Many references are made in general terms to the zeal and diligence which were exhibited in the ejectment of scandalous ministers and schoolmasters. Major-General Whalley informed Secretary Thurloe that this kind of business was going on well in the county of Lincoln; but Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire had deferred entering upon the duty until he could render them assistance, and he assured the Secretary that his Highness might in that matter calculate upon the efficient services of the learned Recorder of the two county towns.[107]
Major-Generals.
Such persons as sympathized with the Papists were ferreted out with a very keen scent. Major-General Haynes informed the President of the Council, that he had sent to the garrison at Yarmouth a man named Cleveland, simply because he had lodged in a family where Papists resorted; and wore a genteel garb, although professing to have only fifty pounds a year income, and could give no good account of himself; and, besides, was possessed of such abilities as enabled him to do a great deal of mischief.[108] Major-General Boteler also wrote to say that, as he was passing through Rockingham Forest, he overtook a gentleman, whom he found to be a Roman Catholic priest, wandering up and down the country without any settled home; upon which he took him into custody, seized his Agnus Dei and his beads, his medal of the Virgin, his crucifix, and his books; and this functionary wished to know what was to be done with such a dangerous person.[109]
The same officer was equally keen in the detection of disaffected Episcopalians, and therefore apprehended one Sherman, an Episcopalian minister, who, though of a sober life, held destructive principles, which he preached before the Corporation of Norwich.[110] Thus to preach was so much the worse, as that corporation contained very disaffected persons. Another individual, formerly zealous for the Parliament, had fallen in with Sherman, and was thought to be a still more active agent in strengthening malignity and producing disaffection.
1655.
The Anabaptists also figure in these despatches. Vavasour Powell continued to be strongly suspected; but he made a favourable impression upon Major-General Berry, a staunch Independent. This Fifth Monarchy preacher declared that he and his friends were far from designing to make any disturbance: they only wished, he said, to state their complaints to the Lord Protector. "It would be too large," adds the writer, "to relate the discourse we had about it. Only one terrible thunderbolt he seemed to affright me withal: he told me that my imprisoning of him would give occasion to the enemy to rejoice, and cause the godly to pour forth prayers and tears before the Lord against us. To that I answered, that I did account it a dreadful thing to stand in the way of the tears and prayers of God's people, when they were duly directed against me; but if I were found doing my duty in the way of Providence, and many more than those thousands he spoke of should pour forth their prayers and tears against me, I was confident, and could with comfort lift up my head, and trust that the shield of Providence and faith should repel those as well as other darts, and they should not hurt me." Considerable sympathy in religious feeling existed between these two persons. Berry hoped that they might be of spiritual service to each other. He allowed Powell to preach at Worcester, which he did, "honestly and soberly, in four churches, and had many hearers."[111]
It further appears, from the correspondence of Major-General Goffe, that the minister of the principal congregation in the town of Lewes had adopted Feake's principles, "and bewailed the imprisonment of the Saints." The Anabaptists of Sussex were busy getting up a petition against the Court of Chancery, the tithe system, and the detention of prisoners without trial; but not one of the congregation just mentioned would sign the paper, because, being addressed to the Protector, it recognized his authority.[112]
Major-General Whalley, already mentioned—whose duties extended over the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Warwick, and Leicester—was much encouraged at witnessing the loyalty of ministers to the Protectorate in those parts; but, like his fellow-commanders in other districts, he dwells much upon the immorality of the population, which, owing to the neglect of the magistrates, was more than he could suppress. He says: "It hath been a general complaint to me in Lincoln and Coventry especially, that wicked magistrates, by reason of their number, overpower the godly magistrates." "I shall give them in charge to put down as many alehouses as shall be judged unnecessary; and present me with a list at my next coming of what they have put down, and what remain, and shall, with Major Beake, and some others that I judge godly, consider further of them."[113]
Scotland.
Other letters of this period, preserved in Thurloe's collection, present some striking phases of ecclesiastical affairs and religious life in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.