by
Jesus Christ were to be protected in the exercise of their religion, with
the exception of prelatists, papists, and those who taught licentiousness
under the pretence of religion. 6. The lord-general Cromwell was named
lord-protector; his successors were to be chosen by the council. The first
parliament was to assemble on the 3rd of the following December; and till
that time the lord-protector was vested with power to raise the moneys
necessary for the public service, and to make ordinances which should have
the force of law, till orders were taken in parliament respecting the same.

At the conclusion, Cromwell, raising his right hand and his eyes to heaven
with great solemnity, swore to observe, and cause to be observed, all the
articles of the instrument; and Lambert, falling on his knees, offered to
the protector a civic sword in the scabbard, which he accepted, laying
aside his own, to denote that he meant to govern by constitutional, and not
by military, authority. He then seated himself in the chair, put on his hat
while the rest stood uncovered, received the seal from the commissioners,
the sword from the lord mayor, delivered them back again to the same
individuals, and, having exercised these acts of sovereign authority,
returned in procession to his carriage, and repaired in state to Whitehall.
The same day the establishment of the government by a lord-protector and
triennial parliaments, and the acceptance of the protectorship by the
lord-general, were announced to the public by proclamation, with all the
ceremonies hitherto used on the accession of a new monarch.[1]

It cannot be supposed that this elevation of Cromwell to the supreme power
was viewed with satisfaction by any other class of men than his brethren in
arms, who considered his greatness their own work, and expected from
his gratitude their merited reward. But the nation was surfeited with
revolutions. Men had suffered so severely from the ravages of war and the
oppression of the military; they had seen so many instances of punishment
incurred by resistance to the actual possessors of power; they were divided
and

[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 571-578. Thurloe, i. 639, 641. Ludlow, ii. 40.
The alteration in the representation, which had been proposed in the long
parliament, was generally considered an improvement,--Clar. Hist. iii.
495.]

subdivided into so many parties, jealous and hateful of each other;
that they readily acquiesced in any chang