A HISTORY OF NORFOLK to King Charles, and when the civil war broke out came into prominence as a divine of Presbyterian sympathies,^ but after putting before the king his opinion as to the position of the episcopate, and after much anxious conference with Calamy, Chalmers, and Baxter, he accepted the bishopric and the settle- ment. Contrary to the custom of those who change sides, he was very moderate in his treatment of dissenters. To the deanery the king appointed Dr. John Crofts, whose brother Lord William Crofts, had been with Charles in his exile and was in high favour at court. A picturesque description survives of the bishop's first visitation after the re-establishment of the old order of things^ : — After the Lord Bishop of Norwich his return from Walsingham, he held four days of visitation at the Cathedral in Norwich, & had several learned & godly Divines preacht before him. On Friday, 7 November, his Lordship having appointed to hold a visitation at the Town of North Walsham (a Town where seditious Ministers have been as busy as any in that diocese) whereof notice having been taken by that worthy person, Sir William Paston, who considering the cold entertainment a Bishop was like to find there, invited his Lordship with his Officers and whole Retinue to lodge at his house in Oxnead the night before (being but 3 miles short of North Walsham), which invitation his Lordship most kindly accepted. And that nothing might be wanting to testify to his Lordship how free a welcome he might expect at Oxnead, Sir Robert Paston, eldest son to Sir William, one of the Deputy Lieutenants of the County, and a member of the Honourable House of Commons, went with his coach and an handsome retinue of servants, to wait upon his Lordship, and brought him and his Chancellor in his own coach to Oxnead (his Lordship's coach being filled with his Chaplain, Register, and other Retinue), where his Lordship had a noble reception, and was the next morning waited upon by Sir Robert Paston, and carried in his coach to North Walsham, being met by the way by hundreds of his orthodox Clergie, the Loyal Gentry, and other persons of Qualitie, who waited upon his Lordship into the Town, and as soon as he entred the Market Place, he was saluted from the Free School by a youth, son to Robert Jegon Esqrc, and grandchild to a former Bishop of Norwich, in a handsome Latin oration : His Lordship, calling him from the scaffold to the coach side, took him by the hand and thankt him by the name of Little Nephew. After which his Lordship went to church, and after sermon ended, made a pious speech to his Clergie, exhorting them above all things, to holiness of life and soundness of doctrine, as the most excellent expedients for the Unity of the Church, of which he expressed his most passionate desires. After Sermon and Dinner ended, he returned to Church, where he confirmed Divers persons both of the Elder and Younger sort ; which holy action he prefaced with a most solemn and serious exhortation, declaring the nature, use, and end of that holy ordinance : Having finished his work at this place, he was reconducted by Sir Robert Paston that night to Oxnead, where he found again the like reception ... he was again waited upon by Sir Robert Paston home to Norwich. On Munday next his Lordship holds another visitation at Windham, and after that intends to visit the City of Norwich, and so finish his whole Visitation. After Puritanism came reaction. But under Bishop Reynolds the Con- venticle Act of 1664 and the Five Mile Act of 1666 were administered with as little rigour as possible. A correspondence between Sir Thomas Meadows and Lord Townshend and others about nonconformity in Yarmouth in 1670' ' He was one of the Westminster Assembly of Divines 1643, though he put off taking the covenant until March, 1644, and had been one of the committee of twenty-two appointed to examine and approve of ministers. He was ejected from the deanery of Christchurch in 1659.
- Add. MS. 6307, p. 69, Mercuriui Publkus, No. 47, 27 Nov. 1662.
' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1670, pp. 5 i 2-3. Messrs. Thaitcr and Huntingdon coming to the cushion in 1666, the Nonconformists who frequented the church forsook it, and the turbulent spirits who left the town returned, their meetings became public, and numbers increased, and not the least notice taken. This connivance put the Independents upon bringing Mr. Bridge to town, and Samuel Shipdham, a member of Bridge's congregation, solicited charity from all the Presbyterian party for their and the Independent ejected ministers. This gave the Independents such satisfaction that on their general and free contributions Bridge was brought back to town, and they flocked together in great numbers to Captain Raven, Bridge's father-in-law, who was proposed by Thaxter and Huntingdon for a common council man. . . . The faction increasing, one place would not suffice, and the grand meeting is now held at a house upon the quay near Huntingdon's house, where he puts no check upon them. . . . 298
