EN circumre impor ich were E the fact her duty, ngs, and r aspect d condicumbent che state ous citigovernOnarchy to help ssibility , might ork of This en who gdom, BAPTISTS AND FIFTH MONARCHY MEN 27 been used." Whether it was used figuratively or not was yet to be proved: at any rate it was clear, in the year 1652, that the Fifth Monarchy men felt called upon to meddle with matters of state. What were the relations of the Fifth Monarchy party with the Baptists? We have seen that its members were drawn from both Baptist and Independent churches. It is quite impossible to estimate the relative proportion of the two denominations represented; it was stated in 1660 that there were quite as many Independents as Baptists among the Fifth Monarchy men." But when it is borne in mind that the common term for Baptist was Anabaptist, and that the term at once suggested the attempt of Knipperdoling and John of Leyden to establish the millennium at Münster, it does not seem strange that those who had no sympathy either with millenary dreams or with antipedobaptism, were content to characterize the new movement as Anabaptist. The fact that the greater number of the preachers were Baptists gave additional verisimilitude to the characterization. It is only by considering the events of each year that we can come to know what actually were the relations of the Baptists in general to the Fifth Monarchy men, and what was the attitude of either party, at different times, to the civil power. It is this which we are to attempt in the pages that follow. 49 A visitor at Blackfriars in the summer of 1653 wrote, "I heard one prayer and two sermons; but good God! what cruel, and abominable, and most horrid trumpets of fire, murther and flame ". Beverning to De Witt, Aug. 26/Sept. 5, 1653, in Thurloe, I, 441. 50 Moderation; or Arguments and Motives tending thereunto, by S. T., 1660 (Thomason). THE Fifth Monarchy men abstained from agitation during the fall and early winter of I visitor at one of their meetings described the and Independents as meeting in different roo sidering matters of doctrine, and praying for Spirit, a knowledge of the right way of pro the gospel, and union among the churches. T petition of the preceding August, with its rec the abolition of tithes, for law reform, and for mission of none but godly men to office and to Parliament, must have had their approval; favorable attitude toward these reforms which ment at first assumed seemed to presage well new modeling of the government. But toward of the year, when it became evident that no ac intended, the situation changed, and violent upon Parliament began to be heard. At Allhal Great, prayers for a new representative were by the government, but at Blackfriars and el the Fifth Monarchy men continued to preach ently against the Long Parliament. An a cause of offense was furnished by the negotiati the Dutch. Moreover, the rejection of the bill 2 Extracts from Clarendon MSS., March 18, April 8, 19 English Historical Review, 1893, 528-529; Gardiner, Common Protectorate, II, 232, 248 ff. cal A sts on oly ing my ad s in the lia the end was cks the hed ere em onal with nu in and the eyes of members of the gathered churches, home with particular force to the Fifth Monarchy for Thomas Harrison was one of the commissi and Vavasor Powell one of the ministers who be displaced through the failure of the act. T fusal of Parliament to consider the bill for a nev resentative brought matters to a head, and when well, suspicious of the plan of Vane and his pa prolong indefinitely the power of the members sitting, violently drove out the Parliament whic continued so long, Harrison was following out the of his party in acting as his lieutenant.* 5 The Fifth Monarchy preachers were loud in praises of Cromwell's act. The dissolution of F ment proved conclusively that the Ancient of Day set up his throne in England. Parliament had fir the work the Lord had set for it, and now Cro had been raised up to purge the throne it had beg dishonor. A new and wonderful rule was to be in rated, bringing with it every blessing. As a writer quoted Powell, preaching at Whitehall, should streame downe like a river freely, as for t shillings what formerly cost twenty pounds, in tially as the saints please, and it should runn as doe, close to the doors." " It was to be a governme the saints, and the Fifth Monarchy men conside their duty, as saints, to suggest the means by wh should be instituted. "We humbly advise that forasmuch as t and greatnesse of men hath ever failed, yee w at length (in the next election) suffer and e the saincts of God in his spirit, to recommend such as God shall choose for that worke.' message from North Wales. A London cong whose pastor was the Fifth Monarchy Baptist, Chillenden, proposed that three times the desi ber of men be nominated, and the selection m them, according to scriptural precedent, Another suggestion was that the choice be m the army, since it represented the gathered o A meeting of the congregation of John Roge Thomas Apostle's resulted in a set of prop substance of which was that the government b the hands of a Sanhedrim of seventy go chosen by Cromwell, and set apart for the prayer." When it finally became known that Cromwe advisers had decided to put into practice the at the root of these suggestions, that is, to su assembly of godly men, the Fifth Monarch jubilant, and Cromwell was hailed as the M was to establish the new order, the chief ruler a 7" A voice out of the hearts of diverse that wait for the L Denbighshire, in North Wales ", in Nickolls, Letters and Pap 8"The humble representation of the congregation of meeting at the Chequer without Aldgate ", ibid., 121. App expressed of the qualifications for nomination suggested in tion of 1652, mentioned above, ch. I, note 48. 9 Spittlehouse, The Army Vindicated, 1653 (Thomason). later he had decided that Cromwell ought to do the nominati house, A Warning Piece Discharged (Thomason). 10 Rogers, A Few Proposalls (Thomason). Y MEN d s the policy nd unto you 7 So ran a ngregation, st, Edmund sired nummade from by lot. made from churches.' ers at St. osals, the e put into dly men, work by and his principle mon an ts were es who pointed Jesus in of State, s Christ tion was Declara w weeks GOVERNMENT BY THE SAINTS 31 by God." There were, however, dissenting voices. The discovery that Cromwell had adopted the plan with some reluctance, and had desired to modify it by giving seats to such men as Fairfax, who had no connection with the gathered churches, gave rise in some hearts to the feeling that perhaps the leading rôle in the new order was to be reserved for some one more enlightened regarding it. Naturally that other would be Harrison, the chief champion of the new plan in the Council of Officers. Harrison was said to have made no secret of his dissatisfaction with Cromwell's attitude, and the drifting apart of the two men seems to have dated from this time." Still, in spite of some signs of disaffection, the general attitude was one of hopefulness, and when at last the Little Parliament assembled, the work of regeneration was breathlessly awaited." Whatever Cromwell's misgivings as to the wisdom of attempting a government by the saints, his speech on opening the assembly which was to put the experiment to the test, was enthusiastic enough to satisfy the most extreme supporters of the theory; indeed, expressed their very hopes, that the day of the fulfilment of proph 11 Spittlehouse, A Warning Piece Discharged. Rogers, much encouraged, wrote another letter to Cromwell, suggesting reform of the law, abolition of tithes, and so forth. Extract from introduction to Bethshemesh Clouded, in Edward Rogers, Fifth Monarchy Man, 53 ff. 12 Gardiner, op. cit., II, 274, 276. 13 Letters of John Portman, July 8, 20, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1652-1653, 15, 39. The Faithful Scout, July 8, 1653, greeted the Parliament with a reference to "these Overturning, Overturning, Overturning dayes", and expressed the hope that it would "endeavor the directing of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to the uttermost parts of the Earth". Border, the author of the Scout, was a Baptist, and strongly sympathized with the Fifth Monarchy party. See the issue for Oct. 27, 1652. |