ake them into consideration and give such redress as
might be for the honor of the king, the quiet of the people, and the
peace of the church," the court of commissions accounted it "a most
odious and heinous offence, deserving the most serious punishment the
court could inflict, for framing a book so full of such pestilent,
devilish, and dangerous assertions." The two Chief Justices declared
if the case had been brought to their courts, they would have
proceeded against him for Treason, and it was only "his majesty's
exceeding great mercy and goodness" which selected the milder
tribunal. His sentence was a fine of L10,000, to be set in the
pillory, whipped, have one ear cut off; one side of his nose slit, one
cheek branded with S.S., Sower of Sedition, and then at some
convenient time be whipped again, branded, and mutilated on the other
side, and confined in the Fleet during life! Before the punishment
could be inflicted he escaped out of prison, but was recaptured and
the odious sentence fully executed. Those who "obstructed" the officer
in the execution of that "process" were fined L500 a piece.[30]
Gentlemen of the Jury, which do you think would most have astonished
the Founders of Massachusetts, then drawing near to Boston, that trial
on the 4th of June, 1630, or this trial, two hundred and twenty-five
years later? At the court of Charles it was a great honor to mutilate
the body of a Puritan minister.

[Footnote 30: 3 St. Tr. 383; Laud's Diary, 4th November; 2 Hallam,
28.]

But not only did such judges thus punish the most noble men who wrote
on political matters, there was no freedom of speech allowed--so
logical is despotism!

7. William Prynn, a zealous Puritan and a very learned lawyer, wrote a
folio against theatres called "a Scourge for Stage-Players," dull,
learned, unreadable and uncommon thick. He was brought to the
Star-Chamber in 1632-3, and Chief Justice Richardson--who had even
then "but an indifferent reputation for honesty and veracity"--gave
this sentence: "Mr. Prynn, I do declare you to be a Schism-Maker in
the Church, a Sedition-Sower in the Commonwealth, a wolf in sheep's
clothing; in a word 'omnium malorum nequissimus'--[the wickedest of
all scoundrels]. I shall fine him L10,000, which is more than he is
worth, yet less than he deserveth; I will not set him at liberty, no
more than a plagued man or a mad dog, who though he cannot bite, yet
will he foam; he is so far from being a sociable s