according to the rites of the English church was depending, June 10, 1579, in the 65th year of his age.

We have mentioned the bishop of Norwich's severity in his primary visitation; his lordship went on still in the same method, not without some marks of unfair designs ;† for the incumbent of Sprowton being suspected to be of the family of love, his lordship deprived him, and immediately begged the living for his son-in-law Mr. Maplesdon, who was already archdeacon of Suffolk. He shewed no mercy to his suspended clergy, though they offered to subscribe as far as the laws of the realm required. At length they petitioned their metropolitan Grindal, who though in disgrace licensed them to preach throughout the whole diocese of Norwich, durante bene placito, provided they did not preach against the established orders of the church, nor move contentions about ceremonies; but still they were deprived of their livings.

The Rev. Mr. Lawrence, an admired preacher, and incumbent of a parish in Suffolk, was suspended by the same bishop, for not complying with the rites and ceremonies of the church.* Mr. Calthrop, a gentleman of quality in the country, applied to the lord treasurer in his behalf; and the treasurer wrote to the bishop, requesting him to take off his sequestration; but his lordship replied, that what he had done was by virtue of the Queen's letter to him, requiring him to allow of no ministers but such as were perfectly conformable. Mr. Calthrop replied, and urged the great want the church had of such good men as Mr. Lawrence, for whose fitness for his work he would undertake the chief gentlemen of credit in the county should certify; but his sequestration was still continued. The like severities were used in most other dioceses.

The bishop of Londont came not behind the chief of his † Strype's Ann. ii. 284. § MS. p. 286. * Strype's Ann. p. 285.

"This," bishop Warburton censures as "an unfair charge which "runs through the history. The exacting conformity of the ministry "of any church by the governors of that church is no persecution." This is a strange sentiment to come from the pen of a protestant prelate. There was no persecution then in the reign of Queen Mary. It was no persecution, when the Jewish Sanhedrim agreed, "that if any man did confess that Jesus was the Christ, he should be put out "of the Synagogue." It was no persecution, when the parliament imposed the Scots covenant. ED.

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brethren the bishops, in his persecuting zeal against the puritans; he gave out orders for apparitors and other officers to go from church to church in time of divine service, to observe the conformity of the minister, and to make report to her majesty's commissioners. As this prelate had no compassion in his nature, he had little or no regard to the laws of his country, or the cries of the people after the word of God.§

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Great was the scarcity of preachers about England at this time; in the large and populous town of Northampton there was not one, nor had been for a considerable time, though the people applied to the bishop of the diocese by most humble supplication for the bread of life. In the county of Cornwall there were 140 clergymen, not one of which was capable of preaching a sermon, and most of them were pluralists and non-residents. Even the city of London was în a lamentable case, as appears by their petition to the parliament which met this winter, in which are these words; May it please you therefore, for the tender mercies of 'God, to understand the woful estate of many thousands of 'souls dwelling in deep darkness, and in the shadow of ' death, in this famous and populous city of London; a place, in respect of others, accounted as the morning star, or 'rather as the sun in its brightness, because of the gospel, supposed to shine gloriously and abundantly in the same; 'but being near looked into, will be found sorely eclipsed and darkened through the dim cloud of unlearned min'isters, whereof there be no small number. There are in this city a great number of churches, but the one half of them at the least are utterly unfurnished of preaching ministers, and are pestered with candlesticks not of gold but of clay, unworthy to have the Lord's light set in them, with watchmen that have no eyes, and clouds that have no water ;-in the other half, partly by means of non-residents, which are very many; partly through the poverty of many meanly qualified, there is scarcely the tenth man that makes conscience to wait upon his charge, whereby the Lord's sabbath is oft-times

§ Ile declared, that he would surely and severely punish those who would not comply with the act of uniformity: or "I will lie," said he, "in the dust for it." Strype. ED.

'wholly neglected, and for the most part miserably 'mangled; ignorance increaseth, and wickedness comes 'upon us like an armed man.As sheep therefore going astray, we humbly on our knees beseech this 'honorable assembly, in the bowels and blood of Jesus 'Christ, to become humble suitors to her majesty, that we 'may have guides; as hungry men bound to abide by our 'empty rackstaves, we do beg of you to be means, that the 'bread of life may be brought home to us; that the sower may come into the fallow ground; that the pipes of water 'may be brought into our assemblies; that there may be 'food and refreshing for us, our poor wives and forlorn chil'dren: so shall the Lord have his due honor; you shall 'discharge good duty to her majesty; many languishing 'souls shall be comforted; atheism and heresy banished; 'her majesty have more faithful subjects; and you more hearty prayers for your prosperity in this life, and full hap'piness in the life to come, through Jesus Christ our alone Saviour. Amen."*

