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speedily was he taken away , lest that wickedness should alter his understanding , or deceit beguile his soul . " Humphrey Middleton , whom Fox described as narrowly escaping ^ his Protestant persecution , was burnt at Canterbury about 1555 , the second year of Mary . ( Clarke ' s Martyr , p . 145 . ) His persecutors were brought to the stake , the same
year ; not unjustly , admitting the principle , which in the exercise of power they had unhappily established . Suffering was then dealt out to the reformers according to
the measure by which they had meted to others , though , considering their numbers , and some cruel aggravations , it may be said , in their case , to have been Ct pressed down , shaken together and running over . "
Here I am glad to relieve you , Mr . Editor , your readers , and myself , by closing this- first period of English Protestant persecution , the only period during which it appears in its genuine form . I am ready to believe that the Protestant church-governors in Edward's
reign , like many of the Papal , in the reign of Mary , and probably that queen herself , verily thought with Paul , that they ought to do many things against those who would not conform to their faith .
I trust , that acting thus ignorantly , like him , they obtained mercy . When the Protestant church was again established , on the death of Mary , the spirit of persecution , under Elizabeth and her
successors , became gradually blended wkh'state-craft and church-craft , the jealcrusy of politicians and the ambition df priests . ' Whether I nifty have leisure or insolation , to ' attempt the disentanglement of a subject so com *
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plicated , I know not . I caunot j however , close this letter , without noticing an assertion , from no inconsiderable authority , which , if historically correct , would render
nugatory every document I havt produced in these letters , or could bring forward in a continuation of them , and the fairest conclusions drawn from such premises . I refer to a passage in the Archbishop
of Canterbury ' s speech , on Lord SidmoutfcTs Bill , as I have it before me , among papers lately circulated , on Religious Toleration .
The Archbishop , to several just and highly liberal remarks , is reported to have added , Coercion has never been the practice of the English established Churchy nor do 1 believe it ever will * .
I know not how to account for this unfounded assertion ^ but by supposing that the speaker , full of his own ideas of what a church ought to be , entirely forgot what
his own church had proved herself , at least through several ages . It is indeed far better for the public interest , that a primate , whose office arms him with so much
vexatious power , should thus consign to oblivion , the deeds of too many of his Protestant predecessors , some of them perpetrated in his own palace , than that he should , by recognizing then *; be inclined to imitate , in any degree , such evil examples . R . G . S .
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Further Remarks on the Calvinis * tic Doctrine of Atonement . Sir , , July 6 , 1812 .
It seems necessary far me to take some notice of the animadversions of , your correspon dents , Vicinus and A Calvinist , ( see
* Sec our last No . p , 379 * T-K '
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444 Sketch of English Protestant Persecution . —Letter V .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1812, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1750/page/36/
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