_S. Jones._ "Yes! I will answer upon my oath to end a controversy before a lawful magistrate." _Earl of Dorset._ "What dost thou think, woman, of these grave Fathers of the Church, that these here be not lawful magistrates?" [_S. Jones._] "I would do anything that is according to God's word." [_Richard Neile_] _Archbishop of York._ "Would you? then you must take your oath now you are required by your governors; you must swear in truth, in judgment, in righteousness." [Sidenote: _Persecution of Congregationalists._] _S. Jones._ "Yes, and they that walk in righteousness shall have peace; but I dare not forswear myself." _Canterbury._ "Come, what say you?" _Pennina Howes_ (a maid). "I dare not swear this oath till I am better informed of it, for which I desire time." _Sir Henry Marten._ "Must you not be ready to give an account of your faith?" _P. Howes._ "Yes! I will give an answer of my faith if I be demanded, but not willingly forswear myself." _King's Advocate._ "What, will you take your oath, good woman?" _Sara Barbone._ "I dare not swear; I do not understand it; I will tell the truth without swearing." _Archbishop of Canterbury._ "Take them away." So they were all committed to the New Prison. And it was appointed that at the next Court, being a fortnight after this, because of Ascension Day, they should be brought again to the Consistory at St. Paul's, because of trouble and danger in bringing so many prisoners as these were over the water to Lambeth. These people were immediately committed to the New Prison; and on the 8th of the same month (May) they were brought up again before the same tribunal, when again they declined to take the obnoxious oath. On the 7th of June, it was reported to the Court that some of the conventiclers had escaped; and on the 17th more persons were arraigned, who had been seized at a meeting held in a wood near Newington, in Surrey. These also refused to be sworn, after which the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury repeated their expostulations. The High Commission, on the 21st, had brought before it Ralf Grafton, an upholsterer, dwelling in Cornhill, and reported to be a rich man, charged with being a principal ringleader of "those conventiclers that met at Blackfriars." Upon his declaring, "I dare not take the oath, and I am no ringleader of any to evil," the Archbishop said: "You met without law; you had no authority; _pœna ad paucos_, _metus ad omnes_; wherefore, the Court, for his contempt in refusing to take the oath, set a fine of two hundred pounds upon him, and committed him to prison." Grafton replied: "I have bail here ready, if you please to take it; I do tender it to you." Upon this the Bishops exclaimed: "No; away with him to prison; if he come not in by the day of mitigation, let the fine stand!"[456] [Sidenote: 1630.]