XIX. 1656. English had taken out of her much gold and CHAP. silver. The rear-admiral, containing two millions of pieces of eight, and another, were taken. Of the rest, two were burned, one sunk, and one escapeds. Cromwel resolved that this fortunate event should make a suitable impression, and accordingly caused the silver which was taken to be landed at Portsmouth, carried by land in many waggons to London, and so conveyed through the city to the Tower, where it was immediately coined into English money. The protector, in proof of his liberality, treated the survivors of the family of the viceroy with much attention, and sent them home to Spain without ransom.—The news of this success reached London on the second of October, about a fortnight after the meeting of parliament. Ibid, 399, 400. h Clarendon, p. 586. Ludlow, p. 560. The amount of the capture was estimated at five millions of pieces of eight. (Thurloe, Vol. V, p. 400.) The value of each of these pieces was rated at about a dollar, or four shillings and three pence three farthings of English money. Taken at this rate, five millions of pieces of eight are worth upwards of one million sterling; and the weight of the silver will be about one hundred and fifty tons. It is computed that, in a journey, fifteen hundred weight is as much as a horse can be expected to draw; and of consequence three tons is a burthen sufficient for four horses. Proceeding on this datum, one hundred and fifty tons would require two hundred horses to convey them, and allowing six horses to a waggon, there would be required about thirty-four waggons. i Warwick, p. 383. Bates. Journals. On this occasion Waller, who had produced his BOOK celebrated Panegyric on Cromwel in 1654, addressed to him a conIV. gratulatory copy of verses, which concludes thus: 1656. "Let the brave generals divide that bough, Our great Protector hath such wreaths enow: 305 CHAPTER XX. MULTIPLICATION OF RELIGIOUS SECTS. RANTERS. QUAKERS.-GEORGE FOX.-JOHN ROBINS. JOHN REEVE.-LODOVICK MUGGLETON. -JOHN TAWNEY.-JAMES NAYLOR. HE IS BROUGHT BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT.—JOHN BIDDLE. XX. A MEMORABLE circumstance which occurred early CHAP. in the present parliament, was the treatment of James Naylor, a quaker. He was a disciple of George Fox, the founder of the quakers, and in James great esteem among his fraternity. 1656. Naylor. cation of sects. It was unavoidable, in a state of so great poli- Multiplitical convulsion, when the old distinction of orders in the state was so memorably shaken, and when at the same time the community was so extensively penetrated with fervent and enthusiastic sentiments of religion, that many new and extravagant sects should have arisen to disturb the ecclesiastical arrangements which had previously been established. Among them, as William Penn states, in his Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers, was a party, "called Seekers by some, and the Family of Love by others, Seekers: Love. Family of IV. 1656. Ranters. BOOK who were accustomed to meet together, not formally to preach and pray, at appointed times and places, but who waited together in silence, till something arose in any one of their minds, that savoured of a divine spring. Among these however some there were, who ran out in their own imaginations, and brought forth a monstrous birth. These, from the extravagance of their discourses and practices, acquired the name of Ranters. They interpreted Christ's fulfilling the law for us, as a discharge from any obligation or duty the law required from us, inferring that it was now no sin to do that, which before it was a sin to commit; the slavish fear of the law being taken off, and all things that man did being good, if he did them with the mind and persuasion that it was so a."-We have already spoken of the offence given by this sect to the more sober and well conducted Christians, and the law that was made for the suppression of their practices". 1646. Quakers. George Fox. In the midst of these dissentions and divisions of one body of Christians against another, arose a sect which was destined to a more permanent duration, called Quakers. The founder of this sect was George Fox, a man born and bred in the lowest ranks of life, and who, if he had attained the art of penmanship, had however made small a Penn's Works, Vol. I, p. 864. XX. progress either in fair writing or correct ortho- CHAP. graphy. His birth is dated in 1624; and he had already begun his ministration as an instructor of others in 1646 c. 1646. The tenets of his sect were of a peculiar sort; Tenets of innocent in themselves; but, especially in their the quakers. first announcement, and before they were known as the characteristics of a body of men of pure and irreproachable dispositions, calculated to give general offence. They refused to put off their hats, or to practise any of the established forms of courtesy, holding that the Christian religion required of its votaries that they should be no respecters of persons. They opposed war as unlawful, denied the payment of tithes, and disclaimed the sanction of an oath. They married in a form of their own, not submitting in this article to the laws of their countryd, and pronounced of baptism and the Lord's supper, that they were of temporary obligation, and were now become obsolete. They wore a garb of peculiar plainness, and were the determined enemies of the institution of priesthood. Fox himself was a man of a fervent mind, and, comthough little indebted to the arts of education, mencement had a copious flow of words, and great energy in Fox, Journal, p. 1, 17. • Penn, Vol. I, p. 867, 868, 869. e Ibid, Vol. II, p. 786. |