Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/82

 ment, and Peters was severely reprimanded (notes supplied by Mr. S. R. Gardiner). In April 1653 the Dutch made an overture to negotiate. A contemporary caricature represents Peters introducing the four Dutch envoys sent in July 1653 to Secretary Thurloe. In the same month he was described as publicly praying and preaching for peace, and, though it is said that he was forbidden to hold any communication with the ambassadors, it is probable that he was one of the anonymous intermediaries mentioned in the account of their mission (, i. 330; Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 196, 223;, John de Witt, i. 281, 360; , Further Justification of the Present War against the United Netherlands, 1673, pp. 1, 81).

In this series of attempts at mediation the conduct of Peters, however indiscreet, was dictated by a laudable desire to prevent the effusion of protestant blood; but in another instance his motive seems to have been simply a wish to put himself forward. When Whitelocke was sent as ambassador to Sweden, Peters sent by him to Queen Christina a mastiff and ‘a great English cheese of his country making,’ accompanied by a letter stating the reasons which had led to the execution of Charles I and the expulsion of the Long parliament. With many apologies for the presumption of the sender, Whitelocke presented them to Christina, ‘who merrily and with expressions of contentment received of them, though from so mean a hand’ (, Journal of the Embassy to Sweden, ed. H. Reeve, i. 283;, i. 583).

During the Protectorate, Peters, who was a staunch supporter of Cromwell, continued to act as one of the regular preachers at Whitehall, but was more closely restricted to his proper functions. Besides preaching, he took an active part in ecclesiastical affairs and in the propagation of the gospel in the three kingdoms. In July 1652 he and other ministers had been instructed to confer with various officers ‘about providing some godly persons to go into Ireland to preach the gospel’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651–2, p. 351). He corresponded with Henry Cromwell, praising his administration, and urging him to maintain ‘a laborious, constant, sober ministry’ as the thing most necessary for the preservation of Ireland (Lansdowne MSS. 823, f. 32).

Report credited Peters with the inspiration of the policy adopted by the commissioners for the propagation of the gospel in Wales, but he was not one of the original ‘propagators’ appointed by the ordinance of 22 Feb. 1650, and no good evidence is adduced in support of the statement (, Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 147;, England's Shame, pp. 80–6).

Peters was a member of a committee appointed by the army to assist the commissioners for the propagation of the gospel among the Indians in New England, but he quarrelled with the commissioners, who, in February 1654, charged him with hindering instead of helping their work. At one time he roundly asserted that ‘the work was but a plain cheat, and that there was no such thing as a gospel conversion amongst the Indians.’ At another he complained that the commissioners obstructed the work by refusing to allow the missionaries employed a sufficient maintenance. They answered that he was dissatisfied simply because the work was coming to perfection and he had not had the least hand or finger in it (Hutchinson Papers, Prince Soc. i. 288). There was doubless an element of truth in these charges, for Peters, in one of his letters to Winthrop, owned that he would rather see the money collected spent on the poor of the colony than on the natives (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 4th ser. vi. 116). He vindicated himself, however, from a charge of embezzlement which had also been brought against him (Rawlinson MS. C. f. 934, f. 26, Bodleian Library). The Protector, to whom these charges were doubtless known, showed his continued confidence by appointing Peters one of the ‘Triers’ whose business was to examine all candidates for livings (Ordinance, 20 March 1653–4;, Acts, p. 279). Peters was also frequently applied to personally when ministers were to be approved or chaplains recommended for employment (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654 pp. 124, 553, 1655 p. 50).

In December 1655, when Menasseh Ben Israel [see ] presented his petition for the readmission of the Jews to England, Peters was one of the ministers appointed to discuss the question with the committee of the council of state. But though he had advocated the cause of the Jews as early as 1647, he seems now to have raised a doubt whether the petitioners could prove that they really were Jews (ib. 1655–6, pp. 52, 57, 58; Cromwelliana, p. 154). During the later years of the Protectorate Peters was less prominent, partly owing to ill-health, and in August 1656 he informed Henry Cromwell that he ‘was very much taken off by age and other worry from busy business’ (Lansdowne MSS. 823, f. 34; Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 3rd ser. i. 183). On 1 May 1657 he preached a rousing sermon to the six regiments assembled at Blackheath to serve in the expedition to