Sabbath-breakers;" the other, " News from Ipswich,"discover-
ing the innovations and severities of the prelates, especially
Bishop Wren of Norwich. These were supposed to have
been written by Mr. William Prynne, the lawyer. Dr. John
Bastvvick, a physician, having published a book, entitled,
Apologeticus ad prasules Anglkanos, and a pamphlet, called,
" The New Litany ;"t these three, Mr. Burton, Mr. Prynne,
and Dr. Bastwick, now confined in prison, were prosecuted
in the star-chamber, for " writing and publishing seditious,
schismatical, and libellous books against the hierarchy, and
to the scandal of the government." This was the substance
of the indictment. They had warmly reflected upon the
bishops, taxed them with inclinations to popery, and ex-
claimed against the severity and injustice of the proceedings
of the high commission. The persons then in power were
of too impatient and revengeful a temper to let such reflec-
tions and invectives go unpunished.^
W hen the three defendants had prepared their answers to
the indictment, they could not obtain counsel to sign them,
through fear of the prelates ; upon which they petitioned
the court to receive them from themselves, which was
rejected. However, Mr. Prjnne and Dr. Bastwick, having
no other remedy, left their answers at the office, signed
by their own hands, but were, nevertheless, proceeded
against pro confesso. Mr. Burton prevailed upon Mr. Holt,
* The following is a copy of this second warrani: — " To the warden
•' of the Fleet or his deputy. These are to will and require you to receive
" into your custody, the person of Henry Burton, clerk, sent herewith
" unto you, and to keep him a close prisoner in the Fleet, not suffering
•' any one to speak with him until further order, whereof you may not fail
*• at your perils, and this shall be your warrant. Dated from Whitehall,
*' the second of Feb. 1637.
*' W. Cant. Arundall and Surry, T. Jerrayn and Jo. Coke,
" Guil. London, Pembroke and Mountgomery, Fra. Windebanke."
Prynne s Discovery of the Prelates' Tyranny, p. 16. Edit. 1641.
+ In the indictment against t!ie three prisoners, it is said, that Dr.
Bastwick had signified in his " Litany," in the name of his wife, who was
great with child, that he was desirous of father William's holiness (meaning
Laud) and William London, the principal governor of the treasury, being
rodfathers to his child, not doubting; that he should procure the whore of
Babylon, with whom thev had so long committed fornication, to be god-
znothe:-.— flafcsr's MS. Codec, vol. xxxiii. p. 229, 220.
t Biog. Briun. rol. i. p. 680. £dit. 177S.
4.8 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
a learned and an aged bencher of Gray's-inn, to sign his
answer ; but tlie court, instead of receiving it, even when
signed, ordered the two chief justices to expunge what they
deemed unfit to be brought into the court. Accordinsflv,
they struck out the whole answer, consisting of forty sheets
of paper, except a few lines at the beginning, and a fevj
more at the end : and because Mr. Burton would not
acknowledge it thus purged, he was, in like manner, pro-
ceeded against j9ro co)/fesso.'*
The three prisoners were brought to the bar June 14, 1637,
when they offered to defend their several answers at the
peril of their lives ; but the court, finding them not filed on
record, would not receive them. The prisoners at the bar
cried aloud for justice, and that their answers might be
read ; but, however reasonable their request, it was peremp-
torily denied. During the trial, Prynne and Bastwick having
been examined, the learned judges came next to the case of
Mr. Burton, which was as follows :
Lord Keeper. Mr. Burton, what say you ?
Burton. My good lords, your honours, it should seem, do
deteniiine to censure us, and take our cause 2)70 confessOj
although we have laboured to give your honours satisfaction
in all things. My lords, what have you to say against my
book? I confess, I did write it; yet did I not say any
thing out of intent of commotion or sedition. I delivered
nothing but what my text led me to, being chosen to suit
with the day, namely, the fifdi of November.
L. Keeper. Mr. Burton, I pray stand not naming texts of
scripture now : we do not send for you to preach, but to
answer to those things which are objected against you.
Burton. My lord, I have drawn up my answer, to my
great pains and charges ; which answer was signed with my
counsel's hand, and received into the court according to tiie
rule and order thereof. And 1 did not think to have been
called this day to a censure, but to have had a legal proceed-
ing by way of bill and answer.
L. Keeper. Your answer was impertinent.
Burton. !My answer, after it was entered in the court,
was referred to the judges, but by -what means I do not
know ; and what cause your lordships had to cast it out, I
know not. But after it was approved of and received, it
was cast out as an intpertinent answer.
