1

was Whitgift's creature; and made it "his custom to suppress all such complaints from her Highness's eyes." One, however, escaped his vigilance, was "delivered to her Majesty, and graciously received." But its effect seems to have been neutralized by the Archbishop's "false informations and suggestions," evidence of which was furnished by Mr. Barrow.2 The Commissioners even went further. Not being able "by order of law to convict the prisoners of any crime deserving bands," "not having or knowing any matter to lay to their charge," they "suborned" emissaries, under pretence of charitable Christian conference, "to inveigle them with certain subtle questions to bring their lives into danger" under some particular statute.5

Upon reading Archbishop Whitgift's twenty-four Articles for the examination of ministers ex officio

1 Waddington's Penry, 248; Bar- all according to the course of comrow to Fisher.

Wad

Ibid. Brook, II. 39. dington's Papers; Barrow to the Right Honorable Lady. This letter should be the more trusted, because written in daily expectation of death.

"The Bishop of London, by order of the Archbishop and with advice of both Chief Justices, ordered" certain preachers in London "to confer with sectaries which had forsaken the Church and were in prison for the same; for it is intended,' wrote the Bishop, if by persuasion they will not be reduced to conform, to proceed with

mon law. Wherefore we require you, that twice a week at least you repair to them and seek by all learned and discreet demeanor to reduce them from their errors; and for that either their conformity or disobedience may be made manifest when they shall come unto their trial, therefore we require you to set down in writing.... your censure what it is of them, as that, if occasion do serve to use it, you will be sworn unto.'" (Waddington's MS.; and Life of Penry, 106.) This is a sufficient confirmation of what I have quoted from Barrow in the text.

Dr. Waddington gives some interesting specimens of these conferences, which I hope may meet the reader's eye when his book is published.

mero, Lord Burleigh had said, "I think the Inquisitors of Spain use not so many questions to comprehend and trap their preys." Yet these questions gave but a faint outline of the resemblance between the High Court of Commission in England and the Holy Inquisition in Spain. The outline, we think we have filled up truthfully. And in their usurpation of power; in their contempt of all civil tribunals, laws, and charters; in their control of the courts; in their illegal and midnight arrests; in their slow torture by long imprisonments, by chains, by starvation, by poisonous air; in their more direct torture by the "Little Ease," the cudgel, and the dungeon; and in the measures which they coolly adopted to bring their victims to recantation or to death, we think we have shown a more exact resemblance of the Commissioners of England to the Inquisitors of Spain, than Lord Burleigh dreamed of, probably a more exact resemblance than he ever discovered. The only, difference between the two tribunals seems to have been, that the minions of Whitgift used the tortures which we have described in lieu of the more expeditious tortures of the rack and the gridiron elected by the creatures of Torquemada; that the latter hasted the catastrophe of death, while the former crept towards it; that in Spain they despatched recusants by fire; in England, by starvation, the plague, or the gibbet. In either case, how far did the ecclesiastical judges fall short of murder?

1 Ante, Vol. II. p. 421.

CHAPTER XV.

EXECUTIONS.

-

CHRISTIAN CONVICTS LED OUT OF PRISON FOR EXECUTION. — Reprieved. BOOKS PUBLISHED by Barrow and GREENWOOD WHILE IN PRISON. THEY AND THEIR ASSISTANTS INDICTED FOR THE SAME, CONVICTED, AND SENTENCED TO IMMEDIATE EXECUTION. A CONFERENCE WITH BARROW AND GREENWOOD" FOR THEIR SOULS' HEALTH" AND FOR THEIR RECANTATION. -THE SENTENCE OF THEIR ASSOCIATES COMMUTED.-BARROW And GreenWOOD TAKEN TO THE GALLOWS. THEIR ADDRESSES TO THE PEOPLE. — A SECOND REPRIEVE. REJOICINGS OF THE PEOPLE. TAKEN AGAIN TO TYBURN AND EXECUTED. - THE SECRET HISTORY OF THEIR REPRIEVES AND EXECUTION. JOHN PENRY AND HIS FAMILY AT STEPNEY. HIS ARREST THERE. - HIS HISTORY WHILE IN SCOTLAND. - HIS PRIVATE NOTES OF WHAT HE HEARD THERE. - HIS PAPERS SEIZED. HIMSELF IMPRISONED. -— HIS LETTERS TO HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN. HIS EXAMINATION. HIS MEMORIAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. HIS DECLARATION AGAINST PROSECUTION FOR HIS BOOKS. — IS INDICTED, CONVICTED, AND SENTEnced to DeatH FOR PRIVATE WRITINGS. HIS EXECUTION. - ELIZABETHAN JURIES. PENRY'S STEADFASTNESS. HIS Farewell LettERS TO THE CHURCH, TO HIS WIFE, TO HIS CHILDREN. THE RELATION OF THE QUEEN TO THESE EXECUTIONS; AND OF THE BISHOPS.

