XV. Provided, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every alderman of London for the time being, within the city of London, and the liberties thereof, shall have, (and they and every of them are hereby empowered and required to execute,) the same power and authority within London, and the liberties thereof, for the examining, convicting, and punishing of all offences within this act committed within London, and the liberties thereof, which any justice of peace hath by this act in any county of England, and shall be subject to the same penalties and punishments, for not doing that which by this act is directed to be done by any justice of peace in any county of England.
XVI. Provided, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if the person offending, and convicted as aforesaid, be a feme-covert, cohabiting with her husband, the penalties of five shillings, and ten shillings, so as aforesaid incurred, shall be levied by warrant, as aforesaid, upon the goods and chattels of the husband of such feme-covert.
XVII. Provided also, that no peer of this realm shall be attached or imprisoned by virtue or force of this act; any thing, matter, or clause, therein to the contrary notwithstanding.
XVIII. Provided also, that neither this act, nor any thing therein contained, shall extend to invalidate or make void his majesty’s supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs: (2) but that his majesty, and his heirs and successors, may from time to time, and at all times hereafter, exercise and enjoy all powers and authority in ecclesiastical affairs, as fully and as amply as himself or any of his predecessors have or might have done the same: any thing in this act notwithstanding.
By this very law many an honest family was impoverished; for the Quakers did not leave off meeting together publicly, but the most sincere amongst them were the more zealous, and they were the more winnowed from the chaff, which in time of ease gets in amongst religious professors; and none need wonder at it, since the Quakers having gained the repute of an upright-hearted people, some, for by-ends, might creep in amongst them.
At London, as well as at other places, many were spoiled of their goods very unmercifully, and many times people of good substance brought to mere poverty, seeing not only the shop goods of some, but also their household goods have been seized, insomuch that the very sick have had their beds taken from under them, and they themselves laid upon the floor; nay, they have been so cruel, as to leave them nothing; insomuch that when the child’s pap hath stood in a pannikin, they have thrown out the pap to take the pannikin away.
Should I sum up all the particulars I have received, and the account I could give, it would make a volume of itself; for the informers were generally poor, and sometimes also the justices, so that they knew how to part their booty belonging to the king, as well as to the poor; and thus the king and the poor got but little of their plunder. Nevertheless it so happened sometimes, that those who were finable, were freed by the justices; for they knew very well, that these informers, who were also witnesses, were cunning sharkers, who were also concerned to get their thirds of the booty, and therefore found out a way by which they showed that they were knavish and unjust in their office, therefore not fit to give evidence; so that it hath sometimes fallen out, that an honest justice hath cleared those informed against, when the informer missed in his evidence, either in the day of the month, or the like, in the complaint.
At London there once appeared before the lord mayor, sitting at a court of aldermen, an impudent informer having such a quantity of informations for fines as would have wronged the parties to the value of 1500l. but the mayor abominating such a practice, adjourned the court, and went away. But this hardy informer was not content to let the matter fall thus, but appeared before the court from time to time, to make a booty of honest people’s goods; but they still put him off, until at last he was himself arrested for debt, and carried to prison, where he ended his days.
Although now the law against seditious conventicles had passed, upon a supposition that the Presbyterians were ready to rise, considering the bustle and tumult occasioned by John Fox in Gloucestershire, which was much taken notice of, as I have mentioned before, yet nevertheless the Quakers’ meetings became the chief object in the execution of this law. Whereupon G. Fox being in London, set forth in print the injustice of this law, in order, if possible, to moderate the government not to put the same in execution. Nevertheless, being also sensible that a great storm hung over the heads of friends, he also wrote an epistle to them, to exhort them to faithfulness, and to encourage them to stand fast in their testimony, and hear with Christian patience the suffering that was come upon them. Now the First-day that this law took place, he went to the meeting of friends at Gracechurch-street in London; but being come to the place, he found the street full of people, and a guard to keep them out of their meeting-house; whereupon he went to Lombard street, (out of which there was also a passage to the meeting-house,) and there he also found a guard; but there being a court before the door, which was full of people, one of the Quaker ministers was there preaching to the people, and when he had ended, G. Fox stood up and said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” Which words he thus explained: that it was Saul’s nature that persecuted; and that they persecuting Christ in his members, were kicking against the pricks; and that it was the birth of the flesh that persecuted the birth of the Spirit; and that it was the nature of dogs to tear and devour the sheep, but that they suffered like sheep, who did not bite again; but were a peaceable people, who loved even their persecutors. While G. Fox was thus preaching, there came a constable and an informer, with soldiers, who pulled him down from the place he stood on. Then, said he, “Blessed are the peace-makers,” but the commander of the soldiers ordered them to secure him: ‘For,’ said he, ‘you are the man I looked for.’ Wherefore he with two more of his friends, John Burnet and another, were had before the lord mayor; and as they were going, the informer said, ‘It will never be a good world, until all people come to the good old religion that was two hundred years ago.’ G. Fox hearing this, said, ‘Art thou a Papist? What! a Papist informer? For two hundred years ago there was no other public profession of religion but that of the Papists in this nation.’ It vexed the informer that G. Fox heard him speak thus; for he now saw he was ensnared in his own talk. When he came into the court before the lord mayor’s house, some people who were there asked G. Fox, why he was brought thither prisoner? ‘Pray,’ said he, ‘ask that informer, and ask him his name;’ but he would not tell his name. Then one of the mayor’s officers looking out at a window, told him, he should tell his name before he went away: ‘For,’ said he, ‘the lord mayor will know by what authority you have intruded yourself with soldiers in the execution of those laws which it belongs to the civil magistrate to execute, and not the military.’ The informer understanding this, got away, but not without some difficulty, because they would not then let him out of the court; but he forcibly pulling open the door, and being got into the street, the people gave a great shout, crying out, ‘a Papist informer! a Papist informer!’ and he would have come off but badly, had not G. Fox advised the constable and soldiers to keep him out of the hands of the common people. Whereupon he went into the house and changed his perriwig, and so got away.