J. SMYTH. 195 Lord's Supper; 1588, by Beza.-6. Bertram the Priest concerning the Body and Blood of Christ, 1582.-7. Meditations on Psalm ci., 1599, by Phil. Morney Lord of Plessis. JOHN&urn!, A. M.-This zealous puritan was fellow of Christ's college, Cambridge, and a great sufferer for non- conformity. He was a popular preacher; and having, in one of his sermons before the university, maintained the unlawfulness of sports on the Lord's day, he was summoned before the vice-chancellor. During his examination, he offered to prove, that the christian sabbath ought to be observed by an abstinence from all unnecessary worldly business, and spent in works of piety and charity ; though it does not appear what punishment was inflicted upon him,' A divine of his name, beneficed at Mitcham in Surrey, was a member of the presbyterian church erected at. Wands- worth in that county, in the year 1572 ; but it is not easy to ascertain whether hewas the same person.i Mr. Smyth afterwards separated from the established church, and embraced the principles of the Brownists. In the year 1592, he was one of their leaders, and cast into prison, with many of his brethren, for their nonconformity. After being confined more than eleven months, he was called before the tribunal of the high com- mission, when he expressed his great surprise, that in matters of religion and conscience, his spiritual judges should censure menwith imprisonment and othergrievances, rather than some more christian and equitable methods. In the course of his examination, oneof the commissioners asking him, whether he would go to church, he answered, that he should dissemble and play the hypocrite, if he should do it to avoid trouble ; for he thought it was utterly unlawful. The commissioner then said, " Come to church and obey the queen's laws, andbe a dissembler, an hypocrite, or a devil, if thou wilt."t Upon his refusal, he was sent back to the Marshalsea, some of his brethren to the Clink, and others to the Fleet ; where they were shut up in close rooms, not being allowed the common liberty of the prison. Here they died like rotten sheep, some through extreme want, some from the rigour of their imprisonment, and others of infectious distempers.§ Though Mr. Smyth Strype's Annals, vol. + Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 103. Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 134, 4 Ibid. p. 194-196.
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