1592-3.

ON the 24th of March, 1592-3, a heavy fog mantled the city of London, beneath which the few who were astir crept through cheerless light and chilling air, although the sun full half an hour before had shed a flood of glory over the German Sea. A few shivering creatures were gliding along near Newgate; here a man, there a woman, now a child, half clad in damp and filthy rags, and there a lean and mangy cur,-all grubbing or scenting the gutters for a chance morsel

of offal, and all wearing a look of ineffable woe. The very house-walls looked miserable, the fog trickling along their faces and dripping from their eaves. A man in charge of a rude cart and a sorry horse, before the gate of the prison, and wrapped in a heavy overcoat of frieze, -a half-naked lad crouched in the corner of a wall, and gnawing at a bone which he had just won by stout battle from a dog, were the only living things in sight which did not give signs of suffering.

Within the prison the morning light was scarce perceptible. A few flambeaux, supported by brackets, shed along the corridor a flickering glare, which was reflected strongly, and to the unfamiliar eye rather unpleasantly, from the steel weapons which studded the walls. On either side were a row of stout halberdiers, in full service dress, under command of a yeoman of the guard, attended by a sheriff's deputy. Soon after this arrangement had been made, the clang of massive doors and rolling bolts was heard from above, and then the heavy tread of men and the rattling of chains along the stairway. The head jailer then appeared, with a few of his servitors, and advanced to the sheriff with five prisoners, who were shivering with cold and in irons. They were then delivered to the sheriff one by one, Henry Barrow, John Greenwood, Scipio Bellot, Robert Bowle, and Daniel Studley, to be led forth to execution, and were immediately conducted, under guard, through a grated door to the anteroom, where hung a profusion of manacles and fetters, iron collars and chains. A smith now applied himself to the work of unriveting their bands.

By their gaunt and furrowed faces and their gray hairs, Mr. Barrow and Mr. Greenwood betrayed "the cruel usage which, at the commandment of the prelates," they had endured "wellnigh six years," "in most miserable and strait imprisonment."2 The others were comparatively hale, having been confined but a short time; and all appeared composed, and even cheerful, with the single exception of Mr. Bellot, who seemed overcome with terror in view of his approaching fate. When at length they were all freed from their irons, they mutely embraced, and were then conducted by their armed escort without the gate, where the cart was in waiting to convey them to the gallows. The driver produced ropes, and was proceeding to bind his living freight to his vehicle, when an officer appeared, and presented a paper to the sheriff, who broke the seal, glanced over the writing, turned to his prisoners, and said, with much respect and evident emotion, "Sirs! by her Majesty's most gracious order you are reprieved!" They were then led back and recomImitted to ward.

About two years after the last commitment of Mr. Barrow and Mr. Greenwood, -i. e. about the year 1590,- their religious opinions had been publicly assailed and misrepresented; particularly by Mr. Gifford, minister at Malden, who, though a Conformist, had been twice suspended and twice imprisoned for his Puritanism.5 They had also been openly

1 Hanbury, I. 48, and Waddington's Papers; Barrow to an "Honorable Lady and Countess of his kindred," April, 1593.

VOL. III.

64

• Hanbury, I. 59.

Barrow to the Countess

* Brook, II. 40.

Ibid., 274, 275. Strype's Ayl