Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T06:15:17.914Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE CURSE OF MEROZ AND THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2014

JORDAN S. DOWNS
JORDAN S. DOWNS*
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
*
1212 HMNSS Building, University of California, Riverside, 900 University Ave, CA, 92521[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article attempts to uncover the political significance of the Old Testament verse Judges 5:23, ‘the curse of Meroz’, during the English Civil War. Historians who have commented on the printed text of Meroz have done so primarily in reference to a single edition of the parliamentarian fast-day preacher Stephen Marshall's 1642 Meroz cursed sermon. Usage of the curse, however, as shown in more than seventy unique sermons, tracts, histories, libels, and songs considered here, demonstrates that the verse was far more widespread and politically significant than has been previously assumed. Analysing Meroz in its political and polemical roles, from the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion in 1641 and through the Restoration of Charles II in the 1660s, sheds new light on the ways in which providentialism functioned during the Civil Wars, and serves, more specifically, to illustrate some of the important means by which ministers and polemicists sought to mobilize citizens and construct party identities.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 343 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Richard Cust, Barbara Donagan, Peter Lake, Isaac Stephens, Stefania Tutino, and the two anonymous reviewers who read and commented on earlier versions of this article. Special thanks are due to Tom Cogswell for his guidance and extensive feedback.

References

1 G. S., , A briefe declaration of the barbarous and inhumane dealings of the Northerne Irish (London, 1641), pp. 6Google Scholar, 14–15.

2 Goodwin, John, Irelands advocate (London, 1641)Google Scholar, title page and p. 33. For a discussion of parish radicalism, see Johns, Adrian, ‘Coleman Street’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 71 (2008), pp. 33–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 John Donne, for instance, preached upon the Song of Deborah at Paul's Cross, A sermon upon the xx verse of v chapter of the Book of Judges (London, 1622). See also, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, MS 1951.011, Notes from sermons given by Richard Culverwell in St Margaret Moyses, London. This includes a note on Judges 5:20 from 30 Oct. 1627 and the dangers that await ‘if man is rebellious to his creator’, p. 33.

4 For useful discussions of the exegetical process, which is not dealt with explicitly here, see Sharpe, Kevin, ‘Reading revelations: prophecy, hermeneutics and politics in early modern Britain’, in Sharpe, Kevin and Zwicker, Steven, eds., Reading, society and politics in early modern England (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 122–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Whitford, David W., The curse of Ham in the early modern era: the Bible and the justifications for slavery (Aldershot, 2009), ch. 9Google Scholar and esp. p. 79. For the evolution of notetaking, see Blair, Ann, ‘Note taking as an art of transmission’, Critical Inquiry, 31 (2004), pp. 85–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Blair, Ann, ‘The rise of note-taking in early modern Europe’, Intellectual History Review, 20 (2010), pp. 303–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Patten, William, The calendar of scripture (London, 1575), p. 137Google Scholar.

6 Diodati, Giovanni, Pious annotations upon the Holy Bible (London, 1643), p. 149Google Scholar; Downame, John, Annotations upon all the books of the Old and New Testament (London, 1645)Google Scholar, sig. BB2r.

7 Carpenter, Nathaniel, Chorazin and Bethsaida's woe [printed posthumously] (London, 1640), p. 62Google Scholar.

8 Case, Thomas, Gods rising, his enemies scattering (London, 1644)Google Scholar; Arrowsmith, John, The covenant avenging sword brandished (London, 1643)Google Scholar. Edward Vallance offers a useful discussion of England's status as a covenanted nation in Revolutionary England and the National Covenant: state oaths, Protestantism and the political nation, 1553–1682 (Woodbridge, 2005), ch. 1, passim.

9 See S. L. Adams, ‘The Protestant cause: religious alliance with the west European Calvinist communities as a political issue in England, 1585–1630’ (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford, 1973).

10 For an excellent discussion of the ways in which English Calvinists compared themselves to the ancient Israelites prior ‘to the end of Charles I's Personal Rule’, see Walsham, Alexandra, Providence in early modern England (Oxford, 1999), pp. 281–326Google Scholar. For a brief but valuable discussion of the entire period, see Wilson, John F., Pulpit in parliament: puritanism during the English Civil Wars, 1640–1648 (Princeton, NJ, 1969), pp. 168–74Google Scholar. Contemporary examples include Jones, John, Londons looking back to Jerusalem (London, 1633)Google Scholar; Nash, Thomas, Christs teares over Jerusalem (London, 1640)Google Scholar; [anon.] The great mysterie of God … whereby comparing scripture with acts of divine providence, will plainly appeare that the ruine of mysticall Babylon, and the erecting of spirituall Jerusalem are the ground of these present commotions (London, 1645); Dury, John, Israels call to march out of Babylon unto Jerusalem (London, 1646)Google Scholar.

