The  plain  historic  truth  is  that,  highly  connected  as  he  was,
and  one  of  the  most  eminent  and  powerful  commoners  of
his  age,  Knightley  had  to  spend  seven  months  in  the  Fleet,
and  was  only  released  by  the  payment  of  an  enormous  and
ruinous  fine.  There  is  no  record  of  a  single  case  where
motives  of  pity  or  compassion  moved  Whitgift  to  relent  in
his  persecution  of  Nonconformists ;  or  evidence  that  he  ever
forgave  a  man  who  once  openly  opposed  him.  The  case  of
John  Udall,  the  learned  minister  at  Kingston-on-Thames,
1  Fuller,  quoted  by  Neal,  Hist.  i.  347.
124  THE  MARPRELATE  TRACTS

moved  almost  every  person  of  consequence  in  the  nation  to
compassion.  There  was  much  talk  of  the  Archbishop's  pity
for  this  poor  man,  and  the  legend  is  still  repeated  by  Church
historians.  But  when  this  divine  appeared  at  Croydon,
laden  with  heavy  chains  so  that  he  could  not  stand  erect,
as  though  he  were  some  dangerous  criminal  needing  this
restraint,  the  pity  was  far  to  seek.  And  the  fact  remains
that  in  spite  of  the  extraordinary  efforts  made  on  his  behalf,
Udall  lingered  in  prison  till  he  died.
Strype  seeks  to  lay  upon  the  Queen  the  blame  for
Whitgift's  unrelenting  severity  towards  Udall.  But  the
statement  is  unsustained  by  any  evidence,  is  contrary  to  all
that  we  know  concerning  Whitgift,  and  to  the  actual  facts
concerning  Udall's  harsh  treatment.  Udall's  offence  was
that  he  had  written  very  strongly  against  the  Episcopal
rule  and  order ;  this  by  an  outrageous  travesty  of  law  and
justice  was  accounted  to  be,  constructively,  sedition;  and
for  that  offence  the  capital  sentence  was  passed  upon  him.
