258 SOCIAL LIFE IN GUERNSEY. 



Our early Reformers had, undoubtedly, set the example 

 of persecution and intolerance. The Church bells, with the 

 exception of one in each Church, were sold and the proceeds 

 devoted to Munitions of War for insular defence. All 

 pictures, images, painted glass, and crucifixes in the Churches 

 were demolished, and the wayside crosses and Calvarys which 

 abounded in every parish in the Island were destroyed. In 

 March 1552 some Roman Catholic priests were confined in 

 Castle Cornet, as appears by a copy of verses transcribed, if 

 not composed whilst in prison, by Sire Gruillaume Racquet, 

 R.C. Rector of the Castel, whose name we shall meet again 

 later on. In these verses the destruction of images, sacred 

 vessels and vestments, and the hardships to which they were 

 exposed by the persecutions of the rectors then in possession 

 of their benefices are shown. W 



" Vetements, livres, autelets, 

 Sont dejetes et mis a terre ; 

 ( Les ymages sont devalez, 



Brulea, et cassez ceux de pierre." 

 " Ceux qui firent cette chanson 



Oouchent sur la terre bien dure, 

 Pauvres prestres en la prison, 



Sans lits, sans feu, sans couverture !" 



But no sooner had Mary come to their throne than the 

 consequences of this intolerance began to be felt. 



On June 7th, 1554, we find Richard Maindonald the 

 Sheriff, and Nicholas Trohardy, the Comptroller, bound over 

 to keep the peace, because the former had publicly stated that 

 Trohardy, as a robber (" depredateur ") of Churches was 

 unfit to be Comptroller ; while Mary had not been more than 

 a month on the throne before the following significant case 

 was brought into Court. 



By his will Edward VI. had cut out — on the ground of 

 illegitimacy — his two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, from their 

 lawful inheritance, and bequeathed his throne to his cousin, 

 Lady Jane Grey, who was married to Guildford Dudley, son 

 of. the Duke of Northumberland. She was crowned on July 

 10th, 1553, but her reign only lasted nine days, and by 

 popular acclamation Queen Mary reigned in her stead, and 

 Lady Jane was executed the following year. It is evident 

 that our then Governor, Sir Peter Meautys, who had 

 succeeded Sir Richard Long, was one of Lady Jane's sup- 

 porters ; for on August 2nd, 1553, .Jacques Sohier, aged 24, 

 deposed that last July, between eight and nine o'clock in the 

 morning, on his way home from the town, and while at the 

 (1) L'Histoire du Cotentin et de ses lies. T. iii. pp. 312-3, 