In the supplication of the people of Cornwall, it is said,† "We are above the number of four-score and ten thousand 'souls, which for want of the word of God are in extreme 'misery and ready to perish, and this neither for want of 'maintenance nor place; for besides the appropriations in our shire, we allow yearly above nine thousand two hundred pounds, and have about 160 churches, the greatest 'part of which are supplied by men who are guilty of the grossest sins; some fornicators, some adulterers, some 'felons, bearing the marks in their hands for the said of'fence; some drunkards, gamesters on the sabbath day, &c. We have many non-residents, who preach but once a 'quarter; so that between meal and meal the silly sheep 'may starve. We have some ministers who labor painfully and faithfully in the Lord's husbandry; but these men are not suffered to attend their callings, because the mouths ' of papists, infidels, and filthy livers, are open against them, and the ears of those who are called lords over them, are 'sooner open to their accusations, though it be but for ceremonies, than to the others answers. Nor is it safe for * MS. p. 302. † MS. p. 300. 47

VOL. I.

us to go and hear them; for though our own fountains are dried up, yet if we seek for the waters of life elsewhere, we are cited into the spiritual courts, reviled and threatened with excommunication. Therefore from far we 'come, beseeching this honorable house to dispossess these 'dumb dogs and ravenous wolves, and appoint us faithful 'ministers, who may peaceably preach the word of God, and not be disquieted by every apparator, register, official, 'commissioner, chancellor, &c. upon every light occasion.""

The ground of this scarcity was no other than the sever. ity of the high commission, and the narrow terms of conformity. Most of the old incumbents, says Dr. Keltridge,* are disguised papists, fitter to sport with the timbrel and pipe, than to take into their hands the book of the Lord; and yet there was a rising generation of valuable preachers ready for the ministry, if they might have been encouraged; for in a supplication of some of the students at Cambridge to the parliament about this time, they acknowledge, that there were plenty of able and well-furnished men among them, but that they could not get into places upon equal conditions; but unlearned men, nay the scum of the people, were preferred before them; so that in this great want of laborers, we (say they) stand idle in the market-place all the day, being urged with subscriptions before the bishops, to approve the Romish hierarchy, and all the effects of that government to be agreeable to the word of God, which with no safety of conscience we can accord unto. They then offer a conference or disputation, as the Queen and parliament shall agree, to put an amicable end to these differences,that the church may recover some discipline, that simony and perjury may be banished, and that all that are willing to promote the salvation of souls may be employed; but the Queen and bishops were against it.

All the public conversation at this time ran upon the Queen's marriage with the duke of Anjou, a French papist, which was thought to be as good as concluded; the protestant part of the nation were displeased with it, and some

Life of Aylmer, p. 32.

warm divines expressed their dark apprehensions in the pulpit. The puritans in general made a loud protest against the match, as dreading the consequences of a protestant body being under a popish head. Mr. John Stubbs, a student of Lincolns-Inn, whose sister Mr. Cartwright had married, a gentleman of excellent parts, published a treatise this summer, entitled THE GAPING GULPH, wherein England will be swallowed up with the French marriage; wherewith the Queen was so incensed, that she immediately issued out a proclamation to suppress the book, and to apprehend the author and printer. At the same time the lords of the council wrote circular letters to the clergy, to remove all surmises about the danger of the reformation,in case the match should take place, assuring them the Queen would suffer no alterations in religion by any treaty with the duke, and for bidding them in their sermons or discourses to meddle with such high matters. Mr. Stubbs the author, Singleton the printer,and Page the disperser of the above mentioned book, were apprehended, and sentenced to have their right hands cut off, by virtue of a law made in Queen Mary's reign against the authors and dispersers of seditious writings : the printer was pardoned, but Mr. Stubbs and Page were brought to a scaffold, erected in the market-place at Westminster, where with a terrible formality their right hands were cut off, by driving a clever through the wrist with a mallet; but I remember (says Cambden, being present) that as soon as Stubb's right hand was cut off, he pulled off his hat with his left, and said with a loud voice, God save the Queen, to the amazement of the spectators, who stood silent, either out of horror of the punishment, or pity to the man, or hatred of the match. Mr. Stubbs proved afterwards a faithful subject to her majesty, and a valiant commander in the wars of Ireland.

At the beginning of the next sessions of parliament, which was Jan. 10, 1580, the commons voted, "That as many of 'their members as conveniently could, should, on the Sun' day fortnight, assemble and meet together in the Temple

This, "says bishop Warburton, was infinitely more cruel than all "the ears under Charles I. whether we consider the punishment, the "crime, or the man." En.