s meant, in his own life, and in his own body, to imitate Jesus
Christ outwardly, and the women persisted in their wild acting round
him. When Nayler and his admirers came to Bristol, in October 1656,
they arranged a sort of play scene, to make it like the entry of Jesus
into Jerusalem. One man, bareheaded, led Nayler's horse, and the women
spread scarves and handkerchiefs in the way before him, as they had no
palms. They even shouted 'Hosanna!' and other songs and hymns that
they had no business to sing except in the worship of God.

They meant it to be all very brilliant and triumphant. But it was
really a miserable sort of affair, for the rain came down heavily, and
the roads were muddy and dirty, which made the whole company wet and
draggled. Still it was not the rain that mattered,--what mattered most
was that none of them can have had the sunshine of peace in their
hearts, for they must have known that they were doing wrong.

Anyhow the magistrates of the city of Bristol had no manner of doubt
about that. As soon as the foolish, dishevelled, excited company
reached the city they were all clapped into gaol, which was perhaps
the best place to sober their excited spirits. The officers of the law
were thoroughly well pleased. They had said from the first that George
Fox was a most dangerous man, and that the Quakers were a misguided
people to follow him. Now the folly and wickedness of Nayler and his
company gave them just the excuse they were wanting to prove that they
had been right all along.

James Nayler was taken to London, tried, found guilty, and sentenced
to savage punishments. He was examined at length by a Committee of
Parliament. Just before his sentence was pronounced he said that he
'did not know his offence,' which looks as if his mind really had been
clouded over when some of the things he was accused of were done. But
this was not allowed to be any excuse. 'You shall know your offence by
your punishment' was the only answer he received. The members of
Oliver Cromwell's second Parliament who dealt with Nayler's case were
not likely to be lenient to any man, who, like Nayler, had done wrong
and allowed himself to be led astray. His Commonwealth judges showed
him no mercy indeed. When Nayler heard his terrible sentence, he
listened calmly, and said, 'God has given me a body: God will, I hope,
give me a spirit to endure it. I pray God He may not lay it to your
charge.' This shows that he had learned re