The prisoner was surrended in due form to his diocesan, and was brought to trial on the 4th of February; a series of articles being alleged against him by Foxford, the Bishop's vicar-general. The articles were of the usual kind. The prisoner was accused of having used unorthodox expressions on transubstantiation, on purgatory, pilgrimages, and confession. It does not appear whether any witnesses were produced. The vicar-general brought his accusations on the ground of general rumour, and failed to maintain them. Whether there were witnesses or not, neither the particular offences, nor even the fact of the general rumour, could be proved to the satisfaction of the jury. Philips himself encountered each separate charge with a specific denial, declaring that he neither was, nor ever had been, other than orthodox: and the result of the trial was, that no conviction could be obtained. The prisoner 'was found so clear from all manner of infamous slanders and suspicions, that all the people before the said Bishop, shouting in judgment as with one voice, openly witnessed his good name and fame, to the great reproof and shame of the said Bishop, if he had not been ashamed to be ashamed.'[1] The case had broken down; the proceedings were over, and by law the accused person was free. But the law, except when it was on their own side, was of little importance to the Church authorities. As they had failed to prove Philips guilty of heresy, they called upon him to confess his guilt by
- ↑ Petition of Thomas Philips to the House of Commons: Rolls House MS.
