they might be profitably employed in reclaiming the people from ignorance and popery. This he recommended, not because he liked them, but because he wished to get rid of them.*

RALPH LEVER, A. M. was educated in King's college, Cambridge, and afterwards archdeacon of Northumberland, but he resigned this preferment in 1573, when he was succeeded by Mr. Francis Bunney. In 1577 he succeeded his brother, the celebrated Mr. Thomas Lever, as master of Sherborn hospital, near Durham. He was one of the canons in the church of Durham, and deeply concerned in drawing up the articles against Mr. Whittingham, whom he most probably succeeded in the office of dean. He is, notwithstanding this, denominated a_puritan. His assertions concerning the canon law, the English papists, and the ecclesiastical affairs of this realm, are still preserved.§ One of the same name was rector of Snatterton in Norfolk, in 1588, where his remains were interred, June 3, 1605; but whether this was the same person is perhaps doubtful.||

WILLIAM DREWET was committed to Newgate by the bishops, in 1580, for not consenting, it is said, to the traditions and filthy ceremonies of antichrist. He was of opinion, that men could not worship God in spirit and in truth, so long as they maintained human traditions, worldly ordinances, and popish ceremonies. How long he remained in prison we are not able to learn.¶

JOHN NASH, a zealous puritan minister, was committed prisoner to the Marshalsea for nonconformity. From the prison he wrote a bold letter, dated January, 1580, to the bishops and clergy in convocation. In this letter, a copy of which is still preserved, he styles himself The Lord's Prisoner, and boldly exposes the manifold errors and corruptions of the established church.**

* Strype's Aylmer, p. 55, 56.

+ Wood's Athenæ, vol. p. 356, 671.

Strype's Parker, p. 275.

Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 319. ii. 514.

|| Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, vol. i. p. 285.

MS. Register, p. 289.

** Ibid. p. 291–298.

MR. EVANS, a worthy and conscientious minister, was presented by the Earl of Warwick to the vicarage of Warwick; but Dr. Whitgift, then bishop of Worcester, refused his allowance. When the worthy earl sent him to his grace, requesting that he might be admitted with a favourable subscription, the bishop said, "O, I know you, Mr. Evans, to be worthy of a better place than Warwick. I would very gladly gratify my lord; but there is a Lord in heaven whom I fear; and, therefore, I cannot admit you without subscription." Though the good man offered to subscribe in all points as far as the law required, the bishop would not admit him, unless he would enter into bonds to observe all things in the Book of Common Prayer. Upon this, Mr. Evans boldly addressed him, saying, "Will the law then permit you thus to play the tyrant, bishop? I shall see a premunire upon you one day for these pranks."*

RICHARD PROWD was a puritan minister of Burton-uponDunmore. In the year 1580 he wrote a very affecting letter to Lord Burleigh, giving a melancholy account of the state of religion, produced by the suppression of the religious exercises; and by forbidding ministers and others meeting together, to pray for the preservation of the protestant religion in so dangerous a crisis as the present, when there was a prospect of the queen's marriage with a papist. He expressed his doubts to his lordship whether he dealt so plainly with her majesty as the importance and his knowledge of these things required, and warmly urged him to interpose in the present alarming crisis. But it does not appear what effect this letter produced.+

JOHN HOOKE was minister at Wroxall in Warwickshire, but was suspended in 1583 for nonconformity. This was doubtless for refusing subscription to Whitgift's three articles. He continued a long time under the ecclesiastical sentence, and whether he was ever restored is rather doubtful. His annual stipend was only 5l. 6s. 8d.

JOSEPH NICHOLLS was minister in Kent, a laborious and faithful servant of Christ, endowed with great piety and rich ministerial accomplishments. In 1583 he was suspended for refusing subscription to Whitgift's three articles, when he united with his brethren, the ministers of Kent, in addressing the archbishop for relief. He is styled "the ringleader of the puritans."+

JOHN HARRISON was vicar of Histon in Cambridgeshire, and a conscientious nonconformist. For refusing subscription to Whitgift's articles he was twice warned, by virtue of his canonical obedience, to subscribe, but he still refused. In the end, when sentence should have been inflicted upon him, the commission was called in; and so he continued vicar of Histon, without observing the order of the Book of Common Prayer.

