- We study the glory of God, and the honour and liberty of parliament, for which we unanimously fight, without seeking our own interests... I profess I could never satisfy myself on the justness of this war, but from the authority of the parliament to maintain itself in its rights; and in this cause I hope to prove myself an honest man and single-hearted.
- Statement to Colonel Valentine Walton, 5 or 6 September 1644
Three hundred and fifty years ago,at about four o'clock on a Friday afternoon,Protestant England bid farewell to its Lord Protector.Referred to as the "late usurper" by the Presbyterians of his age,he was reputed both as a champion or bulwark of Protestantism as well as a ruthless regicidal depot used as the Devil's instrument to-at minimum- tacitly endorse pluralism in our tradition of faith.
Distantly akin to the House of Tudor, he was born on the 25th of April in 1599.His first comparatively obscure forty years on this Earth reflected the typical yeoman lifestyle and station of East Anglia mid gentry.How decadently ironic that this foreordained vessel to challenge the legitimacy of the English Crown,like no other of common birth,would himself be of distant progeny to the House of Stuart!!!
He endeavored to study at Sidney Sussex College; an institution that was established in 1596 with decidedly Puritan roots.
some good and godlie moniment for the mainteynance of good learninge
Although he did not finish his studies here,having left the institution in June 1617,immediately upon the death of his father,his exposures while at school,coupled with those he enjoyed by way of his father-in-law and the Puritan members of the London gentry galvanized his resolve toward the particular style of Independent Puritanism for which he was so noted. In 1970,Cromwell's head was interred beneath the chapel,by the way.
The factors in the struggle between Parliament and the English Crown are as numerous as they are complex.Time forbids a lengthy exploration into each variable,yet this article will take an unflinching look at the more significant ones.
Like his father,James VI, Charles was committed to uniting England and Scotland;a most unsettling notion for many! Not especially noted either for his powers of oration or diplomatic skill,his rather maladroit style did much to exacerbate tensions and subject the nation to much undue strife and grief;much of which was in the vein of an expiation of the demons wrought by goals unfulfilled by his father's tenure!
To heighten matters,his pretty wife...
..Henrietta Maria,happened also to be Catholic.England was a time bomb!
In addition,King Charles I was dedicated to steering England away from Calvinism.He pitted the Calvinists in Parliament against the savvy ecclesiastical acumen of William Laud,the Archbishop of Canterbury..
...whose High Church predilections would lead to his ultimately having met the headsman's axe on the 10th of January 1645.
.........the climate of Mother England was in a most desultory state!Indeed,one that Oliver Cromwell was foreordained to remedy.........or perhaps poised to exploit!
In 1647 Parliament was quite polarized over the issue of kingship.February of that year saw Cromwell sidelined with illness;only to find both houses of Parliament pushing for a settlement that would restore Charles I and draft a Presbyterian model.
The Westminster Assembly was summoned by Parliament(initially in 1643). To this end,the term
Presbyterian came into widespread and popular use.It was completed by the Westminster Assembly in 1647 and adopted by the General Assembly in Scotland the following year!These expedients have formed the backbone of Presbyterian/Reformed worship traditions in the English speaking world,subordinate only to the Word of God!
In 1648,a Second Civil War began.Suffice it to note the inextricable link in all unrest pandemic in this period of English history;with mere breathing spells between.The Scots invaded England aiding Charles whose aim was to reclaim power by way of force.In the end,Cromwell,firm in the belief that he was a chosen instrument for the manifestation of God's will,was triumphant.
It was around this time that the powers and styles of oration in Cromwell began to shift rather dramatically!His delivery became,decidedly,even more Bible-based.In the Eight chapter of the Book of Isaiah,verse 14,we read:
14And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
For the Cromwellian faction,this was a "rallying cry".The Parliament's haphazard negotiations which tacitly endorsed "Divine Right",coupled with the humiliating defeat of the Royalists was interpreted by many that it was time to purge England...period!
Charles was brought to trial for high treason...............
"I would know by what power I am called hither ... I would know by what authority, I mean lawful; there are many unlawful authorities in the world; thieves and robbers by the high-ways ... Remember, I am your King, your lawful King, and what sins you bring upon your heads, and the judgement of God upon this land. Think well upon it, I say, think well upon it, before you go further from one sin to a greater ... I have a trust committed to me by God, by old and lawful descent, I will not betray it, to answer a new unlawful authority; therefore resolve me that, and you shall hear more of me. I do stand more for the liberty of my people, than any here that come to be my pretended judges ... I do not come here as submitting to the Court. I will stand as much for the privilege of the House of Commons, rightly understood, as any man here whatsoever: I see no House of Lords here, that may constitute a Parliament ... Let me see a legal authority warranted by the Word of God, the Scriptures, or warranted by the constitutions of the Kingdom, and I will answer."
