John, an enthusiastic demagogue, who was tyrannically punished by the star-chamber court, being put in the pillory, whipped, fined, and imprisoned, for importing and publishing seditious pamphlets, printed in Holland, and which chiefly reflected on the church of England and its bishops. He suffered imprisonment in 1637, and in jail was doubly loaded with irons. In 1641, he was released by the long parliament; and from this time he had the address to make himself formidable to all parties, by his bold and aspiring genius. He signalized himself in the parliament army; and was at one time the secret friend and confidant of Cromwell, and at another his avowed enemy and accuser; so that, in 1650, Cromwell found it to be his interest to silence him, by a grant of some forfeited estates. But after this he grew outrageous against the protector's government; became the chief of the levellers; and was Lillicoeus twice tried for high treason, but acquitted by the juries. The last trial of Lilburne was for returning from exile without a pass, after having been banished by the parliament. He died in 1657, aged eighty-eight.