ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



His zeal against the 'Machevils, Papists, Libertines, Atheists, and such other 

 erroneous persons ' caused him to incur the enmity of Sir Thomas Palmer and 

 other disaffected gentry, who brought numerous accusations of unworthy 

 conduct against him ; 198 while the deprivation of his brother, vicar of 

 Cuckfield, in 1581, on charges, probably much exaggerated, of insufficiency 

 and ill-conduct, 1 " must have been an additional trouble to the worthy bishop, 

 who died in August, 1582, leaving his widow in great poverty. 800 



The year of Bishop Curteis's election, 1570, was also the year in which 

 the pope hurled his decree of excommunication at Elizabeth and absolved 

 her subjects from their allegiance, thereby justifying the queen and her 

 council in considering adherence to the Roman Church as equivalent to 

 treason. This told hard upon the many loyal Catholics, whose unpopularity 

 was further increased by the news of the religious persecution in France 

 which culminated in 1572 in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. One result 

 of these persecutions was an influx of Huguenot families into this county, 

 the chief port of entry being Rye, where some seven hundred foreigners, 

 mostly from Dieppe and Rouen, landed during the month following 

 St. Bartholomew. 201 Rye had for some time been associated with the French 

 Protestants ; it had been the port from which most of these religious refugees 

 who had settled in London during Edward VI's reign had left the country upon 

 Mary's accession, 202 and in i 569 there were resident there five French ministers, 

 six persons from Rouen, sixty-three from Dieppe, and ten Walloons and Flem- 

 ings. All the alien residents were not of the reformed faith, for in 1569 

 two foreigners were fined for bringing into the town certain ' idolatorius 

 idoleteres,' and two others ordered to depart ' for theyr mysbelevyes con- 

 trarie to Christian relegian.' 20S In 1571 there were in Rye twelve families of 

 the French Church, and seven ' of no church that is known ' ; all being of 

 honest conversation. 20 * Of those that landed in 1572 many passed on to 

 London and elsewhere, but about fifty families remained at Rye, 205 and this 

 number continued to increase, so that in 1586 the heads of the French 

 Church in London were called in to consult with their compatriots and the 

 town authorities at Rye as to the removal of the strangers, of whom there 

 were then fifteen hundred, 206 and next year the conference of the French 

 churches was held there. 207 



In the history of the Sussex recusants, or adherents of the Roman 

 Church, the names of Gage and Shelley stand out pre-eminent, followed by 

 those of Copley, Darrell, Leedes, Thatcher, Lewknor, and Caryll, to name a 

 few of the more prominent families. John Gage, with many of his co- 

 religionists, retired to Antwerp in I573, 208 but three years later returned to 

 England, leaving behind his brother-in-law Thomas Copley, who, being a 

 priest, could not return without abandoning his faith. In August, 1 580, John 

 Gage was committed to the Fleet prison with William Shelley of Mitchel- 

 grove, for ' obstinacy in Popery,' Edward Gage of Bentley and Richard 

 Shelley of Warminghurst being at the same time sent to the Marshalsea. 209 



199 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxii, Nos. 9, 13, 29-44, 49, 50. 1M Suss. Arch. Coll. xliv, 15-20. 



100 Ibid, x, 58. .*" Ibid, xiii, 194. 



m Acts of P.O. (New Ser.), iv, 349. *" Hut. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii (4), i. 



* Ibid. 6. >06 Suss. Arch. Call, xiii, 200. 



106 Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxxxvii, No. i. *" Suss. Arch. Coll. xiii, 200. 



108 Cal. S.P. Dom. EKz. Add. xxiii, No. n. *" Acts ofP.C. (New Ser.), xii, 152. 



27 



