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SYMONS
One Name Study Member No 3496 |
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Meaning of the Protestation Returns
On the 3rd of May 1641, fifteen months before the outbreak of the Civil War, the House of Commons drew up a Protestation Oath with six stated objectives:
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To defend
"the true Reformed Protestant Religion, expressed in the doctrine of the
Church of England, against all Popery and Popish Innovations",
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To defend "the Power and
Privileges of Parliaments",
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To defend "His Majesty's
Royal Person, Honour and Estate",
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To defend "the lawful
Rights and Liberties of the subjects, and every person that maketh this
Protestation",
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To oppose and bring to
punishment "all such as shall, either by Force, Practice, Counsels, Plots,
Conspiracies or otherwise" oppose anything in the Protestation,
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To preserve "the Union and
Peace between the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland".
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All MPs immediately signed the Protestation. The following
day the House of Lords agreed it and all the Protestant Peers signed. On the
30th July the House of Commons passed a resolution that all who refused the
Protestation were unfit to hold office in Church or Commonwealth.
Nearly six months later, on the 19th January 1642, Speaker
William Lenthall, Protestant son of a west Oxfordshire Catholic and a nephew of
the Jesuit martyr Robert Southwell, sent copies of the Protestation to the
county sheriffs with these instructions:
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The Sheriff and JPs were to
meet as soon as possible and take the Oath,
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The JPs were then to
disperse to their respective county divisions and bring together the
Minister, Constables, Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor of every
parish,
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These officials were then
to "very speedily call together the Inhabitants of their Parishes, both
Householders and others, being of Eighteen Years of Age and upwards", and to
tender and witness the Oath, listing all who took and refused it,
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The Sheriff was then to
collate the returns from the various parishes.
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Hence in February 1642 most adult males in England and Wales
(and in a few cases, women as well) took the Oath.
I,-------- do, in the presence of Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest to maintain, and defend as farr as lawfully I maye, with my Life, Power and Estate, the true Reformed Protestant religion, expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England, against all Popery and Popish Innovations, within this Realme, contrary to the same Doctrine, and according to the duty of my Allegiance, His Majesties Royal Person, Honour and Estate, as alsoe the Power and Privileges of Parliament, the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, and any person that maketh this Protestation, in whatsoever he shall do in the lawful Pursuance of the same; and to my power, and as farr as lawfully I may, I will appose and by all good Ways and Means endeavour to bring to condign Punishment all such as shall, either by Force, Practice, Councels, Plots, Conspiracies, or otherwise, doe any Thing to the contrary of any Thing in this present Protestation contained: and further, that I shall, in all just and honourable ways, endeavour to preserve the Union and Peace betwixt the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland: and neither for Hope, Feare, nor other Respect, shell relinquish this Promise, Vow and Protestation.
Page last updated Monday February 11, 2008