ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



in the province of Canterbury. Some attempt was made to check the spread 

 of Lutheran opinions by licensing preachers who were proved free of heresy. 

 In 1527 Bishop Booth allowed John Reynolds, a Dominican friar of Glouces- 

 ter, to preach and explain the Word of God through the deanery of the 

 Forest. 1 In 1533 the vicar- general of Worcester licensed five friars to preach 

 in Latin or in English in parish churches or other suitable places throughout 

 the diocese.* In 1535 the curate of Winchcombe complained to Cromwell 

 that the abbot of Hayles had hired ' a great Golyas, a subtle Dun's man, yea a 

 great clerk, as he sayeth, a bachelor of divinity of Oxford, to catch me in my 

 sermons.' 8 This preacher had studied the works of Sir Thomas More, 

 and was a staunch upholder of the teaching and traditions of the church.* 



In 1535 Latimer was appointed to the vacant see of Worcester, and 

 during the four years of his episcopate he was a 'diligent and vigilant pastor,' 

 exhibiting such ' study, readiness, and continual carefulness in teaching, 

 preaching, exhorting, visiting, correcting, and reforming, either as his ability 

 could serve, or else the time would bear.' ' In the autumn of 1537 he made 

 a thorough personal visitation of the diocese, and found much ignorance and 

 negligence among the clergy, to whom he gave a number of injunctions.' He 

 insisted that every one of them should provide for their own use before 

 Christmas a whole Bible, or at least a New Testament, both in Latin and 

 English, and read and study not less than one chapter every day. They must 

 also possess The Institution of a Christian Man, which had been drawn up 

 by the bishops, and published by the king's authority in May. He for- 

 bade them to set aside preaching ' for any manner of observance in the church, 

 as procession and other ceremonies.' He desired the chantry priests espe- 

 cially to teach such of the children of the parish as would come to them, at 

 the least to read English, and forbade the clergy to discourage any lay person 

 from the reading of any good books either in Latin or in English. So great 

 was the ignorance of some of the laity for lack of instruction, that the bishop 

 declared that no young man or woman should be admitted to receive the 

 sacrament of the altar until he or she should openly say the Pater Noster in 

 English in the church after mass or evensong. 



The inclination of the people of Bristol to Lutheran opinions probably 

 led the Scotch reformer, George Wishart, to take refuge there. In 1539 the 

 rural dean of Bristol reported that he was persuading many of the commons 

 of the town to heresy, and after a trial before Archbishop Cranmer and 

 several of the bishops he was condemned to bear a faggot in the church of 

 St. Nicholas, and in Christchurch, and about those parishes. 7 



The dissolution of the monasteries began during Latimer's episcopate, 

 and he suggested to Cromwell that two or three houses in every county should 

 be spared to 'maintain teaching, preaching, studying with prayer, and good 

 housekeeping.' * In Gloucestershire only three houses came under the Act of 

 1536 for the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, St. Oswald's at Gloucester, 

 Flaxley, and St. Mary Magdalen's at Bristol.' Kingswood and all the houses 

 of friars in Bristol and Gloucester were surrendered in 1538. Lanthony was 



1 Heref. Epis. Reg. Booth, fol. 140^. ' Wore. Epi. Reg. de Ghinucci, fol. 60. 



' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, ix, No. 747. 4 Latimer's Remains (Parker Soc.), ii, 374. 

 * Foxe, Acts and Monuments (ed. 1847), vii, 461. 



4 Abingdon, Antiq. of Ware. Cath. 157, 162. ' Ricarfs Calendar (Camd. Soc.), 55. 



' Latimer's Remains (Parker Soc.), ii, 41 1. ' f.C. H. Gkuc. Refig. Houses. 



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