The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth Part 28

_Ninthly_, We suffer greatly because of the new punishments that are continually laid upon us. Not that they punish us according to the circ.u.mstances of the case, but at times spitefully and at other times favourably. We would be punished according to the old written punishments, and not arbitrarily.

TENTH ARTICLE.

_Tenthly_, We suffer in that some have taken to themselves meadows and arable land that belong to the community. Such land we would take once more into the hands of our communities wheresoever they have not been honestly purchased. But where they have been purchased, then shall the case be agreed upon in peace and brotherly love, according to the circ.u.mstances of the case.

ELEVENTH ARTICLE.

_Eleventhly_, We would have the custom called the death-due entirely abolished. We will never suffer nor permit that widows and orphans shall be disgraced and robbed of their own, contrary to G.o.d and honour, as has happened in many cases and in many ways. Those who would protect and shelter them, they have abused and injured, and when these have had some little property, even this they have taken. Such things G.o.d will no longer suffer, they shall be abolished. For such things no man shall henceforth be compelled to give aught, be it little or much.

TWELFTH ARTICLE.

_Twelfthly_, It is our resolve and final decision that if any of the Articles here set forth be not according to the Word of G.o.d, we will, whenever they are shown to be against the Word of G.o.d, at once withdraw therefrom. Yea, even though certain articles were now granted and it should hereafter be found that they are unjust, from that hour they shall be null and void and of no effect. The same shall happen if there should with truth be found in the Scriptures yet more Articles which were held to be against G.o.d and a stumbling-block to our neighbours, even though we should have determined to preserve such for ourselves.

For we have determined and resolved to practice ourselves in all Christian doctrines. Therefore we pray G.o.d the Lord who can grant us the same, and none other. The Peace of Christ be with you all. Amen.

APPENDIX B

TOLERATION

The statement that toleration was the one leading principle of Cromwell's life, may seem somewhat exaggerated to those who have not carefully studied his career. By his own words let him be judged.

Writing to Major Crawford as early as March 1643 (1644) he plainly tells him--"Sir, the State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies." After Naseby, under date June 14th, 1645, in his dispatch to the Speaker, he tells the Presbyterian House of Commons--"Honest men served you faithfully in this action. Sir, they are trusty; I beseech you in the name of G.o.d not to discourage them.... _He that ventures his life for the liberty of the country, I wish he trust G.o.d for the liberty of his conscience, and you for the liberty he fights for._" The meaning of these words was not lost to the House, so when sending his dispatch to the press, they carefully omitted this paragraph.

After the siege of Bristol, Cromwell is still more outspoken. Under date September 14th, 1645, he writes to the Speaker as follows--"Presbyterians, Independents, all have here the same spirit of faith and prayer; the same presence and answer; they agree here, have no names of difference; pity it should be otherwise anywhere--_for, bretheren, in things of the mind we look for no compulsion but that of light and reason_." This dispatch, too, the House of Commons took care to mutilate before sending it to the press.

As he advanced in his career, Cromwell became still more outspoken. In his opening speech to his first Parliament, after having given expression to his view that the Lord had given them the victory for the common good of all, "for the good of the whole flock," he continues--"Therefore I beseech you--but I think I need not--have a care of the whole flock! Love the sheep, love the lambs; love all, tender all, cherish and countenance all, in all things that are good. _And if the poorest Christian, the most mistaken Christian, shall desire to live peaceably and quietly under you--I say, if any shall desire but to lead a life of G.o.dliness and honesty, let him be protected._"

Again, when dissolving his first Parliament (Speech IV.), he expresses the same thought in the following words--"Is there not yet upon the spirits of men a strange itch? Nothing will satisfy them unless they can press their finger upon their bretheren's consciences, to pinch them there. To do this was no part of the contest we had with the common adversary. For religion was not the thing at first contended for, but G.o.d brought it to that issue at last; and gave it unto us by way of redundancy; and at last it proved to be that which was most dear to us.

And wherein consisted this more than in obtaining that liberty from the tyranny of the Bishops to all species of Protestants to worship G.o.d according to their own light and consciences? ... And was it fit for them to sit heavy upon others? Is it ingenuous to ask liberty and not to give it? What greater hypocrisy than for those who were oppressed by the Bishops to become the greatest oppressors themselves, so soon as their yoke was removed? I could wish that they who call for liberty now also had not too much of that spirit, if the power were in their hands."

Cromwell, in short, had no deep-rooted objection either to a moderate Episcopacy or to a tolerant Presbyterianism, though, as he somewhere says, "both are a hard choice," provided only there was sufficient consideration for those who could not reconcile their consciences to the demands of the established State Church. His great desire was "for union and right understanding" between Protestants of all shades, in fact between "G.o.dley" (religious or moral) people of all races, countries and denominations, "Scots, English, Jews, Gentiles, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and all." (See his letter to Hammond, _Clarke Papers_, vol. ii. p. 49.) His aim was to reconcile, or rather to stand as mediator between all the opposing sects. "Fain," he writes to one of his most devoted adherent (see _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_, Carlyle, part vii. p. 363), "would I have my service accepted of the Saints, if the Lord will;--but it is not so. Being of different judgements, and those of each sort seeking most to propagate their own, that spirit of kindness that is to them all is hardly accepted of any. I hope I can say it, My life has been a willing sacrifice,--and I hope--for them all. Yet it much falls out as when the two Hebrews were rebuked: you know upon whom they turned their displeasure."

In short, Cromwell's att.i.tude toward all honest, sincere, "G.o.dley" men was the same as his att.i.tude toward George Fox. "Come again to my house," he said, when dismissing the st.u.r.dy Quaker, "for if thou and I were but an hour a day together we should be nearer one to the other. I wish you no more ill than I do to my own soul."

