INTRODUCTION. mind, and refused their allowance. Ridley was there- fore nominated to a deputation with Hooper, with a view to bring him to a compliance ; but this proved ineffectual. Hooper still remained unconvinced, and prayed to be excused from the old symbolizing popish garments. These garments, he observed, had no countenance in scripture or primitive antiquity : theywere the inventions of antichrist, and introduced into the church in the most corrupt ages : they hadbeen abused to idolatry, particularly in the pom- pous celebration of the mass : and to continue the use of them, was, in his opinion, to symbolize with antichrist, to mislead the people, and inconsistent with the simplicity of the christian religion.. He could appeal to the Searcher of Hearts, that it was not obstinacy, but the convictions of his conscience alone, which made him refuse these gar- ments.+ Ridley's endeavours proving unsuccessful, Hooper was committed to the management of Cranmer, who, being mable to bring him to conformity, laid the affair before the council, and he was committed to the Fleet. Having . remained in prison for several months, the matter was com- promised, when he was released and consecrated.t He con- sented to put on the vestments at his consecration, when he preached before the king, and in his own cathedral ; but was suffered to dispense with them at other times.4 How this business was adjusted, and with what degree of severity he was persecuted, is related by Mr. FOX', in the Latin edition of his " Acts and Monuments of the Mar- tyrs." The passage, says Mr. Peirce, he hath left out in all his English editions, out of too great tenderness to the party. " Thus," says Mr. Fox, " ended this theological quarrel in the victory of the bishops, Hooper being forced to recant ; or, to say the least, being constrained to appear once in public, attired after the manner of the bishops. Which, unless he had done, there are those who think the bishops would have endeavoured to take away his life : for his servant told me," adds the mar- tyrologist, " that the Duke of Suffolk sent such word to Hooper, who was not himself ignorant of what they were doing." 11 Horrid barbarity ! ho, before Hooper, was ever thrown into prison, and in danger of his lite, merely Neal's Puritans, vol. i. p. 62. + Fuller's Church Hist. b. vii. p. 404, Strype's Cranmer, p. 211-215.-Baker's MS. Collec, vol. xviii. p.269, § Burnet's Hist. of Refor. vol. ii. p. 166. II Peirce's Vindication, part i. p, 30.
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