BT. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE JORONT'

THE LIFE

OF

JOHN MILTON:

NARRATED IN CONNEXION WITH THE POLITICAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND LITERARY

HISTORY OF HIS TIME.

BY

DAVID MASSON, M.A., LLD., Lirr.D.,

PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH AND HISTORIOGRAPHER ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND

VOL. II. 1638-1643.

NEW AND REVISED EDITION

iontjon MACMILLAN AND CO.

AND NEW YORK 1894.

[The Right of Translation it reserved.]

MAR 2 6 1955

PREFACE TO VOL. II., FIRST EDITION.

\VIIKN" I first undertook this Work, it was my deliberate purpose to make it not only a complete Biography of Milton, but also, in a certain studied connexion therewith, the channel of which might widen or narrow itself on occasion, a continuous Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of Ki inland through Milton's whole Time. This I announced in the title of the Work, and in my Preface to the First Volume ; but I am not sure that the announcement made way fast enough to adjust that Volume at once to pre- conceived ideas of literary form. Now, while it is the right of the public to say what they want in the shape of a book, it is equally the right of an author to say what he means to offer; and, accordingly, I repeat that this Work is not a Biography only, but a Biography together with a History. As regards the extent and minuteness of the in- cluded Biography, I do not anticipate that there will be much < nn i plaint. Of brief Lives of Milton the number is already past counting ; I have been guilty of more than one such myself: if anything more is wanted, it certainly seems to be some such larger and more particular Biography as that which I am now prosecuting. What may be less according to precedent and expectation is the combination of such a Biography with a contemporary History. The reason for the combination, however, lies deeper than my own mere pleasure in the toil of a complex enterprise. Whatever may l»y a hasty person looking in on the subject from

iv PREFACE.

the outside, no one can study the Life of Milton as it ought to be studied without being obliged to study, extensively and intimately, the contemporary History of England, and even, incidentally, of Scotland and Ireland too. Experience has confirmed my previous conviction that it must be so. Again and again, in order to understand Milton, his position, his motives, his thoughts by himself, his public words to his countrymen, and the probable effects of those words, I have had to stop in the mere Biography, and range round, largely and windingly, in the History of his Time, not only as it is presented in well-known books, but as it had to be re- discovered by express and laborious investigation in original and forgotten records. Thus, on the very compulsion, or at least by the suasion, of the Biography, a History grew on my hands. It was not in human nature to confine the historical inquiries, once they were in progress, within the precise limits of their demonstrable bearing on the Biography, even had it been possible to determine these limits before- hand ; and so the History assumed a co-ordinate importance with me, was pursued often for its own sake, and became, though always with a sense of organic relation to the Biography, continuous in itself. I venture to think that this incessant connexion of the History and the Biography in my own thoughts through many years, the History always sending me back more fully informed for the Biography, and the Biography again suggesting new tracks for the History, is a sufficient warrant for the form of the publication. In the present volume, however, I have adopted an arrangement which may suit most readers. A glance at the Table of Contents will show what the reader is to expect throughout, and will enable him to select or to omit. Only I should wish it to be distinctly understood that the History is not offered as a mere popular compilation, to serve as stuffing or setting for the Biography, but as a work of independent search and method from first to last, which has

PREFACE. V

cost more labour by far than the Biography, and for which I accept equal responsibility.

It was ray wish to publish Volumes II. and III. together ; and, though Volume II. now appears by itself, Volume III. is ready for the press, and will follow speedily. Even so, in recognition of much friendliness towards Volume I., the interval between that Volume and this continuation may seem to need an apology. Well, I will not say but that, if there had been any extraordinary or universal avidity for the continuation, it might have been forthcoming somewhat sooner. Frankly, however, I can aver that I have always been faithful in secret to my undertaking, and have devoted to it as much time as other indispensable duties would }H unit, and more than is likely ever to be recompensed by anything added to the pure love of the labour. Of the multi- plicity and extent of the researches that were required any general account would be tedious here. There are indications of my authorities, at the proper points, in the footnotes ; where also I have made various acknowledgments of private help and kindness. Perhaps, however, I may advert specially to my obligations to the State Paper Office in London. Where there are printed calendars of the State Papers, the task of consulting them is easy ; one knows from the. calendar what each paper is about, and asks for the original of any particular paper one wants to see. Unfortunately, \\ IK -n I began my readings in the great national Kepository, the Domestic Papers for the period of most interest to me were utterly uncalendared. They had, therefore, to be brought to me in bundles (sometimes several thick bundles for one month), and inspected carefully paper by paper, each on chance, lest anything useful should be skipped. In this way I had to persevere at a slow rate in my readings and note-takings ; but I believe I can now say that, for much the greater part of the time embraced in the present Volume, there is not a single domestic document extant of those that used

vi PREFACE.

