Saturdays and Sundays excepted, in the Jerusalem Chamber, where the assembly for the most part held its sessions. The hall in which Henry the Fourth breathed his last became a theatre of life, in which passions, thoughts, and purposes as earnest, and, if suffered to prevail, as sanguinary as those of the royal crusader, contended for the mastery; passions, thoughts, and purposes which the rising power of Cromwell, strong as death itself, could scarcely compose.* The ground of the contest was narrow, and the combatants comparatively few; but on the issue depended the religious and political welfare of a whole nation. The great majority of the assembly were presbyterians, whose views were formed more or less nearly upon those of John Knox and the kirk of Scotland. object of this party, headed by the Scotch commissioners, Henderson, Gillespie, Rutherford, and Baillie,† was to assimilate the ecclesiastical condition of England to that of Scotland. Next to them were the Erastians, a considerable body, and rendered respect* Shakspeare, in his “King Henry the Fourth," thus makes this the scene of the monarch's death :

'K. Henry. Doth any name particular belong

Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?

Warwick. 'Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord.

K. Henry, Laud be to God! even there my life must end.
It hath been prophesied to me many years,

I should not die but in Jerusalem;

Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land.

But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die."

The

†The Scotch Commissioners had no vote in the assembly; but a deference was paid to them, on account of their relation to the General Assembly of Scotland, which in its results was more potent than the power of voting. They were the real leaders of the presbyterian party in the assembly.

able by the alliance of the great John Selden, as well as by the learning of such men as Coleman, and Lightfoot. Their object, however, was quite undefined throughout. Hence, the course they might take could not be reckoned upon, excepting at a later period, when presbyterian bigotry compelled them to join the Independents. The last named were a very small minority, respecting whom further details will be afforded presently. Besides these were a few episcopalians, of Archbishop Usher's school, who, however, never acted as a party, but, preserving their individuality at first, gradually died away, and finally disappeared from the assembly altogether.* The lay members of the assembly were pretty equally divided amongst all these parties. The principal of those who took an active part in the proceedings were the Earls of Manchester and Pembroke, Viscount Saye, and Philip, Lord Wharton, from the upper house; and Sir Harry Vane, junior, St. John, Selden, Rouse, and Whitelocke, from the lower.

Such, in general terms, was the composition of the famous convention by whom the religious affairs of the nation were to be settled. It was hardly probable that from an assembly thus called and constituted satisfactory measures would proceed. Containing within itself the elements of division, it was not likely to be unanimous on matters of importance; and from the fact that the majority were presbyterians of an intolerant school, it might be inferred that every disputed point would be pressed to a division, and carried with a high hand. This, it might have been anticipated, would call forth resistance, not only from within,

* Many of the episcopalians summoned to the assembly refused to appear, in obedience to an injunction from the king to that effect.

but also from without, where the assembly, from the commencement, had to meet the assaults of dissatisfied opponents of various classes. Easy as it might seem in theory to call together a body of impartial divines, of simple faith and manners, whose decisions might be harmonious and suitable to the exigencies of the nation; it was really impracticable. In the course of time, moreover, the functions of the assembly were multiplied, and its powers enlarged. Besides undertaking to provide a religion for the people, consisting of doctrine and polity, with suitable directories, these divines acted for the time being as the spiritual court of the nation, and were invested with authority to judge respecting the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of their fellowsubjects; to appoint chaplains to the army and navy, ministers and lecturers to the various parishes vacated by the deposition of the old clergy, and collegiate masterships to the universities; to examine candidates for the ministry, and grant certificates of character and fitness; to provide the members of their own body with suitable appointments, to forbid preachers whose doctrines were deemed erroneous, and to prevent the formation of new churches until they had determined what kind of polity was sanctioned by the Word of God. In all these functions they had the sanction of parliament, as before them the court of Star Chamber had the sanction of the king; and in both cases the injustice was the same in kind, though not in degree. Heretics and schismatics were sought out, brought up before them in arrest, and punished. Anabaptists were held up to derision, and persecuted. Antinomians were hunted after by a special committee appointed for the purpose. The reader of Lightfoot's Journal cannot fail to be struck with the fact that almost every day,

before the discussion on points of doctrine or government, there came up before the assembly practical questions of the kind adverted to, affecting the liberty of the subject. Practically, therefore, the assembly assumed very much of the authority of the abolished hierarchy; and besides irritating the public mind, did more than any thing else, by its intermeddling with existing religious parties, to divide the kingdom into the various sects which it was its professed object to prevent.

It was in the light of such facts as these that Milton opposed the assembly with so much vehemence. From his very soul he hated all tyranny, from whatever quarter emanating. But his hatred was combined with a lofty disdain in this instance, because of the contrary professions and protestations of the parties exercising this authority. It will not be out of place here to adduce his views on this subject. The vindication of so great a name is not unworthy the space requisite for such a purpose, in the history of a party of which he was so eminent a member.

In his "History of Britain,"* Milton writes as follows: "If the state were in this plight, religion was not in much better; to reform which a certain number of divines were called, neither chosen by any rule or custom ecclesiastical, nor eminent for either piety or knowledge above others left out; only as each member of parliament in his private fancy thought fit, so elected one by one. The most part of them were such as had preached and cried down, with great show of zeal, the avarice and pluralities of bishops and prelates; that one cure of souls was a full employment for one spiritual pastor how able soever, *Milton's Prose Works, p. 503.

if not a charge rather above human strength. Yet these conscientious men (ere any part of the work was done for which they had come together, and that on the public salary) wanted not boldness, to the ignominy and scandal of their pastor-like profession, and especially of their boasted reformation, to seize into their hands, or not unwillingly to accept (besides one, sometimes two or more of the best livings) collegiate masterships in the universities, rich lectures in the city, setting sail to all winds that might blow gain into their covetous bosoms: by which means these great rebukers of non-residence, among so many distant cures, were not ashamed to be seen so quickly pluralists and non-residents themselves, to a fearful condemnation doubtless by their own mouths. And yet the main doctrine for which they took such pay, and insisted upon with more vehemence than gospel, was but to tell us in effect, that their doctrine was worth nothing, and the spiritual power of their ministry less available than bodily compulsion; persuading the magistrate to use it, as a stronger means to subdue and bring in conscience, than evangelical persuasion : distrusting the virtue of their own spiritual weapons, which were given them, if they might be rightly called, with full warrant of sufficiency to pull down all thoughts and imaginations that exalt themselves against God. But while they taught compulsion without convincement, which not long before they complained of as executed unchristianly against themselves; their intents are clear to have been no better than antichristian : setting up a spiritual tyranny by a secular power, to the advancing of their own authority above the magistrate, whom they would have made their executioner, to punish church-delinquencies, whereof civil