§ 113.-Independents in Holland.

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a. James had been welcomed in England by all religious parties by the Catholics, in memory of his mother; by the Anglicans, from his known dislike of the Puritans; and by the Reformers, who placed high hopes in his Presbyterian training. The Hampton Court Conference identified him with the conservative high-church party.

b. The succession of Primates is here important in the his

tory of Puritanism. WHITGIFT, dying in 1604, was succeeded by BANCROFT, a strong advocate of the divine right of Bishops, and a persecutor of the Independents, whose chief work was carrying through the preparation of the "King James's Version" of the Bible. Then followed (1610-1633) ABBOT, a high Calvinist and arbitrary, but lenient to the Puritans. This policy was strongly contrasted by LAUD (1632-1641), who held the position that the English Church is primarily Catholic, though independent of Rome, and who restored many formalities of Roman worship (see § 116. a). His highly arbitrary policy, known as "thorough," was regarded as a crime by the Puritans, who particularly resented the cruel jurisdiction of the "Star-Chamber Court;" and he was put to death, by judgment of the Long Parliament, January 10, 1645.

Independents in Holland.

113. The zeal of James I. and of Archbishop Bancroft to enforce conformity bore with especial cruelty upon the Independents. A congregation had been. sustained for some time at Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire. In 1608, fearing to be imprisoned or dispersed, many of its members succeeded in escaping to Holland, where the law of the Dutch Republic gave complete religious liberty. Here they remained, residing chiefly at Leyden, the minister of their congregation being JOHN ROBINSON (1575-1625), the ablest of their leaders, and the best expounder of the Congregational Order.1

1 As distinct from the petulant and wilful Independency of Brown (§ 110. a).

The Plymouth Colony.

114. Impatient of living in a foreign land, and dreading the effect of the secular and trading temper about them, the English exiles in Leyden resolved to found a colony in America, where they might constitute a "civil body politic" on their own ecclesiastical model.1 A portion of their congregation sailed accordingly in the autumn of 1620, in two small ships, of which only one, the "Mayflower," completed the voyage, landing at Plymouth, on the coast of New England, on the 22d of December. Their first corporate act was, before landing, to form a "Covenant," or civil compact, which should serve as the corner-stone of an independent political fabric.

NOTE. This colony, feeble in numbers, and exposed to singular hardships, has left, in the narrative of its earlier years, the most pathetic and interesting chapter in the history of American colonization. It also remained truest to its original spirit, not being implicated in those harsh and doubtful acts which have brought discredit on its sister colonies. It remained independent till its union with Massachusetts, in 1692. For its religious character, see iii. 81-83.

Congregationalism in New England.

115. A colony far stronger, richer, and of higher social rank was formed at Salem and Boston, on "Massachusetts Bay," in the years from 1628 to 1630, and grew rapidly, the number of emigrants during the ten succeeding years being reckoned at twenty thousand.2 In the State thus formed, the condition

1 This was their true motive; not "freedom of worship," which they already enjoyed in Holland.

2 The work of colonizing received a check from the conflict that soon broke out between Charles I. and his Parliament, and was practically completed by 1640 (see iii. 82, 83).

§ 116.-Laud's Policy of "Thorough."

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of citizenship, with the right to share in political action, was defined (1631) by membership in a Congregational Church; which condition remained unchanged for a little more than thirty years.

a. The Congregational idea differs from pure Independency in implying affiliation or fraternity among similar religious bodies, so as to constitute an extended organization, or body politic. The motive of the condition defined by the new State was: I. to secure that the State should be Christian (a maxim then everywhere assumed); 2. that the State should be protected from the danger of Prelacy, or other ecclesiastical domination.

b. Danger from within was soon found, in the faction or fanaticism generated by Independency; which was met, or sought to be, by the banishment of Roger Williams (1635) and Ann Hutchinson (1636). A Synod held at Cambridge (1637) served to establish harmony for a time.

c. Danger from without ensued in 1644, when the success of the Presbyterians in England against the King and the authority of the Westminster Assembly (§ 117) led to a plot to subject the Colony to a uniform Presbyterian rule. A remonstrance was sent to the Parliament; but meanwhile the success of the Independents in England brought the project to nought (iii. 83). The constitution of the Congregational Order in New England was defined in the "Cambridge Platform,” in 1648. For the later history of the New England churches see below, § 127; and consult, if possible, Dexter's "Congregationalism of the last Three Hundred Years."

Laud's Policy of "Thorough."

116. In the year 1633 Archbishop Laud (now Primate) began to enforce, with vigor and unrelenting cruelty, a scheme for expelling the Puritan clergy from the Church of England, and restoring, substantially, the condition of things under the "Six Articles" of Henry VIII. (§ 92. a). In the same year Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, went as Lord

Deputy to Ireland, where he carried out for six years a rule of despotic authority, designing to establish in England the same absolutism as was now exercised by Richelieu in France. The two were united in a common aim; the policy of absolutism in Church and State being known in their familiar correspondTHOROUGH."

ence as

a. The ecclesiastical plans of Laud included the restoration of Church architecture; dignity and splendor of ritual; conversion of the Table to an Altar (removing it from the middle of the church to the eastern wall, and guarding it by the chancelrail), implying the doctrine of the Real Presence; and turning Sunday to a holiday. These were all regarded with alarm, as threatening a return to Papacy, —especially the last, which was strongly resented by the increasing seriousness of the time. The Puritan reaction which they called out proved fatal to Laud, and (for the time) to the entire episcopal system.

b. In particular, an attempt made to compel episcopacy, with the English liturgy, upon the Church of Scotland, in 1637, was defeated by obstinate popular resistance; and led, the following year, to the adoption of the Solemn League and CovenaNT, which was signed by nobles, gentlemen, and clergy on the 1st of March, 1638, and was enthusiastically adopted throughout the country (compare § 111).

Westminster Assembly.

117. Early in the Civil War (which lasted from 1642 to 1648), a League was made by the Parliament with the Scotch, having for its base the principles of the COVENANT, and including the establishment of the Presbyterian Order on public authority. To confirm the new Order, the Westminster Assembly of Divines was established in 1643, by .parliamentary ordinance, as "a permanent advisory Council" for the regulation of affairs of Religion.

$119. The Commonwealth.

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a. The Business of this Assembly was: I. the revision of Church Articles; 2. the establishing of the Solemn League and Covenant; 3. the preparation of an official Body of Doctrine, known as the Westminster Confession, similar in the main to that of the Synod of Dort (§ 105).

b. By the secession of the Prelatists, the Westminster Assembly came to be a Presbyterian body, with only five Independents, and a few "Erastians," who held that the Church should be subject to state authority. The Presbyterian rule as established in Scotland was, however, held in check by a parliamentary Court of Superior Appeal. The party lost its control after the victories of Cromwell (1645), and the Assembly continued for only about five years.

Oliver Cromwell.

118. The great Captain of English Puritanism was OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658), who, with political and military genius, profound religious conviction, and unscrupulous resolution, carried out the policy of the Independents and the will of the Army, to the execution of the king and the abolition of the Church and the House of Lords (1649). The reactionary Presbyterians were expelled from Parliament; and Cromwell was the real sovereign of the nation for about ten years, with the title of Lord Protector from 1653,- until his death.

The Commonwealth.

119. The religious theory of the State held by the Reformers was as positive as that held by the Church. of Rome. Under the discipline of Calvin, this theory had taken the form of a COMMONWEALTH, more and more democratic as the Independents came to power. The theory was very perfectly realized for a time in the Colonies of New England; but in the struggles of