Chap. III. 2'he HISTORY of the PURITANS. 71 and in fecret places, to cover themfelves from the notice of their perfecu- Q Mary, tors. Great numbers in Sujòlk and EjJex, conflantly frequented thefe pri- vate affemblies, and came not at all to the publick fervice ; but the molt confiderable congregation was in and about London. It was formed foon after queen Mary's acceffion, and confifted of above 200 members. They had divers preachers, as Mr. Scambler afterwards bifhop of Peter- borough, Mr. Fowler, Mr. Rough a Scots man, who was burnt ; Mr. Bern- her, and Mr. Benthamwho furvived the perfecution, and in the begin- ning of queen Elizabeth's reign was made b Ibop of Lichfield and Coven- try : Mr. Cuthbert Simplon was deacon of the church, and kept a book with the names of all that belonged to it : They met fometimes about Aldgate, fometimes in Blackfriars, fometimes in Thames-fired, and fometimes on board of (hips, when they had a mailer for their purpofe: Sometimes they affembled in the villages near London, to cover themfelves Their Suffer+ from the bifhop's officers and fpies ; and efpecially at Ifíington ; but here, inv. by the treachery of a falfe brother, the congregation was at length dif- covered and broken. Mr. Rough their minifier, and Mr. Simplon their deacon, being apprehended and burnt, with many others. Indeed the whole church was in the utmoft danger; for whereas Simpfon the deacon ufed to carry the book wherein the names of the congregation were con- tained, to their private affemblies, he happen'd that day, through the goodprovidence of God, to leave it with Mrs. Rough the minifter's wife. When he was in the Tower, the recorder of London examined him ftriélly, and becaufe he would neither difcover the book nor the names, he was put upon a rack three times in one day: He was then fent to Bonner, Clarke's who faid to the fpeâators, " You fee what a perfonable man this is ; and Martyr. " for his patience, if he was not an heretick, I fhould much commend P' 497' " him, for he has been thrice rack'd in one day, and in my houfe has " endured fome furrow, and yet I never faw his patience moved." Not- withftanding this, Bonner condemned him, and ordered him firft in- to the flocks in his coal-houfe, and from thence to Smithfield, where with Mr. Fox and Daven, two others of the church taken at Ifling- ton, he ended his life in the flames. Many efcaped the fury of the perfecution, by withdrawing from the Many go into form, and flying into foreign countries. Some went into France and a voluntary Flanders, fome to Geneva, and others into thofe Parts of Germany and Exils. Switzerland, where the reformation had taken place, as Bafil, Francfort, Embden, Strafburgh, Doefburgh, Arrow, and Zurich, the magiftrates receiving them with great humanity, and allowing them places for pub- lick worfhip. But the uncharitablenefs of the Lutherans on this Occa- fion was very remarkable ; they hated the exiles becaufe they were Sacra- mentarians, and when any Englifh came among them for fhelter, they expelled them their cities; fo that they found little hofpitality in Saxony and
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