possessions; imprisoned, fined, excommunicated, silenced, suspended, vilified, crushed and trodden under feet by their intolerable tyranny, might and unbounded extravagant power, I shall neither repent me of the penning, nor thou thyself of the reading of it." This spoken in the third person must have been sufficiently galling to their lordships; what must they have felt then, on reading such language as the following addressed to them personally in a brief exhortation to the archbishops and bishops of England in respect of the present pestilence,' prefixed to the above work on episcopacy? "It may be that in regard of your sacred episcopal order, you conceit yourselves altogether plague-free, and as wholly exempt from divine as you now strive to be from temporal jurisdiction, which makes you neither to dread the plague, which has seized upon sundry kings and laid them in the dust, nor as yet any way to endeavour by fasting and prayer, to prevent either it, or that famine likely to accompany it. But to instruct you how you are still but men, and so exposed to all those mortal sicknesses which continually assault the crazy fortresses of our earthly tabernacles,―non obstante your rochets, mitres, crosiers and all other your episcopal harness,-give me leave in a word or two to acquaint you that Pelagius the Second, though a pope and bishop of Rome, notwithstanding his pontifical robes, exorcisms, pomp and charms, was both seized upon and devoured of this impartial disease, anno domini 591; which plague, as Petrus Blesensis, archideacon of Bath records, was sent by God as a just judgment upon the Romans and Italians, for giving themselves to drinking, feasting, dancing, sports and pastimes, even on Easter day, and other following holydays, after their participation of the blessed sacrament of Christ's body and blood,-many of them being consumed and dying of the plague in the very midst of their sports, mirth, ales and pastiines,—and on this pope himself for not restraining them from this prophaneness :-a precedent which should make your lordships fear and tremble, this present plague beginning here on Easter-week last, as that plague then did; no doubt for the selfsame profanation of God's own day and sacraments, with those abuses, sports, sins, pastimes for which they then were plagued, which your lordships have not only not restrained but countenanced, patronized, and propagated all you could, this pope going not so far."

"This gross profanation of the Lord's day, both in doctrine and practice, hath, no doubt, so far provoked our most gracious God, that now he can hold off his hands no longer from smiting us with his dreadful judgments, which some of us have already felt, and most of us now fear; who, questionless, will never take off his pests and judgments from us till your lordships shall take off your most unjust suspensions and censures from those who have thus suffered in his quarrel, and all of us repented of this our crying sin of profaning God's own sacred day both in point of doctrine and practice,—an abomination never more rife in any than this our present age, by reason of your lordships patronising, propagating, and defending of it, in such a public, shameless, violent manner, as no former age can ever parallel, to God's dishonour, your own eternal infamy, and the fitting of yourselves and this whole kingdom for those public judgments, not only of a late extraordinary cold winter, and two successive dry summers, which threaten a famine of bread to recompense that famine of God's word that you have lately

caused, to omit all other miseries which we suffer, but likewise of that plague which is now dispersed. In the pulling down thereof, as your lordships have had, no doubt, a deeper hand than others, so you have great cause to fear you shall feel the irresistible mortiferous stroke thereof as much, or more than others. The plague, you well know, is God's own arrow, who ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. And are not some at least of your lordships such? It is God's own hand. Now, God's hand shall find out all his enemies; his right hand shall find out those that hate him. And are not many of your lordships in that number? It is God's own brandished sword. And whom doth God wound and slay therewith but the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of those who go on still in their trespasses? And are not too many of your lordships such, who, even now, in the very midst of God's judgments, proceed on still in your malicious, violent, implacable hatred, enmities and persecutions against God's faithful ministers, saints, and the very power of holiness; in your lordly pomp, ambition, avarice, pride, envy, arrogance, cruelty, oppression, injustice, luxury, secularity, suppression of preaching, prayer, fasting, communion of saints, and whatever savours of piety; and in profaning of God's own sacred day both in your doctrine and practice, which is seldom worse solemnized or more profaned, as Master Bucer long since observed, "Quam in ipsis episcoporum aulis,' than in bishops' own palaces, where neither lord, nor chaplain, nor servant make any great conscience of profaning it sundry ways, to give the better example of piety and holiness unto others. How then, being heavy laden with these many sins, and having the prayers, the cries, the clamours, the tears, the sighs and groans of all God's people against you, if not of the whole kingdom too, the daily imprecations of many distressed ministers and people whom you have most injuriously and inhumanly handled without any lawful cause, can you but fear God's vengeance, and expect his plagues to sweep such clods of sin and mischief, such pests and prodigies as you are, clean away ?" In this strain, after the manner of the Jewish prophets, he proceeds with his exhortation to their lordships, who, on ascertaining him to be the author of this and similar works during 1635, 1636, and 1637, brought him again into the star-chamber in June, 1637, and he was there sentenced to be fined £5,000 to the king, to lose the remainder of his ears in the pillory, to be branded on both cheeks with the letters " S. L." for Schismatical libeller, and to be imprisoned for life in Caernarvon castle. This rigorous sentence was carried into effect in July following, in Palace-yard, Westminster. In January, 1638, he was removed to Mount Orgueil castle, in the isle of Jersey, where he still continued his incessant labours in writing for the press.

