Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1850-08-10
OLD SERIES VOL. 10, NO. 46
THE TIMES OF GOOD QUEEN nEss.

All me opponents of the Queen were trea.
'eu win horrible and vindictiye severity
many Romish priests were executed with a
revolving barbarsm greater numbers were
exhed and imprisoned. English law, if we
40 not prostitute the name in applying it to
such transactions, knew little but revenoe
ana cruelty. The political trials Of this reion
1t has been well observed bya great living
writer, the Historian of the English consti,u.
ton, are, with scarcely an exception, dis.
graceful to humanity. And all religious of.
fences were then political. Justice, like
olrd OF prey, was ever on the wing; and if
1t stopped or swerved a little from its course
1t was to slake its appetite for blood upon
some harmless victim as it passed along in
quest of greater prey. Whatever may have
been Calvin's share of infamy in the burning
OF Servetus the Socinian, he does not stand
alone. In 1884, one John Lewes was burned
at Norwich for denying the Godhead of
Christ, and other heresies In the next wear
John Hilton, priest, was required to make
solemn abicration of the same opinion
This he did in the presence of the convo-
cation; and it is probable that his office
alone saved him from the death of Lewes.
He did penace by standing at st. Paul's Cross
during the sermon, bearing the significant fag-
got on his shoulder. Coppin and Thacker,
two clergymen of Suffolk, were imprisoned
five years, and afterwards hanged at Bury
Saint Eamonds, as Brownists; Browns wri.
tings being first burned in their presence.
The persecution ragged for ten years. In
1892 congregation of Brownsts being dis
covered in London, tifty-six were imprisoned;
where they died, says their historian Neal,
like rotten sheep. Their chief leader and
martyr, Barrow, gentleman of good family,
addressed supplicrtlon to Parliament, in
which he says, "These bloody menn tho
High Court of Commission) twill allow US
neither meat, drink, fire, longing nor suffer
any whose heart the Lord would stir up for
our relief TO have any access TO us. Seven
teen or eighteen have perished within those
nolsome gaols within these six years; some
OF US had not one penny about us when we
were sent to prison, nor anything to procure a
maintenance for ourselves and families but
our labor; not only wo ourselves, but our
wives and children, are undone and staryed.n
Alter recltlng some oftheir worst expressions
he concludes with an appeal worthy alike of
patriot and an EnglislIman, and in the fear
less spirit of St. Paul himself-'That which
we crave of us all is the liberty to die openly
or live openly in the land of our nativity;
if we deserve death, LET us not be losely
murdered yea, starved 10 death with hun
ger and cold, and sttled in loathsome dun.
geons.'
The latter petition alone was heard. Bar
row and Greenwood, with several others,
were brought before the Archbishop of Can
terbury, and other members of the court of
high commission, but they refused to take the
oath, that is; to convict themselves upon their
own extorted testimony. They were then
indicted for publishing seditious books and
pamphlets, tending to the slander of the
queen and government. They denied the
charge o: disloyalty, showed no regret, and
sought no mercy; their quarrel, they said,
was rot with the queen and her governmen,
but with the hierarchy and the church. They
were, of course, convicted. Ballot one
of the number, confessed his fault, and,
with two others who were only accessories,
was roprieved and sent back 10 prison, where
two of them died the third was banished
| Barrow and Greenwood were condemned to
die. They were brought in cart to Tyburn
in order that the sight of the gallows might
territy them into submission, and alarm their
followers; but they remained unmoved, and
were takes back to Newgate A fort
night afterwards they were carried second
time to Tyburn, and there hanged.-Mars-
denis History Of the Early Puritans.