Article November 8, 1900 Issue

Oliver Cromwell's Bible

G. M. Hammell with contributions from Elisha Mulford

For Cromwell a single volume comprehended all literature, and that volume was the Bible.

John Morley, "Life of Cromwell," in Century.

Mr. Lowell speaks of the mind of Cromwell in certain higher moments, as "working free from Judaic trammels." But in the age to which Cromwell was called, in the battle with unrighteousness in the land, and with the allied imperialism and ecclesiasticism of which Spain was the fruit, it was not trammels which were forged for him in the Old Testament which he knew so well, and had studied as none of England's kings before or since. Would a knowledge of what is described as Aryan civilization have been a substitute for the record of that national life, so deep and so intense and linked to the throne of God, and finding its unity in Him? ... If we study the mind of Cromwell, every element of strength was wrought in the faith in which these words become an inspiration.

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