silence, but it was not respected. Then Mr. Ferne called to Mr. Stillington, and said, all this disorder was along of him; and that he should answer for all; but they all replied, he has no charge of our souls; we speak of ourselves, and for our own discharge. Then they blamed Mr. Danby, for he spoke very freely, and a note above the rest, and still they desired that they might be sent away. Dr. Bennet went from the bench unto them, and desired them, but now to hear Mr. Goodwin speak in a civil manner unto them; and then they staid their speech.

After dinner, Mr. Danby was sent for to the manor, and my lord sharply reproved him for this matter, and assigned him again to thedungeon; and that Thomas Whelehouse, and Thomas Clitheroe should be double fettered, and be put into the low house with the thieves: and, on Wednesday following (as God would) came a fellow and complained of some wrong sustained by Mr. Danby about his farmhold, and craved remedy of my lord. Upon this occasion, my lord sent for Mr. Danby out of the dungeon, and heard the cause, and found the fellow had sustained no wrong; but hearing of Mr. Danby's disgrace with my lord, thought then to get some advantage against him. This business dispatched, Mr. Danby gave a petition to my lord for his delivery out of the dungeon and my lord asked him, why he spoke so much? I must either speak, quoth he, or stop my ears. Well then, quoth my lord, do you stop your ears, and hinder not others that would hear. And thus Mr. Danby was delivered out of the dungeon.

:

CHAP. XI. The prisoners' behaviour at the ninth sermon made by Mr. Cook.

THIS week they changed the sermon day from Sunday to Friday, because these sporting preachers drew most of the audience from the cathedral to the castle, and so made the congregation there very small, to the great disgrace of their gospel. This day the council being set, and the preacher in his place before all the prisoners were hauled down; in this space, one Edward Soughell, a good poor man, went to Mr. Cook, the preacher, and said thus unto him, sir, you use us strangely in hauling us thus against our wills. I beseech you satisfy us, if you can, by some authority out of the word of God, that christians may be thus used, or by some example, that good christians ever used heretics after this manner. The preacher would give him no answer; but said, he was come there to preach, and willed them to hear him, and then to lay all their heads together, and answer what they could. The poor old sickly man again instantly desired him, even for Christ's sake, to give him some answer hereunto: but Cook, for all his learning, was silent to this question, and would make no answer. He began his sermon, and they all stopped their ears; and then he said, he had purposed to speak to these asps, meaning the catholics, but seeing they stopped their ears and would not hear, he would direct his speech to another audience. The sermon ended, they all departed; and, in the afternoon, Mr. Stillington and Mr. Danby were sent for to the manor before my lord and the council. The manner of their usage I will recite out of one of Mr. Stillington's letters, as follows.

Mr. Danby and I were sent for to the manor the last day, and carried by several keepers, that we should not speak one to the other in the way, so careful are they to bar us of all comfort one of another. When

we came into my lord's bed-chamber, there was Mr. Cook standing at the table, and divers books before him. My lord, at the first, began a very sharp speech unto us, and reproved us for stopping our ears, and called us swine and hogs, that despised the word of God, and threatened great punishments to them, that again should dare to stop their ears. I told his lordship, we were of another religion, and it was against our consciences to hear their sermons; and therefore we could do no less, being hauled thither, than to stop our ears in sign of dislike; and it was a means also (keeping us from hearing) to keep us from answering and speaking; by which we should more offend them and the laws, than by stopping our ears.

CHAP. XII. The tenth sermon preached by Mr. Bùnny.

ALL LL the sermon time they stopped their ears, which offended so much, that in the afternoon there came a warrant to put Mr. Stillington and Mr. Danby both into the dungeon. What, quoth Mr. Stillington, will my lord have us both in the dungeon? the place will hardly hold us, being little more than three feet wide. There is no remedy, quoth the keeper, I am commanded to put you both there: and the next day he set irons upon Mr. Gascoigne, Thomas Whelehouse and Peter Tunstall..

The eleventh sermon was made by Mr. Fowler, my lord's chaplain; and for stopping of their ears, there were fifteen of the prisoners set in irons. So hotly did my lord and the council pursue the stopping of their ears; which, at first, they licensed, and, in some sort, commanded.

CHAP. XIII. The fifteenth sermon, preached by Mr. Goodwin. THE

HE prisoners were this day hauled down one after another, and being size week, there was great wondering at the strangeness thereof: as soon as they were all brought into the hall, one of them preferred a petition, in the name of them all, to my lord and the judges; the substance was as followeth :

They first desired their lordships to consider the great distresses they suffered; first, the loss of their goods, and two-thirds of their lands, by the statute, for their conscience sake; and that (this notwithstanding) they still paid all sessments, taxes and subsidies, as 'deeply as others of their neighbours; and, with loyal minds, were still ready in all employments for their country, and her majesty's service; ' in respect whereof, they humbly desired their lordships' good con'siderations, for the bodily punishments, viz. the keeping of them close ' prisoners in so corrupt a place as the castle was, the loading them with irons so long, and in so cold a season, many of them being aged men, ' and very sickly persons: and as touching the stopping of their ears at sermons, to which they were hauled against their wills, they humbly ' desired them to take it in no offence; for, seeing they were holden to 'hear things offensive, and against their consciences, the remedy was lawful, they thought, in such a case; it was a thing by the prophet 'Isaiah commended as a just act, and used by the catholics of old time against the arians. It was (they said) a secure way to keep their 'consciences at quiet, and a harmless defence allowed them by God, and the law of nature.'

