to the
Fleet prison, together with Stevens and Welsh, two members, to whom Sir
Thomas had communicated his intention.[**]

* D'Ewes, p. 460, 469. Townsend, p.37.

** D'Ewes, p. 470. Townsend, p. 54.

About a fortnight after, a motion was made in the house to petition the
queen for the release of these members; but it was answered by all the
privy counsellors there present, that her majesty had committed them for
causes best known to herself, and that to press her on that head would
only tend to the prejudice of the gentlemen whom they meant to serve:
she would release them whenever she thought proper, and would be
better pleased to do it of her own proper motion, than from their
suggestion.[*] The house willingly acquiesced in this reasoning.

So arbitrary an act, at the commencement of the session, might well
repress all further attempts for freedom: but the religious zeal of the
puritans was not so easily restrained; and it inspired a courage which
no human motive was able to surmount. Morrice, chancellor of the duchy,
and attorney, of the court of wards, made a motion for redressing the
abuses in the bishops' courts, but above all, in the high commission;
where subscriptions, he said, were exacted to articles at the pleasure
of the prelates; where oaths were imposed, obliging persons to answer to
all questions without distinction, even though they should tend to their
own condemnation; and where every one who refused entire satisfaction to
the commissioners was imprisoned, without relief or remedy.[**]

* D'Ewes, p. 497.

** D'Ewes, p. 474. Townsend, p. 60.

This motion was seconded by some members; but the ministers and privy
counsellors opposed it, and foretold the consequences which ensued. The
queen sent for the speaker, and after requiring him to deliver to
her Morrice's bill, she told him, that it was in her power to call
parliaments, in her power to dissolve them, in her power to give assent
or dissent to any determination which they should form: that her purpose
in summoning this parliament was twofold, to have laws enacted for the
further enforcement of uniformity in religion, and to provide for the
defence of the nation against the exorbitant power of Spain: that these
two points ought, therefore, to be the object of their deliberations:
she had enjoined them already, by the mouth of the lord keeper, to
meddle neither with matters of state nor of religion; and she wondered
how an