Since the beginning of the Civil War an ecclesiastical revolution had taken place in England. As soon as hostilities5 commenced the Root and Branch 143party gained the ascendancy6 in Parliament, and in the first negotiations7 with the King, the total abolition9 of Episcopacy was one of the demands made. In July, 1643, Parliament summoned an assembly of divines to meet at Westminster, and undertake the reformation of the Church. Then followed the acceptance by Parliament of the Solemn League and Covenant10, the implied promise to model the Church of England upon that of Scotland, and the inclusion of representatives of the Scottish clergy11 in the Assembly of Divines.
Step by step the English Church was transformed. In January, 1645, the two Houses passed a series of resolutions for the reorganisation of the Church upon a Presbyterian basis, followed by ordinances13 which established one after another the component14 parts of the system. By the close of 1646, the use of the Prayer-book had been prohibited, and a “Directory,” drawn15 up by the Assembly, had been enjoined16 in its stead, while new Articles of Belief, a new Confession17 of Faith, and a new Catechism were in preparation. Bishops19 and all the ecclesiastical hierarchy20 dependent on them had been abolished, and their lands vested in trustees for the payment of the debts of the State (October, 1646). The work was still incomplete, but under all outward conformity21 there would be an essential difference between the Presbyterian Churches of England and Scotland. In Scotland the Church was dependent upon no one; in England it would be dependent upon Parliament. Whatever the Westminster Assembly might decide was established only by the authority of 144Parliament, which revised its conclusions, criticised its formularies, and limited its functions as it thought fit. Compared to an ideal Presbyterian Church ruling by its inherent right as the one divinely ordained22 form of Church government, the English Church would be, as a Scottish divine complained, “only a lame23 Erastian presbytery.” Such as it was, however, its clergy were as high in their claim to authority as English bishops, and as intolerant as Scottish ministers. They proved in a hundred different ways the truth of Milton’s maxim24 that “new presbyter is but old priest writ25 large.”
During the years which saw the growth of English Presbyterianism, a rival system of ecclesiastical organisation12 had also taken root in England. The Independents drew their inspiration not from Scotland, but from the Puritan exiles in Holland and the Puritan colonists26 in New England. To the idea of a national Church with its local basis and its hierarchy of authorities, they opposed the idea that a true Church was a voluntary association of believers, and that each congregation was of right complete, autonomous27, and sovereign. Most of them accepted the theology of Calvin even when they rejected his ecclesiastical organisation; all claimed the right to interpret the Bible for themselves without regard to tradition or authority. Their principle was that set forth28 in the advice which John Robinson gave to the Pilgrim Fathers—to be ready to receive whatever truth should be made known to them from the written word of God. Hence came their ardent29 faith in new revelations, 145with the diversity of doctrines31 and the multiplicity of sects33 which were its natural consequence. Hence the horror with which Presbyterians and Episcopalians alike regarded a system which began by a denial of their theory of Church and State, and ended by an attack upon the fundamentals of their creed35.
Just as the two divisions of the parliamentary party differed as to the constitution of the Church, so they differed as to the constitution of the State. Each was a political as well as a religious party. The aim of the Presbyterians was to make King and Church responsible to Parliament, and so far the Independents went with them. But while one party proclaimed the sovereignty of Parliament, and justified36 its claim by historical precedent37, the other proclaimed the sovereignty of the people, and based its claim on an appeal to natural rights. Church democracy, as Baxter called Independency, brought in its train State democracy. Applied38 to politics, the ecclesiastical theories of the Independents developed into the fundamental principles of democratic government. Those who held that a Church was a voluntary association of believers bound together by a mutual39 covenant, naturally adopted the corollary that a State was an association of freemen based on a mutual contract. If it was the right of the members of a religious body to elect their own ministers, it was evidently equally just that the members of a civil society should elect their own magistrates40. More than once in its paper wars with the King, Parliament had put forward the view 146that Kings were but officers, whose power was a trust from the people, but it shrank from the distinct enunciation42 or the practical application of the principle its declarations contained. It was therefore in opposition43 to the Long Parliament that the sovereignty of the people was first asserted in English political life. In 1646, when John Lilburn was imprisoned44 by the Lords for libelling Manchester he appealed to the House of Commons as “the supreme45 authority of the nation,” and denied the authority of the Peers because they were not elected by the people. When the House of Commons refused to hear him he appealed “to the universality of the people,” as “the sovereign lord” from whom they derived46 their power, and by whom they were to be called to account for its use.
