ning the ranks of disaffection. The fact, however, had now forced itself on the attention of the court in a manner not to be misunderstood, that unless means could be devised to bring a greater number of the able men in the lower house to the service of the government, it would not be possible that it should long proceed, every parliament dissolved for many years past having been succeeded by another still more popular in its principles and feeling.

In the last session, sir Thomas Wentworth, abandoning the neutral Apostacy of course which he had been careful to maintain since his Wentworth. first appearance in parliament in 1614, had taken his place with the popular leaders; and the eloquence and ability which he displayed were regarded as a great accession to the strength of the party he had chosen*. In Wentworth's transactions with the government before this time, there had been indications which could not have failed to satisfy those who knew him, that his temper was such as to make it more natural in him to court the favour of the sovereign than that of the people. But the favourite had long regarded him with jealousy and dislike, which he had recently shown by depriving him of the office of custos rotulorum for his county, having attempted the same thing some years before. It was the feeling of Buckingham also which led to the selection of Wentworth's name for the office of sheriff, that he might not be elected to the king's second parliament; and the same influence had been successfully employed against him in a dispute before a committee of the commons with respect to an election for Yorkshire which he had contested with sir John Savile, the names of Wentworth and Savile being so powerful in that county as to divide it between them. Savile, not content with this triumph, prevailed on the court to send Wentworth a privy seal, requiring him to become a loan contributor:-should he refuse, the sovereign, who was already suspected of holding him in some esteem, would number him with the disaffected; and should he comply, his influence with the country party would be lost.

Wentworth, after much delay, which the court was not yet wise enough to improve, chose to abide the consequence of appearing as a loan recusant, and having answered with much decorum at the council. table, he was committed to the Marshalsea prison. Thus slighted and injured by the court, his doubtful patriotism broke forth on the meeting of the next parliament in eloquent harangues on the side of popular freedom. The king's ministers now called to mind the unanswered letters of this much applauded and formidable opponent, and judging it probable that it might not even yet be too late to secure his alliance, the lure of court favour was employed, and with memorable success. Wentworth had

The Wentworth who made himself obnoxious to the king in the parliament of 1614 and was imprisoned, was not, as frequently stated, the member for Yorkshire, but a popular member of that name who sat for Oxford. This is shown beyond dispute by Mr. Brodie; and in the Life of Strafford in the Cabinet Cyclopædia,

seen his rival, sir John Savile, raised to the dignity of privy counsellor, and to the office of comptroller of the household, as the reward of his apostacy in favour of the court; and as the fruit of following the example thus set before him he was himself created baron, and within a few months became viscount, and lord president of the north. It thus appears that the short-lived patriotism of Wentworth was the effect of circumstances, and not the result of his real principles or inclinations; with these the course of arbitrary power, which he will be found to pursue with such fixed purpose from this time, was much more accordant. The removal of Buckingham made way for Wentworth, as, in some degree, his successor

To satisfy the duke, Charles had exposed himself to suspicion and complaint with the majority of his people, and it was expected that the news of his death would be received with the strongest expressions of sorrow. But the king checked his emotion, and reserved such expressions for his private intercourse. His conduct in paying the debts and providing for the relatives of the deceased afforded the best proof of the affection cherished towards his memory. Buckingham's remains were interred in Westminster Abbey; and Charles, who spoke of him as a martyr in the cause of his sovereign, had sufficient opportunity to make his enemies aware that their conduct had been marked and remembered. The death of the favourite, and the fall of Rochelle, were soon followed

by another meeting of parliament. The first object of the Proceedings commons was to revive the several committees on grievances. in parliament, Since the prorogation Charles had persisted in collecting Jan. 20, 1629. the duties on merchandise at the ports, though the form of the bill relating to them remained a matter of dispute between himself and the commons at the prorogation. It was a branch of his revenue which nothing could induce him to regard as dependent, like other taxes, on the pleasure of parliament. But the demand of the royal officers had been resisted, on the plea that the duties had not been legally imposed; and Charles, aware of the dangerous consequences of such collisions, became anxious to see some settlement of the matter, and called the attention of the house to the subject. Many among the country party were disposed to act on this suggestion, but a majority determined that the state of religion should be considered before entertaining any secular question.

On the subject of religion, the great complaints were, the increase of popery, and the patronage bestowed on Arminian clergy- Religious grie men by the government. The case of Montague has been vances--Case mentioned, and two years later his conduct was imitated by of Manwaring. Dr. Manwaring, rector of St. Giles's. Amidst the excitement occasioned by the illegal proceedings of the government in 1627, and par

Strafford Papers, 1-46, passim.

ticularly by the forced loan attempted in that year, it happened that this divine was called to preach before the king and the court, on which occasion he affirmed that aids and subsidies might be exacted without consent of parliament, the sole authority of the crown being so assuredly binding, that no man could refuse compliance but on pain of destruction to his soul. The sermons containing these doctrines were printed and published under the title of "Religion and Allegiance." But the king did not find such discourses sufficient to prevent the necessity ere long of assembling his third parliament, and they were soon brought under the notice of the lower house with some forcible comments from one of its members. On the following day Charles urged the dispatch of necessary business, adding, that in seven days the parliament would be prorogued. But the house proceeded in preparing a declaration that should express its abhorrence of the political heresies which had been recently uttered in the royal presence; and, the same day, Pym, an active member on all such matters, appeared at the bar of the upper house to prefer his charges against the person who had uttered them. His speech justified the confidence reposed in him, and may be taken as a fair specimen of the manner in which such questions were discussed in those times.

