as they were moved, but never above once disturbed the public worship. The earl of Derby was the only nobleman in England who raised 1500 men for the young king, who before, he could join the royal army, was defeated by colonel Lilburn, near Wigan in Lancashire, and his forces entirely dispersed. The earl being wounded retired into Cheshire, and from thence got to the king, who had marched his army as far as Worcester, which opened its gates, and gave him an honorable reception; from thence his majesty sent letters to London, commanding all his subjects between the age of sixteen and sixty to repair to his royal standard; but few had the courage to appear, the parliament having declared all such rebels, and burnt the king's summons by the hands of the common hangman. His majesty's affairs were now at a crisis. Lambert was in his rear with a great body of horse, and Cromwell followed with ten thousand foot, which, together with the forces that joined him by order of parliament, made an army of thirty thousand men. The king, being unable to keep the field, fortified the city of Worcester, and encamped almost under the walls. September 3, Cromwell attacked Powick bridge, within two miles of the city, which drew out the king's forces and occasioned a general battle, in which his majesty's army was entirely destroyed; four thousand being slain, seven thousand taken prisoners, with the king's standard, and one hundred and fifty-eight colors. Never was a greater rout and dispersion, nor a more fatal blow to the royal cause. The account which the general gave to the parliament was, "that the battle was fought with various success for some hours, but still hopeful on our part, and in the end became an absolute victory, the enemy's army being totally defeated, and the town in our possession, our men entering at the enemy's heels, and fighting with them in the streets, took all their baggage and artillery. The dispute was long and very often at push of pike from one defence to another. There are about six or seven thousand prisoners, among whom are many officers and persons of quality. This, for onght I know, may be a crowning mercy." All possible diligence was used to seize the person of the king; it was declared high trea son to conceal him, and a reward of a thousand pounds was set upon his head; but providence ordained his escape, for after he had travelled up and down the country six or seven weeks, under various disguises, in company with one or two confidents, and escaped a thousand dangers, he got a passage cross the channel at Brighthelmston in Sussex, and landed at Dieppe in Normandy, Oct. 21, the morning after he embarked; from whence he travelled by land to Paris, where his mother maintained him out of her small pensiont from the court of France. The hopes of the royalists were now expiring, for the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, with all the British plantations in America, were reduced this summer to the obedience of the parliament, in so much that his majesty had neither fort nor castle, nor a foot of land in all his dominions. The liturgy of the church of England was also under a total eclipse, the use of it being forbid not only in England, but even to the royal family in France, which had hitherto an apartment in the Louvre separated to that purpose; but after the battle of Worcester an order was sent from the queen regent to shut up the chapel, it being the king's pleasure not to permit the exercise of any religion but the roman catholic in any of his houses; nor could chancellor Hyde obtain more than a bare promise, that the queen of England would use her endeavors, that the protestants of the family should have liberty to exercise their devotions in some private room belonging to the lodgings. Upon the king's arrival in France, he immediately threw off the mask of a presbyterian, and never went once to the protestant church at Charenton, though they invited him in the most respectful manner; but lord Clarendon dissuaded him, because the hugonots had not been hearty in his interest, and because it might look disrespectful to the †This must be understood only of the king's first arrival: for her pension was so small and so ill paid, that when cardinal de Retz visited her on a time, in the month of January, the princess Henrietta could not rise for want of a fire. When her son arrived, she had not money enough to buy him a change of linen for the next day. The French court was obliged to provide for his necessities, and settled on him a pension of 6000 livres per month. Dr. Grey, vol. iii. p. 134, 5. Clarendon's History, vol. iii. p. 441. Ed. old church of England. In truth, there being no further prospect of the king's restoration by the presbyterians, the eyes of the court were turned to the Roman catholics, and many of his majesty's retinue changed their religion, as appears by the Legenda Lignea, published about this time, with a list of fifty-three new converts, among whom were the following names in red capitals; the Countess of Derby, Lady Kilmichin, Lord Cottington, Sir Marm. Langdale, Sir Fr. Doddington, Sir Theoph. Gilby, Capt. Tho. Cook, Tho. Vane, D. D. De Cressy, preb. of Windsor, Dr. Bayley, Dr. Cosins, jun. D. Goffe, and many others, not to mention the king himself, of whom father Huddleston his confessor writes in his treatise, intitled, A short and plain way to the faith of the Church, published 1685, that he put it into the king's hands in his retirement, and that when his majesty had read it, he declared he could not see how it could be answered.* Thus early, says a reverend prelate of the church of England, was the king's advance towards popery, of which we shall meet with a faller demonstration hereafter.