It was the period when the illegal operations of the Star-chamber and the courts of high commission bad reduced England to a despotism equal to that of France, while the manners of the age were a Bcandal to religion and good morals. Marshal. .Mantoti. Calamy. Burton, and other preachers in London kepi alive the spirit of earnest piety and love of freedom which soon after pro- duced the Commonwealth, when the mere sighl Ol P.ur- ton, a- Wale remark-, was a sermon against oppression. Prynne was a person of sour temper and austere practices, Temarkable for bis indefatigable devotion to
his 1 ks. His name -candy appears in the Law Re- ports Of his time, and he never practiced at the bar to
any considerable extent. lie applied himself princi- pally to the study of controversial divinity, and became a devoted follower of Dr. John Preston (q. v.). In ac- cordance with the doctrine- of the Puritans respecting ( 'Lurch government, he published, soon after he came to Lincoln's Inn. several tracts against Arminiani-m and againsl prelatical jurisdiction, by which, as well as by promoting and encouraging motions in the superior courts for prohibitions to the High Commission Court, he greatly exasperated archbishop Laud and the clergy against him. He was himself as ungentle as Laud. Prynne was as unspiritual in his religion, and a- un- sympathizing with the amenities of human nature. He tried all things by the dry logic which was to him all- sufficient. Sometimes he would find a terrible sin in the wearing of lone; curls— love-locks, as they were call- ed—by men, sometimes in wrong opinions on the sub- ject of predestination. In 1632 be suddenly made his appearance with a virulent treatise entitled Histrio- mastix, or a Scourgt of thi Stage -players, a tedious work of more than a thousand pages, full of learning and curious quotations, and written against plays, masks, dancing, and especially against women -actors. There was much room for the scourge of the satirist in the degraded state ofthe morals ofthe stage. Vile indecency tainted the highest dramatic efforts of the time, and even the noblest characters could not be in- troduced upon the stage unless they were smothered in afoul morass of seething corruption. But Pry nne's work was too severe and too general in its Bweeping denun- ciations to convince any one not convinced .already. Bringing every charge under the sun against the play- ers indiscriminately, he held them responsible for every sin which the pages of history revealed to have been committed by their predecessors in Greece or Lome; but all this could not have brought the sad conse- quences that followed. Some passages in this work were supposed to be levelled againsl the queen, who had acted in a pastoral performed at Somerset House; and the language ofthe book was certainly, like most others of that age, anything but, refined and compli- mentary. The real cause of offence, in the eyes of archbishop Laud, who originated the prosecution against Prynne, was, of course, tar other than this libellous mat- ter— namely, the opposition ofPrynne and bis entire par- ty to the Arminian system and the jurisdiction ofthe bishops. The information included both the aspersions of the author against the queen and the lords of the council for their share in the diversions ofthe age, and his commendation of "factious persons." The cause was tried before the Star-chamber, .and the condemna- tion of Prynne was a matter of course. Alter a lull hearing, he was sentenced to have bis book burned by the common hangman, to be degraded from the bar
and turned out of the society of Lincoln's Inn. to be degraded at Oxford, to stand twice in the pillory tit Westminster and Cheapside, and to lose one of his ears at each place, to pay a line of £5000, and then to he imprisoned for life. This must have been a moderate sentence in the eyes of some ofthe lords of the council,
for the earl of Dorset addressed the prisoner ill these words: -Mr. Prynne. 1 declare you to be a schism- maker in the Church, a Bedition-sower in the common- wealth, a wolf in sheep's clothing; in a word, "/unit/in malorum nequissimus. I shall tine him £10,000, which is more than he is worth, yet less than be deserves, I will not set him at liberty, no more than a plagued man, or a mad dog, who, though he can't bite, will loam, lie is so far from being a social .-mil l hat he i- not a ra- tional soul. lie is lit to live ill dells with such beasts
of prey us wolves and tigers like himself; thei
condemn him to perpetual imprisonment; .-ind lor cor- poral puni-hment I should have him branded in the forehead, slit in the nose, and have his ears (Lopped off." Prynne's sentence, outrageous a- it was. was not received with that general indignation which it would have called forth two or three yean later. The Inns
PRYNNE
133
PSALMANAZAR