1641-2.
Even the secession of certain conspicuous advocates from the ranks of ecclesiastical reform to the opposite side served to weaken, not to help, the cause of ecclesiastical conservatism.
Sir Edward Dering's course has been described. We have seen him to be one of those men, who, after looking at both sides of a question, and endeavouring to keep the mean between extremes, at length come to look at one side so much more than the other, that they unconsciously swerve in a direction divergent from their original career, and then, with exquisite simplicity, wonder that they are charged with vacillation. Such persons are also apt to be impetuous, and to speak unguardedly in the heat of debate; and, while honestly hating the character of turn-coats, they expose themselves to that odious accusation. Sir Edward had looked at Anglicanism and at Nonconformity, trying to steer a middle course; but circumstances of late having brought before him most prominently the dangers of schism, he now inveighed against it with the same zeal, which, in the spring and summer of 1641, had inflamed his anti-prelatical orations. It is very easy to make good against this honest but shallow politician the charge of self-contradiction. It is curious to see in his "Defence" how one who courted popularity winced under the accusation of being an apostate, and how he parried the charge of going over to the enemy's camp. At an hour when parties were plunging into a mortal struggle, a much wiser man, counselling moderation, would have had little chance of making himself heard; and certainly Dering's laboured distinction between ruin and reform did as little toward preventing the first as promoting the second; and it could only produce a grim smile in the iron face of a Puritan, when the recent church reformer cautioned his friends, in classic phrase, against "breaking asunder that well ordered chain of government, which from the chair of Jupiter reacheth down by several golden even links to the protection of the poorest creature that now lives among us."[276]
Secessions from the Popular Party.
1641-2.
Another seceder was Lord Falkland, who though a far different man from Dering, yet possessed an amount of impetuosity which at times mastered his wisdom; for instance, when on one occasion the Speaker desired the Members of the House to concur in a vote of thanks by a movement of the hat, Falkland, with a sort of childish irritability, "clasped his hands together upon the crown of his hat, and held it close down to his head."[277] It is somewhat singular that such a man should be held up as an example of moderation—that one so impulsive and demonstrative should have won renown for calmness and caution. The truth is, that he had looked even more closely than Dering had done at the two sides of the great controversy, and by dwelling exclusively first on the one and then on the other, had incurred, like his parliamentary friend, the charge of tergiversation. He saw more strongly the objections to a question than the grounds of its support. "The present evil always seemed to him the worst—he was always going backward and forward; but it should be remembered to his honour, that it was always from the stronger to the weaker side that he deserted: while Charles was oppressing the people, Falkland was a resolute champion of liberty. He attacked Strafford, he even concurred in strong measures against Episcopacy; but the violence of his party annoyed him and drove him to the other party, to be equally annoyed there."[278] Falkland deserted his former friends in October, on the reintroduction of the Bill for taking away the bishops' votes; on the ground, that, though at first he thought it might prove an effectual compromise, and might save Episcopacy by sacrificing its political power, yet he afterwards entertained the opinion that it would have no such effect. The charge of dishonesty never can be brought against him; his character in this respect, like polished armour, could not be dimmed for more than a moment by the breath of scandal. A perfect Bayard in his chivalrous career, sans peur et sans reproche, however he might diverge from his previous path, he can never be justly regarded as a renegade. The persuasion of his friend Hyde, his sympathies as a tasteful and accomplished gentleman with the cavalier party, and beyond all, perhaps a sort of religious reverence for royalty, had more than anything to do with his change of policy in October, and his acceptance of office in the King's councils in January. And it does not appear, that, though he dreaded extreme measures against the Church, he had any more zeal for prelates after than before his separation from his old friends. It was for the crown rather than the mitre that he threw his weight into the royal scale. He approved of moderate Episcopacy, but for that he did not make his great sacrifice. He could not say with Sir Edward Verney, "I have eaten the King's bread, and served him near thirty years;" but he could adopt the veteran's declaration, "I will not do so base a thing as to forsake him." He was not prepared to exclaim, "I chose rather to lose my life, which I am sure I shall do, to preserve and defend those things which are against my conscience;" but he might have adopted the words of the same brave soldier, "I will deal freely with you, I have no reverence for Bishops for whom this quarrel subsists."[279] The heart of many a Royalist went more with King than Church.[280]
Secessions from the Popular Party.
These changes left the staunch opponents of Episcopacy more unfettered in action, and served to consolidate party elements which, for a long time, had been held in a state of solution. Though it would be inaccurate to speak of two distinct and compact parties before the end of 1641, such parties are to be recognized after the beginning of 1642. Men were then forced to take a side, to assume a definite position. A grand issue was joined. Half measures were no longer possible. Questions became distinct. The device and cognizance on each of the opposite banners might be as unmistakably understood as they were plainly emblazoned—on the one side, "Church and King," on the other, "Constitutional Reform in Church and State." There may be quibbles about the accuracy of such watchwords, but those now mentioned are as applicable to the two parties of the seventeenth century, as any familiar ones now are to the political distinctions of the nineteenth.
1642, January.
Politicians who remained staunch in the defence of Parliamentary power against Kingly despotism were much more agreed in reference to the State than in reference to the Church. On the negative side of ecclesiastical revolution they pretty well understood each other. What should be put down they knew; but not precisely what should be set up. That prelacy of the Stuart type should be expelled was a foregone conclusion in 1642; but what sort of rule should take its place, whether very moderate Episcopacy, or thorough Presbyterianism like that of Scotland, the leaders of the movement had not determined. It is, however, quite evident that great modifications in the direction of Presbyterianism were under contemplation: for Presbyterians were numerous in London; their leaders were active amongst the citizens; and the Scotch, through their commissioners, were earnestly doing all they could to promote the cause which was dear to their hearts. But the sectaries, who were hated equally by the Presbyterian and Prelatist, were also on the increase. So numerous indeed had they become that Bishop Hall, in his last speech in the House of Lords, declared with spleen unworthy of so good a man, that there were eighty congregations of them in London, "instructed by guides fit for them, cobblers, tailors, felt-makers, and such like trash, which all were taught to spit in the face of their mother, the Church of England, and to defy and revile her government."[281] Letters of the Royalists at that period abound in complaints respecting the increased activity and boldness of people who were condemned as schismatics. Those so designated had views of ecclesiastical polity very different from Presbyterian opinions, and were destined to check the progress of the latter much more effectually than to contribute to the downfall of Episcopacy. Some of them even (but only some) went so far as to cry, "Away with the thought of a national Church. It is impossible for a national Church to be the true Church of Christ. Let us have no Church but Congregations, and let them be without superintendency." To this we may add that the separatists in general objected to the distinction between clergy and laity, and maintained that the Church is a body, all the members of which are kings and priests.[282]