ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



corresponding to similar action in the archidiaconal courts for other parishes. 

 The presentments include various ones relative to incontinence, among which 

 occur cases of pre-nuptial fornication ; for absence from church on Sundays 

 and holy days, and neglecting to receive the Communion, and for irreverence 

 in church, omitting to stand or kneel in accordance with the rubric, and not 

 bowing the head at the name of Jesus. In a few cases the offenders were 

 excommunicated, and in cases of incontinence penance in a white sheet in 

 the parish church was the usual result. 1 



One of the best and most able of the Puritan divines of East Anglia 

 was Samuel Ward, a native of Haverhill. He was for many years ' town 

 preacher ' at Ipswich by the appointment of the corporation, who paid him 

 a salary of 180 a year. He was licensed by Bishop Jegon (1603-18) as a 

 preacher throughout his diocese ; but in Bishop Wren's time he was 

 convicted of various acts of nonconformity, suspended, enjoined a public 

 recantation, and on his refusal lodged in prison. When in gaol, he wrote 

 a preface to a volume of his sermons, wherein he bravely and with some 

 humour described his imprisonment as ' a little leisure occasioned against my 

 will.' He died in 1640, just at the beginning of the grievous ferment in 

 church and state. 2 



The Long Parliament, which began to sit in November, 1640, at once 

 addressed itself to matters ecclesiastical ; Episcopacy was speedily abolished, 

 and ere long even the private use of the Prayer Book was made penal and 

 the directory of Public Worship imposed in its place. Meanwhile the 

 universally respected divine, Joseph Hall, was translated from Exeter to 

 Norwich as bishop ; he was received with a certain amount of respect when 

 he entered Norwich, in the spring of 1642, but in the following year he was 

 ejected and the episcopal estates were sequestered. 



' The removing of scandalous ministers in the seven associated counties ' 

 of the east of England was intrusted to the Earl of Manchester, who on 

 12 March, 16423 appointed a committee of ten to deal with the matter in 

 Suffolk. 3 



The ejections in Suffolk were carried out with exceptional harshness. 

 A fifth part of the sequestered incomes or estates of the clergy who adhered 

 to episcopal rule for their private estates, if they possessed any, were also 

 seized might, at the option of the Earl of Manchester, be assigned to their 

 wives and children ; but this seems to have been seldom carried out. Several 

 of these Suffolk clergy, suddenly reduced to beggary, turned schoolmasters. 

 Such were Lionel Gatford, ejected from Dennington, Nathaniel Goodwin 

 from Cransford, and Thomas Tyllot from Depden ; but this form of earning 

 an income was soon stopped, for a further ordinance was issued forbidding 



l Proc. Stiff. Inst. of Arch, iii, 71-2. 'Raven, Hist, of Stiff. 204-5. 



"This ordinance of the Lords and Commons was ordered to be printed on 22 Jan. 1642-3. Dr. Tanner 

 drew up a list of Suffolk ministers who were ejected in 1643-4, appending the dates and brief particulars to 

 each. The total is sixty-five ; it included the incumbents of Acton, Ashbocking, Bardfield, Barnham, Bealings, 

 Bawdsey, Bedingfield, Benhall, Blyford, Blakenham, Bredficld, Brettenham, Charsfield, Chattisham, Chels- 

 worth, Cornard, Cheveley, Copdock, Gorton, Depden, Debenham, Eyke, Finborough Magna, Felixstowe, 

 Flowton, Finningham, Friston, Grundisburgh, Hadleigh, Hargrave, Hasketon, Hepworth, Hemingstone, 

 Hollesley, Hoxne, Kettlebaston, Kettleburgh, Lawshall, Melton, Moulton, Mildenhall, Monks Eleigh, Preston, 

 Ringshall, Sancroft, Shimpling, Soham, Sotherton, Snape, Stradbroke, Stradishall, Trimley St. Mary, Tunstall, 

 Uggeshall, Walton, Waldingfield, Wenhaston, Westhorp, Weston, Wicken, Winston, Wixoe, Woolpit, and 

 Worlingworth. Many others were added to this list at later dates. Suff. Arch. Inst. Proc. ix, 307-9. 



2 41 6 



