Lewis H. Berens - The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth

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Cromwell, in short, had no deep-rooted objection either to a moderate
Episcopacy or to a tolerant Presbyterianism, though, as he somewhere
says, "both are a hard choice," provided only there was sufficient
consideration for those who could not reconcile their consciences to the
demands of the established State Church. His great desire was "for union
and right understanding" between Protestants of all shades, in fact
between "godley" (religious or moral) people of all races, countries and
denominations, "Scots, English, Jews, Gentiles, Presbyterians,
Independents, Anabaptists, and all." (See his letter to Hammond, _Clarke
Papers_, vol. ii. p. 49.) His aim was to reconcile, or rather to stand
as mediator between all the opposing sects. "Fain," he writes to one of
his most devoted adherent (see _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_,
Carlyle, part vii. p. 363), "would I have my service accepted of the
Saints, if the Lord will;--but it is not so. Being of different
judgements, and those of each sort seeking most to propagate their own,
that spirit of kindness that is to them all is hardly accepted of any. I
hope I can say it, My life has been a willing sacrifice,--and I
hope--for them all. Yet it much falls out as when the two Hebrews were
rebuked: you know upon whom they turned their displeasure."

In short, Cromwell's attitude toward all honest, sincere, "godley" men
was the same as his attitude toward George Fox. "Come again to my
house," he said, when dismissing the sturdy Quaker, "for if thou and I
were but an hour a day together we should be nearer one to the other. I
wish you no more ill than I do to my own soul."

On November 17th, 1645, "the Dissenting Bretheren," the representatives
of the Independents in the Westminster Assembly, declared for a full
liberty of conscience. "They expressed themselves," as Baillie, the
Scotch Presbyterian commissioner, wrote sadly, "for toleration, not only
to themselves, but to all sects." In February of the same year, the
Oxford Clergy, who had been consulted by the King as to the limits of
possible concession, gave strong evidence that the pressure of events
were forcing them to move, even though slowly, in the same direction.
(See Gardiner, _History of the Civil War_, vol. ii. pp. 125-126.)

APPENDIX C

WHAT MAY BE THOSE PARTICULAR LAWS, OR SUCH A METHOD OF LAWS, WHEREBY A
COMMONWEALTH MAY BE GOVERNED?

1. The bare letter of the Law established by Act of Parliament shall be
the Rule for Officers and People, and the chief Judge of all actions.

2. He or they who add or diminish from the Law, excepting in the Court
of Parliament, shall be cashiered his Office, and never bear Office
more.

3. No man shall administer the Law for Money or Reward. He that doth
shall die as a Traitor to the Commonwealth. For when Money must buy and
sell Justice, and bear all the sway, there is nothing but Oppression to
be expected.

[Here, as also in other Laws yet to follow, Winstanley, and as it
seems to us without sufficient grounds, gives up the position taken
up in The New Law of Righteousness, that capital punishment was
absolutely unjustifiable.]

4. The Laws shall be read by the Minister to the People four times in
the year, viz., every quarter; that everyone may know whereunto they are
to yield obedience, that none may die for want of knowledge.

5. No accusation shall be taken against any man unless it be proved by
two or three witnesses, or his own confession.

6. No man shall suffer any punishment but for matter of fact or reviling
words. But no man shall be troubled for his judgement or practice in the
things of his God, so he live quiet in the Land.

7. The accuser and the accused shall always appear face to face before
any Officer; that both sides may be heard, and no wrong to either party.

8. If any Judge execute his own will contrary to the Law, or where there
is no Law to warrant him in, he shall be cashiered, and never bear
Office more.

9. He who raises an accusation against any man, and cannot prove it,
shall suffer the same punishment as the other should, if proved. An
accusation is, when one man complains of another to an Officer, all
other accusations the Law takes no notice of.

10. He who strikes his neighbor shall be struck himself by the
executioner, blow for blow, and shall lose eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
limb for limb, life for life. And the reason is that men should be
tender of one another's bodies, doing as they would be done by.

11. If any man strike an Officer, he shall be made a servant under the
Task-master for a whole year.

12. He who endeavours to stir up contention among neighbors, by
tale-bearing or false reports, shall the first time be reproved openly
by the Overseers among the people. The second time he shall be whipped.
The third time he shall be a servant under the Task-master for three
months. And if he continue, he shall be a servant for ever, and lose his
Freedom in the Commonwealth.

