Note 155 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
Parl. Hist., iii. 1514-1518.
The following story is told:—"When Cromwell took on him the Protectorship, in the year 1653, the very morning the ceremony was to be performed, a messenger came to Dr. Manton to acquaint him that he must immediately come to Whitehall. The doctor asked him the occasion. He told him he should know that when he came there. The Protector himself, without any previous notice, told him what he was to do, i.e., to pray upon that occasion. The doctor laboured all he could to be excused, and told him it was a work of that nature which required some time to consider and prepare for it. The Protector replied that he knew he was not at a loss to perform the service he expected from him, and opening his study-door, he put him in with his hand, and bid him consider there—which was not above half an hour. The doctor employed that time in looking over his books, which he said was a noble collection."—Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 4.
If the story be true, the date is incorrect; and the ceremonial of 1653, when Lockyer gave an exhortation at Whitehall Banqueting House, is confounded with the ceremony of 1657, when Manton prayed in Westminster Hall. It would look as if the devotional part of the service had not been contemplated in the original arrangement, but was afterwards introduced by the express desire of Cromwell.