ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



of the county that the moderate party were not able to withstand it. 

 Stapely, Rivers, Baker, and Hayes were the ringleaders, and Stapely at the 

 Michaelmas session declared that the altering of the Communion table other- 

 wise was an innovation detracting from God's glory, and that some prelates in 

 the kingdom did not approve of it. Early in 1 642 a petition was sent up 

 from this county desiring the reformation of the Church in accordance with 

 the views of the Puritan section ; but before the end of the year the country 

 was in the throes of civil war. As already shown the eastern portion of the 

 county was strongly Puritan, while the west, being the seat of the cathedral 

 and of several families of loyal members of the English and Roman Churches, 

 took the other side. An account of the siege of Chichester in December, 

 1642, has already been given, 260 and the havoc wrought in the cathedral by 

 Waller's victorious soldiers, who defaced the monuments, broke down the 

 organs, and despoiled the treasury, was described by the dean of that unhappy 

 church in a well-known passage which has often been reprinted. 251 



When the Parliament, in accordance with their promise to the Scotch 

 Covenanters, set up the Westminster Assembly of Divines in 1 642 for the 

 reformation of the English Church in accordance with Presbyterian ideas, 

 Sussex was represented thereat by Dr. Francis Cheynell, rector of Petworth 

 and practically bishop of the diocese, Benjamin Pickering of East Hoathly, 

 and Henry Nye of Clapham, who apparently died shortly after his appoint- 

 ment, his place being taken by John Maynard of Mayfield. 252 Amongst their 

 duties was the consideration of the fitness or otherwise of the clergy holding 

 benefices, and as a result of their decisions a very large proportion of the old 

 incumbents were ejected from their livings. 253 That some of these ejected 

 ministers fully deserved their fate and were a scandal to their profession is 

 clear, and this seems to be the case, allowing for considerable exaggeration, 

 as regards the incumbents of Little Horsted, Dallington, Ardingly, Arundel, 

 Cliffe, Storrington, East Grinstead, and Arlington, who were included by 

 Col. John White in his Century of Malignant Priests. But in a considerable 

 number of instances there is no doubt that the action of the examiners was 

 harsh and prejudiced. Thus Randall Apsley, in spite of acquitting himself 

 well when questioned by Dr. Cheynell and his associates, was ejected from 

 his living of Pulborough on the accusation, which he was not allowed to 

 answer, of having been seen in a tavern. The particulars, also, relative to 

 the ejection of John Large, rector of Rotherfield, make it seem very probable 

 that he was turned out ' not on account of his bad living but because of his 

 good living' (Rotherfield being worth 300), and as the result of a 

 conspiracy between Dr. Cheynell and a certain Mr. Winter of Cowfold, who 

 might have served as a model for the vicar of Bray, being ' once a zealous 

 ordaining Presbyter, next warmly Congregational, then as vehemently Epis- 

 copal, and in Charles IPs time found there was much to be said in favour of 

 Popery.' 26S John Large's defence, which he was not suffered to deliver, shows 

 that he was not neglectful of his duty, as he always preached twice on 



140 V.C.H. Suss, i, 522. "' The fullest reprint is in Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxi, 205-8. 



' 5I Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxi, 1 70. 



145 The documents relative to the ' Plundered Ministers ' in Sussex were treated with great fulness by 

 Mr. F. E. Sawyer in Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxi, xxxii, from which articles the following details are drawn, unless 

 otherwise noted. 



144 Sun. Arch. Coll. xxxiii, 269 ; xxxvi, 156. '" Calamy, Life of Baxter, ii, 686. 



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