: Two Addresses One to the Gentlemen of Whitby Who Signed the Requisition Calling a Meeting to Address the Queen on the Late (So Called) Aggression of the Pope: and the Other to the Protestant Clergy by Rigby N Nicholas - Catholic Church England History 19t

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"Can such things be, And overcome us like a summer's cloud, Without our special wonder!"

A LETTER TO LORD TENTERDEN,

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND.

"MY LORD,

"Such was the tolerant spirit of this Church when she was young. As to her burnings under Cranmer , they are hardly worthy of particular notice, when we have before us the sweeping cruelties of this first Protestant reign, during which, short as it was, the people of England suffered so much that the suffering actually thinned their numbers; it was a people partly destroyed, and that too in the space of about six years; and this is acknowledged even in Acts of Parliament of that day. But this LAW-CHURCH was established in reality during the reign of Old Bess, which lasted forty-five years; that is, from 1558 to 1603; and though this Church has always kept up its character, even to the present day, its deeds during this long reign are the most remarkable.

"I have not room to make even an enumeration of the deeds of religious persecution of this long and bloody reign; but I will state a few of them.

"The tolerance of the Law-Church was shown towards women as well as towards men. There was a Mrs. Ward, who, for assisting a priest to escape from prison , was imprisoned, flogged, racked, and finally hanged, ripped up, and quartered. She was executed at Tyburn, on the 30th of August, 1588. At her trial the judges asked if she had done the thing laid to her charge. She said 'Yes!' and that she was happy to reflect that she had been the means of 'delivering that innocent lamb from the hands of those bloody wolves.' They in vain endeavoured to terrify her into a confession relative to the place whither the priest was gone; and when they found threats unavailing, they promised her pardon if she would go to Church; but she answered, that she would lose many lives if she had them, rather than acknowledge the heretical Church. They, therefore, treated her very savagely, ripped her up while in her senses, and made a mockery of her naked quarters.

"There was a Mrs. Clithero pressed to death at York, in the year 1586. She was a lady of good family, and her crime was relieving and harbouring priests. She refused to plead, that she might not tell a lie, nor expose others to danger. She was, therefore, pressed to death, in the following manner. She was laid on the floor, on her back. Her hands and feet were bound down as close as possible. Then a great door was laid upon her, and many hundred weights placed upon that door. Sharp stones were put under her back, and the weights pressing upon her body, first broke her ribs, and finally, though by no means quickly, extinguished life. Before she was laid on the floor, Fawcett, the sheriff, commanded her to be stripped naked, when she, with four women who accompanied her, requested him, on their knees, for the honour of womanhood, that this might be dispensed with; but he refused. Her husband was forced to flee the country; her little children who wept for their dear and good mother, were taken up, and being questioned concerning their religious belief, and answering as they had been taught by her, were severely whipped, and the eldest, who was but twelve years old, was cast into prison.

"I am your Lordship's most humble and most obedient Servant,

"WM. COBBETT."

Before I conclude, I beg leave to say a few words about the Puseyites, a few words to the dissenters, and a few words to the English people; and then, I must drop the curtain, and beg leave to retire for the present.

The honour paid to saints; the claim of infallibility for the Church; the superstitious use of the sign of the cross; the muttering of the liturgy, so as to disguise the language, in which it is written; the recommendation of auricular confession; the administration of penance, and absolution.

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