.
Such an excuse carried with it its own condemnation. The
charge brought was that in the King's Court a fountain of vice
had been opened in the midst of the nation. Surely this
concerned an-Archbishop whose personal influence over his
sovereign was greater than that of any prelate since the days
of Wolsey. What were all the sins against uniformity to
this, the hats placed by rude country peasants on the com-
nmnion-table, or their slouching into church with their heads
covered ? If Yrynne's charge was true, Laud was but busy in
cleaning the outside of the cup and the platter. If only a tithe
of it was true, at least there would have been room for a man

344 TIIE FIRST II'RIT OF SHIP-3IOYEY. cH. ZXXlV.
talking of the scheme, and that Lord Craven was hanging back,
became terrified lest the friends of Spain should throw obstacles
in the way of its realisation. One of those to whom his project
had been imparted was Goring, and upon Goring he
Nethersole's
qua.rrel with laid the blame of betraying his confidence. Goring,
boring, who was perfectly innocent, defended himself warmly,
and complained to the Council. The Queen, in whose house-
hold Goring was, took his part, whilst Nethersole, instead of
speaking plainly, dropped mysterious hints of the injury which
would be done to the King if he told all he knew. By this
time Charles had been persuaded by Portland that it was
tmwise to offer in an underhand way the succour which he was
not prepared to give openly. He, therefore, withdrew his per-
mission for the contribution, and compelled Nethersole to make
a formal apology to Goring.!
The result of the negotiations which were still proceeding
in the Netherlands was of far more immediate importance to
.j,.,,... England than the result of the negotiations at Heil-
Th ,,go,,.- brunn. Before the end of January, 633 , it had become
tion in the
hod. plain that if Spain was to be deferred to there was no
likelihood of either peace or truce. The terms which had been
admitted in 6o 9 were taken as a basis of negotiation ; but the
Dutch asked for express permission to trade in all the dominions
of the Spanish monarchy. The Spaniards replied by demanding
the restitution of Pernambuco, which had recently been taken
by the Dutch, and which gave to the revolted Netherlanders a
firm footing in South America. 
Under these circumstances the Brussels Estates, or those
who professed to act in their name, secretly informed the Dutch
ministers that they were at last ready to accept the
March I.
,opo. proposal to which they had so long turned a deaf
revolution.
ear. If the Prince of Orauge would come to their
aid, they would throw off the Spanish yoke. If all the Flemish
and Walloon troops were on his side, he would have no diffi-
culty in making himself master of the six thousand Spaniards
* Numerous papers relating to this affair are scattered over S. P.
ecxxxix.-ccxlii.
= Henrard, 3Iarie de ,I,ti,is darts les Pays Eas, 344.

1633 .,4 SUPPRESSED IdEI'OLg'TI02". 347
he could arrive authority fell into the hands of the Council,
mainly COlnposed of Spaniards, of whom the Marquis of Aytona
was the leading personage. Aytona acted with firmness and
Decemtr. prudence. The chief conspirators were seized, and
a'herevotu- the States-General dissolved. The Northern States
tionlsts
seized, broke off the negotiation as soon as they found that
they had Once more to treat with Spain. The Southern Pro-
vinces were bound for eighty )ears longer as slaves in the train
of the Spanish monarchy.
The Belgian provinces had lnade their choice long ago, and
they could not break loose now froln the entalglements into
which they had fallen by the remissness of their resistance
to Spain ill the sixteenth centur)-. They must bear whatever
their neighbours, in guarding thelnselves against the revival of
Spanish domination, might find it necessary to inflict upon
them. Though weakened by a series of adverse calnpaigns, and
by the internal nlisgovernlnent froln which those adverse caln-
paigns had resulted, the S1)anish lnonarchy was still formidable.
If a few years of peace gave it the opportunity of recruiting its
strength, its enemies would have to renew the old struggle on
lnore unequal terms, q'he presence of a Spanish army in the
Netherlands was a standing lnenace to France and to the
States-General, and it can cause no surprise that both I"rance
and the States were resolved to do all that ill theln lay to
relieve themselves from the danger.
It was hardly possible that the question should be regarded
in England froln quite the same point of view. Even Roe, who
advocated a close alliance with the Dutch, was aware of the
danger of allowing Dunkirk to fall into French hands. For
the present, however, Dunkirk was in safety. The forces of
France were turned in another direction. In August tile Duke
of Lorraine had given assistance to the Imperialists in his
September. neighbourhood. In September Richelieu entered his
The French duchy and brought his whole territory under subjec-
i,,Uace, tion. Rather thao submit to the indignity the Duke
went forth as an exile, carrying his sword to the service of the
Elnperor. From Lorraine the French army passed into Alsace.
One town after another admitted a French garrison, dud it was "

