viii P R E F A C E . whichfufpended and deprived men of their livings, not by the verdie? of twelve men upon oath, but by the fovereign determination of three com- infoners of' her majfy's own nomination, founded not upon the ftatute laws of the realm, but upon the bottomlefs deep of the canon law; and in- f?ead of producing witnefes in open court to prove the charge, they affumed a-power of adminifiring an oath EX. OFF I CIO, whereby theprifoner was obliged to an fiver allque/lions the court fhouldput to him, though never fo prejudicial to his own defence r If he refufed to (wear, he was imprifon, d for contempt; andif he took the oath, he was convicted upon his own con- feon. The reader will meet withmany examples of the high proceedings f ,this court, in the courfe of this hfory; of their fending their purfuevants to bring min/lersout of the country, and keeping them in town at excefive charges; of their interrogatories upon oath, which were almoft equal to the ipanifh inqufition ; of their examinations and long imprfonments of minif- ters without bail, or bringing them to a trial; and all this not for infuf- fzciency, or immorality, or negle5 of their cures, but for not wearing a white furplice, for not baptizing with the fign of the crofs, or not fub- fcribing to certain articles that had no foundation in law. Afourth part of allthe preachers in England were under fufpen/ion, from one or other of theft courts, at a time when not one beneficed clergyman in fix was capable ofcompofing a fermon. The edge of all thofe laws which were made againf popifh reculants, who were continually plotting againft the queen, was turned againfl proteflant non-conformifts; nay, in many cafes they had not Vot.I. Syo the benefit of the law ; for as lord Clarendon rightly obferves, queen Eliza- p,'2, beth carried her prerogative as highas in the wo f times ofking Charles Ir " They who look back upon the council books f theft times (fays his lord- " fhip), and upon the ass of the Star- chamber then, (hall find as high in- " fiances of power and fovereignty upon the liberty andproperty of the fub- " jeît, as can be Jnce given. But the art, order and gravity of thole " proceedings, (where fhort, fevere, conjiant rules, were fit, and fmartly purfued, and the party felt only the weight of the judgment, not the pillion of his judges) made them lefs taken notice of, andfo lef grievous " to thepublic, though as intolerable to the perfon." Theft feverities, in/?ead of reconciling the puritans to the church, drove them further from it ; for men don't care to be beat from their principles by the artillery of canons, injunEtions, and penal laws ; nor can they be in love with a church that ufis fesch methods of converfaon. Agreat deal` of ill blood was bred in the nation by theft proceedings; the bifhops loft their fteem with the people, and the number of puritans was not really lfend though they lay concealed, till in the next age theygot the power into their hands, and (hook of theyoke. The
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