Some clergymen, who ultimately subscribed, did so with hesitation. Sir Thomas Browne, in his tour through Derbyshire, met with a friend who, the day before he saw him, which was in the month of September, "had most manfully led up a train of above twenty parsons, and though they thought themselves to be great Presbyterians, yet they followed" this leader to Chesterfield, and by subscribing there "kept themselves in their livings despite of their own teeth."[390] Some lingered awhile on neutral ground; others went back to the Establishment. A large number of cases of this kind may be found in _Calamy's Account_ and _Palmer's Nonconformist Memorial_.[391] Men of character and worth, belonging to the Puritan party, overcame their scruples by putting a general interpretation on a precise declaration, and by pondering the thought that a superior social influence for good would attend their remaining as shepherds within the Episcopalian sheep-fold. [Sidenote: 1662.] Lightfoot, Wallis, and Horton, who had been Presbyterian Commissioners at the Savoy, became Conformists. Dr. Fogg, of Chester, joined them at the end of five years; Dr. Conant at the end of seven. Gurnal, the devout author of the _Christian Armour_, belongs to the same class. All such men had to pay the penalty of separating from old friends.[392] They suffered abuse; being taunted with the use of "Episcopal eye-salve," and for bowing down to "the whore of Babylon." All sorts of stories were buzzed abroad to their discredit; it is related as a Divine judgment that a Conformist crossing a bridge on his way to the place where he meant to subscribe, was thrown from his horse and killed. The tale appears in connection with an account of a clergyman, who, after expressing himself in a sermon bitterly against the Presbyterians, dreamed that he should die at a certain time, and, in accordance with this warning, was found dead in his bed.[393] Cases also occurred in which clergymen at first conformed to the Act, and afterwards became Dissenters.[394] [Sidenote: THE BARTHOLOMEW EJECTMENT.]