According to Clarendon—the only authority upon which we have to depend in reference to the subject—a curious letter accompanied the address and the proposals; in which letter the correspondent alludes to a "worthy gentleman" by whose hands it was conveyed, and who being acquainted with the circumstances, would fully explain the case and answer objections. He refers to the subscribers as "young proselytes" to the Royal cause, as needing to be driven "lento pede," as being neither of great families or great estates, but as capable of being more serviceable to His Majesty than some whose names would "swell much bigger than theirs."[32]
There is no sufficient reason for pronouncing the story an invention, or the documents forgeries; at any rate it appears as if Clarendon believed in them; yet on the other hand, there is not the slightest evidence that any of the leaders of the Baptist body ever concurred in any such movement—the names appended to the address are unknown—and no reference to the affair, that I am aware of, was ever made after the Restoration, either by Baptists or any other party. On the whole it is not unlikely that some few people, calling themselves Baptists, disliking Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate, and differing from those ministers of their denomination who held parish livings, might have engaged in a correspondence with a view to the restoration of Monarchy under certain conditions—especially that of unfettered toleration. No practical result followed these reported overtures.[33]
INTERREGNUM—PRESBYTERIANS.
The Presbyterians had, for the most part, after the death of Charles I., preserved a sentiment of loyalty towards the House of Stuart; and now that Richard had fallen, they were eager for the restoration of Monarchy in the person of the exiled prince. Presbyterian clergymen animated and controlled this new movement, of which the extensive ramifications spread themselves abroad in secrecy and caution. Only in Cheshire did any military demonstration occur. There, in the month of August, under Sir George Booth, a popular Presbyterian of the county, numbers of persons appeared in arms; yet, although the object evidently was to place Prince Charles on the throne of his fathers, the leaders professed nothing more than a desire to secure the assembling of a free Parliament. The Presbyterians rejected the aid of the Roman Catholics, and but warily accepted the advances of a Presbyterian knight, Sir Thomas Middleton, because he was known to be a Royalist.[34]
1659.
The rising proved unfortunate. After being hopefully prosecuted a little while, it then appeared that the Republicans under Lambert were too strong for these Northern insurgents. The former scoured the country. Their shots in some places disturbed the Presbyterian communicants at the Lord's Supper; their advances in the neighbourhood of Manchester filled that town with alarm. Houses were emptied of their valuables by the people who were anxious to hide them from the enemy.[35] Booth was obliged to flee; and to provide against detection he assumed a female disguise, and rode on a pillion, but his awkwardness in alighting from his horse betrayed him; and Middleton, after a brief resistance within the walls of Chirk Castle, capitulated to the foe.
Fleetwood now seemed the chief man in England; and to him certain Republicans, who had been desired, or as they interpreted it, commanded to retire from the Council of Officers, turned as to their last hope, asking him in a "humble representation" full of religious sentiment, "to remove the present force upon the Parliament, that it might sit in safety without interruption."[36] Other persons of more consequence, including Haselrig, followed up the appeal in a rather different strain, but with the same object, and charged Fleetwood with destroying Parliamentary authority, after the example of his father-in-law.[37] Sir Ashley Cooper subsequently wrote to him in like manner, protesting against "red-coats and muskets" as a "non obstante" to national laws and public privileges.[38]
INTERREGNUM—EPISCOPALIANS.
Amidst the confusion of the period hope dawned upon the persecuted Episcopalians.
Whether or not influenced by the death of Cromwell, and the foresight of coming changes favourable to his own Church, Henry Thorndike, the able Episcopalian scholar and divine, published in 1659 what he called An Epilogue to the Tragedy of the Church of England; a book which, an admiring critic says, proved to be in spirit a prologue to the renewed life of a Church more vigorous than ever! The aim of the work is to promote the welfare of the Episcopal Church of England, not by any compromise, but by endeavouring to persuade all to unite together on her behalf. Looking at the claims of the Romish Church to immediate inspiration (placed no matter where), and to the equally groundless and more arrogant claims of the fanatics—as Thorndike terms them—to individual inspiration, he urges that each party should be brought to admit themselves limited to the sense of Scripture as expounded by the primitive laws and faith of the Church. Thus, he says, the ground of their errors is cut away. With this imaginary solution of the difficulty, which begs the question, this calculation upon what is impossible, and this triumphant assurance of a conclusion based on premises, which neither Papist nor Puritan would admit—the high, but honest Churchman, shows how much he sympathized with the one and how little with the other.