[584] Particular notice is taken of the prayers offered for Oliver's recovery in letters of the period.—See Thurloe, vii. 364-7.
[585] Art. II. charged him with saying "that some of the Justices were all for law, and nothing would please them but law; but they should find that the King's little finger should be heavier than the loins of the law."
Art. XXI. charged him with counselling his Majesty to call a Parliament in England with a design "to break the same, and by ways of force and power to raise monies upon the subjects of this kingdom."
Art. XXIII. charged him with saying "that his Majesty having tried the affections of his people, he was loose and absolved from all rules of Government, and was to do everything that power would admit."—Rushworth's Trial of Lord Strafford, 62, 71, 72.
[586] Sufferings of the Clergy, part i. 199-200.
The subject of martyrology strongly tempts to exaggeration. Certain writers on the catacombs are examples. A curious instance of the tendency occurs in Donne's Sermons, i. 328.
[587] Baxter, and the Presbyterian ministers at the Savoy, speak of "many hundreds," "several hundreds," and "some hundreds." Hook, in a letter in the State Paper Office (March 2nd, 1663) says: Of the ejected Puritans, they were "about 1,500 or 1,600 in the nation, besides as near as many before upon the point of title." All this is indeterminate, and in Hook's statement there must be exaggeration.
[588] The Perfect Diurnal, July, 1646, states that it was complained of in the House of Commons, that sequestered malignant ministers in London and other places were admitted to pulpits where they preached sedition.
On March the 1st, 1647, notice was given the Earl of Chesterfield not to entertain malignant preachers, nor use the Book of Common Prayer.—Ibid.
[589] Spittle Sermon on Eph. iv. 15.—"Speaking the truth in love," p. 24-25.