A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



conformable to the orders of the church, &c., but this only to the eye ot the world. They 

 have gathered up among good people 200 fi, which they have sent up to 'our proto-trustees ' 

 in London, who will pay to one Bridges,* an absurd, turbulent fellow, by the way of 

 Christian usury, 2ofi per cent, yearly. That which they call at London spiritual preaching 

 he calls preaching by expressions. 



An instance of the way the system worked occurred at Yar- 

 mouth, where Mr. George Burdett was appointed lecturer by the 

 Council I January, 1633.^ The bishop had to settle a dispute between 

 Dr. Matthew Brookes, minister of Great Yarmouth, and the lecturer, George 

 Burdett, by 19 March, 1633.' His settlement was eminently impartial. 

 He ordered that minister and lecturer should each read prayers before 

 his sermon ; that all fees should go to the lecturer ; that the lecturer should 

 preach on all the scarlet days as they called them, and the minister should give 

 the blessing to their fishing yearly, which they called the fishing sermon. On 

 Wednesday the lecturer to begin his sermon at ten o'clock in the morning, 

 but if there happened that day a christening, marriage, or funeral service, or 

 churching service, the lecturer to begin his sermon at eight o'clock in the 

 morning. Before this, in January, 1632,* a commission had been appointed 

 to settle a dispute between the dean and chapter of Norwich and the town of 

 Yarmouth, and between Mr. Brookes, minister there, and the same town. 

 Mr. George Burdett* finally brought himself under the censure of the 

 High Commission Court, and withdrew to New England, ' since which time 

 there hath been no lecture, and very much peace in the town.' 



The request of the dean, Dr. Hassall, i April, 163 1, to Secretary 

 Dorchester, for his coat-of-arms,' is accompanied as an explanation by the 

 <iescription of an interesting custom. He writes that the bishop of Norwich 

 has the same power of calling preachers to the cathedral as the bishop of 

 London has of summoning preachers to Paul's Cross. He describes the 

 solemnity which attends these sermons, which are preached in the winter 

 within the cathedral, and from Easter to Michaelmas in a place called the 

 Green Yard, where stands a pulpit very like Paul's Cross. This pulpit, being 

 lately re-edified, is to be beautified with the arms of the king and three or four 

 of the prime nobility ; and the request to the secretary to send down 

 his coat-of-arms for insertion, by the next week's carts, is made because the 

 work is being done while he is high steward of the church. This 

 re-edification was part of that persistent effort to restore a standard of 

 seemliness and dignity in public worship which was so dear to the heart 

 of Charles. And a letter was sent, 23 March, 1635, to the mayor and 

 corporation by the king requiring their constant attendance at this sermon 

 preached every Sunday morning either in the cathedral or Green Yard, and 

 that they shall be there at the beginning of the service after the manner 

 observed in the city of London, none to absent himself unless allowed by the 

 bishop. At a court held 25 July, 1636, it was ordered that this should be 

 done, and the manner of assembling for the procession was arranged.^ It 



' Mr. Bridge subsequently held, in addition to his lectureship, two cures, the rectories of St. Peter 

 Hungate and St. George Tombland. He added non residence to plurality by withdrawing to Holland 

 and remaining there rather than conform. He returned in 1642, but was ejected at the Restoration. 



' Ca/. S.P. Dom. 1631-33, p. 507 Mbid. 557. 



* Ibid. 1631-33, p. 259. ' Blomefield, xi, 370-72. 



' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1631-33, p. I. ' Blomefield, iii, 379. 



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