Unwilling to invade the liberty of religious meetings, he for some
time bore these insults with an air of magnanimity: at last he summoned[a]
the two preachers before himself and the council. But the heralds of the
Lord of Hosts quailed not before the servants of an earthly commonwealth:
they returned rebuke for rebuke, charged Cromwell with an unjustifiable
assumption of power, and departed from the conference unpunished and
unabashed.[1]
By the public the sermons at Blackfriars were considered as explanatory of
the views and principles of the Anabaptists in the house. The enemies of
these reformers multiplied daily: ridicule and abuse were poured upon them
from every quarter; and it became evident to all but themselves that the
hour of their fall was rapidly approaching. Cromwell, their maker, had long
ago determined to reduce them to their original nothing; and their last
vote respecting the ministry appeared to furnish a favourable opportunity.
The next day, the Sunday, he passed with his friends in secret
consultation; on the Monday these friends mustered in considerable numbers,
and at an early hour took their seats in the house. Colonel Sydenham rose.
He reviewed[b] all the proceedings of the parliament, condemned them as
calculated to injure almost every interest in the state, and, declaring
that he would no longer sit in so useless an assembly, moved that the house
should proceed to Whitehall, and deliver back the supreme power into the
hands of him from whom
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i.
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