As yet, however, Lilburn’s principles found little acceptance in Parliament, and the Lower House had no intention of quarrelling with the Upper on a question of abstract rights. In the Commons, even after the new elections of 1645 and 1646 had recruited the numbers of the House, the Independents were a minority both on political and ecclesiastical questions. On a purely48 religious issue they could muster49 fifty or sixty votes, of whom probably less than half were convinced democrats50. But the ties of party allegiance were weak, and the ability of the Independent leaders gave them an influence beyond the circle of their followers51. On questions such as the conduct of the war, the control of the pretensions52 of the Westminster Assembly, and the claim of the Scots to dispose of the King, a majority of the House 147adopted the policy of the Independents. But when the war was over, and the dispute with the Scots settled, the ascendancy passed to the Presbyterian leaders, and remained with them.
On the other hand, the army had been from the beginning a stronghold of Independency, and there its adherents53 grew more numerous every day. In the summer of 1645, when Richard Baxter became chaplain to a regiment54 of cavalry55, he found it full of hotheaded sectaries. Every sect34 and every heresy56 was represented in its ranks. “Independency and Anabaptism were most prevalent; Antinomianism and Arminianism equally distributed.” One day he had to confute the opponents of Infant Baptism, and another to vindicate57 Church order and Church government. But the most universal belief amongst officers and soldiers, and the error he most often had to controvert58, was that the civil magistrate41 had no authority in matters of religion either to restrain or to compel, and that every man had a right to believe and to preach whatever he pleased.
In the army, too, the political principles of Independency had reached their fullest and freest development. Baxter found officers and soldiers “vehement59 against the King and against all government but popular.”
“I perceived” he writes, “that they took the King for a tyrant60 and an enemy, and really intended absolutely to master him or to ruin him, and that they thought, that if they might fight against him they might kill or conquer him; and if they might conquer they were never more to trust him further than he was in their power; and they 148thought it folly61 to irritate him by wars or contradictions in Parliament, if so be they needs must take him for their King, and trust him with their lives when they had thus displeased62 him.”
These were the principles upon which they thought any settlement should be based, and they meant to make their views heard. “They plainly showed me,” continues Baxter, “that they thought God’s providence63 would cast the trust of religion and the kingdom upon them as conquerors64.”
In peace, even more than in war, the army looked to Cromwell to lead it. Apart from his splendid military gifts, he had all the qualities required to win popularity with soldiers. Cromwell had none of the reserve or reticence65 of Fairfax. A large-hearted, expansive, vigorous nature found expression in his acts and utterances66. “He was of a sanguine67 complexion,” says Baxter, “naturally of such a vivacity68, hilarity69, and alacrity70, as another man is when he hath drunken a cup of wine too much.” Elsewhere he speaks of Cromwell’s “familiar rustic71 carriage with his soldiers in sporting,” and one of Cromwell’s officers tells us that “Oliver loved an innocent jest.” Nor did it make him less popular that underneath72 this geniality73 lay a fiery74 temper, which sometimes flamed up into vehement utterances or sudden bursts of passion. Partly for this very reason he was generally credited with much more democratic opinions than he really had. People remembered his hard sayings about the Lords during his quarrel with Manchester, and took a practical man’s irritation75 against half-hearted and incapable76 leaders for rooted 149hostility to an institution. His patronage78 of Lilburn seemed another proof of his extreme views. Cromwell had procured80 Lilburn’s release from imprisonment81 in 1640, obtained him a commission in Manchester’s army in 1643, and intervened on his behalf with the House of Commons in 1645. People attributed to sympathy with advanced democracy what was really due to hatred82 of oppression and injustice83. Lilburn’s praises fostered the illusion. Great as Cromwell was in the field, argued Lilburn, he was still more useful in Parliament.
“O for self-denying Cromwell home again ... for he is sound at the heart and not rotten-cored, hates particular and self-interests, and dares freely to speak his mind.” “Myself and all others of my creed,” wrote Lilburn to Cromwell in 1647, “have looked upon you as the most absolute single-hearted great man in England, untainted or unbiassed with ends of your own.”
