Leonard Busher

He adopted in the main the principles of the Brownists, and after his return to England Busher apparently became a member of the congregation of Thomas Helwys.

Busher's only published work was entitled Religious Peace; or, a Plea for Liberty of Conscience, long since presented to King James and the High Court of Parliament then sitting, by L. B., Citizen of London, and printed in the year 1614; no copy of this 1614 edition is known.

It also calls for the resettlement of the Jews into England, although professor of Judaic studies, Mel Scult points out that this is motivated by the desire to convert them to Christianity.

[1] In it he speaks of his poverty, due to persecution, which prevented his publishing two other works he had written: A Scourge of small Cords wherewith Antichrist and his Ministers might be driven out of the Temple and A Declaration of certain False Translations in the New Testament.

It has been suggested that James I was influenced by it when he declared to parliament in 1614, ‘No state can evidence that any religion or heresy was ever extirpated by the sword or by violence, nor have I ever judged it a way of planting the truth.’ Lee, Sidney, ed.