firfi Volume of the H/ory of the Puritans.. " confifcation, imprifonment, !o/ of elate, liberty and life " Thefe were the fpots and blemifhes of her reign, and were fo glaring, that the learned council for the doftor, made no reply to this part of the charge. However it feems all Mr. N's faits are to be let afide by the fingle Sir F s ancis tefümony of fir Francis WalIngham, and the reader is called upon to ham t f i- mark the hiflorian's affurance. " No body, it is to be hoped, will charge many confi- . this gentleman with want of courage, who has ventured his own reputa- dered. " tion again/lfo great, fo wife, andfo good a man, by aceu ang him ofbe-P'534" " ing guilty offalfe colourings in an glair that fell within bis own know- r35' " ledge." If Mr. N. had defired the reader to take things upon his own credit, there might have been fome reafon for this remark, but has he any where oppofed his reputation to fir Francis's? No, but 'ACTs and au- thorities upon which thofe faits are founded, which this writer ought to have difproved, before he had amufed us with the idle talk of Mr. N.'s felting his reputation againft fir Francis's. When fir Francis wrote the letter under confideration, he wasfecratary of/late, and as the queen's fer vaut, was endeavouring to vindicate her behaviour towards non - confor tnifts to a foreign court ; he mutt therefore be allowed to put the moft favourable conftruétion on his royal mifirefs's conduit, and acquit her in the belt manner he is able. It deferves alfo a very particular remark,. that Wal /inghamdied in the month of April 159o, which was two years before theaft of the 35th ELIZABETH, that punifhed non-conformity with banifhment and death, took place ; it was alto before the trial of Mai, and the executionof Barrow, Greenwood, and Peary. This gen- tleman did not live to fee the imprifonment of Cartwright and his bre- thren in the fleet, nor any of the feverities, of the lati thirteen years of the queen's reign, which were by much the fharpeft and molt cruel. In fhort, it is uncertain how long before fir Francis's death this letter might be writ, for it bears no date. Inftead therefore of comparing re- putations, let us examine the tefiimony itfelf. I find (fays fir Francis, fpeaking of the queen's conduit towards pa.- pìfts) her majefly's proceedings to begrounded upon two principles ; the one, tlat confeiences are not be beforced, but to be won, and induced byforce of truth,with the aid oftime andufe ofallgood means ofin/IruEtionandperfuafa- on. Anexcellent rule ! but far from being the foundation of her majefty's proceedings. Were not the confluences of the London minifters forced, when they were called to fubfcription in r565 by the queen'scommand, and on their refufal fufpended ? one of themmakes this remark upon it, " great was the forrowof molt minifters, and their mourning ; faying, weL. Grindal, " are killed in the foul of our fouls for this pollutionofours, for that we p. 98. " cannot perform in finglenefs of heart this our minifiry - -" Did " not 875
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