3_o THE FIRST II'RIT OF SItlP-.ZONEY. CH. LXXIV.
herself in these never-ending combinations which took so little
account of the forces and aims of the world. Eliza-
December.
Elizabeth beth was indeed of one mind with him in regarding
a.-ks for aid. Richelieu with distrust. The French were approach-
ing the Rhine, and it was known that the Elector of Treves,
who had lately installed them in Ehrenbreitstein, was ready
to instal them in Udenheim. a fortress to which he had lately
given the name of Philippsburg, and which was close to the
frontier of the Palatinate. Her secretary wrote, by her instruc-
tions, to Nethersole, urging hiln in the strongest terms to demand
ilnmediate help from England. " If the Palatinate House," he
nsked, " for want of assistance, were constrained, as some of
thcir neighbours have been, to put thelnselves under the pro-
tection of France, who could blaine them ? "
When this lettcr reached Nethersole it was accompanied by
a rumour, which afterwards proved unfounded, that Philipps-
,634. burg was actually in the hands of the French. Hoping
Jan. 4- that now at least the King would act, he sent to Coke
lqethersole '
ornd an extract from the secretary's letter, begging him to
Charles.
request a speedy answer, lest his mistress, in her
anxiety to look to her brother alone for help, ' should thereby
come to be hereafter blamed by the friends of that House with
which she was married, to have been the second time the ruin
thereof, there being a great deal of odds between the said House's
putting itself, or being taken into the protection of France.'
Charles was stung by the suggestion that the Palatinate
xxhich had once been lost by dependence on his father might
Jn. 5. now again be lost by dependence on himself. He
Nethersole's at once ordered Nethersole into confinement. Ne-
imprison-
met. thersole added to his offence by slipping away before
the order was executed, with the intention of placing his papers
in safe custody. Failing in his attempt, he was captured and
scnt to the Tower. There he. remained for some time, only to
be set at liberty after Elizabeth, at her brother's imperative re-
quest, had dismissed him entirely from her service. His public
career ended in this moment of ilnpatient zeal. 
 Nethersole to Coke, Jan. 4- Statement by Nethersole Jan. 9, S.
tDnt, cclviii. 33 8

