In the realm of those ideas, which constitute the western world by their connexion and shake it by their strife, the Independents exhibit views in relation to both religious and political government which, if not entirely new, yet acquired general influence first through them. Religion by its nature aims at a world-embracing community of doctrine and life—an idea on which all great hierarchies are founded, including the Papacy. As the Reformation movement arose chiefly from the oppression which the carrying out of religious unity in a stringent form exerted over single kingdoms and states, it led directly to national unions,—national churches, which no doubt were founded on a creed that claimed universal acceptation, but whose authority could never extend beyond mere provincial limits. Among the formations of this kind the two most strongly organised are doubtless those which were established in Great Britain. We know to what far-reaching contests their opposition led, shaking not merely men’s minds, but the very government of the two countries.
The Independents appeared on the frontiers of the Anglican and Scottish Presbyterian Churches just at the outbreak of their quarrel. The faithful, who when oppressed by Laud at first fled before him to the Continent or emigrated to America, now held together in congregations, which through the closer spiritual union of their members satisfied their need of common religious feeling. Something similar took place in Ireland, in the colonies planted there by the Scots, when Stafford tried to subject them to the yoke of Canterbury. But the Congregationalists who then returned to Scotland did not A.D. 1645. again join the national Presbyterian Church. They assisted gladly and efficiently in defeating the power of the bishops—first in Scotland and then in England, where they united with all the other separatists who had been held down by Laud, but never crushed: but at all times they persisted in trying to carry out their own views. They not only opposed on principle the influence of the State over the Church, but rejected the national as well as the universal, hierarchy, the General Assembly of the Scots as well as the English Convocation. They admitted only a brotherly influence of the churches over each other, consistent with co-ordinate authority: the right to decide for the community they would acknowledge only in the assembled congregation itself. In their system the difference between clergy and laity vanished entirely, for they had no objection to laymen preaching.
As they had taken part in the great war against the bishops on the assumption that after victory they would be free from all religious oppression, and had contributed perhaps the most powerfully of all to the decision by their influence over the city populations, they regarded it as a hateful injustice that the Presbyterians refused them toleration. The last act of union was in a certain sense a declaration of war against the Independents, who in consequence took no share in the Assembly of Divines.
With these ecclesiastical efforts were connected tendencies both intellectual and political, allied to them by internal analogy. The most important and most complete expression of them we find in Milton. Without having himself had any direct share in the religious changes, Milton advocated the rights of the human spirit in its individual character. He attacked the censorship of the press, which the Presbyterians most strictly exercised, in a pamphlet[436] which must be ranked as high in the literature of pamphlets as any of Luther’s popular writings, or the Provincial Letters of Pascal. It must be reckoned as the most eloquent and powerful of all pleas for the liberty of the press: the natural claim of the truth-seeking A.D. 1645. spirit to unchecked utterance is fully recognised in it. Milton is all the more urgent on the subject because he sees his own people inspired with an energy which presses forwards in all directions and is striking out new paths. She sees the light, says he; waking up from sleep she shakes her locks filled with the strength of Samson. And this is the moment at which men would oppress her with old restrictions, and invoke against her the power of the State: as though it were possible in great convulsions to escape a confused variety of new opinions—as though it were not the worst of all opinions to refuse to hear anything but what is pleasing. And they dare to denounce as heretics men who for their lives and faith, for their learning and pure intents, merit the very highest esteem.
In similar contrast, and in fact on the basis of the principle already adopted, appeared also political views of the widest scope. It was declared a crying inconsistency that the Scots, after denouncing their King from the pulpit and taking up arms against him, should still acknowledge him and seek to restore his power. Milton would not hear of the combination of national sovereignty with divine right, which formed the basis of the Scottish system, and which floated also before the eyes of the Presbyterians in England. If the crown were of divine right, no treaty with it would be possible, for in that case the entire power of the State would belong to the King. But men are born free, they are the image of God: authority is conferred on one for the sake of order, but the prince is not only not the lord of the rest, he is their deputy: the magistrate is above the people, but the law is above the magistrate. Milton did not hesitate to maintain that the victory won over the King in the struggle necessarily led to his fall, to a change of government and of the laws.
