Right Trusty and Well-beloved, We greet you well.

Having taken notice of a judgment lately given by yourselves against one James Nayler, Although we detest and abhor the giving or occasioning the least countenance to persons of such opinions and practices, or who are guilty of the crimes commonly imputed to the said person: Yet, We, being intrusted in the present Government on behalf of the People of these Nations, and _not knowing how far such Proceeding, entered into wholly without Us, may extend in the consequence of it_, Do desire that the House will let Us know the grounds and reasons whereupon they have proceeded." Two things are here to be perceived.

One is that Cromwell did not approve of the course taken with Nayler.

The other, and more important, is that he regarded this action of the House, without his consent, as an intrenchment on that part of his prerogative which concerned Toleration.

He thought himself, by the constitution of his Protectorate, entrusted with a certain guardianship of this principle, even against Parliament; and he did not know how far Nayler's case might be made a precedent for religious persecutions.