bers.
Parliamentary restrictions were imposed on the choice of members of the
Council, and Officers of State or of the army. A fixed revenue was voted
to the Protector, and it was provided that no moneys should be raised
but by assent of Parliament. Liberty of worship was secured for all but
Papists, Prelatists, Socinians, or those who denied the inspiration of
the Scriptures; and liberty of conscience was secured for all.

[Sidenote: Cromwell's triumphs.]

The adjournment of the House after his inauguration in the summer of
1657 left Cromwell at the height of his power. He seemed at last to have
placed his government on a legal and national basis. The ill-success of
his earlier operations abroad was forgotten in a blaze of glory. On the
eve of the Parliament's assembly one of Blake's captains had managed to
intercept a part of the Spanish treasure fleet. At the close of 1656 the
Protector seemed to have found the means of realizing his schemes for
rekindling the religious war throughout Europe in a quarrel between the
Duke of Savoy and his Protestant subjects in the valleys of Piedmont. A
ruthless massacre of these Vaudois by the Duke's troops roused deep
resentment throughout England, a resentment which still breathes in the
noblest of Milton's sonnets. While the poet called on God to avenge his
"slaughtered saints, whose bones lie scattered on the Alpine mountains
cold," Cromwell was already busy with the work of earthly vengeance. An
English envoy appeared at the Duke's court with haughty demands of
redress. Their refusal would have been followed by instant war, for the
Protestant Cantons of Switzerland were bribed into promising a force of
ten thousand men for an attack on Savoy. The plan was foiled by the cool
diplomacy of Mazarin, who forced the Duke to grant Cromwell's demands;
but the apparent success of the Protector raised his reputation at home
and abroad. The spring of 1657 saw the greatest as it was the last of
the triumphs of Blake. He found the Spanish Plate fleet guarded by
galleons in the strongly-armed harbour of Santa Cruz; and on the
twentieth of April he forced an entrance into the harbour and burnt or
sank every ship within it. Triumphs at sea were followed by a triumph on
land. Cromwell's demand of Dunkirk, which had long stood in the way of
any acceptance of his offers of aid, was at last conceded; and in May
1657 a detachment of the Puritan army joined the French troops who were
attacking Flan