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support promised to Cromwell by the City on March 15 formed the subject of a discourse by Cornet Day. He maintained that this action would be the cause of much bloodshed, and that Cromwell was no magistrate or governor, but a juggler, who deserved to be sawn in pieces. On the first of April the Coleman Street meeting was broken up by the Lord Mayor's guard, and some of the congregation carried off to prison. Among them were Day, Canne, and Feake. Feake was fresh from imprisonment in the Tower, and had shortly before been airing to an audience in the church of Martin's Vintry his grievances on that subject, and attacking, as usual, Cromwell and his government.**

One disquieting feature of the Fifth Monarchy agitation at this time was the apparent drawing together of Fifth Monarchy men and Baptists. In the week preceding the imprisonment of Courtney the story appeared in the newspapers, with jesting references to the temerity of the act in view of the inclemency of the weather, that he, with Harrison and his wife and John Carew, had just undergone the rite of baptism. The possible effect of the entrance into Baptist ranks of three such unyielding opponents of the Cromwellian régime was not to be overlooked. This was especially the case now that the Baptists were actually, as organizations, showing an interest in the political situation.

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63 Information, March 18, 22, 1657/8, Thurloe, VII, 5, 18.

64 Newsletter, April 3, 1658, Clarke Papers, III, 146; Canne, Narrative wherein is set forth the sufferings of John Canne and Wentworth Day. Before the magistrates Day insisted that if allowed he could prove Cromwell juggler by his own confession, in the old matter of taking away tithes.

65 Publick Intelligencer, Feb. 1-8, 1657/8; Henry Cromwell to Falconbridge, Feb. 17, Thurloe, VI, 810; same to Broghill, n. d., ibid., 790; Bordeaux to Brienne, Feb. 15/25, Harleian MSS., 4549, fol. 339.

It is not surprising that precautions were taken to discover what was done at a general assembly of Baptists which was held at Dorchester in May. Among those present were William Kiffin, Richard Deane of the navy, John Carew, and two Baptist officers from Ireland-Captain Vernon and Adjutant-general Allen. At the first day's meeting about three hundred persons were present. Letters were read from the different churches, giving accounts of their condition and asking about the condition of others. This was for the purpose of considering this "time of apostacy and persecution". At the second meeting, in the afternoon, there was prayer and preaching. The prayers contained complaints of the "bonds and sufferings of the saints, . the time of Syon's affliction, wherein those that have beene glorious lights on the right and left hand, are shutt up in bonds". The petition was made that “in order to there deliverance, God would put a hooke into the nostrills of, and destroy him, who is the enemy of God and his people ". Another meeting was devoted to the discussion of purely religious matters. Then at a private meeting of the leading men there was carried on a discussion concerning the advisability of joining the Fifth Monarchy party, but owing to the efforts of Kiffin, the proposition was not carried at that sitting. Whether the discussion was renewed at a later meeting the government agents were not able to discover."

...

When matters had reached the point where a general assembly of Baptist churches was seriously considering affiliation with the Fifth Monarchy party, Cromwell felt justified, apparently, in taking action

6 Croke to Coplestone, May 15, 1658, Thurloe, VII, 138 ff.

against them as a political body. At any rate adopted, for an outlying part of his dominions, w the Baptists were not strong enough to make their sentment at his course dangerous, a policy that had additional advantage of winning the approval of Presbyterians. The Protector's instructions to Council in Scotland, issued on June 10, included direction "to see that no Baptist holds any offic trust, nor practices at law, nor keeps a school "." not to be wondered at that the Baptists in Scotland not express concern at his illness during the suc ing months, but appeared to nourish "dark hopes

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Whether, if he had lived, Cromwell would event have used toward the Baptists in England any p savoring so much of persecution on the ground o ligion, we can only surmise. However, his gro conservatism in the matter of a state church would tainly have meant the continued widening of the b between him and that body. On the great poi liberty of conscience his belief remained unchar and we have the curious anomaly of the most tol man of his age going down to his grave at odds the two bodies of Englishmen which advocate widest religious liberty. Yet not entirely at From the outset certain individuals among the Ba had been among the most uncompromising o critics. Certain features in his policy had made i sible for these few to influence more and more v

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67 Cal. St. P., Dom., 1658-1659, 61. The relations of the Baptis the Remonstrant party evidently played a part in this affair. Se to Baxter, Oct. 16, 1657, Baxter Correspondence, I, fol. 12.

68 Langley to Thurloe, Sept. 4, 1658, Thurloe, VII, 371;

their fellow church-members, until the suspicions thus engendered had made it possible that the question of opposition should be seriously considered in a general council of the church. But the hold that Cromwell had upon the hearts of religious men was a strong one, and there were many Baptists in England, besides those who were his personal friends, who, when he had breathed his last, considered with Steele's emotion

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those ejaculatory breathings of his soule for the blessing of love and union amongst the servants of God, amidst their various administrations, particularly praying for them, that were angry with him". And surely all could share Steele's feeling of gratitude that, leaving the world, he left "these nations in peace, which had been so much imbroyled in trouble and misery "

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70 Steele to Thurloe, Sept. 16, 1658, Thurloe, VII, 388. See also Thomas Cooper to Henry Cromwell, ibid., 425.

CHAPTER VI.

IRELAND AND THE PROTECTORATE.

In Ireland, the opposition to the Protectorate came chiefly from Baptist ranks. Although some of the leading Baptists in Ireland were also Fifth Monarchy men, that party does not seem to have had any distinct organization there. In one way this makes the situation for the purposes of our study a simpler one. However, certain features of the position of the Baptists in Ireland, both in relation to the government and to other sects, make the story of their activities there somewhat complicated.1

It was natural that under Cromwell and Ireton the Independents and Baptists should have been put into places of trust, and under Fleetwood this tendency continued, in an intensified form, until, with the exception of a few extreme Independents like Fleetwood, Ludlow, Jones, and Hewson, practically the whole administration came to be in the hands of Baptists. A wellinformed Independent complained in the fall of 1655 that he knew of at least twelve governors of towns and

1 As Mr. Firth says in his chapter on this subject, the term Anabaptist was used loosely for all the extreme sectaries, here as in England. Last Years of the Protectorate, II, 126. For his purpose it was not worth while to distinguish between this loose use and its exact use to apply to Baptists only. However, it is quite possible in most cases to make the distinction. For example, Hewson, who was closely associated with the Baptists, and whose opposition to the Protectorate was based on much the same grounds, was never called an Anabaptist by those who used the term exactly.

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