1634 OI'ERTUJES TO
Coke was now directed to forbid the enaployment of the
young Elector in the Palatinate. It was but a dream, he wrote,
Jan. 7. 'to imagine that a young Prince with a little army'
"rheyo, ng could 'now deternfine that cause for which King
Elector not
to go to the James of lw.ppy memory ..nd his Majesty have striven
Palatinate.
so malay years, have engaged themselves in great
wars, have spent millions, and in which the King was still em-
ploying his counsels and endeavours by stopping enemies and
raising fiiends, and by preparing all fit means to accommodate
so great a work.'
The means which Charles considered to be fitting were
Jan. . traced out in fi-esh consultations between the three
co,,t- ministers and Necola]de. On the EnRlish side all
tions with
Necolalde. that w..s at first offered was to lend txventy or thirty
vessels to the King of Spain upon hire, and to contribute good
offices for a general peace. In return for this shadowy
Jan.o. assistance, Charles expected a declaration fi-om the
Ernperor that his nephew was not affected by the ban under
which Frederick had been placed, as well as the immediate re-
stitution of the Lower Palatinate, and some arrangement for
the ultimate recovery of the Upper Palatinate and the electoral
VeU. 6. dignity. His view of the relations into which he
Chae'. proposed to enter with Spain was more distin,'tiy
offers to
Spain. set down in a despatch to Hopton, the English
Resident at Madrid. "In the meantime," wrote Windebank
of the Spaniards, "their affairs in Flanders growing every day
i:ato more desperate estate, and his Majesty considering in his
princely wisdom how much it concerns him in his own interest
to carry a jealous and watchful eye over the growing greatness
of the States, by whose insolencies he is every day much
awakened, has been pleased to direct the Lord Treasurer to
call the Lord Cottington and myself unto him, and to confer
with Necolalde upon some course to be held for giving assist-
ance to the King of Spain, such as may stop the current of
the Hollanders' conquests, and peradventure draw them to a
peace, yet not plunge his Majesty into a sudden, dangerous,
t Coke to Boswell, Jan. 7, .7. 1". tti,llanL

358 THE .FIRST If:HIT OF SHII'-M'OA'EI: CH. LXXlV.
There was much in Coke's complaint which called for the
most serious consideration. With commerce spreading out on
Necessity every side, in the face of the predominant maritime
ofeet, force of the Dutch Republic and of the growing
maritime force which Richelieu was creating in France, the
time was come when England nanst possess a navy worthy of
the name, or must forfeit her place amongst the nations and
her power to protect her traders on the seas. The claim, how-
ever, which Charles imt forward was more than a claim that he
might be able to do justice to his snbjects. The assertion of
the sovereignty of the seas meant nothing less than an assertion
that the whole of the English Channel to the shores of France,
and of the North Sea to the shores of Flanders and Holland,
was as completely under the dominion of the King of England
as Kent or Yorkshire. "Fo fish in those waters, or even to
navigate them without his permission, was an encroachment on
his rights.
Monstrous as the claim was, it appealed too strongly to the
English contempt of foreigners to be without an echo in English
hearts. In the Council, at least, it found unanimous support.
The argument by which Charles's claim to the sovereignty
of the seas was supported, like the argument by which his claim
to use his subjects' ships was supported, was historical and legal.
si jo Some six or eight months before,  Sir John Borough,
Borough's
So,treignty the Keeper of the Records in the Tower, had drawn
o/a, es',, up an elaborate argument, showing how in the days
.'hen England was strong her sovereigns had put forth extrava-
gant claims, and how those extravagant claims had sometimes
been acquiesced in by foreign nations, and ending by a trium-
phant vindication of that authority as an inherent right of the
Crown.  It was Charles's misfortune never to know that obsolete
precedents would go but a little way to bolster up an authority
t A 1MS. copy of Sir J. Borough's book (.lCZarl. 211SS. 43t4) has the
date of 633 , and there is internal evidence to the same effect. This means
before lXlarch 5, 634- It would hardly be begun before the King's re-
turn from Scotland in August, and probably not till December or January.
: The claim is to be round in an order of the Adlniralty Commissioners
s early as Jan. 2x, 1634 , & 1:/9ore. cclix. 7.

