A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



Puritanism, he has never yet deprived a Puritan minister." Meanwhile, the 

 work of church extension in the diocese had gone on, Neile reports that 

 four new chapels had been built during 1636." These were probably 

 Wibsey in Bradford parish, Hunslet in Leeds, Attercliffe in Sheffield, which 

 were all consecrated by the Bishop of Sodor and Man in this year,*' and 

 Harwood Dale in Hackness.^" Halton Gill Chapel, in ArnclifFe, was rebuilt in 

 the same year." On 21 September 1634 the archbishop had consecrated 

 3t. John's Chapel at Leeds, which had been founded by a local layman named 

 John Harrison. Neile demurred to the vesting of the patronage in the 

 corporation and vicar of Leeds, and insisted that, if the choice of the curate 

 were not left to the archbishop, the vicar should have the right of vetoing an 

 unsuitable appointment. He thought the chapel was too near the parish 

 church, and that there might be a danger of rival pulpits.^'' The curate, 

 Robert Todd, was a Puritan, ' a great textuary, and a very scriptural preacher.' 

 At the consecration the sermon was preached by John Cosin, then Archdeacon 

 of the East Riding, on the text ' Let all things be done decently and in order,' 

 In the afternoon Todd, expounding the words of the catechism, ' Yea, 

 verily, and by God's help so I will,' was suspected of attempting to confute 

 Cosin, and was deprived for twelve months.'^ The fabric and fittings of 

 St. John's still remind us of a most interesting period in English church 

 architecture and ritual. When Charles I visited York in May 1633 he 

 commented severely on the state of the minster, and ordered the mean houses 

 which blocked the west and south fronts, and a house which was actually 

 built up inside the transept, to be taken down. The quire was much 

 blocked by seats for women of quality. These were to be removed and 

 replaced by movable benches. A seat for the Lord President's wife was to be 

 made beyond the stalls on the north side ; and a seat for the council might be 

 left before the throne, where the president sat with the archbishop." The 

 admission of the laity to the stalls led to disputes for precedency, and Charles's 

 anxiety on this point is justified by a dispute which arose in the same year 

 between the lord mayor and the chapter, the lord mayor claiming the right 

 to sit in the stall of the Archdeacon of York." 



Neile's efforts for conformity were much hampered by the colony of 

 Frenchmen and Dutchmen who were carrying out the drainage of Hatfield 

 Chase. Sir Philibert Vernatti, their employer, allowed them to use a barn for 

 their services. Their discipline was Presbyterian : they baptized in a dish, 

 and received the sacrament sitting. Bishop Williams of Lincoln gave them 

 his approval ; and they prepared to build a church across the Lincolnshire 



" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1636-7, p. 409. Cf. note 53 below. Neile instances the case of a 'poor, mel- 

 ancholic, brainsick, unconformable man,' whom he had treated with consideration. 



" Ibid. " Lawton, op. cit. 1 16, 96, 223. 



"" Ibid. 30Z. " Ibid. 245. 



" Copy of letter, Lansdowne MS. 973, fol. 32 d. (Bishopthorpe, i Sept. 1634). 



" Calamy, Nonconf. Mem. iii, 439, 440. Todd had previously served cures at Swinefleet, Whitgift, and 

 Ledsham. John Shaw, appointed lecturer at All Saints', Pavement, 1637-40, by the Puritan party in York 

 corporation, came under Neile's displeasure : see Yorkshire Diaries (Surt. Soc), 129 seq. for some side-lights 

 on Neile's attitude towards Puritanism. The strongly partisan feeling of the writer detracts from their 

 value. 



" Lansdowne MS. 973, fol. 56d.-58 d. : copy of letter ap. S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxxxix, 56. 



"Lansdowne MS. 973, fol. 58d.-59d. In Add. MSS. 33595, fol. 19 seq. is an insptximiu 

 (11 June 1526) of 'a decree for precedency of place betwene the citizens of Yorke and them of the spiritual 

 court,' made by Bowet in 141 1. 



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