192 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. stirs and troubles there. When I had read them, I thought it meet to make you partaker of such news as was sent unto me, to the end that you and all the godly there with you may pour forth earnest supplications for our brethrenwho are now in bonds, and under the cross, for the testimony of the truth. Thus standeth the case. Mr. Fulwer, our dear friend and brother in the Lord,, with divers others, are pri Boners in the same Compter, and for the same cause that our brother Edmunds is. Our brother Johnson, minister of the church without Temple-bar, and others with him, are laid in the Gatehouse at Westminster. Our brother Wight and others, with him are committed to Newgate. "The ministers ofLondon were called by the archdeacon and Dr. Hames, the bishop's chancellor, to Lawrence church in the Jewry, and then subscribed, and were commanded to put on their trash; as surplices, &c. on the Sunday fol- lowing. Amongst them, none had more deceived the godly than one Wager, who had many times been, but only in words, against the popish regimen and ceremonies re- tained and used in the English church ; but now by his subscription hath allowed all. The Lord grant that, as he hath fallen with Peter, and denied the truth, so he may, if it be his will, rise with him again. This subscription is required, not of ministers alone, but of the common people, such as they call puritans. Scribbledin haste from Coven- try, this 21st of December, 1573. " By yours to command in the Lord Jesus, " THOMAS WILCOCKS." Mr. Wilcocks, in about six weeks after the above, ad- dressed another epistle to the same venerable divine, con- taining a further account of oppressions and cruelties exer- cised upon the poor persecuted puritans. It contains, indeed, some other interesting facts worthy of being com- municated to posterity ; and the whole is so excellent, and so exactly characteristic of the writer, that it would be an inexcusable omission to withhold it from the inquisitive reader. The following is an exact copy " Grace and peace from God. " Father Gilby, news here is nonegood ; for howmay we look for good in these evil times ? The commissioners go forwards in their haughty proceedings: God, if it be his w ill, stay their rage. Three of them that they have im- prisoned are dead already. What shall become of the rest * Baker's MS. Collec. vol. xxxii. p. 459, 440.
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