to be in the State Paper Office which I have not passed through my hands and scrutinized. Apart from the informa- tion derived for my immediate purposes, it was a valuable education. It is rather long ago now ; and, as I write, the memory rises of old summer-days passed in a room in the State Paper Office, then located in St. James's Park, and of the faces of a few others I used then to see constantly in the same room, quietly busy, like myself, among the hand- writings of the dead. Alas ! and of the kindly officials who were then so ready with their aid, there was one, among the kindliest of all and the fullest of knowledge, whom I shall never more see, to interrogate or to thank. How much of learning in English History through the reigns of James and Charles and the Time of the Commonwealth died with the gentle and accurate Mr. John Bruce ! With his name, if with any, I may appropriately connect one closing remark addressed especially to those few readers who may bring to these pages something of his practice in records and strict eye for truth. Accuracy in History is everything ; without accuracy, all else is but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. This I have tried to make my canon throughout ; and yet I will here confess that I never can pass a sheet of the historical kind for the press without a dread lest, from inadvertence or from sheer ignorance, some error, some blun- der even, may have escaped me. That there are errors in this Volume, some of which will be detected soon, and others never, I have no doubt. Let me hope that those who agree with me most strongly in the main canon will be the readiest to admit also that, when the range of inquiry is widened, when the beaten tracks are left and one explores the thickets on both sides for facts worthy of resuscitation, the risk of error is necessarily increased.

EDINBUUGH : March 1871.

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.

IN this reprint, long required, the opportunity has been taken of inserting in Chapter II. of Book I. such new information as has been obtained respecting the circum- stances of the death of Charles Diodati during Milton's absence abroad, and also of rectifying, in the text at pp. 367-368 with footnotes there, a mistake of some importance respecting John Durie. Only at these two points has there been any disturbance, and that but slight, of the paging of the First Edition.

EDINBURGH : August 1894.

CONTENTS.

BOOK I.

APRIL 1638— NOVEMBER 1040.

HISTORY:— THE SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN REVOLT, AND ITS EFFECTS

ON ENGLAND.

BIOGRAPHY:— M.ILTO* HACK IN Ks< .1 AND: His EPITAPHWX DAUONIS, AND LITERARY PROJECTS.

CHAP.

I. Charles's Difficulties with the Scottish Covenanters : Mission of the Marquis of Hamilton into Scotland. — Lord Lorne and the Argyle Family at this juncture : Montrose among the Covenanters : Hamilton's protracted negotiations with the Covenanting leaders : Concession at last of their demand for a General Assembly of the Scottish Church : Preparations for the Assembly. — Composition of the Glasgow General Assembly of Nov.-Dec. 1638: Its First Pro- ceedings : Declinator of its authority by the Scottish Bishops : Efforts of Hamilton to overawe the Assembly : Adhesion of Lord Ix>rne, now Earl of Argyle, to the Covenanters : Proclamation dissolving the Assembly : Its continued Sittings : Its Acts con- demning recent ecclesiastical innovations, deposing the Bishops, abolishing Episcopacy in Scotland, and re-establishing Presbytery. — Excitement in England over the news from Scotland: Effects of the news at Court : Resolution of Charles for a War with the Scots : His Preparations : Counter-preparations of the Covenanters: Choice of Field-Marshal Sir Alexander Leslie as Commander-in- chief of the Covenanting Army : Suppression of Anti-Covenanting demonstrations in A berdeenshire.— Reluctant march of the F.nglish levies northwards, and departure of Charles from London, 27th March 1639, to be with them in person : King nt York, 29th April : Hot reception in the Firth of Forth of the Auxiliary Fl.-et under the Marquis of Hamilton : King and his Army at Berwick upon Tweed, 28th of May : Skirmishes on the Borders, and Advance of Leslie's Army to Dunse : Description of the Cove- nanting Army on Dunse Law : Disorganisation of the King's

1 'vert urea for a Treaty with the Covenanters : Conl'm for the purpose: Issue in The Pacification of It irks, ratifying the ppicei-.iings of the Scots hitherto, and guaranti-ein^ them annual Assemblies of the Kirk ami free Parliaments in future: Disband- ment of the Koyal Army, 24th June, and en-linu' »f '/" • Bishops' War.— Chagrin of Charles : Evidences of this during the

CONTENTS.

additional month spent by him on the Scottish Border : His return to London, 29th July, without having entered Scotland.

