to object; and the members unanimously
swore "never to consent to the laying down of arms, so long as the papists,
in open war against the parliament, should be protected from the justice
thereof, but according to their power and vocation, to assist the forces
raised by the parliament against the forces

[Footnote 1: Journals, June 6.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. May 31]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. June 6]

raised by the king." The Lords, the citizens, the army followed their
example; and an ordinance was published that every man in his parish church
should make the same vow and covenant.[1][a] As for the prisoners, instead
of being sent before a court of law, they were tried by a court-martial.[b]
Six were condemned to die: two suffered.[c] Waller saved his life by the
most abject submission. "He seemed much smitten in conscience: he desired
the help of godly ministers," and by his entreaties induced the Commons to
commute his punishment into a fine of ten thousand pounds and an order
to travel on the continent. To the question why the principal should be
spared, when his assistants suffered, it was answered by some that a
promise of life had been made to induce him to confess, by others that too
much

[Footnote 1: Journals, May 31; June 6, 14, 21, 27, 29. Rushworth, v.
322-333. Whitelock, 67, 70, 105. The preamble began thus: "Whereas there
hath been and now is in this kingdom a popish and traitorous plot for the
subversion of the true Protestant religion, and liberty of the subject,
in pursuance whereof a popish army hath been raised and is now on foot in
divers parts of the kingdom," &c.--Journals, June 6. Lords' Journals, vi.
87. I am loath to charge the framers and supporters of this preamble with
publishing a deliberate falsehood, for the purpose of exciting odium
against the king; but I think it impossible to view their conduct in any
other light. The popish plot and popish army were fictions of their own to
madden the passions of their adherents. Charles, to refute the calumny, as
he was about to receive the sacrament from the hands of Archbishop
Ussher, suddenly rose and addressed him thus, in the hearing of the whole
congregation: "My Lord, I have to the utmost of my soul prepared to become
a worthy receiver; and may I so receive comfort by the blessed sacrament,
as I do intend the establishment of the true reformed Protestant religion,
as it stood in its beauty in the happy days of Queen Elizabeth, without
any