P R Y N N E the absurdity of the constant tendency to multiply oaths, while "remonstrances," "narratives," "queries," "prescrip- tions," "vindications," "declarations," and "statements" were scattered broadcast. Upon the cry of the " good old cause " he is especially sarcastic and severe in The True Good Old Cause rightly stated and other pamphlets. Loyalty Banished explains itself. His activity and fear- lessness in attacking those in power during this eventful year were remarkable, and an ironical petition was circu- lated in Westminster Hall and the London streets com- plaining of his indefatigable scribbling. On 1 2th October the Rump was again expelled by Lambert, and on 24th December once more restored. On 26th December Prynne made another fruitless attempt to take his seat. In obedi- ence to the popular voice, however, the ejected members of 1648, with Prynne among them, wearing a basket-hilt sword, re-entered the House and resumed their old seats on 21st February 1660. He boldly declared that if Charles was to come back it were best done by the votes of those who had made war on his father, and was admonished for his language by Monk and the privy council. This parlia- ment recalled Charles and dissolved itself immediately, Prynne bringing in the Bill for the dissolution on 24th February. On 13th March he appears as one of three appointed to carry out the resolution of the House expung- ing the Engagement. The Convention Parliament, which met on 25th April 1660, contained a large number of Presbyterians. Prynne, who was returned for two places, Ludgershall and Bath, elected to sit for the latter, and on 16th June presented to the king an address from the corporation, evidently drawn up by himself, under the title of Bathonia Rediviva. On 1st May he Avas nominated on the committee appointed "to peruse the Journals and Records, and to examine what pre- tended Acts or orders have passed, inconsistent with the government by King, Lords, and Commons, and report them, with their opinion thereon, to this House," and to secure the steady administration of the law, and the con- firmation of the legal judgments of the past years. On 9th May he went to the Lords with various loyal votes of the Commons, and again on 18th May and on 9th June. On 3d June he " fell upon" Ashley Cooper for putting his hand to the " instrument " to settle the Protector in power. On the 1 3th he moved that Colonel Fleetwood, Richard Crom- well, John Goodwin, Thorpe, and Whitelock should be excepted from the Act of general pardon and oblivion, the speedy passing of which he strongly urged upon the House. It is said that at the Restoration he applied to be made one of the barons of the exchequer, and that it was in default of this, and to keep so active a man in good temper, that he was appointed chief keeper of the records in the Tower with a salary of 500 a year by Charles, "of his owne meere motion for my services and sufferings for him under the late usurpers, and strenuous endeavours by printing and otherwise to restore' His Majesty." On 2d July he supported a proposal that all officers who had served during the Protectorate should now refund their salaries, and declared that he knew that those persons had received above 250,000 for their iniquitous doings and to keep out the king, a charge he had previously made on 12th May. In all the debates he was for severity upon any one who had held office under Cromwell. On 9th July he spoke " very honestly and passionately " from the Presby- terian point of view in the first great debate on religion, and on the 16th declared he "would not be for bishops unless they would derive their power from the king and not vaunt themselves to be jure divino." In the debate of the 27th upon the Lords' delay in passing the Act of Indemnity Prynne found an opportunity for expressing his hatred of priests and Jesuits ; and on the 30th, in the debate on the Ministers' Bill, he urged a settlement on the principle that the ministers should be compelled to take the oath, but that " all presentations should be good throughout, though not by the right patrons, in time of trouble." On 17th August he spoke passionately against any leniency whatsoever being extended to any of the king's judges. It is curious, however, to find that the House appointed him to carry the petition to the king in favour of Lambert or Vane. When the question of dis- banding came up, for the carrying out of which he was in October made one of the commissioners, Prynne moved that no arrears should be paid to those who had acted with Lambert and did not submit. On 7th November he supported the Bill for the attainder of Cromwell and others who had participated in the king's execution, and were since dead, and particularly desired that the House would take the first and second reading at the same sitting, as was done in the case of the king's trial. At some time in this year (1660) he wrote a letter on the evil custom of drinking healths, a subject discussed in the House on 10th November. There was indeed scarcely any debate in which Prynne's voice was not heard ; he spoke against laying the cost of the abolition of the court of wards upon the excise, having been in August appointed on the commission for appeals and regulating the excise, and in favour of Bills against the profanation of the Lord's Day (in which his knowledge of ecclesiastical con- troversy again appeared) and against swearing. He ap- pears at this time to have been officially connected with the Admiralty. He supported on 27th November the abortive attempt to turn the king's declaration concern- ing ecclesiastical affairs into a Bill, and moved against the payment of the debts of the attainted regicides. In December he wrote against the bishops to the king, thus " blemishing his late services." During this year was pub- lished A Seasonable Vindication of the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of Christian Kings, Lords, Parliaments, as well over the Possessions as Persons of Delinquents, Pre- lates, and Churchmen. At the elections for the Pensionary Parliament, which met on 8th May 1661, Prynne was again returned as member for Bath in spite of the vehement efforts of the Royalists headed by Sir T. Bridge. This parliament was bent upon the humiliation of the Presbyterians, and Prynne appears in his familiar character of protester. On 30th May, when the members took the sacrament together at St Margaret's, " Mr Prynne and some few others refused to take it kneel- ing. The parson with the bread passed on and refused to give it, but he with the wine, not noticing, gave the wine." With Secretary Morris Prynne opposed the motion that Dr Gunning should receive the thanks of the House and be desired to print his sermon. On the 1 8th of this month he had moved that the Engagement, with the Solemn League and Covenant, should be burned by the hangman. On 13th July he was the subject of attack, as being in a way the representative of Presbyterianism ; the House in its vehement Anglicanism declared that his paper lately pub- lished, Sundry Reasons against the new intended Bill for governing and reforming Corporations, was illegal, false, scandalous, and seditious. Prynne was censured, and so strong was the feeling that he deemed it best to express his sorrow, upon which the offence was remitted. The continued attacks upon the Presbyterians led him to pub- lish his Short, Sober, Pacific Examination of Exuberances in the Common Prayer, as well as the Apology for Tender Consciences touching Not Bowing at the Name of Jesus. In 1662 there appeared also the Brevia Parliamentaria Rediviva, possibly a portion of the Register of Parlia- mentary Writs, of which the fourth and concluding volume was published in 1664. During 1663 he served constantly
