H)emocracs anb IReltgion.

25

the devil and all unrighteousness, yea all godlesscreatures, and then he will enter into his reign inrighteousness and peace."

The same views held sway in Cromwell's army,its exponents being called Millenarians or " FifthMonarchy men." Indeed there can scarcely beany doubt that the Protector himself was full ofsimilar hopes, when he announced to his "Parlia-ment of Saints " : " The Lord will appear amongyou in a new form." It was from this convictionthat the army drew its death-defying valour andthe firmness gathered in prayer. It was thecommon conviction of the Commonwealth periodthat it was the time of birthpangs whichpreceded the coming of the Lord. " TheEaster Dawn of a new age is breaking." Thisis the parent soil from which modern socialismsprings.

There were two different ways in which EarlyBaptists strove to realise the new Zion, two wayswhich still make the divergence between therevolutionary Communists and the reformingSocialists, between Soviets and the Quakers. Theone fights with the weapons of war, the other withthe weapons of the Spirit. In many instances theBaptists were forced to take up arms only as aresult of bloody persecutions of which they werethe victims. At any rate their first representa-tives, such as Hans Denck and the so-called'' Synodof Martyrs " held in Augsburg in 1527, rejected allresort to force and turned to the methods of loveand prophecy. In contrast to this attitude anImperial edict of June 10th, 1535 threatened the