After they had delivered the petition, my lord perused it and gave it to the judge; he read it, and gave it to the other judges, and so they

proceeded to the sermon; at which the prisoners stopped their ears; and when the preacher had made an end, Mr. Danby stood up, and Mr. Stillington with him, and he desired to speak. My lord said presently to him, what, Danby, will you speak? you are minimus apostolorum, you may hold your peace. One of the judges asked him, whether he would speak for himself, or for his company? and he answered, that he spoke for his company; for that his voice was stronger than any of theirs. Then baron Saville angerly asked him, who gave him commission to speak in that place? he answered, that he asked leave, and set down again.

CHAP. XXX. The twenty-fourth sermon made by Mr. Lyndal ; from Mr. Stillington's letters.

WHEN the sermon was done, I stood up and desired his honour to hear an old papist speak, which I thought would make his lordship laugh. He gave me leave, and then I rose up from my place, and went up to the preacher, hard before my lord, and doing my duty, desired his honour to bear with my rough English, for I was but a mean scholar; and then I read the story following, out of St. Augustine, in his 22d book of the City of God, chap. 8. there was a certain old man, named Florentius, of our city of Hippo, a godly poor man, by occupation a shoe-maker, that lost his coat, and had nothing wherewith to buy him another. He prayed in a loud voice to the forty martyrs (whose memory is most famous here with us) to be cloathed, Certain mocking young men heard him that were there by chance, and when he went away, they followed him, disquieting, or jesting at him, as though he had asked fifty half-pence to buy him a coat: but he going quietly away, espied a great fish gasping upon the sand, and took the said fish, by the help of the aforesaid young men, and carried it to a cook's house, named Carthesus, a good christian, shewing unto him what had happened unto him. He sold the fish for three hundred half-pence, purposing therewith to buy wool, that his wife might spin him a coat. But the cook cutting up the fish, found a gold ring in the fish's belly; and presently moved with compassion, and a good conscience, gave it to the poor man, saying, behold how the forty martyrs have clad thee.

When I had ended this story, I said to my lord, if I had reported such a miracle to your honour, it would have been taken for some fiction; but I hope the credit of this old father, St. Augustine, will authorize the report. The gentlemen, and almost all the hall, laughed, and my lord answered, in good faith you have made me laugh indeed.

Then my lord stood up himself, and made a speech unto us for a farewel; in which his honour declared, that he began that exercise for our good; and said, that we,resisted more than we needed, or were tied unto by our religion; and thereby unwisely gave advantage of the law against ourselves; but, for his part, he said, he never intended to take advantage on; and, in the end, he willed us, that if we would pray or speak, to hinder our own hearing, yet so to do it, as it should not hinder them that were willing to hear the preacher; and thus very favourably made an end.

When my lord had done, I came and kneeled on my knee, and desired his honour, to take pity on the poor men that had now worn irons very long, many of them being sickly and very aged men. His honour

said, he would leave an honourable gentleman in his place, and turned to wards my lord Evers, who he hoped would take some consideration in that matter to ease them, and so departed; and the next day all our irons were taken off, and his honour gave me two months' liberty to go to the hot baths; which before had been hindered by many great personages, and now is likely to be hindered again: for after his honour was gone, I staid but three days, with my company in the castle, to get my horses in readiness; and in that space, Mrs. Readhead hath treacherously ac cused us to have had a mass on Corpus Christi Day, when my lord was going away; and, upon this suggestion, we were searched, and my chamber ransacked more than all the rest, and the walls almost riven down, and I am staid by the council from my journey; but I am gotten from her keeping for the time; and I hope the sermons will end, for the preachers edify not much, and some of their own sort think, that they do us wrong, and their own cause no good, whilst they are so taken with lies and falshoods by us ignorant laymen; and doubtless, many like better our cause now than they did before they heard us speak. Sex Calcend Junij, 1600.

