Ecclesiastical History of England, Volume 1—The Church of the Civil Wars

Oliver Cromwell, in a letter from Bristol, after its surrender in 1645, makes this remark:--"Presbyterians and Independents all have here the same spirit of faith and prayer. Th...

Page Line 114 29 _for_ Simon _read_ Symonds. 192 note _for_ Horton _read_ Hopton. 207 1 _insert_ Bishops. 210 7 _for_ in 1646. He died _read_ He died in 1646, 215 19 _for_ Rauth...

[161] See _Journals_ for March 9th, 10th, 11th, and 22nd. _May_ says, "Doctors and parsons of parishes were made everywhere Justices of Peace, to the great grievance of the coun...

In the month of December, 1643, just after the Scotch treaty had been ratified, and while the Puritans waited for their allies, a great man passed away from the scene of strife....

magistrate so obsequious as in New England, turn their pens, as you will see in M.S.," (which he had before identified as Goodwin's, of Coleman Street,) "to take from the magist...

Some desire for a conference of Divines manifested itself immediately after the opening of the Long Parliament. Baillie had scarcely reached London, on his first mission, in 164...

The May-day of 1641 was as merry as usual, save where Puritan opinions interfered with its time-honoured festivities. The May-pole was brought into the City and reared at St. An...

To employ an apt but homely figure used by Mrs. Hutchinson, the smoke ascended from the tops of the chimneys before the flame broke out. As early as April, the King appeared at...

A Congregational Church existed in London so early as 1568. It consisted of poor people, numbering about 200, "of more women than men," who openly separated from the Establishme...

On the 7th of July, 1645, the Westminster Assembly sent up to the two Houses a thoroughly-digested and complete scheme of Presbyterian government.[588] Modified as already repre...

The new modelling of the army was a necessary measure, and produced a very great moral improvement. Even Hampden had spoken of the insolence of the soldiers, and, after the fall...

The cause of English Episcopacy sank into a hopeless condition. Whatever streaks of light had just before been flickering on its horizon had now totally vanished; not that the r...

We meet with statements, on the authority of Lord Clarendon, to the effect that the members of the Long Parliament "were almost to a man for episcopal government," and "had no m...

Charles returned from the North improved in spirits, fancying he had made a favourable impression upon his Scottish subjects, and pondering sanguine schemes for crushing the pow...

The Naseby triumph was won, not by the Scotch army, or by the English Presbyterian generals, but chiefly by Cromwell and his Independent Ironsides. They sustained the hottest br...

Shortly after the opening of Parliament, Pym met Hyde in Westminster Hall, and showed unmistakeably, by his conversation, the course which he intended to pursue. "They must now,...

Two ideas of Church reform evolved themselves: one already indicated,--that of separating from simple primitive Episcopacy all prelatical assumptions,--and another, which amount...

The bill of October for removing Bishops from the House of Peers had hung fire. On its reaching the Upper House it had been once read, and then laid aside. The conduct of the bi...

Laud, the principal author of the evils which induced the revolution, remained a prisoner. He had become a helpless old man; and it would have been better for the Puritans had t...

While so much of argument and eloquence was expended upon Episcopacy in the abstract, it is natural to ask what became of the bishops themselves? At the opening of the Long Parl...

Charles went to Oxford after the battle of Edge Hill, and there, during the civil wars, set up his head quarters. Occasionally he was absent with the army, but that central city...

Proposals were still going on for a Treaty of Peace between the King and the Parliament. His Majesty, from what he heard of dissensions in the popular party, felt encouraged to...

The Scotch army had crossed the Tweed in the month of January, 1644. Isaak Walton had seen them marching along with their pikes, and wearing on their hats this motto, "For the C...

Whilst the Commons were receiving Puritan petitions, the Lords were presented with others of a different kind. The presence in the Upper House of Anglican bishops and noblemen,...

After the Commons had resumed their sittings on the 20th of October, the difference which had arisen amongst the Puritan members became very apparent. The very next day, Sir Edw...

The Long Parliament, almost from the beginning, took ecclesiastical affairs entirely into its own hands. It assumed control over church property, not, indeed, touching the right...

English literature includes valuable histories of the Church, some of them prominently exhibiting whatever relates to Anglicanism, others almost exclusively describing the devel...

"A volume that, regarded from every point of view, we can approve--contains proof of independent research and cautious industry. The temper of the book is generous and impartial...