ceremonies, could neither know their accusers, nor enjoy the benefit of subjects:-Because, though the bishops condemned nonresidence as odious in itself, and injurious to the church of God; yet they tolerated it, and dispensed with it:-And because the said bishops did molest and deprive ministers for preaching the very same doctrines which they had themselves printed and published to the world." On these grounds, he was unwilling to submit his case to the determination of the two ecclesiastical judges, whose tender mercy was cruelty.* It will be proper also to observe, that he was no sooner brought under the ecclesiastical censure, than he made fresh application to the treasurer. He wrote two letters, the one dated May 31st, being the day following his censure, and the other the 3d of the following month. In these letters he gave an impartial account of the hard usage he had met with, earnestly soliciting his lordship's favourable attention to his unhappy case.+ Upon the reception of these letters, the lord treasurer, convinced of the injuries he had received, warmly espoused bis cause; and engaged Attorney Morrice, to undertake Mr. Cawdrey's defence, even after his suspension and deprivation. The learned lawyer, therefore, held the bishop's sentence to be null and void in law; because Mr. Cawdrey's benefice was not in Aylmer's diocese, and so not within his jurisdiction; and that the sentence was his lordship's sentence alone, and not the sentence of the commissioners. For by law the sentence should have been given in the name of all the com missioners present, and not in the name of one of them by the consent of the others, as in the present case. In addition to this, the bishop had declared expressly in his. decree, that the cause was controverted before him by virtue * Life of Aylmer, p. 134-138. + MS. Register, p 797, 798. Attorney James Morrice was a most able and learned barrister, a man of great piety, a zealous opposer of vice, and an avowed friend to the reformation. He was attorney of the court of wards, a member of parliament, and a zealous and courageous defender of the rights and liberties of the people, against all oppression. In the parliament of 1592, he moved the house to inquire into the proceedings of the bishops in spiritual courts, and how far they could justify their inquisition, their subscriptions, and their binding the queen's subjects to their good behaviour, contrary to the laws of God and the realm; their compelling men to take oaths to accuse themselves; and to deprive, degrade, and imprison them, and keep them in prison during their own pleasure. At the same time, he offered two bills to the house; one against the oath er officio, and the other against the illegal proceedings of the bishops, in which he was supported by Sir Francis Knollys and other great statesmen.—Strype's Whitgift, p. 387, 388. of his office, which could not be before the commissioners. And if the cause were depending before his lordship, by virtue of his office, how could the judgment, said Morrice, any other than his own? ...be And as to the sentence itself, the attorney held it to be contrary to law. For by law several other censures and punishments, as admonition, excommunication, and sequestration, were to be inflicted previous to deprivation. But in Mr. Cawdrey's case, that sentence which is the most severe, and ought to have been inflicted last, was inflicted first. This, therefore, was contrary to the statute, and not warranted by any of the queen's ecclesiastical laws. Thus Mr. Attorney Morrice endeavoured to make it appear, that the bishop's proceedings were illegal and oppressive. But the arguments of the learned barrister proved ineffectual. They were too weak to soften the mind of this relentless prelate. Mr. Cawdrey refusing to submit himself to the illegal and severe proceedings, was brought before Archbishop Whitgift and other high commissioners. He appeared at Lambeth, May 14, 1590; and after being severely threatened, he was degraded and deposed from the ministry, and made a mere layman. On this occasion, Whitgift urging him to conform, Mr. Cawdrey replied, saying, "I never refused to conform, as far as the law requires, and as a minister of Christ is in conscience bound." And one of the commissioners observing, that he was deprived for speaking against the Book of Common Prayer, our divine replied, that is not true; for it appears from my answers to the articles upon my oath, that it was for speaking against an inconvenience attending the book. If it were taken," says he, "as you have represented, and taken in the worst sense it could be, there was no deprivation by law, for the first offence. And according to law, I should have been indicted at the next assizes following, but was not; therefore, I am clear by the statute."+ Upon these tyrannical proceedings, Mr. Attorney Morrice recommended the lord treasurer to make the Bishop of London feel his lawless severities; and, said he, happily some remorse of conscience may move him to be more favourable. Though it might be offensive, he observed, to find fault with judicial proceedings, there was no evil in seeking to help the injured, to maintain daw and justice, and to make ecclesiastical judges more careful of their * Strype's Aylmer, p. 131, 132. + Ibid. p. 139, 140. proceedings in future. You need not be afraid of their frowns, especially as you have the law on your side.* But the attorney soon drew down their vengeance upon his own head. For this bold adventure in defending Mr. Cawdrey against the oppressions of the prelates, and for the motions which he made in parliament, as intimated in the above note, he was seized in the house by a serjeant at arms, discharged from his office in the court of the Duchy of Lancaster, disabled from any practice in his profession as a barrister at law, and kept some years prisoner in Tutbury castle, Staffordshire.