WILLIAM FLEMING was rector of Beccles in Suffolk, but because he could not, with a good conscience, subscribe to Whitgift's articles, he endured frequent molestation in the ecclesiastical courts, and at length, July 23, 1584, was suspended and deprived by Bishop Scambler. This is attested by Richard Skinner, the bishop's register.§

JAMES GOSWELL was a puritan minister of considerable eminence, most probably at Bolton in Lancashire, who corresponded with the venerable Mr. Anthony Gilby, of Ashbyde-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. Two of his letters we have. seen; and though they are without date, they were evidently written about the year 1584. In the latter, written from Bolton, he says, "I have no news to write out of this county. Here are great store of Jesuits, seminaries, masses, and plenty of whoredom. The first sort our sheriff courseth pretty well. Other good news is, that the Bishop of Canterbury has not yet, God be thanked, stung us with his articles, which in the south parts have so great power, that, by report, they have quenched the Lord's lights nearly to the number of two hundred."

See Art. Dudley Fenner.

+ MS. Register, p. 389.-Strype's Whitgift, p. 140. Baker's MS. Collec. vol. xii. p. 211.

Baker's MS. Collec. vol. xxxii. p. 436, 427.

MS. Register, p. 585, 586.

JOHN HOPKINS was the puritanical vicar of Nasing in Essex, to which he was preferred in 1570, but was afterwards persecuted for nonconformity. About the year 1584 he was deprived of his benefice, for refusing subscription to Whitgift's three articles..

THOMAS FARRAR, minister of Langham in Essex, was charged with rebellion against the ecclesiastical laws, and suspended by Bishop's Aylmer's chancellor for not wearing the surplice. On receiving the ecclesiastical censure, he procured a letter from certain respectable persons, addressed to the bishop himself, soliciting his favour and the removal of the sentence. This letter he carried to his lordship at Fulham, November 14, 1586; when, after demanding his reasons for not wearing the surplice, he said to Mr. Farrar, "that except he and his companions would be conformable, he and his brethren the bishops, in good faith, would, in one quarter of a year, turn them all out of the church;" and dismissed him without relieving him from his suspension.t

JOHN OXENBRIDGE, B. D. was minister at Southam in Warwickshire, and afterwards at Coventry, where he was celebrated for his great learning, piety, and usefulness. In 1576 he was convened before the high commission for nonconformity; but it does not appear what punishment was inflicted upon him. About the year 1583 he was again called before his ecclesiastical judges, and suspended from his ministry. He was one of the heads of the associations; he subscribed the "Book of Discipline;" and ended his days among his friends at Coventry.§

MR. HARSNET was a learned and pious divine of Pembroke-hall, Oxford, but was persecuted for nonconformity. In the year 1586 he was convened before the Bishop of Oxford, and cast into prison for refusing to wear the surplice; but how long he remained under confinement we cannot learn.l

Newcourt's Repert. Eccl. vol. ii. p. 432. + MS. Register, p. 800, 805.

Strype's Grindal, p. 215.

Clark's Lives annexed to Martyrologie, p. 161.-Neal's Puritans,

vol. i. p. 423.

MS. Register, p. 801.

NICHOLAS WILLIAMSON was minister of Castle-Ashby in Northamptonshire, but was suspended in the year 1586 for refusing subscription to Whitgift's three articles. He continued a long time under the sentence; and whether he was ever restored is uncertain.*

MR. GIBSON was rector of Ridlington in Rutlandshire, but often convened before the Bishop of Peterborough, and, about the year 1586, deprived of his living for refusing subscription to Whitgift's articles. Being driven from his flock and his benefice, he went to London, and entered a suit against the bishop; but with what success we have not been able to learn. Indeed, he had not much prospect of success in contending with one of the persecuting prelates. Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Wilbloud, two other ministers in the same county, were at the same time both suspended, when their livings were sequestered, and they were threatened with deprivation. But, laying their case before Sir Thomas Cecil, their worthy patron, he went himself to the archbishop, and procured an order to the bishop for their re

storation.t

MR. HORROCKS, a worthy divine of puritan principles, was vicar of Kildwick in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the year 1587 he was convened before the high commission of York, committed prisoner to the castle, and, having continued there for some time, was enjoined a public recantation, for the singular crime of suffering Mr. John Wilson, another puritan minister, to preach in his pulpit, though it was his native place.

SAMPSON SHEFFIELD, A. M. of Christ's college, Cambridge, was one of the preachers to the university. Having delivered a sermon, in the year 1587, containing certain erroneous and scandalous positions, as they are called, he was `convened before his ecclesiastical judges, though it does not appear what punishment was inflicted upon him. These positions were the following:-" That it is unlawful for a minister of the gospel to be a civil magistrate. That in the present troubles about conformity, brethren conspire against

*MS. Register, p. 203,

+ Ibid.

P. 714.

Ibid. p. 787.