13. If any give reviling or provoking words, whereby his neighbor's
spirit is burdened, if complaint be made to the Overseers, they shall
admonish the offender privately to forbear. If he continue to offend his
neighbor, the next time he shall be openly reproved and admonished
before the Congregation when met together. If he continue, the third
time he shall be whipped; the fourth time, if proof be made by
witnesses, he shall be a servant under the Task-master for twelve
months.

14. He who will rule as a Lord over his Brother, unless he be an Officer
commanding obedience to the Law, he shall be admonished as aforesaid,
and receive like punishment, if he continue.

LAWS FOR THE PLANTING OF THE EARTH.

15. Every household shall keep all instruments and tools fit for the
tillage of the Earth, either for planting, reaping or threshing. Some
households, which have many men in them, shall keep ploughs, carts,
harrows, and such like. Other households shall keep spades, pick-axes,
pruning hooks, and such like, according as every family is furnished
with men to work therewith. And if any Master or Father of a Family be
negligent herein, the Overseer for that Circuit shall admonish him
between them two. If he continue negligent, the Overseer shall reprove
him before all the people. And if he utterly refuse, then the ordering
of that Family shall be given to another, and he shall be Servant under
the Task-master till he reform.

16. Every Family shall come into the field with sufficient assistance at
seed time, to plough, dig and plant, and at harvest time to reap the
fruits of the Earth, and to carry them into the Storehouses, as the
Overseers order the work and the number of workmen. If any refuse to
assist in the work, the Overseer shall ask the reason; and if it be
sickness or any distemper that hinders them, they are freed from such
service; if mere idleness keep them back, they are to suffer punishment
according to the Laws against Idleness.

LAWS AGAINST IDLENESS.

17. If any refuse to learn a trade, or refuse to work in seed-time, or
refuse to be a waiter in storehouses, and yet will feed and clothe
himself with other men's labors, the Overseer shall first admonish him
privately. If he continue idle, he shall be reproved openly before all
the people by the Overseer, and shall be forbore with a month after this
reproof. If he still continue idle, he shall be whipped, and let go at
liberty for a month longer. If still he continue idle, he shall be
delivered into the Task-master's hand, who shall set him to work for
twelve months, or till he submit to right order. The reason why every
young man shall be trained up in some work or other, is to prevent pride
and contention; it is for the health of their bodies; it is a pleasure
to the mind to be free in labors one with another; and it provides
plenty of food and all necessaries for the Commonwealth.

LAWS FOR STOREHOUSES.

18. In every Town and City shall be appointed Storehouses for flax,
wood, leather, cloth, and for all such commodities as come from beyond
seas. These shall be called General Storehouses, whence every particular
Family may fetch such commodities as they want, either for their own use
in their house, or for to work in their trades, or to carry into the
Country Storehouses.

19. Every particular house and shop in a town or city shall be a
particular Storehouse or Shop, as now they be. And these shops shall
either be furnished by the particular labor of that family according to
the trade that family is of, or by the labor of other lesser families of
the same trade, as all shops in every town are now furnished.

20. The waiters in Storehouses shall deliver the goods in their charge
without receiving any money, as they shall receive in their goods
without paying any money.

21. If any waiter in a Storehouse neglect his Office, upon a just
complaint, the Overseers shall acquaint the Judge's Court therewith; and
from thence he shall receive his sentence, to be discharged that house
and office, to be appointed some other work under the Task-master; and
another shall have his place. For he who may live in Freedom and will
not, is to taste of servitude.

LAWS FOR OVERSEERS.

22. The only work of every Overseer is to see the Laws executed. For the
Law is the True Magistracy of the land.

23. If any Overseer favour any in their idleness and neglect the
execution of the Laws, he shall be reproved, the first time by the
Judge's Court; the second time cashiered his Office, and shall never
bear Office more, but fall back into the ranks of young people and
servants to be a worker.

24. New Overseers, at their first entrance into their office, shall look
back upon the actions of the Old Overseers of the last year, to see if
they have been faithful in their places, and consented to no breach of
Law, whereby Kingly Bondage should in any way be brought in.

25. The Overseers for Trades shall see every Family to lend assistance
to plant and reap the fruits of the Earth, to work in their Trades, and
to furnish the Storehouses. And to see that the Waiters in Storehouses
be diligent to receive in and deliver out any goods, without buying and
selling, to any man whatsoever.

