BISHOP AYLMER. 21 



Sir Thomas More, sometime Privy Counsellor to King CHAP. 

 Henry VIII. and Lord High Chancellor of &quot;England ; &quot; a 1L 

 &quot; man for his zeal to be honoured,&quot; said the Bishop, &quot; though 

 &quot; for his religion to be abhorred :&quot; shewing them, how he 

 would divers times put on a surplice, and help the Priest 

 in his proper person to say service. Insomuch that on a 

 time at Chelsea the Duke of Norfolk came to him, being 

 then Lord Chancellor, about some special affairs, and being 

 informed that he was at church went thither. In the end 

 of the service the Duke and Sir Thomas met, and after 

 salutations, the Duke said, &quot; What ! my Lord Chancellor 

 &quot; become a parish clerk ? What will the King^s Majesty say 

 &quot; to this jeer, when he shall understand that his Lord Chan- 

 &quot; cellor of England, a special person of the realm, and in the 

 &quot; highest room of honour in the land next the Prince, is be- 

 &quot; come a parish clerk ?&quot; To which Sir Thomas replied, &quot;that 

 &quot; he thought and verily believed, that his Highness would be 

 &quot; so far from misdeeming or misliking him herein, that on the 

 &quot; contrary, when he should hear of the care which he had 

 &quot; to serve both his Master and mine,&quot; said he, &quot; he will the 

 &quot; rather take me for a faithful servant.&quot; This passage the 

 Bishop applied to the present occasion, that when the Par 

 liament \vere sitting and consulting about the national af 

 fairs, their first care should be to serve God themselves, and 

 have a regard to his honour. 



As soon as he entered upon his episcopal function, he His main 

 made it his main business to preserve the Church in the 

 state in which it was established by the laws of the land, in 

 respect both of the doctrine and discipline of it ; and there 

 fore thought it his duty to restrain both Papist and Puritan; 

 both which laboured to overthrow the constitution of reli 

 gion, as it was purged and reformed in the beginning of the 

 Protestant reign of Queen Elizabeth. But this he found a 

 very hard task for him to do ; and which created him much 

 trouble and sorrow, and raised him up not a few enemies, as 

 we shall see hereafter. 



Another of his cares was for the supplying the Church His first or- 



!,,.. -11 i, dination. 



with Ministers, that might be persons of learning and ho- 