On November 17th, 1645, "the Dissenting Bretheren," the representatives of the Independents in the Westminster a.s.sembly, declared for a full liberty of conscience. "They expressed themselves," as Baillie, the Scotch Presbyterian commissioner, wrote sadly, "for toleration, not only to themselves, but to all sects." In February of the same year, the Oxford Clergy, who had been consulted by the King as to the limits of possible concession, gave strong evidence that the pressure of events were forcing them to move, even though slowly, in the same direction.

(See Gardiner, _History of the Civil War_, vol. ii. pp. 125-126.)

APPENDIX C

WHAT MAY BE THOSE PARTICULAR LAWS, OR SUCH A METHOD OF LAWS, WHEREBY A COMMONWEALTH MAY BE GOVERNED?

1. The bare letter of the Law established by Act of Parliament shall be the Rule for Officers and People, and the chief Judge of all actions.

2. He or they who add or diminish from the Law, excepting in the Court of Parliament, shall be cashiered his Office, and never bear Office more.

3. No man shall administer the Law for Money or Reward. He that doth shall die as a Traitor to the Commonwealth. For when Money must buy and sell Justice, and bear all the sway, there is nothing but Oppression to be expected.

[Here, as also in other Laws yet to follow, Winstanley, and as it seems to us without sufficient grounds, gives up the position taken up in The New Law of Righteousness, that capital punishment was absolutely unjustifiable.]

4. The Laws shall be read by the Minister to the People four times in the year, viz., every quarter; that everyone may know whereunto they are to yield obedience, that none may die for want of knowledge.

5. No accusation shall be taken against any man unless it be proved by two or three witnesses, or his own confession.

6. No man shall suffer any punishment but for matter of fact or reviling words. But no man shall be troubled for his judgement or practice in the things of his G.o.d, so he live quiet in the Land.

7. The accuser and the accused shall always appear face to face before any Officer; that both sides may be heard, and no wrong to either party.

8. If any Judge execute his own will contrary to the Law, or where there is no Law to warrant him in, he shall be cashiered, and never bear Office more.

9. He who raises an accusation against any man, and cannot prove it, shall suffer the same punishment as the other should, if proved. An accusation is, when one man complains of another to an Officer, all other accusations the Law takes no notice of.

10. He who strikes his neighbor shall be struck himself by the executioner, blow for blow, and shall lose eye for eye, tooth for tooth, limb for limb, life for life. And the reason is that men should be tender of one another's bodies, doing as they would be done by.

11. If any man strike an Officer, he shall be made a servant under the Task-master for a whole year.

12. He who endeavours to stir up contention among neighbors, by tale-bearing or false reports, shall the first time be reproved openly by the Overseers among the people. The second time he shall be whipped.

The third time he shall be a servant under the Task-master for three months. And if he continue, he shall be a servant for ever, and lose his Freedom in the Commonwealth.

13. If any give reviling or provoking words, whereby his neighbor's spirit is burdened, if complaint be made to the Overseers, they shall admonish the offender privately to forbear. If he continue to offend his neighbor, the next time he shall be openly reproved and admonished before the Congregation when met together. If he continue, the third time he shall be whipped; the fourth time, if proof be made by witnesses, he shall be a servant under the Task-master for twelve months.

14. He who will rule as a Lord over his Brother, unless he be an Officer commanding obedience to the Law, he shall be admonished as aforesaid, and receive like punishment, if he continue.

LAWS FOR THE PLANTING OF THE EARTH.

15. Every household shall keep all instruments and tools fit for the tillage of the Earth, either for planting, reaping or threshing. Some households, which have many men in them, shall keep ploughs, carts, harrows, and such like. Other households shall keep spades, pick-axes, pruning hooks, and such like, according as every family is furnished with men to work therewith. And if any Master or Father of a Family be negligent herein, the Overseer for that Circuit shall admonish him between them two. If he continue negligent, the Overseer shall reprove him before all the people. And if he utterly refuse, then the ordering of that Family shall be given to another, and he shall be Servant under the Task-master till he reform.

16. Every Family shall come into the field with sufficient a.s.sistance at seed time, to plough, dig and plant, and at harvest time to reap the fruits of the Earth, and to carry them into the Storehouses, as the Overseers order the work and the number of workmen. If any refuse to a.s.sist in the work, the Overseer shall ask the reason; and if it be sickness or any distemper that hinders them, they are freed from such service; if mere idleness keep them back, they are to suffer punishment according to the Laws against Idleness.

LAWS AGAINST IDLENESS.

17. If any refuse to learn a trade, or refuse to work in seed-time, or refuse to be a waiter in storehouses, and yet will feed and clothe himself with other men's labors, the Overseer shall first admonish him privately. If he continue idle, he shall be reproved openly before all the people by the Overseer, and shall be forbore with a month after this reproof. If he still continue idle, he shall be whipped, and let go at liberty for a month longer. If still he continue idle, he shall be delivered into the Task-master's hand, who shall set him to work for twelve months, or till he submit to right order. The reason why every young man shall be trained up in some work or other, is to prevent pride and contention; it is for the health of their bodies; it is a pleasure to the mind to be free in labors one with another; and it provides plenty of food and all necessaries for the Commonwealth.

LAWS FOR STOREHOUSES.

18. In every Town and City shall be appointed Storehouses for flax, wood, leather, cloth, and for all such commodities as come from beyond seas. These shall be called General Storehouses, whence every particular Family may fetch such commodities as they want, either for their own use in their house, or for to work in their trades, or to carry into the Country Storehouses.

19. Every particular house and shop in a town or city shall be a particular Storehouse or Shop, as now they be. And these shops shall either be furnished by the particular labor of that family according to the trade that family is of, or by the labor of other lesser families of the same trade, as all shops in every town are now furnished.