On the meeting of the long parliament in November, 1640, one of its first acts was to release Mr Prynne from his long and unjust imprisonment, and in the same month he entered London, in company with his fellow-sufferer Burton, amidst the triumphant acclamations of the people, to the number of ten thousand persons, with boughs and flowers in their hands. On his arrival in town, Prynne presented a petition to the house of commons, complaining of the persecutions which he had suffered from Archbishop Laud, and the house voted him the sum of four thousand pounds by way of reparation, which sum,

however, it appears, he did not actually receive. Shortly after the opening of parliament, he was elected for Newport, in Cornwall, and distinguished himself as the opponent of prelacy and arbitrary power. Here was a field for the most ample development of Prynne's powers and resources, and he entered warmly into the controversies arising out of the avowed determination of the king to reduce the three kingdoms to perfect conformity in religion. This was so far from being practicable, that the more the subject was discussed the farther did parties recede from each other, until, at length, the distinct systems contended for equalled the number of the kingdoms which were to be reduced to uniformity-the episcopalian, the presbyterian, and the independent.

Prynne was himself a staunch presbyterian, and, like many of his party at the time, was for establishing that form of church-government to the exclusion of all others. The independents, alone, professed the principle of toleration. With John Goodwin, an eminent minister of this persuasion, Prynne engaged in controversy,-first on the subject of Arminianism, which Goodwin favoured,—and next on that of toleration. Prynne undertook to demonstrate its mischievous tendency, and insists that the parliament, having subscribed to the covenant, cannot, without perjury, suffer such doctrines or publications as Goodwin's to be issued to the world. One of Prynne's pieces in this debate is entitled, 'Truth triumphing over falsehood-antiquity over novelty; or a vindication of the undoubted jurisdiction and coercive power of Christian emperors, kings, and parliaments, in matters of religion.' The publication of this piece brought the celebrated John Lilburne against Prynne, who was thought now to be inconsistent for wishing to abridge others of that liberty of speech which he had himself suffered for by the persecutions of the star-chamber. Lilburne answered Prynne's volume in a pamphlet of seven pages, and says "Truly, had I not seen your name to your books, I should rather have judged them a papist's or a jesuit's than Mr Prynne's; and, without doubt, the pope, when he sees them, will canonize you for a saint, for throwing down his enemy, Christ."

For this free language Prynne caused Lilburne, by a vote of the house of commons, to be summoned before the committee for examinations. Lilburne, however, on producing a paper containing his reasons for his letter to Prynne, was discharged. The following month, Lilburne was again taken into custody, at the instance of Prynne, and brought before the council on suspicion of being concerned in several publications hostile to the presbyterian system; but, after one night's detention, he was discharged.

In 1647, Prynne was one of the parliamentary visitors of the university of Oxford; and, during the long parliament, sided zealously with the presbyterians. When Cromwell and the political independents, however, acquired more influence, Prynne exerted himself to the utmost against them, and even went so far as to promote the interest of the falling monarch. When Charles was in treaty with the parliament respecting the terms on which peace might be restored, and the army were violently opposed to the negotiation, Prynne made a powerful speech in favour of the royal proposals, which so influenced the house that, without a division, they resolved that, "the answers of the king

to the propositions of both houses are a ground for the house to proceed upon, for the settlement of the peace of the kingdom."

In the course of the speech he says:-"I have never yet received one farthing recompense from the king, or any other, though I have waited above eight years at your doors for justice and reparations, and neglecting my own private calling and affairs, employed most of my time and studies, and expended many hundred pounds out of my purse, since my enlargement, to maintain your cause against the king, his popish and prelatical party. For all which cost and labour I never yet demanded nor received one farthing from the houses, nor the least office or preferment whatsoever, though they have bestowed divers places of honour upon persons of less or no desert. Nor did I ever yet receive so much as your public thanks for any public service done you (which every preacher usually receives for every sermon preached before you, and most others have received for the meanest services), though I have brought you off with honour in the cases of Canterbury and Macguire, when you were at a loss in both, and cleared the justness of your cause, when it was at the lowest ebb, to most reformed churches abroad, who received such satisfaction from my books, that they translated them into several languages; and I have engaged many thousands for you at home by my writings, who were formerly dubious and unsatisfied."