In religion, however, Cromwell represented the army more completely than in politics. Cromwell was, as Baillie truly termed him, “the great Independent”—a type of Independency itself, representing not any particular species of Independent, but the whole genus which the term included. He called himself by the name of no sect, “joined himself to no party,” and “did not profess84 of what opinion he was.” “In good discourse” he would sometimes “very fluently pour himself out in the extolling85 of Free Grace,” but he refused to dispute about doctrinal questions. There are indications in some of Cromwell’s utterances that he was attracted 150to those who called themselves “Seekers,” because they found satisfaction not in any visible form or definite creed, but in the perpetual quest for truth and perfection. “To be a Seeker,” says Cromwell in a letter written about this time, “is to be of the best sect next after a Finder, and such an one shall every faithful humble87 Seeker be in the end.” But while standing88 a little apart from every sect, Cromwell seemed to share the aspirations89 and enthusiasms of each. “Anabaptists, Antinomians, Seekers, Separatists,” he sympathised with all, welcomed all to the ranks of the army, and “tied all together by the point of liberty of conscience, which was the common interest in which they all did unite.”
Of this demand for freedom of conscience, Cromwell had ever made himself the spokesman. At the outset of the war, he and his officers had proposed to make their regiment “a gathered Church.” While he was governor of Ely, he and his deputy-governor, Ireton, had filled the island with Independents until people complained that for variety of religions the place was “a mere90 Amsterdam.” When he became Lieutenant-General of Manchester’s army, Independency had spread from his regiment to the rest of the troopers he commanded.
“If you look on his regiment of horse,” said an opponent, “what a swarm91 there is of those that call themselves godly men; some profess to have seen visions and had revelations. Look on Colonel Fleetwood’s regiment with his Major Harrison, what a cluster of preaching officers and troopers there is. To say the truth almost our horse be made of that faction86.”
151Cromwell protected them against Manchester’s Presbyterian chaplains and against the hostility77 of Presbyterian officers. In March, 1644, when Major-General Crawford cashiered the lieutenant-colonel of his regiment on the ground that he was an Anabaptist, Cromwell at once remonstrated92. If any military offence were chargeable upon the lieutenant-colonel, he must be tried by court-martial; if none, Crawford must restore him to his command. “Admit he be an Anabaptist, shall that render him incapable to serve the public? Sir, the State in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing to serve it faithfully, that suffices.” Six months later, after a second quarrel with Crawford on the same subject, Cromwell procured from Parliament what was known as “the Accommodation Order.” A committee was to be appointed
“to take into consideration the differences in opinion of the members of the Assembly of Divines in point of Church government, and to endeavour a union if it be possible; and in case that cannot be done, to endeavour the finding out some way, how far tender consciences, who cannot in all things submit to the common rule which shall be established, may be borne with according to the Word, and as may stand with the public peace” (September 13, 1644).
After every victory of the “New Model,” Cromwell reminded Parliament of the necessity of legally establishing the toleration which this vote promised. “Honest men served you faithfully in this action,” he wrote from the field of Naseby; “they are trusty; 152I beseech93 you in the name of God not to discourage them. He that ventures his life for the liberty of his country, I wish he trust God for the liberty of his conscience, and you for the liberty he fights for.” So little did the Commons share his feeling, that they mutilated his letter by omitting in the published copies his plea for toleration, but he repeated it in still plainer language after the storming of Bristol.
“Presbyterians and Independents, all here have the same spirit of faith and prayer ... they agree here, have no names of difference; pity it should be otherwise anywhere. All that believe have the real unity94 which is most glorious because inward and spiritual.... For being united in forms, commonly called Uniformity, every Christian95 will for peace sake study and do as far as conscience will permit. And from brethren in things of the mind we look for no compulsion, but that of light and reason.”
