But all Puritans did not adopt the political cause of the Parliament. Some, though incensed at the conduct of Archbishop Laud, still clung to the fortunes of King Charles. They would never wear a surplice, they would never make the sign of the cross; but at any time they would cheerfully die for their sovereign and their country. Such individuals suffered from the Parliament army almost as much as their brethren did from the Royalists. The Rector of Okerton,[547] whose reverence for the Crown was equalled by his dislike to ceremonialism, was four times pillaged by troops of Roundheads, was twice sent to prison, and was reduced to such straits that he had to borrow a shirt.[548] Cases also occurred in which ministers disapproved of an appeal to arms altogether. A clergyman, who would not keep any days of public fasting and thanksgiving—because, as he said, he would not give thanks to God for one man killing another—was persecuted on that account, and was sent to prison by the governor of Boston for keeping a conventicle. So all drank of the sorrow-cup by turns; it being handed sometimes by one man to another, when both of them were alike Puritans. Walker has collected numerous instances of hardship suffered by the Royalist clergy during the wars. A distinction is to be made between the extravagant statements and vituperative remarks in the first part of his most uncharitable book, and such anecdotes as are related on the authority of correspondents in the second part. These latter partake of a legendary character, and are doubtless coloured highly by their authors; but there is no reason why we should discredit them altogether; and it is very interesting and instinctive to compare them with the traditions of confessorship on the Nonconformist side. Mikepher Alphery, rector of Woolley, in Huntingdonshire, was pulled out of his pulpit by a file of musketeers, and lived for a week in a booth under the trees of his churchyard; Lewis Alcock, rector of North-Stoneham—who seems to have been a "muscular Christian"—when threatened by the Parliament soldiers, brought his bed down into the parlour, and with his gun charged, resolved not to give up his parsonage except with his life. Eldard Alvey, of Newcastle, had to relinquish everything he possessed, and to provide for the safety of himself, wife, and seven children, in the night time, whilst his two curates were threatened with a pistol-shot, if they did not give up reading prayers. Daniel Berry concealed himself under a pile of faggots, where his pursuers discovered him by thrusting their swords into the heap.[549] Other similar cases might be mentioned.
Sufferings of the Clergy.
1645.
The largest amount of suffering experienced by the clergy belongs to the period when men's passions were exasperated by war. Soldiers on both sides were the ministers of vengeance. The fiery excitement kindled in the battle-field was carried into peaceful homes, which became identified with the camp; and ministers of religion, pious, faithful, and devoted, might be found, who, if they did not privately prompt, failed publicly to disapprove of the persecution of their brethren. In many of the biographical sketches supplied by Walker, no indications of spiritual religion appear on the part of those whose livings were sequestered. By some, too, as is evident from the instance just cited, the most determined resistance was offered to their persecutors. The spirit of the High Churchman during the civil wars comes out occasionally in strong contrast with that of the Puritan after the Restoration. Yet we cannot doubt but that on the Anglican as well as on the Puritan side there were sufferers, who bore their Master's cross; that for His sake, from loyalty to what they conscientiously regarded as His truth, they bravely endured reproach and wrong. It is amongst the mysteries of Divine Providence, that holy men in this life have to suffer sometimes in a cause which, although by themselves accounted good, is by brethren, equally honest, branded as evil; and that thus there comes to be, in ecclesiastical conflicts, so much pain, at once conscientiously inflicted, and conscientiously endured. No calm thinker can fail to discern the anomaly; and no loving heart but must long for that blessed future, when the fruits of such strange discipline will be reaped by souls now divided on earth, but who will then be united in Heaven amidst the purest charity and the humblest joy.
Only ignorance of the history of those times can lead any one to suppose that the main ecclesiastical questions at issue were settled entirely, or even chiefly by the debates of either divines or of statesmen. What occurred far away from the Jerusalem Chamber, and from St. Stephen's Chapel, had much to do with the proceedings within those walls. Naseby fight struck the last blow in the struggle with Episcopacy, and by crushing the Royalist party, rendered the cause hopeless; and it also, though in a less obvious manner, materially affected the fortunes of Presbyterianism, by controlling its excesses, and preventing the concession of its inordinate demands.
CHAPTER XX.
The Naseby triumph was won, not by the Scotch army, or by the English Presbyterian generals, but chiefly by Cromwell and his Independent Ironsides. They sustained the hottest brunt of the battle, their charges bore down the brilliant cavaliers; and they, therefore, claimed the greenest laurels reaped on that memorable field. They had become the sworn opponents of the men who were so busy in laying the corner-stones of the new ecclesiastical establishment. Jealousy of Presbyterian power was an influence which, combined with a disapproval of the mode of carrying on the war, produced the self-denying ordinance, by which certain officers of that persuasion were removed from command. Not that Cromwell and others had any great distaste for Presbyterianism considered in itself, since in doctrinal tenets and religious feeling they agreed with the Genevan school; but with the exclusiveness and intolerance of its ecclesiastical polity they were at issue: and they were determined that, while they had tongues to speak and hands to fight, they would not allow a Presbyterian any more than an Episcopal Church to trample upon the liberties of other denominations. They had fought for religious freedom as their own right, and were prepared to concede it, with certain limitations, to their brethren; nor would they now, in the hour of their success, surrender the prize for which they had fought and bled. As the Naseby heroes assumed an attitude of resolute opposition to the Presbyterians, the effect soon became visible at Westminster.