This was Major General Thomas Harrison, a distant cousin of this Protestant Laird and the seventeenth of the fifty-nine to sign the death warrant of King Charles I.Ultimately,he would object strenuously to the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell;being imprisoned four times in its duration.Unyielding to the end in his belief that Christ Himself would reign in England in 1666(as espoused by his leadership over the Fifth Monarchists),he opposed the Restoration of the English crown,as well.He was hanged,drawn and quartered at Charing Cross on the 13th of October,1660.
"...God hath covered my head many times in the day of Battle. By God I have leaped over a wall, by God I have runned through a Troop, and by my God I will go through this death..."
He entered no plea,as to have done so would validate the legitimacy of the
ad hoc tribunal which comprised his trial-a legitimacy he genuinely believed they did not have!
Nevertheless,he met his end on Tuesday January 30,1649.His head was severed with a quick,clean stroke!It is said there were those who dipped their handkerchiefs in the blood of the martyred king (a conjectural pretext for his martyrdom's cult following).Yet,this is largely thought an apocryphal mechanism promulgated by avid Royalists.
England,at that point,became a Commonwealth.
In truth,about the only thing that rivaled the complexity of the inherent parochialisms that led to the English Civil War of the 1640's was the station in which Presbyterians in the kingdom found themselves.Cromwell quite sternly objected to Scottish Presbyterianism;as he regarded the hierarchical structure too rigid and authoritarian,among other things.Although sentiments against Cromwell were never as strong in Scotland as they were in Ireland,they are quite worthy of note!
This is the ninth Earl of Glencairn,William Cunningham;who had been an ardent supporter of Charles I.He led an effort during Cromwell's Protectorate known as "Glencairn's Rebellion".Although hardly the tactical equivalent to Joan of Arc at Orleans in 1429,his efforts were regarded as part of a curative the Scots needed to guard against the systematic suppression of their rights!
The English Presbyterian Richard Baxter said of Cromwell:
"He thought secrecy a virtue, and dissimulation no vice, and simulation, that is in plain English, a lie, or perfideousness to be a tolerable fault in case of necessity".
Actually,Presbyterianism was not Baxter's only religious tie.While thought of as Calvinistic in the moderate sense,he rejected the doctrine of Particular Atonement.This Protestant Laird is inclined to infer Baxter's core position in the quinquarticular controversy to be less predicated upon Biblical and catechetical warrant than consensus and partisan expediency!
On the other hand,there were Presbyterians(as well as Baptists and Congregationalists) without whose support Cromwell could not have achieved what he achieved and Cromwell himself is classified as a Calvinist whose influence hinged to a large measure upon dwindling Presbyterian influence in the English Parliament.Rather difficult to discern who was rallying and waging war for whom and/or in whose name,isn't it?
Is it easy to see why mother England was in such a politically desultory state?
Was Oliver Cromwell a foreordained champion or a regicidal demagogue? The arguments to support/refute are virtually limitless and,among certain realms of the Reformed historical intelligencia, are waged no less fiercely today than when he lived.May this Protestant Laird share his perspective?
It has been three hundred-fifty years since Oliver Cromwell's roll was called.While it is not our place to speculate whether or not the Kirk triumphant was his portion when his flesh failed him,we err against the Church of Jesus Christ to not weigh his bequest to Protestantism and to Mother England!
As an American,this Laird defers to the platform of individual liberty for which Cromwell stood;as this is one of the few nations on this planet where
The Protestant Laird's Yard may be maintained without fear of legal sanction.Yet,as the magistrate beareth not the sword for naught(as per Romans 13:4) and as one of some Plantagenet ancestry,the notion of Divine Right of Kings should not be ruled out capriciously,either.It may be safely wagered that Cromwell was,to appreciable measure, no less ruled by inherent parochialisms than were the bourgeois Presbyterians in the English Parliament from whose disenfranchisement he benefitted.This,coupled with Charles' pandering of Archbishop Laud and the Calvinists against each other proved quite the lethal mix for England and the greatest challenge to the monarchy since the Magna Carta!!!
Let we who are alive today be ever mindful of what went awry in that time.Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that such tumult cannot happen.Take a look at how marginalized our faith has become and how secularization,political correctness and Scriptural revisionism,fueled in part by textual criticism,have reduced the gravity of the Father's Word and Covenant.
It can be stated that,in the spiritual civil war presently waged in this quarter of the earth,the situation is no less riotous!
.......he starred in the Bernie Mac Show,which aired in 2001 and ran for five seasons and garnered a plethora of awards for excellence.In TV Guide's list of the 
