Church of England had become closely identified with the State, and under the Stuart kings the government of the State drifted slowly away from popular sympathies and popular aspirations. The Church was dragged in its train till it was regarded as a powerful instrument of anti-popular government. Then it was that Puritanism became powerful as a centre of opposition to a tyrannical and unconstitutional use of power, and discontent against the exercise of the royal authority was united with hostility to the jurisdiction of bishops. The development of opinion in the Long Parliament was rapid, and was moulded largely by outward circumstances. The original desire to draw a distinction between the spiritual and temporal power of the bishops, and to reduce them to the model of primitive episcopacy was expanded before the prospect of needful help from Scotland. The foreign system of Presbyterianism, alien to English instincts, was hastily adopted as a solution of religious difficulties and a guarantee for a substantial alliance. It was a fatal mistake, which might have wrecked the cause of English liberty; it had the result of wrecking English Puritanism as it had hitherto existed. Yet it was a natural mistake, for it seemed to provide an answer to the existing problem. The organisation of the Church, as it was established in England, was judged to be unsatisfactory: it could provide no place for the missionary zeal of the Puritan clergy: it would pay no heed to their scruples: it had further been a help to an unconstitutional government which men were unanimous in wishing to amend. Why not try a new form which had proved its success in a
