| Citation |
PG-P.729.031
28 Aug 1729:31,32 (35)
The grand jury have lately made the following presentment
against Mr. Henly the clergyman, formerly mentioned in this
paper.
Whereas the act made in the first year of the reign of K.
William . . . for exempting their Majesties Protestant
subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the
penalties of certain laws. . . [3 lines] and whereas it is
notorious, that John Henley, clerk, in Priests orders,
according to the form of the Church of England, did about
three years since hire a large room over the Market-House in
Newport-Market, within this city and liberty of Westminster,
and cause the said room to be register'd in the court of the
Archdeacon of Middlesex. . . as a place for religious
worship, . . . and by his advertisments in the publick news-
papers, invited all persons to come thither, and take seats
for twelve-pence a-piece, promising them diversion under the
titles of voluntaries, chimes of the times, roundelays,
College-bobs, madrigals, and operas, &c. And whereas it
appears to us by information upon oath, that the said John
Henley, notwithstanding his professed dissention and
separation from the Church of England, has usually appeared
in the habit worn by the priests of the Church of England,
and in that habit has for several months past, upon one or
more days in the week, made use of the said room for
purposes very different from those of religious worship; and
that he has there discoursed on several subjects of
burlesque and ridicule. . . [13 lines, advertised that he
would] pronounce King Lear's oration in an apology for
madness; on which evening he did in the same room, (called
by him the Oratory) in the habit of a clergyman of the
Church of England, repeat a speech out of the tragedy of
King Lear, acting in such manner, and with such gestures, as
are practiced in the theatres; . . . [3 lines, he published
another ad] inviting such as went the following evening to
the ball in the Hay-Market, to come first to his said room
in their habits and masques for twelve pence a-piece; . . .
[4 lines]
We the Grand Jury for the city and liberty of
Westminster, conceiving that this behaviour of the said John
Henley is contrary to the intention of the said Act of
Toleration, . . . an outrage upon civil society, and of
dangerous consequences to the state; and particularly, that
the said assemblies by him held, as aforesaid, are unlawful
ones, his said room not being licensed for plays,
interludes, or masquerades . . . [1/2 column more outlining
legal complaints, ending with the following verse:]
In old King Harry's days, (that odd-piece,)
Whose *Reformation sprang from cod-piece,
Arminianism, (we are told
Wise mother-church, for truth did hold,
But when Queen Bess reform'd the church
She left those doctrines in the lurch;
Jack Calvin's tenets, then, alas!
For sterling truth did current pass;
But when that Jemmy took the crown,
Arminius ran the other down.
Thus what was heterodox one year,
The next, did orthodox appear,
While men were govern'd by their fancies,
(As some love plays, and some romances)
So Wollston's works, (tho' many rage)
Will shine most bright another age.
[footnote:]
* Historians relate that King Henry VIII, who never spared
man in his anger, or woman in his lust, having lived many
years with Queen Katharine, formerly his brother's wife, and
pretending a scruple of conscience (or as others day for the
love of Anne Bullen) he got a divorce from Queen Katharine,
which the Pope refusing to allow of, the King was so enrag'd
that he flung off the Pope's supremacy and authority in
England. and made several other advances against the See of
Rome. Hence the Papists, to this very day, call it, by way
of reproach, King Harry's Codpiece Reformation.
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