Pages 1-71

II. Milton back in England in July or August 1639 : Incidents in the Horton household during his fifteen months of absence abroad : Old friends and acquaintances : Recovered particulars as to the date and circumstances of the death of Charles Diodati : Milton's JSpitaphium Damonis : Translation of this Latin Pastoral, and comments upon it. — Occupation of Milton's thoughts with the project of an Epic on the subject of King Arthur and the British Arthurian Legends : His determination that this Poem should be in English and not in Latin.— Resolves to remove from Horton and make London his head -quarters : Family -reasons for this resolution : Second marriage of Milton's sister : Lodgings taken by Milton in St. Bride's Churchyard, Fleet Street : His sister's two sons by her first marriage, Edward and John Phillips, put under his charge for their education. — Milton's occupations in the St. Bride's Churchyard lodging through the winter of 1639-40 : Importance in his biography at this point of the preserved Volume of Milton MSS. at Cambridge : Proofs from this volume that Milton had abandoned his project of an Arthurian Epic : Tran- script of the seven pages of the Cambridge volume containing jottings in Milton's own hand of about 100 subjects, partly Biblical and partly from British History, noted by him as fit for poetic treatment : Indications in these jottings of the nine or ten subjects ' that fascinated him most : Proof that Paradise Lost was already the subject paramount in his regards : His four several sketches of a Tragedy on this subject : Independent proof, however, that he was balancing in his mind the relative advantages of the Epic form, the Dramatic, and the Lyric, for his intended great English Poem. — Interruption of these literary schemings and musings by the political events of 1640 Pages 72-121

III. State of Scotland after the Pacification of BirTcs : Another General Assembly of the Kirk in August 1639 : Subsequent Parliament, and appointment of a Committee of the Estates. — Alarm among the English Clergy of danger to English Episcopacy from the re- establishment of Presbytery among the Scots : Bishop Hall the spokesman of this alarm : His correspondence with Laud on the subject : Publication in February 1639-40 of Hall's Episcopacy by Divine Eight Asserted: Other pamphlets for and against Episcopacy. — Continued chagrin of Charles over his bad success in Scotland : His correspondence with Wentworth in Ireland : Arrival of Went- worth in England : Resolution of Charles for a Second Bishops' War against the Scots, and for calling an English Parliament to provide the means : Preparations of various kinds meanwhile : Wentworth made Earl of Strafford and raised to the full Lord- Lieutenancy of Ireland : Subscriptions among the English Nobles for the new war : Presence in London of Commissioners from the Scottish Committee of Estates : One of them, Lord Loudoun, arrested and committed to the Tower on a charge of High Treason. — Meeting of the English Parliament, 13th April 1640 : The Parliament dissolved after three weeks, and known consequently as THE SHORT PARLIAMENT : Continued sitting and voting of the Clergy in Convocation after the dissolution of the Parliament. — Arrests of prominent Puritans in the late Parliament, and of other sympathisers with the Scots : Riots in London and Southward : Story of John Archer. — Lord Conway at Newcastle, in chief charge of the musters for the King there : Reassembling of the Scottish Parliament 2nd June 1640, and reappomtment of Leslie as the

CONTENTS. XI

CHAP.

Scottish Commander-in-chief: Meeting at Aberdeen, 28th July, of another General Assembly of the Kirk : Precautions against Anti- Covenanting risings in Aberdeenshire and the Highlands: Leslie and his Army at their old rendezvous on the Border early in August : Resolution of the Scottish leaders to act on the aggres- sive this time : March of the Scottish Army into Northumberland, 20th August : Hurry of the King and Stratford to York : Fight at Newburn, 28th August, and discomfiture of Con way : Newcastle occupied by the Scots, and the whole of the North of England in their possession. — Paralysis of the King's counsels at York : Petitions to him for the immediate calling of another English Parliament : His device of a Great Council of the English Peers at York instead : Insufficiency of the device, and consent of the King to the meeting of a Parliament at Westminster on the 3rd of November: Negotiations at Ripou meanwhile for a Treaty with the Scots : Preliminary Articles agreed upon, 16th October, and the negotiations adjourned. — Anxieties of Laud at Lambeth : His Draft Prayer for the opening of TUB LONG PARLIAMENT.

Pages 122-145

BOOK II.

NOVEMBER 1640-AUGUST 1642.

HISTORY:— FIRST TWO-AND-TWENTY MONTHS OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT.

BIOGRAPHY : — MILTON IN ALDERSOATE STREET : His ANTI-EPISCOPAL

PAMPHLETS.