Parliament had answered by mutilating this letter as it had mutilated the other. What prospect96 was there, now that the swords of the Independents were no longer needed, that their political and religious demands would be listened to, or that no compulsion save that of light and reason would be exercised against their consciences? As to religion, if Parliament allowed the Presbyterian clergy to work their will, Independents could expect nothing but persecution97. “To let men serve God according to the persuasion98 of their own consciences,” wrote one Presbyterian divine, “was to cast out one devil that seven worse might enter.” Toleration, wrote 153another, was “the Devil’s Masterpiece.” “If the devil had his choice whether the hierarchy, ceremonies, and liturgy99 should be established in the kingdom, or a toleration granted, he would choose a toleration.” “We detest100 and abhor101 the much endeavoured toleration,” declared a meeting of the London ministers. The corporation of London backed their declaration by a petition for the suppression of all heresies102. In Parliament itself it was evident that the anti-tolerationists had gained the upper hand. As late as April, 1646, the Commons had promised a due regard for tender consciences, providing only that they differed not in any fundamentals of religion. In September, however, the House passed the second reading of a bill which punished with death those who denied doctrines relating to the Trinity and the Incarnation, and with imprisonment for life those who opposed Infant Baptism and other less important doctrines. In December, when a bill was introduced prohibiting laymen103 from preaching in churches or elsewhere, Cromwell could only muster fifty-seven members in favour of allowing them at least to expound104 the Scriptures105. Nor was there in the proposals of Parliament for the settlement of the kingdom any sign that the constitutional settlement would include in it toleration for Independency.
As little hope was there from the King. Ever since May, 1646, Charles had been a prisoner in the camp of the Scots, first at Newark, and then at Newcastle. The chief demands contained in the propositions sent to him at Newcastle were, that the King should enforce the taking of the Covenant through 154all the three kingdoms, and accept the Presbyterian Church which Parliament had set up. At the same time he was to give Parliament the control of the naval106 and military forces of the nation for the next twenty years, and when that period ended the two Houses were to decide as to their future disposal. Backed by the Church, and with the sword as well as the purse in their hands, the power of Parliament would be securely established.
As long as he could, Charles evaded107 a direct answer. He believed that bishops and apostolical succession were necessary to a true Church. If he gave way to the abolition of Episcopacy “there would be no Church,” and to yield against the dictates108 of his conscience would be “a sin of the highest nature.” Political motives109 reinforced conscientious110 objections. To accept or impose the Covenant would be a “perpetual authorising rebellion.” As to establishing Presbyterianism by law,
“under pretence111 of a thorough reformation in England they intend to take away all the ecclesiastical power of government from the Crown, and place it in the two Houses of Parliament. Moreover they will introduce the doctrine32 which teaches rebellion to be lawful112 and that the supreme power is in the people, to whom kings, as they say, ought to give account, and to be corrected when they do amiss.... There was not a wiser man since Solomon than he who said ‘no bishop18, no king.’”
The utmost that Charles, after months of negotiation8, would concede was to grant the establishment of Presbyterianism for three years, and the control 155of the army and navy for ten. At the end of the ten years he stipulated113 that the control of army and navy should return to the Crown, and at the end of the three he was firmly resolved to re-establish Episcopacy.
After eight months of futile114 negotiating, the Scots, disgusted by the King’s obstinate115 refusal to accept Presbyterianism, resolved to abandon the King’s cause and hand him over to his English subjects. They settled their own differences with the English Parliament about their arrears116 of pay, received two hundred thousand pounds on account, and evacuated117 Newcastle on January 30, 1647, leaving Charles in charge of the parliamentary commissioners118. In February he was brought to Holmby House in Northamptonshire in custody119 of the commissioners and of a guard of cavalry.
But the moment when the King seemed to have fallen lowest marked the success of his policy. His refusal to accept the terms offered him at Newcastle rested mainly on the conviction that he was indispensable. “Men,” he said in one of his letters, “will begin to perceive that without my establishing there can be no peace.” Even his adversaries120 must see it: “without pretending to prophesy121 I will foretell122 their ruin unless they agree with me.” Sooner or later, he felt certain some party amongst his opponents must, for their own sake, accept his terms and come to an understanding with him. What he had anticipated was now coming to pass. Before he arrived at Holmby, a number of the Presbyterian Peers had agreed to accept the King’s concessions123 as the basis of an agreement, 156upon the completion of which Charles was to be restored to the exercise of his power. It was the beginning of that alliance between the Royalists and the Presbyterians which produced the Second Civil War, and finally the restoration of Charles II. On May 12th, a new message from the King embodying124 these concessions reached Westminster, and it was not doubtful that a majority in the two Houses would accept them as satisfactory.
