Note 207 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Rushworth, iv. 122-351.
Widdrington's speech on presenting the impeachment is a curiosity in its way. Amongst other odd things he says of Wren: "Without doubt he would never have been so strait-laced and severe in this particular (i. e., his hatred of extempore prayer), if he had but dreamed of that strait which a minister, a friend of his, was put into by this means. The story is short. A butcher was gored in the belly by an ox; the wound was cured; the party desired public thanksgiving in the congregation; the minister, finding no form for that purpose, read the collect for churching of women."—Parl. Hist., ii. 888.