Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/38

Rh 26 P R Y N N E he had attacked the Declaration of Sports, and in News from Ipswich he had attacked Wren and the bishops generally. On 30th June a fresh sentence, that had been delivered on the 14th, was executed. The stumps of Prynne's ears were shorn off in the pillory. When on 27th July he was sent to what was intended to be perpetual imprisonment at Lancaster his journey was a triumphal progress, the imposition of ship-money and the metro- political visitation having rendered the minds of English- men far more hostile to the Government than they had been in 1634. Before long Prynne was removed to Mont Orgeuil Castle in Jersey, where it was hoped that he could be so entirely isolated that no word of his would reach the outer world again. Immediately upon the meeting of the Long Parliament in 1640 Prynne was liberated. On 28th November he entered London in triumph, and on 2d March 1641 repara- tion was voted by the Commons, to be made to him at the expense of his persecutors. As might have been expected, Prynne after his release took the side of the Parliament strongly against the king, especially attacking in his writ- ings his old enemies the bishops, and accusing Charles of showing undue favour to the Roman Catholics. He com- mented on the words of Psalm cv., " Touch not mine anointed," by arguing that they inhibited kings from injuring God's servants who happened to be their subjects, and in a lengthy work entitled The Sovereign Power of Parliaments and Kingdoms he maintained that the taking arms by parliament in a necessarily defensive war was no treason either in law or in conscience. Prynne's sufferings had not served to render him com- passionate to others. In 1643 he took an active part in the proceedings against Nathaniel Fiennes for the surrender of Bristol. During this and the following year, however, his chief energies as a prosecutor were directed against Archbishop Laud. The cessation of hostilities with the Irish insurgents agreed to on 15th September 1643 brought Charles's relations with the Catholics into increased dis- repute, and Prynne attacked Laud as the soul of a great Popish plot by publishing both before and after his execu- tion various collections of documents, one of which at least was garbled to render it more telling. Even before the execution of Laud Prynne found a new enemy in the In- dependents. In 1644 he published Twelve Considerable Serious Questions touching Church Government, in which he upheld the right of the state to form a national church in accordance with the word of God, and reviled the Inde- pendents, partly as advocating an unscriptural discipline, partly as introducing heresy and division, and maintaining that all religions ought to be tolerated. To the principle of individual liberty Prynne was from the beginning to the end irreconcilably hostile. For some time to come he poured forth pamphlet after pamphlet in vindication of his assertions. Flowing out of this controversy came another, beginning in 1645 with Four Short Questions, privately circulated, and followed by A Vindication of Four Serious Questions of Great Importance, in which he denied the right of the clergy to excommunicate or to suspend from the reception of the sacrament otherwise than by law. Prynne, in short, maintained the supremacy of the state over the church, whilst he argued that the state ought to protect the church from the rivalry of sectarian associations. Early in 1648 Prynne broke new ground. The Levellers Levelled was directed against the dangerous opinion that the Lords should be brought down into the House of Com- mons, there to sit and vote. As usual, he argued his case on purely antiquarian and technical grounds, without any intellectual grasp of his subject. On 7th November 1648 Prynne at last obtained a seat in the House of Commons. He at once took part against those who called for the king's execution, and on 5th December delivered a speech of enormous length in favour of conciliating the king, who had inflicted the most griev- ous injuries upon him and whose misgovernment he had bitterly denounced. The result was his inclusion in Pride's " purge " on the morning of the 6th, when, having attempted resistance to military violence, he was subjected to imprisonment. A fresh protest, published on 1st January 1649 under the title of A Brief Memento to the Present Unparliamentary Junto, coupled with his contemptuous refusal to avow his authorship, brought about a fresh order of imprisonment on 10th January from the House of Commons itself, which, hoAvever, does not seem to have been carried out. After recovering his liberty Prynne retired to Swainswick. On 7th June 1649 he was assessed to the monthly contribution laid on the country by Parlia- ment. He not only refused to pay but published A Legal Vindication of the Liberties of England on the ground that no tax could be raised without the consent of the two Houses. In the same year he commenced a long histori- cal account of ancient parliaments, which was evidently intended to reflect on the one in existence. In 1650 his labours were cut short by a warrant from President Brad- shaw, dated 1st July, and ordering his arrest. For the remainder of the year he was imprisoned in Dunster Castle, whence he was removed in January 1651 to Taunton, and in July to Pendennis Castle. On 1st February 1652 the council of state ordered his discharge on giving a bond of 1000 to do nothing to the prejudice of the Common- wealth. On his resolute refusal to accept the condition an absolute order for his release was given on 18th Febru- ary. From his release till the death of Cromwell Prynne refrained from making any further assault on the existing Government. His strong conservatism, however, found expression in an argument in defence of advowsons and patronages and an attack on the Quakers, both published in the same year, as well as in an argument against the admission of the Jews to England issued in the beginning of 1655. It was not until the restoration of the Rump Parliament by the army on 7th May 1659 that Prynne again came into prominent notice, though he had in the previous year issued A Plea for the Lords and House of Peers and A New Discovery, viz., that Quakers were Jesuits in disguise. On that day, in addition to the Rump, fourteen of the secluded members, with Prynne among them, claimed admittance. The claim was of course refused, but on a second attempt on the 9th, through the inadvertence of the doorkeepers, Prynne, Annesly, and Hungerford succeeded in taking their seats. When they were observed, however, no busi- ness was done, and the House purposely adjourned for dinner. At the return of members in the afternoon the doors were found guarded; the secluded members were not permitted to pass, and a vote was at once taken that they should not again be allowed to enter the House. Wrath- ful at the failure of his protest and at the continuance of the republican form of government, Prynne attacked his adversaries fiercely in print. In England 's Confusion, pub- lished 30th May 1659, in the True and Full Narrative, and in The Brief Necessary Vindication he gave long accounts of the attempt to enter the House and of his ejection, while in the Curtaine Drawne he held up the claims of the Rump to derision. In Mola Asinaria the ruling powers are described as " a new-fangled Government, compacted of Treason, Usurpation, Tyranny, Theft, and Murder." Wood, however, denies that this was by Prynne. In Shuffling, Cutting, and Dealing, 26th May, he rejoiced at the quarrels which he sees arising, for " if you all complain I hope I shall win at last." Concordia Discors pointed out