an 



A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



....d Roman Catholic recusancy, while the tenth related to the translation of 

 the Bible used in the church. The intermediate questions, however, were 

 concerned with the important matters of the use of the Prayer Book, con- 

 formity to the established order and the prescribed habit, the qualifications 

 of the minister and the occurrence of private preaching." Though most of 

 the replies were in the affirmative they must have been highly unsatisfactory 

 to Whitgift, for they revealed the fact that the ' conformity ' of the layman 

 in Hertfordshire was by no means what the authorities understood by the 

 word. This was especially noticeable in regard to the habit of the minister, 

 for while the incumbents of Redbourn, Codicote, Hexton, Norton, Watford, 

 St. Peter's, St. Michael's, St. Stephen's, Rickmansworth and Barnet were all 

 returned as ' conformable ' they all failed to wear the prescribed vestments, 

 though several declared themselves 'willing and ready' to do so. At Red- 

 bourn the vicar, Edward Spendlove, though he wore the surplice, said that 

 ' otherwise ' he would ' reform his attire according to the Queen's Majesty's 

 Injunctions as soon as he shall be able to provide the same,'" but it is 

 uncertain whether this referred to the outdoor dress of the clergy " or to ' a 

 Coape an Albe and a tunicle,' to which the Puritans complained that they 

 were bound by the Prayer Book." The most serious state of affairs revealed 

 was at Rickmansworth, where the vicar was Andrew Arnold, a graduate 

 who had been collated to the living in 1581.™ From the grudging answer 

 to the sixth article of the Privy Council's inquiries that ' our Minister which 

 now serveth the cure is a sufficient man and of good conversation for aught 

 we know or have heard,' it would seem that he was somewhat unpopular 

 with his parishioners, and this may have influenced the character of the other 

 replies. According to the churchwardens and ' sworn men ' Arnold some- 

 times omitted to read the epistle and gospel on Sundays, and did not show 

 conformity, for, they continued, ' during the time of his abode with us he 

 hath not worn nor used the surplice in saying of divine service and adminis- 

 tration of the sacraments.' " That the archbishop took a serious view of his 

 case seems probable, for though no direct evidence of deprivation has been 

 found his successor was instituted in the following year, no reason being 

 given in the register for the change.^' The return by the sworn men of 

 Sandridge that the incumbent had ' had business and a sufficient man doth 

 supply his charge and that we think he will be conformable'^' supplies a reason 

 for the anxiety of the queen and her counsellors for the abolition of pluralities. 

 Curiously enough no list of subscriptions for this archdeaconry has been 

 found, but the list for that of Huntingdon shows that in its parishes within 

 this county only three ' recusants ' were found — Richard Chambers, vicar of 

 Hitchin, John Potkins, rector of Lilley, and Thomas Wilcocks, curate of the 

 chapel of Bovingdon.'^* 



'^ S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxiii, 31 ; Strype, Life of Whitgift, i, 228, 232. " Strype, op. cit. 27. 



''In 1595 the Bishop of London wrote to the Archdeacon of St. Albans commanding that as some 

 ministers have attended visitation ' attired very undecently, as in coloured cloab and other unseemly fashions 

 . . . they are to come either in gowns or in comely black cloaks ' {Rec. of the Old Archd. of St. Albans, 93). 



88 Morrice MS. (Dr. Williams's Lib.), B, fol. 327. ™ Clutterbuck, op. cit. i (i), 201. 



" Rec. of the Old Archd. of St. Albans, 31. '« Clutterbuck, loc. cit. 



" Rec. of the Old Archd. of St. Albans, 26. The curate was probably William Peggrym. About 

 Michaelmas 1584 he was 'detected' in the archdeacon's court for brawling in the churchyard and his vicat 

 for brawling in the church. Finally he was ' inhibited unless he would procure a licence and departed 

 immediately' (ibid. 51). '* Lambeth MS. xii, no. 2. There were two ' recusanu ' in Huntingdonshire. 



