(Newman's edition), 87.

[91:2] Heylin's _Laud_, 321, 322.

CHAPTER IV.

BOOK-FIRES OF THE REBELLION.

With the beneficent Revolution that practically began with the
Long Parliament in November 1640, and put an end to the Star
Chamber and High Commission, it might have been hoped that a
better time was about to dawn for books. But the control of
thought really only passed from the Monarchical to the
Presbyterian party; and if authors no longer incurred the
atrocious cruelties of the Star Chamber, their works were more
freely burnt at the order of Parliament than they appear to have
been when the sentence to such a fate rested with the King or the
Archbishop of Canterbury.

Parliament, in fact, assumed the dictatorship of literature, and
exercised supreme jurisdiction over author, printer, publisher,
and licenser. Either House separately, or both concurrently,
assumed the exercise of this power; and, if a book were sentenced
to be burnt, the hangman seems always to have been called in
aid. In an age which was pre-eminently the age of pamphlets, and
torn in pieces by religious and political dissension, the number
of pamphlets that were condemned to be burnt by the common
hangman was naturally legion, though, of course, a still greater
number escaped with some lesser form of censure. It is only with
the former that I propose to deal, and only with such of them as
seem of more than usual interest as illustrating the manners and
thoughts of that turbulent time.

It is a significant fact that the first writer whose works
incurred the wrath of Parliament was the Rev. John Pocklington,
D.D., one of the foremost innovators in the Church in the days of
Laud's prosperity. The House of Lords consigned two of his books
to be burnt by the hangman, both in London and the two chief
Universities (February 12th, 1641). These were his _Sunday no
Sabbath_, and the _Altare Christianum_.

The first of these was originally a sermon, preached on August
17th, 1635, wherein the Puritan view of Sunday was vehemently
assailed, and the Puritans themselves vigorously abused. "These
Church Schismatics are the most gross, nay, the most transparent
hypocrites and the most void of conscience of all others. They
will take the benefit of the Church, but abjure the doctrine and
discipline of the Church." How often has not this argument done
duty since against Pocklington's ecclesiastical descendants! But
it is to be historically regret