54 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. ing they might be to the spirit of Archbishop Laud, will rouse the pity and indignation of every generous and pious mind. The learned Mosheim, in allusion to these shocking severities, observes, That a violent spirit of animosity and persecution discovered itself through the whole of Laud's ecclesiastical administration. This haughty prelate executed the plans of his royal master, and fulfilled the views of his own ambition, without using those mild and moderate methods, that prudence employs to make unpopular schemes go down. He carried things with a. high hand. When he, found the laws opposing his views, he treated them with con- tempt, and violated themwithout hesitation. He loaded the puritans with injuries and vexations, and aimed at nothing less than their total extinction.". The three prisoners remained in the above remote islands, under most severe usage, till the year 1640. During this period, Mrs. Burton and Mrs. Bastwick, as widows forcibly divorced from their husbands, often petitioned his majesty, and the lords of the council, for liberty to visit them, or that they might reside on those islands where theywere imprisoned, or that they might be shut up in close prison with them. But, by the sovereign power and influence of Laud, their petitionswere all rejected. Though the archbishop could never be prevailed on to forgive the three sufferers, he said, " He humbly beseeched GOD toforgive them." One of the prisoners, however, obtained some mitigation of his afflic- tions. For ' upon the petition of Sir Thomas Jermin, governor of Jersey, being presented to the king, in behalf of Mr. Prynne, he was allowed to attend divine service, and receive the sacrament in the castle, and to walk with his keeper in the gardens. But as soon as the unmerciful arch- bishop heard of the royal indulgence, he fell into a violent rage, and sent a messenger for one Mr. Hungerford, who had been employed in procuring it, and convened him before the council.-F In the above year, the prisoners were called home by order of the parliament. For, November 7th, Mrs. Burton and Mrs. Bastwick having presented petitions to the house of commons, in behalf of their husbands, complaining of their heavy sentence in the star-chamber, the house im- mediately ordered, " That their said husbands shall be forth- with sent for, in safe custody, by a warrant of the house, directed to the governors of the islands where they are pri- Mosheim's Feel. Hist. vol. v. p. 393. t Prynne's Prelates' Tyranny, p. 110.
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