Notes to Chapter 129 On their first day of business (May 9) William Prynne and a few others secluded in
Pride’s Purge took seats and refused to leave; only by adjourning for dinner could the
Rump get rid of them.
30 The Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England, ed. William Cobbett, et al., 2nd
edn, 24 vols (London, 1761–73), III, cols 1,552–4; Commons Journal VII, 651.
31 [Henry Vane], A Needful Corrective or Ballance in Popular Government (London, 1659,
May?). A manuscript note on the Bodleian copy ascribes the tract to Vane, or as written
with his advice and approbation. The Select Council or Senate would have a negative
over the broadly representative popular assembly in matters pertaining to the exclusion
of a single person and liberty of conscience; it might also propose legislation and take on
the executive duties of a Council of State. For a season at least it would be composed of,
and elected by, either Saints renewed by grace or those who had proved in arms their
devotion to the Commonwealth. For the first edition of the Healing Question, published
in March, 1656, see chapter 10, p. 338.
32 CPW V.2, 871–3. There is some question whether letters of June 30 to Sweden and
Denmark are Milton’s; they appear in none of the collections and their similar formulas
are likely to be simple repetitions used in several such letters. See J. M. French and
Maurice Kelley, “The Columbia Milton,” N&Q 195 (1952), 244–6.
33 William Prynne, A True and perfect Narrative of what was done, spoken by and between Mr.
Prynne, the old and newly Forcibly late secluded Members, the Army Officers, and those now
sitting... on... the 7. and 9. of this instant May (London, 1659, May 18), 50. Cf.
Prynne, The Re-Publicans and Others Spurious Good Old Cause, briefly and truly anatomized
(London, 1659, c. May 13), 10.
34 J. M., Considerations Touching the Likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the church.
Wherein is also discours’d of Tithes, Church-fees, Church-revenues; and whether any mainte-
nance of ministers can be settl’d by law (London, 1659). Harrington refers to this tract in
Aphorisms Political (London, 1659, c. August 31), 4–5, so it was probably completed, as
Woolrych speculates, around August 1 and appeared in mid-August (CPW VII, 84–5).
35 CPW VII, 278. For tithe supporters see, for example, “The Petition of Divers Justices
of the Peace, Gentlemen, Ministers of the Gospel, Freeholders, and Other Consider-
able Inhabitants in the County of Sussex,” in The Publick Intelligencer 183 ( June 27–July
4, 1659), 553; “The Humble Petition of Divers Well Affected Persons in the Town of
Warminster,” in The Publick Intelligencer 177 (May 16–23, 1659), 447. For sectarian abo-
litionists, see “The Humble Petition of the Baptised Congregations Assembled at Alisbury,
in the County of Bucks,” Mercurius Politicus 569 (May 26–June 2, 1659, dated May 28),
471; “The Humble Representation and Petition of Many Wel-Affected Persons in the
Counties of Somerset, Wilts, and Some Part of Devon, Dorset, and Hampshire,” Mercurius
Politicus 571 (June 9–16, 1659, dated June 14), 487; The Humble Petition of Divers Free-
holders and Other Inhabitants of the County of Hertford (London, 1659, June 24), broadside;
The Humble Representation of Divers Freeholders and Others... Inhabiting within the County
of Bedford (London, 1659, June 17), broadside.
36 The Copie of a Paper Presented to the Parliament (London, 1659, June 27), 5.
37 Proclamation, Monday, June 27, 1659, broadside; Commons Journal VII, 694. In its first
form the resolution read “until,” not “unless”; on June 14 petitioners had been prom-
ised that the parliament would seek an alternative maintenance “with all convenient
speed”; Commons Journal VII, 683; Mercurius Politicus 571 ( June 9–16), 510.
Notes to Chapter 11