while the vicar of High Wycombe, a notable puritan, openly proclaimed that they were ' lazy, unconscionable, ambitious ministers ' who would not preach twice on a Sunday. [1] The habit of wandering from church to church for the sake of hearing sermons was alluded to in a letter of Dr. Farmery to Archbishop Laud as common in this county.[2]
As might be expected, the king's unfortunate ' Book of Sports ' gave great offence in Buckinghamshire, and a large number of incum- bents refused to read it from the pulpit [3] : three were even suspended for so doing,[4] the most notable of these being Thomas Valentine of Chalfont St. Giles, [5] afterwards a member of the Assembly of Divines.'[6] Some who did read it expressed their disapproval of it in other ways, as, for instance, by concluding with a prayer ' We beseech Thee, Good Lord, stand up and defend Thy sabbaths from profanation '[7] and the like. The gentry insisted on holding musters in the churchyards (John Hampden and Sir Edmund Verney, who afterwards took opposite sides in the national quarrel, were both notable offenders in this respect) ; and if the clergy appealed against this, their patrons would ' storm like so many termagants.[8] Elections of parish officers were often held in the churches with much[9] brabbling and jangling.' 8 There was also a growing contempt for holy days, and terrible irreverence in church at divine service ; not only did the majority refuse to bow at the holy name, but they usually sat through the whole service and sermon (some- times with their hats on throughout), or even lay full length along their pews. It is easy to see how acts of this kind, proceeding in the case of some from conscientious scruples, would be imitated by many who neither cared for God nor regarded man. A justice of the peace, one of the very few who sympathized with the Laudian revival, remarked to
- ↑ S.P. Dom. Chas. I. cccxxvi. 1 8. Gerard Dobson was vicar, and continued during the Com- monwealth.
- ↑ ' That sort of people that run from their own parishes after affected preachers are the most troublesome . . . especially in Buckingham and Bedfordshires, where they find great abettors." S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cclrzi. 82. There are instances given under the visitation of 1635, ibid, ccxcvi. 6.
- ↑ This we know from the Metropolitical Visitation of 1634, 'bid. cclixiv. 12 ; and Andrewes in his letter to Sir John Lambe said the book was read by very few incumbents in the deaneries of Burnham, Wycombe and Wendover ; ibid, cclxxxvi. 86.
- ↑ Gladman of Chesham, Worcester of Olney, Valentine of Chalfont St. Giles. Of the first case no details are given. The Vicar of Olney sent constables to stop the dancing in his parish after evensong, and then refused to read the Book of Sports. He was suspended I July, 1636 ; but after some shuffling read the book on I November. S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cccviii. 25 and cccxxxv. 19. This account is Sir John Lambe's.
- ↑ He was suspended in 1635 first, and apparently gave in shortly after and let his curate read the book. In 1636 he fell again under suspicion, and in spite of attempts to bribe Sir John Lambe and a petition sent in by twenty-eight of his parishioners, was again suspended, and an act of sequestration was entered and executed against him later. In July 1638 he petitioned Archbishop Laud on the ground that he ought not to be freshly punished for the same offence. The matter was referred again to Sir John Lambe, who was requested by the archbishop to absolve Valentine temporarily until it was seen whether he seriously intended to amend. He was absolved 13 July. This account is mainly taken from Valen- tine's own petition, S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cccxcv. 37, 49 ; and also from ibid, cccxix. 62 (a letter to Sir John Lambe, endorsed ' 5 bribe enclosed ') cccxxxv. 19, etc. Bishop Williams' quarrel with Sir John Lambe further complicated this affair.
- ↑ Records of Bucks, vi. 65.
- ↑ S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cclxxxvi. 86 (Andrewes to Laud).
- ↑ S. P. Dom. Jas. I. clxxiii. 4 (misplaced because carelessly dated 1624 : see Records of Bucks, vii. 101).
- ↑ S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cclxxix. 36.
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