A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Wharton, Edwards of Courtnoll, Spicer of Cookenoe, Atkins of Higham, Fletcher of Abing- 

 ton, Larke of Wellingborough, Prowdeloe of Weeden, Kinge of Coleworthe, Barebone and 

 others : or some of them. 



Snape was clearly the local leader of the episcopally ordained clergy who 



were striving by every means to thwart the bishops and introduce Presby- 



terianism. The last of these articles refers exclusively to the St. Peter's 



curate. One of the allegations against him was his saying ' that rather than 



he would have stoode by the vertue of anye letters of Orders, he woulde have 



been hanged upon ye gallowes.' In fact so strong was the action against him 



that a supplement of seven additional charges was prepared, giving definite 



particulars with name and places as to his line of action, which is summed up 



in the following paragraph : — 



Beeinge or pretending to be curate of St. Peters, in Northampton, doth not in his ministra- 

 tions reade the Confession, Absolucon, Psallmes, Lessons, Letanie, Epistle, Gospell, administreth 

 the Sacraments of batisme and the Supper, marieth, burieth, churcheth, or givethe thankes 

 for weomen after childe burthe, visiteth the syke, nor perfourmeth other partes of his dutie 

 at all, or at least not accordinge to the forme prescribed by the booke of common prayer 

 authorised ; but in some chaungeth, some parts omitteth and others addeth, choppeth and 

 mingleth it w' other prayers and speeches of his owne, etc., as it pleaseth his owne humor. 



Snape steadfastly declined, like Cartwright and other leaders of this 

 clerical revolt, to answer interrogatories before the Court of High Commission, 

 and was committed to prison. In June, 1591, further information was laid 

 against him in the Star Chamber, when he was again remanded to prison, 

 where he continued till December, when he was released on bail. ^ 



Cartwright and others very properly refused to convict themselves on 

 oath before the Star Chamber by answering the interrogatories, but other 

 of the Northamptonshire Puritans did not make so stout a resistance. Thomas 

 Stone, rector of Warkton, was stiffly examined in London from 6 a.m. to 

 7 p.m. on all the details of the Northampton classis, of which he had been 

 so prominent a member, on the very day (in 1591) of Racket's execution. 

 He conformed, and subsequently lived for many years quietly at his rectory.' 



Northamptonshire, the stronghold of ultra-Protestant activity, is closely 

 identified with the rise of Independency or Congregationalism. Till about 

 1642 the Independents were often called Brownists, from the famous Robert 

 Browne (1550—1632). Less really typical of the principle that each Church 

 should be a single congregation of faithful men self-governed and free from 

 all civil control than his contemporary Barrow, his vehemence and sufferings 

 in thirty-two prisons have given him prominence. In 1590 he was absolved 

 from excommunication, received from Brayley, who always stood his friend, 

 the living of Thorpe Achurch in this county, and held it for more than forty 

 years. Recent research shows that his position was intermediate between the 

 extreme separatists and traditional Churchmanship, and he has suffered much 

 misrepresentation in consequence. 



When the long reign of Elizabeth came to a close, and the throne was 

 occupied by a king who had lived in conformity to the Presbyterian system, 

 the hopes of the Puritans vainly revived, and the continued close identification 

 of this county with the Puritan movement is strikingly confirmed by the 

 recently issued Montagu papers. James considered that the Hampton Court 



' The articles against Snape, with full particulars, are set forth in R. M. Serjeantson, Hist, of Church 

 jifSt. Peter, Northamft. (1904), 25-36. 



» Bailey, Life of Fuller (1874), 69-72. 



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