After the death of the king, Prynne still opposed Cromwell, and was, in consequence, committed close prisoner to Dunster castle, Somersetshire. After a considerable time, he obtained his release by insisting strongly on magna charta, and the liberty of the subject, and again entered zealously into the religious controversies of the day.

sure.

Being considered one of the secluded members of the house of commons, he was, in 1659, restored to his seat; and, on the movement for the restoration of Charles II., was particularly zealous for that meaIn 1660 he was chosen member for Bath, and expected to be made a judge. "When the king was asked what should be done with Prynne to keep him quiet, Why, said he, let him amuse himself with writing against the catholics, and in poring over the records in the Tower." He was therefore appointed chief-keeper of the records, with a salary of £500 per annum. He died at his chambers in Lincoln's inn, October 24, 1669, and was interred under the chapel there.

Prynne's separate publications amount to about two hundred, of various bulk, from the pamphlet to the folio. He has therefore earned the title bestowed on him by Wood, of 'voluminous Prynne.' It is thought that, reckoning from the time of coming to manhood, he wrote a sheet for every day of his life. He read or wrote during the whole day; and, that he might not be interrupted, had no regular meals, but took as he had occasion the refreshment of bread, cheese, and ale, which was placed at his side. His works, in forty volumes folio and quarto, he presented to the library of Lincoln's inn.

His principal law works are, Records,' in three volumes folio; 'Parliamentary writs,' in four parts 4to.; 'Sir Robert Cotton's abridge ment of the Tower Records, with amendments and additions,' folio; and Observations on the Fourth Part of Coke's Institutes,' folio.

Thomas, Lord Fairfax.

BORN A. D. 1611.-DIED A. D 1671.

THOMAS FAIRFAX was the eldest son of Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax, and was born in January, 1611, at Darton in Otley, Yorkshire. He received his education at Saint John's college, Cambridge, and on leaving the university, proceeded to Holland, where he served as a volunteer, under the command of Horatio, Lord Vere. Soon after his return to England, he married the daughter of that nobleman, and became one of the most conspicuous champions of the popular party, which now began its formidable opposition to the proceedings of government. Both his wife's family and his own were zealously attached to the Presbyterian forms of religion, and the station which his father occupied in the country pointed him out as a fit leader in all the movements of the opposition. When the unfortunate Charles was preparing to form a guard at York, he headed the numerous multitude who petitioned the monarch on that occasion, and presented the document which contained their complaints from his saddle. On the breaking out of the war, he was appointed to a command under his father, and early displayed those talents which subsequently raised him to the highest post in the nation. The first occasion on which he distinguished himself was in an encounter at Bradford with a body of royalists, whom he compelled to retire from their station, and proceed to Leeds. At Tadcaster, where he and his father were opposed to the earls of Newcastle and Cumberland, his fortune was different, and he found it necessary to make his way to Bradford again, where he remained for a short time, and then led his troops to Leeds. Here victory declared in his favour, and this important town opened its gates to his forces on the 23d of January, 1642-3. Other successes followed this important action. He next joined his father, then retreating before the earl of Newcastle at Sherburne; and soon after suffered two successive defeats, the one at Bramham-moor, the other upon Seacroft-moor, which he was accustomed to regard as the worst defeat he suffered throughout his career. He and his father were, however, almost equally unsuccessful in their battle with the earl of Newcastle on Adderton-moor, on the 30th of June; and soon after he was obliged, at imminent peril, to force his way through a strong force of royalists who had surrounded him in the town of Bradford. He had an equally narrow escape at Selby, where he received a shot in his left wrist while on horseback, and bleeding as he was, had to conduct his men a journey of several miles. At length, after several disasters, and a few brilliant successes, he sat down with the subsidiary troops under the earls of Leven and Manchester before York. The struggle which took place between the two parties on this occasion was long and fierce.

At Marston-moor, Fairfax commanded the right wing of the cavalry, but was driven off the field by Prince Rupert, who directed the chief of his strength against that part of the enemy. Victory, however, decided in favour of the parliamentarians, and on the 15th

'Sprigge, p. 8.