ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Although in course of time Parliament arrogated to itself the whole 

 functions of the episcopacy in discipline, ordination, institution, collation and 

 administration, the system was somewhat slow in growth. In i 643, however, 

 the Parliamentary claim to control the theology, morals and politics of the 

 clergy was fully stated both in word and action. The number of recorded 

 ejections in this county was nineteen, all but one of which were carried out 

 in 1643. T^ie first case dealt with was that of Dr. George Seaton, who 

 had succeeded the Puritan divine Edmund Staunton at Bushey in 1631." 

 The Commons ordered the sequestration of the living on 26 January," and 

 on I February the Lords decided to inquire on what evidence the action of 

 the Lower House had been based. '^ Sequestrators were appointed by both 

 Houses a week later," and on 1 1 July Marmaduke Browne, M.A., a ' godly, 

 learned and orthodox divine,' was settled as parson of Bushey," It is 

 impossible to feel that the decrees of both the Parliamentary and county 

 committees were other than arbitrary." Apparently on the report of the 

 local commissioners the Commons passed an ordinance for sequestrating the 

 profits of the living to the use of their nominee ; the committee at St. Albans 

 then called witnesses, but in every known case the sequestration was com- 

 pleted. The vast accumulation of work thrown upon the Houses when 

 they assumed the government of the kingdom led in 1654 to the delegation 

 of the work of the Parliamentary committee to local commissioners. For 

 Hertfordshire the matter was placed in the hands of Henry Lawrence, Lord 

 President of the Council, Sir John Wittewronge, John Fiennes, John Marsh, 

 Francis White, Isaac Puller, William Turner of Hertford, Alban Cox, 

 Master Combes the younger of Hemel Hempstead, Colonel Washington, 

 Thomas NichoU, William Leman, Ralph Gladman, William Packer and 

 William Hickman." These or any five of them were to act with five or 

 more local divines — Philip Goodwin, John Warren of Thorley, John 

 Lightfoot of Great Munden, Samuel Tomlin, Thomas Mocker of Gilston, 

 Thomas Halsiter, John Young, Isaac Bedford of Willian, Nathaniel Eeles, 

 William Tutty of Totteridge, ' Mr. Slater,' John Pointer, Daniel Dyke of 

 Much Hadham, and ' Mr. Lee of Hatfield.'" 



Clergy were removable in 1654 'for ignorance, insufficiency, scandal 

 in their lives and conversations, or negligence in their respective callings and 

 places,''" but in 1643 ^^^ ground of the ejection was generally political, 

 though theological antipathies were the cause in some cases and a few men 

 were charged with moral offences. It is noticeable, however, that whereas 

 serious charges of moral misconduct were brought against various Essex 

 clergy,'^ but one accusation of the kind is heard of in the case of the clergy 

 of this county. '^ It may be well here to review what little evidence has 

 been found bearing on the personal conduct of the clergy during the late 

 1 6th and early 17th centuries. From the first the Puritans, with their fine 

 insistence on personal morality, had striven to improve clerical as well as 

 lay morals. If the deanery of Braughing may be regarded as typical, the 



" Newcourt, Repert. i, 816. '^ Commons^ Journ. ii, 944. '* Lords' Journ. v, 584. 



" Ibid. 594. '« Common/' Journ. iii, i6i. " cf. Add. MS. 15669. 



^* Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, ii, 971. 



'' Ibid. 980 ; Calamy, Nonconformists' Mem. (ed. 1802), ii, 303, 304, 313-15. 



*" Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, ii, 977. 



'1 White, The First Century of Scandalous Malignant Priests. *^ Lords' Journ. v, 66y. 



