Not more frequent at that time, when old English sports continued to amuse the nobility and gentry, was the flight of the hawk, freed from its jess and hood, gliding through the air and striking its quarry, than was the prowling abroad of the informer, who, freed from all restraint of justice and humanity, pursued with keenest eye, and seized with merciless vengeance, the ill-fated Sectary. This favourite English bird, indeed, is dishonoured by the comparison, for, with all the hawk's rapacity, the spy had none of its better qualities. Sprung from the dregs of the people, mean and dastardly to the last degree, and many of them spending their ill-gotten gains in gambling and debauchery, creatures of this kind were as much the objects of abhorrence to the respectable portion of the community, as they were of terror to the innocent class upon which they pounced. Destitute of the fear of God, caring not at all for religion, yet professing themselves zealous Churchmen, they spent the Lord's Day in ferreting out their fellow-citizens and disturbing them at their devotions. In coffee-houses and places of public resort, during the week, they were lying in wait to catch the unwary, or to obtain a clue to the discovery of Conventicles. Many of them perished in poverty, shame, and despair; smitten, as their victims thought, by the avenging hand of God. To informers belonged a low coarse villany, peculiar to themselves; but their criminality could not but be largely shared by others, and the responsibility of the system, of which they were the instruments, attached mainly to the Government which condescended to employ them.[436]
NONCONFORMIST PLACES OF WORSHIP.
At this point in our history we may appropriately answer two questions which naturally arise respecting the Nonconformists—Where did they worship? and how were the ejected ministers supported? These questions lead us into the by-paths of our narrative, and entering them we cannot avoid wandering a little further than strict chronological order would allow. But, although we somewhat anticipate subsequent periods, it will not matter; we shall presently return to the highway by the gate through which we leave it, and the remembrance of what we pick up in our short ramble will enable us better to understand much which follows.
If Nonconformists would adore the Almighty as their consciences dictated, they had to do so in concealment, and to adopt ingenious devices to avoid notice, or to elude pursuit. In the old Tudor Mansion, at Compton Winyates, Warwickshire, there is a chapel in the roof with secret passages contrived for the safety of Popish recusants; and in Oxburgh Hall, in Norfolk, there is a recess within a small closet, with a trap-door concealed in the pavement. These contrivances were imitated by Protestant Nonconformists in the days of Charles II. An instance of this kind, not long since, could be shown among the ruins of the Priory of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, consisting of subterranean ways and doors in the crypt. The Baptists of Bristol hung up a curtain, and placed their minister behind it, so that a spy coming in could not see the speaker. When a suspicious person made his appearance it was customary for the congregation to begin singing, and for the preacher to pause. At Andover, it is said, that the Dissenters met for prayer in a dark room, until a ray of morning light, struggling down the chimney, announced the hour to depart.[437]
1663.
In the village of Eversden, in the County of Cambridge, stands an old Manor house, moated round and approached by an ancient bridge. It is reported that a vehicle might be often seen crossing that bridge after dark, in the time of persecution, on its way to Cambridge, to bring back Francis Holcroft, to preach at midnight in the wood, which skirted the back of the edifice. There was once a Gospel Beech in the Wolds of Gloucestershire, a Gospel Oak near Kentish Town, and an Oak of Reformation in Kett the Tanner's Camp, near the City of Norwich, and to these may be added the Oak at Eversden,—remaining within the memory of the present generation, called the Pulpit Tree—a sort of Christian Dodona, from which the minister just named announced the Word of Life. In the woods near Hitchin, tradition reports, that John Bunyan used, after nightfall, to gather together great numbers of the neighbouring peasantry; and at Duckinfield, in Cheshire, people can still point out the place where the "proscribed ministers were met by their faithful adherents, when the pious service of prayer, praise, and exhortation had no other walls to surround it but the oaken thicket, and no other roof for its protection but the canopy of Heaven."[438]
EJECTED MINISTERS.
A few of the ejected ministers lived in comfortable circumstances. Inheriting a fortune, or acquiring property during their connection with the Establishment, they were provided against pecuniary inconvenience after the Restoration.
John Owen must have derived from the Deanery of Christchurch something considerable, to which additions were made by the bequest of a relative, if not by the profits of his publications. He had an estate at Stadham, whither he retired on his removal from Oxford; and, after his second marriage in 1667, he was enabled to keep his carriage, and a country house at Ealing in Middlesex.[439] John Tombes, the Antipædobaptist, married a rich widow at Salisbury, not long before the King's return, and lived in that city upon her estate, visiting the Bishop and enjoying the friendship of other dignitaries.[440] Some of those who were compelled to renounce their incumbencies, adopted secular employments as a means of livelihood; some became physicians or lawyers, some established schools, which, however, were liable to be broken up by the Five Mile Act, and several became chaplains or tutors in private families.[441] John Howe spent about five years in Ireland, at Antrim Castle, with its spacious and richly-timbered park, upon the banks of the charming Lough Neagh, where he administered the ordinances of religion to the family of Lord Massarene.[442] Dr. Jacomb enjoyed the friendship of the Countess of Exeter, to whom he had been chaplain; and, after his resignation of St. Martin's, Ludgate, he found a comfortable home in her town house, where he made it his constant care to promote domestic religion. John Flavel lived at Hudscott Hall, belonging to the family of the Rolles, near South Molton, in Devonshire. Supported by the liberality, and screened by the influence of the Lord of the domain, he there, amidst plantations, gardens, and other rural scenes, gathered together the materials of his Husbandry Spiritualized. There, too, he assembled around him, as best he could, sometimes at midnight, the members of his former parish flock, and interested and instructed them by ingenious illustrations adapted to their rustic habits and tastes.[443]
1663.