Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/96

 it made church equal with state, and that Independents had feared because it set more on men’s consciences than Christ had set there, never took root in England. It was contrary to the spirit of English institutions, and it could have been set up only by a strong and stable government.

The ecclesiastical controversy of 1641–6 supplied political ideas to the Levellers. In the first place, it left them with a dread of government’s forcing the nation to conform to a state church, whether Presbyterian or Erastian. If we are to understand the full significance of the Leveller movement, we must imagine the fear of the intolerant Presbyterian hierarchy as always present in the minds of Lilburne and his followers. To understand the Levellers we must understand also their opponent.

The Independent contributions to the Leveller party creed did not stop with the dread of Presbyterianism. There were positive as well as negative contributions. First, we may consider a possible Independent influence on the general attitude of the Levellers toward civil and ecclesiastical progress. Some Independents at least believed that their system, in spite of the elements of fixity that it contained, implied continual progress toward perfection. In Presbyterian writings, such as the letter of the London ministers of January 1, 1645/6, one can detect the idea that the Presbyterians sought a static reformation rather than a dynamic; a reformation that with the adoption of the Assembly’s model would attain perfection. A directly