While, free from the excitements of the seventeenth century, we calmly look at Strafford's deserts, is it fair to apply our standard of judgment to the patriots and Puritans of 1641 who took part in his condemnation? Right and wrong, it is true, in themselves are unalterable and eternal, but there are almost infinite degrees in the blameworthiness of men doing wrong, as there are in the meritoriousness of men doing right. Allowance being made for different ideas of criminal jurisprudence in the times of the Stuarts from those now current; and excuses being admitted for stern severity provoked by long oppression,—the patriots and Puritans who put Strafford to death must not be condemned as men would be who had done such a thing in our own times. If it be allowed that the Puritans acted under a sense of mistaken justice; that, standing before the bar of Heaven, they could lay their hands on their breasts, and plead the convictions of conscience and the impulses of patriotism; then, however condemnatory the deed, lenient should be the sentence on the offenders. I am not however prepared to contend for the absence of all vindictiveness in the men who brought Strafford to trial, and then sent him to the scaffold. One cannot but fear that a large amount of alloy was mixed up with the purity of their justice. But that must be left for the decision of a far different tribunal from any which we can erect.
1641, May.
Every reader of English history is aware of the perplexity of Charles when required by Parliament to sanction the death of his Minister. He did not believe Strafford guilty of treason, and he consequently regarded his execution as unjust. Yet he sought for some method of pacifying his conscience, and consulted certain Bishops[181] as to the course that he should pursue. The general advice they gave is reported by the most distinguished of the counsellors. Ussher puts it thus: The matter of fact must be distinguished from the matter of law; of the matter of fact the King may judge; if he do not conceive the Earl guilty, he cannot in justice condemn him; but as for law, what is treason, and what is not, the King must rely on the opinion of the judges.[182]
Lord Strafford.
This casuistry of Charles's advisers indicated the timid expediency of politicians rather than the grave righteousness of God's ministers. But what followed was much worse. One of them—probably Williams—suggested a distinction between the public capacity of Charles as a king, and the private capacity of Charles as a man; a distinction worthy only of a Jesuit, and such as, if allowed, would tear up the roots of all morality in official life.[183] It appears that the other prelates were not responsible for this suggestion. Still reserve is seen on the part of the best men amongst the monarch's advisers, very unlike the outspoken habits of old Hebrew prophets. In their conduct there is much to provoke censure, though in their circumstances there is something to suggest excuse.
In justice to Ussher, let it be added, that he recommended the King not to consent to the Earl's condemnation unless he was convinced of his guilt. Charles himself declared, "After the bill was passed, the Archbishop came to me, saying, with tears in his eyes, 'Oh, Sir, what have you done? I fear that this act may prove a great trouble to your conscience, and pray God that your Majesty may never suffer by the signing of this Bill.'" The Episcopal party, though they did nothing decidedly against the execution of Strafford, ever afterwards regarded it as a dark spot in their royal master's history. They were certainly themselves not free from blame, for if they regarded the proceeding as they said they did, it became them to do their utmost to save Strafford's life. But the truth is, as the Minister was made a Jonah to still the storm, so the Monarch was made a scape-goat to bear the responsibility of throwing him overboard. With the superstition natural to a man wanting in straightforward principle, Charles, in the midst of his after troubles, promised to expiate his offence by public penance, should he ever be restored to his throne. That day of penance never came: but the moral effect of Strafford's dignified conduct in prison and on the scaffold has been such as to soften the opinion of posterity respecting his character, and to increase the condemnation pronounced by history upon Charles for consenting to his death. Strafford's last moments were the noblest of his life. The scene, as he knelt under Laud's window in the Tower to receive his benediction, touches English hearts to this very hour; pity is felt for the man going to his doom on the adjoining hill, which would never have been inspired had his fate been imprisonment instead of death. Both injustice and impolicy are sure to meet revenge, as Providence slowly knits up the threads of time.
1641, May.
Strafford fell on the 12th of May. Amidst the mingled awe and exultation of the moment—whilst the name of the nobleman who had perished passed from lip to lip through London, and the sawdust on the scaffold continued moist with blood—the House of Commons calmly sat to hear an appeal respecting Deans and Chapters. The men, who unconscious of guilt had brought Strafford to the block, and had thus swept from their path a huge obstacle, were at this awful moment quietly pursuing their measures of ecclesiastical reform. The event of the morning, however, one would imagine, came too vividly before them to allow of perfectly serene attention to the pleadings carried on in their presence.
Deans and Chapters.
Great alarm had been felt for the safety of cathedral establishments, although no measure at present had appeared in either House affecting their dignity or diminishing their revenues. But reports of approaching danger were rife, which did not at first alarm and arouse the "prelatical court clergy" so much as it did some others. They waited to see distinctly what impended before attempting a defence. Now they bestirred themselves and prepared petitions, and being informed that the order of the House would not permit of their employing counsel, they delegated Dr. John Hacket, Prebendary of St. Paul's and Archdeacon of Bedford, to plead their cause. On this 12th of May, Hacket came up to the bar of the House to fulfil an office which, he said, had been assigned to him only the afternoon before. He pleaded, that cathedrals supplied the defects of private worship, though he quaintly admitted that—through the super-inquisitiveness of the music—what was intended for devotion vanished away into quavers and airs, whereof he wished the amendment; and passing to what he termed "the other wing of the cherubim," he expatiated on the excellent preaching supplied by these establishments; refuting, by the way, slanders on lecturers as an upstart corporation, and shewing that the local statutes of most cathedrals required week-day lectures. The advocate urged further, that Deans and Chapters advanced the cause of learning, and provided persons for defending the Church. Moreover, he said, the institute comported with primitive usage, being in fact a senatus episcopi, and therefore meeting a want of which some of his reverend brethren complained. Warming with his subject, he praised the magnificence of cathedral buildings, mentioned the number dependent on the foundations, insisted on the excellence of Deans and Chapters as landlords, and their enrichment of cities by their residence and hospitality. The Doctor proceeded to uphold cathedral revenues as prizes to stimulate lawful ambition, and contended for a better maintenance of the clergy than in neighbouring reformed Churches—that they might not be like "Jeroboam's priests, the basest of all the people." To destroy Deans and Chapters, he added, would please the Papists—to preserve them would benefit the nation. He concluded by observing that the honour of God was at stake in this matter, that alienation of church property would be sacrilege, and that "on the ruins of the rewards of learning no structure can be raised but ignorance; and upon the chaos of ignorance nothing can be built but profaneness and confusion."[184]