ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



times even lodged in churches. The church at Loughborough in 1643 was 

 turned into temporary barracks, and the parishioners were expected to find 

 nurses, shrouds, and graves for those who were wounded or killed in the 

 neighbourhood.* 18 Prisoners were brought for safe keeping once into 

 Hinckley church, and again into the chapel of Market Harborough after 

 Naseby fight. 21 * In the matter of irreverence, there seems little to choose 

 between the king's forces and those of the Parliament. If complaints were 

 made of the rough usage of church, parsonage, and parson by the Parlia- 

 mentary army at Coleorton, 216 the rector of Houghton on the Hill and the 

 vicar of Theddingworth had a like accusation to bring against the king's 

 men ; 216 and it was alleged that Sir Henry Hastings's troopers once rode right 

 into the church at Loughborough and threatened the preacher in the pulpit. 217 

 In the town of Leicester, when it was stormed, there was a fierce fight in 

 St. Martin's churchyard, and the soldiers of the king broke the locks off the 

 church doors and robbed the poor men's box. 218 These facts cause no surprise 

 to those who are acquainted with the manners of the times, and know some- 

 thing of the history of continental warfare during the seventeenth century. 

 The rough soldiers of those days, whatever their religion might be, were not 

 likely to show much respect for holy places ; and very few commanders of 

 that age were able, even if they wished it, to keep a firm hand upon their 

 troops in the stress of storm and siege. Yet the Civil War in England, with 

 all its horrors, has no records so hideous as those which disfigure the German 

 and Italian wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 



A certain amount of damage and desecration was no doubt wrought by 

 the Parliament men quite deliberately, in the desire to destroy everything 

 that savoured of superstition. And the new zeal for reform swept away 

 some few ornaments in the churches which had survived the iconoclasm of 

 Elizabeth's reign. The eagle lectern at Loughborough was sold in 1646 for 

 old brass, at 6d. per lb. 219 The steps before the altar in St. Martin's, Lei- 

 cester, were taken away, and the font removed ; 22 the font was sold at 

 St. Mary's, 221 and probably in other places also. 222 



A laudable but ineffectual effort was made by the Committee for 

 Plundered Ministers to deal with the difficulties of the Leicestershire vicars. 

 It was indeed a great scandal that so many vicarages and curacies should be 

 so scantily endowed, while the greater tithes went to support the lay rector 

 in luxury and ease. In 1650, when a return was made of the revenues of 



ni Dimock-Fletcher, Chapters in the Hist, of Loughborough, 26-7, gives certain items in the Churchwardens' 

 Accts. which show these facts. Payments were made for ' dressing the church after the soldiers, and for 

 frankincense to sweeten it,' in 1644, and there is a similar entry under 1645. Graves, sheets, and women to 

 watch the wounded are also entered. 



114 Nichols, Leic. iii, App. p. 33 ; Hill, Hist. ofMarket Harborough, 20. 



JU Nichols, Leic. iii, App. p. 927 ; and in a petition quoted in Grosart's preface to the works of Sir John 

 Beaumont (Fuller Worthies' Library). 



116 S.P. Dom. Interr. F. I (20 May, 1646) ; Nichols, Leu. ii, 827. 



117 Nichols, Leic. iii, App. p. 38 ; they did much the same at Rothley. 



118 Ibid, i, 578. Churchwardens' Accts. 



119 Dimock-Fletcher, Chapters in the Hist, of Loughborough, 30. This item stands in the Churchwardens' 

 Accts. for 1 646, showing that the sale was carried out just after the ejection of Dr. Hall. 



" Nichols, Leic. i, 578, from the Churchwardens' Accts. The font was replaced by a ba;in more con- 

 venient for the Presbyterian manner of baptism. 



121 Also shown in the Churchwardens' Accts. for 1659. Trans. Leic. Arch. Soc. vi, 242. 



"* It is alleged of Captain Yaxley, the last incumbent of Kibworth Beauchamp before the Restoration, 

 that he turned out the font into the street, to be used as a horse-trough. Nichols, Leic. ii, 652. 



383 