An agreement on such a basis was a truce125, not a peace. It left unsettled the questions which had caused the war, and threw away all the fruits of the victory. Parliament and the King had fought for sovereignty, but now, at the price of temporary concessions, sovereignty would be left in the King’s hands. As long as the King’s right to veto bills was left intact he could prevent any of his temporary concessions from becoming permanent, and he meant to do so. The Independents felt all the danger of such a one-sided compromise, but they were now in a hopeless minority in both Houses. When the army was disbanded, they would be entirely126 without influence. Its disbandment would have taken place in October, 1646, but for the strained relations of Parliament with the Scots, and a scheme for disbandment was voted on, February, 1647. Out of the forty thousand men in arms in England, Parliament proposed to form a new army consisting of six thousand four hundred horse, and about ten thousand foot for garrison127 service. It seized the opportunity to get rid of all the Independent officers of the “New Model.” Fairfax was to be retained as General, but 157all the other general officers were to be dismissed. No member of Parliament was to hold a commission in the new army, and no officer was to be employed who did not conform to the Presbyterian Church. Of the soldiers of the “New Model,” four thousand horse were to be retained in service in England; the rest of the horse and the infantry128 were to be employed for the reconquest of Ireland.
In Ireland, ever since the cessation of 1643, Ormond, the King’s Lord-Lieutenant, had maintained himself in Dublin, struggling ever to turn the cessation into a peace, and to send help to the King in England. But the refusal of the Catholic clergy to accept less than the establishment of Catholicism in Ireland frustrated129 his negotiations, and, in 1646, Dublin was again besieged130. With few troops and with no money to pay them, Ormond found himself obliged to submit to either Irish or English rebels. He chose the latter as the only way to preserve Ireland to the English nation, and in February, 1647, offered to deliver up his charge to the Parliament. Nothing could have fallen in more opportunely131 for the plans of the Presbyterians, and on March 6, 1647, Parliament voted that 12,600 men, drawn from the ranks of the “New Model,” should be promptly132 despatched to Ireland, and sent commissioners to the headquarters of the army to persuade the soldiers to enlist133 for Irish service.
If the soldiers had been justly treated there would have been no difficulty in persuading them either to volunteer for Ireland or to disband quietly. But the folly of the Presbyterian leaders created a military 158revolt which changed the face of English politics. As was natural, the soldiers wanted to be paid for their past service before disbanding or re-enlisting. The pay of the foot was eighteen weeks in arrears; that of the horse, forty-three weeks. They petitioned Fairfax to represent their desires to Parliament, asking particularly to be indemnified against legal proceedings134 for acts done in the late war, and to be guaranteed their back pay. The House of Commons ordered the petition to be suppressed, and declared those who persisted in petitioning to be enemies of the State and disturbers of the public peace. As to their arrears, it offered only six weeks’ pay, and even that offer was delayed till the end of April. The result was that out of the whole twenty-two thousand men of the “New Model,” only twenty-three hundred volunteered for Ireland, and the discontent of the army swelled135 to a formidable agitation136. In April, the horse regiments137 elected representatives, called Agitators138 or Agents, to concert united action, and in May the foot followed their example. At the end of April, the Agitators of eight regiments sent a joint139 letter to Skippon and Cromwell, urging them to represent the wrongs of the army to Parliament, and to procure79 redress140. Cromwell and Skippon laid the letter before the House, and the House ordered the two, accompanied by Ireton and Fleetwood, to go down to the army, and endeavour to quiet the distempers of the soldiers. It promised the soldiers a considerable part of their arrears on disbanding, and good security for the payment of the remainder. The six weeks’ pay offered was increased to eight.
159Up to this point Cromwell had taken no part in the negotiations with the soldiers, much less in the movement amongst them against disbanding. In February, 1647, when the first votes for disbanding were passed, he was dangerously ill, and for some time absented himself both from the House and from the Committee of Both Kingdoms. All men knew his dissatisfaction with the policy which the Presbyterian leaders were following, and some attributed his abstention to that cause. “We are full of faction and worse,” was Cromwell’s comment on the state of affairs in Parliament, in August, 1646. He marked with anxiety the growth of royalist feeling in London and the increasing hostility of the citizens to the army and the Independents.
“We have had a very long petition from the City,” he wrote to Fairfax on December 21, 1646; “how it strikes at the army and what other aims it has you will see by the contents of it; as also what is the prevailing141 temper at this present, and what is to be expected from men. But this is our comfort, God is in heaven, and He doth what pleaseth Him; His and only His counsel shall stand, whatsoever142 the designs of men and the fury of the people be.”
