416 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. be allowed him to plead the illegalityof the indictment, and it was denied him by the judges, he gave in his exceptions, and, by much struggling, at length had counsel allowed him ; but the trial wasdeterred to the next day. In this emergency, the principles and policy of Oliver Cromwell operated in favour of Mr. Biddle.. He saw it would be against the in- terest of his government to have Mr. Biddle either con- demned or absolved. He, therefore, look him out of the hands of the law, and detained him in prison. The protector, at length being weary with receiving petitions for and against him, to terminate the affair, and, in some degree, meet the wishes of each party, banished Mr. Biddle to the island of Scilly, whither he was sent October 5, 1655. After he had been some time in a state of exile, Cromwell, who could by no means approve of his sentiments, allowed him a hundred crowns a year for his subsistence. This act of pure gene- rosity, shewn to a persecuted man, reflects no small honour on his name.t In 1658, through the continued 'solicitations of friends, the protector suffered a writ of habeas corpus to be granted out ofthe upper-bench court, by which Mr. Biddle was brought back, and, nothing being ,laid to his charge, was by that court set at liberty. Upon his return to London, he resumed his ministerial exercises among his friends, and became pastor of a congregation in the city, formed on the principles of the independents in matters of discipline. Here he did not continue very long. For, upon the death of Cromwell, in about five months, and his son Richard calling a parliament a The protector was an enemy to persecution. Among the capital articles on which his government was founded, was this : " That such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, though they differ in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or discipline publicly held forth, shall not be re- strained from, but shall be protected in the profession and exercise of their religion ; and that all laws, statutes, and ordinances against such liberty shall be esteemed null and void." 1- The name of Cromwell was formidable abroad as well as at home. This will appear from the following anecdotes t " A tumult having arisen at Nismes in France, in which some disorder had been committed by the Huguenots ; and they, apprehending severe proceedings upon it, sent one over with great expedition to Cromwell, who sent him back to Paris in an boor's time, with a most decisive letter to his ambassador at the court of France,requiring himeither toprevail that the matter might be overlooked, or to come away immediately. Cardinal Mazarin complained ofthis way of proceeding as too imperious ; but the state of their affairs made him yield." It is also observed, that the cardinal would change his countenance whenever he heard the name of Cromwell mentioned ; so that it became a Proverb in France, '° That Mazarin was sot to much afraid of the devil as of Oliver Cromwell."-Burnet's Hist. of his Time, vol. i. p. .- Wettoovd's Memoirs, p. 104.
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