11 Marshall, Stephen, Meroz curse (London, 1641), pp. 2–6Google Scholar.

12 Three editions of Marshall's 1641 Meroz curse are available in the English Short Title Catalogue: ESTC R180386, ESTC R12794, and ESTC R226922.

13 Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, , The history of the rebellion (Oxford, 1843), pp. 297–8Google Scholar; Hammond, Henry, Of resisting the lawful magistrate under colour of religion (Oxford, 1644), pp. 57–8Google Scholar.

14 For examples of scholarship dealing with Meroz prior to 1641, see: Adams, S. L., ‘Foreign policy and the parliaments of 1621 and 1624’, in Sharpe, Kevin, ed., Faction and parliament: essays on early Stuart history (Oxford, 1978), p. 147Google Scholar; Cogswell, Thomas, The blessed revolution: English politics and the coming of war, 1621–1624 (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 28–9Google Scholar; Killeen, Kevin, ‘Veiled speech’, in Marshall, Peter, Adlington, Hugh, and Rhatigan, Emma, eds., The Oxford handbook of the early modern sermon (Oxford, 2011), p. 393Google Scholar. Patrick Collinson has suggested that Marshall based his understanding of Meroz on earlier printed works in The birthpangs of protestant England: religious and cultural change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (New York, NY, 1988), p. 128. Trevor-Roper, Hugh, ‘Fast sermons of the Long Parliament’, in Trevor-Roper, Hugh, ed., Essays in British history: presented to Sir Keith Feiling (London, 1965), pp. 99–100Google Scholar, 105. I intend to explore early invocations of Meroz at a later date.

15 Wilson, Pulpit in parliament, pp. 63–4; Morrill, John, ‘The religious context of the English Civil War’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 34 (1984), pp. 155–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 178; Capp, Benard, ‘Popular culture and the English Civil War’, History of European Ideas, 10 (1989), pp. 31–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 31; Walter, John, Understanding popular violence in the English revolution: the Colchester plunderers (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 296Google Scholar, 326; Collinson, The birthpangs, pp. 126–35.

16 Fletcher, Anthony, The outbreak of the English Civil War (New York, NY, 1981), p. 344Google Scholar; Burgess, Glen, ‘Was the English Civil War a war of religion? Evidence of political propaganda’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 61 (1998), pp. 173–201CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at pp. 173–4; Burgess, Glen, ‘Religion and civil society: the place of the English Revolution in the development of political thought’, in Braddick, Michael and Smith, David, eds., The experience of revolution in Stuart Britain and Ireland (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 273–4Google Scholar.

17 Walsham, Providence, pp. 220, 283, 316; idem, Charitable hatred: tolerance and intolerance in England, 1500–1700 (Manchester, 2006), p. 138; Trevor-Roper, ‘Fast sermons of the Long Parliament’, p. 99.

18 See Walsham, Alexandra, ‘ “The Fatall Vesper”: providentialism and anti-popery in late Jacobean London’, Past and Present, 144 (1994), pp. 36–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Vox Piscis: of The Book Fish: providence and the uses of the Reformation past in Caroline Cambridge’, English Historical Review, 114 (1999), pp. 574–606.

19 Worden, Blair, ‘Providence and politics in Cromwellian England’, Past and Present, 109 (1985), pp. 59–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 59; Worden, Blair, God's instruments: political conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell (Oxford, 2012), pp. 33–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; G. C. Browell, ‘The politics of providentialism in England, c. 1640–1660’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Kent, 2000), pp. 2, 17. For a recent example of the uses of providentialism by royalists, see Cust, Richard, ‘Charles I and providence’, in Fincham, Kenneth and Lake, Peter, eds., Religious politics in post-Reformation England: essays in honour of Nicholas Tyacke (Woodbridge, 2006), pp. 194–5Google Scholar. See also Christianson, Paul, Reformers and Babylon: English apocalyptic visions from the Reformation to the eve of the Civil War (Toronto, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baskerville, Stephen, Not peace but a sword: the political theology of the English Revolution (London, 1993)Google Scholar.

