140

HISTORY 03? ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XVII.

1691 .

bowed together, and ceased to bow as soon as Divine power-had liberated her from the tyranny of the Evil One.* Hisexpositions of the sacred writings were of a very peculiar kind.Passages, which had been, in the apprehension of all thereaders of the Gospels during sixteen centuries, figurative, heconstrued literally. Passages, which no human being beforehim had ever understood in any other than a literal sense, heconstrued figuratively. Thus, from those rhetorical expres-sions in which the duty of patience under injuries is enjoined hededuced the doctrine that selfdefence against pirates andassassins is unlawful. On the other hand, the plain commandsto baptize with water, and to partake of bread and wine incommemoration of the redemption of mankind, he pronouncedto be allegorical. lie long wandered from place to place,teaching this strange theology, shaking like an aspen leaf inhis paroxysms of fanatical excitement, forcing his way intochurches, which he nicknamed steeple houses, interruptingprayers and sermons with clamour and scurrility,** and pesteringrectors and justices with epistles much resembling burlesquesof those sublime odes in which the Hebrew prophets foretoldthe calamities of Babylon and Tyre.*** He soon acquired greatnotoriety by these feats. His strange face, his strange chant,his immovable hat and his leather breeches were known allover the country'; and he boasts that, as soon as the rumourwas heard, “The Man in Leather Breeches is coming,” terrorseized hypocritical professors, and hireling priests made hasteto get out of his way.f He was repeatedly imprisoned and

* Of Bowings, by G. Fox, 1657.

** See, for example, the Journal, pages 24. 26. and 51.

*** See, for example, the Epistle to Sawkey, a justico of the peace, in theJournal, page 86.; the Epistle to William Lampitt, a clergyman, whichbegins, “The word of the Lord to thee, oh Lampitt,” page 80.; and theEpistle to another clergyman whom he calls Priest Tatham, page 92.

f Journal, page 55.