every moment fearfully expecting the arrival of Blake and his twenty-four ships, hastily put Civita Vecchia in a state of defence. At the same time, processions were made in the pontifical city; and the host was exposed for forty hours to avert the judgments of Heaven, and preserve the patrimony of St. Peter. Not long before, there had been great rejoicings in Rome, at the extirpation of Protestantism in Calabria and the Valteline. Cromwell meditated retaliation: "Their expected triumph," writes Mr. Pell to Secretary Thurloe, on the 9th of June, 1655, "would be turned into sad processions, if, instead of rooting out their old Italian inland churches, they should see an English colony planted in one of their seatowns, which seems not impossible to be effected, if England would but attempt it."* It was not at Malta, as in the nineteenth century, but under the very walls of the pope, so to speak, that Cromwell then thought of making a settle ment. "Set up your banners in the name of Christ," the Protector wrote to Vice-admiral Goodson, in October, 1655; "for undoubtedly it is His cause. And let the reproach and shame that hath been for our sins, and through (also we may say) the misguidance of some, work up your hearts to confidence in the Lord, and for the redemption of His honor from the hands of men." [Cromwell alludes to the failure of an expedition sent against the Spanish settlement of Hispaniola.] Though He hath torn us, yet He will heal us; though he hath smitten us, yet He will bind us up; after two days He will revive us, in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.' (Hosea, vi. 1, 2.) 66 6 "The Lord himself hath a controversy with your enemies; even with that Roman Babylon, of which the Spaniard is the great under-propper.. In that respect, we fight the Lord's battles; and in this the Scriptures are most plain. The Lord therefore strengthen you with faith, and cleanse you * Vaughan's Protectorate, i. 194. from all evil and doubt not but He is able, and I trust as willing, to give you as signal success as He gave your enemies against you. Only the Covenant-fear of the Lord be upon you.' It is the Protector's glory that he discerned in Rome the chief enemy to the liberty, prosperity, and piety of nations. This in our days is called prejudice and superstition. Severe lessons will teach the nations, to their cost, which of the two is right their modern leaders, or the great man of the seventeenth century. Such was Oliver Cromwell. "Lord of these three kingdoms," says Southey, "and indisputably the most powerful potentate in Europe, and as certainly the greatest man of an age in which the race of great men was not extinct in any country, no man was so worthy of the station which he filled." His glory was not confined to Great Britain only; it filled Europe, reached Asia, and was re-echoed from the shores of America. A French writer comparing Oliver with Napoleon, says that the former was exclusively an English hero, whilst the latter carried his name into every quarter of the world. It is true that Cromwell did not launch his destroying legions into Spain and Russia, and even into Egypt. It is true that he thought it the highest excellence to live in Christ, to the end that God in all things might be glorified, and to bear, like Simon the Cyrenean, the cross and the shame of the Lord. But it is a grand mistake to suppose that his name was hardly known beyond the British isles. So great was his renown that it extended even to the distant plains of Asia, where the descendants of Abraham in agitation inquired of one another whether this was not the servant of the Lord whom they were looking for, and the branch promised to David (Jer. xxiii. 5). "Such was the reputation which Cromwell obtained abroad by his prodigious elevation, the lofty tone of his government, and the vigor of his arms, that an Asiatic Jew is said to have come to Eng* Thurloe, iv. 633. Carlyle, iii. 157. land for the purpose of investigating his pedigree, thinking to discover in him the Lion of the tribe of Judah.”* With his own name Oliver spread afar the name of England, which he was the first to engrave on the distant landmarks of the nations. It is he who opened to his people that path of glory and of power, which their ships now traverse in every sea. The life of Britain, which had lost all vigor under the Stuarts, was aroused, electrified, as it were, by the same principle which animated its chief; and once more was seen the accomplishment of the ancient promise: The Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. * Southey's Life of Cromwell, 81. CHAPTER XII. DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. Defence of Protestantism-Letter to a Protestant Prince-Piedmontese Massacre-The Protector interferes-Geneva-Cromwell's Advice to the Protestants-Portugal-France: Nismes-Intervention-Switzerland-Germany-Austria-Council for the general Interests of Protestantism―The Protector's living Christianity-The eternal Truths— Pompeii, Nineveh, and the Bible. CROMWELL was not satisfied with merely frightening the Pope in his own Babylon, and with directing his efforts in every quarter against the Roman power; he at the same time zealously pursued the great cause of the Reformation in Europe and in the world, and thus assigned to England that station as Queen of the Protestant world, which has been, and ever will be, her glory and her strength, so long as she shall remain true and faithful to this great calling. This was his third ruling passion,-religious liberty,-the greatness of England,-the prosperity of Protestantism. Where is the statesman that has ever had in view nobler and more beneficial objects? He entertained the same affection for the several reformed churches abroad as for those of Great Britain. Writing to a Protestant prince, he congratulated him on his inviolable zeal for the evangelical churches," A zeal the more worthy of praise, at a time when such flattering hopes are given to persons of your rank, if they will forsake the orthodox faith; and where those who continue steadfast are threatened with so many troubles: I call God to witness (adds Cromwell) that I desire nothing so much as an opportunity to answer the favorable opinion the churches have of my zeal and piety, by endeavoring to propagate the true faith, and procure rest and peace for the Church. Hold firm to the orthodox religion which you have received from your fathers: nothing will bring you greater glory, than to protect it as much as lies in your power.' Cromwell thought it his vocation to be in the whole world what he was at home-the great champion of religious liberty. 66 His Highness," wrote Secretary Thurloe, on the 7th of July, 1654,"continues his ancient zeal to the Protestant religion, whereof nobody need doubt nor have the least scruple, but may build the greatest resolutions thereupon." A noble opportunity ere long occurred for proclaiming this to the whole world. On the 3rd of June, 1655, sad tidings reached England from Piedmont, and filled all Protestant hearts with sorrow, but particularly that heart which beat strongest for the cause of the Gospel. The descendants of the Waldenses, those great evangelists of the Middle Ages, were living peaceably in the valleys of Lucerne, Peroza, and St. Martin, between Piedmont and Savoy. This very year a persecution broke out against them with inconceivable violence: the natural result of the desire to convert the heretics, occasioned by the great jubilee of 1650. To bring about this act of severity, the pope put forward a singular motive, that the country of the Waldenses might be given to the Irish who were banished for their concern in the massacre of the Protestants in Ireland. Early in 1655 an order was sent from the court of Turin to the heads of the reformed families dwelling at La Torre, the little capital of the Vaudois, enjoining them to quit their homes within three days, and retire with their families to * Letter to the Prince of Tarente, quoted in Neale, ii. 640. |