History of the English Revolution of 1688

General Result of the Reformation in Foreign Countries-Character of the
Reformation in England-Character of the Earliest Events in the
Reign of Charles I.-Arbitrary Government of Charles-Violence of
the Parliament-The King attempts to Arrest the Five Members-
Commencement and General Results of the Civil War-Violence and
Artifice of Cromwell-Death of the King-Instability of the Revolu-
tion thus effected-Character of Cromwell's Government-Death of
Cromwell and Restoration of Charles II.-Character of the Reign of
Charles II.-Disgrace of Clarendon and Power of the Cabal-The
Popish Plot-The Exclusion Bill-The Test Act-The Rye House
Plot-Death of Charles II.

BEFORE the end of the sixteenth century the Reformation
had obtained a more general hold over, and a firmer footing
in England and Scotland than among any of the continental
nations, and its establishment in England had been almost
wholly free from the convulsions by which it had been
attended in other countries. In France it had led to a
series of civil wars disfigured by unprecedented atrocities,
culminating in the assassination of the King himself. In
Germany it had already caused one fierce and sanguinary

war, and was about to kindle another, whose very name, "The Thirty Years' War," indicates a long continuance of misery such as has been endured by few nations. It had torn asunder, with an everlasting separation, the provinces of the Netherlands, and had reft from Spain the most valuable portion of her European dominions. But in England, as the principles and dispositions of the chief leaders of the movement had been of a more sober-minded and moderate character than had prevailed elsewhere, it had been carried out more peaceably. The demonstrations of hostility which it had provoked had been limited to one or two outbreaks too insignificant to be dignified by the name of insurrection, and fewer victims had perished in the entire period of the Marian persecution than Alva had often put to death in a single week.

Perhaps no more honourable testimony can be borne to the general humanity of the English character than is furnished by the abhorrence with which Mary's name has ever since been regarded in these kingdoms on account of a bloodshed which fell so infinitely short of what was practised in the same age in other lands, and of what was incessantly urged upon the Queen by her advisers.

But though the English Reformation was thus comparatively unmarked by violence, it was indirectly paving the way for fierce political commotions. For, as among the continental nations there had been two schools of reformers, the disciples of Luther and those of Calvin, so among ourselves there was a large party which was discontented with the moderation of those who had borne the chief sway in the direction of the recent changes; which, desiring a more explicit protest of enmity to the Papal domination, was impatient at the toleration of many ancient

Feelings of the Early Reformers.

customs and practices, not because they were in themselves objectionable, but because they prevailed at Rome; and which longed to sweep away every observance which seemed to bear the least connection with the discarded superstitions.

In Scotland this feeling had been universal, and the Presbyterian form, as it was called, which was established there, found no small number of adherents in England; while it so happened that the zeal to promote the spread of their theological opinions coincided, in many men of the greatest influence in that party, with a resolution to reassert and maintain those civil liberties which, under the arbitrary rule of the Tudor princes, had been greatly violated, and had seemed, at one time, in no slight danger of entire extinction.

Matters were in this state when Charles I. came to the throne, and many of the earlier transactions of his reign were most perversely and unhappily calculated to intensify at once the feelings of religious irritation and of political uneasiness. Though he himself cherished a sincere and enlightened attachment to the reformed Church of England, his Queen was a bigoted Papist; and he, in his uxorious fondness, permitted her for some time to indulge in practices which almost seemed as if they had been adopted with the express design of showing her contempt for Protestantism. He even gave rise to a suspicion that he himself shared her opinions by selling to Roman Catholics dispensations from the penal laws which had been enacted against all professors of their religion in the kingdom, and which the Houses of Parliament had formally besought him to enforce; and still more by openly countenancing the pompous ceremonies which Laud, Bishop of London, and

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