This comparison of the two Charters indicates a revived spirit of ecclesiastical conservatism at the period when the second of them was prepared, and seems to point to a strong Presbyterian element in this second Protectorate Parliament. The exclusion of members with republican predilections from seats in St. Stephen's left the Presbyterians more at liberty to carry out their own plan of religious policy; and it is a fact, that at the same time, they derived encouragement from the conciliatory conduct then, and for some little while before, manifested toward them by the Lord Protector. Cromwell accepted the Petition and Advice, "hugely taken," as he says, with the word "settlement—both with the thing and the notion"—it being the haven into which he had long sought, in a night of storms, to bring the vessel of Church and State. But, in a speech on the 21st of April, he could not help animadverting on debates in Parliament respecting the civil disqualification of public preachers. "I must say to you," he observed, "in behalf of our army—in the next place to their fighting—they have been very good 'preachers,' and I should be sorry they should be excluded from serving the Commonwealth because they have been accustomed to 'preach' to their troops, companies, and regiments—which I think has been one of the blessings upon them, to the carrying on of the great work. I think you do not mean so 'that they should be excluded' but I tender it to you, that if you think fit there may be a consideration had of it. There may be some of us, it may be, who have been a little guilty of that, (the Lord Protector no doubt here thought of himself), who would be loth to be excluded from sitting in Parliament 'on account of it!'"[139]
1657, April.
Cromwell, in the same speech, could not but cast a glance of approval at the proceedings of the Commission of Triers, of whom, however, the Advice says nothing. "We have settled very much of the business of the ministry," observes his Highness. "If I have anything to rejoice in before the Lord in this world, as having done any good or service, it is this;" "there hath not been such a service to England since the Christian religion was perfect in England!" "We did not trust upon doing what we did virtute Instituti, as if these Triers were jure Divino, but as a civil good. We knew not, and know not better, how to keep the ministry good, and to augment it in goodness, than by putting such men to be Triers: men of known integrity and piety, orthodox men, and faithful." Then—with a decided nod of favour in reference to that part of the petition—he looked at No. xi. on the document, which he held in his hand—where it was written that those ministers who should agree in doctrine, though not in discipline, with the public profession, should be eligible for trust and promotion in the ecclesiastical establishment of England. After glancing obliquely at strifes of opinion—with frowns of displeasure such as we can imagine overcasting his huge eyebrows—he afterwards turned with radiant smiles to recognize so much as existed of his own comprehensive church in this new settlement of affairs. "Here are three sorts of godly men whom you are to take care for, whom you have provided for in your settlement. And how could you put the selection upon the Presbyterians, without, by possibility, excluding all those Anabaptists, all those Independents? And so now you have put it into this way, that though a man be of any of those three judgments, if he have the root of the matter in him, he may be admitted."[140]
Comprehensiveness of Cromwell's Views.
The provisions for a more minute Confession of faith had received special notice from the Protector at one of the earlier interviews which he had with a committee of Parliament, respecting the knotty points of their advice. He said they had been zealous for the two greatest concernments God hath in the world—religion and liberty. "To give them all due and just liberty, and to assert the truth of God:" this was the point. "And as to the liberty of men professing godliness, you have done that which was never done before. And I pray it may not fall upon the people of God as a fault in them, in any sort of them, if they do not put such a value upon this that is now done as never was put on anything since Christ's time, for such a catholic interest of the people of God." Then touching on the subject of civil liberty, the Protector added: "Upon these two interests, if God shall account me worthy, I shall live and die."[141]
1657.
It need scarcely be remarked, that contemplated in the light of the nineteenth century, the restriction of what is called religious toleration within such bounds as were specified in the new Articles of Government must appear very partial and narrow. But judged according to previous legislation—compared with the Presbyterian polity of ten years before; with the prelatical persecutions of Charles, James, and Elizabeth's reign; with the papal cruelties of Queen Mary; and with the capricious despotism of Henry VIII.—the measure of liberty now conceded must be pronounced to be very liberal. Also, when compared with other European countries at the same period, or just before, England under Cromwell is seen to immense advantage; for Spain, Portugal, and Italy prohibited all forms of religion except the Roman Catholic; in France and in Germany the Protestant churches fought rather for their own existence than for any principles of freedom applicable to differing sects; Holland enforced the decrees of the Synod of Dort;[142] Denmark, Sweden,[143] and Norway allowed nothing but a rigid Lutheranism: and Geneva was intolerantly Calvinistic. Moreover, as in point of liberty outside the Establishment the Protectorate proceeded far beyond contemporary European powers, so also did the comprehensiveness of Cromwell's establishment surpass every other which existed in his day. One class of Protestant Christians only had been aforetime in England, or was at this time abroad, allowed by the State incorporation and support; but the Protector conceded these privileges to Presbyterians, to Independents, and to Baptists, in common. In several cases also he winked at the occupancy of parish pulpits even by Episcopal clergymen.
Liberal Opinions.
Of toleration and of comprehension there was very much more than there had been in England, or than could be found at the same time elsewhere; but both toleration and comprehension had respect to different forms of polity, worship, and discipline, rather than to different phases of doctrinal sentiment. Liberty was conceded to various parties so long as they were orthodox and evangelical. But when teachers lapsed into what Puritans believed to be error, when they lost their sympathy in what Puritans believed to be Christian experience, they became at once objects of suspicion and dislike to the Government, and ran the risk of being deprived and silenced. There was freedom of speech, if not State support, for all who were esteemed true and faithful servants of Christ, in spite of their peculiar principles and usages. But toleration belonged to them only as saints, not as subjects. Liberty was counted a religious privilege, not a social right. The grounds of toleration rested upon by Government, however they might appear in the speculations of individual thinkers, were not of the same breadth and of the same strength as they are in the present day. But if there was less of liberty than some admirers of the Commonwealth imagine, there was vastly more of order in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs than those who dislike Cromwell and his Government are disposed to admit. What has been already advanced in these pages serves to shew that things were not left to be shaped by chance; that a definite system of policy was framed; that there was a defined establishment based on law; that liberty was fenced round by distinct lines; and we may now remark, in conclusion, on this subject, that Council books, and other documents in the State Paper Office, prove that the ecclesiastical and other departments of the State, throughout an imagined reign of confusion, were really administered with singular and unprecedented regularity.
1657, April.