Lord Finch. The judges did you a good turn, to make it
* Prynne's Piflates' Tyranny, p. 14— IS, 40—43.
II. BURTON". 47
impertinent ; for it was as libellous as your book : so that
your answer deserved a censure alone.
L. Keeper. What say you, Mr. Burton, are you guilty
or not ?
Burton. My lord, I desire you to peruse my book, not
only here and there, but every passage of it.
L. Keeper. Mr. Burton, time is short. Are you guilty,
or not guilty ? What say you to that v.hich was read ? Doth
it become a minister to deliver himself iu such a railing and
scandalous way ?
Burton. In my judgment, and as I can prove it, it was
nehher railing nor scandalous. I conceive, that a minister
hath a larger liberty than always to go in a mild strain. I
being a pastor of my people, whom I had in charge, and
was to instruct, I supposed it was my duty to inform them
of those innovations diat are crept into the church, as like-
wise of the danger and ill consequences of them. As for
my answer, ye blotted out what ye would, and then the rest,
which made best for your own ends, you would have to
stand ; and now for me to tender only what will serve for
your own turns, and renounce the rest, were to desert my
cause ; which, before I will do, or desert my conscience, I
will rather desert my body, and deliver it up to your lord-
ships to do with it what you will.
L. Keeper. This is a place where you should crave
mercy and favour, Mr. Burton, and not stand on such terms
as you do.
Burton. Wherein I have offended through human frailty,
I crave pardon of God and man. And I pray God, that, in
your sentence, you may so censure us that you may not sin
against the Lord.*
Thus, while Mr. Burton and his fellow-prisoners desired
to say more for themselves, they were interrupted, and com-
manded silence ; when the following dreadful sentence was
passed upon them : " That Burton shall be deprived of his
ecclesiastical benefice, degraded from his ministerial func-
tion and degrees in the university, as Prynne and Bastwick
have been from their professions of law and physic ;t they
* Harleian Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 17. Edif, 1*43.
+ Mr, Prynne having published his " Histrio-Mastix," a boo!i against
plays, masquerades, &c. it o;ave great offence to Archbishop L?.ud, who, in
the year 1633, procured a sentence against him in the star-chainbcr. "That
he should be disabled from the practice of the law, be degraded from hTs
degree in the university, be set in the pillory, have both his ears cut off,
his book, burnt by the common hanginati, to pay a fine o^ Jive thousand
pounds, and to be imprisoned during life;" which sentence was rigorously
48 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
shall be fined each Jive thousand pounds ; they shall stand in
the pillory at Westminster, and have their ears cut off; and
because Prynne hath already lost his ears, by sentence of
the court in 1633, the remainder of the stumps shall be cut
off, and he shall be stigmatized on both his cheeks with the
letters S. L. for a seditious libeller; and they shall suffer
perpetual imprisonment, in three of the remotest prisons of
the kingdom, namely, in Carnarvon, Cornwall, and Lancaster
castles." Previous to the execution of this terrible sentence,
Mr. Burton's parishioners sent a petition to the king, signed
by a great number of hands, humbly entreating his pardon
and liberty. It was presented by two of them, who were
immediately committed to prison for their pains.* And,
June 30th, the sentence was executed upon the three pri-
soners, the hangman sawing off the remainder of Prynne's
ears, rather than cutting them.t
These three men were of the three most credible pro-
fessions, and not of the meanest character in their several
faculties. Nevertheless, they are called by many bigotted
historians, theseye//o?e's, these pillory-men, these stigmatized
scoundrels : when, in fact, the truly stigmatized, as our
author observes, were their persecutors, who really deserved
the punishment which these injured gentlemen suffered.
Their crime, if any they w^ere guilty of, was not against any
law of the land, but the tyrannical oppressions of the
prelates. t
On passing the above sentence, Archbishop Laud made a
long and laboured speech, to clear himself from the charge
of inyiovations, with which he was branded by the puritans.
Though Laud was the chief prosecutor of these unfortunate
sufferers, and his hand was first put to their numerous
warrants, he made, in this speech, the following declarations :
" I can say it clearly and truly, as in the presence of God,
" I have done nothing, as a prelate, to the uttermost of what
" I am conscious, but with a single heart, and with a sincere
" intention for the good government and honour of the
executed. At the same time, Dr. Bastwick having published his Elenckus
Papismi et Flagellum Episcoporum Latialium, against the papists,
declaring he intended nothing against our bishops, but only those of Rome,
he was, nevertheless, sentenced in Ihe high commission, " to fine a thousand
pounds, to be excommunicated, debarred the practice of physic, his book to
be burnt, and to be imprisoned till he made his recantation." — Whitlocke's
Memorials, p. 18, 21.
