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them with "usurping upon his Majesty's prerogative-royal, with innovations in religion, licensing of Popish and Arminian books," and other particulars, which bill was signed by the three defendants; but when it was delivered to the Lord Keeper, he refused to admit it. On the 28th of April, Bastwick, and his brothers in offence, were enjoined to put in their answers to the information by the next Monday sevennight, by the advice of their counsel, and under their hands, or else the matters of the information should be taken against them, pro confesso.

Bastwick accordingly prepared his answer. This document was a gross aggravation of his original offence. In it he professed to demonstrate that the prelates were invaders of the king's prerogative royal, contemners and despisers of holy scripture, advancers of popery, superstition, idolatry, and profaneness. It was of enormous length, occupying five skins and a half of parchment, closely written; and in print, (for he printed it to shame the rogues,") twenty-nine goodly pages in quarto, in the smallest type. Of its tone and temper our readers may judge by the following extract, which we have culled from a variety of sweets which occur towards its close :

"Now he," (Archbishop Laud) "is a father of the church, and that of Canterbury; and he is holy-at leastwise would be so reputed, and would deem it a scandalum magnatum to be styled prophane or unholy. Ergo, he is Father William of Canterbury, his Holiness; and the defendant is resolved never to detract any thing from his Holiness, but shall ever pray that he may grow, and ever more increase in holiness. And for the prelate of London, he should be feeding of Christ's flock in the pulpit; and he is at the receipt of custom, telling of money, like Matthew the publican, before his calling to the apostleship, the love of which is the root of all evil, and hath got himself no small honour by it, which the defendant would not in the least diminish; and therefore, being no skilful herald, nor acquainted with the titles of honour they usually style men in that place, he was constrained to make use of a little of his Roman rhetoric, and called him Magnificus Rector of the Treasury; a fitting, honourable title, as he conceived, which he doth not, nor ever shall repute a scandal, nor repent of that invitation."

He concluded his defence by protesting that he never meddled with any of the church dignitaries" till they, by their delinquency against God and the king, did manifestly demonstrate they were fallen from grace;" and declared that, till death, he would " devoutly pray, from plague, pestilence, and famine, from bishops, priests, and deacons, good Lord deliver

* The Bishop was Lord High Treasurer.

us!-ever meaning," added he by way of salvo," from usurping popish bishops, priests, and deacons, and such as challenge their standing and authority, jure divino."

In the practice of the Court of Star Chamber, it was required that all answers to informations should be signed by counsel. But a prudential regard to the safety of their ears, deterred the learned gentlemen to whom Bastwick applied for the requisite sanction, from making the perilous experiment of attaching to it their signature. Prynne, from the same cause, found himself in the same predicament. They both, therefore, petitioned the Court to receive their respective answers under their own signatures; but this request was refused, and they were taken pro confesso. Burton had procured the requisite signature to his answer; but on its exhibition in court, a considerable portion of it was objected to as scandalous and impertinent, and accordingly expunged; and, as he would not recognise the document in its amended state, the bill was also taken, pro confesso, against him.

On the 14th day of June, 1637, the three defendants appeared in the Star Chamber, when Prynne, who for a previous libel had been condemned to lose his ears, rising to speak, was welcomed by Sir John Finch with the following brutal speech" Is that Mr. Prynne? I had thought Mr. Prynne had had no ears, they being adjudged to be cut off by the sentence of this Court: but methinks he hath ears, and it is fit the Court should take order that the decrees thereof should be better executed, and see whether Mr. Prynne hath ears or no." The Usher of the Court, according to orders, turning back his hair, it was found that a remnant of his auditory apparatus was left, a circumstance which was severely animadverted upon by some of the lords who sat on the judgment seat. This barbarous proceeding was the prelude to a wrangling dialogue between the defendant and the Court, who, in conclusion, refused to take his answer, which he tendered on oath. Bastwick was then heard, who, finding that his answer, too, would be rejected, finished his speech by a bold defiance. "If your honours shall refuse it," exclaimed he, " then I protest, before men and angels, this day, that I will put this answer of mine in Roman buff, and send it through the whole Christian world, that all men may see my innocence, and your illegal proceedings; and this I will do if I die for it." After uttering this threat of appeal to the literati of Europe, he threw his parchments into the Court; on which the Lord Keeper said, "Dr. Bastwick, it seems we must have your answer." Having a presentiment of the sentence which awaited him, and which he charged the Court with having predetermined before he was heard, he deprecated it in the following pithy peroration to his speech :

"I shall, therefore, now presume only to beseech you to give me leave to say unto your honours, as Paul spake unto the Centurion, when they were about to whip him, 'What,' saith he,' will ye whip a Roman?'-so, my good lords, let me say unto your honours, What! will you cut off a true and loyal subject's ears for doing his duty to his king and country?-will you cut off a scholar's ears?will you cut off a doctor of physic's ears, able to cure lords, peers, kings, and emperors? Will you cut off a soldier's ears, able to lead an army into the field for the honour of his king and country? Will you cut off a Christian's ears?-will you make curs of Christians,

my lords? Will you cut off a Catholic, Apostolic, or Roman's ears? Aropes, adexpor xai matiges, men, brethren, and fathers! what an age do we live in, that we must thus be exposed unto the merciless fury of every malignant spirit."

Burton was heard the last. He seems to have conducted himself with much more temper and coolness than Bastwick, but this was of no avail to him. He was involved in the same censure with the author of the Letany. The sentence was pronounced by Lord Cottingham in the following words :-" I condemn these three men to lose their ears in the Palace-yard, at Westminster;-to be fined five thousand pounds a man to his Majesty; and to perpetual imprisonment in three remote places of the kingdom, namely, the castles of Carnarvon, Cornwall, and Lancaster." To this sentence the Lord Finch added,"Mr. Prynne to be stigmatized in the cheeks with two letters, S and L, for a seditious libeller;" to which addition the majority of the lords agreed.

