ABSTRACT
The execution of Charles I was followed by votes of the House of Commons for the abolition of the House of Lords. The military danger and political needs which had held together the army and the Parliament, and which had brushed aside the demand for a new legislature, had been dissolved by the victory of Worcester. The Parliament met at Whitehall, as summoned, on July 4; and Cromwell forthwith and in good faith made over to it his dictatorship. The ecclesiastical history is simply a record of confusion. The key to the religious problems of the Commonwealth is to be found in the conflict between the political necessity which drove Oliver to attempt to conciliate the Presbyterians and that exalted conception of freedom and toleration which distinguished him beyond all his contemporaries. The effect which the financial strain produced upon the economy and the policy of the Commonwealth may be stated in a very few words.
