These people were immediately committed to the New Prison; and on the 8th of the same month (May) they were brought up again before the same tribunal, when again they declined to take the obnoxious oath. On the 7th of June, it was reported to the Court that some of the conventiclers had escaped; and on the 17th more persons were arraigned, who had been seized at a meeting held in a wood near Newington, in Surrey. These also refused to be sworn, after which the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury repeated their expostulations. The High Commission, on the 21st, had brought before it Ralf Grafton, an upholsterer, dwelling in Cornhill, and reported to be a rich man, charged with being a principal ringleader of "those conventiclers that met at Blackfriars." Upon his declaring, "I dare not take the oath, and I am no ringleader of any to evil," the Archbishop said: "You met without law; you had no authority; pœna ad paucos, metus ad omnes; wherefore, the Court, for his contempt in refusing to take the oath, set a fine of two hundred pounds upon him, and committed him to prison." Grafton replied: "I have bail here ready, if you please to take it; I do tender it to you." Upon this the Bishops exclaimed: "No; away with him to prison; if he come not in by the day of mitigation, let the fine stand!"[456]
1630.
In connection with these notices of persecution endured by frequenters of conventicles, we may present the following picture of their method of worship, as depicted by one of their enemies in that style of minute and graphic detail which so characteristically marks the narrative of events given by common people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries:—"To shew the manner of their assembling, or dissembling, in that house where they intend to meet, there is one appointed to keep the door, for the intent to give notice if there should be any insurrection, warning may be given to them. They do not flock together, but come two or three in a company. Any man may be admitted thither, and all being gathered together, the man appointed to teach stands in the midst of the room, and his audience gather about him. He prayeth about the space of half an hour; and part of his prayer is, that those which came thither to scoff and laugh, God would be pleased to turn their hearts, by which means they think to escape undiscovered. His sermon is about the space of an hour, and then doth another stand up, to make the text more plain; and at the latter end he entreats them all to go home severally, lest the next meeting they should be interrupted by those which are of the opinion of the wicked. They seem very steadfast in their opinions, and say, rather than they will turn, they will burn."[457]
Independents and Brownists.
Though certain Independents of the seventeenth century disavowed all connection with the Brownists, that name was often applied to them; and in some instances it is difficult to decide whether by the title we are to understand persons whose origin might be traced to the teaching of Cecil's relative, or persons who had been made converts by more recent apostles of Independency.[458] Allusions are discovered in the Corporation Records of Yarmouth for the years 1629 and 1630 to Brownists then living in that town. The Earl of Dorset, writing in the latter of these years to the bailiffs, aldermen, and commonalty, after a reference to the party spirit prevalent in the borough, observes: "I should want in my good care of you if I should not let you know that his Majesty is not only informed, but incensed against you for conniving at and tolerating a company of Brownists amongst you. I pray you remember there was no seam in our Saviour's garment. Root out that pestiferous sect forth from your town; they are as dangerous to the soul as the plague is to the body. But I know not whether in this you be traduced, as well as (I am sure) you have been in other things. They are arrows shot forth from the same quiver, and drawn by the same hands; and perhaps the mark aimed at through that false perspective is but to place in his Majesty an ill opinion of you. If you be innocent, let me know, and I shall endeavour to clear you. Howsoever, I pray, give testimony of your obedience and good zeal to religion in chasing those companions from your society. God cannot prosper you while they live amongst you, and you willingly protect and harbour them; and I am sure it will alienate his Majesty's respect from you and enforce him to take some course against you, when you shall so neglect your duties in that kind."[459]
1630.
Independents and Brownists.
The Corporation gave heed to the Earl's exhortation, and in reply, dated the 13th of September, 1630, manifested abundant zeal in rooting out schism.
"Concerning those separatists by your lordship mentioned, we must acknowledge that there be amongst us still some persons of that sect, to the number of thirty, and not above; the most of them women; not any one of them ever yet bearing the meanest office amongst us, and, one only excepted, not any one of ability to be a subsidy man. What courses we have taken from time to time for the suppressing of them, the Lord's Grace of York, whilst he was our diocesan, could bear us record, to whom (as we have since done to our present diocesan, as also to the Lord Bishop of London) we tendered an impartial list of all their names, without favour or affection, craving his lordship's aid for their reformation. The ecclesiastical courts have from time to time received presentments of them. The judges of assize have been solicited by us. What authority soever the law has put into our hands, we have not spared to execute to the uttermost, by indicting them constantly at our public sessions, by fining them according to statute, by imprisoning the ringleaders amongst them, and by forcing some of them to avoid, not only the place, but the kingdom. If, beyond this, we could be directed by and to any course whereby we might free ourselves of them, we should not only willingly, but thankfully embrace it. In the meantime, vouchsafe the acceptance of this our humble protestation, that, as for ourselves, being the representatives of the town, we are, all and every one of us, free from faction and schism, either in religion or discipline, and every ways conformable to the doctrine and government of this Church, whereof we profess ourselves to be members."[460]
1630.