e was thus rendered
in Stokesby Church for three Sundays by James Beadwell:

"In the time of Divine service, between the hours of ten and eleven in
the forenoon of the same day, in the presence of the whole congregation
there assembled, being barehead, barefoot and barelegged, having a white
sheet wrapped about him from the shoulder to the feet and a white wand
in his hand, where immediately after the reading of the Gospel, he shall
stand upon some form or seat before the pulpit or place where the
minister readeth prayers and say after him as forthwith, etc."

Clergymen even, if offenders against the established church, were not
spared public humiliation. In the year 1534 the vicar of a church in
Hull, England, preached a sermon in Holy Trinity church advocating the
teaching of the Reformers in Antwerp. He was promptly tried for heresy
and convicted. He recanted; and in penance walked around the church on
Sunday clad only in his shirt, barefooted and carrying a large faggot in
his hand. On the market day he walked around the market-place clad in a
similar manner. This really solemn act is robbed of its dignity because
of the apparel of the penitent. A man's shirt is an absurd garment; had
the offender been wrapped in a sheet, or robed in sackcloth and ashes,
he would been a noble figure, but you cannot grace or dignify a shirt.

With a mingling of barbarity and Christianity unrivalled by any other
code of laws issued in America, the _Articles, Lawes, and Orders Divine,
Politique and Martiall for the colony of Virginea_, as issued by Sir
Thomas Dale, punished offenders against the church and God's word
equally by physical and moral penance.

"Noe man shall vnworthilie demeane himselfe vnto any Preacher, or
Minister of God's Holy Word, but generally hold them in all reverent
regard and dutiful intreatie, otherwise he the offender shall openly be
whipt three times, and ask publick forgiveness in the assembly of the
congregation three several Saboth daies."

"There is no one man or woman in this Colonie now present, or hereafter
to arrive, but shall give vp an account of his and their faith and
religion, and repaire vnto the Minister, that by his conference with
them, hee may vnderstand, and gather, whether heretofore they have been
sufficiently instructed and catechised in the principles and grounds on
Religion, whose weaknesse and ignorance herein, the Minister, finding,
and advising them in all love and charitie to r