CHAP. XL. The fiftieth and last sermon made by Mr. Cook. MR. Cook was appointed, and took his text from Jeremy li. Curavimus Babylonem & non est sanata derelinquamus eam, & eamus unusquisque in domum suam. For half an hour he handled this text; but in the latter part of his speech he railed exceedingly, and applied every thing against Rome, the pope and the catholics. He preached his own condemnations most willingly, and said, he had confuted the papist's urgument for purgatory, so as the dragon in his den, meaning the priest, could never be able again to open his mouth. This was shameful impudence in that place, where all men were witness, that he durst make no confutation or answer to the priest in writing at all; nor durst he, in that question of purgatory, accept a layman's challenge openly made upon him in the Hall before my lord, and all that assembly, and not once but several times and days. In the end he told them, the magistrates purpose was good in that exercise; but seeing their labour lost, he thought them unworthy of such favour, and so mild handling (loss of lands and goods, strait imprisonment, dungeons and wearing of irons, with many terrible threats and open disgraces, is mild handling with Mr. Cook and the ministers: but I may doubt if the preachers would endure such mild usage for the love of their new gospel, if they were put thereto) and that now they would leave them, and return every one to his own home. When he had made an end, one of the council stood up, and told the prisoners, that it was my lord's pleasure the sermons should cease till the spring: and so they all departed.

The prisoners were glad, and they had great cause to thank God, that had protected them from so manifold dangers, and now given them the victory, after so many conflicts, with such potent adversaries, without the loss of any one soldier of the camp. For, thanked be God, they were all constant to the end, cheerful, patiently enduring all disgraces, persevering in unity, and sound in faith.

Fourthly, an extract out of the commentaries upon the epistle to the He

brews, c. x. written by the learned and pious Cornelius'a Lapide, S. J. "edition of Antwerp, 1627." Audi Anglicana, &c.

DUAS

mam quæ

UAS e tribus bonorum partes viduæ nobilis quod hæreticorum templa adire nollet fisco hæretici addixerunt, cumq; ipsa ab amicis adjuta a fisco bis terq; propriam Domum agrosq; conduceret & paulatim ditesceret, bis terq; duabus bonorum partibus rursum spoliata est: Quod ipsa miro cum gaudio tulit. Alius magnam pecuniarum sumad vitam sustentandam sola restabat apud amicum catholicum deposuerat, quam repertam abstulere pursuivantes; ipse certior de rapina factus, sublatis in Coelum manibus gratias maximas Deo egit, quod ex illa hora eum in suum patrocinium & curam suscepisset, solumq; dolebat quod pecuniæ amissæ quantitas major non fuisset. ́Alia fœmina primaria, Uxor Gulielmi Lacei gloriosi postmodum martyris, qui bona omnia ac præcipua munia eo quod hæreticorum templa adire nollet, gaudens amisserat; post direptionem bonorum perpauperem vitam agebat tantâ cum lætitiâ, ut deo pro tanto beneficio dignas gratias agere se non posse affirmaret eo quod una cum bonis superfluas curas & mundanas obligationes abstulerat, tempusq; hac ratione va'cuum ad æternam salutem comparandam concesserat: & quamvis ab ⚫ assiduas persecutiones domicilia, terrasq; mutare crebro cogeretur tanto gaudio fruebatur, ut a deo instanter peteret ne omnes suas ærumnas in ⚫ hâc vitâ remuneraretur, sed dolorem aut infirmitatem aliquam corporalem ad magnum animi gaudium temperandum, & peccata sua dum viveret purganda immitteret; quod & præstitum est. Sex enim vel septem ante obitum annos continuis gravissimisq; doloribus & infir'mitatibus exercita fuit, quas summâ alacritate sustinuit. D. Franc. Tregianus antiquæ & nobilissimæ familiæ, &c. ferunt eum cum sententia de amissione bonorum & perpetuis carceribus ferenda esset, ← bysso candidâ vestitum comparuisse, & post latam sententiam dixisse : Pereant bona quæ si non periissent, fortassis Dominum suum perdidis⚫ sent. Excellentissimus Arundeliæ Comes Philippus Howardus, in carcere captivus catholicis omnibus non exemplo modo, sed etiam singulari solatio fuit; nullus unquam de bonorum rapinâ, de carceris incommodis, de negatâ libertate dolentem audivit. Imo conquerentes alios ipse nunc verbis erigere, nunc mirâ quâ pollebat comitate consolari solebat. Illi præter deum & cœlestium contemplationem sapiebat nil, pecunias quas pro sustentatione secundum dignitatis gradum regina illi concedebat, tenui & parco ipse contentus cibo, inter pauperes distribuit. Alia multa dixit, fecit,, scripsit quæ antiquorum primitivæ ‹ ecclesiæ heroum factum vel æquent, vel superent. Macte animo an⚫ gli orthodoxi, æmuli primorum christianorum & martyrum, hæc est felicitas vestra, quod hocce seculo persecutionibus procelloso in Anglia ⚫ nati soli pæné speretis, soli ambiatis martyrium, sive breve illud detur, ⚫sive longum & lentum per assiduas rapinas & vaxationes. Invident • vobis martyrium sanguinis pseudo episcopi; at eó gloriosius in fortunis exhibent quo durius & lentius. Hæc enim rapina vitam, non qualem, qualem, sed nobilem & gradu vestro dignam, non vobis solis, sed toti familiæ & posteritati eripit. Itaq; non unum hoc & simplex, nec unius, sed multiplex & multorum est martyrium. Edit. Antw. 1627,

FINIS.