ut him. Four years after the war had begun a horror-stricken
pamphleteer numbered sixteen religious sects as existing in defiance of
the law; and, widely as these bodies differed among themselves, all were
at one in repudiating any right of control in faith or in worship on the
part of the Church or its clergy. Above all, the class which became
specially infected with the spirit of religious freedom was the class to
whose zeal and vigour the Parliament was forced to look for success in
the struggle. Cromwell had wisely sought for good fighting men among the
"godly" farmers of the Associated Counties. But where he found such men
he found dissidents, men who were resolved to seek God after their own
fashion, and who were as hostile to the despotism of the National Church
as to the despotism of the king.

[Sidenote: Cromwell and the dissidents.]

The problem was a new and a difficult one; but Cromwell met it in the
same practical temper which showed itself in his dealings with the
social difficulties that stood in the way of military organization. The
sentiments of these farmers were not his own. Bitter as had been his
hatred of the bishops, and strenuously as he had worked to bring about a
change in Church government, Cromwell, like most of the Parliamentary
leaders, seems to have been content with the new Presbyterianism, and
the Presbyterians were more than content with him. Lord Manchester
"suffered him to guide the army at his pleasure." "The man, Cromwell,"
writes the Scotchman Baillie, "is a very wise and active head,
universally well beloved as religious and stout." But they were startled
and alarmed by his dealings with these dissident recruits. He met the
problem in his unspeculative fashion. He wanted good soldiers and good
men; and, if they were these, the Independent, the Baptist, the Leveller
found entry among his troops. "You would respect them, did you see
them," he answered the panic-stricken Presbyterians who charged them
with "Anabaptistry" and revolutionary aims: "they are no Anabaptists:
they are honest, sober Christians; they expect to be used as men." But
he was busier with his new regiment than with theories of Church and
State; and his horsemen were no sooner in action than they proved
themselves such soldiers as the war had never seen yet. "Truly they were
never beaten at all," their leader said proudly at its close. At Winceby
fight they charged "singing psalms," cleared Lincolnshire of the
Cava