"The case," he observed, "was one of peculiar aggravation. First, from the place where these sermons were preached, the court, the king's own family, where such doctrine was before so well believed that no man needed to be converted. Of this there could be no end, but either simoniacal, by flattering and soothing to make way for his own preferment; or else extreme malice, to add new afflictions to those who lay under his majesty's wrath, disgraced and imprisoned, and to enlarge the wounds that had been given to the laws and liberties of the kingdom." The second aggravation was in the function of the offender. "He is a preacher of God's word, and yet he hath endeavoured to make that which was the only rule of justice and goodness to be the warrant for violence and oppression. He is a messenger of peace; but he has endeavoured to sow strife and disunion, not only among private persons, but even betwixt the king and his people, to the disturbance and danger of the whole state. He is a spiritual father; but like that evil father in the gospel, he has given his children stones instead of bread, and scorpions instead of fish. Lastly, he is a minister of the church of England; but he has acted the part of a Romish jesuit. The one labours for our destruction, by dissolving the oath of allegiance taken by the people; the other does the same work by dissolving the oath of protection and justice taken by the king."

The preacher was ordered to appear at the bar of the house, where he attempted to explain away some of his expressions and to soften others, and appealed to the compassion of his judges with regard to the rest. After an examination of three days, he was sentenced to be imprisoned

during pleasure, to pay a fine of 10007., to be suspended for three years from the exercise of his ministry, and was declared incapable of being promoted to any ecclesiastical dignity or secular office. It was agreed also that the king should be urged to suppress the obnoxious discourses by proclamation, and to command their being publicly burnt in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, and that the offender should make humble confession of his encrmities at the bar of both houses ;-and these things were accordingly done *.

During these proceedings, Charles showed himself concerned to disavow the opinions which called forth so strong and general an expression of displeasure. It was ascertained, however, that the sermons had been published at the command of the king, and that this command had been repeated, notwithstanding à remonstrance against it even by such men as bishop Laud. Parliament was prorogued a few days later, and in the interval which preceded its present meeting the king had raised Dr. Montague to the see of Chichester, pardoned Manwaring, and conferred on him the rectory of Stanford Rivers in Essex, with a dispensation enabling him to hold it with the rectory of St Giles's. The contradiction between the professions and the conduct of the monarch, which thus became notorious, taught men, of necessity, to attach but small weight to assurances coming from the throne.

Rise of Laud.

Montague and Manwaring may be viewed as representing the numerous class of persons known as the court, or the Arminian clergy. Bishop Laud was already the principal leader of this party. A little before the death of James, Laud was raised to the see of St. David's, though not without some misgiving on the part of that monarch with regard to the mischiefs that would probably result from the restlessness and obstinacy which had already characterised the ecclesiastical aspirant. Soon after the accession of Charles, Laud was translated to the see of Bath and Wells; and on the decease of Buckingham, who had regarded him with peculiar confidence, he rose to a much higher place in the esteem of his sovereign, his elevation to the see of London in 1628 having prepared the way to his becoming one of the most effective members of the privy council.

On the subject of civil government, the maxims of Laud, and those of the school to which he became a kind of leader, were Objects of the taken from the practice of the most despotic states; and Landian their notions with respect to ecclesiastical polity and forms clergy. of worship were distinguishable in a faint degree only from those of the Romish church. Their sentiments on such matters were generally known, and were not more acceptable to the court than offensive to the nation. It is not easy to discover any natural association between the theological tenets of Arminius and the principles of an arbitrary civil government.

Parl. Hist. 377, 388, 414, 428.

On a slight view of the matter, it would seem less difficult to trace a connexion of this sort in the more severe dogmas of the Calvinist. But whatever may have led to it, the fact is notorious that the labours of the Laudian clergy were directed to three points,-the diffusion of the doctrines of Arminius, the support of the prerogative in all the extravagance of its contest with the advocates of popular liberty, and the assimilating of the polity and worship of the English church in as great a degree as was practicable to the Romish model. The more zealous puritans, on the contrary, whether among the clergy or in the house of commons, were not only Calvinists in theology, but were generally men who would have narrowed the jurisdiction of the prelates, and who would have conformed the established ritual to that of the Reformed churches on the continent, or to the simple model which they regarded as having obtained in very early times.

Dispute concerning the power to de

cree rites and ceremonies. Jan. 27.

Nor was this exclusive favour of the court towards the Arminian, or, as they now began to designate themselves, the orthodox clergy, the only matter of complaint. Listening to counsels from that quarter, Charles, as head of the church, had lately issued a new edition of the articles, containing a clause which declared that "the church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and hath authority in matters of faith," and setting forth that the settlement of all controversies with respect to discipline and worship, and the true meaning of the said articles, belonged of right to the houses of convocation*. This very material clause had no place in the book of articles published under Edward VI., nor in the edition made authoritative by act of parliament in 1571. After that time it was sometimes inserted and sometimes omitted in the authorised copies, but in no instance had it obtained the sanction of the legislature. The edition which made its appearance in 1628 came forth under the superintendence of Laud, and the disputed clause, as it was natural to expect, was then introduced. The debate on this subject took place seven days after the meeting of parliament, when the house was called for the purpose, and sir John Eliot appeared as the principal speaker. He called upon the house, in the most solemn terms, to resist this attempt to vest in the king and clergy the power to disturb the religious faith and the most sacred usages of the realm at pleasure, and to enslave, not only the persons, but the consciences, of freemen; since nothing would be more easy than to introduce new things, not only Arminianism but even popery itself, under the pretence of interpreting the old, if the exclusive right to act as interpreters were once conceded to those who now claimed it. Concluding that the ambitious spirits which had gone thus far would be rash enough to go farther, Eliot exclaimed," But I give this for testimony, and thus far do I express myself against all the power and opposition of those men. Whensoever

* Bibliotheca Regia, 213–216.