When I was arraigned I was charged that I
should say our mass was as good as theirs; that I said I would rather
give money to the poor than buy Bulls of Rome with it. I was charged
with being a subject to the Queen's grace, who, they said, was enemy to
the Faith, Antichrist, with other opprobrious names; and I stood to the
defence of the Queen's Majesty, proving the infamies most untrue. Then I
was put into Little Ease again, protesting very innocent blood to be
demanded against the judge before Christ.'
The innocent blood of these poor victims had not to wait to be avenged
at the Judgment Day. The account was presented shortly and promptly at
the cannon's mouth.
LECTURE II
JOHN HAWKINS AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE
I begin this lecture with a petition addressed to Queen Elizabeth.
Thomas Seely, a merchant of Bristol, hearing a Spaniard in a Spanish
port utter foul and slanderous charges against the Queen's character,
knocked him down. To knock a man down for telling lies about Elizabeth
might be a breach of the peace, but it had not yet been declared heresy.
The Holy Office, however, seized Seely, threw him into a dungeon, and
kept him starving there for three years, at the end of which he
contrived to make his condition known in England.
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