304 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. college, not only by suffering him quietly and peaceably to enjoy it, with all the privileges thereof, for more than three years, but also elected him by his own voice to be senior bursar of the college, and to be vice-master for twa years by two separate elections.. Moreover, Dr. Still's conduct was in many particulars most shameful. He proceeded against Dr. Browning with great injusticeand inhumanity. Not content with illegally depriving him of his office and benefice, he would not suffer him to dine in the hall of the college, nor any one to eat or drink with him. When Dr. Browning kept his chamber in the college, this inveterate enemy would not permit any of his friends or acquaintance to come to him, or converse with him ; and those of his friends who had any private intercourse with him, he strictly examined by threatenings and oaths to confess what had passed, with a view to accuse them from their own mouths. He also complained in this case to a foreign judge, expressly contrary to the statute of the college. And though he caused the name of Dr. Browningto be struck out of the buttery, he commenced an action of £300 against him, merely on supposition that he had done the same by him. He, moreover, procured a restraint of Dr. Browning's liberty, by watching himand keeping him in his chamber for some time as in a prison. Not satisfied with these tyrannical proceedings, he assaulted Dr. Browning's lodgings in a most violent manner, and broke openhis doors, and dragged him out of his chamber, to the great injury of his body ; notwithstanding the Earl of Bedford by his letters had previously required all pro- ceedings against him to be stayed, till the cause should be heard. To finish the business, this cruel oppressor of the Lord's servants prohibited Dr. Browning's pupils, ser- vants and friends, from coming near him, or bringing him any thing to eat or drink, intending to starve him to death.t During these rigorous and illegal proceedings, the Earl of Bedford, as intimated above,1: wrote to the Chancellor Burleigh, desiring his lordship not to give his consent to the sentence pronounced upon Dr. Browning, till after he had heard both parties. He spoke, at the same time, in high commendation of his character; that he had good Baker's MS. Collec. vol. iv. p. 45, 46. + Ibid. t Francis Earl of Bedford was a celebrated statesman, and a constant friend to the persecuted puritans. At his death he left twenty pounds to be given to a number of pious ministers for preaching twenty sermons at Cheney, Woburn and Melshburn.-MS:Chronology, vol. ii. p. 375. (22.)
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