A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



Bradgate, is said to have been celebrated as a preacher. 119 No doubt the old 

 Lollard traditions of the county were still alive. 



All images, abused or no, had to be removed from the parish churches 

 in February, 1 548, 120 but no important changes in the external order of divine 

 service were legalized until 1549, when the new prayer book came into use. 

 There is evidence, however, from some churchwardens' accounts which are 

 still extant, that here and there the changes directed or implied in that book 

 were anticipated and exceeded. At St. Martin's, Leicester, not only the old 

 'George' and his companions were removed, but the organ chamber and pipes, 

 the sepulchre light, a quantity of brass, and a good many vestments were sold 

 in I547-8. 121 At Melton Mowbray at the same time the churchwardens sold 

 not merely the pyx and the pax but their censers, organs, cross, and divers 

 vestments. 1143 It is quite probable that this example was followed in other 

 places, and there were two reasons why this should be. First there was a 

 genuine eagerness to carry out desires long cherished, but sternly repressed by 

 authority ; then there was the more earthly consideration that Church goods 

 which had been already sold could not be swept into the exchequer. 123 



The inventories of church goods taken in 1552 have aroused much 

 interest of late years ; but, as so often happens when such statistics are turned 

 to controversial purpose, their meaning and value have been greatly misunder- 

 stood. They do not serve to show what was the lawful use of the Church of 

 England after the issue of the First Prayer Book of Edward VI ; they simply 

 state what ' ornaments ' were still left in the hands of the churchwardens in 

 1552. Some of these ornaments had been some little time out of use, but had 

 not yet found a convenient market, or else were laid by in hope of better days; 

 but in most cases there is really nothing whatever to show whether they were 

 in use or not. For instance, many parishes retained a holy-water stock, 

 though the use of holy water had been forbidden since February 1548 ; m and 

 almost every parish church of which any inventory remains possessed a set or two 

 of the old eucharistic vestments, as well as the copes allowed by the First 

 Prayer Book. Nevertheless, the inventories do give some solid facts which 

 can be used in the making of history, and in this county they certainly tend 

 to show that extreme Reformation principles had in some important respects 

 already spread far and worked rapidly. 126 



Everyone knows that the First Prayer Book of Edward VI sanctioned 

 the ancient custom of placing lighted candlesticks upon the altar at the 

 celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Nevertheless, fifty-four at least of the 



119 Nichols, Lelc. iii, 843. That he was tutor to Lady Jane Grey is well known ; but it is not easy to 

 find out what other influence he had in the county. 



"" Gairdner, Hist, of the Engl. Cb. 249. ln T. North, Chron. of the Ch. of St. Martin, 97, 102. 



" Ibid. 29. 



" It is specially noted by the commissioners for this county that they found no vestments remaining of 

 cloth of gold or silver, and the total value of plate or ornaments seized in 1552 was only 170 6s. $J. 

 Trollope, Ch. Plate of Leic. ii, 447. Another point worth noticing is the disappearance of the cruets. None 

 were left in 1552 in this county of any better metal than pewter. 



111 Gairdner, Hist, of Engl. Ch. 254. 



>5 The inventories of Church Goods for Leicestershire in the Public Record Office deal with forty-four 

 churches or chapels, and thirty-one lists are printed in vol. iv. of Nichols' Leu. from the Tanner MSS. in 

 the Bodleian Library. All these are collected in an appendix to Trollope's Church Plate of Leicestershire : 

 but the inventory of Branston-le-Vale has been omitted, and one which has lost the name of the parish is 

 added to the preceding list. The ' Abbie Gate,' which is numbered with the inventories in Nichols, is 

 evidently another name for St. Leonard's Church. 



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