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discharges of priests and jesuits, under the king's "councils and secretary Windebanck's hands*."

The whole of this work bears testimony to the moderation of the monarch; and this did him the greater honour, as his attachment to his own religion was perfectly sincere: but it equally shews the persecuting spirit both of the multitude and their leaders.

In the articles of peace, presented to the monarch in 1646†, it was expressly stipulated, that "nothing contained in them, should extend to a "toleration of the popish religion, nor to exempt any popish recusant from any penalties imposed "on him for the increase of the same."

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But, even during this period of mildness, as it has been termed, one priest, Mr. Edward Arrowsmith, of the society of Jesus, suffered death, merely upon the charge of being a priest and jesuit, and a persuader of others to the catholic religion, without the slightest proof of either crime. He was executed at Lancaster in 1628: "Divers protestants," says the printed relation of his death, "beholders of "the bloody spectacle, wished their souls with his. "Others wished they had never come there; "others said it was a barbarous act to use men so, "for their religion."

"From this year," says doctor Challoner (from whom we have copied this extract), "till 1641, I

See his majesty's commission to compound with recusants, Rushworth, vol. i. p. 413.

+ Thurloe's State Papers, vol. i. p. 77. Rush. vol. i. part iv. p. 309.

"find no more blood shed for religious matters,

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though, as to other penalties, they were frequently "inflicted upon priests and other catholics: severe proclamations were issued against them, heavy "fines laid upon them, and the prisons filled with "them; insomuch that, in the compass of one year "alone, there were twenty-six priests of divers "orders, seized and committed to that one prison "called the Clink; to speak nothing of those that "were confined elsewhere*."

CHAP. LX.

THE CIVIL WAR,-PRESBYTERIANS,-INDE

PENDENTS.

THE history of the civil war does not belong to these pages it is written by Hume, with great ability and with much less partiality than is commonly allowed. On a dispassionate review of it, there appears strong ground to contend, that the objects of the popular party, were for a considerable time after its commencement justifiable both on principle and by precedent; but that neither the nature nor extent of the principles or precedents being clear, much may be offered in exculpation of the monarch: nor can it be denied that, to attain their aims, the parliamentary leaders encouraged

* Doctor Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ad ann. 1628, p. 123, 148.

the grossest and foulest calumnies both of his actions and his designs, and too successfully praetised every other artifice to inflame the passions of the multitude against him. Things may be supposed to have continued in this state till the petition of right in 1628. From this time, the sins of each side increased till the remonstrance of 1641; after which, the overthrow of the ancient monarchical government of the kingdom was, unquestionably, the object of the agitators, and Charles may be said generally to have been its defender. The confederacy with the Scots and the solemn league and covenant consummated the guilt of his enemies, and were equally fatal to the constitution and the monarch. The triumph of the presbyterians was then complete, and they no sooner obtained the ascendancy under the long parliament, than they imposed, with the same rigour as their predecessors had done, their own creeds and confessions; and invested their magistrates, with the same power of punishing with pains and penalties, dissenters from their establishment.

But in the mean time, the independents, a new denomination of religionists, arose, and after sheltering themselves for some time, under the wings of the presbyterians, usurped by degrees the scene of action and obtained the ascendancy. "Then," says Bossuet*, "a man arose of unfathomable depth of 66 thought; as subtle a hypocrite as he was a con* In his Funeral Oration on Henrietta-Maria, the widow of Charles I.

"summate politician; equally impenetrable in peace " and war; leaving nothing to fortune, which he "could keep, by wisdom or foresight, from her

power; but, at the same time always so well prepared, as never to let slip any opportunity of "which he could avail himself, to his advantage."In fine,-one of those active spirits, who seem "born for the disturbance of the world. What does "not such a man achieve, when it pleases the Almighty to make him an instrument of his wrath!"

Such is the description given by Bossuet of this celebrated person. To explain the genius of his party and the difference of its principles and views from those of the presbyterians, we shall transcribe the following masterly view, which is given of them by Hume.

During those times, when the enthusiastic spirit "met with such honour and encouragement, and 66 was the immediate means of distinction and pre"ferment, it was impossible to set bounds to the

holy fervours, or confine, within any natural limits, "what was directed towards an infinite and a super"natural object. Every man, as prompted by the "warmth of his temper, excited by emulation, or "supported by his habits of hypocrisy, endeavoured "to distinguish himself beyond his fellows, and to "arrive at a higher pitch of saintship and perfection. "In proportion to its degree of fanaticism, each "sect became dangerous and destructive; and as "the independents went a note higher than the "presbyterians, they could less be restrained within

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any bounds of temper and moderation. From this distinction, as from a first principle, were derived, by a necessary consequence, all the other differ66 ences of these two sects.

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"The independents rejected all ecclesiastical "establishments, and would admit of no spiritual courts, no government among pastors, no interpo"sition of the magistrate in religious concerns, no "fixed encouragement annexed to any system of "doctrines or opinions. According to their prin"ciples, each congregation, united voluntarily, and by spiritual ties, composed, within itself, a separate

church, and exercised a jurisdiction, but one des❝titute of temporal sanctions, over its own pastor "and its own members. The election alone of the

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congregation was sufficient to bestow the sacer"dotal character; and as all essential distinction "was denied between the laity and the clergy, no ceremony, no institution, no vocation, no imposi"tion of hands, was, as in all other churches, supposed requisite to convey a right to holy orders. "The enthusiasm of the presbyterians led them to

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reject the authority of prelates, to throw off the "restraint of liturgies, to retrench ceremonies, to "limit the riches and authority of the priestly office: "The fanaticism of the independents, exalted to a

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higher pitch, abolished ecclesiastical government, "disdained creeds and systems, neglected every ceremony, and confounded all ranks and orders. "The soldier, the merchant, the mechanic, indulging the fervors of zeal, and guided by the

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