The following letter from Isaac Basire to Charles II., dated Alba Julia, (synonyme for Weissenberg, in Transylvania, the same as is now called Karlsburg,) Easter Tuesday, 1656, is in the State Paper Office.
He says:—"When the whole nation was represented, and met here at their diet, and it was noised that by reason of a public act, some months since performed by one in this university, before the Prince, and with his approbation, against both Independency and Presbytery (flown over hither out of England), and for Episcopacy—that crew grew so incensed against me, that they did then threaten to cite me before the National Assembly, as now; and having missed that first plot, they pretend to renew their persecution against me at their next general synod, now at hand; where yet, by the better though not the bigger part, I am chosen to preside, and undoubtedly do expect the shock, trusting with the whole success God Almighty, who is thus pleased still to place me on the militant side. (His holy will be done)."
[339] Life of Jeremy Taylor, by Willmott, 129-154, 190.
Dr. Peterson, Dean of Exeter, met with an adventure which ought to be recorded as an illustration of that generosity to an enemy which often cheeringly flashes up in such times, relieving the shadows of persecution. Cromwell one day saw the doctor in the streets of London, looking like a distressed cavalier. "There," he exclaimed, "goes a Church of England man, who I will warrant you has courage enough to die for his religion." That very day a stranger traced the Dean to his lodgings, invited him to dinner, and presented to him a purse of money. Help afterwards came again and again through the same channel, the bounty of the magnanimous usurper being the source.—Walker, part ii. 24.
[340] In a paper dated November 2nd, 1652 (printed in Jacobson's Edition of Sanderson's Works), he describes fully his mode of procedure; and the sort of verbal alterations he made in the forms of Common Prayer may be seen in his "Confession," given by Walton (Lives, 394). Thorndike observes: "I cannot approve it upon this score that (besides his prayer before sermon, which custom and former practice if not the canon itself, allowed as lawful) he hath several parts of service of his own making; and, though mostly formed out of the Common Prayer Book, yet certainly varied from thence, and so directly against the negative command which prescribes this and no other."—Letter in the Bodleian Library, printed in Thorndike's Works, vi. 117.
See page [340], in this vol.
[341] Fell's Life of Hammond, 263, 173.
[342] Walton's Lives, 396.
[343] Walton's Lives 405-408.
[344] Fell's Life of Hammond, 241, 262, 203, 279.