48 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. shall be fined eachfive thousand pounds ; they shall stand in the pillory at Westminster, and have their ears cut off; and because Prynne hath already lost his ears, by sentence of the court in 1633, the remainder of the stumps shall be cut off, and he shall be stigmatized on both his cheeks with the letters S. L. for a seditious libeller; and they shall suffer perpetual imprisonment, in three of the remotest prisons of the kingdom, namely, in Carnarvon, Cornwall, and Lancaster castles. Previous to the execution of this terrible sentence, Mr. Burton's parishioners sent apetition to the king, signed by a great number of hands, humbly entreating his pardon and liberty. It was presented by two of them, who were immediately committed to prison for their pains.. And, June 30th, the sentence was executed upon the three pri- soners, the hangman sawing off the remainder of Prynne's ears, rather than cutting them.t These three men were of the three most credible pro- fessions, and not of the meanest character in their several' faculties. Nevertheless, they are called by many bigotted historians, thesefellows, thesepillory-mess, these stigmatized scoundrels : when, in fact, the truly stigmatized, as our author observes, were their persecutors, who really deserved the punishment which these injured gentlemen suffered. Their crime, if any they were guilty of, was not against any law of the land, but the tyrannical oppressions of the prelates.# On passing the above sentence,, Archbishop Laud made a long and laboured speech, to clear himself from the charge of innovations, with which he was branded by the puritans. Though Laudwas the chief prosecutor of these unfortunate sufferers, and his hand was first put to their numerous warrants, he made, in this speech, the followingdeclarations : " I can say it clearly and truly, as in the presence of God, " I have done nothing, as a prelate, to the uttermost of what " I am conscious, but with a single heart, and with a sincere " intention for the good government and honour of the executed. At the same time, Dr. Bastwick having published his Elenchus Fapismi et Flagellum Episcoporum Latialium, against the papists, declaring he intended nothing against our bishops, but only thoseof Rome, he was, nevertheless, sentenced in the high commission," to fine a thousand pounds, to be excommunicated, debarred the practice of physic, his book to be burnt, and to be imprisoned till he made his'recantation."-Whillocks's Memorials, p. 18, 21- . Strafforde's Letters, vol. ii. p. 57. Edit. '1736., f Rushworth'sCol lec. vol. ii. p. 382.-Prynne's Prelates' Tyranny, p. 61. t Clarendon and Whitlocke Compared, p. 53.
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