Dr. Williams, bishop of Lincoln, to whom Laud was under the greatest obligations as his patron, disapproving of his severities by the High Commission Court, incurred his displeasure, when “the warmest professions of friendship were succeeded by the most deadly hatred.” Laud became his persecutor, and succeeded, in the second attempt, in obtaining his conviction, on a charge of tampering with the king’s witnesses. Williams was fined £10,000 to the king, £1,000 to Sir J. Mounson, and imprisonment in the Tower during the king’s pleasure. All his property being seized, his private papers were presumed to contain some reflections on Laud, and he again persecuted him. He was sentenced to pay £5,000 to the king, and £3,000 to the archbishop. “Laud’s thirst of revenge outweighed his fear of reproach,” as remarked by Dr. Vaughan. Laud’s spirit may be learned more fully from his persecution of Dr. Leighton, who had written “An Appeal to Parliament; or, Zion’s Plea against Prelacy.” For this he was condemned in the “Star Chamber,” which was a political Inquisition; and the archbishop being present, as one of the judges, while the sentence was being pronounced, removed his cap from his head, and, with an audible voice, rendered solemn thanks to God for this decision of the court. The illegal sentence was executed upon Dr. Leighton; and the archbishop was found to have made a record in his diary, thus:--“Nov. 6th. 1. He was whipped before he was put in the pillory. 2. Being set in the pillory, he had one of his ears cut off. 3. One side of his nose slit. 4. Branded on the cheek with a red-hot iron, with the letters S.S. On that day seven-night, his sores upon his back, ear, nose, and face, being not yet cured, he was whipped again at the pillory in Cheapside, and had the remainder of his sentence executed upon him, by cutting off the other ear, slitting the other side of the nose, and branding the other cheek!” Probably, the diary of no other man, in any age or nation, ever contained such a record in his private diary, with his approbation. He must have been a monster; and no language can sufficiently reprobate such cruelties, illegally exercised, and that in the abused name of the Prince of Peace! Leighton bore his sufferings with the meekness and courage of an apostle. “But the fortitude of the sufferer marred the policy of his oppressors. It brought upon _them_ the execrations of the people, and vested _him_ with the honours of martyrdom.”