FREEDOM OF RELIGION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17952, 2 December 1932, Page 8

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

STRUGGLES IN ENGLAND OLIVER CROMWELL’S TRIUMPHS A NATIONAL HERO ■ The struggles of the Puritans for freedom of religion and conscience, the most cherished possessions of the British race to-day, were graphically told by Dr. J. j. North, president of the Baptist Union, in a lecture of considerable historical’ interest given in the Gisborne Baptist Tabernacle last night. The life work of Oliver Cromwell was the basic feature of the lecture, and Dr. North drew upon his store of knowledge of that period of the history of .England to hold the interest of a large audience to the last word of a most attractive address, freely illustrated with a number of lantern slides depicting the life and j outstanding historical events of the j period under review. j “Cromwell and Freedom was the title lof l.)r. North's address, and lie began I -with the observation that nothing made a man or woman more furious than any : invasion of his or her freedom—the right of a common man to order his own life ! so long as it did not trespass on that tif ibis neighbor of the community. No i liberties on earth were more delicately 1 poised and more versatile {Ban. those woven into the constitution of the British Empire. ’ ' r , A little while ago, continued l)r. North, it was* impossible to _ speak of Oliver Cromwell without starting a very “Irish row’' : the old historians had j been very nervous about him ; but those I bad davs of misunderstanding were gone, ! end lately King George and the great statesmen of England and America had eulogised this man of liberty: Freedom as we knew it was the gift of the Puritans, the most misunderstood of men, and Dr. North went on to refer to "the struggles for freedom outlined in the early history of England and the European nations, down to the invention of the printing press and the turning ot the Bible into English. BEGINNING OF TUB FIGHT

When James I came to the throne, the tight for liberty in the Church and State began in earnest. The overthrow Of the l’opo in tho north of Europe resulted in the kings claiming the powers that formerly belonged to tho Pope, and the idea of tho Divine right of kings obliterated ideas ol' freedom. When James I became king the 1 untans sought from him relief from the ceremonies required by Queen Elizabeth, but his reply was to hunt them from his presence, and it was obvious that freedom had little to hope for from him. Borne of the disgruntled Puritans lured the little Mayflower, in which they set sail for the west to worship Christ after their own beliefs, James I, ridden of the Puritans, kept his foot on the throat of freedom, and bequeathed his problems to his son, Charles I, of whom many handsome things might be said. He was a decent blockhead,' 1 and his ideas were hopelessly wrong. ■ Charles came to be regarded as a martyr; he was not a martyr, hut a criminal. His dream of Divine right was shattered by tie religious issue. The Englishmen of that am* were men of one book, the Libit, and thev believed that religion was in danger through the Romish queen, and the High Church king, and ,Ins- overthrow came to pass through Scotland. Dr. North outlined the events leading un to tho formation of the Long 1 arbaInc lit, which passed a bill that every Puritan should bo burnt at the stake, 'and every Baptist imprisoned for hie. The •first-published declaration in favor of liberty, of conscience was made by a congregation of Baptists, banished _to Amsterdam, in 1612 •in the following terms: “The magistrate is not to meddle yvlth religion .or Blatters of, conscience, nor may he compel men to This or that form of religion, because Christ, us the King and Lawgiver of the Church.

A MUCH-HATED MAN Some men in the Long Parliament saw this as the only solution, and chief amongst them was Oliver Cromwell, who believed with all his heart in freedom of conscience. He came to he a much-hated man. His early speeches in Parliament were mainly on ftie religious issue,, anil lie was full of the idea ol tolerance in religion. ■ ' The King became conscious that I arliament would tolerate him no longer find he called to arms those who would stand by him, it, being-a case of the aristocrats and peasants fighting the farmers, lawyers, and tradesmen. Oliver Cromwell at this time was 43, and he had never ridden a war-horse, but lie saw that the'impending war would he determined by cavalry, and lie raised and trained a. troop of horses, creating his Ironsides, who proved to be the most«terrible men who had ever ridden on to the battlefield. Parliament called upon tho Scots to fight against tho King, and the Scots entered the war upon Parliament signing a contract that England would become Presbyterian. Marstoh Moor was tho great decisive battle, and ' was followed by the light at Nasoby, when all the King’s 1 powers fell into tho bands of Cromwell. After the King was broken and without- an army he was in the eyes of every man still the King, and there followed some months of intrigue. The King changed every day, until quite suddenly Cromwell made up his mind that he was' impossible, and resolved to finish with him,

SECOND CIVIL WAR. Tjjie King was seized in tho castle, and immediately the second civil war broke out,' the' army meeting, in- a famous prayer meeting, and in the end resolving to call Charles to account for all the mischief he had done. Tho war was a very brief one, Cromwell’s troops being irresistible, and events ultimately led to tlio execution of Charles, Parliament believing that lie' was so incurably unstable,, and so committed to false practice that liberty would not be safe while lie lived. He approached death with great dignity, and standing on the staft’old. made a 'memorable speech.

1 The death of the King lighted again the tires of civil war. The Irish rose, and in Scotland Cromwell was defied, and the crisis came at Dunbar, where the kingdom fell into the hands of the invincible general. “So we have Oliver Cromwell, the om! solitary figure in England of great importance—a national’hero,” said Dr. .North. He was installed as Lord Projector, refusing the crown. His AdImiral Blake '.made the flag of England famous on the sea, and he himself crossed to the Continent, where ho intervened in religious persecution. Cromwell remained perfectly true to his idea of religious freedom, and retained the simplicity of a Puritan gentleman. Cromwell was installed a second time as Lord Protector, and lie succeeded in uniting the kingdoms of England and ■ Scotland. For all-round - capacity ho was not surpassed by any man of -Jus race in England or America, hut the toils of his life broke him, and ho died while still in his' prime. Tn many ways he

failed. After his death the Government fell into rapid ruin under his son and Charles 11, and the disbanded Ironsides •became the song of drunkards; but there was real and permanent victory. The Puritans lived to see freedom established in. tho State and Church, and one ought to be able to forget the mistakes in grateful remembrance of the glorious victories they achieved. Dr. North was warmly thanked for his address, on the motion of Mr. T. K. Toney cliff e.