, iftory of thePuritans, exupnin'd. 2 23 patient Prifoner till the end of the Year 1659, with- out being brought to his Trial, or admitted to Bail. Fuller tells us, he was not releafed with his Bre- thren ; * ' Only Bifhop Wren was Rill detain'd in the Tower, where his long Imprifon ment, (be- ' ing never brought to a publick Anfwer) bath ' converted many of his Adverfaries into a more charitable Opinion of him.' And Mr. t Scri- vener fays, ' he was twenty Years a Prifoner in the Tower, or thereabouts.' Neal, ibid. Complaints were made again( feveral other Bithops and Clergymen, &c. Dr. Layfield, Archdeacon of Eifex, pleaded his Privilege, as Mem- ber of Convocation, according to an old Popifh Statute of Hen, VI. But the Committee over-ruled it, and voted the Doctor into Cußody of the Serjeant at Arms. This Popifh Statute is íIí11 in force, (8 Hen. VI. cap. 1.) which exempts the Clergy coming to Con- vocation, and their Servants and Families, from Ar- retIs, and gives the Members of the lower Houfe the fame Liberty as Members of Parliament. And if Statutes muff be fet afide, becaufe made in times of Popery, one fourth part of the Statute- Law muff be fet afide. But we have authentic Proof of that Statute's being enforced, long after the Reformation, both before and fence Dr. Lay- field's Time, * Fuller's Church-Hiftory, B. XI. p. 196. Scriveneri Apologia pro Ecclefia Anglicanîa, p. 3 a. Doan- rem enim Wren, quern in arcem conjecerat Fa6tio Londinenfem, prius iniquilfrma fententia è Parliamento cum ceeteri.s epifcopis pulfum, contra fundatiffima iftius concilii jura, bonis dein omni- bus expoliatum, & tantum vita non multatum, ar6ta Cuftodia fqualere, & viginti plus minus alanos fecerunt. Bithop Gibfon's Codex, p.974,975'. where the Bithop obfrves, That in the Journals of the Houfe were feveral Applications to their Lordhips for Redrefs, in Cafes where this Liberty of the Convocation Clergy hath been invaded; which their Lord- ' fhips have accordingly granted. 3 Carol. 1. lfpril 29. and June x9. in 1667. and 1668, temp. Çäroh z. * Arch,
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