A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



bishops or no, the clergy of Gloucestershire showed little sympathy with the 

 Methodists. The Baptists of Bristol were also hostile to them. 1 



The fabrics of many churches were much neglected after the Reforma- 

 tion until the nineteenth century. However, churchwardens' accounts and 

 other sources furnish some illustrations of repairs and rebuilding. A 

 certain amount of money was expended at Cirencester in the early years of 

 the seventeenth century, 8 but in 1639 the condition of the church is described 

 in a quaint petition to Archbishop Laud : 



I am in comeliness not much inferior to the cathedral church of Bath, but for want of 



' whiteliming of marl look rustily. My windows are particoloured, white in one place and 



red in another, but I was founded with rich coloured glass, such as is in Fairford church 



near me in this diocese, which is kept decently to this day. The chancel where is received 



the sacrament is unceiled like a barn, my pavement is worn out and very unhandsome. 



Laud threatened the churchwardens with proceedings in the Court of High 

 Commission, and some repairs were executed. In 1704 there was a heavy 

 rate for repairs. In 1734 Bishop Benson cited the parishioners to show 

 cause why they should not rebuild the battlements, and they replied that 

 battlements were useless and expensive, and the fabric was stronger and better 

 without them. Dursley steeple fell in 1699, and the parishioners at once 

 decided to petition for a brief in aid of the rebuilding, spending ij is. qd~ 

 on beer at the meetings for the same. 8 The work was begun in 1708, and 

 as the brief brought in 567 1 3 S - 9^- an ^ the cost f the work only amounted 

 to 569 8j., the parishioners did not contribute a penny. The repairs of 

 Tewkesbury in 1720 were estimated at 3,929; a brief only brought in 

 1,470, but nevertheless the work was completed in 1726.* The rebuilding 

 of Tetbury was a memorial of the generosity and business capacity of the 

 vicar and some of his parishioners in the face of much opposition ; the 

 scheme was first mooted in 1729, but the work was not begun until 1777.' 

 The rebuilding of several churches in Bristol is a mark of the prosperity of 

 the city in the eighteenth century.' 



The history of the Church in the nineteenth century is a record of 

 steady progress which can be but faintly outlined here. One of the first 

 symptoms of the renewal of activity was the foundation in 1780 of a Sunday 

 school in Gloucester, which was the joint work of Thomas Stock, rector of 

 St. John the Baptist, and Robert Raikes. 7 In a charge to the clergy of the 

 diocese of Gloucester in 1807, Bishop Huntingford bade them beware of 

 giving encouragement either to critics who attacked the church on the plea 

 that the clergy did not preach the Gospel, or to others who called them 

 Methodists. 8 Three years later he urged them to be circumspect and zealous 

 in their duties. 9 In 1813, out of 274 benefices in the diocese, 165 were 

 without resident incumbents ; of these, however, 51 were served by resident 

 curates, 20 by clergy who held a second benefice, and in 46 of them the 

 bishop had granted licence of absence because there was no parsonage house. 1 * 

 In 1815 Henry Ryder succeeded to the see. Four years earlier he had 



1 Nicholls and Taylor, Bristol Past and Present, ii, 292. * Fuller, Cirencetter Parish Church, 17-19. 



1 Blunt, Chapters of Parochial History, 6568. ' Bennet, History of Tewkesbury, 144.. 



* Lee, History of Tetbury, 102-7. * Barrett, History of Bristol, 466, 480, 495. 

 ' Lmd. Quart. Review, April, 1878, pp. 11-17. 



Charge to the clergy of the diocese of Gloucester, 1807. ' Ibid. 1810. I0 Par/. Papers, 1817. 



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