of the depths of experience of the soul, call this sheer hypocrisy. But this is just because shallowness can never fathom depth. And Mr. MacLeane has. been making some investigations, which entirely support Carlyle's passionate belief in Cromwell's sincerity in admitting that he had! been wild. It appears that while old St. John's church, Huntingdon, has been pulled down, the old registers remain, And in! the old church registers there are; two astonishing entries regarding' Cromwell: in the entries of the year 1621 there is this; "Oliverius Cromwell, filtus Roberti, repre-census est coram tota ecclesia pro facts." That is, Oliver Cromwell was admonished in the presence of the whole church on account of his conduct, or deeds." The meaning is, of course, evil deeds. The other entry. in the year 1698 runs thus: "Oliverius Cromwell fect poenitenties coram tota ecclesia," he "did penance, or professed' penitence, publicly. Here indeed is something for us to think about, and for the people who hold the "hypocrite" theory to think about.
In the seventeenth, and far down into the eighteenth century in England and Scotland, church discipline was strict; offenders in a parish were cited to appear the next Sabbath, in the parish church, to be publicly admonished for their sins. They had to go. It was a trying ordeal. Drinking to excess, slandering, fox-hunting on Sundays, railing at the parson, holding irreverent opinions, as well as the graver offences against morals, were all dealt with. The "stool of repentance" was not a thing to be laughed at. What is it thou hast been guilty of?" asks the minister of an old woman. "An auld offence; a leein tongue," says she; and she is told what holy David says about the deceitfulness of the tongue. And Mr. Macleane is sure that these old records are genuine, and that the great Lord Protector, the greatest ruler England ever had, once stood up and owned his sins before God and man. It is a fortunate thing for a good many people, that we have been born later.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.