CHAPTER XIX.
PERSECUTIONS FOR CONSCIENCE' SAKE.
During the persecutions for conscience' sake, several inhabitants of Brighton underwent sundry pains and penalties. In 1658, John Pullot, {134} for speaking to the Priest and people in the Steeple-house, was put prisoner into the Block-house;--Churches or houses having a steeple and a bell, were termed Steeple-houses. The next day Pullot was sent to the County gaol till the Sessions, when he was sentenced to Bridewell for six months' hard labour, and to be whipped. In 1659, Nicholas Beard, for going into the Steeple-house, was much abused, and hauled out by the hair of his head.
The "Abstract" referred to recites:--"1658.--A meeting being held at the house of William Gold, in Brighthelmston; the professors of that town, coming from their worship, first broke the windows, which work one zealous woman was observed to do very devoutly with her bible; then they flung in much filth on those that were there met, and at length thrusting in upon them, hauled out Joseph Fuce and some others, throwing him very dangerously on the ground, and hauling him and others out of the town, threatened that if he came thither again they would throw him into the sea. After this manner did the people there frequently abuse those who were assembled together; of which abuses Margery Caustock had a large share. Her daughter also, of the same name, going from a meeting was cruelly stoned and wounded in the face, to the endangering her eye; and her blood was spilt to that degree that some of her wicked persecutors boasted that they had killed one Quaker, as they had almost done another, namely, Richard Pratt, by stoning him."
Pratt had previously, in 1656, delivered in a paper to the Bench of Justices, at the Lewes Sessions, representing the cruel usage and stoning of his friends at Brighthelmston, and desiring them to exert their authority for protecting the innocent from such abuses; when he was by them committed to the House of Correction, and ordered to be whipped there, and kept to hard labour. As the officers were dragging him away to Bridewell, one William Hobbine, seeing him in danger from the pushing of the people, laid hold of him to keep him from falling. This being interpreted an attempt to rescue the prisoner, Hobbine was fined three pounds, and sent to prison for not paying it.
Thus the persecutions of the Quakers continued in all parts of the kingdom, till General Monk having had complaint made to him of the rude disturbances of Meetings by his soldiers, while at Westminster, he, with complete success, issued the following order:
St. James's, March 9, 1659-60.
I do require all officers and soldiers, to forbear to disturb the peaceable meetings of the Quakers, they doing nothing prejudicial to the Parliament of England.
GEORGE MONK.
In consequence of Monk having declared for the Commonwealth, Charles II., who for some years had resided on the continent, after his escape from Brighton, by his advice repaired to Breda. But it being resolved in England to recall him to the throne, he made, on the 14th day of April, 1660, his celebrated Declaration of Breda, whereby he granted a free and general pardon to all offenders against himself and his royal father, and "liberty of conscience, that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion, in matter of religion." His Restoration was the result on the 18th of May following, and on the 29th of the same month, his birthday, he made his public entry into London.
The Act of Uniformity, which was passed in 1662, and was called the St. Bartholomew Act, because it was to take effect on the 24th of August, the feast of that apostle, produced a kind of ecclesiastical revolution, and shewed the invincible determination of the enthusiasts. The date of the Bi-centenary of this Act, is the 24th of August of the present year, 1862. The Act was short, but very stringent, as the annexed extract XIV. Caroli II., 1662.--
Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by the advice and with the consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and of the Commons in this present Parliament, that every Parson, Vicar, or other Minister, who now hath any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Preferment within the Realm of England, shall, in the Church, Chapel, or place of public worship, upon some Lord's Day, before the Feast of St. Bartholomew, which shall be in the year of our Lord God, 1662, publicly and solemnly read the morning and evening prayers, according to the said Book of Common Prayer, at the times appointed, and after such reading thereof, shall openly and publicly, before the congregation, declare his unfeigned assent and consent to the use of all things in the said book in these words and no others--I, A. B., declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained and prescribed in and by the Book of Common Prayer. And that every such person who shall (without some lawful impediment) neglect or refuse to do the same, shall be deprived of all his spiritual promotion; and the Patron shall present or collate, as if he were dead.
In one day, and by a concerted resolution, 2,000 presbyterian ministers resigned their livings, because they would not conform to the articles of the Act. They were even, some time after, prohibited from coming within five miles of those places where they had exercised their ministry, except on journeys, under pain of six months' imprisonment, and paying a penalty of five pounds. These rigorous proceedings were by no means agreeable to the king, who was solicited by his brother James, to grant a general toleration. Charles, in consequence, proclaimed an indulgence to those whose consciences would not permit them to conform to the established worship; and as Parliament was then prorogued, he gave his royal word, that at the approaching session, he would endeavour to procure a confirmation of that indulgence. On the 18th of February, 1663, therefore, on the assembling of Parliament, Charles endeavoured to fulfil his promise; but the Parliament strongly suspected that he had another and much deeper design in view, his avowed intention being to gratify the Dissenters, but his secret resolution being to support the Catholics, so they determined to defeat him. He in consequence, from a remonstrance which they drew up, issued a proclamation against all Popish Priests and Jesuits.
