184 LIVES OF TIM PURITANS. beth, and required to answer, upon a new oath, such inqUiries as his ecclesiastical judges were pleased to propose. This, indeed, he refused without a sight of his former answers ; and was, therefore, cast into prison, where he remained a long time, without being admitted to bail. Mr. Maunsel was further chargedwith signing a petition to rthe house of commons, and with refusing the oath ex officio ; for which he was treated in the same manner. Having suffered a long and painful confinement, the prisoners, about the year 1607, were brought to the bar upon a writ of habeas corpus; and having Nicholas Fuller, esq. a bencher of Gray's-inn, and a most learned man in his profession, for their counsel, he moved, that the prisoners ought to be released ; because the high commissioners were not empow- ered by law to imprison, or to administer the oath ex officio, or to fine any of his majesty's subjects. These points he laboured to prove in a most learned, argumen4 tative, and perspicuous manner, which was looked upon as an unpardonable, crime ;o and instead of servinghis clients, brought the heavy indignation of the commissioners upon himself. Archbishop Bancroft, now at the head of the high commission, told the king, that Fuller was the cham- pion of the nonconformists ; and, therefore, ought to be made a public example, to terrify others from appearing hereafter in defence of the puritans.i. Accordingly, lie was shut up in close prison ; from whence, neither by the inter- cession of, friends, nor by his own most humble suppli- cations, could be Obtain release; but after close confinement about twelve years, he died in prison, February 93, 1619, aged seventy-six years.1 What became of Mr. Maunsel and Mr. Lad, hit clients; whether after their trial they were released, or suffered some other punishment, we have not been able to learn. Fuller's Argument in the case of Thomas Lad and Richard Maunsel, edit. 1607.-This most learned, curious, and valuable Tract, consisting of 32 pages inquarto, was republished in 1641. + Fuller's Church Mist. b. x. p.56. t Nicholas Fuller was member of the parliament of 1603, when he brought in two bills the one concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, the other concerning Subscription; both with a view to ease the burdensof the persecuted puritans. lie was a person of great learning and piety ; and finding the nonconformists grievously oppressed in their liberties, their estates, and their consciences, contrary to law, he laboured both in the }louse of commons, and in the courts of judicature, to procure their deliverance from the cruel oppressions of their persecutors.-MS. Qkra- nology, vol, ii. p. 667. (2.)
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