ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



The clergy who were ejected from their benefices, at the very outset of 

 the Puritan triumph, included the whole of the cathedral establishment, 

 bishop, dean, six prebendaries, and eight minor canons. The dean ^ was 

 John Cosin, one of the best known of the Caroline divines. He had 

 been appointed to Peterborough by Charles I, (whose chaplain he was) in 

 1640. It will be shown, in the subsequent topographical section, that he 

 was in attendance on his royal master during the time of his captivity at 

 Holdenby. During the rest of the Commonwealth period. Dr. Cosin was 

 chaplain to those of the English queen's household at Paris who belonged 

 to the Church of England. Immediately after the Restoration, whilst other 

 men were, as Pepys terms it, ' nibbling at Common Prayer,' he was the very 

 first to use it openly in its entirety in the choir offices of the cathedral 

 church of Peterborough. Dr. Cosin revived the ancient usage in July, 1660, 

 but on 2 December of the same year he was consecrated bishop of Durham 

 in Westminster Abbey. 



A considerable number of the beneficed clergy speedily followed the 

 cathedral staff, and when the Prayer Book was abolished, all save the small 

 minority who held strong Puritan convictions, and a certain number who 

 preferred to retain their incomes rather than their principles, were ejected.* 

 The story of the treatment of the aged vicar of Wellingborough, and his 

 being forced to ride part of the way to Northampton on a bear, has often 

 been told. From the almost contemporary account in Mercurius Rusticus, 

 it would appear that the series of brutalities to which he was exposed 

 actually took place, but outrages of this description were undoubtedly quite 

 exceptional. 



The intolerance of the Presbyterians was effectually checked by 

 Cromwell and the Independents in 1648 ; " and owing to the personal desires 

 of Cromwell and a few of his broader-minded supporters, a period of partial 

 religious liberty ensued ; but the new tolerance only meant freedom of 

 worship for Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists ; no such liberty was 

 granted to Prelatists, Papists, Unitarians, or Quakers. It was, however, a great 

 step in advance, and taken for the first time, when those in power admitted 

 that there might be more than one way of looking at religious truths. 



With regard to the Quakers it is only fair to recollect that the founders 

 and early converts of that society did much to provoke hostility by their 

 violent interruption of the public worship that was then conducted in our 

 parish churches. There was no part of England where the Quakers were at 

 this time so persistently opposed as in Northamptonshire. 



Their 'sufferings'* in this county are said to have begun at Welling- 

 borough in 1654, when William Dewsbury, a Yorkshire man, went into the 



' T. Smith, Fita Joannis Coiini. 



' Walker, Suffnitigs of the Clergy (1714). supplies lists of the more prominent cases in each county. 



'There was published in London, early in 1648, The Testimony of Our Reverend Brethren Ministers of 

 the Province of London to the truth of Jesus Christ and our Solcmne League and Covenant, attested b\ other Ministers 

 of Christ in the county of Northampton. It is therein acknowledged th.it 'this kingdom is not yet formed into 

 Provinces throughout as London is ' : mention is made of the grievous wolves of heresy that have already 

 entered among them, threatening to make the solemn League and Covenant so lately sworn, invalid and out of 

 date ; and it is stated that the attestation is sisned in favour of that learned, pious, orthodox and unparellel'd 

 confession of Faith ' drawn up by their reverend brethren at Westminster. Sixty-eight signed, who described 

 themselves variously as 'ministers,' 'ministers of the Gospel,' 'ministers of God's Word,' 'pastors,' 'preachers,' 

 or 'preachers of the Word' (B.M. Pamphlet, E 441, 29). We may take it for granted that this repre- 

 sented the strength of the vehement Presbyterians. * Besse, Sufferings of the Quakers, i, 518. 



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