A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



But now he hath order'd that there shall be a sermon every morning, and catechising in the 

 afternoon in every church. . . . 



At Yarmouth, where there was great division heretofore for many years, their Lecturer' 

 being censur'd in the High Commission Court two years since, went into New England, since 

 which time there hath been no lecture and very much peace in the town, and all ecclesiasticall 

 Orders well observ'd. But in Norwich, one Mr. Bridge, rather than he would conform, 

 hath left his lectures, and two cures, and is gone into Holland. (A note in the margin by 

 King Charles is added here : ' Let him go, we are well berid of him.') The lecturers in 

 the country generally observe no church orders at all ; and yet the Bishop hath carried it 

 with Temper, and upon their promise, and his Hopes of Conformity, he hath inhibited but 

 three in Norfolk. . . . 



For Recusants, whereas formerly there were wont to be but two or three presented, his 

 Lordship hath caused above 40 to be indicted in Norwich at the last sessions. . . . His 

 lordship's care hath been such as that though there are above 1,500 clergymen in that 

 Diocese and many Disorders, yet there are not thirty excommunicated or suspended, 

 whereof some are for contumacy and will not yet submit ; some for obstinate denial to 

 publish your Majesty's declaration ; and some in contemning all the orders and Rites of the 

 Church, and intruding themselves, without license from the ordinary, for many years 

 together. 



Last of all, he found that one half of the churches in his Diocese had not a Clerk able 

 to read and to answer the minister in divine service ; by which means the People 

 were wholly disused from joining with the Priest, and in many places from so much as 

 saying 'Amen.' But concerning this his Lordship hath strictly enjoined a Reformation. 



Among the accusations against him are : that he employed his power 

 to restrain powerful preaching ; that in 1636 at Norwich he ordered chancels 

 to be raised three or four steps ; the communion table to be set at the 

 east end, and a rail to be set about the table, and punished some, among them 

 Daniel Weyman, for going within it ; that he altered all pews so as to face 

 east in the same year ; ordered part of the communion service to be read at 

 the communion table ; used bowings and adorations to the altar ; enjoined 

 all persons to receive the sacrament kneeling at the rail, which caused many 

 good people for fear of idolatry, to avoid, who were yet excommunicated ; * 

 that there should be no sermons on the Lord's Day in the afternoons, or week- 

 days, without licence, and no catechizing but the questions and answers in the 

 Common Prayer ; that ' the more to confirm the people in profaning the 

 Lord's Day' he enjoined the ministers to read publicly in the churches a book 

 allowing sports on it, for not doing which several were suspended by him,* 

 and some deprived ; * that ' the more to alienate the people's hearts from 

 hearing sermons he, in the said year, commanded all ministers to preach in 

 their hood and surplice, a thing not used before in the diocese ; and caused 

 prayers to be omitted in the church of Knatshall two Lord's Days for want of 

 a surplice ; ' that during his being bishop of Norwich, which was about two 

 years and four months, he caused fifty godly ministers ° to be excommunicated, 

 suspended, or deprived, for not reading the service at the communion table, 

 for not reading the Book of Sports, for using conceiv'd prayers, and for not 

 complying with some other illegal innovations, to the ruin of their families, 



' See ante p. 282. 



' B. M. Pamphlets, E. 168 (24). John Slyming, Samuel Duncan, Peter Fisher, Thomas Newton, 

 Edward Bedwell, Edmund Day, John Frowar. 



' Ibid. Master William Leigh, Master Richard Proud, Master Jonathan Barr, Mr. Matthew Brownrigg, 

 Mr. Mott, and divers others. 



' Ibid. Mr. Powell, Mr. Richard Raymond, Mr. Jeremy Borrowes, and some otherwise troubled. 



' Ibid. Among these : Masters William Powell, John Carter, Robert Peck, William Bridge, William 

 Greene, Mott, Richard Raymond, Thomas Scot, Greenhill, Nicholas Beard, Hudson, Robert Kent, Jeremy 

 Burrow, Thomas Allen, &c. 



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