An Appeal to the Parliament; or Sion's Plea against the Prelacie. Printed the year and moneth wherein Rochell was lost. (1628.)
This book was written by Alexander Leighton, a Scotch doctor of physic and divinity, father of the Archbishop. In this book the author calls bishops men of blood, ravens, and magpies; he declares the institution of episcopacy to be anti-christian and satanical; the Queen is a daughter of Heth, and the King is corrupted by bishops to the undoing of himself and people; and he approves of the murder of Buckingham. Language such as this could hardly have been passed over unnoticed. But it was not till June 4th, 1630, that the author was brought before the Star Chamber. There was no difficulty in pronouncing him guilty of seditious and scandalous writings; and he was sentenced to a terrible and barbarous punishment. Besides a fine of £10,000, and degradation from the ministry, he was publicly whipped in Palace Yard, made to stand two hours in the pillory, one ear was cut off, a nostril slit open, and one of his cheeks branded with the letters S.S. (Sower of Sedition.) After this he was sent off to the Fleet Prison. At the end of a week, "being not yet cured," he was brought out again, underwent a second whipping and repetition of the former atrocities, and was then consigned to prison to life, where he actually spent eleven years. In April, 1641, his sentence was reversed by the House of Commons, and he received such consolation as it could afford him, when it was decided that his former mutilation and imprisonment had been entirely illegal.
57.
A true relation of the unjust, cruel, and barbarous proceeding against the English at Amboyna in the East Indies, by the Neatherlandish Governour and Councel there. 1624.
This book was ordered to be suppressed by a warrant from the Council, dated September 7th, 1631; but the prohibition was revoked, and all restraint upon the sale of the book removed in the following month.[42]
58.
An examination of those things wherein the Author of the late Appeale holdeth the doctrines of the Pelagians and Arminians to be the doctrines of the Church of England. By George Carleton, Doctor of Divinitie and Bishop of Chichester. London, 1626.
This book was suppressed as appears from a letter from Sir Francis Nethersole to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, dated February 14th, 1629, wherein the writer says, "The printers have preferred a petition, alleging that of late books written against Arminians have been suppressed, especially one written by Bishop Carleton, but others written in their favour have been licensed."[43]
59.