ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY pensation of any kind for the losses suffered under Henry VIII. and Edward VI. There is no record of any trial for heresy in Bedfordshire under Henry VIII. or Mary ; it is indeed generally agreed that the whole dio- cese of Lincoln was free from persecution during the latter reign ; though the episcopal registers, if they existed, might show some cases of depri- vation among the clergy. But the majority both of clergy and laity probably conformed at this time (as it has been shown that they did later) to the established order, whatever it might happen to be. Such a course does not argue a lofty ideal of life and duty ; but it was a very natural one for ordinary men, at a time when the learned held such differing views even on fundamental points, and when the next change of govern- ment might mean loss of livelihood, even of life itself, for those who were not willing to adopt the prescribed forms of religion. Lofty ideals of life were rare in those unrestful and unhappy years, when change fol- lowed change in swift succession, and toleration was neither admired nor desired by the leaders of any party. There is very little to awaken our admiration in the personal char- acter of such of the clergy as are known to us at this time. A typical instance of the general conformity may be found in John Gwynneth, vicar of Luton from 153710 1558. 1 He kept his church through all these changes, but his real opinions found expression at last in 1553 in A declaration of the notable victory given of God to Ogueen Mary, showed in the Church of Luton in the first year of her reign. His death in 1558 saved him from further difficulties ; and he was succeeded after a few years by a man of the exactly opposite type, Thomas Rose, 2 ranked by Foxe among the martyrs. The narrative of Rose's sufferings does not belong to the history of Bedfordshire ; it shows him forth as one of those fiery preachers who were more earnest to bring men to a right be- lief than to a better life ; and his first arrest under Henry VIII. in 1533 came of the part he took in the destruction of a rood out of Dovercourt church. Coming only four years after Gwynneth, he must have found work to do at Luton after his own heart. Some of the results of the general confiscation of church property were revealed by the visitation of Cardinal Pole in 1556. 3 It was then stated that many of the vicarages had been void for years, 4 because of the smallness of the means of livelihood ; and that the chancels of six churches — Harlington, Salford, Potton, Eyworth, Riseley and Wootton — were in ruins. The chancel and rectory of Ampthill were almost down to the ground ; the rector explaining that the tithes of the greater part of the parish and its best land had been taken from him by the enclosure 1 Luton Church, by the Rev. H. Cobbe, p. 183. He also wrote : A declaration of the state wherein all here ticks do lead their lives, and A playne demonstration of John Frithes lack of witte and learning. 3 Foxe's Book of Martyrs, viii. 581-90. 3 Strype, Eccles. Mem. iii. 482-6. Strype states that nearly all these livings were then in the gift of the cardinal himself ; but he can scarcely be blamed for their poverty and neglected condition, which must date further back.
- The Elizabethan Clergy, Dr. Gee, 125, 126, 256.
333
