The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth

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The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth

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Commonwealth, by Lewis H. Berens
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Title: The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer
Author: Lewis H. Berens

Release Date: January 8, 2006 [eBook #17480]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's notes:
All material added by the transcriber is surrounded by braces {}.
The original has a number of inconsistent spellings and punctuation. A few corrections have been made for obvious typographical errors; they have been noted individually. A list of specific items will be found at the end of the file.
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THE DIGGER MOVEMENT IN THE DAYS OF THE COMMONWEALTH
As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger _Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer_
by
LEWIS H. BERENS Author of "Towards the Light" Etc. Etc.

"Was gl?nzt ist für den Augenblick geboren; Das Echte bleibt der{1} Nachwelt unverloren." GOETHE.

London Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co. Ltd. 1906

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO
THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT)
TO WHOM THE WORLD OWES MORE THAN IT YET RECOGNISES AND WHOSE FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES THE AUTHOR HAS LEARNED TO LOVE AND ADMIRE WHILST WRITING THIS BOOK

CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY 1
II. THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND 12
III. THE GREAT CIVIL WAR 23
IV. THE DIGGERS 34
V. GERRARD WINSTANLEY 41
VI. WINSTANLEY'S EXPOSITION OF THE QUAKER DOCTRINES 52
VII. THE NEW LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 68
VIII. LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 79
IX. THE DIGGERS' MANIFESTOES 90
X. A LETTER TO LORD FAIRFAX, ETC. 100
XI. A WATCHWORD TO THE CITY OF LONDON, ETC. 112
XII. A NEW YEAR'S GIFT FOR THE PARLIAMENT AND ARMY 132
XIII. A VINDICATION; A DECLARATION; AND AN APPEAL 146
XIV. GERRARD WINSTANLEY'S UTOPIA: THE LAW OF FREEDOM 162
XV. THE SAME CONTINUED 179
XVI. THE SAME CONTINUED 206
XVII. CONCLUDING REMARKS 228
APPENDIX A. THE TWELVE ARTICLES OF THE GERMAN PEASANTRY, 1525 235
" B. CROMWELL ON TOLERATION 241
" C. WINSTANLEY'S LAWS FOR A FREE COMMONWEALTH 244
BIBLIOGRAPHY 255
INDEX 257

THE DIGGER MOVEMENT
CHAPTER I
THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY
"Whatever the prejudices of some may suggest, it will be admitted by all unbiassed judges, that the Protestant Reformation was neither more nor less than an open rebellion. Indeed, the mere mention of private judgment, on which it was avowedly based, is enough to substantiate this fact. To establish the right of private judgment, was to appeal from the Church to individuals; it was to increase the play of each man's intellect; it was to test the opinion of the priesthood by the opinions of laymen; it was, in fact, a rising of the scholars against their teachers, of the ruled against their rulers."--BUCKLE.
What is known in history as the Reformation is one of those monuments in the history of the development of the human mind betokening its entry into new territory. Fundamental conceptions and beliefs, cosmological, physical, ethical or political, once firmly established, change but slowly; the universal tendency is tenaciously to cling to them despite all evidence to the contrary. Still men's views do change with their intellectual development, as newly discovered facts and newly accepted ideas come into conflict with old opinions, and force them to reconsider the evidence on which these latter were based. Prior to the Reformation, many such conceptions and beliefs, at one time holding undisputed dominion over the human mind, had been called into question, their authority challenged, undermined, and weakened, and they had commenced to yield pride of place to others more in accordance with increased knowledge of nature and of life. The revival of classical learning, geographical and astronomical discoveries, and more especially, perhaps, the invention and rapid spread of the art of printing, had all conspired to give an unparalleled impetus to intellectual development,--and the Reformation was, in truth, the outward manifestation in the religious world of this development.
Prior to the Reformation, wherever a man might turn his steps in Western Europe, he found himself confronted with what was proudly termed the Universal Church: one hierarchy, one faith, one form of worship, in which the officiating priests were assumed to be the indispensable mediators between God and man, everywhere