In 1664, the Parliament, not content with the penalties contained in the Act of Uniformity, passed the notorious Conventicle Act, whereby it was enacted that if any one should repair to Conventicles,--the name they gave to the meeting-houses of all Dissenters,--he should be fined 5 for the first offence, or suffer three months' imprisonment; for the second offence 10, or six months' imprisonment; but for the third offence, after being convicted by a jury of his peers or fellows, he was to be transported to some foreign plantation, or pay the penalty of 100.
In 1665, upon the assembling of the Parliament at Oxford, a Bill was brought before that august body, that no dissenting teacher, who refused to take the oath of non-resistance, should, except upon the road, come within five miles of any corporation, or of any place where he had discharged the offices of a minister, after the Act of Oblivion, as it was called, under the penalty of 50. The Commons rejected the Bill, which imposed the oath of non-resistance on the whole nation. {137} The Conventicle Act was passed in 1670. By it every member of a Conventicle, or assembly of Non-Conformists, consisting of more than five persons, exclusive of the family where it was held, was liable to a fine.
One of the most virulent officials in persecuting the Non-Conformists, was Captain Tettersell, who effected the escape of the King. On Sunday, the 29th of May, 1670, while exercising his authority as High Constable of Brighton, he, with the zeal of a bigot, and the malign industry of a ministerial spy, discovered in the town a house in which a few Dissenters had privately met: and the door having been barred against so unfriendly an intruder, he surrounded the premises with his creatures, until a warrant for breaking the door open arrived from Sir Thomas Nutt, of Lewes. When the warrant arrived, the door was opened upon the demand of the Constable; but no minister could be found; nor were the company engaged in any religious ceremony. It was, however, asserted by some of the Constable's assistants, that they had heard from within a voice in the elevated tone of prayer or instruction, and for this imputed offence, the whole party was summoned before the said Sir Thomas Nutt, and other Justices at Lewes. But there being no proof to justify conviction under the Conventicle Act, the bench insidiously counselled the objects of their persecution to confess the whole, and promised they would permit them to set their own fines. Finding them averse to self-accusation, where they were conscious of no crime, these upright dispensers of justice, even on the vague conjecture of the spies, fined to the full penalty of the Statute, not only such as were found in the house, but also a man who had been seen coming out some time before the said spies approached it. William Beard, the master of the house, having been fined 20, Captain Tettersell broke open his malthouse, and took thereout sixty-five bushel sacks of malt, which he sold to one of his partisans for twelve shillings a quarter. {138} Sir Thomas Nutt was a most malign retailer of penal law, and he prevailed on three other justices to co-operate with him in order to sanction the rancour of persecution. Other Constables besides Tettersell, also, were the too willing harpies of oppression under the mask of law.
Fastened in the back cover of Deryk Carver's bible (the particulars of which are in Chapter XVII.) is a permission signed by Lord Arlington, for holding a Conventicle. The mark where the royal seal had been affixed, yet remains. The following is a correct copy of the license:--
(_The Regal Seal_.)
CHARLES R.
CHARLES, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all Mayors, Bayliffs, Constables, and other Our Officers and Ministers, Civil and Military, whom it may concern, Greeting. In pursuance of Our Declaration of the 15th of March, 1671-2. We have allowed, and we do hereby allow of a Room or Rooms in the house of Elizabeth Hopdon, widd. of Gouldhurst in Kent, to be a place for the Use of such as do not conform to the Church of England, who are of the Perswasion commonly called presbyterian to meet and assemble in, in order to their publick Worship and Devotion. And all and Singular Our Officers and Ministers, Ecclesiastical, Civil, and Military, whom it may concern, are to take due notice hereof: And they and every of them, are hereby strictly charged and required to hinder any tumult or disturbance, and to protect them in their Said Meetings and Assemblies. Given at Our Court at Whitehall, the 9th day of December, in the 24th year of Our Reign, 1672.
By His Majesties Command, ARLINGTON.
Wi dd. Hopdons house.
The Toleration Act, 1 Wm. and Mary, 1. c. 18, which exempted Dissenters from the penalties of certain laws, was confirmed by statue 10 Anne, c. 2.