John Pordage's Prejudiced Ejectment

This is another pamphlet from the trial and ejectment of John Pordage, who claimed to have had conversations with angels, but was accused of blasphemy and teaching Christians to deny the God-head. However, unlike the "impartial" yet condemning previous texts, this pamphlet from an anonymous author gives a different view of the trial, as a "brief and true account of some particulars."

The main flaw in the case was that the judges were incredibly prejudiced against Pordage, which once again could be due to the fear of the revival of angel cults. These judges "shewed their inward temper with sharp and bitter expressions," (anon. "Truth Appearing thorough the Clouds of Undeserved Scandal and Aspersion," p.6). They hung onto every word that came out of Pordage's mouth during the trial, not to make an educated judgment, but so to find faults and ways to twist his words into distorted paraphrases.

Another flaw in the case was that many of the charges exceeded the normal time span set down by the law for accusing a person of a crime. The law stated six months was the maximum amount of time before an accusation should be made, and most of the actions in the claims against Pordage occurred one to four years prior. On top of this, the judges did not allow Pordage's witnesses to give testimonies, yet a main witness against Pordage highlights the trial's foul play. This woman from Redding, claimed that she and Pordage had had a private conversation at one point a few years back in which he had made blasphemous remarks to her. Her story seemed fabricated and continued to change throughout the case, and on top of that, she was a known perjurer, yet her word was taken by the judges with the utmost respect.

While the author of this pamphlet remains anonymous, I personally think it might be Samuel Pordage, his son, who, after his father's expulsion from the church, recounted his father's angelic visions in literary texts. The author ends his brief account with the hope that the truth will be recognized, condemning those "who think to make their own cause good by representing his as bad. But certainly the time will come, when his pretended guilt will appear to be innocency, and their innocency but vailed guilt." ("Truth Appearing thorough the Clouds," p.6)