ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Lincoln. 1 There were many nonconformists in his diocese, and he treated 

 them with some consideration. Out of 2,000 ministers who were ejected from 

 their livings in England on St. Bartholomew's Day 1662, because they could 

 not sign the Act of Uniformity, there were only twenty-six in the diocese of 

 Gloucester.* Several of the best and most able of the Puritans were among 

 them. Alexander Gregory had held the living of Cirencester since the reign 

 of James I, and was much beloved by his parishioners; before the Restoration 

 Bull often preached for him, and he married Gregory's daughter Bridget. 

 After his deprivation he was respectfully visited by both churchmen and 

 nonconformists. William Tray of Oddington was an Oxford man of con- 

 siderable learning, and Nicolson offered him as good a living as any in the 

 diocese if he would conform. James Forbes and Increase Mather gave up 

 their ministry at Gloucester. During Nicolson's episcopate order was gradu- 

 ally restored. His visitation articles in 1664 mark not only his effort to 

 enforce uniformity by requiring returns of papists and sectaries, but an 

 earnest attempt to reform abuses. 8 He insisted strictly on the residence 

 of the clergy, and made careful inquiries about the repair of fabrics of 

 churches, steeples and bells, and about the provision of a font of stone 

 with a convenient cover, a communion table, paten, chalice and flagons. 

 His consecration of the font in the cathedral in 1664 gave occasion for 

 the publication of a violent pamphlet by Ralph Wallis, the well-known 

 Gloucester Puritan who had taken refuge in London.* At Suddington the 

 teaching of Bull brought about a strong revival of church life; 1 he catechized 

 the youth of his parish with great care, taught the observance of holy days 

 and fasts, above all of Good Friday ; he refused to baptize in private houses 

 except as the rubric directs, and administered the sacrament seven times a 

 year, which, though not as often as he desired, was oftener than usual in 

 small villages. His ministry at Avening, to which he was presented in 

 1685, was no less successful.* Many of the parishioners were very ' loose 

 and dissolute,' and yet many more disliked the liturgy ; but their attendance 

 at public worship became regular, they brought their children to be bap- 

 tized, and became ' very decent ' in behaviour. The persecution of the 

 Quakers who met at Cirencester, Aylburton, Nailsworth, Broad Campden, 

 and Tewkesbury, was mainly the work of the magistrates, who administered 

 the penal laws with much severity. 7 Until the Act of Toleration was 

 passed in 1689, the sufferings of the Quakers in Bristol were still greater, 8 

 and the Baptist community, which met at the Friars in Lewin's Mead, was 

 likewise persecuted.' In 1682 over 1,500 dissenters were under prosecution 

 in the city, and in a news letter it was reported that at the next sessions 'about 

 500 families must desert their heresies, which many have done already, and 

 meet together to hear preaching in the king's forest adjoining.' 10 The bishops 

 of Bristol actively enforced the penal laws. However, these probably 

 had little effect in checking nonconformity. In 1672, when Charles II 

 issued an indulgence, licences were granted to Congregational and Presby- 

 terian ministers at Ashchurch, Beckford, Berkeley, Bitton, Bourton-on-the- 



1 Diet. Nat. Biog. xli, 27. ' Calamy, Ejected Ministers, iii, 493-506. 



1 Articles of Visitation u-ithin the Archdeaconry of Clone. 1664. * Silawl, More 'News from Rome. 



' Nelson, Life of Bull, 52, &c. Ibid. 198. 



7 Base, Sufferings of the Quakers, \, 208-28. ' Ibid. 45-70. 



Broadmead Records (Hanscrd Knollyi Soc.), 71, &c. " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, 406. 



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