s such as these
would hardly be lost on the mass of the clergy, and sober men looked
forward to a day when every pulpit would be ringing with exhortations to
passive obedience, with denunciations of Calvinism and apologies for
Rome.

[Sidenote: The Avowal.]

Of all the members of the House of Commons Eliot was least fanatical in
his natural bent, but the religious crisis swept away for the moment
all other thoughts from his mind. "Danger enlarges itself in so great a
measure," he wrote from the country, "that nothing but Heaven shrouds us
from despair." When the Commons met again in January 1629, they met in
Eliot's temper. The first business called up was that of religion. The
House refused to consider any question of supplies, or even that of
tonnage and poundage, which still remained unsettled though Charles had
persisted in levying these duties without any vote of Parliament, till
the religious grievance was discussed. "The Gospel," Eliot burst forth,
"is that Truth in which this kingdom has been happy through a long and
rare prosperity. This ground therefore let us lay for a foundation of
our building, that that Truth, not with words, but with actions we will
maintain!" "There is a ceremony," he went on, "used in the Eastern
Churches, of standing at the repetition of the Creed, to testify their
purpose to maintain it, not only with their bodies upright, but with
their swords drawn. Give me leave to call that a custom very
commendable!" The Commons answered their leader's challenge by a solemn
avowal. They avowed that they held for truth that sense of the Articles
as established by Parliament, which by the public act of the Church, and
the general and current exposition of the writers of their Church, had
been delivered unto them. It is easy to regard such an avowal as a mere
outburst of Puritan bigotry, and the opposition of Charles as a defence
of the freedom of religious thought. But the real importance of the
avowal both to king and Commons lay in its political significance. In
the mouth of the Commons it was a renewal of the claim that all affairs
of the realm, spiritual as well as temporal, were cognizable in
Parliament. To Charles it seemed as if the Commons were taking to
themselves, in utter defiance of his rights as governor of the Church,
"the interpretation of articles of religion; the deciding of which in
doctrinal points," to use his own words, "only appertaineth to the
clergy and Convocation." To us