A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



in his parish with extreme violence. 1 Many people flocked to hear the 

 preaching of John Camm, John Audland, Edward Burrough, and Francis 

 Howgill. 8 A strange belief gained ground in Bristol that the ' Society of 

 Friends' were really Franciscan Friars, and in 1654 the magistrates issued a 

 warrant for their arrest as emissaries from Rome. 3 



In 1644 Richard Baxter noted that he had seen the first contentions 

 between ministers and Anabaptists at Gloucester ; Hart and Vaughan drew 

 many to separation on another side, and during the war, Bacon, a preacher in 

 the army, drew some to Antinomianism. 4 A great disputation took place 

 between Corbet, the minister of St. Mary de Crypt, and Bacon, who was sub- 

 sequently ordered to depart from the city. In 1645 the Common Council 

 petitioned the Parliament to unite some of the churches and settle a mainten- 

 ance for them out of the revenues of the see, and to settle 200 a year on 

 an orthodox divine to preach twice a week in the cathedral. The consent 

 of Parliament was not obtained until 1648, but the Council at once appointed 

 Jackson, and in 1654 he was succeeded by James Forbes. Between 1654 and 

 1660, at the request of some of his hearers, who desired ' to have a church 

 erected for Christ,' Forbes formed a church on the congregational plan ; 

 ' there was only the parochial worship, save that a few Arminians and Soci- 

 nians kept themselves distinct.' The Socinians were perhaps the converts of 

 John Biddle, who became master of the Crypt Grammar School in 1641, and 

 has been called the father of English Unitarianism. 6 The spread of Socinian- 

 ism and other doctrines alarmed the Presbyterian party in Parliament, and in 

 1648 they proposed an ordinance making death the penalty for such opinions. 

 Some of the London ministers supported it and sixty-five ministers in 

 Gloucestershire testified that they were in agreement with them.' 



The clergy, though harassed and persecuted, looked forward to the resto- 

 ration of the Church of England to its rightful position. 7 In spite of the 

 severe legislation of the Parliament there is evidence that the liturgy was not 

 altogether disused. Bishop Juxon was living on his estate at Little Compton, 

 and every Sunday at Chastellon House he celebrated divine service according to 

 the rites of the Church of England, which was attended by many of the inhabi- 

 tants of Little Compton and Chastellon. 8 Among those who were ordained 

 by Robert Skinner, the ejected bishop of Oxford, was George Bull, 9 who 

 shortly afterwards settled in the small living of St. George, near Bristol. 

 His parish was full of Quakers and other sectaries, but he gained a wonderful 

 influence over them by his life and preaching. He used prayers from the 

 liturgy which he knew by heart, and pursued the same course at Suddington 

 St. Mary, to which he was presented in 1658, the living of Suddington 

 St. Peter being united to it in 1662. 



At the Restoration the sees of Gloucester and Bristol were vacant. 

 William Nicolson who was appointed to Gloucester had been a fearless 

 champion of the Church during the Commonwealth, when he had sup- 

 ported himself by keeping a private school at Llanvihangel in partner- 

 ship with Jeremy Taylor and William Wyatt, afterwards precentor of 



1 Besse, Sufferings of the Quakers, 210. ' Ibid. 39. ' Ibid. 40. 



4 Lloyd, State ofReRgion in Ghuc. ' Barton Street Chapel.' 6 Lloyd, Ibid. 'John Biddle.' 



6 Ghuc. N. and Q. i, 329. ' Overton, Life in the Engl. Ch. 1660-1714, p. 3. 



' Hook, Lives of the Archbps. of Cant, xi, 419. Nelson, Life of George Bull (ed. 1846), 22-25,41. 



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