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196 the country was effectually roused. The lord Falkland, Sir Benjamin Rudyard, Sir Edward Deering, Harbottle Grimston, Denzell Hollis, second son of the earl of Clare, Nathaniel Fiennes, second son of the lord Say, and others, led on by Pym, as the acknowledged leader, assailed the whole system of episcopacy, denounced all canons and constitutions which Laud had recently passed, and so effectually alarmed that fiery little churchman, that he began to see omens and tremble at approaching ruin. He had seen two thousand Brownists burst into the High Commission Court in St. Paul's, crying, "No bishop! no king!" and tear down all the benches in the consistory; he had seen his house attacked and his life endangered, and now he heard himself menaced every day in parliament. Instead of defying all this, as had been his wont, and dragging the extra parliamentary offenders at least into the star-chamber, he was, like his royal master, humbled. He writes in his diary, that he went one evening into his study, and found his portrait fallen from the wall with its face on the floor, and he exclaims, "God grant that this be no omen."

He had reason—in truth the image of Dagon was fallen on the floor of the temple, and its hands, which had worked so much tyranny, were cut off. In parliament Mr. Bagshaw declared that the bishop of Exeter had issued a book maintaining that the right of bishops, like that of kings, was divine; but he denied it, and declared that any power which they had was derived solely from the laws of England; and Sir Edward Deering declared that there was scarcely a distinction left betwixt the church of England, as Laud had made it, and popery. The one, he said, had the inquisition, the other the High Commission; the one had its index expurgatorius, the other its imprimaturs, or licensings of the press. He declared that Laud's notions of supremacy and infallibility were precisely those of popery, and observed that, for his part, he had rather have the pope on the Tiber than on the Thames—at Rome than at Lambeth. And then Sir Benjamin Rudyard referred to the unheard of cruelties that had been practised on ministers that would not entirely conform to all his popish innovations, their families ruined, their wives and children turned out into the streets and highways. "What do these priests," he observed, "think will become of themselves, when the Master of the house shall come and find them thus beating their fellow-servants?" He concluded by ominous allusions to the king's great advisers, declaring that their doings "had rung a very doleful, deadly knell over the whole kingdom. They had talked of the king's service, but had been consulting only their own; of the king's power, but they had made it a miserable power, that produced nothing but weakness to the king and the kingdom; and had exhausted his revenues to the bottom, nay, through the bottom, and beyond."

On the fourth day of their session they proceeded from acts to deeds. They passed an order that those victims of the star-chamber, Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton, whose horrible mutilations had revolted the whole civilised world, putting the reformed church of England on a par with persecuting and plundering Rome in her worst days, should be sent for from their distant prisons, and called on to state by whose authority they had been thus mutilated, branded, and imprisoned. This order spread a wonderful joy amongst the reformers everywhere. The three lopped and tortured men were welcomed with acclamations at all places on their journey, and on the 28th of November they entered London, attended by hundreds of carriages, and by five thousand people on horseback, both men and women, all wearing in their hats and caps bays and rosemary, and followed by great multitudes, with boughs and flowers, and strewing flowers and herbs as they passed. This was a change from the day when Laud pulled off his cap at the passing of Prynne's horrible sentence, and thanked God for it. The house of commons, after hearing their statement, voted them damages to the amount of six thousand pounds to Burton, and five thousand pounds each to Prynne and Bastwick, which was to be paid by archbishop Laud and his associates in the High Commission and star-chamber.

But they did not stop there; from compensating the sufferers they passed on to the punishment of the oppressors. The committee of religion proceeded to inquire into the loose lives of the clergy, their cruelties towards the puritans, and their introduction of papistical ceremonies. "Their first care," says May, in his History of Parliament, "was to vindicate distressed ministers, who had been imprisoned or deprived by the bishops, and all others who in the cause of religion had been persecuted by them. Many of those ministers were released from durance and restored to their livings, with damages from their oppressors. Many doctors and divines that had been most busy in promoting the late church innovations about altars and other ceremonies, and therefore most gracious and flourishing in the state, were then questioned and committed, inasmuch as the change, and the suddenness of it, seemed wonderful to own, and may serve worthily as a document to all posterity, quam fragili loco starent superbi—how insecure are the proud."

Dr. Cousens, master of St. Peter's, Cambridge, who had been one of the greatest sticklers for Laud's changes, was imprisoned and deprived of some of his preferments, and only escaped further chastisement by parliament being busied with many momentous matters, and occupied with higher game. These proceedings gave a marvellous impetus to the people. Petitions in incredible numbers poured in from all sides, demanding the abolition of the High Commission, the star-chamber, and the bishops themselves. Alderman Pennington presented a petition of this kind from the city of London, with fifteen thousand signatures. But Laud, as the arch-ceremonist and persecutor, was most loudly denounced, and the Scotch commissioners, who had now arrived in London, joined in this demand against the man who had been the root and artificer of all their troubles, "the great incendiary of their national differences."

On the 18th of December, Denzell Hollis was sent to the upper house to demand the impeachment of Laud. On hearing this the archbishop rose, and with his usual warmth declaring his own innocence, was proceeding to charge his accusers with various offences, but he was promptly called to order by the earl of Essex and the lord Say, and was stopped by the house and consigned to the usher of the black rod. He apologised and obtained leave to fetch some papers from his own house, under surveillance of the gentleman usher, necessary to his own defence; and after remaining in the custody of the black Rod for ten weeks, he