In his see of London the activity of Bonner was remarked there the inquiry seems to have been begun Longmelford com. Suff. vacne concess p. dum epum hac vice. 6 Aug. Dus Robt. Rosemgrome ad eccl. de Chelwouithe p. mort. ad colla. epi p. devolnem. 20 Dus Rog. Rousell ad eccl. de Estlidford p. mort. ad pres. Tho. Molins de Thornwell in Com. Dorset. vacne concess. p. Edw. Knoyle arm. 1 Oct. Dus Egid Sayntharlie ad eccl. de Chilton resig. ad pres. Reg. Phil. et Mary. 24 Jan. Joh. Blaxton L.L.B. ad eccl. de Bedminster una cum capella de Radminster una cum capella de Radcliffe eid. unit. et annex. p. mort. mag. Tho. Norman ad pres. Joh. Sarum. epi. 25 Feb. Mag. Joh. Rixman ad preb. de Ilton p. resig. mag. Jacobi Basset ad colla. epi. 27 28 Mag. Will. Wagglesworthe A.B. ad eccl. de Hawkbridge cum capella curata de Wethipole eid. eccl. p. resig. mag. Baldwin Flyer A.M. ad pres. Thos. Sothorne et Joh. Blaxton cleric. vacne. concess. p. Leonard Chamberlayne mil. Dus Ric. Scotson ad vicar. de Compton Dundon p. resig. dus. Joh. Errington. 5 Mar. Dus Tho. Medens ad eccl. de Gotehill p. mort. dus Joh. Crispen ad pres. Rob. Lange, Ric. Northe, et Will. Hammen gen. 9 Eod. die dus Tho. Stolye ad vicar. de Ilton p. resig. mag. Dus Stephen Dampyor ad eccl. de Rympton p. mort. dus Eod. die Will. Radbard A.M. ad eccl. de Aller p. mort. mag. Ric. Martendale ad pres. Franc. com. Huntington. 31 Mar. 1556. Dus Joh. Jeffries ad vicar. de Barthford p. resig. dus. Will. Stourton ad pres. Walt. Glenan notar. publ. vacne concess. Decan, et Capell. Bristoll. Some account of this Register and these deprivations is given by Strype, v. 252. There are in Rymer (xx. pp. 312, 337, 442, 448, 464, 485: also 381, 433, 434) some lists of presentations in every part of the kingdom, from the patent rolls: amounting to more than five hundred which seem to Fave been cases in which the crown was patron. Several of the Bath and Wells diocese, above given, are among them. The crown patronage was much extended at this time through the troubles of bishops. For instance, it included Cranmer's patronage because of his attainder. before any commission: a Commission was first in operation there and the Register of the Bishop displays, in an orderly enumeration, the vacancies of benefices that occurred through natural death, voluntary resignation, or legitimate deprivation. In that curious record, which seems to have been unconsulted hitherto, may be compared the alternate prevalence of these causes, not only at this time, but through the reign. From Bonner's "In this week (beginning Feb. 25) all such priests within the diocese of London as were married, were divorced from their livings, and commanded to bring their wives within a fortnight, that they might be likewise divorced from them." Fox. In another place (long before this one) Fox relates that Bonner got his commission at the beginning of March; on which he proceeded to force many to be divorced from their wives. He only mentions two or three however; among them one Draper. Perhaps Bonner was not so bad as he might have been. A separate commission was issued for Westminster to Gardiner. Rym. xv. 376: among those who took the place of the expelled canons and prebends may be observed Francis Mallet, Ib. p. 382. + In Bonner's Register there are about seventy pages of Collations and Institutions to vacant benefices, from the date of his restoration to his second deprivation. They may be exhibited thus These records seem to have escaped notice: but in the Harleian MS. 6955, fol. 57, nine or ten of the deprivations are given in full. restoration to the end of the year on which we are engaged, the number of benefices in his diocese that were voided by deprivation was one hundred and twentytwo; by resignation thirty-one; and thirty-two by death. In the two following years the number of deprivations and resignations together decreased to about seventy; the deaths were about sixty. Thence onward to the end of the reign the rate of death was extraordinarily high; voluntary resignations continued to be numerous; but there were only a few cases of deprivation. Upon the whole, an exceptive diocese yielded a large return; the sum total of the London clergy who resigned or were deprived throughout the reign was near two hundred and fifty, and bore a high proportion to about seven hundred. benefices and other promotions. In London, for there the humours of this queer disturbance have been better preserved than elsewhere, the opposite conduct of Chicken and Marsh, two clergymen, awoke the sentiment of indignation or commiseration. Chicken of Cold Abbey would have relieved himself immaturely of inconvenience by selling his wife: the expedient was not tolerated, and round the city by an angry mob was carted Chicken.