introduced not from any conviction in the royal mind, or in those of his advisers, of the Christianity of such a principle, for neither his church nor any other, except the independents, had for a long time posterior any idea of such a thing. All the other parties, the church, the catholics, as exemplified in Ireland, wherein they had the power, the Scotch presbyterians, and the English puritans, had yet so ill-read the Gospels, that they were rampant to insist on the supremacy of their own creed, and the rigorous suppression of all others. Nor were Charles and his advisers the first to name the new word "toleration." It had been stated in the preceding autumn in the assembly of divines at Westminster by Sedden, Whitelock, and others, of the independent persuasion, and as violently resisted by the presbyterians. Selden, who was a far more profound scholar than the generality of the ministers, continually contradicted their gloomy and persecuting doctrines from the original Greek and Hebrew of the Scriptures. "Perhaps," he would say, "in your little pocket Bibles with gilt leaves, the translation may be thus, but the Greek, or the Hebrew, signifies thus and thus," says Whitelock, and so would totally silence them. But he could not silence them long or altogether. "Toleration!" they exclaimed. "Toleration would make the kingdom a Chaos, a Babel, another Amsterdam, a Sodom, an Egypt, a Babylon. Toleration is the grand work of the devil, his masterpiece, and chief engine to uphold his tottering kingdom. It is the most compendious, ready way to destroy all religion, lay all waste, and bring in all evil. As original sin is the fundamental sin, having the seed and spawn of all sin in it," so they declared that "toleration had all errors in it, and all evils." And they petitioned parliament against the smallest admission of it. "We detest and abhor," they said, "this much endeavoured toleration. Our bowels are stirred within us, and we could even drown ourselves in tears when we call to mind how long and sharp a travail this kingdom hath been in for many years together in bring forth that blessed fruit of a pure and perfect reformation; and now, at last, after all our pains, and dolours, and expectations, this real and thorough reformation is in danger of being strangled in the birth by a lawless toleration that strives to be brought forth before it."
Such were the notions of "the liberty of the gospel" at that time of day. But the independents were beginning to let light in on that head, and Charles, who saw that they were a strong party, thought he should catch them by this feeler, or at least throw discord into the camp of his enemies. But it did not succeed. The parliament of Westminster took exception to the phrase in the king's letter of "the members of both houses meeting in a full and free convention of parliament," &c., as implying that theirs was not such a full convention. They denounced the whole scheme as popish and Jesuitical, to beguile them into renouncing their own authority, and called on the king to join his legitimate parliament. There was no possibility of peace, and the Oxford parliament proceeded to proclaim the Scots, who had entered England contrary to the pacification, and all who countenanced them guilty of high treason.
The Scots passed the Tweed on the 16th of January, 1644. The winter was very severe, and the march of the army was dreadful They made their way, however, to Newcastle, where the marquis of Newcastle had just forestalled them, by getting possession of it. They then went on to Sunderland. Newcastle came out and offered them battle, but the Scots, though suffering from the weather and want of provisions, having posted themselves in a strong position, determined to wait for the arrival of parliamentary forces to their aid. The defeat of lord Byron at Nantwich; with his Irish regiments, permitted Sir Thomas Fairfax and lord Fairfax, his father, to draw towards them, and these generals having also defeated the royalists under lord Bellasis, the son of lord Falconberg, at Leeds, Newcastle betook himself to York, where he was followed by both the Fairfaxes and the Scots.
Charles was lying at Oxford with a force of ten thousand men; Waller and Essex, with the parliamentary army, endeavoured to invest him in that city, but as they were marching down upon him from two different quarters, he issued from the city with seven thousand men, and made his way to Worcester. As these two generals detested each other, and could not act in concert, Essex turned his march towards the west of England, where prince Maurice lay, and Waller gave chase to the king. Charles, by a feint of marching on Shrewsbury, induced Waller to proceed in that direction, and then suddenly altering his course at Bewdley, regained Oxford, and after beating up the parliamentary quarters in Buckinghamshire, encountered and worsted Waller at Copredy Bridge, and then marched westward after Essex.
Whilst these manœuvres were in progress, the earl of Manchester, having as his lieutenant-general Oliver Cromwell, marched northward to co-operate with Leslie and the Fairfaxes at York against Newcastle. Charles, who saw the imminent danger of Newcastle, and the loss of all the north if he were defeated, sent word to prince Rupert to hasten to his assistance. Rupert had been gallantly fighting ill Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire, and everywhere victorious. He had compelled the parliamentary army to raise the siege of Newark, had taken Stockport, Bolton, and Liverpool, and raised the siege of Latham House, which had been nobly defended for eighteen weeks by the countess of Derby. On receiving the king's command, he mustered what forces he could, and reached York on the 1st of July. The parliamentary generals, at his approach, raised the siege, and withdrew to Marston Moor, about four miles from the city. Rupert had about twenty thousand men, with which he had committed dreadful ravages on the Lancashire hills; he had now relieved the marquis, and might have defended the city with success, but he was always ready to fight, and Newcastle having six thousand men, altogether twenty-six thousand, he persuaded him to turn out with him and chastise the round-heads. The English and Scotch had about the same number. So little did the parliamentarians expect a battle, that they were in the act of drawing off their forces to a greater distance, when Rupert attacked their rear with his cavalry. On this they turned, and arranged themselves in front of a large ditch or drain, and the royalists posted themselves opposite. The Scotch and English occupied a large rye field on a rising ground, bounded by this ditch, and they placed their troops in alternate divisions, so that there should be no jealousy between them. It was not till five
