Nominated Assembly and Protectorate
After the forcible dissolution of the Rump Parliament by Oliver Cromwell, the Grandees of the Army Council of Officers were reluctant to authorise free elections because they were aware that the members returned by the traditional constituency would return Presbyterians and Royalists as well as their own sympathisers. They were not at all sure that the majority would be any more compliant than the Rump. Major-General Thomas Harrison, who had commanded the troop which aided Oliver Cromwell in dissolving the Rump, suggested that there be a ruling body based upon the Old Testament Sanhedrin of 70 selected "Saints", which was based on his beliefs, as a Fifth Monarchist, that the rule of the Saints would usher in the reign of Christ on Earth. A modified version of this proposal was accepted by Cromwell and the Council of Officers and less than a month after the dissolution of the Rump, during May 1653, letters in the name of the Lord-General and the Army Council were sent to Congregational churches in every county in England to nominate those they considered fit to take part in the new government. The total number of nominees was one hundred and forty, one hundred and twenty-nine from England, five from Scotland and six from Ireland.
The arrest of Feake and Powell was sufficient for a time to dampen their ardour, but many of the delegates to Barebone's Parliament were from congregations with Fifth Monarchist sympathies. This assembly, which met from July until December 1653, was the high water mark of Fifth Monarchist influence on national politics. Fearing their ultra-radical ideas, which crystallised in an attack on tithes, the conservative faction led by Major-General John Lambert, supported by the use of troops to deny access to the radical factions, engineered a vote for the dissolution of the assembly, which was passed on 12 December 1653. The collapse of the radical consensus which had spawned the Nominated Assembly led to the Grandees passing the Instrument of Government in the Council of State which paved the way for Cromwell's Protectorate. The Fifth Monarchists were horrified at the establishment of Cromwell's Protectorate and plotted to overthrow the regime. Two plots were uncovered and broken up in 1657 and 1659.
Read more about this topic: Fifth Monarchists
Famous quotes containing the words nominated and/or assembly:
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