ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



give an account of their conformity, but none of them did so. Before he 

 could take any further proceedings with them Vaughan was translated and 

 the Nonconformists were left to be dealt with by his successor, George Lloyd, 

 This bishop's decided leaning to the Puritans seems to evince itself in the 

 delay in the subsequent proceedings.^"^ Out of the nine only two can be 

 proved to have been deprived in 1605 or 1606. The only other clerical 

 name mentioned in this episode was that of William Langley, the moderate 

 Puritan rector of Prestwich. On 28 November, 1604, he appeared before 

 the bishop and made submission, but being afterwards dissatisfied he resigned 

 his living before 10 September, 16 10. 



We are thus left with the result that in the early part of James's reign the 

 provable cases of deprivation for Nonconformity do not exceed six at the out- 

 side, and may not exceed two or three. Such a result points to one of two 

 facts : either that the bishop of Chester, as is known to be the case, was 

 exceedingly lenient, or that the Nonconformist element in the county, although 

 strong in the element of talent and missionary fervour, was singularly patriotic 

 and non-militant. 



Under Thomas Morton, who succeeded Lloyd as bishop of Chester in 

 1616, there was a renewed attempt at questioning the Puritans. Of this 

 episode we get a one-sided account in Thomas Paget of Blackley's edition of 

 John Paget's Defence of Church Government, 1 64 1 . But this account simply 

 mentions generally that divers Nonconformists in the diocese, including him- 

 self, were summoned to the Ecclesiastical Commission at Chester, presumably 

 in 1 6 17 or 161 8, and that after converse the bishop undertook their dismissal 

 from the said court. Paget says further that Morton's successor, John 

 Bridgeman, bishop of Chester from 1619, did not move in the matter at first 

 beyond suspending a few Nonconformists, until driven thereto by fear of the 

 archbishop of York's visitation. When he did move, his action was even 

 more moderate than Morton's, for he left Paget untouched at Blackley, and 

 the later proceedings emanated from the Ecclesiastical Commission at York. 



The course of Puritanism in the county therefore under James, if not 

 smooth, was certainly not exceedingly rough. Indeed, but for the publica- 

 tion of the so-called Book of Sports, James's reign would possess little signifi- 

 cance in the religious history of Lancashire. As to this latter episode, a good 

 deal of ex post facto misconception exists. The view has been advanced, even 

 by historians of the highest repute, that the hostility to Sunday sports was 

 clerical in its basis, i.e. was due to the moral fervour of a Puritanism which 

 was, under James, changing its character — which was, that is, leaving the 

 ground of the Vestiarian squabble and occupying the higher ground of 

 missionary fervour against national immorality. As far as Lancashire is con- 

 cerned there is no justification for such a view. The simple truth is that all 

 through EHzabeth's reign the civil power had attempted, both by legislation 



^^ Richard Midgeley the elder, formerly vicar of Rochdale and still a licensed preacher in the county, 

 has no record of fiirther proceedings against him. His son Joseph, then vicar of Rochdale and more uncom- 

 promising in his Puritanism than his father, had no surplice, and the communicants at Rochdale received 

 sittmg. Action was taken against him and he was deprived. John Bourne, fellow of Manchester (the John 

 Knox of Manchester), apparently remained untouched, though he was convened before the bishop of Chester 

 in Dec. 1609, and was temporarily suspended in 1633. Ellis Saunderson, vicar of Bolton, James Gosnall, 

 preacher at Bolton, and Thomas Hunt, minister of Oldham, were not disturbed, although the last-named was 

 reported at the chancellor's visitation in 1 608 for not wearing the surplice. As to Richard Rothwell and James 

 Ashworth, there is no evidence of proceedings in 1 605. Edward Walsh, vicar of Blackburn, was deprived in 1 606. 



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