The British Churches Under Cromwell [pp. 629-655]

640 The British Churches unaer CrornweU. [OCTOBER
Ireton was his son-in-law. But Ireton rose side by side with
himself, the nearest rival of his own power both in the army
and in Parliament. General Fleetwood was also a son-in-law,
but not until he had earned his rank and reputation, and the
wars of the commonwealth on British soil were closed. A
similar remark will apply to his brother-in-law, General Desborough, whose place in the army was independent of any
relationship of affinity to the Protector. And when to these
names we add those of llarrison, Lambert, Rainsborough,
Monck, Goffe, Whalley, Ludlow, and others, we shall be ready
to say that such a roll of officers in command of her forces
England never saw before. At sea, the men whom he put or
retained in office, did, with little exception, equal credit to his
judgment. If Penn and Venables did not satisfy his own
expectations of them, England has had no reason to complain.
For they added to her dominion the valuable island of Jamaica.
And the career of Blake surpasses in brilliant daring and success everything in naval history except that of Nelson. From
these men he chose his confidential advisers, and added to them
some of the wisest and most learned civilians of the age. The
gifted Thurloe became his secretary of state, Milton his foreign,
or Latin secretary, the learned Whitelocke commissioner of the
exchequer, and Sir Matthew llale, lord chief justice. And in
the regulation of the universities and of the affairs of the church,
his selection of leading men was no less judicious. Dr. John
Owen he set over the university of Oxford, in which he also
assigned the headship of colleges to Goodwin and Wilkins. In
Cambridge, Cudworth, Arrowsmith, and Lightfoot owed their
places to his patronage or appointment, as well as all others who
distinguished those institutions in his time. For the benefit of the
northern counties of England, he also erected and endowed a college in Durham, which, abandoned at the Restoration, has, ~ike
some other plans of his, been revived of later years. But it was
for the purifying, regulating, and support of the church that his
most anxious thoughts and most careful attentions were
expended.
At the time of the King's death the state of the church in
England was still unsettled. Episcopacy had been abolished
by authority of Parliament. The Assembly at Westminster,