CARTWRIGHT. 157 forward it, assuring him of their loyalty to the queen, and their peaceable behaviour in the church. " We doubt not," "say they, " but your lordship is sensible, that a year's " imprisonment and more, must strike deeper into our " healths, considering our manner of life, than a number of " years to men of a different occupation. Your lordship "knows, that many papists, who deny the queen's supre- macy, have been enlarged ; whereas we have all sworn to " it; and if the government so require, are ready to take " the oath again." This petition was subscribed by the following ministers, all prisoners for the truth of Christ : THOMAS CARTWRIGHT, EDWARD LORD, HUMPHREY FENNY EDMUND SNAPE, ANDREW KING, WILLIAM PROUDLOVE, DANIEL WIGHT, MELANCHTON JEWEL.. JOHN PAYNE, The prisoners also applied to the archbishop, who re- fused to consent to their enlargement, unless they would, under their own hands, declare the church ofEngland to be a true church ; that the whole order of public prayers and ceremonies might be lawfully observed ; and renounce in future all their assemblies, classis, and synods, as unlawful and seditious; which they utterly declined.+ These applica- tions proving ineffectual, they resolved at length to address the queen herself; for which purpose they drew up a de- claration, dated April, 1592, containing an impartial state- ment of their case, and a full answer to the several charges brought against them.t Notwithstanding all these endea- vours, Mr. Cartwright did not obtain his release for some time. But at length, by the favour of the archbishop, who it was said, " feared the success of so tough a conflict;"§ he was released upon promise of his quiet and peaceable be- haviour, and restored to his hospital at 'Warwick, where he made his promise good4 and continued without further mo- lestation the rest of his days. His fellow-prisoners were releasedmost probably about the same time; but of this we have obtained no certain information. It is, indeed, ob- served of Mr. Cartwright and his brethren, "That it pleased God so to order it, that those very witnesses who were brought to accuse them, did so clear them, that they were Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 72, 73. Strype's Whitgift, p. 370; Appen. p. 153-156. Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 85-91. § Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix'. p. 204. Paulo's Whitgift, p. 72.
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