A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



the fifth is not entered. Such amounts, when it is recollected that the pur- 

 chasing value of money was then at least tenfold of its present power, were 

 by no means to be despised, for the whole items of the general church 

 expenses for that year only amounted to i zs. 4^? The church-ale money 

 seems to have been saved up for particular purposes. Thus at Cratfield in 

 1493, one Thomas Bolbre received 2 13*. 4^. for ' peyntyng of ye image 

 of Our Lady,' and the further sum of Ss. for ' ye peyntyng of ye tabernacull 

 of Seynt Edmond.' In the following year Bolbre received the additional 

 large sum of j for painting the tabernacle of Our Lady, and again, in 1498, 

 for painting the image and the tabernacle of St. Edmund. 8 



There is no scholar of the present day who can in any way equal 

 Dr. Jessopp in his intimate knowledge of the ecclesiastical affairs of East 

 Anglia, or in the fullness of his research into all the documentary evidence 

 that bears upon the history. His opinion, therefore, as to the church life of 

 Suffolk and Norfolk during the century that closed under the prolonged rule 

 of Bishop Goldwell may be quoted with confidence. 



On the whole, the impression left upon me by the examination of all the evidence 

 that has come to hand is that the condition of the diocese of Norwich in the fifteenth 

 century reflects credit upon the bishops of the see and the clergy over whom they ruled. 3 



With the dawn of the troublous sixteenth century began the long rule 

 of Bishop Nykke or Nix, who died at Norwich in 1535-6, on the eve of the 

 monastic overthrow ; he seems, however, to have made but little impression 

 on the times in which he lived. Suffolk must have known something of 

 him personally, for like several of his predecessors, he preferred the episcopal 

 residence at Hoxne to the palace at Norwich. 



This bishop is said by Foxe to have been active in the violent suppression 

 of heresy in the northern part of his diocese, in the earlier days of his rule ; 

 but the circumstantial statements by Foxe as to the burnings of particular 

 individuals in 1507, 1510, and 1511 are not to be credited.* Well sub- 

 stantiated fierce persecution broke out under Nykke's episcopate, but at a 

 much later date. 



There was a singular riot at Bungay in the year 1515, on the Friday 

 after Corpus Christi Day. A complaint was forwarded to Cardinal Wolsey, 

 himself a native of Ipswich, by several of the leading inhabitants of the town, 

 stating that on the day mentioned Richard Warton, Thomas Woodcock, 

 John Woodcock, and other evil-advised persons ' arrayed as rioters ' broke and 

 threw down five pageants, namely, Heaven pageant, the pageant of all the 

 World, Paradise pageant, Bethlehem pageant, and Hell pageant, which were 

 ever wont to be carried about the town on that day in honour of the Blessed 

 Sacrament. The excuse made by the defendants looks as if this riot was a 

 piece of disorderly mischief rather than a religious disturbance. They 

 pleaded that the pageants were very old and ancient, and they promised to 

 assist the proprietors to make new ones in their place. 6 



In the days of Wolsey a small knot of young Cambridge men who had 

 come under the influence of Tyndale formed themselves into a society called 



1 The various gilds that were found in every parish often reduced the general charges for church 

 .expenses to a minimum, for they usually made themselves responsible for particular lights, and not infrequently 

 .handed over their balance for ordinary church repairs. * Holland, Cratfield Parish Papers, 21, 22, 29. 



* Nona. Dioc. Hist. 1 56. 4 Ibid. 157. ' This burning can have been no more than branding.' 



* Star Chamber Proc. Henry VIII, vii, 94. 



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