The Greatest Works of Charles Carleton Coffin. Charles Carleton Coffin
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That determination of his started a train of events which have been of far-reaching influence upon the history of our country. We can only follow a few of them.
There was no written constitution, nor is there now a written constitution in England; but from time to time laws were passed in accordance with customs which former kings had respected, so that by usage it was understood that the king could not collect taxes without the consent of Parliament; neither could he put a subject in prison without due process of law. This being so, it followed that the Commons were able to control the king’s actions. Charles determined not to submit to any such control; he would do as he pleased.
When James came to the throne, he persecuted the Puritans, compelling William Bradford, and the men and women of Scrooby, and thousands more, to leave the country; but as the years went on there began to be discussions about the Prayer-book, especially about the ritual for bowing and kneeling, adopted in the time of Elizabeth, which made the service much like that of the Church of Rome. Two parties arose — the Ritualists, who accepted the Prayer-book; and the Calvinists, as they were called, who adopted the idea of John Calvin, of Geneva. The Calvinists were nearly all Puritans, who wanted the ritual made more simple. Charles sided with the Ritualists, and appointed William Laud to be Archbishop of Canterbury. The bishops whom Laud appointed urged Charles to put down all such doctrines as those taught by the Calvinists.
“Kings receive their authority from God, and not from their subjects; subjects must obey the king’s orders, even though they are contrary to acts of Parliament,” was the doctrine laid down by the bishops.
“The king needs no act of Parliament for taxation. To oppose the king is to insure eternal damnation!” said Bishop Mainwaring.
Such preaching was pleasing to Charles, who, thus supported, was more determined than ever to have his own way.
Through the years the fishermen of England were catching codfish along the shores of New England; but so much time was lost coming and going, that the merchants of Dorchester, who were fitting out vessels, resolved to build houses on Cape Ann for the fishermen to live in while the ships were crossing the ocean to and fro. They selected Gloucester harbor as a good place, and built huts along the shore, sending over Roger Conant to manage affairs.
Rev. John White, a Puritan minister in Dorchester, knew that the fishermen must have a lonely time, and became greatly interested in them. Through his influence Rev. John Lyford sailed to Cape Ann, to look after the moral welfare of the fishermen. But the merchants soon discovered that the enterprise did not pay expenses, and the men whom they had employed went back to England — all except Roger Conant, Rev. Mr. Lyford, and one other. Conant was pleased with the country, especially with the region a little south of Gloucester, which the Indians called Naumkeag.
The Dorchester merchants were Puritans. They had lost money; but, if they were to go themselves with their families and cultivate the ground, they thought they might make it profitable. A company was formed, and the members petitioned Charles for a grant of land. Quite likely the king was glad to have them go; but, be that as it may, he complied with the request, and gave them a grant extending from three miles north of Merrimac River to three miles south of the Charles, and westward to the “South Sea.” Where the “South Sea” was, no one knew, only that it was far away.
John Endicott, of Dorchester, a member of the company, a stern Puritan — brave, honest, clear-headed, with decided opinions of his own — was elected governor of the colony which they proposed to establish.
In June, 1628, the ship Abigail, with John Endicott, his wife, and one hundred colonists, set sail for the beautiful harbor where Roger Conant had built his log-cabin. They reached it in safety, and it was so peaceful a place that they named it Salem.
Endicott brought cattle, and garden-seeds, and fruit-trees. One of the pear-trees set out by him is still living; the white-weed which he sowed in his garden, to be used for medicine, has spread pretty much over the country.
While John Endicott was sailing to America, the king, the bishops, and Archbishop Land were carrying things with a high hand in England. Charles published a declaration, which still stands in the Prayer-book of the English Church in front of the Articles, that no man was to preach or write on doctrines about which men did not agree. Who was to judge? The bishops. What was that but putting manacles upon the intellect and conscience of every man, woman, and child in England? But there were men who would not be thus manacled. Puritan ministers went on preaching their own convictions of what was right and true, and Archbishop Laud and the bishops went to work to silence them. They had a powerful engine for that purpose, called “the Court of High Commission,” established by Elizabeth. This court had no power originally to send men to prison; but Archbishop Laud was determined to crush out the Puritans, and the court therefore usurped the power to imprison men. If a minister preached what the bishop did not like; if any one sold a book or pamphlet which contained anything they did not relish, the court condemned them to prison, the whipping-post, the pillory, or to have their ears cropped off and noses slit.
The bishop’s officers were soon hunting out offenders, and there was so little comfort for the Puritans that they turned their eyes toward America as a place of refuge.
Charles levied illegal taxes, which greatly offended the people. John Eliot, a member of Parliament, thinking it time to put a stop to the usurpations of the king, introduced a bill into the House of Commons declaring that whoever should introduce popery, or whoever should levy taxes not granted by Parliament, or whoever should voluntarily pay any such taxes, was to be regarded as an enemy of the country.
“I will not read the paper,” said the Speaker of the House, who sided with the king.
“Neither will I,” said the clerk.
“I will read it myself, and I demand that it may be put to vote,” said John Eliot.
“The king has commanded me not to put it to vote,” said the Speaker, and sprung out of the chair; for if any one were to put it to vote while he was in the chair it might be regarded as a legal act. But there were resolute men in the Commons, and the Speaker found himself back in his seat, and held down by two strong men, while Denzil Hollis put the vote.
Charles was very angry, and sent the sheriff, who arrested John Eliot, Denzil Hollis, and the other two members, and put them in the Tower. The king soon had them up before his court, called the Privy Council.
“We will not answer to the Privy Council. We are answerable only to Parliament,” they said; and the Commons sustained them.
“Go home, you vipers! There shall be no more of your meetings while I am king!” said Charles, dissolving Parliament.
Having sent Parliament home, Charles set himself to levying more taxes, selling exclusive privileges to those who would pay him most. He issued an order forbidding everybody from making soap, except the London Soap Makers’ Company, who paid him ten thousand pounds for the exclusive privilege, and who agreed to pay him eight pounds for every ton they might manufacture. Everybody was obliged by law to buy that company’s soap. The poor washer-women complained bitterly, and went through the streets of London with their wash-tubs, denouncing the soap makers, and the miserable stuff manufactured by them.
“It rots the clothes!” said one. “It is nothing but lime and tallow!” said another. “It eats our flesh to the bone!” shouted a third.
In order to show what mean stuff it was, and to enlist the sympathy of the people, the women held public washings, trampling the clothes in their tubs with their bare feet, or scrubbing them with their hands. The people took their part, and made an outcry which the soap company were obliged to heed.
Charles made every trade and occupation a monopoly, and kept a great company of officers travelling through the country as spies, or to collect revenue; thus providing for an army of place-hunters, who obtained their living by fleecing the people. He issued an order forbidding the building of any more houses in London.
“The city is large enough,” he said.
Mr. Moore, not heeding the order, built a house; the Star-chamber ordered him to tear it down before Easter, and because