56 THE LIFE OF 



C H A P. sioners in the month of October, not long after the fore- 

 .. mentioned rencounter with the Bishop, which happened in 



September ; and the Lord Burghley himself, perhaps by 

 the Queen s special order, was present. In November they 

 had these men again before the Bishop and Commission. At 

 this second appearance great proofs were brought against 

 them [i. c. Rich and Wright] concerning their speech about 

 solemnizing the Queen s day, viz. November the 17th ; 

 against Wright, for asking if they would make it an holy 

 day, and so make our Queen an idol : and against Rich, 

 for soothing and maintaining, in very great earnest, the same 

 speeches, and others like to them. For this cause, and for 

 rejecting the book, and many other disorders, the Bishop 

 with the rest of the Commissioners sitting the 7th of No 

 vember, committed them both ; Wright to the Fleet, and 

 Rich to the Marshalsea : and one Dix, another very disor 

 dered man, and a violent innovator, (as the Bishop charac 

 tered him,) was sent to the Gate-house : that he there, and 

 Wright in the Fleet, might exercise their learning against 

 the Papists who lay in those prisons, which hitherto they 

 had broached against their brethren, and against the State. 

 Writes to And having proceeded thus far, the Bishop thought good, 

 concerning ^ or ^ s better safety in case of false informers, to tell his 

 ins doings, tale to the Queen herself in a letter from him and the rest 

 of the Commissioners ; which he did in January following : 

 and that for these reasons, as he signified to the Lord Trea 

 surer, who seemed not so well to have approved of it, since 

 the Bishop had before desired this Lord to acquaint the 

 Queen with it. First, because the Lord Chancellor had 

 said, it were better it should be known farther. Secondly, 

 he understood the Queen knew of it, and had thought that 

 she had heard nothing before of it as from him. Thirdly, 

 because it chiefly touched her. Wherefore he and the rest 

 thought good to make her privy to it. 



Sfasub * n ^ ne? Mr Wr *ght, having lain in the Gate-house till 

 scription. September 1582, became willing to subscribe to two arti 

 cles ; viz. to his good allowance of the ministry of the 

 Church of England, and to the Book of Common Prayer. 



