1641 PRESBYTERIANISM. "1 393 governors, and with their adherents must needs bear so great a sway in the commonwealth that, if future inconvenience shall be found in that government, we humbly offer to consideration how these shall be reducible by parliaments, how consistent with a monarchy, and how dangerously conducible to an anarchy which we have just cause to pray against, as fearing the consequences would prove the utter loss of learning and laws, which must necessarily produce an extermination of nobility, gentry, and order, if not of religion." The very Root-and-Branch men in the House of Commons were as sensible of the danger as the Cheshire petitioners. Milton had hardly the patience to seek for an answer to the objection 'whether a greater inconvenience would not grow from the corterianism. ruption of any other discipline than from episcopacy.' "First," he tells us, constitute what is right, and of itself it will discover and rectify that which swerves, and easily remedy the pretended fear of having a pope in every parish, unless we call the zealous and meek censure of the Church a popedom, which whoso does, let him advise how he can reject the pastorly rod and sheephook of Christ, and those cords of love, and not fear to fall under the iron sceptre of His anger that will dash him in pieces like a potsherd."2 Milton cn Value of 66 It is clear from such a paragraph as this that Milton's theories on government were no better suited to the actual England of the day than the Lady of the Comus would have been at home at the Court of Henrietta pamphlets. Maria, or the Archangel Raphael in the Long Parliament. Yet not for this are they to be condemned. Their permanent value lies in the persistence with which they point to the eternal truth, that all artificial constitutional arrangements, all remodelling of authority in Church or State, all reform in law and administration, will be worthless in the absence of the high purpose and the resolute will of the individual men who are to make use of political or ecclesiastical institutions. "Love Virtue, she alone is free.” Let the mind be cultivated to understand which are the paths of virtue. Let 1 A Remonstrance against Presbytery, E. 163. 2 Of Reformation touching Church Discipline. the spirit be attuned to the harmonies of heaven. The work to be done for the soul and intelligence of the individual Englishman was far greater than anything that parliaments and presbyteries could accomplish for the external regulation of the community. Milton's Even in Milton's commendation of Presbytery there was something which made for liberty. His idea of Church discipline was merely one of meek and gentle admonition. idea of In him the Independent was already visible beneath liberty. the Presbyterian. The teaching of the professed Separatists or Independents was already to be heard in London. Some of those who had been exiled to Holland had returned, and were once more preaching in London or elsewhere. Others were on their way from New England. It was not, however, the teaching of these men which caused alarm. They had their peculiar views about the constitution of the Church, but, in other respects, their doctrine was very like that of other Puritan divines of the day. That which gave offence was the more than Puritan arrogance with which they drew Lay preaching. the line between their own sanctified congregations and the apostate churches which found room for the sinful and profane, as well as the rapid growth of unauthorised congregations in London, and the assumption by tradesmen and artificers of the office of the preacher. Naturally these men adopted the Independent or Separatist scheme, which did not set apart the ministry as a distinct office, and it was equally natural that ministers, whatever might be their opinions on the subject of Episcopacy, should join in denouncing the hatters and the felt-makers who fancied themselves capable of giving instruction without having received an education which would fit them for their work. Still greater offence was given when it was known that women sometimes took upon themselves to preach, and the words of St. Paul, “I suffer not a woman to teach," were quoted with great unction by many whose lives were not always regulated in conformity with other parts of the teaching of the Apostle. A very general senti A list of six women-preachers is given in A Discovery of Sin, E. 166. 1641 LAY PREACHING. 395 ment was expressed in a doggerel verse which appeared some months later : June 7. When women preach, and cobblers pray, The fiends in hell make holiday.' This feeling found expression in the House of Commons. Holles complained of certain 'mechanical men' who had been preaching in London, as if, instead of suppressing Popery,' the House 'intended to bring in atheism and confusion.' The Speaker was directed to reprove Commons. them and to send them away with a warning to offend no more. 2 Lay preachers reproved in the House of The House could hardly do less. The idea of complete toleration to wise and unwise, educated and uneducated, was utterly unfamiliar to the members. Yet they hardly liked to intervene too harshly with men whose support was valuable to them. They had, too, so much on their hands, and such terrible obstacles in the way of accomplishing anything. Party feeling in the Commons was growing apace, and their uncertainty as to the King's intentions towards them, made their demands more trenchant than they would have been if they could have trusted that the laws which they made would be administered in the June 22. spirit in which they were conceived. On the 22nd, News of a the day after the sketch of a new Church organisaScottish plot. tion had been introduced by Vane, Hazlerigg informed the House that a new plot had been discovered in Scotland. Was it safe, he asked, for his Majesty to be travelling to Scotland at such a time ? 