In March, 1647, the feeling in the city was still worse.
“There want not in all places,” he told Fairfax, “men who have so much malice143 against the army as besots them.... Never were the spirits of men more embittered144 than now.... Upon the Fast-day divers30 soldiers were raised, both horse and foot, near two hundred in Covent Garden, to prevent us soldiers from cutting the 160Presbyterians’ throats! These are fine tricks to mock God with.”
He was irritated also by the suspicions with which he himself was regarded and the reception they met with from people who ought to have known better.
“It is a miserable145 thing,” he told Ludlow, “to serve a Parliament, to which, let a man be never so faithful, if one pragmatical fellow amongst them rise and asperse146 him, he shall never wipe it off; whereas when one serves a general he may do as much service, and yet be free from all blame and envy.”
Cromwell even thought of leaving England, with as many of his fellow soldiers as he could take with him, to fight for the cause of the German Calvinists under the flag of the Elector Palatine. He had long conferences with the Elector on the subject in March or April, 1647.
But, in spite of Cromwell’s dissatisfaction, there is no sign either in his words or action that he contemplated147 resisting the policy of Parliament or thought of stirring up a military revolution. There were bitter complaints from some of his greatest admirers that he persistently148 discouraged the petitions of the soldiers.
“I am informed this day,” wrote Lilburn to Cromwell on March 25th, “by an officer out of the army, that you and your agents are like to dash in pieces the hopes of our outward preservation149, their petition to the House, and will not suffer them to petition till they have laid down their arms; because forsooth you have engaged to 161the House they shall lay down their arms whenever it shall command them.”
Cromwell’s action during the last few months, continued Lilburn, had filled him with grief and amazement150. Could it be that he was held back by temporising politicians, “covetous earthworms,” such as Vane and St. John, or bribed151 into inaction by the estate Parliament had given him? Let him pluck up resolution “like a man that will persevere152 to be a man for God,” and risk his life to deliver his fellow soldiers from ruin, and his country from vassalage153 and slavery.
Cromwell turned a deaf ear to these appeals. He feared to encourage the intervention154 of soldiers in politics, and dreaded155 still more the anarchy156 which might follow a breach157 between Parliament and the army. In May, he went to the headquarters of the army at Saffron Walden with his three colleagues, examined carefully the grievances158 of the petitioners159, communicated the votes of Parliament, and did his best to persuade officers and soldiers to submission160.
“Truly, gentlemen,” he said to the officers, “it will be very fit for you to have a very great care in making the best use you can both of the votes, and of the interest that any of you have in your regiments, to work in them a good opinion of that authority that is over both us and them. If that authority falls to nothing, nothing can follow but confusion.”
The commissioners reported that they found the whole army “under a deep sense of some sufferings” 162and the common soldiers “much unsettled.” On May 21st, Cromwell received the thanks of the Commons, and told them that the soldiers would certainly not go to Ireland, but that he thought they would disband quietly. Under his influence, the House for a moment seemed disposed to adopt a conciliatory policy, and passed ordinances redressing161 some of the minor47 grievances of the soldiers. But no steps were taken to give them the promised security for the payment of their arrears, and on May 27th a scheme for the immediate162 disbandment was voted. It was to begin on June 1st, with Fairfax’s own regiment, and to prevent any concerted action the regiments were to be separately disbanded at widely distant places.
The Presbyterian leaders had made up their minds to resort to force to carry their policy through. In secret they were discussing with the French Ambassador and the commissioners of the Scottish Parliament a plan for bringing the Scottish army into England. The Prince of Wales was to be sent to Scotland to head the projected invasion. As soon as possible, the King was to be brought from Holmby to London, where the City militia163 was entirely under the control of the Presbyterians. At the same time, in order to cripple the resistance of the army, the train of artillery164 was to be removed from Oxford165 to the Tower. Then, backed by the Scots and the City, they would force the soldiers to submit to their terms, and punish the officers who had taken their part. It meant a new civil war.
