Norton's church, after lecture, to testify to his emptiness;
[Footnote: This charge is unproved.] both had previously been imprisoned
and banished, but the ferocity with which Norton at that moment was
forcing on the persecution was the probable incentive to the trespass.
"They were sent to the house of correction, where, after being kept three
days without any food, they were cruelly whipt, and kept three days longer
without victuals, though they had offered to buy some, but were not
suffered." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 184.]
In 1661 Katharine Chatham walked through Boston, in sackcloth. This was
during the trial of Christison for his life, when the terror culminated,
and hardly needs comment.
George Wilson is charged with having "rushed through the streets of
Boston, shouting: 'The Lord is coming with fire and sword!'" [Footnote:
_As to Roger Williams_, p. 133.] The facts appear to be these: in 1661,
just before Christison's trial, he was arrested, without any apparent
reason, and, as he was led to prison, he cried, that the Lord was coming
with fire and sword to plead with Boston. [Footnote: _New England Judged_,
ed. 1703, p. 351.] At the general jail delivery [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._
vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 19. Order passed 28 May, 1661.] in anticipation of the
king's order, he was liberated, but soon rearrested, "sentenced to be tied
to the cart's tail," and flogged with so severe a whip that the Quakers
wanted to buy it "to send to England for the novelty of the cruelty, but
that was not permitted.
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