* Strafforde's Letters, vol. 11, p. 57. Edit. 1739-
■f Rushworth'sCollec. vol. ii. p. S82. — Prynne's Prelates' Tyranny, p, 61.
X Clarendon and Whitlocke Compared, p. 53.
H. BURTON. 49
" church,* and the maintenance of the orthodox truth and
" religion of Christ, professed, estabhshed, and maintained
" in this church of England." Was the conscience then of
this reverend prelate become so callous, that, by continued
acts of crnelty and oppression, he had lost all feeling for his
fellow-creatures? In the conclusion of the above speech,
still addressing the lords M'ho constituted the court, he even
adds : — " I humbly give you all hearty thanks for your just
" and honourable censure upon these men, and your unanimous
"dislike of them!"+ No one M'ill for a moment dispute
their unanimous dislike of them ; but whether this, as well as
the jiist and honourable censure put upon them, was deserving
the hearty thanks of a learned and pious archbishop, will
certainly be questioned. An impartial writer very justly
observes, that as the punishment of these men was ex-
orbitant, and disproportionate to the offence, it was then,
and hath been ever since, looked upon by all merciful and
unprejudiced persons with horror and detestation. |
The morning when the prisoners were to suffer theu'
heavy sentence, Mr. Burton being brought to the Palace-
yard, Westminster, and beholding the pillory, he said,
" Never was my wedding-day so welcome and joyful to me
as this day is ; and so much the more, seeing I have so noble
a captain, who hath gone before me with so undaunted a
spirit, tliat he saith of himself, ' I gave my back to the
smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.'
The Lord God will help me; therefore, I shall not be
confounded. Shall I be ashamed of a pillory for Christ,
who was not ashamed of a cross for me r" Then being put
in the pillory, he addressed the immense crowd of spectators,
saying, " Good people, I am brought hither to be a spectacle
to the world, to angels, and to men. And though I stand
here to undergo the punishment of a rogue ; yet, unless it be
the property of a rogue to be a faithful servant of Christ,
and a loyal subject to the king, I am clear from any such
charge. But if to be Christ's faithful servant, and the king's
loyal subject, deserve such kind of punishment as this, I
glory in it, and bless God my conscience is clear. I bless
God, who hath accounted me worthy of these sufferings.
* The character given of his grace by Lord Clarendon, very much
accords with the good opinion he had of himself. " Xo man," observes
the noble historian, " was ever more plentifully replenished with a good
conscience, and most sincere and worthy intentions, and a man of immense
virtue." — Clarendotts Hist. vol. i, p. 61.
+ Laud's Speech annexed to Troubles, vol, ii. p, 67—84.
% Biog. Britan. vol. i. p. 68?.
VOL. in. £
50 LIVES OF THE PUR TTANS.
I bless God, I am full of comfort." With a grave and
cheerful countenance he added : "• I was never in such a
pulpit before. Little do you know what fruit God is able*
to produce from this dry tree. Through these holes (meaning
the pillory) God can bring light to his church. My con-
science, in the discharge of my ministerial duty, in admonish-
ing my people to beware of the creeping in oj' popery, and in
exhorting them unto a dutiful obedience to God and the
O
king, was that which first occasioned my sufferings. The
truth which I have preached, I am ready to seal with my
own blood, and this is my crown both here and hereafter. '
When he was delivered out of the pillory, and again brought
upon the scaffold, the executioner cut off liis ears in a most
barbarous manner ;* during which, and while the blood was
streaming in every direction, he manifested the greatest
constancy and composure of mind, saying, " Be content;
blessed be God, it is well ;" and much more to the same
purpose. f Mr. Prynne and Dr. Bastwick had this part of
their sentence executed at the same time and place.
