Ludlow, 349, 355. Clar. Pap. iii. 678, 697, 703,
711.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Feb. 21.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. March.]
declared the Presbyterian confession of faith to be that of the church of
England, ordered copies of the solemn league and covenant to be hung up in
all churches, offered rewards for the apprehension of Catholic priests,
urged the execution of the laws against Catholic recusants, and fixed the
15th of March for their own dissolution, the 25th of April for the meeting
of a new parliament.[1]
Here, however, a serious difficulty arose. The House of Commons (according
to the doctrine of the secluded members, it could be nothing more) was
but a single branch of the legislature. By what right could it pretend to
summon a parliament? Ought not the House of Lords, the peers who had been
excluded in 1649, to concur? Or rather, to proceed according to law, ought
not the king either to appoint a commission to hold a parliament, as was
usually done in Ireland, or to name a guardian invested with such power,
as was the practice formerly, when our monarchs occasionally resided in
France? But, on this point, Monk was inflexible. He placed guards at the
door of the House of Lords to prevent the entrance of the peers; and he
refused to listen to any expedient which might imply an acknowledgment of
the royal authority.
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