“ There is no reason to suppose that his punishment was unpopular. In 1637 he was once more in the star chamber, together with Bastwick and Burton. In A Divine Tragedy lately acted he had attacked the Declaration of Sports, and in News from Ipswich he had assailed Wren and the bishops generally. On the 30th of June a fresh sentence, that had been delivered on the 14th, was executed. The stumps of Prynne’s ears were shorn off in the pillory, and he was branded on the cheeks with the letters S.L., meaning “seditious libeller,” which Prynne, however, interpreted as “stigmata laudis.” ”

“ This parliament was bent upon the humiliation of the Presbyterians, and Prynne appears in his familiar character of protester. On the 18th of this month he moved that the Engagement, with the Solemn League and Covenant, should be burned by the hangman. About the same time he published a pamphlet advocating the reform of the Prayer Book, while a tract issued on the 15th of July, Sundry reasons against the new intended Bill for governing and reforming Corporations, was declared illegal, false, scandalous and seditious; Prynne being censured, and only escaping punishment by submission. ”

“ On the 28th of November he entered London in triumph, and on the 2nd of March 1641, reparation was voted by the Commons, at the expense of his persecutors. Prynne now attacked the bishops and the Roman Catholics and defended the taking up of arms by the parliament. The words “Touch not- mine anointed,” he declared in the Vindication of Psalm cv. ver. 15 (1642) , only commanded kings not to oppress their subjects. In 1643 he took an active part in the proceedings against Nathaniel Fiennes for the surrender of Bristol, and showed a vindictive energy in the prosecution of Archbishop Laud. ”

“ His first book, The Perpetuity of a Regenerate Man’s Estate (1627) , defended one of the main Calvinistic positions, and The U loveliness of Love-locks and Health’s Sickness (1628) attacked prevailing fashions without any sense of proportion, treating follies on the same footing a.s scandalous vices. ”