the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[37] thus dealt with. Among others, not a few in the army, both officers and soldiers, held opinions which were branded as heretical by this iniquitous statute; and hence, when the violently intolerant party whose councils had hitherto been predominant were shortly afterwards displaced by military force, their persecuting law was not enforced, and for several years lay nearly unregarded. After the death of the king, chiefly through the representations of Cromwell, a milder policy was adopted in respect of religious dissentients, by which Mr. Biddle in some measure benefited. He was still in custody under his original commitment by the House of Commons; but at this time he had somewhat more liberty allowed him by his keeper, and was even permitted, on security being given for his appearance, to go into Staffordshire, where he lived for some time in the house of a gentleman, who not only entertained him with kindness, but made him his chaplain, and procured him an appointment to preach at a neighbouring church. At his death he left him a legacy, which proved a seasonable supply to him, as he had by this time exhausted whatever funds he had accumulated at Gloucester in the expenses which his long confinement and other persecutions had occasioned. The name of this generous friend has not been preserved, nor does it appear for what length of time Mr. Biddle's respite continued. But it was probably not long; for we find that notice of his situation having been given to Bradshaw, the President of the Council of State, he was, by his direction, recalled, and placed in more strict and rigorous confinement.

At length, in 1651, the Parliament having passed a general act of oblivion, this virtuous sufferer