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

1867.3 ~/~e BritisIt C~ure1tes under ()romwe1~ 647
them, without providing for the large arrears of pay which
were then due. A petition was presented by the officers of the
army for a reform of the law, for carrying forward the purification 6f the church, for removal of scandalous and incompetent
persons from offices of state, and especially for a real representative Parliament. Month after month were these topics agitated without any conclusion being reached. A serious quarrel
thereupon arose between the Parliament and the army, in the
midst of which word was brought to Cromwell that the former
were discussing a resolution to dissolve at an earlier date than
had previously been determined, and so to prescribe the constitution of a new Parliament, as to retain themselves in it, and
constitute themselves electors of it, thereby designing to perpetuate their existing policy. The Lord-General immediately
took a file of infantry, and proceeding to the Parliament house,
turned the members out of doors. That act, accomplished by
a scene not less grotesque than it was momentous, although
hardly?o be defended even upon revolutionary principles, was
highly popular in its time. The soldiers approved it. It was
in defence of their cause. The royalists were glad of it. It
was the overthrow of their old enemy. And Presbyterians did
not regret the removal of rulers who had despised the Solemn
League and Covenant.
Cromwell, with his council of officers, now took upon themselves to convoke a new Parliament. One hundred and forty
persons were selected from the wisest and most consistent
Christians of their respective districts, some of them men of
historical eminence; but after a brief session, in which little
was done, they resigned their powers to the hands of the LordGeneral and dissolved. The country thus again left without a
government, what was to be done? Four days afterwards,
December 16, 1653, the officers of the army, the mayor and
aldermen of London, and the commissioners of the Great Seal,
caused to be read publicly an instrument which they had drawn
up, creating Cromwell "Lord Protector of the Commonwealth
of England, Scotland, and Ireland," with a council which
should not exCeed twenty-one, nor be less than thirteen, granting to them the rights of sovereignty, and the power to make
laws during the intervals of Parliament, and stipulating that a