Interregnum

The interregnum from the time of the execution of Charles I to the accession of Charles II to the throne of England is one of the most important periods in the ecclesiastical history of that country. It was during this period that the Episcopal Church, "which had been reared by the wealth and power of the state, and cemented with the tears and blood of dissentients," was hurled to the ground, and Presbyterianism, and for a time even Congregationalism, gained the ascendency. But, to the justice of the latter, it must be said that the Congregationalists, or, rather, the Independents, never actually sought to establish their religion-as the religion of the state, while Presbyterianism struggled hard to enforce uniformity to her creed. Stoughton says (in his Eccles. Hist. of England since the Restoration, 1, 49), "It was with Presbyterianism thus situated, rather than with Independency, or any other ecclesiastical systems, that Episcopacy came first into competition and conflict after the king's (Charles II) return." Some writers deny the possibility of an inter' regnum in the English government as it then existed, because, say they, "there can be legally no interregnum in a hereditary monarchy like that of England," and hold that the reign of Charles II is "always computed in legal language as commencing at the execution of Charles I." See Bogue and Bennett, Hist. of Dissenters (2nd ed. Lond. 1839, 1, 68 sq. (See ENGLAND, CHURCH OF); (See INDESSIDENTS); (See PRESBYTERIANS). (J. H.W.)