360 TIlE FIRST II'IT OF SHZP-3IO.VEI: ctl. Lxxtv
attempt, however, seems to have been made to carry out these
directions. In August Coke's study in the Temple was
August. sealed up, but it was not till he was known to be ac-
tually dying or dead that the order of July was put into execution
at Stoke Pogeys. Oue of his sons, Roger Coke, a
September.
"lhe papers man too mendacious or inaccurate to give any weight
,!d. of authority to the story which he told, declared
long afterwards that Windebank himself ransacked the house
while the aged law3er was lying on his death-bed, t Though
this statement is probably untrue, it is certain that within a
week after his death a trunk full of papers was brought to
Whitehall and opened in Charles's presence. Three months
afterwards a fresh seizure was made at the Temple, and though
strict orders were given to restore all documents relating to
('oke's priate affairs, and his family doubtless recovered with
them the jewellery, the old coins, and the 'paper of precepts
to his children,' - which were in the trunk which Charles
opened, there was much which they afterwards claimed as
having been wrongfully kept back. Even of those papers which
were undeniably of a public nature, there were many the de-
tention of which could only be accounted for by a desire to
suppress the publication of legal opinions unpalatable to the
Government. Coke, it was true, had been a Commissioner of
the Treasury, and papers relating to the working of the Treasury
were as legitimately an object of solicitude to the King as the
1,apers which he was rightfully accustomed to seize upon the
death of a Secretary of State : but the documents on which
Charles laid his hand were legal as well as financial, and he
was much more interested in stopping the circulation of Coke's
views on law than he was in the perusal of a stray series of
accounts.
n Co[e's Z)t'lt'ction, 53. IIe also says that Coke's will was carried off.
There is no mention of it in the list ot papers preserved. As the trunk
was broken open befire the King on Sept. 9, the probability is that it was
seized after, not before, Coke's death on the 3rd.
 Lit of papers in the trunk, Zan&lk ISX. 943, fol. 369. The
ariginal is as gix'en above. I am sorry to have to dispel Mr. Bruce's little
romance. I le read it a ' paper of.,oc,0j,.' The list of the papers seized in
December is 5". P. Dora. cc!xxviii. 35-

370 TIlE FIRST II'RIT OF SH.{P-.IIO.VEI: cH. LXXlV.
well Turks, enemies of the Christian name, as others, being.
gathered together, wickedly taldng by force and spoiling the
ships and goods and merchandises, not only of our subjects,
but also of the subjects of our friends in the sea which hath
been accustomed anciently to be defended by the English.
natim, and the same at their pleasure hath carried away, de-
.ivering the men iu the same into miserable captivity ; and
forasmuch as we see them daily preparing all manner of
shiPl,ing further to molest our merchants and to grieve the
kingdom, maless remedy be not sooner applied, and their en-
deavours be not more manly met withal ; also the dangers
cousidered which in these times of war do hang over our heads,
that it bchoveth us and our subjects to hasten the defence of
the .sea and kingdom with all expedition or speed that we can ;
:e willing by the help of God chiefly to provide for the defence
of the kingdom, safeguard of the sea, security of our subjects,
safe conduct of shi F; and merchandises to our kingdom of
England coming, and from the same kingdom to foreign parts
passing ; forasmuch as we and our progenitors, kings of Eng-
laud, have been always heretofore masters of the aforesaid sea,
and t would be very irksome unto us if that princely hononr
in our time should be lost or in anythitg diminished; and
although that charge of defence which concerneth all men
ought to be supported by all, as by the laws and customs of
the kingdom of England hath been accustomed to be done ; 
notwithstandiug, we considering that you constituted in the
sea coasts--to whom by sea as well great dangers are imminent,
and who by the same do get more plentiful gains for the defence
of the sea and couservation of our princely honour in that
behalf, according to the duty of your allegiance--against such
attempts are chiefly bound to set to )'our helping hand, we
command firmly" that you cause certain ships of war to be-
b,-ought to the port of Portsmouth on lXlarch I, "and so that
riley may he there the same day at the farthest, to go from
thence with our ships and the ships of other faithful subjects.
 llere is the principle on which Charles acted in the f6ilewlng year.
Of the ,}her princil,le , that what concerned all should be consulted on by"
tll hc took no account.

