PENRY. 65 to see thatboth parties docontain themselves within bounds : lest otherwise the holy truth ofGod should not be so dealt in as becometh the same ; or so holy and necessary an action should be unprofitably broken up by the infirmities, or other greater wants, of either party.". This generous proposal, however, was wholly rejected. His wife, Mrs. Helen Penry, at the same time presented a most moving petition to the Lord Keeper Puckering, for access to her poor distressed husband ; but it was attended with no better success.+ All Mr. Penry's intercessions, and the intercessions of his friends, proved altogether ineffectual. It was, indeed, never known till this time, that a minister and a scholar was condemned to death for private papers found in his study; nor do I remember, says Mr. Neale, more thanone instance since that time, in whose case it was given for law, that to write has been construed an overt act. But it seems Mr. Penry must die, right or wrong. This his enemies appear to have fully determined ; herein their wishes were soon gratified. Archbishop hitgift was the first man who signed the warrant for his execution, and after him, Puckering and Popham. The warrant was immediately sent to the sheriff, who, the very same day, erected a gallows at St. Thomas Waterings, and, while the prisoner was at dinner, sent his officers to bid him make ready, for he must die that afternoon. Accordingly, he was carried in a cart to the place of execution ; and when he came there, was not allowed to speak to the people, nor to make any profession of his faithtowards God, or his loyalty to the queen ; but was hastily turned off, about five o'clock in the afternoon, May 29, 1593, in the thirty-fourth year of his age.t He left a widow and four poor children, the eldest of which was not more than four years old, to feel and bemoan the painful loss. In the preface to Mr. Penry's " History of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram," published after his death, it is said, " That Mr. John Penry was a godly, learned, anti zealous man, and of a christian carriage and courage. Thathe was born and bred in the mountains in Wales and, with all godly care and labour, endeavoured to have the gospel preached among his countrymen, whose case he greatly seemed to pity, wanting all the ordinary means of salvation. That, being used by God for a special instrument in the manifestation of his truth, he was hardly used, imprisoned, Baker'sMS. Collec. vol. xv. p. 880. I. Ibid. p. 378. Wood's Athem Oxon. vol. i. p. 259. VOL. IL
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