Deprived of all hope of redress, numbers of the Puri- tans tied to the Continent, and some of them, having there become imbued with the principles of Indepen- dency, returned to introduce that system of Church polity into England. Thus arose a body of Christians which ere long assumed a prominent plpce both in the religious and political history of the kingdom. The king, though a professed religionist, was still more a politician; and so completely was the former character merged in the latter that he had come to rank all as Puritans who dared to limit the royal prerogative or to uphold the rights and liberties of the people as es- tablished by law and the constitution of the country.
| To the maintenance of despotism in the State he added also the fostering of a novel theology in the Church, avowing his hostility to the Calvinistic views in which
[ he had been reared in Scotland, and bestowing his fa- vors upon those of the English clergy who were begin- ning to teach Arminian sentiments. The condition of the country, both in a political and religious aspect, was every day becoming more agitated, and matters were fast ripening for a great national convulsion, when the deatli of James, in 1C25, and the accession of his son Charles I, arrested the revolutionary .tendencies for a time. Additional cruelties, however, were inflicted upon the Puritans under the new reign; fresh ceremonies of a thoroughly Komish character were introduced by Laud with the royal sanction; and, in consequence, numbers who refused to conform were obliged to seek refuge in other countries.
A few years before the new reign had commenced, a body of Puritans, unable longer to endure the perse- cution to which they were exposed, had embarked as exiles, seeking a new home on the western shores of the Atlantic, and had formed a settlement in New Eng- land, destined to be the foundation of a new empire. This colony of the Pilgrim fathers (q. v.) received vast accessions in consequence of the arbitrary measures of Laud. An association for promoting emigration to New England was formed on a large scale. Men of rank and influence and ejected Puritan ministers of high stand- ing encouraged the scheme, and a grant of land from
PURITANS
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PURITANS
the government was applied for. The kinp; was not opposed i" the design, and a patent was obtained for rnment and company of Massachusetts Hay. Emigrants to the number of 200 Bel sail, and. landing at Salem in 1629, established a new colony there. Next vear 1500 left the shores of England, including mam both "I wealth and education. The desire for emigration on the part of the oppressed Puritans con- tinued i" gather strength, and year after year large numbers of them proceeded to New England. Neal al- leges thai had not the civil power interfered to check for emigration, in a few years one-fourth part of the property of the kingdom would have been taken to America. But the government became alarmed, and a proclamation was issued "to restrain the disorderly transporting of his majesty's subjects, because of the many idle and refractory humors, whose only or prin- cipal end is to live beyond the reach of authority." Next day an order appeared to "stay eight ships now in the river of Thames prepared to go for New England," and the passengers, among whom was Oliver Crom- well, were obliged to disembark. Notwithstanding the cluck thus given to emigration, it is calculated thai during twelve years the emigrants amounted to no less than 21,000 persons.
The tyrannical conduct of Charles and his minions, both in the government and the Church, soon precipi- tated the country into all the horrors of a civil war, which ended in the death of the king by the axe of the executioner, and in the establishment of the Com- monwealth under the protectorate of Cromwell, By the act of Sept. Hi. 1642, it was declared that prel- acy should be abolished in England from and after Nov. 5, 1643, and it was resolved to summon togeth- er an assembly of divines in order to complete the necessary reformation. In the meantime, various en- actments were passed lor the suppression of some of the most crying evils, and for affording some support to those Puritan ministers who had been ejected in former times for nonconformity, or had recently suffer- ed from the ravages of the king's army. It was a re- Hgioua age; and though the people had trampled the crown beneath their feet, they showed no disposition to depreciate tlie office of the clergy. During the heat of the war the Puritans, who almost to a man sided with the Parliament, preached to large congregations; and, in all the great towns at least, they had the im- plicit ear of the people. Episcopacy being at an end, they acted, for a while, according to the dictates of conscience or mere taste; the surplice was generally laid aside: and extempore prayer was used in the par- ish churches even before the ordinance of Parliament
appeared, in 1645, forbidding the Hook of Comn
Prayer. 'Hie old Puritanism, however, was now pass- ing away. A generation had arisen in whose eyes the principles of Cartwright were crude and imperfect. They no longer < tended against the forms and vest- ments, but against the constitution of the Church of England. Prelacy, by which we understand the epis- copacy titled and associated with civil authority, was detested; all forms of prayer were decried; and episco- pacy, even in its mildest tonus, was thought unscriptu- ral. Thus Puritanism, properly so called, became ex- tinct because the grounds of the old contention no long- er existed. The later Puritans appeared and immedi- ate! \ tell into two great parties. Presbyterians (q. v. land Independent si i].v.i. for nine months after the passing lor the abolition of prelacy there was no fixed and legalized form of Church government in England at all. Even Charles had consented to the removal of the bishops from the House of Lords; and though he had not sanctioned the abolition of the hierarchy, yet a large party regarded the measure as called tor in the circumstances of the country. In this state of matters the Westminster Assembly of Divines "a-- convened, consisting largely ol Puritan preachers who had gradu- ally become attached to Presbyterianism, The Iiule-