The orthodox had been on the watch, however, and another Socinian book of Biddle's, called _A Two-fold Catechism_, published in 1654, had given them the opportunity they wanted.

For this book Biddle had been arrested on the 12th of December, and he had been brought before the House on his knees and committed to prison on the 13th.

The views which the House were then formulating on the Limits of Toleration in the abstract may be said therefore to have been illustrated over Mr.
Biddle's body in the concrete.

His case came up again on the 15th of January, when the House, after hearing with horror some extracts from his books, ordered them to be burnt by the hangman, and at the same time instructed a Committee to prepare a Bill for punishing him.

The punishment, if the Presbyterians could succeed in falling back on their Parliamentary Ordinance of May 1648, was to be death.[1] [Footnote 1: Wood's Ath.III.