Committee for Plundered Ministers facts for kids

The Committee for Plundered Ministers was a special group created during the English Civil War. It was set up in late 1642 by the Presbyterian members of the Long Parliament. At first, its main job was to help puritan ministers who had been kicked out of their churches by people who supported the King.

The committee could investigate cases, but the final decision to remove a minister from their church (called a living) belonged to the House of Lords. As Parliament started winning the war, the committee's role changed. Instead of just helping their own supporters, they began to focus on removing ministers who supported the King.

Setting Up the Committee

The Committee for Plundered Ministers was officially formed on December 7, 1642. It was made up of several important members of Parliament (MPs), including:

• Oliver St John, MP for Totnes
• Sir Gilbert Gerald, MP for Middlesex
• Sir William Armyn, MP for Grantham
• Cornelius Holland, MP for Windsor
• Francis Rous, MP for Truro
• Sir John Holland, 1st Baronet, MP for Castle Rising
• William Cage, MP for Ipswich

How the Committee Worked

The main meetings of the Committee for Plundered Ministers took place in London. It was led by a Welsh lawyer named John White, who was a Member of Parliament for Southwark.

The committee had smaller groups, called sub-committees, in each county. This helped them do their work across the country. Initially, the committee was meant to help ministers who were forced out of their churches by Royalists because they supported Parliament. This is why it was called the "Committee for Plundered Ministers" – "plundered" meant they had lost their positions.

However, as Parliament started to win the war, the committee's focus shifted. It became more about removing and punishing ministers who supported the King, rather than just helping those who supported Parliament.

Investigating Ministers

The committee would listen to evidence, often from local church members, about what a parish priest was teaching or believing. If the committee found that the accusations were true, the priest was removed from their church. Their property was then taken away, a process called sequestration. Sometimes, local people used the committee to get rid of clergy they simply didn't like.

The committee also managed money collected from renting out church lands. This money was then used to support other priests throughout Britain.

Ministers who were removed were often called "scandalous." This usually meant they either supported the King's side, or they held certain religious views (like being high Anglican) that Parliament disagreed with. Often, these two reasons went together. In those times, political disagreements about how the country should be run were often tied to religious differences about how the church should be organized and how services should be held.

An example of a "scandalous" minister was Griffith Williams. At the start of the Civil War, he was the Bishop of Ossory. He strongly supported the King throughout the war, writing pamphlets and giving speeches against Parliament. During the time when England had no king (called the Interregnum), he lived in poverty because his property was taken away. Even though powerful friends tried to help him find new church positions, he couldn't take them because he refused to promise loyalty to Parliament. He finally got his bishopric back when the monarchy was restored in 1660.

See also

• Committee for Compounding with Delinquents
• Committee for the Advance of Money
• Great Ejection after the Act of Uniformity 1662