ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



ultimate fate is uncertain. 1 In 1589 Thomas Belson of Brill, with 

 his servant, was executed at Oxford for the same offence. 8 In 1594 

 there is another official list of sixteen persons (mostly women) from 

 whom large fines were due for recusancy. 3 



There are also some instances in the history of this county of 

 the suspicion with which such persons were regarded by some of their 

 neighbours, and of the eagerness with which information against them 

 was accepted and followed up. 



In 1584 a search was instituted by Paul Wentworth in the house 

 of Isabel Hampden of Stoke Poges, the gates being guarded all the time 

 that no one might come in or go out ; even a messenger who came 

 from London during the day was arrested and searched. There still 

 remains among the State Papers a pathetic list of innocent books, 

 pictures and objets de piete carried off on this occasion, 4 the only serious 

 item being ' a copy of the pope's letter ' presumably one of those on 

 the question of allegiance. 



Again in 1586 the house of Sir Christopher Browne at Boarstall 

 was suddenly entered by John Croke, justice of the peace, and others 

 (early in the morning, so that the inhabitants might have no chance 

 of a warning), and searched from attic to cellar, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., 

 the gates being guarded all the time. 5 This was on the information of 

 one ' Hugh Davies, minister, of Boarstall,' who had been recently at 

 Oxford with George Browne, and had sometimes served as domestic 

 chaplain to another member of the same family. The information 

 laid by Davies led to the expectation of some treasonable correspond- 

 ence, 8 but nothing of this kind was found ; a fact which raised in the 

 mind of Master Croke a strong suspicion not that it had never 

 existed, but that it had all been destroyed ! One Agnus Dei, and a 



i S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxcix. 4. 



Dr. F. G. Lee, The Church under Queen Elizabeth, 355. 



3 P.R.O. Recusant Roll No. I (Bucks). The names of Gifford, Throgmorton, Belson, Butler, still 

 appear. The sums due vary from 240 to 300. 



* S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxvii. 47 (26 Jan. 1584), e.g. a tablet of gold with a picture on it ; a pair of beads ; 

 a picture of Christ ; an instruction to sing mass ; a book called Officium beatae Mariae, etc. These 

 articles were of course contraband under the Act of 1571, which made them incur praemunire who pos- 

 sessed such things (Strype, Annals, ii. 69). A Confutation of Master Jewel's Book was doubtless danger- 

 ous : and even A Testament of the new translation at Rheims (the work of Gregory Martin, issued 1582, 

 and the basis of the Douay version) might contain a perversion of the true gospel and so do a benighted 

 papist more harm than good. 



6 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxcii. 52-54. They searched ' coffers, cupboards, closets, trunks, caskets and secret 

 places,' breaking open all locked doors ' for lack of keys.' 



8 Davies reported words of George Browne to the effect that if he were ever in such an affair as 

 Babington's, he would manage it with better success. Further statements of Davies do not however 

 add much to our respect for his evidence. He said that for two or three years past George Browne, his 

 friend Robert Atkins, and a servant of theirs had been urging him to forsake the ministry of the Anglican 

 Church and to go and be ordained at Rheims that he might come back to England and do much good, 

 by reconciling people to the true faith. He had not consented to this, but yet had not liked altogether 

 to refuse, because Browne had livings at his command, one of which he had hoped to obtain. This is the 

 account which Davies gives of his own motives : and it seems not unnatural to wonder whether chagrin 

 at the failure of his hopes from Browne had not led him to lay this information against one whose well- 

 known views would make him specially liable to suspicion. It is also evident that Davies was familiar 

 with the ordinary Roman arguments of that time how the queen had the tenths, and therefore his was 

 but a ' political and temporary,' or rather ' Machiavelous religion.' 



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