lets," but, expediency served, the Independents then condemned
the Levellers and jailed their leaders.

Included among the Puritan "Parties to the Left" were both
religious and political groups. The political group with which
we are here concerned was, as we shall see, largely motivated
by the religious thinking of the sects. But generally speaking,
the.-term "Leveller" as used in this study applies to the radical
political part in the New Model Army and in and around
London during the period between 1647 and 1649--those who,
an enemy said, promoted "the dividing distructive agreement
of the people." ² No absolute statement can be made with re-
gard to the original use of the term "Leveller," but John Lil-
burne, the chief of the Levellers, apparently believed that it was
first used in the latter part of October, 1647, in the course of
the Putney Debates. ³ Lilburne designates the parties to the de-
bate as follows: "The general Councell of the Army, and the
other sorts of men, going then under the name of Levellers (so
baptized by yourselves at Putney). ⁴ It was at Putney that the
Independents, led by Henry Ireton, revealed the limits to
which they intended to carry the democratic revolution pro-
jected by their uneasy allies of the left, the Levellers. The occa-
sion was the demand of the Levellers that the revolution be
settled on the basis of their "Agreement of the People." ⁵ Crom-
well and Ireton agreed to a debate on the proposals, so that the
General Council of the Army met at Putney on October 28,
1647, to debate with the Leveller Agitators. The major center
of contention was the question of the vote, and in the process
of this heated argument the radical party was apparently desig-
nated "Levellers."

The term "Leveller" was clearly invented by the enemies of
the group. Members of the party disliked the name. John Lil-
burne says in The Second Part of Englands New-Chaines Dis-
covered ( 1649) ⁶ that "the word Leveller was framed and cast
upon all those in the Army (or elsewhere) who are against any
kind of Tyranny, whether in King, Parliament, Army Councel

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