SNAPS. 411 which he was convened before the high commission,when numerous charges were exhibited against him as, " That he had certain books in his possession, entitled A Defence of the Ecclesiastical Discipline.'-That he refused to baptize a child, unless it was called by some scripturename.t-That in his public ministry, he did not read the confession, abso- lutions, psalms, lessons, litany, and some other parts of the Book of Common Prayer.-That he renounced his calling to the ministry by the bishop's ordination.-And that he urged others to renounce their calling in like manner."- Such were the crimes with which our divinewas charged ! Mr. Snape, and many of his brethren, for crimes like these, were summoned before the high commission at Lam- beth, and required to take the oath ex officio, to answer all interrogatories which might be proposed to them. This they utterly refused, unless they might first see them. And, says Dr. Heylin, when the interrogatories were even shewed them, Mr. Snape, apprehensive of danger to himself and his brethren, still refused to take the oath. An unpar- donable crime was this, in the opinion of this author ! It should be recollected, that Mr. Snape and his persecuted brethren did not positively engage to answer, even upon the sight of the interrogatories ; they only refused to take the oath, and to give their answer, till they had seen those interrogatories ; and, after they had seen them, they should be better able to judge whether it was lawful or unlawful, Mr. Snape's letters havingbeen intercepted, wereproduced against him ; and when he refused to accuse himself and his brethren, be was immediately sent to prison. Our author adds, " This struck great terror into all the brethren, who now began to apprehend the dangers into which they were fallen by their former insolences."t A pitiful triumph, indeed!-Another writer observes, that when' Mr. Snape was examined before the high cominission at Lambeth, in Strype's Whitgift, p.809-331. + The following curious tale is told of Mr. Snape There goes a story," says Dr. Heylin, " that one Hodgkingson of Northampton, having a child to be baptized, repaired to Snape, to do it for him ; and he consented to the motion, but with promise that he should give it some name allowed in scripture. The holy action being so far forwards, that they were come to the naming of the infant, they named it Richard, being the name of its grandfather. Upon this a stop was made, and he would not be persuaded to baptize the child, unless its name were altered ; and the god-father refusing to do this, the child was carried home unchristened."- Heylin's Hist. of Pres. p. 293. I Ibid. p. 302, 302.
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