Being unable
longer to withstand Dudley by honorable means, they tried to blast him by
charging him with felony. Their letters are too long to be reproduced in
full; but their purport may be guessed by the extracts given, and to this
day they remain choice gems of theocratic morality.
* * * * *
SIR, That I have had a singular respect for you, the Lord knows; but that
since your arrival to the government, my charitable expectations have been
greatly disappointed, I may not deny....
1st. I am afraid you cannot clear yourself from the guilt of bribery and
unrighteousness....
2d. I am afraid that you have not been true to the interest of your
country, as God (considering his marvellous dispensations towards you) and
his people have expected from you....
3d. I am afraid that you cannot clear yourself from the guilt of much
hypocrisy and falseness in the affair of the college....
4th. I am afraid that the guilt of innocent blood is still crying in the
ears of the Lord against you. I mean the blood of Leister and Milburn. My
Lord Bellamont said to me, that he was one of the committee of Parliament
who examined the matter; and that those men were not only murdered, but
barbarously murdered....
5th. I am afraid that the Lord is offended with you, in that you
ordinarily forsake the worship of God in the holy church to which you are
related, in the afternoon on the Lord's day, and after the publick
exercise, spend the whole time with some persons reputed very ungodly men.
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