514
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
them over to keep the peace, procured them to be indicted, and imprisoned, thus rendered the sect considerable. They ran about the streets, foaming and bellowing out such like expressions as these : " Repent, repent ; Woe, woe f the judge of the worla is come !" Some of them stood naked on the market^;ross, on the market-days, preaching from thence to the people. At Ken- dal, in Westmoreland, the wife oi^ one Edmund Adlington, went naked through the streets. A man and a woman, who called themselves Adam and Ere, went publicly naked ; and, when ex- amined concerning the same at the assizes, the man affirmed that the power of God was upon him, and he was commanded so to do. In their preaching they called themselves " the way, the truth, and the life." They made it a constant
Sractice to enter into the churches with their ats on during divine service, and to rtul openly, and exclaim aloud anunst the ministers, calling them liars, deludeis oT the people, Baal's priests, Babylon's merchants selling beastlv ware, and biddmg them come down from the high places. The railed at the judges sitting on the bench, calling them scarlet-coloured b^ts. The jus- tices of the peace they styled "justices so called ;" and said there would be Quakers in England, when there should be no justices of the peace. A quaker, to prove the text that " Man shall not live by bread alme, but by the word of God," persisted in refusing his meals. The literal text proved for him a dead letter, and this practical commentator died by a me- taphor. This quaker, however, was not the only victim to the letter of the text ; for the famous Origin, by interpreting in too literal a way the 12th verse of the 19th of St. Matthew, which alludes to those persons who become eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven, with his own hands armed himself against himself, as is sufficiently known. " JHetoumon* it not mouUnu P'
A poetof the time thus speaks of the religious insanity which raged among the people, and the numerous sects in which they were divided :
ON SECTS.
Eternity, wblch pozzies all the world To name the Inhabitants that people it ; Xtemity, whose nndiaeoveied conntrjr We fools divide before we come to see H, Maklncr one part contain all happiness. The other misery, then onseen flcht for It : All sects pretending to a rl(ht of choice, Yet none go wiillnsly to lake a part.
In one of ifae chronicling poems of George Withers, entitled a Dark Lanthome, published in November, 1652, after noticing that God, to mortify us, had sent preachers from " the shop- board and the plough,"
Such as we seem Jnstly to contemn. As maUag Imtiis abhoncd, which come from them.
again, he describes these aelf'taught " Teachers •od Prophets," and saya,
Thef act as men in ecstades have done — Striving their dondr vialoBS tn declare, TiO they have lost the notions which thity k*d. ^d want bot fHw degrees of being msd.
1650. In a corned v, called Hey for H<me$tf, written by T. Randolph,* there is ihe stationen* preface before the play. "Reader, this is a pleasant comedy, though some may judge it satirical, 'tis the more like Aristophanes, the father ; besides, if it be biting, 'tis a biting age, we live in; then biting for biting." Again, Tom Randal, the adopted son of Ben Jon5on,beingtbe translator hereotjfollowed his father's steps. They both of them loved sack, and harmless mirth, and here they shew it; and I, that know myself, am not averse from it neither. This I thought good to acquaint thee with. Farewell. Thine,
1650. The following Ancient CSutomt tued ns a Printing-house at this period, are taken from Moxon's ifechanical Exercitet,\ and which hand down the peculiar customs formerly observed with respect to that curious tribunal, termed "a Cbapel," as well as some other singularities in practice among the members of the art at this early period. Though, from the change that has taken place in the habits of men and circum- stances of trade, as well as from other matters which have happened in more recent times, the ancient customs will not apply to modern prac- tice ; yet, as historical memoranda, such things afford an opportunity of contrasting the past with the present, and thus become a subject of some amusement ; and hence it may be presumed that they will contribute to many in the pro- fession, and to many more who may yet enter it, both instruction and. gratification, and, therefore, we shall quote them entire.
"Every printing-house is by the custom of time out of mind, called a Chapel, and all the workmen that belong to it are members of the Chapel ; and the oldest freeman is lather of the Chapel. I suppose the style was originally con. ferred upon it by the courtesie of some great churchman, or men (doubtless when chapels were in more veneration than of late years they have been here in England,) who, for the books of divinity that proceeded from a printing- house, gave it the reverend title of Chapel.
There have been formerly, customs and bye- laws made and intended for the well and good government of the Chapel, and for the more civil and orderly deportment of all its members while in the Chapel ; and the penalty for the breach of any of these laws and customs, is, in printers' language, called a Solace; and the judges of these solaces, and other controversies relating to the Chapel, or any of its members, were, plurality of votes in the Chapel, it being asserted as a maxim, that " the Chapel cannot err." But when any controversy is thus decided, it always ends in the good of the Chapel.
1. Swearing in the Chapel — a solace,
2, Fighting in the Cbapel-^ solace.
- Thomas Randotpli was born at Newnham. Jone IMk,
IMS ; and died at Blatherwick, March 17th, 1634.
t Uechttaicat Sxereita, by Joseph Moxon. ■677-0(1. s vols. 4to. For an account of Mr. " the year i683, patt.
lOM.
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