26. While any Overseer is in performance of his place, every one shall
assist him, upon pain of open reproof (or cashiered if he be another
Officer) or forfeiture of freedom, according to the nature of the
business in hand, in which he refused his assistance.

LAWS AGAINST BUYING AND SELLING.

27. If any man entice another to buy and sell, and he who is enticed
does not yield, but makes it known to the Overseer, the enticer shall
lose his freedom for twelve months, and the Overseer shall give words of
commendation of him that refused the enticement before all the
Congregation, for his faithfulness to the Commonwealth's Peace.

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN!

28. If any do buy and sell the Earth, or the fruits thereof, unless it
be to or with strangers of another Nation, according to the Law of
Navigation, they shall be both put to death as Traitors to the Peace of
the Commonwealth. Because it brings in Kingly Bondage again, and is the
occasion of all quarrels and oppressions.

29. He, or she, who calls the Earth his, and not his brother's, shall be
set upon a stool, with those words written in his forehead, before all
the Congregation, and afterwards be made a Servant for twelve months
under the Task-master. If he quarrel, or seek by secret persuasion or
open rising in arms to set up such a Kingly Propriety, he shall be put
to death.

30. The Storehouses shall be every man's subsistence, and not any ones.

31. No man shall either give hire or take hire for his work; for this
brings in Kingly Bondage. If any Freeman want help, there are young
people, or such as are common servants, to do it by the Overseer's
appointment. He that gives and he that hires for work, shall both lose
their freedom and become Servants for twelve months under the
Task-master.

LAWS FOR NAVIGATION.

32. Because other Nations as yet own Monarchy, and will buy and sell,
therefore it is convenient for the peace of our Commonwealth, that our
ships do transport our English goods and exchange for theirs, and
conform to the customs of other Nations in buying and selling: Always
provided that what goods our ships carry out, they shall be the
Commonwealth's goods; and all their trading with other Nations shall be
upon the Common Stock, to enrich the Storehouses.

LAWS FOR SILVER AND GOLD.

33. As Silver and Gold is either found out in mines in our own Land, or
brought by shipping from beyond Sea, it shall not be coined with a
Conqueror's stamp upon it, to set up buying and selling under his name,
or by his leave. For there shall be no other use for it in the
Commonwealth than to make dishes and other necessaries for the ornament
of houses, as now there is use made of brass, pewter and iron, or any
other metal in their use. But in case other Nations whose commodities we
want, will not exchange with us unless we give them money, then pieces
of silver and gold may be stamped with the Commonwealth's Arms upon
them, for the same use and no otherwise.

For where money bears all the sway, there is no regard of that Golden
Rule, "_Do as you would be done by_." Justice is bought and sold; nay,
Injustice is sometimes bought for money; and it is the cause of all wars
and oppressions. Certainly the Righteous Spirit of the Whole Creation
did never enact a Law that his weak and simple men should go from
England to the East Indies and fetch silver and gold to bring in their
hands to their bretheren, and give it them for their good-will to let
them plant the Earth, and live and enjoy their livelihood therein.

LAWS TO CHOOSE OFFICERS.

34. All Overseers and State Officers shall be chosen new every year, to
prevent the rise of Ambition and Covetousness. For the Nations have
smarted sufficiently by suffering Officers to continue long in an
Office, or to remain in an Office by hereditary succession.

35. A man who is of a turbulent spirit, given to quarrelling and
provoking words to his neighbor, shall not be chosen any Officer while
he so continues.

36. All men of twenty years of age upwards shall have freedom of voice
to choose Officers, unless they be such as lie under sentence of the
Law.

37. Such shall be chosen Officers as are rational men of moderate
conversation, and who have experience in the Laws of the Commonwealth.

38. All men from forty years of age upwards shall be capable to be
chosen State Officers, and none younger, unless any one by his industry
and moderate conversation doth move the people to choose him.

39. If any man make suit to move the people to choose him an Officer,
that man shall not be chosen at all that time. If another man shall
persuade the people to choose him that made suit for himself, they shall
both loose their freedom at that time, viz., they shall neither have a
voice to choose another, nor be chosen themselves.

LAWS AGAINST TREACHERY.

40. He who professes the service of a righteous God by preaching and
prayer, and makes a trade to get the possessions of the Earth, shall be
put to death for a Witch and a Cheater.

41. He who pretends one thing in words, and his actions declare his
intent was another thing, shall never bear Office in the Commonwealth.

WHAT IS FREEDOM?

