200
NOTES AND QUERIES. 12 s. i. MAR. 4, ime.
library—would there were many such!—that is gratefully remembered by students of theology and history in London.
Dr. Peel's extracts and summaries in the 'Calendar' show us the Elizabethan Puritan clergy as a painful and zealous folk, perverse with the perversity which accompanies the endurance of persecution, and wont to give railing for railing, but shrewd and learned, and counting as dross all worldly advantages which could be purchased only at the price of a conscience that had lost its peace.
A typical example of the quarrels between them and the bishops is the case of Axton, pastor, as he wished himself to be called, of Morton Corbett, who carried on a long disputation with the Bishop of Lichfield. The matters in dispute were the signing with the cross in baptism, the lawfulness of episcopacy, the use of organs and "curious singing," with appeals to the authority of Jerome and Chrysostom, Calvin, Beza, and Luther. The main rock, however, on which the disputants split was undoubtedly the wearing of the surplice. The Bishop, who was not indisposed to make concessions, said:—
"Mr. Axton, you shall yelde somewhat unto me, and I will lykewise yeld unto you what I can. For the crosse in baptisme, I will never require of you, and for the surplesse, yf you will weare it but some tymes, or but twise or thrise, or yf you will weare it but once, I will urge you no further."
To Axton, however, the surplice seemed "a polluted and a cursed marke of the Beaste"; and to the Bishop his refusal to comply in this matter was an equivalent to the denial of the Royal Supremacy. There could be no reconciliation of such opposites, and in the end the "pastor" was deprived of his living.
If these volumes give a vivid picture of the Puritan zealot, they give an equally vivid "picture of his brother the ordinary conforming parson. " The revolutions through which the Church passed after 1551 were not calculated," says Prof. Firth in his Preface, " to increase the learning -and efficiency of the clergy." One might add that these revolutions and subsequent legis- lation were not calculated to increase their spiritual fervour. The Elizabethan settle- ment was, no doubt, a triumph of statecraft ; it delayed the acute religious crisis practically for three generations ; but if there be any truth in the account the Puritans give of the War- wickshire clergy- to take one of the counties selected then Elizabeth's triumph of policy must have been paid for by much spiritual deadness. The list of clergy in Shakespeare's county in 1586 includes items of extraordinary interest. Hugh Bate, Vicar of Packwood, is said to be "an old priest and massemonger, a drunkard and dumbe, and as it is thought a sorcerer." Barre of Honiley is " dumbe and unlearned, he can neither preach nor reade well, he could not one dale reade the commandements for want of his spectacles. A woolwinder and girthmaker by his usuall occupa- tion. An old pardoner in Queen Maries time and yett remaineth P9pish." Instances such as these might be multiplied though it would be an rror to accept the allegations as literally true.
Dr. Peel, we may note in passing, has either not been particularly happy in his transcription of Warwickshire names, or has worked from a corrupt MS. A reference to Dugdale would have tept him from such forms as Powstell (Foleshill),
TJston (Ufton), Astoe (Ashow), and Subnets
(Bubbenhall). Borston coming in proximity to
Frankton is far more likely to be Boarton-on-
Dunsmoor than Barston, though the name of the
vicar, Mr. Proud, oddly suggests Shakespeare's
enigmatic " Puff of Barson." " Haseley "
coupled with Billesley should read Haselor.
Dr. Peel has laid all future historians of ecclesiastical history in Elizabeth's time under a very considerable obligation. Such books as his are foundations upon which the fabric of history is laid.
The Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. By H. W. Fincham. (W. H. & L. Collingridge, Qs. net.)
THE first edition of the ' Guide to the Remains of the Ancient Priory ' being exhausted, a second has lately been published under the above title. It has been to a considerable extent rewritten and brought down to date, including a brief, but sufficient, resum of the history of the old Knights Hospitallers. The little volume, however, is chiefly directed to a description of the present aims of the society which now bears its name, and the present state of the ancient buildings which it occupies.
These consist only of St. John's Gate and certain preferential 'claims on the Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, with the crypt beneath it ; but in the course of the last few years they have been so renovated, decorated, and enlarged by their present occupants that then 1 former owners would find considerable difficulty in recognizing them. Special regard has, how- ever, been most conscientiously given to the preservation, as far as possible, of all that is old in them, and the newer additions show all the excellent taste which invariably marked the work of the late Mr. J. Oldrid Scott', the architect who was engaged upon them.
Mr. Fincham, the author, can certainly look back with Satisfaction upon the restoration, to which he has devoted the last twenty -five years of his life, and he is to be congratulated upon the book before us. It is intended as a guide-book for visitors to the institution and its valuable contents, ancient and modern, and it is admirably adapted for that purpose.
10 C0mBp0nfotrts,
EDITORIAL communications should be addressed
to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries '"Adver-
tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub-
lishers " at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery
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PRINCIPAL SALMON and MR. H. S. BERESFORD WEBB. Forwarded.
MR. H. S. BRANDRETH. The Bull " Unigenitus " was issued by Pope Clement XI. in 1713. It condemned as heretical 101 propositions drawn from an annotated edition of the Gospels in French by Pasquier Quesnel. The book was Jansenist in tendency, but had, on its first publication, been approved by the authorities of the Church. Pressure on the part of the Jesuits brought about its condemnation. The Bull is famous and important as being the definitive decision against the Jansenists.
