Yet it is certain that at the outset neither of these peculiarities was monopolized by either party.  In abundant instances, the sins changed places,—­Cavaliers canted, and Puritans plundered.  That is, if by cant we understand the exaggerated use of Scripture language which originated with the reverend gentleman of that name, it was an offence in which both sides participated.  Clarendon, reviewing the Presbyterian discourses, quoted text against text with infinite relish.  Old Judge Jenkins, could he have persuaded the “House of Rimmon,” as he called Parliament, to hang him, would have swung the Bible triumphantly to his neck by a ribbon, to show the unscriptural character of their doings.  Charles himself, in one of his early addresses to his army, denounced the opposing party as “Brownists, Anabaptists, and Atheists,” and in his address to the city of London pleaded in favor of his own “godly, learned, and painfull preachers.”  Every royal regiment had its chaplain, including in the service such men as Pearson and Jeremy Taylor, and they had prayers before battle, as regularly and seriously as their opponents.  “After solemn prayers at the head of every division, I led my part away,” wrote the virtuous Sir Bevill Grenvill to his wife, after the battle of Bradock.  Rupert, in like manner, had prayers before every division at Marston Moor.  To be sure, we cannot always vouch for the quality of these prayers, when the chaplain happened to be out of the way and the colonel was his substitute.  “O Lord,” petitioned stout Sir Jacob Astley, at Edgehill, “thou knowest how busy I must be this day; if I forget thee, do not thou forget me!”—­after which, he rose up, crying, “March on, boys!”

And as the Puritans had not the monopoly of prayer, so the Cavaliers did not monopolize plunder.  Of course, when civil war is once begun, such laxity is mere matter of self-defence.  If the Royalists unhorsed the Roundheads, the latter must horse themselves again, as best they could.  If Goring “uncattled” the neighborhood of London, Major Medhope must be ordered to “uncattle” the neighborhood of Oxford.  Very possibly individual animals were identified with the right side or the wrong side, to be spared or confiscated in consequence;—­as in modern Kansas, during a similar condition of things, one might hear men talk of a pro-slavery colt, or an anti-slavery cow.  And the precedent being established, each party could use the smallest excesses of the other side to palliate the greatest of its own.  No use for the King to hang two of Rupert’s men for stealing, when their commander could urge in extenuation the plunder of the house of Lady Lucas, and the indignities offered by the Roundheads to the Countess of Rivers.  Why spare the churches as sanctuaries for the enemy, when rumor accused that enemy (right or wrong) of hunting cats in those same churches with hounds, or baptizing dogs and pigs in ridicule of the consecrated altars?  Setting aside these charges as questionable, we cannot so easily