the maintenance of His Majesty's royal prerogative. My good Lords, can you pro ceed to censure before you know my cause? I dare undertake that scarce any one of your Lordships have read my books. And can you then censure me for what you know not, and before I have made my defense? Oh, my noble Lords, is this righteous judg ment? This were against the law of God and man to condemn a man before you know his crime. The governor before whom St. Paul was carried (who was a very heathen) would first hear his cause before he would pass any censure upon him. And doth it beseem so noble and Christian [an] assembly to condemn me before my answer be perused, and my cause known? Men, brethren and fathers, into what an age are we fallen! I desire your Honors to lay aside your censure for this day, to inquire into my cause, and hear my answer read : which if you refuse to do I here profess I will clothe it in Roman buff, and send it abroad into the view of all the world, to clear mine innocency, and show your great injustice in this cause." "But this is not the business oT the day," interrupted the Lord Keeper; " why brought you not in your answer in due time?" "My Lord," said Bastwick, "a long time since I tendered it to your Honor . . . And if my counsel be so base and cowardly that they dare not sign it for fear of the prelates (as I can make it appear), therefore have I no answer? My Lords, here is my answer, which tho' my counsel out of a base spirit dare not set their hands unto, yet I tender it upon my oath." In answer to questions put by the Lord Keeper, Bastwick admitted having sent one of the books complained of to a nobleman's house, with a letter directed to him, where upon Lord Arundel interposed : " My Lord, you hear by his own speech the cause is taken pro confesso" "My noble Lord of Arundel," said Bast

wick, " I know you are a noble Prince in Israel, and a great peer of this realm. There are some honorable Lords in this court that have been forced out as combatants in a single duel. It is between the prelates and us, at this time, as between two that have appointed the field. The one, being a coward, goes to the magistrate and by virtue of his authority disarms the other of his weapon, and gives him a bullrush, and then challenges him to fight. If this be not base cowardice I know not what belongs to a soldier. This is the case between the prelates and us. They take away our weapons (our answers), by virtue of your authority, by which we should defend our selves, and yet they bid us fight. My Lord, does not this savor of a base, cow ardly spirit? I know, my Lord, there is a decree gone forth (for my sentence was passed long since) to cut off our ears." The Lord Keeper inquiring how he under took to prophesy what the censure of the court should be, he answered that he could prove that the prelates had agreed long be fore that he should lose his ears. "The cause, my Lords, is great. It concerns the glory of God, the honor of our King. . . . And doth not such a cause deserve your Lordships' consideration before you proceed to censure? . . . My good Lords, it may fall out to be any of your Lordships' cases to stand as delinquents at this bar, as we do now. It is not unknown to your Honors the next cause that is to succeed ours is touching a person that hath sometimes been in greatest power in this court; and if the mutations and revolutions of persons and times be such, then I do most humbly be seech your Honors to look upon us as it may befall yourselves. But if all this will not prevail with your Honors to peruse my books and hear my answer read, which I here tender upon the word and oath of a soldier, a gentleman, a scholar, and a phy sician, I will clothe them (as I said before) in Roman buff, and disperse them through