Hearing afterwards of one Dr. Cradock of Coventry, he went to him also, and asked him whence temptations and despair did arise, and how troubles came to be wrought in man. The priest, instead of answering, asked him who was Christ’s father and mother. George told him Mary was his mother; and he was supposed to be the son of Joseph; but he was the Son of God. Now as they were walking together in Dr. Cradock’s garden, it happened that George, in turning, set his foot on the side of a bed, which so disturbed that teacher, as if his house had been on fire, and thus all their discourse was lost; and George went away in sorrow, worse than he was when he came, seeing he found none that could reach his condition, after this he went to one Macham, a priest of high account; and he, no more skilful than the others, was for giving George some physic, and for bleeding him; but they could not get one drop of blood from him, either in the arms or the head; his body being, as it were, dried up with sorrows, grief, and trouble, which were so great upon him, that he could have wished never to have been born, to behold the vanity and wickedness of men; or that he had been born blind, and so he might never have seen it; and deaf, that he had never heard vain and wicked words, or the Lord’s name blasphemed. And when the time called Christmas came, while others were feasting and sporting themselves, he went from house to house, looking for poor widows, and giving them some money. And when he was invited to marriages, (as sometimes he was,) he would go to none at all; but the next day, or soon after, he went and visited those that were newly married; and if they were poor, he gave them some money; for he had wherewith both to keep himself from being chargeable to others, and to administer something to the needful. Whilst the mind of George Fox was thus in trouble, the state of England was also in a great stir; for the Parliament was for turning out of bishops, and introducing the Presbyterian Directory; which, however, as yet could not be well affected, although William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, had been made to stoop to the block; and the power of the king by this time was much weakened; for his army was this summer near Naseby, not far from Leicester, overcome by an army of untrained bands, and about six thousand men, among whom many great officers were taken prisoners, and his cabinet, with abundance of letters of great moment, was seized; insomuch, that though they had some skirmishes, yet no decisive battle was fought afterwards. 1646.