I. Meeting of THE LONO PARLIAMENT at Westminster, 3rd November 1640 : View of the Composition of the Two Houses, with enumera- tion and biographical sketches of the most notable of the Peers and the Commoners. — Summary Account of the Proceedings of the Parliament through the first nine months of its sittings (Nov. 1640 — Aug. 1641) : — I. Release and Compensation of Victims of the recent "Reign of Thorough": Cases of William Prynne, Henry Burton, John Bastwick, John Lilburne, Dr. Alexander Leighton, and Richard Chambers. — II. Punishment of Delinquents : Arrests of Strafford and Laud, Flight of Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary Windebank, Retirement of the Marquis of Hamilton and Lord Cottington, and threatened Prosecution of Bishops Wren and Pierce and other Churchmen: Trial and Doom of Strafford.— III. Measures for the Security and Perpetuation of Parliament : Bill for Triennial Parliaments : Resolution for the Common Safety : Bill for the Indissolubility of the present Parliament without its own consent. — IV. Miscellaneous Civil Reforms : Denunciation and abolition of Trade Monopolies : Abolition of the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission : Restraint on Arbitrary Taxation by the Crown : Abolition or Revision of anomalous Jurisdictions. — V. Conclusion of the Scottish Treaty : Resumption in London of the Negotiations between the English and the Scottish Com- missioners: List of the Scottish CoinmiHsioners then in London: Vote of £300,000 of Indemnity to the Scots, in addition to the £850 per day already agreed uj>on for the expenses of the Scottish Army in bgbad: Hospitalities of the City of London to the Scottish Commissioners : Popularity among the Londoners of

xii CONTENTS.

CHAP.

Henderson, Baillie. Blair, Gillespie, and other Scottish preachers : Supposed abatement of the Covenanting zeal of the Earl of Rothes : English Poll-Tax of June 1641 for the Indemnity and Arrears due to the Scots : Formal Conclusion of the Treaty, August 1641, and Evacuation of the North of England by the Scottish Army. — Paramount importance all this while of THE QUESTION OF ENGLISH CHURCH REFORM : First utterances of Pym and others on the subject: Various anti-Laudian votes and orders. — Analysis of the state of opinion in Parliament and throughout the Country as to the desirable future Constitution of the Church of England : — I. The High Church Party, or Party of Episcopacy by Divine Right : This Party all but dormant since the overthrow of Laud, but its relics represented in chief by Bishop Hall. — II. A Moderate or Broad Church Party, advocating a Limited Episcopacy : This Party strengthened by the recent migration of Archbishop Usher from Ireland into England, and represented most conspicuously among the English Clergy by Bishop Williams of Lincoln. — III. A Root and Branch Party, demanding the total abolition of Episcopacy, and the setting up in England of a Church somewhat after the Scottish Presbyterian model : This Party comparatively weak for the present among the Clergy, but with resolute lay-leaders in both Houses, and represented outside of Parliament by a band of Puritan parish ministers Pages 147-202

II. Removal of Milton from his lodgings in St. Bride's Churchyard to a House of his own in Aldersgate Street : Description of the Alders- gate Street neighbourhood in 1640, and identification of the site of Milton's house : His neighbours in the Aldersgate Street suburb. — Both his boy-nephews now boarded with him : Edward Phillips's recollection of his uncle's occupations and habits in the new house : His time divided between the teaching of his nephews and his own readings and continued meditations for his great English Poem. — Milton's Puritan prepossessions and antecedents: His description of himself as " Church-outed by the Prelates " : Signifi- cance now of his speech of St. Peter in Lycidas denouncing the corruptions of the English Church and prophesying the "two- handed engine at the door " : His own account of the effects upon him of the first proceedings of the Long Parliament : His dis- position mainly that of a passive observer till he was roused by the movement for Church Reform : His acquaintanceship, through his old preceptor, Thomas Young of Stowmarket, with some of the leaders of the Root and Branch Party in the English Church qiiestion : His resolution to step out in their aid.

Pages 203-212

III. Root and Branch Petitions to the Parliament : Bishop Hall's counter- blast for Episcopacy in his Humble Remonstrance. — Debates in the Commons on the Church Question : Speeches of Lord Digby, Lord Falkland, and others, for a Limited Episcopacy : Root and Branch Speeches : Reference of the Question to a Committee of Religion. — Scottish Pamphlets in aid of the Root and Branch Party : Appear- ance, in March 1641, of the English Root and Branch Pamphlet of " SMECTYMNUUS," consisting of a Reply to Bishop Hall's Humble Remonstrance by Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow, conjointly : Account of the Pamphlet. — Report and Proposals of the Committee of Religion in the Commons : Introduction of a Bill for the exclusion of Bishops from Parliament and of the Clergy from offices of civil jurisdiction : Delay in the progress of this Bill, and multiplication of Petitions on the Church Question. — The Church Question in the Lords : Motion of Bishop Williams in that

CONTENTS. xiii

House, and consequent appointment of a general Committee of Religion, with Williams as Chairman : Clerical Conferences round Williams in the Jerusalem Chamber. — Bill for the Exclusion of Bishops from Parliament carried in the Commons, 1st May 1641 : Opposed in the Lords by Bishop Hall, Bishop Williams, and others, and thrown out, 18th June, by a majority of sixteen. — Attack in the Commons on Cathedral Establishments : University Petitions in their favour, and Dr. Hacket's Defence of them : Archbishop Usher's scheme for a Limited Episcopacy in England : Resolution of the Commons against Cathedral Establishments: A Root and Branch Bill introduced into the Commons by Sir Edward Deer ing: Vane, Cromwell, and Haselrig the real authors of this Bill : Discussions on the Bill, and Hyde s obstruction to it in Committee. — Production in the Lords, 1st July, of Bishop Williams's Draft Scheme of Church Reform : This a scheme of Limited Episcopacy, with retention of the Bishops in Parliament: Small attention paid to the scheme : Some effect of it, however, upon the state of Parties in the Church Question : Four Parties recognisable in and after July 1641, viz. The High Church Party and the Root and Branch Party at the two extremes as before, but the Middle or Broad Church Party now broken into a more conserva- tive section, advocating a Limited Episcopacy with retention of Bishops in Parliament, and a more thoroughgoing section, advocating a Limited Episcopacy after Usher's model.