‡ Mr. Cawdrey having experienced the above illegal and cruel usage, was advised to appeal to the court of exchequer, and proceed against his diocesan's chaplain, who had taken possession of his living. He made his appeal; and in the year 1591, the jurisdiction of the high commission court, together with its severe proceedings against Mr. Cawdrey, was argued before all the judges. Dr. Aubery, a learned civilian, and one of the high commissioners, confessed that their proceedings were not warrantable by the letter of the statute, and that no statute of the realm would justify the said proceedings; but what they had done was founded upon the old canon law still in force. And though their proceeding by way of inquisition, forcing the man to accuse himself, was warranted by no law whatever, the judges being of the same mind as the commissioners, confirmed their tyrannical proceedings, and left Mr. Cawdrey, with his family of eight children, to starve as a mere layman. Besides the good man having twentytwo journies to London, the suit cost his friends a round sum of money. But, as Mr. Neal justly observes, it was Strype's Aylmer, p. 143, 144. Heylin's Hist. of Pres. p. 320. This castle, now in a state of ruin, was formerly a spacious and strong place. Here Mary Queen of Scots, was, for a considerable time, in a state of confinement. This was occasioned by a jealousy and a quarrel arising betwixt her and Queen Elizabeth, when the latter, for her own safety, caused the former to be imprisoned. But what is most curious, during the queen's imprisonment in this castle, her extravagance was so great, that when she bathed, she bathed in wine. And in addition to the immense quantity of wine required for bathing, two tuns a month were not sufficient for her ordinary use. The Earl of Shrewsbury, in whose custody the queen was kept, and who appears then to have been governor of the castle, therefore applied to the lord treasurer, stating her extraordinary expenses; at the same time, soliciting some favourable allowance from the public treasure. Also there is preserved a most curious letter, from the Queen of Scots, to Queen Elizabeth, dated from Tutbury castle, March 14, 1569.-Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 538, 539. Appen. p. 61, 62. § Heylin's Hist, of Pres. p. 317.-Strype's Aylmer, p. 145, 146. a brave stand for the rights and liberties of the subject; and it so much staggered the archbishop, that he afterwards declined the business of the commission, and sent most of his prisoners to the star-chamber. Mr. Cawdrey having endured these troubles for the space of five years, and being almost ruined; the treasurer, his constant friend, compassionately feeling his manifold calamities, still warmly espoused his cause. He not only urged his diocesan, who had sequestered his living, and given it to his chaplain, to allow him some annual pension; but requested that so excellent and useful a preacher might be again restored to his ministry; in each of which, however, he most probably failed. Mr. Cawdrey united with his brethren in subscribing the "Book of Discipline."+ He was author of A Treasurie or Store-house of Similies, both Pleasaunt, Delightfull and Profitable for all Estates of Men in generall, newly collected into Heades and Commonplaces," 1609. In the preface to the reader prefixed to this work, the author observes that he had begun another work, which he at first purposed to have united with it. This he calls "A Treatise of Deffinitions of the principal words, points, and matters that a preacher shall have occasion to speak of;" which he promised, God sparing his life, to publish in a separate work, soon after the former; but whether it ever came forth, or what other things he published, we have not been able to learn. In the above work, Mr. Cawdrey openly declares his sentiments on the necessity and importance of an exact christian discipline among the churches of Christ, and gives his opinion with great freedom concerning ignorant, idle and insufficient ministers. The minister, says he, who undertakes to feed the flock of Christ, by preaching and catechising, and who has no knowledge to perform this duty, or having sufficient knowledge, yet is nonresident, and absent from them, and thus suffereth the people to perish for want of knowledge, such a one before God, is a soul-murderer. Mr. Daniel Cawdrey, ejected in 1662, was his son.‡ *Heylin's Hist. of Pres. p. 140, 147. LEVER WOOD was minister at Brenchley in Kent, but was much persecuted for nonconformity. Upon the publication of Whitgift's three articles, in 1583, he and sixteen of his brethren, all ministers of Kent, waited upon the archbishop at Lambeth. When they appeared before his grace, they declared that they could not, with a good conscience, subscribe to his articles, and desired to know whether they might still proceed in their ministry.* But, instead of obtaining his lordship's approbation, they were all immediately suspended, and Mr. Wood, with some others, if not the whole, was cast into prison, where he continued twelve months. At the expiration of that period, upon his subscription as far as the law required, and promising to use the Book of Common Prayer, and no other, he was released from prison.+ His troubles, however, were not over. He still continued under suspension. Therefore, he made interest at court, that he might be restored to his former labours. He applied to Sir Francis Walsingham, secretary of state,‡ who interceded with the archbishop for his restoration to his ministry, but without success. Whitgift would not remove the ecclesiastical censure, and allow Mr. Wood to preach, unless he would subscribe without the least reserve, and practise a perfect conformity. And the good man's conscience not allowing him to do this, he remained under suspension at least eight years. He was under his lordship's censure in the year 1591, and whether he was ever restored is extremely doubtful. HUMPHREY FENN.-This most learned and venerable divine was several years minister at Northampton, and above forty years a laborious and faithful preacher in Coventry, and uncommonly successful in his ministry; yet man. See Art. Dudley Fenner. + Neal's Puritans, vol. i. p. 406. Sir Francis Walsingham was a steady promoter of the reformation; a zealous and constant friend to the puritans; and a most celebrated statesHis talent for business, his eloquence, insinuating address, universal intelligence, and profound secrecy, are mentioned by all our historians. He was employed by Queen Elizabeth in the most important embassies, and advanced to the post of secretary of state; notwithstanding which, he was so far from accumulating a fortune, that he spent his patrimony in the service of the public, and was buried in the night, at the expense of his friends, through fear of his corpse being arrested for debt: a fault which few statesmen since his time have been guilty of. He died April 6, 1590.Welwood's Memoirs, p. 9-12.-Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 232. Fuller's Church Hist. b, ix. p. 162, 163,-Strype's Whitgift, p. 226, 227. MS. Register, p. 585, |