When the pacification had been effected, the English Parliament solemnly celebrated the event on the 7th of September, by attending divine worship.[216] But the two Houses did not agree in the manner of service. Bishop Williams, as Dean of Westminster, had prepared for the occasion a form of prayer. The Commons pronounced this to be beyond his power, and ordered the prayer not to be read in the liberties of Westminster or elsewhere. When the Lords met in the Abbey, the Commons went to Lincoln's Inn Chapel, where Burgess and Marshall preached, and prayers were offered extempore.
Proceedings of the Commons.
The Commons, conscious of strength, perhaps a little over-estimating it, were not slow in pressing Church reforms, though they proceeded with some caution. At the end of August, they resolved that churchwardens should remove communion-tables from the east end of churches where they had stood altar-wise, and that they should take away the rails, level the chancel floors, and altogether place the buildings in the same state as they were in before the recent innovations. Perhaps excitement in our own day, respecting usages adopted at St. George's in the East, may serve as an illustration of the feeling awakened in the middle of the seventeenth century, by Anglican worship. Only it is to be remembered that instead of one St. George's in the East at that time, there were a hundred in different parts of the country. In villages and towns with High Church clergymen, and Low Church congregations, where semi-Popish arrangements had been adopted in the chancel, while rigid and ultra-Protestant Puritans sat in the nave, or absented themselves altogether—such feuds arose, that, to preserve the peace, as well as to check "innovations," the Lower House deemed it necessary to interfere. The opposition to Sunday afternoon lecturing, and the refusal of incumbents to admit lecturers into their pulpits, increased the strife; and, in reference to this, the Commons interfered by declaring it lawful for the people to set up a lecturer at their own charge.[217] Bishops inhibited such proceedings; but the Commons declared the inhibition void. As bishops were members of the Upper House, all this tended to make the breach between the two branches of the legislature wider than before.
1641, September.
The question of worship could not be allowed to rest. "Innovations" were still discussed; it was resolved in the Lower House, on the 1st September, that scandalous pictures and images should be removed from sacred edifices, and candlesticks and basins from the Communion-table, that there should be no "corporal bowing" at the name of Jesus, and that the Lord's Day should be duly observed.[218] The Peers did not agree with the other House in all these proceedings; they were prepared to command, that no rails should be erected where none existed already; that chancels should be levelled if they had been raised within the last fifteen years; that all images of the Trinity should be abolished; and that any representation of the Virgin set up within twenty years should be pulled down. But the Lords declined to forbid bowing at the name of Jesus; and—omitting any direct reply to the message on the subject from the Lower House—they simply resolved to print and publish the order of the 16th of January, commanding that divine service should be performed according to Act of Parliament; that those who disturbed "wholesome order" should be punished; and that clergymen should introduce no ceremonies which might give offence.[219] The Commons were highly displeased at this, and immediately published their own resolution on their own authority, adding, that they hoped their proposed reformations might be perfected; and that, in the mean time, the people "should quietly attend the reformation intended," without any disturbance of God's worship and the public peace.[220]
The Houses, on the 9th of September, adjourned their sittings for six weeks. When the conflicting orders of Parliament respecting worship came before the nation, the Anglicans adhered to the one issued by the Lords for preserving things as they were, the Puritans upheld the other published by the Commons in favour of reformation: party strife consequently increased, leading to fresh disturbances of the peace. Resistance to the order of the Commons burst out in St. Giles' Cripplegate, St. George's Southwark, and other parishes. There the High Church party defended the threatened communion-rails, as though they had been the outworks of a beleaguered citadel. On the other hand, where Puritanism had the ascendancy, violent opposition was made to the reading of the liturgy, service books were torn and surplices rent.[221]
Reaction.
A considerable reaction in the state of public feeling began to appear in many quarters. There were persons who, having hailed with gratitude and delight the earlier measures of the Long Parliament, now felt disappointed at the results, and at the further turn which affairs were taking. Always, in great revolutions, a multitude of persons may be found in whose minds sanguine hope has been inspired by the inauguration of change; but, being moderate in their opinions and quiet in their habits, they are so terribly alarmed at popular excitement, and by the apprehension of impending extravagances of procedure, that they call on the drivers of the chariot of reform to pull up, as soon as ever the horses have galloped a few yards and a little dust begins to rise around the vehicle. Want of skill, reckless haste, even mischievous intentions, are sure to be imputed to those who hold the reins, and the conviction gains ground that speedily the coach will be overturned.
1641, September.