Note 221 — Chapter VI

London was in a very troubled state that autumn, as appears from a letter by Thomas Wiseman, dated October 7th.—State Papers Dom.

"The city is full of the disbanded soldiers, and such robbing in and about it that we are not safe in our own houses, yet this day there is an order come from the Committee of Parliament to send every soldier away upon pain of imprisonment, and leave granted to any of them that will to transport themselves for the low countries into the service of the States. On Tuesday last the post was robbed between this and Theobalds, and the letters to the King and other Lords in Scotland, from the Queen and the Lords of the Council, were taken away by fellows with vizors on their faces; such an insolence hath not been, however, before, and who they were, or who set them to work is suspected, but not yet discovered. We have the most pestilent libels spread abroad against the precise Lords and Commons of the Parliament, that they are fearful to be named. And the Brownists and other sectaries make such havoc in our churches by pulling down of ancient monuments, glass windows, and rails, that their madness is intolerable; and I think it will be thought blasphemy shortly to name Jesus Christ, for it is already forbidden to bow to his name, though Scripture and the practice of the Church of England doth both warrant and command it."