4o The HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. I. King 4. " That the facrament fhould be given but in one kind. Edward VI. - "5. " That images fhould be fet up in churches. w1J 6. " That the fouls in purgatory fhould be prayed for. 7. " That the bible fhould be called in, and prohibited. .. " That the new fervice book fhould be laid afide, and the old reli- " pion reftored." An anfwer was Pent from court to thefe demands, which did not appeafe the enraged multitude, whom the priefts inflamed with all the artifice they could devife, carrying the haft about the camp in a cart, that all might fee and adore it. They hefeged the city of Exeter, and reduced it to the lafl extremity; the inhabitants defending it with uncommon bravery, till they were relieved by the lord Ruffel, who with a very fmall force entered the town, and defeated the rebels. The infurreElion in Norfolk was headed by one Ket a tanner, who affutned to himfelf the power ofjudicature un- der an old oak, called from thence the oak of reformation. He did not pretend much of religion, but to place new counfellors about the king, in order to fupprefs the greatnefs of the gentry, and advance the privileges of the commons. The rebels were 20000 ftrong; however the earl of War- wick, with b000 foot and 1500 horfe, quicklydifperfed them. Several of the leaders of both rebellions were executed, and Ket was hanged in chains. Hereticks The hardfhips the reformers underwent in the late reign from thefix ar- burned. tides, fhould have made them tender of the lives of thofe who differed from the prefent ftandard. Cranmer himfelf had been a Pap, a Luthe- ran, and was now a Sacramentary ; and in every change guilty of inexcu- fable feverities: While he was a Lutheran, he confented to the burning of yohn Lambert and Anne Askew, for thofe very do&rines for which himfelf afterward fuffered. He bore hard upon the papifts, firetching the law "to keep their moft atlive leaders in prifon ; and this year he imbrued his hands in the blood of a poor frantic woman, Joan Bocher, more fit for Bedlam, than a flake; which was owing not to any cruelty in the archbi- fhop's temper, but to thofe miferable perfecuting principles by which he was govern'd. Among others who fled out of Germany into England, from the Ruftick war, there were fome that went by the nameof Anabapti/ls, who, befides the principle of adult baptifin, held feveral wild notions about the trinity, the Virgin Mary, and the perfon of Chrift. Complaint being made of them to the council April nth, a commiffion was ordered to the archbi- fhop of Canterbury, the bifhops of Ely, Worcelier, Chicheer, Lincoln, Rocker, and fome other divines, any three being a quorum, to examine and fearch after all anabaptifts, hereticks, or contemners of the common prayer, whom they were to endeavour to reclaim, and after penance . to give
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