godly ministers were present. And, the Petition being read in the
hearing of divers of those under whose countenance it was presented,
many of them disowned it, as being altered both in the matter and
title of it since they signed it, and so looked upon it as a forged
thing, wherein both his Highness and they were greatly abused, and
desired that the original which they signed might be produced; which
Mr. Ives and some others of the contrivers and presenters of it were
not able to do, nor had they anything to say in excuse of so foul a
miscarriage. Whereupon they were dismissed, his Highness having
opened to them the evil of such a practice [tampering with petitions
after they had been signed], as also how inconsistent it was for
_them_, who professed to be members of the Churches of Christ
and to worship him with the worship due to God, to give any
countenance to one who reproached themselves and all the Christian
Churches in the world as being guilty of idolatry: showing that, if
it be true which Mr. Biddle holds, to wit that our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ is but a creature, then all those who worship him with
the worship due to God are idolaters. His Highness showed moreover
that the maintainers of this opinion of Mr. Biddle's are guilty of
great blasphemy against Christ, who is God equal with the Father; and
he referred it to them to consider whether any who loved the Lord
Jesus Christ in sincerity could give any countenance to such a person
as he is." But, while the petitioners were thus dismissed with a
severe lecture, Cromwell had made up his mind to save Mr. Biddle. On
the 5th of October it was resolved by the Council that he should be
removed to the Isle of Scilly and there shut up; and Cromwell's
warrant to that effect was at once issued. In no other way could the
trial have been quashed, and it was the kindest thing that could have
been done for Biddle in the circumstances. He lived comfortably
enough in his seclusion in the distant Island for the next two years
and a half, receiving an allowance of a hundred crowns _per
annum_ from Cromwell, and employing his leisure in the deep study
of the Apocalypse and the preparation of a treatise against the
Doctrine of the Fifth Monarchy.[1]

[Footnote 1: Council Order Books, July 3 and Oct. 5, 1655; _Merc.
Pol._ Sept. 27-Oct. 4, 1655; Wood's Ath. III. 599-601; Thomason
Catalogue (Tracts for and against Biddle).]

(4) _The Quakers._ There was immense difficulty w