ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Ashby St. Ledgers that he and several of his fellow-conspirators fled. He 

 was caught and killed a few days later at Holbeach.' In the Vaux family 

 the ardour of the third Lord Vaux was especially maintained by his son 

 Henry and his daughter Anne, both very prominent in the religious intrigues 

 of their day. ^ Among the popish recusants in the county may also be men- 

 tioned the Bentleys of ' Little Ogle,' near Rothwell. * 



But if the adherents of the Roman Catholic church counted for compara- 

 tively little in this district, the disputes within the Church of England between 

 high churchmen and Puritans were here particularly prominent. There was 

 no county in the whole of England where Puritantism gained such a strong- 

 hold, or made such open demonstration of its objects and methods. The 

 novel teaching of the two previous centuries, first by the friars, and secondly 

 by the Lollards, had made a deep impression, as we have already seen, in this 

 part of the ancient diocese of Lincoln. The alienation from the parochial 

 clergy encouraged by the one, and the anti-sacerdotal principles of the other, 

 prepared the way for a complete rejection by many of the episcopacy, and 

 the substitution of the Presbyterian principles of Calvin, which the Marian 

 exiles brought back, with them from the Continent. The three objects that 

 they set themselves to achieve were the substitution of Presbyterianism for 

 Episcopacy, the gradual disuse of the Book of Common Prayer in favour of 

 extemporary prayers and lectures, and above all, the establishment of the 

 ' Discipline.' This last was a court of morals to be administered by 

 a kind of parish vestry. It must be remembered that both parties (High 

 Church and Puritan) in the reign of Elizabeth, if not later, claimed to be 

 true churchmen, and so strove to mould the national church according 

 to their views. 



For the first ten years of Elizabeth's reign the Privy Council managed to 

 steer its way with some success between the extremes of Romanism and 

 Puritanism, and to suppress most of their manifestations. But the rising in 

 the North in 1569 provoked a reaction in favour of Puritanism from many 

 who had hitherto held aloof, and the papal bull of 1570 helped in the same 

 direction. 



Two causes gave great encouragement to the development of Puritanism, 

 and to its acceptance in Northamptonshire. Lord Burghley, for political 

 reasons, gave the movement considerable support, and it also received 

 at this time direct encouragement from Bishop Scambler. A rhyming 

 pamphlet, published at Northampton in 1570, shows how in the popular 

 mind the issue was between Geneva and Rome. The via media of 

 Hooker and the High Church Anglican party only became prominent 

 later in the reign. 



It was at the great church of All Saints, Northampton, in 1571 that the 

 famous Puritan exercises known as ' Prophesyings ' had their origin. The 

 rules relative to the ' Prophesyings ' or ' Exercises of the Ministers ' are given, 

 together with along confession of faith, in the Domestic State Papers. The 



'Gardiner, op. cit. i, 257-9, 263. Popular tradition connects Ashby St. Ledgers with trea9onable 

 meetings held under Robert Catesby's presidency. Allan Fei, Secret Chambers and Hiding-places, 56. 



'J. Morris, S. J., Trcnbles of our Catholic Forefathers, first and second %ct. passim ; Life of Father John 

 Gerard, 31 1-13. 



' Ibid. 1 1, 314. 



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