A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



pewter dishes, and other objects flying about mysteriously, and fire being 

 raised to such effect that the house was burnt down. As usual in such cases 

 there was a young girl in the house, but suspicion fell not on her but on an 

 old woman reputed to be a witch, though at the same time there was a 

 suspicion that the powers of evil were not given a free hand without cause, 

 and upon strict examination the man whose house had suffered confessed that 

 he had been a thief, and that under the colour of religion upon the Sabbath 

 day. Whatever the cause of the haunting, success appears to have attended 

 the efforts of four ministers who 'kept a Fast.' It was as much a feature of 

 the early Puritans under James I as it was of the next generation under 

 Cromwell to be always on the look-out for 'judgements,' especially upon 

 Sabbath-breakers, and the parish registers not infrequently contain such 

 entries as that at Hastings in 1620 of the burial of a man 'slain by the 

 hauling up of his father's ship upon Sunday,' or that at Hailsham of one 

 who ' fell down dead as he was playing a match at football upon the Sabbath 

 day." It is also worth noting that the Cromwellian Puritans did not assume 

 their characteristic Christian names, as the French revolutionists assumed 

 classical names, but had been duly baptized therewith ; for the registers of 

 many Sussex churches during the first half of the seventeenth century yield 

 a plentiful supply of such baptismal names as Desire, Zealous, Repent, 

 Be-thankful, Free-gift, More-fruit, Much-mercy, Perform-thy-vows, and 

 Standfast-on-high. 239 



While ignorant superstition still flourished and Calvinistic non- 

 conformity continued to gain ground there were signs of a revival within 

 the Church. The learned and saintly Lancelot Andrewes, who had held the 

 see of Chichester from 1605 to 1609, had been succeeded by Samuel Harsnett 

 and George Carleton, both of whom were able and pious men, and in 1628 

 Richard Montagu was raised to the see. This appointment was a deliberate 

 rebuff to the Calvinistic party, who had been calling upon King Charles to 

 censure Montagu for his famous tract Apello Caesarem ;. but the king 

 subsequently yielded to the pressure brought upon him and allowed the book 

 to be suppressed. Montagu held views of the ' high church ' type, which 

 are particularly associated with the name of Laud, and we find him in 1632 

 writing to the latter 240 to complain of Mr. Hickes, a canon of Chichester, 

 who absents himself from duty and sends as substitutes ' whom he can get, 

 sometimes good, sometimes bad, any riff-raff whom he can light upon, shifters, 

 unconformists, curates, young boys, puritans, as the whole city hath often 

 spoken against it.' 



After Laud had become archbishop he reported to the king in 1634 in 

 his annual account of the clergy : 



The bishop of Chichester certifies all well in his diocese save only in the east part 

 which is far from him he finds some Puritan Justices of the Peace have awed some of the 

 clergy into like opinion with themselves, which yet of late have not broken out into any 

 public nonconformity. 241 



For the next four years the bishop reports all well, but in 1639 there was 

 ' some little disorder in the east parts of the diocese about Lewes,' and it is 



"For examples, see Chiddingly registers, Suii. Arch. Coll. xiv, 146 ; and Salzmann, Hist. ofHailsbam, 49, 

 The earliest example seems to be Feregod Edwardes who was married in 1589 ; and can therefore hardly 

 have been baptized later than 1570, Suts. Rec. Sac. i, I. 



"" Cat. ofS.P. Dm. Cha,. I, ccx, 36. Laud, Autobiog. 534. 



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