ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



This is the language of a half-hearted supporter of the extreme views which 

 the reform party at court were now adopting, and Bishop Sampson rapidly 

 lost favour and was suddenly arrested in 1 540, cast into the Tower, accused, 

 which was the equivalent to being convicted, of high treason, 142 his crime 

 being the sending some relief to one Abell, a papist, who was ' almost eaten 

 up by vermin in a filthy prison.' 14S The sudden fall of Cromwell in June, 

 1 540, saved the bishop's life and restored him to liberty. 



Particular opposition seems to have been offered to the use of English 

 translations of the Bible and service books. In 1535 Thomas Netter com- 

 plained that the rector of Brede had taken from him a psalter in English and 

 put him in the stocks two days for heresy, and when he pleaded that the 

 book was printed ' cum privilegio regali,' the rector replied that ' the king's 

 grace did grant many such things, the which is little regarded and less shall 

 be.' IM William Hoo, also, vicar of Eastbourne and suffragan of Chichester, 

 in 1536 took much the same line, saying that the preachers of the New 

 Testament not truly but after the new sect called themselves children of 

 Christ, but were the children of the Devil, adding, when it was suggested 

 that the king would not allow them to preach if their words were not true, 

 ' they that rule about the king make him great banquets and give him sweet 

 wines and make him drunk, and then they bring him bills and he putteth his 

 sign to them.' U5 The most violent antagonists of the reform movement were, 

 naturally, the ignorant country clergy. The vicar of Ticehurst, Thomas 

 Cowley, continued to preach upon miracles and images in spite of the king's 

 injunctions, and rebuked those who had Testaments. He quoted the case of 

 a sick man healed by St. Martin, who complained of the miracle wrought on 

 him because henceforth he would have to work for his living ; ' But I trust,' 

 he said, ' our sovereign lord the king shall be that Martin and take away that 

 disease from you, which is the Testament. You botchers, bunglers, and 

 cobblers, which have the Testament in your keeping, ye shall deliver it to us 

 gentlemen which have studied therefor.' In four years all would be as before, 

 therefore they should do as they had done offer a candle to St. Lowye for 

 their horses and to St. Anthony for their cattle. On Candlemas Day he 

 came to the chancel door between mattins and mass and declared a ballad of 

 Our Lady, saying to the people, ' Law, Law, Masters, I said we should have 

 the old fashion again, ye may see it comes a little and a little.' The bishop 

 in a letter decreeing what penance he is to do, remarks, not unjustifiably, 

 that Cowley 'seems to be a very fool.' 146 



After the fall of the monasteries came the decree against shrines, images, 

 and relics. In 1538 the great pilgrimage shrine of St. Richard in Chichester 

 Cathedral was plundered and destroyed ; U7 nor did the parish churches escape 

 this time : from the one church of Wisborough Green were brought up a 

 crucifix of crystal and silver containing some of Our Lady's milk, relics of 

 the blood, vestments, and tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury, portions of the 

 rochet of St. Edmund, the stones with which St. Stephen was stoned, the 

 Mount of Olives, the Holy Sepulchre, the hair shirt of St. James, the beard 

 of St. Peter, St. James's comb, and relics of SS. Giles, Silvester, and Sebastian. 148 



141 L. and P. Hen. rill, xv, No. z 1 7. "' Ibid, xvi, No. 578. l " Ibid, is, No. 1 1 30. 



' Ibid, xi, No. 300. " 6 Ibid, xiii (i), No. 1199. 



147 Ibid. (z). No. 1049. ** Ibid. No. 101. 



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