[87] He tells us he was stopped in Westminster Hall, and asked by a root-and-branch man, "Art thou for us or for our adversaries?" but he does not report his answer.
[88] Mr. Bruce's interesting introduction to the volume of Proceedings, &c., in connection with the Committee of Religion appointed in 1640, (printed by the Camden Society,) gives a minute history of the baronet's love adventures.
[89] It is stated on the authority of a letter in the possession of the Trevor family, that, "to escape detection the oppositionists resorted to the place of rendezvous with disguised faces." Johnson's Life of Selden, 30.
[90] Clarendon's Hist., p. 69.
[91] The appointment of a Committee of Religion was debated and delayed in the first Parliament of this reign; One was appointed immediately after the assembling of the second—and also on the meeting of the third.—See Journals, June 25, 1625; Feb. 7, 10, 12, 1625-6; March 20, 1627-8.
[92] The sentence on Leighton is given by Rushworth, ii. 56.
Neal, ii., 218, follows Rushworth and states the particulars of Leighton's punishment as being recorded in Laud's Diary. But in the Diary, 4th November, Works iii. 212, there is nothing beyond a reference to Leighton's degradation in the High Commission Court. Neal adds that Laud pulled off his cap, and thanked God for the sentence.
For this anecdote, authority may be found in a curious book, by Leighton, entitled An Epitome of the great troubles he has suffered. In the course of his narration, after defending himself against the charge of being a Conventicle keeper, a libeller, a schismatic, a traitor, and a factious person, he says, in relation to his trial.—"The censure was to cut my ears, slit my nose, to brand me in the face, to whip me at a post, to stand on the pillory, ten thousand pounds fine, and perpetual imprisonment; and all these upon a dying man, by appearance
—instant morientibus ursæ.
The censure thus past, the prelate off with his cap, and holding up his hands, gave thanks to God, who had given him the victory over his enemies."—pp. 69, 70.