968 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. JAMES CRANFo an, A. M.-This excellent minister was the son of Mr. James Cranford, many years minister and master of the free-school in Coventry. He was born in that city in the year 1602, and educated in Baliol college, Oxford, where be took his degrees. Upon his leaving the university, he became minister in Northamptonshire, then removed to London, and became rector of St. Christopher le Stocks, near the old Exchange. This was in the year 1642. The following year he was appointed, by order of parliament, to be one of the licensers of the press for works in divinity. In the year 1644, he was appointed one of the London ministers to ordain suitable young men to the christian ministry. And in 1645, he was brought into trouble for speaking against several members of thehouse of commons, He was charged with saying, that they had carried on a correspondence with the royalists, and were false to the parliament ; for which he was committed to prison ; where he continued about, five weeks, when the house of commons proceeded to an examination of his case, and passed upon him the following sentence That the words spoken by Mr. Cranford against some members of the house of com- mons, and of the committee of both kingdoms, that they kept intelligence with the king's party, and were false to the parliament, were false and scandalous.-That Mr, Cranford, at a full exchange in London, and at West- minster, shall confess the wrong he bath done them in so scandalizing them.-That he shall pay five hundred pounds to each of those four members for damages.-And that he shall be committed to the Tower during the pleasure of the house.". Whetherthis heavy sentence was legal or illegal, we will not pretend to determine. Though Mr. Cranford thus felt the vengeance of his superiors, he does not appear to have been a man of a tur- bulent spirit ; and though he might be provoked to use the above unjustifiable expressions, he was a man who bore an excellent character, and was highly esteemed among his brethren. Wood denominates him an " exact linguist, well acquainted with the fathers, schoolmen, and modern divines; a zealous presbyterian, and a laborious preacher."t Fuller adds, " that he was a famous disputant, orthodox in judg- ment, and a person of great humility, charity, moderation, and kindness towards all men."4-. He died April 27, 165,71 Whitlocke's Mem. p. 144, 145. -IWood's Athena Oxon. vol. ii. p. 123. * Fuller's Worthies, part iii. p. 118.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=