Note 60 — Chapter XII

Vane was a conspicuous character at this period. He was strongly attached to a republican government, and opposed Cromwell in his progress towards assuming the reins of government as protector. He was said to be one of the leaders of the Independents. Bishop Burnet, the historian, says of him:—“Though he set up a form of religion in a way of his own, yet it consisted rather in a withdrawing from all other forms, than in any new or particular forms and opinions; from which he and his party were called Seekers, and seemed to wait for some new and clearer manifestations.” James Naylor, in a letter to Margaret Fell, speaks of Vane as “very loving to Friends, but drunk with imaginations.”