The day preceding the execution of the above sentence, it
was decreed in the star-chamber, " That Henry Burton shall
be sent to Lancaster castle, WUliam Prynne to Carnarvon
castle, and John Bastwick to Launceston castle, and there
suffer perpetual imprisonment, and not be allowed any use
of pen, ink, or paper, or any other book than the Bible, the
Book of Commo* Prayer, and certain books of devotion ;
and no person to have access to them." Accordingly, July
26th, Dr. Bastwick was taken from the Gatehouse ; the day
following, Mr. Prynne was taken from the Tower; and, July
28th, Mr. Burton was taken from the Fleet ; and, their sores
not being cured, were conveyed to their respective places of
confinement. As they passed out of the city, vast multitudes
of people came forth to witness their departure, taking their
final and sorrowful farewell. As Mr. Burton passed from
Smithfield to Brown's-well, a little beyond Highgate, it is
said that no less than one hundred thousand persons were
collected to witness his departure, and that his wife, going
along in a coach, had great sums of money thrown to her as
she passed along. j But the liberty given to Mr. Burton and
his fellow-sufferers to speak in the pillory ; and the affection
* His ears were pared so close, that the temporal artery being cut, the
blood gushed out in torrents upon the scaffold. The sight of this awakened
the compassion and cries of an iniinensc concourse of people. — FuUer^i
Church Hist. b. xi, p. 155 — Strnfforde's Letters, vol. ii. p. 85.
+ Prynne's Prelates' Tyranny p. 46 — 60.
J Strafforde's Letters, vol. ii. p. 114.
IT. BURTON. 51
and compassion of the populace, were highly offensive to
X-aud's proud spirit ; as appears from his letter to Wentworth,
dated August 2S, 1637 :* " What say you to il," observes
the intolerant prelate, " that Prynne and his fellows should be
" suffered to talk what they pleased while they stood m the
" pillory, and win acclamalions from the people, and have
" notes taken of what tliey spake, and tliose spread m written
" copies about the city ; and that when they went out of
" town to their several miprisouments, there were thousands
" suffered to be upon the way to take their leave, and God
" knows what else ? — And I hear Prynne was very much
" welcomed, both m Coventry and West-Chester, as he
" passed towards Carnarvon."+ A writer of some eminence
observes, that nature seemed to have designed Laud for the
office of an inquisitor, lie was tierce and unrelenting in his
* StraflForde's Letters, vol. ii. p. 99.
+ Mr, Prynne, on liis way from London to Carnarvon, spent the Lord's
day at Coventry ; where he twice attended divine service at church, and
several persons, his friends, visited him at the inn, his coudnclors having
received no orders to the contrary. Arch! • 'lop Laud hearing of tliis,
immediately sent a messenger to Coventry, to bring the mayor and six
others up to London, and convened them before the council-table. Though
most of them never spoke to Mr. Prynne, they were obliged to a continued
attendance for some time, and put to two or three hundred pounds
expense, when they were reprimanded and dismissed. On Mr. Prynne's
arrival at Chester, Mr. Calvin Brewen and some others visited him at the
inn, assisted him in the purcl)ase of some necessary furniture for his
chamber at Carnarvon, and manifesied certain other acts of kindness
towards him. But by the direction of Laud, pursuivants were sent with
â– warrants to apprehend them, and bring them before the high commission at
York; when some were fined three, and some five hundred pounds, and
forced to enter into bonds of three hundred pounds each, not only to abide
by the further appointment of that court, but to make such public
acknowledgment in the cathedral of Chester, and before the mayor,
aldermen, and citizens, in the town-hall, as the commissioners should
prescribe. Also, these pious high commissioners hearing that there were
five paintings of Rlr. Prynne, in the possession of his friends in Chester,
they not only prosecuted the poor painter, but sent torth two warrants,
first to deface the paintings, then to burn them. Accordingly, the inoffen-
sive paintings were apprehended and defaced, and then publicly burnt at
the high-cross in Chester, in the presence of the mayor, aldermen, and
citizens. It is curious further to observe, that the Bishop of Chester, who
took an active part in these barbarous proceedings, out of enmity to Mr.
Prynne, called his crop-eared horse by the name of Prynne. Thus
the angry and revengeful prelates, not glutted by the severe sentence
obtained against Mr. Prynne, pursued and grievously oppressed those who,
as he was conveyed to prison, shewed him any acts of civility. Mr.
,Prynne's servant was also severely prosecuted in the high commission,
and sent from prison to prison, only for refusing to accuse his master.
The archbishop, who was leader in all these barbarous proceedings, and
whom Granger considers eminent for sincere and ardent piety, seemed
destitute of the feelings of humanity. — Prynne's Prelates' Tyranny,
p. 92—108. — Neal's Puritans, vol. ii. p. 280.— Granger's Biog. Hist.
vol. ii. p. 153.
