eir doctrines to the most absolute
limits), came quickly to the front. The regiments of "Godly men,"
commanded by Oliver Cromwell, with their iron discipline and their
profound confidence in the holiness of their aims, soon became the model
for the entire army of the opposition. Twice Charles was defeated. After
the battle of Naseby, in 1645, he fled to Scotland. The Scotch sold him
to the English.

There followed a period of intrigue and an uprising of the Scotch
Presbyterians against the English Puritan. In August of the year 1648
after the three-days' battle of Preston Pans, Cromwell made an end to
this second civil war, and took Edinburgh. Meanwhile his soldiers, tired
of further talk and wasted hours of religious debate, had decided to act
on their own initiative. They removed from Parliament all those who did
not agree with their own Puritan views. Thereupon the "Rump," which was
what was left of the old Parliament, accused the King of high treason.
The House of Lords refused to sit as a tribunal. A special tribunal was
appointed and it condemned the King to death. On the 30th of January of
the year 1649, King Charles walked quietly out of a window of White Hall
onto the scaffold. That day, the Sovereign People, acting through their
chosen representatives, for the first time executed a ruler who had
failed to understand his own position in the modern state.

The period which followed the death of Charles is usually called after
Oliver Cromwell. At first the unofficial Dictator of England, he was
officially made Lord Protector in the year 1653. He ruled five years. He
used this period to continue the policies of Elizabeth. Spain once more
became the arch enemy of England and war upon the Spaniard was made a
national and sacred issue.

The commerce of England and the interests of the traders were placed
before everything else, and the Protestant creed of the strictest nature
was rigourously maintained. In maintaining England's position abroad,
Cromwell was successful. As a social reformer, however, he failed very
badly. The world is made up of a number of people and they rarely think
alike. In the long run, this seems a very wise provision. A government
of and by and for one single part of the entire community cannot
possibly survive. The Puritans had been a great force for good when they
tried to correct the abuse of the royal power. As the absolute Rulers of
England they became intolerable.

When Cromwell died