Ecclesiastical History of England, Volume 2—The Church of the Commonwealth

on the Friday evening ensuing against the vice of painting, the wearing of black patches, and the immodest dresses of women. But no mention is made of it in the Journal of that...

The History which we are tracing in these pages resolves itself into a grand epic without any literary skill on the part of the historian. Commencing, as it does, with the openi...

Cromwell's establishment excluded Prelacy, but it did not altogether exclude Prelatists. It was possible for them to hold parish livings. The use of the Prayer Book, the perform...

The civil wars, and the changes consequent upon the taking of Oxford, left the University in a deplorable condition. Many Fellows and Scholars were dead. Men of learning and hig...

The schemes of politicians, the proceedings of Parliament, and the administration of affairs by a Council of State--although necessary to be studied in order to obtain a knowled...

Early English colonization was, doubtless, stained with avarice and cruelty, but it is a thorough mistake to suppose that all who engaged in that great enterprise were reckless...

Sometimes, by the shore of a lake, the eye catches prismatic effects upon the ripples, as if chains and rings of gold, and green, and crimson, were thickly scattered in fragment...

England could not exist long without Parliaments. The Major-Generals had become intolerable. Sir Harry Vane and others, in their call for another of the old constitutional assem...

As in the histories of the English nation, so in histories of the English Church, the individual, domestic, and social condition of the people has been too much overlooked; publ...

In 1653 the Long Parliament had worn itself out, and its dissolution had become an inevitable necessity. The last gleams of its expiring light emanated from Sir Harry Vane, whos...

Royalty was now a thing of the past; it had been abolished in England. He who had perished on the scaffold came to be called plain Charles Stuart. His son could be designated by...

Upon the dissolution of the first Protectorate Parliament, the supreme management of affairs once more relapsed into the hands of Cromwell and his Council. They constituted an u...

Leaving the Colonies, the reader's attention will now be directed to other relations of a religious nature--relations which the Lord Protector entered into with some of the Chur...

There is in humanity an element of mysticism presenting manifold developments. It characterizes both individual minds and schools of thought: mediæval theologians, and men and w...

All ecclesiastical power in England having been long before snatched from royal hands, the death of Charles I. produced no effect upon the condition of the Church. The control o...

Presbyterians, Clergy, i. 163 Numerous in London, 228 Majority in Assembly, 273, 329 Attachment to League and Covenant, 321 Controversy with Independents, 334, 505 Their depende...

As Congregational Churches were in theory select Societies, they shewed great care in the admission of members; and as they believed that all pastoral authority under Christ was...

The existence of the Baptists may be traced back to an early period. One of this denomination, a yeoman of the guard at Windsor, suffered martyrdom under Queen Mary.[221] In the...

To prevent confusion, let it be distinctly stated at once, that in tracing the form which the new ecclesiastical establishment assumed under the impress of Cromwell's genius, we...

Henderson, Alexander, visits London, i. 107, 118 In Scotland, 167 One of the Commissioners sent to treat with the King, 264 Declaration written by Him, 293 His Controversies wit...

All the ecclesiastical legislation of the first nine months of the Protectorate had been in the form of ordinances, framed mainly by the genius, and resting principally on the a...

the forbearance manifested on the other; the prevalence of enthusiasm at Whitehall; and the checks which it received from men commonly identified with its upholders, are conspic...