A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



After the accession of Mary, Hooper remained in his diocese, ' to live 

 and die with his sheep.' 1 On 20 March, 1554, he was deprived of the see 

 of Gloucester on the ground of his marriage, evil deserts, and a bad title. 2 

 After almost a year's imprisonment he was condemned as an obstinate heretic, 

 and sent to Gloucester to be burnt on 9 February, 1555, 'for the example 

 and terror of others such as he hath there seduced and mistaught.' 8 Bishop 

 Bush was deprived of the see of Bristol on 13 March, 1554, on account of 

 his marriage,* but as his wife died, he become rector of Winterbourne. 5 



Between 16 May, 1554, and 19 April, 1555, fifty-four of the clergy in 

 the diocese of Gloucester were deprived of their livings, all of them probably 

 because they had married. 6 Some of them forsook their wives and were 

 reconciled to the Church. 7 Not one of them suffered death in the Marian 

 persecutions. When Williams, the chancellor, was reminded by Thomas 

 Drowry, a blind boy of Gloucester on trial for heresy, of his own sermon 

 in the cathedral against Transubstantiation, he replied ' Do as I have done, 

 and you shall live as I do and escape burning.' 8 Jennings, the dean, changed 

 his opinions with the circumstances, and held his preferment until his death 

 in 1565.' Neither Brooks, bishop of Gloucester, nor Holyman, bishop of 

 Bristol, showed any great zeal in administering the statutes against heretics. 

 The victims were few. A bricklayer of Gloucester was burnt with the 

 blind boy in 1555 ; 10 John Piggott suffered at Little Sodbury in 1556 ;" 

 Thomas Benion was burnt at Bristol in 1556 ; a weaver and a shoemaker 

 in I557- 12 Edward Home suffered at Newent in i558. ls 



During a visitation of the diocese of Gloucester in 1556, Bishop Brooks 

 issued a number of injunctions to the clergy and laity, which curiously resemble 

 and yet contrast with those of Hooper. 14 He bade all the clergy who had the 

 gift and talent of preaching occupy themselves frequently in the same, not 

 forgetting to declare the right use of the ceremonies of the Church ; such as 

 could not preach should earnestly study the scriptures that they might account 

 to the ordinary each year how they profited therein. On St. Andrew's Day, 

 in annual remembrance of the reconciliation to the Catholic Church, all the 

 parishioners should be present at a solemn procession and hear a sermon or 

 homily setting forth the great benefit of the same. The names of such 

 persons as did not make their confession in Lent should be certified to the 

 ordinary. All parishioners should resort to their churches, especially at mass, 

 and at the time of the elevation kneel reverently where they could see and 

 worship the sacrament, ' not lurking behind pillars or holding down their 

 heads.' The beneficed clergy should repair their chancels and manses with 

 all convenient speed, and the churchwardens should see their churches and 

 churchyards repaired before the following midsummer, and buy at the parish 

 charge a decent tabernacle set in the midst of the high altar with a taper or 

 lamp burning before it, a rood five feet long at least, with the Virgin, 

 St. John, and the patron saint, not painted on cloth or boards, but cut out 



1 Hooper, Later Writings (Parker Soc.), xxii. * V. C. H. Worcester, \\, 46, n I, ' Eccl. Hist.' 



s Hooper, Later Writings (Parker Soc.), xxv. * Frere, The Marian Reaction, 20. 



* Diet. Nat. Biog. viii, 33. 



6 Frere, op. cit. 49, 57. The returns for the diocese of Bristol are missing. 



7 Wilkins, Concilia, iv, 146. * Narratives of the Reformation (Camd. Soc.), 19-20. 



9 Ibid. 21, . a. lo Stratford, Great and Good Men of Gloucestershire, 91. 



11 Ibid. 93. " Nicholls and Taylor, Bristol Past and Present, ii, 20. 



" Narratives of the Reformation (Camd. Soc.), 69. " Wilkins, Concilia, iv, 145-8. 



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