of Monmouth's rebellion, a few days before our arrival, and whose heads and quarters I saw exposed on all the towers, gates and cross-roads, looking absolutely like butchers' shambles, had many of them been guilty of no crime but that of being Presbyterians.[1]
I confess that all these circumstances combined to give me a prejudice against the Established Church, and the use, which it was proposed to me to make of the Holy Sacrament, went so much against my conscience, that I have never yet sent the certificate to qualify me for receiving the second quarter of my pension.
The committee, appointed for distributing the money, were guilty of a flagrant error in my judgment. The money placed under their control arose from the voluntary contributions of the whole English nation, and I honestly believe, that the Nonconformists had been as liberal as the Episcopalians, and yet from this fund no relief was given to any one who did not hand in a certificate of his being a member of the Church of England, and surely this was unjust.
I was at one time so ground down by poverty, and my spirit was so humbled, that I actually made a journey to London for the purpose of making personal application to this committee. My friends told me that the best plan would be for me to call upon certain Deans and other high dignitaries, the most influential members of the committee. I followed their advice, but my garments were old and shabby, and I found it very difficult to obtain an entrance at any of the great houses. The usual ordeal through which I passed was
- ↑ This has evidently been a party statement, and according to history must have been untrue, for Monmouth's rebellion was an effort to subvert the government, without religious object.
