the
tragedies of the Commonwealth, neither church nor state dared to take
risks. The reigns of Mary and of Cromwell were so recent an experience,
the Papists and the Presbyterians were so many and so hostile, that it
seemed unsafe to permit the assembling of persons concerning whose
intentions there could be any doubt. Any company might undertake a
conspiracy. The result of this feeling on the part of both the civil and
the ecclesiastical authorities was a series of ordinances, reasonable
enough under the circumstances, and perhaps necessary, but which made
life hard for such stout and frank dissenters as the Quakers. At the
time of Penn's return from Ireland, it had been determined to enforce
the Conventicle Act, which prohibited all religious meetings except
those of the Church of England. There was, therefore, a general
arresting of these suspicious friends of Penn's. In the middle of the
summer Penn himself was arrested.

The young preacher had gone to a meeting-house of the Quakers in
Gracechurch or Gracious Street, in London, and had found the door shut,
and a file of soldiers barring the way. The congregation thereupon held
a meeting in the street, keeping their customary silence until some one
should be moved to speak. It was not long before the spirit moved Penn.
He was immediately arrested, and William Mead, a linen draper, with him,
and the two were brought before the mayor. The charge was that they
"unlawfully and tumultuously did assemble and congregate themselves
together to the disturbance of the king's peace and to the great terror
and disturbance of many of his liege people and subjects." They were
committed as rioters and sent to await trial at the sign of the Black
Dog, in Newgate Market.

At the trial Penn entered the court-room wearing his hat. A constable
promptly pulled it off, and was ordered by the judge to replace it in
order that he might fine the Quaker forty marks for keeping it on. Thus
the proceedings appropriately began. William tried in vain to learn the
terms of the law under which he was arrested, maintaining that he was
innocent of any illegal act. Finally, after an absurd and unjust
hearing, the jury, who appreciated the situation, brought in a verdict
of "guilty of speaking in Gracious Street." The judges refused to accept
the verdict, and kept the jury without food or drink for two days,
trying to make them say, "guilty of speaking in Gracious Street to an
unlawful assembly." At