Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector of England
(1599-1658)
There is definitely an association
between John Knox and Oliver
Cromwell. Knox, in his book The
Reformation of Scotland, outlined
the whole process without which
the British model of government
under Oliver Cromwell never would
not have been possible. Yet Knox
was more consistently covenantal in
his thinking. He recognized that civil
government is based on a covenant
between the magistrate (or the
representative or king) and the
populace. His view was that when
the magistrate defects from the
covenant, it is the duty of the
people to overthrow him.
Cromwell was not a learned scholar,
as was Knox, nevertheless God
elevated him to a greater leadership role. Oliver Cromwell was born into a
common family of English country Puritans having none of the advantages of
upbringing that would prepare him to be leader of a nation. Yet he had a
God-given ability to earn the loyalty and respect of men of genius who
served him throughout his lifetime. John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress
served under his command in the English Civil War, and John Milton, who
penned Paradise Lost, served as his personal secretary.
Cromwell's early years were ordinary, but after a conversion experience at
age 27, he was seized by a sense of divine destiny. He became suddenly
zealous for God. He was a country squire, a bronze-faced, callous-handed
man of property. He worked on his farm, prayed and fasted often and
occasionally exhorted the local congregation during church meetings. A quiet,
simple, serious-minded man, he spoke little. But when he broke his silence, it
was with great authority as he commanded obedience without question or
dispute. As a justice of the peace, he attracted attention to himself by
collaring loafers at a tavern and forcing them to join in singing a hymn. This
exploit together with quieting a disturbance among some student factions at
the neighboring town of Cambridge earned him the respect of the Puritan
locals and they sent him to Parliament as their representative. There he
attracted attention with his blunt, forcible speech as a member of the
Independent Party which was made up of Puritans.
The English people were bent upon the establishment of a democratic
parliamentary system of civil government and the elimination of the "Divine
Right of Kings." King Charles I, the tyrant who had long persecuted the
English Puritans by having their ears cut off and their noses slit for defying
his attempts to force episcopacy on their churches, finally clashed with
Parliament over a long ordeal with new and revolutionary ideas. The
Puritans, or "Roundheads" as they were called, finally led a civil war against
the King and his Cavaliers.
When he discerned the weaknesses of the Roundhead army, Cromwell made
himself captain of the cavalry. Cromwell had never been trained in war, but
from the very beginning he showed consummate genius as a general.
Cromwell understood that successful revolutions were always fought by
farmers so he gathered a thousand hand-picked Puritans - farmers and
herdsmen - who were used to the open fields. His regiment was nicknamed
"Ironsides" and was never beaten once, although they fought greatly
outnumbered - at times three to one.
It was an army the likes of which hadn't been seen since ancient Israel. They
would recite the Westminster Confession and march into battle singing the
Psalms of David striking terror into the heart of the enemy. Cromwell's tactic
was to strike with the cavalry through the advancing army at the center, go
straight through the lines and then circle to either the left or the right milling
the mass into a mob, creating confusion and utterly destroying them.
Cromwell amassed a body of troops and soon became commander-in-chief.
His discipline created the only body of regular troops on either side who
preached, prayed, paid fines for profanity and drunkenness, and charged the
enemy singing hymns - the strangest abnormality in an age when every vice
imaginable characterized soldiers and mercenaries.
In the meantime, Charles I invited an Irish Catholic army to his aid, an action
for which he was tried for high treason and beheaded shortly after the war.
After executing the national sovereign, the Parliament assumed power. The
success of the new democracy in England was short-lived. Cromwell found
that a democratic parliamentary system run by squires and lords oppressed
the common people and was almost as corrupt as the rulership of the
deposed evil king. As Commander-in-Chief of the army, he was able to seize
rulership and served a term as "Lord Protector."
During the fifteen years in which Cromwell ruled, he drove pirates from the
Mediterranean Sea, set English captives free, and subdued any threat from
France, Spain and Italy. Cromwell made Great Britain a respected and feared
power the world over. Cromwell maintained a large degree of tolerance for
rival denominations. He stood for a national church without bishops. The
ministers might be Presbyterian, Independent or Baptist. Dissenters were
allowed to meet in gathered churches and even Roman Catholics and
Quakers were tolerated. He worked for reform of morals and the
improvement of education. He strove constantly to make England a
genuinely Christian nation and she enjoyed a brief "Golden Age" in her
history.
When Charles I was beheaded, the understanding was that he had broken
covenant with the people. The view of Cromwell and the Puritans was that
when the magistrate breaks covenant, then he may legitimately be deposed.
The Puritan understanding of the covenantal nature of government was the
foundation for American colonial government. This was true of Massachusetts
and Connecticut and to a lesser extent in the Southern colonies. When the
Mayflower Compact was written, the Pilgrims had a covenantal idea of the
nature of civil government. This was a foundation for later colonies
established throughout the 1600s. These covenants were influenced by what
Knox had done in Scotland and what the Puritans had done in England.
Progress of Nations, vol. IV, pp.144-153.