ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



have suppressed preaching entirely but for the force of public opinion.'' In 

 December 1576 Elizabeth appears to have protested to the archbishop, vi^ho 

 replied that he had given charge to the bishops to exercise care in the issuing 

 of licences, adding that ' we admit no man to the office of preaching 

 that either professeth papistrie or puritanisme ; generallie graduates of the 

 universities are onelie admitted to be preachers, unlesse it be some few which 

 have excellent giftes of knowledge in the scripture ioined with good utterance 

 and godlie perswasion."* With these rules in mind special interest attaches 

 to the list of preachers furnished by the visitation lists of the same year for 

 the deanery of Braughing." The only royal licence was that held by 

 Alexander Nowell, rector of Much Hadham and Dean of St. Paul's. Of the 

 eight other graduates '° two only had licence to preach, these being Robert 

 Key, B. A., vicar of Ware, and Christopher Tatham, M. A., rector of Thorley. 

 Thomas Tunstall, vicar of Broxbourne, was also licensed ; he is described as 

 a ' grave ' man knowing no Latin and but slightly versed in theology. The 

 only other preacher was the vicar of Standon, Hugh Bowman, who joined 

 skill in theology to a slight knowledge of Latin. "^ The other parishes 

 would apparently have to be content with the Homilies, which the arch- 

 bishop maintained were not so efficacious.'' 



Such caution in the issuing of licences was bound to lead to unauthorized 

 preaching, and in 1582 one of the visitation articles promulgated in the 

 archdeaconry of St. Albans inquired after preachers without cure of souls, 

 while another dealt with the preaching of political sermons ; in every case 

 non-committal answers were obtained." By this time, however, the licensing 

 system seems to have been somewhat relaxed, for when the ignorant clergy 

 were enjoined to take their exercises to a preacher, 'because they shoulde not 

 pretende ignorance who be the preachers the . . . Judge did decre that they 

 should repayre . . . eyther unto those which are Bachelers of Divinitye, 

 masters of Artes or preachers licensed.'*" In March 1583—4 the Privy 

 Council issued Articles of inquiry the answers to which show an improve- 

 ment in this archdeaconry. There were no regular preachers at Sandridge, 

 Codicote, Ridge, St. Paul's Walden, and, apparently, Newnham, but at 

 Codicote due provision was made for quarterly sermons." Of the remaining 

 parishes in this county seven replied that they had a minister who was their 

 vicar, a form probably implying that he was a preacher, while the incum- 

 bents of Redbourn, Sarratt, St. Peter's, Abbot's Langley, Northaw, Chipping 

 Barnet and Rickmansworth are definitely spoken of as preachers.*^ At 

 Watford, where the vicar, Henry Edmonds,*' was a man of no learning, one 

 John Chapman, M.A., acted as preacher," probably strengthening the 

 foundations of that Puritanism for which the town was already distinguished. 



'' cf. the queen's letter to the bishops 7 May 1577 (Cott. MS. Cleop. F ii, fol. 287). Bishop Cooper 

 in 1573— 4 thought 'that the cheefe parte and funccion of a prieste or mynister consystith in preachinge 

 goddes woord ' (Line. Epis. Rec. — Bf. Cooper — [Line. Rec. Soc], 146). 



3* Morrice MS. (Dr. Williams's Lib.), B, fol. z6o. '» Lambeth MS. xii, no. i. 



^^ None held degrees in divinity which would ipso facto have given them the right to preach. '' Ibid. 



'^ Morrice MS. loc. cit. In 1576 Ralph Tomlyn was licensed by Bishop Cooper to preach in the 

 parish church of Aspenden {Line. Epis. Rec. — Bp. Cooper — [Line. Rec. Soc], 141) ; a similar licence was granted 

 in the following year to Samuel Otes for the deanery of Baldock (ibid. 142). 



33 Rec. of the Old Archd. of St. Albans, 17-20. 



^'i Ibid. 21. cf. the articles issued by Archbishop Whitgift in October 1583 (Gee and Hardy, /)«;-. 

 illustrative of English Church Hist. 481-4). *i Rec. of the Old Archd. of St. Albans, 26-35. 



*^ Ibid. *' He had started life as a chorister of St. Paul's (ibid. 36). " Ibid. 29-30. 



327 



