ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



yet some of those involved in the downfall of the Stuarts were no friends to 

 the pope. The rectors of Billesdon and Coston, and the vicars of Little and 

 Great Dalby, resigned their benefices in 1688 rather than take the oath of 

 allegiance to William and Mary. 268 Another vicar of this county, who took 

 the oath to Queen Anne in 1709 and denied the claims of her brother, 

 afterwards stated that he had done so only through the desire of preferment. 

 This was the ill-fated William Paul who, in 1715, when he heard of the 

 Chevalier's march southward, threw aside his cassock and bands 269 and went 

 to join the invading army at Preston. He was sent into Leicestershire with 

 dispatches before the final surrender and collapse of his friends, but was taken 

 prisoner a little later in London. He was tried at Westminster on 3 1 May, 

 1716, for high treason, and on 13 July he was drawn, hanged, and quartered 

 at Tyburn. 270 On the scaffold he attempted to read a speech (afterwards 

 printed and circulated), in which he asked pardon of God and the king 

 (James) for taking the oaths, and declared that he died a true son, though an 

 unworthy one, of the Church of England ; not the ' schismatical church ' 

 usually understood by that name, but the ' nonjuring Church,' which had 

 kept free from rebellion and schism, and had preserved and maintained ' true 

 and orthodox principles both as to Church and State.' 2n 



The registers of Bishops Wake and Gibson (1709-23) give a good deal 

 of information as to the state of the Church in Leicestershire at the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century. What is usually called the revival of church life 

 under Queen Anne was confined for the most part to London and the great 

 cities, and did not last long enough to make much impression upon the 

 country at large. But in the matter of church services at any rate there was 

 a higher standard at this period in Leicestershire than in some other counties 

 of which record is preserved. If only at St. Martin's, Leicester, at Lough- 

 borough, and at Lutterworth, was there a daily recitation of mattins and 

 evensong, yet almost throughout the county prayers were read on Wednes- 

 days, Fridays, and holy days, as well as twice on Sundays. Nearly every- 

 where an attempt was made to keep up a regular system of catechizing, at 

 least through some part of the year ; though complaints were often made 

 that the people would not come to be instructed. At three of the Leicester 

 churches, St. Martin's, 872 St. Mary's, and St. Margaret's, the holy eucharist 

 was celebrated monthly as well as on the three great festivals. There was a 

 monthly celebration also at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, at Cadeby, Cotesbach, 

 Frolesworth, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Norton juxta Twycross, 

 Coleorton, Rearsby, and Sileby. At a few other places, such as Market 



168 Overton, Nonjurors, 471 seq. 



>ra Nichols said there was an old lady living in his day who still remembered hearing Paul pray for King 

 James in the church of Orton-on-the-Hill just before he left ; Lelc. iv, 850. 



"" Patten, Hist, of the Rebellion (ed. 2), 96-9. 



171 Nichols, Lelc. iv, 234. ; where the speech is printed in full from a contemporary record. 



"' St. Martin's has a record to show in this respect which only a few parish churches in England can 

 rival. The Churchwardens' Accounts make it clear that at any rate from the end of the sixteenth century 

 (and if then, probably from the beginning of Elizabeth's reign) there was always a monthly celebration here ; 

 continued, as we know from Nichols and the visitations of Archdeacon Bonney, without any notable interval 

 until the time when all services became more frequent. Even under the interregnum an attempt was made 

 to keep up the old custom ; it is hard to say with what success. The earlier entries on this subject, and the 

 great quantities of wine paid for (sometimes eight quarts at a time), show a low sacramental doctrine during 

 the early part of the seventeenth century, when we know Puritan influences were strong. Nevertheless the 

 record is an honourable one. 



391 



