with which they were connected, were the abominations of the State-Church in the eyes of the Anabaptist Voluntaries.  For let it not be forgotten that Cromwell’s ardent passion for a Church-Establishment under his Protectorate had come more and more to involve, in his reasonings, the preservation of the Tithe-system and the continuance of lay Patronage.  The legal patrons of livings retained their right of nominating to vacancies; the Triers only checked that right by examination of nominees and the rejection of the unfit.  Cromwell himself combined in his own person, to a most extraordinary extent, the functions both of Patron and Trier.  “It is observable that, his Highness having near one half of the livings in England, one way or other, in his own immediate disposal by presentation, he seldom bestoweth one of them upon any man whom himself doth not first examine and make trial of in person, save only that, at such times as his great affairs happen to be more urgent than ordinary, he useth to appoint some other to do it in his behalf; which is so rare an example of piety that the like is not to be found in the stories of Princes.”  We have not exaggerated, it will be seen, Cromwell’s personal anxiety about his Established Church.  That, indeed, is farther proved, in a very interesting manner, by certain entries in the Order Books of his Council which become more and more frequent in this middle section of his Protectorate.  They refer to “augmentations of ministers’ stipends.”  Thus, in December 1655, there is an order for the augmentation of the stipends of seventy-five ministers in different counties, all in one batch; and succeeding entries in 1656 show the steady progress of the same work by repeated orders for other augmentations, batch after batch.  Clearly Cromwell had resolved that there should be a systematic increase of the salaries of the parochial clergy all over England, beginning with those who needed it most.  The details of the business were managed by that body of “Trustees for maintenance of ministers” which had been appointed by Ordinance in Sept. 1654 (Vol.  IV. p. 564); but the final Orders for Augmentations came from the Protector and Council, and there was no part of his work in which the Protector seemed to have more pleasure.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Baxter, 96-97 and 180-188; Wood’s Ath.  III. 1083; Council Order Books of dates; Neal, IV.  Chap. 3; Marchamont Needham’s Book against John Goodwin, entitled The Great Accuser Cast Down, published in July 1657.  The information about Cromwell’s practice in his patronage of livings is from the last.  The book was dedicated to Cromwell.]