THOMAS SETTLE was born about the year 1555, and most probably educated in the university of Cambridge. He was ordained by Bishop Freak, after which he became minister of Boxted in Suffolk, and a zealous nonconformist; but was roughly used by Archbishop Whitgift. In May, 1586, being cited before his grace at Lambeth, the following charges were exhibited against him :-" That he did not observe the order in the Book of Common Prayer.-That he did not use the cross, nor admit the promise and vow in baptism. That he did not marry with the ring, and say, With this ring I thee wed.'-That he frequented conventicles. That he denied the lawfulness of private baptism by women, and the baptism of ministers who could not preach. And that he denied that the soul of our Saviour went into hell, or the regions of the damned." Upon the exhibition of these charges against Mr. Settle, he was first examined upon our Lord's descent into hell; when he confessed it was his opinion, that Christ did not descend locally into hell, and that Calvin, Beza, and other learned men, were of the same opinion. This put the archbishop into so violent a passion, that he called him ass, doll, fool, and added, they are liars. Mr. Settle said, "You ought not to rail at me, being a minister of the gospel." "What," replied his lordship, "dost thou think it much to be called ass and dolt? I have called many of thy betters so.' "True," observed Mr. Settle; "but the question is, how lawfully you have done that." The lordly archbishop then said, "Thou shalt preach no more in my province. Mr. Settle answered, "I am called to preach the gospel, and I will not cease to preach it." The archbishop, with a stern countenance, replied, "Neither you, nor any one in England, shall preach without my leave;" and immediately commanded him to be carried close prisoner to the Gatehouse. Before his departure, the Dean of Westminster asking him whether he had subscribed, Mr. Settle replied, "Yes; I have subscribed, and am ready to subscribe again, to the doctrine of faith and sacraments, being as much as the law requires: but to other rites and ceremonies, I neither can nor will subscribe." "Then," said the angry archbishop, " thou shalt be subject to the ecclesiastical * This prelate is commended as a worthy and prudent governor of the church; and his mild and moderate carriage, it is said, was well worthy of imitation! This good man expired in David's fulness of days, leaving a name like sweet perfume behind him! Paulo's Life of Whitgift, Pref.— Kennet's Hist. of Eng, vol. ii. p. 665. authority." Mr. Settle replied, "I thank God, you can use no violence only upon my poor body." So Whitgift committed him close prisoner to the Gatehouse, where the good man continued about six years;* till the year 1592,+ when he was released. After his deliverance from this cruel bondage, Mr. Settle became a member of the Brownists' congregation, which assembled in private places in and about London. His troubles, however, were not ended: bonds and afflictions were still awaiting him. For, towards the close of the above year, he was apprehended at a private assembly, held in the school-house of Mr. George Johnson, in Nicholaslane, and committed to prison. After remaining under confinement for fifteen weeks, without either examination or indictment, he was carried before the high commission, April 6, 1593, when he was required to take the oath ex officio, but he absolutely refused. Though he would not accuse either himself or his brethren; yet, during his examination, he acknowledged certain things, from which we have collected the following particulars :-He confessed that he had held his opinions, and separated himself from the established church, for about a year; but had not received the sacrament in the parish church for three years. He acknowledged that he had opposed the discipline of the church for seven years; but he refused to say by what means he had been induced to imbibe these opinions. When he was commanded to say whether he possessed, or had ever read, any of Barrow's, Greenwood's, or Penry's books, he refused to give a direct answer, but said, he would not be his own accuser. Being asked how many he had persuaded, and brought over to his opinions, he said, he was firmly fixed in what he professed, and was desirous of bringing over as many others as he was able; but more he would not answer. He, moreover, confessed, that he was present at the assembly in a house in Aldgate, when Robert Stokes was excommunicated for his apostacy; and that he was excommunicated by Mr. Francis Johnson the pastor, when the rest of the officers and congregation were present, and consented to what was done. He said, also, that he had never served in any office in the congregation; but had occasionally taught or prophesied in the assembly. He likewise confessed, that he had received the Lord's supper in * MS. Register, p. 798. + Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 96. * their congregation, in a house near Smithfield, but he knew not whose the house was. He, at the same time, refused to attend the public service of the parish churches; because, he thought, they had not a true ministry.This was the result of the inquisition of his spiritual judges; but it does not appear how long he remained in prison:, most probably he was released upon the general banishment of the puritans. JOHN PENRY, A. M.-This distinguished puritan was born in Brecknockshire, in the year 1559, and educated first at Cambridge, then at St. Albans-hall, Oxford, where he took his degree of Master of Arts in 1586. "When he first went to Cambridge," says Wood," he was as arrant a papist as ever came out of Wales, and he would have run a false gallop over his beads with any man in England, and help the priest sometimes to say mass at midnight." Admitting he was then much inclined to popery, being only about eighteen years of age, we need not wonder, especially when it is recollected, that the country whence he came was then wholly overspread with popish darkness. However, as our author intimates, he soon renounced popery; and, after taking his degrees, became an esteemed preacher in both universities, where he was accounted "a tolerable scholar, an edifying preacher, and a good man." This, from so bitter an author, is certainly a very high character of so rigid a puritan. "But," he adds, "being full of Welsh blood, and of a hot and restless head, he changed his course, and became a notorious anabaptist, and in some sort a Brownist, and a most bitter enemy to the church of England."