and her agents, the writer would refer to the testimony of contemporary memoirs-records which had long been viewed as apocryphal, and even libellous, but upon which more recent historical inquiries have set the seal of truth. The belief in magic-indeed, in every species of supernatural agency-was so deeply inwrought among all classes, and was so widely influential, that no tale professing to give a picture of the times could possibly be complete without it. For the various details of religious persecution, contemporary records alone have been the writer's warrant; indeed, the sufferings here depicted are but a simple narrative of events of constant occurrence ere our forefathers learned the great principles of religious freedom. To these principles the attention of the present day has been especially directed; and while to advance their claims, history, biography, and essay, have alike contributed, the writer, in offering this historical tale, would fain hope that, toward the same good work, it likewise may afford its aid. London, August, 1852. LITTLE as there is in the general appearance of the parish of Cripplegate-without to attract the notice of the mere passer-by, few portions of Old London afford so many points of interest, or awaken so many recollections of the picturesque past. Truly, were antiquity as highly valued in localities as in families, the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, might exalt itself high above all "the West End," and far indeed above May-fair; for, centuries ere these boasted a habitation, or even a name, Cripplegate possessed its church, and its City-gate, and its Hermitage on the wall --that venerable Roman wall, a precious relic of which still may be seen in its rural-looking churchyard. And here so says tradition - was the "House of Cripples," founded by "good Queen Maude;" and here, unenviable possession! the first and, under our Norman monarchs, the only burial-place allowed to the Jews; while far beyond the thinly-peopled suburbs, fair gardens, and wide archery -- B grounds, stretched out; and farther still, pleasant fields and gentle slopes, bright with daisies and meadow-saffron, formed the boundary of the parish, which then—and, indeed, until little more than a century ago-extended to Islington. Many a tale might be told of events that here took place; for many a gathering for political objects and many a meeting for proscribed worship these fields had witnessed; and many a true-hearted one, firm to his convictions, and right willing to pay their price, took up his abode in that parish, within whose church "he who hath made puritanism a thing far-shining to all ages" stood on his marriage-day, and where the dust of our great puritan poet is enshrined. Owing to its singularly wide extent, owing, too, to its favourable situation-withoutside the city walls, while yet it enjoyed all the immunities of Old London Cripplegate, from the rise of the Reformation down to the parliamentary war, was distinguished for the large number of puritans, especially those of more decided character, who dwelt there. It was in the fields just referred to that "the Islington congregation" assembled, as Foxe informs us, that sad May-morning; and on the same spot, nearly forty years after, the adherents of Barrow and Greenwood also met to worship. Nor did the advocates of those views lift up their voices only in the fields and highways. Robert Crowley, the learned vicar of Cripplegate, preached from his pulpit the same doctrines, and advocated them by the pen, and the press, too, actually printing with his own hands those little "tractates," which, together with his vehement opposition to all usages which he deemed superstitious, led to his committal to prison. This was the usual "price of religious convictions," and Crowley paid it willingly; for he felt that his teachings had not been in vain, as the sorely-perplexed Grindal-at that time bishop of London-found, when three-score women of this parish" came this day unto my house," thus he writes to Burghley, "to make suit for Mr. Barlow," a friend of Crowley's, who had also been imprisoned. |