Under Charles I (1625-49), both
political and theological tensions escalated. The appointment of William Laud
as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633 marked a clear attempt to depart from
Calvinistic thought. Laud attempted to impose uniformity in worship on all
congregations, even in Ireland
and Scotland,
which led directly to the Scottish National Covenant in 1638 and the Bishop’s
Wars in 1639-40, in which the Scots defeated Charles’ army. Many in England were convinced that Charles was leading England back to Rome.
Charles, however, did not back
down. In 1640 he led in enacting a series of canons which proclaimed the divine
right of kings to rule in civil society and the church. When he called a new
Parliament in order to approve taxes to fund his wars, he was met with stiff
resistance. The “Root and Branch Petition,” signed by 15,000 Londoners, called
for the abolition of the present church government.
The “Long Parliament,” as it came to be known, had a strong Puritan element,
and it denied Charles the taxes and annulled the Canons of 1640. A rebellion in
Ireland
was savagely put down and thousands of Protestants were killed, which only
fueled the white-hot fires of conflict. Parliament issued its “Grand Remonstrance,”
which indicted Charles for all of his misdeeds. Charles himself illegally
entered the chamber of the House of Commons in 1642 to attempt to arrest those
who led the opposition to his rule. There was no way forward except by armed
conflict. On August 22, 1642, Charles called upon his loyal subjects to come to
his aid against a rebellious Parliament.
At first, the outlook seemed grim
for the Parliamentarians. They called upon the Scots for help, and the Scottish
parliament agreed to help on the condition that England
would adopt the Solemn League and Covenant which had been adopted in Scotland. This
would have made Presbyterianism the law of the land in England, and it
was as intolerant of independency as the Church of England had been. Many
Puritans had misgivings, but the need for help was so urgent that Parliament
agreed. Hence, 21,000 Scottish soldiers marched south to aid the war against
the crown.
On June 15, 1646, at Naseby, Oliver Cromwell led his New Model Army to victory
over the royalist forces. This put a stop to the fighting temporarily, but
peace was not to be had yet. Charles was still officially recognized as king,
and although in captivity, he attempted to pit various political factions
against one another in an effort to regain the upper hand. He was able to secure
the help of the Scots, but Cromwell defeated him in battle again in 1648.
What happened next is described in
the words of the official website of the British monarchy:
“The Army, concluding that
permanent peace was impossible whilst Charles lived, decided that the King must
be put on trial and executed. In December, Parliament was purged, leaving a
small rump totally dependent on the Army, and the Rump Parliament established a
High Court of Justice in the first week of January 1649. On 20 January, Charles
was charged with high treason 'against the realm of England'. Charles refused to plead,
saying that he did not recognise the legality of the High Court (it had been
established by a Commons purged of dissent, and without the House of Lords -
nor had the Commons ever acted as a judicature). The King was sentenced to
death on 27 January. Three days later, Charles was beheaded on a scaffold
outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London.”
In the midst of all of this
turmoil, the Commons had concluded that the Church of England needed to be completely
reconstituted; thus, they abolished episcopacy and left the church with no
legal foundation for existence. Parliament called for an assembly of
theologians to provide a legal and theological basis for the church. The
theologians, or “divines” as they were called, were tasked with settling the
government and worship of the Church of England. Their goal was not to revise
the church’s doctrine but to show that the Church of England was in agreement
with the Scottish church and with the Reformed churches on the continent. One
hundred nineteen leading churchmen were chosen, and on July 1, 1643, the Westminster assembly
began its work. This was an opportunity that Puritans had hoped for.
The work of the Assembly would not
conclude until March 25, 1652. In the meantime, they produced a lasting and
influential confession of faith, a directory of church government, and
catechisms. However, the major purpose for which they labored would ultimately
be undone. Although Cromwell led the parliamentary army to victory over the
royalists, Cromwell and the army were predominately independents, not
Presbyterians. Cromwell wanted more religious freedom than the Presbyterians
were willing to grant, and the Scottish co-belligerents feared the
Independents. The anti-royalist party was thus fractured. Furthermore, many in England still
believed very much in monarchy. They wanted a constitutional monarchy, not the
abolition of monarchy. After Cromwell’s death, the monarchy was eventually
restored in 1660 to Charles’ son, Charles II. The Act of Uniformity in 1662
forced over 2,000 ministers out of their pulpits, creating the English
non-conformist movement. Robert Letham concludes, “The Westminster Assembly failed
to achieve in its own land the purpose for which it had been established" [The Westminster
Assembly: Reading Its Theology in Historical Context (Phillipsburg, NJ:
Presbyterian & Reformed, 2009), 44.]
The Puritan movement basically
lasted for another generation or so, but it gradually faded away as a cohesive
movement. In 1688-89, William and Mary came to the throne in the Glorious
Revolution and established a degree of religious toleration that previous
monarchs had forbidden. The Bill of Rights established many civil liberties,
and the Act of Toleration allowed Nonconformists to worship as they pleased, as
long as they stayed within certain bounds. The combination of events that transpired in the last forty years of the seventeenth century effectively spelled the end of the Puritan movement as such. Although men like Matthew Henry
(1662-1714) or Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) can be identified as Puritan in
their thinking and emphases, the times were changing and other movements took center stage. Of course,
Puritans concerns will never die away, as they are concerns that go to the
heart of what it means to know the Lord.
JDP
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