What was cromwell religion

Oliver Cromwell rose from the middle ranks of English society to be Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, the only non-royal ever to hold that position. He played a leading role in bringing Charles I to trial and to execution; he undertook the most complete and the most brutal military conquest ever undertaken by the English over their neighbours; he championed a degree of religious freedom otherwise unknown in England before the last one hundred years; but the experiment he led collapsed within two years of his death, and his corpse dangled from a gibbet at Tyburn.

He was - and remains - one of the most contentious figures in world history. Oliver Cromwell was born on 25 April in Huntingdon. His ancestors had benefited from the power of a distant relative, Thomas Cromwell, who secured them former monastic lands in Cromwell's grandfather built an elegant house on the outskirts of Huntingdon and regularly entertained King James the hunting was good in Huntingdon and other prominent courtiers.

But Cromwell's father was a younger son who only inherited a small part of the family fortune and he was brought up in a modest town house. Burdened by debt and a decline in his fortunes, he sold up in , and took a lease on a farm a few miles away, in St Ives. It would appear that in Cromwell attempted to emigrate to Connecticut in America, but was prevented by the government from leaving. For Cromwell had been converted to a strong puritan faith, and he found living within a church still full of 'popish' ceremonies unbearable.

He yearned to be where the gospel was proclaimed and preached unadorned. He stayed and became more radical in his religion - he regularly preached at an illegal religious assembly and he referred in a letter to the Bishop as 'the enemies of God His Truth'.

When the chance came, he stood for Parliament, and was returned on the interest of a Puritan caucus, for the town of Cambridge. Cromwell was a highly visible and volatile member of parliament from and whenever he took his seat in between military campaigns.

In the early months of the Long Parliament, he was outspoken on the need for reform of the Church 'roots and branches' and he was the first man to demand the outright abolition of bishops. He was also prominent in the campaign to force the king into calling annual sessions of Parliament; and he demanded that control of home defence be transferred from the King to officers directly appointed by Parliament.

As the country drifted into civil war, he was one of the activist M. He galvanised the areas around Huntingdon and Ely and used force to prevent the Cambridge Colleges sending their silver to the King's headquarters to support his war effort. He was quickly commissioned into the army, and spent most of the next four years in arms. Controversially, he was the only M. It was only in that he was confirmed as the Lieutenant General. In he argued in favour of a settlement with the king that would require him to accept Cromwell's political allies as his ministers and which would guarantee rights of religious liberty for all sincere protestants.

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He enjoyed music, hunting and playing bowls. Despite being a highly religious man, Cromwell had a hatred for the Irish Catholics.

He believed that they were all potential traitors willing to help any Catholic nation that wanted to attack England he clearly did not know too much about the Spanish Armada. He sent an army there and despite promising to treat well those who surrendered to him, he slaughtered the people of Wexford and Drogheda who did surrender to his forces. He ordered that all Irish children should be sent to the West Indies to work as slave labourers in the sugar plantations.

He knew many would die out there — but dead children could not grow into adults and have more children. Cromwell left a dark stain on the history of Ireland. By the end of his life, both Cromwell and the 11 major-generals who helped to run the country, had become hated people.

The population was tired of having strict rules forced onto them. Cromwell died in September His coffin was escorted by over 30, soldiers as it was taken to Westminster Abbey where he was buried. Why so many soldiers? Were they there as a mark of respect for the man who had formed the elite New Model Army?

Or was there concern that the people of London, who had grown to hate Cromwell, would try to get to the body and damage it in some way? This was not what Henry wanted to hear, and when the letter was read to him it left him moved; he asked for it to be read over again, and again a third time. On the scaffold there was the same combination of contrition and defiance.

Yes, he had offended God and the king, for which he was sorry. He had lived a sinful life and needed divine forgiveness. All this is very general; almost anyone in his last hour could say the same. The Roman Catholic Church had, and still has, seven sacraments: baptism, the Eucharist, penance, marriage, confirmation, ordination and extreme unction. Protestants recognised only the first two. So which church and which sacraments did Cromwell actually mean?

Mind games on the scaffold, I think. He did not ask for prayers or masses for his soul when he was dead. For this we must turn to John Foxe, the Elizabethan historian and compiler of the martyrs.