BISHOP AYLMER. 23 



&quot; fantastical opinions, nor scattering devilish and old here- CHAP. 

 &quot; sies, nor inventing strange and fond novelties, thrusting _ 

 &quot; upon the silly souls innovations and fables, which apper- 

 &quot; tained not to edification, brought in at that time by the 

 &quot; schismatics of the times, and then troubling the common- 

 &quot; wealth. 1 These admonitions did the grave Bishop think 

 fit should be given these young Clergymen; that they 

 might not add to the number of those that now were in 

 the Church, but troubled the peace of it. At this ordina 

 tion were sixteen made Deacons, and ten Priests, after due 

 examination of them by William Lane and William Cotton, 

 his Chaplains. These Achans, of what persuasion soever 

 they were, he thought himself bound to discover and set 

 himself against. 



In this year 1577 he discovered a Popish Priest named Discovers a 

 Meredith, and had him in hold : who came over from 

 yond sea in the year 1576, and conversed much in Lanca 

 shire and Nottinghamshire, and resided chiefly in one Al- 

 len^s house, brother to Dr. Allen, then in the college of 

 Doway, (afterwards the Cardinal of that name, and a pen 

 sioner of the King of Spain.) The Bishop discovered con 

 cerning this Priest, that he carried about him a book of 

 common resolutions to certain questions, which Papists here 

 in England might propound to him in cases of conscience ; 

 it is probable about dispensing with their obedience and al 

 legiance to the Queen, coming to church, and the like to 

 these. In this book, which it seems the Bishop had seized, 

 he extolled certain traitors that had suffered, and especially 

 Felton, who set up the Pope^s excommunication of Queen 

 Elizabeth upon the door of St. Paul s in London, exciting 

 her subjects to rebel against her. Him he called, The glo 

 rious Felton ; and England he styled Babylon. Wherein 

 the Bishop supposed he obliquely aimed at the greatest 

 very pestilently, as he said, meaning the Queen, as though 

 she were the whore of Babylon. Of this man therefore the 

 Bishop informed the Lord Treasurer, holding him a pass 

 ing crafty fellow , as he styled him. He refused to answer 

 before him upon his oath : and would confess nothing con- 



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