With these views coincided the theories expressed by Henry Vane, who was then perhaps the most conspicuous leader in parliamentary affairs. He admitted that the supreme power was of divine right, and obedience to it an indispensable duty; but it depended on the people whether or not they would commit it to an individual, and on what A.D. 1645. conditions[437]. Since now the King had transgressed the conditions imposed on him, and had been conquered in the war which broke out in consequence, the people was in no way bound to revert to the old form of government, but entered on the possession of its original freedom: for the same end for which the old government had been established they might now abolish it, according to the idea of justice which was originally implanted in man, and is interwoven with his being. The republic was not yet directly pointed out as the ideal form of government, but the right was claimed of resorting to it at pleasure.
Never did these ideas find ground better prepared to receive them, or more ready acceptance, than in the army, which from the first had been formed on corresponding principles. In the time of Manchester, who allowed it from forbearance, the separatists who desired to take military service gathered by preference round Cromwell, whose object it was to lead into the field men of decided opinions[438]. His soldiers should be as incapable of looking behind them as himself,—he actually made it an accusation against the Lords that they were too prudent. These views were now confirmed by success. The Independents and other separatists had done the best work in the open field, as in the city disturbances. They laughed at the Scots and their moderation, which they held to be mere hypocrisy, a mask from behind which to bring England under their sway. For if it was allowable to make war against the King, it was lawful to overthrow him, to imprison and put him to death. How astonished were the Presbyterian preachers who followed Cromwell’s camp at the anti-royalist A.D. 1645. and destructive spirit which prevailed in it[439]. Charles I was regarded merely as the successor of William the Conqueror, who had made his generals into lords, and his captains into knights, the ancestors of the nobility and gentry still subsisting: but all this had been founded on the right of the sword, and might again be reversed by the same right. They felt like successors of the Anglo-Saxon population, again after long oppression regaining the upper hand. Theoretically and historically they considered themselves justified in overturning the existing State and founding a new one.
We may observe the stages of the intentions which in this contest were successively exhibited. At first it was only intended to restore the full efficiency of the Parliamentary régime: the elections in the autumn of 1640 were held with this in view. But the Parliament when it assembled raised claims which would have given it unconditional preponderance, a kind of political and military omnipotence. The Scots and the Parliamentary leaders in concert with them added the demand for the subjection of the King to a Presbyterian system. As a fourth step, the Independents rejected this form also, and entirely disowned obedience to the King.
Nor were these in any sense empty theories: the Independents had actually gained a power which was only limited by the power of their opponents, who were the King’s enemies also. It is asserted that on the publication of the King’s letters captured at Naseby, which were read everywhere throughout the country, they intended to induce the people to demand his deposition, and upon this, it was further planned to declare Charles I unfit to reign, and to make the Earl of Northumberland, whom they hoped to carry with them, Protector of the realm: in this way they would have given a new form to the kingdom[440].
They could not however reckon on the assent of the English people. In the counties Episcopalian sympathies prevailed: in the capital Presbyterian opinions, in direct opposition A.D. 1646. to the Independents, were generally accepted. For while the extravagances into which the sects fell, appearing in various forms one after the other, necessarily offended those who did not belong to them, the Presbyterian preachers, after it came to an open breach in the Assembly, distinctly attacked the Independents from the pulpit; and they were still by far the more powerful. The common people, sure of their faith, desired the Presbyterian forms, stringent church discipline, even excommunication, and rejected toleration. The elections to the Common Council had hitherto been conducted on an understanding between the Presbyterians and the separatists, but at the end of the year 1645 Presbyterianism was dominant and the sectarians were excluded. In January 1646 a fast day was held in the city, at which the Covenant was renewed with signature and oath. The next day the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council presented a petition to Parliament for the carrying out of church government in the Scottish fashion, conformably to the Covenant.