72 INTRODUCTION. Calvinists, who should venture to break it, while they should connive at the disobedience of the contrary party. It is certain, the Calvinists were prosecuted for disobeying the proclamation, while the Arminians were tolerated and countenanced.. The puritans, who wrote in defence of the received doctrines of the thirty-nine articles, were cen- sured in the high commission, and their books suppressed; and when they ventured to preach or dispute upon those points, theywere suspended, imprisoned, forced to recant, or banished to a foreign land.+ The king now usurped an arbitrary power, much more extensive than any of his predecessors. Henry VIII. did what he pleased by the use of parliament ; but Charles evidently designed to rule without parliament4 To con- vince the people that it was their duty to submit to a monarch of such principles, the clergy were employed to preach up the doctrine of passive obedience and non- resistance. Dr. Manwaring preaching before his majesty, said, " The king is not bound to observe the laws of " the realm, concerning the subject's rights and liberties, " but that his royal will and pleasure, in imposing taxes " without consent of parliament, doth oblige the subject's " conscience on pain of eternal damnation."§ The church being governed by similar arbitrary and illegal methods, it was easy to foresee what the noncon- formists had to expect. They were exceedingly harassed and persecuted in every corner of the land. In the year 1626, Mr. Brewer was censured in the high commission, and committed to prison, where he continued fourteen years. Mr. Smart, prebend of Durham, was many times convened before his ecclesiastical judges; then sent to the high commission at York, and kept a prisoner nine months. He was next sent to the high commission at Lam- beth; then returned to York, fined .500, and ordered to recant; for refusing which, he was fined a second time, excommunicated, deprived, degraded, and committed to prison, where he remained eleven or twelve years, suffering Rapin's Hist. vol. ii. p. 259. Prynne's Canterburies Doome, p. 161. Rapin's Hist, vol. ii. p. 259. Manwaring, for this sermon, was sentenced by the house of lords to pay a fine of athousand pounds, to make a public submission at the bar of both houses, to be imprisoned during the pleasure of the lords, and declared incapable of holding any ecclesiastical dignity : nevertheless, he was so much a court favourite, he obtained the king's pardon, with a good benefice, and afterwards a bishopric.-./Md.
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