"Some things," say they, "appear to us repugnant to the word of God; as the allowance of an unlearned ministry, reading the apocrypha in the service of God, private baptism, and the government of the church. And to us many things appear very doubtful, some of which it is impossible for us to practice with a good conscience. Yet, as we judge not others in the practice of them; so we desire that we may not be judged by them, but left to our liberty in not subscribing. There are other things to the use of which we have subscribed, because they are tolerated -for a time, and imposed upon us by the laws of the church; yet we see not how they agree with the word of God, and cannot approve of them. But if we offend against any law of the church or statute, we humbly crave such favour and clemency as is not contrary to law; but if this cannot be obtained, we submit ourselves to the censures of the law, still avowing our peaceableness both in church and

state.

"We, therefore, must humbly on our knees, beseech your honours, that we may be freed from the subscription now urged upon us; or have so much time allowed us to examine and consider the case, as your wisdoms shall think fit; or we must give up our places for the peace of the church. For we most humbly confess before God and the elect angels, that to subscribe as now required, we should act contrary to the doctrines of faith and repentance which we have taught among the people of our charge: We should subscribe to some things against our consciences, to many things with a doubtful conscience, and most of all with an ignorant conscience; from all such dealing the Lord ever preserve us. We commend to your wise consideration the indignity and reproach which is likely to be cast upon us and our ministry, being accounted disloyal and seditious against her majesty; but we much more commend to you our doubtful, fearful, and distressed consciences, and the miserable state of our poor and distressed people hungering after the word of life, who, when they are deprived of us, almost despair of having a learned and godly ministry. If they might have better than ourselves, we should rejoice, and be much more content. We bless the Lord, that the people of our charges are free from heresies and seditions, and most of them from gross crimes, and all, so far as we know, are faithful subjects, and many of them are known and approved christians. But what may befall them when they are left as sheep without

a shepherd, we leave to your honoured wisdoms to judge.

"We have only to add our humble apology for now soliciting the favour of your honours. We have forborne applying to you as long as we possibly could, and perhaps till it is too late, as three canonical admonitions have already passed upon us, and our deprivation is threatened; which sentence, two of us have already tasted. We have used means by our right worshipful and some of her majesty's justices, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who have used their earnest suit for us with the archbishop, both by their letters and private conference; but hitherto to no purpose. Such dealing may seem favourable to them who treat us thus, but to us it seemeth very hard. Our release from this hard dealing by your kind favour, will provoke us to pray for your honours' present peace and prosperity, and that when you have done with all things here, you may receive the crown of glory."*

Notwithstanding this supplication, or their letter to the archbishop, in the month of July this year, Mr. Brayne was cited to appear before his grace and other high commissioners at Lambeth. Having attended several times according to appointment, and being required to take the oath ex officio, to answer the interrogatories of the court, he refused, unless he might first see them, and write down his answers with his own hand. His grace refusing to grant him the favour, immediately gave his canonical admonitions, once, twice, thrice; and caused him to be registered for contempt, and suspended from his ministry. "But," says the good man," God knoweth how far contempt was from my heart, and, I trust, my words and behaviour will witness the same."+ But guilty or not guilty, the tyrannical archbishop cut him off from all public usefulness in the church of God,

Mr. Brayne being silenced from his beloved work, wrote a very appropriate letter, dated July 6th, to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, giving him an account of the hard treatment he had met with. In this letter, he earnestly solicited the treasurer's kind favour and interference; but whether it proved the means of procuring his restoration, appears extremely doubtful. The treasurer, indeed, used his utmost endeavours. He applied to the archbishop, signifying

*MS. Register, p. 455–457. + Strype's Whitgift, p. 163.

+ Ibid. p. 164.

his dissatisfaction with his lordship's urging ministers, by his method of examination, to accuse themselves; and then to punish them upon their own confessions. He further observed, "that he would not call his proceedings captious, but they were scarcely charitable. That he would not offend his grace; and was content that he and the Bishop of London, might use Mr. Brayne as their wisdoms should think fit. But when by examining him, it was only meant to sift him with twenty-four articles, he had cause to pity the poor man." Such was the wisdom, the boldness, and the sympathy of this celebrated statesman; but his generous efforts appear to have been without effect.+

BARNABY BENISON was minister in London, a divine of good learning, and suspended and imprisoned for several years, by Bishop Aylmer, on pretence of some irregularity in his marriage. The bishop charged him with being married in an afternoon, and in the presence of two or three hundred people, by Mr. Field, a nonconformist. For this singular crime, in the year 1579, he was committed to the Gatehouse, where he continued till towards the close of the year 1584. Mr. Strype, with a design to blacken his memory, observes, "that he studied for some time at Geneva; and upon his return to England, was fraught with innovation and disobedience." He undoubtedly was dis

* Strype's Whitgift, p. 160.

