ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
pensation of any kind for the losses suffered under Henry VIII. and 
Edward VI. 
There is no record of any trial for heresy in Bedfordshire under 
Henry VIII. or Mary ; it is indeed generally agreed that the whole dio- 
cese of Lincoln was free from persecution during the latter reign ; though 
the episcopal registers, if they existed, might show some cases of depri- 
vation among the clergy. But the majority both of clergy and laity 
probably conformed at this time (as it has been shown that they did later) 
to the established order, whatever it might happen to be. Such a course 
does not argue a lofty ideal of life and duty ; but it was a very natural 
one for ordinary men, at a time when the learned held such differing 
views even on fundamental points, and when the next change of govern- 
ment might mean loss of livelihood, even of life itself, for those who 
were not willing to adopt the prescribed forms of religion. Lofty ideals 
of life were rare in those unrestful and unhappy years, when change fol- 
lowed change in swift succession, and toleration was neither admired nor 
desired by the leaders of any party. 
There is very little to awaken our admiration in the personal char- 
acter of such of the clergy as are known to us at this time. A typical 
instance of the general conformity may be found in John Gwynneth, 
vicar of Luton from 1537 to 1558. He kept his church through all 
these changes, but his real opinions found expression at last in 1553 in 
AA declaration of the notable victory given of God to Queen Mary, showed 
in the Church of Luton in the first year of her reign. His death in 
1558 saved him from further difficulties; and he was succeeded after 
a few years by a man of the exactly opposite type, Thomas Rose,” ranked 
by Foxe among the martyrs. The narrative of Rose’s sufferings does 
not belong to the history of Bedfordshire ; it shows him forth as one of 
those fiery preachers who were more earnest to bring men to a right be- 
lief than to a better life ; and his first arrest under Henry VIII. in 1533 
came of the part he took in the destruction of a rood out of Dovercourt 
church. Coming only four years after Gwynneth, he must have found 
work to do at Luton after his own heart. 
Some of the results of the general confiscation of church property 
were revealed by the visitation of Cardinal Pole in 1556.’ It was then 
stated that many of the vicarages had been void for years,’ because of 
the smallness of the means of livelihood; and that the chancels of six 
churches—Harlington, Salford, Potton, Eyworth, Riseley and Wootton— 
were in ruins. The chancel and rectory of Ampthill were almost down 
to the ground ; the rector explaining that the tithes of the greater part 
of the parish and its best land had been taken from him by the enclosure 
1 Luton Church, by the Rev. H. Cobbe, p. 183. He also wrote: 4 declaration of the state wherein 
all hereticks do lead their lives, and A playne demonstration of Fohn Frithes lack of witte and learning. 
2 Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, viii. 581-90. : 
3 Strype, Eccks. Mem. iii. 482-6. Strype states that nearly all these livings were then in the gift 
of the cardinal himself ; but he can scarcely be blamed for their poverty and neglected condition, which 
must date further back. 
4 The Elizabethan Clergy, Dr. Gee, 125, 126, 256. 
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