Every Freeman shall have a Freedom in the Earth, to plant or build, to
fetch from the Storehouses anything he wants, and shall enjoy the fruits
of his labor without restraint from any. He shall not pay Rent to any
Landlord. He shall be capable of being chosen Officer, so he be above
forty years of age, and he shall have a voice to choose Officers though
he be under forty years of age. If he want any young men to be
assistants to him in his trade or household employment, the Overseers
shall appoint him young men or maids to be his servants in his family.

LAWS FOR SUCH AS HAVE LOST THEIR FREEDOM.

42. All those who have lost their freedom shall be clothed in white
woollen cloth, that they may be distinguished from others.

43. They shall be under the government of a Task-master, who shall
appoint them to be porters or laborers, to do any work that any Freeman
wants to be done.

44. They shall do all kinds of labor without exception, but their
constant work shall be carriers or carters, to carry corn or other
provision from Storehouse to Storehouse, from Country to Cities, and
thence to Countries.

45. If any of these refuse to do such work, the Task-master shall see
them whipped, and shall feed them with coarse diet. And what hardship is
this? For Freemen work the easiest work, and these shall work the
hardest work. And to what end is this but to kill their Pride and
Unreasonableness, that they may become useful men in the Commonwealth?

46. The wife or children of such as have lost their Freedom shall not be
as slaves till they have lost their Freedom as their parents and
husbands have done.

47. He who breaks any laws shall be the first time reproved in words in
private or in public, as is shown before; the next time whipped; the
third time lose his Freedom, either for a short time or for ever, and
not to be any Officer.

48. He who hath lost his Freedom shall be a common servant to any
Freeman who comes to the Task-master and requires one to do any work for
him. Always provided, that after one Freeman hath by the consent of the
Task-master appointed him his work, another Freeman shall not call him
thence till that work be done.

49. If any of these offenders revile the Laws by words, they shall be
soundly whipped and fed with coarse diet. If they raise weapons against
the Laws, they shall die as Traitors.

LAWS TO RESTORE SLAVES TO FREEDOM.

50. When any Slaves [_i.e._ those who have lost their Freedom] give open
testimony of their humility and diligence, and of their care to observe
the Laws of the Commonwealth, they are then capable to be restored to
their Freedom, when the time of servitude has expired, according to the
Judge's sentence. But if they continue opposite to the Laws, they shall
continue slaves for another term of time.

51. None shall be restored to Freedom till they have been a twelve month
laboring servants to the Commonwealth; for they shall winter and summer
in that condition.

52. When any is restored to Freedom, the Judge at the Senator's Court
shall pronounce his Freedom, and give liberty to him to be clothed in
what other coloured garments he will.

53. If any person be sick or wounded, the Chyrurgeons, who are trained
up in the knowledge of Herbs and Minerals, and know how to apply
plasters or physick, shall go when they are sent for to any who need
their help, but require no reward, because the Common Stock is the
public pay for every man's labor.

54. When a dead person is to be buried, the Officers of the Parish and
neighbors shall go along with the corpse to the grave, and see it laid
therein in a civil manner; but the public Minister nor any other shall
have any hand in reading or exhortation.

[Whatever we may think of this latter proviso, certain it is that
it would put an end to many unseemly squabblings at a time when
they are specially to be avoided.]

55. When a man hath learned his Trade, and the time of his seven years
Apprenticeship has expired, he shall have his Freedom to become Master
of a Family, and the Overseers shall appoint him such young people to be
his servants as they think fit, whether he marry or live a single life.

LAWS FOR MARRIAGE.

56. Every man and woman shall have the free liberty to marry whom they
love, if they can obtain the love and liking of that party whom they
would marry, and neither birth nor portion shall hinder the match. For
we are all of one blood, mankind, and for portion, the Common
Storehouses are every man and maid's portion, as free to one as to
another.

57. If any man lie with a maid and beget a child, he shall marry her.

58. If a man lie with a woman forcibly, and she cry out and give no
consent; if this be proved by two witnesses, or the man's confession, he
shall be put to death, and the woman let go free: it is robbery of a
woman's bodily freedom.

59. If any man by violence endeavour to take another man's wife, the
first time of such violent offer he shall be reproved before the
Congregation by the Peacemaker; the second time he shall be made a
Servant under the Task-master for twelve months; and if he forcibly lie
with another man's wife, and she cry out, as is the case when, a maid is
forced, the man shall be put to death.

