A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



of Barnard's service had a free grammar school which was attended by 

 from sixty to eighty scholars. 1 The sum total of the yearly revenues of 

 the chantries in Gloucestershire amounted to 1,300 6s. ^\d? 



By the Chantries Act of 1548 almost all these endowments were con- 

 fiscated. 3 Cirencester was thus deprived of the provision for the service of 

 half a dozen priests, an organ player, choirmaster, and choir boys.* In 

 1552 the parishes suffered a further wrong when the plate was seized by 

 the crown. In some places the parishioners, probably anticipating the spolia- 

 tion, had already sold some of their plate ; the churchwardens of All Saints', 

 Gloucester, disposed of pyxes, candlesticks, copes, and one bell, thus realizing 

 3 i 15^. yd., with the proceeds of which they executed certain repairs, pur- 

 chased a Bible, two psalters, and the Paraphrases of Erasmus, and seated the 

 church at a cost of 22. 5 The accounts of the churchwardens of St. Ewen's, 

 Bristol, show that the plate was of great value ; 6 they had sold but a little 

 when the commissioners seized the whole of the remainder, returning them 

 but one chalice. 7 At St. Nicholas in 15 19 the plate weighed 694 oz. of 

 silver, there were seven chalices, and the commissioners returned one 

 weighing 1 5 oz. 8 



In 1551 John Hooper was consecrated bishop of Gloucester. He had 

 spent the last few years of the reign of Henry VIII abroad, first at Strasburg 

 and then at Zurich, and had many friends there among the reformers. 9 He 

 accepted the views of Zwingli, disbelieving in the Real Presence. 10 For some 

 months before his consecration on 8 March he was engaged in a controversy 

 with Archbishop Cranmer about the use of vestments, but he at length 

 consented to wear them at the consecration, in the king's presence, and in his 

 cathedral church. 11 Immediately afterwards he went to his diocese and sent a 

 letter to his clergy, announcing his impending visitation. 13 He threw himself 

 into his work with such energy that on 3 April his wife wrote to Bullinger 

 entreating him to counsel prudence, because the bishop was preaching four, 

 or at least three, times every day. 18 He drew up fifty-two articles of religion u 

 to which he required the clergy to subscribe. 15 Insisting on his own views of 

 the sacrament of the Eucharist, he ordered that the altars should be taken 

 down, and instead an ' honest table, decently covered,' should be erected ' in 

 such place as shall be thought most meet.' He forbade the use of lights ' on 

 the Lord's board,' the elevation of the host, and the ringing of the sacring 

 bell. While desiring the clergy to move their people ' to the often and 

 worthy receiving,' in no wise permitting one neighbour to receive for 

 another, as was common in the diocese, he taught that as many as were 

 present at the time of administration ought to communicate. He also for- 

 bade prayers for the dead, the worship of the saints, and all such ceremonies 

 as the distribution of palms, creeping to the cross, and the Easter sepulchre. 

 He told the clergy that it was not sufficient to speak in the mother tongue, but 



I Brijt. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, viii, 280. ' Ibid. 307. * Stat. cf Realm, I Edw. VI, cap. 14. 

 4 Fuller, Cirencester Parish Church, 10-14. ' Brlst - and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, xii, 80. 



' Ibid, xv, 139-82, 254-96. 7 Ibid, xii, 91. 8 Ibid. 89. 



9 Hooper, Later Writings (Parker Soc.), ix ; Zurich Letters (Parker Soc.), passim. 

 Wakeman, Hist, of the Church of Engl. 291. 



II Strype, Memorials of Cranmer (ed. 1840), i, 302. " Ibid, ii, 869. 



13 Zurich Letters (Parker Soc.), i, 108. " Hooper, op. cit. 120-9. 



14 Strype, op. cit. ii, 871. 



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