第五章：英联邦与护国公

原书简介：牛津通识读本系列的《斯图亚特英国》，”Stuart Britain：a very short introduction”，讲述在1603-1714年间统治英国的斯图亚特王朝时期的英国史。这个时期见证了英国逐渐步入现代化的种种转变，也见证了英国从绝对君主制转向君主立宪、议会共和政治框架的曲折历程。

系列上一篇：War｜内战

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Chapter 5 Commonwealth and Protectorate

p54 From 1649 to 1660 England was a republic. In some ways this was a revolutionary period indeed. Other kings had been brutally murdered, but none had previously been legally murdered. Monarchy was abolished, along with the House of Lords and the Anglican Church. England had four separate constitutions between 1649 and 1659, and a chaos of expedients in 1659–60. …… It was a period of major experiment in national government. Yet a remarkable amount was left untouched.

• 这本书读到这里，主要的感受就是，英国的地方自治传统很强，法治传统和对产权的保护根深蒂固。地方贵族的权力根基是基本独立于君权的，哪怕是在绝对君主制的极盛期，君权对地方的实际控制力也远远比不上像秦制那种中央集权 + 官僚治国的模式。贵族和君权的动态博弈早在大宪章年代以前就存在了，一路斗来斗去到今天（斯图亚特年代），像是 “法治必须是有一套不变的、平等的凌驾于所有人之上的规则” 这样的观点基本已经成为了毋庸置疑的原则。一旦有所偏离，整个社会都感到这不是正常状态。

1.The Rump

• 1649-1653年间，英国由长议会（Long Parliament）遭清洗后产生的残余议会（Rump Parliament）治理。这是一个勉勉强强才得以维系自身存在的机构，没有遇到尖锐的挑战，也没有做出什么积怨深厚的举措。当从军事胜利中站出来的军方强人——克伦威尔（Oliver Cromwell）——要求进一步的政治改革时，这个机构也许是无暇又或是无力，始终没有选择合作，最终被军方解散。

2.Barebones Parliament

p57 Fearful that free elections would provoke a right-wing majority, Cromwell decided to call an ‘assembly of saints’, a constituent assembly of 140 hand-picked men drawn from amongst those who had remained loyal to the godly cause, men who shared little beyond having what Cromwell called ‘the root of the matter in them’, an integrity and intensity of experience of God’s purpose for his people, whose task it was to institute a programme of moral regeneration and political education that Cromwell hoped would bring the people to recognize and to own the ‘promises and prophecies’ of God. Cromwell’s vision of 140 men with a fragment to contribute to the building up of a mosaic of truth was noble but naive. These 140 bigots of the Nominated or Barebones Parliament, leaderless and without co-ordination, bickered for five months and then, by a large majority, surrendered their power back into the lord general’s hands.

• 解散残余议会后，克伦威尔一手挑选了140个人选组成伪议会（Barebones Parliament），这个议会被期许教化社会、重塑道德，但却是一个自己人都无法协调合作的机构。争吵不休五个月后，他们自行把治国重任又交回了克伦威尔手中，现在整个国家的治理机构成了扶不起的阿斗，该怎么办的责任全都落到军方身上。

The army alone propped up the republic and could make and break governments. The army must be made responsible for governing. (p.p. 57)

3.Lord Protector Cromwell

• 1653-1658年间，英国在护国公克伦威尔的领导下前行。他以先知的身份和责任自诩，就像许多充满愿景的改革家一样容易对灰色的现实感到失望。他最终设置了一个以军人为主导的治理体系，但也试了通过与地方自治者和议会分享权力来安抚、教育民众。

p58-59 If Cromwell had settled for acquiescence and a minimum level of political acceptance, he could have established a secure and lasting regime. But he yearned for commitment and zeal, for a nation more responsive to the things of God, more willing to obey God’s commands. Cromwell was an orthodox Calvinist in his belief in the duty of God’s elect to make all men love and honour Him, and in his belief that divine providence showed God’s people the way forward. …… This religious radicalism went along with a social conservatism. The hierarchical ordering of society was natural and good, its flaws and injustices not intrinsic but the consequence of sin. It was not society but human behaviour within society that must be reformed.

p59 By executing Charles, Cromwell cut himself off from justifications of political authority rooted in the past; by acknowledging that a free vote of those who held the franchise would restore the king, that is by refusing to base his authority on consent, Cromwell cut himself off from arguments of the present. His self-justification lay in the future, in the belief that he was fulfilling God’s will. But because he believed that he had such a task to perform, he had a fatal disregard for civil and legal liberties. To achieve the future promised by God, Cromwell governed arbitrarily.

• 虽然英国的故事要比法国克制得多，但是克伦威尔逐步偏离他所愿景的明天的路径，多少让我感到和之前读到的罗伯斯庇尔有一种相似。他相信自己无与伦比的先见之明与正确，是这些圣人般的内核让他达到如今的高度，但也让他漠视王在法下的原则和政治自由的底线，漠视尘世中灰色的阻力。

When the people would not respond voluntarily to the call to moral regeneration, he created major generals and set them to work. Hence the supreme paradox. (p.p. 59)

p59-60 While Cromwell lived, the army (who had the immediate military muscle) and the country gentry (who had the ultimate social authority) were kept in creative tension. Cromwell was a unique blend of country gentleman and professional soldier, of religious radical and social conservative, of political visionary and constitutional mechanic, of charismatic personal presence and insufferable self-righteousness. He was at once the only source of stability and the ultimate source of instability of the regimes he ran. If he could have settled for settlement, he could have established a prudent republic; if he had not had a fire in his belly to change the world, he would never have risen from sheep farmer to be head of state. With his death, the republic collapsed. His son lacked his qualities and succumbed to the jealousy of the senior military commanders. They in turn fell out amongst themselves and a national tax strike hastened the disintegration of the army. Eighteen months after Oliver Cromwell’s death, one section of the army under General Monck decided that enough was enough. Free elections were held and Charles II was recalled.

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原书信息：Morrill, John. (1984). Stuart Britain: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285400-3