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On the 30th day of June, the corporal part of this atrocious sentence was executed with extreme severity. But the cruelty of the government was firmly encountered by the patience and boldness of the sufferers. They were received with zealous plaudits by the multitude, who strewed sweet herbs on the way by which they were conducted to the pillory. When Bastwick mounted the scaffold, he was immediately followed by his wife, who, like a loving spouse, saluted each ear with a kiss, and then his mouth; whose tender love, boldness, and cheerfulness, so wrought upon the people's affections, that they gave a marvellous great shout for joy to behold it." Burton was also supported in his painful trial by the affection of his wife. Seeing a cloud of anxiety pass for a moment over her brow, he said," Wife, why art thou so sad?" To whom she made answer, "Sweetheart, I am not sad."-" No!" said he, "See, thou be not; for I would not have thee to dishonour the day, or to darken the glory of it, by shedding one tear, or fetching one sigh." Prynne smarted most keenly under the barbarity of the executioner, who, in cutting off the remnant of one of his ears, took off a piece of his cheek, and narrowly missed

dividing the jugular vein; and, in stigmatizing him, took care to make a much more than a nominal cautery. The spirits of the martyr, however, were not subdued. On the contrary, his genius was excited; and, on his way back to the Tower, where he had been confined before his trial, he recorded his triumph in the following punning distich :—

"S. L. Stigmata Laudis

"Stigmata maxillis referens insignia Laudis
"Exultans remeo, victima grata Deo."

On the 26th day of July, Dr. Bastwick, before his wounds were perfectly cured, was removed from the Gate-house, and compelled to set out on his journey to Lancaster castle. His faithful wife followed him, but, for some days, was not permitted to speak to him. On the 1st of August he arrived at the place where it was intended that he should end his days, and was quartered in a part of the building, which was so ruinous, that it was constantly in danger of being blown down. This being represented to Judge Finch, his Lordship mercifully replied, that "the Doctor, by his faith and prayers, would hold it up from falling." In aggravation of his sufferings, Laud procured a warrant, prohibiting all access to him on the part of his friends, and debarring him the use of pen, ink, and paper, and of all books, save the Bible and Common Prayer book, and such devotional works as were consonant to the faith of the Church of England.

But the vengeance of the archbishop was not yet satiated. A few weeks after the settlement of the prisoners in their respective places of confinement, finding that their residence in England made them objects of public attention, and that the wives of Burton and Bastwick had made attempts to procure access, and to send letters to them, he determined to remove them from the reach of sympathy or comfort, and procured an illegal order for their banishment from the island. Prynne was accordingly conveyed to Jersey Castle; Burton, to Guernsey; and Bastwick was ordered to be sent to the Fort of Scilly. He was accordingly conveyed, on the 10th day of October, 1637, from Lancaster to Plymouth, where he was embarked on board a vessel, into which his wife was not permitted to enter to take leave of him. On the 16th, he arrived at the islands of Scilly," where," says Prynne,* "many thousands of robin red-breasts (none of which birds were ever seen in those islands before nor since) newly arrived at the castle there the

In his "New Discovery of the Prelate's Tyranny."..

evening before, welcomed him with their melody; and, within one day or two after, took their flight from thence, no man knows whither."

In all probability, Bastwick regarded the appearance of these birds as comfortably ominous of his future deliverance from the hands of his enemies. If so, he was not mistaken, though the accomplishment of his favourable prognostic was somewhat tardy. The assembling of the Long Parliament, as it is well known, discomfited all the tyrannic plans of the court. The relatives and friends of the captives petitioned the House of Commons for their release. Their petitions were readily granted; and the requisite orders, backed by the Speaker's warrant, were issued on the 7th day of November, 1640. On the 28th of November, Burton and Prynne made their triumphant entry into London, attended by such multitudes of people, that they found it difficult to make their way into the city. Dr. Bastwick, in consequence of the distance of the place of his confinement, did not land at Dover till the 7th of December: the 8th, being Sunday, he spent at Gravesend in company with his wife and children, and many of his friends; and, on the ensuing day, he also entered the metropolis amidst the acclamations of the populace.

The three martyrs in the cause of puritanism, after their restoration to liberty, lost no time in presenting petitions to the House of Commons, requesting an examination of their respective cases, and a redress of their grievances. These petitions were favourably received. On the 25th of February, the House resolved, "that the proceedings against Dr. Bastwick in the Star Chamber, and the sentence of that Court against him, and the execution of that sentence, were against the law, and liberty of the subject; and that the sentence ought to be reversed, and Dr. Bastwick discharged of the fine of £5000, and of his imprisonment, and to have reparation for the damages sustained by the foresaid proceedings, sentence, and execution." The like condemnation was passed on his illegal removal to the fort of Scilly; and, on the Ist of March, it was ordered, "that the Archbishop of Canterbury, and all those who voted against Dr. Bastwick in the Star Chamber, should make satisfaction to him for his damages sustained by that sentence." Similar resolutions were soon afterwards passed in favour of his fellow sufferers. The wheel of fortune made a complete revolution. Many of the persecutors of this hotbrained, but firm-hearted triumvirate were driven into exile; and Prynne had the gratification of assisting in, and of recording that trial, which, in its issue, consigned his arch enemy to the scaffold.

We have not room to enlarge on the reflections which sug

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