Pages 213-236

IV. Appearance, in May or June 1641, of Milton's First Anti-

Episcopal or Root and Branch Pamphlet, entitled Of Reformation touch iny Church Disfijifiiii- ,',i England: His prior concern with the Pamphlet of the Five Smectymnuans: Opening Paragraph of his own Pamphlet : Analysis of the rest of the Pamphlet, with quota- tions: Its tremendous i>eroration.— Milton's Second Anti-Episcopal Pamphlet, June or July 1641, entitled Of Prclatical Episcopacy: This a special reply to a Tract of Usher's on behalf of Limited • >pacy: Account of Usher's Tract and of Milton's Reply. — Bishop Hall's Defence of thf Humble Remonstrance in reply to the Smectymnuans : Rejoinder of the Smectymnuans in their Vindica- tion of the Answer to the Humble Remonstrance : Discussion in those Pamphlets of the subjects of Liturgy and Episcopacy. — Milton's Third A nti- Episcopal Pamphlet, July 1641, entitled Animadversions on the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectymnuus : Invectives against Bishop Hall in this Pamphlet, and Proofs in it of Milton's partnership with the Smectymnuans from the first. — Characteristic Extracts from Milton's three Pamphlets of 1641. Pages 237-268

V. Tactics of the Commons after the rejection of their Bishops Exclusion

Bill by the Lords : Their impeachment of thirteen of the Bishops individually for illegal proceedings in the Convocation of 1640.— Si^iiin^ of the Treaty with the Scots, 7th August 1641, and sudden hrputure of the King for Scotland. — Death of the Earl of Bedford : Plague in London : Reces- • ks agreed upon by Parliament :

Appointment of Commissioners for both Houses to follow his Maj.My into Scotland: Adjournment of the two Houses, 9th

•ember.— General View of the Political Situation at the time of the. Recess: Motley com position of Charles's nominal Privy Council and Ministry: Kin •,''••* independent Policy that of secret clfort- for a Counter- ({evolution : Lord Dighy taken into the King's confi- di-ncc, and promoted to the Ilou-i- of Pe.-r* : Other likely Hp-nis in Enul.-ind for the King's secret policy: II mt of his first

interview with Clnrl.s. Me.-tinj,' of another General Assembly

ie Scottish Kirk, with Alexander Henderson again in the chair :

xiv CONTENTS.

CHAP.

Congratulatory Letter to the Assembly from the London Puritan Divines, and Sympathetic Reply of the Assembly : Henderson's motion for the preparation of a Confession of Faith, a Catechism, a Directory of Worship, and a Platform of Church Government, to be tendered to the English with a view to Uniformity of Religion between the two nations : The task committed to Henderson him- self.— Arrival of the King in Edinburgh, 14th August : The General Assembly then over, but a Scottish Parliament in Session. — Supremacy of Argyle in the Scottish government at that date : Character and Antecedents of Montrose : His restlessness under the Argyle Supremacy : His manuscript Essay expounding his Theory of Government : His purpose the restoration of the royal authority, but not of Episcopacy, in Scotland : His recent secret correspondence with the King to that end : Discovery of the correspondence, and of his Plottings against the Argyle Govern- ment : Consequent arrest and imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle, some while before the King's arrival in Scotland, of Montrose, his brother-in-law Napier, and their associates in what may be called the Merchiston House Compact.— Contrast of the circum- stances of the King's present visit to Scotland with those of his Coronation Visit in 1633 : His ostensible policy that of amicable co-operation with the Scottish Parliament in the business in which he found it engaged : That business mainly the discussion of two questions, viz.— (1) What should be done with " The Incendiaries " or Anti-Covenanting Delinquents of the old type, (2) What should be done with Montrose and his fellow " Plotters " : Two months of amicable co-operation (Aug. 14— Oct. 12), of the King with the Scottish Parliament in these discussions : Agreement at length for lenient dealing with both classes of offenders. — Sudden commotion in Edinburgh, Oct. 13, over the mysterious affair called "The Incident," consisting in a supposed Plot for the capture of Argyle, the Marquis of Hamilton, and the Earl of Lanark, the armed occupation of Edinburgh, and the commencement of a Scottish counter-revolution. — King's vehement repudiation of concern with any such plot, gradual subsidence of the commotion, and hushing up of the affair : Resumption of business by the Parliament : Liberation of Montrose and his associates, and condonation for the older Delinquents. — Triumphant confirmation of the Argyle supremacy : Appointment of a new Scottish Privy Council, with Lord Loudoun as Chancellor, but Argyle the real head : Peerages and other parting Honours for the Covenanting Chiefs, including Earldoms for Loudoun and General Leslie, and a Marquisate for Argyle : Last sitting of the Parliament, 17th November, and Departure of the King from Edinburgh.— State of Ireland since the execution of Strafford : Outbreak of the great Irish Rebellion, 23rd October 1641 : Massacre of English and Scottish Protestants in Ulster and other parts of Ireland : Varying estimates of the numbers killed Pages 269-314

