- man skull produced, which is fractured; but was this the
cause, or was it the consequence of death? was it owing to violence, or was it the effect of natural decay? if it was violence, was that violence before or after death? My Lord, in May 1732 the remains of William Lord Archbishop of this province, were taken up by permission, in this cathedral, and the bones of the skull were broken, yet certainly he died by no violence offered to him alive, that could occasion that fracture there. Let it be considered, my Lord, that upon the dissolution of religious houses, and the commencement of the reformation, the ravages of those times affected both the living and the dead. In search after imaginary treasures, coffins were broken up, graves and vaults dug open, monuments ransacked, and shrines demolished; and it ceased about the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. I entreat your Lordship, suffer not the violence, the depredations, and the iniquities of those times to be imputed to this. Moreover, what gentleman here is ignorant that Knaresborough had a castle, which though now a ruin, was once considerable both for its strength and garrison? All know it was vigorously besieged by the arms of Parliament, at which siege in sallies, conflicts, flights pursuits, many fell in the places round it, and where they fell were buried, for every place, my Lord, is burial earth in war; and many questionless of these, rest yet unknown, whose bones futurity shall discover. I hope, with all imaginable submission, that what has been said will not be thought impertinent to this indictment; and that it will be farther from the wisdom, the learning, and the integrity of this place, to impute to the living, what fury in its zeal may have done; what nature may have taken off and piety interred; or what war alone may have destroyed, alone deposited. As to the circumstances that have been raked together I have nothing to observe, but that all circumstances whatever are precarious, and have been but too frequently found lamentably fallible; even the strongest have failed. They may rise to the utmost degree of probability, yet they