20 The process of ‘shaping and being shaped by’, perhaps best defined in terms of the sociological concept of ‘structuration’, is raised frequently by Browell in ‘The politics of providentialism’, pp. 2, 13, 17, 273–4. For an important study of the long-term significance of a scriptural curse, see Whitford, The curse of Ham.

21 Early English Books Online (EEBO) and the Text Creation Partnership (TCP) have aided my discovery of many of the printed examples of Judges 5:23 that are cited in this article. Numerous other references, however, have come from the first hand reading of printed texts and manuscripts. Where possible, and in recognizing the limitations and occasional issues associated with EEBO and the TCP, I have consulted original copies of the printed materials in order to validate their accuracy.

22 Collinson, The birthpangs, p. 128.

23 Patten, The calendar of scripture, p. 137; Greenwood, Henry, A treatise of the great and generall daye of judgement (London, 1606)Google Scholar under ‘Morning prayer’; Gardiner, Samuel, Doomes-day booke (London, 1606), p. 40Google Scholar; Raleigh, Walter, The history of the world (London, 1614), pp. 415Google Scholar, 423; Rogers, Richard, A commentary upon the whole Booke of Judges (London, 1615), pp. 268–9Google Scholar.

24 Allen, William, An admonition to the nobility and people of England and Ireland (Antwerp, 1588), pp. 5, 54Google Scholar.

25 Lord Burghley to Sir Francis Walsingham, 12 June 1588, The National Archives (TNA), State Papers, 12/211/24.

26 Hastings, Francis, A watch-word to all religious, and true hearted English-men (London, 1598), p. 103Google Scholar. See also Adams, ‘The Protestant cause’; Hammer, Paul, The polarisation of Elizabethan politics: the political career of Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, 1585–1597 (Cambridge, 1999), p. 43Google Scholar. For other examples of Meroz in print, see Broughton, Hugh, A concent of scripture (London, 1590)Google Scholar, sig. C2r; Hacket, Roger, A sermon needfull for theese times (Oxford, 1591)Google Scholar, lacks pagination; Harward, Simon, The solace for the souldier and saylour (London, 1592)Google Scholar, sig. B2r; Edward Topsell, Times lamentation (1599), p. 417; Andrewes, Lancelot, XCVI sermons by the right honorable and reverend father in God, Lancelot Andrewes (London, 1629), pp. 183Google Scholar, 186, 187.

27 Adams, Thomas, The gallants burden (London, 1612)Google Scholar, p. 30; Maclure, Millar, The Paul's Cross sermons, 1534–1642 (Toronto, 1958), p. 97Google Scholar. See also Adams, Thomas, A divine herball together with a forrest of thornes (London, 1616), p. 46Google Scholar. Bellany, Alastair, The politics of court scandal in early modern England: news culture and the Overbury affair, 1603–1660 (Cambridge, 2002)Google Scholar.

28 Gataker, Thomas, A sparke toward the kindling of sorrow for Sion (London, 1621), pp. 20Google Scholar, 34, 37; Scott, Thomas, Vox dei: injustice cast and condemned (London, 1623), pp. 44Google Scholar, 73, 86. See also Teellinck, Willem, The balance of the sanctuarie [translated from Dutch] (London, 1621), p. 97Google Scholar; Ussher, James, A sermon preached before the Commons-house of parliament (London, 1624), pp. 10–11Google Scholar; Jackson, Thomas, Judah must into captivity (London, 1622), p. 60Google Scholar; Taylor, Thomas, Two sermons (London, 1624), pp. 14Google Scholar, 26; Laud, William, A sermon preached before his majestie (London, 1626), pp. 30–1Google Scholar.

29 Younge, Richard, The drunkard's character (London, 1638), p. 467Google Scholar. See also Reynolds, Edward, Meditations on the Holy Sacrament (London, 1638), p. 155Google Scholar.

30 See Tom Webster, ‘Marshall, Stephen (1594/5?-1655)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography. Webster rightly notes that Marshall was an ideal candidate who would be ‘unlikely to put a strain on the fragile alliance of conservatives and reformers’.

31 Fletcher, The outbreak, pp. 92–4.

32 Marshall, Stephen, Reformation and desolation (London, 1642), p. 48Google Scholar.

33 Christianson, Reformers and Babylon, p. 185.

34 Meroz curse, title page. Marshall, Stephen, Meroz cursed, or a sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons (London, 1642), p. 10Google Scholar. Marshall here claims that evidence of providential wrath and cursing was ‘most plain in many other Scriptures’, but that his intention was to ‘cull out but three among three hundred’ to support Meroz, starting with Jeremiah 48:10 and the curse pronounced against Moab.

