Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/250

 'some of the ministers complained ;' their objection was only that the composite manifesto was too long for the patience of the house. While the 'remonstrance' was being debated in the commons, Marshall was taking part in the production of a famous pamphlet. His initials supplied the first letters of the portentous name 'Smectymnuus' [see, the elder], adopted by five divines (Butler's 'Legion Smec'), three of them connected with Essex, in their 'Answer,' &c., 1641, 4to, to Joseph Hall [q. v.], then bishop of Exeter. 'Smectymnuus' was very much on the lines of 'the petition' and 'remonstrance;' it pleaded for reforms; but its postscript in another style, which to Masson suggests the hand of Milton, did much to accelerate the growing movement for the abolition of episcopacy. On 1 March the lords appointed a 'committee for innovations,' with a view to a scheme for saving the existing establishment. The chairman, Williams, bishop of Lincoln, on 12 March summoned Marshall and other divines [see ] to assist. The committee held six sittings. Though nothing came of it, there was no fundamental disagreement among its members. Ussher's scheme of church government was accepted (as in 1661) by the puritan leaders; the genuineness of the scheme has been doubted, but it was published from Ussher's autograph copy by Nicholas Bernard, D.D. [q. v.], as 'The Reduction of Episcopacie unto the form of Synodical Government received in the Ancient Church,' &c., 1656, 4to (an imperfect draft, printed in 1641, was suppressed).

On 27 May the bill for the 'utter abolishing' of the existing episcopacy was introduced into the commons. According to Sir Simonds D'Ewes [q. v.], the motion for getting it into committee was sprung upon the house, as the result of a private conference (10 June) at which Marshall was present. D'Ewes was himself hurried into the house by Marshall to take part in the debate (11 June). Marshall's support of this drastic measure (not carried till Sept. 1642) shows that he had already passed from a policy of reform to one of remodelling; but there was no indication as yet of his preference for a presbyterian model. On the contrary, he joined in the letter (12 July) which a number of English divines despatched to Scotland to feel the pulse of the general assembly on the question of independency. Early in 1642 the House of Commons sanctioned the wish of the parishioners of St. Margaret's, Westminster, to have Marshall as one of the seven morning lecturers, who preached daily in rotation at 6, with a salary of 300l. apiece. The parishioners of Finchingfield, headed by Kemp, petitioned against the arrangement: although the petition was rejected, Marshall was allowed to retain the vicarage, Letmale acting as his assistant. For seven years he had no administration of the communion at Finchingfield. By 22 July he was ready to unite with other divines in a letter to the Scottish general assembly, expressing a desire for 'the presbyterian government, which hath just and evident foundation, both in the word of God and religious reason.'

Later in the year he became one of the chaplains to the regiment of Robert Devereux, third earl of Essex [q. v.], and went 'praying from regiment to regiment at Edgehill' (Sunday, 23 Oct.) Clarendon charges him and Calibute Downing [q. v.] with absolving the 150 prisoners taken by the royalists at Brentford (13 Nov.) of their oath, when released, not to bear arms against the king; with some reason Oldmixon questions this story. While Marshall threw himself with all his vigour into the parliamentary cause, and even justified (in 1643) the abstract right of an oppressed subject to resort to arms, yet the war, as he viewed it, was in defence of the legitimate authority of parliament against a faction; he drew the usual distinction between the party and the person of the monarch.

To the Westminster Assembly of Divines he was summoned (12 July 1643) among the first nominees of the committee for that purpose. Shortly afterwards he was despatched to Scotland as one of the assembly's commissioners to the Scottish general assembly, Philip Nye [q. v.] being the other. The commissioners landed at Leith on Monday 7 Aug.; ten days later they took part in the unanimous acceptance of the solemn league and covenant' [see, 1583?-1646]. Marshall preached in the Tron Church, Edinburgh, on 20 Aug. 'with great contentment' of his hearers, returning to London in September. On 16 Dec. Marshall was appointed chairman of a sub-committee of five who were to meet the Scottish delegates and prepare a directory for public worship. He drafted the section on 'preaching of the word,' but did not satisfy his Scottish coadjutors, though they admitted him to be 'the best preacher. . . in England.' Lightfoot joined him in successfully opposing, in the section on 'the Lord's day,' the introduction of the clause 'that there be no feasting on the sabbath.' In the discussion on the catechism he disclaimed (with George Gillespie [q. v.]) any intention 'to tie them to those words and no other.' He signed