/ET. S4-] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xxxv 



able fact respecting the execution of Archbishop Laud, which 

 took place on the loth of January 1645 : "About this time the 

 Bishop of Canterbury having been by an unknown law condemned 

 to die, and the execution suspended for some days, many citizens, 

 fearing time and cool thoughts might procure his pardon, became 

 so maliciously impudent as to shut up their shops, professing not 

 to open them till justice was executed. This malice and madness 

 is scarcely credible, but I saw it." ^ 



This statement proves that Walton was in London in January 

 1645 ; and it is certain, from the following circumstance, that he 

 was also in the metropolis in December 1647. The House of 

 Commons having ordered that all professors, heads of houses, and 

 others in the University of Oxford, should take the covenant, 

 negative oath, and the ordinance for Church discipline and 

 worship, or be expelled, the University requested to be allowed to 

 state its reasons for non-compliance. A committee was appointed 

 to hear the arguments of the persons deputed for the purpose ; 

 and on the 2d of December 1647, Dr George Morley, a particu- 

 lar friend of Walton's, who was then canon of Christ Church, 

 pleaded the right of the University to be heard by counsel with 

 great effect.^ One of the members of the committee, whom 

 Walton describes as " a powerful man in the Parliament," wish- 

 ing to protect Morley from expulsion by the visitors who were 

 soon afterwards despatched to Oxford to enforce the ordinance, 

 sent for Walton, and, he says, "told me that he had such a love 

 for Dr Morley, that knowing he would not take the oaths, and 

 must therefore be ejected his college, and leave Oxford ; he 

 desired I would therefore write to him to ride out of Oxford when 

 the visitors came into it, and not return till they left it, and he 

 should be sure then to return in safety ; and that by so doing he 

 should, without taking any oath, or other molestation, enjoy his 

 canon's place in the college. I did receive this intended kindness 

 with a sudden gladness, because I was sure the party had a power 

 to do what he professed, and as sure he meant to perform it, and 

 did therefore write the doctor word ; to which his answer was, 

 that I must not fail to return my friend (who still lives) his humble 

 and undissembled thanks, though he could not accept of his in- 

 tended kindness ; for when Dr Fell (then the dean), Dr Gardner, 

 Dr Paine, Dr Hammond, Dr Sanderson, and all the rest of the 

 college were turned out, except Dr Wall, he should take it to be, 



2 Walton's LiveSi ed. Zouch, II. 224. 



8 Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, p. ;30. Commons' Journals, V. S3, 2S4, 



