A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



George Gysburgh and Nicholas Milom, sub-prior of Walsingham, 30 May ; 

 and at Lynn, William Gysburgh and John Pecok, clerk, i June.' 



Three other clerks, William Gybson, John Grikly, and John Pante were 

 also imprisoned for treason at the same time.' 



There seems to have been another attempt at a rising in Lynn in 1540.' 

 In the same year, one* Thomas Walpole was arrested by the bishop's 

 chancellor as a ' seditious setter forth of a naughty book made by Philip 

 Melanchton against the King's Acts of Christian Religion,' and for conspiracy 

 with one Ford, of East Dereham, physician, touching conjurations. 

 Conjurations had evidently come to be looked upon as a form of superstition, 

 and as such had been made unlawful.* 



By Letters Patent of i5'^8,° the priory of Norwich was altered to an 

 establishment of a dean and chapter, and the prior, William Castleton, was 

 appointed first dea 1. He resigned, and John Salisbury, suffragan bishop of 

 Thetford under the new Act, was made dean in the following; year.' To 

 hinder all disputes for the future, a composition and final agreement was 

 made 10 April, 1538, between the dean and chapter and the city, and thus, 

 according to Blomefield,' peace and amity were settled between the church 

 and city, which from the time of the city's first charter had never before 

 been done effectually. By the Act of 32 Henry VIII, limiting the number 

 of places having right of sanctuary, Norwich Cathedral was appointed as a 

 sanctuary or place of privilege for term of life.' 



In 1545, Blomefield describes Robert Rugge, the mayor, and Dr. Rugge, 

 the bishop, as both persecutors alike,'" and says that in that year the bishop 

 incited the old duke of Norfolk against one Rogers of Norfolk, who was 

 condemned and suffered martyrdom for the Six Articles ; also that he would 

 have condemned to death Dorothy wife of John Bale, afterwards bishop of 

 Ossory, who at one time held the rectory of Swaffham in Norfolk. Bale, 

 who at twelve had been sent to the Carmelite convent at Norwich, then to 

 Jesus College, Cambridge, and who, after being a fierce opponent of the new 

 learning, was converted to it, and from the coarse, bitter tone he adopted in the 

 controversy, was known as ' bilious Bale,' describes his wife's escape in his 

 own peculiar style." John Lambert alias Nicholson, burnt at Smithfield 

 30 Hen. VIII, was also a Norfolk man, converted by Bilney. 



12 



' Cal. L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 1300. 



' Ibid. ' Ibid. XV, 748. * Ibid. vol. xvi, 349, 424. 



' The Norwich Court Rolls show that hitherto licences h.-id been granted to dig for treasure, and invoke 

 spirits. The confession of one William Stapleton, clerk {Cal. L. and P. Hen. Fill, v, pt. ii, 5,096), declares 

 that not only he, but other parsons, including those of Lesingham and Leiston, had been successful in calling 

 up spirits. 



' Cal. L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. i, 867. " Rymer, Foedera, 5 Aug. 1539. 



' Op. cit. iii, 21 1, 212. ' Ibid, iii, 212. "Il^id. 214. 



" In his Book of Engl. Fotanes, pt. ii, 82, in the chapter entitled ' Prestcs marrynge at Norwyche, praysed 

 -and scorned' (quoted Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 2 1 4) : 'A cruel justice and as wicked a niayre, within the cytie 

 of Norvvych, emprisoned a faythful woman, and sought to put her to most shameful and cruel death, having 

 none other matter agaynst her, but only that she had bene the wyfe of a preste, whych had bene (well 

 bestowed) a preacher amongst them. But God in conclusion provydcd a learned lawyer, and a ryghteouse 

 judge for her delyverance, to both their confusions. A wonderfull thyng, that thys should be cryed lawful! in 

 their Cathedrall church, w'ith ryngyng, syngynge, and sensyng, and in the Gild-halle condcmpned for felonye 

 and treson. There ded they worship it in their scarlet gownes with cappe in hand, and here they improved 

 it with scornes and with mockes, grennyng upon her like tcrmagaunts in ?. pl.aye ; but lete them no more loke 

 to be forgoten of their posteryte, than were Judas and Pilate, whom the world yet speaketh of. Beastly 

 bussards and ignorant asscheads, more fit to keep svvyne than to rule God's people.' 



" Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 212. 



258 



