A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



Bishop Jewel's works * (especially the controversy with Harding) ; also 

 a book for entering the names of strange preachers. A pair of organs 

 was desired but not required. Some churches might indeed rise above 

 this standard 3 ; but none was to fall below. 



It will be remembered that in 1519 there was much decay, neglect 

 and irreverence in Buckinghamshire, about forty years before the acces- 

 sion of Elizabeth ; but this was nothing to the neglect and irreverence 

 that prevailed about forty years after her death. Perhaps we may see 

 in this the last halting-place of the extreme party of reform within the 

 Church. 



Not many cases from this county were referred to the Court of 

 High Commission ; only a few which were quite deserving of punish- 

 ment, such as flagrant irreverence and evil living. 3 There was a 

 consistory court established however at Leighton Buzzard, which gave 

 great offence in the neighbourhood/ though Sir Nathanael Brent said 

 there was more complaining than proving 5 ; none of its acts have been 

 recorded. The ordinary archdeaconry courts were held at Aylesbury, 

 Buckingham, Stony Stratford, Little Brickhill, etc. 



In 1642 the Civil War began, and Buckinghamshire was found 

 for the most part on the side of the Parliament.' The county town 



1 The Churchwardens' Book at Wing notes the purchase of ' Juels booke ' in 1569 (f. 72) and again 

 in 1600 (f. 104). In the visitation of 1612 to which allusion has been made, it is often noted that ' Jewel 

 and Harding ' is missing. Jewel's works are ordered, wherever they are missing, in this visitation of 

 1637. They were probably read sometimes in the place of a sermon or homily. 



A few other ornaments were undoubtedly possessed by some churches at this time ; e.g. at Maids 

 Moreton there was a ' costly desk in the form of a spread eagle gilt,' whereon the rector used to lay Bishop 

 Jewel's works ; but there is no trace anywhere in this county of any possessing such things as altar crosses 

 or candlesticks. An inventory (taken 6 December, 1638) of Winslow Church, at this time in the hands 

 of a vicar of the Laudian school, is still in existence among the records of the Archdeaconry of St. Albans ; 

 it is perfectly simple and contains only what is mentioned above ' a communion table decently railed- 

 in ; a fair communion cloth with silk fringe ; another old cloth of satin ; another linen cloth and a nap- 

 kin ; a communion cup of silver with a cover ; a pewter flagon ; one press with three locks ; a large 

 Bible, common prayer, and Bishop Jewel's works ; a book of Homilies and the Canons ; a cloth and cushion 

 for the pulpit ; a ring of five tuneable bells, a sanctus bell and a clock ; a bier and hearse cloth of satin ; 

 a surplice ; a fair register book. 



One was a marriage case (Richard Wright of Stone) ; another a pew dispute (Amy Haynes of 

 Turweston), involving disturbances in church : a third, the case of Zachary Allnutt of Ibstone, who 

 had been guilty of much profanity and of unclean living ; inter alia, he had an old half-witted man shaved 

 on one side of his head, and brought into the church to make the boys laugh. He was fined 500, and 

 had to make public submission in the court and in the church (see Cal. of State Papers Chas. I. 1634, 

 from the book of Acts of the High Commission Court, vol. ccxci. ff. 126, 69, 315). John Ames of Olney, 

 in February 1640-1, complained to Parliament of fines and imprisonment which he had suffered in con- 

 nection with this court (Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 49). 



The parishioners of Haddenham brought in a complaint at the visitation of 1635 (S. P. Dom. 

 Chas. I. ccxcvi. 17). 



5 At the metropolitical visitation. 



The few remaining recusants of the county took the king's side, so far as can be discovered : e.g. 

 Sir Robert Throckmorton of Weston Underwood and Lady Digby of Gayhurst had their estates seques- 

 tered by Parliament (Lipscomb, History of Bucks, iv. 283). The head of the Dormer family, Lord Car- 

 narvon, died on Newbury field. He had been brought up an Anglican, being committed as a child to 

 the wardship of the Earl of Montgomery (Cal. of State Papers Jos. I. Ixxxix. 67) but probably returned 

 at the hour of death to the faith of his childhood (see Diet. Nat. Siog.). His mother and her younger 

 sons remained Romanists ; Robert Dormer of Great Missenden and his wife being returned as recusants 

 in 1635 (S. P. Dom. Chas. I. ccxcvi. 17) ; as well as many persons of no note at Wing. Dr. Smith, Bishop 

 of Chalcedon, who had jurisdiction over the English Romanists about this time, stayed frequently with 

 Lady Dormer ' at Wing or Ivinge or at Chanders a house in a wood near Aylesbury ' and her son Anthony 

 entertained him at Great Missenden (ibid. xcix. 19). 



326 



