FIELD. 321 ec prison, there to continue for the spaceof one whole year, " and have now endured patiently all that time, besides a " quarter of a year before conviction, to their great charge " and utter undoing. May it, therefore, please your honour, " for the tender mercies of God, and in consideration of " them, their poor wives and children, to be a means with " the rest of her majesty's most honourable privy council, " to whom they have exhibited their most humble supplica- " tion that they maybe released and discharged, and as much " as in your honour lieth, to promote and further the same. " So they shall be greatly comforted, after this their tedious " and long imprisonment; and theywill not be unmindful " to pray for your lordship's great and continued pros- " perity. It does not, however, appear whether they were released, or still detained in a state ofconfinement. During the imprisonment of these two divines, Dr. Whitgift published his " Answer to the Admonition," in which he brought many severe charges against its authors: as, " That they were disturbers of good order ; enemies to the state; and as holding many dangerous heresies." To these slanderous charges, they wrote a reply, entitled " A brief Confession of Faith, written by the Authors of the first Admonition to the Parliament, to testify their Persuasion in the Faith, against the uncharitable Surmises and Suspicions of Dr. Whitgift, uttered in his Answer to their Admonition, in Defence both of themselves and their Brethren." This Confession was written from Newgate, dated September 4, 1572, and contains a very judicious and comprehensive statement of their religious opinions, upon the principal doctrines of the gospel.+ In the month ofSeptember this year, Archbishop Parker sent one of his chaplains to confer with the two prisoners in Newgate, most probably with a view to convince them of their supposed errors, and bring them to a recantation. During this conference, they acknowledged themselves to be the authors of the Admonition, saying, " We wrote a book in parliament time, whichshould be a time of speaking and writing freely, justly craving redress and reformation of MS. Register, p. 118. 1- Upon the holy scriptures, they say, " We hold that they alone ought " to be preached, and the whole of them preached, and nothing kept back ; and that it is not lawful for men, or for angels, to add any thing thereto, " or take any thing therefrom. And we affirm, that no antiquity, custom, " interpretation, or opinion of men, no, nor statute or ordinance of any " pope, council, parliament, or prince, may be set against the word of " p. 119-132. VOL. 1.
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