A history of England principally in the seventeenth century, Volume 2 (of 6)

by Leopold von Ranke

Among the most important members of the Lower House itself several seceded on these questions from the prevailing party. Edward Hyde, who had taken the most active part in the judicial reforms, was nevertheless far from sharing the systematic hostility to the constitution of the Church which most of the lawyers then evinced. He had known Laud well in earlier times, and was fully aware that he was often A.D. 1641. blamed for what was not his fault: the errors of the past arose, he thought, from carrying things to excess, but the church system itself he regarded as defensible and useful. Contrary to expectation, Lord Falkland adopted the same line: he did not deny to his old friend Hampden that he had informed himself better, and changed his opinion. John Colepepper, the man in the whole assembly best qualified to sum up a debate, declared himself of the same mind, though religious principles did not to him form the ruling motive of life. Yet without this a man might well turn aside from the goal which the majority were striving to reach: he might perceive that the attempt to impose on England the Scottish system was contrary to the spirit of the English, and could never be accomplished, and might well shrink from the state of chaos which might be foreseen. He might also see in an alliance with the King the best course for the country, and security for his own future. Perhaps it was a question as little of high moral resolve as of shameful desertion; it was a peculiar line of statesmanlike policy which these men had traced out for themselves.

Circumstances were not such as to allow of a return to the tendencies of the old régime: these had become for ever impossible—there were no more royalists on principle of Strafford’s type: new foundations of parliamentary government had been laid and recognised by the King. The immediate political question was, whether now to restore the old equilibrium of forces, and maintain the Established Church, or to proceed further in the destruction of existing institutions. The first was the policy of the men who now separated from their former friends, the leaders of the Parliamentary majority.

We find that other districts also took offence at the last steps taken before the recess, which were regarded as illegal, and lost confidence in the Parliament[278]. In London placards were posted in public places, in which the authors of these A.D. 1641. resolutions were denounced as traitors to the King and the nation, enemies of God and of the public weal: they had conspired with the Scots against England; if Parliament would not expel them, vengeance should be taken on them by open force. The magistrates and well-to-do classes in the capital gave unequivocal proofs of their sympathy with the King’s cause at this stage.

Thus there appeared manifold and strong leanings against the party which hitherto had been successful, of an ecclesiastical, a constitutional, and a popular nature. If now the King returned, without having to fear any hostility from Scotland, and succeeded in enforcing his views as to the suppression of the Irish rebellion, he might hope, with the support of this movement, to resume his throne with a moderate but still real authority[279].

Necessarily however these events and possibilities aroused the zeal of the leaders on the other side. They knew perfectly well that the King was hoping by his conduct in Scotland to strengthen himself for resistance in England. The news of the supposed attempt to murder Hamilton and Argyle produced a great effect: it was assumed that something similar might be repeated in England. The Lords held frequent meetings, sometimes at Northumberland’s house, sometimes at Lord Mandeville’s, sometimes at Lord Holland’s in Kensington, in order to come to an understanding on the next measures to be adopted. There was incessant talk of Popish plots and desperate attempts; or fear was entertained that the Queen meant to depart, in order to increase the confusion and bring foreign help into England. To interrupt her connexion with the enemies of Parliament at home, a demand was put forward that at any rate she should not have English confessors; against French there was nothing to be said. The apprehension was loudly expressed that a thorough reaction was impending, which would reverse all that had yet been conceded, and threaten the utmost danger to the Parliamentary leaders.

A.D. 1641.

In the midst of these contrary agitations Parliament assembled again on the appointed day, at first not in much greater numbers than before the recess: but a decided opposition to the dominant party showed itself immediately. When, among other things, the disobedience to the last declaration of Parliament was mentioned, and proposals made for punishing it, nothing could be carried, as the majority held the declaration itself to have been unlawful[280]. When the House filled the hope might be entertained of achieving, in parliamentary fashion, a reversal of the majority, and a reaction in conformity with the views of the moderate party, who had been drawing near to the King.

It was mainly in order to counteract this intention that Pym and his friends proceeded with the Grand Remonstrance, which in more than two hundred clauses enumerated the grievances which the King’s government had occasioned since its commencement[281]. It is, we may say, a kind of history of the administration: for this estimate of it, though often disputed and generally rejected, has in later times again obtained acceptance through the advocacy of some able writers. It is a narrative of the foregoing events for the purpose of inculpating the royalists and justifying their opponents. For the latter were beginning to feel that the general opinion was setting against them, seeking, so they complain, to reverse what they had done, and hinder what was still contemplated. The Remonstrance is a party manifesto, containing at once a defence of the past and a programme for the future. Above all it was intended to represent the steps which its framers still purposed to take, as being the necessary consequences of those which Parliament had taken from the very beginning.

As in April and November 1640 John Pym had referred all the evils in England to an intention of changing the religion and the government, so now in the Remonstrance proof had to be given that the King had been from the first, A.D. 1641. and still was, ruled by a Jesuitical faction. The dissolution of previous Parliaments, the war with France and its disastrous result, the increase of the spiritual power—for Episcopalians, Arminians, even Libertines, were all represented as in league with the Papists—the opposition which many good laws had met with in the Upper House—all was deduced from the same source. Just then was published the news of the rising in Ireland and of the cruelties perpetrated there. It made naturally a very great impression, and was regarded as a confirmation of the general complaints. There was no idea of other influences, or of the effect which the harsh behaviour of Parliament itself had had on the course of events: it was more than ever regarded as the chief merit of Parliament that it had opposed and checked Popish tendencies. And still the same danger was threatening: for the future the same determined resistance was necessary, and the only hope of rescue lay in Parliament. There was no doubt of the good-will and firmness of the Lower House: but this would avail little if met in the Upper House by the hostility of the bishops and lords inclined to Catholicism. Thus the way was paved for a return to the earlier projects of a thorough ecclesiastical reform. From the imminent danger in which the country was, and which had one of its sources in the ecclesiastical constitution, was deduced the necessity of transforming the latter. ‘We admit that our design is to put an end to the excessive power of the prelates, and deprive them of their temporal dignities and offices.’ It was proposed to call a general synod of the chief theologians of the island, that is to say including the Scots, with the assistance of some foreigners, for the purpose of taking counsel on the good government of the Church, their conclusions to be then carried into effect by Parliament. A standing commission of members of Parliament was demanded, to present systematic opposition to Popish aggressions, and to watch over the observance of the laws against Papists. Then came the demands long before announced, and now more strongly urged in consequence of the concessions made to the Scots, that the King should admit to the chief offices, in relation to foreign as well as domestic affairs, only persons in whom the Parliament could A.D. 1641. confide: otherwise, it was unreservedly stated, they could grant no more subsidies.

These were the two great demands at which the earlier negotiations had stopped, the abolition of episcopacy, and the appointment of high officials subject to the approval of Parliament: they were now discussed in connexion with each other. The Remonstrance contained more than a mere statement of grievances: if the Lower House adopted it, it at once made these demands definitely its own, and resolved to carry them. It thereby returned to tendencies which had formerly been dominant but recently had become dubious, and adopted the watchword under which the Scots had broken down the preponderance of the crown.