The new lights, as they were termed, had begun to set England in a
blaze, and two of their burning torches were greeted in Ribblesdale in
the persons of Morgan and Davies, the latter the village-schoolmaster,
the former a low-minded money-scrivener, who had amassed a large fortune
in "the godly city of Gloucester"; and retired to spend it in his native
town, where he purchased an estate, acted as justice of the peace, and
styled himself gentleman. Both were illuminated apostles of the new
doctrines, but each had a peculiar department in the work of
reformation; one wishing to batter down the spiritual abominations of
the church, while the other confined his zeal to destroying the bands of
tyrannical rulers, and "calling Israel to their tents." Davies laboured
under the pressure of poverty. He had displeased Dr. Beaumont by his
seditious and impertinent behaviour, and the inhabitants withdrew their
children from his school; but as his means of living decreased, his
opinion of his own deserts enlarged; he mistook the cravings of want for
spiritual illumination, and so perplexed his mind by reading the
scurrilous libels of the day, as to be firmly persuaded that the King
was the Devil's bairn, and Archbishop Laud the personal antichrist.
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