544 . 'T!Je HIs T 0 Ry of tl:Je PuRITANs: VoL. n. -R!~:7~;;,. A~ter the king's death they a!fun:ed the chief management of public af'- 1659. faJrS, and would ·not part wtth lt on any terms, left they lhould be dif- ~ banded and called to account by a parliamentary power, and therefore ·they could never come to a fettlement, though they attempted it under fevera~ for:ns.: The firft was an alfo!ute commonwealth, as moft agreeable 'to their principles, but when the commonwealth began to clip their mili– ·tary wings, they difpoifeifed them, and fet up their own general with the litle of proteflor, who had fkill enough to keep them in awe, though they '"':ere continu~lly plotting againft his government. After his death they ·difpoifeifed his ~on, and reftored the commonwealth. When thefe again attempted to difband them, they turned them out a fecond time, and fet up themfelves under the title of a committee if Jafety; but they wanted Oliver's head, their new general Fleetwood having neither courage nor conduct enough to keep them united. Thus they crumbled into fac– tions, while their wanton fporting with the fupreme power, made the nation fick of fuch diftraction, and yield to the return of the old con– fiitution. And of the The ofticers were made up chiefly of independents and anabaptif1s, Djficers 0[ the moil: of them of mean extraction, and far from being as able ftates-men urmy. as they had been formerly foldiers ; they were brave and refolute men, who had the caufe of religion and liberty at heart, but they neglected the old nobility and gentry fo much, that when they fell to pieces, there was hardly a gentleman of efiate or interefl in his country that would fland by them. As to their moral character, they feem to have been men of piety and prayer; they called God into all their councils, but were too much governed by the falfe notions they had imbibed, and the cnthufiaflic im– pulfes of their own minds. I don't find that they confulted any number of their clergy, though many of the independent minifiers were among the mofllearned and eminent preachers of the times, as Dr. Goodwin, Owm, Nye, and Greenbill, &c. fame of whom had no fmall reputation for po– litics; but their pulling down fo many forms of government, without ad– hering fieadily to any, i!lued i? th:ir ruin. Thus as the a.rmy_ and i~dep~ndents out-witted the prefbytenans in I 648, the prefbytenans m CODJunctwn with theJcots, blew up the independents at this time; and next yea: the epifcopal party, by dextrous management of the credulous presbytenans, undermined and deceived them both. Death of This year died Dr. Ralpb Rrown;igge bilhop of Exeter, ~orn at Ipf- -bijbop wich in the year I 592, educated m Pembroke Hall Cambndge, and at .Brownrigge.length chofen mafler of Katberine Hall in that _univerfit,Y. ~e was alfo prebendary of Durham_ and rector of Early m Hertjo~djbzre. In the year i641 he was nommated to the fee of Exeter, and mftalled June r, 1642·
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