35 Meroz cursed, pp. 5–6.

36 Ibid., p. 22.

37 Ibid., p. 53.

38 ‘The Proposition of the Com[missione]rs for Ireland’, 17 June 1642, State Papers Ireland, 63/260/230.

39 Die Mercurii: 5 Maii. 1641 (Protestation Oath and Preamble) (London, 1641).

40 Commons’ Journals, 2 (1640–2), p. 389.

41 Cressy, David, ‘The protestation protested, 1641 and 1642’, Historical Journal, 44 (2002), pp. 251–79Google Scholar, at pp. 267–8.

42 Russell, Conrad, Fall of the British monarchies, 1637–1642 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 294–5Google Scholar. This is also noted in Cressy, ‘The protestation protested’, p. 252.

43 Trevor-Roper, ‘Fast sermons of the Long Parliament’, p. 100; Marshall, Meroz cursed (1642): ESTC R180387, ESTC R19516, ESTC R204373.

44 Wilson, Thomas, Jerichoes downfall (London, 1643), pp. 31–2Google Scholar; Case, Thomas, God's rising, His enemies scattering (London, 1644), pp. 21Google Scholar, 42; Herle, Charles, A payre of compasses (London, 1642), 35Google Scholar; Ley, John, The fury of warre and folly of sin (London, 1643), p. 16Google Scholar.

45 Pym, John, A discoverie of the great plot (London, 1643)Google Scholar, sig. B3r.

46 Palmer, Herbert, The necessity and encouragement (London, 1643), p. 27Google Scholar; Hill, Thomas, The militant church, triumphant over the Dragon (London, 1643)Google Scholar [quoted in text and cited in the margin on p. 9]. Alongside Meroz, Hill paraphrased Mathew 12:30, ‘He that is not with me is against me’, and 2 Thessalonians 2:8, ‘It is the word of they Testimony, by which Christs souldiers prevaile against the Devill and his Angels’, pp. 9, 19.

47 See Hunt, Arnold, The art of hearing: English preachers and their audiences, 1590–1640 (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 187–228Google Scholar, 292–5. For the best discussion of reception and its difficulties, see Peacey, Jason, Politicians and pamphleteers: propaganda during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 1–27Google Scholar, 237–72. An interesting outlier in this trend of parliamentarian ministers using the curse is George Downham, the royalist rector of South Repps, Norfolk, and author of Rex meus est dues, a sermon in which Meroz was invoked to demonstrate the need to stand up for the ‘cause of God’. As Matthew Reynolds points out, Downham's cause amounted to an attack on ‘the Calvinist theology of grace’, which was part of the wider struggle over the ministry of Norwich. To date, Downham's is the only ‘pro-royalist’ invocation of Meroz that I have encountered for the Civil War period. See D[ownham], G[eorge], Rex meus est dues (London, 1643), p. 27Google Scholar; Reynolds, Matthew, Godly reformers and their opponents in early modern Norwich, c. 1560–1643 (Woodbridge, 2005), pp. 247–8Google Scholar.

48 Huntington Library, MS Ellesmere 8178d (34/A/22), pp. 1, 9, 17–18. There is no way to date the sermon precisely, but p. 24 states: ‘And so ye L[ord] our God rejecteth all kinds of fighting in this war without his warrant.’

49 British Library (BL) Add. MS 18781, Walter Yonge [Jr], ‘Reports of sermons in London, 1642–4’, fo. 110r. This is almost certainly Daniel Dyke, the godly and active minister whom Tai Liu has identified with the lectureship at St Martin Ludgate in 1643–4. Yet, even Liu cautions that Dyke's identity is ‘tentative’, in Puritan London: a study of religion and society in the city parishes (London, 1986), pp. 108–9, 121. Dyke's name is not recorded in the vestry minutes for St Martin Ludgate, 1579–1649: London Metropolitan Archives, MS P69/MTN1/B/001/MS01311/001/001.

50 Laud, William, The history of the troubles (London, 1695), p. 196Google Scholar. I have been unable to determine who ‘Mr Joclin’ was.

51 Ibid., p. 63.

52 To the right honourable the Lords of the higher house of parliament (London, 1642). Many thanks to Tom Cogswell for bringing this petition to my attention.

53 A letter to the kingdome of England (London, 1642).

54 The un-deceiver (London, 1643), p. 3.

55 Prynne, William, The fourth part of the soveraigne power of parliaments and kingdoms (London, 1643), p. 217Google Scholar.