I634 ESISTA.VCE TO ShTP-.IIO.VE I". 375
into our own forests," he added, "will for the present bring
money, and secure our timber to posterity."
Coming from a warm opponent of the general tendeu-cies of'
the Government, such words may serve as an indication how
little disposition there was as yet in England to
How far was
ship-mont2,-a question the constitutional legality of Charles's
t,,.. demands upon the nation. In one respect indeed,
the call upon the port towns was perilously near to the imposi-
tion of a tax. In ,6z6 each town had been called upon to
furnish such vessels as were to be found in its harbour, and the
mode in which the burden was to be divided amongst the
community had been left to be settled by the local authorities.
This time the vessels were required to be of a size not to be
found in any port in England except in London, and when the
King offered to find the ships out of his own navy if the towns
would find the money, the idea of personal service, upon which
the whole fabric of the claim had been raised, was thrust into
the background, and all that appeared was a direct demand for
mone); to be paid over to a collector appointed by *he Crown,
and to be expended on the equil,ment and maintenance of the
navy. Charles and his ministers would doubtless have argued
that the difference was merely technical, but they had them-
selves taken too great advantage of technicalities to have a tair
claim to such a plea, and after all, constitutional technicalities
are of wdue so far as they are the guardians of the great prin-
ciple that a ruler can no more permanently cut himself off from
the support of his people than a commander can permanently
cut himself off from the opportunit), of receiving supplies from
his base of operations.
Sooner or later, as the entire isolation of Charles's position
and the extreme folly of the wisdom on which he prided himself
showed themselves more clearly, the technical objec-
Dec. .
',odo tions to his proceedings would become the watch-
ttio. words of an excited nation. The only direct word of
remonstrance as yet heard proceeded from the City of I.ondon.
From the other towns came petitions complaining that the bur-
den had been unfairly adjusted ; London alone asserted that
it should not have been imposed at all. Upon the shoulders of

x635 D U.,VA'II?I7 PIV.4 T.EERS. 389
In August, when Lindsey returned to the Downs to revictual, t
he found that his master's sovereignty of the seas was being
questioned in another way than by a mere refusal to dip the
English sail. English vessels had been pillaged in the very
me,'chal,t,_ssels Straits of Dover. Even the post-boat, which had
pillaged, hitherto passed unquestioned between Dover and
Dunkirk, had been rifled by a vessel from Calais. * The Dutch
were still more exasperated than the French. The Dunkirk
privateers had broken the blockade, and had dashed at their
"rhe I)un- fishing-boats in the North Sea. A hundred large
kirk priva-
,ers sei,. herring busses, as they were called, were destroyed or
,l ru,c captured. English sailors passing along the coasts of
fishing-
boa,s. Northumberland and Durham saw the sky red with
the flames of burning vessels. The Dutch ships of war hurried
to protect or avenge their countrymen. The privateers fled
for refuge into English waters. It was hard for the Dutch
captains, in their mood of exasperation, to see their prey es-
caping. One of them followed a Dunkirker with his prizes
july r3. into the port of Scarborough. The quarrel was fought
Fights at OLI[ close to the shore. Shot and bullets flew about,
Scar-
borough, and some of the townsmen were wounded. The
Dutchmen gained the upper hand, and sailed away triumphantly
with the vessels which they had captured. A fortnight later
another Dutch ship which had chased a privateer
july 6. into the same port, sent sixtyor eighty men on shore,
vowing that they would have the ship or lose their lives. 
Lindsey was ordered to detach three ships to the north to
^g.,s. repress these outrages? Before they reached their
ahe uth destination a fresh violation of neutrality was reported
land at
ly,h. from Blythe. To make sure of capturing a Dunkirk
privateer, a Dutch captain had landed his men, had pursued his
enemies two riffles inland, and had robbed them before he let
 Pennington to Nicholas, Aug. 3. Windebank to Coke, Aug. 6, .7./'.
Dora. ccxcv. 8, 37.
x Examinations of Perkins and Redwood, July 8, ibid. ccxciii. 70, 7.
 Atmarr to Osborne, July 4 (?)- Bailiffs of Scarborough to Osborne,
July 26, ibid. ccxciii. Io7, i. ccxiv. 46, i.
 The Council to Lindsey, July 29, ibM. ccxciv. 55.