ABSTRACT
For most wealthy landowners civil liberty meant in particular an assured constitutional role for Parliament and freedom from arbitrary taxation and imprisonment. Many of the leading Puritan gentry had been imprisoned for their opposition to the forced loan of 1626; and many had also had their goods distrained for refusing to pay ship money. While there was a good deal of emphasis on the preservation of the liberty of the subject many of the Puritan gentry were also convinced that the cause of Parliament was the cause of God. Many Puritans who supported Parliament believed that the whole future of true religion was now in the balance. Only Parliament could bring about a thorough reformation of the Church in fulfilment of God’s will; but if the king emerged victorious it seemed likely that godliness would be under even greater threat than in the years of his personal rule.