VI. Reassembling of the English Parliament, 20th October 1641 : Effects upon the Parliament of " The Incident" in Scotland and the Irish Rebellion : Notion of a GRAND REMONSTRANCE : The document drafted and presented to the Commons, 8th November : Debates on it till 20th November : Midnight Scene of Excitement in the House, 22nd November. — King back in London, 25th November : His re- soluteness on the Church Question indicated by his filling up of vacancies in the English Episcopate : Elevation of Bishop Williams to the Archbishopric of York, and translation of Bishop Hall from Exeter to Norwich. — Presentation of the Grand Remonstrance to the King, 1st December : Quotation of six of the more important

CONTENTS. \ v

< MAI .

Paragraphs of the Document.— Revival of popular fury against the Bishops : Resentment of the King's Speech in the House of Lords, 14th December: Order of the Commons for printing the Grand Remonstrance: King's Answer to the document: This deemed unsatisfactory. — Christmas Tumults in Westminster and street .skirmishes between " Cavaliers " and "Roundheads": Archbishop Williams hustled by the mob: Protest by Williams and eleven other Prelates that their lives were in danger and that all that should be done in the Lords House in their absence should be null : The Protest voted High Treason by the two Houses, and Williams and his eleven colleagues committed to custody : Virtual disappear- ance of Bishops at this point for twenty years from the English body-politic. — Falkland, Sir John Colepepper, and the Earl of Southampton brought into the King's Council, January 1641-2, and these, with Hyde and Lord Digby, now Charles's chief advisers: The Coup d'etat of January 4th, or Charles's demand for the arrest and impeachment of Lord Kirabolton in the Peers, and of Pym, Harapden, Denzil Holies, Sir Arthur Haselrig, and William Strode, in the Commons, with his armed march from Whitehall to the Houses of Parliament to enforce the demand in person : Scene in the Commons House on that occasion, with report of the King's behaviour in the House and his speeches from the step of the Speaker's chair: His concluding words "I see all my birds are flown," and departure from the House amid cries of "Privilege," "Privilege." — Mustering to arras in the City of London/and Adjourn- ment of the regular sittings of the two Houses for six days : Departure of the King, with his Queen and Family, from White- hall, 10th January, never to see it again till his last return to it : Resumption that day of the sittings of Parliament in Westminster. — Revenges upon the supposed advisers of the Coup cCttat : Pym's great Sj>eech on "Obstruction": More Petitions against Bishops and Episcopacy : Bill for the Exclusion of Bishops from Parliament carried at last in the House of Peers, 5th February 1641-2 : Com- munications between the Parliament and the King at Hampton Court and Windsor : Flight of Lord Digby to the Continent : Other Councillors now round the King : His resolution to temporise till the Queen and the Princess of Orange should be out of the country : King at Canterbury, with the Queen and Princess, 13th February : His assent there that day to the Bishops Exclusion Bill : Claren- don's Reflections on that Concession : Embarkation of the Queen and Princess at Dover, 23rd February, and return of the King, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York, from Dover northwards, still avoiding London : King at York, 19th March : Militia Ordinance of the Parliament : Mission to Charles to request him to assent to the Ordinance and part with his power over the Militia: His answer, "No, by God; not for an hour" . . Pages 315-355

VII. Milton still in Aldersgate Street: Traces of him in the Poll Tax Returns for Aldersgate Ward in July 1641 : Further traces of him in the Voluntary Contribution by inhabitants of that ward for the relief of the Irish Protestants, January 1641-2 : Public Talk about Milton's first three Anti- Episcopal Pamphlets : Indignant reference to the first of these by Fuller in his Holy and Profane State.— Pub- lication, in January or February 1641-2, of Milton's Fourth Anti- Kiiiscopal Pamphlet, entitled The Reason of Church Government : \ This Pamphlet avowedly an answer to a Collection of Tracts iu \ defence of Episcopacy recently published by the Oxford University Press : Account of that Collection : Analysis of Milton's Pamphlet in reply: Quotation of Characteristic Passages: Proofs in the Pamphlet that Milton, at this date, was mainly a Presbyterian in

xvi CONTENTS.