56 Gatford, Lionel, An exhortation to peace (London, 1643), pp. 23–4Google Scholar; Walter, Understanding popular violence, p. 326.

57 Symmons, Edward, Scripture vindicated, from the misapprehensions, misinterpretations, & misapplications of Mr Stephen Marshall (Oxford, 1644)Google Scholar, sigs. A2v–A4v.

58 Bruno Ryves, Mercurius rusticus, 27 May 1643, pp. 12–13.

59 Symmons, Edward, A loyall subjects beliefe, expressed in a letter to Master Stephen Marshall (Oxford, 1643), p. 2Google Scholar.

60 Symmons, Scripture vindicated, pp. 1, 3, 8, 54–5.

61 The only other evidence regarding the frequency with which Marshall preached on Meroz comes from an anonymous and critical biography, The life & death of Stephen Marshall (London, 1680), p. 26, in which the claim is made that Marshall ‘himself has boasted, that he preach'd one Sermon (I believe that was Curse ye Meroz,) threescore times’. This figure has proven popular among historians since it was mentioned in Sir Stephen, Leslie and Lee, Sir Sidney, eds., Dictionary of national biography, xi (London, 1917–), p. 1131Google Scholar; Trevor-Roper, , ‘Fast sermons of the Long Parliament’, p. 99; Bernard Capp, ‘Popular culture and the English Civil War’, History of European Ideas, 10 (1989), p. 31Google Scholar; Burgess, ‘Was the English Civil War a war of religion? Evidence of political propaganda’, pp. 173–4; Walsham, Providence, p. 316.

62 Symmons, Scripture vindicated, pp. 14–15.

63 Hammond, Of resisting the lawful magistrate under colour of religion, pp. 57–8.

64 Ibid., 58.

65 Wither, George, Campo-musæ (London, 1643), p. 68Google Scholar.

66 A declaration of the reasons for assisting the parliament of England against the papists and prelatical army (London, 1643), p. 1; John Rushworth, Historical collections of private passages of state (8 vols., London, 1721), v, p. 472.

67 See Hexter, J. H., ‘The problem of the Presbyterian Independents’, American Historical Review, 44 (1938), pp. 29–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Underdown, David, ‘The Independents reconsidered’, Journal of British Studies, 3 (1964), pp. 57–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pearl, Valerie, ‘The “Royal Independents” in the English Civil War’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 18 (1968), pp. 69–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Helpful in this case is the notion of a ‘coalition’ or ‘broad coalition’ recently discussed by historians such as Whitney Jones in Thomas Rainborowe (c. 1610–1648): Civil War seaman, siegemaster and radical (Woodbridge, 2005), p. 45.

68 Tom Webster, ‘Preaching and Parliament, 1640–1659’, in Marshall, Adlington, and Rhatigan, eds., The Oxford handbook of the early modern sermon, pp. 406–7.

69 Hughes, Ann, Gangraena and the struggle for the English revolution (Oxford, 2004), p. 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 Peacey, Politicians and pamphleteers, p. 8.

71 Langbaine, Gerard, A review of the covenant (Oxford, 1645), p. 98Google Scholar.

72 Black, Joseph L., The Marprelate tracts: a modernized and annotated edition (Cambridge, 2011), p. xviGoogle Scholar.

73 Overton, Richard, Martin's eccho (London, 1645), pp. 2Google Scholar, 5, 9.

74 Meroz cursed (London, 1645): ESTC R32412.

75 See Edwards, Thomas, Gangraena (London, 1646)Google Scholar; Hughes, Gangraena, pp. 55–129.

76 Heyrick, Richard, Queen Esthers resolves (London, 1646), pp. 30–2Google Scholar. For an excellent discussion of Wheelwright's role in the ‘antinomian controversy’, see Como, David, Blown by the spirit: puritanism and the emergence of an antinomian underground in pre-Civil-War England (Stanford, CA, 2004), pp. 441–4Google Scholar.

77 Rutherford, Samuel, A survey of the spirituall Antichrist (London, 1648), pp. 177–8Google Scholar; Wheelwright, John, A sermon preached in New England upon a fast day in the publications of the prince society (Boston, MA, 1876), p. 161Google Scholar.

78 Mercurius pragmaticus, 15–22 August 1648, p. 6.

79 The use of such language led famously to Marten's ejection from the Commons in 1643. See the Diary of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, BL, Harley MS 165, fo. 149r.