|| - General Monk, whom Cromwell left in Scotland with six thousand men, quickly reduced that kingdom, which was soon after united to the commonwealth of England, the deputies of the several counties consenting to be governed by authority of parliament, without a king or house of lords. The power of the kirk was likewise restrained within a narrow compass; for though they had liberty to excommunicate offenders, or debar them the communion, they might not seize their estates, or deprive them of their civil rights and privileges. No oaths or covenants were to be imposed but by direction from Westminster; and as all fitting encouragement was to be given to the ministers of the established kirk, so others not satisfied with their form of church government had liberty to serve God after their own manner; and all who would live peaceably, and yield obedience to the commonwealth, were protected in their several persuasions. This occasioned a great commotion among the clergy, who complained of the loss of their cov* Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 444. Kennet, p. 200, 210 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 586, folio. VOL. IV. 11 enant, and church discipline; and exclaimed against the toleration, as opening a door to all kinds of error and heresy; but the English supported their friends against all opposition. The laird of Drum, being threatened with excommunication for speaking against the kirk, and for refusing to swear that its discipline was of divine authority, fled to the English for protection, and then wrote the assembly word, that their oppression was equal to that of the late bishops, but that the commonwealth of England would not permit them to enslave the consciences of men any lenger. The presbytery would have proceeded to extremities with him, but Monk brandished his sword over their heads, and threatened to treat them as enemies to the state, upon which they desisted for the present. Soon after this, commissioners chiefly of the independent persuasion, were sent into Scotland, to visit the universities, and to settle liberty of conscience in that kingdom, against the coercive claim of the kirk, by whose influence a declaration was presented to the assembly at Edinburgh, July 26, in favor of the congregational discipline, and for liberty of conscience; but the stubborn assembly-men, instead of yielding to the declaration, published a paper called a Testimony against the present encroachments of the civil power upon the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, occasioned by a proclamation of the English commissioners appointing a committee for visiting their universities, which they take to be a special flower of the kirk prerogative. The synod of Fife also protested against the public resolutions of the civil power; but the sword of the English kept them in awe; for when the synod of Perth cited before them several persons for slighting the admouitions of the kirk, Mr. Whitlocke says,† that upon the day of appearance, their wives, to the number of about one hundred and twenty, with clubs in their bands, came and besieged the church where the synod sat; that they abused one of the ministers who was sent out to treat with them, and threatened to excommunicate them; and that they beat the clerk and dispersed the assembly; upon which thirteen of the ministers met at a village about four miles distant, and having agreed that no more synods should be held in that * Whitlocke, p. 500, 505, 515. + P. 511, 512. place, they pronounced the village accursed. When the general assembly met again at Edinburgh next summer, and were just entering upon business, lieutenant-colonel Cotterel went into the church, and standing up upon one of the benches, told them that no ecclesiastical judicatories were to sit there, but by authority of the parliament of England; and without giving them leave to reply, he commanded them to retire, and conducted them out of the west gate of the city with a troop of horse and a company of foot; and having taken away the commissions from their several classes, enjoined them not to assemble any more above three in a company. But with all these commotions, bishop Burnet observes, that the country was kept in great order; the garrisons in the Highlands observed an exact discipline, and were well paid, which brought so much money into the kingdom, that it continued all the time of the usurpation in a flourishing condition; justice was carefully administered, and vice was suppressed and punished; there was a great appearance of devotion; the sabbath was observed with uncommon strictness; none might walk the streets in time of divine service, nor frequent public houses; the evenings of the Lord's days were spent in catechising their children, singing psalms, and other acts of family devotion, in so much that an acquaintance with the principles of religion, and the gift of prayer, increased prodigiously among the common people. The war being now ended, the parliament published an act of indemnity for all crimes committed before June 30, 1648, except pirates, Irish rebels, the murderers of Dr. Dorislaus and Mr. Ascham, and some others, provided they laid hold of it, and took the engagement before Feb. 1, 1652. In the close of the year they chose a new council of state out of their own body for the next year, and continued themselves, instead of dissolving and giving way to a new parliament; the neglect of which was their ruin. On the 26th of Sept. lieutenant-general Ireton died at Limerick in Ireland, after he had reduced that city to the obedience of the commonwealth. He was bred to the law, and was a person of great integrity, bold and intrepid in * History, vol. i. p. 84, Edin, edition. |