62 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
disposition, void of mercy and compassion, and grudged those
whom his rage and despotic power had reduced to very great
extremities, even the pity and relief of friends. ^Vhat
worse character can exist ? Who can be more justly odious
to every man, than a vain mortal armed with power, and
using it to wreak his vengeance on his foes ? Ought not the
memory of such wretches to be treated with a proper indigna-
tion ?* These are certainly strong expressions ; but how much
truth they contain is left with the candid reader to judge.
While the three prisoners were on their way to their distant
places of confinement, the tyrannical archbishop, not content
with the order sent along with them, procured a fresh one,
dated July 30, 1637, which was sent after them, and by
which he obtained a more severe imprisonment. In this
order there appeared, however, one clause in favour of the
prisoners, that, during their close imprisonment, his majesty
would give them allowance of their food. The m hole order
was as follows : " Whereas Henry Burton is, by the late
*' sentence of the high court of star-chamber, to be committed
" to the goal, in the castle of Lancaster, and there to be kept
" close prisoner. Their lordship's conceiving that the said
" Burton cannot be in a common goal kept so close a
*' prisoner as by the said sentence is intended ; upon con-
" sideration thereof, do hereby will and require the constable
*' or other chief oflicers of the said castle of Lancaster, and his
*' deputy or either of them, to suffer the sheriif of the county
*' of Lancaster, or the keeper of the said goal, still to use
*' such room or chamber without the said goal, and within the
*' said castle, as shall be most fit and convenient to keep the
" said Burton a close prisoner there : and that none of the
" other prisoners, or any other person or persons, be permitted
" to come into the said castle to confer or in any way to
*' converse with the said Burton, such only excepted as are
*' to take care of his safety, or to attend the said Burton to
" give him daily sustenance and relief. And the said Burton
*' is not to be permitted to have the use of any pen, ink, or
*' paper, or any book or books save only the Bible, the Book
" of Common Prayer, and such other canonical books, as he
" shall desire for his conif-ort and devotion, and which are
*' consonant to the religion professed in the church of
" England. In regard of which close imprisonment, his
*' majesty will give allowance for his diet, for all which this
" order shall be a sufficient warrant unto the said constable,
* Harris's Life of Charles I. p. 231, 232.
H. BURTON. 5S
*' or other chief officer of the said castle of Lancaster, and to
" his deputy, and the goaler aforesaid."* Though this order
might seem to make some atonement for the numerous
severities intiicted upon them, and be intended to blind the
eyes of the people ; instead of receiving his majesty's favour,
not one of them, through the influence of the reverend
prelates, received one penny of the royal bounty ; and if
their friends and keepers had not been more charitable than
their lordships, they would soon have perished in their
prisons.
Great numbers of persons, who pitied these unhappy
sufferers, having resorted to the places where they were con-
fined, the relentless archbishop, to add afflictions to the
afflicted, and to deprive them olf all possibility of receiving
comfort or relief from their Avives, relations, or friends, pro-
cured an order for their perpetual banishment and close im-
prisonment, in the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Scilly.
This order, now before me, is much the same as that which
followed them to their other places of confinement, only it
contains this additional severity : '' That no letters or writings
" be permitted to be brought to the said prisoners, nor from
" them, to any person or place whatsoever. And that the
" wives of the said Burton and Bastvvick (Prynne not being
" married) shall not be permitted to land on any of the said
" islands ; and if they or either of them shall be found so
" offending, such offender or offenders shall forthwith be
" connnitted to prison. And that in conveying the said
" prisoners to the said islands, no person whatsoever, besides
" those who have the care and charge of them, shall be per-
*' mitted to speak with them." What greater cruelty ever
appeared in the Spanish Inquisition, or among the barbarities
of the Algiereans ? According to the above order, Mr. Burton,
contrary to his sentence in the star-chamber, and without
any cause shewn, was removed from the castle of Lancaster
to Castle-cornet in the island of Guernsey ; where he arrived
December 15, 1637, and was shut up in a low, narrow, dark
room, almost suffocated for want of air, and no one allowed
to see or speak to him. Dr. Bast^ick was also removed
from the castle of Launceston to the castle on the island of
Scilly; and Mr. Prynne from Carnarvon to the castle of
Montorguiel in Jersey, where they were shut up close pri-
soners.!
These oppressive and illegal proceedings, however gratify-
* Prynne's Prelates' Tyranny, p. 84. i Ibid. p. 61—98.