ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



From Chichester Cathedral the crucifix was carried forth and burnt in the 

 market place, 181 typifying the downfall of the Roman Faith before the 

 Protestant State Church of England, whose establishment is equally well 

 shown in the purchase of ' a Bible, 3 books of Common Prayer, a book 

 of the Acts of Parliament, and a book of injunctions in English.' m Again 

 the fallen party had to suffer for conscience, but Elizabeth's hold on the 

 throne was yet insecure, and it did not need her incomparable powers of 

 statecraft to see that the wisest course was to avoid alienating a powerful 

 section of her subjects by acts of needless severity against the members of the 

 dethroned church. Bishop Christopherson had died almost at the same time 

 as Queen Mary, and his place was now filled by William Barlow, who had 

 been ejected from the see of Bath and Wells by Mary ; but beyond the 

 removal of the archdeacons of Chichester and Lewes, five prebendaries, and 

 fifteen incumbents m from their benefices, the clergy of Sussex do not appear 

 to have been affected to any great extent by the changes. 



The new order of things reversed the position of persecutors and 

 persecuted, and gave those who had lately been oppressed the hope of 

 vengeance or at least of recompense for their wrongs. But the loudest com- 

 plainers are not always the greatest sufferers, and when we find John Trewe 

 of Hellingly complaining of persecutions endured through the malice of 

 Sir Edward Gage, ' an extreme persecutor of the Gospel,' who had unlawfully 

 placed him in the pillory in the market towns of Hailsham and Lewes, and 

 had caused his ears to be barbarously cut, 18 * we may well doubt how far this 

 fellow's sufferings were due to his zeal for religion. There was still a large 

 body in Sussex to whom the changes were anything but welcome, and one 

 sign of the ferment which must have existed throughout the county is to be 

 found in the riot that occurred in March, 1559, when the church of 

 Hailsham was wrecked and despoiled by the parishioners. 186 



The year 1563 marked the beginning of the long-continued persecution 

 of the adherents of the Roman Church in this country, the first of the 

 Penal Acts being passed in that year. The extreme severity of the Act as 

 drawn up was much modified by the restraint with which it was at first 

 administered, 188 and no immediate traces of its effects are to be observed in 

 Sussex. One consequence of the attacks upon the Roman Catholics was to 

 encourage the party of extreme Protestants, whose antinomian vagaries 

 threatened to reduce the English church services to chaos. Accordingly, in 

 1564, Archbishop Parker addressed a letter to his suffragans ordering them 

 to suppress irregularities and make a list of those guilty thereof. 187 Of the 

 Puritan element in Sussex at this date no record remains, but a letter of the 

 bishop of Chichester to the Privy Council this year distinguishes the leading 

 supporters of the English and Roman Churches within his diocese : 18S 



William [Barlow], bishop of Chichester, writes : 



.... Firste, thankes be to almightie God, through the Quenes most gracious 

 government assisted by your lordships providente circumspections, this countye of Sussex 

 . . . . is fre from all violent attemptes eyther to aflite the godlye or to distourbe the stablisshed 

 good orders of this Realme. Notwithstanding I doubte of secrett practises which perhappes 



181 Accts. of Dean and Chapter, I Eliz.; ex inform. Rev. Canon Deedes. ** Ibid. 



185 Gee, The Eliz. Clergy, 274-5 ; these figures are those of deprivations between 1558 and 1562. 

 194 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, 665. 18i Acts of P.C. (New Ser.), vii, 76. 



186 Gee, Eliz. Clergy, 20. '" Stephens, See of Chichester, 254-6. 1S8 C*mden Soc. Misc. ix. 



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