f the rolls, informed him by letter, that they had
sought the Lord, but did not feel themselves free to act according to the
ordinance. The protector took the seals from the two first, and gave
them Fiennes and Lisle; Lenthall overcame his scruples, and remained
in office.--See the ordinance in Scobell, 324; the objections to it in
Whitelock, 621.]

regularly marshalled in hosts against each other; and the usages of
particular districts, only to be ascertained through the treacherous
memories of the most aged of the inhabitants. Englishmen had a right to
know the laws by which they were to be governed; it was easy to collect
from the present system all that was really useful; to improve it by
necessary additions; and to comprise the whole within the small compass of
a pocket volume. With this view, it was resolved to compose a new body of
law; the task was assigned to a committee; and a commencement was made by a
revision of the statutes respecting treason and murder.[1] But these votes
and proceedings scattered alarm through the courts at Westminster, and
hundreds of voices, and almost as many pens, were employed to protect from
ruin the venerable fabric of English jurisprudence. They ridiculed the
presumption of these ignorant and fanatical legislators, ascribed to them
the design of substituting the law of Moses for the law of the land, and
conjured the people to unite in defence of their own "birthright and
inheritance," for the preservation of which so many miseries had been
endured, so much blood had been shed.[2]

4. From men of professed sanctity much had been expected in favour of
religion. The sincerity of their seal they proved by the most convincing
test,--an act for the extirpation of popish priests and Jesuits, and the
disposal of two-thirds of the real and personal

[Footnote 1: Journals, Aug. 18, 19, Oct. 20. Exact Relation, 15-18.]

[Footnote 2: The charge of wishing to introduce the law of God was
frequently repeated by Cromwell. It owed its existence to this, that many
would not allow of the punishment of death for theft, or of the distinction
between manslaughter and murder, because no such things are to be found in
the law of Moses.--Exact Relation, 17.]

estates of popish recusants.[1] After this preliminary skirmish with
antichrist, they proceeded to attack Satan himself "in his stronghold" of
advowsons. It was, they contended, contrary to reason, that any private
individual should possess the