60. When any man or woman have consented to live together in marriage,
they shall acquaint all the Overseers in the Circuit therewith, and some
other neighbors. And being all met together, the man shall declare with
his own mouth before them all that he takes that woman to be his wife,
and the woman shall say the same, and desire the Overseers to be
witnesses.

LAWS TO SECURE ECONOMY.

61. No Master of a Family shall suffer more meat to be dressed at a
dinner or supper than will be spent and eaten by his household or
company present, or within such a time after before it be spoilt. If
there be any spoil constantly made in a family of the food of man, the
Overseer shall reprove the Master for it privately; if that abuse be
continued in his family, through his neglect of family government, he
shall be openly reproved by the Peacemaker before all the people, and
ashamed for his folly; the third time he shall be made a servant for
twelve months under the Task-master, so that he may know what it is to
get food, and another shall have the oversight of his house for the
time.

62. No man shall be suffered to keep house and have servants under him
till he hath served seven years under command to a Master himself. The
reason is that a man may be of age and of rational carriage before he be
made a Governor of a Family, that the peace of the Commonwealth may be
preserved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

COMPLETE LIST OF "DIGGER" PUBLICATIONS.

WINSTANLEY, The Mystery of God concerning the Whole Creation,
Mankind.--April 1648. (British Museum, Press Mark, 4377, a. 1.)

" The Breaking of the Day of God.--May 1648. (British Museum, P. M.,
4377, a. 2.)

" The Saints' Paradise: Or the Father's Teaching the Only Satisfaction
to Waiting Souls.--August or September 1648. (British Museum, P. M.,
E. 2137.)

" Truth Lifting up its Head above Scandals.--October 1648. (British
Museum, P. M., 4372, a.a. 17.)

" (?) Light Shining in Buckinghamshire.--December 1648. (British
Museum, P. M., E. 475 (11).)

" (?) More Light Shining in Buckinghamshire.--March 1649. (British
Museum, P. M., E. 548 (33).)

" (?) A Declaration from the Well Affected in the County of
Buckinghamshire.--May 1649. (British Museum, P. M., E. 555.)

" The New Law of Righteousness.--January 1649. (Jesus College Library,
Oxford.)

" Fire in the Bush: The Spirit burning, not consuming but purging,
Mankind.--March 1649. (Bodleian Library.)

" A Declaration from the Poor Oppressed People of England.--March
1649. (British Museum, Press Mark, 1027, i. 16 (3).)

" The True Levellers' Standard Advanced: Or the State of Community
opened and presented to the Sons of Men.--April 1649. (British
Museum, P. M., E. 552.)

" A Declaration of the Bloody and Unchristian Acting of William Star
and John Taylor of Walton, with diverse men in women's apparel, in
opposition to those that dig upon St. Georges Hill.--June 1649.
(British Museum, Press Mark, E. 561.)

" A Letter to Lord Fairfax and his Council of War.--June 1649.
(British Museum, P. M., E. 560 (1).)

" An Appeal to the House of Commons.--July 1649. (British Museum,
P. M., E. 564. Also at the Guildhall Library.)

" A Watchword to the City of London.--August 1649. (British Museum,
P. M., E. 573. Also at the Guildhall Library.)

" A Second Letter to Lord Fairfax.--December 1649. (Clarke Papers,
vol. ii. pp. 217-220.)

COSTER, ROBERT, A Mite cast into the Common Treasury.--December 1649.
(British Museum, P. M., E. 585.)

" The Diggers' Mirth. (British Museum, P. M., E. 1365.)

" The Diggers' Song. (Clarke Papers, vol. ii. p. 218.)

WINSTANLEY, A New Year's Gift for the Parliament and Army.--January
1650. (British Museum, P. M., E. 587.)

" A Vindication of Those whose Endeavour it is only to make the Earth
a Common Treasury, called Diggers.--February 1650. (British Museum,
P. M., E. 1365.)

" An Appeal for Money.--April 1650. (See "A Perfect Diurnal," British
Museum, P. M., E. 534.)

" A Declaration from Wellingborrow, in the County of Northampton.--
March 1650. (British Museum, under Wellinborrow, P. M., S. Sh.
fol. 669 f., 15. 21.)

" An Appeal to all Englishmen to Judge between Bondage and
Freedom.--March 1650. (British Museum, P. M., S. Sh. fol. 669 f.,
15. 23.)

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