Prelatical tyranny at length wearied out the nation, and the people arose, demanding redress of their grievances. “The Long Parliament” was called in 1640, and they decreed the abolition of the civil and ecclesiastical Inquisitions,--the High Commission Court and the Star Chamber. Dr. Leighton, on petitioning Parliament, was set at liberty: as the reading of his petition, describing a series of his sufferings, during _eleven_ years, unparalleled, perhaps, in English history, affected many of the senators to tears; and, when released from prison, the venerable man could hardly walk, or see, or hear! Parliament allowed this injured servant of God a pension till his death, in 1644, aged seventy-six. All who were imprisoned by those courts on account of religion were liberated. Dr. Burton, Dr. Bastwick, and Mr. Prynne, a barrister, were met by an immense multitude, and conducted in triumph to London. Persecution ceased; religious liberty prevailed, in a great degree, under the Long Parliament, and during the Commonwealth. But, after the restoration of Charles II., the principles of the Inquisition, for some years, enabled the prelates to harass the nonconformists, by the “Act of Uniformity,” the “Conventicle Act,” and the “Five Mile Act.” Tyranny triumphed, by these and other shocking statutes, until they were abolished by the “Act of Toleration,” as a shield against priestly oppression, by the “GLORIOUS REVOLUTION” under William III. CHAPTER X. CRIMES ALLEGED BY THE INQUISITION. Heretics--Open and secret--Schismatics--Favourers of Heretics--Hinderers of the Inquisition--Suspected persons relapsed--Readers of forbidden books--Priests soliciting confessors--Blasphemers--Diviners--Witches--Polygamists--Jews. Roman Catholics denominate the tribunal of the Inquisition _Sanctum Officium_, or _Holy Office_; pretending that it is engaged in the sacred service of God, for the seeking out and extirpation of evil persons from the church of Christ. The inquisitors, therefore, proceed against alleged heretics, blasphemers, apostates, relapsed Jews, Mohammedans, witches, wizards, and all others charged with having violated the canons of the holy Roman Catholic church. These classes of alleged offenders require to be mentioned, as illustrating the intolerant and sanguinary character of the Romish Inquisition.