Charles, who were inclined to constitutional
measures, were filled with shame. It was now feared that the king
would not respect his word or the constitution, and, with all his
promises, was still bent on tyrannical courses. All classes, but
bigoted royalists, now felt that something must be done promptly, or
that their liberties would be subverted.

Then it was, and not till then, that the Commons openly defied him,
while the king remained in his palace, humbled, dismayed, and
bewildered, "feeling," says Clarendon, "the trouble and agony which
usually attend generous minds upon their having committed errors;" or,
as Macaulay says, "the despicable repentance which attends the
bungling villain, who, having attempted to commit a crime, finds that
he has only committed a folly."

[Sidenote: Flight of the King from London.]

In a few days, the king fled from Whitehall, which he was never
destined to see again till he was led through it to the scaffold. He
went into the country to raise forces to control the parliament, and
the parliament made vigorous measures to put itself and the kingdom in
a state of resistance. On the 23d of April, the king, with three
hundred horse, advanced to Hull, and were refused admission by the
governor. This was tantamount to a declaration of war. It was so
considered. Thirty-two Lords, and sixty members of the Commons
departed for York to join the king. The parliament decreed an army,
and civil war began.

Before this can be traced we must consider the Puritans, which is
necessary in order fully to appreciate the Revolution. The reign of
Charles I. was now virtually ended, and that of the Parliament and
Cromwell had begun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Rise of the Puritans.]

Dissensions among the Protestants themselves did not occur until the
reign of Elizabeth, and were first caused by difficulties about a
clerical dress, which again led to the advocacy of simpler forms of
worship, stricter rules of life, more definite forms of faith, and
more democratic principles of government, both ecclesiastical and
civil. The first promoters of these opinions were the foreign divines
who came from Geneva, at the invitation of Cranmer, of whom Peter
Martyr, Martin Bucer, John a Lasco, were the most distinguished. Some
Englishmen, also, who had been travelling on the continent, brought
with them the doctrines of Calvin. Among these was Hooper, who, on
being nominated to th