XXIV.

CHAP. a monthly payment of fifty thousand pounds was allowed for the subsistence of both armies. Strafford remained in the north, after the king and his court had repaired to London, to suppress the Nov. 3. mutinous spirit of the English troops. The parliament was now to assemble; and to preserve themselves from its censure, or to gain its protection, was the business and solicitude of all.

* Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. i. b. 2.

CHAPTER XXV.

Opening of the Long Parliament.-Opening of Convocation. -Committee of the House of Commons for the Redress of religious Grievances.— Release of Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick, and of Bishop Williams.-Fast appointed.-Censure of the late Acts of Convocation by the House of Commons. -Laud impeached by the Commons.-Complaints exhibited against other Prelates.-Laud sent to the Tower.-Churches defaced.—Liturgy decried.-Petitions against the Hierarchy. —Petition in its favour.-Ecclesiastical Administration of Williams. He moves that the Bishops be excused from Attendance on Strafford's Trial.-His Advice to the King. -Bill against Deans and Chapters.-Bill for removing Bishops from Parliament. - Protestation. - Bishops impeached. King's Journey into Scotland.-Irish Massacre. -Remonstrance of the Commons.-King's Answer.—Impeachment of the Bishops dropped, and consequent Tumults. -Prevented from Access to the House of Lords.-Their Protestation.-Their Imprisonment and Impeachment.Bill passed for excluding them from Parliament receives. the Royal Assent.

WITH a fearful anticipation of approaching calamity, the parliament was opened by Charles. Rightly he foreboded that a monster was ready to come forth at his call, which would not depart at his bidding, but would continue to haunt his steps and cross his path. But it was impossible now to retreat, although uncertain whither his course tended. His condition was the more deplorable, because he knew not where to look for advice and succour. His confidential servants were engrossed by fears for their own safety; and when he impru

VOL. II.

Z

A. D. 1640.

Charles I.

Nov 3,

XXV.

CHAP. dently recalled Strafford from the army, he only accelerated the ruin of a faithful minister, and lost his best support.

Nov. 4.

The king on this occasion came not to Westminster with his accustomed equipage and his proper state, but landed from his barge at the parliament stairs. In a critical affair, the choice of a speaker, he had experienced an unexpected disappointment, and he was induced to delay his appearance in the house till the afternoon. His speech was marked not by the gracious condescension of a monarch secure in the affections of his people, but by the language of irritable humiliation. He promised to concur in all measures for redressing just grievances, leaving to the parliament where to begin. But in his speech he made use of one expression which betrayed his want of equanimity, and the feelings which rankled in his mind. He styled the Scots rebels, at a time when a pacification subsisted between the two kingdoms, and when a treaty, on equal terms, was under discussion. The harsh and improper appellation was not unfelt; but on a subsequent day, when he had occasion to make another personal communication to the two houses, the offensive term was not softened or recalled, but repeated and justified.

On the day following the meeting of parlia ment the convocation was opened with the usual solemnities. The former prolocutor was again chosen, and the archbishop, in a pathetic speech, adverted to the dangers impending on the church. He exhorted every individual present to perform the duty of his post with firmness, and not to be wanting to himself or to the cause of religion.

One of the proctors in the lower house*, either through weakness, or conviction, or treachery, moved, that in order to cover the pit which they had opened, and to anticipate the censure of parliament, they should petition the king for a licence to review and annul the late canons. But the motion was decisively rejected, and the mover could not protect his character from the imputation of cowardice: disappointed in his attempt, he published his speech, and thereby justly incurred the additional stigma of disaffection to the ecclesiastical establishment. After disposing of this motion, the business of the convocation was at an end; and being deserted by its principal members, it broke up without adjournment or prorogation.

At their first entrance on business, the house of commons appointed four grand committees. The first was to hear and determine grievances concerning religion, and it was subdivided into twenty or thirty different branches.

Among the earliest acts indicative of the disposition which prevailed in the house was the release of several prisoners who had been confined by order of the star chamber, the court of high commission, or the privy council. Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick, were removed from the distant islands in which they had been exiled, and were conducted into London with the most triumphant acclamations. Williams, bishop of Lincoln, was restored to his liberty, reinstated in his deanery of Westminster, and pardoned his fines.

* Warmistre, one of the proctors for the diocess of Worcester.

A. D.

1640. Charles I.

CHAP.
XXV.

Nov. 16.

Dec. 9.

The two houses petitioned the king to appoint a fast, that they might implore the divine blessing on their councils. The bishops of Durham and Carlisle preached before the lords in Westminster Abbey; one of these prelates being a courtier, and the other a favourer of puritanism*. The preachers before the commons were Marshall and Cornelius Burgess, names well known in sectarian annals. Their sermons were long, but delivered with great caution, and the house recompensed their labours by a present of plate. On the Sunday following the commons received the holy communion in the church of Saint Margaret, having previously desired that the communion table should be removed from the chancel into the body of the church. When this request was signified to Williams, he ungraciously replied, I will certainly comply with the wishes of the house of commons, but I would do the same at the request of the meanest parishioner in my diocess."

66

At soon as the house of commons entered on the consideration of religious grievances, the acts and canons of the late convocation were brought under its review and animadversion. How far passion exceeded reasoning in that assembly must be seen by the following reflections from lord Digby: "Does not every parliament-man's heart rise to see the prelates usurping to themselves the grand pre-eminence of parliament? To see them granting subsidies under the name of a benevolence, under a no less penalty to them that

* Moreton and Potter. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. c. 7.