Puritanism constituted a sanctuary in which the sacred rights of conscience were preserved and propagated, while the high church party had forgotten and forsaken the ground on which alone a departure from the papal authority could be maintained. The puritans occupy an intermediate position, between the first adherents to protestant popery, and the more enlightened nonconformists of the succeeding century. They were soon compelled to supply a test of their sincerity in the sacrifices they made. He who omitted _one_ of the most unimportant of the enjoined ceremonies, was deemed “guilty of all.” The most exemplary ministers were silenced; while the profane and the unprincipled were beneficed, upon the sole ground of their unqualified conformity. Among many who were suspended in Norfolk and Suffolk, may be mentioned Mr. Lawrence, an eminent divine, who had been beneficed in the latter county. When Mr. Calthorpe, “a gentleman of quality,” interposed in his behalf, urging the great want the church had of such men as Mr. Lawrence, whose fitness for his work, he said, the chief men of credit in the county would certify, the bishop pleaded that the queen required him to allow of no ministers but such as were perfectly conformable. {59a} Dr. Crick and Mr. Sanderson, two learned and useful ministers in Norfolk, and many others in the diocese of Norwich, refusing conformity, were prosecuted in the ecclesiastical courts. {59b} Some of the bishops, {59c} however, sanctioned their clergy in setting up religious exercises among themselves, for the promotion of discipline and the dissemination of scriptural knowledge. These were called _prophesyings_, from the apostolic sentiment, “Ye may all prophesy, one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.” {59d} They furnish the original of similar discussions held, at a subsequent period, among the Brownists, and of which some traces are found in the Independent Church at Beccles soon after its formation.