Simultaneously166 a general mutiny began. The 163votes for disbanding the soldiers before redressing their grievances robbed the tardy167 and trifling168 concessions of Parliament of all their value. The ulterior schemes of the Presbyterian leaders were known in the army almost as soon as they were formed. At the bidding of the Agitators the army refused to disband. “Be active,” wrote one, “for all lies at stake.” It was no longer simply a question of arrears of pay. “The good of all the kingdom and its preservation is in your hands.” So thought most of the officers, and pledged themselves to stand by their men. So thought Fairfax’s council of war, and at the petition of the soldiers ordered a general rendezvous169 of the whole army on June 3rd. “I am forced,” apologised Fairfax, “to yield something out of order to keep the army from disorder170 or worse inconveniences.” Without his orders, a party of horse secured the artillery train at Oxford, and seized the King at Holmby on June 3rd. The same day Cromwell left London, resolved to throw in his lot with the army.
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rendering
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attained
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reconciliation
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lasting
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hostilities
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ascendancy
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negotiation
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abolition
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covenant
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clergy
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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18
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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19
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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20
hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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21
conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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22
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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23
lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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24
maxim
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| n.格言，箴言 | |
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25
writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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26
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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27
autonomous
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| adj.自治的；独立的 | |
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28
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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29
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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30
divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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31
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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32
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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33
sects
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| n.宗派，教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
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34
sect
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| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
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35
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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36
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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37
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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38
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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39
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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40
magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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41
magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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42
enunciation
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| n.清晰的发音；表明，宣言；口齿 | |
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43
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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44
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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46
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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47
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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48
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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49
muster
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|
| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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50
democrats
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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51
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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52
pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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53
adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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54
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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55
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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56
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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57
vindicate
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|
| v.为…辩护或辩解，辩明；证明…正确 | |
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58
controvert
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| v.否定；否认 | |
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59
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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60
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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61
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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62
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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63
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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64
conquerors
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| 征服者，占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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65
reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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66
utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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67
sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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68
vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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69
hilarity
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| n.欢乐；热闹 | |
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70
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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71
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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72
underneath
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|
| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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73
geniality
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| n.和蔼，诚恳；愉快 | |
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74
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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75
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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76
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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77
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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78
patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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79
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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80
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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81
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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82
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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83
injustice
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|
| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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84
profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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85
extolling
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|
| v.赞美( extoll的现在分词 )；赞颂，赞扬，赞美( extol的现在分词 ) | |
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86
faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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87
humble
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|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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88
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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89
aspirations
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|
| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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90
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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91
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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92
remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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93
beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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94
unity
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|
| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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95
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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96
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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97
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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98
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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99
liturgy
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| n.礼拜仪式 | |
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100
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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101
abhor
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| v.憎恶；痛恨 | |
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102
heresies
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| n.异端邪说，异教( heresy的名词复数 ) | |
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103
laymen
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| 门外汉，外行人( layman的名词复数 )； 普通教徒（有别于神职人员） | |
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104
expound
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| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
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105
scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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106
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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107
evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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108
dictates
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| n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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109
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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110
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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111
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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112
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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113
stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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114
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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115
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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116
arrears
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| n.到期未付之债，拖欠的款项；待做的工作 | |
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117
evacuated
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| 撤退者的 | |
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118
commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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119
custody
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| n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留 | |
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120
adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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121
prophesy
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| v.预言；预示 | |
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122
foretell
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| v.预言，预告，预示 | |
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123
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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124
embodying
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| v.表现( embody的现在分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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125
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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126
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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127
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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128
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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129
frustrated
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| adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧 | |
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130
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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131
opportunely
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| adv.恰好地，适时地 | |
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132
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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133
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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134
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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135
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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136
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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137
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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138
agitators
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| n.（尤指政治变革的）鼓动者( agitator的名词复数 )；煽动者；搅拌器；搅拌机 | |
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139
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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140
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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141
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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142
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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143
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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144
embittered
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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145
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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asperse
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| v.流言；n.流言 | |
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147
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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148
persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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149
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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150
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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151
bribed
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| v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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152
persevere
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| v.坚持，坚忍，不屈不挠 | |
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153
vassalage
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| n.家臣身份，隶属 | |
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154
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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155
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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156
anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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157
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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158
grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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159
petitioners
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| n.请求人，请愿人( petitioner的名词复数 )；离婚案原告 | |
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160
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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161
redressing
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| v.改正( redress的现在分词 )；重加权衡；恢复平衡 | |
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162
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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163
militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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164
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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165
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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166
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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167
tardy
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| adj.缓慢的，迟缓的 | |
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168
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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169
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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