ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



a more peculiar presence of God there then in the Church ' ; he pressed his 

 people to bow three times at their coming into the church. And further 

 ' there being a Crosse at the head of the Font in his Church, upon every 

 approach . . . used to bow to it.' Complaint was also made that he had 

 urged some of the parish to make auricular confession to him, and that he 

 kept in his parlour a picture of Christ to put him in mind of his Saviour. 

 As surrogate he was said to ' improve his authority to introduce the late 

 Innovations.' " He further shocked the susceptibilities of his parishioners 

 by declaring the fourth commandment to be ' meerely ceremoniall,' and 

 accordingly would ' hire servants, ride journeys, buy wood and send his 

 Hopps to market on the Lord's Day.' " Mr. Horwood, a successor of 

 Soane at Aldenham, annoyed his people by carrying himself ' very super- 

 stitiously ... in kneeling downe to his devotion upon the staires leading 

 up to the pulpit when he went up to preach,' But still more important 

 from the point of view of the Parliament were the political views held by 

 these clergy. Thus Humphrey Tabor, vicar of All Saints', Hertford," refused 

 * to read the orders and ordinances of Parliament or obey the Commands 

 thereof, as not of any Authority.' " John Taylor of Hemel Hempstead was 

 so outspoken in his expressions of malignity ' against the Parliament and 

 the Power and Proceedings thereof that he was sent to prison,"" while 

 Robert Pory,^ parson of Thorley, besides affirming a Puritan to be a ' Limb 

 of the Devil,' abused the Scots, ' publicly affirming them to be damned 

 Rogues, and them that took their Parts.' ' He refused to read Parliamentary 

 ordinances, but they were read by another, and it is recorded that Pory 

 ' flung out of the Church, calling such as he met to go out with him, 

 and not to stay to hear (as he called it) a kind of bibble-babble Things, to 

 no purpose at all.'* 



It was evident that the mere ejection of malignant clergy was not 

 enough to secure conformity. Many advowsons were in the gift of Royalist 

 families, and Parliament decided to confiscate such property in the national 

 interest. The Houses, however, realized their incompetence to deal with 

 the technical questions involved in deciding the suitability of candidates for 

 the ministry, and this duty was delegated to the Assembly of Divines.* The 

 first incumbent to be instituted under this system was Richard Brookes, 

 rector of Puttenham,' and various other cases occur during 1646—8.* 



Nothing but admiration can be paid to the manner in which the various 

 Parliamentary committees attacked difficult problems of administration, some 

 of which still trouble the church. Thus ordinances were passed to regulate 

 pluralities and non-residence,^ while parishes were divided as in the case of 

 Wheathampstead, from which in 1656 Harpenden was separated.' Parochial 



^ White, op. cit. 38. 



'' MS. exhibited by Lord Aldenham at the English Church History Exhibition, St. Albans, 190;. 



'' He had been presented to the living by Charles I in Feb. 1638-9 (Ca/. S. P. Dom. 1638-9, p. 505) 

 on the cession of Archer, the previous vicar, who had deserted his cure (ibid. 1637-8, p. 563). 



89 Lords' Joum. v, 66z. ^<"> Ibid. 667. 



^ Pory was made archdeacon of Middlesex in 1 660 (Hennessy, Novum Repert. 9). 



' Lords^ Joum. v, 690. ' Ibid. 



* cf. ibid, ix, 26, in the case of William Tumour, vicar of Barkway. ° Ibid, viii, 130. 



« Ibid. 257 (St. Andrew's, Hertford); ix, 652 (Digswell) ; 96 (Radwell) ; 444 (Ashwell) ; 567 

 (Barley) ; 612 (Little Hormead) ; x, 403 (St. Albans) ; 579 (Barkway). 



' See Shaw, op. cit. i, i lo-i 1 ; ii, 188. » q^I. S. P. Dom. 1656-7, p. 96, 



343 