+ He was, undoubtedly, an enemy to the hierarchy, and the persecution of the prelates, and a zealous promoter of a further reformation. Upon Mr. Penry's leaving the university, he settled for some time at Northampton, where he was most probably employed in the ministry. About the year 1587, he entered upon his sufferings in the cause of nonconformity, being convened before Archbishop Whitgift, Bishop Cooper, and other high commissioners. The charge brought against him was, that in a book he had published, he had asserted, "That mere readers, meaning such as could not, or would not preach, were no ministers. Reading homilies only, or * Baker's MS. Collec. vol. xv. p. 108. + Athena Oxon. vol. i. p. 227. any other books," he said, "was not preaching the word of God, and so the ordinary means of salvation was wanting." During his examination, the Bishop of London asking him what he had to say against nonresidents, he said, "They are odious in the sight of God; because, to the utmost of their power, they deprive the people of the ordinary means of salvation, which is the word preached." When the bishop demanded whether preaching was the only means of salvation, Mr. Penry replied, "It is the only ordinary means." This he endeavoured to confirm, from the following portions of scripture: "How shall they hear without a preacher?-It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.-In whom also ye trusted, after ye heard the word of truth." Having, for a considerable time, discussed Mr. Penry's assertion, that the word is the only ordinary means of salvation, the Bishop of Winchester arose, and said, "I assure you, my lords, it is an execrable heresy.' "An heresy!" replied Mr. Penry, "I thank God that I ever knew that heresy. It is such a heresy, as I will, by the grace of God, sooner leave my life than leave it." The bishop then said, "I tell thee, it is a heresy; and thou shalt recant it as a heresy.' "Never," replied Mr. Penry, "God willing, so long as I live. Though his lordship afterwards endeavoured to defend himself against what is here ascribed to him, he seems to have been very unsuccessful. It also appears, that Whitgift supported his brother of Winchester in his assertion, that Penry's opinion was an execrable heresy, and that he should recant it as such; adding, "that such heathenish untruth is to be pitied rather than answered."+ Mr. Penry was, therefore, committed to prison; and, after about a month's confinement, was discharged without any further proceeding. But presently after his release, they sent their pursuivants with warrants to apprehend him, and commit him to prison. Walton, one of their pursuivants, went immediately to Northampton; and upon entering Mr. Penry's house, ransacked his study, and took away all the books and papers which he thought proper; but Mr. Penry was not to be found.‡ Upon the publication of Martin Mar-Prelate, and other satirical pamphlets, a special warrant was issued from the council, in 1590, under several hands, of which Whitgift's was one, to seize and apprehend Mr. Penry, as an enemy to • Strype's Annals, vol. iii. p. 573, 574. + Strype's Whitgift, p. 306. MS. Chronology, vol. ii. p. 487. (2.) the state; and that all the queen's good subjects should take him so to be. But Mr. Penry, about the same time, went into Scotland, not merely for safety from the storm, but as a student in divinity, where he remained till the year 1593. While he was in the north, he made many observations relative to religion, for his own private use; and, at length, prepared the heads of a petition or an address to the queen. This petition was designed to represent to her majesty the true state of religion, and how ignorant she was of the many abuses in the church. Likewise to intercede with her, that he might, by her authority, have liberty to go into Wales, and preach the gospel in his native country, where, indeed, it was much wanted. He intended himself to deliver it to the queen, as he should find opportunity. The heads of the petition, clothed in plain and smart language, were as follows: "The last days of your reign are turned rather against "Jesus Christ and his gospel, than to the maintenance of "the same. "I have great cause and complaint, madam; nay, the "Lord and his church have cause to complain of your "government, because we, your subjects, this day, are not "permitted to serve our God, under your government, "according to his word, but are sold to be bondslaves, not "only to our affections, to do what we will, so that we "keep ourselves within the compass of established civil "laws, but also to be servants to the man of sin (the pope) ❝and his ordinances. "It is not the force that we seem to fear that will come upon us, (for the Lord may destroy both you for denying, "and us for slack seeking of his will,) by strangers: "come unto you with it. If you will hear it, our cause "may be eased; if not, that posterity may know that you "have been dealt with, and that this age may know that "there is no expectation to be looked for at your hands. "Among the rest of the princes under the gospel, that "have been drawn to oppose if, you must think yourself to "be one; for until you are this, madam, you see not "yourself; and they are but sycophants and flatterers "whoever tell you otherwise: your standing is and has been "by the gospel. It is little beholden to you for any thing "that appears. The practice of your government shews, "that if you could have ruled without the gospel, it would "have been doubtful whether the gospel should be estab"lished or not; for now that you are established in your |