* The sepulcre of the church in Chepe, of which Marsh had been deprived, was found on Easter morning empty of the deposited crucifix and pix. The profanity could not be traced to the late incumbent, on whom suspicion rested: but he was found to be living again with the wife, from whom he had been recently parted by the commission: he expressed in court before the Lord Mayor the opinion that the Queen had done him wrong to take both his living and his wife: whereupon the sword of justice smote swiftly, dividing the wife into * Machyn's Diary, p. 48. This was in the previous November. But "carted Chicken" as he was henceforth called seems to have succeeded in his object of keeping his living: for he is much reviled by Bale in his Declaration. one and the husband into the other of the prisons called the Counters.* In London it was that the penitent Scory, the late bishop of Chichester, separated himself from his wife, receiving a certificate to that effect from Bonner: † and that Doctor Rudd publicly lamented that ever he was married, admitting that he could not have been married by God's law. In London the penance of those who reformed themselves by divorce was performed with peculiar solemnity: and priests were seen in Paul's and at Paul's Cross, habited in white shirts, bearing tapers, marching in the front of processions, or standing humbly before the pulpit, and receiving the discipline of the rod at the hands of the bishop or of the preacher.‡ In the diocese of Norwich the number both of the deprived and of preferments was greater than in any other: but the proportion between them was no higher : and out of eleven hundred and twenty parishes three hundred and thirty-five, that is, less than one in four, endured the extrusion of incumbents. In the smaller see of Ely there is found a higher proportion; but from an imperfect register nothing can be concluded.|| There * Fox. † Burnet, Records, No. 14. Machyn, p. 69, gives Rudd's case. Nicholl's Narratives, p. 289, contains an account of several priests being disciplined. § Burnet (in Part iii.) says that Tanner sent him that number of deprivations for Norwich. The total of parishes in that diocese, given in the text, is taken from Speed's Catalogue: which, it may be mentioned, may be seen conveniently at the end of Harpsfield's Hist. Anglicana Ecclesiastica. Cole's MS. (Additional in the British Museum), No. 5828, contains an abstract of Thirlby's Register at Ely, for 1554 and 1555. The original is imperfect, wanting four leaves. It exhibits fifteen deprivations, as follows 30 Sept. Vicarius generalis (Jn. Fuller L.D.) admisit D. Wm. Whalley cler. ad rectoriam de Landbeck per canonicam deprivationem Mag. Matt. Parker S.T.P. ult. incumbentis, ad presentat. S. Soc. CCCC. Ipsumque present. instituit. 29 Oct. Admissus fuit D. Ric. Nicholson ad Vicar. de Wytcham per can. depriv. D. Seth. Bugg clerici conjugati ult. incumb. ac vicarius institutus. we may lament the misfortunes of Parker, the future archbishop of Canterbury, who lost all his preferments:* 17 Jan. 1554 (5) Admissus fuit M. Thos. Wilson S.T.P. ad ecclesiam de Caton alias Catys p. c. d. M. Jac. Wilson ult. rectoris ad pres. J. Mear unius Bedellor. Univrs. Cant. virtute advocationis per Mag. et Socios Aulæ Divæ Catherinæ in Acad. Cant. &c. 6 Nov. 1554, Wm. Lath ad vic. de Stapylford p. can. depr. Rob. Harewood clar. conj. &c. 26 Jan. Jn. Adams ad eccl. de Hardwick per dep. can. D. Mich. Stewet &c. 15 Dec. Dus (Episcopus) ex solo charitatis intuitu contulit D. Matt. Gylbye cleric. vicar. de Elme cum capella de Consell p. d. Bern. Hartley. 12 Ap. 1554. Admissus fuit M. Jn. Young ad Preb. illam in S. Cath. Eli. p. can. dep. M. Parker. 1 May. Hug. Browne ad Vic. de Waterbeach p. d. ult. incumbt. ad present. Reginæ. Here two folios or four leaves are lost. Then follow more notices of presentations among which 14 Oct. 1555. Edw. Wartby ad eccl. S. Botulphi Cant. p. d. Thos. Camerycke. 19 Jan. 1555. Rd. Mewing ad vic. de Harston p. d. Th. Hyll. ult. incumb. Item, vacante vicaria Eccl. paroch. de Bodbusham p. can. dep. D. Jos. Hullier ult. incumb. ejusd. qui postea propter errores et erroneas opiniones Fidei Catholicæ ac S. Matris Ecclesiæ determinationib. contrarias sicut Hereticus condemnatus atque igni traditus et combustus, admissus fuit D. Rob. Cragge ad eand. vicar. 8 Feb. 1555 per M. Thos. Yale Commiss. ad present. dom. nost. Regis et Reginæ. 8 Feb. Thos. Buston ad vicar. de Shelford Magna p. d. ult. incumb. 27 July 1556. Thos. Pawnchay ad eccl. de Silva Longa p. can dep. Jn. Pluson ult. incumb. 5 Mar. 1556. Alex. Fortnore ad vic. de Wellenham Magna p. dep. Wm. Walker. 16 Mar. 1556. Fran. Aldford ad rect. de Croxton p. d. Jn. Browne. 3 Dec. Galfrid Astley ad eccl. Castel Camps p. dep. Ric. Wadnowe. As to another diocese, Lincoln, the reader might confer a note about the benefices that were filled, being vacant, in 1556, when Bishop White was translated to Winchester, Chapter XXVIII. of this work, further on in this volume. There was an unusual number of resignations then, though there were no deprivations. * He lost the prebend of Coxingham, the rectory of Landbeache, and the college of Stoke, where he had founded a grammar school. Itaque bonis et possessionibus suis exutus, nulloque sibi ex tam opimis beneficiis stipendio aut lege publice concesso aut a quocunque privatim aut gratis persuluto, toto illo evangelicis funesto Mariæ regno, humili conditione contentus, infra parietes cujusdam sui amici abditus, vitam egenam atque inopem produxit." Antiquit. Brit. Eccl. 538. |