Section III:—­From Sept. 17, 1656 to June 26, 1657. 
This Section, comprehending nine months, may be entitled OLIVER AND
THE FIRST SESSION OF HIS SECOND PARLIAMENT.

We map out the present chapter accordingly.

SECTION I.

OLIVER AND HIS FIRST PARLIAMENT: 
SEPT, 3, 1654-JAN. 22, 1654-5.

MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF THE PROTECTORATE:  ITS
COMPOSITION:  ANTI-OLIVERIANS NUMEROUS IN IT:  THEIR FOUR DAYS’ DEBATE
IN CHALLENGE OF CROMWELL’S POWERS:  DEBATE STOPPED BY CROMWELL:  HIS
SPEECH IN THE PAINTED CHAMBER:  SECESSION OF SOME FROM THE PARLIAMENT: 
ACQUIESCENCE OF THE REST BY ADOPTION OF THE RECOGNITION: 
SPIRIT AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE PARLIAMENT STILL MAINLY
ANTI-OLIVERIAN:  THEIR FOUR MONTHS’ WORK IN REVISION OF THE
PROTECTORAL CONSTITUTION:  CHIEF DEBATES IN THOSE FOUR MONTHS: 
QUESTION OF THE PROTECTOR’S NEGATIVES:  OTHER INCIDENTAL WORK OF THE
PARLIAMENT:  QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS TOLERATION AND OF THE SUPPRESSION
OF HERESIES AND BLASPHEMIES:  COMMITTEE AND SUB-COMMITTEE ON THIS
SUBJECT:  BAXTER’S PARTICIPATION:  TENDENCY TO A LIMITED TOLERATION
ONLY, AND VOTE AGAINST THE PROTECTOR’S PREROGATIVE OF MORE:  CASE OF
JOHN RIDDLE, THE SOCINIAN.—­INSUFFICIENCY NOW OF OUR FORMER SYNOPSIS
OF ENGLISH SECTS AND HERESIES:  NEW SECTS AND DENOMINATIONS:  THE
FIFTH-MONARCHY MEN:  THE RANTERS:  THE MUGGLETONIANS AND OTHER STRAY
FANATICS:  BOEHMENISTS AND OTHER MYSTICS:  THE QUAKERS OR FRIENDS: 
ACCOUNT OF GEORGE FOX, AND SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE QUAKERS TO
THE YEAR 1654.—­POLICY OF THE PARLIAMENT WITH THEIR BILL FOR A NEW
CONSTITUTION:  PARLIAMENT OUTWITTED BY CROMWELL AND DISSOLVED:  NO
RESULT.

Before the 3rd of September, 1654, the day fixed by the Constitutional Instrument for the meeting of the First Parliament of the Protectorate, the 460 newly elected members, or the major part of them, had flocked to Westminster.  They were a gathering of the most representative men of all the three nations that could be regarded as in any sense adherents of the Commonwealth.  All the Council of State, except the Earl of Mulgrave and Lord Lisle, had been returned, some of them by two or three different constituencies.  Secretary Thurloe had been returned; Cromwell’s two sons, Richard and Henry, had been returned, Henry as member for Cambridge University; several gentlemen holding posts in his Highness’s household had been returned.  Of the old English peers, there had been returned the Earl of Salisbury, the Earl of Stamford, and Lord Dacres; and of the titular nobility there were Lord Herbert, Lord Eure, Lord Grey of Groby, and the great Fairfax.  Among men of Parliamentary fame already were ex-Speaker Lenthall, Whitlocke, Sir Walter Earle, Dennis Bond, Sir Henry Vane Senior, Sir Arthur Hasilrig, Thomas Scott, William Ashurst, Sir James Harrington, John Carew, Robert Wallop, and Sir Thomas