[Footnote: Backus, i. 237, note. MS. of Gov. Jos. Jencks.] Yet, in
spite of his torture, he stood firm and calm, showing neither pain nor
fear, breaking out at intervals into praise to God; and his dignity and
courage so impressed the people that, in spite of the danger, numbers
flocked about him when he was set free, in sympathy and admiration. John
Spur, being inwardly affected by what he saw and heard, took him by the
hand, and, with a joyful countenance, said: "Praised be the Lord," and so
went back with him. That same day Spur was arrested, charged with the
crime of succoring a heretic. Then said the undaunted Spur: "Obediah
Holmes I do look upon as a godly man: and do affirm that he carried
himself as did become a Christian, under so sad an affliction." "We will
deal with you as we have dealt with him," said Endicott. "I am in the
hands of God," answered Spur; and then his keeper took him to his prison.
[Footnote: _Ill Newes_, p. 57.]
Perhaps no persecutor ever lived who was actuated by a single motive:
Saint Dominic probably had some trace of worldliness; Henry VIII. some
touch of bigotry; and this was preeminently true of the Massachusetts
elders. Doubtless there were among them men like Norton, whose fanaticism
was so fierce that they would have destroyed the heretic like the wild
beast, as a child of the devil, and an abomination to God.
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