+ Lord Burleigh was a decided friend to the persecuted puritans, and often screened them from the inhuman proceedings of the prelates, or procured their release from bonds and imprisonment. On account of his great abilities, indefatigable application, amazing capacity for business, and immoveable integrity, he is deservedly placed at the head of our English statesmen. His capacity for business appears from the following passage in his life:-" Besides all business in council, or other weighty causes, and "such as were answered by word of mouth, there was not a day in term "wherein he received not threescore, fourscore, or a hundred petitions, "which he commonly read that night, and gave every man an answer the "next morning as he went to the hall. Hence the excellence of his 66 memory was greatly admired; for when any of these petitioners told "him their names, or what countrymen they were, he presently entered "into the merit of his request, and having discussed it, gave him his "answer." This was his practice towards persons in all circumstances. He would answer the poorest, as well as others, from his own mouth. When at any time he was forced to keep his chamber, or his bed, he ordered that poor suitors should send in their petitions sealed; and upon every petition he caused his answer to be written, and subscribed it with his own hand. "He was prayed for by the poor, honoured by the rich, feared by the "bad, and loved by the good."- -Biog. Britan. vol. iii. p. 391.

Edit. 1778.

obedient to the tyrannical proceedings of the bishops. Our author adds, “that he fixed his station in London, refused to go to church, gathered conventicles, and sought to promote schism and confusion in the city. That the bishop finding in him unspeakable disobedience, and he refusing the oath usually tendered by the high commission, (meaning the oath ex officio, by which he would have become his own accuser,) was committed to prison. And," our learned historian asks, "what could the bishop have done less ?"*

It is not very difficult to find out many things, which his lordship might not have done less than this, even admitting that Mr. Benison was deserving of punishment. Four or five years' confinement in prison is a penalty of no small magnitude, and appears greatly disproportionate to any crime with which he was charged. And, indeed, Mr. Strype himself intimates as much, in the very next words: "But," says he, "it seems the bishop overshot himself, and did not proceed so circumspectly in the imprisonment of him for so long a time. For Mr. Benison's cause being brought before the lords of the council, the bishop was judged to have dealt too hardly with him; for which, therefore, he received a reprimand."+

Mr. Benison having suffered so long a confinement in prison, applied both to the queen and council'; and in the statement of his own case, he declares concerning his marriage, the irregularity of which was the crime alleged against him, "That he had invited only forty persons to the solemnity, and only thirty attended: that he was married in the morning, and according to law: that when the bishop sent for him, charging him with sedition, he cleared himself to his lordship's satisfaction; but that after he went home, he gave a private order under his own hand for him to be apprehended and sent to the Gatehouse; and that he was there shut up in a dungeon eight days, without knowing the cause of his imprisonment." Moreover, when Mr. Benison was first apprehended and carried to prison, he was plundered of a great part of his household furniture; his valuable library was utterly spoiled and taken away, and he suffered great losses in various other ways. Dr. Hammond, and his faithful friend Mr. John Fox, who were

Strype's Aylmer, p. 209, 210. ‡ Ibid. p. 211, 212.

+ Ibid.

both at the wedding, and witnessed the whole proceeding, went to the bishop, and assured him, that he was faultless in those things charged against him. But his lordship remained inflexible, and would not release him without such bonds for his good behaviour and future appearance, as the prisoner was unable to procure. Mr. Benison, in his letter to the queen and council, concludes in the following moving language:

: *.

"Thus I continue," says he, "separated from my wife before I had been married two weeks, to the great trouble of her friends and relations, and to the staggering of the patient obedience of my wife. For since my imprisonment, his lordship has been endeavouring to separate us, whom God, in the open presence of his people, has joined together. Wherefore, I most humbly beseech your godly honours, for the everlasting love of God, and for the pity you take upon God's true protestants and his poor people, to be a means that my pitiful cry may be heard, and my just cause with some credit be cleared, to the honour of God and her majesty, whom for ever I esteem more than all the bishop's blessings or bitter cursings: and that I, being now half dead, may recover again to get a poor living with the little learning which God has given me, to his glory, to the discharge of some part of my duty, and to the profit of my country." This was Mr. Benison's impartial statement of his own case; upon the reception of which, the lords of the council were so moved, that they sent the bishop the following letter: +

"Hampton-court, November 14, 1584. "Whereas, Barnaby Benison, minister, has given us to "understand, the great hinderance he has received by your "hard dealing with him, and his long imprisonment, for "which if he should bring his action against you of false 66 imprisonment, he would by law recover damages, which "would touch your lordship's credit. We have, therefore, "thought fit to require your lordship to use some consi"deration towards him, in giving him a reasonable sum of "money to repay the wrong you have done unto him, "and to supply the hinderance he hath incurred by your "hard dealings with him. Therefore, praying your "lordship to deal with the poor man, that he may have "occasion to turn his complaint into a good report unto. + Ibid. p. 589.

* MS. Register, p. 591.