Puritan Revolution

Background

James I and Charles I of the House of Stuart asserted the divine right of kings, the claim that a king's power is given directly by God. On this basis both kings levied taxes without the consent of Parliament, and Parliament responded in 1628 with the Petition of Right. In religious matters, Puritanism spread among the landed gentry and urban merchants and tradesmen, and the Puritans became the core of the Parliamentarian side. They regarded the episcopate and traditions such as clerical vestments that remained in the established Church of England as vestiges of Roman Catholicism, and they called for more thorough reform. When Charles I tried to impose a prayer book on Scotland, the Scots resisted. To raise funds for war, the king summoned Parliament for the first time in eleven years, but Parliament instead criticized his misrule. In October 1641 a rebellion broke out in Ireland, and in January 1642 the king failed in an attempt to arrest five members of the House of Commons. Through these events the king and Parliament were driven toward war.

Course of Events

• First Civil War (1642–1646): The first major battle was fought at Edgehill on October 23, 1642. By an ordinance of June 12, 1643, Parliament summoned the Westminster Assembly, which first met on July 1. In the same year Parliament concluded the Solemn League and Covenant with Scotland, an agreement under which, in return for the support of the Scottish army, the churches of the three kingdoms would be brought into uniformity in confession of faith, church government, worship, and catechism. The Church of Scotland accepted it on August 17 and the English Parliament on September 25. The Parliamentarian forces won victories at Marston Moor, Naseby, and elsewhere, and Charles I surrendered to the Scottish army in 1646.
• Second Civil War (1648): In July 1648 a Scottish army allied with the king invaded England. The New Model Army, led by Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, defeated it. The army then purged Parliament of members sympathetic to the king. The remaining members, known as the Rump Parliament, established a special court that tried the king for treason, and Charles I was executed at Whitehall in London on January 30, 1649.
• Third Civil War (1649–1651): The monarchy was abolished and a republic was established. From late 1649 Cromwell reconquered Ireland, a campaign notorious for the massacre at Drogheda. Scotland, having received a promise that Presbyterianism would be established, crowned Charles II king on January 1, 1651. However, the Scots were defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651.

Results and Influence

From 1653 to 1658 Cromwell ruled the three kingdoms as Lord Protector. After Cromwell's death in 1658, Charles II returned in 1660 and the monarchy was restored. In England and Wales alone, an estimated 85,000 people died in combat and about 127,000 more from other causes. The Puritans within the Parliamentarian camp divided into Presbyterians, Independents, Levellers, and other groups, and after the First Civil War they came into conflict with one another.

The most enduring legacy for church history is the body of documents produced by the Westminster Assembly. The Assembly included 120 clergy, lay members nominated by Parliament, and Scottish representatives. It began by revising the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. After the Solemn League and Covenant, it drafted a new confession of faith, form of church government, directory for worship, and catechisms to be used jointly by the three kingdoms. The resulting Westminster Confession of Faith and catechisms failed to take hold in England amid the political turmoil. Nevertheless, they became the standard documents of Presbyterian churches, and Korean Presbyterianism also accepts them as its doctrinal standards.

Assessment

• Name: Korean textbooks call it the "Puritan Revolution," viewing it as a bourgeois revolution led chiefly by Puritans. In Britain it is called the "English Civil War," or, when Scotland and Ireland are included, the "Wars of the Three Kingdoms." Some scholars object to the term "revolution" on the grounds that the social structure was not fundamentally changed.
• Cromwell: Some assessments credit him with stabilizing society and expanding maritime trade. Others hold that he ruled as a dictator and provoked resentment by imposing excessive austerity. The massacres in Ireland draw particular criticism.
• Church history: As a case in which religious conflict over the established church system escalated into civil war, it is treated as an event that raises questions about the relationship between church and politics.