tion, which embraced the right of the king to raise money without the consent of Parliament; and the question of the religious condition of the state, as connected with the spread of Popish doctrines, and with the promotion of men holding to those tenets to high positions in the church and state. In order more thoroughly to consider this last great subject, the House of Commons resolved itself "Committee of Religion."

into a

"It was in this Committee of Religion," says Carlyle,* "on the 11th day of February, 1628-9, that Mr. Cromwell, member for Huntingdon, then in his thirtieth year, stood up and made his first speech, a fragment of which has found its way into history, and is now known to all the world. He said 'he had heard by relation from one Dr. Beard, his old schoolmaster at Huntingdon, that Dr. Alablaster, prebendary of St. Paul's and rector of a parish in Herts, had preached flat Popery at Paul's Cross; and that the Bishop of Winchester, Dr. Neile, had commanded him, as his

* Carlyle's Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, 3d edit.,

pp. 1-92.

diocesan, he should preach nothing to the contrary. Mainwaring, so justly censured in this House for his sermons, was by the same bishop's means preferred to a rich living. If these, are the steps to church preferment, what are we to expect?''

A new

Cromwell's facts on this occasion were but two out of many similar ones brought to the attention of the House of Commons. remonstrance to the king was also drawn up, couched in bolder language than any which had preceded it.

Charles, alarmed and provoked at the Parliament, instantly dissolved it. Before the final adjournment however, the Remonstrance was ordered to be put to vote. This the Speaker, Finch, refused to do. Denzil Holles and other members locked the doors, held Finch in his seat, and hastily passed three resolutions to the effect that whosoever should encourage Popery, or should advise the levyings of tonnage or poundage by the king on his own authority, or should pay the same so levied, should be held an enemy to religion. and the state of England.

The result of this bold movement was the indictment of Denzil Holles and his comrades by the famous Star Chamber court,* and their committal to the tower. Thus ended the Parliament of 1628-9. It was the last held in England for over eleven years, and it was made a penal offence even to speak of the assembling of another.

While the Revolution was thus hastening forward with rapid strides, Milton was immersed in hard and recluse study, reserving himself for a higher hour. Of course he must have shared in the interest which these events excited; but as the year 1628-9 was the one in which his undergraduateship closed and he

*The Court of Star Chamber, the most infamous in English history, derived its name from the room in which it sat, which was frescoed with stars. It was the old council chamber of the ancient palace of Westminster. The court was very ancient, but was newmodelled by Henry VII. and Henry VIII., when more obnoxious and arbitrary powers were conferred upon it. It consisted of divers lords, spiritual and temporal, being privy counsellors, together with two judges of the courts of common law, without the intervention of any jury. It was used as the engine of oppression for a long series of years, and thus earned the fear and dislike of the whole nation. Its stretches of despotic power, so alien to the spirit of the British Constitution, at length awoke such opposition that the clamors of the people, finding voice through Parliament, finally compelled its abolition by statute, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles I., to the great joy of the whole nation. Encyclopedia Britannica, eighth edition, Vol. XX., p. 537.

gained his degree of Bachelor of Arts, he could not have devoted much time, had he so desired, to the consideration of public affairs.

Milton graduated very brilliantly; he had gradually pushed his way into the respect and admiration of the whole University, and was at this time regarded as one of its brightest ornaments. The old grudge had completely vanished, and professors and students united in doing homage to his religious principle and splendid genius.

Malicious critics have made vague charges that Milton was addicted while an undergraduate to fast company and high living. The whole tenor of his life and writings, together with his own published and spirited denial at the time, unite to prove the unspotted innocence of his youth. And indeed these rumors never won much credence, except, as in the case of Dr. Johnson, when the wish was father to the thought. At all events it is very certain that the whole body of his biographers with singular agreement have unanimously branded them as slanderous fables.

But this shows that even the greatest and

best of men, though their lives be as pure as the driven snow, cannot hope to escape vituperation and calumny. Our Saviour himself was accused of being the companion of gluttons and wine-bibbers.

The course of study at Cambridge embraced seven years; the first four being the period of undergraduateship, the last three terminating with the degree of Master of Arts. Milton, as has been mentioned, had just completed the first period, terminating with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He had therefore three years more to remain at the University. Throughout this entire period Milton. was treated with unusual respect, and his great powers were fully recognized. But his present popularity did not turn his head any more than his prior unpopularity had dismayed him. Earnest and self-centred, he moved towards his goal unaffected to a remarkable degree by the opinion of his fellows, so that his own conscience said "Amen" to his actions. He continued to "hive fresh wisdom with each studious year," and so grew to rival the qualities of the admirable Crichton of historic tradition.