CHAP.

his views of Church Government : Special examination of the Pre- face to Book II. of the Pamphlet : Its Autobiographical interest and purport. — Bishop Hall's Short Answer to the Tedious Vindica- tion of Smectymnuus ( July or August 1641), and his Modest Confuta- tion of a Slanderous and Scurrilous Libel entitled Animadversions upon the Remonstrant 's Defence against Smectymnuus (early in 1642) : This last a Reply by Hall, with the assistance of his son, to Milton's Pamphlet of the preceding July in aid of the Smectyrnnuans : Specimens of its scurrilities against Milton personally, and its criticisms of his literary style. — Publication, in March or April 1642, of the Fifth and Last of Milton's Anti-Episcopal Pamphlets, being his rejoinder to Hall in the form of An Apology against a { Pamphlet called A Modest Confutation, etc. : Milton's Self-defences here against Hall's aspei-sions on his character, and his ferocious retorts on Hall himself: Further expressions in the Pamphlet of Milton's opinions on the Church question . Pages 356-409

VIII. Rupture between the King and the Parliament virtually complete in March 1642 : Continued negotiations nevertheless between the King at York and the Parliament at Westminster : King's appointment of new Bishops to vacant sees : Counter-action of Parliament in a Bill for restraining the creation of new Peers : Other instances of this policy of move and counter-move : Release, in May 1642, of the twelve imprisoned Prelates : Flight of Lord Keeper Littleton to York, followed by Hyde, Lord Falkland, and Colepepper : Statistics showing the diminished attendance in the two Houses from April to June. — Anxiety on both sides as to the probable behaviour of Scotland in the coming crisis : Sympathies of the Marquis of Argyle, Johnstone of Warriston, and other chiefs of the Scottish Privy Council, with the English Parliament : Efforts of the King to counteract these by sending the Duke of Hamilton into Scotland : Session in Edinburgh, from 27th July to 6th August, of another General Assembly of the Kirk : Intimation to this Assembly by Alexander Henderson that he had found it inexpedient to proceed in the business, deputed to him by the last Assembly, of preparing such standards of doctrine and church discipline as might be submitted to the English with a view to uniformity of Religion between the two nations : Unanimous agreement, however, that Prelacy ought to be abolished in England and some form of Presbytery substituted : Missives to that effect from the Assembly both to the King and to the Parliament. — Landing of the Queen on the North-English coast with arms and stores from Holland : Arming and money -raising on both sides: King's Commissions of Array versus the operations of Parliament under their Militia Ordinance : Cromwell and his troop of horse in Cambridgeshire : Appointment of the Earl of Essex to be commander-in-chief of the Parliamentarian forces, with the Earl of Bedford for his Master of Horse : Selection of the Earl of Lindsey to be the Royalist Commander-in-chief, with the King's nephew, Prince Rupert, for his second : Proclamation of the King, 9th August, for "suppress- ing the present Rebellion under the Command of Robert, Earl of Essex " : Answer of defiance by the Parliament : Raising of the King's Standard at Nottingham, 22nd August, and Commencement of the Civil War Pages 410-424

CONTEN

BOOK III.

AUGUST 1642-JULY 1648.

HISTORY: — COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR: THE LONG PARLIA- MENT CONTIMKD: MEETING OF THB WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.

BIOG K. U'lIY :— MILTON STILL IN ALDEUSOATE STREET: His MARRIAGE.

< 'HAP.

I. Division of the Population of England into the two opposed Parties of the ROYALISTS or CAVALIERS and the PARLIAMENTARIANS or ROUNDHEADS, and Statistics of the two Parties at the outset of the War.— (I.) Proportions of the two Parties among the Peers, with lists of the Royalist Peers, the Parliamentarian Peers, and the Non- Effective Peers; (II.) Computation of the proportions in the Commons House ; (III.) Computation for the Country at large and for the English Shires individually. — Composition of the Royalist Army at the outset, with Lists of the Officers ; Comitosition of the Parliamentarian Army, with similar Lists: Small importance eventually of the ingredient of professional or previously trained military experience in either Army : Case of Oliver Cromwell : His principle for effective recruiting.— First movements of the King's Army : Fight of Powick Bridge (22nd September 1642) : Battle of Kdgehill (23rd October) : Indecisive issue of the Battle, but the Earl of Lindsey and the Royal standard-bearer among the slain on the King's side : Advance of the King towards London, and his entry into Brentford : Panic among the Londoners in expectation of an immediate assault on the City : March out of the London Trained Bands and Volunteers, under Skippon, Saturday 12th November, to aid Essex in opposing the king's approach : The Rendezvous at Turnham Green, Sunday 13th November : Battle avoided, and London relieved, by the retirement of the King: Oxford to be his headquarters through the rest of the War. — Map-sketch of the events of the War throughout England, district by district, to as far as Midsummer 1643: — No conclusive result as yet, but the balance of success rather with the King : Desertions to his side : Discovery of a Plot against the Parliament : Punishment of the poet Waller for his share in the Plot: Complaints among the Parliamentarians against Essex for his heavy strategy, and outcries for a change in the commandership-in-chief : Sir William Waller the popular favourite for that post, on account of his conspicuous successes hitherto : Hampden also, spoken of: Death of Hampden.