3 Montrose's policy. He The soul of that plot was Montrose. Though jealousy of Argyle had, no doubt, its full weight in sending Montrose to the King's side, there can be little doubt that he was swayed in the main by higher considerations. sought to find in the Crown a weight to counterbalance what he held to be a factious nobility resting on popular support. He had discovered, in the autumn, that there had been some talk of dethroning the King, and he knew that the Royal 1 Lucifer's Lackey, E. 180. 2 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxiii. fol. 279. 3 Ibid. clxiii. fol. 340. authority had practically ceased to exist. There was now a proposal that judges and officers of state should be elected in Parliament; and it did not require much knowledge of Scottish society to be aware that such an arrangement would put the administration of the laws entirely in the hands of those of the great houses which were to be found on the popular side. Montrose had been recently explaining his political principles in a letter to the King. Sovereign power, he said, must exist in every State. It might be placed, according to the circumstances of each country, in the hands of a democracy, an aristocracy, or a monarchy. In Scotland it must be entrusted to a monarchy. The nobles were incapable of postponing their private interests to the public good. The people were too easily led astray to offer a secure foundation for a stable government. Let the King, therefore, come in person to Scotland to preside over the coming Parliament. Let him freely grant to his subjects the exercise of their religion and their just liberties. Let him be ready to consult parliaments frequently, in order to learn the wants of the people, and win his subjects' hearts by ruling them with wisdom and moderation.1 It was excellent advice, but Charles was not very likely to take it. If he was bent on coming to Edinburgh, it was not because he was burning with impatience to understand the wants of his Scottish subjects, but because he hoped to avail himself of their assistance in his quarrel with his English subjects. Whether the Scots were qualified for self-government or not, they were shrewd enough to resist an attempt to flatter them into becoming a mere instrument of attack upon the English Parliament. May 27. About the middle of May it was known that Montrose had been talking loosely of his knowledge that Argyle had formed a plan for deposing the King. Evidence was taken, Montrose and, on the 27th, he was summoned before the Committee of Estates. In the face of Argyle he boldly maintained his ground. He gave the authority on which his statement had been based—that of Lord Lindsay and before the Committee of Estates. Napier, Memorials of Montrose, ii. 43. 1641 PARTIES IN SCOTLAND. 397 John Stewart of Ladywell. Lindsay explained that what he had said had no more than a general significance. Stewart maintained the truth of the charge, and was thrown into prison. Walter Stewart. Before further proceedings were taken, a certain Walter Stewart was captured on his way from London to Edinburgh. On him was June 4. found a paper, to be presented to the King by Lennox Capture of and Traquair, in which, under the jargon of feigned names, were concealed warnings to the King against Hamilton's influence. With these were mingled assurances that Charles would be well received in Scotland if he came prepared to grant to the people their religion and just liberties. The paper also purported to contain the King's reply to some further proposal made to him by Montrose, apparently to the effect that Argyle was to be charged with treason. It may be that, as Montrose averred, this paper was drawn up by Stewart, and not by himself. It may even be true that he had not given Stewart any positive instructions to suggest the accusation of Argyle to the King. But there can be little doubt that the scheme was one which he had entertained, and it is just possible that Stewart's paper may have been the jottings of a messenger anxious to keep in mind all the loose talk which had been spoken in his presence. Montrose's explanation, not very probable in itself, was not likely to be accepted by the Scottish leaders. Together with his brother-in-law, Lord Napier, Stirling of Keir, and Stewart of BlackMontrose. hall, who were implicated with him as the joint contrivers of the intrigue, he was summoned before the Committee of Estates, and all four were committed to custody in the Castle. The resolution was no doubt prompted by the feeling that to come to a private understanding with the King was to separate from the national cause.1 June 11. Imprisonment of 1 The feeling of moderate men was expressed by Lothian. "I fear the King yet be engaged to further discontent if he come, for he will not find our Parliament so submissive and slavish as the last, nor will a pen to mark men's names hinder free voting and speaking. This work must go through or our rest must go upon it, and the parties inviting him will, in their undertakings, leave him in the mire, as others have done before." Later on the same writer says of Montrose: "In winter indeed, when the Band was |