"I being put thereafter on the pillory an hour and a half, in frost and snow, they inflicted the rest, and would not let me have a coach of my own to carry me to the Fleet; but I was forced to be carried by water, for I was not able to go. I lay ten weeks under the canopy of heaven, in the dirt and mire of the rubbish, having nothing to shelter me from the rain and snow, in a very cold season."—p. 85.
In connection with Leighton's statement, the following passage from the Rawlinson MS. is worthy of notice:—"In the Court of High Commission, 19 April, 1632, the King's Advocate against Joseph Harrison, Clerk, Vicar of Sustorke, 'the sentence was presently read by the Archbishop of Canterbury, In Dei nomine, Amen, &c., &c., Deum præ oculis preponentes, &c.,' at which words I marked some of the Bishops to look upward, and put off their hats devoutly." From this passage it would appear to have been a practice in the Court, when sentence was passed, to pronounce it in the name of God, and for the Commissioners to take off their hats in token of reverence when these sacred words were uttered. The question arises, did Leighton mistake what was a customary act for a special expression of Laud's feeling in this particular case? or, did Laud really go out of his way to indicate his gratification at the sufferings of Leighton? I must leave the reader to judge for himself, who, however, ought to bear in mind Laud's character. Leighton gives the following account of his sufferings:—
"The aforesaid censure was executed in every particular in a most cruel manner and measure: the executioner was made drunk in the Fleet the night before, and also was hardened the very same day with very strong water, being threatened to do it with all rigour: and so he did, by knife, whip, brand, and fire, insomuch that never a lash he gave with a treble cord, but he brought away the flesh, which I shall feel to my dying day."
[93] Yet, looking at the persecution which the Puritans suffered, the same plea will avail for them that has been urged on behalf of the early Protestants. "It was, as they thought, like exhorting a Caligula and a Nero to clemency, and advising the poor subjects to compliment such tyrants, to remind them gently of their defects, and humbly to entreat that they would be so good and gracious as to condescend to alter their conduct."—Jortin's Life of Erasmus, i. 212.
From a Biographical Narration, by Burton, it appears he had been Clerk of the Closet to Prince Henry and to Prince Charles. The narration contains many curious particulars. There is an important letter about Burton, by Bishop Hall, in Forster's Life of Eliot, ii. 428.
[94] Hanbury's Historical Memorials, ii., 52.
[95] Rushworth, iv. 207.
[96] Forster's Life of Eliot, ii. 84, 562.
[97] Forster's Life of Pym, 96.
[98] It was a charge against Burton that he carried the sacred elements to the communicants on their seats.—Dow's Innovations, 186. Lathbury's History of Convocation, 261.