Pages 425-471

IF. Question whether Milton served at any time in the Parliamentarian Army : Proofs of the extent and accuracy of his military knowledge and of his practical acquaintance with military drill : His own dis- tinct intimation, nevertheless, in 1654, that he had not served in the Parliamentarian musters : Question not entirely set at rest by that statement : Recollection by Edward Phillips of a proposal to bring his uncle into the Army as Adjutant^ icn* ral to Sir William \V iller : This tradition far less credible than that Milton should have been found serving at first in one of the regiments of the Lon- don Trained Bands: A "John Milton" found as one of the original officers of Alderman Pennington's Regiment of those Trained Bands, but this not the poet : Proof positive, in Milton's sonnet " Captain or

XV111 CONTENTS.

CHAP.

Colonel" that he was not in the ranks in the famous March to Turn ham Green on the 12th of November 1642 : Comments on the Sonnet in this connexion. — Milton's occupations in Aldersgate Street through the winter of 1642 and the spring of 1643 : Traces of his brother, Christopher Milton, as then residing at Reading, and of his father as then residing with Christopher : Consequent interest of Milton in the Siege of Reading by the Parliamentarian Army in April 1643 : Surrender of the Town to Essex. — Milton's journey into the country in May 1643, "nobody about here certainly knowing the reason " : Account of the Family of the Powells of Forest Hill, near Oxford : Previous relations between these Powells and the Miltons : Circumstances of Squire Powell of Forest Hill in 1643 : List and ages of his eleven children from the Forest Hill Baptism Registers : Description of the Forest Hill mansion-house : Marriage of Milton with Mary Powell, cetat. 18, the eldest daughter of the family : Surprise that he should have chosen his wife from a Royalist family, and fetched her from the very headquarters of Royalism : Return of Milton to Aldersgate Street in June 1643, bringing his girl-wife with him, and some of her sisters and brides- maids : Flutter in the Aldersgate Street house for some days, with festivities in celebration of the nuptials : Departure of the sisters and bridesmaids, leaving Milton and his young wife to each other's society : Discontentment of the young wife after about a month's experiment of her new life, and contrival of a request from Forest Hill to have her home again for a visit of a few weeks : Consent of Milton, on the understanding that she was to return about Michaelmas. — Milton thus again a bachelor in July 1643 : Increase of the number of his day-pupils at this time, and arrival of his father from Reading to reside with him thenceforward.

Pages 472-508

III. Scheme of the Long Parliament for an Assembly of Divines to co- operate with Parliament in the work of Church Reform : Bill of 1st June 1642 for the purpose : This and two subsequent Bills for the same purpose stopped by the outbreak of the Civil War : Ordinance of the two Houses, 12th June 1643, convoking the Westminster Assembly and regulating its procedure : Royal Pro- clamation from Oxford forbidding the Assembly : Meeting of the Assembly, nevertheless, 1st July 1643 : Alphabetical List, with Biographical Notices, of all the appointed Members of the Assembly : View of the business lying before the Assembly, and prescribed for it by Parliamentary Ordinance : A Revision of the Creed and Liturgy of the Church of England to be part of the business : A more immediate business, however, to be the recommendation to Parlia- ment of the Form of Church Government to be adopted in the new National Church : Pre-assumption that the Episcopal Form of Government was to be abolished, and some other form substituted : Apparent inconsistency of this with the fact that Archbishop Usher, two English Bishops, and some other Divines of known Episcopalian sentiments, were among the originally-appointed members : This difficulty removed by the non-appearance of most of these Divines, and the speedy dropping-off of the one or two who did appear : Virtual unanimity of the remanent body of the Divines in matters of Doctrine : The Calvinistic Theology substantially that professed by all, though with the Agreement that the appeal in matters of Faith should always be to the letter of the Bible.

Pages 509-527

CONTI xix

BOOK IV.

ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN ISM AND ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY: THEIR HISTORY

TO 1643.

PURITANS A general name for English Nonconformists from 1564. — Fuller's account of the first appearance of English Nonconformists advocating the Genevan or Presbyterian form of Church Discipline : Presbyterian movement among the English Clergy from 1572 onwards : Thomas Cartwright the leader of the movement: Estimate of the number of beneficed English Clergymen of Presbyterian principles in 1590 :