If he denied
the charges and fled, the court could hold the hearing without
him. Many fled out of the country or went into hiding in it. If
the accused went to the hearing, he could not take an attorney
with him. Most of the issues involved clergy refusing to use the
litany, to make the sign of the cross in baptism, to wear the
surplice, or to publish the Book of Sports, and insistence on
extempore prayer and preaching. Other issues were clergy who from
the pulpit inveighed against ship-money and unjust taxes, and
spoke rudely against the bishops and tyrannical princes. One case
is that of Samuel Ward, the town preacher of a large town, heard
in 1635. He neglected bowing or kneeling on coming to his seat in
church and preached against the Book of Sports. He did not read
the set prayers from the official book, but said prayers he had
himself conceived. To this he replied that a parrot could be
taught to repeat forms and an ape to imitate gestures. But his
most serious offenses had to do with his utterances from the
pulpit derogatory to the tenets and discipline of the church. He
was accused of saying that he believed that congregations still
had the right of election of all officers, including ministers.
Also, he allegedly said that in preaching on the Christmas
holidays he told his people "that in the following days they might
do their ordinary business, intending to cross that vulgar
superstitious belief, that whoever works on any of those twelve
days shall be lousy".
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