A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



No sooner was Elizabeth established on the throne than Cecil and her 

 other advisers successfully urged the carrying out of a general visitation of 

 the diocese to secure the signatures of the clergy to the Acts of Supremacy 

 and Uniformity. The visitors were mainly drawn from more or less promi- 

 nent statesmen, but were associated with certain leading divines. The dioceses 

 of Norwich, Ely, and London were combined for the purposes of this visi- 

 tation. The letters patent appointing the visitors were issued about 24 June, 

 1554. The first named of the visitors was Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper 

 of the Great Seal, and the second was the Duke of Norfolk, who was lord 

 lieutenant of both Suffolk and Norfolk ; these were followed by a variety of 

 lords, knights, and esquires, seventeen in number, with John Salome as 

 'lawyer,' and Dr. Robert Home (afterwards bishop of Winchester) and 

 Dr. Thomas Huyck as preaching divines. The visitation of Norwich diocese, 

 in which there were then between six and seven hundred clergy, occupied 

 most of September ; the signatures obtained were rather over five hundred, 

 showing a more ready acceptance of the settlement in this diocese than in 

 several of the others. Sessions of the visitors were held, so far as Suffolk was 

 concerned, at Beccles, Blythburgh, Bury, and Ipswich, as well as at Thetford 

 on the confines of the county. 1 



It is not a little singular that among the comparatively few Suffolk 

 incumbents who were deprived of their benefices between 1558 and 1564 

 only seven all told were three who originally signed their acceptance of the 

 changed state of matters ecclesiastical, but who could not apparently be 

 trusted. These were Oliver Haver, rector of Burgh ; R. Appletoft, vicar of 

 Offton and Little Bricett ; and James Stanley, vicar of Washbrook. 



Between 1564 and 1570 eleven more Suffolk incumbents were deprived. 8 

 It cannot be said with certainty that all those removed from their benefices 

 between 1558 and 1570 were ejected for nonconformity, but this was 

 probably the case. At all events, the number of the Suffolk incumbents who 

 were punished for non-compliance with the Elizabethan changes did not 

 amount to a score out of some five hundred benefices. 3 



Among head masters deprived at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign on 

 account of their adherence to the unreformed faith was John Fenn, master of 

 Bury St. Edmunds school. 4 



In no diocese at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign was the change in 

 chief spiritual ruler so strongly marked. Hopton was a bitter and aggressive 

 Catholic, whilst his successor Parkhurst upheld almost equally strong Puritan 

 views. The prolonged interregnum between the death of Hopton in Novem- 

 ber, 1558, and the consecration of Parkhurst in September, 1560, had 



1 The actual signatures of the Norwich visitation are preserved at Lambeth. The majority do not append 

 the name of their benefice, so that it is not possible to give the exact numbers of those clergy of Suffolk who 

 were prompt to accept the new settlement. The place-names of Suffolk following signatures are in excess of 

 those for Norfolk, and include the parishes of Acton, Aldeburgh, Aldringham, Beccles, Bramfield, Debenham, 

 Fakenham, Felixstowe, Flempton, Fressingfield, Freston, Glenham, Gorleston, Henley, Henstead, Hoxne, 

 Huntingfield, Knoddishall, Lavenham, Linstead, Lowestoft, Marlesford, Mendham, Mickford, Needham 

 Market, Offton, Peasenhall, Pettistree, Rattlesden, Reyden, Rushmere, Southwold, Stonham Aspall, Swefling, 

 Sternfield, Thurston, Uggeshall, Wangford, Washbrook, Westleton, Wickham Market, Whiston, Woodbridge, 

 and Worlingham. In several of these cases the clergy are described as curates, and in one instance (Southwold) 

 as schoolmaster. Cart. Miscell. xiii, pr. 2. 



* For list of the deprived in Norwich diocese, see Gee, Elizabethan Clergy, 281-2, 290-1. 



' In a large number of cases two or more benefices were held by the same incumbent. 



4 Gee, Elizabethan Ciergy, 234. 



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