80 Gardiner, S. R., History of the great Civil War, 1642–1649, iv (London, 1905), p. 53Google Scholar. See also Ashton, Robert, Counter revolution: the second Civil War and its origins, 1646–1648 (New Haven, CT, 1994), pp. 39–42Google Scholar.

81 Symmons, Edward, The kings most gracious messages for peace (London, 1648), pp. 112Google Scholar, 129–30.

82 Lacey, Andrew, The cult of King Charles the martyr (Woodbridge, 2003), p. 28Google Scholar.

83 Cobbett, William, Howell, Thomas Bayly, and Jardine, William, eds., Cobbett's complete collection of state trials (10 vols., London, 1809–26)Google Scholar, iv, col. 1071.

84 Milton, John, The tenure of kings and magistrates (London, 1649), pp. 36Google Scholar, 42.

85 Goodwin, John, Hybristodikai (London, 1649), p. 94Google Scholar.

86 Ibid., pp. 94–5.

87 Burges, Cornelius, A vindication of the ministers of the gospel (London, 1649), p. 3Google Scholar; Gataker, Thomas, A serious and faithfull representation (London, 1649)Google Scholar. Gataker noted the leaders in the opposition to the ‘present proceedings’ as Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Laurence Whitaker, Obadiah Sedgwick, and Simeon Ashe, pp. 2, 16.

88 Dell, William, The city-ministers unmasked (London, 1649), p. 15Google Scholar.

89 Again, these figures are based on a wide reading of physical texts and word-searches with EEBO and the TCP and should, thus, be treated with caution. It is certainly not unreasonable to assume that the curse was being invoked and discussed elsewhere.

90 This ‘reconciliation’ is discussed at length by Worden, Blair, The Rump Parliament (Cambridge, 1974), pp. 211–36Google Scholar. See, for example, Seaman, Lazarus, A glasse for the times (London, 1650)Google Scholar, sig. A2v.

91 Price, John, The cloudie clergie (London, 1650)Google Scholar, title and p. 20.

92 Haggar, Henry, No king but Jesus (London, 1652), p. 7Google Scholar; Rogers, John, Sagrir, or, doomes-day drawing nigh (London, 1654), p. 13Google Scholar; Corbet, Jeffrey, The Protestant's warning-piece (London, 1656)Google Scholar.

93 Stoyle, Mark, ‘Remembering the English Civil Wars’, in Grey, Peter and Oliver, Kendrick, eds., The memory of catastrophe (Manchester, 2004), p. 22Google Scholar.

94 Peter, Hugh, The case of Mr. Hugh Peters (London, 1660), p. 3Google Scholar.

95 Gauden, John, Cromwell's bloody slaughter-house (London, 1660)Google Scholar, sig. A3r, pp. 45–6.

96 BL, Add. MS 37343 Whitelocke's Annals vol. iii, fos. 348r, 351v.

97 L'Estrange, Roger, L'Estrange his apology (London, 1660), p. 124Google Scholar. Printed again under L'Estrange, Roger, A short view of some remarkable transactions (London, 1660), p. 116Google Scholar.

98 Lucifers life-guard (London, 1660).

99 Clarendon, The history of the rebellion, p. 298.

100 Baillie, Robert, The letters and journals of Robert Baillie (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1841), i, p. 230Google Scholar. Hughes, Gangaena, p. 328.

101 Dell, The city-ministers unmasked, p. 15.

102 See, for example, Marshall, Stephen, The sinne of hardnesse of heart (London, 1648)Google Scholar. Sermon notes from the occasion point to many examples of the ‘judgements that God uses to send out against a people with whom he is displeased’. William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, MS 1951.011, p. 131.

103 Bradley, Thomas, Appello Cæsarem (London, 1661), p. 8Google Scholar; Wharton, George, Select and choice poems (London, 1661), p. 70Google Scholar.

104 Brome, Alexander, The rump serv'd in with a grand sallet (London, 1660)Google Scholar. Brome is credited for the same song in Rump (London, 1662). See Harris, Tim, London crowds in the reign of Charles II: propaganda and politics from the Restoration until the Exclusion Crisis (Cambridge, 1987), p. 57Google Scholar.

105 Marvell, Andrew, Plain-dealing (London, 1675), p. 144Google Scholar; Butler, Samuel, Hudibras: the third and last part (London, 1678), pp. 158Google Scholar.

106 Clarendon, The history of the rebellion, pp. 17, 297–8.